Max Lerner's Faith in Democracy
EASTMAN, MAX
Max Lerner's Faith in Democracy Max Eastman Comments on PM 'Double Talk' on Russia By MAX EASTMAN *THERE is one thing still to be answered in Max Lemer's "doable talk" about my article, "To...
...pASTILLO showed precisely where he had - Stood following the release, towards the md.af last year, to the Argentine Chamber of ^banties of a report drawn up by the Speciat~ Qepajuttee for the Investigation of Anti-fcfehtine Activities...
...Dilling ia prominent at Grace's meetings...
...According to authoritative reports, withdrawals from Argentine banks by the British Embus...
...That is his assertion that if we follow the example of the Swiss Republic and outlaw the...
...of total...
...with, or for his present organization, the Citizens VS.A...
...For these reasons the Committee unanimously proposed that the Chamber of Deputies demand that the Government declare the German Naval Attache persona...
...Some of the "patriots" hsve heavy German accents...
...it was addressed by Congressman Clare Hof man of Michigan...
...all the moony lucubrations like it, the starpie thesis: To Cooperate Successfully We -Moat Face the Facto Aboat Russia Sack cooperation is absolutely inevitable and uncrueetionabiy nee-essaryj its necessity sets the terms of the problem we are discussing...
...This seems...
...4·1* Imports...
...Officials of the organization are all leaders of the Nazi Party...
...Senator Burton ? Wheeler spoke be- ' fore the University of Michigan Hub Polemic SEVERAL weeks ' ago The New Leader [Jaly 3] printed aa editorial rebuttal of Max Lerner't PM articles on the Bastian question...
...Eastman for his own comments cm the issues in qoeetion...
...Totalitarian organisation is a crime against the life of the whole democratic society...
...And I oppose to it...
...Smith yelled from the platform: "Give him a good one...
...On the platform were Grace, Fuskerty, and a Reverend BroAt, who called upon God to save "our country" and prayed for the time "when we will again live under our Constitution...
...For instance: On December 20, 1940...
...U.S.A...
...And there is a new element: men and women who have been brought to believe that our government and the prosecution of the war have fallen into the hands of extravagant and bungling "bureaucrats," "dreamers," and "professors...
...Lundeen, who defended the "honor" of her late husband, pictured herself as a martyr who had been viciously defamed...
...In conclusion, it may be of interest to quote Professor Charles Edwin Chapman of the University of California in regard to the position which Argentina occupies among the American nations and the country's ambitions and objectives : "A further factor of interest ia the Argentine ambition for leadership ia Hispanic America, with even occasional suggestions of Pan Iberianist ideas that Argentina nay head a league in rivalry with the United States in the Western Hemisphere aa a whole...
...Can Mote the anti-Semitic president of thf ? ort hern Indiana Telephone Company and Uta Commonwealth Telephone Corpora Mow...
...It was further suggested that the report of the Committee be sent to the federal courts in order to determine the responsibility of the persons involved in the entire affair...
...Congressman Clare Hof man of Mtchi-1 gan spoke that eight ander the amapleoa of Ralph Keeling $ Institute of American gjee...
...Bi% of total...
...the police state, the tingle party system, tat» imprisonment of bod} la imprisonment of mind, ? "high price 1a rigid political aothor-ity" that the American people have to pay . for "the tense ef f tshomn« a aew worm 1 with new steaaiags"—e settee that ander democracy they had "sadly leas...
...Chicago, spiritual capital of the isolationists, is seething with its activities...
...Grace himself introduced Nye...
...to * cast a reflection on Max Lemer's honesty of at any coat ia logic or common sense, a Utopian purpose...
...irom all Democracies...
...not be defined as accurately as other crimes, and as painstakingly established in the courts...
...A law against totalitarian organization is, in fact, no more than an extension.of the treason law with which every government protects itself—an extension corresponding to the new and more slowly germinating forms taken by acte of treason in this age of social engineering...
...to^Lstin America...
...Earl Southard, a leader in the Veterans o.t Foreign Wart, an organiser" for Geald L. K. Smith's America First Party...
