THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM The High Cost of Communism Dear Sirs: I am disturbed by recent items in The Progressive concerning Russia. In your November issue you quote, with apparent approval, from...
...The FTC's caveat emptor attitude simply gives a sense of false security to a public fed on a diet o? super remedies and miracle drugs served up with reassuring language by men wearing medical clothing...
...He is a man of fine culture, a man loyal and devoted to the best interests of home and country, a man of integrity and good will, a man of skill and scientific understanding, whose genius might be used for our country's good...
...It has been disappointing to me to have The Progressive accept Mrs...
...To be sure, he didn't see any terror...
...The Eisenhower Doctrine was no nickel-and-dime affair in either cash or prestige, nor was the Lebanon invasion...
...How many billions of dollars has Secretary of State Dulles' brinkmanship cost us to date...
...How expensive was the Dien Bien Phu debacle...
...I do know those who attended the $100 a plate dinner, with former President Truman as speaker, and they laugh uproariously at the idea of even one Republican being there...
...Converting Communism Dear Sirs: As an American I do not fear Communism —in fact I am so confident in the power of Americanism that I welcome and encourage co-existence and commodity and cultural exchange and Soviet and American people visitation...
...Vice President Nixon was right to say that the expressions of public opinion received in Washington do not have much influence on policy...
...Peter McCormack San Francisco, Calif...
...Ryerson says: "Morale of the workers [in the Russian steel industry] is high...
...Mary Comings Ghiringhelli Brasstown, N. C. Pleased in Pakistan Dear Sirs: Being without an adequate daily newspaper, and dependent upon Time for news coverage, I'm more in need of The Progressive than I was in the States, to give me a little bit of "the other side...
...You don't have to draw any pictures for him...
...Bryant's false charges against Senator Jackson...
...To be persuaded by the same people, today, that withdrawal from Quemoy and Matsu can be justified only on the premise that the future of Taiwan must thereafter be totally excluded from negotiations with China, would be to make another grave mistake...
...The Democrats need a fighter, a skillful debater, and one who can explain the issues vividly if they want to defeat Nixon or anybody like Nixon...
...How, in the absence of such elementary freedoms as the right to organize and strike, can they express their true sentiments...
...I hope The Progressive will continue to be concerned about this subject, as only unremitting public pressure seems capable of changing the present attitude of the medical profession...
...It is hard for me to believe that justice was done in his case...
...Does this mean that when justices of our nation's Supreme Court have unanimously agreed on the meaning of an amendment to the U.S...
...Irving Howe Ann Arbor, Mich...
...But why should The Progressive quote this as anything but an example of how authoritarian minds, whatever their formal ideologies, find common ground...
...Sanction & Segregation Dear Sirs: In the People's Forum of the November Progressive Ira C. Tilton, as a lawyer, insists "the essence of the law is found in its sanction...
...It took me a week to recover and he kept going strong all day, day after day...
...Had Mayer tried to hire a hall in Moscow and make a speech urging that warmonger Khrushchev be fired, as he can hire a hall in Chicago to urge that warmonger Dulles be fired, he might have come back a bit sobered...
...Tucson, Ariz...
...In Arizona, alone, it was money that talked...
...Helen A. Carnes Seattle, Wash...
...Of course not...
...The day Russia allows writers to publish a journal making as severe and fundamental criticisms of communism as The Progressive sometimes and rightly makes of our society —then there may be reason to soften our principled opposition to the Communist dictatorship...
...But if the new policy is merely the result of the pressure of public opinion forcing him to change his tactics because he feared that he had not enough public support, the function of public opinion has been perverted, and we may only anxiously console ourselves with the thought that public opinion and "right" appear to coincide—this time...
...Hubert Humphrey for President—how about hearing from them...
...Yet since the public must pay the freight, have they not the right to an opinion—to say nothing of an accounting...
