The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-11-26

OldonDurgS PERMISSION, snail pre-
sumo to do for myself.
I am forty years old and have en-
countered all sorts Of people and
ideas. But the sheer majesty of the
sweep and soar of this correspondents
conceit is new thing in my expert
ence. Mature people recognize that
the human soul is many-sided, that it
is next to impossible to be sure of
understanding anyone completely
Miss Oldenburg, if you care to take
her word for it. can read one article
of thousand words or so, by writer
whom she has never met, and then tell
you exactly what he thinks If he has
some thought that he forgot to men
ton, it's quite all right with Mile;
she's got imagination
See what her clairvoyance can do
with fragmentary quotation like
mixed races, mixed religions and
mixed creeds," which she attributes
to Lindbergh. Everyone knows, of
course, that we do have these things
in America, and precious few of us
lose any sleep over it. 1t is so en-
tirely as it should be. But to Miss
Oldenburgs mind the words become
subtle" injection of "the racial
flavor"
Subtle, my arm and leg! Lind
bergh's speeches are about as subtle
as charging bull buffalo. Miss
Oldenburg shows traces of the type
of mentality we used to find in the
more cramped and embittered U, S.
communists. Lay a complete and
complex pattern before her and she
will seize upon one tiny detail which
she regards as offensive to herself
or her class, and will obstinately
ignore all the rest.
She speaks in tone of pride of
her earlier letter, as my reply" Let's
have a look at her reply, point by
point.
Q) Lindbergh, she says, is to blame
for the errors and treacheries of the
British government during the Czecho-
slovakian crisis. She ignores three
towering historic facts: (a) Great Bri-
tain was unarmed and helpless (b)
France was rotten with treason, and
(c) Russia was not ready until after
the Finnish experience. These facts,
not the Vaccinations of an individual
villain, sealed. the fate of the Czechs.
bet Mildred has been reading Super
man.
(2) Certainly the nazis are callous
brutal. That does not alter the fact
that in 1938-40 their air force was the
most terribly powerful murder ma
chine in the world.
CD Lindbergh's connection with the
America First Committee does not de-
Drive him of the status of private
citizen. If all the people who belong
o organizations thereby ceased being
private citizens, the private citizen in
his land of organization would be as
extinct as the brontosaur. Incident
lily, Mrs. Lindbergh did not eulogize
he nazi system; she called the nazis
he scum on the wave of the future.
t that is eulogy, something has hap
'ened to our language.
~ : uiQ iiOI ooy OuylOCh WAS
typical Jew. l did not say that Jews
AVE been backward in contributions
0 civilization, or that even one of
hem is a financier, or that I am an
Aryan. Those are Miss Oldenburg's
Intellectual brats, not mine. I do not
ense she means.
She is all confused by her emotions
70 fact is just fact to her If you
Omit that your enemy is well armed
he thinks you must be his pal If
ou say that Lincoln had a mole on
is cheek she assumes that you dis
Ike Lincoln intensely. l said it was
rue in David's time, in Shakespeare's
Ime and in our time that Jews have
n unhappy faculty of distressing 9TH
r people. She leaped headlong to
he conclusion that l am therefore
n enemy of Jewry; attempted to re-
ute me by citing the exclusion of
ews from England in Shakespeare's
me; and attempted to insult me by
that | may have been "just
guilty of distressing other people
many ghetto-born Jew" etc.
% Less than six months ago l was
allied Jew because | defended Jews.
y If Shakespeare's England did not
eel that the Jews were a distressing
lement, why did it exclude them?
3 Of course I have distressed other
eople, just as they have distressed
e. | see no imperative guilt in that
AS to my aristocratic education and
upbringing | grew up
nong members of a religious sect
HIGH believed that education is
licked, pitting of mans puny reason
sainst the will of God | was taken
1T of school before l was fifteen,
Id set to doing hard labor When |
led to educate myself by buying
'oks to study, I was caught and pun
he'd. | need no gentle prophet to
ach me sympathy for the children
the ghetto
All this is none of Miss Oldenburg's
lsiness. l mention it merely to show
at even in this she was mistaken.
understand the mistake and accept
g compliment in the spirit in which
wasn't intended
One more thing: Miss Oldenburg
ks Mrs. Woodhouse to concede that
Lindbergh is to have freedom to
press himself, his opponents must
we freedom to criticize him. 1t is
lariously difficult to get excited
Il. I'D
rgh's critics; glance at almost