THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Poland's Faults Dear Sirs: In the Mar. 11 issue of The Progressive, William Henry Chamber-lin takes occasion to support the Polish government-in exile in its demand...
...After all, we discuss American and British foreign policies freely enough...
...Ben Alt Lakebay, Wash...
...11 issue of The Progressive, William Henry Chamber-lin takes occasion to support the Polish government-in exile in its demand for a restoration of the pre-war boundaries of Poland and to condemn Mr...
...A. W. Kurtz Lansing, Mich...
...The Co-op Movement Dear Sirs: I was much interested in the reply Rev...
...With our wages from three to 10 times as high as foreign nations, business had to do something to keep out the cheap products or go to the wall...
...New-by or will thank PM, whose determined and outspoken campaign against anti-Semitic outbreaks resulted in a drastic shake-up in the Boston Police Department, with the promise of more vigilant police protection...
...What is the London Polish government-in-exile...
...Nor does Mr...
...27 issue: "The Soviet Union stands alone today as a symbol of human rights and human progress in this world of crime...
...It was the day of our religious round-up...
...Mrs...
...The blame does not belong on business...
...Netboy is one of our nicest liberals) is bewildering to say the least...
...In the meantime the world of nations needs to be policed against aggressors,'the same as we police cities and towns, until we learn enough about ourselves and our world to remove the causes of these conflicts...
...He said something like this: "Does the spirit of God teach to the race of man the most difficult lesson, peace on earth, good will towards men...
...Is it not composed largely of nobles and military leaders who ran away from the invading Germans, leaving the brave defenders of Warsaw without support...
...If we elect a Republican President, big business will make a Charlie McCarthy out of him as it did out of Hoover, Coolidge, and Harding, and our economic cancer will become more malignant than ever...
...Of course, it's easier to jump on the now fashionable bandwagon and to write that Russia has gone all democratic and pro-Four Freedoms...
...Why then ignore its very serious faults and failures...
...She uses such phrases as "our betrayal of Europe to the Kremlin," and insinuates that Stalin is fighting not for the preservation of Russia but to enslave Europe...
...So many so-called cooperators who have entered the movement in the present day for no other reason than to save themselves some of the unnecessary costs imposed by middlemen thieves see no ideal whatever in the getting together of consumers...
...Anthony Netboy Bethesda, Md...
...Speaking as an Anglican I could only wish that our leaders had taken the same standpoint—but, however this may be, our troubles are only beginning...
...Newby's article, but their courage is all the more appreciated by those who are active in the Lord's work of creating a brotherhood of man...
...T. O. Thompson Oceano...
...Pray...
...Philip G. Kapleau New Haven, Conn...
...First prize goes to Mrs...
...Mr...
...Catholics do not stand alone in their insistence that provisions be made for religious education in the schools of England...
...3 issue of The Progressive, Maurice Cranston leaves the impression that the Catholic Church in England is opposed to the new deal in English education...
...Calif...
...It seems to me that the U. S. S. R. Government would merit the derision of its citizens and also of the world if it failed to establish a friendly Polish government on its borders...
...Kilgore Dear Sirs: I think the amazing article of Sen...
...27 issue and Morris Rubin's column on it affected me like that...
...Both Mr...
...Before a general election the League will study measures to be submitted in referendum to the voters, summarize the pros and cons of each case, and give its judgment...
...13, is good and should be widely reprinted...
...Our beloved William Allen White from Emporia and Mr...
...Chamberlin and all the other enemies of the U. S. S. R. expect to favor world peace by ignoring historical realities...
...The political and economic problems of Europe are too complicated to be defined, as Countess Waldeck does, as a struggle between Nazism and Communism, or to be solved by some vague new order based on a united Europe...
...in the Mar...
...The article requires no refutation, of course, so far as mentally balanced and informed citizens are concerned...
...28 issue, "The Black International," should be answered, as it is an insult to every intelligent American...
...However, time will cure humanity of its follies even if it should require the presence of the Four Horsemen...
...Rodell's article on cooperators in The Progressive last Fall with a neighbor, an old-time cooperator, he turned to me and said, "What do you expect, Mr...
...D. C. Meyers Philadelphia, Pa...
...Florida Voters' League Dear Sirs: A group of citizens have formed the Florida Voters' League...
...White and Mr...
...Harley Kilgore in the Feb...
...He tried to make us know how he happened to write In His Steps...
...To present the issue to the best of his knowledge to the American public seems to me the duty of any responsible writer...
...Confuse Readers Dear Sirs: Will you please take me off the list of your subscribers...
...it belongs on that mischevious bunch of scalawags in Washington...
