THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Sitting On Revolution Dear Sirs: Stuart Chase asked in the Apr. 9 issue, "What Happened To That Revolution?" For the record, that revolution is simmering away, up...
...They will, in a word, turn out stupendous volumes of goods...
...I can name 20 women without thinking twice who have sweethearts, sons, or husbands in the war...
...Unless there is purchasing power in the pockets of all the citizens, huge stocks will remain on shelves and in warehouses, and we shall be on the road to another tragic depression...
...W. H. Fulker Colorado Springs, Colo...
...Those who realized exactly what was happening were scolded and berated...
...16, "What's The Matter With Congress...
...Another Biblical law which socialism would enforce is the law prohibiting the lending of money at interest...
...Biblical Socialism Dear Sirs: Clara Beck Helland in her letter to The Progressive of Apr...
...23 issue...
...Congressional Broadcast Dear Sirs: It is with great hope that I learn that Sen...
...And are these pacifists idle now...
...Himmler of Germany but Mr...
...Someone in high places must know of that bitterness, of that keg of dynamite upon which we sit...
...The pacifist sees the inconsistency...
...Our Fool Money System Dear Sirs: This is a comment on W. F. Far-rell's letter in the Forum of Mar...
...Hankins for his article: "What About The Jews...
...He is right in saying that woman suffrage at the polls has been a big disappointment, but his remarks about bellicose women show he must be living under his desk instead of at it...
...Thomas G. Dill Raynham Center, Mass...
...I enjoy reading The Progressive and I am sure it takes a lot of nerve for you to expose many of the evils that are put over on us nowadays...
...We're sitting on that revolution, gentlemen, and, if we're quiet, we'll hear it simmering...
...Would you ask Mr...
...I read a local Hearst newspaper daily...
...Who knows...
...The first 100 days, however, was all there was...
...Wayne Redenbaugh Salina, Kans...
...Defends Pacifists Dear Sirs: I should like to reply to M. O. Malmin, of Moses Lake, Wash., who in the Jan...
...If there were a million of them, who would refuse to fight, there would be no concentration camp big enough to send them to...
...Meanwhile, much success to Sen...
...Behold...
...La Follette has been chosen to head the joint Congressional Committee to Modernize Congress...
...Turn The Spotlight Dear Sirs: "If the 2 races are to live together in this country it may as well be understood that the war has in no way changed the attitude of the Aryans toward the social and political equality of the Jew...
...It can be argued as a purely selfish measure, for we have learned that desperate people will clutch at help promised by dictators...
...First, to give you confidence in what I say, I deserted the Republican and Democrat Party 50 years ago...
...Our thoughts drift back to that time when a great progressive Senator, the late George W. Norris, proposed and then untiringly worked for the unicameral amendment to the Nebraska state constitution...
...and universal conscription which, among other things, will lighten the load on the labor market...
...The control of legislation by hand picked committees, standing or special, is undemocratic and distasteful to the American public...
...Seriously, The Progressive is good, and getting better all the time...
...So let us shoot Bob La Follette, Jr., and give the peace prize to Hitler...
...Rome day I may see ads in your magazine that I may not like, but I do not think I would ask you to remove them...
...Congress, being made up of representative delegates with the obligation of forming policies and laws beneficial to the people as individuals, the words and actions of these representatives, which take place in the Congressional chambers, should be available to the people at all times...
...A certain reader of Harrisburg, Pa., objects to H-J ads because it eems Joseph McCabe's books are listed in the ads...
...Last, but by no means least, we doggedly and persistently cling to a heterogeneous educational system stemming from colonial days and we look on impotently while Congress "liquidates" one education bill after another...
...Not until we voters replace the reactionaries, the stand patters, the rabid, raw partisanites, the special interest servers and the just plain duds, with men that can and will represent the people...
...Thus the actions taken would be subject to the immediate knowledge, scrutiny, criticism, and reaction of the people represented in a truly modern way...
...And lest we forget, there were the lame duck sessions of Congress to which we tenaciously clung for generations...
