Installment System Enslaves Whole Populations in the South
Ansell, Herman R.
Installment System Enslaves Whole Populations in the South Writer Tells How Workers Are Made Paupers and Beggars Even in "Good" Times. By Herman R. Ansell the present period of the depression...
...That process culminated in times of so-called prosperity—and more so now than ever—into a mad rush for installment purchases, which has brought the wage earner to a charge-account load of debt that stagger the imagination...
...Leaders are but the movement's figurehead, Their true importance rests upon the led...
...Credit buying has become one of the only moans of maintaining oneserf in any form of a commonly accepted standard of decent HWng...
...The Installment System I find that the worker does not purchase his clothing from one establishment, but due to the limited credit furnished by the average merchant he must have recourse to several...
...The fact that they must continue to contract new debts in order to maintain themselves upon the lowest means of subsistence spells the unhappy thought that either the old debts wil' be paid at the expense of the new, or the latter must be liquidated without the former being met...
...My contact with the workers in the North shows that though their earnings may be somewhat better than those of their brethren in the South, yet when their larger indulgence in the frivolities of life are discounted they eventually are no better placed than in that territory where labor is reputed to be conservative and more amenable to lower wages because labor organization is weak...
...Socialism ean only come about through agitation, education and organization...
...Now that a new occupant of the White House has been chosen, the next question to be decided is, "when do we eat...
...With a population of 188,000 Hie Wrong Party [President will be |>poB Roosevelt, » w times no man I for four years...
...He eautioned the employers that they must give more attention to protecting their workers When the so-called welfare plans of the employing class failed in prosperous times to abolish th* class struggle, what chance is there for these quack remedies In times of continued depression t Now h the Time to Cheer For A Great Battle Nobly Fought and Won By S. A. DeWitt On Reading Last Week's Column MOT only' they who stand before the crowd *~ As standard-hearers la oar noble causeThough fully versed in economic laws And rich in eloquence and lofty-browedDeserve our plaudits t we may well be proud Of the unknown whose tireless service draws No wide attention and no wild applausa— Whose very names are never beard aloud...
...What W* Naad What we need is a campaign enthusiasm from December to the following summer...
...Knoxville, Nashville and Chattanooga, Term...
...Distrscted Families The situation becomes critical...
...If we have gained that alone it were worth more than two million protest votes under the Arm and Torch...
...i We must step down from the rostrum now, Into the disi trict rooms and halls, And if we put In half the energy • there that we havs expended In the last wonderful campaign I our vote and our Influence will triple and quadruple with Increasing ease as the days go on...
...The unfortunate victim has either to resort to bankruptcy, which he often does, or he is compelled to escape his creditors by moving from one end of the city to the other...
...Thinking of Jack Garner—I'm no warm admirer of Roosevelt, but I hope the new President enjoys excellent health during the next four years...
...They are paupers without the stigma being placed upon them by constituted authorities...
...The debts accumulate rapidly, the payments mature and the victim, unable to meet the demands, is subjected to the harassing penalties of his creditors...
...For me, there is distinct delusion and snare in such a truism...
...Our work is just about begun...
...If that is not forthcoming, resort Is had to replevin...
...From the corner grocery he buys food for his family on the same plan of future promises to pay...
...The big job we have to do Is the lining up of the workers in unions and out toward a full understanding of our philosophy...
...In the course of such study the facts at hand show that if the average worker in the cities of the South, as elsewhere in the country, were to refrain from contracting new debts, would stop maintaining their families or working for current necessities of life, they would have to work for the next two yeare at their present rate of earnings to liquidate debts contracted in the course of the paaj few years...
...A Nation of Slaves I have come to the sad conclusion that the masses are enthralled in poverty that is little short of slavery...
...H* ventures so far as to use pseudonyms to evade his nemesis...
...This election has been nothing more than a bit of prospecting in the hills...
...Yet, 1 do not know of a single study that has been made by social agencies to the extent where we are able to secure a thorough picture of the poverty that prevails among those who are more fortunate as to have jobs or such farmers whose farjns have not yet been foreclosed...
...He was genuinely concerned about things with me personally, and for the nones was more the friend and less the comrade...
...The American people also elected a vice-president, but don't censure them too severely for that...
...Charitable organisations are unable to sops with the stupendous demands I far financial assistance and food aas the municipalities render aid of the most meager type...
...Greensboro and Charlotte, North Carolina...
...Either we believe in our dream, or we are just idle poseurs in an empty scene...
...By Herman R. Ansell the present period of the depression that is submerging this country, we can readily appreciate that over 12,000,000 men and women who are jobless and their 24,000,000 dependents are not only without the full necessities of life, but their future appears dark and dreary...
...That of recruiting into the party the hundreds of thousands who have listened and become fired with our message...
...they who silently Build up the party, working day and night, Inspired by hope of what is yet to be...
...Yet, even in the highest moments of our drsmatic meetings, when red flags waved and youth sang so fervently, and words of prophecy thundered forth with resonance and truth, always I saw before my eyes the little meeting halls in assembly districts, the business meet! lngs, the committeemen and women, the application cards, the houses of enrolled voters, the nights of pereuation for . these to join, and all these undramatic scenes of Socialist i work...
...How we shall - do that work is the first thing to be tackled by our educational program...
...One creditor after another is constantly securing judgments and executing them upon his bare earnings...
...and it is becoming the fashion to rent homes, not by the' month but by the week...
...His shoes, his eyeglasses, his underwear are purchased on credit...
...Little has been said or written of the cave-dwellers who reside in our American cities...
