THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . What Ruined The South? .Dear Sirs: It is regrettable that Prof. Hesseltine did not, in his article in The Progressive of Mar. 20, give, the name of at least one...
...It would be much more simple and easy to administer than our income tax, and I believe it could be made to take the place of most other methods of taxation...
...Charles A. Tormoy East Orange, N. J. * * * Investment The next three years-will be the most important years for practical minded people, and your Progressive, I hope, will play an' important role in future events to come...
...Fleets of these bombers would need to pass over an objective but once...
...G. Edward Lind Downey, 111...
...As for the Vice Presidency, I Jsjvould suggest Harry W. Laidler, director of the League for Industrial Democracy...
...gain, it is hard for the average citizen, swamped with reading matter and busy with the details of wartime living, to keep track of the representatives in Congress...
...Wagner and Murray, Rep...
...If your paper is progressive, which you claim, you will learn what fascism is and print the truth about it instead of helping so many fascist writers...
...American isolationism is condemned as a national perversity, while either British or Russian isolationism is condoned as a national necessity, the necessity of each to have its sphere of influence...
...We must not let thoughts of the effect of this war on our way of living or on our prosperity confuse the issue...
...we should do everything to right the wrong we did a brave people and help them get a free government...
...They are amusing themselves blowing iridescent bubbles...
...Barbara G. Junge Stamford, Conn...
...The aged cannot wait, they want action now...
...I'm a Catholic, and his religion is not offensive to me, but he is when he writes in this un-Chris-tian manner, and so unlike a minister...
...I believe there is only one proper solution to the problem, and that is to tax all natural resources on the graduated plan the same as we now tax incomes and inheritances...
...I think we can crush fascism at home and win the war at the same time, for what good is it to crush fascism in Europe only to find you have the thing at home...
...No devout student of history can misread it...
...we are the missionaries of a new and higher civilization...
...Liberal vs...
...They began arguing as to "how" the man should be saved...
...F. Pitchkites Clinton, Ind...
...They believe that certain reforms and corrections in our social pattern will make the lot of the worker more pleasant, give him a break when needed, and penalize to a certain extent those who have gone too far in their social, political, and economic ambitions...
...Naturally Stalin's enemies fear him —and for good reason...
...Thomas should be the most logical choice of the progressives and radicals for the Presidency of the United States, as I fail to see how they could support either "I am the state" Roosevelt or some reactionary like Dewey...
...Under such a system no one could afford to hold large areas of these mineral, oil, and gas resources out of use and they would be thrown open for development...
...If this war results in the division of Europe into these two spheres of influence, British and Russian isolationisms will have achieved a victory, but the unity among nations, which is the only result of the war that justifies our participation in it, will have suffered a worse defeat than the Axis powers...
...10 that there was no anti-Catholicism in our country...
...He began it with, this extraordinary statement: 'The times call for candor...
...Greater love hath no man than Oscar had for America and its people...
...I would like to see Phil La Follette run for President with some good man like Pat Cannon of Florida or Sheridan Downey of California...
...The gist of it is contained in this sentence: "There can be no doubt that had a slave never trod the soil of Virginia, she would be at this moment the greatest by far in wealth, population, and everything that goes to constitute material greatness—by far the foremost of all the states...
...So much for Sen...
...America's strength lies in her technology...
...24 issue, where he tells of the efforts of a number of European countries to break up large landed estates in recent years and distribute the land among the people...
...Although we know very little about your circulation, except that your Christmas drive surpassed all expectations, we have the feeling that The Progressive is drawing an ever larger following of readers...
...was being operated under forced labor, discovered the ruin -rapidly progressing in Virginia...
...The accused said, you're another...
...Progressive Ticket Dear Sirs: I hope to see a Progressive ticket in the field this election year...
...Profits Or Victory Dear Sirs: In the battle of Norway, Germany emerged victorious because of her airpower supremacy...
...The Catholic religion is offensive to him...
