June 24, 1948 375u1l

AMER1CA”S LEADING ,VOLUME 167

THAT STRANGESOUND’

NEW YORK

LIBERAL SATURDAY

EMANATING FROM

t h e White House last Saturday was the President whis-

ltling in tihe dark. &l1ers reported Mr. T m m as “defi-

nitely encouragedabout h e wholepoliticalsituat,ion” as a result of the Republican nomi,natioa of Thomas E. Dewey and Earl Warren. Thi,s i?h .little h’ardto square with two other opini’ons attributed tuthe Psesident witthin the past few weeks, One was the designafion of Dewey as the opponent he would?find hardest to beat, a selection that was needless to make andfantastic to publicize. The other was the tribute he paid to MK.Warren in o the PlacificCoast. Not the course of his recent visit t only d8idhe hail sthe Californian as an “excellent governor,” but $e went far afield to suggestthat Warrenwas “at heart a Democrat.” In view of khese haplesscomments, it is farcical for &e €’resid,ent’s ers to put out stmies now of how relieved Mr. T m a n is ‘hat the Republicam ‘didnot choose Senator V’andenberg, whowas, incidentally, fourth on his iist o€G. 0. P. candidates in ;the order of formidableness. Butone need not depend on ehe President’s badly -iti?nled estimates to be cectain h a t the work of the Philadelphia coaventim, described on page 6, was a severe jolt to such hopes as he still wistfully entertaisned. The plain trubh is that the Democratic Sar,ty will have bo offer someone fiar stronger than Mr. T m a n ilf it is to stand balf a chance in November. And khat someone had {better comeforbh quickly and do a job of organizing. Senator Vandenberg proved conclusively at Philadelphia that a coy desire for a spontaneous draft is no match for a candidacy openly declared and vigorxpromoted: ously

IN ,ITS HASTE TO LEAVE THE NATION‘S businessand get back to partis1a1-1 poli.tics,Congress i~nmcusablyomitted to provide the loannecessary for starting WOK^ on &he new United Nations headquasters. Like a bad boy r.unning lrom s & o d before finisling hislessons,Congress sl~ouldbe recalled to attend to this essentiaI detail. If anyone regands &is item as ~ Q O unimportant to justify an ~intnterrupticm of electmneeing, there is another unfinished task o f superlative domestic interestdhousing. The new Repablican platform favors a housing program, and Senator Taft is one author of t h e housing bill whi~chdied in bhe recent sessioa of Goa. gress. Housing is certain-to be a hot issue in the cam-

WEEKLY SINCE

1865 NUMBER 11

JULY 3, 1948

paign. If &e Repubkans mem what they say, ;they will come Ibwk to Washingbon and do something about it. If they ,do fiat do so under their own stem, President _ T m m codd only gain by callingthem into special session before bhe eleatmn to Iface the issue. They have had several yeiirs to ,discuss it; he could not properly be accused of rushing hem. If (theyed &e bill, he coulld claim a large hare of the credit. If bhey fuozled i,t again M o r e November, the voters would knowwhere to place &he blame. >c . .

WHAT IS AMERICAS RESPONSIBILITY FOR the bifker pl,ight of the European Jews’? Americans have a worldwide reputation sfor blandly overlooking their own faults &ile loudly condemning t h e faults of others. We julstly assail t h e Britishland the Araibs $or heir part in frustrating Ibhe effort of &e Jews to establish a home in P,alestine and 60 be iltted to it. We could dmo so wikh bebter graceif we bad allowed those Jews wlm wanted a borne in the United States to enter this country. Now, after considering $or two years a bill which woulmd it 400,000 ‘displaced perso,ns to &he United States, Congress has ed it w&h amendments so limiting the daw as to it only 205,000, of whiah no more ‘than 6,000 can ;be Jews, whileNazis ifrcrm the Baltic states are allowed ho come in. The Republicanplatf’ocm takes credit for “a haven for ‘displ’aced persons provided:” The party, for its controlliug partin &is shameful procebyo?I1 n who care for &eir cowdtire,;deserves r e p ~ d i a ~ ~ try’s ,integrityor for humanity.

