THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
• • •THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Women At The Peace Table Dear Sirs: It is well known that for many years women have been leaders in social and humanitarian movements more or less associated with men of...
...Nye, and others...
...If you wish to know the President's real record on Veterans' legislation, write your Congressman or Senator for the "Extension of Remarks of Congressman Roy O. Woodruff, Nov...
...Reparations covering all destruction in countries at war with Germany...
...Their waning hope of escaping personal destruction depends upon their convincing their own people that the Allies regard all Germans as equally guilty and des'tined for the same treatment...
...I hold no brief for him, but he acted under tremendous provocation...
...Witness the 50 destroyers transfer...
...yet, like the true realist, we do not avoid contemplating the inevitable cost in human life that this victory entails...
...War is an essential tool in an expanding imperialism, or in a regime faced with internal dissension and the need to divert the revolutionary dynamic away from concern with domestic issues...
...For my part, I am getting nauseated at the way too many political speakers — like Clare Booth Luce and Reynolds—use the war as an emotional political appeal to parents, particularly mothers...
...J. B. Camp Hulen, Tex...
...G. R. Allen Portland, Oreg...
...When nations oppose each other, not only with armies but with all their human and natural resources, Unconditional Surrender can mean that the nation which accepts such terms not only yields its soldiers and its weapons, but places at the disposal of the conqueror all its people, their lives and their possessions, for an indefinite period...
...This evolution with its trends and events will decide the nature of peace as time goes on...
...by Howard R. Tol-ley in the Aug...
...But if we lose a lot of men in the next few months we may be in the mood France was in 1919...
...If our way of thinking ^as been conditioned by the way we have been taught history, should we, as adults, pay more attention to the text books our children study...
...Meade, Md...
...It is the people who build cities while the madness of the leaders destroys them...
...When Bob La Follette, Sr., was governor of Wisconsin, during the nationwide steel strike, he was the only governor in the whole U. S. who allowed these enslaved workers to assert their democratic rights...
...On Jan...
...The challenge to the Allied leaders is one which the people of the world are justified in asking that they meet, and meet at once...
...But I doubt it...
...The American people are rapidly finding out about the realities of Russia and when they do learn the facts it will be just too bad for the Chamberlins and all who lend themselves in helping him...
...that the strongest, deepest forces of the human spirit must be called into service...
...R. A. R. Rantoul, 111...
...7 will positively go into the fire...
...Why keep on harping about Versailles...
...Stick to the truth as you profess to do...
...1, 1943...
...I'd be completely lost without it because it sheds light on so many vital and timely topics...
...The Senate, however, did not vote to override the veto and so the Soldiers' Bonus was held up until the next session of Congress...
...But his idea of a Food Stamp Plan for low income groups is not the answer to its attainment...
...R. H. Knapp Saginaw, Mich...
...Here's the point...
...H. W. Cave Stillwater, Okla...
...Vote For Thomas Dear Sirs: I like P. H. M'cNabb's letter in the July 24 issue of The Progressive...
...I'll admit the future doesn't look ] very bright to me...
...It Will Make New Friends...
...Compulsory servitude of the men in the German army for 3 0 or 20 years in order to rebuild devastated areas in Russia and elsewhere...
...Men will sacrifice human lives and their development on this earth for political power and prestige...
...Moreover, the memory of their sacrifice will not die...
...From the masses of the people this cry comes from their hearts: and if governments are honest in their declarations, they will...
...That the definition of Unconditional Surrender is difficult is patent...
...Winning The Peace Dear Sirs: The recognition of the transition within nations caused by the rampage of technology is the best sign, in any terms, of peace...
...The best part of Russia has been desolated, nearly 10 million of her young men will have been killed or wounded Now I may be all wrong...
...Many Americans who propose terms of what they call a "hard" peace do not realize how they help the subtle German propagandists to maintain the crumbling German morale...
...It is none too early to begin the selection of delegates whose records will insure their steadfast adherence to principles of justice and good will...
...We already have been promised auto-gyros, "walkie-talkies," plastic automobiles, plates that will bounce intact on the kitchen floor, cellophane diapers—all marvels of science directly begotten by Mars...
...Again President Roosevelt vetoed the bill...
...First, the Catholics backed the Spanish Catholic Church, the monarchist dictatorship forces...
...We accept the doctrine that all that we have we owe to big business and that we would dissolve without it...