...At the end of the day when I was prepared to slump down in the plane on the way back to Minneapolis at about one a.m., Humphrey sat up and chattered away with the hostess, telling her exactly what to look for the next time she got to Washington to watch the Senate in action from the gallery...
...I would appreciate hearing from those who are interested...
...There is no man on the political scene today who can match Hubert Humphrey on this score...
...Constitution any state governor may legally refuse to accept that decision as the supreme law of the nation because the majority of voters in his state refuse to give their sanction...
...This fallacy has several subdivisions, but in its simplest and most inclusive form it is the assumption that there is an infallibility about a majority opinion that assures its Tightness...
...they would also lead one to ask, assuming that there is an increase of efficiency: what is its social price...
...While a thoroughly delightful piece of reading, it is one of the best observations of how Americans tend to view a foreign culture I have ever read...
...among these was Morton Sobell who, you recall, was convicted in the Rosenberg trial...
...Dulles' policy, who suggest that we can effect a withdrawal from Quemoy and Matsu in exchange for guaranteeing the permanence of an American protectorate over Chiang's and the Nationalists' power in Taiwan, may be indulging in wishful-thinking and a delusion comparable to the makers of the myths, fostered more than a decade ago, that the Chinese Communists were "not real Communists," had "abandoned communism," and had "surrendered" to Chiang Kai-shek...
...Through the years of my association with Morton Sobell, I became more and more convinced of his innocence and that he was unjustly accused...
...Humphrey for President Dear Sirs: May I compliment The Progressive for running that fine profile of Hubert Humphrey in the December issue...
...And, above all, he is a liberal at heart...
...To speak frankly, my increasing knowledge of Morton Sobell led me to the conclusion that he was in no sense guilty of the charges of his accusers...
...I wish that you had said a little more on this subject because you appeared to approve, without reservations, the idea that foreign policy (or governmental policies of any kind) should be responsive to public opinion...
...Bryant's existence...
...indeed, I cannot associate the man with the crime...
...Has anyone figured what Dulles' adventures in Burma in 1953, and the loss of that country, cost us in dollars and cents...
...Caveat Emptor Dear Sirs: Until I read Congressman Blatnik's article, "The Medicine Man Under the Eagle's Eye" in the November Progressive, I didn't realize there was such a thing as a politician who could write in a straightforward, non-platitudinous style and have the energy to give complete factual coverage to his subject...
...W. H. Rayner Professor Emeritus Urbana, 111...
...As a young instructor here in the University of Illinois I heard Robert M. LaFollette, Sr...
...The basic issue is whether or not any state can legally deny to all of its citizens the equal protection of the law...
...Last year my wife and I toured Britain and Scandinavia, under the sponsorship of Americans for Democratic Action, where we learned something about the excellent national health services in those countries...
...He finds the Soviet steel industry efficient...
...Humphrey likes people—a point made by Eric Sevareid in Esquire recently...
...Then comes the clincher...
...Bryant must know that the $100 a plate dinner was not "Jackson's" but a fund raising affair for the benefit of county and state Democratic committees...
...Charles L. Samz Dacca, East Pakistan Mrs...
...I am certain that the more Communism meets Americanism, the more Communism will be converted by the greater attraction of the American way of life...
...In fact we made use of the services in England—where a consultation with an excellent physician and two prescriptions filled at a chemist's shop cost two shillings...
...I hope Congressman Blatnik and the members of his Committee will press for legislation which will re-establish the faith we have had in our government's ability to immediately restrict false and misleading advertising...
...How do the rest of your readers feel...
...Public Opinion Perverted Dear Sirs: In your November issue you twice referred to public opinion and its effect on foreign policy in this country...
...Bryant's poor showing at the polls— not "irresponsible voters...
...Add those debits to those we incurred in underwriting his SEATO flop...
...Still, certain studies from the Harvard Russian Research Center would lead one to conclude that there is a great deal of bureaucratic waste in Russian industry...
...But with a university audience before him he could not refrain from giving us an hour's address on the meaning of Shakespeare's Hamlet...
