Where the News Ends
HARRISON, CHARLES YALE
Where the News Ends By Charles Yale Harrison DACK in the good old days when Munich was A-** one of Europe's musical capitals and not the seat of the headquarters of the Nazi Party, wags at...
...Close ranks...
...is ready to meet...
...you either write one of those factual pieces and nearly break a blood vessel in so doing, or else you laugh it to scorn with ridicule...
...Quill and Mr...
...The Negro intelligentsia in Harlem—the Sugar Hill pink tea bunch—will be kept in line by Dr...
...It Went independent but continued as tireless and ceaseless efforts for labor peace, in this roie, too, the I.L.G.W.U...
...of L. will sweep aside the selfish, the blind, the obstructionists among them...
...The next step should be the immediate resumption of negotiations between the A.F.ofL...
...These concessions represented a genuine basis fs>r f sate...
...But he demands- the publication of Professor Dewey's lefthanded bill of health...
...r >• •<-,* - a_, • • jLIOLLYWOOD has some ten * * miUlon dollars in anti-Nazi and war subject films, not including Charlie Chaplin's wml millions invested in The Metstor...
...BUT sitting, up there in his Riverside Drive apartment our author apparently -was anxiously awaiting the appearance of each issue of the estimable publication which he hoped would clear his good name...
...The l.LG.W.U...
...It contributed $350,000 to the west' of organising the mass production industries and was a tower of strength to the whole movement...
...He went to Mexico and the build up for William L. Patterson was begun by Browder in a much publicized trip to C h i c a go's South Side...
...publicity men at the executive committee session in Washington...
...At least 30 are being watched constantly...
...And could it be a woman who received notoriety in the daily press ever an experiment in eugenieal.- ;i...
...Shaw may be senile, but Scotland Yard is taking no chances...
...free, democratic trade unions, so in the United States have the Stalinist enemies of labor sought to use the schism between the A F. of L. and C. I. O. as an instrument for the achievement of the same purpose on American soil...
...Some months ago this commentator and Ted Poston — New York Post and Pittsburgh Courier feature writer —said that Ford had been purged and would not get the nomination...
...The anti-CP...
...wti a vehicle for organizing the unorganized, not an instrument ha disorganizing the organized, of dual unionism, of perpetasi internecine strife...
...Lamont's love of tolerance and fair play somehow failed to operate as America's greatest living philosopher was thus being traduced and vilified...
...For there among my daily letters was one from Mr...
...For only through democratic unity can there be any hope far the toilers of this and all lands, for all the common people everywhere, in this groaning, bleeding, war-torn world...
...Quill might make another "patriotic'* speech criticizing Nasi aggression in Europe and South America...
...We dare not belie, itl We believe that the sound, constructive elements both in the CSC*, and A.F...
...Faced with the danger that the fascist government may override the will of the Italian people and drag Italy into the war on the side of Hitler...
...With any such objectives the 1.LCW.U...
...sitting in Mexico...
...some of your columnists attract me greatly...
...Well, there are two ways in which to treat smug hypocrisy of this sort...
...We believe that on the great issues facing us all today reasonable men can sincerely disagree, that on most social questions human reason at its present stage is unable to attain absolute certainty, and that more intellectual calm and less moral indignation among persons who hold divergent views in left and liberal circles is one of the vital needs of the time...
...The Mazzini Society feels it imperative to distinguish between...
...Will they be big enough to embrace it...
...Mr...
...executive board is now in session in Washington...
...Curran again on the "workers' resistance to ' being dragged into war to aid the imperialist powers...
...Then a report came through that Mike Quill, whose adherence to the Party line in September kept him from another term in the New York City Council (brogue and cane notwithstanding), had made a patriotic speech to the C.I.O...
...The old cuss has ceased being disarmed and pathetic and is now graduated into dishonesty...
...Jt seems it was two other fellows, comrades of Corliss, who did it to two other professors...
...and C.I.O...
...And this, if you please, from the defender of the Russian purges, from one who acclaimed the Soviet prison-state as the highest form of democracy in the world, from the whitewasher of every contemptible act of Communist character assassination and vilification...
...The negotiating committee of the AF...
...Discussing the confused politic* situation, our book critic sums*** it up in a story about Teuyri** the famous French diplomat It was just after Napoleon I...
...Charles Yale Harrison tickles me right up the back, his snappy phrasing sometimes clothing very acute obserrations pleases me profoundly...
