THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . . Sorrow And Anger Dear Sirs: The Nov. 19 letter of Pfc. Clark Dennis- atacking Thorston Lindberg for deploring the use of the atomic bomb over Japan, has moved me...
...Unrestrained exercise of this power forced the Chinese into abject poverty...
...In France the Revolution and subsequent atrocities have produced nionsters in great numbers, in greater numbers than any other period in history...
...22 issue of The Progressive has aroused my ire...
...and we will thank God that in our country a handful of evil men did not, as in theirs, gain the upper hand and carry the great weak masses along with them, throvigh hope and fear...
...There are great forests which can be exploited...
...And the chemical industry needs very few people to operate it...
...A. F. Walline Big Springs, Neb...
...In this offensive letter he asks: "Do you value the support of ministers...
...The earth belongs to them...
...Rev...
...These rights can become realities to them only as they relate to equality of right to the earth...
...The Committee's Middle West address is: 82 West Washington St., Chicago, 111...
...So do not speak so disdainfully, dear Sister, of these unfortunate French who have suffered so much from their internal enemies, from their hideous Napoleon, and now from the Allies...
...When Mrs...
...No inquest was held and the family was hurried away to its former home in the South...
...I smoke a pipe myself...
...Portland, Oregon * * * Gift To Humanity Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer must have written "Atomic Jag" in your issue of Nov...
...In short, Jews going to Palestine must not expect much in the way of employment...
...unless they have plenty of money they must expect a very low standard of living, and not many European Jews now have much money...
...Why does science not spend time in making this energy available to cure disease and make people well, regardless of their standing, poor as well as the wealthy...
...It is now hoped seriously that out of all this will come some state action such as the creation of a permanent committee on race relations, the enactment of a state and city Fair Employment Practices Commission and a more just system of employment of white and colored people in the city of Portland...
...Besides the large number of civic organizations that supported the Jones family, many religious organizations were deeply interested...
...There is absolutely no need for war in any part of the world at any time...
...The jury of six, with Miss Harriet Monroe, a retired teacher of the Portland Public Schools as chairman, returned a verdict of "not guilty...
...Starving Babies Dear Sirs: In France alone, 80 per cent of the babies never reach their first birthday because of starvation and malnutrition...
...No less an authority than Admiral Nimitz says the atomic bomb had nothing to do with the victory and the Japanese were struggling for acceptable peace terms long before the first one was dropped...
...Charles M. Larson Hawthorne, Calif...
...Landlordism In China Dear Sirs: The cartoon on Page 9 of The Progressive for Nov...
...He warns the victors against falling into the worst sins of the vanquished and voices his fear that prolonged military occupation, heavy reparations, and countless humiliations will only result in "new convulsive movements" and in a further spread of barbarism in Europe...
...But the population is increasing rapidly...
...Then he continues: "They are different from us, but not worse than we...
...They have mostly no idea of any such thing, but are in politics for what they can get out of it...
...Role Of Leaders Dear Sirs: It has been a bit amusing, and at the same time very sad, to observe your numerous attempts to prove that the German people are just like the people in any other country...
...When the world must have peace or perish, petty little preachers like Rev...
...Dennis says Mr...
...Lindberg have never said that a landing on Japan was the only alternative to atomic bombing as it was condvicted...
...13, on a blue Monday...
...Lowell Morris in the Oct...
...would have been preferable...
...They must regain their own good earth to secure equality in the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...
...Charles S. Seely Chicago, 111...
...I have been over much of Palestine, and can report that except in the chemical field no large scale industry will be possible there for many years...
...He supports your paper...
...United States, and vice versa, a smile and handshake will dissolve boundaries and diplomatic squabbles...
...Knowledge has been kept from the masses through the centuries...
...I would describe President Truman as being neither a conservative or progressive...
...Monahan added his personal remark, "Only cranks would believe such bunk...
...Or better yet, an uninhabited island...
...I feel that we do not have it, either in President Truman or Congress...
...It seems natural to want to favor the under dog, so called...
