Letters To the Editor
Letters To the Editor Nazis Strip French of*Food and Goods; Force Prisoners to Work in Reich Factories (The following letter was received by a friend of The New Leader and turned over to the...
...These steps are simple...
...Like the Nazis and Fascists, the Communists have forfeited the right to be treated on a par with legitimate political elements...
...Some of us did not want this "rendezvous with olestiny...
...We feel it our duty to speak out on this question because the President, after having determined not to reappoint Mr...
...The Germans confiscated the goods and shipped them to Germany...
...Their failure to prevent indorsement of President Roosevelt at the state convention of the C.I.O., coupled with the resolution condemning Nazism...
...This is a task worthy of Social Democrats in a period of grave national and international crisis...
...WILtfUE QN September 19 the Union League Club of Na» Yeik entertained as a guest speaker Merwin K. Hart' presioen of the New York State Economic Council, the notonouf propaganda organization of the most reactionary empiorer.' in this State, and heard Mr...
...There were 383 dead and many were wounded...
...which in his estimation is everything that the New Deal, organized labor, and progressivism in general »hu» for...
...Hart make a speech mealing democracy, opposing any aid to England, and insinuatinf...
...were taken away and all the food reserve also...
...Hart as cananst' ing a "most vehement campaign of propaganda-H* 'J*'' paign inspired, 1 fully believe, by foreign influence.' The entire mass of social and labor legislation adopted under the New Deal in Washington and by the several state* was denounced by Mr...
...They have influenced profoundly the development of the party...
...It is no secret that Dr...
...in Manhattan...
...England could again be branded as the "war monger...
...The Dakar gpisode will certainly not influence the war's outcome...
...They" even machine-gunned the survivors in the boats...
...It is our purpose to return to a more detailed discussion of this task, in which we hope to present the issue ic more concrete form...
...Our trains and highways are used to carry German civilians to safety in France...
...Having won a majority of delegates to the state convention of the party, the Laborites will now proceed to nominate candidates for United States senator, congneetmea at large, and judges of the Court of Appeals, indorse formally President Roosevelt for reelection, approve the national defense program opposed by the Communists, and take such other action as is necessary to consolidate control of the party's state organization in the hands of the anti-Communists, c. Another step that must and, we fully expect will be taken, is the repudiation of all candidates supported by Communists and known to be Communist stooges...
...In this task of saving the A.LP...
...And suggests some fundamental lessons for this country...
...Give me a compromise that shall bring peace.' Let me say: 'Hang the leading traitors...
...Some persons believe that national collapse or democracy's death would be worse than war...
...here...
...Madden and Mr...
...even more than now, and a good start now will 4x*°*a^ our federation for future tasks...
...Party clubs should be reorganized so as to eliminate' the Commn-nazis...
...Now we know there isn't anything left, not even for transportation of food...
...The post has been made vacant by the expiration of the term of J. Warren Madden, to whose reappointment the American Federation of Labor and all true friends of organized labor are opposed...
...That wasn't so, and the British are paying for de Gaulle's error, and their inclination to believe his good news, with some naval losses, and even more, with setbacks in morale...
...We can decide to stay, and resist and win...
...He » a reactionary and Bourbon par excellence...
...But there is one perception upon which both schools of philosophy should easily agree...
...Such action n»7 tens of thousands of votes, and in several states *^cf^ce, may be so close that a few thousand may turn the But U»at is not all...
...Obviously, General de Gaulle informed the English government that France's African colonies are enthusiastically waiting for the first opportunity to join de Gaulle's forces...
...It's not at all difficult to imagine some "chief executive" of the future employing such an agency to receive mandates of the American people...
...They were coming home...
...In ¦¦ Paris, our friends report all stores have been emptied of underware, clothes and shoes...
...I hear of many similar occurrences every day...
...Very much can be said for each of these two ways...
...Witt and others go with them...
...The Societe National des Chemins de Fer tells us that the railroads are being rebuilt quickly...
...Now it is here and we have to face it...
