The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
The Home Front By WILLIAM E. BOHN The Pin-Up Girl Fixation PEOPLE have funny idea* about soldier* They have built up a composite picture which no til would recognise. The man plodding through...
...Remember how anxious I was to join the Army...
...Recently it has been featuring Normal Thomas's speeches, particularly the sections attacking Roosevelt...
...Another incident: Pelligrino, one of the most hated Fascist administrator* of Naples, was removed by the anti-fascist forces just before Naples was freed...
...Russia has refused to siga UNRRA's multilateral pact enabling its agent* to enter for the purpose of directing the resettlement of "displaced persons...
...Now be h»» gone the way of all flesh...
...There isn't much to it really...
...Up spoks Clement Attlee, Labor whip and Deputy Prime Minister, addressing the Italian Socialists: "Why do you people resist the monarchy so fiercely...
...No one tries to tell us anything about why we should be fighting...
...Tell us, Mr...
...That is the way you feel before you hit the beach...
...PiThe Baltimore Sun is a newspaper long noted for iti fairness...
...But when it comes to ex-soldiers and civilians struggling...
...The chsnces of a shell lighting in your fox-bole are so smsll that it's no use worrying about it—and you usually can't hear them coming anyway, so it's not so bad...
...Ehrenburg now accuses Gide of having being pro-Vichy...
...You don't understsnd some of the sspects of the wsr that we see...
...I just wonder how long people are going to take to realize that nothing, next to liberty, is as important as humsn life—snd thst to mock at it* sacrifice by using it as a political weapon is to commit a deadly and unforgivable sin...
...insiders declare, did not "disappear" but was kidnapped by Soviet !»"cnls« and placed abroad a Soviet freighter and taken to Rut *ia...
...he later fled to Chile when a warrant was issued against him in Mexico...
...July 26...
...1 do not know precisely where he ia...
...I don't like being treated like a kid...
...sort of a 23-year old Boy Scout...
...Gide, who had been ardently pro-Soviet, made a trip there and wrote two booki which were bombshells in the intellectual world...
...But I had thought about it before I ever got into a fight, so the only time it bothered me much was the first time I saw it happen...
...Stories in Time, The New Leader, and other journals exposed this maneuver and the Rockefeller Committee denied any auch intention...
...Tito in Yugoslsvia has refused to work with UNRRA...
...Labor and capital struggling against each other are bad enough...
...On the Party Una TlIK Communist Party of Colombia, following the lesd of the Communist Parties in Latin America, has changed its nsme to the "Socislist-Democrstic Party" the name taken by the Communists in Cuba...
...1 cant even go so far as to advise men to rot...
...A lot of them have registered, though" July M. "I gat the copy of your letter to Mrs...
...Some months ago friends of Siqueiros attempted to bring him here via an invitation from the Rockefeller Committee on Inter-American Affairs...
...On September 15 the London edition of Start and Stripet published an editorial about Negroes in the Army...
...Lots of the older men can't sleep st night when there's fighting going on...
...I think we might have a mess...
...it read a document which gave the whole show swsy — it's called The Protocols */ the Eldere of Zion...
...This should be a lesson for ex-comrade Bromfield...
...fftlcs afoHN I. LEWIS has a new theory about the election* In previous issues the "international banker*"—par...
...All of this is just a bit of mythology that won't wash...
...I wonder haw she sounded to Mrs, r-, mother of one of our men, who had s nervous breakdown on hearing of his death...
...M—, married for a year and just delivered of a baby, whose husbsat died before my eyes...
...Thia morning he may be among the bays who are climbing up the beach on Suluan island or Leyte...
...Dewey's Jaacfcle OvER the Buffalo radio stations, the Erie GOP Committee, headed by Boes Edwin F. Jaecfcle, sponsors this spot announcement: "Attention Americans—The defeat of the New Deal in the elections is the only way to prevent the establishment of National Socialism in America...
...i • Seves Yeart' Silence JuLIET STUART POYNTZ, former Communist lesder and GPU agent who mysteriously disappeared seven years ago, will figure in a court trial this week...
