THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Mayer's View Challenged Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer makes out quite a case for the position of The Progressive in his very able article published on Page One of the...
...When reading some of the squawks of some people about building a new world, I wonder why they didn't build a better one before the war...
...Two facts recently brought to our attention illustrate this point...
...Adler proceed to figure a contract under war conditions, where prices behave much like the Irishman's flea, where the Government snatches all or mostly all able-bodied men out from under you, leaving you the culls about 30 per cent effective...
...A representative of the New York Times viewed the record of presentment and said: "This appears to be the first solution of inter-racial dissensions that we have had in all of 1900 years...
...If these are questionable, then the best platform and the finest oratory in the world will not win for him the majority of their votes...
...The program has the unique faculty of impressing every child and adult, without regard to race or religion, that this country is the combined effort of many peoples...
...J. R. C. A. P. O. 502 San Francisco, Calif...
...The Progressive should be banned from the mails...
...I would just as heartily vote for either of the younger La Follette brothers under the same conditions...
...Rules And Standards Dear Sirs: There is much talking—guessing, I presume— about postwar activities...
...Working women owe Miss Hawes a vote of thanks for the interest she has created in their pioneering for new and relevant standards of home life and also for the work she has done toward establishing child nurseries for the children of women war workers...
...The outcome of the election was as much the handwriting on the wall for Franklin D. Roosevelt as for Willkie...
...They told me that they could train me for a job paying 50 cents an hour...
...Then, new impetus might be expected from readers of The Progressive for a movement (Springfield, Ill...
...War is hell," but it is also hell when you return...
...I even begrudge the stamp I'm using to send you this letter, and I'm ashamed to let my mates see me get the paper through the mail, so stop it immediately...
...Please don't fall into that anti-Semitic error yourself...
...We'll never get anywhere kidding ourselves...
...2. Little by little we are learning that our soldiers now doing their great part in carrying on World War II are not bursting with unrestrained enthusiasm...
...To the thousands of us who are 4-F it is more than just an article, it's a plea—a plea to the higherups to do us justice...
...If you cannot know the cost of labor and material and have to guess your way through, my rule of thumb is to figure on the basis of the day and triple your figure...
...Sgt...
...Hard On Morale Dear Sirs: For some unknown reason my sister sent me a subscription for your pitiful little paper...
...10 issue...
...3 issue, and yet it leaves a few doubts in my mind...
...Americans All Immigrants All," given national scope by yearly inclusion in the affairs of the school and of the body politic, is the one great hope, perhaps our last hope, of staunch and enduring revetments of conscience against impending invasions of inter-racial bitterness...
...Now I believe that there is a lot of truth in accusing him as such...
...Keep up the good work...
...You naively believe and preach that decency, honesty, and democracy can and shall prevail...
...I have a son now in the naval service...
...Adler's letter very in temperate and can only be excused on the ground of lack of familiarity with the subject...
...27 issue, highlighting the devious and often devilish means by which prejudices are germinated, nurtured, even endowed with a dual personality so that, like Janus, the instigators of evil look forward to eradication of a peril while at the same time keeping a backward supervision over the processes of its growth...
...Sgt...
...Yes, I agree with Fred Rodell that the 4-F be given a chance to do his share, instead of having to remain in civilian life — the brunt of all the jokes, and a constant recipient of the well-known query, "Why*aren't you in the Army...
...If Mr...
...I quote a paragraph of the Senator's article: "It was no reflection upon contractors, for it was clearly recognized that in many, if not most cases, the excessive estimates had been honest mistakes...
...World War I was fought on three major slogans, and now everyone knows each one of them was a monumental lie...
...Reply To Adler Dear Sirs: In your Feb...
...Don't you know that there might be no wars if there were no profits...
...Stimulates Thinking Dear Sirs: I frequently read letters in the People's Forum from individuals who take you to task because your writers express points of view with which these individuals disagree fundamentally...
...D. C. Gibson Memphis, Tenn...
...One recent statement brought to my attention, signed "A Worried Soldier", wonders if he is going to get a job and if he is going to have to join a labor union when he is released from the service...
...Also, on the national board are directors drawn from the Jewish rabbinate, the Christian clergy, leaders of business, labor, Negro, social and welfare agencies...
...Perhaps then a few changes in the present induction system would be made...
...Why can't the 4-F be permitted to do his bit, even if it's only a few hours of office work daily...
...Why do you attack war profits and profiteering...
