Machine Tools and Capitalist Prorodution
Machine Tools and Capitalist Production The BeheMth Sluiftow of the Machine Which Displaces Laher, Increases Production, and Which Prepares the Way far the Overthrow of a Fast Decaying Capitalist...
...If only he could make gears, wheels, pulleys sad belts to do the work of hands and fingers...
...Worry about the job, th.» wife, the children, the rent in fact that whole complex which we mean when we use the phrase •making a living" have killed mar.y*a starry-eyed revolutionist Poverty made Socialists are the kind which wealth convinces of the error of their ways...
...But we had no work for anyone in our modern little house...
...In the anthracite region there are only two community chests that function wen enough to be taken seriously, that in the Wyoming Valley centering in Wilkes-Barre and that in Scranton...
...Living flesh of his employes left a nasty stench m Us nose...
...Just what signs of toothless senility or "impish tickling" do we find in either of these children of his old age...
...They fight the triennial assessment of their property through the courts and generally succeed in reducing these assessments...
...In a long reading of {Socialist literature I have not found its equal for a comprehensive, intelligent, interesting analysis of socialist theory and criticism of the existing order...
...and make life more endurable, the dreamers and crea toes experimented* schemed, planned and built the machina, netti And how tragic the thought that the very efficiency of the meantsr m Its fiilHTIaisnt of the dream that was nurtured In hate on one side and brought forth out of love for humanity on the other, threatens to desti oy them both...
...In large cities there are receivers of big incomes who can be expected to contribute to charity even in a depression but in smaller places this is not the case...
...The war had taught manufacturera many things about production by way of mechanical equipment The automobile industry had set toe style with ousting slower tools for the speedier oaaa Speed meant lower costs aad higher profits...
...And that is tost the simple system of the people taking over the full ownership of the mtskestail mapping out a panai against public i i ™ • tag these needs teasS I atta» these got* ? 9 • and happiness, tatara . profit syatea fensT...
...Generally the kind of goods that may be secured ia specified on the order...
...No i grandeur has been more awe-in- I spiring, since i860, the machine i tool, powered first by steam, later I by electricity and oil, has turned, I dug and fashioned a heap of fin- i tahed utilities and needs for human : consumption that staggers the hu- i man mind to compute correctly, a seems that there are no sums : large enough to tally the actual amount In wealth produced in the i last seventy years...
...The percentage of increase in population for thirty years ia leas than 40 per cent compared to the 350 per cent Increase in productivity of wealth...
...It's practically sfl At six o'clock ht mm and I went to tht atom it immaculately tvatfl wood sawed into tvta sal neatly piled...
...To take the plunge immediately although I cannot refrain fr-i-n mentioning that a reading of Shaw should be sufficient to settle this kind of criticism...
...Cupping «tMe»r«3 fall in line with task la fessions of 'iman, t?s : skinning the e^tasi^ For the worker sat to alone, in the mCL <* a*, the building scaffali, « mine, the ma/Mi^ Wk shoulder the tattoos, kj 1 tag and spirtt-wasteatoj so that the hour* of atei will be lessened, ate tol nights grow longer at • aesa that a tat nettiti of those who creanti menti of joy kt Urtar, u Many other forca am today to hastes tes mmm fast decaying wa...
...This is the old •haw...
...affirm and does affirm with mathematical certainty, is mat the current, the trajectory, of human evolution is in the general direction pointed out and foreseen by Socialism, that is to say, in the direction of a continuously and progressively increasing preponderance of the interests and importance of the species over the interests and importance of the individual—and, therefore, In the direction of a continuous socialisation of the economic life, and with and in consequence of that, of the juridical, moral and political life...
...Show us first its exact plan, • and after that we,will decide...
...I dont want to tea of charity," he matassi...
...But the percentages are Intriguing...
...As to the petty details of the new social edifice,' we are unable to foresee them, precisely because the new social edifice will be, and is, a natural and spontaneous product of human evolution, a product which is already in process of formation, and the general outlines of which are already visible, and not an artificial construction of the imagination of some Utopian of idealist...
...The public charities operating through the poor boards throughout the region cannot accomplish much for unemployment relief, no matter bow many conferences are held between the Hoover saviours and the American Association of Public Welfare officials...
