THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . For A Just Peace Dear Sirs: Some time in the near future, so ¦we hope, World War II will end— and then we can look forward to this old world of ours being given a...
...Postwar Use Of Camps Dear Sirs: Recently I've been reading and hearing some discussions as to what use some of the Army camps and training locations, which have been constructed during this war, will be used for after the war...
...Besides, I find that when I feel annoyed by one of your articles, someone almost always writes a letter-to-the-editor for me...
...But can it be seriously maintained that among our 130,000,000 people there is only one capable of being President...
...Failing in that they will try to weaken them by amendments...
...H. W. Cave | Stillwater, Okla...
...A lot of them can be used for schools and colleges so as to train some of the men and civilians, as well, in a practical trade...
...5. Roosevelt's failure to condemn the Churchill statement that "I did not become the King's Prime Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire" indicates reluctance to depart from the very road which led us to this war—and which, if continued, will lead us into another...
...I need not tell you his name...
...not long ago a farmer from Sedro Woolley, Wash., wrote a nice one for me about Henry Kaiser...
...I believe there has been too much criticism in the past without a constructive solution to offer...
...Mayer And Meyer Dear Sirs: This is just a note of appreciation for the valuable Progressive...
...Galen M. Harvey Elkton, Oreg...
...Supporting the Republican candidates is entirely out of the question...
...Every single day the War Food Administration acquires enormous...
...After a child is properly fed, housed, and educated, and he has a God-given right to ask for that, then advancement comes from within...
...You know it...
...If it does they can blame it on blind greed and lack of devotion to democra'tic ideals where the whole nation, including themselves, would derive lasting benefit...
...A country is as great as its love for its little children...
...Congress might well undertake an immediate investigation of the entire food situation...
...He was a man of great ability, culture, and education...
...Will you bring us some more of John Haynes Holmes' splendid common sense...
...A Serious Flaw Dear Sirs: I have found your paper quite satisfactory, and I think you have a remarkable group of regular and social contributors...
...F. D. R. And Veterans Dear Sirs: I notice in The Progressive of Sept...
...There is no greater threat impending over us, due to the Republican Party and our incompetent stoogy Congress, than the concentration of the control of the nation's wealth in comparatively few hands...
...The greatest danger which confronts us is, as we see it, that with big business executives filling the key positions of Government, corporations and big business—vested interest and special privilege—will have the control of all our economic life...
...Some writers in The Progressive, as well as in out-and-out peace publications such as Peace Action, keep warning us that unless we hurry with making peace, Europe will be ruled by that bugaboo, Stalin...
...Member of the N. H. CIO Political Action Committee...
...These Poles are, most probably, influenced by Polish and Russian considerations...
...He had been judge, U. S. Senator many years...
...Both party platforms are a patchwork of inconsistencies very cleverly formulated to avoid lucid interpretation of any logical issue, and give a few party loyalists the impression that they are the real cheese...
...Every day that we delay means needless scarcity now and immensely greater waste and chaos later...
...R. A. R. will study back, he will find out the Republican Presidents all along also vetoed the Soldier Bonus Bill...
...He had little education, but he read much and meditated profoundly...
...It Will Make New Friends...
...Why then should we be anxious to give Poland to a self-styled, British-supported, emigree government instead of giving the Poles in Poland a chance to settle the matter with Russia—with the U. S. S. R.—yes, and with Stalin...
...A lot of us who have remained, for many reasons, on the home front, would be willing to do all we could to help at these centers...
...For thousands of years force has proved a dismal failure in vainly endeavoring to evolve order out of chaos, and it will always prove a failure...
...It is regrettable that Americans have got so law abiding and fearful of consequences that they will not take hold of a situation of this kind at the time and place it occurs...
...There is nothing more certain than that this appalling orgy of murder and destruction will have added fresh fuel to the smoldering fires of international hatred, malice, and irreconcilability...
...Roosevelt's speech to the Teamsters Union, I tried to think of one comforting word he gave to our mothers' crying hearts and especially the brave mothers whose husbands have never seen their babies...