...They spend most of their time arguing with the umpire and themselves, for new rules that will give some one an advantage not hitherto enjoyed...
...Reactionary Dear Sirs: I presume this will find its place in the waste basket in the now reactionary Progressive which pretends to carry on in the tradition of old "Fighting Bob...
...Paul, Minn...
...Straws In The Wind Dear Sirs: There are at least two ways of looking at the common herd...
...I refused to contract in the other war and only took per cent work...
...The Primary vote in Wisconsin was decisive...
...Denver, Colo...
...What makes you think those 350 million brown peoples could govern themselves as well as the British can...
...Pfc...
...Now, I ask you, how is a man going to keep a family on 50 cents an hour...
...Charles D. Egley South St...
...if he can learn that no one Republican is bigger than 30 million Republicans, then he will have become a truly great Republican, and he will find an honorable place in the America that is to be...
...In fact, we find Jim Crow USO signs in cities that were noted for racial freedom...
...10 Downing Street is calling the tune and he knows what music to play...
...The boys appreciate the way you tell the plain truth, and wish that others would follow your example...
...I don't want the paper...
...The thing I like about The Progressive is the thing they dislike...
...The talk of permanent peace is a fabric woven of the same material as the others, and hence wild enthusiasm is an impossibility...
...I was recently released because of my physical condition...
...In two years of such educational treatment of the emotional strife that seethes in human breasts, it was fitting that the State Fair Grounds in Springfield, Ill., had to be chosen as a stage for an A1I-American pageant in which groups of more than a score of racial origins portrayed the culture of their ancestors, in microcosm, to an enthusiastic audience of more than 25,000 persons, and this after 4,000 had been turned away from the crowded State Armory...
...Edith Newby, "Defenders or Exploiters of the Jews...
...No doubt he is like Mrs...
...I wanted to do my bit, and did so...
...Pass This Paper On...
...This was brought to my mind when I asked for a job with a war production plant in Birmingham, Ala...
...If there is preachment in "Americans All Immigrants All," it is the preachment of understanding...
...I have had experience in 14 invasions...
...And religious minorities — why do you defend them...
...But, I noticed Negro servicemen being served in a "white" USO in Wisconsin...
...But why in the name of reason does she seem to think it's "avoiding the issue" to vote for Norman Thomas simply because one is not a full-fledged Socialist...
...La Follette extols the virtues of a day gone by...
...I agree with many other good Americans who have written to have their subscriptions terminated...
...These two facts are straws in the wind, and should help us decide how to appraise ourselves...
...It's simply no reason at all...
...If the present world economic-finance system is retained in the peace after the war, it is no peace...
...That is an appreciated award for earned merit...
...I think Mr...
...Nobody is "using" the Jews except those anti-Semitic reactionaries who use them for the purpose they have been used since time immemorial—as scapegoats to be flogged for the sins of others...
...that already has the distinction of an all-Party unanimous vote from the Illinois legislature...
...She goes on to say, "Some quickly respond, 'I'll vote for Norman Thomas...
...If not what got them in...
...turned down this pipe line proposition and that if the Government would let the oil interests have the same amount of material and labor it would need in Iran, the oil interests could get more than enough oil and gas to run the war and do away with rationing...
...Americans All Dear Sirs: Commendation is owed The Progressive for having given to a national reading public the splendidly factual article by Mrs...
...Fred Larson Wheatland, Wyo...
...Dear Sirs: I have been a consistent critic of Wendell Willkie and yet I must confess that at Omaha, in the hour of his defeat, he showed signs of greatness...
...The aggregation at Washington reminds me of a bunch of boys playing a game of ball for which they have no rules...
...The Pied Piper of No...
...Did Norway, Belgium, Holland, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Greece, Yugoslavia, Poland, England, etc., have Lend-Lease...
...I am an old ex-contractor...
...It remains for his future conduct to prove just how great—how truly large he really is...
...It should not be necessary for him to pump Negro blood into his body, since there are at least two-thirds more whites in service than Negroes, and the same is true of civilians...
...Catch the spirit of the times...
...It not only showed that Gov...
...Willkie is able to bear defeat becomingly...
...I found the book de lightful, shrewd, and stimulating...
...It Will Win New Friends...
...I know what war is...
...Join the parade...
...L. A. Smith Booneville, Ark...
...The platforms of the respective candidates were so many scraps of paper as far as the voters were concerned...
...Prof...
...The political friend and supporter of a Hague machine in New Jersey cannot be trusted to protect the interests of ordinary Americans at a peace conference where cartel interests will be pulling the strings...
