Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
Where the News Ends By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN History, Joe Davies, and Life Magazine ADIPLOMAT has been rather cynically described as a man who is supposed to lie for his country. i Bp fsr...
...They have befuddled us with dialectics and saddled us with the base fiction that men's acts are solely of economic motivation...
...It is only necessary to close down the Moscow headquarters of the International, to cease fomenting civil war among the' anti-Axis forces in Yugoslavia, to abstain from the activity which the Polish Premier, General Sikorski, recently mentioned, of having parachutists with Communist propaganda missions dropped in Poland...
...generation which lived through the false dawn of "world peace...
...Here, for instance, is Question 4: "Will Russia be willing to undertake any International commitments which involve re-vcaling information to other nations...
...The Baltic Republics, Latvia, Lithuania and Esthonia, were not a product of German militarism and imperialism...
...It is to assume "that what they [the Soviet leaders] say they mean, that they are hottest in their beliefs, speak the truth and keep their promises,* This touching picture of Stalin and his associates in the Political Bureau as Twentieth-century Cberry^ Tree George Washingtons unfortunately doesn't At In" with the hard facts of the historical record.'**'-* The Soviet Government was the first great perwsr to break the Kellogg Pact by resorting tof armed force in its dispute with China over tBef Chinese Eastern Railway in 1929...
...V, quote, without further comment, froa tht Congressional Record (p...
...They speak only foTthe "big" farmers, the business farmers, the employing farmers...
...The headquarters of the International are still open and still in Moscow...
...These are no criminals, subject to execution...
...but his statement that "Soviet foreign policy has been consistently addressed to the prevention of the war" is in strange discord with the Stalin-Hitler pact, which made the outbreak of the Second World War inevitable...
...They were released te a time...
...It would have added billions to the country's food bill...
...Secretary Stlmsoi: and other persons in' a position to know have repeatedly testified that the absolute minimum of military information is vouchsafed to the foreign military missions which visit Russia fojythe purpose of finding out how the Soviet war effort can best be aided...
...It is a sharp rebuke to certain blatherskite elements in Congress...
...This is your paper...
...I read this catechism' with growing amazement and instinctively began to jot down errors of historical interpretation and misstatements of fact...
...Unless an honest, unintimi-dated plebiscite is held, with the participation of all the former inhabitants who were deported to the Soviet* Union after the Soviet military occupation in 1939-1941, and who have survived that experience, the Soviet Government has no more ethical right to annex Finland, the Baltio States and Eastern Poland than Germany had to annex Czechoslovakia or Japan bad to seize Manchuria...
...It has a nose for the things and thoughts that matter...
...I know it was not...
...Yet no man can stay behind in this time of great decision, remaining glued to the seat of his own selfish interest...
...So prices would have skyrocketed...
...It could be contended that the acquisition of such territories did not constitute aggression, but simply the restoration to the Soviets of that which has been taken from them-by farce and the rectifying of previous wrongs...
...It has taken the Selective Service Act to make men of us...
...It is important for me to a«k now: "Where shall I seek the struts to brace my inner self, the nerve or the guts, the stiff upper lip...
...POR myself, writing on the eve of a new phase In my life (and can anyone say if it will lead me to the second front or to a safe desk in some obscure Army post...
...But when the call comes, as men we are glad, and as participants in freedom's enterprise we are glad...
...They were arrested again, tried, tot-vie ted and executed...
...Davies's statement that "the Soviet Union has an enviable record as a nation for keeping its obligation...
...The real f«*» well cannot be written until I come back...
...The ex-Ambassador brushes aside as "a Hitler bugaboo" the suggestion that the Soviet Government might do anything so illmannered as to promote Communist revolutions in Europe or in Asia...
...Note—At this point Rankin's time was up.] Notes for a Farewell By RALPH DE TOLEDONO WO man wants to die...
...But looking ahead to it, there is a surge of feeling, call it patriotism if you will—or the recognition that at last I am taking my place in the ranks of vengeance...
...THE last war destroyed men's faith ia thdr * ability to conquer the evil within and aboot them...
...But, if words mean anaything, this is an obligation to close down the functioning of the Communist International on Soviet territory...
...The other day this paper PM came out with a denunciation of the ernca-tion and wound up with this statement' > : 'The case is going to haunt Soviet'-: United States relations for a long time - to come.' ' - "Patriotic Americans will not quarrel ufte Russia in this matter...
