THE PEOPLE'S FORUM

...As Senators from the state having the least population—a state which is physically isolated, whose needs and problems are widely misunderstood—Senator Bartlett and Senator Gruening believe full and thorough debate to be a vital protection to their constituents...

...Felix Greene, a British citizen, did not have to cringe like a mendicant on bended knee and beg permission from our State Department, which almost prevented Edgar Snow from going to China until influence was brought to bear by Bennett Cerf and Gardner Cowles, two publishers who think we are entitled to the truth...

...Maybe the importance of The New York Post's reopening could be debated...

...China spends fifty per cent more on these items than on military expenditures...

...The U.S...

...We legislators believe that the rights of a minority are inadequately protected when a legislative body can close all discussion upon a vote of a lesser proportion of members...

...As one who worked on the staff of Senator Bartlett between 1957 and 1960, I know that the statement is, at best, an oversimplification and, at worst, it is wholly inaccurate...

...Probably that is true, but perhaps if the principal governments of the world—particularly that of the United States—would spend only a quarter of the money and effort that has been spent on devices designed to kill more and more people more horribly than ever before in history, on a crash program for the cure and prevention of cancer, that "dramatic breakthrough" the American Medical Association thinks unlikely might become a reality...

...Did anyone notice the declaration of two of New York's largest department stores that they would not place advertising with The Post until the other papers resumed publication...

...4) Powers had a "disconcerting habit of occasionally changing his mind about the concessions he was willing to make," and (5) Powers at first balked at the settlement although Elmer Brown of the union accepted it, Powers later backing down...

...Since May, however, a Buddhist revolt in the cities has been gathering strength, and recently a Buddhist priest burned himself to death in a protest against what the Buddhists claim is religious discrimination by the Roman Catholic Diem government...

...Bertram A. Powers President Local Number Six New York Typographical Union New York, New York Dear Sirs: For a more completely unbiased coverage of "The New York Newspaper Strike," Mr...

...Joe P. Josephson Anchorage, Alaska The Newspaper Strike Dear Sirs: During the past few weeks I have read a considerable amount of material written on the recent newspaper strike and lockout in New York City...

...These figures may or may not be correct, but at least in Chicago there is no glaring discrepancy between appropriations for schools with a largely Negro student body and those with white students...

...To make so definitive a commitment to the resurgent Germans—a warlike people now smarting under defeat and dedicated to a savage revanchism—could be called dangerous adventurism which all peace-loving men and women will deplore...

...How about wondering about the desire for freedom from outside interference on the part of the ITU, as opposed to the frantic efforts of the publishers to bring in any and all outsiders...

...Also add this verse by Kingsley Martin, the English political writer, which appeared in The New Statesman...

...You cannot hope to bribe or twist, Thank God, the British journalist, But seeing what the man will do, Unbribed, there's no occasion to...

...How many sides are there to the publishers' mouths...

...Such militance may rally his reluctant allies but will not help to abate the quarrel...

...Our press and newsmagazines report these events in detail...

...You talk about Negroes studying in inferior schools, but I do not believe you have seen the fire traps which are used to house students in predominantly white neighborhoods...

...According to the latest available figures, the Negro unemployment rate in Chicago is about seventeen per cent...

...2) Powers reduced his demands from $83 to $38 (the publishers' last offer being $9.20), fifteen minutes before the strike deadline and refused to continue negotiating...

...What constitutes a segregated ghetto...

...It is worth pointing out that the Editor of The New York Times, in reply to a private protest of mine about this, stated that the reason that my evidence on chemical warfare was not published was because it was known all along to The Times\ The Times of January 19, 1962, stated that of 2,600 villages in Vietnam, nearly 1,400 had been destroyed because of military action by the United States and the Diem government...

...This is only the national expenditure...

...Like the Nazi Fuehrer, our President at that moment seemed to present himself as a Leader promising the Berliners to lead them to German unity and to the destruction of "Communism...

