THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . A CO's Dissent Dear Sirs: Of all your excellent contributors, I like the witty, sarcastic Milton Mayer the best, perhaps because he writes nearest to the style of the...
...And to add to the chagrin of British and American exploiters, Britain has swung . to the left and virtually all Europe is verging toward Communism...
...Churchill, at the time not yet Prime Minister...
...Here are some of the reasons for state systems: In the states farthest north, such as Maine, Wisconsin, or North Dakota, in order that old people may be comfortable, it takes two or three times as much money for clothing, fuel, and housing, and more for food, than in the states along the Gulf of Mexico or on the South Atlantic...
...Yes—there is a campaign for world-government^ for the peoples of the world so they can live in peace, harmony, and plenty...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . A CO's Dissent Dear Sirs: Of all your excellent contributors, I like the witty, sarcastic Milton Mayer the best, perhaps because he writes nearest to the style of the late Oscar Ameringer...
...To tell a land and house hungry American that what he...
...He saved the U. S. Yosemite and other beautiful spots...
...Peace, justice for humanity, cannot come through wholesale destruction as in the demonstration of the use of the atomic bomb...
...Years of.peace to them are flat, stale, and unprofitable...
...I am surprised to hear Mayer imply the oft repeated charge that others are fighting our battles...
...All of the magazine is good, but I look first for him...
...If no state had gone ahead and had waited for the whole nation to move forward at once, we likely would today^have no pensions...
...And nearly every progressive measure in all our history has had its beginning as state movements in a few states...
...Give A Friend The Truth Send Him The Progressive Today Misuse Of Power Dear Sirs: This is to congratulate you on the splendid articles by Harry Paxton Howard and Anthony Netboy published in the Sept...
...Molotov, who is not interested in Utopian schemes, apparently, recently said, "O n e should not rely upon alluring words and promises...
...I need him to keep up my ideals...
...John Eddy Franklin Seattle, Wash...
...It was the murder of an Austrian prince in Serbia that started World War I. It was a disagreement touching the rectification of the Polish Corridor that started the second World War...
...This preserft, past and future talk comes from lords and bankers, who mean changing allies to suit their empires, with the process of sending out innocents to kill innocents of all nations...
...Tyler Kent Case Dear Sirs: For the investigation of Pearl Harbor, should the real truth come out of it, we will have to thank John T. Flynn and his powerful "The Truth About Pearl Harbor...
...24 issue of The Progressive: "America can and must lend a helping hand to people everywhere who want to fight for freedom in their own countries...
...As it turned out, the San Francisco Conference was dominated by a dictatorship of the Big Three...
...We are facing that danger...
...They either drive jalopies, like mine, or live close in so they won't have to ride the bus for an hour and a half each way...
...John W. Meyer Valparaiso, Ind...
...It is quite generally known now that Roosevelt and Truman did actually receive peace bids from Japan, long ago, but even if they had not, any sensible person knows that if decent peace terms had been offered earlier in the war the people of Japan and Germany would have overthrown their militaristic overlords, and conditions would have been much better for the building of a real peace based upon a community of nations...
...Admitted we have bungled our opportunities so far, what can the U. S. do now...
...Russia has given back to its people the land and the wealth produced by land...
...In such a system, for instance, our help to the British Empire would depend on freedom for India...
...On The Scrapheap Dear Sirs: What has happened to the Four Freedoms and Wallace's cosmic cow that was to furnish milk every morning to everbody...
...17, issue could be made compulsory reading in our reactionary State Department...
...Except in the way . of perpetuating jobs, promotions within the ranks of organized, professional soldiering, regardless of costs or results to the world...
...Bessie Mayson Ojai, Calif...
...We need practice as a people in the art of self-government...
...It has demonstrated by its example what can be done to correct the greatest evil from which mankind has suffered...
...None other than to militarily overthrow the Stalin regime and effectually end the Communist menace which confronted Europe and the world...
...Erroneously thinking that the Soviet Union would go to pieces, and alarmed at the rise of Germanic power, Britain—and America — double-crossed Hitler and threw their aid to Stalin...
