THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . By Wortman The South And The Draft Dear Sirs: The same mail that brought the June 4 issue of The Progressive which contained William Plampin's blast against Federal...
...When this soaks into the mind and brain of women, she will be unwilling to bear children to be used for such a poor purpose as stopping bullets...
...It seems to me that the Presidential Succession Act of 1886 should be scrapped in favor of the following: The Speaker of the House of Representatives shall succeed the President in the event there is no Vice President...
...All of which leaves Milton a very lonely person...
...Chase uphold...
...In no sphere ought we allow ourselves to be taken in and the movies have become such a force in America that we ought to insist on good taste and good performance...
...Briefly the arguments against having a Cabinet Secretary succeed to the Presidency in accordance with the act of 1886 are these: Very frequently Cabinet Secretaries have never been elected to any public office...
...R. H. Knapp Saginaw, Mich...
...Its directness and simplicity make it good literature...
...Real democracy has shown its benefits in a common-sense way...
...Dorothy Wrightson South Pasadena, Calif * * * Lies About Russia There is no end of lies about USSR...
...Frank Simpson San Diego, Calif...
...We want absolute freedom to be ourselves and do our own thinking and enough of the abundance that the lavish earth can produce for human dignity and our own independence...
...The forces that would regiment medicine would also conscript citizens for peacetime service in the military and retain for a selected few all of the war time powers which have been arrogated to the present Administration...
...E. E. Coleman Grand Rapids, Mich...
...Give The Women Time Dear Sirs: In movie parlance you might say I am a Barnes fan, but I cannot take, lying down, what Harry Elmer says in a recent article about women and war...
...Animals will fight each other, but among the lower animals there is not one species that sends out its immature offspring to do the fighting for the adults...
...In the realms of history and social science, I believe that I can claim an equal superiority...
...His contribution in the May 21 issue of The Progressive is a "riddle" in more senses than one...
...Workers are then urged to buy homes on time payments only to lose them under foreclosures of mortgages during the succeeding panic...
...With the approach of peace we need less governmental, meddling,—not more...
...Mr...
...It is gratifying to read such well thought out, straightforward articles in these days of multitudinous mouthings which never get to the root of anything...
...Pass The Progressive Along Barnes Replies To Mayer Dear Sirs: I am certainly delighted that the Editors followed my suggestion and asked Milton Mayer to comment on the first of my Regionalism articles...
...And Milton accuses him of being a cynic —at least part time...
...Full employment would render the free enterprise system unprofitable and, consequently, it would fail to perform the function for which it was intended...
...Rickets, scurvy, pellagra, underweight, anemia, postural defects, and underdevelopment are outstanding results of malnutrition, but has anybody heard of an "appalling" number of rejections due to these disorders...
...This country has had practically full employment during the war but it has been under Governmental control and when the Government controls the economic system, free enterprise is out...
...will need after the war, and assures us that we will all get rich supplying them...
...His heart is in the right place...
...Remember, however — I do love The Progressive...
...We certainly should ask what the British Empire is doing...
...I have one complaint...
...Barnes is an idealist too, but he is more of a realist-idealist...
...It is probably quite safe to say that malnutrition accounts for but a limited number of rejections,—certainly not an "appalling" number...
...He mentions the many things that this country and the work...
...His understanding of other Federal Government functions and problems may be quite limited and even foreign to him...
...It was intended to clear the way for a reasoned discussion of Regionalism as an escape from the tribalism and nationalism which have led to two wars and threaten another...
...We must put economic freedom first as a means to the desired end, even while all the muddled ranters shout "materialism...
...Praises Beats Dear Sirs: The article by Carleton Beals on the Near East in your May 21 issue was most informative...
...Give A Friend The Truth Send Him The Progressive Today The Origin Of Man Dear Sirs: I noticed M. H. Spangler's letter in defense of Joseph McCabe...
...But as to understanding, I am not sure...
...Personally, I abhor force as much as Mr...
