THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . .THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Why Not A Third Party? Dear Sirs: Never was the need of a third party, capable of getting sufficient support to win the election, more keenly felt than now. Every...
...But we must become realistic...
...Voting At 18 Dear Sirs: . I think every citizen should have the right to vote when he is 18 years of age, for two good reasons...
...They would have been a rallying point now from which the disillusioned "crusaders" (and those who never had any illusions about the war) could carry on a united front against further indignities in the name of "freedom and democracy...
...All of which suggests that it might be just as well if the ministers of religion were given a greater degree of authority in both political and educational affairs...
...Bradley Stafford Springfield, Mass...
...I worked and voted for Mr...
...Are we to remain a free nation and enjoy the American way of life after the war...
...After a three-year trial...
...The all-consuming wrath of an outraged people is brewing in a way that bodes no good for that arch fiend, Hitler...
...There is one purpose which all progressive groups have in common: promotion of the welfare of the common man...
...The French have no clean hands concerning aggression...
...That is, all races have their own odor, you know...
...Ray Pospisil Miami, Fla...
...He is apt to have brought home to him the very unwelcome fact that the way of the transgressor is hard...
...No Ax To Grind Dear Sirs: The Progressive prints matter not found in the average daily for various reasons...
...But of late, some very clayey feet have become visible below the somewhat tattered hem of the Olympian robe...
...How Treat Germany...
...That is what the Socialists, the followers of Henry George, the Townsendites, the Communists, Technocrats, and others, including the Progressives, want...
...Longshoremen, farmers, and factory and other workers are forgetting class differences and keeping in mind the good of all, realizing that only by making common cause can the goal for which all are striving be attained...
...The Barnes Series Dear Sirs: The series, "What's This World Coming To...
...E. C. Barney Los Angeles, Calif...
...This f lion constitutes a dire threat to the successful prosecution of the Sino-Japanese war...
...This has been nature's edict since the beginning of time and will continue to be until science discovers a formula to change human nature, if that can ever be possible...
...The masses of men in all countries are fundamentally decent...
...One Californian wrote that the "Japs" smelt, and I suppose by this time the Mexicans do...
...In Poland, for instance, the onesided actions of the Soviets in establishing the National Council of Poland, their recognition of the communist-dominated liber ation committee, Stalin's belated, hypocritical attempt to simulate collaboration by treating with the Polish Premier over an already cut and dried proposition — these actions seem to me definitive proof of the disinclination of Moscow to cooperate frankly with Washington and London...
...1 issue...
...21 is just exquisite...
...They brought with them cash, ranging in sums from $300 to $1,000, and also extra drivers...
...They certainly don't seem to realize the power they have if they would use it for their own interests, and use it right...
...Emerson answered it this way: "Take a load of potatoes, jostled over a rough road, you'll find that the larger, more substantial potatoes settle to the bottom, while the small potatoes will nudge their way to the top...
...Why cannot we do what Canada and Mexico are doing...
...its wonder workers, the scientists...
...The terribly sadistic behavior of Belgians in the Congo, when that territory was under Leopold's administration, out-Nazis the Gestapo treatment of Jews...
...Imperialist, warlike England is also the England of George Fox and Bernard Shaw, of Parliament and individual freedom...
...Why do not progressives in America cooperate in similar manner at the job of electing a President and a Congress...
...Where have these people been during the last five or eight years...
...A. P. Bailey Elyria, O. * * * Lasting Peace Dear Sirs: I have just read The Last Column in the Aug...
...How about more of such articles from this writer...
...Why can't we adopt the policy which is so successfully employed both to the south and to the north of us...
...I read it years ago when first published and I wanted then, as I want now, lasting peace that will come with our relinquishment of all claims on others...
...What a pity the Progressive and Socialist parties did not have the courage to stand pat on their original positions...
...In recent j'ears, statism has become the dominant religion of modern civilization...
