THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Freedom Of Conscience Dear Sirs: At a United Pacifist meeting in New York City on Apr. 18; some 130 persons present signed petitions directed to President Franklin...
...The cutting was satisfactory, except on the point about unification of Europe...
...We can still be, as they say, "realistic," in other words not so sentimental as to underwrite a constitution doomed from the start by a one-Big-Nation-VETO clause...
...Keep up the good work...
...With 2 world wars and 3 major depressions in one generation to its credit, "free enterprise," (American business), must be given "another great opportunity to demonstrate its value to mankind...
...I know from my own experience in World War I that lack of military training caused great loss of life, and it was an act of God rather than a scientific military maneuver that enabled many of us to come back...
...C. E. payne Usk, Wash...
...Elmer E. Tatum Wabash, Ind...
...S. W. rogers Westwego, La...
...But these have been American business exclusively — railroads, steel, oil, rubber, etc...
...Although Corbett Bishop refused any legal help and was determined not to take part in any court proceedings, he was defended in the Grand Rapids court on Dec...
...Lincoln cries, "I think so too...
...katharine woodhead Hollywood, Calif...
...So back the coops...
...The sentiment is the same in both passages...
...To force a colloquialism into the lingo of the card game — unless "realism" is a Divine-Right prerogative of power politicians, maybe it is time to come out of our lyric states and start calling a spade a spade...
...Newspapers and individuals must prod our Congress to make amends long overdue...
...Many objectors refuse to accept CPS as an alternative to war and many reaching prison refuse to cooperate with prison officials denouncing both CPS and prison as not decent alternatives...
...He warned, if he were arrested, he would be completely uncooperative, even to the point of refusing prison meals...
...Merrel D. Clubb Stillwater, Okla...
...ray s. kellogg Norwalk, O. * * * Praise For Thomas Dear Sirs: Norman Thomas is to be congratulated on his splendid article, "F...
...I believe that the thousands of boys who go into the lines with a book of regulations and a gun are certainly handicapped in comparison to a group of boys who have had a period of military training in a school during peacetime when their minds are free from wartime emotion and they are better able to grasp the teachings relative to military life...
...Bishop was then beyond the age limit for military service or any other service under Selective Service, but the FBI arrested him Saturday, Sept...
...The truth of that statement arises from'the fact that all reforms necessarily involve dollars and cents...
...They plan to dominate behind the screen of a world security league...
...So I say, that the most brilliant, humane, educational, and economical step we can take is to give every school boy at least a year's military training, which will not only acquaint him with the methods for our country's protection, but will make him a better looking, better acting, healthier, and more dependable citizen, and give him pride in being American, and ambition to keep America the greatest of nations...
...I have but one regret and that is that I did not vote for Mr...
...dead leaders of course being preferable to live ones any day...
...O. R. Schecterle Milwaukee, Wis...
...John Haynes Holmes The Community Church New York, N. Y. * * * Most Information Dear Sirs: I think The Progressive is the most informative weekly in America...
...Churchill (or was it...
...How about a little more news about Col...
...Philip F. La Follette...
...The morning newspapers of Mar...
...But politicians must have pretenses to live on, so there will be a lot more palaver...
...Have these writers also become hypnotized by beautiful words...
...Without demanding or expecting a perfectionist peace or an impossible world setup, we have not only the right but the duty to refuse to be guaranteeing partners to a clearly vindictive and chimerical peace in the making—with its carefree juggling of frontiers, its vague mouthings about reparations impossible to collect (witness Versailles and following), and its project of slave-labor reconstruction, which will bedevil Russia et al, as it is now bedeviling Hitler and Co...
...edna C. dorsey Cincinnati, O. Unifying Europe Dear Sirs: In the Mar...
...From personal experience I can report that if you say to them, for instance, "Every bank loan and every purchase by a bank creates a deposit, and every repayment of a bank loan or sale by a bank destroys one," they just don't know what you are talking about...
...B. h. horn brook Los Angeles, Calif...
...Frank D. Slocum New York, N. Y. * * * Correction From Dr...
...But ultimately the usury system cracks up...
...They are the most democratic and progressive movement in America today, working for the betterment of the common man...
