THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Distorted Democracy Dear Sirs: The two old party candidates while campaigning for election each denounced participating in Eastern Hemisphere wars, and pledged the voters...
...But why either Roosevelt or Willkie...
...But...
...You are doing a good deal for the American public in combatting the interventionist and war-mongering policy of the President...
...As I'm ever a Progressive, I should not want to miss a copy...
...We tax his "capital," his crops, buildings, live stock, everything he buys, instead of simply taking the "rent" for his use of the land...
...After all are the British and Americans basically different from the totalitarians, the Russians, the Germans, the Italians and others...
...And where was Bob when the Conscription Bill was passed...
...With all good wishes for the cause...
...In other words, American industry of all kinds will be utilized to rebuild the war destruction of Europe...
...I might add that this man has had many years of experience in editorial work and in advertising, so I feel that his constructive criticism is valuable...
...E. H. Barrett Lansing, Mich...
...Edington Cutler, Calif...
...the other as self appointed ambassador-at-large to confer with the favored combatant, and carry with him the ruler's message in his pocket...
...It seems to me that, thereby, you would be lifting the tone of The Progressive...
...Since election they have joined hands in what appears to be a campaign to enter the conflict...
...FDR is.not fussy as to how he gets support, by fair means or foul...
...I say President because I think that's where the blame belongs now, but also feel that the papers, parties (Progressives included), and individuals who supported or endorsed Roosevelt for election partly betrayed the public, as it seems anyone who watched his maneuvers ought to have known from the destroyer deal on, what he was up to...
...back to the Senate for another term...
...The cooperative movement is doing a valiant service, but there must be the political phase to coordinate and put into effect those ideals...
...That would bar such glaring heads as 'Clausen, Chronic Knocker, Raps Social Gains', and 'Profits Make Farm Machinery So Costly', for I cannot see how they, or the text, help people think right on public issues or encourage brotherhood...
...E. J. Koixer Salt Lake City, Utah * * * Open Letter To FDR Dear Sirs: An open letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, with reference to his pledge to keep America out of war: "What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.'' Ralph Waldo Emerson, late of Concord, Massachusetts...
...One thousand ounces of American gold would buy $20,000 of Federal securities...
...I have read it ever since I was a child...
...The results of the election suggest the question: Were the nominations in accord with the Democratic way, a hybrid-Democratic-Fascist way, or a distorted interpretation of Democracy labelled the American way...
...headed off, surely would have been very much delayed...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Distorted Democracy Dear Sirs: The two old party candidates while campaigning for election each denounced participating in Eastern Hemisphere wars, and pledged the voters that if elected he would keep our nation out of the present free for all in Europe...
...February 1934, Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau announced he would Jsuy imported fine gold bars at $35 per ounce (less Vt of 1 per cent handling charge) and sell gold at $35 per ounce (plus V* of 1 per cent handling cost...
...Not only this but we will share our wealth with European poverty, our efficient production will be partly dissipated in Europe...
...W. T. Beals Conconully, Wash...
...But when you print crude letters, giving vent to personal grudges, destructive criticism, that are slangy in tone, and vindictive, you drag the dignity of your paper into mud-slinging...
...An Educator Find enclosed $1 for which kindly send me The Progressive for six months...
...with many others in your Forum, this writer, too, would urge The Progressives to take the fundamental stand on taxation as you have d^ne on the money issue, which is really of less importance...
...Fair Means Or Foul' Dear Sirs: I do not consider that the La Follette boys are worthy of my or any other real Progressive's further support as I surmise that the cause of their non-Progressiveness can be traced to a certain weekend spree on board a certain jolly-good-fellow's yacht last summer...
...one in the capacity of the nation's ruler...
...All misinformation or misunderstanding circulated about Progressive principles could be handled in a department by itself...
...Congratulations to Robert M. La Follette, Jr., and his brother Phil for the fine statesmanship you are both showing in these critical times in trying to preserve our American ideals by keeping out of the wars which are not our wars and which ideals I fear will be lost if we get tangled up in European affairs where there is no end to conflict...
...Hutchins that I am enclosing 10 cents for two extra copies of this last Progressive...
...Laying aside the camouflage, it is now bejng decided whether or not we shall align ourselves with England and her allies, or whether we shall row our own boat and remain independent of European power politics...
...Will they be any different from the starved war babies of Germany and Russia of 1914 to 1918...
...As a leader, Phil proved to be just a big flop...
...The common excuse by those who supported Roosevelt was that they had no choice...
...The whole profit or debt system works that way...
...If this country again becomes entangled in European affairs, it will be almost impossible to untangle again...
