Where the News Ends

...The prospects of the emergence of the strong German democracy that would be the best guaranty against another European war could not, perhaps, be very bright after the decade of devastating Nasi rule...

...it) Ta* progressive relaaae of the productive energies of the nation...

...8) The maintenance of civil and political liberties for all, regardless of race, color or creed...

...Anything of this kind was so far outside the range of this woman's experience that her reaction was neither admiration, nor indignation, but rather a dazed, surprised incredulity...

...Subsidiary pro-Dewey factors are discontent with Administration foreign policy in some normally Democratic racial groups and anti-PAC sentiment among the farmers and the middle classes...

...Friction between General de Gaulle and the strongly organised French Communists ia reflected in many despatches from Franca...

...I hsve no crystal ball, but, like most Americans, I cannot refrain from guessing about th* results of a contest which tha betters think is in the bag for Roosevelt, because of his prestige as national wartime leader, because of the aura of the reforming period of the New Deal, because of the energetic work of the PAC will be re-elected, but by a, smaller popular and electoral vote majority than in 1940...

...Preparations were being taken to take the soldier vote in one of the American air units on Russian territory...

...If 1 had one wish to make for the political future of my cojntry it would be that we^would never skip a regular election, held, of course, under honest conditions as regards freedom of speech, press and balloting...

...But neither has been very specific in showing how these desirable sims are to achieved...

...the Liberals propose to lay the groundwork for such s new politics) organization on a national basis...

...They deal with ta* financing, operation, and control of industry, with th* rewards and rights of labor, with improvements in the position and condition of the farmers, with th* status and opportunities of professional groups and whit* collar workers...

...By the simple fsct of holding sn honest election, the results of which will be loyally accepted by the defeated side and not abased by the victorious side, America, perhaps without knowing it, sssumea a position of outstanding leadership in the democratic-world...

...Everyone who votes on Row F will be serving a double purpose...

...A Soviet woman employee who asked one of the American soldiers what was being done simply could not believe his reply thst American soldiers, like civilians, were free 'to vote for or against their commander-in-chief...

...To achieve these objectives definite legislstive proposals have been worked out...

...6) The abolition of poverty and depressed areas in both city and country...

...Still the probability, in my judgment, is Roosevelt by a relatively close majority, which might become decisive if the pro-Roosevelt factors bring out more votes and might be turned into defeat if the pro-Dewey considerations influence more voters...

...And elections that are held on the totalitarian pattern ara corry farce* which it would be much mora decant to omit...

...1 shall return to a discussion of what the election reveals about American moods after the votes have been countd...

...The Democratic and Republican parties cannot be expected to adopt anything like it...

...Thoughtful men and women in free and formerly free, and even in totalitarian lands, will not miss (he significance of this unsssuming practical object lesson in living up to the idesl of "government °f the people by the people for the people...

...Ona may hope for a revival of f re* institutions in th* liberated countries of Western Europe...

...bVIOI)SLY the itruggl* for genuine peace will not be settled by the result of this election...

...The Liberal Party has, in addition, worked out practical proposals for dealing with the vexatious problems of postwsr reconversion...

...The very holding of the election is an impressive tribute to the strength and self-discipline of the American faith in democracy and individual liberty...

...ether that tha Liberals were not asaembled merely ta help win this campaign...

...Even England, tha fountainhead of parliamentary democracy, has found it necessary to suspend general elections for the duration of tha war...

...Both look to an expanding foreign trade...

...A friend who recently returned from the Soviet Union gave me a suggestive sidelight on the reaction there to America's wartime election...

...The whole European continent, except for the small neutral democracies, Sweden and Switzerland, which have kept tha banner of free government flying, has been crushed beneath the heel of*totalitarianism of ona kind or another...

...Grievances accu-niiilate, the desire for a change becomes stronger almost automatically...

...But the process, especially in Franca and Italy, seems likely to be slow and checkered...

...These mefe and women were asked to propose practical measer** looking towsrd tha achievement of certain definit* goals...

...In our present crucial situation some such bold program as this is necessary...

...Tha Communist campaign to supplant regularly elected authorities by local councils of resistance, which they control in aoma eases, bears a suspicious resemblance to the suppression, in Prussia, of tha democratically elected Constituent Assembly by the Communist-controlled Soviets...

...The members do not believe in any blueprint for a Utopian fatura...

...He will be supporting Roosevelt, Truman and Wagner—but he will also be putting his influence on the side of those who wish a new political line-up in this country...

...If we are to get a thoroughgoing new way of dealing with our problems, w« must have a new party...

