Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
Where the News Ends __By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN_:_ A Few Dissenting Opinions Tt*HIS week I intend to encroach on the province ' * of another department of The New Leader which wields the...
...We shall get a better service whenever we get round to the simple notion of running industry for the national benefit and -putting at tbe head of it the best men we .fan find...
...He sweated and twisted and turned and sought vainly for answers to questions which were put by bumble men who draw down only $10,000 a year...
...My friend did some quick hard thinking as to what he might confess without morally discredit-big himself...
...High up among these super-men who must be thus inspired stands Mr...
...Tbe convictions of the objectors are guarded with commendable care...
...He has worked all bis life for trade unions and fa-trade anion ideas...
...There is something for the public to ponder...
...It is something easy to talk about because it can't happen...
...uffl PROFITS AND FAORY WEDNESDAY'S newspapers brought into " one picture three headlines...
...There is just one black spot on the government's record with regard to this whole business...
...Some years ago a German girl arrived in Japan exqding Nordic charm and' Hitlerite ideas...
...Puerto Rico is the .target of more Congressional investigations than even labor these days...
...The argument on which tbe embattled senators surged up to beat tbe President's salary limit was that great rewards—4100,000, $200,-000, $500,000—are necessary to call forth for the public service the transcendent ability of the great business managers...
...My friend, not being an old Bolshevik, but a nonparty intellectual, turned balky when he was required to sign some nonsensical confession about working for the restoration of monarchy and for German intervention in the Soviet Union...
...4— The city man is most apt to be a talking man, and in an angry mood, takes his temper out in talk or jibes...
...Exceptions** practical and exhaustive tests had beer...
...He was a sensitive, intelligent chap, a genuine believer in non-violence...
...In this respect, the production of farm produce and stock (in case of birth and sickness, say) is parallel with some of the most highly technical treatments in the processing of steel and glass, both of which industries require workmen so highly skilled, proficient and intelligent about their work that they might well be considered in the same classification as engineers...
...It is doubtful whether Japan has ever seriously contemplated anything so fantastically unrealizable as a conquest of the continental United States...
...For sheer downright stupidity it would be hard to match Mike's pronouncement...
...a staff, etc...
...Many of them have accepted tbe opportunity to serve their country with non-combantant service...
...They are supported by their denominations and their friends...
...the Liberals, ?? 463...
...right down tbe line...
...The Board of Examiners bad rvTC special attention to this matter of finding tb right sort of adult educator...
...A natural focal point of his temper under the circumstances would be the native farmer, who is a long-patient, silent guy until be'*, bad enough, at which point he produces a temper which usually takes the form of putting a pitchfork through some handy city slicker, shotgunning him off tbe fboperty, or leaving tbe property flat himself if it belongs to an employer...
...But it is quite unrealistic to suggest that either China or England has any alternative to "helping" us in the war against Japan...
...must ¦ be guilty of something, or you wouldn't have '' been arrested...
...Five untrained C**T cannot do the day-to-day tr*tk*af two good farmers without at JafF two or three years of learaasl and toughening, and by the thiag* they don't know, could do ?* enormous amount of harm...
...Gompteu physical domination during nearly three years bas not sufficed for the breaking of the aoiri of democratic Danes...
...On a farm, a full year's production of a given produce (or essential step in its cultivation) is often bandied in one day...
...Benjamin F. Fairless, president of tbe United States Steel Corporation...
...Then the GPU examiner called him in and said: .-' "If yon won't confess to the charges in the '. indictment confess to something else...
...The union men like it The soldiers like it...
...There is not in the Constitution of the United States nor in common sense any justification for such a distinction...
...but if it did, it would be under duress, and grumbling, inefficiency, spite accidents and decline of potential production would be heavy...
...You can stop work noon a bridge for a week and continue again and the -bridge is simply delayed that much...
...This tale of the betrayal of the country by great capitalists for profit is old, but it need not go on forever...
...This temper would be further galled by about ten to twenty weeks of literal physical discomfort and pain on the average farm...
