Where the News Ends

...In appointing the new head of Foreign ' Relief and' Rehabilitation Service...

...The post-war plan must provide for the development of air transport and the improvement of all welfare, health and fitness services...

...Governor Lehman made it clear from the start that the program of relief and rehabilitation "will make it possible for the United States, in association with the other United Nations, to render an immediate and effective further contribution to the winning of the war and to the solution of post-war problems...

...the means of economic rehabilitation to help win peoples to our side and then put them on their feet during the perilous times which will follow the war...

...CRITICISM" From JAMES E. HARRIS To the Editor: I want to write you and tell you how much I have been enjoying The New Leader in recent months...

...And if some of our wartime deprivations cultivate simpler eating habits and recall to many Americans the fact that walking is both a pleasant and a healthy exercise, it will be all to our individual and collective physical good...

...I have always resented as both untrue and unfair the suggestion that the French defeat of 1940 was a sort of divine judgment on the French fnr h#>incr "soft...

...They may win a battle, but they know down to the bases of their shivering spines that they will lose the war...

...IF Ludwig's grandparents had settled down to Iowa farming, or opening a department store in Indiana or become buttonhole makers in Rochester, Ludwig might not have become the gleam in hi- father's eye, and IF he did, he might have become a bond or insurance salesman, a r -IK ? mortician or maybe a rl ntist...

...and IF so forth ad infinitum...

...Our victory will be neither real nor permanent unless we follow up the defeat of the Ads military machine with an elimination at horns and abroad of all philosophies that bear even a remote relationship to fascism, unless we ast able to set as the goal of human endeavor more abundant life, not death and destruction...

...Chicago...

...ican Revolution, especially Thomas Jeffsl'SPW* conception of individual liberty and ths tectidn which the citizen in the United Stssst enjoys against being arrested, banished or mr without public trial...

...Why should a nation fighting for its life take time out to redraw a consitution...

...Then IF Ludwig had not come under the influence of a whole school of commentators who beginning with Rabbi Akiba...

...I lived in France for more than a year until the disaster of May and June, 1940...

...The difficulty with such experiments h*SW" tnral give-and-take between a democracy »*" ' dictatorship is that it usually results in "give" for the democracy and all "take" for?* dictatorship...

...about Darlan is the best proof Im can be kept harmless and that General Eisenhower's use of him was an excellent investment...

...They cannot be trusted...

...A RUSSIAN professor of my acquaintance...

...AUSTRALIA SHOWS THE WAY •"THE Australians are more like us than any * other people on earth, and it...

...if Van Loon could have refrained from totting us why Lincoln .was such a sad man, etc...

...It was, of course, France's tragedy that, while its people wished to live like normal and reasonable human beings, its next-door neighbor had fallen into the grip of a dictatorship with insensate dreams of world domination...

...If a paper is banned, the reasons should be clear...

...Prime Minister Curtin says that the war has demonstrated what could be accomplished with an entire nation pulling together under national leadership...

...While they, are fighting and working, they have the energy and intelligence to organize and plan for tne future...

...Enclosed find a list of names of people I think would enjoy getting the paper...

...As I see it the only remedy for all this useless and fruitless effort is to eschew indulging in starting on this inane IF-merry-go-round and for the reader to cooperate by throwing into the waste basket any book or article in which an IF item is caught sight of...

...This number also features a slanderous editorial directed »against the American forces in North Africa...

...the world . predicated on and based upon an "IF" premise...

...Who started this manner of writing history or biography...

...A necessary means can become a very undesirable end...

...It is my impression that this man had a fsr better appreciation of Russian realities and ot the implications of American democratic idssli than the promoters of the American November ? celebrations...

...if Clemenceau's adrenal glands had been a little less active and those of General Petain speeded up more before the battle of the Marne when he already played with the idea of capitulation to Germany...

...Now this is wrong...

...Former Ambassador to Germany, James W. Gerard, 'fairly mirrors public opinion .of the Admiral when he remarks in characteristic salty style that two hard-boiled Army lieutenants should be detailed to watch him "night and day and to bump him off if he shows any signs of switching sides again...

...And they do not dare to face their colleagues in the Senate in a simple count of ayes and noes...

...STAR CHAMBER CENSORSHIP *THE MILITANT is a journal with which The New Leader has a minimum of agreement...

