Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
Where the News Ends By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN An Undiplomatic Question LAST June th* United State* Government expelled from thia country the Minister of Finland, a country at peace with us,...
...From the eastern edges of Poland to the western edges of France it contains si population greater than that of the United States and at least equal to that of Russia...
...The Russian Aim followed the "boy meets girl" formula, the boy in this case being a handsome young man from Daghestar in dashing Caucasian costume, the girl a fairhaired damsel from the Russian North...
...The Hollywood1 Mm, Sena *f Russia, possesses a pleasant musical accompaniment of Tehsikovky melodies...
...But from the standpoint of a gov-ernment the reply may be a sainlhsed Yea...
...The one fact that stares us in "ths fsce is thst the Ishoi anions hsvs failed as thetr job of education...
...The obvious task ol the unions is te tench their mem bora something about ran...
...Hjsl-mar Schacht, did much to convert its debts into assets and bullied its creditors unmercifully...
...With all hia good intention* and high ideals, Vice-President Wallaoa possesses an extraordinary capacity for maladroit naivete...
...Forced Labor in Siberia...
...The heroine is represented a- a brttftant concert pianist who drives a tractor on her collective farm aad cook* the borne meats...
...As reported by the Soviet Embassy Information Bulletin, he recently told the gaping citisens of Irkutsk, Siberia,'among other things: "There exist no other two countries more alike than the...
...Nations, populations, regions will stir and assert themselves...
...In the film I ssw there were a few perfunctory references to the heroine's skill in raising an improved breed of pigs snd there wss a song to "great Stalin...
...The heroine's father is shown tenderly addressing his personally owned tractor as "golubchik," the makers of the film spparently being ignorant of the fact that tractors in the Soviet Union are not owned by individual peasants, but by the state-controlled machine-tractor stations...
...But one fears that the New York 7'i»i<* was a little overoptimistic when it commented editorially: "There should be no difficulties with our allies and friends...
...The world wss suffering from mass unemployment and low production...
...What seemed to ms most interesting about this film was th* emphasis on personal relations...
...But in general one sensed a swing toward a more individualist view of life...
...But it will be s long rosd, snd s hard one...
...But the thousands of white workers left the whole region fiat rather than work with eight black men...
...Never in my travels in Russia have I seen such a epic and span collective farm, or one where the people all wore such good clothes...
...In the long run it cannot be disregarded...
...The CIO hss recently tsken th* lead in workera' education...
...By sll means we should follow the rosd te international freedom of the preas...
...There were hardships and injustices...
...Roofs of Race Prejudice The Philadelphia transport strike was a drab s*4 disturbing aeYair...
...They wilt ha worhmg at all the ieetle...
...Workers csn be taught the plain lesson that unity is necessary to their success...
...Changea will take place, /nd it may be that some of these will force modifications in the power arrangementa which emerge from the war...
...Though we are setting up just the sort of power balance which has always led to war, no nation wants war or will tolerate it in the immediate futuie...
...Tha sigumoot peatieas to the effect that Aasorion sen not afford* to be without debtors, because whst will become of America's surplus production cspscity without foreign markets...
...Without Negroes aa motormen and conductors, the transportation systems of scores of cities would break down during these war years...
...If anyone haa propounded a convincing solation of this dilemma I have not aeen it in print...
...The potentialities of this population—industrial, political, cultural—are enormous...
...Referring to the people of Siberia...
...Provision must be made for its recognition and development...
...Severe censorship snd reprisals against correspondents who were considered too frank in their criticisms hsve beep characteristic of the Soviet regime since its establishment...
...Perhaps similar methods will be need against the United Slates ia the postwar period...
...There ia a little job cut out for them in Philadelphia...
...What we are moving toward bears no resemblance to a world organisation with justice as its basis and peace as its purpose...
...A free people born on free expanses cannot tolerate any injustice and violence , sad cannot even, temporarily live in slavery...
...More fund, mental, I think, than ths question of American par-iiripaUen in an International bank ts the larger i»aue of whether a smooth system of international exchange sen aver ha...
...Honestly implemented, such s scheme would be sn important element kin replacing the fumes of censorship and war propsgsnda with the realism of honest reporting...
...Ten or fifteen years ago the typical Soviet film or play was almost required to bs a propaganda screened on behalf of raising production, or liquidating kulaks, or something of ths kind...
...There: will be a breathing spsce—time to think, time to discuss...
...Both before and after Hitler came into power Germany, under the financial sleight-of-hsnd of Dr...
...but the, people who settled the American West went there voluntarily, attracted by the abundant free land and with the idea of improving their condition...
...No mote ignorant and unhappy parallel could well have been draws...
...No one went there in chains or under an armed guard...
...The American Far West was settled an a completely free basis...
