The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
The Home Front By WILLIAM E. BOHN The Come-on Man I REMEMBER all about boll. When I l was a hoy revivalists who had in-J. iimate knowledge of It* administra-Hal and heating facilities freely...
...But the new Mayor does take office under the combined shadows of the Democratic bosses of the five boroughs and of the gangsters whom he fought as a district attorney...
...As genuine experts on public problems there are sens who stand higher than Alvin H. Hansen, Samuel Guy Inman, Morris L. Cask, Charles Abrams, Dr...
...In the first place, nothing separates the thinkers from the millions except their own ineptness...
...The election figures prove that the city has many hundreds of thousands of citizens who seek the right sort of political leadership and the right sort of political home...
...Some sf them are among our best...
...The committee, which has its headquarters in Room 616, 303 Fourth Ave., has lists of anti-Fascist refugees in need of aid...
...I can imagine editors snd publishers in conference saying: "Here we have clearly marked the road to salvation...
...You do not send money or a box of food out into the void...
...The idea is that if the poor, dumb-driven voters had the information which now resides under the hats of the experts all would be well...
...No one can deny that as s guide to many parts of the maze presented by this too troubled world this volume will serve its readers well...
...This puts into words an implication that never finds expression in the book...
...An Editorial-Liberals Must Organize No matter how good a man William O'Dwyer may be, his election was a defeat for the liberal, good-government forces in New York City...
...they can like it or lump it...
...The plan of the committee is to have a family or individual here become the sponsor for some destitute family or individual on the other side...
...When they match their rivals organizationally, club for club and assembly district for assembly district, then they will win...
...Under ths chairmanship of Angelics Bslababanoff, the following are among the sponsors of this committee: Reg** Baldwin, Joseph Baskin, William B»hn, Israel Feinbsrg, Fsllks Grots, Sidney Hook, Louis Nelson, Emanuel Neve* grsdsky, A. Philip Randolph, Antonio Reina, Clarence Senior, Norman Thomas...
...Just now, many of our clever columnists and boardcasters are distinctly blurred and ambiguous in their understanding and interpretation of democratic principles...
...Since the editors an two good journalists, Bruce Blivcn »nd A. G. Mezerik, it is difficult to figure sot how it ever got such a horrifying title...
...Irving Brant, another experienced journalist, suggests in his chapter of the symposium that one trouble with us is that the press and radio lay over-much emphasis on entertainment...
...Though thus far the office work hsi been taken care of by volunteers, there is a good deal of expense involved for stationery, postage and other inevitable expenses...
...Every night their ideas flow out over the air-waves...
...Thomas Par-ran and James G. Patton...
...Due to the Morris candidacy, the Liberal Party lost a good part of the 306,000 votes which it rolled up in 1944| But it proved the staying power of its supporters by electing two men to the City Council...
...So you are sending more than food or clothes...
...He sees a "powerful minority with immediate self-interest opposed to a new political outlook...
...Nothing like that will happen in the four years from 1946 to 1950...
...At one point he mourns the lack in this country of advantages enjoyed by the rulers of Russis...
...Mayor LaCuardia must bear a large share of the blame for the pre campaign maneuvering which led to the division of the reform vote...
...But an air of un-'••lity is the inevitable result...
...The Tammany-gangster-Commuriist combination cannot long maintain itself...
...The only serious criticism that can be ¦ade is that there is a good deal of •lowing round inconvenient stumps...
...They just sat there, pleasant, decent, mildly entertained people —half-believing but not really scared...
...There, he happily relates, "thanks to a vigorous promotion campaign, six million copies of a Snort History of the Communist Party were sold in the first four days after publication...
...Our side, the right side, the decent, progressive, constructive side, has the best program, it can name the best candidates...
...They are of many different nationalities— Spanish, Italian, German, Jewish, Polish, etc...
...What each •ne of them has to say about his particular field is excellent...
...In its latest announcement the committee adds the following names to the list: Bal.et.te Deutsch, Jsmes T. Farrell, Michael Strange and Samuel Wolchak...
...The last thing anyone wants to read is what he ought to know for his own good...
...The Liberals have advantages which they have thus far failed to utilize...
...We have our traditional ways in this country, and our traditions ars not so bad...
...But the fact that a good man could attract that many votes proves in itself how Isrge is the number of independent citizens who want honest government snd who are not held in leash by party ties...
...The figures prove that if the progressive forces of the city had been united behind the right sort of candidate, the story of the election would have been different...
...But each man gives an illuminating glance at his set of prob-Jestt, suggests a constructive approach...
...The hell of the atomic bomb may destroy us all, but if this fate overtakes us, it will be due as much to the fault of the preachers as that of the congregation...
...This way of helping Europeans in their distress is making a wide appeal, ami the work of the committee expands »o rapidly that its workers need all the financial support which they can get...
...But that will take steady and consistent effort...
...If ordinary folks—the farmers, houss-wives, wage-earners snd businessmen— were not more forthright in their allegiance to democracy, we should be in a bad way...
...we know what the poor dopes ought to know, we'll give it to 'em Straight...
...The Liberal Party has a great field wide^pen for its efforts...
