THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Reply To Rodell Dear Sirs: Prof. Rodell's castigation of the stuffiness of the cooperative movement and its average ardent supporter is well-deserved. It is all too...
...The King of Italy and others of the European landed aristocracy quickly joined hand^ with Hitler and World War II was on...
...Who remembers the peace plan of a certain Nazarene, who sought to erect a universal structure based on good will to all mankind...
...Praises Meeman Article Dear Sirs: I wish to commend the article, "Shorten the War," by Edward J. Meeman in The Progressive of Oct...
...Edmund K. Goldsborough Washington, D. C. * * * Organize Progressives Dear Sirs: I want to express my enthusiastic support of the proposal by Dr...
...I suppose Churchill thinks that we should take a leaf out of his book, a:id do our fighting as they do, in India...
...Are the countries dominated by "free enterprise" traveling forward or backward in democracy, social security, universal education, and the arts...
...For this reason I do not believe that progressives can influence social change in proportion to their number without organizing to coordinate their opinion...
...They will also learn that Russia can stand many years of war, without cracking up, because her system provides the basic unity, namely, mass production of subsistence goods for all her people...
...Of course we will help finish the present war, but the American multitude, if given the chance, would overwhelmingly support the principles laid down in Mr...
...Praise For McMillin Dear Sirs: Miles McMillin's article, "A Sucker List Without 'Subsidy,'" ir...
...Germany has been teaching her people for the last 50 years that they are a super race destined to rule the world...
...13, that progressives coordinate their efforts for social betterment by forming a central organization...
...A New Age Dear Sirs: . The financial, social, and economic system established by the founding fathers, and designed for the horse-and-buggy age of 150 years ago, has obviously run its course and is collapsing before our very eyes...
...And neither the fl-a-year men nor the highly paid politicians in Washington seem to know what to do in the matter...
...As to Eastman's...
...In the current issue which I have just skimmed preparatory to later attentive reading, I note the brief comment on Donald Culross Peattie's Journey Into America...
...Messrs...
...New Orleans, La...
...The English and German governments fomented World War I for the express purpose of disrupting the rising tide of industrial democracy that was about to submerge both feudalism and capitalism...
...This, her second bid for that control, is much more ruthless and determined than the first...
...La Follette's article in the Aug...
...These gentlemen will very soon learn that a capitalistic nation can not stand a long war, either at home or abroad...
...How, I'd like to know, can a press which is completely under obligations to, and under the domination of its advertisers, be free...
...Charles W. Gheer Fort Lauderdale, Fla...
...Letters to the editor would be one means of expressing this support...
...The formation of discussion and planning groups on the subject of a progressive organization through meeting and correspondence would be another...
...At membership and committee meetings I have argued ¦sagainst the worship of Toad Lane and have attempted to point out that we cannot go ahead by looking backward...
...Really we do not honor our heroes by aping their little failings, but by imitating those characteristics which have made them truly great...
...No one will quarrel with him if he says that this is one of the reasons for cooperatives, but when he says it is the only reason, then he is so far from the real facts of the situation that we beg to disagree...
...Five Senators' Report Dear Sirs: The pro-British press misinterprets the people's reactions to the report brought back to the country by the five Senators who went around the world...
...Right In Every Part' Dear Sirs: I have just read the article in The Progressive of Oct...
...It hit the European boil squarely and hard right on its head...
...While speaking of ideas, suppose we look at ideas that have been inculcated deliberately or otherwise in all so-called civilized men and women that can lead to nothing but war among peoples...
...Here are some of the truths: It costs money to buy the smokes, it is more or less a fire hazard, does far from add to a person's appearance, does not add to the looks of teeth and fingers, pollutes the air to nonsmokers...
...the Oct...
...rfodell And The Co-ops I have just read the very interesting article, "Co-ops, Cults And Consumers...
...We Americans do not begrudge spending whatever is necessary for our allies and ourselves to win the war as quickly as possible, but we do not want our money squandered recklessly, and we do not want our money used to build up trade advantages for other countries...
...Shorten The Appeal...
