THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM If This Be Socialism . . . Dear Sirs: T. K. Qulnn's "Monopoly Marches On" in the June Progressive points up a problem which is of vital importance to all the free world. Mr....
...Though technicalities were found to reject the applicants, newspapers throughout southern Georgia spread Jordan's action across their front pages...
...Whatever the result, however, these people will continue just as long as they can to live their convictions and work in their area to bring about the day of equality in America...
...We welcome letters from Americans and organizations who could help us with books and magazines which they no longer need...
...Please cancel our subscription as of now...
...Ralph Pulljam Roma-Appia, Italy...
...The first thing I do when I receive my Progressive is to look for Mr...
...We cite the examples of Grand Coulee and Bonneville Dams as being proof that "big business," in the hands of the government, can be efficient and of lasting benefit to the people...
...For example, in his July article, "Olivetti: Design for Italy," he wrote, "Anglo-Saxon genius for mechanics and manufacture disintegrates on the south-em slope of the Alps" and Italy is "creaking with industrial inefficiency.' I am an economist who spent more than three years in Italy and I know that compared with northwestern Europe and with America, Italy is industrially backward— the economic, political, and geographical reasons of which fact are well known...
...as well as work to restrict government to its moral functions of protecting persons and property from physical injury...
...Be that as it may, we believe that School of Living people have earned the right to be known as libertarians or true radicals...
...Case History in Georgia Dear Sirs: Many thanks for Fred Rodell's "Wanted: A Southern Statesman," in the July issue of The Progressive, the latest in your series of thought-provoking articles on racial tensions in America...
...Clarence Jordan, one of the founders of Koinonia Farms, signed for such Negro applicants...
...Mayer's July issue article on Italy's Olivetti, for I met Mr...
...Quinn must realize that large enterprises are more efficient, from a purely economic standpoint, than small ones...
...We believe that the product of workers belongs to them and should not be syphoned away through unjust taxation or to non-working holders of special privilege...
...is this not a too hasty generalization, matched only by that other that the "pasta makes diem sleepy...
...I would like you to know that the main reason I like The Progressive, and the reason I have given a half dozen subscriptions to friends so far, is precisely because of the Milton Mayer articles...
...Mrs...
...While I do not wholly agree with everything that Mr...
...Their address is Route 2, Ameiicus, Georgia...
...One of the principal aims of the Club is to show the public here the real danger inherent in Communism, This Club has friends in the United States who help us with books and magazines...
...Perhaps the influence of the right wing, of which he writes, with the implications carried in the "super-patriotic" connotations by such groups as "Liberty and Property," may not have a great impact upon the politics of 1956...
...We need more such liberal, sound thinkers like Wilbur Baldinger to present the results of their extensive research to a wide reading public...
...Robert Major New York, N. Y. Mayer First Dear Sirs: I have just read the letter by Mrs...
...Valuable in Italy Dear Sirs: I have found The Progressive a valuable .publication to have available while in Italy...
...Rodell wrote, I feel that he presents his case so well that there would be widespread benefit if the Southern leaders could read it...
...F. J. Miller Cedar Rapids, la...
...School of Living people believe that our tenets and our work put us in this last category...
...We see no harm in talking and thinking with any group of people—unless it be that by such action we later get "written up" by reporters who imply that everybody in any group are of the same identical stripe and opinion...
...Kudos to The Progressive for having given space to so fine an article...
...Mayer and read him right away, with enthusiasm and appreciation...
...I was especially interested in Mr...
...If this be socialism, make the most of itl Are not our democratic processes capable of meeting the challenges of changing conditions without withering or abdicating...
...More dangerous economic sanctions are now formulated by the White Citizens' Council and Koinonia may be another martyr to the progress of the idea of equality in the sight of God...
...Olivetti in Ivrea and had dinner with him in Washington...
...Does he seriously imagine that we would, even granting that we could, cut our large factories up into small, independent shopsi...
...E. Whealdon Medford, Ore...
...merely preventing a merger will not cure the situation...
...Progressive readers may wish to get on their mailing list...
...Mayer in Italy Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer is one of our most independent writers but he too, sometimes, is guilty of repeating hasty generalizations on a foreign country...
...Baldinger has done well to alert the thinking public to the insidiousness of these groups as breeding places of anti-Semitism, anti-internationalism and, in fact, anti-any-thingism that happens to fall within the purviews of, and that is inherent to, our constitutional freedom...
...Since then he has been ambushed (unsuccessfully...
...Perhaps your readers would be interested in learning of a small group of indigenous white people in the southern, rural section of Georgia who are offering real leadership even if they are not in politics...
...But the companies are already "giant" in size...
...Why should not General Motors and Standard Oil, which at the present time siphon away the cream from every corner of the land (a prime example of taxation without representation if ever there was), be run as public enterprises for the benefit of the people as a whole...
...We subscribe to and read many news magazines, and even though I was born a Democrat, I like to read all sides of a question, if fairly and intelligently written...
...They are anti-statist and want to limit government—especially in its control over business...
