THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
¦ ¦ ¦ THE PEOPLE'S FORUM ¦ ¦ ¦ By Dodd Training For Murder Dear Sirs: Conscription has been abolished in both Japan and in Germany, yet President Truman and his advisers are determined to...
...Food for Freedom, Inc...
...It was this apathy, many believe, that elected O'Dwyer...
...How illogical we must appear to other nations when we "talk peace" on one hand, and advocate conscription (and armaments) on the other...
...Charles Walker Elizabeth, N. J. Food For Freedom Dear Sirs: Mrs...
...Dewey's official support, William O'Dwyer, Democratic and Labor party candidate for mayor ran with the blessings of President Truman...
...No wonder they can't pay their producers any more wages...
...Gen...
...Ellen Winsor Rebecca Winsor Evans Malvern, Pa...
...Even the problem which Mr...
...Habits of thought are worse than habits of the body...
...Give A Friend The Truth Send Him The Progressive Today Insane Economics Dear Sirs: Once again our economists are frantically thumbing their old handbooks...
...If it costs a dollar a day to keep a soldier in Germany, by withdrawing 400,000 men we will save $400,000 a day, $40,000,000 in 100 days...
...He knew no political loyalty, jumped political traces, ran on more than one political party...
...If this is not conscription, what is it...
...The number wounded in three and a half years of war was far less than 1,000,000, By contrast, the number wounded by the automobile, in peacetime, is approximately 1,-000,000 per year, according to the statistics...
...With the money saved thereby let us buy foodstuffs which we can spare and distribute them in Germany...
...At the end all those who supported him in previous campaigns ditched him and refused to support him...
...The following "facts show this system for what it is...
...Conscription And Relief Dear Sirs: I have been watching with great interest the progress of events in Congress relating to two very important issues before the nation — peacetime conscription and U. S. relief for the destitute and displaced people of Europe...
...They have made the psychological transition from the normal belief that taking human life is sinful over to a new professional outlook where killing is a craft...
...LaGuardia was a problem child to the politicians...
...Less than two-thirds of the voters who went to vote last year for President voted this year...
...It is the avowed purpose of the army to make killers of all of you...
...Do Americans realize what military training would teach our young men...
...This philosophy applies with equal force to those who have had years of association in and with military life...
...Dietrich Gerhard Washington University St...
...New York Politics Dear Sirs: When Mayor La Guardia steps out of office Jan...
...Louis, Mo...
...Under the May Bill, endorsed by the President, every boy of 17 must give one year of his life to be trained for war...
...People often accuse the writers for The Progressive of being "negative...
...As far as compulsory military service is concerned I consider it at the best a necessary evil...
...1707 H Street, N. W., Washington 6, D. C.) has taken a strong stand against the abolition of food rationing and is willing to supply all the necessary information about the food needs of starving countries...
...Stuart Chase is the only big one I know about who has taken even the first step toward sanity by asking, "What is an economic system for...
...While liberal and labor elements may find satisfaction in the large votes they received, nevertheless progressive elements regard Mr...
...We Americans aim for the jaw, the nose, the cauliflower ear...
...Oscar Cohn New York, N. Y. * * * Passion For Justice Dear Sirs: The article by Harry Paxton Howard, "America—Arsenal of Imperialism," in your Nov...
...The only satisfaction left to him was to run his own candidate for mayor, Newbold Morris, on the No Deal Party...
...What to do about surplus men, materials, and machines...
...The advocates of so-called military training, under compulsion, claim one year is sufficient for trainees...
...It only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder...
...Behind The Curtains Dear Sirs: I think it is only fair to state that this sick and war-torn world cannot hope to achieve any semblance of recovery as long as the forces of greed and the lust for power, public and private, motivates the conduct of great masses of the people, and that your publication, in my opinion, renders a distinct public service in throwing the spotlight on some of the festering sores afflicting humanity...
...Other countries can force us into war, but we have only our own selfishness and stupidity to blame for the auto slaughter...
