Is Not First Time, Says Woman; Vets Ask Explanation

"It's not the first time it's happened," says the personable woman who has been a Gold Star widow for almost 10 years. "I've been turned away before. It has happened to others, too."

Mrs. Bessie Pierce of Honolulu, whose husband died in a Japanese prison camp in Osaka after 24 years of service in the U. S. Navy, was turned away from the section reserved for next-of-kin at the Pearl Harbor commemoration this year because she had no invitation. The Territorial Veterans' Council, which directs the sending of invitations, worked from lists so incomplete, the RECORD learned, that names of Navy next-of-kin have been drawn largely from newspaper sources.

"I don't understand why I shouldn't have received an invitation," says Mrs. Pierce, "but rather than make a fuss, I just went back and found a seat somewhere else when the MP shook his head."

Mrs. Pierce, a Honolulan, doesn't blame the MP. He was merely carrying out his orders, she knows. But she doesn't understand why her name was not included among the local next

Has Certificate from FDR The name of her husband, Chief Signalman Aloysius Joseph Pierce, is on the the Territory's dead of World War II, and she received a deatg certificate from President Roosevelt along with a letter of sympathy.

"I want to honor him. I have felt sad about it for ten years," says Mrs. Pierce, "but I don't understand."

At last year's Pearl Harbor commemoration, Mrs. Pierce says, an MP also detained her when she sought to enter the reserved section, but when she pointed to her gold star, he told her to go ahead.

"This MP was different, I guess," she says, "but I don't blame him." Both experiences and earlier ones have been needlessly embarrassing, Mrs. Pierce feels, and she hopes matters will be set straight in the future.

Vets Write Letter

The chances are, her own case will be set straight, for a number of veterans have heard of the incident and at least one group, Chapter 522-Baker of the 442nd Club is reported to have written to the Community Committee asking for an explanation. James O'Brien, director of the Territorial Veteran's Council takes full responsibility for the invitations but he can give only the explanation that his lists are incomplete and he hopes to correct them as rapidly as possible.

An assistant in his office explained that the list of U. S. Navy dead, with local next-of-kin, is far from complete.

"What we have." said the assistant, "I took largely from the newspapers."

Other Cases Too

Mr. O'Brien says there are a number of similar cases, and they are being set straight individually as they come to the attention of his office.

"We have published requests in the newspapers asking people to help us complete our lists," O'Brien says, "and we'll welcome calls from anyone who has a complaint. That's what we're for."

The assistant said it is impossible at the moment to check to see whether or not Mrs. Pierce's name is there because the lists are in the hands of the Chamber of Commerce. Under the chairmanship of U. S. Collector of Customs, Tucker Gratz, this year's Pearl Harbor commemoration was arranged by a community committee and the Chamber of Commerce assisted in the work of sending out the invitations.

Mrs. Pierce says there is a discrepancy of one year between the date on the death certificate she received from President Roosevelt and the date in possession of the Veteran's Administration. One says Pierce died June 11, 1942, and the other has the date as exactly a year later.

"But they have local boys working down at the VA and they're very helpful," Mrs. Pierce says. "They have my papers and they're working on it now."

The war claims division of the Veteran's Administration has the case.

One of the bidders who acquired a small piece of land during the highly competitive auction of government lands on the Big Island in February, 1951, has already transferred his newly acquired leasehold to Parker Ranch, the RECORD learned this week.

A. H. Rice of the real estate firm of A. H. Rice & Co., Ltd., of Honolulu, the only successful small bidder not from the Big Island, bid $7,000 for a leasehold which had been renting for $500 to John S. Ramos, a small rancher. The small ranchers could not bid that high and lost out, and the bulk of the land put up for auction in like manner went to big landholders. Transfer Criticized

"The small operators are being put out of business and these transactions should never be approved by the land commissioner and the members of the land board," a Big Island rancher said in commenting on the Rice-Parker Ranch deal.

Land Commissioner Norman Godbold said that there is no legal restriction on such transactions.

Contrary to reports, the RECORD learned at the land office that there is no truth to the stories that some other successful small bidders have made applications for transfer of land to Parker Ranch.

Beyond Range of Small Ranchers

During the February auction, five Big Island bidders bought leaseholds on 3,274 acres of Territorial land formerly leased by Parker Ranch for $3,285 annually. The five individuals paid a total of $44,270 a year rental for the land which Parker Ranch had leased for a fraction of that amount for the past 21 years.

At that time, reports were current that some of the small bidders were used as decoys to bids for Parker Ranch and to raise the ante beyond the means of the small ranchers.

By Edward Rohrbough

The coalition of GOP-HGEA-C-C department heads against civil service commission Chairman Herbert Kum has focused its present drive against its target so carefully that a number of pertinent facts in the civil service picture are almost forgotten.

The case of K. C. Warford, "administrative engineer," of the engineering department, who was revealed as having falsified his qualifications, is known and remembered, of course, but even that case is being smoothed over by Kum's enemies. "I hear Warford was really qualified anyhow," one of those spearheading the attack against Kum told the writer last week.

Warford Was Bold Liar

Nothing could be farther from the truth, which is that Warford, after having talked himself into fat jobs, first with the HGEA and next with the C-C bureau of plans (where he was up for a P-4 rating) barely escaped being indicted for perjury.

Warford had said he held an engineer's license, and that was not true. He had said he was a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. but investigation proved he had never enrolled there.

On the recommendation of Engineer Karl Sinclair Warford had been appointed by civil service Personnel Director D. Ransom Sherretz, though he had not taken an engineer's examination here in the Territory. Although he promised the commission he would take the examination, he failed to do so until the commission followed the matter up.

Sinclair Examiner When he finally did take the examination, Karl Sinclair sat as one of the examiners.

Later, C-C Prosecutor Charles Hite brought the case before the grand jury, which failed to indict Warford.

Shortly afterward, when War-ford left the Territory, investigators of the U. S. Navy were gathering evidence to ascertain whether or not he should be cut off from the disability pension he was receiving from the Navy.

Borthwick Never Reported

Thus, in 1949. Kum and Acting Commissioner Robert Miller, who had uncovered the Warford case, moved to fire Sherretz, but the final action was delayed until the return of Commissioner Mendel Borthwick from the Mainland. Hearing a verbal report of the happenings, Borthwick said he would reserve a decision on the Sherretz firing until he had read the minutes of occurrences during his absence.

A year passed and Borthwick's term expired, but he never reported on the minutes.

"But," says a severe critic of both Kum and Mayor Wilson, "the Warford case is all they have ever brought out against Sherretz." Consistent readers of the RECORD know better. They know, for instance that Sherretz was accused of high-handed practices in civil service affairs in a number of ways, a few of which follow:

• The appointment of Gordon Virgo in the fall of 1949 to be road overseer, though he had only three years of the required eight years' experience. The fact that Virgo is an active Republican was pointed out by the RECORD.

