THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Criticizes State Department Dear Sirs: I have a few remarks of praise for Oswald G. Villard's article in The Progressive of July 23 in regard to Jimmy Byrnes. I...
...I think it is unnecessary, undemocratic, and dangerous to our American way of life...
...I am sending 12 subscriptions to The Progressive...
...But a little hunger won't hurt...
...The followers of the first of which are the pharisees...
...Many people are at a loss to know why we are sending sugar to Spain as well as other material...
...I am sure that I don't admire the Soviet Union because of their military accomplishments...
...If that is the rating you put on your readers then it is time The Progressive stopped publishing...
...Alma E. Meyers South Lyon, Mich...
...It is particularly gratifying that you have added Prof...
...Sometimes I take rather sharp issue with some of the articles and am all ready to rush a long protest, and again, on other occasions, I find I am equally pleased with some well done article—but somehow or other, Uncle Sam manages to keep me just busy enough never to find the time...
...Rubin on his front page article of Aug...
...Dear Sirs: I read the July 2 article by Dr...
...America cannot awake...
...Give A Friend The Truth Send Him The Progressive Today...
...by Morris Ru bin in this week's Progressive made me rub my eyes, look again, and then wonder in return, "What's the matter with Rubin ? " Thank God the American officials in Germany are not swayed by any such maudlin expression of sympathy for a predatory people...
...This, to my mind, is more important than all other considerations put together...
...I have had to try to fight this dangerous imitation of Hitlerism by trying to re-educate with accurate information concerning the loyalty of our Americans of Japanese ancestry...
...Rubin's article, "What's The Matter With America...
...Occasionally I see some one writes you in protest about your carrying ads of atheistic literature...
...These last are Jews by birth, and seem to have a greater affection for one another than the other sects have . . . These men are de-spisers of riches, and so very communicative as raises our admiration . . . Among them all there is no appearance of poverty, or excess of riches, but everyone's possessions are intermingled with every other's possessions...
...The Reader's Digest Town Meeting is a refreshing exception...
...I take my hat off to any paper that will present true facts to its readers...
...Our Congress probably comes around the latter figure...
...Miles vehemently denied it...
...Is this new generation more inhuman than any other American...
...Using Nazi Tactics Dear Sirs: On the front page of The Progressive of Aug...
...Following are some of the inconsistencies : Robert Patterson urging us to prepare for war, if we want peace...
...Their adoption of passive resistance is used by Gamaliel as a plea for tolerance towards them...
...Most of these homes that were searched had been represented by soldiers who had ransacked, raped and looted in the countries overrun by Germany...
...They pillaged and robbed wherever they went...
...Pass The Progressive Along It's American, Alert, Accurate Hope In London Dear Sirs: Labor's latest achievement is true winning of the election in England, and I consider it one of the greatest victories for labor since the working people of Russia overpowered the Czar and established a labor regime in the U. S. S. R. Spain, of course, went peaceably to the polls and voted the working class into power, but what happened there was that the Fascists Of the United States and England brought pressure to bear to slap an embargo on Spain, so to cut off her arms and munitions and other supplies...
...Acts 5, 34 to 3d...
...Are they going to develop into a nation of cruel bullies...
...And Abraham Lincoln watching the tears of lava streaming, serpentine fashion, down the editor's thrones of modesty...
...Perhaps she does not have a son who died of starvation and exposure while a prisoner of the Germans during the bitter cold of last Winter when our boys were marched from prison camp to prison camp...
...You say American boys "must have been ashamed" of such "Gestapo" and "Ku Klux-style" raids...
...Rubin suggest— that we wait until organized resistance becomes evident by the killing of many of our boys on duty there...
...Well, as far as I can see, there is nothing the matter with America, j only that we have some crackpots that are trying to change our form of government and the sooner they are kicked out the better off this country will be for Americans that still believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights...
...And it certainly gets well read—by the time it gets back to me, it is well worn...
...World War II promises to afford another opportunity for the advocates of human progress to further extend the brotherhood of man...
