JOBS, PEACE, FREEDOM

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25084, 16 January 1947, Page 6

JOBS, PEACE, FREEDOM

“MF MASTER IS THE COMMON MAN”

This is the second and concludin g part of the manifesto with which Mr HENRY A. WALLACE opene d his editorship of the New Republic.” He accepted this post shortly after he resigned his place fn Mr Truman’s Administration as Secretary of Commerce. The first part of the manifesto was printed yesterday.

Our programme for peace is to abolish the causes of war. Real security* is gained when democracy is practised everywhere, when living standards are raised, when all nations accept world law. Leaders of the present bipartisan bloc maintain that welfare comes after the peace settlement is made and security established. I answer that there will be no permanent settlement and no security until a world welfare programme is begun. This means a People’s Peace for every nation in the world based on the idea of an all-out effort to eliminate illiteracy and starvation. To establish a people’s peace there must be international planning by the United States, England, and Russia to increase the productivity of the so-called backward areas by irrigation dams, power dams, railroads, docks, highways, agricultural machines, textile mills, machine tools, and hospitals. The Cheaper and only Alternative to War We need two 20-year plans. One, the elimination of illiteracy and starvation from the world by 1966. Two, the elimination, of transmissible disease and the establishment of higher world-wide living standards by 1986. Technologically, it can be done. Morally, it must be done. Practically, it is cheaper than war and the only alternative to war. This programme of making world welfare a primary objective does not mean abandoning a security programme. It means disarmament, including the effective dismantling of our stockpile of atomic bombs. It means opposing every step in the scramble for uranium resources and overseas air bases. It means supporting collective security through effective international inspection and control of activities that could be a part of war All peoples will support this programme. They have had enough of the continuous battle for position in Germany, in the Balkans and Greece as the Anglo-Americans co-operate with the extreme right-wing elements and the Russians co-operate with the extreme left wing in nations where most of the people can’t read or write and where there never has been any real democracy. They have had enough of the three great nations’ reaching out tot grab air and naval bases so they can attack each other. They want freedom of peaceful passage by sea and through the air combined with sufficient inspection to make sure of the peacefulness. They want the Panama Canal. Suez Canal, the Dardanelles, and the Danube to be freely open to peaceful shipping on a basis that will fully allay the security fears of the Anglo-Americans and the Russians and at the same time enlarge the peaceful commerce of the world to the maximum. They want the oil of the Near East made available to the peoples of the world according to the principles of the Atlantic Charter and not according to the needs of the American, British, or Russian military machines. Finally, we recognise that there will never be peace until justice and mercy have been given to the Jews in Europe and Palestine.

Freedom for us is basic; we can never compromise our faith in civil liberty. Man must have bread to live, but he doesn’t live by bread alone and as soon as he has bread, he must have freedom to learn the facts of the world he lives in and the right to sneak his mind about those facts. Those who deny this freedom have no part in the progressive movement. Down This Road ....

The drive toward war to-day Is a drive against freedom,. Reaction—the same force which condemns vigorous government action for the general welfare as incompatible with freedom —is to-day cutting down freedom. The next stage in the drift toward all-out -atomic war will put most of our freedoms at the disposal of an all-power-fuj military. At. secret committee hearings the military will tell Congress why it needs a greatly extended secret police and why the United States should be in position to strike without the formalities of a declaration of war. The military, co-operating with their good friends among the larger corporations, will plan for decentralising our factories and our population. The cost of preparation for allout atomic war will be so high as to make the military more important as a source of employment than any 50 corporations. Everywhere we turn we shall face the government as the master of our economic and our personal destinies. Down this road lies American fascism—less bratal but infinitely more powerful in its ultimate compulsions than anything that Mussolini fostered. It is our responsibility as progressives to fight for an alternative to an atomic-arms race because only m this way can we preserve that freedom which is synonymous with the American way of life. One of our most precious freedoms is the right to learn the truth. The common man is in danger of losing that right when 90 per cent, of his mental food is prepared for him every day by those who select the news to prove a point—and that point either reactionary or Marxist. We shall never have really warm friendship between the United States and Russia

