THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Sex and Pix Needed Dear Sirs: Peter Celliers' letter in the September issue is significant in that it states very well the frustration a single individual is apt to feel in...
...Jonathan Marshall, Publisher James N. Rosenberg, Chairman of the Board Arts New York...
...Such a plank smacks too much of appeasement...
...Every child has a little better chance because Norman Thomas struggled to make life better for others...
...Toss in a few photographs and maybe even a little sex, just to buck up the newsstand trade...
...Please, sirs, what— in your opinion—is the difference between a "patriot" and a "great patriot," a decent human being" and a "thoroughly decent human being," and a "disciple of moderation and tolerance" and a "sincere disciple of moderation and tolerance...
...Says Newsweek, ". . . an obscure Quaker library in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., considered discharging an employe who pleaded the Fifth Amendment rather than testify about prior Communist associations, but decided not to...
...actually Mayer reports with but little exaggeration the absurdities of life itself...
...Mayer takes the trouble of traveling to foreign countries...
...Milton Mayer Carmel, Calif...
...Sign up or sign out, he has been told...
...It stands to reason that sealed goods are not subject to duties, since they just pass, but do not enter German territory to stay...
...And they did suggest that its distribution be made in order to save me trouble at the Swiss border...
...Some people may not like to read Mayer's bittersweet accounts of his keenly observed experiences...
...Then came the meeting of three neutral leaders, Tito, Nehru, and Nasser...
...2. Whether and how the customs agents (in Kronenberg, not "Marburg") changed is a subjective matter...
...We are confident that you will find these acts to be the very antithesis to the principles announced by you...
...As one who has formerly resided and traveled in Central Europe, I can merely confirm that the behavior of European Zotlbeamten (customs officials) matches exactly Mayer's description, and European travelers have never fllv-en up cheating them with the same righteous indignation as Mayer expressed...
...These are but the main errors in Mayer's story...
...Perhaps a couple of sources of our trouble are (1) that our mass media are in the control of men who are for the most part representative of a relatively narrow and self-interested range of political and economic thinking, and (2) that these men have developed the science of psychological manipulation of public opinion to a previously unheard-of degree, relying on persuasion rather than coercion...
...Mayer stayed at that time in Marburg, Germany, at the Hotel Hubertus...
...Mayer pretends, need to "stretch the regulations" in behalf of a member of a social class ranging "right behind the Holy Family...
...N. Y. Usurping Time's Methods Your editorial, "What's Wrong About the Eisenhower Candidacy...
...Indeed, one exhibition was of paintings of various sporting scenes...
...Wittmer wasn't there (in Kronenberg...
...Wolfgang Wittmer Marburg, Germany Mayer's Reply Dear Sirs: 1. I guess I know where I spent Christmas 1955, and I guess I know what happened there...
...Now I just wonder what are the "facts" on which Mr...
...Some nine paragraphs later, two "conservatives" are mentioned, Seaborn P. Collins, former commander of the American Legion, and commentator Fulton Lewis, Jr...
...Freedom for the Arts Dear Sirs: Your readers may be interested in the following letter we have sent President Eisenhower: Dear Mr...
...Likewise, they learned that the Fund for the Republic has been "widely attacked by conservatives as a blatant apologist for the left...
...4. The fact that Mr...
...Prompted by your restatement of these principles we venture to call your attention to the following recent actions by an agency of the executive branch of our government...
...In most of the large cities of the country, the dominant and respectable periodicals are liable to be controlled by this narrow community of interests, while others either rely principally for their circulation on the less literate segments of society, or are over-intellectualized and have no circulation...
...There is not a single favorable or friendly quotation about Dr...
...President: Two years ago you sent a message to the Museum of Modern Art on the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary...
...I was...
...They have counteracted Soviet propaganda, which has tried to picture the United States as barbarian and materialistic...
...Henry M. Christman New York, N. Y. Mayer's Fiction Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer's article "Der Schmuggler" in the August issue is based on factual errors...
...Newsweek does not add that Taft later made a public retraction of this statement...
