THE HOME FRONT
BONK, WILLIAM B.
By WILLIAM I. §OHM Well and Truly Try rY tnt impression when I- walked into the jury[ roe* of th. Munkip.1 Cowrt hod to do with ' situation, lleie wore a hundred The women wars Of by tbenuel...
...There was a aHght elaaa angle...
...The decision involved judfm*nt about gears, shafts, drums, rhaina...
...Powerful behind-the-scenes Washington expert on msnpower is little Professor William Haber, who a few years ago directed the writing on the "cradle-to the grave" socisl security plan which tho New Dealers hope to turn into law soon, . . . Senator Vandenberg's break with isolationiam haa strengthened President Roosevelt's power to bargain at the Big Throe conference...
...There was no argument about the site of his bill...
...Its members are touring the world to investigate prospects for freedom of the press in the poetwar world...
...Within an hour we had exchanged all sorts of ideas and experiences...
...Intricate drawing* were shown to us We had to decide how much damag* had been don* at a particular time...
...If this had been w*•n rake baking contest I .houU bar* expected these kujia* to come out with high honor...
...Press and Radio—The Free Presi Committee of the Americsn Society of Newspaper Kditors is in Rome...
...Munkip.1 Cowrt hod to do with ' situation, lleie wore a hundred The women wars Of by tbenuel res— , my itiwiatlaa* van limited to the males...
...These men had time to think...
...Yet Russian newspapermen sre permitted full freedom on the ether Allied fronts...
...In my $ days .down there I have participated in three cases...
...No American newspapermen have been per' mitted to travel with the victorious Russian Army, slthough the seizure of such cities ss Budapest and Warsaw (snd soon Berlin) srs among the biggest stories in the history of journalism...
...You wouldn't wsnt that...
...linn on How Not to Be Ite-elected—Representative Augustus W. Bennett, who defeated Ham Pish, it being poorly advised...
...Bat in the main the feeling was that Just because this was a doctor's bill there was something fishy about it J triad my best to get to the bottom ef the prejudice...
...From Monday morning onward and ail day loaf cardboard boxes hare been sliding down the chutes from that building into waiting trucks...
...We had one fussy man among a*, but these woman saw straight through all th* mechanical details to a Just decision...
...And I mutt tay that for the most psrt my fellow 'Jurors have risen to the standard set for them...
...So than wa ware, cut off for weeks from our regular occupations and associ— It Wan am enforced "vacation...
...Both sides agreed that it was moderate...
...0U-Mte-Reco*d ¦> JtOfJXT CLAM BIG Dick Frankensteen may loon I* a nightly habitue of the Stork Club and El Morrocco...
...An attendant explained that justice is important no matter how much money is involve...
...1 must tay that on the whole the outfit is well run...
...We lolled in comfort - •Me chairs readint the papers, smoking, talking, as the spirit moved us...
...It is about time for physicians aad surgeon* to save themselves from th* bad publicity that the AMA ia pouring all round them...
...The** six men represent the public a* accurately aa any group could...
...This was not s debating aocieety...
...Grandma Comet Through ThIS it tht famous poor man's court in which I sm serving time...
...Suppose we left it all to the judges...
...I record it here because I hope this note will seres as a warning...
...On Saturday...
...The Daily Workafa rewrite man is guilty of the worst kind of Trotokyite-mad-dog devistioniim...
...In my three caset the verdicU srrived at were definitely just...
...And at last we got to the bottom of th* business...
...The Dean, during a visit here, told reporters that Father Coughlin, then at the height of his political activity, was 95 percent right...
...We white collsr folks were considered nen essential...
...I mean fellows who do work with their hands, machinists, shipbuilders, carpenters, painters...
...But they war* set against th* profession in general...
...We were made to feel that we had an important part in an important process...
...We could sit round at esse and, now and then, put in a couple of hours deciding whether the complainant or the defendant had justice on his.side...
...Despite the exposure of the larkm ef "Guideposts," • new religious Republican outfit, Its directors now are selling weekly anti-New Deal pamphlets of some 14100 words esch st the rate of $1 for a full sot of it...
...Then another fellow*this time a music-composer, piped up: "Sure...