...It seems to convey the impression that America was the primary objective of the Japanese attack, that Great Britain and China are disinterested bystanders, who may help us or abstain from giving such help, at their pleasure...
...And the whole British Imperial position in Asia would become impossible if Japan were permitted to consolidate its gains, to retain permanent possession of Burma, Malaya and the Netherlands Indies...
...of course, we are all in the war together and must win or lose together...
...EDITORIAL COMMENT _____________......_________»mtmnnimMOUHtnu 1??1?11...
...That is providing that he wanted to.become a farm laborer in the first place, and that he were of an alert and industrious nature in the second...
...Buck ana tbr Board of Education seek some pale shade* «j a person who has not taken sides...
...No oo...
...Unrecognized, or not yet recognized, there are enough to bring this number up to something like 14,000...
...It is taken for granted that Mr...
...Senator George got his resolution passed for a committee...
...There these men who make planes, guns, tanks and jeeps are being put through a course of sprouts along with the soldiers...
...vised...
...But the emphasis and implications of Mr...
...You're not a Party member.'.' \ "lam against the methods used to promote collective, farming," was the second attempt...
...Militant" is neither good raw, nor good logic, nor good policy...
...LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Former Protests New Labor Draft As "Ineffective and Dangerous" From ?. C. MeCLARY To the Editor: The proposed drafting of city men and women for farm work won't work out as any farmer will tell you . . . but it can turn out one of the most expensive, wasteful, and enemy aiding pieces of boondoggling yet attempted under the headings of Necessity and Patriotism...
...It will , ',-" be better for you and your family...
...These are tbe men who have tender consciences and deep convictions about the best way to end war but who—unfortunately for them—do not belong to any recognized religious organization...
...Of course we need and want all the help we can get in this global war...
...But a farm is not an army camp, and five thousand men are not working in synchronized fashion with a central control...
...3—The city labor which might be so drafted is not going to like this enforced enslavement and it is going to accept it...
...His long experience ? t* labor field fits him admirably to take the ?? in a move to make the school system eovat...
...His arrest and examination occurred in the time of the Weimar Republic...
...But adult educatiot it to an important extent in the field of th» social sciences...
...There is noting to criticize...
...They would find not one set of muscles to toughen up . such as would be true of a one-set job like wood chopping . . . but about twenty sets, probably none of which they have ever used...
...If he had belonged to a church, the handling of his case would have been routine...
...Race issues have certainly been stimulated not so much by "The Militant," with its small circulation, as by the fact that treatment of Negroes in the armed forces and in the war industries has often fallen a good deal short of ideal justice...
...REACTION EIGHTS LIBERAL PLANNING WASHINGTON, D. C.—Shortly . after tbe President sent to Congress his historic message on post-war planning,Senator George immediately jumped on the National Resources Planning Board proposals and called for a Senate ^committee to draw up its own plans...
...It is significant that no such invasion was attempted, even when the situation would have been most favorable, after the decimation of our Navy at Pearl Harbor...
...It is interesting to note In this connection that arrangements have been made to bold the money earned by these men in a special fund which is not to be expended for war purposes...
...understands better than he the ethics of the teaching profession...
...the prisoner's treatment improved;' and after serving a period of exile he was released...
...In the face if ev#r whelming force, the citizens went quietl...
...A sense of comradeship is built up between fighting men and working men...
...But in every war there are great industrialists who are willing to sacrifice our country's fighters to their own love of gain...
...Obviously, the type being considered for farm labor is not qualified to adapt itself readily to new tasks, or it would already be gobbled up by armed forces or skilled labor...
...It t» a splendid example of the kect intelligence and journalistic ability existing in the ranks of tat Socialist movement I have enjoyed its informing and etinnuet-ing columns for these m*8J years, but never with greatsT relish than just now California...
...After a day of strenuous drill Mr.~Heuther made a remark which should be of interest to Captain Ricken-backer...
...NON-RELIGIOUS OBJECTORS *|*HERE never was an American war with * such a small''percentage of conscientious objectors as this- one...
