Where the News Ends
Schlomm, Willi
By Willi Schlomm Where the News Ends ARE .we movmg, toward a goveMHftBn* of Dr. Gallop, by Dr. Gallop, and for Dr\ Gallup ? Lovers of genuine democracy are worried by this question. Since the...
...I cannot recall that the...
...It knows only vaguely where the fault lies...
...lies—the customary lie, the interested lie, and statistics...
...but it must also insist tnatwe gov...
...Its "Program for Americans" repudiates the assertions at "the confused in mind and the faint of heart" who have resigned themselves to acceptance of German Nazism, Italian Fascism and Russian Communism as "the wave of the future...
...UNION FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION THE'NEW LEADER welcome* the recently formed Union .* for Democratic Action, led by Reinhold Niebuhr, as representing Socialists and progressives who understand clearly the meaning of the world crisis and seek to help solve it by positive thought and action...
...If—in response to this public opinion—Congress- passes such coercive measures as the Vinson Bill, we shall be in for real trouble...
...HE trouble with our public polls, mind you, is * not necessarily their methods...
...Then the law and the judgment of the nation will force the .selfish industrialists into line...
...We cannot run away from history...
...The speaker was interrupted by: "I don't need your Hitler...
...ernment, once elected, wrestle with urgent prok-t leirts on its ovm, A democratic people has tfcii right to demand leadership...
...That was the meaning and significance of Secretary Stimson's call...
...I do not know what should be done at a specific moment— to know that is up to the government...
...Other large demonstrations were held at Harvard and Rad-cliffe Universities- and at the University of California, where Oswald Garrison Viliard spoke...
...The Union for Democratic Action, whose program, we as Social Democrats recognize as our own, might well take Plekhanoff s words as its motto...
...This was untrue...
...In supreme confidence that the American people will respond to it as they have always responded in all moments when the freedom of America was imperiled, we welcome this call and hail it as the authentic"battle cry of America that will ultimately overwhelm the forces of darkness rampant in this unhappy world...
...The Columbia University ' meeting of the Youth Committee Against War was held in Milbank Chapel, where, an overflow audience listened to Dr...
...the moment of tbe survey, more or less arbitrarily- chosen, creates an additional element of distortion...
...Seventy-eight per cent have declared that they consider Communists responsible for the major part of the trouble...
...But it is hot under the collar and wants something ddne about it...
...The conquests Hitler has obtained, due in such large part to the indecisions, the weaknesses, the cowardice of others, and the conquests he may yet add can never be complete without the defeat pf the United States...
...There are about 700 college campuses in the United States...
...And he showed with incontrovertible facts and logic that the freedom of this country is imperiled because the freedom of the world is imperiled...
...In fact, a healthy democratic people does not elect leaders who are just on their level, but men who are aboveHt...
...Time is the essential factor, and time cannot be had if sea power is lost...
...Stimson appealed not only in the name of humanity, with which our fate is indissolubly bound, but also in thfc name of that sacred national egoism, that will to life which no people can abandon without meeting the death which the enemy is systematically preparing for us...
...Some harmful strikes have.actually been caused by Communist leadership of unions...
...In 193748, stodest rallies throughout the nation attracted more thsn 500,000 jsrufr ipants...
...The conception of a democracy as a system of govern-'' ¦ ment which guarantees that each single decision is made according to the established will of a. majority, is actually nonsense: whether or not sulphanalimide treatment should be admitted in public hospitals must be decided upon by experts and not by a majority vote of the populace...
...We must have continuous operation...
...If Britain is to hold our first line of defense while we prepare to defend ourselves against the rapidly advancing peril to our own shores, we must help keep the sea lanes between the British Isles and America open against the ever expanding depredations of the Nazi submarines and raiders...
...Perhaps on that day they will be able to come to an agreement...
...LABOR, MANAGEMENT, AND WAR *J*HE country is not satisfied with labor relations in (he defense industries...
...personality, attitude, air and-even the voice of the interviewer influence, consciously or not, the reaction of the "samples...
...On both sides of the line we need a sort of statesmanship which we have not seen up to now...
...Gallup's messengers...
...Not those of the crusaders reached the Holy Land who at the tight of every new city shouted 'Jerusalem...
...To be frightened into a belief that Hitler has created a new and permanent world order would be as naive as it would be cowardly...
...I am stupid myself...
...The Youth Committee Against War had nothing to do with the MacMillan Auditorium meeting and as a postscript, you overestimated my audience at Hunter...