...Don't miss reading it for it makes supporters of the Roosevelt Administration...
...They alone, of all the candidates, have a program for a planned economy of abundance...
...Elsie Jackson Chicago, 111...
...Under the heading of, "Whitney Failure Blacks Wall Street's Eye," Life, in one of its issues, pictures Insull, Wiggin, Harriman, and Mitchell as the four personal devils of the Hoover Depression...
...They did not want bonuses...
...That tendency is the basis of fascism and the cause of the bloodiest and most destructive war in all history...
...Germany...
...After listening to Mr...
...Only a part of this stored food is held for military needs...
...Read that revealing book, Wall Street Under Oath by Pecora, investigator for the Senate Banking Committee, for the details of the New Deal's housecleaning in Wall Street...
...With all his shortcomings, he stands head and shoulders above Gov...
...TVA: Democracy on the March by Lilienthal is the book telling of the work and it reads like a fairy tale...
...It has happened before, and may possibly occur again...
...At the bottom of these is the insatiable greed stimulated by the ever larger profits of business that has expanded from being personal into impersonal soulless corporations and even international cartels, only with great difficulty, if at all, subjected to control by democratic government...
...Chamberlin's views have been aired so often...
...Roosevelt vetoed the Veterans Soldier Bill, then put through bills to help them find work...
...Earl M. Bourdon Vice Pres...
...Roosevelt's failure to insist upon these as legislative "musts" and his failure to push for a comprehensive reconversion program make mockery of the notion that his Administration is leading vis into a "Century of the Common Man...
...Dewey...
...Roosevelt vetoed the Bonus Bill, but after he took office in 1932 we heard no more about the veterans selling apples...
...I will vote for Norman Thomas because it would be throwing away my vote to follow the mob and vote for something antagonistic to national welfare...
...be moving eggs out of storage so that fresh fruit might be moved in...
...In 1858 when the Republicans of Illinois named him their candidate for U. S. Senator against Stephen A. Douglas he was ready...
...Babson so wisely said: "The greatest of all undeveloped natural resources are the brains of a little child...
...Council Shop steward, Local 2944, USA-CIO...
...Cmdr...
...Hoover to try and get him to help them...
...11 issue is only a sample of the acts committed by the bureaucrats...
...I want to suggest that every reader of The Progressive cut that letter out and send it to his or her Congressman and ask him why such dirty work is allowed in this country...
...Yet Lincoln held his own with Douglas on the stump...
...But harping on Stalin is either short-sighted or indicates preference for British imperialism...
...and so on...
...The GOP Threat Dear Sirs: "We are paying for the progressive tendency of capital to seek security through monopoly and consider itself as something apart from and superior to the community as a whole...
...Will you let us have other contributors' views regarding Russia...
...In 1860, a tall, awkward, homely man from the prairies of Illinois was elected President...
...The fields could be used for truck gardening, grain, and cattle raising and the expensive buildings be used for schools and warehouses or factories...
...I wisti you continued growth in your fight for a liberal constructive party...
...The soup lines dried up, and when the war broke out things were on the upturn...
...J. B. Kniskern Chicago, 111...
...So said Dorothy Thompson in one of her 1941 columns...
...Fritz Gannon San Jose, Calif...
...The series of articles by Harry Elmer Barnes was somewhat redeeming — the solidest, soundest, and most profound I have read in all this wartime — but broad and deep-sighted historical philosophers such as Barnes do not grow on every shrub nor are they often found in editorial offices...
...Enormous quantities of butter, etc., have been acquired to give to various peoples in Europe and Asia, many of whom have never in their lives used butter...
...It is surprising how much space some of these prophets can take to say nothing...
...The Choice Dear Sirs: It's Roosevelt or reaction...
...in-Securities Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission Act, and the Public Utility Holding Company Act...
...They are favorites...
...Since both Democrats and Republicans are much alike on the war and peace, the fight in Congress will be on domestic issues and we can be sure the Bourbons of both our parties will join in urging repeal of the five major reform or protective laws just mentioned...
