Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR Former Acquaintance of Rivera Agrees with Wolfe's Analysis Bertram D. Wolfe's article in the October 11 New Leader, "The Strange Case of Diego Rivera,'' is one of the most penetrating...
...I look hard at Mr...
...3. Mr...
...But I do feel that Mr...
...Mr...
...Kirk...
...He loved them even more than he loved his fox hounds, and he would have dealt harshly with any overseer who abused either the hounds or the "Nigras...
...The answer to this is simple...
...It is a good thing that the Nation has not tried to drift with the mainstream of American liberalism since World War II, because the drift has been one of appeasement and surrender to the forces of reaction and special privilege...
...This was about ten years ago...
...A representative of the Berlin trade unions estimated that the purchasing power of the East mark was, at best, sixty pfennig in relation to the West mark...
...He loved the "Nigras'' as he loved children, and precisely because he "knew" them to be "just like children...
...Why are so many political theorists more impressed with the fact that Rome didn't fall all in one day than with the fact that it took several centuries to build...
...He argues that it "makes the rational compromise of international quarrels much more difficult...
...Several were peasants who complained of unbearable requisitions...
...2. At the risk of further distressing my -friends, I now confess that I have never been a good positivist or materialist, have always been skeptical of the human end results of technological "progress," and have always been attracted by the religious concept of love as Mr...
...The question is not whether one loves but what one loves...
...DEAR EDITOR Former Acquaintance of Rivera Agrees with Wolfe's Analysis Bertram D. Wolfe's article in the October 11 New Leader, "The Strange Case of Diego Rivera,'' is one of the most penetrating I have read for a long time...
...I call this sort of thing debasing because it opens the door to the most egregious dogmatism...
...Herman states: "The proper way to fight: McCarthyism, one gathers from reading the Nation, is to defend all persons accused of Communism by McCarthy or anyone else, regardless of the facts in the case...
...chief executives commute sentences and grant pardons...
...Rorty represents Dr...
...The word "love" has the connotation of all that is good in human experience, and consequently it is utterly worthless as the foundation principle of any program...
...Kirk as declaring, that "the conservative is not against social change--indeed, he believes in it...
...I call it nonsense for what I hope are obvious reasons...
...He felt marked for reprisals because he had been active in the June demonstrations of 1953...
...judges suspend sentences...
...This was done by the Educational Department of the ILGWU as a public service with the permission of Roy Howard...
...Factory workers, printers, technical writers and other groups, in his opinion, are "quite well off...
...Kirk's exposition suffered from its lack of concreteness--it is certainly better in my opinion than the Marxist concept of the class struggle, which, as employed by the Communists, involves the systematic inculcation of bate...
...I agree with Mr...
...I found it especially interesting because in past years I was in his studio many times...
...I am not speaking of corruption, but of what is generally recognized as the legitimate exercise of discretion...
...He is an intelligent writer whose articles I have hitherto enjoyed, respected and approved...
...Police decide not to arrest...
...A Senator is, both by national prestige and by state patronage, more powerful and influential than Congressman...
...For space reasons, however,we prefer letters under 300 words...
...therefore, I am deeply shocked, on reading his review of Russell Kirk's Program for Conservatives [THE NEW LEADER, October 25], to find him apparently falling for that author's debasing, nonsense...
...Obviously, this does not make for harmonious behavior...
...HENRY CHAMBERLAIN Feels Concepts of Criminal Law Apply to International Affairs In his review of Tyranny on Trial: The Evidence at Nuremberg [THE NEW LEADER, November 1], Morton A. Kaplan opposes the application in international relations of concepts derived from criminal law...
...Flatbrookville, N. J. JAMES RORTY Objects to Joint House-Senate Anti-Subversive Committee Your lead editorial of November 15 endorsed the idea of concentrating all Congressional investigation of internal subversion in a joint House-Senate committee...
...Copies of this 32-page "The McCarthy Balance Sheet" are still available at 25 cents a copy from the Educational Department, ILGWU, 1710 Broadway, New York, N. Y. New York City MARK STARR THE NEW LEADER welcomes readers' comment, regardless of point of view...
...I am told this by a high official of one of the committees in question...
...One might as well say that conservatives are those who desire the good...
...Ayres chooses an unfortunate example of racism...
...Maryland MONTGOMERY GREEN Congratulates 'THE NEW LEADER'On Its Thirty Years of Service On the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of a great weekly of fact and opinion, permit a constant reader to say: It has been a pleasure and a profit...
...Cambridge, Mass...
...If love is in itself inadequate as the foundation of a social or economic program I--made clear in my review that I thought Mr...
...It is unfortunate that you use your energy to attack the one liberal magazine that has done the most to inform the American people about the flagrant violations of civil rights that have occurred, and continue to occur, throughout the United States...
...The result of the "joint" arrangement is a dominance by the Senate members and a corresponding resentment on the part of the House members...
...Oshkosh, Wisconsin J. H. HARRIS Reader Is Disturbed by Review Of 'Program for Conservatives' What has come over James Rorty...
...New York City DAVID LIBERSON Chamberlin Discusses Types Of Refugees from East Germany Information and impressions which I gathered during several trips to Germany since the war, notably during a visit to Berlin last summer, lead me to differ with two conclusions expressed by Paul Wohl in his letter in THE NEW LEADER of November 8. He suggests that the two million refugees from the Soviet Zone belong to a middle class that has been or is being liquidated...