...Its board is composed of important museum officials and civic leaders...
...Last spring we were shocked when the U.S...
...Letters published in The Progressive indicate that many readers consider Milton Mayer bitter and cynical...
...When these are silenced, we not only stifle creative art, we forfeit the respect of people in other lands...
...The most essential are: 1. He is wrong in assuming that he spent Christmas 1955 in Kronenberg, Germany...
...A periodical such as your own, which still tries to present something like a variety of viewpoints with a certain amount of honesty, and which does not want either to sell its birthright for a mess of pottage or take bankruptcy has a choice: (1) continue its presentations on an intelligent level, written by and for intelligent men and cranks, and lapse into the relatively obscure and Ineffectual status of a "little magazine," or (2) popularize...
...in the August Progressive at one point usurps the methods of Time, Inc...
...This is where you refer to "Anthony Lewis, a Washington corre-spendent for the pro-Eisenhower New York Times," and "Walter Lippmann, writing for the staunchly pro-Eisenhower New York Herald Tribune...
...Disciplinary measures were also taken against Tito...
...The example which was supposed to have caused so much embarrassment was an award to a group of Pennsylvania Quakers...
...Similarly, the various art exhibitions which have been sent abroad have been received with enthusiasm as cultural ambassadors toward world peace in a free world...
...This supposed privilege is extended to any foreigner, professor or not...
...Therein you stated that "freedom of the arts is a basic freedom, one of the pillars of liberty in our land...
...Are our disciplinary measures wounding her, or wounding us...
...On the radio program "Meet the Press," Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, an authority on campaign tactics, made a rather significant statement...
...Mayer is the Customs House of Marburg...
...David Montgomery Milan, Mo...
...They did not distribute Mr...
...Tension between us and Nehru is reaching the breaking point...
...Actually, Mr...
...In other words, you are dabbling in non-sequiturs...
...But under it all, woven in as skilfully as the boys at Rockefeller Plaza do it, try to keep a solid kernel of the honesty, integrity, and truth that you now sell to audiences, most of whom already agree with you...
...an independently-administered project under the supervision of Professor Arthur Sutherland of Harvard, which was audiorized and the necessary money appropriated before Hutchins was ever associated with the Fund for the Republic...
...As reprisal, some persons cancelled their donations to the library...
...They did suggest its being distributed...
...I don't have anything like the over-all panacea that he calls for, but do have a suggestion or two regarding the function of the publishers in the predicament of running around in "tight circles" shaking their heads...
...Wittmer says that "sealed goods are not subject to duties, since they just pass, but do not enter Germany to stay," when the truth is that goods I shipped into Germany were unsealed, and not sealed, and were therefore dutiable, confirms my suspicion that "Marburg" is a mythical place...
...We all know that we are fighting communism...
...Aside from the probability that a large majority of the Times' staff are non-Eisenhower-Democrats...
...When asked if he would campaign for a certain Senator, he replied: "I'll campaign for him or against him, whichever way will help him most...
...If you say no, then it would appear that it's time for a change or two: First, dress up your magazine...
...After once engaging her, the Quakers refused to consider discharging her even though violent protest was made by local groups...
...2. It is not true that the Marburg customs agents, after learning from a newspaper article about Mr...
...This brings up a question: is our strategic war against the Soviet really so strategic...
...Who's Getting Hurt...
...But however caustically Newsweek speaks of "an obscure Quaker library," most persons would agree that the principle of religious freedom, and the right of a religious group or body to employ whom they choose, is far from "obscure...
...Mayer's luggage they did not, as Mr...
...Information Agency canceled foreign tours for three important art exhibitions and the Symphony of the Air...
...They knew Mr...
...Disciplinary measures against India are again being debated...
...But one would hardly expect the supposedly impartial magazine Newsweek to put his partisan commentator critics to shame by profiling Dr...
...I must add that the suggestion was made in the spirit of the greatest courtesy and helpfulness, and without intent to violate the spirit of either the German or Swiss regulations, since they accepted my word that the contraband was designated for Russia...