>c THE BERLIN ’~RISISMAY LEAD TO AN ACTUAL clash between Russia and &e Western occupation powers, or it (may be &e point of departure for a new eff’ort to reach general agreement; matters have been alluwed to go so far that a mere truce seems to be ruled out.To hold a porpulatim of 2,500,000 on h e verge of starvation for iten days and then, after a hespite of a week or so, to begin h e s a m game ~ overagain is an impossible strategy for tlhe Jong m. This t h e , h e &&e is more drastic, Wit!h the tactics of cold war being rapi,dly left behind. Hope lies in the fact that the Russians have usually shown brnselves prepared to backtrack when the further aggravation of an issue threatened to cut off their last avenue of retreat. Ahsolute intransigence is almost as difficult ‘for the Western Allies. h order to resist the Russians to the last ditch, the minimum requisite is u n a n h -

The -NATIQN

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ity of &mght among the other occupying powers. Possibly this will $e -.achieved under pressure ‘from & h e United §tates, which seems ready to back General CTay in his announced determination to remain in Berlin by all means “shlort of war.’’ But Bidault is obviously reluctant and has hint& very clearly that Fmce wodd welame the renewal of four-qawer conversations on Gemany. And even M i . Bevin, while skeptical Df general talks, is ready to discuss ways out of &e ime at Berlin. Both realize that t h e Western position here has been seriously weakened b y - hestzblishment of a trizonal government headquarters at Frankfutt, and both would accept so&@ compromise to r e d agreement with Moxcow. Whether this attistrude Dr General Clay’s will prevail d e p e d s largely on t h e Russians. A n obstinate deteami’nabionto drive i h h e Western Allies out of Berlin mald ree5tabiish unanimity mung partners whose differences today are quite paoptible, The Russians will persist in khek present taatlcs only if they want a r e d showdown with the United States.

I N T H I S ISSUE

EDITORIALS The Shape of Things The Republican Platform “The Nation” Banned by Predd Kirchruey ARTICLES The Nominee Nobody Loves by Robert Bendiner Cartoon: Uncle Thomas’s Cabin by Ezekiel Schloss Corrupt and Discontented by Irving K. Pagan Memoirs of Eduard Benes! 111. Roosevelt’s Pre-War Views Clothes Cost Too Much! by Winzfred Rdzgshenbmb Democracy Stirs in Turkey by Robert Roof A Yankee Looks at the Dixie Revolt by ]osspb E. Finley Prevlew of September by Del V d p

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BOOKS AND THE ARTS Thomas Mann as Critic, or the Strayed 20 Novellst by J ~ m p e Barzun s 21 Enterprise, New Style by George Souh 22 Failures of t h e Life of Man by Smess Jonsr The Cddo As Stuffed Head by Irving NOW? 22 24 A Son of Imagination by Rolfs H u m p h i s s 24 Films by James Agsa 25 Records‘ by 3. N.Maggin

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

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CROSSWORD PUZZLE No. 269 by PrnnR W.Lewis

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Ediior m d Publisherr Freda Klrchwey Execrrtive Editor:. Harold C. Field European Editor Literary E d i t o ~ J. Alvarez del Vayo Margaret Marshall . Associate Edito~rRobert Bendiner Pzndncid E d m r : Keith Hutchison Dvamd: Joseph Wood IGutch M m i c r B. H. HaRgilr Assfstnnt Editor: Jefi-y Tallma Copy Editor; Gladys Whiteside Assistant Literary Editor: Caroline Whiting ‘Staff Corafriburors Carey McWilliams. Relnhold Niebuhr, Mawell S. Stewart. J. King Gordon. Aylmer Vallance. Ralph Bates. Andrew Roth

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Bgsiskess 6 Aduertisirra Mntzaxer: Hug6 Van Alrx Director of N a h n Associates: Lillie Shultz

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Tb0 Natioa, Dublishecl weeklynnd copyright. 1948 in the U.S.A by The Nation Associates, Inc.. 20 Vesey St., Ne& York 7, N. Y: Entered 88 second-classmatter December 13, 1878, at the Post,Offlee of New York N Y..under tho act of March 3 l87D Advertking and Circulatidn &Presentative far COntinentd Europe r Publmtas, Lausanne, Switzerland. S u b s c r l p t l m P7aces: Domestic-One year $6 : e o yeam $10 ; Three year.q $14. Additional postage per sear: Forelm and anadinn $1. Clucnge of Addrass: Three weeks‘ notice ie required for chanae of address, whlch cannot be d e without the old addreas aa wen as the new. ~.. I n f o r m t k m t o Libranss: The N a t i , ~ iis ~ ,indexed ~ in Readers’ Guide to Periodical Lltereture, Book Review Dlsest. Index fx, Articles. Publio Affaira Information Service, Dramatio Index, ~~

