THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM By Dodd Service Men Speak EDITOR'S NOTE: During 1943, the circulation of The Progressive among men and women in the armed services doubled, then tripled, and finally quadrupled...
...Your paper makes men think for themselves...
...8, 1942...
...And who knows that the "honest" producer of war alcohol is not also turning out bootleg stuff...
...My general impression is that Australians are very much like .Americans—hard working, vigorous, and forthright in their ways, and their Labor Party government, widespread unionism, public ownership, and plans for the postwar period attest to their progres-siveness Australia has great natural resources in the vast fields o * wheat and sugar cane, rich iron, coal and gold mines, great areas for grazing of cattle and sheep, and, lai'gely since the war, expanding industries...
...Australians would like to have American money help develop the country...
...I'm thinking Prof...
...So we owe a real debt of thanks to her...
...And India...
...The higher slopes of New Guinea have been claimed to be capable, with about six years of careful cultivation, of producing coffee comparable to Costa Rican and Brazilian types...
...Rubber is another possibility...
...Adolph Riniker Los Angeles, Calif...
...Wallace for telling us about them...
...13th issue) is wrong...
...Perhaps what he has to say in his conclusion is correct, but the origin of celebrating the birth of Christ certainly did not come from commercial interest...
...May I suggest that in the next Pamphlet Parade which appears you mention the Fortune pamphlet entitled America and the Future...
...While I and many of your readers would not agree with many ideas in the second part on foreign policy, you will agree that many principles of international politics are very clearly expressed, i. e., balance of power theory...
...No, we are not fighting for freedom in this war...
...It is time that America finally heeded Jefferson's foreign policy of "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations — entangling alliances with none...
...Ralph Ingersoll Ralph Ingersoll protested that his enemies in the newspaper world would want him drafted, when he was so old that he had been in World War I. (Had your reviewer of his epic been in either war, pray tell...
...20 appeals to me as one of the best pieces of writing I have come across in some time...
...Jones Replies To Thomas Dear Sirs: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a chain association...
...Surely not England...
...Search the scriptures," says Christ...
...The federal government drafted these men, and it is the business of the federal government to see that they have an opportunity to vote without "ifs"- or "buts" if there is any sincerity in the utterances about the high and holy purposes for which this war is ostensibly being fought...
...You go to bed thinking about them...
...In fact, it was her broadcast on the University of Chicago Round Table program that introduced your paper to us...
...Screwballs Dear Sirs: I have gone along so far with the paper you call The Progressive, but I am at the end of my rope...
...Blessed are ye that see, yea blessed are they who have not seen yet believe...
...What will he do when his dollar has dwindled to from 50 per cent to nothing at all...
...How can we send food through the blockade to our own but deny it to the dying children of our friends...
...G. O. West Centerville, Calif...
...Why should owners of industrial plants...
...Still there are people who seemingly continue to believe that just so there is murder, outrage, and destruction enough, and long enough, then lasting peace will surely come...
...And we do enjoy Mayer, Rodell, Meyer, Chamberlin, and Howard...
...2. Both Great Britain and Can-a-da have used subsidies since the war began...
...He is a great favorite in our household...
...Or am I being naive...
...Opposes 'Union Now' Dear Sirs: Inasmuch as this writer is disposed to favor a "government of the people, by the people and for the people", he does not like anything that looks like "Union Now...
...Quit Smearing' Dear Sirs: I do not profess, in 10 months of steady reading of The Progressive, to have very definitely placed your present feature writers...
...Hanighen's Comma Dear Sirs: The Progressive certainly has a negative effect on a successful and speedy completion of the war by employing writers like Chamberlin, Mayer, and Hanighen, who continually snipe at our relations with, and the leaders of, Britain and Russia...
...Fifty pounds of food and other relief supplies monthly are sent to British and American civilian internes in German-held territory, while we will not permit our Dutch, Belgian, Norwegian, French, and other allies to use their own funds to send a little powdered milk to their starving peoples...
