Where the News Ends
SCHLAMM, WILLI
By Willi Schlamm Where the News Ends SORRY, but this time I just can't join the dignified group of pessimistic commentators, as much as I usually enjoy that gloomy company. • After two weeks of...
...By defeating Weinstock, Di Silvestro deprives the Communist Party apparatus of one of its important bases in the New »York labor movement...
...But counter organization and open fights, led by men like R. J. Thomas in the United Automobile Workers, and James Carey in the United Radio, Electrical and Machinists, Union, can cut out the focal points of political infection...
...Because they hold that the only guarantee which workers have in order to be able to live at peace and preserve the democratic way of life is to defeat Hitler, these Socialists of Spanish descent affirm their enthusiastic support of President Roosevelt's policy of , all-out aid to Britain...
...All the billions spent for streamlined reorganization plans...
...Any fnabsfe ad*** on their part is bound to c1**^ an unfavorable reaction Russia...
...The Slavic brand of sit-down strike against the industrial system of the whip—a silent, stubborn, deadly, passive resistance—wouldn't be broken but only improved...
...All aid to the Russian people, but no illusions about Stalin...
...Also ask these American engineers whether it is true that the Soviet economy was a flop just because the Russians bad no contact with modern methods of organizing industrial work, plants, communication, etc...
...dM any reasonable military adviser in London or Washington expect that a single German soldier, a single German plane or tank would ~be rioot^ away with by Russian bullets...
...Berlin is enraged, but its rage will be academic unless German warships and submarines are ordered to challenge the situation created by the President's action, which has received the well-nigh unanimous approval of public opinion in this country...
...Whatever "educational" improvements the efficient Prussians might have in store for the Russian people—it was all tried out by Stalin who certainly did his best (which was little enough) to remake the mushik into a modern worker...
...These .characterizations apply no less to the Soviet regime under Stalin...
...Baldwin, Pratt and the rest of our rather gloomy newspaper strategists notwithstanding...
...Under Weinstock, the Painters' Council gaVe more than moral aid to such sections of the Stalinist structure as the Daily Worker, the Freiheit, the Peace Mobilization, and a score of other innocent front activities...
...Why, life-long prison terms and the death penalty for resistance against management (not to speak of attempts to strike...
...The Communists are in a minority...
...If, however, he hat bad luck and his Russian campaign ru i into, old-fashioned Russian snow—well, then we sat each other at the gayest party the New Lesser | has ever arranged...
...Arid now we see the spectacle of Maxim Litvinov rising from the dead to plead desperately for closer military collaboration of Britain with Soviet Russia...
...With all due distrust for the Stalin clique who might still try to eat-Vieay Petain in order to save their regime Ibis hat become a large-scale war...
...In the ALP, it is posaft* that some may advise aa sesW ment of effort to oust the esav munists from that pert* ¦ anything like this results...
...French working people, spoiled by decades of democratic industrial manners, were temporarily . stunned, and terrified into increased efficiency when the monster of totalitarian police, utterly unknown in France, took things over...
...I should merely like to point out that obviously since the only people invited to such a conference would be representatives of freely functioning parliamentary bodies, none of the' totalitarian governments would be represented...
...The realization that the war of the democracies against Hitler and his regime has just begun must have finajly percolated into the minds of the responsible military leaders of Germany...
...with destroyed oil wells and blown-up plants...
...What will Germany have won if she succeeds in annihilating the entire Red Army, say, by-October...
...Until June 22, ljej^ , England and America definitely had to considers rather substantial German drawing on Russia*, supplies...
...Until Jut* | 22...
...Predicting a new peace offensive by Britain at an opportune moment in the Russian campaign, Mr...
...Letters To the Editor Spanish Socialists Hit Thomas for America First Aid From AvelinoPernas, Secretary...
...It is absolutely inconceivable that an army, having fought and bis* as the Russians have so far, would retreat without blowing -up the oil wells of Baku and Batata, for example...
...rVESPITE this writer & contempt tor Stalin sad his personal environment...
...each Nazi tank destroyed around Bialystok is a God-send, few were entitled to dream of until two weeks ago...
...It will beeasw more difficult to distinguish «sf-selves from the cowiminnts-Many of our own innocent* ssV even revive demands for urntai action...
...decisions to us Americans...
...For a quick destruction of the Red Army the Nazis would have to pay with hundreds of thousands of their elite troops...
