THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM What Ho Meant Dear Sirs: After the recent exchange of letters between President Johnson and President Ho one cannot, it seems to me, expect any conciliatory move from...
...Ironically The Progressive's solution has enriched the grower while impoverishing the bracero...
...I am sure you will agree with me that the discussion by liberals would be more effective if it were based on an impartial analysis of the problems, and if it presented alternative policies, listed their probable consequences, and then summarized the reasons for selecting one alternative...
...Moreover, The Progressive talked about lying rather than about spades...
...It wants X to stop a major part of its bombing, but refuses in any way to curtail any of its own war activities...
...I cannot go along with your editorial comments in the April issue...
...There is no doubt that evil is in the majority and shall surely triumph, as it always has, but what would life be like if there had not been Tolstoy, Gandhi, Schweitzer, Martin Luther King, and A. J. Muste—not to mention Christ...
...You will recall that President Johnson, returning from Guam, called Ho's reply a "rebuff...
...Arthur Schlesinger's article, "The New Liberal Coalition," in the same issue, contained a sentence ascribing to "our Government" the position that "because they all style themselves as Communist, the Vietcong must therefore be the spearhead of a . . . Chinese system of expansion...
...R. H. Barnes Uncasville, Connecticut Dear Sirs: I have gone along all the way with your criticism of our handling of Vietnam...
...The "growing number of authorities," so far as I can see, are mainly high-bracket individuals who don't like the progressive Federal income tax, and rather than use it to help the states solve their problems of health, education, and welfare would see the job not done at all, or see it done by further increasing regressive state-local sales and property taxes...
...The "starvation wages" which he received during the short harvest season in America were able to sustain him the rest of the year in Mexico...
...He does cover the misgivings of men like Senator Fulbright, who feel that this is yet another reason for ending the war...
...Between 1955 and 1965, they raised an additional $22 billion from their own sources, and they did not squander it...
...Between 1959 and 1966, every state but one raised rates or adopted a new major tax...
...The fact that the dove Senators, for all their intellectual grasp of the concept of a "military-industrial complex," are too fearful to propose and argue for measures that would shift the cost of the war to those who profit most by it is a sad commentary on them, and on us as well, for having such low standards of political judgment...
...Mrs...
...Knoll or any of the "dove" Senators whose statesmanship he so admires have considered making the rich pay for Vietnam...
...If we stopped bombing we could have talks immediately...
...My own view is that the Federal Government should spend much more on its poverty programs than it does now...
...forces...
...Only the states can rationalize and make equitable their systems of local aids and shared taxes...
...We especially enjoy the enlightening articles by James A. Wechsler and Senator William Fulbright, and your views of foreign affairs are most thought-provoking...
...The danger is that any minimum percentage may become a maximum, so that a specific formula might do more harm than good...
...The Heller-Pechman Plan would allocate some $5 billion a year of Federal funds, drawn from higher-income groups through the progressive Federal income tax, to the states, thus avoiding an equivalent increase in regressive state-local sales and property taxes which fall mainly on lower-income groups...
...The recent actions of the Administration tend to show, however, that instead of moving nearer to peace, it is headed farther into the war...
...I agree with the letter by Finney Briggs when he writes in the same issue: "If you pretend to analyze and offer advice on a problem, you ought to be fair enough to walk all around it," and "all your criticism has been solely against the United States...
...Many times in the past Ho has enumerated four terms of peace: permanent, unconditional cessation of bombing...
...Conrad Rossebo Monona, Wisconsin Need Impartial Analysis Dear Sirs: In your April issue, Arthur Schlesinger writes: "The basic liberal proposition is that complicated problems can be solved only by thoughtful analysis...
...I am sure that when history is written, you will be long forgotten, and Mr...
...3. Revenue sharing doesn't ignore the poor people in the rich states...
...Johnson will be among the great...
...While living in Mexico a decade ago, I came to know a bracero personally...
...Both realize that all-out victory is dubious...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM What Ho Meant Dear Sirs: After the recent exchange of letters between President Johnson and President Ho one cannot, it seems to me, expect any conciliatory move from Hanoi...
...Nebraska just enacted a new income tax and a new sales tax at the same time...