...He was a lunmberman, had worked hard and regularly an hia life but now that he was sixty-five it was the old story—they wanted younger men...
...The all-around trained machinist, who had spent his lifetime at a. difficult trade, found himself as a mere attendant at a battery of screw machines, or turning millions of monotonously similar parte on a single putyuat lathe...
...Here we have socialist doctrine bereft of all the antique lumber of 19th century, hegelianism...
...And unless a sane plan seal a new system of ownership la instituted there will be no end to the suffering and misery ahead...
...Suddenly I thought of the unsawed pue of wood which had been delivered the day before for the fireplace...
...There is hardly am wigaiilaert trade In America where the wage, hour and condition standards have suffered greater fluctuations and irregularity...
...They use up an their funds for these objects...
...Industry at the present state of things stands ready to produce with only 35 per cent more people to make, use and consume its goods, almost 400 per cent more grain, foods, gadgets and merchandise than it was capable of, only a generation ago...
...Under a new law a taxpayer's property may be sold to recover taxes and that baa made It still more difficult for the poor boards to increase the mileage of the poor districts...
...future State will be, and who skillfully profiting by the ingenuity of the Socialist romancers, criticise .their artificial fantasies which are true in their general outlines, but arbitrary in their details...
...The amount varies from two dollars a month to twenty and even more...
...As machins tools are fitted with bearings that lessen friction and so increase their speed, as automatic attachments are perfected, as single purpose tools are developed in the dovetailing schemes for mass production and mass assembly of standardized parts for standardised products, the cornucopia of industry pours forth ever increased totale of finished goods...
...The poor boards can do very little to raise the money fully needed in the present emergency...
...And before them looms the shadow of the Frankenstein monster machine that capitalism has ordered built for its own greed and which the tollera have ala nati ly constructed, and uhlan now threatens to destroy the owner and the maker together...
...It was ate months since he had had a regular job...
...I asked htm...
...But this did not prevent the bourgeois revolution from taking place because it represented the next natural and inevitable phase of an eternal evolution...
...Hurried conferences have been held with the officiels of the Association of Community Chests...
...He wat "g knew that M *•* ZM would never aad» I * *te bottom of tottaa...
...above Scranton, and in Carbondale and vicinity at the extreme northern tip of the hard ; coal fields...
...A Reexamination Of Bernard Shaw By Bernard Kastenbanmr ie with mixed feelings of futility, anger and amusement that I take up this criticism of S. A. de Witt's take-off on O. B. Shaw...
...When the Labor Government was weighed in scales and found wanting it did not take Shaw long to say thumbs down...
...ton public continuation schools where tuition la free, are filled classes of half-hearted pupils And toe story of the once powerful, radical machinist amento this land parallela the rise and tragic eeata?na of toe "fTrrr^T itself...
...he replied, "I should say I would," I escorted him to the cellar since he volunteered no further information about himself and returned to my household duties...
...Around ,. Wilkes Barre the closing down of i mines by the Glen Alden and the , Hudson Coal companies has I wrought havoc with the miners ; and strained the resources of the \ charitable organizations...
...Religious groups are struggling with the relief problem and are wondering where they will get the money to satisfy the requirements of the situation Throughout the entire anthracite region the charitable organizations are having trouble collecting their pledges...
...The union officials bava already made pleas to both...
...Take it or leave it, Shaw's course has been marveloualy consistent and courageous...
...The machinist trade to consequence has suffer ad so much in prestige and uncartatety of steady work that trade schools are ytgtmtm...
...Dole System In Coal Empire Hoover's Charity Program and Its Results Forecasted in the Barony of Coaland Steel Capitalism By Louis Stanley r[AT Hoover's scheme of fastening the responsibility for unemployment relief upon local communities will bring no substantial help to the distressed hard coal region is revealed by a survey of the territory completed by the writer...
...Metropolis after metro- ; polis has heaped itself against the i sky through processes of demoli- i Mon and reconstruction...
...himself...
...In the present writer's opinion there are few books which can be classed with it for a consistent exposition of modern socialist thought as distinguished frum the vague idftaliams and hopes of the centuries...
