On the Basis of our Hopes And Not of Our Fears
Lee, Algernon
"On the Basis of our Hopes And Not of Our Fears" By Algernon Lee A FEW days ago local lackeys of tteAllen-Kraeger-Thorna! junta bad the impudence to publish in the old-party press a...
...1 with a rich program in wUistj I Gladys Swarthout, Carlo l*StJ I elli, Friedrich Schorr, JunsS: 1 Huehn, Joseph Bentonelli, Flar-j I ence Easton and other nshal I opcia stars will participate t»| j gether with the Metropolitan I orchestra and the AmerisSfl I ballet...
...General Franco's dictatorship was set up as the six (lowers of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay and the United States were drawing up their joint note for ending the dispute between Paraguay and Bolivia...
...The American Liberty I ¦eague, the Republican publicity squads, special writers for the daily press and contributors to the magazines declare that Roosevelt has gone "Marxian...
...That saving force h j lot the Roosevelt Administratis*,| it is the movement of Organised Labor...
...As germs they can only bring disease, controversy, decline and prostration...
...not want to take a chance like they did in 1914: The second rea- ' son is that the British diplomats discount the reports that Italy- and Poland are willing to stand by France...
...But, from the political point of view, fhe United States will-not take a hand either directly or indirectly in the present European mess...
...Now it's all clear...
...Hitler probably over-played j his hand, or rather, his strong j arm, by militarizing the Rhine- j land and establishing what Gen-1 eral von Blomberg, the Reich's j War Minister, called a "a new 1 era of power...
...HISTORY UPSIDE DOWN TO paraphrase a statement by Marx and Engels in 1848, "Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as Socialistic by its opponents in power >" The Roosevelt Administration is being charged with being "Socialistic" on a dozen or more fronts...
...If and when they'Sj,;' nounce the manly and reaamgr faith in democracy and beeees blind followers in a movement'5 Dank- and despair, it is not ThoeMK nor Browdar that will be able ts...
...This hope is based mainly on the British efforts to bring about a settlement on some sort of a basis which is expected to be found either in Paris or at Geneva.' Of all the European countries, Britain is about the only one which has remained cool and looks at the situation from the realistic point of view...
...The afturaaw promises to be more interestiag than any we have attempted w> fore...
...We hoid the aaa* view today...
...And that is characteristic of the Altmans and Herlings and Laidlers...
...Coming fresh from the troubled European scene, President Roosevelt and Secretary Hull will have the advantage of Col...
...A&EEE ened mob sometimes does hare U its enemies for a while...
...Whoever in this country toaaj mouths phrases about "bogus democracy" and hints that the cheJoj .icfore us is a choice lul weoa Wm ciatic dictatorship and aomeUuap -ailed "dictatorship of the worl ers" is, consciously or unconscieas!y...
...One, that by some miracle Europe will prevent the holocaust that war would bring, and, two, that if war does come Uncle Sam will find some way of keeping out...
...It is more like a comic opera imitation of Hitler and Mussolini than a serious venture likely to impress the larger nations of South America...
...der...
...Between the responsible oranizations and sects the intelligent worker has little difficulty in choosing where he belongs...
...And that neutrality will have to be purchased with a complete repudiation of all the actions France, Great Britain and the other members of the League have taken against Italy since Mussolini's legions invaded Ethiopia...
...Our celebration of Woman's Day this Sunday afterosflS wiil reflect some of the magniwh of the tasks before us...
...These organizations have in each instance built something serviceable to the working masses, trade unions fighting for the day-to-day interests of the workers, the Labor and Socialist press, educational, fraternal, insurance and1 other institutions of labor, including our indispensable Debs Radio Station WEVD...
...Losing confidence in nash it ceases to think and, foBem whatever demagogue most 4gB| fully plays on its passion* of tea...
...It is predicated on tht assumption that large accumulation of idle re serves is clogging economic recovery, i The President believes that if the hoarded undivided corporation profits, those that are frozen assets, can be forced into movement, _it will result1 in increased business and employment...
...Like a splinter in a healthy organism they can produce only irritation and sores...
...The Treasury estimated that last year corporations saved up $4,500,000,000 in undivided dividends and it is that money that the government wants to bring out of the coffers and make it work...
...It will be a sad dar for the toiling and suffering es if their fears come to outeaK...
...AMATEUR PROPOSALS r' is not surprising that queer political sects have appeared and obtained a large following...
...are going to succejfl There is one force at work wh# I think will be able to cultivm intelligent hope faster than thv breed fear...
...We heartily agreed with Thomas in 1933 when he rejoiced to see the American people acting "on e? basis of their hopes rather thanef their fears...
