THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM 'The Hurt Goes Deep' Dear Sirs: Almost four years ago I had occasion to write: "The cost of the 1956 election was not that the Democrats lost a Presidential election—there...
...They were men of my worst fears...
...The costs of the loss of Stevenson are certain and heavy, and the hurt goes deep...
...Before the convention, I had no strong preference among the leading Democratic hopefuls...
...I too began rooting for Stevenson when I saw the demonstrations and heard Eugene McCarthy's brilliant plea...
...Lengyel should only be commended for his courage to call a spade a spade...
...George E. Meyer Cleveland, Ohio During the primary campaign in our state I was warned by my friends who were supporting Kennedy that I had better take him or I might be stuck with Lyndon Johnson...
...I respectfully suggest four steps that the United States could take: 1. Leave the leadership in this matter at the United Nations to a nation which has no racial problem...
...His most conspicuous characteristics appear to be that he is unusually young, unusually wealthy, possessed of an unusually well-developed jungle instinct for survival and gain, and a Catholic in a world whose primary socio-economic problem probably is population expansion...
...Mayer's article, "The Big Word Was 'Win'" in the September issue...
...He was so clearly the man we need at this time of crisis that I cannot understand why he received so little support at the Convention...
...We, therefore, nominated John Kennedy, the man who this coming January will bring the liberal philosophy back to the White House...
...The whole Democratic ticket is strong and good...
...armed forces are withdrawn from Taiwan, and Taiwan is once more united politically and spiritually with the rest of China...
...And there was time for him to demonstrate that he is capable of growth in humility, in wisdom, and in compassion...
...Articles and editorials in The Progressive during the past year have supported "closer relations with mainland China," but have argued that this "need not mean that we abandon Formosa...
...I must admit that I have enjoyed many of your articles and features, and that I agree with many of them...
...I feel strongly opposed to Mr...
...Rev...
...We had all been two-time losers and could not afford another "glorious defeat...
...Mayer Misinformed Dear Sirs: In his recent article on the Germanys, Milton Mayer wrote: "There are no former Nazis in high public office in the . . . German Democratic Republic...
...Dear Sirs: It is all over now, the shouting and the tumult of both Democratic and Republican Conventions...
...I shall neither forget it nor forgive it...
...May their tribe increase...
...Where a given state refused Negroes the vote in large numbers, that state would lose one of its Senators...
...In the judiciary, Dr...
...they are doing very well without it...
...I had seen a rational and well-informed political analysis presented from month to month in your journal...
...But while in Los Angeles, I viewed something Mr...
...Gladys B. Harger Lansing, Mich...
...These are historical facts which cannot be denied...
...Jean Wiley Madison, Wis...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM 'The Hurt Goes Deep' Dear Sirs: Almost four years ago I had occasion to write: "The cost of the 1956 election was not that the Democrats lost a Presidential election—there will be other elections in the future...
...Together, they have robbed me of my right to vote...
...The party had its opportunity...
...Defends WILPF Dear Sirs: Elsie Johnson's letter in the August Progressive raises questions about the objectivity of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom's view of world affairs...
...Voting Rights Solution Dear Sirs: A practical approach is needed to the question of voting rights for Negroes in the South...
...All over the country those who were using or wished to use public housing were submitted to the indecency of executing non-subversive affidavits...
...In particular, she questions WIL's action about the Hungarian situation in 1956, an action she considers ineffectual and weak, implying less concern about Soviet aggression than about continuing colonialism...
...It is now said that the Old Guard is finished, and a new regime started...
...The question is, will there be other Stevensons...
...Loyd F. Worley The First Methodist Church Hartford, Conn...
...It does not ease the pain to refer knowingly and patronizingly to "the hard political facts of life...
...Most Negroes cannot vote, and Congress is paralyzed by the Senate's unwillingness to make laws which will alter the situation...
...The Castro government is working for the welfare of the Cuban people...
...Any compromise of the kind suggested by Mr...
...You were right when you suggested that there is something too cool and detached about him...
...Colonel Nasser is a dictator...
...But he didn't, and his comparative lack of desire and enthusiasm for the office made a valid argument for turning to another man with a more positive approach...
