THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Competition of Ideas Dear Sirs: The cold war continues to move forward along its remorseless path. There is no turning back, and it is either win or lose;, for us there can be...
...Will the Communists, if they lose...
...But I am comforted by Mr...
...we all parrot the same old tiresome line...
...Perhaps they were, but were not their opponents also...
...Aaron has raised...
...David I. Stander New York, N. Y. Gandhi on Freedom Dear Sirs: In these trying days, when man's personal liberty and individuality are threatened by the demand for conformity, it might be well to recall the words of Mahatma Gandhi: "Individual freedom alone can make a man voluntarily surrender himself completely to the service of society...
...According to the facts (testimony taken by the Senate Monopoly subcommittee, the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, and the Securities & Exchange Commission), the story had its tenative beginnings in May, 1953, and ended around November, 1955...
...Will we, if and when we begin to realize this fact, abide by the President's dictum not to resort to atomic warfare to try to save the day...
...And pointedly, it is the only way a real peace ever will obtain...
...If Mr...
...No doubt many candidates for state and national offices will find it quite expensive to run for office...
...The outcome of the Third World War...
...Now, I am quite unwilling to deny the possibility that, up to the present, Russian moves and proposals have been sinister or insincere (frankly, I don't feel qualified to pass a worthwhile judgment on the contention...
...The President has spoken eloquently of "atoms for peace" while Dulles was quietly loading his atoms on board ships headed for China during the Indo-China fracas...
...and Communists Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer's article in the January issue, "Guilt by Dissociation," was well--written, as usual...
...Warren K. Billings San Francisco, Calif...
...It hurts me to lose a single vote from among liberal Democrats...
...It's long for a guilty man and even longer when you're innocent, as I can tell you...
...I've made a thorough study of his case, and it proves only one thing to me—that sometimes people will believe anything...
...On this contingency rests the future of the human race...
...Thomas Broderick Schenectady, N.Y...
...Is it that these writers are representatives of the petty bourgeoisie that can no longer belabor the highly-organized and politically-effective working classes...
...Sobell is going into the courts again, asking for a new trial, charging that the prosecutors, including Roy Cohn, knowingly used perjured testimony to convict him...
...by maintaining an atmosphere of fear, hate, and anxiety...
...Once we get some worthwhile ideas circulating, perhaps their warmth can spread a bit to the vacuous "major parties...
...I wanted to learn of what you had to offer besides my regular subscriptions to The Reporter, Life, Look, Foreign Affairs, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, and many others...
...Has not oversimplification always been a political phenomenon...
...Those, in truth, we need...
...And so it goes...
...What a depressing prospect...
...Nowadays you can't find a corporal's guard to believe that Mooney and I threw a bomb into a Preparedness Parade in 1916...
...John M. Swomley, Jr...
...Pickus is assuming a grave responsibility in combining materalism and secularism and in giving the impression that only by way of an active theistic faith can a person contribute to the solving of world problems...
...The 1956 campaign (if it can be called that) is the most aimless and confused spectacle on our national scene that most of us can remember...
...We Midwesterners are disturbed by the seeming misrepresentation of this region by such Easterners as Aaron, Peter Viereck, John Fisher, and Richard Hofstadter...
...That's Morton Sobell, accused of conspiracy to commit espionage...
...Secretary Fellowship of Reconciliation New York, N. Y. Vacant Grass Roots Dear Sirs: That is an excellent article, "Campaign Jam at Dead Center," by Robert L. Rlggs in your February issue...
...Aaron speaks of the Populists as "chronic simpllflers...
...It was inconvenient to have it pointed out that D-Y was putting up only five per cent...
...One does not see how it is possible to avoid a party realignment to some extent at least...
...Nor is it correct to say that because we didn't collaborate organizationally we were no longer free to collaborate non-organiza-tionally...
...Mr...
...But how many of his ideas stand a chance of being translated into reality by his own chosen (and continually endorsed) first lieutenant, Secretary Dulles...
...And always the horrendous possibility that the cold war will erupt into hot...
...But it's a long road that goes through the courts...
...There's another innocent man in our country today who is waiting it out in prison...
...The heads of state on both sides have publicly proclaimed that "atomic war is...