...I would not be without the paper so long as I have money to pay for it...
...But the blood will remain a clean, Aryan blood, because there are no hordes of inferior races about us to sweep over us and debase our stock...
...In the Forum of Apr...
...We are the preachers of a new evangel of government...
...It had come true so far as that enormously rich state was concerned...
...And sometimes a bill passes, such as the TVA amendments in the Senate, before we have gathered our wits and realize what is up...
...To allow any other thought to divert our attention is to weaken our efforts...
...Any fair city has its share of Col...
...However, the Republican Party has drifted away from the principles of Lincoln, and the Democratic Party has drifted away from the Jeffersonian principles...
...Strickland's conclusions were that slave labor was unprofitable...
...You notice he uses "should," "will," "v/ill," "to be" in the first paragraph, but most people will be deceived and believe that this is true...
...There is no more difference now between the two old parties than there is between two wings of the same bird...
...Press Is Guilty i Dear Sirs: As I read Chicago's two fat morning papers, the Sun and the Tribune, I can't help comparing the padded waste and the plentiful profits in them compared with the news interpretation, spunk, and features packed into the 12 pages of The Progressive every week...
...Blimps into relaxation...
...And a sphere of influence is isolationism, concealed under diplomatic phraseology...
...I am not a redbaiter either...
...Charles S. Seely Chicago, 111...
...I have observed," said this wise and humane Virginian, "that wherever you find the Negro, everything is going down around him, and where-ever you find the white man, you see everything around him improv-ing...
...Get rid of the Negroes," Gen...
...Jo Cantine Sarasota, Fla...
...B. V. Hiester Ottawa, 111...
...The economic ruin of the South was brought on by slave labor...
...David Rankin Barbbe Washington, D. C. 'The Main Issue' I should like to comment on the article by Norman Thomas in The Progressive of Mar...
...Near Fascism Dear Sirs: Whidden Graham speaks of meddlesome Matties and Bennies...
...When the time comes the Government will declare its own policy for dealing with these problems...
...Beverage continued, "The question is elemental...
...For many of us the...
...His report, embodied in a pamphlet entitled, Observations on Agriculture in the United States, and published in 1801, is one of the most important and one of the most neglected documents on the economic history of this country...
...Also among them lived man, called humanity...
...You have a wonderful chance to let the people know how fascism started and what it is, but you don't...
...We are the trustees of the world's progress, guardians of its righteous peace...
...The Progressive is to be congratulated for furnishing its readers with these two inter-related but widely different points of view...
...It, along with a half dozen other weeklies and monthlies, are all that remain of a once powerful, sane, liberal, and leftist press...
...I will reduce it to something understandable, with no "wills," "musts," or "shoulds...
...One day one of the evil gods pushed the man into the river...
...Do you realize that constitutes the "balance of power" to elect or defeat any candidate for President when mobilized for united political action...
...The Colonel is well known for his opposition to change...
...So, to ease your mind, I have no use for the American reds, but I am thankful for the Red Army...
...W. G. Proctor wrote in the Forum of Apr...
...You are getting nearer their side all the time...
...The slaves had worn out the land, the farms were laid in waste, and their owners had been forced to migrate to newer States where the soil was virgin...
...It seems that we beat Hitler to it by nearly 40 years...
...Will they be built in time—in time to save the lives of thousands of American boys...
...Unlike A Minister' Dear Sirs: Rev...
...We are delighted with this expansion of such an invaluable influence for liberal Americanism...
...we are the apostles of the New World to the Old...
...it's not the man you want to save, it's "your" life-saving plan you want to perpetuate...
...That is another fascist line...
...Coleman Gives Hope Dear Sirs: You are to be congratulated on the many enlightening articles in The Progressive...
...Therefore, the radical believes that the whole structure of civilized society should be rebuilt on a foundation of social, political, and economic equality...
...It is because the profits of private enterprise would thereby be jeopardized...
