THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . The Business of Citizens Dear Sirs: The history of our Republic is the history of a great experiment in self-government; whether it succeeds or fails depends upon...
...From the official count, Wesley D'-Ewart defeated Leo Graybill by some 3,000 votes...
...Electric power is incidental to the building of any dams and could be transmitted wherever needed and at a low cost...
...Speaking of "snatching" of this territory is therefore sheer hypocrisy, or ignorance, and playing into the hands of British imperialism...
...He went to the Chicago Republican convention with the names of 50 delegates in his pocket...
...Now, suppose that all or even only the major number of Mr...
...When Mrs...
...We are deeply engaged in the elimination of everything that smacks of militarism in foreign nations...
...Through your kindness I should like to ask any of your readers who have letters from her, pictures, or special impressions to send them to me care of the Campaign for World Government, 166 W. Jackson, Chicago, Ill...
...Those who fear that the Soviet Union plans to dominate those countries might find, if they actually studied the problem, that it would be the best possible thing that could happen...
...Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty...
...Here's hoping they wake themselves before it is too late...
...Sounds too simple to be true to me...
...Clarence Armstrong Baltimore, Md...
...As in the past, manufacturers will then raise the cry of "overproduction," and shout long and loud for foreign markets...
...We never learn about these things because they do not get into the dispatches from Belgrade, Sofia, Bucharest, and other sources of information, because the news sources are all controlled by the imperialistic forces...
...Few, indeed, realize what independence would mean for most of the "Arab" countries...
...If any are wanted back, state which and we shall copy and return them...
...Tallahassee, Fla...
...They violated their pledges, all of them voting for Dewey on the first ballot, thus deceiving the 7 million people of California...
...Even if we do have full employment after the "duration" of war is over, I ask how will the employed purchase the products of their own toil, when the wages paid will not be more than 40 to 50 per cent of what the employes receive for goods they put on the market...
...In California in 1944, our Governor placed his name on the presidential primary ballot as a candidate for President...
...Yes, much personality sparkles through the lines of The Progressive...
...Noel Brooks Denver, Colo...
...Whatever the true motives of the past self-effacement were, it gained no new respect and no new trust for the Communist Party or Political Association...
...Just imagine...
...5) Tito's forces actually liberated practically the entire Julian March, predominately Slovene and Croatian territory...
...Healthy people relish neither...
...3) Under the Royal (Pan Serbian) dictatorship, until the eve of Hitler's invasion of Yugoslavia, there was only one legal political party in each province...
...I attended the Democratic convention and stayed over for the prelude of the Republican convention and it was very evident how the nominees were to be selected...
...We all need our eyes opened to the evil of the world, and we all need help in combatting those evils, lodged in and outside of ourselves...
...Now those of us who agree with the existing system will have an open adversary to deal with...
...These same forces become violently anti-Soviet for the simple reason that the policy of the Soviet Union is anti-imperialistic...
...But they are equally opposed to seeing the Russians dominate them...
...Keep up the Forum...
...The names of the delegates were not even printed on our presidential ballot although the Secretary of State of California certified to each of them that he or she was duly elected at the May primary...
...Boy, how they smell...
...There is comfort in the thought that generations of thought die out just as physical generations do...
...At last he has found his niche...
...Having been a non-partisan voter in Montana for 39 years, I know some of the ins and outs of the elections that are held within the state...
...Petersburg, Fla...
...We admire your liberal attitude in giving space to many varied opinions and writers...
...Mrs...
...corporations, and bureaucratic Government control vs...
...slavery, freedom, etc...
...Therefore, I do not agree with the writer who thought the Forum letters a waste of space, because they indicate the attitude of the people...
...James Avery Seattle, Wash...
...I fairly fell out of my seat when Mrs...
...We in Montana believe that the MVA should cover only 4 states: Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota, as they are the only states that would be interested in irrigation...
...Here is the weak point in the "free enterprise" system...
...But those of us who can—let us try to build and repudiate things together...
...Glen E. Aldrich Evart, Mich...
...How about more and bigger articles from the pen of Commander Seely...
...Each such delegate was previously pledged to vote for Governor Warren for President at the Chicago convention under provisions of Section 2304 of the State Elections Code...
...Emma Dasch Colfax, Wash...
...In India, especially, independence would be a tragedy for the great majority of the people of India, if that independence meant control by the "higher" castes...
...If only the day would come when we could help campaign for La Follette for President...
