THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Nobel Prize Candidate Dear Sirs: Having read in The People's For urn of Mar. 13 the letter with the title, "Would Sterilize Germans" by E. W. Pantefrad, I am moved...
...In our Government they are talking about conscripting men and women both for industries and the armed forces...
...The Council seems to be ignorant of the real, basic cause of the first and this World War...
...Emerson Harris Seattle, Wash...
...What price timidity...
...You can freeze a man to a job...
...He advocates sterilizing a whole race of people who are among the best in the world when not strangled into submission by a fanatical lunatic like Hitler who took advantage of the misery left in the wake of the last war with his counter-revolution against the revolution that would have freed the German people from the yoke of the militarists and cartels...
...Pvt...
...Pvt...
...Pocket-size magazines are often saved on shelves and in bookcases for future reference or to be passed on, long after the unwieldy blanket paged publications are worn out and gone with the winds...
...He ends the letter, "If any other nation becomes contaminated with this superior race germ, it will know what to expect...
...J. E. Fitzgerald Stephenville, Tex...
...Eighty to 100 pages would do the trick and give us The Progressive in a form more easily passed on to prospective readers...
...This, however, is not the specific reason that Mrs...
...La Follette considers herself to be a "citizen of the greatest country on the face of the earth") —for she "grew up in Salt Lake City where Jews were considered gentiles, in distinction from Mormons...
...Crossing oneself" every time free enterprise is mentioned, as Mr...
...The Hartmann speech at Carnegie Hall Dec...
...Conscription of labor alone through a "National Service Act" is futile with the above mentioned conditions remaining as they are...
...The lives of our boys fighting on foreign soil, and getting the necessary equipment to them on time, evidently is only a secondary consideration to many of these groups...
...The Japanese think themselves superior—so they should be sterilized...
...As long as the province remained under the influence of the Society of Friends all went well between the settlers and the Indians...
...It is to repeat that no imperialistic nations are guiltless...
...But how about the re-establishment now of public whipping posts in India (not used since the dark ages) and the imprisonment at hard labor of thousands of Indians who ask for the freedom we are supposed to be fighting for...
...She was a bitter young woman— bitter, not because her husband was "somewhere in the Pacific" but be cause he was "out there fighting for the democracy which he had never known" in his own Salt Lake City and which his unborn child might never know...
...16 that he must by his very nature go down to the great dams of TVA, built by our "quiet, hard thinking" engineers and technologists, to revive his spirits...
...Mary C. Rhatkjan Fontana, Calif...
...and yet you want a binder...
...We could have hac total conscription of everything and everybody (not just labor, or just vested interest alone, but both along with America's resources) about three years ago, and it is possible the war would have been over by this time...
...It will not work, and there should be a 100 per cent protest from every true American who has a son in the Army...
...I would go home tomorrow were it not for being conscripted and given a job to do...
...La Follette's home and asked her for a job...
...L. H. B. APO 27 San Francisco, Calif...
...Neglected Truths Dear Sirs: John Haynes Holmes' article, "An American Tragedy," in your Mar...
...Holmes a Progressive regular...
...He sees the degradation of the "most constructive element in human nature" and the waste of natural and human resources, in peace as well as in war...
...Ernest L. Meyer is great—a real artist in satire...
...He is never informed about the meaning of fascism by his leaders...
...Now with America at war against fascism there is a woeful disregard for the general welfare of our country by various groups through their lobbies to secure selfish advantage...
...Citizens Or Outcasts Dear Sirs: Is it true that soldiers are forbidden by Army regulations to express their opinions in writing to Congressmen or to sign petitions directed to Congress or state legislatures...
...And the piece by Prof...
...Hartman met the Life assault with a dignified demand for a public apology from the Editor, and received from him a half-hearted, quasi amende in a disingenuous "passing-the-buck" to his printer...
...Without a unified program to meet all situations, our strategy becomes more complicated with each new offensive...
...Whidden Graham New York, N. Y. Unfair To F.D.R...
...3 is in the making right now...
...When we have secured an entirely satisfactory government for our own country we may undertake to tell the other peoples what form of government they should establish...
...Pfc...
...13 the letter with the title, "Would Sterilize Germans" by E. W. Pantefrad, I am moved to comment on the brilliance of the suggestion...
...But who has ever heard a sermon from any Christian pulpit, Protestant or Catholic, preach against war...
...Annie Riley Hale Altadena, Calif...
...Glenn L. Evans Waldport, Oreg...
...I hope you have him often...