• The failure to put the name of Mahealani A. Rosa, experienced worker with the sewers division, on a preferred list, as practice dictated. Rosa had resigned to take a job in the forward war, areas, and was supposed to be given one of the top priorities upon his return. Instead, he was included only on a general list and found no job for him on his return to the Territory in 1950. He considered legal action to win his proper place. • E. C. Gallas, prior to a report which he subsequently delivered to Mayor Wilson, was reported to have shown that Sherretz signed his own leave slips and performed similar acts without any official authority.

In addition to these, there were other accusations against the personnel director of carelessness and non-fulfillment of duty.

Order Ignored

One of the most flagrant, termed "flouting" by a member of the commission in July, 1950, was the failure of Sherretz to carry out ah order of the commission that application forms be changed.

Prior to the Gallas report, made six months before, applications had to be accompanied by pictures and other data the researcher called non-essential. The use of pictures on such applications, the RECORD pointed out, has been fought on the Mainland by organizations opposing racial discrimination. Gallas' recommendation, along with 120 others, had been adopted months before, but in July 1950, the commissioners discovered that the same application forms were still in use. Applicants were being illegally required to go to the expense of furnishing pictures.

Stalled Manual

Among the unheeded recommendations was one which asked for a civil service manual of procedure, to be made by Sherretz, but which was delayed for months. In February 1950, the RECORD reported that 108 of 228 applicants for jobs in the police department had been rejected because they did not have high school educations or an equivalent. The RECORD also pointed out that such information of such basic requirements might have been furnished by the notices prepared by Mr. Sherretz, and that the ensuing rejections were as bothersome to the C-C government as to the individuals rejected. Commissioner T. G. S. Walker, who has consistently voted in favor of Sherretz' ideas and who has strenuously opposed his firing, was revealed on Jan. 5, 1950, by the RECORD as having been appointed by Mr. Sherretz in 1945 to the position of personnel examiner at a CAF-10 rating—three grades higher than the position had ever enjoyed before—though Walker lacked the qualifications at the time.

And why has Charles Kendall of the HGEA so consistently attacked Kum for the past two years? Well, before the C-C government fell for Warford's phony credentials and fast talk, Kendall hired him to do an important job for the HGEA.

When Kum and Miller exposed Warford, they automatically made Warford's defenders look a little bad. Kendall has been one of the staunchest of those defenders.

The People Licked "Jap" Hysteria In Idaho

Toward evening of a day in June, 1942, the cold wind swept the flat lands on the outskirts of Rupert, Idaho. The canvas of the rows of pup tents which were to be our quarters flapped violently and in the center of the fenced-in compound stood the big tent which was to be our mess hall.

An hour before, 129 of us had arrived in this strange town as volunteers from the Manzanar Relocation Center, Calif., to help save an estimated $16,000,000 sugar beet crop which was threatened by overgrowing weeds.

A drunken sheriff had met us at the. railway station and with his hand on his revolver holster, had warned us to stay in the camp. He told us to remain within the fence and to leave the camp only when farmers came for us with their trucks.

When we volunteered from behind the barbed wire and watch-towers of Manzanar, we were promised complete freedom in Idaho by a sugar company recruiter and government authorities. The evacuees were told that if volunteering did not have a good response, we would be drafted into labor battalions and put to work under the surveillance of military guards.

"All you Japs stay in the tent city!" the drunken sheriff had said, and he told us in the presence of white spectators who had come to see us that he would not be responsible for vigilante activities. Coming from him, who was responsible for maintaining peace and order, this was nothing short of agitation to stir up vigilantes.

Only a few days before our arrival, Governor Chase Clark of Idaho had said publicly, the ''Japs live like rats, breed like rats and act like rats." He had emphasized that he did not want "Japs" in Idaho. He had advocated dumping all "Japs" on the islands of Japan, to be drowned like "rats" when II. S. aircraft bombed them.

In this situation, because I had been asked by the government authorities at Manzanar to look after the volunteers during transit from California to Idaho, I became their spokesman.

Harry Elcock, the manager of the Amalgamated Sugar Co., of Twin Falls, Ida., was deeply concerned because the evacuee volunteers began talking of returning to Manzanar. He told me that the governor's speech was "political" and that since the farmers needed us, he would have to tone down or have his political future jeopardized.

The atmosphere was charged with suspense. We did not know how the white people of Rupert felt toward us. Did the sheriff reflect their thinking?

The sugar company representative gave us a good supper at a restaurant and our men who finished eating, walked out to the U. S. Employment Service farm labor tent camp. Later, the manager and I went there.

Inside the compound were excited evacuees, and leaning on the newly-erected fence were farmers who had come to size us up. Merchants, city officials and sugar company officials were there, too, discussing us volunteer laborers.

"We Want You To Talk To Us"

Meno-san, the tall Issei, who turned out to be a strong leader among the Issei, came up to me and said: "We want you to talk to us."

"I know only as much as you do," I told Mm.

"Talk anyway!" he said. "That will do all of us some good. The men are confused and they want to know whether they will have protection and freedom. Look at these tents! We were promised good living conditions!"

He pointed toward the evacuees—at a calisthenics platform— and told me to climb on there and "say anything."

We All Have Something To Offer

Meno-san and I moved toward the platform, he telling me to give the men some conficence. With the passing of years. I have come to appreciate his encouragement more and more, for I see that this experience brought a great change in me. I became more deeply convinced of the necessity of consistent and organized struggles among common people to better their social and economic positions. And during the course of my development, spurred by such experiences as these, I came to see more clearly the necessity of participating in such struggles. I can see that my thinking and convictions then and now have harmonized. We all have something to offer toward improving general conditions, in the face ' of opposition by bigoted and vested interests and the super-patriots who are used as their tools. Within our limitations, we can make our contributions.

In time of reaction, repressive measures such as the Smith Act, under which seven of us here are indicted, are used to attack those actively taking part in such activities, but sanity will return to take the place of fear and hysteria, as it must.

We Must Be Guaranteed Freedom

So on that windy evening, I climbed on the calisthenics platform and began talking to my fellow evacuees. I reviewed my conversation with the company manager. The volunteers had seen the canvas cots in the pup tents and I told them that it would be freezing cold during the night. I said that working and living conditions can be bargained for between us and the farmers—but only as pre-condition for us to remain in Rupert, we must be guaranteed freedom.

The evacuees nodded their heads.

The crowd edged closer. The evacuees were near the platform and the white people formed a half-circle behind them. More farmers arrived on trucks.

To all these people I said we were not "rats," did not breed like "rats," but were human beings just like them, and that we disagreed with their governor. Smiles broke out on their faces; the tension seemed to have eased.

