THE PEOPLE'S FORUM

...Do we have a "farm problem," or are we, the United States, really the problem to the rest of the world...

...There was sufficient acuteness of viewpoint so that I continually expected to find a larger perspective...

...Of course, we fully expected orangutan ooglings from you in discussing a man of the caliber of West-brook Pegler...

...Other minority groups may soon feel the same about their needs...

...Irving Hollinsghead, Jr...

...Given the general "tone" of the country, such a fed-up feeling can only lead to a proliferation of the radical Right—if only because the radical Left today has not the money to compete with the Welches, Har-gises, or Buckleys...

...newspapers and magazines such as Time, Newsweek, U.S...

...Scott Stanley, Jr...

...But, old fellow, to call us "a little extremist rag...

...Now, we are used to the epithet "extremist," and "rag" is occasionally employed by yellow journals in referring to their superior competitors in the publishing field...

...I am only sorry I cannot fulfill all of the requests but will do the best I can...

...Toynbee further claims that the entire Western World has taken up the rich man's burden: "Rich people . . . everywhere . . . have . . . taken Communism in a very personal way...

...My observations revealed some pathetic sights...

...the disgraceful conduct of many state officials of the South constitutes a glaring example of the truth of that observation...

...I would stay in the dark on many issues rather than plough their propaganda point of view...

...59 E. Van Buren Street, Chicago...

...George Kirstein in "The Myths of the Small Magazine," June issue, hits the nail on the head with, "The editors of mass-circulation periodicals, dependent as they are on wide popular support and the resultant advertising revenues, cannot take the risk of initiating new and unpopular ideas or controversial subject matter...

...When I was visiting an American friend a few weeks ago, I saw The Progressive on his desk...

...that they would stand between Castro and an aggressor in defense of their country...

...Book stores and magazine stands have banned The Progressive due to political pressure...

...The question is: Are our grave world problems of 1963 being worsened and botched up by a few economic royalists who fear change as much as did the political royalists of 1776...

...However, a liberal needs to know what is going on in the world too, and I read just enough of the popular magazines to know that I cannot stand them...

...He believes the American people have been sold too hard on the vague idea of helping the less fortunate rather than on the more important national security argument...

...They eat every day...

...D. Ivan Fritts Ontario, Oregon Political Stalemate Dear Sirs: I wonder if many readers of The Progressive would not agree that Congress seems to have reached a point of political stalemate...

...U.N...

...Louis, Missouri Dear Sirs: George Kirstein's June article on the "little magazines" makes several good points that are demanded in the face of a growing emphasis on profit as the yardstick of publishing success...

...As an avid reader of The Progressive I must say that I agree with its general editorial point of view (though not always on specifics...

...Roberto Ardaya Georgetown, Texas Omission Dear Sirs: My article, "Fact and Fancy in Northeast Brazil," in the April issue of The Progressive, was heavily based on a research project sponsored by Brookings Institution...

...People need these things now, not in the long run...

...The results of this study will be forthcoming this summer under the title, Brazil's Developing Northeast: A Study of Regional Development and Foreign Aid...

...Most important, it seems to me, magazines like The Progressive do a great deal—much more than many suspect—in shaping and channeling the idealism of youth toward a constructive approach to an indigenous American progressivism...

...It links together some three-score organizations devoted to "simplicity, dignity and economy in funeral arrangements...

...First, "carrying coals to Newcastle" is not always such a bad idea...

...Written in a more practical vein, "A Manual of Simple Burial" (Celo Press, Burnsvillc, N. C, $1) is getting wide circulation...

...V. P. Mock Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin Dear Sirs: While George Kirstein makes many points of importance in his June article, "The Myths of the Small Magazine," I feel that he could well stop the defensive attitude and lead the attack...

...The revolt of the colonial people, who are in fact the ultimate heirs of 1776, and their desire to fashion their own way of life, seems to be frightening and incomprehensible to the descendants of those who started it all at Lexington and Concord...

...These primitive villages were not easily accesible to tourists nor were they visible from the railroad...

...But in limiting himself—perhaps necessarily—to the dilemma of the smaller political magazine, Kirstein bypasses the larger problem facing the publishing world...