...How can we so completely fail to get our ideas across to other human beings when we feel them so strongly...
...If press, radio, and government will use the word "energy" instead of "bomb" when speaking of "atomic," the day will be hastened when we will regard this gift with joy instead of fear...
...2. If Nimitz was wrong, then the demonstration of the bomb on a purely military installation, possibly one of the many small islands swarming with soldiers...
...3. If negotiations still failed (and who could believe it knowing the Japanese lack of sea and airpower) and the military felt impelled to mass murder the people of Hiroshima, that should be a sufficient slaughter until at least some time was given over to negotiation...
...E. F. Samvjelson Chugwater, Wyo...
...The principle charge against Hermann Goer-ing is that he conspired to destroy civilian populations...
...War is due entirely to ignorance and greed...
...1. Acceptance of presumably preferred peace terms similar to those finally accepted...
...For reasons known to themselves, some people try to show that the Germans are naturally bad and that for this reason they should be permitted to go hungry and be kept down in every other way...
...12 depicts China abjectly kneeling while clenching a handful of earth and imploring, "Where is the good earth ?" The caption misses the truth by one word...
...Nauseating' Dear Sirs: The Progressive's constant harping on the "plight" of the Germans is nauseating...
...This faith in machinery rather than their better selves was Matthew Arnold's complaint against the English in his Culture and Anarchy...
...Morris Dear Sirs: The letter, "Ads And Pipes," by Rev...
...These events do not seem to have closed this case...
...He and neighbors testified that they thought it was a gang of robbers...
...landlords shall no longer enslave them...
...26 issue is very timely, and it touches a point which many Jews, and others too, generally overlook...
...Coroner Dr...
...Birobidjan is very rich in natural resources...
...Dennis has done...
...One was when the question was raised as to the right of the Portland police to force entrance to a private home without a warrant and on the mere statement that a fugitive they wanted had "gone in that direction...
...Melville Kress Neville Island, Pa...
...We did not start this war...
...The secret of the bomb can no more be kept than the secret of the airplane, the talking machine, the radio, or the submarine...
...THERE were some tense moments during the inquAst...
...Fred W. Shorter, Seattle's outstanding minister...
...4. Under no circumstances should an armed clash have been permitted between the strong Japanese ground forces and our troops...
...At present it is under-populated...
...Mark W. Sweet, Sr...
...To which Mr...
...It can be the means of help to bring lasting peace...
...We, too, will learn this truth, or lose our liberty on the altar of landlordism as Rome lost hers on the altar of large estates...
...Some of the ministers I know smoke pipes, and they are fine men of high type, fully awake to the real needs of the world...
...Lindberg and The Progressive wanted an armed landing on Japan...
...The United Nations Security Council could justify its name if it would stand firmly for the control of manufacture and sale of war equipment, abolish military training world-wide, and control atomic energy, releasing or licensing it, for constructive purposes only...
...The city employed, at public expense ($750) an attorney to defend the officer who did the killing...
...Success to your publication...
...Control For Congress Dear Sirs: Being a citizen of the U. S. A. I demand that "atomic energy," especially the bomb, be placed in the hands of, and operated by Congress, as the people paid for its origin...
...That is why leadership is so important...
...He is ar follower— not a leader...
...The voices became so persistent that the officials yielded and ordered an inquest...
...What is to be expected of a people so ruled...
...With selfishness and the urge for money and the power great wealth brings what chance is there for peace in any part of the world...
...A third of all the gold in the Soviet Union is mined there...
...If he does not read such periodicals, perhaps he reads the Congressional Record...
...Wirt Fairman Cascade Locks, Oreg...
...Public appeals for funds met with immediate response and the family of the murdered man was brought back from the South...
...Probably no group of similar size, considering the readers as a unit, wanted such an eventuality less...
...When Clement Attlee spoke to Congress he said that the people of the world must get acquainted if peace is to stay...
...Atomic energy is God's new gift tc fhimanity...
...not by holding it over the heads of humanity as a club but by improving the speed of travel, communications, and commerce...
...That seems fairly plain...