...Worth, Tex...
...Whether by design or happenstance, the result has emerged the same...
...Then the political leaders would be forced to take notice of them...
...Some are stretcher-bearers on the battlefields, some drive ambulances, some offer themselves as guinea pigs for scientific experiments, some go into epidemic lands and fight disease, dirt, and ignorance...
...As to our chaotic system and its remedy, send for circulars about the money league to Charles G. Binderup, Minden, Nebr...
...in your Apr...
...As far as my experience goes, all the women I have heard of who proudly and smilingly stack their men into trains for their embarkation point are the patriotically insane characters of radio plays and magazine ads and stories...
...I do like your Forum section, the whole 2 pages, even though a fellow like Larsen did get in...
...The above statements prove that the forefathers neither claimed that those rights can be secured only by Republican or Democratic governments...
...Many have lost their lives in doing so...
...So, I was sure to see the letter of C. G. Larsen in your issue of Apr...
...Worth subscribers are...
...The Congress, present and past ones, cannot avoid assuming a large share of the responsibility...
...Finally Congress committed the unpardonable sin of repealing the Neutrality Act which was in fact a declaration of war...
...They see how one war leads to another, how hatred and vengeance keep carnage active...
...I could make this more clear if allowed more space...
...Be that as it may, I am always on the lookout for anybody who tries to destroy anything I like...
...They pulled off one on Gro-ver Cleveland in 1893, as stated by Luther Kibler in the Forum of Aug...
...That great writer and champion of truth understands well that our danger comes not from our enemies but from our friends and also that we must become doers instead of whiners...
...Just a few more sparks like the late Yalta affair, and there'll be more than a simmer...
...Give the people cake and they'll not ask for bread...
...If you have the copy you ought to read it after this letter...
...Also send for circular of paper to Freedom And Plenty, 30 Madison St., San Antonio, Tex...
...La Follette and his new committee...
...Principles, Not Names Dear Sirs: July 4,1776, the founding fathers of the United States of America, adopted the Declaration of Independence in which they declared: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...
...We wonder how certain states manage with but one or two representatives while others have as high as 45...
...The members who after World War I hamstrung and finally drove our merchant fleet off the seas, who scuttled our powerful Navy for the purpose of restoring to Britain her position as mistress of the seas—these men surrendered the first slice of our independence...
...But what of the terms of the Italian Armistice by which England gobbles all the Italian colonies, thereby hemming in 40 million Italians...
...In his article in The Progressive of Apr...
...When your paper comes along, I expect to read what the masses themselves think...
...Governments can sanction murder...
...into the next Presidential campaign...
...Isn't it about time that progres-sive people of this country turn the spotlight on our own race superiority complex as well as that of Mr...
...Dave Bartholomew Bozeman, Mont...
...I was wrong...
...I get a belly full of these professional writers who worship money and hate the masses of people...
...James Byrnes, "Assistant President of the United States", exhorting in the Senate following World War I. Aryans and Jews have been substituted for whites and Negroes...
...Looks Ahead Dear Sirs: I like your weekly very much, and look forward to many interesting articles and a continued greater Progressive...
...We decide the thinly populated states are better off after all...
...A streamlined Congress...
...That is through the new Townsend Plan bill which was recently introduced in both houses of Congress...
...But, and mark you this, there was never a time that these United States could not have been moulded into one harmonious unit...
...Dick Johnson Berkeley, Calif...
...This should strike a responsive chord with most of us...
...I see some quit The Progressive — looks like they can't stand it when corruption is exposed and the truth told...
...Mrs...
...These pacifists see that greed for money and power, greed for markets, airways, partition of territory, power politics, as we see it in the headlines today, cause war...
...I quote...
...Godless Writers Dear Sirs: Cancel my subscription to The Progressive...
...The American leaders in any p«-sition of executive power have long since made their decision to sell us down the river, to deprive us forever of the glorious inheritance we received from George Washington and his band of heroes...
...So if you will study the said system you will realize that your plan is no remedy for the ills of the wage workers or farmers...
