Economic Ruin Stalks the Gulf Coast
Dietz, Walter
Economic Ruin Stalks the Gulf Coast Farmers Suffer Intense Poverty as Quack Remedies Fail to Relieve the Situation By Walter Dietz This section originally had a wide belt of yellow pine...
...During the World War the state office was raided by federal agents and the records of the party lost or destroyed...
...BUT LET THEM KEEP THEIR HANDS OFF THE SLENDER .MEANS OF THE WORKING CLASS...
...He knew, what the very-wealthy Mills and the insulated Hoover does not know, that the patience of the masses is cracking...
...The south sends Democrats to congress I to vote with the Republicans on many issues...
...r There is more of the spirit of revolt among the workers than there Is "an understanding of the cause of the trouble and the remedy...
...The Republican party does not function except in national elections and does not hold primaries...
...He was to be a national figure...
...So that was that...
...At the first presidential election in which the Socialist Party had candidates on the ballot, Louisiana polled 996 votes, increased it to 2588 in 1908 and to 5249 in 1912...
...That is, all except one...
...It was to be a Sales Tax...
...The deficit was to be made up In the usual, normal way, by bleeding the masses...
...Every single Democrat In four counties, supplying 20 of the 45 Democrats who stood by Banker-Speaker Garner, came through...
...The two Bronx Congressmen voted against the sales tax—th» soak the workers plan -not out of principle but to give Franklin Roosevelt a talking point in the battle for the Presidency...
...It has now fallen on unhappy days...
...They had stood for everything...
...A similar situation existed throughout the south...
...Congressman LaGuardia is a bit cleverer than the leaders of the party of which he is a somewhat irregular member...
...Where was the rest of the money to come from...
...The Negro does not vote in Louisiana, is excluded from the Democratic primary in Texas, and has very little more political privileges anywhere in the south...
...Cotton, rice and sugar cane are now the principal money /crops of this section, each carrying a heavy surplus and prices below cost of production...
...Here a political party is defined as one that casts 5% of the total vote cart at the preceding election for governor or...
...They have their ears to the ground and they realize that a ground-swell Is rising...
...presidential electors...
...M. Feigenhaum THERE is to be a hole of a billion dollars in the national budget of the United States next year...
...What Is needed is a campaign of education and organization...
...The saving of the farmer in borrowing this $400 would be 21 / 2% over the regular interest charge of $10...
...The complete breakdown of the capitalist system may take place before this section can develop much Socialist political power but the work should be attempted to prevent it from being a reactionary force, which would retard the coming necessary change from the capitalist system of production for profit, to the Socialist system of production for use...
...Two of them are Republicans...
...Mellon, and the he-man from the Uvalde, Speaker Garner—who is also a bankergot together and mapped out their plans...
...for their boss is Edward J. Flynn, who Is former secretary to Roosevelt...
...This situation makes it hard for any action looking to relief from any new political alignment...
...Only a few scattering tracts of poorer timber remain of the finest timber belt in the world...
...SOAK THE WORKERS...
...It was not a rsvclt of Congressmen, but rather the faint echo in Congress of a revolt that Is sweeping the whole country...
...The voter, when registering, Is asked to itRM his party afflliaUon and cannot vote In the Democratic primary unless he registers his party affiliation as a Democrat...
...New York's Representatives There are 25 Congressmen from New York City...
...Why not again...
...With sugar retailing at So per pound, the Louisiana Sugar-Bowl, as the sugar cane section is called, has nothing in sight...
...Money was easy to make and spending It, easier...
...i Politics was to be adjourned...
...But no Republican can be elected In Louisiana and the reason for it goes back to the days' of the Carpet Bagger and Negro domination...
...The rice farmers have been broke for several years...
...The $400 of government funds, which farmers can borrow to put in their crops, are so hedged about with restrictions as to be of no use...
...why not some more bleeding...
...The Lake Charles Association has had to create a new position and place a man in charge of real estate, building and rentals, when a few years back they were boasting in their advertising that they had not taken over a sing.'e house...
...In 1916 the party failed to get on the ballot and the vote declined...
...He conferred with John Vance Garner, the HeMan of the Rio Grande...
...Remedial measures have all failed...
...Rice has no better outlook...
...The stupidity, incompetence and blundering of the Great Minds that have had our affairs in charge had run the finances of the Federal government into the ground...
