THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Brazilians Jubilant Dear Sirs: To say that Brazilians are pleased with the outcome of the United States Presidential election would be an understatement. They are elated. "A...
...Our failure in either field spells the doom of Western civilization, and nothing we can do will repair the damage once the damage is done...
...But the bright dream of a brave new world that might come soon—that I have missed...
...Most students who have made a study of this important issue are thoroughly convinced that capital punishment is wrong from every angle...
...But we cannot avoid a choice...
...For Willard Uphaus to sacrifice a principle upon which our government was built, the Bill of Rights, was unthinkable...
...The heavy bars and screening between us made it difficult to talk, and of course we could not shake hands...
...The second problem seems also to have been completely overlooked in the campaign: the world's population is increasing at a frightening rate...
...Much of this enthusiasm stems from the fact that Kennedy is a Democrat...
...There is no defense against war save general and complete disarmament...
...Junior Admirer Dear Sirs: I am a junior in high school...
...But Brazilian enthusiasm for a Democratic Administration in Washington is not based entirely on sentimentality...
...I am interested in politics, and I find that your publication is stimulating to thinking, much more so than any magazine one finds on the newsstands of a small, conservative Southern town...
...The Center is a simple, camp-style resort in northern New Hampshire, and Dr...
...Candidate Kennedy seemed unaware of these facts, but President Kennedy will be required to deal with them...
...It is the African organizations themselves, supported by the South African Indian Congress and the Liberal Party, that have called upon the world to apply sanctions on South Africa, at every possible level...
...Stevenson Needed Dear Sirs: In spite of the absence of sharp and easily identifiable issues that divide the candidates and their parties, the American verdict in favor of the Democratic nominee, Senator John F. Kennedy, is apparently a victory for liberalism and progressivism...
...It may be recalled that President Eisenhower, in one of his speeches not long ago, indicated the necessity and possibility of having a prime minister or chief secretary who might relieve the President of some of the ever-increasing responsibilities of this high office, and who could also effectively coordinate domestic and foreign policy affairs at the cabinet level...
...Though race discrimination in whatever form is to be fought and deplored, it is a basic misconception to refer to the South African apartheid system as one of discrimi-, nation...
...Only once did an editor go on record to say that because Kennedy was a Catholic he might be more "simpatico...
...It is interesting to note that Kennedy's Catholicism has little to do with the Brazilian's attitude toward him...
...A New Era for Latin America" predicted one of the most respected newspapers in Rio de Janeiro the day after John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected...
...Uphaus...
...He answered his own question by replying: "We should of course make it appear that we were taking the proposals seriously, in order not to suffer any propaganda loss...
...Open Housing Dear Sirs: I should like to express my appreciation for the article, "The White Noose of the Suburbs," by Margaret Bacon, in the October issue of The Progressive...
...History records that many innocent men have been convicted and executed...
...Discrimination Dear Sirs: A letter from Major Thorn of Montreal in the September issue advocates restraint from criticism of South African race policies until such time as American Negroes have been assured complete equality with whites...
...It is pleasing to read something beyond the cliches liberally sprinkled throughout most publications...
...Nixon, despite several trips to Latin America, is an exponent of a party which considers Latin America only as a strategic area of secondary importance where profitable business deals can be made...
...There have been countless occasions when articles from your magazine have served as reference and resource material, as well as the basis of discussion...
...His ardent faith in God transcends denominations and he has set the highest religious standards for men of all faiths, more by his conduct than by his preaching...
...Justin Blackwelder Washington, D. C. Protest Vote Dear Sirs: Our Republican press in Arizona, and perhaps throughout the nation, has been trying to measure Richard M. Nixon's popularity by the large popular vote he received...
...Robert B. Stewart Arvada, Colo...
...There is probably no other American more fit to occupy such a post than Stevenson...
...That same afternoon, July 27, 1960, I drove to the county jail...
...I am particularly pleased that your magazine has the courage to print such excellent factual articles on controversial subjects...
...Separated from our democratic allies, our future will be, in the words of Hobbes, . . . "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short...
...The judge was most uncomfortable about the entire case and presented a message to me that I was to take to Dr...
...Apartheid vs...
...This general attitude of the U. S. press, radio, and television commentators may refleet the accuracy of the view of the great mathematician, Albert Einstein, who wrote shortly after Hiroshima: "Our world faces a crisis as yet unperceived by those possessing the power to make great decisions for good or evil...
...These facts are well enough known...
...Both may be found in "What Do the Churches Say on Capital Punishment...
...The so-called national defense plans of all the great powers are plans for international suicide...
