DEAR EDITOR
DEAR EDITOR TROTSKY Newspaper accounts of Natalia Sedova Trotsky's telegram to the 20th Communist Party Congress presented "somewhat clouded picture of her challenge to Soviet leaders. I recently...
...Tucson, Arizona Joseph Martinek...
...I fully agree with David J. Dallin [NL...
...while persons of moderate means, either directly or indirectly through savings and insurance, take in more in interest on Government bonds than they pay out in taxes to pay the interest...
...They increase their production as much as they can, and, if they have to do so in order to sell a greater output, they accept a somewhat smaller amount of profits per dollar of sales-expecting to make larger total profit by the substantial increase in sales...
...Forced labor camps cease to exist in the Soviet Union and subjugated nations...
...New York City David J. Dallin The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...
...I think they should evaluate changes in Soviet policy without prejudice, hope for healthy evolution there, and aid such evolution by a relentless fight against the ultra-rightists of the West, who provide the grist for the mill of Moscow Stalinists...
...or the collective leaders themselves may about-face and decree full-scale return to Stalinism...
...As a matter of fact, most businesses try to increase their sales so that they can make more profits per amount of investment capital...
...Meanwhile, however, there should be no united fronts with Communists, no collaboration or agreements with them unless and until: -Liberal and Socialist parties coexist with the ruling parly within the USSR...
...But the fact that it is supposed to work out that way is the chief justification from the point of view of the national welfare that is offered by economists and others for competitive profit-seeking...
...The late "Premier'' of Outer Mongolia, Choibalsan, who died in Moscow and not in Urga, has written that his Cominterned party rose in rebellion during March 1921, but when they found it impossible to conquer the southern portion of Outer Mongolia they called on Moscow and Red troopers "liberated" the country in July...
...To the best of my knowledge, he was not a general, nor was there such a title...
...Granted that the rebellion against Stalin and Stalinism is real, what should we do about it...
...Only if 1 were making the latter comparison would the number of employes and the number of corporations be important...
...and-most important-the relative "thaw" on the cultural front...
...If it were merely a clever scheme to line up liberals and Socialists in the West in an anti-American front, it would not be accompanied by changes in internal policies...
...But such a course has proven impossible politically in every country because of the terribly drastic taxation which would have been needed...
...The second deposed the Provisional Government of Kerensky-as well as the first freely elected parliament in Russia...
...Garden City, L. I. Richard Deverall U. S. PROGRESS This is in reply to the comments [NL, March 5] by Park Chamberlain and William Edward Zeuch on my special section, "A Generation of U. S. Progress" [NL, January 231...
...Among the public men receiving awards of merit are such distinguished leaders of labor as David Dubinsky, William Green, George Meany and Walter Reuther, and such liberals in Government as Senators Lehman, Morse and Humphrey...
...Chamberlain argues that we must know whether the profit figures I gave were net profits after deducting losses or not before we can conclude that the New Deal and Fair Deal have not hurt profits...
...It does not always work out that way, to be sure...
...Zeuch's assertion that the national debt is a class device for putting the burden of national emergencies on future generations of workers is probably not true...
...New York City Ivan Grigor MONGOLIA Congratulations on publication of "The Facts on Outer Mongolia" [NL, February 20...
...Your readers may be interested to know, too, that the League is currently embarking on a campaign to increase its national membership and is making a drive to raise the sum of $25,000 over and above its normal budget...
...But when we realize the large number of leaders in the academic and political fields who at one time or another were connected with the League, we fully appreciate the greatness of its contribution...
...February 17] that it is cheap victory, indeed, to portray the rebels as mere hypocrites and completely to write off the new collective leadership before it has shown its ultimate direction...
...But the interest in fact is comparatively low, and fully taxable under the income tax law...
...Vera Alexandrova's admirable article [NL, same issue] on the return of Dos-toyevsky throws interesting light on this last change...
...New York City Nathaniel M. Minkoff CORRECTION In my article last week on Mark Zborowski, the editors identified Walter Krivitsky as a general and as "former Soviet military-intelligence chief for Western Europe...
...Consequently, rich men shun such investments, especially since there is no possibility of appreciation...
