THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Cicero's Shame Dear Sirs: The press has completely overlooked a most important fact in the Cicero race riot —the riot in which a colored family was driven from the apartment...
...Worse than that, some readers conclude that his articles are saying exactly the opposite of what they actually are...
...That's because he writes about fundamentals rather than ephemerals— about eternal events, not current ones...
...What now disturbs me is the pitiful enthusiasm with which this tiny initiative has been welcomed—an enthusiasm wholly out of scale with the feebleness of the effort...
...In the light of proposals recently made by Walter Reuther, Sen...
...If they lie they are guilty of perjury...
...Because of ill health, I have been delayed in getting the idea of this small project across as widely as I had hoped to other individuals and groups to whom this sort of personal expression of concern and fellowship might appeal if they could realize how very simple and rewarding it is...
...We cannot enact special legislation to punish Communists and expect honest dissenters not to get hurt...
...Under the McCarran Act, however, the government isn't punishing them for taking overt action, but for entertaining thoughts of revolution...
...Much criticism has been directed at Milton Mayer's articles...
...Ernest W. Hankamer Greensburg, Pa...
...Agnes F. Voegtle Topeka, Kans...
...Alternative, a pacifist paper, is banned from the mails...
...eight houses were built in Hiroshima and five in Nagasaki...
...Clarence H. Lee Palos Verdes Estates, Calif...
...Merle Melvin Syracuse, N. Y. Welcome Dear Sirs: Congratulations for publishing so splendl a magazine...
...Rev...
...tolley hartwick Miles City, Mont...
...Will the next step be the silencing of all opposition...
...The faultfinders should be few...
...It has been agreed that the most suitable recipients of these individual parcels are needy students equipping themselves for wider social usefulness, to whom the special note of personal concern and sacrificial sharing will be of positive morale-building value...
...Have sanity and balanced emotions so far deserted America that something like that could happen in Elsinore...
...It doesn't always discriminate between evidence and hearsay in its investigations...
...It is determined to rid itself of these nuisances, and one pretext serves as well as another...
...C. Kittelson Grafton, N. Dak...
...W. Matthews Neptune, N. J. Dear Sirs: The Rodell-Mayer sparring was the finest fun I have found for many a day, and Mayer's article on the Declaration, though long, was thought-provoking...
...Dorice McDaniels Inglewood, Calif...
...He also makes numerous allusions which are rather difficult to grasp without first having indulged in a vast repertory of reading...
...I can't part without recording that the only consistently jarring note has been Milton Mayer...
...You'll be surprised to find Mayer's piece the only one that's not decidedly dated...
...Interested readers from the Mid-West who would like to participate in the work of the Conference are invited to send for fuller particulars from the undersigned...
...Caroline F. Urie South Euclid, O. Change of Pace Dear Sirs: Far from being frivolous and too far off the beaten path, the pictures on Pages 15 to 17 of the August issue of The Progressive were grand...
...I for one enjoyed the change of pace...
...It is the first thing I have ever enjoyed from your "Depressive...
...If they betray their comrades they are without honor...
...I especially enjoy the People's Forum...
...our burial ground is the eastern hemisphere...
...Mrs...
...21-23 on the theme "The Role of the Non-Governmental Organization in Technical Assist ance Programs...
...Suggestion Dear Sirs: We certainly enjoy reading The Pre gressive and think the cartoons deserv mention, too...
...Joseph L. Sullivan Hartford, Vt...
...Six of the CARE food parcels have, so far, gone to India, entrusted for distribution, first to a college professor in Poona, and later to other responsible individuals in the most distressed areas of India, Madras, and Bihar Province...
...Ann Hubbell Ypsilanti, Mich...
...Keep preaching, Mayer...
...The pictures were tops...
...Cover-to-Cover Dear Sirs: The Progressive is the only magazine I am able to read with intense interest from cover to cover...
...Doug Kelley Lansing, Mich...
...Asiatic" has been rightly judged guilty by association—association with racist and imperialist attitudes and actions...
