Calif. Farmer Holds Hawaii Filipinos in Near Peonage [print]

Filipino workers brought to California to work on corporation farms are held in virtual peonage with a threat of deportation if they don't buckle down to satisfy their bosses.

The California Farmer, mouthpiece of the big farmers of the state, brought out this fact bluntly in its editorial, "These Filipino Workers Are Not So Hot," in the Sept. 8 issue.

Deportation Used As Threat "It tells more about what Hawaiian workers can expect on California corporation farms than anything I could say," said William Reich field representative of the California Farm Research and Legislative Committee, in referring to the editorial.

The editorial says that a California farmer who recruited 22 Filipinos here is "not afraid they will desert, because if they do the Immigration Service will gather them up and deport them to the Philippines, rather than Hawaii. They do not want to go back to their native land."

L. R. Hamilton, California grape producer and packer, recruited laborers here in June of this year. He worked through the Territorial department of labor and industrial relations.

E.B. Peterson, director of the department, said that the laborers were informed that desertion would result in deportation.

Six of the 22 Filipinos have been returned to Hawaii. The employer sent them back, therefore, they were not deserters. The contract was for one year and the Filipinos were to return here for the duration. If they refuse to return to Hawaii, the Immigration Service would deport them to the Philippines.

The California farmer is reported to have said he would not repeat the experiment.

The editorial in the California Farmer said:

"The Filipinos have good health and are quite capable of being good workers, but apparently they have been indoctrinated to take it easy. He plans to send six of them back to Honolulu at once, thinking this may cause the others to buckle down. The employer will have to pay the cost of returning the six to Honolulu. For those who stay and fulfill their contract, he is permitted to withhold sufficient wages to pay for their return trip, which in the case of a boat trip, costs about $94 apiece." When Hamilton recruited Filipinos in Hawaii in June, the Star-Bulletin (June 30) reported that "he (Hamilton) is liable for their transportation back to Hawaii." The Star-Bulletin also said that "the men will be paid 90 cents an hour, furnished living quarters free and food at coat." The California Farmer editorialized that Hamilton "contracted to give them employment for a year on his diversified ranch, to pay them the going wages which are more than double the pay rates of Hawaii, and to house them in facilities which comply with state laws, and to carry compensation insurance on them."

The "going wage" is 60 to 85 cents an hour and from this is deducted housing, transportation and other costs, according to Mr. Reich. Housing, even when it complies with state laws, is merely a hovel. ,

The California corporation farmers blame the "failure" of the experiment with Filipino laborers to "Harry Bridges' labor leaders" on the sugar plantations.

Editorially, the California Farmer said: "Many months ago, some 200 Filipinos were brought into the Salinas Valley from Hawaii. The screening was done by Federal men and the experiment was counted as a failure, because they had been indoctrinated by Harry Bridges' labor leaders, and they did not prove to be satisfactory."

Contract Misrepresented The complaint was that the laborers did not produce as much as Mexican and white farm laborers. The 200 Filipinos were recruited by a Filipino agent who misrepresented the contract, resulting in the government stepping in to help the laborers negotiate a new contract after they arrived in California and discovered the misrepresentation.

The recruiting took place here when the rate of unemployment was high. The recent recruiting of the 22 laborers was hailed by the governor's full employment committee as a new chapter in the labor field. Frank E. Midkiff, Honolulu Chamber of Commerce official, reported on his return from a Mainland trip in March that he stopped on the West Coast to discuss hiring of "excess labor" here. He said that the form of labor contract is being studied by the Territorial labor department and added: "The terms should be very favorable to those who undertake employment under these contracts."

The report on the treatment of Filipinos in California comes out at the time when President H. L. Mitchell of the National Farm Labor Union (AFL) charged that 500,000 Mexican workers who were induced to enter the U. S. illegally are being held in virtual slavery by employers in the states.

Controlling interest of 56 per cent of the stock in Hawaiian Tuna Packers, Ltd., was purchased Wednesday by Castle & Cooke, Ltd. Formerly Castle & Cooke had held 41 per cent of the stock of the fish canning firm since a purchase in 1948.

It may sound paradoxical when I say that I am consciously participating in the struggle of our generation to wipe away a great part of the conditions that have shaped my thinking.

The path I travelled, not of my own choosing, was full of inequities. The poverty of coffee farm tenancy in Kona, or the depression that affected our lives, raised many probing questions in my mind, just as it must have in the minds of others.

At first the questions were simple and, very personal: Why must we suffer? Why can't everyone live like the bosses?

Then the questions took a more meaningful form: Must we have recurrent depressions? And why? Were there always depressions? Why can't there be permanent prosperity? Is this possible?

In like manner, when I began to work for wages, I asked myself: Why does my employer pay so little? Should I ask for more? Would it be fair to do so?

As I grew to be a worker, I raised such questions as these on many occasions: Why must we work for almost nothing? How can we get equitable wages? Will I be fired if I ask for more? Will others join me in making the demand?

These were natural reactions to the conditions in society as I found them. There came a time when I began to look for the correction of inequities. I can see nothing wrong in this.

For my thoughts I am now indicted on the charge of teaching and advocating the overthrow of the government by force and violence. My recent arrest and indictment came as a great surprise to me.

My contention has always been, through the study of history, that only a terribly weak, corrupt, oppressive and incompetent government, lacking the confidence of popular support for its programs, fears active minds, ideas, and the questions raised by the populace.

We Are a Sick Nation Today, Plagued by Fear

If a government is doing what is right and just to humanity, there is no reason to frighten people into silence, thus stopping the free flow of ideas.

We are a sick nation today, with a stagnation of the minds. In this land of democratic traditions, people are afraid to talk, as the Bill of Rights and the Constitution are shoved aside by the Taft-Hartley Law, the McCarran "subversive" control law and the Smith Act.

Those who continue to speak out are arrested and placed behind bars. But ideas cannot be locked away in such a simple manner, for the very conditions in our society give birth to them in the minds of men.

My thinking became molded over a period of years, and a greater part of this took place here in Hawaii. I was no intellectual, but a working stiff, moving in the strata of the working class that occasionally knew hunger and deprivation. I acquired a deep feeling for people, regardless of color, and particularly for the downtrodden, as I learned as time went on, that my salvation rested, not in dog-eat-dog competition, but in a common struggle to better our lot.

People Are All Alike;

No One Is Better Than the Other

Fortunately, I was not poisoned by prejudice and discrimination in my formative years.

Very early in life I learned that people are all alike. I had an awe for the white man, but mother dispelled this from me. Even in the matter of gods she had a ready answer.

During the spring months in Kona, Sunday was a holiday for us. I began going to Sunday school and brought home cards with pictures of Jesus, Moses and Mary.

One day I asked mother: "Is Jesus Christ our Lord?"

"No; did you learn that at Sunday school?" she asked in half-surprise.

"Yes."

Mother explained to me that Jesus Christ is a white man's God. That our God was Amaterasu-Omikami, the Sun Goddess who descended on Japan and started the Imperial dynasty and the Japanese people.

"Christ is a white man. Look at his skin and hair," she said, pointing to the pictures.

"Can I still go to Sunday school?" I asked.

"Surely you may," she answered with a tolerance and understanding I came to know so well. "It keeps you out of mischief."

Kim-san Shows His Protest Against Japanese Colonialism

Because mother had a deep feeling for others, we never had difficulty with labor shortage during the coffee harvesting season. Espe Esperidion, a young Filipino, who lived with his immigrant mother three miles from our home, commuted to our farm or lived with us. Yu Ten, a Korean immigrant, lived with us for many years.

All our laborers stayed on until the harvesting had been completed. But one evening in the midst of the peak season, I saw Kim, our Korean laborer, rolling his quilt and straw mat into a neat bundle. I ran to tell mother, whose face immediately took on a disturbed expression. She rushed to father and both of them hurried to Kim.

"What happened, Kim-san?" mother asked.

Kim looked father square in the face with fire in his eyes and said: "Papa-san, you said the Koreans are no good." He accused father of saying that the Koreans were getting worse and worse each day and something must be done with them.

Father denied saying that. Kim charged he had heard that awhile ago by the pulping machine. He strongly resented being looked down upon, as he said, because Korea was ruled by Japan.

"Youngsters Don't Tell Lies"

Mother tried to calm Kim but to no avail. All this time father stood there in deep thought. Then his eyes lighted up and I recall him saying something like this: "I know now. Kim-san, you heard wrong. I was yelling at Koichi through the noise that the galvanized iron covering of the pulper was broken and getting worse every day. It nicks the coffee in hulling the pulp."

Since we were not tenants of the Hinds' Captain Cook Coffee Co., Ltd., we were allowed to pulp our own coffee.

Kim was unconvinced. "Let's ask your boy Koichi. Youngsters don't tell lies."

And the two went to Koichi and Kim shouted questions at him. Father went to shut off the gasoline engine which turned the pulper, so that all could hear better.

