THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
? ? ? THE PEOPLE'S FORUM ? ? ? Why Necessarily Palestine? Dear Sirs: I learn from newspaper items that there are about 100,000 "Jews" in Germany for whom no living space is available and that the...
...Pass The Progressive Along 'Crime' In Germany Dear Sirs: It is regrettable that every American had not the opportunity to read your editorial in the Oct...
...La Follette's letters while in the South Pacific, and some of Sen...
...If you really learn another language you are apt to be interested in its literature...
...Clothing can be turned in to some local agency or sent direct to the Protestant Relief Center, New Windsor, Md...
...The sad thing about the late war is that we have lost the war...
...This seems to be the way planned by Russia and France to exterminate the German people, most of whom were the victims, and not the partners, of Hitler and his gang...
...then investigate it...
...It is several times as large in area as Palestine and it has no fanatical Moslems or other elements hostile to Jews...
...MacArthur by Mr...
...You can be more entertaining and have many more readers by writing economic myths and plausible half-truths than straight economics...
...If you say "yes," then I have no sympathy for them...
...Comdr...
...If there must be a compromise to secure unity, then have the police powers vested in a world government...
...Before long I suspect that the various world powers will begin smuggling such weapons into each other's industrial and population centers where they can be set off at a moment's notice...
...Truman's latest speech, it's clear as mud, as it was intended to be...
...D. Bahnsen Watsonville, Calif...
...I had several opportunities for observing the splendid work done by the GCC, not only in building roads and fire breaks in the national forest, but in transforming harum-scarum boys into responsible, physically fit men...
...Our Brother's Keeper Dear Sirs: American families could celebrate Christmas in no more appropriate way than by sending gifts of cash or goods to some foreign relief agency...
...Alice Langan Chicago, III...
...Clayton Fountain's "B u i c k s , Booms, and Busts," Louis Clair's "Colonial Chickens Come Home To Roost," Dr...
...So here is hoping Mr...
...John Hanna School of Law, Columbia University New York, N. Y. * * * 'A Room' For Comfort Dear Sirs: This is a note of appreciation for the challenging and fearlessly truthful articles and condensed news published each week in your paper...
...If the intervening issues have been filled with such malicious and puerile tosh as this vindictive blast at Gen...
...The first thing you know you will begin to think of foreigners as human beings...
...Stone's attack on Gen...
...In contrast, you were, and have remained, "behind the MacArthur Row" — about 10,000 miles — and from that safe distance you have gallantly urged others to dangerous living...
...On PROGRESS: Progress is proportional to the extent of a new generation's knowledge of the Golden Rule...
...Holmes, Fred Rodell, Jane Stafford, Morris Rubin's Last Column, Col...
...And the making of World War III is well on the way, in fact, World War II is still on...
...Woodrow McKay Menomonee Falls, Wis...
...On SOCIAL SECURITY: It is progressive that social security be a matter of individual thought and effort...
...Cries about a soft peace come most frequently and loudly from non-combatants, for whom this has certainly been a soft war," says the Christian Century...
...The purpose was to have Germany destroy Communism...
...Milton Subotsky 1859 53rd Street Brooklyn 4, N. y...
...If you can use words effectively you can make more money on a few shallow articles than an economist or historian can make in a whole lifetime out of authoritative treatises...
...In the Oct...
...Is each and every one of those 100,000 so...
...Compulsory universal military training is by nature the wrong approach to peace, because it is the opposite of peace in that it is the war approach...
...I would not, however, have the boys devote their time entirely to military affairs, but a part to study and a part to constructive work in the public domain...
...You must become expert at it...
...Last, but not least, I creep into "A Room Of Our Own" for comfort when I "have taken on more than I can handle...
...Is this another form of Fascism that Mr...
...and then take on the only system and control which can outlaw war—a Technate of North America—operating along scientific...
...Get acquainted with the stuff editors buy, and practice until you can write it...
...But I doubt that it will always be necessary to command gigantic military forces to use them...
...That does not diminish their influence because they always express the popular ideas of the moment...