...and a part of our mission is to evangelize Asia and the islands of the sea...
...In the last days of September, 1865, the Richmond Whig had an editorial on the ruined South, which was widely published—always approvingly—in the Northern press...
...Choice For Progressives Dear Sirs: I'm glad to see that Norman Thomas has been given space in The Progressive along with such old time favorites as Mayer, Meyer, Coleman, and Villard...
...Then we would place a tax of one-fourth of one per cent on the next $24,000 worth, one half of one per cent on the second $25,000 worth, three-fourths of one per cent on the third $25,000 worth, one per cent on the fourth $25,000 worth, and two per cent on all values above $100,000 held in a single estate...
...They agreed that if man was rescued, all their rackets would be gone, and the life-saving "business" go into bankruptcy...
...The consensus seems to be for a minimum of $60 a month for every American citizen at the age of 60 (not 65) without the "means test" or lien on your property or your actual need...
...Lord Woolton, Minister of Reconstruction, recently told the press, "If you ask me if I am going to apply the doctrines of these gentlemen (Beveridge, et al), I should say, 'Certainly not' . . . We will see how what they have suggested fits into the whole picture of the world we are planning...
...Beverage...
...If our anti-American isolationists, in conjunction with either British or Russian isolationists, are unwilling to give this evidence of their sincerity, let them forever hold their peace, and let our country seek the best security it can for itself in a world divided into spheres of influence...
...And I think The Progressive could perform a real service in guiding its readers on important issues...
...God has not been preparing the English speaking and Teutonic people for 1,000 years for nothing...
...that it would wear out the land...
...Hanighen's article in the Jan...
...While Franco has the jails full of anti-fascists who would be in the front lines helping fight against Hitler, Americans can have the nerve to say it is none of our business...
...Our first duty is to fight for the right of the people to self-government...
...There doesn't seem to be enough room in the big dailies to report adequately on the disclosures of the Truman Committee, but there are columns of space for the cheap, salacious, and indecent Charles Chaplin trial...
...It is our business to see that the world is free, and that includes America, but the trouble is Americans can't see they are losing their freedom the same way other people lost theirs...
...We are segregated by two oceans from the inferior races, and by that instinctive race revulsion to cross-breeding that marks the American wherever he is found...
...It would be a help, too, if The Progressive would give us an idea of how liberals might vote in the coming election...
...Sputtering and anguish have invariably been indicated instantly—sure proof that The Progressive is good...
...It is time the present gang was put out, lock, stock, and barrel...
...The people are being fooled...
...Robert E. Lee advised Virginians in the Summer of 1865...
...Radical Dear Sirs: The difference of opinion between Isabel La Follette and Milton Mayer (on the war) is a striking example of the difference between liberal and radical thought...
...D. E. McQuesten Phoenix, Ariz...
...There are few men today who measure up to the noble character of Tom Paine, and Winchell is not one of them...
...Millions and millions of Europeans . . . are at least as afraid of Stalin as they are of Hitler...
...But whether or not the La Fol-lettes support the candidates of my choice I think The Progressive is one of the best papers published in the United States...
...No Southerner who knows the history of his section would dare, say such a foolish thing...
...Rodell's articles in the Feb...
...With two such able candidates, the Socialists with the support of the La Follette Progressives (the Socialists supported "Old Bob" in '24) should be able to poll a fairly impressive vote that would act as a brake on the reactionary and interventionist policies of the "old parties...
...Every poll of public opinion is overwhelmingly in favor of it, even willing to pay a gross income tax of 3 per cent to finance it...
...9, 1900, Sen...
...A. E. Campbell Winfield, Tex...
...No matter what other good we have in mind, we must first plan and do every thing needful for that, now and always...
...However, I wish you could cash in on this influence and make it more active...
...One has but to look at my native state, Tennessee, to see how low this corruption can bring a proud people...
...He began floundering and calling upon the gods to save him...