...I doubt that she detected the slightest trace of bitterness in his smile as he turned from her beauti ful home and walked back toward his room in the segregated Negro and Italian section, between Sinai-ko's junk yard and the railroad tracks...
...He accepted the chairmanship of the Peace Now movement...
...Churches And War Dear Sirs: I wish to comment on the letter by Blanche Hammond Ives in your issue of Mar...
...I have nothing against the North, but the hot heads of the North accused the Southern people of being supermen a billion times as many times as that fly Ernest Meyer told about laid eggs...
...He says that the Germans have always caused trouble and will again, and the only way to keep them from causing trouble is to sterilize them...
...know how I feel...
...C. A. W. Chicago, Ill...
...it is too late to retrace their steps now...
...The shipments of oil and other scarce and essential war materials to Franco in Spain...
...His Administration has witnessed the accomplishment of more progressive measures than any other administration in a century...
...Mrs...
...We are being given a striking example of the latter just now in the attempts to pillory Dr...
...Now these facts do not necessarily contradict Mrs...
...C. W. Camp Stewart, Ga...
...And this is not to condone anything Hitler or the Nazis have done and are doing...
...One Of The Best' Dear Sirs: I want to say to Norman Thomas that his article in The Progressive of Mar...
...A. J. Nelson Detroit, Mich...
...The soldier can't get rich—he is totally conscripted...
...Every reply paid high tribute to the courage and brilliance of the great editor of the American Guardian...
...The fra-gile pages are those that have to be folded in order to put them into a coat pocket...
...And who are the "subversives" in ours today...
...Why not a fearless repudiation of the status woe ? The people need courageous leaders...
...I wonder how many of such persons realize that a black baby born anywhere in the United States, North or South, East or West, has not one chance in 13 million of growing to adolescence without racial intolerance in its sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle forms...
...Make Dr...
...Change The 'Status Woe' Dear Sirs: It seemed a singular thing to us Technocrats who read Stuart Chase's article in your issue of Feb...
...La Follette's without being aware of racial intolerance...
...We have always liked it until now, but we believe it is unfair to President Roosevelt in its present policy...
...Honestly, E. W. Pantefrad should receive the Nobel Prize for his contribution to world peace...
...La Follette is excellent in the role of a devoted wife and mother giving us information about the sayings and doings of Phil and her family, but her views about the conscientious objector savor of Dorothy Thompson at her most war-like...
...Benjamin Carson Sullivan, Ind...
...Taxation without representation," "involuntary servitude" and now what have we...
...The Eskimos call themselves the "Complete People" so they should be sterilized...
...It Takes AH Kinds' Dear Sirs: They say it takes all kinds of people to make the world, and the letter from E. W. Pantefrad, in your Forum of Mar...
...What Is Treason...
...Britain acquired her empire by methods even more cruel and ruthless than those used by Hitler...
...13, certainly proves the truth of it...
...True, it is customary to pray for deliverance from war, for protection against war, etc., but what actual effort have church people made to prevent war, even when "rumors of war" filled the air...
...There is only one way to deal with these pernicious influences...
...La Fol lette's home, Madison, Wis., where Negro medical students, regardless of ability, are not admitted as in ternes at the University hospital...
...My copy passes through more than a dozen pairs of hands...
...Mary Winsor Philadelphia, Pa...
...President Roosevelt is the most progressive President we have had in my lifetime of 70 years...
...Where is the boldness of the late Bob La Follette...
...Take the profit out of war and operate to meet the objective, then this war will be over soon with the peace won...
...La Follette's childhood, I do not refute her statement, but it calls to mind a recent eonver sation I had with a young Negro woman on a train ride between Salt Lake City and Seattle...
...No precedent established by other imperialist countries can justify a continuance of aggression and cruelty by Nazis or by any other peoples...
...Being well informed, Mr...
...R. H. Rnapp Saginaw, Mich...
...Must we win this war and lose it in the end, with only confusion and despair—peace never in view...
...It Will Win New Friends...
...I enjoy it and have introduced it to several friends and relatives who are worthy of it and have justified my confidence by subscribing...
...Then in the quietude of their own hearts and consciences, let them ask themselves: What is treason in a republic...
...Dear Sirs: Whoever coined the epigram, "the first casualty in war is truth," should have added: "and the second casualty is the truth-teller...
...That is entirely understandable to us who first knew of him through his many Splendid books...
...This is done while the ruth-lessness of war and its take stop for no man...
...Similar methods have been bred into the armed forces...
...Covers The U. S. A. Dear Sirs: The Progressive certainly covers the U.S.A...
