Letters
TETTERS 'What Can a Person Do?' The title of Morris Rubin's article in the April issue, "What Can a Person Do?", is what many of us asked when for all the years of the Indochina war we cried out...
...He needs the support of those who believe in intellectual freedom...
...Equality before the law...
...George E. Danielson Member of Congress Washington, D.C...
...It is just good showmanship on behalf of a great cause: to get Nixon impeached...
...I want to bring to your attention an urgent appeal on behalf of Soviet dissidents from Dr...
...6) What we have we keep...
...It isn't...
...I heard them broadcasting over the radio: Israel, your days are numbered, we got you now where we want you, we have a stranglehold over you (thanks to the doublecross of the United States and the United Nations...
...To this point, the Soviet Union, France, Britain, Japan, and many of the underdeveloped nations have, to a greater or lesser extent, put aside moral conviction and danced to the tune of the Arab world...
...We had come to ask for the impeachment of our President...
...By such a mistaken definition, his own "infinite and everlasting" is a clumsy redundancy...
...A campaign to defend all the honest writers who have been harassed...
...How many more will follow...
...Every Democratic President took us into a war...
...Insofar as any "pressure" from my district is concerned, that is pure fiction...
...You have been far in front of every issue, clearly defining the critical matters our society faces in a strongly absorbing and intellectual tone...
...Apart from this, however, there is no knowing what they want— largely, I suspect, because they do not really know themselves...
...Shame on the United Nations...
...All would be well if Israel would go back to the position it was in the day before the 1967 war, the day when I saw the Arabs on television dancing in the streets at the borders of Israel, celebrating the destruction...
...Larry Meissner St...
...As a subscriber for the past year, I'm only sorry I didn't know of your publication earlier than I did...
...The United States and the United Nations now again make promises...
...Both Johnson and Nixon flouted the Constitution with impunity...
...In considering the situation in the Middle East, the historical fact that must be kept in mind is that an army of European Jews drove a large number of Palestinian Arabs off their land at gunpoint, and now refuse to return the land they took, a refusal that they justify with a variety of arguments: (1) The Arabs left of their own free will...
...You know the epithets as well as I do: lazy, shiftless, irresponsible, dirty, backward, dishonest, cruel, vindictive, sadistic, and the rest...
...The House of Representatives must proceed as rapidly as it can with the impeachment process...
...I do want you to continue on your path of producing a superior magazine, and would simply ask that those who vigorously denounce your publication do so in a manner not consonant with M. R. Simon...
...The Republicans are scared...
...Norman Kent Editor-in-Chief, "Conscience" Hempstead, New York Impeachment To U.S...
...The Wall Street Journal commented, "Moves by House liberals to eliminate this increase (from a current $2,500 to a new $7,500 maximum yearly tax deduction) and to limit it to $6,000 a year were soundly beaten...
...I am also, possibly as much as both of them combined, sensitive to all intimations of anti-Semitism, however subtle...
...Prosecution or trial is not even considered...
...Robert N. Schoeplein Associate Professor of Economics University of Illinois Urbana, Illinois Watergate Watchman I am not a vintage subscriber to The Progressive, but now that I am in the fold I read it from cover to cover...
...Leon Hurvitz Department of Asian Studies University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Nixon's Rights The article entitled "Impeachment: The Crucial Committee," by S. L. Harrison, in your March issue, is false in substantial respects...
...That statement, insofar as it relates to George Danielson, is wholly false and fictitious and based upon nothing but Harrison's imagination...
...And the outlawry continued for eight years, President Nixon extending the murderous bombing to Cambodia, with more destruction rained on people than ever before in history...
...For most of my seventy-six years I have read about the unjust loopholes oil men have jumped through to become the top billionaires of our nation...
...Not one of them ever finished a war...
...It was a place where an investigation of the facts was made that could not be found anywhere else...
...they had lost Gerald Ford's seat the day before, and most of them are afraid they won't be coming back to the Hill after November...
...Sak-harov urges us to support a program of what he calls "social campaigns" on behalf of Soviet dissidents which include: A campaign for free access by the representatives of the International Red Cross and World Health Organization to inspect the Soviet places of incarcerations and mental hospitals...
...What I wrote can appear contradictory to the Reverend Johnson only if he incorrectly believes that "finite" must refer solely to matters of time...
...Every Democratic President in this century entered the Presidential office with a country at peace...
...Carl Knoll Forest Hills, N.Y...
...Both he and the people deserve full disclosure and application of justice...
...Morality...
...As long as the Palestinian Arabs, whom they tend to treat as pariahs, are in their present state, these governments have a club with which to beat the Israelis...
