THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
¦ ¦ ¦ THE PEOPLE'S FORUM ¦ ¦ ¦ Lines To Pursue '¦ Der.r Sirs: The point stated by Sen. La Fol-lette, that "it is time for American principles to take their place alongside American fighting...
...Tokyo and Berlin could be destroyed in a few hours...
...In view of the indebtedness of the U. S., plus the huge interest, there is certain must legislation that will have to be adopted to employ 60 million people on shorter hours and a better wage (not under organized labor...
...William Langer quotes Harry Paxton Howard...
...Is Uncle Sam going to pay the bills...
...Jumbled Lines In Chamberlin Dear Sirs: William Henry Chaniberlin's article in the Mar...
...We will insist "realistically" that wars are inevitable, human "musts...
...It was one of Mr...
...Russia is beastly in Finland and heroic in Poland...
...Challenges McAllister Dear Sirs: This country is most fortunate in having among its living individuals someone as well informed as S. J. McAllister, Portland, Oreg., announces himself to be in his letter to The People's Forum in the Feb...
...Through government we enact and enforce criminal laws to safeguard our lives...
...Renew Your Subscription Today Permanent War Dear Sirs: So now it's permanent conscription...
...Franklin — need we yet swallow so readily the medicine offered by those other visionaries who fancy that the dove of peace can ever take flight in a protective suit of steel armor...
...They are fearful that Mr...
...and I would say that Rubin would do better at farming or something else in that line...
...I had no idea the "dumping" rested on anything so superficial...
...Chaniberlin's articles on Russia, even though halos and epithets were sown with equal verve...
...Among them was the one that went like this: "We are fighting to rid the world of a system which forces people into military conscription...
...Had Mr...
...But I believe that unless the opposition to the President's foreign policy struggles with these problems and arrives at a positive position with regard to them, it will never compete significantly for political support against the policy which is governing present decisions...
...We will guilefully keep pretending that wars are caused and begun by blowing up a Maine or by a so-called sneak attack on Pearl Harbor — those back - breaking straws that "force" us into wars that we have muddled ourselves into long beforehand...
...Who wants military conscription...
...Chaniberlin's most temperate articles, with no ted baiting...
...Wars And Reforms Dear Sirs: I have read a synopsis of the report issued by the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, in The Progressive of Jan...
...And it was Franklin who then expounded on the theme, "an army is a devouring monster," decrying the vast and unproductive expense, legitimate and illegitimate, necessary for its maintenance...
...Whatever dreams we entertained of having thrown from the shoulders of the nation the money grabbing gamblers were soon dispelled when the Government forces were in full retreat and the old guard, with a full supply of public funds, slipped right back into their official chairs again to become a vital part of the master .class of America...
...Yes, and even 4 persons in Denver...
...Petersburg, Fla...
...That would be Mr...
...In the Congressional Record of Jan...
...Let's take a look at some of their statements and see if they will shed any light on the subject...
...27, 1944 issue by Mr...
...W. D. Wagner Anaconda, Mont...
...Harold E. Dickson State College, Pa...
...5. While asking disarmament, you are silent about alternative procedures for settling international disputes if they rise to tension level...
...Let's check this idea in his next speech...
...25 issue, "Where Do We Go From Yalta...
...The merger and coalition of big business, both here and abroad, fixes a maximum price and advances or restricts production so as to maintain the desired profit...
...Surely the President must know that this go-get-the-money system has reached the end of its bloody trail and can no longer be pawned off as a democracy...
...Ah, that is a question...
...You say that we should first see whether the United Nations act justly...
...Does the leopard change his spots...
...In an age of labor-destroying inventions and discoveries you must expect to have unemployment and increasing unemployment...
...It is the final stage prior to the government taking over everything...
...Incidentally, however, in writing this, I want to expressly disclaim any implication of endorsement of what Mrs...
...I was pleased to see The People's Forum—a whole page — concerned about Mr...
...Praises Flynn Pamphlet Dear Sirs: If S. J. McAllister in the Feb...
