WHAT NOW, AMERICA?
Rubin, Morris H.
What Now, America? By MORRIS H. RUBIN (Editor Of The Progressive) PEACE has come at last to a war-sickened world. The end of the bloodiest holocaust in all human history was the signal for nearly...
...The enormity ofjthe task ahead makes it imperative that we expose and combat every effort to set worker against farmer, veteran against worker, and civilian against veteran...
...Renner pleaded for an opportunity to let democratic Au-strians put their own house in order...
...We are solemnly on record, too, against the enslavement of the Japanese people or the destruction of the Japanese nation, and in favor of the early establishment of a democratic government, "in accordance with the freely expressed will of the Japanese people," which will respect "freedom of speech and religion and thought as well as respect for fundamental human life...
...We have clear-cut commitments in the Pacific...
...Congress and the Administration are confronted with the urgent need of acting decisively to put our own house in order...
...Even now there is mounting danger that the development of the atomic bomb is tempting our "realists" to think that it has made us so powerful that we no longer need grapple with the problem of achieving a just peace...
...When the secrets of the atom become available for peacetime development, they must be owned by all the people to be utilized for the general welfare, and not for the private profit and aggrandizement of great monopolies...
...It's an excellent idea, and if we had more men like Harry Sauthoff in Congress, it could be put over...
...We have earned the right to rejoice and relax, but even as we turn our eyes hopefully from the ruin and desolation of war, we come smack up against the sobering realization that nearly all the critical problems we faced when hostilities began are still very much with us—indeed, magnified a hundred-fold by the corrosive impact of the war...
...8 The development of an affirmative program of ? aids to small business and, conversely, a program to provide new power and support for a greatly rejuvenated attack on monopolies...
...The early adoption of such a program will not 'automatically or entirely, of course, solve the complex problems which confront us today, but they do constitute a minimum effort, without whi'H there can only be a disastrous drifting towa.J chaos...
...These two exponents of democracy continued to use Nazis in public office, he charged, "because they spoke good English and had charming manners...
...Certainly none but the most savage can contemplate with anything less than horror the terrifying and terrorizing consequences of atomic power as an instrument of destruction, as it has been used thus far in its infancy and as it could be used when civilized, scientific man refines his original discovery...
...And beyond the specific problem of Japan, we have assured the world that American influence and prestige will be mobilized against a continuance or extension of imperialism and for the spread of democratic self-government throughout all Asia...
...There is immediate need for action to provide: 1 Opportunities for full employment on self? respecting jobs for discharged veterans and displaced war workers...
...Now we have an opportunity to show that the cynical practice of turning our back on our obligations has not become a fixed American way of doing business...
...From Labor, publication of the Railroad Brotherhoods) FORMER Congressman Harry Sauthoff of Wisconsin is responsible for the Congressional inquiry which drove Judge Albert Johnson of Pennsylvania off the Federal bench...
...It is America's shame that we have broken our word and torn the Atlantic Charter to shreds in the European settlements thus far...
...A grateful nation salutes the men and women of the armed forces for the magnificent victory they won on the fields of battle so far from home—and salutes, too, the men and women in the factories, mines, the farms, and resourceful management for the magnificent victory they won in the field of production...
...Sauthoff renews the suggestion, often advanced by far-seeing Progressives, that Federal judges be made elective for a limited term...
...But quite apart from domestic considerations, there is urgent need for immediate reshaping of American foreign policy...
...6 The inauguration of a food allotment plan ? which will enable low income families to get a nutritious diet and provide farmers with an organized market for their products...
...Failure to act' promptly and courageously will endanger our whole economy, wreck the hope for lasting peace, and develop here at home the festering frustration and despair out of which come the very bigotry and intolerance which we thought we had conquered abroad...
...The other 2 shareholders in Austria—Russia and France—have equally been guilty of reprehensible practices, especially in retaining Austrian prisoners of war for what is clearly the equivalent of slave labor...
...Of course, there have been exceptions, but in this case, as in many others, the exceptions only prove the rule...
...7 The clarification and liberalization of veter- ? ans' legislation now on the statute books...
...Representatives of the 4 Powers should get together and decide to let Austria run her own affairs," the 75-year-old leader of the Social Democrats said...
...4 A sound program of reconversion and surplus ? property disposal which will give new life and hope to the independent segment of our economy and prevent the growth of monopoly...
...For example, breadlines in America will knock the props out from under any program to feed and clothe the hungry and destitute of other lands...