...Add this to the number killed in the preceding wars, and we have a grand total of about 543,000 killed in all the wars in which the United States has engaged throughout its 170 years of existence...
...Everywhere unrest and fear—fear of man and not of God...
...19 issue seems to be another indication of the fact that in the general letdown after the end of the war only those groups have gained full publicity which wanted to do away as quickly as possible with all restrictions and sacrifices or with what they regarded as such...
...Francois d'Eliscu, instructor in the Army School at Fort Meade, described the system he invented as follows: "Boxing—bah...
...Is there nothing we can say and do...
...President Truman has just said that there must be a permanent peace because the only alternative is world destruction...
...The campaign ran true to form...
...This is best shown by our pure food and drug laws, and by our statutes concerning quarantine and sanitation...
...It is fast dawning upon many people that possibly our boasted "freedom of the press" has been a decoy used by selfish groups and political opportunists to attain their ends...
...birth to tyranny...
...It's something you've needed for a long time...
...A popular demand would make Congress do something...
...This proposal should be known for what it is, the totalitarian conception of government, and opposed for what it is...
...Suppose, for instance, that Congress, under Article I, Section 8, Clause 5 of our Constitution, declared all Federal bonds to be debt-free currency...
...Max C. Otto Department of Philosophy University of Wisconsin Madison, Wis...
...You must hit harder and harder...
...As a result, in their mad desire to put into effect their militaristic compulsory universal training, they will be insisting that our boys be forced into military training for a longer period of time than one year...
...When our own Government as^ sumes an attitude of "Mama knows best" and adopts a policy that it alone shall determine what the people shall read or know about current events, then democracy begins to wither on the vine...
...Because coercion is death to democracy...
...The figures not being complete, suppose we estimate that, including Army, Navy, and Air, about 300,-000 were killed in the recent war...
...From what I have read and heard, by competent military men, this length of time is too short...
...But our principles that governments are instituted among men to provide for the general welfare and to protect the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have prohibited the permanent adoption of laws subordinating the rights of the individual to an inorganic state...
...In addition I wish to remind you that I consider the people of the Axis countries as necessary and important to the future peace and welfare of Europe as any other...
...S/Sgt...
...The President should look* up conscription in his dictionary, as its meaning seems to have slipped his mind...
...And who can imagine that the fortunate ones in scarcity — vulnerable though they are, also, to atomic bombs—would ever willingly shoulder the problems of peace and plenty in the "atomic age...
...If this is so, the fault probably lies in our educational system...
...Either alternative means the end of individual rights—a "one-world" slave state...
...O'Dwyer's election and Tammany Hall's return to power in this city as definitely a defeat for good government...
...On the other hand, the automobile, although it has been in active use for less than half a century, has killed approximately 1,000,000 men, women, and children...
...Surely, the Military Government authorities would be more willing to admit private relief groups (such as the Friends' Foreign Service Committee) or, as Mr...
...We will gladly go without one meal a day if only America can show now her spirit and heart by feeding those who starve and are cold...
...One thing is admitted by his political opponents: He gave the City of New Y^ork honest government...
...12): AMG is trying to change the minds and to transform the economic structure of a great nation, and it attempts this under a number of great handicaps...
...O'Dwyer for mayor...
...G. R. H. Drew Field, Fla...
...It has well been said, "As a man thinketh, so he is...
...Marshall also stated that the battle deaths in the American Revolution were 4,044, in the War of 1812 they were 1,877, in the Mexican War 1,721, in the Union side of the Civil War 110,070, in the Confederate side of the same war 74,-524, in the Spanish-American War 345, and in the first World War 50,-510—a total of 243,091...
...In the matter of wounds, war is a piker compared with the deadly auto...
...It's so different from those hackneyed, platitudinous articles on "winning" or "losing" the peace...
...Not even his political enemies could charge him of being merely a showman...
...My proposition is this: Withdraw immediately all the armed forces from Germany—let them work out their own salvation...
...Jack Hayes Indianapolis, Ind...
...Stirring Up Strife Dear Sirs: We do not approve of many of your articles...