...Kauffmann-Grinstead's public avowal of being a liberal Republican...
...Love does not require us to collaborate with political or other groups whose purposes and methods we believe are evil...
...Policy for the Middle East Dear Sirs: The Progressive deserves to be complimented, for alone among the so-called liberal magazines of this country it has shown the courage to print the February article, "The Realities of Peace in the Middle East," by Don Peretz, which might be interpreted as sympathetic, in part, to the Arab cause in sundered Palestine...
...Humanists maintain that secularism and ethical, democratic idealism make a noble faith...
...Thirty years is a long, long time...
...I hope the courts do the right thing...
...But I doubt if my experience of Democratic "suspended animation" is unique...
...It has come to the point where we must make a new and critical appraisal of the "give me liberty or give me death" spirit of Patrick Henry...
...James W. King Salt Lake City, Utah Midwest Misrepresented Dear Sirs: I have read with interest Daniel Aaron's review in the January issue of Robert Morlan's Political Prairie Fire and The Populist Revolt by John Hicks...
...has always deemed it impossible to work with the Communist Party or with political and propagandist organizations which openly welcome Communists into membership and who are in whole or in part under Communist leadership...
...Subsequently I found myself seeking out your publication for preference reading...
...Sobell has been in prison since 1950, and in Alcatraz since Thanksgiving Day 1952...
...If one firm appears definitely to be losing, and the realization of it comes home to the directors, will they begin to blackjack the other firm's salesmen and plot to dynamite its plant...
...went up on all sides...
...He relies almost entirely upon League publications and on the one North Dakota newspaper which had an almost fanatical hatred of the NPL and its leaders...
...Freedom of thought is the supremely important ideal which can unite Dr...
...I have read it with keen interest and deep appreciation...
...More serious is his suggestion that anti-Semitism owes much to "dark . . . aspects of the Populist mentality...
...This reduces the contest to a sort of competition of ideas, ideas which must be put into practice so that the results which follow may be plain for all to see...
...There is no turning back, and it is either win or lose;, for us there can be no draw...
...to conciliate...
...This is as true of Christianity as of secularism or of Marxist materialism...
...In reality even those who do not believe in the liberty of the individual believe in their own...
...That's a lot of years to be without your family...
...Often I have thought it might be a good idea to assess each eligible voter in the United States a certain nominal fee in election years...
...This tendency springs, I believe, from his selection of materials...
...Pickus insists that materialism and secularism are the evil parents of an evil "practical atheism," he condemns many sincere people who are devoted to both human well-being and freedom...
...The person who did get removed was Gordon Clapp, head of TVA...
...But at the same time, I am led to ask: When do we concede that perhaps Russia's intentions are serious and honorable...
...During World War It, when it was popular to collaborate with Communist groups, we did not...
...And no such anti-Semitism as that found in the East exists in North Dakota today...
...It should be clear to all by now that if the United States desires to regain the friendship and cooperation of the peoples of this area, it must start by shaping a foreign policy which treats Arabs and Israelis on an equal and impartial basis...
...F. J. Miller Cedar Rapids, la...
...Always, Russia has ulterior motives...
...He had served honestly and capably for years in TVA—but then he criticized the ratio of bonded indebtedness being allowed against Dixon-Yates equity...
...No society can possibly be built on a denial of individual freedom...
...I respect the desire of Christians to propagate a vital Christian faith...
...Preference Dear Sirs: Nine months ago when I placed an order for a "trial subscription" I was not at all as interested in The Progressive as I was in receiving the issue on McCarthy and McCarthyism...
...Niebuhr, Mr...
...As a student of North Dakota history, I would take issue with some of the points Mr...
...if it develops into a large scale atomic war, will be liberty for no one, but death for all...
...Also he overlooks certain forces which account for the success of the League in North Dakota —one it did not duplicate elsewhere...
...To make sure, I am enclosing $10 for a three year subscription...
...While Morlan's study is the most detailed to appear on the Non-partisan League, its fair-mindedness is doubtful...
...Always, we cynically scoff and hoot, disparage, deprecate, and accuse...
...You can be a pretty old man by the time they decide that you were right, after all...