...He might also lay aside his "fears" that Unconditional Surrender will result in more wars, for the very good reason that those who will be at the helm when this war is over do not advocate Colonial Slavery and Conquest for Plunder...
...if we lose our belief in that then there is no hope for a free and peaceful future world...
...The Third Reich stands very much in need of that political leadership which can be safely depended upon to plan wisely and well for the future...
...Neuberger's fine biographical sketch of Col...
...The Chinese Communist element is infiltrating, with, unfortunately, the aid of our State Department, into the Chungking government...
...In Yugoslavia we were forced to recognize Stalin's Tito...
...He told me that they had notices posted up in the shops that the shops would close down if La Follette was elected...
...7 issue, I should say his consideration for Finland is almost pathetic...
...I wonder what some of the young people think about this...
...If they were so followed these men would be compelled to hate many, if not all, nations and to work toward a sanguinary punishment of their peoples...
...With the cost plus a reasonable profit to farmers, the two can work hand in hand to prevent future depressions, provide full production, and create jobs for the unemployed, thus promoting a permanent peace...
...First, with our public school system and our modern methods of spreading information, the average boy or girl of today is better informed at 18 than the young people were at 21, 40 or 50 years ago...
...for President and have always thought that if the election had been six weeks earlier he would have been elected...
...a political leadership, too, that will remain cool and collected under the most trying circumstances...
...We picked a war with Mexico and one with Spain...
...Politically, let us be Americans first, last, and all the time...
...Chamberlin On Finland Dear Sirs: Having read the article, "There is Night Now for Finland," by William Henry Chamberlin in the Aug...
...After all, there is no real reason why the state should dominate the educational picture to the present extent...
...They should date all clippings and give their source in the margin...
...Is he still hoping for more and better Mannerheim lines and a namesake to steer Britain into another Munich for the same unattainable results...
...The Belgium of Leopold is also the country of Cardinal Mercier...
...The whole nation prospered...
...In our conquering of the Philippines we used the methods of the concentration camp and the extermination of villages and districts...
...We must stop crying for the moon and get down to brass tacks...
...Definitely, in the opinion of this writer, humanity would undergo a retrogression to a state of existence comparable to that of the Dark Ages...
...They have had it before, and on the whole have used it rather wisely...
...The English, whose Empire is based upon aggression and fraud, whose divide-and-rule policy in India is a source of danger to herself and the rest of the world, whose fascistic orders in council in this war are the antithesis of democratic procedure, deserve punishment as a people if the Germans do...
...We are just emerging from a hideous era in which middle class America was pretty badly sold down the river under the pretext of bringing to pass a more equitable distribution of the nation's wealth...
...Needless to say, they were formed by the Communists, are dominated by them, and are backed and employed by Stalin as expedient instruments of his foreign policy...
...The 1924 Campaign Dear Sirs: I wouldn't know how to get along without The Progressive...
...I sometimes think the working men haven't learned much yet...
...And in France we have much the same picture...
...If we assume for a moment that their arguments are valid, then the English, French, Belgian, and American peoples should receive the same kind of treatment...
...Roy W. Abel Long Beach, Calif...
...It was the same way all over the country right at the last of the campaign...
...would follow in his father's footsteps and perhaps sometime be our President...
...It is still within tlae power of the American people to stop this before it brings upon us the same afflictions and sufferings which descended upon the people of Germany...
...And we aren't so bad ourselves...
...For most unfortunately, nearly every scientific miracle has had as its counterpart, some diabolic conjuration of destruction...
...The shop men had no more sense than to believe they would lose their jobs...
...In the final analysis, therefore, it is up to the German people themselves to determine how they shall be governed in the future...
...Many sentimental Americans listen too much to foreign pipers and dance accordingly...
...Do we really desire to change this law...