...Perhaps they are merely acting in line with old prejudices...
...As a member in good standing in 3 of the 4-A's...
...Gallup or his methods...
...Attorning to experienced observers, ft» Youth Committee Against Wif totaled less than 10,000 at W meetings...
...a poll of a thousand students showed 70% against war...
...The vital fact is that England offers hope for progress...
...The nation is in danger...
...Any days lost are too many...
...That's why it was elected...
...Stimson warned, would be to reduce ultimately the power of our own navy to an impotent fraction of what it can do now in cooperation with the British...
...Proven to be so utterly wrong, our ambitious statistician'saw nor sense in living-further and swallowed his fountain pen...
...To coddle ourselves with thought of the small percentage of man-days lost is nothing but imbecile optimism...
...Knowing that there is plenty of time ahead to...
...And the same is true of all parts of democratic government...
...In -general, these gentlemen's ambitions are limited to being accurate...
...This' is an understandable strategem on her part to build her case...
...That "new world order" is neither new nor is it any order...
...Real solutions' must come from inside industry, from manage*' ment and from trade union leaders...
...Should we include under the heading of an anti-war meeting, the Youth Committee Against War demonstration at New York University Heights...
...f Ezra Stone, as a Trade Unionist, Hails New Leader as Labor Paper From EZRA STONE V (Producer, Playwright and Actor) To the Editor: Until recently the "New Leader" was for sae merely one ef the many publications which reach onr home...
...Any intelligent school boy familiar with the history of our development during the past one hundred years knows and understands this simple fact...
...Editor's Reply) Miss Hillyer is anxious to prove that the students of our nation are opposed to convoys and aid- to Britain...
...She notes anti-war demonstrations on 200 campuses...
...Suddenly, with an overwhelming feeling of happiness, this martyr to his scientific conviction realized that he had been entirely right after all: 2,356 suicides had occurred, though including his own, alas...
...Schiff, my venerable teacher of statistics, used to begin his annual.course with the warning: "Ladies and Gentlemen^ there are three kinds...
...JVRIVEN by the understandable'wish to be re-elected "the next time," public officials nowadays are more and more paralysed by the fa*fc ionable institution of public polls...
...to have an articulate opinion or even a ¦ clear idea as to what should be done...
...Fortunately, as Secretary Stimson assured the American people, our navy is ready for this task, the task of helping to "check the onward rush of the tide of Nazism until the other defense forces of all the democracies are completed...
...Both labor and management must take it into account...
...There were meetings on about 160 campuses...
...Cooperation of labor and management In speeding defense and all-aid to England, no compulsory limitation of the right to strike, no government control of labor unions, full protection of the rights of labor as the sturdiest support of democracy are other essential parts of In 'Welcoming the appearance of the Union for Democratic Action we hail it as another manifestation of the cSryttalfzation of the kind, of Socialist and social thinking - wAie h combines sound internationalism with vigorous American conceptions...
...Stimson was sure that "this would eventually and permanently confine the malign forces of despotism until the virus has run its course and the tide of freedom has begun to rise again...
...But all trade union leaders should do what some of them have done—give* positive leadership in support of our national effort...
...even the most careful choice of sample cases can never reliably reproduce the structure of the national entity...
...But this small attendance was not because the girls at Hunter are pro-war, but because it was registration day and classes could not be cut...
...Not that this column distrusts Dr...
...Nothing else would go so far toward setting the unions right before the nation...
...According to the rules of probability, applied to large quantities, the reaction of a few thousand persons may be almost, identical with that of the entire nation— provided, of course, the surveys "are made by a system of highly selective samples in each of the forty-eight States in proportion to voting populations," as Dr...
...Like all false prophets, these defeatists deal in half-truths, " the Union declares...
...His world power can never be safe as long as there is a. free, powerful America to challenge it by its very presence...
...We may say what we like about this...
...The reference to Senate* lip speaking at Yale under tit* US-pices of the America Firs* OssV^ mittee was taken from an As*>° ciated Press wire used « ? New York Times end SeriM Tribune...
...We're ffl»* jf know this was an eve^stfajr The small American jfjMjC Union chapter at llsfts>t<sy non-existence of any Vswk Off' mittee Against War i*JJ»2 large anti-totalitarian " JgfiR Mann Society, and the n«tj» signatures gathered bf thsaff...
...many of these rallies were forum discussions enlisting speakers of various viewpoints...
...Some of my best friends are statisticians...
...Recalcitrant industrialists, like Henry Ford and the managers of Bethlehem Steel have earned a major part of the difficulty...