...Hesseltine would quit playing Fairy Princess in his Ivory Tower (plumbing by Crane and lousy with double sockets) and get a little coal dust under his fingernails, or some manure on his boots, he wouldn't have time to write such vicious nonsense...
...Dear Sirs: I learn from newspaper items that there are about 100,000 "Jews" in Germany for whom no living space is available and that the United States is urging England to admit them into Palestine...
...Are we ever going to stop being the prize saps of the universe...
...The United States spent billions to check Fascism...
...Favors Conscription Dear Sirs: I never had the privilege of serving in our armed forces, but in my youthful days, away back in the early '90s, I served four or-five-years in the National Guard, promoted little by little to the rank of first lieutenant...
...even as far as we now know, the destruction of the whole earth...
...MacArthur did make a mistake, he paid for it—defeated and driven from the Philippines, he toiled and fought for years to turn back the victorious Japanese, and ultimately regained those islands...
...Your own prophetic gifts appear inadequate for even 24 hours, as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on Sunday the 7th...
...If there is any one lesson we must teach our children it is that we are our brother's keeper...
...If the terrible need is explained to children, you may be sure that they will work wholeheartedly in a family project such as a box of clothes, food, etc...
...You can always stand for the right when public opinion is running your way...
...They must fill up the huge gaps left by UNRRA...
...Thomas keeps busy and keeps the actual facts before the public as long as it is possible...
...Instead of buying each other wrist watches and nylons and cowboy suits, couldn't we send our gifts abroad...
...Praise For GI & Seely Dear Sirs: Quite often when I have finished reading The Progressive, I lay it aside with the thought that the People's Forum is the most important part of the magazine...
...It can only be done by friendly cooperation and the use of the Golden Rule...
...Blame it...
...On WAR AND PEACE: The ultimate end of war will be correlated with the disintegration of walls between people, walls that are racial, religious, nationalistic, or otherwise...
...Viewing the picture as presented by our knowledge of destruction, it is unthinkable not to do all in our power to remove NOW, if not entirely, enough of the causes of war so that we can be sure that war does not come...
...Christmas will be a mockery indeed if we do not teach our children that it means not exchanging gifts with each other, but rather sharing with other members of the family across the sea...
...College professors need not worry, either, about interference with their work, for records show that only 3.6 per cent of the men in service have had four years of college...
...The right approach to this problem is the spirit of good will and confidence that manifests equal living...
...World War III may well prove to be the last...
...You must personify the inhabitants of a foreign country as a single individual...
...Blame the price system for Pearl Harbor, for it rewards men who care not whether other men live or die, just so long as business goes on as usual, including the armament business...
...Whether or not they are bidden, our brothers and sisters of Europe belong to us and we to them...
...Clem Norton Boston School Committee Boston, Mass...
...You will please nobody...
...The relief channels are plenty and well known...
...All my life I have voted the Democratic or Republican tickets, but one is forced to admire a man like Norman Thomas...
...Leaving out of consideration, for the moment, whether the total number of persons of all kinds of nationalities in Europe now on the veige of starvation is only 100,000 and whether those 100,000 are Jews, Euritanians, or human beings of any other species, what I should like to know is: Since there are millions of Moslems who object to the colonization of Jews in Palestine, how ' could Great Britain colonize them there without assuming the burden and expense of mobilizing a huge . army and waging war against the Moslems...
...If they write to me, I will attempt to put them in touch with one another...
...I suppose that most Americans are too fearful of the consequences in the future to see the irony and hypocrisy of our attempts to control the atomic bomb...
...Yet our President, instead of taking a stand for peace and disarmament, is demanding universal conscription for our young men and insisting we continue to build up our Navy, Army and so forth...
...A few years ago, as I talked with Supt...
...But if Gen...
...F. J. Berger Bismarck, N. D. Prize Saps Dear Sirs: I should like to compliment John Haynes Holmes on his wonderful article in the Oct...
...Don't waste your time on foreign languages, history, or economics...
...So I write them down and wonder if they make sense to anyone else...