...Is only one player to be allowed to shuffle the cards at San Francisco, et cetera...
...So may I comment on that point...
...Like A Crawfish Dear Sirs: I need lots of good kindling, but please discontinue my subscription...
...If our method of paying the costs lands up in a blind alley, the objects of the reform are defeated...
...Best wishes for success, Mr...
...Last Summer Bishop reached the age of 38 and determined that he would no longer cooperate with the evil of conscription...
...Call it what you may, but in contrast, if we are to underwrite private capital, it is time "we goodwill hour subjects" wake up and demand that as a postwar prerequisite, the Federal Government make good its promises of full employment for all with decent wages by underwriting that guarantee...
...Lincoln quotes with approval from Democracy Under Pressure, by Stuart Chase, wherein we are warned of the inherent evil and threat to our way of life, inseparable from "pressure groups...
...19, 1945 carried items informing the public that Biddle has asked legislation that would recognize the existence of "absolutist" conscientious objectors...
...The time has come when it is a national duty, if it isn't already too late, to pull up and examine what we are supposed to be stringing along with...
...He told them, "The authorities have the power to seize my body— that is all they can do—my spirit will be free...
...D. r's Last Chance To Win The Peace", in the Feb...
...H. C. dekker Portland, Oreg...
...julius eichel Brooklyn, N. Y. Too Much Propaganda Dear Sirs: It is needless to repeat that the important task of all the Allied nations is winning this war as quickly as possible, and cooperation is the key to its success...
...Even here, no signatory will go farther than the economic interests of its most influential group require...
...Shuffling The Cards Dear Sirs: Honeyed words have been lavishly spread on both sides of the Atlantic to mystify the people of Great Britain and the United States concerning what happened at Yalta...
...of which is so strongly deplored in others...
...12 issue of The Progressive asks for the publication of stickers to put on correspondence to oppose peacetime conscription...
...Many objectors recognize the evil of CPS and leave it only to land in prison...
...The truth simply is that 3 of the international boys—the big shots, too—got together at Yalta for another little poker game...
...To understand how a debt-money system will inevitably lead to such an outcome it is necessary to know how our present money system works...
...Holmes Dear Sirs: In my recent article in your Apr...
...I do say that, if we really want a unified Europe, we have 2 courses...
...Everybody knows that "pressure groups" established this Republic, wrote its Constitution, and have dictated its policies from that distant date to the present moment...
...I ascribed this to Robert Browning, whereas it should have been credited to James Russell Lowell...
...Russia, if she controls them, may or may not sell them down the river, but they know that the "democracies" will, and so should the Mayers, Markhams, Chamberlins, etc...
...You are in the wrong church, also in the wrong pew, Mr...
...And so two of the boys went home in a barrel...
...Oh no...
...9 until he was released on Dec...
...Why then must we all stand inanely agape at this day's wonder...
...Even Atty...
...At this time, while our Government is condemning the individual within the Axis borders for his irresponsible submission to the militarists in his country, it is hardly consistent that our Government should be punishing individuals in our country for exercising this discretion and judgment the lacf...
...Hence he will attempt to strengthen Russia by controlling or annexing as many subsidiary powers as possible, especially those adjacent to her frontiers and within her natural sphere of influence...
...Your weekly could contribute much to a better understanding of the nature of our debt-money system...
...I have even less confidence in his statements since hearing him debate recently on the "Town Meeting" program...
...And that is just where 9 out of 10 liberals and progressives have a distorted perspective...
...2. That the peoples of Europe (not the governments) have no faith in the professions of the "democracies" regarding democracy, freedom, and justice...
...They seem to ignore the fundamental facts of this war, as follows: 1. That there has been and still is a fundamental antagonism between-the business interests of the "democracies" and Russian communism, whether controlled by Lenin, Trotsky, or Stalin...
...Neither did the man who made so many promises which he failed to keep, receive my vote...
...Today, the American farmer is asking questions...
...Such stickers are published by the War Resisters' League, 5 Beekman Street, New York 7, N. Y. Five hundred may be obtained for a dollar bill...
...If there is to be harmony in a "peace-loving" postwar world, all nations must be represented...
...Renew Your Subscription Today...