...It "tas to be part of the "efficiency" of the much-bepraised Mr...
...The grateful government, with the wealthy Mellon In charge of the Treasury, returned hundreds of millions in refunds to wealthy Income tax-payers...
...Farmers would like to borrow money at 5Va% to pay their taxes or debts (delinquent taxes in Louisiana carry 2% per month interest) but this money can only be borrowed to put in crops and would thus put the farmers further in debt when their idea is to try to get out of debt...
...are gone...
...The small banks and small business men in the towns are not making money and bankruptcy Is a frequent outcome...
...Any help extended only helps to increase the surplus and so defeats its purpose...
...In the writer's city of Lake Charles, La., the morning whistle of five large mills are forever silent...
...How Is the deficit to be made up...
...In one year there was a surplus of $636,000,000...
...Mills, the enormously wealthy successor to the even wealthier Mr...
...and that meant they would do what he told them to rather than what their consciences or their constituents told them...
...One hundred signatures are required for parish or municipal officers and members of the state legislature or Congress, and twenty-five for ward officers...
...existence, the bankers advised and assisted the rice farmers to plant heavily, and when the crop was harvested, to hold for higher prices...
...Boas Curry, breathing dignity and importance, went to Washington to talk business...
...Those days, alas...
...Several yean ago the writer heard Senator Brousaard, from the 'sugar section of Louisiana, explain the reason for It: Louisiana's products needed tariff protection and her Congressmen must work with the Republicans to obtain it...
...They had bean elected by the votes of the hardest working people, the most exploited and most plundered people of the country...
...And while he can register without giving party affiliation, he generally registers Democrat in order to take part in state and local politics...
...AND THEY WANT TO OET BACK TO CONGRESS...
...What is to be New York's reaction to the scandalous spectacle of a vulgar boss like Curry delivering a batch of congressmen like so many catUe...
...There are 23 of them, members of the organization in which he rules as a worthy successor of Fernando Wood and Tweed, of Kelly and Croker, of Murphy and Olvany, and members of allied organizations...
...Of the Republican Congressmen Ruth Pratt voted to defend the weal"- that was left to her by the Pratts of Standard Oil...
...Why not...
...The party became inactiveuntil the 1928 campaign, when an effort was made to revive the organization In the state but with little success...
...Very little building is going on and building trades face distress...
...The workers, however, got nothing more than a vote of thanks...
...Carry's Men Delivered The 253 Congressmen who voted to kill the brutal program of SOAK THE WORKERS were not suddenly converted to friendship for the workers...
...The facts are, that with the improved methods and machinery, a surplus of rice and cotton is sure and no crop planning seems possible under capitalism...
...It is only what their boss tells them to do that does...
...Many farmers do not think it worth while to take the extra trouble and submit to the restrictions to obtain it...
...Socialism is the farmer's only hope, both north and south...
...With war time prices stltt -4a...
...Millions of dollars of bonded indebtedness has been spent for roads to be paid for out of gasoline taxes, which will now be a Tnoney drain until paid...
...In no year from 1924 to 1930 did the surplus fall below $184,000,000...
...The taxes are a heavy burden which their creditors do not want to carry...
...No Crop Planning Possible Louisiana passed a No Cotton Production Law for 1932 contingent upon the other cotton producing states doing likewise...
...The task seems beyond the power that can be mustered in Its behalf...
...He was afraid to vote to SOAK THE WORKERS because in the last election a Socialist ran second to him , and there Is another election coming and the Congressman dearly loves the limelight his seat In Congress gives him...
...He raised up a protest against the SOAK THE WORKERS program...
...Politics was aojourned...
...The Socialist Vote A voter giving his party affiliation cannot change it within six months of an election, nor can he sign nomination papers for an unrecognized party or independent candidate...
...War time prosperity with every one working made even the Socialist forget his Marxian understanding of the capitalist system...
...iBach community must have some means of bringing money to it, to balance the money sent away for outside products...
...It was the most far-reaching revolt In American politics since the Populist uprising of 1892...
...Hoover, long a servant of the wealthy...
...v Sirovich h Silent...
...Garner to pilot the bill through with neatness and despatch...
...In two out of eight congressional districts In 1914 the Socialist Party polled 1344 votes, 16% of the total vote cast in the districts...
...Louisiana, along with other southern states, made some progress before the world war...
...At times protected by the tariff, at other times receiving a bounty from Uncle Sam...