...Our national malady may be called economic intoxication...
...La Follette received the support of the many Socialists in his human attempt to help the steel strikers...
...It was the largest vote for decency ever cast in the good old U. S. A. Plenty of good was accomplished during the many terms that Mayor...
...The peace table must not be used for the purpose of creating the very thing that vested interest was working toward before the war in the disguise of peace, i.e., prevention of production through a monopoly and cartel control of the system of price...
...It followed the time-worn pattern of the victor socking the vanquished...
...I know of no more appropriate term...
...The nearer we come, in all of our individual and collective actions, to acting peacefully, the nearer we come to having actual peace...
...In this article he cites something that every thinking man knows— abundance for all, if properly utilized...
...That the number should be equal from each country is not essential...
...And I don't condemn him...
...The foregoing list omits such suggestions as mass sterilization, organized mass reprisals after the Germans are disarmed, and a quarantine of Germany while civil war is encouraged...
...Woman suffrage, slavery, prohibition, and world peace commanded almost exclusively the attention of such women as Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Harriet Beecher S t o w e , Frances Willard, Baroness von Suttner, Jane Addams, and many other intellectuals...
...The vote in the Senate was 74 for and 16 against...
...Times do change though, don't they...
...That many details must be left for future settlement is obvious...
...When Harry Paxton Howard implies that American Presidents conduct foreign policy in opposition to the majority of Congress and behind Congress' back, he is guilty of an attempt to mislead the public...
...They don't want to sober up lest they have a headache...
...Now, if this is true, as I believe it to be, what do other things matter—our lifetimes of work and worry, our good impulses and bad, creative love, the rearing of children, services to society, all to be blown away on the bloody gusts of intermittent and inevitable wars...
...All modern nations must divest themselves of all commercial aims and national self-interest...
...Within 45 minutes the House overrode the veto by a vote of 326 to 61...
...For one thing, we can always keep uppermost the thought that no dead soldier will be clamoring for a job in the days of peace to come...
...It is worse than bad taste...
...S. L. Bishop Edinburg, Tex...
...I am sure he would not lie any more subtly than Chamberlin...
...It has been tried so many times...
...Consequently I am for you...
...The boys in the service are doing a lot of thinking ab: ut what we will find when wc finally come home...
...Roosevelt and not because of him...
...But they never seem to be able to get that majority, meaning that off the record the Congress is wholeheartedly approving the Presidential policy...
...No other President had ever before vetoed a bill in this way...
...H. J. Shea New York, N. Y. * * * Reynolds' Blarney Dear Sirs: I can't understand why someone hasn't blasted the thick Irish hide off Quentin^ Reynolds for the blarney he talked at the Democratic convention...
...The trend is in favor of progress for man and womankind...
...Should the South have an entirely different feeling about the reasons for the Civil War from those feelings of men and women raised in the North...
...As realists we all know that victory, or the complete assurance thereof, will come shortly before the next Presidential election...
...There is no place for phraseology in an inquiry for peace...
...The women who have made deep study of the subject know far better than politicians and diplomats and military men that in stabilizing the postwar world, armed forces must play a poor second...
...More than anything else, the ef-] feet of the impact of technology i upon society must be given the highest consideration...
...Another Depression Dear Sirs: I enjoy reading The Progressive very much, as it is the only paper that tells us the truth of what is going on...
...Wheeler, Sen...
...What has been written here proves that those who say, "Because the two old parties are corrupt there is no place for progressives to place their vote next election," do not speak the truth...
...No Real Choice Dear Sirs: Maybe the men in the Army aren't stirred up about the election for the same reason the civilians aren't voting—no real choice...
...The demand that Germans repair the damage they have done sounds like a demand for justice, but the actual burden of reparation cannot be imposed upon those responsible for destruction...
...However, even in this moment of dread, we can extract many comforts from the tragic state of affairs by merely extending our realistic approach...
...They shall be revered to the same extent as we today revere those who fell at Shiloh or Belleau Wood...
...Service Men Speak F.D.R.'s Bonus Record Dear Sirs: New Dealers are continually claiming that the Republicans were responsible for the veterans of World War I being in bread lines and selling apples on street corners while they and their leader, President Roosevelt, were the ones who rescued the veterans from these dire conditions...