...For what we call democracy is an expression and an extension of the individual gooc e»» sciously developed...
...Or perhaps the hearts were not so pure...
...Russia u on our side in this war and any man whs |L tempts to stir up trouble between the Unitei States and Russia is driving a knife into til back of our boys on the various battlefronU...
...The pie-i«-the-sky of theology is not what I mean at all, but salvation in terms of the democratic ideals which we all share...
...I too caught U» infection for a while and can testify to * virulence...
...Note—The Fascist pubheatkaaj to which he called attention...
...Treaties of non-aggression and neutrality, concluded at the initio tire of the Soviet Government, with filnlahd, Poland and the Baltic States, were ruthlessly scrapped as soon as the pact with Hitler made it safe for Stalin to embark on a career of aggression in Eastern-Europe...
...LEON ILUM A PRISONER OF WAR f\8 Monday cam* the news that Leon Blum has been transferred from a prison in France to a prison in Germany...
...We have no rich friends, no subvention, no adequate and assured financial backing...
...7? "Whether you like Russia or not...
...And certainly no good cause has been served by the amazing piece of special pleading on behalf of the Soviet Union which former Ambassador Joseph Edward Davies has addressed to the American public through the medium of the magazine Life...
...It is also the fact that the very Germany, which they are now fighting, in 1917 and 1918 took away from Russia nearly all of the territory gained westward since the accession of Peter the Great, including the Ukraine and...
...And the Soviet Government undertook an obligation to the United States which it has been consistently violating for the last ten years...
...Here is the best case he can make out for his Soviet client: "The Baltic states were all carved out of and taken away from Russia after the last war...
...Let us see what it does...
...Courage was bom in Spain, but the "No pasaran...
...that is why avw^ tht tortured French had to be destroyei without before a totalitarian system could bt imposed upon them...
...And it is precisely here that I launch my faith in tht common reason of the men of good, will sad decency, those heirs to the Judaeo-Roman tradition of the Western world end its inspired belief in law and morality, its reliance on the ace** tion of small rights and duties as a meant te the high justice which lives after the slick Wut-prints have been trodden underfoot...
...Before it, I am reluctant...
...The President was stating simple fact when he, said in his veto message that labor would have to be given increased wages to meet the higher cost of food...
...3627) : "The other day the Jewish gentleman frea New York (Mr...
...v When Mr...
...In the Kremlin Set chorus vilifying the defenders of Erlich and Alter has cosa John Rankin of Mississippi...
...It is read by soldiers in widely scattered camps and on the fighting fronts...
...Celler's list tat other day...
...I believe, profoundly, that each man is a hojy vessel, too often corrupted by his own weakness and bearing the seeds of his own destruction, but holy nevertheless since the good of society is held within him...
...Under these eh-cumstances I think I am justified in calling attention to some of the Jewish propaganda that is being used in this country to stir op tretftaV between us and Russia, one of our leadk...
...The phrasing of this pledge is legalistic and clumsy...
...Assignments to deal with special turns and trends in the news are cheerfully accepted...
...With the contributions solicited for this anniversary edition we can furnish rich editions for many weeks to come...
...I mention this because the propaganda of scholars has convinced us that there is no salvation save by the grace of specialized vocabularies and academic occultism...
...They have used Promethean fire to heat their tea...
...The situation, however, is not an unpleasant one...
...It is a disease we have caught frea the totalitarian, a means of evading carefi judgement of an adversary...
...Here is one they call the Ghetto...
...What sources of strength shall I draw on to survive this flood of calamity, to ride out this hurricane of evil...
...It is interesting to note that Mr...
...But Fido would not be downed, so men were beaten in Berlin and shot in Vienna...
...A well-known Senator is reported to have remarked recently: "What's so terrible about inflation ? If it means higher prices, let's have more of it," The fact that the folks back home supported the President and scared reluctant Senators into line gives refreshing assurance that such lawmakers fall below the average intelligence...
...A birthday is a family affair...
...They are brave soldiers of the Allied causa...
...We struggle^ against the final moment when we must give up the sights and sounds we love...
...I an going to read it to you...
...We have time and again legitimately distinguished between fighting Russia and the Communist politicos, between the heroic soldiers and officers of the Red Army and the notorious agents of the GPU...
