THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Milking the Consumer Dear Sirs: Wall Street brokerage concerns are advising their clients to buy the common stock of food processors and food distributors. Many of these giant...
...Ben DuBois Secretary, Independent Bankers Ass'n...
...Here is just more proof that it isn't the wage scale that's causing high prices, but rather blind greed for shameful and outrageous profits...
...Walton H. Craig Jamaica, N. Y. Killing Our Children Dear Sirs: I subscribe to a German woman's magazine with a very large circulation, and in its first issue of this year I was glad to see an impressive, multicolor, several-page story about the danger of radio-active fallout, particularly to women...
...Many of us have long come to expect articles and book reviews on our natural resources problems from The Progressive...
...But mine is not primarily a book about the Spanish Civil War...
...It leads us in some cases to military alliances with countries whose present regimes make mockery of our self-righteous use of the term "Free World...
...Senator Stuart Symington says: "This novel vitalizes and makes an immediate personal problem out of what too many people have been unable or unwilling to accept as a possibility...
...Immediately, the FLN executive body rejected the General's bid though once it might have praised such a move...
...Latin American Liberties Dear Sirs: Herbert Lehman, in his admirable "Challenge to American Liberals" in the July Progressive, urges "the need to develop an imaginative and integrated set of policies toward the peoples and governments of Asia and Africa...
...We want to compliment you for procuring from Senator Lehman this most excellent and challenging article...
...Charles C. Lockwood Detroit, Mich...
...Yet we wonder if they, like us, are dismayed at the increasing tendency of our country to act out of fear and expediency rather than a firm faith in the human values which the United States at its best represents...
...During his recent visit to Algiers Premier de Gaulle called for complete integration of colons and Moslems...
...Raymond Mostek Vice President Illinois Audubon Society Chicago, 111...
...May I urge all who responded within themselves to Mr...
...New York, N. Y. Stevenson or Else Dear Sirs: I am among many who feel that Adlai Stevenson is the one man who could guide our country through the present world crises, with his ideas and concern for humanity...
...Unless there is a change in the attitude of our people, the ideology that was responsible for the position of this nation in the family of nations will be on the downward road...
...Margot Hofmann Austin, Tex...
...Membership categories vary, with dues from $5 up, and junior memberships for students and the like at $2...
...Lawrence Fernsworth Washington, D. C. Drifting Toward Disaster Dear Sirs: I recently read a book titled On the Beach by Nevil Shute which vividly portrayed the end of mankind and every living thing after an all-out third World War with widespread use of the most powerful nuclear bombs...
...Lorna Hahn, a specialist on North African affairs, has visited that disturbed area of the continent three times in the last three years...
...Here we have the full explanation, the story of how it is possible to fight for a party plank to the bitter end, and then be satisfied to go on record in Congress...
...Your readers may be interested in two line brochures, well illustrated and each about 36 pages long, available free from the National Park Service, Interior Department, Washington, D.C...
...Fred G. Turner McAlester, Okla...
...Any person who is interested might check on any number of processors...
...As citizens, we should encourage our leaders to take a courageous approach to world problems through critical self-appraisal and through an attitude of love and understanding toward others...
...For over six years, the Save the Dunes Council of Indiana has led this effort...
...Just as this monstrous atrocity was excused as having been a necessary act of war, so do we now excuse the continuation of nuclear bomb testing with the resulting deadly radioactivity in the name of science and "defense...
...That is merely part of the panorama of an historic and continuing struggle I attempted to give...
...All means of information must be used to educate the people to see this danger and the first step is cessation of all further nuclear bomb tests...
...We are drifting inexorably toward such a catastrophe unless enough of us awaken and join together to combat it by insisting upon disarmament of at least all weapons which could be used internationally...
...Since the end of World War II, a period of just 12 years, National Dairy has made such stupendous profits as to cause it to boost its dividend rate nine separate times...
...We are dismayed that our country relies primarily on force and the threat of force despite the horrible danger of modern war to mankind...