...And may they all experience, as I have done, the almost heart-rending sense of human warmth, affection, and fellowship in response to such a simple outreach of good-will and compassion...
...How the country needs liberals like you today...
...It is obvious that many readers are failing to comprehend what Mr...
...The contribution of the project in reconciliation and understanding is incalculable...
...In these troubled times, anything that helps us forget our worldly troubles is welcomed, however brief the interlude...
...The wider general need in the national food crisis is so vast that it can only be adequately dealt with on a public scale...
...Mrs...
...How many of these so-called Christians were storming the apartment building, tearing fixtures from the walls, and throwing furniture out of the windows...
...Next Step...
...Asians, Not Asiatics Dear Sirs: It appears that even some liberals—including so able a liberal leader as William O. Douglas (August Progressive, pp...
...Joseph A. Prachar Berwyn, Ill...
...String-fellow Barr, and others, the conference should be both timely and significant and should be of special interest to all progressives...
...Last year $10,000 was contributed to the project from this country...
...the American Friends Service Committee Community Service Inc., Earlham College Macalester College, Roosevelt College, Wil mington College and the University of Chicago are jointly sponsoring a three-day conference in Chicago from Sept...
...Norman J. Hart Room 505 343 South Dearborn Chicago 4, Ill...
...The adults joined the teenagers under the cover of darkness and helped direct the wanton destruction of private property...
...It has been demonstrated that government can't distinguish between Communists and radicals...
...What a happy thought the editors had...
...or, Bhikshu Nirmalananda, The Gandhi Mission Society, Thyagarayanagar, Madras, India...
...Mrs...
...This involved undertaking a two-day weekly fast as a means both of saving food in order to be able to send CARE parcels to India, and of seeking to express to suffering fellow human beings across the world not only compassion, but a spirit of personal atonement for the shortcomings of a society still too insensitive to our mutual responsibility for each other's welfare...
...j. Cliff Haugland Bremerton, Wash...
...Florence Hornig New York, N. Y. Food for Fellowship Dear Sirs: Distressed during many months past by the callous delay of Congress to authorize the shipment of food to starving India, I endeavored to assuage my own concern and to experiment with an effort that might possibly offer a small lead to others similarly concerned...
...It is most refreshing to rea an honest people's publication, even if onl once a month...
...The Industrial Worker is on the subversive list...
...6 Mrs...
...Brien McMahon, Dr...
...Arnold Vaught, 350 Broadway, New York 13), or War Relief Services of the Catholic Welfare Conference (Miss Eileen Egan), Washington, D. C., all working closely with Dr...
...It seems clear enough that teen-agers were prodded to perform all the vandalism that young minds could muster...
...Those interested in helping combat the epidemics particularly fatal in these distressed areas, can do so through the special Health Service for India of the American Friends Service Committee (20 South 12th St., Philadelphia, Pa...
...5-7) —need to be reminded that the term "Asiatic" is entirely unacceptable to the people to whom it is intended to refer...
...Mrs...
...Timely Conference Dear Sirs: Community Development Projects Inc...
...Dear Sirs: Thanks for the truly delightful surprise in the August issue...
...This year new houses will be added in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, plus a Community Center in each city...
...The idea of the psychological value of such a person-to-person approach seems to bulk as large with my Indian correspondents as the gesture itself...
...Mayi might use a little less Irony in his with) and thereby pass on his most worthwhjl thoughts to a greater number of people...
...Those interested in helping financially are urged to get in touch with Floyd Schmoe, c/o Friends Center, 3959-15th Northeast, Seattle 5. Wash...
...Perhaps Mr...
...They, with the financial help of many people in this country, will be building "Houses for Hiroshima...
...Amrit Kaur, Indian Commissioner of Health, New Delhi...
...Dear Sirs: There is ironic humor in the Communists' plight...
...Youth will fight to live and not live to fight...
...Most Constructive Dear Sirs: Justice William O. Douglas' article, "World Revolution: TVA Shows the Way," was one of the most constructive ever to appear in The Progressive...