...Helens, Oregon To keep you current on the ultimate fate of pension reform legislation in Congress, a Ways and Means Committee version of the pension reform bill passed the House February 28...
...citizens currently living overseas the problems at home have a special added weight resulting from our perspective and our awareness of the negative attitudes being formed by our European colleagues and friends...
...The slow but certain process toward an open, legal, and constitutionally correct trial of President Nixon is essential to restoration of faith...
...that we must collect and organize and evaluate all of the evidence which relates to each of the accusations against the President...
...Not one of the eight Republican Presidents took us into a war...
...Charles Whitman's otherwise excellent review of Black Power/White Control in your March issue is marred by the closing sentence: "The particulars of history may vary, but the repertoire of techniques is finite and everlasting...
...and that we must try to insure that our decision will be judicious and fair, based on fact, and fully recognizing President Nixon's own constitutional rights...
...and Mrs...
...The article states: "Democrats on the Judiciary Committee who oppose impeachment reflect the views of their constituents who feel that it is somehow unpatriotic to unseat the President...
...allegedly "new" approaches merely vary old themes—"Plus qa change, plus e'est la meme chose...
...It should be noted the gift tax already taxes capital gains twice—since the gift tax is computed on the value at time of gift, but the recipient computes gain from any subsequent sale using the donor's basis (usually, cost...
...To achieve a human detente, Dr...
...I don't want this to be an essay in ego enhancement, so I'll stop here...
...This is nothing new, so if you are going to prosecute the President, don't forget to clean your own house...
...In computing the tax, there is an exemption on the first $60,000, which for some ninety-five per cent of the adult population makes the tax zero...
...Andrei Sakharov...
...Now it seems there is a disagreement between us as to who is the underdog...
...I have voted for Richard Nixon three times and would do it again...
...constituent and other pressures within home districts have an impact...
...The unsolicited mail that I have received from constituents has run better than six to one in favor of impeachment...
...You have now the choice of choking in our stranglehold or fighting us in a war that you cannot win...
...L. S. Gardner Bellingham, Washington Capital gains most certainly are taxed at death—at least on large estates...
...The Supreme Court refused to make a judgment...
...Even a monkey can handle a pen...
...The needless, senseless, undeclared war was a crime immensely more heinous than Watergate...
...Sounds silly...
...Let me say in conclusion that I am fully as Jewish as Golda Meir or Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn, who, in his tirade against Georgie Anne Geyer's article, "Enemies," says he is dropping his subscription after many years...
...We had come to play the lobbying game with our Congressmen...
...In connection with (5), the attitude of the Zionist settler toward the Palestinian Arab reminds one of nothing quite so much as the European settler's attitude toward the American Indian...
...The bill as introduced and passed included the essential features described in my article, "Pension Reform for the Rich," in the March issue...
...Now, to the point: Watchman Frank Wills (March Memo), whose vigilance led to the Watergate revelations, is now, after a distressing interval of unemployment, again making a weekly wage...
...Charles Whitman Chicago, Illinois Plea for Soviet Dissidents The plight of the Soviet dissidents is one that moves all who cherish human rights and intellectual freedom...
...If Georgie Anne Geyer is an anti-Semite, then I am a monkey's uncle...
...Dan-ielson, admittedly, has felt extreme pressure from his district to oppose impeachment...
...now Rabbi Gittelsohn has done it for me in the February issue...
...Yet the limited repertoire is everlasting because it is not confined to a particular era and is bound to be used again and again...
...If "capital gains" in estates are to be explicitly taxed at rates higher than now, those most affected will, I suspect, be farmers (whose land has been "inflated" in value by hard work and the general rise in all prices), and the small businessman with a family firm...
...Other big fortunes may be based on other natural resources, but none comparable to those built on oil, and none which have built up my personal resentment, and perhaps a public resentment, over the years...
...3) Palestinian soil is Jewish by nature...
...Congress permitted it...
...You, and Rabbi Gittelsohn, and I have been traveling a long way together on the road which leads to justice for the underdog...
...One then wonders (as Congressman Danielson notes, he has sent out two questionnaires to his constituents) whatever motivates or can rationalize such action, or what difference it makes what his constituents think...
...Reverend Edward A. Johnson Ohiowa, Nebraska Keeping faith with surrounding dictionaries, I chose "finite" to indicate that the number of techniques available to social reformers is limited...
...Since the context does not allow for an interpretation along the lines of Barthian or Niebuhrian dialectic or paradox, one concludes that the reviewer meant: "infinite and everlasting...
