IS CAPITALISM DOOMED?
Levinson, Edward
IS CAPITALISM DOOMED? An Insider Tells Tales Out of School; "Capitalism is Destroying Itself" By EDWARD LEVINSON ITHIN the temples of capitalism voices of doubt are heard. The T* strident...
...A ten billion dollar annual increase in taxation of the rich would supply the government with enough I spending money to "iron out to a large extent the present curves in the bttsinesf cycle...
...The people will suffer and complain under their business leaders but follow them they must to, the bitter end, for the people have no other leaders...
...A Dying System Deunis has his say in a new book which he titled, "fs Capitalism Doomed...
...Then followed connections with T. & W. Seligman & Co., bankers who are at the very nerve center of American capitalism...
...First, as to the role of business: "The problem of business can only be the competitive pursuit of profits...
...An enlightened workingclass will reach out for ever more concessions...
...What is "the moderation and restraint" which he thinks may carry it along...
...Of this, more later...
...Dennis sends out a call to the workers to cast aside the leadership of the class he has represented: "To occupy positions of Influence or responsibility in the America of today a man must have the\endorsement of big business, which means that he may not have the soul of a leader...
...Only an aroused and intelligent workingclass can make them see that their day of rule is drawing to a close, that they must begin to disgorge...
...Effective free speech since 1915 would have corrected or greatly minimized the evils discussed In this book...
...A nationalist and an opponent of pacifism, he served as an officer in France during the World War...
...But financial and governmental circles know him well...
...The Business Leadership Buttressing the men of business is the small kept army of intellectual hired men, the researchers, the economists, the editors of inspired investment organs...
...He has no illusions about them...
...The rich will never respond to reason, or give up their wealth witn cheery resignation...
...Yet the grip of the business psychology on the masses of the country remains strong...
...They are the auxilllarie* of black magic, whereby money Is supposed to be made by platting rather than plodding...
...Capitalism is Destroying Itself" By EDWARD LEVINSON ITHIN the temples of capitalism voices of doubt are heard...
...And once the organized political and industrial movement of the working people begins to travel the high road to power, why should it halt to allow capitalism to lire out an old age of uselcssness...
...The subservience of the people is a factor without which business leadership could not continue to dominate...
...War and the Bankers There are more bitterly phrased truths in Dennis' book...
...The American people demand this quite as much as business...
...PresidentHoover, the Professor Carvers—ballyhooers of the "new capitalism" that was going to make everybody rich—have had their poUyanna mouthings silenced by the presence of 8,000,000 or more joblessAmerican breadwinners...
...There is no doubt that Dennis has been on the inside and knows what he is talking about...
...The faith must be the faith of the workers in their power as a class...
...He can, if he wishes, enjoy the distinction of having been one of American capitalism's most able and trusted servants...
...Drawing from a lift-time of intimate service to the system, Dennis ^summarizes his views of present-day capitalism: "While former economic crises were distempers of youth, the present depression is a disease of old age, the old age of capitalism, of coarse, and not of the human race . . . capitalism Is destroying Itself or disintegrating with age...
...A state of world peace is by no means inconceivable, but it is inconceivable in a world of capitalism and nationalism...
...But Dennis is no Socialist...
...At this point Dennis' book comes to a halt, leaving the reader to flounder in the mysteries of "spiritual leadership...
...Any major operation designed to pry from the rich of America Wli a large share of their wealth as Dennis proposes to take must have more than Vague leadership...
...Dennis proposes "systematic confiscation (of wealth) by taxation," or "impoverishment for the decently-minded rich...
...t This will take faith and leadership, but not of the kind that Dennis proposes...
...The churches, as a spiritual force, of course, have been dying for years...
...Dennis is a name unknown to the man in the street...
...Dermis pays his respects to business men, the infallible men of affairs and builders of modern nations...
...T« these, Dennis pays this compliment: "The economists who make up the weekly letter of the investment banker, encouraging Investors In IMS to bey stocks at several times any reasonable price, correspond to the hired knaves of the fifteenth century alchemist...
...until bankers can give facts about future prices, investors would do much better to consult gypsy fortune tellers than to read circulars on the credit of foreign countries...
...A few of the more brave of the army of capitalism's yes-men arc speaking out, telling tales out of school...
...The people have since been betrayed by their spiritual leaders...
...The nation Is as deeply Imbued with the business faith as any people ever was with a state religion...
...He wrote his book to help save capitalism, or at least prolong it...
...DcntuY answer is that we must substitute "spiritual leadership" for business leadership...
...The pursuit must always involve a conflict between society and profit seekers...
...He knows them too well...
...I^awrence Dennis belongs in that class...
...And, further...
...the leadership must be the leadership of Social i SOL...
...The T* strident defiance of capitalism's hired soothsayers is changed to a chorus of apologies, explanations and incantations...
...A long and important service in the United States diplomatic corps is but part of his record...
...To the press and the university It Is perhaps not appropriate to address the reproach of a betrayal, since they have been loyal to those by whom they have been bought and paid for...
...For Socialist Leadership How is American capitalism to be gotten into the frame of,mind where it will submit to such heavy taxation...
...Let us first follow Dennis' own story of the failure of a system he has known so well...
...He has "suggestions of moderation and restraint" which may "prolong and render more pleasant the old age of capitalism...
...The war to make the world safe for democracy gave free speech hi America an Indecent burial...
...Dennis is not certain however that the present is capitalism's final crisis...
...As a former member of a leading banking firm, Dennis may be fully believed whet) he declares "it is the banker's privilege to be highly compensated for losing *her people's money gad for selling them overpriced investments...
...Nor does Dennis swallow the hokum of Hoover's philipptos against the dole while he consigns the unemployed to the charities of relatives and private institutions...
...Nor have they any other faith...
...As a former diplomat, he has no illusions of the possibilities of peace in a capitalist world...
...It is for the Socialist to finish the book arid draw the moral...
Vol. 13 • April 1932 • No. 16
