HOW TO 'SELL' DEMOCRACY
How To 'Sell' Democracy THE extent to which hard-shelled reaction now dominates the thinking of Congress was best illustrated last week when two leading Democratic Representatives called on...
...Many of them, therefore, have had little desire for a long time now to continue the fight and are only too thankful that it is all over...
...The counsellor was none other than the late (?) but little lamented Adolf Hitler...
...The state that has no interest in healthy people has neglected this duty in a criminal manner...
...THE behavior of Congress on the Full Employment Bill is, of course, only one example of the ascendancy of the new reaction...
...It is even more tragic that so many members of Congress—and here there are conspicuous exceptions, too—insist on legislating as though they were the errand boys of organizations like the National Association of Manufacturers, rather than the elected representatives of all the people in their district or state...
...The army educates them only to be reliable, decent members of the community, men who in the hour of need and danger will feel themselves united in loyalty with the nation...
...In the last analysis America will be judged by the rest of the world not by how many ham sandwiches we pass out abroad or by how many international organizations we join, but rather by whether we succeed in solving our basic problems at home...
...Prisoners of this kind must be humanely treated and I will not tolerate any case that is brought to my notice of taking it out on the Japanese if they are prepared to be cooperative...
...Sound Counsel GEN...
...The whole issue transcends the domestic scene...
...This right is a duty...
...One must, nevertheless, not forget that the shortage of trained soldiers could easily lead, at the beginning of a war, to losing that war...
...Specifically, the basic provision which would have established a Government guarantee of the "right to work" was eliminated in favor of a pious statement that all are "entitled to an opportunity" for useful, continuing employment...
...We hope that the many members of Congress who read The Progressive will ponder the simple truth that there is no better way to "sell" political and economic democracy to the world than to make it work here in America...
...It is a great pity that this type of understanding and common sense is still verboten in Allied-controlled Germany...
...It is tragic that so many of the nation's business men—there are distinguished exceptions, of course —do not see that the enactment of sound, progressive legislation for full employment, expanded social security, and fair labor practices and standards is the greatest possible bulwark for a free economic system...
...But if you believe that you must be free, then you must learn to recognize that no one gives you freedom save only your own sword...
...It is clear to anyone who even stops to think that in case of a coming war the entire nation would have to take up arms, that therefore millions would be driven toward the enemy with bad, insufficient or half-finished training...
...Said the British commander: "You may well find that those Japanese who have a fanatical belief in their divine superiority, and who feel that we are too soft to put them in their place, will try to behave arrogantly...
...Virtually every measure to provide intelligent, progressive guidance to the vast problem of postwar reconversion is either pigeon-holed in committee or is being hacked to shreds by the hatchet squad...
...stand for compulsory military service for every man...
...Congress should ponder this counsel and, of course, do the reverse...
...The measure was drained of much of its meaning in the Senate when sponsors of the legislation, after successfully resisting efforts to attach crippling amendments in committee, lamely surrendered on the floor and acquiesced in the Tory strategy of stripping the bill of most of its meat...
...It is nonsense to believe that with the end of school time the state's "right for supervision of its young citizens could suddenly stop...
...and should fate confront them with the sternest ordeal, will defend the freedom of their people with bravery and honor...
...Then you must not complain if you are enslaved...
...Advice On The Draft AS Congress prepares for a showdown on the issue of permanent peacetime conscription, The Progressive wants to submit for consideration the counsel of one of the outstanding disciples of the glories of military training of our and all time: "Therefore we...
...How To 'Sell' Democracy THE extent to which hard-shelled reaction now dominates the thinking of Congress was best illustrated last week when two leading Democratic Representatives called on President Truman to inform him that the Full Employment Bill could not pass the House—even in the greatly diluted form in which it emerged from the Senate last month...
...You are to stand for no nonsense from these people...
...If a state is not worth that, then away with it...
...Truman that it could not pass in its present form...
...Even in this form, the bill is unacceptable to the Tory coalition of Democrats and Republicans in the House...
...Manasco, Alabama Democrat who is chairman of the committee which is sitting on the bill, solemnly told Mr...
...The Japanese as a nation had no say whatever in their own Government and were perhaps less responsible for their Government's decision to go to war...
...Mountbatten, some of whose policies in the past have been under fire in The Progressive, recently issued an order of the day to his troops which, while largely ignored in the American press, strikes us as being a model of sane thinking...
...Every economic analyst in the nation knows we are heading into a boom period, but everyone of them knows too, even if their employers do not let them say so publicly, that unless steps are taken now to harness that boom for all the people and provide cushions to absorb the first inevitable breaks in the boom, the country faces an economic explosion of the greatest magnitude...
...Douglas MacArthur's magnificent administration of conquered Japan—sp successful that it is now winning the grudging acceptance of some of his noisiest critics—has tended to obscure the policies of a similarly placed Allied official, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was appointed Supreme Commander of the Japanese forces that surrendered to the British...
...On the other hand, you will find that 'there are many Japanese who are no more taken in by the preposterous claims of the militarists than you are yourselves...
...It lets the present young generation degenerate in the streets and in brothels, instead of taking them by the leash and training them physically until one day a healthy man and a healthy woman have grown out of this...
Vol. 9 • November 1945 • No. 44