...This party, together with its "authentic" and highly corrupt leadership, responsible for dictatorship and oppression, was specifically excluded from the Liberation Front...
...No, not even a "republican" form...
...Government propaganda in Germany destroyed it...
...Want is deepened by taking men away from productive work...
...Close...
...We had better find some way to market our industrial products among the less-favored groups before we insist that foreign trade is necessary to keep industry on a "profitable" basis...
...More Than Victory Dear Sirs: In our thankfulness for V-E day, we must not forget that our men fought for more than mere victory...
...In my opinion, the prime reason for this defeat was that bad weather and impossible road conditions did not allow an adequate number of isolated voters to get to the polls...
...Edwin S. Gilbert Oakland, Cal...
...Pegler...
...in reality, however, it will be quite different, for the forces in power now will promote the well-being of the common people and not the welfare of the domestic and foreign exploiters who customarily pocketed 100 to 300 per cent, or better, annually on their investments...
...Pass The Progressive Along It's American, Alert, Accurate...
...E. B. Coolidge Great Falls, Mont...
...What a contrast between Mr...
...Both Sides Dear Sirs: Just a note to let you know that I think The Progressive is a mighty fine magazine...
...It would, instead, grant only those increases which it deemed necessary to appease workers and to retain them on the job...
...In connection with government policy, it means the backing up of the private interests by every means available so as to enable them to keep the backward nation weak and susceptible to the fleecing of the private interests...
...De Cassieres...
...I am not much in agreement with some of the views certain of the writers present, but that's OK with me...
...Finally I agree many people, gullible as well as clever propagandists, are defiling the word democracy...
...J. Luther Kibler 344 54th Street, Newport News, Va...
...Von Wiegand...
...We have now before us a body of people who openly and resolutely declare that the existing social and economic system of the so-called capitalist countries is wrong, needs mending and not collaboration, and that they will engage in an "ideological struggle" against it...
...With all the hullabaloo about the need for foreign markets, why do we not hear anything about the need of providing, after the "cutback" in industrial plants, for the third of our nation once referred to as the ill-housed, ill-clothed, and ill-fed—when this group is left without employment in the depression that is sure to come...
...Those of us who condemn the existing system must congratulate themselves on gaining a resolute ally instead of a shilly-shallying ghost...
...Certainly Congress will not approve of conscription, as proposed, if controlling leaders will raise their voice against it instead of for it...
...Militarism In America Dear Sirs: If due consideration is given the history made at the Frisco Conference, the mothers and fathers having sons ranging from 12 to 15 years will make immediate de-mands on the ministers and farm leaders to wield their majority control against further conscription of* our youth...
...The old-time steamroller convention system was used in both cases and frankly, I believe that if we had held a primary election in the State of Montana that neither one of these 2 representatives would have received the nomination, as Graybill was supposed to represent the Farmers Union crowd while D'-Ewart was a representative and spokesman for the major corporations within the state, as bis record in our state legislature will show...
...Will the same happen here...
...It would be too bad to have them go completely wrong...
...Those who sit on the fence and preach hatred, as Norman Thomas has unfortunately done lately, are probably incurable...
...The second reason was a whispering campaign put out by the sympathizers of the naajor corporations within the state against Graybill on every line of thought that they could muster...
...deception, truth...
...The new resolution calls for "building our Communist Association, especially among the industrial workers...
...But, how we love the truth and how we hate injustice...
...We have but to examine the recent plan, promulgated by this group of promoters, to control production, wages, and employment in the postwar world...
...Politics, national and international, is the business of each citizen of a Republic...
...Renew Your Subscription Today Anti-Russian Complex Dear Sirs: It is unfortunate that the Editors of The Progressive have allowed an anti-Russian complex to determine the selection of the articles which have appeared in recent months...
...Send A Gift Subscription Today Chase's 22 Children Dear Sirs: Stuart Chase's article in your issue of May 28 on "Full Employment's Chillun," in pointing out 22 ways in which full employment may be realized after the war is over, prompts me to ask a few questions, notwithstanding that he leaves the tycoons of big business without excuse if we have a big "army" of unemployed...
...He seems to fit perfectly into the ranks of Hearst's rabble rousing columnists...
...E. E. Cassel St...
...It has always been amazing to me that despite the fact that many of us are aware of unethical, unjust, and stupid undertakings, they go on right under our noses and we are powerless to stop them...
...It is the day saver when there are too many articles in the Chamberlin mood...
...Kaiser And Chamberlin Dear Sirs: Just to get a couple of items off my chest...