...enough money to enable those who are out of work through no fault of their own to claim their fair share of the country's goods and services...
...Forgotten are the pretty promises used to get us in the war...
...Some may think there is a snag about this simple prescription...
...Things of this sort can be arranged and wars made endurable by an all-out war production of manufactured propaganda...
...From American bases the fleets and factories of our enemies could be destroyed...
...Along with the Atlantic Charter this permanent peace statement, too, must have been written in disappearing ink...
...If this reform which the committee recommends was inaugurated before we had plunged into a war that will cost 500 billion dollars and the destruction of billions of dollars worth of our natural resources, which will be gone forever by the time the war is over, it might have had a chance to succeed...
...That in a nutshell is the solution to America's postwar economic problems...
...8. I wish to say that his views have my whole-hearted approval...
...If our commentators are correct, Americans, wake up...
...Roosevelt is a statesman or a most skillful politician...
...He calls attention to the "rubbish" written by Oswald Garrison Villard and informs us that "Any-^ one at all informed as to the disaster, (Pearl Harbor), realizes that Kimmel and Short got off easy...
...We cannot have wars and reforms both—we must surrender one or the other...
...Villard would appreciate, and I definitely would appreciate, an article in The Progressive, clearing up the whole case...
...That is a lie that the fighting men of America will destroy...
...Under the fire of participationist arguments, the people have no idea that there is an alternative...
...I would like to express wholehearted endorsement of George Battles' letter in the Jan...
...5 Mr...
...15, and it seems to me that it is a case of that Committee adding itself to the growing list of people who are trying to grind with the water that has passed the mill and are feverishly locking the stable door after the horse has been stolen...
...12 issue hard to read...
...2. You adopt Sen...
...8 issue of The Progressive, it seems but fair to point out that, whatever "enlargement o'f vision" may have resulted from his travels, the bald fact remains that his resultant One World deliberately ignored a whole fifth of the human race (India), his "excuse" being that he had been asked to do so by what Miss Watson aptly characterizes as "the reigning political set-up of gross materialism and hypocrisy...
...Who then are the actual creators of money...
...Why not give the people who are out of work through no fault of their own really adequate money-incomes, so that they can satisfy their own needs and remain good and adequate customers for producers...
...La Follette's statement linking principles with fighting power hints generally the political resources we have for insisting on a principled peace...
...27, 1944, Sen...
...For what other purpose could governments have been instituted...
...Surely, however, an abundant supply of raw materials and labor are the only two things really necessary to give the people of a country a permanent high standard of living...
...The same people who promised to keep us out of this war are already getting ready to keep us out of the next war...
...Not Fit To Print Dear Sirs: The New York Times, which regularly publishes letters advocating peacetime military conscription, rejected the following letter...
...An earthbound dove is no better than a dead duck...
...I am delighted to note the far corners of the earth into which The Progressive has gone—Canada, the Pacific, England...
...Lots of sensible things appear there...
...Total Conscription Dear Sirs: Our commentators tell us Germany is fighting World War III, while the Allies are fighting World War II...
...Thomas' way and it has failed miserably...
...We came out of that war with a national debt of 30 billion dollars...
...Rodell, your analysis of the Wallace-Jones national embarrassment was a stimulant...
...It is from there that we can continue discussion, within the ranks of the critics of the President's foreign policy, with the aim of improving our proposed policy...
...E. E. Cassel St...
...In the President's press conference on Dec...
...As a faithful, hopeful, and energetic supporter of Mr...
...T. J. Welsh Chicago, 111...
...One who could and would break the ties that held him to a background of special privilege and wealth for the few, while millions of our people were in desperate want...
...Surely the President must know something about the evidence that is in the hands of the Senate...
...Before we got 100 percent into the present war I heard some good people say, "Uncle Sam should go over there and clean those Nazis up...
...we owe our hold to geographic and political luck, and to the grace of God...
...This could be done on a non-stop flight from American bases...