...Proof had been submitted and is in the hands of the members of the Special Committee'showing that a number of the escaped officers and men had returned to active service in the German Navy...
...Mr...
...There have ? been intimations that Castillo's attitude towards the United Nations may to some degree have been influenced by the large German expenditures in the country, or rasper, by the manner in which the money »ts being expended...
...Grace has not lost his touch...
...She attacked Pearson and Allen, "the Merry-Go-Round boys...
...is the cry of this polyglot mass, and the action, needless to say, is against international collaboration, against the British and the Russians, against the administration, against democracy, and against the Jews...
...police state," "imprisonment of tha body in "imprisonment of the mind," at another time objecting to my calling it...
...ehe takes part in forum discussions and distributes copies of her "Newsletter...
...Outside, vendors of FofAer Cougklm't Social Justice hawked their seditious wares...
...Despite the prominence of assorted Cooghlm-ltes and alleged seditionists at the Citizens U.S.A...
...Shipments to the United Kingdom showed a gain of 12% per cent during the period under review, against a decline of 15 per cent for the United States.-It is also significant that whereas Great Britain's purchases from Argentina maintained their place in the country's total exports, amounting to 38.1 per cent against 38 per cent last year, the United States, which accounted for 82.3 per cent of Argentine exports last year, purchased only 24.5 per cent in the first "three months of the current year...
...Chicago was alive with "nationalist" meetings...
...the loyalty of the heart...
...Max Lerner's Faith in Democracy Max Eastman Comments on PM 'Double Talk' on Russia By MAX EASTMAN *THERE is one thing still to be answered in Max Lemer's "doable talk" about my article, "To Cooperate .Successfully, We Must Face the Facts About Russia...
...Audiences of hundreds of "patriots*" congregate at the Vikings Northside Temple, at the Engineers' Building at Wacker and Wells, the Mural Room of the Hotel Morrison...
...Or does he wish democracy to compete with totalitarian toe ???-ism "without resorting to suppression...
...I« view of the existing restrictions upon exehange movements in Argentina, these trooeys on deposit with Argentine financial 'tstitetions to the credit of the Axis or Axis-¦naiottod nations may also have played a ¦art in deciding the foreign policy of the .Castillo administration...
...The Midweat Monetary Federation also employed Hitler-heiling Joe MeWubams as an "elocution" teacher...
...rto United States...
...Gerald L. K. Smith, the Amoriem First Party fuehrer, came next...
...of total...
...under Federal indieUneat for sedition and spiritual leader of We, tk» Mothrrt...
...i ¦ m % of total...
...Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal » ft of total...
...j » % of total...
...General Rawson...
...IjtJlJ agent...
...But it makes him an ambiguous and * risky guide in the all-important tank of cooperation between democratic America aad totalitarian Russia...
...Lerner surely knows that it is a ixad procedure of totalitarian socialists to advocate extreme interpretations of democratic freedom, so that they may work unhampered far the destruction of such freedom...
...Meetings are held almost nightly...
...Grace's Cuisens Keep America Out of the War Committee sponsored a rally addressed by Congressman James E. Van Zandt at Pennsylvania and Senator Rusk Holt of West Virginia...
...Moheism for America...
...Ceroid L. K. Smith, collaborator of Charles E. Coughlm, one-time member of Ptllcy's Silver Shirts...
...Suppose that thjt procedure attained in America a moo ears of success...
...L m % of total...
...The Special Ccmmittee referred to above had also made public a report in which the activities of the Union Germanica de la Argentina were attacked and denounced...
...In the following article he examines Lemer's political ideas...
...The Committee further contended that the Naval Attache of the German Embassy at Buenos Aires had actively assisted the escape by furnishing the men with forged passports...
...7---— T$plExports...
...And secretary of Grace's Citizens US.A...
...be says: "I have faith in America . . . faith in our democratic institutions—to much faith that I believe they can compete with those of totalitarian Socialism without resorting to suppression...
...For the period Ugadl the balance of trade ie favor of such «eonlJHes with respect to Argentina amounted t» l»V3o3,0O0 pesos...
...We asked Mr...
...only ao long as he it sure democracy will win...