...But who will take up the worthy case of worthy Tyler Kent, the American Embassy clerk in London...
...Or what of the Army's recently announced policy of employing the notorious Kimpei-Tai, the Japanese Gestapo, to help keep the common people of that country in subjection...
...To a lesser extent Japanese industry and commerce had become a rival...
...In one of the cables sent by Churchill to Roosevelt in October, 1939, it was stated, "It is evident we see eye to eye...
...Later still, we were told that the Atlantic Charter did not exist as a document...
...Hans Koch Los Angeles, Calif...
...However, there is a way to attain the goal desired by Wright and that is through chemurgy...
...And if these truths should be made public we will see the spectacle of the boys of the "public mind," the radio and the press, making their next turnabout, doing as if they always have been the harbingers and guardians of the truth and nothing else...
...Our economy would be as free as the sun and the rain and the good earth which constitute the workshop of the Lord...
...George Hartman and Harry Elmer Barnes are amongst them...
...Georgina C. Molnar Berkeley, Calif...
...Beware the Brass Hats...
...We know what we need...
...The New Deal notion that love can be legislated into being by ambitious politicians and brotherhood maintained by mutual consent has been tossed on the scrapheap...
...Joseph Martin, I understand, has a resolution in the House calling for the international abolition of military peacetime conscription...
...This, however, is not the attitude of the Brass Hats— the high ranking professional soldiers...
...Idealistically, in the light of freedom, the end of the present war has not shown much respect on the part of large nations for liberty...
...that he made to the American forces of World War I. This money he accumulated by singing all over the world, and it would seem that his act of patriotism and generosity should not be lightly forgotten...
...Therefore the information must be right...
...3 issue...
...But they too will have to be investigated...
...The third alternative was to fight the war for the definite aim of liberty for all peoples, colonies as well as empires...
...Democracy is no answer, because there is no democratic base in the economy...
...Besides crushing the Communist menace, British and American exploiters wished to remove German and Japanese competition...
...In times of peace they want to prepare for future wars...
...When challenged they maintain that man can do nothing by virtuous living, but must come to them to be converted and accept the blood atonement as the only means of salvation...
...Edmund Goldsborough Washington, D. C. Two Causes------------Dear Sirs: Now that the whole world has-been presented with that wonderful accomplishment in destruction that will destroy nature's gifts, growing things along with the walking things that tolerate, even sanction, that most useless, craziest procedure called war in which these bombs are needed: We, many of whom take pleasure in reading, can read about who invented it, who had charge of sending the planes to drop this climax, in mass murder on a so-called enemy of the present, not the past or maybe not the future, if the world militarists will allow a future...
...We have been under the impression that we have fought our own battle, the battle against fascism, racism, and the absolute authority of the state...
...I don't know where these distinguished gsntlemen get their opium but they sure can conjure up some wild pipe dreams...
...Plenty did...
...By repeating these over and over and emphasizing and exaggerating their meaning, they succeed in filling in their time and tiring out their audiences, and making them forget the teachings of Christ...
...What to do about British-American rivalry remained a question mark...
...After, some shenanigan maneuvering in which he temporarily and hypocritically allied himself with Stalin, Hitler betrayed Stalin and began to attack the Soviet Union, thereby making effective his engagement with Britain and the U.S...
...To prepare for war is to invite war, and that is the peacetime business of our Brass Hats...
...According to the Social Security Bulletin for May, 1944, there were then 30 states with pensions running all the way from $300 up to pearly $600 a year on the average, California being the highest, with Colorado second and Massachusetts third...
...We have fallen into the habit of expecting everything to come from Old Motherbird Washington, and sit around and wait for something to drop...
...Florence Brown Hamden, Conn...
...As Milton Mayer and-every other informed person knows, Pearl Harbor was not the beginning of the war but rather the logical climax of our policy in the Orient for the last 40 years...
...And that their petition went unheeded by the War Department...
...Winston Churchill stated that the Charter did not apply to colonies...
