Eyes of Workers On Expert Making City Mill Report       [print]

Behind the discharge by Theo. H. Davies & Co., Ltd., of five longtime employes (as reported in the RECORD last week) was a report made by Edward Prank, private industrial engineer by day, musician at Gibson's Bar by night, Mr. Frank told the RECORD this week.

Now doing the same sort of "efficiency expert" job at the City Mill Co., Ltd., that he did at Davies, Frank said his report there win not be finished for two more weeks. Frank said he cannot predict whether or not there will be layoffs at City Mill arising from his report. As at Davies, he will make, prospective layouts of whole departments and the management will use his report in any way it sees fit.

Asked whether or not there is truth to rumors that Davies will make further discharges. Frank said: "Gee, I don't know. I've been gone from there about a month." Frank said he had "laid out" plans for the grocery and warehouse departments, where it has been rumored the next discharges will come, but said: "I don't know what they're doing with them."

Plays Bass At Gibson's

From the Musicians' Union (AFL) the RECORD learned that Frank makes good use of his own time, turning an extra dollar by playing the bass viol with an orchestra at Gibson's.

An official of Davies personnel department said he could give no information on further layoffs, but that he hadn't personally heard that there were to be more.

The inquiry regarding Frank followed the tremendous interest created by last week's RECORD story which disclosed that Davies has discharged five veteran employes from its grocery department, one with 31 years of service and two with 25-year gold watch awards. "Feeling is strong among the employes over the firing," said a man close to Davies employes.

He said the feeling is partly indignation over the fact that all the old-timers fired were men of Japanese ancestry and the suspicion that the discharges might be discriminatory. Partly, he said, it is because a number of the employes wonder if they're slated for the axe in the near future. Morale is low as there now seems to be no security, the element which has been Davies' big attraction to employes.

Four young men spent the night on Rabbit Island after a day of fishing, and they were waiting for the boat that was to pick them up. It was the morning of the Fourth of July, and they were anxious to get home to begin the second installment on their holiday. One picked up a shiny object from the beach and another, recognizing it as a small artillery shell, warned him to throw it away. But the young man, James Sasaki, fumbled and dropped it and a blinding explosion followed. A moment later, Sasaki lay dead and the other three lay stunned and injured on the beach.

580,000 In Suits

As a result of that blast, which happened in 1946, suits against the U. S. government totalling more than $80,000 may be heard next week in Federal court. Twenty-five thousand dollars is asked for the death of James Sasaki. The plaintiffs charge that the government was negligent in not marking Rabbit Island "dangerous," although it had figured in wartime training programs in which live ammunition was used. The plaintiffs surviving the accident, are Horace Sasaki, brother of James; Shigeo "Birdman" Kurihara and his brother George, all of Honolulu.

They are represented in the suit by Attorney William S. Richardson. Although the case is on the calendar "temporarily" for next week, Mr. Richardson has doubts that it will actually be tried then. With the press of the courts and with one Federal judge recently on vacation, Richardson expects that the case will get another continuance.

"We've had the Kurihara's and Sasaki on call a number of times already," says the lawyer, "but) something always happened. It's been the press of circumstances." When the case is finally tried, ha will attempt to prove negligence on the part of the government, Richardson says.

Boatmen Came Quickly

Fortunately for the three survivors, the boatman who was to pick them up arrived very quickly after the explosion and he and his helper carried them to the boat.

On the beach, the three were taken to the Bellows Field dispensary where it was ascertained that George Kurihara, then 16 years old, had suffered the worst injury—a compound fracture of the leg.

The three were then removed to Queen's Hospital where George was given an emergency operation. "Birdman" Kurihara also underwent an operation because of shrapnel which had struck him in the body. Horace Sasaki was injured least of the three.

Sporting fishermen who know Rabbit Island and the area are in almost 100 per cent agreement with the contention of the plaintiffs that the government was indeed negligent. A number were deeply shocked by the mishap which, they say, might have happened to them.

"Since the curfew was lifted in 1944," said one, "many people have fished there and spent the night as this group did. It was a good place for an evening because you could catch rabbits, and cook them right there."

Meaning of the Arrests

The early morning arrest of seven members of this community, including the editor of the RECORD, raises the curtain in Hawaii on the intensified campaign to stifle independent thinking and free speech, a suppression which is becoming more urgent in the whipped-up war program, highly profitable to the big employers but not popular with the great masses of people.

The attack upon the constitutional rights of the seven individuals who are charged under the notorious Smith Act of advocating certain ideas, but not of committing any overt act of crime, comes at the crucial moment of the sugar negotiations between Hawaii's Big Five and the ILWU. On Lanai, 750 workers are on strike, and have been now for more than half a year, and Hawaiian Pineapple Co. is letting a $25,000,000 crop rot to break the union.

One of the seven is the ILWU regional director. The others have been alleged by fingermen, stool pigeons and disgruntled former labor leaders to have influenced the policies of the union, a union in whose democracy its participating members take great pride.

As the longshoremen from Maui have already said, this is a move to discredit the ILWU which, nationally and locally, has not kowtowed to the war mobilization program that results in higher taxes and less pork chops, while destruction and death take place far from out shores to keep the pumps primed for the highly profitable war industry that benefits only big employers.

The arrest of the seven is said to fall into the "national pattern" by Justice Department, propagandists. It is significant that the top publicity man of the Justice Department was brought here to drum up the allegation of "conspiracy" and the teaching of the overthrow of the government by force and violence.

Such preparation of the propaganda barrage was necessary to strike fear into the people, even after all these years of red-baiting the labor movement, particularly the ILWU, in order to isolate the leadership of the union from the membership, and the union itself from the rest of the island community.

A large segment of the people who have had close association with the seven must realize from their own experiences, that the allegation of teaching the overthrow of the government by force and violence is fantastic. Subscribers to the RECORD have read views of the editor as expressed in the editorial column week after week for more than three years.

As in the "national pattern," the Justice Department asked for $75,000-$100,000 bail for each of the seven. U. S. Commissioner Steiner set bail at $75,000.

Judge Delbert E. Metzger brought down the individual bail to $5,000, saying that even this was "extremely high" for his court.

But the "national pattern" of whipping people into conformity, including the jurists, reached into the realm of the courts here. Even the abnormally high bail set by Judge Metzger was attacked.

Sen. Joseph C. O'Mahoney of the interior and insular affairs committee announced that this reduction of bail was outrageous arid that Judge Metzger would be removed immediately and replaced.

In the U. S. attorney's argument before Judge Metzger, attempt was made to link the seven to the 11 U. S. Communist leaders convicted under the Smith Act.

In this period of hysteria and fear, two Supreme Court justices dissented in the 6-2 decision. Justice William Douglas, who passed through here Wednesday, said, in part:

"Never until today has anyone seriously thought that the ancient law of conspiracy could constitutionally be used to turn speech into seditious conduct. Yet that is precisely what is suggested. I repeat we deal here with speech alone, not with speech plus acts of sabotage or unlawful conduct ... To make a lawful speech unlawful because two men conceive it, is to raise the law of conspiracy to appalling proportions. That course is to make a radical break with the past and to violate one of the cardinal principles of our constitutional scheme.

"The crime then depends not on what is taught but on the intent with which it is said. Once we start down that road WE ENTER TERRITORY DANGEROUS TO THE LIBERTIES OF EVERY CITIZEN." (Caps are ours.)