...I have read each copy as it came, hoping to find something that would justify its being, but have given up hope after four issues...
...Dorothy T. Samuel Coon Rapids, Iowa Rodell's Insight Dear Sirs: Fred Rodell's article in the July issue, "Wanted: A Southern Statesman," offers a fine approach to the South's segregation problem and certainly gave me a new insight into the issue and its impact on the nation as a whole...
...Dione Neutra Los Angeles, Calif...
...A third group of "radicals" probes more deeply...
...For almost 15 years Koinonia Farms, now grown to about 60 people, has been living its witness to brotherhood and equality in the midst of people who cherish southern tradition...
...Baldinger has presented his case with clarity and with sufficient facts, all along the line, to give validity to his thoughts concerning the right-wing threat to this country's freedom today...
...But to deny—based on a short trip to Italy— the technical and mechanical ability to a nation which has the Fiat, Snia, Isotta Fraschini, Ansaldo, Chatillon, Montecatini, Pirelli, Breda, and other industrial plants, which produces the finest luxury cars and the Vespas, built marvelous railroads, is one of the leaders in hydro-electric power —and which has, of course, Olivetti...
...They have written me that they are planning a regular newsletter to keep interested persons informed of the developing situation...
...Jessie B. Solomon Washington, D.C...
...Is the world not an interesting place to live in when it contains people with so many different reactions...
...T. J. John The Indo-American Club Chengannur Travancore-Cochin South India Dworkin's 'Pontifications' Dear Sirs: The completeness of the boredom of Martin Dworkin's pontifications leaves me but one regret—the absence of a penny postcard to tell you this...
...Mildred J. Loomis Director of Education School of Living Brookville, O. Books for India Dear Sirs: We have read with great interest your many unprejudiced articles on India and find them a real help...
...Baldinger in the concluding paragraph carry an aura of prognostication that should be given grave consideration...
...We felt at home with the true radicals (libertarians, we prefer to call them...
...I also like the format and most of the articles, even when I don't agree with them...
...E. J. Babcock Lincoln, Nebr...
...Because we believe in liberty and property some of us attended the first Congress of Freedom in 1953...
...Kudos for Baldinger Dear Sirs: The excellent article, "Reading From the Right," by Wilbur H. Baldinger, in the June Progressive, seems to reflect many arduous hours of research that had to be expended in order to present so detailed and comprehensive a report...
...Recently Georgia sought to eliminate Negro students at the university by requiring recommendation by two alumni for any applicant...
...His publishing house has just brought Out a translation of my husband's book, Survival Through Design, which you reviewed extensively in your June 1954 issue...
...They work for an economic system free of special privileges in land, money, patents, tariffs, corporate monopolies...
...Constructive suggestions from friends to bring the East and the West closer are also appreciated...
...But Mr...
...The admonitory reflections made by Mr...
...There we found all shades of "rightists," "leftists," and "radicals...
...We did not feel at home with the super-patriots and isolationists...
...Here in the West we are engaged In quite an argument about whether the government should build a high dam in Hell's Canyon on the Snake River, or whether the Idaho Power Company should be allowed to build three smaller dams farther up the river...
...Bernard Attinson Bronx, N. Y. Hopelessly Biased Dear Sirs: A misguided relative gave us a subscription for Christmas last year, and I have never read a more biased magazine in my life...
...We do believe in liberty and property...
...The Farms, including one Negro family who are members of the community, have been shot into, their produce boycotted, their summer interracial camp stopped by injunction of the board of health...
...The "rightists" protest this...
...True Radicals Dear Sirs: High abstraction labels create a lot of confusion and often cast the cloud of guilt by association...
...Quinn urges as a solution that by "legislation discouraging interlocking directorates, preventing mergers of giant companies and prohibiting the domination of dealers and suppliers, we can force decentralization, perpetuate a wholesome degree of competition and free enterprise, and save our democractic way of life...
...Frances B. Tucker, "Mayer Too Expensive," in the July issue of The Progressive...
...AH the authorities agree that the big project would be more efficient, and, in the long run, more economical...
...That, at least, is the case in the School of Living being wrongly listed among the "rightist, isolationist and patriotic groups" in Wilbur H. Baldinger's article in the June Progressive...
...the liberty possible under decentralized limited government in an economy of no-special privileges...
...Our definitions may not suit everyone, but we see "leftist" groups tending to call on government for solution to economic and social problems...
...I think you have been showing improvement—I was pleased to see Murray Kemp-ton added to the list of contributors, for I had read him regularly in the New York Post while in New York...
...They have suffered persecution throughout the years but today they are in a fight for their very existence...
...It will be of interest to the American public to know that an organization named the Indo-American Club was formed by students here four years ago to bring better understanding between the peoples of America and India through various programs, such as loaning American books and magazines, arranging exhibitions on various aspects of American life, inviting American and Indian speakers to address gatherings here, distributing pamphlets on democracy, receiving American guests, and arranging numerous other activities...
...Mrs...
...In current affairs, we see three (not two) major trends...
Vol. 20 • August 1956 • No. 8