...If it had not been for the religious factor, President-elect John F. Kennedy surely would have won by a landslide...
...However, the press has refrained from mentioning the obvious fact that part of this was a protest vote from two groups of Democrats: Roman Catholics who were angered at John F. Kennedy's forthright declaration in favor of our Constitutional requirement of separation of church and state, and Protestant Democrats who feared Kennedy's religion would interfere with his sworn duty to uphold the Constitution...
...You can help in this important civil liberties struggle by sending postcards or letters with the words, "I support the Uphaus resolution," your name, and your source of information about the boycott, to: Students for Uphaus at Dartmouth, 21 Lyme Rd., Hanover, New Hampshire...
...I am chairman of our local Americans for Democratic Action chapter...
...Abolish Death Penalty Dear Sirs: Many readers of The Progressive are aware that never before has there been such a surge of public opinion directed toward abolishing capital punishment in the United States...
...William B. Starr Cisco, Tex...
...Mrs...
...Jornal do Brasil, for instance, says, "Democrats have shown more ability in dealing with Latin America...
...One of the great needs of this country is for a fair and honest nonpartisan press...
...It means the democratic control of the means of production with free access to all of the goods and services produced by society...
...Starvation, pestilence, and war will take care of the population explosion unless it is brought under control in some more sensible manner...
...Jim Clark Carthage, Tex...
...Wilbur L. Lew Executive Vice President Friends Suburban Housing 53 Cricket Avenue Ardmore, Pa...
...Alice Lev Youngstown, Ohio...
...On November 9 I got my dream back...
...Unfortunately, one of the weaknesses among American liberals is a tendency not to live up to their high ideals when it comes to selling their own homes or welcoming a Negro or minority family to their own neighborhoods...
...For many Brazilians, a Democratic Administration in the United States has become synonymous with prosperity in Brazil...
...Therefore, as a long time friend, while visiting in New Hampshire this past summer, I decided to visit Dr...
...Rosalynde Ainslie Organizing Secretary The Anti-Apartheid Movement 200 Cower Street London, N. W. 1, England No Communism in Russia Dear Sirs: For forty-three years the Russian leaders have been shouting to the world that they have achieved the Communist society, and this claim has been swallowed by the rest of the world...
...Even our most distinguished soldiers recognize them as such...
...Uphaus how we could have peace if only one country agreed to it...
...It would be grossly cruel not to make good use of this man who has always expressed his willingness to serve his country in any circumstance, in spite of the repeated rebuffs to his political ambitions...
...Robert D. Kreigh Columbia, Mo...
...Uphaus' Alternative Dear Sirs: Dr...
...Willard Uphaus, who, on November 27, 1960, reached his seventieth birthday, has just completed a year of imprisonment in New Hampshire for contempt of court because he would not reveal the names of guests who came to visit at the World Fellowship Center...
...The splitting of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe...
...The Russian workers, like workers everywhere, sell their labor in return for wages in order to live...
...Statistics prove that it is not a deterrent to crime...
...I shall never forget the sincerity and forthrightness of his answer, "Rabbi, if we stop talking to them, what is the alternative...
...an utterly nonsensical and indeed fraudulent gimmick . . ." He then attacked Ethiopia's United Nations representative for urging the prohibition of the use of weapons of mass destruction by asserting this "would destroy the deterrent value of NATO, hamstring SAC...
...He is as inspiring as a glass of carbonated soda left standing for several hours...
...Disarmament Only Defense Dear Sirs: The Washington Post's front page story, "The Silent Quakers Circle Pentagon in Peace Bid," by Milton Viorst (November 15, 1960), is encouraging and deserves the highest praise of all who believe in a destiny for man higher than incineration...
...The latter group may number mollions of voters who normally would have voted Democratic...
...If Dr...
...Uphaus would accept other provisions of the law to free himself, the judge promised that Uphaus would be out of jail that evening...
...Chapel Hill, N. C. Boycott New Hampshire Dear Sirs: Because New Hampshire maintains an anachronistic law under which Dr...
...But is he in favor of those measures which are necessary for the preservation of a free society...
...they are now the world's greatest realists...
...What have you to gain by perpetuating the Soviet myth...
...In many of the states still retaining the death penalty, bills will be introduced in the next sessions of their legislatures to abolish capital punishment...
...it means a majority oppressed by a minority by the use of force—the majority having no means of asserting their legitimate demands by any legal means whatsoever except economic boycott, which may in turn become illegal...
...In his bid for election, Senator Kennedy made much of the importance of United States support for Africans, Indonesians and others, but he specifically did not include Europe...
