Would a World War Bring Us Prosperity?
Flynn, John T.
Would a World War Bring Us Prosperity? Noted Economist Shows Such a War Would Be the Supreme Disaster for American and World Civilization By John T. Flynn JF war were to fee declared...
...Pittsburgh Reactionaries Start Drive to Reduce Relief Special to The New Leader PITTSBURGH...
...While fighting side to tote with them, we must point out the meed of the abolition of ¦Vtote Masses are not thinking of the need of this abolition...
...Voting, striking, gftjag, physical force, mass meetings, marches are merely methods fig any movement may use regardless of what its purpose is...
...The vast loans made from their own citizens during the last war are still unpaid, save in Germany and Russia, where they were "wiped out by inflation...
...It is a state of mind that is full of danger...
...The answer is that reactionaries have used this aplnd...
...A Personal Note ¦te&lS HILLQUIT believed in 1933 what he believed in 1922 that j^"Whether the Socialist order be ushered in by a revolutionary mm d'etat, or by a series of legislative enactments or executive orders *om he maintained only by the people in control of tHs^Wintry...
...The authors conclude that there is no reliable determinism in history because the historical data are always fragmentary, that we can only rely upon the method of trial and error, and industrial change is often so rapid that it escapes theory as soon as it is formulated...
...So let no one boild any haps en a rescue of hard times by war...
...The theologians were routed by the classical economists and scientists, but in turn the latter were confronted with periodica] collapses of the new order...
...Jifljafugion also arises over the phrase "revolutionary tactics...
...There are times when a strike is fully justified but HEto the conditions are such that it would be foolish to declare it...
...We should be with the masses tottoir demands but also warn against illusions...
...But they were still able to borrow billions from their own people, and the continued to spend a large part of them here...
...K is then likely that she can come to our shores again and hay and barrow for a new war...
...Hlpi...
...Therefore, the aajs toils us nothing as applied to any organization...
...This does not appear to us ss novel, for big interests never hesitate to put their point of view, and too often their retainers put it in such a way that even the uninformed proletariat are convinced that a given proposal is injurious to the workers themselves...
...to a Social Democrat, he believed in the rule of the majority...
...Ask some of the men that went to France...
...For instance, just read the following: "Millions of men continuously out of jobs...
...The fact is that the aajhaliii parties will never satisfy the yearnings of the masses, no inter how much their spokesmen talk...
...Who wants war...
...A critic may disagree with the interpretation, but the factors are not ignored...
...Then there are those eto «ay *** tBC difference between the two movements is that Comaastaai is s little more "radical" than Socialism, or that Socialism a "Htormist' while Communism is "revolutionary...
...These warring nations came to this country to buy with cash in their hands...
...The Main Duty of Socialists •stooVE all, in a country like ours, where the political and economic •* movements are weak, it is important to remember that our main ¦to to organisation and education...
...It is jjg to keep this in mind when a person is talking of "revolutionary Then whatever method is used at any time is not a matter of Bp choice regardless of historical conditions...
...their Credit is wrecked...
...as war...
...Important concessions are made to Marxism, although the authors believe that it leaves much out of account that is important, such as national, racial, cultural, and patriotic factors...
...New York: The Macmillan Co...
...The "help wanted" sign went out on every factory and store...
...They were happier when they sat in the mud there than they are new rotting in idleness...
...It is *MHH_I that there are methods that are revolutionary...
...If we were to attempt to pile another such mountain of debt en top of the last one, the trooMed world would sink into one vast bog off universal bankruptcy...
...Practically 10 billion dollars is due us on these old war debts...
...It would be a terrible disappointment to our munitions makers, our farmers, and our manufacturers...
...A>r reactionary purposes in Rumania, Bulgaria and, espedtBjfc the Latin-American countries...
...In the first volume they do not accept the NIRA as final but as the beginning of a transition, and in the book befpre us they urge the creation of a single national authority with two divisions, one to fix a standard-oflife budget, both quantitative and qualitative, and the second made up of "production specialists empowered to show in how far, and by what methods, the resources and industrial arts of the United States can supply the reqbisite goods and materials...
...And of what are the masses thinking...
...That's bad...
...We loaned more billions to Europe and the greater part of that was spent here...
...Wars always end depresI sions...
...By Charles A. Beard, with the collaboration of G. H. E. Smith...
...in fact, it is a powerful indictment of the statesmanship of capitalistic economy and as such is welcome ss a valuable addition to the diseussion of the maladies of capitalist society...
...All this being so, a European war now would turn oat to be a very unprofitable piece of business to us...
