THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . High Time Dear Sirs: One of the satisfactions of reading your extraordinarily enlightening paper comes from finding nuggets of truth such as the Editor's comment in...
...Anyway, Mayer is one of my favorite columnists in The Progressive, and the action of his draft board seems incomprehensible to me...
...I ate C and K rations for weeks and have been exposed to innumerable dangers...
...It is hard to find fault with such recommendations from the standpoint of logic and ethical principles, but seemingly a goodly proportion of the 130 million of us are still committed to patch work methods and half-measures...
...After that Italy took a rap in the "stab in the back" outburst, and Dr...
...However, it may be doubted that any such reference should be necessary...
...but it wasn't until 1943 that Dr...
...Joe P. Rhoades San Jacinto, Calif, 'Crackpot Formula' Dear Sirs: As the war appears to be entering its final stage and the defeat of Hitler's forces of might seems reasonably assured, thinking Americans are trying to put available information together in something that resembles straight, coordinated logic...
...F. W. Berthold Los Angeles, Calif...
...You are saying what many of us feel and think but haven't the ability, or the medium, to express ourselves...
...Painfully slow, unpredictably remote, we can see a "government by the people and for the people" in the process of materializing out of the forces now obscured by transitory surface elements...
...Conceivably, some original thinker might tell us that we may as well abolish legal prohibitions against acts of violence, since obviously they do not diminish among our lawless citizenry...
...A. H. Coffey Lowell, Oreg...
...More Democratic Press Dear Sirs: I'm sorry for those who shut themselves off from learning from those who differ from them in any way...
...And we do not hear that the Soviets are meeting any particular difficulty on that score...
...You know at least most of your readers do not feel this way...
...My religion rules against killing...
...John McDonough Edgewood, la...
...Petersburg, Fla...
...I should be the last to advise in America the uncritical copying of the Soviet Russian way of doing things...
...What harm could be done by trying something practical...
...I should like to express my appreciation of William D. Her-ridge's, "The Time Is Now...
...In simple arithmetic, the producer who becomes also the consumer does not receive enough pay to buy back what he has produced...
...There are various reasons why operating frequently becomes unprofitable...
...I am one who believes that each individual could do wonders for himself (and herself) by becoming a "committee of one" to compel said "committee" to live a better life...
...Quarantine the aggressors...
...Richard G. Boone Wilmington, Del...
...I am inclined to give credit where due, particularly when it comes down to making life safe for homo sapiens on earth...
...No doubt she is a student seeking the light (of which there are too few...
...Mary A. Black Grand Island, Nebr...
...L. H. B. APO 27 San Francisco, Calif...
...Rubin's comment to the Forum letter of S. C. Franklin, which quoted Robert Quillen...
...What it sums up to is a prolongation of the inter-global strife supposed to have begun in September 1939, but which really started in August 1914...
...Would breaking up monopoly solve our problem...
...I was glad to hear that you, H. C. D., have a healthy body...
...Do you assume that small units of industry would be any more social minded than big ones...
...Capitalism operates for private profit...
...My hat is off to a man who will stand up for his honest beliefs and not waver an inch under the most scurrilous attacks...
...Stop beefing...
...So are the entertaining scriveners who assume that the old economic method can be made to build finer, freer, and happier citizens...
...When consumers provided with only inadequate purchasing power cease to buy enough to produce profit, or to pay prices high enough to produce profit, or fail in both respects, then profit-seekers shut dofvn, and shutting down throws employes out of work...
...Mayer says don't try to illegalize phenomena which cannot be illegal-ized...
...I try to look at the world with unbiased eyes and want the truth where I can find it...
...High time...
...Self-Interest Dear Sirs: Will it be the best kind of democracy we are offering to the world to give these Government factories lock, stock, and barrel to the money changers, a crew that Christ tried to point out to mankind as wrong and unworthy and against every principle He stood for because they stood for self-interest...
...The cause-and-effect relationship between capitalism and unemployment is really very simple, and very easy to understand...
