Evening star., 1938-12-13
Sees Erroneous implications
In Greenbelt Editorial.

To the Editor Of The Star:
wish to congratulate the Star on the
independence its editorial staff maintains
OF its circulation department, inasmuch
as you continue to insult the people of
Greenbelt, among whom you are reported
to have some $50 subscribers. If your
editorials are as little influenced by your
advertising department, yours is a
unique paper indeed.
Perhaps you may be interested in
correcting some of the erroneous impli-
cations of your latest editorial about
Greenbelt, in which in your usual roll
licking good humor, you refer to Green
belt as 1.-The Eden of the New Age"
DR.. Linden S. Dodson, whose proposed
"stay -at-home week" was the spring.
board of your latest defamation, made
the suggestion, not, as you state, that we
own and (our) neighbors ives," but for
wiser reasons.
We who live in Greenbelt, assembled
from Washingtons disorganized subur-
ban communities, or worse still, from
Washington itself, where home life was
little more than the complement of busi-
ness life, have learned that in an in
tegrated community, where people are
willing and eager to work together, much
useful social work can be accomplished.
Not just organizing each other, as your
editorial states, but, for example, sue
cessfully backing needed milk legisla-
ton for Prince Georges County, as our
Citizens Association did; finding en-
ployment for some of our citizens who
lose their jobs, as our Employment Com
mittee Is doing; helping needy neighbors
in Berwyn, as our Scout troop has done;
organizing our own stores as co-opera-
tives, so that we can have the profit in
stead of some one in New York or
Chicago; developing recreational pro-
gram, as our Athletic Association is do
ing; making something worth while out
Of simple skills and inclinations, as our
Hobby Club Is doing; protecting our
health, as our group health plan is do
ing-our finances, as our credit union is
doing; offering our citizens the opportu-
AACJ w SOAAtAA1uC GAlCil COuCdtlOil Ill lllRIlL
school courses, as our Education Com
mittee is doing.
This list merely taps the surface-if
you don't believe it, pay us visit some
time-but perhaps it will indicate that
we are concerned with more than organ
izing each other" OF course, finding
that there is so much to do in an in
tegrated community, we have overdone
We haven't wanted to miss anything, and
many Greenbelter has been going at
top speed since arriving here, not be-
cause he has been "regimented," but be-
cause he has been set free.
DR.. Dodson saw that we have been
working too hard, going too fast-that is
why he urged week without meetings.
The suggestion was received by our citi-
zens in the good spirit in which it was
made. The Star would have done well
to have shared that spirit.
We in Greenbelt have learned that,
though as individuals we are feeble, as
group we have power. We have learned
the significance and potentiaity Of united
social action-and what greater lesson
must our people learn If our democracy
is to survive?
If The Star and other Washington
newspapers would endeavor to see the
significance Of this town, and not use it
as . political football. rs . target for
thrlsts ut an administration they oppose,