...Dear Sirs: A few months ago our State Department, realizing the state of economic emergency that exists in Egypt, and knowing that no people, hag-ridden by want, could be free, practically assured Colonel Nasser that we would join the World Bank and Great Britain to aid in financing the Aswan Dam...
...Had the problem been the mere shipment of the contraband out of Germany, under seal, the contraband could have been sealed and shipped in the suitcase in which they were holding it...
...Before looking at any other page, I always turn to his articles...
...The reason announced was that some artists or performers belonged or had belonged to left-wing organizations...
...Newsweek readers were informed July 2 that "many" persons—not identified—have dismissed Hutchins as "simply a well-heeled fool who was doing civil rights more harm than good...
...I talked to the customs agents involved...
...But more subtle is the manner in which Hutchins is personified as the Fund in action...
...The World Bank and England were obliged to follow...
...This impression is reinforced by such statements as, "By such pixilated handouts, Hutchins constantly embarrasses the Ford Foundation, the Ford family, and the Ford Motor Co...
...You demean yourselves when you utilize cute, nonsensical implications of that sort...
...So clear, so well documented, so logical...
...I do...
...Hire some of David Riesman's glad-handers for public relations men, and blow your own horn—fight fire with fire...
...The existence of such a board is never even mentioned, leaving the reader with the impression that Hutchins is completely free to hand out the largesse of the Fund as the mood strikes him...
...aside from the fact that the 77mes editorially is on the verge of deserting Ik*—unable to continue digesting Nixon...
...Mayer's profession from the very beginning...
...But is there only one way to handle this crusade...
...Disguised fiction like "Der Schmuggler" might as well be conceived at the writing desk at home...
...However, he should not present it in the garb of observations based on facts...
...The article continues, "Hutchins' attitude was that the Fifth Amendment is a vital part of the Bill of Rights, and that by retaining the employe the library had struck a blow for civil liberties...
...But has anyone in the business of communicating ideas to his fellow men, in critical times such as these, the right to sacrifice his effectiveness for some idealized concept of intellectual honesty...
...What actually happened is that the Quakers engaged the librarian, who previously had worked for an organization placed on the Attorney-General's list, after she had told them frankly of her background and their own investigation convinced them of her integrity...
...Quite aside from the wrongs which these governmental actions have wrought both on creative artists and the public, such censorship exercised by a government agency violates American traditions and principles of freedom and serves to place democracy in a false light...
...The Congress of the United States, forgetting that in World War II Yugoslavia saved the lives of hundreds of American boys by smuggling them out of her Nazi-held country, and in 1948, practically with her bare fists, had defied the Soviet and severed all relations with the bloc, overruled the President's urgent request and banned all military aid to Tito...
...As a matter of fact, none of the paintings or music contained anything of a political nature...
...Try to hire someone to design covers as striking as those of Life or Time, say...
...the Fund award helped cover the loss...
...Newsweek spends additional paragraphs in minimizing the Fund's study of Communism in this country, and even goes so far as to place upon Hutchins responsibility for the "Bibliography of the Communist Problem in the U.S...
...Among America's greatest assets In this struggle are our cultural heritage and achievements...
...The art exhibitions were organized by the American Federation of Arts, whose president is James S. Schramm, an outstanding businessman and a former member of the Republican National Committee...
...Hutchins, the Fund, or its work—only the detractors are cited...
...Mayer bases his opinion that an "undemocratized, unreoriented and un-reeducated Germany" (May issue) is ruled "by former Nazis, who are now Christian Democrats" (August issue...
...All of us have an extra crust today because of his magnificent contributions through the long years...
...The Fund for the Republic promptly awarded the library a $5,000 grant...
...Further along in the editorial, the anti-Eisenhower Progressive describes Eisenhower as "a great patriot, a thoroughly decent human being, and a sincere disciple of moderation and tolerance...