Justice Black wrote in his dissenting opinion:

"So long as this court exercises the power of judicial review of legislation, I cannot agree that the First Amendment permits us ' to sustain laws suppressing freedom of speech and press on the basis of Congress' or our own notions of mere 'reasonableness.' Such a doctrine waters down the First Amendment, so that it amounts to little more than an admonition to Congress.

"This Amendment, as construed, is not likely to protect any but those 'safe' or orthodox views which rarely need its protection."

What is this "national pattern"? Those who ride the bandwagon of the witchhunters say it is the arrest and incarceration of Communists, alleged Communists and non-conformists.

Let us look at the picture from the other side and ask a few questions:

"Why the arrests?" "What crime or crimes harmful to the populace have these people committed?" "What purpose and whom do the arrests serve?"

Actually, the "national pattern" today is the attack against trade unions, the buying off of some top leaders, attempting to crush militant unions that do not conform, loyalty purges, war scare to condition the people for continued mobilization, unprecedented profits for big industrialists and financiers whose key men run the government. We have big steals in war contracts, corruption and graft in government even involving the President's immediate staff—now the chairman of the National Democratic Party is implicated.

All these go on as the industrialists, who postponed a recession setting in two years ago by the war program, grab profits in the most ruthless manner. They dodge taxes, get plants built free with taxpayers' money and constantly fight to raise taxes of the low-income earners, 10,500,000 families of whom live, according to a recent government report, on less than $2,000 a year.

More and more people are beginning to realize that the war program is a phony, despite the increasing attempts to instill fear and timidity to voice their disapproval.

It is not succeeding too well. A big business magazine, U. S. News and World Report (Aug. 10) says:

"The scare technic worked overtime by high U. S. officials may be the wrong one. Idea is that the American people will insist upon being weak in a military way unless whipped up, kept in a state of fright and alarm. It's going to be difficult to keep people frightened year after year if no big war comes .... War alarms, sounded almost daily by high officials, are part of a planned propaganda offensive designed by the government's propaganda experts."

Closer to home the Hawaii Employers Council in a news release August 22, concluded:

"While there is every indication that this lull in the national economy is only temporary, special conditions in Hawaii make the outlook here more uncertain. Those special conditions are the unsettled state of labor relations (here)—and the DISCOURAGINGLY GREAT DEPENDENCE OF HAWAII'S NUMBER ONE INDUSTRY, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, ON THE CONTINUATION OF INTERNATIONAL TENSION IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC AND THE FAR EAST (Caps are our editorial emphasis)."

This is the situation today. Europe "drags its feet" in mobilization. Asians oppose white-man imperialism. At home the war economy does not have smooth sailing. Criticism is highly resented by the ruling elements of this country.

This is the reason for the incredible attempt by the Justice Department to put non-conforming ideas behind bars.

In Hawaii, this "pattern" is not new. Independent newspapers have been forced to fold up. Fred Makino of the Hawaii Herald once told the editor of the RECORD that he could not remember how many times he was jailed because of his outspoken editorial policy. Yasutaro Soga's Nippu Jiji was also attacked in its days of greater independence by instigation of Hawaii's big employers. Soga, Makino and others were put behind bars for supporting the 1909 Japanese sugar strike. Pablo Manlapit was sent away from these shores because of pro-labor activities.

Now, what has the RECORD done to bring similar attacks upon its editor? It is not a Big Five controlled newspaper. Last week, for instance, it reported that Davies & Co. is laying off its 25-year men, all of Japanese ancestry. No other newspaper has reported this major news in this community where job security is disdainfully ignored by big employers. The RECORD has criticized plantation conditions and has brought about improvements in housing on certain plantations. And the RECORD is the only newspaper that supports unions and the workers in the Territory.

The jailing of its editor will not suspend its publication. There will be others to carry on, and there being no monopoly of ideas, there are many more coming up who will see the injustices in these islands and raise their voices against them in order to improve conditions.

Since the arrest of the editor, now out on bail, the RECORD has been the recipient of numerous expressions of support from wide quarters that are indeed encouraging.

When a Federal jurist like Judge Metzger is threatened with loss of his job because of reducing bail, it is high time for people here to take keen interest in what is happening within our country.

Keep reading the RECORD and supporting it, for it is a newspaper for the broad masses of people, the small wage earner, who gets his views expressed.

And a word of warning reiterated. The present wave of imprisonment will not stop with a few; as Justice Douglas said, the Smith Act enforcement endangers the "liberties of every citizen." As in Thomas Jefferson's time when opposition to the notorious Alien and Sedition Acts caused their repeal by popular protest, the Smith Act must be repealed to protect the rights of the people.

In Nazi Germany, Jews pointed out Jews in the atmosphere fraught with fear. The end result—6,000,000 Jews exterminated, fingermen included.

Are the people in the U. S. for full and free discussion to keep the society from becoming stagnant? Or are they for slapping padlocks on ideas, which is impossible to do, as the Justice Department is trying to do?

The Salem witchhunt, the Alien and Sedition Acts and the Palmer raids of 1919 were all defeated. America must return to its senses to play a constructive role in the community of nations.

The hope lies in the people, here and on the Mainland. We have deep faith in them to struggle for progress. It is the duty of those who understand the situation, including those who have been silenced, to awaken the conscience of the whole populace.—KOJI ARIYOSHI

By Staff Writer

More than 24 hours after they were called into session, a Federal grand jury Wednesday afternoon indicted seven local people and charged them with violating the Smith Act by "conspiring with each other" and with Communist leaders tried on the Mainland on the same charges, "to advocate and teach" the overthrow of the U. S. government by force and violence. The seven were: Koji Ariyoshi, editor of the RECORD; James Freeman, construction foreman; Charles Fujimoto, chairman of the Communist Party of Hawaii; Eileen Fujimoto, his wife; Jack W. Hall. ILWU regional director; Jack Kimoto of the RECORD staff, and John Reinecke, former teacher and private researcher. Earlier, following early morning arrests by FBI agents, the seven had been held on $75,000 bail, set by the U. S. Commissioner, and released on $5,000 bail after the figure had been lowered to that amount by Federal Judge Delbert E. Metzger. Metzger lowered the bail after hearing an appeal on a writ of habeas corpus by Myer C. Symonds, and in setting the figure at $5,000, he said: "That is quite unusual in this court, in fact, exceptionally large. However, it doesn't flow from any hysterical idea on the part of the judge presiding." The hysteria was to come Wednesday from Washington where Sen. Joseph C. O'Mahoney (D., Wyo.), chairman of the important (to Hawaii) interior and insular affairs committee, called the reduction an "outrageous act," and said he is "confident" the judge will be replaced "immediately." Unruffled, Judge Metzger said he doesn't want to comment "on everything someone in Congress says," but opining that O'Mahoney apparently thinks he knows more of the local situation than the judge, added, "I don't think so."

Attorney Walter D. Ackerman, Jr., didn't think so either, and he called the $75,000 bail asked by the Justice Department and set by Judge Steiner "ridiculous."

Union men protested the action vigorously as a blow at their union in its negotiations at which Regional Director Jack Hall is a spokesman.

For small businessmen, it was a period of uneasiness and several expressed themselves as wishing it hadn't happened until the new sugar contract is signed.

For the seven, who unanimously condemned the action against them as another step toward American fascism, it was the first Hawaiian sample of an ordeal the Mainland has seen several times in recent months.

Four hundred twenty-two out of 430 restaurants in downtown Honolulu surveyed by sanitary inspectors were found to meet the board of health requirements.

