THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . An Easter Message Dear Sirs: In the days of her youth, America welcomed through her doors of freedom the oppressed and persecuted refugees of all nations, races,...
...La Follette get the Republican nomination, but the Party does not want the Senator because of his loyalty to the people...
...The coming Presidential conventions may turn up some man who knows what it is all about...
...How then can a subsidy to the firmer lower the cost of commodities ? If Mr...
...La Follette voted to over-ride the President's veto...
...Olean Swenson Manitowoc, Wis,^ * * * Mixture Dear Sirs: I subscribe to The Progressive not because I like it but I like to study every side...
...It seems like Christianity to me, that collective interests should have first advancement...
...And most certainly it is only in a society thus transformed that any individual can receive his highest spiritual, mental, and physical good...
...The $3 steak can hardly be attributed to the so-called profiteering cattlemen he so maliciously accuses of plundering the consumer...
...The editorial states that present tax bills have "tax loopholes...
...No greater service could be rendered the few pampered and deceived children, than that they be brought into a society that cares for all the people first...
...His action just does not seem consistent nor justifiable...
...Douglas MacArthur, for instance, is the supreme commander of the Allied forces in the Pacific, where he is certainly more useful to the nation than he would be if stumping the state of Wisconsin...
...Arthur W. Calhoun Sterling College, Sterling, Kans...
...The others need not worry about keeping their consciences clear either as there are hundreds of places for them—medical, bakers, cooks, etc...
...La Follette condemned it...
...Why must we pay taxes for the next 100 years to build a pipeline in Arabia, 4,000 miles away, to donate it to the oil barons, and endanger the lives of our soldiers in order to protect it...
...EDITOR'S NOTE: How Sen...
...I find it hard to agree with some of his statements concerning subsidies...
...In a collective society, properly cooperative, the earth would be cared for to produce an abundance of physical needs for all...
...I, personally, do not take it all with such good humor...
...Seeing there is no hope for a third party, the people will rally around that one that was most helpful in the last decade...
...The dark scars resulting from the war between ourselves in '61 have never been eradicated from our Southland, as evidenced by former Confederate states still rigidly supporting Democratic candidates, even when they are personally in disfavor...
...The easiest and surest way to reelect Roosevelt is for the Republicans to nominate Stassen or Willkie...
...Why don't you get a new Editor...
...The trouble with most voters is that they lack a little common sense in their upper story...
...Yes, Mr...
...The article goes on to quote from Labor, the Railroad Brotherhood publication, that these tax bills dig deep into the slender income of ordinary folks and that they produce new crops of millionaires...
...Harold Cohen New York, N. Y. Subsidies And Inflation Dear Sirs: While reading the Mar...
...As an old soldier, I question any man's patriotism who prepares himself for a preferred position in a war and draws a civilian salary while doing-so...
...Winchell compares himself with Tom Paine...
...Personally, I would like to see Sen...
...Have our leaders gone mad ? Or have we, 139,000,000 people, gone to sleep...
...The awarding of contracts on a cost-plus basis means increased consumer purchasing power...
...While many of these liberals champion many worthy causes, they often behave in an extremely intolerant manner toward those liberals and radicals who dare to question the policies of our Administration...
...They go about voting for the party emblem and not the man, who after all is but a figurehead to the big shots within the party, that is to say the big contributors...
...Graunke expects you to vanish...
...When did Paine suggest that we jump into every war we could find on the face of sick Mother Earth...
...C. H. Bloom Rockford, 111...
...The subsidy tax added to the expense of handling subsidies would amount to more than the benefits derived from the subsidies...
...In Minnesota his was the most serious case of absenteeism in 1940 when he blew his barracks bag to pieces in behalf of Wendell Willkie...
...7 criticized...
...When did Tom Paine vilify the character of an enemy, let alone that of a friend...
...Black Seeds Dear Sirs: The destruction of great cities by mass-bombing, with innocent women and children as victims, generates hatred and revenge...
...A. M. Strong Washington, D. C. Winchell And Tom Paine Dear Sirs: Walter Winchell is manifesting all the symptoms discussed by Pandit Brickner of the Nizer-Schultz-Vansittart school: delusions of grandeur, persecution complex, etc...
...13 issue of The Progressive, I could not help but take special note of the letter in the Forum written by Mr...
...They met the challenge of 1932 by going backwards instead of forward...
...Courageous Job Dear Sirs: You are to be commended for doing so courageous a job in behalf of our American democracy...
...Subsidies, contrary to the knowledge of many, are inflation in disguise...
...No, it shall never happen here...