...By the middle seventies "economics was in a troubled state,'' and today the science is practically ground of theories that rationalize class interests while political science has considered government almost as a vacuum above the economic structure and also failed...
...If its aim is reactionary it ttoains reactionary, no matter what methods it uses...
...When 'OStose done that, when they have developed and trained their spokesfc and leaders, the seats of power in government and industry and Ipt to do with this power will become a burning issue and not before...
...If you don't want the bankers and moneyed men to run this country for their own interests, join the Socialist Party and help establish the common people's ownership in the means of life...
...So one might enumerate others, in?aft_gtbe Socialist Labor Party, the Socialist Party and the numeral* Ceommnist organisations...
...The committee met in a threeday session at the People's House, 7 East 15th Street, and made plans for its national convention in Pittsburgh next July, as well as for a campaign for a petition to be presented to the International Labor Organization and to the United States Congress .pleading the cause of jobless youth...
...Men who are charged with the government of their nations try one device after another for bringing back prosperity and see then all fail...
...Neither is voting revolutionary or reactionary...
...Any number of observers have noted this mood of tolerance for war in the world today...
...The contradictions, chaos and anarchy of economic assumptions, the mutual frustration implied in the national policies of modern nations, the internal conflicts and absurdities of capitalist economy which baffle-the bourgeois statesmen and politicians, are unfolded in this Keen analysis and caustic criticism...
...are only radical in relation to other Democrats...
...JJP Others use the word merely in relation to some other movement, ¦toe are some examples...
...The "King Fish" and Father Coughlin are often referred to fa "revolutionaries" despite the fact that neither has ever declared to say basic change...
...The sard "revolutionary' has a more definite meaning than the goto "radical" and yet all that is designated as "revolutionary" is sat what the word implies—a basic change in all the institutions ot uetory...
...Neither to a strike...
...Charles A. Beard On the Open Door By ajofliiws Oncol THE OPEN DOOR AT HOME...
...They'll tell yob...
...Among the recommendations made by the organized unemployed was one for a public examination of the books of the Relief Board...
...It was created by selling bonds...
...The authors anticipate the opposition of certain interests, no matter what proposals may be made, and to meet this they would require representatives of such interests to openly indicate why they oppose a given program...
...The sociologists came forward with their attempts at a synthesis of human affairs and yet each system from Compte to Gumplowitz merely recalls a dead past...
...This is part of ab later-national move organise., by the Socialist Internationa with efiiees in Prague, Czech .<-»..kia...
...That paragraph appeared m a syndicated article wr_.cn was printed in tare score American newspapers...
...In Erie County the ratio of enrolled Communists to enrolled Socialists was approximately 1 to 7; in Monroe County 1 to 4; in Schenectady 1 to 8. In Cattaraugus County, where the Socialaist Party has locals at Olean, Salamanca and Gowanda, the proportion of enrolled Communists to enrolled Socialists was only 1 to 70...
...The Communist enrollment upstate was only l,2f7...
...They are thinking of jobs, Hp rent, wages and, above all, security...
...Then suddenly every ship that arrived from Europe brought representatives of every nation to buy anything that we had on the shelf —wool and cotton textiles, guns and ammunition, chemicals, wheat, corn and meat...
...Methods that can be used by iwutottonary and reactionary movements cannot be said to be revoMiiaary...
...And, besides, the nations of toe world owe us an additional 17 billion in private debts...
...In fact, they inptojs-seate demands that are comic...
...Movements do not Hpghn to a vacuum...
...He lite* that when the Socialists will have the majoritv of the people ion, the capitalist minority will concede its defeat...
...While the authors may have in mind the eventual abolition of capitalism, their program contemplates only the immediate situation...
...When we got into the war we began to grow even more prosperous...
...Testifying before a state investigation committee, Robert Lieberman, chairman, and Joseph McCarthy, secretary, of the Unemployed Citizens League pointed out that the charges of "chiseling" on the part of the unemployed were unfounded and submitted documentary evidence which shattered these charges...
...Here we must break a lance with the ; authors, for Marxist writings seethe with the citation and interpretation of such factors...
...Pareto, the Italian fascist, in his vast work is the latest to attempt a synthesis, and yet his tomes are now on the road to the dump heap...
...To reduce the appropriation would be criminal...
...The European nations have not the cash...
...Ilk is travel the first road, convert and organise these millions, •¦top their self-reliance, class-consciousness and a will to win...
...N. Y. Socialist Enrollment Steadily Mounting The number of enrolled Socislists in counties outside New York City increased from 7,892 to 8,702 in the last registration, according to State Secretary Merrill...
...Wages went up...
