THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . A Flexible Peace Dear Sirs: Mr. Chamberlin brought out a lot of points that need stressing in his Nov. 29 article, but it seems to me that he should sit down and...
...E. H. Barrett Lansing, Mich...
...Why don't AVilliam Henry Chamberlin and other progressives stress the necessity for adequate constitutional and peaceful means of changing whatever international compact is formed with the lapse cf time...
...it may be a half-truth or a falsehood...
...What is good cannot be crucified...
...This is the harsh fact to which I tried to draw attention...
...That is why I decided to read the paper for at least two years more...
...Inflation and deflation can be prevented if more people will insist that Congress go ahead and exercise the power given by the Constitution...
...And even the best of all possible peaces will not fit territorially and economically within 10 or 20 years, anyway, due to the coming development of the airplane and radio...
...Communist approach to the inevitable, I am soundly convinced that at least the Russian people will refuse to take the gravy off baby's bib to pay interest on the "Wand Money" that has ruled the world for so long a time...
...Investors on the stock market are not helping war production one iota...
...We mean to hold our own...
...Compare this army of "indispen-sables" with the Conscientious Objectors who are considered expendable by the government...
...The Patton Incident Dear Sirs: The Patton incident brirgs up the whole question of military discipline...
...Perhans that is what Roosevelt meant when he said, "We are fighting to cleanse the world of ancient evils, ancient ills...
...The fundamental human motive is self-interest...
...More than 1,800 of these young men are behind prison bars...
...One is reminded of the old story of the officer who always accompanied his answering salute with, "The same to you...
...As one interested in world peace and freedom for all, I urge that you look further into this case, or at least inform the Workers Defense League or a similar group...
...Anyone should know Patton will never get the respect of the men under his command...
...Hartshorne wants a bibliography on the above points I should be happy to furnish it...
...Churchill is just expressing Lord Palmerston's words, "England has no permanent friends or per-P'*;ual enemies—only British interests...
...Nellie Baumgaktner Stoughton, Wis...
...Petersburg, Fla...
...If one of our leaders shouted, "We mean to hold our own", he would be put in the dog-house as an isolationist...
...Churchill, in his book The Aftermath said, "President Wilson sought to play a part out of all proportion to any stake' which his country had contributed to European affairs...
...Ten thousand more face concentration camps for standing by their convictions that the teachings of Christ command love and not hate...
...Only respect for an officer will get the cooperation needed in battle...
...In Australia and Canada, parts of the British Empire, men cannot be drafted for foreign service...
...Then we could have some hope of making what is apparently going to be a bad peace into a good one...
...Provide shops where they could be employed at various mechanical occupations...
...Ray Pospisil Miami, Fla...
...Frank Gretten Washington, D. C. A Question Dear Sirs: Russia's progress industrially is marvelous...
...It would also help to focus the attention of the public on the true basis for corporate profits, namely, paid-in capital and not the volume of sales made possible by the use of government subsidies...
...Neither does Lippmann mention Canning's indignation and anger at the non-colonization clause of the message which he recognized as directed against his country...
...W. E. Annon Phillippi, West Va...
...The lesson must be learned some time that cooperation is one of the cosmic laws and can be avoided and neglected only at the peril of civilization itself...
...15 issue...
...I say to all public spirited people that they had better quick make up their minds with which of the two economic patterns they will align themselves...
...29th issue of The Progressive by Harry Elmer Barnes...
...La Follette, - but when I do not agree, I am not disturbed by misgivings about his integrity in the position he has taken...
...Probably no man has a complete grasp of them, only God Himself...
...We have two of the old vintage already, but they are Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum...
...While her territory extends all over the world, nevertheless British interests are at the bottom of everything she does...
...Democracy can be purified and human souls know the reaching up of other human souls...
...But as the debate stands today, what has the U. S. S. R. contributed since 1917...
...Psychologically the slapping of a shell shocked soldier and the order to salute superior officers on all occasions are closely related...
...But what I wrote for the linotype machine was: "Men are not only born unequal, they are made unequal and are kept so by conditions into which they are born and cannot escape...
...An answer by any of your numerous pros or con-ners through the aforementioned medium would be greatly appreciated by those of your readers who believe in fair play, the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth, amongst whom I have the temerity to count myself a whole-hogger unit...