...A few weeks ago the President vetoed the new tax bill and Congress passed the same over his veto...
...Witness his job on an honest and genuine Tom Paine — Milton Mayer...
...War was plainly the result of top men throughout the world lacking vision and not leading forward...
...They are affected almost solely by current events...
...When the dairy interests will assure us that there is nothing in the butter but the fat of milk, then we'll begin to take seriously the arguments about oleo...
...The bill originally was so bad in this respect that Sen...
...Few people go that far back in history or into past history at all...
...The fact that the farmer never sets the price on his produce but takes the price offered to him, alone eliminates him from the blame of inflation...
...After all, society always has been ruled by the few for the interests (riches) of the few...
...I think that money power can be well satisfied with The Progressive's splitting the working people so they can't unite and the money can always rule...
...Schlosser, a third party would go strong at this election, but not strong enough to win...
...Gus Pfeiffer Cincinnati, O. * * * A New Editor Dear Sirs: The Progressive reads like a cranky cry-baby every week...
...You have many more supporters—and readers — than you may suspect since I know that I am one of six reading this copy each week...
...But just one look at that sarcastic face with the pipe stuck in it and you just know that there isn't much conscience...
...He had at least gained something, there was no choice of gaining more, and a new battle, he was convinced, would lose everything...
...Every fair-minded American deeply deplores racial intolerance or religious persecution...
...This resurrection must lift Christianity above false prejudices of racial and religious misunderstanding to a desire to protect and appreciate the differences of others —upon which the strength of America rests...
...Maas, both on important committees at Washington and both whooping it up for an international police force, etc., and being paid to stay in Washington and represent the people during this crisis—both took time out to tour the state of Wisconsin in behalf of the nomination of Harold for President when they know he has no chance of nomination and even if he could, I don't believe he would carry the state of Minnesota...
...Finally he became flag secretary to Admiral Halsey, a job any member of the Waves could handle and release Harold for some actual fighting...
...Jackson is speaking of money riches when he refers to "individual interests...
...I could comment at great length on the Mar...
...I find there is a mixture of truth, half-truths, and misrepresentation in your paper...
...I distinctly remember that Wendell Willkie stumped the nation in the 1940 campaign and discussed issues very eloquently, and promptly after his defeat in the election repudiated everything he had said by dismissing it as mere campaign oratory...
...He handled state affairs as well as Harold...
...look into some of the policies of the "resent Administration...
...Can't Stand Chamberlin Dear Sirs: I would like you to discontinue my subscription to The Progressive, as I cannot stand that renegade socialist, William Henry Chamberlin...
...Pope wrote: "On the issue of tax legislation, Sen...
...Practicing the Golden Rule will produce favorable results...
...I noted sadly, as did Mr...
...He stated that the Republican Party would destroy all gains made by labor and agriculture in the last decade...
...No, Mr...
...In his explanation of subsidies, he fails to tell where the subsidy payments are coming from...
...20, P. T. A. Neumann of Brooklyn, N. Y., takes exception to Bob La Follette's stand on subsidies...
...Charley Kjellen Sandpoint, Idaho 'Editors Can't Take it' Dear Sirs: I was not going to renew my subscription to your mud-slinging, stab-in-the-back, smear paper, but changed my mind with the Mar...
...I want to congratulate you upon the wonderful freedom of expression in The Progressive—freedom of new ideas, which I hold is the only hope of avoiding fascism in our country...
...That comes from the taxpayers...
...Now, it appears that nature refuses to go backwards...
...My own special hope, though, is that sometime after the war, when good paper is available again, The Progressive's circulation will grow so big that it can afford, with no advertising other than books, to appear on the newsstands in magazine format...
...Mrs...
...First I wish to inform him that steak can be obtained for considerably less than $3...
...So great was my indignation that I am compelled to write and show my reaction concerning our foreign policy, such as it is...
...Neither is antagonism, where it exists, toward the Roman Catholic church based on religious views or practices...
...And a truly honest conscientious objector might make a fine chaplain...
...not at the "expense of individual interests," but for the good of all...
...Keep up your splendid work for a truly American foreign policy and for the kind of an America that could be, in Editor Rubin's phrase, the "conscience" of the world...
...La Follette...
...Black seeds of animosity and despair, sown in bloody soils, result in harvests of wars...
...The only persons that would sound funny to would have to be slackers...
...They may be expected to end if and when the Golden Rule supplants the rule of gold.' Edmund K. Goldsborough Washington, D. C. * * * Trouble With Voters I agree wholeheartedly with J. F. Schlosser in his letter of Mar...
...As he said, the two present parties are composed of hand-picked candidates...