...Jessie Dean Chicago, III...
...If Mr...
...A more stable monetary system guaranteeing value from one generation to the next would be highly desirable...
...New Zealand has only a population of about a million and a quarter...
...World's Best Buy Dear Sirs: The best buy, for the money, in the world: The Progressive...
...But I know his Horatio Alger "Pluck will win" theories will bring him home safe with his prejudices not only intact but re-inforced...
...If we do not have faith in the inherent goodness of man to maintain peace, then in the knowledge that this is the showdown, the goodness of man must be tried...
...It is the spirit that breeds disunity, hate, and the promotion of competitive armaments...
...The United States should never be an accomplice in this crime...
...Its population is only about nine million...
...Stone (in your Dec...
...After 20 years of supporting the Nation, I stopped my subscription when you took the hard-boiled line...
...13, 1941 issue), "so obviously unacceptable to a government like Japan's that one wonders why we negotiated at all...
...We financed World War I, and to make certain there would be a World War II we supplied Germany with the money and England and France supplied the guns...
...MacArthur, I haven't missed much...
...The fight for world union is to be sponsored by progressive thought, not that world union necessarily guarantees world peace, but it is a giant stride in that direction...
...Is God Almighty so cruel that He has neglected to provide a place somewhere on earth for those 100,-000 persons — notwithstanding the allegation that they are "God's chosen people...
...Did he ever hear of the instinct for self-preservation...
...Even the police force that is vested in this world government should be on a voluntary basis as is our domestic police force...
...From your safe distance you can afford to bellyache about the man who, after years of desperate struggle, declines to kick a fallen enemy in the face...
...What has really hung us up is throwing away the paddles...
...The next war, if there is a next war (and I do hope there will not be), means destruction on a scale never dreamed of before in both life and the material things that sustain lif...
...Yet, though we have the highest standard of living of any people in the world, our facilities in education are no better than average...
...John Eddy Franklin Seattle, Wash...
...Maybe something interesting will come of this...
...There should be total disarmament in all member nations and the abolition of conscription...
...The energy that Junior devoted to collecting scrap paper and metal could well be turned toward collecting warm, usable clothing for his shivering brothers in Europe and Asia...
...World Government Needed Dear Sirs: I have been thinking in my humble way of our atomic age and its relation to universal military training and the necessity for keeping the peace...
...On TAXES: Taxes should not be levied according to ability to pay but directly in proportion to governmental services rendered...
...I think it is one of the most important letters you have ever published...
...Berlin...
...Hesseltine's trials and tribulations with old fashioned water closets and electric sockets in his "Letter From London," Oct...
...Now is the time to convert our "Christmas Savings Clubs" " into "Christmas Sharing Clubs...
...H. H. Bliss Riverside, Calif...
...The little people of England and the little people of America are fighting a daily battle for a better life...
...Shannon of the Federal project at Elephant Butte, N. M., he pointed to a group of CCC boys who were building a stone wall...
...Lack of these essentials in their home life is largely responsible for the fact that two million of the first 13,000,000 called in the draft were rejected as physically or mentally unfit for service, besides an undisclosed number released after induction because they could not stand up to Army life...
...The paper was sent me as a gift...
...W. L. Rideout Yucaipa, Calif...
...Graham R. Hodges Norwich, Conn...
...Gladys E. Muir Pasadena, Calif...
...About 25 years ago, the Soviet Union founded a "Jewish state" named Biro Bijan, located somewhere in the Eastern part of Siberia...
...Wesley Smith Hebo, Ore...
...15 issue, "This Is War...
...The propaganda, same as was used against Japan and which was dished out to us for years, has already started against Russia...
...On TOLERANCE: It is progressive for any group to believe in one single people, no single religion, and true equality in sex...
...And we are certainly without paddles today...
...With our boys devoting a year to such work as this, coupled with military training and discipline, World War III will not find us with rejections by draft boards running as high as 46 per cent...
...If great-hearted America could use it with almost no provocation, we certainly have something to fear from "the lesser breeds without the law," some of whom have grudges against us...
