SWEDEN TAKES MIDDLE ROAD Will America Follow Same Path-- Or Stumble Toward Dictatorship
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
SWEDEN TAKES MIDDLE ROAD Will America Follow Same Path-- Or Stumble Toward Dictatorship REVIEW OF MARQUIS W. CHILDS' "SWEDEN, THE MIDDLE WAY" PRAISES ROOK FOR POPULAR STYLE. ECONOMIC WISDOM AND...
...And these percentages are growing rapidly...
...CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS *w...
...Within a few weeks fifty cents was knocked off the price of a pair...
...Part of the impact of the ballyhoo is due to the concentration of . the cosmic gaze on Italy, Germany and Russia...
...Economic Contrasts Another imporant factor making for Socialism is the maldistribution of wealth, with its astounding contrast between poverty and misery on the one hand and wealth and luxury on the other...
...Now we have passed beyond the Machine Age to the Power Age...
...Sites which would now be expensive were bought cheap...
...No doubt the economists among them watch the capitalist system as a whole and speculate as to its future...
...The machinery was ready and, too, the spirit of self-help through common effort...
...The cooperative managers have gone into each field at the right time, with the right personnel, and with practical business sense...
...But when they want oil or rubber tires or houses or electric lights or flour, they go after that particular thing...
...The same story goes for flour, electric light bulbs and many other products...
...When it is finished it is beautiful, and it is theirs...
...The buying ability of the people could be maintained or quickly restored...
...They just got their eyes fixed on the twelve and a half millions that had been pulled out of their pockets...
...Thus from 1855* to 1927 there were 19 bnsmt* cycles of the average duration of 4611 months, of which the < - rsg« period of expansion or .prosperity was 25.4 months and the average period of contraction or depression was 20.7 months...
...No better example could be found than the magnificent, cooperative movement which has been built up since 1899...
...The four rubber companies formed a cartel, an air-tight trust, and boosted prices until the profits on galoshes were 60<Tc, 629'c, 77<*i...
...They don't say much, these Swedes...
...Now the cooperative plants turn ont a large part of the rubber footgear, tires and other rubber goods demanded by the country...
...The push for a general housing program -was made in 1916, when Swedish towns were crowded because of war conditions...
...But these measures did preserve forest lands and developed the technique necessary to keep trees growing on them...
...The book is utterly convincing because there is about it • net even a suggestion of the rspellant odor of propaganda...
...About 45 per cent or 82.4 years of the 72 rear* from 1855 to 1921 ware, therefore, depression years...
...One crowd yells that in Italy the trains run on time and the other bellows that everything is grander than' grand in Russia...
...They have three chief sources of wealth: forests, mines and waterfalls...
...The starting of the first state college of forestry in 1828 probably meant little more...
...This has been recognized by stoce- • of jurisprudence as well as by st& "dents of economics...
...has said:— ' "Against that conservation of mind which -puts to question every new act of regulating legislation and regards thevJegislation invalid or dangerous until it has become familiar, government — state und national — Has pressed on in the general welfare, and our reports are full of cases where in instance after instance the exercise of regulation was resisted and yet sustained against attacks asserted to be justified by the Constitution of the United States...
...Planning for power began in 1909, and the projects now provided for will carry up to 1945...
...Twenty per cent of the retail and wholesale trade of Sweden is carried on by the cooperatives, and ten per cent of the manufacturing...
...Since the magnificent achievement of this northern land has been pushed through by such tale of Mellerud...
...State ownership goes back into the Middle Ages—as in many European countries...
...f Nor are depressions exceptional occurrences...
...Then the cooperative central threatened to build its own factory...
...The tale sounds something like that of the Long Island utilities...
...There are no slogans, but there is a lot of sense...
...In America we run amok wKh our individualism...
...No Faultless "Leader" For this sort of mental hygiene the best means I have come upon i* Marquis W. Childs' book on Sweden (Sweden, the Middle Way...
...The king had his forests—just like any other lord...
...And what men...
...Managing Natural Resources Since the beginning of the age | of wood pulp, the state's forestry business has become prosperous, and it is run at a profit in competition with private industry...
...The Collapse of Capitalism and the Price of Galoshes It is of the essence of the Swedish method that each problem is tackled by itself...
...It is, moreover, a way that can be found and followed by people who have sense...
...Modern urban life has brought in its wake not only electric power, but ether indispensable pubfic utilities, such as transportation, gas, telephone, telegraph and an ever increasing number of industries and services which are gaining recognition as public utilities...
...It is not the Russian way, not the capitalist American way...
...So the prospect of missing a revolution really doesn't keep them awake at night...
...The New Deal eontinsnd the mat distribuion of wealth as be/off...
...And what profits are left to capitalistic concerns are very modest...
...192.254 were issued, or almost half a million patents...
...With the daily addition of scientific discoveries, electric power becomes more and more indispensable to our twentieth century society...