...Permit rot U compliment you on the sustaintd high quality of the paper...
...He knows the facts of industrial life...
...The charging of excessive rates for transportation during hectic days of war goes even further back...
...In accordance with our democratic tradition, it must be acknowledged, most of these young men have been dealt with fairly and decently...
...REUTHER AND RICKENBACKER ?APTAIN EDDIE RICKENBACKER has been reciting over and over again his little piece about doubling war production by bringing back the boys from the pillboxes and putting them on the production lines...
...All the paraphernalia of power was bajpleb The Social Democrats polled 894,636 vow the Conservatives, 421,057...
...A small 'number of American shipping concerns collected from the British government $31,000,-,000 of which $27.000,000 was profits...
...United States Steel sold to tbe government for war purposes «6,000 pounds of defective steel...
...I'm hot in agreement with the Party line," he ventured...
...We will rededicate ourselves to the proposition that no American fighting men will ever want for fighting equipment as long as we have breath and brawn in our bodies...
...he seeks, but it will be a sad day for tat ck...
...Yen'cannot find them by giving the authoritative positions to the most rapacious...
...On Tuewt' they went quietly to the voting placet am: gave^ their judgment...
...They are both needed to win the war...
...We can certainly "count on the British and Chinese" to prosecute the Far-Eastern war — from the most elementary con-' sideration of their own national self-interest...
...Attorney-General Biddle is a disciple and admirer of the great liberal Justice Holmes...
...Justice...
...That's no good," said the examiner...
...It is not to be...
...It is pointed out that the armed services change men over, and in quick and efficient order...
...It is a vision sketched in tear-jerking tremolo for oratorical effect...
...Ellsworth Buck, preaaar of tbe Board, explained that be wants aekher an antagonist nor a protagonist of Labor, ?u theory of education carries back to the 0lft maidenly days...
...in a sullent, defiant temper...
...Putting power into the hands of the most greedy rather than of the most efficient, has put us where we are and kept us there from the Revolutionary war to this one...
...On Tuesday, little DCBfto'i spoke for all of oppressed Europe...
...With the army men they use the equipment which they and their buddies are turning out The camp commander...
...For some time I have been jotting down expressions of opinion that got a contradictory rise out of me, and here they are, . .The first prize for cynical buffoonery in the face of tragedy goes to Red Mike the Gold for hit comment on the Erlich-Alter killings: "They were guilty, or they wouldn't have been punished" ' According to this brilliant judicial-metaphysical theory proofs, procedure, credibility count for nothing...
...Lippmann's statement are strangely out of line with reality...
...Because he did not belong to a church, the judge treated him like a traitor to his country...
...On Taeaday this great man for whose benefit « generous Senate went into battle against the President sat like an errant school-boy • sweating under examination by Senator Truman and the members of his committee...
...But Mark Starr is a Labor man...
...Holmes .expressed the view that the defendants had as much right to publish this leaflet as the Government has to print the Constitution of the United States and laid down an excellent definition for freedom of speech and opinion in a wartime democracy in the following words: "I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fx aught with death, unless they so imminently threaten interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country...
...On being inter- William H. Cham be run viewed by the gentlemen of the Nipponese press she gave utterance to the following profound thought: "There is no criticism of Hitler...
...I DO not like to cite Attorney-General Biddle for purposes of controversy, because his general administration of wartime legislation has been humane and intelligent But the key sentence in his letter recommending the withdrawal of second-class mailing privileges from...
...This is labor's answer to all who talk rather than work...
...Shortly after a Senate Committee beaded by Chavez finished a jaunt of the island, the House Rules Committee approved *of a new investigation of Tu swell's regime by the House Insular Affairs Committee...
...Perhaps one could not quarrel with this as a strictly factual statement...
...I do not," blurted the poor rich man, "I consider it very poor management...
...It it a crushing...
...The mere fact that an individual has been killed by decree of a totalitarian state makes him guilty...
...Whoever thought up thil isss should be investigated either f* sanity, or enemy sympatMet, 0 both...