This figure represents 98 per cent of the restaurants surveyed for permission to operate during the fiscal year beginning July 1. 1951

The Oahu Labor Council will take Labor Day to the plantations this year with a parade expected to be attended by even a larger turnout than in previous years.

Because Wahiawa is centrally located for the pineapple and sugar workers who make up the majority of union labor on Oahu, it has been chosen as the site for the parade.

"In other years," said President Ernest Arena of the council, "the plantation workers have come to Honolulu. It has been something of a hardship for them because of distance and transportation problems. So this year, we're taking Labor Day to them."

Honolulu unions will arrange transportation to Wahiawa for their members.

The parade will start at 9:30 a. m. at Wilikina Drive, Wahiawa, under the leadership of Joseph "Blurr" Kealalio, president of Longshore Local 136, and it will end at Fred Wright Park.

Master of ceremonies during the speeches will be Henry Epstein, regional director of the United Public Workers of America.

Speakers will include Louis Goldblatt, secretary-treasurer of the International ILWU; Justo dela Cruz, vice president of the sugar workers, Local 14.2, Oahu Division, and James King of the law firm of Bouslog & Symonds.

The dollar and five cents an hour the Honolulu Sake Brewery & Ice Co., Ltd., pays a 20-year employe is an example of the practices employed by the company which has enjoyed extremely profitable years. As the 16 strikers, about half of the company's production workers, learned on the picket line this week that the sake brewery's profits jumped from $15,943.69 in 1945 to $50,297.68 in 1950, they spoke more determinedly on continuing their struggle to get increases in hourly pay. Profit for 1949 was $61,524.44. The employers stood fast and carried on limited production with a small crew because if they give in on the sake brewery front they may have to make revolutionary changes in the low pay scale among all the large Japanese-owned concerns. Arthur A. Rutledge, president of the Joint Council of Teamsters No. 79, last week wrote Senator Wilfred C. Tsukiyama, first vice president and director of the sake brewery, that "the labor relations at the Honolulu Sake Brewery & Ice Co., Ltd., are a disgrace to the community."

Break In Old Custom

The Brewery Workers Union, Local 502 (AFL) which is organizing the employes, wrote Arnold L. Wills, NLRB officer here: "This is the first instance of a company of this size owned by Japanese and with Japanese employes where the employes had the courage to stand up and exercise the rights guaranteed them by our government, as against the usual attitude taken by those of Japanese ancestry who work for Japanese employers, which is one of complete subservience and docility." "If the union cracks the cheap-paying outfit, workers in other big Japanese firms will begin stirring. That's why the bosses are holding the line and not giving an inch," said an observer of the Japanese community. "The big ones who go to tea houses and spend money like water, live in big houses and take pleasure trips to Japan, have their fingers crossed." The company, which was incorporated in 1908, had, at the end of 1950, $345,000 in paid-in shares, or 69,000 shares at $5 each.

Owners Made Money

Figures from 1945 show that It has paid dividends every year, except 1946, when a larger bulk of the profits was thrown into the surplus fund. About 7.7 per cent ($23,150) dividend was distributed to stockholders in 1945, 1947 and 1948. In 1949, dividends went up to about 15 per cent ($45,000) on the capital invested and in 1950, they were about 10 per cent. Besides distributing dividends, the sake brewery has put away a substantial amount of the profits in the surplus or accumulated profits fund. The accumulated profits, which were $73,045.04 in 1945, had swelled to $170,166.61 in 1950.

Principal stockholder is Daizo Sumida, president and director, who owns 7,290 shares representing $36,450. W. Chomatsu Tsukiyama,, first vice president and director; has 930 shares or $4,650. Susumu Nomura, treasurer and director, has 2,300 shares or $11,500. He is one of the king pins in the operation of the sake brewery. He is also manager of Oahu Appliances, 219 South Beretania. Hideo Hamada, secretary and director, has 1,800 shares, or $9,000. He also has other business connections and is a partner in the Kalihi Kar Co., 1040 North King St. He is office manager at the brewery.

A big shareholder who is not an officer is Tamotsu Fujisaki, who operates a vending machines business at 544 South Beretania St.

Other big stockholders include Sakaye Hosoi of the Hosoi Funeral Home; Tadasu Kaya, Honolulu Soda Water Co., Ltd,; Tasaku Komeya of the Komeya Hotel and Central Pacific Travel Service, Ltd.; Pacific Liquors, Ltd., of which Takaichi Miyamoto is president; American Trading Co., Ltd., Hilo; Hilo Rice Mill Co., Ltd.; Kanichi Takuani Maui, operator of a soda water factory and theaters, and Harada Nobutaro, president of N. Harada Co., general stores. Kailua and Heeia.

[PAGE 2][back to the top]

Harvard Paper Hits Danger; To Academic Freedom

Boston (FP)—The spreading clanger to academic freedom steins from the current "prolonged period of fear." the Harvard Crimson, student publication at Harvard University, said in its third annual report on campus activities.

Surveying 35 instances of attacks on academic freedom, the newspaper noted the absence of cases involving active Communist party members.

"Of all the cases reported in this issue," it said, "only one involves an actual cardholding Communist and he was engaged in the insidious work of debating on the University of Maryland campus. The rest of the cases involve assorted radicals, former Communists, people whom someone thought were Communists, members of 'subversive' organizations, teachers who opposed administration policies and the like."

Here are some of the setbacks to academic freedom noted by the Crimson:

The New Jersey supreme court's upholding of a 1949 law requiring all teachers in state-supported schools to take an oath disavowing membership in any subversive organization.

Banning of Mark Van Doren's books from Jersey City Junior College for the author's alleged connection with "Communist front" groups.

Attack in the Texas legislature on Charles E. Ayres, University of Texas professor, who is an exponent of Thorsten Veblen's economic theories.

"Tightening of Noose" Around Free Schools

Grand Rapids, Mich. (FP)—Growing assaults on academic freedom and public education were denounced here by President John M. Eklund of the American Federation of Teachers (AFL) in his keynote report to the union's 34th annual convention Aug. 20.

In the past year, he declared, there has been "a tightening of the noose around the neck of free education as textbooks have been banned, curricula mutilated and teaching materials subjected to the most reactionary scrutiny."

He cited "an epidemic of vicious, unwarranted firing of teachers," in some cases for the "specific charge of union participation." The "most flagrant" anti-union firings, Eklund said, were the dismissals of seven teachers from the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs; 16 teachers in Miami, Fla., and the president of the new AFT local in Kellogg, Ida.

Attending the convention here are 500 delegates representing an estimated 80,000 teachers in 400 locals throughout the U. S. The parley received a message from President Truman which called for "world cooperation and international friendship."

Federal Judge Hits Justice Dept. Bail Restrictions

New York (FP)—The Justice Dept. came under sharp attack Aug. 16 from Federal Judge Edward Weinfeld, who ordered the release of an imprisoned alien on bail the government had rejected.

Judge Weinfeld gave government attorneys until 5 p.m. Aug. 17 to agree to the release of Manuel Tarazona, one of 39 aliens jailed in a nationwide roundup three weeks ago, when bail posted by the Civil Rights Congress was revoked by Atty. Gen. J. Howard McGrath. The judge said even if the government refused the bail again, Tarazona would be released under the court's power to grant bail.

