THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Dumbarton Oaks Plan Dear Sirs: I have read your editorial regarding Dumbarton Oaks and agree with you as to the absolute necessity of avoiding a setup that would...
...But it so happens that any contemptible back-handed slap for Russia finds a welcome echo on the front page of The Progressive...
...It is a stem-winder to be sure, but it will be a boomerang in operation if they ever impose it on the German people...
...Suppose he succeeds in accentuating that hatred and helps to precipitate a crisis that will lead our Government into a declaration of war...
...It reminds me of the last trip I took on a highspeed roller coaster...
...Let it be known that we are fighting militarism, not the German people, and just as soon as we are victorious, we should completely disarm them, take every rifle and tommy gun, burn every factory or plant where guns or munitions are made, burn every military plane, sink every warship or submarine...
...Is he trying to whip up public sentiment that will push this country into a war against the Soviet Union...
...20, 1931 he did call China's and Japan's attention to the Kellogg Pact and expressed the hope "that Japan and China will refrain from any measures which might lead to war and that they will find it possible in the near future to agree" to resolve their dispute by peaceful means...
...Why shouldn't taxation be on community-created land value, and relieve this inequality...
...Stimson apparently considered it a "furtherance of its own" peculiar interests for the Chinese to wish to protect their territorial integrity...
...It took courage to say what Sen...
...It is all too obvious that Howard and Chamberlin can masquerade under The Progressive banner and feel quite at home...
...Why waste a whole year out of a lad's life for this training, when we are told daily, yes hourly, that there will be everlasting peace from now on out...
...Stimson's views upon that occasion follow: On Sept...
...Every statement displayed good , common sense and echoed the sentiments of every independent American...
...Adamic is regarded as one of the few reliable correspondents and news reporters...
...Janice Peterson Minneapolis, Minn...
...Understandably the Japanese warlords were not very impressed by this tardy unimplemented reproof...
...Stimson's valiant single-handed efforts to stop the Japanese war-lords...
...If we want peace we can have it...
...We frown on the war spirit, decorate our conscientious objectors, and hand bouquets to our non-interventionists...
...S. Kostbar Englishtown, N. J. * * * Bulwark Dear Sirs: For the past several years I have paid particular attention to the views of your publication...
...will stand, I feel certain, as one of the great utterances of World War II...
...Can it be that our little love triangle (Churchill, Stalin, and FDR) do not trust each other in spite of all the billing and cooing going on between them...
...He Pass This Paper On...
...What is the purpose of these attacks...
...But Mr...
...Robert M. LaFollette's editorial in the Oct...
...The Progressive gives us that privilege.- Here are a few instances—Mr...
...I feel sure the vast majority of the people of this country are in favor of setting up an agency that will actually have power to preserve the peace of the world...
...We stand at the parting of the ways...
...This was true to a .certain extent, but it is only half the story...
...Roosevelt said, "Let us remember that this very war might have been averted if Mr...
...A Magnificent Job Dear Sirs: Mr...
...Tito...
...No Peacetime Draft Dear Sirs: I wish to remind my fellow readers to protest against the infamous compulsory military training which is being advocated so strongly now...
...Mayer's criticism of him is uncalled for...
...I believe the Assembly, instead of being a mere debating society, should be the real power in the proposed setup, and that when the Assembly acts, as the old Assembly did when Japan went into Manchu-kuo and when Italy was openly preparing to attack Ethiopia, it should be the duty of the Council to carry out the wishes of the Assembly...
...Fortas, and probably the Bureau of Agricultural Economics officials, know little if anything of the insight to be gained on the land problem from Henry George...
...Rubin navigates the editorial seas wonderfully well in this stormy era of compromises and dishonesty, camouflaged as "realism," if you please...
...The time is short in which to make our decision...
...Pvt...
...The July 31 issue seemed especially good, and I read McAlister Coleman's "Education For What...
...Doesn't he know what wretches the Germans are to practice the American art of influencing people when they comfort and cajole their American conquerors...
