THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Nixon Comforts Khrushchev Dear Sirs: When Vice President Richard Nixon and Premier Nikita Khrushchev were arguing the relative accomplishments of our respective economies...
...Supreme Court will again review the convictions under the "membership provision" of the Smith Act, and the order to register issued against the Communist Party under the McCarran Act...
...In a world situation as desperate as the present, there is a crying need for at least one candidate with color and stature...
...From that day on the move to induce resignation of the Kishi government mushroomed...
...And after praising a form of labor idealism for several pages, he asserts flatly that labor does not have what he has just described...
...We need a labor party...
...Disputes Lens' Logic Dear Sirs: This is picking an old bone with Progressive readers, but Sidney Lens, in writing an excellent article about labor in the August issue, has done it again and simply must be taken to task once more...
...Those who participated did so as individuals, not as representatives of their schools or churches...
...The opposition socialist party, which wished the Diet dissolved so the will of the people on the treaty could be expressed in new elections, was angered...
...Instead, you have maintained your integrity and sense of values by pointing out that neither candidate has offered an imaginative and creative approach to the pressing problems of the country...
...I notice he, like Harry Truman, made the charge that Senator Kennedy bought the nomination...
...We are convinced that the effectiveness of the WILPF lies in working where we can make the greatest contribution, within our own governmental process, where our voices are heeded...
...If American Catholics—and especially Mr...
...Single copies are available for five cents each...
...Dorothy Hutchinson, Chairman Policy Committee United States Section WILPF Philadelphia, Pa...
...In his writings (and I enjoy them) Lens has yet to define "idealism" to prove whatever-it-is he thinks labor once had has declined...
...That wrongness yielded its secret when I put my face in a corner and tried to read the speech aloud...
...Gordon D. Friedlander West Plains, N.Y...
...These youngsters today don't have the fight or spirit we had twenty years ago...
...Tensions still remain, but with the automatic approval of the new Mutual Security Pact with the United States on June 19, they have been temporarily reduced...
...Milton Mayer Carmel, Calif...
...men who would be most suitable junior executives in the employ of a giant corporation, but certainly unthinkable as leadership symbols for the destinies of 180,000,000 Americans...
...Bert Corley Redding, Calif...
...Johnson became a member of WILPF we had numerous resignations because we would not take a "firm stand" on Hitler...
...Possibly this will be a more difficult problem for Mr...
...It is significant that, although the WILPF was founded in the heat of World War I, Jane Addams never denounced Germany, which was then considered as much a devil-nation as Russia is now...
...Whether Kennedy really has courage remains to be seen...
...Let's give the United Nations more and more opportunity to show its usefulness...
...Kay Boyle Rowayton, Conn...
...What's wrong with winning...
...The government party sought to extend the Diet session...
...I shall try to pursue the issue in detail...
...Johnson apparently thinks that Jane Addams would be disappointed that her WILPF does not specifically denounce Communist nations and their violations of freedom...
...So Mrs...
...If this comes about, it will be because many liberals have decided to gamble on what kind of a man Senator John F. Kennedy really is...
...Here are a number of them: "The loss of attendance at union meetings shows labor has lost its idealism...
...People observed on their TV sets the Prime Minister's insolent refusal to answer opposition questions...
...William Abbott Akron, Ohio Japanese Protests Explained Dear Sirs: We in Japan have just passed a critical point in our postwar development...
...Eleanor Hall Lawrence, Kans...
...Maybe next month he'll go into more detail and inform us just how Kennedy bought eight hundred delegates...
...A study of both cases reveals why the Supreme Court has tried in the past to side-step the basic issues...
...Perhaps a future Mencken will call the suffocating opulence of the Fifties The Age of the Flip-Top Box...
...Furthermore, after having been enthusiastic for Stevenson eight years ago and four years ago disappointed in him, I have finally come to the conclusion that he wouldn't make a good President in these perilous times because he lacks decision...
...This was the turning point...
...Confidence in Kennedy Dear Sirs: It now seems likely that a Catholic will be the next President of the United States...