...The Aged Can't Wait Dear Sirs: There is a weakness in The Progressive — its inability to understand and get behind the tremendous pension forces now organized from coast to coast...
...My fight is with the American reds — they are as blind as most Americans...
...I have given The Progressive an acid test on many occasions by lending copies to some of the Colonels I know...
...Frank G. Stevens Centuria, Wis...
...This naturally impoverished a state remarkably fertile in an enlightened citizenry...
...Neither can the world live half slave and half free, and anyone who says it is none of our business, must either not think or can't think...
...The gods gathered around to consider the matter...
...Here is a suggestion: Could you not devote a column each week to a brief resume of important legislation before Congress, about which we could write our Senators and Representatives...
...This is the divine mission of America...
...27 issue...
...Those revolutionists desired a republican form of government like the U.S.A...
...Frank D. Slocum New York, N. Y. * * * Tax Natural Resources Dear Sirs: I have been much interested in Mrs...
...British Propaganda Dear Sirs: You don't usually publish British propaganda, but in Maurice Cranston's article from London in the Api\ 3 issue, you are doing so...
...We would place all land owned by foreigners in the high bracket where it would come under the two per cent rate...
...Worldover Press...
...The radical, on the other hand, is convinced that the injustices in our social structure are due to the accident of man being coerced into working FOR instead of WITH his * fellow man, and instead of correcting this accident when it occurred, man has resisted this degradation ever since but has never been able to overcome it...
...only action in behalf of liberalism which is open to us is writing to our Congressmen and voting...
...Laidler has written many books on public utility matters, housing, and education —all questions which should play a leading part in the coming campaign...
...They agreed that they must make a great pretense, not only of saving man but of fighting one another...
...Winchell No Paine Dear Sirs: As an admirer of Tom Paine, let me say that it is an insult to the memory of that great man for a mediocre character like Walter Winchell to compare himself with Paine...
...Bellingham, Wash...
...He came to this country at the close of the Civil War...
...The continuous strain of smug cover-up of our economic and social stupidi* ties must be terrific...
...And what really makes me boil is that any paper featuring, ad nau-seum, such sensational details is apt to turn around in its editorial columns and lecture the public for paying attention to such lurid details—when the press is guilty of fanning the flames...
...If ij is not to be the same thing, over and oyer again, there must be an end to spheres of influence, British and Russian as well as American...
...There are over 100 different pension organizations now active in the field and all are united for a uniform federal pension law...
...Louis G. Lestrade New York, N. Y. * * * . 'Best Of The Liberals* Dear Sirs: You certainly have the best of the liberals writing for you...
...Where does The Progressive stand...
...You can have my slaves," said Jefferson Davis, the most enlightened slave owner the South ever had, another generation later...
...The Philippines are ours forever—country belonging to the United States—as the Constitution calls them, and just beyond the Philippines are China's illimitable markets . . .We will not abandon one opportunity in the Orient...
...As a further help in the same direction, could The Progressive provide in some way a list of the Senators and Representatives from the various states...
...After telling the Senate that the Pacific is "our ocean" and a few other things, Sen...
...I consider my subscription as an investment for a better America, and also as a tribute to our old friend, Oscar Ameringer...
...Later we have this from William Allen White: "The best blood of the earth is here—a variated blood of strong, indomitable men and women brought here by visions of wider lives...
...I ^m glad to know that history, as my father was one of the revolutionists of that time and was taken prisoner and confined for 18 months...
...and when that came to pass, the country would be impoverished and ruined...
...Now here's a quote from Rep...
...Its political degradation is due to the one party system, which was forced on the South by the presence of the Negro...
...Another said, let him struggle and we'll make a great racket at pretending to save him...
...America can emerge from this war victorious and with little loss of life, by gaining supremacy in the air...
...Why do not Sens...
...We have noticed how much it has improved in the last year or so, with the addition of some more outstanding scholars and historians like Charles Beard, William Henry Chamberlin, and Harry Elmer Barnes, not to mention your own excellent staff of regular contributors...