...It recently had an amusing editorial on the "Split Personality of the Progressives...
...Then, too, some have advanced the plan of basic reorganization of our economic and social pattern so that greater incentives than now-exist would be operative in favor of peaceful and constructive living...
...Space does not permit discussion of the various contributors, many of whom are truly outstanding citizens...
...I thought it was far-fetched...
...Why else are we living but to live and learn and exchange ideas...
...I have been overseas more than 15 months...
...Most of your stuff is swell...
...They become unemployed because they have produced too much...
...Why don't you chart a course and stick to it instead of changing so much...
...That is the way I got it...
...As to some opinions regarding the military-mindedness of the German people, I doubt if the masses there are any different from the masses elsewhere...
...Not .always did the product come true...
...J. McC...
...At another point he advises the Jews to live such exemplary lives that the Gentiles will ultimately be ashamed of themselves...
...This symbolized to me an admission that the Averys, slightly disguised with a chin piece, have been and are yet the real rulers of our country...
...New Leader Editorial Dear Sirs: I think The Progressive is an excellent paper...
...APO 698 New York, N. Y. * * * Whiff Of America Dear Sirs: * Reading The Progressive is a whiff of America at its best...
...It will not be done by voluntary consent, a sense of moral obligation, or scientific reasoning...
...I like to know what my fellow man thinks about the things going on in this world...
...von Salis never took a gram of it himself...
...The May 22 issue's article, "A Declaration of Progressive Principles," seems to this subscriber to be a hastily thrown together mass of idealistic confusion...
...I hope these will never be foisted upon the American people...
...I'm afraid that Old Bob La Follette would turn over in his grave if he knew how The Progressive has fallen by carrying the tripe of those two men...
...Don't for a minute desert your aggressive foreign and domestic policy...
...As for information asked, here it is: Private capitalism with the profit motive must cause unemployment, because goods are produced to sell for profit...
...J. O. Cooper Kalamazoo, Mich...
...The word "party" has got to be dropped...
...Capitalism's Surplus Dear Sirs: Relative to the inquiry of Neera Gokhale, it is amazing that a reader must ask for information of the most elementary nature in an educational paper, especially a paper with such a high-powered staff...
...When Germany invaded Russia the masses of the people of this country expected Russia to be defeated in about six weeks...
...W. B. McQuown Clearfield, Pa...
...Charles Chilberg . Portland, Oreg...
...von Salis considered the use of a binder dishonest...
...Keep up the good work...
...Or some saintly soul might throw in the idea that the ideal way to cure criminality is for the law . abiding to conduct ourselves in such Quaker fashion that the anti-social element would be conscience-stricken and desist from evil practices...
...T15 T.F.F...
...Franklin was quite right in his suggestion that we relegate "these meddlers" to the rear...
...Pfc...
...I am fighting for the civilian way of life, not the Army way...
...It is time to put my mosquito bar«down and get some rest...
...Remember...
...The only reason I keep on taking The Progressive is the fact that I think maybe next week it will be better...
...Dallas E. Parks Seattle, Wash...
...Whether we have many small units or large combinations the end result will remain unchanged...
...It takes far more courage to stand up squarely for a position like his than to follow the herd and let yourself be regimented into such an easy life as soldiering...
...N. Y. Reply To A CO Dear Sirs: In reply to H. C. D.'s letter about CO's and CPS camps in The Progressive of Mar...
...A standing order with a Chicago drug house took care of the imperfect product...
...D. N. Jones Douglasflat, Calif...
...We need all the light we can get in this dark world...
...It doesn't just add up, though, that Seely, Walter Duranty, Joseph Davies, Ralph Ingersoll, Maurice Hindus, Upton Sinclair, Barnes, and many others are all liars, and only Chamberlin tells the truth...
...But it was seeming—not reality...
...Now, when the nations need us, is the time to have all sign on the dotted line for freedom for all races...
...Incidentally, "lately" will not mean the same to you as it does to me...
