Eleanor Roosevelt: My Day (1947)

181

July 30, 1947

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, N.B., Tuesday – In reading quotations from Russian papers in our papers, I find that, in the way they express their attitude against the United States, they strangely resemble some of our papers in their attitude against Russia. The difference, of course, is that the Russian papers are government-controlled and therefore supposedly represent the government point of view, whereas our papers, thank goodness, represent only the point of view of their owners and editors. Undoubtedly they also represent the thinking of a considerable group of people, since they have large circulations, but it is not the official point of view.

The readers of our newspapers sometimes do not read the news at all, and when they do, they sometimes do not believe what they read. I once asked a man why he read a certain New York City paper, when he was expressing to me such completely different political views from those held by the paper. He looked at me and said: “The sports sheet is good and that is the only page I really read, except perhaps some of the comic strips. They have some of the best in this paper.” That remark was illuminating.

The Russian people are at a great disadvantage, of course, because they have only the government-controlled papers to read. They have only government-controlled radio. And so, if they want to be independent-thinking citizens, there is really very little hope of getting any point of view except the one the Government wishes them to have.

I am a little mystified by one item which I saw recently – that the four Austrian Communist deputies in the National Assembly in Vienna have been informed by Stalin that the Austrian war prisoners will all be returned by the end of this year. It was my understanding that all the great powers had agreed that all war prisoners should be returned home within a year, so this piece of news seems a little odd.

It is particularly hard on the families of war prisoners who have been taken into the USSR, because no news seems to come from them to the people in other countries. Those families wait for the return of both civilians and soldiers with great anxiety, since they will not know until that return has finally come about whether the people for whom they wait have died or are to be back in their own homes eventually.

182

July 31, 1947

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, N.B., Wednesday – I have received a letter from a Gold Star mother, a member of a group who are worried by the threat of a third world war. She asks me if I could not make an appeal to the women of the USSR and of the Balkan states to join together with the women of the United States in refusing ever to permit another war.

She states, “It would seem to us that even the strength of the United States is not enough to make the men and women of other nations know we are not imperialistic or anxious for territory.”

She says she knows that my husband died before the war ended and that I must therefore be anxious to see his desire for world peace carried through, but that “losing a son is ten times worse, as we Gold Star mothers know. They went from us in the full glory of manhood. Ours was a college graduate, through sacrifice. Our country sent us a cold official telegram instead of our beloved son, and now I guess our Government thinks we should be made to face another war, God forbid. The sun can never shine for us again if this is true.”

She adds that there must be many women in the USSR, in Yugoslavia, and in the other Balkan countries, who must feel as she does. She thinks that Gold Star mothers should be represented in the United Nations, as she is sure they could find ways of settling international problems. It is senseless, she says, to go on fighting when, in the end, questions have to be settled around the table.

All that she says is true. There have been organizations before and there will be organizations again, formed among women in this country for the purposes she has in mind. But I wonder how such organizations would be looked upon in the other countries she mentions. I wonder how much freedom of speech the women of these other nations would have. How much opportunity would they have for communication with women elsewhere, and how much participation in the councils of their governments could they count on? The women here have freedom to organize, freedom to speak, and freedom to communicate with other women anywhere, but they have very little influence on their own government.

My correspondent is quite right – no one wins a war today, and when the fighting is over, the questions that have to be settled around the table might have been settled just as well before the war. The trouble is that, at present, it seems slightly difficult to get even the people in the United Nations to find solutions when they are gathered around a table. Something is accomplished by their being gathered together, but I can see quite well why this Gold Star mother says that the U.N. is not accomplishing enough alone.

I am very much afraid, however, that it is not within the power of the women of the world to get together nor to exert their influence over their respective governments. I wonder how this could be changed. Perhaps the answer in our country is more women willing to accept office and more women elected and appointed to office.

183

August 1, 1947

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, N.B., Thursday – As my readers already know, I am not very fond of comic books but, having children and grandchildren, I recognize that these books are very widely read and have a tremendous influence. I have just been sent a newcomer in this field, “All Negro Comics.” The publisher is Orrin C. Evans, formerly a reporter and editor in the Negro newspaper field. I must say that, as I glanced through the pages of this newcomer, I felt that it compared very favorably with the best of the comic books. In some features it is really better.

Of course, these comics have a purpose – the better understanding of Negro life and history – and they will undoubtedly show the best side of the Negro. We can well afford to do that, it seems to me. There are so many people doing just the opposite.

