THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Stevenson's Leadership Dear Sirs: Recent articles in The Progressive dissecting American liberalism have been at times informative and exasperating, and at other times...
...But when the chips are down these men are allowed only the privilege of going on record...
...George von Hilsheimer Director, Religious Education Ethical Society of St...
...Then, what...
...Under Point 8 of the article, a sentence erroneously stated: "In addition, the thorough findings of Senator Albert Gore's committee have demonstrated the preponderance of campaign funds in the possession of the Democratic Presidential candidate...
...This places a heavy burden on the oratorical capacities of the Democratic Presidential candidate...
...Does any competent thinker seriously doubt that these phenomena call for a high degree of psycho-political understanding applied to painstaking and probably complex analysis...
...If Mr...
...They will, if anything, probably cause more friction and discontent than exists now in both those areas...
...Scott Jochanan New York, N. Y. Chairborne Soldier Dear Sirs: Mr...
...Where the locality requires they present a' Douglas, Morse, and Lehman...
...Ignorance, too, of the fact that in most competitions reported, "permissively" taught students retain knowledge to a far greater extent, while demonstrating a greater range of interest than their more traditionally taught contemporaries...
...Clarence Jordan, co-founder of the community, spoke in Cincinnati last fall about the history of the farm and the attacks upon it...
...Disagrees with Rodell Dear Sirs: Fred Rodell's quotations from the liberal leaders interviewed by the New York Post, in his March issue article, "Our Languid Liberals," seem to indicate they were the rather general statements that busy people often make when they are called upon by the ubiquitous members of the press "to say something...
...live up to its past guarantees appears to be not only a reasonable position, but one that would tend to strengthen, not weaken, the U.N...
...It seemed to many Americans that Mr...
...Americans for Democratic Action and the Liberal Party, which speak through Mr...
...or is at best, a confused individual attempting to ride the course between the Scylla of total, unilateral disarmament in a restless, seething world, and the Charybdis of a futile armaments race...
...But while admitting my bias in favor of civilized approach to ideas and politics, I have to agree for once with Milton Mayer...
...We tend to remember the virtues of those who have gone before us and to forget their shortcomings, just as we tend to underestimate the virtues of those who are still with us and magnify their shortcomings...
...Blame for the U.N...
...To the individuals Professor Rodell deservedly names as the liberals who talk and act much too timidly, I would like to add that of William J. Brennan, Jr., recently appointed Supreme Court Justice...
...We may give the learning of any subject some value by providing punishment if it is not recalled, or we may provide situations in which students can discover for themselves the relevance and exciting potentiality of any area of study...
...It is perfectly true that the human mind is often more whimsical and emotional than rational...
...Mayer a feeling of disappointment in the Democratic Presidential campaign of 1956...
...This statement, of course, is contrary to the actual findings of the committee...
...So they try to influence the major parties...
...He was defeated, as was expected in this Republican stronghold, but he polled the highest Democratic vote in the history of Bethany...
...Rodell worked in the campaign offices of Democratic Presidential Candidate Alfred E. Smith...
...Shallow Cleverness' Dear Sirs: There is nothing to prevent Milton Mayer from making a biliously false and uncharitable evaluation of Adlai Stevenson in his piece in the April issue of your magazine...
...India's leaders certainly are not gods, and so if they too are somewhat inconsistent at times, I think these faults of theirs should be overlooked...
...One more liberal in retreat...
...John J. DeBoer Champaign, Ill...
...The influencing consists of good, old fashioned horse trading...
...However, after saying all this may I hasten to add that liberals are the last persons on earth who can afford to be complacent, especially today when the problems confronting us are so tremendous and crucial that they dwarf into relative insignificance the problems confronting our forebears...
...I certainly can't look forward with any degree of enthusiasm to seeing and hearing Morse and his three attractive daughters on TV in the role of the Carter Family singing "Keep on the Sunny Side of Life...
...Williams presents the simple, hard fact that the Democratic Party is in the hands of the Southern bloc regardless of the platform or its titular leaders...
