THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Shadow-Boxing Dear Sirs: Once more we are engaged in a national election. The Democratic Party is controlled by and managed in the interests of rich men. The...
...Your assortment of fault-finders is too much for me...
...Had Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the few others of as good heart, shut their eyes to the cruelties of big money rule, and made no effort to save the producing class from the insatiate jaws of the greedy few, we would be having a quiet time here in spite of the war...
...When Wilson, the Democrat, suggested the League of Nations, when he advised the nations to gather around the council table and settle their quarrels there instead of on the field of battle, the proposal appeared so sensible, so rational, so practical, that it was adopted by the Council of Versailles and was subscribed to by 52 nations of the world...
...I could go on with this line of reasoning and prove that we ought to have war all the time in order to have prosperity all the time...
...John F. Carlisle Columbus, O. Utility Fight Dear Sirs: In the state of Washington a public power measure coming before the voters in the November election is running the Presidential contest a close race for first place in political discussions...
...The issue is not Roosevelt vs...
...Sentiment will incline many progressive voters toward Norman Thomas and the Socialist ticket...
...Frank Simpson San Diego, Calif...
...For my part, I believe the PAC is the greatest people's movement to arise on the political scene since the EPIC movement in California, and I am sure, in spite of all obstacles placed in its path by the diehard reactionaries, that this movement will grow in stature and become the most significant political force of our time...
...Between parties differing so widely in aims and interests there can be no pulling of punches, and the contest will be fought through to the bitter end...
...There is no such choice...
...Dewey, but internationalism vs...
...While the fight is over the control of the retail power lines, the companies are putting on an extravagant campaign of advertising, with democracy and the American way as the burden of their song— always avoiding the real issue...
...I think all of us must be slightly shocked to see how much these German dog-faces resemble our own...
...The Democrats will boast once more of being the party of Jefferson and Jackson...
...As we approach each political campaign, we note more and more the similarity of how issues between the old parties are handled...
...Shadwell write an article for The Progressive...
...So the fight narrows down chiefly to whether the two-thirds of the homes must continue to pay tribute to the power companies, or whether they may have public power lines to deliver public current at cost...
...From the letter by Florence H. Haines in the Sept...
...Now that the spirit of France is awakening and finding itself in the weaponless arms of the man in the street and in new barricades, taking" the heart out of the German garrisons and paving the way for the phenomenally rapid advance of the Allies, the French 'resistance' must be recognized now as an internal 'offensive.' "As yet we have no clear picture of the part that the workers of France are undoubtedly playing in its liberation...
...Considerable wonderment is provoked by reason of their preponderance in a paper supposedly devoted to political liberalism...
...Insane...
...The Political Action Committee hopes to educate the people politically and economically, revealing the ways and means of bringing about a peaceful and prosperous world, a world of full employment and economic security...
...5, tells a different tale, especially about Great Britain...
...The Republicans: "Yes, but we could have done it a lot cheaper...
...The Republicans will point with pride to the fact that, over 80 years ago, they produced a truly great man—Abe Lincoln...
...That is isolationism in its practical operation...
...James N. Carl Clinton, la...
...There is some talk here and there with a justified core of bitterness, but very little of the exhibitionist hatred toward the German soldier himself, which is played upon by the press...
...I pointed out that it was the natural feeling of one dog-face for another, regardless of the different style of embroidery in ideas and uniforms...
...Now they cannot legally do that...
...One Dec...
...By all signs, the revival of the historic heroism of the Parisian workers, with and without arms, must undoubtedly have been a terrifying object lesson to the conquerors...
...Hal J. Snow Brooklyn, N. Y. Dear Sirs: I received the following from an airborne infantryman recently in France...
...Isolationism-might operate fairly well if"eacK nation had within its own boundaries all the materials that were necessary for its security and the...
...This time a touch of humor has been added in the "age vs...
...Or they offer the "protest" refusal to accept either of the major candidates...
