THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
. . . THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . Trial Of War Criminals Dear Sirs: The "war criminal" trial now on, along with a good many other evils of this last war, contains some rather distressing...
...while 10 other cities charged over $70, ranging up to $90 for the highest, which was Pawtuc-ket, R. I. Please remember .^Tacoma charged only $17.50...
...To begin with he says: "You have to be born...
...Because his own very limited training benefited him it does not necessarily follow that it would do likewise for all other men...
...And from the time he undertook it, the late 1890's, until the present, the country become embroiled in several wars, i. e., the Spanish War, the Philippine Insurrection, some Latin America^ forays, and two World Wars, and yet Mr...
...Then last, but far from least, I take The Progressive...
...On the contrary, our Government is ignoring the pleas of these latest victims of aggression, supplying the aggressor with arms and ammunition, and to top it off, is loaning billions to further British Brutalitar-ianism...
...the charity that has turned the sweetest word into the sourest word on our tongue...
...Shameful Practice Dear Sirs: The letter from a German pastor to the English bishop of Chichester, published in the Dec...
...French factories are idle, no power, no machines...
...I recall one of his alleged historical narratives in which he sent Dr...
...But what trouble do we take to see that the little human being has the right conditions in which to mature properly...
...I can't see anything particularly smart or pertinent about that remark...
...The starving and homeless must be helped and fed to prove the sincerity of our policy of good neighbor to all mankind—without any racial discriminations regardless of what the insane leaders of our former enemies may have driven their desperate subjects to have done...
...Killing does no good—it merely continues the same processes of those we have sought to kill...
...The figures I list throughout this comparison are for 1500 kilowatt hours of commercial current (business) at 12 kilowatt demand...
...love your enemies, but 95 per cent of them taught while we were fighting, and killing one another, that saint and sinner should join together, use the same weapons, all kill together, and all share equal in furnishing the light of the world...
...Reply To Pfc...
...While we church members prayed, give us this day our daily bread, our Progressive men were lifting up their voices like a trumpet against destroying it after it was already given...
...This perhaps is not commendable, but until the present day educational system can turn out students who can reason, without thinking in terms of books, and who can write the English language so that it can be read, or until it can turn out graduates who can make a living in a business, without having to resort to Government payrolls in order to live, I believe criticism of this kind comes with very ill grace...
...Evil is overcome by replacing it with good...
...Rodell, I should say, is in your "Who's Who" column, and apparently is a faculty member of the Yale Law School...
...Share This Issue With Friends Versailles, Second Edition Dear Sirs: A second and more drastic edition of the Versailles Treaty to drive the vanquished Have Nots to atomic despair is brewing...
...While they prayed, such men as Dr...
...Criticism is easy, performance difficult...
...Dennis Dear Sirs: £' Soldier Clark Dennis' letter, "A Soldier Replies,!' in the Nov...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM . . Trial Of War Criminals Dear Sirs: The "war criminal" trial now on, along with a good many other evils of this last war, contains some rather distressing aspects...
...The younger boy has been through the campaign in Germany, where he was wounded in action...
...I believe that Christ, the Prince of peace, came to our world, and became one of us for the purpose of lifting man to the highest civilization that is possible to be reached in any world...
...Men who want military training ought, of course, to benefit by it, but compulsory peacetime conscription is not merely for those who want it...
...There can be no "superiors," no "inferiors," no "uppers," and no "lowers" in the new world toward which we are moving...
...Just what makes Mr...
...The Allies are doing more to get Germany going again than for any other country...
...Once we were committed to this war, the issue then was to finish it with the least possible loss of lives, which, it would seem, the atom bomb did...
...The only consolation I get in these upheaving times, is to keep my mind on the movement...
...Napoleon, the Hitler of his time, was not killed and nobody suffered the worse for it...
...The value of articles that are offered for sale has always been considered a trade secret that did not concern the public, although it was the large general public that had produced all the articles and it was the same general public that gave value to the articles, for without buying power, the articles would become valueless...
