Sheriffs Can't Foreclose Six Million Farms in the U. S.
Rosner, Henry J.
By Henry J. Rower Sheriffs Cant Foreclose Six Million Farms in the U. S. IN last week's New Leader I pointed out that the faith in the power of the President's inflation program to...
...By Henry J. Rower Sheriffs Cant Foreclose Six Million Farms in the U. S. IN last week's New Leader I pointed out that the faith in the power of the President's inflation program to increase prices, wages and incomes and thus to lighten the burden of farm and home mortgage debt was unwarranted because it hoped to increase mass buying (Kiwer by expanding the ability of the banks to make loans—a Hoover policy which had been tried and found wanting...
...Peter E. Miettinen...
...Nettie Jacobson...
...Lucille R. Donoghue...
...The fallacies in this doctrine are many...
...This plan, unlike most similar proposals, calls for a downward adjustment greater than the drop In prices...
...Samuel Raskin...
...Henry Margulies...
...New Jersey Socialist Party Aids Rand School Drive A resolution calling upon all New Jersey Socialists to aid the drive of the Rand School and the People's House was unanimously adopted by the State Committee of New Jersey, meeting in Newark on Hay 28...
...This was done when both the Socialists and Communists spoke from the same platform...
...Shnra Goldenberg...
...Then, the burden of debt should be readjusted to the present levelof prices and incomes by a direct cut ine> interest rates and principal through legislation...
...Zekor Antonsen...
...Edith Sachere...
...The committee of the Continental Congress will meet on the 28th...
...Benjamin Wyle...
...Cicero Codina...
...These are constantly falling due being loans for periods ranging from 90 days to one year...
...Challenge Met Any attempt along these lines would be immediately met by the charge that the savings banks and insurance companies, which sre entrusted with the people's money, would be wrecked...
...Everything went orderly, but when Pauli came in to address the Finnish comrades he found a few Communists distributing circulars in which the Socialist Party was denounced as betrayers of the workers...
...Jack Schulter...
...The great bulk of insurance policies and savings bank deposits is owmW by people who can afford to sustain some loss...
...School Commencement The twenty-seventh commencement of the Rand School Friday night, May 2ft, had special significance...
...The old veteran of many a battle for labor opened his heart to the students, gave them something of the store of wisdom from his rich experience, and fired them with determination to devote their lives to work in and for the working class...
...The decision to raise the sum by Labor Day to avert foreclosure of the Socialist and labor building w*s taken by a committee of 25 representatives of New York Workmen's Circle branches who had been called in a few days ago as news spread that the building is threatened...
...I suggest a uniform Interest rate of 3% and a 26% reduction in the principal...
...Both policyholders and depositors should welcome a reduction in the debt of homeowners and farmers because to the extent that this burden is lightened there is less likelihood of default on the principal...
...Vincent J. Mancin...
...The average working man seldom accumulates $2,000 during his lifetime...
...Claryce K. Greenberg...
...Esther We it /.man...
...Vivian Schechter...
...Anna Weiss...
...Pauline De Leon...
...On March 31, 1931, 60% of the depositors of the Bowery Savings Banks in New York City with accounts of i>s.s than $1,000 owned It* ej »at saesaiy en deposit...
...The drop in the cost of living has meant an increase in the value of saved dollars...
...In the first 'place, the latter loss in income could be counterbalanced by a corresponding decrease in the interest rate on savings bank deposits and dividends on insurance policies and a reduction of high salaries to executives...
...Some people that never did a thing for the working class kick because the party isn't doing enough...
...holding these bills enjoy a surplus of income over that required to meet the expenses of daily living...
...David Rosenzweig...
...Herman Adler...
...In defense of the administration, it is argued, however, that a program of public works will shortly be under way which may be financed by the use of the powers vested in the President under the inflation law...
...Contributions from the branches will be received at Workmen's Circle headquarters, 175 East Broadway...
...Pauli was sent...
...Otherwise, they could not have advanced money to the government...
...The necessary adjustments would be speedily forthcoming...
...Well, if it isn't doing enough, you do something...
...Ben Fisher...