...But, of course, for obvious reasons, Phil is out of the question right now...
...G. W. W. A. P. O. 942 Seattle, Wash...
...I know they will not be satisfied with wages that are even less than when they left and went into the service...
...Milton Heimlich Larchmont, N. Y. Thomas For President Dear Sirs: Mrs...
...Miss Hawes recognizes a new day is here and poses some of the problems with which working women are coping...
...La Follette's reac tion to Why Women Cry, by Eliza beth Hawes...
...Let us be rid of your present subscribers—these wishful thinkers— these believers in Christianity, democracy, decency, and freedom...
...La Follette is probably correct in assuming that lots of people will make either one of those excuses for their votes...
...3 issue...
...In appraising matters that vitally affect the routine of our daily living, good gray matter does not have to be extremely good to prompt its possessors to apply the pragmatic test...
...I like The Progressive most of all because its writers so frequently express points of view which conflict with my own beliefs and compel me to think things through anew...
...Why don't you loathe the Japanese...
...Please stop it at once...
...The people of this country are waking up, and I do believe that the day is getting near when the power of the workers will call him for an account...
...28th Forum under the heading, "Willful Distortions," Leslie E. Adler writes a very vitriolic letter criticizing Sen...
...Much that is carried in your publication is not to be found in any other periodical to which I have access...
...Dewey is the choice of Republicans in the Badger state for President, but it also showed that the trend of American thought is against so-called internationalism...
...Campaign oratory by American politicians has created so much cynicism regarding the democratic form of government in the hearts of American electors that it is now looked upon as a deadly cancer by all decent people...
...I have been in the naval service of the United States for 15 months...
...C. E. Riddington Hamburg, la...
...Morals rather than political professions were made the main issue by the electors themselves...
...La Follette's article in the Jan...
...William J. Borge Arlington, Minn...
...E. R. F. Camp Campbell, Ky...
...And, for the very best of reasons, young Bob can't run for President...
...Well, honestly, how would Mr...
...Like them, I find you too tolerant and liberal in viewpoint, too Christian in attitude and temperament, too vociferous and logical in your defense of the underprivileged and the persecuted...
...Mrs...
...Willkie due credit...
...As to the Four Freedoms, the freedom from want is the one that acutely affects the' greatest number of people, and it is the major influence that will decide the next Presidential election...
...That will leave just you and me, Mr...
...in your Mar...
...in any particular, i. e., the brown people, yellow people, black people, the Christians, and any others who deviate from what they ought to be...
...And speaking as one Republican, as one American, I shall be glad, in that event, to give Mr...
...Miss Hawes has placed her fin ger squarely on the bane of work ing women's existence, namely, the blind pressure to maintain in the modern city home, standards which worked well when most families lived on farms...
...I also believe that no matter how he will fabricate his daily lies, the strength of the Soviets will go forward, not only to destroy the Hitler gang but also the Hearst, and in so doing destroy once and for all the parasites that have exploited the working class of the world and make it a better place to live in for us all...
...Every racial strain in the American blood-stream is given a clear channel to the conscience of Americans met by traditional bigotries and suspicions, and by war-generated hatreds...
...The Progressive is a godsend for GI's...
...Their skin isn't white...
...Hosp...
...When a modern edition of Warren G. Harding is chosen in a smoke filled room, all thanks will be due to the one-time Progressive and the younger La Follettes...
...Another way, more popular among those who are not misanthropic and super-cynical, sees them as better endowed...
...The Government is sadly in need of standards...
...For instance he says, "We said that Lend-Lease in 1940 meant war just as the Morgan loans in 1915 meant war, and we were right...
...Plight Of The 4-F's Dear Sirs: Congratulations to Fred Rodell on his wonderful article, "Whence More Bodies...
...D. Stockton Stevens Brooklyn, N. Y. * * * Willkie Great...
...Roosevelt — trying either to bring the white man down to the Negro level or the Negro up to the white man's level...
...Let your client know what you are doing and tell him ywu will settle for cost plus a percentage mutually agreed on...
...His tricky news is so well brought out that the great majority of his readers still believe in his well-fabricated lies...
...As a general rule those who have sense enough to come in out of the rain have sense enough to know that if a thing does not "work," it is a failure and not to be used, believed, worshipped, or commended...
...W. M. Roberts Birmingham...
...And what criminal nonsense you talk when you condemn British imperialism in India...