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B G ” S VJWAT$ONO F TJdE PYILBTINE TRUCl3 was neither a mimnderstanding nor an accident. Zt wag deliberate, and so f a r it has been successful. T h e United Natilm has wihdrawn its observers, and if the Israeli try b take dmntage of Count Bemadoltte’s explicit permis; sion to send a food convoy to ,their surrounded colonics in the Negev desert, they will do so at their own risk. Meanwhile, in Rhodes, the U. N. Mediator and his aides are discussing t h e “delicate situation,” while at Lake Succesa, Faris El Khouri, ehairman of the Security Colulncll, wiho represents Syria, Egypt’s pzatner in aggression, -has d a d out a meeting of &e m m c i l to consider the Egyptian vi’olation.Panticular point is given to the whole affair by a n m memorandum submibtedIt0 the U. N. this week by The Nation Associates. It presents, both in facsimile and translated f a m , certain documents mmoved l f r m the files of the Geman Fureign Oftice which prove ithe intimate allianceexisting during t,he wzr between Kcling 5’”arouIc Egypt of and &he Nazi high command, as well as between Earoulc and &e Mufti. The very plan lto bomb Tel Aviv, Imthlessly carried out by the Egyptian air force bebre h e truce intervened, was one sdxnkted to the N azis by the Mufti in 1943 and ~bandonedat that time only tor lack of a,tl adequate taskface. Farodc’s intimacy with tihe Germans inclnded espionage md a plan, drawn up by Ambassador Ettel and ,transmittedby t h e Mufti, to transport the King to ~I?IXmm-CORtrQ~Ped territory in order to save from an alleged British plot against his life. Thsmu&out the negotiations, Faro& exprase3 Ms full sympathy with Germm a h and his of t h e Mufti and “as1 those who work w i h him 5or the s~ccessand victory of the Axis.” Barrhg HitIer, ,the alUmcz b sbIl1 In opedon; Farod and &e M u f ~ are still acting in dose col1abora;klon. T’he fa& rearealed ]

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&or &hehrst tilme in our memorandum are,not nlere interesting fragments of history, but a &arp cmnmentary o n the Arab leaders wh’o, wibh ihe help of Britain and our o n Shte Department, have (been able to carry on Hlitler’s war against‘theJews in opendefiance of the Un,ited Nations. These facts should be kept in mind by Count Bernadette as h e conlsiders Egypt’sviolation pf the trUCa.

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Wesleyan University, in addition to Roosevelt. T o offset the stultifying iduence of the alumni-&en alumni who were Ilberal when young-Beta Signla Tau’s constitution provides that each college chapter shall have three voting at the annual convention, each alumni chapter only two. Eleven of the groups a‘btending the Chicago meeting wilthdrewto form an organization of their o w n i t h e American Commons Club-because they dislike the use of a Greek-letter name. The appearance af these two national non-discriminatoryorganizations is at least a sign that American student opinion has begun to attain a new fnaturity.

