http://www.hawaii.edu/uhwo/clear/HonoluluRecord1/articles/v4n7/Frankly%20Speaking.html
Honolulu Record, September 15, 1951, vol. 4 no.7, p. 8
Frank-ly Speaking
By Frank Marshall Davis
The Johnson Plan For Peace
“Communism cannot be stopped by military means . . . We can have an honorable peace with Russia, if we are willing to take the initiative. But it will mean revising many of our present policies and attitudes.”
These are the opinions of Dr. Mordecai Johnson, president of Howard University, Washington, D.C. largest Negro university in America. Long noted as a keen student of domestic and international affairs, the renowned educator in a recent interview spelled out a plan for establishing a lasting peace between the U. S. and the Soviet Union—if we have the will for peace.
President Johnson said he believes peace with Russia and Communism is possible “in such a way as to preserve the institutions and practices of freedom which are the precious heritage and achievement of the western world, and in such a way as to enhance those institutions and practices of freedom.”
Price for Peace Consistent With Our Honor
As for war:
“There are some forces in the world which cannot be stopped by military means. Communism is one of them. Communism is a powerful revolutionary movement in the realm of ideas and human organization.
“If peace is to be achieved with Russia and with the Communists it must be achieved in the field of ideas and in the field of human organization.”
The U. S. must take the initiative in establishing such a peace and we are free to take this initiative now, said Dr. Johnson. But it will require a great price of us. Yet this price is within our power and consistent with our honor.
“If we do pay the price of peace, it will result in the functioning of our nation on a higher level than at any other time in its history, and could possibly win for us not only peace, but the esteem and affection of the entire human race,” he pointed out.
Abolish Colonialism, Support Global Economic Reconstruction
There are two points to Dr. Johnson’s program. One is the abolition of colonialism and the other is world-wide economic reconstruction which we should support to the tune of something like $25 billion annually.
“It requires the United States, first of all, to accept and to discharge the responsibility of bringing the Western powers, of whom she is the leader, to a deliberately planned and programmed liquidation of the remnants of colonial power in Asia, Africa and America, and to give up once and for all the imperialistic habits of political domination, economic exploitation and social humiliation of Asiatic and African peoples,” the educator said.
“These habits are themselves the very essence of violence. They invite distrust and violence in return. It is not conceivable that the Western powers can win the confidence and goodwill of the peoples of Asia, and Africa as long as these habits persist in ever so reduced an area.
Overcome Animal-Like Struggle for Existence
. “It requires the United States, secondly, to accept the moral responsibility toward the whole human life which goes with our enormous scientific, technical, organizational and productive genius and to go into the United Nations with a program of economic reconstruction on a worldwide basis, designed to overcome the animal-like struggle for existence which up to this time has prevailed over the earth, and to bring about adequate subsistence in food, clothing, housing and health for every human family of every race, color, nationality and culture on the earth, within the generation now before us.
“As the proponent and leader of this program, it requires the United States to support it with , magnificent and responsible adequacy, in an amount which may be equal to one-tenth of our annual productive power—about $25 billion per year.
“It requires that we set this program before the world, not as an accessory to our military program, but as the main objective in relation to which our military program is only a protective fence-building operation.
Plan On Highest Level Of Statesmanship
“Now this is a plan on the highest level of statesmanship, designed to recognize and encourage to the. maximum the Russian and Com munist belief that a world-wide conquest of the struggle for existence is possible and to offer them a well-planned and magnificently supported way of working toward it by consultation and democratic cooperation on a world encompassing basis, as an alternative to the procedure of aggressive war and the violent and subversive establishment of totalitarian states which we so greatly fear.”
There you have the Johnson plan for peace. What do you think of it? Your comments are invited.
http://www.hawaii.edu/uhwo/clear/HonoluluRecord1/articles/v4n6/Frankly%20Speaking.html
Honolulu Record, September 6, 1951, vol. 4 no.6, p. 8
Frank-ly Speaking
By Frank Marshall Davis
Dicatorship of the Mind
Last week’s column, titled “What Is Loyalty?” in which the question of safe and disloyal ideas was discussed, was written before the seven local arrests. This new development therefore makes it possible to raise the issue of thought control on a concrete local basis.
