Timely Topics
THOMAS, NORMAN
Timely Topics By Norman Thomas Roosevelt Continue* hJodmlnm--The Wa**,ington Hog Pet*—Labor, Unemployment and Prohibition ROOSEVELT AIMS TO PLEASE ALL i--ran GOVERNOK ROOSEVELT'S St. Paul...
...They belong to Europe of the middle of the last century...
...LABOR, BREAD AND BEER THE unemployed in most American towns and cities, unless there is prompt pressure on the federal, state and local governments, will have nothing to live on by July 4 but patriotic oratory...
...That Is a dangerous Illusion cultivated by those who want ^^¦1 to turn the minds of the workers away from economic problems...
...The word I wrote was "news," but the printer made a mess of It...
...I mean Emma Goldman's interesting "Living My Lif >" (Alfred A. Knopf) and Trotsky's probably classic "History of the Russian Revolution.* Out of both books I got lessons the authors probably did not Intend...
...Legalized -SgJtfA beer would mean better beer and more honorable work: it would not neces[ sariiy mean more work than bootlegging, hi jacking, and prohibition enl forcing mean...
...How does It differ from plain everyday ethics...
...If Communist* were less dogmatically proud of fooling their allies and would work in good faith there might be some chance in Germany and elsewere for occasional Socialist-Communist Joint action...
...What he is sure of Is that the working class Is the only one whose economic conditions tend, on the whole and in the long run, to make its members feel and think and act in a socialistic manner...
...It shows how little medicine the most "radical" I km - except possibly Bill Murray of the Democratic candidates hms for the I Wf desperate sickness of our times...
...and more bread...
...i • • • It is not Just 'a very few Individuals" who are outside the working clsss...
...They don't even tell the truth about the proposed bill...
...We are for the workers on the farm and in the office and factory and mine...
...THE WASHINGTON GRAB IF Governor Roosevelt really believes that you can serve all classes at once let him watch the show in Washington...
...Our existing system of law, especially that portion of It which deals with property rights, contract and what it calls "relations of master and servant" embodies mainly the bourgeois conception aa to what la right or wrong...
...These same newspapers talk a lot of selfish nonsense against what they call the "dole" and then accept the dole of second class mail privilege below cost...
...Men of the middle class, In actuality or In sympathy, for the sake * of the larger social good and their own highest need of peace and fellowship may transcend class interest and help us build that new society...
...In its way, is another sort of book, Stephen Raushenbush's "The Fight for Power" (New Republic) which Mac Coleman has already very Justly praised...
...He does not think wageworkers in general are personally superior to other mortals...
...On the whole—that is, except for such modification as working class action has brought about—the law justifies capitalists in hiring labor at whatever terms want may force the workera to accept, and disapproves concerted action b; working people to restrict competition In the labor market...
...e • "Plain everyday ethics," is a delusive phrase...
...Unemployment, even if business should pick up a little, will grow worse because "economy" programs mostly have been achieved by cutting out public works...
...And even so, does that mean that he 1* superior to the rest of poor humanity...
...Such democracy as we have thus far achieved in this country does not prevent working men from being unemployed, nor prevent capitalists from profiting by their misery...
...Yet the new tax law proposes three-cent letter postage and no increase on the rate for papers and magazines which carry Immensely profitable advertising...
...Neither are the words "riches" and "poverty" and "capital" and "labor" and "naturalization" and "depression...
...We need them, for the facts which they denote exist here and now at least as much as In other lands and at other times...
...They i' can only do it by conscious choice of the Socialist goal and method and norhan by active cooperation with class-conscious workers in building the Socialist party...
...Working class solidarity Is always on the defensive, the presumptions are all against it, when coses involving it are brought before the courts...
...But they are great books, So, too...
...I / do not believe that the chief need .of workera is more beer, or more legal W\_ beer, but more bread...
...To say this, let me assure my good friend Comrade Vladeck (see his review Of my book in last week's New Leader) does not mean that I am "supercilious" toward the A. F. of L. or "In favor of prohibition...
...Paul speech has only one importance I ^ftjHP in a Socialist's eyes...