...This 1500 kilowatt hours of commercial current costs only $17.50 in Tacoma, Washington, which has'a municipal plant, and the lowest rates in the nation...
...The question is, what is the value of the article that the purchaser buys and for which he pays...
...Hemisphere Hypocrisy," by Katherine Rodell, in The Progressive of Nov...
...From among the 204 cities of this nation which have a population of 50,000 or over, and this includes 24 low-rate public ownership cities, 57 of the remaining private ownership cities charged between $50 and $60 for this same kind and amount of commercial current...
...Just read the Pearl Harbor investigating record...
...Only on one thing can I agree...
...I believe that we have, as a family, done our share for our adopted country and feel qualified to raise our voice in protest of the seemingly endless torture and suffering visited upon German civilians, particularly women and children...
...He taught man to put away the sword, for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword...
...Every word of it is true...
...Four will be well-to-do...
...I don't like the spirit in which it is written (those poor Germans), but above all there are three gross untruths in it and The Progressive is supposed to tell the truth...
...Rideout "never had the privilege of serving in our armed forces...
...Thirty-five will have died, with dependent families in need...
...30 other cities charged between $60 and $65...
...Rideout believe that voluntary local service in the National Guard one night a week for four or five years is in any way comparable to a compulsory barracks existence far removed from home and family 24 hours a day for a year, to be followed by refresher periods of varying duration for a number of years thereafter...
...Every child knows that in most cases, the plant must have air, sunshine, and moisture besides the life-giving soil...
...while Chattanooga charges only $27.50 for this 1500 kilowatt hours...
...But when revenge, vindictiveness, and brutal emotions usurp the place of that kind of justice, we are merely laying the groundwork for more "war criminals...
...However, there is one final point I would like to make...
...Just before Pearl Harbor, according to evidence exposed by the Congressional investigating committee, the fleet was kept at Pearl Harbor against the judgment of the best minds in the Navy, and the Japs were handed an ultimatum which it was known beforehand they couldn't take...
...Trumpets Dear Sirs: I take three monthly papers...
...Frank Simpson San Diego, Calif...
...in condemning millions to a horrible death of freezing and starvation by refusing to open the channels of charity and mercy to those countries...
...Antoinette D. Lipson Lockport, N. Y, * * * Neuberger's Geography Dear Sirs: I suggest that you have Richard L. Neuberger remove his eyes from Mt...
...In the court of history we will stand forever condemned as contemptible hypocrites who prate about the Four Freedoms and other lofty ideals and then stoop to the lowest depth of savage revenge and to acts of ruthless barbarism unparalleled in history...
...I'll omit the "demand" from the comparisons, because it is just so much "Greek" to 99 per cent of current users, anyway, but will list the amount of current only...
...19 issue protesting Lindberg's letter in the Forum of Sept...
...He taught man by precept and example to love even our enemies, do good to all men, and recompense to no man evil for evil...
...But, if he doesn't reform, he may have his poet's license revoked...
...And all adults know that the plant must have room enough to mature without trespassing from other growths...
...Not what we give, but what we share, is charity...
...I am not personally acquainted with the said grandson, but—to say the least—it is difficult to follow the mental processes of the professor as set forth in his article...
...His was the charity that made the word- charity the sweetest of words of the needy, the strongest of words to the wisest and the wisest are those whose imagination endows them with the power to see through appearances the realities, through appearances of charity the reality, whether it be the spirit of charity or of vanity, the spirit that makes for peace in fellowship among men, or for war, in struggles for power over men...
...After serving 10 years in the legislature of my state and practicing law before many commissions and departments since that time, I am of the firm conviction that the most difficult problem confronting state and Federal functioning is the elimination of individuals in Government service who have never bad any practical training and whose sole concept of life is based upon so-called education received in the higher institutions of learning...
...If Politics, 45 Astor Place, New York 3, N. Y., is able to send packages to European families, why can't we as individuals do the same with the assurance that the proper parties will get them and get what they need most...
...We thank you for the wonderful articles which have appeared in The Progressive from time to time urging a sane, just, and humane treatment of our conquered enemies...
