THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
... THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . The Palestine Question Dear Sirs: Through the press, platform, and radio the people of our great nation have been and are being fed a onesided picture of the...
...Seely: "I found evidence that the Vatican was then supporting Mussolini's Abyssinian campaign...
...Silk stockings, for instance, are very easy to get, and there seems to be a very large supply...
...Elbert G. Milham Watervliet, Mich...
...We people are helpless to control our Government—except by remote control at election time—and we must continue to be helpless until we achieve a national initiative and referendum...
...How much more of our best blood must be sacrificed to our great Moloch, greed, no man knows...
...Make no mistake about it—there can never be any permanent and widespread peace on earth and good will among men so long as such beasts as Franco are allowed to run loose...
...This is an illusion...
...Two things we sorely need to meet our claim of being democratic and a law-abiding people...
...In fact, the statement flies in the face of everything that precedes and follows it...
...Johnson got it down to $69.87...
...Greed for profit is never satisfied...
...Readers of The Progressive should keep copies of these lists on hand and as legislation in which they are interested is pending, they will be in a position to communicate directly with the Congressmen of their own states and with the different committees on such legislative problems affecting their own interests...
...If the war lasts into 1945, which it probably will, the old parties will continue to use "isolationism" as a smoke screen to hide the real issues of the campaign, and to cover up the real purposes of the old-line Tory politicians and war lords, led by the Big Three—Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt...
...A. G. Paffel Spooner, Wis...
...Our people began at once to pay it off and refused to repudiate...
...John Chamberlain New Haven, Conn...
...But I don't believe Mr...
...Rubin's splendid editorial entitled, "Wh o Are These 'Isolationists...
...Hitting The Bull's Eye Dear Sirs: I have for a long time wished that The Progressive would print a real good article on this sham issue the two old parties use, "isolationism...
...In all the postwar plans I have found no mention of the money question and yet it is basically important in such considerations...
...On the whole it is the most satisfactory and reliable all-around publication I know of...
...There should be no more reason for making military service compulsory than for making any other kind of service compulsory if we pay enough for the military service...
...We fear to do otherwise...
...Let us throw away the kid gloves...
...In my judgment, it contains more real, thought-provoking information, than all the others combined...
...we are in danger of suffering from inflation...
...A work-program under Buchanan raised the debt to $2.83, when the Civil War came on during Lincoln's first term...
...Mrs...
...Because our "invisible government" is still in the saddle—and riding us hard...
...Edward Blaasch • Medford, Wis...
...There was only one little weakness in your entire editorial, if we may call it a Weakness...
...Nellie M. Ferry Pittsfield, Mass...
...While the peasants have had terrific hardships to put up with on account of the war, these richer families have been influenced very little...
...It was true a long time ago...
...To even things up we will elect an apposition Congress...
...C. H. Aspinwall El Monte, Calif...
...The average reader or listener is soon led to the view that the Jewish people are being cheated out of land called Palestine...
...Permanent Draft Dear Sirs: It is proposed by some that after the war we have a permanent system of compulsory military service...
...C. J. Hitchcock Kansas City, Mo...
...Last but not least, let us make proper plans to see that our great merchant fleet stays under Government supervision in the postwar period...
...I have read The Progressive for many years, but a few years back, while Evjue was editor, I cancelled my subscription, telling Evjue that under his management there was nothing progressive about the paper except the title...
...The average during John Adams' Administration, was $15.63...
...For until private banking is liquidated public operation of the other natural monopolies will remain a polite fiction, and all our apparent gains are in danger of being wiped out in periods of xeaction...
...Keep up the good work, and we shall win our just dues...
...Its wide variety of contributors saves it from becoming a onesided and monotonous paper...
...Its breadth and tolerance wholesome and remarkable...
...From there on out the article makes very good sense indeed, although I wish Mr...
...Malcolm A. Green Austin, Tex...
...Fred N. Johnson Meeker, Colo...
