THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Mystery Dear Sirs: It's a mystery to me how a magazine of such slender resources can give us such a brilliant array of talent. During the past few months you have given us...
...Marks Avenue, Brooklyn 13, N. Y. The Committee, largely composed of persons who knew Ruth Reynolds when she was engaged in anti-imperialist and pacifist activity in the United States, is desperately in need of several thousand dollars to pay the cost of her recent defense, at which she was ably represented by Conrad J. Lynn of New York City, and of an appeal...
...It will be remembered that Justice Jackson was the chief American representative at the Nuremberg Trials at which the major Nazi war criminals were tried...
...Space does not permit further details regarding the many serious civil liberties aspects of this case...
...No one seemed to question this explanation as to whether it meant just for the immediate present or if perhaps in the future it might mean more American lives in toto than anyone ever dreamed of...
...If we knew the cause of cancer, would we be smart to establish thousands of centers for distributing the cause, pressuring it with attractive advertising...
...Next we read that the scientists, who had made the V-l and V-2 rockets for that inhuman monster Hitler, were being brought to America...
...Why can't you be like The Progressive of 15 or 20 years ago...
...No, we were going to make bigger and better V-2 rockets...
...She, however, denies membership in the party and declares that she cannot condone or endorse violence on the part of any movement...
...We couldn't say someone else had used this greatest mass destruction agent first...
...No power on eath can force us to adopt Communism...
...Rodell's comment on Justice Jackson, who, according to Mr...
...He has provided the odd spectacle of a Supreme Court Judge advocating in his own country laws which he has warned were a prelude to totalitarianism...
...There's nothing that comes close to The Progressive in the whole country...
...We need a real campaign to warn Americans of the danger of getting this country (and the whole world) into a suicidal war—a war which no one can win but which might wreck civilization and depopulate the planet...
...Rodell, ruled that " 'no clear and present danger' rule should limit Congress' power to deal with the conspiracy of Communism, free speech or no free speech...
...There is never any mention whatever of the desirability of removing the cause of the disease...
...Large numbers of respectable Germans preferred the Nazis to the Communists and were willing to accept the Nazis as saviours, and to permit certain excesses and certain deviations from democracy as a necessary price for protection...
...One of the most important of such warning signals is the gradual abrogation of free speechl Justice Jackson wrote: "The record discloses the early symptoms of dictatorship and shows that it is only in its incipient stages that it can be brought under control...
...In our present preoccupation with the menace of Communism we tend to forget that both the Nazis and Fascists, in the early stages of their movements, gained important backing and popular favor by crusading against Communism...
...Why has The Progressive gone reactionary...
...George T. Long Fair Grove, Mo...
...Justice Jackson has warned his fellow-countrymen against himself and his colleagues on the Supreme Court who, for the past year, have been making decisions which are undermining our Constitution...
...53, the counterpart of our Smith Act, and sentenced to two to six years at hard labor...
...in 1951 as it was in Germany in 1931...
...To be tried for war crimes, like their military counterparts who had only followed Hitler's orders too...
...Helen Mears New York, N. Y. Day of Reckoning Dear Sirs: I am dismayed at the way the average citizen is agreeable to doing anything to win in Korea or in any other place...
...The greatest danger facing us today is the insidious inroads that Fascism is making to stifle freedom of thought and opinion on all questions...
...Justice Jackson's warning—that totalitarian movements can be brought under control only in their incipient stages—seems already long overdue...
...Wouldn't such a course be considered necessary because it would save American lives...
...Alice M. McKean Puyallup, Wash...
...Don Brown Corning, N. Y. Removing the Cause Dear Sirs: The article, "Alcoholics in Prison," by A. Keith Ellinwood in your October issue deserves commendation...
...During the past few months you have given us Ralph Bunche, Sen...
...Why can't you stand for principle and to hell with popularity...
...A. J. Muste Fellowship of Reconciliation 21 Audubon Ave...
...Bombing of cities had been done in the last war in retaliation for Nazi bestiality, but in Korea we initiated it...
...If he begins at once to mop vigorously, ignoring the faucet, he is known to be crazy...