...It can come only by using our creativeness for constructive purposes...
...He desires "a mutual understanding between nations and people which would eliminate the policy of gigantic systems of universal compulsory military service...
...Since Christ's teachings, the brotherhood of man, returning good for evil, helping the outsider, and sharing equally, is not natural to human nature, the children of these people grew up in prosperous homes and inherited the natural love of wealth and power and married with outsiders, and the Gospel to the poor was again left without organized followers...
...Elihu Bowles Prosser, Wash...
...While troops in training were by the thousands being moved to west coast ports, Japan i)]fadvisedly struck at Pearl Harbor...
...Capt...
...Russia's Achievement Dear Sirs: The best thing that can be said about the Soviet Government is precisely that which wise and good men in all ages have felt was needed to produce that happiness and security which humanity craves but lacks...
...17 issue, I am not so sure that he has so successfully debunked the so-called "Ostriches" or the "One World Boys...
...Adalbert Oesch Fairfax, So...
...This idea should appeal to all your writers and readers...
...Keep it up...
...I admit that those who fought in World War II were TOLD that they were fighting for the Four Freedoms, but the goods do not coincide with the bill of sale...
...I The Communist Way Dear Sirs: What follows may be unpopular, but with your permission I fain would present a few facts under the familiar caption, "Now it can be told...
...In the fulfilment of our aim we might have used our resources for bargaining purposes, as suggested by some writers, to force our allies to adhere to an aim which would apply to them as *ell as to the oppressed in their colonies...
...These are the very good economic reasons why miners.,live close to the mines, why steelworkers live near the mills, and so forth...
...This would be the most difficult and least practical, because-it requires a spiritually disciplined citizenry...
...To make it possible for all men to enjoy the good things of life is the hope, and should be the aim, of all...
...If we fail to do this, we waste the lives of our men who have died in service...
...War is the business for which they have been trained...
...We, of course, under this same aim of liberty, would free our colonies...
...As for Fred Rodell's article in the Sept...
...The cost in lives and material would have been less than we have paid by entering the war...
...There is no disposition here to minimize Germany's guilt in precipitating the second World War...
...He seems completely to ignore the fact that there were other alternatives than the murder of 300,000 civilians...
...A. Burke Winthrop, Mass...
...If this program is followed, the Brass Hats of Russia will, of course, proclaim that we are planning war against their country and that preparations for defense are imperative...
...This war was fought to continue and expand this policy, if such incidents as the re-establishment of British imperialism in Burma and Hong Kong mean anything...
...The United States might well lead the way...
...It has in this provided an example to the rest of the world...
...This capped the climax of war propaganda, and inspired Americans everywhere with the will to fight...
...It is a storehouse of information in politics and economics...
...By now we should know that wars can never settle anything...
...I cannot understand how anyone who cancels their subscription believes in freedom and democracy, since those blessings are maintained only by discussion of both sides of every issue vital to the people...
...If a state can handle a matter about as well as the nation, the state should do it...
...Some good reasons have been given for a unified national system of old age pensions...
...Wild Pipe Dreams Dear Sirs: William B. Hesseltine's review of Frank Lloyd Wright's book, in your July 16 issue, has aroused my bitterest ire...
...As if, through some magic, killing three men at the cost of thousands of lives and billions of dollars would give a just peace...
...Peacetime conscription is no answer to the atom bomb of tomorrow...
...Chiefly, it was German industrialists and financiers actively aided by their fellow capitalists in France, Britain, and the U. S. For what purpose...
...They contend that preparation for war prevents war...
...This knowledge and appreciation is the source of Russia's tremendous popularity and power...
...That is just what happened on the pension question...
...Small groups have espoused the teachings of Christ during the" history of the church, notably following the Reformation and in the American colonies, but they were unable to long continue practicing the Gospel to the poor...
...6 issue of The Progressive...
...Howard TenBrink Cascade Locks, Ore...
...M. H. La mont Rockford, 111...
...Pass The Progressive Along It's American, Alert, Accurate Beware The Brass Hats Dear Sirs: The common people all over the world hate war...