...Herbert H. Lehman's UNRRA trip to Russia hai been delayed...
...Siqueiros openly admitted leading the attempted assassination of Trotsky...
...The reader can guess the reason...
...The gulf bet ween soldier snd civilian is very wide...
...The first note is dated Dec...
...It has advocated instead, bilateral treaties worked out with the individual nations...
...We have a monarchy in Britain and we get along fine...
...But this week too, the Daily Worker ran a savage attack on Gide by Ilya Ehrenburg...
...But then if you're dug in it's mostly exciting...
...There are plenty of other entries...
...He is nothing in the world but a young citixen in uniform...
...They wa'nt a government that "attains and maintains a -world consciousness...
...Well, I alwsys wanted to say to my grandchildren that I had voted for Roosevelt, and now I'll hsve my chance...
...July 19...
...If Hopkins is not named directly, William L. Batt or Oscar Cox, close friend* of Hopkins, will be named...
...Such is bureaucratic politics in Washington that motivations for stories must l* noted...
...ut at the same time the news is appallingly scarce...
...They name aa the key man in the \\ut a Soviet journalist now in Moscow, who wa* active here for several years...
...Being over here makes a man out of you much more quickly than a tour of duty to Congress...
...Dewey seems to me to be a wash-out, and I am not completely convinced that he is even a master of the art ef politics...
...I don't like to see men killed...
...By MURRAY EVERETT Inside and Out Italian Notes TrlESE two stories, both authenticated, provide a revealing insight into the Italian political muddle: During the visit of the Britiah labor group to Italy, a reception was arranged by the British Embassy for the delegation...
...Gulf letween Soldier and Civilian «JuLY 6. "Lots of people seem to be pretty worried about the soldiers' desire to git home and not bother with the war any more...
...and, conversely, we don't appreciate that it is hard on you in a different way...
...Present by invitation were leaders of the Italian labor and Socislist movement...
...From the Communist party-line sheet, In Fact: "The Sunoco ad, placed by the Pew family of Penna, which is one of the biggest factors in the NAM and the GOP, was withdrawn from the Timet because th* Times would not in 1936 switch into the Republican column...
...ticularly those with Jewish names—were named as tkt mysterious forces behind Roosevelt...
...We are practically denied the right to vote...
...March 18...
...It is up to someone to close the gap between our thinking and your thinking...
...to say nothing of toying to talk polities to them, Caen, martial offense...
...You mustn't take it too hard when I go ashore somewhere...
...Miss I'oynti...
...The news which we receive over here is appalling...
...They prove that this lieutensnt preparing to east bis first vote is at least aa sensitive and thoughtful as any civilian...
...It seems certain that he has not understood or appreciated just what the war is all about...
...First Congress says we are more interested in pin-up girls than in the vote, and then they try to make us feel better by paying us $4,5(hJ for doing this job—ss if $4,500 or $10,000 would make sll this up to us...
...Then if anything goes wrong and they start shelling you before you're dug in, that's not so good...
...I think I weigh more than I have since I went into the Army...
...In the Daily Worker election supplement last week the name of Louis Bromfield appeared on the lists of "fascists" who were backing Dewey and opposing FDR...
...And now let me introduce lines torn from the letters of an Army Lieutenant to hia mother...
...And if a lot of persons are worried about its coaraening effect, they had better see to it that we never get into a mess like this again...
...And you be one of those damn women who saves kitchen fats, pays her income tax, buys bond:-', bitches about rationing and wants her boy to come back to a Republican country...
...Now this latest attempt...
...Journal prints two pictures of Hillman and Browder, the latter shown with a long nose, and comments "look again ito the phyeiognomieti oi Hillma* and Browder...
...We can figure it out pretty nesrly for ourselves, of course, when we see how glsd some of these flutch nuns and natives are to be freed from the Japs...
...Relatives of Miss Poyntt will seek to declare her legally dead and the case closed...
...And I'll be s brave boy and smoke Chesterfields and long for the local drugstore...
...Or to Mrs...