Koichi took Kim to the defective pulper and showed him the damaged coffee beans.

The Oppressed Are Never Free and Happy

Kim looked at father apologetically and said: "Papa-san, I was wrong." As he said this, the tenseness in the charged atmosphere disappeared. Kim had a warmth in his eyes for us that I had never seen before.

"Never mind. Forget everything. Come, let's drink a cup of rice wine," father said.

I sat nearby and listened to their conversation for a long time as the two talked seriously. They argued some, about Korea, but there were smiles and laughter, too. Mother clipped small bottles of rice wine in the singing kettle over the kitchen fire and the two talked on and on.

Supper was delayed two hours that night, and after we had finished eating, Kim went with father and Koichi to finish the pulping by the light of kerosene lanterns.

That night I asked mother why Kim had misunderstood father. Mother explained to me that there are many Koreans like Kim, who believe Japan conquered Korea. They are bitter against all Japanese and want independence. But Japan has not conquered Korea; Japan protects Korea, she said.

From a box she took out a book and showed me pictures of the Japanese nobility. Then pointing to a couple she said: "This is a Japanese princess married to a Korean prince. Japan and Korea are like one nation. If Japan does not look after Korea, the white man will gulp her up."

Years later I found that Japan was a subjugator of Korea and I became actively interested in their independence struggle. As she closed the book that night, mother said that Yu Ten and Kim are like members of our family.

"You must never forget that we are no better than any other people," she said.

Filipinos Evicted In 1924 Strike Come To Kona

This conception was drilled into me time and time again. When I asked her about the eta, Japanese outcasts, whose social position in Japan stuck with them even in Kona and caused them to suffer ostracism, I was told that they were as good or better than we were. But no one with feeling could escape noticing that these families were discriminated against in the Japanese community. In time I felt keenly the injustice of it all, particularly because a son of an eta family was my bosom friend, and a star pitcher on our baseball team.

All these things made me think. In my own youthful way, I sometimes condemned the prejudices that brought untold and unnecessary sufferings—but only after I learned about the injustices. In retrospect, I recall that at numerous tunes I was contaminated by the poison of prejudice.

It all seems ridiculous today, but during the 1924 Filipino sugar strike, anti-Filipino propaganda was rampant in Kona. Evicted from the plantations, the strikers came to Kona by truckloads.

I learned of the term "Spanish fly" then, and the mere mention of it actually paralyzed some of the AJA girls. Most of the Filipinos were bachelors and it was rumored that they carried Spanish fly, a love potion, on their handkerchiefs. If a woman smelled its scent, she would become the carrier's love captive, it was said.

The Community Nearly Went Crazy

Young girls of junior and senior high school age walked on the opposite side of the road when they saw a Filipino approaching. They practically tip-toed, watching his hand to see if he pulled out his handkerchief, and ran as soon as they passed the Filipino.

When I went to Georgia to study later, I observed the same kind of attack against Negroes. There, a Negro man approaching a white woman on a sidewalk was expected to cross to the opposite sidewalk. This was only a step advanced from the insanity of the Spanish fly bugaboo.

It was just like my mother to ask Esperidion what Spanish fly was. She must have been concerned because of my elder sister. For a time the talk of Spanish fly and all the imagination that went along with it caused near-hysteria in our community.

The Japanese Laborers Were Bachelors, Too

Esperidion told mother that in his opinion, the Filipinos themselves did not know what Spanish fly was. Mother asked him to engage a few Filipinos to work for us. They all boarded with us and later, about six of them lived with us. We felt bad, because Filipinos were subjected to such treatment and mother tried to make them feel that our home was theirs.

Mother used to tell us that long ago the Japanese laborers were mostly bachelors, too, since the sugar planters brought over single men. Men fought over the few women, and stole wives, she said. There was no difference between Filipino and Japanese. But such Incidents were possible in unnatural conditions among men who were forced by conditions of poverty at home in the Orient to sell their bodies for labor on Hawaii's sugar plantations.

All these experiences have influenced me to participate in the fight for equality for all people, as written in the Constitution of our nation. That is why I am opposed to discrimination against Negroes, of the "lily-white" residential areas like Kahala, of unequal opportunities and double standards of pay for white and non-white, and naturalization restrictions for Orientals.

The government which has indicted me for thinking, has actually kicked civil rights in the teeth. But we recall that Truman campaigned vigorously on the civil rights issue in 1948. Truman spoke of peace and prosperity to win the votes of the American people, but today our whole economy is dependent on war production. Faced by depression, the administration resorted to rearmament two years ago. It is an unpopular program, necessitating the silencing of criticism.

In times like these, it is dangerous to speak out. But to be silenced means to go back on all one's teachings from childhood. It means going against the dictates of one's own conscience.  

[Koji Ariyoshi]

Even to this day I am deeply stirred whenever I reminisce about my formative years in Kona, for despite all its natural beauties, my birthplace, which holds an attraction for tourists, had its harsh and brutal side for the toiling farmers who worked from sunup to sundown, day after day, many of them going deeper and deeper in debt year after year to the coffee factors.

There seemed to be more bad years than good, for once a farmer was set back because of storm or drought that ruined his crop, or because of low coffee prices, the coffee company mercilessly sold groceries and fertilizer on credit at frightening prices and bought the coffee cheap at prices they set. I saw neighbors leave Kona, crushed by the burden of debts. I heard complaints from farmers who had almost no way of redressing their grievances.

Their land was owned by landlords, who in some cases, like the Hinds, also had a coffee mill and store. Because they leased the land which the landlords would not sell and because most farmers fell into debt at one time or another, they were afraid to organize and take their complaints to the coffee companies. The Hinds, for instance, did not then nor do they, even today, permit farmers to pulp their coffee berries at home. This processing would mean extra income for tenant farmers, but the Hinds have the Captain Cook Coffee Company, which does the pulping.

As a child, I listened closely to all that was said, for a high coffee price meant better food and firecrackers at New Year, new clothes instead of window-patched one. I began to work early in life and I imagine that mother taught me, as other children were trained, to pick up the overripe coffee that had fallen on the ground, when I was two years old.

We watched the horizon in the spring for signs of a storm or ocean fog, for it was then that the honey bees sucked and pollinated the fragrant, snow-white coffee blossoms. Storm and fog killed the flowers and if such a calamity came, we worked the whole year round with heavy hearts.

Where the Money Came From

For Schoolbooks and Church Offerings

It meant then that we had to "bootleg" the coffee we produced on the mortgaged farm, under cover of darkness. As soon as I became strong enough to carry 50 pounds of coffee, I participated in these midnight activities when mother shook us up. Barefooted, so as not to make alarming noises, we carried bags of coffee away from our farm to a party who bought (them or sold them for us. Thus, we got money for schoolbooks, for occasional meat and for offerings at the church to the priest and to Buddha.

But there were years when we had bumper crops and knew, too, that our lives would be no better after all the hard work in the sun and the rain. I remember when father told us about the extensive territory that was Brazil, where more coffee was produced than the people of the world could buy, and year after year the farmers there were forced to deliberately burn their crop.

We naturally asked many questions. Why can't the people buy coffee? Why do they keep producing so much if the crop must be destroyed? Why can't the Brazilians think of us? What was depression? Why must it come back periodically? Can't someone do anything to bring happiness to people?

The questions, of course, were not put in those terms, but put forth they were with such content for father to answer.

Mother Was My Best Teacher

It was in this environment that I began to grow in mind and body some 37 years ago and my early development there charted the road I would tread in society.

Now that I am indicted by the Justice Department for allegedly teaching and advocating the overthrow of the government by force and violence, I naturally look inward and backward over the span of years to Kona. I do not do this with any doubt or misgivings in my mind that I should have taken other courses. I am proud of what I am. The charges against me and others under the vicious Smith Act, the modern version of the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts which long ago brought widespread fear, then revulsion to the people, are tissues of lies to whip up fear and bring conformity to the war program in this day and age. I now review my life in Kona principally to look at conditions, events and people that molded my early thinking.

Kona was a great school and mother was my best teacher. When I was about five, father became ill with a weak heart. For mother, a woman of small frame weighing about 85 pounds, the task and responsibility of looking after our eight-acre coffee farm was exceedingly heavy. Her hands were calloused and cracked and deeply stained by the green grass which we tried to keep down by hoeing and poisoning.

Every night about 10 or 11, like a ritual, I went to her as she sprawled out on the thin quilt spread on the floor after the hot bath. I massaged her tired and exhausted body from half an hour to an hour and a half, while asking her questions born of deep curiosity and a passionate desire to learn from her, and) left her when I heard her sinking into slumber, breathing like a relaxed child, tired out after a hard day.