...What a Niagara of sighs and tears...
...Those folks must think there is only one side to this religious question—their side...
...Louis, Mo...
...And all this without a search-warrant...
...Praise For Mrs...
...Rose Andrews Nichols need not worry about the Germans freezing next Winter, either, for enough American clothing was stolen from the boys which caused so many, like my son, to die of exposure...
...Villard did not mention Jimmy Dunn, the most dangerous man in our most criticized State Department...
...One would have thought that the whole state would rise against such totalitarian discrimination...
...Now the U. S. and England have Fascist Spain on their hands and don't know what to do about it...
...Mat' thew 19, 21...
...C. Forttmann St...
...I am very sure that if you went into the American occupation zone in Germany and read your editorial to our soldiers therein, they would kick your backside so hard that your brains would become completely benumbed...
...Emma Dasch Colfax, Wash...
...Of course, there are a few people in every country that want their share and the share of about 10 other people too...
...Luke 3, 11...
...Goebbels...
...Equally serious would be the incentive for shrewd Negroes and unscrupulous white agents to engage in blackmail by locating Negroes in the former restricted districts and thus to compel white property owners to buy them out at extortionate prices...
...We have copied about all of the Nazi methods at home and abroad, and I am glad we still have one paper whose Editor has the courage to speak up and condemn the men that are responsible...
...in the Aug...
...However, just let the Soviet Union pick a fight with any other nation, and my admiration for that country will drop even though I do like their internal domestic set-up...
...But I feel that I should say a word in defense of the ministers of Auburn, Wash., for the whole story is not told in this article...
...Under the increased liberty of modern times cooperative associations have made further progress...
...Parson W. P. Brownlow went violently insane...
...Every weapon taken in that raid was a forbidden weapon and made its owner a potential killer of our American boys...
...Make them believe they were fighting a new breed of people was the idea...
...William Fuller Cocoa, F laSegregation And Property Dear Sirs: In a recent quarterly of the American Civil Liberties Union I note the proposal to file an action in the U. S. Supreme Court in support of a suit to outlaw covenants barring Negroes from owning property in restricted urban areas...
...He became a noted historian...
...At last they have their wish...
...N. E. Brannan Auburn, Wash...
...F. S. Kinder Denver, Colo...
...It would mean depreciation of property values wherever Negroes secured homes in former restricted districts, and would all too likely prove an incitement to riots...
...Both houses of Congress adjourn to October with nothing done towards reconversion, but England is sending new automobiles over here already, while the O. P. A. is bungling around on prices that our manufacturers should receive, and if we have not got inflation now I don't know what you would call it...
...Hanighen's picture of "French planters literally cracking the whip over native laborers" is right in the groove...
...His question, "What Is The Matter With America ?" must make everyone of us think earnestly and deeply unless the words of one of our own wise men, "Americans are impotent in thinking," should be true...
...In my case it is no narrow-necked one either...
...Our State Department has been infested with Franco lovers ever since Jimmy Dunn won the confidence of Cordell Hull...
...Mary Black's letter (July 2) is outstanding...
...Hankins to the galaxy...
...All you can hear on the radio and read in the controlled press is a campaign of hatred against the Germans and Japanese, and we are all created by one Creator...
...6 issue which should be read by every American...
...J. E. Fitzgerald Stephenville, Tex...
...Fair-minded citizens will approve the spirit that prompts this action, but a question arises as to certain results that may follow if the suit is successful...
...It gave the>n something tangible to fight...
...Then the Japs, by outnumbering the Caucasians owing to the latter having a low birth rate, could gain control of this coast...
...No, it was deliberate, as was the deliberate starvation of the victims of concentration camps and countries they had overrun...
...Perhaps they will realize that wars bring on suffering, and they won't be so anxious to start another war...
...Tolerant Attitude Dear Sirs: There are many articles appearing in The Progressive which we do not like, but your broad-minded, tolerant attitude in allowing your readers to express themselves freely in the Forum outweighs this objection...