...that, strongly aa I feel Impelled to condemn the principle of national coalition governments in which Socialists are partners, I think the German Social Democrats are Justified In coalition in this emergency...
...Communist tactics has made that Impossible...
...Parties should abide by the SJJfLyf referendum vote and give It legal efficacy...
...I freely admit that the words "bourgeoisie" and "proletariat" are not native American nor aboriginal English...
...Then they might have avoided the emergency...
...The Workers and Eourgeois Justice "Neither Song Nor Sermon" HONEST Injun, I wasn't to blame last week for calling the result of the Milwaukee election a "mess...
...No doubt most civilized persons, regardless of class, agree on some points of ethics, but rtainly not on all...
...He wants to I Wjr save the little man, the fanner, the worker, and the big man easily and I Ki/ by the same undescribed medicine J^HCiQ By contrast we Socialists again assert: There is a class conflict be- I...
...Collectively they must become the owners \ and establish a classless society in which production will be for use, not \ profit...
...With the exception of a very few individuals, we **are all workers . . . The very idea of class-consciousness and class strife implies and necessarily breeds violence...
...On the contrary, I am critical of present A. P. of L. leadership because I want to see the A. F. of L. lead labor in ailing its necessary role in these times...
...We've borrowed those and many other words from the languages of wicked old Europe...
...Their mistake, it has long seemed to me, waa la their failure from 1019 on to take a more aggressive Socialist leadership in Germany with a more positive Socialist program...
...No other class Is going to do it i for us...
...But if beer is a poor man's drink I see no merit ia taxing it instead of Incomes...
...And the only great demonstration that the A. F. of L. leaders have blessed is Mayor Jimmy Walker's beer parade—a parade, incidentally that will do more for Walker than for beer...
...That is not the Idea behind the once widespread Socialist belief in public control of the liquor traffic to cut out profiteering in a traffic which in every country, whether legal or illegal, carries with it plenty of terrible social problems which follow intemperance...
...It is something to think about that Communist appeal to dictatorship and prospective violence has been so easily capitalized against them by their enemy, Hitler, prophet of a reactionary nationalism...
...Is he "working class...
...A. L...
...It was a bad omen that he increased bis vote in the Presidential run-off at the expense of the Communist candidate...
...SOME WORTHWHILE BOOKS , SPEAKING of Socialism and Communism, reminds me to recommend two books, neither by a Socialist, of enormous though very different Importance, for the light they shed on our problems...
...Here are the outstanding parts of It: • * » What doe* A. L. mean by bourgeois conceptions of Justice...
...It is well to be conscious of facts, and not to put a taboo on words that express them...
...Just what "plain everyday ethics" has to say about scabbing, I can't Imagine...
...But even such exceptional men as they, being on the bench, existing law, which ia bourgeois law, and can go but a little way la adapting it to working class needs...
...There are few men for whom 1 have a deeper respect than for Louis Brandeis and Benjamin N. Cardoso...
...Automobile manufacturers want no more taxes on automobiles, candy makers none on candy, etc...
...They dare not wholly ignore, but they play down, the crisis In unemployment relief for which a middle class congress, mad about "balancing the budget" In the easiest way, makes no provision...
...When Vice Chancellor Berry says that, I understand...
...THE GERMAN SOCIALIST POSITION SO great Is the danger of Hitler's crazy, swashbuckling, anti-Semitic "National Socialism" (what a prostitution of a noble word...
...1 ft il so, but I don't say that President Eliot was a bad man...
...HITLER AND COMMUNISM ALMOST before these words will reach most of their readers we shall know how Hitler fared in the Prussian elections...
...Plan Conference on Militant Pacifism The War Registers' League, whose object is to unite men and women who have determined to give no support to any war, will hold its third annual conference on "militant pacifism" from Friday to Sunday, May 0 to 8, at Northover Camp, Bound Brook, N. JThose wishing to attend should get in touch with Jessie Wallace Hughan, 171 W. 12th street, New York City...
...Even were all Judges as upright and aa Intelligent aa these two, the working class would suffer by having the Internal troubles of the unions carried into court \ * e e And I emphatically protest against the assumption that *t some individuals or groups appeal from their unions to the courts, It must be because the unions are corrupt and tyrannical...