...You will, recall in the case of Man-chukuo and Ethiopia the old Council failed to use the powers it had, and I am convinced that even if it had had the force available which it is now proposed to give the new Council, it would not have made use of it...
...Emery D. Cox in the Forum of Oct...
...Their Brook Farm cooperative scheme lost out and their community was broken up and defeated by evil influences beating against' it...
...Germany is now down...
...7, 1932 came Mr...
...Mollie Tarter Elmhurst, N. Y. Parting Of The Ways Dear Sirs: It is a most soul sickening task to read the various half-baked plans that are being put out for postwar control of Germany...
...Any people who will risk their lives to free themselves from the yoke of oppression should receive the unstinted plaudit of every liberty lover in this world today...
...9, 1931, after ineffective intervention, by the League' of Nations, Secretary Stimson told the U. S. Consul at Geneva, "On its part the American Government acting independently through its diplomatic representatives will endeavor to reinforce what the League does and will make clear that it has a keen interest in the matter and is not oblivious to the obligations which the disputants have assumed to their fellow, signatories in the Pact of Parisas well as in the Nine Power Pact should a time arise when it would seem advisable to bring forward those obligations...
...If The Progressive has any established policy or program I've never been able to locate it, as it knocks capitalism with one fist and defends it with the other—a very absurd and untenable position that cannot be defended by any logical means...
...It should also be noted that Mr...
...Surely not, when they always agree about everything (according to radio and the press...
...The real difficulty was that all power was vested in the Council and unless the Council saw fit to act nothing could be done, regardless of what world opinion might be...
...16 issue of The Progressive, "America Must Speak Up," proved to us there were still men in this country who speak as Americans...
...On Oct...
...In America we arrange things differently...
...Rest From Stress Dear Sirs: - What the-human being, masterpiece of this super-glorious creation needs, first of all, is rest from the stress and strain of this competitive, materialistic, warring, money-grabbing, scarcity-promoting way of life...
...Howard's article on China lit the Oct...
...But if we desire a system that provides light, life, liberty, security, and happiness we'll work with a determined effort to establish the socialist cooperative commonwealth which will place the- earth and the fullness thereof into the lap of now struggling hapless humanity...
...So important are the various contributions of your writers towards the proper solving of the intricacies of our present day problems that even over here in Continental Europe I cannot choose to be without it...
...in a note to the Japanese Ambassador, said, "It is the hope of the American Government that the Japanese and the Chinese Governments will find it possible speedily to demonstrate to the world that neither has any intention to take advantage, in furtherance of its own peculiar interests, of the situation which has been brought about in connection with and in consequence of this use of force...
...with great interest...
...Many reasons have been ascribed for the failure of the old League of Nations, the chief one being that the League Council had no means to enforce peace...
...If we want war we can have that...
...That set of statistics from Walter Goldschmidt in the Bureau of Agricultural Economies certainly showed the superior status of the city serving family farms as over against the one serving the large-scale farms...
...The fight is on, and we are gaining ground...
...I would appreciate very much several copies of that editorial so that I could show it to others...
...S. Foreign Policy, '31 to '41...
...He has a chronic grouch and is taking his spite out on Russia...
...However on Oct...
...Marion Mayer San Francisco, Calif...
...After we and our great Allies have all the other nations under our thumb, who will there be to fight us...
...And since our faulty tax system penalizes improvements — because the burden of taxes is on labor products or "property"—of course the small-farm owner had the extra hurdle of a disproportionate tax burden...
...La Follette's article in the Oct...
...Morgenthau's Revenge" is the latest...
...On Jan...
...It may be a valuable contribution to our mass confusion...
...A. L. Hallauer Hazel, S. D. Disgusted With Mayer Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer's article in the Sept...
...Leave them all their machinery and national territory...
...Stimson had not seen fit to back the League before their intervention failed...
...21 Pres...
...It may take 20 or 30 years, but when the time is ripe those German lads will be ready to strike, well trained, armed, and equipped...