...Within spoiled or decayed nations this yearning takes on the form of a longing for dictatorship...
...Perhaps the Citizens are misinformed...
...But these are not the essential dangers of Dr...
...Came New Tear's Eve .and your' statistician, waiting far the police reports with feverish impatience, had to acknowledge defeat: one minute to midnight, the news tickers reported DtfTy fourteen' of the fifteen suicides which would have made the year's predicted total...
...We cannot escape the facts...
...A government which confines itself to waiting for-"polls," instead of shaping their results, is a caricature of democracy...
...Jerusalem.' birt those who knew geography," wrote the great Russian Socialist George Plekhanoff...
...But their attitude is important...
...On the average, the leaders of labor have been both more patriotic end more reasonable than the leaders of industry...
...I dedicate this story to Dr...
...Having voted to supply the embattled democracies with the sinews of war, we are now going to see to it that they get them...
...On at least 200 of these, there were anti-war demonstrations on April 23rd...
...They must, .of coarse, preserve all the rights accorded under the Wagner act...
...More than a dozen had a thousand or more students in attendance...
...According to the best avaiUW* reports gathered by news'«#¦ ices, there were net mora th* 50,000 students participating i" all rallies on April 28...
...This column agrees wholeheartedly with the honest Viennese heckler...
...that is to come will not be an age of organized terror and dictatorship if Americans open their eyes, if they understand the dangers that confront them and prepare to fight those dangers—now...
...In a time like this, when rich contracts are being passed around, they just naturally go all out to get what they can...
...Legitimate defense against treason, sabotage and spying must not degenerate into an indiscriminate abridgement of civil liberties," is another principle in the Union's excellently formulated program...
...The oceans that separate us from the enemy would become overnight "easy channels for the path of attack against us" if the British navy, an integral part of our first line of defense, loses control of the sea lanes that unite America and Europe...
...The more frequent these "scientific sur-' veys," the less efficient and daring democratic* leadership...
...IR Dr...
...transient and temporary character does not make it any the Jess dangerous to us, as it has proven tragic and dangerous to others...
...If a candidate is not wiser, and better informed, . and abler than I am, there is not the slightest reason why I should give him my vote...
...Gallup puts it...
...Joseph C. Baldwin and President Gideonse...
...For this reason alone this war, the war of the British Democracy against Hitlerism.-is our War...
...Therefore Hiss Hillyer, presumably, is annoyed by onr statements that student strikes this year "fizzled...
...In a crisis like this a statesman on either side of the line will adopt the national point of view rather than the class point of view...
...But the voters virtually have a definite contract with the men of their confidence...
...Their old habit is to go the limit in the interest of those whom they represent...
...Work is the only thing that will win the war...
...But it must be continuous operation with a free and contented and cooperative labor force...
...The main press stories of a f> lura-bia anti-war meeting reports' the one held in the McMillan The*-tre...
...The City College rally was primarily in support of the seventeen' teachers suspended fo a result of the Rapp-Coudert inquiry, and it was that issue, not foreign policy, which drew the majority oJ listeners...
...Miss Hillyer cites *ha"«*l*t' flow" audience at Millbaiik'Shspjl with a Congressman IP* ?f professors as speakers.- CslSSWj' lists the seating capacity of M™" bank as 231...
...United States throughout its history—even when it was small and weak—has yielded to such a demand...
...Stimson- spoke for more than convoys, He appealed for the reassertion of the American soul, for the resurgence of that spirit which alone has made this Republic possible atid without which freedom and all that makes life worth living cannot endure...
...A Our figure of the asssndeB** at Miss Hillyer's meeting** Hunter was 50...
...Speaking with the cool and calm consideration for which he is noted, Mr...
...Once upon a time a' statieian who had developed new, precise methods of mathematical prognosis of, social trends, predicted that his city's toll of suicides during that current year would reach the figure of 2,356...
...But if they-rise to the level of statesmanship required, their efforts will be so evidently in- the public interest and the issues will be so clear, that public sentiment will be with them rather than against them...
...It is, as Secretary Stimson described it, "a regime of brutal lawlessness, one of those temporary reactions which have occurred at intervals during all of man's long history of progress upward...
...This was indicated unmistakably by Secretary of War Stimson in his radio address to the nation Tuesday evening, when he called for convoys to implement the purpose of the Lease-Lend Bill It was the most important, most forthright declaration by a spokesman of the administration since the beginning of the war, spoken with the approval of the President and the entire cabinet...