...Madden has been responsible for a situation that has provoked bitter resentment on the part of the vast majority of organized labor and- has served to pour water on the mill of reactionaries who seek to destroy the National Labor Relations Act...
...At Rochester, the Communists were driven from the state C.I.O...
...Leiserson to clean up the mess for which Mr...
...The two developments combined strengthen enormomr...
...Others should follow-immediate purpose is vitally important...
...free the territories and keep them free—that is our compromise...
...Some persons think war is worse than anything else...
...On the contrary, they steal all our provisions and send them to Germany...
...For instance in our city there were accumulated gasoline stocks for many years...
...England wanted Dakar without usin...
...Hart and the Union League...
...I'm not a military expert, and thus I do not know precisely how essential a victory at Dakar would have been...
...Or is he reluctant to offend his friends...
...Their defeat in the A.LP...
...the chances of President Roosevelt to carry the pivotal state of New York in November...
...We hope it will not...
...in agreement with Hitler and Goebbels, that the Jews were responsible for the war...
...In France they only' say what the Germans authorize them to say...
...But that, too, would serve their purposes...
...Attacks Hart's Speech Against 'Democracy7 From HERBERT M. MERRILL To the Editor: Between the faux pas of Merwin K. Hart at the "true Americanism" luncheon of the Union League Club on September 19, and the address of Herbert Hoover on the business outlook after the war, it should be fairly obvious that we have something like a "Cliveden Set" over here...
...in Rochester and with the offensive now being waged against them all along the line, at every point where they are entrenched in government, in labor unions, and other organizations...
...It is time to stop being 'soft,' " Mr...
...rn*blo«slv, overwhelming force—and Dakar is a Nazi victory...
...Besides, it is the certain, unavoidable, universal defeat...
...You have been told they feed the civilians...
...THAT same intellectual irresponsibility which * is the basic cause of most of contemporary democracy's tragic failures, was at work...
...Our corner chain store had sent its trucks to Bordeaux to call for their supply of Charente butter for our region...
...We almost venture to predict that it will not...
...Madden he would only let himself in for a bitter fight on the floor of the Senate, supported by the American Federation of Labor and its millions o( members, without whom there can be no victory for the forces of progress and democracy in the November election...
...Our neighborhood chocolate dealers were expecting delivery of an order of thirty tons of chocolate which had arrived at Bordeaux, the goods and transportation having been paid for...
...THE A.L.P...
...I will merely cite two incidents which I can personnally vouch are true since they happened here to the people I know well...
...We can decide to run away, and perhaps in that we could succeed...
...They will continue to do so, not only as regards the task of rooting out the Communist cancer but in the equally important job of promoting the party's growth as a genuine instrument of independent political action making for the progress of social democracy in America...
...They hold all our stocks and all the richest parts of France, Our wheat and our rye are already requisitioned to go- to Germany as soon as it is thrashed—these are the armistice clauses that are revealed little by little and that no one ever dared to tell us immediately because they were so hard for France...
...We refer to the task now confronting the President,of appointing a chairman f>t the National Labor Relations Board...
...Madden after having appointed Dr...
...THE ONLY POSSIBLE PEACE gIMULTANEOUSLY with the sketch which has been given us of the German-Italian-Spanish bargain for dividing up Europe and Africa and reaching across the Atlantic to subjugate Latin-America—with due regard, we may be sure, for the 'legitimate aspirations" of Russia and Japan in Asia and beyond—comes the rumor that another appeal for peace will soon be launched from the Vatican...
...Our Government does nothing and proposes, nothing without first asking their advice...
...Hart's address so much that it decided to supply its members with printed copies...
...The civilian population deals with them (the Germans) only through sheer necessity...
...UP TO MR...
...or one decides to annihilate him—in which case one must assemble the strongest possible forces and use them systematically, at the right moment, and at the right place...
...At the present moment, however, let us concentrsteupor the immediate objective of driving the Communists bom the A.L.P...
...Madden, with' the incitement and assistance of Mr...
...Hart told the assembled Republican money bags and windbags, adding "we must rid the country of Marxism...
