Where the News Ends
HARRISON, CHARLES YALE
Where the News Ends By Charles Yale Harrison FOR a long time I've been wondering jast what strange power enables the average Stalinist to withstand the jibes and catcalls of a derisive and...
...Harrison suffers an immediate disadvantage in this duel, and I hate to abuse such a favorable situation for a limitless continuation of our debate...
...They were shattered largely because the country that gave it birth had turned its back upon its own creation and left it to the tender mercies of unscrupulous diplomats and cunning dictators...
...These are the four concepts, said Michael Huxley of the British Embassy, addressing Polish Falcons of America, which will guide in the reconstruction of Europe after Nazism is destroyed...
...Granted, we have not here nor anywhere else a perfef democracy...
...Several newspapermen who have recently toured ^he country for feature material report that the latent anti-Catholicism of the Middle West is being revived...
...Messrs...
...The thing is not quite as miraculous as it sounds, - Medical history is replete with instances where physical pain has been relieved by an adjustment of a psychic conflict...
...fellow citizens...
...Although I have all my life most deeply sympathized with lost causes, I cannot help but leave Mr...
...All that is needed is office, a desk, a mimeograph machine— and business begins to flourish...
...I therefore submit to you herewith my resignation as a member of the American Newspaper Guild to take effect immediately...
...It is also the method which involves the least danger to democracy a* home...
...It cannot be fought by hastily enlisted sad untrained . men...
...The only practicable alternative is an arm.' whose rank and file choose fighting as a trade and wioe officers constitute an aristocratic caste...
...The expression "not only treason, stupidity and greed" is not a quotation from Mr...
...The popular antipathy to conscription—-in so far ask it a social feeling, and not merely die aggregate of mo* persons' individual unwillingness to serve—4s a h&r.gover from the days when the state was a thing apart -frorr the peopie, a governing power imposed upon them and oppressing them in the service of a privileged class...
...Only the editor and the proofreaders lost] _ _____ , Editorials INVITATION TO THE LEAGUE ^j^E fervently hope that the League of Nations will accept the invitation of Princeton University and the Princeton division ot the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research to transfer the seat of the League's technical departments and activities to the university...
...Few people these days like the prospect of active service in war time, and most of u» resent being compelled to do even what we ought to do...
...From WILLI SCHLAMM To, the Editor: . Because The New Leader is read chiefly by adults, Mr...
...The upholding of the rule of law, both national and international...
...Father Curran, leader of the Catholic Truth Society, and the Reverend Edward F. Brophy of the Precious Blood Church in Long Island City are especially guilty of deliberate cooperation with the leaders of American fascism and its concomitant pro-Nazism and antisemitism...
...It was a normal expression of the people's distrust of their rulers...
...And it cannot be fought by the armed forces alone—the whole people has to cooperate...
...We should like to add, however, one other important division that should be extended the same hospitality at Princeton—-the International Labor Office, which is likewise "non-political" in the sense that it strives^ to extend and coordinate advances and improvements in labor standards on an international scale in a spirit of genuine social and international cooperation...
...It is a plain fact that modern war, whether aggressive or defensive, cannot be fought by small armies of mercenaries or volunteers...
...No more heartaches, no more headaches, no more heartburn...
...But— Mr...
...Although hardly representative even of the Catholics of the Brooklyn Diocese, Father Curran, Father Brophy, and the Christian Front which they say they are proud to lead, have already done much to discredit Catholics everywhere...
...Now while Haldane's confession of faith...
...rectly, saying: "So, for example, when he polemieizes against an alleged statement of mine that 'not by treason, stupidity and greed' was France smashed...
...For a democratic people, fighting for a democratic parpose, conscription is a democratic method—and the only method of recruiting which it is safe for a democracy tc use...
...Communism has inspired some of the bloodiest pages fa all tiie long and painful history of man...
...Harrison omitted merely a single word of four letters,, and what does a word count with a writer who has so many of them...
...Pro-fascist activity of a small but loud Catholic minority has long been irritating to the eastern seaboard's body politic...
...increasing extent it is the people s agency for expressing the people's will and serving the people's interests That u whr conscription, once an obstacle to the growth ef democracy, is today a safeguard against reaction in time of was...