...Wouldn't it be a fine thing if say The Progressive asked some of its learned contributors, like Mayer or Beard or somebody broad and tall like that, to make a study of the universal languages presently concocted and adopt one...
...Isn't there something the little man of America can do without using force and guns and bribes, and give his nation the great heart it pretends to have and brags of fighting for...
...America is rich...
...The creation of a "Department of Peace and Good Will" and the wholehearted support by our nation of the "abolition of conscription" (and armaments) should demonstrate to the world that we mean business and are not mumbling phrases when we "talk peace" in our time...
...Edwin D. Lundquist Boston, Mass...
...First and foremost we at home are responsible for the shortcomings of UNRRA and AMG...
...in your issue of Nov...
...George Gelder Oakland, Calif...
...We would save the lives of many thousands and gain the good will not only of the German people but of the whole world...
...Opposed not because it involves a huge expense, not because it is unnecessary to our military security, not because it interferes specifically with educational rights, but-simply because it is the tyrannical conception of political relations among men that places the state supreme over the free born rights of the individual...
...Only in this way can you drive it home to the people and to Congress that the reputation of this country throughout the world is at stake and that all sacrifices will have been made in vain unless we show now and with determination that we are not bent on turning back to an illusory "normalcy" that breeds disaster...
...Is there anything that a little preacher in a little town and pastor of a little congregation can do...
...The answer is too simple economically, and too revealing politically...
...In fact it is an admirable thing...
...As I read and studied the same a thought came to me which, I humbly submit, is worthy of serious consideration...
...Reimann suggests, at least in special cases to allow the sending of packages if the military authorities would feel that the people at home are gravely concerned with the starving people of Europe...
...The Communists as a determined minority should not be underrated for their part in the municipal campaign...
...It has more voters than many states in the Union...
...10 issue...
...Debt-laden hangovers from war and more of the same from the coming "peace" production...
...One of the most serious of them is "the sagging spirit of the troops," due to "American haste to declare the war over and revert to ways of peace before there is anything like peace anywhere...
...Two Fine Resolutions Dear Sirs: I do not believe that sufficient space has been given in the press to two measures recently introduced in the House by Rep...
...Fight it with all your might, as we don't need such a law in our country...
...The Army belittles the Navy while the Navy belittles the Army, and the Air Force laughs at and makes light of the other two...
...However, two wars within a generation have caused a totalitarian conception of government to gain both conscious and sub-conscious favor within the United States...
...A. Heinz Carlsbad, N. M. * * * Wilson's Income Dear Sirs: According to his income tax report made public by the Treasury Department, Charles E. Wilson, head of General Motors, took for himself from that corporation in 1943, $459,041.00...
...A positive passion for justice and freedom shines clearly from the pages of such articles...
...wants her to reach out and lift, and love, and help...
...While Judge Goldstein of the Republican Liberal and Fusion parties received Gov...
...Is There A Way...
...The Navy casualties, up to Aug...
...The most vivid change is the casual and workshop manner in which they now talk about killing...
...His acts were a part of his nature...
...Universal military training and conscription are as alike as two peas in a pod...
...We aren't doing it...
...The Deadly Auto Dear Sirs: In his biennial report to the War Department, Gen...
...Shall we remain silent, shirk our responsibilities and undo what American soldiers, a short time ago welcomed as liberators and as fighters for a constructive democracy, have done and what some of the best of them have died for...
...1, New York City will lose one of the most colorful mayors it has ever had...
...Now let us see what effect this military training has on men who are subjected to it...
...Isn't it feasible to suppose that a strong committee of churchmen and businessmen and newspapermen could make a trip to see the President with a plan for just the simple shipping of some food and clothing and coal for Germany...
...26 issue, is one of the best lead articles you have had in a long time...
...This is best manifested in our Constitutional Bill of Rights...
...Isn't there some way to reach those we elect...
...He was unpredic-able...
...One need not agree entirely with the matters appearing in your paper or with your editorial policy...