...I am not merely theorizing, but reporting the experiences of a person connected with the Atomic Energy Committee...
...Of course, it is foolhardy to be pollyannaish, but it is also true that mankind is pretty tough breed of animal, and people, individually, or as an electorate, are always apt to surprise the pundits...
...The Nation should not have any difficulty winning its libel suit against you...
...he merely insists that it be achieved gradually, with as little disturbance of established institutions and mores as possible...
...As for the workers being "quite well off," the locksmith and his wife spoke emphatically of how much better and cheaper food was in the West...
...Kirk uses it...
...district attorneys decide not to prosecute, or accept guilty pleas for a reduced charge...
...How can one compromise with a criminal...
...I should like to give several reasons why this is an unfortunate idea: 1. A drag on investigations in the past has been the difficulty of getting even one Senator or Congressman to attend the lengthy hearings...
...As money wage scales are about the same in the two zones, this would suggest a living standard almost twice as high in the West, to say nothing of the intangible but by no means inconsiderable fact of freedom from speed-up drives and fear of arbitrary arrest...
...On the other hand, insofar as theories once formulated are likely to influence the scales one way or the other during stages of precarious balance between economic, political or social forces, it is too bad so many theorists tend to be so grimly eschatological...
...Still another was a locksmith with a wife and two children, the second as baby a few weeks old...
...Moreover, the act of loving is an individual experience, and consequently its use as a foundation principle invokes an individualistic psychology which is now completely obsolete, since it is directly contrary to all that we now know of the social patterning of all human behavior...
...Munk's reasoning (which pulls into one provocative piece the shreds of what might best be termed "neo-Spenglerism") is perhaps too quick to discount the positive factors or directions of growth still operative in American culture--and in world politics, too, for that matter...
...2. The very concept of the "joint" committee is faulty...
...Rorty, expecting an ironic smile, but nary a flicker...
...The Nation does not necessarily endorse the views of the victims of the postwar witch-hunts...
...The Nation...
...Change in which nothing changes...
...Austin, Texas C. E. AYRES Since Mr...
...Wolfe as to his great talent and his ability to produce in real volume...
...Buffalo C. I. CLAFLIN Reprints of Woltman's Series On McCarthy Now Available Those of your readers who appreciated Frederick Woltman's analysis of Senator Joseph McCarthy, as they appeared in a series of articles in the Scripps-Howard newspapers, will be glad to know that over 15,000 copies of a pamphlet reprint have been sold...
...It is done all the time, at all levels...
...The end is not yet, is it...
...Such a committee, modeled after the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, would lake over the functions, staff and files of the three committees now active in this field...
...defends the right of free speech and belief for all Americans, including Communists and McCarthyites...
...3. The whole idea of the "joint" anti-subversive committee was, I believe, originated in an editorial in the Washington Post, a newspaper that has for years carried the torch for every loyalty-security figure from John Stewart Service to John Paton Davies...
...I am instinctively suspicious of anything that the Post proposes in this field...
...As to your attack on Carey McWilliams, Freda: Kirchwey and J. Alvarez del Vayo, their own writings are the best answer...
...This became apparent a few days ago when I met him for the first time...
...Ayres says that to use love as a foundation principle "invokes an individualistic psychology which is now completely obsolete, since it is directly contrary to all that we now know of the social patterning of all human behavior.'' Again I confess: I don't know who "we" are or what '"we" think "we" know, but I doubt both the universality and the omniscience of "we...
...Ayres and other friends have expressed concern over my cordial treatment of Russell Kirk's book, perhaps I should make the following points: 1. I was trying to review the book, not air my own views, which in many respects are not those of Mr...
...The two houses of Congress are designed to be sovereign...
...Another was a railway switchman...
...New York City MARY FRANCIS HARVEY Hopes 'Nation' Wins Libel Suit Against Us, Says That It Will Louis Jay Herman's article on the Nation [THE NEW LEADER, October 25] is just about what I have come to expect from you and does not surprise me in the least...
...It has not altered its belief in democracy in a frantic effort to remain popular...
...Criminal law is a flexible instrument...
...San Francisco BRAYTON WILBUR Chides Political Theorists for 'Grim Eschatological Approach' I certainly enjoyed Frank Munk's lucid, tightly-written article, "Are We Becoming Too Powerful to Survive ?" [THE NEW LEADER, November 8...
...As to the first point, I visited one of the large camps which are maintained to take care of the 300 refugees who are coming every day from the Soviet Zone...
...Not one had a middle-class background...
...It supports their right of free speech and free belief, and reports how these rights have been violated, time and again, by Congressional committees and other organizations and groups...
...What a give-away...
...The old-style Southern gentleman a-- conservative if there ever was one!--loved" his "Nigras...
...Finally, of the 190,000 unemployed in West Berlin, few if any walk across the sector boundary and ask for a job in the Soviet Zone, This scarcely suggests that workers there could be considered "quite well off...
...Havre de Grace...
...THE NEW LEADER has brought more true facts to the surface--and earlier--than almost any other newspaper or journal...
...Judged by its current fruits in pioneering the de-segregation of schools, the Catholic position and practice, based on the Catholic theological concept of love, are humane and liberal and have nothing in common with that of the pre-Civil War master class which he describes...
...Therefore, a single committee with smaller total membership would accentuate this condition, caused by the limited number of legislators in relation to the existing work load...
...I talked at random with about a dozen new arrivals...
Vol. 37 • November 1954 • No. 48
