Socialism Marches On in The Vanguard of Progress
Matthew, J. B.
By J. B. Matthews Socialism Marches On in The Vanguard of Progress REPUBLICAN campaign orators are declaring their intention of returning Hoover to the White House with the slogan, "He kept...
...Almost with the inception of the Republic, the courts have usurped the powers of legislation...
...The worst of our social iniquities are embedded in legality...
...The program of capitalism, whether under its Republican or Democratic administration, is to feed the parasites that have already reduced the workers to a condition of pernicious anaemia...
...The peace movement of the world it the Socialist movement...
...The relatively small sums which they steal from each other are trivial in comparison to the wealth which they have stolen from the working masses under transactions that are strictly legal...
...No issue of the present campaign transcends this one in urgency...
...The big fellow, I am told, is very thick with your candidate for national honors, Norman Thomas, and it seems probable that if the latter is elected he will take Broun, the railsplitter, to Washington with him to occupy some comfortable berth in the cabinet...
...Reformism Versus Revolution Liberals become agitated and morally indignant over the irregularities of New York's ex-playboy mayor or America's ex-utilityemperor...
...Can there be any confidence or faith in our courts when lawyers with hat in hand ask ward heelers and Tammany leaders for a place upon the bench...
...Judges should have vision and opinions and beyond and above that, a desire and the courage to express them...
...Throwing out the last sentence for reasons of policy, I sm moved to ask in turn: v---1 "What am I doing when I vote for Hoover or Roosevelt...
...As a citizen of New York I feel that Broun's place is in Washington, and I would V willing to cast three or four votes and any number of aspersions to get him there...
...Battened Parasites There has grown up in capitalist society a dominant group of functionless owners who hang like battened parasites upon the body of workers—skilled, unskilled, technical and managerial, whose toil alone is necessary to our machine civilisation...
...The choice which confronts us is whether we shall deliberately and intelligently direct that change toward a more just and brotherly community, or whether we shall let the policy of drift plunge us into catastrophic changes the destructivenesa of which we can scarcely estimate...
...In times like these it is tragedy of the first magnitude to pitch a political struggle on a plane of such triviality...
...Surely, the Judge should at least have opinions as to the administration of the courts if which he is a part...
...In a sense, they are the final arbiters as to what the law is...
...Decisions of judges become the law of the land by default...
...He parried this thrust with a gag from one of the Old Music Box Revues, and left me composing this campaign plea, which should stir up no little discussion around White's drug store in East .Hampton...
...Dean Gildersleeve ti Harvard College presided...
...This calls for a revolutionary change in our system...
...As the candidate of the Socialist w -¦' Party for Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, I shall regard it as my duty, if elected, to interpret law in the light of and in response to changed economic and political conditions...
...THE powers of our courts are beyond reach...
...Judges are lawmakers...
...The Socialist Party presents such political and economic realities to the American voters...
...He was the only speaker so received...
...This is supposed to be a convincing argument for giving doles to bankers instead of federal relief to workers...
...Capitalism, with its racketeering and gangsterism, has reduced millions to a state of despair about Democracy...
...This is clearly reminiscent of the campaign of 1916, and can be made to sound much more like the famous Wilson slogan without changing its essential meaning...
...War Versus Peace Capitalism and War are the twin scourges of modern man...
...Until you are ready to hand me my piece of America, I remain, Without rancor, Ring Lardner...
...It is not the little excursions of the Insults into criminality which calls Socialists to battle, but their normal operations which have the full protection and sanction of the law...
...Property Income Versus Work Income Every measure of the Hoover administration has been designed to protect the interests of those who derive their income from property and investment...
...who would have the courage to embark upon the development of the law so that it shall not lag behind and hinder the development of society, but blaze the path for development...
...Cynicism Versus Hope The widespread cynicism over man's political capacity to govern himself is not the least peril confronting the American electorate...
...Of course any student of the social sciences knows that human communities have existed and will exist in the future without benefit of capitalist sanction and theory...
...but as the authors of one of these plans wistfully remarked a few days ago, they cannot And any capitalists to take the proposed exits to salvation...