...As an American, I felt shamefully guilty when told the land was owned by Americans, and that more than 200,000 human beings lived in this environment...

...Informed sources believe these downtrodden mortals are loyal to Cuba's revolution...

...Here I saw wretched people living in serfhood, in grass huts with bare earth for a floor...

...Here, I think, the popular magazines have a great deal to answer for/ The second point follows immediately from the first...

...we have gone to the aid of imperiled nations, neutrals and allies alike...

...The huts were entered through openings covered with pieces of dirty burlap...

...In 1945, the British economist, Harold Laski, wrote that there is...

...In August another book is due, The American Way of Death, by Jessica Mitford (Simon and Schuster), which promises to be a lively and well-documented study...

...In fact, The Progressive "carries coals to Newcastle" for me...

...But when you call us "little," you are doing an injustice to The Progressive...

...Sanitation was most primitive...

...I didn't...

...In May of this year Miss Harmer published a book by the same name (Crowell-Collier, .$3.95), enlarging and documenting the case originally presented in The Progressive...

...Ernest Morgan Yellow Springs, Ohio Anything but 'Little' Dear Sirs: We were most amused at Theophrastus Such in your April issue...

...It certainly is not the small magazine that must defend its right to exist but rather the largest ones that have lost the ability to dissent precisely because they have such huge circulations and voluminous advertising...

...Personally, I want a subscription for myself...

...It explains the significance of simplicity in funeral customs, lists all the manorial societies (with instructions for organizing them) and explains in detail the various ways in which simplicity may be achieved...

...I am greatly indebted to Brookings Institution for the opportunity to undertake this research project and I am sorry that the biographical note omitted the credit to Brookings...

...faTms and farmers are able to produce more edible and industrially-usable products than can be sold on a free market with a "reasonable return" to farmers...

...The most deplorable were witnessed in the sugar-cane villages...

...that they would cut cane under the hot Cuban sun fourteen hours a day for a paltry wage...

...the repeated mergers of large publishers is another...

...Compared to the rest of the world, our people are well-fed while undernourishment and hunger plague the largest and most heavily populated areas of the world...

...John D. Copping . Long Beach, California Kennedy on Foreign Aid Dear Sirs: In your editorial "The President Retreats on Foreign Aid" (May issue) you make a valiant effort to explain his actions on the basis of compromise and appeasement...

...Of course, as you must know, they are all rich munitions manufacturers, but nonetheless they are sufficient in number to preclude your editorial use of that most unfortunate word "little...

...Every state has had one hundred years in which to implement those amendments and it was inevitable that, eventually, the Supreme Court would rule in favor of upholding of the Constitution and that our Executive Department would have no choice but to enforce the edict...

...Is not the real problem one of how, while maintaining farm land at optimum productivity levels, to distribute surplus farm products to peoples who need them, in a manner which will provide means for constructive activity...

...Answering the critics is all well and good, but there are at least two points that deserve attention...

...I read the editorial and I discovered something new, along with wonderful articles of national and international scope...

...These two gathering places, erected side by side on a rutty and dusty road, atop a slope overlooking the village, stood out in sharp contrast against the colony of grass huts below...

...The shameless television plugs for the manufactured books of Art Linkletter, Bob Hope, Jack Paar, and Alexander King are examples of book huckstering...

...Ann Hubbell Ypsilanti, Michigan Cuba before Castro Dear Sirs: Millions of words have been used to glorify Cuban refugees, but not one kind word has been given to the six million human beings oppressed under the despotic rule of 'Batista, and who now support Cuba's revolution...

...Every attempt of a state to violate Constitutional provisions tends to weaken our central government and leaves us vulnerable to criticism and attack...

...Rancocas, New Jersey Fear of Change Dear Sirs: Why are there so many anti-American demonstrations and riots around the world...

...An additional dozen or more memorial societies are in active process of organizing...

...George Jenks St...

...What we do ask—and all that we ask—is that our help be used to the best advantage, and that their own efforts not be diverted by needless quarrels with other independent nations . . ." To the careless reader this may sound like the Inaugural Address, but the emphasis is now subtly shifted from relief of "mass misery" to "bulwarks of freedom...

