Where the News Ends

SCHLAMM, WILLI

By Willi Schlamm Where the News Ends MOT ail Germans are Nazis, I know. I can *^ vouch for that. Bat neither an I naive enough to accept the popular notion that the phenomenon at Nazism is merely...

...Not only do the farm leaders demand a general price level 1 10 per cent of what we used to call parity as the bribe for support of the administration's price-fixing bill...
...If his group had remained as I did and helped to fight the growing Communist influence, a more successful fight against the Communists in the Alliance might have been made...
...But different it is...
...Representing as he does a dictatorial, blood-stained regime fighting for its life against foreign-invasion and internal discontent, it was natural for Mr...
...The moment is approaching- when the United States will have to consider its policy vis-a-vis Soviet Russia more seriously than those responsible for our foreign relations have thus far been inclined to do...
...Anyone who is not a natural defeatist will discover a bedrock of public opinion that will put heart into him...
...Eat less...
...The people whom you will meet will agree practically 1 00 per cent that Hitler must be defeated and that we must take our part in putting him out of business/ They are all glad that Hider has taken on trouble in Russia, and they hope he will have a tough fight in that direction...
...And this is the very pchtt I wanted to make...
...Welles and Mr...
...Either the three must be stabilized in a tolerable relationship or they, must be permitted to rise together.' The President, Dr...
...In general the American people take them as a matter of course...
...They have not forgotten the StaJw-Hitler pact...
...Everywhere you go in this country you get the feeling that people are waiting and ready to go...
...it was extremely difficult as any reading of my New York Post articles would show...
...When I informed him tw itt» n..--whelming majority of the people, we would probably support President Roosevelt and urge aid to the democracies in Europe, he promptly lost interest and we never heard from him again...
...Spiraling prices and static wages will wreck our entire war economy...
...When I resigned from the Alliance, I went to see McCulloch in Chicago in July 1940 and laid before him the plans to build a new movement excluding Communists from membership...
...I refer-particularly to the artrcl, sppawin* in the July 9th edition sofluei "Why the Trotskyism...
...I stood fast in my conviction* . and opposed the Communist infiltration of the N.M.U and tos-demned the Party leaden ol ts* Union...
...Our pledge to Russia is, as Mr...
...Are the Congressmen and Senators patriots or rubber-stamps...
...must pay tribute to the Comas-nist Party via the National Man time Union...
...This is a tragic perspective indeed...
...Welles declared, in harmony with "the'community of interest" of the national defense of "all freedom-loving nations" whose security and independence are, threatened by Nazi Germany...
...I don't deny, of course, that the Germans have accepted, for short periods in their national history, democratic institutions, but I do questies whether Germany has ever accepted the dan*, era tic way af life...
...What guarantees, besides Oumansky's smile and Stalin's desperate need of the moment, have we that Moscow will not betray the democracies again and that the machinery, the bombers, the weapons, the ammunition we propose to send to Russia will not be used against us should Stalin enter into another pact or Brest-Litovsk treaty with Germany...
...There are, of course, differences on such specific questions as are posed by survey experts...
...There may be those who will say we demand too much...
...Besides, anyone who compares the forthcoming breakdown of Nazism with the relatively harmless collapse of the Hohenzollern monarchy doesn't know what he says...
...Hopkins nor by exchanges of pleasantries between Mr...
...But masses of men cannot wait forever...
...We share the idea that between the American and Russian* peoples there is a common bond of interest...
...If he is to retain his reputation he must recognize the fact that a great nation cannot stand forever on one foot...
...whether we like it or not...
...I hew yet to see snyone prescribing a reliable cure for this tragic illness...
...The second is to start down the road in any direction and talk to the people you meet...
...In the last war, Sir George Buchanan, British ambassador to Russia, did not hesitate to warn the Czarist government that an amelioration of the Czarist autocracy was necessary if the Russian people were to continue the battle against the German foe, that Russia could not continue to resist the common enemy under a condition of political enslavement...
...Kaiserism, too, had the loyalty of the t*ertr> German citizen as long as it was victorious...
...Prices jf9 up, workers strike...
...Kleist, Hegel, Wagner, Bismarck, Spengler have accepted it with pride and . passion, and have based their ideology of a special German call to rule on that unique German indifference to all matters of individual liberties...