...In education, the rectors of East Berlin and Griefswald Universities and the rector of the Teacher Training College in Potsdam are former Nazis...
...Uphaus, who had refused to cooperate with a New Hampshire one-man investigating committee using the technique of "guilt by association," and had declined to inform on registered guests at "World Fellowship," a camp in Conway, New Hampshire, of which he was director...
...Fears Government Dear Sirs: Senator Joseph Clark asks in the July Progressive, "Why is it that so many Americans are afraid of our national government...
...Appeal for Castro's Cuba Dear Sirs: A few students here at Stanford University have formed a Cuban Defense Committee, with the purpose of spreading the truth about the Cuban revolution and arguing for its support...
...Topeka, Kans...
...Will we ever grow up...
...Therefore I was deeply disappointed with your inclusion of Mr...
...In my experience as a pastor I have called on persons guilty of murder who were given better treatment than is accorded this mild-mannered sixty-nine-year-old pacifist...
...Let the governor of Pennsylvania indicate the quality of the principles involved: "I have said ever since 1952 that I believe Stevenson was the best-qualified man for the Presidency—but that does not mean any endorsement in this campaign...
...3. Begin at once the application of the full powers of the Federal administration and Congress to achieving complete desegregation in the South...
...For this need not have been the substitute's year, as it had to be Stevenson's...
...Courageous Congressmen Dear Sirs: "Freshmen Ferment in an Old House," in the July issue is the most heartening article I have read for a long, long time...
...We are in an arms race...
...Never before have I, as a clergyman, been refused an opportunity to see a prisoner because "he has already had four visitors this week...
...Major A. C. Thorn Montreal, Canada Disputes Peretz on Nasser Dear Sirs: I have just read the review by Don Peretz in the July issue of Emil Lengyel's The Changing Middle East...
...If Adlai Stevenson had entered one primary and defeated Kennedy, he could have had the nomination...
...Mayer was certainly misinformed...
...This would rxluce the number of Senators who deliberately block the exercise of the vote by large groups back home...
...To get a loan under the National Defense Education Act a student must sign an oath...
...it had its responsibility...
...Willard Uphaus of New Haven, churchman, scholar, and pacifist...
...Uphaus, present-day prototype of Gandhi, friend of all humanity: one year in an antiquated county jail, most of the time in solitary confinement...
...As one of our statesmen has said: "We are now in a world crisis of great dimensions, and need sound and wise guidance...
...Herbert Harvey Spring Valley, N. Y. Hoping for Sanity Dear Sirs: With such astronomical sums of money being expended on missiles and other fantastic developments to see what is on the other side of the moon, many of us are desperately hoping for a new foreign policy of sanity, based on realistic solutions of world problems, rather than on the hysterical effort to keep ahead of the U.S.S.R...
...Of course Soviet guns and tanks in Hungary were cruel...
...In light of Stevenson's stature and eminence, in light of the extraordinary devotion and loyalty he has inspired and continues to inspire, in light of his conduct over the years which "made us all proud to be called Democrats," one might reasonably suppose that his party would make its declination, if it felt it must, only reluctantly, for seemingly compelling reasons, and on an agonized note of high principle...
...Until recently passport applicants had to swear an oath...
...Dear Sirs: I had considered The Progressive the outstanding spokesman for the American liberal...
...Lawrence Shumm Stanford, Calif...
...Peretz should consider this book as unfair or not objective...
...I can swallow Kennedy as a candidate, but I don't expect to enjoy the experience...
...The fact that you were for Adlai Stevenson is no excuse for what you published in your August issue...
...I have no choice between them...
...4. Then, when American Negroes have been assured complete equality with whites in every state in the Union, if apartheid has not meanwhile been abandoned in South Africa, join again in the United Nations' efforts to secure equality for the eleven million segregated South Africans...
...I think they will discover that it is not so easy to elect a second-rate candidate President as it was to nominate him...
...Uphaus must cry out in protest against such "cruel and unusual punishment...
...it would be folly to forget it...
...If he wants to work as a federal civil servant he must swear that he is not a member of any organization on the Attorney-General's list, or explain the circumstances of such membership...
...Moreover, one seldom hears mention of the United Nations, except for its antagonism toward China—for example, its branding of China as "an aggressor...