...A leading chapter traces the origins and history of the rilling ideas that have led to this confusion and material wreckage...
...It would be for the world the supreme disaster...
...Then we began to borrow billions for our own war expenses...
...Having cleared the ground, the reader is" conducted through the maze of thought and policies of modern statecraft that are typical of the modern period, subjecting them to a devastating criticism in terms of theory and results...
...A Different Situation Bat why is it that war, which made us prosperous in 1915 until its end, will not do the same thing for us now...
...Would these warring nations come to us to buy again with cash in their hands...
...It is further anaased that if they would change their conduct, not only cooperation gat amalgamation with them would be possible...
...The Aim and the Method SSERE is only one thing by which we can determine whether a I movement is reactionary or revolutionary, and that is its aim...
...Not only that, but the five million a month allowed in the Governor's budget is based upon an average of 400,000 cases for the next biennum and the present figures are well above that...
...Millions of young men went into the army...
...In accord with their rejection of any determinist theory and their assertion of the need of trial and error as a policy, the authors present no vast program for the solution of the crisis that faces the capitalist world...
...We were a borrowing nation then...
...Never mind Jttto Booseveits and others talk of these things...
...But here is • the point we must remember...
...The same thing is ¦to of a strike...
...The Radical and the Demagog ¦MSN there are those who think a speaker is radical if he uses hot Jtooetives...
...Neither view is mm...
...A war will not bring us out of this slump...
...Let one assume that armed insurrection is a revo*'iH[ %| method...
...Men who are nesting the pension age are dropped and OS a result are forced on relief rolls...
...Nobody...
...As a rule the rabbleaaaBr"ean be better defined if we call him a demagog rather than a "ggMtfti Communists can use burning invectives, especially when they m atoaaptog other "radicals...
...YP.SJL PROHSTS EASTER CLUBBING ON FIFTH AVENUE Holding its quarterly meeting in New York City, the National Executive Committee of the Young People's Socialist League of America protected the action of the police last Sunday in breaking up the annual Easter Parade of the Workers' Unemployed Union on Fifth Avenue and arresting the participants...
...Basin ess rose magically...
...Noted Economist Shows Such a War Would Be the Supreme Disaster for American and World Civilization By John T. Flynn JF war were to fee declared tomorrow, we are told, a country that has been unhappy and discouraged would immediately leap to strenuous life with everybody at work...
...Until we hjto traveled this road we will not have the power to socialise a botBgHd) to say nothing of the basic industries...
...All of these countries are very near the edge of bankruptcy...
...Now the war is over...
...All this means that in times like these vast numbers ef meh lose their hatred of war...
...Methods may be adapted to aims in one situation and K another, but they are neither reactionary or revolutionary...
...The road to the masses is not hard to JBe» The road to power is, even after ue- have recruited millions...
...And alas, it is a state of mind that is founded on a terrible mistake...
...Every textile mill, shoe factory, steel mill, shipyard and farm would be mobilized to produce uniforms, equipment and supplies...
...But the bonds are still here...
...Another war »ould collapse hecaoas of oar inability to carry it on, and what started as war would end up to world revolution...
...In those days they were richer in money than we...
...It could completely destroy the little laternational trade left...
...External conditions impose limitations on what HjSlI to do...
...After the Legislature adjourns, the appropriation cannot be increased without a special session, which will only be called after tremendous suffering on the part of the unemployed...
...But if the gto% will try ta oppose it by ueiag violence, the isocj-tosts will ^_Br** **** * era HUiLi tut...
...The book is strongest on its critical side...
...Moreover, the use of a legitimate method at the wrong time is ftejg to bring the reverse of what a movement expected to attain, ft nay weaken the movement and strengthen the enemy...
...When used it ESito to- something else and the relative meanings depend upon the n^'|T«tor of the person who uses the word...
...In a tense •toggle the enemy likes to have us do the thing that will strengthen ¦fit is the duty of the movement to find out what the enemy wants toto do and then—don't do it...
...Many people think of Hkiey Long and Father Coughhn as "radicals" because of the language they use...
...As Comrade Abromowitch retonto wrote, in the United States our fundamental problem now is Ml the road to power but finding the road to the masses...
...Every group of Communists declares ?tot ft Is "revolutionary" and we dispute the claim...
...Not ¦to tot they will later if we are fighting side by side with them ¦Mtot further degradation...
...Such examination, McCarthy pointed out, would disclose that the large corporations in AJbgjhony County were the "chif, #*»»¦" "The corporation* take advantage of the relief rolls, * ha said, "to force older men out of employment...
