THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Misuse Of The Charter Dear Sirs: Every earnest advocate of world organization and every sincere lover of peace should put on mourning following the news of Aug....
...Thus, even before the world organization has formally come into existence, it receives a heavy blow from its own misguided proponents...
...Pass The Progressive Along Britain And India Dear Sirs: The cartoon you use in the issue of Aug...
...Let us not single out only the actors but the producers as well...
...it was carved to the bone, How about apportioning those sympathetic tears somewhat...
...What monsters of cruelty are those so-called scientists who lend their knowledge and technical equipment to devise such fiendish instruments of death and destruction and then glory in its results...
...Your articles are well written...
...Lenin's socialism preceded Stalin's National Socialism...
...Imperfect as it was, we ought to have joined it—especially since we had participated in the war -—and to have made our powerful influence count towards correcting the League's weaknesses and re-directing its course...
...The ex-Danbury objectors are urging all people to write Warden Hagerman, Federal - Correctional Institution, Ashland, Ky...
...Haines would grant prosperity or ample security to those unemployed through no fault of their own...
...Action against Jim Crow which began in April with two Negroes at Milan, Mich, prison and which was added to by several white CO's is continuing...
...A vote against Mr...
...What stumps me about your intelligent writers is that they all seem to be under the impression that by handing out charity to the workers by way of the Government we will make progress...
...Dear Sirs: Now that we have achieved victory, how many of us are actually thinking of that "brave new world...
...In the face of our use of this weapon, which indiscriminately wipes out 200,000 lives, prosecution of enemy war criminals becomes an utter farce...
...I have no criticism for The Progressive...
...I'm hoping against hope that the Republicans will give me the opportunity of helping to elect a Republican President come 1948...
...My brother is in the Red...
...Does anyone question the motives and authenticity of the news commentators and the press ? If so, are there any Americans who believe we can build a "just and durable peace" while entertaining vulgar, nauseating delusions as to our national superiority and parading before the rest of the world displaying our halo, thanking God that we are not as other barbarians...
...Also that a certain slice of Lithu...
...Articles like this only stir up dissension on the home front...
...Mussolini took the logical step from socialism- to fascism...
...The first League of Nations was handicapped by the United States' absence...
...C. E. Robel Lewiston, Idaho * * * Outlaw Armaments Dear Sirs: Now is the time when people of good-will all over the world must get together to outlaw armies and armaments...
...After all, atomic or any other bombs are harmless if there are no human agents, who will make or drop them...
...Most of the letters were brutal and insincere...
...After a four and one-hah: month work strike coupled with publicity and public pressure, segregation in the dining hall was abolished...
...Any person but a moron or a sadist is horrow-stricken at the hellish crimes committed against the Japanese people by the use of such an infernal invention as the atomic bomb...
...Does not common sense and observation tell us that a democratic solution of the prolific problems of a planned economy would necessitate more agreement upon ends and means that can reasonably be expected...
...Roehm and Hitler built the Socialist Workers' Party in the early '30's...
...Is it not clear that this would require an authority with an absolute scale of values which could decide the relative social usefulness of each and every human endeavor...
...If I start ^manufacture some thing that might be wanted by the community I am taxed for my industry while the man who holds a title to the land, no matter how he got it, collects rent for the mere use of the land...
...The airplane, too, was supposed to make war so horrible that it would be outlawed—and that was only 25 years ago...
...If in five or ten years we should seek to hold Russia to some treaty obligation— because at that moment it should be to our interest to have her observe it—she can thumb her nose at us and remind us of when we suggested an "excuse" for her to violate her solemn treaty with Japan in 1945...
...Against the Chicago Tribune, against Hoover of Anacostia Flats, against Gannett and his ilk...
...He fought in the battle of Stalin grad, and chased the German murderers to the gates of Vienna...
...Edward R. Dudley, assistant special counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, has written Warden Hagerman of the Ashland Institution, pointing out that even in Nazi prisoner-of-war camps the chief propagandists of race superiority did not practice racial segregation of American prisoners...
