Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
Where the News Ends By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN Quiet on the Eastern Front? II/HILE the headlines have naturally been going W to the fighting in Tunisia several recent de-velopmentf might well...
...It is of the utmost importance to all classes of workers that inflation should be headed off...
...I should like to add my voice to the voices of -Mr...
...A good third of the epistle is devoted to reasons why the Department cannot tell all...
...A British thrust at Akyab...
...necessary and urgent, and shook be called as soon as possible...
...airplanes to the Japanese, they might decide that the practical and moral effects of striking heavy blows at the heart of Japan would'offset the danger of having a few aircraft carriers sunk or badly damaged...
...Soldiers were practically anonymous...
...renewal of the Soviet-Japanese fisheries agreement merely confirmed what informed aJstajtyrs had always anticipated: that Stalin has no intention of opening a second front ia Hp Far East...
...Military prediction is a hazardous field...
...To use the gauge of the Selective Service as a thermometer of manhood is to indicate that he is really running a G.-I...
...Welles assures us that "the objeettj* of those charged with the direction of forth* policy are identical with those of the ovah whelming majority of their critics...
...ktn always proved their superiority to slaves sal robots...
...The millions of farmers are producing the food...
...Already the literary harvest is rich...
...It has been the joint Anglo-American decision to concentrate first on Hitler and there are simply not enough tanks, airplanes and, above all, ships, to permit major offensive operations in Europe and in the Far East at the same time...
...The annua...
...The fight to put this measure through the Senate is, .then, the spearhead of the offensive against the hitherto generally recognized rights of the working people of this country...
...As there is no domestic oil production in China, the very large amounts of gasoline* which are...
...Welles wrote with great skill apa apparently with great sincerity...
...He del not really come clean...
...SELECTIVE FREEZING /**|N April 9th the President issued his order "freezing" wages and commodity prices...
...This amendment would have recognised as legal all activities recognized as legal in the Norris-LaGuardia Anti-Injunction Law, the Clayton Act, the National Labor Relations Act and the Railway Labor Law...
...From Pvt...
...One would like to believe, along with Mr...
...Since then, food prices have mounted sharply and the cost of other necessities to a smaller extent The whole problem is more difficult now than It would have been if dealt with during the earlier stages...
...The straf-gles in the air—over the Pacific Europe, Africa...
...HARRY ROSKOLENKO To the Editor: Ralph De Toledano's "Farewell" sounds like "I-have-a-ren-dezvous-with-death and only-God-can-make-a-tree" demonstration of virtue...
...In the state legislatures the bitter anti-labor drive has had some success...
...The aircraft carrier is one of the most vulnerable of the larger warships to bomb and torpedo, as the high mortality rate of carriers, both on the Japanese and on the American side, would indicate...
...Copies of the pamphlet, at five cents each, may be obtained from the March-on-Washington movement at 2084 Seventh Avenue...
...roused quick approval in labor's ranks...
...The larger units of the Japanese Navy have been kept in home waters...
...Soldiers without machines are helpless...
...The people went • see a clearer connection between each art am our democratic purpose...
...The risks of such an enterprise would be considerable...
...Japan has such a long start on China in military organization and industrial power that an...
...S» long as we lack clear statements about Idas was dose aad by whom and why, aafsjaeCs liberty to take "surface indications*' for cations of basic policy...
...Admission is free...
...Wc believe that a real conference of bona-fide European socialist and labor organization* te coordinate activities so as to at»* Europe from passing from so* dictatorship to another, is vitall...
...Thus far the new Congress has not put through any of the reactionary measures introduced by its labor-hating members...
...EDITORIAL COMMENT THE DISHONEST HONS BILL 1*EGISLATION is a directive to ad minis tra-*** tive agencies, courts and police...
...All of the acts authorized under these laws have no connection with racketeering...
...or in a reconaissancc car surveying the road back, you'll need more than ever the values you helped to edit for The New Leader, if with a more exacting blue-pencil...
...Nothing but a presidential veto prevented Congress from deliberately boosting farm prices...
...Congressional reactionaries put this move over by means of a coercive trick...
...Asia—call for quick decisions, tat nerve to risk all on a guess, a hunch, a att-perate expedient...
