THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Post-War Settlement Dear Sirs: Mr. Rubin's article, "Progressives And The Peace," was a powerful document which should be placed in the hands of every member of...
...For my money Barnes took the jackpot...
...Both Texas and Arkansas are now poll tax states...
...Now again his hallowed grave is desecrated, this time by our Cecil, Rhodes scholars and our hyphenated English-Americans, who mouth his name while answering "No" to his immortal plea "that a nation so conceived" (in the minds of Washington and Jefferson) could continue to exist—a beacon light and inspiration to the oppressed peoples of the world...
...Mrs...
...I have for years been reading various plans to prevent wars and preserve peace...
...To say the least, you are doing a mighty bum job of taking the place of the American Guardian when you fill your pages with Nazi propaganda...
...You certainly succeeded in being at least on a par with Hearst's Hitler propaganda...
...Among the small nations, the Greeks under their semi-fascist government certainly put up a much better fight than the Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian democracies...
...Nearly all people are against war and desire peace...
...Because Barnes upholds some actions of Uncle Joe, which opinions, incidentally*, make Communists happy, Eastman has no hesitancy in calling Barnes Red...
...Eastman the drubbing they deserve...
...But we must be careful not to bore the public...
...Lincoln's Plea Dear Sirs: I wonder if it is not time to enter a mild protest against the tendency of The Progressive to become a "debating society" for the discussion of Russia and her past and present leaders...
...Barnes in truth not aware of the fact that the great majority of the victims of the 1936-'38 purges were never tried at all...
...Lincoln has been dragged from his honored grave by every mountebank politician to prove the purity of his motives...
...Richardson growing out of the latter's refusal to produce the two internees on writs of habeas corpus...
...Since radicals would rather argue than eat, the purges were probably required* Other people will compromise and be loyal to a party but a radical must have his way 100 per cent or he'll form a new party...
...I resent the manner in which Milton Mayer was given the back seat in these debates because, if I recall correctly, it was Mayer who started them...
...And again, would Mr...
...Co-op Criticism Overdue Dear Sirs: Prof...
...There are many people who have advocated world peace through example, friendliness, helpfulness, and justice long before many of the present day shouters started their campaign to save the world through "organization...
...One hundred radicals—100 parties...
...New York, N. Y. * * * Criticizes Name Calling Dear Sirs: Both Harry Elmer Barnes and Max Eastman should be sat upon for being guilty of a common fault...
...Why do you do it...
...For the long pull I still believe that government by consent has advantages over government by terror...
...The present Senator makes a determined stand against the terrifying plot "to commit the United States to a future course in world relationships when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the people of the United States are still in the dark as to the peace table demands and the post-war policies of the other United Nations, including Great Britain, China, and Russia...
...Both Glockner and Seifert were given hearings before the Military Intelligence, Naval Intelligence, and Federal Bureau of Investigation...
...Frank Pitkin New York, N. Y. * * * Thomas Is Right Dear Sirs: What Norman Thomas said in his article about Russia is exactly what my friends have written me from Russia...
...Those who opposed America's entry into both wars may be consistent in opposing our entry into a world federation of nations after the war, but those who eagerly sought our participation in wars in the name of peace after war, to be consistent, must be for some kind of over-all agreement or world federation to preserve peace...
...It was due to the forced collectivization of agriculture, to bad planning or lack of planning, and, together with the goods famine, to the disproportionate share taken by the Communist bureaucracy of goods and services...
...After all there are twice as many Russians as Germans, yet...
...But Russia has been rescued by the democracies from any such test...
...I want to offer a warm hand c'asp to the gallant lady who conducts "A Room of Our Own...
...Robert C. Richardson, Jr...
...In this event, I shall give my support unreservedly for a world federation...
...John Fabrizius Wakeeney, Kan...
...Better All The Time The Progressive grows better with each new issue...
...If there ever can be another Oscar, Dr...
...We must be sincere and words will not be enough...
...Thomas and Mr...
...I find it hard to believe that Mr...
...This is especially true, when in many instances, we consider the sources of those words...
...J. C. Thompson Mooringsport, La...
...What I like about Barnes is the fact that he, like Oscar, doesn't follow a party line...
...There will always be the rich and the poor as long as human nature is what it is...
