Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
Where the News Ends By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN Louis Bromne/d, Ignoramus I I' is HoiK/.tng how often ii man who Ins put liluisell * ovei whelinillgly in tin winng by some III ronsideied speech...
...England cannot "give" them these things and, in the writer's opinion, "it will be impossible for us to maintain any force in Europe big enough to assure these things...
...Broinfield is piohahly correct in slating that the peoples of Europe, like peoples everywhere, want peace, ortlei and food and the hope of return to a decent existence...
...President Roosevelt has done great things, but he has failed to transform ihe Ileinurratii Parly...
...The tasks before us are so imperative that the authors envision a basic realignment of political forces...
...The other is the action of the Soviet Government in proclaiming thai there would he no change in the social order of Rumania at the time when Soviet tioops crossed the I'lnlb River into Old Rumania Stalin's policy, to put it mildly, has not been characterized by scrupulous regard either for bis own pledged wind or for the feelings of the American and British Government* If the Rumanians were yearning for a Soviet regime, for one-party dictatorship, collective farms, an evet active NKVD, overflowing concentration camps and all the othei accompaniments, the Soviet Government would have tried to make political capital by announcing the inauguration uf such a regime...
...It is not a New Deal party...
...Bromlield, is "peace, order and food and the hope of return to a decent existence...
...that lie would hardly be worth discussing if the idea which he advocates of favoring a Stalin-dominated Europe had not found dangerously wide acceptance in this country...
...Che American Communists are and always have brru according to Mr...
...It talks of reconstructing our national life...
...It is small wonder that more and more European nations look to her for peace and security, even thoiii.li these things are achieved by Russia on her own terms...
...We do not want a continuation of ths American Labor Party The ALP succumbed not j«at because it was attacked from without The attacks were invited by inner deficiencies in policy and purpose There is imperative need of a paily foi all forward-looking citizens...
...Very similar is the case of Mi...
...Walter Lippmann's recent line of repudiating any general principles as a basis of peace and conceiving the postwar era in terms of an alliance of Hip United Slates...
...Where the News Ends By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN Louis Bromne/d, Ignoramus I I' is HoiK/.tng how often ii man who Ins put liluisell * ovei whelinillgly in tin winng by some III ronsideied speech 1.1 action comet back blithely foi moie punishment lake the redoubtable General George H I'atton, J i foi instance After ruffing helpless soldiers anil publishing what ia surely one <>f tin world'* worst poems, whether judged by it* idea- 01 l» the quality of its verse, one might have expected thai I'atton would have appreciated the protective efforts of General Eisenhower and the Wal Department and settled down in becoming silence to his propei job of fighting Nut a bit of it At the fust op|»oi tiinily Ihe pistol-packnii...
...In this organization we must have something clear, something reliable, something inspiring...
...Thene two statements alone reveal Mr...
...Bromfield's abysmal ignorance of the most elementary farts about international Communist organiaation, about the close centralization of directing power in Moscow and Ihe relentless purge nf everyone suspected of even a trace of Trolskyitr nr any other heresy from the ranks of tke faithful in all the national Communist parlies...
...He now assumes the pone of an on Russia...
...This is the proposition 1hal it would be a good thine;, for us and for Europe, to have SIhIiii take the European continent and direct it in the way il should go...
...On November 7, of course, he can vote for Roosevelt on Ihe Ilemorratic ticket Kul that lines him up with all the soothers moss-backs and the northern machine politicians And after election day it will leave him without any organized means of expressing bis opinion We shall soon he going forward into the most critical pei iod if American life...
...February has come and gone ami I haven't seen any obituary notices of persona who have died of hunger...
...We definitely do not want the leiurariiatien of any old party...
...They have esst joined by msny more thousands who v. ant a genuine progressive and liberal party...
...On May lit . nmventres lepresenttiig groups throughout the state will meet te launch this new orgsuizstion...
...In a recent syndicated column be tells us very solemnly thai "we need to revise our thinking about Russia...
...Theie ale two lathet sliong pieces of circiiinataiitial evidence that point in piecisely the opposite direction...
...The fact that Molotov found it advisable to give a pledge in the contrary direction speaks eloquently for the slate of Rumanian public opinion A Sovietir.ed Europe would be as deadly a menace to Gieat Itiilain as a Europe "united by Hitler," plus a Soviet Union that had been conquered and subdued by llillei...
...The New leader wants a new pai t\ if u n»ally new...
...This Writer of mediocre popular fiction made a national laughingstock of himself by predicting last year that the United States would lie faced with famine condition* by February, 1944...
...Mr...
...Many ihousaass withdrew from the American Labor Party when It waa taken over by the Communists...
...It must not be run from Ihe top down...
...Stalin himself, one may suspect, is less confident than Mr...
...Nor have calls been observed going around picking up the dead bodies of starvation victims, Again one might have imagined thai Mr...