...we demand—and now—that the whole seven-point program be put into practice...
...The long corridors of Washington hum with conflicting rumors...
...Both great productive groups should go to bat promptly with a positive program...
...Professor Perry performed a fine service in itemizing the bill of particulars for thr .ytvhole great group of American liberals who have become fearful that all is not well with our foreign relations...
...In the air, on land, on the water and under the water men make war with motet* humming...
...So farT our action is concerned, each liberated )ni is to be left free "to choose its own fsha of government...
...But Congressman Hobos refused to write into the law a clear statement that these activities are legitimate and that the act is not intended to interfere with them...
...II/HILE the headlines have naturally been going W to the fighting in Tunisia several recent de-velopmentf might well attract attention to our more static Far Eastern -front...
...Many did, in fact, foresee mar wars of steel and motor engine to be fought by frightful frankensteins which would (o striding over helpless humanity...
...From the mud of trenches they sallhd...
...Such a program depends -on Congress...
...That is very well...
...Free- met...
...It is a war at " machines marshalled on world-encirdhg fronts...
...For this reason—if for no other—it should be defeated in the Senate...
...This would be the massing of aircraft carriers at some point close enough to the Japanese coast to permit effective air bombing...
...Officials are justified <r asking for pa-tienc on the part of the public...
...Decisive success will only be iq sight if and when the Japanese are rolled back from their conquests in a big way, if and when, for instance, they are driven from Singapore, which they have renamed Sho-man (Light of the South) and have most probably strengthened as an air and naval bastion against Anglo-American reconquest or when the heart of Japan's war industrial power is subjected to heavy, consistent and effective bombing...
...New York City...
...Between the lines of the highfown phraseology which MaeArthnr frequently employs .' ¦ nf U> Military communiques it is easy to read a sense of frustration and disappointment because of not receiving enough men and equipment to reconquer the Philippines...
...Suspicion is thrown on the purpose of the authors by the fact that they secured the defeat of Congressman Oiler's amendment designed to clarify the language of the measure...
...But on...
...lands Indies...
...There were more "democratic" generalities in his address than could be found in the press statement of a newly made Brigadier-General...
...Under these new circumstances, est would expect human beings to be reduced a nothingness...
...So far as the Office of Stratsgh Service is concerned, while wt have criticised in the past Js» failure to facilitate our efforts is favor of the underground Itshss socialist and labor movement, w» must add that lately the tita> tion has much improved, and that we are almost satisfied...
...Such confessions of faith will be MshTuL only to those who need no reassurances...
...Burma, these are all outside the range of our present striking power...
...There waa the renewal of the Soviet-Japanese agreement permitting Japanese fishing operations in Siberian waters...
...They are not issued like serial numbers and blood typings...
...The millions of laborers are producing the instruments of war...
...The monsoon season, with its heavy rains, is close at hand and will presumably paralyze serious military activity on both sides...
...in broken lines to meet death...
...The prime requirement is that it should be clear...
...fever...
...What are the prospects that either or both of these conditions will be realized during the present year...
...The leaders of both should say to the President and to Congress: "Very well—we will accept this stabilization order, but we demand equal sacrifice all around...
...AND THE PUBLIC tTjfHAT the State Department needs is an " ambassador to the American people...
...Its realization would he practically a miracle...
...Tat situation is also improved ia *» overseas shortwave branches sf ( the Office of War Information...
...Military news from the Orient has revealed en-couraging features during the last months...
...Welles' statement...
...MacArthur's disappointment is natural...
...Good luck...
...Recently there have been reports that the Japanese-sponsored currencies in the occupied regions of China have been gaining in popularity as against the Chinese national currency, which has depreciated very heavily during the war...
...The records clearly show that during periods of mounting prices, wages have lagged behind the cost of living...
...is serious, for two reasons...
...It was comforting to think, too...
...and 140th St...
...all the price-fixing and rationing in the world will accomplish little...
...The President's seven-point program has remained up to this week a paper project...
...Bat Stat* Department tradition impeded him...
...All honest citizens are against robbery and extortion...
...de Toledano's friends in wishing him Godspeed...