...Theirs was the land of music, song, and children's toys...
...Paul Brinkman, Jr...
...Visualize women, children, and the infirm exposed to the ravages of hunger and cold...
...Now let us take a glimpse at charges in the Eastern part of the United States, and a few cities in the central part of this nation, under private ownership of power...
...P. J. HlNZ Wood Lake, Minn...
...Louis, Mo...
...And while I give no credit to the ruling majority of leaders who have brought the world to its present state of destruction and ruin, I admit that "by their fruits" the world is to know them and eventually become free—free to grow naturally and in accordance with the universal plan...
...German factories are turning out goods with stolen machinery...
...So now, Mr...
...I read your magazine with considerable interest, but I sometimes wonder why your contributors do not more often present something along suggestive constructive lines, rather than lending themselves to wholesale criticism...
...I have heard Sloan speak on several occasions...
...Prices that have probably been satisfactory to both seller and buyer have beert agreed upon, but there is no necessary relation between price and value...
...Could there be penned by any critic of capitalism an indictment more damning than this insurance table establishes as a true economic condemnation...
...Einstein may alas be only too well founded—and whole cities and countries wiped out...
...Rideout's voluntary military training, limited though it was, did cost the taxpayer something...
...I don't remember his name as The Progressive went to the paper collection...
...I take a daily paper...
...When I hear fur-Coated women insist that we "kill" these "criminals" without trial or anything, I wonder whether that isn't precisely what Nazism did...
...The Germans did this to millions, and I don't mean thousands either...
...These parties cannot administer the functions of a department properly because, having no practical training they cannot properly understand the work of those whom they attempt to regulate...
...Portland, Ore...
...Why must this horrible destruction ©f human life continue...
...This mutilated world wants peace and must not be sown with the seeds of resentment and revenge again by partitioning of countries and people against man's holy right of self-determination...
...Actually, the Germans are the best dressed and best fed people in Europe...
...In fact, all of us are guilty through our indifference and apathy to the growth of Nazism under our very noses...
...So we cultivate, hoe, and see that the plant has the correct conditions within which to mature properly...
...S. T. Crawford Orange, Calif...
...3. The Allies are sending unwanted Germans in other countries to Germany, forcing them to leave everything behind, a thing unheard of in history, according to the author...
...If this is a sample of the reasoning which emanates from the so-called intellectuals, God help us...
...All the figures I shall use are taken from the Federal Power Commission current rate surveys, as of Jan...
...The world is now in a great battle for that very purpose—to reach a basis of justice wherein human beings may have the right to grow properly without trespassings from selfish, sprawling, crowding, glory-seeking, money-worshipping, bigoted, strutting people...
...These unfortunate souls are human, too, formed of the same clay, with identical emotions and desires as the rest of us...
...Owen T. Stratton Salmon, Idaho...
...They stole it all...
...Is this why we Americans fought...
...Rodell, or Prof...
...Or shall we resign ourselves to cowardly silence and wash our hands of it all, like Pontius Pilate, while the innocent and defenseless women and children die of slow starvation...
...My sister, who speaks English, is now located in the part of Germany under U. S. control and had the good fortune to contact American soldiers, who were kind enough to forward a letter from her to me...
...I wonder whether it isn't justice that is being destroyed rather than the criminals...
...His is the charity that makes the Christmas season the most cheerful of the year...
...26, takes first prize...
...But the big thing which Pfc...
...Justice, impartial and fair, alone can bring us success from this war...
...If that much vaunted civilization of ours means anything, immediate succor must be extended these human wrecks and while it's late, yes indeed very late, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people without hope may yet be saved from an agonizing, ghastly end by the simple expedient of reopening the mails...
...seven other cities charged between $65 and $78...
...Send A Gift Subscription Today Charity At Christmas Dear Sirs: The cheerful season is here, the most cheerful of the year...
...But he, who was the truthful teacher and beautiful embodiment of charity, despised not the needy, but so honored poverty over wealth that accepted the life of poverty sp that he might shave this life with the lowly, not give from great worldly possessions a mite to the needy, and pride himself on being charitable...