...I like Milton Mayer, also Bob La Follette, and I think Mrs...
...Bob has all the qualities it takes for this important job...
...He wondered what the readers' ideas would be in this regard...
...La Follette would make a good editor...
...I'm not much for writing Forum letters, as I am kept pretty busy washing diapers and doing other unintellectual things a young mother has to do, much to the disgust of people like Mr...
...That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its power in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness...
...It calls for national insurance to all citizens 60 years of age and older who retire from gainful employment, and agree to spend their monthly annuities within 30 days of receipt...
...the Senator mentions streamlining Congressional committees...
...Their only desire was to promote the welfare and good-will among nations so they can live as a family of nations in peace, joy, and happiness...
...These men will be working with new machine tools and under mass production methods...
...But we can stand aside and refuse to have naught to do with their low aims and low deeds...
...As a private citizen, interested in preserving our democratic method for social advancement and in making this representative government more efficient, I have a suggestion which I feel would be very effective...
...The kingdom of heaven on earth that Jesus prayed for will have in it not one real estate owner nor banker...
...It would be financed by a 3 per cent tax on all gross business and personal incomes in excess of $1,-200 annually...
...Harry Elmer Barnes, in his article "Liberalism, Socialism, Fascism, and War", settles the question with the following statement...
...Barnes, who would have her out on a soap box discussing the San Francisco parley...
...Jessie M. Huber Woodburn, Oreg...
...21, 1944...
...Also, there is the archaic and undemocratic Electoral College, deeply underwritten by partisan politics and which functioned in the first 3 elections only...
...Kaiser nor the Democrats or Republicans have made it clear exactly how they propose to guarantee employment...
...And since then, have studied political economy and socialism, and also our fool money system...
...John McDonough Edge wood, la...
...For this deplorable situation we cannot blame our present Administration entirely...
...Biased Editor Dear Sirs: I had decided that I had about enough of war, W. H. Chamberlin and his poisonous articles on Russia, but there are some good articles coming up soon that I am anxious to read...
...During last year's election campaign both parties promised to provide 55,000,000 to 60,000,000 jobs...
...M. H. Spangler Baltimore, Md...
...They are in every corner of every continent carrying on their constructive work while less thoughtful, emotional people kill, scorn, and destroy...
...Albert Estling Twin Falls, Idaho America's Danger Dear Sirs: America's independence is in danger...
...The bankers also pulled off a panic on Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 when he was going to bust the trusts...
...Fortunately, there is a way to avoid this...
...Florence Hiogins Conley Shell Lake, Wis...
...I have unbounded respect for the person who holds higher the Commandment of the Lord not to kill, than the order of our political leaders to kill...
...8 issue seems to misunderstand the pacifist's attitude...
...We cannot legislate war out...
...They will be working under new technological systems developed during the war...
...Lewis M. Geer Ft...
...In peacetime it is a crime to kill but not so in wartime...
...Some of us wonder at times, if 48 Senators wouldn't do a better job than 96...
...Naturally the capitalists are opposed to any such program...
...They knew that the freedom of one, 2, or 3 nations cannot secure the peace...
...Why haven't more of the states thrown their bi-cameral bodies overboard, we ask...
...But when some guy comes out and blames wars on us, I just can't sit back and take it...
...The bureaucratic alphabets served cake during the '30's, a convenient war continues to serve it...
...And the tax is so designed that it would fall equally and fairly according to ability to pay...
...Let us build our character as a nation from the heart, as free men, instead of papa knows best bureaucratic directions...
...George C. Hart Baltimore, Md...
...However, she complains that the capitalist dominated sources of education and information keep the people in ignorance...
...I am forever damned if one of them got the remotest cave-woman sense of pleasure out of their loved ones' going off to war...
...They wanted freedom for other nations as well as for themselves...
...Dear Sirs: Behold a generation raised to democracy, educated to democracy, at war for democracy—unaware of the logical application of democracy to our greatest contemporary problem, the birth of a new world government...
