COMMONW EALTH COLLEGE

F O R T N I G H T L YV O L . X L , N O . 21 M E N A , A R K A N S A S : N O V E M B E R 1, 1935 $ 1 . 0 0 A Y E A R

WE GAVE OUR W ORD...Commonwealth College has pledged itse lf to train

several young Arkansas farmers selected by the South­ern Tenant Farmers Union. The scholarships w ill have to be financed, fo r croppers have no money. They have been broke fo r generations. They’re getting tired of it and are groping their way toward organizing fo r a de­cent subsistence and their own rights. A t this point, Commonwealth can do incalculable good by educating these young men and women who w ill give direction to the submerged sharecroppers o f the South.

Commonwealth is asking your aid in this work. The college, w ith your help, w ill not neglect this chance to tra in these education-hungry young leaders who w ill return to direct the farmers’ and miners’ fight fo r or­ganization and the righ t to make a living.

The college does not have enough funds fo r this bur­den, nor, fo r that matter, fo r the operating expenses of this w inter and spring.

You have helped Commonwealth in the past. I t is only by your generous help that we have been able to continue our very important work. Your former loyalty gives us fu ll confidence in you and we know that you w ill help us meet our operating expenses this year.

Commonwealth is being asked by its neighbors to form labor education forums; farmers, miners and un­employed workers all over the state are ready for labor education; and the college is becoming the cross roads fo r labor activ ity in the South, and suffering all the short-sighted reaction a labor focal point receives. To­day, in the South, labor education must run the gamut of reactionary attacks i f i t dares to question the feudal economy of this region.Some Commonwealth friends, native Arkan­sans who have spent th e ir lives chopping long rows o f cotton or digging out coal in the black shafts, have been beaten and jailed for at- tem p ting to organize

the ir fellow workers. The college has been investi­gated, damned and attacked by sedition hunters, pa tri­ots and vigilantes. Only your nation-wide protest has saved the school.

Our students have a few months and a few dollars to prepare themselves for an immense task. They have to make every lick count. We can help them if you can help us. We have the best-trained faculty and the most promising students we have ever had.

We are not requesting comforts, we are asking for necessities. You know how Commonwealth, during the last three years, has grubbed its food out of a drought- ridden farm, how we all ro ll our own cigarettes, how we rebind our library books un til the covers are as th ick as the texts, how we inch along in the college truck to keep the gravelled h ill roads from puncturing the last good t ire —you know all that, and we take i t as we find it.

But there are some staples we cannot possibly raise, we have nothing to swap fo r gas and oil and before the crops come up the seeds must be bought. Other operat­ing expenses such as clothes, hardware, and office and postage expenses must be met. Our rig id economy in the past has brought us to the point where we must re­pair some of our machinery and equipment i f it is to keep running. The money you send w ill buy a new kitchen range, roof a building, paint and preserve a tool shed, put coal oil in the students’ lamps, buy a pair o f th in cotton pants fo r a teacher, and repair a mower down on the farm,

We can carry on and, w ith your help, we w ill. Labor education in a re­sident, u n ite d - f r o n t school is more needed today than ever before. Commonwealth is ask­ing your help. W ill you, and your friends, see us through?

Commonwealth College FortnightlyPage Two

Little MagazinesF ro m Ch ic a g o comes the promise of a book containing the work o f at least

the following: Richard W right, William P illin . Nelson Algren, LaynaVerin, Law­rence Lipton, Richard Leekley, Francis Martin, Burton Barnett, Audrey Linn. This is a lineup. Watch for it.

Correction. The Lance has been sold months ago and is no more in its own name. Ellington Curtis is staff editor on Writers Review. “ We are adding sixteen pages in the October issue of Writers Review and I am steadily convincing the editors to give more and more promi­nence to little magazines and proleta­rian journals.”

The New Talent, 24 W 20, New York, is out again, this time as a printed maga­zine. The attractive format comprises twenty-three items on 60 pages. In the issue appears Harry Brown, young sen­sation of September Poetry. He addres­ses the ladies this time.

That the farm manager at Common­wealth College has a past is evidenced below. The reminiscent piece is lifted from the latest issue of Hinterland:The furnace door creeked back and day was there browbeating every s tir of life.I called to the horses.They did not come.I walked down the path.I spoke sharply.Broad feet patted the dust heads swung from side to side waving a truce.Eyes rolled white but remained hopeful. A t the barn I found he had come down from the big house.He mopped his brow at this early hour. Clean the stables.Cut a load of corn for the cattle.Drag the fresh plowed wheat-ground. Burning sun made rocks of mellow clods. Later he came to sit on shade marked porch of the big house.The horses and I did all the useful work THAT d a y - -C laude Gower.