...I am a very old man and I can remember when the individual initiative of Andrew Carnegie built the United States Steel Company, but today that great corporation is owned by thousands of stock holders and they have no control over its management...
...Write to the State Department and President Roosevelt now before the election...
...We pay enough to get them as volunteers and we always get enough policemen...
...Rev...
...Our other good papers never made the reasons for his attitude clear to us...
...Now if, for Government, you substitute "the people," that is a statement with which I, for one, agree...
...Also disease and epidemics know no boundaries...
...Mayer—Otto Dear Sirs: I want to thank The Progressive for giving us readers both sides of the main controversy in American education: Milton Mayer, representing the Hutchins "liberal education" school, and Max Otto, who thinks that the Hutchins' theory is anti-democratic and favors closer integration of education with the practical problems of life outside classrooms...
...Otherwise, there would be no point in my reading it...
...In their nightmares editors brood about typographical errors which convey the opposite of the meaning intended...
...Challenges Hanighen Dear Sirs: The article by Frank Hanighen in your May 1 issue was disturbing to say the least...
...Coolidge to $139.40...
...John F. Carlisle Columbus, O. * * * Cover-To-Cover Dear Sirs: Many publications, daily, weekly, and monthly, come over my desk, but The Progressive is the only one I read from cover to cover...
...H. H. Powell Baltimore, Md...
...Chamberlain means what he is made to say...
...This terrific burden is greater than all previous Presidents added together...
...So they set to work by every conceivable device to throttle it...
...Benes, at the prompting of the Church...
...We are suffering under the private banker system—our "invisible government"—and it is peculiarly stupid of us when we should insist that Congress comply with the law and get back to constitutional money...
...Taft, $12.26...
...In Spain democrats are known as Loyalists...
...Wilson, as we entered World War I, had raised it to $28.57, and by 1920, during his second term, the per capita debt had jumped to $228.32, the highest to that time...
...Life In Italy Dear Sirs: I have just received a letter from Italy from one of our "Southern aristocrats" in the services — you might find some use for it...
...Naturally, I do not agree with everything it says, but it is right so MUCH of the time that I have come to have great confidence in it...
...A man, whatever be his religious belief, who makes the United States of America his citizen home owes his allegiance, love, and honor to this country...
...We have and are feeding the starving in Greece...
...The 400,-000 members of the League of Czech Youth (Catholic) demonstrated against the liberalism of the democrat, Dr...
...In April, 1865, when Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, the debt was $77.97 per capita, or about $2,800,000,000, which was thought terrible and must be paid without delay...
...Kershner said in testifying, before a Senate sub-committee, "Hitler's proud boast that the Germans are a superior race is coming true...
...M. S. Alderton Palo Alto, Calif...
...Lauds Merchant Marine Dear Sirs: One of the most important cogs in our war machine is our Merchant Marine Service, and it seems to receive very little attention from Congress...
...Then watch those band wagon artists thumb'a ride...
...Clearer Understanding' Dear Sirs: We couldn't keep house without your most excellent paper...
...This was one in real life, and we offer our sincere apologies to Mr...
...That is my chief reason for renewing for three years...
...Reason For Renewing Dear Sirs: I do not agree with all I read in The Progressive...
...Franklin Pierce had a deflation and the panic of 1857 and the per capita went down to $1.15...
...By the end of Thomas Jefferson's eight years it was $7.35...
...You'd certainly never guess there was a war going on nearby...
...Theodore Roosevelt, $13.46...
...I can also remember when Bell and his associates developed the telephone, but today their product, the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, is owned by more than half a million stockholders...
...Such ap-peasers of Franco as James Dunn should be fired from the Government service as a menace to the general welfare of the United States...
...It is sad but true there is hardly a decent, intelligent, and courageous Democrat, left in high position in the State Department...
...I challenge and charge Mr...
...We will lick Japan but will not be able to wipe her from the face of the warring globe...
...Harry Paxton Howard in the Apr...
...E. E. Coleman Grand Rapids, Mich...
...Surely we can in Belgium and other countries as well...