...I can well imagine that shouts of "Drang nach Osten" resounded in the beer halls of Frankfurt the night Mr...

...The facts cited in the article, however, seem to contradict both conclusions...

...What is "free enterprise" and what is "freedom from governmental interference...

...It is our own State Department that does all in its power to prevent our writers from going to China...

...I am disturbed that it should be possible for newspapers to behave so brazenly...

...Ross' reporting on the background of previous negotiations, and his assessment of conditions just prior to the dispute, show an accurate understanding of the problem...

...Will the ITU have to admit outside people to the suggested labor-management board to achieve "an atmosphere free of bargaining pressure," where will be settled "the perplexing problems created by the introduction of new technological processes...

...A neighborhood that is sixty, seventy, eighty, or ninety per cent Negro...

...I should be grateful if you would allow me to make these facts known to the American public...

...Greene explodes many falsehoods...

...Ten times more is spent in America on its current military expenditures (1961) than for the combined expenditures on social security, education, health, and welfare...

...Bertrand Russell Penrhyndeudraeth Merioneth, Wales Debate on China Dear Sirs: It is good news to note that the climate of official opinion on the vexing subject of Communist China is becoming more tolerant than it has been for many years...

...Helen Mears New York, New York Defends Senator Bartlett Dear Sirs: In his article in the June issue of The Progressive, "The Politics of Stalemate," Sidney Lens quotes an unidentified member of the U.S...

...It may not be too much to hope that if we do get the kind of discussion urged by Harriman we may come to see how foolhardy and self-defeating our policy toward Communist China has been...

...I believe this is not quite as bad as the bitterest depths of the Great Depression...

...I find myself wondering, had this section of the President's speech received prior consideration by the Congress, which alone represents the will of all the people of the United States, might not some voice of reason have said, "Hold...

...Ross might have investigated in some depth some of the ideas that he passed over somewhat superficially...

...Thomas J. Barnum New York, N. Y. Chemical War in Vietnam Dear Sirs: I am disturbed by the fact that I have not been able to make known to the American public the facts concerning the use of chemicals in Vietnam...

...It constantly implies that our writers do not go to China because the Chinese government prevents them from going, although that is only the propaganda line inspired by our State Department...

...Other countries have sent writers to China for years...

...The Vietnamese people, imprisoned in their villages behind walls of barbed wire and concrete, cannot revolt against the Diem government we support...

...You say that ninety per cent of the Negroes and whites attend all-white and all-Negro schools...

...This is a far cry from the time when, as Harriman stated, according to The Boston Herald, "Anyone who questioned our policies toward China was considered something of a traitor...

...If liberal whites and Negroes would stop demonstrating in the streets and start influencing state legislators through ballots and letters, Illinois might have an open occupancy law and an effective fair employment practices system...

...Your article on that subject in the June issue of The Progressive by Irwin Ross was, in my opinion, the fairest of all...

...It must be said, however, that our President, in condemning the Wall, seemed to demonstrate a talent for double-think rather than a concern for morality or humanity...

...Today, however, all of our moral energy is directed against the "godless Communists...

...Finally, your statement about unemployment is intriguing...

...In 1933, twenty-four per cent of the work force was unemployed...

...President Kennedy said of the Berlin Wall that it was a "monument of man's inhumanity to man...

...Our military spending has since increased...

...and with having spread these poisonous chemicals on large and densely populated areas of South Vietnam...

...If, in depth reporting, some of these matters were made as well known as the baseless assumptions which are the backbone of most business leaders' strength, perhaps the largest cause of prolonged labor-management strife will be eliminated...

...The problem of school facilities is general and it involves too few teachers, too many children, and not enough money...

...And so it is...

...America spends in just sixteen days what China spends on her military requirements for a whole year...

...Powers' strike": What evidence was there that the publishers deferred to the wishes of their stockholders or the interest of the nebulous "public," and were governed by these factors to the extent Mr...