...I emphatically do not share their qualms in this respect...
...America has never been isolationist, but more generous to other nations and more concerned over principles of Tightness than any other, nation of the world...
...No wonder she calls it strong meat...
...Ed Johnson put it right when he said Patton should have looked elsewhere for sparring partners than in a hospital...
...Nor does he write of Canning's anti-republican and pro-monarchial bias, and of British efforts to promote monarchial governments in South America and Mexico to offset the American system...
...Agrees With Seely, Ballard Dear Sirs: Your paper as edited suits me fine...
...But, with fair prices to all, the problem can be solved and it can prevent future depressions...
...If I had not been a reader of The Progressive I would never have known of his death...
...The investment houses are playing up to those sardonic sharks and tout for their business by displaying wares which compete with War Bonds for any free cash at hand...
...Since farmers were unable tb buy the commodities of the industries, the industries were unable to sell...
...The balance after deducting their own fees would of course be payable in cash...
...Simplify Our Problems Dear Sirs: I do not always agree with Sen...
...Some day I hope to see either Bob or Phil in the AVhite House...
...But even linotype operators and proofreaders are under a strain in these strenuous days, consequently all is forgiven and will soon be forgotten...
...Today three different investment houses in Los Angeles are sponsoring radio newscasts in which they play up inflation and urge listeners to consult them as to the best common stocks to buy to protect themselves against inflation...
...I own the very same pamphlets Jones was arrested for selling, as do thousands of other liberals and radicals...
...Agriculture should come first—a dairy herd, cattle and hog feeding and poultry management, together with a certain amount of farm crops, gardening and truck farming so that all the returned soldiers might be brought into close contact with intensive methods of agriculture...
...For those who had families, provide homes at a reasonable cost as near as possible to the encampments so that family life might be encouraged...
...By the way, how come liberal sheets, as well as our spavined old reactionary press, have greeted the advent of Mr...
...Vickers' most illuminating little book with such profound mausoleum silence...
...H..W...
...A number of our members listen in daily to hear Quincy Howe and most members spot him to be a New Dealer and think if he were a member of Congress he would be a perfect Yes man for the Commander-in-Chief...
...Unless Americans are on guard, we may lose our liberty...
...Personally I do not think that our old status-quoian setup will surrender one of its prerogatives so long as folks are ready to die in order to preserve them...
...She should have the decency at this critical stage of the world danger to hold her pen...
...If democracy, as we have it, is really to function, we must reduce our problems to their simplest form that they may be put before the people in an understandable way...
...Bilbo says he will talk the bill to death...
...Stalin is looking out for Russia...
...The consumers' cooperative movement shows the way like a gleam of light in the present darkness...
...What are you going to do about the poor man, J. J. Jones of Houston, Tex., who lost all his Brother Jim Crow literature to the police...
...Try instead to see how we can cooperate with Russia, with what she has to offer today...
...Right now war munition plants are subsidized by the government to enable them to do work which they could have done without subsidy had they received the additional money paid by speculators for their stock...
...Inflation And Deflation Dear Sirs: People are being told about the danger of inflation and nothing about deflation, which is just as dangerous...
...But he must make it a sacred duty to read everything that his opponents have to say...
...Also, Canning dropped Rush cold after Polignac had assured him that France would not help Spain to get back her South American colonies.' Canning did not disclose these French assurances to his alleged American partner, who naturally would have been keenly interested in them, though he did communicate the news to all the European chancellories...
...The Commander-in-Chief, it is reported, states these patriotic chair warmers and pay rollers are indispensable and that the publicity about them is loose talk and not true...
...She probably also has an axe to grind on her own account...
...I could almost wish I said this, for it is so charmingly cryptic and it sounds so knowing...
...Near the conclusion of his article, he is disturbed that Britain and Russia don't properly appreciate "our ideas on the organization of world peace...
...In the other war (the one to make the world safe for democracy) all officers were heartily respected or disliked depending on the character of the man which we privates were not long in finding out...
...The point of my remark was that Justice Holmes, like others of his privileged group, did not pay enough attention to the effect of bad environmental conditions in shaping human beings, body, mind, and spirit...
...the American people, pray to God he does something other than talk...