...It prints stuff that cannot be found elsewhere...
...i Bp fsr as I know, however, it has never been suggested that this obligation extends to the point of - misrepresenting the policies and historical records of other countries...
...The men whose fame the Nazis were unable to blacken through the Riom trials are now helpless in the hands of ^ThajKbtf fcahnsand BritainfhMtethuuae-diately recognize the status of these men as prisoners of war and insist that the German government fwisnjp.hr it...
...These men— with no interest in the war, with no feeling for the common welfare—wished to seize the food crisis as an opportunity for piling up profits...
...Of course Germany did not obtain permanently a square foot of Russian territory...
...Laat «eet n» quoted the aoB-taa Magro-baitfc | aaaj^J eekbrator af the death .of these "taa^Jark* trouble-makers...
...Mine was the...
...One could easily get the impression from this strange and muddled passage that Germany had won the last war and retained Russian territory which the Soviet Union might reasonbly expect to regain after this war...
...Our list of writers is our greatest resource...
...White Russia...
...The Army, even America's civilian army, is unknown and fearsome territory...
...It includes some of the most brilliant progressive thinkers of the United States and not a few of the best from other lands...
...that is why America was able to reuse itadt despite the confusion and fascist-making **¦ tagonisms in our society...
...We promise both readers and writers that nothing of our store shall be wasted...
...At any rate, when the Teutonic tribes let loese their dogs upon us, the only answer we had was a panicky: "Down, Fido...
...They sent this propaganda all ant tat country...
...This, week Rankin iklkmed the trail of Earl Browder's offensive agaiut the American liberal-labor tnnTiiiiieat...
...This is a sufficient commentary on Mr...
...We should officially proclaim them our own and throw about them whatever protection can be afforded by our growing might...
...Celler) made a speech on this floor relative to a great array of Gentile pa*, lications [Ed...
...It has an editorial sixth sense for the areas in -which controversy and opinion are concerned with the "growing points...
...It feels strange to be writing this—and stranger still to be feeling it deeply...
...it even voluntarily confirmed this frontier by concluding special non-aggression and neutrality treaties with its neighbors...
...Men fight for simple things, and in naive ways they die...
...NE is used to shocks from Mr...
...When I had counted up to about p dozen I gave up this task as a bad job...
...but it has no secrets for Joe Davies...
...Coue in its innocent simplicity, for penetrating the mysteries of Kremlin diplomacy...
...Congratulations on the first twenty years—I'll settle for my share in postwar planning if we caa keep America fit for such virile journalism during the next twenty years...
...It is comforting to know that Bankhead and his cronies of the Farm Bloc do not represent the working farmers of the country...
...A HOME FRONT VICTORY TIE successful offensive against the Bank-head Bill is a triumph for the people and for the President...
...These are notes for a farewell...
...Its very existence depends upon your support...
...None would have been benefited...
...Then Why brand Russia's action as a crime ? "But let us see about the facts of this cast...
...POR some time now, men of my age lived in * thex approaching presence of swift and violent .death, either as soldiers or as soldiers to be...
...I find that I can leave the isms and the ologies to those busy thinkers who are all head and bottom...
...With the cynical murder of Henryk Erlich and Victor Alter, Poland's leading anti-fascist militants, the distinction has been italicized in blood...
...ing before a morning when death stampain R* sun, it might have been easier to say, "God ka» us ail . . ." Harry D. Oideonse President, Brooklyn College THE NEW LEADER is s weekly joy to * me...
...These words have been met by snickers in a time of glib complexities...
...It is read in many a far farmhouse, in many a miner's home, in many a small-town library...
...It publishes Stalin's letter...
...But we should solemnly proclaim that if these man suffer at the hands of the enemy, the perpetrators of the crime shall face sure retribution...
...Unfortunately for us, the strength of ten was not in the pure in heart...
...Ed, Note—Voice of the Ghetto, publication of tht General Jewish Workers Union of Poland.] I do not think it was on Mr...
...Within tie limits of this column I will trp to convey some idea of the starry-eyed conception of Stalin's principles and policies which Mr...