...This summary will be released to the press and to key persons throughout the state...
...Its treatment of its minorities was a scandal that caused many headaches for the members of the minorities commission of the League of Nations...
...We may have full freedom, Four Freedoms, or none at all...
...When candidates have held public office, their records will be reviewed...
...Sheldon spoke first to the very few gathered there...
...Moreover, if The Progressive used more of its precious newsprint exposing the numerous pro-fascist organizations and their spokesmen whose chief stock in trade is anti-Semitism, instead of constantly sniping at PM, the Nation, and Walter Winchell, it would gain a wider support among liberals of every shade...
...we believe that the more wealth we export the wealthier we will be...
...This made business make deals with any kind of a crook, if that crook had merchandise to dump on our markets...
...And like Westbrook Pegler, whose bitter adjectives she succeeds in matching, she blames PM and the New York Post, who have vigorously, if blatantly, exposed cesspools of anti-Semitism for outbreaks of anti-Semitic disturbances...
...We yet remain in the class of the carnivora and related to the groups of the lower kingdom...
...S. P. Abplanalf Hermiston, Oreg...
...Incidentally, just in order to keep the record straight: I was not exiled by the Nazis for the simple reason that I got out before they came in and have lived in this country since 1931...
...She was openly recognized as hostile to the Soviet Union...
...This is an educational organization "to promote the general welfare by furnishing information on candidates and measures...
...Mrs...
...Clyde Miller say...
...Don't let that stop you from your refreshingly candid book reviews...
...Mrs...
...we wage commercial wars against other nations and expect to live in peace...
...In discussing Mr...
...We prefer to govern or misgovern ourselves rather than to be dominated by a dictator from the outside...
...There were not many people there that day, not even the college president...
...They seem to care nothing for the pioneers of the movement who through weary years stayed by the ship and made it a success while they mostly lost their investment, were shunned by the nice people as too radical, and often died unhonored and unsung...
...we grant special privileges to predatory groups in our midst and expect mass prosperity...
...Charles S. Bacon Chicago...
...Sir Henry Slesser, "An Anglican View of Education...
...It hadn't been long since Mary had been killed...
...1 have before me the pastoral letter of the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales...
...A. J. Muench Bishop of Fargo Fargo, N. D. * * * Dessert Wanted Dear Sirs: Give us some lighter articles in The Progressive...
...Prize Jokes Dear Sirs: You're running a good line of jokes lately in the People's Forum...
...But after she arrived and it was learned she was a Quaker, a pacifist, and a member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and was staying with the infamous Staffords who worked for the America First Committee, all her engagements at the schools were cancelled...
...Courage Appreciated Dear Sirs: I wish to offer our hearty commendation for the article in the Mar...
...So why treat everything that has to do with Russia in such ostrich-like fashion...
...Does He hope eventually we shall learn how peace and good will can conjure a spirit of joyous contentment, enough to envelop the whole world ? " I settled back in my seat, took a good breath, and said to myself, "Oh, dear God, we haven't gone very far up the ladder, but maybe the young men and women of this institution can take another step...
...Chamberlin is ignorant of the history of the Polish Government from its formation to 1939...
...His statement is one of those half-truths which, if not explained, becomes a falsehood...
...The vapid and illiberal article by the Countess in the Mar...
...I think it's an insult to the intelligence of the readers of The Progressive if Mr...
...Rachel Davis DuBois, eminent interracial worker, came to Springfield to observe the Plan and speak to the principals and supervisors of the Springfield schools...
...The fact is that when the New Deal undermined tariff protection, inaugurated the NRA with its terrible 7-A clause, then passed the Wagner act, then promoted the CIO, then boosted wages up to seventh heaven, what could business do...
...William Allen White got up...
...It is timely because additional sinkpots are now being filled with sticky smear for use in the coming political campaign...
...20 issue of The Progressive, Norman Thomas goes to the wailing wall about our war aims, hinting that no one knows why we are at war...
...Newby's concern for the welfare of the Jews would be better appreciated if she first denounced many members of America First (of which organization she evidently is an active member) who have allied themselves with anti-Semitic organizations, and if instead of crying herself hoarse yelling "smear" (a favorite expression of Congressman Dies, by the way) and labelling the author of Under Cover a character assassin, she undertook to answer the charges he makes in his book...
...If we should always be afraid to state our views, because some Nazi or otherwise undesirable person said something along the same lines, we would have to stop thinking...
...No one can assume that Mr...
...Your serious stuff is marvelous, but the diet is too heavy on proteins...
...The article by Countess Waldeck was the last straw...
...The relations of Poland with her neighbors were hostile and war-provoking...