...A Real American Dear Sirs: Sen...
...30 issue of The Progressive was a magnificent job...
...I hope we can—into a being that will be more interested in building projects that will conserve forests and also water power to develop electric current and heat, and prevent rivers from washing away the soil and flooding valleys...
...Charles K. Chilbebg Portland, Oreg...
...On the same date, Sept...
...We need rest from fear resulting from insecurity in this "scarcity" way of life that fosters unemployment, insufficient buying power, humiliation, and defeated human dignity...
...George Frey New York, N. Y. Appreciated Dear Sirs: , The Progressive reaches me rather late, here in France, but it is certainly appreciated...
...2, 1944, says that "we can change human nature...
...More power to you and more subscribers !. Your Forum is unexcelled both in tolerance of the opposites and in the variety of participants...
...But merely to provide that this shall be the duty of the Council will not in itself be sufficient...
...It is clear that Mr...
...Leslie E. Aller Takilma, Oreg...
...George H. Shoap Costa Mesa, Calif...
...22,1931, four days after the Japanese attack, Secretary Stimson...
...As a matter of fact, the plan that has been submitted as a result of the Dumbarton Oaks conferences is so nearly the same in its essential features as the old League of Nations that in my opinion the proposed new League would prove as impotent as did the former...
...16 issue was one of the best I ever read...
...Why doesn't Mayer stop and figure out how many people the doctors are sending to the graveyards each day and who are hooked up with the undertaker before the patient is dead...
...Now here is my plan...
...Some of Mr...
...Government officials and journalists—and others — interested in really preserving the family-farm should study Progress and Poverty, or for a simpler, up to date version, Economics Simplified from the Schalkenbach Foundation, 30 E. 29th St., New York City...
...Can anyone believe that the young men of Germany are going to submit tamely to giving up all of their industrial life and settle down to tilling the soil for a precarious living...
...Stimson seemed to be for peace at any price—to the Chinese...
...Stimson's views had prevailed when, in 1931, the Japanese ruthlessly attacked Manchuria...
...But strangest of all is The Progressive trying to publish a liberal journal way out there in Wisconsin where its point of view can be warped by residence among good German-Americans...
...This in spite of the U. S. Minister to China's report...
...To complete the job one should read Henry Morton Robinson's Fantastic Interim...
...We stand today on the threshold of world wide change, and there are only two systems from which to choose: capitalism of the Nazi fascist variety or collective socialism...
...If they are in want of food, ship it over to them and distribute it freely, but make it plain that they must not arm themselves lest we go again and disarm them...
...It was Emerson who tried and did-gather himself a few people of like nvirid — Hawthorne, Thoreau, Alcott, Dana, Margaret Fuller, Louisa May Alcott, and others, in a community fellowship, having social reform as their purpose and their relationship to their God and their universe as their guide for all study...
...Victor Svimonoff v Bakersfield, Calif...
...11th issue of The Progressive on vivisection met with the disgust and disapproval of humane thinking people...
...People are waking up to the fact that cruelties do exist that they never dreamed of, to our four-footed friends in these hell-hole laboratories all over our land...
...After all, why such great preparations for war...
...Mayer is the type that would send a dog to his crucifixion any old time...
...He can look up the mattV doctors that have done vivisection and who come out in the open and condemn it and who belong to the anti-vivisection societies...
...Unexcelled Tolerance Dear Sirs: I am just a recent reader of your weekly and I bless my fortune for enabling me to become your subscriber...
...If we desire to continue our present system of woe, want, poverty, and misery without end we'll support the present capitalist system...
...It Will Make New Friends...
...vMrs...
...Fortas missed the real point of these statistics, and therefore missed the root disease and the root cure in this situation...
...In no other publication did I ever find such rich and easily digested information, coupled with lucid and unbiased commentaries...
...The Japanese war-lords proceeded with their invasion...
...Ira D. Kneeland Prather, Calif...