...Madden, is now reported to be inclined to name him again, for reasons which may appear sufficient to the President, but which cannot be justified by the facts or by the larger public interest involved...
...The S.D.F...
...Somehow it will turn out all rigfit"—witn uiis imbecilic slogan of a lunatic "optimism" one democracy after another stumbles into the mess...
...Madden and Mr...
...To retreat from Dakar, after having touched the spot, is a sadder blow for England than a clean Nazi occupation of the colony would have been...
...He then proceeded to glorify the hard-boiled energy of Fascism, citing it as an example for the American people to follow, to denounce the transfer of fifty American destroyers to England, and to assail the asylum granted by this and other countries to refugees from totalitarian William Allen White's Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies was characterized by Mr...
...lift up the banner of the Union and make a highway in which every true American citizen, minding his own business, can walk unmolested...
...and clearing the field for future fruitful and constructive action...
...If you knew the atrocities they have committed and are committing every day, you would understand that we can only bow our heads under duress...
...Fascism and Communism adopted by the convention, was due to the efforts of C.I.O...
...As a matter of fact a Schenectady scientist is now experimenting with a gadget designed to indicate preponderance of opinion in a multitude, and it is by no means inconceivable that such a device could be utilized in direct legislation...
...Smith, a notorious^ fellow-traveler, are held responsible...
...But nothing can be said in defense of a policy which tries to let the train run on two tracks at the same time...
...The worst of all possible ordeals is the punishment of national collapse plus all the additional horrors of war...
...Should the President decide to reappoint Mr...
...Our young Belgian neighbor does not want to go back to Brussels...
...Smith, the National Labor Relations Board has been transformed into a factionalist agency friendly to Stalinist ' arid otnerdestrUctive elements and hostile to bona fide labor interests...
...Hart "suspected," that it wis through the influence of the Communist International * 1935 that the word was smuggled into our political thought and action...
...but everything in between, this muddling around between fearful "optimism" ' and childish, more or less verbal provocations, has no chance at all...
...They should not be permitted to utilize the instruments of democracy in their conspiracy to cut democracy...
...Together with NLRB member Edwin S. Smith and Nathan Witt, executive secretary of the NLRB, Mr...
...All this has been sent out very quickly...
...They did yeoman work in the primary election...
...To extend no aid to England is better than giving too little...
...He has fought labor unions, child labor social insurance, socialized medicine, compulsory health w surance, and "excessive" expenditures on education...
...Perhaps it is not a matter of philosophy, but of nerves, to choose our behavior in such a moment...
...A NATIONAL policy can be carried out with ** the fundamental aim of avoiding war or with the fundamental aim of being victorious...
...Many were surprised to see German families settled into their homes...
...for Labor and for America, Social-Democrats have a leading role to perform...
...Those purchases however are being paid , in beautiful new French banknotes...
...The cooking utensils, pots, pans, etc...
...coincides with the smashing blow they received last week at the state convention of the C.I.O...
...We are fast reaching the point where democracy can be made more efficient, and more responsive to the tempo of advancing technology, than any totalitarian dictatorship...
...Whatever England undertakes associated with anything French, has the air of catastrophic superficiality...
...In the face of the totalitarian challenge there are always two possible reactions—only two...
...It is difficult to see how th» President can reappoint Mr...
...To accept Japan's invasion of French Indo-China without any protest at all is by far wiser than to make a verbal protest and to accept that fundamental change in the Asiatic world...
...In the first phase of their emigre activity they overestimate their countrymen's readiness to line up with them, while they underestimate the victorious foe's firm control over the nation...
...And that, exactly that, i3 the necessary outcome of a policy which irritates without fighting the foe.with all available power...
...i^ fraternal societies, to campaign for Roosevelt and ^irju, is bringing an excellent response...
...What happened is nonetheless of momentous value as a lesson for the democratic world...
...Madden is a confused liberal who knows little about the problems of organized labor and, according to convincing evidence, has been utilized too easily by Stalinist and other factionalist elements surrounding John L. Lewis for their particular purposes...