...One thing is certain: Unless France can be helped to resolve this conflict soon we may find that she is "digging a grave in North Africa which may be large enough for us all"—as Edmund Stevens warned in 1955...
...Or because the impending disaster is so unfathomable that we cannot grasp it...
...What is the solution to this problem...
...I regret that the only men we can see on the horizon at this moment are those who can only visualize their own hunger should they be deprived of their meager slice of bread...
...If put into effect the "burden of fear" mentioned in the challenge would be lightened and we will be evolving the world to peace and freedom...
...As a nation, our obsessive preoccupation with combating the Soviet bloc leads us to continue testing hydrogen bombs despite the warnings of scientists and the increasing outrage of millions of laymen...
...We believe that faith finds meaning in practice, not only for individuals but for nations and groups of nations...
...Lehman's challenge to please consider seriously the ideas related to "military disengagement...
...In Detroit, it owns the Detroit Creamery Company and many other distributors...
...Is there no other way of defending ourselves than by killing our children...
...Thomas suggests are material for a book in itself...
...Our dangers are more from within than from without and a United States that is more interested in maintaining the status quo than adhering to the principles that brought us into being will be on the downward slide...
...Sauk Centre, Minn...
...Address American Civil Liberties Union, 170 Fifth Ave., New York 10, N. Y. Julian Jack New York, N. Y. Fernsworth's Spain Dear Sirs: I could have added to the list of topics omitted, as given by Norman Thomas in his generous review of my book, Spain's Struggle for Freedom, in the June Progressive...
...There is such need also for Latin America...
...Ruth Neuendorffer N. Tarrytown, N. Y. France Digs a Grave Dear Sirs: Maurice Goldbloom's brilliant "Tale of Two Terrors" (Progressive, June) points up vividly the terrible barriers to peace the French have erected in Algeria...
...I suggest that to the citizens' organizations listed by Mr...
...Senator Lehman is a mature liberal, a man of vast understanding, and he has portrayed well the plight of liberalism in this materialistic, conformist age...
...Seventy per cent of our national budget goes for military purposes while less than one per cent is allocated to meet foreign economic and welfare needs...
...Join the ACLU Dear Sirs: Why aren't you (who read this) a member of the American Civil Liberties Union...
...Roger Way Clerk Finger Lakes Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) Lehman's Liberalism Dear Sirs: Herbert Lehman wrote a fine theoretical outline of a program for liberals in the July issue...
...I know perfectly well that the Spanish Republic was being crucified from two sides, i.e., the sides of the Fascists and of the Communists...
...Most Americans are aware of the grave difficulties which confront the world with the growth of totalitarian Communism...
...Thanks to you for sharing this with your readers...
...I am indeed familiar with all that he said...
...in which he described as one of the great triumphs of the TVA the preservation of public access to lakes and ponds...
...George Hauser Executive Director American Committee on Africa 4 West 40th St...
...Faith, Not Fear Dear Sirs: Quaker groups in Alfred, Canandaigua, and Geneva, New York, wish to express their concern about our country's position in the current international situation...
...Edith Hansen Upper Darby, Pa...
...In "War in Algeria," a recently published pamphlet, Lorna Hahn spells out why Algerians will accept nothing short of independence, and why independence will probably come within the framework of a North African confederation...
...This is the largest dairy outfit in the country and has about 300 subsidiaries, including the Kraft Cheese Company...
...It paralyzes our initiative at a time when the whole world looks to our country for vision...
...In almost every line of the food industry, we find clear evidence of profiteering...
...I say bravo...
...The topics Mr...
...Many of these giant corporations operate on the principle of never give the customer a break and are showing fantastic profits...
...Its headquarters are at 67 West 44 St., New York 36...
...The vanishing shoreline open to the general public is one of the most urgent recreation problems of our time...
...Bernard Attinson Bronx, N. Y. Disengagement Dear Sirs: Thanks to Herbert H. Lehman for "The Challenge to American Liberals...
...Even before the advent of the now obsolete A-bomb, between 200,000 and 300,000 civilians were killed in one single day as the result of three air raids on one German city...