...May the United States not shirk its duty again, as it did after 1918...
...This organization is second in importance only to the League itself and its achievements have been more solid...
...Then the would-be-fuehrer is .set to peddle hatred on city street Until recently this crackpotism has been limited to the quickly discredited organizations of James True, William Dudley Pelley, Edmundson, Christians, and one or two others of the nqw almost disintegrated fascist periphery...
...If anything happens to you, no matter how fatal, you have the consoling thought that it's happening to everyone else...
...The totalitarian parties, nazi and communist, are made to order for timid thinkers...
...they have just to compare Mr...
...These include finance and economics, international health and opium control...
...Harrison's attack with my article...
...Why not...
...The war has completed the destruction of the League as an instrument of international peace and consolidation, but' the many valuable activities embraced within its nine technical, "non-political" sections have continued and should be continued without interruption...
...Without the slightest basis in fact Mr...
...Death will descend on the pleasant English countryside and there will be dark rivulets in the streets of London, rivulets that clot in the sunlight At that moment Professor Haldane's faith will stand him in poor stead...
...Nor can it be the hope of material rewards, as these are reserved solely for Earl Browder and a 'few of his top-flight lieutenants...
...No doubt he, too, is rid of his dyspepsia...
...The raising of standards of life and of living, universally, and not merely for a restricted group...
...Surely it cannot be that inner resoluteness that comes from profound conviction, for the tents of communist dogma have changed with bewildering rapidity during the past two years...
...You join up, stand at attention, and Hitler, Stalin, Goebbels and Browder will do all your worrying for you...
...Schlamm and Harrison remain stalemated...
...In his column in question, that of June 22nd, no such expression appears, either with the word "only" or without it The entire charge is made up of the whole cloth and I challenge Mr...
...It is became "in this world as God made it"—or as man is making sad remaking it—there are a good many unpleasant facts...
...Schlamm, who is in sufficient hot water without my adding to his further discomfiture...
...Here is a challenge to America's liberal and democratic, elements — inside and out of the Catholic church...
...Weather being what it is, the editorial staff waves its typewriters aloft at this debate's conclusion...
...I'm certain that no man starfag complacently Afcmt.ty^JriBL ever .get heartburn...
...In return for this animal warmth they are prepared to surrender everything that decent men;hold dear: human dignity, integrity and, aboveall and most precious of all, the right to stand up on your hind legs and tell the whole world to go to hell...
...The July 11 edition of the Deutscher Weckruf und Beobachter, official newspaper of the German-American Bund, reprints many antisemitic remarks from the Brooklyn "tablet edited by Patrick Scanlan, under the guidance of Father Curran...
...Harrison to that verdict of our common readers...
...When one powerful state or group of states is resolved upon aggressive war, the nations threatened- have but eat choice to make:—Shall we submit or shall we resist) That choice once made, other things follow with irresistible logic Among these is conscription...
...At the Catholic shrines in France and Canada a deep religious belief is essential...
...In all these cases.blind faith is a prerequisite...
...Whether and how gravely he distorted my position by omitting the ominous word "only," when he presented my opinion on the French problem, the readers may decide...
...This antisemitism is consistently linked with attacks on American democracy...
...In one case you must have faith in St...
...The weak, the timid, want but one thing—the security which comes when one is part of an unthinking mass...
...It is doubly a crime because the vast majority of American Catholics are inherently democratic...
...and his recital of its attendant benefits have caused loud guffaws among my contemporaries, I am rather inclined to believe he is telling the truth...
...Enclosed is my Guild card which I have held as Charter Member since the foundation of the organization, which I joined with such high hopes for its future, and to which I gave my devoted and loyal services, as chairman of the New York Times Unit for two years and as Delegate to the convention in New York in 1936, at a time when delegates were not yet chosen on the basis of their "trustworthiness" to follow any "Line" except the one that would best serve the interests of American newspapermen...
...It seems to me that an explanation —to say the least—is in order...
...Worse yet, this gives an opportunity to Ku Klux Klan and racketeering shoestring outfits eager to exploit anti-Catholicism as McWilliams exploits antisemitism...
...Or, then again, there is Christianity, nofcoi the church variety, but ah set forth in the Sermon on the Mount that has been known to assuage the anguish of many,a rebelled heart these two millenia...