...It is a lie...
...They say the English are hurting them so much by their air-raids that Germans (of West Germany) are being moved into France...
...It is obvious that the only peace proposal which Hitler and his: accomplices would consider at this time would be one that sanctioned all their crimes and left them in possession of their loot...
...It is no glory and all shame...
...W. M. Leiserson, the third and only member of the NLRB who enjoys the confidence and respect of employes and employers alike, is determined to quit the Board if Mr...
...throat...
...Among the things Mr...
...Many people we know who went back home in the occupied zone found their houses (those ¦which were not destroyed) neatly emptied of all personal linens, shirts, suits, etc., only sheets were left...
...Smith must go...
...If England should accept and America approve such a proposal, the criminals would have time to rest their fighting forces, to improve their economic situation, to organize their tyranny in the conquered lands, to accumulate war materials, to carry on fifth-column activities in countries that still are free—and whenever they chose they- would break every new promise as they have broken every promise in the past, and resume their career of armed aggression...
...After the trucks were loaded, these "robbers" ordered the drivers to unload at once and sent' the trucks back empty...
...But we were not asked...
...The dictators probably do not imagine that England would accept any such proposal...
...the drivers saw the butter sent to Germany...
...To the Editor: TOULOUSE, France.—I must tell you that what the papers tell about us are pure lies...
...Because they are afraid they could not do it if England wins our war...
...The accusation would of course deceive only those who wish to be deceived—but there are such moral cowards everywhere...
...The English radio had informed us before...
...You know why...
...We expect no quarter from the Communists and we will give none...
...To build too few planes is worse than building none at all...
...You heard of the sinking of the Meknes carrying French soldiers who had escaped to England after the battle of France...
...The story of the situation that has long existed in the National Labor Relations Board and the desperate efforts now being made by the Communists to retain control of the strategic position they occupy in the NLRB is told in the Washington story on the first page of this issue of The New Leader...
...Because of technical aspects arising from the primary system, which enables the Communists to cling to such pom-tions as they managed to retain in the A.L.P...
...The writer was particularly struck with the attempt of the New York Times to find excuses for the luncheon remarks of Mr...
...His friends informed' him that all young healthy men are sent into German slavery to work either in the factories or on the farms...
...at Dakar we have witnessed, once more, the mechanism of democracy's greatest vice—to irritate the enemy without the power or the resoluteness to destroy him...
...to take several steps to clinch the primary victory of the Labor, ites...
...The ship flew our flag, our colors were painted on all sides...
...Hart, suggesting that it might be the case of a speaker differentiating between "republican" and "democratic" forms of governments...
...Madden is reappointed...
...In the early summer of 1661, when the slaveholders' rebellion had got fairly well under way and things were going badly with the Union army, some well-meaning folk in * the -North,' together with many who were not well-meaning, raised a cry for a compromise peace...
...Hart has been for many years die lesdin* enemy of any and all social and labor legislation >n _«¦• State...
...It develops, over and over again, that to think a thought through is more, important, but obviously also more difficult, than to wage and win a war...
...Henry Ward Beecher -answered them from the pulpit of Plymouth Church...
...Our Belgian neighbors told us that all northern French refugees and Belgians cannot return home before August 15...
...Our Government which bitterly condemned the English for the Mers El Kebir tragedy, dared to tell us about the Meknes in the newspapers, only five days later, and very briefly, and without.even a mention that the Germans-torpedoed the boat...
...It is "we" or "they...
...If any man asks me," he said, "whether I will consent to a compromise, I reply, 'Yes...
...unions who play the leading role in the A.LP., together with the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union...
...Force Prisoners to Work in Reich Factories (The following letter was received by a friend of The New Leader and turned over to the Letters to the Editor column...
...Consequent capitulation may have the chances of physical preservation and its alternative of consequent resistance, the chances of victory...
...Either one prefers "peaceful" defeat to the risks of resistance—in which case one must omit everything which could irritate the foe whom one cannot, or even does not want, to destroy...
...organization...