...At the time when resumption of diplomatic relations between the United States and the ' Soviet Union was under discussion Maxim Litvinov, then Commissar for Foreign Affairs, undertook, on behalf of the Soviet Government ."not to permit the formation or residence on Jits territory of any organization or group— ; and to prevent the activity on its territory of "any organization or group, or of representatives or officials of any organization or group—which has as an aim the overthrow or the preparation for the overthrow of, or '. bringing about by force of a change in the political or social order of the whole or any part of the United States, its territories or ¦ possessions...
...I am sick at heart watceiaf men labelled and therefore damned without conscience...
...This was the real failure, a failure of /#B*T you will...
...United States relations for a long that te come, it does not reflect the views of the American people whose sons are on the firing line in this war...
...That is why "Britain was able to Steadskat...
...In the midst of all the demands of war, they respond in the most cooperative manner to special calls for help...
...And military discipline will at best be a burden...
...STRANGE BAD-FELLOWS 11/E see little potnt in taking serious issue ** with Earl Browder's charges against Erlich and Alter and by typical Kremlin-minded extension against a host of anti-fascist liberals, ''"socialists and trade-Unionists in America who have been critical of Josef Stalin's totalitarianism...
...When I think of the subsidies that go into some publishing ventures, and the profits that flow out of some others, it is a constant source of inspiration to me to think of the quality job you manage to do on a budgetary shoestring...
...It is true that Lenin's practical observance of this principle, in Ukrai-nia, for instance, or in Georgia and Central Asia, was open to considerable criticism...
...Its only purpose is to serve your interests...
...I am StdB frff" ing for meanings and explanations, feT worthy truths to weather the gale...
...Davies comes to the question of the Soviet western frontier his history becomes positively cockeyed...
...And as the hour for the feast approached, the ofTnaiS^H%%tst exceeds the dimensions •Y^fe t*hk* 0ar writers furnished more good things than we, under these war conditions, could find the paper to print...
...Yet, here and now, it can be emphasized that no man has died in this war with choice selections from the Encyclopedia of Social Sciences on his lips...
...Even in ordinar y life, it failed signally in moving us to an understanding of anything but physics and chemistry...
...Davies has a right to dissent publicly from the policies of the State Department, just as I have the right to disagree with the judgments of Mr...
...The working classes bptt no monopoly on it, nor does it shun the wearen of particular ties...
...allies...
...Well, Russia is now engaged in a coalition war supposedly waged for just this purpose...
...was never heard in London or Paris or Washington...
...This New Leader anniversary includes every reader—no matter how far from New York he rips the wrapper from his copy and joins in the council...
...Whether in fear, or bravely, or with the resignation that is any man's mite, I know that before this war is over certain sharp, pressing facts of blood and endurance and pain must be faced...
...A' glance at our files shows that The New Leader goes to all the states and many foreign lands...
...In the gloss of history, the crude stuff of human emotion is forgotten and only the beautiful, unheard words cf the leaders remain...
...But they went right back to their okl scheme of trying to stir up a revolution 4a Russia...
...Its military occupation of the Baltic States, Western Russia and Ukraina under the terms of the Brest-Litowsk Treaty ended soon after the German military machine was smashed in the West...
...There could be no such periodical as The New Leader without this great staff of volunteer contributors...
...Davies has tried to sell to the American public...
...Yet in the countries with the ittongat individualist tradition, fascism had bo ehsnet...
...Russia charged them with trying to stir up a revolntiei against the Stalin regime, at a time when the war was at its worst...
...If Stalin wishes to dispel this "bugaboo" it is easily within his power to do so...
...EDITORIAL COMMENT TO READERS AND WRITERS AN anniversary edition like this one is like •JW oi tintjimj pa fIff The writers are the cra*i»tmaif "tap readers axe the invited guests...
...These distinguished men and women give generously of their time, their thought, their counsel...
...OOVIET foreign policy may be a riddle to •^Winston Churchill and other observers...
...Others who are now held in Hitler's jails "include Eduard Daladier, General Gamelin, Georges Mandel and Paul Reynaud...
...It provokes anarchy and prod oca hate...
...Our celebration will thus become a continuing feast...
...The system of hostages is a relic of ancient barbarism...
...I prefer to turn to such outmoded words and concepts, founded on the spiritual needs of people, as honor, dignity, hope, love, courage, common reason, brotherhood, decency, the holiness of man...