...If we substitute for "the 30 rich Hungarian Jews and their families" all the rich American and British industrialists who are getting fat on this business of killing, we will see why Mayer and a few other conscientious objectors have opposed the war as a means of "saving civilization...
...May the biggest potato win...
...14, 1944, on a subject which has been mentioned in personal letters to me and other Massachusetts' contributors to the Forum by other readers of The Progressive...
...William Locke Jacksonville, Fla...
...Mrs...
...The Republicans, trundling their load over the roughest roads in our history, pulled into market with the "top favorites" Dewey and Bricker, thinking the American people are going to swallow these small potatoes, because they'll go down easier, not remembering the Harding-Hoover indigestion...
...Their main arguments for considering the Germans an inhuman people, fit only to be subdued and held down by the forces of civilized nations are: (1) the supposedly incurable German war spirit, the urge to conquer and rule, (2) the cruel treatment, by the Nazis, of German and non-German minorities...
...Perhaps, one day, we shall have another such, and, if we do, with all due respect to the learned and scholarly Mr...
...Throughout the Balkan States we find the so-called "liberation" committees...
...Charles P. Mills Huntingdon Valley, Pa...
...its priests, the politicians...
...I am all for a change myself, even in our system of government...
...More recently we have shown strong racial bias in our treatment of Japanese-Americans...
...There have been religious leaders in the past, who have shouldered aside the mass of prejudices, superstitions, and emotional reactions that make up our standard of behavior and have substituted something altogether new...
...It can raise money by compulsion and so can erect numerous large buildings and, by using the same compulsion, fill them with children...
...You see they have special glands...
...Barnes, his predicted future will travel airplane fast into the land of never-will-be...
...So, as Miss Harris has answered the question so neatly and completely, I hope you will print it: "But the pay-off is this one which comes ready-made and equipped with a streamlined gland theory...
...And colored people are just naturally strong...
...Syria, Lebanon, Indo-China, Morocco, all indicate that the French people too are hopeless imperialists...
...Jo Cantine Woodstock, N. Y. Survival Of The Fittest Dear Sirs: Perusing the contributions appearing in The People's Forum pages of The Progressive, one is struck with the number of sincere Americans who cry for the moon...
...Imagine, again, just how those farmers felt when they were suavely informed that, since the trucks were almost as good as new, and that since, due to the war effort, trucks would be hard to get for some time yet, the prices would range around $1,600 each...
...The United Nations have done that...
...The Last Column" for Aug...
...Give the church schools equal financial backing and they will do superior work, in all except the educational jukebox department...
...These two reasons are sufficient jostification, in the minds of the followers of Vansittart or Rex Stout, for forcing crushing peace terms on Germany, dismembering the nation if necessary, and laying elaborate plans for future partial enslavement of the German people...
...You know they ah—st...
...Barnes did well, however, to append a question mark to his general title...
...When full production is needed, why not give fair prices to all and do away with such agencies...
...Now for the race...
...Is he too preoccupied with what Gandhi might do to liberate India...
...This basic decency is not disproved by the actions of the perverted few, nor by the weak-willed aquiescence in evil by the rest of us...
...But in place of Wallace someone spied Truman Come Lately, lying on the running-board, and tossed him in...
...Mrs...
...For we don't at all know what the world is really coming to...
...Do any readers have any comment or suggestions...
...We try to chart its future course, then along comes some extra-vigorous personality and scrambles hopelessly the beautifully arranged colors of our map...
...The Germany which gave us Hitler and Bismarck also gave us Goethe, Schiller, Koch, Thomas Mann...
...This imperialistic Russia-first policy will hardly be conducive to the future peace of the world...
...Letter after letter inveighs against concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few and calls for a more equal distribution of these...
...This was his incentive to exert a bit more individual effort...
...La Follette, Sr...
...It wouldn't do to have uh—colored people as motormen and conductors...
...The unemployment problem was not solved before World War II because the producing farmers failed to get their fair share of the national income...
...its acolytes, the school teachers...