...An amendment in committee to lower the annual corporate pension benefits to $60,000 failed on a nine to fourteen vote, and this was a harbinger for subsequent floor action...
...In all seriousness, we might have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars...
...if I would believe them, then I would not be writing this letter...
...William Dodd Santa Barbara, California Israel and the Arabs I have intended for a long time to write to you about Israel...
...The world's response to the Arab oil boycott is also reminiscent of the response to Nazism...
...Democrats and Republicans in offices "representing" the people have been dishonest through the ages...
...The fact is that I have scrupulously maintained that it would be improper for me to prejudge the case by taking a personal stand at this time on whether or not (Continued on Page 65) (Continued from Page 62) the President should or should not be impeached...
...2) They were persuaded to leave by Arab propagandists who promised to retake their lands by force...
...Every effort must be made to restore confidence and trust...
...Those who want to help mobilize a coalition of conscience behind the Soviet dissidents can volunteer their services or make financial contributions to the Andrei Sakharov Campaign: Bayard Rustin, Chairman 1182 Broadway, Suite 802 New York, New York 10001 Pension and Tax Reform Democrats should adopt the tax revisions suggested by Representative Henry Reuss on Page seven of the March Progressive, stressing the tax on oil...
...So goes another $325 million in preferential income tax breaks to upper-income taxpayers...
...Necessarily, criticism should be delineated precisely, so that it can be evaluated objectively...
...For the first time in too long the labor movement has taken a lead ahead of the student movement in acting against unresponsiveness in Washington...
...What we did not win, the country, unfortunately, has lost...
...The appeal was sent on February 1 to the Social Democrats, U.S.A...
...One cannot help but agree that all members, and especially those on the Judiciary Committee, must, as they are charged under the Constitution, reach a decision both judicious and fair, based on fact, as Congressman Danielson states...
...But lately your stand on Nixon has been so intolerable I can hardly bear to pick up the magazine...
...The Arab obsession to destroy Israel has much in common with Nazism: Both had their roots in critical conditions of economic inequality, in demagogic appeals to the poor, in financial support of terrorist attacks against a people cast in the role of villains...
...A Republican effort to permit an annual cost-of-living increase in the maximum narrowly lost...
...Stamler and Mrs...
...Richard J. Him Haverford, Pennsylvania Nixon should resign or be impeached...
...Irving Caesar New York, New York...
...The President would be impeached today if the House would turn off the lights and have a voice vote...
...His fortitude under the burden he is bearing is an example for future good...
...The only solution, it seems to me, is that advanced by the Palestinian Arabs: a bi-national state, one with no official religion (very important), but with community rights for those Jews, Christians, and Moslems who wish to identify themselves with those respective communities...
...The Arab politicians, meanwhile, are using this for all it is worth...
...If he gave up, it would weaken our form of government for the indefinite future...
...I believe in his integrity...
...Arthur Jack MacLean Alma, Missouri I had known of The Progressive long before I became a subscriber...
...4) God gave us this land to keep...
...In April 1973, long before the abominable gas lines developed, you devoted more than half of a brilliant issue to the power of oil companies, how oil raids the treasury, corrupts the Congress, and acts as a government unto itself...
...But when we got out of a war a Democrat took us into, it was a Republican President that did it...
...A campaign for amnesty of Soviet political prisoners...
...Perhaps definitions of "pressure" vary...
...What an opportunity was missed in not barnstorming him across the country and charging just a single dollar for the privilege of shaking his hand...
...Alfred Kaiser Monsey, New York Like many other naive intellectuals, you have been taken in by Arab propaganda...
...Merritt D. Metz Lowell, Indiana On February 20, there we were, 400 strong...
...Israel, as the Rabbi and I think, or the poor mistreated Arabs who today seem to have the whole world on its knees...
...Of the many articles written on my posture on the impeachment question, Harrison's is the only one that puts me in a pre-determined position...
...If it is argued that a bi-national state will no more work in Palestine than it has anywhere else, then this is a problem without a solution...
...Wayne Morse rightly called it "outlawry" when President Johnson began the bombardment of Vietnam...
...Walter Gustafson Glen Flora, Wisconsin Wants Precise Criticism I read with disappointment M. R. Simon's disparaging letter of critique in the March issue of The Progressive...
...My opinion was a favorable one...
...But others of us who have learned to expect this from politicians could read a deeper, more positive note in the faces of those we talked to...
...Sakharov said: "We all welcome the negotiations that are now being held aimed at preventing a thermonuclear war, as well as the armaments race, and to promote negotiations directed to increased trade relations —in short, all that is denoted by the word 'detente...