...When Thomas gave it such generous praise, his Altmans and Herlings and Laidlers applauded...
...Our experience between 1914 and 1918 is always here to remind us, neutrality to the contrary notwithstanding, that you can never tell just what may happen...
...According to reports, not officially confirmed yet, no less than 10 divisions of the best Soviet troops are being dispatched...
...Tax Plan in the Making After nearly a week of milling over the President's tax proposals, members of Congress, including leaders chiefly responsible for revenue legislation, concede their inability to foreshadow with • any degree of assurance just what will finally come out of the hopper...
...their hopes...
...Stephen v"bv*et Benet's "Litany for Dictatorship** will be chanted by a group of •* young comrades...
...Paris received pledges of support from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Roumania, Jugoslavia, Greece, Turkey and Russia...
...When fear la?|Hi9^H masses it is immeasurably 'weoai Under the psychosis of peak • whole people may become a feoanV less and brainless mob...
...The British do...
...There is already too much aa*> fear, too much lack of wBm trust, too much doubt as to 2 possibility of "pressing forej^^l orderly fashion toward a felk>w|ph of free men...
...German and French troops keep on moving toward a common frontier...
...This country is not a party to the Versailles treaty nor has it any direct interest in the Locarno pact...
...The caption in part reads, "The Philosophy of the New Deal is Traced to its Sources—Karl Marx is the Prophet of its Course...
...But, should the administration decide to...
...That's mean...
...Qbt\-thing is sure...
...The first one is that the' British national defense is not ready for n major emergency...
...Townsend today had no use whatever for such proposals...
...Such an action, it is believed in London, will be aomeiont to killaltogether whatever prestige the League may still haveon Europe, without actually serving the cause of peace...
...The war machinery has already started moving...
...Over the week-end the impression crystallized that Treasury suggestions of "alternatives" to revision of the corporate surplus tax structure—such as a manufacturers' sales tax, stiffer personal income levies, revival of nuisance taxes, etc.—will have the inevitable effect of generating support for the President's original plan...
...Women active in the peace movement, in the cooperative societies and in the trade unions, also joined our ranks on that day...
...I do not believe that these fearmonger...
...Nineteen years ago we went into the war "to end wars" and "to make the world safe for democracy...
...The fact that important concentration of troops is taking place along the German border is less threatening than the reported massing of Russian troops at the Latvian and Lithuanian borders...
...Between the turmoil in Japan and the new crisis in Europe, the State Department and its diplomatic representatives at strategic centers .are working overtime these days and nights, watching the tortuous and incalculable course of events...
...The organizations and institutions represented in this issue represent life and responsible activities...
...Paraguay is a small agricultural country with less than a million inhabitants and its venture into a military-fascist dictatorship is not important...
...U. S. to Remain Neutral— Maybe The United States Government, while fallowing closely through its representatives abroad the- Euro]>ean developments, is determined not to take sides under any circumstances...
...As Socialists, s^^^^enu^^ • eight years the B^w> j Socialist Party G'rtr" Weil-Kle.n in this country has set aside a date, usually March 8, this year March 15, for the celebration of Woman's Day...
...The whole article from which these words are quoted may be found on the twelfth page of The New Leader of August 19, 1933...
...Ba" out th* good features as well as Algernon Lee the defects of the New Deal and arguea for further development on Socialist lines...
...Never in their history hsvs ¦# • men been faced with more stupendous difficulties, with more toifsS problems...
...Of course, it is realized that Britain's efforts may fail because of the intense excitement which prevails among the French and their allies...
...The sects mumbling outside seek a germ existence inside of these organizations and institutions and by clever maneuvers think of bringing the masses under their leadership and control...
...The Townsend movement is an example...
...Socialist Women to Mam International Day Sunday By Gertrude Weil Klein ^('MAX is probably the most written about, the most discussed, the most intensively studied creature in the world today, liver since she emerged from the primitive stages, and began to assert herself as a human being, she has had a spesial place as a subject of praise or dispraise...
...f ^mmm*ws*s*^*ws^s*ws^s*»*^ssmemme*me*w*mmmmswem -v FASCISM IN PARAGUAY •THE establishment of a fascist regime in Paraguay ¦I brings the first of this type of government to the Western Hemisphere...
...The audience will be regale...
...Neither Rogoff nor the editors of this paper nor the other spokesmen of the Socialist Party in New York —the so-called Old Guard—have ever gone farther than Thomas went in recognizing the forwardlooking aspect of the Rooseveltian program...