...Yours is not an easy task, but it is undeniably a noble one...
...Gordon S. Fulcher Washington, D. C. False Premise Dear Sirs: Your April lead editorial, "A Study in Deception," was excellent...
...The well-adjusted liberal will at times, if he examines his motives, find that love is not the dominant force influencing his stand on some issues...
...Expenditures for these services would be too low without Federal help, because each state tends to pay only for benefits likely to accrue to its own residents...
...Never a reproof or even a gentle slap on the wrist of the Vietcong...
...at least this proportion of any untied money they might receive would go to the cities and other municipalities...
...7. Revenue sharing would not reduce the Federal Government to second-class status...
...That is why Ho published the correspondence...
...5. About a third of all local expenditures is now financed by grants from the state governments...
...It would seem by now that our leaders in Washington could see the indisputable fact: Escalation breeds escalation...
...In President Ho's reply to President Johnson in February, the last three demands were dropped...
...His gratitude at being able to work at "virtually slave labor" in America was heartwarming...
...His reasons: One—"A growing number of authorities believe that the financial crisis of the states forecast for the next decade is largely a myth...
...I believe "Vietcong" literally means "Vietnamese Communist" (and thus the NLF rejects the name) but I assume this was not the interpretation Schlesinger had in mind...
...Mrs...
...Where hatred instead of love is the dominant force, the object of the hatred is only of passing importance...
...Richard M. Dudley Brighton, Massachusetts Escalation Dear Sirs: I read with great interest and much appreciation your excellent editorial, "Stop the Bombing!," in the February issue...
...The best example of this is The Progressive in its stand on the bracero program, as discussed in your May issue editorial, "The Bracero Sequel...
...Almost forty per cent of their increased expenditures went for education—most of it through grants to the local governments...
...As soon as the enemy scales down his demands and appears conciliatory, the other side decides that he is on his deathbed and this is the time to smash hirn and forget about peace negotiations...
...Ulmer picks on the best feature of the Heller Plan—its redistribution of the country's social burden from regressive to progressive taxes—for his harshest criticism...
...The first item on the agenda would be a cease fire and the end of infiltration by both sides...
...The guts and fortitude demonstrated by your constant efforts to educate and inform the people of this land are gratifying...
...It perhaps supports Schlesinger's main point in the sentence to note that even this inadequate premise is false...
...Otherwise stated: X is to agree to a partial armistice, while Y will go on fighting full blast...
...There is nothing in the record to suggest that the states would spend additional funds in any other way...
...Only the states can reduce the number of local governments whose costs far outweigh their effectiveness...
...I agree whole-heartedly with your view that ". . . If the Johnson Administration really meant what it said when it invited U Thant to 'take whatever steps you consider necessary' and to exercise 'the maximum freedom of maneuver,' it has no moral alternative to acceptance of the first step he considers not only necessary but indispensable: the unconditional cessation of the bombing of North Vietnam...
...Carl Owens Robinson, Illinois...
...Only the states can give localities strong executive leadership, businesslike administration, personnel practices based on merit, and an opportunity to move toward metropolitan government...
...withdrawal of all U.S...
...So does Y. But Y insists on conditions...
...Let us needle Congress into playing a decisive and constructive role...
...Paul Booth Chicago, Illinois 'Well-Meaning Fools' Dear Sirs: The love and concern for the underprivileged which should be the motive force of the liberal is often only a mask concealing hatred and contempt for the overprivileged...
...I believe it was an acceptance...
...Given the fact that these governments rely primarily on regressive taxes, this is a laudable objective and hardly merits scorn—let alone misrepresentation— from anybody who professes to believe that this country needs more rather than less public services...
...Henry S. Reuss Member of Congress Washington, D.C...
...The thing to do with the Heller Plan is to repair it, not to reject it...
...Ulmer's own state of Maryland just enacted a new progressive income tax, yet fiscal officials there are concerned that they may have to move the sales tax up another notch in a couple of years...
...In short, Mr...
...Or is the situation a familiar one in history...
...However, his lies have made it possible for him to risk world war and to escalate the futile immoral sacrifice of our boys and our billions to devastate Vietnam and to maim and kill its inhabitants...