...If we are to avoid this fate, if we are to have time to prepare for adequate defense, if we are not to become isolated in a brutal, barbarian totalitarian world dominated by men who "both within and without Germany have set back the clock of time more than five centuries" we must now, without another moment's delay, leap full force to the aid of Britain on the sea...
...He demonstrated that the Nazi power dominating Germany and the continent of Europe, allied with others equally bent on the subjugation of mankind, "now arrogantly confront the world, including ourselves, with the alternative of abject surrender or uncompromising, forceful resistance...
...every psychologist knows that there is an important difference between a man's decision uttered in the presence of .other people ..and the same man's reaction if he must make up his mind when alone (as he'must at the voting machine...
...And I mean it...
...But its...
...They must defend their members against low, wages in a time of high prices...
...Although neither this column nor any of-its friends knows anyone who was ever honored by the visit of Dr...
...They are as disloyal to this country as any traitors who were ever- court-martialed...
...Since the statistical wizards began to know and publish -the people's opinions and longings with the cocksure air of scientific perfection, the very fundamentals of representative democracy are in danger...
...It will win for organized labor such a place in this country as it has never occupied in our history, AMERICA'S HOUR OF DECISION AFTER many months of debate and under the impact of events which have made action imperative-r-imperative to our own life and liberty—the United States is about to take the step which will bring the American navy and air fleet to the side of Britain...
...both of whom urged convoys and aid to Britain...
...Gallirp bat a government supported by the people's genulftV confidence and carried ont by the bold wisdom of its elected representatives...
...At the same time it demands that the cost of defense be borne by rigorous taxation on profits and in-comes to the limit of economic, feasibility, and that the burdens of any restrictions on consumption that may prove necessary be accompanied by a taxation policy that places those burdens where they are most easily absorbed...
...He echoed the thoughts and feelings of the overwhelming majority of Americana when he said, "I am not one of those who think that the priceless freedom of our country can be saved without sacrifice...
...To critical citizens everywhere it must be said that coercion of labor will not get results...
...Gallup's age, the politicians more and more 1 leer at neatly drawn pseudo-portraits of "public opinion...
...So we land where we are...
...These men must be brought into line by labor and the government working in unison...
...Gallup's intrusion into the working of democracy...
...iA victory for Nazi Germany "would swiftly drive the United States into a permanent war economy with grave consequences for democracy," the Union declares, adding that "the argument that we can deal adequately with Hitler - by putting our own house in order and 'setting an example* to Europe is the fantasy of innocents and the cunning of demagogues...
...One further-point of correction is important...
...The last thing he heard waa the venerable City...
...What makes it increasingly questionable, are the straw votes' Influence on all three branches of representative government...
...They represent the people who have the greatest stake in this was...
...If the British Isles should fall, Nazi Germany, dominating all the productive capacities of Europe, would become immeasurably stronger than the United States, and it would be only a question of a short time before we should be called upon to defend, alone, the whole of the Western Hemisphere against the overwhelming sea power which would then confront us in both oceans...
...These included demonstrations at Iowa University and Ames University, where Norman ThornaB spoke, at the Town Hall in Philadelphia, where Senator Nye and Maynard Kruger addressed an over-flow crowd...
...Senator Nye spoke for the All-Universal Peace Council, which is affiliated with the Youth Committee Against War...
...I shall never forget a Nazi meeting in Austria, long before Hitler took it over, in which a Pru»-s-ian speaker tried to sell Nazism' to the Austrian* with the' argument that Hitler is just "a mas from the street," merely a simple man like aC...
...Hall clock's twelfth stroke...
...The tradktessjl system of discovering the people's wishes, tht tea...
...The long prepared and carefully calculated, encirclement of the United States has begun, proceeding^ simultaneously from South America toward the Panama Canal and the threatened occupation of West Africa as a means of dominating the South Atlantic, and complemented by the power of Japan in the Pacific, aided and encouraged by the silent "neutral" member of the Axis, Soviet Russia...
...Pointing out that the war now being waged by England is essentially a war of the British people for the preservation of their own and mankind's liberties and for a better ordered world, the Union declares, "It is criminal folly to assume that there is nothing to choose between a British and a German victory...
...where the chief speaker, a faculty member, urged convoys and a declaration of w*rt The largest student rallies in the nation were held at Brooklyn College and at City College uptown...
...Back in the beautiful 'twenties, when I studied economics at the University of Vienna, Dr...