...Just*' ask those unfortunate American engineers who, after coming to Russia as well-meaning and well-paid aides of "Socialist reconstruction," met such an ice cold enmity among the Russian workers that they desperately fie* Utopia and gratefully returned to the relative comfort of American unemployment...
...Should Germany succeed in beating sis>>, Red Army before Fall these supplies will decrease rather than increase, and not merely far the first few months...
...I am not wiUhaj t, overlook the fact that, though under a sotoassi party flags, a large nation is seriously nghthsr the German invaders...
...It would help even less when the G.P.U...
...Now, even if Hitler's Russian Wits wen to succeed faster than it appears likely, Nail Germany will get from Russia, in the first nhag of "pacification," less than she got since 1939...
...We are now confronted with • Communist change in line wan* puts them in the position of •*• manding all-out aid to the st-mocracies, even at the risk our own involvement...
...We are told Prussian efficiency plus Nazi ruthlessness will guarantee output that Stalin's administration was unable to produce...
...A careful reading of Litvinov's speech, regardless of his purpose, reveals it as no less an indictment of Stalin than of Hitler, for if it be true, as Litvinov said, that the Russian people knew that sooner or later Hitler would turn upon Russia, then what excuse was there, from the point of view of Russian interests, for Stalin to have made it possible for Hitler to unleash the war...
...German victory in the war will remain unattainable if this supremely crucial problem is solved...
...It may be that the...
...with essential losses ; of their war material, and with the mamteaeacs of a large occupational force in conquered Russia—probably the largest occupational force ever used in history...
...t Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Speaker of the House of Representatives and President of the Senate are hereby authorized and directed to appoint five members, respectively, of the House of Representatives and the Senate as representatives of the United States Congress to a conference of parliamentary bodies on the establishment and maintenance of peace...
...Great est-fusion may therefore result * the public minds...
...There is no conceivable margin for increase...
...We need not dwell upon Utvinov's characterizations of the Nazi regime and its many treacheries...
...NO PEACE WITH HITXER^ T^HATEVER victories Hitler may win in Russia as the sanguinary struggle on the Eastern front takes its course, two facts ominous for Nazi Germany already stand out in bold relief: * First, the assault on Russia will be so costly and burden-souse as to weaken greatly Germany's capacity to strike elsewhere...
...the destruction of the British Commonwealth of Nations...
...Every Next officer killed in the Soviet territory is one Nasi officer less to be killed in the battle for Entumd and the Atlantic...
...It was high time for implementation of the pledge, considering the...
...Even the isolationists, with the exception of bitter-enders like the brazenly pro-Nazi Wheeler, have not ventured to challenge the wisdom or the President's action as a move essential to American security...
...Voorhis Proposes World Body To Study Post-War Tasks From CONGRESSMAN JERRY VOORHIS To the Editor: It was kind of Mr...
...Successful house-cleaning in the large CIO unions will prevent unnecessary attacks on labor in the near future, and automatically defeat the anti-union Congressional* bloc which revels in the facts of Communist union control, for it gives the labor-baiters the only strong weapon they have left...
...Many CIO unions today suffer a poor press, and an even worse reputation amongst the general public because of their hesitancy to campaign openly, as did the unions mentioned above, against the Communist fractions, caucuses and cells inside their own organizations...
...This is a rather sweeping statement...
...but four minus two mate still two, and how can one avoid applying this comforting rule to the Rosso-German war...
...We amst ***" tinue to expose them tor **¦ totalitarian* they are...
...It would definitely insure German world domination, reducing also the United States to the rank of a second-class nation...
...Commissar Vassilie-witch is succeeded by Gestapo Commissar Mueller...
...UNION HOUSECLEANING JN -recent months many important unions have cleaned house of Communist elements...
...Suppose the worst happened and the Russian armies were wiped out completely before Fall...
...For in addition to the general motives of almost instinctive Slavic opposition against violent "efficiency," your Russian would then be driven to deadly passivity by the deep-rooted B/assian hatred against the .intruding "foreigners...
...In that war...
...The results were not exactly amazing...
...Hitler and his "new order" will perish...
...B. E. War on C. P. Htl Must Continue Despite New War From LOUIS P. GOlfiMH To the Editor: The (war between tke **• largest totalitarian oowem ia » welcome to the democrat* tore* as a falling out between tssww to the honest man...