...A lot of good it would do to write any of them...
...Roosevelt says yes to everything Mr...
...On the other hand, while not arguing against communism with a small c, I am wondering if Communists are really as gullible as to expect to establish world peace and democracy ' through collaboration with governments controlled by the very elements which backed Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, et al, to crush popular uprising in their countries, and whose purpose it was and is to turn the resources of the world, including Russia, over to the international cartels...
...Fred N. Johnson Meeker, Colo...
...For, for each move they make, they unwittingly knock another prop from under the tottering old structure...
...Charles Kinsey Chilberg Portland, Ore...
...The people are not angry with the British for making arrangements most advantageous to them...
...18 issue is excellent and ought to be in every publication and posted by the millions all over the country to wake up the people...
...I wish to thank you for being one of very few Editors that dares to tell the truth...
...Smuts of North Africa is supposed to have made a speech to the above effect...
...And these are the birds who prate of "our free press...
...masses of their countries than the" Bolshevik regime of Russia...
...I wish, however, that you would call their attention to Mr...
...I would suggest that such a meeting could be hastened by a small group acting as a go-between in the planning of the meeting...
...Peattie had a good idea but it doesn't quite come off...
...It would not affect The Progressive, however, I am glad to know...
...She has done an excellent job and one which should be read by every thoughtful American...
...C. E. Wilson Spokane, Wash...
...The report, of the Senators after their inspection trip ,of th.2 battle-fronts is another thing that has embarrassed the British, and caused Winnie, so I understand, to accuse us of fighting on the home front while our boys were fighting on the battlefront...
...Drew Pearson, who tried to be friendly with the Roosevelt Administration, gave his readers some interesting information on this very same subject...
...Beyond doubt there will be much more said...
...There is plenty of-reason to believe they will make another attempt if given a chance...
...18 by Morris H. Rubin...
...For this reason the common objectives of progressives do not result in a common stand' on the issues of the day...
...Rubin Said It' Dear Sirs: I have suspected for some time that Editor Rubin would grow tired of supplying the avenue for so much small-time twaddle, and, as Magnus Johnson once said to a rural audience, "take the bull by the tail and look the situation squarely in the face...
...But what country today has as much to teach the world as the Soviet Union...
...She will be willing to step aside and let us take the place rightfully hers...
...28th issue is excellent...
...Probably, as Dr...
...McDonald of England...
...An expression of popular support of such an attempt at organization would be useful now...
...He assuredly did that in his feature article in the Oct...
...Axel Londal Detroit, Mich...
...Basso's opening sentence reads: "To be an American is to be something new under the sun...
...She is making this concession out of the fullness of her heart...
...For he IS different...
...To attain this goal, he reminded His followers that mind must be cleansed of its dross...
...The others are The American, by James Truslow Adams...
...Apparently Mr...
...George F. Curry Martins Ferry, O. * * * Rather Than Miss It I like your paper so much I'd rather do without food than miss it...
...Margaret Halsey is the wife of Robert Simon of Simon and Schuster, and is the author of With Malice Toward Some...
...Merle Curti of the University of Wisconsin...
...Mrs...
...Not a constructive thought in an acre of space...
...Roosevelt asks for...
...Churchill wants, or asks for, and Congress says yes to everything Mr...
...H. C. Dekker of this city seems to be busy knocking Stalinism, but I think it is better than Hitlerism...
...Doing that and working with those elements of the people of Europe and Asia is the only possible safeguard against World War III...
...it is probable that Russia would have advanced as far under 'free enterprise' (Eastman and the NAM in full agreement) as under the 'dictatorship of Stalin' ": What country under any regime has advanced as far "from scratch" as has Russia in the same length of time...
...As the Administration veers more and more to the right and mumblings against the Administration's bungling policies become more evident, I fear that the machinery of reaction will begin grinding its teeth and let loose a reign of disrespect for civil liberties that will be much worse than in the last war...
...also that production for use instead of for profit is essential for heavenly conditions in any nation...
...In my opinion it carries a full measure of plain common sense...
...But how long will it last...
...Mrs...