...But in general, according to his analysis, the means by which the experts can put across their message to the common man are, in this land of schools, newspapers and abundant radio sets, woefully inadequate...
...A good purpose ' amy be served by showing whst a fine, ascent and prosperous world we could h«ve if the ideas of the experts were Put into practice...
...You get letters back from s human being whom you have helped...
...Both Tammsny and the Communists organize without ceasing...
...These Tammany leaders, in close harmony with the boss gangsters of their day, openly looted the city...
...Tfc« Informed Minority 1 WAS Irritated into reading this book by a sentence in the review of it by • Howard Mumford Jones in Sunday's Times...
...It is still very much in the political ring...
...O'Dwyer is not a racketeer like Boss Tweed or Boss Murphy...
...If only, he seems to be saying, we had an efficient dictatorship here the outflow of the intelligentsia would go to the common herd in similar volume and our world would be saved...
...You send it to Marie, the 12-year-old daughter of a trade unionist who was killed in the Italian anti-Fascist struggle...
...But it will never take over City Hall until it has a solid, functioning organization...
...I recall es-patially one earnest snd eloquent saver »f soul* who sadly confessed-at the end af his series of meetings that most of tie citizen* °f nty little home town were bound straight for the everlasting flames...
...Among them are the children of Socialists and trade unionists who have been left stranded and helpless by the murder of their parents...
...Do not get the idea that I am trying te make fun of the 22 men whose essays save been gathered in this volume...
...or to Jose, a 26-year-old truck driver who fought against Franco and is now stranded iri France...
...or to Andre and his three children, now helpless as a result of wounds suffered in the French underground movement...
...This plaint of the intellectuals leaves me pretty close to the freezing point...
...Many hundreds of friends in this country have now become guardiam of helpless persons on the other side...
...All the realities of national, imperialistic power-politics are serenely imagined away...
...The vendors of patent medicines are much wiser...
...The sponsorship plan has a dramatic human appeal and is proving extremely effective...
...If readers are not compelled to buy their books or listen to their broadcasts—as they would be under a dictatorship—that is just too bad, but it ill becomes them to complain about it...
...iimate knowledge of It* administra-Hal and heating facilities freely Imparted their information...
...To keep in touch with them and to obtain new lists and new friends willing to help requires constant activity...
...And at the end we have an appendix of ¦early a hundred pages giving important documents and carefully classified bibliographies...
...Numbers of Spanish Republicans are listed—most of them in France, where they are almost completely bereft of friends and help...
...He sees the U8A and USSR •king happily together, exchanging K- and mutually adding to the th of the world...
...Instead of building up and uniting the liberal forces, he tore them down and divided them...
...Jones is "beginning to wonder whether the obvious gap between the informed minority, to whom this admirable book is directed, and the great voting majority, who will never read it, may not prove to be the doom of the Republic...
...And there is one important thing to be said In defense of "the great voting majority" who will nof read this book or any book as intelligent and illuminating, For understanding and development of democratic ways, I would rather trust ordinary American citizens than any congress of intellectuals...
...This all came back to me as I read a very important book, What the Informed Citizen Need* to Know (Duell, Sloan sad Pearce, $3.00...
...Due to his disorganizing tactics, more than 300,000 votes were diverted to Newbold Morris, a fine man who could not possibly be elected and whose lack of organization presented no possibility of a continuing influence...
...SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE AIDS VICTIMS OF FASCISM aTlIK International Solidarity Committee, under the energetic leadership of f'hil Heller, is rapidly expanding its support and the scope of its work...
...The leaders of the Liberal Party hsve now the opportunity to build for future victory...
...In the book itself it is Irving Brant who tackles the problem of the lack of good public information...
...Then he goes on to discuss the failure of newspapers, radio, books and schools as teachers of the people...
...During the campaign it offered by far the best program and made the most intelligent and consistent campaign...
...And to these a third shadow has been added, that of the devious Communists, who for a long time have had underground understandings with the worst Tammany elements...
...It is an alluring •"ture, and one which could be realized ?if only things were different from •hat they are...
...In passing he gives the PAC a compliment on its series of campaign pamphlets couched in simple language and making use of cartoons and comic-strips...
...Thus he echoes almost word for word the clergyman who watched us with tears in his eyes as we went dancing snd drinking and card-playing on our way to hell...
...The essays are necessarily short and, in that sense, inadequate...
...They are writing their heads off...
...Its main purpose is to arrange for the sending of rood packages to victims of Fascism and Nazism in Europe...
...Batt is a successful engineer (n<l manufacturer who saw Russia as special representative of President loesevelt with the function of arranged for our contributions to the Russian effort...
...The prime exhibit of this sort of •topianism is, naturally, William L. •att's treatment of Our Relations With "szeia...
...Perhaps there was an understanding that the difficulties presented by national, economic and political special interests should be side-stepped...
...They had listened with evident enjoyment to his scarrifying descriptions, but had refused to line up on the right side...
...You are giving human sympathy, moral support for those who are sorely In need of it...
...And there are underground fighters from all of the formerly occupied countries who are far from home and, many of them, invalids...
Vol. 28 • November 1945 • No. 47