The judge entered the case when attorneys for Tarazona sought a writ to compel the government to accept $4,000 in Treasury certificates offered by the imprisoned man's wife and daughter. Immigration officials refused to accept the bail because Mrs. Tarazona would not answer questions on her political affiliations.

Describing the government action as an "abuse of discretion" and an "invasion of a man's rights," Weinfeld ruled: "The wife had a perfect right to offer those| bonds . . . and so, too, did the daughter. In the court's view, there was hardly a semblance of an excuse for refusing to accept the bonds."

Judge Weinfeld's first criticism of Justice Dept. restrictions on bail came a day earlier when another of the imprisoned aliens, Alexander Bittelman, applied for a writ of habeas corpus after the government had rejected two offers to supply his $5,000 bail.

At the Bittelman hearing, Asst. U. S. Atty. William Sexton revealed that McGrath has set up a political means test for would-be bailors. Sexton said a bailor must be, well-acquainted with the person to be bailed, must freely reveal the source of the posted money, must live near the defendant and "in the case of an alien charged with being subject to deportation by reason of his activities in the Communist party or any related charge, the surety must not be a member of the Communist party, its affiliated organizations or other related subversive groups which are subject to foreign control, discipline and direction."

Weinfeld questioned McGrath's authority to make such" requirements and implied they might constitute denial of bail. Pointing to numerous contradictions in government bail regulations, Carol King, attorney for Bittelman, charged the rules were, switched around to make it impossible for bail to be posted.

Meanwhile, over strong government objections. U. S. commissioner Isaac Platt accepted $10,000 bond posted for Arnold Johnson, one of 17 Communists arrested in June and last of the group to be bailed out.

Unemployment Claims 48% Above Year Ago

Washington (FP)—Initial claims for unemployment compensation increased 26 per cent the week ending Aug. 4, above the preceding week. They were .48 per cent above the same period a year ago. These were highlights of the latest unemployment bulletin issued by the Bureau of Employment Security.

It was the fifth consecutive week in which initial claims were greater than during the comparable period in 1950.

The automotive industry in Detroit was hardest hit. In Michigan, initial claims were three times greater than during the previous week. Twenty-seven states reported increases in initial claims. In addition to Michigan, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island reported increases ranging from 1,900 to 4,700. Eighteen other states showed increases of less than 1,000.

For the Nation initial claims increased 255,900. Statisticians pointed out these figures represent only a small fraction of the unemployed. Many workers are not covered by insurance, others fail to file and many have exhausted unemployment benefits.

The bureau attributed the startling increase in Michigan unemployment to 1-week layoffs due to material shortages resulting from mobilization. Leaders of the United Auto Workers (CIO), however, have pointed, to lagging sales of trucks and autos as a partial cause and the transfer by auto companies to new plants built with government money to other parts of the country where they can be used later as assembly plants.

British Scientists Impressed By USSR Visit

London (ALN)—Three British scientists and an economist reported enthusiastically to a crowded press conference here on their three-week goodwill mission to the Soviet Union.

The four were Dr. Horace Joules, medical director of Central Middlesex hospital; Dr. I.C. Gilliland, medical registrar of the Post-Graduate Medical School. Hammersmith, London; Dr. S. M. Manton, a zoologist at King's College University of London and Christopher Freeman, lecturer in economics at Glasgow University. Dr. Manton, who told reporters she belonged to no political party, was asked what had been her main impression of the Soviet Union. "Most outstanding." she said, "was the tremendous welcome, the spontaneous friendship we received everywhere, not only from people in responsible posts, but from housewives, scientists, teachers and the ordinary people. And secondly, I would say the intense desire for peace that was expressed by everyone we met."

Dr. Joules said he was convinced by the amount of long-range construction he saw that the Russians were planning for peace. He cited the new Moscow University, which cost over $300 million to build. "If they expect it may get blown up next year, I do not understand why they should build that amazing university," he said.

He, too, was impressed by the extreme friendliness of everybody the 19-member delegation had met in their 7,000 miles of travel to Moscow, Stalingrad and Tashkent. "We were spontaneously welcomed everywhere," he said, "not just a welcome that was 'laid on,' but whenever we turned a corner and people realized who we were."

Many of the reporters' questions dealt with health and scientific matters. "I have never seen so many doctors," Joules said. "In fact, it seemed to us that the doctors were waiting for the patients rather than patients waiting for doctors and they have as many nurses and aides as they need."

Gilliland said great stress is placed on preventive medicine. Tens of millions of x-rays are taken each year, he said, and miners are x-rayed each month. Joules, who is a chest specialist, said American and British finds that heavy smokers seem to be more prone to cancer of the lung had received wide publicity in the Soviet Union, particularly in the schools. As a result, he said, consumption of tobacco had fallen 10% in a year.

Freeman, who visited the Soviet Union in 1938, said he was most impressed by the rise in living standards as compared with the prewar period. He added his conviction that an increase in Anglo-Soviet trade would benefit both countries.

Military Mission Off To Lease Franco's Bases

Washington (FP)—A special 7-man mission of army, air force and navy men under Air Force Maj. Gen. James W. Spry, was on its way to Madrid Aug. 22 to negotiate lease of air and naval bases from Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. U. S. leaders appear confident they will get the bases. An economic mission to survey requirements of Spain for U. S. aid already was in the Franco capital.

Detroit (FP)—Close to 50,000 auto workers were temporarily unemployed at the end of July in Detroit area plants as unsold new cars mounted to more than a month's production.

Hyden, Ky. (FP)—Thousands of eastern Kentucky coal miners defied red-baiting and threats of violence by the coal operators to stage a big UMW organization rally here.

[PAGE 3] [back to the top]

By Marty Solow

(Federated Press) The major wire, services (Associated Press and United Press) were severely spanked this month for the way in which they distort and suppress news.

The well-deserved spanking came from William Evjue's Madison (Wis.) Capital Times, one of the few honest newspapers in the U. S.

Warns Readers

In a front-page editorial, the Capital Times said that "it must depend upon the AP and UP for reports on distant news developments. The responsibility for the manner in which this news is reported rests with the AP and UP.

"It is important that the readers of the Capital Times be on warning concerning much of this reporting. In many cases news is angled, distorted and suppressed.

"We have noted this particularly in the case of many news developments that have accompanied the career of Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy."

According to the Capital Times, the "AP and UP have angled, distorted and suppressed news about McCarthy to support his political fortunes, and to undermine public confidence in the principles advocated by such men as Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Truman."

Bias of Powerful Publishers

The editorial cites examples of how AP and UP sat on news unfavorable to McCarthy—such as the expose of his income tax scandals. At the same time, the news services eagerly played up material which reflected on the Truman administration.

In many other instances the Capital Times pointed out how the wire services followed the bias of the powerful publishers who control the policies of the agencies.

"Why do these great news agencies angle, distort and suppress news?" the Capital Times asked. "It is because they are dominated and controlled by wealthy and powerful men with economic interests to protect.

"The Associated Press is a powerful organization. Its membership is made up of the newspaper publishers receiving its services. Its board of directors is composed of the wealthiest and most reactionary newspaper publishers in the U. S.

What Readers Should Know

"The United Press is owned by the Scripps-Howard syndicate, which is under the domination of Roy Howard, a reactionary Republican who stepped into control of a once liberal and progressive newspaper organization and turned it into an adjunct of the Republican party.

"We believe our readers are entitled to know the forces at work in shaping up the news served to them daily." If they do, the Capital Times said, "they will be better able to arrive at intelligent decisions on public issues."