...Today, Germany and Japan, industrial and commercial rivals of Britain and the United States, are down and out but contrary to plan the Soviet Union has emerged with the mightiest army and the hugest industrial potential...
...May we then always be able to support you, as you tell us the unbiased truth...
...If the people should ever realize that they can practice the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount and establish a veritable Heaven on Earth as well as merit the promise of the highest reward in Heaven, these Sky Pilots would be compelled to go to work for a living...
...Lauds Beats Dear Sirs: I wish a copy of Carelton Beals' article on Argentina, in your Sept...
...I do not know where to find its equal as an informant and an educator along those lines...
...Alarmed at the contents of these exchanges and driven by his patriotic conscience as a loyal American citizen, Kent divulged his findings' to a member of parliament, Capt...
...His case found briefly stated: "Kent, as Embassy clerk, had to translate hundreds of secret telegrams exchanged between President Roosevelt and Mr...
...I hear*1 Phil on the University of Chicago Round Table prior to our entry into the war, and it sure did me good to hear such masterly answers and rebuttal, one-handed, against some two or three who were pitted against him...
...But state pensions beginning with Montana in 1923 have since that date, and especially since 1936, made great progress...
...Since Pearl Harbor they have been in full control with an unlimited expense account, riding high, wide, and handsome...
...After the Atlantic Charter was proclaimed, and the world thought that aims had been formulated worthy of the blood which war sheds...
...Although I do not agree with every writer in your columns nor even with your editorial policy, most of your writers and your editorial opinions are the fairest and tell the readers the most of vital subjects anyone can find in any publication I know of...
...The war we were supposed to be fighting in the interests of freedom would then, for us, have been fought in vain...
...Then, they say, you will be changed pronto into a saint with no further tendency to sin, and that is what the Bible means when it teaches righteousness...
...nor have the United Nations in the San Francisco Charter shown much inclination to have the world democratically ruled by all nations...
...First For Mayer Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer is my favorite author...
...I've just finished his article in the Sept...
...The state pensions have generally been matched or at least supplemented by national funds, but the administrative machinery is state and local...
...Michael Brxopac Lorain, O. State Pensions Dear Sirs: Within the past few years a large number of letters have appeared in the Forum of The Progressive advocating national old age pensions, but very few have even mentioned state systems...
...wEach one is a link in the chain of succeeding ones, forged by military victories, hatreds, l'eprisals...
...Only those of physical and mental fitness are inducted for military service...
...Our economy would then lead us toward the land, toward broader ownership of our resources, and toward a real democracy...
...John Campbell of Chula Vista, Calif., for his letter in your Forum on Basic Christian Principles...
...Men who can be trusted have organized it...
...His good work has been introduced by Richard Neuberger in the Aug...
...They have an increasing horror of its brutality and destructfvene^s...
...Such a gesture on our part, now, would do much to establish the confidence sorely needed between nations to establish friendly relations and to show that our own objective is peace...
...Prof...
...They strongly urge decentralization through democracy...
...The unfit are discarded—which indicates the country needs a health program for all, not merely for selectees...
...German inventive genius and capacity to organize, with rapidly increasing industrial output, enabled German manufacturers and business men to cut in on markets coveted by the British and Americans...
...3. I happen to be one of the 8,000 Conscientious Objectors of whom, he says, "in some strange sense represent" what the United States was fighting for...
...Is he trying to deliberately ignore the fact that peace could have been negotiated upon almost the same identical terms fully four months earlier...
...The Christlike way of not fighting, of overcoming the enemy by nonresistance, similar to the Indian way of fighting the British Empire...
...Ellen Berry Chicago, 111...
...W. F. Hiller Brighton, Colo...
...So we went back to our confused thinking of why the war was being fought, and decided that defeating Hitler, Tojo, and Mussolini were aims worthy of our efforts...
...The Evangelists lay great stress on the Holy Bible because there are a few verses they can use to boost capitalism...
...But, I beg to differ with him in what he says in his article of Sept...
