A BOWL OF SOUP
Ward, William Allen
The World We Lire In A Socialist View of the Week A BOWL OF SOUP By William Allen Ward A BOWL if soup at eventide Hungry men have often cried; "Give us this day our daily bread" Preachers...
...No Socialist was surprised at the character of fhe conference...
...Moreover, it has possibilities of future good...
...A Socialist primer on economics would help him to think straight...
...His interpreter declared that down to the CIvO War agriculturists had dominated the government...
...These statements indicate his confusei...
...Ia the la«rt several years iU facilities have been overtaxed in meeting the enormous demands ef stadents...
...Payrolls also dropped to a new Ion level in manufacturing in March an i employment in March "showed sharp losses" compared with the low volume of March, 1932...
...The basic principle was also applied in this group...
...Farmers and railroad workers could not break their ties with the "progressives," but in the eight years since the decision not to organize our political power the whole working class has slowly sunk to the lowest level of privation in our history...
...For many years there has been a labor policy of pleading with "management" of industry to consider union labor as a good investment by the employing class...
...It all depends upon the judgment of the continustion committee' whether many of the elements represented st the conference are eventually anited in some coalition that will serve the working clsss...
...All indications are that Hitler's capitalist allies in the Cabinet will also soon walk the plank...
...Swope's feudal plants long ago abolished organizations of the workers and he talks of "service to the community" as the first consideration of his giant sweatshops...
...Nine years ago the railroad workers, farmers...
...The Continental Congress P<>K the first time since 1124 a. national conference ¦ ef farmers...
...This is certainly a poor reward...
...The Nasi" religion proves to be a compromise by which the various Protestant sects will retain their identities...
...Farmer prisoners involved in the foreclosure war will soon go to trial, the number held in military prisons being 147...
...In fact, Dan Hoan as chairman, at one stsge of the proceedings, did the conference a service by his tactful hsndling of just such a crucial situation...
...On Wednesday the Fascists burnt "un-German" books throughout the ns-tion and confiscated all the funds of the Social Democratic Party and 135 party papers, including the Berlin Voncarts...
...Socialists can help every class war fight by printing their own literature, issuing their own publicity and holding their own meetings without contributing to these "mass organizations" of the Communists...
...In fact, some of the delegates from the West showed an ugly mood, an eagerness to "start something," although not clear as to what they wanted to start...
...Daily Worker, please copy...
...This is the real state of the republic in the third month ef the New Desk With inflation am Me «#—«U the nark, tng elate faee eftJB ssere hmdtkitg esses *e**ctou«»««* it al the more necessary...
...To this -may be added wage cuts in 13 groups listed by the V. S. Department ji Labor...
...thought in economics...
...Faced by s serious deficit, the school must raise $17,e»0...
...Now in confidential circulars workers are referred to as "continuing stupidity...
...While the farmers in Des Moines were considering theii proposed strike Governor Herring announced that military rule would give way to civil rule in two counties of the farmer war area...
...Get busy...
...This la the official who is to handle the funds that are contributed for the united aim, They maneuver to get a Communist for this post and this is generally a Imsio principle with them...
...Give us this day our daily bread" Preachers tor' centuries have said . . . And thus to humankind have iied...
...In Minntaj.olis an anonymous pamphlet is being distributed urging farmers to passive resUtanse to payment of all debts and Governor Olsen has urged President Roosevelt to appeal to farm-mortgage holders to delay foreclosures...
...Farmers Propose Strike la Depression Areas ¦"VELEGATKS of farmer organizations in 24 states voted to strike at a convention in Des Moines, Iowa, and in Minnesota 4,000 farmers have voted not to pay debts until "the dollar is an honest measure of value...
...This cannot be forced...
...Can't we get a soothing message from Herbert Hoover regarding the virtues of sacred individualism...
...la New York City the National Committee to Aid the Victim* of German Fascism "has Alfred Wagenkneeht, a Communist Party member, as its secretary...
...The service believes that organized labor has an excellent opportunity to advance wage bargains but that labor leaders do not see it...
...If we could imagine a Fascist movement taking over the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and the Manufacturers' Association of this country we get an ides of the big plum that has been plucked by * Hitler...
...then the "industrialists" and bankers na<' their turn...
...Can it be controlled...
...now Roosevelt will repieeent agriculturists "industrialists," bankers and wotke*-* to give us "balanced government...
...They propose to put 3,000,000 idle workers to work, stabilise production and distribution snd balance both...
...They demanded government ownership of banks and a national moratorium on mortgage foreclosures on farms and city homes...
...That means a terrific hardship for the workers, for wages never go up in the same ratio with increasing prices...
...Every penny is as »dcomr as s dollar...
...Jobless men as police spied Have walked the streets , . . lived and died . And others a.<»ed as those now dead . . . A bowl of sou 11 An overcoat . . . with strings tho' tied, Can help those who have tried . . . and tried . . . . To fight life'i battles . . . have bled For ideals . . . they call them Red...
...The decreases in earnings and employment between February and March are even more drastic than the percentage declines indicate because they run contrary to the usual treno...
...We wish this were true, but The Labor Bureau, Inc., a reliable statistical agency, in its May bulletin presents the real situation...
...In February there were wage cuts in 552 plants averaging 11.5 per* cent and wage advances in three plants...
...Its main job should be te wean^ every element passible from the deadening and futile policy of acting within the parties of the capitalist clsss...
...When a confidential information service intended for business men and investors uses such language in referring to organized workers it is time for them to wake up...