...I too, am a CO in one sense...
...Incidentally, Dr...
...Maybe legal half-remedies would be as bad or worse than the disease...
...Herridge does...
...Proof that capitalism is the cause of unemployment is asked for, and it appears to be assumed that the best possible proof is to be found, if found at all, in some book...
...Put teeth in the recall laws, then use the teeth when justice demands...
...If any paper prints the truth without prejudice and distortion it surely is The Progressive...
...Kaiser asks us to lift up our eyes to the hills as it were—to see and build a "far better civilization than we have thus far enjoyed...
...Praises Barnes Series Dear Sirs: Those articles you are publishing by Harry Elmer Barnes on the economic pattern of tomorrow show clear thinking and sound reasoning...
...The German Masses Dear Sirs: I like your publication very much, especially the opinions expressed in the People's Forum pages...
...Keep up the good work...
...He can write, too...
...How that man can wave the flag (with his right hand, but his left hand doesn't know what his right hand is doing...
...if our economic method is not a crackpot formula, what would you Progressives call it...
...Earl W. Shimmons New York, N. Y. * * * Not Fit Dear Sirs: Please stop sending The Progressive at once...
...Just as long as we cling to the ox-cart economy of scarcity, price, and money profits, all of the "insurance plans" and all of the laws yet to be enacted will not restore to the workers the full use...
...This hokum is just the kind of thing we boys over here are fighting to eradicate...
...reactionaries may temporarily hold | it in abeyance...
...I see some of the Southern Senators say they do not hear very much from servicemen about the soldier vote hill and conclude that the soldiers don't care much about the vote...
...But in Soviet Russia anti-Semitism (and presumably all racism) is a statutory offense...
...It is giving him hope these dark days...
...Maybe not...
...It is a bit prejudiced in favor of the Administration...
...More power to you...
...It is unusual for an American student to seek proof or truth or information outside of his school books...
...All I ask of civilians is to work a little harder to preserve their liberty at home, for themselves and for those who will return from the field of battle...
...What we commonly speak of as employment depends very largely on operation of capitalism...
...To quote the concluding words of Mr...
...I might add that Pearson for accuracy is a little more accurate than a certain column called "The Last Column," written by one Morris Rubin...
...The former cannot hasten its deliverance, nor the latter cannot, with all their advantages of entrenchment, stop its development...
...You say that you are given a total of 30 days furlough a year...
...The technique of the Hitler Youth with its glorified regimentation provided the basis for establishing this whole system of national socialism, anti-Semitism, and fiendish barbarism...
...Walter Winchell sinks even lower in his self-imposed slough of vin-dictiveness^ by his comments about Mayer...
...I have not been with the Bayer Company for years, but I still buy Bayer's aspirin as I know it is honestly made...
...There is no doubt in my mind w« are destined to achieve some kind of cooperative change, a readjustment of our economic machinery that will spread the "sugar" over a much-extended base...
...Well, in my opinion they care plenty about exercising their franchise in the all-important coming election this year, but how can they let their so-called representatives know when they are forbidden to express an opinion in writing to their Congressmen and to sign petitions directed to Congress or state legislatures ? Another thing, some of the postwar planners are talking of permanent conscription, youth camps, etc...
...It is not filled with propaganda, it is trying to keep this country American, and is standing up for ' American ideals, such as freedom ' for India as well as for Europe, with a little left for America even in wartime...
...I am unable at this time to comply with a request for a book reference, for my files are scattered...
...Progressively Reactionary' Dear Sirs: I have been a subscriber for quite some time and always enjoyed reading the paper...
...One wonders how many of our citizens realize the potential trouble that is bound to follow such a scheme concocted by self-seeking individuals, caring only for pelf and power...
...So before we condemn the German masses as gullible, military-minded fools we had better consider if we would have done differently had we listened to the same lies they listened to...
...I think his ideas and suggestions are good...
...When Roosevelt and Hull called him a liar he proved that he was right...