...Joseph T. Prentiss Norwalk, Connecticut Dear Sirs: Irwin Ross' article on New York's newspaper strike (June issue) is an interesting struggle between the author's conclusions and his factual observations...

...Do we literally believe that the application of the word "Democracy" to such proceedings purges them of chauvinism...

...James R. Dugger Cambridge, Massachusetts Misrepresenting China Dear Sirs: The way a great majority of our press misrepresents facts about China is little short of tragic...

...Taylor Adams New York, New York Dear Sirs: I wonder how many Americans, watching and listening to television reports of packed thousands of Germans in Berlin shouting "Ken-ah-dee" in a frenzy of adulation, were shockingly reminded of similar demonstrations by hysterical Germans shouting "Heil Hitler...

...Greene wrote: "America spends $6 million every hour (1961) on military armaments...

...The Press and Truth Dear Sirs: Put alongside the Heywood Broun remark quoted by Theophrastus Such (June issue)—"The press doesn't lie, it just throws half the truth in the wastebasket"—the following, from an old newsman, John Swinton: "Journalism has two patrons, Ananias and Nell Gwynne...

...But these are common problems which are not really connected with the race question...

...We do not believe that rules of procedure should be adjusted to meet the expediences of a particular issue, however meritorious it may be...

...Pearl Buck called it "the most realistic book that has yet been written about China of today...

...The city of Chicago is not scheming against the Negro and deliberately providing him with inferior schools...

...3) Powers refused to appear before the Board of Public Accountability...

...Neither U.S...

...which inflame and eat into human flesh), and calcic cyana-mide (which has "caused leaves, flowers, and fruit to fall, killed big cattle like buffaloes and cows, and seriously affected thousands" of the inhabitants of South Vietnam...

...Jerry Livingston Voorhis Winnetka, Illinois Kill or Cure Dear Sirs: Recently the American Medical Association was quoted as having said that cancer will be cured "through a slow series of steps rather than by means of a dramatic breakthrough...

...There are problems, and we should have effective FEPC laws, open occupancy, and a reduction in Negro unemployment...

...We have none left for our own shocking denials of our values...

...Regarding "Mr...

...Will those publishers who devised the plan of dealing with the numerically weak Guild first in negotiations, sit still while the allied printing trades unions join together so they may "develop a less contentious method of bargaining with the city's publishers...

...Who paid for the superior strike benefits which the ITU members received in excess of that received by the other strikers and locked-out personnel...

...The Wall in Berlin, shocking as it is, is a modest devilment compared to the thousands of walls the U.S...

...As to a union victory, the strike was finally settled on ' the basis of Mayor Wagner's recommendation of $12.63 and other items, $12.63 being considerably closer to $9.20 than to $38...

...Speak softly...

...James S. Ottenberg New York, New York Race Relations in Chicago Dear Sirs: In your July issue editorial, "The North is Next," certain sweeping statements were made concerning the segregated ghettos in which Chicago's Negroes supposedly live...

...Will the publishers be less sure of their infallibility and strength in the next seventy-nine years and come off their arrogant throne of assurance...

...As to Powers: (1) on December 5, Powers reduced his demands to an $83 a week increase which was "still sheer fantasy" and Powers "refused to reveal even privately, what he regarded as the area of potential settlement— clearly he was bent on a strike...

...and D.N.C...

...Greene traveled 10,000 miles and interviewed hundreds of people in China...

...In all of the conferences in which I had the privilege of participating with respect to legislation, and civil rights in particular, I never heard Senator Bartlett make any comment which was not directed at the principles of political science and free debate about which he feels so deeply, or which turned upon considerations of political expediency...

...Kennedy spoke...

...However, if liberal whites and Negroes want these things they will have to register and vote...

...Gruening and Mr...

...with using white arsenic, various kinds of arsenite sodium and arsenite calcium, lead manganese arsenates, D.N.P...

...How does the ITU's dues schedule compare with that of other unions...

...When are we going to start...

...The United States spends more on drink than on education, more on advertising than on health...