...Great Britain, the Soviet Union anil China, with esch ally free to do pretty much what it wants in its own sphere of influence and the Atlantic Charter "interpreted" into nothiiigless, points in the same direction Embittered formei isolationists sometimes express the hope thai Slalin will take over Europe, partly as a pay off foi England, paitly as a payoff for what they regard as a mistaken American policy in euleiiug the wai...
...Rromfield is such an obvious innocent abroad in discussing the Soviet Union and communism (he accepts Walter Duianty as an infallible authority on these subjects...
...Nol a bit of it...
...DROM FIELD goes on to announce, with pontifical assurance, that the Russian Revolution was "an extension of the French Revolution and therefore a democratic revolution...
...And .so he proceeds to Ihe following conclusion: "Only Russia can deliver...
...Ths bulk of lis members may lie trade unionists, hut they will join this party as citizens, h will he the home for all forward hacking and progtessive v«teis It will furnish Ihe center foi the vast numbei of independent men and women who want to do something at>oiit our wav of li\ nig...
...It is roiicrirabls thai on the day when President Risisevelt steps off tha political stage it will he as conservslive as the K-publicans eter were The Repnhlicsn Parly haa rejected Wendell Willkie It is true thst Thomas K Dewey speaks now of international "cohesion...
...Their energy and idealism must How inle it...
...General "shot off his mouth," to use a colloquialism very appropriate in his case, announced that il was America's ami Britain's destiny to rule the world Snd evoked fiom a discerning niemhei of Congress (he comment that "his ideas ale as balmy as Miller's " He put aunt her strain on Ihe patience ami tolerance of Ins superiors and of the War Department...
...Those who join il must feel certain that it belongs Is them...
...If there ia any foresight, any rapacity for taking Ihe long view among the men who are responsible for shaping our foreign poliry, every resource of Amer-iran diplomacy should be mobilised to prevent surh a disaster...
...But in this situation the party must he -dequete to the need...
...There has been no communication between them and the Kremlin since Trotsky was driven out ef Knssia by Stalin...
...The political future looks dark...
...Bromlield, a Trotskyile party...
...Apparently with a view to promoting Ibis end, he utteis more inaccurate nonsense within brief compass than I have aeeu in print, even about Russia, for a long time...
...But Warren G Harding, too, advocated an association of nations Ami theie is every indication that in their domestic policies the Republicans aie swinging hack toward Inn malcy...
...But how piP|insternus and insulting to sugicst that these things must be "given" or spoonfed to Europeans by foreign bayonets, British, American or Russian' If there is one subject on which Europeans of all nations will unite more qui< klv than perhaps now seems possible il is resentment against foreign dictation " id interference...
...Broinfield of his ability to dominate a Europe in which so many inherited ideals and memorials of freedom and diversity would fight as invisible allies against Ihe blighting tyranny of totalitarian communism...
...We need a new party...
...T'hrir interest must never be rhillrd by mysterious bargains srrived at by the higher-ups...
...The platforms and candidates must actually tepresent the hopes of the men and women who give their work and their votes...
...In the tiisi place, il must l«e much moiajhan a trade union party...
...Not since the Civil War have we so clearly needed one...
...More than that, it would nrate a state of monstrous unbalanrr in international relations which would make a third world war appallingly imminent and probable...
...Tired American soldiers abroad are sometimes quoted as saying they would like to leave Germany to the Russians and come home...
...All Hie unpleasant political and economic consequences which our leading publicists were warning us about when it seemed that Hitler might bring a large part of the world under totalitarian control would be equally likely to happen if the whole European continent should be ruled from Moscow...
...What the peoples of Europe want, according to Mr...
...The call sent out by the Liberal and labor Committee sounds the light note...
...Every line implies that we are building this parly - n.it just to help re-elect President Roosevelt— but lo rebuild America...
...Communists and fellow-travelers, of course, could all be counted in for it...
...Aa iswfstrind ¦ We Need a New Party With Principles and Policy TPHE call haa gone out for the formation of a Bee * political party in New York—State...
...Broinfield, aflei this terrific blunder, would have confined himself to subjects if there are any, on which he ixisses.se* some measure of accurate knowledge...
...Tbeie is not a shied of evidence to indicate lhal any considerable uiimbei of Europeans are looking In Stalin for "peace and security...
...And most important of all the new parly must Stand foi things which millions cf intelligent citizens want...
...To meet the challenge of the situation we must have political courage and imagination...
...It speaks if making basic political choices...
...IN actual fail a Sovirtized Europe would be a i and probably hnal and irretrievable tragedy for European rivilization...
...I ami* Bromlield...
...One is the decision of Finland to fight on under very difficult military and political conditions...
...Tke voter who wants to make thing' different and better is left without a home...
...One finds support for this idea in the most curiously varied quarters...
...Without pausing to explain how a country where there is not a semblance of freedom of speech, press;, assembly, election or trade-union organization can be considered "democratic" he works up to a climactic absurdity...
...If lb- proposed parly can fill the lull, we are foi il It must satisfy tbiee requirements...
...Only Russia appears lo know what she wants and where she is going...
Vol. 27 • May 1944 • No. 19