...The U.S...
...The comparatively slight differences between Stevenson and Kennedy provide no basis for this unwavering devotion to Stevenson...
...some are opposed to it...
...For the picture of Kempton in the corner reading Kennedy's speech, I suggest a dunce's cap...
...Why don't we return to our simple slogan, "Organize the unorganized...
...Again I say that his first hurdle is to be elected...
...should one or both be upheld as constitutional, American democracy will indeed be facing a crisis...
...All the newspapers and most of the people therefore called for Kishi to step down before violence occurred...
...Call to Greatness Dear Sirs: "I'm an enthusiast over biological and chemical warfare...
...These people are not Communists...
...It's a crying shame labor has become an institution...
...It is little wonder that the liberal and independent element of the American publie is bewildered and apathetic...
...to the stout in spirit, regardless of party...
...In fact when I heard him speak as a very young Congressman I put him down then as a young man with a future...
...It could not be read aloud...
...The selection of Henry Cabot Lodge as the G.O.P...
...The revolting enthusiasm of Colonel Joseph C. Prentice of Dugway Proving Ground makes one suspect that the basic qualification for work in this field is first of all a subhuman callousness...
...Such people saw these maneuvers as unmasking the fundamentally antidemocratic attitude of the Kishi government...
...By "Nazi" I do not mean any former member of the N.S.D.A.P...
...Technicians' Campaign Dear Sirs: In one respect, I believe the forthcoming political campaign will prove to be the most unusual in our history...
...There seems to be a "lost cause mystique" about Stevenson similar to that held by some Southerners about the Civil War...
...While I shudder at the thought of "Revolving Richard" in the White House, this lifelong Democrat will be forced to go fishing next November unless Senator Kennedy gives a flat, irrevocable pledge to choose Stevenson as Secretary of State if he is elected...
...The periods balanced neatly enough to the eye...
...First, your statement that the Democrats didn't select the best available man—meaning, of course, Stevenson: Politics is above all practical...
...I'm wondering just what Mrs...
...The movement in opposition to the Revised Mutual Security Pact seemed to have slackened by May 19 when the government party chose to close discussion on the bill...
...Muriel I. Symington Brooklyn, N.Y...
...Mrs...
...One candidate has said, "We must be able to stand up to the Russians," and the other, "We will not be pushed around...
...Nor has he impressed me as being cold just because he doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve...
...People believed that this action was taken in order that the pact would be ready for signature thirty days later when President Eisenhower was scheduled to arrive in Japan...
...I wanted a candidate who could defeat the inevitable Republican candidate, Nixon...
...After approvingly describing an aspect of institutionalization, he negates everything said before by condemning institutions as bad...
...This rejoinder must have amused Khrushchev—and comforted him...
...Richard Criley, Executive Secretary Chicago Committee to Defend Democratic Rights 189 W. Madison St., Suite 811 Chicago 2, 111...
...Stevenson for State Dear Sirs: May I offer a belated thanks to The Progressive for the way you stayed with the best man, Adlai Stevenson...
...Nor has he proved the case against institutions...
...I have been studying him ever since he became a possible candidate...
...Translation: I don't understand the modern use of brain instead of brawn...
...Stevenson picked Senator Sparkman of Alabama in 1952...
...Perhaps I should have said "Nazi criminal...
...I believe we Democrats have a very strong ticket, one that can fight and win, and after winning give us the kind of Administration the country sorely needs...
...Is that what Mrs...
...So why not drag Stevenson off that pedestal you have put him on...
...Demonstrations consequently became more and more aggressive, and violence appeared in some quarters...
...In 1960 there is even less difference...
...The threat of violence was imminent...
...nor are they following Communist leadership...
...However, after May 19, the opposition came to believe that Kishi had timed the ratification of the treaty so it could be accomplished on June 19, the day of Eisenhower's arrival...
...Take, for example, this sentence in Kennedy's speech: "My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age...
...There is no stronger aspect of the WILPF's program than its clear insistence upon freedom...