...In the meantime, I hope we can all send in a lot of subscriptions...
...How can he square himself with the editorial and the policies of The Progressive...
...At Easter, we celebrate the resurrection of a persecuted Jewish refugee and, had the infant Jesus not found sanctuary from the cruel edicts of Herod, the Hitler of that era, there would be no Christianity or Easter dawn...
...Paul Faas Staceyville, la...
...Protests, objections, even reprisals to what is regarded as offensive and provoking, cannot fairly be regarded as persecution...
...It seems to me that this bill did the very things that The Progressive editorial of Feb...
...But the field certainly doesn't look very promising right now...
...Lawrence Tepper Chicago, 111...
...Only by experiencing such a rebirth will the bloodiest of all wars end in America's and civilization's greatest social progress—to a resurrection o" enduring peace...
...That was the "Deathbed Statement" of Milton Mayer, which I believe was supposed to be humorous...
...Among the many special privilege grants, natural gas pipe lines were given exemption from the excess profits tax...
...3, with interest but considerable dissent so far as his complaints of religious persecution were concerned...
...From what I have read of the new tax bill, it was full of tax loopholes for wealth and carried many provisions granting special privileges to those with large incomes and making excess profits...
...with a resurrection of light and liberty under the moral law of God, the Father of all nations...
...At that time Elmer C. Anderson, his lieutenant governor, was good...
...In that statement he gave credit to the Roosevelt Administration...
...La Follette is easy to defend— the easiest man in the Senate to defend—including his vote to override...
...Is it not true that the taxpayers will have to pay for these subsidies, and that the taxpayers in turn are the consumers ? The additional expense required by the Government for handling the subsidies would also have to be paid by the taxpayer...
...If we must have subsidies, I for one believe people with a heart would favor giving them to poorly paid working people until we get sense enough to pay them properly...
...Inasmuch as Wendell himself seemingly has sufficient time and financial backing to be perpetually campaigning, and no inclination to do anything useful despite the manpower shortage, I wonder i" it occurs to him that the men he named are at the present time very much preoccupied in responsible positions...
...This way, you pay the increased portion whether you buy the article or not...
...Mary A. Black Grand Island, Nebr...
...A Question For Willkie Dear Sirs: In a recent address at Ripon, Wis., Wendell Willkie, the perpetual candidate, challenged certain other men to come into that state and discuss issues or else withdraw from the race...
...He made some 40 speeches from the Atlantic to the Pacific...
...Magazine Format Dear Sirs: Henry Newell's suggestion about a binder is a good one...
...John Walter Houck Pastor Pilgrim Church New York, N. Y. * * * Unpatriotic Dear Sirs: How your unpatriotic publication keeps on coming out is beyond me...
...Stassen's double-crossing of Anderson was dirty politics to put his bell-hop in the saddle...
...After explaining that the bill was tent back to committee to plug those loopholes, Pope says, "That was solely the work of the Wisconsin Senator and it will transfer billions in war profits from the pockets of contractors to the Treasury...
...And it was to preserve the ideas for which he has consistently fought that he voted to keep the present bill...
...I never was so sure of anything in my life as I am that this present war came about simply because the nations involved did not make the necessary economic adjustments to cope with mechanical progress either during 1932 or during the years that followed up to the outbreak of war...
...La Follette attaches to the renegotiations provision, one must know that it involved one of the principles of taxation he has been fighting for for many years—distribution of the tax load according to ability to pay...
...William LaRue Vista, Calif...
...Anderson is running this year for lieutenant governor and I am one who will get him all the votes possible...
...So let the trend go on and'on until collective interests dethrone "high" selfishness and rank materialism...
...L. B. Sage Detroit, Mich...
...Collective Interests Dear Sirs: When Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson said in a speech at Toronto that the almost universal trend of society was toward advancement of collective interests, he uttered a truth that should bring some calm to confused and troubled minds...
...To appreciate the importance Sen...
...For him it was the only choice and was dictated chiefly . . . by two considerations: Fear that the war contract renegotiation section would be emasculated if the battle were reopened, and the conviction that Congress was in no mood to pass any better law...
...Inflation In Disguise . Dear Sirs: In your issue of Mar...
...As I see it, this world was at the crossroads in 1932...
...Louis, Mo...
...Whatever intolerance may be shown toward the Roman Catholic Church by non-Catholics, the hierarchy of that Church has itself largely to blame...
...Fine Staff Dear Sirs: I think you have a fine staff of writers, especially Mayer and Meyer...
...Thompson, how the powers-that-be after the depression put men to work with hand shovels, instead of steam shovels...