...The Union for Democratic Action announces a contribution of $95.00 from twelve Naval officers on duty in the Pacific Theae young ensigns and lieutenants write that the money is to be used to "elect a Congres* to Win the War and the Peace...
...Well, you'll remember, most of us that are overseas have been under the benevolent protection of the Army for at least two years, and in some casee four years...
...Now, the efts* Workert Journal finds a new link—J sines P. Warburg is a member of PAC and he's "helping llilliuan deliver labor to the international bankers...
...Continuing its anti-Semitic campaign, the Mm' Worker...
...Taa Chip* Foil AnDRE GIDE'S Imagine, g Interstiewe is being^published this week by Knopf...
...In 1940 the Timet went Republican...
...David Alfaro Siqueiros, Mexican painter and Communist leader who led the machine-gunning attack on Trotsky's home in Mexico on Msy 24, 1940, is being invited to this country as an instructor for the Art Institute of Buffalo...
...They are all sharp...
...It's part of the job, you see...
...The parts damning Dewey are omitted...
...For his letters come from out that way...
...tl, 1943 "You must not worry about me...
...The editor's idea was that if white and colored men learn to light side by side with tolerance and understanding they may, perhaps, manage to get on better together after the war...
...And now this new bonus bill—$4,500 for every soldier...
...Don't let them band yeu a stereotype of ttw American fighting man...
...And if these commentators would just remen, be r—the Army took us over here when we were still being told that Hitler was all right, and that our only worry was from the labor unions...
...When the British came in and set up AMG, he was reinstated to office despite heated anti-fascist protest...
...All efforts by UNRRA to feed Eastern Europe have been balked by the Russiana who want ts take on the job themselves and use food distribution *• a political weapon...
...But if I were ten years older, I wouldn't be able to take it...
...You see...
...We read about everything except what the war mesns in terms of possible betterment...
...July 14...
...I think the advocacy of an alliance with tireat Britain is-perhaps the new battle-cry of the isolationists...
...It seems to me that it is dsngerous to have any more classes in the country thsn we have now...
...when the first rumors about Bstt were printed, s number of papers ran planted stories about his cartel connections through Swedish industrialists...
...Seldes, what is the ressofl this time...
...No one, so far as I know, has tried to educate the soldiers since then about the evolution that has naturally come in two and one-half years of war...
...Fighting for their country has not robbed them of their intelligence...
...I haven't spoken to more than one who thinks it's a good idea...
...The item was written before the rimes declared f« Roosevelt...
...The essays sre literary thrusts against Vichy which outwitted the censors...
...The issue of September 19 carries an approving letter from a private which closes with the sentence: "Now is the time to work for a more democratic relationship between the two groups...
...April I, 1944...
...After a year, political influence succeeded in giving him immunity, although the order for arrest remains in force...
...Do you remember hew it was when yen went ta the hospital to hnve your appendix out...
...The man plodding through the heavy and monotonous detail of training or risking his life on Psciflc islsnds or around Aachen is outlined in the popular imagination as a half-wit whose imagination never rises above a pin-up girl or a comic strip...
...The funny thing is that the original incorporation papers of the German-American Band were drafted by the law offices of Edwin F. Jseckie...
...Deportmeaf of Oversimplification...
...for a period of about two years this Ohio novelist-farmer was one of the most prolific signers of Communist-front statements...
...I'm still that way...
...Harry Hopkins is slated for the major role in th* disposal of foreign surpluses...
...I've seen men grow 15 years older in six months...
...Do you know any civilians who ssy or write more decent or intelligent stuff than that...
...The Mint Workers Journal is quite prescient about this whole affair end can't be fooled...
...I get plenty seared during air-raids, but I Just . an't at*, to stay awake...
...The news that FDR would run again was a relief.' He must be tired—and sick to death of the job...
...we can't look forward to much over here but a rather uncomfortable life, and no one tells us anything about why we should be fighting...
...Lam, She must have made a beaut Wall, the world is fs| af such people...
Vol. 27 • October 1944 • No. 44
