THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Road To War Dear Sirs: The guilt of the crime of Pearl Harbor is not diminished by the official attempt to diffuse it among 130 million people. Those whose kin were...
...It is known that the atom bomb operates by a sort of chain action, the energy released by one atom in turn releasing that in adjacent atoms, the action thus spreading throughout the entire mass almost instantly...
...I guess they figured that it was not much use...
...Raise the pay of teachers and hospital attendants and thus attract capable people at once into fields where they are needed...
...La Follette voted for the Charter when his foreign policy speech a few weeks earlier stated that the United States should join no international organization to enforce peace unless we know first the peace treaties will not be unjust and war breeding, as the Potsdam agreements in regard to Europe seem to imply...
...18 fully ready to 'face' whatever music there was to face...
...I started to write several times and now J. L. Jones has done it for me...
...They are willing to do the necessary work in keeping the machines in working order but that machine has got to do the work while his genius looks on...
...Rubin wants to know where the plan is to reinstate Germany as a power so her people may go to rebuilding the country...
...In the Aug...
...Paul, Minn...
...Gerald Davis St...
...Your paper is preaching gutter-snipism to a nation whose brains and frame of mind together with proven possibilities takes a strong Utopian tangent which is now at hand but is being intercepted by a newspaper campaign...
...I'm surprised that some rewrite man didn't toss it out...
...Congress must regain its intended position as the policy-making body of the Federal Government...
...13 issue: that Wesley Stuges fought against handing property at low price to monopolists and the brass hats retiring and going into business with them...
...Plan for sun, fresh air, and space...
...Build with public funds...
...But better yet would be 130,000,000 healthy and happy people...
...Veterans: Stop treating discharged veterans as children, criminals, or useless animals...
...Experience will teach us better ways...
...H. B. V. Camp Gordon, Ga...
...I agree with James Fisher who said in The Nation months ago that Dumbarton Oaks (and it applies to San Francisco) was dust in the eyes of the common people, intended to appease their demand that governments do something to prevent another war...
...He was obeyed...
...Some farmers' unions and labor unions, for example, have their own cooperative hospitals and medical systems...
...Wheeler for voting for the San Francisco Charter after he had made a three hour speech against it...
...I read "What's the Matter With America...
...President Truman, one would suggest, might remember that loyalty to a predecessor is less a virtue than loyalty to the truth...
...Why not judge the soldier husband by the same standard as the soldier's wife...
...Plan broad, pleasant communities...
...Churchill's unrefuted statement in Parliament on Jan...
...Keep up your work printing what you think right when so many other "liberals" have succumbed to current official and unofficial pressure...
...Bradley E. Stafford Springfield, Mass...
...The Christian Century under the section ironically called "News of the Christian World" for Sept...
...Let the people's organizations watch for those with inventive talent and other abilities useful to society...
...If you don't believe this simply ask any San Francisco shopkeeper what happened to their fancy window dressing V-J day...
...Dad had gone to the express office to check the arrival of their baggage...
...farmers cannot get land...
...Villard always...
...J. J. C. New York, N. Y. Morally Callous Dear Sirs: It is symptomatic of how morally callous we as a nation have become when a writer of the prominence of Fred Rodell can discuss the atomic bomb (Sept...
...Medical service is also reduced...
...They stayed in Sfor a while, and since money seems to have been going through their hands like water, they headed for Del Ray, way down south where the three of them are picking grapes...
...If Uncle Sam retains title to the property, it can not be lost through mortgages...
...I have been assured by various WRA officials from Dillon Myer down that none were being sent out of camp unless a home was awaiting them...
...If it was, would pouring even half the nation's wealth into militarism make us "prepared...
...In the paraphrased words of Editor Rubin (whose voice rose to a fortissimo of protest when American soldiers were ordered to search every home in their occupation zone in Germany, but whose voice went pianissimo when the atomic bombings of Japan took place), "What's happened to the conscience of The Progressive...
...They need more active participation by the people who belong to them rather than irresponsible criticism from the "free press" of big business...
...If your paper and all American pacers continue to dodge the real American stride, then may God have mercy on your souls...
...Several persons I have talked with have read The Progressive for many years and have ventured their opinion that The Progressive is getting us nowhere to the goal for all of us, a life that is livable, enjoyable, and secure...
...Pass The Progressive Along It's American, Alert, Accurate Hope In Atomic Bombs Dear Sirs: There is hope in the atom bomb...
...Step by step from the repeal of the Embargo Act they took us down the road to war, always on the pretext that each step was the way to peace...
...it may be correct and mine wrong...
...Our atomic bomb did just that...
