A Nifty Kernel of Thought For All Our Midget Minds
SHIPLEY, JOSEPH T.
By Joseph T. Shipley A Nifty Kernel of Thought For All Our Midget Minds Technocracy Reaches the Screen with Laurel and Hardy in "Scram"—And Do You Remember Who Plucked the Plumb Plan? have all...
...Or, insofar as they are social in their application, Marx' my wordl The Plumb Plan The Plumb Plan was right out of the Socialist program...
...How soon shall we have "Uncle Dunce's Technocracy Hour" on the air T Those who live in Milwaukee are particularly fortunate, for at their Palace (so says the advertisement, but it refers to a privatelyowned theatre) may be seen "Island of Lost Souls"—Manhattan not intended—and: "EXTRA ON SCREEN...
...Government offices are closed, and everylx>dy is out watching the parade...
...The talk of the age...
...He was a sweet soul and those who came under his influence will never forget him...
...in every other case the official figures were much greater...
...The only thing that has changed in this respect is that the system of exploitation has expanded to enormous ' proportions...
...but the misty muddling of midget-minds permits that excuse, and discredits the sincere effort to find a successor for the social and industrial system that everyone admits has failed, and many recognize is every whit as dead as Calvin Coolidge...
...he practiced many ai preme Couvfl elsewhere, jl great a lavfl Willia* Epitome on ders," was th written by an used in law "And that used to say, didn't get an] He was oh and the Chief the Civil WI International I ciation—the I organized by 1 and he hastej used to show] bership certia Socialist coma He edited the...
...He further revealed that while the workers were paying into the insurance funds they were getting back only a small portion of what they put in, and thus under Fascist rule social insurance has become a scheme to strengthen the government's wealth and power...
...They bought labor power to exploit it and they exploit it today...
...In 1926 it was reported that 6,000,000 tons of wheat were raised...
...Investigation by Federal Attorney Medalie proves ¦ that Tammany election official ¦ .steal votes wholesale even when , they do not have to...
...It is this succession of fads and fakes, eagerly embraced as divine cures or scientific remedies for all existing ills, that gives color and body to such easy dismissals as Governor Lehman makes in his inaugural speech: "There is no panacea...
...Tanuary 8, under the auspices of the I The debate was opened by W. W.< Passage, who reviewed the economic situation and referred to The New Leader "which will furnish you a fine interpretation of passing events of significance...
...The day that President Taft was inaugurated Washington was visited by a terrible storm, but that did not prevent the whole town turning out to see the excitement...
...until the cure-all dies...
...The Plumb Plan—do you remember the Plumb Plan?—was an idea for nationalization of the railroads, which crossed the country until the plan itself was taken for a ride...
...possibly they . are instructed by their bosses to i keep in practice...
...Marxism appeared in the 'fifties of the last century and you must admit that tremendous changes have occurred since...
...By Heck, knocker, see...
...He then proved from uncontradicted statements of Mussolini that the Italian depression did not begin in 1929 with the New York stock crash, but in 1926, when Mussoinli attempted to stabilize the currency in an unscientific and rash manner...
...But equally dangerous is the midget-mind, which one kernel of a thought fills, and leaves no room for questioning and criticism...
...When you have nothing else to wear But cloth of gold and satins rare, For eloth of gold you cease to care— Up goes the price of shoddy...
...Yes, it is unusually calm," said Bill as he turned the •erner with • twinkls in his eys...
...Then no one's anybody...
...On his rooming-house wall were many pictures, but the feature of his private gallery were three pictures...
...Coleman was a voracious reader, and he knew all the languages there are, and some that are not yet...
...It's Beautiful Weather...
...No, but Darwinism has changed with later research," said Joe...
...The general theory of evolution emerged at the same time with Darwin's epoch-making work," said Bill...
...Perhaps not...
...1) What of the women and children...
...Joe 1 inquired...
...He pointed to a new spirit in Italy indicated by the fact that the workers accepted a wage cut without striking...
...He did not rise to the heights naturally expected of him only because he could not control the thirst of a Southern gentleman of the old school...
...I will try an upper-cut," said Joe...
...That is true," Bill replied, "and when that occurs Marxism degenerates into a dogma...
...have all met the single-track mind, which the impulse of of an idea sends catapulting along its rusty rail—always unbalanced, of course, for it has no gyroscope of common sense— until at the end it comes crash against reality...
...Beginning with secret organization on the Continent they abandoned secrecy...
...He quoted figures showing that industrial wages in 1932 were onehalf of what they were in 1920, and that the wages of agricultural laborers was much below one-half, whereas the cost of living had fallen only about twenty-five per cent...
...Social Legislation In referring to the social insurance measures of which Dr...