We congratulate the Capital Times and its crusading editor, William Evjue. The fact is that criticism of the news services has been virtually non-existent in recent years. This situation exists despite the enormous role these agencies play in the formation of public opinion on major issues.

Foreign News Faked

As a nation, we pride ourselves on an "informed public." Actually, we're informed in accordance with the practices and prejudices of the big businessmen who control the channels of information. Very few in labor need to be reminded how news of labor disputes is invariably twisted and distorted to present a picture hostile to a union. Certainly we don't have to tax our memories to recall the 90 per cent hostility of the press toward FDR and the social benefits he was trying to bring to the American people.

In the past five years we've written about the fakeries of the news agencies and presented many samples. In particular, we've pointed out how foreign news has been faked and slanted to accord with the political prejudices of the publishers.

Therefore, it's good to see a major American newspaper take a pot-shot at the sacred cow of press "objectivity"—and point out that the story you're reading MAY not be entirely true.

Keep that in mind the next time you see scare headlines.

Agents of the FBI, often glamorized by their own press agents, actually don't take any chances when they go to make arrests, random interviews" with the seven arrested persons show.

One, watching closely while the quiet, scholarly newspaperman, Jack Kimoto, dressed, interrupted nervously when Kimoto doffed a kimono and reached for his street clothes.

"You don't have a gun in that closet, do you?" he asked. Still taking no chances, the cop eyed Kimoto again before departure from his house, hesitated, and then handcuffed him.

And the agent had two reinforcements!

But Mr. Hoover's agency decided five were needed to apprehend James Freeman, who was on his way to work. Fearful, for some reason, of coming to his house, they ambushed him and jumped out to command him to raise his hands.

It was with some justification that he said, calling his wife later in the morning: "Some fellows wanted to play cops and robbers this morning." In all cases, the Federal cops heightened the melodrama of their job by arresting persons at an abnormally early hour—though they could have picked up the entire seven in a more prosaic, though less "thrilling" manner later in the day.

Herr Hitler's Gestapo used to come late at night and in the early morning hours, too.

If Theo. H. Davies & Co., Ltd., is feeling the pressure of competition, says a local small storekeeper, after reading last week's story and Davies' excuses for firing five longtime employes, it will have to do a great deal toward improving its service to customers.

The storekeeper, who has now discontinued orders to Davies, said he did so because he never had any assurance of service.

"You could put in a rush order in the morning," he said, "and they'd tell you you'd get your order in the afternoon. Then, if you called again, they'd tell you they were busy. Yon might get your order two days later. Not only would you be put out, but you'd lose face with your customer, too."

His new wholesaler, the businessman said, even leaves him envelops that require no stamp, so that he can place his orders more easily. Thus far, he has enjoyed good service from the company which now gets his business.

Occasionally, when he had placed his order with Davies for a certain day, the storekeeper said, Davies would deliver early and upset his budget schedule.

"When you place an order for a certain day," he said, "you want it on the day you order—not before and not after. That's part of running a small business. Davies has got to learn to listen to small businessmen and their needs. It's a lot of small businessmen who make them what they are."

By Koji Ariyoshi

Apparently written with an eye for Mainland readers, the story by AP newsman Roy Essoyan in the home edition of Wednesday's Star-Bulletin wanders far from fact. The story starts off: "I would rather be an arrested Communist in the United States than an arrested capitalist in Communist Russia.

"I say that after spending 12 hours with seven accused Communists after they were arrested by the FBI in Hawaii." This writer recalls that Mr. Essoyan spent about three hours with the seven individuals. The total time involved from the arrest to release on bail of the last of the seven took about eight hours. No newsman or newspaper woman was around a great deal of the time.

Asked over the phone if he had actually spent 12 hours with the seven of us, Mr. Essoyan admitted he did not, but said he had spent about 12 or 13 hours • on the story. This is very different from what Mr. Essoyan has written, indicating he was closely observing us for 12 hours. Had Mr. Essoyan been in the Soviet Union? He said "no" but people he had confidence in had been there and he believed their statements.

I have always had deep appreciation and faith in the reporting of working newspapermen and this little incident won't minimize that. Probably he did it unconsciously, and the idea of a newspaperman going to that extent in dressing up a story was "intriguing," to use Mr. Essoyan's own words, and worth a short comment.

[PAGE 4] [back to the top]

Words of his, says Assistant Prosecutor Elton Sakamoto, may have been misconstrued by Officer Art Dietrich in the case of Dr. Richard C. Durant, so that Dietrich may have thought he was being instructed to withdraw the warrant which had been issued for the doctor's arrest.

"If that was the case," Sakamoto told the RECORD, "there was a mistake, and I don't know whose mistake it was."

Officer Dietrich is on vacation and was not available for comment.

As the RECORD reported last week, Nurse Patricia Lord swore out a warrant for Dr. Durant's arrest in mid-July, charging him with flogging one of his children, but the warrant was never served. Royal Hawaiian Doctor

Dr. Durant is house physician at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, but the incident which caused the complaint of Nurse Lord and the issuing of the warrant occurred at his home at 910 Pahoa Place.

Explaining his words to Dietrich, Sakamoto said the warrant had been made out without his knowledge, and when he heard the evidence in the case, he advised Dietrich to investigate carefully.

Later, he said, the prosecutor's office decided to turn the case over to the juvenile court because a child was involved, and this was done.

According to practice, the juvenile court is investigating further and a warrant may be reissued if the court finds that step justified. Similarly, another warrant may be sworn out at any time within two years after the alleged offense has been committed.

With an intensifying stalemate in sugar negotiations, union moves ground to a quick stop Tuesday with the arrest of Jack Hall, ILWU regional director, who has taken a prominent part as spokesman for the union.

There would be no negotiations, the sugar unionists said, while Jack Hall stayed in jail, and though they met to lake up the business of making a contract after Hall had been released on $5,000 bail, there were indications that the tensity of the situation had made them more wary than ever of employer maneuvers. Only the day before, workers at five plantations—Olaa, Hilo Sugar, Onomea, Pepeekeo and Halakau— had taken the day off in stop work meetings to consider the three-cent hourly wage increase offered by those plantations.

Five Plead Hardship

That offer, six cents under the offer of 21 other companies was upheld by the management of the five Hawaii companies on the ground that those plantations are not doing as well as the others.

"Whenever there's a sacrifice to be made," said an ILWU spokesman, "the attitude of the companies is let the workers do it.'"

In reply to the offer, Big Island sugar workers were reported to be demanding equal wages and classifications throughout the sugar industry.

Following the three-cent offer, union negotiators asked that further negotiations be removed to Hawaii, and George Martin, vice president of the Big Island sugar workers, cited as precedent for such a move the occasion in 1948 when the union was asked to negotiate there.

As the deadline of Friday midnight, when the present contract expires, drew nearer, the employers had not publicly moved from their classification proposal —which the union last week called a union-splitting trick. Instead of being a three-cent benefit in addition to the nine-cent across-the-board offer, the ILWU spokesmen said the proposal would add to the pay of workers in the higher classifications without adding equitably to others.

Such an effect, if achieved, said the union, would be that of setting highly classified workers against their brothers in the lower brackets and vice versa. The union also pointed out that the proposal had been released to the press before the offer was officially put on the bargaining table.

"It was a publicity stunt as well as a splitting offer," said an ILWU spokesman, "but it hasn't worked. The sugar workers are just as united today as they were the day they presented their demands more than two months ago."