...Does the officialdom of the British Labor Party believe the German people are particularly responsible for the war...
...Leisure on the job, leisure on vacation, leisure with full pay from the cradle to the grave is, my friend, what Americans want and, believe it or not, they're going to have it...
...Mrs...
...He has expressed so well the feelings of all of us who believe that all men of good will must unite...
...Racial discrimination of any kind endangers the security of all of us...
...Does he think our boys should just say, "Now, don't you do that anymore," and turn around and come home...
...It was some years ago that scientists demonstrated how the tremendous energy tied up within the atom might some day be released...
...They are willing to work and work hard for compound leisure but not for compound interest on bank accounts...
...Redouble your efforts to prove to us all that The Progressive serves no vested group, gives us all needed information, the whole honest facts as they happen, and we may interpret them as we wish...
...Unions are an organization of the people and one of the vital essentials of democracy...
...The people are not to blame...
...So I would like to know Sen...
...A branch of the administration known as the Relocation Office is probably the busiest part of the camp...
...What confusion existed, outside the muddle of the armed forces, emanated directly and deliberately from the White House and the State Department...
...I have especially admired the articles by Milton Mayer...
...Maybe, as Rodell says, the atomic bomb is here to stay...
...Los Angeles 26, Calif...
...Our problem now is to take the war-making power away from the President and the State Department and rest it where it belongs, in its initial as well as its final stages, in the Congress that represents the American people...
...Cooperatives are both a safeguard against big business and the dictatorial bureaucracy of "big government...
...I think it is...
...If the objectors to our atomic bomb were unfortunate to have been Jap captives and forced to endure the playful Jap pastime of driving wood splinters under their finger nails they would have probably prayed for deliverance from their awful agony...
...The fear was that, since the entire earth consists of atoms, its entire mass might be involved in the action with the result that the whole world would instantly be blown far and wide into space, back into cos mic star-dust, as it probably existed millions of years ago...
...There have been suicides in some of the camps...
...They present an opportunity for the little business man whose ideal is service...
...And if men with humanitarian instincts sincerely, if ineffectually, propose that the atomic bomb be outlawed, do our Fred Rodells have to characterize such men of good will as "intellectually immature...
...The war was just over, does he think the plan should go into effect the next day...
...No one cherishes, the thought of terrible suffering and devastation inflicted on innocents by this weapon...
...F. L. Johnson Washington, D. C. Progressive Principles Dear Sirs: A group of people who were active in the old Progressive Party of California are interested in getting it back again on the ballot...
...Last June a Nisei with whom I correspond wrote me: "The WRA has been subtly and also conspicuously trying to force folks out of camp...
...5, records this: "Most of the money of the evacuees has been used up...
...20 Forum C. B. Ballard had a letter criticising Sen...
...As Editor Rubin so courageously wrote, "What Is Wrong With America...
...27 Forum...
...These are the principles: Peace: Encourage the most democratic forces within Japan to cleanse that nation of its militar-ism...
...Sgt...
...Let the Chinese and Filipinos, worse sufferers of Japanese invasion cide Japanese punishment...
...Cases of adultery among soldiers' wives surely cannot compare in number with those of soldiers who are issued protective devices as a health measure...
...Maybe the fiendish mentality and instinct that perpetrated the brutalities of the Nazi concentration camps cannot be eliminated and are now part of total war, but they didn't stop good people from ex-pressing indignation...
...My family went back to S-, shared an apartment with a family friend and was able to survey the conditions of our ranch...
...Housing: Construction will speed up after the war...
...War profiteering was criminal...
...Harry P. Howard says we must control the Japanese throne...
...I respect his mind for its honesty more than any other writer I know...
...Give them prompt medical attention...
...17 issue...
...Henry Goff Pittsburgh, Pa...
...Maybe the atomic bomb, two of which crippled, burned, and tore to pieces about 150,000 helpless victims, is here to stay, but do we have to squelch all protest and anesthetize our sense of right and wrong because a heinous twist is given to War by Americans...
...I have been most surprised by the outspokenness of your articles, especially when I contrast them with the cautious writing in the more widely-read periodicals...
...The people were not "confused and vacillating...
...Its objective is to load the trains and vacate the camp...
...nevertheless, this weapon hastened the deliver-ance of American prisoners suffering from the most inhuman barbaric tortures practiced on humanity...
...Foreign Policy: "Power politics" means only another war...
...It shows such stupidity...
...Has he no common sense...
...Though many scientists do not now take this view, other scientists believe there is a distinct possibility of it...
...The American people want 24-hour service 365 days every year of their good lives...
...Give A Friend The Truth Send Him The Progressive Today Dust In Eyes Dear Sirs: I think if I were reduced to one magazine only I would take The Progressive...