...Mac-Arthur is a complaint against his humane and democratic treatment of the Japanese people...
...And now we want to "outlaw" the use of such bombs...
...Chennault's warning in 1933 that "Japan is not buying our best airplane inventions for the fun of it...
...It is progressive that we revise existing patent and other laws that create the present phenomena whereby doing less brings greater reward...
...lines, for the general welfare of all citizens...
...Hope Of The Future Dear Sirs: I have been a reader of The Progressive for quite some time and would like to commend you for an interesting and informative paper...
...Is Might to be Right in a trade war...
...And if history is any indication, the superstates will sell some of these weapons to friendly satellites just as they have shared their superiority in the manufacture of firearms...
...I. P. Stone, your Washington correspondent, concluding, "in the Fall of 1939 we were assured by as high a military authority that the Philippines were in no danger of attack from Japan...
...Remember what Arthur Brisbane said about never losing your superficiality...
...8 contains Progressive principles...
...It gave a new and true picture of the influence that war and the military system have upon the life and character of the common soldier...
...On EDUCATION: There is nothing we do that is more important than our efforts in education...
...Until you took over, the Nation was a liberal organ of intelligent opinion...
...Boys in the training camps will be assured of good, well-balanced food, regular hours, dental and medical care...
...So let us sit in this world meeting in the name of good will and not with the club of compulsory military training...
...Here is what I told him: The only thing you need is English...
...When they leave, nearly all of them will be proficient stone masons, and the one driving the truck will be a competent auto mechanic, all of them able to command skilled labor wages wherever they go...
...Canada is not only larger than Palestine but larger than the United States...
...Just for the record, I am 24...
...See all issues in black and white...
...Few people will read what they say...
...That is how all wars are promoted...
...Can't we spare any money to help build a democratic world...
...His characteristics will be those of his current leader or will conform to the prevailing American notions about that nation...
...Renew Your Subscription Today Hesseltine's 'Nonsense' Dear Sirs: The pathetic tale of Prof...
...Penned up in a greatly reduced territory, robbed jf all tools with which to make a living, with millions homeless, they are abandoned to die of cold and hunger...
...La Follette's articles have all been enjoyed and passed on to others...
...His demand that the British, after five years of war, accept the challenge of American business to a trade war with "a willingness to abide by the consequences" hardly sounds like a professor of history...
...Mary Harvey San Bernardino, Calif...
...I like to think I'm progressive, too, but the things that are progressive to me are sometimes quite different from that which is capital "P" Progressive...
...If the power is not given to the people to decide as to when they should die or live, you may as well write finish to this sad world...
...8 issue, entitled "Abolish Conscription Now," by Lt...
...If we could get enough publications such as The Progressive going, we'd actually do something toward saving the world...
...Why need there be any limit on jobs...
...Praise For Norman Thomas Dear Sirs: Norman Thomas' article, "How To Lose The Peace" in the Nov...
...Advice Dear Sirs: A young friend wants to study journalism and become a political commentator...
...Above all, don't try writing expositions of divergent viewpoints...
...Blame the price system, which through business and political interferences successfully armed both Germany and Japan by cartel arrangements, and equally successfully kept America from building any airplanes whatsoever...
...Its population is only about 11 million, and there is plenty of land there either for homestead-ing or for purchase at a few dollars per acre...
...He was often in personal danger and yet seems to have done all he could to accomplish his mission with the least possible sacrifice of American lives...
...You will learn more by studying newspaper and magazine writing than English classics...
...Critical knowledge of history and economies is a positive handicap to a political writer...
...Therefore, it is progressive that we encourage and promote any intermingling of people anywhere and everywhere...
...Blame the price system, in which the rules of the game decree that wars are inevitable...
...How can an American economist make himself loved by high tariff advocates...
...C. S. Seely...
...I also wish to express my appreciation of the article in the Oct...
...I believe they should correspond with and know each other, for they are the hope of the future...
...On EMPLOYMENT: There is no limit on things to be done...