...It did not guarantee the territory of the states, but left those questions to be settled under the machinery of union...
...they had to economize, and found a way through collective, cooperative action...
...Rodell complains about the bad co-op propaganda...
...Pvt...
...Poll Tax Data Dear Sirs: In the Forum of Sept...
...Rodell misses is that there are social and ethical values involved which, he may be right, could be designated as a new religion...
...27, J. B. Sager attempts to defend the poll tax...
...We are in this great world conflict, and we are in it to win, and, let us hope, to make conditions better for the people...
...Commends Rubin Dear Sirs: I wish to commend the fine lead article from the pen of Editor Rubin, headed "Progressives And The Peace...
...Therefore, not all cooperatives are "stiff and ancient ladies and a couple of gentlemen of the cloth...
...It is for this reason that I feel so strongly that the what of the peace settlement is as important if not more important than the how of enforcement...
...Richardson mentions called for reaffirmation of the civil over the military power in Hawaii, where total martial law has been replaced by a modified version...
...As a result of the poll tax many state and national offices are now won in elections where less than one half of the adults are qualified voters...
...The requirements were the same as in Arkansas...
...In the meantime The Progressive, much to my joy, keeps on letting out of the bag gigantic cats which are not permitted even to say "meow" in other magazines and newspapers...
...And the Germans and the Japanese, however much we dislike them, have proved that they can fight with just the same, if not even greater, "fanatical devotion" than the Russians...
...It is doing things that counts...
...We cannot claim that cooperation is an American invention...
...Something different must be evolved...
...Meanwhile, the two internees, Albert Glockner and Erwin Seifert, have now been released, but only to be sent to the mainland, apparently still under custody...
...Barnes and so many others do, that people necessarily fight best under a "good" government which has given them benefits...
...Reactionaries and radicals have put on the mantle of the "liberator" to justify usurped power or class rule...
...La Pollette's telegram to San...
...No tax receipt of • any kind was at that time required of anyone for the privilege of voting...
...Praise For Thomas Dear Sirs: The readers of The Progressive are very fortunate in being able to have before them letters from the great scholar and political critic, Norman Thomas...
...If that is the result we must be thankful to him...
...Also that war is a crime or a crusade...
...Mary Winsor Philadelphia, Pa...
...Ralph Bedell Vershire, Vtw Reply From Hawaii Dear Sirs: In the editorial entitled "Military Dictatorship" appearing in The Progressive of Sept...
...Sager is utterly unfamiliar with the subject...
...Rubin only in that I feel that Mr...
...Free only for them...
...And even if he were, how can it be thought that the Russian Communist Party bureaucracy will surrender its vested interest in its joint ownership (through its monopoly political control of the state) of Russian land and capital...
...They believe in telling the truth no matter whom it hits...
...To a certain extent he is right, but why does he not offer his able pen to the movement...
...We hope he will soon be back in the Senate where he is greatly needed...
...but here again it all depends what we understand by "religion...
...5. Mr...
...Economic, political, and social conditions after that war blocked such progress...
...In these poll tax states political democracy is a farce...
...Barnes and Thomas (I admire them both) besides reading each other's "contribution to confusion" found time to read "Clarity and Charity," the first article in the People's Forum of the Oct...
...Denounces Barnes Dear Sirs: It was indeed interesting to read the comments of our intellectuals, the Messrs...
...It's a disease, or perhaps an awful dissipation, like liquor or women...
...After a humane peace settlement, it seems logical that there should be a federation of nations...
...Barnes argue that Japan is a "socialist" state worthy of our admiration and emulation because she has conquered more than half of China, and because she managed in the three months following Pearl Harbor to put an end to western domi nation in the whole of Southeast Asia...
...Walter Mehin Livingston, Mont...
...Favorites I hope we may have more from Agnes Smedley and Norman Thomas in the columns of The Progressive...
...Churchill's thinking and creates worldwide injustices, I shall be un-reser.ving in my opposition to American participation in and support of such a war-provoking course...
...Nor should it be forgotten that the Russians under the Czar fought bravely for three years without losing territory to the Germans comparable in extent to that lost to Germany in 1941-'42...
...Here is Barnes, the advocate of free speech, giving aid and comfort to the world's greatest purger...