...Norman Thomas and his Socialists appealed to progressive groups and offered to desist from putting up their own ticket...
...Our record of treaty-breaking, aggression, and deceit in our dealings with the American Indian minority is a long one...
...I had a friend, a railroad man, whose headquarters were in Los Angeles at the time...
...After the sale was consummated, some of the farmers made inquiry of the lucky buyer as to his sale price, still hoping to drive home a sorely needed truck...
...Fritz Gannon I San Jose, Calif...
...If voting -is one of the privileges of a democracy, they should be entitled to it...
...And thus the public school has become a prominent deity in the patriotic pantheon...
...I believe the Progressives should be heard as well as the neo-Thomists...
...It rooted...
...Thus the imperialist Red octopus is gambling for hegemony in Europe and Asia...
...Remembering John Barrymore's Japanese valet and numerous other highly paid Japanese servants, I hope the above also stops the canard about the Japanese...
...Anyone in either class would know that the Negro could not have survived as the premier personal servant of America if he was a stinker...
...During the Winter and early Spring months, there was scarcely an issue of The Progressive which did not include in its letters to The People's Forum at least one letter which called for a third party...
...The Pay-off Of Smell Dear Sirs: Erna Harris of the Los Angeles Tribune wrote in that paper for Aug...
...21 issue giving Clemenceau's formula for a lasting peace...
...Second, if they are old enough to enter the armed services, they should be old enough to take part in the democracy they are supposed to be fighting for...
...You and I are not going to be fed from a silver spoon by some benevolent overlord...
...Needless to say, such a collection would contain many articles from The Progressive...
...I think it is that or chaos...
...Ira D. Kneeland Prather, Calif...
...Despite the protest of the enraged farmers, the sale was made to an automobile and truck dealer, at a sum that averaged $160 per truck...
...Many have tried to answer this tjuiik of human nature, and have pictured a Robert M. La Follette, Sr., or an Oscar Ameringer, or Eugene Debs, trying to deal with a Hoover, a Wilson, a House, or a Landon...
...But as a matter of fact they are not valid...
...We too deserve a common vengeful punishment along with our French, Belgian, British, and German brothers, if the contemporary arguments concerning German depravity are valid...
...Fair Farm Prices Dear Sirs: There is much being said about unemployment after the war is ended...
...The farmers gathered there early in the morning, some of them from more than 100 miles away...
...Why not combine their forces...
...H. H. Bell Atlanta, Ga...
...With all the help of American men, material, and money, why isn't Lord Mountbatten capable of getting the lead out of his campaign...
...You know—.' Here the voice should be lowered for delicacy's sake...
...They will be rendered more difficult of solution if we insist on a childish, immature conception of the German people...
...Under these auspices, the world has traveled the road to global disaster and global ruin...
...The idea was that if some out-Standing public man, or some group of men, should assume leadership, there would be no lack of followers to make the effort successful...
...or is that more than we have a right to expect from political parties, even though they are not in power...
...Then the Democrats picked off at the start of the trip, the weighty, early-sprouting, and prolific Franklin variety, exhibiting this at Chicago...
...Why not have two articles on education, one from Mr...
...Was Teheran another Munich, this time the powers of the West bowing to the ukases of totalitarian socialist Russia...
...Money is the life blood and the producing farmers are the backbone of the nation...
...J. C. Thompson Mooringsport, La...
...C. j. Myers San Bernardine, Calif...
...We are going to have to go out and get it in much the same manner our fathers had to go out and get it—by hard work, either mental or manual...
...It is to be hoped these words of wisdom will be read and digested carefully by all The Progressive's leaders...
...Close To The Truth Dear Sirs: Just a word of sincere appreciation for the liberal education I am receiving from the pages of The Progressive...
...The facts speak for themselves...
...They were prepared to buy and pay for the trucks and take them home with them...
...Please write some more in that vein...