...I was 100 per cent for Morse before reading Neuberger's eulogy but now I am only about 99 1/4 per cent for him...
...The original statement read: "In addition, the thorough findings of Senator Albert Gore's committee have demonstrated the preponderance of campaign funds in the possession of the Republicans...
...The Editors...
...As it stands now, it is not an impartial body of judges, nor a completely neutral forum for the discussion of world problems, but an instrument of foreign policy which is manipulated by the large powers and by blocks of smaller powers to accomplish their own selfish ends...
...Moreover, Israel's insistence that the U.N...
...I cannot go along with the pseudo-liberal idea that the U.N...
...In 1928...
...Loose Indictments Dear Sirs: Martin Dworkin's "The Obscurity of Fame" in the April Progressive demonstrates afresh the liberal's increasing surrender to the smug antagonists of democratic education...
...It seems incredible that The Progressive feels that only blind submission to the U.N...
...Ignorance, not only of the realities of the public school systems, but of the competent graduates of those extremely few private schools which actually provide "progressive" education...
...Edward Jay University of Chicago Chicago, Ill...
...But as a responsible editor you have a plain duty not to print it, for I am sure you are as aware as any reasonably well-informed reader of its bias and false assessment of one of the great men of our day...
...This does not lead us, however, to tum with vengeance upon the one individual in recent times who has attempted to give direction and leadership to the liberal movement and to awaken the average citizen to his responsibilities as a citizen in a democracy...
...If Wayne Morse were to succeed in accomplishing the miracle of achieving the Democratic nomination, could he do so without either splitting the party or compromising with tie Southerners...
...Urbanity is no substitute for a sound approach to the desperate crisis which faces mankind at this present moment...
...I have heard many uncomplimentary adjectives applied to him but "languid" never beforel It seems to this bystander that Mr...
...The greatest need in America today is a unified liberal movement, armed with vigorous ideas and ideals, awaiting the day when America will once again call on die liberals for leadership...
...To imply that Mr...
...His failure to lead a crusade for peace was his real defeat...
...He has written with courage and great skill about a situation no one else has yet tried to analyze...
...Stevenson had his call to greatness...
...By attributing the adolescent's appalling lack of a sense of history to "misguided permissiveness in formal education," Mr...
...Stevenson was defeated in 1952 and 1956 because he was not radical enough seems an unrealistic interpretation of our present political climate...
...The whole temper and tone of this article disgust me, as does most of what this smart aleck writes...
...Therefore I feel that we should overlook her human failings, and respect her impartial opinions on East-West tensions and Arab-Israeli disputes...
...he took an active part in the struggle to elect liberal candidates— both with his trenchant typewriter and his effective oratory on the stump...
...The Need for Analysis Dear Sirs: Fred Rodell's "Our Languid Liberals" was a boon and balm to us...
...One would hope that the liberal would give his endorsement to the latter course...
...India is only human, but at least she is independent...
...Mayer may be a pacifist, but I have the feeling that he would cut people's throats to make them peaceable...
...While the Almighty may have had a hand in Morse's election victory, the Senator, himself, gives some credit to the National Committee for an Effective Congress...
...What this country needs Is a Bunyon-esque politician to heave his mighty right down the middle of these schizophrenic political parties so that right will be right and left left with no mistaking of the two...
...that if Russia incinerates us, we can incinerate Russia...
...In the case of Israel, and in the Kashmir dispute as well, the blame should be fixed right where it belongs—squarely on the shoulders of the U.N...
...The most disheartening thing about the defeat of the Democratic Party is that it accomplished nothing...
...Joe O'Donnell Seattle, Wash...
...A group of Cincinnati people have decided to make the recording available to those who are interested in Koinonia Farm but cannot hear Mr...
...Egghead's End" by Milton Mayer in the April Pro-gressive falls into the latter category...
...at age 21...
...Perhaps The New Yorker is not quite as literate as Milton Mayer...
...That day may come sooner than we think...
...These articles prove nothing, and only inflame passions...
...Since I doubt that he is, should not he and/or others now undertake the study of why...