...To assert that a man's freedom is invaded when he is kept from grabbing millions is as illogical as to assert that a man's freedom is invaded when he is prevented from indulging his passion to kill...
...Henry Rice Detroit, Mich...
...The hermit has hardly need for the protection of government...
...We entered World War II with a debt of 45 billions...
...William F. Doyle Westminster, Md...
...Thomas' ways never have been tried, and there is no chance that they may be tried by any military or conscription-minded peoples...
...The war can be won without such planes, but at a far greater cost in lives and resources...
...La Fol-lette, that "it is time for American principles to take their place alongside American fighting power", is where the critics of the President's foreign policy should gather...
...Besides, this is not the purpose of the backers of conscription...
...Let the banks therefore create the money needed for the unemployed, but let them create it not in the form of interest-bearing debt as they commonly do under the present system...
...His recent turning over of the State Department to the relatives»j and special representatives of the Rockefeller-Morgan-Dupont gang proves that he has not learned anything from the war...
...North America is the greatest loot in all history...
...Private business is on the way out...
...Well, the people who believed such wildcat predictions are now wiser but sadder...
...Frank Carlisle Columbus, O. India Left Out Dear Sirs: Referring to Blanche Watson's letter on Wendell Willkie in the Jan...
...Give A Friend The Truth Send Him The Progressive Today True Christianity Dear Sirs: The grievance -and objections against Wallace come from people in the higher financial brackets, in other words from the money changers...
...Meyer, add another howl for me against secrecy about public affairs (Feb...
...These furnish the complete answer to true Christianity...
...Rubin's article, "The Time Is Now, Mr...
...Then too, your account brought back blight recollections of the huge, luscious strawberries grown in the Matan-uska Valley...
...Farming For Rubin Dear Sirs: I read Morris H. Rubin's article in the Feb...
...Poor Logic Dear Sirs: J. T. Fidler invites comment on his letter to The Progressive of Jan...
...But you never indicate what practicable alternative to continued membership in the United Nations the U. S. A. would have if we decide that the United Nations act unjustly...
...Many economists are not too sure but that the President regards mass production for use as the major objective, the only way out of a serious world condition resulting from delinquency on the subject of Christian equality, nationally and internationally...
...The fact that he sought and won the Presidency 4 times does not show the least evidence of statesmanship...
...Does this view disagree with Mr...
...Wheeler's proposal for a federated Europe...
...Willkie's avowed intention to devote the remainder of his life to the "cause" of private ownership of public utilities...
...He reminds me of a sparrow chirping at an eagle...
...W. F. Hiller Brighton, Colo...
...President believed he had the approval of 131,000,000 people, plus or minus, for his commitments at Yalta...
...I was almost convinced that California was concerned about Jones chauvinism to Texas or that Eastern interests were alarmed at the industrial development and expansion in the West during the past 2 years...
...The pioneer has little need for it until more people move in and form a community...
...W. E. Kunz Hot Springs, Ark...
...Why are taxpayers always treated as though they were the creators and the actual source of money, whereas, in point of fact, if they should attempt to create money, they are put in prison for counterfeiting...
...3. Except for the suggestion of European federation, you suggest no method for preventing self-determination from lapsing into a jangle of rugged nationalism, with disorderly effects...
...Roosevelt informed the people before the election of the class of men he would put in high places, he would have been beaten by more millions than he had over Mr...
...Thomas' way —hopelessly fantastic...
...Wallace, since 1 is return from Russia, will endeavor to adopt here the system of mass production of subsistence goods...
...8 Forum on Philip La Follette and Jeanette Rankin...
...Flynn presents on the Pearl Harbor case are irrefutable...
...Challenge To America Dear Sirs: I read with interest an article in the Nov...
...Why all this fuss about unemployment and trade slumps, which latter, in a country as rich in natural wealth as the United States, are due to nothing but financial causes...
...Where would all the money come from to carry out reforms...
...Why should the money come from the taxpayer...
