THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . R. H. Markham's 'Blind Bias' Dear Sirs: I hope you will permit me to comment on Mr. R. H. Markham's article, "Time Bomb in the Balkans," published in The...
...For the same Germany that produced the Nazis produced the Manns and the Lud-wigs...
...C-arden in his responsible position will teach them of true democracy, in which people freely vote, freely write, and freely express their opinions...
...Markham's views on the so-called Tito's Yugoslavia are completely vitiated and perverted by a blind political bias...
...Keep up the good work...
...Federal Pension Dear Sirs: Keep up the fight for an economy of abundance and full employment...
...The men at least were interested enough to argue with us but the women were not and definitely not informed...
...He appears to be highly educated...
...Some innocent people might have been killed, unfortunately...
...But in other ways every one is admirable too...
...Every one is ridiculous in some special little fashion...
...mains, however, the Soviet Union is enormously popular in Yugoslavia...
...I wish American journalists had one hundredth part as much freedom in Yugoslavia as Tito's fanatical, self-appointed emissaries have here...
...There have been no more ruthless "native oppressors" in Yugoslavia since that state was created, than are the present masters...
...But I too found the Thomas Mann article in the Reader's Digest completely astonishing...
...Robert L. Lam Ft...
...This, alas, cannot be said about his article on Yugoslavia with which I am fairly familiar, as I was born there (in Slovenia), spent my boyhood days there and since then have closely followed all major po. 1 i t i c a 1 developments including (very much) the heroic liberation struggles of the Yugoslav people . ever since Hitler invaded their country in the Spring of 1941...
...Or rather he belittles, perverts, and misrepresents it...
...Markham uses every device of his eloquence to convey the impression and sink it deeply into a reader's mind that "Tito's" Yugoslavia is nothing but a Communist dictatorship of the most horrid and bloody type...
...I have read Markham's previous articles in The Progressive, and elsewhere, on the Balkan situation and considered them fairly objective...
...In fact so good, I immediately sent for it in the mail...
...There has been and is much "idealism" among Yugoslav Partisans, as there was among Nazis, Moslems and the KKK, but there is also terror, absolutism, disregard for common people, and flagrant favoritism for the big shots...
...This concerns almost 4entirely the small Slovenia ? which after the World War I was cut up into 3 parts...
...for otherwise the liberation movement would have been annihilated and defeated long ago...
...Appeal To Buckeyes Dear Sirs: The facts of Ohio's legislative representation existing upon both the state and national level are well known to most Ohio progressives...
...Unfortunately while Europe is tossing in an uneasy state of peace the motion picture industry, the radio, and the press are launching a 1-ite campaign backed up by all the powers-that-be in our country...
...In its place there would be 3 or 4 small states, hardly able to live and making for chaos in the Balkans as well as in Europe...
...That anti-communist editorial on Tito and Yugoslavia, for instance, would draw a handsome price from any capitalist publication either here or in England...
...I am saying this to produce my credentials...
...Of course it's ever so easy to do that...
...2) against the native fascists and other political racketeers who so grossly mismanaged Y u g o s 1 a via and oppressed its people...
...A legitimate dispute may arise only about Trieste which is predominantly Italian by population...
...Rodell has a gift for irony that he uses, with nasty facility, to pillory human follies and frailties...
...I have always felt King Alexander was a harsh dictator, but the freedoms he allowed were incomparably greater than those in Tito's Yugoslavia...
...BlAnche Watson St...
...It is very unfortunate that Mr...
...This revolution has been effectively aimed 1) against the Nazi-Fascist invaders and "pinned down a larger German army in the Balkans than we and Americans have in Italy," according to Churchill...
...But I shall yield to M. W. Fodor who writes from Belgrade in the Chicago Sun of May 15: "Marshal Tito is a real statesman...
...R. H. Markham's article, "Time Bomb in the Balkans," published in The Progressive of May 7, concerning the new Yugoslavia headed by Tito...
...His wide knowledge of affairs is surprising...
...I've been a feminist all my life and felt confident that the women with the vote this time would keep us out of this insane inferno, out of which we are just getting one brand of totalitarianism for another...
...Alice K. Sturtzen Milwaukee, Wis...
