Evening star., 1949-03-12
Letters to The Star
Free Mems Faith" Set Forth

"Free Mems Faith" Set Forth
To the Editor of The Star:
What is referred to as "the first concerted
move against Stalinist domination in the
field Of American thought" may be worth
recalling today. Eugene Lyons refers to it
in his book, THE Red Decade" Q941: p 343):
I'm the spring of 1889 a group of men and
women opposed to all forms of suppression
in the domain of culture-whether at home
or abroad, whether under Nazi or Fascist or
Bolshevik slogans-banded together to ward
off the encroachments of totalitarian think
ing in our own country. Among the prime
movers of the undertaking were John Dewey,
Sidney Hook, Victor Riesel. Benjamin Stol-
berg Ferdinand Lundberg, Horace M. Kallen,
Suzanne La Toilette, Frank H. Trager, Henry
Hazlitt and the writer Eugene Lyons)
= = ="
For this Committee for Cultural Freedom
Mr.. Lyons composed statement "as the
last common denominator of principle on
which the intellectually honest could join
together"
The statement, made public in May, 1899,
included the following: Under varying Ia
bells and colors, but with an unvarying
hatred for the free mind the totaltarian
idea is already enthroned in Germany, Italy.
Russia, Japan and Spain. There intellectual
punished as form of treason. Art, science
and education all have been forcibly turned
into lackeys for a supreme state, deif1ed
leader and an official pseudo-philosophy.
Literally thousands of German, Italian Rus
sian and other victims of cultural dictator
ship have been silenced, imprisoned, tor
tured or bounded into exile
The group in their statement warned that
the totalitarian idea threatens to overwhelm
nations where the democratic way of life.
with its cultural liberty, is still dominant
among them the United States (where. in
1899, Stalinists could load the dice" in the
fields of literature. movies the theater.
painting, dancing). Then the committee "hit
out at the kind Of liberals and democrats
who hurrahed for the Soviet brand OF sup
preston while excoriating other Sorts
Through subsidized propaganda, through
energetic agents, through political pressure,
the totalitarian states succeeded in injecting
other countries with their false doctrines, in
intimidating independent artists and schol-
ars and in spreading panic among the intel
lectuals. Already many of those who would
be crippled or destroyed by totalitarianism
are themselves yielding to panic. In fear
or despair they hasten to eXalt one brand of
intellectual serVitude over another to make
fine distinctions between various methods Of
humiliating the human spirit and outlaWing
intellectual integrity Many of them have
already declared moratorium on reason
and creative freedom. Instead of resisting
and denouncing all attempts to strait-jacket
the human mind, they glorify under decep-
tive slogans and names the color or the cut
of one strait jacket rather than another"
When this manifesto appeared, with the
signatures of more than 140 men and
women in intellectual pursuits" hundreds
all over the country Joined in the support
of this expression "of free mems faith"
The group was attacked as fascist"
"Trotskyist." and 'reactionary" in the Daily
Worker, and by the Nation and the New
Republic. Three months later the party
liners" made their major effort to discredit
the Committee for Cultural Freedom. About
400 Americans including persons important
in education, the arts. sciences and religion.
gave out a long open letter." branding as
fascists and 'reactionaries' all those who
dared suggest the fantastic falsehood that
the U. S. S. R. and the totalitarian states
are basically alike" CITIZEN.
Federal Reserve System Defended
To the Editor Of The Star:
In a letter to The Star, printed Saturday
last, a Mr.. Atkins attributes the causes OF
the 1929 depression to the Federal Reserve
Banking System. which "extinguished" bill
lions Of dollars during the 20s. He states
further. Normal business cannot stand up
under such drastic blood-letting should
like to know just what Mr. Atkins considers
to be normal business" To me, it seems
vague, nebulous catch-all term.
Such narrow-minded reasoning as that
of Mr.. Atkins could hardly explain the
causes of the 1929 depression. The Federal
Reserve System serves as the central bank
of the United StateS-the overSeer OF the
economy. It's Board of Governors does not
arbitrarily inject into or withdraw from the
economy certain amounts OF liquidity. The
Federal Reserve System is guided in its poll
cies by general credit and business indica-
tors. If the money and credit supply is ex-
panding more than is considered healthy in
relation to the existing supply of goods and
services. then q contraction Of liquidity via
the sale of Government securities by the
Federal Reserve System might be in order.
This particular action would be effective at
the present time, if it were not for the ex-
tremely liquid position Of commercial banks.
which hold redundant amounts of Govern
ment securities the prices Of which are sup
ported by the Federal Reserve System.
There may be some justification, ex post.
for criticizing the Federal Reserve Systems
hesitancy in correcting the depression once
it started. However, as skeptical and mex
perenced as the Federal Reserve officials
were in the late 2Os, any actions they took
hardly could have led directly to the depres-
sion; unless, of course, they were completely
ignorant of and misinformed about the eco
nomic temperature of America.
BY Mr.. Atkins reasoning, if the United
States should experience a depression this
summer it would be because of the Boards
order to Increase primary reserve require
ments effective September, 1948. The cri-
terion for near future depression could not
possibly be linked with the satisfaction OF
the backlog Of demand due to the war, could
it? And in such an inflated economy as
ours, when this point is reached. how stabil-
izing it will be to take the psychology" out
of prices which are slightly decreasing from
their inflated levels. When retailer reads
of falling prices, he cuts his purchases And
so on down the line and throughout the