...The testimony involves glaring half-truths and evasions by such persons as AEC Chairman Strauss and Budget Director Hughes, but I haven't heard that during the year and a half of controversy or at any time since there has been a move to remove these misguided (if well-intentioned) characters...
...And yet the present rush for "moderation" and "middle of the road" tactics creates such an intellectual atmosphere that sane discussions of important issues—such as the problems of disarmament—seem nearly impossible to achieve within party circles at best...
...Archie K. Loss Hanover...
...That these opportunities were few is partly our fault, but chiefly due to the fact that Communists were less interested in personal fellowship and more interested in political collaboration...
...F.O.R...
...This spirit served us very well during the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the two World Wars, but it will not do for the Third World War...
...I make this appeal, not for the safety of agnostics and atheists, but for the sake of freedom of thought as a universal value...
...that our differences never can be resolved...
...There is no evidence that Jesus joined an organization of publicans and sinners, but ample evidence that he associated with them as individuals...
...Always, Russia is seeking to undermine, take over, dominate, subvert...
...I am one person who can truthfully say he is anxiously awaiting the time for his "trial subscription" to expire to be sure to be on the alert to renew as a regular subscription recipient...
...One may very well ask: What ends and whose purposes are served by an attitude of cynicism, skepticism, and derision...
...Same Old Line Dear Sirs: The rejection of the recent Bulganin "20-year friendship pact" proposal prompts me to comment on something that has attained the proportions of a national disease...
...There is no leavening of disinterestedness which would balance these two opposing views...
...As soon as Bulganin's letter was made public, the cry of "propaganda...
...As one who circulates—at a grass roots level—in the local Democratic Party, I am struck by the irrational enthusiasm for Adlai Stevenson aligned with apparent incapacity to think except in traditional party grooves...
...Administration Weaknesses Dear Sirs: I hadn't realized how partisan I am till I read K. Kauffmann-Grinstead's letter in the February issue of The Progressive...
...At the height of the so-called McCarthy era, members and officers of the Fellowship did talk and eat with Communists as well as defend their rights...
...What is the explanation...
...He's under a 30-year sentence...
...Or will they bow to the winners with as good grace as they can muster, and hope for the day when their product will be appreciated for the merit which they honestly believe it has...
...Our non-collaboration was not confined to the Communists...
...I think the President ought to take that step now...
...But now comes the rub...
...Regarding the impeccable morals now current in Washington, I want to refer to the Dixon-Yates controversy...
...E. Whealdon Medford, Ore...
...However, it was not in 1949 but in 1940 that the Fellowship of Reconciliation officially stated that the "F.O.R...
...and when uncomfortably squeezed between big (and growing bigger) capital and big (and growing bigger) labor, express the resentment and "frustration of an exploited class" (to quote Aaron) in attacks upon the farmers...
...It is nothing but "propaganda and lies," pure and simple, that Russia is handing out...
...Sobell ought to get the same consideration Mooney and I got, only a lot sooner...
...I appeal to leaders in the Society of Friends to re-examine their analysis of the needs of our time...
...We should demand that our present sterile, negativistic attitude be buried forthwith and that our officials be willing to listen to all other points of views and proposals...
...Pickus includes among the "evils that have drawn the world to the present impasse" the " 'practical atheism' of a pervading materialism and secularism...
...The President has the power to give him a pardon or commute his sentence to time served...
...Ann Hubbell Ypsilanti, Mich...
...Edith Hansen Upper Darby, Pa...
...It is contrary to the very nature of man and just as a man will not grow horns or a tail, so he will not exist as man if he has no mind of his own...
...Our decision then, which has been maintained to this day, was not determined by public opinion...
...Powerful organizations in the United States are using the charge of "materialism, secularism, atheism, and Communism" as a battle cry for attacks upon our public school system, upon science and scientific research, upon intellectual freedom, and in behalf of a number of kinds of censorship...
...This money .would go into a fund from which the various parties would draw in proportion to the voting strength they would have in the country as a whole...
...He is for President Eisenhower because the latter is our "greatest power for peace," and because whenever a "misuse" of the Administration's big business influence appears, "the Eisenhower men act quickly and promptly to let the wrong-doer go...