...24 Progressive has clearly shown the "build up" of Japanese militarism since our own Commodore Perry forced open the closed doors of the Japanese nation...
...It is both tragic and astounding the extent of ignorance and reaction in our State Department...
...South Trimble, Clerk of the House of Representatives, Washington, D. C, for a copy of the pamphlet listing the Senators and Representatives of each state, and also for a copy of a pamphlet containing the various Senate and House Committee memberships...
...Some high officials can't see reality, others like Cordell Hull are blind because they don't want to see...
...A Helpful Tip Dear Sirs: In your issue of May 1 Barbara G. Junge, Stamford, Conn., would like a list of United States Senators and Representatives from the various states as an aid to know to whom to write as important legislation comes up before Congress...
...F. E. Spicer Abilene, Kans...
...They have no voice in its management and it is operated by hired men...
...Hardly that...
...For 20 years, some doctors have been willing to let social workers pay bills, through the county and state, and now these same ones don't want social security through this bill...
...We are paying pretty dearly for our "American Way" in the past...
...Its book reviews and editorials are superb...
...D. C. Gibson 285 Maryland Memphis, Tenn...
...Men responsible for the construction of Liberty Ships which have been breaking in two in convoy service should be classed as traitors and imprisoned Congress should take proper action to insure all cargo carrying ships maximum protection not only in overseas service but also to every ship which leaves an American port...
...Liberal Stimulant Dear Sirs: I've had a 30 week dose and I feel that I've got to prescribe myself to more of your liberal stimulant...
...It may be like the blood letting of early medical ignorance until the patient passed out under the treatment...
...Hayes to $41.69...
...Humiliating, is it not, but those who made the war will make the peace terms—just as in 1918, and away back of that...
...Benjamin Harrison to $14.49...
...It seems to improve each year since we began it three years ago...
...Anyway, we are sure glad that Windy Willkie got just what was coming to him in Wisconsin, even though he was supported by some of the big capitalist Tory dailies...
...Hanighen's reference to the Czechs as deliberately anti-Russian...
...We should ever be on guard— when a religious minority demands to influence our Republic's dealings with other nations—lest we be recorded in the pages of history with those nations whose blood has been spilled in fruitless religious strife...
...This system of borrowing from private bankers is piling up mountainous debt — is anyone keeping track of it at all, do you suppose...
...Bernard W. Schmerzler Brooklyn, N. Y. Praises Howard Series Dear Sirs: It is about time we, the people, aroused ourselves to an understanding of the causes of our present situation of turmoil and strife...
...Could you tell your patrons that I meant this to read: "The Government should be permitted to invest in any natural monopoly...
...R. A. Thompson Washington, D. C. *** Best Ever Dear Sirs: I want to say that I believe your paper is now the best it has ever been...
...Let Hanighen read Louis Adamic and Morris' Hindus and begin to understand what the Czechs and Slovaks don't want and what they are determined to have—democracy...
...End Of Initiative Dear Sirs: There is a general belief that here in the United States individual initiative and free competition have full play...
...Abruptly the war will end in Europe, leaving the United States with a war to be fought against the Japanese...
...then came F. D. Roosevelt and his New Deal and the debt jumped in time of peace (before Pearl Harbor) to $368.08...
...Grant to $45.37...
...What I wrote was the exact opposite...
...He did not answer...
...Franco is and has always been an active and loyal ally of Hitler...
...It will take all the diplomatic strength of our State Department to keep England with us against Japan...
...Howard's articles to the earnest perusal of any of our citizens who understand the English language...
...Chamberlain's correction of an horrendous typographical error...
...Allow me to quote Lt...
...His rise to power and continuance in power have constituted one of the most savage and inhuman epics ever to befall mankind...
...They need, deserve, and can understand only one policy, namely, the mailed fist...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . The Palestine Question Dear Sirs: Through the press, platform, and radio the people of our great nation have been and are being fed a onesided picture of the Palestine Zionist movement...
...This policy has been largely letting private interests exploit the resources not only of our own land, but also of other lands for private profit...