...The Shooting Of Ervin Jones Dear Sirs: At 2:00 A. M., Aug...
...I have found no "rough stuff" as Rev...
...Fern S. Gage, Fellowship of Reconciliation and Mrs...
...Isabelle Gates, Christian Friendliness Director, Oregon Baptists...
...Some want the knowledge of how and what to be kept secret, but how many of the inventions of the past have been kept for long from other nations ? If it could be kept a secret by any nation, it could be held as a thieat over the heads of any other nation and the nation having the bomb and the secret could rule the earth...
...We need strong, progressive leadership at this time...
...The Portland Ore-gonian said, "It may be expected that the handling of the Ervin Jones case, from the shooting to the inquest, will fall short of satisfying community unease...
...As for the United States, it appears that evil days are upon us...
...30,000 Jewish orphans of displaced European Jews are now being sent there through the help of the American Birobidjan Committee, an organization which deserves the support of all progresive-minded people...
...21, Ervin Jones, Negro, was shot by Portland police...
...Send food to Europe...
...It is addressed to his sister, who had evidently given expression to violently anti-French sentiments...
...One is for profits for itself and stock and bond holders, and the other for a wage that will allow them to live and educate their children...
...Irvin Goodman, a prominent attorney of Portland, conducted the case without fee for the family...
...The people want no more war...
...Another paper, the Post, says, "it remains to be seen or found who is lying...
...Various organizations and individuals began expressing their convictions...
...No healthy nation would then want to make a new atomic bomb...
...Ex-Governor Sprague, editor of the Oregon Statesman and president of the Oregon Council of Churches, in a recent editorial says that the question of the officers' undertaking "their duty intelligently or not is not clear...
...They realize that private ownership and monopolization of land inevitably lead to miseries into which no just God ever intended man to be born...
...They asked for it and are getting their just due...
...David Ornsteen's letter in the Nov...
...Outstanding was the support of Elizabeth Steele Genne of the Social Education Committee...
...Can't Keep Bomb Secret Dear Sirs: In all of the ages of man so far, nothing so destructive as the atomic bomb has been discovered or invented...
...It is the military that made the plans for a tremendous landing on Japan in the face of the known fact that the Japanese had no sea or air-power and could have been quickly starved and bombed into submission...
...These people need to be healthy 20 years from now to help solve the problems of living together as countries of one world...
...Henry W. Schultzb Marf a, Tex...
...Surely he must read The Progressive or possibly In Fact...
...G. C. Hart Baltimore, Md...
...It all depends on the kind of leadership a country gets...
...Emma Dasch Colfax, Wash...
...Clark Dennis- atacking Thorston Lindberg for deploring the use of the atomic bomb over Japan, has moved me considerably...
...It's only fair to say that the page generally gives me a feeling that there are other kinds of people in the world, a feeling I seldom get in my day-to-day associations...
...Dennis and the military are the ones who have said that...
...Ministers worthy of the name do not give such trivial matters a moment's thought, and they will bring attention to themselves by the service they render and not by letters which reveal their smallness...
...Our coal, thousands of people Ere saying, is the basis of our national greatness . . . but what is greatness...
...The whole world is deathly sick and people debate in high places how to prevent another nation from making new atomic bombs...
...Long ago, when twice a candidate for the state assembly and attending as delegate two state conventions, I learned that from the men who interest themselves in practical politics, and whom we so confidently elect to public office, that anything like intelligent and disinterested service to their constituents is not to be expected...
...Greatness is a spiritual condition worthy to excite love, interest, and admiration...
...Evidently the officers concluded that because this particular house had a light their man must be there...
...The Progressive or Mr...
...We need to get away from the idea that war is a factor in promoting peace and prosperity...
...Portland Presbyterial...
...Continuance of atomic bombing if necessary (inconceivable...
...The press reports tended to arouse a question in the minds of the public...
...God will judge them more leniently...
...Memphis, Tenn...
...For two days, the chambers of the court were crowded with representatives of churches, labor organizations, fraternal bodies, veterans' societies, clubs, and interested individuals...
