Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
Where the News Ends By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN Of Bigotry, Thought Control and Chocolate ??? of the encouraging aspects of our modem scientific age is the capacity to produce rapidly, in great...
...But when the question of publishing the book in England came up some new thought control agency, created to pass on the permissibility of publishing foreign books in England had to be •consulted...
...It would have given them some-I thing to sing about If any reader wants to know what we can do in a practical way to remove their fears and put new heart into them, let him read Senator Wagner's article on page 4 of this number of The New Leader...
...Leaesag, Michigan, ??*-__J Home, Sweet Home (Oa Observing ? Congress) Is this the neighborhood for which yon die...
...Jones had been trying'to stymie his operations by representations before congressional · committees...
...Is *· ? rosy [Western Ukraine] hw Poles constituted s minority...
...The fact to...
...Ml This type of aid had been specifically requested by - the Chinese Government...
...Another passage referred to the internment of certain left-wing labor leaders, another tp the banning of the Canadian Communist Party and its loose enforcement, all, again, matters of common knowledge...
...mine...
...They worked to break the hold of the church on the people...
...hoped to 1? sanctuary near the altere which they sod ?? smirched...
...Common people have learned a great deal in the last twenty-five years, and the old magical words do not fool them any more...
...It sheuld induce a healthy humility in a writer to see which of his pieces ring the bell of publW interest...
...Replies to Article On Poland from GEORGE IdCMUI Tfi the Editor: I wish to call your attendee t» &e misrepresentation of facti Bf Professor Waclaw Lodnkki m as article, "That Polish Frontier...
...The New Leader, July I, 1MI...
...China's need for relief activity is enormous...
...On July 16 the President made public his decision with regard to this whole business...
...Bismarck, as champion of the Prussian landed nobility in its struggle against the liberalism of the rising capitalist bourgeoisie, was ready to have Marx and the elder Liebknecht advocate socialist anti-capitalist ideas in the official organs of the Prussian government and of the Prussian Conservatives (as we were told by Wilhelm Liebknecht in his pamphlet "Kein Kompromiss, kein Wahlbundnis...
...Speaking of Anarchists, we may recall that in the early years of this century the anti-Semitic Christian-Social Party of Vienna, when contending against the Social-Democrats in strictly working-class districts, such as Florisdorf, once actually distributed ultra-revolutionary anarchist leaflets calling for a boycott of the polls for the sake of "direct action"—for they did not expect their own arguments to influence the vote of the socialist workers...
...aaw* er to the truth...
...tion of mechanical technique...
...THE ROAD TO ROME D ELIGION'S greatest enemy grew up in the shadow of the Vatican and expanded its power from Rome to Berlin Italian Fascists and German Nazis operated against every religious institution and impulse...
...It is by no...
...I have always felt a tremendous admiration for the British instinct to maintain freedom of expression in the most difficult circumstances...
...Now, whose figures are saaa reliable ? The writer to cua'toem that Mr...
...This poshing and this rooting in a stye...
...He denies the Soviets' ehdaa to "the Polish territories takes by Stalin in 1939" aa "eaaeotatlf Russian...
...But he miscalculated...
...They did their best to root respect for religion out of the hearts of the young...
...The civilized, common sense wsy of handling the conscientious objector who falls within the draft-age limits is to assign him to work that is important and that does not violate his convictions...
...shall not have her Men shall ^awlnome and shall be men, some day...
...some parts a very iruigWHVeset one...
...And it handed "down the decision that "Canada Today and Tomorrow" could only be read by English readers if eight deletions of varying length were made...
...When I chose « light, not to say frivolous subject for a recent magazine article, namely my addiction to milk chocolate and the vicissitudes of satisfying this 'craving in the Soviet Union, Japan and France and America under wartime conditions the postman has been bent double under the weight of my fan mail...
...Be has denied all the implications of the New Deal...
...They know deeply that the destruction of the enemy is not the end of the war...
...Most of the letters were cordial and sympathetic, as befits greetings from one devotee to a vice to another...
...But in reality there is nothing impartial about it...
...The boys in the Army and Navy would net have turrfeS down the reports of the National Resources Planning Board...
...The Colosseum, the remains of the Forum, the art treasures of the Vatican—these things mean something to all civilized beings...