...Many of the returning soldiers are deeply upset by the seemingly complacent and self-centered attitude of the American public and by the unpardonable delay of the UNRRA appropriation in Congress...
...Shelley, the great English poet, puts it in a nutshell: "Man has no right to kill his brother...
...Conditions are so terrible that they should silence any thoughts about who is to blame for it, but it should make us ask ourselves: What can we do about it...
...Because, as a result of their respective environments, they cannot see, reason, or think anything other than their own branch of the fighting-forces...
...There were not only political but religious and social forces that played their part, to what extent is hard to say, but they were there...
...7, 1941, to July 30, 1945, were 201,367 killed, 570,783 wounded, 114,205 prisoners, and 56,867 missing...
...Your article some months ago on the Negro question finished us...
...National sovereignties, states' rights, and collective bargaining would involve discussion, not sanctions and blows...
...The possibilities in common sense are certainly fantastic...
...The charges of Judge Goldstein against O'Dwyer apparently had no effect on the voters' choice...
...Guenter Reimann deals with in the same issue of The Progressive is closely related to this question Many of us are deeply aware of the desperate plight of former anti-Nazis in Germany...
...In regard to U. S. participation in United Nations relief I feel as I think the great majority of us do: that we are sick and tired of seeing the American taxpayer's dollar tossed around by less concerned individuals and nations as if it grew like leaves on the tree...
...In this campaign were many forces at play that elected Mr...
...The Communists were disavowed by O'Dwyer publicly, but that did not prevent or discourage them from working like beavers to elect him...
...The League of Women Voters in all its different branches throughout the country has waged a determined campaign in this question as well as for the support of UNRRA...
...Germany's Plight Dear Sirs: The Christian Century of Nov...
...The politicians regard the outcome of the election as a sign of the political weather, indicating which way the popular wind is blowing...
...Imagine our present crop of economists trying to grapple with the problems of peaceful plenty...
...they are enough to stir up civil war and are caustic and highly critical of too many people...
...I can only see it being given consideration by the American people from the standpoint of national defense, and if we need over a million men in the Army, Navy, and Air Corps (which I do not believe we do), I think every effort should be made to obtain these men on a voluntary basis first...
...Lesley J. McNair said: "Our soldiers must have the fighting spirit...
...And I urge the auto workers unions to be the first to make this double demand, thereby demonstrating their social conscience...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM ¦ ¦ ¦ By Dodd Training For Murder Dear Sirs: Conscription has been abolished in both Japan and in Germany, yet President Truman and his advisers are determined to establish this iniquitous measure in our country...
...Unfortunately, political bureaucracy and power maneuvering, based upon scarcity economics, would cease, too...
...Maj...
...James L. Weygand Nappanee, Ind...
...Take care of your affairs and leave ours alone...
...What peace...
...Universal Language Dear Sirs: Wouldn't it be a fine thing if we human beings of the world could settle on a universal language—that we could learn in addition to .each of our own native tongues ? Then, each knowing but two languages, we could talk to anybody anywhere...
...This letter isn't written emotionally, but with cool common sense at what ts "necessary and vital...
...2, 1945, as reported by the Navy, were 51,588 killed, 72,855 wounded, 11,611 missing, and 3,756 prisoners...
...Agitators come down, stir up our happy colored people, making them dissatisfied and unrestful...
...Imagine, if you can, an influential economist who doesn't make two plus two add up to pages of convenient "statistics...
...All these writings from people who absolutely know nothing of the situation down here in the South where we live cause dreadful upsets...
...Or to protect men from infringement of their freedom by other men or groups of other men...
...or another war...
...How can we help...
...Such laws as we have adopted through Constitutional means were of the type to protect the freedom of the individual against coercion by the state...
...we must scheme and plan night and day to kill...
...I'm going to teach you how to kill with your bare hands...
...We must lust for battle...
...It was his Latin and energetic nature to dramatize things...
...Trevelyn E. White Washington, la...
...Our non-Christian papers say little or nothing about it, thereby hiding the truth from the American people...