...With the recent disclosure that 75 per cent of the non-Communist world's oil reserves lie in the highly strategic Arab countries and Iran, the Middle East assumes a greater importance than ever before in American defense consideratons...
...Betty Jane Peckham Monrovia, Calif...
...Pickus, and myself...
...It started in our State Department, was echoed by all Congressmen who could be reached for comment, was re-echoed by men in the public eye in all lines of endeavor, was dutifully parroted by the press, and now it is bandied back and forth by the public as gospel...
...Eisenhower always does put peace in the category of being A Good Thing, or even Our Only Hope...
...This would be in the American tradition and is, moreover, the essence of democracy...
...when, if ever, do we lend credence to good-sounding proposals, to praiseworthy contentions, emanating from Russia...
...unthinkable," that such action would be "race suicide," and that whatever happens we will not resort to trying to settle the issue by action of this sort...
...His facts as usual were also largely correct...
...The rest of the Atomic Energy Commission didn't agree with Chariman Strauss—but he's still there, happy and secure...
...Always, we—officials, leaders, press, and public—react like robots...
...If the democracies, and especially the United States, continue with their present bungling and inadequate policies, they may, let's face it, very well lose the cold war...
...Freedom of Thought Dear Sirs: The reprint, "Is There Another Way?," is valuable...
...Each time Russia makes a move, assertion, or proposition, the same cry goes up...
...Admittedly one person's contacts are necessarily limited and perhaps narrow...
...Robert P. Wilkins Grand Forks, N. Dak...
...to bargain in good faith...
...Certainly not the purposes of the great bulk of the people...
...It does require us to have personal fellowship with everyone, especially the despised and rejected...
...Certainly mid-western farmers denounced international bankers, but not because they were Jews...
...In some ways it is like the competition for customers put on by rival business firms...
...If it is wrested from him, he becomes an automaton and society is ruined...
...This letter is concerned not with the main discussion but with one phrase in Robert Pickus' condensation, which I believe obstructs the finding of solutions...
...The President has also said there is no alternative to peace, but has not reprimanded Dulles' enthusiasm for massive retaliation...
...Aaron disapproves...
...But any religious faith or philosophical viewpoint, combined with lack of freedom of thought, becomes evil...
...We did not collaborate with America First, or the Nazi Bund, even though both groups as well as ourselves wanted to keep America out of World War II...
...Such a foreign policy must necessarily include the securing of justice for the Palestine Arab refugees by assisting them in the return to their sacred and cherished homeland...
...In spite of the fact that he was a severely wounded war veteran, he might have been forgotten in my day, and left penniless and friendless, waiting in prison for a chance as Tom Mooney and I did...
...If the answer is never, we are faced with the fact that the cold war goes on forever...
...The Sobell Case Dear Sirs: As an innocent man who spent twenty years in prison before being released by California's former Governor Olson, permit me to say that I'm glad that it didn't take twenty years for us to give James Kutcher a little justice...
...But as of now, some of the grass roots of the major parties are certainly fully as vacant as their high commands—and that is very vacant indeed...
...We feel that we cannot collaborate organizationally or politically with those whose ends and means are so fundamentally different...
...Mayer is also confused about love...
...The day will come when nobody will believe the one witness who, trying to dodge a perjury charge, accused Sobell of being a spy...
...Did Eisenhower's men act so promptly to let the wrong-doers go...
...Financing by Voters Dear Sirs: Recently I read an article by Roscoe Drummond on the problem of financing this year's election campaigns...
...Whereas most accounts of the NPL tend to be anti-League, Morlan has gone to the other extreme and tends to be less than fair to the opposition...
...Certainly it seems more and more independents and convinced liberals must rely upon independent publications (such as The Progressive) and periphery organizations (from Americans for Democratic Action to what is left of the Socialist Party) to generate new ideas and discussion of the vital problems which lie before us...
...In this inquisitorial atmosphere, Mr...
...I should like to see Aaron develop his thesis that over-simplification by the Populists and NPL provided a "sanction" for the "Huey Longs, the Winrods and the McCarthys . . ." Might it not be true that over-simplification from the Right also sanctioned movements and leaders of whom Prof...
Vol. 20 • April 1956 • No. 4