...The 'Payroll Army' Dear Sirs: We note from debates in the Congressional Record that there are 675,000 government employes of army draft age, between the 18 and 38 year group...
...I'm sure he was wrong on many occasions — at least as wrong as the British Government has been in permitting today's famine to happen in India and in suppressing India's voice crying to be heard...
...This splendid gentleman was for years the personification of one of the most glittering deans of British imperialism...
...All this salaaming on the street is an exercise of brass hat egotism disliked equally by men and most officers...
...Daniel M. Kelly Brooklyn, N. Y. Comment On Kaitenborn Dear Sirs: I read before a civic group of over 300, of which I am a member, The Last Column on Commentators Clapper and Kaitenborn...
...We must have a People's Union Party, led by the La Follettes, Villard, Barnes, Meyer and many other progressives and the cooperatives...
...In it he indicates clearly certain changes that are necessary if we are to avoid the Communist dominance which they seem to fear...
...Suggestion On Russia Dear Sirs: It is very instructive reading— the Barnes-Eastman debate and the ensuing letters on whether Stalin has .been nothing but a crude tyrant or nothing but an enlightened guide...
...Economic Tribulations' Dear Sirs: Septic pen Russian baiters would profit much by reading Economic Tribulations by the late V. C. Vick-ers...
...In wartime, its use may be necessary to avoid giving aid to the enemy, or to conceal vital facts...
...I like your paper very much, but if I have any criticism to offer it is that you neglect the race issue...
...Too Much Argument Dear Sirs: Please discontinue my subscription to The Progressive...
...For A New Party Dear Sirs: I have seen many letters in The Forum suggesting a new political party...
...Making the peace flexible will avoid the danger of another rock-ribbed, diplomatically unchangeable Versailles Treaty...
...As a war finance measure we would suggest that the government should rule that stockbrokers' fees be based on the paid-in value of stock handled, and that when they sell any stock for any client or for themselves, they pay the seller everything they receive above the paid-in value of the stock specially issued in non-negotiable War Bonds which must be held till maturity...
...The torch-bearers of Russian literature and art contributed much —if only potentially—to this struggle even before 1917...
...Her development in the realm of science, in-including war, is indisputable...
...It may conceal the truth, or alter it...
...Elena Varneck Moss Beach, Calif...
...Both are expected to promote discipline and both have the opposite effect...
...They can only volunteer...
...Would that he helping or hindering the ruling British diplomats who would perhaps rather not have us in the world association any way, if we are going to continue (or start) making such a blooming to-do about India...
...It is just as absurd to think that discipline results from bluster, abuse, and humiliation...
...One thing I admire is the opportunity you give the public to express themselves, whether you approve or disapprove of what they say...
...Neglect Of Race Issue Dear Sirs: I was interested in the comments on Oscar Ameringer...
...Lippmann completely fails to see that the Monroe declaration was merely a formal expression of the classical American policy of the Doctrine of the Two Spheres, and he overlooks also Adams' sage observation that European states, whether Holy Allies or not, could never sufficiently conquer their mutual distrusts and jealousies to undertake the reconquest of South A nerica...
...No Blue Monday Dear Sirs: Monday is never blue for me...
...way to a gold mine which Uncle Sam has overlooked...
...Louis A. Ward Monte Rio, Calif...
...I was also much impressed with the comments of Blanche Watson, of Clayton, Georgia, on Lin Yu-tang's book, Between Tears and Laughter...
...how to apply our energies to profit here, in this country, by her object lessons, &nd how to encourage her people in going on despite the inconceivable bloodletting, so that she may do yet more along the new trails that have been blazed...
...Amongst other things he served for nine years as governor of the Bank of England...
...Were our leaders the isolationists...
...In most English speaking countries ministers and confirmed jail birds are granted complete exemption from military service...
...truth and not lies...
...service and not murder...
...M. S. Morrison Denver, Colo...
...So before it is too late, let us reach down and pull all human beings up just an inch...
...Asked by a friend why he said that, the officer replied, "I was a private once and I know what each so-and-so is thinking as he salutes me...
...Just ask yourself this question: Was it the inflation or deflation that caused the depression in 1929 when the bottom fell out of the market which destroyed the farmers' purchasing power...