The Farmers Talked To City Officials

From the platform I appealed to Rupert's city commissioners to hold an emergency meeting right away to rescind their sheriff's orders to us. I reviewed the evacuation, its injustices and our sacrifices, and our volunteering to come to Idaho to save the sugar beet crop. I said that if the sheriff and his kind of law were the extent of security we would enjoy, we would be compelled to ask government authorities to ship us back to Manzanar.

James Kubo, a Hawaiian AJA who had been on the Mainland for many years, spoke fluent Japanese and he interpreted for the Issei what I had said in English. As Kubo talked, some farmers moved back toward the sugar company officials and they and the others met in a huddle. The company manager came to the platform to inform us that the city commissioners had gone back to town to hold a meeting. We reported this to our men. Smiles of relief showed on their upturned faces, and the meeting became animated with evacuees asking question after question. We asked them to get organized and they nodded their heads.

"They Promise You Full Freedom and Protection"

Twenty minutes later, as night was falling and we still stood talking in the chilly breeze, the manager came back toward us.

"Give them the good news," he said. "The city commissioners have rescinded the sheriff's order. They promise you full freedom and protection!"

And for as long as we stayed in Rupert, we were told, the sheriff, who owned a saloon, would tend to his bar and keep himself scarce.

I asked the manager if there was a newspaper in Rupert. He took me to an elderly editor who promised us favorable editorial comment. The editor kept his promise and as I recall, he hammered away on this line: "The Japs are good spenders."

An Education In Democratic Processes

That night we held election for camp councillors and committeemen. It was extremely encouraging to find the Issei taking so active a part in our common welfare. Some of them told me that this experience was an education in democratic processes. We formed a labor committee which was to play an important role in ironing out grievances between our group and the farmers.

Before we retired night some laborers wrote alarming letters to relatives in Manzanar—about the sheriff, pup tents and bare canvas cots. When morning came, I went to the washroom. An old Issei, with misery and anger written on his face, came rushing up to me. He yelled at me that he had inadequate blankets on the canvas cot it was so cold, he had not slept a wink. I was blamed for his suffering because I had been elected chairman of the camp council the night before. This was a good sign, an indication the we would get backing from the laborers to bargain effectively with the company and the farmers.

People Saw the Injustice

In the ensuing days, some laborers wrote back to Manzanar about the back-breaking toil, and this was especially so among those who had never done a lick of farm work. And sugar beet thinning is one of the most difficult of "stoop" jobs.

Because of the letters written back from Idaho and the concern they caused among relatives and friends in Manzanar, the director of Manzanar and an Issei spokesman came to Idaho a few weeks later to investigate conditions. But by then, conditions had improved through the give-and-take bargaining of the volunteers on the one hand and the fanners and the company on the other.

Cool headedness prevailed among the people of Idaho and they were not swept by the anti-evacuee hysteria. While we had been put behind the barbed wire fence of Manzanar, ostensibly for security reasons, the people of Rupert and vicinity quickly saw the injustice of uprooting and locking away 110,000 people because of common ancestry.

Like the Smith Act victims of today, they had not committed any overt act of crime against this country. But the hysteria whipped up by special interest groups brought fear and hatred and persecution, and revoked civil liberties en masse.

Governor Clark Made No Mention of "Japs"

One evening as I returned from work in the fields, the sugar company manager and William S. Bronson, director of the II. S. Employment Service labor camp, told me that Governor Clark was coming to Rupert to deliver a political speech. Our tent camp was too close to town and they were afraid the governor might give an inflammatory speech on "Japs" which might provoke a few "trouble makers." They said the farmers and the merchants were all for us and they would tell the governor how they felt about the evacuees who were saving their crops.

Instead of posting guards of our men and some farmers around our tent camp, the two suggested that we move to a former CCC camp further away from Rupert. The accommodations at the CCC camp were good, with frame buildings and adequate living quarters. We agreed to move.

The governor came and made his speech. He made no mention of "Japs." The efforts of the people to lick hysteria had won.

The America We Look For and Struggle For

The short sugar beet thinning season was over. We worked in the potato and bean fields. As the slack season approached, some of us decided to go back to Manzanar, to return to Idaho in the fall to top sugar beets.

The night before the majority of the volunteers left for Manzanar, we invited to our camp the white businessmen, farmers, professional people and Mexican migratory laborers in Rupert and nearby Burley. We put on Japanese skits and! the Issei sang in Japanese. The program was immensely successful and the whole white community and the Mexican workers laughed and enjoyed the fun with us. This was the America we look for and struggle for, a nation of people of various cultural backgrounds, living in harmony and in enjoyment.

How different this was from the chopping down of cherry trees in Washington, D. C., and the re-naming of the Japanese tea garden in a San Francisco park, just because the U. S. was fighting Japanese militarism and its financial and industrial backbone.

Our Struggles were Basically Common

Here were Mormons of the sugar company, a persecuted minority who had suffered in the past. Here were German immigrants and their offspring who had lived through World War I and after, when they were targets of attack from bigoted elements. And the Mexicans were there, unorganized and drifting from one farm area to another, exploited and abused. And we were the homeless exiles from the West Coast.

We spoke of our common struggles, of the need of preserving and extending constitutional rights. If the people got together and kept special interest elements from dividing them, we would have a better country, a better world.

Such was our agricultural furlough experience. Other evacuees from other relocation centers experienced similar success. All this contributed to paving the way for more ambitious and planned relocation of evacuees from the center to outside communities. A hitch anywhere in our agricultural furlough would have retarded, not helped the resettlement program which came into effect months later.

We all had found new hope out of this experience, and a better perspective. (To Be Continued)

One stormy scene before the Hawaiian Homes Commission Sept. 19, went virtually unreported in the daily press, though its significance may have been much greater than what appeared on the surface.

It was when Frank G. Serrao, now Secretary of Hawaii but at that time Commissioner of Public Lands, appeared to denounce Victor S. K. Houston, then HHC chairman, for trying to influence him (Serrao) to turn over lands at Nienie, Puukapu, Kamoku and Kapulena on the Island of Hawaii to the Parker Ranch.

A reporter from one of the dailies who was present, rushed from the meeting exclaiming with enthusiasm: "We've got a story!" But the story never appeared, though it became a matter of public record through the HHC minutes. It had been "too hot," the reporter told acquaintances later.

Serrao said, in part: "I was very much surprised at the chairman of your commission, Mr. . Houston, that he was in accord with the action of your Board in turning these lands over to me. When he came to my office a few days ago and told me: 'We turned it over to you with the intention of turning it over to Parker Ranch,' I was dumbfounded. It was none of his business; I was to dispose of it for the interest of the public ... I have known your chairman for many years. I don't want to go into that, into your chairman's past, because my dad knew him very well. But the thing is, when he comes to me and tells me to lease it to the Parker Ranch, I was really surprised. I am not accusing him or anyone of the big interests, but when he tells me as long as Parker Ranch has it, then I say, 'Let the commissioner use his own judgment.' "

Earlier in his speech, Serrao said: "I have always been as I said before, for the poor Hawaiian; the Hawaiian that needs rehabilitation. This thing of the Parker Ranch and the small ranchers was thrown on my lap by your commission."