...Too many of us have felt that victory on the field of battle would be an end in itself, and not a means to a greater and more democratic end...
...War itself must be abandoned as a method of solving international problems...
...16 issue, "America Must Speak Up Now...
...We need to know our creation and our relationship to this wondrous environment in which we are cast as a part—as a part, you understand, not the whole works...
...This new type of human nature will replace age old mistakes of destruction, with construction, instead of sanctioning the biriilding of bombers, cannons, and other weapons oi death and destruction as today...
...La Follette means —economic as well as political...
...He did not see that the city serving the small town was proportionately much more highly improved — as would be the small farms (per acre) than the large farms...
...Further, they declared they would not per mit the shipment of war supplies with which an army could fight...
...It Will Make New Friends...
...The bigger the "whoppers" the more prominence it is given for display attention...
...When you want to make friends with a dog, how do you proceed...
...Mr...
...Mary A.-Black Omaha, Neb...
...And shall we not use with the German people as much plain common sense as we w«uld even with a dog...
...Who are his sponsors, and why...
...Suppose he succeeds in transforming the admiration Americans have for the Red Army into hatred...
...Unfortunately the State Department did not see fit to include certain documents more damaging to the official mythology built up concerning Mr...
...Slowly I have come to reckon it more and more as the greatest bulwark of progressive thought in America today...
...American workers will work with might and main to supply the weapons that will crush Hitler and Hit-lerism...
...When the British Government, in 1927, tried to kick up a war on the Soviet Union, British workers, through their unions, announced that they would not fight...
...Chamberlin's Grouch Dear Sirs: I like The Progressive and its staff of writers and the People's Forum...
...Howard's laudation of the malodorous conduct of Mikhailo-vitch, the Yugoslav traitor, is the rule and not the exception in so far as the policy of this sheet is concerned...
...They are not greatly interested in the details of such an agency but they are interested in giving it power to act when peace is threatened, and I submit the logical thing to do is to give this power to the Assembly, in which all peace loving nations of the world will be represented, and not to the Council, where action could conceivably be blocked by one or more of the member nations, with the result that huir - lity would once more be sold down the river...
...Andrew G. Boker Cleveland, O. * * * ' Mass Confusion The Progressive's review by Harry Elmer Barnes of Leo Cherne's book The Rest of Your Life, clicked...
...I managed to retain my seat, but, boy, was I dizzy...
...All of this time they will, of course, be workmen working for wages, and from their wages they will set aside a portion to finance the new Germany and you may be sure that our munition makers will be just as willing to supply them with rifles and ammunition as they were to supply Hitler...
...It is also clear, as you state, that the proposed Assembly would be nothing more than a mere debating society...
...A copy was immediately purchased, and this is my reaction...
...There is a place for your paper in this country as we must forge ahead and a progressive paper should lead the way...
...And Milton Mayer is indeed a strange Jew not to see this...
...If we kick her it will be remembered and told to the rising generations for all time, and the rising generations will listen—and prepare for revenge...
...But in a nation going more and more under the self-popularized money changers, this small band of idealists didn't get very far...
...But if we play the part of the Good Samaritan that also will be remembered...
...Mrs...
...Therefore I urge that Americans oppose every proposal for postwar military conscription...
...La Follette said, and many of us who look to him for leadership and guidance in these trying times hope he will not be intimidated by name-calling and slurs, just as his immortal father was not intimidated in his day...
...Mayer's education has been sadly neglected...
...Fit All To Survive' Dear Sirs: It is encouraging to have the privilege to read messages from good folks who advocate sanity in a world gone mad...
...Pvt...
...Suppose the Council refuses or fails to act, as the old Council did in the case of Manchukuo and Ethiopia ? In that case the Assembly should have the power to remove and replace any nation on the Council that refuses to carry out its wishes...
...My relatives in Madison will discourage the circulation of your paper and also will help to withdraw advertising in your paper in many corners...