What Contract Servitude Was Like

Mother told me about her sugar plantation life. Father was indentured to serve three years for a sum slightly over $10 a month and mother worked for $7.50. Men, young and strong, could not take the daily ordeal and many drank soy sauce to work up a fever in order to stay home. Unfortunately, there were informers, she said, arid the lunas (straw bosses and overseers), once put wise to this machination, dragged out the exhausted and sick workers and chased them into the fields, cracking their whips from atop their horses. Chinese who stayed home were dragged by their long queues as the lunas galloped their horses while hauling the men to work.

In the early morning as the laborers went into the fields, the lunas cracked their whips over the heads of the indentured serfs, which mother used to describe as "just like Arthur Greenwell and his cowboys cracking their whips while driving their cattle."

The Greenwells are big ranchers and landlords from whom numerous Kona farmers lease their land. Besides the Gaspers, who were Portuguese, Arthur Greenwell and his family members were the first white people I ever saw. In driving their cattle down to the beach from the mountain pastures, the cows crowded the narrow highway and dashed into coffee farms if the stone fence was down or the gates were open. If this happened, Arthur Greenwell told us in his booming voice exactly what he thought of us. So, whenever we were working on our farm and we heard the cracking of the whips and the yelling of cowboys, we rushed to the highway to fasten our gates.

Father Brought Me My Proudest Moments

If father was there he would stand and stare back in disdain and answer in Japanese what the Greenwells said in English.

Several times I heard father say something like this: "They came with the Bible some of these landlords, taught the Hawaiians to sing psalms and took their land away. That is no way to use religion. Their God knows."

I idolized my father because he was a fighter. After he became ill, he devoted all his time to helping people iron out their problems, domestic and otherwise. He was a man of considerable influence and prestige in Kona, as oldtimers know.

Perhaps the proudest moments of my life came when I saw father stand on the rostrum in our Japanese school and in his down-to-earth Japanese, urge all students not to be afraid or discouraged but to keep attending school. This was shortly after World War I, when, as now, attacks against civil rights and privileges of non-whites, Germans and political minorities knew almost no bounds.

Makino Leads Fight for Freedom of Education

The Japanese language school was being outlawed. The Hawaii Hochi, under the militant editorship of Fred Makino, fought the case to the U. S. Supreme Court and won.

You have nothing to fear, father told us students. Tell your parents to keep sending you to the Japanese school. Men like Makino, Shibayama and Morita are leading the fight and the Japanese residents will win the right to free education, he said.

Higher Wage Demand Was "Conspiracy"

One year, we had a new principal at the Japanese school. Some of the older students whispered that he had only recently served time in prison. I asked mother if this were true.

It was then that she told me about strikes on the sugar plantations, for higher wages and better treatment. This principal of ours was a great man, she said. He did not go to jail with others because he did wrong. He went for others. He was a leader of the 1920 Japanese strike on sugar plantations. That was why the rich plantation owners used the government to put him behind bars. And she told me of Makino, a familiar name in our family, being jailed in an earlier strike (1909) because he had supported the Japanese strikers. Much later, I found out that Yasutaro Soga, editor of the Nippu Jiji, was among the many who were jailed.

We know of this 1909 strike case as a "higher wage conspiracy."

The employers charged that the organization of workers for higher wages was dangerous to the existence of capital and the government they controlled. The employes on the plantations in 1909 were getting about 65 cents a day.

"We are fortunate to have our new principal," mother said. "You must study hard."

Because we were poor, my brother and I stayed home to work during the coffee season. At that time, Kona's school system did not provide coffee vacation from September to November. To make up for time lost from school, we went to night school at the principal's home for our Japanese lessons and to Miss Kahaliano's home for our English lessons.

Kona Opened Vistas To Newer Horizons

Thus, I grew and moved toward broader and newer horizons. I came to social understanding not by way of books in those formative years, but by way of hard-knock experiences.

I am fortunate that I have a mother who forged me into a rebel who would strive to substitute good for bad and did not leave me to become an anti-social rebel who would commit crimes to eke out a living, or a spineless creature who would prostitute himself to vested interests or cringe before them.

Mother's influence on me was decidedly strong; I need only to tell a story to illustrate it.

Shortly after father's death, when I was about 10, my elder brother and I went to a game-cock fight. Mother was informed of our whereabouts and she sent for us. When I returned home, she was shaking like a leaf, crying as I had never seen her cry before. She must have thought that we had gone to the dogs so soon after father's death.

Mother asked us to kneel before father's tablet, before the shrine in our home. She asked us to promise that we would never gamble as long as we lived.

It is nearly thirty years since the incident and in all those years, this pastime has held no attraction for me at all. (To Be Continued)

Maui—"Question! Question!" That was the cry that rang in Charles Kendall's ears last Friday night as the executive secretary of the Hawaiian Government Employees' Association fled across the Wailuku baseball park at the conclusion of his second debate with Henry Epstein, regional director of the United Public Workers of America.

The cry was all the more pertinent because after a debate against Epstein earlier in the week at the Waikoa Community Center near Kula Sanatorium, Kendall had returned to Honolulu and refused to return ,for the Friday engagement unless he were assured that there would be no repetition of the period in which the audience was allowed to ask questions. At Waikoa, debating Tuesday night, Sept. 18, the time was divided, with 12 minutes given each speaker, a rebuttal being given each, and the remainder of the time allotted for answering such questions as the audience cared to ask. The question at Wailuku, as at Waikoa, was: "What Organization Should the Government Workers Join?"

In presenting his case, Mr. Kendall frankly declared the HGEA is a union and argued a general case for HGEA on a Territorial-wide basis.

Company Union?

Mr. Epstein, on the other hand, confined his arguments largely to the problems of Maui workers. He accused the HGEA of being a company union, with the powers of the organization resting in the hands of a few highly placed bu reaucrats who devote more energy to their own welfare than to that of the membership.

He further accused the HGEA of operating in violation of Federal law, since it includes among its officers men who also hold supervisory jobs with powers of hiring and firing. The policy of the UPWA was compared by its regional director to that of the ILWU, and Epstein said his union has consistently fought for higher wages and better conditions for its members.

After the Waikoa debate, Kendall is reported to have sent word to Maui that he would not return unless the audience was prevented from asking questions, and it was agreed that the Wailuku debate would be held on those terms. At the conclusion of the debate at the Wailuku ball park, however, a number of those in the audience began calling "Question! Question!" and it was at this point that Kendall hurriedly left the platform.

Tuners for the debate were Thomas Noda of the HGEA and August Markham of the UPWA. The Rev. Mineo Katagiri acted as moderator.

It was Fire Chief Harold A. Smith's request for a quick promotion for Capt. Christian Ellis which brought the phenomenon last week of Assistant Chief Edmond K. Meek being asked to take an examination for a> job he's been holding for three years, the RECORD learned this week.

When Chief Smith asked the civil service commission to appoint Ellis assistant chief "in the same way Meek was appointed," the commission asked how Meek was appointed and found it had been accorded little choice in that hiring—back in 1948.

At that time, the RECORD learned, there were four other names also on the eligible list: Captain Michael Manner, Timmy Blaisdell, William Blaisdell and Harold Pate.

But when two of these, Pate and William Blaisdell were appointed, the list became less than the prescribed minimum five for an eligible list, and no examinations were announced for the formation of a new list.

Two By-Passed

Instead, Manner and Timmy Blaisdell were passed over and, the RECORD is reliably informed, D. Ransom Sherretz, civil service personnel director, recommended the appointment of Meek.

Thus, without the commission's ever having- been consulted on the non-existence of an eligible list, or of the advisability of giving a new examination, Captain Meek became Assistant Chief Meek.

So Chief Smith's request for "the same way" in the appointment of Captain Ellis not only met with opposition from the commission. It stirred up a small hornet's nest.

By a part of civil service rule No. 16, Sherretz is authorized to make such an appointment if no eligible list exists. But by the same rule, he is also required to consult with the commission on whether or not an examination shall be given to form a new list.

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Marshall Plan Makes Rich Richer, Poor Poorer, Says CIO leader

New York (FP)—The Marshall Plan is making Europe's rich richer and the poor poorer, President Jacob S. Potofsky of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers (CIO) told a press conference here Sept. 17.

Potofsky, who heads the CIO's International Affairs and Latin American committees, has just returned from a four-month trip to Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Brazil, during which he met with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Getulio Vargas, labor leaders, diplomats and ECA officials. He served as a labor adviser at the International Labor Organization meeting in Geneva and also headed the CIO delegation to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions convention in Milan.

Although ECA aid is responsible for a sharp increase in Europe's industrial productivity, Potofsky said, benefits of Marshall Plan funds have not seeped down to the workers.

He attributed this to the fact that the U. S. puts control of the money into the hands of governments, which "use it to strengthen themselves politically by propping up industrialists. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. This accounts for the growing number of Communists in Prance and Italy, where we've poured millions of ECA money."

Potofsky said the U. S. should "lend money on condition that the workers share the benefits. European industry makes very high profits. The workers should share." Housing conditions are particularly bad in Italy and France, he reported, declaring more housing is needed urgently.