...I found in Harry Paxton Howard's article on the Far East facts which I had never heard of before, and facts with which, I am sure, many historians were not familiar...
...I am ashamed to say we had never heard of it before...
...Anything else means we will resurrect the fatal doctrine of right by the preponderance of might...
...Why, we ask, are we willing to trust the Germans not to confiscate the food in one case, and so unwilling to trust them in the other...
...So Clarence Streit's argument for "Union Now" to me spells Britain's "freedoms", rather than a granting of those larger liberties for which the oppressed under British rule groan...
...What about Hong Kong...
...Pfg...
...3. The subsidy plan has worked ir Britain, Canada, and the United States...
...Europe's Starving Children Dear Sirs: During the holiday season, the time of "Goodwill to Men," we are utterly horrified when we realize that millions of children in Europe, especially in Norway, Holland...
...Freedom from fear — not with the whipping post back...
...Belgium, and France, are still not only going hungry but are actually dying of starvation, not because of any forces of nature quite beyond our human control but rather as a direct result of the refusal of the British government, supported, we understand, by our own, to allow food to reach them...
...Perhaps I should say "reporting" instead of "writing...
...If this needless starvation of millions of innocents is allowed to continue, we believe it will be recorded by future generations as one of the most disgraceful examples of man's inhumanity to man and one of the darkest pages in human history...
...he has no voice in court...
...You have carried some excellent articles by Rodell and Hanighen, but the latter's reply to George Seldes is sickening, as is the half page you gave to Rodell's diatribe about Gen...
...It appears there is a date line on empires—those after 1914 will not be good...
...Consider some plain facts: 1. President Roosevelt is the greatest friend, in high office, of the common man since Lincoln...
...the Houston link is weak...
...E. W. Somewhere in New Guinea...
...4. The President is quite right in s. y'ng that the banning of subsidies will shortly bring inflation and chaos, with the people in the lower brackets taking a frightful beating...
...but if it is based on injustice and greed, then we nust conscript armies for the inevitable eventuality of war, and that certainly isn't what we're over here fighting for...
...The main link is in New York...
...And tell them that an equitable peace must be designed, that we will do all to expedite the cause of peace, but that we will never ally ourselves against any other portion of the world as a defiant bulwark for their depressed and oncoming generations to challenge...
...The testimony of Herbert Hoover, of Howard E. Kershner, Director of Relief in Europe, 1939-1942, for the American Friends Service Committee, of Clarence E. Pickett of the Friends Committee, and of Roswell P. Barnes, Associate General Secretary of the Federal Council of Churches, before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations as to the necessity and feasibility of the proposed program for feeding these innocent victims of the war, seems to us quite unanswerable...
...How will that look when the war is over...
...Imagine the feelings of a European prisoner in Germany eating a food package from America when he knows that we will not allow anything to be sent to his child who is dying of starvation at that very time...
...The editorial in the Dec...
...True, the Japanese will be stripped of their booty...
...However, Australia's drawback has been the hold English absentee capital has upon the country...
...When it comes to talking "freedom" from the British viewpoint we should think of Ireland, the part Britain's wealthier citizens played in financing the Confederacy in our . Civil War, the British bullying the Dutch Republics in South Africa, and the long-time vicious treatment of India...
...New Guinea has an annual rainfall of anywhere from 180 to 300 inches...
...At a time when millions of confused and heart-sickened mortals are groping for some scale of values that / give life some meaning, it is refreshing to turn from the erudite palaver, the tinselled words, and plain froth of the "slick" magazines, and read about the Vratil family...
...A Hopeful Trend Dear Sirs: It cannot be too often repeated that we do not want to win the present war mainly by brute force...
...Curiously enough, it has grown, not because of international pacts, disarmament, or even because of international police forces, but because an idea is coming into its own...