...Can you deny that Christianity is a colossal fraud and failure...
...It helps morale all around...
...And when our turn came would we have been better off unprepared...
...He possesses balance, poise, common sense—in fact, all the qualities necessary to make him a great President...
...The praise should have included the plan tested and proved at Springfield, Ill., which is a more comprehensive proposal than the one from the sister city in New England...
...You're fighting a losing battle, and you fight almost single handed...
...The Willkie Defeat Dear Sirs: The outcome of the Wisconsin primary election tends to restore one's faith in American democracy...
...if he can stay in the harness...
...Wants Will Rogers' Stories I am editing the anecdotes of Will Rogers and will be glad to hear from all readers of The Progressive who may have anecdotes or stories about the humorist...
...La Follette in a recent column brings up the deeply interesting question, "Whom shall we support for President this year...
...Understanding is generated by education...
...We are here in the Southwest Pacific doing the best we can, working and fighting, and it would seem to me that in place of wasting your time on such a paper, you might just do some little thing to help...
...Using' The Jews Dear Sirs: Since your newspaper is truly progressive, it astonishes me all the more to see in it articles of the type, "Defenders or Exploiters of the Jews," by Edith O. Newby, or the Editor's "The Last Column...
...Lawrence J. Vair Pinecliffe, Colo...
...We need a standard price hour upon which to base permanent prices of labor as a foot or mile in measuring distance, a pound in measuring weight, a gallon in measuring quantity, etc...
...In no uncertain terms the electors spurned the issues served up to them by the politicians, and went on record as opposed to any man who has ever made a mockery of the American system of democratic government by indulging in campaign oratory, no matter how attractive his current political platform might be...
...Are you not informed that they are inherently evil...
...Being turned down and classified 4-F wouldn't hurt so much in itself, but the fact that women are taken by the various branches of the services really hurts...
...If this goes to the waste basket, an old Progressive who in youth used Bryan's Commoner and La Follette's Magazine as his political Bible will have gotten something off his chest...
...G. N. Fitzsimons Gen...
...I voted for good old Bob and am as proud of that vote as any that I ever cast for Debs or Thomas...
...Worse folly still, why don't you hate the Germans...
...Anyway, Thomas will poll a big vote in November...
...In two years of demonstration, "Americans All Immigrants All" dominated the Illinois community for 24 weeks, permeating the class rooms, public forums, the pulpits, the radio programs, and the press...
...Editor...
...In a recent Town Hall discussion, an Oklahoma Senator told Secretary Ickes that the oil interests had...
...Quit rocking the boat...
...Ask your client to come around as often as he can...
...Then put your conscience into your work and do the best you can under the difficult circumstances...
...Wake up, Mr...
...One way, a favorite with devotees of and apologists for the existing order, sees them as almost hopelessly lacking in good gray matter...
...1. When the powers that be in Washington held back some appalling - atrocity stories until they imagined that divulging them would boost the sale of War Bonds, a disconcerting flood of protests from that self-same herd poured into the seat of power...
...Invaluable Dear Sirs: My subscription was a Christmas gift and, believe me, no gift I received was more appreciated...
...It seems to me that you people should quit even publishing such a thing...
...But Norman Thomas is splendidly qualified as a candidate, and would make a fine President if he or some other good man the Socialists nominate should be elected...
...The contents are hard on service men's morale...
...Now we know that the 1944 electors are going to look at a man's political associates to determine his political morality...
...There is inculcated by the Illinois Plan the simple truth that all the important races of the world, peoples of many varied religions, collectively made the United States the dominant hope for realization of democratic principles...
...Someone will raise the point, 'That's avoiding the issue since you really aren't a Socialist.' Another will announce, 'I'll hold my nose and vote for any Republican who can beat F.D.R.' Still another painfully admits, 'Guess I'll have to vote for Roosevelt as much as I'd hate it.' " Mrs...
...I wish that a copy of "Whence More Bodies" would be placed on the desks of all the Army and Navy men responsible for drafting the able-bodied men...
...Perhaps the Wisconsin primary will cause some of our super-globaloney advocates and fourth termers to stop—look—and listen...
...in the Apr...
...In "The Last Column," Morris H. Rubin has paid tribute to the Springfield, Mass., plan...
...Willkie's Defeat Dear Sirs: I think millions of citizens owe the state of Wisconsin a "vote of thanks" for the magnificent defeat she handed "Campaign Oratory" Wendell Willkie...