...And the comments by David Boroff, who in a recent issue of The New Leader described the ordeal of Steve Allen before a literary society, illustrate the impossibility of bypassing the public equation of fame with literary talent...

...One is reminded of Harry Hopkins' remark about welfare legislation in the early days of the New Deal...

...The explanation is noticeably forced and I think a different one fits the observed facts better...

...America," he writes, "is today the leader of a world-wide defense of the vested interests...

...I have been seriously disappointed with many articles in such magazines because they present one side of the truth, sometimes stereotyped and without objectivity, and lack constructive criticism...

...The situation is so deplorable that I am hesitant to send my students to local libraries in search of The Progressive and other liberal publications, because of John Birch Society activities...

...His letter blithely states that apparently Medicare "will not be acted on before next year...

...Of course, the views expressed in the article are my own and should not be construed as reflecting the views of Brookings Institution...

...Now I wonder—has he found one in Castro...

...The failure to face up to problems as related to the outside world and ourselves, and the inversion of tinkering with them in a narrow personal perspective are indications of a sick attitude...

...No matter what the future may bring, whether or not the United States succeeds in getting in Cuba a government agreeable to its policies, the Cuban peon has graduated from the grass hut...

...Funeral reform in North America, long overdue, is definitely on the march...

...The listing of publishing house stock is one symptom of this profit virus...

...The only frame structures were two crudely built, shed-like unpainted buildings—the general store and a Catholic Church...

...They have seen in Communism a threat to their pocketbooks . . . The only countries that have rallied to the United States have been the . . . rich countries . . . and the rich are only a small minority of the human race...

...Morton D. Bluestone Hillside, New Jersey Cloak of 'States Rights' Dear Sirs: Some philosopher has said that human slavery not only degrades the slave but dehumanizes the owner...

...These huts, placed in rows ten feet apart, covered perhaps a half acre...

...We have attempted to "solve" this "problem" over the last three decades by various combinations of price supports, crop rotation and reduction, and government purchases of surplus crops...

...Small magazines, in general, and The Progressive, in particular, seem to be able to give their readers a depth of factual knowledge that I have yet to see in a popular magazine...

...Many people—not all in the South—try to cover their dehumanized attitude with the specious cloak of "states rights...

...I have received requests from all over the United States...

...Allen, as a good writer, is just as wounded by this shabby sense of values as the world of good books is wounded by the non-books...

...I know from personal experience that publications like The Progressive have influence that ranges far beyond their original circulation...

...a world divided into a few masters and many servants, a few who rule and a vast and inert multitude who have no function but to labor and obey...

...Two years later the Christian Science Monitor (January 3, 1963) paraphrased his remarks to reporters in Florida as follows— "Foreign Aid: The President wants to find out whether foreign aid is effectively promoting national security...

...Magazines are increasingly losing their focus and relevance as they attempt to copy television's ironically-named "magazine concept" of programming...

...In short, if Washington continues to snooze, its more intelligent members will certainly regret it, not to mention the rest of us...

...Finally comes the Clay committee, which the President certainly knew would emphasize military aid and would regard the alleviation of "mass misery" as contributing much too slowly, if at all, to the "security of the free world...

...Managing Editor American Opinion Belmont, Massachusetts (American Opinion is the organ of the John Birch Society.—The Editors^ Something New Dear Sirs: I am a Bolivian student in my second year at Southwestern University...

...I can only conclude that the fine words of the Inaugural Address were window dressing, the Florida statement represents the President's real opinion, and the Clay committee is the willing scapegoat set up for the purpose of bearing the onus for the Administration's sorry deeds...

...In his book, America and the World Revolution, Toynbee says America has now become an arch-conservative power instead of the arch-revolutionary one that she began to be after the Declaration of Independence...

...Our nation today faces a difficult world—a world in which the non-whites, who constitute a substantial majority, are demanding equality of right and opportunity as never before...

...Mrs...

...Wherever I went, poverty was, widespread and deep...

...As I write, I have before me a newsletter of Representative Neil Staebler (one of the more intelligent Democrats...

...Some fifty huts, each measuring about six by eight feet and six feet high, sheltered approximately two hundred men, women, and children...

...It is much the same with our needs in education, disarmament, and civil rights—to name only a few areas of national malaise...