...Translation: They don't come out anymore to applaud my monthly one-hour lecture on why they are bums for not listening to me harangue them...
...Nor is this a remote possibility, in view of the majority decision of the high court last year on the Barenblatt case, which, in the opinion of Justice Black, foreshadowed the outlawing of the Communist Party...
...Paul Tilford Massapequa Park, N.Y...
...Section is a clear indication that many American women are eager to become active in an organization which offers them a constructive program to strengthen peace and freedom at home and all over the world, and to further honor our great founder, Jane Addams...
...O. and J. Walter Thompson, decided to engage each other in mortal combat—or analogous to the spectacle of the Winston Man dueling the Marlboro Man with sharpened lances rather than cigaret filters...
...It is an irrational mystique, for the issues of the struggle (or in this case, lack of issues) are irrelevant to it...
...As for Mrs...
...Dunce Cap for Kempton Dear Sirs: Murray Kempton, in "The Uncommitted," The Progressive, September 1960, is vaguely troubled by Senator John F. Kennedy's prose style, although he admits that it is tidy and even graceful...
...Section of WILPF is celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of Jane Addams birth with the construction of an apartment house, named after her, in Austria, to house a few of those unfortunates who survived the Hitler and Hungarian terrors...
...Can an individual submit whole-heartedly to the powerful superego principle present in institutionalized values and still meet flexibly and creatively the rapidly changing values of a world in revolution...
...Conner Reed Seattle, Wash...
...It is apparent that our neatly packaged and antiseptic Presidential candidates are entirely devoid of that aura or mystique, real or imagined, that has cloaked the vast majority of our previous nominees...
...In World War I, Jane Addams and others were branded pro-German and later Bolshevik...
...Tweedle-Jack, Tweedle-Dick Dear Sirs: In 1944 one of your inspired contributors said that the difference between the Presidential candidates was the difference between "tweedle-Dewey and tweedle-Delano...
...Even I can understand this...
...Corrects Quotation Source Dear Sirs: In your September editorial you use Sinclair Lewis' phrase, "men of measured merriment," which you attribute, through Eric Sevareid, to Thomas Wolfe...
...Nixon unwittingly made just the point that many of the critics here at home have been making for several years...
...I think his function is to keep the ideal in front of our eyes, to be the prophet of the party...
...Once we allow any group," he stated, "which has some political aims or ideas, to be driven from the ballot and from the battle for men's minds because some of its tenets are bad and some of its tenets are illegal, no group is safe...
...The popular protests which forced the cancellation of President Eisenhower's visit to Japan were directed against the disdainful Kishi government which, while conforming in the main to democratic protocol, has reminded us of all that is obnoxious in Japanese bureaucracy and, by its attitudes and actions, called up widespread fears of militarism and the police state...
...Johnson is not the only one who has wanted WILPF to forget the peace and emphasize the freedom in our name...
...of what avail would it have been to select a man who couldn't be elected...
...Alfred E. Kuenzli Alton, 111...
...Some Japanese favor the new pact...
...Outnumbered in the Diet, they seated themselves before the speaker's door so that he could not reach the Diet chamber...
...to all who respond to the scriptural call: 'Be strong and of good courage...
...Either is a continuation of the chip-on-the-shoulder attitude that has characterized so much of our foreign policy of late years...
...Johnson's specific charge that the WILPF did "nothing more" about the Hungarian tragedy than to urge that the United Nations deal with it—that is the WILPF approach to all international disputes and charges of aggression...
...But he refused...
...Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer sounded bitter in "The Big Word Was 'Win...
...Liberty Endangered Dear Sirs: In October the VS...
...Frankly, I am frightened...
...Agnes Hole Madison, Wis...
...Johnson would recommend...
...The years of delay in the appeals on these cases have dulled the recollection of even those civil libertarians who were aware of the dangerous anti-civil liberties sweep of both laws...
...Why could we not initiate new steps to settle the Berlin question, or the Quemoy question, instead of adamantly sticking to formulas which seemed right in 1945...
...Mayer seriously prefer a Stevenson defeat to a Kennedy victory...