...Ia England shrines much more venerable than St...
...Between now and Neveaaat, 1944, the whole lot of them must be asasaani You can't do a job of that sort by sittiaf bee) and waiting for tffers...
...Which just shows that you,can never guess what oddity will be in the bag when the postman rings the bell...
...The test is worth making...
...Yet these eastern prcvmoe comprised 32 per cent of the territory of the Polish state...
...In the conquered lands they seemed to center a special spite against all religious shrines and institutions...
...The romantic reactionary Carlyle used all the anti-capitalist thunder of early nineteenth century radicalism in defense of Negro slavery...
...Whether the book is, published in England or not is a small matter...
...It waa essential for tilts sort of activity that purchases be made quickly and without much regard to price, that they be paid for promptly and ahipped at once...
...George Sokolsky who, as I am told, is also full of praise for Mgr...
...They want to prove that Mr...
...Under the Selective Service Act the conscientious objector is not a felon or a second class citizen...
...The soldiers fight and work," he writes, "under a load of worry...
...There are, naturally, political advisors, ih think that the trade unionists are mskisf ? mistake...
...Secretary Jones remains just where he was...
...He has been among oar soldiers in Africa, and a part of his report should make interesting reading in Washington...
...aS cf additional uprisings in new places...
...It is said—and not by enemies of labor—that trade union readers should sot quietly for bids from Republicans snd Deesem ts...
...Aeeeedjei to other sources there were eon 20.000.000 Poles living ? if Polish Republic" (p...
...The other cause was bigoted animosity to ¦conscientious objectors in genersl, snd was -apparently stimulated by pressure from : American Legion circles...
...Witter flyneer...
...Are there no people in this land of awiae But only ssT^eswd mine...
...As soon as a survey tries ie sees the extent of the movement, new report...
...Recently, however, I stumbled on to a new system of British thought control which has no relation to military information and which is completely un-English in its attempt to dictate to the British reading public what idea and facts may be put before it Last year I published a sober factual study of contemporary Canada under the title "Canada Today arid Tomorrow...
...And almost universally yon find among the soldiers net a fear of the enemy but a fear of what ie going to happen after the war...
...Wallace authority to go ahead while an investigation provided the public with the facts...
...but I thought it worthwhile to give the matter a little publicity, because secrecy and apathy create the atmosphere in which thought control experiments thrive...
...Byrnes had abundant time in which to take steps...
...In our decency he hoped to asj weakness...
...American and British Catenae understand this situation as well a* sty ef us...
...here anc in Britain, f_| ,i a sacred city II '-Ta...
...In going out of its way to thwart the project Congress made itself responsible for s mean and spiteful act which must be chsrged to the account of the bigotry that war is only too apt to generate...
...It took stern determination and an aasen open facing offene* facts to do thb thing ssi to keep our people unitedly behind us is aunt •it...
...more than ? ?????* Poles and about a millioe Jews (P...
...This directive stated that such differences as existed should be worked out in conference, Mr...
...The Presidenty excuse for this actkn is thst it is necessary "to clear the decks and get on with the war...
...A minor personal experience has added to my worries on this score...
...At last—despairing of other methods of securing a showdown—he spilled the whole matter for the public and Congress to take stock of...
...He ,·* proved that when he wrote...
...As things have been managed we shall probably never know...
...Wallace, as head of it, is thrown out of the war organizaticn...
...Our own decency made us hesitate...
...mine...
...At least thia is John Steinbeck's report And he has a theory about the reasons...
...The China relief project fulfilled these specifications admirably...
...But he wanted this protectioa, W hoped to gain continued immunity by porta* on oar respect for an ancient center of —tSl and culture...
...All the expenses would have been borne by the American Friends Service Committee, so that no use of Government money was involved...
...Ancient cathedral towns far from ports, from transport centers and munition works were picked •out for special punishment This is the black record of Mussolini, Hitler and their hordes...
...They do not want to come home to find a civil war in the making...
...mine...
...Peters were pounded into ruins...
...boys do not sing...
...natural nat wtpS show more respect for thr reiigvaaa aa menta of Italy than the Italians and (Mt2 showed for those of England, Praana^lSB ?? even for those of their own lands...