...After that, presumably, the bans would be off and another war would be desirable...
...Before his death, Frank Knox wrote an article in Collier's lauding conscription as a great health measure...
...For surely in the right environment and with the right equipment and education there are plenty of useful things that people can do which do not come under the category of paid work ? The question may be asked, "Where is the money for the unemployed to come from...
...It would seem the most charitable construction possible to put upon such flagrant failures would be (again to make use of Miss Watson's phrasing) to regard it as due to a "blind spot that tragically obscured all sense of right and wrong,, and understanding of justice...
...The Duke of Bedford Cairnsmore, Newton Stewart, Wigtownshire, England * * * Hitler Sheet Dear Sirs: It's a wonder Hitler hasn't been on the air extolling The Progressive sheet and its Editor...
...May I briefly suggest certain lines for us to pursue, by selecting ideas from your editorial posit-ionV 1. You fail to complete your idea of a bargaining approach to the question of U. S. A. acceptance of the United Nations as a continuing political agency after the war...
...When men constitute groups and masses, regulations are needed to keep the aggressive from invading the rights of their fellows...
...Present methods are not capable of producing them...
...In the first few months of his Administration I, like millions of other Democrats, felt that we at last had succeeded in placing at the head of the nation, a strong, forward-looking man who was not afraid...
...Dewey...
...Well, one year of health building in a lifetime of health destroying poverty is like a lifeboat in a giant storm—not much chance of survival...
...Why not let their unemployment be for them an opportunity for creative leisure...
...Surely, the latter...
...Miss Rankin did indeed act with genuine courage and clear vision and, obviously having no "blind spots", has not truckled to any "political set-up...
...Of course, I am not trying to deny those facts that the report brought out, but as for the remedy to correct the deplorable situation, it seems to be another case of fire in the sky...
...but why worry about that if the goods can still be produced or imported in undiminished abundance...
...It is all very well to attempt, with whatever success, to combat the arguments of Norman Thomas against peacetime military conscription, but it is misleading to say, as did Archibald G. Thatcher in his letter to the Times, that "we have tried Mr...
...But who is Uncle Sam...
...This free enterprise propaganda which assails our ears is poor logic, indeed...
...Eventually, we are going to need these super-bombers or flying wings for continental defense...
...R. Evans Berkeley, Calif...
...The most important of Mr...
...It is the self-evident business of government to protect the rights and liberties of its people...
...Just another little "blind spot...
...We should, to be consistent, be more intent on enacting economic laws, and so have a more balanced civilization...
...Whether you do, is the question...
...History substantiates that education has not worked through its all powerful organized groups to prevent a world economic burden...
...The other fellow is entitled to this world's goods also...
...This pamphlet may be purchased for 25 cents from John T. Flynn, 15 East 40th Street, New York City...
...Great Addition'^ Dear Sirs: I think your new movie department is a great addition to The Progressive...
...No Red Baiting Dear Sirs: Do your proof readers dislike William Henry Chamberlin...
...This seems unrealistic considering the nationalist policies of the European states...
...I think some of those people have found out who he is...
...Michael Brkopac Lorain, O. 'Add Another Howl' Dear Sirs: Yes, Mr...
...Enjoys Forum Dear Sirs: We like The Progressive very much, and especially do we like Harry Elmer Barnes and Milton Mayer...
...Sydney Kasper dealing with the postwar economic future of America and commenting on the forecast of a Swedish expert, Dr...
...We also especially enjoy the Forum...
...Thomas' courage and vision to keep telling us in the face of everything that war is hell and not a gallant crusade...
...anti-inflation taxation employed if, and when, it should be necessary to collect, for cancellation and destruction, money which, if left in circulation, might ultimately pile up and cause inflation...
...It shows that Tammany's methods, directed by a most likeable personality and skillful political doctor can Tammany-ize the nation...
...Now, since we have a citizen who professes to know the inside story, I am sure Mr...
...To build these super-bombers or flying wings will require a terrific effort, an enormous construction program, keen vision, and bold action...