...Also is it possible to win the war (against exploitation) which you say we have been fighting here at home peaceably...
...Soldiers And Labor Dear Sirs: There seems to be a lot of propaganda going around about the service men...
...William Gellermann Northwestern University Evanston, Ill...
...It so happened that the type was personified in Willkie...
...I wish I could continue until this job is finished, but I sometimes wonder what it's all about...
...I know that you are not anti-Semitic, and you are not proud of the company you have to keep in your opposition to the Administration's war policy...
...When the money bags of Wall Street were being turned inside out to keep the reactionary Republican Party reactionary, The Progressive gave first page place to L. T. Merrill to blast Wendell Willkie without saying a word about the potential fascist candidate, Thomas Dewey, or the conservative filler, Stas^ sen, or the military hero, MacAr-thur...
...No masquerade has more horrendous potentialities than that of the rabble-rousers of mock reform...
...The National organization is headed by Ray Graham, representative of the Illinois Office of Public Instruction...
...Strike a blow at Jim Crow...
...Dewey is the man of the hour...
...Disagrees With Mayer Dear Sirs: I see one of your writers, Milton Mayer, has again gone nuts on the Negro problem...
...To one isolated in the far South Seas, such a paper as yours is an invaluable aid to keeping posted...
...He is needed in the Senate...
...After all, we must get on with the business at hand—the business of hating, fighting, exploiting, and persecuting...
...Get yourself a new and bigger and better and different list of readers...
...E. H. M. c/o Fleet Post Office San Francisco, Calif...
...Gov...
...GI Godsend Dear Sirs: I thought you might be interested in knowing that The Progressive is getting to be the most popular magazine in our company...
...Cyril Clemens Webster Groves, Mo...
...For that matter, why do you defend anyone's right to worship...
...If there were a union at this plant, I, no doubt, could get more than 50 cents an hour...
...Service Men Speak 'Wake Up, Mr...
...John G. McDonald San Francisco, Calif * * * 'Why Women Cry' Dear Sirs: I hope it is not too late to com ment on Mrs...
...Either put on the dunce cap and stand in the corner, or get on the band wagon and ride to glory and success...
...Isn't their skin yellow...
...Editor' Dear Sirs: Please discontinue my subscription...
...Hearst is a leader and supporter of a gang that has been doing a lot of harm to the working class of our country...
...I say persecute, oppress, and eliminate all who differ from us...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Mayer's View Challenged Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer makes out quite a case for the position of The Progressive in his very able article published on Page One of the Apr...
...H. L. Woods New Orleans, La...
...So completely did it pose the ideals of American brotherhood that its 24 radio sketches won citation as the most important educational program in the school year 1938-39...
...John V. Hepferman "Americans All Immigrants AH" Springfield, Ill...
...Editor — and sometimes I'm even a little suspicious of you...
...John" Moscini San Francisco, Calif...
...Army Jim Crowism Dear Sirs: Negro Americans have an axe to grind when it comes to Jim Crowism in the armed forces...
...Now I am wondering if he can present some evidence that we would not have been in the war had we not adopted Lend-Lease...
...The Springfield, Ill., plan is offered by the non-profit corporation "Americans All Immigrants All...
...On the same line of reason we might say the Socialist Party should not have endorsed good old "Fighting Bob" La Follette for President in 1920...
...Hearst And Russia Dear Sirs: Pravda, a Soviet official newspaper, called Hearst a friend of Hitler and a gangster...
...If so, would we have been better off to have waited possibly a little longer for our turn...
...I was quite successful, made some money, and my clients are still my friends...
...When you type the Jews as having all one point of view, you classify Jews exactly as your anti-Semitic allies do...
...But anyone can see that Hearst's gang is losing ground...
...Louise Berg Cumberland, Wis...
...This herd includes the great majority of humans in our own and all other countries...
...1 know the propaganda that is put out in the service against organized labor...
...And the Chinese, too...
...H. C. Kennedy Somerset, Ky...
...I also know the feelings of the boys in the service who work for a living...
...The "Worried Soldier" will find that out, too, sooner or later...
...I volunteered my services to Uncle Sam, yet I have six children, four of them at home...
...Is it true that Hitler's ambitions were world power, that he hoped to accomplish it by knocking other na- tions out one at a time...
...All 500 million of them...
...Another thing I cannot understand is: Why does Harry Paxton Howard claim that the U. S. Government wants to handle pipe lines and oil for the oil interests...
Vol. 8 • April 1944 • No. 17