...I know, because we heard mil about their grandchildren...
...If successful, the campaign will put over a law which would prevent Congressional Committee members and employees from speaking, lecturing or writing for pay about the committee and its work...
...Contrary to reports, "Assistant President" Brynes, who is cordially disliked by labor, is on excellent speaking terms with President Roosevelt...
...Check the Herald Tribune flies if interested...
...He has begun to appear at Communist front meetings—giving the Fish crowd up in Newburgh the chuckles...
...The) judge had smiled a* if he ware a \ sad asrad srAsil peineipal dealing w.th youngsters ag to play hooki...
...We were leaving to expert pirbakert a decision that should have been referred to a couple of mechanical engineers...
...I am told that they are going to our prisoners of war overseas...
...I find that out of six persons you are almost sure to have on* lary guy who refuses to use his mind...
...Februsry S, the British Broadcasting Corporation ran a two-way program between London and New York...
...Plagiarism—A faw days ago the Daily Worker re ported that the Brooklyn Supremo Court bad denied incorporation right* to a Patriotic Citizenship Association, Inc...
...And on the platform with him was Lewis Merrill, Commie leader of the Office and Professional Workers...
...But they would n«»er thine on Information Floaa...
...The case was aimplicity itself...
...And that story was written for the W-T by none other than Fred Woltman, the paper's anti-Communist expert...
...There's » move on in Congress to end the practice which made a small fortune for Martin Dies...
...In rewriting the story, he aimply picked it up verbatim from the World-Telegram...
...E of my eases involved payment of a surgeon's foe...
...And there we were, * hundred sblehietld men, apparently accomplishing very little...
...Jim Carey, not Sidney Hillman, Is doing most of the tslking for the CIO delegation in London...
...This was seriously discussed st the recent UAW executive committee meeting...
...When We retired to our room they proved that they understood th* husinees from top to bottom...
...They were, moreover, retched after conscientious consideration of all important angles of the matters at issue...
...And they were all nice, gray, eomfortable-looking grandmothert...
...Why, first thing you know th* courts would be run just the way thoy used to be...
...In this eoort six men or women constitute s jury...
...This jury .system . . . doesn't that have something to do with •smorrsry ?" They mulled this over for s while...
...John Roy Carlton't book, rrnd*r Cover, hat aeld nearly 8*0,000 copies...
...I was a hh suspicious of this...
...I mentioned physicians of my acquaintance who work their heads off aad hardly take the trouble to sand bills...
...And they think that the goings on of th* AHA prove that th* whole medical profession is rotten...
...I earns out of that court with a high regard for women jurors...
...I calculated that those boxes were sliding...
...After s bit one fellow, s lumber dealer, remarked "Well, look now...
...War workers ware excused...
...Some of the Hillman people do not want to support Mayor LaGuardia for re election and are threatening to bolt the ALP as they did in 1MI...
...A prominent Park Avenue surgeon had performed a successful operation on a child...
...There were practically no real working-men in that jury-room...
...It revealed that a new type of Ku Klux Klanlsm threatens to arise after the war...
...t/'-'T was atnased at th* *aae with which we became acquainted...
...It wss humiliating...
...Tho Doc/or, Under m CI...
...Some one forgot to tell Cusev that the Red Dean is discredited in the United States...
...The Elmo Roper report on anti-union sentiment, delivered at the ILGWU's officials Institute, was ftsrtling...
...And so sn era closes...
...Through the eastern windows, set in a wide 'way, streamed the forenoon sun...
...to some of the officers of our medical societies...
...New and than these ansa would remark in a rather saturnine manner that this was a Park Avenue surgeon—the implication being that because his office Was oa that wealthy highway he was leas deserving of pay than ethers...
...The Citw »r n»— York had tapped at on tho •boulder just as the draft-boards hare tapped the soldiers...
...Nothing I said could change them...
...Within ten minutes a group of half a-dozen had become friendly...
...Practically all of those present were business, professional snd office persons...
...Naturally I put my question to my new-found friends: Doesn't this seem like a waste of time when the country needs every last man at his post...
...It sounded too pat and patrisjMtv But I had got my answer, and there wasn't stuck ef a come back Than I began to notice something...
