The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
The Home Front By WILLIAM E. BOHN How Do You Judge a Nation? As I emerged from the exhibition of Jb Le Corbuiiert work up at Rocke-/»- feller <"enter, my mind wu a tonfu»ed weltar of notion*....
...It discovered, 6 to 1, "much that even in this post-Victorian era would tend to promote lascivious thoughts and arouse lustful desire in the minds of substantial numbers of the public...
...Foiter it Hill trying to penuade Sam Darey to rejoin the Communist Party, but the new party bosses ate unwilling to meet all of Darey'i conditions...
...profession of faith...
...Meanwhile, the Hungarian Communists denounce "foreign interference" and demand the ratification of a 'Soviet-Hungarian pact of "economic cooperation" which gives Russia a 80' percent control of Virtually "the" whole*" of Hungary s economy...
...Books and pamphlets were being advertised...
...Last week we reported an acruss-iii>n that the bombing of Nagasaki bad no military purpose but was intended merely to secure scientific information on the effects of the atomic bomb...
...Then we be-fin to think of the median powers, as thej were called at San Francisco -Braiil, Canada, Australia, Italy, etc...
...They judge all men and nations by the amount of power which they wield at the present moment...
...And think of all the little nationa that would seem big...
...Are these people a lot of no-goods ? Are they all corrupt T Can they be left out of our account when we reckon up the things of which we shall build the future...
...The boys nsmed names, too...
...Small-scale but militant rank-and file revolts of anti-Stalin groups within the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers are giving the comrades headaches these days as they attempt to tighten their grip on their Isrgest controlled CIO union, A model of trade union anti-Communist literature was issued by the** rank-and-file™ in Local 476, New York, a few days ago In an effort 'to prevent amalgamation with the outright Party-bossed Local 1228, The deal went through, but the antl-Stalinists have served warning they will continue the fight...
...He sees his dreams in practical detail...
...Even General Patton —stupid as he is politically—is on the track of fundamentals when he says that it is important to set factories and railways running...
...So I have been infected by what might be oiled the newspaper mind—if you can call it a mind...
...The present giants, the Big Three, will stand high, according to any standard— though the two mightiest of them, th* USSR and USA, have only during the last two centuries reached the point at which their contributions to civilisation could be taken into account The first astoniahing fact that emerge* is that, judged by this standard, Franc* would be found among th* v*ry topmost...
...Wh»t 1 am working around to is th* fact that seeing some of Le Corbusier** designs and reading some of hi* paragraphs, upset, the hierarchy of powers as it had been.formed >n my mind by Titan who have given complete acceptance to the present power standard...
...And among these is national thinking...
...Boston Puritans and witch-hunters hold high office...
...Good eld "Fighting Bob" Minor, the CP commissar who was kicked off th* national committee along with Earl Browder, has been given th* assignment of "Southern editor"of the Daily Wtrksr and has already opened an office in Washington...
...If Paris, he thinks, lives up to her possibilities, she...
...Oh, yes, there is Poland...
...Germany, too, would rank rather high...
...Job of putting them in order...
...Italy, another nation which the current fashion would shove into outer darkness, would have ah honorable place...
...The city itself, in his mind, must be...
...They stem also more or less devoid of knowledge of art, literature, economics, science •r industry...
...You will be astonished by the number of notions that are turned upside down...
...And—last of all-give a thought to despised Poland...
...There were *%h» of towns constructed for beauty...
...Samuel Ranter, business representative, in the Brighton Club...
...Consider Switzerland...
...Each should be rsnked with reference to its accomplishments over a long period of time...
...And Hitler's tanks didn't over h;« mind...
...The bookseller who sold a copy of Strange Fruit to writer Bernard DeVoto drew a $200 fine...
...They must be a np-good lot...
...Sam Don has been ousted from the leadership of the Philadelphia district of the CP...
...They all had to do with oar ways of thinking ,1 nations, of ranking and rating them, ye my horror I discovered that I had mccusibed to the current crude fashion of judg ing peoples as We judge prize-Igkten...
...They **H cormpt and slow and split into fsctions...