...Our interests in Japan are less than Russia, China, France, Great Britain, and Holland, yet we are fighting practically alone, and Government propaganda vilifies anyone who dares point this out...
...J. L. Jones Elsinore, Calif...
...And being frightened, I have to fight, or take flight...
...The organizers of "The Remember Pearl Harbor League" were clever enough to sense that they could not gain headway by advocating the economic or racial reasons for wanting to keep the evacuees out...
...I enjoy the work of Commander Seely, Neuberger, and McMillin...
...Shades of Dr...
...Yes, rare things have the most value, and your liberalism, your generous reasoning, etc., in this era of dense odium, are the most pleasing to millions of Americans who were dragged in this war of destruction without their consent and who, willy-nilly, will foot the bill without any benefit whatsoever, unless acquired enmities can be called does...
...Now that dear old Germania is virtually liquidated as a nation, I don't know whether I can avoid a mental debacle if I continue to even look at the title of the articles of so many whining whimperers...
...6, "What's The Matter With America...
...A Discussion Starter Dear Sirs: May I express my appreciation of the entire paper, which I read eagerly from cover to cover as soon as I get each issue...
...Though the Ministerial Association of this town did not publish its stand on the return of the evacuees, nor organize to combat the dangerous propaganda campaign of the "Remember Pearl Harbor League," some of the ministers did talk against such un-American methods and did uphold the rights of the Japanese-Americans in speaking before their own congregations, and individually on occasions...
...6, Mr...
...Easy to dig up a carnifex or two for the triumph of rectitude...
...Abraham Lincoln would today be scorned as a perfectionist...
...Our nation bears the greatest debt of any nation on earth, yet they say we must continue Lend-Lease to our non-fighting allies and feed Europe...
...Were German civilians concerned about our boys starving...
...Clare Boothe Luce keep up the good work with her chamberlinesque picture of "300,000 happy Russians deserting the Russian Army in the Balkans...
...All who believed in Christ held everything for the common use...
...Whenever we begin to show alarm at Government policies, the pollyanna propagandists begin dishing out the soothing syrup to soothe troubled minds and hearts and dull the conscience of America...
...Nelson A. Miles had quite an argument in the North American Review...
...Hutchinson Dear Sirs: It is with great pleasure that I look forward to receiving your great paper each week...
...They can have homes in their own districts to compare with homes of the whites and will take pride in them...
...6 issue, "What's The Matter With America...
...I haven't heard of much dissatisfaction within the Soviet Union...
...This is exactly the same thing that has caused me to admire that government for around 27 years...
...Hutchins a few days ago in The Progressive, and I have just read the piece by Morris Rubin, "What's The Matter With America ?" I will admit that I do not know...
...They never quote the following paragraphs: "If you wish to be perfect," answered Jesus, "go and sell your property and give to the poor and you shall have wealth in Heaven...
...Every Tory ^editorial writer and commentator has been high in praise of him and has tried to place him in a high Government position...
...They have consistently stressed the angle of disloyalty, and thereby have gained considerable following by sincere people...
...That is the way my son died...
...With fair wages and civil treatment the matter of segregation will largely take care of itself...
...Editor 'Teched' Dear Sirs: The front page editorial in the Aug...
...Let the man who has two coats," answered John the Baptist, "share with him who has none...
...Shall we hunt them down or wait until they surrender...
...Cooperative communes struggled under adverse circumstances...
...John R. Morris San Francisco, Calif...
...When I was a boy I was taught to think America was a brave, generous country that would not kick any one who was down...
...I hope that she will write another letter, and tell us in a few words just exactly what it is about the Soviet Union that she doesn't like...
...Neither has it lifted Social Security taxes to about 6 per cent, where the figure should be...
...Mark accused Miles of being cruel to Jeff Davis...
...One Army general has had to resign in disgrace...
...I notice that you gave this lady nearly an entire column of space...
...Your list of contributors is outstanding...
...they sold their property and their goods, and shared the proceeds among them all, according to their individual needs...
