Timely Topics

...Three-cent postage is kept although two-cent postage Is already making a profit for the government for that class of service...

...Like the House bill the Senate bill makes no attempt to block the leak of riches into tax exempt bonds, and unlike the House bill, it permits capitalists to wipe out Incomes by charging losses from jales of securities although their normal income may still be the same...

...Herriot la a very able man, ana In some ways genuinely progressive...

...One might not object to special help for these veterans or their families if it were not at the price of a proper Bystem of help for the unemployed and for farmers crushed down under a burden of debt If the unemployed would organise as the veterans have done they would be better off...

...Our party's advance Is only part of a general swing against all that Tardleu represents...

...So, I am sorry to say, do some within our own party...

...Of Hilda Claessens I cannot trust myself to write...

...The original House tax on amusements by the Senate Is extended to apply to all admission tickets above 10 cents...

...USUAL BANKING POLICIES...

...He is entitled to help on the Deals of unemployment, the same as other workers...

...In the second place, the gain for the Socialist party in France does not stand alone...

...A. L. Socialists in Peace Parade In New York Saturday AN anti-war parade arranged by the peace-loving organizations of New York City and which will be participated in by the Socialist party will take place on Saturday afternoon, May 21...

...The bill is only a beginning of what Congress should do, but it Is a beginning along right lines instead of along the wrong lines of the Wagner bill on which I have previously commented...

...the revival of militaristic nationalism In Germany...

...ECONOMIES ONK way to help balance the budget la by economies...

...Moreover tne Senate bill keeps a great many sales taxes which are wholly opposed to the increase of purchasing power in America...

...Because a man who volunteered or was drafted in the World War U injured five or six years later in an automobile accident or by falling off a step-ladder gives him no special claim en his fellow workers...

...Those are samples of what's happening...

...Herriot will no doubt be premier before these lines are in type, but just how the new ministry is to be definitely constituted may not be known till later...

...Let the workers understand clearly that this kind of a tax bill Is part of the price they pay for voting Republican and Democrat and always supporting the parties of an owning class...

...But I must leave that general question tot a time whan l have more space in which I know too that It is not wise to count chickens before they are fully hatched...

...The Socialist party had no more loyal and devoted comrades than August and Hilda Claessens...

...I am willing to agree that what Lee, Higginson did was quite in line with common banking practice in the mad gambling days of this dying capitalist epoch...

...He has richly earned the long rest he desired...

...For this reason the outcome of this month's parliamentary elections in France, though in itself less momentous than the Spanish revolution of 1931, may f o . the time have .even greater significance for the world as a Whole...

...In such case, even though the parties represented in the ministry have altogether but a narrow majority, It might be comparatively safe, for the simple reason that the Socialists on one side and the reactionaries on the other could not very well both vote against it on any one Issue...

...We can tell her husband and her children how deeply we miss her and how much greater than any power of words to express is our sympathy for them...

...I f so, Lee, Higginson and Company, unlike the countryman, managed to resell the bridge to other innocents...

...Rather it Is in the increase of the strength of our own Socialist comrades behind Leon Blum...

...On the face of it the Senate's income tax rate and schedule of graduated taxes seem better than the schedule in the House bill...

...Our brave comrades in Austria more than held their own, and the Fascist c?'ele*n«t* aot* ^ e x p e n In taking Max Zuckerman, death has robbed our labor movement, Industrial and political, of one of its truest and finest—I won't say leaders, but chosen servants, for that is what he was and what he wished to be...

...Anything that tends to check these policies at Paris, brings a ray of hope for peace, democracy, and social progress all over the Continent...

...THE GAINS IN FRANCE THE results of the French election give one no reason to hold a jubilee but they were definitely encouraging...

...That means that the poor man must help balance the budget every time he goes to a movie...

...The Socialist party offers the way...

...It must always be remembered moreover that in this balancing of the budget no provision has been made for unemployment relief...

...LACK of time and space prevent my commenting on matters of some importance which have been called to my attention by comrades and friends...

...Among other things, I have been told that my comment two weeks ago on Lee, .ligginson and Com-, pany was too sharp in that I implied conscious collusion between them and Krueger in what was virtually a fraudulent scheme...

...Timely Topics By Norman Thomas The Costigan Relief Bill Congress Serving The Rich Again The Elections in France Our Bankers BACK THE COSTICAN BILL ALL workers, all lover* of justice should at once use whatever power they have in their localities and whatever ability may be theirs to make Congress act to demand the passage of the Costlgan bill which would provide $500,000,000 for direct federal aid to the unemployed...

...It will start at 1.30 from Washington square, win proceed up Fifth avenue to 23rd street, then to Madison square, up Madison avenue to 69th street, and west to Columbus Circle, where a mass meeting will be held...

...Substantial as are Its achievements, and full of promise for the future, Spain Is, however, relatively too small a country, and too far from the center of the continent to exercise any very powerful Influence upon the European situation as a whole...

...Even so, however, a government headed by the Socialistic Radical leader can hardly fall to be an improvement over those which have preceded it...

...They should reduce military and naval expenditures to the bone...

...In the first place, it comes at a time when reaction in Its worst ufrrms has been gaining ground everywhere north and east of the Rhine and the Alps, and when this paction was everywhere being strengthened In one way or another by the policies of the French government, Laval and Tardleu...

...There ts still the possibility that he will be able to form a coalition with parties somewhat more conservative than his own...