...The occupation of Iceland, coupled with the instructions to our Navy to shoot, if necessary, to...
...It didn't help much under Stalin...
...Litvinov's assurances-the assurances of a political corpse resurrected for the moment by the will of the Russian dictator, Hitler's silent partner of yesterday—are not enough...
...Altawark *• will aid Britain by dtvwrthu anas of the Nazi power, it is far fms an unalloyed blessing for a...
...The Russians...
...The result is a Congressional drive for the passage of strike-breaking bills like those offered by Congressmen May and Vinson today...
...The American and British peoples must continue to rely upon their own strong arms in the task of smashing Hitler...
...man adventure in Russia, full control over ehe>-coun try's natural and productive resources, *« highly doubtful proposition...
...Until two weeks ago...
...Proceeding democratically, the teachers, the machinists, the typographers, the ¦ shipyard workers, and most recently the painters, have voted out of office adherents of the party line, and have in some cases democratically reorganized the union...
...Russia was rightly leekei upon as full-fledged German ally who eventually might have joined in a possible Nazi drhe against British positions in Asia...
...The ten members of the House and Senate so appointed shall meet together and select a chairman from among their number, shall issue on behalf of the United - States Congress an invitation to all freely elected and freely functioning national legislative bodies in the world to send representatives to such conference and shall make all necessary plans and arrangements for such conference...
...1939, some five months before the conclusion of the Stalin-Hitler pact...
...And when you ask me how could I possibly at right, since the Nazis voluntarily committed tab alleged blunder, I'll betray a military secret: even Hitler can make a mistake...
...When a man realizes his mistake, we are broad enough to accept him in our midst, providing he in turn will do something to make up for the salvation of his life...
...Litvinov was removed as foreign commissar in May...
...The resolution protests the participation of Norman Thomas in the America First meeting in Madison Square Garden and—declares that collaboration with Senator Wheeler, Charles Lindbergh, the German-American Bund and the Christian Front portends the complete destruction of the Socialist Party in the United States...
...are to the present Russian generation as familiar as picket lines and N.L.R.B...
...The consequence of these two mutually exclusive facta ia not difficult to foresee...
...American and Russian peoples is "to wage this struggle against the common foe to the bitter end," but Britain and the United States will be pardoned if they retain a considerable measure of skepticism as to what Stalin may do tomorrow when he again may consider it expedient to deprive Litvinov of the opportunity to address the peoples of the democracies...
...The conference would really amount to an attempt on the part of the representatives of the democracies to formulate a program for permanent and lasting peace and which then could be the means of setting forth perhaps a more solid hope for the peoples of the world *than we have had up to this point...
...Faced with a thoroughly disorganized communication system...
...all the fancy, super-modtrn foreign machines and tools were mere waste...
...Until two weeks ago, allied Russia was a storehouse and a blockade leak for Nasi Germany...
...Once Russia is beaten, Germany has rnawi (and forever) eliminated the one and only lav gerous bait for luring the Anglo-Saxon wot* •into further appeasement—the invitation fat a common crusade against the Soviets...
...I am appending a copy, of that Resolution No...
...In all other respects, even a quick defeat of Russia's military forces must greatly imprs+t England's and America's chances of winninc tat whole war...
...all the sweat and efforts of thousands of imported experts...
...Joint Resolution For a conference of representatives of parliamentary bodies to fcvork out a basis for lasting peace...
...But what does that mean in practical terms...
...Let us hope they *¦ have the good sense to set creetry, or will they ft tj** kiss of deaJh on their own "**" cialiat Fatherland...
...And is it not Stalin's responsibility that the Russian people must now be fighting the enemy under circumstances much more difficult than would have been the case in 1939...
...What makes the move of first class importance are the orders issued by President Roosevek to the Navy to keep open the sea lanes to Iceland against "all hostile activity or threat thereof...
...sia's involvement in the war w™ be a disaster for us I" country...
...Nor is it necessary any longer to contradict Litvinov's lame attempt to whitewash Soviet Russia's responsibility for the world catastrophe...
...and wonder whether after having read it Mr...
...Later, Stalin drove him from the Central Committee, and it was generally believed that he would share the fate of the other old Bolsheviks exterminated by the monster in the Kremlin...
...Whatever influence terror and violence may have in productive human endeavor—their influence was exploited in Russia...
...If the familiar Russian-apeak-ing Gestapo were succeeded by an intruding German-speaking GjP.U...