...All other nations, in retaliation, raised tariffs that barred this nation "from trading with them...
...With the departure of the Germans the black market momentarily thinned away—but not for long...
...Had Jesus of Nazareth kept his mouth shut about the dreadful condition of his fellow beings, because of the rule of the greedy few, he might have lived to a ripe old age, and died in bed instead of on a cross...
...we have nothing more than the repetition of the 1940 fiasco wherein both parties and both candidates present the determined effort to evade all controversy and substitute an inane bickering as to the respective qualifications of each to do the job...
...2 People's Forum, George E. Farmer questions a quotation of mine in a former letter to the Forum...
...Loy Vincent Hanford, Wash...
...public office is a public trust," Jackson, by his "to the victors belong the spoils" policy inaugurated the spoils system which dragged politics down to its present degraded level where "Office means a kind of patent drill To force an entrance to the nation's till...
...I hope in that way you may acquire new subscribers...
...The specific purpose of the measure is to give public power units— cities, towns, REA's and PUD's— the right to combine and set up legal machinery to purchase any utility property as a whole through condemnation proceedings...
...The Democrats point to their record—smashing the depression, winning the war, etc...
...Wars up urftil now have been fought largely between well-trained soldiers, and for the most part, far away from the main bodies of population...
...29, 1940, he said" it this way: "No American expeditionary force will be sent outside our own borders...
...The one gain in 30 years is that the majority of the common people, particularly in Europe, are coming to realize the complete emptiness of official fables concerning the origin of modern wars, that they spring from the will of this or that dictator or the evil genius of particular races or nations...
...So where does this leave the U. S. A., whose capitalist class will help build this' mammoth industrial machine, for profit, of course, with its exploited wage slaves, the cheapest labor of all in viewpoint of wealth produced per man hour...
...This is the century of the common man, as Vice President Wallace terms it, and we want to make it a living reality...
...This is certain to come to pass if the coming peace is settled on a capitalist class basis...
...For 1,000 years the nations of the world have been functioning under the creed of isolationism...
...Yet, is not that the line of logic we are following...
...That is why I recommend that The Progressive seriously consider the qualified endorsement of the Republican candidate...
...Trying Men's Souls Dear Sirs: If Tom Paine were here today he would, I think, still be saying: "These are times to try men's souls...
...1, 1914, at the beginning of World War I, one of the greatest of social prophets wrote: "Imperialism has placed the fate of European culture at stake...
...In 1920 Warren Harding and the Republicans declared that they favored the League, but when the Covenant was presented to a Republican Senate for approval, that body refused to ratify it...
...Dear Sirs: First, let me say I enjoy reading The Progressive, and even though I do not agree with all of its writers, I am for them 100 per cent, for that means freedom of the press, or democracy, or what we are now supposed to.be fighting for in foreign lands...
...Alice Kinnarney Tarrytown, N. Y. Real Issue...
...I am, indeed, glad to be, at long last, thoroughly in accord with The Progressive on at least one vital problem...
...When a convoy of German prisoners goes through the streets, the townspeople lining the streets are fairly quiet and show a kind of curiosity which is a bit detached, like a critical audience...
...There is but one answer to this: war between the different interna^ tional capitalist interests for the markets of the world, a repetition of World War II, but one far more destructive with the U. S. A. as the first target...
...More and more clearly it is realized that the chief cause of war, as of most other social evils, lies in ownership by the few of the means of production, and protection of that ownership and its profits by the capitalist states, which are thus driven now into veiled, now into open, warfare for fresh markets and sources of raw-materials...
...More and more urgently is posed the problem of bringing about a radical, revolutionary change in the mode of production...
...I have had a few remark to me with some nancor, not too violently, on the fact that German soldiers were smoking cigarettes given them by the doughboys...
...The real test for private enterprise will come after the 1948 elections, or not later than '52, as has already been predicted by Roger Babson...