...The resolution reads: "Resolved that the State Committee of the Socialist Party of New Jersey hears with deep sorrow of the possibility ef the loss of the People's Houss and closing of the Rand School, and herewith declare their conviction that this would be a calamity beyond words to the labor movement of the entire United States...
...Studies of savings bank deposits tell much the same story...
...Clara Whitman...
...Workmen s Circle Pledges Aid To the Rand School Drive A QUOTA of $5,000 was accepted by the Workmen's Circle, the Jewish Labor fraternal organization, this week as part of the campaign for $17,000 to save the People's House, home of the Rand School, from closing down after 27 years of existence...
...Bernard Hariton...
...Unlike the President's proposal to reduce the interest rate to only and 4Hi% for 20 per cent of home and farm mortgages, it would have the effect of giving the farmers and workers a considerably larger slice of thp national income...
...The central body decided to have a May Day demonstration and had the High School band lead the march of more than 800 men and women...
...Laura Deretchin...
...The balk of savings bank depositors are not the poor but like the policyholders some from the middle and upper classes...
...Some of them remarked that if the present fund-raising drive is unsuccessful the commencement might be the last one to be held in the People's House...
...The sheriffs can't foreclose 6,000,000 farms or 23,000,000 one- and two-family dwellings...
...It is a common place of economic experience that in every period of rapidly rising prices, wages tend to lag far behind...
...Bella Seldman...
...The women's auxiliary, as well as the children's groups of the Workmen's Circle will participate in the drive to save the Rand School, Chanin stated...
...Since $6,000,000,000 a year is required to bring construction back to 1928 levels, a prerequisite for economic recovery, this is one-fourth of what is really needed...
...Comrade Pauli, our chief organizer, is now in the steel district...
...Readers of The New Leader should know the real meaning of the socalled united front The State Executive Committee will hold its first meeting in Lima on May 27th and the local is arranging a number of meetings to be addressed by members of the committee...
...This is preferable to the clumsy and unjust method of refinancing heretofore described...
...The Program Besides, it should be noted, the administration's program of public works calls for an expenditure of $1,600,000,000 annually in the next two years...
...The Graduates Following are the names of the graduates: KM her Abramson...
...Walter E. Peck inspired the audience with the reading of several revolutionary poems...
...Greater safety is ' guaranteed by terms which make it possible for the debtor to meet his obligations...
...Terence Donoghue...
...Lena Samolin...
...The Socialist Party ef Ohio will soon take its place among the most active states...
...We need people with brains and sense and stick-to-itiveness," he said...
...The graduating class, the students, the teachers and the friends who met to celebrate a successful year's work were conscious of the crisis which this, the oldest workers' school in America, Is facing...
...Presumably these are the maturing obligations referred to in the inflation law...
...The students were represented by Eleonore Schachner, who spoke for the graduating class, expressing the appreciation of the students for what the School is doing for them, and Ronald Duval, President of the Rand School Student Association, who spoke for the student body and expressed the eagerness of the young people in the movement for greater activity...
...And be sure you put the Socialist message into plain, everyday language...
...Of the thirteen members of the state committee of the Congress, five are also members of the S.E.C...
...Fanny Goldberg...
...Comrade Pauli, reporting from Ashtabula, states that the Socialist local has a membership of about 125 and .is cooperating with the unemployed union...
...Ronald Duval...
...It must be remembered that in a very real sense these would not be losses at all...
...Kitty Pessin...
...The feelings aroused by this dramatic situation united speakers and audience in a spirit of devotion and gave special point to the ceremonies...
...His job, in addition to organizing locals is to adjust grievances and 'foster harmony in the organization...
...It would be sound to distribute these losses on a graduated scale...
...Benjamin Mints...
...In short, the greenbacks, if issued, will probably be used to pay off these loans...
...I am aware of the fact that $3,000,000,000 in greenbacks may be issued by the Secretary of the Treasury in exchange for government bonds...
...The reduction in principal would probably necessitate some losses to depositors and policyholders, which is not as great an evil as we are frequently left to believe...
...In the present situation this would be disastrous...
...Pending this change, home owners and farmers should unite in refusing to pay interest and principal on their mortgages until substantial reductions are granted...