...3 issue of The Progressive, portraying present conditions in Germany, stirred me to the very depth of my soul...
...Nashville only $26.22...
...Hunt Diederich Tappan, N. Y. * * * Contrast Dear Sirs: Four years ago Japan set forth on its aggressive adventure into southeastern Asia...
...Give A Friend The Truth Send Him The Progressive Today Reply To Rideout Dear Sirs: 1 read W. L. Hideout's endorsement of peacetime conscription in the Nov...
...and in subjecting helpless women and girls to a treatment so bestial that the horrors of it cry to heaven to avenge outraged humanity...
...Bessie Rehwinkel St...
...Sloan speak I thought, and I still think, it was one of the best speeches I ever heard...
...And the professor makes the ridiculous assertion that Alfred P. Sloan, head of General Motors, made a bad speech, the worst the professor has ever heard anywhere...
...Thousands of our citizens have accumulated stacks of clothing and food for that purpose...
...they were a once respected part within the family of nations...
...Paul explained, I see through a glass darkly or in part only...
...Didn't the author ever hear of the many German-occupied areas, where the Germans took the last nail and the last blanket, not to mention the food and all the vehicles, the cattle and the furniture...
...And whether it would benefit those who don't want it is at least a moot question...
...If I affiliate myself with some group, some cult, one nation or any one part of it all, my perspective is clouded and I become a one-sided partisan of one part, and as St...
...the fellowship which is fulfillment of the promise which has sustained the sufferers from war and man's inhumanity to man through the centuries...
...Let the war criminals be punished in short and swift justice—but not brutal revenge, and with an eye open to betterment and improvement...
...If justice were truly enforced, we would indict many others in the guilt of having armed and supplied Nazism...
...Though we were cognizant of the despair of millions of aged, women, and children in central Europe, the ghastly details as described in that letter should move a heart of stone...
...Rideout's assertion that peacetime conscription would improve the general health and vocational training of the citizenry has been rebutted adhauseum so I won't waste space on it here...
...Leonard Miller Middleburg, N. Y. 'Those Poor Germans' Dear Sirs: This is an answer to a letter in The Progressive written by a German-American...
...Life age being 25 to 65 years, the average risk at 65 years for every 100 persons is as follows: Only one will be wealthy at 55...
...And true to His word, every nation that took part in this slaughterfeast lost more than a million innocent boys, fighting for the sins of older ones...
...The crux of his theme seems to be that because a man didn't make good marks in school, he is unfitted for business, and because another individual couldn't make a good speech, according to Rodell's standards, he likewise isn't a good executive...
...Offhand I can mention two countries, the Netherlands, (or Holland) and Belgium with more people per square mile...
...La Follette's able analysis of the proposal, I thought it might raise some points which would cause me to change my mind...
...A just and fair trial is an excellent bit of progress in international affairs, but it can be a step backwards when malice and spleen override our duty and task of removing the underlying causes of war...
...Fifty-five will be dependent upon friends, or relatives, or charity...
...Because of my efforts in behalf of the automobile dealers while in the Wisconsin State Senate, in attempting to correct some of the abuses in the industry, which were reflected upon the .public generally, I became acquainted with a number of leading automobile industrialists, among whom was Alfred P. Sloan...
...Baxter," meaning that he too was not above the possibilities of evil...
...their homes so dear to them reduced to heaps of rubble and dust, none or inadequate medical facilities, and their husbands, fathers, and brothers still prisoners of war and in many cases doing slave labor in distant lands...
...15 issue the names of prominent contributors, among whom appears in this issue, Fred Rodell, author of an article, "How To Become A Tycoon...
...Holmes, Mayer, Meyer and Vil-lard were busy trying to bring the kingdom of Satan to desolation...
...From the viewpoint of our military defense it was apparently a costly waste of time, and I have as yet seen no explanation of why permanent peacetime conscription should be of any greater military value...
...Why, then, should millions of innocent people be condemned to slow starvation, exposed to the merciless cold in improvised shelters, physically and mentally tortured beyond our imagination, and all that six months after hostilities ceased...
