Bill Smith Letter No. 15, "Help! Help Keep America American"

Title

Bill Smith Letter No. 15, "Help! Help Keep America American"

Creator

Louis Edward Faulkner (1883-1961)

Source

L.E. Faulkner Papers, M22, Historical Manuscripts, Special Collections, The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries

Publisher

Louis Edward Faulkner (1883-1961)

Date

8 April 1946

Rights

Copyright not evaluated.

Language

En

Type

Text

Original Format

Paper

Files

A letter with the Bill Smith next sentence the American citizens group Hattiesburg, Mississippi April 8, 1946 letter number 15 help! Help keep America American offices in every home in every city town, village, hamlet and farm. To the right is our motto. Put first things first. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.<br /> <br /> To fellow members of the Bill Smith family:<br /> <br /> Every freedom-loving American should be keenly interested in helping to reestablish and preserve the American way of life as bequeathed to us by our founding fathers and as set forth in the declaration of independence and our constitution with its bill of rights.<br /> <br /> Our Armed Forces fought and gave their lives for the preservation of individual freedom - - the one thing which will keep America American. Individual freedom is gradually slipping away from us. We must not lose it in some form or of national socialism. If we can continue much longer to allow a bureaucratic government to destroy economic freedom, regiment our daily lives and be masters instead of servant of the people, those “certain alienable rights“ which are ours by creation will be lost. If there be any doubt in anyone’s mind as to the dangers now threatening our Republican form of government, that doubt should be removed by reading a statement made by representative Hatton W. SUMNERS, Texas Democrat, who recently announced that he would not be a candidate for election to his 18th consecutive term in the house of representatives.<br /> <br /> Representative SUMNERS, in part, said: “by ignoring principles and the lessons of history, and excepting the theories of men and political expedience for our guidance, we have made , VASSALS of our states and dependents of our people. By concentration of governmental power and drafts upon the federal treasury, we now have a financially “busted“, great piled up mess of governmental confusion beyond human comprehension, impossible of democratic control, extravagant, wasteful, inefficient and by its nature the instrumentality of favoritism, tyranny, oppression and corruption, and the destroyer of the self – reliance and self-respect and governmental capacity of the people, qualities without which no people can remain free.“<br /> <br /> Other great Americans by the by the score have warned us against dictatorship, conceived more than a decade ago, when certain government leaders, aided by the communists and socialists, started the regimental march by stealthily tiptoeing towards the abandonment of government of the people, by the people and for the people.<br /> <br /> American communist or strong in steering positions in some labor organizations, farm organizations, governmental bureaus, educational organizations, colleges, schools, youth organizations, cooperatives, and many other organizations and groups like the American Labor Party and the C.I.O. In fact, there are more than 400 different communist organizations and other organizations with communist entrenched leader hip that are working as pressure groups and helping to enact much of the deficit spending, government controlled and bureau-creating programs as recommended by President Truman in his message to Congress on September 6, 1945. Many of the prominent leaders of the federal counsel of the churches of Christ in America, speaking as representatives of federal counsel which has a membership in excess of 25 million protestant church members in 150,000 local congregations in all parts of our country, are denouncing the private free enterprise system and advocate in an economic system similar to that advocated by Victor G. Reuther, a brother of Walter Reuther - newly elected president of the C.I.O. – United Automobile Workers. Mr. REUTHER recently said: “..... A new American progressive party must propose a pattern of social ownership that will serve to break the controls of monopoly capitalism. And the forms of social ownership it does propose to institute must, in the fashion of the cooperatives and the T.V.A., be absolutely democratic in character.“<br /> <br /> Mr. Louis Budenzs, for years an official of the communist party, and editor of its mouthpiece, “The Daily Worker“, and who embraced religion when he gave up communism has stated that the Communist Party in the United States is a direct arm of the Soviet government. Mr. Budenzs should know. Communism which assumes responsibility for the individual, is a <br /> <br /> (over)
World-wide political organization advocating, among other things: 1. The abolition of all forms of religion; 2. The destruction of private property and the abolition of inheritance; 3. Absolute social and racial equality; 4. Destruction of all forms of representative or democratic government, including civil liberties, such as freedom of speech, of the press, and of assemblage. Communism would, of course, abolish trade unions, business associations, civic clubs, chambers of commerce, lodges and prevent the assemblage of all business and social groups.<br /> <br /> Hundreds of pressure groups, claiming to represent millions of individual citizens, are “ringing doorbells” as urged buy Henry A. Wallace in one of his addresses before Sydney Hillman's CIO-Political Action Committee. These pressure groups are well-organized and are doing all in their power to control Congress and elect representatives who believe in a planned and regulated economy – a government bureaucracy operating under directives and war-time powers like the present O. P. A. and the government's new housing plan which regulate and control much of the daily activities of 140,000,000 Americans.<br /> <br /> Here are 10 ways in which every freedom loving person can help reestablish and preserve constitutional government and thereby help to keep America American: 1. By putting first things first and, in the words of our founding fathers, sincerely saying: “Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions..... With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.“ 2. By prayerful, intelligent and independent thinking, plus the courage to “stand up and be counted“ among those who will make whatever sacrifices are necessary to keep America American. 3. By registering and then voting for real statesman rather than mere politicians who place expediency ahead of what is right. 4. By frequently writing our representatives in Congress - the one bulwark between the American people and dictatorship – giving them our views as to how America can be kept American. 5. By re-dedicating ourselves to the preservation of our Constitution and the fundamental truth that our American Republic will endure only as long as the ideas of our God-fearing founding fathers continue dominant. 6. By urging Congress to declare World War II at an end so that wartime directives, regimentation and government bureaucracy, with its extravagance and waste, will no longer be carried into the peace years. 7. By not allowing any labor organization, business association or any pressure groups of any kind to be our spokesman or to commit us to planned and regulated economy, government bureaucracy, national Socialism or other foreign ideologies that would destroy the American way of life under constitutional government. 8. By not “running to Washington“ for financial help, and by insisting on an end to present government extravagance and waste so that the federal budget can be balanced and annual payments made on the federal debt, which is fast approaching $300 billion. 9. By insisting on the removal of price ceilings, government subsidies and other socialistic activities which prevent full production and the balancing of the budget, the two requisites necessary for the prevention of that type of inflation that would wipe out all property values. 10. By encouraging Man, management and government to reestablish and preserve the individual competitive enterprise system with Man and Management working as a team and government acting as an umpire – never as a dictator.<br /> <br /> Sincerely,<br /> <br /> Bill Smith<br /> <br /> We are distributing this letter for Bill.<br /> We will gladly furnish upon request any number of additional copies gratis.<br /> <br /> Mississippi Central railway railroad company<br /> Natchez route<br /> The dependable route between the south east and south west<br /> LE Faulkner, vice president and general manager, Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Citation

Louis Edward Faulkner (1883-1961), “Bill Smith Letter No. 15, "Help! Help Keep America American",” Online Exhibits at Southern Miss, accessed May 3, 2024, https://usmspecialcollections.omeka.net/items/show/131.

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