...Frederick A*titer, once aid to Ralph Townsend, an editor of Scrxbner's Commentator and now imprisoned as s Jspanese agent...
...On May 28...
...it of total...
...It is a conspiracy against republican inttitutioos and the democratic way of Mfe — exactly the thing that Jefferson created his party to prevent...
...Obviously, the commercial relations between the two countries did not wsmnt such relatively large expenditures on the part of "Germany, suggesting that German riOidrawals from Argentine banks must have been...
...t Although during the period under review German trade with Argentina, while still reasonably Important, was not nearly so pronounced in point of volume or in...
...Ernest Lundeen, widow of the Am Irl go First Senator from Minnesota Lundoea ge> livered speeches on the Senate Boor that had been written by Geerpe S gives tor Uirrraa...
...Senator Nye's address of May 20 climaxed several months of Grace-organised...
...Kister also gives "book reviews" to good-sized audiences of his own...
...He spoke with Mrs...
...Whether and to what extent Ramon S. Castillo, the deposed president of Argentina, aad his followers participated in these withdrawals ia difficult to state...
...In another resolution proposed by the Committee, the Government was asked to dissolve the special German organization which had been charged with being instrumental in the escape of the Graf Spee sailors...
...It was to s cheering audience ef 1,500 each folk that United States Senator Germed P. Nye spoke on May 20, 1941...
...Aad has double task aboat gentian tetalrtartamss» irresistibly suggests the answer: H* vttit double-talk aboat American touliuriaatsm too...
...Smith addressed Grace's Committee on January 15, 1943, and again on May 28...
...for purposes other than those connected with foreign trade...
...If it were trustworthy, he would have something to say about the unequal terms of the competition he is proposing between democracy and totalitarian socialism...
...He is demanding that totalitarian socialists be given complete freedom of subversive organization under democracy, while under totalitarian socialism one audible hurrah for democracy is punishable by death...
...Mate thinka Wendell Willkie is a "CommunUt," ????, wrote a pamphlet to "prove" rt Congreseman Paul W. She/or, Mhmajap•.reactionary, who addressed Grace's cabal oa July 1. Elisabeth Dulmg...
...It ia a type of character that has its charms...
...It is the crime of plotting armed aggression against it A republic which, while waging war against totalitarianism on the foreign field, dare not pass a law against it at home, is not liberal but weak...
...The ?j"mittee was of the opinion that the escape JSM not have been possible were it not for * negligence on the part of authorities and ¦**«xistence of a special German organization **™f the German crew...
...Democracies, etc...
...in Buenos Aires, presumably in connection with the activities of the Embassy, amounted for the period 1938/39-1940/41 to 3,606,600 pesos, a relatively small amount considering the very important trade and financial relations tetwrtn the two countries...
...or at an annual rate of about 175 million pesos against annual purchases from Argentina computed on the same basis of only about 103 million pesos...
...Details are presented hereunder (in pesos): 194 3 1942 Increase in % 450,020,000 401.536.000 12.0 110,255,000 129,695,000 15.0 24.5 32.3 — 171,455,000 152,585,000 12.5 38.1 38.0 — 103,055,000 65,050.000 " 58.5 22.9 16.2 — 387,465,000 347,730,000 11.1 86.1 86.6 . — 25,650.000 36.540,000 29.8 5.7 9.1 — 365.479.000 201,889,000 80.3 85,522,000 78.472,000 8.8 23.4 38.3 — 104,892,000 44.871,000 133.4 28.7 21.9 — 112,933,000 47,534,000 137.7 Viflft 23.2 — 303.347,000 170,877,000 77.5 86.0 87.2 — _ 3,074,000 — _ 1.5 — 43,489,000 25.816,000 50.5 11.9 12.6 — 43,489,000 28.890,000 68.0 11.9 14.1 — As may be seen from accompanying figures, Germany and other European countries which, while theoretically neutral, may safely be said to be controlled or at least dominated by the Wilhelmstrasse, were selling to Argentina nearly 43*4 million pesos worth of merchandise during the first quarter of 1943...
...But as long as he talks double about Russian totalitarianism, calling it at one time "political op-~ pression...