...he undermines Western positions in Africa and in Asia...
...Mayer obviously did not...
...The Supreme Court decision has only succeeded in causing hatred among the races in some places in the South...
...Jane Ad-dams continues to be a shining example to us of what it means to hold a minority view with its implications of being totally misunderstood rather than to conform to situations which seem to us to abridge that freedom and to threaten that peace...
...Does the answer lie in an accelerated arms build-up...
...It is astonishing that Mr...
...There was time for him to learn of virtues other than ambition and efficiency, of goals other than power and self-gratification, of means other than money and ruth-lessness...
...The simple wording of the WIL statement (a request that the UN proceed with its investigation of the Hungarian situation) may itself be a measure of WIL's attempt to be objective: the request is a way of asking for information on which to make an objective judgment...
...Warburg shows his usual deep understanding and masterly treatment of foreign affairs...
...The Democratic Party has made its abominable decision...
...For some as yet unexplained reasons most of the writers on the Middle East in recent years have tended to underplay the subversive role which Nasser has played in the last five years and the damage which this movement is causing Western positions in that area...
...It shows a number of Nazis in high office in East Germany, including Hans Reichelt as minister of agriculture and Curt Merkel as minister of supply...
...Even though they are comparatively few in number, it is encouraging that eleven Congressmen are using their heads and are courageous enough to stand for their convictions...
...Warburg is a waste of words...
...I cannot bring myself to vote for Richard Nixon, but the crude rejection of Adlai Stevenson has cooled my support for the Democrats...
...And how apparent it was at the convention that the liberal Democrats who attached themselves to Senator John F. Kennedy did so in self-interest...
...Cruel Punishment Dear Sirs: Bernard Goldfine, whose favors to Sherman Adams forced Adams to leave his position of influence in the White House, was sentenced to the Federal prison at Danbury, Connecticut, for three months for contempt...
...Ernestine W. Brehmer Sheboygan, Wis...
...in outer space...
...The Changing Middle East is an honest attempt to describe the developments which took place in the last decade in th« Middle East, with special emphasis on the difficulties and problems created by Nasserism...
...C. B. Morse Washington, D.C...
...Anyone like myself who has observed how New Hampshire authorities have tightened the thumb-screws each month on Dr...
...Editors of The Progressive may not like this, but the fact remains...
...This in its turn would bring back the vote to the states which had barred it, and bring back that state's Senators to the Senate, elected, now, by a majority of the voters, rather than by a minority dedicated to barring the franchise from others...
...Now, after again watching Mr...
...It looks like one treatment for the rich and another for the poor...
...It must be clear to anyone who studies the problem that the Chinese will be satisfied with nothing short of the complete restoration of Taiwan to the sovereignty of the motherland...
...Ambition is not wrong in itself...
...If the choice had been with the people instead of with the politicians, Stevenson would be our candidate today...
...He is not a dilettante like Stevenson, whom I admire very much...
...Isn't it time to examine this arms race—time that we recognize that Communist armed might isn't "growing" in a vacuum, that it is, perhaps, pretty much in response to our own policies and actions...
...Dear Sirs: The betrayal at Los Angeles has left me greatly disheartened...
...We are not perfect, but we are better friends of the Negro than you are...
...Yes, but the same breed...
...However, your running fight against us here in the South regarding matters about which we know more than you could ever assimilate does not set well, so take me off your list...
...The remedy for such Congressional failure is a Constitutional amendment adopted by the states or by the people...
...We here in California are too pressed for funds to provide adequate transportation, smog-riddance, and decent education, but huge appropriations for destructive weapons and experimentation in moon rockets must go on, it seems...
...This statement is vital to Mr...
...The Cuban revolution has wide support throughout Latin America, especially among the people...
...I don't wish to imply that Senator Clark has any wicked schemes up his sleeve...
...I talk to many of these older and wiser colored men and women, and have written many feature articles regarding their achievements in our community...
...But Uphaus was jailed by a New Hampshire court for one year...
...The Manchester Guardian for May 15 contains a most enlightening article on "Nazis in Office in East Germany...