...through Maimonides, Achod Haam down to the almost modem Rashi he might never have fallen upon the literary device which aids and abets day-dreaming as a substitute for deductive thinking, and resorts to a synthesis of "IF what might have been"s for analysis of what' actually happened...

...I shall be surprised if the "cult of toughness" doesn't produce at least a few minor post-war headaches in the shape of home-grown theories with unpleasant overtones of fascism...

...To allow them to use us would be plain idiocy...

...They are setting a fine example to all of us...

...Their peaceful shift is highly desirable...

...That's what America thinks of Darlan—of all the Darlans...

...A million "IF"s come to one's mind and if one pursues only a few of them one finds himself rewriting the history of Germany, France, Italy, Russia, England and for that matter' tnat of...

...lawyer, bombardier or doctor...

...How^ most of these attacks serve the workers of a nation 'at war, it will be difficult for the average citizen to make out...

...plished the* same results in limiting Japanese, Chinese and other oriental immigration into this country by including them in the same quota system applying to all other countries...

...The terms of his appointment as well as his statements in connection with it indicate that his function is to be something far more important that that of a distributor of charity...

...Maybe Van Loon is completely innocent and should be cleared of ^..blame at once, that is, IF he did not imbibe too much of Emil Ludwig's penchant for the IF scheme of writing biographies...

...On the whole, we don't like it...

...Its masthead proclaims that it is published in the interests of the working people, but the last number to come to hand contains attacks on the A. F. of L., the C.I.O., the Roosevelt administration, Great Britain and Russia...

...on July 4, to organise mass meetings ?· over Russia to celebrate the ideals of tne^"j...

...Granting that some participants in these celebrations were not profeseesasl "party-liners" and merely wished to demonetise sympathy with the gallant resistance of tat Russian armies and the Russian people, both the choice of the date of the demonstration ass the phrasing of some of the speeches could ottf be considered unfortunate...

...They have no character, no principles...

...By the coersive and undemocratic use of the old Senate rule permitting unlimited debate, they were able to get rid of the anti-poll tax bill for this session...

...LEHMAN'S STRATEGIC POST DRESIDENT ROOSEVELT did well to put at * the head of the Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation Service a man who has the broadest political concepts as well as conspicuous organizing ability...

...IF such and such admiral had taken his forty winks an hour later, if Marine Jones did not get plumb sore because for the nth time he was given beans for his main meal and spent his anger on a regiment of Japs...

...The machinery of war becomes the machinery of peace...

...A suitable return for the No—>* ber 7 gesture would be for the Soviet 9et"*j ment...

...while manning their anti-aircraft guns, have the time and energy to call a convention and make the constitutional changes in line with their planning program...

...He will work with the Lend-I.ease Administration and the Board of Economic Warfare—neither one of which is a charitable organization...

...It is worth remembering that the France of 1914 escaped military catastrophe by a very narrow margin...

...But at this stage it is good policy to allow a few of them to save their miserable hides by coming over to our side and bringing with them all that they have of authority, influence and information...

...READER UKES THE NEW LEADER'S "LEFT-WING...

...the President has given a resounding answer to those who would postpone peace problems mstil the day of the signing of an armistice or a peace treaty...

...Their action was a confession of fear...

...The news that Americans and British are coming with food and clothes, with comfort and help, with under-Standing and decency—this news will be worth whole armies to us in the oppressed occupied lands...

...had been selected...

...We must get right away from the dolS'atotude," says Prime Minister Curtin, "slums must be cleared and rebuilt...

...They must not be admitted as equals within our councils...

...Every reasonable person agrees to that...

...It is to provide for the development of these improvements on a national scale that the constitution must be revised in the midst of war...

...Thus "IF" instead of the deliberate affront Japanese Exclusion Act had not been pressed and in its stead we would have accom...

...That is the whole trouble with trying to assess blame or responsibility for what happened, And for that matter the difficulty intrudes when you want to give praise or credit...

...Blame for this barrelful of Matjes red herrings should duly be deposited at the door of that jovial descendant of an old line of Netherlands herring-fishers, that versatile genius Henrik Willem Van Loon who in a couple of sentences in the introduction Ukhis "LIVES" has started something which will engulf libraries with tomes of "IF" histories...

...What wp have thought of as post-war work begins in the midst of war...

...Tales of utter labor disorganization and catastrophic decline of production during tike period of the Front Populaire are grossly exaggerated...