A nv il for October-November carries more sketches and less short stories. Theology: traces. Conversion endings: none. A t newsstands: 15 cents.

American Prefaces w ill endeavor to prin t the best work of young writers all over the country. University Press, Iowa City, Iowa.

American Criterion, a new one, 148 West 23rd Street, New York City.

Jack Conroy may v is it Common wealth again next summer. He wires little mag news:“ Sad stuff....obit....requeiscat in pace. He was a good boy but a poor boy. However, Prelude Ben Bavly, 8200 Ham­ilton, Detroit, w ill appear in enlarged for­mat and enlarged editorial board.”

November 1,1935

An Open Letter to the People of Arkansas

W it h in the past few months I have been imprisoned four times for

my connections with working class or­ganizations. Last February I was ar­rested twice in Fort Smith during a strike against a wage cut on relief work; in September I was arrested at L ittle Rock and charged with vagrancy in con­nection w ith demonstrations against starvation and evictions of relief clients; last Saturday [ October 12] I was arrested on Garrison Avenue in Fort Smith by Po­lice Chief Gordon because he thought I was going to a union meeting.

Two of the charges have been con­tinued indefinitely fo r reasons which the officials would never acknowledge. Prosecuting Attorney Harrel Harper was forced to swallow his charge of “ anarchy" “ fo r the good of the com­munity.” The last time I was arrested in Fort Smith I was held fo r three days for "investigation” and released when Chief Gordon found that ring of stool- pigeons (WPA foremen) had been chas­ing a wild hare and that I was not at the time guilty of the awful "crime” of organizing the WPA slaves of Ft. Smith. Upon my release the Southwest-Times Record carried a vicious lie stating that I had been released upon my promise to return to my home in Greenwood. This vicious mis-statement of the truth lies somewhere between the Southwest- Times Record and Chief Gordon. Chief Gordon tried to extract promises from me lim iting my rights of citizenship, but my reply was that I made no prom­ises - I had committed no crime for which I should suffer any such punish­ment. My last statement to Chief Gor­don was that I flatly defended my right to organize, hold meetings and come and go in Fort Smith as any citizen.

All the charges against me have been fake charges disclosing the real issues involved in the controversies. The Feb­ruary arrests of myself and other workers were just a nice piece of strike­breaking by the Ft. Smith police force and Sheriff Jack Pace underorders from the Ft. Smith Chamber of Commerce. In L ittle Rock I was arrested while speaking to 500 relief workers and charged with vagrancy. Is there any connection? This was an open fake charge.

Not only have I been framed on fake charges. Upon each of my four arrests the officials have usurped their power —it was they who were violating the law —not I. Four times the crime of false arrest and false imprisonment have been committed against me. The constitutional right to “ peaceably as­semble and petition the government for

[NOTE: Horace Bryan has been re­leased after three days imprison­ment. Many protests against false arrest are being sent to Mike Gordon, chief o f police o f Fort Smith, A r­kansas.As the Fortnightly goes to press the American C iv il Liberties Union is investigating his case.]

a redress of grievances” and the right of labor to organize, won in stuggles of the firs t unions in the early 1800’s and now rather ineffectively written into law in the Wagner-Lewis Bill, have been ignored. But the law goes ahead, usurp­ing its power, violating its own law, de­stroying the constitution and the civil and citizenship rights set forth thereby. The Chamber of Commerce hiding its wage-cutting behind the law—and the officials hiding their anti-workingclass activity behind the banner of “ law and order” and“ Americanism” ! The k ind of “ Americanism” which our forefathers staged a revolution against in 1776.

