Will the New Deal Be Turned Into a Very Old Despotism?
Cohen, Joseph E.
By Joseph E. Cohen Will the New Deal Be Turned Into a Very Old Despotism? The Reactionary Southern Wing of the Victorious Democratic Party Is Reaching Out for the Whip— We Know What Became of...
...re-elected, and again thrown out...
...The time has passed for talk...
...There was a vacancy in the United States Senate, and he ran in a bye-election on a stopthe-war platform, polling a remarkable vote and nearly winning...
...If memory is not at fault the Democratic Party won...
...All the liberal politicians ask of the people is patience...
...see Boossvelt ssys h* has msdo no promisee...
...They are ready to crack it wide open...
...Toward the end he was a sage of the movement, looked up to as a father of the party...
...There also was some mention of Governor Roosevelt's having teamed up with the progressive Republicans, so near were they together in purposes...
...From a literary viewpoint it lines up with his best writing...
...Promises of all kinda seem to have been made...
...Or do they figure that the ex periences with chattel slavery it the sole guide to government...
...He spoke again and again, presenting the Socialist position and then franking out millions of copies to every part of the country...
...Just be patient and wait for the child to grow up...
...All honor to his memory I W. M. F. w———-— i ii-—— loans made the Allies by Wall Street, that new freedom crumpled and collapsed...
...When President Roosevelt ia clothed with his Garner-made riding habit and cracks his long whip, is it to bring the South into line for humanity...
...His articles were the best American Socialist propaganda of the time...
...And when you enter the big gaming house of business snd high finance you most bs prepared to win, lose or drsw without a squeal...
...And then to repeat an old epigram, the gods are good to those who hold them good in mind...
...Insofar as it had a winning slogan, it was "The New Deal...
...He is a Jew, an indefatigable worker, and he sprung from the utterly poor...
...His first action was a move against the threatened invasion of Mexico...
...In the first place, Mr...
...As Ben Blumenberg says, ''reading Sinclair is like eating peanuts . . . you just can't atop once you've started...
...By some it waa even felt that with Rooseselt in the progressive element in the Democratic Party would be in front...
...He presented a petition signed by s million nsmet to withdrew the troops from the Mexican border...
...Discounted for Cash Whst the Democratic Party hawked as golden campaign promises may be discounted for cash...
...He hated it with all hia being...
...A.ll of which I wave aside impatiently, since I know how many of this stripe climbed to wealth and power over the sweat and suffering of their weaker and less powerhungry neighbors and pals...
...only the shutting sff of the gas by Bryan agents caused a convention adjournment until they could do the proper overnight propaganda to choke off the movement From 1898 the story of the life of Victor L. Berger is the story of American Socialism...
...It's not much of m ammditunt...
...There is something about the movie game that has never smelled very good to good and decent folk ever since it got out of the sand lots into the tinsel palaces...
...All the millions he made and controlled, all the theatres he owned, all the gigantic contracts he signed, and all of the nasty conspiracies Big Finance hatched and carried out against hia empire of profit are so much chaff in the nook of a grist mill...
...And to squeal through four hundred pages of tremendously good writing that you were beaten at your own gams Is no sign of bigness—to me, st least...
...He did get twenty millions out of the mess...
...Couldn't She Postpone It Until He Had a Job...
...He was one of the founders of the Social Democracy, the Social Democratic Party, and the Socialist Party...
...To my irreverent vision, Fox remains no larger than the thirteen year old peddler of "lozengers" and pretzels, who was padroning a dozen other anemic, sloppy East Side kids on a commission basis...
...There is a bigger novel, to my mind, in how William Fox accumulated hi* first fifty grand than in the sum-ttaggering manipulations of the movie-czar in latter days...
...He wrote incessantly and well...
...What of account may be found in the Democratic platform aa a guide out of the chaos of the country may be small...
...Freedom," Too...
...But from that moment the regeneration of Milwaukee began, until today it ia the cleanest, best governed, most nearly crimeless city in the country...
...In his name "The New Deal" was agitated...
...V. Debs Mwat 6 Berger is Dsn on ftt Populist ticket, which met with much greater success than the world realised...
...The Money Changers," "Mammonmart," and the "Brass Check" are a trilogy of record and denunciation that will stand as long as men may read...
...R pstn fc pft in hvauae Pt all * save, P'with §*Mnf, Ptbt Getting interett is like planting s tree...
...and another for woman tuffrage...