...It woud pay many people to have their wives or sweethearts reread "The Intelligent Woman's GuidePart 8 of the De Witt thesis: Socialism and the possession of wealth...
...They have developed a whole philosophy about not being I too generous in order not to spoil 9 the recipients of their bounty...
...The region ia covered with townships and boroughs...
...It is a change that it faut as significant as the first industriai revolution which shifted manufacture from the household and the small shop to the factory and, later, to the great plant...
...The'demands for exoneration grow...
...And, we have the ourse of the machine fallen heavily Indeed upon the vary ones who build aad use ft...
...I admit that both are'highly interesting and amusing...
...Since the end of the World War an industrial revolution has swept old methods into the discard...
...When I returned a few minutes later not a crumb was toft "You are out of work?'' I enquired...
...disqualify a needy family from receiving help...
...It is just such parties with such all inclusive philosophy that find themselves at checkmate when the opportunity for action comes to hand...
...Sentimentaliam, idealism, charity, etc., good or bed as they may be on their own merits are not synonymous with Socialism...
...Would you like to saw some wood...
...As a final touch: Shaw's attitude to Russia and his attitude to the Labor government It's not so hard to tackle one's ei.emies but how about attacking one's friends and work of many years past...
...In the first place, the poor boards have only functioned as an aid to widows, old people and families when the head of the family hai been sick or is awaiting compensation payment Frequently the possession of a home, even if it cannot be used for food, win...
...Economics mhnu the professional jargon and profundity...
...I did astia gested that be eoa» M shovel snow from oar B the next snowfall Htm me, tipped his hat eoarsfl wishing me good aditi into the dark icy wrst I I did not see him tata eral weeks and t a » on a zero afttrnooa snowing hard I loten soaked feet and m%mM he get warm first fitll no carfare so y bai al thought of the ratJM town through that ary.l snow...
...In fact a good deal easier...
...The weary voice over the wire was polite aad apologetic, "but we have one thousand mes iktfl tered...
...thought t w t j our dumb animili V jW be lost be would bt p**»J ; the streets by tht mE cue League, We an ""a , dumb iTilmrU to «tan* * of those yesrs of tofljj 1 camps, a hard U » 1 of it starvation wte«w sible...
...in surf eft, the machines were born...
...They dread further appeals for funds...
...He sat back in the chair and relaxed a moment in the warm kitchen...
...As the coal ta mined the valuation of the coal ta the ground decreases accordingly and, therefore, the towns and boroughs find that the valuation of the tassaste upon which they may levy from year to year diminishes, Nevertheless, the coal companies vigorously resist, the increase of the mileage to compensate for the lessened valuation, although the needs of the poor boards may increase...
...Does Shaw treat Showden, Mac Donald and the whole Labor Party with such gentleness as De Witt accuses him...
...It Is hut this sort of cloudy idealism which leads us to the creation of such amorphous massings as the Labor Party hi England and the Social-Democrats in Germany...
...Governor Pinchot of Pennsylvania has been r " * w <T a aurvey of the situation through the State Welfare Department and may recommend some form of material relief by the state...
...In the spring—I wondered...
...So near are we to the railroad tracks that I was already beginning on the familiar phrases with which I dispatched unwelcome mendicants when I was caught by the expression in his fadsfl blue eyes, aad the words died on my lips...
...Until the present depression hits the machine monster below its conveyor belt, that was the case...
...As the situation shapes itself now, we come upon a scene of insanity such as mankind has never witnessed before...
...Here was no ordinary beggar for the old man was decently dressed in very clean blue jeans and a shabby overcoat that had seen better days but was still presentable...
...There are three reasons for this...
...Industries all over the land have grown weak...
...The situation is the same in the social sciences and the natural sciences: In embryology the celebrated law of Haeckel tells us that the development of the individual embryo reproduces in miniature the various forms of development of the animal species which have preceded it m the zoological series...
...He deal there's nobody...
...There are very few cities...
...The coal companies do not contribute, while corporation officials are not particularly liberal...
...A little od...
...It would have been just the same thing if, before the French Revolution—which, as it were,* hatched out the bourgeois world, prepared and matured during the previous , evolution—the nobility and the clergy, the classes then in power,, had asked the representatives of the Third Estate—bourgeois by birth, though some aristocrats or priests embraced the cause of the ; bourgeoisie against the privileges of their caste,.as the Marquis i de Mirabeau nod the Abbe Si eyes—"But what sort of a world will this new world of yours be...