...Therefore, it would be a great aid to us to have our own copies at the high school for student use...

...Aside from the international school lunch program what have we done to make constructive use anywhere of our government-stored farm products...

...They do not care much about outside reading, and campus social events, sororities, fraternities, television, or football are more important...

...The Negro population seems fed up with token civil rights...

...We will riot demonstrate a healthy attitude until we deal with this problem as an international one...

...Perhaps the recent, spectacular rise in the circulation of the "little magazines" indicates a growing awareness by the reading public of the pablum they have been force-fed for so many years...

...Also in May, the Continental Association of Funeral and Memorial Societies was of-fically launched, under the wing of the Cooperative League of the U.S.A...

...Kennedy said: "To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required—not because the Communists are doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right...

...Secretary U Thant summed it up tersely when he said: "Political and social changes elsewhere worry most Americans...

...It left me wondering why the basic problem is not stated...

...The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee to every citizen, without regard to race, color, or country of origin, equal privileges and protection of the law...

...We are not purchasing votes for the cold war...

...It is assumed that the United States is hoping for an opportunity to overpower Castro...

...News & World Report, Life, Look, and Saturday Evening Post...

...Newton LeVine Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...

...People," he said, "don't eat in the long run...

...After all, fellow, our circulation is at least 15,000 larger than yours...

...It is vital to our hope of perpetuity as a nation that we be able to face today's world with a strong central government...

...I am sending most of my material to a school in California, and I quote in part a letter from a high school teacher: "This city is a conservative community wherein student contacts with The Progressive are rare...

...As I recall my experiences of 1947, L remember the peon's misery, his anxiety, and his yearning for an honest leader...

...I am pessimistic enough to suspect, however, that the increasing circulation simply indicates an urge toward self-protection by the minority interested in serious content, and that the reading public is as blissfully dunderheaded as ever...

...C. K. Stedman Enumclaw, Washington Funeral Reform Dear Sirs: Two years ago The Progressive published an article, "The High Cost of Dying," by Ruth Mulvey Harmer...

...Roger Ebert Editor-in-Chief The Daily Jllini Champaign, Illinois Dear Sirs: We are lucky here in the United States to have available a magazine such as The Progressive to keep up informed on issues which other media of news dare not publish...

...The common man is emerging everywhere from the twilight of history and he is demanding that status which in every community so far has been denied him . . . The world is going left and it is going left irresistibly . . ." Now if we compare this with the recent observations of Arnold Toynbee, the British philosopher of history, we can understand some of the "whys" of the current American dilemma throughout the world...

...In 1947, I toured Cuba from Havana to Cape Maisi...

...Our declining number of U.S...

...The Progressive's special issue on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy was significant not only because it stirred up the fight against McCarthy but also because it printed a thorough coverage of the facts of the case...

...Martin J. Garnier Englewood, New Jersey Banned Dear Sirs: In the People's Forum of the April issue I offered to make available back copies of The Progressive...

...They are used in college seminars, church groups, discussion classes, and many other forums where opinions are molded and action planned...

...Is the tide turning against us...

...With wealth goes the responsibility for using it wisely...

...I took the magazine to school the next day and expected to attract the interest of some American students, but all was in vain...

...But the validity of that theory was abrogated when Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox...

...The reading public is being re-educated (or maybe the process is already completed) into an indiscriminate monster with shallow tastes in a hundred fields but informed interest in none...

...Stefan H. Robock Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana The Real Surplus Problem Dear Sirs: Reo Christenson's discussion (May issue) of farm product surpluses was probably a far more reasonable discussion than one could expect to find, except in the pages of a magazine like The Progressive...

...In his Inaugural Address Mr...

...It includes directories of eye banks and medical schools with instructions for bequeathing one's eyes or body...

...In his State of the Union address eleven days later he said: ". . . Wherever nations are willing to help themselves, we stand ready to help them build new bulwarks of freedom...

...Punta Gorda was typical...

...The loudest noises and the most money spent seem to be on the radical Right— which is a main reason why Congress is so loatlv to act on necessary legislation and often behaves as if petrified in the face of the country's needs...

...Since I am interested in international relations and political currents, I read the daily U.S...

...The day of a loose federation of thirteen colonies is long past...