...I got quite a kick out of the Editor's exclamation, "Oh, Alice, save me a bin in Wonderland...
...Perish the thought...
...D. F. Sprinoer Cleveland, O. Colored Butter Dear Sirs: We won't believe that the argument against colored oleo is bona fide till we see the dairy interests working to outlaw the use of coloring matter and sundry chemicals in butter...
...Ball and Rep...
...Capitalism—the outmoded "racket" of the selfish—is getting a little of the criticism so long overdue...
...Rubin in his article clearly depicts the mind of the totalitarian liberal...
...How you blistered at Bruce Bliv-en for showing you up for what you are...
...Religious Tolerance Dear Sirs: I read the very pessimistic article, "The Rising Tide of Bitterness" by John Haynes Holmes in The Progressive, issue of Jan...
...He lied about religion in Russia, when he was there for the Christian Science Monitor and is lying yet...
...Surely, Jesus would require no less of his followers than was bestowed upon him...
...La Follette believes he can afford to stand on his record in tax matters as proof of his consistency...
...W. G. Procter Indianapolis, Ind...
...Tom Sullivan Winsper, Idaho * * * Truly American Policy Dear Sirs: More Americans are growing suspicious of Russia—and more leary of Mr...
...Paul politicians, so when Stassen was bit by the patriotic bug and decided he was too valuable to enter the Army or Navy as a private, he took his training at Great Lakes and drew his salary while so doing...
...Shar-pless Walker...
...It tickled me silly to see how hot under the collar you got...
...Both gentlemen seem to blow hot and cold at the same time and carry water on both shoulders...
...Who is going to believe Wendell anyway...
...Pipeline Peril Dear Sirs: "American Blood And Arabian Oil" by Harry Paxton Howard is surely an eye-opener for the American people...
...Robert S. Hoagland Fort Wayne, Ind...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . An Easter Message Dear Sirs: In the days of her youth, America welcomed through her doors of freedom the oppressed and persecuted refugees of all nations, races, classes, colors, and creeds and, from them, derived the spiritual Heritage and * physical strength which has made America great...
...Acts of hatred, persecution, bigotry, racial and religious intolerance, re-enact his crucifixion—and are followed by no Easter dawn...
...But Elmer was too honest for the South St...
...Winchell yields place to none in verbal lynching and character assassination...
...But one article in your issue of Feb...
...It must be a resurrection of new hope to the persecuted and hungry of mind, body, and spirit, of a religion of love, cooperation, and fulfillment of world brotherhood...
...I for one will take a lot of pride in pulling my favorite magazine off the news rack...
...I am getting to the point where a padded cell is nearer what I need...
...13 issue...
...H. H. Ophus Erskine, Minn...
...and liberty not to worship at all if one so prefers...
...As we non-Catholics see it, the remedy for any prejudicial attitude toward the Roman Catholic Church lies almost entirely in its own hands...
...Rev...
...In a bad tax bill that was the most important section to Sen...
...And during that long period there have been war, depressions, starvation, crime, general misery, and misunderstanding...
...Willkie leave me cold...
...Effie B. Roussell Topeka, Kans...
...Why not collective interests first—the good of all the people...
...George C. Hart Baltimore, Md...
...7, I read an editorial captioned, "Record-Breaking Profits...
...21 irritated me not a little...
...Wars, even when seemingly justified, reveal our utter mental immaturity and the fact that man is still immersed in savagery...
...Pearl Harbor showed how wrong you were, but it seems to have done nothing to change your point of view...
...If international disputes can only be solved by methods that would shame jungle people, our so-called civilization appears doomed...
...Robert M. La Follette's vote squares with his past record on taxation and the polic'es of The Progressive is best explained by Loren Pope, the Washington correspondent of a strongly pro-Roosevelt paper in Wisconsin...
...Churchill and his Tory backers...
...I noticed that Sen...
...I may hope to see in a future edition another incident like that and will then get a double kick out of it...
...Your paper goes to the waste paper drive, and hurts your Allies, the Axis...
...Large demand plus scarcity of commodities plus enormous purchasing power equals high prices...
...Bob's Tax Vote Dear Sirs: In The Progressive of Feb...
...The Rev...
...Then he went on the radio and told the people what a favor he had done them...
...Gen...
...In addition there was the immediate issue of plugging gaping loopholes in the renegotiations provision to prevent war contractors from getting rich out of the war...
...Judging from some of the policies of the Administration, especially in the foreign field, there is much to be questioned, such as the Darlan episode and the present dealing with Marshal Badoglio...
...I want to tell you how much further I enjoyed that issue of the 20th...
