How Not to Reorganize City Government
How Not to Recorganize City Government Wale man Say* Ex-Governor Used Sound Proposals, Long' Advocated by Socialists, to Carry Vicious Plana. DEORQANIZAl ION of the government of the greatest...
...of making the kind* hearted workers pay the cost of the depression...
...Is there any relation between that fact and the fact that in one case judges are elected for a definite trm and likely to seek re-eiection while in the other case the judge are appointd for life...
...It is the inevitable product of a definite stage in the development of society, the corrolary of the rise to social and economic ascendency of a particular class...
...Like King Charles' head, it will appear In most unexpected places...
...But the olan toes further: it proposes that—'All judges of the higher courts, instead of being elected, be appointed by the Governor, and be appointed for life...
...In reply to the argument concerning the "moronosity" of the population, Charles Solomon used a quotation from Dr...
...Special Sessions and the Childrens' Court should be similarly appointed by the Mayor.' "And they are to be appointed for life...
...Socialist Reflected Mayor in Alberta EDMONTON, Alberta.—D...
...Labod won five members on the city council, giving it a majority, and one member on the school board...
...He can get away with more than anybody else I know...
...The time has come for proportional representation, and Smith apparently does not know it...
...A democratic scheme of institutions arose in America in response to the needs of a simple agrarian world...
...5. The abandonment of the fivecent fare on the subways...
...Those who know whst a crime against justice has been committed are just beginning to fight...
...icfinifion of democracy as majority rule was totally inadequate, and that democracy, as Charles A. Beard put it, was "an intricate collection of realities, slowly evolvod with the development of freehold agriculture, commerce, machinery and science facilitated, no doubt, by the agitation of idealists, yet moving relentlessly forward as modern economy triumphs over feudalism...
...nW" Keep the date open...
...This was the new revolutionary class, challenging the supremacy of the socially parasitic capitalist class...
...And if this is true, then to argue that democracy is a success or failure is futile, inaccurate, unscientific, and Utopian...
...Like Banquo's ghost, the Mooney case will not down...
...K. Knott, Independent Labor Party mayor of this city, was re-elected by a vote of 18,682 to 7,248...
...And even if a slight subsidy were necessary to maintain the five cent fare in a properly unified system with stockholders eliminated, there is still no reason why we should inciease fare...
...There are certain services which should be rendered entirelyfree or at nominal costs to the c o m m u n i t y," said Waldman, "Bridges and ferries are a good illustration...
...The introduction of modern democracy was the crossing of one such barrier...
...All we know of as civilization has been achieved by this same race of men inferior according to eugenic standards...
...Hence to claim that we could not, if we had sound ideas, create a rational social system and intelligently exploit our great scientific knowledge, is sheer nonsense...
...The influence of the political machine over many magistrates was directly traceable to the mode of their selection, their appointment by the Mayor, and their anxiety for advancement which lay la the hands of district leaders and county bosses...
...The evils in the so-called Smith plan, so widely acclaimed as though they marked a -new era Uv,flublic law, are summarized by Waldman as follows: ' 1. A Municipal Legislative body of two chambers...
...2. Judges in inferior courts and Magistrates to be appointed for life...
...Solomon also emphasised the fact that if Dr...
...despatch from Sacramento...
...Barnes might answer Dr...
...There is nothing further to do in thm ease...
...Barnes had taken a more virile stand in his support of M»r man Thomas, he might have lets occasion to scold those many morons who failed to vets for the Socialist ticket...
...From ths Socialist point of view the Smith plant makes no substantial contribution to the solution of our municipal problems...
...What we need right now is sane education, not eugenics...
...Among the Scandals revealed by Judge Seabury even before the creation of the Hofstadter Committee, were those existing in the inferior Criminal Courts...
...Ex-Governor Smith," said Waldman, "is one of the luckiest men in the country...
...Miss Frances Perkins, New York Stste Industrial Commissioner...
...Barnes...
...DEORQANIZAl ION of the government of the greatest city in the country, in the form proposed by Alfred E. Smith in a statement before the Seabury Committee, would embody evils far outbalancing the possible good he proposed, according to Louis Waldman, State Chairman of the Socialist Party, in a radio address before Station WLVD immediately after Smith made his proposals...
...Rolph thinks the case is closed...
...As examples of democracy's inadequacies...
...How Not to Recorganize City Government Wale man Say* Ex-Governor Used Sound Proposals, Long' Advocated by Socialists, to Carry Vicious Plana...
...The legislature of two chambers for the city, advocated by Smith, Waldman says, is a peculiarly evil proposal...
...Tom Mooney has been in jail more than sixteen years...
...Epstein told the conference that unemployment is a definitely logical product of our economic system, and that social insurance is sound because it makes the widest possible distribution of the burden - of unemployment...
...The crop of resigned and removed magistrates bears testimony to those scandals...
...Toll Bridges The suggestion that aatomobiles pay tolls on bridges, and that all services pay for themselves directly, Waldman says, embodies a vidous principle...
...The city pays for services to the city, and on that principle the five cent fare should not be touched...
...Tenure of Judges Speaking of the proposal for the appointment of judges for life Waldman said: "Mr...
...at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Sunday night, December 4. _ Dr...
...In the first place, the tendency these days is against a Senate or second chamber, as a useless appendix to the machinery of government...
...Barnes...
...Free and easier access to the various boroughs should he encouraged rather than discouraged...
...The enormous growth of our city, the increase and rise in real estate values, from whichon i city derives its income, Is due in part to the building and maintenance of these bridges...
