THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Nixon and Responsibility Dear Sirs: I disagree with Vice President Nixon's statement that "any objective observer would have to agree that there could be nothing more...
...It doesn't stand for anything that we can sincerely admire, and this at a time in history when the world is desperately needing leadership...
...Olaus J. Murie Moose, Wyoming Democratic Betrayal Dear Sirs: The editors of The Progressive must certainly realize that the Democratic Party in the last Congress betrayed the mandate it received from the American people in the last election...
...Therefore, the condition of American agriculture has deteriorated to a point where the public and its leadership should be appropriately alarmed...
...I feel, as many of us in Massachusetts politics feel, that it failed to indicate strongly enough that he is an extremely self-centered man, a "Democratic Nixon" in his approach to problems, who forms intense personal likes and dislikes...
...As one who recently stood in the Vigil line outside the main gates of Fort Detrick, I can assure you that the Vigil is a moving experience which needs urgently to be continued...
...Those of us who cherish the precious guarantees of the 14th Amendment will not be satisfied until America is rid of her own "rotten boroughs" and all men are equal under the law...
...By the Geneva agreement, or the agreement reached at the Geneva Conference, I meant primarily the "Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Laos" signed between the French military which, in the words of our State Department, "represented the interests of Laos," and the Pathet Lao...
...Thank you for the sane-ness of your articles and for their uprightness...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Nixon and Responsibility Dear Sirs: I disagree with Vice President Nixon's statement that "any objective observer would have to agree that there could be nothing more irresponsible than to place before the Congress in an election year the complicated and potentially explosive issue of labor-management relations...
...Harry L. Fries Walkerton, Ind...
...if it is too much trouble for him to look up its entire text, its most important points are readily available in the State Department publication The Situation in Laos...
...Justice Black, dissenting, held that such discrimination is violative of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment...
...Justice Frankfurter stated that "It is hostile to a democratic system to involve the judiciary in the politics of the people...
...What assurance do we have that a combination of Southern Democrats and Northern Republicans will not continue to betray the mandate of the American people no matter what man is elected President...
...It occurred to me that it was most important to keep alive any voice that warned sincerely what could happen—then and there I made my small contribution to The Progressive...
...I extend best wishes to the magazine and its future—its mission is a more peaceful, trustful world, telling the truth not only about things inside the United States but clearing up the many misconceptions which still exist about life here "behind the Iron Curtain...
...Schickel an 'Angry Child' Dear Sirs: I am howling angry about a review of Norman Mailer's Advertisements for Myself, by Richard Schickel in the December issue...
...To an American married to a Czech and almost ten years away from home, it was a most welcome gift subscription...
...But The Progressive, as a national magazine of fifty years publishing history, has a responsibility to the reading public which far exceeds the responsibility of a college newspaper, particularly in the area of book reviewing...
...The number of independent newspapers is shrinking at an appalling rate...
...Then Schickel should get a job which contributes in some positive way to the support of whatever society he chooses to be a part of, get married, raise a family, and then after about twenty years of such maturing experiences, consider again offering his services as a reviewer...
...If so important a magazine as yours cannot get a competent person to review a book, then you should merely note its publication and decline to print a review...
...Presumably he means the communique which was issued by all parties to the conference, except South Vietnam and the United States, at the conclusion of the conference...
...Jeanne Washabaugh Nemcova Prague, Czechoslovakia America's Rotten Boroughs Dear Sirs: Attention needs to be brought to a practice which results in the disenfranchisement of millions throughout the United States...
...May we add that copies are available for $1 each at the Illinois Division, American Civil Liberties Union, 19 South LaSalle Street, Chicago...
...North Vietnam is providing substantial moral and propaganda support, including bitter attacks on the Laotian government and the United States...
...Kennedy Self-Centered Dear Sirs: I was greatly interested in your article on Senator John F. Kennedy (December...
...What candidate can the Democratic Party put up and elect to the Presidency who is not tarred with that betrayal...