...No amount of glamor can succeed bj gilding the horrors of war...
...They detail for us fights from tree to tree, from stone to stone, from shadow to shadow en Guatialcsstl or New Guinea, Their stalking of wily Jaet takes the mind back to scenes of the Btv* lution or to those Of Indian wars...
...There have been rather disquieting indications of growing deterioration of the Chinese national currency, with a consequent strengthening of the Japanese economic position in the occupied areas of China...
...This is a slow and arduous process...
...In his statement the President promises the rolling back of some prices...
...Lenox Ave...
...HOLD MASS MEETING ON LYNN CASE A Mass Meeting on the Win-fred Lynn case will be held Thursday, April 22, at the Golden Gate Ballroom...
...But it is only a promise...
...Men still count...
...but it would seem probable that the Japanese possess enough organizing and regimenting ability to get a good deal of work out of docile colonial populations which, except in the Philippines, showed little or no interest in the shift of sovereignty...
...PiST ously he had reaffirmed the stand of hi* a\ partment on the Atlantic Charter...
...A genuine freezing of wages and prices a year ago orT^vin-i-duTing the fall of 1942 would have caused' suffering among many groups of workers, but it would have staved off greater suffering on the part of larger groups...
...There is no systematic limitation on profits...
...Army...
...With generalities there can be no theory or criticism—and even less with the crime of his sociological omissions...
...THE STATE DEPT...
...There is no lack of correspondents and commentators who thrive on spreading reports which reflect upon our government...
...Not enough was done to cut down, the inflationary bulge of money in the consumers' pockets...
...Winfred Lynn, a Negro, is suing the Army alleging violation by the military authorities of the "no discrimination" clause in the 1940 draft act...
...Men tell ir published diaries of drifting for twenty, thirtjf, even eighty days in rubber boats—ftghunj sharks, drought, rain, cold, heat...
...We do not expect all the government's sources of information" to be revealed...
...with the thoughts and hopes of free awn...
...tjt...
...Japanese-held port in Northern Burma, failed to reach its objective...
...Victories ir^-tne fighting along the outer edge jtt the Japanese mainland-island empire, however satin factory, do not point to an early end of the war in the Pacific...
...The Hobbs Bill is the first one to be accepted by the House...
...On April 11th Congress finally succeeded in removing the $25,000 limitation on personal salaries.' From now on the only incomes not limited by law will be those of the very rich...
...TTHE Philippines, Malaya, the vast rich Nether...
...There was the rather bitterly worded message of Genera 1 Douglas Mac Arthur on the anniversary of...
...The capture of a strongly fortified Japanese island base, such as Truk, in the Caroline Islands, or Rabaul, in New Britain, would be a bigger enterprise than the surprise landing in Guadalcanal last August...
...The world is alive with gossip and intrigue...
...But this explanation answers none of the objections to cases of State Department reticence...
...All glitter—and a terrible confusion for a man starting on a new life...
...At the present stage of mechanizatisa, this superiority is still a reality...
...that the old idea, the one that— "in each man's salvation lies the salvation of the world," the idea that has been derided and scorned by everyone, was not completely smothered in the suffocating atmosphere of the contemporary world, but has managed, by what devious route, to reach the core of a few young souls...
...I was the leader of* that lost cause.*' Mac Arthur said, "and from the bottom of my stricken „ heart I pray that a merciful God may not ¦ delay tea long their redemption, that the'day of salvation be not so far removed that they perish, that it he not again too late...
...most of the moves of our government with regard to Nort* Africa, Spain, France will turn out to be wise...
...Without it...
...The last war furnished the basis for tail dire picture...
...which is ironical, to say the most, as your 20th anniversary is being celebrated...
...Mr Welles' reply, we are sorry to record, is more by way of apology than explanation or justification...
...It is time for them to step up and take their part in the government of the United States...
...The case, which is being pleaded by Arthur Garfield Hays will come before the U. S. Supreme Court in a few months...
...But now ^that mechanism has proceeded to an extent that could not have been imagined in 1918, we sVem to be-psychologically nearer to our forebears" of "seventy years ago...