...Forum Criticism Dear Sirs: I am enclosing a dollar bill for which I wish you would mail marked copies of The Progressive, Jan...
...to the addresses on separate sheets...
...The profit or debt system is the means by which the exploiters take the larger portion of the production of the farmers and laborers...
...And may I quote what an Eastern friend, business man, wrote me: "I'd like to see The Progressive platform at the top of the editorial page, in every issue, and then all the news items, editorials, and columns used to clarify and promote the principles...
...not be possible to print only those letters that gave constructive criticism...
...Isn't it true that the farmer should have more than parity, he should have all that he produces...
...Have the two old parties merged...
...Many of us would like to see it united with _ the Farmer-Labor groups to form a leadership that can be depended upon to help preserve our democratic ideals, as the spokesman for the mass of us who cannot be heard above the din...
...It lowers the tone of the paper, and expresses such c-rudeness and slap-stick expressions, that I can't forward it...
...We talk about having 22 billion dollars in gold buried in the Kentucky hills, buc if one analyzes the procedure of accumulating that gold one will find that our government has issued a great many gold bonds to cover that gold, which really makes a large portion of that gold the property of the bondholders and the gold is virtually a mortgage on the backs of the pec-pie of the United States, on which the people will have to pay interest, and the ?old will not belong to the United States until the bondholders have been paid for their bonds...
...I do not want any more of it...
...I'm sure that he could not only increase the circulation, but elevate the tone of the paper...
...It created $15,805,000,000 of liabilities against them, plus interest, and was laid to rest in the silent hills of Kentucky, there to remain until fulfillment of Jehovah's promise in which he agreed to deliver the world and contents to his chosen people...
...Would it...
...Kate Reely Madison, Wis...
...C. V. MtllXER Edinburg, Tex...
...Keep up the good work men...
...Pro-German Sheet" Dear Sirs: Please take my name off your mailing list...
...The argument is not so one-sided this time as it was during the last world war when your father put up such a valiant fight for OUR country and when he was so bitterly criticized by people who did not understand the facts and were misled by so much wrong propaganda or those who could see financial gain by our entering that war, which everybody now must know was wrong...
...These questions may be well considered in extending the war...
...Or is it because we suffered less during the last war and therefore were able to maintain our ideals and the so-called way of life ? What kind of a mind will the bombed children of London grow up with...
...If your convictions are what they seem to be, why not Thomas...
...And fine as I think The Progressive is, may I make a suggestion for The People's Forum page...
...The people are being forced into debt and the exploiters are reaping billions of dollars yearly in interest from the farmers and laborers of virtually every nation in the world, because in the last analysis the farmer and laborer pay the debts...
...Wishes There Were More Dear Sirs: Thank you for your good work in connection to keep us out of war...
...After the war, England at least will be crippled and if it is to survive, we will have to rebuild her merchant marine as well as to help to feed her and rebuild her factories...
...Yes, they sold the Progressives "down the river...
...This results in "protectionism" and "socialistic" schemes of all kinds that makes th:s govern-m-nt bureaucratic and dominating, complex and unjust, so that our democratic way of life seems to be on the way out...
...The La Follettes are to play a big role in the history of the coming days and years...
...Most of us are socialistic, but since delving into the cooperative and the "single tax" philosophy, I can see that the state must recede, not expand, or we shall go on into a socialistic state in spite of ourselves...
...Then And Now Dear Sirs: Enclosed find my subscription renewal for your fine little paper which I have taken for many, many years and hope to be a subscriber to as long as you publish it and adhere to the sterling principles for which your family is known around the world...
...International Bankers Dear Sirs: For international bankers, the United States is the world's greatest feeding ground...
...There should be millions of them, for they are the voice of one of the real Americans...
...Besides we will have an, at least, imaginary, stake in maintaining the status quo, sharing bases with England and in other ways hopelessly involved...
...The important issue of the voters was for or against foreign wars, with the majority against repeating the huge human and financial losses experienced in European War No...
...Norman Thomas and his beaming smile when he is in the limelight is the whole Socialist party...
...All American gold, other than newly mined, was commandeered at $20 per ounce...
...Then the government must, of necessity, turn around and take its revenue from both labor and capital, in indirect taxation of all kinds...
...To do that we must get the exploiters off his back, who are there because of our "protectionist" policies...
...He could have all his produce, for his own, to use or exchange as he naw fit...
...Wheeler, and others, is, I think, one of the most important and hopeful signs in the present day dismal scene...
...I am pleased that the state sent Bob Jr...
...J. Jackson Wichita, Kans...
...F. C. Kranz Los Angeles, Calif...
...Why print such banal statements as—"Phil made me mad...
...Oliver Lee Star Prairie, Wis...