...Let the negotiations be resumed at once I Given genuine -desire for unity and goodwill there need be no obstacles to peace...
...THE League of Aaterkts 1 Writers is blastinr Archibald MacLeish and pi**" * smear-campaign against Ua because of his pro-ally posttisa At least IS members of tte natioaal convention deleftd* of the New York Newssasw Guild are members of, or clearly the Communist Party Urn...
...chiefs assembled...
...it is called, "You Might Like Decency...
...Mead sharply criticized Trojan Horse tactics, ._,...» e • rVERY headline on stories *-* from Europe brings new resignations from those affiliated with groups and publications opposed to aid the democracies...
...fuehrer spoke, the station cut in an address Senator Mead was making at a citizenship rally...
...Immediately after the CP...
...Max Yergan of the City College History Department...
...Wisconsin...
...had proceeded to organize itself into a permanent federation, rival to the A.F...
...of the Museum of ModttA Art Film Library and ferratrij Moscow's propaganda ministry is looking for a Job in the birjr -studios...
...Ferdinami Ltam berg, Max Danish, term* Dinsmore and this coismeisl lost about 2 to 1. sE of whits will probably give the Men el* convention majority 'to tfc* transmission belt boys...
...1 support his views completely, and am reprinting his article in The Kenosha Labor...
...And so in my column of March 9th, I staged a fantastic scene in which a university classroomful of Stalinist "students nearly lynch a Socialist who questions Dr...
...At one of the frequent CSST* receptions, a crew eyed lsdf **** annoying TaUyrand with the <*•*' tion: "How is the poMticai *W stion...
...A compromise was reached two weeks after the Negro Congress convention in which Ford would be allowed to run, but the Harlem work would be in charge of the new Richard B. Moore - Cyril Briggs - Tim Holmes-triumvirate which replaced Ford's collective-security boys...
...It is a mighty blow at the destructive, subversive Com- . munist elements, who have thrived upon the civil war in labor, utilizing it for their purpose of shattering the labor movement as the1 means they consider essential, to the destruction of American democracy as a whole...
...John Dewey in the middle of the night, urging him to resign from the Commission, until the grand old man of American philosophy had taTbave his phone disconnected in order to get some sleep...
...My character then went on to say that our philosopher resorted to underhanded efforts in the hope of disrupting the Dewey Commission inquiring into the charges made against Leon Trotsky at the Moscow trials, that he had smeared men like John Dos Passes, Max Eastman and Andre Gide, and that he had members of the League of American (sic!}' Writers cauVDr...
...As I used to do chatty semi-personal gossip of a political nature for a small paper one time I like to read "Heard from the Left" although the full meaning is not always apparent to me...
...The Daily Worker played it heavy...
...Charles Edward Russell does a great job of work in , j...
...But imagine ray consternation and dismay when I observed that it was not from Thomas W., the banker, but from Corliss, the erstwhile head of the now (happily) defunct Friends of the Soviet Union...
...But it never envisaged the C.L0...
...Louis XVIII was *» new king and liberal despite u* bitter reaction of his support** Confusion reigned in France, e*w as it does now...
...The magazine will continue to follow the line...
...Dewey's opinion is a hopeful sign of renascent intellectual honesty...
...The Socialist Call is being brought to New York and will be printed in Philadelphia...
...I decided to look into the matter the alleged harassment of Dr...
...Dewey when I got around to it, but finally the matter slipped my mind In the • interim, however,, the fascist partner of the Hitler-Stalin pact, which has the hearty support of my correspondent, loosed his war of annihilation against the democracies and I promptly forgot about the vindication of Lamont's—shall I say...
...Just as in Germany die Communists had proceeded on the theory that the road to Communism...
...For our American democracy cannot truly function unless those involved in controversy maintain at least minimum standards of tolerance and fair play...
...It is unfortunately true thafother signers of the statement got out by C.CF., as well a* of the Defense (Trotsky) Committee were badly pestered—but I escaped...
...Producers fear vsdtington would interfere with thr distribution of such pictures...
...BECAUSE of the revolt in ° the Socialist Party against the official anti-Ally line there have been internal squabbles reminiscent of 1934-5...
...Long may you reign...
...Mazzini Society Condemns Italy To the Editor: The Mazzini Society, true to the democratic ideals of the United States, proclaims its opposition to fascism of every description...
...as a dual federation...