...While that fight continues, with setbacks and threatened destruction of the MVA project, Carle ton Beals like Nostra Damus, whom I've never read but heard about, paints a picture in Middle Asia involving oil magnates that makes me wonder if our "BIG" men ever learn from experience...
...while to Hitler it was a "diabolical Jewish conspiracy...
...God love her...
...It presents views more honestly than any other paper I know about...
...If the State Department had made public the diplomatic reports instead of hoarding them, the "whip-lash" of public opinion would probably have stopped the sale of scrap and munitions to Axis nations...
...To Mussolini, democracy was "putrid" a/id a "stinking corpse...
...anti-MVA, anti-stool pigeon vs...
...One of the inevitable results of this has been a tendency to look at Soviet action in Eastern Europe as a form of "Russian imperialism" and to look at it from the same point of view as one would the imperialism of the capitalistic countries...
...2) To compare Partisans' social idealism to Nazis' racial, Moslem religious, and KKK religious and racial bigotry is the height of perversion...
...Both men are highly respected individuals and the campaign was carried on under the banner of Republican and Democrat Parties...
...Fear is increased because conscription supports the war system...
...Markham's rejoinder of June 11 to my criticism: 1) There were other Americans in contact with the Partisans, in fact stationed in Yugoslavia, who brought back entirely different reports and impressions, completely at variance with Mr...
...One of those things that is too simple to see through...
...Just an aside, but could someone explain sometime just what these contributors in the Forum have up their sleeves with this money, and Congress, and bankers business...
...The results of the election will show that monopoly control won due to reasons heretofore mentioned...
...Freedom of speech is not allowed under military discipline...
...Due to the fact that our daily press, as well as other periodicals, speak so assuringly to the rest of the world about our American "democracy" which we urge other nations to adopt as a panacea for their political ills, I am moved to review our so-called "democratic" processes in our national government as well as in our California government...
...They have none in Russia...
...Follow Miles MeMillins for a few months in his articles on public power and then see if you can make a good case for the private ownership of public utilities...
...I confess that I find those problems quite unsolvable and fear that they will go from bad to worse...
...We must wage a resolute ideological struggle on the theoretical front...
...Jessie Lloyd O'Connor Fort Worth, Tex...
...They might also find that, at the present time, or in the immediate future that, under no circumstances could they persuade the Russians to have anything to do with these countries...
...Markham's...
...He is worthy, and if people are so one-sided that they refuse to listen to all sides, then they ought to move to Russia where their heart is...
...Andrae B. Nordskog Los Angeles, Calif...
...Then they split part of this ill-gotten wealth with the Belgrade politicians...
...Mrs...
...I could not begin to enumerate how much your paper means to me and my husband...
...This is the type of plan we would expect to emanate from Germany and Japan, but certainly not from a democracy...
...Before we try to cram the word "democracy" down the throats of foreigners, why not have a first class house cleaning at home, and thus keep faith with our soldier sons who are STILL fighting on foreign soil to "make the world safe for" that type of "ocracy" which we have NOT...
...Those who write for, and who direct the licies of The Progressive, are not in favor of the British policy in those areas...
...No one will deny that the methods which the local authorities, under Soviet guidance, have used since their liberation from the Nazis will not stack up with what, we in America would call, "democratic action...
...In the last 10-day offensive, culminating in the final victory, they lost 8,000 men in Julian March alone...
...Kaiser's article on constructive postwar programs and the cynical drivel of W. H. Chamberlin...
...First of all, it would control production to the extent that it would not permit workers to produce more than their daily quota of any one commodity...
...It's beyond me how any opponent could then utter one salient remark that could logically undermine the great and valuable contribution of TVA...
...They fought for a day when the Four Freedoms would be a reality...
...More Direct Clashes Dear Sirs: Please give us more direct clashes of opinion such as "The Wreck of the Atlantic Charter" by Barnes and Mayer...
...The record shows that the leaders signed their prepared preamble to be considered as binding at the next peace meeting, but as a purely natural consequence and before these delegates reached their homes, a new war was in actual progress in Europe...
...One of the principal ones was that he was a reformer and a prohibitionist...
...But the contest was not between the Republicans and Democrats—it was between MVA vs...
...Of course, we're all responsible for the evils of the world, but the type of punishment some of us would give the Germans would seem pretty strong used on us...
...Praises Chamberlin Dear Sirs: I am glad you have William Henry Chamberlin as a writer in The Progressive...
...Herman Witte Grafton, Wis...