It is curious that, on the same day I received the copy of All Negro Comics, I also received a letter telling me about the 10th anniversary of Greenbelt, Maryland. The two deal with two of our most important domestic problems – the first with better racial understanding, and the second with better housing for all.

On August 2, there will be an anniversary festival in the town of Greenbelt, which is probably the oldest of the planned communities started during the depression and is situated near Washington, D.C. The town itself and Greenbelt Consumer Services, Inc., which is the local consumer cooperative, are sponsoring the festival. They have planned quite a day – a parade, sports events, fire-truck and rescue squad demonstrations, outdoor movies and a dance.

Greenbelt takes its name from the fact that it has a protective “greenbelt” of parks, farms and forests around it. It was initiated by the Resettlement Administration as a model suburban development. Since 1942, it has been under the jurisdiction of the Federal Public Housing Authority.

The town has a city-manager type of government, with a town council of five members selected every two years. The council appoints the town manager, who is responsible to them for the administration of the government, including the departments of public safety, sanitation and recreation.

At the same time that this community was founded, two simpler developments were started – Greenhills, near Cincinnati, Ohio, and Greendale, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I speak of them because I think that anyone who is able to visit these towns should do so, and should carefully consider their planning and the consumer activities. They have had troubles, of course, through the years but, by and large, I think they have proved very successful. And in the situation in which we find ourselves today, anything the public can learn about housing is valuable.

184

August 2, 1947

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, N.B., Friday – I have been reading to my grandchildren “Ensign Russell” by David Gray, a book which is now out of print. It is a collection of short stories which Mr. Gray wrote many years ago after he had been a guest of a U.S. naval squadron in the Pacific.

At that time, we had recently taken over the Philippines, and insurrection was going on in parts of the islands. And as usual in this country, there were members of Congress insisting that the Administration’s policy was wrong. They had to find out whether the Navy was living in ease and luxury in the Philippines and whether it was maltreating the Filipinos. And so some of these gentlemen went on investigating trips.

One of Mr. Gray’s stories deals with the Hon. Simeon Spicer and his secretary-reporter, Mr. Deming, who undertake to do a personal investigation. They are, of course, fictitious characters. But if anyone can find a copy of this book, written long ago, I would urge them to read it for present-day amusement.

The difference in point of view which training in one of the services gives you, and which a businessman turned lawmaker may have hasn’t changed very much in thirty years. When I read the other day that a Congressional committee of nineteen, dividing itself into subcommittees, was starting out to tour Europe, the Near East and perhaps Asia, Mr. Gray’s story, so fresh in my mind, made me chuckle.

I was glad to see that, in each of these Congressional groups, an effort will be made to have constantly on hand at least one member who speaks the language of whatever country they are visiting. It requires, however, a little more than a knowledge of the language to make these trips valuable. You really should know the history of the country. You should have been there many times over a period of years so as to have a comparative view of the changes which have occurred in the conditions under which the people live.

If we could find members of the House or the Senate so equipped to go on every trip, one would feel that they would return with a great contribution to offer in the field of foreign affairs. But if only one man in a group is able to talk the language of the country to be visited, and if there is no prescribed preparation, I can’t say that I am very hopeful of having light thrown upon complicated situations.

Every time any of us gets out of our home groove, I suppose we learn something. And undoubtedly, the fact that members of Congress are visiting other countries, looking with a critical eye at the results attained by those countries with our help, will jack up the efforts being made. Even our own officials abroad should welcome intelligent visitors anxious to make helpful suggestions. But it does not seem sure that these investigating trips will produce a true evaluation of conditions. Instead, we may find ourselves with some very conflicting or misleading reports.

185

August 4, 1947

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, N.B., Sunday – I have come to the conclusion that the Soviets have decided that if things can be made disagreeable enough for the United States in Europe, and if complications in the Security Council can be made to seem insoluble, then perhaps they can succeed in creating a home situation in this country which will force our government to abandon all interest in Europe. Once this has been accomplished, it is easy to see that they feel sure they can, in one way or another, control the whole of Europe.

The only obstacle to that desired objective which they can see today is the interest of the United States. They count on the people of this country finally saying: “The situation over there is a headache. Let them get out of it as best they can. If they can trade with us, well and good. If not, we’ll try to find other markets.”

I do not think our people are going to behave that way. But it is easy to understand why the Soviets might believe that, if they delayed long enough and were irritating enough, they could force our people back into an isolationist attitude. They might reason that because of our desire for peace – and because of the fact that the financial burden entailed in helping Europe back onto its feet is a heavy one to carry unless we see results rather quickly – we will get tired of it all.