...I . So it will be eaty for him and you to underttand why I can write at I do about hit new volume, "Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox," in the manner that follows without any dread of losing his priceless friendship...
...By S. A. DeWitt I JPTON SINCLAIR will slways remain one of my gods...
...His activities spanned an epoch...
...Just what fascinated Upton to spend so many laborious hours over so stale a theme as the downfall of William Fox is beyond me...
...But that year .Socialists began to get themselves elected to varioua offices, and from that time Socialists became a vital force in Wisconsin life...
...Most hospitals in California during ths depression srs ssking for psyment whsn the patient arrives...
...Under the stress of imposed circumstances, especially the heavy Defeated in 1912,1914 and 1916, he went back to his work in Milwaukee, editing the Leader—the daily that succeeded the Social Democratic Herald in 1911...
...I should really show much more human sympathy for tht "heroic" tale of the grubbing movie magnate...
...aftVft7.fr—// Ipgeta 1st '"*' svaip to • leader ttafrefatotht to be an Rwtnkee net daily, s Social I weekly stni inky...
...Fox started his life within three blocks of where my own boyhood was wasted...
...If he rnns true to form, »• *ul auk...
...There seems to be some decided difference of opinion as to who is in the saddle...
...It may properly be assumed that the Democrats carried the last national election only because they happened to be the opposition party, when the depression crushed the Republican Party...
...The book grips you from the very beginning, not so much by the importance of his subject matter as by his simple genius as a narrator...
...He was elected to Congress and indicted again and thrown out...
...Berger was damned as "Boss Berger," he was depicted as compelling everyone to dance to his tune...
...Hundreds of thousands of boys and girls, starving fathera and homedrudged mothers helped to pile up bank balances for these bosses, so that they could accumulate their first 850,000 to go into bigger and less inhuman ventures...
...st least a week in sdvsncs must bs psid before the sick person is out to bed...
...I am votary enough to forgive him any hineous deed that he may be mad or foolish enough to commit at long at he livet...
...Of German culture himself, the insanity of waging war upon the German nation struck him as particularly imbecilic...
...Bis Social Democratic Herald was read everywhere...
...Let them beware of distorting The New Deal into The Old Despotism...
...Fox is so crabby about...
...Victor L. Berger lived a rich, full, noble life...
...Perhaps ths party also had a platform...
...He attended many international congresses...
...Beri was a ut jourIn 1892 tl job to at work...
...The now amendment will ohort*n Roosevelt'e term of office by put a /ew month...
...Those who are up to what goes on will likely link "The New Deal" to the "New Freedom" of the last Democratic President, Woodrow Wilson...
...e * * The abolition of the lame duck Congress la the outttanding accomplishment of liberal politicians over a period of two generations...
...In the spring of 1910 the party swept the city, Emil Seldel being elected Mayor and Berger Alderman...
...In a few daya the Democratic Party rides into power...
...And what kind of a new deal does the South want...
...What of hope there remains among the people that the Democrats will turn the tide of business and end the hard times remains to be seen...
...Are the labor laws social legislation and economic psactices of the dark South to 1>< brought up to the standards of the comparatively progressive North 1 Do the Bourbons hanker for thai kind of statesmanship...
...P.H...
...He was a truly national figure, and when he waa struck down on the streets of his city by a trolley car, and later died of his injuries, the mourning was widespread, genuine and sincere...
...I cannot even understand what Mr...
...In the fall he came to Congress...
...Hia Milwaukee organisation was one of the best organised in the country, one of the most effective, manned by able, devoted and often brilliant men and women...
...Forward the Backward Elements Since then the backward faction in the Democratic Party is driving its spurs into the side of the victorious animal...
...It would have bored me to an attempt at indoor golf...
...but Anally, elected in 1922, he served until 1929...
...Fox got many of his millions out of thst system...
...William Fox" threatens to dull their insistent brilliance...
...The reactionaries howled...
...There has been exploitation of the meek and poor, as evil snd as heartwrenching there as any sweatshop ever brought to swell up the ever mounting total of human misery...
...There is no news for me in the discovery thst bankers and financiers are greedy, unscrupulous and criminal...
...When he died hs left a world vsstly different from ths world of the young snd enthusisstic Turner of 1882...
...Take the matter of child-labor for example...
...Whatever may be the crusading passions, and however strong their urge for adventure, redundancy is a dreadful sin for a writer of Sinclair's universal standing...