...Start-the-War must be called in to consult...
...To grasp this proposition requires only that we keep our eyes open and use our heads...
...For we, the people, follow truth gladly, once it is pointed out to us...
...The Forces Of Change Dear Sirs: Recently there was published in the Los Angeles Times, a rabid Republican paper, a significant cartoon depicting Uncle Sam being carried out of the national capitol building...
...Right now no man knows its extent or the direction it will take...
...It was made and still is in solid silver stills, a method I do not believe the other manufacturers employ...
...W. J. Brady Philadelphia, Pa...
...About that time the patient had developed new symptoms—low blood pressure "for one—and it was decided that "Dr...
...Yes, "there are men and forces today who will conspire against us...
...They will bark socialism and communism at those who will advocate democratic ownership and operation of these institutions...
...This paper is not fit to be in any American home...
...All of the Kaisers, Moses, and the city planners for postwar prosperity are due for a real headache...
...The most dramatic and comprehensive source of information on this subject is Is Plenty Too Much For The Common People?, by George R. and Florence Kirkpat-rick, Box 7, San Gabriel, Calif...
...People gullible enough to believe such nonsense will believe any other foolishness if it be suggested to them with the same amount of force and constant repetition...
...I have read Pearson's column since the time that he first started writing for the Philadelphia Record, and he has been nearly always right...
...Of course, there will be those who will cry to be appeased as they use every trick of covetousness to gain their ends...
...This glut is called overproduction by the capitalist and he shuts down his factory, putting his employes out of work...
...I sincerely believe the world is progressing slowly but surely...
...Edward Leavitt Los Angeles, Calif...
...With the world as it is today, Europe is of course our neighbor as well as Asia...
...The late Oscar Ameringer, the best working-class journalist of my knowledge, used to answer that question in his articles once or twice every week...
...Q. E. D. Lawrence J. Vair Pinecliffe, Colo...
...New Deal seemed to be riding high, wide, and handsome...
...Soldiers And Labor Dear Sirs: May it be known to the readers of your paper that those who claim that soldiers have a hatred toward labor are not voicing my opinion...
...I am glad to see a group of Americans take a stand against world stabilization of currency and a world police force...
...It was interesting indeed to turn from the train of thought started by Mr...
...Also, protect the country against such phenomena by spreading the blessings of democracy so widely and deeply all over the country that the citizens will laugh the Pelleys out of existence...
...Aren't you...
...It takes genuine courage to speak as frankly as Mr...
...Somewhere I read that no less than 1,000,000 persons annually run afoul of the law in the United States and pass through the steely cages of the country's clinks...
...Let's clean it up and make it the best...
...Well, I for one am not afraid to stick my neck out...
...For The Common Man Dear Sirs: Your paper is doing more good than all the churches for the common man...
...A Better Life Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer does all of us a service when he suggests that we should try and out-do one another in the excellence of our daily lives...
...For instance, the vast majority of the people in this country during the Winter war between Russia and Finland thought Russia was being beaten badly and would lose the war...
...This brings the inspiration, the uplift, the will to do and to dare for a happier, a more just and charitable tomorrow...
...Most of them are afraid of that ugly word, "crackpot...
...To return to the patient: he got along fairly well until, as the result of more extended meddling, the Japanese presented us with a fait accompli, which scared him into fits...
...In the first place, I am up in arms about what I have read lately about the Milton Mayer case...
...Fascism, politics, or church have no part in a democratic government...
...The essence of the matter is that our private profit-motivated system fails to distribute adequate mass purchasing power...
...I cannot see for the life of me why you should support men like Chamberlin and Harry Paxton Howard...
...Nominate your candidates by an unslated convention...
...That was the year of the famous Quarantine speech...
...Bayer's Aspirin Dear Sirs: Regarding your May 22 article on patent medicine: When aspirin was brought over from Germany in the early part of this century it was first made at Rensselaer, N. Y., by the German controlled Fred von Bayer Company of Leverkusen and Elberfeld, and the American chemist in charge was a Swiss named Emmanuel von Salis...