...Ignoring the favorable reviews published in the law journals of leading universities, Newsweek chooses instead to bypass all reviews and quote a letter written to the Fund by Professor Philip Taft in which he said, "You deserve a vote of thanks from the Communist Party...
...Which brings me around to the point...
...If it were any time but the 1950's and the world situation were less than grave, I would still say the first alternative is better than the second...
...Mayer is great at writing delightful and entertaining fiction...
...His "Der Schmuggler" in the August issue is truly a masterpiece...
...Nehru's contention that security against communism must first come from building underdeveloped countries, has never been palatable to Washington...
...Mayer's contraband among his four pieces of luggage in order to deceive their Swiss colleagues...
...There is no reason that I know of why the middle class should be any more susceptible to Time than it is to The Pro-gcessive, if it is only addressed in its own language instead of a foreign tongue...
...The headline on the two-page presentation sets the tone: "The Prodigy Grown Older . . . And the Strings He Holds on Ford Millions...
...For some time now the United States has sent various art exhibitions and entertainers abroad...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Sex and Pix Needed Dear Sirs: Peter Celliers' letter in the September issue is significant in that it states very well the frustration a single individual is apt to feel in any attempt at amateur-level participation in national affairs...
...Barrage the suburbs and college campuses with amazing introductory offers of twelve months for the price of eleven, and such like...
...Carl Greenspun New York, N. Y. Thomas Terrific Norman Thomas* article, "Has Socialism Any Future?," in your August issue was terrific...
...Walter Gerstel Berkeley, Calif...
...But the line about Lippmann is more than a non-sequitur...
...The Herald Tribune has as much to say about what Lippmann writes as does Alfred Kohlberg about the columns of Murray Kempton...
...Again, the fact that the employe had used the Bill of Rights to protect Communists did not bother him...
...When the Symphony of the Air, the world-famous orchestra originally organized by Arturo Toscanini, toured Japan last year it was unanimously hailed everywhere and served most effectively to generate good will for our country...
...Several of the artists were no longer alive—their work was to be exhibited posthumously...
...On his return to Cairo, Nasser was curtly informed that the State Department was withdrawing its offer of aid to the Aswan Dam...
...In putting the German Customs Seal on Mr...
...In some 1,300 words of copy, Newsweek never gets around to explaining that an 18-member board of directors headed by Paul Hoffman as chairman authorizes every grant made by the Fund for the Republic...
...aside from these things, one major reason that the Times is the Times is that its reporters usually can "put it squarely on the line...
...Dorothy Rice Sims New York, N. Y. Newsweek on Hutchins Dear Sirs: Throughout his university career and now as president of the Fund for the Republic, Robert Maynard Hutchins has been subjected to much criticism...
...The rest is bias...
...Thus, the actual scene of a story vaguely reminiscent of the one told by Mr...
...We hope, therefore, that you will intervene so that these acts of censorship will not obliterate the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights...
...President, are deeply interested in freedom of art and concerned that the world learn of our cultural as well as our industrial achievements...
...3. The customs agents in Kronenberg (not "Marburg') did distribute my contraband among my four pieces of luggage...
...In fact, disciplinary measures seem to be much in the news at the present...
...Though we all shudder to think that on April 8, in the name of discipline, six young recruits were led to a watery grave, yet we shrug off with indifference the fate of the people of Egypt, doomed to die not from water, but for lack of it, because of disciplinary action taken against their leader...
...The free world is presently engaged in a crucial battle for the hearts and minds of men...
...Hutchins as "a middle-aged boy wonder ready for fight or frolic...
...Mayer being a "Herr Professor" all of a sudden changed from pitiless bureaucrats into self-abasing accessories to a "smuggler...
...it is a fantasy...
...Mayer's Masterpiece Dear Sirs: What would The Progressive be without Milton Mayer's keen observations which he reports in his unique sweet-and-sour style...
...Clem Norton Former Chairman of the Boston School Committee Boston, Mass...
...We believe that you, Mr...
...One wonders why Mr...
...But they are all powerless to stop him...
Vol. 20 • October 1956 • No. 10