...It is full to the brim with sound logic and common sense and what the voters are demanding of the politicians today and it's the ticket I intend to vote this coming election...
...Indeed times were bad in his day, but these United States are in one hell of a fix now...
...The old parties never offer anything that is concrete or constructive, therefore they have no obligations to meet after they are in office...
...And even in the midst of the present carnage, the lines are being drawn for another war in which the whole world may be reduced to shambles...
...Roosevelt Public Papers, Vol...
...Why Waste Votes...
...It is perhaps shameful to approach a choice of man for our highest office on such a basis, but the shame lies in a political system that permits the utter evasion of issue two elections in succession...
...And as the workers who produce all this wealth will have as wages only a very small percentage of the purchasing power, then what is to become of the unsaleable surplus...
...There was no resistance to this explanation...
...Americans must, in order to achieve lasting peace, cease in their present silly folly of condemning whole nations as well as races...
...This is not an appeal to support the lesser of two evils...
...but if we can win it, the state of Washington will soon be over the top along with Tennessee and Nebraska...
...Even now the greater part of the world has no direct contact with the war, but the economic war is with us every minute...
...25 issue, expressed excellent thoughts...
...With the coming of Grand Coulee and Bonneville and with the increased war demands, the private companies have had to rely quite largely upon these huge public...
...Jean Corbett Akron, O. Silly Folly Dear Sirs: I am at a loss to understand reasons for the general tone or basic content of the Forum pro-Dewey letters—not, however, to imply that I think they deserve being squelched...
...They trick the people into voting their ticket by confusing the issues and evading decisions...
...That would be the essence of misinformation from one evidently so ignorant...
...In this state 72 per cent of the power is generated in public plants, but the private companies still own lines serving about two-thirds of the homes...
...Now let's consider that China is also planning on heavy industrialization, and as China is also a capitalist nation, producing for sale and profit, one may wonder where all this market for the surplus value taken from thehides of the Indians and Chinese is to be found...
...Like a pack of wolves, his enemies have come out into the open and bared their anti-labor fangs, anticipating the day they can tear them into this friend of labor...
...Much has been satd about losing votes in the People's Forum...
...Also, we gain knowledge by not always agreeing with the other fellow, where, on the other hand, we learn little by agreeing with ourselves...
...What do they want, anyway...
...Phooey...
...Their leaders, front Henry Wallace on down, have become but zombies breathing, speaking, and thinking in memory of the Roose-velt-Who-Was (maybe) while the Roosevelt-Who-Is plays the power game with the imperialists of both the domestic and international varieties...
...Under that creed the nations fight each other for trade, for financial supremacy", and for political power...
...R. L. Matz Lewisburg, Pa...
...It Will Make New Friends...
...One to two million Frenchmen still labor in Germany, and according to several here who have bad direct experience, are starving to death on potato rations...
...Elihu Bowles Prosser, Wash...
...To me, a vote is never lost when voting for a principle, even if the party you vote for isn't elected...
...Unsaleable Surplus Dear Sirs: Today we are told by the State Department that the Allied Nations are devoting all their energy and resources towards a speedy end of the war, that none is working for economic advantages after the war...
...Dear Sirs: The electors will vote for Roosevelt or Dewey on Nov...
...Both parties promise plenty of jobs after the war, without saying how it can be done under our present system...
...Nations must trade with each other the things they have for things they need, but isolationism demands that nations fight each other for this trade...
...30, 1940, President Roosevelt did not quote the Democratic platform as to keeping us out of war, "except in case of attack...
...That was internationalism...
...Anyone knows who has examined the Roosevelt methods that he pays no attention to platform pledges...
...In 1930 a Republican Administration adopted the Smoot-Hawley tariff bill that raised a high tariff wall around this country and that barred other nations from selling us goods...
...Let it be understood by every laboring man in America that the Political Action Committee is devoting its energies to ousting every anti-labor Congressman, no matter what his political label may be, and putting into office those particular candidates who are proved friends of labor, whatever their party labels...