...Fox't against, the powers that licked him fairly and squarely , . . ? No matter how devious we msy be with our legsl reasoning, basically ws know thst plsying ths gsms of capitalism implies being dirty, crooked, avaricious, treacherous, cruel...
...Now for an amendment to keep the poor flsh out of Congress...
...I don't want to be Mayor in a city not yet ready for ut...
...The crown of dictatorial might is being tendered the coming President Bourbons never learn, and therefore have nothing to forget...
...SACRAMENTO, Cal...
...Thereafter came the series of indictments sgainst him...
...From previous accounts it appeared that it was Roosevelt that won...
...od on these...
...He did live to see thieves who muscled him out of his racket loss everything they put into it...
...With this attempt at apology, let me sail right in and say that Upton has done his worst job as a man of letters with this utterly redundant and inconsequential work on William Fox...
...Socialists f, whereSocialism In 1893 ly Union » active made an I union...
...He hnd Influenced thst world, he had done something to bring into being the great movement thst is re msking ths world...
...I haven't s tear for his loss...
...He is comfortable and as secure as this dying system can secure one...
...One warning the Democrats who are not Bourbons may heed from the last time their party was in power under Wilson...
...That is the way of the old political parties . The Americans have a name for it...
...The Reactionary Southern Wing of the Victorious Democratic Party Is Reaching Out for the Whip— We Know What Became of Wilson's "New...
...Thanks to conscription, espionage laws, anti-syndicalism laws and a tory department of justice, the new freedom was iron-heeled into a hideous old despotism...
...He was a world figure...
...Where Bsrger led there was always the closest cooperation between party and unions...
...Certainly they seem impatient to force the issue between the progressive and conservative factions in their party...
...The sweatshops were lorded over by William Foxes...
...e Ths liberal politicians were gleeful last November over ths election of Roosevelt, but now their leaders are wondering whether they're to bs put In the csbinet or on the shelf...
...And surely it was hardly interesting to one of Sinclair'a insight and understanding...
...Really, what is all this bellyaching for and about...
...You put the seeds in the ground and then throw a lot of manure on top, and that's what they're doing to us...
...TIM CHA iHTxTJaJtOX William Fox Was Gypped Oat o/ His Vast Movie Empire and Upton Sinclair Weeps Over It-So What...
...In 1904 it waa reported he had been elected Mayor...
...First the Garner forces tried to commit Roosevelt to a sales tax, which would strap another burden to the backs of the oppressed masses...
...Results are awaited...
...And how he retains his twenty million, snd under whst ethical hokum he can condone the possession of such a huge sum with hslf of his fellow citizens on ths verge of starvation might give him psuse before ht ventures forth further against those who hsvs done him such wrong...
...And strongely enough, why should so big and sincere a protagonist for the underdog even try to give brief and dignity to such a purely personal petty guidge at Mr...
...But so far Roosevelt has given no hint that he is the one to wield the ax...
...Mrs...
...All the rules resd thst way...
...Southern Bourbons may not have learnt this lesson...
...But why bring that up...
...Rena Cornacchi went to a Sacramento hospital to have a baby, was unable to pay the bill, and was held prisoner by the hospital until her jobless husbsnd secured a habeas corpus writ for her release...
...All through hit tale of the dethroned film-Napoleon Upton hardly convinces me thtt he it depicting anything really big...
...Then came the war...
...He read enormously—his private library was one of the finest I have ever seen...
...And If he still weeps for his loss of power ovtr tn empire, let me remind him thst the dsys of emperors and stars is well-nigh done, and neither yon nor I nor Upton Sinclair ought to drop one solitary penny into the tin cup the expeddler and ex-movie Napoleon holds forth at the book stand...
...What the severs) planks were is no longer even an echo...
...Otherwise, where would the Democratic Partv be...
...As a matter of choice of subject, Upton couldn't hsve done worse...
...1 ONG, long ago—as far back as last November—there was a campaign for the Presidency...
...IHit Congressional career was brilliant flnomits < JIM I * taat'i that w, ¦ peat I want i , whkl •f wn l waU ittt , Mil one *Hk not I etting » ktio) Watt...
...He wired, "The time ia not ripe...
...Now a much further leap is to be attempted...
...Down South Their answer is—mostly in the South...
...An they ready to apring the idea thai what is required to save the country is a Man on Horseback...
...They were self-abnegating types, who skimped, saved and squeezed untiringly...
...Ths lame duck amendment to the constitution has been satisfied by ths 36th state, thus becoming a pert of the lew of the land...
Vol. 15 • February 1933 • No. 7