Mr. Houston, answering immediately afterward, said in part, "I went to him (Serrao) that the action of the commission had been taken with the understanding that these lands were to remain in the hands of the present tenants, and that there was a possibility that the commission might wish by resolution, to cancel its previous action, and therefore, I gave him such verbal notice since there was no opportunity for a meeting of the full commission."

That was substantially what passed between the two at the meeting, but Houston commented after Mr. Serrao had left that it was incidents of that sort which made him feel he wished to resign. "I think it's possible," said one present at the Sept. 19 meeting, "that it may have been the turning point—the thing that made Mr. Houston decide to resign." But later in the same meeting Chairman Houston advised the other members of the commission that there might be a way to get around the present machinery by which the HHC disposes of its unassigned lands through the land commissioner.

Would Side-Step Land Office

"I have been told," Houston said, "that an opinion was rendered by former Attorney General Harry Hewett that the Homes Commission could enter into an agreement on its own with certain parties for the care of the land. I haven't seen the opinion. If it is so, and under the law we could do that, we might enter into an agreement with Parker Ranch or any other occupants to care for these lands until we are prepared to use them." Houston went on to say that the land could be given to the Parker Ranch again with the stipulation that the Parker Ranch fence and sub-divide it in accord with HHC plans, "and in return we get the material consideration rather than a monetary consideration. They are entitled at the present time to take their fencing away, but they don't want to take it down."

Fencing Clause Ignored

Since that Sept. 19 meeting, the subject of the Parker Ranch's fencing has come to the attention of the HHC, since the terms of the former lease, which expired last year, required that the Parker Ranch respect the commission's . outlined boundaries and erect fences upon them if requested to do so by the land commissioner.

But since no land commissioner ever requested this action of the Parker Ranch, it has never been performed and it is believed the obligation has-now legally expired. A point made strongly by Mr. Serrao in his Sept. 19 appearance was that Hawaiians then seeking release of the lands were not those in need of rehabilitation, but rather, men already wealthy. "Why because these people that want the land have money," he said, "they are people that have money. They don't need rehabilitation. Once you increase loans to! $12,000, you will have to rehabilitate the Hawaiian that needs rehabilitation, I am speaking for that man and you will have to give these boys a break that need a break."

Spoke for Others, Too

Some members of the commission, however, and a number of Hawaiians who have followed the handling of the land feel Serrao was speaking also for a number , of the ranchers, far smaller in their operations than the Parker Ranch, who have attempted to

lease the lands. Members of the Hawaiian Civic Club have voiced strong opposition to this proposal, generally approving the sentiments of Mr. Houston in wanting to release to the Parker Ranch.

"I'm just afraid." says one of those who opposes leasing to smaller ranchers, "that if we lose control of those lands, we'll never get them back for the Hawaiians."

Those favoring Serrao's original plan, on the other hand, say there is no more danger in leasing to small ranchers than to the Parker Ranch, which has also exerted strong pressure to hold any public lands it can.

The $12,000 loan referred to by Serrao Sept. 19, is a suggested revision of the lending process, presently before Congress, which would allow the HHC to lend $12,000 to a homesteader setting up an agricultural establishment instead of the $5,000 presently allowed.

Executive Secretary Daniel Ainoa of the HHC says he believes this bill has a good chance of passing, but some members of the commission are not so optimistic. The same bill would increase the loans for homesteads from $3,000 to $6,000 each.

To Seek All HHC Rentals

Ainoa said the HHC will ask the legislature at its next session to make all rental funds from HHC lands available to the HHC instead of being partially turned in to the general Territorial fund as the law presently dictates.

Under the present law, 250,000 in rentals from the HHC lands reverts to the commission for expenses. But this is far less than enough to pay the cost of administration, and though the HHC asked an appropriation which would bring its total operating fund to $392,000, the last session of the legislature gave it only $40,000. That is only three-fourths of what the HHC's cost of administration was for the two years previous. By a study made since, Mr. Ainoa said, the HHC has found that all the rentals total $474,000 for a two-year period, or easily enough, to pay the costs of administration without asking anything of the legislature.

The men who teach Hawaii's youth government and political science, are today hiring themselves professional lobbyists. Professors at the University of Hawaii are joining the Hawaiian Government Employees Association.

An organizing drive of the HGEA at the university has signed up a number of new members, the RECORD has learned, including a fair proportion of top-ranking professors.

Among these is Dr. Harold S. Roberts, dean of the department of business administration, and Dr. Norman Meller, director of the legislative reference bureau. Although a number of those who participated in the protest against the Territorial loyalty oath during the last legislative session are said to be among the new HGEA members, Dr. Robert W. Clopton, who took a leading part in that drive, would not say whether or not ha had joined.

Dr. Roberts said he is also a member of the Hawaiian Education Association and added that he saw no conflict involved in maintaining membership in both organizations. A number of those joining the HGEA are also members of the HEA, the RECORD learned, and will maintain both memberships.

The man carrying on the drive at the university and generally given credit for its success is Roderick Gudgell, HGEA organizer, who had a research position with the legislature's holdover committee between the 1949 and 1951 sessions. Incentive for university faculty members to join the HGEA lies, university sources say, in the desire of the professors to get a little more forceful representation than that afforded either by the board of regents, or by the HEA.

The HEA carries on a considerable campaign in behalf of its members in the public schools through the high school level, but it doesn't go out for the university people, they say.

HEA Didn't Appear A notable instance was when the professors descended on Iolani Palace to protest the loyalty oath. At that time, the academicians sought all the support they could get, since a number of them felt exposure to "Bed" hysteria for the first time but the HEA did not come forward.

Charles R. KendaIl, executive secretary of the HGEA, did come forward, however, not once, but twice, though he said he was speaking as an individual. The fact that he objected to the wording of the bill, rather than the principle behind it, was only a detail to some of the protestants —who finally decided they, too, were merely objecting to the wording.

Old "Loyalty" Backer Perhaps none remembered that) Kendall was one of those who spoke most avidly in behalf of the adoption of a loyalty oath at the '49 session, and that he has been making utterances in that direction since 1946.

But the most amazing paradox of the HGEA drive at the university to some of the observers is that of men who spend their lives teaching political science, government, history and politics to the youth of the land—yet who feel the necessity of hiring a lobbyist to do their talking for them when government pertains to their own problems.

Dwight C. Steele, president of the Hawaii Employers Council, might take a part-time position in Washington early next year, but it is not a government job in the sense that he would leave his present position.

Interviewed over the telephone, Mr. Steele said that there is a possibility that he might go but the matter of a Washington job has "not jelled yet."

For some time this news has been making the rounds in Honolulu's business circles, but the consensus of opinion has been that the Employers Council executive would not leave his position unless he is offered something better. He is reported to draw a salary exceeding $30,000 a year.