...The big war plants—DuPont, Alcoa, Reynolds Metals, Boeing—get their current direct from government plants...
...When one votes for a party that fails to carry out the planks of its platform, that is when the vote is lost...
...For example, if you were to read either one of their platforms, without seeing the label, you wouldn't know which was which", and what is worse, you wouldn't know what either of them means...
...Although at present, numerical wages under the Allies are little more than half the former wage, general living conditions have eased forward slightly...
...Especially is this true in long-suffering Europe, long overdue for union and for socialism — a Socialist United States of Europe...
...I want to note before I forget, irrelevantly here, that the French worker makes a decided distinction between the treatment he had at the hands of the German SS officers and the like, and that of the German soldier...
...7, but the real issue is internationalism or isolationism, world peace or world war...
...There is before us in this campaign but one evil...
...Yes, I have lost many a vote in the past 60-odd years of my life by voting old party tickets...
...And it is caused by the New Deal...
...One accepts much more naturally and heartily the kind of coarse, direct, business-like laughter with which a workman will unburden himself at the sight of an unusually woe-begone specimen...
...Here are the exact words from the Boston speech: "And while I am talking to you mothers and fathers, I give you one moi-e assurance...
...The campaign looks like a repetition of what the Federal Power Commission describes in its 1940 Annual Report as follows: "Investigation of the political expenditures of five electric utilities operating in the state of Washington brought out that during the past five years these five utilities spent more than a million dollars in political activities opposing publicly owned and operated utility districts and public ownership movements...
...Moreover, we ought to love Roosevelt because of the enemies he has made...
...Indeed, all my life I have been voting against myself by voting for vested interests...
...Remember, there are millions of these wage slaves and with modern machinery they can produce, quickly, enough commodities for the world...
...Russia save us...
...Otherwise we could not be betrayed into fighting them...
...It is not to be wondered that military wars constitute a relief, a pleasant interlude, between economic wars...
...England must have foreign trade or starve, for England cannot produce the food that its population requires...
...Republicans raised the hands of this nation against all others and then, in retaliation, all other nations raised their hands against us...
...Here, there was universal conscription into all kinds of work relating to the German war machine, mostly labor on trench and fortification systems...
...This was not the only time he promised to keep America out and our boys home...
...Pass This Paper On...
...It is a war in which the women, the children, the aged, and crippled participate as a matter of necessity and the weaker they are the heavier the odds against which they have to contend...
...It's possible though, even if not quite probable, that with a Buster Brown as President, we can still realize a vast resurgence of job opportunity...
...25 issue, I take it that we are actually, just as soon as the direction of the nation's course in domestic and world affairs has as its steering location an area in Lower Manhattan, somewhere in the vicinity of Broadway and Wall Streets, going to be "rid of double-dealing, hypocrisy, broken promises, secrecy...
...This is comprehensible in view of the fact that the commercial press has launched a smear campaign against the organization...
...One-Way Ticket Dear Sirs: Hats off to William Henry Cham-berlin and to Villard...
...One point of interest in the Post article is that a certain group in India have over 24 million dollars to further industrialize India after the war for the purpose of taking over the markets in Asia formerly supplied by Japan...
...This can be equalled and sur-passed\by the Indians and Chinese, along with all other industrialized nations, in a few short years...
...That creed is that every nation is for itself and the devil take the hindmost...
...Lenin's Prophecy Dear Sirs: On Nov...
...It was through Roosevelt's friendship we have been able to spot the enemies...
...But I thank God and the New Deal for the unrest we have, and verily hope it will grow worse and worse until those who produce the wealth have the full benefit of it...
...As for E. H. Shadwell in the Oct...
...Under fairly average capable management, any gifted governmental leader can bring about for a brief while better and more normal economic conditions than most of us have ever known...
...world war...
...Reply To Farmer Dear Sirs: In the Oct...