...Somewhere in England * * * Praise For Hanighen Dear Sirs: My first issue of The Progressive arrivad last week, and while I certainly don't agree with all of the ideas expressed therein, I found it very stimulating...
...There is every reason to believe that it will...
...But call it bootlegging or what you will, it cannot be denied that the illegal dealer has plied his trade, license or no license, ever since the liquor traffic began, back in the dark ages, but he became more conspicuous during prohibition because there were no saloons to hide behind...
...Saga Of The Vratils Dear Sirs: i'he tale cf the "Victorious Vratils," as told by Ralph Wallace in The Progressive for Dec...
...Is it not time that every American who really cares was making his voice heard on behalf of these children...
...Hanighen will perhaps irrefutably disprove these statements by the logic of improper punctuation...
...Ed F. Samuelson Chugwater, Wyo...
...Or are starving Indians more easily handled and less susceptible to democratic ideas...
...You awake in the morning and you are still thinking of them...
...So here too, is a possible bone of contention...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM By Dodd Service Men Speak EDITOR'S NOTE: During 1943, the circulation of The Progressive among men and women in the armed services doubled, then tripled, and finally quadrupled by the year's end...
...Workers Need It Dear Sirs: Every worker in this country should have your paper...
...Mrs...
...These are they that testify of me...
...It would not be surprising to find Nash-Kelvinator advertisements pleading with us to "Keep America Safe for the Vratils"— while in reality trying to keep it safe - for the absentee owners of American industry...
...E. R. Miller, Jr...
...La Follette the leading man of the nation...
...Who can justify such selfishness...
...Moreover, the following facts were brought out: "Fifty-one thousand tons of food a month—which is only 10 per cent of what we send abroad under Lend-Lease—would save the lives of ten million babies, nursing and expectant mothers in Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France...
...But I say, "Quit smearing everybody...
...It shows the wholesome joy and pride that a man and woman and a flock of youngsters can experience trom unselfish labor for a common purpose...
...I commend Mrs...
...The Truth Dear Sirs: Keep telling the truth, because, as your masthead says, "the truth shall make you free...
...Here, you realize, is something fundamental...
...How neatly justice is parcelled out according to dates...
...Ronald Points Crosby, N. D. * * * Grateful Dear Sirs: We are grateful for the privilege of getting a liberal, courageous magazine, which is willing to brave the abuse of the ruling class, for its forward thinking and fearless publishing of the truth...
...Incidentally, New Guinea and the Solomons will probably be sought after for development...
...Service men and women are invited to contribute to these columns, and names will be omitted in all cases where requested or where the nature of the material would indicate that the letter be anonymous...
...Your paper has very definitely retrograded in the past few months...
...The charge is being made that the bootlegger is reaping rich harvests these days, albeit prohibition is a back number...
...In this saga of an immigrant family there is more than a hint as to what it is that really makes life worth living...
...Vegetation grows wild and luxuriant now...
...Not one quotation from the Bible did he give us...
...And tell the American people that we who fight on this side of the world are soon coming back to the America we love, and that that house is expected to be in order, that we do not intend ever to have to suffer another international catastrophe such as this...
...Problems In The Pacific Dear Sirs: I have been catching up with my reading of The Progressive after having fallen seven months behind while out here in the Southwest Pacific...
...Defeat subsidies, and the poor will become poorer, and the rich will be not millionaires but billionaires...
...Well, ever since our colonial struggle with the "mother country" there have been little skirmishes carried on by Britain, any one of which will serve as evidence...
...Hanighen must be running low on controversial material to resort to the absence of a comma in a treaty which he brilliantly interprets as a reversal of its meaning...
...The British have kept down the development of manufacturing and forced the Australians to take in exchange for beef goods from Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, and London—and all this in English ships...
...Excellent Opportunity Dear Sirs: , Our "paid press" presumes to think for us...