...Liberty, equality, fraternity cannot be erased from the French spirit by a Vichy edict...
...Dear Sirs: It seems to me that the exponents of the "Hate Germany-Hard Peace" doctrine do not follow their arguments through to a logical conclusion...
...The progress of man down through the ages has been because of his desire to attain a bit more pleasant existence than that of bis neighbor...
...Should Germany be torn asunder by a revolutionary upheaval of the most appalling nature, the question naturally arises: will the German people be able to weather it in such a way as to avert nationwide collapse and dissolution...
...As for us, we are obviously warlike, treacherous, and cruel...
...This comes from all sides...
...Explain that it is to be used as source material and for research purposes and is to be placed in the files ef the library for such use...
...Mountbatten And Gandhi Dear Sirs: I read in Drew Pearson's column the other day that American transport planes have continued to fly supplies in India during the monsoon season, despite all the prophecies that it couldn't be done...
...Hence the term, in reference to mediocre men, "small potatoes...
...Lewis R. Kimberly Fort Thomas, Ky...
...It is most effective because the people who pass it around are mostly Caucasians of a class who have neither worked as personal servants nor employed personal servants...
...But it seems the time for such a movement is not ripe...
...If anyone thinks that farmers receive fair prices compared to the prices they have to pay for things they buy, then why are the benefit payments and subsidies being paid out...
...Surely if people so widely apart as Russian Communists and American capitalists can unite, then American organizations and parties should be able to make common cause when only by doing so can their basic purpose be attained...
...How many of them cannot fill the blank in this sentence: 'Lifebuoy stops-?' How are any of them so naive as to think that there are enough Negroes using Lifebuoy to maintain the radio programs, published ads, and extensive sales departments maintained to sell this soap...
...Hutchins...
...Are we fighting to liberate the peoples of Europe and Asia from fascism only to enslave them under an equally heinous communist dictatorship, negating their rights to express themselves in accordance with points two and three of the Atlantic Charter...
...Were we able to change this law, which we are not, would society progress or retrogress through the removal of all incentive for individual effort...
...Splendid Editorials' Dear Sirs: I am enjoying immensely your splendid editorials...
...The buyers, later, pawed over the load, looking for Wallace, and found he'd been shaken off the truck up the road there a piece when they crossed that stream...
...The masses seem to prefer discontent and grumbling- to action...
...George B. Stewart Los Angeles, Calif...
...The majority of Frenchmen are liberty-loving, decent, non-imperialistic...
...The problems of the postwar world are many and complex...
...The sale, at auction, of these trucks was advertised to take place at a given place on a certain day...
...And in Canada the progressive groups have united in the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation...
...However, all these contributors ignore the fundamental law which is responsible for the conditions they seek to correct—the survival of the fittest...
...Common sense will tell you that as long as the farmers received fair prices for their products there was no depression nor over-production, no deflation, no inflation, no benefit payments, no subsidies, and no agencies...
...But there was no response...
...Let us quarantine and isolate our beloved United States from senseless wars in the future...
...William F. Kamman Pittsburgh, Pa...
...I have always hoped Robert M. La Follette, Jr...
...Barnes' articles are brilliant...
...In that state a large Government project was recently completed, leaving in the hands of the national Government the ownership of approximately 1,000 slightly used trucks, suitable for farm use...
...There is always the danger, after such catastrophic happenings, of matters being made worse instead of better...
...Words Of Wisdom' Dear Sirs: Congratulations to Milton Mayer for his thoughtful article, "The Jews Who Got Away," in the Aug...
...Most people are too much afraid to change our present set-up...
...But that leadership must have the support of the German people if it is to make a real success of evolving order out oi chaos...
...It is independent and progressive and can boast of an array of fearless, able writers who have no ax to grind but write the truth as they see it...
...W. F. Hiller Brighton, Colo...
...As for Italy, the Communist and Socialist elements have united with intent to gain control, political and economic, there...