...Even in that case, I dare say, England's and America's position would be immeasurably better than it was before June 22nd...
...Mssrs...
...This is the council's most important .post...
...They are back in their old popular front business, preparing political beds for the innocents...
...To live in this beautiful country of ours and enjoy every privilege is worth working for it, and Jan Valtin from his words and experiences can assist us right now with activities Inimical to our national defense...
...It is not difficult to understand why rJrftain would never conclude peace with Hitler, even though such peace should be at Russia's and not Britain's expense...
...During the summer months many CIO unions will meet in convention...
...I'rtE Russinn people (there cheers for them...
...Each single Nazi airplane shot down in Russia will net hevt to be destroyed over Great Britain...
...Eden mirtced no words in declaring that it would be received with profound contempt and stony rejection...
...Just ask yourself: until June 22...
...continued disquieting rate of sinkings of British merchant shipping by the Germans— 6,000,000 tons a year, about twice the amount of tonnage which Great Britain and the United States together can replace annually...
...The past two years of Communist-isolationist-Nazi collaboration, the past six months of rebel, delaying strikes on defense production has aroused the public...
...At the time of his political liquidation that pact was already concluded, awaiting only the act of signature, although the Communist press in Russia and abroad continued to clamor for aggressive action against Hitler by the democracies jointly with Soviet Russia* Litvinov wan removed to please Hitler because he was the mouthpiece of this policy arid because he was a Jew...
...But the public has been too well educated to swift changes in line to be taken in...
...One can very wetT understand, therefore, why the news of America's action superseded in importance even the events on the Russo-German front in the pages of the Nazi press...
...hI...
...Are we really to win tab war for Bolshevism ? This nightmare 1* dead " and gone"for good...
...First access to Russia's natural resources and industrial productive facilities...
...We agree with Litvinov that the single greatest task now confronting the British...
...The miracles of ruthless have been applied to Russia to the limit for at least fifteen years, and nobody can say that Stalin, at any moment and in any field, exhibited leniency...
...These facts serve not only to insure the Russian people against any conclusion of peace with Hitler at their expense but they also effectively give the lie to the Communist contention, loudly disseminated by Moscow and its agents abroad before and after the Stalin-Hitler pact, that the Western democracies had always sought an agreement with Hitler at Russia's expense...
...There will be no peace for Nazi Germany at the expense of Russia even if Russia should succumb to the blows of the Nazi military machine...
...To implement their point of view they declare their intention of making an appeal to the next convention of the Socialist Party Jor the military support of democracies...
...have answered terror with economic sterility...
...This realization comes at the gravest moment of the war when the bulk of Germany's military forces are locked in a costly conflict with Russia and British air power is beginning to exert terrific and ever increasing pressure upon German cities, war pjants and communications...
...Following Prime Minister Churchill's declaration on this point on June 22, Foreign Secretary Eden has now made it clear in the House of Commons that any such peace offer from Hitler would fall upon deaf ears...
...The facts are now too well known...
...If Hitler takes them over, this resistance will be just as unbreakable and definitely less phlegmatic...
...Nicolas Piqueras, Treasurer, Agmpacion Socialists Espanola . To the Editor: Following the lead of Italian, Polish and other Socialist groups in Greater New York, the Agmpacion Socialist* Espanola, of 95 James Street, an organization of ^Spanish Socialists affiliated with the Socialist Party, went on record on June 19th as denouncing Norman Thomas and his activities in-connection with the America First Committee...
...I certainly protest efforts to deport Jab Valtin...
...Speaking over the radio from Moscow last Tuesday, Stalin's messenger boy of the "collective security" period, whose glib eloquence at -Geneva did so much to deceive the world as to the real character and purposes of his master's foreign policy, pleaded with the British people to let by-gones be by-gones now that "the house is on fire...
...I feel ashamed of it...
...It would open to Germany land routes to India, the Middle East and Africa and, for the first time in history, would make lit possible for a Continental power to defy British sea power successfully...
...keep open the sea lanes not only to Iceland but also to the Red Sea, the artery through which we are helping to supply the British forces in North Africa and the Middle East, is the greatest blow dealt to Hitler in the contest for control of the seas, without which Nazi Germany cannot possibly hope to impose her domination upon the world...
