AFTER THE BREATHING SPELL-WHAT?
ALTMAN, IRVING B.
After the Breathing Spell—What? The National 'Association of Manufacturers Wants to Go Back to Rugged Individualism with an Outworn Program for a Decrepit System—Disaster if System Is Adopted By...
...More desired to limit the pewe*^, of the king, but -found no class in the England of his time to support his cause...
...Theoretically this appeared possible in More's time...
...Here is the program offered by the N.A.M...
...The truth of the matter is that no country has ever had a true gold standard in which all the debt mediums, currency and bank money could be converted into gold...
...But he re main/^ unquestionably a great sew Who .succeeded in discovering ta) Socialist Ideal...
...And finally, as we finish reading the statement of the N.A.M...
...If we would throw intellectual integrity to "the winds—or accept the Communist position of direct action—I would say, let's give three cheers for the N.A.M...
...For* thi...
...average man is anil "the Wtm...
...to destroy tile rights of cititans in the ownership of private property by engaging in competition with them...
...What could any one have said to parry the indictment...
...Henry Vin inSpressed him into his service and elevated him to the post of Lord Chancellor.(1529...
...Mere's satire did not halt at tnshops and Popes, at the confessional or absolutism...
...There was complete religious liberty, and nothing was taught in the schools objectionable to the beliefs of anyone...
...But who is it who in the "Utopia" puts its teaching into practice...
...hg^te say about Roosevelt and his The N.A.M...
...More's opposition to the king's ambition cost him his life...
...Erasmus of Rotterdam, More's confidential friend, wrote about it: "More wrote the 'Utopia' to show why the states are in such sorry plight, but he had England particularly in mind, having studied and learned it very thoroughly...
...The chances of his embracing such ideas were very small, to be sure...
...Complains g*AhjK>&t ten million remain un...
...Against the ergojnent that he would render private property praeticatty Impossible, he gives a description of a Communist community which made* his "Utopia" so famous...
...On this point f wrote in my book on More: "Nowhere did the Church conflict appear bo openly, ee shamelessly the expression of tie hist, megalomania and greed of absolutism as is England...
...The fantastic element in More's "Utopia" was the immaturity of the proletariat of that period...
...jgfen comes the National AaeodHm of Manufacturers with a aaarful indictment against the ipsereU Administration for failto to bring about prompt and full Kary...
...to impose unnecessary burdens upon the people by unwarranted expansion of governmental activities...
...Parttewlarlv today, ¦ this period of "coordination'' *T millions of human individual, their subjugation under slogan...
...marked the four i hundredth anniversary of the death of the great Utopian Socialist, Thbnias More...
...Dp to tbe present time Haaor have been supporting the fin...
...For a gold standard creates an artificial scarcity of money and makes it' possible for the bankers to get their rake-off...
...One was at liberty to attribute to It much that was good and much that was bad, depending upon one's sources of information...
...Thomas More and Nicolai Lenin...
...present AdmtnUtntmt HUp more than one viewpoint i must be regarded as an ^Y-f spectacle All economic KSbcs establish the fact that IBSl has benefited con^kterteniiiiw past and present ?Vdt gyration policies...
...growing solidarity in the 'tanks of capitalistic organizaKfc evidenced by the almost SLgoous opposition of busiKoterest-s ud of the...
...Added to this was tlie fact that Henry VIII had confiscated the property of the Church not for purposes of the general welfare but to distribute it among his own servile and characterless courtiers...
...But there appeared to be no other road possible...
...They ar» insisting that these taxes stifle business initiative and enterprise and that the burden should be shifted to those in the lower income brackets...
...The gold standard is a "thieves' standard" demanded by reason of the fact that all capitalist nations distrust each other...
...caused him to ihe beheaded, because lie wotrioN not recognize bim as bead of the Church in place of the Pope...
...He had no great faun this, to be sure, hot hi gT * other power capable of i? * it...
...All financial dmmuw have | been directed toward salvaging the broken-down economic structure...
...In this sense do we, "materialist" exponents of international Socialism, join in the canonisation af Thomas More...
...The gold standard has never been a satisfactory monetary system— in fact it has never worked here or elsewhere...
...of vhuman thought...
...i r •# By this we do not mean to say that More was a fanatical champion of all Catholic dogma...