...Both bills would use armed force on effects rather than goodwill on the cause...
...They voice two grievances...
...I am sure that, in the interest of fairness, many of your readers will want to see this correction of the | statement made by Mr...
...With a tremor in his voice he said, "Boys and girls, we all need each other, and, what is more, we need the help of God Almighty...
...If I spoke of our betrayal of Europe, I did so in order to characterize European reaction to Teheran—not my own...
...Countess Waldeck raises the bogey of a communist Europe as a threat to the world...
...Its persecutions were political and religious as well as racial...
...Men are usually too busy to attend religious meetings...
...Netboy tries to discredit me as a person and a writer...
...I wonder whether Jewish mothers in the vicinity of Boston whose children were beaten while police looked the other way will embrace the dubious solicitude of Mrs...
...She fought with Czechoslovakia over Tesehen...
...Pretty good, but that ain't the way I heard it...
...All candidates will be given opportunity to state their stand on major issues selected by the League...
...Goebbels said so, it's all wrong to say so too, carry much weight...
...Her seizure of Vilna and the large Vilna province resulted in a continuous war...
...I can still believe, as on that earlier day Mr...
...Our mental and moral evolution is slow and lagging...
...Eddie Geisler Alma, Kans...
...27 issue by Edith O. Newby, and the accompanying supporting data by the Editor of The Progressive...
...Even now, with gasoline rationing, Moses Lake must still have some contact with the rest of the country, which makes such intellectual isolation as has been expressed difficult of understanding...
...We prefer things as they are, and it is only by extreme suffering that we begin to change our ways...
...For the rest I should like to point out that what I advanced in my article was an idea of political strategy—not a final solution for the European problem...
...The idea, one gathers from her heated article, is never for the Jews or their sincere liberal defenders to raise their voices above a whisper about anti-Semitism, because to do so may provoke their tormentors into open battle...
...I for one, felt considerably affronted...
...J. W. Parkinson San Diego, Calif...
...The 1942 McNally atlas gives population figures of 250 to 1,000 for the town and shows it on one of the main highways between two of Washington's great cities...
...C. F. Stallings Atlanta, Ga...
...I wish we had millions like them...
...Would they cease the persecution of minorities...
...Do you not think that Congress should wait until the peace so a try could be made through goodwill to the end that there would be no need for such bills, the nature of which is the denial of freedom and which would reach even to our educational system to deny teachers to teach a way of life, not of force, but of goodwill...
...27 issue...
...The first prize winner should qualify as one of the "red-blooded" Americans of whom second prize winner writes...
...A Better World Dear Sirs: One afternoon a good many years ago I was sitting in the Kansas State College recreation room at Manhattan, Kans...
...The truth is that racism is fascism and fascism is evil, and you can't compromise with evil or denounce it loud enough or long enough...
...Correction For Cranston Dear Sirs: In writing on "Education for the British" in the Apr...
...Hits Permanent Draft Dear Sirs: I am sorry that Congress is bringing before it another bill, the nature of which is similar to Senate Bill No...
...Later local branches will be concerned with local candidates...
...Bradley E. Stafford Springfield, Mass...
...Florida readers who care to'contribute time or money to this cause are invited to get in touch with me, the League secretary...
...The present London Polish gov-ernment-in-e>:ile has shown its hostility to the Soviet Union in many ways...
...They affected the Ukranians, the White Russians, the Lithuanians, the Jews, and the Germans...
...That such methods, so successfully employed by the Communists and Nazis, are now being adopted by our nicest liberals (for I presume, of course, that Mr...
...Sheldon knew, that deep in the heart of everyone born there is the spark of God...
...I think the Editors of The Progressive risked being misunderstood in publishing Mrs...
...They are definitely for the objectives of the Bill t<j-pro-vide better education for English youth...
...He said about every vile thing that he could of American business...
...Anthony Netboy Objects To Miss Waldeck It does not take a Communist to detect a professional anti-Communist such as the Countess Waldeck...
...Netboy's argument that because Dr...
...I think Mr...
...What is her game, therefore...
...This woman exhibited by her very attitude toward those 'coolies and DYMV (Damned Yellow Monkeys), which she so humorously calls them, that intolerable consciousness of 'white superiority' which I believed you were trying to combat . . . How do you think the Chinese who read this article feel about such remarks...
...Would they establish friendly relations with the Soviet Union...
...Peter Scott Newark, N. J. Prejudice In Springfield Dear Sirs: When the mailman puts The Progressive in my hand each week it is like taking the warm, firm hand of a good friend...
...A Marion Wong wrote them two months ago: "Sometimes PM makes terrific blunders...