...And here is the self assured, soothing reply: > yJ'Yes, if it is upon a fair and reciprocal basis, and for the honest purpose of protecting the peace of the world community against •~«angsters, outlaws or terrorists...
...This bill would have ordered the Office of Price Administration to disregard all government subsidies to farmers in calculating parity levels...
...It crushed the individual's faith is hh» self and in his power to meet the world head-*-As much as your economic motives, this hi whet gave ideological fascism its hold and its impetus...
...We ask you to help us extend our circle of readers, to send us financial aid when you can, to write to us, express your opinions, to make this paper the medium whereby you join the great body of men and women ready to face boldly and intelligently the fateful issues of our time...
...When Spain fell, we were weeping, not fighting...
...For marry weeks' The New Leader office has been alive with aH the stir of a festive kitchen...
...It has a great headline: 'We shall never forget this bloody crime.' "What kind of a crime ? We caught a lot id these saboteurs here in this country, tried then by court martial, convicted and executed them, just as we are going to do every other traitor we catch in this country...
...But among the many crimes of Hitler the creation of the Communist International cannot be numbered...
...But hVr ta» first time, I feel that I am on solid s™* I feel safe in America, in the contradiction*^ America, in the blatant individualism of A**-ica...
...Davies in such matters as Soviet ethics and foreign policies...
...It calls this a crime...
...I know this: that wars are won by men who are willing to catch a bullet or spill their guts in bottle—for bread or hate or the fear of God or the safety of a particular fireside...
...To all the widely scattered readers the members of The New Leader Board and of the working staff wish to say a word aa this anniversary edition goes out to them...
...Davies, in the role of Sir Oracle, purporting to know and give all the answers...
...It would be only natural that they should want to get it back from a defeated Germany...
...The struts to brace my inner self, I • afraid, are but in the making...
...When PM cornel out and says this thing it going to haunt Soviet...
...Ed...
...Nor did you and I hear it, for all our big talk...
...But beyond the realm of matter, it has destroyed faith without giving us certainty...
...Let us see what tht Ghetto says...
...Organized intellect, which like everything else has become -a vested interest, can be of small comfort to ray contemporaries as we are being measured for uniforms...
...Their creation was in line with the principle of selfdetermination which was one of the few points on which Lenin agreed with Wbodrow Wilson...
...When the President blocked their way, he found that he had the real farmers among his supporters...
...In each man's salvation lies the world's salvation...
...i The special pleading takes the form of a catechism, with the editors of Life putting the questions and Mr...
...But even tragedy is not without its moments of farce...
...Where the News Ends By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN History, Joe Davies, and Life Magazine ADIPLOMAT has been rather cynically described as a man who is supposed to lie for his country...
...All would have suffered...
...Personally I would not stress that point too heavily...
...Under our democratic system Mr...
...He has devised a method, worthy of Dr...
...For two decades the ¦ Soviet Government expressed no dissatisfaction with its western frontier...
...After the festive day we shall not be forced, as is niany a good mother, to serve hash made of the left-overs...
...But it is amusing to reflect how quickly any Soviet diplomat, past or present, would be scheduled for liquidation if he should exercise the same freedom of criticizing some policy to which Stalin was committed...
...We talked of Einstein's two per cent plan, of the Oxford pledge, with a dishonesty born of the realization, not quite subconscious, that shielding us from the horrible facts of war were the French poilu and the British tar...
...A short time ago, Russia arrested two Jewish agitators, named Erlich and Alter*, here are their pictures in PM...
...There is trouble ahead, be sure of Jt W# have always had the mechanism to una* »! I believe we are creating the state of atind * fight it, the goodwill and the confidence...
...They have weighted down with distinctions the truths that I seek and tied them to earth with a Lilliputian weave of split hairs...
...Is there any ¦pad reason to suppose that the Soviet authorities- will become more communicative when they are no longer dependent on foreign military aid...
...Davies carries his special pleading for the Soviet Union to the point not only of ignoring the flagrant breach of faith toward the United States involved in permitting the'Communist International to function on Soviet territory, but also of criticizing, by implication, what is still the American policy of not recognizing the forcible annexation of the Baltic Republics...
...At the time when our boys are dying a tht deserts of northern Africa, I submit is no time to be attacking Russia...
...They are starting to have a new significance for me...
Vol. 26 • April 1943 • No. 15