...H. L. Tuttle Director of Education Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks Cincinnati, O. Dear Sirs: Congratulations on giving us the 14 photographs having absolutely no connection with war, politics, crime or inflation...
...The correspondents beg for the names of the other individuals and groups who share in this project—information which I am still unable to give them...
...I wonder how many of these people go to church every Sunday and give lip-service and praise to the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man...
...Mayer's Scoffers Dear Sirs: I suggest to those readers who scoff at Milton Mayer to pick up a back issue of The Progressive—say, July, 1950— and reread it...
...Mayer is saying...
...You're exceptionally we come after the diet of lies we get from th metropolitan press, especially the notoriou labor-hating Hearst press here on the We...
...The impression has been left with the public that the people of Cicero are solely responsible for the riot...
...To compensate for the destruction of "private property" during this riot, my wife and I are sending a contribution to the Clark family...
...If they refuse to testify they are guilty of contempt...
...The animal pictures surely warmed the heart of every reader...
...We hope others will join so this family may make a new start and plan for the future with renewed courage...
...Jarring Note Dear Sirs: I am leaving The Progressive despite the fact that it is always interesting and occasionally a very brilliant publication...
...If the court objects to the organization that posts bail, which is always excessive, the poor sinners stay in jail...
...I now throw out the suggestion to those whom it may concern: Ten-dollar food parcels, especially prepared for Indian needs, may be ordered through CARE (20 Broad Street, New York 5), sent in care of the following: Brinda Prasad Sinha, Box 54, Boring Road, Patna, Bihar, India...
...Keep Preaching, Mayer' Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer's article in the August Progressive, "The Lake," is so astounding as to be nearly unbelievable...
...Patriotism Dear Sirs: Patriotism is losing its power because it has been used as bait too often...
...Judging from the letter you receive, all readers of The Progressive would buy a copy—so as to have him fc read and re-read, or to burn him in effigj We would want to keep our copy...
...Irony seems to be the most distinctive feature of Mayer's writing...
...Houses for Hiroshima Dear Sirs: Several weeks ago a group of young people from this country set sail for Hiroshima, Japan, where they hope in some measure to redress the damage done to the peo\ple of Hiroshima by the people of America...
...If violent revolution were the worst that Communists advocated, they could be discounted as stupid political amateurs...
...Contributions may be sent to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 3456 South State St., Chicago,Ill...
...The word should be "Asian...
...I fail to understand how a publication devoted to a truly progressive and humanitarian policy and ideals can chronically publish articles from so ill-balanced a writer...
...The houses are small and cost only about $500 in American money, but they are substantial, and better than most post-war Japanese houses...
...Charles Foremai Sunland, Calif...
...His stuff requires some hard thinking, but it certainly deserves it...
...Houses for Hiroshima" was begun when a small group went to Japan in 1949 to build a house for a bombed-out family as 3 gesture of understanding and goodwill...
...However, the fact is that a majority of persons in the vicinity of the apartment building were not residents of Cicero, but came from Chicago, Oak Park, Forest Park, Berwyn, and other suburbs...
...The Conference will be of an exploratory and study nature, its overall purpose being to ascertain what kind of effective contribution the non-governmental agency and the private citizen can make to help meet the problems and needs of the under-developed areas of the world...
...Coast...
...Our sphere is the western hemisphere...
...It isn't willing to rely upon adequate laws against conspiracy already on the books...
...As for keeping The Progressive afioal why not publish a collection of Milton Mayer's articles...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Cicero's Shame Dear Sirs: The press has completely overlooked a most important fact in the Cicero race riot —the riot in which a colored family was driven from the apartment they had rented, the building gutted, and their furniture destroyed by a raging mob of rioting racists...
...The magazine is undoubtedly badly needed in the world, and I may return as a subscriber later on...
...If they tell the truth they are persecuted...
...This probably accounts for much of the misunderstanding...
...or through Church World Service (c/o Mr...
Vol. 15 • September 1951 • No. 9