The labor leader was generally optimistic about the progress of U. S. objectives in Europe, but he warned of growing antagonism to U. S. plans for an alliance with Franco Spain.

"We are hurting the morale of the free nations," he said. "They can't understand why a democracy like ours should make combinations with autocracies like Franco Spain."

Potofsky said that when he pointed this out to Eisenhower, the general pointed to a map of Spain and said: "We need the base." The ACW leader, however, said the Spanish army "isn't worth anything as it stands now" and even if the U. S. pours in money to rebuild it, Spain will still be a fascist nation. He added that U. S. plans for a deal with Franco came at a time when the generalissimo's government is reported "tottering."

Discussing rearmament of Germany, Potofsky said: "I feel we will have cause to regret it. We are trading the goodwill we have built up—trading for bases or divisions which are either problematical or may give us trouble later on.

"The Labor movement of Germany is against rearmament, and for good reason. I have good reasons for supporting the labor movement rather than Mr. Adenauer. That army might be dominated by the Junkers and Hitlerites. Germany has not been denazified."

Potofsky expressed confidence that the ICFTU would be a force for peace and stressed the importance of having "the goodwill" of the people of Europe "in safeguarding peace and security."

ALTHOUGH more than a half-dozen representatives of New York daily newspapers and wire services covered the Potofsky press conference, only one newspaper, the Daily Compass, reported it.

Gen. Eisenhower

Marietta Ga. (FP)—The sprawling Lockheed Aircraft Corporation plant here is the scene of a $2 billion government giveaway program with all the loot going to industry.

Industrialists with defense contracts are being invited, 300 at a time, to go through the plant and pick out what they want among some 6,000 machine tools left over from World War. Their replacement value is estimated at about $2 billion.

The Manufacturers can have the equipment free, and furthermore, the government will ship the material to their plants without charge. Only stipulation is that the manufacturers have a defense contract.

Within one week, 900 industrialists, among them representatives of some English and Canadian firms, went through the plant and arranged for shipment of about 2,000 machine tools, including small lathes, grinders, drills, spot welding equipment and 300,000-pound hydraulic presses.

Handing Out the material, paid for by U. S. taxpayers, is the air materiel command of the U. S. Air Force. In some instances, the shopping industrialists are getting back for nothing material which they sold to the U. S. government at big profits during the last war.

"Expediting production" is the reason given by the Air Force for handing out the material to firms which are also having their patriotism stimulated by hundreds of millions of dollars in tax amortization gifts.

Among The Needy firms receiving the Air Force gifts are Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Corp., General Motors Corp., Studebaker Corp., Kaiser-Frazer Corp., Western Electric Co., Boeing Airplane Co., Consolidated Vultee Corp., Douglas Aircraft Corp., Rite-Point Co., a pencil-making company; Delco-Remy Corp., Carrier Corp., General Electric Co., Thompson Products, Continental Motors, A. O. Smith Co., Sunstrand Co., International Harvester, Reynolds Metals Co., Briggs Mfg. Co., and others.

When all the machine tools here are given away, the Air Force will start another smaller scale giveaway program at the former Glenn L. Martin plant at Omaha. The John Tumpane Co. of Marietta and Omaha, has the Air Force contract to clean and transport the tools, which are being shipped out of here by train twice a day.

Operation Killer and Discrimination Go Hand in Hand

President Harry S. Truman has repeatedly said that our troops are fighting in Korea to preserve freedom and democracy. News reports from Korea have said that the Koreans are anti-American— in fact, that all Asian people are. The flood of jellied gasoline from the air and bombings that flatten the smallest villages make the Koreans wonder what type of freedom comes with such destruction of life and property.

William Patterson, chairman of the Civil Rights Congress, recently condemned the lynching of Negroes in the South, the rape of a Negro GI's wife by six white GIs during the North Carolina Air Force-Army maneuvers recently, and the frameup of a Negro sergeant on murder charges in Los Angeles.

Part of "Operation Killer" When a white woman yells rape in the South, and this is done to "keep Negroes in their place," innocent Negroes are apprehended and lynched by white mobs But in North Carolina, all the sheriffs and the army have been unable to find the six white GIs who, a sheriff admitted, raped the Negro woman.

Patterson said that this psychology of white supremacy and cruel and bestial treatment of non-whites is part and parcel of the frame of mind of "Operation Killer" or "Meat Grinder."

In Korea, more women and children than men, churches, schools and hospitals have been
wiped out by U. S. air operations.

Morals At Low Ebb

In this country, morals have sunk to an all-time low. Graft and corruption in high places of government on the one hand, and the persecution, jailing and lynching of minorities and non-conformists are commonplace occurrences.

But there are still voices of dissent, which will get louder.

The Hawaii Catholic Herald of Aug. 17, had an item headlined "Discrimination Called Immoral, Sinful, By Author." The article dealt with a pamphlet written by the Rev. John P. Markoe, S. J., of Creighton University, which said in part:

"The most glaring breakdown in the working of democracy at home is found in the unjust and uncharitable discrimination practiced against the American Negro. Until this defect in the operation of our democratic machinery is remedied, it is idle to speak of selling democracy abroad. We must first practice ourselves what we preach to others."

Here is the opinion of a Nisei leader, reported by the Federated Press, Sept. 7:

Detroit—Legislation in America that discriminates against Japanese Americans is a black eye for the Voice of America and other American propaganda beamed for foreign consumption, according to speakers at the Midwest convention of the Japanese American Citizens League, concluded here Sept. 2.

The discrimination is bad also when directed against other Asians, because, said Chairman Peter Fujioka, "American propaganda war with the Communists seeks the support of the Asian peoples."

Dewey's Big Lie

When Gov. Thomas E. Dewey of New, York visited Singapore during his Far East junket, he pooh-poohed the Cicero, Ill., riot.

This made front page in the Asian countries, as did the Cicero anti-Negro mob violence.

An Associated Press correspondent from Singapore wrote that Dewey was surprised that the incident of 6,000 whites, rioting to keep a Negro veteran and his family out of an apartment in an all-white community, made big news. He "told the peoples of the Far East to forget this riot and try to understand the social and economic conditions in the United States."

Dewey's quoted speech said: "I am shocked to find that an incident of racial prejudice involving a few hundred people out of a nation of 150 million people, is front page news in Singapore and elsewhere, and is considered worthy of a four-column photograph on the front page . . .

"What is wholly ignored is that the incident shocked the public conscience and was abhorrent to all our people, and was both vigorously suppressed and prosecuted by public authorities. This is the true reflection of the American point of view which I find entirely omitted (from, the Asian press). "A major point in the Communist propaganda has been the distortion of life in the United States and the claim that a rare incident of ruffianism represents anything basic in our country ...

"In the United States, every race, every color and every religion have mingled in the creation of a peaceful, happy life based on freedom, equality and justice for all ..."

Freedom-Loving Are Indicted News reports from Chicago last week said that a grand jury indicted five who aided the Negro veteran, Harvey Clark and his family, against the racist mob at Cicero. Indicted are the lawyer for the National Association for the, Advancement of Colored People; three owners of the building who rented the apartment to the Clarks, and a person who was arrested for allegedly distributing a Communist Party leaflet in Cicero three weeks after the rioting.

The charge is conspiracy "inciting to riot."

Not one of the 6,000 racist mobsters was indicted.—K. A.

Chairman Herbert Kum of the C-C civil service commission, will participate in a panel discussion on "The Role of the Civil Service Commissioner" at the Civil Service Assembly of the U. S. and Canada, to be held in Detroit Oct. 7-11. Accompanying Mr. Kum to the assembly will be Mark Murakami, most recently appointed member of the commission here. In a release announcing the proposed trip of the two commissioners, the commission further expressed regret that D. Ransom Sherretz, personnel director, will not be able to attend. The commission cited its shortage of technical staff as the reason for keeping Mr. Sherretz here.

Answering criticism of the move by a dairy newspaper, Chairman Kum told the RECORD the criticism is based upon incorrect conclusions. The daily had reported that the finance committee had assumed that Sherretz and Murakami would make the trip. Kum says such an assumption was not fixedly predetermined. Mayor Wilson said: "The City and. County of Honolulu should be proud that the Civil Service Assembly has seen fit to invite the chairman of our commission to participate in this important discussion. It is another indication that Honolulu is finally taking a place of leadership among American cities in the field of public administration."

Biggest single corporation in the U. S. is Standard Oil of New Jersey, with total assets of $3,526,043,000 and 322 subsidiary and affiliated concerns here and abroad. Second largest corporation in the U. S. is General Motors, with assets of $2 957,770.000.

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Cicero Grand Jury Has Same Frame of Mind As Rioters; Indicts 5, Condones Mob Rule

Chicago (FP) — Widespread protests from labor and other groups are shaping up into organized action against the Cook County grand jury's indictment of five persons acting in behalf of Negro bus driver Harvey E. Clark, Jr., and his family, who faced a mob of thousands when he tried to move into an apartment in the all-white suburb of Cicero.