...cate and he m ing for the Sej that met in H which NegrqJ with whitest tionary positis pecially for sj He helped i lican party in I was elected AI was appointed] President GrsJ law, wrote n«i secretary of ( tive of the Gri and later edW in Texas...
...What makes me tired is the chap who thinks that he has settled some problem by merely qnoting from Marx...
...And now Technocracy...
...Is Darwinism out of date and have those who brought their heavy artillery against it triumphed...
...What The New Leader has long 1 maintained is now being borne out by official investigation, that any ' official report of votes in New i York is at best an approximation i of the vote cast...
...It is not correct to compare the number of unemployed with the whole nation, for in an agricultural nation such as Italy there are millions of peasants who can never be unemployed...
...In any case, he showed that the success was more due to a juggling of statistical facta than to increased production...
...That is, all but William Macon Coleman and a young comrade...
...a The jugglers of jingoism, the followers of fads, are midgetminds...
...There are also a few discrep1 ancies of a dozen or so votes in > a few other states that cancel each other out...
...He first replied to his opponent's statement which argued that we could not hold the Fascist dictatorship responsible if it was caught in the net of the worldwide depression...
...H« A. M. and Ph...
...And now tc He was a sou Profiles n Coleman if ore the So-1 ill heart was he was so lib book, "An demon on Remainlaw text book an ever to be in England...
...j w-3) I haven't given you ie whole of the advertisement...
...But this sudden stabilization by contracting circulation precipitated the crisis of 1926, which continues up to the present...
...What Engels wrote is sufficient answer to those who sneer at Marx as a dogmatist...
...Here and there I find some of these writers using such phrases as, 'Marx overlooked,' 'Marx did not appreciate the significance of,' or 'Marx somewhat exaggerated.' Those statements bear the impress of an evolving, not a static, Marxism...
...The professor further explained that Mussolini's stabilization of the currency was a negative virtue...
...Professor Coleman was one of the most remarkable men this scribe has ever known...
...The one common feature of these novelties (outside of their quackery, though each in turn is the new wonder-cure of the earth's ills), is that they can be traced back as far as Aesop...
...a beloved member until the end of his life in 1917...
...The hordes getting soaked by the cold sleet did not know that Coleman was reading Sanscrit instead of watching the parade, but he did and he was content...
...This writer was deeply moved and inspired by the noble old soldier, and did everything to give him a national audience...
...a splendid writer, a remarkable speaker, a sound historian, a great lawyer and a great Socialist...
...An Upper-cut Parried "When Engels wrote the preface to the 1888 edition of the Communist Manifesto," Bill continued, "he referred to the revolutionary measures at the end of Section II in the following language: 'In view of the gigantic strides of modern industry since 1848, and of the accompanying improved and extended organization of the working class, in view of the practical experience gained, first in the February revolution, and then, still more, in the Paris Commune, where the proletariat for the first time held political power for two months, this program has in some details become antiquated.' Is that dogmatism or the adjustment of Marxism to the conditions of a changing world...
...i's refutation »«• of ita urt foreefulness...
...Bill Parades Evidence "What can remain of fundamentals in the changed world of today that were fundamentals in the 'fifties...
...For the old fellow was a rebel to the very core of him...
...It is modern as it has evolved since Marx and Engels passed away," said Bill...
...Individual ' capitalist property has largely passed into the corporate ' form with finance capital at the head, but capitalist property 1 is still the basis of law, government, education and morality...
...3 the RepubCarolina, and -General...
...It promises $20,000 a year to every man in the U.S.A...
...So you think the basic views of Marx are sound," said Joe...
...When the treasures of ancient knowledge lie unexamined, and original authors are neglected and forgotten, compilers and plagiaries are encouraged who gi 'e us again what we had before, and grow great by setting before us what our own sloth had hidden from our view...
...Capitalists owned industry then and they own it today...
...That is to make of Marx a Saint indeed...
...By Gus Tyler Fascist Boasts Blas by Salvemini in Debate QAETANO SALVEMINI, former dean ol Florence and now professor of history l Flumiani, an upholder of Fascism, in a debate Fascism an Economic Success ?" at the Brooklyn Sunday...
...An Unsound Comparison Ho then pointed out that Ms opponent's comparison of unemployment figures was specious and, unscientific...
...edition," he mated and I ut oi it" icago Tribune ss just after heard of the gmen's Assoiternational— larx in 1864, join, and he [lowing mem:h glee to his i later years, gmen's AdvoAddress callibor Congress •e in 1866, to jtvited equally I and revolutose days, earner...
...What a man he was I What a man he might have been...
...Of a sudden all breaths are bated, all heads bowed: Hail, the Redeemer Cometh...