...active military offensive of the Chinese armies on a large scale can only be undertaken with some prospect of success when foreign munitions aad technical instruction can be made available to the Chinese...
...The struts you'll find in the Army are those you bring along with you...
...I also wish to praise the writers for the high degree of Intelligence and dignity with which they deal with the great world problems of today...
...The Hobos Bill, which has been passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 270 to 107, is drawn with such cleverness that neither its supporters or opponents agree about its meaning...
...Of more substantial importance is the President's reite ratio* of emphasis on a rounded fiscal program...
...The whole crucial matter has been allowed to drift...
...And if Japanese-backed money is now pushing out the Chinese it will be easier for the Japanese to buy up foodstuffs and strategic raw materials in the occupied regions and ih the extensive no man's land that is not held firmly by either side...
...necessary for sustained largascale air raids (and it is only this type of raiding that achieves much military advantage) would have to be flown in...
...This promise has...
...As a fellowsoldier, but not of the heroic mould of our "Farewell" writer, I can understand his fatalistic and dramatic rhetoric...
...Still, if our naval leaders should be s uffic i en t ly convinced oj the technical superiority of our warships arm...
...They attache;* their repealer as a rider to a public debt act which was required in connection with the current bond drive...
...f The wage workers and farmers of the United States should not be content with a passive acceptance of these price and wage ceilings...
...But general and enforced ignorance with regard to who made what move and why can never be justified...
...Tat first World War was barren of any such enter-taining resalt...
...THERE remains one other possibility of strik-* ing directly at Japan...
...HIGH DEGREE OF INTELLIGENCE From JOHN R. HEGEMAN To the Editor: I wish to congratulate your staff on the great success in presenting important news and comment which only the bravest and most courageous patriots in our country dare to handle...
...If this is true, it...
...The general preference for Chinese national currency as against the Japanese -sponsored note issues in the first rears of the war was a guaranty of the loyalty of the Chinese masses in the occupied areas to the Ohungking regime...
...most...
...But he seems to have forgotten the last 1120 issues of The Xeic Leader...
...In the Issg run, it will count heavily in the scales of tab conflict...
...MECHANIZATION AND MIR *T*HLS is a war of machines...
...Congress has not yet enacted adequate tax schedules...
...How far is the State Department responsible for the appointment of Peyrouton ? Who suggested to the Department of War the designation of Prince Otto as leader of the Austrian Legion...
...On the .surface, the bill simply makes the Anti-Racketeering-Act of 1034 apply to robbery or extortion in connection with interstate commerce...
...At the same time it is only realistic to recognise that up to the present time we have only been, pecking at the periphery of the greatly enlarged empire which Japan has built up by its swift conquests in the first months of the war...
...We do with to make clear before the public and before the government, however, that the Italian Socialist Party and labor movement of the Italian Underground, and to* Italian Socialist-Federation which is in contact withN\both, had no delegates or representatives o" observers at the "Wasbingtos conference...
...His letter gave the State Department an opportunity to square itself with intelligent public opinion...
...This would seem to rule oat the possibility, for an indefinite future, of utilizing Vladivostok and other Siberian air bases for attache oa the four main Japaaeae industrial regions, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and North Kyushu...
...U.S...
...You'll need it...
...the fall of Bataan...
...Returned lokjieay saiiaav and airmen, ne matter hew shy aad modest, can be induced to tell with quiet pride at dramatic moments and hairbreadth escapes...
...How much oil, tin and rubber Japan is extracting from its conquests is a matter of speculation...
...But ia this bill the terms are so defined that they might well apply to efforts of trade unionists to secure preference for products of union labor...
...It is safe to assume that the Japanese are sufficiently aware of their own liability to air attack to keep a considerable reserve of their better types of fighting airplanes for home defense...
...The present situation is a painful one for wage workers and farmers...
...It was good to know that a gifted member of our younger generation, standing at the most crucial juncture of his meatal and emotional life, found the moral support and uplift he sought in a faith in Man—plain, simple Man...
...The successful holding of Guadalcanal and the recapture of part of the northern coast of New Guinea, the punishing losses inflicted upon the Japanese in naval engagements in the Solomons, the overwhelming technical superiority in the air reflected in the Bismarck Sea battle, the war of attrition which our submarines are waging against Japan's merchant marine—all these are cause* of encouragement as to the final outcome of the Pacafic war...