Not one member of the mob was indicted.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, whose Chicago representative, George Leighton, was among the three Negroes indicted, announced that it would hold & giant protest rally.

A number of labor and civic groups sent sound trucks through the city Sept. 20, beginning a "continuing series of demonstrations." "Morally Outrageous"

CIO Regional Director Michael Mann demanded Federal intervention, charging that the grand jury action was "legally fantastic and morally outrageous,"

The Chicago - Council Against Racial and Religious Discrimination called on its 100 affiliates to petition President Truman and Attorney General J. Howard McGrath for a special Federal grand jury investigation. Director Harold Nielsen, of District 1, United Packinghouse Workers (CIO) said: "The action of the grand jury is an open invitation to future violence directed against Negroes and other minority groups ... It is also significant to us in the UPWA that the foreman of the grand jury, Earl W. Seaberg, is also general foreman of Swift & Co. For the past year, the union has been fighting recently instituted hiring practices in this company which discriminate, particularly against Negro women."

Open Invitation To Rioters The Chicago Council for Labor Unity, a coordinating body for six unions, said: In this fantastic, un-American decision, the grand jury has completely overturned justice and punished those opposed to mob violence, while permitting the real conspirators such as John Beauharnais, head of the racist, hate-mongering White Circle League, and his followers, to go scot-free."

A leading editorial in the Sun-Times charged that "the grand jury suffered from the same frame of mind that possessed the rioters." It added: "In displaying that attitude and in failing to act against any of the rioters, the grand jury threw another rock into the Clark flat. It condoned mob rule and issued an open invitation to any would-be rioters in Cook County to emulate the Cicero tactics if and when their community faces a similar situation."

Dissatisfaction among applicants for the position of pilot on the new fire boat had reportedly impelled Mayor Wilson to call Fire Chief Harold A. Smith in to ask him the reason for delay.

Inside talk has it that there are several reasons—not all of them attributable to Chief Smith. The commission, itself, has been in no hurry, and the changing of qualifications has been a factor in the delay. Although qualifications for the job originally called for an oceangoing pilot with a license authorizing him to handle unlimited tonnage, the present standards are set somewhat lower. A license for only 200 tons is now required, with the appointee to be certified as familiar with Honolulu harbor.

Four Said Qualified But four men are said to meet those qualifications, and even higher ones, all four being applicants. The four are: David van Geison, Joseph Bruns, Abraham Punaia and Moses Wahineokai.

All four are said to hold licenses for more than 200 tons and all are said to have ocean-going licenses as well.

"Maybe it's something we need that we don't have," said one, "but it's nothing to do with the job. It's something else."

There is a feeling among the four that their quest for the job is not aided by the fact that they are Hawaiians.

"When I was a kid," said one, "they used to tell Hawaiians they didn't know enough for pilots' jobs; Now they're telling us we know too much." In the early days, he said, it was the practice of shipping companies not to allow Hawaiians to pilot snips unless a haole were standing by.

"I certainly hope they're not going to do that with the fire boat." Presently, it is reported, Chief Smith is considering hiring a single provisional pilot to put the boat in operation until three pilots can be examined and hired for round-the-clock service which will eventually be expected of the boat.

Lower him in, 'tis but a convict; Fill the grave and let us go; Leave him on the fog-swept hillside Midst the winds that softly blow.

He was hanged today for murder; Life for life, so said the Lord. Murder punished by a murder, He was strangled with a cord.

Full of life they kept him safely, Used him kindly all this time; And this sunny Friday morning He was punished for his crime.

Wednesday, Thursday in the death-house, Watched by guards both night and day, That he may not cheat the gallows, For the law is jealous of its prey.

Oh! the anguished waking moments; Oh! the nightmare-haunted sleep, And the pad, pad of the death-watch Who their tireless vigil keep.

Oh! the poignant thoughts of childhood; Oh! the dreams of times at play; Thoughts of carefree, boyish pleasures, Life so happy day by day.

How the time must hasten onward; One thinks fast when death is nigh. God! how time flies as midnight neareth, And tomorrow he must die!

Die as not befits a human, Bravely facing death's grim shade, But with arms securely pinioned, Killed with rope, by human aid.

From the chamber of the death-house to the scaffold

Is but a scant half-minute's walk; Thirteen steps to mount the scaffold And a little while to talk.

Then the hangman's noose is fitted; Seven knots to that rope of shame, And the black cap is adjusted— Headgear of unenvied fame.

When a man is hanged his features lose Their Godlike attribute, And the poor, distorted body Shows its likeness to the brute.

Head askew, the neck is broken, The eyes are bloodshot and protrude, And the tongue, so black and swollen, All speak a worthless interlude.

So we see the loathsome black cap Covers a multitude of ills; Still it seems as though the hangman Is ashamed of those he kills.

So as not to fix the blood-guilt

Each of three men cut a string;

"Thou shalt not kill!" This stern injunction

Dimly in their ears must ring.

Judas sold the Christ, his Master, Then hanged himself in abject shame; He who takes the hangman's wages Should, like Judas, do the same!

Let us emphasize this lesson, But ignore the dreaded pangs That some woman always suffers Every time a victim hangs.

If the object of a hanging

Is to teach a lesson stern,

Why not have our hangings public,

So the whole wide world might learn?

Bring our mothers and our sisters; Also let the children see How a so-called Christian nation Shames the man of Galilee!

—ANONYMOUS

Bonn (ALN)—Charges of Nazi influence in the government have become so strong that Chancellor Konrad Adenauer has been forced to order an investigation, which it is expected, will be merely a token probe designed to quiet criticism.

Adenauer acted after the Frankfort Rundschau, one of West Germany's biggest dailies, charged that members of his foreign office had once been active Nazis. In a series of articles it named a number of West German diplomats, including ambassadors, as having been highup members of the Nazi party and as having held major posts in the Nazi foreign service.

Answering the criticism earlier, the Bonn Foreign Office said it had "never been denied" that former Nazis were in its employ and described, the series as an "attempt to disturb the especially difficult personnel policy of the Foreign Office" and as "incorrect."

Party Announcement

Friends of the RECORD are invited to support the paper by attending a party at the Marine Cooks & Stewards Hall, 108 N. King St. (near Maunakea St.) Saturday, October 6.

Dancing, entertainment and refreshments will be available to guests from 8 to 12 p.m.

A donation of $1 is expected.

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By Eddie Ujimori

The name of the appointee to fill the vacancy on the Maui draft board has already been sent to Washington, this writer has learned. Chairman C. Brooks of the draft board is reported to have given assurances that the name is that of an AJA.

* *

Supervisor John Bulgo told Chairman Eddie Tam in no uncertain terms last week that more than the opinions of businessmen is needed to make a measure desirable for the community. Tam said the matter of a traffic light at the corner of Main and Market Sts. would have to wait until he could get the opinions of businessmen affected.

"Are you going to let a handful of businessmen tell you what to do?" asked Bulgo, and pointed out that the overhead traffic light in operation at Kahalui was strongly protested by businessmen in the beginning, but that now, that dissatisfaction is forgotten.

Police Chief Andrew Freitas favors a traffic light at the proposed spot, he said, because the National Dollar Store on that corner will be completed soon and there will be considerably higher pedestrian traffic there.

* *

The sole owner of the night club Lani Wai is now Rep. Clarence Seong. When it was first opened for business earlier this year, Rep. Kaneo Kishimoto and David Trask, Jr., were the other partners. Reliable sources say that Kishimoto put up $1,000 and David Trask Jr., not a cent. Estimated cost of the club was about $40,000.

* *

Rep. Dee Duponte was talking to a friend in her car parked in front of the Iao Theater when Officer Prank Molina came by to tell her politely that she couldn't park her car there. Prior to this, other police officers had passed by without saying a word. Rep. Duponte told Officer Molina: "You're right," and instantly moved her automobile.

* *

ILWU education Director David E. Thompson conducted a seminar on contract explanation for all unit officers, camp chairmen and shop stewards on Sept. 16 at the union's division office in Wailuku. The seminar lasted from 9 a. m. to 4:15 p. m,, with a Break for lunch.

* *

The Maui Democrats, in preparing for the 1952 elections, held a meeting this week. County committee members came from all districts, including Hana, and a member came from Molokai.

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By Staff Writer

After two months liberty from Kawailoa Girls' School, a good part of which she spent in a Waikiki apartment posing as a navy wife, the last of three girls who escaped from the correctional institution July 23, was apprehended early last Monday morning by Detective Sergt. Sterling Mossman.

The arrest culminated a search which led into Kaimuki, Kalihi, Nuuanu, Palolo and in other parts of the city and which involved many interrogations of underworld figures, a number of whom may have been involved in harboring the three. "You're the local Scarlet Pimpernel," Sgt. Mossman told the girl, after he had taken her into custody. "You've given us that much trouble."

The officer's reference to the fictional character, famous for escapes, referred to the number of times he almost had the girl within his grasp, only to have her slip away like a wraith.