...If Nazism eaV-lapses, it will be because Germany lost the war and nothing but s decisive military defeat east teach the German nation the tragic lesson that war does not pay...
...Let us do all we can for Russia...
...But the weekly cost of the daily bread, which the good Lord does not give without the presentation of an increasing number of coins, is a matter of growing concern...
...This article li well pr»-pared and certainly comet ts point I have some information...
...H is the inclination to see the outside world through a specific and dangerously distorted perspective...
...Communism, National Socialism and pacifism passing itself off as socialism have created so much confusion in many minds that it is time for someone to speak up authoritatively for genuine democratic international socialism...
...Bat neither an I naive enough to accept the popular notion that the phenomenon at Nazism is merely a case of a helpness nation accidentally kidnap pea 67 a clever and ruthless gang...
...The Saw** Railroad is a U. S. Goveramflrt-owned project and it mamtahs » shipping line...
...Woll said...
...But history does not forget...
...Russia must be free if she is to continue to fight successfully for freedom...
...The farmers produce the food...
...The German behavior," of coarse, is caused neither by some "enigmatic influence of common blood" nor by any other term of that fashionable stupidity which offers itself to the World as "racism...
...The mounting cost of milk, meat and bread is the prime thing for Washington to think about if it wishes to forestall a new Wave of strikes...
...by a large majority of the nation, Nazism has thr voluntary, enthusiastic, fanatical support of > very large part of the German people...
...Unfortunately, that strategic railroad is reported to be badly in need" of repair because of the many millions of supplies it carried before June 22, 1941, with Nazi Germany as their destination...
...The explanations varied, as also the prognosis built upon the particular way of life...
...American bombers, submarines and warcraft should be using Vladivostok, for example, as a very effective base of operations in the Far East, a development which would go far in staying Japan's hand...
...He wanted to know, first, what positions our new organization would take on the 1940 elections and on foreign affairs...
...We should like to see American supplies rolling across the trans-Siberian railroad to the Russian armies fighting Hitler...
...Nazism's fantastic success in remolding the German people's character was possible only because, first, there ts such a thing- as a national character ind, second, those particular features of something we could call "the German behavior" have eagerly responded to Nazism's appeal...
...McCulloch's group were similar in their hatred of President Roosevelt and their extreme isolationism...
...They realize the epochal nature of the present struggle...
...However, I prefer realism to panaceas, not because I like melancholy but because it is the only guide to effective action, • • * MfHAT'S wrong with the Germans is not their " "blood" but their history...
...Free peoples struggling for survival do not forget...
...We, too, agree with Mr...
...is anyone_really of the opinion that a non-German Europe, if victorious, will bear the burden of Nazism's crimes—will pay far the gigantic reconstruction of a looted, destroyed continent!, But if post-Hitler Germany, the as-happy heir of Nazism, has to bear these cents can anyone imagine that in such an atmosphere a bewildered, exhausted Germany, divided ia itself, would easily undo trends of centuries sad suddenly pass to a democratic way of life...
...Says Communists Terrorize Crews On U. S. Ships from *. C To the Editor: Over since I read th« fir* asr of The New Leader, which w over one year ago, I luws tea more than Interested hi frnVpaV lication that dares to tell 0» truth about the Communwt s*-up in our industries...
...Unpleasant as the fact may be, it v trm: post-Hitler Germany, under all circumstaaaaj will be a nation of men and women who wan educated by Hitler...
...They have" not forgotten the period of nearly two years during which Stalin played the role of jackal to the Nazi tiger...
...A thoroughly defeated ¦**tt however, is a bad pupil, especially if that —tfrta is a notoriously bad Qoser Neither are the Westers people's nations of such a stoat 1 numan morality that they can be expected te create the most gracious conditions fur a Germany they had to smash at unheard of costs...
...Therefore I am appealing to all committees and unions to forward to us immediately the money they have on hand...
...And then there are the pig-headed politicians who receive a few hundred postcard approvals as the voice of God...
...Aid to Britain and promises of aid to Russia are no adequate policy for a great nation in a world-shaking crisis...
...You say this is impossible...
...They are ready to go...
...Thus from the outbreak of war in September 1999 until the latest Communist flip-flop on June 22, 1041, the position of the Communists and Mr...
...Farm prices, wages and price levels of manufactured goods must be thought of together...