...Your high minded noble protest and just indictment of America is commendable beyond words, but I fear it is a cry in the wilderness of the American people, who have shown by their callous indifference and criminal silence that they approve of and applaud this predatory conduct by the powers that be...
...It's good and in a class by itself...
...Dewey, the cure for war...
...Our country's use of this agency for indiscriminate, wholesale slaughter is a cause for shame, not for congratulation...
...9. Unfortunately, the first "use" of the new world organization is a sordid misuse...
...Petersburg, Fla...
...Blanche Watson St...
...In conclusion, after reading The Progressive for several years I can only say, and the records prove, that you continually show a pro-German attitude in your magazine because there is a majority of German people in your state...
...Also, Rep...
...Paul, Minn...
...I am sure he would be for the punishment of the war criminals, and so am I. Let us really punish them and establish a not-too-pleasant precedent for future aggressors...
...Dewey was a vote against his late godmother, Mrs...
...refused to go along with the coalition government and to support its "war pilot," Winston Churchill...
...He becomes an object.of government charity.Alexis C. Fern Stelton, N. J. * * * Atomic Bomb Crime Dear Sirs: Truly you may ask in the Aug...
...All radical papers have to shout...
...Czechoslovakia truly was a democracy, quite contrary to Poland with its fascist-blended government...
...Let us hear more from him...
...Cause For Shame Dear Sirs: During recent hours our daily papers have been filled with glowing descriptions of the unbelievable power of the atomic bomb...
...Well, I have a stake in this war that includes an only son who'll be 18 come next December...
...Thorston Lindberg Milwaukee, Wis...
...No sane individual would call those papers liberal...
...Camilla H. Flintekmann Peter C. Flintekmann Chicago, 111...
...It has been all too clear during the critical decades between World Wars I and II that the "noble experiment" of the League of Nations failed, not primarily because it lacked "teeth," nor even because America failed to join, but rather because the League was tied to the unjust, iniquitous Versailles Treaty and almost from the start was used by the big members not primarily as a dynamic agency for building a new order of increasing justice and integrity in international affairs, but rather as an instrument to perpetuate an utterly unbalanced and impossible "status quo" and as a pious cloak for the continuance of the sordid poker game of power politics...
...Field...
...Max Dorn Seattle, Wash...
...This gloating over the destruction of thousands of our fellowmen is unworthy of us as Christians...
...Also I would be much pleased if you would definitely come out for a party "of, by and for the people...
...6 issue interesting...
...I'm not thinking in terms of our own homegrown, synthetically inflated "Hero of Frisco", Mr...
...Nobody was murdered, robbed, or raped...
...It is worth remembering (however inconvenient to our several ideologies) that fascism in all countries has always been preceded by a socialist movement, laying the ideological foundation of public ownership, state control, social security...
...6 article, "What Is The Matter With America...
...R. H. McSimms...
...Dear Sirs: Like most of the articles in The Progressive, "What's The Matter With America...
...I didn't vote for Mr...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Jim Crow Battles Dear Sirs: With the ending of the war, more attention is being given to the battle which Conscientious Objectors are still waging against Jim Crow in prison...
...George Rodet, Wheaton, 111...
...Pro-German Dear Sirs: In reference to Mr...
...Is the new attempt at world organization to be endangered by our presence...
...Are they not all equally guilty...
...However, when our comical comrades state Russia is only "taking territory that Poland stole from her," I think the Editor in a footnote should state there is no foundation for the statement...
...By her unbelievable inhuman conduct in this war she has forfeited any claims she may have had of being civilized, but has proved beyond a doubt her fiendish savagery and predatory traits...
...I'm wrong...
...Also, at Ashland, Ky, 12 CO's and two non-CO's initiated action against Jim Crow in the dining hall in early June...
...Army...
...Dewey as President last November...