...Later he referred to an "overproduction that would result in unsaleable surpluses...
...PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S radio address last Sunday explained his program which one of his intimates the week before raid was the philosophy of a "balanced government...
...To p -mil the school to close would be s calamity...
...Write without delay...
...That is to say, *« mM rite above elan rce-fbiets and ivteiests and equally • ,irr lent all interests...
...Feudal Aims of Reigning Bankers and Capitalists DOWERFUL feudal chiefs represent-* ing big industries and banks met In Washington last week to "plan" industry...
...Neither do we, but the service adds that it is safe to assume the "continuing stupidity of labor...
...Of special irterest was the President's references to the depression disease of capitalism...
...German bonds and stocks declined as the Nazis gripped industry and the queer "Socialism" of the Nazis has made the gamblers on the Boerse extremely nervous...
...drift of affairs...
...Attorney General O'Connor prejudiced the cases against the strikers by charging "racketeering" methods in forcing farmers to join the holiday movement...
...The World We Lire In A Socialist View of the Week A BOWL OF SOUP By William Allen Ward A BOWL if soup at eventide Hungry men have often cried...
...It can oly be accomplished through adoration of the masses...
...A big section of the delegates could have been swept off their feet by some demagogue in favor of any venture that promised to "start something," but they could not have carried the conference as a whole...
...Here is a capitalist oligarchy rising out of the depression hell...
...Socialists will have to go underground with other revolutionary workers...
...Write wi'.h.rut delay te Bertha Mailly, chairman ef the drive, and yon will be informed of whst yon can do...
...Most of our readers csn h»!n...
...Hitlerirm Getting Control of Industry IN Hitler's Germany capitalism goes * to lower levels while the Nazis more and more penetrate industry and bring it under Nazi rule...
...The Rand School Drive TUB Rand School ef Social Science is the pioneer in workers' education in thie country and the depression has hit it hard...
...R.cms have been packed with young men aad women who have taken up serious studies te St them for service ia the Labor and Socialist movement...
...In New York State the Milk Control Board is attempting to avert a strike of dairy farmers by setting minimum prices for their milk, and in New York City Health ^Commissioner Wynne is preparing to import milk from the West if a strike occurs...
...It comes clothed in pious sentiment and is likely to get government sanction...
...We have found our factories able to turn out more goods than we could possibly consume, and at the same time we were faced with a falling export demand...
...What is said on inflation is interesting...
...The National Mooney Council of Ac tion formed in Chicago last week placed C. A. Hathaway of the Communist, j Party as temporary secretary...
...Address her at the Rand School of Social Science, 7 Last lath Street, New York City...
...Socialists, trade uni ins and ether labor groups met in Washington to consider problems that affect them...
...We have not produced more "than we could possibly consume...
...I here were too many veteran Socialists and progrersive union men present to prevent any such folly...
...These gentlemen played with a monster and it will swallow them...
...Our continued decline in employment and purchasing power is leadinp us into State Socialism or complete anarchy," said Swope...
...Socialists, Farmer I.aborites and a few anions founded the Conference for Progressive Political Action but it failed to organize a political federation of the workers...
...we have produced more than the masses can buy...
...There is little doubt that the buildings and other party assets will also be confiscated...
...The Washington conference revealed a more radical sentiment and more impatience with the...
...Reports from the Financial Front fJROM a private financial service, the *^ name of which we cannot give, an attempt is made to interpret the Roosevelt program...
...The variety of other organisations of a anited front character, and they are many, also have a Communist in charge of funds...
...Balanced government" is only a substitute for thr old politician's phrase, "all the people...
...President Roosevelt agrees to give the feudal kings a chance to get their bankrupt regime in order and a bill by Senator Wagner of New York proposes government sanction of this new feudalism...
...Ballyhoo and the Real Situation TpiIIS week brings the periodical I* propaganda in the dailies that wages are rising all over the country and that many workers are going back to work...
...The bread line men have often sighed, A bowl of soup...
...The powerful Federation of German Industries has come under Nazi control...
...It has been offered as efficient and reliable, much like the strc*et peddler selling trinkets, but this policy has proven futile...
...It was to be exp.cted and It certainly was worth while...
...The U. S. Chamber of Commerce favors a similar program and Gerard Swope of the electric kingdom looks forwsrd to a national council of his class to regulate industry and the working subjects of his class...
...Te answer is that once started it is like a drinking man who wants more, and this service anticipates over 60 per cent inflation in prices...
...When the President later referred to "unsaleable surpluses" he unwittingly admitted the foiHe of the comment we make...
...They mutt be won te a willing acceptance of a new puli leal policy by which they will rely upon their own power and resources for their emancipation...
...He is likely to be the permanent official...
...German dye exports decreased during April and the genersl export slump averaged 12 per cent...
...To say that we produce more than we can consume while we are consumed with starvation is ridiculous and yet that is the basic economics of Roosevelt...
...There have been urandalt in the me of euch funds and for these reasons party organizations and party members should not contribute sny funds to these "innocents' clubs...
...We earnestly sppesl to them to give this aid...
...The working claw can only counter this monstrous program by forwarding the Socialist aim of taking the industries out of the hands of the king* and operating them for thr benefit of useful workeri...
...A significant item is this: Engels, nou> in charge of the trade union* for the Fascists, was a former Communist leader...
...i An Important Post in United Front Chibe IN discussing the united front let as * not forget that Communists are vitally interested in one office set up by united front organizations...
Vol. 15 • May 1933 • No. 19