...They seem to have plenty of food, clothing, and everything they need, and live a life of ease...
...It is a criminal offense under Federal law to practice these devices but seldom is there a conviction...
...Because of this unnatural state of affairs we will reelect, by a narrow margin, a President we don't want any more...
...Well, some people live even though they are dead or just asleep...
...Seldom is there a voice raised to challenge the claim that Palestine belongs to the Jews...
...Now in 1944 the per capita debt is $1,486, with an estimated gross Federal public debt as of June 30, 1944, of $206,000,000,000...
...They are entitled to the same insurance, bonus, and retirement benefits or any other benefits now allotted or to be allotted to those in the Army or Navy...
...Powerful and deeply entrenched Fascist influence needs to be eradicated from our State Department...
...Two For One Dear Sirs: I see by one of the newspapers that two of the delegates walked out on the Progressive state convention...
...Franco—Ally Of Hitler Dear Sirs: In all the gory history of man upon this tortured crust of earth there has never been a more unscrupulous tyrant than Francisco Franco of Spain...
...Arthur to $28.-11...
...We have diverted all of our effort to the end that we may succeed in having the privilege of starving in our own fashion...
...More power to you...
...Chamberlain Correction Dear Sirs: At about the middle of John Chamberlain's admirable article, "Two Conceptions of Planning," in the May 8 issue I was brought up sharp by one sentence: "The Government should be permitted to invest in any natural competitive realm...
...I believe the nation's press, platform, and radio have a moral obligation to present fully all sides of the Palestine question before our people and Government...
...Later generations can dig up the meager records of our existence and place them in museums alongside those of Chaldea, Babylon, and Egypt, just another civilization that perished because people were too selfishly ignorant to obey natural laws that cannot be broken with impunity...
...Such a list may be obtained by writing Mr...
...Then came Van Buren, who ran it up to .21 cents per capita, and the debt remained nominal through Harrison (William Henry), John Tyler, and James K. Polk and the Mexican War...
...EDITOR'S NOTE: We appreciate the gentleness of Mr...
...In part: "We have recently been around a small city over here that has quite a few wealthy refugees from Rome, Naples, and other cities, and the contrast with the farmers and poorer people is really amazing...
...I am glad I was a Progressive through World War I and II, and the day is not far off when we will see a national Progressive party instead of just in Wisconsin...
...For, it seems to us that Roosevelt himself is more to blame than any of the other leaders for the fact that the old parties use "isolationism" as a sham issue...
...It would be dangerous for us during an emotional period to embark on a permanent policy of involvement in the religious powder keg of the world—the Middle East...
...The story of the war would lack one of its finest chapters if one omits the story of those who man our ships and in many cases go down into the sea in them...
...Chamberlain and our readers...
...History Of The Debt Dear Sirs: Until the advent of the first third term President, all previous Presidents believed that a Federal public debt was a burden on labor and liberty, and that the proper thing to do was to keep it as low as possible, and pay it off as soon as possible...
...We have, so it"is claimed, a boom...
...One needs a paper like The Progressive which goes deeper and more thoroughly into subjects than the newspapers, and gives a clearer and more comprehensive under standing of the forces operating in the realm of public affairs...
...My favorites are Mayer, Meyer, Coleman, Howard, "The Last Column," and The People's Forum...
...We couldn't understand why "Old Bob" La Follette opposed the League and it hurt us very much because we admired him...
...Hanighen's article throughout seems to echo the subtle propaganda of Coughlin and other anti-democratic spokesmen...
...He seems to have forgotten what happened to the Socialist governments in Austria, Ethiopia, Spain, Poland, and what happened in Italy before the recent war...
...Our stupid policy of wishful thinking, folly, and appeasement of such Fascist dictators as Franco should end...
...What price freedom and democracy if the children of Europe are too emaciated to work for it or care anything about it...
...become permanently involved in the religious and national conflicts of the Middle East...
...Presidential action on the European peace front will be nullified by Congressional inaction...