...I helped too...
...Rodell is in a sense guilty either of over-simplicity or of the very kind of thing he complains of: we are content to describe and bewail the situation—or, better for "us" but worse for our cause, we are unable, so far, to do more—whereas description is only the first step...
...Is there any more important problem for the attention of liberals than the debasement of the electorate by the manipulation of ma communication...
...Rodell and think that most of the people he chides have dealt courageously with the many issues of the day, including the two that Mr...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Stevenson's Leadership Dear Sirs: Recent articles in The Progressive dissecting American liberalism have been at times informative and exasperating, and at other times humiliating and cruel...
...After the presentation of nearly a page and a third of perfectly valid reasons why Israel had every right not to accept the U.N...
...Louis St...
...can strengthen that body...
...and that further testing of nuclear bombs is not necessary...
...Par from being a "chairborne soldier" in the political wars, Fred Rodell has been on the firing line in American politics daring all his adult life...
...At last, there was evidence that one leader of a major political party was doing some serious thinking about the problems of survival in the atomic age and was offering positive methods for solving them...
...Here are people with very nice principles but they are too lazy to stand up and fight for them...
...Every one of the working politicians whom he so complacently assails in his March issue article, "Our Languid Liberals," has endured the stress and strain and personal sacrifice of innumerable campaign battles...
...All in all I would say that present day liberals in public life measure up fairly well when compared with the liberals of yesterday—and I have had the privilege of knowing and working closely with many from both groups...
...Carmel, Calif...
...Many thanks...
...resolution, the editorial writer turns around and upbraids that infant nation for rejecting the resolution, which he admits was "vague," "ambiguous," and "contradictory...
...Congress would cut him to ribbons...
...John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts...
...Dworkin has taken up the cant of the anti-liberal Deweyphobes determined to return American education to its pastoral, "Three R" past...
...Rodell underrates the effectiveness of the efforts of present day liberals because the results are more difficult to dramatize...
...Jordan is a fine speaker, with a rare combination of wit and insight, and he has some important things to say...
...Jordan in person...
...What This Country Needs Dear Sirs: Your April issue articles by David C Williams ("The Legend of Lyndon Johnson"), Senator Richard L. Neuberger ("Morse for President"), and the letters from James A. Wechsler, Norman Thomas, and Joseph L. Rauh, Jr., make a beautifully balanced presentation of the plight of the liberal in this country...
...Powerful Article Dear Sirs: My hat is off to you for publishing Fred Rodell's powerful article, "Our Languid Liberals...
...The great issue of how to prevent another world war was sedulously avoided...
...Justice Brennan's retreat under fire is a mark of the impact McCarthy has made on our times, and to the degree to which we have not yet regained our national spirit and dignity...
...And if he were to make the run to the White House, what could he accomplish...
...The "liberals" within the party are too fearful of losing patronage to put up even a semblance of a fight to provide the mechanism for bringing about the stated pledges of the platform...
...It little behooves a chairborne soldier to impugn the heroism of combat troops...
...An individual effectively learns only that which is perceived as valuable to himself...
...If shallow cleverness were a virtue, Mayer would be our greatest saint...
...School systems operating on funds less than those spent for coffee, tobacco, radios, television sets, second cars, or other social titillations simply cannot afford adequate programs and certainly not the sort of dynamically creative programs envisioned by the "progressive...
...The world organization must be more than a noble ideal if it is to command the respect of Justice-loving and practical men...
...I did not resent particularly being told that I was dumb to vote for Mr...
...Here, he would have found liberals far removed from the pernicious influence of The New Yorker set rallying behind the inspiring leadership of Adlai Stevenson in the quest for a better America and a more peaceful world...
...But has he ever run for public office...
...Then there is Sen...
...He delivered a strong criticism of the Eisenhower Middle East resolution, calling it an "unnecessary error" supported only by "urgent pleas for speed and unanimity, exaggerated justifications and evasive testimony" and then ended by meekly saying he was going to vote for it anyway...