...But revenge and hatred are the style just now, and once again Professor Thomas Mann shows the same lack of political courage he and others displayed at the time of the Nazi rise, when the German academic group found itself so helpless and voiceless...
...A final word about Russia...
...I have yet to hear of any protesting against the "obliteration bombing" of the Germans more than a year ago...
...Being childless, I had put great faith in mother love, but after the first week of'trying to get members for the "Mothers of "American Sons," I had to say to myself: "Pod-die (an old friend) was right when she called it 'mother lust...
...Also more about Columbia River Authority...
...Instead of a hate orgy we should be disseminating the fact that we must act and act quickly, "using our resources and financial strength to prevent all of Europe from becoming absolute chaos...
...Yet there is ample evidence they, especially Tito, have been guarding against excesses of a frontier type of justice...
...But gullible or ill-intentioned people are defiling the word democracy in a deplorable manner, calling wrong, right...
...Their excuses were legion...
...Hennessey largely substantiated Mr...
...I think a Federal old age pension would be a good thing also, rather than the state pension systems...
...It is in no respect better than Machek's or Koroshets...
...Let's have more of Richard L. Neuberger...
...Garden does not know that the Libera2tion Front is not composed of . all political parties, but on the contrary calls practically all the parties and their leaders "enemies of the people...
...The review was good...
...One asks, have the scriptural admonitions been put in . storage until the next truce be declared...
...But I went on — right up to the end of November, 1941—by then I was driving out to farm houses with Helen Shores Spears and we were ashamed of our sex...
...The vicious class distinctions of the European continent assume the herr professor to be of finer clay than the rank and file...
...A study of Gorham Munson's book, Aladdin's Lamp, The Wealth of the American People, will clear up a great deal of dead orthodox thinking...
...It is inconceivable that Mr...
...Mann's Lack Of Courage Dear Sirs: Regarding the letter by Michael Brkopac in the May 28 issue, I can recall reading several years ago a statement by Thomas Mann regretting his own and others' inactivity at the time the Nazis were rising to power...
...As an organizer and field worker for several anti-war organizations, I can produce whole areas of this locality in which I have rung door bells and begged women for their children's sakes to help us by just joining and not even asking for money...
...But there was Dorothy Thompson and Edna St...
...In fact if Tito's liberation movement were so terroristic and dictatorial as is pictured in Markham's article it would not have the wholehearted and so widespread support by the common people, as well as from all that is sound among the intellectuals...
...We, the victors, will saddle ourselves with a huge military caste while Germany, the vanquished, will be kept free from its militarists...
...There have been executions: the cleansing of Quislings and traitors...
...2) Because Mrs...
...As approved by the cabinet and later publicly outlined by Tito and his right hand man, Edward Kardelj, the economic life of the new Yugoslavia will be built on the program of Consumers Cooperation, private enterprise (small scale), public or government undertakings (large scale...
...I have vast admiration for the Slovenes in Europe and also great appreciation of Americans of Slovene origin...
...Markham completely ignores this, the most inspiring epic struggle against the foreign and native oppressors in the present war...
...The necessity for morale for hell is correct but it is also stupid when you do not have to go back in history for more than 25 years to know our sins of omission and greed caused Hitler and this hell just as sure as God made little green apples...
...The fact re...
...I say "unfortunate" advisedly because some of the readers, not familiar with the present or past situation in Yugoslavia, might innocently fall for his propaganda...
...There was, of course, a very high degree of discipline...
...Barnes' argument when she wrote of how she sent her son off...
...The second factor, less important, is a strong Slav fraternal feeling towards the Russians...
...Ill health, although they looked more robust than I, was the main one...
...Not content with such murder with malice aforethought, Rodell, in his "review" in The Progressive, exhumes the body and dances over it with sadistic glee...
...whether this knowledge was acquired from reading or from university training, I do not know...
...27 were not 1the followers of Tito, but the . elements which Mr...
...I am no admirer of Stalin's regime, or 6his "socialism...
...Mars Enshrined Dear Sirs: Ernest Meyer does well to score Roi Ottley for failing to take to task the lynchers of Milan and the brutal mutilation of a woman not even accused of overt crimes against the Italian people...