...When they founded the First international they did not use the text of the Communist Manifesto of 1848 but drafted a program that would attract broad elements of the working class...
...2) Gilbert and Sullivan have warned us of such a state: Tin- end in easily foretold, When every blessed thing you hold Is made of silver or of gold, You long for simple pewter...
...Such dogmatists ignore the fact that both Marx and Engels expanded or modified their views with changing conditions...
...Under his rule it rose to 80 in 1926...
...But Coleman was unknown to any but his small circle of intimates...
...The demise of Humanism was inhumanly swift...
...whereas the 1 far greater p Italy has setl rebellion, snd ment hss mst years...
...But we have ways of publicity Johnson wot not of...
...Shall I continue to parade the evidence...
...It's like a Spring day," said Joe...
...And the midget-minds, filled to capacity by the word itself, hurry to worship—until the kernel of thought, unassimilated (even if predigested) is vented by intestinal channels and leaves them void...
...And the capitalists kept the plum...
...In many things he anticipated the findings of sound historians who remade, the study and teaching of hlstory'a quarter of a century ago...
...Before grabbing that $20,000, consider: What of Them...
...They were sit ting in a room in a boarding house reading Sanscrit...
...From time to time some young enthusiast would get to know him, and enthusiastically seek to make him known to the Socialist world outside of Washington...
...The basic factors of history and of capitalist society that concerned Marx have not fundamentally altered since the 'fifties," said Bill...
...By this measure Italy has 1,000,000 unemployed out of 3,000,000, whereas England, which has been suffering severely from the crisis, has only 2,000,000 unemployed out of 30,000,000 employed in industry...
...The official canvassing board of Washington made its report two months after election, giving the Socialist ticket 17,080 votes, instead of the 20,574 credited by unofficial returns...
...Both Darwinism and Marxism being based on the evolutionary concept neither Marx nor Darwin excepted his own philosophy from the law of evolutionary change and yet certain fundamentals in both philosophies remain...
...Filled with a thought they glow with its pressure...
...That looks good to me," said Joe, "and you have parried my upper-cut...
...He was a valued...
...Johnson once said that, as a corrupt society has many laws, so "an ignorant age has many books...
...E ' he served only three months, for he was a rebel at heart, and he never approved of slavery...
...If it itt apt it can only be so if it accords with our knowledge...
...He would sit down with a clay pipe in his hand, ironrimmed glasses slipping down his nose, and spin yarns with his younger comrades and make them feel that he was the greatest man that ever lived and that life was richly worth living...
...You wouldn't have tried it if you had made a little research of your own," said Bill...
...But before you scramble out of this mess of the midget-minds, consider one more serious fruit of their indigestion...
...he at Stettin by en he taught d verse, was ;ional ExecuLabor party, opulist paper lie degrees of e latter after ne can gather te a man, and i the outline, n-ian, and his work on the forebears of Abraham Lincoln, and on neglected phases of American history were valuable contributions to historians...
...How can Marxism possibly serve us today...
...All his life he was a rebel...
...inee, old age t insurance, ntained, the has waged a loyment, and 0 unemployed <>f 40,000,000, States had a n. Moreover, igor march or iscist governltsolf lor ten eaki ss introduced storm of apntionhy part |pan*V vivas It«U« Hbera at...
...Mussolini can claim credit for none of these...
...29, at the call of the Gillespie Trades and Labor Council...
...T" (We wonder whether that question man is the type-setter's comment...
...Bill inquired...
...The only way to compare unemployment figures, he said, is by establishing the ratio between the unemployed and the number of industrial workers...
...and they run about crying "All hail...
...He then brought it back to a little below the 1922 level by stabilizing it at 19...
...We like to recall him as he appeared at a May Day picnic in the woods in Maryland about twentyone years ago...
...W. M. F. (Next week: Otto Branetetter...
...Government was an organ of ruling classes ' then and it is so today only on a larger scale...
...At last he had found his rightful place...
...In discussing the wheat problem Professor Salvemini suggested it was dangerous to suggest thst Mussolini made the wheat grow...
...now in one amazing reel . ., 'Technocracy...
...This was the first instance in which the official report was less than the unofficial returns...
...Their crops might fail and they might starve, but they are always employed...
...he was 70...
...Why that language deponent does not know, but it is suspected that it was Coleman's way of showing defiance of the inauguration crowd...
...Modern Socialists have accepted much of the new knowledge and yet Morgan is also still worth reading, for there is much of value in his work...
...He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1858, he studied history at Heidelberg and theology in North Carolina until the Civil War came, when he quite naturally enlisted in the Confederate Army as did all other young Southerners as a matter of course...
...He became a lawyer and had a distinguished career at the bar...