...By J. B. Matthews Socialism Marches On in The Vanguard of Progress REPUBLICAN campaign orators are declaring their intention of returning Hoover to the White House with the slogan, "He kept us on the gold standard...
...Who do you like in the fifth at Empire City...
...His attitude is shared by many...
...This, you understand, is strictly between myself and the Socialist National Campaign committee Under no circumstances would I care to have such old golfing buddies as John McCooey and Everett Sanders know that I am planning to knife them at the polls, The other day my doctor, while strapping me to a bed, pointed out that if Mr...
...It is enough if you know the district leader...
...Capitalism as the breeder of war has a definite priority in the cursed combination...
...Candidates and Platforms of Old Parties Are Satisfactory to National City Bank Crowd (From The Nciv York Times, November 2) 'jpilic most notable aspect of the current political campaign is the endorsement by both candidates and party platforms of principles of economy and sound money, the National City Bank declares in its monthly bulletin...
...He is a good lawyer...
...Hoover and Mr...
...It can be done within the framework of our Constitution...
...when it is given to them only because of shady services to a political party...
...Socialists do not aim at the reformation or even the apprehension of the crooks so much as they intend to put an end to their "virtuous" acquisitions...
...I have the impressive figure of Heywood Broun in mind when I say this...
...I have heard Republican orators defend the administration measures by an analogy of the human body...
...Socialism is a scientific proposition, based on controlled social change in desired directions...
...It does not follow that whatever is done for the more powerful of these groups it Nothing Matters Nowadays Except the Progress of Socialism — For Peace, Plenty, Happiness — Vote It Straight...
...It was of course intended to reassure the present rulers of our society that the man who is about to ride a great wave of misdirected anger into the White House will do nothing to jeopardize their vested interests and privileged status...
...Capitalism is somewhat less necessary to human society than is the digestive tract to the human organism...
...If, however, the Republicans must have a slogan why not devise one reminiscent of the campaign of 1928, since our political memories are pretty shortlived in this country, and say, "Two chickens in every garage, and the car has gone to pot...
...The times cry to high heaven for real issues and real cleavages in American politics...
...The present is intolerable...
...when it is common knowledge that political leaders influence decisions of the courts...
...Democrats and Republicans are ranged together on one side of this issue and Socialists stand on the other side...
...While war clouds gather ominously, the only substantial hope for peace lies in the advance of Socialism...
...it it a ttate of tension between conflicting groupt whose interests are in irreconcilable antagonism...
...Their comments are not printable, but the gist is ss follows: "Your are just wasting your vote, kid...
...What the country needs from both parties, it continues, is determination to preserve Bound principles in public finance...
...SOLOMON CHEERED AT BARNARD Charles Solomon, Socialist candidate for United States Senator, carried the day, speaking at Barnard College in a political symposium in which Senator Byrnes represented the Democrats and Judge Genung the Republicans...
...There is no human value or ideal which is outraged more by War than by Capitalism...
...Can we wonder at the loss of confidence and faith when it is charged that political leaders receive tremendous sums of money for designations to the bench, the amount depending upon the salary that the Judge may receive...
...In his opening speech seeking the nomination he declared: "The American system of economics and government is everlasting...
...There is an old saying, "Never mind knowing the law...
...they ask...
...The most menacing thing in our country is the loss of confidence and faith in courts and judges...
...Nothing could be clearer than the Socialist contention that the two old parties are essentially one and that no important issue divides them except the issue of office holding—turning the ins out and putting the outs in...
...They remind us that when the body requires food we do not inject nourishment into the separate cells of the human anatomy, but send it out through the central digestive and circulatory organs...
...Or when the Chairman of the Legislative Investigating Committee barters with the organization that he has been sent to investigate, for a place on the Supreme Court bench...
...Thomas is elected Mr...
...Laws which are beneficial, for in-' stance, like the Child Labor Law, are declared unconstitutional...
...Judge Pound, when he was asked whether women should serve aa jurors on equal terms with men, said in substance, that he cannot visualize and therefore has no opinion, as to future social changes, however, he hopes that if the law is passed that it might work out...