...Here is the way they stack Up in most of our minds...
...Carter, chairman of Russia War Relief, accepted the offer as a "genuine constructive contribution to rehabilitation of Hessian war victims," subject to approval by proper Soviet authorities...
...The original sale was arranged as a test case by the American Civil Liberties Union in conjunction with publishers Reynal and Hitchcock...
...While "Mpx Werner oil the Course of th* World'4 pontificates that 'A gm>d example of a constructive policy for Eastern Europe was the compromise and unity in the case of Poland," and Victor Bernstein praises Russian policy in Germany, Lehrman has exposed the farce of Tito's "democracy" aw* the ruthless policy of the Russian-dominated (nech government towards Hungarians and Jews...
...of course, the champion—and tn,t'i all there is to it Judged this way, jot I-ouis is a better man than John r„wey or Albert Kin*teln...
...Even without the atomic bomb and the Russian entry into the war," General LeMay asserted, "Japan would have surrendered in two weeks...
...The one dissenting voice in PM's prStalin chorus is Hal I-ohrmsn, who is learning the hard truth about the Russian-occupied Balkans by direct oh servation...
...France and China are supposed to belong to the Big Five...
...A little lower comes (ire a l Britain...
...So we must think of them next, but ,yv» do it with a skeptical grin-—as though out of good nature, knowing perfectly veil that these two powers deserve no alare *s high as all that...
...General Eisenhower is right when he says that the first thing to think of is food...
...Now comes partial confirmation by General LeMay, Chief ef Staff of the United States Strategic Air Forces In the Pacific...
...Think of Holland...
...H all started, of course, with thinking •bent France, In the average Aroer-Kan'* mind right just now that country r»nk* pretty low, The people over there ¦ad* • mess of their government...
...By ROBERT JOWNSEND...
...Clarence Strait, and Robert J. Watt are among the signers of s statement calling for "union now" between the U.S...
...A lot of them ar dead, and the rest are poor and misei -•Me...
...Concerts were being given, art exhibitions held...
...Mark farther down we place such negligible and easily kicked about nations as Belgian, Holland and the Scandinavian countries...
...This may sound a bit grandiose to our Anglo-Saxon ears, but this man is not • dealer in words so much a* >" designs, blueprints, steel and cement and stone...
...k"« arti»t, moreover, does not stard "** J" the vary first poor little paper* that came into this office from Paris after the day of liberation—printed every-which-way on pathetic half-sheets — I saw proofs of the indestructibility of the French Spirit...
...Heard on the Left By ROBERT TOWNSEND, JR...
...The man with the heftiest pgarh is...
...They don't even get honorable mention...
...Franc* may be weak in anna ments—even in her industrial equip...
...The Massachusetts Supreme Court took time out to read Lillian Smith's best-selling novel of racial conflict, Strange Fruit...
...John Dewey, Wilier Duranty...
...It was producing great scientists, educators, composers and writers before some of the present great powers were in a position to make any sort of a bid for recognition...
...And at the very bottom, of course, we descent Germany and Japan...
...Edward...
...The people of Europe must have reason to believe in themselves, in their countries', *1 n their coa-tinent, in their future...
...But tbnie is Le Corbusier...
...Aqi when I started to think of men and nation* ac•< ording todifferent principles, 1 found lay thoughts driven straight ¦fainst a I meat everything, that is now almost universally accepted...
...The sustained air attacks with fire bombs and high explosives had brought Japan to the brink of ruin before Hiroshima and Nagasaki...
...There was a lot that the German tanks never got beneath their treads...
...They put the finger on Sidney Mason, business agent of 1225, in the 18th A. D. Club...
...He is one of the •'tit men serving on the Supreme Advisory Committee directing th* recon-¦tmrtion of his country...
...will become again * symbol of triumph for all France and for all the world...
...The fair thing would be to judge nations as we judge men—or as we aits supposed to judge them...
...They ar* full of news, the comment is by men without memories...
...Every week 1 look over dozens of newspapers and magazines...
...But other things, too, are essential...