...SECTS DEADERS of this Twelfth Anniversary number of The Ix New Leader may well contrast it with the output of die Utopian sects, not excluding the variety to be found in the Socialist Party headed by academic self-styled "leaders.'' In this issue will be found news stories and articles representative of responsible organizations and institutions of the laboring masses...
...They- even proposed much better and surer ways of getting at that capital...
...Gert.—Ed...
...the vchief reason being the distribution of static wealth...
...Also conditional pledges of support from Italy and Great Britain...
...Rand School Concert j Sunday at M etropoHtsa I This Sunday evening, Mara 15, the Metropolitan Opera House is expected to be crowd* | ed with friends of the Rand School attending the all-star ss| I nual concert, arranged for the I benefit of the school...
...In case of a European war there is no doubt that the neutrality act permitting the export of raw materials will be more helpful to Germany'sv opponents than to the Reich, merely because the others have the necessary foreign exchange jto purchase what they need in this country...
...Before the depression legislation for old age pensions was taboo...
...What effect the setting up of the fascist regime will have on the proposals of these powers is a matter of conjecture...
...Still more is it a tribute to the vigorous and astute leadership' of the President and his administration...
...Bingham's first-hand knowledge of affairs "over there" at the moment when the -international situation is beclouded anew by Hitler's defiant resolve to remilitarize the Rhineland and denounce the Locarno pact...
...Perhaps nine out of ten who follow Dr...
...Have we learned our lesson...
...But the British want to avoid a showdown between Germany and France and her allies...
...Woman's Day was first celebrated in this country, but it was only a year, or perhaps two years, later that it was adopted by some of the European Socialist movements —first Denmark and Germany, then other countries following suit, until it became truly an interna110*901 holiday...
...There will Hj several dance numbers and tows musical interludes...
...I read only the other day that there are thousands of books-in the public library on woman, and only comparatively few on man...
...Military dictatorship under the rule of some politician in Latin-America is not something new...
...SituationCan and Will Uncle Sam Remain Neutral...
...The hope of avoiding a war in Europe, official quarters in Washington state, finds some strength in diplomatic reports received here since Saturday...
...Now let us call attention to what Norman Thomas wrote about the New Deal in August, 1933: '-'That such a revolution—for a revolution of a sort it is—has occurred is a tribute to the capacity of the American people under effective leadership to act vigorously without too much regard for precedent, on the basis of their hopes rather than their fears...
...Talks wB be few and brief The main fSr t.ion of the program will h*j|R| over to a pictorial presentation d , our hopes and aims...
...In normal periods the average voter has been content with capitalist individualism...
...I> {U long run it always does harm t» itself...
...In oar o«| country, the right of women ¦ take their places in business, »J education, in the arts—a tenasa place it has been at best—is bent thalienged...
...There is no common border between the Soviets and Germany, but Lithuania is known to be antagonistic to the Reich, because of the Memel question...
...groes, against whatever elemetsk may seem to Liberty Leagaan niost convenient to direct their mthinking wrath...
...Behind the Scenes in Washington The Internationa...
...The idea may be entirely novel to Democratic and Republican politicians but Socialists have preached that very thing long, long ago...
...doing the work of LaborfMh- 1 mies and increasing the daEae of black reaction...
...British, diplomatic quarters believe the best that can be hoped from Italy, in the event of a new European conflagration, is a neutral attitude...
...betray their friends, and degtaZ themselves...
...His followers are as little informed on the history of social legislation as he is but they become so obsessed with the idea and so worship its author that the crusade becomes almost a religion...
...Married women partsularly are being made the <»fcjwS of discrimination, without regad to their need for employment Successful attacks have been aajp : against such protective k-gtalttha for women as the minimum WIS* laws...
...While Uncle Sam is completely disentangled from Old World trials, tribulations and intrigues, any seripus threat to peace would be of immediate concern to us...
...An obscure man observing women salvaging food from a garbage can suddenly gets the idea...
...Besides the fact' that British public opinion is opposed to war, there are two other important reasons why the London government wants to counsel Paris to remain calm...
...In the event of a war, there is little doubt that the Lithuanian government will be placed in the position Belgium was in 1914, with the difference that Lithuania will not object to having its neutrality violated by the Russians...
...i the development of woman thSMft the centuries,' will he given witt i the cooperation of the Federal Tw»atre Projects...
...Of course, the reason given for the President's tax plan is revenueraising, but those in the know say that the raising of the government's income is only the secondary -objective...
...This year we hold our Woman's Day meeting with war clouds deepening and darkening all around us...
...RESPONSIBILITY VS...
...By Benjamin Meiman Our Washington Correspondent MAY 1 be permitted to digress from the Washington scene just this one time, to take a look at the international situation...
...We see dim a era tic rights, won after years of struggle, awes' j away in the name of one or as-.J other "perfect state...