...I think you would do well to include Norman Thomas' column or some Socialist to counteract the fellow travelers' twaddle of Seely - and the letter writers...
...M. C. Otto Madison, Wis...
...Ballard of Appleton, Wis., has to say about the British Empire...
...Walter Seilmacher Oshkosh, Wis...
...When it failed, propaganda put the blame on us, because we gave them exactly what they demanded, a free hand in European affairs...
...I know I'll get The Progressive...
...Suppose you believe that she contributed nothing, or even impeded humanity's progress...
...I believe that's what Henry Wallace meant when he said, "A quart of milk for every human being...
...Would he have us sit in sphinxlike silence while the diplomatic and imperialist crowd in Europe ant Asia get their plans well publicized and then when they are about to succeed in putting them over, have us explode with a loud "No...
...The Progressives, the Socialists and some Farmer-Labor parties...
...It was just the milk of human kindness in him...
...Gerry Sturm Syracuse, N. Y. * * * A Sacred Duty Dear Sirs: There are many features of your policy which I disapprove of...
...I've laughed myself into convulsions over "The Pot Assails The Kettle" in the Nov...
...There has been entirely too much heated argument and vile language published lately to suit me...
...A Correction Dear Sirs: This is a complaint lodged against a linotype machine and a sleepy proof reader...
...After all, things can't be as bad as they seem to your Editors...
...The Bible says, "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free...
...Actually, all Canning's proposals-were based on the condition that the United States sign a self-denying pledge agreeing not to expand into the South or West, i. e., the Floiidas, Texas, the Southwest, and California...
...The affair was very significant in the field of labor and race relations...
...May we expect a little write-up on Mr...
...They thought the one covering Kaitenborn was really funny and full of truth...
...Bob La Follette's record in the Senate meets with my approval, and I am sure he has a record which will compare with any of our great statesmen of the day...
...William B. Lloyd, Jr...
...I have known him for many years and have had many a hearty laugh at his witty writings...
...The Versailles Treaty was their idea, not Wilson's...
...Too Cranky Dear Sirs: The Progressive is much too cranky...
...H. L. Jordan East Lynn, Mass...
...Nearly all of the mass are led by presentations made in periodicals or by public men who thereby are leaders, and the leaders musf play to the masses to influence them in their direction...
...creativity and not destruction...
...But who is to look out for America ? Why should we fight to preserve that which our forefathers discarded in 1776...
...Lippmann gives little data to support his thesis, and indeed later on in his book, when discussing the Anglo-French invasion of Mexico, he denies his original statement by saying that the Mexican trouble never would have arisen if we had had the alliance which he previously claimed to have discovered...
...I hope the Progressive movement will grow and spread throughout the land...
...Lippmann bases his thesis on an alleged understanding, amounting to an alliance between Great Britain and the U. S., .which he claims arose out of the conversations of U. S. Minister to London Richard Rush, and British Foreign Secretary George Canning during the late Summer and Fall of 1823...
...And maybe this is not the most important point to discuss today...
...All or nearly all proposed refortm legislation is not sufficiently fundamental, and, in consequence, is too complex...
...When will our better thinkers learn it's the law of gravity to reach up and pull down...
...B. U. Hiester Ottawa, 111...
...John G. McDonald Los Angeles, Calif...
...101 Mazatlan, Sin...
...Perhaps in Wisconsin it does not confront you as so serious an issue as those who live where the tension is great...
...Make the encampments entirely self-supporting and of an educational nature so that our boys will be fitting themselves for the highest positions in private life for which they are capable...
...If Mr...
...In other words, speculators are unadulterated scalpers at the government expense and have not contributed anything to justify any increase in their holdings above what was paid into the company for the stock...
...Wheeler rightly referred to this payroll army as bullet proof draft dodgers and swivel chair patriots...
...Very well, say so without bringing in Stalin too much, and then let us make some sound conjectures as to how and why the U. S. S. R. has found, for 2'A years, that inconceivable strength and skill with which she has been warding off extermination...
...The great mass of people fighting have founded their beliefs on their im mediate self-interests...
...Money is the life blood and the producing farmers are the* back bone of the nation...
...The result has been a nation of a few billionaires, several millionaires, and millions of paupers...
...If, on the contrary, you believe that the U. S. S. R. has contributed to solving the problems of achieving great collective aims by collective means, then again why waste valuable typewriter ribbons on post mortem work...