...I do not read Life so don't know if it made the other irresponsible statement...
...And why should Milton Mayer, in his first piece on Russia, speak with such appalling levity—he, a man with pretensions to be a moralistl—of the idea that there is terror in Russia...
...In this respect some liberal critics of Mr...
...I was much interested in Dr...
...One expects this: it is the tribute of capitalist reactionaries to Communist reactionaries...
...This, in my opinion, is the real reason for Mrs...
...Edgar Snow Palisades, N. Y. Money Talks Dear Sirs: Over most of our nation, in the recent elections, it was the people who spoke...
...Tilton believe the American people would sanction the repeal of the Fourteenth Amendment to allow any state legally to give unequal protection to its citizens...
...It weakens my confidence in other writings of the magazine...
...I would like to read a Mayer article after he had visited Latin America with his sharp eye and comprehensive mind...
...During my long ministry I have shared the experiences of many men in various environments, but as the chaplain at Alcatraz I came to know men in a new way...
...Starting in June 1959 a Peace Mission under my direction will visit England, France, East and West Germany, Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and spend a month in Russia...
...Thank you so much for your articles on medical services in the United States...
...Any society which exacts total ideological conformity, which denies the possibility of free dissent, which transforms men into obedient automatons is the opposite of what liberals and socialists ought to want...
...Alice Franklin Bryant—not Washington voters—who is "irresponsible...
...Albert Price Philadelphia, Pa...
...If this is not "irresponsible"—to use a mild term—I do not know the meaning of the word...
...Did he expect to...
...Mrs...
...Rev...
...Charles A. Kinney Fairhope, Ala...
...Some were good and some bad, as good and as bad as I," as Sam Foss says in his poem...
...Bryant 'Irresponsible' Dear Sirs: It would seem that it is Mrs...
...Conferences will be held with government and church leaders and visits will be made to factories, hospitals, universities, collective farms, and other institutions...
...Max Seham's article in your September issue on health insurance...
...And even if the quantity of physical terror has decreased, does that make Khrushchev's regime any the less an enemy of freedom...
...Here is no Vice Presidential timber...
...James G. Beard, Jr...
...Peace Mission Dear Sirs: I want to congratulate The Progressive on the superb work it is doing in the public interest...
...Did he gain their confidence...
...Bryant, apparently solely on her own evaluation...
...He quite rightly stresses the fact that only by realistically dealing with the question of sovereignty over Taiwan and the Pescadores, indisputably part of the China littoral, is it possible to restore satisfactory communications with the mainland...
...Marshall W. Krause San Francisco, Calif...
...If The Progressive had taken the trouble really to know this local political situation it would have read another political writer who pointed out some of Mrs...
...It is the best presentation in brief form that has appeared of the perilous contradictions in which our policy of continued single-handed intervention in China's civil war has embroiled us...
...Sobell Innocent' Dear Sirs: For several years I served as chaplain in the United States Penitentiary at Alcatraz...
...David Fledderjohn El Salvador, Central America Mayer Superficial Dear Sirs: One glance at the deep tragedy that shows in Boris Pasternak's face would suggest that Milton Mayer's reporting on Russia is superficial to say the least...
...Dorothy Rice Sims New York, N. Y. Mayer Delightful Dear Sirs: I think that the October issue is one of the outstanding numbers we have received here in some time...
...LaFollette on Hamlet Dear Sirs: Congratulations on your Fiftieth Anniversary...
...Does Mr...
...Your November issue quotes her at length-regarding her defeat by Senator Henry Jackson of Washington...
...Our Supreme Court has decided that racial segregation in our schools is such a denial...
...The more intelligent and better informed the people are the larger will be the circulation of your notable publication...
...Humphrey is the ideal man to run for the Presidency, and I will tell you why...
...Clubb's approach and analysis is his emphasis upon the increased difficulty of negotiating a settlement with China as a result of our prolonged adhesion to the fantasy that Chiang Kai-shek was and is the Chinese people...