...Because he is a practical politician, it is not too much to expect a marked improvement in Latin-American-United States relations or that the United States will approve of Brazilian ideas for the economic and social development of their country...
...I asked him why he went to the Communist conferences when he knew so well they were merely fronts for propaganda...
...While still a seminary student, I met and learned from Dr...
...the advocacy of passive resistance is punishable by three years' imprisonment, ten lashes, and a fine...
...If we are to retain the friendship of the peoples of Africa, we dare not delay...
...Uphaus with Communist peace conferences which everyone knew were not peace conferences at all, but simply Russian propaganda devices...
...What did impress a number of Brazilian editors was the fact that a Catholic could be elected President of the United States: "It proves that the great majority of the people of the United States have now decided to rise above religious prejudice which, in the past, has damaged United States prestige in the eyes of other nations...
...Wonderful Help Dear Sirs: May I tell you what a wonderful help and inspiration your publication is to me—and to my friends who read it...
...This year the vote was not for...
...Edward A. Manice New Haven, Conn...
...Rabbi Oscar Fleishaker Beth Israel Center Madison, Wis...
...Jean Wunderlich Phoenix, Ariz...
...Gilbert H. Liberman Brooklyn...
...Uphaus...
...It is too early to determine the costs of the loss of Adlai Stevenson, the American intellectual and political prophet who has in recent years molded and re-shaped the progressive thinking of the Democratic Party and who is probably the first responsible American to point out the hard times that lie ahead for America and the nature of the up-hill task facing the new Administration...
...It seems to me that the urgent duty of all those who supported the new President is to do what they can to see that these vital issues neglected in the campaign are taken from their hiding place and given top priority...
...The "Silent Quakers" who circled the Pentagon are not only idealists...
...Accurate Material Dear Sirs: Melvin Martin's "Did the Press Kill Caryl Chessman...
...William R. Frye, Christian Science Monitor correspondent, labelled the proposal for general and total disarmament as "unadulterated diplomatic hokum...
...General Omar Bradley has said, "The central problem of our time...
...If I were to have to stop reading all magazines except one, that one would be The Progressive...
...FSH apparently is the only licensed real estate firm in the resale field dedicated to overcoming discrimination in housing and which will accept home listings only on an open occupancy basis...
...The United States is in a position to do more perhaps than any other power to exert pressure on South Africa, through the United Nations and other international organizations, and it is our hope that your readers will join with the supporters of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Britain in raising the matter of sanctions on South Africa through trade unions, political parties, and other institutions whenever the opportunity arises...
...N. Y. The Negative Vote Dear Sirs: The state of mind of the voters in the recent election is illustrated by the story of the man describing how his employes would vote: "Thirty per cent don't like Nixon, and thirty per cent don't like Kennedy, and the rest are undecided...
...The country can continue to be wrong on many things and still survive, but on some things it cannot afford to be wrong...
...William J. Reeves Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H. Major Issues for Kennedy Dear Sirs: At the top of the list of obligations inherited by President-elect John F. Kennedy, and far above any other, is the obligation to preserve our democratic society...
...Hugh B. Hester Brigadier General U. S. A. (Ret...
...Judge Grant had apologized to me beforehand and asked that judgment of the prisoner should not be made by the kind of horror house I would see...
...Communism means the abolition of the wage and money system...
...And I had no answer because I knew as so many others know also that the alternative is war and desolation, and so Willard Uphaus will continue to talk—to Communists, to anyone and everyone—to secure peace, if he can...
...It is gratifying to have so many families who believe in translating their beliefs into action...
...India begged the United States for help with this problem...
...Ian Sinclair Edinburgh, Scotland A Man to Watch Dear Sirs: It is for articles such as "Civil Defense: Billion Dollar Boondoggle," in the December issue, that we keep taking The Progressive year after year with affection...
...Must we prove that "the splitting of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking...
...Carlton and Ernestine Brehmer Sheboygan, Wis...
...I had been bothered by the activities of Dr...
...in the December Progressive points up the need for accurate news reporting and reliable reference material...
...The Jornal do Brasil summed up best the jubilation of Brazilians over Kennedy's victory: "For us, Kennedy is the first [United States] President to come to power who has been concerned about Latin American problems...
...Diario de Noticias, moreover, believes that none of the Republican leaders could ever understand the problems of underdeveloped countries because "they represent only big business which is not interested in approving programs which might limit markets for their products...
...J. W. Thomas Madras, India 'Shameful Apologia' Dear Sirs: I expected something a great deal more original and creative than your shameful apologia for John F. Kennedy...