...irwn Latin America...
...The members have taken over all the activities of a predecessor organization ordered dissolved by the Argentine Government, and known as the Federation of German Circles of Charity and Culture...
...all Axis and Axis-dominated Nations . . ___ja%of total..........· · Jkferring particularly to the manner in which ? internment ofofficers and sailors of the "attfedGerm an cruiser Admiral Graf Spee was 9j™P eat, the report stated that thirty-one of Jw *»en had escaped immediately upon the ???* of the internment order...
...Huey Long's right-hand man, and currently leader of the rapidly-growing America First Party...
...It will also be recalled that according to a decree issued on September 9, 1941, by the Government, the Graf Spee sailors were to be concentrated in a place "to be determined later...
...The creation of such a party is an elaborate and peculiar undertaking which can be outlawed without infringing upon any other right or liberty whatever...
...Nor does it deny the "right of revolution" as that was, somewhat vaguely, conceived by Jefferson and Lincoln—a right of the people as a whole to overthrow their government...
...He weald call the prison east pa...
...Political and intellectual freedom has never meant freedom to commit crimes, even against the life of an individual...
...Mrs...
...If he said this after facing the /acts about totalitarian Socialism, and unequivocally condemning it, his position would at least be clear...
...tirom United States...
...And at the same time he is backing the totalitarian socialists by exclaiming that they "have the sense that they are fashioning a new world, with new meaning*," and handicapping tha democrats by asserting that this prion ttog Sgesa already "to have lost...
...of total...
...to spring leas from fear of 'North American imperialism' which could hardly be mueh of a danger to distant Argentina, than from Argentinian ambition...
...AB0RE recent statistics pertaining to Argen-tina's foreign trade, and covering the first quarter of the current year, are illuminating: Outside of the Axis nations and those European countries which, while still neutral, may be said to be influenced by Axis countries, particularly Germany, the United States is the only country to which Argentine-exports in the first quarter of the current year showed a decline compared with the same period last year...
...To a mind vividly alive to the reign of nationwide insensate Terror, absolutely without precedent ia history, designated by those words, such s comparison would be impossible...
...Congressmen Aid Extremist 6 oups in Chicago —Center of Fascist Activity By L M. UIKHEAD Director, Friends of Democracy A straight 100-proof nationalist movement, sponsored by extremist elements, underground since Pearl Harbor, has sprung full-grown into the Midwest political picture...
...Withdrawals by the American Embassy, presumably for similar purposes, amounted for the ssme period to only 607,600 pesos, an insignificant amount considering the extent of American 'investments in and American trade with tat Southern nation...
...ironi Germany, Japan, arid Italy...
...rally, Nye continued to cooperate with Grace, and hit Committee after the meeting by forwarding to them a large number of copies of hit speech for distribution among the membership...
...grata and request his recall...
...The latest Lerner contribution had b e ? a a violent and confused attack on.Max Eastman's "We Moat Face the Facts Aboat Russia" in the current Readers' Digest...
...The other factor to be considered is the trade relations between Argentina and A'xis countries, or such countries as may be said to be under tee influence of Axis nations...
...There has been a noteworthy habit of Argentinians, officials and private citizens alike, to question the motives of the Northern republic...
...f?t That, I believe, is where Max Lerner't rbifajft Ulk would lead us...
...It touches at no point on free speech or intellectual freedom, and it limits political freedom only at the point necessary to preserve its life...
...Reeling's new organization, like Grace's, holdt big-time meetings of its own...
...many are the frustrated, disheveled "mothers" who followed Elizabeth Dilling to Washington and-begged for the impeachment of President Roosevelt...
...in the Mural Room of the Hotel Morrison...
...Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, ami Portugal . % of total...
...Hie* >· fee Clone?* ILfR- LERNER objects to this militant seii-defense oa the part of democracy...
...When the went for WmeheU...
...According to the Committee, the Union, '.together with eleven other German organizations, are actively engaged in spreading Nazi propaganda throughout Argentina, endeavoring to undermine relations with the other American republics, notably the United States...
...Would Mr...
...Committee...
