SUBJECT FILE Americans for Democratic Action, 1947-54 WASHINGTON CHAPTER, AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION, 1740 -K- St.NW,Washington ACTIVITY CALENDAR: SEPTEMBER 1947 All committee meetings open to all members. If you've signed up for a committee, attend that meeting. If not, visit several and decide where you'd like to work. There's lots to be done. Let's get busy and do it. DAY AND DATE COMMITTEE & CURRENT PROJECTS TIME PLACE Monday, Sept. 8 (& Mon.,Sept. 22) Joint Meetings of LEGISLATIVE AND DISTRICT COMMITTEES To plan fall program on DC problems, particularly suffrage & home rule 8:00 PM Mary Lee Council's The Highlands Conn.&Calif.NW Monday, Sept. 8 (& Mon.,Sept. 22) MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE To plan fall membership drive 5:15 PM Chapter Office Tuesday, Sept. 9 INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE To plan fall programs 8:00 PM Chapter office Wednesday, Sept. 10 NEIGHBORHOOD GROUPS COMMITTEE Plans for organizing neighborhood meetings. 8:00 PM Chapter office Wednesday,Sept. 10 ARLINGTON COMMITTEE To plan activities for fall, particularly with reference to school board & county board elections. 8:00 PM Langdon's West 2802 - 13th S. Arlington, Va. Thursday,Sept.11 OFFICE SERVICES A meeting of all who can help with office work, either at the office or at home. 5:15 PM Chapter office Thursday, Sept. 18 SEPTEMBER MEMBERSHIP MEETING Main item on agenda: The Loyalty Program. Speakers to be announced. Invite prospective members. 8:00 PM Barker Hall Y.W.C.A. 17th & K, NW Monday, Sept. 22 Joint meeting of LEGISLATIVE AND DISTRICT COMMITTEES (See September 8 announcement) 8:00 PM Mary Lee Council's Monday, Sept. 22 MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE (See September 8 announcement) 5:15 PM Chapter office Tuesday, Sept. 23 CIVIL LIBERTIES Fall program planning. 8:00 PM Chapter office Wednesday, Sept.24 PUBLICITY & INFORMATION Organization of press, radio & publications activities for year. 8:00 PM Chapter office Thursday, Sept.25 NATIONAL AFFAIRS Work on long-range domestic policy program for Chapter's recommendations to national ADA. 8:00 PM Chapter office Monday, Sept. 29 LABOR COMMITTEE Organization of committee and program planning. 8:00 PM Chapter office Meeting of Finance Committee to be announced. A.D.Action Publication of the Washington Chapter, AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION 1740 K Street, N. W. Washington 6, D. C. EXecutive 8160 SEPTEMBER 1947 IT LOOKS LIKE A BUSY FALL SEASON in Washington ADA circles. As Treasurer David Lasser pointed out at the September membership meeting, the Chapter has stayed in business all summer long and has lined up a rather heavy and important schedule of activities for the cooler months. Those of us who disappeared from the Washington scene in August can only admire these sterner-fibred members of the Chapter and try to bring ourselves quickly up to date. In this issue we want to report on a couple of the more significant issues which the Chapter has tackled during the summer --- rent control in the greater metropolitan area and police brutality in the District proper. We also want to tell you about some of the highlights of the last membership meeting, some of the plans which are now shaping up for the next one, and some of the other odds and ends of news from the committees and the Executive Board. RENT CONTROL Almost immediately after the new rent law went into effect last July, ADA launched an active program, both nationally and locally, to help protect tenants' rights under the complicated and somewhat tricky statute. A leaflet entitled "Renters Still Have Rights" was produced for widespread distribution and all chapter were urged to set up legal aid committees and keep close tabs on all significant local developments in the rental field. Our Chapter faced a more difficult task than any of the others since it had to concern itself with TWO laws -- the special statute for the District of Columbia and the general law for the rest of the nation -- and had to watch the situation in three separate areas -- the District, nearby Maryland, and nearby Virginia. Results to date have been reasonably encouraging. In the District the problem has been to prevent a general or blanket increase and keep the operation of the law on an individual-case basis. In July Chapter President Ben Sigal wrote to Rent Administrator Cogswell protesting strongly against the proposal advanced by the Building Owners and Managers Association that "each landlord shall himself determine the amount of the rent increased and put them into effect automatically." Although this proposal was turned down, the Rent Administrator said in his reply to President Sigal on July 28 that he believed that "landlords should obtain some relief in connection with increases in real estate taxes." "The matter of what adjustments should be made," he added, "and amount thereof are intricate and complex problems and they are receiving serious consideration." More recently the District landlords have been urging that they should either be granted a 15 per cent blanket increase or permitted to come in under the "voluntary agreement" clause in the nationwide law. In a letter of August 27 to the Rent Administrator, Mr. Sigal expressed the Chapter's vehement opposition to such a move and cited facts and figures to demonstrate why it would not be justified. On September 6, the Rent Administrator announced his rejection of both the 15 per cent blanket increase and a 15 per cent increased based on the "voluntary agreement" clause. -2- As this issue of Action goes to press, the fight seems to have narrowed down to what looks like a last-ditch effort to head off a blanket increase for the single family structures and small apartment buildings. In view of the large number of district renters who live in buildings of this type, the effect of such an increase could be mighty serious. On September 29, President Sigal wrote the Rent Administrator with refererence to a statement by Mr. Cogswell that he thought owners of single-family dwellings and small apartment buildings were entitled to relief. Urging Mr. Cogswell not to increase seilings for these classifications, Mr. Sigal pointed out that owners of single-family dwellings and small apartments are actually in a more favorable position than the owners of large apartments. On September 30, President Sigal, together with representatives of the American Veterans Committee, League of Women Voters, Washington Housing Association, and Potomac Cooperative Federation, had a conference with Mr. Cogswell and urged him not to increase the maximum rent ceilings for single family dwellings. However, Mr. Cogswell indicated that he intended to issue an order providing for a general increase for these types of dwellings, but he would not state the amount nor nature of the increase. In nearby Maryland (Montgomery and Prince Georges Countries) the job of the Chapter has been two-fold: (1) to protect tenants from illegal and unjustified evictions, and (2) to see that the Rent Advisory Board, appointed by the Governor to administer the law in the area, is actually representative of the interests of the tenants. A legal aid committee --- composed of Wallace Cohen, Leonard Lesser, and Jesse B. Messitte of Chevy Chase and Henry Kaiser of Bethesda --- has been established and stands ready to help any tenant of the area who is confused about his rights under the law. On the second phase of the job, Chapter President Sigal has written to Governor Lane urging that the Board be made more broadly representative than the one which the Governor announced in early September, and recommending specifically that Leroy A. Halbert of Bethesda and Joseph A. Clorety, Jr. of Silver Spring be appointed as additional members. In nearby Virginia (Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax) the situation is quite similar. A legal aid committee has not yet been appointed, but there is one definitely in prospect. The Rent Advisory Board named by Governor Tuck for the Alexandria-Arlington area in early September was definitely weighted on the landlord side. Of the seven nominees, two are active real estate oper- ators, three others are or have been in other types of business, and not one is a tenant. On behalf of the Chapter, Ben Sigal has written to Housing Expediter Frank Creedon urging him to withhold approval of this particular panel and has also written directly to Governor Tuck recommending that the Board be made more broadly representative by the addition of Eugene R. Hubbard and John W. Edelman of Arlington and L. D. MacIntyre and Mrs. E. R. Piori of Fairlington. As a final note, it should be added that the whole ADA campaign in all three sections has been fully reported in the Washington press and has stirred up a lot of organizational support in other quarters. Incidentally, Kate Alfriend tells us that she has a plentiful supply of the "Renters Still Have Rights" leaflet and will be glad to furnish copies to anyone who needs them. POLICE BRUTALITY Two major incidents and a number of minor ones during the past few months have pointed up the serious local problem of manhandling and flagrant disregard of civil rights by the District police. The first important case involved a young Negro veteran who was held incommunicado for 34 hours without charges and subjected to third degree treatment. The second one concerned a Georgetown student, also a veteran, who charges that he was clubbed by an officer. On August 19, the Chapter took a leading role in the fight to eliminate such abuses when President Sigal wrote SEPTEMBER MEMBERSHIP MEETING The most recent meeting of the whole Chapter membership, held at Barker Hall on September 18, was devoted almost entirely to a discussion of the President's loyalty program. The speakers were L. V. Meloy, chairman of the loyalty board at the Civil Service Com- mission; Jerry Klutz, author of the Federal Diary column in the Washington Post; and Gerhard Van Arkel, ADA ex- ecutive board member and former general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. Mr. Meloy, as the first speaker, stressed the background of the President's loyalty order and defended it as [*-3-*] POLICE BRUTALITY (continued) to the District Commissioners calling upon them to conduct a thorough investigation and putting them on notice that the Chapter would maintain an active interest in the problem. Since that time that Chapter has worked persistently to keep the spotlight of publicity focussed on the situation and to prevent any ten- dencies toward a whitewash. In the Georgetown student case, the Police Trial Board held a full inquiry and recommended dismissal of the officer from the force. The District Commissioners, however, reversed this ruling and let the officer off with a rather light fine. This action drew a sharp protest from the Chapter President who wrote Commissioner Young on September 3 that "it now appears that a conviction of a policeman for slugging a man is no ground for dismissal from the police force. It appears , further, that those who are sworn to enforce and uphold the law can violate their oaths and degrade law enforcement with apparently little risk to their jobs." In conclusion, the letter pointed out that "the action of the Commissioners in this case, as well as other incidents which have occurred recently, make it evident that the residents of the District must demand and obtain a thorough investigation of the present methods of maintaining and enforcing discipline within the police force, and must insist upon vigorous corrective measures." In the case of the Negro veteran, formal charges were filed against the officers responsible for his arrest and mistreatment. But on September 16 the Federal grand jury failed to return any indictments. In view of this development, the Chapter's President wrote to the Commissioners again on September 19 urging them to institute Police Trial Board Action in this case. SEPTEMBER MEMBERSHIP MEETING (cont.) a decided improvement over the previous system. Formerly, he pointed out, certain of the Federal agencies have been authorized by Congress to dismiss employees on suspicion of disloyalty and have been permitted to set up their own standards and regulations. Under the new order, the procedure will be standardized throughout the Federal government and individual employees will be better able to know and exercise their rights. Mr. Klutz called attention to the many charges which have been made about Communists in the Federal service and declared that the result has been to cast a cloud of suspicion over almost every Federal worker. If the present program could be made more effective in removing actual Communists and fellow travellers and thus clearing the atmosphere, he added, it would be a highly beneficial development. He expressed fears, however, that the program might be mishandled and that Congress might well decide either to turn the whole investigative process over to the FBI or to undertake the investigation through its own committee on Un-American Activities. Either development, Mr. Klutz indicated, would take us dangerously close to the police state. As the final speaker, Mr. Van Arkel first read the official ADA position on the loyalty program and then expanded this with a statement of his own personal views. While agreeing with Mr. Meloy that the present program is an improvement over the previous situation, he insisted that "we must be perfectionists in this thing" and ask ourselves whether the present program is the best that could be devised. There are, said Mr. Van Arkel, two serious deficiencies in the existing procedure: (1) the general vagueness of the criteria for determining who is and who is not disloyal, and (2) the lack of any procedure for summoning complainants, evaluating their testimony, and permitting the suspected employee the privilege of cross-examination. Interest in the speeches ran high and the question period had to be extended well beyond the original limit. JENNIE LEE MEETING Along with many other chapters of ADA, our local group is making plans to sponsor a public address by Jennie Lee, well known Labor member of the British Parliament. Although the time and place are not definitely set yet, it looks as though November 14 will be the date. Plans are being made to set the thing up on a Meet the Press basis with several top-flight newspapermen sitting on a panel to ask questions of Miss Lee and stimulate audience discussion after the conclusion of her speech. Sounds good and will bear watching. A COUPLE OF PLEAS FOR ACTION We have been reliably informed that the Chapter is currently in rather dire need of two things --- more members and more money. The recent trend in membership figures is somewhat disturbing. Although the Chapter now has 553 members, we have lost about 35 or 40 people who have moved out of town or resigned during the last few months. Furthermore, the rate of increase in membership, which was running late spring at the rate of 20 to 25 a week, slowed down during the summer months to about 30 per month. In order to achieve -4- A COUPLE OF PLEAS : FOR ACTION (continued) the kind of effectiveness which we all want the Chapter to have in this Community, it's fairly obvious that we should have a membership of at least 1,000. That means active recruiting by everyone now in the Chapter. One of the better devices, by the way, is to keep a few membership application cards constantly on your person for use with your friends and acquaintances. Kate Alfriend will be glad to see that you are supplied. The financial status of the Chapter and the urgent need for cash contributions were fully explained in the letter which the officers addressed to all members on September 3. The results to date have been distinctly disappointing. We feel sure that no member really wants to see the Chapter hampered in the fine work it is now carrying on. But unless the contributions start coming in better than they have been, that is sure to be the result. We are attaching another copy of the pledge card to this issue of the Action and urge all those who have not yet acted to fill it out and send it in at once. PLANS FOR THE NEXT MEMBERSHIP MEETING are still in the formulative stage. But the date for the meeting has been set — it's Thursday, October 23. The search for a suitable hall is still going on. Announcement cards, of course, will be mailed to all members as soon as the details have been finally ironed out. As far as the agenda is concerned, it's fairly clear that the major item of business will be a report from the Chapter President on the meeting of the National Executive Board in Chicago on September 20 and 21. This is the meeting which produced important recommendations for a foreign aid program and for a more vigorous fight against inflation on the home front. Ben Sigal, who attended the meeting as pinch-hitter for our regular delegate, Ed Hollander, will give the membership a detailed report. The agenda will include, also, some discussion of the proposed reorganization of the Community Chest in the District — a question in which the Chapter has taken an active interest for the past several months — also the regular quarterly financial report, and possibly a first-hand report by Ed Hollander on the recent FAO conference in Geneva. NEIGHBORHOOD MEETINGS ON MARSHALL PLAN The Neighborhood Committee, under the chairmanship of Joseph Margolin, is planning a series of meetings throughout the area during the second and third weeks of October to duscuss the Marshall Plan. Altogether there will probably be seven or eight of these neighborhood meetings so located that every member should be able to find one within ten blocks of his home. The emphasis will be on a full and free discussion rather than any formalized agenda. Efforts are being made, however, to have some of the Chapter members who are particularly well-posted on the details of the Marshall Plan serve as discussion leaders. Members are urged to attend and also to bring along prospective members. The details as to time and place will be announced a little later. As possible topics for future neighborhood meetings, the Committee is considering such questions as District home rule, civil rights, and several other matters of national or international concern. NOTES FROM THE EXECUTIVE BOARD Harry C. Becker of the Childrens' Bureau has recently become a member of the Executive Board of the Chapter. He replaces Glenn Atkinson who has left town to become educational director of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks in Cincinnati. At the last Board meeting on September 25 there was some discussion of the hearings which will be held by the Eastern Sub-committee of the Joint Congressional Committee on the Economic Report in Richmond between October 7 and 9. The Congressional sub-group, headed by Senator Flanders of Vermont, is one of three sub-committees investigating the level of prices and the cost of living in key areas throughout the country, with a view to recommending Congressional action at the next session. Since the Richmond hearing will cover an area which includes Washington, it was decided that the Chapter should request the privilege of having a representative testify on the prices in this vicinity. The representative has yet to be elected. --5- FOOD PACKAGES FOR EUROPE We have an urgent message from Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe— an organization responsible for sending food and clothing packages to famine-stricken areas in 15 countries. Mrs. Beatrice Schalet, a member of the Chapter, who is working with C.A.R.E., tells us that the need for help this winter will be more acute than ever. Packages can be purchased at prices ranging from $4 to $10. We recommend to all members that they send as many packages as they can. For further details, call Mrs. Schalet at CO 9320. THE WASHINGTON WORKSHOP Members of the Chapter interested in developing or exercising their talents in art, music, drama, writing, and the dance will want to look into the courses being offered by the Washington Workshop. The new group, which is offering a whole raft of lively-sounding courses, will begin its fall schedule on September 29. But we imagine if you're a few days late, it won't matter greatly. You can findout more about it either by writing the Washington Workshop at 2020 Massachusetts Ave. NW, or by calling Adams 2309. NOTES FROM THE COMMITTEES The CIVIL RIGHTS COMMITTEE,is active on such a bewildering number of fronts that about all we can do here is to report some of the highlights. The group is working on discrimination against Negro doctors in the Washington hospitals, on a civil rights law for the District, a directory of interracial projects, segregation in the District schools, real estate covenants, police brutality, and several other related subjects. The latest word on the National Theater campaign is that Actor's Equity is still threatening to boycott if the policy is not changed by June 03, 1948, but the owner is now talking about turning the National into a movie house. Individual members of Equity have offered to meet with the Committee for Racial Democracy, with which the Chapter cooperates, and discuss the issues whenever they are in town. The first to do so will be Cornelia Otis Skinner, who will be guest at a tea to be held in Frazier Hall at Howard University, Friday afternoon, October 3rd, from 4 to 6 PM. Members of the Chapter are cordially invited. No admission. charge. The PUBLICITY COMMITTEE, with Frances Adams in the chair, met at Chapter headquarters on September 24 and planned a full schedule for the autumn months. Mrs. Adams, in addition to providing your editor with an extremely welcome assistant, has parcelled out assignments to other people in the field of radio, press, publications and community relations work through a speakers' bureau. She tells us that the Committee needs more help, particularly in lining up and carrying through a publicity program on the forthcoming Jennie Lee meeting. The ARLINGTON SUB-COMMITTEE of the VIRGINIA COMMITTEE has endorsed the slate of candidates of the Committee for School Improvement for the Arlington School Board. The five member board is to be elected in the regular November elections. The committee for School Improvement led the successful campaign last spring for an elected board. The candidates of the Committee for School Improvement are: Mrs. Edmund D. Campbell, Barnard Joy, Colin C. MacPherson, O. Glenn Stahl and Curtis E. Tuthill. RECOMMENDED: The D.C. League of Women Voters has invited members of the Washington Chapter to attend a series of four meetings to be called on "Know Your Washington." The series will be held on Tuesday mornings beginning October 21, at Pierce Hall, 16th and Harvard NW. Admission is $1.00 for the series. The series will take up various aspects of local government including health, welfare, education and the need for suffrage in the District — and will certainly be worth your annual leave — or the price of a sitter. If you would like to attend the series, call Kate Alfriend at EX 8160 RECOMMENDED: The movie "CROSSFIRE", which opens at Keith's Theater on October 15. A representative of the Chapter who attended a preview of this movie sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews says it is an excellent weaponfor fighting racial and religious intolerance. And in addition to the message, it's an exciting story. M.M. TOZIER Editor WASHINGTON CHAPTER--AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION 1740 K st. NW ACTION CALENDAR - OCTOBER 1947 Note: All committee meetings are held at the Chapter office at 8:00 p.m. and are open to any interested Chapter member. Day & Date Committee Current Project Wed. Oct. 1 Membership Planning fall membership campaign Mon. Oct. 6 D.C Committee Setting up subcommittees on suffrage, schools, housing, health, prices, social welfare. HELP NEEDED. Thurs. Oct. 9 National Affairs Continuing with preparation of recommendations to send to National ADA. Mon. Oct. 13 Legislative Laying plans for opening of Congress. Tues. Oct. 14 Civil Liberties Washington inter-racial projects. Wed. Oct. 15 Membership Second meeting. Thurs. Oct. 16 Board Monday Oct. 20 Labor Thurs. Oct. 23 MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP MEETING. Place to be announced. Mon. Oct. 27 D. C. Committee Second meeting. Wed. Oct. 29 Publicity & Infor. Setting up subcommittees to handle media publicity, community relations and special events. Thursday Oct. 30 Board A meeting of the International Affairs Committee to discuss draft of National ADA policy will be announced. Notices on subcommittee meetings will be announced later. PLEASE - assign yourself to at least one committee. The work of ADA is carried out in committees - your help is needed! Neighborhood committee arranging meetings on Marshall plan for various areas. A.D.Action Publication of the Washington Chapter, AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION 1740 K Street, N.W. Washington 6, D. C. EXecutive 8160 JANUARY 1948 PREPARATIONS FOR NATIONAL CONVENTION With the first national convention of ADA now definitely set for the Washington Birthday week-end in Philadelphia, the Chapter has laid out an intensive program of preparatory work for the month of January. The first step will be to formulate preliminary Chapter recommendations on four major topics: national affairs, international affairs, the ADA national constitution, and ADA organization. Recommendations on the first two subjects will be hammered out by the Chapter's existing committees on national affairs and international affairs to be held at Chapter headquarters on Thursday, the 8th, and Monday, the 12th. Special commissions are being organized to handle the other two topics. The Commission on Organization will hold its first meeting at the home of Frances Adams on Wednesday, the 14; the Commission on the Constitution will meet at Nancy Wechsler's on Thursday, the 8th. The next stage in the proceedings will come at the regular monthly meeting of the Chapter membership on Thursday, the 15th at Epiphany Church, 1317 - G - St., NW. The two committees and two commissions will report briefly on their recommendations at that time, and the membership will be called upon to give an expression of its general position regarding the Convention subjects. Also at the membership meeting, nominations will be made (both by the Executive Board and from the floor) for delegates to represent the Chapter at the Convention. Under the sliding scale formula that has been adopted, the Washington Chapter, with current membership of around 600, would be entitled to 14 delegates and 7 alternates, in addition to Ed Hollander, the Chapter's regular representative on the National Board. The cut-off date for figuring Chapter representations, however, is February 8, and we hope we'll be entitled to at least another delegate or two by that time. Due to the state of the Chapter's finances, it has been decided that all delegates will have to foot their own bills. But Philadelphia isn't very far away, and we are assured that every effort is being made by the National Office to hold down expenses. In the two-week period following the January membership meeting, the committees and commissions will hold open meetings to work out the details of the Chapter's recommendations and draw up specific language. Then on Saturday, the 31st, a special meeting of the full Chapter membership will be held from approximately one-thirty to six in the afternoon to give final approval to the Chapter's recommendations. These will be transmitted immediately to National Headquarters where they will be considered along with recommendations from the other chapters, in formulation of draft statements on the four major subjects for consideration by the Convention. According to the present schedule, these drafts prepared by the national group will be in the hands of our Chapter by February 8. At the regular membership meeting in February, the 12th, the Chapter will elect its delegates, and instruct them in the light of the draft statements prepared by the National Office. The Convention will get under way on February 21 and last through the 23rd which is Monday and a holiday. All sessions will be at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel. -2- AUCHINCLOSS REPORT ENDORSED At the December Membership meeting the Chapter adopted a formal resolution endorsing "in principle" the proposals for DC home rule and re-organization made by the House Subcommittee under the chairmanship of Representative Auchincloss of New Jersey. The resolution, which was sent to Chairman Auchincloss on December 18 by Chapter President Sigal, also provides that the Chapter's Committee on District Affairs shall maintain close liaison with the House Sub-Committee so that testimony may be submitted on behalf of the Chapter at the proper time. JANUARY MEMBERSHIP MEETING As indicated on page 1, the next membership meeting will be held on Thursday, January 15, at the Epiphany Church Parish House, 1317 - G - St. NW. In addition to the reports on recommendations of the committees dealing with national convention subjects and the nomination of convention delegates, we are slated to hear from Mrs. Nancy Wechsler on the National ADA Board meeting held in Boston on December 13th and 14th. Mrs. Wechsler attended the meeting as an alternate for Ed Hollander, our regular delegate. ANDRE PHILIP SPEECH At the last membership meeting on December 17, the Chapter was really privileged to have as guest speaker Andre Philip, a prominent member of the French Socialist Party and former Minister of Finance in the Ramadier Cabinet. M.Philip, who was returning home for the holidays from the International Trade Organization Conference in Cuba, spoke to the membership on current conditions in France and future prospects. For the benefit of those members who missed the meeting-- and the turn-out was disappointingly small-- we want to summarize the high-spots of what Philip had to say. We must admit, though that the speech was so tightly organized and packed with fact that we can't really do it justice in the space we have. In the first part of his speech, Philip stressed particularly the curcial importance of coal to the whole economy of France and the rest of western Europe. With Britain no longer in a position to export coal on any significant scale, the mines of the Ruhr have taken on a critical significance. They should be run, according to Philip, by an international authority composed of the 16 Marshall Plan nations with representatives from the miners and the consumers. To turn back the mines to private enterprise would be disastrous; it would mean turning the key spot of western Europe over to the very men who helped Hitler on the road to power. Turning to the problem of American aid. Philip indicated that the amount made available to France under the interim aid bill passed at the special session of Congress would be just barely enough to prevent disaster during the winter months. As for the Marshall Plan, there has been a great deal of talk in this country about the kind of conditions which should be attached to the aid extended. Philip expressed the hope that America would insist on certain kinds of conditions, but not on others. The U.S., he said, has every right to ask that the funds be used most efficiently to increase the productivity of western Europe. But this means handling the problem cooperatively and without regard for the old nationalistic lines; it does not mean superimposition of the American free enterprise system on western Europe. Such a requirement would be totally unrealistic and would only play into the hands of the Communists. In France, Philip, continued, the Communists captured the imagination and respect of large numbers of the people by their courageous and zealous activity in the underground movement after Hitler declared war on Russia. For the last three years, the Communists have probably been the strongest single element in France. They have polled about 30 per cent of the national vote and have controlled about 90 per cent of the labor movement. However, the recent strikes have started a counter-trend. They were undertaken on orders from Moscow against the better judgment of many leaders of the French Communist Party. They way the strikes were handled convinced many of the rank-and-file workers that the CP of France was less interested in their welfare than in the foreign policy objectives of the Soviet Union. Consequently, there is now a real chance of breaking the hold of the Communists on the French Labor movement. But the work must be done inside the movement and not by political action. The French government, Philip said, is now nationalizing the mines, the banks, electric power industry, and the insurance companies. This is probably as far as nationalization should go until the government has had a chance to digest what it has swallowed; the technical problems of organization and operation of these industries will be a long-range job. The prospect is that France will have a mixed economy for many years to come--with private enterprise functioning in those sectors of the economy where it is most efficient and the other sectors operating on a nationalized basis. (continued on page 3) -3- In response to a question from the audience, Philip stated quite flatly that DeGaulle, Whom Philip apparently knows rather well, is not a fascist by nature and would not be capable of engineering a right-wing coup-d'etat. His instincts, Philip added, are those of an "authoritarian democrat" and his fondest dream is to come to power with the support of the Socialist Party, among other groups. The men around DeGaulle, however, are the real reactionaries of France. As long as DeGaulle continues to be surrounded by such individuals, he can never hope to reach an understanding with the Socialist Party. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S LIST As many members may have noticed the Attorney General's list of subversive organizations submitted to the Loyalty Review Board and made public by the Civil Service Commission on December 4th included an organization known as the Washington Committee for Democratic Action. The unfortunate similarity of that organization's name with ours has led to some confusion. Accordingly Chapter President Sigal wrote to the Attorney General on December 8th, pointing out that the Washington Chapter, Americans for Democratic Action has no connection with the Washington Committee for Democratic Action and asked for a statement that would clarify the situation. In reply on December 17th, Assistant Attorney General T. Vincent Quinn pointed out that the Attorney General's list was drawn up in 1943 while the Washington Chapter of ADA was formed in 1946. "There would thus", he concluded," seem to be no reason for confusion between the two groups." LETTERS TO GSI AND FAIRMAC On the labor front, the Chapter has recently, urged the necessity of collective bargaining on two organizations of the DC area-- Government Services, Inc., and the Fairmac Corporation. In a letter to General U.S.Grant, III, president of the GSI, Chapter President Sigal pointed out that the Taft-Hartley Act "does not require that every union desiring to bargain must file the non-Communist affidavits." GSI, Mr. Sigal added, is a "quasi-public corporation which owes both to its employees and to the people it serves a responsibility to conduct its business in a public-spirited manner." The letter to the Fairmac Corporation, which operates both the Fairlington and the McLean Gardens housing projects, was written by William Lawson, chairman of the Chapter's Arlington Committee. Continued refusal to bargain collectively with the union of Fairlington employees, Mr. Lawson asserted, "is not only contrary to good management-labor relations, but also disregards the best interests of the community." CALL TO ACTION BY THE CONSUMER COMMITTEE What You can do about Prices! Elizabeth Rohr, chairman of the Consumer Committee urges every member of the Chapter to write at once to his Senator and Congressman (or, if you have none, write to Senator Robert Taft, chrmn., Republican Policy Committee, Senator Charles Tobey, chrmn., Senate Banking and Currency Committee, and Rep. Jesse Wolcott, chrmn. ,House Banking and Currency Committee)..... AND Write also to the majority and minority leaders: Senator Wallace H. White, Jr., Senator Alben W. Barkley, Rep. Charles A. Halleck and Rep.John W. McCormack. HERE IS WHAT TO SAY: The so-called anti-inflation bill which Congress has passed will do nothing to stop the rise in prices. Whether or not Congress passes real inflation-control legislation at its regular session beginning January 6th depends upon what it hears from the public. That is why it is important for every member of ADA to write his Congressman now! Tell them: 1. The government must have authority to controlscarce goods. Voluntary agreements are not the way to combat inflation,and assure the European Aid Program. 2. To support rationing and price control. 3. Extend and strengthen rent contol. 4. To authorize the regulation of speculative trading on the commodity exchanges. 5. To restrain creation of infl tionary bank credit IMPORTANT NOTE: Is there a certified public accountant among the membership who would like to contribute his services to ADA. The Constitution provides for an annual audit of the Chapter's books to be submitted to the membership at the March meeting. If there is a CPA-ADA'er who would do this for us it would be a great help to the Chapter's budget. -4- THREE IMPORTANT MATTERS FOR YOUR ATTENTION: 1. The ADA Foreign Policy Report, "Toward Total Peace': A Liberal Foreign Policy for the United States" has received nation-wide commendation and is really an item of "must" reading for those who are interested in a progressive solution. of the many pressing international problems. The Report poses the problems which face this country on foreign policy,discusses U.S.Objectives,outlines the program which ADA believes must logically be followed if the US is to live up to its role o leadership as a world power. It provides full material on the Marshall Plan: its origins, purposes and possibilities. Get your copy at Chapter headquarters, in person or by mail. 25¢ to members. 2. Be sure to buy your books and prints at Whyte's bookshop,1518 Connecticut Ave.NW. If you'll ask for a sales slip and mail it to the Chapter office, we will get 10% for our Treasury.ADA can also benefit if you open a charge account at Whyte's. 3. The Chapter is still trying to rent that surplus office space at 1740 - K - St. NW. The room is not too spacious, we must admit, but the location is a good one and the rent— $25 a month— seems moderate. Let us know if you can suggest a tenant. RECENT NOTES FROM THE EXEC. BOARD With the formal election of Mrs. Frances Adams as vice president of the Chapter at the last membership meeting, another vacancy on the Executive Board was created, in addition to two which had previously existed. These spots have now been filled by action of the board. The new members are: George Weaver, director of the National CIO Committee to Abolish Racial and Religious Discrimination and forever vice president of the Washington Chapter; Langdon C. West, a member of the legal staff of the Office of the Housing Expediter; and David Gordon, a member of the staff of the World Bank and chairman of the Chapter's committee on International Affairs. Josephine Klein was recently named the chapter's representative on the Committee for Racial Democracy in the Nation's Capital. A PLEA FOR OFFICE HELP Dorothy Lawson, chrmn. of the Office Services Committee, reports that volunteer office workers are practically non-existent. Help is especially needed during the day-time and on Saturday mornings. Phone her at OVerlook 0367 if you can give any help. MONTGOMERY COUNTY MEETING Out beyond the District line on the Maryland side, the newly-formed Montgomery County Committee of the Chapter is beginning to stir up some action. On Friday, January 9, the Committee is sponsoring a town meeting in Chevy Chase at which residents of the County will have a chance to quiz their representatives in the Maryland Legislature. State Senator Roy Tasco Davis and the six delegates representing the County in the State Assembly will all be on hand and are scheduled to discuss such topics as schools, sales taxes, public health, housing and highways. Sounds like real democratic action at the grass which our learned friends are always telling us we need a lot more of. The meeting will convene at 8:30 PM at the Leland Junior High School in Chevy Chase, Md. Leon Henderson will serve as chairman and Blair Lee, III, editor of the Maryland News will be the moderator. All ADA members in Montgomery County are urged to come and bring their friends. Other members should tell their friends who live in the County about it. After all the"urging"on this page, we feel that the item below is appropriate: ARE YOU TIRED OF BEING HECKLED.... With the ADA pleas you've had of late? Then, come on and gather in NEW MEMBERS To be heckled in forty-eight! THE '48 LOAD WILL BE HEAVY. HELP LIGHTEN IT BY GETTING MORE FOLKS TO JOIN THE CHAPTER AND SHARE THE WORK. SUPPORT THE MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGN: January 15 to March 15. COOPERATE WITH YOUR TEAM CAPTAIN: You'll hear from him soon. M. M. TOZIER, Editor WASHINGTON CHAPTER, AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION 1740 K St. NW, Washington, EX 8160, ex 42 ACTION CALENDAR - JANUARY 1948 Committee meetings are held at Chapter office at 8 P.M. unless otherwise specified, are open to all interested Chapter members, and this month are to be devoted primarily to preparation for the ADA national convention in Philadelphia, Feb. 21–23. "Commissions" are ad hoc committees set up to cover specific areas to be discussed at the convention. You are urged to take part in convention preparation by attending as many of the following meetings as you can. DAY AND DATE MEETING PROGRAM & OTHER INFORMATION Thurs. Dec. 8 National Affairs Com. (full committee) Domestic policy recommendations for convention. Home Rule Subcom. (DC Comm) Lunch 12:15 New Athens Rest. Call Mary Lee Council NO 1240 evenings for reservation Constitution Commission Wechsler, 3422 Reservoir Rd. Recommendations on Constitution for convention. Friday, Dec. 9 Montgomery County TOWN MEETING, 8:30 P.M. Leland Jr. High School, Chevy Chase, Md. Monday Dec. 12 International Affairs (full committee) Foreign policy recommendations for convention Housing Su com. (DC Comm) 12:15 Tally-Ho Rest. Call Chas. Bleich RA 4027 evenings for reser. Tues. Jan. 13 Civil Rights Wed. Jan. 14 Riscal Affairs Subcom. (DC) Lunch 12:15 New Athens. Call M. Sworzyn EM 6118 for reserv. before Jan. 12 Organization Commission Adams, 3720 39th St. NW Recommendations on Organization for convention. Thurs. Jan. 15 MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP MTG Parish House, Epiphany Church, 1312 G St. New Agenda includes report of committees and commissions on recommendations for convention. Nominations for delegates to conv. Tues Jan. 20 Labor committee Wed. Jan 21 Neighborhood committee Organization of neighborhood grps. Thurs Jan. 22 Executive Board Home Rule Subcom. (DC) Lunch 12:15 New Athens. Call Mary Lee Council (see above) Sat. Jan. 20 Consumer Committee Lunch 12:15 Tally Ho. Call Margaret Hawkins before 18th for reserv. WO 2731. Mon. Jan. 26 Education. Health & Welfare (DC) Eliz. Goodman, 324 Gallatin St. NW Develop program with assistance of Professional qualified non-members of ADA . Tues. Jan. 27 Constitution Commission Preparation Chapt. recommendations Wed. Jan. 28 Organization Commission Adams, 3720 39th St. NW Preparation Chapt. recommendations Thurs. Jan. 29 Publicity Committee Fri. Jan. 30 Committee Chrm. & Exec. Board 12:15 lunch meeting, Brookings Sat. Jan. 31 Special MEMBERSHIP mtg. YWCA, 17th & K Sts 1 - 6 P.M. Adoption of Chapter recommendations to National ADA for convention. WASHINGTON CHAPTER, AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION 1740 - K - St. NW, Washington, EX 8160, x 42 ACTION CALENDAR - FEBRUARY 1948 Committee meetings are held at the Chapter Office at 8:00 P.M., unless otherwise specified, and are open to all interested Chapter members. DAY AND DATE MEETING PROGRAM Wed. Feb. 11 National Affairs Completion conven. statement Thurs. Feb. 12 MEMBERSHIP MEETING 8:00 PM, Pierce Hall, All Souls Church, 16th and Harvard, N.W. Election & completion instructions delegates to convention, action nominating committee Thurs. Feb 12 Home Rule Sub-Comm. (DC) Lunch, 12:15, New Athens (Call Miss Council, No 1240 reserv) Fri. Feb. 13 Fiscal Affairs Sub-Comm. (DC)* Lunch, 12:15, New Athens Sat. Feb. 14 Consumer Sub-Comm. (DC) Lunch, 12:15, Tally-Ho (Call Mrs. Hawkins, WO 2331, reserv) Mon. Feb.16 Education, Health, Welfare (DC) 324 Gallatin, NW Tues.Feb.17 Civil Rights Report on CRD conference Wed.Feb. 18 Neighborhood Committee Thurs.Feb.19 Executive Board Fri. Feb.20 Housing Sub-Comm. (DC) Lunch, 12:30, Tally-Ho (Call Mr. Bleich, RA 4027, reserv) Sat.Sun.Mon. . Feb. 21, 22, 23 National ADA Convention Philadelphia, Pa Tues.Feb 24 Labor Committee Thurs.Feb.26 Montgomery County Comm FORUM ON MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS Silver Springs Armory Silver Springs, Maryland Thurs.Feb.26 Far Eastern Affairs Sub. Comm. (Int'l Affairs Committee) 4th floor, 1620 Eye St. NW Mon. March 1 Colonial & Dependent Areas Sub.Com. (Int'l Affairs Committee) *Call Miss Sworzyn, Em 6118 for reservations **** TO DO: 1. Attend Home Rule Hearings on the Hill. 2. Write Your Congressman To Support the Auchincloss Plan. a.D.Action Publication of the Washington Chapter, AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION 1740 K Street, N. W. Washington 6, D. C. EXecutive 8160 FEBRUARY 1948 FEBRUARY MEMBERSHIP MEETING The regular Chapter meeting for February is now set for the evening of Lincoln's Birthday (Thursday the 12th) at Pierce Hall, 16th and Harvard at 8 p.m. It will be a strictly business meeting with three topics of major importance on the agenda: (1) election of the Chapter's delegates to the National Convention. (2) final instruction of the delegates in the light of the changes made by the national organization in our four policy documents, and (3) appointment of a nominating committee to bring to the March meeting a slate of candidates for officers and Board members of the Chapter for the coming year. As we go to press, the Chapter would seem to be entitled to 14 delegates and 7 alternates to the National Convention in addition to Ed Hollander, our regular representative on the National Board. At the meeting on the 12th, each member present will be asked to vote for a total of 21 people out of a list of 35 candidates who have been nominated. The 14 candidates receiving the highest number of votes will be our delegates; the next 7 highest will be our alternates. These are the 35 nominees: Frances Adams Kate Alfriend Sylvia Altman Charles Bleich Lawrence Bloomberg Selma Borchardt Tansel Butler Wallace Cohen Theo Crevenna George Cunney John Edelman Chester Ellickson Ernesto Galarza David Gordon Ludwig Hamburger Elizabeth Hastings Josephine Klein Emilie Lasalle David Lasser William Lawson Barrow Lyons Ruth Lyons Donald Montgomery Milton Prensky John Shively Paul Sifton Benjamin Sigal Ted Silvey David Steinberg Merrill Tozier J. C. Turner Gerhard Van Arkle Nancy Wechsler Murray Weiss Peter Winter Gardner Jackson and George Weaver who were nominated earlier, have both been invited to attend the Convention as delegates-at-large and will thus not figure in the balloting on the 12th. This looks like one of the most important meetings we have had in a long time. All members are urged to attend. CHAPTER PREPARATIONS FOR NATIONAL CONVENTION As forecast in the last issue of ADaction, January was an extremely busy month for the Washington Chapter. Committees and commissions have been meeting all over the lot; issues facing the Chapter and the national organization have been fully argued out; and statements of the Chapter's position on these issues have now been hammered down into something approximating final form. -2- At the regular membership meeting on January 15, reports were received from chairmen of the four Chapter groups which have been working on the basic documents which our delegates will take with them to the Convention in Philadelphia. At the special membership meeting on the afternoon of the 31st, drafts of all four documents were presented to the membership and discussed as fully as time would allow. Since all four of the documents are rather long and cover a great many subjects, we have space here to report only on the highlights. 1. Organization The document on this subject, worked out by a commission under the chairmanship of Chapter Vice President Frances Adams, consists of a series of fairly pointed questions which the Chapter feels ADA should be asking itself at the time. The three main headings are: (1) Where are we (as an organization)? (2) Where do we go from here? and (3) How do we get there? Under each of these headings there is a whole raft of detailed questions which should help to point up ADA thinking on status, goals, and methods. After brief discussion at the January 31 meeting, the document was approved with the understanding that our delegates would use it as the basis for their discussion with the other delegates in a special session on the organization which will be held at the Convention on the evening of February 22. 2. National Affairs The document on this subject, which was shaped up in tentative form after meetings and open hearings of the National Affairs Committee under the chairmanship of Chester Ellickson, took up the major share of the afternoon session. Several parts of it were substantially modified, and the document in its revised form has now been submitted to the national organization as an expression of the views of the Chapter on key domestic issues. In its present form, the statement calls for (1) maintenance of full employment, (2) better distribution of national income, (3) expansion of social security, (4) a national health insurance program, (5) better pay for teachers and improvement of the whole public school system, (6) a national housing program designed to produce by 1960 a total of 20 million new dwellings "of adequate quality at prices and rents which most families can afford to pay", (7) repeal of the Taft Hartley Act. (8) strengthening of the right of worker to collective bargaining, (9) raising of the minimum wage to at least 75 cents an hour, (10) nationalization of those basic industries or services "where private enterprise has failed to meet the nation's requirements, or to utilize the nation's resources in the public interest", (11) immediate effectuation of the recommendations of the President's Committee on Civil Rights, (12) modification of the President's Loyalty Program to provide better protection for civil rights of Federal workers, (13) statehood for Hawaii and Alaska, and (14) home rule for the District of Columbia. The planks on universal military training and on political action are so important that they deserve full quotation. Both represent revised statements which were worked out and approved at the January 31 meeting. On UMT: "We are opposed to universal military training at this time because it takes the pressure off the Armed Services to recruit voluntarily by democratic practices and because it misleads the people into considering [UMT] as an appropriate method of national defense when it is the European Recovery Program that really counts." On political action: "We will actively work for the nomination and election of liberal candidates in 1948 in order to build an effective progressive movement. We are opposed to the current efforts to form a third party. We believe that the new party movement is inspired by inept statesmanship and totalitarian forces. We believe that no existing party merits our unqualified endorsement." 3. Constitution The major recommendation of the Constitution Commission, which carried out its deliberations and held its open hearings under the chairmanship of Lawrence Bloomberg, was in favor of postponing the adoption of a permanent ADA national constitution for another full year. This decision was reached, according to the Commission's statement, for three main reasons: (1) because of the cross currents in the liberal movement today, (2) because of the -3- possible effect of the new third party on liberal groups, and (3) because ADA is still in a stage of rapid expansion and change. At the same time the Commission recommended that the constitution to be adopted at Philadelphia be specifically limited to one year's duration and advocated a number of changes in the temporary constitution under which the ADA national organization is now operating. The most important of these was an amendment requiring that all delegates-at-large to the next National Con-vention be members of ADA in good standing and limiting the number of such delegates to 20 percent of the voting strength of chapter delegates. Time ran out before the membership was able to complete its consideration of the document from the Constitution Commission. Prior to adjournment, however, approval was given to the proposal for postponing the adoption of a permanent constitution for another year. 4. Foreign Policy Because of the large amount of time devoted to the National Affairs document, the membership never did get around to consideration of the Foreign Policy statement developed by the Chapter's International Affairs Committee under the chairmanship of David Gordon. This document, which is being sent to the national organization with the notion that it represents merely committee thinking and not the formally approved views of the Chapter, comes out in favor of a bold attack on "the conditions of hunger, want and economic insecurity which breed desperate political solutions" and advocates "employing our economic abundance to the full to build a stable world." The statement also (1) favors strengthening of the UN as the most feasible means of assuring world peace, (2) supports the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Program and the International Trade Organization with "adequate safeguards to prevent the exploitation or intimidation of weaker economies", (3) endorses the U.S. proposals for international development and control of atomic energy, (4) favors international trusteeship for colonial areas which "are not yet deemed ready for self-government", (5) advocates a free exchange of information among the peoples of the world, (6) wholeheartedly endorses the European Recovery Program, (7) supports the UN Balkans Commission and favors giving the UN "military, legal, and financial power to implement the Commission's recommendations, (8) condemns the Fascist regime in Spain, (9) urges the continuation of efforts to conclude peace treaties with Germany and Japan containing "enforceable guarantees to prevent these states from falling under the control of any other power", (10) urges the adoption of a firm policy in the Far East supporting moderate, progressive elements in their efforts to reconstruct a stable economic and political structure, (11) favors firm U.S. support of the UN decision on Palestine, and (12) advocates the "association of the American republics, with the United States as partner, not as boss." On relations with the Soviet Union, the Chapter's statement advocates a middle course between the extremes of appeasement and irrational Russo-phobia. "The fact of Soviet aggression," it emphasizes, "is undeniable, whether it stems from honest fear of an American-led coalition against them, or whether the Communist movement is boldly seizing an historic opportunity to extend its power and influence; we believe United States policy must take account of both possibilities. Therefore, we favor an American initiative and continuous American efforts for an overall settlement of the major issues dividing us from the Soviet Union, instead of a piecemeal approach." AN INVITATION TO THE CONVENTION A note from national headquarters advises us that all members of ADA are invited to attend the Convention as observers. As you should know by this time, the place is Philadelphia (Bellevue-Stratford Hotel) and the time is February 21-23. In view of the moderate rail fare involved, it looks like an extremely worthwhile week-end for members of the D.C. Chapter. "The Philadelphia Convention," the letter from national headquarters emphasizes, "will provide, must provide the most impressive and exciting demonstration of genuine American liberalism in many years. We expect a minimum of 600 delegates from all parts of the country. All over the world, progressives will be anxiously watching Philadelphia to determine the strength, the cohesion, and the leadership which American liberalism can demonstrate in this critical year. On the basis of decisions reached in Philadelphia, the non-Communist liberals of this country will enter the decisive election of 1948." -3- possible effect of the new third party on liberal groups, and (3) because ADA is still in a stage of rapid expansion and change. At the same time the Commission recommended that the constitution to be adopted at Philadelphia be specifically limited to one year's duration and advocated a number of changes in the temporary constitution under which the ADA national organization is now operating. The most important of these was an amendment requiring that all delegates-at-large to the next National Con- vention be members of ADA in good standing and limiting the number of such delegates to 20 percent of the voting strength of chapter delegates. Time ran out before the membership was able to complete its considera- tion of the document from the Constitution Commission. Prior to adjournment, however, approval was given to the proposal for postponing the adoption of a permanent constitution for another year. 4. Foreign Policy Because of the large amount of time devoted to the National Affairs document, the membership never did get around to consideration of the Foreign Policy statement developed by the Chapter's International Affairs Committee under the chairmanship of David Gordon. This document, which is being sent to the national organization with the notation that it represents merely committee thinking and not the for- mally approved views of the Chapter, come out in favor of a bold attack on "the conditions of hunger, want, economic insecurity which breed desperate political solutions" and advocates "employing our economic abun- dance to the full to build a stable world." The statement also (1) favors strengthening of the UN as the most feasible means of assuring world peace, (2) supports the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Program and the International Trade Organization with "adequate safeguards to prevent the exploitation or intimidation of weaker economies", (3) endorses the U.S. proposals for international trusteeship for colonial areas which "are not yet deemed ready for self-government", (5) advocates a free exchange of information among the peoples of the world, (6) wholeheartedly endorses the European Recovery Program, (7) supports the UN Balkans Com- mission and favors giving the UN "military, legal, and financial power to implement the Commission's recommendations, (8) condemns the Fascist regime in Spain, (9) urges the continuation of efforts to conclude peace treaties with Germany and Japan containing "enforceable guarantees to prevent these states from falling under the control of any other power", (10) urges the adoption of a firm policy in the Far East supporting moderate, progressive elements in their efforts to reconstruct a stable economic and political structure, (11) favors firm U.S. support of the UN decision on Palestine, and (12) advocates the "association of the American republics, with the United States as partner, not as boss." On relations with the Soviet Union, the Chapter's statement advocates a middle course between the extremes of appeasement and irrational Russo- phobia. "The fact of Soviet aggression," it emphasizes, "its undeniable, whether it stems from honest fear of an American-led coalition against them, or whether the Communist movement is boldly seizing a historic oppor- tunity to extend its power and influence; we believe United States policy must take account of both possibilities. Therefore, we favor an American initiative and continuous American efforts for an overall settlement of the major issues dividing us from the Soviet Union, instead of a piecemeal approach." AN INVITATION TO THE CONVENTION A note from national headquarters advises that all members of ADA are invited to attend the Convention as observers. As you should know by this time, the place is Philadelphia (Bellevue-Stratford Hotel) and the time is February 21-23. In view of the moderate rail fare involved, it looks like an extremely worthwhile week-end for members of the D.C. Chapter. "The Philadephia Convention," the letter from national headquarters emphasizes, "will provide, must provide the most impressive and exciting demonstration of genuine American liberalism in many years. We expect a minimum of 600 delegates from all parts of the country. All over the world, progressives will be anxiously watching Philadelphia to determine the strength, the cohesion, and the leadership which American liberalism can demonstrate in this critical year. On the basis of decisions reached in Philadelphia, the non-Communist liberals of this country will enter the decisive election of 1948." -4- One of the most important single events of the Convention will be the banquet to be held on Saturday evening, the 21st. The speakers will include Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, and Senator Joesph O'Mahoney of Wyoming. Other Convention speakers include Walter Reuther and William Green. For information on hotel reservations, banquet reservations, credentials, ect., call Kate Alfriend at Chapter headquarters. SALES TAX BROADCAST President Ben Sigal represented the Chapter on a radio forum over Station WWDC on Tuesday, February 3, speaking out against the proposed two percent sales tax for the District of Columbia. Citing facts and figures to show that the proposed tax would fall most drastically on those in the lower-income brackets, Mr. Sigal stated that the problem of increasing DC revenues could be better solved either by amending and or by