...Carl Christenson Waco, Texas Support the Peacemakers Dear Sirs: I consider it nothing short of a miracle that The Progressive has managed to survive in this age of non-think...
...What has been done or can be done to end this madness...
...Joseph A. Peghman Brookings Institution Washington, D. C. 'A Study in Deception' Dear Sirs: Your editorial, UA Study in Deception," in the April issue, in which you begin, "The much discussed 'credibility gap in the White House' is a gentlemanly way of suggesting the President is lying," is more than I am going to take, and you may discontinue my subscription...
...I am certain that you could not do any better...
...Alice Franklin Bryant Seattle, Washington Mayer on Muste Dear Sirs: I have been a supporter of The Progressive for many years, but I cannot see why you would print such a ridiculous article in your April issue as Milton Mayer's, "What A Man Can Do...
...Untied grants are needed to help the poorer states (they can't match the revenue of the richer states even with a much larger effort) and to offset the effect of the fear of interstate competition on state revenues (no state can push its revenues much higher than its neighbor's for fear of driving out its citizens...
...What else could the White House ask...
...The Heller Plan does have defects—it does nothing directly for the cities...
...The one bright ray through all the pessimism of those claiming to be more than half-conscious is the fact that this reviewer's work can still be printed in a publication like yours...
...1166, which I introduced on January 10, 1967, attempts to preserve the fiscal good sense of the Heller Plan and to meet these defects, by providing: One—At least fifty per cent of the Federal block grants would have to be passed on by the states to local governments...
...Ulmer, but I hope you will allow me to correct at least his major distortions: 1. Revenue sharing is intended as a supplement to the present categorical grants (for education, health, housing), not as a replacement for them...
...Lee Dresh Mesquite, Texas Sad Commentary Dear Sirs: In the April issue of The Progressive Erwin Knoll explains that "The Poor Pay for Vietnam...
...Categorical grants can't do the job of untied grants, and vice versa...
...Though mankind be exterminated tomorrow morning, some of us will be consoled by the memory of A. J. Muste and his kind...
...It seemed to say that Muste's efforts were of no consequence...
...Mrs...
...Categorical grants support particular state-local services that have large "spillover" effects...
...The Federal public assistance programs, which provide help to the poor in all states under Federal standards, would be continued after the adoption of revenue sharing...
...and, most important of all, it offers no incentive to states to modernize their own government and that of their localities...
...The only way to satisfy Mr...
...Pechmcm Charges Distortions Dear Sirs: I don't expect to persuade Mr...
...it fails to take into account the relative tax efforts of the states...
...The Progressive's writers, however, seem to deal almost solely with the problems and rarely suggest positive means of solving them...
...But I find I must do so...
...The rest went for health, welfare, housing, recreational facilities, highways, and interest on the debt...
...I believe I speak for my Mexican friend, who is now unemployed, when I say that he would rather take his chances with the greedy grower than with well-meaning fools such as The Progressive...
...You are doing your share by pricking the consciences of people long deadened by the tabloids of ignorance and sensationalism...
...The California Democratic Council has given the President an ultimatum that if the war is not ended by September it will start proceedings to run a slate of antiwar candidates to the Democratic National Convention...
...The fact that the idea of taxing war profits is not alive anywhere is a sad commentary on the American left, new and old alike...
...By 1970, the categorical grants will exceed $20 billion, or about six times the average figure proposed by revenue-sharing supporters and three times the highest figure anybody has ever suggested...
...Two—The states' tax effort, as indicated by the amount of their taxes relative to personal income, would be taken into account in the formula for distributing the $5 billion annually among the states...
...It would merely put a small fraction of its superior revenue-raising capacity at the disposal of the states and local governments...
...Why not try that instead of continuing the killing and maiming...
...What is remarkable to me is that there is not the trace of a hint that either Mr...
...My husband and I subscribe to many other periodicals, but we read yours alone from cover to cover...
...Frankly, this violates my sense of logic, fairness, and reason...
...Richard Chinn Providence, Kentucky Griffi n on Orwell Dear Sirs: I once wrote to you that I read The Progressive from cover to cover with the exception of the book reviews sometimes —but the March issue is certainly outstanding in this department...