...Vincent Millay and Carrie Chapman Catt emitting war whoops and calling for blood, together with many lesser but social-climbing fem-mes...
...One would have expected that, the Nazi power broken, these fortunate ones would be the first to plead for humanity toward the fallen German nation, or at the very least that they would maintain a decent silence...
...He must have gained the "information" for his article from the sources of those Y'ugoslav elements who were part and parcel of the semi-fascist dictatorship in Belgrade before April 1941, for their press is full of the same type of vicious propaganda...
...But we must remember the Yugoslavs have gone through a terrible war and a civil war at the same time...
...The less said about God at such a time, the better...
...and this to the extent that his piece is nothing but a tissue of gross misrepresentation and poisonous propaganda from beginning to end...
...his bright banner of distinguished public service won't be sullied by Rodell's Lilliputian efforts at clever invective...
...Garden's letter and should like to make the following comments: I spent most of last year in direct contact with the Partisans, after a third of a century in the Balkans, and have obtained my information about them from them themselves, their writings, and their broadcasts, and more recently from other sources in direct contact with them...
...A good companion book is Jerry Voorhis' Out of Debt, Out of Danger, J. T. CSLYCS Paso Robles, Calif...
...Tito's movement has been opposed by practically all the authentic leaders of practically all the people's parties in Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia...
...What are the facts in regard to Yugoslavia...
...This observation is based on what he has done as well as what he has publicly said or written in the last 4 years...
...Constructive thought...
...There have been notable exceptions like this right along, but they have had little effect save to prove the rule, during the years since the war god Mars came to the throne of Christendom...
...By their earlier apathy they are even partly responsible for the slave-march of fellow Germans into Russia...
...Dear Sirs: Why doesn't one of R. H. Mark-ham's close friends tip him off on the value of his articles such as "Time Bomb in the Balkans" in The Progressive of May 17...
...Yet Mr...
...For the most part, the ones who escaped were those who had lived a freer, more privileged, more leisurely life in pre-war Germany...
...and dubbing every one whom they don't like a traitor or Fascist...
...Markham's Propaganda...
...Truthfully, so far he has not 5been...
...However, that is all water under the bridge and his later stand, in safer surroundings, came better late than never...
...What about Tito—is he a dictator...
...Verily, there are ways that seem right to man...
...As for Trieste, after this war it could either become an autonomous city under Yugoslavia, with complete self-government, or an independent port city under international control...
...Garden can see no evidence that Tito and his little group of comrades are autocratic masters, then political observations cease to have any validity whatsoever...
...The latter, the positive goal of this revolution, has been the main-spx'ing of inspiration and boundless idealism which has not only created new bonds of unity among the great majority of all Yugoslav people, regardless of nationality or their previous political or religious beliefs, but it has also carried them through such a Valley Forge as few people in history went through...
...I remember that both Hitler and Mussolini call5ed themselves arch-democrats, . supported by the common people—but they weren't...
...Farming is to be almost entirely in private hands...
...If Tito should desist from snatching Northeast Italy in a unilateral 4manner and the territorial . question could be settled at a peace conference, I believe Slovenia's sound ethnological claims to most of the disputed area would be recognized...
...AH we lack is an organization to work for this reform of legislative equality upon a truly population basis...
...Rodell's 'Verbal Poison' Dear Sirs: Fred Rodell's attempts to be humorous in his comments about Morris Ernst's book are far from mirth-provoking...
...Robert N. Hamilton Cleveland, 0. Fallacy Of Conscription Dear Sirs: Advocates of peacetime conscript tion urge it as the best means of an adequate defense...
...Steilaeoom, Wash...
...Give A Friend The Truth i Send Him The Progressive Today Disappointed With Women Dear Sirs: Mrs...
...Keeping-up-with-the-Joneses and Letting-George-do-it, in my opinion, has caused the decline of America...
...The important thing to remember is that without Tito, without the heroic liberation movement in which the Communists have played a very important and creditable part, there would be no Yugoslavia after this war on the basis of old...
...deception, truth...
...Good Reading Dear Sirs: As a subscriber to The Progressive, I naturally read the Forum first...
...One part, about two-thirds, became a province of Yugoslavia...
...3) to build a New Yugoslavia on a federal basis and democratic in nature...