enlarging the amount of the Federal government's annual payment. Marilyn Sworzyn, chairman of the DC fiscal affairs committee,and Charles Bleich, housing chairman, prepared the background material for the script. Speaking in favor of the proposed sales tax was Representative Walt Horan of Washington. PARTY FOR NEW MEMBERS By the time you receive this, it will probably be history . . . but a party is being held for new members of the Chapter at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Eichholz (1327 33rd St., NW) Saturday afternoon, February 7, from 4 to 7 p.m. All those who have come into the Chapter since last June are being invited to attend and meet the Chapter's officers and committee chairmen. Speaking of committee chairmen, we are enclosing a full list of them with this issue of the Action and hope that new members, in particular, will pick themselves out of a commitee or two and become active participants. The Chapter depends on its committees for the development of its program. Consider yourself personally invited to attend any of the committee meetings which interest you. Consult your calendar of committee meetings and then just drop around. DON'T FORGET THOSE SALE SLIPS Whyte's Bookshop has asked us to remind Chapter members to get sales ticket at the time they make a purchase. Some folks apparently have forgotten about the ticket angle and then tried to recoup their error later. Just can't be done. All sales tickets should be sent to Chapter headquarters so that our treasury can receive the 10% under our agreement with the bookshop. Whyte's is at 1518 Connecticut Avenue and has some mighty fine volumes. Better drop in. CIVIL RIGHTS MEETING On January 31, the day of our special membership meeting, the Committee for Racial Democracy in the Nation's Capital held a meeting at the 12th St. YMCA to consider a broadening of its program. The Chapter was represented by four members of the Civil Rights Committee -- Vernon Crane, Josephine Kelin, James Whyte, and Grace Spiro. At the meeting it was decided to change the name of the CRD to the "Council for Civil Rights in the Nation's Capital" and to expand the area of activity to take in all types of civil rights as defined in the report of the President's Committee. Because segregation and discrimination against Negroes are the most urgent civil rights problems in the District of Columbia, however, it was agreed that the group should continue to focus its major attentions on that front. Like its predecessor, the newly formed Council will perform two major functions (1) coordination of the action of affiliated organizations (such as our Chapter) in all areas of discrimination, and (2) initiation of action in specific problem areas. The major difference is that the new group will concern itself not only with racial problems but also those based on religion or national origin. WOMEN VOTERS' SCHOOL ON PEACE The People's Responsibility for Peace will be the theme of the annual school of the DC League of Women Voters at the Hotel Statler on Tuesday, February 17, from 10 to 4. The morning session will be devoted to an assessment of the effort toward peace. Speakers: Dean Rusk, Director of State Dept.'s Office of Special Political Affairs, James B. Reston of the N.Y. Times, and Ferdinand Kuhn of the Washington Post. The afternoon topic will be an assessment of what must yet be done toward achieving the peace. Speakers: Prof. Harold D. Lasswell, Yale Law School, and Louise Leonard Wright of Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. ADA members invited. Tickets $1.40, incl. tax. For information call RE 5778. -5- REPORT ON THE MEMBERSHIP DRIVE The 1948 membership campaign got under way officially on Jan. 15. It was significant that the first application for membership, announced at the general membership meeting on that date, by Dave Lasser, came from Greece (from Alan Strachan), accompanied by an expression of the realization of the vital importance of ADA's activities in the present world situation. Another more recent application announced at the January 31 meeting, is from James B. Carey, National Secretary-Treasurer of the CIO. The team captains have entered enthusiastically into the work of the drive and have already been at work contacting members of their teams. However, we're sorry to have to announce that positive action from individual members has not been so encouraging. While a number of applications have been received, some of the members report that they either have not gotten around to contacting their prospects, or else did not have application cards handy, or for some other reasons failed to sign up prospects on the spot. In this connection, why not remember always to carry an extra membership application card or two with you so that prospects can "sign on the dotted line" and their applications and dues can be forwarded without delay? Don't forget that, although the drive will continue until March 15, the deadline date for determining the number of our delegates to the National Convention based on membership is February 8. Remember too that as an added incentive there are three prizes to be awarded to those securing the largest number of members: an original Herblock cartoon; a subscription to The Nation, the New Yorker or Harpers; and a copy of Rebecca West's latest book, The Meaning of Treason. In the final analysis, however, we must recognize that our strength and our voice in local, national and international problems as well as the financial solvency of our Chapter, depend on an ever-increasing and dynamic membership. Therefore, it's up to each one of us to help meet that goal of 1200 new members during this campaign. This is an imposing figure, but it actually means only two new members per member over the two months of the drive. (Of course, this is a minimum!) Let's all get busy individually and in cooperation with our team captains so that the next report can definitely be on a more cheerful note. TESTIMONY ON HOUSING AND RENT CONTROL Twice with the past month the Chapter has made its views known on various aspects of the housing problem. On Jan. 19 Vice President Frances Adams appeared before the Joint Congressional Committee on Housing in support of a three-point program of positive action. On Jan. 31 she appeared before the District Commissioners to urge a continuation of the DC Rent Control Act until June 30, 1950. It was on the latter occasion that the Washington Post photographer caught her and her small son in that picture you all saw about a week ago. The three points emphasized in Mrs. Adams' statement to the Joint Congressional group were (1) support of the Taft-Ellender-Wagner bill so that the District will be enabled to participate in the provision of low-rent subsidized housing, (2) a Congressional appropriation of funds to the National Capital Housing Authority to permit the construction of 5500 dwelling units deferred because of the war, and (3) Congressional appropriation of sufficient funds to the DC Land Redevelopment Agency for the acquisition and redevelopment of slum areas. In testifying before the District Commissioners, Mrs. Adams not only advocated a continuation of rent control but also spoke out against any authorization of blanket increases. "We urge, too", she stated, "that there be no general across-the-board increase in rents. We recognize, of course, that there may be some landlords who are suffering hardship. Such hardship should be relieved and there is adequate provision in the present District Rent Act for doing so. In fact, as the record of the Rent Congrol Administration in the District will show, hardship cases are being relieved in a very generous manner. They should continue to be considered, case by case, and not by any general increase which would give most landlords a windfall at the expense of the people of the District." Both of these statements were prepared by the DC Housing Committee whose Chairman is Charles Bleich. THOSE OVERDUE DUES AGAIN!! One of the reasons for the currently (we almost said "chronically") dire financial straits of the Chapter is the sad fact that about 130 of us are now behind in payment of our annual dues. If everybody should pay up tomorrow morning, the Chapter's exchequer would obviously be in a lot healthier state and the tempo of our activities could be stepped up accordingly. With nominations and elections for official positions in the Chapter coming up in March and April, it becomes more important than ever to get yourself on a paid-up basis. The Constitution provides that "only members of the Chapter in good standing shall be eligible to hold office or be a candidate therefor." Incidentally, it helps enormously if you pay your dues promptly after receiving your first notice. Sending out second, third, and fourth notices takes time and money, both of which we can ill afford to waste these days. -6- A REPORT FROM THE DC COMMITTEE by Frances Adams, Chrm. Edith Onthank, our secretary, has prepared a monumental scrapbook on DC subjects for use of the committees and interested members. Subcommittee on Home Rule (Mary Lee Council, Chairman) This committee has met regularly to make plans for (1) preparation of testimony for the Joint Congressional hearings which opened Feb. 2, (2) discussion of community public relations in connection with the bill, and (3) work on legislative plans. Jim Whyte has taken on the legislative job and is calling on chapter members to write their Congressmen, to make personal calls on their Congressmen and to help on the job in other possible ways. The testimony was approved by the executive committee and sent to the House Subcommittee on Home Rule for the chapter on Feb. 7. President Sigal testified for the chapter on that date. Preparation of this testimony has meant a good deal of study of the bill by members of the subcommittee as well as conversations with other groups in the community. It is our feeling that the bill in general should be supported whether or not the changes we have suggested will be incorporated in the bill. After the hearings, the bill will be revised and should reach the floor of the House sometime early in March. The Senate should get the bill sometime in April. During these months, members of the chapter will be called upon to help with both the legislative and educational jobs to be done. Consult calendar for meeting times of this subcommittee. Everyone's help is needed. Subcommittee on Housing (Charles Bleich, Chairman) Dr. Bleich and his committee have had a busy month. They prepared testimony for two hearings; the Joint Committee on Housing and the District Commissioners on the DC Rent Control Act. Subcommittee on Health, Education, Welfare (Elizabeth Goodman, Chairman) Raymond Clapp, Acting Director of the DC Department of Public Welfare, spoke to this subcommittee on Monday, Jan. 26. at Mrs. Goodman's. He described the operations of his department, discussed the current restrictions on public assistance, the care of children, and the need for better understanding on the part of the community of welfare needs in Washington. This subcommittee intends to look into health, education and welfare aspects of DC in an effort to build up a well informed committee that will be ready to advise chapter action when it is necessary. The possibilities of conducting some kind of community education project in these areas was discussed briefly. Mrs. Goodman makes a plea for help and is in particular need of teachers, welfare people, health educators, physicians, public health people and others with specialized professional qualifications. In addition, Mrs. Goodman says, people who are interested in these subjects as citizens in the nation's capital are urged to participate. Consult your calendar. Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs (Elizabeth Rohr and Margaret Hawkins) In the absence of the chairman during January, Mrs. Hawkins took over the work of the committee which has been distributing the door-knob hangers on joining ADA's fight on inflation. If you would like to help spread these around Washington call Mrs. Hawkins at WO 2731. The committee is working closely with AVC's transportation committee on the current Capital Transit proposals for increased fares in the District. Needed urgently is someone with public utilities, legal or accounting experience and also anyone interested in keeping street car fares at their present rate. Opportunity will be given for testimony by local groups, and the committee hopes to have sufficient work done to go on record for the chapter against any such increase. NEIGHBORHOOD COMMITTEE At its January meeting, the Neighborhood Committee formulated plans for establishment of regular ADA neighborhood groups thruout the Washington area. Initially these groups will be set up by postal zones and headed by several leaders within the zone, who will assume responsibility for calling the meetings and assuring their continuity. Direction and assistance in setting up the meetings will given area leaders by members of the Neighborhood Committee. After they are established, the initiative for continuing the meetings and preparation for them will be lodged with the individual groups themselves, with the Neighborhood Commitee available for advice and assistance. Any Chapter member interested in working with the Neighborhood Committee in setting up. neighborhood groups, should contact Eleanor Merrick, secretary, at CO 5987. M.M. TOZIER, Editor a. D. Action Publication of the Washington Chapter, AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION 1740 K Street, N. W. Washington 6, D.C. EXecutive 8160 APRIL 1948 ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE BOARD The election of Chapter officers for 1948 was just the beginning of ADA local political activities. Here are the results, as announced at the April 15 membership meeting: President: Benjamin C. Sigal Vice Presidents: Frances Adams and Gerhard Van Arkel Secretary: David Gordon Treasurer: William Lawson Nat'l Board Rep.: Edward Hollander Executive Board: Sylvia Altman, Lawrence Bloomberg, Wallace Cohen, Mary Lee Council, E. B. Henderson, Nelson Cruikshank, John Edelman, Chester Ellickson, Thomasina Johnson, Martha Josephs, Paul Kreuger, David Lasser, Donald Montgomery, Nora Piori, Ted Silvey, and George Weaver. Because of the political nature of some of the Chapter activities during the coming months and the possible application of the Hatch Act, two of the newly elected officers and six of the Board members who are government employees have declined to serve in these capacities. They are Lawrence Bloomberg, Edward Hollander, Thomasina Johnson, Paul Kreuger, Chester Ellickson, E.B. Henderson, William Lawson, and David Lasser. The group was of the opinion that the best interests of ADA would not be served by a situation in which some of the activities of its leadership must be limited. They will continue to take an active part in the non-political affairs of ADA. Steps to fill the vacancies will be taken at the next general membership meeting, on May 20. APRIL MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS A special meeting of the Chapter was held on April 1st, in response to a communication from Leon Henderson, national chairman of ADA, calling an expanded meeting of the National Board in Pittsburgh on April 10 for the purpose of reviewing the ADA's position on presidential candidates. After a discussion of alternatives ranging from possible reaffirmation of the action of the Convention to the endorsement of specific candidates, the membership instructed its representative on the national board as follows: 1) The National Board should endorse no specific candidate by name at this time. 2) The Board should actively explore possible candidates (a) whose attitudes and policies are similar to those of ADA and (b) who can uphold those policies effectively and enlist wide public and political support. (3) The Board on behalf of ADA should use its influence to obtain such person or persons as candidate(s) to build up support for them, and obtain the graceful withdrawal of Truman. (Continued Page 2) IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! VICTOR RAUL HAYA DE LA TORRE, outstanding leader of Latin American labor and progressive movements, will speak under ADA auspices next Tuesday, May 4, at 12:15 PM, at a luncheon meeting at Baker Hall (YWCA), 16th and K. NW). De la Torre is founder and leader of the Aprista Party of Peru, one of the most important political factors in this hemphisphere. Here is an excellent opportunity for ADA members and friends to get a first-hand report on Latin-American political and economic crises. Make your reservation without delay by a phone call or with the reservation card. Price of the luncheon is $1.10 (April Membership Meetings continued) -2- Wallace Cohen, the Chapter's representative at the Pittsburgh Board meeting, reported at the membership meeting on April 15 the actions taken by the National Board. Briefly, the political statement, 1) Praised President Truman for his 'Unswerving support of ERP, courageous advocacy of civil rates and his wise recommendations for domestic economic policy", but condemned his poor appointments and failure to rally support for his policies. 2) Called for an open Democratic convention. 3) Said that the nation has a right to call upon men "like Dwight D. Eisenhower and William O. Douglas if the people so choose" 4) Urged all ADA Republicans to continue the fight within the Republican Party for the nomination of the most progressive possible national ticket, but saw little possible of the nomination of a genuine liberal on that ticket. Mr. Cohen reported that the Board endorsed Selective Service, re-affirmed its previous convention stand of opposition to UMT at this time, and opposed inclusion of Fascist Spain into ERP. ---- Pierce Hall was filled to capacity on April 15, with members and friends of ADA who attended the meeting to hear Clinton Golden and James Carey discuss labor's role in the European Recovery Program. Mr. Golden, recently back from Greece where he served as labor advisor to the American Aid Mission, related some of his experiences there and discussed the present situation in the light of the economic history of Greece. Mr. Carey, Secretary-Treasurer, C.I.O, who recently visited Europe for the purpose of discussing the Marshall Plan with trade union leaders, called on the ADA and similar organizations to make sure that the European Recovery Program is not reduced to a useless instrument, but really fans the confidence of the people of Europe "into a real flame for freedom." POLITICS! POLITICS! (Montgomery County Comm.) Will Allen, Washington Correspondent, a resident of Bethesda, and an active member of ADA, is running for Congress in the 6th Congressional District of Maryland in the Democratic Primary to be held on Monday, May 3rd. (Note, that's on Monday, not the traditional Tuesday). Allen has been endorsed by the Maryland League of United Voters, which is composed of Baltimore and Montgomery County ADA, AFL, CIO, Railroad Brotherhoods, Machinists, Mine Workers, and other groups. In addition, thirteen noted Washington correspondents, many of whom live in Montgomery County, have endorsed him. They include Robert S. Allen, Marquis Childs, Ken Crawford, Elmer Davis, Al Friendly, Drew Pearson, Richard Strout, James Wechsler and Philip Austenson. Since the primary will be held next Monday, HELP is needed right now so get out the vote and for other work. If you live in Maryland and can help, call Rod Riley at Wisconsin 1930. If you don't live in Maryland, but have friends there who can help, or vote, please give their names to Mr. Riley. Note that the sixth district includes the following counties: Allegany, Frederick, Garrett, Montgomery, Washington. Remember, this is your opportunity to start electing that LIBERAL Congress we've all been talking about! DON'T LOSE IT! *** The Montgomery County Committee, in addition to its work in the Allen campaign, is busily engaged in the election of delegates to the Republican and Democratic State Conventions, the primaries for which will also be held next Monday, May 3rd. Twelve persons are running for the Democratic nominations, from whom seven are to be elected. They are: Albert Arent (an ADA member), Mrs. Elizabeth Asay, Robert Bell, Mrs. Camilla Bowman, Mrs. Irene Brungart, William E. Hewitt, Blair Lee, III, Lee Verne Lippart, Charles W. Prettyman, John H. Pratt, Mrs. Anna H. Roach, and Jerry T. Williams. The Montgomery County Committee has no specific slate -- believes all of these people worth of ADA votes. Seven delegates are to be elected to the Republican convention. The Montgomery Committee has endorsed the following: Mrs. Ruth M. Bliss, Romeo W. Horad, Herbert J. Schlee, Mrs. Lilian Smith, and Mrs. Verna S. Towne. PROPOSED DC LOYALTY PROBE On April 24, President Sigal wrote the District Commission that the proposed investigation of the loyalty of District employees "raises many serious questions which deserve thorough exploration before any investigation is launched", "There are many individuals and civic organizations in the District", the letter continued, who are deeply concerned, not only about the desirability of such a probe, but also about the methods, standards, and procedures to be used if a loyalty investigation is instituted. In conclusion, he called for a public hearing at which District citizens and organizations can express their views on the proposed investigation. -3- MONTE CARLO CARNIVAL Have you been asking for an ADA event strictly devoted to having fun - no serious discussion allowed? Well there's going to be just such an occasion - a Monte Carlo Carnival, the night of May 8, 8:30 PM, on, at the Euclid Nursery, 1428 Euclid St. Nw. Don't let the location of this party fool you into thinking this is for teen-agers. The games WON'T be pin- the-tail-on-the donkey; the drinks WON'T be milk. Tickets are $1.20 (tax incl.), and can be obtained at the Chapter office. Send your check in now. Bring your friends, too. Come & stay as long as you can. HAVE YOU WRITTEN YOUR HOME RULE LETTER TODAY? The House is now considering the revised Auchincloss Home Rule Charter Bill. If we don't begin to tell our Congressmen that we want Home Rule, we may not get it. We plead - if you have a legal voting residence, write your Congressman. The bill provides for dual voting -- so that you can vote at home for the presidency and congress, and can also participate in local affairs in the District. Tell your Congressman to keep it this way. If you're just a District resident, write to Everett M. Dirksen (R.III), Chairman of the House District Committee, indicating your interest in the bill's passage & desire to be a first-rate voting citizens. Send replies to Chapter office. REPORT ON THE MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGN (For-Shame Department) Altho, the Membership Committee extended the drive which began in January to April 15th, only 113 new members were enrolled. Furthermore, these people were signed up by only 70 members = that's just 10% of the membership! First place in the drive went to Frances Adams, who signed up 8 1/2 new members (the 1/2 means she shared credit for one with another member). Wallace Cohen, William Lawson and David Lassner tied for second place. Mrs. Adams gets an original Hebrlock cartoon and the winners of second place each a book. The Committee had hoped for two new members for each present member, and it is continuing its efforts in spite of disappointment. Won't you try to rekindle the faith of the Committee by bringing in a new member now? You can also help by sending into the office names of prospects we can invite to a special meeting for prospects on Tuesday, May 4th at 8PM. Speakers will be Quincy Howe, noted CBS commentator, and ADAer, and Joe Rauh, chairman ADA nat'l exec. comm. NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP MEETINGS The Nieghborhood Committee is planning a series of pre-summer meetings. A series entitled "Hot Potatoes in the 1948 Elections" has been arranged by the Postal Zone 6 Group. The first Zone 6 meeting was scheduled for 8 PM, Wed even. April 28, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Luther, 1018 - 18th St. NW. The topic for the meeting: "What is America's responsibility in World affairs?" and the guest consultant, Waldemar Nielsen. The neighborhood meeting custom was successfully revived recently by a group in Postal Zone 16. "Politics was also the subject of the first meeting of this group, which was held at the home of Sam Lipkowitz on April 12. Al Friendly and David Gordon were guest speakers and the meeting covered such topics as ADA's stand, the importance of Congressional elections, and the role of liberals in the party conventions. The second meeting of Zone 16 will be held on Wednesday evening, May 5, at the home of Elizabeth Coleman, 3410 Quebec St. NW. The subject will be: Current Developments in Europe. Lee Stanley will serve as secretary of this group and a plan for revolving cahirmanships will be inaugerated. Any members interested in starting a neighborhood group in their area should call Eleanor Merrick, Secretary of the Neighborhood Committee, at CO 5987. LOST AND FOUND (WE HOPE!) A visitor from Cleveland discovered at the end of the April 15 meeting at Pierce Hall that someone had exchanged coats with him. The one left behind is far too small, has a Washington label. His is Size 42 (approx), gabardine, has a Detroit label. Call Phil Booth at EM 3689 if you can find his friend's coat. PLEASE TAKE A NEW LOOK IN YOUR CLOSET! DON'T FORGET TO BUY ALL YOUR BOOKS AT WHYTE'S BOOKSTORE, 1518 Connecticut, get a sales slip and send to ADA office. We get 10% for our depleted treasury! COMMITTEE NOTES AND COMMENTS DC COMMITTEE: HOME RULE: The revised home rule charter bill was sidcussed by the sub-committee on April 14 and another meeting is scheduled for the evening of April 28th at Mary Lee Council's. Plans and strategy for legislative action are being worked out. The big hurdle at the moment seems to be the fight to prevent the elimination of dual voting provisions by Congressmen Jones and O'Hara If they are successful, the bill will probably die since few Washingtonians would be willing to give up their voting rights for national elections elsewhere in order to vote for local officials in the District. (continued next page) (DC Committee: Home Rule cont). 4 Some 40 community groups which have been meeting regularly for lunch sent a joint telegram to Congressman Dirksen with copies to all members of the DC Committee stating their support of the bill and asking for action on it, altho reserving the right to act individually with regard to constructive amendments. These meetings have been inspired and planned by ADA members in cooperation with the League of Women Voters. Stationery and stamped envelopes were furnished members who attended the April 15 membership meeting so that they could write letters at the meeting to congressmen in connection with the fight for the Home Rule Charter Bill. OTHER SUB-COMMITTEES: Marilyn Sworzyn and the Fiscal Sub-Committee have been working on preparation of materials with which to fight the ever-increasing support for the sales tax.... Elizabeth Goodman and the Education & Welfare Sub-Committee have prepared a statement on the revenue needs for adequate education and welfare facilities for the District... Ed Hollander has been attempting to match this against the available funds, while emphasizing ADA's firm position against the sales tax and the need for an equitable income tax for Washington. ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT There is always the temptation, in writing a report of this kind, to enlarge upon our successes and achievements, and to view with indulgence our failures and shortcomings. I hope I have successfully resisted this temptation. Be that as it may, the following are the highlights of our Chapter history in the second year of its existence. Legislative Activities. We actively interested ourselves in a number of legislative matters. Beginning last summer, home rule legislation has continuously engaged our attention. We presented testimony at that time in the preliminary investigation conducted by the so-called Auchincloss Committee of the House of Representatives. When the home rule bill was introduced in the present session of Congress, we presented testimony supporting it, although we suggested some changes. We are now engaged in working with a number of other D.C. organizations in planning a campaign to put over home rule in this session of Congress. We paid particularly close attention to the rent and housing problems. Last summer and fall, we took the lead in vigorously, and on the whole successfully, resisting repeated efforts of apartment-house owners to obtain from R nt Administrator Cogswell a general increase in rent ceilings. We helped mobilize tenant groups, both in the District and in Maryland and Virginia, to resist efforts of landlords to obtain rent increases. When the District Rent Control bill came up for renewal, we testified both before the D.C. Commissioners and the House District Committee for extensions, with strengthening amendments. The bill is about to be extended for another year-- albeit weaker than it was. As to housing, we testified before the Joint Housing Committee of Congress and sponsored two broadcasts on the Taft-Ellender-Wagner Bill. We have continued to fight sales tax proposals. We testified against it at the House hearings and urged adoption of a progressive tax program. When the President's Civil Rights Committee issued its magnificent report, "To Secure These Rights," we immediately called a conference of a number of organizations to discuss means of implementing the report. We have given vigorous support to the President's program on civil rights legislation, and have cooperated with various D.C. organizations in efforts to eliminate discriminatory racial practices. Other Civic Matters. When some elements within the Community Chest sought to remove some of the progressive agencies last year, we objected strenuously and helped to prevent the removal of these agencies. When a number of police brutalities occurred last summer, we made repeated representations to the District Commissioners for corrective action. We have not confined our activities to the District. In Arlington, our members were active in local school board and county board elections. In Montgomery County, Maryland, we sponsored highly successful forums on the activities of the Maryland legislature and the school system. Meetings. The foregoing may give the impression that our attention is exclusively centered on pressure activities. That would be a false impression. We have had a number of interesting, informative meetings, including, for example, a panel discussion led by Jennie Lee, M.P.; an able review of the situation in France by Andre Philip, a member of Remadier's cabinet; and a panel discussion on the Federal loyalty program-- to mention just a few. Our preparations for the ADA Convention demonstrated the wide-spread interest of our membership in personal participation in the discussion of domestic and foreign policies of ADA. Two membership meetings were heldto discuss recommendations to the Convention, in addition to commission hearings at which members -5- appeared to make their suggestions. The value of this kind of preparatory work was abundantly demonstrated at the Convention where our Chapter's delegation proved extremely effective in securing adoption of a large part of our program. Lively discussions have also been held at neighborhood meetings, convened in the homes of members. These meetings have unfortunately not been as well attended as we had hoped. We have not confined ourselves entirely to sober longhaired activity. During the summer, we had a highly entertaining and profitable garden party at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Marquis Childs, and since then we have had several cocktail parties for new members, prospects, etc. This list could be substantially lengthened, but I think it is sufficient to indicate the scope of our work during the past year. How effective that work has been, particularly in legislative and community matters, cannot be determined with even a moderate degree of precision. We can base our judgement only on intangible factors - the attention our statements receive, the extent to which our support and cooperation is solicited, expressions of opinion about us, and so on. On the basis of such considerations, I think it is not an overstatement to say that we have established ourselves firmly in the community, and our influence, although still quite small, is definitely growing. Our effectiveness depends, of course, in part on our size, and on the intensiveness of our work. As to the former, we are steadily, though not rapidly growing. We increased our membership during the year from 350 members to around 750. This sounds goodin percentage terms, but is far short of our goal. we cannot afford even to relax our organizing efforts until our membership reaches at least two thousand. I am confident that there are many more than that number of liberals in this community who are in general accord with the program and principles of the ADA and willing to lend their support to it. In many instances, it would simply be a matter of a single request of a present member in order to obtain their application. We urge you again, as we have many times during the year, to bear this in mind and to approach your sympathetic non-member friends on every appropriate occasion concerning memberships. They need ADA and we need them. A large membership will not, in itself, provide us the strength and influence which is potentially ours. We need many active members who are willing to give some of their time to carry out one or more of the many projects in which we become involved. In order to do our work more effectively, we reorganized our committees at the beginning of the year along lines that appeared to be called for by our previous experience. Our work during the past year indicates that the committee arrangement will have to be further revised and streamlined. However, no committee system, regardless of its perfection of design, can properly do the work it is called upon to perform without adequate personnel. Most of our committees have suffered in this respect. As a result, many projects we deemed important had to be abandoned, because there were too few who volunteered to share the load. I must not overlook our most difficult problem - finances. We are still in debt, and we are approaching a time of the year when our flow of income dries to a trickle. A substantial part of our energies are spent trying to solve this problem. We have economized to the point of curtailing our effectiveness, and organization. You can help the Chapter in various ways; for example, send in your dues as soon as they become payable; if you can make contributions, we urge you to do so to as large an extent as possible; if you have any ideas as to how we can raise money, communicate with out Executive Secretary of our Secretary. Lastly, I want to express my personal appreciation to that band of selfless, devoted members who have given so much of themselves for the Chapter's benefit. We are looking forward to a busy year. There will be political activities in nearby Maryland and Virginia in coming months. If - I mean when - the home rule bill is adopted, we will doubtless be plunged into political activities in the District. We have large plans, in short. With your active interest and cooperation, we shall continue to make progress towards developing our Chapter into a powerful instrument for the promotion of progressive causes in the District. BENJAMIN C. SIGAL, President MARTHA JOSEPHS Acting Editor ATTENTION ATTENTION ATTENTION ATTENTION ATTENTION DONT forget the SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING A.V.C. Clubhouse 1751 New Hampshire 1:30 --5 Saturday March 5. To vote on commission reports - - instructions to delegates at ADA convention. URGENT Write to your Senator today to vote for the housing bill. Write your Congressman today---tell him you want him to vote for Douglas rent bill and that we want D.C. included in the new strengthened national rent controls. YOUR letters can help in ADA's fight for its program-- More and better housing Continued rent controls For further information Call Charles Bleich RA 4027 evenings. a D Action Publication of the Washington Chapter, AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION 1740 K Street, N. W. Washington 6, D. C. EXecutive 8160 February 1949 It has come to our attention that many ADA members- old and new - are not aware of the fact that they are automatically welcome, invited, yea, even urged, to take an active part in committees and other ADA projects. If you have been under the mistaken impression that special invitations are necessary before you can join the committee of your choice or indulge in your favorite type of political action, please disabuse yourself of this nation immediately. We are constantly in need of new workers on all the committees, and if you are one who joined ADA to be active, please attend the meetings or call the office to find our where you can be useful. The March calendar follows herewith. In addition to these regular committees, a special task force to do lobbying on the Hill is being organized. If you cannot take part in functioning committee work but have some spare time for specific projects, you will find below detailed information about the special Congressional Committee. CALENDAR OF MEETINGS Evening meetings - Chapter office, 8:15 p.m. ; lunch meetings, 12:15 Tues. March 1 National Affairs To complete commission statement, 8:15 particularly loyalty section. Tues. March 1 Congressional Com. See story on Congressional Committee Briefing Session below. 8:15 - 1822 Jefferson Pl. (Wally Cohen's office) Sat. March 5 SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP To continue discussion and adoption MEETING, 1:30 p.m. of Commission reports for National AVC Clubhouse, 1751 New Hampshire Ave. Convention. Refreshments available. Tues. March 8 Civil Rights Preparation of ADA's statement on 8:15 4 Riggs Ct. (Entrance via segregation report with special reference driveway next to Riggs Bank at to recent attacks by Citizens Dupont Circle, Jim Whyte's apt.) Assns. and Board of Trade. Also continued work on bill for civil rights in DC. Thurs. March 10 Housing - Lunch Call Chas. Bleich for reservations: New Athens EX 4160, ext 2161. Consider Douglas Bill, also Marshall Hts. project. Thurs. March 10 Executive Board and Wally Cohen's office, 1822 Jefferson Committee Chairman Pl. Fri. March 11 Home Rule Lunch Call Frances Adams for reservations: New Athens WO 1754. Discussion of legislation on home rule, strategy, community action. Tues. March 15 Health & Welfare Study of DC needs. 8:15 - 1404 29th St., Louise Griffith Thurs. March 17 MEMBERSHIP MEETING Special program on Atlantic Pact. AVC Clubhouse - 1751 New Hampshire Ave. NW -2- Fri. March 18 12:15 SPECIAL EVENT- Lunch at AVC Clubhouse, to hear David Gordon, Chapter Secretary, discuss his recent trip to China. Phone office by March 14 for reservations. Thurs. March 24 Executive Board & Committee Chairmen 1822 Jefferson Pl. NW MONTGOMERY COUNTY Executive Board will meet Sunday, March 6, 8 p.m., at Wally Cohen's home, 6302 Oakridge Ave., Chevy Chase, WI 7138 VIRGINIA COMMITTEE Watch for special announcement. EDUCATION SUBCOMMITTEE - Call the office if you are interested. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - RECENT SPECIAL EVENTS The First Annual Roosevelt Day Dinner on January 28 was attended by more than 700 ADA members and friends. About 20 of these dinners were held throughout the country. Francis Biddle was chairman of the Washington affair, and Walter Reuther, Senator Estes Kefauver, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. were the guest speakers. Contributions at the dinner and advertising in the program promise to net the Chapter sufficient funds to pay off indebtedness to the National ADA and local obligations. It is safe to say, we think, that we are about to be in the black! Advertising was bought by the following individuals and firms: Center Book Shop Rockmont Motor Co. Star Radio Co. Whyte's Bookshop Young Men's Shop Edward T. Cheyfitz Edward W Alfriend, IV. Sterling Vocational School John R. Pinkett, Inc. Peoples Liquor Store Cherner Motor Co. Marsteller McCabe & Co. Local 174. International Association of Machinists George A. Cunney, Jr. Bruce Hunt, Inc. Gilliat & Co. Lee D. Butler, Inc. Airport Transport, Inc. City Fire Co. Hanford Press L. S. Luther & Co. Capital Grill R. Mars, The Contract Co. I. S. Turover And several Anonymous **** Afred Friendly, Special Assistant to Averell Harriman, met with a small group at the Eichholz home on February 4 and gave an exceedingly interesting talk about ECA and how it is actually working out. The discussion was stimulating, and Robert Biren, Chairman of the International Affairs Committee, was pleased to recruit some new members for his committee at the meeting. **** Mrs. Cifford Pinchot addressed a luncheon meeting at the AVC Clubhouse on February 25 and discussed her recent stay in Greece. Her remarks centered around what could be done to achieve our goal of a democratic and self-supporting Greece. She reported that Americans had made some progress in getting food and other supplies to those in need, and also in reconstruction, particularly of harbors. She felt, however, that little progress had been made in affirming and putting into practice democratic procedures. CONVENTION PREPARATION The National Affairs, International Affairs, and Political Commissions have prepared their drafts of platform statements for the National Convention to be held in Chicago April 8-10. These are available for all members at the Chapter office, and will also be available at the afternoon meeting on Saturday, March 5, at which the reports will be considered. All members are urged to attend and take part in this important discussion. Quite a few people have participated in drafting the commission discussion. Quite a few people have participated in drafting the commission reports. The Political Commission, incidentally, is composed of members from Virginia and Maryland. The March 5 will be the last one devoted to Convention preparation. -3- HELP WANTED - SPECIAL CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE The Washington Chapter boasts among its membership many experts and technicians on the various subjects in which the Chapter is interested and active. Most of these people are employed by the government in positions which make it impossible for them to do more than develop the ideas and position of the Chapter in the fields it touches. As a result, we are more than ever in need of people who are free to be briefed on one or more of the numerous fights in which we are engaged and who will carry these flights to individuals in Congress. During March and April, the need is URGENT for members who can do some lobbying on the following issues: an equitable tax program for the District - home rule - salary increases for all District workers (including teachers and without prejudice because of a pay adjustment in 1947 ) - and rent control, to include the District in the National act, and in favor of the Douglas Bill. The first briefing meeting is scheduled for March 1. Those attending the meeting will be briefed by appropriate committee chairmen, including Charles Bleich and Ilse Mueller on rent and housing, Ed Hollander on taxes, Elizabeth Goodman on teachers pay, Ben Sigal and Frances Adams on home rule, and Kate Alfiend on legislative procedures. There will be additional meetings, so any of you who did not attend the initial meeting are invited to call Mrs. Lawson at the office for further information. We regret that the ACTION probably will not reach you in time for the first meeting. CURRENT EVENTS A panel on the Atlantic Pact is being arranged for March 17 Membership Meeting. Participants will be announced later. Save the date. Senators Hubert Humphrey and John Sparkman will debate the subject "A Realistic Program for Civil Rights" at a meeting of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith on Wednesday, March 9, 8:30 p.m., Cafritz Auditorium, Jewish Community Center, 16th & Q Sts. James Wechsler, Washington correspondent of the New York Post, and Milton Mayor, Chicago writer and lecturer, will be principal speakers at a public forum to be held in Friends Meeting House, 2111 Florida Avenue, on Friday, March 11, at 7:30 p.m. The topic for discussion is "What shall we do to secure peace?" OFFICE ITEMS Have you visited the Chapter office at 1740 K St. lately? If not, stop around sometime. The newest acquisition in the way of equipment are some beautiful shelves which Ted Silvey and Chet Ellickson have made. They not only furnished the materials but the labor too. Peggy and Bobby Ellickson helped with the shelves, but in addition contributed some paintings! Two additional items which would be gratefully at the office are (1) a clock and (2) a radio. Although a minimum of two hands would be required on the former, the latter would be acceptable if it played only one station! AND, OF COURSE, clerical help is still needed. If you have a couple of hours to devote to office chores, Dorothy Lawson will find something for you to do. COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES In the past month, the Housing Committee has prepared testimony on rent control, the Douglas bill (hearings before the House Banking & Currency Committee), and the Marshall Heights Redevelopment plan. The Board approved the committee's conclusion that the District should be brought under a strengthened national rent act, and work has aimed toward this goal. We stole the headlines from the real estate boys, and of course they don't like our position! ADA was represented both at the budget and revenue hearings during February. We stressed the inadequacies of the proposed budget, hitting particularly the lack of funds for building new schools and the shockingly low allowances in the welfare budget, particularly for public assistance. We continued our opposition to the sales tax, calling to the attention of the Commissioners (again) the untapped tax resources in Washington: lowest liquor tax in country, income tax that covers less than a third of those who pay here, no cigarette tax, etc. In spite of our attack, it looks as if the House and Senate subcommittees are going to recommend the sales tax the District Committees of both Houses. If this happens, we'll have a larger job - and probably a door-to-door campaign on our hands. ADA's Home Rule Committee worked closely with the Democratic Central Committee on a home rule bill submitted to the Senate Committee headed by Estes Kefauver. Martha Josephs Editor “... the initiative is ours.” WHAT SHALL WE DO TO SECURE PEACE? A Public Forum Meeting With MILTON MAYER and JAMES A. WECHSLER Sponsored by the Washington Pacifist Fellowship Friday, March 11, 1949, at 7:30 p.m., Friends Meeting House, 2111 Florida Avenue, N.W. MILTON MAYER Pacifist Chicago writer; lectures for American Friends Service Committee; Great Books Foundation; Fellowship of Reconciliation, and various church groups. JAMES A. WECHSLER Liberal Washington correspondent for New York Post; lectures for Americans for Democratic Action, and other liberal organizations “THE SUPREME NEED OF OUR TIME is for men to learn to live together in peace and harmony … Hundreds of millions of people all over the world now agree with us, that we need not have war - that we can have peace, The initiative is ours.” - From President Truman’s inaugural speech, January 20, 1949. A. D. Action Publication of the Washington Chapter, AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION 1740 K Street, N.W. Washington 6, D. C. EXecutive 6194 June 1950 HAIL AND FAREWELL Results of the annual election of officers and board members were announced at the membership meeting held on Thursday. June 22, at Pierce Hall. The new officers are as follows: Stanley Gewirtz, President and National ADA Board Member Wendell Berge and David Gordon, Vice Presidents Edith Kirkland, Secretary Clarence Pierce, Treasurer The Following were elected to serve as board member for the coming year: Kate Alfriend, Janet Alper, Vincent Browne, Wallace Cohen, Nelson Cruikshank, Rev. A. Powell Davies, Edward Hollander, Gardner Jackson, Col. Campbell Johnson, Benjamin C. Sigal, Ted Silvey, Grace Tully, Gerhard P. Van Arkel, George Weaver, James Whyte and Martha Winokur. Approximately 157 valid ballots were received. A few others had to be voided because the envelopes were unsigned or more than the constitutional number of board members (16) were voted for. To the outgoing officers and board, may we express our thanks and appreciation for loyalty and devotion to many causes. To Ben Sigal especially go our love and gratitude for the three years he served as President. In saying our thank you’s, we do not mean to overlook a word of warm welcome and good wishes for a successful term in office to the new President and his “cabinet”. At the same time, we feel called upon to urge more active interest in Chapter affairs by both new and old members. If the opportunity to contribute your services is not always made available to you, please assume the responsibility of making yourself available. Remember that ADA is a volunteer organization, and that our Chapter is composed of many people who are not always in a position to be in the forefront of community activities. The result is that we may have to rely more heavily on those we know can take responsibility. On the subject of changes: GRACE SPIRO is now our full time employee in the office, replacing Diana Bird, who has resigned. If you have time to help ADA matters of any kind, just call Grace and give the word. Garden Party The annual garden party will be held this year at the home of Jean and Alfred Friendly, 1645 31st St. NW (Georgetown), on Saturday, July 8. Edith Kirkland is chairman of the arrangements committee, and formal invitations will be in the mail soon. Please plan to come. This party is one of the nicest ones we have, and it will be our last opportunity for a get-together before summer overtakes us completely. If you can help on games, refreshments, ticket-taking, etc., please call the office and give your name. A large crew is required, as usual. PRIZES for the games are now being solicited from ADA business friends. This year we are asking members to contribute also. If you have a spare hanky or tie or book or cake or bottle of wine or novelty or household article which you wish to donate to the party, please let Grace know immediately. MARK YOUR CALENDAR: Saturday afternoon, July 8, (Or Sunday, July 9, in case of rain.) - 2 - DUES REMINDER Have you received, and paid, your annual bill for dues? If you have not received your notice, please inform the office. If you have, but have neglected to send a check, will you do so promptly in order that a SECOND notice will be unnecessary? URSELL'S: NEW ADA DISCOUNT ARRANGEMENT The Chapter is pleased to announce a new arrangement with Ursell's, 3243 Que St. NW (a few steps west of Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown) for payment of a percentage on members' purchases to the Chapter treasury. If you are not yet acquainted with this shop, you will be delighted to find there the best of America's functional art in contemporary home accessories and jewelry. Lamps, dinnerware, table linens, silk-screened fabrics, bamboo shades and draperies, custom-built furniture, woodenware, ceramics, and numerous other items are available. All you do, after making a purchase, is mail your sales slip to the office. Ten percent on members' purchases will be paid the Chapter office, except that on the following items, constituting less than 10% of stock, 5% will be paid custom-built furniture, certain jewelry items, fabric purchases totalling less than $25.00, Heath dinnerware, and pottery by Bogatay, Ed Littlefield, Butler, and Potters' Associates. Sales items are excluded, of course. *** At the same time, don't forget that this 10%-to-ADA policy has been in effect at Whyte's Book Shop for a long period. Mail your sales slip or monthly bill to the Chapter office (after payment, of course). You will find this a pleasant way of contributing to the Chapter Treasury. WHERE CAN I EAT? There follows a list of Washington restaurants which the Interracial Workshop has tested with both interracial and all-Negro groups and in which the service has been found to be satisfactory. It is urged that as much use as possible be made of those places so that policies of no-discrimination will be better established. IF there is any difficulty in being served at any any of those places (some of which are fairly to us), please notify the office, which will in turn advise the Interracial Workshop. A-1 Restaurant, 1003 E St. NW Airport Restaurant Chicken Hut Restaurant, 427 11th St. NW Chicken Doll Restaurant, 627 H St. NW Goldenberg's Dept. Store lunch room Greyhound Terminal Restaurant Hains Point Tea House Mayflower Donut Restaurant, 1309 F St. NW Methodist Building Cafeteria, 110 Maryland Ave. NE National Gallery of Art Cafeteria National Zoo Restaurant Nedick's: 609 14th St. NW, 705 15th St. NW, 1305 E St. NW State Drug Lunch Counter, 17th & Pennsylvania States Restaurant, North Capitol at F. St. Union Station Gateway Restaurant YMCA Coffee Shop, 1736 G St. NW YMCA Cafeteria, 17th & K Sts. NW NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK SWIMMING POOLS The six pools now being operated by the National Capital Park & Planning Commission on an interracia basis are as follows: Anacostia East Potomac McKinley Banneker Francis Takoma Our members are asked to take advantage of these facilities, which the Chapter has been extremely active in having opened to all groups. Martha J. Winokur Publicity A. D. Action [LOGO] _____________________________________________________________________________________ Publication of the Washington Chapter, AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION 1740 K Street, N. W. Washington 6, D. C. EXecutive 6194 _____________________________________________________________________________________ January, 1952 SEND IN YOUR RESERVATION TODAY FOR A D A'S FOURTH ANNUAL ROOSEVELT DAY DINNER Firday evening, January 25, at 7 p.m., at the Shoreham Hotel The January Action gets into action with a big plug for the Fourth Annual Roosevelt Day Dinner. This affair, as you know, is the top event on our winter calendar. Not only have the past three dinners been tremendous social successes, but they have sent us out feeling inspired to work for the ideals to which the dinner is dedicated. In addition, the Roosevelt Day Dinner is the Chapter's biggest money-raising event, and provides a very substantial part of our income. The proceeds of the dinner make it possible for us to get through the year without dunning our members for extra contributions. WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT. Please send in your re- servation at once. SENATOR BRIEN McMAHON . . . will be the main speaker. The theme of the dinner this year is Point 4. It is most appropriate to have the father of the McMahon Plan, a greatly expanded technical assistance program to advance human welfare on a worldwide basis, speak on this subject. As chairman of the Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy and author of the McMahon Plan for civilian control of atomic energy, Senator McMahon is one of the dominant figures of our time. ARTHUR M. SCHLESINGER, JR. . . . will be our second dinner speaker. This Harvard University Professor is a noted historian, author of "The Age of Jackson," "The Vital Center," and, most recently, "The General and the President." JAMES A. WECHSLER . . . will be toastmaster. A working newspaperman, magazine writer and author for many years, he is now editor of the New York Post. Those of us who have heard him on other occasions when he lived in Washington know that he is the ideal choice for toastmaster. Before Dinner. . .meet the honored guests and greet old acquaintances at the ADA Bar which will be setup adjacent to the Terrace Room. The bar opens at six o'clock, so come early. Only dinner ticket holders will be admitted. Incidentally, the price of drinks will be less than at the regular hotel bar. OTHER CHAPTER NEWS: 1. The next Civil Rights Committee meeting will be on Tuesday, January 22, at Grace Spiro's apartment, 818 18th Street N.W. 2. In preparation for the ADA National Convention which will be held in Washington at the end of March, our Domestic and Foreign Affairs Committees are hard at work drafting platforms. If you want to serve on those committees, notify the office. Also, start thinking about whom you want as delegates to the Convention from the Washington Chapter. 3. The recent Richard Crossman meeting sponsored by the Foreign Affairs Committee was extremely successful. We wish to thank Lillian Dinowitzer, at whose home the meeting was held. ADA members are cordially invited to a cocktail party in honor of Ambassador to India Chester Bowles, given by AVC. The party will be held at the AVC Clubhouse on Monday, January 21, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Gertrude R. Weisman Editor A. D. Action Publication of the Washington Chapter, AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION 1740 K Street, N.W. Washington 6, D.C. EXecutive 6194 April, 1952 IMPORTANT MEMBERSHIP MEETING Saturday, May 3, at 2 p. m. at the A V C Club House (1751 New Hampshire Ave. NW) Free discussion on what ADAs Domestic Affairs and Foreign Affairs Platforms should be at the coming national convention. Come--instruct your delegates! ACTION REPORTS ON COMMITTEES AT WORK 1. Civil Liberties Committee...newest member of the Washington Chapter's family of committees. Though almost brand new, it's hard at work re-drafting the Civil Liberties platform for the national convention (you'll discuss the suggested revisions at our May 3rd meeting). The committee is responsible for the program of the May membership meeting. It is planned that several well-known authorities on Civil Liberties will speak. The committee is under the chairmanship of Jo Klein. To quote Miss Klein, "We've got a swell group and we'd love more recruits." 2. Home Rule...this committee is under a new co-chaiman--Molly Geiger. It is working hard on the latest discharge petition. Miss Geiger asks every ADA member who has a congressman to contact that congressman and urge him to sign the Home Rule Discharge Petition #11. At present , the petition is tied up in the House District Committee by Dixiecrats and old-line Republicans. It will take 218 signatures to get the petition out of the committee. The Home Rule Committee will operate a booth at the ADA National Convention and needs volunteers to man said booth. If you can give an hour or more of your time, phone the ADA office at its new number--DEcatur 6010. 3. Education Committee...has a new co-chairman--Maggie Kempelman. Doris Foster has done an excellent job of chairing the committee up until now, when her duties as leader of the ADA Study Trips Abroad require her full-time devotion, The Education Committee has given testimony before the Board of Education and written many letters on the subject of more teachers for the Negro schools. At the recent hearings on the District budget, testimony was prepared by the Fiscal, Health-Welfare, and Education Committees; it was presented in the House by Peg Pierce of Health and Welfare and Frances Payne of Education, and in the Senate by Vice-President Charlotte Price. MOVING DAY WAS APRIL 1 FOR ADA We hope that all ADAers are aware that our new headquarters are at 1341 Connecticut Avenue N.W.--directly opposite the Dupont Theatre. The National Office and the Students moved with us--just one big, happy family! The Washington Chapter's new phone number is DEcatur 6010. LOOKING AHEAD A committee has been appointed to present nominations for next year's officers and Board, it was announced at the April membership meeting. It consists of: Doris Foster, irene Silvey, Paul Cooke, Alex Firfer and James Whyte. Their slate will be named at the May membership meeting, at which time candidates may also be nominated from the floor. -2- OUR FRIENDS ON CAPITOL HILL NEED VOLUNTEERS Many of our best friends in Congress are campaigning for re-election. They require extra clerical help in their offices. If you have some spare time, why not volunteer your services? It's interesting work. You'll feel that you are in on the ground floor. And, most important, this is a concrete way to help our friends on the Hill who respond readily when we call upon them. Telephone Mrs. Violet Gunther at National ADA, DEcatur 7754, for assignment. WHERE WERE YOU ON THURSDAY NIGHT, APRIL 24? That was the night of the April Membership Meeting--many faces were missing. It was a hot and heavy meting devoted to what our political policy should be at the coming National Convention. It was decided that Washington Chapter delegates should go to the Convention uninstructed (not endorsing any particular candidate for the presidential nomination). A discussion was barely started when 11 o'clock came 'round. This will be continued at the May 3 meeting. Delegates and Alternates to the Convention were elected and announced at the meeting, as follows: Delegates--Kate Alfiend, Sanford Bolz, Jean Campbell, Wallace Cohen, Helen Hamer, Florence Jaffy, Marjorie Kampelman, Josephine Klein, Charles Mahone, Charlotte Price, Benjamin Sigal, Ted Silvey, Gerhard Van Arkel, Gertrude Weisman and James Whyte; Alternates--Philip Booth, George Christensen, Lillian Dinewitzer, Justin Feldman, Alex Firfer, Alexander Hardy, Charles Hill, Morton Liftin, Milton Plumb, Frank Reeves, Patricia Roberts, Marie Smith, F. J. Weiss, Warren Woods, and Benjamin Wyle. In addition, the National has invited these members of the Chapter to service in various capacities: Mary. Mary Bethune, Dr. A. Powell Davies, Julius Edelstein, Edward Hollander, Gardner Jackson, Max Kampelman, David Lloyd, Charles LaFollette, Frank McCullouch, Robert Nathan, George Nelson, Stanley Ruttenberg, Louis Walinsky, George Weaver. BIG NEWS! BIG NEWS! BIG NEWS! BIG NEWS! BIG NEWS! BIG NEWS! ADA NATIONAL CONVENTION May 16 (evening), 17 and 18 at the Statler, Washington FLASH! President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, will address the Convention Banquet on Saturday evening, May 17. You are cordially invited (rather urged) to attend. The dinner is $10 per plate. Send in your reservation TODAY. Seating will be done on the basis of early reservations getting the best tables. WASHINGTON IS HOST TO THE CONVENTION THE WASHINGTON CHAPTER NEEDS YOUR HELP Please fill in the questionnaire below and mail it in to the Washington Chapter office at 1341 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Name & Address...................................... Telephone Numbers (office and home )................. Will You Serve on a Telephone Committee?...... Will You Attend Convention Dinner?...... Do You Have Any Available Beds for Delegates?........ Indicate how many guests you could accommodate......... Indicate what sex............ Indicate for what nights -- Friday, May 16 or Saturday, May 17, or both............ Many of our delegates are people of limited funds (especially the students ). They make a great effort and sacrifice to come to the Convention. If we of the Washington Chapter could afford them housing accommodations, it would be a great service. Please help. AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION At Convention Statler Hotel Washington 6, D.C. May 17, 1952 BANQUET SEATING LIST Table No. Abrams, Mrs. Irma 30 Ahrendt, M. H. 66 Alexander, Lou and guest 41 Alexander, Mrs. Sadie T. M. 72 Alfreind, Miss Kate 65 Allen, Meyer 53 Alper, Mr. & Mrs. Jerome M. 50 Anderson, Miss Mary and guest 73 Anderson, Miss Mary Stuart 41 Arnow, Mr. & Mrs. Philip 26 Ashby, Mrs. Alice 1 Asher, Mr. & Mrs. Robert E. 22 Asquith, Miss Gerry 55 Austin, Mrs. Elsie and guest 22 Austin, Miss Mabel 58 Azarow, Miss Cele 28 Antonini, Luigi 45 Babson, Mr. David F., Jr. 48 Baker, Mr. & Mrs. John 28 Baker, Mr. Robert 32 Baldinger, Mr. & Mrs. Wilbur H. 42 Bardacke, Mr. & Mrs. Gregory J. 44 Barge, Mrs. Queen 17 Barker, Mrs. Jo 34 Barnes, Mr. Frank C. and guest 54 Barth, Mr & Mrs. Alan 70 Bashkin, Mr. Henry 28 Batt, Mr. Paul J. 56 Beer, Mr. Samuel H. 75 Bell, Mr. & Mrs. Charles 32 Bell, Mr. & Mrs. David E. 74 Belsky, Mr. Abe 53 Belsky, Miss Florence 31 Bender, Miss Donna 1 Bendiner, Mr. Burton 36 Bendiner, Mr. Robert 65 Berg, Mr. William 59 Bergman, Mr. & Mrs. Walter & 3 guests26 Berke, Miss Bernice 58 Berkman, Miss Sarah Lee 8 Berlack, Mrs. Harris & 2 guests 21 Bernfeld, Mr. Jules 65 Bernie, Mr. Albert 11 Bernstein, Mr. Meton C. 43 Bingham,Mr. & Mrs. Jonathan B. 72 Black, Miss Beatrice 1 Blackburn, Miss K. C. 42 Blackman, Mr. N. M. and guest 31 Bliss, Mrs. Anne 13 Block, Mr. & Mrs. Robert 59 Blotzer, Mr. Edward J., Jr. 20 Bookbinder, Mr. & Mrs. H. H. 37 Bolling, Hon. Richard and guest 71 Booth, Mr. & Mrs. Philip 19 Bolz, Mr. & Mrs. Sanford and guest 42 Boucher, Mr. William, III 11 Bowman, Mrs. Frances E. and guest 15 Boyko, Mr. Edgar Paul & 3 guests 13 Bradley, Miss ClaraV. 7 Brenner, Mr. & Mrs. George 11 Brief, Mr. & Mrs. Alfred 16 Brophy, Miss Jacqueline 63 Brown, Mrs. Ann 29 Table No. Brown, Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth E. 66 Browne-Lee, Mrs. Jennie 31 Buchanan, Hon. Thomas C. 70 Buckler,Mrs. H. Warren 13 Buckles, Mr. & Mrs.Harold 7 Buffington, Miss Ruth 14 Bushman, Mr. Jack 58 Campbell, Miss Jean 35 Cantwell, Mr. Frank 12 Carey, Mrs. James 63 Carnahan, Hon. A. S. J. 43 Christensen, Mr. George & 3 guests 12 Christmas, Miss Doris O. 24 Cikins, Mrs. Barbara 38 Clark, Mr. Grant 18 Clift, Mr. & Mrs. Charles 6 Cohan, Miss Harriet & 2 guests 9 Cohen, Hon. Benjamin V. 61 Cohen, Mr. & Mrs. Felix & 2 guests 24 Cohen, Mr. & Mrs. Reuben E. 53 Cohen, Mr. & Mrs. Wallace M. 67 Coolidge, Mr. Albert Sprague and 2 guests 75 Cotcher, Mr. & Mrs. A. L. 14 Convington, Mr. J. P. 66 Cowen, Mr. & Mrs. Edward 49 Coyne, Mr. Roger 63 Crafton, Miss Dorothy W. 65 Cranston, Mr. Alan 33 Cronheim, Miss Emily 14 Cunningham, Mr. James V. 51 Dahl, Grace 75 Daly, Mr. & Mrs. Harvey 32 Danley, Mr. & Mrs. Samuel B. 18 Darling, Mrs. Ilse 16 Davidson, Mr. Alfred 47 Davis, Miss Anne 51 Davis, Mr. & Mrs. Elmer 71 Davis, Mr. & Mrs. William 53 Davison, Mrs. Natalie 58 Davlin, Mr. Irwin 2 Dawkins, Mr. Maurice A. and guest 52 Dean, Mr. & Mrs. Sidney 36 Delahanty, Mr. Robert E. 2 Delson, Mr. Robert 52 Despol, Mr. Johnny 60 Despres, Mr. Leon 4 Detzer, Mr. Mike 35 Dinowitzer, Miss Lillian 35 Dockham, Mrs. Betty 12 Dorfman, Mr. Norman 8 Dougherty, Mr. Gregory 3 Dougherty, Mr. Roger 14 Douty, Mrs. Alfred 53 Dowd, Mr. George 59 Doyle, Mr. James 43 Drucker, Mr. Burton N. 58 Dublin, Dr. & Mrs. I. 54 Dubrow, Miss Evelyn 52 BANQUET SEATING LIST -2- Table No. Dudley, Mr. Tilford 46 Dufty, Mr. William and guest 44 Dukakis, Stelian 38 Dunn, Mr. & Mrs. W. M. 46 Dyche, Prof. Eugene I. & Miss Pat 23 Dyer, Mr. Earl, Jr. 35 Eberharter, Hon. Herman P. 70 Eberts, Mr. & Mrs. Bernard 34 Eddy, Miss Cecile 3 Edelsberg, Mr. Herman 14 Edwards, Hon. George 70 Ellickson, Mr. & Mrs. J. C. 19 Ellison, Dr. Philip 9 Elsey, Hon. & Mrs. George 69 Fairbank, Dr. & Mrs. John K. 38 Fangmeier, Mr. Robert A. 6 Farnum, Mr. Robert 2 Fein, Mr. & Mrs. Arnold L. 36 Feinblatt, Mr. Eugene 11 Feiner, Miss Edith & guest 20 Feldman, Miss Janet 33 Ferleger, Mr. Harry 53 Fernbach, Mr. & Mrs. Frank L. 19 Fierst, Mr. & Mrs. Herbert A. 49 Finger, Miss Eleanor & guest 19 Finkel, Mrs. Morris 51 Fischer, Mr. & Mrs. Ben 44 Fisher, Mr. Joel H. 49 Fishkin, Miss Jean 9 Flower, Mr. & Mrs. Ludlow, Jr. 72 Foster, Mrs. Doris 15 Frank, Mr. Samuel 11 Freedman, Miss Jane S. 56 Freeman, Mr. & Mrs. Lewis A. 52 Friedberg, Mrs. Emanuel 37 Friedman, Mr. & Mrs. Martin 64 Fries, Mr. David J. 23 Fuchs, Mr. Jesse I. 58 Furman, Mr. William 58 Gamow, Mr. Leo 5 Gary, Mr. Richard 30 Gergen, Mr. Jack 32 Gerstenfeld, Rabbi & Mrs. N. 64 Getlein, Mr. Frank 3 Gewirtz, Mr. Stanley 42 Gibbons, Mr. Harold J. 44 Gilbert, Miss Selma & guest 6 Gilman, Mrs. Elizabeth 12 Ginsburg, Mr. & Mrs. David 68 Glasser, Mrs. Gwen 51 Goff, Miss Elaine 53 Gold, Miss Ann 10 Goldberg, Mr. & Mrs. William & guest 52 Goldfinger, Mr. Nat 14 Goldman, Miss Ruth 6 Goldstein, Mr. & Mrs. E. Ernest 22 Goldstein, Mr. Howard 4 Gonder, Mr. Larry 34 Goodman, Miss Ida J. 30 Goodrich, Mr. Nathaniel 42 Goodspeed, Miss Jolsie 1 Table No. Gootenberg, Mr. Roy F. 38 Gorman, Mr. Francis J. 34 Graham, Mrs. A. Kenneth 56 Grasso, Mr. Frank & guest 22 Gray, Mr. & Mrs. Albert & 2 guests 32 Greenberg, Miss Edith 10 Grinnell, Mr. C. David & guests 31 Gross, Mr. & Mrs. Bertram 67 Gross, Mr. Jerome & guest 38 Guillet, Mr. John 16 Gunther, Mr. & Mrs. John 74 Haber, Mr. William Paul 1 Hackney, Mr. & Mrs. Ray 46 Haggerty, Mrs. Melvin E. 7 Halbert, Mr. L. A. 6 Haley, Mr. Daniel 55 Hall, Mr. H. Duncan & guest 28 Hammond, Miss Alice 4 Hammerman, Mr. Herb 14 Handy, Miss Elaine W. 74 Hanellin, Miss Harriet 5 Hannaford, Mr. J. Bruce 59 Hardy, Mr. Alexander G. 25 Harris, Mrs. Adriel 45 Harris, Mr. Adriel 45 Harris, Mrs. Milton & son 61 Harris, Mr. & Mrs. Stephen M. 27 Hart, Mr. Phillip John & guest 7 Haskins, Mr. & Mrs. Lloyd A. 27 Hatton, Miss Charlotte 42 Hays, Mr. & Mrs. Mortimer 17 Hechler, Mr. Kenneth W. 64 Heimlich, Miss Marion 58 Heims, Rev. Kenneth 33 Henderson, Mr. & Mrs. Laurence 68 Herling, Mr. & Mrs. John 29 Herman, Miss Helen 82 Hersch, Miss Mary 13 Herstein, Miss Lillian 51 Hicks, Mrs. Mary 18 Hill, Mr. Charles & guest 35 Hilmer, Mr. & Mrs. Lucien 55 Hirsch, Mr. Morris 51 Hochberg, Mr. Alvin S. 38 Hochman, Mr. Julius 45 Hoeber, Mr. & Mrs. Johnannes U. 56 Hoffman, Miss Ruth 3 Hollkander, Mr. & Mrs. Edward D. 61 Hollander, Mr. & Mrs. Sidney 71 Holleb, Mr. & Mrs.Marshall 51 Horne, Dr. & Mrs. Frank 28 Houghteling, Mr. & Mrs. J. L. & 2 guests 68 Howe, Mr. Hartley 11 Hulse, Mr. & Mrs. Fred E. 48 Hyler, Mrs. June 48 Isaacs, Mr. Stanley M. 62 Ives, Ellen Atwood 33 Banquet Seating List- Page#3 May 17, 1952 Table No. Table No. Jackson, Mr. and Mrs. Gardner 62 Jackson, Mrs. M. 27 Jacobson, George 5 Jacobson, Joel R. 16 Jager, Mr. Oscar 46 Johnson, Maj. Andrew L. 27 Johnson ,Mrs. Helen D. 10 Johnson, Lee F. 6 Johnson, Morse 62 Jones, Mr. and Mrs. A. E. 46 Jones, Mr. James H. 1 Jordon, Justine 3 Joyce, Esther 64 Kaiser, Mr. and Mrs. Henry 29 Kaiser, Hon. and Mrs. Philip. 29 Kampelman, Mr. and Mrs. Max 43 Kanner, Mr. Max and guest 58 Kaplan, Mr. and Mrs. George 22 Karelsen, Frank E. III 10 Kassan, Edgar 13 Katcher, Mr. and Mrs. Ira J. 8 Kaye, Lynn 53 Keyserling, Mr. and Mrs. Len H. 54 Klaessig, Frederick 9 Klein, Rabbi Edward E. and Mrs. 60 Klein, Josephine 35 Klenert, Mrs. Evelyn 34 Klenert, Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd 34 Koch, Mr. and Mrs. Albert 49 Kolker, Lane B. and guest 21 Kollender, Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer 55 Kruger, Morris and guest 3 Krupsaw, Mr. and Mrs. David L. 15 L Laitin, Joe 69 Lampert, Philip 50 Lane, Mrs. David 31 Lane, Mrs. John 48 Lang, Lucille M. 31 Langdon, Marvin P. Jr. 30 Lanigan, Mr. and Mrs. James 69 Lasser, Mr. and Mrs. David 65 Lawrence, Mr. Edward H. and guest 36 Lazar, Al Leo 23 Lazarus, Jerry 9 LeCompte, Dr. and Mrs. Philip M. 75 Lee, Mrs. Roscoe F. and 2 guests 66 Leiner, Henrietta and 2 guests 47 Lerner, Mr. and Mrs. E. R. 25 Lester, Miss Viola Ann 1 Leuchtenberg, William 2 Levin, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob 8 Levin, June G. 21 Levin, Mr. Ruben 69 Levine, Melvin 5 Levy, Alan J. 4 Levy, Muriel 4 Levy, Mrs. Newman 60 Lewis, Alfred 27 Lewis, Mr. and Mrs. Marx and son 42 Limig, richard 8 Linck, Mr. Orville 60 Lindberg, Miss Maren 63 Livingston, Mr. & Mrs. Goodhue, Jr. 43 Livingston, Mrs. Jack 3 Livingston, Dr. & Mrs. Philip H. 37 Lloyd, William B. Jr. 51 Table No. Lockhart, Mr. Richard 51 Loeb, Mr. Benjamin S., Jr & guest 30 Loeb, Mrs. James, Jr. 68 Loeb, Mr. Peter 65 London, Mr. Jack 10 Lonergan, Miss Lucy W. 6 Low, Mrs. Madeleine M. & 2 guest 70 Lowell, Mr. Stanley H. 58 Lloyd, Mr.David & Miss Andrea 64 Lobelle, Miss Norma 23 Lubin, Mr. & Mrs. Isador & Miss Alice 62 Luke, Mr., Wing 59 McAvay, Mrs. Frances 46 McCormick, Mr. & Mrs. C. J. 28 McCulloch, Mrs. Frank 61 McGee, Miss Betty 51 McGiffert, Mr. Michael 17 McKee, Mr. Don R. & 2 guests 25 McLaughlin, Mr. Patrick H. 24 McKnight, Mr. William 16 Mahone, Mr. Charles 35 Manduley, Mr. & Mrs. Manuel 66 Mankiewicz, Mr. & Mrs. Don 3 Mansour, Dr. Tag E. 65 Marshall, Miss Wilda E. 27 Martin, Mr. Frank S. 31 Mason, Mr. Charles N. Jr. 30 Matthews, Mr. Allan I. and 3 guests 30 Meade, Mr. Irving W. 27 Medow, Miss Florence I. 41 Meinecke, Mrs. Allan H. 23 Merriam, Mr. Robert E. 74 Messinger, Mr. Martin E. 20 Meyer, Miss Mailyn 6 Meyer, Mr. Peter A. 23 Meyer, Mr. Richard A. 51 Montgomery, Mrs. Grenville 56 Montana, Mr. Vanni 45 Moreland, Mr. Charles F. 3 Morgan, Miss Nell 69 Morgan, Mr. & Mrs. Thomas 18 Moriarty, Miss Mary 12 Murphy, Mr. L. H. 44 Murray, Mrs. Esther 60 Murray, Mrs. Mae 12 Nash, Mr. & Mrs. Philleo 74 Nathan, Mr. & Mrs. Robert 72 Nelson, Mr. Charles A. 41 Nelson, Noll 5 Newman, Miss Marion 8 Neustadt, Mr. & Mrs. Richard E. 74 Neustadt, Mrs. R. M. 74 Nixon, Mr. John 38 Norman, Mrs. Dorothy S. 62 Norwood, Miss Rose 75 Novik, Mr. & Mrs.Morris 60 Nurick, Mr. & Mrs. Benedict B. 15 BANQUET SEATING LIST -4- Table No. O'Connell, Mr. Ed 14 Oldham, Mr. & Mrs. M Brent 47 Oliver, Mr. & Mrs. Robert 63 Olshine, Mr. A. Alan 31 Olson, Mr. Robert 15 O'Neil, Mrs. Margaret 17 Osborne, Miss Irene 25 Oshins, Mrs. Robert L. and guest 19 Overton, Mr. George W. 41 Oxnam, Mr. David 5 Parker, Miss Helen Stockton 13 Pennybacker, Mr. Miles & 2 guests 17 Perlman, Miss Milly 46 Perlmutter, Mr. Nathan 2 Pfaus, Mr. George 60 Philip, Miss Ruth 23 Phillips, Mr. Gifford 72 Phillips, Dr. & Mrs. John T., Sr. 50 Phillips, Mrs. Paul L. & 4 guests 54 Pilcher, Mr. James A. 16 Pine, Mr. & Mrs. Charles W. 23 Piore,Mrs. Emanuel 25 Plumb, Mr. & Mrs. Milton 35 Plunkett, Mr. & Mrs. Moss A. 60 Podell, Mr. & Mrs. Louis. 8 Pollack, Mr. Sheldon 55 Pope, Mr. Alexander 41 Popper, Mr. William I. 37 Porter, Mrs. James A. 19 Preston, Jerome, Jr. 2 Price, Mrs. Charlotte 25 Price, Dr. Kline 25 Prichard, Mr. Kenneth 59 Purdy, Mr. Leroy 46 Pyrros, Mr. James G. 26 Quayle, Mr. & Mrs.Oliver, III 33 Raab, Mrs. Maurice 31 Rapp, Mr. Paul L. & guest 73 Rauh, Mrs. Joseph, Jr. & Mr. Michael 61 Reese, Mr. Ross Jr., Jr. 20 Reeves, Mr. Frank 25 Reilly, James Francis 7 Reitman, Mr. Alan 52 Reuss, Mr. Henry S. 60 Reuther, Mr. Roy 71 Rex, Miss Millicent B. 14 Rhodes, Hon. George M. 72 Rhodes, Lynn 70 Rich, Mr. Marvin 55 Riely, Mr. James E. 53 Robach, Mr. Herbert 59 Roberts, Miss Patricia & guest 24 Robinson, Mr. David 38 Robinson, Mrs. Sara E. 18 Roback, Mr. & Mrs. Stafan H. 37 Romualdi, Mr. & Mrs. Serafino 69 Ronald, Mr. W. Peter & guest 10 Rose, Mrs. Alex 71 Rosen, Mr. Samuel A. 37 Rosenbloom, Mr. Irving 70 Rosenblum, Mr. Morrie & guest 62 Rosner, Mr. Lester 37 Rosofsky, Miss Rose G. 30 Table No. Rotch, Mrs. Arthur G. 70 Rothman, Mr. Donald 13 Ruben, Mrs. Eve 63 Rubin, Dr. M. Bernard 5 Rubin, Mr. Sidney S. 10 Russ, Mr. Charles, Jr. 41 Rysbpan, Mr. David & guest 15 Sachs, Miss Alice 58 Saladino, Mr. Samuel 24 Saltonstall, John L. 71 Sandlin, Mrs. Odessa 23 Saxe, Mr. & Mrs. Harold S. 48 Saxl, Miss Sue 41 Schauffler, Mr. Peter 6 Schiffman, Miss Blanche E. 11 Schonberg, Miss Jeanne 44 Schulman, Mr. Sidney 56 Schwartz, Abba P. 67 Schwartz, Mr. & Mrs. Irving K. 48 Schwartz, Mr. Joseph & guest 56 Science, Mr. Albert 17 Seidenberg, Miss Beryl 56 Sekol, Miss Frances 12 Severeid, Mr. & Mrs. Eric 73 Shackell, Mr. & Mrs. Richard 17 Shainblum, Miss Adele 16 Shapiro, Mr. Arnold 13 Sharon, Mr. John & guest 73 Sherman, Mr. & Mrs. Malcolm 21 Shull, Mr. Leon 56 Sigal, Mr. Benjamin 63 Silver, Henry F. 45 Silverman, Mr. & Mrs. Selig 44 Silvey, Mr. & Mrs. Ted 47 Simon, Miss Carol 16 Skellenger, Mr. David P. 59 Slaughter, Mr. Henry P. 48 Slosberg, Mr. & Mrs. Hilbert 27 Smith, Miss Arline 59 Smith, Miss Jeanette 2 Smith, Mr. Lawrence M. C. 62 Smith, Mr. Louis P. 75 Smith, Mrs. Marie 50 Smith, Mr. William 2 Smull, Mr. William 2 Snyder, Mr. Darrell G. 23 Solomon, Mr. Richard & guest 15 Sommers, Mr. & Mrs. A. N. 12 Sonneborn, Mr. Rudolph 71 Spaeth, Mr. Otto 52 Spike, Mr. Robert 4 Spingarn, Mr. & Mrs. Jerome H. 33 Spingarn, Mr. Stephen J. 25 Sprague, Venice 47 Spratt, Miss Rosann 41 Stanley, Rev. & Mrs. Clifford 33 Stapleton, Miss Laurnece 56 Stein, Mr. Harold & guest 66 Stein, Mr. & Mrs. Robert M. 10 Stern, Dene 16 Stern, Mr. William 3 Stewart, Miss Margaret 43 Stillman, Mr. John 33 Stone, Dr. Candace 66 Stone, Mrs. Catherine 65 Stone, Mr. Leonard 9 Banquet Seating List -5- May 17, 1952 Stone, Mr. & Mrs. Peter A. 18 Stone, Mr. & Mrs. Richard D 38 Stopp, Mrs. Geral & Miss Ann 45 Straus, Miss Helen 10 Struble, Mr. David 24 Sturdevant, Mr. & Mrs. William 47 Styles, Mr. & Mrs. Paul L. 50 Sunstein, Miss Endly W. 21 Swire, Mr. & Mrs. Joseph 63 Tabaka, Miss Olga 1 Taft, Mrs. Theresa 18 Tannenbaun, Mr. Herbert 9 Taylor, Mr. & Mrs. Telford 61 Taymor, Dr. & Mrs. Melvin L. 75 Terrell, Mrs. Mary Church 73 Thomas, Miss Irene L. & guest 18 Thomason, Mr. & Mrs. John 63 Thompson, Miss Helen K. 29 Thompson, Mr. Kenneth 41 Thornton, Mrs. Modestine 6 Tonti, Mr. D. Louis 14 Tonti, Diva 5 Trent-Lyon, Mrs. Rose 17 Tucker, Mr. & Mrs. John F. P. 67 Tully, Miss Grace 19 Turover, Mr. & Mrs. I. S. 64 Tyler, Mr. Gus & guest 45 Udell, Mr. & Mrs. Jerome I. & Miss Helen 49 Ullman, Mr. & Mrs. Adolph 67 Usdansky, Mr. Morris 75 Van Arkel, Mr. & Mrs. Gerhard 29 Valente, Mr. & Mrs. Anthony 34 Vaughan, Mrs. Lucy 1 Vraz, Vlasta A. 65 Wade, Messers. Richard & Hugh 59 Walinsky, Mr. & Mrs. Louis J. 43 Wallick, Mr. & Mrs. Franklin 20 Warne, Mrs. William E. 64 Water, Mr. & Mrs. Herb 28 Watford, Mr. Clyde & 3 guests 20 Weaver, Mr. & Mrs. George L. P. 43 Wechsler, Mr. & Mrs. James 68 Weinstein, Mr. & Mrs. Sidney 16 Weisman, Mr. Alan L. 50 Weisman, Mrs. Gertrude 50 Weiss, Miss Ethel V. 31 Weiss, Dr. F. J 73 Wells, Mr. David 37 Welsh, Mr. John J. 21 Wenig, Dr. & Mrs. H. L. 11 Wentworth, Miss Edna 5 Whitten, Mrs. Louise & guest 7 Whyte, Mr. & Mrs. James 35 Wiencek, Miss Ruth 32 Wilder, Dr. & Mrs. Russell 12 Williams, Mr. & Mrs. David 29 Williams, Mr. Ellis T. 7 Wilson, Mr. & Mrs. F. M. 36 Wilson, Miss Marge 1 Wilson, Mr. & Mrs. Thomas F. 55 Wing, Miss Lucy Madeira 73 Wolf, Mr. & Mrs. Alfred 22 Wolf, Mr. Herman 44 Wolf, Mrs. Robert B. 53 Wood, Miss Lorrie 1 Woods, Mr. & Mrs. Warren 50 Wright, Mr. Dean 4 Yagoda, Mr. Louis & guest 36 Zalles, Mr. Reginald H. & guest 55 Zatinsky, Mr. Milt 14 Zeidman, Mrs. Elizabeth G. 21 Zimmerman, Mr. Charles S. 45 Zimmerman, Mr. & Mrs. Sidney 65 Zinder, Mr. & Mrs. H. 67 Zwerdling, Mr. & Mrs. A. L. 26 Zwerdling, Mr. & Mrs. Joseph 26 Washington Chapter - AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION - 1341 Connecticut Avenue N. W. June 2, 1953 Dear Chapter Member: Enclosed are the following: 1. A ballot 2. A description of the candidates 3. A return envelope which bears lines for the signature and address of the member (or members) 4. A ballot envelope to be enclosed in the return envelope Please vote for: (a) President; (b) two Vice-Presidents; (c) Secretary; (d) Treasurer; (e) twenty (20) Executive Board members; (f) Representative on the National Executive Board. After marking the ballot, it should be placed in the ballot envelope. The ballot envelope should be sealed and enclosed in the return envelope, which must bear the signature and address of the member or members. Ballots MUST be in the Chapter office not later than 5:30 Tuesday, June 16. Results of the election will be announced at the membership meeting on Wednesday, June 17, 1953. IDENTIFICATION OF CANDIDATES NOMINATED FOR OFFICE IN THE WASHINGTON CHAPTER, AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION, IN THE ANNUAL ELECTION, JUNE 1953 indicates member of Executive Board of Chapter 1952-53 PRESIDENT BEN SEGAL* Associate Director of Education, National CIO; National Executive Board, National Religion and Labor Foundation; President, Local 189, American Federation of Teachers; Member of Commission on Community Life, Washington Federation of Churches. VICE-PRESIDENTS GLADYS DUNCAN(Mrs. Todd Duncan) Executive Board member of D.C. Women's Civic Guild, American Veterans' Committee, Student International House; Vice-president, Nation Capital Democratic Club. Former teacher in D.C. public schools. GERHARD P. VAN ARKEL Attorney. Formerly Counsel to Senate District Committee. member, Democratic Central Committee. Former Vice-president of Chapter. Former General Counsel. SECRETARY MARY LEE COUNCIL Charter member of ADA; former officer and Board member of Washington Chapter; secretary to E. L. Bartlett, delegate in Congress from Alaska. TREASURER HELEN HAMER Chairmen of Chapter Foreign Affiars Committee; member of National ADA Convention Foreign Policy Commission for past two years; Board of Directors, Atlantic Union Committee. Managing Editor of magazine "Freedom and Union." -2- EXECUTIVE BOARD HENRY BASHKIN Member, Chapter Foreign Affairs Committee; treasurer, Little Choral Society. Economist, Department of Commerce. SANFORD BOLZ* Attorney. D.C. representative, American Jewish Congress; president, Washington Chapter, American Jewish Congress; executive board, Jewish Community Council; member, Civil Liberties Clearing House. MARGARET JUST BUTCHER (Mrs. James W. Butcher) Professor of English, Howard University. Active in AAUW, Banneker and Dunbar PTAs, Jack and Jill Club, Stevenson-Sparkman Committee. Trustee, Planned Parenthood Assn. Executive Board member, WCFM. Advisory Board. Federal Civil Defense Administration. JEAN CAMPBELL* Secretary, Chapter Civil Rights Committee. Formerly Exec. Board and Chairman of Public Accommodations Committee, D.C. Council on Civil Rights; board member, NAACP; president, first D.C. local of Government Workers Union. Chief, Statistical Branch, Women’s Bureau, Department of Labor. JULIA S. FANGMEIER (Mrs. Robert A. Fangmeier) Member, Chapter Education Committee. Minister of Education, Bethesda First Baptist Church. Taught in Spring Institute of Washington Federation of Churches, 1953. NATHANIAL GOLDFINGER Member, Chapter Domestic Affairs Committee. Associate Research Director, National CIO. Formerly Research and Education Director, United Paper Workers, CIO. CHARLES S. HILL* Business agent, Hotel Service Workers Local 80, AFL. Executive Committee, Central Suffrage Committee. Executive Committee, Washington Urban League; YMCA: United Community services trustee; in charge of Health Section, Budget Committee of Community Chest. GARDNER JACKSON Chapter Vice-President, 1951-1953. Legislative work, national CIO. Journalist. Formerly special assistant to Secretary of Agriculture. MARY DUBLIN KEYSERLING (Mrs. Leon Keyserling) Director, International Economic Analysis Division, Dept. of Commerce, 1945-1953; previously Division Director, FEA and OCD; Coordinator of Hearings, House of Representatives Committee on Defense Migration, 1941; Executive Secretary, National Consumers League, 1938-1941; economics teacher, 1933-1938. Board member: Committee for the Nation's Health, Henry Street Settlement. Former Board member, Washington Housing Association. Vice-chairman, Group Relations Committee of the Social Survey. Member, Washington Settlement Survey Commission. DAVID LASSER* Director, Research Department, Int'l Union of Electrical Workers, CIO. Charter member, Washington Chapter ADA. First Membership Committee chairman of Chapter. Formerly treasurer and chairman of Chapter Foreign Affairs Committee. Formerly Labor Advisor to former Secretary of Commerce Averell Harriman. MORTON LIFTIN* Chairman, Chapter Civil Rights Committee. Member of National ADA Convention Domestic Policy Commission, 1953. Member, National Legislative Committee, Government and Civic Workers Organizing Committee, CIO. Formerly treasurer, Industrial Union Council CIO; formerly national co-chairman, Governor Workers Union CIO. Formerly Board of Trustees and Board of Directors of Washington Community Chest. Formerly Executive Board member, DC Council on Civil Rights. Attorney, Civil Division, Department of Justice. CHARLES MAHONE, Sr.* Chairman, Chapter Auditing Committee. Member, Chapter Education, Civil Rights and Foreign Affairs Committees. Active in PTAs and other community organization. Accountant, GSA. -3- EXECUTIVE BOARD, continued ALBERT MINDLIN Member, Chapter Civil Rights Committee. Member, advisory ocmmittee of Community Relations Program, American Friends Service Committee. Formerly president, Washington Interracial Workshop. Active worker for integration of the D.C. recreational system, including preparation and publication of community-sponsored research reports, and leadership of direct action campaigns, such as recent Rosedale Playground campaign. Mathematical statistician, Bureau of the Census. Washington representative, Community Relations Program, American Friends Service Committee. Member: Community Organization section, UCS; Social Welfare Committee, Federation of Churches; Unitarian Fellowship for Social Justice. Alternate to National ADA Convention 1953. Formerly Chapter treasurer. Executive Secretary, Coordinating Committee on Technical Assistance of the Organization of American States, Pan American Union. Formerly Director of The Social Survey of Washington. Formerly memebr of Auchincloss sub-committee developing first Home Rule bill. Formerly Deputy Director for Displaced Persons, UNRRA. Chairman, Chapter Publicity Committee. Assistant Publicity Director, National CIO. Formerly Information and Publications Officer, Library of Congress, 1939-51; Managing Editor, Detroit Daily Abend Post and associated newspapers, 1936-38; reporter and editor, Detroit and Chicago dailies 1931-35. Chater member, American Newspaper Guild, CIO; contributor to magazines; Editor, Encyclopedia of Labor; Member, P.E.N., Unitarian Fellowship for Social Justice, Religion and Labor Foundation. ADA National Staff, 1950-52. President, Washington AVC Clubhouse 1950-1953. Currently National Executive Director, AVC. Attorney. ADA member since 1947; formerly Vice-Chairman, New Haven Chapter. Active in community organizations in Prince Georges County, Md. Chapter member since 1946. President, Rochdale Coop of Va. Director, Farm Bureau Insurance Companies. Formerly president of D.C.Credit Union League, Washington Fellowship, Burgundy Farm School. Recipient 1951 award by NAACP for work in race relations. 14 years in Government service, last 3 with Point 4. Currently in calednar-publishing business. Attorney. President, Washington Chapter ADA, 1947-1950. Former member WCFM Executive Board. Member, Washington Urban League Executive Board. Former Labor Member, National Wage Stabilization Board. Staff of President, National CIO. just concluded two years as head of Office of Labor, NPA. Former Vice- President of Chapter, formerly Co-Chairman, Chapter Civil Rights Committee. Member, Chapter Home Rule Committee. Financial analyst, World Bank. Formerly taught economics. Duke University. Chairman, Training Committee, Western District, National Capital Area Council of Boy Scouts of America. Active in home rule and civil rights. Staff of Democratic National Committee. Executive Secretary, Roosevelt Foundation. Formerly secretary to FDR. Chairman, Chapter Roosevelt Day Dinner 1952. -4- EXECUTIVE BOARD, continued LOUIS J. WALINSKY Chapter President, 1951-1953. Economist, Robert R. Nathan Associates. Formerly director of Office of Economic Review and Analysis, Civilian Production Administration. REGINALD ZALLES Executive Secretary, National ADA, 1952-53. Board of Governors, AVC Clubhouse, 1952-53. Formerly member of Massachusetts State Board of ADA. Executive Director and Campaign Manager, Mass. State ADA, 1948. Director, Mass. State CIO Council 1949-51. Chairman, Boston Chapter ADA, 1950-51. ROSE K. ZIMMERMAN* Legislative Assistant to Senator Thomas C. Hennings, Jr. Member and former chairman, Chapter Membership Committee. Announcing !!! ADA'S FIFTH ANNUAL FAMILY PICNIC Sunday, June 14th 3 to 8 p.m. Rock Creek Park Picnic Groves Groves #25 and #25A Program: Games (equipment provide); children's playground activities. Baseball from 4 to 6 Don't miss the all-star baseball game between the Washington and Montgomery Chapters Supper: Bring your own; we provide the punch. Directions: Rock Creek Park, 16th & Kenndy Streets; turn left at tennis courts, and follow ADA signs. COME YOURSELF - - AND BRING YOUR FRIENDS: SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Come and say goodbye to Jim and Ellen Leob before they leave Washington later this month.... Mark You Calendar Now For The Washington Chapter ADA JUNE MEMBERSHIP MEETING Symposium "The Crisis in Civil Liberties" Speakers: Norman Thomas Hon. Chet Holifield Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. Time: Wednesday, June 17, 1953 - at 8:30 p.m. Place: Pierce Hall, All souls Church, 16th & Harvard, N.W. (Results of the Chapter election will be announced) Washington Chapter - AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION ANNUAL ELECTION OF OFFICERS and EXECUTIVE BOARD June 1953 (Place "X" in space next to names you wish to vote for) PRESIDENT (vote for one) BEN SEGAL ( ) VICE-PRESIDENTS (vote for two) GLADYS DUNCAN ( ) GERHARD P. VAN ARKEL ( ) SECRETARY (vote for one) MARY LEE COUNCIL ( ) TREASURER (vote for one) HELEN HAMER ( ) EXECUTIVE BOARD (vote for twenty) SANFORD BOLZ ( ) IRENE OSBORNE ( ) HENRY BASHKIN ( ) CLARENCE M. PIERCE ( ) MARGARET JUST BUTCHER ( ) MILTON PLUMB ( ) JEAN CAMPBELL ( ) ANDREW E. RICE ( ) JULIA S. FANGMEIER ( ) RICHARD SCHIFTER ( ) NATHANIEL GOLDFINGER ( ) DAVID H. SCHULL ( ) CHARLES S. HILL ( ) BENJAMIN C. SIGAL ( ) GARDNER JACKSON ( ) TED F. SILVEY ( ) MARY DUBLIN KEYSERLING ( ) BENJAMIN P. SPIRO ( ) DAVID IASSER ( ) GRACE G. TULLY ( ) MORTON LIFTIN ( ) LOUIS J. WALINSKY ( ) CHARLES MAHONE, Sr. ( ) REGINALD ZALLES ( ) ALBERT MINDLIN ( ) ROSE ZIMMERMAN ( ) REPRESENTATIVE ON NATIONAL ADA EXECTUIVE BOARD (vote for one) BEN SEGAL ( ) [*[ca 1-29-54]*] WASHINGTON CHAPTER ADA Americans for Democratic Action Sixth Annual ROOSEVELT DAY TERRACE ROOM SHOREHAM HOTEL WASHINGTON, D. C. January 29, 1954 7:30 P.M. SPONSORS National Chairmen: Averell Harriman, Herbert H. Lehman National Vice-Chairmen: Arthur J. Altmeyer, Adolph Berle, Francis Biddle, Charles Brannan, James B. Carey, Oscar Chapman, Benjamin V. Cohen, Paul Douglas, James E. Doyle, David Dubinsky, Hugo Ernst, William Evjue, Thomas K. Finletter, A. J. Hayes, Leon Henderson, Hubert H. Humphrey, W. P. Kennedy, Leon H. Keyserling, Mrs David M. Levy, James Loeb, Jr., Isador Lubin, Archibald MacLeish, James E. Murray, Robert R. Nathan, Reinhold Niebuhr, James G. Patton, Paul A. Porter, Joseph L. Rauh, Jr., Emil Rieve, Walter P. Reuther, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., Marvin Rosenburg, Samuel I. Rosenman, Rev. William Scarlett, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Robert Sherwood, Monroe Sweetland, Telford Taylor, Miss Grace Tully, Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Dinner Chairman: Mrs. Todd Duncan Washington Committee: Mary Lee Council, Mrs. Charles R. Drew, Helen B. Hamer, Gardner Jackson, Morton, Liftin, Grace M. Spiro, Gerhard P. Van Arkel Miss Mary Anderson Judge and Mrs. Thurman Arnold Hon. Cleveland M. Bailey Mr. John A. Baker Mr. and Mrs. George Ball Mr. and Mrs. Alan Barth Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Beirne Mr. and Mrs. Wendell Berge Miss Katherine C. Blackburn Mr. Herbert Block Hon. Richard Bolling Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Borkin Rabbi A. Balfour Brickner Mr. and Mrs. James B. Carey Hon. and Mrs. Gordon R. Clapp Mrs. Raymond Clapper Dr. Montague Cobb Mr. Benjamin V. Cohen Mr. and Mrs. Wallace M. Cohen Rev. and Mrs. A. Powell Davies Mr. and Mrs. Donald Dawson Hon. and Mrs. F. Joseph Donohue Mr. and Mrs. Tilford E. Dudley Mr. Todd Duncan Hon. and Mrs. Herman P. Eberharter Mr. and Mrs. John Edelman Mrs. Alfred Friendly Miss Helen Fuller Rabbi Nathan Gaynor Mr. and Mrs. David Ginsburg Mr. and Mrs. Arthur J. Goldburg Mr. and Mrs. David L. Gordon Mr. Kenneth Hechler Dr. E. B. Henderson Mr. and Mrs. Leon Henderson Mr. Charles S. Hill Dr. and Mrs. Frank Horne Mr. and Mrs. James L. Houghteling Hon. and Mrs. Charles R. Howell Hon. and Mrs. Hubert H. Humphrey Col. and Mrs. Campbell C. Johnson Dr. and Mrs. Mordecai Johnson Dr. Phillip T. Johnson Mr. and Mrs. Henry Kaiser Hon. and Mrs. Estes Kefauver Hon. and Mrs. John F. Kennedy Mr. and Mrs. Leon Keyserling Mr. Jack Kroll Hon. and Mrs. Charles M. LaFollette Hon. and Mrs. Herbert H. Lehman Hon. and Mrs. David D. Lloyd Mr. Angus H. McDonald Dr. Herbert Marshall, Jr. Hon. and Mrs. Wayne Morse Hone. and Mrs. Charles F. Murphy Hon. James Murray Hon. and Mrs. Philleo Nash Mr. Alvin L. Newmyer Mr. and Mrs. Robert Oliver Mrs. Burton E. Oppenheim Mr. James G. Patton Mr. and Mrs. Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Frank D. Reeves Mr. and Mrs. Victor Reuther Hon. and Mrs. George M. Rhodes Rev. Jefferson P. Rogers Hon. and Mrs. Frankline D. Roosevelt, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Ruttenberg Mr. and Mrs. Philip Schiff Mr. Abba P. Schwartz Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin C. Sigal Mr. and Mrs. Ted F. Silvey Bishop Stephen Gill Spottswood Mr. and Mrs. Michael W. Strauss Mr. Russell Taylor Mrs. Mary Church Terrell Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Turner Mr. and Mrs. Gerhard P. Van Arkel Mr. and Mrs. George L-P Weaver Hon. and Mrs. Harrison Williams Hon. and Mrs. Sidney R. Yates Mr. Reginald H. Zalles THE PEOPLE WHO WORKED Hosts and Hostesses Mrs. Leon Keyserling Miss Helen Hamer Miss Jean Campbell Mrs. Margaret Butcher Miss Grace Spiro Mrs. Benjamin Sigal Mrs. David Williams Mrs. Sidney Zimmerman Mrs. Todd Duncan Mr. Morton Liftin Mrs. Clarence Pierce Mr. Frank Reeves Mr. Tilford Dudley Mr. Gardner Jackson Mr. Gerhard P. Van Arkel Ushers Mrs. Charles T. Duncan Mrs. Aubrey E. Robinson Jr. Miss Barbara Elias Miss Camille Lee Miss Kate Alfriend Mrs. Joan Walsh Goldman Seating Lists Miss Marilyn Sworzyn Mrs. Sergil Cave Program Booklet Mr. Clenen Bishop, Advisor Mrs. Todd Duncan Miss Grace Spiro Mr. Morton Liftin Arrangements and Invitations Mrs. Clarence Pierce Mrs. Dorothy Lawson Mrs. Alex Firfer Mrs. Anne Blachman Mrs. Alonzo Smith Mrs. Richard Strout Mrs. Benjamin Sigal Mr. Richard Shoemaker Miss Josephine Klein Mr. Milton Zatinsky Mr. Milton Plumb Mrs. Morton Liftin Mrs. Elmore Wiggins Mr. and Mrs. Gardner Jackson Miss Jennie Lea Knight Miss Olga Tabaksa Mr. Gilbert Parks Mrs. John T. Phillips Cocktail Table Mrs. Charlotte Price Mrs. Margaret Hawkins Miss Esther Nighbert Miss Estelle Abrams Mrs. Catherine Hurley Tickets At Door Miss Josephine Klein Mrs. Paul Marks THE PROGRAM Invocation REV. JEFFERSON D. ROGERS Toastmaster ROBERT R. NATHAN A TRIBUTE TO ELMER DAVIS ERIC SEVAREID, MARTIN AGRONSKY Response MR. DAVIS Music CHARLOTTE WESLEY HOLLOMAN, Soprano ALDRICH ADKINS, Tenor VADA ADKINS, Accompanist MRS. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT The Story of ADA ADA was founded in 1947 by a group of distinguished Americans who met in Washington to map a campaign to reinvigorate liberalism in the in the national and international policies of the United States. ADA is a nation-wide, independent, anti-Communist political organization dedicated to a three-step program for making liberalism a dynamic force in the United States: 1. Formulating liberal domestic and foreign policies based upon the realities and changing needs of American democracy. 2. Enlisting public understanding and support of these policies, and 3. Seeking to put them into effect by hard-hitting, down-to-earth political action through both major political parties. ADA chapters have worked and are working with increasing success for Congressional, state and local candidates, regardless of party, who are in general agreement with the ADA program. ADA's platform contains the following basic concepts: Foreign Policy — the United Nations as the keystone of American policy, supplemented by special measures, such as the North Atlantic Pact, to insure security against Communist aggression; military and economic assistance to the nations of the free world; an effective Point Four program; support of movements for national independence; and reciprocal trade agreements. Domestic Economy — free enterprise coupled with government responsibility for the maintenance of full employment and the most efficient use of our resources; basic security for the individual through social security, health insurance, minimum wage laws and equitable labor legislation; taxation based upon ability to pay; policies promoting fair participation in our national economy by wage earners, farmers and large and small businessmen. Civil Rights and Liberties — the extension of full right of citizenship, including employment, to all Americans, without regard to race, creed, or national origin; the support of measures necessary to safeguard national security, but with firm insistence on the protection and strengthening of the vital democratic freedoms of speech, opinion and press. ADA has been denounced by the Communist Party as "the imperialist fifth column inside the liberal and labor movement." On the other hand, reactionaries have tried to discredit ADA by saying or insinuating that it is "Communist" or that it "follows the Communist Party line." ADA is proud of the enemies it has made, but it is even more proud of the people who have given it praise and support. Highlights of 1953 Washington Chapter ADA ADA Asks Rent Rule Be Extended Here The Washington Chapter, Americans for Democratic Action yesterday urged continuation of District rent . . . City Heads Praised For Non-Bias Order The District Commissioners were praised yesterday for a "solid step forward" in requiring contractors with the city to pledge nondiscrimination in employment beginning November 16. The praise came from Morton Liftin, chairman of the civil rights committee of the Washington Chapter, Americans for Democratic Action, in a letter to Commissioner Samuel Spencer. "This is a solid step . . . ADA to Honor Six For Service to District Six persons will receive awards from the Washington Chapter of the Americans for Democratic Action at a garden party from 2:30 to 6 p.m. Sunday at 2909 Brandywine street N.W. The awards are for service to the District. They are Representative Javits, Republican, of New York: John Cramer, Washington Daily News columnist: Mrs. Alice Hunter, of the District Recreation board: the Rev. Francis B. Sayre, jr., dean of the Washington Cathedral; Mrs. Velma Williams, recently retired member of the Board of Education, and Harry B. Merican, who has worked in behalf of District school children. . . . ADA Urges Action To Prepare for D.C. School Integration An educational program by the Board of Education to prepare the community for possible school integration was urged today by the Washington chapter of Americans for Democratic Action. The program should begin immediately, ADA said. . . . U.S Job Fear Told at ADA Meeting Federal employes work fearfully at their desks these days amid attacks on Civil Service protection, a welter of rumors about layoffs and under the eyes . . . Segal of ADA Denies High Court Raised Doubts on Home Rule The Washington Chapter of Americans for Democratic Action yesterday took . . . Board Sanctions ADA Home Rule Essays in Schools Americans for Democratic Action have permission to run an essay contest in the District schools—even if theirs is a "political organization." Board of Education Member Robert R. Faulkner tried to block the contest—on the theme of District home rule—at a board meeting yesterday. He called ADA political, a criticism he also made a week ago. But Miss Mary Harriet Parker, a colleague, pointed out the board permits the Daughters of the American Revolution to conduct contests, and the DAR "can be classed in the same way," she asserted. The board voted Mr. Faulkner down, 5 to 2. During 1953 the Washington Chapter carried our numerous aspects of the national program on a local level. Its representatives participated actively in hearings before Congressional committees, the Board of Education and the District Commissioners on many local problems. The Chapter's campaigns for eliminating segregation in public recreation and for the appointment of a favorable recreation board have met with some success. The effort to accomplish complete desegregation is being pressed. It was urged, among other things, that a greater part of the District budget be earmarked for educational and welfare purposes; that rent control be continued; that the transit situation be improved by eradicating racially discriminatory hiring practices and by instituting a special shoppers' fare; that, until our right for complete desegregation is successful, additional schools be transferred from white to colored use in areas of disproportionate attendance; and that teachers; salaries be increased. Testimony also was given in support of the Southwest redevelopment plan for the elimination of slums, and against publicizing the names of persons receiving public assistance. The Chapter was successful in having regular Board of Public Welfare meeting opened to the public. Monthly public meetings and discussions were held on topics of current interest—the plight of the federal worker, the European crisis, civil liberties and the school segregation cases. Among the speakers were British M.P. Denis Healy, Donald Dawson, Congressman Chet Holifield and Dr. Margaret Just Butcher. The Chapter co-sponsored a memorial meeting for Mayor Reuter of Berlin, with tributes by Norman Thomas, Dr. A. Powell Davies, Dr. Oscar Weigert and Bundestag member Willi Birkelbach. An essay contest among pupils attending District high schools was promoted on "What Home Rule Means to Me." City-wide interest was generated and prizes were awarded to the winners. When District income taxes were due, the Chapter distributed stickers, to be affixed to tax returns, reminding officials of the unfairness of taxation without representation. A radio program was presented on "Your School Board", to spur citizens' interest in the composition of the School Board. The Chapter recommended and supported candidates for appointment to that body. The Chapter was successful in having its members give voice to the ADA viewpoint by participation in the national radio and TV forum programs. 1953 was an active year, but with the increase in attacks on the ideals to which ADA is dedicated, the Chapter anticipates an even busier 1954. Washington Chapter and National Officers of ADA Washington Officers Morton Liftin President Mrs. Todd Duncan Gerhard P. Van Arkel Vice-Presidents Mary Lee Council Secretary Helen B. Hamer Treasurer Grace M. Spiro Executive Secretary EXECUTIVE BOARD Sanford H. Bolz Mrs. Margaret Just Butcher Jean S. Campbell Tilford E. Dudley John Edelman Charles S. Hill Gardner Jackson Mrs. Mary Dublin Keyserling David Lasser Irene Osborne Clarence M. Pierce Milton Plumb Andrew E. Rice David H. Scull Benjamin C. Sigal Ted F. Silvey Grace G. Tully Reginald H. Zalles Mrs. Rose Zimmerman COMMITTEE CHARIMEN Education Mrs. Alonzo Smith Health and Welfare Mrs. Clarence M. Pierce Home Rule Tilford E. Dudley Housing John Edelman Civil Rights Morton Liftin Publicity Milly Geiger Schuchat Membership Jean Campbell Hospitality Mrs. Benjamin C. Sigal Auditing Charles E. Mahone Finance Reginald H. Zalles Program Milton Zatinsky National Officers Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt Honorary Chairman Robert R. Nathan Chairman, Executive Committee Edward D. Hollander National Director James E. Doyle Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Co-chairmen Mrs. Sadie T. M. Alexander Francis Biddle Hugo Ernst A.J. Hayes Hubert H. Humphrey W.P. Kennedy Herbert H. Lehman Wayne Morse Reinhold Niebuhr James G. Patton Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. Walter P. Reuther Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. Vice Chairmen Marvin Rosenburg Treasurer Frank W. McCulloch Secretary, National Board National Board Arthur J. Altmeyer Albert L. Berney Joseph A. Bierne Edgar Bernhard Yale Bernstein Robert J. Block L. S. Buckmaster James B. Carey Walter Carrington Joseph S. Clark, Jr. Joseph B. Crawford David Dubinsky John M. Eklund Thomas K. Finletter Lewis A. Freeman Stanley Gewirtz Harold J. Gibbons Harry Girvetz Adriel Harris Mortimer Hays Morris Hirsh Frederick Holborn Campbell C. Johnson Frank E. Karelsen Barry J. Keating Dorothy Kenyon Leon H. Keyserling Bresci R. P. Leonard Leo A. Lerner Sander M. LEvin Mrs. David M. Levy Marx Lewis David D. Lloyd James Loeb, Jr. Stanley H. Lowell Louis Lubin B. F. McLaurin Leon Malman William Muehl Stephen Pepper George S. Pfaus Gifford Phillips Paul L. Phillips LaRoy H. Purdy Sidney Reitman Mrs. Arthur G. Rotch Mrs. Gertrude W. Scheft Edward J. Scheunemann Mrs. Marion Silversone L. M. C. Smith Otto L. Spaeth Monroe Sweetland Telford Taylor Mrs. Betty Taymor Robert Tilove Gerhard P. Van Arkel James A. Wechsler Ronald P. Wertheim Mrs. Quincy Wright A. L. Zwerdling Stop Talking to Yourself - Start Acting with ADA! Countless Americans have stopped talking and started acting - acting together in Americans for Democratic Action Who These Americans are drawn from every state, from every creed and race. They work at every kind of job. They are members of every decent political party. You'll find a few of the many famous faces in ADA if you turn the page. But the backbone of ADA is the back-bone of America - people like you and your neighbors. ADA welcomes as members only those whose devotion to political freedom is unquestioned. That means no communists, fascists, or other totalitarians. What What is ADA? We stand for the middle way between selfish individualism, and heart- less totalitarianism. We have dedicated ADA to the achievement of freedom and economic security for all peoples, everywhere. ADA believes that rising living standards and expanded freedom can be attained by democratic planning. Permanent world peace can be won through international cooperation. How Not a political party itself, ADA works through established political parties. Our tools are education and political action. Completely democratic, ADA has no party line. ADA draws on many experts for information, but the members forge its policies by free discussions and free votes. We fight for these policies by political action: telling people the facts and what they can do about them; working in party primaries to nominate liberal candidates; campaigning for their election. And, between elections, ADA keeps office-holders constantly reminded of the strength of American liberalism and what it stands for. Where With this fighting program Americans for Democratic Action has spread from coast to coast with over a hundred chapters, and as many more student groups. Locally, ADA chapters have fought inflation, for civil rights, for honest municipal government, for decent housing. ADA works closely with the national labor organizations, as well as with other public interest groups. It is a coalition of men and women in all walks of life united by a common belief in the great traditions of American liberalism, and determined to fulfill our responsibilities to our country and to the free world. Next We have just begun to fight. ADA will continue to work for the election of liberals, to fight for progressive laws, to arouse the public conscience to old abuses and new aggressions, at home and abroad. We shall prove that we need not surrender liberty to win security, nor need we abandon our hope for security in preserving liberty. Act now to Make your voice heard! Make your ideas felt! Make your vote count! Just write one of these sentences, and your name and address on a postcard, "I'm sold on ADA, this is my application for membership" "I want to know more about ADA" Send it to Washington Chapter AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION 1341 CONNECTICUT AVE, N.W., WASHINGTON 6, D. C. BY THESE DEEDS WE KNOW HIM... BUSINESS and FINANCE. These are the New Deal measures which brought the country out of a state of panic, gave industry the highest profits it has ever enjoyed, and brought prosperity to business, big and little. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (1933) guaranteeing individual savings up to $5,000, restored confidence in our banking system. In the four years before this law was passed, there were 8,302 bank failures; in the 12 Democratic years since, bank failures have totalled only 538, and loss to depositors has been kept down to almost nothing Reconstruction Finance Corporation loans were increased and made to small enterprises as well as large—to banks, railroads, insurance companies—staving off threatened bankruptcies until national recovery was under way. After President Roosevelt took office, up to the time of the war, the RFC had loaned to business enterprises $293,500,000, and 89% of it has been repaid; 81% of all pre-war RFC loans have been collected. The Public Utility Act of 1935, and rigid Enforcement of the Anti-Trust Act and the Broadening of the Powers of the Federal Trade Commission put a curb on dangerous concentration of economic power in the hands of monopolies and holding companies, policing free enterprise for little business as well as big. Since 1933, anti-trust cases brought into court have averaged 300 a year; before that they averaged 34 a year. The Securities and Exchange Act (1934) outlawed dishonest dealing in securities, giving new confidence to investors. The Gold Reserve Act (1934) and the Silver Purchase Act strengthened monetary and financial stabilization. EMPLOYMENT. These are the measures that put money back into circulation by giving jobs to those who had been standing in breadlines. The Public Works Adminsitration (1933) helped states and communities to put men to work on needed public works—roads, power plants, water systems, school houses, public buildings, etc. Of the 822 1/2 million dollars loaned to counties and towns by the PWA, 80% has been paid back and the government has made a net profit of 14 million dollars. The Work Projects Administration (1933) converted the manpower of jobless millions into public improvements and services. The United States Employment Service provided free assistance to the unemployed to get them back into jobs; has served, during wartime, to utilize the nation's manpower to the utmost; will help returning soldiers to get back onto pay rolls. AGRICULTURE. These measures put farming — hardest hit of all industries — back on a paying basis and gave to the farmer his fair share of national prosperity. Ahe Agricultural Adjustment Administration (1933) helped the farmers to work out an over-all production program which keeps farm prices stable and conserves the nation's soil by crop rotation and other good soil-building and soil-conserving practices. The Ever-Normal Granary provided for storage of reserves in good years for use in years of crop failure. The program, well established before the war, helped us provide ourselves and our Allies with food supplies needed for victory. The Farm Credit Administration's expanded services made long-term and short-term loans available to the farmers hard hit by depression so that their production was not held up for lack of funds. These lending services also helped stimulate our war production. The Commodity Credit Corporation (1933) was used to help support farm prices, and a pledge has been made to farmers that the CCC will carry out that purpose to keep prices up to parity for two years after the war. The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (1938) removed the individual farmer's risk from crop destruction and failure. The Surplus Marketing Administration kept surpluses from glutting the market; provided food for the needy and for school lunch programs. The Rural Electrification Program (1935) brought electricity to a million farms at low cost. REA loans to cooperatives are being repaid for ahead of schedule—$75,970,000 this year when only $58,482,000 was due. The Farm Security Administration (1935) "gave a new start in life" to thousands of impoverished farm families, instructing POWER OF DEMOCRACY EXCERPTS FROM THE RECORD WRITTEN IN 1944 them in better farming methods and loaning them the money they needed to carry them out. The Farm Tenant Act and Rural Resettlement provided loans to help tenant farmers buy their own land, relieving one of the greatest of our rural problems, that of farm tenancy. LABOR. Measures which brought a fair deal to working men and women include: The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 set minimum wages below which a workers could not be paid; maximum hours above which he could not be required to work; outlawed child labor. The National Labor Relations Act (1935) gave labor the legal right to bargain collectively and to defend itself against unfair labor practices. The National Labor Relations Board was set up for the purpose of enforcing the Act and to settle labor disputes in fairness to both labor and management. Unemployment Insurance, under the Social Security Act, provided out-of-work pay to bridge the fearsome gap between jobs. CONSERVATION. These measures have meant billions of dollars to this country by conserving and building up its natural resources. The Soil Conservation Act (1935) gave practical help to farmers by showing them how to use scientific methods of building up and conserving their land. The Tennessee Valley Authority (1933), sets up as a model power project, has electrified farms and villages for hundreds of miles around it, conserved the water resources of the valley, and produced great quantites of super-phosphate fertilizer. Construction of Huge Flood Control and Irrigation Projects, authorized by various flood control bills, brought modern advantages to many communities an dgave us a national power plant adequate for our war production needs. Drought Control and Drought Relief Programs gave new life to the famished Dust Bowl, putting parched ground back into production. Establishment and Improvement of National Parks and Monuments meant to this country recreational advantages unexcelled in the world. HOUSING. By these measures the New Deal attacked the nation's housing problem, made acute by the building slump and by the unchecked growth of city and rural slums. The Federal Housing Administration (1934) put the building industry back on its feet; enabled thousands of families with moderate incomes to buy new homes or improve their old ones. The United States Housing Authority (1937) slum clearance program removed whole neighborhoods of sub-standard homes where disease and crime were breeding, and replaced them with clean, modern, low-rent dwellings. The Home Owners' Loan Corporation (1933) helped stabilize 1,400 savings and loan associations with HOLC and U. S. Treasury funds; made direct loans to a million families whose homes were threatened with foreclosure. The government has received almost 52 million dollars in dividends on its investments in associations, and 16 million dollars from its investments in Federal Home Loan Banks. Nearly 300,000 home owners who borrowed from the HOLC have repaid in full, and 100,000 more are making monthly payments ahead of schedule. The Federal Savings and Loan System (1933) chartered new savings and loan association for home financing. The Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (1934) insured investments up to $5,000 in thrift and home-financing institutions. Today it protects nearly 3,700,000 investors. YOUTH. The New Deal recognized this country's obligation to its youth by passing the following measures: The Civilian Conservation Corps (1937) provided healthful, useful jobs for thousands of unemployed boys. This work increased the value of our country's natural resources by 600 million dollars by planting trees, improving forests and parks, eradicating insect pests, and helping with erosion control. The National Youth Administration (1935) enabled thousands of students to stay in school by providing them with part-time work, and helped thousands of others toward employment by job training. SOCIAL SECURITY. Measures that have meant more security for Americans and their families: The Social Security Act (1935) gave the American people a sense of security against illness and poverty, from childhood through old age. It embraces a maternal and child heath program, a child welfare service, a crippled children's program and financial aid for dependent children; social insurance to cover industrial workers, unemployment compensation and reemployment service; assistance for the needy blind and vocational rehabilitation for the physically disabled in industry; old age assistance for the needy aged, and old age and survivors insurance against future need; and extension of the Public Health Service. WORLD COOPERATION. The following measures laid the foundation for permanent peace in the world community of nations. The Good Neighbor Policy (1933) built up friendly cooperation between the United States and its neighbors in this hemisphere. The Reciprocal Trade Agreements Program (1934) introduced a practical, workable plan for world trade on a cooperative basis. The Lend-Lease Program (1941), an historic demonstration of practical good-neighborliness, proved to be the most important factor in preventing the German and Japanese agressors from attaining their goal of world domination. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration has already put into practice the theory of cooperation among nations. The Roosevelt Administration has proven, through its leadership, that this country can unite with other nations of the world not only in the conduct of total war, but that even in the midst of war, plans are being made for international cooperation which have laid the basis for an enduring peace. Already the United States has participated in world conferences on food and agriculture, relief and rehabilitation, education, monetary policies and labor, and the conferences at Dumbarton Oaks erected a framework for a world organization to keep the peace. GREETINGS TO ADA ON ROOSEVELT DAY Mary & Bob Nathan Fanley Ferry Aukard M Arkal Max M Kapalman Herman P. Eberharter Reginald H. Zalle Esther and Benjamin C Thomas H. Burke Elliot Bredhoff James Lul Jr. Louise and Edward J. Hollander James Anarkey Margaret & Jack Butcher Segal Theresa S. Rudith Betty and David Williams Mr. & Mrs. Gardner Albert E. Arent Charm Goodman Henry Bita Peggy H. Goodwin Harry & Jean Illoclay Matthew Dalher William V. Shannon Adriel Harris GWerssbrodt Louis H. Hirsh Andrew E. Rice Sandy Hardy Todd Duncan Marge & Jim Garey David Samson Kate Alfriend Marie W. Smith Richard E. Shormalser Saaez Germly June Pickett Jan Man Seymour Brandwlen Katherine P. Ellickson Jean S. Campbell Clarence Mitchell Grace M. Spiro M Eisingr Jr. Ted F. Silvey Olie & Joe Rauh Charlotte S. Price Eugene J McCautly J B Butiles Trisha E. Oacallay Albert K. Hership George L. P. Weaver Philip E. Lerman Milton Zatinsky Cora Gates P. J. Thomas Ned Goldfinger Jules Wenity Dorothy Kanyon Evelyn Duberson Gladys J. Duncan Robert Oliver MY MESSAGE TO GARCIA by Adlai E. Stevenson My contacts with Franklin D. Roosevelt were not frequent; but one of them was — at least so far as I was concerned — memorable. It took place shortly after I arrived in Washington the summer of 1941 to work for Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox. He assigned to me the legal work incident to taking over the strike-bound Kearney shipyards in New Jersey then so vital to our destroyer production. We had to have an executive order signed by the President. But the President was somewhere in the North Atlantic returning from his Atlantic Charter meeting with Winston Churchill. Knox told me to fly out to the cruiser that was bringing the President home, explain the intricate emergency, get his signature on the executive order, and get back to Washington as soon as I could. Just as I was leaving the office Knox sent for me again. A very exalted Admiral was sitting there beside him. Knox was extremely serious. The Admiral's manner was equally serious. "You are to deliver this message to the President and to no one else," he said somberly. "Tell him that we have learned today, from a heretofore reliable source, that Stalin has opened negotiations with Hitler." Off I flew to Quonset - and arrived just as a thick sea fog was settling over the base like a blanket. But I had to deliver my message to Garcia, and I finally prevailed upon the Commandant to let a pilot fly me up to Rockland in the hope that I could get there by the time the President put in. I made Rockland all right; and, as we came in I could see steam and smoke billowing from the President's special train in the station. Panting, breathless and frustrated, I pushed through the crowd but his train pulled out long before I reached the station. I reflected that the train's next stop would be Portland, and set off for the Portland station only to find the streets jammed and blocked all around. Somewhere in the crown I ran into a United States Senator, fighting his way toward the platform supported by two large policemen. He got onto the platform and promised to do what he could to get me into the train. Soon the train came in, the secret service men let the Senator through and held me back. I waited in conspicuous despair. Finally, General Pa Watson stuck his head out of the door of the Presidential car. I explained that I had documents and messages for the President that couldn't wait until he reached Washington the following morning. He listened benevolently and disappeared into the same limbo that had already swallowed up the Senator. Another endless period passed. Finally Pa reappeared and told me that I could see the President. I began to explain the Kearney Shipyard situation. He listened for a little while to my confusion of apologies about disturbing him and about the Kearney strike and the Executive order of seizure; then said, "Adlai, you just leave these papers with me, and I'll read them over. We'll have a meeting at the White House in the morning. You fly back and arrange it with Colonel Knox." "But, Mr. President," I said, feeling more and more like a fool, "they are very anxious for you to sign the papers right now so the Navy can move into the plant in the morning." "I think it will work out all right this way," said the President. "Well," I said feebly, "if you say so, I guess it will be O.K." By that time I was so nervous I hardly knew what I was saying. And the worst was still to come — because I had yet to communicate the shattering message to the President. I desperately plunged ahead. "I have something else to tell you, Mr. President," I said. "Do you, Adlai? What is it?" I told him that I had an important secret message and that I was instructed to tell it to him alone. The President smiled, "Oh, I think you could tell me here, Adlai." I looked nervously at the intimate friends around the supper table and thought I detected some restrained amusement. But I decided I would be faithful to my instructions. So I picked up a menu and wrote it down on the back. The President read it with care. Then he looked up at me. "Adlai." he said, "do you believe this?" I stammered out some senseless reply. The President looked calm. "I'm not worried," he said. "Are you worried?" I said that I guessed I wasn't. Then I apologized for the interruption once more, said goodbye, and stepped briskly into a closed door! We had the meeting at the White House the next morning. He signed the order and the whole business was settled in fifteen minutes. As for the ominous message, I suppose Naval Intelligence reappraised its "heretofore reliable source." And so ended my mission into frustration. FDR AT SHANGRI-LA by ROBERT E. SHERWOOD Shangri-la was, of course, the cabin community in the Catoctin Hills of Maryland, near the Pennsylvania border, which Franklin D. Roosevelt established as a weekend retreat in the summer of 1942 - a quiet, remote place where he could escape from some of the heat but none of the problems of Washington. There were two successive weekends there in that first summer that I remember particularly because they dramatize in my mind Roosevelt's extraordinary ability to calm, relaxed, good-humored, even jocose, at moments when he was facing up to some of the most terrible decisions a President had ever been compelled by his constitutional duties to make and stand by — and to be responsible for in the eyes of history. August, 1942, was a particularly suspenseful month in the Second World War; it was the beginning of the crossing of the hazardous grand canyon that separated defeat from victory. Eight months had passed since Pearl Harbor — months of humiliating defeat — and we were still on the losing side in Europe, on the Russian front, and in Southeast Asia. On Saturday, August 22ndm at 3:30 