...Anna M. Weidman Washington, N. J. Rodell And The Co-ops Dear Sirs: The article of Prof...
...Clarifies matters...
...With nations more aggressive and nationalistic today than our states were, what chance will we have to come out with any structure of lasting peace if we insist upon a "good" immediate settlement first...
...My first vote was cast in Arkansas, my native state, in 1890...
...3. Mr...
...Barnes justified in taunting Max Eastman with the poor results of private enterprise in Russia between 1891 and 1917...
...Those with lust for power and empires must be put in place...
...In retrospect I can see that the League Covenant froze many of the pre-war inequalities and created new injustices which were bound to lead to war, but at the time I regarded Robert M. La Follette, Sr., as a near-traitor...
...Before replacing Abraham Lincoln with Joe Stalin, as the emblem of hope, patience, and charity, in the hearts of the American people, why not, after repudiating the Cecil Rhodes and Churchills and our own "empire grabbers," accept Mr...
...Take our own United States, for example": the main part of the New York delegation withdrew from our Constitutional Convention in a huff and the state militia was called out when the Convention refused to guarantee that the territory of the Green Mountain Boys would never be separated from New York State...
...An exact definition of "cooperative" is impossible, and the least exact may be obtained from Webster...
...They do not want to travel the old American way of deceit and exploitation in order to get members and to have a mushroom growth...
...It can "scorch the earth" regardless of the fate of its own civilian population...
...the people of the U. S. A. are you going to give into the hands of a board, commission, council, or assembly, the majority of whom are not citizens of the United States of America...
...The immediate terms of settlement ending countless bloody wars between England and Scotland may have been mora important to smallbore, flag-waving writers and politicians on each side, but certainly the union which was set up—whether it was democratic and apt to last —was more important to history and to the progress of the Scotch and English peoples...
...Medal For McMillin Miles McMillin deserves a Congressional Medal of Honor for showing us what multi-million dollar suckers we are in letting the power trust get away with murder...
...The "man-made famine" of the early '30's had nothing to do with the threat of war —which came later...
...18th Progressive deserves an answer...
...Historically, and from my own personal experiences, I happen to know that the above statement is at variance with all the known facts in,' at least, those states where I have lived and voted...
...I was living in Texas a few years later when the amendment to the state constitution was initiated making a poll tax receipt a legal passport to the ballot box...
...Permit me, as one ¦who lived in Russia from 1930 to 1936, to take up Mr...
...My second Vote was cast in Texas in the year of 1892...
...S. L. Bishop Edinburg, Tex...
...I am a member of the local co-op, and have been interested in the movement for 10 years...
...William Eliot Chicago, 111...
...The Only Hope' Your Editor, Mr...
...In the event the peace settlement follows Mr...
...11 seemed to try to out-lie Hearst's poisonous publications about Stalin and Soviet Russia...
...Herbert Leader Bennington, Vt...
...The main point that Mr...
...It was food, clothing, shoes, and other necessities which could not be bought by the mass of the people., Moreover it was in the years before Hitler came to power that starvation in Russia was most acute and the lack of elementary necessities most severe., viz from 1930 to 1933...
...Jessie Dean Chicago, 111...
...I hope so...
...Churchill, and that we may emerge with a sound and honorable settlement...
...A healthy idea this "reply to a reply...
...Lieutenant General, U. S. Army, Commanding Central Pacific Area EDITOR'S NOTE: Lost week U. S. Judge D. E. Metzger denied a government motion to vacate his contempt of court finding against Gen...
...The court's decision fell short of resolving the...
...But the goal must be justice...
...Now he is ignored, like the drunkard who starts the brawls in the bar and grill...
...I would suggest that Max, Norman, and Harry Paxton Howard go on a pilgrimage as Milton Mayer and Mac Coleman did and sit at Oscar Ameringer's feet and learn something...
...Fred Lincoln Minneapolis, Minn...
...Doesn't it boil down to the idea that the world needs to replace war and its partner, diplomacy, with constitution-building...
...Barnes' greatest mistake lies in his assumption that the Russians have fought so well against Nazi Germany because they love their government...
...By the same token, because Dewey went to Mexico on a mission that made Trotsky-ites happy, Barnes links Dewey 'with the Trotsky ites...