If he accepts a part-time Washington position, it is said that he would spend a greater portion of his time on the Mainland and make periodic visits here.

The Hawaii Aeronautics Commission collected $3,000 in its "invalid" parking meters before Judge Kenneth Young ruled last week that the HAC had not followed proper procedure in installing the meters.

Hearing the appeal of Henry B. Epstein, regional director of the United Public Workers of America, that the HAC had not published any notice of its installation of parking meters, Judge Young found that such was indeed the case. Randolph Lee, assistant director of the HAC, told the RECORD the commission has already collected about $3,000.

Still Paying

"Even last weekend, since the decision," said Mr. Lee, "people put $75 in the meters."

Following the decision, the commission announced that it would publish notices of the meters, one on Dec. 24 and another Dec. 30. But there is some question in legal minds as to whether or not the mere publication at this date will "validate" the meters. Attorneys present in the court expressed the belief that the HAC may have to go through the whole, process of public hearings again to insure the legality of its meters.

Mr. Randolph said the first hearing was held last July and that no one came forward to speak either for or against them. "The idea of the meters," he said, "is to make parking space available for people who want to come out and see their friends off."

"Oversight" Admitted

He said the commission had not considered the possibility that it might have to hold new hearings and pass new resolutions. Thel failure to advertise after the first commission action was, Lee said, an "oversight."

He did not indicate whether or not the HAC will attempt to ascertain whose $3,000 the commission obtained illegally, or that there would be any move to return the money. Mr. Epstein was represented by Attorney James A. King of the law firm of Bouslog & Symonds.

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The dismissal of indictments against 15 Smith Act victims in California earlier this month by Federal Judge William C. Mathes exposed the bare-faced illegal detention individuals when sufficient grounds for doing so we were lacking.

"This is a notable victory for the American people" and the beginning of the restoration of the Bill of Rights wchi the Department of Justice has so arrogantly flouted," Elmer A. Benson, chairman of the Progressive Party, said in New York.

No Crime Stated

The California 15 were denied reasonable bail and Judge Mathes held to the position that $50,000 bail each was proper. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled on a defense appeal that $50,000 was unreasonable.

Twelve of the 15 were subsequently released on reduced bail after months of detention in the Los Angeles county jail. Immediately following their release, Judge Mathes dismissed the indictments in this language:

"The indictments do not state facts sufficient to constitute offenses against the United States."

For quite some time Judge Mathes had stated that the language in the indictments is vague and hinted to the government to make it "legally airtight," but the Justice Department apparently took the position that it could bulldoze in the trial of the 15.

Judge for New Indictment

Judge Mathes, who had denied reduced bail for the 15 all these months and kept them behind bars, had heard the defense contention all along that the indictments said nothing about the 15 committing any criminal acts against the United States.

The judge gave the Justice Department 10 days to bring in an "airtight," new indictment.

In another action, the judge refused to grant lower bail to three of the 15 defendants, but the Ninth Circuit Court ordered him to lower their bail as the higher court did for the 12.

Insults Low Earners

In a 26-page statement, Judge Mathes gave his opinion on his refusal to grant reduction of bail to Ben Dobbs, Prank Spector and Frank Carlson.

In expressing a view on the earnings of the three, the judge, in a sweeping statement, practically condemned the integrity of all people earning about $50 a week, a wage rate common to a great majority of Americans ana which is more than many others are able to earn.

Said the judge: "It is beyond the experience of this court to draw the inference that any person could be employed at wages of $40 to $60 per week (the amounts the three defendants said they earned) to engage in the activities alleged in this indictment.

"Hence, necessity would seem to dictate an inference that the accused may be engaged in some other employment forbidden by Federal law. Adulterated food or drugs? Counterfeiting? Smuggling? Narcotics? Misuse of the mails?"

A Honolulan who read this opinion remarked: "The judge must expect to face in his court those who make about $50 a week, for he thinks that by criminal means that they can make a living. The minimum wage in the Territory is forty cents per hour and this times forty-eight hours per week gives $19.20."

Those who steal and fatten at the expense of the people are high government officials and Federal judges have hampered grand juries from investigating big-time corruption, he added.

Special Correspondence

Kekaha, Kauai—A farewell party for Mrs. Prisca Medeiros, secretary of Unit 1. Local 21, ILWU Women's Auxiliary, and raising of funds to send Mrs. Catalina Valdez as Local 21 delegate to the Fifth Biennial Convention of the ILWU Federated Women's Auxiliaries, were high points in the activities of union women in Kekaha during the year.

Unit 1 officers elected for 1952 are: President, Mrs. Mabel Alesna vice president, Mrs. Florence Aluag; secretary, Mrs. Soon Nee Apilado; treasurer, Mrs. Bella Ana; reporter, Mrs. Julia Kapahu; marshals, Mmes. Mary Gandia and Julia Ramos; trustees, Mmes. Petra Sialana, Irene Luzon, Catalina Valdez and Tomasa Lapenia.

The average daily milk production in the Territory during September was about 98,600 quarts compared to 99,600 in August and 96,000 a year earlier, according to The Agricultural Outlook, University of Hawaii College of Agriculture publication.

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By Eddie Ujimori

The road overseer job for Lahaina is being dangled in front of William (Willie) Crozier, Jr., and several Democrats on Maui are getting impatient because the former representative doesn't make any move and shows no inclination of taking the bait. County Chairman Eddie Tam, who had called the Crozier home sometime ago and discussed the overseer position with William Crozier. Sr., recently picked up his telephone and invited Crozier, Jr., to come down to his office.

"Tarn talked of the overseer job," says Crozier, Jr., "and then he wanted to know if I was going to run in the coming election. So I told him I wasn't running for the county chairmanship. Tam wanted to know if I planned to run for the senate and if so, he) said I must take a leave of absence from the overseer job. Why are so many interested in my running for the senate?"

During the last election, Crozier was the standard-bearer of the Democratic candidates on Maui and he lost by 43 votes in the senate race.

The overseer job is still being dangled in front of Crozier and in the meantime, he is supposed to be considering the loss of pay during his "leave of absence" if he were to run for the senate. Ha says he will definitely run for the senate.

* *

The Maui division executive board of the ILWU met with Dr. Richard Weinerman who is making a health survey for the union in the Territory, on Dec. 19. The sugar, pineapple, longshore and miscellaneous locals of the ILWU and the UPWA sent representatives to the meeting.

The union members present voted support to the new Independent Taxi Drivers Union, UPWA.

Dr. Weinerman has visited the Puunene Hospital, the Malulani Hospital and the Pioneer Mill Hospital. Prior to coming to Hawaii, Dr. Weinerman was the director of the Permanente Plan in California and at present he is on leave from the faculty of the University of California. Mrs. Weinerman and their two children are on Oahu while Dr. Weinerman makes his outer island trips.