Disappeared At Beach

The most recent was on Sunday when Mossman visited Kuhio Beach, operating on a tip that the 17-year-old escapee had gone there. Dressed for the occasion, Mossman wore jeans and a "playboy" hat.

"I saw her coming a good distance away," the officer said, "She was walking toward me, but she was watching every car on the road, her eyes going back and forth. I got behind a banyan tree and waited, but the next time I looked, she was gone. She just disappeared." Still another tip led him back to the mid-town area where he arrested the girl in the home of friends of hers the following morning.

Contrary to earlier stories in the RECORD, there were three girls who escaped from Kawailoa in July instead of two, the first having been recaptured a week later. The omission in RECORD stories arose from the failure of Miss Eileen Ukauka, Kawailoa superintendent, to confirm that more than two had escaped.

Sergeant Mossman captured the second two weeks ago, as the RECORD exclusively reported. Tension Too Much Monday's recaptured fugitive, the last of the three, told the sleepy police officer who arrested her that she was glad it was over. The tension of being hunted had made her consider giving herself up a number of times, and only the day before she had looked through the telephone directory for Mossman's number, thinking of calling for him to come and get her.

It was with a sigh of relief that she said Monday morning from her bed: "Well, you've finally caught up with me."

Later, when she was reentering Kawailoa, she told the detective the institution looked like home to her—at least for the moment. Tracing the activities of the Kawailoa "Scarlet Pimpernel," Sgt. Mossman said he believes she was involved with a number of , underworld characters and was engaged in at least one petty fleecing racket.

Investigations are not complete, Mossman said, and it cannot yet be ascertained whether or not the girl used narcotics, or whether she engaged in prostitution.

Close To Rackets As with the escapee captured two weeks ago, the girl has been given a physical examination which is expected to determine whether or not she used narcotics. She has denied engaging in prostitution, though she admits having been a figure in a related form of fleecing.

But her story, Mossman indicated, will stand a lot more checking.

Perhaps the most spectacular period of her escape, the detective said, came early in September when she rented a Waikiki apartment, successfully passing herself off as a navy wife whose husband was away on duty. Although she had numerous visitors, the apartment management did not suspect that she was not what she pretended to be.

Before that, she had lived in the mid-town area, the officer said, staying indoors by day and coming out only at night.

Such limited liberty, the girl-found, was much more nerve-racking than she anticipated when she made her escape. There was hardly a moment, she said, when she could dismiss the fear of being caught.

Rode With Cop

Once, when she boarded a bus in Waikiki, a uniformed officer took the seat beside her. The girl had intended getting off at Pawaa., but she was afraid to attract the officer's attention by asking him to move, so she rode all the way to Bethel St., her face averted to the window, until the officer got off.

Again, while sitting with the other Kawailoa teenager and two boys in an Alakea St. restaurant, she thought she saw Mossman's car turn the corner.

Caught By Panic "The girls got up and ran for the ladies' room," Mossman related, "and the boys didn't know what was the matter. Of course, it wasn't my car, but you can see what a state of nerves they had developed."

Sgt. Mossman gave much credit for the capture to the assistance of Arthur Nagao, superintendent of Kawailoa grounds, who did much of the leg work. and gathered information by which the detective was able to trace the movements of the girl around the city. Miss Ukauka, the Kawailoa superintendent, is presently on sick leave, but William Among, superintendent of training schools, said the girl has been placed in detention, as were the other two upon their recapture.

San Francisco (FP)—AFL President William Green presented delegates to the federation's 70th convention with some startling figures to illustrate his charge that "your dollar buys scarcely anything—it's a 53-cent dollar and your wages are frozen."

Comparing the prices of necessities in 1939 and 1951, Green gave! these examples:

A man's wool suit that cost $29 in 1939 costs $65 today.

Overalls have jumped from $1.50 to $4.

Children's shoes from $2.70 to $6.40.

Round steak from 36 cents a pound to $1.09.

Coffee from 22 cents a pound to 87 cents or more.

Bread from 8 cents for a 1-pound loaf to 16 cents.

Milk from 11 cents a quart to 22 cents.

Taking percentages, oranges have gone up 195 per cent since 1939, canned tomatoes 137 per cent, butter 150 per cent and potatoes 136 per cent.

From June 1950 to July 1951 alone, fresh eggs have increased 42 percent, canned tomatoes 41 per cent, lard 38 per cent, milk 19 per cent, potatoes 10 per cent, clothing in general 11 per cent, house furnishings 16 per cent and rent 23 per cent, Green said.

These last figures are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index. But since, as Green pointed out, the index does not include taxes or attempt to measure all commodity prices, the real increase in the workers' cost of living from 1939 to 1951 is not 87 per cent, as the index has it, but actually more than 100 per cent.

New York (FP)—The Justice Department publicly admitted months ago that it has no case against leaders of the United Electrical Radio & Machine Workers who are currently being questioned here by a Federal grand jury about their signing of the Taft-Hartley non-Communist affidavits.

Although UE Secretary-Treasurer Julius Emspak and Director of Organization James J. Matles, as well as other union leaders, have been questioned in secrecy here before the jury, the story was leaked to the Scripps-Howard and Hearst press that the jury was preparing perjury indictments of union leaders who signed the T-H affidavits.

No Evidence

On March 12, 1951, however, this exchange took place at a Senate committee hearing. Assistant Attorney General Mclnerney was being questioned by Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R., Wis.).,

McCarthy: You have in your department now a sizable number of cases, many of them from UEW cases of perjured affidavits under this non-Communist oath?

Mclnemey: We have not received any case in which there was evidence of Communist party membership on the day after or the week after or the month after the execution of the non-Communist oath. Cases Processed Many Times

McCarthy: You have cases, have you not, in which the FBI has furnished proof of the Communist party membership prior to the signing of the non-Communist oath, and Communist party membership subsequent to the signing of the oath?

Mclnerney: No, sir,

McCarthy: Communist party activities?

Mclnerney: No, sir.

McCarthy: Attending Communist meetings?

Mclnerney: No, sir.

McCarthy: Are you sure of that?

Mclnerney: We process these cases at least four times.

Industry Grows, Land Is Reclaimed And Irrigated; Schools Are Established

"For the first time since 1721 —more than two centuries ago
—China's food problem has been solved. From a major food importer no more than three years ago, China has now re-entered the world grain market as an exporter." CHINA MONTHLY REVIEW, July 1951 (American-owned publication issued in Shanghai)

October 1, 1951 marks the second anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Within, the two years China has become relatively stable economically.

A dramatic illustration of China's greater self-sufficiency is the offer made to famine-threatened India of 1,000,000 tons of grain. An agreement for 500,000 tons of grain has been signed.

Irrigation and reclaiming of flooded land have gone apace and on the Huai River Project alone, 2,200,000 men are now working.

In 1950, 68,000 wells were sunk, 6,000,000 head of oxen were inoculated, 1,250 tons of insecticide distributed and hundreds of thousands of acres of wasteland were planted in crops.

Industries Grow Too

Industries have developed rapidly, because China ceased to be a dumping ground for foreign" goods. Customs, formerly collected at treaty ports by foreign officials, is now completely controlled by Chinese authorities. For 100 years the foreign powers used customs

levy to strangle China's economy. For the first time in 73 years China, in 1950, showed a favorable balance of trade. The volume of export surpassed that of import by 9.34 per cent Today's imports are raw materials and machinery.

Schools have been established everywhere, and even in the Sikang's rugged mountains the people now have a written language. Two years ago when the Kuomintang government fled China in defeat, the 500,000 Yi's had a written language that was no more than a pack of symbols.

Tibet Becoming Modern Tibet, which has been historically Chinese, has signed a. treaty with the Peking government and the land looked upon as Shangri-la and inaccessible, is now enjoying the fruits of modern civilization in education, medicine and economic enterprise.

China won a dignified place in the community of nations in short order. Only three years ago she was looked upon as a semi-colony, a dumping ground for Western goods and a nation of "coolies." For the first time in modern Chinese history, graft and corruption are being eliminated from the government.

Damage caused by the summer flood in the Kansas City area alone was estimated at $500 million. Of this, only about $3 million was covered by insurance.

Average net income of 1,173,000 medium-sized farms in 1950 was $2,942. Income of 1,661,900 small farms averaged $1,031, while 923,500 small-scale farms averaged $456 for the year.

[PAGE 6] [back to the top]

Washington (FP)—Federal mediator Cyrus S. Ching has asked Congress for funds to increase his staff by one-half to handle what he called a "general outbreak of disputes" caused by rising prices and increased taxes.

Ching's chief assistant, Clyde M. Mills, said the mediation service is being swamped by an "unprecedented" outbreak of labor disputes in which the services of mediators have been requested in every part of the country.

Chief cause of the trouble, he said, is a wave of wage increase demands resulting from rising prices and increased taxes. He predicted that unless there is a change in the economic picture, many of the current disputes may lead to strikes.

