Nikola Tesla FBI Files - Page 248

The American Way

an independent farmer. Any man could set up a little store in a new community and become a prosperous merchant as the town grew. Almost any man could start a paper, establish a factory or mill, or open a mine, and become an industrialist.

            This is no longer true. Millions of square miles have been rendered useless for human use and habitation by irresponsible deforestation and by erosion. The number of family farms dwindles yearly; every day hundreds of independent merchants and small mining, milling and manufacturing companies are forced out of business by the power of monopoly, centered in Wall Street.

            The relentless limitation of opportunity, the shrinking of abundance for millions, the violences done to liberty in defiance of the Constitution and in contempt of the tradition that began in 1776, the further threat against freedom in the ominous form of military rule, the denial of life itself to unnumbered victims of poverty, and the grave threat to all our lives in the probability of a war waged with atom bombs and bacteria-these developments, conditions and prospects now imperil the American Way of Life.

            The Progressive Party proposes to restore and safeguard and extend that Way-the emphasis is on the word "extend." Nothing in nature stands still, and no more can human economic and social and political institutions. Change is the key principle of the American Way-growth. adaptation, progress. Had it not been for that principle, the USA would not exist-we would not now be debating the decisions made in an election; we would still be colonial subjects, or we wouldn't be here at all.

            If we remembered more vividly what daring it took in 1776 to reject monarchy and form a republic, we would have less hesitation in rejecting the National Association of Manufacturers' notions of "free enterprise," and adopting measures more in keeping with today's facts of life. We would not hesitate to defy the greatest power on earth-that of monopoly corporations and cartels, whose agents have lately seized control of the U.S. Government.

            Under Henry Wallace's leadership, the Progressive Party offers itself as a medium through which those who love their country and are also in favor of their own rightful individual interests can express themselves politically . . . in 1949 . . . 1950 . . . in 1952, assuming that the "next war," now being drummed up, won't destroy us all before then.

            We know now that we have established a firm foundation for the new party under the leadership of Henry Wallace and Glen Taylor. Personally, I was not in this campaign only in reference to this year's election or because I think, as I do think, that Henry Wallace is a great American who should be in the White House in this crucial period. In the main, I was in this campaign because, like Wallace and Taylor, like many other Americans. I became convinced that neither of the old parties is fit to deal with the profound crisis which is coming to a climax in these middle years of the 20th century. I am in this movement because I want to help build a new people's party that will be capable of coping with the crisis now converging upon us and the rest of the world.

LIKE many Americans, I am foreign-born; and every once in a while I hear or read some remark to the effect that I have no right to be doing what I am doing-helping the growth of a new party which hopes to save the peace. Such remarks amuse me. It so happens that I have read rather extensively in American history, not as taught in most schools, but as it really happened; and I am impressed by this fact-that in all crucial or climactic periods in the career of this country, the so-called foreigners played important roles.

            The Irish and German elements, for instance, were the big "foreign" groups around 1776, and it was they who became the backbone of General Washington's revolutionary army. The Irish and German elements also furnished the mass support to Thomas Jefferson when he started a new party 150 years ago. Jefferson did not triumph immediately” (as Wallace didn't); his supporters stood it with him until he did (as I hope we will

Greetings From

MARY ANTONIC

BOZO BARANIC

MILO BARANIC

JOHN BEZELJ

PAUL BIAZEVICH

KAY BEGOVICH

FLORENCE FERKICH

GEORGE GELSOVICH

STEVE HROSTI

FRANK KURSOC

LJUBICA LOVRICH

ANTON PESUSICH

ERICA PETRAS

NICK PETRICH

A. PUJATCKY

LUCY LJUBENKO

Lodge 3172, A.R.F.S., Sioux City, Iowa

PETER ZAKUTONSKY

LOUIS KLYM

MARY KLYM

HELEN WONSOWIC

PAUL ROMANOV

MARY ROMANOV

BRANCH No. 14 LEMKO ASS'N, GARY, IND.

BRANCH No. 3295, IWO, CARPATHO-RUSSIANS, GARY, IND.

MILLIE KLYM

MICHAEL KLYM

ANNA SAMOZKA

WALTER IVANZOWICZ

A.S.C. of Newark, N. J.

JOHN J. KASKEVICH, M.D.

530 Summer Ave., Newark

JOHN BENKO

JOHN DOLINAJEC

MICHAEL DROBAN

STEVEN DZUROSKA

STEPHEN HRUSKA

TILLY JANOVITZ

MICHAEL KOLARIK

STEFAN LACKO

JOSEPH MATEJKA

MICHAEL MATEJKA

JOSEPH MEDVECKY

IMRO RIBAR

SHEPERO SHOE STORE

MATEJ STROMKO

STEFA TAL

JOSEPH TURZA

FRANK ZAVARTKAJ

JOSEPH ZILINEK