...chaos oat of tht tessi financiers, hunger aatl ness in the depths total on the middle stura sajl recklessness on tea, 3 But above thenars behemoth shadow et tol And a voice from taaka « I am the n i d t o H quickly as I can enanH I cannot think...
...The businessmen : have been finding it harder to i contribute as the un employ ment . situation has continued...
...Remember Shaw's years in the movement which eventuated in the present triumph of Mac Donald, Webb et aL Tet when their achard, clear-cut standard which he has always applied to the way of the world he is almost pitiless in his irony...
...What to do with the ever increasing portion of earnest, trained and willing workers that are being displaced into enforced idleness with every increased speed of the machine's creative gearing...
...Tm ail thinking for me...
...In Shamokin there are no philanthropic organizations at all, so that the miners have been compelled'to take the initi' stive in establishing a soup kitchen which manages to feed 1,500 persons a day...
...This ratio, to be fair, la tempered only by the change of money values which would lessen the difference between population and production Just a trifle...
...And even this average could be lowered considerably with applied economic planning...
...Besides, they have not the experience or...
...The ' usual sum, how e ter, ranges from she to ten douars per month...
...There was not enough tool aad die work requiring his experience with micrometer and index millingheads, with the dozens of different machines that mike op the usuai equipment of accepted machine shop practice...
...M "Haven't yea Iff M friends...
...They are Lenin's The Stats and Revolution, Marx and Engels* The Communist Manifesto, and Engels* Socialism, Utopian and Scientific...
...Shaw was not made a Socialist by poverty he has not been softened by wealth...
...He was not begging—he wanted work...
...Though the Taylor , miners have contributed in the . past to the Scranton-Dunmore . community chest they are now . finding it difficult to secure relief from that source...
...This is what can be and what must be the reply of every Socialist...
...The race began immediately after the temporary tun following toe war...
...And now the "Apple Cart" Here Shaw scores again—remember I am not engaged in a discussion of the drama per se...
...And surely so, if every able-bodied man and woman now employed in the multifarious and nefarious non-productive fields that capitalism cultivates for its parasitic purposes...
...The large owners of coal properties are in New York, Philadelphia and other metropolitan centers — Indiff?rent to what is happening In the, coal fields...
...Let as turn to an examination o f " T h e Intelligent Woman's Guide...
...He stood very straight and taU and looked me squarely in the eye...
...Oat of love for humanity and out of a fine desire to ease (Irndgttj...
...In a Capitalist system we are all smeared with, the same brush as we will be under Socialism...
...Campaigns in the hard coal fields to raise funds for charity depend for the most part upon the miners for support...
...The idea spread to the workers as well...
...He went hack to work and I bad a talk with the welfare agency...
...Lat os this fossilized and antiquated Shaw...
...We have workers and farmers starving and bankrupt because they have produced entirely too well and entirely too much...
...The existing community chests cannot cope with the situation...
...The men usually feel obliged — in many Instances they are practically compelled — to donate a shift or day's pay...
...Poverty alone never made a Socialist...
...And if it recovers its wind and capitalism survives that will be the situation we must face...
...but be hvas-en a tu** 1 is hard...
...The welfare workers and the poor directors are always careful to see ' that only "worthy" cases receive help...
...The Third Estate, the bourgeoisie, would not have been able to answer this question, because it was impossible for them to foresee what the human society of the nineteenth century was to be...
...If only they would give him a chance...
...But the biologist, by studying a human embryo of a. few days' or a few weeks' growth, cannot tell whether it will be male or female, and still less whether it will be a strong or a weak individual, phlegmatic or nervous, intelligent or not...
...Of course you had then, thirty years ago a population of some eighty-five million, whereas, today It rune considerably over one hundred and twenty million...
...The winter's been hard but when spring comes m find work ! again," he said confidently...
...Distribution and consumption alone present gargantuan tasks...
...Ul or utterly paralyzed from overexpanaion...
...I t is about time that Socialism was recognized to be distinct from ethics...