"Only 31 students " exclaimed a union leader about the Republican School of Politics. "It doesn't sound as if the Republicans are the parly of youth yet exactly, no matter how much the Democrats may fight with each other. Not when they can get only 21 students from all over the Territory. And did you notice the first lesson they had to have? 'Don't be a snob,' Mrs. Farrington warned them."

* *

Reginald Mun's suit against Sgt. Chris Faria, which was to have been heard Monday of this week, has been postponed indefinitely because Mun's lawyers wish to rewrite their complaint, eliminating an error. David Mar of the C-C attorney's office, having been assigned the case, will defend Faria.

Mr. Mun charges that Faria stole a ring of keys and he asks $16 for the keys and $5,000 punitive damages.

* *

Monday's Star-Bull carried the AP report that not more than 20 per cent of Indonesia's parliament members favor the proposed San Francisco signing of the Japan Peace Treaty on what appears to be a unilateral basis. India has also expressed displeasure at the manner in which the IT. S. is setting up its own show on the peace treaty, and China has pointed out that if the Japanese sign a treaty to which neither China nor the USSR, are parties, a state of war will still exist between Japan and those countries.

But the Star-Bull ran the Indonesia story on page 17, along with the classified ads.

* *

Although the C-C attorney had promised an opinion last Tuesday on the uncashed $24,000 check paid by the Hawaii Housing Authority "in lieu of taxes" for services received from the division of refuse disposal, no such opinion was forthcoming. It has now been six months since the opinion was asked and maybe another week won't matter. But since six months have elapsed, how is it the checks haven't been cancelled?

* *

The big noise that booms every time a bus passes houses 2462 and 2452 on Kapiolani Blvd. has been worse recently, ever since workmen completed what appears to have been a repair job on the road there. Now the boom is sort of double-barreled and some residents say the change doesn't help their sleep any.

Hung Wai Ching, realtor, is one of the residents and he says he has heard the original boom for a number of years. It comes, apparently, from a sewer installed under the road with little regard for acoustics—though perhaps it's too much to expect construction men to check the acoustics of a sewer.

* *

Why, if we may get into Wilfred Oka's domain for a moment, has Ken Misumi never been made sports editor of the Star-Bull? For the past three years, the editing and writing of Joe Anzivino have been notable chiefly for the regularity with which they follow the Leo Leavitt "line," even when that line happens to be theatrical.

* *

Why did Moncado (see last week's RECORD) decide upon a military title after the war? One Filipino thinks he got the idea when he was still being held by American soldiers after V-J Day, charged with collaboration with the Japanese. Moncado wore GI clothes, says the Filipino, and managed to get officers' sun tans from the good-natured American soldiers. The MPs began calling him "general," more or less as a joke, says the Filipino, and as soon as he was acquitted of the charges against him, Moncado sprouted the five stars he was wearing when he came back to Hawaii.

If you're a union man, you'll meet your friends at the Party House, 1870 Kalakaua, on the afternoon of Labor Day at the dance sponsored by the UPWA. Or if you're a friend of unions, you'll meet union men and your friends, beside. Johnny Almeida's orchestra is playing and there will be refreshments and entertainment for all. And you'd better get your reservation because they're going fast.

* *

E.P. Toner's quick reaction to the arrest of the seven accused of being Communist functionaries would make it seem that Toner's political activity was not terminated with quite the vengeance he indicated when Frank Serrao was appointed secretary of Hawaii. Toner was in time to get his name in the first edition of the Star-Bull to the effect that he had checked and found that none of the arrested are Democrats.

It also shows how vastly times have changed—since Toner used to hang around the RECORD office and boast of his political prowess. BEFORE the constitutional convention, that was.

* *

No one doubted that the arrests, especially of Jack Hall and of six others who have been militantly pro-labor for years, was timed as an effort to intimidate sugar workers. But. no one in Judge Metzger's courtroom could believe it had much effect, either. The court was filled with union men who looked grim only until Judge Metzger reduced the bail to $5,000. You see, they had already been figuring ways and means of raising the 75 Gs set by Steiner. It's a big amount" for working people but labor seldom, if ever, forgets its own and when the working people move together, they can move anything.

* *

Mrs. Eileen Fujimoto, the only woman of the seven, said a policewoman was sent to assist in her arrest. While dressing, Mrs. Fujimoto asked the woman, whose attitude was not unfriendly, if she were a local girl.

The woman didn't answer.

"Do you come from the Mainland?"

The Federal woman thought for a moment and answered: "Oh, I come from the office."

* *

"It's a good thing we have Judge Metzger," said a Kauai union man after the judge had reduced bail on the seven arrested Tuesday by $70,000 per person. "Men like that give the little people some hope."

Blasting Sen. Joseph C. O'Mahoney's slap at Judge Delbert E. Metzger as "a page out of the book of Franco Spain—of Hitler Germany," the Hawaii Civil Rights Congress also went on record at a meeting Wednesday, August 29, commending Judge Metzger's "refusal to be influenced by administration, policies."

The HCRC took its position on the issue that arose after Judge Metzger reduced the bail of the seven islanders arrested here on charges of "conspiracy" from $75,000 to $5,000 each.

At the same meeting, the HCRC formed a committee for the defense of the "Hawaii Seven," and set a goal of $5,000 as the amount of defense funds to be raised.

Glasgow (ALN)—The executive board of the Scottish area of the National Union of Mineworkers has invited Paul Robeson to visit Scotland and give a series of song recitals in the coalmining districts. The miners are asking U. S. Ambassador Walter Gifford to obtain a permit for Robeson to travel to Scotland, since his passport has been cancelled by the-U. S. State Department.

Early in 1909 there was talk of getting Macedonians as laborers in Hawaii; also 1,000 Koreans who had gone to work on the sisal plantations of Yucatan and were being mistreated there.

[PAGE 5] [back to the top]

[PAGE 6] [back to the top]

Washington (FP) — The FBI stood revealed Aug. 14 as the moving force behind the arbitrary raiding of a CIO meeting last February in Dublin, Ga., and the arrest without charges of two CIO leaders.

Sheriff Charles Gay of Laurens County, Ga., in attempting to justify his violation of fundamental civil rights in making the arrests, told a Senate labor subcommittee : "I was suspicious. The FBI had warned me to be on the lookout for Communists."

"Would you be suspicious of any strange character without any evidence?" asked Sen. Matthew M. Neely (D., W. Va.).

"I would be suspicious if I saw you in a n——r bootlegging joint," the sheriff snarled at Neely.

Organizer Clyde G. Brock of the CIO Southern Organizing Committee and CIO Georgia Director Charles H. Gillman said they were forced to rent a< store as a meeting place because they were denied space anywhere else in town. The meeting had just begun when the sheriff pulled his raid and held the two men, without charge, in the local jail for 24 hours. Brock said they were held until they talked with Attorney Hugo Black, son of the U. S. Supreme Court justice. Before they were released, a local judge made them pay $200 costs, though no charges had been lodged, Brock said.

FBI Smears Businessman

The two CIO men were organizing workers at the Cordell Lumber Co., a bitterly anti-union establishment. Brock testified one of the anti-union weapons used by the company was to put up bond for employes on minor police charges and then threaten to withdraw the bond if the men joined the union.

Sheriff Gay claimed the Negro businessman who owned the store in which the meeting was held had a police record. He said he had been told by government agents that a shipment of "moonshine" was expected at the store. No trace of "moonshine" was found.