...I recently came into possession of the telegram's exact text, which follows, and think it may be of interest to your readers: "taking note declarations of the congress establishing falsifications in the history of the revolution and the party and false condemnations of leaders of the revolution and the party accused as enemies of the people stop among them my late husband leon trotsky and my son leon sedov stop as practical consequence of these declarations demand review of trials with view of public vindication of the memory of the victims...
...It would only be true if the interest on the national debt were fairly high and, like the interest on municipal bonds, free of income lax...
...As a result, men of wealth are almost certainly taxed to pay the interest on Government bonds in larger amounts than they get back in interest on such bonds...
...The satellite nations ran decide their fate by free elections...
...Yet these changes are a fact: the liquidation of the chief liquidator, Beria, and the curbing of the omnipotent power of the secret police...
...Let us hope the change is permanent, and that it will ultimately be reflected in Soviet foreign policy, and meanwhile-keep our powder dry...
...The comment by Mr...
...notwithstanding...
...This invaluable documentation will be found in his article in the November 26, 1949 Pravda...
...Men with little money, on the other hand, tend to have their small holdings in larger proportion in Government bonds, plus insurance policies and savings-bank accounts...
...I do not have the figures before me, but a previous study of the composition of the estates of men of commanding wealth showed that they have consisted overwhelmingly of stocks, real estate, and municipal bonds, the interest on which is tax-free, with Federal Government bonds being a very small proportion...
...Zeuch to the effect that we ought to have financed the war out of taxes instead of issuing war bonds, because in fact we cannot pay for wars out of future production, is sound from an economist's point of view...
...Another highly significant article, by Tsendbal, which was published in the Com-inform journal of April 15, 1955, thoroughly documents the Poppe thesis that Outer Mongolia has been a Soviet satellite for over three decades, Owen Lattimore and Co...
...The latter work, edited by Eleanor Lattimore and containing a long introduction by Owen Lattimore, is notable in that the "liberation'' of that country in 1921 by the Soviet Army is confined to two pages...
...Mount Vernon, N. Y. Alfred Baker Lewis LID I want to congratulate "William E. Bohn on his excellent column about 50 years' existence of the League for Industrial Democracy [NL, February 9...
...The governments of free nations must remember that, while the change is welcome, there is no assurance of its permanence...
...During this time, the LID has carried on the work of teaching and propagating democracy in all its aspects among the thinking people of our country...
...Its first stages, apparently or at least officially, have been bloodless (we don't know how many dyed-in-the-wool Stalinists were secretly liquidated before the rebels showed their hand...
...The collective leadership may give way to a new strong man...
...I did not compare average profits per corporation with average pay per employe...
...This last is the weirdest of all...
...In short, if we simply repudiate all Federal Government bonds, the proportionate losses to men of wealth would be less than the losses to people of small means...
...More recently, the League has been taking more and more interest in trade unions and the manifold problems affecting the working masses...
...It has also devoted itself to inculcating the minds of our college youth with the theory and practice of true democracy...
...I was using the figures to compare corporate profits with compensation to employes and farm income at two different periods...
...With the college population numbering some two and a half million, this task is of particular significance...
...He also argues that we have to know how many corporations there were...
...Chamberlain argues that only by comparing profits per unit of sales or unit of production can we conclude that corporate profits have not been hurt...
...This article by Nicholas Poppe stands in stark contrast to the 350-page book, Outer Mongolia, by Gerald M. Friters...
...Admittedly, the League has not always been successful in fully realizing its ambitious aims, principally because of lack of funds...
...MOSCOW REBELS The first Russian Revolution deposed the Tsar...
...1 think this rebellion is the real thing, not dictated merely by exigencies of foreign policy...
...Is this a rebellion against a phantom, a phantom rebellion or what...
...These latter in turn are in good part indirectly Government bonds, since savings banks and insurance companies invest their reserves in that type of security...
...the deposition of Malenkov from the Premiership without other penalties...
...The figures are only given for comparative purposes...
...Actually, we do not have to know that...
...The third rebellion, which we are witnessing now, is deposing Stalin...
...In addition, its annual conferences have for years attracted national interest...
...What about liberals and Socialists, to whom Moscow recently extended its hand...
...The figures at both times were arrived at in the same way...
Vol. 39 • March 1956 • No. 13