...Robert J. Pearsall Tacoma, Wash...
...Melville Kress President, PAC Coraopolis, Neville Island District, Pa...
...I would rejoice at seeing, were the wish possible of fulfillment, each and all the salient points made therein reproduced in large type on the front page of every daily paper in the nation...
...The measure is a law now on the statute books, passed by the last legislature by a big majority in both houses after a protracted struggle, but later referred back to the voters by a petition engineered by the power companies...
...Paris has perhaps the worst of it...
...In short, once more words are being used to create sound, rather than express thought, and both parties are, as usual, engaging in vituperative bombast while they sidestep issues vital to the American people and shadow-box over trivial or imaginary ones...
...After 30 years, European culture lies prostrate, doomed by the fulfillment of Lenin's prophecy...
...Meanwhile, "Lo, Freedom weeps, Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps...
...True, they offer the platform and man worthy of the goal we seek...
...Orville E. Brown Lake Odessa, Mich...
...The editorial, "Cozy Nonsense," also in the Sept...
...The United States, with all its vast resources, requires tin, silk, wool, toffee, and many other articles that we do not have and cannot produce...
...There is but one evil—but there are two manifestations of that evil, and whatever good can be gained in this election can be gained by choosing the weaker of the two...
...In his speech at Boston, Oct...
...The shining ideals and their beloved common man lie buried together in the ignorance of blind 'loyalty and futile hopes...
...It has.certainly become a source of inspiration to the whole of France, and a motive for the respect of the American soldier, who has so surely demonstrated his courage and ingenuity in this individualized type of warfare, necessitated by the French terrain...
...Just what would Russia have done without our planes, food, equipment, and men...
...They declared that this nation must remain isolated from world affairs, that it would refuse to assume the duties and the responsibilities that developed upon it as a member of the great family of nations...
...He is more likely to follow the platform of the Communist Party or the American Labor Party than the platform of the party that elevated him...
...well-being of its citizens, but there is no nation on earth that is sufficient unto itself...
...2 Forum, let's take up a collection for a one-way ticket to Russia for him...
...Neither of these is reason enough to waste a vote that cries for better use.' Gordon C. Zahn Oldings Mills, Md...
...So it is with the New Deal...
...It also brought out that at least a part of these expenditures and the time of many employes concerned were charged to rate payers...
...Even our economy becomes sounder in war times...
...The cost of living has out-distanced that of the United States, The Nazis have added to the natural weight of the war upon the backs of the average consumer Derequisitioning and short-rationing of the country...
...I have said this before, but shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars...
...World War II is the result...
...Knowing the candidates of both old parties can be elected without my help, why should I waste or lose any more votes on politicians who always fail to live up to their platforms and much less their campaign promises...
...In reading the several platforms of the different political parties, it is my opinion the Socialists — of whom Norman Thomas is the leader—have the only real program for the common people...
...Only the defeat of Roosevelt can break the charm and bring about the resurrection...
...They all seem to be opposed to everybody...
...And only Dewey has the barest chance of defeating FDR...
...The PAC Defended Dear Sirs: There <is still some confusion as to the meaning and purpose of the National Citizens' Political Action Committee...
...Few will remember that while Washington, Jefferson, and their associates in organizing our government, established, politics on the high plane of "a...
...I wish the best for you and the great and good paper you manage...
...James A. Smith Minneapolis, Minn...
...The Economic War Dear Sirs: The war, horrible as it -is, is merely one manifestation of the far greater economic war that we continually wage against each other, and we need to look at it in this way in order to see it in its proper perspective...
...It has already demonstrated its power for the good and welfare of the people at large by eliminating several labor baiters like Cotton Ed Smith from the political stage...
...Dewey With Reservations Dear Sirs: A great work is being done by your publication in pointing out the inconsistencies and shortcomings of both major contestants and this could continue, but the fact is becoming clearer that there is great danger of nullifying the value of this by creating a resigned apathy among your followers...