...Curiously enough, this idea has been promoted both by the unlamen^ed Vichy regime and by some French emigres and foreign observers who Wjere most hostile to Vichy...

...I really don't know of any other paper where liberal and left-wing views are presented with so much democratic self-criticism...

...Above all, they must not be recognized in the reorganization of Europe...

...One would need the dimensions of a book to explain all the causes of the French collapse...

...The purpose of the convention is to submit amendments modifying these clauses...

...The securing of Dakar without the death ?/ an American boy, everyone must hail as a splendid achievement...

...By the time the forces of Hitler and Hirohito are finally beaten, this healing work will already be well under way Preparations for peace take place in the midst of war...

...The meetings could be and were exploited by Communists as evidence of all-out AmsriesB official and unofficial endorsement of the aettsss and philosophy of the Bolshevik Revolotisa, Now, the Soviet record in such matters SS ?*" dorn of speech and press and election and Upl safeguards for the individual against the arbitrary violence of the state is emphatically set compatible with any recognizable Amerbltn ideal, from the Declaration of Independence *s the Four Freedoms...

...EDITORIAL COMMENT GOV...

...The Governor speaks 'of rehabilitation, rebuilding, restoring nations to productivity...

...We must have censorship during the war...

...Right now—with Japanese planes overhead— they are holding a convention to revise their federal constitution...

...The test of success in building a new world order after the defeat of the Axis, will be the success of the peacemakers in creating a foolproof system that will make it impossible for any people to run amok like the Germans or the Japanese, and will make it safe and practicable for every people, large and small, to lead the civilized, humane, intelligent type of life that most Frenchmen were leading until the disaster...

...The Darlans would have remained with Hitler if his stock were rising...

...In the long run—and not too long—they are sure to be beaten...

...All of this is as fhr as possible beyond the ideas of the Hoover food distribution in Europe after the last war...

...The postal authorities have denied the paper the use of the mails, and the editors can get no explanation, no indication of what is wrong, no guidance as to what they should do in order to have the mailing privilege restored...

...They 'have been robbed of sustenance by Hitler...

...Their only defense lies in trickery...

...The British blockade has used hunger as.a weapon...

...For IF Van Loon had resisted the temptation to call for his readers's speculation on what might have been the reaction of Mark Anthony's libido to a quarter inch difference in the length of Cleopatra's nose, if he hadn't told us about Napoleon's stomach ulcers or piles which made him depressed on the morning of the battle of Waterloo when he stalled, deferred and put off his getting into his saddle, the protraction making him late, too late for his hoped* for role in the battle's outcome...

...But the publishers of The Militant have cause for a genuine complaint against the Post Office 'iepartment...

...And walk out on a lecturer or speaker who wanders off into an IF angle of "reasoning...

...Now our men have taken North Africa and are at the southern portals of Europe...

...It really was an outstanding critique, and I for one would like to read more things like it...

...POLL-TAXERS' LAST STAND *JiHE filibustering poll-taxers in the United States Senate are in much the same position as the Hitler armies...

...the date of the fall · Tsarism...

...To use them is plain sense...

...But it should be democratic censorship...

...if the personalities invoked would hava eaten a different meal, slept it off or taken a walk or gotten sick or gotten well...

...And these Australians...

...PRAISE FOR HESSELTINE REVIEW, AND FEATURES From HAROLD MORRISON To the Editor: Congratulations for your columns and features . . . and that recent review of Sandburg's, Lincoln and the War Years, by W. B. Hesseltine...

...He has said to all the world that our machinery must be all set to carry on, to restore, to rebuild as soon as it is possible anywhere and at any time...

...A plea for toughness can easily and almost imperceptibly tum into an attack on labor standards, into an effort to deprecate the thoroughly reasonable ana cesiraoie laeai 01 an ever rising cultural and material standard of living...

...if Der kleine Adolph Schicklegruber would have died in infancy from any of the scores of Kinderkrankheiten that many of his generation of infants succumbed to...

...LETTERS TO THE EDITOR A Trip on ? Merry-Go-Round of "Ify' — Is Blamed on Van Loon From MAX SHEROVER To the Editor: This is hardly the appropriate time to speculate upon what might have been the fate of Europe today, how different might have been Europe's development if anyone of several happenings in its recent history would have deviated somewhat from the course they did take...

...The official wielding the hatchet should have enough faith in his judgment to put his ruling down in black and white in such terms as will make it possible for a journal to obey them...