...The present conflict of ideas is a basic conflict.—it is a conflict as to whether the stomach or the soul succumb first...
...Amy Parker Fennimore, Wis...
...S. J. SlMONSEN Pease, Minn...
...Until the people of this nation and all nations adopt a production for use or cooperative (government ownership) system and get rid of the profit or debt system, they will continue to be under the heel of the exploiter and wars will be waged to keep the exploiter in power...
...The $15,805,000,000 of gold bought, added nothing to the purchasing power of the American people...
...Midget Parties The Independent Labor League, a small Socialist sect, has dissolved itself...
...After this gold had been" corralled, the great Apostle of Debt, in Washington, raised the price of foreign gold to $35 per ounce, giving international bankers a profit amounting to $?,774,000,000 on 451,600,000 ounces of imported gold...
...The continued existence of these midget size parties is due to the feeling their followers have being different...
...To Hear Above Din Dear Sirs: The Progressive movement, led by the La Follettes, Sen...
...11, containing Phil La Fol-lette's, "Peace or War for America...
...That is the way imperialism usually gets control over nations and peoples...
...Under Exploiters' Heel Dear Sirs: We talk a great deal these days about saving democracy but if we talked more about saving the profit system we would be nearer hitting the nail on the head as to what is actually happening...
...The government earns enough of revenue to cnduct its affairs, but because of our ignorance it is legislated into the pockets of the privileged few...
...It declared American radical parties are obsolete and completely without influence on American life...
...Wish we had more good Americans like you and Col...
...Some of us knew we were losing and still feel good about it and will feel more so as time goes on...
...i Sometimes when I am tempted to send on my copy of The Progres- j sive, your Forum page deters me...
...The same amount of foreign gold would buy $.35,000 of the same securities, giving international bankers a margin of 75 per cent in buying securities against American competitors...
...Nebi...
...I consider The Progressive one of the educators...
...These days are as full of peril as were the days when Tom Paine wrote, "These are the times that try men's souls...
...If there were no competition for that particular land, he would have to pay nothing...
...I do not find his name mentioned as voting for, or against, or paired...
...Full of Peril Dear Sirs: I am so pleased with the article from Dr...
...The Treasury Department affords them a wonderful place to park, and the sound-proof vaults of the Federal Reserve system make an ideal place for transaction of foreign business...
...So far as Willkie is concerned, probably so far as his policy is concerned, yes, but the bungling tactics of AVillkie as compared to the tricky, clever Roosevelt (with the radio voice) and with opposition of a political minded Democratic majority and maybe a brand new cabinet—well, this catastrophe we are facing (barring unforeseen developments), if not...
...K. J. Johansen Wrangell, Alaska...
...You are getting too Hitlerish for me...
...Eda A. Teeple F-ontana, Calif...
...Afraid to be with the losers...
...Theo...
...What money is left, you might apply on my subscription, or use it for mailing other copies to whom you will...
...The life belt, to Moscow bolsters the Commies...
...You can peJdle your yellow pro-German sheet somewhere else...
...Lindbergh...
...Chesapeake river and bay...
...Too Hitlerish Dear Sirs: When my subscription's up on the 19th of this month, please do not ask me to renew the subscription...
...The issue is whether the things America stands for can be saved, when the things that make them possible are destroyed...
...1, and to avoid repeating the embarrassment of such repudiation by beneficiaries as a token of appreciation of their rescue...
...you have more friends and followers than you imagine...
...They should all imitate the I. L. L. Sidney Noren Evaneton, 111...
...Can Democracy at its best survive in a world where the means of production have been destroyed...
...The surest way to enslave a people is to force a debt on them, us-, ually making the people believe it is for their betterment...
...j * * * ¦' The Stomach Or The Soul Dear Sirs: Far greater issues and policies are being decided at the present time, than the average person would at the first glance understand...
...O. J. G. Schueler Stamford, Conn...
...On second thought, I suggest the latter use...
...Feels Good About Losing Dear Sirs: Please send The Progressive for six months...
...Every good wish...
...In fact, I'd like to see his sound thinking at work on The Progressive...
...Between dates of January 1934, and December 1940, $15,805,000,000 of gold bricks have been imported into the United States, representing 451,600,000 ounces of fine gold, and costing the people, other than bankers and bondholders, $35 per ounce...
...Ada E. Shaper i Omaha...
...And the Trotskyists keep alive by fighting amongst themselves...
...Foreign central and government banks send their gold bars to the United States, the only world market paying $15 per ounce above its coinage value, which gives international bankers 75 per cent profit between the old and the new prices of gold...
Vol. 5 • March 1941 • No. 11
