WASHINGTON AND THE NATION
Washington and the Nation Curing the Patient Abstractly By Jonathan Stout WASHINGTON, D.C.—Two of the best stories in town this week came up in two of our local papers—The Washington Dail\f...
...And that, in the past, has been the end of it...
...With reference to the C.P.'s statement that their only loyalty la to the United States, Thi Post replies: "We ask our readers to 'judge the plausibility and aincerlty of that statement on the record as It is contained in the Report of the Canadian Royal Commillion...
...All of them have violated the law to the same extent as , is charged against Marzani...
...Counting their families, this group represents roughly one-third of our population...
...For lack of spacPonly short excerpts of The Pott's reply can be cited here...
...Washington and the Nation Curing the Patient Abstractly By Jonathan Stout WASHINGTON, D.C.—Two of the best stories in town this week came up in two of our local papers—The Washington Dail\f News, • owned by Scripps-Howard, and The Washington Post, owned by Eugene Meyer...
...Leiserson, who are wise as well as clever, recognize the fact that no legislature can pass an effective law affecting one-third of our population if the latter regard it resentfully as an infringement on their rights...
...Party's bursting into print in quarter-page ads...
...What is even morp interesting, perhaps, even than The Post's coming of age politically, is what lies behind the Communist...
...The frantic nature of this performance and it* ludicrous appearance can best be left to the reader to judge...
...The Morionl Case Observers here arc convinced that the principle motivation is the grand jury indictment in Washington last week of Carl Aldo Marzani, a discharged State Department attache, as a member of the Communist Party...
...American employers once had, and Many of them abused, preponderant Power to prevent settlement of labor controversies by persuasion, reasoning •ml compromise...
...The Communist Party Is faced with the disruption of the elaborate machinery and network It has laced through the Government edifice...
...But wasn't the London strike already forbidden by British law...
...One dealt with the problem of labor legislation, and the other with the Communists...
...We believe that is true...
...It was the leader, for instance, in printing pro-Tito propaganda in the early days of that murderous tyrant's build-up...
...For, of the four Washington newspapers, The Post in recent years has more often than the other thr^e dailies fallen sucker to Communist propaganda...
...answer to them...
...In the one case, Dr...
...The-ad then proceeds to state several charges and the CP...
...Verboten' was an effective word in Nazi Germany, and the Russian equivalent Works too, because Communists have no qualms about compulsory servitude...
...3. Contributed any services to the party...
...But a grand Jury indictment, carrying possible penaltlea ' of 10 years in prison and 110,000 fine for each of the 11 counts, constitutes a threat that has the Communist Party panic-stricken...
...Answer: have not advocated and do not advocate the use of force and violence as a means of social change...
...This, of course, vitally concerns the Communist Party of Washington and Maryland (many Washington suburbs are In Maryland...
...The Communist Party of Maryland and the District of Columbia presents Ha answtr to the major charges made by the foea of democracy...
...G. Made speeches for the Communist-front Americtan Peace Mobilization...
...Sound men of practical experience, like Dr...
...The CP and Critics The second good story in Washington this week was highlighted last Tuesday when the Communist Party of the District of Columbia and of Maryland inserted a quarter-page advertisement in The Washington Post, entitled "Communists Answer Critics...
...As to the statement that Communists seek only 'to cooperate in friendly fashion with all organizations around a common progressive program of benefit to labor and the people,' we refer our readers to the disillusioned testimony ot the former leaders of organizations which have accepted such protestations in all naivete and good faith...
...Believing firmly in the democratic process, the Communist Party rejects and condemns the use of force and violence...
...Your recent editorial, 'Intolerable Strikes,' cites the 'unauthorized strike' of the food-truck drivers in London, and you seem to agree that this is one of Donald Richberg's 'five kinds of strikes that our Government should forbid'," Dr...
...Answer: We American Communists have only one loyalty...
...Both were prompted by outside communications to the papers in question...
...And wasn't our own coal strike forbidden by the Smith-Connally Act...
...Leiserson wrote...
...Attacks against and misrepresentation of the Communist Party of the U.S.A...
...A well-worn, but recent, example is the Prohibition Act...
...But aren't free workers a little Uke Children whose parents try to rule by prohibitory admonitions...
...Communists have been dismissed from government jobs before...
...4. Taken part in any party activities...
...2. Attended any Communist meetings...
...What our previous editorial said was that there some strikes no government can tolerate and remain a government...