...Killed it because a democratic Germany did not happen to serve their interests...
...20th is one of the best ever written...
...Just what do the big shots of the Government and industry want— slaves...
...Why, in the face of the pitiful need of real courage in our America today, does not The Progressive boldly demand a New America...
...What I have said simply affirms the truth that there may be "millions of Americans" who live in environments like Mrs...
...It is my opinion that each issue of The Progressive would reach twice as many readers if it were printed in pocket size and placed on news stands...
...Hitler can indeed take lessons from the British...
...If they (the German people) don't get a better deal out Of this war than they got after surrendering on Wilson's 14 Points, which was treated as a scrap of paper at the peace table, war No...
...We have brave young men who are willing to face dreadful conditions in prison and also the magnificent figure of Jeannette Rankin who voted against the United States entering World War I and was the only member of Congress to take this same stand against the present war at the risk of sacrificing her political career...
...Having never lived personally in the city of Mrs...
...This noted educator has a background of distinguished public service and personal character above reproach...
...Rev...
...not to mention the sabotaging of technology in wartime as well as in peace...
...Rather than cope with the situation in this war of machines, business, labor, farmer, and political groups have feared that an all-out total war would do away with their take...
...Why have the memberships of Christian people as citizens folded their arms and let Mammon drag us into this maelstrom of the most bloody war of the ages...
...Meyer A Real Artist Dear Sirs: Having read much by the great Oscar Ameringer, I was delighted to find so interesting an article on that fine man by McAlister Coleman in one of your issues...
...Dear Sirs: We have taken The Progressive almost since its origin when it was edited by Robert M. La Follette, Sr...
...James H. Andrews Kewanee, 111...
...Intolerance In Madison Dear Sirs: Mrs...
...Stoppages and conscientious withdrawal of efficiency is the biggest factor in lessening the fight to defeat fascism...
...Pantefrad that it was the British and French, with the aid of some American capitalists, who killed the Weimar Republic set up after the last war by the democratic and peace-loving people of Germany...
...Why the unending compromising...
...Clear-Cut War Aims' Dear Sirs: There is more truth packed in your pages than any of the magazines we see at the USO...
...where the cast of "The Green Pastures couldn't find a hotel that would ad- mit them for a night...
...An America of power, technology, and engineering as opposed to the old America of "chiseling," "competition," "politics," and "exploitation...
...13 issue, told some long neglected truths...
...J. Luther Kibler Newport News, Va...
...where Jewish students, because of their race, were "dumped," fully dressed, into Lake Mendota...
...So, I offer a substitute for the binder: read and re-read each issue until its salient truths are firmly implanted in the best binder yet constructed, the mind...
...30 which aroused so much public interest, was a model of temperate, factual, and fair-minded analysis of the international situation...
...Mrs...
...La Follette's declaration, and they are definitely not presented as an attack on her personal sincerity...
...Opposes Labor Draft Dear Sirs: You have a wonderful paper...
...Heavens, man, look what you are getting...
...And now comes that august tribunal of ignorance in Washington, known as the "Dies Committee," gathering into itself the functions and authority of all three branches of our tri-partite government to over-ride the Bill of Rights and ask the Department of Justice to return an indictment against the valiant, outspoken head of the Peace Now Movement on a charge of tteasoiu But "treason" to what and to whom...
...The soldiers care not for the 10 per cent war that distracts the attention from the real issue...
...They go the way of all newspapers, to be gathered up into bundles to help out during the pa per shortage...
...The churches of America and all religious forces should have been declaiming against war as the sum of all wickedness 20 years ago and every year since...
...yet they implement no definite course to follow...
...Fundamentally, she is indeed right, but the churches were caught in the dragnet of war, unprepared...
...It looks as if they are the only ones who will be able to do anything after this war., Pfc...
...La Follette's statement in the Mar...
...It looks as if we boys have a big job ahead of us when we get back...
...6 entitled, "Church Must Repent...
...6) wants a binder...
...The soldier becomes disillusioned from promises made and takes the "don't care" attitude as to the way things are operated...
...I recall reading the prediction that within five years conscripted labor would be the curse of the nation...
...That is the English system but not the true American way...
...It supplies information and points of view that are not to be found in other newspapers and magazines...
...13 issue of The Progressive, that she does not "feel adequate for the task" of reviewing Lillian Smith's novel, Strange Fruit, is in my opinion both wise and honest...
...G. C. T. Yeoman, 2nd Class, U..S...
...Not many years ago a young fellow, working his way through the university, went to Mrs...