HOLLOW WITH FATIG,UEBUT HIGH IN morale, ‘themen and women at 164 Duane Street, in the early hours of June 23, tenderly put to bed Volume 1, Number 1 of the New Yo& Stay (formerly P M ) . The first edition had forty-eight pages and $25,000 worth of kdvertisimng, i8ncludirgan ad for a doll on sale at: Mag’s. This may signify the first crack in the solid icy wall &at T H E platform of a major psliticd panty i n h e United bad me’tPM when it went tothe major depaltment stores. States is not a serious pledge to the citizen. Nobo’dy one of ,&he most cheerful omens for &he new paper is voting far the candidates who “stand on” it: can have the that there is money in &e bank and more promised to slightest assurance &at its promises will be fulfilled, or Fublisher Bartley C r w and Edit.or Joseph Barnes. They even ,thatits wmds will be interpreted to mean what they ore not sayi.ng mhuse moneyit is until “certain legal matSeem to him #tomean ‘when h e readls&em. The party ters are settled.” A chief objective of the new owners is itself is not a disciplined and ef3icien.t unit which can be to be obligated to no faction while maintaining a bmadly mobilized to execute a coherent pecygram. It is an unliberal pmitiaon. To this end, the Star. mounced in its easy coalition held together mainly by the efiort to win first issue that it i,ntended to respect the convention, deoffice, jabs, and power, but imtis scarcelyof one mind liberatelydefied by PM, “Ithat news canbeseparated about anybhing else. The platform-maker is expected to from opinion.” ?In addi,tion, editorials will $e unsigned produce a circus tent which will a v e r all the factions, ahd speak fsor the paper as an entity. Another ofbhe and to embellish 1t with enough ballyh3oo so that a maStaIJ.r&jec.tives is an audience of approxhately 250,000 jority 0.f .&e voterswill b,eattrmted insi’de. readers, double hhe present circulation. It has redesigned Neverheless, platforms have ’ a significance all heir its front page to include the dlay’shalf-,dozentop stories awn. They!play a ceremonial d e in the strange rites by & a n one or two news-feature headlines.m It has also. which we nominate candidates and choose our rulers and rather , taken on some top-notch new talent and bhe synd,icated could no more be omitted &an the awful oratory, the cartoons of Edmund Duffyand Bill Mauldin. There have s y n b t i c “demonstrations”. which fiolluw nominating been no editorial fipings to date, although some of ithe staff speeches, the fiction individual delegatesmake up - m o s t notably, former Elditor John P. Lewis-Aave h e i r minds which nominee would (bethe greates’t stateschosen to resign, and a few other old bands may find it man and cast their ballots accordingly. A platform is a difficult to adjust to a reduction in prerogatives. But the iihalistic obeisance ‘tosthe civic conscience of 6he nation, tone of the officeis generally one of excitement and high an intangible but at times a very real force. Candidates hope. “We have had the problem,” said Jay O d d , the make some use of them ‘toget: elected; platforms persist Acting Managing Editor, last week, “ i f having to WC& for awhile as documents by whdah bhe governing p a q in ,three tenses at once.” Having weatrhered the transition m,ay be called to . Like any ceremony, $hey have from past to present, the Stdr now looks eagerly to the a sym;bdic content, and may indicate bhe mental condifuture. W e wish it all success. ti,on of those responsible,for &em. The new Republican plat#formis in this sense the mask >c of a guilty conscience. Fresh from hhe sIns of a sahizophrenic and blundering Congress, the party proclaims TWENTY-FOUR I N T E R - R A C I A L COLLEGE how well it did and how wicked are the opposing party groups melt recently at Roosevelt College in Chicago to and the President: And ik Boasts, by i,mplication, how form a unique national college fraternity, BetaSigma m’wh {betterit is going to behave in the future than i’f Tau. The new fraternTilty elects without regard has in the past. Yet the vagueness of wording anmd bhe to race, religion, or national origin, outlaws the “blackhesitanciesbetray the lack of quch single-mjndedness ball,” and frowns upon Iming, secrecy, or excessive inion the par,t of the framers. A few exalnyles of the treattiation fees and dues. It now has active chapters at the this clear. ment given to i,nlportant issues will make University of California, Ohio State University, the UniOnly by &e most heroic effortsat the last moment had versity of BuEalo, the University of Indiana, and Ohio lkhthan:

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&hehiterna;tionalist leaders prevented Congress from reneging m itscmmibment to Europeanrecovery by voting hs8&icientfu-nds. The platform de.daration for foraign aid inserts qualifying clauses like “wi~thinh e limits of OLE own economic welfare” and “business-like and efficient a&ninis8tmtion,”whi& could justify everybody 6mm Senlator Vandenbeegto Representative Taber. The h a 1 version omits h e promise lof the first draft to “hplement with appropriations any c m i ~ t m e n t made by degislalative enactment.” Congress had almost cut the heart out of t h e reciprocaltradeagreement program by extending it for onlyone . yeer & t a d of three and increasing the r’ole of &e bipardsan Tariff Gomissi,on &’the expense of exmntive discrebion. The platform prmises of reciprocal trade, “at all times safepading our own industry and agriculture.” Anything h r n tariff reduction to protecti’onismcouEd mar& under &tit banner. Wibh zest, the platfom leaps at he opening offered it by the Dmacratic Ad’mministration$0 write a strong and ringing pllank on Israel; &e Republican Congresshad not been required to legislate on &is subject, ‘khough it did close America’s dtoors t o all but 6,000 displacedJews. On idation, the Republicans are extremely vulnerable. They contributed largely to the ending of price control. and wakened the one substantial counter-inflationary force-a budget surplus-by forcing through tax reduction. They refused to adopt any new anrbi-inflation measures proposed by &e President. Now they accuse the Democrats of causing i d a t i o n e n d the Dem’oicratsare not wholly guiltless. In one age, t h e platform takes credit for tax reduction; in another, it takes credit fol the su~pluswhich tax seduction will reduce, In still others, it promises to reduce taxes somk more and abandon to &e states important sources of revenue. It declares far cutting the cost of gover,ment i,n h e age on idation, and in &her ages promises various increases in governmental expenditure. Everyone knows how that conflict will end. And waving a ludicrously olbvious red herring, it closes the inflation section with- a pledge to “rwt aut mrnmmism.” Labor’s special interest is in repeal &f bhe Taft-Hartley act, whioh bhe RepublicanGongressed. The platform does not mention it by name but faces both ways by patting ~&e party on the back f a “a sensible reform of the labor law” while pledging “continuing study to ilmpmve lebor-management relations.” Mr. Taft could have run un this declaration; so could a candidate W ~ O wants t’o amend bhe law out of existeme. Gongress for ,the second year in succession -failed to enact &e housing bill sponsored by hhe Republican leader of $he Senate, even after the House had cut out ,tsf it slum clearance andfederal ai,d for low-rent housing. The platform plumps- boIdly for “federal aid to the states for local slum clearance and low-sental housing -.

programs,” but “only where there is a need that cannot states aad be met either by private enterprise or by localities.” The real-estatelobby says there is no such need. B e question is: whose judgment will prevail? Many uther noble causes are ed, suoh as development of waterpower,reclla,iiatimastivities,conservation of natural tesources. But &e platform promises to return ‘ & h e tidelands oil to khe,states, and offers fuU protection” of “the rights of the states” in water usesa euphemism for turning over such resources to private interests. The vuters had bettsr forget &e platform if they want 60 exerciseanyreal.influence 6n governmental action. They had (better concentrate unthe records of the candidates and the forces behind izhem. And they had better pay particular attention to the candidates for Congress. “

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BY IXFDA FJIRGHWEY

HE report ‘khat The Nation had been banned from the New York public schools on of Paul Bhnshard‘s articles on ,the Roman Catholic church came first in the ‘formof a mor-to us almost incredible.W e found i’thard to believe that &eBoard of Superintendents $#adkaken su& a step ,under anycircumstances; harder, that it had- acted in secret so that we, and the public, hound out about it only through a friendly tip-off. Pefhaps the similaraction of the Newark scl-~crolslast January should have forewarned us &at such.things cuuld happen here; but Newark‘s cduatioaal authoribies are &emheluningIyGatholic and the domination of its sahools by the dm-&is notorious. New Yurk is, after all, a city where civil rights-and a lively clash of opinion are old hbits. No ahm& or p l i b i a l organizatiun has been able ,to put h e public schods in its tucker bag for long; too many competing civic groups assert their interest in public education. Although a few books have been rejected by the school libraries, nobhhing so^ drastic as the banning of a responsible journal of general circulation had previously been attempted. For ithese reasons, we d u u b d Lhe rllmor when we first heard i’t, but inquiry quicklyshowed that it was true. Wibhouit previous notice or s’ubsequenitantnouncement, the Board of Superintendentson June 8 had dropped The Nation from the lislt of pLddications to /be subscribed to for s&ool libraries and classroom use. 1.f (fiefact had nut leaked, the list would have been accepte,d without discussion and the omission gone unnoticed. We learned of the ban in the afternoon of June 22. The next day, it was ad,mitted by Dr. William Jansen, Superintendent_of Schools, and by Mamimilian M O S S , acting chairman of the Board of Education. On June 24, ;the New Yurk Thzes carried confirmation of he star1