...Among the organizations that will be represented in the parade, In addition to the Socialist party, are, the New York Chapter of the League for Industrial Democracy, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, War Res later* League, Committee on Militarism In Education, Bronx Free Fellowship, Young People's Socialist League and tba Pioneer Youth...

...The principal fault of the bill is that it does not specify that the five hundred million dollar loan for this purpose must be repaid by surtaxes on incomes and inheritances...

...One of the worst features of the Senate bill is that It lowers the proposed House rate on the estate and gift tax...

...Any way you look at it the episode is an amazing commentary on capitalist banking in the United States, but I want to be fair and therefore I seek further light...

...It will have to be a coalition ministry, since no one party has more than about one-fourth of the membership of the chamber...

...Those economies should not cripple the social services of the government nor should they reduce the wages of already ill-paid civil service employes...

...To make the Socialist party section as colorful as possible the cooperation of the Rebel Arts group has been sought for the making of one or more floats to depict graphically the Socialist opposition to War...

...That rate should have been very stiffly increased...

...I I/now there is another way of viewing these things...

...It is so regarded for two reasons...

...h thaJr eflacfire obstructio all efforts toward readjustment of reparations and war debts and toward concerted reduction of armaments, have done far more than Hitler to stimulate...

...Sixty per cent of the amount is to be apportioned to states on the basis of population, 40 per cent is an emergency fund to be administered under a federal committee...

...0 The increase of the Socialist delegation In the French lower house from 112 to 129, out of a total of 615, while it is of course gratifying, would not under ordinary circumstances be regarded as a possibly epoch-making event...

...The result is that the Treasury Department estimates that the House bill would have yielded in additional revenue from all income taxes 1298,000,000 whereas the Senate bill will yield $287,000,000, a reduction of $11,000,000 even though the ' Senate bill rates are higher...

...Their love for each other strengthened their love for their cause and their capacity to serve it, and it was the kind of Inspiration to us all that ought to find expression in the quality of our own service until the years bring us to the rest that she has found...

...A good many of our parlor revolutionists and so-called "intellectual radicals" in the United States share this view...

...Under the House bill only admission over 45 cents would have been taxed...

...It Is accompanied by a gain for the Socialistic Radicals (not Radical Socialists, as our newspapers always call them) and a loss, not for the moderate elements so much as for the parties on the right...

...Also it exempts dividends from taxation in personal Incomes...

...A t least the French had too much sense to answer Hltier by a swing to the right...

...A Gleam of Hope from France "Neither Song Nor Sermon' IpOR the last year or two about the only bright spot in Europe, from one point of view, has been the young republic of Spain, where the Socialist party has shown itself strong enough to compel steady progress In the right direction and wise enough not to undertake tomorrow's task before today's task Is done...

...This will increase the yield in the amusement tax by 70 million dollars...

...But he Is not the least little bit of a Socialist, and he is not at all willing to make his premiership dependent upon the support or consent of the Socialist party if he can avoid it...

...One cannot picture Zuckerman striving for personal advancement or glory, and we never knew him to refuse an actual call to duty...

...And speaking of bright spots, the Austrian election got overshadowed by the interest in the Oerman presidential and Prussian legislative contests...

...The bill Is nevertheless more nearly in line with the first steps in the Socialist irrrmeoMate demands than anything since the defeat of the original LaFollette-Costlgan bill, which defeat was partly due to the failure of workers to organize effective demonstrations in Its behalf Unless this bill is passed rapidly by the Fourth of July such unemployed as cannot live on patriotic oratory or on their own ruggedneas will have to starve or riot...

...They ought to be a far more powerful factor in the new Parliament than in the old for winning the peace of Europe and hastening the triumph of the Socialist FOR HILDA CLAESSENS rE cannot begrudge to our comrade, Hilda Claessens, the release that death has brought from great pain...

...Moreover they should cut out or at least greatly reduce payments to ex-soldier* who were not injured In the war...

...2mmm.**Jtn^ will be chief...

...BALANCING THE AND SERVING THE RICH THE Senate's latest attempt to balance the budget is another triumph of class interest over both sound financing and humanity...

...For the rest I am trying now to find out whether this famous firm of bankers was partly victim and partly partner in wild and reckless gambling or whether it was simply in the class of the countryman to whom the smart guy sells the Brooklyn Bridge for a couple of hundred dollars...

...and at the same time, by this authority, French money has been supporting Pilsudskl and his colonels, Horthy and his counts, and that extraordinary gang of swindlers that misgoverns Rumania...

...They should cut out or reduce retirement allowances to officers many of whom on retirement take well paying jobs...

...Every effort Is being made to muster the forces of the Socialist party to help swell the ranks of those who will demonstrate against war and Imperialism and for Peace and Total Disarmament, circulars are being distributed announcing that the Socialist party contingent will assemble la front of th* People's House, 7 East 10th Progressive labor organizations of New York City have also been communicated with in the hope that they, too, will take part in the march for Peace...

...Classconscious worklngmen know better...

...His last years were darkened by loneliness, and yet he went on with his work while strength remained...

...Young, active, loved and loving, with so much to live for, so much to do and such will to do it—the loss is too senselessly cruel to be spoke a ot calmly...

...The Bolsheviks wish always for a weakening of the center parties, even though the right should gain more by It than the left...

...The really important factor is not so much the increase in Herriot's party, which despite its NOEMAN i NOMAS name, Radical Socialist, is only moderately liberal...

...Had he been less modestly devoted, he might have been more widely known, but his service could hardl yhave been greater...