Editor, Honolulu RECORD:

Will you be kind enough to print this letter in Letters from the People column?

Attention all residents of Kona: I am forwarding copies of Act 3 and Act 5 to Mr. K. Kishi of Captain Cook, Kona. Act 3 S. S. L. 1950, appropriated $1,000,000 for major disasters. Section 3 of that Act reads as follows: "The governor shall have, power to conclusively determine whether a disaster contemplated by this Act, has occurred."

I am certain that the Kona residents realize whether or not a major disaster has occurred.

Item 4 of Act 5 S. S. L. 1950, appropriated $300,000 for the construction of a water system for the districts of North and South Kona.

The 1951 session of the legislature gave the governor of the Territory of Hawaii $8,000,000 to spend at his discretion.

Now the Kona residents will spend between $50,000 and $100,000 repairing and building new tanks for their privately owned and operated water system which depends entirely on rainfall. The damaged and demolished tanks are now empty. Who knows when Kona is going to have its next rainfall, that will fill the tanks sufficiently to safeguard the health and lives of the people.

The people of Kona as citizens,, voters and taxpayers (who pay taxes for water systems in every other district) are entitled not as a privilege, but as a right to have the government build a water system.

. Instead of rebuilding an antiquated and out-of-date water system, why not (while the iron is hot—strike!) have the government develop or convey water from the water sheds wherever they are, to the residents of Kona, who will eventually pay the cost in taxes and water bills.

With the $300,000 appropriated in Act 5 and the governor's power to contribute to a major disaster out of the $1,000,000 appropriation in Act 3 of 1950, and the $8,000,000 of the 1951 session left to the governor's discretion ah ample amount of finances are available.

To the people of Kona, here is your opportunity to have a condition that has heeded correction for 50 years corrected now . . . The iron is hot and it is up to you to strike.

Besides that, your delegate to Congress, who never misses a bet to pick up a vote or two, can do much in getting Federal aid immediately to develop water, construct a system of transporting the water to the people of North and South Kona, as all of the disturbance that caused the trouble came from a Federal national park.

Wailuku, Maui, August 24, 1951 WILLIE CROZIER.

Moncado, the "Master," might easily have been m6tivated in his desire for permanent residence in the U. S. by troubles which have been piling up on him in the Philippines.

Early this month, according to the Manila Chronicle for August 9, the erstwhile Third Representative of God (after Christ and Rizal) lost two suits involving an aggregate sum of 60,000 pesos ($30,000).

On a single day, August 8, he was ordered by a Manila court to pay Moises Colcol, a printer, 48,986.98 pesos for work done and never paid for. In another decision, he was also ordered to pay the Airport Studios in excess of 10,000 pesos for photographic work done and not paid for.

Didn't Pay Bills

According to the Chronicle: "It was learned that the property of' Moncado, including his house in Rosario Heights, had already been attached by the court in a previous case involving a suit filed by Igmidio Marquez. The Moncado mansion had already been sold in execution, but Colcol, it was learned, intended to redeem it through judicial means."

But if he takes a financial beating in some quarters, the "five star general" in the Army of World Crusaders has many means of increasing his income. E. A. Taok, local businessman, has made some investigation of these means, and he reports as follows:

Members pay $110 to join, he reports, monthly dues of $2.50 and $50 "clearance" annually after complying with all obligations —which presumably include maintaining the meatless diet of peanuts and honey. . Joining the Filipino World Federation, another Moncado creation, costs $250 according to report, plus dues and clearance.

The Filipino World Supreme Council, though more exalted in title, still is said to cost only $250 to join, plus the usual dues and clearance.

But Members Pay

The "Master's" incidental expenses are often taken care of, Taok says, by voluntary contributions. If Moncado is going to the Mainland from Hawaii, the Mainland FFA members pay the cost.

Organization is not perfect, the businessman writes and he explains as follows: "So many collectors will collect from the same members and the members cannot refuse because of the Master. They are afraid they will not go to heaven when they die."

As the RECORD reported last week, this same "five star general" Hilario Camino Moncado is the man for whom Hawaii's Delegate Joseph R. Farrington sponsored a bill asking that he be allowed permanent residence.

Macon, Ga. (FP)—A sheriff and three farmers were indicted, here on charges of beating two Negro workers and holding them in slavery.

Named in the four-count Federal indictment were: Sheriff John B. Fokes of Dooly County; Frank B. Calhoun, operator of a large farm near Unadilla; his son Rodney, and his son-in-law, Edward T. Chancey. They were charged with conspiracy to violate the constitutional rights of Theodis Blue and A. C. Cross, two Negro farm laborers.

According to the indictment, the white men filed phony criminal charges against Blue in January 1949 and used the charges to return him from Detroit and make him work on the Calhoun farm. Chancey, acting as a deputy sheriff, brought Blue to the farm.

Another count said the defendants beat Cross and jailed him in January 1951 to force him to return to the Calhoun farm after he had moved away. The cases are scheduled for trial at Americus in the January 1952 term of court.

Hidden in the Star-Bulletin Tuesday was a small item which showed the direct relationship between the arrest of seven persons on charges of "conspiracy" and the pocketbooks of the sugar bosses.

The item was headed "Sugar Stocks Show Strength," and it reported that there was strong trading in sugar stocks on the Honolulu Stock Exchange, with the stocks rising.

And the item explained: "The trading occurred shortly after the Federal Bureau of Investigation men had picked up seven alleged Communist party members in Honolulu."

The fat cats of Merchant St. were drinking highballs in the morning over that, the ILWU radio spokesman said.

[PAGE 7] [back to the top]

In a Tuesday stop-work meeting over the arrest of ILWU Regional Director Jack Hall, members of the Maui longshore division of ILWU Local 136 passed a resolution hitting the arrest as a blow at their union. The following important paragraph of the resolution was omitted from reports in the dailies:

"This attack is not on Jack W. Hall, but rather, it is an attack on our union, to destroy the ILWU as a militant and united organization fighting for better wages and better working conditions for workers in Hawaii and for the maintenance and extension of democratic principles for all workers." The resolution re-affirmed the strong position taken by the ILWU International convention here last April in defense of the union and in support of civil liberties.

The attack has been demonstrated in the past, the resolution stated, by the government's persecution of Bridges, Robertson and Schmidt.

Copies of the resolution were sent to President Truman and Attorney General J. Howard McGrath.

This early engraving shows police at Haymarket Square in Chicago, brandishing clubs at some 65,000 strikers who demostrated in May 1886 for an 8 hour day. Strike leaders were framed and jailed on bomb-throwing charges, but the fight for a shorter workday was finally successful. (Federated Pictures)
[For more on this story, see PBS: Haymarket Square]

[PAGE 8] [back to the top]

Dusseldorf (ALN) — The number of West German unemployed, now officially estimated at 1,300,000 will top the two million mark this winter as a result of forced coal exports from the Ruhr basin, the British-licensed West German paper Die Welt said.

Salem, Ore. (FP)—Thirteen hundred prisoners staged a one-week sitdown strike at the Oregon state penitentiary to protest brutal treatment of prisoners. Warden George Alexander, whose removal was recommended months ago, cut off their food.

Looking Backward

LABOR DAY, 1936

Fifteen years ago, in 1936, the present labor movement of Hawaii was one year old. On the plantations there was no unionism, not even any talk of unionism. The AFL craft unions, with a combined membership of maybe 500 men, were barely stirring in their sleep. The public utilities were untouched by organization. Only on the waterfront a handful of men from the Sailors Union of the Pacific and the Marine Firemen were spreading unionism among the stevedores and Inter-Island boatmen.