...William Herman Chicago, 111...
...The economic estimates are based on experience statistics...
...Let us hope that in the time to come, we begin more and more to rely upon the sound judgment of men who have made a success of the enterprise they tackle and less upon the faulty reasoning of Rodells...
...The ignorance of the buyers regarding values and quality of the articles they buy has enabled many manufacturers and merchants to take advantage of that ignorance to misrepresent the quality of their goods or to charge exorbitant prices...
...The professor begins his attack on private industry by stating in a sort of derogatory manner certain things which I presume are intended to reflect upon the business ability of the grandson of Henry Ford...
...Almost immediately our Government voiced its disapproval, set up an embargo, and froze Japan's assets...
...The Professors Dear Sirs: I would like to offer a little criticism of The Progressive...
...Pass The Progressive Along It's American, Alert, Accurate Food Packages For Europe Dear Sirs: Referring to the appeal for food packages to Europe in The Progressive of Nov...
...For instance, Knoxville, Tenn., charges only $22.80...
...1, 1945, the very latest arvailable...
...It is the season in which charity 5s the charity that the founder of this festival, taught, lived — and died for, the charity which degrades no one who receives it, but blesses both him who gives, and him who receives, the charity, which is the bond ©f fellowship, in which man is friend cf man, nation good neighbor to nation...
...It has been asked by every careful housewife and by every professional buyer for business concerns...
...I take a religious paper...
...What we give, may be the vanity, which is mistaken for charity by those whose pride in wealth is contempt for poverty, whose contribution to "charity" do not speak of loving fellowship with the needy, but of contemptuous condescension toward them...
...Frank D. Slocum New York, N. Y. * * * Protest Against Inhumanity Dear Sirs: We are seriously disturbed and are mortified by the inexcusable acts of inhumanity committed against the people of the occupied countries of Europe by the victorious Allies in forcing millions from their ancient ancestral homes, and that in the face of a cruel Winter...
...Is our Government voicing its disapproval, setting up an embargo, or freezing England's assets...
...I am a German-born American citizen, both of my sons are in service and still overseas...
...Power Rate Contrast Dear Sirs: It should be of interest to readers of The Progressive to know just how much lower light and power rates really are under public ownership, and so I want to cite the limited number of comparisons that space will permit...
...As the messenger covered the same distance and Pegasus was unavailable, it's a good bet when they arrived at the bedside, the new arrival had left for school...
...he is the possessor of the Purple Heart...
...Herman W. Nicolaus Milwaukee, Wis...
...therefore, my opinion in this.matter should be entitled to some weight...
...3, displays so much ignorance of what is best for the common man like himself and of who is for the common man, that I am moved to make a protest in behalf of men like Lindberg and a paper like The Progressive, who dare to speak up for truth and right...
...For there is no doubt that these unfortunate masses had still less voice in matters of peace and war than our own boys, that were also driven to war by the great promoters...
...You go to school, where you play mediocre football and get rotten marks...
...If the author feels sorry for some of his close relatives in Germany that is his own business, but don't let him try and tell people that "those poor Germans" are worse off than everybody else...
...The auto union demands to know not alone the price but also the value of the article...
...In the name of humanity and ordinary common decency let us put a stop to it...
...This attitude by the company poses the question, has GM autocratic power and can it declare, as did Louis XIV, I am the State...
...They have a sufficiency of potatoes, but not an ounce of fats to prepare a nutritious meal...
...Then he infers that because of this, American enterprise is in bad hands...
...It is only slightly higher in the public ownership Tennessee Valley Authority cities...
...Thus the old Englishman, Baxter, was right when, once seeing a criminal being taken to his execution, he said: "There but for the grace of God goes Mr...
...However, it only confirmed me in my opposition...
...Of what benefit, therefore, was Mr...
...According to my sister the food allowance per month, per person, is pitiful to say the least...
...He taught us to pray for all those in authority that we might lead a quiet, and a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty...
...So Europe is kept hermetically closed against man's most holy wish to help his unfortunate and misled fellow man...