...No group of Americans could have been more confidently relied on to advance the cause of Chinese-American goodwill...
...He could have cleared the decks as well by giving Mr...
...The grim reverse side to the ability to produce quickly is the ability to destroy quickly...
...The charges were so very' serious that the country had a right to know whether they were justified...
...One need not endorse every policy and every cause that the First Lady has championed during her active career . But to - oppose" a" good idea merely because Mrs...
...Two of them referred to a situation that is a commonplace of discussion in Canada: the disadvantages of the French Canadian, with his classical type of education, in qualifying for a commission in the Canadian Army, where the language of command is English and where scientific and technical knowledge is a necessity in so many branches of the service...
...They sang aa they marched and bivouacked...
...This Board had the vital job of purchasing from foreign countries supplies needed for our war effort and, on the other aide, of grabbing away from Axis nations goods which they might otherwise have purchased for their use...
...The A.F.afL...
...Unfortunately thia is just what the human race baa conspicuously failed to learn up to the present time...
...If a fight like this depended on ???, this advice might be good...
...The agency is evidently fairly new, because it never had to be consulted in connection with British editions of my earlier books...
...I have been concerned over the occasional complaints of American correspondents about the stupidities of British censors...
...In mora recent times Russian Whites once reprinted s book by the Soviet writer Boris Pilniak who had described the plight of the Russian peasants resulting from ruthless collective;, zation...
...All these facts came to my memory when some time ago I read in The New Leader that Matthew Low's excellent article "Submission to Moscow" had been reprinted by the Brooklyn organ of the Coughlin crowd...
...We have pussyfoots* more than once because of the fear of rureua* counter to what we took to be tht feeliag i the Catholic part of our population...
...That sort of eaaspMgo-ing requireo positive leadership and seeks participation...
...Roosevelt had been favorably interested in it...
...One of my private nightmares is fear of the long range consequences of the system of propaganda and censorship that even democratic countries find it necessary to set up in time of war...
...America, like Great Britain, Canada and every civilized country, makes provision for the minority of its citizens whose conscientious scruples forbid them to take human life...
...Ruthlessly and radically they worked to supplant Christianity with their own paganism...
...Churches were bombed, looted, desecrated...
...This was an inter-departmental quarrel which was, in the final analysis, up to the President Nearly a year ago the President issued a directive forbidding public quarrels among members of his official family...
...Some Congressmen voted to kill the, project because Mrs...
...Arsenale, shipping centers, steals, warehouses made the capital of Italy theaer* center of fascist defense...
...Ost ridiculous policies toward Spain over the pas ten years have been defended on this bun Perhaps if we had had the nerve to stand ty straighter for democratic principles we shook have found Catholic American einten» opes a reason on the same basis as all the -est if us...
...Exact dates, amounts, prices were given about such supplies as beryl ore, castor seeds, cobalt, corundum, jute, tantalite, quinine and a host of other products...
...It would bare baa easy for Mussolini to declare the capital at ? pen city, to center hie military oaeraaan elsewhere...
...And they came to my memory again when I had the misfortune of seeing a book of mine, published a few years ago, praised in the reactionary New York Sun by the versatile Mr...
...The B.E.W...
...Pastors were imprisoned...
...of the encouraging aspects of our modem scientific age is the capacity to produce rapidly, in great quantity and with an expenditure of labor power per unit that is negligible by the standards of past generations...
...EDITORIAL COMMENT F.D.R...
...He had, Mr...
...an exclusively CIO affair...
...No review in this country or in Canada suggested that the book showed the slightest anti-British animus...
...TJ "Ours is not a naive army...
...In thht war the einging is done by professionals...
...Sheen, the philoeopher of Coughlinism.> Mr...
...they are Ukrainian...
...What is much worse is that their writings or other pronouncements are often likely to be misused for the benefit ef causes to which they are most violently opposed...
...aSg, Circe, the nfcaaLtrea...
...Vice-President Wallace alone bears the punishment...
...Conversely, Peter Kro-potkin, the theoretical founder of post-Bakunin anarchism, became in the editorials of the New York Tiroes a "great democrat" because, in his eyes, German militarism waa a greater menace than Russian Tsarism...