...And even that courageous, admirable minority of Germans who with mind and heart had resisted the intoxication* have been more deeply influenced by eight years of Nazism than tat world and they themselves dare to admit...
...The time has come now for London and Washington to emulate that example...
...My prescription...
...the deep-rooted belief in the metaphysical importance of the state, of centralization, of power...
...The matter of clothes is less urgent...
...What I choose to call "the German behavior" is as much a result of rationally conceivable historical experiences of the- German people as the thoroughly different Anglo-Saxon behavior is the result of a different Anglo-Saxon history...
...Whatever the actual circumstances of the breakdown of Nazism may be, the vestiges of that gigantic obscenity cannot be extinguished from the life of the German nation for generations to come...
...Unfortunately their love of freedom finds no reflection in the character -of their government...
...Russia must be free if the free peoples of the world are to spend their substance and their lives in the effort to help save her from destruction...
...Nay, not educated—intoxicated, doped, spoiled, driven mad by Hitler...
...Are we trying to prevent inflation or not...
...Congress must'get together on such a policy...
...cratic nation will admit...
...Sir George Buchanan acted in the interests of both England and Russia...
...WHAT AMERICA THINKS JT is in the nature of things that reports on American public opinion should be confused...
...That country's peculiar indifference to all those experiences and values which we call the ideas and the results of the French Revolution, is not a discovery of contemporary writers...
...Due to the continual series of contradictions, reversals, flip-flops of the Communists, almost everybody in the country will have found himself at some time taking a position on some issues also taken by the Communists...
...When the Alliance Convention in 1938 supported President Roosevelt and urged aid to the democracies in their efforts te resist Hitlerism, McCulloch's group withdrew...
...But never has a really important German thinker denied the existence of this chasm between Germany and the Western world...
...In fact...
...But supper and breakfast cannot be postponed...
...McCulloch's statement that my position on some questions was similar to that of the Communists in 1967-36, is meaningless...
...If they knew the truth about what is happening;—and not happening—they would demand better organization and more rapid results If the newspapers had better information, the people would be closer to the truth...
...FARM PRICES VS...
...We should give all possible assistance to Russia consistent with the requirements of our national defense and with those of the defense of England and* China...
...We would prefer that help to our British brothers and sisters should not be delayed one moment longer than necessary," Mr...
...And these are two jJCEl different matters, as anyone who has sneatevea only a few happy months in a genuinely dsssa...
...But they don't like the Russian government and want as little to do with it as possible...
...That the Administration in Washington is rather careless—to use a rrfild word—in the matter of our aid to Russia was evidenced this week in a speech delivered on the floor of the Senate by Majority Leader Barkley, who discovered in his Kentucky wisdom that Stalin is not as bad as he is painted, that he is a "great uplifter of his people," and that the bad boy of the Soviet regime was that man Trotsky, recently assassinated in Mexico City...
...and the crew was non-Communs*-However Comrade Currsr P** one of his stooges...
...They are not unaware that Stalin,, who had not the slightest intention to fight Hitler until Hitler unleashed his legions against Soviet Russia, may tomorrow, if he finds it possible and necessary to the survival of the Communist dictatorship in Russia, make his peace again with Hitler and betray the nations whom he betrayed before and for whose aid he now pleads...
...Members of Congress, who did nothing to keep prices down, are at once all super-heated and hellbent for action...
...When Hitler is defeated, the world' will still (and more than ever) be faced with the fast that there lives in the center of the continent t mighty nation which, though gifted ant highb efficient in many fields, is s century and a oaf removed from the way of life the Western at-tions have reached...
...We understand and share fully the deep sympathy of Americans for the Russian people in their terrible travail...
...THE SDF CONFERENCE *J*HE Social Democratic Federation m meeting more than the expected success in the series of conferences which opened so auspiciously in New England last month...
...Franz^Meh-ring as well as Heinrich von Treitschke...
...In line with the historic policies of the socialist movement, they are exerting all of their energy to arouse the American people to a realization of the significance of this conflict...
...As a matter of fact, there is not one really important figure in German literature, philosophy, art, and politics who has not recognized —either with pain or with pride—this specific element of modern German history...
...It was on the basis of these two points that McCulloch's group broke from the Alliance...
...We would like to see the closest possible cooperation between them...