...Ramsay and Kent were arrested...
...Man by nature is greedy and hostile and there is nothing to indicate that nations have evolved to the point that they are prepared to convert swords into plough shares...
...He doesn't say how much he might have profited had he been able to compromise with his conscience...
...The idea I would like to get across is this: As we now generally share in such blessings and essentials of life as air, light, and water, so we should share in that other blessing and essential to human well-being, land...
...Dear Sirs: There were four alternatives, ©pen to the U. S. in facing the problem of World War II...
...Hitler and his confederates in crime deserve every punishment meted out to them...
...They are drunk with power...
...Wonderful Medium Dear Sirs: In my having discovered The Progressive, I find a paper that coincides so completely to my ideals of thought that I am entirely at a loss to find words to express my appreciation and admiration of this most wonderful medium...
...Costa Mesa, Calif...
...George H. Shoaf...
...War gives them action with opportunity to win prestige and reputation...
...In 18^70 a disagreement between the Kaiser and the French emperor over the succession to the Spanish throne started the Franco-German War...
...No diplomats or dictators with their Yaltas, etc., are in this...
...So will it be a crime to come out of my little corner that has been untouched by bombs, but is a ghost city—made that way from heavy political taxes on property—to suggest that we have hopes for the future...
...What Can We Do Now...
...But they know that people tend to believe a lie if it is constantly reiterated...
...It was imperative, therefore, to make an emotional appeal — to assure them that it was to be a war for God, home, and native land...
...I like the wide range and diversity of views expressed by readers' letters, by articles, reviews, and editorials...
...That, of course, is a lie...
...We do not need universal conscription to insure physical fitness for the youth of the land...
...Millions of the underprivileged in Western Europe, in India, in China, in Mexico understand...
...But the indifference of the mob to their own best interests is like a stone wall to break through...
...Despite the cry of the exploiters —British toryism and American plutocracy—for liberty and democracy, for individual initiative and private enterprise, the old social and economic order which once embraced these concepts is on the way out...
...truth is still a power, and men of good will still want to learn the truth...
...This would have worked toward a lasting peace...
...24 issue, both protesting misuse of power in our treatment of Japan and Germany.' In all fairness and decency, before trying war criminals abroad," our own investigation into the facts leading up to Pearl Harbor should be brought out...
...You can help solve world problems in a peaceful manner, not with bombs...
...Perhaps on that score we have compromised too much...
...Does he know, for instance, that the scientists who developed the bomb petitioned the Government to demonstrate it to observers of all nations including Japan, on some deserted island...
...To them war is the normal function of nations, as it has been and will be world without end...
...needs is an acre of ground with a cottage is just like telling a penniless, starving man that all he needs is a sizzling steak to fix him up...
...When Lord Bryce wrote his great work, The American Commonwealth, some 50 years ago, he mentioned that one strong feature of ,jthe system was every state was in reality an experimental laboratory in economics and politics, that in many fields any state could move ahead without waiting or being held back by other states...
...This is the same organization that murdered hundreds of progressive leaders in cold blood, during the hectic days of the 1921 earthquake, the same organization that ruthlessly suppressed the workers who struck against war in 1941...
...Resources are often concentrated in limited areas, and thus easily lend themselves to monopolistic control...
...I would be distributing copies of every one of your issues and soliciting subscriptions for you if I could...
...Whatever fault we may find with Russia, this fact remains: she has made more equitable distribution of her national wealth than has any other government...
...But who helped build up Hitler's war machine and gave him encouragement...
...This would have been practical only if the U. S. had protected the Western Hemisphere...
...It seems to me that Richard Neu-berger also missed the boat in his otherwise informative article in the same issue when he echoes Winston Churchill's lame logic and says he is "glad we used the atom bomb because it saved American lives...
...It is the only great nation which has done this...
...It is the duty of Congress to get Tyler Kent back to America and have his case publicly investigated...
...I was a follower of Bob La Fol-lette, Sr., and it gives me great pleasure that both the La Follettes are emulating his ideals...