...The relations of the State Department with the North African campaign, the Free French, the Franco government and numerous reactionary European factions have furnished a rich hunting-ground for artists of surmise...
...Ambiguous measures lead to trouble...
...de Toiedano, that people, having been disillusioned on the soulless schemes and abstractions which had promised them Utopia, will realize that true democracy will be attained only-through the ethical effort of each and every Individual...
...picion until he gets the idea that the people who are fighting the warjiave a right to kaW what is going on...
...Now—at the last mi mite—when the cost of living has mounted more than 40 pea cent as against the 15 per cent wage increase allowed by the Little Steel formula—the President steps in vigorously and orders the "freezing" of wages, commodity prices and utility rates...
...WUien anyone goes G. I. [Government Issue — Ed itor's Note] he has my total sympathy...
...It is politically suicidal, for it gives every open or covert enemy of the administration a golden opportunity, Plain statement of thg truth is the only defense against lies and insinuations...
...And whether you are behind a desk (and no doubt you will...
...The gross errors of judgment that were reflected in th$ disaster at Pearl Harbor, in the loss of almost ail our airplanes in the Philippines in the first days of the war, in the sinking of four ten-thousand ton cruisers in the early phase of the struggle for Guadalcanal seem to have been overcome, partly through shifts in the higher command, partly through growing experience in combat...
...the basis of available knowledge it seems doubtful whether MacArthur has enough men and modern weapons at his disposal to repeat in reverse the Japanese sweep during the first months of the war...
...Italian Socialists Take Stand on 'Labor Parley' From VANNI B. MONTANA Secretary, Italian Socuilvt Federation in the V. S To the Editor: The press has carried stories about "a conference" in Washington of alleged representstrro of underground EuropeanSociali»t parties and labor movement* As far as the Italian Socisli»t Party and labor movement operating secretly in Italy is concerned, as well the Italian Socialist Federation of America- *e do not question the motives end the character of the above-mentioned "conference...
...If each act it ia has with that purpose, why should we not he* a clear statement to make the eonnecttea evident...
...LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Pro and Con on Toledano From BERT A LEYINE To the Editor: It was with a feeling of the deepest moral satisfaction and enjoyment that ,1 read Ralph de Toledano's .Votes for a Farexctll...
...under the auspices of the March-on-Washington movement, headed by A. Philip Randolph...
...Recollection of survivors were so horrible that the grist conflict failed to produce a harvest of war stories...
...Every resource of organized labor must be thrown into the fight to defeat it...
...All of which is just one more argument for trying to clear the Japanese out of Burma and bringing effective help to China as soon as possible...
...China's military, effectiveness would be greatly increased if land communication could be restored through the recapture of Burma...
...To what extent is treatment of Loyalist Spaniards tied in...
...But it is probably also inevitable...
...But there has been little visible progress in this direction...
...In his letter to Professor Ralph Barton Perry, Sumner Welles goes a good way in the direction of Jighting up some of the dark places in the department's activities, but he does not go far enough...
...The March-on-Washington movement has also published a 16-page illustrated pamphlet on Jim Crow is m in Uniform by Dwight Macdonald...
...A serious difficulty in this cpnnaction is that China is now cut off from the outside world, except for a necessarily limited amount of air transportation...
...Where the News Ends By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN Quiet on the Eastern Front...
...The chief questions in Professor Perry's letter are not answered in Mr...
...fc our policy toward the Franco govemmeair^ Mr...
...The President is right in denouncing this favor to the rich as a blow at public morale...
...After the Civil War, veterans emir-tained the oncoming generation—often against its will—with tales of individual heroism...
...But we have gene fat enough in this new age of horsepower flghttsf to prove that the human spirit has not lost its meaning...
...It is often suggested that China could afford bases for attacks on Japan...
...It may be that in the end...
...His conduct of reiathaj with the occupied lands will be under tu...
...It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the straggle between Japan and China is a " national endurance contest, rather than a war that can be settled by decisive battles in the field...
Vol. 26 • April 1943 • No. 16