...We must not sit back and take comfort in the heroic and partly successful efforts of the Labor Department mediators and the National Defense Mediation Board...
...convince their voters of the -wisdom of decisions which at the moment of ae* tion were.not always understood and agreed with by the electorate, the elected officials could live up to their obligation not only to carry out a commission but also to provide leadership...
...Within healthly nations, where there is a growing knowledge of the increasingly complicated demands our modern civilization forces on government, people are looking for genuinely democratic leaders—' and certainly not for the weekly visits of Br...
...It is downright impossible' for ajt h of us, at any moment, within all realms of govern-ment...
...It calls for participation of the United States in the War if 'necessary, believing that the defeat of Hitler and all he stands for is an essential prerequisite to the preservation of democracy not only in .Europe but also in this country...
...Germany offers black terror...
...Two-thirds of the voters in Gallup polls "have said that in .their opinion strikes should be prohibited in armament industries...
...dent Defenders of DenjoertWg convoys, indicates thft JJJR students are more »ro-8*y^ than Miss Hillyer knows, to admit...
...Its immediate program is to fight fascism both at home and abroad...
...In your article you mention that Senator Nye spoke under the auspices of the America First Committee at Yale...
...And we fiddle around with percentages that prove things might be worse...
...The higher-ups in the trade union movement know perfectly well who these mis-leaders are, where they are, and what their motives are...
...the people in the audience...
...At Brooklyn, however, the chief speakers—at a rally sponsored by the Student Defenders of Democracy and the Student Council—were Rep...
...A democratic people jealously * watches to see that, its goveu iiiBsSJfin general . corresponds with the people's w^iOiopes aju^" philosophies...
...As long as the people spoke up each twoar three or four years, its elected representatives could keep the courage to act according to their, ©lew intelligence...
...At this moment there is a lull, but there are threats of great strikes to come...
...Ours is a complicated world...
...I was personalty attracted to it by a Broadway item and now I read it regularl...
...Gal-lup's inquirers, the basic principle of these straw votes is unquestionably Sound...
...Nothing doing: the city's clocks began to strike twelve, and only 2,355 persons had preferred to join the passing year...
...Such a policy will do more than win the war...
...All scientific thoroughness and completely impartial reporting granted—there are nevertheless theoretical objections to the institution^of straw votes...
...To refuse to take the bold step urged, Mr...
...We cannot, we dare not, we will not, dodge the responsibility...
...The great task before us now is to help inspire the masses of the American people, and particularly the labor movement, with this vision of a better world and a better America, free from the terrors of totalitarianism and moving forward once again along the broad pathway of orderly democratic progress...
...Even the most careful, preparation, organization and analysis of public polls can not avoid a few basic evils: the questions, f^ormnlateff by the inquirer, always have a certain hypnotic effect on the interviewed and slightly manipulate the answer...
...ell ers To the Editor Analysis Shows Youth Rallies Failed This Year From MARY HILLYER (Executive Director, Keep America Out of War Congress) To the Editor: I read with a great deal of concern The New Leader report or* the nation-wide student strike against war in the' April 26th issue...
...We sense a strong yearning for leadership everywhere...
...Secretary Stimson made it clear that the United States does not intend to wait quiescently for the moment when, like other nations now under the Nazi heeL'^j will be confronted with a demand for surrender...
...We are, indeed, at the end of an era, but the era...
...Sooner or later there must be a house-cleaning...
...The democratic feature in this picture is merely that the electorate must have the right to chose the men in whose hands shall be placed the control over the hospitals and the experts...
...I am thank* ful to you for your vigorous defease ef the rights of orgsnised labor, for your active support ef orderly social progress for sli Americans, and, lastly, far year excellent Drams Department...
...Combining its militant and constructive program in the dptpflfl of foreign affairs with a similar program at home, the Union calls for extension of economic democracy in this country based upon democratic planning for the popular welfare...
...But the fighting men on both sides have the tradition of fighting each other...
...At Dartmouth, where Senator Tobey spoke...
...George W. Hsrtmann and Congressman Knute Hill...
...fashioned elections, gave the elected letders net only mandates but also sufficient time to lead tfca "people toward weir convictions and d.ife*-e*t qfj" ders...
...The people are aware of all that...
...The President himself is expected to add the final touch to the momentous decision in an address to be delivered next week...
...Representative government of the people, by the people, and for t&t:t people is not a government a la Dr...
...li we lose this war, the leaders of both sides will some day meet in the concentration camp...
Vol. 24 • May 1941 • No. 19