...In some instances they have found themselves unwelcome in Caucasian churches in spite of the high-sounding resolutions passed by denominational conventions...
...The point is, you're still "all wet" when it comes to America's economic future...
...They are agreed on the following set of principles, but realize that only del-egates to a party c ntion can write a party platform...
...There was considerable demonstrating lasting for two hours...
...It alone was worth the price of a year's subscription...
...Let the people get their money back...
...Such Stupidity' Dear Sirs: Applause for J. L. Jones in the Aug...
...After intense propaganda for three years from our own and foreign governments, we still, by the Gallup poll of November, 1941, were 80 per cent and increasingly against getting into this war...
...If the masses are propagandized into believing this new organization will keep peace between nations, they themselves will do nothing, and you know as well as I do that we are lost if they don't in this country, in Britain, France, and every nation...
...I though the only letters you printed were the ones telling what a fine newspaper The Progressive is and how "I wouldn't be without it...
...Remember the words of Dante: "What the good Lord let happen I am not ashamed to print...
...They made confusion to obscure their purpose...
...W. H. Heim Dallas, Tex...
...The President, according to Mr...
...Dad is 60...
...Double Standard Dear Sirs: I recently read that all soldiers' wives who have been found guilty of adultery while their husbands are overseas will be punished...
...My father, who has not worked for anyone for 35 years, my mother, who hasn't worked out in the fields, and my little sister under that baking sun of southern California...
...I agree completely and would like to know why Sen...
...A. E. Gauthier Redding, Calif...
...Big business was run on the people's money...
...Do we have a double standard that permits the husbands to commit the same offense as in the case of the much lauded father of Nora Carpenter's quadruplets, and the case of Capt...
...Another family was in the taxi too, when a soldier came around yelling, 'Get the hell out of here, you dirty, doggone Japs.' He managed to gather a fairly large crowd of followers in a very short time...
...Every movable piece of property has been stolen or destroyed, including an electric motor water pump, so they couldn't stay there, since they couldn't get even drinking water...
...You're crying for 60 million jobs, but the American people want 60 million machines to do the 60 million jobs with...
...And maybe the indiscriminate killing of innocent children, women, and other civilians by bombing such as the Germans indulged in at Coventry, Warsaw, and Rotterdam is here to stay, but that didn't prevent Americans from shouting "bloody murder...
...Others say your thoughts about Russia are like Leon Trotsky's teachings...
...Siding, somewhat wishfully perhaps, with the latter group, I see definite hope in the atom bomb...
...Nisei And WRA Dear Sirs: Although we are so busy educating the Germans and the Japanese in the ways of democracy, couldn't we, in our last shreds of decency, spare a few gauleiters for our Department of the Interior and the War Relocation Authority...
...J. B. Rees San Jose, Calif...
...Rubin apparently needed something to fill the front page with that day and banged that story out while his office boy went for a cup of coffee...
...Speed up college courses for veterans...
...And it doesn't do anything else...
...B. L. Rehwinkel St...
...Attlee approve the Potsdam decision...
...Lastly, I got a wealth of information from Fred Rodell, in his article on Surplus Property and Scarce News in the Aug...
...Schultz, who pretended his wife had died, and married a WAC...
...Education: Federal aid to rural schools...
...Not, as David Lawrence pointed out, as a last desperate measure to stave off defeat, but at a time when Japan had already approached Russia with peace overtures and when our Air Force commanders had assured us that it alone could wipe out all Japanese resistance...
...Louis, Mo...
...Outspokenness Dear Sirs: I have found The Progressive a most valuable gift...
...At that time these same scientists expressed the fear that success in this might spell disaster for the world...
...or by the War and Navy Departments...
...People of America have learned that money is not wealth, and they have learned this the hard way...
...17 issue was absolutely tops...
...You and Politics and Common Sense are the only magazines I know in this country that have the courage to buck current opinion and say what Potsdam and such deals really mean...
...and it is indicative of how blunted his "liberal" conscience has become when he can endorse the characterization "foolishly sentimental outburst" given to the feeling protest of 34 high-ranking educators and churchmen who proposed that the atomic bomb be outlawed...
...This second evacuation is proving too much for some of these persecuted people...
...Atomic Bomb Defended Dear Sirs: The fact that the atomic bomb hastened the end of war with Japan should be considered a primary factor in saving thousands of American lives...
...Until, without consent or knowledge of Congress, Hull handed the Japanese emissaries on Nov...
...Enforce Article 7, Section 8 of the United States Constitution...
...No one was hurt but the police had one heck of a time calming the crowd...