* *

Police officer George Souza, badge No. 55, may not know it but he is frequently the talk of the town. Not too long ago, a woman parked her car in Kahului and went into a store. She came out a few minutes later and found a tag for overparking. Mrs. William Martin, who was sitting in her car parked across the street, with two other women, saw everything.

In another instance, two cars were parked close by, and the car that had been parked for half an hour was tagged while the one which remained in the same place for three hours did not get an overparking ticket. What's wrong with Officer Souza?

* *

The Board of Supervisors received a letter of thanks from the UPWA on Maui for providing at least 15 days of work for Hana residents during December.

* *

When the matter of paving two miles of road at Omaopio came up before the supervisors, County Engineer Koichi Hamada was asked by Supervisor John Bulgo how long it would take to survey one mile of the two miles to be paved Engineer Hamada replied it would take about two or three weeks. He said he had four men to do the job.

When Mr. Bulgo asked why the work would take such a long time, Mr. Hamada replied that he would "rather not explain the reason why here."

Mr. Bulgo blasted the engineer's department and told Chairman Tam that "this county needs a house cleaning. Look at President Truman; he started one already, so we might as well start one right here!"

Supervisor Francis Kage, a GOP, remarked: "Supervisor Bulgo is right. We should have a house cleaning and get more Republicans on the board." The spectators had a good laugh.

* *

The supervisors had a jolly good time Dec. 18. When Chairman Eddie Tarn disagreed with the legal opinion of Deputy County Attorney Thomas Ogata on the question of spending $25,000 from the $225,000 special school fund for 1952, Mr. Tarn said that the deputy attorney "could be mistaken and have forgotten some words." Supervisors Francis Kage and Shigeru Miura said that the money should be appropriated for the safety of the school children and that the opinion of Attorney Ogata gave the board the authority.

Supervisor Manuel Rodrigues then stood up and addressed the chairman: "Mr. County Attorney —I said, and called you that because you feel that the legal opinion of County Attorney Ogata is wrong and you know more law than he docs." Everyone in the board room had another good laugh.

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"What we must do is to show that the Palakiko-Majors case and the Smith Act are all of a parti —that the struggle in all these cases is a struggle for human dignity by local people and by laboring people."

Thus Attorney Harriet Bouslog addressed 150 guests at the Hoolaulea given Saturday, December 15 at the Party House, 1870 Kalakaua Ave., by friends of the RECORD.

"The Honolulu RECORD has spoken out in this struggle with a fearless tongue."

The common people must concentrate. Attorney Bouslog said, on bringing the elected representatives down to earth, because "they have gotten too far away from the people." Editor Koji Ariyoshi of the RECORD, outlining something of the history of the newspaper and its purpose, cited the example of Ben Johnson, veteran and taxi driver, who conducted a picketing campaign against local bars . and dancehalls which discriminated against Negroes.

Discrimination Reaches All

"We said then," Mr. Ariyoshi stated, "that if Negroes could be discriminated against, and if police could get away with beating up Negroes, they would do the same thing to others, too. What we predicted happened, and among the victims were Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos and others."

Sports Editor Wilfred Oka, chairman of the Hoolaulea committee, acted as master of ceremonies and introduced Mrs. Helen Kanahele and Mrs. Elizabeth Takao who, he said, carried the burden of arranging the party.

Music for entertainment and dancing was furnished by Cherry Takao and her Topnotchers from 8 to 12.

An effort to win raises for Kauai firemen of from $30 up was to be instituted Monday in court by Attorney Myer C. Symonds, representing Ah Hing Chow of the fire department and the United Public Workers of America.

Symonds is seeking a writ of mandamus in a Kauai court to compel the Kauai civil service commission to grant Kauai firemen raises that will bring their pay to the level of that of firemen on Hawaii. The action follows the repeated failure of the commission to comply with Act 203 of the last session of the legislature. The act requires that firemen and "handlers of fire apparatus" be paid uniform salaries and that all be raised to the level of firemen on Hawaii.

Two Blocked Raises

Although Maui complied with the measure, and although the Territorial Attorney General's office gave opinions in July and August that the Kauai commission must comply, two of its members still maintained that the language of the act is not clear and they did not feel authorized" to grant the raises.

Those two members are Chairman G. M. Shak and Masaru Shinseki. Commissioner Herbert Ishii has favored the increases.

Mr. Chow, the appealing fireman, has the lowest rank of "private," and his pay would be raised by $30 a month if the law-is enforced, a UPWA official said. Some other grades will get higher raises. None would be less than $30, under the Hawaii standard, the union man said.

Kauai is the only island on which firemen carry the military ranks of private, corporal, etc., a situation reported to be a holdover from days of the Office of Civilian Defense.

Special Correspondence

Lihue, Kauai—The outstanding activity of Local 21. ILWU Women's Auxiliary, Lihue, for 1951 was the raising of funds by the local and each of its five active units to send Mrs. Catallna Valdez of the Kekaha unit as a delegate to the Fifth Biennial Convention of the ILWU Federated Women's Auxiliaries in San Francisco, held in June.

Upon her return, Mrs. Valdez reported to each of the Kauai units and she was invited by Local 20, Oahu, to speak on her trip to its membership. She then went to Kauai where the pineapple strike was in progess and assisted the women there to set up an interim women's auxiliary.

Valentine McKeague of Honolulu, seaman on a U. S. Lines freighter, was the victim of a mysterious accident in Bordeaux, Prance, where his ship was docked, and his body was not recovered until three days later when it had washed 10 miles out to sea. His brother-in-law, Jimmy Yanagihara, who made a trip to New York to investigate the case, feels claims may be due Mrs. Agnes McKeagne, the dead seaman's mother, from the shipping company and possibly the National Maritime Union of which McKeague was a member. Such evidence as Yanagihara could gather indicates that the Honolulu seaman fell while passing from the dock to his ship and that there was no safety net to catch him and no watchman on the gangway as required.

If this evidence proves correct, Yanagihara says, the company may be liable. Claims from the union's welfare fund have been held up. Yanagihara said, pending receipt of a death certificate from the U. S. State Department.

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It's been going on for a longtime, some say but there are still those who are annually unpleasantly surprised to find that Liberty House charges an extra dime for a gift-wrapping job.

* *

Cutting a wide swath these days in some of the downtown places servicemen frequent is one soldier who looks for all the world like a local boy. But when he talks, it turns out he's an Eskimo Indian from Alaska. His father has a string of drug stores there, he says.

* *

Back from Manila, a young man who also visited his old home in Tarlac, Central Luzon, says much of the war damage to the Philippines capital city remains unrepaired. Commercial establishments, on the other hand, have been rebuilt more rapidly.

"But there are many buildings still only patched," he says, "and you can see holes the shells made in many places. Most of the bridges, too, are still the temporary kind installed by the army engineers. They were destroyed by bombing, you know."