...On another page, Roy Tozier reveals that Father Brophy appeared on the public platform with Joe McWilliams, .whose candidacy he endorsed...
...Why Haldane should have lent the prestige of fine a name to such a political system is beyond me...
...Only those with stout hearts and tough brains can' survive the darkness that now engulfs the world...
...Where the News Ends By Charles Yale Harrison FOR a long time I've been wondering jast what strange power enables the average Stalinist to withstand the jibes and catcalls of a derisive and hostile world...
...I wrote of course 'not only by treason, stupidity and greed...
...When that day comes—as come it surely will—we hope to see the United States taking its rightful place in the council of nations in Geneva and playing, at last the role which a great and powerful nation must have the courage and wisdom to play or disappear from the arena of history...
...After all, there is no need to condone mass murder simply because you have a belly-ache...
...The program is worthy of a descendant of Thomas H. Huxley, and it embodies the ideals which for three centuries have inspired the British masses in their slow and sure upward struggle...
...Schlamm...
...f * CONSCRIPTION IS DEMOCRATie "rjONSCRIPTION" is an unpleasant word...
...Stock in trade includes scurrilous literature against the Jews and the New Deal, bundles of Social Justice and the Brooklyn Tablet, official newspaper of the Brooklyn Catholic Diocese, and promotion of street riots...
...HUXLEY'S FOUR POINTS "THE upholding of freedom of opinion, faith, and speech...
...1 To the Editor William L. Laurence Quits Newspaper Guild From WILLIAM L. LAURENCE Science Editor, New York Times To the Editor: You may be interested in the following letter I sent to the chairman of the Newspaper Guild chapter of the New York Times: --Dear Sir: The actions of the Memphis Convention of the American Newspaper Guild have confirmed only too well what a large number of newspapermen, both members and non-members of the Guild, have been suspecting for some time, namely, that the Guild has been kidnapped by Communists and "Fellow Travelers" to whom strict adherence to the "Party Line" is of greater importance than the wishes and sentiments of the vast majority of the Guild membership, as well as the sentiments of an overwhelming majority of the American people...
...In some meitaals it still is that— but much less so than in the past...
...I'm certain his dyspepsia wasn't as distressing as all that...
...And no more anything...
...McWilliams' American Destiny party's sole platform is "ousting from Congress a} Jewish Internationalism, Jewish Conniving, Jewish Machinntions, Jewish Communism, or Jewish Warmongering...
...There are a good many unpleasant words in the dictionary...
...If the hopes associated with tile League at its beginning were great, they were due to the efforts and vision of an American President who, as it happens, wee also a Princeton man...
...It provides a people's army—an army which lis cross-section of the whole population and whose memssM keep contact with their kinsmen, friends, neighbors...
...I have seen a letter written by a distinguished German chemist The years of struggle were too much for him, it seems, and he wrote: "You have no idea how wonderful it is not to have to think any longer...
...The delegation, of which Mr...
...If it was the need for a faith in which to lose one's aches and doubts, there are a dozen religions and cults to which our scientist might have turned...
...It's dramatic and effective, all right, yet I have a sneaking suspicion that Haldane could have been cured as effectively through an espousal of Yogi or.1 Christian Science...
...And just' as I was about to dismiss the entire question and lay it at the door of- human cussedness or stupidity, along comes Professor J. B. S. Haldane, eminent English biologist and not-soeminent communist sympathizer, who solemnly avows that he was cured of serious gastric disturbances the moment he embraced Leninism...
...This is doubly a crime because it has already aroused considerable antagonism throughout the nation against the Catholic church, which in itself represents a well esteemed element, but nevertheless a distinct minority in America...
...But now,'we believe, this group by its actions during the past two weeks—since the freeing of the sixteen Christian Fronters—has stepped beyond the bounds wherein they can be contemplated with annoyed tolerance by a complacent democracy...
...Not only is it the method by which the nation can Mi surely defend itself from the external danger...
...No one with the intelligence above that of a halfwit qould fail to see through the real reason behind the refusal of a majority of the so-called "delegates" to the convention to adopt the resolution condemning Fascism, Nazism, and Communism as enemies of democracy...