...L. Jenks Milwaukee, Wis...
...I agree entirely with the reviewer...
...Perhaps we may yet be spared the humiliation of rushing into the arms of buccaneering Britain...
...It was William Hohenzollern's faithful old warlord, von Hinden-b jrg, who adjourned the democratic congress and handed the reins of government over to fascist Adolf Hitler as that body was about to conscript the feudal estate of William and others...
...Walter Rasmussen Saint Paul, Minn...
...L. S. Ward Chevy Chase, Md...
...A Dream World' Dear Sirs: Morris H. Rubin's article in the issue of Oct...
...Patri's article for they both frequently introduce profanity into their articles in a manner which must give readers unacquainted with their writings a wrong impression of their intelligence...
...Your timely article will he pasted on the bulletin board at our co-op if I can get away with it...
...John G. McDonald San Francisco, Calif...
...This same factor works to the advantage of reactionary and self-interested groups...
...John Crevecoeur in 1782, "What then is an American, this new man...
...Opposes Eastman Why, may I ask, does a so-called progressive paper like yours allow space for a reactionary like Max Eastman to blast the only real socialist experiment this world has ever known...
...Edward Bellamy more than 50 years ago saw the end of private -enterprise coming by the middle of the 20th Century, (Bellamy's, Equality, page 3) and envisioned a new and better age to follow...
...Any sane person knows, when he or she stops to think, that war begets war, knows that to condemn and penalize an entire people and threaten them with extreme penalties is to take away all incentive to surrender unconditionally...
...Donald Budd Armstrong Scarborough-on-Hudson, N. Y. * * * 'Barnes Knows The Truth' Dear Sirs: Many people thank you for giving space in your most valued paper for the debate by the Messrs...
...It deals with basic facts and truths that are generally glossed oyer or ignored...
...I miss Oscar Ameringer and wish him a speedy recovery...
...This then is the reason why all intelligent liberals, all believers in the sacredness of human personality, all disciples and supporters of the democratic way of life, should support and promote consumers' cooperation now- and in the unquestionably difficult days ahead...
...Churchill asked for it time and again during his brazen criticism of our people as they threw their lives and their treasure at his feet...
...We at least have a chance to fight for something better, which we certainly would not have in a German world...
...Thomas and Eastman are largely interested in a political viewpoint and in upholding a greater portion of the profit system...
...the Social-Democratic parties of Germany, Austria, et al, more fruitful for the...
...Before the first World War, our health department would inform school teachers that if they had BOYS—girls had not joined the racket then—who smoked to send them to the department and they could cure them of the habit...
...27 issue of The Progressive on profanity and vulgarisms were particularly good and to the point...
...If this country had followed your ideas when you were fighting so frantically against all help to the countries opposing the German war machine, we would, by now, be facing a world completely controlled by that machine...
...And fortunately those engineers set themselves to the task more than 10 years ago of designing the blueprints for a new social and economic order for America, with a scientific system of production and distribution of our potential abundance...
...Mrs...
...F. K. Knight Los Angeles, Calif...
...Schelle Mathews Montesano, Wash...
...Churchill direct...
...A 90 or 95 per cent tax oa advertising would serve one of two purposes...
...Americans Are Different' Dear Sirs: As a devoted reader of The Progressive who literally never skips a word from first page to last, I would be hard put to say which feature or which writer I like best, but, being in a way in the book business myself, I am always especially pleased when there is a book page...
...So, to shorten the war, shorten the appeal...
...It seems to me you are the ones that are trying to "escape in a dream world...
...A recent issue of one of our local papers carried a blistering attack on the Truman Committee for daring to protest against the advertising policies of certain large corporations, "with the plea that it was nothing more or less than a device to muzzle our "free press," most of which would be forced to suspend publication if its advertising should be withdrawn...
...18 issue...
...I have been the treasurer of our cooperative since it started in 1936, with the exception of a few short periods...
...The Progressive is the only paper in which one may learn truth regularly...
...18, like the general tone of your paper, indicates you oppose any alliance that does not meet fully every condition as the progressive-minded would like to have it and also that we should make no effort to control world gangsterism until we have a perfect setup in our own country...