...But does all this detract from their worth as social criticism and analysis ? That people ao often assume that wit and wisdom, do not go together can only be due to their incapacity to enjoy o runderstand more than one of these at a time...
...Social workers and •sformer?, union agitators and radicals bothered him with petty laws, restrictions, strikes and threats of revolution...
...He can only tell the general lines of the future evolution of that individual, and must leave it to time to show the exact character of all the particular details of its personality, which, will be developed naturally* and spontaneously, in conformity with the hereditary organic conditions and the conditions of the environment in which it will live...
...It is importata that the working class should know what is transpiring and this series will help in throwing light on our changing American capitalism By Samuel A. De Wat T \ j O greater injustice exista on X^l earth today, than the curse that machinery has brought to mankind beings hare gone on and by through their successive generations bannered by a dream of life in which all drudgery would be banished, and la which the hoars of leisure would be lengthened for the cultural unfolding and flowering forth of the spiritual forces...
...Anyone can reread hia Shaw and And the same clear cut Socialist philosophy in his writings of the last 40 years...
...Trying not to show baste he began to eat the warm lunch and I mercifully left him alone...
...I vectored ' "There's my broths...
...This is now the position of I Socialism with relation to the bourgeois world...
...Hew drives to finance additional relief through community chests would not be looked upon with favor in the anthracite fields...
...Socialism and the Modern Sciences By Enrico Ferri (From "Socialism and Modern Science'') SCIENTIFIC SOCIALISM represents an advanced phase of Socialist thought...
...Trade unions, labor parliamentarians, democracy all feel his lash that is none the softer for all the laughter...
...If pal to demolish I do ttettf] fly, efficiently, attatjfl ever you direct an tota do it thoroughly Mieti Shall capitalism fmm lng lever ©n the list, t] down to the dea...
...settel ized life, or wfll aotolsl wrest control of tht aeaa from that ptake kisil the gears of lift ud tea in a sane, pisani, an tempo to ever Btneatagfi plenty for all saettai...
...Ever since Jimmy Watts un- ' loosed the genie of steam from the kettle, the most compiste revolution has taken placa The power of i a billion bodies and ten billion j horses has been developed without i the need of a live finger adding its i pressure o r a single tendon getting a strain...
...The anthracite region has already reached the limit of relief through private philanthropic agencies, meager as that relief has been...
...The anthracite coal industry of Pennsylvania employed 150,804 men in 1930 and produced in that year close to 62,000,000 gross tons worth about $806,000,000...
...It might be of*profit to muse upon them...
...Than he found himself displaced by cheaper help, men without any training at ail, yet who could quickly learn how to perform the standardised operation on epa heit or part by mechanical ant and «bolt tighteners aad electric screw drivers...
...The largest taxpayers In moat communities are the coal corporations who pay tax?e on their coal reserves...
...Help must come from the outside, from the state or the Federal governments...
...Even those 'who base their figures upon the so-called high standard of living among all classes of society, the consensus of judgment brings forth this astonishing surmise: That if we employed every mill, machine and mine, and every bit of our available power, mechanical and human, the workers in the land could produce everything necessary to an enlightened existence, by working fifteen hours each week...
...Unless I am mistaken, Shaw's last two work*- a r e "An Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism," and, "The Apple Cart...
...And speedier machin?e meant leas and lees of even these younger human tools, ' And then queer changea took place among the men of the shops...
...His blue eya?tsam I know of anvoDt «aia odd jobs...
...ant mmm whether wisely or atajfl until you hai: me...
...The "Apple Cart" does not desert the old tradition...
...Private Charity Inadequate...
...it is in perfect harmony with modern, experimental science, and it has completely abandoned the fantastic idea of prophesying, at the preaent time, when human society will be under the new collectivist organization...
...a bit of repairs, aad the |srk est ton motor puuey was all the machines asked of him...
...It la true that both are marked with keen wit and malicious irony...
...Tax payments in the hard coal region are everywhere far ta arrears...
...Machine Tools and Capitalist Production The BeheMth Sluiftow of the Machine Which Displaces Laher, Increases Production, and Which Prepares the Way far the Overthrow of a Fast Decaying Capitalist System THIS article is one of a serie j The New Leader is publishing which will survey the revolutionary changes thmt have occurred in various industries...