...When it comes to esoteric epistemology, metaphysical lore, religious history, literary allusions, and ethical idealism, I acknowledge him vastly my superior...
...It is my honest opinion that McCabe's philosophy is no more sound and helpful to the human family than Adolf Hitler's...
...Gustav Schulz Butte, Mont...
...The Common Man in, the Imperial countries lives through the exploitation of the Common Man elsewhere — are we going in for that...
...If the progress of the human race had depended upon reason the race would still be cave dwellers...
...Cost: $175,000,000...
...Haven't they got the greater part of Africa, India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand to draw from...
...Effie B. Roussell Topeka, Kans...
...With it our nation would be assured of an experienced leader at a critical time when familiarity with governmental problems, procedure, and personalities are most needed...
...Women have the power to put a stop to this savage and brutal practice and I hold her strictly accountable, but she has a good long time to learn it in if she does not learn faster than the men...
...But if I have his program straight, he is trying to herd the people together for unity and strength and for economic security...
...Nevertheless, as between the force which Russia has been employing in Eastern Europe and the Balkans in the last year and the type and volume of force which has been applied over the world for the last five years—which is the alternative—I am all for the lesser force...
...Kansas City Joint Board Intl...
...This process of forcible amalgamation is all that has raised us above the level of the Nomes of proto-his-toric Egypt and the embryonic city-states which lay back of ancient Sumeria and Babylonia...
...A truly excellent picture, "The Suspect," which was cleanly and tastefully done received only two short lines and has not been encouraged...
...If Milton got any dust off me, I fear that he gaily tossed most of it in the eyes of his readers...
...By virtue of his position he generally has entree into the important circles, and is usually consulted and advised on all major developments of national and international significance...
...Another reason against military training is that the world is changing so fast that all the best materials and methods now in use, will be obsolete...
...And haven't they been taught to be that way by "great individualists" who pull the ropes that mould popular opinion...
...When you see things as they are, you know that few people (lip-service notwithstanding) hold any ideal beyond money and what money will buy...
...I was one of the group of women who picketed the White House during World War I in an effort to speed up action on the Suffrage Amendment when it seemed about to be pushed off the calendar...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . By Wortman The South And The Draft Dear Sirs: The same mail that brought the June 4 issue of The Progressive which contained William Plampin's blast against Federal health insurance, also brought me an answer to Plampin's contention that the South's fine health is reflected in lower rejection rate of draftees...
...Gracious...
...It is the kind one never sees in the daily press...
...I am not sure what Stalin is doing...
...Haven't they surrendered...
...Why saddle most of the burden on their 'latest colony," the U. S. A? Why hold our boys "over there" to police Germany...
...I hate to see a paper like The Progressive go on record as having praised a gaudy, sentimental picture like "Meet Me In St...
...How much heartache and suffering the human family would be spared if they would only earnestly try this rule in great numbers...
...I cannot prove in court there is a God to whom I am responsible...
...I found a previous article of Henry J. Kaiser's full of holes...
...The Southern Patriot, monthly publication of the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, arrived (as I said) along with my copy of The Progressive...
...Theoretically, and very often so, a Cabinet Secretary is chosen for his specialized knowledge in a certain field...
...There has not been a single country in the world, including Mr...
...Three of the 4 horsemen ride to complete this un-Christian war...
...In his recent sally, it seems to me that he exposed an equal innocence ©f history and sociology...
...Perhaps Anne Lindbergh was a cynic too, when she wrote her Wave of the Future...
...With the nationwide showing of the mob scene at the slaying of Mussolini and his mistress, we have touched a new low...
...Where was he during the depression, anyway...
...D. C. Gibson Memphis, Tenn...
...The Brighter Side Dear Sirs: Having been right up front in the labor and political moves of the South for some 55 to 60 years, I can speak from some experience...
...It is a great help to have uneasy feelings and thoughts clarified by articles like these...
...Sliame Dear Sirs: When I read of the suicide of an 18-year-old boy about to be inducted into the armed forces, I was reminded of the following very true lines from a mother of a boy: "Conscripting the teen-age boys of one country and training them to fight the conscripted youth of another country is a fiendish thing to do...