...Mind you, not as a "dole" but as an American right for services faithfully rendered in a lifetime to make this country the world's greatest and richest republic...
...The situation is much as it was after the last war...
...Long range bombers capable of flying from American bases to Rome, Berlin, or Tokyo could give us complete mastery of the skies...
...Beat Hitler To It Dear Sirs: I quote from John T. Flynn's As We Go Marching: "On Jan...
...Which is most important—business profits or a quick victory ? Mrs...
...The liberal accepts the thesis that some men are better than others and that the corruption in present day society is due to the advantage some men have taken over others because of this fact...
...10 issue deserves careful reading...
...O. M. Thomason Willernie, Minn...
...A generation later, another Englishman, the celebrated Thomas Law, from his farm in Maryland wrote the sequel to Strickland's prophecy...
...In the battle of Britain, the British were victorious because of their airpower supremacy...
...Old Parties The Same Dear Sirs:" I desire to thank you for publishing the article about Carl Schurz and Paul Lieber for his letter in the Mar...
...For example, the amendments to cripple the TVA, about to come before the House of Representatives...
...I am pleased with the many noble contributors to The Progressive...
...They have never been anything but a burden and a care to me...
...Of course we should keep track of these vital bills ourselves, but the fact remains that we do not always, have time to keep as well informed as we should...
...13th issue...
...The more there are of us, they said, at the job of saving, the more interest we can stir up and the more pennies we can shake down, and it was so...
...Finally one of the gods accused the others of not caring whether the man was rescued or not—unless he could be saved their way...
...They cannot see us heading into fascism while trying to stop Hitler...
...This, of course, is true, but so what ? Certainly none of the people in Europe who are afraid of Stalin deserve, any help, sympathy, or consideration from us...
...C. Casper Rochester, N. Y. Aids For Liberals Dear Sirs: We have been subscribers to The Progressive for several years and have come to admire more and more its courage, integrity, and genuinely thoughtful interpretation of current affairs...
...Dingell and the Administration, and, if you please, The Progressive, get behind this common sense plan and social insurance now...
...We must carry on...
...Porter Sargent Boston, Mass...
...This is not only for the general welfare, but is distinctly a "war measure" to avoid a repetition of the depression that followed the last war...
...It would also break up monopoly of our great natural resources and encourage farm and home ownership...
...Walter Hampden St...
...24 issues of The Progressive where she tells us about monopoly of the tin resources in Bolivia by one man and the valuable lands in Argentina by a few wealthy families—also Mr...
...McAlister Coleman's articles, among others, are appreciated...
...We would make special exemptions in the cases of mineral, oil, and gas resources—$2,000 on coal measure, iron, lead, zinc, copper, and silver resources and $10,000 on gas, oil, and gold resources...
...Perhaps we can laugh the Col...
...have perfected the Flying Wing Bomber with a flying range of 12,000 miles, wing-spread of 330 feet, speed of over 300 miles per hour, and each capable of carrying a bomb load of 50 tons...
...Why ? Because they are precisely the same people who have aided Hitler in the hope that he would overthrow* Stalin...
...Mrs...
...Another said, throw him a chunk and let him save himself...
...He has made us the master organizers of this world to establish system where chaos reigns...
...I am writing up the English situation for a forthcoming book, The Future of Education, from a thick file of notes and clipping...
...After three-quarters of a century of casual observation I have decided that if man is ever saved it will be after he swims ashore and beats up on a lot of his saviors...
...Harold Flincker 59 Lake St...
...We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee under God, of the civilization of the world...
...Miss Waldeck says...
...Richard L. Norman 1 Norwich, Conn...
...Another said, let him drown and we'll have a nice funeral...
...The "ruin of the South" began far back in our national history at .Jamestown, Va., with the introduction of African slavery...
...Perhaps, after all, a few of the Col...