...I like the New Leader for its labor articles and its showing up of the dirty work of the Communists...
...Such a plan is merely the reversal of the lawlessness of the individual and the nations that has brought the house down upon our heads...
...The younger, more courageous industrialists, including the present head of the National Chamber of Commerce, hear the muffled roar of the on-coming storm...
...It really looks as if you are trying to crowd Seely out of the paper...
...Since operation is primarily for private profit, the inevitable tendency is for capitalism to cease operating if operating proves to be unprofitable...
...I read all of your writers' articles, The People's Forum, and your editorials...
...When all danger is past, it is only human nature to know that each nation will consider only its own interest...
...But since you have become so progressively reactionary, I have no further use for it...
...He can see the sun coming out from behind the darkness...
...Well, good night...
...Win-the-War was called...
...Rubin's clarifying article, "It is time for thunder on the left...
...The fallacious economic theory that debt constitutes wealth and may be peddled as real wealth will come home to roost when America faces the billions of new debt...
...Radicals may have something to do about directing its course...
...D. G. APO 464 New York, N. Y...
...Much money was spent in efforts to make a non-friable tablet without the use of a binder, which efforts were finally successful...
...The subject is highly colored with wishful thinking on both sides of the issue...
...Liked Kaiser Article Dear Sirs: I wish to give my sincere and heartfelt congratulations to Henry Kaiser for his excellent article in the May 29 issue...
...Food For Thought Dear Sirs: I have been reading The Progressive for nearly a year now, and what I like about it is that its contents give me food for thought...
...I am quite sure there isn't a man over here who wouldn't pay ah enormous price to get home for 30 days, without pay, and you receive $3 a month —what a waste of taxpayers' money...
...You have the name of being one of the few honest papers left in the United States...
...I doubt if anyone really supposes that anti-Semitism, the subjective phase at least, could be eliminated by the courts...
...Roosevelt sponsored in 1932, but seems to have quickly forgotten about, how about an article on money...
...Aaron can't sell his faulty knowledge to me: Dr...
...William A. Fuller Cocoa, Fla...
...For A Peace Union Dear Sirs: The letter by E. Ernest Garner on a workers peace union in the May 22 issue is to the point...
...APO 464 New York...
...They publicly admit that they must make capitalism a going concern or bow out of the picture...
...I do not favor reducing labor to a soldier's level...
...But once the flood gates of vision are opened for all to behold a new world of cooperative productivity, they can never again be closed by the ignorant, the tradition-worshipping few...
...I count myself as an ardent fan of Milton Mayer, but sometimes a question remains after reading him...
...At least I feel a little better for having said some of these things...
...It was distributed pure, as Dr...
...As there are quite a few people in addition to the "nuts" interested in "sound money" Which Mr...
...You have only a few sins to be forgiven, and you can be saved...
...Now Is The Time Dear Sirs: The Progressive stands foul-square for common sense...
...In his recent discussion of the sedition trial, he said that legislation against anti-Semitism would be useless and dangerous because ineffective and unenforceable, or words to that effect...
...That is excellent...
...Thornton C. Shaw I Sandusky, O. Reply To Neera Gokhale " Dear Sirs: > This is a reply to the inquiry from Neera Gokhale, in The People's Forum of May 22...
...The masses of mankind everywhere really have no individual minds worth mentioning, but believe what they are made to believe by skilled liars operating on the psychological principle that the masses will believe anything which is suggested with sufficient force and constant repetition...
...Chamberlin-Howard 'Tripe' Dear Sirs: I for one would like to add my two cents worth to the criticism Chauncy S. Curtis made of William Henry Chamberlin in the People's Forum in the May 15 issue...
...The Progressive is full of history and prophecy but there is a dearth of sound economics in its columns...
...It will be accomplished by undercurrent pressure regardless of the philosophy of contending groups...