...What a comforting theory that would ue iur nie nuu anu what a tremendous load of- guilt there must have been among the millions of victims of all forms of totalitarian dictatorship...
...He can find the sort of...
...There were scores of applicants fr*, ail parts of tbe country...
...There is little use in appealing to the patriotism of tbe men in the upper brackets...
...It would be pretty hard to prove that the continued circulation of "The Militant" falls under this, "imminent peril" definition...
...One vessel has already split in two and gone down because of the use of defective steel...
...2—The raising of crops and care of animals is not like any other work in the world...
...On the new George Committee are Barkley, Hayden, O'Mahoney, Lucas and Pepper—all stout Administration supporters...
...a part of the life of an adult community, &> has already done this for a considerable ?? tion of our population...
...THE BOARD AGAINST EDUCATION THE New York City Board of Education * has voted in favor of having our teaching done by eunuchs...
...but I am sure that he will be delighted to learn that his reasoning, such as it was, matches perfectly that of a GPU official who was trying tp extract a confession of sabotage from a friend of mine in Moscow...
...To be a GPU official is presumably the highest ambition of every good Communist...
...And no director of TVA draws more than twenty-five thousand a year...
...Now the record shows that we have collaborated with Fascist individuals and groups in North Africa, for reasons which seem adequate to some, inadequate to others...
...So he has taken 250 key men from the war plants of the automobile companies out to Camp Atterbury, Indiana...
...They are on the same side, and they are working together...
...This'week, finally, arrangements have been made to vend them to agricultural regions which are short of labor...
...As Director of Adult Education it seeks a man who has no opinions, who hss never taken sides...
...In a shoe factory, you can by tile error of ignorance cause a few hundred pair of shoes to go to waste, but the checkers will catch the mistake in time to save the fall year's production...
...His ideas are of the sort that can be tested in action...
...On the 1941 lists of the Collector of Internal Revenue be stood well ap in the list of those receiving annually more than a hundred thousand dollars...
...It has to be done on that one particular dajf when the opportunity is there, come bellyaches hell and high water...
...The United States Senate by a vote of 74 to 3 decided to repeal the President's $25.000 limit on salaries...
...when he does...
...On Wednesday night the Board, by a vote of 4 to 2, decided not to appoint Mr *W Starr, the distinguished educational direetst of the International Ladies' Garment «ottenr Union, to the office of Director of Adelt Eds-cation...
...With all of ta* »¦ sources of the school system at his conaaind he could do it much better for the benefit of »U But-no...
...demnation...
...He deals in facts rather than in vision...
...We can stop it whenever we get ready to...
...as if no foreign boat had ever trod their...
...A small number of the very best and-most sincere among them are treated as if they Were criminals...
...Senator Ferguson shot at him: "Do you consider the testimony and evidence as snowing good management...
...But shortly before he left on his South American trip, Vice-President Wallace, who appoints all Senate committees, named a top-heavy New Deal representation...
...They had published and circulated a leaflet phrased in decidedly inflammatory terms, calling President Wilson "the coward in the White House" and urging munitions workers not to manufacture shells for use against Soviet Russia...
...Let us all take note of the fact that there have been no reports of graft or inefficiency in connection with the Tennessee Valley Authority...
...George is chairman...
...But right at the outset they will discard the present farm, farmer and farm setup which would retard their plan, and we will all live on canned surplus until a new farm type is created in a gigantic collectfrvist enterprise with a general, a GHQ...
...What we need is a revision of our entire picture of who should run industry and why and for whose benefit...
...Canton, Nanking), are occupied by the Japanese, along with much Chinese territory...
...Where the News Ends __By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN_:_ A Few Dissenting Opinions Tt*HIS week I intend to encroach on the province ' * of another department of The New Leader which wields the clipping sheers very capably...
...This particular sentence reads: "The lines in this publication also include derision of democracy and the Four Freedoms, as hypocritical shams, anti-British attacks, charges of Fascist collaboration by the United States, stimulation of race issues and other material deemed visionary in character and appearing to be calculated to engender opposition to the war effort as well as to interfere with the morale of the armed forces...
