The Washington Tribune

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Mothers' Visit to President Roosevelt Referred to in Scottsboro Case

Editor of the Tribune:

President Roosevelt proclaimed May 13 of this year as Mothers' Day. Accordingly May 13, the mothers of five of the Scottsboro boys, accompanied by a score of other women, both white and Negro, and a smaller number of men, appeared at the White House and asked for an interview with the President.

The President had been informed ahead of time of the intended visit. Nevertheless, "The President is not in," was the only reply the White House attendants made to the Scottsboro mothers. The mothers, through their spokesman, Richard B. Moore of the International Labor Defense, then presented the President's secretaries with their appeals. The secretaries asked that a full record of the Scottsboro case be sent to President Roosevelt.

Accordingly, the International Labor Defense mailed to President Roosevelt a complete and thoroughly documented history of the Scottsboro case, accompanied by an appeal asking his intervention on behalf of the boys.

The Fourteenth Amendment, written into the Constitution after the Civil War, dealing directly with the rights of Negroes, specifically states: No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Today the Scottsboro case has assumed international importance, and its influence goes far beyond the confines of Alabama. Can President Roosevelt be made to take a hand in the Scottsboro case as President Wilson did in the Mooney case? The masses of people must see to it that he does so.

New York
HARRY HAYWOOD

Shooting of Scab Was Act of Provocateur Seamen Charge

To the Editor:

Members of the International Longshoremen's Association are charging that James Connor, notorious scab shot to death in the headquarters of the Columbia River Longshoremen's Association—a company union—was murdered by an agent provocateur.

Thirty militant workers of the I.L.A. are held in jail incommunicado, framed for the murder of Connor.

The criminal syndicalism law of Oregon has been brought into play to hold four workers, Louis Olsen, section organizer of the Communist Party; Earl Stewart, Dirk De Jonge, and Don Chuster, section organizer of the Young Communist League.

Portland, Ore.
JAMES W. BROWN

Other Papers Say
IS IT "SIMPLE UNCLE SAM"?

(From the California Eagle)

Arthur Brisbane, writing under the caption "Dear, Simple Uncle Sam" last Sunday, told the world about another colossal Government blunder.

Says the veteran columnist:

"Our Government's efforts, aided by professors and agricultural experts, to keep down surplus wheat production proves to be a success. Instead of surplus, hundreds of millions of bushels, this country is short of wheat. Paying farmers cash NOT to plant wheat, plus the drought, helped foreign countries that have wheat for sale."

The plain fact is, that a few private individuals, by certain mysterious machinations, see to it that such legislation is passed as will redound to their personal benefit. 'Tis an old American custom. It is only necessary to recall the scandals of the Harding administration that rocked the nation.

That non-existent something called "Government" is used as a convenient smoke-screen to cover up the financial designs of those who persist in robbing the producers of the wealth of the country.

Again, Mr. Brisbane points out that one foreign country was helped when "this Government took away all gold belonging to Americans and raised the price of metal to $35 an ounce." One English-owned mine in South Africa alone produces 57 per cent of the world's gold. This mine is worked by underpaid African natives, while "no NRA rules disturb the British mine owners that are trading their ounce of South African gold for thirty-five American dollars!"

Government is only adequate and just when it functions with the consent of the governed.

We ask with the writer:

"Who is it that persuades the President to permit running the finances of this country as they would be run by a committee of pawnbrokers, anxious for more customers?"

Is it really "simple Uncle Sam" after all?

A Lost Country of Blacks

The New York Times in a report from the International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences held last week in London, tells of a newly-discovered civilization of Negroes in New Guinea.

The report was made to the Congress by E. W. P. Chinnery, Australian government anthropologist.

The district, which is shut off from the outside world by mountain ranges, covers 5,000 square miles, which until now have been a blank spot on the maps.

"There is little doubt that some civilized race lived in these uplands centuries ago and passed on," Mr. Chinnery states. "We found stone mortars such as the ancient Egyptians used for crushing grain, but the present-day natives did not know how to use them. We found the natives using ornamented clay whistles unlike anything ever seen in New Guinea, but strangely similar to those found in South America.

They have a complete knowledge of gardening, although in all the rest of New Guinea 8 times the size of England—tilling of the soil is almost unknown.

Their gardens are laid out in symmetrical checkerboard patterns and they are able to grow sweet potatoes, sugar cane, bananas and beans for food.

Physically, they are fine, healthy blacks, not unlike their neighbors in other parts of the islands, but much stronger and sturdier."

Most successful new industries are hatched moves of applied sciences.