3/18/47

This post will be different. On 3/18 I wrote: "The remainder/bottom third of this page is physically cut out of the diary, and the writing on the reverse side is crossed out in what looks like green crayon as well as ink. What I can read of it appears more "diary-like" than journal; it seems to be some political/philosophical comments, which, I guess, he later decided to eliminate. The next page continues with the next day."

So I didn't think I could read the whole thing, and I didn't think I would publish it, because he crossed it out. But when I looked at it carefully (it's scanned in below; the line after the crossed out stuff is actually from the previous page; it's hard to see the cut), I realized that I actually could read almost the entire entry. Here it is, as best as I can tell:

“[starts at bottom of previous page, which is physically cut out] ... I believe to be universally applicable within the sphere of liberalism can be safely maintained. I would like to digress a little in order to bring out my first point.

We are now entering a point of monstrous political perversion. Our country is being panicked into belief in the proposition that the fascist danger is negligible by implication, that Communism is the enemy that it is worse than fascism and that it must be stemmed abroad and outlawed at home. The incredible progress [not sure, may be “pogrom”, which seems to fit] within [can’t really read the word, but it might be “Russia”, which would fit] a few years back, and comparable to the Hitler program in Nazi Germany, is being fed to the American people and swallowed by many. It has been sponsored by certain ...”

 

and that’s it, the rest of the page is essentially cut off (half a word at the end of each line remains). And the page following this has been completely cut out. 

 

It actually looks like preparation for a speech; e.g., “I would like to digress ...” And, the next day (3/19/47) he writes “At night to the "Fed" Installation at the Hotel Diplomat.”? Maybe the whole speech was on the completely cut out page? Was it his speech? Someone else's? We (Silvia and I) are not quite sure what the last full sentence means; perhaps the part of the page cut out would have clarified it, or maybe someone else can decipher the words in question. The cut out part on the page before surely would have clarified at the beginning what could " be safely maintained"

 

 I originally thought it had been cut out/crossed out because he didn't want anyone to see it, but now I think it more likely that it just wasn't really part of the diary/journal. So we decided it was OK to publish it.