...Speaking at a Washington, D.C., meeting of the American Psychological Association, Dr...
...it merely embodies a series of suggestions...
...The Laotian declarations and the Final Declaration represent an acceptance and interpretation of the armistice terms on the part of the Laotian government...
...Vietnamese Communists are assisting in the training and supplying of Laotian guerrillas, many of whom received their initial indoctrination in Red China or in North Vietnam...
...As a result the Senate barely missed by 49-47 going Republican, which would have meant that Senator Joe McCarthy would have kept his committee chairmanship, and that many Democratic programs would have been stymied...
...Unfortunately, Mayer neglected to give the address of the Vigil headquarters in Frederick, Maryland...
...If he had done so, he would know that I did not "argue . . . that Laos is too small and too poor to risk fighting for...
...Curt Bartz Chippewa Falls, Wis...
...The list of North Vietnam's violations by now covers several hundred pages, much of which has been published by the Foreign Office of Great Britain, one of the co-chairmen of the 1954 Geneva Conference...
...James B. Osgood Brooklyn, N.Y...
...For those who feel moved to make contributions to the Vigil, or to arrange to take part in it, the address is: 324 West Patrick St., Frederick, Maryland...
...especially avoid angry young children who are still thinking with their glands and haven't learned to react intelligently to the world of reality...
...We could, however, strengthen the hands of those who are by lending our financial support...
...I have no idea of how the millions of people feel...
...The remedy for such injustice cannot be found within the legislature, as this body's strength originates from the very practice we seek to reform...
...Gilbert Jonas New York, N.Y...
...government securities at the end of 1958 totaling more than $7.5 billion whereas at the close of 1959, the total was $5 billion, a decrease of 315 per cent...
...I assure you that the dedication, talents, and energies of our women have been an inspiration, and it has been a privilege to be their chairman...
...Goldbloom chooses to describe as an "internal affair...
...She wrote to the Reader's Digest editors, informing them of this...
...In such a situation one naturally looks to the courts for justice...
...Goldbloom's assertion that the West . . . has no right to assist Laos in this 'internal' affair, whereas North Vietnam is perfectly justified in becoming involved in any way it chooses . . .", etc., since nowhere in my article is such an assertion, or anything resembling it, to be found...
...More Made-Up Quotes Dear Sirs: "Reverend" Gerald L. K. Smith recently sent me a form letter soliciting funds for his "Christian Nationalist Crusade," enclosing slips of paper on which the unverifiable Manuilsky "quotation" was reproduced with the sketch of a clenched fist...
...There are, of course, people—I do not know whether Mr...
...News Monopoly Growing Dear Sirs: The Progressive is like a beacon light to a distressed ship at sea, because of your frank and liberal discussion on all controversial subjects...
...He further stated that the average American does not have much chance to form opinions "when this country has a one party press...
...Your magazine has indeed been a most welcome friend for me and for many of our acquaintances here who otherwise know little of the United States...
...Indeed, my pencil tells me that the money in my investment is no longer even earning 50 per cent of the cost of that money on the public money market...
...But, if one accepts the premise that Communist aims in Asia and elsewhere are predominantly those of dominion, and if one is familiar with recent developments in the region, then the inescapable conclusion is that the North Vietnamese are actively involved in what Mr...
...Richard P. Barthol, professor of psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles, pointed out some clear and present dangers facing the American people...
...Ted Savich Rensselaer, Ind...
...Also, I haven't made any charges or recovered any returns for long hours of often grueling labor, and no reward for considerable cost-cutting and corner-cutting supplied by a reasoned and not stodgy management...
...But they were not distorted, as anyone who chooses to run through the complete file of the New York Times can see for himself...
...Jonas is certainly no more astonished than I at "Mr...
...Does Nixon actually believe that the prospect of an election year would make Congressmen less responsible to the wishes of the voters...
...Most states have apportioned their districts so that rural voters have a voice in government out of all proportion to their numbers...