...Leiserson's letter deserves reprinting and a good deal of thinking about—• especially for legislators who can't wait to do some legislation on labor...
...We American Communists ask to be juged not by what our enemies say about us but on the baala of the record, the facts and our actions...
...The reply is an able one, and is distinct evidence of political intelligence...
...It is to our country, the United States of America, and above all, to the working class and people of America...
...We did so because we believe that the principles of freedom and of equal rights must be extended even to those whom we consider the actual or potential eenemics of those principles...
...that wage earners who want Store money have an absolute individual er collective right to get it by depriving other people of food, fuel or any necessity of life...
...Right or wrong, hot or cold, one-third of our population simply cannot be pushed around by an edict which is unacceptable to them...
...Among them: "We feel obliged to explain to our readers why we should have accepted for publication statements which must appear to well-informed persons on their face so mendacious...
...Lasfriaging Minerity Rights •THINK this exchange of views be' n B Dr' Lciscr,on *nd *h' ca>itor ot Bp N*wi la this week!s most Important news in Washington because It illustrates almost in a capsule—and in the persons of two men of good willwhy the labor problem facing Washington legislators is "one of the toughest ever before the American people...
...Leiserson put his finger heavily on a /point that people like Senator Joseph H. Ball of Minnesota have completely missed...
...The editor of The News represents the viewpoint of many legislators—and many other men of good will—who mean well, but do not understand the nature of the problem before them and therefore argue in the abstract without ever really coming to grips with the dilemma...
...A recent newspaper story told of a father who chained 'Bis son to a stake because the boy stayed out late nights...
...They ore thr agents of a foreign power...
...William M. Leiserson, former member of the National Labor Relations Board, wrote a* letter which The News printed on its editorial pace, and then offered an answer...
...That power was cut ***n by laws—by taking from employ*r» what many of them believed—tho *« flldn't agree with them—was part of ,,*Wr 'American freedom.' r "Under those laws labor unions hire •thieved much the same sort of preponderant power, and In some cases it »lso monopoly power...
...Leiserson recognizes, and the editor of The News, as well as Senator Ball, fails to recognize is the realistic fac^that: Some 15,000,000 Americans belong to mutual aid organizations called labor unions...
...Is that the kind of remedy we need for recalcitrant wage t/trners who aren't satisfied with their Station In life and yearn for the seeming delights enjoyed by the big boys who have money and privileges...
...Therefore, the panic...
...latolerable Strlkts" To which the editor of The %ews, missing the point of the letter, replies, among ether things: "We don't believe Dr...
...What Dr...
...Hadn't the dispute been decided by a wage board nnder the Road Haulage Wages Act...
...occur daily...
...Heretofore, Communists have consoled themselves with the thought that If they are caught In a government job the worst that could happen to them Is dismissal...
...Used the name of "Tony Whales" in connection with Communist activities...
...Leiserson would argue...
...We are obliged to conclude from this report either that the American Communists are, to use the commission's term, less highly 'conditional' than some of their Canadian and British comrades, or that they are capable of some psychological (our d« fore* which permits them to believe that loyalty to the > United States , . . ronslsts in furthering...
...If our forbidden strikes all paralyzed American industry, and the London forbidden strike created the food crisis for the British Labor government, ought we not to have another editorial on how forbidding are forbidden strikes...
...PoMbe Communist Party, this Js serious...
...Charge: Communists i>rriteh forte and violence...
...In their ad the Communist Party charges: "Red-baiting has become the national pastime of the forces of reaction, bigotry and intolerance...
...It has leaned over backwards in recent years to avoid the appearance of what Communists call "red-baiting...
...For instance: "Charge: The Communists are disloyal...
...There are a great many Communists in Government jobs...
...the Inleiest oLHovlet Russia...
...Attorney General Tm Clark reported that the 11-count indictment charges Marzani with having "falsely stated and represented" to Government officials that he had never: 1. Ueen a member of the Communist Parly...
...Whaf has nlarmed the Communist Party is that the Attorney General moved to indict Marzani...
...The Critic Answers The washington POST devotes a major portion of its editorial space to reply to this fantastic series of falsehoods...
...But the prospect of prison Is something they had not counted on...
...To this The Pott made lengthy answer on its editorial page...
...The interchange was interesting, if not instructive of the tide of public opinion...
Vol. 30 • January 1947 • No. 4