...Comdr...
...This indeed would be the greatest disservice we could wish upon the Jew who desires to make another country his home...
...The average during the years 1789 to 1797, when George Washington was President, was $19.32 per capita...
...Predictions Dear Sirs: We are in the middle of a titanic struggle to continue living our lives in the manner to which we have become accustomed...
...we need constitutional money, interest-free, therefore debt-free, and we need the national initiative and referendum...
...It should not be allowed to invest in naturally competitive realms...
...Isn't his sense rather: "The Government should not be permitted to invest in any natural competitive realm...
...answering one Bill Evjue of the Capital Times in regard to the recent Wisconsin primary election and the complete knockout that Willkie received...
...Postwar spending came under Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore, running the debt to $2.30 per capita...
...Had we done so we would have avoided many political and other mistakes, among them our attitude toward the League of Nations...
...The Republican President, who will follow Roosevelt will not pursue an aggressive foreign policy with the result that we shall be treated as poor relations by Russia, China, and England in the councils of the nations...
...We are laboring mightily to supply that army with the implements of war...
...I regret we haven't been taking it for 30 years...
...John Eddy Franklin Seattle, Wash...
...Then Harding reduced it to $200.10...
...This most reactionary and heartless cutthroat Franco has plundered, enslaved, tortured, and killed Loyalists by the hundreds of thousands...
...He is not, has never been, neutral — only pretends to be in order to play the United States as a sucker...
...If a Southerner gets the point, others ought to...
...Robert S. Hoagland Fort Wayne, Ind...
...I wish you would reprint your splendid editorial in another issue soon, and by all means let's have that article printed in leaflet form to use as propaganda in this year's campaign...
...Though, of course, we don't try to police the whole world or even a large part of it, but just our own little old United States and possessions, where all of our police protection belongs and where all of our military service belongs...
...I commend Mr...
...By trade associations, gentlemen's agreements, and other devices, they manage to fix prices and suppress competition...
...I wish that Labor, of Washington, would reprint it, but probably will not...
...In the light of the persecution of the past and present, and what this country has meant to the oppressed of Europe, the Jew above all other religious men should be the last to risk being charged with promoting a foreign religious nationalism on our soil...
...Most Reliable Dear Sirs: I am reading several papers and magazines, but I consider The Progressive the most reliable of all of them...
...In all-out war with our avowed enemies we should have supported Republican Spain alone and declared war upon Franco and all he stands for...
...There is now no place in the telephone business for individual initiative...
...Seldom is there a voice raised to challenge the moral right of Great Britain to turn control of this land over to the Jewish Nationalists— the Zionists...
...Cleveland second term with a Democrat Congress raised it to $17.14 in time of peace...
...That is, I think you are rather too easy on F. D. R. himself with reference to this whole "issue of isolationism...
...Hoover to $135.37, when he was given a Democrat Congress, which reduced war taxes and the debt went to $179.21...
...Practically the only competition permitted in our day is in advertising and that, being charged to expense, adds to the price we must pay for what we buy...
...McKinley, even with the Spanish-American War, reduced the per capita to $15.71...
...Katherine Rodell called the turn, with too much delicacy and omission of facts, on what is going on in South America to perpetuate the clerico-fascist regime there...
...Even now in Naples you can buy just about anything you are willing to pay the price for—even things difficult to find in the States...
...People who eat are indeed superior to those who starve...
...Not that I find myself agreeing with you...
...Let us respect democracy and decency...
...There is no place left in the steel industry for individual initiative...
...It is an old maxim that competition is the life of trade, but our early industrialists soon found that it was the death of profits...
...Our economic setup is completely out of tune...
...D. Stockton Stevens Brooklyn, N. Y. * * * Two Needs Dear Sirs: With everybody making plans for the postwar world — and just about everybody's doing it—we are all forgetting that we, the common people, shall have nothing to say about it, just nothing at all...
...During the 16 years of James Madison and James Monroe (eight years each) the average per capita was $9.45, they being plagued with the War of 1812 and a business depression...