...E. R. Zietlow Seattle, Wash...
...The intervening thirty-five years have seen a ghastly increase in the scope and variety of such weapons...
...George W. Whiting Houston, Tex...
...The WILPF expects to formulate a comprehensive answer to these attacks and this will soon be available on request to WILPF, 2006 Walnut Street, Philadelphia 3, Pennsylvania...
...Translation: How can I pay off my second car if the union raises my dues again...
...This will be the third argument on the "membership" cases and the second on the McCarran Act...
...The job of making or attempting to make the ideal a reality is one for a younger, tougher man...
...The Communist far left, though not many in number, was exultant at the turn of events and saw its own ends being realized...
...We are ahead in color television...
...Section are unequivocal...
...Although The Progressive did not support Senator John F. Kennedy among the Democratic contenders, it would have been easy, after the Los Angeles fiasco, to give a blanket endorsement of Kennedy...
...And even if Communism evaporated overnight, would not widespread poverty, international anarchy, and armaments breed new totalitarianisms and new threats of war...
...The WILPF is still faithfully following this course...
...His indifference to popular feeling and bureaucratic arrogance antagonized many besides leftists...
...This is the stupidest sort of criticism...
...The only alternative to channeling these through the United Nations is armed intervention inviting the onset of World War III...
...The President's visit was intended to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of Japanese-American relations...
...I decided that John Kennedy possessed these qualifications to a far greater degree than any of the other possibilities...
...be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.'" The man who can find no tone in that sentence—and there are many others as good —must be deaf...
...I was interested first of all in a man who could be a strong, decisive President, one who could lead the people to make ours a stronger, better nation, even though it entails sacrifice...
...The newborn organization in 1915 denounced neither side but sought to end the war by means of mediation and just peace terms which could eventually reconcile the belligerents...
...It's more humane than anything else we've got...
...For this reason, I feel that much public apathy will be the result at the polls this November...
...Then when I saw him in person and heard him speak the day of the West Virginia primary, when he must have been bone weary, I was wholly convinced that he is the man...
...It will be as if the giants of advertising, B.B.D...
...Kennedy—have the courage to repudiate the Franco pattern, it may be that a new example can be set here which will be of interest to our Latin American neighbors...
...Now I can only wonder if adherence to an institutionalized ideology such as the Catholic church may not have its effect upon a man's thinking...
...What useful ends are served by denunciations...
...They did not participate in violence, although several were injured by attacks from rightist groups while standing quietly near the Diet building...
...Finally, you took the position that he was compromising principles in choosing Johnson for Vice President...
...The common bond uniting them with other demonstrators was opposition to war and rearmament, and to what they considered the undemocratic behavior of the government...
...Thus they believed Kishi intended to use Eisenhower's great popularity in Japan to strengthen his own shaky political position and to gain support for the Security Treaty...
...It is so clear that neither party picked its best man...
...Jessie S. McCormick Latrobe, Pa...
...It opposed all settlement of disputes by war and pledged itself to attack the economic and political causes of war and to try to substitute law for war...
...On the subject of "painless death" here is the incredible conclusion reached by the Chemical Corps Scientists: "In sufficient quantity GB [German type B nerve gas] induces death in a matter of minutes after the victim first suffers a chest tightening, salivation and perspiration, vomiting, pin-pointing of the eyes, convulsions, and finally death from a filling of the lungs with fluid...
...I hope that the sphere of the priests can be limited to the metaphysical realm and that our practical affairs can be conducted on an entirely secular basis...
...Popular demand for the resignation of the Kishi cabinet soon far exceeded opposition to the security treaty...
...We oppose all totalitarianism of the Right or the Left and conditions which foster it at home or abroad...
...For shame, Sinatra, and a salute to you, Goldburg of New Haven...
...Further, when conferences are resumed at Geneva, it is vitally important that we press this issue as equally important as the issue of nuclear weapons...
...Probably the greatest issue in the world today is between authoritarianism and democracy...