Recalling his own viewpoint in Tarlac of the beginning of World War II, the young man said his "West Tarlac Guerrillas" had been training for some weeks, but when they saw the first planes . in air combat above, they did not realize the war had begun. Not until an American plane was shot down did they realize the war was on in earnest. Two weeks later, the Japanese were in Tarlac and the guerrillas took to the hills to remain fighting for three years, until the U. S. 6th Army drove the Japanese main body back toward Manila and the guerrillas came down while Japanese stragglers took to the hills instead, where some of them remained for years. * *

J. M. Tanaka, the contractor, paid out in a single year from $75,000 to $100,000 for expenses and damages of various types caused by accidents on his jobs, many of which might have been avoided had Tanaka enforced safety practices on the jobs. Such is the opinion of a safety engineer who observed his operations. Tanaka has yet to learn, apparently, what many other industrial employers have found out, that cutting corners with safety precautions is false economy.

* *

One of the liveliest bits of humorous satire you'll read these days is now in Avon's pocket-size books. It's "Maidens In the Midden," by an English writer, Oliver Anderson. The last line in the book, spoken by the novelist's hero, is one of the most interesting. It goes:

"You are inaccurate in your terms, Mr. Pocket. A swindle is a swindle only when it fails. When it succeeds, it's Free Enterprise."

* *

Gov. Long, according to palace dope, didn't especially want to have C-C and Territorial employes come back Monday before Christmas for the half-day (during which practically nothing of importance happened). But the Chamber of Commerce didn't want a . bank holiday Monday and the governor had already crossed the Chamber slightly in refusing to make Dec. 7 a holiday. So, to keep the odds reasonably even, he had employes come back to work—as they'll do again the Monday before New Year's.

* *

Dr. William Leslie, administrator of the Puumaile Hospital at Hilo, will be the target for some plain and fancy blasting in the very near future—maybe even at today's board of supervisors' meeting in Hilo. Charges are expected to include accusations that Dr. Leslie has made use of government vehicles and property for his private purposes and has allowed favored employes to do so.

* *

Christmas parties were in full blast at City Hall Monday, with employes and department heads playing host and guest to one another, ignoring past differences with a spirit partly Christmas and partly aloha. Recalling the wide talk about gambling on Christmas Eve last year, those in charge of crap games kept them behind closed doors. Someone closed the front doors, but they were reopened after a short time when the janitor was reminded he had received no order from the mayor to close up. Mayor John H. Wilson, for his part, was busy preparing his message to the board for this week's meeting.

"Christmas, New Year's and the rest," said a close associate, "don't mean anything to that man when he's got a job to do."

* *

The mean monkey of Manoa was not really mean at all, says Alfred "Whitey" Jensen, who first brought him to the islands in 1946. Digesting accounts in the dailies of encounters between the monkey and Ed Toner and others, Mr. Jensen is inclined to side with the monkey and against his tormentors.

The monkey was shot by a police officer last Saturday after it had bitten Toner and two other persons who attempted to capture it. Why they were trying to catch it in the first place has never been made clear, since the owner said it was accustomed to be at liberty with no danger to anyone.

"Any animal," philosophizes Jensen, "will act like a human being if you treat him like a human being. But if you treat him like an animal, he will bite."

Mr. Toner and the others would be ostracized, Jensen says, if they had assailed the monkey in such a manner in its native India where it has certain religious significance.

* *

Dr. Sam Apoliona has for weeks talked portentously of charges against Herbert Kum, civil service commission chairman, which he has ready for presentation. But he has never presented them in writing, nor did he do so Wednesday when invited to do so at the board meeting. Yet two weeks ago, he was "waiting for the mayor" to return to his office so he could present said charges. Today, the explanation whispered in corridors was that Apoliona is "still compiling" his charges. After all!

* *

Ted Nobriga, HGEA president, opened ,a big. new filling station recently on Beretania St., and members are wondering if he will set up a deal whereby they can buy their gas from him at a out rate? Some say it would be the most service they've had for their dues to date.

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A flare of tempers was a sidelight in City Hall last week to the civil service controversy, though the participants were not principals.

On Thursday, when Reporter Ron Bennett of the Advertiser, asked Auditor Leonard Fong why he doesn't stop the pay of Herbert Kum, C-C civil service chairman, Fong answered that he saw no reason to do so.

Then Bennett commented that whenever Fong "goes after" anybody, holding up salary or payments, it's always a haole.

Fong's reply was hot and profane, and he said: "I walked away to keep from punching him."

The auditor said he was angered that Bennett had injected a racial angle into the argument without justification, or factual basis.

City Hall observers remember that two of Fong's stands on pay stoppage in the past two years have been against Lawrence Goto, first assistant to William Chun Hoon, C-C treasurer, and Lang Akana, C-C deputy sheriff.

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The yearning for liberation from foreign exploitation among colonial and semi-colonial people was the yearning of Dr. Jose Rizal, born June 19, 1861.

Early in life when he attended school, his deepening consciousness of the aspirations of his people made him defy Spanish rule and denounce it. In a poem he wrote while attending school, he spoke of the Philippines youth as the "Bella esperanza de la Patria Mia!" (Fair Hope of My Fatherland.)

The Spanish oppressors were afraid of this youth and particularly of the ideas he already projected or might further project for the liberation of his people. The secret police dogged him constantly and at 21, Jose Rizal fled his country under another name.

While in voluntary exile, between the studying of medicine and other subjects, he wrote within a period of less than two years his novel, "Noli Me Tangere" (Touch Me Not). Written in Paris, Heidelberg, Leipzig and Berlin, and published in Spanish with funds supplied by a Filipino friend, the novel was smuggled into the Philippines as dry goods. "Noli Me Tangere," which is considered the greatest literary work by a Filipino, immediately brought the Spanish authorities' wrath in denunciation against it and its author.

Jose Rizal was not aware that his novel had strong impact among his people, a novel which his biographers say made "The corrupt, greedy, tyrannical friar, the plundering, swaggering, brutal Spanish officer, the beneficiaries of the System and those consenting to it," see "themselves for the first time pilloried in print."

This man of multitudinous talents did not apply himself to organizing his people to free themselves from Spanish subjugation. His was a role largely of an intellectual, not immersed in mass struggles, such as the roles played by Washington, Jefferson, Tom Paine, Lenin or Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

Jose Rizal returned to the Philippines, only to be exiled. Later, he returned again and then left for Cuba by way of Spain to help fight yellow fever. He was arrested in Barcelona and returned to the Philippines, for at that time the movement for Philippine liberation led by Andres Bonifacio was exposed. It mattered not to the Spanish rulers that Rizal was not connected with this movement.

He was tried, lashed to a chair with his arms drawn back so that his elbows nearly touched. His trial was a mockery, and he was denounced by the judge advocate as a traitor and an enemy of Spain. He was found guilty on December 29 and was executed within 24 hours, on December 30, 1896.