...Having thus made bad matters worse, we will reap this whirlwind result: Our domestic affairs will go from bad to worse because of the Washington tug-o'-war...
...Now, may I ask you to get Mayer to write an article like that on the Wagner-Murray-Dingell Bill...
...All this seems so out of place, when you see so many of the Italians half starved and owning nothing...
...Religious nationalism all too frequently produces a counter-religious nationalism, and, in a democracy, such conflicts can be disastrous...
...The brave men of the Merchant Marine Service are justified in their demands for a distinctive and attractive uniform...
...His inclinations for an Old World nationalism should never raise a question of dual loyalties...
...But the Call and the Reading Labor Advocate certainly should reprint it...
...We don't draft policemen...
...As has been well said, "With the Bible in one hand and a shot gun in the other," we brought our kind of civilization to a people who did not want it, a people who wished to live their own lives in their own way, and who were quite peaceable when left alone...
...For every one that walks out there will be two walking in...
...This situation leaves but slight opening for individual initiative...
...Furthermore, should the U. S. A. demand that Palestine be the Jewish national home, and should it become so, we would witness a vicious campaign all over the world to have the Jews sent "home...
...Much the same story could be told of the origin and present conditions of all our great corporations...
...Progress to our leaders and business moguls means expansion that has no limits inside the globe...
...That was the best article we have read in your paper for a long time, and you sure hit the bullseye...
...Bernard Raymund Worthington, O. * * * Dear Sirs: In my article on "Two Conceptions of Planning" a typographical error in column two, page 9, has me saying: "The Government should be permitted to invest in any natural competitive realm...
...Three cheers for The Progressive and all of your workers for labor's cause...
...Finally, some sort of a European peace treaty will be signed over our heads...
...Chamberlain had more space to go into the matter of government participation in natural monopolies,of which the first and most fundamental, although he does not mention it, is banking...
...I suppose it is all more or less a hangover from Fascism...
...A. C. Stinson Estherville, Ia...
...At Corpus Christi, Tex., a pamphlet is being distributed by the Catholic chaplain which might lead the soldier readers to conclude that the Jews and Russians, and not Hitler and Tojo, were the enemy of mankind: "As envy and hatred on the part of the Jews prompted them to murder Christ, so today do envy and hatred prompt the communistic regime at Moscow to wage unto death its bitter persecution against Christ...
...John Quincy Adams reduced it to $3.77, and at the end of Andrew Jackson's two terms, there was no debt at all, the only time the nation was free of a public debt...
...I had a girl friend here, as did quite a few of my friends, and there were dances, dinners, and parties every day of the week—as a matter of fact there is more social life here than I could find at home, I'm sure...
...We had abundant resources of our own and it was never necessary, that we go abroad to exploit those of other nations...
...Food And Freedom Dear Sirs: I wonder how many of your readers noticed the article on the food bill in the May 8 issue of Life ? I hope every one who did, and also those who did not but who read this —will write to their Congressman and State Department asking why this extremely important bill is being held up in the State Department for re-examination...
...Cleveland first term with a Republican Congress to $20.39...
...Garfield to $39.35...
...Seldom is there a voice raised to question the long-term advisibility of having the U.S.A...
...A. L. Giberson Seattle, Wash...
...It is operated by hired men...
...Hal J. Snow .Brooklyn, N. Y. * * * Social Security Bill Dear Sirs: I want to thank you for Milton Mayer's article, "Is Diss A System ?" It sure was good, and we have shown it to many anti-labor people who need educating...
...I got my wish fulfilled in the May 8 issue in Mr...
...Georgine C. Molnar Berkeley, Calif...
...The Nazis set him up in power, why shouldn't he be their partner...
...Because of our failure in that direction we shall find that our "allies" will walk out on us in our war in the Pacific...
...But you certainly throw a new light on many questions which provoke me to further thought...
...We have conscripted millions of humans into a vast army...
Vol. 8 • May 1944 • No. 22