...Old prejudices still live...
...Republican President and Secretary of the Treasury, Democratic Banker-Speaker, agreed to vote "their" Congressmen in a bloc...
...the rest are Democrats and are in office because a set of vulgar bosses allow them to be...
...The spirit was lacking...
...What they think don't count...
...But Boss Curry promised Garner that "his" Congressmen would play ball...
...Every Manhattan, Queens, Richmond and Brooklyn Congressman voted for the SOAK THE WORKERS PLAN as their proprietors had promised...
...In the primaries of the southern states, where the Democratic party nominates its candidates, is fought the political battle of economic Issues...
...Economic Ruin Stalks the Gulf Coast Farmers Suffer Intense Poverty as Quack Remedies Fail to Relieve the Situation By Walter Dietz This section originally had a wide belt of yellow pine forests...
...Much of the remaining Umber is now in the form Of stored lumber for which the market is stagnant...
...Some of them think that prosperity is Just around the corner and all they have to do is just hold on, while others see the hopelessness of the situation, but do not know how to let go...
...An Echo of Unrest What the uprising of the underdog did is history...
...They denuded a large territory covering the Calcasieu River and its branches, the logs being floated to the mills on the quiet waters of these streams...
...But the plans went wrong...
...In Louisiana, the registration and election laws have made It practically Impossible for a new party to funcUon...
...Ollwells and gas fields were a help to some sections, but only temporary...
...If speakers could be put Into this field to distribute literature, take subscriptions to Socialist papers and organize locals and so educate and organize the forces of revolt, this section could be brought back rapidly and further advances made...
...The market broke and the rice farmers took a universal loss...
...The bolstering up process has about come to a close...
...The business men were elated at the business brought about by the installation of pipe lines and distribution plants for natural gas (some forty towns and clUes in southwest Louisiana were Included in one distribution system) and allowed the gas company exorbitant rates, with a schedule bearing heaviest on the small consumer, not realising that after the initial cost of installation it would be a conUnual money drain on this section, an the profits would go outside this territory...
...The unsound condition of some companies, who were forced to market lumber, has brought prices down from the position where it has been steadily mounUng for years past...
...The sugar industry has had a varied career...
...He dared not defy his boss and vote in favor of the masses...
...Sources of revenue had dried up...
...The Marxian analysis holds good...
...Farms Not Wanted Fanners, as a rule, are bankrupt but their creditors do not want their farms...
...Curry Delivers His Cattle Tammany Congressmen Lined Up for the Sales Tax Outrage By Wm...
...These developments, In all sections, cany the same economic outcome...
...They were loyal to their boss . . . although what their constituents think about it remains to be seen...
...This situation Is resented, but no organized effort is being put forth with a view of remedying it...
...Some have never recovered from the catastrophe of 1920, handed to them by the banking interest...
...The Best Minds had a great idea...
...He pledged "his" congressmen to vote for the SOAK THE WORKERS program...
...One thousand signatures of qualified voters, who have not registered as Democrat or Republican, are required to place a state or national candidate's name on the ballot...
...The comical Sirovich did not vote...
...Make The workers had paid often enough without whimpering whenever they were called upon...
...But Boss Curry had pledged "his" Congressmen to vote for the bleeding program...
...But wartime prosperity and prosperity psychology are gone...
...Texas, the largest producer, refused to pass such a law, and the restrictive law it passed was declared unconstitutional by the state court...
...The Workers Oet—Thanks For ten years the national finances had shown enormous surpluses...
...All legislative help for the cotton farmer has failed...
...This principle has been proven in the result of the Farm Board's actions...
...SOAK THE-WORKERS...
...The Building and Loan Associations have no money to loan and are having to foreclose on many borrowers and take their homes...
...If there Is a deficit due to the miserable mismanagement of the ruling powers let them find some way out...
...We are now coming on days when the designations Democrat and Republican mean nothing relative to the political views of the voter and politician...
...This source of wealth is practically gone...
...Expenditures were to be curtailed by slashing the wages of post-offlce clerks and letter carriers, but word came from On High that the $766,000,000 assigned for the military forces (for the "next" wan must not be touched...
...Why should there be a super-tax on her property when the workers can be soaked again by taxing whatever they buy...
...That means political action, and politically the south is the most muddled and backward part of the nation...
Vol. 13 • April 1932 • No. 14