...Although India is a poverty-stricken country, she has not lined herself up with either the East or the West, as so many other small nations have done, in order to gain favors from one or the other of the two big armed camps...
...Arthur J. Altmeyer Madison, Wis...
...Stevenson's proposals on the banning of H-bomb tests and on draft reduction, while not the complete answer to the problem of world survival, were at least steps in the right direction...
...Rodell puts at the head of his list—issues which most liberals also regard as most important...
...By condemning formal education in terms of "permissiveness" Dworkin demonstrates an appalling ignorance of his own...
...Stevenson had relinquished his cleverness to go up and down the land, shouting, "Only more power and authority to the United Nations will prevent another war," he probably would have been defeated, but he would have led and sent forward a cause ¦which may succeed before an atomic war makes all other success meaningless...
...Louis, Mo...
...but shouldn't it be just the introduction to a longer article or series studying why these things are so...
...which appeared in your December issue, but the title "Egghead's End" and its contents of belittlement strike me as jumping on a man who is down and this gets beyond the bounds of decency...
...Alfred Hengst Exeter, Calif...
...David Harold Fink, M.D...
...By his own admission he could not know except from hearsay...
...Liberals in Retreat Dear Sirs: Fred Rodell's "Our Languid Liberals," in the March Progressive, was a vigorous, frank exposure of the truly deplorable political demoralization that has taken place during the twelve years of the cold war...
...The politicians have found a wonderful answer to liberalism...
...Accommodation is as much a necessity in the political arena as on the battlefield...
...There are millions of people in this country who are anxious to "throw away" their votes on a loser simply because they prefer to record their beliefs rather than choose between two evils...
...His talk has been recorded and put on a long playing record...
...perhaps Mr...
...Rodell has always been an active liberal on "paper and in the class room...
...Morse and Religion Dear Sirs: Just as poor old Uncle Sam shows signs of recovering from his attack of religious DT's and joining the AA's along comes Senator Neuberger who tells us that ". . . Wayne Morse has a profound religious and spiritual interest . . ." Even teaches Sunday-school...
...Rodell means that the cause and cure of the situation lie respectively in apathy and simple will power, he is naive...
...It is grossly unfair for Mayer to conclude that simply because Stevenson captured the hearts of The New Yorker set that this cancels him out as an effective exponent of liberal ideas...
...Bryan repeatedly went down to defeat, but out of his defeats came a great monetary reform—the creation of the Federal Reserve Banking system...
...can do no wrong...
...In any event I disagree with Mr...
...I propose, too, an end to the "I am more liberal than you are" type of article which is appearing too frequently in liberal magazines...
...Stevenson's urbanity became suburbanity, and even Dick Nixon scraped the Chotiner and McCarthy from under his finger nails until hardly a trace of his career of mudthrow-ing soiled his hands...
...Stevenson in Mr...
...Bernard Attinson Bronx, N. Y. Beyond the Bounds Dear Sirs: I fully intended to renew my subscription to The Progressive until I read Milton Mayer's "Egghead's End" in the April issue...
...In 1956, Mr...
...Allan W. Rees Cincinnati, Ohio Correction Dear Sirs: In my article "Morse for President" in the April issue of The Progressive an error of omission apparently occurred in composition causing one sentence to read in defiance of established fact...
...India as Mediator Dear Sirs: I am a loyal subscriber to your magazine and quite fond of it...
...Wechsler's New York Post, look very good from afar...
...Altmeyer formerly directed the na-tional social security program...
...It is also perfectly true that it is much more difficult for any human mind to see a situation objectively when one is in the situation than when one looks at the situation from outside...
...The record will be sent postpaid for $3, with some background material and current information...
...Kathryn Ann Johnson St...
...Paul, Minn...
...Stevenson does lack a consistent political and social philosophy—something not denied to Milton Mayer—but they do add something to the flavor of contemporary American life...
...I like Adlai Stevenson and I like The New Yorker...
...The Friends of Koinonia is a non-profit group formed to support the people of Koinonia Farm in their stand against hatred and violence, and we ask your help in a worthy cause...
