Letters To the Editor
Letters To the Editor Convoys Now Would Save English Morale, London Letter Declares From HARRY LANDSBERG To the Editor: LONDON (Passed by the Censor).—It is necessary just now to make known to...
...Wells and Laski, I am happy to learn, enjoy far less respect in, England than over here...
...To such an extent have we broadened our political philosophy and reinforced our machinery for action that the America of 1941 is a far different, more humane, more modern country than the land we knew only a decade ago...
...To England, battered, blood-stained and tempted in her darkest hour to think that she might be fighting a losing battle for honor, it would bring the assurance of victory...
...His Wait-, has become little more than common props...
...The plant was promptly taken oyer, and the rights of labor were protected...
...Jocasta, -'ijjf the Greek myth, was Oedipus' desirable mott&fr, whom, after having killed his own father, tat chap married.—W...
...OR take this devastating wholesale indictment of Laski, Wells and Co.: "As a matter of fact, the public to whom they address themselves has quite a shrewd sense of these matters...
...Canada, New Zealand, and Australia have much more in common with us than language and habits...
...shall see to it that we are able to give it, too...
...of the Utopian pacifism which has done so much to bring the second World War about...
...The New Zealanders are now enjoying the advantages of their new state medical service...
...Let them think of this, let them answer if they can: If, through lack of adequate American aid, Britain loses this war, we people of the United States will be forced to maintain a system of regular, universal military training for decades to come...
...After every war we disbanded our troops and wrecked our army apparatus with ruthless disregard for the national safety...
...It would galvanize into action those forces against Hitler which wait and wait for just that momentous declaration from the United States of America...
...The essay, called "The Obscurantists," is aimed at that particularly disgraceful school of British political writers who in the disguise of "leftists" make the world unsafe for democracy...
...To the enslaved and silent peoples of Europe it would spell liberation...
...But our ordinary, average American knows them and naturally aligns himself with them...
...Factories are being built, workers trained, and such industrial programs realized as no one heretofore ever dreamed of in these lands...
...n*(J'*, here treat all this with tempt it deserves...
...In his historical books he hat often shown a scholar's regard for accuracy...
...The American of 1941 has widened his horizon and increased his faculty for cooperation...
...It will give longer years of service...
...these bombs crush skllj||> but never England's brains...
...We all recall the 1920's with their calm acceptance of degradation gilded with dreams of wonderful nonsense...
...Some of us feel that you still do not realize that total war against our civilization must be met with total counter-war against the barbarians...
...The revised plan will easily become an accepted part of our social machinery...
...Another remark made is: "Action is what is wanted with regard to Irish bases, and tbe U.S.A...
...For the next three or four years young men will be taken early —between school and the shop—and trained for army service...
...Ifr pacifists are defeatist...
...But a declaration of war would electrify all the opposition to Hitler wherever that opposition exists...
...The depression found us sadly lacking in the intelligence and courage required by that historic emergency...
...The vigorous leadership now being given to England by the British Labor Party has supplied new incentive to the corresponding parties in all of the dominions...
...Ivor Montago...
...Indeed, the complacent assumption that they always have been .right, and are still, pervades their books...
...world with an output of two books a day in which he lustily tries to spoil the faith in his nation's democratic struggle: "When life has no meaning (beyond materialist values), old age acquires a tragic emptiness, for it is the approaching end of everything...
...Not since the days tof the Civil War have Americans felt so deeply both privileges and the duties of their citizenship...
...Both the Labor Government in New Zealand and the National'Government in Australia are sharply criticized and forced to defend themselves and revise their programs...
...For the March issue of his magazine he has written a marvelous essay which, though merely twenty pages long, represents to me a pSrfect achievement in truth-telling...
...All the authors in question have been consistently wrong about international affairs ever since the peace that ended the first World War, if not longer...
...Labor has ruled since 1936...
...The authors we are Considering sha.re the responsibility for the war, seeing that they have been amongst the promoters of Utopian pacifism which, through disarmament and 'collective security.' helped to reduce the armed preponderance of the victors over the vanquished in the last war and so enabled Germany to achieve the ascendency they needed to attempt the conquest of Europe...
