THE EDITOR RESERVES THE LAST COLUMN
The Editor Reserves ... The Last Column AS I write this, The Progressive's annual campaign for Christmas gift subscriptions is drawing to a close. The results are by all odds the best in our...
...Thus, the company would still have only light losses if the strike had been called in 1946, as some sideline strategists urged...
...The letter, signed by noted educators, clergymen, and publicists, concludes with this sentence : "None of us who signed this letter is a pacifist...
...WALTER REUTHER and his fellow-strategists in charge of the United Automobile Workers' strike against General Motors have been criticized, among other things, for calling the strike during the 1945 tax year when GM stands to lose little from a shutdown...
...New subscriptions are pouring in from every state in the Union and from Army and Navy stations around the world...
...A campaign embodying this plea has been organized by the American Civil Liberties Union with the aid of a group of distinguished Americans...
...It is a richly rewarding experience to sit where we do and see thousands of progressive Americans responding so generously to a cause they believe in...
...Arriving at Saipan July 17, the John Martin Miller remained at anchor until July 25, when she was dispatched to Tinian...
...Mead explained, it was discovered she should have been sent to Tinian in the Central Pacific...
...James E. Mead, New York Democrat, and his colleagues furious, dealt with the odyssey of the John Martin Miller...
...On Aug...
...After five days she was sent to Okinawa, arriving Sept...
...31 she was back at Saipan, where there was no need of her cargo...
...M.H.R...
...The Senate's Mead Investigating Committee (formerly the Truman Committee) wrung the admission from gold-braided officials last week that 190 ships are idle in the Pacific...
...The results are by all odds the best in our history...
...She then proceeded to Bantangas in the Philippines, where port authorities said they had no use for her cargo and "did not know why the ship was there...
...There it took 25 days to discharge less than 1,500 tons of a 7,700-ton cargo...
...We have been called some pretty harsh names because we refused to park our convictions for the duration...
...11 and remaining 26 days...
...We supported the Government loyally in the war, and in so doing supported American democracy, which recognizes the claims of conscience and fair treatment for this small minority...
...On arriving at Panama June 12, orders were issued to sail to Eniwetok atoll, where she arrived July 11...
...One revelation, typical of many which made Sen...
...But never through the last five years of tumult and upheaval has there been any wavering on the part of you men and women everywhere in America who are not only readers of The Progressive, but toilers in the vineyard...
...Thus, seven months or so at sea with a cargo that nobody needed, or wanted, or had been told about...
...Upon arrival there, it was found she was not expected and after four days' delay, she was dispatched to Saipan...
...Were this all, the criticism might be valid...
...15 for Europe...
...The log of the John Martin Miller, according to the evidence placed before the Committee, is different only in degree from that of some 240 other vessels which were sent ®ut on incredible missions by land-locked admirals...
...A recent issue of Business Week, hard-boiled publication of the business world, throws revealing light on this phase of the situation...
...We have made mistakes...
...In a joint letter, they informed the President that "the number of men now in prison is seven times the number in World War I and reflects the inadequacies of our provisions for conscientious objectors...
...This ship left Baltimore last Apr...
...Business Week points out that GM profits in the early months of 1945 were easily big enough to throw it into the excess-profits tax bracket...
...Thus, its last quarter profits would be subject to an 85.5 per cent tax...
...This disclosure was only one of a number of fantastic stories of waste and inefficiency and downright bungling on the part of generals and admirals turned up by the Committee...
...The European war ended while she was at sea, and she was re-routed to Charleston, S. C, arriving there June 3. After three days of delay, Sen...
...But Business Week, certainly no friend of the UAW, goes on to point out that as a result of the "carry-back" provisions of wartime tax laws, a company is entitled to rebates on previous excess profits taxes paid if earnings fall below the average of 1936 to 1939...
...By closing as a result of the strike, its actual loss was only 14.5 cents on the dollar...
...We have had our ups and downs...
...MANY GI's stranded around the world, and their families and friends, have been told that their plight was the result of "lack of shipping...
...We have been threatened with all manner of reprisals if we "didn't go along" on this or that...
...We have had our share of rocky weather...
...PRESIDENT TRUMAN could perform no better act of Christian amnesty at Christmastime than to pardon the 3,000 conscientious objectors still in Federal prisons...
...All the staff—as fine and loyal a band as ever served any cause—join with me in wishing you "old-timers" the best of Holiday greetings and in extending a hand of cordial greeting to you who are reading the first issue of your gift subscription...
Vol. 9 • December 1945 • No. 51