Because of things which have been said in our papers and in our Congress, the Soviets undoubtedly believe that the Marshall plan will never get from our people the support which would be required to make it work. In addition, they feel that our policy of helping only such countries as are not avowedly under Communist influence has divided Europe already.

I believe, of course, that our help should be purely on a basis of need. Nevertheless, at the present time, I can see what has brought about our attitude, and I think only the USSR can remedy it. If anything, she needs us more than we need her, though I think we both need each other in many ways; and I wish we could sit down around the table and argue out our differences frankly instead of continuing to provoke each other by increasingly hostile actions.

Reading in the New York papers of the recent heat wave, I realize how grateful we should be for the cool of this island. We have had considerable fog, but even on the gray days there is something exhilarating about the climate. The last two days have been bright and sunny, and on Friday we picnicked on the other side of the island, where we could see clear out to sea without a sign of fog. We miss one thing this summer, however. So far the sun seems to have made up its mind to go down every night in one solid red ball. The sunsets are simply a broad path of red light across the water, and we have not had a single one of those gorgeous, multicolored skies such as I count on having when the evenings are clear.

186

August 5, 1947

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, N.B., Monday – A year ago, at the dedication of a monument to my husband in front of the little library at Welchpool on this island, John Calder, the president of the Board of Trade, said that every year the people of Campobello Island would hold a memorial service at the monument. This year’s service was held last Saturday morning.

With four very well-scrubbed children, Miss Thompson and I went down with the rest of our household. Some of the summer people and many of the island people were there. The service was conducted by the Church of England minister, Rev. Norman Fairweather, and the pastor of the Baptist Church in Wilson’s Beach, the other village on this island, and an American minister from Salem, Mass., who is staying here. The hymns were sung by a choir from Wilson’s Beach. The blue sky overhead and the fresh breeze made all of us think how much such a day would have meant to the man we were commemorating if he had been sailing his boat in these waters.

Afterwards, the ladies of the church served a very nice lunch in the parish hall, and as many of us attended as could possibly squeeze into the hall. I was asked to talk about the United Nations since it was one of my husband’s greatest interests, and I was glad of the opportunity to do so.

The memorial tablet is a particularly nice one and stresses the fact that my husband, like his mother, always called this island “beloved island.”

Our land here is covered with blueberries just beginning to ripen. And under the little blueberry bushes, there is a carpet of cranberries. They are a little more tart than the cranberries farther south, but very good nevertheless. As yet, however, they are not ready for picking.

The blueberries can be picked if you are careful to take only the ripe ones, and the children and I went out to get enough for a pie on Saturday. We succeeded but, with a sigh, my 5-year-old grandson said: “It takes a lot of trouble to get good things to eat, doesn’t it?” He wandered away from us, quite clearly having decided that the trouble was going to be ours and not his.

Yesterday we went for a long walk in the pine woods, gathering sweet pine for pillows which will smell sweet all through the year, when we are far away from the fragrant woods themselves. Sad to say, Fala got himself entangled with a little black and white animal and returned so smelly that we had to give him a bath and cover him with the contents of my cologne bottle. Even now, I don’t know whether we can let him in the house.

187

August 6, 1947

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, N.B., Tuesday – This is such a remote spot that we get no Sunday papers, and the radio is extremely difficult because, having no electricity, we have to have a battery radio and getting any program clearly is practically impossible. So one has time to think quite objectively about many of the world problems that surround us today.

Among a variety of other things, I have just read the lead article in Harper’s Magazine for August – “Negotiating with the Russians,” by James B. Reston. I think Mr. Reston has done a very interesting piece of work.

I wish the USSR would note these words: “To begin with, the United States and the USSR differ on the very nature and purpose of intergovernmental negotiations. The process of negotiation lies at the very heart of our national lives in this country. We negotiate with each other on almost everything: workers negotiate with their employers; employers negotiate with each other; industries negotiate with agencies of the government; the legislature negotiates with the executive; the executive ‘negotiates’ with the people every four years, etc., etc.”

Our negotiation, however, has to arrive at some results. In some of it, between employer and employee, when they get nowhere there is a strike and then more negotiation. I think it is possible to take this as an example of intergovernmental proceedings because, after a strike, no matter what is accomplished through negotiation, neither side is really as well off as they would have been if the first negotiation had been successful.