...Bacon And Mayer Dear Sirs: Here is a riddle for you: Why is it that Paul- V. Bacon of Boston's Allyn and Bacon, that great educational publishing house in that great cultural metropolis, should have an idea of the average German which is a reasonable facsimile of a Hollywood villain ? While Milton Mayer, a Jew from Chicago, in that vast benighted hinterland of the Middle West where people don't know any better than to be isolationists, should have no idea of an average German unless it is to suspect that Germans may be human ? I pity poor Milton...
...L. H. 133rd Engineers A. P. O. 403 New York, N. Y. Political Hybrid Dear Sirs: Believe it or not the best source of misinformation that comes to my desk is The Progressive, as any rabid anti-Russian article is bound to make front page position regardless of any truthful intention of the writer...
...Also, make sure that the President receives his copy...
...E. H. Baldwin Washington, D. C. * * * Pass This Paper On...
...This was Mr...
...They are in full swing in support of this merciful movement...
...If we had more people of Mayer's caliber as columnists, there would not be much done for dogs...
...Adamic states and I quote: "The vast majority of the Yugoslavs—at least 90 per cent—are pro-Partisan, and devoted followers ©f Gen...
...There has bean no more graphic picture of China published anywhere...
...And they will enter industrial pursuits...
...And by freedom, I mean what Sen...
...I want to make it plain that I enjoy most of the articles in most of the issues, but it seems to me the writers, particularly Milton Mayer, do nothing but find fault with all the so called big men in the country but offer no real substitute either in program or leaders...
...Pvt...
...If we "fit all to survive" instead of selfishly harboring ideas that the "survival of the fittest" is the wav of life, we will soon have a better world...
...Or better still perhaps, such a nation should automatically forfeit its right to a seat on the Council...
...Fault-Finding Writers Dear Sirs: The Progressive seems to be a free, independent, and progressive paper, so I presume you are glad to have your readers feel free to write their independent views even though they do not concur with yours or perhaps I should say some of the writers...
...Stimson's "non-recognition" statement...
...Milton Mayer seems to be a very noble soul, a real champion of liberalism in the old and genteel sense...
...if that is what was intended the book is a "natural...
...Thank God for such medical men who come out and take their stand like a sturdy tree...
...If you don't feel like sobering up then, you are a hopeless economic hop-head and are ready for the strait-jacket — a streamlined, chromium plated, domestic Fascism designed by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and their banker pals...
...The above quotations '(except the one from Pres...
...and capable persons in the U. S. A., if not the world, and that they should be the candidates for the highest office in our country...
...And what does he think that working class friends of the Soviet Union in America and throughout the world will be doing while preparations for war are under way...
...John Clift Anson, Tex...
...That's first hand information, and not the dribble of envy and hate...
...Doctors in my own family who have done vivisection and who now come out in the open are on the firing line against this hell of all hells...
...Hasn't he yet heard back there in Chicago that "the so-called good Germans will follow any leader into the next war with the same enthusiasm they have always followed their leaders into wars...
...Harold E. Fackert 182 Myrtle Ave...
...Again, some of the writers, especially Mr...
...The British Government backed down...
...In a word, we conduct our wars with apathy and unenthusi-asm...
...E. R. M. New York, N. Y, Chamberlin's Disservice Dear Sirs: Just what does William H. Chamber lin mean and want by attacking the Soviet Union in every paper and magazine that will print his diatribes...
...La Follette, a real, free-thinking American...
...22, 1931, the U. S. Minister to China reported to Secretary Stimson that the Japanese attack "is an aggressive act by Japan apparently long planned," and further that the Japanese action "must fall within any definition of war...
...As the League did not take any effective action thereafter it was not difficult to "reinforce it...
...The recent screed by Harry Paxton Howard is no exception to the established rule of The Progressive...
...Roosevelt's speech) are from the Department of State's official publication Peace and War —V...
...Hearst has done more for the animal cause than any other person on this earth, and we thank God for such a man...
...The fact that the Council would have force at its disposal would be meaningless if action could be blocked by one or more of the member nations...