...I think you are just a bit "teched...
...You write, "and there, was hardly a peep of protest in this land of the free and the home of the brave . . ." Of course there is no protest when we search the Germans for hidden and illegal weapons, so they can't take pot-shots at the American soldiers who are on duty in Germany...
...Real success was at last achieved when, as a result of the first world war the capitalist forces became so confused as to permit the establishing of socialism on one sixth of the land surface of the earth...
...I, like Milton Mayer, am a frightened person...
...We have promised speedy punishment of war criminals...
...O rape of Justice...
...Germany and Italy were thereby assisted to establish Fascism in Spain with Franco at the head...
...True, there are those who claim to believe that the Japanese-Americans were plotting to get control of this country by nefarious means, even to telling for a plausible fact that the Jap vegetable growers were consciously using the kind of commercial fertilizer that would deplete the soil and grow the kind of vegetables that would cause sterility among the Caucasians...
...Of all the promises that have been made to the people I can not think of one that has been kept...
...George C. Hart Baltimore, Md...
...However, it still hasn't made good on the late President Roosevelt's promise of 60,000,-000 jobs...
...Perhaps we should not expect a minister to step out too far in advance of the thinking of his followers...
...That is what the honiemaker does...
...Morris Rubin is right—every one of those fellows who preached cruelty to the South made asses of themselves and died an ignominious death...
...Spellman draws more water with our State Department than any clergyman in the United States...
...Editor's Searching Article Dear Sirs: Your Editor, Mr...
...For if he did, he would no doubt lose his hearers...
...I agree Clayton with his cartel complex should go, Holmes of the State Department should be removed, also Robert Murphy, with his corrupt African record...
...I dislike Byrnes in every sense the word implies...
...Beyond this the chief demand of the Negro is for civil treatment in our daily contacts with him...
...Distinguished Job Dear Sirs: The Progressive is doing a dis-distinguished job in stimulating thought by presenting effectively scientific but unpopular views...
...From an extensive survey which I have made of a cross section of our citizens, my conclusion is that with most people this antagonism toward the evacuees is basically a disease of war bred fears...
...Through the succeeding centuries efforts to revive scientific faith continued...
...of the second, the Saducees...
...and the third sect, which pretends to a severe discipline, are called Essens...
...All commentators in Germany are agreed in saying that there is no evidence of a sense of their own guilt among the German people...
...80,000 persons were arrested and all but a few were released immediately...
...opened my eyes, my ears, and my mind more than ever...
...If only 1,000 out of 80,000 were held as war criminals, the raid was justified...
...Hankins...
...Are We More Inhuman...
...Mrs...
...Too bad that people who are so sympathetic with a nation that has been so ruthless, do not have the sorrow that has befallen me...
...Within 5 years after the crucifixion of Christ, Flavius Josephus was born...
...The news reports stated that while no organized resistance was brought to light, many firearms were taken...
...I think the paper with nerve enough to tell the truth deserves that, and more...
...The whole body of those who had become believers in Christ were of one heart and mind...
...Keep up the good work...
...Paul Mallon and his ilk have lost sleep ever since the Democrats failed to nominate Byrnes for Vice President...
...B. D. Jordan Chesterville, Tex...
...How about a full length sigh from Upton Close or Lindbergh...
...I remember many years ago Mark Twain and Gen...
...Segregation has deplorable aspects...
...Nothing is too good for the boys •when they return...
...Few Negroes with good intentions will want to live in a district with uncongenial neighbors...
...J. F. Smitrus New Brunswick, N. J. * * * Give A Friend The Truth Send Him The Progressive Today Japanese Evacuees Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer is to be commended for his challenging article in the July 9 Progressive, concerning the Japanese evacuee problem...
...Rubin, do you evaluate the intelligence of your readers of such low caliber, that you want them to think that you really believe that the Germans are such nice people that they would hesitate to shoot an American if they thought they could get away with it...
...6 issue, "What's The Matter With America...
