The Farm Relief Plan Will Work Only If it Leads to Socialism
Cohen, Joseph E.
By Joseph E. Cohen The Farm Relief Plan Will Work Only If it Leads to Socialism Present Prospects Indicate a Scramble, Like the Making of a Tariff—An Awkward Way of Beating the Devil Around the...
...Meaning, of course, that the shseriff will have a genial reception committee on his hands should he attempt to seize and sell a farmer's property to aatisfy a defaulted piece of paper...
...You have nothing to lose but your debts...
...Just a promise, thst, if the dirt-boys will behave and keep paying up to the banks, next year they will be guaranteed a profit . .. That is, the workers will be made to cough up more for bread, butter and such other luxuries, in order to save the mortgages for the money-lenders...
...Old Stuff I'VE been listening a great deal lately to the Technocrats, * just to see if there isn't something to their stuff and the reason for its sudden popularity...
...Everything sounds pretty good from them, up to the point of . . . Who Is going to own the mechanical means of producing plenty, and under what scheme and for what.purpose will this plentitude be distributed...
...Meaning, of course, that all the neighbors stood loyally by, and re* fused to buy at any price...
...Meanwhile, Congress is running a race against an agricultural revolt, by offering the farmer's subsidy bill...
...To be sure, it fa'.'cd with .lie previous farm aid measure...
...Th* apparition of italwart Goth* and Frank* in larbaria attir* on th* ttrtet* of Rom*, not more significant *f approaching change to a civilization outworn and arrogant I These toiler* not merely waiting for pay envelopes...
...The tidbits of news that drop through the sieve of unofficial censorship acquaint one with rare doings out in the open spaces...
...Next comes the tale where the Nebraska plain-billies are organizing into "persuasion units...
...A large number of the armies of unemployed could get jobs in the enforcement of such a law...
...The aponso- for this plan is afraid it may be labeled "Socialist" Should it ever oe tried and work out, it would be in the direction of State Capitalism, which is still far from Socialism...
...Their powerful form* in th* rough garment...
...A Straw Ride What is expected in the case of agriculture is that it is#down so low that, should it be given a real lift by the Government, it would carry everybody else along on the hay wagon...
...The straw ride would be a joy ride for all...
...Right here the issue becomes confused, blurry and futile...
...When the great bulk of the population who are wage-earners, given jobs by a thirty-hour workweek, get their Government bonuses then the farmer would find the market to buy what he has produced...
...This left the usurers—(or bankers) with a real live problem on their hands...
...A nearer search toward the heart of the trouble is the "Kent" plan submitted by the chairman of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation...
...Only will It work to the extent it leads to Socialism...
...WITH the passing by the lower house of Congress of the bill to put Government money into the pockets of the farmers the issue is now raised as to how far the Government is expected to go on this spending spree...
...In the end the Government would act as the clearing house, taking money from those who have, by taxation, and giving it to those who need It to balance their budget for cost of living...
...Yet, the mud-stained ones art diggtrt of mort than subway tunnel...
...Yet pray tell us, in what way will planned production and efficiency to the nth degree dissolve what remains so insoluble as long as the present order exists...
...m*ared with mire of the trench** from which they have just climbed, Are startling in contrast to the aspect and attir* of the city sidewalk throng* that pa** them by, scantly noticing...
...To Stimuli...
...All of which is devoutly to be wished for...
...And they havt brothtrt alto waiting for mort than pay tnvelopee, Who know how to build on bitter foundations than tht old— On Justice and Love unthakable ready to erect the beautiful new world...
...What a horn of plenty that would be for city and country...
...T j From this it was supposed the price on other food stuffs would tend to rise, wag . .vouM follow in the footsteps of the new prices, and the cycle of trade would again .be on the upgrade...
...to any one except the state . ., and that in the form of tax sufficient for administrative needs . . ." then would we say, "Hers, you Technocrats • . . here are your red cards . . . yon are full-fledged mem bers of the Socialist Party...
...It was supposed that if the farmers would raise only so much produce as tha Government allotted to them the Government could afford to pay them a bonus between what price they could get on the market and what they should have to get by...