Judge Gallagher who sentenced me to six months in ja il and a $500 fine with­out one witness against me (a sentence which he would not render before the people who heard the evidence), in an attempt to prejudice the court against me, shouted, “ I f you don’t like America why don’t you go to Russia?” My answer is that I love America and the American people. This is my land and my people. My kind of people built this country. My fore fathers were among the earliest set­tlers here. They fought in the revolu­tionary war for freedom. They crossed the mountains w ith Daniel Boone. I f Judge Gallagher w ill read his American H istory (also H arre ll Harper who branded me an outside agitator despite the fact that we got our education in the same school house) he w ill find that Daniel Boone married a brave little wo- man by the name of Bryan. My people came into the state four generations ago and blazed one of the first trails across the state. Yet a pimp-headed judge at L ittle Rock had enough nerve to try to give me a vagrancy slip and was small enough to lie about i t to the newspapers and say we had taken vag slips and le ft town. I've often wondered why he doesn’t send me back where I came from since I ’m about a quarter American Indian,

Yes, I ’m a typical “ outside agitator” , “ foreign” , “ Russian-red” , and “ trouble- maker” (shades of Judge Gallagher and Harrell Harper). We (mykind) organized

page th re e

November 1, 1935 Commonwealth College Fortn ightly Page Three

from Horace BryanThe Boston Tea Party, wrote the Declar­ation of Independence and staged a Rev­olution against British Tyranny in '76, jus t to be making trouble. Our love for trouble (or was it homes and freedom) drove us across the mountains, the val- leys, the plains, deserts, and on to the sea in the west. Somehow, between trouble- making, we found time to convert the great forest into a garden, our blazed trails into highways, our wagons into airplanes and locomotives, our log cabins into sky-scrapers of steel and stone. Yes, and today the same old blood—the same line o f trouble-makers—are still making trouble. Once it is a half-million farmers, then i t is the vets on march, then the men of steel, then the marine workers, then a million strong in tex­tile, then a half million miners, striking, making trouble for a living wage and decent working conditions. Sometimes i t ’s some lowly unemployed (who helped build this country) fighting for enough o f it to live on at least, organizing to protect their families, refusing to scab on their employed brothers. Americans —a hundred million strong- trouble makers!

Yes, Judge Gallagher, I love America w ith its beautiful mountains and for­ests and streams. I love it too much to sit idly by while the capitalists and their agents destroy everything lovable in it. That is why I ’ve been in ja il four times in the past year.

Certain officials h a v e come to me and tried to excuse themselves by saying that they were forced to take the act ion which they took against me. Forced! Imagine! Responsible public officials paid out of the tax-payers’ money being forced by the Chamber of Commerce. This shows who’s running the Demo­cratic Party. This exposes the real na­ture of their crim e— wage-cutting, union-smashing, strike-breaking.

What is behind i t all? Greed! Bank­ruptcy of the capitalist system! Fear, not only of me but of the working class and all the honest elements in our soci­ety. Fear that they w ill have the cob­webs brushed from their eyes. Fear of exposure of g ra ft, corruption. Fear that makes them tremble clear down to the ends of their toes. Fear—not of outside agitators, not o f foreigners, not of their bogey-man the Russian-red (maybe they fear the American reds) but fear of that great “ trouble-maker” Mr. Johnnie Q. Public, citizen, U.S. A. They know he ought to make trouble. And they know he is going to, sooner or later, just as soon as he sees and understands what is going on a little better.

-HORACE BRYAN.

L IB R A R Y BOOK NEEDS The Commonwealth library needs,

particularly for class work, the follow­ing books.

Philosophic Approach to Communism, by Theodore Brameld.

Outlines of Political Economy, by La­pidus.

The Coming Struggle for Power, by John Strachey.

Capitalism and Its Culture, by Jerome Davis.

Chapayev, by Dm itri Furmanov. Shadow of the Plantation, by Charles

S. Johnson.The Nazi Dictatorship, by Frederick

L. Schuman.Socializing Our Democracy, by Harry

W. Laidler.Russian Sociology, by Julius F. Hecker. Religion and Communism, by Julius

F. Hecker.

' A new and revised edition of the '‘ Commonwealth College Catalog ,' has been prepared. A copy w ill be

mailed free to anyone interested. _’ The booklet describes courses, ’‘ teachers, methods and activities. ’

CO-OPERATOR A N D W R IT E R LE C TU R E H E R E

Visitors here during the past fo rt­night have brought to Commonwealth some interesting lectures and discus­sions.

Charles J. Finger, author of books on literature and editor of A ll's Well, be­latedly fulfilled his engagement for the summersession by giving an interesting talk on literary criticism at a Sunday night forum meeting. His daughter, Helen Finger, a painter, looked over the mural and announced her intention of joining Joe Jones’ class to study mural painting here next summer.