...Hitlerism has all the evils of Communism plus some of its own and none of the hopeful economic features of Communism...
...Tet the day when we Socialists appeared at the Board of Estimate meeting In New York to argue for some 100,000 workers likely to be Jobless by the cut in public works not a single official representing the Central Trade and Labor Council or of the building trades waa present...
...On electric power the Governor says some I fl HL» good words for'public ownership and national control, but Is careful to I fl ggjfci lominit himself lo nothing definite I s^^^vjsg** For the rest it's words, words, words...
...And if Justice Brandel* and Justice Cardoso are bourgeois, what is A. i.., who sets himself up a* their Judge...
...and at each stage different classes have different notions a* to right and wrong...
...The capitalists applaud "i\ M«% Most decent working men feel that scabbing is at least as Immoral as picking pockets...
...He is for all classes at once and I L 1 equally, which is more impossible than squaring the circle...
...I do not believe legal beer will bring us prosperity 1L...
...Even within the middle class there are sharp differences of interest...
...Ethical ideals change with changes in the economic structure of society...
...The late President Eliot said: "The scab is a high type of American hero...
...The belief that law la an expression of "plain everyday ethics," uncolored by class interests, has been disposed of by Anatole France In these unforgettable words: 'The law, in its majestic impartiality, forbids the rich and the poor alike to sleep on park benches or to beg in the streets...
...And if too much liquor Is a social curse I do not want to see government sharing in the profits of it...
...1 - Lu I PROHIBITION'S PROBLEMS f H>UT because I believe that prohibition has failed I do not believe that j most of our evils, moral and economic, come from It, nor do I believe J that any substitute policy will Infallibly clear away the liquor problem...
...One can oppose the Eighteenth Amendment without going crazy about the blessings of alcohol on the empty stomachs of the workers...
...This whole Idea of class-consciousneu, and these terms "proletariat" and "bourgeoisie" are entirely foreign to democracy...
...How many of them have plainly told their readers that first class mall makes Uncle Sam a tidy profit and that his big loss is on second class mall...
...He was a sincere spokesman of bourgeois Ideals...
...above It In a position to exploit it Those who own the bulk : of our productive wealth, who control the country's economic life, < and who appropriate the major 1 part of the product constitute a ' powerful and self -conscious clsss...
...A. L. does not think himself superior to the rest of humanity...
...The invitation to riot or starve grows daily more urgent...
...somas As for taxation, of course I should rather not see expensive bootleg liquor go tax free...
...We have no right to say it, because it is not true...
...As for prohibition I have said hundreds of times In speech and writing that I believe It Is n failure, productive of more harm than good, and that it should be modified to permit sale of liquor under state authorities—not ¦ i mm for profit Straight repeal would leave us with a serious problem but It •fV would be better than what ws have...
...Neither Governor Roosevelt nor any other politician, Democratic or Republican, dares to try to show in public debate any other way in this hour as the Aoom of capitalism grows even more obvious...
...A party member who does me the honor to read my paragraphs has written me an angry letter anent what I said week before last about union men carrying theli quarrels into the courts...
...The Identity of A. L. is no very deep secret and certainly not an Important one...
...I am still of the opinion which so far as I know I first of all writers V In the United States expressed In this very column that prohibition is not I\ properly a party Issue and should be submitted to straight referendum or \ as near to It as we can constitutionally come...
...But they manage to put up a great front, all of them, against a proper program of income and inheritance taxes in this emergency...
...As I know by my experience last week, the papers, all of whom owned by men whose Incomes would be hit by income taxes, editorialize in their news columns in favor of sales taxes and suppress arguments for income taxes...
...Yet their failure to take this leadership arose party out of their post-war determination to keep the peace of Europe —a task la which Americans have given them little Intelligent help...
...y| IP tween an owning class and the workers with hand and brain whether they V. ^^*Sjft wear overalls or white collars...
...What is working class ethics, anyway...
...I wish my class to emancipate Itself and, in so doing, to put an end to clsss rule...
...And the working class can- ( r do It until it becomes conscious i of its Interests and its latent power and learns to act as a class...
...I don't like this...
Vol. 13 • April 1932 • No. 17