...After two weeks of careful self-torture, this writer has arrived at the conclusion that England and America can't help bat profit from Hitler's Russian venture whatever its final outcome...
...Because the exhausted Russian masses, worn and punished by reckless slave-drivers for more than 20 years, reacted with quiet but unbreakable resistance against every-1 thing and everybody...
...fc' Such is the picture should Hitler achieve let maximum, in optimum time...
...Perhaps the most difficult task was faced by Michael Di Silvestro who defeated incumbent Louis Weinstock for the secretaryship of the District Council 9 of the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers, A.F.L...
...A hypothetical balance sheet may offer the evidence...
...Second, Hitler's maneuver designed to confuse and mislead the democracies into the belief that he was saving the world from Bolshevism has failed miserably...
...with soon guerrilla warfare, and popular opposition leaf after the formal closing of hostilities, even Pros-sian efficiency, for years to come, can net ae*> sibly get much more out of Russia than Hitler could have gotten out of an allied Russia...
...Di Silvestro is to be congratulated for his successful campaign...
...Iceland is now within the American defense sphere, but it ia also within the submarine zone proclaimed by Nazi Germany...
...Thus, the only possible advantage af the G...
...Control over Russia...
...now, even if Russia is quietly beaten, an essential portion of this force will %?"*¦ consumed on unexpected, non-British battlefields...
...The war on two fronts which -Hitler dreaded and to avoid which he, had concluded his pact with Stalin in August, 1939,-has now become a grim reality...
...We must hold te our deters^ nation to have nothing ts-<*t> wW the communists...
...The Communists no longer are forced to fight national defense, to slow production, to attack selective service, Sidney Hillman and President Roosevelt...
...Nowadays, only a yokel has the nerve, and the bad taste, to walk around with an air of confidence...
...The task of cleaning house will be more difficult* now...
...This means that the Nazi chieftain's hope of saving his regime from destruction by the combined forces of England and the United States has been shattered...
...Germany in control of Russia and dominating that country's vast resources, real and potential, would become invincible...
...THE occupation of Iceland by American armed forces marks the active entry of the United States into the Battle of the Atlantic, the decisive battle of the war...
...With a nauseating reference to "our beloved leader Stalin," Litvinov spoke last Tuesday of the firm determination of the Russian people to resist the Nazi invaders and stressed the community of interests between the Russian people and the democracies...
...Such conference shall be held in the city of Washington beginning September 1, 1941, and shall continue as long as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this joint resolution...
...important and reasonable groups in England and in this country were secretly asking then-selves: "Why lick Hitler if the moment Keg ' Germany breaks down, the Red Army, thee "tat only intact military force on the continent, east-pletrfy untouched by war's hardships, movet ea to the Atlantic coast...
...By keeping the sea lanes open to Iceland and "other strategic points," the American Navy will reduce materially the burden resting upon the British of carrying food and war supplies from the United States, This will go a long way in making good the pledge given by President Roosevelt that American supplies to Britain must and will reach their destination...
...The public will resent the capitulation to these changes by prominent labor officials...
...Riesel*will still feel as he apparently did when he wrote his column...
...The objective of such conference shall be the development of a basis of possible agreement among the nations of the world whereby just and lasting peace may be es-Tbere is hereby authorized to be appropriated such amounts as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this joint resolution, tablished,________ PROTESTS EFFORTS TO DEPORT JAN V ALT IN To the Editor: I hope Jan Valtin is offering whatever knowledge he has in helping rid Washington and the City of New York of Communist influence in this country...
...Only tight organization and a well-oiled machine retains power for them...
...As for the communists thesf selves, they could best be of ice to Russia if they shmt J*** their holes and refrained any activity...
...Now eves t the Russo-German war were formally over by October, the Germans must supply new occupational armies for a territory forty times bigger than Germany proper, and to watch a tmtaa hinterland whenever they dared a drive into Ires or India...
...It's here that I must announce my initial doubts...
...x The majority of the American people may be opposed to a declaration of war against Nazi Germany at this time, but on two vital questions the people of this country are united: the defense of America and aid to England, as part of our defense...
...I 1NTIL two weeks ago, the entire Nasi fores was held in reserve for the onslaught ea Great Britain...
...Any peace at Russia's expense would, therefore, be a truce preliminary to...
...Riesel to comment in his rolumn of May 31 on my resolution to create a body to study ^eace proposals...
Vol. 24 • July 1941 • No. 28