...Frank M. Phelps, state president Methodist W. S. C. S., who was supported by the state convention that was in session at the time of this conflict...
...Their verdict confirmed the findings of the coroner's inquest...
...He speaks of lines in a play, Rugged Path, which read: "American newspaper policy is controlled by the National Association of Manufacturers...
...The saddest fact about this world is that the overwhelming majority of people in any country can be led in any direction...
...This crime was justified on the police records in these words, "justified homicide...
...Permanent peace will be attained in nc other way...
...Ruth Haefner, Chairman of the Social, Industrial and Interracial Committee of the Oregon Council of Churchwomen, was largely responsible for crystallizing public sentiment into action...
...The district attorney's office being involved, the attorney general of the state was represented at the inquest by Rex Kimmel...
...Not more care and intelligence in electing their officials will they exercise, but they demand a new party, or elections of judges, or that Congress issue money...
...It seems to me I'm always writing for the Forum when someone saddens me as Mr...
...in such a case we would have fared no better...
...Every one is intent on righting wrong by wrong . . . "No one in the hour of victory looks' up to him who gave this victory, to the Father of Love...
...You may be sure that all ministers and laymen of the right kind are with you in your good work...
...Goodman demanded the deputy district attorney, John R. Collier, point out a specific law in the Oregon Code which would justify the police officer's killing Ervin Jones...
...The white crosses that move Mr...
...The fight between labor and wealth today has disrupted the peace of America...
...But also saints, purified by tribulation and strengthened by true Christianity, have arisen in France during these years, more perhaps and greater ones than in the rest of Europe in centuries...
...Our acquiring of new possessions is only for the purpose of keeping down aggression, in order to maintain peace on earth and good will to mankind...
...The papers throughout the world are full of speculation as to what to do with the bomb and to what use it may be put in the future...
...How many nations of the earth today are in a fit position to rule other nations, when they are, none of them, able to rule and control their own nation...
...Recently I had the pleasure of smoking with Rev...
...The officers were looking for a Negro suspected of murder and, seeing a light, concluded the man must be in the house, for they had been told that he had fled in "that direction...
...What the world needs in any era is not only leaders who can move conservatives, but leaders who can move upward to a higher order of civilization...
...Russia can visit Mrs...
...Faith in machinery is," he said, "our besetting danger...
...C. R. Smith, transport executive, predicts a three cent air line, bringing air travel within the reach of all people...
...Earl Smith refused to allow Goodman to press this question, whereon Goodman shouted at the Coroner, "whitewash...
...The soil is very rich and suitable for growing anything that will grow in Wisconsin...
...The question in China is not "where," but "WHOSE is the good earth...
...Augusta Vogel Vacaville, Calif...
...P. T. A. Neumann Brooklyn, N. Y. Wailing Sympathy Dear Sirs: Having been reading The Pro-gresive for the past few years, I cannot fail to note the wailing sympathy of many of your most able contributors, to our defeated war enemies...
...If this were not so, every person above the grade of moron would know that exactly the same kinds of minds are to be found in every country...
...It is my considered opinion that Birobidjan in the Soviet Union, just north of Manchuria, is a much better bet for displaced or homeless Jews than is Palestine...
...Let the golden rule be our motto...
...I'm unable to analyze completely my emotions but they seem to be a disturbing combination of sorrow and anger...
...9, 1815) a few months after Napoleon's overthrow at Waterloo and during the Congress of Vienna, by the great German-Danish reformer, Christian Reventlow, the liberator of the Danish peasantry from serfdom and thus the founder of one of the freest and most flourishing bodies of yeomen in Europe...
...We too need most a change in ourselves—more culture, intelligence, clear-sightedness, care in exercising the suffrage...
...Morris crudely phrases his complaint, in your excellent newspaper...
...All would be the scourge of God rather than His blessing, and so evil proceeds apace, until the time comes when God sets a limit to godlessness without the aid of mortal hands...
...But the case continues to show its face through the fog of events to date...
...Kaspar Monahan, a show critic on the staff of the Pittsburgh Press, made a remark in his column which amused me...