...In addition to the letter I wrote you some "weeks ago, I can quote you as follows from a letter recently received from John Dewey: 'You can deny that I was called up by anyone or had to have my phone disconnected...
...lay-through fascism and the road to fascism through the destruction of the Social Democracy and the...
...And so, one day about a month ago my .dream nearly came true...
...Patterson it reported sulking in his Chicago tents and may change the Chicago Defender's line...
...Or will they, in the face of the grave crisis confronting labor and democracy st home and abroad, persist in keeping open the deadly broach in iabot'i front...
...In his first letter our author chided me for not making mention of his book, "You Might Like Socialism...
...Not a word about his silence during the frenzied character assassination in the pages of the Daily Worker and the New Masses while the>- Dewey Commission was...
...Now from all this it would seem that Lamont shrinks from being charged with Dewey-baiting...
...IhJOTICED by few commentators *^ was the stunt pulled by Station WABC, which was one of those broadcasting Earl Breeder's acceptance speech...
...that Ford was necessary to the party's maintenance of the National Negro Congress' prestige, and that Patterson would be more effective for . the . Commnnist Party if lie were allowed* so remain in his present position as editorial writer for the Chicago Defender, one of the largest Negro weeklies in America...
...George Murphy, press representative of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is to direct the Harlem drive...
...Today it is clear to all true friends of labor that labor via either unite, consolidate its gains, drive out the Communists from the commanding positions they have captured in a number of the moot important C.I.O...
...A solid basis for peace has existed ever since December, 1937, when the negotiating committees for both sides had reached an understanding mac opened wide the door to reconciliation...
...has raised a burning beacon for American labor to follow...
...Letters To the Editor Paul Porter Bocks Drive to Aid Allies Now from Pawl Potior To the Editor: I congratulate you on publishing Paul Blanshard's excellent common sense article- on labor's attitude toward national defense in the face of the Nasi menace...
...unions, or it will cease to exist for a loaf time to come as a powerful, effective, creative force in American Ufa...
...Up until the publication of our i n formation, Ford had accepted his demotion like a good party hack...
...Union lor immediate reaffiliation with the American Federation of Labor emphasizes again the courageous, wise and farsighted leadership taken by David Dubinsky and his organization in the affairs of the American labor movement and in the social and political life of the nation.' •? .-' i "V - < •• •- • • ¦; * The return-of 250,000 workers to the fold of the A F. - of L, representing the main, organic stream of the American labor movement, will pave the way for unity along the entire labor front...
...Lamont was irked again...
...was the most potent, most influential force in idnisll^ the rank and file of labor and the general public on the israst involved...
...I can remember a few: counter-revolutionary seum, sewer rats of social fascism, swine, repitilian slander¦ ers of the Soviet Fatherland...
...There were also, it will be recalled, additional conversations in April1 etf last year in New York, torpedoed by John L. Lewis for reasons best known to himself but easily understandable to all well informed observers...
...action of the convention of the International Ladies' Garment Workers...
...Editorials TOWARD LABOR UNITY *|"*H...
...We believe that there will be unity in "labor— because there must...
...The technique of readmission of the suspended unions and of those which were substantially organized by the C.I.O...
...of L is still functioning, vested with authority to resume negotiations as soon as the CI.O...
...them to use on their opponents...
...The Atlantic City agreement, hurled out of the window by the C.I.O...
...More than the weather has been hot over At the New Republic offices these past two weeks...
...jyiELVYN Douglas, star of Ninotchka, has been appointed to the Intelligence division of the California National Guard and has asked the G-Men to investigate aim because of charges in the California state legislature that he's part -of the "fifth Column...
...And see Paul Porter's letter a few columns ever...
...Willi Schlamm is your star writer I suppose...
...to run with Earl Browder...
...The A.F...
...Writing of Hollywood brtu to mind the news that Arttr Rosenheimer, assistant to Jr Leyda...
...We couldn't say because we didn't hear him . . . but we did pick up a short-wavebroadcast from Berlin last Friday in which Herr Goebbels' master of ceremonies quoted Mr...
...This explains the vote on reaffiliation by the I.L.G.W.U...
...William Gallacher be taken into the cabinet...
...Finally, exaspent*}* TaUyrand bowed politely *» W piled: "As you see ft, Madarr :" * • • WHICH may-explain t»*i#J President of VMed'BWf lashes mt the fifth <MmmsM* his wife bolsters it...