In his request to Congress, Ching said there is critical need for his staff of mediators to be increased by 200. At present he has 400 mediators.

Mr. Ching

The Aorangi, according to those who should know, has generally sailed with plenty of empty cabins, staterooms, etc., although persons who attempt to sail on her as passengers are told they must wait their turns and that she's booked full for some time to come. The reason, rumor has it, is that the ship gets fat subsidies from several sources, possibly Australia, New Zealand and Canada. But to continue getting the subsidies, she must seem to show a loss. Anyhow, that's talk on the waterfront.

* *
More talk, from Australia this time, is of inflation there and of the shortage of butter and dairy products and the high price of same. That's all blamed on the war in Korea and the accompanying hysteria, and the guys who run business and the government there haven't made much progress at convincing the working man he's really one of the middle class.

An example is the Australian automobile situation. In America, big business has long boasted that most working people can afford cars, but Australian business can't do the same.

The Ford Co. in Australia gave advance publicity to a car named the Holden, priced to fit working people's pocketbooks. Originally, the car was supposed to sell for 500 Australian pounds, something more than $1,000 U. S. But a lot of things happened before the vehicle was put on the road and by that time it was priced at $1,000 pounds, more than $2,000 U. S., and no worker could touch one.

* *

Thus, old U. S. cars, dating back to 1934, are much in demand in Australia, the more so because it's almost impossible to import new ones legally.

* *
TPA will have to pull up its socks some, says a recent traveller on the line who noticed that Aloha planes are carrying far short of capacity loads while Hawaiian gets the lion's share of the travel. It should be an incentive for island hoppers to go TPA. After all, who likes a jam?

* *

But while on the subject, one can't help wondering about that deal that came out at the anti-trust trial the other day, when Dave Benz was revealed as the purchaser of 5,000 shares of Aloha at 10 cents a share —at a time when the stock was being widely promoted and sold at $1 a share. We're far from adept at the manipulations of high finance, but is that regular? Of course, no one can doubt that Benz has served Aloha ably—even when he was on the Democratic Central Committee. Maybe the favored purchase is run-of-the-mill stuff.

* *

An amazing story of financial manipulation, going back to 1927, was told this department the other day by a man who says he lost some highly valued houses on Pauoa Road as well as $3,000 in cash to a politician whose initials are SWK. The same unfortunate says he got clipped again when he owned a River St. bar in partnership and lost $56,000 when his partner involved him in a side deal without his knowledge.

* *
In Los Angeles, some television producers are doing a fine thing, reports a traveller, in connection with the boxing shows. The shows on TV sometimes feature fifth-rate boxers who have other interests which both sports and TV promoters allow them to plug. For instance, after one old-timer finished his fight, the announcer introduced him again and said he was in the trucking business and would welcome some jobs.

A little later, the announcer said the fighter had already received five offers and thanked everyone.

That could be a very constructive practice, for instance, in the case of Eddie Reyes, who knocked Champion Dado Marino on his potato and got little but the exercise. There were probably potential employers in the crowd who would have given Eddie a good job, had they known his circumstances, which were very bad.

On the other hand, it might be bad taste for Dado Marino to plug sales for Primo beer at the ringside. Certainly there would have to be a determining factor— perhaps that of the degree of distress of the athlete.

* *

Rudy Eskovitz, says an old acquaintance from days when both were Marine Stewards & both were Marine Cooks and Stewards seamen, says the CIO organizer is still playing more ardently with stock market brain bubbles than with trade unionism. When Rudy asked the seaman up to his CIO office, the man went expecting to hear something of what the national CIO thinks. Instead, Rudy didn't say a word about the CIO, but talked all the time about the stock market. He gave the seaman some CIO newspapers finally, but never did get around to talking about what was in them.

* *
No feature run by this paper thus far has received as widespread favorable comment and interest as Editor Koji Ariyoshi's "My Thoughts—For Which I Stand Indicted." Certainly it's a good companion piece to the aforementioned Packard ' expose, and together, they have a considerable message for those interested in maintaining the vestiges of a free press this country has.

* *

Jack Burns, Democratic county committee chairman, may not be as widely popular among committeemen as a year ago, but talk is that he has more influence with Gov. Long at the moment than any other Democrat. Stories from Iolani Palace are to the effect that Democrats asking for favors are asked: "Have you cleared it with Jack Burns?"

* *
At Wilson Park, the new parks building has been the center of some dissatisfaction among the children of Papakolea and Kalawahine Hawaiian Homestead areas who use it. Their complaint is that the building is too often locked up when they want to use it. They say they had more fun in the old ramshackle building which preceded it.

Ted Nobriga of the parks board, which administers Wilson Park and the building, says he has heard nothing of the complaints and he. had thought to the contrary, that those who use the building were more than satisfied with the administration. Only the second story is locked, he says, the lower part being open at all times to those who wish to play.

"But you can't expect to have children running through a $50,000 building at all hours of the day and night," he said.

* *

Leo Leavitt, according to boxing boulevard, has got Frankie Fernandez now tied up tight as a roped steer in a contract that says he has to fight any opponent Leavitt chooses. Which means that Frankie has little choice about his coming match with Freddie Dawson, who cuffed his ears in the Stadium some months ago in a driving rain. Even with Fernandez a great favorite among the fans, local opinion is that Freddy will do it again and even more so if the weather comes up dry.

[PAGE 7] [back to the top]

Editor, Honolulu Record:

There is nothing that I like better than to have people insist on being consistently inconsistent.

During the political campaign of 1950, Mr. Ezra Crane, editor, told the people that Wendell Frank Crockett was a brilliant, infallible person . . . even going so far as to have Mr. Wendell Crockett advise him that Crozier was all wrong when Crozier pointed out that the collection of Federal income tax from the residents of the Territory of Hawaii was unconstitutional. Remember Crane told the people of Maui that he was telling them the truth then, in 1950.

Now, in September 1951, Mr. Wendell Crockett is attorney for the Water Board, chairman of the Republican County Committee, member of the Republican Central Committee and Republican Senator.

Now, in Mr. Ezra Crane's editorial in the Maui News dated Sept. 22, 1951, I read, quote: "Tile board's legal counsel (Wendell Frank Crockett) is entitled to his own opinion and doubtlessly he sincerely believes in his correctness in this case, but there are other equally well informed legal minds hereabouts who may disagree with counsel and just as emphatically declare that the board's action was definitely and unequivocally legal, and it was well within its rights in setting any rate deemed fair and just to the majority of consumers." Now Mr. Crane, are you telling the people the truth about Wendell Frank Crockett in 1951?

In other words, Mr. Ezra Crane, when were you telling the truth— when you supported Mr. Crockett as the most infallible man on earth in 1950, or when you are condemning him in 1951 for not agreeing with you . . . and would you state what other more qualified Republican lawyer have you consulted on Maui?

Chickens always come home to roost—especially when you call other people liars.

Wendell Frank Crockett, how do you feel about the turn of events?

—Willie Crozier

Washington (FP)—Declaring it "fervently believes the principles of a free press cannot be upheld by abridging them," the standing congressional committee on correspondents has refused to expel representatives of the USSR news agency, Tass, from the press gallery.

The campaign to kick out the Tass reporters was led by the American Society of Newsaper Editors.

Los Angeles (FP)—Big business interests are pressuring for a national sales tax, President A. J. Hayes of the International Association of Machinists (AFL) said.

Despite record high employment, jobs on farms are scarcer than ever before in peacetime. About 7,700,000 people were employed on farms in August, nearly half a million fewer than a year earlier.

[PAGE 8] [back to the top]

Sometime ago, when Judge Chuck Mau was not confirmed by a U. S. Senate committee for the circuit court bench he then occupied as President Truman's interim appointee, the Chief Executive turned around and appointed him again.

At that time, there arose a controversy in this island community over the question of the Senate's rejection. The two English language dailies took opposite views, with the Advertiser arguing in a more democratic and progressive manner, holding to the line that a man must not be barred because of ancestry.

Consensus of opinion here at that time was that the Senate's action resulted because of prejudice along the color line.

This week, Hawaii learned that Edward Towse and Ingram Stainback were confirmed by the Senate judiciary committee as supreme court justices, and William Brown as the second circuit court judge. They now await confirmation of the whole Senate.

Significantly, Judge Mau again was not confirmed.

Will the argument now stand that the judge is not qualified, as some of his opposition tried to imply? He has occupied the bench, without Senate confirmation, for about a year.

Will the argument stand that he is a left-winger and thus should not be given the seat on the bench, as his opponents stated? He did the last thing a true liberal would do. He aided and abetted the notorious un-American committee. At that time someone said that he did a better job than Stainback in red-baiting, and that he had "purged" himself to the satisfaction of the Washington authorities.

Stainback, Towse and Brown are confirmed, but still not Mau.