...Ralph R. Phillips Portland, Ore...
...A grand jury investigation was demanded...
...Then, too, we should seriously ask if we have not more legislators than are really needed—mostly incompetent or corrupt...
...The temperature of the area—which is much larger than Texas—is almost exactly like that of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Northern Michigan...
...A Hopeless Case Dear Sirs: Mr...
...Or perhaps his is a hopeless case...
...Culture makes us ask...
...Land ownership in China has lodged in landlords the power to appropriate all that labor produces...
...about 200,000 people (125,000 of whom are Jews), are now living there...
...R. D. Snyder 7314 S. E. 14th Ave...
...Dennis, as they move us all, are tribute to the military unwillingness to search for other ways to end wars as long as they can overwhelm enemy forces with wave after wave of young lives...
...Failing in that, he must have read Upton Sinclair's Brass Check...
...Historical Parallel Dear Sirs: Recently I came across a letter written 130 years ago (Dec...
...I hope the 60 million job-holders who will fill the 60 million jobs that the Government has salted down for them will all become subscribers to The Progressive...
...Pass The Progressive Along It's American, Alert, Accurate Change Ourselves Dear Sirs: Reading the Forum week after week, I am impressed by the faith of Americans in mere machinery as a means of salvation...
...He is not consistent...
...Liberty cannot endure where wealth produced by industry must be diverted from wages to ever-increasing tribute demanded by monopolizers of the earth...
...F. A. Grieg Minneapolis, Minn...
...Now 90 million Chinese awake...
...I wish to say that the right kind of ministers do support you and will continue to do so...
...Well done...
...Wesley Miller Portland, Ind...
...So in this same issue I give tribute to the following who have raised my morale and made it seem worth while to continue the struggle: Max Wiec-zorek, C. E. Payne, Samuel A. Carlson, Emma Mayer, Wilbur Burton, Blanche Watson, Guenter Rei-mann, William H. Hughes, Alf Abel, Else Heymann, Joel Mosko, and Charles C. Lockwood...
...And under machinery he classed coal, railroads, wealth, and even freedom...
...Jones, with a family of five children, was fast asleep when pounding began at front and back doors of his home and a voice shouted to him to open the door...
...They might get their eyes opened and have a better vision of things going on in our country, and then with a clear mind might vote in the next election so as to improve existing evils that are disrupting the progress of our great country...
...It does no good to blast conservatives loose from their positions, unless they are moved to a higher and better order...
...As long as man has the selfish tendencies he has today, with the nations of the earth seeking to "expand" for more territory in which to grow and create more markets for the things needed in their own nation, just so long will there be wars and a great threat of the atomic bomb...
...Reply To Rev...
...A Home For Jews Dear Sirs: Mr...
...To permit hardly a drawn breath or investigation of the damage to impress the Japanese with the murder power of this weapon, before smashing Nagasaki, was a mass atrocity in an unparalleled scale...
...Lowell Morris are complaining about the pipes in the mouths of contributors...
...Perhaps the most intense situation came when Atty...
...Let us remember they have "sown to the wind and are reaping the whirlwinds...
...By all means don't permit the control of the bomb by the $l-per-year-men...
...Here in order of preference are the steps that Progressive readers (leaving out the pacifists who of course cannot be browbeaten into compromise with any phase of killing) would have wished the military to have taken...
...xhe community was not satisfied...
...Detlev W. Schumann Providence, R. I. The Atomic Debate Dear Sirs: It seems to us ljdiculous how much time is being wasted on what to do with the atomic energy...
...Eye-Opener Dear Sirs: I can do without my sugar and butter if they have to make whiskey and soap out of same, but I must read my Progressive every issue, for it is the only paper I know of that points the truth in the news behind the news...
...Palestine as a "Jewish State" or as a "home for homeless Jews" is a very poor approach to the great and pressing problem of what to do about the Jews now suffering as a result of Hitlerism...
...I wrote him on the contrary, but he preferred to ignore my letter...
Vol. 9 • December 1945 • No. 49