...When I got ready to return to my old friends at the front I wondered if I would sense any change in them...
...This noon around the table spread with the goodness of His mercy w£-were brought to think of Germany...
...You must become tougher and tougher...
...The election in New York City was of nationwide interest as it always is...
...Ludlow of Indiana, namely the "abolition of conscription internationally," by Martin, and the establishment of a "Department of Peace and Good Will," by Ludlow...
...If you call that hating our enemies, then we must hate with every fiber of our being...
...Martin of Massachusetts and Rep...
...Congratulations...
...However, in spite of our friends, enemies, and our own shortcomings in Europe, and not disregarding the fact that the future looks mighty dark for both democracy and Christianity in the new "postwar" Europe I think we should (to ease our own conscience), at least do the sane and honest thing by making an effort to help the people of Europe this winter...
...A. E. Campbell Winfield, Tex...
...L. Scott presents the object of military training as follows: "We've got to teach these men to kill without compunction and if possible get a little fun out of it...
...All we need to do in order to stop it is to deny driving licenses to unsafe drivers, and withdraw those already issued...
...And I don't want you to forget that I think American financial aid and economic support for Europe and the rest of the world should stop by next Summer...
...And also by our educational guarantees, and criminal and traffic codes...
...Edwin J. Koch Flora, Ilk The Military Mind Dear Sirs: The article entitled "The Military's Drug for Democracy" by Robert M. La Follette Jr...
...An Anne O'Hare McCormick put it in an excellent analysis, (New York Times, Nov...
...The mellow, peaceful, human quality of those paragraphs seeps through the whole paper...
...Besides, I hope no one calls what we are doing in Java positive...
...Isn't there some way that we can impress upon those in authority how much the common American man does understand and how much he really wants to see his nation do the big thing now...
...We do not make ourselves heard...
...First it will be an additional six months or a year, and later an even longer period...
...That figured out at $38,253.43 per month 1,275.11 per day 53.12 per hour 8.85 per minute 1.47 >/2 per second For each time his watch ticked, day and night throughout the year he took from General Motors the sum of $1.47 >/2...
...It would be quite fruitless to attempt a post-mortem diagnosis of New York City's election...
...Imagine the effect upon our military bureaucracy if we were suddenly able to buy what we produce, and, with our credo of private property ownership, made peace with Russia's experimenting in debt-free public ownership...
...Against Conscription Dear Sirs: 1 like your magazine very much as it isn't afraid to tell the truth...
...A man of inexhaustible energy and determination, he always found himself in a fight...
...Pretty deep going, too, the undertones and overtones...
...There would be plenty of modern housing and all the rest of it...
...Let us create a broad current of public opinion which will help constantly to focus attention on our obligations with regard to relief and reconstruction abroad...
...I did, and definitely...
...The definition reads: "To conscript, to enroll by compulsion, for military service...
...9, is a veritable masterpiece...
...I like especially your stand on the conscription of the youth of the country...
...It will be appreciated if anyone having information about Indiana's pioneer poet will write me...
...For the peopleof our own nation...
...Every true American should protest before it is too late, and should write at once to his Senators and Representatives in Washington, instructing them to vote NO on the iniquitous and un-American May Bill...
...To do so in uniform makes it no less a crime...
...O'Dwyer failed to the last to answer...
...This, of course, would reduce the number of drivers by several million...
...There were charges and counter charges, Goldstein accusing O'Dwyer of having relations with some of the leading underworld characters, which Mr...
...Else Heymann's letter in the Nov...
...It would proportionately reduce the number of filling stations, auto salesmen, and auto workers...
...You must hate more and more...
...Petersburg, Fla...
...To them now there is nothing morally wrong about killing...
...That educators themselves now question it is perhaps a healthy sign...
...Just suppose we should balance costs of production with an equal amount of debt-free money in consumers' hands...
...Mayor LaGuardia tried to put life into the campaign, but the public showed little interest...
...Charles L. Lyons Charleston, S. C. * * * Too Pro-MacArthur Dear Sirs: You are doing a fine job in general, but you are too pro-MacArthur...