...I wrote to Harrison E. Salisbury, the New York Times expert on the Soviet Union about this, and he replied: "Of course Mr...
...Is this a master-stroke of audacity, or does this moral cripple think he is even worthy of polishing the boots of Abraham Lincoln...
...They replied with a curt note, merely changing the documentation to an issue of Pravda which came out before the United States recognized the USSR and before the Boston Public Library started subscribing to Pravda...
...Madhouse of the Universe Dear Sirs: In the January Progressive Daniel Talbot, after prophesying that within ten years the world may well become one immense insane asylum, remarked that "many people believe that such is the condition of the race now...
...They report at length with the news "shaded" or disorganized in such a way that readers are confused instead of enlightened...
...To argue, as Mr Goldbloom chooses, that Laos is too small and too poor to risk fighting for is the ultimate contradiction of the liberal's philosophy...
...Mrs...
...Ruth H. Pool Seattle, Wash...
...Perhaps the greatest danger, he said, is "the growing trend toward newspaper consolidation...
...It is just those little devils making up fresh and lively misquotes again...
...Barthol said, "that a single point of view presented insistently cam and does change beliefs and attitudes...
...Second, the parties want to win merely by throwing mud at the other party...
...In view of this, does it make much difference whether Slippery Dick or Humphrey or Kennedy or Symington gets to the White House...
...These words will cheer us on to renewed courage and effort to preserve our public school system not only in Little Rock but throughout Arkansas...
...Third, I do not see that the Democratic Party now has any high motives or ideals to put before the people...
...Appreciation from Prague Dear Sirs: As a reader from a distant country (and, in the eyes of some, behind the Iron Curtain at that), I want to tell how much I enjoy your magazine...
...The Banks Ride High Dear Sirs: The first message that President Eisenhower sent to Congress was the urgent request that the interest limit of 4.25 per cent on long-term loans be eliminated even though a few days earlier in his State of the Union message he stated that interest cost is now $9.5 billion...
...George Moran Boston, Mass...
...Or is it only indivisible when the aggressor is from the right wing of the political spectrum...
...Maurice Taksel McKeesport, Pa...
...Elizabeth Bryan Cambridge, Mass...
...Telephone MOnument 2-5721...
...Senators, a Democratic governor, and yet mysteriously gave the state legislature over to the opposition party...
...My difficulties stem from the fact that as I have been improving my efficiency and producing more crop yield per acre and operating more acres, my costs have been rising as fast as the market price for my production has been falling, until the two are desperately close to a meeting place...
...I am sure that anyone who has the faintest purview of the background of this master of McCarthyistic smear, deceit, hyperbole, and innuendo would agree that Nixon would not make a pimple on the benevolent chin of Abraham Lincoln...
...I think this is indicative that Kennedy may not be mature enough, or interested enough in the Democratic Party, to be President...
...Since my article was written, a good deal of additional material has become available, and a good many events have taken place, all apparently without attracting Mr...
...How to Back the Vigil Dear Sirs: I enjoyed Milton Mayer's clever article on the Vigil at Fort Detrick, in the January Progressive...
...I have never considered it "irresponsible" to place an issue of grave public importance before the elected representatives of the people...
...Jonas appears not to have heard of this document...
...This is an arguable position, but to me it seems a morally wrong and politically disastrous one...
...The economic expert he assigned to Laos has reported that the American aid given that country has been of no benefit to its economy...
...I find The Progressive an excellent guide to the important issues which concern serious-minded Americans who are—to use a good Quaker word—concerned about the world and its tragic split...
...Furcolo was defeated by only .7 of one per cent...
...This communique was never signed by the remaining parties...
...I did cite the unimportance of Laos against those who assert that for strategic reasons we must be prepared to fight so that "two million Laotians . . . do not get a chance to vote for Communists in free elections under international supervision...
...And the trend toward monopoly control of news and public opinion is increasing...
