THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Liberal Sham Dear Sirs: As a new subscriber, I think the name Progressive is a misnomer for the magazine. Something such as "Apology for the Tired 'Liberal'" might be more...
...Castro...
...Uninformed criticism, which ignores the great strides the Commission has made in the last year, and ignores our plans for the future, is a poor service to the goal of improved government administration...
...Arnold S. Anderson, M.I...
...But to the point: (1) The AMA lobby generally is ranked by the Washington press as the most powerful we have, at least since (he old farm bloc has weakened, and if we need any further evidence of this a look at today's headlines would suffice...
...We also wonder what kind of myopia it is that prevented you, the WCLU, and the University from seeing the real issues involved here...
...Anderson's ingenuous letter reminded me of this, though we can't carry this too far and ban our doctors...
...The AMA is as democratic an organization as it is possible to structure...
...John Todd Vancouver, Washington AMA Defended Dear Sirs: I like The Progressive's editorial motto, "Ye Shall Know the Truth and the Truth Shall Make You Free...
...supporters] commitment to this ideal [group practice], essentially that differentiates them from the generality of doctors zeho go along with the AMA...
...Neiland does not remember correctly, for Mr...
...Why then does the one not justify the other...
...The oratory of Chester Bowles, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and Adlai Stevenson is a poor substitute for an alternative to the disastrous U.S...
...Council has no decisional function and meets at infrequent intervals for discussion of general industry problems in accordance with an agenda prepared by the Commission...
...Each state House of Delegates elects its national delegates...
...Edward T. Chase New Yotk, New York Investment in Peace Dear Sirs: As a long-time Progressive subscriber, I have enjoyed your magazine for many years...
...The AMA has taken an official stand on the King-Anderson bill...
...Rubin had this, among other things, to say about Cuba: "No country in Latin America has progressed so rapidly in the past two years in the social and economic fields as has Cuba...
...Anderson to the opening chapter which I wrote for the book The Crisis in American Medicitie (Harper & Brothers) detailing this discrimination...
...For that reason I am writing to you regarding some distortions of the truth in Edward T. Chase's article in the May issue entitled "The Real Issue in American Medicine...
...Personally, I have been dedicated to the concept of promoting group practice for twelve years...
...Chase or his sources of information approach the AMA or its members with the primary purpose of picking a fight with it or them, rather than being primarily interested in the health and care of the public, they will get the reaction from that organization or individual members which they are seeking...
...On many occasions I have requested AMA counsel and staff work for projects to support group practice and T have never sensed anything but cooperation from the AMA personnel...
...See how far a dissident ever gets on the state level...
...Furthermore, as my article indicates, the disciplined subjection of the doctors to their organization has even more to do with the economics of medicine—the pressure to conform with "the establishment," owing to the crucial need the individual doctor has for hospital privileges and to referral business...
...The recognize that no legal issues are involved...
...They're coming out of our ears...
...As you noted, the Wisconsin Civil Liberties Union has stated that they consider the film to be an unwarranted invasion of privacy...
...They want reality, not smog, rhetoric, and illusion...
...Note the embarrassing (for them) jam the AMA brass is in with President Kennedy on the issue of whether the AMA originally fought Social Security...
...No country in Latin America has retrogressed so rapidly in the past two years in the fields of individual freedom and civil liberties...
...The editorial in your May issue on the recent controversy displays a willingness to be misled by the University which is at variance with your claims of independence...
...Banning the AMA might help, though...
...Further inquiries may be addressed to Shares in The Future, Inc., P.O...
...These are not minor concerns...
...Joseph C. Neiland Evanston, Illinois 1. In publishing letters in the People's Forum, The Progressive does not necessarily endorse either their content or point of view...
...That will keep most of them in line, all right...
...There is bread in Cuba, but there is terror too...
...Do you really mean to suggest that racial discrimination in housing is a private affair...
...Was the film director's academic freedom abridged...