...Charles Erskine Scott Wood...
...George Bachur Lansing, Mich...
...I find that the only chance one has, in these days of paid presses and radios, of getting closer to the truth, is to support in a small way at least, one of the finest democratic, liberal publications in our country...
...by Harry Elmer Barnes has been a most interesting one, and the sixth article, "Education, Religion, and the Arts of Leisure," was one of the best...
...Dewey and one from Mr...
...At some future date, after the war is over, they should carefully bundle them up and write a letter to the local State College or University where the person lives, and send the material there...
...I haven't heard it about the Mexicans but fully expect to hear any day now...
...Every few days an appeal comes to me in the mail to join some new movement, to subscribe to some old or new radical paper...
...The leader has not arisen...
...We treated the Philippines rather decently, once we came to our senses...
...Let us consider them as they, and we, are—good and bad, leaders and followers, correct and mistaken, afraid, human...
...Letter after letter rails against the evils of capitalism, and many offer correctives which at least indicate deep thinking on the part of the writers on the subject...
...Lem Brown Los Angeles, Calif...
...Albert E. Moorman Suffer*, N. Y. War Clippings Dear Sirs: Any readers having a collection of pamphlets and clippings against wars and about the causes of war should try to build them up complete...
...Big Business became terribly frightened...
...I somehow don't feel too optimistic about our postwar conditions...
...The arrogant, brutal Reichs-fuehrer may well stand in fear and trembling of a stern nemesis that will mete out a swift and terrible retribution upon him, should it overtake him before he can find some way to elude it...
...However much Americans, Englishmen, and Russians may differ in their domestic policies, they cooperate on their common purpose...
...The ablest of leaders is powerless unless he is assured the wholehearted support and cooperation oi the masses...
...Up To The Germans Dear Sirs: Matters in Germany are fast approaching a climax and we need not be greatly astonished if that most grossly misgoverned country is in the throes of a mighty revolution ere many days have passed by...
...Thanks For Neuberger Dear Sirs: Thanks for Capt...
...Imagine, if possible, the surprise, disappointment, and consternation of these farmers when they learned that the trucks—their trucks, bought and paid for by their national Government with their tax monies—were not to be sold singly but all at once to a single buyer...
...Do they want peace at the price quoted...
...There is no legislative substitute...
...Tell your readers to send in their vote on a card...
...And we do believe in human freedom, or the recent Supreme Court decision concerning Negro voting rights in the Southern primaries could not have occurred...
...Maybe it isn't too late...
...It is not altogether their fault.' This should be done in a let's-be-fair manner...
...Soviet Imperialism Dear Sirs: Now, in my opinion, is the time for the American and British Governments to take a firm stand anent the unilateral, high handed actions of the Soviet Union in Europe and Asia if we are to preclude World War III...
...Oklahoma Auction Dear Sirs: I have just recently returned from a visit with relatives in Oklahoma where I picked up a bit of information which shows very clearly, or so it seems to me, in whose interests the powers-that-be at Washington are working...
...My thanks go to the staff and the entire grand La Follette family for the dogged, consistent effort they put forth to make our country a better place in which to live...
...Leon Colutes Struthers, O. * * * Potato Race Dsar Sirs: Why, in times of great historic world decisions, do second-rate politicians hold the reins and gain control, and shape for a time the destiny of the world, rather than the larger men of heart and vision...
...Can you imagine those weary, disappointed farmers leaving those grounds singing praises to "our way of life," to "private enterprise," and to the grand and glorious profit system...
...Mexico consistently elects labor presidents, each new man following up and building on the work of his predecessor...
...Behind a smoke screen of driving the moneychangers from the temple I and of creating a more abundant life, there has been brought into being here in America much the same condition which prevailed in Germany after the last war and which was directly responsible for the rise to power of Adolf Hitler...
Vol. 8 • September 1944 • No. 37