...Have we an absolute guarantee that a victorious militarism will not hatch out another infamous peace treaty like that of Versailles...
...Then it might arouse enough curiosity to investigate what has been accomplished in parts of Canada...
...Judge Rich Russell of Magee, Miss., a Democratic elector pledged to President Roosevelt, exposed this attempt of Mr...
...This is one of the many reasons for our present difficulties...
...11 People's Forum the letter by J. C. Thompson, "Oklahoma Auction...
...Ronald E. Wyllys Temple, Ariz...
...Alfonso Riviezzo Sec...
...of Labor-Management Committee...
...H; N. Reinking Minneapolis, Minn...
...M. H. Spangleb Baltimore, Md...
...I wish to thank these and other readers who have done me this service...
...Reduce Size Dear Sirs: I wish you would reduce the size of The Progressive to magazine size, so that it would be easy to carry in the pocket and read on the crowded street cars...
...I am writing to my Congressman...
...Too Much Fala Dear Sirs: There are about 5,373,500 children born in the United States every year...
...Immediate release of much butter and other perishable food would reduce this waste...
...Even if no new gains are made under a fourth term, we shall have an opportunity to protect the advances of the past 12 years...
...This requires collective ownership and democratic management of the socially necessary things, and the elimination of the profit motive...
...Pass This Paper On...
...Surplus Food Storage Dear Sirs: Cold storage space is being vainly sought by various farmers for large quantities of peaches, pears, and plums that cannot be sold because of the alleged sugar shortage...
...4 the People's Forum letter, "F...
...Douglas had much experience...
...You will get it anyhow, whichever side wins...
...Roosevelt talked too much about his little dog Fala...
...Business, the Colossus, bestrides the world, and against it so-called democratic governments, contending with raative fascists, are almost helpless...
...Men do need a spiritual awakening...
...E. M. Biggers, 100 Sabine St., Houston, Tex., in a letter to Hon...
...I feel I cannot afford to miss one issue...
...Recent requests and demands made by the President for labor draft service legislation and for postwar compulsory military training is admission in advance of inability^to cope with the complex problems of postwar unemployment...
...Roosevelt was elected in 1932...
...Social and Educational Comm., Local 2944, USA-CIO...
...Dewey, the raw recruit whose drafting to oppose a humane and experienced President has about it something of the nature of a joke, is mainly responsible...
...William S. Halter Chester, Pa...
...I cannot believe it is the intention, or desire, of our Washington officials and could be remedied by a change in House rules, compelling bureau heads to regularly report to Congress, instead of to some commit- tee...
...Pass This Paper On...
...D. R.'s Bonus Record...
...Why couldn't some of the training centers which have had large training and marching fields adjacent to them, be used for farm schools...
...Yes, Mr...
...As Mr...
...I can see a lot of good in the suggestion that many of them be turned into hospitals and recuperation centers for the men who come back shell shocked and crippled...
...W. S. Martin Altadena, Calif...
...Why vote for what you don't want...
...So, in case of Poland, he gets together with some Poles from Poland and works out plans...
...Lincoln, however, met the most difficult problems of the Civil War, guided the ship of state safely through the four years of war, defended the country against its enemies at home and abroad, with skill and courage...
...Now, I agree that peace should be made as early as possible, and earlier than it seems possible to war lords and munitions makers...
...4. After almost 12 years of Roosevelt Administration we still have a poll-tax law, we still have civilian and service racial discrimination, and we have, as yet, no an-ti-lynching law...
...We always look for Milton Mayer first, also Ernest Meyer...
...It is therefore necessary that we support the candidates of the Socialist Party—Norman Thomas and Darlington Hoopes...
...Could a man of wide experience have done better...
...If Cpl...
...The possibility of such release should be given prompt attention...
...Roy Shinaman Los Angeles, Calif...
...Two Circuses Dear Sirs: Many women and a smaller number of men are rallying to the support of the two political circuses, though the one that puts on the best show sometimes loses out to the combination having the most money to spend for heelers...