...From here on, food shall be our weapon, and a far more powerful one...

...They do not dare to face all the voters of their districts at the voting places...

...They worked hard, their holidays were few, their pleasures were simple...

...This time food, clothes, machinery, credit are to be given with definite military and political purposes...

...Hitler made promises of peace, order and abundance...

...We think a number of its items are bad for war morale, and anything that is bad for American war morale is bad for the working class...

...Word rapidly' crosses international boundaries despite all efforts to prevent communication...

...That toughness, moral and physical, is an indispensable pre-requisite for winning the war is scarcely to be disputed...

...Even this could be answered by replacing every event that oc-cured in the past, be it ever so tricial, with an IF speculation...

...The fact that he will be within the Department of State indicates in itself that his work is thought of in connection with war aims and post-war reorganization...

...It is brightly made up, and some of the features and critical reviews are exceptional...

...Bat this, I repeat, was France's misfortune, not its crime...

...Washington...

...Food ships from this country will be the guarantee that we are different, that we are better...

...It smacks of dictatorship...

...It is hardly necessary to emphasize how unfavorable the situation was, in contrast, in 1939 and 1940...

...But I here and now ?·"*»* the prediction that no such meetings will be DtJs...

...now an American citizen, was requested to speak at one of the celebrations instituted by the "Congress of Soviet-American Friendship" on November 7. His reply was that, while he would do anything in his power to advane* the victory of the United Nations and would be glad to help in Russian war relief and similar activities, he could not reasonably be expected to celebrate an event which made him an exile and overthrew a democratic government with which he sympathized...

...The nation will need 260,000 new houses, the building of which will employ 60,000 men for ten years...

...The Australian government is preparing now to prevent a depression and to give employment to returning soldiers...

...DARLANISM THE fact that millions of persons in Britain * and Amesiea -are troubled...

...The ease of our conquest in North Africa was, in part due to the initial faith which the Arabs and colonials had in our character and our intentions...

...And the France of 1914 had Bussia as a military ally and Italy as a friendly neutral, soon to become an ally...

...It was an extension of the sort of charitable activity in which we have engaged a score of times when famine has struck in Europe or Asia during the past century...

...Then we fed and clothed a limited number of people in a few European, countries...

...Success wiH rapidly bring us whole flocks of undesirable allies...

...In addition to all humanitarian purposes, obviously, the objective is the use of food, clothing and...

...But the Cult of Toughness, like everything else, can be overdone...

...Instead he has given war, confusion and starvation...

...IF columnists so-and-so's accidental coining of a phrase had gone into oblivion with thousand of his other pet epigrams instead of hitting the reading public at the right "psychological moment...

...if the Kaiser's paralysis of his right arm had not come upon him and affected his entire outlook upon life...

...This experience points the way...

...The Governor's words imply that the organization to be set up will be international in character, that its existence will mark a forward step in the development of the United Nations into a functioning union...

...There are clauses in the constitution which too greatly limit the control of the federal authorities over the economic life of the nation...

...It follows, therefore, that "we should be similarly equipped to organize our resources for peace...

...In Europe, Africa and Asia our democratic world is bidding against Hitler's New Order for support and allegiance...

...is to be hoped that a good many of us have an eye on what is going on among them...

...They are afraid of a shown-down anywhere...

...President Roosevelt recognised the nature of the struggle when he announced to the French colonials that they should be fed as soon as ships could carry food to them...

...This embarrassing ambiguity could have bet* avoided if a less provocative date, say Febrasry 22, the anniversary of the creation of the Bee Army, or March 12...

...Then the subject matter of speeches could have been limited ts subjects in which Americans could be sineSfS in their congratulations, on the showing of ¦· Russian army and the emancipation of ?· Russians from a traditional despotism, and ?· treacherous bogs of discussing Soviet ????** and economic theory and practice with m* limitations imposed by wartime politeness «?··· have been avoided...

...if Germany's several provinces had come together into a federated Reich a hundred years earlier than they did and as a consequence their 'people would not have awakened to a belated sense of national unity with its accompanying aggressiveness to cover up its deep sense of political inferiority...

...While in France, as everywhere else, there was a small class of people with more money than brains who patronized expensive resorts and fashionable night clubs, the great majority of the French people, the workers, the farmery the class of small traders and handicraft workers that has always been numerous in France, the "little people," were certainly not living in an atmosphere of sybaritic ease...