...To have withheld the atomic bomb would have been a greater act than to have used it, for if it has temporarily saved thousands of American lives it has done so at the expense of the ideals for which the Allies have been fighting and has sown the seeds of even greater destruction...
...Gentler Shouts Dear Sirs: I like The Progressive very much...
...Howard J. Smith Minneapolis, Minn...
...I found all three book reviews in the Aug...
...Blowing several thousand human souls (men, women and children) to hell with one atomic bomb should make the most hardy Christian shudder—if there are any left in this land of the free and home of the brave...
...What's the matter with the newspapers ? What's the matter with the inarticulate, the silent, the common people, of whom there are so many ? But why speak of "see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil" as representing the American Liberals ? Because a man calls himself a Christian does not make him a Christian...
...Not only have we acceded, however reluctantly, to the subjugation of Poland and the Baltic and Balkan States, *&s well as to the division of Germany, and indicated our purpose to seize for ourselves bases in the far Pacific—thus setting up a "peace" even more vicious than Versailles—but even before it has had a chance to be decently born, we have helped to steer this new venture in world organization—in which the suffering, agonizing millions around the world have been led to place their hopes— into the same old channel of irresponsible opportunism...
...And, I hate war...
...But when he writes me: "Dear David: The war has ended, and I am now in Austria," here come the censor's scissors and all the rest of the letter is cut out, till the last line, "Thy brother...
...Under the prominent headline...
...6th issue should have a circulation of 10 or more million...
...Mollies Tarter Elmhnrst, N. Y. Tears Over Poland Dear Sirs: Why all the tears over Poland ? When Czechoslovakia was being carved up, "poor" Poland was right in line with other "friendly neighbors" to grab a slice of the carcass...
...You seem to have been trying to balloon the incident out of all proportions to have something to shout about...
...He also is against a strong policy to break the Nazi system of fascism, and we know from our own experiences that by being kind and generous, we are only laying the seeds for a 3rd World War...
...It is life as expressed by the Russian poets: "A life on a cemetery...
...There is much talk of freedom but where is the freedom while most people have no right to stand upon the land excepting by permission of some individual, even though that individual is an organized Government with the power to tell the individual where he may go and how, if he wants something to eat...
...R. H. Crum Middletown, Conn...
...another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago . . ." If Whitman lived today he would doubtlessly classify man as the lowest of animal creatures, motivated by his lust, greed, and dishonesty while mouthing idealistic and high-sounding bromides about freedom, justice, and domestie behavior...
...in the Aug...
...You now have the only liberal editor The Nation ever had...
...Rubin's Aug...
...Edward Rose Danielson, Conn...
...Rodell report periodically to us on the status of this vast treasure-house of "Surplus Property...
...Any Christians Left...
...Villard's article, "The Potsdam Pact: Disaster for Europe," in your Aug...
...However, the I.L.P...
...Where is the love and understanding of all mankind—and I mean ALL mankind—that will lift us above the level of our primeval ancestors...
...He condemns Russia when President Truman himself said that Russia suffered the greatest loss of the Allies in soldiers, civilians, and property destruction...
...I take it he is prepared then equally to prevent from making exceptional earnings those who by no particular merit of their own are able to make such earnings...
...I have heard of no one howling for their skins as yet...
...The 2 major political parties are controlled by the same old exploiting gang as always, and I see little hope for the masses unless they form a party of their own...
...The more government does for the individual the less able does he become to do anything for himself...
...Russian Life Dear Sirs: A time ago your People's Forum* gave a harvest of pro-Stalin letters, As the leader goes, so go his followers...
...He's crowding in one semester of pre-law this Summer before entering the service on his 18th birthday...
...and James V. Bennett, director, Bureau of Prisons, Washington, D. C. John M. McCartney Columbus, O. * * * Protest Atomic Bomb Dear Sirs: As American citizens we strongly protest the outrageous barbarism of atomic bombing and hope that The Progressive will likewise raise its voice in vigorous protest...