...With slavery a thing of the past and women enfranchised in the most progressive countries, the attention of leaders of thought among: women has been centered more and more upon their nation's politics and especially upon the subject of international peace...
...But, as said before, they don't want to sober up...
...Therefore no one can deal rationally with our world trouble unless he begins with a strong faith that there is a non-violent solution...
...John Hanna School of Law Columbia University New York, N. Y. * * * Pass This Paper On...
...The new money, away from the control of the bankers who represent the scarcity system of plenty for the few and poverty for the masses with the old age retirement pension, is the only way to solve the problem of full crop and industrial production...
...Think it over...
...Particularly what matter the evasive mouthings of today's crop of capitalist politicians, who have no other road for us than the road Europe followed to ruin...
...On May 22, 1935, President Roosevelt set a historic precedent by appearing in person before a joint session of Congress and reading aloud his veto of the Soldiers' Bonus Bill...
...An hour later the House overrode the veto, 322 to 98...
...Our Foreign Policy Dear Sirs: I've seen President Roosevelt called a Communist and agent of Joe Stalin by The Progressive's journalist "experts" but when-he is also accused of backing fascism and imperialism, it proves how inconsistent to the point of being ridiculous these experts are...
...No Other Road Dear Sirs: Permit me to recommend to your readers for most careful thought two sentences clipped from an article by Don Calhoun in the July issue of Politics: "Capitalism and imperialism of course depend basically upon the possibility of waging war...
...Did Congress oppose that act...
...Now the time has come for women to assert their power and urge their representation in all matters relating to the peace of the world...
...Pvt...
...I think that I greed for money and power will | bring us into another depression after the war...
...It is thinkers who are needed, not politicians...
...It was clever stuff, I'll admit, but I'll eat my shirt if any chaplain or any soldiers talk or talked the drivel Reynolds said...
...The only law for the defeat is the will of the victors...
...Ever since World War II, more and more women, impelled by the strongest and noblest motives of the human heart, have devoted themselves to intensive study of causes of war and of the essential procedures for maintenance of lasting-peace, until their name is legion...
...Most red-blooded men, loving their country as he did, would have_ demanded retribution...
...C. K. Chilberg Portland, Oreg...
...But it should be remembered that that is the idea on which Hitler has based his policy...
...In the House the vote was 346 for and 59 against...
...We must work along with it, rather than try to maintain the status quo...
...Women from the United States at the peace conference will have no political ambitions, no desires to annex additional territory to increase national power...
...It all depends on whose ox is gored...
...that unless the conference becomes a farce, like certain previous conferences at which only men have managed affairs, the equality of races and nations must be recognized and justice meted out to all peoples to as great an extent as is humanly possible...
...If these concomitant blessings of war have their cost in human life we can realistically console ourselves that the victims have won ultimate security for themselves, the calm finality of the grave...
...But we must spend more time educating ourselves on how to get the good things for mankind, as McNabb suggests...
...Surely you do not believe the monstrous lies that he always puts into his articles...
...It is this: He vetoed no fewer than 18 bills passed by Congress to aid veterans...
...The peace makers of old must give way to those men and women who deal ; with facts, statistics, and scientific ! research in solving any problem...
...Unconditional Surrender Dear Sirs: What does "Unconditional Surrender" mean...
...These excuses are not enough...
...From all sides—from business, the professions, established governments, and governments in exile— the cry arises, the demand for "no more war," for "a better world...
...Lydia G. Wentworth Brookline, Mass...
...27, five days later, the Senate also voted to override the veto...
...It is a fight between different concepts of civilization...
...Not long ago Maynard Krueger (Socialist) and Morris Rubin, Editor of The Progressive, took the same side in a debate against reaction on the "Town Hall Meeting of the Air...
...She sent me to her library to find A Short History of the English People, by J. R. Green...
...Our Horatio Alger education has achieved its point, but the cheap attempt to place the sins of us American people upon the back of one man is lousy stuff...
...In fact, the realization of war as an alleviation of peacetime poverty and unemployment must perforce be an inevitable consequence of our realistic approach...
...Why gloss facts...
...Robert J. Pearsali...
...There is no place for it at the peace table...
...A Universal Pension Dear Sirs: I have just read "Which Way For America...
...To show you how history repeats itself, I quote from page 320 under the chapter, The New Monarchy, l.'t71-1509, The Peace and the New Learning...
...In the years to come there will probably be more of the same type...