...Will ywtfj^* President be able to comnmlP w Americans soon ? I hav* asked: "Will it be too Httj»**» too late ?" -'Al...
...In writing about the events of his own day he i|, strangely indifferent to accuracy...
...Our people are now conscious of their former failure...
...Almost every papp of Professor Laski's book is made up of platitudes, frequently relieved by misrepresentation...
...In the 'totalitarian' states the young have no youth, but only a false maturity—in the materialistic democracies old age is without the fullness of maturity and clings to a distressful pseudo-youthfulness...
...There is something peculiarly ignoble in their utter lack of genuine serioos* ness, and of any deeper humanity, and in their irresponsible babblings about war, revolution, and the tragic destinies of men, women, and whole nations...
...The headquarters of the Joint Appeal are at 122 East 42nd St., New York, N. Y. By Willi Sehlamm Where the News Ends THIS writer, eager to share with his patient readers not only his usual sorrows hut also his rare joys, is happy to announce that he has just met Britain's spirit at its best Your attention is called to an outstanding piece of creative criticism published in the March issue of "The Nineteenth Century and After," a splendidly edited British magazine...
...This will disrupt industry and the professions less than the present plan...
...no pant with Russia, he has not the remotest idea...
...Those who advocate autarchy would prevent the securing of peace through international cooperation...
...Few here are gloomy...
...might send bombers to an Irish port to be flown to Britain, and see what the Irish will do...
...fied countenance from the most ignominious -inverses, and are never so confident that they were always right as when events have proved rtuti' clusively that they were always wrong...
...He is fond of extending praise or blame to governments and to whole nations as though they were children at school...
...Thoughtless or selfish people who use canned phrases...
...Its mellowness and serenity are troubled by hopeless attachment to the fugitive past, an attachment that grows more and more hopeless with the accelerating passage of time...
...Leisured contemplation, the greatest joy, perhaps, of old age, becomes intolerable and there seems nothing to do but write, write, write...
...PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT and Mayor LaGuardia both favor revision of the Selective Service Act...
...We must have either one or the other...
...There are only two ways to security...
...Many of us are unhappy about the thought that you in America still appear not to know how essential it is to crush Hitlerism completely and ruthlessly...
...afraid of Hitler's threats, and if not, what are, the Americans waiting.fcf It is important to know "fW the man in the street tlnal* what fire fighters talk sbant, what the men and women at tfcaV posts discuss...
...The cause that has America behind it cannot be lost...
...It is quite evident that he never seriously studied the subject (tf relations between England and Russia), that he never went to trouble of following events closely, day by day, and sometimes hour fc* hour, consulting documents, sifting the evidenca obtaining information from experts, revising judgments, analyzing rumors, and accountis*' for new situations as they arise...
...Laski— but what we had to say was mere flattery compared with the intellectual trouncing they receiver' from "The Nineteenth Century's" editor...
...Their sense of the value of liberty, their deep urge toward democratic progress—these are the impulses that have inspired us from the very beginning of our history...
...It's . a masterpiece, and if you have a chance to read it in full, do not miss the treat...
...Since I am in this trade myself, I know what I am talking about...
...The world threat to democracy haS forced us to reinterpret it in terms of living...
...The Germans do not know...
...Professor Laski has not done it...
...As the nation prepares to celebrate I Am an American Day on May 1 8th...
...Again I am asked: "Is the U.S.A...
...Contrary to the gloomy expectations voiced by our isolationists, democracy has never been so alive and energetic in these widely scattered states as it is during these times of war and crisis...
...But nowhere is there a sign that they themselves are aware of this...
...We are working toward a regular system of military training...
...The allurement of simple solutions, that are not solutions at all...
...Many here are unhappy about the slowness of aid to the common cause for which we in the British Commonwealth of Nations are fighting and in which great fight you have joined...
...not to keep on reminding us that we can take it, but that the U.S.A...
...One is to have the best army and navy in the world...
...Pushing forward with experimental eagerness, these commonwealths have long been laboratories of labor and social legislation...
...The country has accepted the principle of selective draft with enthusiasm...
...the New World Resettlement Fund headed by Oswald Garrison Vil-lard and John Dos Passos, and the Spanish Refugee Relief Campaign, Bishop Francis J. Mc-Connell chairman...