...Milton Mayer, Ernest L. Meyer, and McAlister Coleman certainly hit the spot with me...
...In my understanding, it would be a better public service to try to state the advantages of this rather momentous decision, as seen by one who is not a member of the CPA...
...We have never been trusted to select or elect our President and Vice President by popular ballot and up to 1912 we had never been trusted to elect our United States Senators...
...This policy has been relentlessly followed by the British in the past, and even today is openly followed in Italy and Greece especially...
...Mental laziness accepted the smear propaganda and is still accepting it...
...Likewise, in California, our Secretary of State certifies to 25 persons that they have been duly fleeted "Presidential Electors" with full power to cast their votes in the Electoral College for President and Vice President, notwithstanding the fact that their names did NOT appear on the November presidential ballot, NOR did their names even appear on the sample ballot...
...H. Mollie Tarter Elmhurst, N. Y. American 'Democracy' Dear Sirs: Your frankness in dealing with the attitude of our so-called "free-press" at San Francisco is appreciated...
...Clarifying Dear Sirs: When the outlook seems utterly hopeless and courage to go on has almost vanished, then it is priceless to have your stimulating and clarifying thoughts come to the rescue...
...Honest criticism strengthens self-government...
...Chase's projects are accepted by our industrialists in giving "jobs" to the masses...
...Robert C. Tueting Cincinnati, O. * * * Lola Maverick Lloyd Dear Sirs: We are collecting material for a biography of the late Lola Maverick Lloyd, Texas-born peace worker and feminist who was urging world federation many years ago...
...stool pigeon, rank and file vs...
...Our Constitution provides only that "each State shall be guaranteed" a "republican" form of government...
...I like to see both sides of a question presented so that I can better make my own decisions...
...It would be beside the point, in one short letter, to try to repeat even the more conspicuous of the accusations and "I told you so's...
...It's an unpleasant feeling to realize that if you say what you think against the "wrong guy", you'll take a chance on being a martyr in prison or a man with a wrecked career...
...There is no other way to describe the eagerness on my part which seems to grow month by month...
...And I include England and France who also helped to arm Hitler's Nazis...
...Chamberlin...
...this while workers slaved for 50 to 80 cents per day...
...Had these leaders proposed to all nations and in their preamble, just 3 points, namely, immediate work on mass production of food and goods for use and not for profit, the union of nations in Europe, Asia and Africa, and lastly barter exchange, plus equality with all nations, the warring nations would have had, for the first time, peace terms such as would have justified cessation of hostilities...
...I'd like to have him write some material along lines he wrote about in his book Russia and the Battle of Liberation...
...The New 'Line' Dear Sirs: I have before me the announced intention of the Communist Political Association in this country to abandon the self-effacing line it followed for a few years in supporting existing social and economic systems...
...This malevolent plan would not only destroy those opportunities but would destroy our system of free enterprise as well...
...He certainly sounded the call for a logical application of postwar efforts...
...M. L. Berger Cleveland, O. Sharing The Blame Dear Sirs: When in a city of less than 500,-000 most of us don't know what is going on in our jails and similar institutions, how can we so righteously blame 80,000,000 Germans...
...A dozen examples of this occurred recently in the rubber industry in Akron, O. It was found that each man producing tires (and practically all are being produced for the armed forces) was capable of producing 4 additional tires per day, but was restrained from so doing by the CIO, which offered the mendacious excuse that such increased production would be inimical to the tire industry...
...Thanks for the Forum...
...There are 2 reasons for this: brief notes concerning contributors and personal touches each author at some time injects into his writing...
...6) It is news to me Hitler and Mussolini ever called themselves "arch-democrats...
...It was a real treat to read and realize that there is someone whose efforts toward the reconstruction are really constructive and practical...
...His articles are very interesting in their treatment of the military situation...
...Congress would not have approved the repeal of neutrality, the approval of conscription and Lend-Lease prior to Pearl Harbor, had not the leaders representing the majority raised their voice for it...
...We must remember that in Europe "free enterprise" is quite synonymous with fascism...
...Nothing could be further from the truth...
...Then hundreds of thousands of our boys would not now lie dead upon foreign soil...
...First, we have no assurance of a "democratic" form of national government in our Constitution...
...4) Kardelj's economic program might be similar, on paper, to Ma-chek's or Koroshets...
...It has but 2 objectives toward which it is devoting its full time and energy, namely, to Communize business and divide America into hostile factions...