Just before his execution Jose Rizal asked for the privilege of facing the firing squad. This was denied. A line of eight Filipino riflemen took aim and behind them stood eight Spanish soldiers, ready to shoot any Filipino soldier who faltered. And as the rifles cracked in the early dawn, the 36-year-old Rizal fell to the ground and turned his face toward the rising sun.

"What is death to me?" he had said. "I have sown the seed. Others are left to reap."

It is significant that this week, 55 years later, people everywhere who know of this man and who aspire for peace and the liberation of the colonial and semi-colonial people, observe not his birthday, but the anniversary of his death.

Today, the same struggle for freedom among the oppressed continues, but with a deeper understanding that foreign imperialism and decadent feudalism at home go hand in hand to press down the people. Thus the slogan of Dr. Sun Yat-sen of LAND TO THE TILLERS is finding realization, and with it the grip of Western imperialism becomes weaker. Thus, the barking of Western guns in many areas of the world.

Jose Rizal was a great man with a brilliant mind. He spoke about 22 languages and dialects, many of which he mastered. He learned to read and write Japanese in one month. He was a great ethnologist (study of origin of "races"); an ophthalmologist (eye specialist) of such international fame that patients came to him in the Philippines from far away Europe; a physician, engineer, agricultural specialist and an artist.

The present imperialists do not want to accord his name the wide renown that it deserves, but as imperialism dies away, his name will become better known. For Rizal is an ever-present symbol of the people's struggle against imperialism.

During an epidemic at Aiea in 1907, three Japanese doctors presented a bill to the Board of Health for services rendered upon the request of the president of the board, Lucius E. Pinkham. Mr. Pinkham had already paid a white doctor for his services. Pink-ham—who a few years afterward was appointed governor!—wrote to Consul General Miki Saito in the following terms:

"Your countrymen are getting altogether too cocky, and are getting to be considered a. nuisance everywhere because of the trouble they cause. In any white man's country they ought to behave themselves and be satisfied with the privileges which may be accorded them, and not ask the same rights and privileges enjoyed by the citizens, if they ask the same rights and privileges, it will be the source of serious trouble between the two countries."

With the green light given by the Supreme Court, it (the government) could also proceed against any individuals who had at any time been identified with any movement which the Communists are said to have controlled.

That the government has not thus far proceeded against "other categories of sympathizers" does not mean that it will fail to do so at a later date. For the plain fact is, as Justice Douglas pointed out in his dissent, that we have started down a one-way road which leads into "territory dangerous to the liberties of every citizen."

Eventually, the Supreme Court may restore the civil liberties which it has momentarily suspended, and popular revulsion against the excesses implicit in the court's decision may some day force Congress to repeal the Smith Act. But the immediate issue is political, and it rests squarely with President Truman. Is he going to permit ambitious careerists in the Department of Justice to regress to the administrative level of the Palmer Raids in the hope of winning judicial appointments, or did he mean what he said when he vetoed the McCarran Act? Actually, the current situation is far more dangerous than the Palmer Raids, whose unconcealed violence and uncomplicated brutality notified every citizen that his liberties were in danger. There will now be, of course, not one but a series of Foley Square mass prosecutions, which will advertise to the world that we lack the courage of our traditional political convictions.

—The Nation, June 30, 1951

By Frank Marshall Davis

I: Fighting Racism

On the same day that the Star-Bulletin ran an editorial entitled "One Intolerance Breeds Another," I received from Earl B. Dickerson, president of the National Lawyers Guild, a copy of a memorandum he had filed with the U. S. Supreme Court supporting a petition for rehearing in the case of the convicted 11 top leaders of the Communist Party.

The Star-Bulletin editorial, after commenting on outbreaks of racism in Florida, said this of Hawaii:

"There are persons here who make a studious effort to stir up race feeling by deliberately exaggerating incidents in which there is some tinge of race prejudice.

The Evil Doctrine of White Supremacy

"These efforts to exaggerate the facts, to paint the picture much worse than it is, are part of a larger effort to sow distrust, animosity and hatred in the community. It's the familiar pattern of subversive plotting and action."

Judging from previous comments by the afternoon daily, any exposure of facts about racist police brutality or refusal to admit non-whites to public places or the maintaining of restricted housing districts is "exaggerating the facts" and "subversive." The victims of discrimination are expected to keep silent about prejudice under penalty of being labelled "un-American."

That way of thinking, now being used in an effort to silence those who refuse to submit to the evil doctrine of white supremacy, is the very reason for the filing of the memorandum as amici curiae on behalf of the 11 Communists.

Purely Academic Approach On Discrimination

Undoubtedly the Star-Bulletin editorialist considers himself a good American. As for Earl B. Dickerson, mentioned several weeks ago in this column, he is one of the nation's foremost lawyers. A former Chicago alderman, an ex-assistant Illinois attorney general, former president of the National Bar Association and a member of Roosevelt's Pair Employment Practices Committee and general counsel for the Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Co., no sane person can question his Americanism.

Joining with Dickerson in signing the petition was Richard E. Westbrooks, for several decades an outstanding lawyer, also a former president of the National Bar Association and consul for the Republic of Liberia. His Americanism, too, cannot be seriously questioned.

Why then, the wide gulf between the thinking of the Star-Bulletin editor and that of Dickerson and Westbrooks? The answer is simple. The Star-Bulletin editor, being white, views discrimination from a purely academic standpoint. To a person who only hears about jim crow but who has never been refused a hotel room or food in a restaurant because of his color, or who has not been kicked around as an inferior solely because of his ethnic background, such incidents may seem "exaggerated."

White-Supremacy Advocates Cry "Communist!" "Un-American!"

But Dickerson and Westbrooks are Negroes. To them, prejudice is a brutal fact. They have faced it all their lives. They know that even "some tinge of race prejudice" is more than should exist in a democracy and must be erased. They know, also, that the same people who consistently oppose any effort to eradicate white supremacy are the ones who will cry "Communist" or "un-American" at those of us who refuse to halt our fight against racism.

That is the basis for their memorandum. They take the same position that I and many other Negroes took when the 11 top Communists were convicted in New York. Our position is that the conviction can be used against Negroes or any other group fighting for full equality.

The memorandum is too important to be dismissed in the space left in this column, so for that reason it will be dealt with at length later. However, the introduction, commenting on the majority decision of the Supreme Court upholding the conviction, sets the tone for the entire brief by stating:

"Negro citizens, constituting as they do, a specially persecuted minority group in our body politic, see in the opinion of the court's majority the enunciation of at least two legal concepts which are at variance with the prior decisions of this court and which, if allowed to stand, are bound to have a disastrous impact upon the century-old struggle of the Negro people for complete emancipation."

How this theme is brilliantly developed will be shown later with direct quotes from the memorandum. (To Be Continued)