and a firm basis for peace until the peoples of both nations are given free access to the unbiased truth and complete freedom to express their reactions to that truth. Freedom dobs not mean merely the absence of government control. The whole history of civilised social life has been the recognition that smaller freedoms must be given up in order to attain a larger freedom. Individual automobile drivers must give up their freedom to drive at 80 miles an hour in order to give all of us a greater sense of security on the highways, in. dividual farmers in Sweden must get a licence to cut down a tree on their own properties. Under the Soil Conservation Act individual American farmers were not given “benefit payments” unless they took measures to improve their soil. The New Deal restricted hundreds of small freedoms in order to gain a few larger freedoms. To-day democracy is a universal ambition. The Soviet Government no longer prides itself on the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. It describes Soviet communism as “a higher form of democracy.” Some Americans greet, thi® assertion with derisive laughter. forget that two-thirds of the worliL. laughs at freedom in America, remem* bering our discrimination against Negroes, Jews, and other minorities. I prefer to accept the willingness ot the Soviet leaders to think more ang more in democratic terms—and, in ac« cordance with the Roosevelt traditiom I shall search for the best in all ; peoples. x , The Soviet Government bases ity claim to democracy on the complety equality in the U.S.S.R. among imnori* ties and between the sexes; pn the absence of any kind of discrimination; oq, the economic and social rights and opportunities guaranteed to all Soviet citizens; and on the absence in the U.S.S.R. of powerful, private monopolies of press, radio, and movies. These arguments may be brushed aside in the United States, but a large part of the world accepts them as a serious challenge to America. It is for us also to accept them as a challenge and make discrimination a crime, provide full and equal opportunities for all our citizens, and enlarge freedom of expression. We cannot hide the weaknesses in our democracy. If we take steps to overcome these weaknesses, then I believe the Russians, believing in the genuineness of our democracy, will move toward greater political freedom. Then one root cause of war will die away. Around these issues, I believe, our new start, will be made. To-day, of course, we progressives are in the opposition in Congress. As a minority party the Republicans wer« interested solely in opposition, and placed that opposition above the general welfare of the United States and of the world. That is why we are suffering inflation and facing depression to-day. In contrast, the Democrats need to show how an opposition should act. They should generously support good legislation and vigorously fight bad legislation. We must not assume that all Republicans are reactionary tories. We must assume that many millions who voted Republican last November believe in One World and not in isolation. “My Master, the Common Man” Certainly as progressives we shall appeal to these millions. Qur purpose is not to play party politics or palace politics, but to develop a programme round which men of. good will can gather. I have said many harsh things about the Republican Party, but I have never spoken badly of the rank and file of the Republicans. They were my people. My father was a Republican Secretary of Agriculture. I know how progressive the Republican farmers of lowa can be when they really under- s stand a problem. I have the greatest respect for the Republican farmers and J small manufacturers of New England and the Middle Atlantic States as I have met them from time to time, Of course, we need organisation. The primary effort of progressives may be to rebuild the Democratic Party as a liberal party. But we are the captive# of no party. If the Democratic Party is incapable of change, we shall strike out along other lines. And we need a progressive press to develop our programme, to organise a nucleus of support, and to keep touch with each other the world over. In days when reactionaries call the tune and the daily press dances to it; a weekly magazine is the best medium. That is why I have become editor of the “New Republic.” I intend to make it the means through which the spirit of our new start can be expressed. < My field is the world. My strength is my conviction that a progressive America can unify the world and a re- , actionary America must divide it. W enemy is blind reaction, placing profit before production, depression before . effective government, and war ahead of a rising standard of living for the peoples of the backward areas. My friends are all who believe in true democracy. My master is the common man. striving to educate himself and his children for a richer, more abundant life. I seek no personal gain. If I have importance, it is because of the ideas that I have come to represent. They are major ideas, indestructible, and on the march.