...Eleanor S. Ward Los Angeles, Calif, * * * That Oklahoma Auction Dear Sirs: I have just read in the Sept...
...His article of a few weeks ago was priceless in my estimation...
...Mrs...
...Constructive Plan Dear Sirs: I enjoy your articles very much, especially those by Harry Paxton Howard, Harry E. Barnes, Lt...
...Dear Sirs: As trade unionists we cannot support Franklin D. Roosevelt for re-election for the following reasons: 1. The Roosevelt Administration has become increasingly reactionary...
...He forgets that these years from 1929 back to Wilson were all Republican, and that is when the veterans suffered...
...The problem of having diverse nationalities live together in friendly cooperation has been solved in Russia bettej than in any other country, if we believe that equal rights and opportunities are the essential elements in such multi-national commonwealths...
...Hence, party workers are often able to arouse enough enthusiasm in enough tail-enders who do the plain voting, to make the country safe for "free enterprise" for another four years...
...Pass This Paper On...
...I hope he will expose the "Rex Stoutists" in his next one...
...There is no valid reason whatsoever why we should not live in a perfectly safe, sane world...
...They alone, of all the candidates, are pledged to the one program which can eliminate both war and unemployment—that is, the destruction of the capitalist-nationalist system which is the mother of both...
...Chrm...
...At this time of the year we should...
...Just that is what Senator McKel-lar of Tennessee tried to do to the TVA Law...
...It Will Make New Friends...
...Desire for a "left wing" party might be realized if the eardrums of prejudice mongers were a bit less sensitive when the name of a party is mentioned that has been misrepresented and misinterpreted for several decades...
...Into these mines the War Food Administration is cramming hundreds of tons of choice food products...
...Henry Spindler Buffalo, Minn...
...What we need above all else is a peace that will be enduring, a peace that will not be a hollow mockery and a ghastly farce, a peace that is not based upon the vicious principle that might is right...
...On the whole, the labor record of the Republican Party—and the candidates—is worse than the Democrats...
...And already large estates in Poland are being subdivided among the landless...
...Governments are popularly supposed to exist for the purpose of safeguarding the best interests of the governed, and not in order to favor a privileged few at the expense of the many...
...These men should be given every consideration, and if they can't be kept at home with their loved ones, or even if they can be, the men who've fought across the seas and in nearly every land on the globe vfor the "Four Freedoms" should be given as much consideration by the Government in getting them well as the Army and Navy gave them in getting them crippled and maimed in the name of "democracy...
...What Mr...
...Elena Varneck Moss Beach, Calif...
...2. The policy of government by "bureaucratic control" and by Presidential directive along with recent regulations by the Federal WMPC and disciplinary actions by the War Labor Board against militant local unions greatly endangers democratic procedure and minimizes the power of collective bargaining...
...Each of the contributors has something valuable to offer...
...McKellar got his amendment through the Senate and had not the House killed it, we would be having Senators tell the engineers of TVA whom they should hire and fire...
...Your attitude toward Russia is, I feel, a serious flaw in your editorial policy but, alas, it is almost universal and I have come to disregard it in judging a paper or magazine...
...What will happen to our dairy farmers if millions of cases of butter, canned milk, and other dairy products are then thrown on the market...
...Joseph D. Daley Former member of the N. H. State CIO...
...Old Deal Bourbons Dear Sirs: Mr...
...Seely, Oswald Garrison Vil-lard and, of course, your editorials and comments...
...Economists are more prone to listen to the voice from on high in the industrial empire than to entreaties for a better measure of justice for exploited millions, though aware of the failure of an out-moded economic system...
...Melvin Sutton of Shelton, Wash., recently wrote one about Finland (I have often wondered why Mr...
...This sort of failure to act forebodes ill for the future peace of the world...
...We have every right to know whether these questions will be answered in the affirmative or otherwise...
...This will be a way for a lot of us to use our talents and abilities in expressing our belief in the principle of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...