Between nations, we now have machinery in the United Nations for negotiation. If those negotiations break down, we have a war. And by now we ought to know that it is to everybody’s interest not to have war, since no one really wins a modern war. In the past, the conqueror could plunder, and there was something left to plunder. Nowadays a defeated nation has very little left, and even when you take all the assets you can lay your hands on, the final result seems to be that the victorious nations still have to keep the conquered nations alive and rehabilitate them.

It seems to me, therefore, that the sooner the USSR learns that negotiation means give and take on both sides, the more stable the U.N. will become and the better prospects we all will have of being able to continue to live on this planet.

We ended the last war proud of our allies, anxious to find a way to live together in peace. I do not think that we have any corner on wisdom or unselfishness but, by and large, we are a generous nation. We want to live well but we are quite willing that the rest of the world should live well too.

If the USSR is not careful, she will destroy the United Nations, and will send them and ourselves back to isolation. Today is not yesterday, and if this should happen, no one can foretell the results.

188

August 7, 1947

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, N.B., Wednesday – We can chalk up one hopeful sign in the fact that the Dutch and the Indonesians accepted the United Nations Security Council’s “cease firing” suggestion. It may be that nothing very effectual will result and certainly the next steps must be rapid and decisive, but one is glad to see the United Nations actually moving in on a situation of this kind and making a successful start.

There was an article by Lester Markel in the New York Times Sunday Magazine which I found extraordinarily interesting. Mr. Markel recently returned from an extensive trip through Western Europe. The article is interesting not so much because of his surveys there, since many people have noted the same things, but because he is so frank about the Washington atmosphere.

Many wise politicians in the past have said that New York and Washington never know what the rest of the country is thinking and so the politicians are right to go home, get in touch with their home people and get the feel of the country. What troubles me, however, is that members of Congress and other political leaders seem not to realize that they go home for a twofold purpose. First, to find out what people are thinking, and next, to enlighten them if they have not heard or understood all the facts.

No politician can be too far ahead of his followers, but he is responsible for the progress of his followers and for their full understanding of questions which he has had an opportunity to study in a way which is not open to every citizen. A Congressman is a moulder of public opinion as well as a representative of opinion, and when he goes home is the time when he can mould public opinion.

I was interested that Mr. Markel also noted that, because of our concern over Russia, we might find it easy to rebuild an industrial Germany through the Marshall Plan, but that the democratization of the German people was far from easy and far from sure. To rebuild Germany as an industrial empire capable of making war will be opposed, I think, by France and every small Western European nation.

It is quite evident that the USSR has decided she needs the things Germany can produce, and that she hopes that, with her usual methods of infiltration, she may control the labor unions and build a strong communist influence in German government. Therefore, she is taking a chance on building up German industrial strength. Germany and the USSR together could be a strong combination. But the USSR must realize that this is building two worlds very rapidly.

Mr. Markel says three worlds already exist – the capitalist, the socialist and the communist. The capitalists are slow to help the socialists, but if the USSR, with Germany’s past history before her, helps to rebuild a strong industrial Germany, she will do much to bring the capitalist and socialist systems together.

189

August 8, 1947

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, N.B., Thursday – I was sorry to see it stated the other day that in all probability there would be no special session of Congress in the autumn to consider more carefully the implementation of the Marshall Plan, and to give some reassurance to Europe that the plan is not just a dream but a reality in which the people of our country, through their representatives, are really showing an interest. However, an unprecedented number of Congressmen will be travelling in Europe from now on, and every citizen hopes, I am sure, that they will gain real knowledge from their trips.

One of the things I noted in a statement made by Assistant Secretary of State William Benton struck me as worthy of serious thought by the country as a whole. He said he was confident that the members of Congress who travel abroad this year will observe the effect on other countries of the false information given out about the United States by our detractors, or lack of any information about us at all. This, of course, is something which strikes every person who receives letters from Europe or has any connection with Europe or the foreign world in general.

In this same statement, Mr. Benton seemed optimistic as to the results which can be obtained with the reduced appropriation for the State Department’s information program. Certainly we need to tell the world more about ourselves and not less. The USSR has not joined UNESCO, and so will gain very little knowledge of us from that organization’s activities. And one can only hope that the plan for the exchange students and professors may actually materialize between the USSR and ourselves.

I am glad that Congress did not cut too drastically the appropriations for the interdepartmental committee on scientific and cultural cooperation with Latin America. It seems to be accepted on the military level that cooperation is to be pushed between our country and the countries of South and Central America, and that a coordinated program of defense is to be worked out. If that is so, then it seems to me all the more important that we should push our other contacts, since military contacts alone do not create better understanding among the peoples concerned.