Yet even Hawaii felt the effect of the tremendous wave of union enthusiasm which was sweeping America with the organization of the CIO. If Hawaii scarcely had a union movement, it had a union newspaper, The Voice of Labor. And soon, the organizers knew, their efforts would bear fruit. Food and Recreation at Kapiolani Park

Labor wasn't strong enough to stage a parade, but for the first time in a generation, union men and their families gathered for a Labor Day picnic. Two thousand persons gathered in Kapiolani Park, it was estimated—though knowing how newspaper estimates run, one is safe if he divides by three. Marshall McEuen of the Typographical Union and Corby Paxton of the SUP, editor of the Voice, took prominent parts in making the arrangements.

There were no speeches, and each union furnished its own food and refreshments. "One of the highlights of the program," reports the Star-Bulletin, "was a free-hitting baseball game in which the sailors defeated the longshoremen, 13 to 11." There were also races, boxing matches and Hawaiian entertainment.

That night the Chinese United Labor Association—a mutual benefit organization—also observed Labor Day. About 1,000 people filled the Association hall and lined the sidewalks at Smith and Pauahi streets to listen to the speeches, music and fireworks. Two orchestras gave forth Chinese music. Consul Yiffin Huang and Supervisors Sing and Asing delivered speeches. Doubtless more enjoyable than both music and speeches was the discharge of 30,000 rounds of firecrackers. A chicken noodles dinner was also served.

Churches Spoke Out Strongly for Civil Liberties

In the churches, too, Labor Day was for the first time the occasion of considerable attention to labor problems. Bishop Stephen P. Alencastre ordered the priests of his diocese to read and comment upon Pope Pius XI's great message, Quadragesimo Anno (Reconstruction of the Social Order). Nine Protestant pastors announced sermons on labor. At the Chinese Church of Christ, Marshall McEuen, president of the Hawaii Joint Labor Board, spoke on "Economic Laws Behind the Present Crisis."

Several Protestant churches distributed copies of the 1936 Labor Sunday Message of the Federal Council of Churches. Christian conscience, said the message, cannot "reconcile a world which provides, on the one hand, luxury and freedom for the few and a sordid, drab and pinched existence for the many."

The Christian church, continued the message, can have no part in such -movements as "the teachers' oath bills introduced in many legislatures and passed by some, the 'gag' bills introduced in Congress, the vicious assaults upon academic freedom and ultimately upon academic honesty, and the widespread denial of the right of labor to organize and bargain collectively which have been launched by sinister influences under the mask of patriotism."

That was what the Federal Council of Churches said 15 years ago. How "communistic" it sounds in these days of McCarthy, McCarran and McGrath!

By Frank Marshall Davis

What is Loyalty?

Since we are in a period which finds loyalty probes and oaths in every direction, you will please pardon me if I ask a simple question of the powers that be. That question is this: Just what is loyalty? Of course I know that in a general way, loyalty is supposed to mean support of America and its institutions. But when you get down to concrete thinking, just what does this mean? To be loyal, must you give support to each and every institution? Is everything sacred? If not, what can you attack without being labelled disloyal?

Disagreement Found Even In High Places

I have looked a long time for a satisfactory answer and to date have found none. Nobody in authority has as yet spelled out what must be unquestioningly supported, and what (if any) may be safely attacked.

There is disagreement even in high places, on the question of loyalty. Discrimination, segregation and racism are American institutions, as one-time Chairman John Rankin of the un-American committee publicly pointed out And yet the President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, has spoken for the overthrow of these institutions by suggesting passage of civil rights legislation. To the powerful white supremacists, this is unquestioned disloyalty. And it is a fact that Negroes and Jews have been kicked out of Federal jobs on charges of disloyalty because they actually fought for the program that Truman has verbally supported.

Similar examples may be cited in the concrete areas of labor union activity, free speech, public housing, etc. One person may be considered disloyal for endorsing a program outlined by other persons who are not considered disloyal; or disloyalty may be pinned upon an individual for exercising the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

What Are Dangerous and Safe Ideas?

As of now, loyalty is a kind of erratic ghost which changes shape and locale whenever it wishes. Yet we are supposed to be able to recognize it and say to our fellow-Americans: "Loyalty is a tall, broad-shouldered man with iron-gray hair and a mole on his right cheek about one inch above his black moustache. He lives in that green house at the corner of Cottage and Straight Streets."

In an article some tune ago in the Saturday Review of Literature, Henry Steele Commager of Columbia University, professor of history and noted author, had this to say:

"If you are going to silence or punish men for disloyalty, you must first determine what is loyalty. If you are going to apply Mr. J. Edgar Hoover's 'easy test' of a subversive organization: 'does it have a consistent record of support of the American viewpoint?' you must determine officially what is the American viewpoint.

"If you are going to dismiss men for membership in subversive organizations, you must establish what are non-subversive activities and organizations. If you are going to discourage or silence dangerous ideas, you must establish what are safe ideas."

Who Will Decide?

And thus we come to the core of the problem: Who is going to spell out concretely and precisely which are the safe ideas that may be openly expressed by the American public? Who is going to decide what ideas are disloyal and dangerous and list them as thoughts which must not be expressed by Americans?

Let us say that the White House decides to lei the nation know exactly what is loyalty and disloyalty. A special commission is then appointed. It has the job of sifting and cataloging all ideas. But that will take years, maybe generations, for mankind has held many ideas since his appearance upon this globe. Meanwhile, to be on the safe side, people would be forced to go along with no thinking at all, thus turning us into a nation of puppets. But maybe that's the idea, after all.

During this period, what happens to science, literature and the original thinking that makes for human progress? To be on the safe side, all the scholars would have to be liquidated. Imbecility would be the only guarantee of safe and unmolested living.

"Every Thinker Puts . . . Stable World In Peril"

For the bald truth is that thought control perils conservatives and reactionaries along with radicals. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said: "Every idea is an incitement," and the noted philosopher, John Dewey, has written:

"Let us all admit the case of the conservative; if we once start thinking, no one can guarantee where we shall come out, except that many objects, ends and institutions are surely doomed. Every thinker puts some portion of an apparently stable world in peril, and no one can predict what will emerge, in its place." The ultra-conservatives have all but wrecked the free enterprise system, cornerstone of capitalism, by monopolies, trusts and cartels. Hitler's thinking led to World War II and the death of an estimated 40,000,000 human beings. The Nazi bid for world control was the result of thinking by the extreme right.

Nation Heads for Disaster When . . .

Turning directly to economics, what ideas are loyal and which disloyal to capitalism? Is it disloyal to oppose the gigantic octopus corporations who control meat packing, etc., and demand that their tentacles be severed? If this is disloyal then where does that place the government, which has anti-trust laws and a special antitrust division of the Department of Justice?

This nation has a lot of questions to answer before we can determine what loyalty is. Meanwhile, in place of exact definities, there is a general official attempt to shut off all criticism and dissent. To be on the safe side, nobody should praise or criticize anything not praised or criticized by the "safe" leaders in Washington. The result would be inertia and apathy where energy and independence once flourished.

I must agree with Professor Commager when he says:

"A nation which, in the name of loyalty or of patriotism or of any sincere and high-sounding ideal, discourages criticism and dissent, and puts a premium on acquiescence and conformity, is headed for disaster."