...Is Tito a dictator...
...Why couldn't a reputed liberal like him draw a distinction between territorial or political expansion and economic expansion...
...I hardly think that the enthusiastic readers of your forthright magazine deserve Markham's bitter propaganda...
...Garden think of rulers that eliminate all except "the sound...
...Public power will determine to a large extent our postwar prosperity...
...Villard's appear pointing to the monstrous conditions that arise when an "economy is destroyed" and the necessity of our organizing at once to overcome even greater difficulties than hitherto encountered in order to save the (Vnocratic processes...
...Mrs...
...owning, at least by implication, to a complacency, an indifference, a lack of political sense or political bravery...
...H's statements are made without a wor-ker-in-the-field's knowledge of what she is talking about...
...And Mr...
...P. Whitney Largo, Fla...
...Take her "I can say without fear of contradiction that even the most cultured women would let down and make a 'holy show' of themselves along with the millions of protestors...
...But the Fellowship of Reconciliation bravely and honestly reprinted Vera Brittain's fine and factual article and some friends helped to circulate it to the everlasting credit of the church...
...But Rodell, who wrote with more grace when he stuck to his Blackstone, needs humility and a look at him- ; self as others read him...
...What does Mr...
...was an apt and timely article heralding vjliantly the banners of progressive thought...
...I happened to read his short biography of Ernst in Life Magazine, and if ever a man was the victim of sweetly-flavored verbal poison, insidiously administered so as to produce no violent death, it was, Ernst...
...Congratulations Dear Sirs: Congratulations on a good publication and your efforts in behalf of the people's welfare...
...however, the entire hinterland is 100 per cent Slovene, and had been Slovene for 13 centuries...
...The Reader's Digest article shows the same lack of moral courage, imagination, and political responsibility...
...It is at war with the old parties...
...Philip Kapleau New Haven, Conn...
...Anton Garden Editor, Prosveta Chicago, 111...
...I have no desire to cause sad feeling among any Yugoslavs, especially among Americans of Yugoslav origin...
...Henry Stoner Ohio Reapportionment Association 207 West 11th Ave., Columbus 1,0...
...Dictators with guns and gallows often get widespread support...
...Have him write about Tacoma, Washington's municipal power plant (cheapest rates in U. S.) ; the defeat of Public Power Referendum 25 in Washington State last fall's election and the money the private power companies spent on propaganda...
...This means largely the entire Julian March which is ethnically overwhelmingly Slovene (Primorye) and Croatian (Istria...
...And with this same character I would like to add: "Instead of ridiculing people's ridiculous ways, I'd like to see you glorify the glorious things they do...
...Morris Ernst needs no defense from me...
...Madeline Church Point Loma, Calif...
...The Yugoslav government does not demand anything else than what ethnically and historically belongs to the South Slavs...
...The soundest evidence of the nature of the present Y'ugoslav gov3ernment is its economic pro...
...S. S. B. Livingston, La...
...Markham's Rejoinder Dear Sirs: 1 have read Mr...
...I think a lot of The Progressive...
...The people who brought about the revolution of Mar...
...At any rate it was built by the old Austro-Hungarian Empire and should serve as a free port to the entire Danubian Basin...
...I might also state I have never been a Communist and do not intend to become one...
...This provided the Big Powers will not again embroil the Balkan people in strife, chaos, and war...
...The primary reason probably is that the people there have for ages been oppressed and exploited by every major European power, and before that for centuries by the Turks, except by Russia...
...Garden's expression, "all that is sound" is pure Nazism, used 3by every dictator since the time . of Alexander...
...Mollie Tarter Elmhurst, N. Y. * * * End The Hate Orgy Dear Sirs: Oswald Garrison YiHard's article, "After Victory — Europe's Death Agony...
...Petersburg, Fla...
...Maybe Ernst's book is poor — I don't know...
...The Slovene part of Corinthia was included in what was left of Austria as a result of a plebiscite which Yugoslavia lost in 1920...
...I agree with most of what Mr...
...For that I suggest these apposite words, uttered by one of the characters in Ben Ames Williams' Leave Her to Heaven: "You're forever emphasizing the silly things people do, making fun of them in clever ways...