...Talking to many soldiers, it is the worry that comes oat of them that is impressive...
...He talks like a calm parent loftily spanking two bad boys...
...Being ignored by the general public and treated as sectarians or doctrinaires is the least of their misfortunes...
...And he adds: "They are not [Russian] and they never have been...
...Their statements with regard to it ease great restraint and good sense...
...The cumulative charge against Mr...
...It ia a sobering thought that some noble work of classical or medieval architecture into which generations of faith and imagination were put can be destroyed or irreparably damaged in a split second by the direct hit of a blockbuster bomb...
...Thia capacity of bigoted malice to destroy sppliea to human enterprises as well as to inanimate objects...
...Either the President or Mr...
...Wallace said, followed the cautions rules of a banker, he had hummed and hawed and procrastinated before giving the cash...
...It would be h> possible to give s list of the State* snd ema in which representative political labor organ-zations have been set up...
...And to millions of c:aen...
...And the President of the United States has turned on his own...
...Sokolsky, on the other hand, is opposed to totalitarianism—communist and fascist—merely because he sees in it s threat to the status quo...
...Here some clear thinking is certainly called for...
...I am quoting Mr...
...Aa a reply to Profesor Ledniefa...
...Will the peaple who, however patriotic their intentions, have taken over propaganda and censor--ing jobs, all get out of the habits of distorting and concealing the truth that propaganda and censorship demand when the shooting is over...
...mine...
...This, in this careful observer's opinion, is why our...
...thermore he adds "The OA** received 78,500 square reihaV a» a population of U?O0,M*> ? these more than 7,000.0·· waa» Ukrainians, 8.000.000 Wh» *** sians...
...When I have written on some such subject as the crisis of niodern civilization the response has often suggested a vast void...
...LA I OR COMING ALTO DEPORTS from all over the United Stake " show that the appointment of the 00 committee to consider plans for labor potttm is just one sign of something thst it happoahg from one coast to the other...
...tri...
...Grapes of Wrath...
...As a reoalt Ian large state with a populattoa* 34,000.000, even according «· ·*" cial Polish statistics, counted *V 000,000 Poles or 68 per caat^ef the entire population...
...It was under such circumstances that the Vice-President finally had the courage to bring his fight out into the open...
...So our stock piles had grown too slowly...
...In each case we were told just exactly hew much we had lost and how Mr...
...sacred structures of the Eternal CngV^S many another criminal the...
...It is the old and ever new story of the arguments of the left or the extreme left being used by the right or the extreme right either for defending their own course or for attacking the center...
...The bombing of Rome was a military ?. sity...
...and the Railway ? rother hoows aft ia as « their necks...
...AGAINST NEW DEAL IN Vice-President Wallace's statement made on June 29, he preferred certain specific charges against Secretary of Commerce Jeaae H. Jonpa and his way of running tha Reconstruction Finance Corporation...
...During the first World War the arguments of German, Russian, French and British radicals against the imperialism of their own respective countries were used by the defenders of the imperialism of the enemy countries, Karl Liebknecht becoming a hero to the French and Lenin to the German reactionaries...
...era of civilisation were hiding easha^E shadow of Vatican and of the scores of...
...In the last war our soldiers went in light-heartedly, light-heartedly foaght and light-heartedly...
...a depression that will make the last one look like a hcliday...
...No amount of violence or brutality would compel a convinced conscientious objector to fight...
...HOT A SINGING ARMY IOHN STEINBECK is ? good reporter...
...It is a stinging indictment of us who remain at home, who are supposed to keep the home fires burning, who do the work and attend to the political end of things...
...For two years we and the British hsve held our hsnd from the bombing of Rome...
...he is supposed to do "work of national importance," usually in forestry or soil conservation in, the former CCC camps...
...Roosevelt, or anyone else, is in favor of it is to think and act on a sub-juvenile plane...
...Apparently there.are more chocolate addicts in the world than I had ever suspected...
...In this case it is Henry A. Wailac* who is standing up for the Roosevelt policies...
...One begins to wonder...
...The difference between him and Mr...
...Their lessen, too, is a measure of the skill with which tha move was prepared for and executed...