...His manner of presenting this serious subject should have a powerful appeal to all fair-minded, thinking people...
...I was greatly impressed with "Wasted Manpower and the CO's," by Dorothy L. Hutchinson in the July 16 issue...
...Whether a country is ruled by one man or 500 men makes not the slightest difference to me...
...What would Mr...
...As an example of dulled conscience, the highway department of the state of Washington refused to hire a discharged veteran because he was not "approved" by the Democratic state committee...
...And a short on Stalin's disgusting use of "God willing" when he parted with President Truman...
...Here is a straight thinker, rare indeed in these days of confusion compounded...
...Now I am not accusing you of being drunk...
...How quickly they would sing a different tune...
...The courage and humaneness of his words prove that we still have some persons among us that are concerned with more than the mere acquisition of things and an easier way of life...
...I am under the impression the men mentioned in our State Department are guided in their actions by Bishop Spellman who said, "Franco is a good Christian man...
...And of what use would it be to be a "crusader" if one lost contact with the folks who needed one's message...
...Rubin is one of your best...
...Or, Mr...
...Basic Christian Principles Dear Sirs: The preachers and commentators of all Christian denominations deliberately evade any mention of a certain basic principle of Christian faith as taught during the first 2 centuries...
...Praise For Hankins 3s»ar Sirs: By far the best articles on the German situation are those by Dr...
...John Campbell Chula Vista, Calif...
...Soviet Admirer Dear Sirs: I read very carefully in the July 23 issue, the letter of Angelica Bal-abanoff, who describes herself as a former Russian citizen...
...I've been wondering when some one was going to ask that question...
...He has shown a comprehensive insight that no writer of any piece you have published so far has even approached...
...Not one of them claimed any of his goods as his own, but everything was for the common use...
...In my humble opinion, those who were left in their homes or who were returned to their homes after questioning had every reason to regard the raid as humane and just...
...Opposes Conscription Dear Sirs: I am opposed to military conscription during peacetime...
...After a few years of this your conscience might begin to wabble and confusion would replace clear thinking...
...How about a dramatic tin-pot melodrama anent the 16 Democratic Poles...
...Those Essens (or Essenes) were the crowds who responded to the appeals of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ to form a worldwide organization, and thus establish a predominant environment that would attract and convert the dispossessed mass of every nation...
...The gullibility of so many of our people frightens me...
...Their history began about 200 years B. C. Before they came under Christian influence they sometimes resorted to armed resistance...
...We seem to be in the same state of indifference and apathy that the Germans were guilty of and for which they are now paying so heartily...
...Who in this country would have thought 12 years ago that we as free people would be told what and how much we could have to eat, where we could work and how much we would get for working, standing in line for most everything that is essential to our ways of living, unless you have a drag...
...Edwin L. Clarke Winter Park, Fla...
...But persecution continued and the Christians were being slaughtered until about the end of the second century...
...The Japanese-Americans, having been evacuated (some say that the mass evacuation created the distrust more than otherwise would have been), provided a scapegoat on which to vent the emotional strain caused by the war and the suffering from fear for loved ones on the fighting front...
...By the first quarter of the fourth century Christianity had conformed so completely to the capitalist system as to attract the admiration of Constantine the Great, who by royal decree established Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire...
...They always say the other fellow started it— never a bully in this world failed to say that...
...Nearly everybody that doesn't like the Soviet Union Government writes in a vague sort of way...
...but these will be greatly alleviated when Negroes gain free opportunities for work at the same pay as whites...
...Ben R. Brainard Los Angeles, Calif...
...Rubin asks ¦what is the matter with America and the conscience of America...
...Rubin, has written a searching article in the Aug...
...Courage To Speak Up Dear Sirs: I want to congratulate Mr...
...6 issue...
...Might is not right with me...
...When the war was brewing, even before we got into a war with Germany the war promoters at Washington met and agreed it would be better to call the Germans Nazis when the war did start since the soldiers of occupation in the last war seemed to like the Germans...