...1 AM AN AMERICAN ^^E never had a clearer right to be proud of America-than in this month of May, 1941...
...Take/ for instance, this profound analysis of that sad phenomenon . . . old man H. G. Wells annoying the...
...It is the pacifists who would force militarism upon us...
...All they stood for has 'Mm defeated...
...As this column's faithful readers know, we' do not exactly love H. G. Wells and Mr...
...In Australia it probably will rule in the near future...
...PERMANENT MILITARISM...
...They appear to MraE had no heart-searching, no genuine doubt, a3 have, consequently, undergone no inner chanM, They all have the, habit of emerging with saw...
...Here is what I hear from many-quarters: "Tell them in the U.S.A...
...The advent of the second international tragedy in a generation has...
...U.S.A, saying that she may convoy ships across the Atlantic...
...I am giving you a brief-a^"* of what is troubling wvjjJS With your usual CO Ul ttSK9 imagination, your paper large on this vitally mW^ff...
...1} lost nearly 2,000 dead in the h* two London air-raids snd...
...tj?a§ assign the blame for the disasters of our -ajjfc to various abstractions—to 'reaction,' to HtSm talism,' to 'privilege,' to belief in national sovereignty, and so on...
...writers and soap-box philosophers for America1...
...So this week's column is going to surprise you with a "guest...
...we have every right to feel pride in the America that is and faith in the America that is to be...
...many wounded...
...Life, especially when it has been fortunate and attended with much success, becomes, in retrospect, a kind of holiday that is almost over—and there will never be another...
...over-age destroyers...
...As is the case with an individual, it is dangers and difficulties that test a nation and develop its quality...
...It has, on the whole, remained uncorrupted by 'popular' books...
...They seem as dead or indifferent to human frailty as to human strength and grandeur...
...Now I have additional reasons for this wish...
...Such work fi the routine of every conscientious political JOttivl nalist...
...But beginning in 1933 we gathered our strength, applied our brains, and developed our sense of responsibility...
...Grace Mac-Innis (on Page 5), shows how the New Deal works among our northern neighbors...
...The Australian Laborites are fighting for "'better pay for soldiers and better housing for workers, and winning elections in their stride as they go along...
...The English, it seems, are glad to have exchanged their over-aff...
...They seem to be unaware of the terrific drama that is approaching its climax and of its fearful implications...
...You shall meet adventure and find reassuring faith in tat dependability of unspoiled British judgment When H G. Wells lectured in America...
...the International Relief Association headed by Charles A. Beard...
...Old age cannot come into its own...
...about "another imperialist war," about "keeping out of war to preserve democracy at home" do not know the citizens of these free dominions...
...The other is to build a world commonwealth of nations with the will and the power to keep the peace...
...Let me quote a well-known writer, H. N. Brailsford...
...They have to be convoyed now...
...We have never been a militaristic nation...
...In this case it happened to be our own Steel Workers Organizing Committee that received the support of the Dominion Government in^jUs dealings with a manufacturer...
...is one of the principal causes...
...A report hi* " that Stalin embraced with great emotion...
...This forces us to address a plain question to our pacifists and isolationists...
...ganda...
...Letters To the Editor Convoys Now Would Save English Morale, London Letter Declares From HARRY LANDSBERG To the Editor: LONDON (Passed by the Censor).—It is necessary just now to make known to the men and women in America what the average man and woman here thinks of American aid to Britain, to democracy and our civilized way of life...
...This was written nearly ten months ago...
...THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS ^^O American has the least excuse for underrating the democracy of the British dominions...
...I have the pleasure t» introduce to you Mr- Voygts, for many pre-Hitler years the liberal Manchester Guardian's correspondent and expert for Germany, at present editor of "The Nineteenth Century and After...
...But, America looms laljt * the minds of all...
...We wjll do it—unless the pacifists and isolationists are successful in their present propaganda campaign...
...To stop writing, is always possible, but the urge to write is hard to resist when writing becomes like a drug to deaden the sense of fugitive time...
...Not only are divisions of troops being trained and transported...
...AND how true, how final, this sentence of spiritual death delivered, in conclusion, against "The Obscurantists": "Their shallow minds have merely seized upon the idea of a European revt^ution which hat become so fashionable on the Left, and they uts it as an excuse for outpourings of completely fatuous verbiage...