...The National 'Association of Manufacturers Wants to Go Back to Rugged Individualism with an Outworn Program for a Decrepit System—Disaster if System Is Adopted By Irving B. Altman Editor, The People's Money Egg...
...The National Association of Manufacturers, the Chamber of Commerce, bankers and business ¦son in general * resent the fact that the government" having 'res a cned their institutions continues to spend, large sums on relief and on "works project*," some of' which eater into competition with private enterprise, furthermore' they *tr*nnonsly , oppose regulation, particularly such measures as the Public Utility Act to eliminate, the glaring abasias in...
...unleashed by stupid and unaerspulous ignoramuses, slogans pictured as the high point of tSS social ideal of the 20th Century, let as recall with gratitude •*» fearless enemy of bloody tyranny...
...This is quite sufficient, for no one is idle...
...who died a martyr to Catholicism...
...It was at thk 'time that the king came into conflict with the Pope with the determination to supersede him as head of the Church in England...
...The women work as well as the men...
...A Notable Career ' Born in 1478, More made his influence and activity felt at the time of the English Reformation, the mainsprings of which came not...
...Hera is whs* the N-A..M...
...for economic recovery ana permanent prosperrvyt 1. ¦ Expenditures [should be} confined, solely to the proper and necessary function* and purposes of government...
...None other than a sovereign prince...
...iovernment efforts to promote Hhery have, in fact, retarded HJwry, and brought government Hiding far above income...
...In More's ideal state the priests were elected by the people through secret ballot...
...His significance as a martyr, on the other J hand, was recognised immediately after'his death, and it will continue to be emphasized as long as [the Catholic .Church retains any 'large degree of influence...
...If the govy eminent carried out this neogrant to fts ultimate conclusion it wouM r withdraw all' financial supposjF from the banks, the insurance companies, the mortgage companies, the railroads, etc., and most of all the government would stop "rigging" the government bond market, thus at once making 90% of our banks insolvent...
...BBayed in America ami...
...They succeeded in making themselves superior to the Church parliament or assembly...
...2' would hare to abandon Marx, sfi taught that the emancipatios I the workers could be acromoHsm only by the workers them*eb«and to return to the \iew, pi pounded by More 400 years IW and by the Leninists today, fad the emancipation of the worhsn can he accomplished only by £ enlightened Communist desaofjpE of a prince or dictator...
...Plank three constitutes a restatement of the laissez-faire position demanding a free market, lack of price control, freedom of monopolistic corporate practices, little or no regulation by public authorities, and most of all speculation...
...The princes were to be governed by the Pope who, in turn, was to be subject to' the "authority of the Council, guided by the principles of humanism...
...More himself was skeptical about it...
...Ik do this ..the : government . has P>d up an enormous debt which B** present economic organixa|pB operating on the basis of private profit can only be-met in two was*: Is Taxation...
...Any seen regression ia Social* thought wools imply a resfi from the position already aebJsfll in its struggle upward by an en> rated, organized, disciplined, «*• stive proletariat to a ronditHw g an ignorant, unorganised, sshdK able and discouraged LamptV proletarmt, vegetating ia sfhrnn and hopelessness, and looking far salvation not to itself bat to MM miracle or Messiah...
...The only Hpsa for unemployment is re¦psyatent through the revival Ktrrate enterprise...
...The figures show that the individuals in the u p p e r income brackets have been the principal beneficiaries of the huge government outlays...
...For this reason the short work day is not only quite sufficient, but more than adequate to produce a superfluity of goods necessary to the requirements and enjoyment of *«¦" ¦ Jl w m The economically educated Mora came to this conviction at a time when the machine dM not as yet iplay any part in Industry...
...Dogma and ritual remained unaltered, die only fcfcange being the gnbrtittttkwr of she king for the Pope...
...pros* HL...
...the women themselves were not excluded from the priesthood, although they were seldom elected to it...
...This would give the commodity and securities speculators a chance to Kft prices, thereby creating artificially a higher price level...
...No one today believe* tkt I prince would ever intlOassMi^* monism, but not a m-*ifl| that a dictator could d» ^**' dictator vested by fortnhssnT cumstances with power *sjb from victory in civil through promises to bring Sa£ an era of peace, unliimterfl dom and general aoundaao/2 happiness, to be achieved tbsm dictatorship...