...There could be such a thing as standing on principle, of refusing to truck with every low-down dictator who owned a sizable number of legions, of turning our backs on hideous weapons and procedures, win, lose, or draw...
...Greatest Danger Dear Sirs: We supported the Russian Communists in their war against Hitler because we regarded German Fascism as a greater menace than Communism...
...However, I would say to Mr...
...Help Sought Dear Sirs: Ruth M. Reynolds, an American citizen, was recently convicted in Puerto Rico under Insular Law No...
...Miss Reynolds denies that she took the oath, pointing out that she is not a Puerto Rican...
...It turned out that they paid a very high price...
...Then came Korea...
...Propaganda is becoming so ridiculously easy, it is frightening to think what we may be talked into in the future...
...Apparently this device is as • successful in the U.S...
...I wish The Progressive could be what it was under the days of Bob and Phil La-Follette...
...In World War II area bombing was excused on the ground that Hitler had started bombing of cities...
...New York, N. Y. Straddling Dear Sirs: I have quit pointing with pride to the progressive state of Wisconsin as a result of the performance of Senators like McCarthy and Wiley...
...They can be obtained from Julius Eichel, Treasurer, Ruth Reynolds Defense Committee, 769 St...
...Suzanne Clarke Evanston, 111...
...Ellinwood—"One thing thou lackest," in common with practically all the advocates of alcoholism-is-a-disease men...
...Wasn't it the will to win football games regardless of how...
...Samuel A. Carlson Jamestown, N. Y. Early Symptoms Dear Sirs: All Americans should be grateful to you and Fred Rodell for his November article, "Black and Douglas Affirming" in which he summarizes the recent Supreme Court decisions and attitudes which are rapidly confirming the abrogation of free speech in this country...
...In his "Report to the President" at the conclusion of these trials, Justice Jackson said that the record of the Nazi seizure of power provides signposts which could warn people against totalitarian movements which develop within a nation...
...Let's see a return to the old values and the old principles...
...I'm afraid there is going to be a terrible day of reckoning...
...Isn't the dope peddler's lack of conscience in his drive to corrupt youth a reflection of our lack of regard for the thousands of children who are killed, maimed, and burned to death by the bombs...
...Could that be true of us of America—to turn on full force the faucet that produces disease, poverty, crime—and then try to mop up the consequences...
...But when it was found that Japan had been seeking peace before the atomic bombs were dropped, something new had to be added...
...Are you trying to be orthodox and on the popular side...
...Paul Douglas, Stuart Chase, Norman Thomas, Dorothy Dunbar Bromley, Fred Rodell, and many others...
...Now I can't blame The Progressive for all of this, but it has occurred to me that lately The Progressive is just too mild and conservative to suit my taste...
...No evidence whatever was introduced to establish any connection between Miss Reynolds' attendance at this meeting in Arecibo in December, 1949, and the revolt in San Juan in November, 1950, in connection with which Miss Reynolds was arrested...
...She had spent several years in Puerto Rico to gather material for a book, and as a passionate believer in Puerto Rican independence, at times associated with Nationalist Party people...
...Or are you straddling...
...Free Press Dear Sirs: President Truman seems to think a "Free Press" means the press is free to keep the truth from the pe£Ple- _ R. E. Boe Pahokee, Fla...
...e basis for her conviction on the charge Of advocating the overthrow of the Puerto Rican government was the flimsy allegation that in December, 1949, she was one of several hundred persons at a meeting to whom an oath to support the Nationalist Party was read and who rose in token of agreement...
...Of particular interest is Mr...
...The phrase that lulled everyone from atheist to cleric and from garbage collector to bank president was, "It saved American lives...
...By this ruling, Justice Jackson condemns himself as an enemy of democracy by his own published and official definition...
...Wasn't the West Point cribbing scandal a reflection of our national attitudes outlined above...
...If in another world war American forces have large prison-of-war camps and we do not have enough food for ourselves, our allies and the prisoners, would anyone want to say definitely that the hell-holes of Nazi death camps would not be reproduced...
...It is said that one test of sanity is to turn on a faucet, give the suspect a mop, and watch him...
Vol. 15 • December 1951 • No. 12