...It's nothing to you if the boys who suffered and bled must stay on indefinitely to implement your hard-boiled ideas...
...A scholarly review of the conclusions and prophesies of many political writers makes them seem ridiculous...
...Most of those boys," he said, "didn't know 'straight up' when they came here...
...He makes it very clear war is an extremely vicious circle that never ends any problem, but constantly creates more complicated ones...
...I wonder how many such young (under 25) readei* The Progressive has and whether they want to know each other...
...Blame The 'Price System' Dear Sirs: The blame for Pearl Harbor...
...Wars come from commercial rivalry or exploitation...
...Place it where it rightfully belongs, squarely upon the shoulders of the American price system, that system under which business operations made it possible for "free private enterprise" to profit by the sale of millions of barrels of oil to Japan, to sell enough scrap iron to Japan up to and through the fatal Dec...
...You may well say "we can afford to be hard-boiled about it...
...We surprised the beaten Japanese, who had been trying to make peace with us for nearly a year on almost exactly the Potsdam terms, by dropping atomic bombs on their most densely populated districts...
...we could do a little maneuvering without it...
...Don't worry about being shown up by critics...
...Because mankind's ability to do evil has greatly increased, and it may be that we are approaching a time when all shall live only because no one objects to anyone's living, I think the answer should be stated negatively...
...5 issue is only too true...
...It is not to be misunderstood here that we forget our collected responsibility to those who can't help themselves, but such help should be as spontaneous as possible, as far from law as possible...
...Think of the predicament of a trained historian today writing about war issues...
...Only an exceptionally clever person can risk acquiring accurate information about history and economics...
...7, so that the scrap came back more than three years later in the wounded bodies of American soldiers...
...But the torch bearers of enlightenment and progress are the young people and the kind, intelligent, humanistic, open-minded young people of the world, the young people who have succeeded in maintaining an intelligent and ethical outlook on life amidst the turmoil and dishonesty of the mercantile civilization in which wc live, are very few in number and do not even know each other...
...Yes, we have shown them the way...
...and court-martialed Billy Mitchell because in 1935 he warned that Japan would attack and that the attack would occur on some "nice, quiet Sunday morning...
...If you want anything more than school,boy notions, get them from headlines...
...My - only reason for writing this letter is that I have reasons to believe that they would be perfectly willing to go to any place where they are allowed to live and let live—without being subjected to persecution and abuses...
...Does this look like he really means to carry out the 12 points he so boldly proclaimed over the radio Oct...
...Mrs...
...Membership should be extended to all nations, both so-called peace loving and enemy nations, with one vote to each nation becauss small nations are equal sufferers in war and are apt to keep in check the selfish aspirations of large nations...
...If you want to give the impression of sincerity it is better to be ignorant...
...Better by far disavow all responsibility, and bring home our occupation forces...
...I wish that our leaders had conscientiously-objected to our using the atomic bemb...
...His letter was of special importance right now when we are facing military conscription, which means the building of the soldier mentality in the mind of every young man in the land...
...Compare that with your own editorial, "Calling Japan's Bluff," which you issued Dec...
...We pay for security, either through taxes or savings, but through the latter method, we grow for having borne that responsibility —and growing is progressive...
...He has asked me about his course of study...
...6,1941: "War may indeed be unavoidable, but so long as we remain firm the Japanese will do their best to avoid it . . . They, and not we, need to play for time, and we can afford to be hard-boiled about it...
...29 issue, on the savage inhumanity with which the German people are being treated...
...Your craft is the art of using words effectively...
...Clearing The Track Dear Sirs: -t should now be apparent to all that by insisting on Unconditional Surrender and desolation of the German nation, by vanquishing Japan and re-establishing the Open Door in China, we, instead of saving the British Empire, have caused our forces to become instrumental in clearing the track, greasing the skids as it were, on which Stalin may push England down to the level of Portugal and other nations which, in the past, had grown rich and fat and soft while exploiting the black man and the brown...
...choosy and hard to please" that he is stubbornly determined to go to no other place than Palestine...
...which ignored Gen...
