THE EDITOR RESERVES THE LAST COLUMN
The Editor Reserves . . . The Last Column PRESIDENT TRUMAN'S assertion that he bound America to no secret agreements at Potsdam was reassuring to many an American, but it could not wipe out the...
...Was anything said," the correspondents asked, about the Fair Employment Practices Committee or the poll tax...
...I have an idea there is something—if just a little bit—in the theory...
...Another example of how liberalism is split into special compartments was on display in Washington last week...
...No," replied Florida's Sen...
...Headline Of The Week A postscript in Bill Hesseltine's letter reports that among the post-election headlines in the London News-Chronicle for July 27 was this one: LADY ASTOR'S OLD SEAT GOES LABOUR * * * Liberalism Limited The extent to which liberalism is being compartmentalized was never more apparent than now...
...We've commented in the past on the case of Minnesota's Joe Ball who gets only a gentle slap on the wrist from eastern lib-labs for sponsoring anti-labor legislation...
...Legislation to provide a semblance of equality of economic opportunity and to enforce the right of all citizens, regardless of race or color, to cast their votes in a free election was not a proper subject for liberals to discuss because, you see, as the Senator from Florida said, "this was an economic meetM. H.R...
...A dozen or so New Deal Senate Democrats, self-styled as having "a little more liberal" attitude than their colleagues, met to map plans for a postwar program for America...
...But Truman started off all right...
...The Americans lost their great and indispensable war leader, and the British were very, very sad at that...
...The eclipse of the sun was only partial...
...Pepper, a courageous and crusading progressive on many issues, is a Southerner first and a liberal afterward...
...The Editor Reserves . . . The Last Column PRESIDENT TRUMAN'S assertion that he bound America to no secret agreements at Potsdam was reassuring to many an American, but it could not wipe out the widespread resentment at the fantastic secrecy, Hollywood trappings and all, which was invoked at the Prussian compound...
...The people of the countries involved, who are expected to support and enforce the agreements made, were fed only the most vapid claptrap until the Big 3 threw a 7,000-word statement at them—-to take it and like it...
...American correspondents who knew that no issue of military security was at stake, and who recognized that the personal safety of the participants could have been assured by intelligent police methods, were furious at the way they were kept in total ignorance and lied to by the official spokesmen...
...The death of Roosevelt and the succession of Truman without a revolution was an encouragement to all those who wanted to get rid of Churchill and still feared the consequences...
...Claude Pepper, "this was an economic meeting...
...The world didn't collapse, and America didn't, of course...
...William B. Hesseltine, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin and a frequent contributor to The Progressive, sent me this report from England where he is teaching American troops: "For what it is worth, I report that one of the explanations given hereabouts is that Truman is responsible for the fall of Churchill...
...His aggressive internationalism keeps him a "liberal" in their eyes no matter how reactionary he may be —and is—on critical home front affairs ranging over many subjects...
...See Page 3.) Newsmen tried to pump the principal participants after the private meeting...
...The Associated Press reported that at Yalta—on Russian soil—there had been no less than 20,000 Soviet retainers on hand to enforce secrecy, and that "at Potsdam that figure was outdistanced by far...
...And, really, that's given seriously as an explanation...
...That this nation—which once proclaimed itself the champion of "open covenants, openly arrived at"— can take, without a real whimper of protest—secret bartering at a Persian palace at Teheran, a czarist castle at Yalta, and a Prussian palace at Potsdam, strikes me as being as disheartening as the actual political bargains we make at these and other secret sessions...
...American correspondents, including avowed Soviet sympathizers, unanimously placed responsibility for the extraordinary suppression of news on the Kremlin...
...It dawned upon the British people that Churchill was no more indispensable than Roosevelt, and that maybe the British could survive too...
...Now, Sen...
...Interpretation From England There have been bales of interpretation of the Labor Party sweep in Great Britain, but few of the commentators emphasized the role that American developments played in the spectacular drubbing given Churchill & Company...
...Not actively, of course, but by example...
Vol. 9 • August 1945 • No. 33