...A certain tendency of Argentina to disagree with the United States should make this Southern republic of more than usual interest to students of the latter, te understand these Argentine manifestations and opposition, and to see what they may portend...
...Roger Faktrty, a candidate in the recent Chicago mayoralty campaign...
...It seems that the Castillo Government had failed to put this measure into effect...
...There is no reason why the act of organising a Dual Power with a view to supplanting the republican state with an extra-legal monolithic party obedient to a dictator...
...Irom United Kingdom...
...The Union comprises 7,000 members who~o"perate chiefly in the rural districts of the Republic...
...I regard him at a man who boa to have, faith...
...Action...
...Grace's meetings are also attended by Joe' McWillxams himself, by hundreds of known Coughiinites, and by large delegations front the violently anti-Semitic "mothers" groups...
...Ralph Keeling, head of the Institute of American Economies, which, as the Midwest Monetary Federation, was the*only group honored with an advertisement in Social Justice...
...Of the re-**j*«er, on* hundred and twenty men had ^"tPM between May 1940 and July 1942...
...relation to tat country's total trade as either American or British trade, withdrawals by the German Embassy for the same period totaled 10,215,800 pesos, or almost 2>?> times British and America 'withdrawals...
...General lomirez, may, and probably will, appear some-whtt clearer if attention is directed to two important factors in the financial and commercial realm of the Southern republic and its relation to the rest of the world...
...subjection of the people," and at still another inventing such endearing terms as "high price in rigid political authority" that the Russian people must pay for "enormous strides toward economic progress and social decency"—as long as he remains in these clouds, his large faith in America and her democratic institutions is untrustworthy...
...f-*?f , 9 A Clue to Argentine Troubles— CastilloCaught in NaziTradeTra ? ..-«t0t, ? By MAX WINKLE* RECENT political developments in Argentina, "Involving the successful coup of...
...Committee (note the slight change of name): Senator Gerald P. Sue addressed the groop on May 20, of this year...
...Lerner continue his owr extreme interpretation up to the day .when destruction was imminent...
...The night of the Smith-Lundeen meeting , (May 28...
...That is the practical question...
...Here is a list of those working in...
...That task requires aa undivided interest in defining facta, and it requires singleness both in the language of tha nrmd...
...Committee meetings, bat it was far from the last It launched the Committee into big time...
...This reveals more clearly than anything else Lemer's stubborn unwillingness to face, or even conceive, the facts aboat "Stalinist suppression...
...of total...
...on Jene 17, it was scheduled to present Senator Burton K. Wheeler...
...Quarterback of the movement is Willism J. Grace, long an expert at giving a "respectable" tone to not-so-resportable movements...
...Therefore Max Lcrpcr*> accusation against me of rhetorical triclarry, jg in plainer terms hypocrisy, in adopting that title, is inane as well as ill-natured, jiui-,tt is true that by "successfully" I mean a cresu deal...
...Totalitarian organisation is not revolution, but counter-revolution...
...The majority of the ?jpbd men were officers and technicians, in-??®0** »ix captains, twenty-one lieutenants, ensigns, five petty officers, three wireless 2~**<»s, twenty-six mechanics, five electro-¦"raieians, and twenty-eight other specialists...
...In other words, the Axis-dominated group has a favorable balance of trade with Argentina of about 75 million pesos—a figure large enough to explain a great deal, including the coup which removed Castillo, as well as the one which within twenty-four hours removed President Castillo's successor...
...No man who knowt how to keep his ideas ia order will pat s*uch trust in that kind of "faith in democracy.** • ?? Net re Hare f erf a I DO not mean, although I may seem to...
...to United Kingdom...
...some are Irish who hate the British more than they love their own adopted country...
...wGerman, Japan, and Italy...
...I mean, among other things: wltkMtt undf-mvmtng our own fron institutions, without ceasing to be a bold, clear-headed, stj'StJ hearted America, confidently blazing our .dart erperrmentel trau ?? the future...
...Communist Party together with other totalitarian organizations, we shall be adopting a "Stalinist suppression of American political and intellectual freedom...
Vol. 26 • July 1943 • No. 30