...Netboy insinuates that a free discussion of Russian politics might sow dissension between the Allies...
...We cling to illusions and exploded fallacies...
...D. Bahnsen Watsonville, Calif...
...Likes Book Reviews Dear Sirs: There have been several letters in the Forum about the high prices of some of the books you review...
...Now comes another political campaign...
...Goebbels' lie factory...
...a characteristic example was its incredibly stupid demand that the Red Cross send a delegation into Nazi territory to investigate the Nazi charge that the Russians had killed and buried thousands of Baltic patriots...
...As I write I have before me an article by the Rt...
...William Bouck Sedro-Wooley, Wash...
...But I'll take the spirit of tolerance type of Americanism as expressed by F. B. Leighbor, same issue, same page, same column...
...Netboy By denouncing me as "a professional anti-Communist" and insinuating that I have some hidden ulterior motive in writing the article in question, Mr...
...If we elect another Democratic President, we will apply more surface applications, which will relieve the pain for another period...
...We will have a better world when men and women try to find out the reasons for war and do something about them...
...The League will indicate which candidates satisfy its standards and receive its endorsement...
...Butler's statements were just what was needed to clarify the situation...
...To combat intolerance by intolerance is to create universal hate and chaos...
...Cranston...
...Bursting Point' Dear Sirs: The liberal who tries sympathetically to follow the pattern of liberalism of The Progressive sooner or I later must find himself in the position of the chameleon that, having changed its appearance to conform to the color of different cloths placed under it, finally burst trying to make good on a Scotch plaid...
...The Countess is planting the thought that "You can't do business with Stalin," and her line is simply to sow dissension between allies at a time when it is of capital importance that Americans and Russians understand each other, overlook the faults of each, and fight for the common cause—the liquidation of Nazism...
...The latest Britanniea does locate, in mideastern central Washington, a lake with a nearby town of the same name...
...One of the more recent was the publication of the so-called Smuggled Diary of Mrs...
...Her treatment of mandated Danzig led to constant strife...
...Miss Waldeck Replies To Mr...
...Here for the second time (West-brook Pegler was first) we have cleverly insinuated the vicious doctrine that anti-Semitism is created and spread by those who openly fight and expose it...
...27 M. O. Malmin from Moses Lake, Wash., makes a disturbing attack on the position of conscientious objectors, singling out Milton Mayer as the particular object of his diaphanous ill humor...
...we still believe this to be a jobless world...
...We went into this war to prevent our civilization from returning to a state of barbarism by an infuriated mob of homicidal maniacs...
...I refer to H. R. 3947, which provides for a year of compulsory military training after the war for all young men at the age of 17 or ] graduation from high school...
...Mrs...
...Holmes "An American Tragedy," by John Haynes Holmes, in The Progressive of Mar...
...Countess Waldeck, out of her persona] experiences, knows that as well as anyone...
...Give us some dessert along with the meat and mashed potatoes...
...H. C. Howe New York, N. Y. * * * Praises Dr...
...Catholics, as well as other religious minorities, are put at a disadvantage because of the failure of the Bill to provide equal opportunities of education for the children of England whose parents feel obligated in conscience to give them a religious education...
...How true they are...
...What we are to gain from their "unconditional surrender" is to have them liquidated as an example to other upstarts of the same stripe...
...R. G. Waldeck New York, N. Y...
...E. Gum-merus who tells this one in the Mar...
...As a member of our church committee on inter-racial tolerance and understanding, I appreciate the irreparable damage done our cause by the bigoted performances of the New York Evening Post and PM...
...Personal qualifications of candidates will be studied by the League...
...And it's probably most unfortunate for me that a certain intellectual integrity prevents me from writing what I don't believe...
...Reply To Malmin Dear Sirs: In The Progressive of Mar...
...Its great opponent is the Roman Catholic Church," he writes in a context that certainly does not describe the attitude of the English Hierarchy toward the English Education Bill...
...At the start the League will be concerned with candidates in primaries for Congress and for state office...
...Newby's article, "Defenders or Exploiters of the Jews...
...a combination of superstition and ignorance which is called prejudice can be prevented or controlled . . ." did Prof...
...Economic Cancer Dear Sirs: During the course of the past 50 years our country has developed a severe case of economic cancer, thanks to big business, cartels, and monopolies...
...A. B. Walton Cleveland, O. Slow To Learn Dear Sirs: In the Mar...
...Would these noisy leaders be likely to establish a better government than the pre-war government...
...Neither past nor present Russian political performance has convinced me that Stalin is just a misunderstood liberal and that Russian and American war aims in Europe are identical...