...I will do my best to get new subscribers for you among the soldiers...
...The fighting morale of the men in the service has been hurt more by the fighting among pressure groups than anything else...
...I have received replies from 24 states, including Vermont to Oregon, New York to California, North Dakota to Texas, Florida to Maine...
...He didn't get the job, but the unaffected friendliness and lack of condescension with which she put everything aside, sat down and talked with him, were sufficient evidence that, to her, his brown face made absolutely no difference...
...Richard Larson Spokane, Wash...
...He went cheerfully to jail...
...Substitute For Binder Dear Sirs: I note that Henry G. Newell (Peoples' Forum, Mar...
...Edward B. Warren Long Beach, Calif...
...G. D. T. APO 942 Seattle, Wash...
...Chase says he is tired of doing, is most certainly a highly unscientific procedure, but entirely in line with the practices of the priests and soothsayers of the price system...
...6 contains a very valuable suggestion...
...3. wunderlich New York, N. Y. 1 Defends Pacifists Dear Sirs: The Progressive is a great help in these difficult times...
...Let me remind you of Eugene Debs' magnificent stand in which he not only opposed World War I as a Socialist objecting to a capitalist war but also as one who so hated the thought of war—of plunging a bayonet into a human body—that he would oppose war even if he were the only person in the country who did so...
...Take the profits* out of war by the total conscription of manpower, machines, materials, and money as out-lmed by Technocracy, Inc...
...I have sent his piece in The Progressive on...
...Pass This Paper On...
...Anyway, subscriber Newell is a man after my own heart, and his interest in The Progressive is stimulating...
...The Six Pillars of Peace now proposed by the Federal Council of Churches are but generalizations, fine as they are...
...Barnes, Chamberlin, Rodell, Rubin, Howard, Holmes, Mayer, Mor-ley, Thomas, Coleman, Villard, La-Follette, and now Beard...
...Her reason is that "never having lived personally in an environment of racial or religious intolerance" (No wonder Mrs...
...I doubt that any one who has never lived in our South would be qualified adequately to review a book dealing with the race problem as it exists there...
...This pro-fascist press is fomenting rtrife between management and labor, and promoting a spirit of resentment and distrust of even our government...
...Why continue to permit this form of sabotage to play into the hands of our fascist enemies, with the corporation controlled press giving its support to the "Divide and Conquer" tactics of Fascism...
...Reply To Pantefrad Dear Sirs: May I say to E. W. Pantefrad (in the Forum for Mar...
...And since everyone thinks himself or herself superior to someone else—everyone, that is, every human on earth, should be sterilized, and then in two generations the world will have peace...
...Certain people restore my confidence in humanity...
...Yes, the whole Christian world should wear sackcloth and ashes for its failure to warn and help prevent this terrible failure of civilization, to save itself...
...If all the German people are to be sterilized, as he suggests, because of the sins of the fascist military rulers, then indeed should also all Britons be sterilized for the cumulative sins of their ruling classes...
...Pocket Size Progressive Dear Sirs: Henry G. Newell's letter, "Wants A Binder", in the People's Forum of Mar...
...George W. Hartmann, professor at Columbia and Harvard...
...Unlike many of our laissez-fairs citizens, however, who share his war views but are indisposed for action, Dr...
...The Russians are developing a "national" concept so they should be sterilized...
...What does Brother Newell expect for a couple of 59 cent dollars, buckram or just plain hand tooled leather...
...You are absolutely right about the need for a "virile" foreign policy and clear-cut war aims...
...An axle-bearing firm in Detroit with its 1943 profits of eight and one-half million dollars after taxes—four times more than in any pre-war year, yet violently protesting the renegotiation of war contracts...
...Our big corporations' dealings with the I. G. F. Industries of Germany, and the foreign cartels as a whole...
...And thus we will have peace...
...As one proof of this, read a section in Henry George's Progress and Poverty concerning the conquest of India...
...It would also make it more attractive in book and magazine stores, where the reading public could inspect it without having to unfold it and spread it out and then refold it (if the wind would permit) before putting it back in place...
...Doesn't subscriber Newell know what he is getting each week —more truth, honesty, righteousness, humanitarianism, morality, and 100 per cent Americanism than he can find in 10 big city dailies...
...Presumably to the Dies Committee, whose very existence when it was set up, was denounced by responsible members of the House of Representatives...
...I am not an admirer of Franco, but I don't believe that it is any of our business what kind of government the Spanish people should have...
...The British think they are superior —so they should be sterilized...
...Without it this war will last indefinitely...
...To be sure, these atrocities were committed in the past...