...Our good Progressive columnist, Ernest Meyer, supported that good government atmosphere out there in Wisconsin before he came east...
...The best part of his beloved France had been desolated, five million young men had been killed or wounded by the aggressor...
...Lost Without It Dear Sirs: The Progressive is a splendid paper...
...Here are a few of the consequences Americans have stated should follow a German Unconditional Surrender: Military occupation and policing of Germany for two generations...
...If Russia reaches Berlin first look out for another treaty that may make Versailles pale by comparison...
...We in the United States, but lightly touched by World War I, could take the noble viewpoint, lead Germany into the light, encourage her to be good...
...We can, with stoical fortitude or emotional atrophy, be repeatedly informed that our war casualties to date considerably exceed those of the entire World War I. We are as certain of ultimate and swift victory as we are of the continued rotation of the spheres...
...As an American, <lo you have any clear idea what the President understands by these two ¦words...
...We can keep it that way by winning the peace as well as the war with no compromise with the enemies of progress in this machine age...
...Regarding the Spanish incident, two factors determined the policy...
...When I was in Des Moines, I asked my mother what history she read years ago...
...Every day the war is unnecessarily prolonged means that lives are lost which should be saved, national resources and a cultural heritage are destroyed which should be conserved...
...If you were a German, would you know what fate you were accepting...
...Yes, there are too many bad things, as he states, and it is true that we must expose those bad things...
...Clemenceau of France was the power behind the Versailles Treaty...
...CFL...
...I do not expect everything in The Progressive to be agreeable to my way of seeing things, but surely I am justified in objecting to articles such as Chamberlin's...
...On Jan...
...A burden is imposed on future generations which should be avoided...
...Russia is always the enigmar Stalin may be broad enough to know that revenge will not be the best course for his country to pursue...
...A Job's comfort to be sure, yet certainly a fact not too repellent to a people whose ideology is almost exclusively materialistic, and whose concept of progress is an extension of creature comforts...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Women At The Peace Table Dear Sirs: It is well known that for many years women have been leaders in social and humanitarian movements more or less associated with men of progressive outlook...
...Oscar Ameringer, a good Socialist, was heard from in The Progressive often before he died...
...Objects To Chamberlin Dear Sirs: After I read my copy of The Progressive, I always aim to pass it on to a friend...
...E. S. Brown I Alhambra, Calif...
...E. R. USAAF Merced, Calif...
...Foreign teaching of German youth...
...Until The Progressive recognizes this as the truth and adopts this urgent solution in its platform, political defeat will be the order of the day for the so-called progressives running under that party label...
...Though many men have left far behind them the idea that "might makes right," most men have not yet outgrown it...
...May I suggest that we go to the polls this coming election and vote for Norman Thomas...
...The stress of war has been an incentive to the genius of American material science...
...Certainly not from lack of knowledge of the act or from lack of violent opposition by Sen...
...The United States never signed that Treaty anyway...
...He was afraid the nation couldn't stand such a financial burden at the time...
...Common logic reminds us that every President has his Congressional opposition, yes, violent opponents, who are only too anxious to impeach a President if they think they can get the majority to back them...
...J. J. K. New York, N. Y...
...So was the one in the July 17 issue by John Haynes Holmes—"Retreat to Reality...
...Why Harp On Versailles...
...The leaders think they are divine as they fly from battlefield serene, though they keep the world upside down in a storm of war, illustrious though they grovel in ignorance of all that is noble, would be Christians though they follow anything rather than Christ...
...Thomas D. Bowman State College, Pa...
...The United States probably spends more in one month of war than can ever be recovered from the Germans by any conceivable postwar policy...
...Why do you persist in publishing the Nazi propaganda of William Henry Chamberlin...
...May I add some of the ways we can obtain the good...
...But the assistance is vitally needed which could be given by such leading intellectuals in the peace movement as Pearl Buck, Vera M. Dean, Emily Balch, and Lola M. Lloyd, and by such newspaper columnists as Anna O'Hare McCormick and Dorothy Thompson...
...History Repeats Itself Dear Sirs: A great deal is being said questioning whether or not our children have been taught history in the right way...
...e with enthusiasm the advent o* an equal number of women with the men at the peace table...
...What is President Roosevelt's record on veterans' legislation...