...War is one of these "ways...
...Satisfaction Dear Sirs: I get a good deal of intellectual satisfaction from the pages of The Progressive after having to read the hypocrisy and bunk prevailing in most of the columns of the daily press...
...This clearly indicates a pro-gram for a mixed economy on the Scandinavian model, rather than a Communist economy which in real- ity is impossible in the Balkans, as well as elsewhere in Europe...
...So far, no nation has ever yet been big enough that no others dared attack...
...Yvone U. Stafford Springfield, Mass...
...If Mr...
...R. H. Markham Boston, Mass...
...It is high time that articles like Mr...
...gram...
...the sole exceptions are the leaders and their parties of the old fascist regime who were responsible for mismanagement of the nation and the oppression of its people...
...On the other hand the new, democratic Yugoslav federation will make for stability and peace in the Balkans at least...
...I haven't read it—but obviously Rodell talks about it in order to say cutting things about Ernst and to show off' his cleverness...
...What about the horrible Tito's "dictatorship...
...slavery, freedom...
...but the way thereof is death...
...It's easy to make fun of people, but it's not so easy to recognize the fine things jn them...
...As for the territorial demand of Yugoslavia...
...I am wondering how many preachers of a Sunday have had anything to say about that or about any of the sadism either of word or deed that has marked this civilization (?) of ours during the past few years...
...There is not the faintest hint of an economic or social revolution in Yugoslavia, only a political revolution, led by brave, fanatical Communists wishing power and seizing it...
...Pvt...
...The fact is that the Liberation Front, the backbone of the entire struggle against the Nazi-Fascist invaders and the architect of a new, federated and democratic Yugoslavia—without king—has been from its very inception a democratic coa- lition of all political elements and parties...
...Otherwise our age will be lost in a despair of utter obscene degradation...
...I wish to pay my high regard to all Americans of Slovene origin and to express the sincere hope that Mr...
...Since March 27, 1941, when there was a general uprising against the 1. proposed alliance of the fascist regime then in power with Hitler's Germany, Yugoslavia has gone thro gh a veritable people's revolution, very democratic in nature...
...This nation -wide advertising campaign to inspire animal hatred toward the Germans will have a reaction that will be devastating for all concerned...
...Prior to 1918 the entire Slovenia had been under Aus-tro-Hungarian Empire for hundreds of years with no rights but only duties...
...More Neuberger Dear Sirs: Thank you very much for the book review of Pleasant Valley by Walter Magnes Teller in the May 1-4 issue of The Progressive...
...There is still time to stop this farce...
...Garden calls semi-Fascists...
...Only on two minor matters, not points, he is correct...
...This has existed 2entirely in the minds of those . paid or unpaid propagandists who are trying for political reasons to discredit the new provisional government as well as the inspiring 4-year struggle which gave life to the present regime...
...If we have learned nothing else from this war, we should have learned that we must seek some other way of keeping the peace-Adopting peacetime conscription now is an admission that we have already lost the peace...
...I am wondering if you, Sir, the Editor of The Progressive, Will kindly publish this letter so that all Buckeyes who read these lines who are interested in forming a dynamic Ohio Reapportionment Association will kindly get in touch with me so that the ball for reform will get a-rolling...
...Kardelj's much publicized economic program is a very old program, urged by every conscientious Yugoslav political leader for 20 years...
...Remember we are endeavoring to bring democracy to a shattered Europe...
...Garden says about Slovenia's ethnological rights...
...Hennessey's letter, "A Protest to Barnes" in the May 21 issue made me mad on 2 counts: 1) Because I did not write immediately praising and substantiating Barnes' ideas and...
...Rudolf Swan son Embreeville, Pa...
...They are not products of the United States...
...Let your Congressmen and Senators know that we, too, want freedom from fear...
...I seriously doubt he has . such an ambition, at least there is no evidence...
...The whole Julian March, which includes Trieste, was handed to Italy as the imperialistic payment for joining the Allies in 1915...
...I am awfully sorry to have to say that the long-suffering Yugoslavs are now subjected to a regime of stark autocracy, which will soon become plain to all persons loving truth and cherishing democratic freedom...
Vol. 9 • June 1945 • No. 24