...For a time we were a wee bit worried because the Forum pages didn't contain "orchids" for Frank Hanighen, but they have been coming in recently...
...He may be very scholarly, but he has a lot yet to learn...
...La Follette on her splendid articles in the paper...
...One Negro was shot in the Conroe court room...
...Heed Jefferson's Counsel Dear Sirs: Your paper is being received regularly here in England, and I am writing in appreciation of the great w rk that The Progressive is doing in America...
...Yes, it is indeed America that should feel indebted to the Vratils —as it should also be grateful to Mr...
...Ellen Berry Chicago, 111...
...Debt To Mrs...
...Search The Scriptures' Dear Sirs: I have just read Harry Elmer Barnes' "Why Christmas...
...Your crippled mind does not equal that...
...The leaders are weak and are afraid of the white folks...
...We trust the German Red Cross to distribute 7,000 tons of food monthly which we send to prisoners of war in Germany...
...The birth, life, death, and resurrection and likewise His ascension, were witnessed by the most creditable witnesses of his contemporaries who sealed their very lives that this truth might be passed on to others as well as to us...
...Bootlegging was not due to prohibition but to the fact that the boozers must have their booze and to corrupt enforcement officials...
...Freedom from want—in India...
...not to mention the importation, at the present time, of foreign liquor at the rate of more than 126,000 gallons per day...
...It will not be the fault of Mr...
...What license has Rodell, who says "I am told," to that much space to tear down the morale of the Army in this time of war...
...Too many cannot see' anything except they see the dollar mark...
...The "states rights" dodge is just that and nothing -more...
...Even though they have suffered greatly, they have lived enormously...
...and though minor wars have continued to occur among our Latin American neighbors, there also a most hopeful trend is to be observed, symbolized by the Statue of Christ aloft in the Andes mountains between Argentine and Chile, two of the principal South American countries...
...J. J. Jones Houston, Tex...
...A chance to toil for the "enterprising" higher-ups is all that the ordinary human being can hope for almost anywhere, as is evidenced in the lives of the share-croppers on the vast land holdings of those "enterprising" plantation owners here in America...
...The FBI agent only asked me a lot of questions, and he told me that Norman Thomas was no good...
...D. I. Todd Detroit, Mich...
...How the Indians must laugh at that one...
...Incidentally, who gets the islands that formerly belonged to Germany which Japan took after the last war...
...Really, your comic cartoons are about the only good thing in the paper...
...Why don't you present some factual dope on the profiteering being done and then demand, as a war measure, a national holiday on all profits for the duration...
...The Dutch and English will retain their empires...
...Carrie T. McLaughlin Monmouth, 111...
...Why should this movement not continue to grow and spread...
...Villard, with his liberal background, keep on from week to veek making his unjust and one-sided comments against such staunch and tried friends of the people as President Roosevelt, Vice-President Waliace, and Mayor La Guardia, to name just few...
...A. Pederson Portland, Ore...
...Faith in Christ is a moral act which produces a commendable life here and a glorious hereafter...
...There's so much to tell of plans on the road to abundance that nobody needs care what party gets elected...
...Wallace that professional truth twisters will use the story to bolster and support the kind of "rugged individualism" that permits crafty schemers to eat bread through the sweat of other men's brows and makes heroes out of market riggers...
...Freedom from speech—not with the democratic leaders of India in jail...
...As to the "Union Now" idea, I was somewhat captivated by the Wilson League of Nations idea at first, but when we got into the British planned arrangement in which the United States was to have one vote as against Britain's six, I balked...
...Theodore Maller Lakebay, Wash...
...La Fol-lette's column with pleasure...
...Rev...
...War, decades ago, became unthinkable between the Scandinavian countries...
...Keep publishing articles on the post-war conscription issue...
...for there are always those who, for the sake of filthy lucre, are willing to contribute to the downfall of their fellowman...
...Poor China evidently did not have much to say, and did the best she could under the circumstances...