...They are far more concerned with maintaining good public relations with conservative legislators, real estate interests, and other powers in which they have a vested interest than they are in shaping an effective, courageous, and far-sighted educational institution...
...Thus it is apparent that the WCLU acted with indecent haste and never bothered to weigh the true issues involved...
...Joseph C. Swidlfr Chairman Federal Power Commission Washington, D. C. Castro's Cuba Dear Sirs: I am not much surprised that you have been publishing a spate of letters extolling the glories of Castro's Cuba...
...Anti-Discrimination Film Committee Lloyd A. Barbee, Chairman George Allez Thomas Jacobson Madison, Wisconsin For Des Moines Readers Dear Sirs: I assume that most people who take The Progressive are of a liberal tendency or at least are interested in seeking more truth than they can get in most daily publications...
...After years of hostility, the AMA officially was forced to acknowledge the merit of prepaid group practice...
...I found George McGovern's article "Mission to the Hungry" in the March issue particularly timely...
...Are they plagiarizing us...
...We would suggest that it is a public concern...
...at this writing the King-Anderson bill will not even be voted out of the House Ways and Means Committee...
...Annis and the legion of mouthpieces who write in its various publications and the publications of its member societies, express an unchanging dedication to the status quo in medicine, including hopelessly naive identification of solo fee-for-service practice with "free enterprise" and the "American Way of Life...
...It seems to us, on the contrary, that the administrators' real spur was (and remains) their image...
...I sense no sacredness of the "status quo" in the AMA organization...
...Further, they commended Stuart Hanisch (the film's director who resigned) for his courage...
...People around the world are hungry for progressive ideas, but if this is the best that can be exported to them, the attempt might just as well be abandoned now...
...Anderson is naive indeed if he thinks those of us who write in the field of medical economics don't know the AMA materials...
...Further, your editorial implies that the University's suppression was motivated by ethical considerations...
...There is, for example, only one party—the Communist Party...
...In the north, discrimination invariably takes place in "private...
...This became clear when one official summed up the administration's reaction to the film thus: "I advise against proceeding with this project...
...Finally, Dr...
...But let's not pretend that, because of this unconscionably delayed acknowledgment, the issue has disappeared...
...It will be bad for University public relations, and that's all I care about...
...Unfortunately they neglected to say why...
...As a matter of record, hospital privileges are repeatedly denied these doctors...
...Chase's statement, "Why do doctors tolerate or actively support the AMA brass, and its disingenuous and insufferably superficial staff functionaries who articulate its 'line...
...I suspect Mr...
...We are curious to know why you omitted the ADA's stand from your coverage...
...Many government agencies . . . are staffed . . . either by avowed Communists or by individuals whose ideology is hardly distinguishable from that of Communism...
...After more than forty years of continuous readership I cannot afford to miss a single issue of your indispensable publication...
...Ridiculous...
...The crew of neo-Machiavellians, Realpolitikers, and pragmatic opportunists, the pseudo-"liberals" who lacked the integrity and the guts to break with Kennedy's disastrous policies, such as the criminal assault on Cuba, would not be writing for a truly progressive periodical...
...Your Mr...
...Something such as "Apology for the Tired 'Liberal'" might be more appropriate...
...Shares in the Future, Inc.," was incorporated as a non-profit organization for the support of peace and disarmament through the United Nations...
...In addition, two of the six industry members represent the local distribution companies which for purposes of the transactions under FPC jurisdiction are wholesale purchasers with an interest in holding down wellhead and pipeline rates...
...foreign policy which drags the world ever closer to a nuclear holocaust with the "liberals" preparing the way by their participation in the sham...
...The discrimination within the profession against doctors such as in the Health Insurance Plan of New York who are in prepaid group medicine is notorious...
...Frank Kwallek 1920 38th Street Des Moines 10, Iowa Forty Year Subscriber Dear Sirs: Please accept my subscription renewal...