...Though my History of Western Civilization was probably the first general history written in the United States which gave a fair interpretation of the Russian Revolution and the Soviet system, I have never been given any favors by the Muscovites...
...But to get down to Mr...
...I especially appreciated Mr...
...At least, it offers some hope of reducing the universal force and barbarism which world wars represent...
...Get more like Beals and cut out some of the fakers...
...Mayer's beloved Attica, which was not created out of the forcible amalgamation of peoples...
...For economic freedom must precede all the other freedoms, and we may as well forget those ideals until that job is done...
...If demand for our commodities was the key to prosperity, we didn't need 2 wars to put us on our feet...
...In the succeeding articles in my series, I will make it clear that I am all for peaceful federation, if it can be attained...
...At first they were very high...
...What Common Man is meant...
...Eugene U. Briggs Prospect, O. New Law Of Succession Dear Sirs: The passing of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the elevation of Harry S. Truman to the Presidency has once again aroused public interest in the question — "What happens when the elected President and Vice President cease to function...
...Marie P. Richmond Benton Harbor, Mich...
...If it weren't for that stumbling block there would be a Heaven on Earth here alright...
...And it has been truthfully said that to defeat the age-old adversary, greed, you must meet him on his own down-to-earth ground and use his own tactics...
...As a physician I know of no "appalling" number of rejections because of "physical disabilities directly traceable to malnutrition...
...I have never even smelled vodka, champagne, or caviar at the Russian Embassy, and the "Commies" have never failed to take an especially dirty crack at any and every book of mine which they have ever had a chance to review...
...30 issue of The Progressive, seems typical, somehow, of the propaganda put out by various New Deal agencies in their obvious efforts to change what is left of our democratic form of government...
...If "the forcible amalgamation of any people must be bad," as he asserts, then there has been a lot of "badness" in the world since the Stone Age...
...In such economic and mental bondage, we can never bring our ideals down and live them...
...Another fact: When President Roosevelt died the sham issue of the "third and fourth term" for a President went down, never to rise again...
...South Carolina—all from the South...
...McCabe writes a lot and likes to induce people to believe his ideas...
...these and other disorders resulting in rejection are not directly-related to nutrition...
...La Follette upon closer examination of this suggested legislation will withdraw as a "champion," of any such undertaking...
...Does that mean that all surpluses must still be sent abroad in order that home prices can be kept up to the proper profit level...
...Ladies' Garment Workers' Union Kansas City, Mo...
...Heart disease, psychoneurosis, hernia, paralysis, peptic ulcer, toxic goitre, recurring dislocations, nephritis, blindness, deafness, syphilis...
...Whether the San Francisco Security Conference establishes a real basis for a just postwar peace or not, there is one thing certain: The great mass of peoples of nearly all nations are going to take the whole job of establishing a just peace and freedom into their own hands, as they are beginning to do in Italy and are now doing in Canada through their own party, the C. C. F. Even with all the faults of the totalitarian "liberals" and the so-called "New Deal" regime and, for the time being, waiving the question of who started our 2 last wars and what for, the Progressives and Socialists give the New Dealers credit for all the good they have done—a lot more credit than is given by the Tory factions of the 2 old parties...
...I have seen many of McCabe's agnostic books and read some of them...
...Bring our armies out of the European hell and think of the U. S. A. just a little...
...Some years ago I listened to a speech by Clarence Darrow...
...Unfortunately for Mr...
...Chase's Crystal Ball Dear Sirs: Mr...
...Give A Friend The Truth Send Him The Progressive Today Malnutrition Dear Sirs: The editorial, "Stamp Out Malnutrition," in the Apr...
...I have great admiration for Milton Mayer...
...Plampin would not divulge those Selective Service figures which he says show even under "superficial study" that the Southern rate of rejection is less than that of the rest of the country Samuel S. White Mgr...