...Russia's Reasons Dear Sirs: Your front-page articles by Mayer, Markham, and Chamberlin on the Yalta conference sound as childishly indignant as the PM, New Republic, and other "tired liberal" sheets which you so rightly and frequently condemn...
...george kelsey dreher Yale Divinity School New Haven, Conn...
...Well, funny as the question may sound, could it be that Russia, who has suffered so much, needs, in her war fevers, to be saved from herself, while the suasion of the other two partners still carries at least a weight...
...Above all honors he would prize world-citizenship in a decent world of all nations united...
...Surely the problem which beat even Briand cannot be solved merely by American approval-from-afar of the idea of a full-fledged federation...
...If the conscience of the individual is to be exercised freely, the conscientious objector must be freed from the threat of prison or the CPS concentration camps...
...But these and similar sentiments, hopes, and sympathies are not sufficient warrant for allowing ourselves to be led bv the nose to cooperate in a FIASCO...
...Francis Bid-dle* and Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons, James V. Bennett urgently asking them to intervene in the name of America's most treasured tradition of freedom of conscience to free Corbett Bishop, who was sentenced Mar...
...Back The Co-ops Dear Sirs: I enjoy reading your paper very much and I was pleased to note you were backing the co-ops...
...These successes for evil will pass with the conditions from which they spring, but the peace policy of Abraham Lincoln will not perish from the earth, for the principles on which it is based alter not with changed conditions...
...Chamberlin's articles the least...
...It expresses my views exactly...
...Good hunting, PAC...
...16, 1945 to 4 years in prison and fined $1,000 for his conscientious convictions against conscription...
...It has been said that "all reform waits on money reform...
...Keep it up...
...Thomas in the last election...
...If this is a "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people," why a world international bank with the people's money as a guarantee of private capital in its gigantic task of rehabilitation of the bankrupt nations of Europe...
...12 Forum regarding compulsory military training...
...edwin A. arrington Corbett, Oreg...
...I am sorry that I mixed up the authors, and thus seek to make this correction...
...I was thinking, when I set down the quotation, of Robert Browning's familiar lines: "Better have failed in the high aim, as I, Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed...
...They believe that somehow it will "take care of itself," as one optimistic but badly informed radical summed up his position to me...
...The expanding power of Russia is a danger to British and American business interests, hence it must be made to appear a danger to the dear little peoples of Europe, albeit even the predatory Russian Bear can hardly deprive people of what they have never had and what the "democracies" have no desire' or ability to deliver...
...Here are your hats...
...26 People's Forum you printed a cut version of a letter by me...
...26, looks like treason to farmers and workers...
...Corbett Bishop is now on a fast for "Liberty or Death...
...His continuance in prison is equivalent to a death sentence...
...From the day Bishop was arrested on Sept...
...On Sept...
...During that period he underwent the excruciating torture of forced feeding through the nose to keep him alive...
...2 issue, my memory betrayed me in the matter of the quotation, "Not failure but low aim is crime...
...I do not ask U. s. s. R. control of Europe...
...Yours is the United States Chamber of Commerce...
...Now the Dumbarton Oaks idea, sanctified at Yalta by nine-tenths of the world's bombing planes, is to be brought to San Francisco and called a plan...
...I sincerely hope that there will never be another war, but I do not believe that a program of "the survival of the fittest" that has not changed in 1,945 years, will be much different during the next 1,945 years, because War is merely another form of international competition, and every so often that competition will have to be played off to prove to the world which country has made the greatest advances in engineering, science, and education in general...
...When they were proposed each seemed very sensible, but conditions threw them in the discard...
...Chase becomes suddenly very articulate and Mr...
...Nothing is more loathsome to the writer than isolation (except as to jumping head first into the free-lance power-politics wars of other people...
...Thomas...
...Today, however, there is the PAC of the CIO...
...The democracies were in full control of Europe after the last war and failed to deliver...
...6 by Francis Heisler, an able and sympathetic Chicago attorney...
...Allegory aside, one would think that persons with sufficient intelligence to read and retain even the hampered newspaper reports of the power politics a-brewing from Casablanca to the Yalta love-feast could see at a glance that just nothing essential which we had not already known or guessed at, down to the salvos of self-applause, came out of the ratified agenda...