...Why not write to Mr...
...Again, the criticism of the lack of forward-looking, progressive policies, vigorously prosecuted, is justified...
...Frans Berg Portland, Ore...
...and Mainstream, by Hamilton Basso, a young Southern writer who up to now has been known only as a novelist...
...The article is a memo to junior hostesses regarding dancing with Negro servicemen at the Stage Door Canteen, and it appeared originally in PM...
...Scientists and engineers of Technocracy Incorporated, observing the march of science and technology, were convinced 15 or 20 yeata ago that technological progress would force the collapse of the price system, the system in which one person reaps profits from the labor of others—not later than the 1940's...
...For a major, if not the most important, reason why many people have worked for the creation of a strong cooperative movement in this country is that consumers may come to own and control the means of the production and distribution of wealth, that these same consumers once more may be able to exercise to some degree at least, control over their own economic life...
...Challenging' Dear Sirs: The excellent article by the Editor, Morris H. Rubin, is one of the most challenging so far written on "Progressives And The Peace...
...That set of blueprints is complete and will be offered when the people are ready for it— The world evidently is in travail for the birth of a new age...
...to take care of it, as England and her commonwealth will be just about exhausted by that time...
...Words cannot describe how I appreciate reading The Progressive, and I hope someday Mr...
...No doubt it will embarrass the British Tories and their blinded dupes in our America, but it had to be said, and Rubin said it...
...Cooperators make all kinds of excuses for their slowness, their refusal to adopt policies which have been demonstrated to be efficient and appealing to the rank and file of American consumers, and for their continuance of horse and buggy methods in finance and> merchandising...
...I believe that progressives need such an organization badly...
...Adams states that in writing his book he wanted to "discover what geographical, historical, and social forces had made the American different from the citizen of any other nation...
...I sometimes wonder why more men who have great power don't think the way he explained things in the article...
...Perhaps none of us, and I include Harry Elmer Barnes, believes that the present form of government in Russia is perfect...
...The Only Safeguard Dear Sirs: Mrs...
...Barnes knows the truth of the Russian Constitution and what it has actually demonstrated...
...C. H. Aspinwall EI Monte, Calif...
...Now whether this signifies a reaction against the One-World idea or what, I can't say, but it looks to me like something more than coincidence...
...Barnes and Eastman...
...Rubin's Thinking Dear Sirs: I read Morris H. Rubin's article, "Progressives And The Peace," in the issue of Oct...
...To many cooperators it is important to create a distributive system that will reduce middlemen's profits, but it is more important to give the common people of our country an economic base they can stand upon and control...
...Politicians such as Thomas have destroyed the good name of socialism and since the great Eugene Debs, the people have given little recognition to the regular candidate for President on the Socialist ticket...
...Cigarette Truths Dear Sirs: There are some truths about cigarettes that T. Swann Harding failed to mention in his recent article in The Progressive...
...The British have shown for centuries that they are well able to take care of themselves...
...Petersburg, Fla...
...These shortcomings are all too evident, and we accept, and I trust will profit by, his whispering in our sluggish ear...
...Mrs...
...Thomas-Eastman Dear Sirs: I should like to ask Barnes, the historian, if the following references are not based upon historic facts: No Communist Party (Third International) existed until the leadership of the Socialist Party (Second International) with very few exceptions—Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, of Germany...
...Embarrassing Britain Dear Sirs: Your editorial on how we embarrass the British by offering the Philippines immediate freedom was good, and timely...
...Rubin's timely article...
...But the old system is breaking down in spite of, or because of, them...
...That was clear thinking when Mrs...
...They are making frantic efforts to salvage a decadent system...
...And we have reason to hope for the dawn of a "better day at the end of this period of chaos...
...The people are shocked to learn how completely unrepresented or misrepresented they are...
...Making Advertising Pay According to press reports, we are threatened by a shortage of newsprint paper...
...Hartley W. Cross Professor of Economics Director, Eastern Cooperative Wholesale, Inc...