...In the Southern Patriot was reproduced a map—reprinted from Medical Care Service in North Carolina^ giving the percentage of draftees rejected, by states...
...A. J. Plath Madison...
...In fact we do not want anyone becoming specific as to freedoms...
...Men rejected on the first setup are accepted without question in the most recent...
...If McCabe writes hard facts and cold logic, I for one fail to see it...
...Milton Mayer's article, "Let The Swiss Do It," in the May 14 issue is one of the masterpieces of present day writing...
...Why can't England, France, and the USSR do their own policing now in Europe...
...Medical Care Services in North Carolina is published by the Department of Rural Sociology, N. C. Agricultural Experiment Station, Raleigh, N. C, so I hardly think it could be accused of bias against the South...
...According to the Presidential Succession Act of 1886 the Secretary of State becomes acting President...
...2. The Speaker of the House always knows "who's who in Washington...
...It goes to the heart of the main issue in the attempt to insure peace after this second World War in a generation...
...4. It would make unnecessary the holding of a special Presidential election...
...If that officer really said it he stamped himself a rotten liar...
...Well, what's wrong with a cynic...
...As to superstitious beliefs, it all is aimed at the Bible as a general rule, no matter if the statement is made by McCabe, Spangler, or even H. E. Barnes, though the latter sometimes writes some very brilliant and helpful articles for The Progressive...
...In the event of his departure the Secretary of the Treasury is next in line and the other cabinet Secretaries follow in the order that their departments were created by Congress...
...We have helped this hideous war as free men and have brains to think for ourselves and intend to use them permanently...
...Any reliable set of statistics for rejection of men with "dissabil-ities," would have to take cognizance of this...
...Barnes think the women are when he expects them to learn in 25 years what men have not learned in centuries, viz: That the conference table is the only civilized way to keep the peace...
...Mayer and myself was not entirely designed for entertainment...
...States which had rejections of 45 to 49.9 per cent are Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, and Vermont...
...A New Low Dear Sirs: In the Forum of June 4 Dorothy Corsentine clearly and explicitly stated the thought that must be struggling for expression in the minds of all of us who read the signposts of a doubtful future and watch the masses swayed by every means which can be devised to arouse all that is mean and cruel in man's nature...
...Let me say at once that, whatever its other weaknesses, my article was not intentionally "cynical...
...The proposed change should be written into our Federal Constitution...
...Movie Reviews Dear Sirs: I just want to register my vote for The Progressive's policies...
...But McCabe, Spangler, Barnes, oor Hitler cannot prove there isn't...
...Business men both big and little, are demanding that the Government get out of business and give free enterprise full control, but that system controlled the political and economic life of this nation from 1920 to 1933 with the usual results, booms and panics—a panic in 1921, a boom in 1924, and another panic in 1929 from which the country did not recover until it entered the war...
...Force has always been...
...Plampin's very words are: "Even a superficial study of Selective Service figures shows that the 'Squalid South' had a smaller percentage of 4-F's than any other part of the country...
...I have kept up with what goes on in the South and the Nation and have noted that our economic and political situation, on account of big business and the hellish war, looks extremely bad in some respects—but really it is not as bad as it appears on the surface...
...As a matter of fact several of our former Presidents, who had little or no such political experience, discovered when it was too late that a President had to be a politician and a diplomat as well as an executive...
...My principal reasons are these: 1. Any man who becomes Speaker of the House of Representatives is usually a leader with a background and experience of 25 years or more in government...
...And yet they would confuse people's minds by stating that perhaps some force created man through 100 million years of evolution...
...Mayer made a bad slip by bringing up once more my little essay on the simian background of human behavior...
...The only trouble at any time was the means to pay for them...
...The road to almost perfect relations is simple if only the depraved, disobedient mind of man would follow...
...That covers all the Southern states, and even if we do not include Kentucky as one of the Solid South states, only 4 states outside of the region equal the South in percentage of rejections...
...Mayer's comment on me and my article, I will let the readers decide which article, by its tone and content, seemed most evidently a product of "ideological a l k y", "intellectual hootch", and dialectical vodka...