...Soofc r«« Poor" "Under the American system," the Association goes on to say, "government has no valid sanction to use its taxing power "to penalize thrift and success...
...Next it would abandon the federally sponsored "works" measures, thus swelling the army of' the unemployed by three or four millions...
...Private property was to remain in force for the working people, peasants and artisans: The -military nobility itself was to produce nothing...
...2. - A currency maintained upon a dollar of fixed gold content...
...In the fIntroduction of his "Utopia" More lenses and criticizes very aptly s characteristic* of this period England, ft was the period that ¦narked the rapid development of *e wool industry in England and • the Netherlands, accompanied fe- a rise is wool prices...
...And More impresses us not onb> as a thinker but also as a noal character...
...cerning his dictator-prinei, »are quite confident of the efmy...
...Moreover, Henry VIII was impelled to his Reformation by his many marriages, to which the Pope did not show ¦himself as tolerant as the king demanded...
...3. Limitation of the use of government's supervisory powers over banking and credit solely to the purpose of maintaining the safety of bank deposits and a sound credit structure, thus" furthering our national welfare...
...Imagine having a fire department which always broke down daring a fire...
...He fought against the despotism of .princes which was asserting itself at that time in England...
...However, these same elements would not interfere with a "credit inflation" similar to that of 1925-29...
...But in adopting a series of ¦tores, labeled the "New Deal gfgram," . the Roosevelt AdminHttiaa baa iastiturJonalized pov¦}» This it has found necessary Bps as the ¦ alternative to otter •lapse of the capitalist economy...
...sees in the 39 billion dollar debt the menace of higher taxes...
...The absolutism of princes, which had supplanted the feudal monarchy, and then in its inception, was a revolutionary element in relation tc its predecessor...
...The government will sot...
...Between as em More .lies the colossal fact of tJB international labor movement <2 recent decades...
...I defy anyone to produce a better program far the destruction of capitalism than the one offered by this powerful business organization...
...This Uptiori exists despite an enprm¦K potential dfsnand for certain...
...This according to the conservative economists is good, sound economics...
...r* the country isd organizes in eeeordanee with his own Communist plan...
...What other road was there open at that time for* the attainment <W Communism...
...On this point, too, More satirizes: "What do you do but first cultivate thieves in order that you might later hang them...
...On She contrary, his point of view Was that of an independent, courageous thinker...
...1 Moreover, men of action have .iIsito Attracted rrejAev and wid#T attentkm -than men of theory, haroes of the pen...
...All members of the community are obliged to work and all enjoy the benefits of communal property ownership, particularly of the means of production...
...The French linmanist Brfidau (14671540) wrote: "We are greatly indebted to Thomas More for his 'Utopia,' wherein he gives the world a model of a happy life...
...Were any one of them to embrace Communist views he could make possible a Communist state...
...A Thieves' Standard The test of the soundness and workability of any monetary system depends on how it functions under abnormal conditions...
...twenty ^Hha continue on relief...
...at best it can only help spread the losses...
...Two decades had passed since Marx had declared upon the founding of the First International that the emancipation of the working class could be accomplished only by the workers themselves, while twenty years before that he had given expression to the same idea in the Communist Manjh^ And today...
...For this reason he sought refuge ¦in-a doctrinaire illusion, which he .shared- with many humanists...
...Because More enjoyed high standing as a jurist among the merchants of London, the king sought to' win hfJh to" his side...
...With bitmg sarcasm More says ion this point in his "Utopia": More as a Realist "The English sheep, who had been soft and contented, became transformed into such greedy, rapacious beasts that they devoured «*/en human beings and depopulated whole fields, households and communities...
...More approved not only of divorce but also af the retoarriageof the divorced...
...S Particularly noteworthy in this Connection is what the "Utopia" to say on maariage and reion...
...Many powerful landowners saw fit, tfcerefbre, to drive the peasants from Mteir estates in order to utilize jhe ground for sheep cultivation...
...His king, Henry VIII...
...I made this point almost a half century ago (1887), when the period of the immaturity of the proletariat appeared to have been long outgrown for Western Europe...
...A cursory rmi> at the Soviet Union give* Jk...