...Observe, please, that in all this correspondence -there is no denial that our correspondent acted as hatchet man for the Communist Party in its campaign of vilification against all those who dared to protest the hideous Moscow frame-ups...
...Where the News Ends By Charles Yale Harrison DACK in the good old days when Munich was A-** one of Europe's musical capitals and not the seat of the headquarters of the Nazi Party, wags at the conservatories used to say: 'If it must be Strauss, let it be Richard...
...its action, makes the following remarks: ''When the Stalinists were having it all their own way, -there wasn't any name that, was too filthy for...
...We learn that Lewis Corey hut week joined Ben Stolberg, Suzanne LaFoileJte, Gene Lyons and Helen Woodward in resigning from the Keep America Out of War Congress...
...A great, a solemn responsibility rests upon the shoulders of Mr...
...Rosenheimer collaboratsi with Leyda on the Soviet lbno tes distributed to patron* stmt recent showing of Soviet fibm It the museum and is a contributor to the party line mSfiSBK Films, recently boomed by the Daily Worker...
...of L., the I.LCW.U...
...his little corner...
...I like your forthright style of presenting your case...
...And a few weeks later still another letter arrived...
...Your features are unusually representative for a left wing paper...
...of L. has made it abundantly clear that it stands ready to resume negotiations...
...After all, I fail to see how an apologist for the Moscow frame-ups and the subsequent Soviet-Nazi pact can possibly have anything to say on the subject of Socialism which might remotely engage my attention...
...Consequently, every trip I make to the mail-box is one of high adventure...
...So is George Bernard Shaw who recently publicly urged that Communst M.P...
...Federation of Labor to ratify the agreement and to pass legislation to curb the power of the Executive Council to suspend unions between conventions was likewin agreed to...
...flatly declined to be associated...
...Here's what happened...
...Here is What the I.LGW.U...
...another column I never T - miss...
...To date he has reserved his vituperation for the British...
...1 was amused at the naivete of the letter which failed to protest the charges Of character assassination and stooging for the CP., but which insisted on the correct spelling of a proper name and sought a free advertising for a fifty-cent Modern Age masterpiece...
...It is a matter of historic record, which no partisan distortion can obscure, that a basis for a permanent reconciliation had been reached before those negotiations were abruptly ended...
...I rush for his stuff...
...Dewey called in the dead of night, and (d) would •I please print these "corrections" as soon as possible...
...which cant be released until the Allies are in a mere famUe position...
...Lewis and bis associates...
...says to organised labor: "Not another moment of strife, not another moment of disunity, not another moment of war of worker against worker, brother agalatt brother, union against union...
...largely through Tallyraads ¦•aginations...
...HAS the sheet "Friday-' run through so much of Gillmor's funds that it has taken on a new angel...
...And I promise to read his next book carefully, providing...
...I don't recall Lamont speaking out against name-calling in those days: But now that Browder faces a spell in the hoosegow and no decent American can look at the Red Army in Finland without feeling sick at the stomach, Lamont is all for sincere disagreement...
...If it must be Lamont, let it be Thomas W. For years now I've been day-dreaming.about the time when I would receive a momentous letter from J. P. Morgan—or at least from his partner, Thomas W. Lamont—in which, for reasons that escape me as I write, there would be a handsome check that would solve all my economic problems...
...slate, led by J«to Chamberlain...
...convention committee on officers' reports had to say on that agreement: "It was a grievous and fateful error on the part of the leadership of the Committee for Industrial Organization not to have consummated peace at the end of 1937, when such a peace actually was in sight...
...was close to solution, and the calling of a special convention of- the American...
...t would still be interested to know," he wrote —I could almost see his professorial, pursed, prunes-and-prisms hps— "how you can justify making untrue charges against me and leaving them uncorrected...
...WATCH for wholesale arrests of fifth column members of the British Parliament...
...convention: twelve Communist* for war against six hundred and forty honest representatives of the workers clamoring for peace...
...oi L, that the 1.L.CW.U...
...d"\NE of the few remain...
...Lewis Mum-ford and Waldo Frank have been feuding with the party-liners still in control of the magazine...
...By dropping its independent position at this time and voting fate immediate reaffiliation with the A.F...
...It is precisely at moments like these that I begin to doubt the existence of a Supreme Being...
...James H. Baker, former Home Relief Administrator who now gives bimonthly house rent parties for the cause with a group called the (Saturday Niters, and Gwendolyn Bennett, supervisor of the Harlem Art Center (WPA), in case of a shift back to the popular front line...