...I'll see if this gets published in the Forum...
...The requirements were that the voter must be a male and have lived in the state one year and in the county six months...
...Liked Douglas Article William O. Douglas' article was one of your very best...
...I believe the attitude of the average American is: that she be allowed to work out her own destiny, trusting to the soundness of her great people to prevent too much Quaker hanging, witch-burning, race extermination, and oppression, in the process...
...Barnes doesn't become a Socialist is because, as Clarence Darrow remarked, "There are so many un-social people in the Socialist Party...
...C. Tousey Taylor Seattle, Wash...
...History tells us that the first World War did not make the world safe for democracy...
...Perhaps he has done so through his article which may awaken some from their lethargy...
...Finally I want to touch on the incident in regard to the opposition of selling beer in a co-op...
...The amendment carried...
...In closing may I mention that I did not write in any official capacity...
...And is Mr...
...The only hope is to concentrate on building a constitutional world order of democratic structure open to all the human race, and providing for civilian administration only, in certain clearly defined, popularly-delegated international jurisdiction...
...Barnes really thinks that his "Uncle Joe" is a benevolent, demo-eraticallyj-minded father of his people only waiting until they are fit and ready to govern themselves...
...to expand it . . . and to enable these poor whites and Negroes to vote...
...The Henry George Plan Dear Sirs: The Culbertson-Mayer controversy is interesting, but man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still...
...Obviously Mr...
...H. J. Shea 2500 Webb Ave...
...Bob La Follette...
...War alone has not accomplished that goal...
...Actually it was precisely cosmetics and perfumes—and vodka—which were about the only consumption goods which could be bought ad lib in Russia prior to the war...
...I like most of everything that you publish...
...The reactionary politicians of these states know it, and are determined to keep it so if possible...
...Sen...
...Louis Fein Arlington, Mass...
...The news is condensed for busy people and the articles by eminent writers are challenging and thought-provoking...
...Barnes has hit upon an unfortunate example in citing "perfumes and lipsticks" as the goods to the production of which the Soviet government wisely paid no attention...
...In judging Russia we must ever keep in mind that she was a lone wolf in an antagonistic world...
...If all that Eastman and Thomas say was true, which it certainly is not, it would still be poison propaganda for Hitler, and therefore treason against the U. S. A. And you are a party to the treason for allowing such propaganda in your publication...
...Also wieners, sauerkraut, sandwiches, fish fry, etc...
...Goal Must Be Justice Dear Sirs: It has been well said that in the long run militarism will not solve problems without creating other and greater problems...
...11 issue by Frank D. Slocum of New York...
...but when it,comes to the real and practical details of any plans, you sooner or later end up with this question: "How much of the basic sovereignty of...
...Fred Rodell on "Co-ops, Cults, and Consumers" in the Oct...
...We are compelled to do the same now, thanks to the waste and destruction of war, Mr...
...Slocum's interpretation of Lincoln and take up the work where the great emancipator laid it down...
...After this war is over and there is a strong desire among men for peace and the brotherhoods of man, the Henry George theory concerning land may be given a trial resulting in an ideal condition...
...issue of the power of the civil judiciary over the military...
...that Messrs...
...That is the reason so many doubt the flowery words that are now spoken and written about the great era to come...
...the great majority of the arrested disappeared without trace into the concentration camps of the GPU...
...William M. Lloyd American Director Campaign for World Government, Chicago, Ill...
...Joan Langley Los Angeles, Calif...
...Rubin hit the nail on the head, when he wrote: "Nothing can more surely wreck the hope of lasting peace than for the United States to commit itself now to participate in the enforcement of a peace treaty whose terms we do not know...
...her "bourgeois revolution" came only in February, 1917, and was quickly superseded by the Bolshevik Revolution...
...When he opens his mouth he says something, and time seems to be proving the accuracy of his previous views...
...And if we can find a publication that is favorably inclined to the cooperatives in which we can discuss some of our differences, like The Progressive, we may stir up more interest...
...Agreements must be had, and organization may be essential, but if it is another balance of power proposition and exploitation of backward nations, then what good will it do...