...Perhaps...
...My memory includes all of the years of The Progressive...
...I pass on The Progressive to Pakistani friends, who find it has given them a little different picture of life and opinion in the United States...
...I feel so keenly on this matter that I would like you to know something about the man, whose fate was determined by a public opinion resulting from hysteria...
...I want your readers to know about a project which I am conducting this summer which is right in line with what you are doing...
...Jean Wunderlich Phoenix, Ariz...
...Many of us agree with some of Mrs...
...Jerome Davis 489 Ocean Ave...
...Brinkmanship Balance Sheet Dear Sirs: Vice President Nixon scorns the views of public opinion on foreign policy...
...Surely the merits and demerits of our foreign policy do not depend upon the number of people who endorse them or decry them to the State Department...
...I know that some people like to pick away at his voting record and accuse him of all kinds of cloakroom skulduggery, but I wonder how they would vote on some of these issues if they had the chance...
...William V. Shannon hit the nail on the head when he called Humphrey a "teacher...
...other reactionary governments have also seen to it that their steel industries were efficient...
...If Secretary of State Dulles revised his policy toward the two Chinas because he changed his ideas about it, and if the opposition of public opinion was responsible for his re-examining his earlier ideas, then public opinion was properly serving our government...
...Would he have seen any even in Stalin's day...
...West Haven, Conn...
...If Mrs...
...It seems a little late to say this, and I find it sad to have to say it to The Progressive...
...She states that a man "went to Jackson's $100 a plate dinner (attended 80 per cent by Republicans, according to Life...
...But how does he knowt Was he able to talk to Russian workers privately...
...Through the years my intimate contact with the inmates there gave me an insight into the real characters of the men...
...Prominent among the makers of that mythology at the time were the Generalissimo himself, and his agents in the United States...
...And to an American capitalist, at that] After all, Russia is perhaps the only major country in the world where the workers have not enjoyed for several decades those rights which in other countries are taken for granted...
...Certainly I don't suggest that public opinion should be ignored by our statesmen, but I urge you to consider the fallacy imbedded in the idea that good government can be had by following it...
...Mrs...
...Bryant gave Senator Jackson "the roughest time of his political life" he showed no signs of battle, or even of knowing of Mrs...
...Frank Wallick Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Milwaukee, Wis...
...To have the power to correct this abuse and yet not exercise it shows an unbelievable scorn for public duty...
...speak on the "issues of the day...
...In your November issue you quote, with apparent approval, from Edward L. Ryerson, former chairman of the board of Inland Steel...
...It's not hard to guess why a former chairman of Inland Steel should find this attractive—just as Eddie Rickenbacker once praised Stalin for knowing how to preserve "discipline" and prevent strikes...
...And now to add to our already staggering obligations, how many more billions are being invested to hold two barren islands, Quemoy and Matsu, which by international law belong to the mainland of China...
...Then he invited us to remain for another hour of comments on the "issues...
...None has been forthcoming to date...
...It seems to this writer that since it is the taxpayer who must foot the bill, it is time that some financial statement be rendered...
...Bryant's ideas but feel fairly confident that she would have little ability to implement them either in Washington, D.C, or Washington state...
...Although I always read Milton Mayer eagerly, I believe that "The View From the Metropol Window" is one of his best articles for The Progressive...
...I recall spending an exhausting day with Humphrey during his 1954 campaign...
...Chinese Mythology Dear Sirs: Congratulations to you for publication of Edmund Clubb's article, "Our China Policy Reaches Dead End," in the November Progressive...
...But among them there were some that especially impressed me...
...It is common knowledge that he has alienated us from the entire world—what have we to show on our balance sheet...
...it is a prerequisite for war...
...Those who disagree with the Court decision should bring forth proof that school segregation does not deny equal protection...
...What is particularly wholesome about Mr...
Vol. 23 • January 1959 • No. 1