...Now, what I would like to know is this: If we were unable to decrease a national debt of 30 billion dollars, but added to it, between World War I and World War II, how are we going to pay off a 300 billion dollar debt...
...On Feb...
...26 issue...
...A man has the right to enjoy life but he has no right to prevent others from enjoying life...
...4. While insisting that economic problems are basic to the causes of war, you fail to develop any idea by which American policy would aim at improving economic conditions for the world's people...
...We enact and enforce civil laws to safeguard our possessions...
...Some people have foolishly said that we are going to raise the standard of living of Europe up with our standard...
...It does show the opposite, a departure from a principle embedded in the heart of American democracy...
...There is a fundamental difference, which should be eternally stressed, between legitimate rights to enjoy life and improper and immoral enactments — though they have the sanction of being man-made laws which deprive others of their basic rights...
...We entered World War I with a national debt of less than 3 billion dollars...
...A money-supply related in amount to the thing which money is needed to buy, i. e., to the country's maximum output and import of real wealth in the form of desired goods and services...
...The late Navy Secretary Knox is quoted as saying in London: "I am not one of those foolish enough to believe that we can banish war...
...La Follette wrote on Willkie— or, indeed, regarding anything else...
...Yes, as far as our technological capacity and engineering skill are concerned...
...J. Wunderlich New York, N. Y. * * * Renew Your Subscription Today...
...This is the cartel method now in operation...
...Roosevelt's public promises of permanent peace...
...It's too bad that first paragraph got jumbled up, but after you figured out the misplaced lines the article was first rate...
...Can they do it...
...furthermore, that on a plain, common-sense, get-what-you-pay-for basis, the economy of war is and always has been that of madmen and mad nations...
...George Kelsey Dreher Yale Divinity School New Haven, Conn...
...Roosevelt," outlined a positive policy for which America ought to contend...
...Can it hurt, though, to conceive of what could happen were all the forces we are now using so efficiently — the billions of government spending, the power of press, motion pictures, and radio, the whole chorus of public-opinion moulders, writers, preachers, cajolers, threat-eners—if these forces were ever to be wheeled about and directed full strength not against an "enemy" but against the one common enemy of mankind, the infernal institution of war...
...A more realistic way of unifying Europe, seen by a few of your contributors, is to let the U. S. S. R. take control...
...The banks...
...America already has permitted apathy, vested interests, and internal fascist sabotage to stand in the way, thus prolonging the war unnecessarily...
...If we cannot bring ourselves to follow a visionary like Mr...
...We, for example, will surely keep headed down the same well-worn road...
...It is hard to think of the American people as having been drained of so much of the noble rebellious Spirit of '76 (Franklin, of course, was steeped in it) as to submit finally to the institution of peacetime military conscription — for forced service is conscription, whether it be for a day, or for a year, or for the "duration...
...Eva Brooks Denver, Colo...
...It seems the disillusioned interventionists are the chief supporters of peacetime conscription...
...It was a necessary step to take, with many good ideas...
...If the people believe the choice is between an unjust agency or chaos, they will not choose chaos...
...It is true, as certain religious leaders say, that America's hold on principles is no cause for self-righteousness...
...Do you suppose Mr...
...We were told by some wise people, some of them were in the Senate, that we could take a half-dozen airplanes and blow up the Japanese fleet and that Japan would be defeated in 3 weeks...
...Thomas — or Mr...
...Can America build a super-bomber having a flying range of 12,000 miles, ceiling 35,000 to 40,-000 feet, wing spread 330 feet, speed over 300 miles per hour, and a bomb load of 50 tons...
...Neuberger, I was on the way to Oregon to see those Chinook salmon you'told us about, but before the ink dried on the traveler's check, the "Call of the North" burned fiercer than ever, particularly after your vivid picture of Alaska and Bob Bartlett...
...Paul Harris New York, N. Y« F.D.R.'s Failure Dear Sirs: The coming four years will determine whether Mr...