...K|U declared aim is a complete basic change in society it is revolu¦tory, no matter what its methods are...
...As for being more "radical," this word is vague...
...This view is widespread but it is erroneous...
...The Igftfbtte followers are said to be radical compared with the radical BHMCSBts...
...A movement may itotee a method which in one set of circumstances will serve it and in Jgother get of circumstances it would be folly...
...and to the constantly increasing cost of food and other necessities...
...The old force Anarchists were regarded as "atoilalaiii tries" by many people and yet every school of Socialism sutored them to be reactionaries...
...After a year their resources began to lag a little...
...By some it mmm going to the root of things...
...by others, it means the extreme...
...On its critical side it presents the hopeless confusion of thought that influences the policies of politicians and statesmen, a confusion that has its tragic results in a wrecked world of industry, trade and •finance...
...The vast sums they borrowed from us are still due...
...In this country Communists pack ten-fold more "reformist" mmusxm into their platforms than Socialists do...
...But almost all the money that was spent by the European nations and ourselves was borrowed money...
...This may otftogplguted...
...Some Democrats are said to be radical...
...T*HIS volume supplements "The * Future Comes," a study of the New Deal, oy trie same authors...
...Editor's Corner Review of and Comment on Events Here and Abroad, Critical and Otherwise By James Oneal Radicalism and Revolution WMTSJS the past few weeks we have received several letters inJp quiring about toe basic differences between Communism and tohlHim On the other hand, there are those who assume toot there agate* or no differences except that Communists act in a way that Hp*!* dhUeuh: or impossible to cooperate with them...
...It is useless toNSf «* ** illusive...
...Pennsylvania's * reactionaries and those interested in reducing taxation - are making a drive to convince the people that relief is too high and can be drastically reduced...
...Then, almost without knowing it, they begin to say to themselves that there are things worse than war...
...For example, "self-determination gr INgroes...
...The End of War Now then, suppose Europe were to go to war again tomorrow, what would happen in this country...
...The prosperity is over and gone...
...Of course not...
...This is not to be another fact-finding commission but a body of men and women with authority to formulate proposals for action...
...What we will to do and what we can do, do not alWJgs correlate...
...They grow weary and muddled...
...On the contrary, it is likely to increase owing to the fact that many families will exhaust their own resources and will have to go on relief...
...Joseph McCarthy stated that the local Relief Board resorted to intimidation in order to demoralise the League and related instances when police were called to drive the unemployed from District Relief units and that injunction proceedings were instituted...
...What a Democrat aaajf consider radical a Farmer-Laborite would not, and what a faaanvLaborite considers radical others would not...
...Or read tins one in a Sabbath day address: "The one thing that will produce $2 wheat is war...
...And so, recently, everywhere — in little towns, in Pullman cars, in city offices—yon hear the observation that a good war would get us out of all our troubles pretty quickly...
...All who are acquainted with the facts know that the unemployed have "chiseled" from their relatives and neighbors in order to get by at all...
...The theologians first had their fling and they were followed by the scientific elite, allied with the rising industrial and commercial classes...
...For two years or more business had been sinking down...
...What is more, Europe has practically announced m her intention of never paying...
...He word "radical" is relative in its meaning...
...fiwejd be folly because of sure defeat and weakening the union's remrces and the .morale of the members, making it more difficult to Sate when conditions did become favorable...
...The New Leader Book Corner Dr...
...When every nation in Europe sprang to arms in 1914, immediately something happened in this country...
...But we're likely to get it, and it might not be as bad as it seems...
...The road to the masses ¦atoat ignore what they are thinking of day and night...
...There is nothing to justify a belief that this figure will be materially reduced...
...Reliable soured* fgMfte Itt among the 23 p >r Cent receiving ments for 'relief reo^va^ frmg*the the entire cash eemtaan...
...The answer is simple...
...This thought is back of the investigation of the State Emergency Relief Board voted last week by the Legislature after hearing speeches to the effect that most of the people on relief are "chiselers" and do not need help and that employes of the SERB are merely drones drawing big pay for doing nothing and that the appropriations should be drastically cut...
...A report given by the State Emergency Relief Board, in response to a resolution by Darlington Hoc pes, Socialist member of the Legislature, indicates that the SERB only allows to those on direct relief eighty per cent of their minimum budgetary deficiency and that the allowance without the deduction is in most cases less than the minimum cost of the immediate necessities...
...while the Farmer-Laborites are regarded aa radical com¦tot wu» the LaFoltetteites...
...We had to call the women from their homes to work in the factories, to run street cars and elevaters...
Vol. 18 • May 1935 • No. 18