...We might form a club and be ready to boost Robert M. La Follette, Jr...
...Neither Mr...
...We know that Nebraska now functions well with a state legislature of 43 members, whereas it formerly had a state senate of 50 and a lower body of 100 members...
...I do not have to patronize your advertisers or take your paper for that matter, but I do so because I like it as a tine journal in promoting democracy, knowledge, and culture...
...The only way to peace is to give freedom to the peoples of the world, India as well as the Philippines...
...Now how to abolish this banking scheme: The wage workers and farmers must unite into a political party of their own, and send men to Congress who will vote to have Congress issue money as stated in the Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 5, and not private bankers and money lords as now...
...9 says that Jesus was a "crusading socialist" and that socialism will, if adopted, give us permanent peace...
...Most of our magazine and newspaper writers, yours included, are as Godless as Joe Stalin and his world clique...
...For years I have been laboring under the delusion that big industrialists of several countries who backed the dictators and built up their war machines, also the Tories who sold out Czechoslovakia and turned their backs while Republican Spain was being murdered, were among those chiefly to blame for this great disaster...
...He is not liked by a certain element because he hits with hard facts and cold logic certain superstitious beliefs which have come down to us from the dark past of long ago and some of them of not so long ago...
...Hitler and begin to find out what we have done and are still doing to the youth of our own country with our poll tax, lynch laws, and Jim Crow policies in civilian life as well as in the armed forces...
...They believed in just principles...
...McCabe Defended Dear Sirs: I notice that a few readers object to certain ads you carry in The Progressive...
...For the record, that revolution is simmering away, up and down the highways of America, down at the grass roots, and not too far from the surface...
...In the near future the Big 3 will be organizing a league in San Francisco to guarantee us a lasting peace...
...It is there to be heard by those who wish to hear it...
...We non-politicians speculate on the House of Representatives, for example, with its great bulk of 435 members and its 47 standing committees and we wonder, though not too much, why so many bills are strangled, or emasculated while in committee...
...For instance, there's the Demo-Publican dual party system with its maze of committees, its conventions, its crooked bosses, and its weasel-worded pre-election platforms...
...Else why all the furor of 60 million jobs and no ships to bring men home...
...Robert M. LaFollette, Jr...
...Certainly, we must have big business, properly curbed, little business, properly aided...
...No, this is not Mr...
...We grow doubly daring when we entertain the idea that Congress itself might become a unicameral body some day...
...I consider Joseph McCabe to be one of the world's greatest living scholars...
...I suggest that all sessions of both Senate and House be put on a national radio hookup...
...Much better than the present one, who is also biased about Russia...
...What is to become of their huge production...
...Barnes Chided Dear Sirs: At last I have learned who was chiefly responsible for bringing on World War II...
...I have examined same from cover to cover and failed to find God's holy name or even a mention of asking for divine guidance...
...neither can we change the hearts of those lusting for power and money...
...Yet it never conclusively settles a problem like quietly weighing it in one's mind...
...A Streamlined Congress Dear Sirs: It is most fortunate the Joint Congressional Committee to Modernize Congress is headed by Sen...
...Streamline Congress...
...All bonds and other evidences of indebtedness will be repudiated in the kingdom of Jesus...
...Barnes, for me, to eat it...
...But, we Americans like to hold onto antiquated institutions...
...Liberals were chiefly responsible for bringing on World War II and for extending and prolonging it...
...The national insurance would guarantee buying power to those citizens no longer able to labor...
...After a study of this picture, gullibility is not enough to believe in peace, it requires imbecility...
...The forefathers didn't believe that might is right...
...C. H. Casper Rochester, N. Y. * * * Purchasing Power Dear Sirs: Henry Kaiser, the shipbuilder, says that 60,000,000 jobs after the war are possible...
...How can we be sure that we will be able to consume all this output...
...And I even resented the fact that you chiseled off one corner of one of the pages...
...Streamline Congress...
...America's Duty Dear Sirs: It is up to the people of the United States to help the starving people of Europe by shipping food immediately, even though it may mean that rationing be continued here after the war...