...The farthest any nation can be induced to go, despite its signatures, is to join with other nations to drive back any nation that sends armed forces into the territory of any other signatory...
...I also believe it is easier for a person with actual military training to appreciate the value of peace, because, having a knowledge of both, he is in a position to decide which is the most valuable, and decisions are generally based on comparisons, and these comparisons are made possible by military training...
...Everybody knows that American business is, as it always has been, in politics clear up to its ears, naming its own Congressmen, dictating their policies, and by means of its press, pulpit, platform, and radio, working its will upon the masses of American citizens, regardless of party...
...The readers are ahead of people who do not read it, in the matter of news and provocative subjects...
...Isn't Bob La Follette due for a provocative article soon...
...He declares that American business is "the mainspring of public welfare...
...I like Miles McMillin's articles that venture into other subjects than cooperatives, as well as I do his newsy items on cooperatives...
...Another self-styled group of liberals actually preaches that "the bigger the debt the better the day," on the theory that the interest on the debt is disbursed "within the economy...
...6 Bishop fasted the entire period of 89 days...
...I know you are progressive, but like the crawfish you progress backward a good deal faster than forward...
...If the screen becomes too transparent for the idealists to swallow, it will then appear that we, the peace-loving peoples, are forced to become militarist, and aggressive, because of Russia's expansionist tendencies...
...Instead, it should team up with consumer cooperatives...
...Some signatures and some seals will be put on some pieces of paper, but conditions are still marching on...
...It goes without saying that the American people make their living, good, bad, or indifferent as the case may be, within the boundaries of the United States of America, and no place else on earth, and those that think otherwise will emerge from their pipe dream in the not distant future as bankrupt beggars...
...These principles bear witness to the truth that we live under a rule of moral law, and Lincoln's courageous espousal of these principles bears witness to his moral greatness, reverence for which increases with the years as the hearts of those who worship the God of truth, justice, and mercy in spirit and in truth...
...They succeeded then, they may succeed now, but their success will bring them the same odious reputations that success of his enemies in the reconstruction period brought them...
...Finally, Mr...
...Furthermore, for 2 decades he tried to reason with every Russophobe he met...
...No doubt that's nice going for those who can get the interest for as long as they can get it...
...to insist upon the good faith of Russia in all things, full in the face of strangely disquieting declarations of aims and reservations-emanating from the Kremlin...
...Still all have difficulty in getting along without that money which they know so little about...
...29, while in the custody of a U. S. marshal on his way to Grand Rapids, Mich., where he was to be tried, the car in which he was being transferred was wrecked and he was seriously hurt...
...Of course the PAC is going to exert political pressure, it is going to steadily increase that pressure, and it is going to team up with the farmers and with all genuine consumer cooperatives...
...Nothing is more certain than that...
...Conditions Still There Dear Sirs: In the myriad proposals advanced for an international peace formation since 1939, none has survived more than a year...
...Dear Sirs: You have a list of excellent contributors coming up...
...People in the educational field would do well for themselves to keep up with the historical, political, ed^-ucational, and economic changes that are taking place in the world as reported in the columns of The Progressive...
...Or, we can abandon all pressure on Europe, thus leaving it to the sphere of U. s. s. r. pressure...
...The people must not only be taught the spirit of brotherhood of man, but must learn to act it in that spirit of live and let live, if civilization is to survive on this planet...
...Good Hunting, PAC!' Dear Sirs: To me, the sordid spectacle of the president of the Cooperative League of the U. s. A. pleading the cause of "free enterprise", as he did in The Progressive, Mar...
...However, I do not agree with Miss Frankel in the Mar...
...Chase, Mr...
...mrs...
...Knowing this, Murray d. Lincoln has the audacity in effect to advise organized labor to stay out of politics and refrain from exerting political pressure...
...The essential remedy is Government money instead of bankers' money and credit...
...What clearly happened was that Winnie and Franklin lost their shirts and pants at Yalta...
...Prior to the Summer of 1944 for over 2 years Bishop submitted to the common penalty of segregation in Civilian Public Service Camps (CPS...