The tempest around Judge Delbert Metzger’s decision to reduce bail and an editorial in last Friday’s Star-Bulletin, show with amazing clearness, how far we have gone down the road to dictatorship of the mind.
Our system of government provides for separation of the executive, the judicial and the law-making branches. This is supposed to provide checks and balances, to keep one from complete domination over the others. But it looks now as if this basic concept is being tossed out of the window, along with the First and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution.
Thought Control Now Covers the Courts
Judge Metzger has served two terms. From all I can gather, he has an enviable record for strict adherence to the spirit and the letter of the Constitution. He evidently believes wholeheartedly in an independent judiciary. In his decisions, he has been guided by his conscience and the finest traditions of American jurisprudence. In the past, that is all we have asked of a judge.
But today, it is different. When Judge Metzger refused to bow to the dictates of the executive branch of government in the setting of ridiculously large bail in the case of the seven accused of violating the Smith Act, powerful members of the law-making branch of government and the White House announced he would be purged.
What this means it that thought control now covers the courts. Those judges who believe in an independent judiciary are to be intimidated and liquidated, when possible, if they refuse to bow to the dictates of Congress and the White House. Instead of preserving the Constitution, they are to subvert it to the convenience of Washington. No matter what the Eighth Amendment says about excessive bail, they are to ignore the Constitution and set excessive bail if Washington so orders.
Some Will Not Succumb To Prevailing Hysteria
But it is comforting to know that there are some men of such high principles and sound belief in democracy and the Constitution that they will not succumb to the prevailing hysteria. Judge Metzger is one of these Supreme Court Justices Black and Douglas are two others who stand as beacons in the deepening gloom.
By no stretch of the imagination can they be called Communists or fellow-travellers. Instead, they are sufficiently far-sighted and level-headed enough to know that the official pattern of anti-Communist action threatens the traditional rights of all Americans.
For once we accept the principle that one group may be outlawed and jailed for holding unpopular beliefs, what is there to prevent this from happening to any other minority group if it pleases those in power?
I think that coming generations—if the world survives the threat of atomic annihilation—will look upon the Supreme Court decision in the Smith Act in much the same way that we now glance back at the infamous Dred Scott decision of nearly 100 years ago.
Swallow Race Bias, Says Star-Bulletin
It was on March 6, 1857, that Chief Justice Roger B. Taney handed down a majority decision holding, in effect, that “a Negro has no rights which a white man is bound to respect” and stating that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were not for Negroes.
As in the recent Smith Act decision, there were two dissenting justices. History has proved the majority of seven wrong in the Dred Scott case and the two dissenters right; I believe that history will prove Chief Justice Vinson and the majority of six wrong when they stated, in effect, that “a Communist has no rights which others are bound to respect” and indicated that the Declaration and the Constitution are not for them.
Coming now to the Star-Bulletin lead editorial of Friday, August 31, the final paragraph stated, among other things, that any time you find a man or a newspaper trying to “overplay alleged ‘race discrimination’ . . . beware!”
To me, the meaning is obvious. In the drive for bigger and better thought control, the afternoon daily would have the victims soft pedal or swallow race discrimination without protest, under the threat of being called “Communists.” If I or any other victim of jim crow object to such treatment, or if a newspaper exposes and opposes such undemocratic conduct, then those who refuse to conform to white supremacy are to be termed “disloyal” and “subversive.”
As a matter of fact, race discrimination cannot be overplayed. After all, it has no business existing in a democracy. It must be completely eliminated, and the only way to get rid of it is to expose it and fight it. To those who have never been hurt by the white supremacists, race discrimination may not be real and can be viewed only as alleged, but to the families of the Martinsville Seven and of Willie McGhee, or to that air force veteran in Cicero, Ill., or to those who are barred from public places in Honolulu solely because of color, it is a cruel fact. And no amount of name-calling or thought control will keep us from fighting against it until it is completely destroyed.