...If the raw deal could be discarded, an entirely new shuffle might perhaps permit voters to come into their own with a square deal, but there is small hope for relief through legislation, considering the miscellaneous assortment of statesmen possessing unproved ability to solve problems more serious than getting elected to office...
...I read in a paper that already Polish school books in the Polish language are being published in Russia, "cultivating love for their country, its culture and traditions . . . emphasizing the moments of historic cooperation between the Russian and the Polish people, trying to foster friendship and affection between these twfl Slavic peoples...
...The space ordinarily available is now crammed with eggs, butter, canned milk, meat, and a dozen other foods difficult to obtain by our civilian population...
...When the war is over milk production in this country will be at an all time high...
...For this fascistic tendency, it is well known the party now led by Gov...
...In issuing this statement we are doing so as individuals and not as representatives of the organizations of which we are members...
...For Roosevelt Dear Sirs: I fail to see how any progressive-minded American could vote other than for a fourth term for President Roosevelt...
...The people chose Lincoln President...
...God help the veterans to stay with Roosevelt...
...H. P. Fullmer, member of Congress from South Carolina, says that he would rather have what we had when President Roosevelt took over than have what we now have...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . For A Just Peace Dear Sirs: Some time in the near future, so ¦we hope, World War II will end— and then we can look forward to this old world of ours being given a short respite from international strife and devastating destructive-ness...
...In my opinion his article ranks with Milton Mayer's "We Have Got To Lick Churchill Too" of June 5 as the best you've published for a long time...
...They marched to Washington under Mr...
...Are we absolutely sure that no one but the most lofty minded humanitarians will preside at the peace table...
...The memorable Lincoln-Douglas debates on the slavery question brought that before the people in such a way that the issues of the Presidential election of 1860 were determined in advance, and Lin-I coin and Douglas were the rival candidates in 1860...
...Not only have Government agencies taken over most of the present enormous storage facilities of this country, but they are now spending large sums of money fitting up old, abandoned mines as additional units...
...His office-holding experience was limited to two terms in the Illinois legislature and one term in Congress...
...quantities of eggs which are shipped back and forth across the country in a vain effort to find storage...
...Labor Indictment of F.D.R...
...However, it is my fervent hope that when the curtain descends upon this, the greatest of all tragedies in human history, the dawn of a grander, nobler, and more enduring civilization will gladden our hearts with its promise of a more just and honorable regime on this fair planet...
...P. T. A. Neumann Brooklyn, N. Y. * * * Praises Loewenstein Dear Sirs: Many congratulations to Prince Loewenstein on his article in the July 31 issue on the Weimar Republic...
...N. H. State CIO Council...
...The question uppermost in my mind is this: Just what kind of a peace will ensue after the dogs of war have been called off and pacified...
...The British variety of imperialism has not shown this determination to give all component races equal status...
...It Will Make New Friends...
...Stalin And Poland Dear Sirs: I should like to point out a few facts in the Russo-Polish situation...
...Would it not be well for the different governments of the earth to see to it that every effort be made to make international democracy a glorious reality, not merely a pleasant dream of Utopian visionaries...
...Lincoln And Inexperience Dear Sirs: The fourth termites say President Roosevelt has education, training, is a world traveler, has had wide experience holding office as Assistant Secretary' of the Navy, Governor of New York, and as President three times...
...they wanted work...
...Economic policies, if any, or ideas, if any, are apt to count for less than oratorical bombast containing a dearth of intelligence, comparable to the difference between tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee...
...He not only vetoed the Bonus Bill but burnt their rag tents and shot them off Capitol Hill when they only pleaded for help...
...Charles C. Lock wood Detroit, Mich...
...If this" be true, why delay releasing such excess while it still may be used...
...Another Bourbon from Dallas, Tex., in the person of E. B. Germany, a Democratic elector, is trying to unite the Democratic electors of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas in defeat of Roosevelt...
...W. H. Lunbeck Gideon, Mo...
...The disposal of Henry Wallace by Roosevelt, the Southern Senators, and the Northern city bosses indicates that the Democratic Party and F. D. R. are still controlled by the party reactionaries...