...If he is inducted into the army he must also do so and faces allegations of disloyalty if he claims Federal constitutional privilege...
...Kurt Schumann is president of the East German High Court and Seigfried Dallmann is chairman of the Judicial Affairs Committee of the East German Volkskammer...
...The Chinese assert this daily, in their press, on the radio, and on their maps, and the children sing in school that Taiwan is part of "the sacred soil of China," now forcefully occupied by American imperialist forces...
...Examine the Arms Race Dear Sirs: In view of Senator Joseph S. Clark's awareness (July Progressive) of the "present dangerously delicate balance of terror," of his defining the ultimate objective not as "maintenance of an East-West power balance in an ever-accelerating and ever-more-dangerous arms race"—but as "international agreements which will prevent the use of, and eventually eliminate . . . weapons," of his concession that "the best deterrent could not give us security," one cannot help but wonder—and be not a little dismayed—at his assertion: "America's military capability must be strengthened to offset growing Communist . . . might...
...Elizabeth Weideman Dearborn, Mich...
...It is hardly fair for her to sit in judgment on us, since she has not been present at any of our deliberations for several years, having left us at the height of the McCarthy era...
...As concerned Americans we deplore recent actions taken by the American government against the people of Cuba and their revolution...
...This is utterly ridiculous, for Taiwan (not "Formosa'^ is part of China...
...Marie Burns Denver, Colo...
...Kennedy is the man to defeat Nixon...
...Under our traditional system of government by the people as well as of and for the people, we feel it our duty to exercise our rights in' an effort to influence our own government...
...It is mostly the smart adeck younger Negroes, goaded by the NAACP, who are causing most of the trouble...
...A. Schmitz New York, N.Y...
...It is tragic that the logic and spirit of your July issue editorial did not dominate the Democratic convention...
...It would thus be a simple and direct way of solving the problem...
...I should like to explain the sources of my own personal fear of the state...
...We continue to be convinced that without peace there can be no freedom, and without freedom there can be no peace...
...They are former Nazis...
...Dear Sirs: It saddens some of us in the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom to know that our former friend, Elsie Johnson, still feels enmity toward us...
...I am a Protestant, and I was for John F. Kennedy from the very first because of his principles...
...James Norvell Chicago, 111...
...he is the man who opened the back door of the Middle East to Soviet penetration...
...Ellen Wallace Washington, D.C...
...and he is the man responsible for the upheavals and dissension in the Arab world...
...Never before have I had to stand out of doors and wait for my chance...
...There is so much of recrimination, so much of the holier-than-thou philosophy, so much hatred, so much deliberate misunderstanding, abroad in the world today, that some of us prefer to try to find solutions to problems rather than to waste our time denouncing this country or that...
...Senator...
...2. Abstain for the time being from participation in criticism of, or sanctions against, South Africa...
...Mayer's entire point of view...
...R. H. Barnes Uncasville, Conn...
...This year Adlai Stevenson himself was again available...
...so were Israeli, Egyptian, French, and English shootings at Suez...
...That is in his proposal for disposition of the Taiwan problem...
...And I am not alone...
...Never before has there been a listening guard stationed to hear every word I would say...
...Ernest W. Thacker Van Nuys, Calif...
...It will be a long time, though, before I get over what the Democrats did at Los Angeles...
...It is more than enough to make one weep, and many weep...
...Policy on South Africa Dear Sirs: "Sanctions Against South Africa," by George Shepherd, Jr., in the June Progressive, refers to the difficulties involved in forming a United States policy of pressure against the South African government that will force it to abandon apartheid...
...As a New Englander I feel shame and chagrin...
...I could have forecast the two Presidential candidates...
...Dear Sirs: After what happened in Los Angeles, it was amusing to read in the July Progressive that the Socialist Party saw some hope in the Democratic Party if it rid itself of the racists, the corrupt big-city bosses, "the diehard cold-warriors," and the enemies of labor...
...The Campaign Dear Sirs: May it not be long before The Progressive in general and Milton Mayer in particular get over their sour grapes skepticism about the Kennedy victory in Los Angeles...
...We have had none of that trouble in our county...
...Daniel W. Burns Evanston, 111...
...A loyalty oath is required to graduate from New York City high schools...