...Dear Sirs: As an active member and officer of the Wisconsin state branch, I would like to state that, from the vantage point of many years of work in the WILPF, the aims of peace and freedom set forth in the broad and wise principles and policies of the U.S...
...Stevenson 'Mystique' Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer's August article on the Democratic convention was titled, "The Big Word Was 'Win...
...This was done in total absence of the socialist representatives, who had boycotted the session...
...This may be a mere trifle, but in these times when everything is so cushy and nice, we who remember and honor Lewis' hard truths find ourselves touchy even over trifles...
...Shiro Abe, Director Yokosuka Christian Center Yokosuka, Japan Kentaro Buma, Director Japan Church World Service Tokyo Kiyoshi Ii, Pastor Reinanzaka Church Tokyo Shinji Iwamura, Pastor Omori Megumi Church Tokyo Kiyoshi Ocawa Executive Director Audio-Visual Aids Committee National Council of Churches Tokyo Yoichiro Saeki, Pastor Shinagawa Church Tokyo Hiroshi Shinmi, Chaplain Department of Law Aoyama Gakuin University Tokyo Mikio Sumiya, Professor School of Economics University of Tokyo Yoichi Takizawa Assistant Professor Tokyo Union Theological Seminary Masao Tanaka, Professor Wasena University Tokyo Makoto Tsumori Assistant Professor Ochanomizu Women's University Tokyo Mayer's Nazis Dear Sirs: In the People's Forum of the September issue, a reader quotes the Manchester Guardian to contradict my assertion that "there are no former Nazis in high public office in the German Democratic Republic...
...Being the provocative person he is, he has raised a number of questions which should be answered...
...But basic problems underlying recent events have not been resolved and the tensions which afflict our nation will remain for some time to come...
...the United States did not sign this treaty...
...Dear Sirs: Before Mrs...
...Under these conditions Japanese did not feel capable of receiving President Eisenhower...
...Since protests in the Diet were not being honored, people went into the streets to let their will be known...
...Certainly it will take courage to continue to stand up to the Catholic hierarchy in the daily conduct of domestic and world affairs...
...It is to be hoped that, during the months and years ahead, American Catholics will stand up and be counted on the side of freedom...
...Marie Hodgson Leonia, N.J...
...The implications of both laws are momentous...
...While "Dicky-boy" was touring the South giving non-political political speeches, "Sonny-boy" was telling the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention that "Khrushchev understands only power...
...Johnson and all those others are doing...
...In Lewis Mumford's Atlantic article "The Morals of Extermination" he writes: "If we rallied the forces of mercy, human-heartedness, and morality with the vigor with which we have marshaled the dehumanized forces of destruction, what government could stand against us and face its own people, however strong its cynical suspicions and misgivings...
...Strong Democratic Ticket Dear Sirs: As a Democratic liberal and a politician who held a county elective office for twenty-four years I disagree on several points with the editorial in your August issue, "Democrats' Dilemma...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Nixon Comforts Khrushchev Dear Sirs: When Vice President Richard Nixon and Premier Nikita Khrushchev were arguing the relative accomplishments of our respective economies during their famous "kitchen debate" in Moscow, Nixon said substantially the following: "You are ahead in some things, we in others...
...In so doing we would don a mantle of greatness to win the respect and support of an anxious world...
...We must put pressure on our legislative representatives to insist that we sign this treaty of renunciation...
...We need an ideology like the one we had in the Thirties...
...I hope that we can have, among American Catholics, a clear repudiation of the Franco pattern...
...I, for one, reject the "wolf in sheep's clothing" thesis and am willing to place my confidence in Kennedy...
...This poses an enormous challenge...
...Questions Catholic Candidate Dear Sirs: The Progressive deserves to be congratulated for its September editorial, "The Quiet Campaign...
...People felt that such anti-democratic manipulation of democratic processes should not pass without protest...
...The government called in 300 police, who removed the socialists bodily and cleared a path...
...Rexford S. White Sheboygan, Wis...
...Kennedy than dealing with Khrushchev...
...We actively support the U.N...
...Lens is as good a writer as he is a bad logician...