...Why copy the evil and end in chaos...
...In the name of sound horse sense, why should Russian war prisoners loathe to go back to the USSR where the workers in all industries and on farms own and control all the means of production and distribution of the necessities of life...
...Yet our Federal Government still thinks of copying that war-like nation which the Allies have beaten to the dust...
...Does it take one with a fantastic imagination to envision the hell that is going to break loose when the easy credit market again gets caught up with demand and the Government is trying to collect on a 300 billion dollar debt...
...In his comment on that article, Mr...
...Freedom of speech means little until through permanent security the people become mentally free...
...A large reservoir of unemployed that can be drawn on during strikes or in emergencies and that constitutes a constant threat to employed workers is absolutely essential to the continued existence of the system...
...Elmer V. McCarthy, M. D. Chicago, 111...
...The physical requirements of the armed forces have changed from time to time...
...We are rapidly reaching the stage where it will be, "Come on Joe, take over...
...And if that is correct, then I am for him even if he never sounds an ideal and even though he tries to attach all the little, nations to his" own for more unity and strength and for economic security...
...Stuart Chase, in his article in the May 28 issue, looked into his crystal ball and saw visions of full employment, plenty, and happiness...
...Take this: "No nation or people can consume all they produce, and expect to progress...
...He said, "You talk about reason, what is reason...
...Where they have the legal right to demand a steady job at good living wage...
...Finally, let me say that, if my article gave evidence of alcoholic compulsions, it was based on good native, 100 per cent American, Cooperstown hard cider, and not on vodka...
...Where the stoppage of war does not mean millions of starving unemployed...
...GI Peace Aims The peace aims of the returning soldiers should be, "We are not coming back for military trailing for another war...
...There was always a demand for our products, at home and abroad, depression or no depression...
...And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed in his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul...
...Meyer's comments on the blood-lust which is everywhere rampant...
...He has nobody to love and admire, save the Eskimos and the Icelanders, for their policies are the only ones in existence not founded on "forcible amalgamation...
...I had great hopes of what the female of the species would do to make this old world a better place to live in when they got the ballot...
...However, in any case, the Acting President is the nation's Chief Executive only until a special election is held...
...So did Hitler with quite a degree of success...
...That is, regarding the status quo...
...I was elected as one of the lecturers of the Farmers Alliance in Mississippi back in the early '90's...
...Not out-in-the-open force, but force of law, moral force, and money-pressure force...
...While it was a lot of good, clean fun, this exchange between Mr...
...Villard would now throw the entire load of feeding the nearly 250 millions in Europe on America...
...They whipped the arrogant, wicked Germans who have been trained for absolute obedience for many generations...
...Louis...
...I was greatly disappointed when this war broke out but I still believe "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world...
...Harry Elmer Barnes Cooperstown, N. Y. In Defense Of Cynics Dear Sirs: As an idealist and a fine spirit, perhaps few, if any, people can surpass Milton Mayer...
...Train for war and we shall have war and no nation can or will trust us...
...Mary A. Black Omaha, Nebr...
...And for their attainment economic freedom comes first...
...It was designed to be forthright, realistic, and constructive...
...How much more intelligent does Mr...
...Our free enterprise system has given relatively full employment only during periods of business booms and during wars...
...Padraic Lagan Philadelphia, Pa...
...But, failing that, I am for forcible amalgamation of petty nationalities...
...No better explanation of the origin of man ever will be found...
...Kaiser says, "The needs of men have made possible our economic progress...
...The columns by Ernest Meyer and McAlister Coleman are always first reading for me...
...From Van Paassen's Days Of Our Years these words stand out with prophetic clearness: "As if war, whether 'democratic' or 'totalitarian' in the present state of perfection of the instruments of destruction, would not impose on every belligerent a Frankenstein which nobody could control and of which the inevitable consequence must be everywhere hatred, brutality, and contempt of men...