...Subsidize intelligence...
...Maybe the heatings and tortures suffered by helpless captured Amer-ican soldiers at the hands of the Ja-panese militarists is an inevitable accent of war, but that didn't stay the feeling of horror that all decent people felt and expressed...
...Extend democracy throughout the world by unceasingly, statesmanlike pressure and practice...
...Those whose kin were slaughtered there resent that deeply...
...Raymond S. Brown Springfield, Mass...
...Public Health: If some doctors are not interested in widespread public health, let us cooperate with those who are...
...Labor got the goods to the soldiers on time...
...La Fol-lette's reasoning...
...Give the "impractical dreamer" the benefit of the doubt...
...No taxes on incomes under $5,000 a year...
...A Caucasian worker said to me the other night, 'That (Relocation Office) is the office where they have a freight car in the back office...
...When I read the first letter I hoped things Were not that bad, but the second, describing the actual relocation of people who owned their own home and business gives proof of the criminal negligence of the WRA...
...Barnes Pioneers Dear Sirs: Harry Elmer Barnes' treatment of the Petain case was shockingly accurate...
...Twins Of Decency Dear Sirs: Please give us more articles by the two twins of decency—Meyer and Mayer...
...three times, and each time I was a little more disgusted...
...8, 1942, had promised him at their Atlantic meeting in August, 1941, that we would be in war in the Pacific on their side before the end of the year, We were, quite in accordance with the President's earlier statement that no power could get us into or keep us out of war against the will of the President and the Secretary of State...
...Even then confusion was augmented by the President's memorandum to be sure to let the enemy shoot first...
...No American should forget that the United States, which heretofore enjoyed the largest measure of international morality among the big nations, created a precedent for the use of the atomic bomb...
...However, they do feel that all people of good will who agree on the following points somewhat less than 100 per cent can work in harmony toward re-establishment of the Progressive Party in California...
...Cooperatives, big and little, are industrial democracy put into action...
...Produce — and then distribute the production...
...Mrs...
...No one is given milk (shades of Henry Wallace and his quart a day for every Hottentot but none for U. S. citizens) except infants...
...Committee to Establish the Progressive Party in California 2450 Armstrong Ave...
...Sixty per cent of the trees (fruit) are degenerated beyond resurrection due to negligence...
...60 Million Machines Dear Sirs: It's again time for me to stick my nose into your brainless management of American affairs...
...The Townsend plan is one Way...
...Let a family remain inviolate in possession so long as the house is used and given reasonable owner's care...
...17 issue) and not once condemn its use by this country...
...Reconversion: Use gigantic Willow Run plant, and other war plants built with taxpayers' money, to produce goods for all people, Security: 60,000,000 jobs would be a fine thing...
...This may work for a short time, but it's building an atomic bomb that will strike America first, next time...
...Remember Dante Dear Sirs: In the many years that I have read The Progressive and reread the notes in my notebook for future reference to keep the facts alive in my mind to connect with the events that happen later, my education has been enriched...
...Why did Mr...
...fishermen are not permitted to resume their work...
...You are pressing for a "hard work" America while the people want a mechanized technical America...
...Keep away from there or you'll find yourself en route to any ole place.' "The WRA's more subtle methods: Pood has been cut down...
...Frances Taylor Knoxville, Tenn...
...Philip Kapleau New Haven, Conn...
...Money: The present bankers' control of money can ruin the best plans for social welfare...
...Rodell's Article Tops Dear Sirs: Fred Rodell's article, "The Issue In The Atomic Age," in your Sept...
...tools of gardeners and other workers have in many cases been stolen...
...Taxes should be based on ability to pay...
...26 the 10-point demand that both knew made the war inevitable...
...Barnes was a pioneer in exposing the distortions of World War I, and he has now made a promising start toward repeating that performance...
...Ethel Burns Breed Cornwall, N. Y. * * * Beats' Great Job Dear Sirs: Few book reviews of the year will measure up to Carleton Beals' great job in the Sept...
...I certainly will not prejudge a man who has fought so well for the common welfare as Sen...
...A girl I have known for two years and am very fond of, just wrote me the following: "My family went back to California on Aug...
...Robert La Follette...
...Harold Graves Milton, Fla...
...Congress, representing us, from 1930 to 1941 approp ted 98 cents of every dollar aske...
...Well, hail again for J. L. Jones, although it was a shock to see his letter in print...
...Keep Mr...
...We know what we wanted: to avoid entanglement in foreign conflicts...
...Was that "unpreparedness...
...Not to say that your entire staff isn't that way...
...No waiting months for educational or business loans while interest eats up their resources...
Vol. 9 • October 1945 • No. 40