...Jersey City, N. J. A Great Utterance Dear Sirs: Sen...
...Pass This Paper On...
...Does he imagine that the great body of American workers will submit to supplying an army that will be sent to fight the Soviet workers...
...Let us not forget that even the universe declares the glory of cooperation...
...R. J. L. Camp Shelby, Miss...
...The public is waking up...
...It Will Make New Friends...
...We need rest in security which the cooperative way of life would give us, in order to have time to look about us and commune with the stars, sunshine, the trees, birds, bees, flowers...
...Come east, Progressive, come east, so that you too can drink deep of the Pierian spring which flows from the inner sanctum of Allyn and Bacon at the behest of none other than Paul Bacon himself...
...Mayer, give the impression that they themselves are the only real big...
...Vivisection is one of the blackest crimes allowed to be committed in this fair land of ours...
...Isabel La Follette is a fascinating writer...
...How about getting Robert Hutchins to write his views for The Progressive...
...How any real socialist, or supporter of Russia can honestly support this sheet is a cause for wonderment to me...
...Stimson's Record Dear Sirs: On Oct...
...Evan C. Thorpe Needham Heights, Mass...
...Chamberlin is doing a distinct disservice to the cause of unity, freedom, and progress by writing as he does...
...They split fees and they keep it going in the name of so called science and their serum racket...
...I only wish every person in the United States who could read would have access to that editorial...
...The Allied military commission may watch them closely, but one by one they will disappear over the border, some to Russia, some to Japan, some to China, and some to this country...
...La Follette in the Oct...
...Does he think that intelligent American workers will cooperate in producing the weapons essential to fighting such a war...
...9 Progressive on "The Dramatic Battle for American Land" was a brilliant piece...
...When we have wars, the people get into them first and the leaders reluctantly follow...
...Now all you boys who are jumping on Chamberlin for his carping on Russia—let the man be...
...Now is the time to examine this political hybrid with the aid of a fine tooth comb, a mag-nifying-glass, and a pair of tweezers...
...Do you chase him into a corner and kick him, or do you pat him on the head and say, "Good doggie, let's be friends now...
...Mildred Jensen Loomis Brookville, O. * Opposes Peace Draft If man is to conquer war, rather than be conquered by war, the first step in the direction of permanent peace is the ending of all military conscription...
...Taxes And The Land , Dear Sirs: Abe Fortas' article in the Oct...
...Her chaste appeal and frankness are irresistible...
...but when it comes to giving their efforts to the dastardly business of invading, defeating, dismembering, and destroying the first and only country ever owned and controlled by the working- people, well, I am of the opinion that American workers will balk •'with such a reign of sabotage that the few conscripts pressed into military service will be required on the home ground to forcibly suppress a possible workers' uprising...
...The article by Sen...
...Too many of us have refused to face up to the staggering problems which lie ahead...
...They will learn all there is to be learned about aviation and the building of bombers, as well as guns, cannon, bombs, high explosives, and how to make them...
...Speak up, and speak decisively...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Dumbarton Oaks Plan Dear Sirs: I have read your editorial regarding Dumbarton Oaks and agree with you as to the absolute necessity of avoiding a setup that would enable one of the major nations to veto action against an aggressor, including itself...
...Stimson's alternative to joint action with the League —the wolf and the lamb were to negotiate .together...
...Now the Germans are indeed a strange people not to behave like human beings...
...Then, having completely disarmed them, shake hands with them and come home...
...It is a credit to Sen...
...Every fair-minded person will accept the findings of Louis A Jamie's book, My Native Land, as being the nearest approach to actual truth of what has happened in Yugoslavia rather than to accept the mouthing of hearsay oozing from the poison pen of its avowed enemies...
...We must make freedom for all people the keynote of the peace, freedom for men and- women of all races and religions and colors and nationalities...
...I see no reason why anyone should censor The Progressive's policy of giving everyone big* say...
Vol. 8 • November 1944 • No. 46