...Tom Dietrich Brooklyn, N. Y. * * * Hearst-Like Poison Dear Sirs: Your issue of Oct...
...Our cooperative association has taken over our village tavern, stock and barrel, against opposing private interest and the preliminary opposition of our village trustees...
...Barnes may pride himself on being a tough realist but his writing on Russia is pure romanticism born out of ignorance and nurtured on illusions...
...it can deny food to useless mouths, shoot soldiers who weaken or show any inclination to surrender in desperate situations (or threaten them with reprisals against their families as the Soviet Government did by a Red Army decree in the war against Finland), and in general make its citizens as afraid, or even more afraid, of their own government than of the enemy, so that they will find it inexpedient not to fight to the last gasp...
...John F. Carlisle Columbus, O. * * * Praises Bob's Stand Dear Sirs: We are all indebted to Sen...
...6, 1943, there are several inaccurate statements, one of them being as follows: "An undisclosed number of American citizens have been imprisoned in Hawaii for many months, held incommunicado, denied the right of counsel, denied either a civil or military trial, denied the right to face their accusers, and denied the right to know what their offense is...
...Of the hundreds of thousands arrested only the handful who "confessed" were tried...
...However, they are more to be pitied than scorned...
...The Progressive's editorial which Gen...
...Actually, if we stop to think, it is obvious that a dictatorship is in position to be far more ruthless in its treatment of its own people than a democracy and consequently has certain very great advantages in total war...
...One case, of course, does not prove anything one way or the other...
...Roosevelt is less bound to Mr...
...Hjalmar Peterson Minneapolis, Minn...
...That the cooperatives indirectly influence the prices of goods by curbing monopolistic endeavors of consumers' exploitation through high prices is very well known and proved by the enmity of free-enterprisers...
...2. What can a Judge Riddell— whom Barnes quotes as asserting that the victims of the purge trials in Russia were "accorded a greater fairness than they could have expected in this country"—know about the methods by which "confessions" are extorted by a GPU, or a Gestapo, in countries where there is no habeas corpus or other civil liberties, and where men can be imprisoned indefinitely without trial...
...I cannot help but note an occasional flavor of the Daily "Worker in the management of The Progressive...
...One point seems to be clear, if the professor expresses the general opinion of the East in regard to the cooperatives, that we in the Middle West are more idealistic For us "cooperative" is not merely a money-saving enterprise—it may be incidentally—but it means "service" to the members, to the patrons, to the community, to society...
...Rubin says Churchill is an "England Firster...
...He says: "To keep the record straight, it is only fair to point out that the poll tax was adopted in the early days NOT to restrict the vote or to deny it to the poor whites or the Negroes, but...
...Those of us who are seeking a better and a fairer world want objective information only instead of seeing our brightest people attempting to supplement their answers to each other's arguments by the unfortunate expedient of name calling...
...Rubin's article, "Progressives And The Peace," was a powerful document which should be placed in the hands of every member of Congress...
...They had not the opportunity to waste their scant natural resources...
...Russia was a semi-feudal state during that period...
...Would either Barnes or Eastman call Milton Mayer a professional Jew-baiter because a professional Jew-baiter published some of Mayer's opinions...
...Why do you befoul your pages with such stuff as Max Eastman and Norman Thomas spray into the mental atmosphere to poison the minds of the people against the only government on earth that ever accomplished as much for the common people in so short a time, as did the Soviet government under the leadership of Stalin...
...I was a supporter of the League of Nations in 1919-1920 and I have given time, money, and energy to the cause of world cooperation for a quarter of a century or more...
...Freda Utley New York, N. Y. * * * Barnes 'Another Oscar' Dear Sirs: You know, it's really swell when it is impossible to get Oscar Amer-inger's articles to be able to find someone following in his footsteps...
...Pity The Radicals Dear Sirs: I very much enjoyed the Barnes, Eastman, and Thomas exchange...
...It seems that among the different shades of leftist opinion, no single group has a monopoly on name calling...
...I differ with Mr...
...In the hospital, laid low on a bed of suffering, he keeps up the family fighting tradition, like his father and his courageous mother, the latter active for so many years in behalf of peace and woman's suffrage...
...I hope...
...Norman Thomas and Max Eastman have already refuted him on many points...