...Eventually he is discovered end the creditors are upon him once more, demanding the dollars of his meager earnings...
...And though wo are always going forth to battle, and always falling, we are really perfecting our means for becoming more lucid and more effective for our high purposes...
...If the clothing can be sold second-hand it is •recovered and the poor, unfortunate worker is left destitute...
...In Richmond I have had occasion in the course of the past sixteen years to observe these economic phenomena...
...R C What W* Have Gained We are all a bit too tired to be as happy as we should be about the remarkable campaign wo have waged against the battalions of fear, and the splendid increase in our vote throughout the lend...
...The worker's home consists of furniture purchased on credit, as well as radio, automobile, clothing, medical and dental services...
...On September 27, before the Life Office Management Association, Professor Balderston of the University of Pennsylvania, declared that employes' stock ownership has failed to build up the mor le of the employes...
...What obtains to the southern cities can be found everywhere in the United States...
...For it is they who constitute the might Of Labor's army...
...Speakers we have aplenty now for that task, and writers galore...
...Atlanta, Ga...
...The workers in the South are tubtie ting on five hundred dollars lest than the commonly accepted lowest standard of living...
...Running a campaign on shoestrings, draining our almost empty pocketbooks of the few penes remaining, and giving of our lives as we have all given this year of all years, have served to bring back into our ranks the old Are of self-sacrifice and idealism that was so tragically lacking during the apathetic years of prosperity...
...Enough young men and women have joined our ranks now to help in the distributing of literature, and organising factory and shop meetings...
...Without them we shall bo going about the business of laying out and picturing a house and garden without any of the occupants we expect to live there, willing to even hear about it, The Road to Success It was sn old comrade and friend who said to me last month before he left for the South that I ought not devote so much of my time and energy for the cause, at the obvious cost to my material welfare...
...In one store he purchases a suit'for himself, In another he will buy a coat for his wife, and in the third he will secure clothing for his children...
...The result is that practically all wage earners, whether heads of families or still enjoying single-blessedness, whether man or woman, must buy food, clothing and even shelter on the installment plan...
...Families are scattered and broken, breadwinners hopelessly forsake their home, mothers and children become separated and become objects of charity...
...I have had an excellent oppor-' tunity of studying the condition of the workers in the principal cities of the South, such as Richmond, Roanoke and Danville, Va...
...A statistical analysis of 20 stock-purchase plans has just been msde by Helen Baker of Princeton University...
...Waiting for Socialism to come anyway is an easy way out for hopeless, or too-tired folks...
...With distracted minds, undernourished bodies susceptible to illness, their unenviable positions are that of tormented beasts of burden...
...P. H. Stock Ownership Plans In Decline Before the present panic the purchase of stock by the employes of a company was advertised far and wide as a means of solving the labor problem and of making all workers capitalists...
...The average breadwinner of a family in the South is reputed to earn about $700 per year, the best figures obtainable...
...President give us 1 it be cabinet W Roosevelt bed a change, I ¦members when ttot the people k » » won his first l! came, it is to 'w go in for ^ on a grand Kit that Melvln 'Y«ung end Al Welt's cabinet...
...We are finding precious stuff along the way...
...We read a good deal of the unfortunate circumstances of our coal miners and steel workers, their exploitation by the mine owners and operators and the steel companies...
...The cases are heart-rending and require the brush of an artist to depict their plight...
...this help and self-sacrifice will avail us little enough if we do not convince the workers themselves that what we plan and dream about is meant for their freedom and happiness...
...Merchants have arrived at the stubborn conclusion that if they wish to remain in business they must sell their wares on the installment plan with the consequent higher prices attached thereto...
...In all the states of the South, with slight variations, the creditors have recourse to garnishment laws...
...The law compelled them to do it...
...Their children are dwarfed in body and mind...
...Out of an organization of thousands of workers who are members of the party, and who are imbued with the crusading spirit for the cause, we can build Into the sun...
...I came in contact with over 22,000 members of the working class, and with proportionate numbers in other cities...
...Socialism is coming anyway," he said, "and capitalism is hastening that day...
...As a result of the depression, five of the plans have been discontinued...
...From the statistics gathered, the average head of family should have a minimum income of $1,200 per annum...
...The furniture Is repossessed...
...t* move he'll \ the left than to m sew stands...
...Birmingham, Ala., and New Orleans, La., and involving thousands of individuals in each city where my business brought me in contact with them...
...Undramatic Scenes As I re-read these paragraphs I realise how sombre and sermonizing they sound...
...Kowevelt should *¦*' Hoover and • back Into the • t NW disappointed JJ*a didn't get *• *s«y parlor ••JJ^Wsjo against IP's */ striking • * know that the |%i American Oar Job P* anderstand ¦* right change...
...We are now on the right track toward the big strike...
...Two of the companies have not paid divide da for two or more years, one stopped paying in 1981, and four others passed their dividends in 1932...
...And while we welcome the fine co-operation we bars received from the middle class converts and Intellectuals, and while we realise how necessary an articulate and intelligent leadership is in the great struggle, all...
...Bankrupt The workers are bankrupt...
...And if we believe, nothing is too distracting, no comfort is too alluring, and no respite is so tempting as to deter us even for S moment from our work for realisation...
...That's the kind of work they like to do...
...And so we come to our main task ahead...
...All around us, in every village and town, young folks and older ones are waiting to be signed up and put to work...
...How often, in days of disappointment, are we tempted to fall back on just such "sensible" conclusions...
Vol. 14 • November 1932 • No. 20