...Victory on the field of battle will wither in our hands if we do not now win the peace...
...There must be swift, decisive action to liquidate every wartime control and restriction that is not actually needed to ease us through the reconversion period...
...Almost from the beginning of this government, the Federal judiciary has stubbornly advanced the interests of special privilege...
...Lawrence Seaway Plan...
...The Declaration of Cairo which we signed with Britain and China 2 years ago, and the ultimatum of Potsdam, which we signed with the same 2 other Powers only this month, have put us unequivocally on record as favoring the stripping of Japan of all her ill-gotten gains and the return to China of lands, including Manchuria, wrested from her by the Tokyo war-lords...
...Karl Ren-ner, paper premier of Austria, who was installed in office by Soviet arms...
...In a recent appeal for a policy of moderation and understanding, Dr...
...Solving the problem of harnessing atomic power for the benefit of all will not be an easy task, but it is one which calls for urgent action by the best brains we have...
...This time we must deliver on our promises—or be discredited everywhere as a tool of imperialism, as A people whose moral purpose lags far behind their military might, as a people who have enshrined falsehood and betrayal as national virtues...
...ON the home front, we shall now need—even as we did in war—a united nation driving forward to a common goal...
...In 3 months' time, we have cleaned out the Nazis entirely and have undone all that Adolf Hitler created in 7 years* "Even well-meaning people cannot understand the problems of Austria...
...5 Housing legislation to permit the development ? of the long-delayed program of low-cost urban and rural homes...
...We have either opened a Pandora's Box whose evil genius will enslave us if it doesn't destroy us—or we have opened the door to the greatest opportunity for peace and abundance in the history of mankind...
...THIS time we must make our word stick...
...Unless we develop an economy of abundance at home and prevent a recurrence of depression and unemployment, the people of the United States will be in no mood and will not have the capacity to fulfill the obligations which we are so blithely accepting all over the rest of the world...
...The end of the war against Japan presents us with a great opportunity to make a fresh start by abandoning our present policy of betraying our pledges and acquiescing in the imperial demands of our Allies...
...The challenge of winning the peace confronts America with a two-pronged problem: 1. America must act at once to put her own house in order...
...In making this decision, the Allied master-minds ignored the counsel of their friend, Dr...
...1 r\ Inauguration of a program to modernize * both our executive and legislative branches of government...
...2 An integrated farm program which will pre? vent the disastrous collapse in agricultural values which swept the nation after World War I. 3 Broadened social security to provide the peo? pie with aid to meet the dislocations, like unemployment, sickness, etc., over which they have no control...
...Congress must act—and act at once—to place this awful achievement of ours beyond the reach of those who would harness it for evil purposes...
...Why Not Elect Federal Judges...
...2. America must formulate immediately a dynamic, democratic foreign policy, ONE of the most compelling issues of all cuts across domestic and foreign affairs...
...Now, Mr...
...Muddle In Austria THE Allied conquerors of Europe have decided to use their heel instead of a helpihg hand in Austria as well as Germany...
...IHAVE placed the problem of putting our own house in order first because I am profoundly convinced that without such affirmative action on that front, no worthwhile foreign policy can last...
...Dispatches from Washington, Moscow, London, and Paris reveal that Austria and its capital city, Vienna, are to be split into 4 zones of military occupation, with each zone having a separate commissioner exercising supreme authority...
...9 The enactment of legislation to authorize the ?development of regional river valleys patterned after the TVA and prompt action on the long kicked-around St...
...It is the issue raised by the terrible fact of atomic power and the atomic bomb...
...We have no objection to an Allied controller sitting next to any Austrian official, but decisions about Austrian affairs and the administration of the country should rest with Austrians...
...M. W. Fodor, Vienna correspondent for the Chicago Sun, disclosed in a recent dispatch that, according to Dr...
...Renner, the Austrians have done a more efficient job of ridding public life of Nazis than have some of the Allied powers, notably Britain and the United States...
...America today has a magnificent opportunity— to show by the power of our example at home that democracy does work, and by the power of our diplomacy abroad that imperialism and power politics cannot be the basis of an enduring people's peace...
...The end of the bloodiest holocaust in all human history was the signal for nearly universal rejoicing and prayerful thanksgiving...
...The principal effect of the Allied policy in Austria can only be to place an intolerable burden on the decent, democratic forces which are struggling to rise to the top, and which deserve a helping hand in what must be at best a painfully difficult job...
Vol. 9 • August 1945 • No. 34