Frank Shilston, during a several-days visit, held lectures and discussions on cooperative movements and on political affairs in Canada. He was a pioneer in the Sunnyside cooperatives in Long Island and has been active in the move­ment in Canada and in other sections of the United States.

STO VEPIPE H AZAR D IS E L IM IN A T E D

The stovepipe fire hazard at Common­wealth has been eliminated for the com­ing winters by the work of Ralph Field, maintenance member.

Beginning at the ceiling, each pipe was carefully insulated from the wood­work, and substantial chimneys of cor­rugated iron were imbedded in concrete blocks. This w ill assure the safe burning of thirty-five fires on the campus.

WHITTEN AND BRYAN SPEAK IN ST. LOUISCollege D irector to Remain in W ashington, D.C.U n til November 4WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY students

heard Richard Babb Whitten, direc­tor of Commonweaith College, on “ The Progressive Student Movement” and Horace Bryan (whose open letter to the people o f Arkansas appears in this issue of the Fortnightly) on “ The Southern Tenant Farmer” , on October 22 at a meeting arranged by the National Stu­dent League of St. Louis.

Whitten is on a tour of the middle- west and east to meet Commonwealth’s friends and to raise money fo r the oper­ating expenses of the school and fo r scholarships for southern students from trade union and farm organizations. He is also contacting students interested in enrolling at Commonwealth.

Lecture dates are being arranged for him in the various centers, and the sub­jects upon which he w ill talk are:

Commonwealth College—a Southern Labor School

Recent Sharecroppers’ StrugglesWorkers’ Education for Southern

LaborUnited Front Against War and Fascism

The Prospects for a Labor PartyPersons living in the cities he is to

visit who wish to arrange fo r lecture dates or personal interviews should get in touch with the key person in their city as given below, or correspond w ith Charlotte Moskowitz, executive secretary of the school.

Oct. 31-Nov. 4—Washington.Nov. 5-9—Baltimore. (Elizabeth Gil­

man, 513 Park Avenue)Nov. 10-13—Philadelphia.(Alice Han­

son, 174 West Allegheny)Nov. 14-30—New York City. (Francis

Henson, Room 310, 20 Vesey St.)Dec. 1-2—Boston.Dec. 3—Syracuse.Dec. 4-5—Rochester.Dec, 6-9—Detroit.Dec. 10-18—Chicago.Dec. 19-20—Kansas City.Key persons fo r cities after New

York City w ill be announced in the next issue of the Fortnightly, Nov. 15.

FO R U M T A L K ON FASCISMThe difference between Fascism and

attempted Fascism, with workingclass unity the determining factor, was the keynote of the discussion following the lecture given by Stanley White, student, at the October 19 Sunday forum.

Page Pour Commonwealth College Fortn ightly November 1, 1935

COLLEGE UNITED FRONT CONTINUESTo Build Commonwealth and Aid Labor Movement In Arkansas

Immediate efforts in defense of Hor­ace Bryan, former Commonwealth stu­dent who was arrested without charge and held incommunicado in Fort Smith, was the first action of the United Front Action Committee here the moment it was elected by the members of the Com- monwealth group on October 16.

The entire Commonwealth College group formed the united front on the campus for the fourth consecutive quar­ter. Issues concerning Commonwealth and conditions in Arkansas will provide the basis for united action of the entire group.

The fu ll program of the united front w ill be to: build and support Common­wealth College in every way; support and assist the Mena Forum and any other local forums (dealing w ith current problems) which may be formed; build two Pioneer Youth Clubs, one in the neighborhood and one in Mena, during the quarter; cooperate in all possible ways in labor defense, with especial re f­erence to labor defense in Arkansas; aid and support a League Against War and Fascism in Mena; support the Workers Alliance; assist the Southern Tenant Farmers Union to the best of our ab ility ; endorse and work toward the formation of a labor party in Arkansas.

STU D ENT-BO D Y OFFICERS CHOSEN

In line w ith Commonwealth’s united- front policy, the quarterly student body elections this fall were caucus-less and non-factional. Nominations were made from the floor, disregarding affiliations.

The following officers and committees were elected: Frank Drasler, chairman; A rthur Leche, vice-chairman; Jefferson Rail, secretary; Max Kaplan, Francis Kwnllek and Bernie Stevens, disciplin­ary committee; May Garelick, B ill Adam and George Fried, forum committee; Mary Paige, Jackie Leche and Ted Freed­man, entertainment committee.