...Steel-workers and miners do not make enough money to buy dependable new automobiles to carry them to work 15 or 20 miles each way...
...William Palmer Washington, D. C. * * * Renew Your Subscription Today First Step To Peace | Dear Sirs: " ' After fighting two world wars to end all wars, we witness the military interests urging peacetime permanent conscription upon the country which would place us in the same status as the totalitarian countries in Europe...
...Unbiased Truth Dear Sirs: * I am well satisfied with The Progressive, especially since it strives to tell the whole truth, and not only what you may know...
...In consideration of the wholesale destructiyeness of atomic energy now released to the world, one might well ask what urgent reason there could be for a program which would involve the training of large numbers of soldiers...
...Our economy is predatory, autocratic, and exploitive because the upper crust owns not only the means of production, but the resources to be worked up...
...If we used farm products to make motor fuel and oil, plastic pipe, automobile parts, and so on, then the source of our materials would be away from the mines and away from monopoly and away from centralization...
...We fought for no definite aims, although the Atlantic Charter did put forth commendable, even though vague ones...
...And the world understands...
...War between Germany and the Soviet Union, it was thought, would reduce both to inconsequence, with Japan to be finished off later...
...It has abolished poverty...
...This is your responsibility and high privilege...
...True Christianity Dear Sirs: The Progressive is doing alright and I enjoy every issue...
...May I thank Mr...
...While Russian Communism threatened international capitalism, within the framework of capitalism raged commercial rivalry and strife...
...I like The Progressive—even when you don't print my letters...
...Our Brass Hats tell us now that Russia is to be feared, and that we must therefore" maintain a strong Navy, a big standing Army, and impose compulsory military training on all our boys...
...M. H. R. answered that question in the Sept...
...Bombs will never do it...
...Rep...
...Harold E. Fackert Jersey City, N. J. * * * John McCormack Dear Sirs: Your paper made no note of the passing of John McCormack, the celebrated singer, nor of the magnificent donation of one million dollar...
...Wright and Hesseltine say centralization is a major sin of our civilization...
...They regard it not as- the hangover from the savage and brutal stage in man's evolution...
...what we want to know is how in hell can we get it without robbing a bank...
...Since our entry into the war has not brought freedom to the world, the isolationist policy can not be looked upon with scorn...
...And that's why, gentlemen, we have centralization...
...Another important thing we can do is support the Wilderness Society, 1840 Mintwood Place, Washington, D. C. Bob Yard started it years ago...
...If readers are interested, write to Campaign for World Government, Room 810, 166 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago 4, 111...
...Rev...
...Pensions make fine chewing for state polities...
...The fourth alternative was the one the U. S. chose...
...Whether what follows will be chaos or Communism depends oh the intelligence and organized militancy of the workers of the world...
...Their thrift and temperance soon brought the entire colony to the point of prosperity...
...Back of this, however, were other factors...
...He gives me courage to keep on...
...Ge«rge Washington said that the greatest single danger to a republic was an overgrown military establishment...
...If we ever really start planning for peace, and mean it, the first step naturally should be in a reduction of armaments in all countries plus the abolition, the world over, of universal military conscription...
...A. Ramsay, with the thought in mind that publicity might prevent America from being drawn into the conflict...
...A. Mote Route 3 Bellingham, Wash...
...Could the working people in the nations involved 'be persuaded or drafted to fight and die for purely sordid commercialism...
...Were I to become Prime Minister we would control the world...
...The second alternative was the isolationist one...
...No Answer Dear Sirs: I hope your readers in their forums, etc., are discussing two things: 1) why thousands of conscientious objectors incarcerated in Federal prisons throughout the country are not released, and 2) why not abolish military peacetime conscription...
...Using these men as aims we overlooked the fact that'j freedom was being lost in the shuffle for power between the British and Russian empires...
...A man's judgment cannot b e much better than his, information...
...When two nations stand armed against each other, any small incident may light the torch of war...
...Write to your congressmen about this...
...Strange indeed...
Vol. 9 • October 1945 • No. 41