...Hence I think it safe for us other brave warriors who put discretion before valor, or perhaps just never were moved to action, to come to the aid of this fighting band, whose motto is so well summed up in Voltaire's embattled words "I detest everything you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it...
...All too long you and I have allowed the few hardy souls enrolled in this organization to do our fighting for our liberties, while we looked the other way, lest we too suffer those "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" they have so long endured...
...Are we ignoring the danger because we feel that we are paying scientists and politicians to do the worrying for us...
...You will be shocked, as I was, to learn that from a population of 173,000,000, only 40,000 give the ACLU active support...
...We in the Middle West are struggling to preserve a part of original America by supporting Senator Paul Douglas' effort to maintain the final four mile stretch of Indiana Sand Dunes by making it a National Monument...
...As an example, take the National Dairy Products Corporation...
...Vanishing Shoreline Dear Sirs: May I give you my warm personal praise for your very fine issue on TVA...
...One is called "Our Vanishing Shoreline" and the other "The National Park Wilderness...
...I was especially interested in the article by Harold Miller on "All this and Fishing, Too...
...Or because our children's health and happiness should be sacrificed in the interest of our defense...
...Lehman Challenging Dear Sirs: Herbert H. Lehman's article, "The Challenge to American Liberals," in your July issue should be read by every thoughtful individual...
...But while committees are being formed and plans arranged, let us who loved Elmer Davis and all he stood and battled for, each add a brick to that structure he helped build, the American Civil Liberties Union...
...They have been touched on in various ways in various books...
...I would like to do it in my own way as well...
...Every American should read On the Beach...
...But for those of us who hunger for a liberal movement that has a coherence provided by a good, solid, stubborn refusal to "do business," the whole tragic story of American liberalism can be found in one sentence: "I was willing to compromise for half, if necessary, but not until after the fight for the whole had been made...
...There is a plan afoot for a memorial to Elmer Davis, that giant with pen and voice when clear honest thinking and plain unadulterated guts were in such short supply...
...Now, however, the dark cloud of suspicion is breaking, and some clear rays of sanity are coming through...
...Once this land is taken over for private use or industrial expansion, it can never be used again—certainly not in the same way, for the biological and botanical community will have been forever destroyed...
...One makes the good fight, but both sides know what the outcome will be and when it's over all the good men come to the aid of their party...
...Inasmuch as he may not even be nominated for the office of President, I would like to propose a national "Nominate Stevenson, or I'll vote Republican Club...
...Every thinking American owes himself, his family, and his country an honest answer to this question...
...The farmer milks his cows while the giant food companies make a business of milking all of us...
...It must be its heritage from Bob LaFollette and George Norris...
...The IADF is an affiliate of the International League for the Rights of Man, leading consultative non-governmental organization cooperating with the United Nations in human rights...
...He might also check on the Kroger Company, the A. & P., and other giant distributors...
...Lehman as engaged in "the propagation and support of liberal ideas and principles" there be added the Inter-American Association for Democracy and Freedom...
...It's like a lovely game...
...In the field of man-induced preventable disaster, more drastically than in any other, we seem to have lost perspective completely...
...The National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy with headquarters at 202 East 44th Street, New York 17, is doing a fine job of publicizing and educating people and should have our complete support...
...Just let your purse and conscience be your guide...
...She is a frequent contributor to scholarly journals and popular media, and is on the faculty of the department of history at Temple University...
...The IADF links democratic forces in the Western Hemisphere, exposes violations of human rights in Latin America, offers advice to officials of the government of the United States and to democratic governments in Latin America, presents protests and suggestions to the United Nations and to the Organization of American States, presses for justice in individual cases of violation of human rights...
...We concern ourselves with our children's health, give them the best food and medical care available, yet we are allowing their hearts to be broken when someday they will become parents of crippled children if, indeed, they can become parents at all...
...Leadership will come to the liberal movement only when we have found men of stature who are willing to sacrifice themselves for principle...
...It was well done in every respect...
...War in Algeria" is published by the American Committee on Africa, and is available at 50 cents per copy...
Vol. 22 • August 1958 • No. 8