...After all the human soul hungers for the grace of love and charity...
...If war is righteous, why are the Christians expendable and the bureaucrats indispensable...
...Coin money and replace such money as was actually drawn out of circulation at the beginning of the depression and regulate the value thereof...
...The present competitive system is incapable of preserving what vanishing form of democracy we have, A Union Party is our hope for the future...
...That such egotism should extend to battling sick soldiers should not be surprising...
...I do not for the simple reason that during the functioning part of my 60 years of existence, I have, along with others, operated the best I knew how under a "financial oligarchy", which in my opinion is the most malignant form of dictatorship...
...Bob And Phil Dear Sirs: I have been a reader of The Progressive for a good many years and find it a fact-finding and educational paper...
...McAlister Coleman was here for the FEPC hearings...
...I hope his health has improved and that he can keep on fighting the common man's battles against greed, hate, monopoly, and the international bankers...
...It takes more real courage to face a judge and public opinion in times like these than bullets...
...If anybody can dish up the "Constructive Controversy" so it has to be swallowed it's Harry Elmer Barnes, Milton Mayer, and M. H. R. I am sure the Forum will show some mental stomachs suffering from acute indigestion over this pot and kettle business...
...Could you not run a series of articles or some reprints like Stanley Jones' "They Do Not Sing" from the Christian Century, Lillian Smith's "There Are Things To Do," Charles Johnson, and Pearl Buck...
...Unworked Gold Mine Dear Sirs: When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, an investment house in Los Angeles advertised its services in the Los Angeles Times unashamedly emphasising its ability to assist clients who wished to cash in on the European bloodshed...
...A Better Life Dear Sirs: While we laud self-government and even go to war to make the world safe for democracy, the simple truth is that civilization is so complex that its intricacies are understood by only a very few...
...In between these extremes is a point where American interests should be considered...
...Christ came to bring peace, but it was His great hope there would be a better life for all God's children...
...They have refused conscription and war...
...Otto E. Hoppe Crookston, Minn...
...She quotes some very pungent passages from his book...
...The world is in making before our very eyes...
...Such a move on the government's part would help to freeze some of the unproductive, non-patriotic capital which at the moment is swelling the tide of inflation...
...For example, take the word isolationism— what is it...
...Mrs...
...In a review of a book of Selections from Justice Holmes (The Progressive, Dec...
...I believe that one may omit from his readings partisan papers he has not the funds to buy or the time to read...
...I think he sizes her up correctly...
...As far as loose talk, false statements, and broken promises are concerned, the New Deal record for 10 years speaks for itself...
...Too many are still enjoying the miraculous monotony of an easy life, which is bringing hunger, thirst, fatigue, and terror to so many...
...It is an attitude which may vary from zero to 100 per cent...
...Cave Stillwater, Okla...
...Glad to know Phil is well and hope and pray to God that this war may soon end...
...Ruth Stephens Porter St...
...Naturally the laborers lost their jobs at the factories due to deflation of money in actual circulation...
...29 article, but it seems to me that he should sit down and decide whether he really favors or opposes Britain and Russia beating us to the diplomatic and political "draw...
...I heartily approve all of what Mr...
...The selfish French and British leaders got their own isolationist way...
...Britain's great concern for enslaved people of other aggressors falls rather flat with her record in India, Burma, Malaya, and Africa...
...So why all the hullabaloo...
...And now we have shouldered the task of pulling her out of another with no knowing how many lives and 200 billions gone with the wind to date...
...The Poll Tax Dear Sirs: I have been reading much lately about the poll tax question...
...Counteract The Twaddle Dear Sirs: I am rather well pleased with The Progressive's policies and writers—Coleman, Mayer, Meyer, Rubin, Chamberlin...
...In doing so they inadvertently focus attention on the expansion of stock prices since the outbreak of war—an expansion which has contributed nothing to the war effort...
...I hold no flattering prospect for the immediate success of any of these minor parties...
...The truth is the foundation of all liberty...
...I wish you would have him write an account of his impressions...
...H. L. Woods New Orleans, La...
...John W. Bennett Calle Arsenal No...
...This is where the proof reader was asleep...