...The Profit Motive Dear Sirs: As long as the profit motive dominates, we must also endure all its vicious adjuncts: want, hunger, and privation in the midst of abundance...
...In common with millions of other thoughtful Americans today, he can see no reason for prolonging "this globaloney war" (credit Clare Boothe Luce) commensurate with its frightful toll of human life and misery...
...As secretary of the Christian Society for Victory, Peace, and Justice, I placed an ad in The Trading Post in The Progressive, asking friends of the late Oscar Ameringer to communicate with me...
...The press cannot survive without these corporations' advertising, again the profit motive...
...Would the Reader's Digest ever have reached its world circulation if its pages were as large as those of The Progressive...
...Will you be one of them...
...I should like to suggest that all of our "chosen representatives" in every department of the Government at Washington, take a day off for quiet, prayerful study of our Federal Constitution in all its provisions, and for the re-perusal of our Declaration of Independence...
...She says: "The basic assumption of the conscientious objector is that some one else will do the dirty work for him...
...So please do not take it hard if I say frankly how shocking I found Isabel B.,La Follette's contribution of Feb...
...I wish every soldier at the front could receive it and learn the truth of what is going on...
...Service Men Speak How To Shorten The War Dear Sirs: As we know, an army can operate only as efficiently as the forces behind it produce and distribute in a like manner...
...Hartmann decided to try to do something about it...
...Chase must know the futility of price system operation, in the face of abundant technological production...
...G. A. Conroy Jacksonville, Fla...
...Perhaps because I am a Pennsyl-vanian and descended from some of the Quaker founders, I am sensitive to another tradition, but our commonwealth was established as a "holy experiment" to try out these very principles...
...Sterilization or complete destruction might not prove so bad if it was carried out on those crackpots advocating it...
...Does the Council expect to see peace within the present system...
...I am surprised that Milton Mayer, McAlister Coleman, or other of your writers have not proposed this sure cure for the world's ills...
...If we follow the advice of his last sentence the world will have peace...
...Ye gods, are we still citizens or are we outcasts from society...
...We can have it now and stop the bungling for some time to come...
...They hate the very ground they walk on...
...I could answer my own question for them, but space will not permit...
...13), "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone...
...A new economic order alone can bring peace and prevent a third global war...
...Here is one serviceman (overseas 15 months) who has some very definite opinions regarding the fourth term, and I can't even let my duly elected "representatives" (sic...
...I recall, too, personal experience and observation in Mrs...
...If the people of, say, Canada, should accept as true all the charges by the Republican press and politicians against our present Administration, some Canadian "internationalist" might bob up with the suggestion that it be replaced with the highly intelligent and honorable Republicans...
...Also, I should like to remind Mr...
...La Follette gives for her inadequacy...
...Why not...
...But let all seek to find the cause of war, the real cause, for organized selfishness and greed make wars...
...can you make him work...
...28th...
...Yet for this he and his Peace Now associates were lampooned on two pages of the blatant war-mongering Life, while certain radio snipers spotted them from the sidelines...
...Pacifists—real ones and not time servers—regard all war as dirty work whether for themselves or for others...
...While, no doubt, his management of the war and some things on the home front during the war may cause disagreement and conflict of opinion, still we believe that he is entitled to the support of progressives and should not be submitted to suggestions of insincerity and lack of integrity...
...I'm beginning to believe it...
...The Meddling Itch Dear Sirs: A glaring example of the itch for meddling with the affairs of other peoples is found in the demands of the Meddlesome Matties and Benny Butinskis that the United States should use its influence to overthrow the Falangist Government of Spain...
...Coast Guard Port Angeles, Wash...
...The Americans think they are superior — consider our treatment of national minorities—so we should be sterilized, starting with E. W. Pantefrad, for he couldn't have made the suggestion unless he thought himself superior...
...He confesses that contemplating those physical works., of genius builds his hope for America's tomorrow...
...Pennsylvania enjoyed a greater degree of freedom than perhaps any other of the colonies, causing Lawrence Washington—George's elder brother—to speak enviously of the "delightful liberty" enjoyed there...
...The Hottentots call themselves "The Men of Men," so they should be sterilized...
...W. B Hesseltine brought back old memories of the Civil War...
...The war must be won, and it is terrible to think that the churches which preach peace to men of good will should now be -vying with the world in helping along the slaughter...
...An America with a method of operation in line with the design of such structures as the dams of the TVA...
...and "there were only a handful of Negroes who were treated like everyone else...
Vol. 8 • April 1944 • No. 14