...There is a big demand for comedians, and both those boys will be able to land swell jobs on the radio...
...The right to income from property versus the right to subsistence from useful toil is one of the burning issues that marks a growing class-consciousness in this country...
...The first issue of this campaign is the protection of the interests of a group of functionless owners in our society versus their speedy liquidation by transferring the ownership and control of all important economic resources to the working class...
...Know the Judge...
...Don't worry, doctor," I replied, recognizing him without difficulty...
...Change lies in the very nature of our contemporary society...
...Now it is no longer necessary to know the Judge...
...passed along in some blood stream for the sustenance of the weaker group...
...But the parties are alike, the bank says, in recognizing the importance of balancing the budgets, and there is no agitation of the money question among the leaders of chief influence within either party...
...Our society ia not a biological organitm...
...By Jacob Panken The Power of Our Courts From the Madison Square Garden Speech of the Socialist Candidate for Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals...
...My ^ponent, Judge Pound, Is a very • ..e old gentleman...
...Catastrophe Versus Controlled Revolutionary Change The Democratic candidate has done his best to convince the American people that he is quite as safe for capitalism as his Republican rival...
...I am aware of the fact that numerous college professors in their academic isolation are devising plans for a capitalist way out...
...It can be done within the law...
...Ring Lardner Explaining Why He Will Vote Socialist On November the 8th my vote,' as such, is liable to be cast for the Socialist candidates for president and vice-president...
...While the campaign speeches have raked over the history of the depression and the record of each party in a manner sometimes disturbing and tending to obscure the important fact that both parties have taken the conservative side of the major issues, there is no basis for prejudgment, or anxiety, the bank says...
...What's the use...
...Can there be faith and confidence in our courts when Judges' chambers are crowded with district leaders bringing contracts for the judges to perform...
...But if It cannot I would deem It my duty to direct the attention of the community and the lawmaking bodies to meet the new conditions and to call for amendments to the Constitution, so that the Constitution may be applicable to conditions as they arise rather than to those of 1787...
...It assumes that capitalism is, like the human body, the product of natural biological evolution —a highly coordinated organism...
...I shsll deprive myself of the pleasure of attending the polls on November 8th," announces a famous dramatic critic with an unconcealed sneer in the direction of Democracy...
...Why not make it, "He kept us out of work...
...Roosevelt will be out of a job...
...My friends reel back in amazement when I tell them, after a certain amount of preliminary fencing, that I am going to vote the Socialist ticket...
...The only possible way to overcome that is by amendment of the Constitution or, in the States, by referendum—both well-night impossible...
...But it does seem to me that we need men on the Court of Appeals bench who have courage and who are still young—at least in spirit—and are responsive to the changes in the social structure and relationship, and who have the will to meet conditions...
...Can we blame the people for having lost faith...
...These policies have had the effect of continuing the distress of unemployment...
...The bank admits there are honest differences of opinion as to the ability or resolution with which one party or the other will carry out this program, and these differences are exaggerated by partisan feeling and they promote uncertainty...
...In the past this performance may have provided the great American sporting public with quadrennial entertainment...
...A gathering revolt against the degradation of Democracy, expressing itself in millions of Socialist ballots, is the only immediate promise of health in a stricken nation...
...The argument rests upon a fallacy which ought to be quite evident...
...The peace party of America is the Socialist Party...
...That is the language of religion, not the language of the social sciences which recognise* the changing nature of our institutions...
...who would not feel themselves bound by a precedents which have been laid dowh a hundred or two hundred years ago under entirely different conditions...
...The central element in such a program, it is held, must be the balancing of budgets through reduction of expenditures...
...When Solomon concluded his remarks as the last speaker, the audience of students in the college assembly broke into loud and prolonged applause which continued until Solomon came forward and took several bows...
...Can we, when the state chairman of the Republican party publicly confessea that he endorsed a gentleman for high judicial office as a member of the Supreme Court because he Is a friend of his father...
...Few efforts are more pitiful in their futility than the attempts of well-meaning people to harness Mars while they let Capitalism gallop madly over the prostrate forms of so many millions of destitute workers...
Vol. 14 • November 1932 • No. 19