...The Modern Utopians Were dictatorship to pro*, fa road to rack Owaaiaiilsa>^K would have reason to ressjjk Marx on this point and t* iflp to the More-Lenin eoueeptiea...
...Is this really to be the upshn of the long process of social development and the progress 8 Socialist thought...
...Marriage and Divorce "Their priests married the women of the laud most distinguished for their qualities...
...i' 2.' Inflation...
...UnemploymeTit <ptsme...
...This m turn produces a greater dollar income for the nation, making it possible to increase the federal tax revenues...
...Any attempt to modify or alter the habitual practices of the economic order meets with the vigorous opposition of its beneficiaries and others influenced by prevailing conceptions of law, politics, industry, and other forms of social organization...
...We have already toointed oat that he regarded the Council as superior to the Pope...
...Nearly all these , biographies have been written by .theologians...
...More's Utopia" was the product of carefal atpdy and profound understanding of the economic conditions of his time, the era of primitive capital accumulation...
...This couhi not, become apparent, however, until the 'development of 'modern Socialist "thought, i.e., not - before the 19th Century...
...Two Kinds of Communism By KARL KAUTSKY JULY 8, 1935...
...The Character of the state depended upon the princes...
...we come to this gem: "This American system has not failed...
...And yet aJ no few Socialists was fcjn realistic element ih th, s movement of our day what k I emphasised as «s»^9 fantastic in the "Utopia...
...of their doctrine...
...And yet More's significance as a Socialist is much greater than as a Catholic martyr...
...Given this situation we can fully appreciate the strength.and value of bank-deposit insurance...
...There was no party, no thw to speak for -Socialism...
...The working day is limited to six hours...
...In More's case there was plenty of evidence the "devil's advocate" might have cited, including More's .beliefs on marriage and divorce, as fcpressod Ht the "Utopia...
...For a long time More, as the author of "Utopia," aroused less interest than did his courageous repudiation of the British tyrant's usurpation...
...No genius coajf have foreseen it, but it require* a peculiar InteSeetaal makeup to bj Wind to it today...
...reason More was^levated to sainthood !on May 19 of this year, after havtng>been pronounced blessed in 1886...
...Obviously insurance cannot protect depositors against losses...
...Although More supports himself upon Plato to justify his Comounism, Plato's- Communism was of quite different type...
...This development gave rise to a vapid increase m the member el beggars and criminals, «' rise in tbh cost of living and the aggravation of general Irving conditions for the toiling population...
...This doctrine was certainly inconsistent with the absolutism 'to which Henry VIII aspired, nor was it in harmony with, the absolutism which the Popes had set as their objective and to which they had attained in Catholic countries at the very period of the Reformation...
...The •plena 1 government debt, which Hi be paid by" the present and 1|» future generations, has in#ased to over thirty billion dolHi and is still growing at an naming rate . . . ." .This statement lets the cat out (fttae bag...
...More regarded it not as a romantic faree but as a serious enterprise...
...adopt « deliberate policy of...
...There are no rich or aristocratic idlers, and no beggars...
...The goM standard has always broken down when put to the test...
...This is necessary to prevent destructive taxation, or what is worse, uncontrolled credit or currency inflation...
...Plato demanded Communism only for the military nobility, which was to rule his ideal state...
...currency inflation, snehas was done in Eaance and Germany shortly after the war -to rid themselves- of, the overburdening rnternal debt*^ The creditor classes ' in " the United States are too powerful to allow this to happen here...
...More himself tells us so...
...Our epoch and our descendants will regard this presentation as a school of excellent thought and useful guidance from which the states will draw their institutions and to which they wfll appropriately adapt their needs...
...The organization of More's state is quite different...
...the masses are J-suffering privation, destitute snd hunger...
...We cannot accept More as oat guide to Communism...
...As a humanist More stood in close contact with the greatest thinkers of the Christian wcrld, and his own thinking was essentially internationalist...
...His work remaW one of, the greatest achievement...
...It was still without experience ami traditions...
...Obviously, the only defense eeuU have been that the '/Utopia" was a work of mere "phantasy," "an intoxicated hour's fantastic play of ideas;1' as Professor Alfred Stern put it ("The Socialists at the Period of the JReforraatios," 48833 Nothing could be more erroneous than this assumption...