...In my reply, I devoted five paragraphs to specific documentation with regard to the chemicals used...

...The fact is that both Senators from Alaska, Mr...

...The use of these weapons, and napalm bombs and chemicals, constitutes and results in atrocities, and points to the fact that this is a war of annihilation...

...government has been helping to build around all the towns and villages of South Vietnam, turning them into concentration camps where the people are literally prisoners, shut off from contact with other villages, allowed outside only to work their fields under supervision by military guards, and checked back into their villages when their work is done...

...Unless the Negro belonged to a privileged minority at that time, the percentage of Negro unemployed might have been close to thirty per cent...

...The source for my information is both Western and Communist...

...Will they do this at a time when their arrogance is finally noticed only because some labor leaders are beginning to copy their style...

...In the North the Negro can vote, and he should...

...His conclusions are set forth at the beginning of the article when he denies the validity of the general impression "that the strike was a demagogic, irresponsible exercise by a power-mad union president, Bert Powers—a cold, ruthless opportunist," and asserts that the strike was a union victory...

...Why should it surprise anyone that the International Typographical Union lost the battle of the press while being involved in negotiations with the owners of our notoriously "free" and "unmanaged" newspapers...

...I think this word has been bandied about a little too much by liberals, who are reluctant to define their terms...

...I wonder if it would have received such a cordial welcome in Washington, D. C, Baltimore, New York, or even Milwaukee...

...Have we literally forgotten that anti-Communism was a major slogan of the Nazis...

...I thought it the defiant cry of a strong man, well-armed to defend himself against his enemies, but so inwardly insecure that he is impelled to proclaim to one and all his readiness to fight to the death...

...Bartlett, took the same position with respect to the filibuster rule...

...The Alaska legislature, of which I am a member, requires a vote of two-thirds of those present for cloture...

...This perilous covenant hardly lessens our fears that these perennial aggressors may not again—as after Sarajevo in 1914 and in Poland in 1939—plunge the world into frightful war...

...The New York Times published my letter, omitting all the particular references to chemicals, attempting to create the impression that my accusations were without substantiation...

...Undersecretary of State Averell Harriman called for public debate on the subject, saying that the only way Americans can understand the issues involved is through free discussion of them...

...We've given you a big stick...

...Admittedly, the South Vietnam Liberation Red Cross is, as its name suggests, allied with those opposing the U.S.-supported Diem regime, but its published findings cannot be ignored since it has urged international investigation of the situation...

...recognition nor admission to the United Nations was ever meant to imply approval of a particular nation's form of government...

...More schools are run and paid for by local communities, communes, and factories than by the Ministry of Education...

...H. R. Clarke Rochester, New York...

...I think it is significant that the NAACP convention was held in our so-called "den of racial inequity...

...Ralph J. Kugelman Wenatchee, Washington Kennedy in Germany Dear Sirs: That part of President Kennedy's speech in Frankfurt's Paulskirche, in which he placed our cities in pawn to nuclear incineration as protection for their European sisters, seemed to me ill-advised and needlessly provocative...

...His book, Awakened China, is a bombshell...

...When I originally raised this point in my letter to The New York Times, that newspaper attacked me editorially for failing to provide evidence...

...government has been charged by the South Vietnam Liberation Red Cross, after a year's study of the chemicals sprayed in South Vietnam—and their effect upon the health of human beings, animals, and crops —with using weed killers which, in the large doses used, are harmful...

...Powers was by the wishes of the members of the Big Six...

...Will the publishers feel again that no outsider can know the problems that beset both sides...

...On education, he reports: "In 1960 . . . 12.3 per cent of the national budget was allocated to education and health [more than two-thirds of this for education] . . . forty-eight per cent more of the national budget was spent for education and health than was spent on China's military expenditures...

...Senate as having said that Senator E. L. Bartlett of Alaska traded votes with the Dixiecrats on the cloture rule, in order to win an assignment to the Appropriations Committee...