...or in which less than half the registered voters cast valid votes for U.S...
...There is now an almost intentional campaign to distort what is actually happening in Cuba...
...Peretz' defense of Colonel Nasser and to his totally unacceptable criticism of Mr...
...However, many of us active in WIL do not see the organization's action as either weak or lacking in objectivity...
...I think many of us will be a long time getting over the refusal of the Democrats to choose Adlai Stevenson...
...In 1952 and 1956, Stevenson led the battle with effectiveness and suffered his wounds (from supposed friend as well as avowed foe), as he now bears his scars, with gallantry...
...Dorothy Fischer People's University Peking, China Dear Sirs: I was greatly interested in Karl Meyer's July issue article, "Freshmen Ferment in An Old House," and especially his report of the foreign policy paper prepared by James P. Warburg...
...Some of My Best Friends' Dear Sirs: Today I received your reminder that my subscription expires with the next issue...
...The same charge of contempt was placed against Dr...
...We appeal to the American people to support the enthusiastic and inspired drive of the Cuban people and their leader Fidel Castro towards social justice and economic progress...
...These people hate what is going on...
...It seems to me that when the Democratic Party refused to nominate Stevenson, it repudiated itself as the best embodiment of Jeffersonian liberalism in our generation...
...An organization which incorporates "for Peace" in its name automatically takes the stand that the use of guns and tanks is cruel and wrong...
...A monstrous timing of fate, immediately following Truman and twenty years of Democratic rule and coincidentally with the weird emergence of Eisenhower, doomed this splendid man...
...It failed to recognize the one, and it was uninterested in the other...
...James Wilshire New Haven, Conn...
...But the critical problems facing us will never be solved in the stratosphere—they are fundamental and should be attacked right here on earth before attempting to outdo Russia in nuclear weapons...
...None...
...The Democrats missed that opportunity, and that failure is a black mark on their record which they will be a long time erasing...
...The apparent answer is no...
...David Riesman also shares this puzzlement...
...It can also, on occasion, go hand in hand with high moral purpose, certain cynics notwithstanding...
...WIL policy advocates all possible use of the United Nations machinery for investigating international situations, especially to assess a complex situation such as Hungary which is not admissible of a simple answer...
...Consider the following amendment: The Senate shall seat no more than one Senator from any state in which less than half the persons of voting age are registered...
...I can't see Nixon in the White House, because I have always held that office in great respect, and Nixon is on a level far below it...
...We have always respected the right of anyone to disagree with us, and try to point out that although we take great pains to satisfy minority opinion among our members, we feel that, as in this case, majority vote should decide our policy...
...Can't we break loose from the chains of our own propaganda and dogma...
...Do not turn away from this man," pleaded Senator Eugene McCarthy in his nominating speech...
...Isn't it time to examine closely all our cold-war postures...
...on the contrary, it is usually a prerequisite to success...
...Thanks for your splendid support of Adlai Stevenson...
...In addition, Werner Winkler, a former Nazi, is on the State Planning Commission...
...But one point that is emphasized again and again and is felt in every fiber of the being of the people is that Taiwan is part of the motherland...
...Paul Brinker Portland, Ore...
...Never before has wire-screening prevented me from shaking hands with the person I called upon...
...I believe that whenever the government does anyone a "favor," some attempt will be made to wrest from him a portion of his freedom...
...but I do feel that fear of the government has sturdy justification...
...Dear Sirs: I think you deserve great praise for your endorsement of Adlai Stevenson for the Democratic Presidential nomination...
...Even his assets seem in danger of perversion into liabilities: his confidence borders on arrogance, his powers of concentration and dedication are channeled into a single-minded objective of personal aggrandizement...
...It would thus reduce opposition in the Senate to practical civil rights legislation, and result in laws designed actually to protect civil rights...
...The Democrats loved Adlai Stevenson, but they had had two "glorious defeats" at the polls with him as their candidate...
...But Jack Kennedy's message on the final day both surprised me with its quality and inspired me with its message, and I am satisfied that he is a first-rate candidate...
...But in one detail he makes an astonishing slip...
...Mildred H. Biffar Evanston, 111...
...John Chappell, Jr...
