LETTERS
439
ment should issue, announcing an egalitarian New Order at home, the
immediate freeing of India, and 'such diminution of England's sovereign
power' as is necessary after the war to create a democratically planned
European economy. In the body of the book he ably argues the case for
a democratic-revolutionary war program and war aims as the only hope
for British victory over Hitler, and shows why the old European ruling
classes can't be counted on to lead such a revolution and why, if England
is to be supported by continental revolutions, "the fight against Nazism
must come from the workers." Mr. Williams' book was published in Eng–
land a year ago. India is still not free, the British Government has moved
steadily to the right, and, instead of the democratic manifesto he urges on
Mr. Churchill, we have the famous Eight Points. To Mr. Williams must
be addressed the same question asked above of Mr. Stone: how much
longer can you continue to believe that Messrs. Churchill and Roosevelt
are on your team?
DWIGHT
MACDONALD
Letters
LETIERS FROM THE ARMY
P.R. is beginning to get letters from
subscribers and contributors who have
been drafted into the Army. The maga–
zine seems to mean more to them in such
suroundings, we are pleased to note.
There must be a good many
P.R.
readers
in
the Army by now, since the average
age of our subscribers is only
32.
We
print below some notes we have re–
ceived, and we urge our readers in uni–
form to send in more. We give names
only where specifically authorized.–
EotTORS.
Dear Mr. Macdonald:
I've changed my mind about the Army
letter I agreed to write for
P.R.
I think
my expectations about such a letter must
have been naive because I have nothing
to
offer but my reasons for deciding
against
it_
Maybe I've been eating lotus
-1
don't know, but very likely my imagi–
nation has been corrected by a dish of
cabbage_ A life so geometrically pure
seems really remote from its disorderly
origins, and you must remember that I'm
in
a non-combatant unit of a still non–
combatant army.
There are some causes of my neutral–
ity of mind:
1) There is no political atmosphere and
no pressure of patriotism. Jokes about
the war and
FDR
are popular but with–
out content. .All resentment is personal
and adds up to zero.
2)
The claims of the Government
about good treatment are substantially
true.
3)
One is not necessarily humiliated
or badgered because of superior educa–
tion or cultural accomplishments.
4)
The status of the Negro is no worse
than one would expect in the South.
(Anti-Negroism is not a myth in the
South, but a universal active religion
cultivated by the working classes-not by
the bosses, as the childish theory says.)
5)
Nobody regards the emergency as
his business.
6)
It is explained that
in
saluting,
we
salute the uniform and not the man. One
can compromise easily by saluting the
man.
7)
The relationship between officer
and soldier is somewhat like that be–
tween a boss and the son of an employee.
. We are boys, regardless of age. At break–
fast there is usually an apple ·or an
orange balanced on top of our bottle of
milk.
I'm sorry to sound like a recruiting ser–
geant, though I wonder if the morale
office would think so.
(Pvt.)
KARL
J. SHAPmo
Camp Lee, Va.