...Siberia, under Tsars and Soviets alike, has been a gigantic prison-house, snd s very high proportion of its settlers went there under more or less ruthless compulsion...
...Waste cwvies of liberals were (Msturned out-of the eemfortaWh* rut* of their thinking...
...Ft em now sn the Negroes camaet be kept out and cannot . Mr ignored...
...The Philadelphia traction workers belong to s CIO union...
...Here lies the only hope for a better and more peaceful future...
...Bat it had saw maw stag angle...
...I wonder if the time will ever come when an imaginative Sim producer will take an authentic, grass-rooto book about Rossis like John Scott's Behind tha Urmia or Msrkeeahs Fischer's My Uves In Russia sad ass it aa a basis for giving the Amer-ii an people some reasonable understanding of Soviet life, tha good and the bad both being shown in reasonable perspective...
...How ions...
...Twm Rmsslmm Maries I RECENTLY saw a double bill of films on Russian themes, one made in Moscow, the other in Hollywood...
...The history of Siberia and her heroic population reminds nte of the history of the Far West of the United .States...
...But what made it possible waa the stupid prejudice of narrow-minded white workera against their black fellows...
...The method was quits simple...
...Ths discovery of this fact waa a rude shock to clever writer* who talk a lot about the Working class without coming into contact with it...
...And it msy be thst the ruthless structure that is being set up now will be re-designed to giv* peoples outside the three or four great powers a place...
...Where the News Ends By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN An Undiplomatic Question LAST June th* United State* Government expelled from thia country the Minister of Finland, a country at peace with us, but at war with the Soviet Union...
...Some of J*iem will be mad* without war...
...Readjustments must be made...
...And this sort of thing doesn't happen in Russis any mote than it would in any other country...
...Infernofioaol Press Freedom t T is good to know that the United States Government is sponsoring s scheme for international freedom of tha press...
...Bht it haa aboat as much relation to rontemporsiy Soviet Nfe OS ta Shangri-la...
...Wallace's words would hsve sounded curiously ironies) if they could hsve reached any of the numerous inmates of the Siberian forced-labor concentration camps...
...A Modest Measure of Hope The article by David J. Dallin on page 8 gives a realistic picture of th* atark futuie which th* world faces on the eve of the Big Four Washington conference...
...The only hope lies in the fact that life is never static...
...Foreigners conversant wit'.i the facta of Soviet life knew that this was only too true, but were amaxed to see such a headline in the Moscow Daily New...
...Aa argument that is being need to induce Asa* than public opinion te accept a scheme under which American goad weald •erv* aa a prop for tho weaker currencies of tha world i" that foreign countries will net be willing to borrow directly from the I!.vitad Statao en taee favorable terms...
...Soviet Union and the United States of America...
...will it be before Stalin introduces an element of equality and reciprocity into Soviet-American diplomatic relations by expelling from Moscow the Japanese Ambassador, representative of a power at peace with the Soviet Union, but at war with the United Stales"' » • v Arm Deaf* Aumtf The answer, from the standpoint of the individual, it an emphatic No...
...The Cftoaoe of « Letter HIS recalls sn amusing typographical slip which occurred wbep I wss living in Moscow...
...A few days later a shamefaced apology appeared...
...There may be more back of this disgraceful sight thsn meets ths eye- Disloyal connivers against the war and the government may be involved...
...By virtue of a printer's slip the Moscow Daily News for once had told the truth, in spile of itself...
...The 'stresses of power politics may force this populstion into some sort of cohesion...
...Other areas—in Asis, in Africs—will not be content to remain in some limbo of subordination...
...In obeying th* lsw and falling in line with the common practice ef the country, the Philadelphia transit system was making fat possible to continue its essential aerviee ta the country* number two war production area...
...They Wad been saying torn years that the basses were responsible for race hatred...
...On the very day when this comment appeared Eric Johnston reported that it required the personal intervention of Stalin to obtain permission for four American correspondents to sccompsny him on s trip in the Eastern regions of the Soviet Union...
...Germany offered part payment on its debts only to those countries which coaaented to take large quantities of German goods...
...All of central and western Europe, for example, will be unrepresented at Washington...
...ktatmdrmlt Neivet...
...Ths awarders us kind of mythology which lead* to race' antagonisms fades before understanding...
...The Chinese, naturally an easy going people, hare fallen into the same bad habits in recent years...
...Liberia had been meant, not Siberia...
...The 6,000 white men wont on atrike because eight Negroes were upgraded and given the chance to operate trolley ears...
...The Moscow Daily Newt, an English-language daily, one hundred per cent Communist,' of course, in its news and comment, suddenly blossomed out -with a headline about Appalling Conditions of...
...restored if every country reserves the right to resort to every dubious weapon, including deliberate deprecistion of its own currency in order te snatch a momentary economic advantage for its own trade and indaatry...
Vol. 27 • August 1944 • No. 33