...Cpl...
...Of all the Lend-Lease aid we give, I have not heard of any going to India to alleviate the present famine...
...The essence of the story should not be confused with the setting of the picture...
...The soil is rich, black loam for feet down— not merely a foot...
...And the lower slopes are said to have soil favorable to production of the finest tobacco...
...5. The conservative New York Times and the New York Herald-Tribune have grudgingly come out for subsidies...
...I am an isolationist—heaven help the word—but as long as we insist on giving away our resources, why not give to the most worthy...
...Let it set the pay for civilians, or give everybody military status with care for all aged, youth, and incapables...
...The Only Paper Dear Sirs: I wish to tell you how much I enjoy The Progressive, the only paper I care to read...
...Plea For Subsidies Dear Sirs: Now, why does Mr...
...Cornelius E. Walker Frazee, Minn...
...Perhaps among the collective farms of the Ukraine even childless Vies and Marys have performed their Trojan labors with even larger family concepts...
...If Churchill meant to imply that the Four Freedoms did not apply to India, he certainly was right...
...The war, what with hundreds of thousands of Americans in this area, Lend-Lease funds, government and business contracts, will make for a great post-war interest on the part of the "Yanks" towards Australia...
...Because of its friendliness toward the farmer.' Does The Progressive not know that inflation would eventually hit the farmer the hardest...
...you see, they are not on our side now...
...H. B. Voces Spring Hill, Ala...
...La Follette Dear Sirs: We have read The Progressive faithfully the past year and have enjoyed it immensely...
...Eight Houston police came to my place, and the captain took the pamphlets...
...He has a crippled wife dependent on him for support...
...If the peace is equitable and just, so that prosperity may reign among nations, there will be no need of a rid police force...
...According fc- Jrew Pearson, one half of all the guests of the better hotels in Washington are lobbyists who are there, not in the inter-' ests of the people, but for certain groups, such as the tax bloc, the farm bloc (mostly money farmers), poll-tax bloc, and other powerful minority groups, with oceans of slush funds...
...May it grow to become the leading paper in America, and Mr...
...B. L. Coleman Russell, Penna...
...have found much to read and appreciate, especially in view of my pre-Army background of activity in the American Labor Party of New York, membership on the boards of directors of a number of cooperatives, and public service in New York City...
...England can not lose anything by giving her this...
...those before 1914, with the exception of Germany, will be good...
...Your Washington correspondent, Frank C. Hanighen, usually gives facts which the newspapers don't publish and which are always enlightening...
...Bootlegging or no bootlegging, we who have lived through the periods preceding, during, and since prohibition, know that never in liquor's palmiest days, has there been such a flood of drunkenness, debauchery, and crime as that which has been spreading over our country since the repeal of prohibition...
...John W. Ryan Muskegon, Mich...
...I am not competent t judge literary style but I do have some pretty definite ideas as to wnat is worth writing about and what isn't...
...the terrain is generally mountainous—some parts of New Guinea risi to 13,000 and 14,-000 feet, and the slopes are thickly covered with trees down to the waterfront...
...When Oscar and Seigfried Amer-inger wrote for you, your paper was the most eagerly awaited after the Guardian died...
...Great Britain is spending $800,000,000 on subsidies...
...As long as America allows this cruel and ruthless, man-made starvation to go on—and we know that America's voice, if spoken with determination, could be decisive—our elaborate but routine celebration of the birth of Christ in our church-es and the materialistic and, in some cases, even sensuous observance of Christmas in our communities, must constitute a stench in the nostrils of Almighty God...
...The Editors welcome a variety of opinions but are careful to maintain contributors that are against the war, the Administration, our allies, and the popularity of certain honest liberal publications...
...F. L. Pruett Bremerton, Wash...
...This phenomenal growth of circulation among men and women in the services has brought a constantly groiving supply of mail from them, and The Progressive this week inaugurates a new department to provide them with a forum for the expression of their ideas...