...You remind me of the old story of the drunk, who is staggering around in a crowd of people and keeps repeating, "Everbodish shoushed bush me...
...My sympathy on the military angle has been with the Soviet Union because they were attacked by Germany...
...The following extracts from his book never appear in our literature: "There are 3 philosophical sects among the Jews...
...I think it's you who should be ashamed to use such words in connection with our military...
...I would suggest you might find the answer if you stayed at home and listened faithfully, to the radio news commentators, especially on the Blue Network, day after day...
...Lawrence E. Deller Embarkation APO San Francisco, Calif...
...Mark Twain called such fellows coffee coolers...
...I admire the Soviet Unron because it guarantees a job and material security in sickness and old age to every citizen...
...She is drugged...
...Why not have Mrs...
...On the other hand, the reports that I get from the Soviet Union indicate that the people there are cooperating better than people have ever cooperated in any country in the world before...
...For if our own intelligent and otherwise fair-minded citizens can be so easily swayed by the propaganda of perverted facts of those who have an axe to grind by preventing the return of the evacuees, how can we expect people in the countries that have not had the advantages of democracy (and Christianity) to be able to practice cooperation for security from world wars and to promote human justice...
...I still don't understand why she doesn't like the present government there...
...Now that a lot of them are out they are shoved around...
...500,000 conscripts in the greatest Gestapo raid in history...
...We holler about the Nazi Gestapo ¦when we are using the same tactics...
...The only reasonable deduction that can be made from your editorial is that you are in favor of giving the Germans a fair chance to occasionally shoot an American soldier...
...Be that as it may, I do enjoy The Progressive greatly, and I pass each issue around to the rest of the men...
...then come and follow me...
...I do not believe in the extermination of the German people, especially by starvation...
...H. E. Washburn Hanover, N. H. * * * Opened Eyes, Ears 8C Mind Dear Sirs: Mr...
...The American public needs more of these facts...
...However, this is not surprising...
...J. Hubert Garner Markleeville, Calif...
...These things will go far in removing the Negroes' resentment...
...Like the airplane, the radio, which was intended for man's good, is fast becoming his greatest menace...
...No concentration camps, no hostages—words all too familiar during the war...
...Acts, 4, 32...
...Sol Katz New York, N. Y. Maudlin Sympathy Dear Sirs: The editorial, "What's the Matter With America...
...should read, "What's The Matter With Rubin...
...Anyhow chickens come home to roost and are already begging to do that...
...Mayer that this campaign against the return of the Japanese-Americans to the West Coast is basically a campaign of race hatred...
...Acts, 2, 44...
...Perhaps the new political situation in England may change the aspect of the whole affair...
...On Food For Germans Dear Sirs: In the July 30 People's Forum I read Rose Andrews Nichols' letter about her deep concern in regard to the German civilians of Germany starving...
...It usually starts a good discussion...
...Tears Of Lava Dear Sirs: Your lead article in the Aug...
...Why are men like Upton Close kept off the air for telling the truth...
...Pass The Progressive Along It's American, Alert, Accurate America Is Drugged Dear Sirs: Editor Rubin asks "What Is The Matter With America...
...M. H. Spangler Baltimore, Md...
...I do not agree with Mr...
...The Progressive has a fine list of contributors who are doing their best to rouse this lethargic mess and Mr...
...Marie Richmond Benton Harbor, Mich...
...in which you find the conscience of America in yourself and the Chicago Tribune just makes me reach my left hand for the antique "tear-bottle...
...You know that we have some men that have been trying to warn the people what is in store for them if they are not on the alert, but it looks like some never pay any attention to what's going on or just do not give a darn until it is too late...
...G. A. Finarelli Upper Darby, Pa...
...Judging from the violent voices I hear over the radio, there are a lot of people now on the road to the madhouse...
...We should temper justice with mercy, but we should not forego the opportunity of meting out justice because of an over-sensitive desire not to discommode this bloody and war-like people who have spread death and destruction over most of Europe...
Vol. 9 • August 1945 • No. 35