...They certainly made the first paragraph of his article in the Mar...
...12 issue is the most constructive of his that I've read...
...Let all Americans demand total conscription now of men, machines, material, and money to shorten the war, to win the peace, and make America impregnable from our fascist enemies, without and within...
...We will fight tomorrow our allies of today, whitewashing or blackening them to suit the occasion ; Japan is friend or foe, depending on whether it is World War I or War II...
...Here is our inadequacy, our delinquency, our great sin of omission...
...Russia will evidently assume complete control of both Europe and Asia, which will guai'antee to the people of those countries an abundance of everything and which will remove the cause of war over there...
...I happen to be one of these ill-informed individuals and have often wondered about this case...
...No, the backers of peacetime conscription are not looking for permanent peace but for permanent war...
...Perhaps it might interest you as an example of what the Times sees fit not to print...
...America has had victory within its grasp for the past 3 years, but has failed to take the necessary action to complete it...
...19 Progressive...
...But with the enormous obligations our Government will have to meet after the war and the depression that will surely follow the war, it would indeed be foolisli to expect such things...
...I have no important proposals to make positively with respect to any of these lines of thought...
...A. C. Slezak Cicero, 111...
...What is the true purpose of industry—to provide work, or to provide goods and services...
...Isn't it strange that the very people who fought hardest to get us in this war are still here to advocate a peacetime training law...
...19 issue would read John T. Flynn's pamphlet, "The Truth About Pearl Harbor," he would learn to his surprise not only that Oswald Garrison Villard was correct in his article, "Crack Open the Pear] Harbor Case," but also that he himself has been filled with misinformation on the subject...
...If Americans want advice on how to stay out of war they'll do much better than to look to those people who broke their necks to get us into this one...
...The stakes seemed very high to have compelled such a move...
...It shows this very gang and their fellow cartel-ists in Europe and Japan as the creators of war...
...No one can challenge Christ's two major objectives...
...I feel impelled to add (and quite impersonally and impartially, for I belong to no existing political party) that the sentimentality of hero-worship seems to have blurred from Miss Watson's memory the quotation in a previous issue of The Progressive of Mr...
...The article on the whole appeared to be somewhat pessimistic, referring to the possibility of slumps and unemployment, but I could hot find anywhere that either Jack of materials or lack of labor was considered to be one of the probable causes of trouble...
...We thought we saw evidence of courage and statesmanship in his first move in taking over the banks, which were tumbling down as though they were struck by a cyclone...
...But it takes men of Mr...
...The acceptance and the adoption of these will solve all problems, namely, war, poverty, crime, taxes, debts, labor troubles, and the want for anything grown, manufactured, or processed on the earth...
...Two of the greatest exponents of this measure were Frank Knox and President Roosevelt...
...the creation and issue of money not in the form of interest-bearing debt...
...We will be fortunate if our standard is not pulled down with Europe's standard...
...Myrdal...
...I challenge them by honest argument to prove that the snag exists...
...George I. Houser Jasonville, Ind...
...The profit system can no longer be approved and supported by competition...
...But I believe we can banish it for a while...
...Prof...
...17, according to the New York Times, he said: "The Allied conferees were motivated by the general thought that they did not want another war in the lifetime of the present generation...
...From the taxpayer...
...Roosevelt since his first nomination, up to and including the recent election, it is not an easy matter for me to offer a severe criticism of the President...
...Kathryn Lopas Neenah, Wis...
...As The Progressive has suggested, America does have a positive role as "the conscience of the Allies...
...Kimmel and Short have been made the goats for the misdeeds and miscalculations of those in highest authority, which of course explains why these two men have never been granted the right of a fair trial...
...Wise old Benjamin Franklin knew this, and knowing it, opposed the fighting of the Revolution, longed for a truce (negotiated peace) in the midst of hostilities, and when it was all over kept insisting that "there never was a good war, nor a bad peace...
...The facts which Mr...
Vol. 9 • March 1945 • No. 13