...Police Study Available Dear Sirs: We appreciated greatly the Holiday Greetings to our pioneering study, Secret Detention by the Chicago Police...
...Is not freedom indivisible...
...Goldbloom Replies Dear Sirs: It seems a pity that before challenging my article Gilbert Jonas didn't take the trouble to read it carefully...
...I think my children will need it and others like it to help them in the future...
...Urge all of your reviewers to read Granville Hicks' article on book reviewing in the December 12, 1959 issue of Saturday Review...
...The party is the first consideration...
...We can demonstrate in the laboratory and in the field," Dr...
...We are in a rut in this country with over 1450 daily newspapers in "one-newspaper towns,"—one man or company dictating what the people shall read...
...The only document emerging from the Geneva Conference which carries legal weight is the truce agreement signed by representatives of France and the Viet Minh Communists who now rule North Vietnam...
...Nor is my lack of fortune at farming due to the fact that I am a marginal or inefficient farmer...
...Jonas read the series of articles by Jim Lucas in the Scripps-Howard papers—which are far more critical of the Laotian government and army, and of the American operation in Laos, than I have been...
...Any praise or credit bestowed on me must be spread among hundreds of our group...
...William P. Engel Bentonville, Ark...
...Recently a group of urban dwellers in Minnesota petitioned the district court for reapportionment of the state legislature, and although the Court dismissed the complaint, it accepted jurisdiction and gave notice that it would rehear the case if action was not taken by the Minnesota legislature...
...Guy H. Raner, Jr...
...Alice Franklin Bryant Seattle, Wash...
...These newspapers have a tendency to distort the news, suppress or "bury" the news in back pages, especially during political campaigns...
...Goldbloom's assertion that the West, including the United States, has no right to assist Laos in this "internal" affair, whereas North Vietnam is perfectly justified in becoming involved in any way it chooses—perhaps short of actual military troops—and that it has a more authoritative voice to which right-minded Americans should respond than that of our own government or the present Laotian Government...
...Jonas means...
...It contained nothing about the children or candy factories...
...government securities...
...The Progressive is at its best in casting some light on unpublicized but highly significant issues like that of public debt transactions...
...Goldbloom's facts and conclusions really are: He continually refers to the terms of the 1954 Geneva Agreement...
...One is that our political parties exist for the parties, not for the welfare of people...
...and it has no legal status whatsoever...
...If the review had appeared in a college paper, I would dismiss it as the growing pains of an angry young idiot who might, or might not, develop some judgment when or if he matures...
...Less than one-third of the states have done any reapportioning in recent years and some have done none for more than a half-century...
...A few observations may serve to illustrate how fallacious Mr...
...Maurice J. Goldbloom New York, N.Y...
...It appears to me that when Vice President Nixon discusses responsibility, he does not mean responsibility to the electorate...
...Avoid children as reviewers...
...For example, in 1954, because of a minor personal argument, Kennedy refused to endorse Governor Foster Furcolo for the United States Senate...
...North Vietnamese soil is being used as a base of military operations to support this "revolt...
...The nature of Communist designs in Asia today requires the West to come to the aid of any duly constituted government whose nation is threatened by Communist expansion, overt or subversive, provided that the government invites the West to do so...
...Nixon and Lincoln Dear Sirs: I have read that Vice-President Nixon will open his campaign for the GOP Presidential nomination on the 100th Anniversary celebration of the nomination of Abraham Lincoln...
...K. never said such a thing...
...In California, 4300,000 people in Los Angeles county have the same representation in the state senate as do 14,000 people in one of the upstate senatorial districts...
...Michigan elected two Democratic VS...
...I have no interest in whitewashing the government of North Vietnam, and certainly do not regard it (or Mr...
...Have they sold the lower interest-bearing securities already certain they can buy higher interest bearing bonds, wholly indifferent to the inflationary effects and fully subscribing to the fallacious slogan—What's good for the banks is good for the country...
...And numerous additional newspaper reports have appeared—I particularly recommend that Mr...