...Schenectady, N. Y. By Willi Schlamm Where the News Ends PRANCE'S fatal influence on England's heroic struggle has not yet ended...
...tditoxiatb MR...
...These were gotten through "their" worthless marks...
...Th'e'te is speculation as to whether it will be echoed from the White House...
...This is disaster, the whole disaster, and nothing but disaster...
...Now, what we want to know is whether Mr...
...We know...
...but that the retreat, after two days of an unnecessary battle, must somewhat spoil British confidence and England's influence in the colonial world, goes without saying...
...It is written from iPoulouse,* in unoccupied France, and reflects the thinking of many of the French people towards the "Men of Vichy...
...give peace to their fields...
...Hart told the Union League, which invited him to open the first of its series of "true Americanism" lectures, that "it is time to brush aside this word democracy' with its connotations...
...If the NLRB is to gain the respect and authority which every sincere friend of labor desires for it, both Mr...
...That the Pope, hostage and pensioner of the Fascist regime, should consent to be the dictators' mouthpiece, is perhaps understandable...
...Willk" prepared to repudiate Mr...
...Our government is under no such compulsion...
...It is- no mere coincidence that the Union League, "^j^ is a staunch supporter of Wendell L Willkie, invited !»»¦ Hart to inaugurate its series of "true Americanism ' lector** Why not...
...suppress their armies...
...Under the administra-^1 tion of Mr...
...France wanted victory without war—and France is no more...
...S. D. F. ON THE J<* *pHE call of the Social Democratic Federation's n**^ executive for the formation of local committees or co* ferences, in conjunction with friendly labor b0...
...MADDEN AND THE N.L.R.B...
...The Germans torpedoed them...
...AS friends and supporters of President Roosevelt we want ^~ to speak frankly on a matter which is of the utmost importance to the administration, to organized labor and the country as a whole...
...1 love compromises...
...will be needed aftere...
...AND THE ELECTION 'J'HE two-to-one victory scored by the Laborite wing of the American Labor Party against the Communists in the primary election confirms the view of those who believe that the Communists must and can be driven from the A.LP., as they surely will be eliminated from the entire labor movement...
...It's like sinister magic...
...General de Gaulle, certainly the best mind France's army has produced since ¦ the first World War, apparently suffers the usual malady of exiled politicians...
...And this writer's attention was concentrated this week on the Dakar incident, in spite of the last days' upheaving events everywhere else, because that minor occurrence, in his opinion, sadly clarifies all the democratic shortcomings...
...Boston, Providence, r»"" delphia, Baltimore...
...And it would be highly desirable that Mr...
...Chicago, and Los Angeles are arflonj the cities thus far heard from...
...As to "democracy" Mr...
...in Manhattan and elsewhere, it will now be necessary for the ALP...
...This should be followed as soon as possible by a complete reorganization of the A.LP...
...The bridge of Vierzon has been destroyed and the highway to Paris goes by way of Bourges...
...In the primary election they received a blow which must ultimately lead to their complete elimination from the A.L.P...
...But merely a child or a lunatic could decide to do the third thing: to run—but in running, to throw small pebbles at the ogre...
...Hart as subversive "collectivism The Union League Club liked Mr...
...As sound as the reasons for the Dakar undertaking may have been, to start it with a minor military' force— too weak even to overcome the weak demoralized French garrison in a distant colony—is by far more disadvantageous to England than would have been the unopposed loss of Dakar to the Nazis...
...This nervous indecision combines the horrors of capitulation with the horrors of war...
...But so long as compromise means yokes on us and license to them, silence for liberty and open-mouthed freedom to despotism, so long compromise is a Devil's juggle.' " That is the spirit in which America should answer any appeal that does not mean death to the dictatorships...
...While it may be true, as the Times' editor declared, that "a nation of more than 430,000,000 people obviously can't be run by a system of town meetings," it is also true that there are such things as the radio and television, devices which could be used to give us pure democracy, if we were only disposed to "brush aside" 18th century forms of proceedure and put ourselves up-to-date...
Vol. 23 • September 1940 • No. 39