...But there is one point upon which he is so far from the truth that he must be told some of the facts of life...
...program and rushed to the support of their nation's imperialists in World War I. Were the Second International regime under Blum of France...
...More power to them, but why should we make sacrifices to promote trade for others...
...Reprints Available Dear Sirs: I have had reprints published of an article by Margaret Halsey which I shall be glad to send to any readers of The Progressive on receipt of postage...
...In the case of Thomas, experience has been no teacher...
...He has no one to blame but himself for the mounting resentment manifested throughout our country, not against the Canadians, the Australians, and the countless progressives of the tight little islands, but against the monocled morons comprising the majority of the aristocrats who wax fat on the poverty of millions of enslaved subjects...
...In the meantime the little old Progressive seems to be getting along very well, thank you, with a minimum of advertising, in fact, with none of the $l,000-a-page kind...
...But that is not the only way the people lose, as the private power corporations are in politics as well...
...knows further that there are good people among Germans as well as among all other nationalities...
...It is not to be remembered that Mussolini was an outstanding Socialist leader of Italy—a renegade to small extent beyond Eastman...
...Alfred J. Ranger Harlowton, Mont...
...Ernst Schwante Manitowoc, Wis...
...at least it is a step in the right direction...
...Nevertheless, it should be apparent to anyone that gives the matter thought that permanent peace cannot be legislated into being...
...La Follette wrote that Mr...
...Meeman may be a great newspaper editor, but like most great news editors, he steers shy of the real cause of war, namely private ownership of natural resources and the profits therefrom, especially during the war...
...There is no desire to belittle the countless contributions of some genuine progressives who have given freely of their time and intelligence, thus making The Progressive the oustanding publication of America today, but it took the consistent battler Rubin to strip the fluffy ruffles from the old goddess of international wars and show her as she is...
...Mayer, Meyer, 8C Profanity Dear Sirs: Angelo Patri has always something good in his column...
...Louisa Drysdale San Diego, Calif...
...I'm not sure what it means, but it can hardly go without notice that within the past two months there have been four books all on the same theme, that theme being that Americans are diffarent...
...J. S. Willen Cleveland, O. 'Greatest' Dear Sirs: Morris H. Rubin's front-page article, "Progressives And The Peace" is the greatest editorial I have ever read...
...We pretend to be Christians, but Christianity, when we study the fundamental life and teaching of Jesus Christ, is kindly service one to another, is harmony and cooperation, which is directly opposed to the competitive idea...
...Serena E. Powell P. O. Box 96 San Jose 1, Calif...
...It called for :. much courage as leading a troop of soldiers into the front line of battle...
...Can't Legislate Peace Dear Sirs: It seems advisable for nations to cooperate in the attempt to promote global harmony...
...John Schwegmann, Jr...
...Warner in the People's Forum of Sept...
...Ignorance is man's worst enemy...
...Gene Debs, U. S. A., etc.—deserted their "Workers of the World unite: You have nothing to lose but your chains...
...Churchill and Mr...
...It should be published far and wide so that our people could be awakened from their lethargy...
...I think he is right in every part of it...
...Isolationist Rubbish' Dear Sirs: The article by Morris H. Rubin is the usual isolationist rubbish...
...We cannot give to other nations and peoples something we have yet to achieve among ourselves, and that is truth of how to live life here in accordance with man's best good...
...John R. Lukko Upton, Mass...
...Roosevelt's problem is to find those elements within the countries we conquer which have had the stamina to remain true to the democratic ideal...
...W. P. Calkins Sacramento, N. M. Barnes vs...
...The cooperatives should be business organizations run and operated for the benefit of the members and not another institution where you may have the benefit of sacrifice in order to bring in a new order...
...Curti's book opens with the question asked by St...
...Mrs...
...it would either eliminate, with a corresponding saving of pa per, the inordinately expensive, needless, and useless advertising whereby war profiteers are dodging the payment of their just taxes, or it would provide enough money to go a long way toward financing our war effort...
...Dear Sirs: I just finished reading Mr...
...Gerbert Rebell Columbus, Ga...