July 3, 1348 and statements by both officials: Dr. Jansen approved the action of &e Supeiintendents: Mr. Moss deplored it. At a meeting &e same afternoon, the Board of Education acted upon the new list of publications along withdozens of' &her more or less routine iltems. I give this chronology not so much .to show how quick and automatic is the process by whi.& a major act of censorship .can be carried through as to emphasize a much more encouraging fact: at least half a 'dozen impor.tant civic organizations, hearing about .the ,ban either the night before the meeting of the Board of Educabion or on the day itself, sent represen8tativesto t h e mceting wihh prepared si@ments backing up our proteslt and' cal.ling for a pdblic hearing befolre the decision was approved. Their statements were animated by an urgent senlse of the bhreat to all free expression implied in 'the action of the Sup,&tendents. AIl&houghActing Chairman Moss argued that protests should b e lodged with&e Board of Superhtendents rather tlhan the Board of Education, he allowed The" N d o , n and i,ts backers full oppol?tun.ity t o state their objections. For bhis he deserves great credit, as h e does for his own outspoken 'disagreement with bhe decision to drop ,&is journal. His at8titudewas in striking contrast to the vituperative statement of his colleague, George A. Timone, whose attack on The N a h n carried a clear eaho of the old tirad,es of the Christian Front, with wh,i& h e loyally cooperated. Th%t&he Boaadof Education in the end, without dissenting vote, i,nd,oried&e expurgated Ilist is deplorable. But it does not close the case. The,N d o n will be sthut out of the p d b k sdmols as of July 1, but I dare predict ,that when they reopen on September 13, it will be back again. Zts banning will not be tolerated by bhe lllberal a n d free-minded citizens of New York. In its report of the Board of Education meeting last Thursday, h e Herald Tribuns named a few of the periodicals .that remain on theapproved list. Among &em are the Alllt~ericanHdirdresser, the Bdvbers' Jozlmal, the Jewi d Bdkeur' Voice, and several others whose appeal would .seem a bit limited. But ,the names are significant as we11 as amusing; if ;trhe spirit that forced The Nation out is allowed to control &e Board's policy, journals such as these will serve +s an apt symbol of tmhenew attitnde toward freedom of information in +he school. At least they are non-controversial; at least ehey can be trusted to avoid dangerous thoughts or facts unpalatable to special groups. The N u t i ~ twas . ~ excluded fro& Hitler's Reich, but I presume subscribers to the American Hdrdresser got their copies regularly. By banning The Ndtion, the authorities have set bheir foot on a road whose des'bination is plainly marked. h education, as in questions of civil rights, New York has set a s'tandard for the country. There is no question whatever khat arbi,trary censorship suck as this, if it is not reversed, will be promptly imltated in other cities, for Intolerance is as contagious as decency.

5' VEN now, the spread of thought-control'has been & q x x t e d with concern by teachers and parents groups, by ljbrarians, and {by labor and civil-llber.ties organizations. The idea that students in the s&ools skould $e insulated from crilticismof the attitudes and doctrines of the Roman Catholic church while being freely exposed to ;Lttacks on every slort of radical political philosophy is only one aspect of the pmblkm. The growing power of the church in America makes i.t a most ismportant oneas Mr. Blamhard's articles have amply proved. But the ohurch ibs a single pressure group. The greater danger was revealed, quite unconsciously I am sure, 'by Superintendent of S d m l s Jansen in answer to a question aimed at ,the Board of Superintendents by Paul Blanshard. Citing cibje&ms by #&eCatholic hierarchy io a recent article on the Reformation #inLife, Mr. Blanshard asked whether the board was going to banthat magazine from khe s&hooIs. Dr. Jansen didn't ka,ow, h e sai,d, whebher t h e s&od libraries snbscribed t o Life, #butif they ,d,id,and if khe issue "is offensive to any group, hhen it will be banned.? This astonishing statement goes to the heart of the business. Censorship in a dictatorship is a fairly simple affair; the state merely deletes or suppresses anything that runs counter to the ruling ideology. In a democracy, censorship is more complex /but ,no less intolerable since it is exercised by government agencies under the didate of groups strong enough to wiel,d pollilticalpower-the Roman Catholic church, theNational Association of Mannfactiurers, the power interests. "Anygroup"is a

A Common Fight Protestsagainst the banning of The: Nation were presented at the meting of.bhe Board of Education on June 2 4 by the following persons: ROSE V. RUSSELL, LegislativeRepresentative of the Teachers Union, Local 5 5 5 , U. P. W.-6. I. 0. MRS. CHARLESSHIPMAN,Executive Secretary of rhe * New York Teachers Guild, Local 2, A. F. of L. OLIVE MCKAY,Director of School-ConmunityRela-

tions, United Parents Asseci'ations.