...I suggest that Lens is a victim of current myths and prejudices which a number of labor leaders cling to uncritically...
...Would Mr...
...I think it's great stuff...
...But a great many were deeply offended by the Kishi government's maneuvers...
...The WILPF's answer to Communism is the equal emphasis we have always given to peace and freedom...
...but there was nothing remotely suggestive of a cadence to the ear...
...Some of us had had misgivings about a Catholic candidate for President, but I had admonished myself for these feelings, believing that Kennedy was quite emancipated in his thinking...
...Martin Klein Cambridge, Mass...
...For instance, you are ahead in the thrust which you can apply to your rockets...
...The loser acquires an aura of glory which the victor, because of his efficient practicality which leads to victory, can never have...
...As for your own editorial, you blast Kennedy for choosing Senator Johnson as his running mate...
...Salute to Rabbi Goldburg Dear Sirs: Bravo for Rabbi Goldburg's open letter (August issue) to Frank Sinatral I wish that this might be printed in pamphlet form and signed by every writer in America—for the writers of America are in for increasingly grave trouble if they do not speak out more loudly and clearly than they have in the past decade...
...Hardly a more damaging commentary could be made on the difference in emphasis between the two countries...
...Translation: Modern problems are too complex for me...
...a man with the wisdom and courage to deal with our friends and our enemies in the world...
...E. Whealdon Anderson, Calif...
...Even for the well-informed, this brief pamphlet may prove to be a valuable refresher...
...Many do not understand what it involves...
...It is a part of the liberal tradition to have a reasonable amount of faith in any person until he proves himself unworthy...
...Vice Presidential candidate makes it imperative that the Democrats offer in their proposed administration a man of even greater stature in foreign affairs...
...Flexibility in the face of changing conditions does not necessarily mean appeasement...
...bulk order rates are $15 per 500, plus shipping costs...
...Lewis may not have originated the phrase, but he wrote it before Wolfe...
...The Chicago Committee to Defend Democratic Rights has just published a review of both of these cases and of the basic issue of "guilt by association" involved in each...
...meanwhile, let me say that the difficulty lies in the word "Nazi...
...Declaration of Human Rights and the proposed Covenants of Human Rights applicable to all nations...
...In the second place, you underrate Kennedy...
...There is also just as clear a recognition that unless the world finds a way to keep peace, there will be neither freedom nor men to enjoy it...
...Instead, we selected two skilled political technicians...
...He owes his readers an explanation of why he persists in tossing off his Lensian dicta but does not take the trouble to back them up with evidence...
...The rapid growth and renewed enthusiasm of the U.S...
...Lens is an articulate labor spokesman with a wide and enthusiastic following...
...He thinks that he has discovered the defect: "I remember reading all the way through his acceptance speech at Los Angeles and wondering at a certain wrongness in every line...
...Most Japanese and all Christians deplored this trend...
...We should all hope to die so painlessly] In his article in The Progressive last December Representative Kastenmeier stated: ". . . by 1925 most nations had signed a treaty renouncing both chemical and biological weapons...
...It was absolutely tone-deaf...
...The United Nations is proving itself more and more capable of handling delicate situations involving international complications...
...Flip-Top Age Dear Sirs: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., is indeed correct when he says, in the September Progressive, that "a future Gibbon will regard the Eisenhower-Nixon era as the downward turning point when he comes to write about the Decline and Fall of the American Republic...
...The neo-Fascists also fed on the popular confusion and sought to incite conflict...
...More WILPF Defenders Dear Sirs: Elsie Johnson's letter in the August Progressive is part of her long one-woman campaign to undermine faith in the integrity of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom...
...Translation: Why don't those fools draft me to run for public office...
...Why do we have to wait for the other side to issue ultimatums which offer either war or a disastrous loss of prestige...
...Will they stop the spread of Communism or cause it to disappear...
...Within twenty-five minutes the majority party had both extended the session and ratified the security treaty (an item not even on the agenda...
...I think it appears in Arrowsmith...
Vol. 24 • October 1960 • No. 10