...A gang of money mul quacks, that** what thoy are...
...But th* old girl* fooled me completely...
...The Presiderfl now can show that the Republican big shots are with him . . . which is why the Commies are smearing Vandenberg...
...Smith wss in Washington latt week to let up a "nationalist" lobby...
...Aw, give 'em $260...
...down at the rate of one vWSff •*• seconds...
...tnd he it always in hurry to get to hell out of there, ut the other five will put their minds on the business...
...Dies received large fees for lecturing on the committee's findings...
...Oa* of th* men said: "Look at th* American Medical Association...
...Answers came slowly...
...Across the street the' courtlsesise is faeed bp a Red Cross distributing eentar...
...Travel Note—The Dean of Canterbury soon will make an air tour of Soviet Russia at the invitation of Fedor Gusev, Soviet Ambassador to Britain...
...Dick already has written a musical comedy and has raised Home $60,000 to put it on...
...At the Kuropean end were British, French and Russian labor leaders, and st the other end—talking for American labor—waa Len DeCsus, pro-Communist CIO publicity director, who does not spesk for some 90 percent of CIO...
...Oldtimers who remember the bloody Ludlow massacre of miners' wives and children during the great coal strike will be interested to know that the Rockefellers finally have sold out their interest in the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co., center of the strike...
...Bennett spoke last night on "Universal Military Training" at a rally sponsored by the New York American Youth for Democracy—which, some one should tell Bennett, is the Young Communist League in postwar clothing...
...All but one of the CIO's delegation to the London international labor conference have at one time or another been called enemies of the labor movement by the American Communists...
...And from th* other four cam* acquiescence in this Judgment I felt a wave of feeling against th* entire profession...
...He is tyt Ior a 60-50 decision...
...For the first time in my experience I wst on s jury which included three women...
...It tamed oat hi fact that all the physicians they know personally are worthy men...
...Pegler'i new line it that unlets Gsilmor la »ui>pretted by the Blue Network, "there will be no excuse to exclude from the air auch clever and dangerous exhorters of the other extreme st Gerald K. Smith and Father Coughlin...
...I On Tuesday afternoon I hsd a pleasant turprise...
...We deal with sums up to $1,000...
...I looked at th* three serene and lovely housekeeping old ladies I began to think that this was a crasy system...
...So we had that symbol of the war constantly before our eyes...
...The •an was comfortable, the traffic swishing by suggested life on some southern beach—and we had not s thing In the world to do until we were called out on s case...
...I don't want U have him com* bark snd find the courts all shot to hell...
...A couple of private chauffeurs came nearest to that classification...
...Politics— Anybody in CIO who doesn't believe thst tho New York CIO Communists lobbied in fsvor of tho National Service Aet while Philip Murray and the national CIO fought it, can chock tha truth of thia report with N. Y. Congressman Emanuel Oiler , . . The feud between tome of the Hillman crowd and Marcantonio's followers inside the ALP is growing intense...
...He is thinking of leaving the labor leader professon and quitting his job as vice-president of the CIO's United Automobile Workers to turn Broadway producer...
...A small sum may be ss Important to one man as a large one is to another...
...Then spoke the inevitable man who hss * son in the service: "I get a boy out in the Pacific, see...
...We had all asked , ^ weed...
...Thii eaa* involved damago* in the amount of *54i.o:i to a sidewalk •levator Th*T* had been en accident, th* elevator had been injured and the question was, who was to foot the bills...
...This Is something for physicians to consider...
...What a rarer," I kept thinking...
...But when we six jurymen had been locked into the room where the u*r*d rite ju¦ tir• wtrt to be p«rf onn«d 1 retired Two of the jurors-snd two eitra fine, intelligent, conscientious men— *o*n exhibited a definite prejudice eg*ins| th* whole medical fraternity...
...These two men who ogposed payment added to the gallery of praiseworthy healers...
...The average ability te arrive at a just conclusion seems to mo very hift...
...If a concern ia tued for ho will say, with a yawn...
...there were a lot of interesting angle*, but Only one teama important to mo in retrospect...
Vol. 28 • February 1945 • No. 6