...Have we no humility or compassion...
...Mayer was honest enough to admit his dislike for Mr...
...Six men have been transferred to other prisons but the protest continues at Ashland...
...Stassen, either...
...Gavlord Yost Pittsburgh, Pa...
...Haines sure that reason can settle all the questions of the relative importance of different men and groups...
...Punish Money Changers Dear Sirs: Walt Whitman, in his Leaves of Grass, says: "/ think I could turn and live tvith animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd . . . They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to...
...Sometimes, unfortunately, chickens come home to roost...
...Netboy sounds a little foolish...
...Failing to break the Ashland protest by placing the men in a form of semi-solitary confinement, the prison administration is now attempting a policy of transferring the CO's to other prisons...
...Now, lured by the bait of a temporary military advantage, of questionable expediency at best, America's representatives at Potsdam deliberately used the new Charter as a means of bringing pressure upon Russia to continue, rather than to abandon, the traditional thesis of international poker-power-politics that solemn treaties become mere scraps of paper when it appears to be the immediate self-interest of their makers so to regard them...
...Czechoslovakia had no such redress...
...Ex-Danbury men are attempting to secure widespread publicity and public pressure to correct the two situations listed above...
...Whatever Germany or Japan may have sinned against this world, it is as nothing compared to the monstrous evil committed by this country in the name of justice, freedom, and equality...
...And, I voted for Mr...
...13 issue, I want to point out that this is one of the dirtiest articles I have ever read...
...The Independent Labor Party (Socialist too like the British Labor Party) is and has been for many years for drastic changes in India...
...ania seemed very palatable to Poland at the time, and no tears shed...
...I liked Mr...
...But while we are at it, why not go to the bottom of the war guilt, and punish those who were responsible for Germany and Japan rearming—the British and American money changers who furnished the wherewithal for the aggressors...
...So we must be in full accordance with the Big Three to knock Germany down to her knees and make her an agricultural nation, because I have served in this war and I don't want to have my son fight in the next one...
...This letter represents all Russian life...
...Z. Merritt St...
...As far as Russia is concerned, the records prove that she has never lied and that we can always be on the best of terms, even though our forms of government may be different...
...Mayer took Mr...
...Is Mr...
...S. K. Benton Chicago, 111...
...Truman Used Charter as Nudge to Help Stalin Decide," the news release from Washington in the Christian Science Monitor says: "The six-weeks old United Nations Charter, though not actually in force, played its part in persuading Generalissimo Josef Stalin that Russia should join its Allies in their war against Japan . . . "Quoting Charter provisions and excerpts from the Moscow Declaration of 1943, President Truman pointedly explained to the Russians that prior commitments—such as the Russo-Japanese pact that still has 9 months to run—-were inoperative under terms of the United Nations agreement...
...I confess I'm more critical of Russia than other nations because Russians claim they are a people's Socialist government but their ac tions and methods do not appear to confirm their claim...
...Now that Poland is scheduled to get a dose of that very medicine she helped dish out to others, the world is supposed to weep, notwithstanding that Poland may now carve it self a slice of another carcass in redress...
...If we really want peace, let us punish all of the criminals from top to bottom, starting with those who made this war possible—the money changers...
...Surely you are wrong if you have reference to The Nation or The New Republic...
...From what I could gather, it was to round up hiding Nazis...
...13 issue certainly hit the target...
...Robert L. Simkin Margaret T. Simkin Los Angeles, Calif...
...6, Page 5, showing Clement Attlee presenting a banner reading, "Leftward the course of empire takes its way" amply upholds your statement that our liberals who expected improved conditions in India were in for a sore disappointment However, the editor whose words you quote, namely, "All British parties have been as one regarding that country," should be corrected...
...Dal-lin's review—simple and sensible...
...He seems to think that we'd be happier living in the poverty of the dark ages and slaughtering each other with clubs and bricks rather than enjoying the luxuries of today while killing each other with atomic bombs and rockets...