...Therefore, more war, more profits...
...It seems to me it is sensible to support the best plan we can get that aims to prevent that, even if it means the support of the present lopsided setup...
...In itself the book is unimportant but, taken with a group of others, it seems to me that it has significance...
...We are also threatened by a tax increase which, according to present plans, is to be levied on those who are least able to pay...
...If this nation, and all nations, are to have super employment for all classes of labor in the postwar period and are to eat, they will have to adopt the Russian system...
...Finest' Dear Sirs: The article by Morris H. Rubin, "Progressives And The Peace," is one of the .finest you have ever published...
...It came over the air tonight that the United States is to be given the place of honor when Europe is invaded and will be allowed to furnish the men etc...
...Mee-man's article, "Shorten The War," ending with his remedy, "Write to President Roosevelt...
...The Growth of American Thought, by Prof...
...La Fol-lette will run for President...
...Peattie's Journey Into America, written to explain America' to a probably mythical German, is the first of them...
...If they should start a crusade like that now a good many more government employes would be needed, and some publications and radio stations might be forced out of business for lack of revenue for advertising by cigarette manufacturers...
...He insists that the "sole real selling point," the only excuse for existence of cooperatives, is to save their members money by cutting out unnecessary profits somewhere along the production-distribution-consumption line...
...Personally, I can't see why it should be embarrassing to them as there is no doubt in most of the minds of the people that Britain will never grant her people any freedom...
...Warner says, the best way to proceed would be to get the top men in progressive movements together...
...E. E. Cassel St...
...D. Kellogg Alhambra, Calif...
...These ideas are that the happiness all people seek can come only by way of competitive effort which is strife...
...Thinking Americans must prepare for that day and arouse the people from their sense of security in taking civil liberties for granted...
...I am afraid that I have offended many an "Old Faithful" but what else can I do...
...Anyone who thinks this country could stand alone against that machine, backed by the resources of the rest of the world, is certainly dreaming...
...Maude B. Harper Normal, 111...
...This is so partly because issues are confused to the point where objectives and self-consistent decisions of social value are difficult to make...
...Write to your Representatives and Senators in Congress...
...Henry Wadsworth Longfellow recognized a mighty truth when he wrote: "Were half the power that fills the world with terror, Were half the wealth bestowed by camps and courts, Given to redeem the human mind from error, There were no need of arsenals and forts...
...New London, Conn...
...Civil Liberties Dear Sirs: So far the American people have enjoyed a reign of respect for civil liberties (on the part of the government) such as they have seldom enjoyed in wartime...
...For those who do know their brilliance their occasional lapse into profanity, like the wrong seasoning in an omelet, spoils what would otherwise be a treat for connoisseurs...
...Good luck to The Progressive, and may it keep up the good work...
...Meeman speaks truth when he says that "ideas" are the things to be changed...
...They read about new taxes and they wonder if it isn't about time that we had an accounting of the billions we are spending all over the world...
...Cecile Bend Delisle Saskatchewan, Canada Christmas Presents Dear Sirs: I had decided to forego all Christmas presents this year, but when I read your suggestion to give The Progressive, I decided to make this one exception...
...Two other of your contributors I enjoy very much—Milton Mayer and Ernest L. Meyer...
...It is all too true that the emphasis is often on the "movement" rather than the consumer it is organized to serve...
...Kate Reely Madison, Wis...
...Until this is done political "democracy too often tends to be nothing but a mirage, a mockery of the most tragic kind...
...I have a hunch that they are honestly imitating some fine soul whom they admire and respect who has a failing along that line...
...Calvin Johnson from Illinois blasted the apathetic members of the House recently in a manner they richly deserved...
...His remarks in the Sept...
...Imitating worthy characteristics is the sincerest form of flattery, but imitating failings is the cruelest form of mockery...
...One Mayer Article One of Milton Mayer's articles alone is worth the subscription price...
...We pretend to be civilized, but we are far from being entirely civilized...
...And this is the basic reason underlying all wars...
...Write to Cor-dell Hull...
Vol. 7 • November 1943 • No. 45