...Shares may also be ordered from this same address...
...Free elections are nowhere in sight . . . the jails are full of political prisoners . . . virtually all significant dissent, including resistance to ever-tightening ties with Communism, is treated as counterrevolutionary...
...As best as I can tell, the AMA, like all other organizations, suffers from a resistance to change and collective apathy which I believe is secondary to the inherent resistance to change and apathy of us individual human beings...
...Box 1042, Boulder, Colorado...
...This is not the case...
...I would therefore urge that all Progressive readers in the Des Moines, Iowa, area get together for a discussion of the issues and articles appearing in The Progressive...
...Fortunately, the student chapter of Americans for Democratic Action saw the University's film-burning for what it was and picketed the University Extension Division in protest...
...We are hoping to focus attention on the United Nations as our best hope for a peaceful world...
...I believe the average reader would gather from your article that the Natural Gas Advisory Council consists entirely of representatives of the natural gas industry...
...Chase generalized about group practicing physicians on the basis of an interview with one, two, or three physicians whose viewpoints represent a very small minority of group practicing physicians...
...Because I have been interested in promoting pre-paid medicine in our community, I questioned my AMA delegate and local AMA counsellor regarding the propriety of promoting prepaid medicine...
...As to the old saw about AMA democracy, it usually ends at the local level...
...3. "The AMA officially is committed to the perpetuation of medical practice on the solo, fee-for-service basis...
...The accepted position of the American Association of Medical Clinics on this issue, as established at their 1961 convention, is in support of the AMA position on hospital care for the aged...
...It would not be appropriate for me to argue the merits of the case in your columns...
...On a personal level, the Dixon-Yates tag seems especially incongruous...
...How can they seriously suggest that privacy has been invaded when it is impossible to produce a victim of this "invasion...
...I secured that state-, ment along with other statements, the King-Anderson, and the Kerr-Mills bills, by writing my Senator, Senator Hubert Humphrey...
...I was General Counsel of TVA during the whole period of the unsuccessful effort to foist the Dixon-Yates scheme upon TVA...
...I found striking similarities between the Cuban practice and the practice of the Communist countries I visited in Europe...
...1. "The nation's most powerful lobby, the American Medical Association" I am sure that is flattering but funny to the members of the AMA...
...Chase's article and the added comments are mine...
...For example, you took at face value the University administration's contention that their film-burning was justified because the right of privacy of discriminators was invaded...
...The exasperating ignorance disclosed by Dr...
...For example, does a community have a right to know and to document the social evils which exist in its midst...
...The item concludes by saying that if the FPC "persists in its disregard of the public interest, it would scarcely be surprising to see Dixon-Yates back in town...
...Had he been writing a sociology text would you condone the suppression of the data he gathered...
...Key Commission staff members also attend all meetings...
...Each fall the AMA sponsors a conference on prepaid medicine in which leaders of labor, government, and medicine participate...
...I refer Dr...
...This smokescreen thrown over their general lack of activity is not only meretricious, it is about as effective as condemning the rain for falling on the Fourth of July...
...They knew that no discriminators shown in the film would be recognizable...
...Evidently you are still trying to bolster that discredited position by publishing the kind of letters that appeared in your June issue...
...If readers of The Progressive want reliable material on this matter, I suggest they do likewise...
...2. "// is their [Kennedy's M.D...
...2. Mr...
...The Editors...
...The University plans to release an emasculated version of the film idea we gave them...
...Elizabeth G. Maloney Corresponding Secretary Boulder, Colorado Disservice to FPC Dear Sirs: In the "Notes in the News" column of the May issue of The Progressive under the heading "Shades of Dixon-Yates," you attack the Federal Power Commission because of the establishment of the Natural Gas Advisory council and because in one case a Commissioner "wrote a stinging dissent to a decision of the other four members in which he charged them with authorizing a 'political gamble' by a private power company to head off a public power proposal in the Northwest...