...To be sure, some people might feel I was guilty of distortion in not citing any Communist or pro-Communist sources...
...in the January 6 issue: Net Soars By 16 Per Cent For Chase Bank...
...The text of the United Nations report has become available, pointing up the absence of any evidence of North Vietnamese participation in the fighting of Laos...
...Since an election year serves to remind Congressmen that their primary responsibility is to the voters who elect them, I fail to see how an election year would make the Congress "irresponsible...
...Being able to read Russian, she went to the Boston Public Library, got that issue of Pravda and read it carefully...
...Most astonishing is Mr...
...In Colegrove v. Green (1946) three Illinois voters challenged the constitutionality of unequal representation in Congressional districts, but the Supreme Court dismissed the complaint and said that distribution of seats was a state matter...
...I would like to make a few suggestions for the future: In the future, please seek qualified adults to review books...
...Unfortunately, not every issue has reached me but those that have I have read thoroughly...
...Joe R. Brewer Chairman Women's Emergency Committee For Public Schools Little Rock, Ark...
...Dear Sirs: We are heartened that Milton Mayer told the brave ones standing at Fort Detrick as a protest against chemical, radiological, and bacterial warfare preparations to move over and make room for another shareholder...
...The headline in the January 3 issue of the New York Times reads: Banks Will Show Record Earnings...
...One cannot help but hope that the federal courts will answer this appeal for reform when it is so sorely needed...
...The Progressive should be perfectly candid regarding this situation and not lead its readers to expect too much from the election of any candidate...
...William E. Zeuch Romoland, Calif...
...But I am fortunate enough to have other sources of income which support my financially dubious endeavors on the farm...
...There also he will find two declarations made by the government of Laos at the time, pledging internal democracy and adherence to a policy of military non-alignment, and a summary of the final Declaration—not "communique"—of the Conference, taking note of the Laotian declarations and pledging all parties to the conference to refrain from interfering in each other's affairs...
...This was carefully documented from a certain issue and page of Pravda...
...May you continue in a blaze of glory for the next fifty years...
...Jonas) as an "authoritative voice to which right-minded Americans should respond...
...Warning Voice Dear Sirs: In viewing a television program about Hitler's Germany and suddenly realizing how far away it seemed to me (though I was an infantryman in Europe)—it was almost impossible for my five children (7 to 16) to grasp the importance and know the terror of what they saw...
...There are some millions of us who ought to be doing the same thing but we are not yet that brave or unselfish...
...It may be that our Congress is aware of its function to serve the people—all the people...
...That too seems a rather old-fashioned little word these days but the lack of chromium plating is what makes your articles ring so true...
...In the text of the letter he quoted Khrushchev as vowing revenge on Americans who opposed his visit to their country and saying, "The day will come when we will fry these men like little devils on a skillet...
...Jonas's notice...
...Are the banks operating only for their own individual interests rather than the long-term welfare of our country when, as reported in the Times, every major bank has reduced its holdings of U.S...
...To that end I hope you will publish this short synopsis of the plight of one farmer whose story will soon be legion...
...Thanks from Little Rock Dear Sirs: On behalf of the entire Women's Emergency Committee, may I express our deep appreciation for your interest in our work, and thank you for the Holiday Greeting to us in your January issue...
...On the contrary, I operate a relatively large farm of traditional corn belt fertility and amenability to mechanization...
...And so, for all of us, I send you our gratitude and every good wish for your continued success and for peace for all of us in 1960...
...William B. Gould Elberon, N.J...
...When that is done, start writing letters to Congressmen, the President, and any other persons who are responsible for promoting such a course...
...Moreover, according to virtually every observer, including the Canadian and Indian members of the International Control Commission overseeing the truce, North Vietnam has continually and ruthlessly violated the terms of the truce agreement and of the communique...
...Lyndon Johnson was the chief of the betrayers...
...This discrimination is particularly acute in relation to the state legislature...