...Conrad lO»-rade) Jones, aboard ss ar orfss-iser for the Psrty and ht proceeded to harrass and threat** members of the crew whe not members of the Party Ths "Goon Squad" were giver plenty of work to do and by the umt they were through, the errs ws» fairly well organized...
...That was not the easy course...
...The most astounding thing is the good nature with which the citizens take the huge expenditures, the proposed heavy taxes and such interferences with private life as the gasoline curfew...
...That would hardly lead to increased arms production...
...You may strike one of these, but in the ordinary course of events you will not find one in a thousand miles...
...Very well—let them join Hitler...
...As a matter of fact, the two are inseparable The problem cannot be solved by dramatic flying trips to Moscow by Mr...
...At the same time, I should like to reply to the attack upon your position by Mr...
...You don't believe it...
...We did not need Leon Henderson's testimony before a congressional committee to tell us that prices are going up...
...McCulloch's strange attitude can be understood easily from his political support of the Norman Thomas position: first, a narrow sectarianism and unreasoning opposition to the New Deal...
...0 you may publish...
...as did Oswald Spongier...
...this will be true even of a defeated Nazism...
...and second, an extreme isolationism in foreign affairs...
...What is this...
...1 was on the Argentina • «h» owned and operated by th« Moor* McCormack Co of Sem Yw...
...Aid British Labor Group Asks for Funds Now With the aim of making a substantial contribution at the earliest possible time to the gallant working people of Great Britain, Matthew Woll, national chairman of the Aid British Labor Committee, has appealed to all Aid British Labor Committees, state and city central labor bodies and international and local unions to send in at once to the national office whatever money they have collected to date...
...But .what is this that is going on...
...I hsve none...
...the disposition to sanction, in politics, those rules which the individual German honestly hates when applied to his personal life...
...And as to American Communists—they don't want any dealings with them...
...Yet I am convinced that any responsible leader of a labor organization, with a sense of regard for his organization, would take the same course in a similar situation...
...That different German behavior is now an essential part of our world...
...The significance of these efforts lies largely in the fact that the democratic socialists who are planning them are allied with the international socialist movement in the support of the democratic nations in their world struggle against totalitarianism...
...And it had better be good...
...The first thing is to look over the (newspapers from all over the country...
...Do they give any consideration to their votes in relation to a national policy...
...The result wss I •*> thrown off the ship and my rigW to earn a living in my trad* «¦* taken from me, which 11 not so-usual with opponenta of th* partyAlong with hundred* of thousands of other native borr Asntr-: icans, I wouW like to kro* **J our Government permit* dtm condition to exist...
...t$ To see how the downfall of Nazism would r*> verse that trend is beyond me...
...but this was a manufactuced, oonventumsi patriotism, familiar throughout history is all nations...
...We have rio doubt that the expression "freedonvloving" includes also the Russian people...
...Read the Congressional Record...
...McCulloch in his letter in the August 2 edition...
...Oumansky, a former tchekist, to agree with Under-Secretary Welles, in their exchange of statements this week, that the assistance pledged by the United States to Soviet Russia, economic and military, is "in trie interest of the .national defense of the United States...
...I remained in the "Workers Alliance as long as I did, to try to rid it of the Communist influence, and at the same time to save the organization...
...When I became convinced that this could not be done, and that dangers to the unemployed and the country would occur if I remained longer, I resigned...
...The Governs*"1 allows this condition to exist...
...Diplomats may find it convenient when what they regard as necessity requires to forget history...
...A ND what is this "German behavior," Hitler or not HitleT...
...Heinrich Heine did...
...We all know that there are some pacifists, some Nazi-sympathizers and a few addle-pated fellows who are always at'outs with the majority...
...The deep-rooted, almost mad ldentaV cation with Nazism which Hitler succeeded hi implanting within a good half of the nation mad be understood as an elemental catastrophe, sj unprecedented phenomenon of utmost important and consequences of unforeseen magnito.de...
...Very well, let us help repair the trans-Siberian...
...They tend to take for granted that our army is all right, that armament production is blitzing ahead, that we are doing enough to insure victory...
...The working class is not excited about quotations on silk stockings...
...1 Mr...
...Just as Nazism did not descend from the blue sky but from the gray clouds of German history, the future Germany (the post-Hitler Germany) must be looked upon as the heir of the present regime...