...He took a furlough from CPS 135, Germfask, Mich., and took the trouble of going to Washington and searched out the officials in Selective Service, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons and told them that he had left CPS for good, and that hereafter he would be a free man or die in the attempt to gain his freedom...
...What About Our Debt...
...The people are willing to make any kind of sacrifice to win this war, now that we are in, but are getting fed up with high-sounding propaganda that they again, again, and again, tighten their belts in order to feed the world, when in fact up to the inception of the present war millions in this country with their families were hungry, without jobs...
...A Lincoln Peace Dear Sirs: The enemies of Lincoln's peace policy today, as those of his day, screen their greed for spoils behind a plea for a "hard" peace...
...Daddy Jan Smuts has been predicting this would happen to Winnie some day soon...
...C. H. Foster Janesville, Wis...
...w. j. schroedeb Milwaukee, Wis...
...But I notice one omission—you promise nothing which tries to answer the question, "What About Our National Debt...
...Francis Biddle is willing to concede that conscience is not a crime...
...some 130 persons present signed petitions directed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Atty...
...The cleverness of the boy named Joe (or may one suspect a horse-pistol laid quietly on the card table as the determining factor...
...During the interim it is well that the future economic welfare of the people be discussed and planned...
...Since fine words butter no parsnips, and since Stalin sees no evidence of big business losing control in the "democracies" or their satellite "sister republics," he naturally looks for the antagonism to continue after their military need of Russia ceases...
...Give A Friend The Truth Send A Gift Subscription Today More Conscription Stickers Dear Sirs: Dwight L. Bolinger of Los Angeles, Calif., in the Forum of the Mar...
...Only Praise Dear Sirs: I always depend on The Progressive for correct information and I have only praise for it...
...A. G. Cornell Payette, Idaho * * * Give A Friend The Truth I Send Him The Progressive Today Oppose Conscription Dear Sirs: It is our sincere wish that you vigorously oppose any and all peacetime conscription...
...No farmer or worker ever was represented...
...Today, therefore, Mr...
...Very few know how money originates, who creates it, how it is destroyed, and other relevant facts...
...9. Because he refused to cooperate in his arrest and movements while under arrest, he was treated rather roughly...
...the same interests and almost the same men are in evidence today, so why expect a different outcome than before...
...These camps are recognized by many public officials as instruments for penalizing those CO's who are not sent to prison...
...Edward F. Toepper Chicago, Ill...
...We can increase our pressure on Europe in favor of democratic forces, aiming at democratic teamwork among European states...
...Different Viewpoints Dear Sirs: I am glad to have the different viewpoints you afford your readers, but like Mr...
...The daily doesn't give half the news The Progressive does...
...It was guileless of Mr...
...You on the staff are doing very well...
...You can't give them too much support...
...No more egregious fallacy could be uttered...
...And Joe didn't need to cook up a story, because, you see, the gains he brought home in his capacious bandana to his little woman spoke for themselves...
...Unconditional Surrender is an absurdity and will not contribute to lasting peace...
...Some liberals and progressives hold that the money question is a very minor matter...
...It is important to know why it cracks up...
...may be measured by the elaborate detail and vo-ciferousness of the yarns Winnie and Franklin thought up to put over on the two little women at home, so to speak, who might have got trigger-happy with rolling-pins if the stories hadn't been good...
...The "democracies" obviously intend to hold bases and possessions as far afield as possible and regard the whole world as their sphere of influence...
...12 issue...
...Favors Conscription Dear Sirs: I read The Progressive regularly, and the People's Forum is to me one of the most interesting sections...
...Lasting peace with justice and equality will be accomplished only when we eliminate the exploitation of international bankers and their cohort cartels, and thus their similar influence over the economic and political fate of the world...
...His arms and legs were wrenched, he was blackjacked, and kicked brutally by his guards...
...Studying nations in Europe, which for years have used forced conscription, we believe such measures are but enticements for competition in military and naval prestige and have proved no guarantee for peace on earth and good will toward all people...
...Lincoln...
...Obviously, in order that the abomination may be chanted once again at San Francisco and, come the war's end, written into a power politicians' peace to conclude "a people's war...
...There's a crying need for such understanding...
Vol. 9 • April 1945 • No. 16