...Barnes reveals his inner motivations when, in his reply to Norman Thomas, he writes: "If I were Uncle Joe (Stalin) and could get my hands on him (Thomas), I would lose no time in backing him against a concrete wall and perforating him liberally...
...Barnes' Romanticism On Russia Dear Sirs: It must have come as a shock to many readers to find The Progressive publishing Harry Elmer Barnes' PM-like defense of Stalin's tyranny...
...Rubin, is really out on a limb when he says that the terms of the peace treaty are more important than any continuing framework of international machinery which may be set up...
...1. How can anyone with a knowledge of history imagine that "the powers and activity" of a dictator state will be "gradually surrendered until a democratic commonwealth has come into being...
...My favorites among the regulars are Harry Elmer Barnes, William Henry Chamberlin, and Frank C. Hanighen...
...But I want to keep up with you a while longer and give you another chance...
...This war, unfortunately, proves that this is not the case...
...As one Vermonter put it to me the other day, it is beginning to look like "V . . . for a fifth term...
...The rich should never be taxed to support the indolent but all should be given an opportunity to live...
...If we are continually getting into world conflicts, and cannot keep out, something must be done about it...
...James D. Mahoney Torrington, Conn...
...He tells us that in the early days a property tax receipt was necessary to vote in these states, thus disenfranchising the poor property-less whites and Negroes and that the poll tax law was adopted so as to make it possible for them to acquire a cheap tax receipt to enable them to vote...
...And did not the Russian serfs also do pretty well against Napoleon's Grand Army...
...Harry Elmer Barnes is surely filling the bill...
...They were given a subsequent hearing before a board composed of civilians of the community prior to their internment...
...Russia is putting up a marvelous fight against our common enemy, the Nazis...
...This condition allowed for no political dissension...
...Not only beer, but whisky, liquors, mixed drinks, etc., are available...
...Barnes on a few others...
...it only helps the other fellow strengthen his side of the question...
...In the first place they have not, in fact, fought nearly so well as the Germans...
...Their cases have been reheard several times during the past 18 months and each time the rehearing board has come to the conclusion that they should remain interned...
...Look at a racial and national map of Europe and it's easy to see that no matter where you draw the boundary lines, hundreds of thousands of people will be on the wrong side...
...The counterpart has happened in our community, Greendale, located near Milwaukee...
...It is a European movement, imitated by us and changed to suit our conditions...
...They all sound nice...
...Are the spirits of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson really dead...
...Vandenberg was a masterpiece of sound, clear thinking...
...Rodell's constructive criticism of co-ops has needed saying by someone like himself in a publication like The Progressive for a long time...
...Max Eastman, Harry Elmer Barnes, and Norman Thomas...
...They, in Europe, found it necessary to protect themselves collectively earlier than we...
...These facts are well known in the community, but the lawyer for the petitioners did not include them in his petition...
...Max Eastman's analysis of the Soviet position and objectives embodies more realism than Harry Elmer Barnes...
...Argument convinces no one...
...Therefore, the employment of salesmanship, in our commonly understood way, and its ilk, advertising, is repulsive to the cooperators...
...If land were free and the products of land were not taxed, if use and occupation were the only title to land, it would create an ideal condition and many of the inequalities among men and nations would be done away with...
...4. Nor is Mr...
...After all is said and done, maybe the reason Dr...
...It seems to me that it is a fundamental fallacy to assume, as Mr...
...A. H. Coffey Oakridge, Ore...
...Bravo For Barnes Harry Elmer Barnes gave Mr...
...Oh, yes, I almost forgot our old friend, William Henry Chamberlin—he should go along too...
...I wish we could say as much of F.D.R...
...All except the Nazism...
...The Negro voter has been practically eliminated, and along with him a very large percentage of the poorer white voters...
...It would seem so, if they would logically follow the arguments that they have previously presented...
...I enjoyed seeing Barnes show up Max Eastman...
...But the Convention did not establish the state of Vermont, either...
...John P. Schroeter Greendale, Wis...
...F. J. Kelly Brooklyn, N. Y. * * * A Fifth Term...
...Fearless Check Dear Sirs: I value The Progressive because it gives me a true and fearless check on my other reading...
Vol. 7 • November 1943 • No. 44