...The Technocrats give a plausible set-up for eliminating that waste and putting the industrial processes into rational gearing...
...I'm just wondering whether the farmers will snap at the halt and get hooked again, or will they really make the first break for the big change...
...They loaded up the bill with amendments, to include protection through similar subsidy for other articles...
...Perhaps the method of approach here is not sound...
...Just what the program ahould be is what really matters...
...It would mean that the Government would go in for the most gigantic wage and price-fixing scheme imaginable...
...But having arrived here it is high time there was presented the definite idea that business will never serve the people again until it ia backed by the Government...
...Whatever it intends t do after a while, for the time being it is only a sales tax...
...With Uncle Sam acting as father in generous "paternalism," and treating his children alike, he can go far...
...This Is the closest yet to duplicating the psrt the Government played during the prosecution of the war, when it took over the railroads, decided which of t * > other industries were most important, appointed food and fuel administrators and bought goods on a cost-plus basis...
...By Joseph E. Cohen The Farm Relief Plan Will Work Only If it Leads to Socialism Present Prospects Indicate a Scramble, Like the Making of a Tariff—An Awkward Way of Beating the Devil Around the Stump...
...How will we manage to pay the billions in debts, mort* gages, liens, rents, bonds and undipped interest coupons, now owing to the money-changers and investors...
...Buying Power To the farmers it may be hinted that they cannot get out of the rut until they hitch their wagon to added power for buying among the masses...
...Farmers of America unite...
...Technocracy has no answer to that . . . Ah, if these technical experts would say: "We will liquidate all that by issuing flat money, or long, long term bonds payable in umpty generations from now, while we set about reorganizing the machinery we have, and improving all that Is sluggish, put everybody to work at living wages, produce what we need, and use up what we need in a sane, ordered plan, paying no rent, interest, or profl...
...Four cents each...
...Particular Interests are looked after rather than the general good...
...Their grimed garb itself but an envelope for lutpendou* etrength that is digging mort than subway tunnels I Through crumbling thai* driving txeavation* under a world edifice of Exploitation— Under the teemingly unshakable bastille of concentrated wealth, Under the complex fraudulenct of banking, Under the long tyranny of corrupt polities, Under the bribed legalization of colossal plunder, Under the insolence of "vetted right*" uhere none but God and all hit children alike can truly own...
...When they get all through I find that I've been hearing many of the speeches we Socialists have made on street corners for the last ten years...
...and on the people's food at that Any such law may be expected to duplicate our experience with tariff legislation...
...Too often these privileged groups ride high and pretty at the expense of the rest of the nation...
...A Fine Poem by Eliot White: Suppose Our Farmers Decided Not to Stand It Any Longer...
...If the Government can jack up the wagon's hind wheels by paying the farmers money, then it can1 and should provide more pulling power for what the farmer has to sell by boosting the wages of labor...
...By S. A. DeWitt THE DIGGERS IN gathering dusk of the winter afternoon I com* upon a long queue of subway laborer* waiting for their pay...
...see Wouldn't it be just the funniest thing if the farmers of this be-mortgaged land were again to fire the shot "heard 'round the world...
...First comes the rumor that a foreclosure auction sale of one farmer's chattelts, established an all time low on pigs and cows...
...It would be putting the Government back of business In a big way...
...When first offered the farmers'' measure was meant to boost the price of wheat, cotton, tobacco and hogs...
...Otherwise, we predict that In less then a year the fate that befell the minaturs golf-courses of America will be visited upon them...
...That is, those parts ol our talks that deal with an explanation of unemployment, starvation and despair In the midst of unprecedended plenty...
...But others in Congress were not prepared to wait until nature took this course—if it ever would...
...Stuart Chase in his "Tragedy of Waste" gives a fine outline of the mismanagement of production under private ownership for profit...
...But this, at best, Is an awkward way of beating the devil of depression around the stump...
...The night wanet fatt, A day to fulfittht prophet*' mott daring vitiont it at handl ELIOT WHITE...
...Whether the measure will be enacted into law remains to be seen...
Vol. 15 • January 1933 • No. 3
