ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE!
Coleman, Mcalister
Accentuate The Positive! By McALISTER COLEMAN Martha's Vineyard, Mass. ACCORDING to the request of several customers, and the adjuration of a current juke-box ditty, we shall here "accentuate the...
...For the 3 best questions in the opinions of the judges, the prizes will be a ride to San Francisco and back, a copy of the forthcoming book of Reinhold Niebuhr, Infant Damnation Re-examined, or Where Was Calvin When the Lights Went Out...
...I had thought all along that he was playing this by ear from the snatches of conversation between Messrs...
...You will fill in your name, address, and your opinion of Joe Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Sen...
...By the way, if it isn't getting into the class of "isolationist maniacs" to ask, what is the President's program...
...I suppose Bruce and his stand-by boys are having another supplement...
...She tells how she heard "one of the most effective advocates of the President's program urge liberals to soft-pedal their doubts and demands at least until after Apr...
...It must have been pretty awful if an effective advocate like Miss Kirchwey can write that way about it...
...This one would be called, "San Francisco or Bust," or something like that, and would contain an agenda for the International Security Conference, together with a compilation of the matters to be discussed there such as the partitioning of the Polish Corridor, the work-out on the small nations, and the kidding along of India...
...It is certainly high time for another supplement...
...It may be that factionalism is rearing its ugly head...
...Stalin and Churchill which he may have overheard...
...There are rules to be observed so that the questioning will be sharply differentiated in the public's mind from what Miss Kirchwey calls the discussions of "the isolationist maniacs...
...A More Cheerful View I didn't get to hear the speech on the radio because I was out with Bassett Mooton dragging for scallops...
...It is, however, something to know that the President has a program...
...This, as you have seen, she is against...
...Burton Kendall Wheeler of Butte, Mont...
...She says, "The substance of the address seemed thin and the total effect rather loose-jointed and inadequate...
...One section of them, that is, Freda Kirchwey, editor and publisher of the Nation, in a recent editorial announces that her readers will be allowed to discuss some issues which may arise at the coming International Security Conference at San Francisco...
...All questions will remain the property of "Can You Top This...
...After all though, when you remember the traditions of the fighting weekly you will not be surprised...
...I don't know where Bruce Bliven and tiie New Republic stand in all this, because up here on this remote island they think the N. R. is a house-organ for the GOP...
...You can always figure," said Bassett gloomily, "that the longer they talk, the more they are fending you off...
...While it would grieve us deeply to see any bickering among the boys and girls who have ssrved liberalism so well that it is not to be distinguished from abjectism, in the long run...
...Miss Kirchwey helps you along a bit by saying that she is heartily in favor of this...
...Bassett said he would rather go dragging for scallops because you can eat scallops and there is no nourishment in the speeches of politicians...
...Miss Kirchwey in her editorial suggests that you might ask whether or not Russia should be reconstructed by the conscript labor of the German Army...
...and a used machine-gun captured near the birthplace of Karl Marx at Trier...
...ACCORDING to the request of several customers, and the adjuration of a current juke-box ditty, we shall here "accentuate the positive...
...It is good to know that the old paper is once more pioneering in the spirit of Godkin, Villard, and company, and that "America's Leading Liberal Weekly Since 1865" is true to its colors...
...Up to now the line of Unconditional Surrender to the powers that be, and they be Three, has been stoutly held...
...Miss Kirchwey says: "We have not only the right but the urgent duty to try to clear out all the impediments to a decent working plan that we can possibly get rid of...
...I think, don't you, that instead of always looking on the gloomy side, we ought to take a more cheerful view of things, and realize that you can't have perfection in an imperfect world, and that it is just upsetting the applecart playing Hitler's game to ask that an International Security Conference should make plans for international security...
...Even Miss Kirchwey wasn't quite satisfied with his speech to the Congress on his return from Yalta in which he was supposed to outline it...
...It is understood that the chairman has complete discretion as to what questions shall be answered...
...It is a good thing once in awhile to have a still, small "no" amid the thunderous "yeses...
...or mean cracks like that...
...It gives us pleasure therefore to observe indications of the onset of a mild democracy en the part of the New York war-liberals...
...In taking this Leftist stand Miss Kirchwey comes into violent collision with the PM liberals and Earl Brow-der who have issued the ukase that all discussion of the matters to be talked about at San Francisco is strictly verboten...
...I told Bassett that the speech was coming up and we had best listen because the Big Shots were fixing up our futures for us and it might be a good idea for us to listen in and find out what our futures are going to be...
...You can well imagine the excitement that has been roused up by this bold stand of the Nation...
...or, "What about India...
...Don't ask general questions such as, "What sort of a peace is it that you have to enforce with peacetime conscription...
...this breakaway of the Nation, teeny weeny though it is, might help the cause...
...Hand your question, folded according to instructions, to the usher on the aisle...
...Miss Kirchwey herself feels pretty set up about it all...
...Questions that trouble one in connection with the approaching San Francisco earth-shake will be written out neatly on the little pink slips which you will find in your seat...
...The liberal line on these issues could be explained by Bruce in collaboration with some other "effective advocates of the President's program...
...I hope by now that I have satisfied my customers by giving them that "something constructive" which they are always asking for...
...No General Questions, Please This is not to say that the readers of the Nation will be allowed to go haywire in their discussions of the peace terms...
Vol. 9 • April 1945 • No. 14