...All the work is done by volunteers who must come from among those of us who feel some personal responsibility to see that the Vigil does not fade out, especially during the cold winter months and early spring, when few are willing to stand for five hours (in shifts) in the cold...
...Its continued witness against germ warfare production and stockpiling by our army depends on financial contributions and the personal effort of anyone and everyone who is willing to go to Frederick and stand with the others in front of the Fort...
...This, unfortunately, seems to be the creed of many "liberals" today...
...Secretary-General Hammarskjold has secured an agreement from the Laotian government to a policy of internal reconciliation...
...Poor Abe...
...Indeed, Governor G. Mennen Williams has been saddled with a Republican legislature for a decade now...
...and in the January 7 issue: Chemical Bank Raises Net 12 Per Cent...
...That is an example of a perceptive, adult review...
...I doubt, however, if this is what Mr...
...Admires Reichley Article Dear Sirs: I wish to express my high admiration for James Reichley's "Battle at the Back Door," in your January issue...
...Nine of the banks reporting: First National City, Chase Manhattan, Manufacturers Trust, Morgan Guaranty Trust, Bankers Trust, Irving Trust, Hanover, First National of Chicago and Mellon National of Pittsburgh held U.S...
...He must be rotating in his grave like a whirling dervish...
...Urge young Schickel to take a Miltown and calmly read Granville Hicks' review of Advertisements for Myself in the November 7, 1959 Saturday Review...
...Jonas is one of them— who believe that all weapons are legitimate in the fight against Communism, and that we must never allow Communists to come to power anywhere, even by the free vote of the people concerned...
...In the comparatively sane Eighteenth Century Voltaire was writing: "I greatly fear," said Memnon, "that our little terraqueous globe must be the very madhouse of the universe which you have honored me by describing...
...Distorted Analysis Dear Sirs: Maurice Goldbloom's absentee "analysis" of Laos in your December issue constitutes a highly distorted selection of press comments obviously tailored to fit his own preconceptions...
...The Democratic Party is trying to outdo the Republican in furthering the warlike spirit in huge appropriations for the Army, at the very time when thoughtful people throughout the world want peace...
...Robert H. Clarke Princeton Graduate School Princeton, N.J...
...A Bostonian wrote me that an article in the Reader's Digest reported that children working in Soviet candy factories were given the death penalty for stealing one single piece of candy...
...The nation which imprints In Cod We Trust on its coins, which cancels its postage with Pray For Peace had better look out or it will be moaning "Deliver us from evil," the evil of our own creation...
...This quality could be damaging in a President...
...All we can hope is that Congress will get a tabulation which shows the holdings of all banks for the two years and determine whether there has been concerted action...
...Reseda, Calif...
...But Mr...
...As to my sources: of course I have "selected" from among the available press reports—not "comments"—since a verbatim reproduction of all of them would have been impossible even if desirable...
...Certainly many thoughtful people on this side of the Atlantic long ago came to that conclusion...
...Also there still remains some residue from happier days before the Farm Bureau gained such control over the destiny of American agriculture...
...Possibly the Laotian government exaggerated the extent of North Vietnamese involvement in the actual fighting (or was itself misled by some of its field commanders...
...Democrats Lack Ideals Dear Sirs: I have written the following letter to Paul M. Butler, chairman of the Democratic National Committee: "In reply to your recent letter of solicitation I just want to say what I think of the Democratic Party as a party...
...I do believe I can speak for quite a few other Democrats with whom I have talked...
...Kenneth Douty Executive Director Illinois Division American Civil Liberties Union Chicago, Illinois...
...From now on, as many have remarked to me, we can only try to find candidates whose thoughts are positive and lofty enough to satisfy us, in whatever party they are...
...Several things I find wrong...
...It is one of the best non-technical analyses of a complex political and budgetary problem that I have ever read...
...But it is no new idea...
...Esme Wynne-Tyson Sussex, England Plight of the Farmer Dear Sirs: I am a farmer...
Vol. 24 • March 1960 • No. 3