...Louis Daniels St...
...Actually, religious persecution, at least on the part of non-Catholics toward Catholicism, is exceedingly rare, even if existing at all...
...Then Sen...
...Many of the articles are very good and give much food for thought and speak much common sense...
...Non-Catholic Americans believe in religious liberty—liberty of worship in one's own way without coercion from any ecclesiastical authority...
...So how can he be an honest objector ? Victor M. LaMoe Sitka, Alaska * * * 'Only A Moron' Dear Sirs: Only a moron can see "no earthly reason" for the publication of a paper such as yours...
...In other words, our top men tried to stifle the wheels of progress, instead of giving us more progress...
...27 issue expresses the sentiment of many of the rank and file...
...So, with most of the world leaders trying to go backwards, war broke out...
...As ye sow, so shall ye reap...
...American Christians must greet this Easter with a resurrection of belief in the sacredness of personality and human dignity...
...Colored oleo is a fraud, but so is colored butter, and butter concocted out of cream of all degrees of desuetude disguised by the use of chemicals...
...Irritated By Mayer Dear Sirs: I want to say I enjoy your paper...
...La Follette's stand in this case...
...Rationing many important food items when there is an over-abundance in warehouses and stockyards causes demand for goods, which if turned loose, ration free, would lessen the demand...
...Reactionary Dear Sirs: Kindly discontinue our subscription to your publication since it has become anything but Progressive...
...Does any sane voter think for one minute that big contributors are giving their money out of love of the party...
...He belongs to the Max Eastman, Thomas, and Utley crowd of professional liars...
...I always derive a lot of pleasure from reading it...
...I note you never hesitate to knock PM or In Fact...
...Walker actually wants to find some of the causes for our present inflationary set-un...
...Why don't you rename it The Reactionary...
...Men like President Roosevelt and Mr...
...However, I especially want to comment on the letter of J. C. Thompson, Moor-ingsport, La., who offered a few thoughts on mass production, unemployment, lack of purchasing power, and the like...
...To go further into the subsidy matter, we find no apparent reason why subsidy payments should lower the price of commodities...
...He seems to favor subsidizing to help the greedy rather than, as Bob does, to help the needy, the poorly paid, who probably have as large stomachs and families to feed as the industrialist, and sometimes larger...
...W. H. Earp Cross Lake, Minn...
...20 issue...
...They need not carry a gun...
...S. H. Walton New York, N. Y. | Challenge Of 1932 Dear Sirs: I regard your paper as one of the most sensible ones published in this country...
...Helen Kellogg Alhambra, Calif...
...Well, you can dish it out, but could you take it...
...This also makes business better, because it is all in addition to the actual purchases, one of the nine ways to skin the cat...
...People cannot understand that it should be perfectly proper for one sect to attack other sects, yet demand immunity for itself...
...Stassen also made it possible for the loan companies to operate and rob the poorer classes by charging them a rate of interest that is robbery...
...Words and deeds of American Christians which deny the teachings of our Lord are a re-enactment of his betrayal...
...Stassen will have to do far more than to care for Admiral Halsey's flags to vindicate himself...
...20 issue regarding the New Republic...
...But they need have no great fear as they are mostly tillers of the soil and can do much more good by staying at home...
...This Easter is an auspicious season for American Christians to ponder the faith of our fathers, which fortified our democracy in its early development and again to Sing open the doors of freedom, lot only to the heretofore excluded Chinese, but to refugees of all nations who seek safety from Hitler...
...Stassen In Trouble Dear Sirs: "The Accident of Stassen" by Mr.Obed S. Eastvold in the Forum of the Mar...
...When the people of this country do their own thinking and vote for the man and not a party label, then this Government will be by the people, for the people...
...We can win with Dewey...
...Therefore, I cannot understand Sen...
...6 on a third party...
...A truly God-fearing, God-loving, honest, conscientious objector would blush and be ashamed of such an article...
...Neither is there resentment toward the Roman Catholic hierarchy based on the Reformation...
...A. Harrison Brooklyn, N. Y. * * * Totalitarian Liberals Dear Sirs: I would like to take this opportunity to commend Morris H. Rubin for his very interesting column in the Mar...
...But money is not the highest good...
...And there are thousands of them...
...Anyone who travels to any extent in communities or countries where the Roman Catholic Church predominates is impressed with the intolerance often shown toward other forms of religious worship and activities...
...if you don't want to tempt the workers to strike, as he surely will when he sees the so-called ceiling price increased, simply leave that price as it is, and get the increase via the tax route, and hand it to the employer via the back door...
Vol. 8 • April 1944 • No. 15