...It is clear to all that the building of the vast network of subways in our city Is partly responsible for the huge increase in real estate values, which has in turn increased By Gus Tyler Solomon Upholds Democracy In Debate with Barnes pHAKLES SOLOMON, Socialist debater, met Harry Elmer Barnes, noted liberal writer, in debate on the question, "Is Democracy a Failure...
...Mind you, the proposals brought forth before the Hofstadter Legislative Committee ought to bear some relation to the evils exposed ' in the investigation which has been carried on the last two years, and other existing evils which are common knowledge...
...Smith 'would also provide by Constitution that all Judges in the inferior courts, including the Magistrates and Municipal Court judges, now elected, should be appointed...
...Therefore, it has failed and must fail in a mod ern world...
...Modern democracy is affiliated with the schools, the press, the right of free speech, and the organization of trade unions...
...Barnes pointed to the fact that none of the worthwhile presidents of the United States since Lincoln, such as Cleveland, Roosevelt, and Wilson, had been elected by a majority...
...THE CASE IS CLOSED GOVERNOR James Rolph, Jr., of California, is through with the troublesome Mooney case, according to an A.P...
...He also emphasized the stupidity of the voter by reference to the, fact that orman Thomas received so small a vote...
...But he's wrong...
...Epstein to Draft Bill For Jobless Insurance WASHINGTON.—Abraham Epstein, executive secretary of the American Association for Old-Age Security, was designated by the executive committee of the Joint Committee on Unemployment, at its national conference in Washington, Dec...
...Democracy, he maintained, was founded on the belief that all men were really equal, that men were possessed of a quaint moral intuition, that the polls would be crowded on Election Day, that campaigns would be run on real issues...
...Barnes maintained tnai democracy had not lived up to its expectations and wa< based on faulty assumptions...
...The Ninth Annual Dinner of TUB NEW LEADER will be held Friday evening, February 10, 1»33...
...Injunctions "It has been asserted by organized labor and students of the labor problem that the worst injunctions in labor disputes have been granted in the federal courts where the judges are appointed for life.* If an employer engaged in a struggle against organized labor has a choice of applying for an injunction in a State Court or in a Federal Court, he prefers the Federal judge...
...All these have proven fallacious...
...Solomon then explained the historical evolution of modern democracy in terms of the needs of the rising bourgeoisie In its challenge to the then existent fudal aristocracy...
...But in a modern world, with its complicated problems, the masses could not be expected to solve the problems with intelligence...
...the general revenue of the city...
...Judge Meyer 8telnbriak presided...
...Jimmie Rolph may lay flattering unction to his soul that hs has disposed of a troublesome questjori, and that now he can go on smiling from one end of the state to the other...
...The use of it to win economic democracy would be another step on the road to freedom...
...The share the work plan is jast a way...
...He denounced as very dangerous the so-called unemployment reserves plan, which he described as another welfare scheme of employers...
...It is not altogether unjust, therefore, that part of this revenue should be allocated to ths cost of financing the subway systems...
...Having conferred with Judge Matt I. Sullivan, on the basis of whose report he made his bizarre decision last Spring, Rolph said, "I agree with the report of Sullivan of April 21st, and also the answer to the letter to him by the fifteen signers...
...X The proposal that no public service be run at less than cost of the service...
...In its battle for a new order, the working class found in the Institution of democracy, which the bourgeoisie had used to fell the feudal aristocracy, a weapon which it could turn against the bourgeoisie Itself...
...Solomon, in a brilliant reply, pointed out that a political system was not like a suit of clothes, which could be donned, examined, and discarded if found faulty Solomon argued that Dr...
...This was especially true since modern psychology has taught us that sixty per cent of the people are dull, sub-normal, or morons...
...He then pointed out that to term democracy a failure or a success was meaningless...
...So that's that—as far as Rolph is concerned...
...Lucky Smith...
...Schools are not run to make a profit, and bridges, streets, the water supply do not expect to break even...
...Barnes himself in order that Dr...
...And both houses, according to the Smith plan, are to be elected by districts thus fastening the grip of Tammany Hall even more strongly upon the city...
...In other words, it closes the Mooney case as far as I am concerned...
...But the case is not closed—ss far as Tom Mooney and Warren Billings aro concerned...
...Mankind has many barriers to hurdle on its way to freedom...
...It was then shown how a new economic class was being developed in our modern world, the proletariat, the working class...
...He is 100 per cent wrong...
...Hs reiterated that "democracy is not an Invention, not an ingenious device, not a social medicine, prescribed in one form or another for the ills of society...
...But with the necessary reform of eliminating the thousands of Useless and duplicating offices he likewise made suggestions that, Waldman says, constitute a real menace to the working people...
...It is perfectly obvious that the building of the bridges in our city facilitated the development of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx...
...Barnes when, flndi'" fault with the possibility of d ratic action, at the same time i.cively working in the League for Independent Political Action...
...8, to draft a federal unemployment insurance bill to be introduced In Congress this winter...
...Smith advocated elimination or County and borough governments, and consolidation of overlapping bureaus and departments, administrative reforms long advocated by the Socialist party as a means of cutting out the graft of putting political hacks on the payroll, and for that he received great acclaim as if no one had ever thought of these reforms until he took his seat beofre Judge Seabury...
...It cannot be under-' stood in any other way...
...Democracy was a necessary concomitant of the machine age, since ths machine owners, the capitalist class, were the social carriers of democracy...
...Solomon also pointed out a grave Inconsistency in the actions of Dr...
...And not as far as a lot of other people ars concerned...
...He estimated that 13 cents per day per person is the average unemployment relief new paid from public and private charity funds in the United States...
...4. To charge automobiles tolls for crossing bridges...
...We have advanced from the cave to the Empire State Building with all our defects...
Vol. 14 • December 1932 • No. 24