...is what many of us asked when for all the years of the Indochina war we cried out in vain for our leaders to stop the killing...
...The low level of confidence in our Government and in its leaders is sad, but more than that it is frightening...
...But at the same time . . . the external detente is tragically not accompanied by an internal and human detente...
...This is a personal decision based on conscience and conviction according to the evidence disclosed...
...As it stands, it is a contradiction in terms, not representative of the excellent editorial standards The Progressive has maintained for years...
...At no time have I indicated that I either oppose or support impeachment and have made no statements "admitting" that I have "felt extreme pressure from [my] district to oppose impeachment...
...Your reasons for continuous hounding are not distinguishable from CBS, The New York Times, and The Washington Post...
...In his eloquent plea for peace and human rights for all people, Dr...
...Then, and only then, through Congressional hearings can the people observe for themselves the right or wrong of President Nixon's behavior in the past, and see proper action taken if indicated...
...Sources in the House Judiciary Committee —members of Congress, personal and professional staff—provided the substance of my statement as quoted by Representative Danielson, and I stand by the assessment that emerged...
...Obviously—would our leaders try themselves...
...The House Rules Committee granted a closed rule to the controversial "wealthy taxpayer" element of the omnibus bill, excepting the introduction of amendments on the raising of the income tax deduction for self-employed (professional) people...
...I join with George E. Danielson in having nothing complimentary to say about the accuracy of S. L. Harrison's facts or conclusions...
...Such stupidity will not prevail in the long run, but the future will regard ours as another Chamberlain era—one in which many intellectuals chose the cowardly course of appeasement...
...I am proud I voted for him...
...The question thus is really one of the rate at which the gains are taxed...
...S. L. Harrison Woodbine, Maryland 'Finite' or 'Infinite...
...If there is to be peace in the world, then those in the East and West who, like academician Sakharov, oppose military solutions to political problems and insist on human rights for all, must be free to speak out...
...Honor...
...His conclusion is not only wrong, but is based upon an absolute lack of facts to support it...
...A campaign for freedom of emigration...
...Shame on the United States...
...Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore Colleges have made a statement and set an example...
...The trip was called "Haverford College to Washington" but also included sizable contingents from nearby Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges—the "Quaker three" from suburban Philadelphia...
...Justice...
...I have stated that I feel the members of the Judiciary Committee are in somewhat the same position as grand jurors in this matter...
...This was the largest single effort to date to pressure Congress for impeachment...
...By acquiescing, members of Congress became accessories to the illegal and immoral actions of the Presidents...
...The Arabs say that they want peace...
...The editorials articulating a bill of impeachment are predecessors of an idea whose time will soon come, just as a courageous editorial in February 1971 called for the election of George McGovern...
...The Federal estate tax is computed on the value of assets irrespective of their cost...
...There has been no "pressure" whatever from my district calling for me to oppose impeachment...
...on the occasion of its presentation to this great Soviet dissenter of the Norman Thomas Freedom Award, in memory of the great American dissenter...
...There has been no such pressure...
...If he is not, then we need a new government...
...That, for me, is taking on a lot of homework inasmuch as I do not neglect a half dozen other periodicals that have turned me into an addict...
...By now, we have seen everything...
...Yet no court of law prosecutes either of the Presidents, nor are members of Congress tried...
...Of course not...
...Two questionnaires I have sent out have both indicated a majority of my constituents favoring impeachment and/or resignation...
...If he is not, I will, always and forever, vote against every current member of the Senate and the House, with the exception of those who resign their seats in protest...
...Not only do I assert my own intention to make a decision based upon the facts and the Constitution, but I join Representative Danielson in attributing a similar intention to the overwhelming majority of the Judiciary Committee...
...Hall (of whom Rubin wrote in praise of their long and successful struggle against the House Un-American Activities Committee) were able to do something (not however, in regard to the war), but they were a unique exception...
...James R. Mann Member of Congress Washington, D.C...
...We used as our motto the words of the first Quaker, George Fox—"To speak truth to power...
...We must come to an understanding between us...
...But what can a person do...
...5) We have up-to-date agricultural techniques, which gives us more of a right to it than the Arabs, who will underuse, even misuse, it...
...Richardson L. Rice Salzburg, Austria I believe it might be a good idea to pick the log out of your own eye before picking a splint out of someone else's...
...Ray Thornton of Arkansas, James Mann of South Carolina, and Walter Flowers of Alabama share this outlook with George Danielson of California...
...Few Congressmen would commit themselves to vote for impeachment, and this discouraged the majority of us who are not experienced with "non-committal" politicians...
Vol. 38 • May 1974 • No. 5
