letters
lettersThe Notions of Max Eastman from M E. EDSON Should Soldiers Fraternize? from GEORGE I. STEINHARDT To the editor: CHARLES TALE HARRISON pre tent* US frfth • new hero. Hs is Sgt....
...In this problem there sre two pitfalls...
...But to Mitchell and to Harrison this poses no problem...
...There a/e, without question, millions of fins democratic people left in ths Reich...
...So he has msde the Intellectual "Great Circle," and is back in lias with his former comrades supporting Capitalism, or "Free Enterprise...
...All this, Harrison greets with enthusiastic applause and bp inference refers to the order as inhumane...
...Despite temporary reverses and aberrations democracy marches on, and will prevail in economics and industry ss well as in political government...
...Mitchell, just arriving in Germany, , marches down' the streets of Cologne, and "Harrison, marching close behind him on the good, old sidewalks of New York —see In the crowds, bearing beer and pretsels, only friendly and "war-shatiered German civilians...
...And that, my friends, takes .guts.1!'Harrison further describes his hero, alternately, as a "man who keeps his trap shut" while he goes about bis duties ss a soldier...
...In forbidding its men to fraternize with the German people, it does so for their protection...
...ami, as s fellow who doesn't "keep his trap shut" but speaks out "openly against ths military decree on fraterniration...
...They have proved themselves humane in their treatment of German and Japanese civilians...
...The sergeant does more ' than talk...
...8. Amies snd German Democrats:" * "It is imperative that we encourage democratic elements...
...Tuberculosis is...
...Even prisoners of war have been starved and murdered...
...The) frontal attack bs) reserves for those who had nothing to do with the issuance of the order...
...But for my money, 111 take Francis W. Mitchell...
...I Fraternise, according to the dictionary, means "to bring into brotherly relations...
...Facta and logic indicate that democratic planning, organisation and operation will succeed as well in the conomie as in the political field...
...Ths owners of materials and equipment worked with their families and few employees...
...The first and most difficult task of our armies will bs to make contact with honest fees ef Hitler...
...Competition aiade effectual equality of opportunity...
...They do not see the killers...
...We own our government collectively, cooperate collectively to make our laws, and enforce the law by collectively authorised sane-tions and police powers...
...There was little, If any need for making any change In economic organisation before the industrial revolution which has occurred within the last century...
...It is in these countries thet the real war-shattered people are to be found...
...Compared to these unfortunstes, and judging from reliable accounts and authentic, newsreel pictures, the German "war-shattered" people look, in comparison, damn healthy...
...Whether ths "et al" includes the gene-rsis, 1 cannot tell, although it shpuld...
...The first principle of Socialism, or Social Democracy, is that sll of the sources and means of production and distribution which are collectively used, and are essential to the general welfare, shall be socially owned and democratically controlled and operated to serve the commonweal...
...For jt is their order, and nothing else, that is the theme of Harrisons Song of Wrath...
...There was no/ involuntary unemployment * Groat industries today, however, employ many thousands ©f workers who depend upon them for their livelihood, but hare no control over them...
...rampant in every land 1 previously occupied by the enemy...
...Nevertheless, our army, contrary to Harrison's opinion, does not seek vengeance...
...William Sollman, former Reichstag member from the Rhineland, has this to say In his article in The Now Leader, on the "U...
...The government in this country has not the prerogative of a king, nor the privilege of an authorised aristocracy...
...Frsncis W. Mitchell of New York "who* was among the first Amur-icen eotnbet troops to enter the city of Cologne" according to Harrison, and he was the first G:I to speak out openly for decency and humanity in the treatment , of war shattered German civilians, despite the army orders against fraternisation...
...In past wars, when the fighting ended, fellowship began answ...
...The mesne of livelihood and welfare are owned and controlled by capitalists who have no part in their operation...
...These owners are truly "economic royalists," and we Social Democrats propose to dethrone them Snd abolish their royal prerogatives, just as our forefathers did with the political royalists of their day...
...But which are the lambs) and which are the were-welvesT This problem may hare already been solved by Mitchell snd Harrison, but it is still taxing the best muds of pur army of occupation...
...On this score they are invulnerable...
...But Harrison ia prudent, if not courageous, in refusing to swsp punehes with the generals...
...But this Is a. different kind of a war and R to not of our making...
...In the first place, there to the danger that the armies of occupation will accept outright Nasis either because they shrewdly conceal their true conviction* (perhaps by insisting that they were forced into the Nssi party) or because they sssert thst they sre indispensable to the smooth running of the administration...
...Harrison also takes a side swipe st our army leaders who iasued the order against fraternisation and cries, "You can have pour MacArthurs, Eisenhowers, • Psttons and Bradleys—good soldiers all...
...ho also violates an order, which Is contrary to his duties as a soldier...
...To fear, and to protest that it cannot be done to butato repeat the same stupid objections which those before us faced and overcame in their day...
...This required great restraint, considering how our war-shattered people— soldiers and civilians, men, women and children—were starved, tortured and murdered when they fell into enemy hands...
...To the Editor: Max EASTMAN was completely disillusioned when his former comrades established a ruthless despotism and called it "Socialist," but now he cannot see nor understand the true philosophy of Socialism...
...Thus speaks Soil men who knows Nasi Germany...
...Certainly, the columns of The Now Leader should be barred to any one for this purpose...
...Harrison has a right to his views on fraternisation...
...Millions of innocent people, of sll ages, have been brutally liquidated in torture chambers, slave-labor camps, snd death camps...
...This planned political collectivism haa not developed into a totalitarian despotism, but haa brought increasing liberty snd enlightenment to the people...
...Millions more are today slowly dying because of protracted periods of starvation...
...Production was previously dona mostly on the farms, in homes, or {a small shops...
...But I challenge his right to applaud and encourage disobedience to armyjjrders...
...Democracy does not mean every maa for himself, as Esstman seems to think...
...Their treatment ef ths German and Japanese prisoners of war is also above reproach...
...It seems," says Harrison, "that in the cues of Sergeant Mitchell, the kymn-of-hatelers chorus, led by Van Sittart, Rex Stout, st al, have lost a customer...
...Neither is it a government by competitive "free enterprise," by gangs, or by every man making his own laws and carrying his power of enforcement on his hip, as in frontier dsys...
...He also denounces it aa "a program for the extirpation of the German people" and as s scheme "of vengeance against" them...
...The most bssic social activity, however, the production and distribution of the means of sustaining and enhancing human life, still remains In the haphav ard, chaotic and wasteful stats of private enterprise...
...The demand for labor and its products exceeded the aupply...
...This basic principle of democracy has been potentially achieved in this country In the sphere of political government It is imperfect be cause of the imperfections and frailties of human nature, and also because df the corrupting influence of greedy privets interests...
...hold fellowship...
Vol. 28 • April 1945 • No. 14