...PRESIDENT DAVID DUBINSKY of the II.*: W11 has offered Russian War Relief $250,000 for the construction in Soviet Russia of a clubhouse for garment workers...
...The Detrelt AFL has come out against Richaal Frankensteen, UAW CIO vice-pres* ent and candidate for mayor...
...Adam Clayton Powell clashed last week with Max Yergaa, Corneal* commissar of The People'* Vofee^-When Marshall Field withdrew financial mm> port a couple of years ago, Powell allegedly had to seek aid from the party to cover the large deficit...
...Where does each one of the nations come en your private totem pole...
...Further fireworks are expected with a stage version of the novel opens in Boston, with a cast headed by Jose Ferrer, formerly Iago.in the Webster version of Othello...
...We should ask: "How does this or that country stack up alongside others when we take into account all that it has given to the world since the beginning of Renaissance...
...Before me were ^agrapbe o| those shining, modern, ''•en-lined buildings of him...
...and Britain as a first step toward a world anion...
...Ben Davis and Doxie WWkerson began directing the editorial policy of Powell'* paper, firing Powell's men...
...Darey, who was expelled a year ago for fraetionahsm against Browder, has written a book exposing Browder, scheduled for publication by Little, Brown, whose editor, Angus Cameron, is reported to be a loyal party-liner...
...My standard has been lowered to that of the current moment...
...1 wi*h every America* could read it...
...Hitler's tanks rolled right over them...
...1 Perhaps you he** not been as much bowled over by the current crude standards a* I have...
...I wish I could bring these things to the attention of the men of power who have the reconstruction of Europe in their hands...
...The ILGWU gesture shows that fraternity between American and Russian workers doesn't depend on approval of the Stalin regime, which Dubinsky has consistently criticized...
...State CP conventions are being held in all Southern states next month and new organizers will be sent below the Mason-Dixon line to revive the Soviet Republic idea abandoned in 1035...
...Perhaps this ii u good a place as any to undertake tk...
...Ethel Shapiro, membership director, in the Williamsburg Club, and even quoted the Commy card number (29,151) of Jack Sarlo, another 1225 business representative...
...The Poles are hardly considered at all...
...Hardly had the sound of German boots echoed away when th* theatres were advertising old and new French plays...
...At the irery top are Russia and the United States...
...Don't be surprised if Senator "Young Bob" LsFollette and most of his Pro gresiive friends rejoin the RepuWioaji Party in Wisconsin...
...What 1 would say to the men of power, if I could, would be that if Europe Is ever to be revived, this Franc* which haa been so pushed and shoved ebout, which has l>eett so often left oat of our council's, must be helped back to health and pros perity and must become the center of the life of the new continent which is built up to replace th* old...
...merit but she has an essential contribution to make to the rebuilding of the old and much lettered continent...
...JJJfV1 *HCi efficiency all combined, a man...
...For our contemporary nations a fair period to take into account would be 500 years...
...On the wall up there at the exhibit toe they had printed in large type an essay by Le Coi busier on planning for th* new France...
...Or do not, guarantee liberty enough to' safeguard US against thl-power railing into the hands of dictators...
...The comrades are rushing to catch up with their Negro recruiting In the South and are reviving the Party apparatus which was liquidated three years age by Browder...
...Now, this is a test which will give us fair and enlightening results...
...He wants to build the new Parte around the idea of peace and harmony...
...I cannot apply it here...
...but the Mareantonio-AI.P-CP machine haa him tied up...
...A springtime of social I if* has come, bright and beautiful...
...There Is not the spare...
...He would see that there i* something in old Europe which Is worth feeding and clothing and preseiv-ing...
...William 7...
...he is accused of factionalism against the new national board...
...The Negro clergyman and political leader in Harlem finally got fed up...
...The party leadership demands that Darey submit proofs for scrutiny as to line, but Darey thus for has refused...
...This eeunda crude, But test yourself...
...But yon try it...
...The statement opposes divulging our knowledge of the atomic bomb "to those nations or institutions that cannot...
...The writers seem not to know any history...
Vol. 28 • September 1941 • No. 39
