Letters and Miscellany
Letters and Miscellany Our Crime .. From BENNETT A. CERF President, Random House, Inc. To the Editor: We note that 70u h»ve given Edgar Snow's The Pattern 0/ Soviet Power to Eugene Lyons to...
...Grotesque...
...General Clark described the record "of the 100,000 Italian regular soldiers is four divisions under my commend...
...This note of his is not merely unintelligent...
...U Hr...
...traordinary part of t't, however, it that Snow it one tf tht editore of tht Poet and dedicates kit Stalinist apologetics te Ben Hibbs, editor-in-chief of the Post...
...The gist of my judgment of the Snow book was that it was not only s statement but a justification of the Soviet pattern of power...
...niriout ft is...
...TOT OF TMI LIST" From OLIVER CARLSON So far as I am concerned, The New Leader it MUST reading...
...6, 1945) by Capt Sidney Waugh upon his return from Italy, where he said he served la the AMG, are in sharp contrast with all official and press reports we have had from Italy since this wsr began...
...Italy Vindicated From LUIGI ANTONIMI Italian Amencan Labor Council To the Editor...
...Charles PolettI and his assistants, gave me a picture of a friendly Italian people, willing to cooperate and particularly anxious to reestablish the fraternal bonds that had always united Italy with the United States...
...My ex...
...thst the Italian people wss always on our side and against its fascist rulers and that it deserves generous consideration from the Allies...
...The ex...
...As sa artist he may have deserved his special recognition from Mussolini but u a political and military judge of tht Italian situation, we are iure the American people .will prefer Franklin D. Roosevelt and General Mark W. Clark...
...I submit that this is dishonest procedure...
...These are just symptoms of our epoch of colossal confusions...
...WhEN Stalin was forced onto our side of the war, it wa* Bennett Cerf, anthologist of wisecracks, who made the shocking proposal that all "anti-Soviet books" be withdrawn from circulation...
...To the Editor: We note that 70u h»ve given Edgar Snow's The Pattern 0/ Soviet Power to Eugene Lyons to review and that his piere appeare in the August 25 issue at The New Lender...
...Even if he should disagree with me, no fairminded student of Russisn affairs can deny that there is ample evidence in those pages to support my judgment...
...It also holds true for th* children of Naples who battled the Nasis in the streets soi helped to liberate the city before the Allied arrived...
...it is palpably dishonest Mr...
...Washington...
...Instesd they describe these governments as 'progressive and democratic," while regimes which Stalin opposes are always 'reactionary and Fascist...
...I was in Italy late in the summer of 1944 as delegate of the American Federation of Labor...
...From the report made by American Ambassador Phillips upon his return te this country after Mussolini declared war against us to Mr...
...His note to The New Leader is a fitting follow-up on that book-suppression idea—it merely extends his seal for suppressing infidels to reviewers...
...and His Punishment fnm f UM Hi LYONS To the Editor...
...Those who try to throw mud on the Italy of today usually belong to one of two classes: either, like the supporter* of Marshal Tito, they try to vilify the Italian people and minimise its contribution to the victory because they have territorial ambitions at the expense of Italy, or they are* those who used to admire Mussolini, praise his regime snd now hate the Italian people for destroying Mussolini snd its regime...
...They did a good job in combat...
...No more grotesque then the fact that Bennett Cerf, who mould suppress books and reviewers opposed to Soviet totalitarianism, passes as a "liberal" publisher...
...Now Capt...
...If the story given to the Timet by him were even slightly true, then sll his superiors in the U.S...
...This is such an accurate description of Edgar Snow as reflected in his latest book that the editorial might have been specifically aimed at him...
...But Mr...
...Orf's intelligence...
...The statements'made to tin New York rimes (Sept...
...I must confess myself mistaken...
...An editorial in the September 1 issue of the Saturday Evening Poet has soms sensible things to say about phony American "liberals" who confound Stalinism with progressive ideas...
...I think, ths disastrous result* that bam* come about in the softening of attitudes of "liberale" towards tyranny and totali, tarian guimnm—t, and in the lowering ef standards regarding objective truth, Also I wish a few more "intellectuals" would get seme inkling ef bow widespread ths influence ef the Communist Party in in this country, and how per...
...Cerf were not an emancipated comrade who holds bourgeois decencies in contempt, bo would be ashamed of this low trick...
...It would be difficult to overstate...
...Had his standards been a few notches higher, be would have felt obliged to make a case—to point out specifically where and why, hi his view, my piece on the Snow book was unfair or mistaken...
...I pointed out that it was shrewd and effective special pleading...
...I have always had s heslthy disrespect for Mr...
...To continue this invaluable series of...
...perience in the mstter, snd the remembrance of his trip to Rome in 1929, lead me to believe that Capt Waugh belongs to the latter category...
...But he chose precisely Bilbo and Smith in order to suggest that hare were three of a kind...
...reviews on the same plane, we now suggest that you run a review of The Public Paptre of Franklin D. Rooeevelt by Gerald L. K. Smith and •ign up Bilbo to review the Henry Wal-lace book, Sixty Million Jobs...
...That was a fairly accurate index to his politicsl sagacity and his general I.Q...
...Snow identifies everything Soviet with "progress" and everything resisting the Kremlin's pressure, whether in Eastern Europe or Asis, as "reactionary" and "Fascist...
...it ranks at the top of the list of the more than thirty publications to which I subscribe...
...Being what he is, he merely yelps some dirty words: "Bilbo , . . Gerald Smith...
...Army, principally hit Commander-in-Chief, Franklin D. Roosevelt, snd his Supreme Commander.in Italy, General Mark W. Clark, wen thoroughly deceived...
...he's content to call names...
...Cerf resorts to the familiar and ever shabby commie trick technically known as an "amalgam" by bracketing me with Bilbo and Smith...
...MARY f AKQ l HAiOttti* To tht Editor: 1 FEEL ia a crusading...
...spirit about The New Leader because it seems to aw imperative that the widespread ma-information about Russia be counter, acted...
...This praise also holds true for tht people of Palermo who welcomed th* American troops with an enthusiasm which was second to thst shown in no other liberated city in this wsr...
...The highest AMG authorities, including Col...
...I am sure that there is only one who has gone wrong in this case and he is Capt Waugh...
...Things would be s lot simpler," it declares, "if the pundits snd big brains who favor any regime set up in any country under Soviet pressure would say so...
...But they don't...
...Waugh come* and tells us that all of us have been deceived, for according to him, not only does the Italian people not deserve any consideration but it is to be treated worse than any ether people of former enemy countries...
...MISINFORMATION COUNTERACTED Frsap Mr...
...But in esti-msting his piece smong the fellow-traveling brethren I was inclined to give him credit for a certain muddle-headed honesty...
...Cerf prefers not to argue the matter...
...California...
...Had he wished honestly to indicate ill-matched books and reviewers, he could have mentioned any number of retpeetable names...
...Churchill's declaration that "a man and only a man," Mussolini, wanted the war, from the accounts given by American press correspondents in Rome upon their return following th* declsrstion of war to the declarations repeatedly msde by President Roosevelt and the highest authorities of our Stats Depsrtment, there has been unanimous recognition...
Vol. 28 • September 1945 • No. 38