...1-There are two things which anyone can do to convince himself that the confusion exists chiefly in the minds of publicists who like it and work to increase it...
...Henderson and the leaders of both houses of...
...But only on one condition: on condition that we receive adequate political guarantees...
...Letters To the Editor Lasser Replies to Critic on Workers Alliance Split From DAVID LASSER To the Editor: I would like to express my appreciation for the support of The New Leader in the effort to clear my name in Congress...
...It determines Germany's present historical milieu and it is a mortgage on her next one—even if Hitler were defeated tomorrow...
...But the administration in Washington has left them in the lurch as far as readership and information are concerned...
...No doubt, in the succeeding decades s 0n> many delivered from Hitler may be able to aabt up that Western advantage of one hundred sad fifty years...
...America and the U.S.S.R...
...They would have a better basis for thinking and would think to better purpose...
...Oumansky, until recently the ambassador of a government pronounced by President Roosevelt to have been guilty of wanton aggression and now once more persona grata at the State Department...
...1171TH the finish of Nazism, far more than fret " a dictatorial regime will have ended— t«r more than one of these familiar, olddsahionsf set-ups of reaction which,,as occurred frequsnt^-'-in the past, could easily be supplanted hy sossV form of parliamentary government...
...And this will be followed by a gathering of members and sympathizers from the Mid-Atlantic States near Philadelphia on August 23 and 24...
...In New York people sputter about such things...
...The New Leader wishes them success in this vital campaign...
...For an Aiseriett citizen to sail on these ships...
...It is terrible, unpatriotic...
...Our attitude and conduct in this vital matter must not be governed by considerations of immediate exigency alone, however important these may be, for in addition to the purely military aspects involved there are extremely important political considerations...
...For wafc"* such latter regimes (the Czar's or the Kaiser's) have always represented numerically smstf groups in society and were generally oppossc...
...Barkley, as the spokesman of the Administration in the Senate, could not have spoken without the knowledge of very high personages at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue...
...Everything is possible where Stalin is concerned...
...WAGES IT is axiomatic in this country that whatever the organized „ workers do is wrong and whatever the farmers do is right...
...Fried-rich Nietzsche as well as Richard Wagner...
...Mr President...
...President Roosevelt is reputed to be the best political psychologist we have had in a generation...
...Nor is it reflected in the foreign policy of the Stalin regime...
...A consistent policy with regard to this whole set of facts is long overdue...
...We can . make the old ones do for months and years...
...But until then (and that will taut at least your lifetime, and possibly alas that at your children) that lack of synchronization between the Western world and Germany will at a hearcbreakingly grave problem even e,fter tin complete overthrow of Nazism—the real proWea underneath the surface of millions of practical difficulties...
...The time has come for the American and British governments to say to Stalin: there must be an amelioration, a democratization of the Soviet regime, as a guarantee of fruitful collaboration between Russia and the great democracies in the fight against Hitler...
...If the two houses agree on this policy and the President signs this bill we will keep this food off the market no matter how prices of bread may skyrocket...
...the readiness to be convinced that the Germans are, by some sinister "destiny," subjected to particularly unjust and especially rough treatment...
...They have propelled through both houses of Congress a measure providing for the "freezing" of great stocks of farm products which have been piled up as a result of the government's buying in its effort to sustain prices during the past few years__The people of the United States own 300.000.000 bushels of wheat...
...The New York Conference, which will convene in New York City on August 16 and 1 7, promises even greater results...
...How, then, is this newly-discovered love between Washington and Moscow to be explained...
...They have full faith in the cause of democracy as against totalitarianism...
...Welles on this point...
...German critics as well as apologists for that nation's weird behavior during the 19th century are in complete agreement (so far as the fundamental fact is concerned) that for more than 150 years Germany's body politic has differed basically from that of all Western nations...
...To an amazing extent the American public is waiting for leadership...
...The fellows ought to be jailed at the very least...
...No British or any other Allied statesman ventured to praise the Czar as a "great uplifter of his people...
...Goethe, Lessiug, Heine, Engels, Nietzsche, Marx have criticized the phenomenon with scorn and bitter irony...
...And what do they think the working class will do...
...Some rattle-pated writers would give you the idea that we as a whole—the hundred and thirty millions of us— don't know where we stand or where we want to go...

Vol. 24 • August 1941 • No. 32


 
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