...The wealth structure that benefits a few can topple over into a mass of rubble that may prove a real boomerang to its foster parents, because of lack of imagination and enough foresight to observe the writing on the wall...
...When this war is over the American people are going to be shocked beyond words by the amount of food that has spoiled in storage...
...We need more educational work creating a desire for the better way of life...
...politics, if you please and of the worst kind, would have killed the efficiency of TVA and the wonderful progress made by the Tennessee Valley people...
...All this we are solemnly told makes Roosevelt indispensable— meaning he cannot be replaced, that we cannot do without him...
...Stalin, whatever his faults on other scores, seems to believe firmly that the thing to do for people who live next door to each other is to find some lasting way to get along...
...Lenox B. Smith Northampton, Mass...
...The evidence is widespread and convincing that we have far more food in storage than we have any possible need for...
...The Poles who live in London and are supported by English rulers, believe they should rather be the Polish government and to hell with Russian considerations — even though the Poland they plan to manage will still remain next door to Russia...
...Gross Injustice Dear Sirs: The letter, "Oklahoma Auction," by J. C. Thompson in the Sept...
...Let's have more from the Prince...
...There certainly is a gross injustice in this case which needs fixing...
...Progress is made by criticism and reason for the suggestive change...
...These Old Deal Bourbons, found in both of our major parties, want what we had when Roosevelt took over, which would involve the repealing of the five major protective laws passed by the Roosevelt Administration, namely: the TVA Law, the Banking Act, the Truth...
...We are hungry for news from India, and he is so unbiased and true...
...In this campaign the older voters, unless they are hopeless cultural laggards, and the better educated younger voters, should know that the Republican policy of coddling business till it has grown to a mighty power which overshadows people and government and dictates the laws, must be reversed...
...These are suggestions which I feel will put such buildings and centers to good use after the war and which can make them useful instead of having them torn down and sold to some contractor for cheap housing...
...Could you bring us others' opinions (there are so few facts...
...3. The record of the first two Roosevelt Administrations is the recorded failure of Roosevelt's attempts to eliminate pre-war unemployment...
...Just what could the "grand and glorious profit system" do if the whole bunch of farmers at that sale had laid down the $185 per vehicle they picked for their use and drove them away?, Of course, that action would bring an action of the civil courts, but theH are very few judges or courts today but would decide the case on its merits...
...He had never been out of the United States, he was not acquainted with the world's big shots of that day, neither did he hob-nob with the great and mighty...
...They also say he knows all the big shots of the world and is a bosom friend of Churchill and Stalin...
...Thompson tells makes my American blood boil...
...Esther S. Hollenbeck San Francisco, Calif...
...There is no way to fix it unless some of us with guts enough to take a stand bring the matter in the open and to the attention of the proper authorities...
...1 H. H. Scott Boston, Mass...
...No people has run amuck with greater barbarism in all history...
...Meanwhile the President has appointed big business executives and conservatives to fill important Government positions...
...Contemptible Dear Sirs: Your whitewashing of Germany is utterly contemptible...
...These Bourbons would let down the bars to a new set of slick financiers similar to Samuel Insull, Charles E. Mitchell, Albert H. Wiggins, Richard Whitney, and J. W. Harriman...
...Human evolution is an unconscionably slow process, and no one realizes more clearly than I how little cooperation we may expect from governments in encompassing the final regeneration of human society...
...After the Civil War, when the nature of this evil tendency began to become more plain, the Republican Party of high tariffs and legislation favoring businessmen has been in power most of the time,, and is therefore chargeable with maintaining this tendency...
...There has been no major labor or liberal legislation passed since 1937...
...Some said he was untried, inexperienced, lacking the finish a President should have...
...Rubin's articles...
...We always enjoy The Last Column and all of Mr...
...He forgets that the soldiers or veterans were selling the apples and were in the bread lines from 1929 till Mr...
...Chamberlin and others, in their eulogies of noble little Finland, never mention the great democrat Mannerheim...
Vol. 8 • October 1944 • No. 41