...Mark Shaw 114 Trenton Street Melrose, Mass...
...Freedom of religion—yes, India has one of the four freedoms...
...And, even before the war, cocoanut plantations were well established along the coastal areas...
...Let it be known to the American people also that many of us are coming back to the America whose democracy we're fighting to preserve—the America where we can vote as our conscience dictates— and that some of us live in certain southern states where poverty denies us that very privilege...
...Why has The Progressive kept silent or apparently indifferent on one of the most vital questions before the people in years, the CCC bill prohibiting subsidies...
...Norman Thomas (Dec...
...The same is true for Great Britain and the United States...
...Date Line On Empires Dear Sirs: Now that the meeting of Churchill, Roosevelt, and Chiang Kai-shek is over, we have a clearer idea of what we are fighting for—the status quo and empires, not that stuff about freedom and "a brave new world...
...Thomas P. Christiansen Iowa City, la...
...The only lawyer the NAACP has here is a Negro...
...Marguerite M. Koch San Marino, Calif...
...Between the two lies an excellent opportunity for men to form what we like to term our own opinion...
...Nor is bootlegging due, as per the wets, to the fact that "not a drop of liquor has been made since Oct...
...The FBI did not take the pamphlets...
...Hundreds of copies go each week to camps, naval stations, and airdromes around the world, from Iceland, Newfoundland, and Alaska to Africa, India, Australia, and New Guinea...
...Canada and the United States have thus far spent about $200,000,000 each...
...I believe you have the greatest bunch of screwballs for writers that I ever heard of in one group...
...You formerly carried some fine inspirational articles on cooperatives, which might reasonably look to you for publicity...
...In my 16 months in Australia, I have had an excellent opportunity to speak with people in various areas and in varying situations of life...
...nothing was said here or done...
...Bootlegging Dear Sirs: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall mak£ you free...
...We always read Mrs...
...We who have made an accurate study, find that the date, life, and teaching of the savior of men are real historic facts...
...20th issue entitled "Secret Diplomacy" actually stinks...
...and the assurance that if we run short, tl i want will be supplied, while we are not permitted to forget, for one moment, that we are to expect shorter food rations...
...Patton...
...But at the same time we refuse to allow the International Red Cross to distribute a little food to the starving children of the occupied countries...
...Barnes must have been reading the wrong books...
...Farmer Fulton Lewis (money farmer) is betraying his listeners with his diatribes...
...Hugh R. Tooker Arden, Nev...
...It is too bad that there is not some way to stop such trash during wartime...
...This boast is amusing to those who know that distilleries were allowed to run at full blast until a five years' supply was made and stored up...
...The encouraging factor, however, is the strong bond between Australia and merica in their mutual interest and action in public-spirited government, labor unions, consumer and producer cooperatives, and the fiery independent spirit of democracy which the common people of both countries possess...
...There has been a real and growing peace movement, which is usu- j ally overlooked in these chaotic and catastrophic times...
...He still has them...
...J. K. M. Fort Dix, N. J. States Rights' Dodge Dear Sirs: If it is desired that the soldiers continue to believe that they are fighting to spread the Four Freedoms, everywhere in the world, it might be well to show them better evidence that they are so doing than was shown by the action of the Senate in killing the plan for a federal ballot for those in the field...
...Congress set the rate of pay for soldiers...
...May Wells Madison, Wis...
...Ten million soldiers are not being given any profits...
...All the supposed arguments about "the grave risk of aiding the enemy" were met most effectively...
...Pvt...
...I found it very stimulating, particularly the part on our domestic economy...
...I am afraid of any proposition drafted from the British viewpoint...
...If we unfortunately should, it will bt a triumph of evil and the evil one, and where then will the Better world be that we must and will continue to hope for to keep faith with the boys who are paying the supreme sacrifice...
Vol. 8 • January 1944 • No. 2