And now for a little lighter note. If any of you are lucky enough to be in a part of the world where blueberries grow wild, you must now be enjoying that faint blue color that indicates a carpet of blueberries buried among green leaves. Even if you do not like to eat them, I recommend that you pick them for your family. It is extremely good exercise for the waistline. And just as my aunt, Mrs. Douglas Robinson, wrote that one of the values of the old-fashioned tin bathtubs was that “they washed their guests in sections which caused most graceful genuflections,” so I recommend blueberry picking for the same reason!

190

August 9, 1947

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, N.B., Friday – I have a deep interest in aviation and believe that, in the future, it is going to play a great part in the development of world trade as well as passenger travel. I am much more interested in trying to use the knowledge we obtained during the war, by expenditures of great sums of money, to forward the peacetime uses of aviation than I am in a political investigation.

Many experiments are legitimately tried during a war which may or may not turn out to be useful after the war. But when peace comes, all those experiments should be examined for the possible knowledge that may be obtained for peacetime use. Some may be of no use. For instance, valuable as the baby flattops were in the war, I do not know what they will do for us in peace. But I do know that everything we did in the field of aviation should now be studied. And I am sure that the expenditure of more money for research and experimentation will be justified in the future.

There was a little item, in the answer which Sen. Owen Brewster made to Howard Hughes’ open letter, which seemed a little strange to me. The senator said that he had not suggested any plane trip, but as Mr. Hughes wished to see him, Mr. Hughes had suggested that he would take him by plane to fill his engagements and return him by plane. That was a perfectly understandable explanation.

But in the next sentence, the senator said that Mr. Hughes had asked for a particular hostess to accompany him and she had refused. Later, the senator claimed, when this hostess returned with him by plane and Mr. Hughes was not on board, she confided that she would be afraid to take a trip alone on a plane with Mr. Hughes. (EDITOR’S NOTE: The hostess has since been quoted as denying this). Of course, the senator may have been misquoted, but as yet I have seen no counterstatement from him. Thus he brought into the question, which should be a purely factual investigation, a suggestion of a personal character which seems slightly out of place.

I have barely met Mr. Hughes but I know well that his reputation is not one of frightening hostesses on planes. In fact, he is supposed to be a very shy and retiring gentleman where ladies are concerned. And the senator seems to forget that no hostess is alone on a plane. There is always a crew on board who, if the need arose, could be reached.

I have a distaste for mixing questions of public life with private life. And I think that this particular little tale might well have been left out, since it contributes nothing to the pertinent facts and since the senator himself has complained that other groups have tried to draw the attention away from those facts – tactics which, of course, should not be allowed on either side.

I remember a case some years ago where the senator was much interested in the personal side of a question, rather than in its public effect, and it seems to me that, unless a personal situation has a direct bearing upon a public question, it is not wise for a man to drag it in.

191

August 11, 1947

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, N. B., Sunday – We keep on hearing about juvenile delinquency, and parents and educators and juvenile courts keep on worrying about it. But we do not often see the constructive suggestions which can and should be made. My attention has just been called to an article which appeared in one of the metropolitan magazines not long ago, showing in pictures and telling the story of an experiment which has been carried out successfully in Rochester, N.Y.

The usual cry of teenagers is that they have nothing to do and nowhere to go. That is no longer so in the city of Rochester. A teen-age center, called “The Barn,” was established there, and on a Saturday night the floor is covered with dancers. No stags are allowed and cutting in is against the rules. Adults are not admitted either, so that the center belongs entirely to the young people, who make the rules.

This particular project came about through a letter written to the head of a newspaper chain by a brother and sister. A survey was made among a great many youngsters and it was found they wanted a combination night club-country club atmosphere. They did not want it in the city, and they wanted good dance music and good entertainment.

Even in rural communities I have come up against the same complaint of nowhere to go and nothing to do. Some youngsters in our neighborhood at Hyde Park have told me that hanging around the drug store is the only thing open to them. If we believe in the old adage about Satan and idleness, the thing to do is to get busy and find activities for the young people.

Another suggestion that deals with young people has come to me all the way from the state of California. There a young man named Robert W. Hanna, who graduated from Antioch College, wants to start a youth village. With so many displaced children throughout the world in need of homes, he feels that an activity of this kind, in beautiful surroundings and in the famous California climate, would be a contribution to helping us toward the salvation of many lost children. He is an enthusiastic young man who has long been interested in the good neighbor idea and in education, and the combination may lead him to real success.