...There can be no compromise with bigotry, or fascism in any form, but alas, one cannot fight fire with fire in this case...
...You confuse your readers, instead of enlightening them...
...When I read it, the warm glow persists, but occasionally I want to rush into the street and yell, "Gold...
...J. G. Butler made to Fred Rodell regarding some statements of his on the cooperative idea...
...Sheldon from Topeka were our guest speakers...
...This conscription by governments continually to give our lives for a way of life that never comes is a thing we all Jiate...
...This may take a long time, for we are slow to learn...
...But name-calling does not change the facts...
...Many of the ruling officers of the government were large land owners or of the conceited degenerate class of nobles...
...Do Mr...
...His position is bound to be misunderstood, even though in normal times people who are informed would know and say that he is infinitely more valuable to the cause of tolerance and mutual good will than all the neurotics on PM and the Post...
...Is she trumpeting for a Europe that will be safe for the conservative capitalist class to which she belonged in Europe and from which she was exiled by the Nazis...
...In the light of his grossly intolerant attitude, it seems proper to inquire into something of Moses Lake, which apparently is not easy...
...Disagrees With Sen...
...Edwin L. Clarke Winter Park, Fla...
...Perhaps the most dangerous and fatuous statement in her article is the assertion that "it might be nerve wracking to do business with a communist Europe...
...From all data available, a brief summary regarding each candidate will be prepared...
...Churchill and others who support a more realistic solution of the problem...
...So much for what I consider the main points of the matter...
...First, the new deal is not a fair deal because, while compelled to contribute in the same proportion as everybody else to the new program, Catholics are offered only 50 per cent of the costs of construction which will be required to bring existing buildings into line with the requirements of the new program...
...Non-Catholics, too, fear the menace of the onward march of secularism in education...
...Purse Power Dear Sirs: We'll have time to laugh, play, and enjoy the blessings of a pleasant, peaceful planet as soon as we quit trying to run the earth with purse power...
...In the second place, wasn't it nerve wracking to do business with a. capitalist Europe...
...Every discerning liberal must have reached the bursting point when he read Edith Newby's article, "Defenders or Exploiters of the Jews" in the Mar...
...Isn't this man Rodell a lawyer...
...In 1933 Roosevelt applied a medicine called the New Deal, which did not effect a cure but only soothed the pain for a while...
...This does not apply to the German people as a whole, or the Japanese as a whole, only to the criminal elements that now have them in their grip...
...666, the proposed National War Service Act...
...H. W. Cave Stillwater, Okla...
...What we will do after this war is a problem entirely aside from this war...
...I am sure that there are many readers like myself who feel that the Countess Waldeck's peculiar vial of poison has no place in so forthright a paper as The Progressive...
...In the first place, the prospect of a communist Europe, though within the realm of probability, is far in the future...
...Those standards include intelligence, knowledge of the problems with which one would have to deal if elected, devotion to public welfare rather than to personal advancement or to interests of any group smaller than the whole people...
...Second, the Bill makes no provision for the building of new schools in the future...
...Sheldon were good men...
...I can't afford to buy those books either, but I make enough of a nuisance of myself around the public library until I can get them to read...
...He writes: "In my view the Catholics are entirely right in their insistence upon the integral nature of religious education...
...27 issue is not worthy of a tolerant and broad-minded paper like The Progressive...
...During this period the patient has suffered from several acute attacks of the disease in the form of financial panics or business depressions...
...It is not the asking by labor for the bread of an abundant life for all that causes war, but the lack of goodwill by its denial...
...The Chinese in New York City are learning PM's tears for colored minorities are pure crocodile...
...Rubin's mention of the Springfield Plan and excellent criticism of it strikes an ironic chord in me and impels me to recount what happened here with the Springfield Plan two weeks ago: Dr...
...A close second is M. O. Tvialmin, who brings down the house with this contribution: "I doubt if anyone wished to see our country plunged into war...
...It is a fact that Russian aims and ambitions loom large in connection with the European problem...
...I recall that when Mayor La Guardia came out with his forthright denunciation of those two papers for making capital of anti-Semitic episodes, an able colleague in this work of mutual understanding — a Jew — said to me: "I admire the Mayor's courage...
...Bouck...
...It just so happens that 1 have made quite a study of Russian politics for the last 20 years, made several lengthy stays in Moscow, and traveled extensively over the greater part of the Soviet Union...
...The Countess' line obviously could have come straight from Dr...
...It is our inertia, indifference, and lack of understanding which make war and similar calamities appear a necessity...
...White and Mr...
Vol. 8 • April 1944 • No. 16