P.M., the Presidential party left the White House. The drive to Shangri-la took about two hours. The weekend lasted until after lunch on Monday. Roosevelt told endless stories. He relished the food, prepared by Filipino sailors, and far superior to the indifferent fare at the White House. One would have thought that here was a President who faced no graver problems than did Calvin Coolidge. One would have thought so, that is, had it not been for the incessant messages delivered from the White House communications center established in one of the cabins on this reservation. That was a relatively quiet weekend, but the next one was all work and activity, with Generals and Admirals arriving, conferring and departing in great haste. Within the next seven days the President was to deliver the Dedication Address at the new Naval Hospital, two fireside chats, a Labor Day statement and a vitally important message to Congress on stabilization. Every one of these State Papers had to be weighed and appraised with thought of its effect upon the whole American people and all the other peoples of this earth — friendly, enemy, or neutral — and also its effect upon History. Averell Harriman arrived to report on his meetings with Churchill and Stalin and his study of the railroad from the Persian Gulf through Iran as a new channel of supplies for Russia. Averell expressed the conviction that the Russians would hold Stalingrad. Indeed, he gave me a remarkably accurate forecast of what course the war on the Eastern Front would take during the next few months, although neither he nor anyone else (including Stalin and Hider) could have foretold at that time the ultimate magnitude of the Stalingrad victory. Nor, at this time, could one presume to foretell the outcome of the complex and daring North Africa project. On the Sunday of that weekend Roosevelt and Hopkins drafted and dispatched a long cable to Churchill giving the President's thoughts on these difficult subjects, and particularly his insistence that there be landings on the Atlantic Coast of French Morocco as well as in Algeria. However, there were long-range questions about which Roosevelt was in no doubt whatsoever here at Shangri-la at the end of August, 1942. In one of the speeches that he delivered that week he spoke primarily to the men and women of our armed forces, and he said: "There is still, however, a handful of men and women, in the United States and elsewhere who mock and sneer at the four freedoms and the Atlantic Charter. They are few in number; but some of them have the financial power to give our enemies the false impression that they have a large following among our citizenry. They play petty politics in a world crisis. They fiddle with many sour notes while civilization burns. These puny prophets decry our determination to implement our high concepts and our sound principles. And the words of these little men of little faith are quoted with gleeful approval by the press and the radio of our enemies. . . We do believe that, with divine guidance, we can make — in this dark world of today, and in the new postwar world of tomorrow — a steady progress toward the highest goals that men have ever imagined . . . But we must keep at it — we must never relax, never falter, never fear — and we must keep at it together. We must maintain the offensive against evil in all its forms. We must work, and we must fight to insure that our children shall have and shall enjoy in peace their inalienable rights to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Only on those bold terms can this total war result in total victory." Those were some of Roosevelt's words written in the remote calmness of Shangri-la in August, 1942. It all seems an awfully long time ago. THE LIVING MEMORY by FRANCIS BIDDLE The passage of time tends to obscure traits and to develop myths. Great men are sanctified, and lose something of their reality. As their enemies would sponge out their records to destroy living memories, their friends are forced into spurious worship and the image is monstrous, or dimly god-like, but not human. That Franklin Roosevelt will suffer this fate I doubt. He was so essentially a human being that even now the divine myth cannot emerge. He just was not like a saint. He was like a man, and the affection he inspired was because he was a man - like other men; like you or me, or the postmaster at Hyde Park who didn't know about economics but knew what it cost to live; like a workman who was steadily worried, frightened by the spectre of unemployment. The people might think of the President as a father, a father confessor in sense; or as understanding more than other people understood, or seeing through all these complicated things which the politicians only confused, and making them simple. But they never thought of him as something deified, the way dictators become deified (and largely ossified). It wasn't a cloudy figure. It was concrete and vivid — a man with strong hands and broad shoulders, his infirmity forgotten, looking straight ahead, looking straight into your eyes. In a democracy men must be led, and Franklin Roosevelt led them. He gave them a sense of the overlap of history, of the greatness of their own young country. He made them feel that as Americans they were participating in that adventure of greatness. He showed them the value of history, that the past could throw light on the present, but must never dominate it. That sense of caution which history had taught him found a response in their deeper instincts, far more conservative than the surface change and rush of their external world would seem to indicate. Above all he was serene, and they knew it. That may be a reason why the long, terrible war was fought without the witch-hunts and the suspicious and the hatreds which had peopled the other, earlier war against Germany. After he had talked their spirits were refreshed, and they were readier to face the hardships of their own lives. Things weren't so bad. It was a pretty good country, after all, if you lived up to its promises. It might be true that you didn't have much to fear, except, as he had once said, fear itself. AN EVER-LIVING FIGURE by OSCAR L. CHAPMAN Franklin D. Roosevelt will ever be a live figure in American life. That is because of the imagination, the energy and the enthusiasm, as well as the understanding which he brought to American problems in years of crises. Franklin D. Roosevelt lives in our daily experience and activities because for decades yet to be counted, the handiwork of the American people made effective by his leadership will continue to effect for good the well-being of every individual in our land. Each of us will see him in terms of our particular interests. Thus my personal interest, long standing and enhanced over the years in the conservation of human and other natural resources reflects many facets of Franklin Roosevelt's contribution in these areas. Our great natural physical resources, the parks and the forests, have been more certainly preserved for our children and their children. Our great rivers have been harnessed and the way has been pointed to the continued utilization of these energies for the development of our economic life and thus the maintenance and the improvement of our high standard of living. But most of all there is the ever-present recognition and glow of satisfaction that Franklin Roosevelt led in recognizing the magnificent role of the individual. He emphasized and re-emphasized the truth that becomes ever more clear that it is the individual American who helps make us a great people; and it is to the individual, without regard to race or creed or color, that the benefits from this titanic and vast production endowment of nature must accrue. There are the parks, the forests, the dams; there are the provisions for the aged and the unemployed; there are the advances in government by which the contribution of capital, of labor, yes and of the consumer, are recognized each in their appropriate place; there is our growing participation in world affairs based one equity and fair play with stress on the importance of the individual — all to the end that the United States and its citizens will continue to be a truly democratic country. These are some of the things that keep Franklin Roosevelt a living figure in the hearts of America. LONG LIVE LIVE MUSIC Help Repeal the Unfair 20% Amusement Tax Which is Costing Musicians' Jobs All Over the Country Write Your Congressman Today D.C. FEDERATION OF MUSICIANS Local 161 - A.F. of M. Washington, D.C. URSELL'S 3243 Que St., N.W. HUdson 3-5727 (Just West of Wisconsin Ave.) THE BEST IN CONTEMPORARY DESIGN fireplace accessories stainless steel flatware Arzberg and Heath dinnerware distinctive home accessories mobiles modern jewelry Open Thursday until 9:00 Other evenings until 6:30 10 per cent on purchases to ADA Treasury Compliments of JAMES E. SCOTT REAL ESTATE (Since 1926) Management Insurance Sales DEcatur 2-1513-1514 711 Florida Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C. 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Permanent wave and tint specialist NORTHWEST OFFICE SUPPLY CO., INC 1159 21st Street N.W. RE 7-8616 Insurance Incorporated Edward W. Alfriend, President KIng 9-1224 Chamber of Commerce Building 201 S. Washington St., Alexandria, VA. A Tradition of Superior Service and Styling at Popular Prices JULES HAIR STYLIST Studios in Alexandria Arlington Silver Spring SOUTHWICK SUITS Natural Shoulder - Center Vent exclusive with ARTHUR A. ADLER 822 15th Street N.W. NA 8-4575 Washington, D.C. Real Estate Insurance Compliments of JOHN R. PINKETT, INC. 1302 New Jersey Avenue N.W. Serving a Discriminating Clientele DUpont 7-0707 EUGENE DAVIDSON INCORPORATED REALTISTS HObart 2-7576 1238 U Street, Northwest Washington, D.C. Compliments of DANIEL SINGER PEOPLES LIQUORS, INC. 719 11th Street N.W. NAtional 8-8900 Doyle Printing Service, Inc. 1219 Eye Street, N.W. Letterpress and Offset Job Printers NAtional 8-7295 Compliments of GILLIAT & CO. Real Estate 2827 Dumbarton Avenue, N.W. DEcatur 2-2770 "For Famous Names in Meanswear" BRUCE HUNT, INC Larry Nathan, President 613 14th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. The World's Foods Are Yours When You Dine in the Enchantment of RESTAURANT MADRILLON Washington Building 15th and New York Avenue, N.W. DIstrict 7-4561 International Cuisine Luncheon from 11:30 Dinner from 5 Dancing from 8:30 SOUND STUDIOS of Washington, D.C. DIStrict 7-4482 306 Sixth Street, N.W. Compliments of STEIN'S MEAT MARKET 2722 Georgia Avenue, N.W. Al Schulman, Owner The Shoreham Hotel L. Gardner Moore, Manager POLITICS and INVESTMANSHIP 1. If you think a public works program will be needed, have you looked into cement stocks? 2. If you expect higher natural gas rates, have you thought about natural gas utilities? 3. If you feel the emphasis in defense plans is changing, have you considered electronic companies? ...if you think Washington is here to stay, have you bought air conditioning stocks? CAREFUL INVESTMENT GUIDANCE HARRY KAHN, Jr. Member New York Stock Exchange Associate Member American Stock Exchange 821 15th Street N.W. DI 7-2255 Pacific Atlantic Lines from the FDR Record Antiquated school facilities were a firm concern of Franklin Roosevelt. During his first term under the federal government school expansion programs, 6201 schoolhouses were built. Compliments of Robert R. Nathan Associates Inc. Economic Consultants 3 Thomas Circle N.W. NAtional 8-8630 Washington, D. C. ADA MEMBERS Buy Your Books, Original Paintings and Fine Reproductions at Whyte Book Shop and Gallery, Inc. 1518 Connecticut Ave., N.W. 10 Per Cent Will Go to ADA Treasury The HANFORD PRESS PRINTERS Samuel Greenspan, Prop. 507 E Street, N.W. NAtional 8-4715 Washington, D. C. Doctors Pharmacy, Inc. 1112 W Street, N.W. HObart 2-7979 Washington 9, D. C. AIRPORT TRANSPORT, INC. LIMOUSINES and TAXICABS TO -- and -- FROM WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT EXecutive 3-3060 R. MARS THE CONTRACT CO. WHOLESALE PRICES ON FURNITURE, LINENS, BEDDING, CARPETS, ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES R. MARS Guarantees Lower Prices for Equal Quality South Capitol and D. Streets, S.W. For complete information call: LIncoln 4-6900 Lines FROM THE FDR RECORD The mileage of farm-to-market roads build or rebuilt under the Roosevelt administration if laid in transcontinental highways, would stretch nearly forty-four times across the widest dimension of the United States, or five times around the world. Visit Our Wonderful Children's Department CENTER BOOK SHOP 7127 Wisconsin Avenue Bethesda, Maryland AVC House "The Nation's Community Center" 1751 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W. ADams 4-5913 For all your meetings and social functions Robert R. Nathan, Chairman Reginald H. Zalles, President Clenen J. Bishop, Executive Director prints and reproductions custom framing The I.F.A. Galleries 2629 Connecticut Ave. DU. 7-7537 Tues. & Thurs. 'til 9 p.m. whatever your needs. LETTERPRESS or OFFSET kp has both !KAUFMANN PRESS, INC. 25 massachusetts avenue, n.w. ST. 3-5776 The Best Pizza in Town Gusti's pizza is hot from the oven... hot with the spices ... a "hot tip" for late snacking, lunching or mealtime! Also other Italian food favorites ...wine and cocktails...served daily except Sunday from 11:30 to 2 a.m. Gusti's 1837 M Street N.W. RE. 7-0895 FDR By These Deeds We Know Him FDR ADA SECOND ANNUAL Roosevelt Day JANUARY 27, 1950 7 P.M. TERRACE ROOM SHOREHAM HOTEL WASHINGTON, D. C. Auspices: Washington Chapter, Americans for Democratic Action SPONSORS Roosevelt Day Dinner Mr. and Mrs. Martin Agronsky Miss Mary Anderson Mr. and Mrs. Alan Barth Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune Mr. and Mrs. Wendell Berge The Hon. and Mrs. Francis Biddle The Hon. and Mrs. Andrew Biemiller Mr. Herbert Block Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Borkin Governor and Mrs. Chester Bowles The Hon. And Mrs. Charles F. Brannan Dr. and Mrs. Vincent J. Browne The Hon. and Mrs. M.G. Burnside Mr. and Mrs. James B. Carey The Hon. and Mrs. John A. Carroll Mrs. Raymond Clapper The Hon. and Mrs. Emanuel Celler The Hon. and Mrs. Oscar Chapman Mr. and Mrs. Marquis Childs Mrs. Benjamin V. Cohen Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Cohen Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Coy Mr. and Mrs. C. Girard Davidson Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Davis Mr. and Mrs. Karl de Schweinitz Mr. and Mrs. Melvyn Douglas The Hon. and Mrs. Paul H. Douglas The Hon and Mrs. Clyde Doyle Mr. and Mrs. David Dubinsky Mr. and Mrs. Tilford Dudley The Hon. and Mrs. Herman P. Eberharter Mr. and Mrs. John Edelman Mr. Hugo Ernst Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Friendly The Hon. and Mrs. Foster C. Furcolo Mr. David Ginsburg The Hon. and Mrs. Frank Graham The Hon. Theodore F. Green Mr. and Mrs. William Green Ambassador and Mrs. W. Averill Harriman Mr. A. J. Hayes Mr. and Mrs. Leon Henderson Mr. Paul M. Herzog Mr. and Mrs. Edward Hollander Mr. and Mrs. James L. Houghteling The Hon. Charles R. Howell The Hon. and Mrs. Hubert H. Humphrey Mr. and Mrs. Gardner Jackson Col. and Mrs. Campbell Johnson Mr. and Mrs. Philip Kaiser Mr. and Mrs. Leon Keyserling The Hon. and Mrs. Harley Kilgore Mr. and Mrs. Charles La Follette Mr. and Mrs. Harold Levanthal Mr. and Mrs. Murray D. Lincoln Mr. and Mrs. Ernest K. Lindley Mr. and Mrs. Howard Lindsay Mr. and Mrs. David D. Lloyd Mr. and Mrs. Frank McCullouch The Hon. and Mrs. John H. Marsalis Miss Frieda Miller Mr. Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Mr. Philip Murray The Hon. and Mrs. Francis J. Myers Mr. and Mrs. Robert Nathan Mrs. Burton Oppenheim Mrs. Gifford Pinchot Mr. and Mrs. Paul Porter The Hon. and Mrs. Adam C. Powell, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Walter P. Reuther Mr. Emil Rieve Mr. and Mrs. Samuel I. Rosenman Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Ruttenberg The Hon. and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Chalmers M. Roberts Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Rosenberg The Hon. and Mrs. Adolph J. Sabath Mr. and Mrs. Philip Schiff Mr. and Mrs. Eric Sevareid Mrs. Mary Church Terrell The Hon. and Mrs. Elbert Thomas Miss Grace Tully Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Turner Mr. and Mrs. I. S. Turnover Mr. and Mrs. Gerhard P. Van Arkel Mr. and Mrs. George Weaver Mr. Claude Wickard Mrs. Chase Going Woodhouse The Hon. and Mrs. Sidney R. Yates NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR ROOSEVELT DAY CO-CHAIRMEN Chester Bowles Herbert H. Lehman Robert E. Sherwood VICE-CHAIRMEN Francis Biddle Helen Gahagan Douglas Paul H. Douglas Frank P. Graham Samuel I. Rosenman William Green Willian H. Hastie Leon Henderson Hubert H. Humphrey Murray D. Lincoln Howard Lindsay Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Philip Murray Robert F. Wagner LABOR COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRMEN David Dubinsky Hugo Ernst A. J. Hayes W. P. Kennedy Walter P. Reuther Emil Rieve ARRANGEMENTS COMMITTEE Mrs. Newman Levy Chairman James Loeb, Jr. Secretary Blossom Kramer Executive Secretary THE PROGRAM Senator Herbert H. Lehman Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr The Rev. A. Powell Davies, D.D. Chairman "For freedom to learn is the first necessity of guaranteeing that man himself shall be self-reliant enough to be free" F. D. R.—June 30, 1938 WASHINGTON COMMITTEE FOR ROOSEVELT DAY CHAIRMAN The Rev. A. Powell Davies, D. D. VICE-CHAIRMAN Kate Alfriend Gerhard P. Van Arkel Clarence Pierce Benjamin C. Sigal Martha J. Winokur ARRANGEMENTS, INVITATIONS AND JOURNAL COMMITTEE Chairman: Janet L. Alper Assistants for Arrangements: Mrs. Max Kampelman, Mrs. James Loeb, Jr., Mrs. Joseph Rauh, J., Mrs Hilburt Slosberg, Mrs. A. L. Weisman. Assistants for Invitations: Jean Bloch, Mary Lee Council, Anne Davis, Mrs. Les Finnegan, Ida Jean Goodman, Mrs. Steven Harris, Marjorie Hawkins, Frances Huggard, Mrs. Lane Kirkland, Mrs. David Lassar, Mrs. Dorothy Lawson, Mrs. Louis Levy, Mrs. Morton Liftin, Anne McGarry, Ruth Dene Neufeld, Mr. and Mrs. Cyril Paquin, Mrs. Kline A. Price, Grace Spiro. Assistants for the Journal: Mrs. David Ferber, Mrs. Alfred Friendly, Mrs. Doris G. Foster, Mrs. J. M. Glass, Gardner Jackson, Mrs. Samuel Lipkowitz, Hugh O'Neill, Mrs. Charles Rogers, Mrs. Bertram Saymon, Irvin Shapiro, Mrs. Benjamin Sigal. ADA AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION is an organization of progressives, dedicated to the achievement of freedom and economic security for all people everywhere, through education and democratic political action. We believe that rising living standards and lasting peace can be attained by democratic planning, enlargement of fundamental liberties and international cooperation. We believe that all forms of totalitarianism, including Communism, are incompatible with these objectives. In our crusade for an expanding democracy and against fascism and reaction, we welcome as members of ADA only those whose devotion to the principles of political freedom is unqualified. The New Deal Provided a Period of Intense Intellectual Ferment The Philosophy of Experiment By Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. WASHINGTON, in its long and varied history never witnessed so much intellectual excitement as the thirties. The Great Depression, like an earthquake, had exposed great fissures in American society; and the reformers saw no alternative except to probe society, like geologists, to its shaky foundations and then begin the job of building anew. "I have gathered my tools and my charts," Rex Tugwell had written in his youthful verse: My plans are fashioned and practical; I shall roll up my sleeves—make America over! The New Dealers existed in the realm of social criticism and reconstruction—that is, in the realm of ideas. They were not in politics by choice; they were lawyers, professors, social workers, precipitated into political life by the economic collapse of 1929. They ate, drank and slept national issues, and their enthusiasm united them in a crusade of social reform. And in the center, at the point where ideas were translated into action, was the extraordinary figure of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Not an intellectual himself, at times a pragmatist with almost a contempt for logical consistency, Roosevelt yet received an indispensable stimulus from the shock and sparkle of ideas. The give-and-take of argument going on around him excited his imagination; it pictured to him great new possibilities. Moreover, it showed him more clearly than any logical analysis ever could the strength and weakness of competing theories and of the men who espoused them. He needed combative people to carry out his program; and the fact that they often turned to rend each other seemed to him a small price to pay for independence and vigor. Now the New Deal did not, of course, spring full-fledged from the brain of Franklin Roosevelt in March 1933. It emerged from a background of thought and controversy; and, in important respects, it revived issues which had not been fully ventilated in America since the days of Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson. Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson had often differed sharply about the issues of economic concentration and social welfare; but they had at least agreed in recognizing the issues as important. In one sense the New Deal was a reaffirmation in a more desperate national crisis of the values of the New Nationalism and the New Freedom. For all the differences between Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson, between Herbert Croly, the regulator, and Louis D. Brandeis, the trust-buster, their generation did leave a common heritage of creative concern with social problems. This heritage was incarnated in a striking way in Franklin Roosevelt himself. His cousin Theodore Roosevelt had been the exciting political personality of F.D.R.'s youth, disclosing to a whole generation of well-bred young men the possibility and challenge of government service; and Woodrow Wilson, under whom he served for two terms as assistant secretary of the navy, had been the political leader of his first years in the federal government. In his pragmatic way, F.D.R. derived rich inspiration from these somewhat diverse sources. This was doubtless to the logical detriment of his New Deal. He could never decide, for example, whether monopolies should be regulated, as Theodore Roosevelt and Croly urged, or broken up as Wilson and Brandeis believed. Thus, as the New Nationalism left its mark on the National Recovery Administration (NRA), and the New Freedom on the Temporary National Economic Committee (TNEC). But, as usual, F.D.R. was right and the logicians were wrong; for his mixture of strategies corresponded more accurately to the actualities of the economic situation than any all- out dependence on regulation, on the one hand, or anti- trust action on the other would have. Some of F.D.R.'s closest supporters, like Felix Frankfurter, shared his double allegiance to T.R. and to Wilson. Future New Dealers like Harold Ickes, John G. Winant and Donald Richberg rallied behind the Bull Moose party in 1912 to stand with T.R. at Armageddon and battle for the Lord. From the Wilson administration came such men as Homer Cummings, Hugh Johnson, Daniel Roper and Joseph Davies. After Wilson, the heritage of liberalism had been kept alive in 1924 by Robert M. LaFollette of Wisconsin. Young Bob LaFollette was to become one of the New Deal's stalwarts in the senate; David K. Niles was only one of many to gain his first national political experience in the campaign of 1924; and David Lilienthal was only the most distinguished of the LaFollette contributions to the New Deal. In the meantime, Al Smith and Franklin Roosevelt had been developing a tradition of urban progressivism in New York, which would eventually send such persons as Henry Morgenthau, jr., Harry Hopkins, Frances Perkins and Samuel Rosenman, to Washington. as Theodore Roosevelt and Croly THE CRISIS of 1933 seemed for a moment to present almost a carte blanche for reconstruction. On the outer margins, the Technocrats, huckster grandchildren of Thorstein Veblen, called for drastic new schemes of social engineering (forgetting that the nation had only barely survived the experience of having a real engineer in the White House). Huey Long found in sharing the wealth the infallible recipe which would make every man a king, and himself a kingfish. Father Coughlin and a host of monetary cranks demanded the nationalization of the banks and the inflation of the currency according to obscure and conflicting formulae. Dr. Townsend proposed to rest everything on a fantastic system of old-age pensions. Upton Sinclair had in Epic his own package plan for ending poverty in California. And on the far left, the Communists, still in the mood of melodramatic intransigence, were content with nothing less than bloody revolution. "Under the dictatorship of the proletariat," cried William Z. Foster, licking his chops, "all the capitalist parties — Republicans, Democrats, Progressives, Socialists, etc. — will be liquidated, the Communist Party alone functioning as the party of the toiling masses." Thus the nation itself galloped off in all directions for salvation. Meanwhile in Washington, the First New Deal held sway. In the tradition of the New Nationalism, it accepted bigness in business, suspended the anti-trust law and sought by regulation and agreement to harness bigness to constructive social purposes. The masterly study of corporate finance by Adolf A. Berle, jr. and Gardiner C. Means — The Modern Corporation and Private Property (1932) — provided many of the basic presuppositions; and, in the spirit of Simon Patten, Rexford Tugwell affirmed in The Industrial Discipline and the Governmental Arts (1933) the existence of as yet untapped resources of governmental direction and control. enough. "Now in its second summer," wrote John Dewey in 1934, "the Roosevelt experiment is being generally admitted a failure. More than ever perspective and vision are necessary, as talk of 'revolution' is again in the air." A "controlled and humanized capitalism" was not enough. "The necessary conclusion," said Dewey, "seem to be that no such compromise with a decaying system is possible." YET the obituary was premature. With his quick ability to learn by experience and to spring back from failure, F.D.R. moved slowly in 1934 and 1935 into the phase of the Second New Deal, from the New Nationalism to the New Freedom. Brandeis and Frankfurter became the prophets of the new dispensation, replacing the vision of a controlled economy by one of an economy based on revitalized competition; and in 1936 John Maynard Keynes' General Theory of Employment expounded the economic logic which underlay the New Deal's involuntary experiments in spending and in fiscal controls. Ben Cohen, Tom Corcoran, Leon Henderson, Robert Jackson, WIlliam O. Douglas and their associates became the political champions of the new gospel. "It is a program," Roosevelt said in 1938, whose basic thesis is not that the system of free private enterprise for profit has failed in this generation, but that it has not yet been tried." The genius of the New Deal clearly lay in the direction of economic pluralism. But the anti-trust crusade generated a school of anti-trust doctrinaires almost fundamentalist in their fervor. Jerome Frank, one of the most fertile and characteristic of the NEw Deal philosophes, tried to restrain his associates in the SEC from too simple a belief in the trust-busting panacea. But, under the leadership of Thurman Arnold, there arose a group prepared to wager all on the revival of competitive enterprise through government anti-monopoly action. Arnold in a sense was an unexpected leader for a crusade; his brilliant book The Folklore of Capitalism had given sardonic and irresistible expression to the anti-business emotions of the New Dealers of 1937. But as assistant Attorney General of the United States, he had got religion; and the former iconoclast thus consecrated himself to the celebration of one of our most venerable rituals—the enforcement of the Sherman Act. THE NEW DEAL produced no great and seminal work — no classic statement of its purposes and principles. It had no John Taylor of Carolina nor even a Herbert Croly. It was the product, indeed, of an epoch of liberalism which revolted against systems, against too neat a logic or too rigorous and symmetrical a pattern. Its method was pragmatism, and sometimes it was pragmatism run riot. In the spirit of John Dewey, it tended to distrust the promulgation of new systems, lest new systems create new rigidities and new dogmatisms. This epoch of liberalism, as Morton G. White has forcefully argues in his important new book Social Thought in America: The Revolt Against Formalism, may well have gone too far in its rejections. A measure of precision and logic in analysis is essential if a social faith is to be made effective; and the very pragmatic and protean quality of the New Deal sometimes betrayed the essential core of principle and made part of it vulnerable to idea and philosophies with which it was basically incompatible. Even eclecticism has its limits. Yet for all its lack of final definition, it had an intellectual vitality which American government has never seen before or since. It was the spirit of free inquiry, boldly applied to politics under the great-hearted and courageous presidential leadership. Without this far-ranging, free-wheeling spirit of discontent and curiosity, free society in America might well have failed to survive the ordeal of the Great Depression. ADA and Liberalism By Hubert H. Humphrey, U. S. Senator from Minnesota; National Chairman, ADA WHAT does liberalism mean in the twentieth century? The twentieth century has been a dark and tragic epoch for liberalism. Far from its being the century of democracy, as our predecessors had hoped, it has been the century of the great totalitarian challenges to democracy. Does this mean that liberalism has become an irrelevant faith? We in Americans for Democratic Action know that liberalism remains the hope of the future. To realize that hope, however, we must first know: where have we gone wrong? Why has free society failed to live up to its shining promise? Why has this century reared up a fierce opposition to freedom — an opposition which was concentrated a decade ago in fascism and is concentrated today in communism? Free society has stumbled into its tragic predicament because it has thus far failed to meet essential human needs. It gave the individual freedom without giving him security. It gave society economic strength without giving it economic stability. Thus totalitarianism arose in response to the failure of freedom. An age of anxiety drove the lonely, the dissatisfied, the frightened to listen to the Hitlers and the Mussolinis and to the Stalins. Fascism or communism, proposing to unite the masses in a comradeship of work and sacrifice, promised a life without anxiety, a life filled with meaning. Liberalism must face with candor the reasons for the threats to free society. It means that liberalism must confront freshly and boldly the