...Perhaps the artist did not mean to suggest that impression...
...Another thing I would like to protest is your calling Drew Pearson, one of our very few honest reporters, a liar without even going to the trouble of offering one iota of proof...
...Most men who write for their living have to be extremely cautious or they lose their vitally essential meal ticket...
...I'd like also to get a few things off my chest...
...Let us hear more along this line from other people of prestige...
...Mamie Schellenberg Lexington, Okla...
...Cliff Graves Portland, Oreg...
...John-Eddy Franklin I Seattle, Wash...
...Simply because they want to own and operate them for self-interest against social interest...
...For while we need to battle against entrenched selfishness, it seems to me that the emphasis may well be placed on vision for a better world...
...You don't go around calling Chamberlin a liar, but he has more inaccuracies in one article than Pearson does in a year...
...In fact, I envy you...
...If we feel that we cannot in the measurable future abolish anti-Semitism and kindred afflictions, or if we are too tired or busy to try, should we set our minds also against palliative measures...
...I like most of your contributors, particularly Fred Rodell...
...I have been in a hospital for the past two months...
...They appreciate your efforts for a more democratic press...
...I certainly admire the intellect of Neera Gokhale for seeking proof...
...I don't understand why the people insist on putting everything else' ahead of government...
...They were led to this belief by paid liars in the press and radio...
...The gold reserve has dropped from 93 per cent to around 60 per cent within the past 16 months and at the 2 per cent a month loss rate, we will be at the 1932 panic level again in another 16 months...
...I like The Progressive, the Christian Century, and the New Leader best...
...Elect your officers at a free election, use your referendum and recall laws...
...So the average citizen is not well-informed...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . High Time Dear Sirs: One of the satisfactions of reading your extraordinarily enlightening paper comes from finding nuggets of truth such as the Editor's comment in the May 22 issue that not a single piece of progressive legislation was to be credited to the New Deal after 1936...
...The articles should be put out in pamphlet form and have wide circulation...
...It wouldn't be quite so bad if you would give your good writers like Harry Elmer Barnes and C. S. Seely the same space...
...The men over here who are fighting to protect their loved ones and yours will do their utmost to bring this war to a quick and victorious end and thereby release you from that horrible camp...
...Oscar kept it 100 per cent for workers...
...Anti-Semitism Dear Sirs...
...Service Men Speak Mayer, Winchell, Et Al Dear Sirs: I want you to know how much I enjoy the excellent column of Mrs...
...Wants Money Article Dear Sirs: The paper has been steadily improving and with a number of contributors of national caliber contributing some of their material that is too hot for advertising-supported newspapers or for journals of "subsidized opinion," such as the Nation, and New Republic, to handle...
...La Follette in The Progressive...
...He faces cold facts regarding the inability of servicing our people in this high energy age by tinkering with the old economic system of scarcity and manipulated price...
...However, my religion doesn't mention killing in defense of my wife and loved ones...
...H. L. Woodward Youngstown, 0. * * * Approves Stand Dear Sirs: I look forward with a great deal of anticipation to your paper each week...
...The average student is so wise that there is nothing for him to learn...
...Of course, Morris, you're not such a bad boy...
...I hope this article will inspire more of its kind...
...13, apparently, H. C. D., you did not know that many of The Progressive's subscribers are in overseas combat...
...Every sentence weighs a ton...
...We can never get peace out of politics...
...The American Guardian never truckled to such people...
...Blanche Watson St...
...On this and related topics the "kept press" is restrained by its overlords from telling the truth...
...Franklin, who can see the hole in the millstone even if it isn't as high as a tree or as broKd as a dam, points out that the "itch" to meddle in foreign countries is spreading and entering into a new phase, namely, the Allied Military Government—AMG...
...Walter Reece Ashland, Oreg...
...Each of those elements is a faction in itself and should be treated as such...
...In other words, a surplus which cannot be sold for lack of buying power gluts the market...
Vol. 8 • June 1944 • No. 24