...When the full implications of this reversion to type in world affairs dawn upon a suffering world, it will be seen that in order to gain the immediate advantage of Russia's military participation we have "paid," in the words of Benjamin Franklin, "too much^far too much—for our whistle...
...A life with freedom, mercy, and decency wiped out...
...While he was writing his malicious propaganda against Russia, she already had declared war on Japan...
...13 issue was fine and courageous...
...the Warden, Milan, Mich...
...The names of the actors are publicized far and wide but the names of the producers are adroitly shielded...
...Or are there that many people with open minds...
...with her boasted so-called civilization, her humanitar-ianism, her righteousness ad nau-seum...
...The implications of man's use of atomic force for destruction are overwhelming, and to call it a force for peace is at best wishful thinking...
...I haven't read of the raid mentioned elsewhere...
...I thank you most humbly for the brave and noble protest in The Progressive, one of the few (if not the only) redeeming voices that still have the courage of their convictions to fight evil at its source...
...Field apart as any shrewd master of words can take any victim apart, but Mr...
...There can be no actual freedom unless the land is made free for use, that is, freed from monopoly control, and the easiest way to bring that about is for the community to take that which goes into the pockets of land speculators and land lords who do nothing to improve the land but live on the labor of others by taking the rent from the users of the land while they do nothing to improve it...
...I should have said you shout more gently...
...Bayard Rustin, race relations leader now participating in the Ashland protest, points to the fact that the men are only requesting a dining place where those opposed to segregation may eat together...
...6 issue, "What Is The Matter With America...
...The result would be that the values imposed by central government would not be those even of a majority, but those of whatever group could become master of the intricacies of the coordinated administration of affairs...
...I think it would be a great service to readers of The Progressive if you have Prof...
...Mark R. Shaw Melrose, Mass...
...The whole show would nauseate him...
...Similar action was initiated at Danbury prison in August 1943 by two dozen CO's...
...Roosevelt as such, but rather, against Tom Dewey...
...Calvert of Jackson Heights, N. Y., was crying his pretty eyes out in the People's Forum of July 16 because the people chose not to elect Mr...
...Praise For Clair Dear Sirs: Louis Clair's "The American Victims of Nazism," in your Aug...
...Its organ The New Leader, edited by Fenner Brockway, calls today for full and complete independence for India with no ifs, ands, or buts...
...But because a just society is characterized by high purchasing power, it does not follow that society can be made just by such preoccupation with the by-products of a healthy society...
...I have nothing against Mr...
...What's The Matter...
...This is hailed as a great discovery, a signal triumph for America...
...I think it is time to ask this Christian nation just what has happened to our sense of reason and justice...
...Roosevelt...
...David Berkingoff Bronx, N. Y. Dewey's Playmates Dear Sirs: Mr...
...I can't see the point in Mr...
...Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., has asked U. S. Attorney General Tom Clark for the Government's policy on segregation of Negro and white prisoners in Federal institutions...
...Socialism Precedes Fascism Dear Sirs: In the People's Forum of July 16, J. L. Haines contends that the way to abolish poverty and establish a "just economic society" is to support consumer purchasing power at a high level, artificially if necessary...
...We must look for other ways of ending war than by increasing its destructiveness, or we shall end by , the total destruction of humanity...
...Comical Comrades Dear Sirs: The articles by Rubin and Barnes in the July 30 issue are worth all of a year's subscription alone...
...I really wanted to vote for a Republican and still do, but last November the Republicans wouldn't let me...
...Rodell Hits The Target Dear Sirs: Fred Rodell's article, "Surplus Property and Scarce News," in yonr Aug...
...Claire Anderson Portland, Ore...
...You don't shout insanely at those on the other side of the fence as so many other radical papers do...
...I said you don't shout...
...If I improve my house or enlarge my shop a tax is added to discourage my industry, even though I use no more land...
...Dewey personally, but I dislike his playmates...
Vol. 9 • September 1945 • No. 36