...There are able and honest men...
...N<>w...
...There are now 6,577 recognized as entitled to the status by the Selective Service authorities...
...Starr «u % only one of a bonded who came through Th, Board of Education had merely to accept tbt recommendation of its examiners in order ? secure a director of adult education %^ would soon put this city in the forefront of tsds field—a position which it hat nev« occupied...
...And tois was successful...
...the polls and voted their convictions u ft...
...DENMARK »KARS THE Danish elections on Tuesday tfagjatem * a crushing defeat for the Nazis...
...Most of tbe men whose consciences forbid them to go to war to kill and be killed are excused from' military service and treated decently...
...How many American sailors, soldiers and marines will die because of the use of the 36,000 tons no man will ever know...
...China's seven largest cities (Peking, Tientsin, Shanghai, Hankow, Tsingtao...
...The case of a man of this sort came before a New York court last week...
...Stan ? be had been appointed, would not ban usk his post for propaganda purposes...
...They live in conveniently equipped camps...
...Penasyl venia...
...This verdict gains relevance from the iac: that it represents the voiceless milliont of ethr occupied lands...
...i. ,···' * * » A NOT ? Ell recent expression of opinion to *™ which realistic exception can be taken stems front Walter Lippmann: "Let us remember that when the war ends in Europe there will still be the war in the Pacific and that we are counting on the British and the Chinese...
...5—Farmers and city men are two different breeds of dog who don't speak the same language, who have different interest*, experiences and objects of respect, and whose fundamental psychology is often directly opposed...
...Before advocating repressive measures against "The Militant" he would have done well to have studied Justice Holmes's strong dissenting opinion in the case when a group of young Anarchists were sentenced to terms of fifteen and twenty years in prison during the First World War...
...Just as simple as that I don't know how Mike feels about this intellectual soul mate of his in the Orient...
...It would have to be an army with duties and penalties, because when a man has a wrenched back and peas or rye have to be planted, one or the other it not ta receive proper treatment or a* average farm...
...and a fairly efficient one, in five or twenty years...
...Taken together, the regular anti-Gtrrtui parties counted nearly 2,000,000 supporte-s-against something like 68,000 for the Nsiib Since 1040, the Hitlerites have had fUilmiitec opportunities to win over the Danish psopb The citizens of this little land have lesratc to know the Herrenvolk completely...
...I extremely doubt if regular farm labor would tolerate city labor on the place for long...
...He was not physically tortured'but he was kept without exercise, books or contact/ with the outside world for a considerable time...
...If the authorities want to build up, literally, a farm army from scratch, they can probably do so...
...Away back in the 19th century the predecessors of United States Steel knew all the tricks connected with producing it and getting it accepted...
...Walter P. Reuther is a different sort of fellow...
...This is a curious perversion of the actual course of events...
...if at all...
...And "The Militant" certainly, in these days, has no monopoly on "material deemed visionary in character...
...Searching through the files of memory, however, I did find an appropriate opposite number for it...
...The examiner noted this confession of a high state crime down with satisfac-tiqn...
...Just consider these three facts: 1—the average city-born man or woman over 16 years of age is literally not worth his keep upon a farm, and could not be changed over to the mental and physical requirements within a year to represent even second-rate common help...
...General Frank W. Milburn, is all out for this project...
...We have had blowhole steel plates ever since naval vessels have carried steel armor...
...Tbe making of gigantic graft out of armaments is an old, old story...
...On the other side of the picture are many thousands of clergymen and others who were automatical^ exempt—or who might easily have secured exemption—but who have volsmtarily enteredf tbe services...
...The two principal causes which historians will almost certainly assign for our war with Japan are our refusal to accept Japan's claim to over-lordship in China and our far-reaching understanding with England, which made it impossible for us to view with indifference a Japanese conquest of the extensive British possessions.in the Orient...
...faformfaf and SHmmMlmql" From GEORGE GARRETT To the Editor: Herewith I am sending fSJ* for renewal sub...
Vol. 26 • March 1943 • No. 13