...The malnutrition which now exists, and which is daily increasing, in the civilian population would be greatly ameliorated if the OPA or at least that part of it capriciously-governing the distribution of food, would just quietly go out of business some dark night and turn up among the missing the next day...
...States which had rejections of 50 per cent and over are Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina...
...Any of these well-educated, intelligent gentlemen cannot create a lake fly, much less any other living creature...
...And wasn't Socrates a cynic...
...Here's more: "From the day of peace we will enter the century of the Common Man...
...Criticism Of Kaiser Dear Sirs: Some people are better at building ships than New Worlds...
...Now I wonder if Mr...
...It has its serious side...
...Share The Load Dear Sirs: "Europe's Death Agony," by O. G. Villard in the May 14 Progressive is information that is usual after this horrible war in Europe...
...He, like others of his type, would rob man of his faith in God and give him nothing in return...
...This is the full employment that free enterprise offers to the worker...
...In the May 14 issue Oswald Garrison Villard says that an American officer told him that some Russian war prisoners begged him on their knees not to send them back to Russia...
...The following statement, opening the last paragraph of the editorial reads: "Remembering the appalling number of young men rejected for military service because of physical disabilities directly traceable to malnutrition, Congress cannot afford to waste time in translating some such proposal into permanent legislation...
...Now they are quite low...
...Now here is some cold logic...
...For when you live in a nation in which leaders give lip-service to the ideal of freedom, in order to put a fighting spirit into the people, and then turn around and deny that ideal, isn't that enough to make one cynical of our way of life...
...Mayer...
...Chase's crystal gazing, the National Association of Manufacturers, whose 10,000 members own or control the great trusts and corporations and most of the wealth and jobs in this nation, declares that full employment would be disastrous if not fatal to the free enterprise system that they and Mr...
...The conditions following President Roosevelt's death, and President Truman's good beginning have been an eye opener to our people...
...The greed for money led to the rearmament of Germany...
...That bubble burst in 1929 resulting in WPA's and PWA's, etc., to save the capitalist system and finally in war to keep it from going kaput...
...Barnes evidently does not take into consideration the pitifully short time women have had the right to vote compared to the time they were held in both physical and mental bondage...
...One ought to take a stand on movies too in these days and harsher words are needed for "Hotel Berlin...
...American movies have a habit of being bad...
...States which had rejections of 40 to 44.9 per cent are Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee...
...As for worship, anyone can worship in the shrine of his own heart if he actually knows what he is worshipping...
...3. The Speaker of the House is undoubtedly more representative of national opinion than even the elected President or Vice President, for the simple reason he represents the majority of 400-odd Congressional districts, whereas the President and Vice President are elected by States as units through our antiquated Electoral College system...
...Sometimes I believe and hope that the human race will learn that war settles nothing except which nation or group of nations has the most powerful military machine...
...Even nature seemed to be in league with the male in not endowing: her with equal physical strength and the Bible exhorted her to submit herself unto her husband in all things...
...The real purpose of peacetime conscription is to have a large army to hold the people in check when the inevitable collapse of the capitalist profit system occurs, which will happen after a few years of fictitious prosperity brought about with easy credit...
...Edith Loucks Wheaton, 111...
...William Locke Jacksonville, Fla...
...I surely hope that Sen...
...Mayer revealed his innocence of the elements of biology and anthropology...
...Dead also is another handy sham issue—"isolationism", which was set up as a scarecrow to divert attention from the real issue...
...This issue is whether we can expect to erect a structure of peace on the system of nationalism and national sovereignty which was the main factor in producing both wars...
...They have had time immemorial in which to get through their addled pates that after a war has been fought they still must sit down and iron out their difficulties at a conference table...
...D. Stockton Stevens Brooklyn, N. Y. * * * Inviting Joe In Dear Sirs: Anyone supporting peacetime conscription is a traitor to his God and his country...
...The tremendous haste, urged in this editorial, is an old dodge designed to limit or to prevent close examination of a measure before action...
...Let us all hang our heads in shame...
Vol. 9 • July 1945 • No. 27