...These is, for example, Buddhism with its concept of Nirvana which, goodness...
...And the supposedly supernatural, cures at Lourdes and" -Sainte Anne de Beaupre come within .the same category...
...Part of the mechanism of selling antisemitism is the creation of some streamline shibboleth—like Joe McWilliams' "American Destiny Party...
...Having stood ready to give my life for the democratic ideal during the last war, and preparing myself to do so again during the present, even greater, conflict to defend the democratic way of life and our cultural heritage, I naturally consider it my solemn duty to dissociate myself from any group or organization whose leaders, by their overt acts and by their failure to act, have shown themselves to be the enemies of those very things that to men are the most precious values of mankind...
...I cannot escape the deep conviction that the Guild as now constituted is a real danger to the fundamental interests of of newspapermen, and a menaee to a free press and our democratic institutions...
...The use of the state as an instrument not of domination, but of public service...
...reminds me of those half-illiterate Southern preachers who permit themselves to be bitten by rattlesnakes and then refuse \ medical • treatment - as proof of the power of faith...
...For people such as these there'is .burning necessity not to think, not to suffer from intellectual heartburn...
...That is not the fault of the dictionary...
...Freud and his followers have been telling us this for years...
...I am enclosing a check for my dues and assessments up to and including July...
...Such as it is, it is original with me...
...Who- knows, maybe this business of independent thinking has proved too arduous for most people...
...Schlamm last week accused me of quoting him incor...
...And now what is left of the League may come to function on American soil until such time when the victory of decency and civilization in Europe make possible its resurrection in a form more permanent and more creative on the basis of an enduring peace...
...There is peculiar fitness in the invitation addressed to the League by an American university, for it is the United States which was the founder of the League and also its grave digger...
...But during the past year Father Coughlin has succeeded in winning over the enthusiastic support of a large section of the rank and file—and the hierarchy——of the Brooklyn Diocese...
...It has burned, pillaged and destroyed...
...Perhaps homo sapiens was a misnomer...
...It has made a mockery of the word Socialism...
...Haldane's cure through com. . rn,unism...
...Harrison and Schlamm Finish Duel (And the Editors) in Dead Heat From CHARLES YALE HARRISON To the Editor: I have no desire of continuing the discussion on the causes of the French debacle with Mr...
...But we have moved far in the hut hundree years, or even within the last fifty, from the state of shin when it could be truly said that the state Was the executive agency of the ruling class...
...Let us add: It is not only Europe that must be reconstructed on these lines—it is the world...
...Mary, but if you are & British scientist, confused politically and despairing of the world, St Vladimir Ilyich will also do the trick...
...Labor Office...
...And how many times have we heard that communism is the opiate of the classes...
...1 ¦ * * * COMEHOW Dr...
...The government of the United States supports the technical activities of the League and, with the American Federation of Labor, is represented in the International...
...The only manly thing to do is to face the facts as they are sad do the best we can...
...Green is chairman, represents the old democratic trade unions of the German Republic But as in any organization or population group, it is the ' well organized, garrulous, loud-mouthed minority which misrepresents the honest majority...
...To a larger and a steads...
...It signifies compulsory military service...
...And I'm afraid that his heartburn will start all over again...
...In limited sections of New York and Boston it has become quite an industry...
...IT seems that it is difficult for thousands of men and women to face reality from day to day without the herd-warmth which is to be found in a totalitarian party...
...Catholics in the American Federation of Labor have heartily endorsed affiliation with the International Federation of Trade Unions...
...However, it is necessary for me to demand that my colleague conduct his debate - in accordance with the accepted tenets of good journalism...
...BIGOTRY BREEDS BIGOTRY NTISEMITISM has its sales points...
...The Protestant William Green and the Catholic Matthew Woll, officially and personally, have acted loyally together in aid of the German Labor Delegation's fund-raising work in the United States...
...But tomorrow, or the day after, Hitler, the ally of Haldane's Stalin, will launch his attack on England...
...knows, is restful enough...
...because the Catholics among the rank and file and the leaders of the American labor movement work closely with those directing international anti-Nazi activity...
...Schlamm to prove otherwise...
Vol. 23 • July 1940 • No. 29