...Uncle Joe" Cannon, Senator Neb son Aldrich and Jesus Christ— "Between the two thieves," he would chuckle...
...When he took power the lira was 22 per American dollar...
...Socialists began to organise the party, and he gladly Joined...
...That depends upon the philosophy',' said bill "My question was a feint...
...Here was an important change in tactics...
...Mnssolinl d*cid*d to add thia supply and thus gained a million tons...
...I do...
...He argued that ths Fascist government had legislation favoring the lowet classes, such ss unemploymenl pensions, snd Finally, h Fascist govej war against Italy has only out of a pop...
...Flumiani had boasted, Professor Salvemini said that the accident insurance law was passed in 1906, unemployment insurance in 1919, and old age pensions in 1920...
...The conference I is part of the program of the Progressive Miners of Illinois looking toward the organization of a Prof gressive Federation of Labor...
...From all oft that Coleman 1 he was...
...There is also a correci tion in the Michigan vote, subtracting 120 from that state...
...Bebel, Liebknecht, Mehring, Kautsky and others have contributed to the evolution of Marxism in the same way...
...He wrote about him in the New York Call, he sought to have him brought to New York to speak . . . but alasl as soon as he began to be known to wider circles he would suffer a relapse...
...William Macon Coleman was of old North Carolina stock, born in Washington 96 years ago this month...
...Flumiani, who maintained that Fascism was an economic success because it had stabilized the gold currency, > it had made the country independent in its wheat production, it had cut coal importations and developed water power resources, it had concentrated industrial control, and it had reorganized the financial methods of banking...
...GILLESPIE PUSHES : FEDERATION PLANS GILLESPIE, 111—A mass conference, to which Have been invited 1 various labor groups and Arnerican Federation of Labor locals, 1 will be held in Gillespie Jan...
...the fever creates a false enthusiasm they mistake for the flush of health...
...And already over a dozen pamphlets and books on Technocracy are pounding through the press, to take advantage of the moment's fad...
...Socialist Profile William Coleman IN Washington the biggest day of all is the quadrenniel Inauguration Day...
...Well, some Marxists talk as though Marx said the final 1 word on everything," said Joe...
...Salve When Sal* he was greeM plause snd a 4 of the audUj rang out, wit) sounding abol Professor I WSS annihilsl clarity, schol 1 abate Wversity of .met Carlo •abject, "Is my of Music a Forum...
...This was done thus: before 1926 it was customary to discount all th* wheat ns*d for sowing purposes...
...Both Marx and Engels accepted Lewis MoTgan as a great authority on primitive society and they were justified in doing so, but since Morgan's 'Ancient Society' appeared our knowledge of primitive mankind has modified some important conclusions of Morgan...
...A few weeks later Mnssolinl reported 6,000,000...
...In short, whoever you may be, With this conclusion you'll agree, When every one is somebody...
...True, and so has Marxism," Bill replied...
...How much more i than the 177,397 reported the vote [ actually was, can only be guessed , at this time...
...clad in white, his white beard waving in the gentle breeze, a benign look on his noble face, he spoke from his heart and out of the richness of three-quarters of a century of a matchless life...
...Joe inquired of Bill as they left the shop...
...He had the real historical sense, although he had never heard of the "New History" of Robinson and Beard...
...So you hold that Marxism is modern, not old," said Joe...
...He had a family, but he lived apart frqm wife and children because of the weakness in his character herein before referred to...
...1 The class antagonism between the possessing and the work- ' ing classes remains a basic factor of modern capitalism as It was of the capitalism of the 'fifties...
...CORRECTED VOTE 903,286 pORRECTIONS of the vote ofA^ cially reported by several states bring the total ThomasMaurer Presidential vote down to 903.296...
...Come coo with Coue is an almost forgotten call...
...A quotation may be apt but it is not necessarily apt because Marx is the author...
...The conference will discuss s - program of demands on unemployIment Insurance, wages for union officers, the Negro workers, inde, pendent political action, a 30-hour week and co-operation with farm organisations...
...The Modernism of Marx h Doubted by Joe and Affirmed by Bill, So They Agree That the Weather 1$ Perfect —.— By Autolycus " "J^" you think that a philosophy of the middle of the nineteenth century is adequate for this century...
...It goes on: "Technocracy"—PLUS Laurel & Hardy in "Scram...
...Salvemini said if the dictatorship could do no better than democratic countries in riding the crisis, what excuse was there in Italy for an additional curse in the form- of suppression of political liberties...
...learned, brilliant, witty, inspired...
...He lectured on the Gracchi of old Rome in a manner that caused a working class audience to stand up and cheer...
...He then yielded the floor to Dr...
Vol. 15 • January 1933 • No. 2