...but it is sometimes hard to be too dogmatic in criticizing a censor's decision in a combat theatre...
...It was something within ourselves that restrained us...
...home again to live through hard times and watch their victory turn into tha ashes among which smouldered the fires of another war...
...is abolished...
...The religious pacifist, by the very implications of his faith, is fundamentally opposed to race prejudice...
...The men for this service Were being carefully picked as to experience and qualifications and were to receive advance training in mechanics, driving, relief technique, Chinese language, culture and history...
...Jones, using his power as ruler of the purse strings, had hampered the extremely important work cf the Board of Economic Warfare...
...Jones waa a serious one...
...Sokolsky'* dislike of totalitarianism has nothing to do with my sentiments in this matter...
...Jones had been openly going on for months...
...population of 10 million* was mostly Ukrainians, White ins* sians, and Jews...
...The time came when the miserable deskjL...
...Bat it waa because they did know what the future held...
...seem to have been two principal reasons * for the Congressional action, and both are completely invalid and unworthy...
...That is, the man who wanted to get on with his job, who fought for efficiency and speed, is the only one made to suffer...
...Sokolsky seems to have enjoyed my exposition of the totalitarian tendencies lurking behind various radical or revolutionary trends, and he reprinted an entire paragraph from my chapter on Bakunin for the purpose of attacking the alleged totalitarian tendencies of the Washington bureaucracy...
...Should we ever learn how to use this gift wisely and creatively a golden age, with almost unthinkably advanced standards of living, culturally and materially, might be anticipated...
...can say in my defense, so to speak, is that Mr...
...Editor, that these territories si» neither Polish nor Russian...
...But one sourpuss correspondent from Wayne, Pa., accused me of creating the current chocolate shortage and expressed a fervent hope that I would contract diabetes...
...The memory of the last depression is still fresh in their memories...
...We have a right to know about such matters...
...I am opposed to totalitarianism because of its threat to liberty and to the free development of human thought and though I don't think there ever will be a classless millennium, I still hope for some system of democratic socialism or near-socialism under which the element of planning would not lead to bureaucratic despotism...
...The collapse of the retooled factories, the unemployment of millions...
...Wallace came out into the open with this indictment after he had tried other ways of dealing with the situation...
...It was finally carried out with the gravest of political acumen as well as with pern...
...On last election day twelve or fear-teen million workers and their families ft Sei to do their duty...
...Presumably in more than one case the Germans carried off goods from neutral countries under our very noses...
...They are licking their enemies, but we are not licking ours...
...Dalin's figures...
...No steps were taken...
...And the great howl which they have raised over one ????» accidentally injured is the measure of task hypocrisy...
...From now on we ? hall be ¦ the march with numbers growing every ear LETTERS TO THE EDITOR From Max Nomad—A Note on the Political I ronies of Unpopular Ideas By MAX NOMAD To the Editor: Life is not kind to champions of unpopular ideas...
...The Tiriiasa announcement and the leaflets m!orating tea population placed the blame where it belosm It was not we who willed this thing, it «? the Fascists who willed it...
...Dalin's stans-tica from his recent book, "Seen* Russia's Foreign...
...The soldiers do not sing...
...when he writes about the asa-Poliah territories, the so-eeues "Eastern Poland...
...A new bureau, under Leo T. Crowley, a conservative, is set up in its place...
...Is this the home you soldiers would csll sweet This rock of greedy snouts snd cloven feet...
...This gasten Poland which in reality to net Western Ukraine is inhaattai predominantly by the LTtraaana people...
...Jones' hesitation and procrastination interfered with our operations...
...I LOOKED up the offending passages and was * surprised that even a censor with the "mind" of Low's mythical Colonel Blimp could have objected to them...
...Wallace had tried loyally to live up to this admonition...
...His action is in the language of a lofty non-partisanship...
...One of the meanest and stupidest acta of the last session of Congress ' was the frustration, through the insertion of V'e tricky rider in the Military Appropriations Bill, of a project, approved by President Booeevelt and by the War Department, to send a group of aeventy conscientious objectors to China for ambulance driving and ether relief and reconstruction work...
...But m this f$t every man's will, every man's voice, aad wn will count...
Vol. 26 • July 1943 • No. 30