need for new programs and new policies. It means that liberalism must mobilize its forces in a democratic counter-offensive, and that it must play a vigorous and fearless part in the politics of freedom. American for Democratic Action accepts these responsibilities. We are prepared to begin the essential task of rethinking our values and our policies in terms of the urgent problems of mid-century. We are prepared to help rally the liberal forces in support of programs which will expand democracy and strengthen freedom. WHAT does this mean in domestic policy? In the field of civil freedom, ADA unequivocally opposes discrimination against minority groups in the population because of race or color. We feel that the treatment of the Negro in the United States constitutes the most disgraceful blot on our democratic pretensions. While we recognize that this situation has intricate psychological and social origins, we believe that our society can show its decency of intention only by a vigorous and steady movement to abolish all legal and social sanctions upon discrimination. ADA stands with equal determination upon the grounds of freedom of conscience and expression. We believe that the rights of political opposition should be limited only by the clear and present danger of acts in violation of substantive law; we believe that the right of dissenting opinion should be unlimited; and we would guarantee this right even to the enemies of freedom — the fascists and the communists — because we know that democratic ideas will always win out in a free competition. But we will not ourselves work with these enemies of freedom, nor will we admit to them to membership in our organization. In the realm of economic policy, we believe that government regulation and planning are necessary to preserve stability and security. We are well aware of the dangers to freedom in an all-powerful state. For this reason, we believe that government power should not only have the check of a vigilant and critical public opinion but should be exercised, when possible, through decentralized agencies under local or regional control. But we also are well aware that concentrated economic power is quite dangerous in private hands as in public hands; and we know that a free people will not stand for periodic depression nor for the deprivation of those basic securities — income, housing, education, medical care — which alone give substance to equality of opportunity. We believe that the free market should be maintained wherever it produces and distributes goods and services most efficiently; and we believe that the government should take the necessary steps to keep competition truly competitive. Where economic concentration is inevitable, the government must undertake the drastic regulation and in some cases the public acquisition of monopolies. Between the public tyranny of the all-powerful state and the private tyranny of unregulated monopoly is the wide and fertile field of competition private enterprise. of independent public authorities, municipal ownership, cooperative, federally initiated projects locally administered, and all the possible combinations of these democratic devices. We call upon the government through its fiscal and taxation powers to take the necessary measures to ward off depression. We also call upon the government to aid in the establishment of basic standards of national welfare for all our citizens. We believe our production to be great that we can afford to put a floor under the necessities of life — food, education, medical care, housing — so that every family may have a decent minimum living. We favor an adequate system of price supports for our farmers. We welcome the growing participation of farm organizations in our political life. The farmers of America have a common bond of interest with consumers and with industrial workers. We believe that a strong, free trade union movement is an essential bulwark of democracy. We are opposed to legislation which would cripple the organization of labor. Under wise and responsible leadership, the labor movement has a great and constructive role to play in American national development. In foreign policy, ADA stands firm in support of democratic forces and against totalitarian aggression. Our ultimate goal must be the reconstruction and development of the areas of the world where want and insecurity invite the rise of totalitarianism. We therefore support the European Recovery Program as the best means of revitalizing a democratic and productive Europe; and we call for the speedy development of Point Four into a genuinely bold program for the economic transformation of Asia and Africa. We believe too that similar steps must be taken to renew the economic meaning of our Good Neighbor policy in Latin America. Our immediate goal in foreign policy must be the protection of free peoples from totalitarian subversion or attack. The case of Czechoslovakia has taught us that political and economic stability is no guarantee against totalitarian aggression. Military measures require military counter-measures. We therefore support the North Atlantic Pact as providing a shield behind which the task of economic reconstruction may be carried on. This aspect of our policy must be anti-fascist as well as anti-communist; and we must back all peoples who believe in freedom or in progress toward it, whether their economic system is socialist or capitalist. Our national allies throughout the world are the forces who share with us a belief in individual freedom and in democratic controls. In many nations, these forces are headed by the democratic Socialists and the non-Communist left. Such parties must have our entire cooperation and support. ADA demands unswerving loyalty to the United Nations. The best prospect for lasting peace lies in the creation of an economic and moral community in the world which will permit the development of the United Nations into a world government of limited powers adequate to prevent war. * * * ADA does not believe these policies will blossom in a vacuum. A democracy expects those who believe in a program to organize politically to push that program through. ADA is not a political party. It is an independent movement of American citizens dedicated to democratic principles and it is prepared to back any candidate who can demonstrate an equal attachment to the principles by which free society lives. ADA seeks to be the medium through which the moral and intellectual force of liberalism is brought to bear on political life. Already in many states it has grown into a lively and influential political force. In many cities it has prosecuted the continuing struggle for good government. On many college campuses it has given the youth of the land an affirmative social faith which has rendered them immune to the blandishments of Communism. ADA is at present organized in 120 towns and cities and on 175 college campuses. But this represents just the beginning. The task of the liberal revival is prodigious and challenging. We accept the challenge, and the dimensions of the task only stimulate our energies. The ADA in Washington The Washington Chapter of ADA was chartered three years ago. Now, with close to a thousand members, it has become a significant progressive force in the nation's capital. During the past year the Washington ADA: - played an important role in getting Senate passage of home rule legislation; - organized and led the fight for an equitable tax program for the District of Columbia; - supported the extension and strengthening of rent control, public housing and urban redevelopment in the District; - worked for a District civil rights law, campaigned against segregation in recreation areas, opposed restrictive covenants; - supported unions in their drives for needed pay raises and better working conditions; - fought for better salaries for teachers, paid sick leave; organized study committee for the Strayer report on education in the District of Columbia; - organized a chapter in Montgomery County, Maryland and an active committee in Virginia which has supported liberal candidates, worked for improving school conditions and for important state and local issues; - presented to members and the public an educational program featuring such outstanding national and international speakers as Franklin D. Roosevelt jr., Walter Reuther, Estes Kefauver, Francis Biddle, John Kennedy, James Reston, Edgar Ansel Mowrer, Hugh Mitchell, Michael Straight, Margaret Cole, J. H. R. S. Crossman, Charles La Follette, James Loeb, jr., Ben Stong, Morris L. Cooke, Stanley Ruttenberg and others; - honored Mrs. Eugenie Anderson, Ambassador to Denmark; the Howard University Players; Girard Davidson, Herblock; Colonel Campbell Johnson; John Kennedy; A. Powell Davies and Estes Kefauver; - held annual garden party at home of Mr. and Mrs. Marquis Childs, eggnog party at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Christmas party for children and other social events; - conducted a half-hour radio roundtable program once a month on Station WCFM. In 1950 the Washington Chapter will press the liberal fight on all fronts: local, national, international including support for these key issues: In the District: home rule, civil rights legislation, housing, improved schools, adequate budget for health, welfare and recreation needs and an equitable tax program. In the Nation: civil rights legislation, rent control extension, housing, Brannan farm plan, Federal aid to education, Taft-Hartley repeal, extension of social security, health insurance, promotion of measures for regional development, economic expansion program. Internationally: Strengthening the UN, support for ERP, MAP and "Point Four" program, liberalized DP legislation, supporting democratic movements in other countries. " For Famous Names in Menswear" BRUCE HUNT, INC. Larry Nathan, President 613 14th Street, N. W. Washington, D. C. THE Maternity SHOP Hours 10:20 A. M. TO 7:30 P. M. Monday Through Saturday ADams 7579 3315 Fourteenth Street Northwest Compliments of A FRIEND PEOPLES The Store with the Bulletin Board LIQUOR 719 11th Street, N. W. NAtional 8900 Compliments of TRUCK DRIVER'S LOCAL No. 639 Affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America (AFL) Compliments of BUFFALO SAND & GRAVEL SUITLAND, MARYLAND Visit Our Wonderful Children's Department CENTER BOOK SHOP 7127 WISCONSIN AVENUE Bethesda, Maryland EDWARD W. ALFRIEND, IV GENERAL INSURANCE Telephone-ALexandria 1224 Chamber of Commerce Bldg. 201 S. Washington St., Alexandria, Va. SPECIALISTS IN REAL ESTATE CALL DORIS D. ROGERS WOodley 1966 With Marsteller, McCabe & Co., Inc. Washington Chapter, ADA President: BENJAMIN C. SIGAL Vice-President: GERHARD P. VAN ARKEL Vice-President: KATE ALFRIEND Secretary: MARTHA J. WINOKUR Treasury: CLARENCE M. PIERCE Office Manager: DIANA W. BIRD EXECUTIVE BOARD VINCENT J. BROWNE WALLACE COHEN MARY LEE COUNCIL NELSON CRUIKSHANK WILLIAM DAMERON JOHN EDELMAN KATHERINE FREUND DAVID GORDON GARDNER JACKSON BETTY LINDLEY CYRIL PAQUIN CHARLES SANDS GRACE SPIRO GEORGE WEAVER JAMES WHYTE ROSE ZIMMERMAN COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN District of Columbia: FRANCES ADAMS Education: BERTRAM B. SAYMON Health and Welfare: COL. CAMPBELL JOHNSON Home Rule: KATHERINE FREUND Housing: MAGDA CROWE BOYLAN Fiscal Affairs: GRACE SPIRO Public UtilitIes: ALEX FIRFER Civil Rights: VINCENT J. BROWNE AND BARBARA STEVENSON Membership: MARIAN CANTER SCHEINER AND SHEILA MCCULLOCH National Affairs: CHESTER ELLICKSON AND MOLLY APPLE LEVIN Publicity: ADRIENNE TASSLER MONTGOMERY COUNTY CHAPTER, MARYLAND (Cooperating) Chairman: WALLACE COHEN Vice-Chairman: RUSSELL THACKERAY Secretary: ELIZABETH ROHR Treasurer: THOMAS KEEHN "The Modern Lumber Yard" I. S. Turover IF IT'S LUMBER, WE HAVE IT . . . IF IT'S MADE OF LUMBER, WE MAKE IT! Main Office—Yard Bethesda, Md. Phone WIsconsin 6622 Distribution Yard and Mill Bladensburg, Maryland Branch Yard Riverdale, Md. Phone AP. 1700 Compliments of GILLIAT & CO. REAL ESTATE 2827 DUMBARTON AVENUE, N. W. DEcatur 2770 Compliments THE DUNBAR HOTEL 2015 FIFTEENTH STREET, NORTHWEST Washington, D. C. Dining Room, Cocktail Lounge, Coffee Shop Phone NO. 8970—W. R. Gough, Mgr. DAVID MAX AND CO. GLASS AND MIRRORS ATlantic 9100 Compliments GIBBY'S D. G. S. MARKET 4554 MacARTHUR BOULEVARD We Specialize in Fancy Groceries SPECIAL SERVICE—SPECIAL DELIVERY ANYWHERE—ANYTIME EMerson 5131 PATRICK HAYES CONCERTS TRAUBEL—Sunday, January 29, 4 p.m. RUBINSTEIN—Sunday, February 5, 4 p.m. TOUREL—Tuesday, February 7, 8:30 p.m. CURZON—Sunday, February 12, 4 p.m. ALL CONCERTS IN CONSTITUTION HALL HAYES CONCERT BUREAU 1108 G Street, N. W. (in Campbell Music Co.) NAtional 7151 Steinway Piano Compliments of MAYNARD B. DeWITT LIFE UNDERWRITER Representative: The Mutual Life Insurance Co., of N. Y. 421-432 Southern Bldg., Washington, D. C. WOOK "YOUR FRIENDLY STATION" To the Memory of F. D. R. EDWARD T. CHEYFITZ Suburban Maryland's Only Daily Local Newscast COMMUNITY REPORTER W G A Y—12:00 Noon "PATRONIZE LIVE MUSIC" Compliments of the D. C. FEDERATION OF MUSICIANS Paul J. Schwartz, President Local 161, American Federation of Musicians Affiliated with the American Federation of Labor ADA National Officers HUBERT H. HUMPHREY National Chairman JOSEPH L. RAUH, JR. Chairman, Executive Committee CHESTER BOWLES GEORGE C. EDWARDS HUGO ERNST WILLIAM H. HASTIE MURRAY D. LINCOLN EMIL RIEVE FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, JR. Vice-Chairman LEO A. LERNER Treasurer MRS. EVA LEVY Chairman, Finance Committee DAVID GINSBURG Secretary, National Board CHARLES M. LAFOLLETTE National Director JAMES LOEB, JR. National Executive Secretary National Board Mrs. Eugenie Anderson Gregory J. Bardacke Jonathan B. Bingham Harvey W. Brown L. S. Buckmaster James B. Carey Lloyd Davis Richardson Dilworth Melvyn Douglas David Dubinsky John M. Eklund Mrs. Ethel Epstein Frank F. Furstenberg Harry Girvetz James Gordon Robert A. Gordon Frank P. Graham John Green Louis H. Harris Mortimer Hays Allan S. Haywood Donald Hayworth Leon Henderson Johannes U. Hoeber Sal B. Hoffmann Bryn J. Hovde Raymond M. Kell Harry Lee Herbert H. Lehman Marx Lewis Mrs. Sarah Limbach Howard Lindsay Lloyd McAulay Frank McCulloch B. F. McLaurin Joseph Nesis Reinhold Niebuhr Paul A. Porter Walter P. Reuther Irving J. Rosenbloom Mrs. Arthur G. Rotch Mrs. Gertrude W. Scheft Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Harry Schwartz Benjamin C. Sigal Miss Lillian Smith Monroe M. Sweetland Ralph I. Thayer Lockwood Thompson Franklin Wallick James A. Wechsler A. F. Whitney Sidney H. Woolner GREETINGS TO ADA ON ROOSEVELT DAY Benjamin C. Sigal GWeissbrew Elmer Davis Henry Kaiser James Loel Jr. Wallace W. Blue Leon Henderson David Ginsburg Tom Harris Martin W Bell Doris D. Rogers Paul A. Porter Leo Goodman Wendell Berge James B Carey Thurman Am[?] John F. P. Tucker Jerry Ian Arbel Martha J. Wruiskar Robert Rhathan Herb Block Lloyd Sy[?] Marty G[?] Seymore J Rubin Marcus and Les Finnegan Irving S. Lichtman Joseph Rauh Margaret L[?] Thomas S. Retch[?] Ne Fortas Gardner Jackson Henry Duttonhey Compliments of a FRIEND Compliments of A FRIEND "Our Specialty" - Birthday and Wedding Cakes Homemade Ice Cream UNIVERSITY PASTRY SHOP Hours: Weekdays - 7:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sundays and Holidays - Closed Julius A. Andracsek WO. 5218 3234 Wisconsin Ave., N.W. JAMES E. SCOTT Real Estate Management, Insurance, Sales DEcatur 1513, 1514 711 Florida Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C. ADA Members Buy Your Books at WHYTE'S BOOK SHOP 1518 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. 10 Percent Will Go to ADA Treasury You "Privilege Card" entitles ADA'ers to Shop Here R. MARS...The Contract Co. Wholesale Furniture - Rugs - Linens For Complete Information Mail Your Name and Address to Mr. Conner at Washington Office 410 First Street, S.E., Washington 3, D.C. (2 blocks south of Congressional Library) SOUND STUDIOS Of Washington, D.C. REpublic 1984 1124 Vermont Avenue, N.W. Coiffeur Design - Permanent Waving PAUL HAIRDRESSER Leps Bldg. 1764 K Street, N.W. NAtional 2984 The World's Foods Are Yours When You Dine In the Enchantment of RESTAURANT MADRILLON Washington Bldg. 15th & N.Y. Ave, N.W. International Cuisine Luncheon from 11:30 Dinner from 5 Dinner Music 6:30 - 8:30 Dancing from 8:30 THE HANFORD PRESS PRINTERS 507 E Street, N.W. Phone NAtional 4715 Greenspan & Botkin, Props. Washington, D.C. The Washington Committee for ROOSEVELT DAY is grateful to the Advertisers and Individuals who have made this program possible 72 We're looking ahead to our next 80 years... THE NAME WELCH'S has been a familiar one for 80 years—80 years of war and peace, depression and prosperity. The company back of that name— the men and women who make up that company—has grown with America. Great forward strides have been made. But it is not to the past that we look just now, but to the future. And it is our unswerving ambition to keep the name Welch's a symbol of quality for the next 80 years... and to keep pace with the growth of our country. THE WELCH GRAPE JUICE COMPANY Westfield, N. Y. 426 AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION Liberals Rearm for '48 By Wilson W. Wyatt Reprinted from the April 1947 Issue of THIS MONTH Magazine By Wilson W. Wyatt Liberals Rearm For '48 The co-chairman of Americans for Democratic Action offers a fighting program for alert Americans. BREAD OR LIBERTY? SECURITY or freedom? That's the choice we're offered. But Americans will not accept this choice. They want both, because neither makes sense without the other. And they can have both. We are not confronted with the fatal choice of do-nothing reaction--which spells the empty shell of freedom minus bread; or totalitarianism -- which promises bread without freedom. The names that ring great in our history, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson and Roosevelt, have given us a fighting tradition of liberty based on the public welfare. That tradition, if carried forward today, spells bread and freedom. We have already progressed a long way toward economic, social and political democracy. We could not have reached our present position by clinging to outworn political and economic ideas. Our generation can achieve still richer fruits of democracy, but not by waiting for them to fall in our lap. We must work for them. What must we do? American liberals--and that's the great majority of us, the last election results notwithstanding--must make their voices heard; they must make the issues clear; they must organize for action. The New Deal was a rallying point, but it was neither an organization nor a movement. It was a man. Millions of independents, Democrats and Republicans, rallied behind him because he put life into the average American's conviction that more democracy, rather than less, would make our country better and our people happier; the belief that our Constitution and Bill of Rights not only read well, but were worth putting into practice. The Roosevelt era will be remembered for the dramatic actions which gave practical effect to the people's determination for a better better life. With the challenge of the TVA, hundreds of thousands of homes threw away their oil lamps for Mazda bulbs. Machinery did more work for us and the work week was shortened. The insurance of bank deposits ended a perennial nightmare for millions of depositors, large and small. The beginnings of a housing program gave decent homes for the first time to underprivileged families who were formerly doomed to disease-ridden slums. Market manipulations which undermined the economic security of the entire nation were effectively stopped. Minimum security for old age was assured. Greater economic and political rights came to minorities. It was a period of struggle, of change and improvement. Of course, mistakes were made. But the gains weighed heavily in the scales. Lumped together we called these gains for the America people the New Deal. It was dynamic liberalism in action and Roosevelt was the dynamo. The war diverted our attentions from our tasks at home to greater tasks abroad. And before we returned to the domestic issues which pressed for solution, Roosevelt died, just as Lincoln had died before the era of Reconstruction began. Gradually, in the months that followed, we discovered that there was no cohesive liberal movement, no broad progressive organization. One man had united liberals of all faiths and political viewpoints. With this man gone, the progressive movement floundered, stumbled in confusion, split wide open and—lost the election. Little by little we are beginning to awaken from our stupor, discovering the need for new organization, integrated leadership, a rallying point. A large majority of the men elected to office last November have interpreted the election results to mean that the American people have swung sharply to the "right," have even gone reactionary, hoping for the return of a revarnished Hooverism. As long as these men think that way, they'll vote that way. And they'll be in office for a while. CERTAINLY the cause of American progressivism has suffered a serious setback. For the next few years, democratic liberals have a hard row to hoe. But never in history has progress come without a tough fight. Our harvest in future years depends on how we start working the soil now. The Union for Democratic Action, founded in 1941, gave us the starting signal. This independent organization of non-Communist liberals, saw the need for putting into the field a new winning team of men and women devoted to American democracy and ready to fight for it. Late last year the Union for Democratic Action issued invitations to 150 leading liberals throughout the country, summoning them to a conference in Washington on January 4, 1947, to decide on a program of action.* This conference marked the first time that individual labor leaders of the AFL and CIO joined with other American liberals in an organization for political action. The discussions lasted all day. By unanimous agreement, a permanent organization was formed, launching funds were contributed, and temporary co-chairmen were elected. A name was found: Americans for Democratic Action (ADA for short.) The first principle agreed on was the need for the reconstruction of the American liberal movement, free from all totalitarian influences. While no formal program was adopted at the first meeting, the following general statement of principles was issued: 1. A national program was needed to insure decent levels of health, nutrition, housing and education. 2. Civil liberties must be protected from concentrated wealth and overcentralized government. 3. A sound American foreign policy requires a healthy and prosperous domestic economy. 4. The United States must continue to give full support to the United Nations, and must work for ironclad international control of atomic energy and other armaments. 5. Because our interests coincide with the interests of free men everywhere, the United States must furnish political and economic support to democratic and freedom-loving peoples all over the world. *The 150 men and women who met in Washington last January include such public figures as Chester Bowles, Charles Bolte, William H. Davis, Leon Henderson, Mayor Hubert Humphrey of Minneapolis, former Governor Herbert H. Lehman, Mrs. Gifford Pinchot, Paul Porter, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr.; such prominent writers as Elmer Davis, Barry Bingham, Marquis Childs, Palmer Hoyt, and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.; such religious leaders as Bishop C. Bromley Oxnam, retiring president of the Federal Council of Churches, Dr. Rheinhold Niebuhr, Rabbi Milton Steinberg and Rt. Rev. William Scarlett; leaders of minority groups including Walter White of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Lester P. Granger of the Urban League; such outstanding labor leaders as James B. Carey (CIO Treasurer), David Dubinsky (Ladies Garment Workers), Walter Reuther (Auto Workers president), Boris Shishkin (chief economist of the AFL), Alley Haywood (CIO vice president), Harvey Brown (machinists), John Green (shipbuilders), Hugo Ernst (restaurant workers), Emil Rieve (textile workers) and Barney Taylor (farm labor union). 6. Within the general framework of our foreign policy, steps must be taken to raise living standards and support civil and political freedoms everywhere. Following our election as co-chairmen, Leon Henderson and I issued the following statement: "We have agreed with real humility and earnestness to head the Organizing Committee for ADA. We do so with the conviction that the great majority of Americans are desperately looking for a fighting liberal movement whose devotion to democracy is unequivocal. "We do not expect to reverse the political tide overnight. We know reaction is riding high in Congress. We know the fight confronting liberals is long and hard. But the fight has just begun. "The agreement reached at our weekend meeting reflects the underlying strength and unity of democratic progressives. We know where we stand. We do not have to apologize for any groups in our ranks. We have no hidden loyalties. We do not have to resort to double talk. "This is an American organization. We believe it is a movement with which millions of Americans will affiliate. Now we are going to work to build that movement." The response to ADA has been exciting. As soon as our offices were set up at 819-13th St., Washington, D.C., telephone calls, telegrams, letters, personal inquiries started to pour in. Clearly Americans for Democratic Action was needed and was wanted. Organization, program, and financing plans are moving forward. Regional and state meetings will be held. Local chapters will be formed. The original group, greatly enlarged and with the representatives of local chapters, will meet in Washington again on April 12-13 to adopt a program and a constitution. Officers will be elected and a national board chosen. In the past, American Communists have infiltrated into every organization that was welcomed or tolerated them. But Communists will no be eligible for membership in ADA because we have no common ground with them, because they reject those principles of freedom and democracy through which this Republic has grown great. Why do we feel so strongly about Communists in the United States? For the same reason that we feel so strongly about Fascists. The totalitarian state offers bread but not liberty; security but not freedom. We refuse to sacrifice one for the illusory promise of the other. Will our movement organize on a grass-roots basis? Yes—in as many cities and towns, large and small, as possible. Final structural plans are still being drawn. But in all probability, local chapters will form state groups and of these, in turn, will make up regional conferences. Local chapters will concern themselves not only with national and international affairs, but with important community problems such as education, health, housing and labor. Is ours a third party movement? No. A brief squint at the election laws is enough to convince anyone of the present ineffectiveness of a national third party, But, all too frequently, liberals within our two-party system, have taken refuge in the highest tower, talking, passing resolutions and departing. That's not enough any longer. The conclusions we reach through the democratic interchange of constructive ideas will be carried into political action. We will begin with door-bell ringing, telephoning and unglamorous primary and election day work. Democratic action begins with hard work on the precinct level. That's where the ballots are cast. And the ballots determine the men who shape the nation's policy. I suppose each generation believes that its problems are the most momentous in history. Certainly that was true of our revolutionary forefathers; it was true again in 1861 and 1917. But their problems, however great, were simple compared with those that confront us. For our problems carry a time fuse. Through our inventive and productive genius we have telescoped time and space to make one world. Whatever happens in one part of the globe is of immediate concern everywhere else. Thus far our scientific genius has always far outraced our political sense. Our job then is to bring our political, economic, moral and social thinking abreast of our technical progress. Ideas which only yesterday were effective, are outworn today. Because we are a democracy and the leading world power, we— every single one of us — carry a heavy responsibility. Our philosophy of life, our approach to public affairs, our judgment—as reflected in our ballot and our actions at home and abroad—are linked forever with the destiny of all the peoples of the world. The peoples of more than 50 nations are watching to see how well we handle our affairs. Our foreign policy can be no better than the domestic foundation on which it rests; and that in turn depends largely on the level of our education and knowledge. A democracy functions best in bright daylight. We take pride in our schools as the institutions which bring that light. Yet thousands of them are overcrowded, large numbers of young people never go beyond a few elementary grades, many teachers are inadequately trained, and almost all are underpaid. We can no longer permit this gap between education and freedom. For the first time also we are really challenged by the economics of abundance. We have the productive capacity to bring decent living, health and educational standards to every family. Will we use it? These are some of the challenges. All call for dynamic and progressive democracy day by day. Its strength is measured by your participation in its workings. That means taking part in politics. The citizen who scorns politics is selling democracy short. Because we believe these things, because we know that the problem of bread and freedom must be met in our time, we have banded together. The task which ADA has set for itself is not an easy one. It will take a long time doing. The forces arrayed against us are many; some of them are powerful. But in this generation of challenge, we Americans for Democratic Action accept that challenge. We do so with humility and pride. And we hold out a hand of welcome to all who, with unflinching faith in freedom, have the zest and spirit for battle. This is the day for pioneering. We have just begun to fight. __________________________________ AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION Charles G. Bolte George Edwards Ethel S. Epstein Hubert Humphrey Mrs. Clyde Johnson Rheinhold Niebuhr Edward Prichard, Jr. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. Frank W. McCulloch Mrs. Gifford Pinchot John Green Rt. Rev. William Scarlett Walter White Harvey Brown David Dubinsky Hugo Ernst B. F. McLaurin James Killen Walter Reuther Willard Townsend Samuel Wolchok 810 13th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. Wilson Wyatt--Leon Henderson, Co-Chairmen James Loeb, Jr., Secretary-Treasurer I enclose $3.00 minimum membership dues I enclose............................as an additional contribution to ADA. I wish to have further information on ADA. Name Address 36 PRINTED IN CANADA Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.