...it Seeks to Establish the Principles of the French Revolution...
...We rise to remark that the French Revolution broke the shell of feudalism and out of it came not the New Deal but Capitalism...
...Official Britain is strong in its denunciation of Adolf Hitler, who has precipitated the crisis by his mishandling of the Locarno pact and the treaty of Versailles...
...And it's no won...
...He has no knowledge of the complex factors involved in the proposal and the result is a good intention embodied in a fantastic program...
...The United States still has two hopes...
...rj Woman, the home-maker fiae* I increasingly difficult to assart uS health and happiness of her faa» ' iiy with the prices of all necessihO rising and the pay envelope W> maining stationary or non-exbt» ant...
...A recent article in the New York Sun by Charles H. Franklin is an example of this literature...
...In the early days, when woman suffrage was a stirring issue among forward-looking women, and the Socialist Party was the only political party which championed their cause, the suffragists celebrated Woman's Day with the Socialists...
...junta bad the impudence to publish in the old-party press a statement that the.Socialist Party of XeurYork'and The New Leader its official organ, are seeking the —————————— re-ele ction of 3ffflj'ii***""'^,B| President Roose- IUJjk t| of this falsehood Hv^*^RrH|| ! and mi srepre- ||9 fe-rfi j Rented a signed jfflP^, 1 article by H. Ro- 4^Hnl this p a p e r, in ;-^|k ^S^^ which he pointed **fef§at...
...Larger inheritance tax and capital taxes are only a couple of ways of discouraging the hoarding, but, then, that's too sensible to be adopted...
...lt.~h&s occurred frequently in that section of the world long before fascism appeared on the scene...
...He begins a crusade for it and trie idea spreads rapidly...
...When Rogoff writes to the same general effect, but with somewhat less fervid rhetoric, these claquers accuse us of betraying the cause of Socialism...
...I have a first class A-l excuse: Behind the scenes in Washington just now international questions are discussed more heatedly than j internal ones...
...lead them and steer their Tinlewi They will be stampeded against Socialism, against Communism, sad against the Labor movement, St haps also against the Jews in^M places, elsewhere against the No...
...One guess is as''good as another, they say...
...Outside of them are the sects with their sickly gazettes, their little groups of "serious thinkers," the depression intellectuals counting their "revolutionary" beads, the play-boy radicals chewing old doctrinal cuds at the noon lunch counter, and each group planting cells in the trade unions with the intention of "leading" the organized masses in a straight and narrow path direct to a New Jerusalem...
...The war disrupted the-' commemoration of Woman's Day, and it was years before women in this country again participated in organized celebrations, which were really not celebrations, but demonstrations against customs and laws which subject women to political, economic and social inequalities...
...Here are achievements representing many years of labor and planning...
...Marx wrote much about this emergence of Capitalism out of the French Revolution but the New Deal belongs to the old age of Capitalism, not to its birth...
...when they abandon the old ways they are not prepared for intelligent pioneering into the new held...
...There's fair unanimity on one point—that whatever scheme administration leaders in House and Senate decide upon is altogether likely to command a majority in both houses...
...A histapKl semi-satirical pageant, depieBBgf...
...The writer had sought the origin of the New Deal in the writings^oi*Adam Smith, Rieardo, Proudhon, Sismondi, Bryan and the encyclicals of Leo "XIH and Pius XI but not until he consulted Marx did he find its'source...
...ror and of hate...
...Of course, there is always the possibility of a platonic move on the part of the State Department on the basis of the Kellogg pact...
...Legislation that invaded the held of private industry or that restricted the power of its owners was considered "foreign...
...It is only in a period like the present with its stark suffering for millions of human beings that masses of people turn from their old ways of thinking...
...We wish Thomas sta Even for the individual the Ararat counsellor i&^^^^H Fear warps men's judgment, mE them to their true interests, Sssmi them cringe before their eneiahn...
...and then Thomas goes on to say that the New Deal "may give us a chance in orderly fashion to press forward," and that "it paves the way for the new philosophy of the fellowship of free men who own and control the means of life," and so forth...
...invoke that pact, it will do it-without any hope of a real succesC * • * Robert W. Bingham, American Ambassador to Great Britain, is expected in Washington this week, having arrived in the country from London at the end of February...
...In the fascist countries of Europe women, of course, have lost all the liberties they had gained...
...President Roosevelt's plan is a little more obscure and a great deal less effective,, therefore, better adaptable to our form of politics...
...Diplomats oa the Move in Washington — The Present Status of the New Tax Plan and Its Chief Purpose...
Vol. 19 • March 1936 • No. 11
