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Continuity News W. J. Sidis Mimeographed newsletter, 3 pages, found in Helena Sidis's files in 1977. |
No. 12 April, 1939
Issued by the Successors of
Shays
(Boston Branch)
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A journal of current events presented on the basis of the
theory of social continuity.
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THE PAST IS THE KEY TO THE PRESENT
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Temporary mailing address, 905 Central Sq. Bldg., Cambridge, Mass., c/o Parker
Greene.
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Subscription, $1 per year, 50¢ for 6 months. Issued monthly. For discussion groups, each subscription after the first is 25¢ a year in addition.
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We attempt to explain rather than to advocate.
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News contributions and constructive criticism welcomed.
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ANDROS ANNIVERSARY
The 18th of this month is the 250th anniversary of the overthrow, in Boston, of
the dictatorship of Sir Edmund Andros. In its sudden surprise tactics, it forms
a good sample of what could happen if dictatorship were to be tried again in
America.
The Successors of Shays are planning celebrations in several localities, and,
barring some of the New England weather's favorite pranks, our celebrations of
the occasion
It still is not too late to get together small private parties to celebrate the 18th. Besides being the anniversary of the Andros overthrow, the same date is also the anniversary of Paul Revere's famous ride, as well as of the first start of Massachusetts troops to the South in 1861 (it was these troops that composed the words of the song "John Brown's Body," on April 18, 1861).
We recommend as reading for the occasion, Hawthorne's story, "The Gray Champion," in his "Twice Told Tales."
And has Whittier has said:
"Oh my God, for that free spirit, which of old in Boston town
Struck the Province House with terror, smote the crest of Andros down!"
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Many of the loud mouths, especially those whom the present rulers choose to falsely designate "liberal"―who are howling for blood when some country across the sea commits an aggression against some synthetic country created expressly to start trouble―never uttered a peep when the United States sent troops, on equally flimsy excuses, to occupy Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Nicaragua, and are still raising no objection to the continued presence of American armed forces in China.
And practically all of said loud mouths who are howling against the persecutions and repressions abroad, are equally quick to denounce anyone who would oppose having such repressions in our own country under the excuse of the particular war they are trying to sell us.
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REVOLT IN "L" STATION
On March 13, the day of the big blizzard in New England (the anniversary of New York's famous Great Blizzard of 1888), there happened in Everett Station, one of the terminals of Boston's main elevated railway line, a spontaneous crown revolt of the sort peculiar to New England crowds.
When service on one of the trolleybus lines out of the station was arbitrarily held up on the ground that there was too much snow on those streets, the accumulating crowd in the station finally got out of hand when several trolleybuses on another line kept arriving, picking up passengers, and departing. The crowd finally got in a solid mass in front of one of the offending vehicles, and announced their intention to stay on the track till they got a bus to where they had to go.
They got it.
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The warmongers who are forever urging us to rush into all the wars and war scares anyone can concoct on the other side of the earth, a good reply is found in the terse remark made by John Haynes Holmes in the Boston Community Church on Sunday, April 2:
"It is easy to be brave in the United States."
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Add another thing to give reflection to those who would have us rush in to help
"poor little...." (add the name of whatever country happens to be the
current door mat).
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greatest Neutrality law that America has had, is the Declaration of
Independence.
That it was largely intended for the purpose of keeping America out of the
conflicts of the other hemisphere, becomes plain by a reference to Thomas
Paine's pamphlet "Common Sense" the chief campaign literature for American independence. ______________
When a certain political boss was convicted recently in New York (it is always
easy to get them after they are down; not so easy while they are still in
power)," the judge issued, with the sentence, a warning to all and sundry
that he would see to it that there would be no parole or "time off"
if any of the prosecution witnesses came to any harm. To what extent is this
likely to become a precedent? ______________ "INTERNATIONALISM" Among the many criticisms that have been levelled at Continuity News, or at the
point of view expressed therein, is that it looks like the
"internationalist" viewpoint.
The way that word is used these days, just as with many other words whose
meanings have recently been twisted out of their normal meaning, leaves it
doubtful whether this criticism might not be a compliment to us after all.
To some people, anything that happens in the Eastern Hemisphere is
"international," while anything that happens in the Western Hemisphere
is "nationalist." The "internationalism" that we are asked
to adopt is therefore merely the most arrogant type of European provincialism,
and anything but international.
To others, the peculiar type of patriotism of certain countries is what they
understand by "internationalism," and any attempt to resist domination
in their favorite country is "nationalism." Again,
we cannot consider it at
all complimentary that we refuse to advocate the domination of this hemisphere
by some particular country on the other side of the world that chooses to
monopolise the word "international."
The Albanian proprietor of a small "variety" store in Boston was heard
recently to remark:
"My country iss gone, Albania. Mussolini take it away...Me think this
country should keep to here."
To some people the word
"internationalism" denotes the formation of
some strong centralized world government that will impose uniform regulations on
the whole earth and destroy every vestige of local independence. Again, we most
certainly do not favor any such plan.
To some the word means meddling in everyone else's affairs, or else letting them meddle in ours. If so, then this sort of "internationalism" is totally incompatible with the idea of democracy.
The only true internationalism must be built on something of the sort indicated in the American-born plan of Federation, something that gives every region an opportunity to govern itself internally as it sees fit, plus a federal organization co-ordinating everything. This is probably not practical as yet, but the United States is in itself an example of a first step in that direction, as it is in form really an international, rather than a single nation (and remains so, in spite of the New Deal's persistent efforts to break down the federal form). The Declaration of Lima lays the foundation for similar organisation covering the Western Hemisphere. And, the idea being native to this hemisphere, and specially adapted to conditions here, this hemisphere can best promote "internationalism" by working in that direction and not letting itself be stopped by the howls of "sidewalk superintendents" from a side of the world where the law of the jungle still prevails between nations, and where the idea of federation has, due to reasons of continuity, never penetrated properly. Any other sort of "internationalism" is merely the blundering of imitation of American federation by peoples unable to absorb the idea.
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Reports have reached us that, on March 16, a Czecho-Slovak government was reorganised in Chicago under cover. It originally comes from there, and America has historically been the home of many revolutions all over the world. However, the worst thing that could happen to it would be official support from the American government, or its otherwise coming out in the open as of American origin. And we hope, incidentally, that this time they aquire some of the federal ideas, now that they are back in America; it was their failure to do so that was one of the factors leading to their downfall.
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NEUTRALITY
American neutrality laws are again under fire, and the warmongers are attempting to turn it into the exact opposite by propositions that will permit our warmongering President to take sides openly in every war that ever occurs. However anyone's sympathies may run, the objective is to avoid the road to war; and, whether such action has a favorable effect on one side or the other, is a totally irrelevant question.
Cutting off trade relations with parts of the world involved by the plague of war has historically been a favorite American policy; and the failure to use it in 1916 (when the proposition came up in the Senate) resulted in the disastrous American intervention in the last European War.
American methods of dealing with critical measures elsewhere have generally been by creating revolutions by infiltration of a type that kept under cover all American connection with the effort. This has been used often, not to intervene in international difficulties of other parts of the world, but to spread American ideas of liberty when opportunity properly presented itself.
[End of page 3. No other page was included in this issue as found. But most issues were four pages.]
