WRITING THE TICKET
Writing The Ticket TWO months ago Sen. Robert M. La Follette, Jr., analyzed "The Basic Conflict On The Home Front" for readers of The Progressive. In an article bearing that title he pointed out...
...Sound Counsel APOWERFUL addition to the ranks of those fightin'g permanent peacetime conscription in the United States appeared on the scene recently...
...In fighting autocracy, the most democratic of nations have sometimes been compelled to resort to conscription, but now that we have autocracy fiat on its back, we should shun the things that have made autocracy possible...
...It's little comfort to fight for-a drink, a lift, a glad hand...
...What I do care about is that these civilians try to plan a world which discourages war, that they rid themselves of prejudices of an anti-social character...
...Roosevelt makes to the Property Disposal Board will thus go far toward determining who will "write the ticket for America" when we convert from a war to a peacetime economy...
...Whatever the reason, he kept hands off during the course of the long-extended debate in Congress...
...The President was either too completely absorbed in military matters and global politics, or was too eager, in this campaign season, to avoid any appearance of hostility toward Congress...
...In an article bearing that title he pointed out that the Government will soon be disposing of more than 100 billion dollars worth of surplus war property—factories, materials, and land—and that the principles which govern the disposal of that fabulous amount of proplrty will go far toward determining the shape of America's postwar economy...
...Curtis pointed out last week, has a remarkable chance to make a fresh start...
...Congress has passed and five President has now signed an omnibus measure establishing machinery for the disposal of the factories, materials, and land...
...Clayton's activities soon drew fire from progressive members of Congress, leaders of liberal groups like the Farmers' Union and the Railroad Brotherhoods, and administrative officials in the Department of Justice, Department of Agriculture, and Farm Security Administration...
...ROOSEVELT'S third major error was his failure to make any kind of a fight for a better, more progressive property disposal measure when the issue was pending in Congress...
...That measure, while admittedly inadequate in several major respects, leaves, as a special correspondent for The Progressive {jointed out last week, "so much discretion to those who administer it that the future opportunities for farmers and small business will depend entirely on the three Board members...
...I don't care about the lifts, about the drinks...
...Repeated pleas that the President replace him with an administrator more in sympathy with the aspirations of small, independent business and family-size farming went unanswered in the White House...
...ACAREFUL analysis of the property disposal legislation shows that, for all its deficiencies, it is grounded in sound, progressive principles...
...When I thank them, they usually reply, "Well, it's the least we can do for you fellows in the service...
...Roosevelt made mistake number two, as Mr...
...Clayton submitted his resignation last week —not paradoxically, at the request of a "liberal" President, but in protest against the legislation passed by a "Tory" Congress...
...MR...
...Down through the centuries, conscription of men for military purposes has been the surest weapon of tyrants who wished to wage war, because conscription always gave them an army, ready-made, whenever they wished to use it...
...Labor, hard-hitting publication for the Railroad Brotherhoods, devoted its leading editorial to denouncing the drive for a permanent draft...
...These are the stated objectives of the bill, but the language is broad enough and the loopholes wide enough so that they could be distorted, if not actually mutilated, by the administering agency— a three-member Board to be appointed by the President...
...President Roosevelt has an exceptional opportunity to retrieve lost ground and to redeem himself after several glaring mistakes in this critical field...
...And here, as George L. Curtis explained in his expert appraisal in last week's issue of The Progressive, is where the basic decision is to be made, or, as Sen...
...Now, however, that he has signed the property disposal bill "with considerable reluctance," the President, as Mr...
...buys me a drink...
...Not much, certainly...
...The President got away to a bad start when he assigned the task of preparing a program for reconversion to Bernard Baruch and John Hancock, both financiers with the Wall Street point of view...
...Its objectives are clearly enough stated: to foster independent private enterprise as opposed to monopoly, to revitalize small business and to compensate for the ravages of the war production program on this segment of our economy, to promote family-size farming as opposed to large-scale, corporate agriculture, to afford veterans an opportunity to establish themselves as proprietors of agricultural, business, and professional business enterprises, and to develop foreign markets for American products...
...Curtis explained in his dispatch from Washington last week, when he appointed Will Clayton, Texas cotton promoter, former contributor to the bitterly reactionary Liberty League, and supporter of the anti-labor Associated Farmers of California, to head the property disposal program during the period that Congress was considering definitive legislation...
...La Follette has said, where "the ticket for America" is to be written...
...The broad language in the bill provides many opportunities for interpretations needed if small business and family-size farming are to have a chance in the postwar world...
...What Service Men Want (From a Coast Guardsman's letter, in the DetroiterJ NOW and then a civilian gives me a lift...
...That "ticket for America" is about to be written by President Roosevelt...
...Instead of urging peacetime compulsory military service for our own country," Labor contended, "we should insist that the evil thing be abolished in all countries...
...I don't want anyone to feel indulgent toward a young lad because he may be killed...
...How we choose in the months ahead," he said, "will decide who will write the ticket for America— the corporate monopolies and the special interests or the people whose blood and sweat and cash built those plants and bought those 60 billion dollars worth of surplus materials and eight million acres of land...
...The kind of appointments Mr...
...What I want is that the future is free of war...
Vol. 8 • October 1944 • No. 42