FREDERICK C. MCLAUGHLIN, Educational Director g€ the Public Education AssociAtlan. DAVID K.BERNINGHAUSEN, Chairman of 'the Committee on Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association.

BERTRAM DIA,MOND, member of the Commission om Law and Social Acbion, hecican Jewish Congress.

Since June 24, many otherorganizations and individuals, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have notified The Nation of their desire to cooperate in fighting the ban.

a phrase not ko be taken quite literally, for we have yet to hear of cmsarship ]based on the objections of Jews or Ffeethinkers, labor unions or &e Comlmmismt Party. Bmt if any of these segments of our society should acquire t’hewill and enough idue,nce to induce Dr. Jansen to ban ‘Americaor the Sundczy Visitor, we would protest just as loudly. TOcontrd lbhe distribution of ideas or information by deferring to &e sensibilities of organized groups -religious ‘orsecular-is an outrage up& democracy. In the case sf The Nation, we are dead sure it was the pressure of &e Roman Catholic c h m h khat brought about bhe high-handed action of h e Bcmd of Superintendents. We believe the ahaharch is today t!he most potent organized force opposing’freedom a d progress in this country. But next t h e , )&e source of pressure may be a different one, The Issue is $reedom to &ink and learanand speak even at the risk of offending some special interest.

Tbs Ndion will appeal &he decision of the Board p E Superintendents and &e Board of Education. We have been assured a€ ‘ h ehelp of various educationaland labor organizations md other citizens groups. We welcome &his backing and bespeak ehe aid of all ow readers. For this is a fight that )must.be won if the principles we tea& our children in the schools are to make any sense. I cannot do better &an to repeat here the excellent words with which Acting Chairman Moss concluded his statement to bhe Board of Education, just before it ratified &e ban: “1.f we tamper with ihese hard-fought American rights in the name of good ci.tjzenship,wemakeasham of the Gonstibutim. To me, it appezrs ironical for the Board o€ Superintendents to take any action which might zbridge freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights while at bhe same time dem’andingthat our teachers and children hold &em sacred.”

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BY ROBERT BENDINER Philadelphid, Jzne 26 UT of 1,094 delegates to the Republican NationaI Conventilon, 1,094 voted to nominate flhohas E. Dewey for President, 450 of h e m appearing to think ilt a reasonably good idea while the remaining 644 went along with emotions ranging from-physical relief to sullen resignation.Republicandelegateshavebeen h,oodwidce.dandpressured &fore, of course, but as a rule h e y either didn’t k \ n m or didn’t care a great deal. These delegates did kntrw and did care, and their resentment impafited some novel twists ‘to an otherwise desulbry affair,conducted in #&e clijmate of a stokers’ hold. It was odd, for exmple, if not altogebhher unique, to hear delegates roundly boo the speaker who had tihe honor of offering Governor Dewey a9 ?he man mho . .”-especially since the speaker was a Senator of &e state &at played host to t h e convention m d Mr. Dewey was all but cectain to win. As for &e galleries, they had to be warned by Chairman Joe Martin .to “refrain from making unusual noises” while the Senator performed that rite. It was odd, too, to witness a demonstration for the potential victor h a t ground -itsmechanicalway along by sheer determination, prolonged by 8

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band &et simply refused to stopMaringeven after Mar. . tin Ohreatened bo have it h o w n out of the hall. It was novel for the opposition to persist, more bitterly than ever, after the second $aI180tshowed 5 15 votes for Dewey out of a needed 548. And it was unprecedented for a convention to give a greater ovation tu a defeated candidate on the occasion of his wibhdrawal than it ,did to ~e victor , when it was all over.Theorebically h e conventionnominates and ,thecandi,dateaccepts. In this case the Gandidate I norninate,d and the convention ascepted. Why? In ‘the first place Dewey was politically, if not personally, the ,most obvious and logicalchoice. In a party almost as wide i,n its i’deologisalspread as the Democrats, here was the perfect middle-of-the-roader. N o w mildly aligned with the ers of the European Recavery Program, he had once been- a harsh critic of the Adrninistration’s foreign policy, and unlike Senator Vandenberg, he had not taken occasion to go publicly to the mourners’ bench. As a governur he was well out of Ithe Congressional rows that recently raged be’tween the Martin-HalleckTaber a b a l in the House and the TaftVandenberg -leadership in t h e Senate. One of the few men in public life to venture no opinion on the Taf’t-Hartley ~