...Instead of heeding the call, he ran his campaign on the theory that our present stockpile of hydrogen bombs is sufficient for massive retaliation...
...The recording runs about 50 minutes, and can be ordered from Friends of Koinonia, 901 Findlay Street, Cincinnati 14, Ohio...
...He has stated so well what so many of us have long felt but have not been able to put into words...
...In all the campaigns from 1936 through 1956...
...As for Morse's "strong sense of the power of prayer and the influence of the Supreme Being," that reminds me of the little boy who, when his Sunday-school teacher said "God made the flowers grow" shouted "Yeah, but fertilizer helps...
...Mayer's savage attack on Adlai Stevenson should not be allowed to go unanswered...
...If Mr...
...Take one example: he says Stevenson "was as governor only a shade above ordinary . . ." Yet a few lines away Mayer says he was out of the state and the country for a major share of the Governor's term of office...
...Dear Sirs: I found the editorial in the March issue of The Progressive strangely and unfortunately inconsistent...
...Pour years later he was instru-mental in getting Pennsylvania's Governor Gifford Pinchot, with whom he was associated, to support the candidacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt...
...And let's not forget that there is a lot of truth in the old saying that a statesman is a dead politician...
...Rodell ran as the Democratic candidate for the Connecticut General Assembly from his home community of Bethany...
...In that situation a competent journalist would keep quiet...
...President Eisenhower's ghost writers permitted their spokesman to appear a little more literate...
...Teachers compelled to serve thirty and more students, often in double sessions, cannot provide the sort of democratic leadership demanded for "progressive" education...
...I should like to propose to Milton Mayer and his friends that a treaty of peace be concluded among the various "branches" of liberals to stop this internecine warfare...
...I do not mean to be overly critical, but I cannot agree with what you said in your March editorial about India's moral role slipping back...
...These loose indictments of the entire public school program and its basic philosophy ignore the unfortunate fact that no public school system has ever fully attempted a "progressive" education program...
...About his behavior when questioned by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, the New York Post editorially commented: "In those circumstances what was remarkable was not the arrogance of McCarthy's questioning but the spectacle of Brennan's collapse...
...Mayer's "Did You Throw Your Vote Away...
...Many of us are discouraged and deeply concerned over the present course of American liberalism and over public apathy toward vital problems...
...Sermons are fine if they direct the patient to the couch, but now let's get on with that analysis...
...What American education needs is more self-directing, self-starting, self-interested students...
...I think Mr...
...Donald G. Rose Moorestown, N. J. Koinonia Recording Dear Sirs: Many people interested in the racial problem will have heard of Koinonia Farm near Americus, Georgia, which is currently under attack by shooting, bombing, machine gunning, arson, vandalism and the boycott, because of its stand for peace and brotherhood...
...Especially do I want to challenge his underlying assertion that anyone who is not a pacifist is a war-monger...
...Then comes analysis, constructive proposals, and flexible action...
...But whatever India's human failings might be, I cannot see how this in any way affects her role as peace mediator between East and West...
...I only wish that Mayer could have made a few trips to Minnesota during the 1952 and 1956 campaigns...
...Edith Ray Saul Washington, D.C...
...In 1956 Mr...
...The weak and contradictory resolution in the Egyptian-Israeli affair and the ridiculous plebescite decision in the Indian-Pakistani dispute are measures which will solve nothing...
...John Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Truman were not noted for their piety, yet they did not do so bad as Presidents...
...Richard L. Neuberger United States Senate Washington, D.C...
...A. Garcia Diaz New York, N. Y...
...Differences between the two political parties were carefully obliterated in a great chorus of me-tooism...
...Stevenson is entering into a vigorous new phase —as witness his San Francisco speech of February 16 and his recent off-the-record assault at the Gridiron Club dinner...
...I share with Mr...
...Roy Nathan Livbrmore Chicago, 111...
...Stevenson's 'Real Defeat' Dear Sirs: Please don't get me wrong...
Vol. 21 • May 1957 • No. 5