...And we wouldn't havf deprived working men of their right to starve when out of work, as you did...
...Demaree Bess, in the Saturday Evening Post of Aug...
...True enough, the PAC has openly endorsed Roosevelt, but what open-minded labor union member would do otherwise...
...The wage was 150 francs a day ($3 present exchange), a sum of indeterminable value because of the unprocurability of food and clothing in general...
...James H. Wright Henderson, N. C. * * * The Facts Dear Sirs: It is refreshing to turn from the outpourings of a kept press, the ballyhoo of rubber stamp news "analysts," on the radio, the "non-political" speeches and "fireside chats" of a perennial candidate, to the pages of The Progressive...
...That hope lies in the so-called "liberal element," a body that has evidenced itself as being fantastically misguided, so much so that it has taken a leading role in bringing about the Americanized version of national-socialism that has now come upon the nation...
...F. A. Halsted Bay City, Mich...
...In the entire national picture, there is but one glimmer of hope— not that fascism can be avoided, but that it can be undone before it becomes permanent...
...Both parties promise a Utopian peace, which both know the business interests of Great Britain and the United States will not tolerate...
...All nations are dependent on other nations for things of life...
...plants for wholesale power to retail to the homes of the people...
...Because it gives a clearer picture of France than do the distorted American press rotogravure sections on the "Paris liberation," and because, more than that, it gives a picture of the American soldier's warfare, I am sending it on to you in order to give it as wide a public as possible: "First Of all, freedom from the secondary yoke of Nazism has been so abrupt and superficial a change that there has been little in the way of hosannahs...
...Few will pause in pursuing the almighty dollar to wonder what the souls of Jefferson and Lincoln think of the present-day leadership of their respective parties...
...Somebody is "off the beam," and judging from the Post article it does not appear to be Demaree Bess...
...Thankful Dear Sirs: I find The Progressive most interesting and informative and always pass the copies on to others when I have read them...
...If there never had been such a thing as tweedledee and tweedledum platforms, and we know there always have been, the Democrats and Republicans have "Siamese twins" for the voters this coming election...
...isolationism, world peace vs...
...Fault-Finders Dear Sirs: Please cancel my subscription...
...Some assertion might be made in addition about your own apparent, if not real, support, as against the President, of New York's fair weather boomtime Governor...
...We should be very thankful for people who carry on such work as you are doing...
...Unfortunately too many are too prone to believe the daily papers, not having familiarized themselves with the faking and deliberate lying and the tactics of falsification of which newspapers are guilty as exposed in such books as Upton Sinclair's Brass Check and George Sel-des' The Facts Are...
...The election will likely be close...
...9, page 317...
...After this war, if a series of successful revolutions do not occur, more wars will follow—the fairy tale of a 'war to end all wars' is a hollow and pernicious fairy tale...
...But as it was after World War I, so it will be again—America will use all we can muster of force, food, and cajolery to keep the people of Europe divided, Balkanized, in bondage to the past...
...I have seen a Frenchman spit or clench his fists at a prisoner, but always one feels the taint of exhibitionism here...
...We intend to remove these enemies from the political stage...
...The Republican Party is controlled by and managed in the interests of men of wealth...
...Under Roosevelt the CIO has been born and nurtured, and what sensible people would bite the hand that fed them...
...Maybe so, but I'd rather by far place my spare cash on the wager that the Teapot Dome boys, who never have become extinct even under GOP purification by prosecutor-minded Dewey, will want a word or two of their own on the subject before those horrible Rooseveltian attributes are wholly suppressed...
...Our agriculture and industry, instead of having to hunt for buyers, looks to one steady reliable customer, our Government...
...Pass This Paper Onl It Will Make New Friends...
...There we find the facts, presented In an impartial, fearless manner...
...youth" motif...
...H. W. Miles Reno, Nev...
Vol. 8 • October 1944 • No. 43