...Miss Waldeck's 'Fallacy' Dear Sirs: I should like to point out a fallacy in R. G. (Countess) Waldeck's argument in her article in the Mar...
...3 he says it is none of our business what kind of government the Spanish people have...
...It has been a burning issue in many nations from the time of Moses down to the present time...
...Keep the presses rolling...
...There would be nothing left...
...Spheres Of Influence Dear Sirs: It has been the weakness of the anti-isolationist movement of this country that it has directed its attack almost solely on American isolationism...
...14 and Jan...
...Liberty is loved alike by all sorts and conditions of men, and that will continue to be the main issue...
...The South, which before 1860 abhorred corruption of the ballot, embraced that very corruption in order to save its civilization...
...Gibson of Tennessee: "Our race has a mission...
...Yours for a little management on the home front...
...Clarence Dolan Bellingham, Wash...
...It is racial...
...Parable Dear Sirs: Once upon a time there was a great river, along whose shores resided many gods, good and bad...
...20, give, the name of at least one representative ¦Southerner whom he would quote as an "authority," who says or said that "Reconstruction ruined the South...
...Coleman...
...Blimps in all income brackets...
...I never made anything out of their labor...
...He must be an ostrich...
...As for its being none of our business, it is our business if the U. S. A. could not live half slave and half free...
...The destiny [of our race] is to dominate the entire face of the earth, to include all races and all countries and all lands and all continents...
...then why aren't such planes being produced...
...You have given us common people hope, Mr...
...The article is so cleverly written that I fear some readers may miss the fallacy of it...
...Albert Beverage made his first speech in the Senate...
...They represent the 16 million senior citizens and their relatives and friends, which means about 20 million votes...
...The most convincing evidence of sincerity in renouncing this cause of war would be entrusting the cause of the United Nations to a United Nations Council — and entrusting it now before the ever-widening division between the United Nations makes impossible a United Nations in fact as well as in name...
...Not that we intend to follow blindly the suggestions of The Progressive or anyone else on voting or legislation—but we do need guidance, and we have more confidence in The Progressive than in any other group...
...Gilman W. Smith Los Angeles, Calif...
...I wonder if he knows that the Spanish people fought for three years one of the bravest fights of any people to try to have a free government, while we did everything we could against them ? We believe in a free government...
...His "Country Club Reflections" in the Apr...
...We would begin by exempting the first $1,000 valuation of each and every landed estate from taxation...
...Windy Willkie' Dear Sirs: I want to publicly thank God for Wisconsin and its blow against internationalism in stopping Windy Willkie...
...It began to look as though the gods might spoil a "good thing" by fighting among themselves, so they called a conference and got their heads together...
...And of all our race He has marked the American people as the chosen nation to finally lead in the regeneration of the world...
...A Europe so divided invites another war, an invitation that a "weakened" Germany, again rearmed by one side against the other, will not be slow in accepting...
...Blimps are regular guys during the moments they dare \o relieve the pressure and relax...
...Meanwhile the man kept going down for the third time, but alwavs came up again, yelling for help...
...Chester C. Page Newllano, La...
...One said, toss him the end of a grapevine and pull him out...
...Nobody in Europe who has not aided the Nazi-Fascist-Falangist aggressors need have any fear of Stalin...
...Cooperstown, N. Y. * * * Phil For President Dear Sirs: I see no candidate for President in sight in either major party worth voting for...
...F. G. Conway Chicago, 111...
...Louis, Mo...
...This land distribution question is no new thing...
...Two centuries later, an English agriculturist, William Strickland of Yorkshire, who was sent to this country in 1798 to study the planting system as it...
...This also includes many of the Forum writers...
...The engineers of Technocracy Inc...
...Laura Kuhns 211 Douglass Ave...
...under the leadership of such great men as Abraham Lincoln...
...I know every time some one writes you against fascism, he is a red...
Vol. 8 • May 1944 • No. 18
