The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-06-18
By UNCENSORED

The roster of pro-war organizations
contains something for almost any
body's taste The old-fashioned Long
Island interventionist prefers the dis
integrating Committee to Defend
America by Aiding the Allies. The
more impatient war hawks prefer the
Fight for Freedom Committee. Lib
erals and miscellaneous leftists have
finally coagulated in the Union for
Democratic Action Finaglers and
Warwicks of various shades operate
through the Council for Democracy.
In addition, there are catch-alls for
youth. writer's, doctors, ministers, ETC.,
and innumerable opportunities to join
with thirty or forty other prominent
citizens in a public statement de-
nouncing appeasers. All these groups
are fed by a maze of British war re
lief societies that have almost become
a major American industry.
But nothing in this melange com
pletely satisfied Dorothy Thompson.
So, in about a week, the Passionate
Pundit will announce an organization
4 VI u6T very OWL. II VIII NC CdliCu tiit
Ring of Freedom"
Circles
It started a month ago when Miss
Thompson was canonized at dinner
in New York On this occasion she
recited the "ten articles of my per-
sonal and social faith" composed lin
4 Of
apostles of freedom, among them
Moses, Aristotle, Jesus, Milton, Mill,
Jefferson and Lincoln" 1t happened
that Miss Thompson owned a SYM
bolic ring-three circles held together
by clasped hands over another small
circle on which is etched the Western
Hemisphere. She offered copies of it
to any who went along with her ten
articles and were willing to spread
the message. A lot of people took her
up The result was the Ring of
Freedom which is not another or
ganization, but a mass movement of
fellowship around principles, rather
than around personalities.
Miss Thompson's ten articles are
rather longer than the Ten Command
ments, but they were adequately
summarized by The New York Times's
headline writer: Dorothy Thompson
Asks a New Society,"" The Thomp-
son society is compound of social
ism and humanism. Men and women
who have been striving for it for fifty
years will wish her luck with it. Some
of the old hands in the struggle are
now in the Union for Democratic Ac-
ton whose program is more specific |
and less elegant statement of Miss |
Thompson's ten articles. Miss |
Thompson says: "All ownership |
whether of resources or of the skills |
trust for the people as whole" Also:
1.-THE score of the social music is a |
common purpose of the people" The |
Union for Democratic Action says:
Among the strategic controls for |
democratic planning are specialization
of the great banks, measure of gov
eminent investment. Also: |
"All have a common stake in pro-
gressive change which will insure
greater degree of security and at
the same time provide a wider range
of freedom"
While the UDA will interest some
of the old hands, Miss Thompson's
Ring will presumably attract some of
the more literate station wagon set
who have suddenly realized that Hit
Ter is not simply a beast but also the
product of an economy that often
provided for beasts more adequately
than it provided for humans. They
would prefer to follow the ''revolu-
apostles" with social music"
rather than specialization"