...American Interests Dear Sirs: Propaganda is one of the most powerful weapons in the world...
...If so, | we...
...Maybe he was some of both...
...Winnetka, 111...
...What they pay for stock does not go into the treasury of the company whose stock they buy but into the pocket Of fellow speculators who are profiteering on the nation's determination to support its boys and girls on the front line to the limit...
...America needs more men like him...
...We also have three or four small- er parties...
...We cannot afford to let any citizen be oppressed by reactionary forces, regardless of what section of the country he lives in...
...When They Come Home Dear Sirs: When the boys come home return them at once to the training camps where they were before they were sent overseas and give them useful employment until they can find places in private life...
...The two can work hand in hand without the benefit payments and subsidies to farmers...
...I read the article in The Progressive where he defended the Commander-in-Chief...
...S. L. Gokhale Schenectady, N. Y. Reply To Hartshorne Dear Sirs: If Charles Hartshorne wants to take the trouble he can find plenty of material in any good public lib-brary to confute Lippmann's U. S. Foreign Policy...
...The Jones Case Denr Sirs: Has anything been done to straighten out the gross injustice done to J. J. Jones of Houston, Tex., by the Houston police...
...All the buildings and equipment should be constructed or made, so far as possible, by their labor under the direction of Army engineers...
...6, Page 9) I was made to say: "Men, however, are not only born unequal, they are born and cannot escape...
...Regarding the Vickers vs...
...We pulled that outfit out of one nasty scrape at a cost of 40 billions or more and thousands of American lives...
...Sen...
...This being done, I have faith that the decision of the people will almost invariably be right...
...Seems as though something is topsy-turvy...
...J. D. Goode Portland, Ore...
...C. B. Ballard Appleton, Wis...
...Propaganda is leading us to ruin...
...I hope to hear more in The Progressive about plans for the coming state and Senatorial election, 1944...
...No army can be a democracy where every man's voice is equal...
...shattering all forms of international organization, good or bad...
...However, despite the fact that it may be considered trouble-making nonsense or unethical, I should like to ask if there be any publication in the U. S. S. R. which permits a like freedom of discussion as exemplified in The People's Forum...
...Honestly, I don't see any use for all this poll tax argument at all because in a lot of states it is only a question of $1 and if the citizen does not have the dollar, then either party or either faction will get him a tax receipt...
...Let us analyze the roots of that, rather than lock horns hopelessly over the question whether or not Stalin purposely induced the Ukrainian famine of 1933, whether or not he had discreet pressure applied on "the families of the defendants at the political trials, to cause these defendants to gush self-accusation...
...Any corporation profits beyond what might normally have been earned had there been no war to force government orders and government financing belong to those who made such profits possible, namely the people of the United States, through their Treasury and War Departments...
...I would say the paper has improved considerably and meets a high standard in its field...
...I was grieved to learn of the passing of Oscar Ameringer...
...Is this a crime...
...I cannot understand many of your subscribers who discontinue their subscriptions merely because they disagree with the views expressed in The Progressive...
...However, Mr...
...I wish to congratulate Charles Seely for his excellent reproof of Freda Utley in the Nov...
...We should now get going...
...Ruth Haefner Portland, Ore...
...It has been done thousands of times in Louisiana and human nature all being very much the same, I guess other states' politicians are just as corrupt as ours have been...
...How can he reconcile this position with his apparent opposition to the program which many of us have advocated since long before Pearl Harbor: the re-formulation, definition, and dynamic advocacy of these "ideas on the organization of world peace...
...For example, "Unless the Empire (British) breaks itself, the issue of Empire will break the Allies and the peace conference and render futile all that men are dying for today...
...However, my sister writes it was mentioned in Time and in Newsweek...
...L. C. Becker Baltimore, Bid...
...And since it is a fact of importance, I have allowed myself to complain...
...Surely this is a finger post pointing th...
...Agreed...
...His record needs all progressive and liberal minded Americans' support and encouragement...
...Do away with such agencies that curtail and destroy the necessities of life and also are destroying the American way of life...
...Howe in The Last Column of some future issue...
...Mexico...
...Its purpose is to mold public opinion, in order to accomplish an end...
...Of these 150,000 are unmarried and another 150,000 are married but childless...
Vol. 7 • December 1943 • No. 51