He probably proved that he is not a "Red" but he could not prove that he is not of Chinese ancestry to the satisfaction of the Dixiecrat-minded Senators.

It is a great shame to this country that no person of full Oriental ancestry has ever been confirmed as a judge of our circuit court. In like manner, it is an international disgrace that the Territory is still not a state.

But as long as we have men in Washington who subscribe to the racist line, who flout civil liberties and hold non-white people throughout the world in contempt, we will have great difficulty in achieving these democratic steps.

Instead of red-baiting, a positive fight for full constitutional rights for all, regardless of color, is the pressing task of the moment. Participation in such struggles in these times will undoubtedly be called ''communism," but that should not deter and distract one from an honorable and necessary fight. No one has a monopoly on good deeds.

After all, why should only haoles be judges in a predominantly non-haole community? This situation should prevail only where the host of non-haole lawyers are incompetent and unqualified, which is not the case here.

Judge Mau has, in a year of trial, proved his competency.

By Frank Marshal Davis

Let's End Capital Punishment

I sincerely hope that the good people of Hawaii, as a result of the Palakiko-Majors case, will demand that the next session of the legislature destroy that relic of barbarism known as capital punishment.

I was against legal killing long before I learned, through my experiences as a working newspaperman, that too often capital punishment is used as a device to maintain white security. But more on this point later.

It seems to me that the doctrine of an eye for an eye should have passed away with the Middle Ages. I cannot agree that one murder is righted by another murder, even though the second has official sanction.

No Logical Excuse for Capital Punishment

Nobody is a born criminal, according to the best scientific thought. This means that they get that way as they develop. And they develop within the framework of the society which may eventually put them to death. In other words, a civilization which permits the creation of criminals may later kill them for acting the way our civilization permits them to act.

Years ago, before we realized the influence of environment on the individual, capital punishment seemed a logical solution. But in a day and age when we have an understanding of the forces which shape an individual's attitude toward society in general and determine his relationships with other persons, there is no logical excuse for the society-sanctioned murder called capital punishment.

Thus far, psychologists have not been able to determine exactly why, of two individuals reared in decidedly friendly environments, one will become a criminal and the other will develop into what is known as an average citizen. But we do know that delinquency and criminal careers are more prevalent among those boys and girls brought up amidst poverty, crowded slums, broken families, poor health conditions, unsupervised recreation, etc.

Death Is No Solution

Since we also know that crime is expensive, both in terms of money and human ability, it seems to me only elementary to correct the conditions that breed crime by insuring every child adequate housing, food and clothing; sympathetic schooling, intelligently directed recreation and guidance, sufficient medical facilities, mental hygiene and counseling (both for himself and parents), and seeing that each will have a chance not only to develop himself to the full extent of his potentialities but that, when developed, he will have the opportunity to use his ability for the benefit of society as a whole.

Then if, despite receiving friendship instead of hostility from society, he develops into an antisocial creature, then that individual should be institutionalized and given tasks under strict supervision which could aid society. Putting him to death is no solution.

Furthermore, with our present public approaches to delinquency and crime lagging miles behind scientific thought, we quite often invoke capital punishment in a kind of unpatterned, irresponsible fashion. We let one set of people go free after an hour in jail, as in the Massie case, and want to kill others, as with Palakiko and Majors.

Yet when you delve deeper, maybe it is not unpatterned and irresponsible. Many powerful people boast that "America is a white man's country," and insist they are going to keep it that way. To anybody who takes the trouble to dig up the facts, capital punishment is often used as a device to maintain white supremacy.

Law for Whites and Non-Whites

The non-white population of the United States is roughly, one-tenth of the. whole. I have before me a recent report issued by the Bureau of Prisons of the U. S. Department of Justice which shows that of the total of 2,831 persons legally executed during the 19-year period of 1930-48, only 1,253 or less than half were white. The remaining 1,578 were non-white.

All except a very small per cent of American non-whites are Negroes. There were 1,528 Negroes executed. The remaining 50 were members of other non-white groups.

Those who have studied the matter know it is seldom that a white person is executed for a crime against a non-white. In the deep South they may not even be arrested. Remember that quadruple lynching in Georgia five years ago which the FBI still hasn't solved? Or the rape, of a Negro mother by a number of white soldiers mentioned in last week's RECORD? Weapon Aimed Primarily At

Non-Whites

On the other hand, Negroes may be put to death on trumped up charges, or when the evidence is either suppressed or ignored. For instance, seven Negroes were killed by the State of Virginia a few months ago at Martinsville, and in Mississippi, Willie McGee was executed despite evidence that none was actually guilty of the ' charge of rape. But that is the prevailing Dixie pattern and it now and then spills over into other parts of America.

I would be against capital punishment on purely humanitarian grounds. But when this device is used to maintain white supremacy and is a weapon aimed primarily against non-whites, it should be gotten rid of as an enemy of the principles of democracy.

Attorney Thompson's Conspiracy (Conclusion)

When waterfront goons Akana and Blaisdell were arrested in August 1935 for beating up an elderly seaman whom they mistook for union organizer Max Weisbarth, they implicated the manager of the Seamen's Institute in a conspiracy to "dump" Weisbarth. Garnett M. Burum, the manager, went to Matson Attorney Frank E. Thompson, who had given him orders for the "dumping."

"He is a good lawyer," Burum later told a Congressional committee. "I felt, if there was a man in town who could clear me of charges framed up, he could ... He said that he was the attorney for the steamship people and that there would be a cry all over town: 'Here it is, these two men together; Thompson is the attorney and it is a conspiracy between them.' "

Patterson Destroys All Papers With Thompson's Signature

So Thompson secured for Burum the services of another attorney, a prominent Democrat, Fred Patterson.

A year and a half later, Mr. Patterson was called as a witness before the NLRB trial examiner George O Pratt. "Questioned on why he had destroyed all papers from the office file of Burum's trial carrying the signature of Thompson, Patterson said he considered them of a personal, and confidential nature and did not think the board would be interested in such papers."

According to Burum, he wanted to fight the case all the way through, but Thompson and Patterson were for having him plead guilty and accept a light penalty.

"Why do you think Thompson wanted you found guilty when you were innocent?" Senator Joseph C. O'Mahoney asked Burum.

"Because I refused to carry out instructions to spy on the labor unions."

Told To Spy On Union

"What did he ask you?"

"For reports on men with labor union status at the Institute, what they said, what they planned, what the next strategic move of the union would be."

Finally a compromise was reached, and Patterson wrote Burum as follows:

"After a great many consultations with the prosecuting attorney's office, they have agreed that they will allow formal proof to be presented against you on the conspiracy charge, and after such proof is presented you will undoubtedly be convicted by the court and a fine of $200 will be imposed, on the recommendation of the prosecution."

Guilty or Not, Prosecutor Kelley "Could Put Me In Jail"

If Burum should appear as a witness in his own behalf, Patterson advised him, possibly he might be acquitted, but on the other hand, it was more likely that he would be found guilty. "He told me if I wanted to appear as a witness in my own behalf, Prosecutor Kelley would surely send me to jail, and I know enough about conditions here to know that Kelley could do it if I was guilty or not." (Laughter on the part of the audience.)

Burum went on to explain: "Mr. Patterson said: 'All right, let me handle this case and I will keep you out of jail.' I had a wife and baby, and another baby coming along. I had seen things happen before, and I knew things that were unfair could take place, and I knew Prosecutor Kelley could put me in jail, guilty or not, and it was simply a way to stay out of jail."

So Burum was "sick" on the day of the trial, was duly found guilty and was fined $200.

Said Thompson Gave Money To Pay Fine

"Q.—Did you pay that fine? A.—I did not.
"Q.—Has that fine been paid? A.—Yes.
"Q.—By whom? A.—Mr. Patterson, my lawyer.
"Q.—You paid Mr. Patterson no fee? A.—No.
"Q.—Why did Mr. Patterson pay that fine? A.—I understand it was given to him, the
         money for it, by Mr. Frank Thompson, to pay the fine with.”

Nearly two years after Burum, Akana and Blaisdell were found guilty, a man named Henry A. Rudin became a member of the Honolulu County grand jury. Mr. Rudin for 16 years had been personnel director at Waialua Plantation, and what he had seen had made him a bitter enemy of the Big Five. He demanded an investigation of the alleged Thompson-Burum conspiracy. With some reluctance, the grand jury got around to the investigation.”

“Go Just So Far and Whitewash the Whole Thing”

“Several members of the grand jury indicted,” runs a newspaper report, “that they felt the probe would end in a ‘flop.’”

“All they want is to go just so far and whitewash the whole thing; that’s my opinion,” said Burum.

The grand jury called before it Burum, Thompson, Patterson, David K. Trash, George H. Angus, Chief of Police, Gabrielson, and Rudin, but not Blaisdell or Akana. After deliberating, the grand jury reported that there were no grounds for an indictment.

And in any case, because more than two years had passed since the conspiracy, the statute of limitations would have prevented an indictment.