...Instead of warding off the dole system which Hoover declares unemployment Insurance will bring about, the minting arrangement of community relief through public and private charity will prove Itself more than ever the vicious dole system that it is...
...Nor is the end of this disparity m sight...
...Stupidity, cowardice, incapacity, bungling are still the same whether in the old parties or fca the Labor Government such as It is...
...In the Pittston district where severe un[ employment has been rife for I months, the community chest opI e rates on a shoe-string and there , is hardly any prospect of early . improvement There, after careful I investigation, a family in the dlrI eat of circumstances may finally . be awarded relief of two or two . and a half dollars a wvy?tb In . Taylor borough the abutting down t of |te only two collieries, owned I by the Glen Alden, has brought misery into the homes of five hunI dred families...
...He hated them every end of the 72-hour week, when be had to make up and pay oat the payroll...
...His face reddened when I asked him if he were hungry as if he were ashamed of the fact Inquiries elicited the fact that he had not eaten since the day before...
...wealth alone never destroyed one...
...They leaned that with more machines, aad with hardly any more rrtnwaaa on the...
...In Archbald and vicinity there exists the Mid-Valley community cheat completing Its fix?t year of activity, and finding it impossible to keep up with the demands made upon i t In the Carbondale region and as far north aa Forest city, where the last anthracite coal crops out there is not a single secular welfare society...
...Be that as it may, what signs of brain-softening do we find...
...Quite naturally then, this disproportion between manufacture and market leaves many knotty problems in immediate sight for solution...
...Tet this is what Shaw has done in the past few years...
...1 • This questi» tol aal America and to) serM ai •war soon, if ti et or are...
...One quarter of the minera have no work at all while most of the remainder work but a few days a week...
...Slower, older employes were discarded with the same heartless ness and replaced with J minger faster muscle and senses...
...Since then he had lived by pV> | r i»'g up a little • piece of work here and there and drifting hi to the Sahratton Army when he could 1 get nothing...
...A millionaire many times over can be a good socialist as easily as the humblest proletarian...
...In the third place, the coal companies, through county taxpayers' associations which they control, object to higher tax rates even if the aim is to help the unemployed whom they have created...
...So yon dkhv: like « •* vation Army...
...When sdentine Socialism can...
...If pan go on bufldinr...
...A Scranton newspaper baa taken up the cause of the unemployed miners but at the same time it has advised them to take a wage cut to Induce the company to resume operations...
...The poor districts have been operating on budgets suited to their historic narrow purposes...
...It's much more complicated than that The possession of stocks and bond, under the present regime is no more Inconsistent with Socialism than having money in the bank or working for J. P. Morgan...
...At the present time employment is ao poor that collections for charity would only add to the distress...
...The anthracite population is distinctly working class in character...
...Collieries have been completely shut down or placed on a negligible operating basis everywhere but particularly around Shamokin In the lower anthracite region, around Wilkes Barre, "the heart of the anthracite," hi the Pittston section, in Taylor, near Scranton, in Archbald...
...The owner* ef tatara I the opportunity af agi : shops, if their ttafi useful producaci arm with their shrewoasaJl for profits and tvstal wise they ar» «efesia and should be tassala and leas important ana prise...
...Out of a small plant and with tow workers, they saw profits coming in...
...On small pay It had been hard to save anything aad what little he had saved disappeared in a short time...
...Note," he said, "to* class of people then, MJ crooks and what an H of them kind, I tart • one of the IQtet of tbs* My dog lay «treina» fere the fire, hk aktfcj body relaxed and winaj lng meditatively st tal mumbled, "He"* got »e*i have...
...He was forced toto the Fordixed belt system tor an of tea skill and kartaleagt, to tighten bolts, or fit eat part a thousands times a day...
...The noise of the sawing went on steadily for an hour...
...And then comes the real question...
...The economic depression coming on top of the suffering caused by declining markets for hard coal and the displacement of workers by machinery has created a severe unemployment problem...
...Helping the unemployed becomes an impossibility for them because It ia an extra burden which they are not prepared to bear...