...The answer, and everyone with a grain of common sense knows it, lies in an inducement by our Government for the old folks to retire from further gainful pursuits and competition with labor by an amendment to the Social Security Act incorporating a universal $40 a month pension, payable with new Constitutional money to all of the oldsters, men and women, this pension being an acknowledgement of their past services in making this a land of plenty...
...We insist that our Congress and President be mere office boys for big business...
...But the issue of Aug...
...In fact, each issue carries enough information to awaken any normal mind...
...Permanent prohibition to Germans to engage in civil aviation, ocean shipping, commercial chemistry, and the manufacture of machine tools...
...Dear Sirs: I note in your issue of June 2fi that you dig up the Versailles Treaty again...
...Division of German territory among the nations bordering Germany...
...Eugene Victor Debs tried so patiently to bring it about...
...Cpl...
...Thank heaven it is...
...It will be the determining factor in the defeat of a strong aspirant, yet one who, because of our right to free speech, can be lampooned in every American home as incompetent and immature...
...We should not mistake armed truces for peace...
...So the Progressives and Socialists all voted for Bob...
...Then in 1924 when Bob La Follette, Sr., came along with his Progressive ticket, Eugene told him, "You (Bob) are for enough of the things we Socialists are for...
...Tacoma, Wash...
...They fight under the banner, not of Christ, but of the devil...
...Harold E. Fackert Jersey City, N. J. * * * One Way To Peace Dear Sirs: I would like your readers to think upon the fact that the only way to maintain peace, is to practice it...
...War 'Realists' Dear Sirs: If modern America prides itself on any mental approach it is for its flintlike facing of hard reality...
...Thus the soldiers got the bonus in spite of Mr...
...There is a more common-sense answer to the demand for reparation...
...Is it too much for those who are asked to surrender to have some hint as to how the conqueror will use such power...
...The Nazi leaders must anticipate their own doom...
...Why not get Goebbels to send you an article...
...The truth is that we American people, like the British people, approve of imperialism...
...Human nature is human nature, j and the percentage of pacifists is small...
...We have a place to put our vote...
...The request for a definition of Unconditional Surrender is a request for a concrete statement of war aims...
...Secondly, while our Protestant organizations might have opposed this sordid stuff otherwise, the belief that the Reds controlled the Republic forces caused the Protestants to remain silent...
...I hope I am...
...To accomplish this, to make the conference a success, the influence of women is urgently needed...
...Miss Vaughn Bachman Brokaw Del Rosa, Calif...
...Daniel Hoan served the people of Milwaukee as Socialist mayor...
...Whatever the outward unity of the Germans, it is obvious that many of them reject the Nazi ideology...
...Years before World War I, the book by Baroness von Suttner, Lay Down Your Arms, published in 1889, roused the thinking people of Europe and America to the great need for special action against warfare, and in many countries societies for universal peace were formed which continually gained in members and strength...
...The Progressive is doing a good job in the exposing...
...Pvt...
...Wheeler's July 24 article was fine...
...The bonus checks were paid in the Fall of 1936 and aided the President's second election in that many then as today believe he was responsible for the passage of the Soldiers' Bonus Bill...
...National Malady Dear Sirs: Trying to address the mob in terms that remotely sustain logic is like trying to pursuade the members of a drunken party to throw the remaining liquor down the kitchen drain...
...This war is more than a struggle between nations...
...21 issue of The Progressive...
...The fruits thereof will be disseminated among all the citizens in the piping times of peace...
...So the statement may confidently be made that today there are fully as many women as men, probably more, who are well qualified to cope with the perplexing problems which must be faced at the peace table and which are already wrinkling the brows of statesmen in many lands...
...And for that they can be thankful...
...C. W. Ft...
...Permanent foreign control of German heavy industry...
...Mrs...
...An unjust peace is better than the justest war because men out of hatred and ambition, fight with and destroy one another...
...In other states the militias were shooting unfortunate strikers...
...The Treaty of Versailles was no better and no worse than the general run of treaties in the wars of history...
...A peace that does not take measures to liquidate the status quo but of which the war became a part, does little to insure peace at home or abroad...
...20, 1936, Congress again went to bat for the veterans and passed the Soldiers' Bonus Bill the second time...
...Are such persons not entitled to know in advance what treatment they may expect if they do surrender...
...Please don't pollute the pages of The Progressive any more...
Vol. 8 • September 1944 • No. 36