...from -Che people but from a king aspiring, to absolute power...
...All work, according to plan, for the common interest...
...He fought against its efforts to gain domination over the hierarchy of the Church and it« possessions and- to make them serve its purposes...
...In 1632 be had already declared phat the Council should be invested with the power of admonishing and punishing the Pope fcrd of removing him from office fn the event of failure to mend -fetis conduct...
...In the eyes of his king" More was a traitor, and so far as the Pope was concerned he was fundamentally a heretic...
...In place of the international Church it sought to establish a limited, national church...
...8 " rV Immediately after his death' he began to receive much attention from Catholic historians and became the subject of many bioggraphiea, beginning with 1567 to our own day...
...And those sssfl lieve in dictatorship today tat, no such doubts as More bsfcSB...
...in fact let's urge its adoption...
...From the immediate, practical point of view, however, More's position favored the Pope agains* the king...
...Today he would demand a much shorter work day to give employment to everybody...
...BatiaJ goods and services...
...It was obartous that More could not reconcile tumsetf to this kind of Reformation...
...the program obviously calls for "balancing" tbe budget...
...The 'm^\, the product of the devenjfa scientific Socialism ots?M of a pot tary...
...In my book on More I wrote: "There was but one element of phantasy in the 'Utopia': not its objective hat the means whereby it was to be attained...
...Qm She baste of his economic knowledge he comes to the conclusion that communal ownership of property is the only solution of social evils...
...The fact is that the gold standard is more of a "racket" than a monetary system...
...The proposal calling for the return to some gold basis for our currency truly reveals the.muddleheadedness of our "best thinkers...
...There are no useless enterprises, no waste of labor through planlessness...
...His.defen-se of the Catholic Church was political rather than theological...
...No Fantasy Other Contemporaries likewise took "Utopia" very seriously...
...It was |A founded on complete lfcerty...
...How well it would be if the ideals of this saint now so highly esteemed by the Catholic Church were to be applied in all those countries where the Church wields •> decisive influence-' , The canonization ritual requires a test of the eligibility of the candidate for sainthood, during which in "advocatus diaboli," the devil's advocate, is given an opportunity to offer any objections he may seem valid against canonization...
...Direct ^Bt although necessary, isao" for this unemploymen^and Pt public works ^relief program is rfcmonstrated failure...
...So far as I know, i there is ' only one biography of ¦ More written by a Socialist, the I one of which I am the author: i "Thomas More and His . Utopia,'" which appeared in 1887 (sixth I printing 1926...
...It did not break down in depression because of weaknesses or evils in the system?' Yes, dear reader, the terrible nightmare of the past six years has just been the result of allowing your imagination to run away with you...
...The N.A.M...
...these large stuns have also reached £ somewhat depleted coffers of it big business organizations so tt**they are now overflowing, jp the sieve through which some (tbe money is supposed to ¦¦jrie down to the masses seems clogged...
...program...
...This was not *its only feature, however, which repelled More...
...It is the product of deep and original econonik thought on the needs and 'capacities of his time...
...Their slogan is "Soak the Poor...
...Whom the god* wfeaM destroy, they first make lf^rt^au...
...relief must be accorded • naUions of families on the dole...
...the utihty field...
...In the eyes of the capitalists Roosevelt has' overstepped the bounds of propriety one expects from a president elected to preserve property rights...
...is only one alight mffeh*Bsi| believed that only a asJ^ prince could put Conunsstt f effect...
...This means throwing all parsons off relief...
...It has not collapsed...
...To Strengthen Despotism The English Reformation was a movement aiming at the strength-, ening of despotism...
...The "Utopia" represents the first conception of a Communist State gWnfl&ed upon economic 'principles, rather than in purely ehieal end political conceptions...
...absolute confidence that tat St tastie element in More's "OaS constitute* ft* surest founds** Lenin Is supposed to htm |. chieved what the Catholic ssj conceived only as a dream, tfm sure, More's Communism wajW sentiaTly democratic...
...Vain were the efforts to cope with the situation by means of barbarian justice...
...He makes possible the erection of a Communist state through the instrumentality of • prince, named "Utopus," who eon...
...More's "Utopia" is not an idle phantasy...
Vol. 18 • December 1935 • No. 70