...He was despaired of even by his best friends...
...This is a killing game...
...Race and religious conflicts would stop...
...This dictatorial ideology is most apparent in the proposal that each male individual in the country when near his 18th year of life be placed under the power of the state for some sort of military training...
...My advice is: Get into the open, join hands with organizations like the League of Women voters which are fighting for the good cause, start mass meetings in cooperation with your church groups...
...I believe that more publicity should be given to these two resolutions and that your readers be urged to communicate their reactions to their Senators and Representatives...
...They think one thing, they see one thing, they advocate one thing, and they act one thing—namely militarism...
...Should we quit and accept defeat...
...JohnJVL Work Milwaukee, Wis...
...Philip Watson St...
...H. G. Wells would have to write another last will and testament...
...But anyone who wishes to be informed as to the truth of things will welcome a forthright presentation of matters of public concern...
...Gen...
...H. E. Tamms Milwaukee, Wis...
...I wish we could do something...
...For my part I would rather run the risk of building up a military clique in this country than I would to run the danger of wrecking the hopes, dreams', plans, and enthusiasm of over a million teen aged youths each year...
...Norbert S. Shapiro Lynbrook, N. Y. Pass The Progressive Along Share This Issue With Friends Beston's Quality Dear Sirs: What a fine addition you've made to The Progressive with Henry Beston's "Country Chronicle" in the Dec...
...His political pots were always boiling...
...Yet we are still making atomic bombs...
...Max Hentschke Redlands, Calif...
...Ernie Pyle, the famous war correspondent, thus writes of his experiences: "I was away from the front lines for a while this Spring...
...The trouble is, you can't go out and get that sort of thing at a store or pick it off a tree...
...O'Dwyer steered his campaign clear of all charges real and exti*aneous...
...The President claims that "universal military training is not conscription...
...People, as a general rule, act and think according to their environment...
...Death To Democracy Dear Sirs: American government has been the champion of the democratic ideology of political relationships between men...
...But why turn again to refuted economists for help...
...Why can't we now share and save another decade of hatred and animosity and finally war...
...It is the same problem through the whole of Europe...
...I'm going to teach you the toughest, dirtiest kind of fighting you have ever seen...
...To keep from throwing men and women out of employment I suggest that this measure be coupled with a demand for the democratic socialization of enough other industries to employ all who would otherwise be out of work on account of ceasing the traffic slaughter...
...George Marshall reported that the Army casualties from Dec...
...This is not true...
...Dear Sirs: Never has our family faced the Christmas season with so much agony and tears for the people of the world...
...Then promote it...
...Dr...
...14 tells of the horrible conditions now prevailing in Germany...
...It just doesn't make sense...
...He made use of them all to suit his political purposes...
...If the brass buttons, gold braid, and blare of trumpets are set aside, then military training is revealed for what it is...
...It doesn't make sense...
...And, if we recognized them, Mr...
...It has been said that man is not a logical animal, especially in his economic activities...
...Isn't there something...
...It is training for legalized murder, ordered and sanctioned by the state...
...Finley Material Wanted Dear Sirs: I am gathering the material for a biography of John Finley, the author of the poem, The Hoosiers Nest...
...Can anyone in good conscience claim that such an education is a fitting one to give boys of 17, or that it will make them good citizens...
...The result will be that in a comparatively short time these militarists will be insisting that the training time be increased so as to bring about the results they aim to attain...
...We now know that surplus from our insane economic system, based upon debt, means: either renewal of cut-throat competition, collapse of the price structure, and the end of all profits, private or public, from productive enterprise...
...It is refreshing, therefore, to be able to read at least one periodical having sufficient integrity and backbone to expose the sham and hypocrisy lurking behind the beautiful curtains of idealism...
...Our object in life must be to kill...
...And, whatever may be said of war, the auto killings and wound-ings are entirely unnecessary...
...They create for man an atmosphere out of which he can no more rise than though he be securely tied...
Vol. 9 • December 1945 • No. 50