...And the dismemberment of Poland...
...It would be a revealing study to ask the same set of questions of us Americans as the Psychological Warfare Branch of the American Army presented to the German people of Aachen, Germany...
...A vibrant, stable, democratic Europe cannot be built on starvation and disease...
...As time goes on the numbers of pacifists are increasing geometrically...
...The moment is rapidly approaching when the decision will be made whether we are to remain an independent nation or be irrevocably bonded as a pawn within the dangerous power politics of Britain...
...C. L. Cook Brooklyn, N. Y. * * * Thanks Hankins Dear Sirs: Let decent people thank Prof...
...Naturally the capitalists don't feel very enthusiastic about socialism which aims to put into effect the Biblical law that "the land shall not be sold forever...
...Congress voted social legislation, long needed, with the people biting at their heels...
...Then too, we have the antiquated county board system, a relic of pre-ox-cart days...
...Mrs...
...Henry W. Landroehr Wrebster Groves, Mo...
...Then there are others who have carefully studied history and who have thought out individually the causes that lead to every war and have thought how these causes might have been avoided...
...What is even more important is the fact that there has been no discussion of how the goods produced by 60,000,000 gainfully employed persons are to be distributed...
...Frank Nagy Newport, Wash...
...The enforced spending feature would assure a constant market for goods...
...Their owners are flatly told by him that there will be no compensation as they have already received their "consolation...
...Lera Crohn Chicago, Ill...
...After that followed the repudiation of the war debts by a later Congress, which thereby assured the European nations of the- means necessary for their military resurgence and the present horrible blast of death sweeping over the world...
...That knocks out mortgages on and speculation in land...
...I wish to commend your most brilliant and fearless writer, Fred Rodell...
...There is a way to guarantee both employment and widespread purchasing power...
...Perhaps it shall...
...H. A. Ramsdell Evansville, Wis...
...Cure Dear Sirs: For the second time in 10 years it has rained too much in Texas but my copy of The Progressive is the surest cure for rainy week-end blues an out-door worker can hope for...
...I wish there was some way I could know who the other Ft...
...A Lot Of Nerve' Dear Sirs: I have been one of your subscribers for many years...
...Mrs...
...16 issue...
...Michael Castor Brampton, Mich...
...his departure will be facilitated by the Aryans of this country who desire no disturbing factor in their midst...
...The forefathers didn't believe in names...
...That revolution was neatly stymied in 1932...
...John Gekstner Butler, Pa...
...Mollie Tarter Elmhurst, N. Y. Barnes Is Slapped Dear Sirs: Herewith I am enclosing an article by Harry Barnes, "Feminism and War," printed in the Apr...
...History tells us that Poland possessed not only the disputed territories but large parts of what is now Russia long before Russia was organized as a nation...
...Burton Goodrich Spring Green, Taliesen, Wis...
...The economic royalists, so called, were scared of their necks...
...The plan would open jobs for youth by offering oldsters a decent retirement income...
...From then on political expediency moved in...
...It takes vast courage to stand against the scorn and reproach of millions of fellow citizens for your convictions—the same bravery that Jeannette Rankin displayed when she held out alone against over 500 fellow Congressmen to vote no on the declaration of war...
...But Peter was played against Paul, and now, there is a rising tide of bitterness...
...I could have had half my ironing done if I hadn't taken time to write this...
...If as a result of his experiences in the war, he does not care to live in this land without political and social equality, then he can depart for any country he wishes...
...Nor did they dictate under what names other nations can constitute their governments...
...So long as the majority of Congress is too ignorant or selfish to abolish the bankers' power, we will have panics, unemployment, and chaos...
...Share This Issue With Friends Send A Gift Subscription Today What The Masses Think Dear Sirs: It has been said that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance...
...The first and most important thing to read about is our fool banking scheme, by which the bankers of 12 privately owned Federal banks control the nation's money and can call a panic any time they choose...
Vol. 9 • May 1945 • No. 20