...We have two organizers in the field and since the Continental Congress two new locals were organized and more than 100 new members have joined...
...And never get the idea that you're too good for the Socialist Party...
...Riva Timoner...
...The Socialists, trade-unionists and the unemployed have a real united front movement...
...A real inflation Is obviously not the best way to meet the problem...
...One of the largest Workmen's Circle children's schools is located in the People's House...
...The sounder method would be to arrest the downward trend of prices and to stabilize at the present level by creating new buying power and restoring employment...
...Charles Salzman...
...The Federal government today has a floating debt of more than $6,000,000,000...
...It is based upon clear-out class-consciousness and is generally endorsed by the workers and farmers...
...The secretary of the central organizations asked Comrade Pauli to be the official speaker...
...Hana Geiger...
...A 25% reduction in principal new would counterbalance this rise in real income so that there would be no actual losses, as measured by buying power, sustained...
...The party has a sound revolutionary policy without committing its locals to people who have the destruction of the party as their objective...
...The committee, headed by Nathan Chaniri, chairman, and 8. Rosen, secretary, voted to make the appeal among the Workmen's Circle branches nationwide...
...On the ether kaaa, 14% ef the eeeonnts wit* depoal ts ef $2,000 and upward owned W% of the total deposits...
...Tillie Laskin...
...Louis Goldberg...
...Mollie Seidman...
...Again, this does not mean an increase in mass buying power...
...It is obviously more equitable to make this readjustment than to allow tens of thousands of farmers and workers to lose the houses in which they live and the .land on which they work...
...The larger the policy or the savings account the greater the loss...
...Lillian Rosenblum...
...The major emphasis in the law is to use the greenbacks primarily for the purpose of meeting maturing federal obligations...
...The central body was so generous as to permit a Communist speaker to address the workers...
...Abraham Epstein, in his recent book on Insecurity, has pointed out that of $90,000,000,000 life insurance outstanding at the end of 1931, only one-fourth or $22,500,000,000 was industrial life insurance, the workingmair's insurance, while $67,500,000,000 was ordinary insurance —the type held by the middle and upper classes...
...This is composed of short term borrowings to pay the government's bills, necessitated by the shortage in tax collections and to finance the operations of the R.F.C...
...PARTY WOW BOOMS IK BUCKEYE STATE thy • New Lsadte Corrapoodeut) CLEVELAND...
...Algernon Lee, President of the School, spoke briefly in connection with the presentation of certificates to the forty students who had finished the two years' course prescribed for Workers' Training students and mentioned the struggles necessary to maintain the institution during the 27 years of its history...
...Bruno Fisher...
...People put their money in these institutions because they want security above all else for their savings and not profits...
...Wages have been slashed to such an extent that a sharp rise in the cost of living would still make it just as difficult to pay the interest and the principal on the mortgage...
...The individuals and lending institution...
...pression is that too large a share of the national income has in the past gone to the creditor investing class...
...The guest speaker was James H. Maurer...
...Reduction La Principal It is clear from these figures that a reduction in the principal of home and farm mortgages would result in losses for sections of the population in more fortunate economic circumstances...
...It furthermore resolved that we call upon its branches, members and New Jersey readers of the New View and The New Leader to do everything in their power to avert such a catastrophe...
...Laborvjn Ohio is fighting now for unemployment insurance, for a minimum wage for women, for the abolition of the sweat-shops, and in this fight the Socialist propositions are generally supported...
...And be It farther resolved that a copy of this resolution be sent to each branch in the state with a request to be read in open meeting as a first and urgent order of business.'* The resolutions were signed by George H. Goebel, chairman, and Eric Ross, secretary...
...Even if inflation along the lines described did by some miracle result in a substantial rise hi prices, the lot of the home-owning working man would not be much improved...
...Gusta Abramson...
...Jeanne Friedberg...
...Eleanor Schachner...
...I urge this more radical reform because one of the funda mental causes of the present de What Must Be Done to Meet the Mortgage Problem—And What Can Be Done Now to Face Crisis...
Vol. 15 • June 1933 • No. 22