...but if it must be Richard, let it be Wagner...
...The C.I.O...
...We refuse to believe the latter...
...IIM FORD, Negro leader of the ** Communist Party, has been nominated by the CP...
...bright spots for a; ¦***beleaguered assistant editor the* days of crumbling civilization if Elias Tartak's bon mote...
...To the International Ladies' Garment Workers, the C.I.O...
...It seems that a few weeks before the arrival of this disappointing letter I had written a humorous sketch -in which 1 poked fun at a statement signed jointly by Lamont and his wife in which the politically ill-assorted pair (he is Communist fellow-traveler and she is a Norman Thomas Socialist) pleaded for tolerance and fair play in left and liberal circles...
...After Poston's expose, Ford and some of his Harlem boys of the collective security period— Theodore Bassett, James Baker, et al—raised a row, pointing out that the articles would have a disastrous effect—for the CP.— among Negroes if Ford was replaced by Patterson...
...The rise of anti-labor sentiment and anti-union .reaction in this country in recent months is to be attributed directly to die poison gases emanating from labor's internecine strife, deliberately fanned by the Communists...
...Oneof the characters in the skit, in the course of...
...Still, his fine if belated regard for Dr...
...Lamont himself...
...Gerry Allard has resigned, it Is reported, and favors urging aid to the Allies...
...And in this connection it is pertinent to ask why he was silent when his comrade, Kyle Crichton, alias Robert Forsythe, shamefully declared in the pages of the New Masses that "John Dewey is a disarming old gentlemen who is capable of great viciousness...
...If that is so, the new editor will be Travers Clement Al Hamilton will replace him as national campaign director...
...The score now gives the Malcom Cowley clique the upper hand, and Mum ford and Frank will resign as contributing editors...
...chieftain at a moment when peace was easily attainable, should be the natural point of departure in a resumption of negotiations now...
...honor...
...the Social Democratic leaders of Europe seem to accept the New Leader as their official organ and medium for discussion...
...In the course of those conferences, the American Federation of Labor had specifically conceded industrial organization for the steel, automobile, rubber, cement, aluminum, flat glass, agriculture, food processing, and other mass production industries...
...I am compelled to say that I hadn't heard of it until he called it to my attention...
...And thafs exactly - how I feel about a distinguished American family...
...Not another moment of encouragement to the Communist and capitalist enemies of labor...
...Lateont's sincerity in calling for tolerance and fair play...
...had made vital contributions to the C.I.O...
...WkyemtW* president talk to her at ** is the nmtitint...
...Europe's Socialists Accept New Leader as 'Official Organ' ;vk From JOHN DAVIS Glasgow City Councillor To the Editor: Thanks for the copies of the New Leader that have come my way...
...leaders in demanding that a| their unions be admitted at once into the A.F.L., prior tc cay adjustmnt of differences and contentions, indicated all toe cieariy that they were merely raising artificial obstacles in the way of a fair and' honorable peace.** It was because the Atlantic City agreement was summari:;- sad in high-handed fashion vetoed by John L. Lewis and others sjsj because, in violation of its original purpose, the C.I.O...
...Lament's letter, which is much too lengthy and verbose to be quoted in full here, was a veritable recitativo of complaint...
...Labor, the nation, democracy will live as a united force—or they tsflf not live at all I" The next move is up to the C.I.O...
...TW obdurate persistence of the C.I.O...
...heard on the Left By VICTOR RIESEL OEPORTERS in the outer room were handed flimsies the other day by C.I.O...
...The foregoing is a rather jerky and complex sentence, but I'm sure all fellow day-dreamers will know what I mean...
...Among other things the author protested that (a) his father's name was Thomas W. and not Thomas E., as I had mistakenly written it, (b) that while he was known as the head of the Friends of the Soviet Union he was "better known", for his pamphlet "You Might Like Socialism," (c) he did not have Dr...
...withdrew from the C.I.O...
...NE of the most effective media for ridicule is t*T the satirical skit, compounded of two parts of fact, one part fictional humor and one part of pure, undiluted venom...
...a year and a kali age, The I.L.G.W.U...
...The statement, which caused loud and disrespectful gaifaws among those who know Lamont's role as a stooge for party line, read as follows: 'In many quarters vituperation and name-calling have come to be the main business of the day...
...in numbers, in moral strength and finances...
Vol. 23 • June 1940 • No. 23