...What, may I ask, is their solution, other than to throw them adrift on the world to become the worst kind of a menace to civilization...
...Let me add here that the average Montana voter does not care for bureaucratic Government control nor private ownership monopoly control, but does believe that the MVA should be built either by the Reclamation Bureau or the Army Engineers and should be controlled by an authority or commission composed of men appointed by the governors—that is one man from each state included in the Authority and one member should be appointed by the President subject to the approval of the Senate...
...Peace and an abundance for all people is an easy solution only when a Christian plan that will remove the cause of war is accepted and adopted...
...calling wrong, right...
...Only production for consumer needs, not "profits," can solve this problem that really frightens those who hope the American way will lead to the promised land...
...Even freedom of religion is destroyed since militarism recognizes no higher duty than implicit obedience...
...Imperialism is the art practiced by the private corporations of the Western countries, by which they fleece the backward nations and keep them backward...
...I quote New York Times, June 4.) The expected and inevitable hue and cry has gone up in those anti-Communist and non-Communist circles which will sacrifice not an inch of today's comfort to build a better tomorrow...
...But can we be so sure that the action which we would be willing to accept would not merely mean a return to fascism in those countries...
...Anton Garden Chicago, Ill...
...Far too often lately these letters urge leaving problems to those in authority, and have only scorn and abuse for any who criticize...
...We must also remember that before the postwar reactions are over in the United States, we may discover that we may rapidly approach the day when they are synonymous here as well...
...whether it succeeds or fails depends upon the mental alertness of each citizen...
...In fact, what labor makes in the mill, or factory, sells for so much more on the retail market than workers can buy with their limited wages...
...Elena Varneck Moss Beach, Calif...
...private ownership monopoly control...
...he leaves these same big business concerns to find a market for their goods, suggesting no way whatever to guarantee that there shall be no under-consumption of manufactured products...
...Any wonder that the politicians laugh us to scorn for being so dumb as to call this "the will of the people," or a "democracy...
...Even if we start some time after the war, with "full employment," how long can it last if the workers themselves, who constitute at least 75 per cent of the consuming public, have less in their pay-envelopes than it takes to buy back for their needs, etc., what they have produced for their masters...
...However, conscription, which is being pushed by our military caste, destroys everyone of them...
...First: I wish to voice my appreciation of the article in May 21 issue by Henry J. Kaiser...
...In Southern and Eastern Europe this has taken the form of building up reactionary local parties, supplied with money by the private corporations...
...La Follette provokes me it's usually because she argues her convictions out and if they don't agree with mine I have to do the same...
...Let us analyze what this plan would mean to our postwar economy...
...Give A Friend The Truth Send Him The Progressive Today Denouncing The CIO Dear Sirs: Never in the history of the United States has any organization, business, professional, or labor, engaged in more multiplicity of clandestine actions than has that horde of pseudo patriots—the CIO...
...Thus you see these leaders have the power to control all major questions...
...Our boys are fighting, bleeding, and dying to improve our society so that they will have ample opportunities to acquire jobs, the necessities and luxuries of life in addition to making a definite contribution to that society...
...There is also the feeling that once the Russians have assimilated Eastern, if not Western Europe, that they will turn to the Near East, and even, perhaps, to India...
...The Progressive Personality Dear Sirs: The Progressive has personality...
...Report From Montana Dear Sirs: I notice you made reference to the recent election in Montana...
...The tactics of smear destroyed our only living ex-President, the one man best fitted by experience and knowledge to aid in the international tangle...
...Rejoinder To Markhani Dear Sirs: To Mr...
...It's so easy to say, that's just what I think...
...By the way, I have recently noted his debut in the company of W. R. Hearst's stooges...
...Harry E. Graybiu...
...Third, it would require an employer to hire only those workers who were sympathetic with the principles and policies of the CIO...
...Second, it would control wages to the extent that it would prohibit a worker from receiving periodic increases even though said increases were recommended or authorized by his employer...
...If this were not done all the struggle, as well as suffering, against the Nazi-Fascist invaders and for a new, democratic Yugoslavia would have been pointless and useless...
...The hatred between Russian socialism and other socialisms may be incurable in this generation...
...It is entirely possible that several other Progressive contributors are flirting dangerously close to the Hearstian standards...
...Never again shall I fail to examine the activities and decisions of those in authority...
...La Follette said that she envied those gals whose boy friends called them "baby...
...therefore, from what point of reasoning do our leaders recommend and work for the basis of militarism in America...
Vol. 9 • July 1945 • No. 28