...There simply must be some things which differing groups of men will refuse to do to each other, and even under considerable provocation...
...A Relief Dear Sirs: I would like to express my appreciation of your excellent little paper...
...It ain't only the compass that we need...
...How else will its use against men be stopped ? As long as there is the will for such destruction not much will be accomplished by "outlawing" it, and especially by the nation which was immensely satisfied with the results...
...As to Mr...
...I am glad to renew it and pass the gift on to two others...
...1 issue you published a letter entitled "GI Report from Germany," signed, Pvt...
...What is it now...
...That was Douglas MacArthur, too...
...David Ornsteen Los Angeles, Calif...
...Perhaps it will require tremendous aggregations of industrial power for a long time to make atomic bombs...
...From the letters in your columns, it seems to me that some of your readers are older people...
...Whoever said that war has no fury like a non-combatant must have had you in mind...
...By breaking monopoly and putting profit in proportion to production, we would encourage a greater and greater production and a higher and higher standard of living...
...It has never yet been gained that way for any length of time and never will be...
...A. W. Kurtz Lansing, Mich...
...Most readers will be annoyed because the critic is attacking their beliefs...
...Who wants to read what an economist or historian says about reparations...
...Russia has an area of about eight and a half million square miles, and her population is about 185 million...
...MacArthur let me say that 1939 was a long time before Pearl Harbor and perhaps he was not informed then that our diplomats were going to send to Japan in November, 1941, an ultimatum which was, in the words of Mr...
...We oldsters, who are apt to get cynical, would find Christmas more meaningful if we would help assemble a box to be set among other family gifts and then sent abroad...
...Nope, power ain't the answer...
...He claims we will achieve peace by force...
...Malice Toward MacArthur Dear Sirs: I have sent the following letter to the Editors of the Nation: On Sept...
...In defense of Gen...
...Then we finance them...
...The limited amount of training and discipline I received—one night a week in the armory and a week each year in camp—has been of immeasurable benefit to me all my life...
...New writers appear from time to time, and the older contributors—Ernest L. Meyer, Milton Mayer, Oswald G. Villard, and many others—all seem to grow better...
...29, 1945, you published "Behind the MacArthur Row," a bitter attack on Gen...
...29 issue of The Progressive...
...Families should plan now to include their unseen members...
...Australia is about the size of the United States...
...The letters I find there have more vigor and boldness in expression and generally deal with subjects "they understand by reason of actual experience as well as study...
...His years of constant travel to all parts of the world, while in the Navy, and his journey around the world in search for a better, broader understanding of other people's national traits and ways of life, after he retired from active service, entitle his statements on this subject to careful and respectful consideration by every intelligent American who hopes that peace may some day prevail over the whole earth...
...What can an economist do for New Dealers who believe that government debt is unimportant because we owe it to ourselves...
...While it does not always voice my opinion, it is a relief to read a paper in which some critical thinking is being done and in which there is opportunity for free expression of opinion...
...Hesseltine is recommending...
...Therefore, we must keep the peace or we know not what...
...It certainly will never be reached by promoting and financing wars as we have done since the Federal Reserve Act went into effect in 1913...
...Give A Friend The Truth Send Him The Progressive Today Some Personal-Principles Dear Sirs: A letter from California in the Forum of Oct...
...T. J. Welsh Chicago, 111...
...29 issue, almost moved me to tears...
...Imagine a German economist in 1935 discussing colonies or the Versailles Treaty...
...Our country today is the strongest on this planet and it would be utterly impossible for any country or combinations of nations to attack us within the next 25 or even 50 years unless we first financed them...
...For $96 a year a family can adopt a needy European child through the Save The Children Federation, 1 Madison Ave., New York...
...Bette Naysmith Norman Racine, Wis...
...For that reason, if no other, I am whole-heartedly in favor of universal military training...
...Power Not The Answer Dear Sirs: "America Adrift Without A Compass" says Kenneth Crawford in the Oct...
...Does he think a bankrupt England will make a better America...
Vol. 9 • November 1945 • No. 47