...As we gradually assume our share in the present struggle in the defense of democracy, our deepened consciousness of the issues involved is evident on every hand...
...What is the use of the...
...some of them naV ing their lives to save oft** bringing out the dead and mati" lated from bombed houses...
...The t/»* munists and their friends, gether with their pro-FsW» allies, adopt an "I told yea* attitude over our recent ana** able reverses...
...That their exorcisms and apostrophes may be inettets tive seems to worry them much more than thaj Germany may win the peace...
...A recent book has reminded us that in the 1870's we were sunk in graft and prejudice and brutality...
...In-deed, his comments on this subject are of a sovereign superficiality...
...The only alternative is constant preparedness for war...
...If it was true then, how more terribly true is it now ? The silent peoples of imprisoned Europe do not know now of American aid to Britain...
...Information Hot Obtainable Elsewhere From, Elisabeth C. Walton To the Editor: I like the paper very much and find a good many interesting things in it that I don't find anywhere else...
...Compared with these periods, our time is one of increasing social conscience and a rising sense of national and international responsibility...
...compelled us at last to recognize our responsibility as a member of the commonwealth of nations...
...In New Zealand...
...Our progress in the grasp of international affairs is even more striking...
...But they can see no flaw in what the* stood for and still stand for, although the «WL-pleteness of the defeat is sure evidencer fatal, a fundamental flaw...
...We entered the first World War with a sense of adventure and made our exit from it with careless irresponsibility...
...I read the article last Sunday, and it was really like going'to church:'"What a'~-moral relief, what a spiritual uplift, to see that these shallow prophet* are not liked, at home after' all...
...For the Nazis, even while the church bells tolled in triumph, it would sound the knell of defeat...
...What I can do for you here is to give you only a few tantahxing samples—hoping that these tidbits will sharpen your appetite for the full-course meal...
...In the midst of these mighty efforts, parliamentary debates and elections proceed full blast...
...Our natural impulse will be to do the same thing after the last all-clear signal has sounded at the end of the present struggle...
...In both these' nations a mighty war effort is going forward...
...j"f intellectual spokesman for jj* Communists, has just procW*** his blessing over the Stafla* Matsuoko pact...
...Messrs...
...Australia has been thought of aa a mining and grazing country, but now she points proudly to divisions sent into the war completely outfitted with the products of native industry...
...We can proudly proclaim him the not unworthy successor of the American of 1776 and 1861...
...An article by our Canadian correspondent...
...Now go and read the whole thing...
...Their one concern, it would seem, is to inflict upon mankind the crankery of which they are the exponents...
...factor: "There is no thseJMPJ we stand together or we a**^j3 singly, and our civilisatk^JJJ decent way of Hfe'l^jNpm out...
...In a book called "From England to America," published in July, 1940, in New York, he said, speaking of the United States: "A declaration of war from this republic would transform the history of civilization, and this we should all in a flash understand...
...He knows his own kind...
...And yet it is their watt that is in ruins...
...I would like to be somebody else...
...Of the reasons why there was, and could be...
...the American Friends of German Freedom whose chairman is Reinhold Niebuhr...
...They are better, sounder, subtler than ever...
...A few months ago this column wrote: "If I were H. G. Wells...
...j Or these remarks on Harold Laski and hk unchangeable love for Stalin's Russia: "Professor Laski seems to have what, in the jargon of the 1920's, was described as"'an 'Oedipus complex' about his own country and a 'Jocasta complex' towards Russia...
...The Joint Appeal is sponsored by the Emergency Rescue Committee, headed by Frank King-don...
...He "ait not even drawp on the reports, and articles nf those" who have...
...Appeal for Funds to Save Refugees The Joint Appeal of the Emergency Rescue Committee has sent out an urgent request for a §100,000 rescue fund to evacuate anti-fascist refugees from France and Lisbon, and for funds which will be used for the relief of men in concentration camps in France...
...W ith the exception of Spsl* the whole of continental Enrol* is under the heel of a- fSngat* power...
...bonk| rained on England...
Vol. 24 • June 1941 • No. 20