...Though I am sure many of my medical colleagues consider me radical and possibly dangerous, I have had the privilege of being a slate delegate for several years...
...The AMA's spokesmen, such as the omnipresent Dr...
...Rubin visited there last year and came back starry-eyed over what they chose to show him and proceeded to write a paean of praise that was intended to mislead us into believing that Cuba under Castro was an idyllic agrarian democracy...
...Illinois...
...But the means are legal in this case, the ends laudable...
...The University knows this, as do you...
...I have no doubt that if Mr...
...Half of the twelve members of the Council were nominated by governmental and consumer organizations...
...Fred A. Habeck Wilmette...
...Wisconsin recognizes no right of privacy...
...The independence of the judiciary lias been destroyed . . . youth has been militarized . . . all conflicts within the labor movement are resolved in favor of the Communist bloc...
...Instead, they offered as a palliative a condemnation of landlords who discriminate...
...The present Commission is attempting to improve and invigorate the work of the FPC in both the electric power and natural gas fields, and to protect the public interest to the full extent of the powers of the Commission...
...is unmistakably soft on Communism...
...From there on in, delegates are rigorously controlled...
...The reading public of The Progressive deserves a reaction to Mr...
...Accessory to Suppression Dear Sirs: It is unfortunate that you have seen fit to become an accessory to the University of Wisconsin's clumsy attempt to suppress a documentary film on housing discrimination and to confuse the issues involved...
...Shares are issued in denominations ranging from $1 to $500 and shareholders receive a certificate stating that the dividend is payable in the strengthened hope for a peaceful world...
...If unjust laws did not deter the freedom rides and the sit-ins, surely you must realize that it is wishful thinking to suppose that your nostalgia and your empty aphorisms will halt us or influence a generation which will accept nothing less than first-class citizenship for all, in every way, and now...
...Each physician has an equal vote in electing delegates to our state convention...
...The case you refer to is the Pacific Power & Light Company security issue proceeding...
...Since no agency as yet exists within the United Nations to accept funds earmarked for peace and disarmament, our first check for $500 was turned over to Ralph Bunche for the Freedom From Hunger Campaign— Food and Agriculture Organization...
...Liberty is all but extinguished...
...The means do not justify the ends, the provincial press has declared, and yes, we do mean you...
...The following quotations are from Mr...
...I personally will welcome hearing from other Progressive readers as to their interest in setting up such a discussion group in this area...
...2) and (3) The Kennedy doctor supporters I cited have a dedication to prepaid group practice that is an over-riding concern for them, and in this respect they entirely depart from the traditionalist majority that forms the ranks of AMA membership...
...If I remember correctly, he could find no evidence of Communism or any police state characteristics...
...Minneapolis, Minnesota Chase Replies Dear Sirs: There is an old Marx Brothers film in which Groucho looks in disgust at Chico (remember, he depicted the comic Italian immigrant type) after an especially ignorant comment by Chico, and remarks: "There's my argument—ban immigration...
...The trouble is that most doctors are too busy or otherwise undisposed to consider any other materials...
...Both of them informed me that the AMA's official position was that of approval of pre-paid medicine...
...Here, at least, is one example of a liberal organization which has not formed an illicit relationship with the status quo...
...I also feel that by helping to solve the problems of hunger wherever they may be found, we will have taken a step forward toward a peaceful world...
...The leaders of this spineless collection of rubber-stamps have disgraced the entire "liberal" concept...
...Seldom anywhere...
...however, I have always sensed respect for my point of view and have continually felt that my effectiveness in the organization was limited by my lack of ability rather than by any organization autocracy...
...I have been outspoken and usually presented a minority view to the AMA conventions, committees, and councils...
...For this leason we felt that you and your readers would be interested in a positive program on behalf of the United Nations that was started recently by a group of women in Boulder, Colorado...
Vol. 26 • July 1962 • No. 7