...recognition of the Vietcong as the sole political force in South Vietnam, and the reunification of North and South Vietnam...
...6. State officials would be amazed to learn that their fiscal problems are almost over...
...The National Liberation Front has always claimed to include many non-Communist elements and has even said that "Communism in the South is impossible" {Life, April 7, p. 44C...
...and that insistence on reason is the final hope of a democratic society...
...Permanent" cessation of the bombing was dropped...
...The Progressive dares to tell the truth while numerous other periodicals parrot the Administration's views and distort the truth...
...Frank C. Pettit Woodstown, New Jersey Dear Sirs: I resent Milton Mayer's epitaph on A. J. Muste in the April issue...
...I challenge the myth-seers to produce a major governor or mayor who agrees with them...
...is so stirring that almost every line could be underscored...
...The Heller-Pechman Plan, in short, errs not in its redistributive effect—this is all to the good—but in its oxygen-tent effect: by supplying the states with string-free funds, it tends to relieve them of the duty of modernizing themselves and their localities...
...If our country, and perhaps the world, are not to become a burning inferno, we must support vigorously the peacemakers such as U Thant, and awaken the sleeping masses to the crucial issues of the day...
...Your opposition to this program is obviously motivated by a hatred for the wealthy grower...
...Possibly I am wrong in judging this problem in isolation, out of context, so to speak...
...And no discussion of possible alternative policies and their probable consequences...
...A. Herbert Peron Thousand Oaks, California Dear Sirs: Your editorial, "A Study in Deception" (April issue, mailed in March) scooped Walter Lippmann, whose column "Calling 'Credibility' Spade a Spade" appeared in the Seattle Times on March 29...
...2. A Federal system needs both categorical grants and untied grants...
...It is too bad to print such junk about as fine a Christian man as A. J. Muste was...
...Louis Fischer Institute of Advanced Studies Princeton, New Jersey Reuss Replies to Ulmer Dear Sirs: Melville J. Ulmer's criticism of the Heller-Pechman tax-sharing plan in the May issue of The Progressive is pretty rough, and for the wrong reasons...
...Two—"The Heller Plan would provide more revenue, proportionately, to those states whose residents are, on the average, poorer, a feature that has attraction for its liberal supporters...
...No peace talks have yet developed...
...For example, the states might be required to send at least fifty per cent of the revenue-sharing grants to the local governments...
...Let us also become active now in the party politics of our own districts with the objective of electing anti-war delegates to our national conventions in 1968 for the purpose of nominating sane Presidential candidates...
...This business of crucifying our Presidents, from Washington on down, does not get my support, and I will not read the hate language that pours out from those who do not agree with what President Johnson is doing...
...This year, the governors asked their legislatures for $3 billion in additional revenues...
...But if the White House reads an acceptance as a rebuff, what more can Ho say...
...Everything under "Books" is great reading...
...Three—Each state, in order to qualify for grants, would have to prepare a plan, to be approved by the prestigious Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, for modernizing not only its own government but the local governments— the counties, towns, villages, and cities— which are its creatures...
...Yet this discriminates against the individual taxpayer in the richer states by giving him less tax relief than a person with the same income in a poorer state...
...Would that lying were our greatest grievance against our Chief Executive...
...George Orwell's Alarm" by C. W. Griffin, Jr...
...This recognizes that state constitutions and statutes are today the principal barriers to revitalizing local government...
...Ulmer, apparently, is for the Federal Government to stop helping the poorer states proportionately more—as it has been doing for a long time...
...Ulmer is against this...
...Two nations are warring...
...This doesn't look as if the need for new state revenue is abating very rapidly...
...If there is any doubt, a "pass-through" formula can easily be devised...
...In short, your attitude seems largely critical and negative...
...X wants peace talks...
...4. The states have made a remarkable fiscal record in recent years...
...there were 230 tax rate increases and nineteen new tax adoptions in this period...
...For example, California benefits when a youngster educated in Wisconsin migrates there, even though Wisconsin pays the bill...
Vol. 31 • June 1967 • No. 6