A new committee was created when Bill Adam, Arthur Leche and Henry Black were elected to study parliament­ary procedures and recommend to the student body rules of order best suited for conducting its meetings.

PRINTED AT COMMONWEALTH BY STUDENT AND TEACHER LABOR

Students’ Experiences[ n o te : Walter McCabe won first prize

in last fa ll's essay contest fo r Common­wealth scholarships. He is now attending fo r the fa l l quarter here.]

ReliefBY WALTER McCabe

A S w e l e f t the headquarters o f the Unemployed Citizens League, Phil

asked me, "Have you your list of com­plaints?” I fe it in my pocket. I he list was there.

I was new on the welfare committee and Phil was breaking me in. The day before I had visited a number of the members, getting their complaints. An old man and won an needed underwear and shoes. They had applied for these at the relief bureau two weeks previous, but nothing was done about it. A mem­ber’s small child of six was in need of m ilk. The school doctor had said, “ Only children under five are entitled to milk.” There were two others, one in need of coal, the other not receiving his fu ll amount of relief.

I t was two miles to the relief head­quarters, so I had plenty of time to question Phil about what I was to say. “ You read your list of complaints, ex­plain the cases, and be quiet, and let me do the rest.” I was relieved. Phil cer­tainly could take care of it. He was a big smart six-foot fellow, a veteran of many strikes. I fe lt related to him, a younger brother to whom he was teach­ing some important lesson.

When we reached the relief bureau Phil said, “Watch closely what happens, since you w ill some day be required to head the welfare committee yourself.”

We walked into the waiting room. Be­fore us on benches sat a large group of unemployed, waiting to be interviewed, each buried in his own problem Their toil-worn faces were frozen serious, and they were clean, dressed as well as pos­sible so they could be included among the deserving poor. There was an air of humbleness about them, which in con­trast to Phil’s forwardness was start­ling. “ Rugged individuals,” he quietly remarked, "but they’ll wise up.”

I thought we were to sit at the end of the line and wait for the investigator to call us, but Phil led the way righ t into the office, the sanctuary of the relief in­vestigator. A t first I fe lt a b it tim id. Be­fore when I had applied for relief, as an individual I had waited an hour or more, humiliated and trying hard to please the investigator in every way. Phil was al­ready talking to the investigator, one who reminded me of a school teacher with the condescending manner of the old maid type. “ Here’s my credentials,”

EVENTS HERE RECORDED IN “ A DAY OF THE WORLD”Unique Book by Gorki and Koltzov W il l Picture Entire W orld Of September 27

A complete description of a day at Commonwealth will be part of the vast material being gathered from all over the world by the Russian writers Gorki and Koltzov for their book A Day o f the World.

This school’s part in the first effort to comprehend the world in a book came about through a cabled invitation from the authors.

The record of the day, compiled and written by Clay Fulks assisted by the faculty, includes photos, documents and posters.

he said, showing the papers authorizing him to act as representative o f the Un­employed Citizens League. When the in­vestigator read the credentials she in­quired in an anxious voice, “ Is there any­thing wrong? You know, we have so many cases that possibly our visitors may make mistakes.”

So she had heard of the U .C .L. work in evictions, how they had kept the con­stables from throwing two hundred families from their homes. No wonder she was concerned. She didn’t want our unemployed organization to deal with her as we did with the constables, I thought, my tim id ity entirely gone. Turn- ing to me, Phil said. Explain your list of complaints" I read the four classes in a firm voice while the visitor wrote notes on each case. Bending over her desk, his face earnest, Phil began.

“ These cases must be attended to. Every one of them is urgent.” Phil and the investigator argued over each case. But it ended with the investigator giv­ing concrete appointments fo r each fam ily to come and get their needs. The child was to get milk, the family their fu ll amount of relief, another coal, the old man and woman shoes and under­wear—every one of our demands. Boy what an organization! Put some fight behind your words and you’ll go places, I thought, feeling as strong as our whole organization.

When we walked through the wait­ing room the people were s till there. I wanted to shout “ Organize! Don’t come as one, your problems are the same. Organize, and come as thousands."

Published twice a month at Mena. Arkansas by Commonwealth College. Subscription one dollar a year. Entered as second class matter January 30. 1926. at the poet office at Mena Arkansas, under the act of August 24. 1918

Editors, particularly of labor and farmerpapers, are welcome to make free use of ma­

terial appearing in these columns. A line cred­iting the Commonwealth College Fortnightly w ill be appreciated.