In any case, our own children here need attention these days, and, having had four youngsters for a week in my care, I am very glad their father is about to return. Grandmothers are really not quite active enough to provide entertainment, and it certainly was a wise provision of nature which gave the care of young children as a rule to young parents.

192

August 12, 1947

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, N. B., Monday – The Taft-Hartley Labor Act does not seem to be having such smooth sailing. I saw the other day that a legal aide of the National Labor Relations Board had resigned because he said it was impossible to work under the act, and I have seen repeatedly in the papers that labor unions were simply bypassing the NLRB because they felt it would take so long for any action and that it was a useless piece of machinery.

I see that President Truman has appointed Cyrus Stuart Ching, a Republican, to head the new Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. This is the agency created by the Taft-Hartley Act to take the place of the U.S. Conciliation Service which has functioned previously in the Labor Department. On August 22, this new agency will start working independently.

The object will be to prevent stoppages of work in labor-management disputes. I surmise that was the object of the old U.S. Conciliation Service, and I suppose it was taken out of the Labor Department in order to weaken that department. It will be interesting to see the record that the new independent agency achieves during the next few months. Certainly Mr. Ching, who is 71, should have plenty of experience, since he has been director of industrial and public relations for the United States Rubber Company since 1929.

The head of this new agency is responsible only to President Truman. The personnel of the Conciliation Service is transferred to it, but Mr. Ching has the right to make any changes he wishes. The Senate has to confirm his appointment in their next session, but confirmation is regarded as almost certain.

Anyone who has listened to the way labor feels about the provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act will feel a little sorry for Mr. Ching, I think. If you are going to bring about conciliation, you naturally hope for people on both sides of a question who are ready to be conciliated. At the present time, I would hardly feel that the labor groups were in a receptive mood.

If a dispute is not settled in conference between the two parties, the new agency may require both of them to “participate fully and promptly” in such meetings as may be undertaken by the Mediation and Conciliation Service, but just getting them around a table isn’t going to mean that a solution to the trouble will be found. Instead of congratulating you, Mr. Ching, I offer my best wishes but also my deepest sympathy.

193

August 13, 1947

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, N.B., Tuesday – This column will deal with a very serious subject – one that I have been thinking about for a long while. It is not to be written about lightly. In fact, I would rather not write about it, but two things which have happened make me feel that perhaps this is the time to speak. Later on may be too late.

In a recently published article entitled “Bystanders Are Not Innocent,” Norman Cousins, editor of the Saturday Review of Literature, tells the story of one of these incidents. A Greek scholar, teaching and studying in one of our great mid-Western universities, was attacked one evening in the coffee shop of a well-known hotel by a group of rowdy undergraduates who, after making some loud remarks against the Jews, pointed at him and said: “He looks like a Jew.” As a result of this assault, the man spent ten days in a hospital.

The horrible thing to me is that this could happen when other people were about and that no one seems to have tried to prevent it. I feel sure that even one person with courage and conviction could have brought these young people to their senses. We did not fight a war against fascism in order to allow it to develop here.

The closing two paragraphs of Mr. Cousins’ article are the ones I want to bring to your attention, so I quote them here.

“In any event, this is no time for bystanders. Those who persist in looking the other way in the presence of evil or necessity exempt themselves from nothing except membership in the human family.

“This week marks the second anniversary of Hiroshima and the Atomic Age. Happy anniversary, everybody.”

On top of this incident, I received a sheet from the Congressional Record, into which Rep. Adolph J. Sabath of Illinois had read an article by I. F. Stone on the subject of a man called Marzani. This man, a month after resigning from the State Department, was discharged and then indicted under an act of Congress, passed in 1944, which extended the statute of limitations three years after the cessation of hostilities in case of fraudulent war-contract claims. He is not accused of having tried to defraud the government, but he is accused of falsely denying certain statements made in 1940 and 1941. He is now in jail, sentenced to from one to three years and denied bail while waiting appeal of the case.

As to his innocence or guilt I know nothing, but on reading the article I feel that our civil liberties are being endangered. Through fear and undisciplined prejudice, we are becoming the very thing which we have condemned other people for being.

It is time we took a look at ourselves and made up our minds that we can no longer joke about questions of race prejudice or religious differences. And even if we do not agree with the political beliefs held by some, we must not reach a state of fear and hysteria which will make us all cowards! Either we are strong enough to live as a free people or we will become a police state. There is no such thing as being a bystander on these questions!