...But our actual policy should be to disregard them...
...Uphaus...
...Latin America Jubilant" said another...
...Uphaus walked in to his little visitor's box with a dignity that I shall never forget and which has been driving his captors into a frenzy...
...Louise Brown Rio de Janeiro Brazil The Religious Factor Dear Sin: There's not much about being eighteen that I would like to recapture from the vantage point of forty...
...If any of your readers know of any other such firm in the United States, I would be interested in hearing about it...
...The words "England" and "NATO" are conspicuously absent...
...Your magazine would appear to be a champion of truth, fair play, and justice, yet you are at one with the rest of the capitalist press in constantly referring to Russia as Communist without ever attempting to show your readers what Communism really is...
...And then it went on to say that the heterogeneous make-up of the Democratic Party — workers, intellectuals, idealists — gives its leaders a wider outlook and more flexibility...
...However, more than fifty families have sold their properties in the Philadelphia suburbs through FSH...
...A nationally known news commentator on television, shortly after Premier Khrushchev proposed general disarmament to the United Nations General Assembly in September, 1959, asked: "How should the United States respond to the Russian disarmament proposal...
...Candidate Kennedy did not tell us which choice he would make...
...Unfortunately most of the nation's mass "information media" either ignored the event or labeled the participants as crackpot idealists...
...President Eisenhower declined...
...The Pro-, gressive would say that our new President is unreservedly committed to this goal, and I would agree...
...So we haven't come very far from the Swopes trial—just barely far enough...
...is how to employ human intelligence for the salvation of mankind...
...Apartheid means political and economic oppression enforced by the law of the land...
...it was against, which demonstrates that neither party nominated its best man...
...Forty were sold to Negro or other minority families and the balance to white families...
...no African has any kind of vote, or representation in Parliament or in government...
...The Progressive has many influential readers in all of our states...
...a collection of many official denominational statements, available for thirty cents postpaid from the Connecticut Friends Committee on Social Order, 144 South Quaker Lane, West Hartford 7, Conn...
...Uphaus and his wife have been serving as its directors...
...Paramount among these are the unity of the United States with its democratic allies and the solution of the population explosion...
...Through friends I was able to meet and talk with the jurist who presided at the Uphaus trial, Judge George Grant, at the Merrimack County Court House at Concord...
...If we do not lift our voice in protest against capital punishment, we stamp such action with our approval...
...But is it really true...
...I delivered my message and offer of freedom—and it was rejected...
...Senator Stephen M. Young will now be a man we will watch, for this writing shows him to be clear thinking and courageous— marks of an educated, moral man...
...Striking is punishable by three years' imprisonment or a fine of 500 pounds...
...There is every reason to believe that the controls of America's future are safe in the hands of this young and intelligent President-elect who has promised to effect radical reorganization and revision in his administration...
...it would be a major disaster for the West...
...Now that the Republicans are out and the Democrats in, Latin Americans are dazzled with visions of such sugar plums as a South-of-the-border Marshall Plan to put them back on their feet...
...So I asked Dr...
...And if South Africa is to be given a chance to emerge peacefully from its present misery, it is mandatory for all friends of her people to act at once...
...The memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt and' his Good Neighbor Policy has been magnified into something of a myth...
...Willard Uphaus is imprisoned in violation of the moral sentiments of the American people, we, as individuals, feel that to express our belief in civil liberties we must boycott the state of New Hampshire economically by resolving neither to visit, nor buy the products of, this backward state, until the grave injustice to Dr...
...Even here in a supposedly enlightened community we heard bigotry preached from the pulpit—not in the "holy roller" church at the other end of town, but at the edge of a college campus, in the big, white, stone edifice where some of our "best people" go to talk of brotherly love and tolerance and charity...
...President Eisenhower has said: "Thermonuclear war is unthinkable...
...In such cases it has been impossible to correct these grave miscarriages of justice...
...Uphaus is rectified...
...His witless, uncommitted, and painfully insincere approach is matched only by Richard M. Nixon's...
...Wars can be prevented as surely as they are provoked, and those of us who fail to prevent them must share in the guilt for the dead...
...Mrs...
...I trust they will make known, by voice and vote, that they are opposed to the inhuman, immoral practice of capital punishment...
...South America, for example, has many people who have difficulty finding enough to eat, but in a short eighteen years the population there will have doubled...
...I pointed out to him that he certainly knew that the United States was not the aggressor and asked why he didn't use his efforts to get Russia to agree...
Vol. 25 • January 1961 • No. 1