...Dear Sirs: 1 was pretty furious with the Democrats when they rejected Adlai Stevenson and thought I might sit this one out, but after listening to the unctuous acceptance speech of Vice President Nixon I decided I could not afford not to support the obviously superior choice...
...Supreme Court cannot, over night, change more than a hundred years of tradition...
...A party which, on the criterion of excellence, deliberately chooses its second—or third or fourth or fifth—best—may well discover that its strategy misfires even in the short run...
...W. W. Jones Arrah, Bihar, India China Demands Taiwan Dear Sirs: I write as an American woman living and working here in Peking...
...If a union wishes to use the National Labor Relations Board, its officers must all execute non-Communist affidavits...
...After all, how else will we get Adlai Stevenson as our Secretary of State, where he may yet become a prophet with honor...
...There was time enough for this young man: he could have waited, if need be, four or five more conventions...
...Goldfine, the millionaire who would corrupt public servants: three months in a modern prison...
...Isn't it time for a grand reappraisal...
...Anyone who would like to help may write to Lawrence Shumm, Coordinator, Cuban Defense Committee, Box 7064, Stanford University, Stanford, California...
...Cuba has the opportunity of becoming the most meaningful society in Latin America...
...I find that there is as much—or more-race discrimination in the North, East, and West as there is in the South...
...Nixon "stand up" to Khrushchev with the mature, diplomatically-phrased expression, "You don't know everything, you know," and after hearing his dismal acceptance speech, tailored for the stubborn, the sluggish, and the self-satisfied, if The Progressive does not believe that our best hope lies with this political chameleon, then let it do its part to bring true ability to the White House in the person of Jack Kennedy...
...It in no way implies lack of opposition to the cruelty of fighting...
...Joseph J. Wilson Plant City, Fla...
...Your phrase, "opportunity for greatness," was particularly well-chosen...
...I, with all Democrats—Kennedy, Johnson, and Symington supporters included—joined in the tribute to Stevenson, our party's patriarch, during the convention...
...We can go back to the make-believe of TV shadows where a play is clearly labeled but a play, and a game is only a game, not a great democratic procedure of government in "a free nation...
...No matter how willing the United States may come to be to recognize China, China will never recognize the United States until U.S...
...Is there really a greater risk in the opposite direction...
...Frances W. Shippey Los Angeles, Calif...
...But why a substitute, good or bad, at all...
...It will be interesting to see if and how they will be rewarded...
...And now, when opportunities for victory are vastly greater, the party unla-mentingly turns to another...
...Coming at the end of an otherwise stirring manifesto, this was a precipitate letdown...
...William R. Allen Department of Economics University of California Los Angeles, Calif...
...Even if Stevenson's substitute—the word galls and grates—fulfills the most enthusiastic estimate of his potentialities, the Stevenson-ian still will be only partially mollified...
...The American people had suffered an immense setback in world stature and internal progress from the Eisenhower Administration...
...Some of my best friends here belong to the Negro race, but mostly they are those who have lived long enough to realize that the U.S...
...However, the South has to be the scapegoat for do-gooders...
...You are wrong to refer to his "seeming detachment...
...Do not leave this prophet without honor in his own party...
...The Chinese do not seek American recognition...
...Stephen Shefler Phoenix, Ariz...
...Lengyel's opinions...
...The public gets enough of this caliber of comment from columnist David Lawrence and his ilk...
...Supreme Court Justice William Brennan said there was '"no evidence" against Dr...
...Thomas Broderick Schenectady, N.Y...
...Why don't you send somebody down here who is not biased in one direction, a person with an open and reasonable mind, who would be able to report on the situation objectively and not on a one-sided basis...
...Ralph E. Blount Wilmette, 111...
...Thinking Negroes do not like what the decision has done to their former good relations with the white race...
...Bad strategy (and, one may suggest, even good strategy) is a poor substitute for excellence in philosophy...
...I fell for this line—and got both...
...It was a great tragedy that we do not have Adlai Stevenson to head the ticket in these most trying times...
...And in the long run, with its alienation of those of principle and of sensitivity, the party very probably will find that its moral strength and even its political power, like its honor, have ebbed away...
Vol. 24 • September 1960 • No. 9