...5 So I like to give credit to every person who is doing anything at all to help the movement along...
...Thousands are dying daily from hunger and exposure while millions are farmed out as slave laborers...
...Five will be working with the prospects of relief from drudgery...
...This is not true...
...Norman Nygaard Flaxton, N. Dak...
...J. C. Unger Seattle, Wash...
...Hood long enough to study a little geography and computation of distances before writing any more sob stories...
...S. M. CUTHBERTSON Palo Alto, Calif...
...In addition, what makes Mr...
...2. The Allies are robbing poor Germany of everything it has...
...Mart A. Black Omaha, Neb...
...We go to all this trouble to see that plants grow because we simply have to eat the life-preserving foods...
...True, our Sunday school lessons now are on love your neighbor as yourself...
...A switchback from the Bitter Root Mountains to Deer Lodge, Mont., is too long...
...26 Forum very carefully, for coming, as it did, right on the heels of Sen...
...Dennis either ignores or does not under, stand is that a few men here in America and in England kept Germany strong to make war and helped put Hitler into power and likewise helped Japan so she could wage war...
...Marcus Whitman and his good wife, 200 miles on an obstetrical case on horseback...
...Not in history since 1939...
...Their institutions of learning, cities, poetry, music and art were an enviable asset and mankind has benefited from their scientific discoveries...
...The older son, an officer, has been in the South Pacific for the last 18 months...
...His is the charity that is life, more abundantly for all, that is peace, more enduringly for all...
...The General Motors Corporation stoutly defends this old idea and declares that the people who buy its products have no right to know their value...
...Rideout believe that, in the case of peacetime conscription, one man's meat may not be another's poison...
...The Right To Grow Dear Sirs: When we plant a seed, bulb, or set a sprout of any kind in the soil, we then intelligently arrange the proper conditions for the plant to grow...
...Now don't take my word for the above...
...I notice you carried on the front page of the Oct...
...The season in which charity brings Christmas cheer to every sad and weary heart, the charity, which speaks of fellowship with them, the fellowship that is the need of everyone and makes humanity one...
...1. That Germany was the most densely populated country in Europe...
...Partiality, prejudice, self-vindication, and exculpation—blaming everything to one side only—is but an additional evil...
...When I heard Mr...
...I esteem the Bible above all literature...
...Indictment Dear Sirs: The National City Bank, the largest bank in the United States, issues a Life Insurance Table...
...I think that I have heard my share of speeches, having campaigned many times and served in the legislature for 10 years...
...The warnings and predictions of such great men of science as Prof...
...GM And Louis XIV Dear Sirs: The striking auto workers have raised a question for which the American people will demand a full answer...
...He said, all men shall know who My disciples are by the way they act toward their fellowmen...
...Dennis, if you feel like jumping on someone with both feet, let me suggest the professional war mongers, and you will know who they are if you will use a little discernment—something you apparently have failed to do so far...
...The figures therein cover the entire American Continent...
...Today England is engaged in a similar venture...
...Rideout's peacetime military training to the nation's military establishment in its time of need...
...His was not the charity that puff-eth up the giver with worship of himself, but deflates the receiver of all respect for himself...
...It is not a new question...
...the promise of peace on earth, good will among men...
...Such, my dear fellow citizens, is a picture of so many German families and homes...
...Write your Representatives, editors, friends, and clergy that we want peace and good will to all men, and be allowed to write, help, and send them consolation before it is too late...
...26, I have one brother and three sisters, natives of Poland, but of German ancestry, residing in Germany, who, with the Russian advance upon Poland, were forced to flee into Germany...
...Daniel M. Kelly Brooklyn, N. Y. * * * First Prize Dear Sirs: The article...
...Months have passed since our erstwhile enemies laid down their arms and they have been helpless at the mercy of their conquerors...
...So the Bible itself is above all literature, but I must say that I believe that most of the writers in The Progressive lift man to a higher civilization than most of our modern Bible teachers...
...G. Erle Ingram Eau Claire, Wis...
Vol. 9 • December 1945 • No. 51