...They envision a filter* ia which freedom i* combined with security, in which physical welfare is coupled with opportunity far intellectual and social development...

...Why do I think the majority will be smaller...

...Neither has seriously tackled, for instance, the tough problem of how America can hope to sell abroad on a large scale without buying, or how much purchasing power will be left in that very large foreign area which has been or will be pretty thoroughly blown to bits...

...Just for this reason many of them do not realize how unique i* their country's position in holding a free election in the midat of a major war...

...These prospect* ar* not improved, to put it mildly, by most of the plans for dealing with Germany after the war which have received most publicity...

...In working out their platform they called ml* con forenc* practical trade union leader* and politii jgp* to sit with tha best experts obtainable...

...Both candidates, like 99.9% of the American citisent, ara for good times and prosperity, high wages for workers, high prices for farmers and all-around full employment...

...The first step toward a new national political party is to have a large group lined up behind the idea in New York State...

...Starting modestly here in New York Stste...

...The result of the election...

...Oar foreign policy remaiaa woefully vague a* ta ¦peril* aim* and Dewey'* criticisms of sach aspect* •f Administration fareign policy as appeaaeaseiit of Stalia at tha expanse of what might he eratari-cally called the haart'a blood of the Peliah people and th* casual aapport accorded ta the prepoateroa* Mergeathae Plan have not added up to a coherent alternative policy...

...Opportunity for every individual ii as important as phyaieal security...

...As a result the present Parliament is nine years old, was elected on issues that have ceased to exiat and cannot be considered necessarily representative of tha mood of tha country...

...TrlERE can be no true test of th* reality of Italian democracy until Allied supervision is withdrawn, or very greatly relaxed...

...Franca is gravely handicapped by tha paralysis of internal communication, by excesses of the purge movement, by the hunger and cold which can scarcely be avoided under war conditions...

...They had a wider purpose, a higher purpose, a continuing purpose...

...Freedom is as neceeeaajr as bread...

...Making Your Vote Count Twice In the great Madison Square Garden rally of fha Liberal Party one note wa* aouaded again and again...

...The idea is to throw the power of the nation and the states behind an expanding program of improvement for all citizens...

...And tbey know that happiness does not depend exclusively on shorter hour* and higher wagea...

...They appeal to labor and to all liberal citizens...

...3) The achievement of full employment...

...5) The reduction of th* concentration *f economic power...

...4) The guarantee to the worker of th* rights and freedoms of his job...

...But when one has duly recognized the immense heartening significance of this fact, one must also recognize that the course of the campaign has fallen a good deal short of th* ideal of a national forum in which tha great issues of domestic and foreign policy are fairly and candidly threshed out and submitted to tha judgment of the voters...

...On* meat tara ta Senator La-Folletls and Nermaa Themaa for rourageoaa plain apeakiag about the gleemy implication* for fatarc world order af Stalin'* ieeatiable annexation!*" and the maintenance of aa obaolet* imperialist ays ten in th* Orient...

...7) Th* extension of health, educational and cultural service* to all...

...Mainly because it is very uncommon, in a democracy, for one man or even for one party to remain in power for as long as sixteen years at a stretch...

...Thst put pes* is to start a new crystallisation of forces in Aasarieaa pel i ties...

...Tha American election ranks as th* only event of its kind in a major belligerent power...

...That any part of Europe which falls under Soviet hegemony could enjoy genuine freedom is an illusion that may be left to the incredibly naive editors of some of our pseudo-liberal magazines...

...It will hsv* to be carried out over an indefinite period of time and in the face of many powerful obstacles...

...It is proposed to rally behind these objectives and these proposals all men and women who look forward rather than back...

...In the party program these ideals are translated lata very concrete and practical proposals...

...Among these were: 11) Th* unrestricted am of science and technology in the public interest...

...It was *aid ia various waye by aae speaker after an...

...The* are thinking of a country growing steadily better, af a population constantly partaking more fully of the good* which modern technology can produce...

...Americana take their political ayitem for granted...

...If I could be sure that this will always be true in the future, as it has always been in the past, even in the midst of the Civil War, I would feel that our national future was insured against the undemocratic revolutions, the tyrannies and usurpations, the frightful excesses of state power that had turned before the climatic catastrophe of the Second World War occurred...

...The objectives of the new party can b* stated a many ways Perhaps the simplest is to say that the Liberals want an expanded and expanding New Deal But to them the bite and piece* of legislation are n*t mere bait thrown to gullible groups of voters...