...There is only one way out of the entire sad mesa in which the owners find thamseliaa with too many Idle SBBBsaahj and the workers who are idle tor having built too much and too well...
...Any one who has done any amount of soap-boxing can tell you this...
...And It seems at the preaent writing that there hardly is any union tnfliiesrt perceptible la any aises his atom of toe land...
...Yea'm...
...payroll the profita grew la accelerated ratto...
...No magic i has been greater m all history...
...I ran of of fruit and paid tallii bora He smiled mmm cocked his bat «trattati shoulders in a self-eapefl ner...
...SM tor mysetf—aniittew ^ | He ptekadop went out to shovel **T^3 time there was « 2 * 1 his step...
...This is the position taken by Bebel in the German Reichstag in his reply to those who wish to know at the present time what all the details of the...
...They solve their problem by dodging the granting of relief to the unemployed except in the moat extreme cases of necessity and by giving material help to the very smallest quantities...
...It would repay digging up Shaw's speech to the L L P . about two years back...
...Indeed, the coal companies go further...
...Oat of hatred for living human beings who worked by hand to keep the •aster...
...Poor Boards Poor...
...A Beaten Man at the Bottom of the Head By Doris Kirkpatrick HE KNOCKED at my door one bitter day in January...
...Public meetings have been held and negotiations are being conducted to have the Scranton welfare organisation assume a larger burden of the relief...
...I thought to my self, perhaps he ia hungry and since he had already proved hia good intentions I set out a simple lunch on the kitchen table and called him from his Work...
...In the main they must rely for financ?e upon the miners, who are the very ones who need the financial help...
...the personnel to handle the flew problem satisfactory, in the second place, the taxpayers — and in the anthracite region, home ownership la quite prevalent—find it difficult enough to pay the existing taxes without being confronted with new levies...
...The Hoover administration has already declared itself for the continuation of -a do-nothing policy...
...And the only thing that can prevent an utter cataclysm is just a change in ownership, and a sensfbie use of an Inssnsibls mtihsiilsj.il The machine was originally bora in the hatred of the master far his human slaves...
...Nevertheless, starvation is widespread ia the anthracite region...
...Representatives of the taxpayers' associations that the coal companies operate, attend the meetings of the poor boards, check the audits and see that expenditures are kept down...
...Machines needed no humane laws to protect them, they protested at no length of hours, they needed no sunlight or air, vacations aad accident compena&tion insurance* They bad ao families to support, they asked for no aliare ia hm" profits...
...Engineers and production experts have made many Intensive researches and estimates on the subject of industry and its market...
...Forgetting that their dole la of toe most degrading kind they are often heard objecting to unemployment insurance benefits on the ground that they ara a dole, although Book bea etite are given to every unemployed worker aa a right Despite the Hoover pronouncements there is very little help that the anthracite miner can expect from intensified community effort The local private and public charities can do little...
...The relief given by the private charities and the poor boards takes the form of orders, usually for food alone, upon the neighborhood stores...
...Had it not been for the savings that the • minera accumulated during prosperous times they would long ago have reached the level of the soft coal diggers...
...The publicity agents for Hoover's scheme of avoiding responsibility for unemployment relief have made much ado over the cooperation of the community chests...
...A local emergency welfare organization has been unable to raise much money...
...He flexed'his muscles, be could still work, he was strong...
...Aad this aiiieailliiji out has been urged Into reality jjy the toted greed of the aaMjatoa owners...
...Iatem will continue to flourish...
...Philosophy and psychology without tenuous abstraction...
...Tee sir, he's «al than me.** I Yes...
...When one considers that the machine in this country alone pro- < duces more than seventy-five billion dollars of needful goods, grain and raw materials per amtam, while m 1890, a bare twenty bil- : lion dollars was the total output of the nation, you have an equation in acceleration which ia Interesting indeed...
...An assessment was made this year and fear la expressed that the companies wfll win again, cutting down their own tax?e and proportionately increasing those of the small home owners...
...He sat tetr?j tata toward the fire I "Have you had say kfl "Norn, there's noWmM old man to do now I f t j l like I'm not waster I looking at Ms stjau hands with a teak at Steal la his eyes...
...But strange and unnatural things have occurred...
Vol. 13 • August 1931 • No. 9