...They build...
...In 1905 and 192T laws i have been passed strictly controlling the use of all forest land, | even that owned privately, j The I state owns or controls aboui 12,; 500,000 acres of such land—nearly I as much as is still in the hands of | private corporations...
...And they are finding out how to insure food and shelter and comfort in old age without making every man a cog in a state machine...
...Since the depression they have been reduced to a hunger level...
...They have the highest fuges and the lowest unemployment in Europe...
...As a result of the low rates r.r.d the administration's interest in the welfare of citizens, 50^ of the farmers of the country have electric lights to illuminate the long northern nights...
...Childs is very modest...
...It was not made by philanthropists or statesmen or social planners...
...There is always hope that : his fixations may be removed, that again he may become capable of making analyses and comparisons...
...11): "The fact that the cooperative movement has concentrated on practical achievements, with little consideration for the ultimate aim of rebuilding society, often distresses the more conscientious cooperstors...
...The Swedish people are solving their problems one at a time, gradually building a better life, without exalting themselves or trying to put anyone else down...
...f Labor's Rights Obstructed by Raising The Constitution as a Barrier *? ONLY THROUGH SOCIALISM CAN THE BASIC INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL PRORLfMS tl MET AND SOCIAL JUSTICE AND STABILITY SECURED By Louis Waldman III jgOCIAL change and the legislation necessary to accommodate government policy to that change has frequently been obstructed by the conservatives in the name of the Constitution...
...What about men ? What about the American notion that government men are second-raters, that only competition, individualism, laissez fairr can attrSet and develop first-rate administrators...
...Yon have the feeling that this man looked calmly at the social planning of a nation and then set down nurly and squarely his observations...
...They just said: "We need houses...
...Their own modest soberness is reflected in Mr...
...Slowly, patiently his friends should try to divert his attention, should recondition his mind by centering it upon other objects...
...Right now I folks who get'their verbal goods 'from the intellectual chain stores spout a different idiom They i say we must chose between Pas- i dam and Communism, that democ- : racy never did amount^ to much sad now belongs to the horse-andbuggy age...
...At the I mines and in the homes they and j their children have all the conveniences for clean and convenient living...
...They debate about the Road to Power...
...And they didn't do any1 begging...
...Rather quiet themselves, they expressed appreciation for the orator's flow of language, and then 175 of them signed a resolution: "We tender Our thanks to the lecturer and hereby form ourselves into a cooperative society...
...Sir laTrty, from October 1938 to October 1994...
...Being ignorant in this way, they went right ahead and acted as if it was their state...
...Every project has been successful...
...In Sweden galoshes are more important than silk stockings...
...Swedish experience shows that it is a mighty good way...
...Private corporations must do business on terms dictated by the people...
...The people, the committee, the managers have their eyes on bread, timber, waterfalls, iron, oil...
...Average wages in the highest paid industries, even in days of prosperity, were too low to support a family in meagre comfort...
...97« hum ring lafsmice <f from $5—,— te tljmjlm: !MI reporting Internes ef frem t.iot.099 to $500.aM...
...It may be that in the course of time their Communist system will exhibit some good results...
...He will not be dispossessed...
...They had had their training in cooperation...
...The individual does not own the house...
...This is not charity...
...Without galoshes you are out Sf-Juck...
...And the outcome was a famous victory for the working class...
...Their cooperatives are growing, and their capitalists are faking lower profits...
...The system keeps right on running, but it is becoming their system...
...For them the depression is practically over— wfajle rich America still struggles in the trough of it...
...live |m...
...Yet it is permitted to be privately owned and operated as a state-protected monopoly...
...They are short on ballyhoo but long on houses, wages, insurance, food, electric power...
...It is a town «f free workers looking out for themselves and providing for themselves...
...Formerly they charged high rates...
...The notions that competition keeps prices ¦ down and enterprise up and that...
...They said: "Houses right now...
...is the first to suffer...
...And.that town, a mining town, a workers' town, has facilities for education and recreation that put to shame anything we can offer in this country...
...This means, with no profit, or the lowest possible profit, to any capitalist...
...They stand higher than any millionaire...
...The people themselves are in business...
...It has ushered in a second Industrial Revolution, as significant in its transformation of our civilization, as the first Industrial Revolution based on steam power...
...They are whittling down the rate of exploitation, edging out the capitalists...
...ECONOMIC WISDOM AND CONVINCING MANNER By William E. Bohn /CAPITALIST...
...two Socialist prime ministers...
...Within 30 years, the amount of electricity generated annually in the United States increased thirtytwo times, from 2,507,051,115 kilowatt hours in 1902 to 79,657,466,651 in 1932...
...The society of which he is a member owns all the houses...
...The house belongs to the society, not to the individual...
...Regulation of these utilities for over a quarter of a century has proved to be a failure...
...A New Way of life •Similar accounts are given of the railways, the radio, the airplane service...
...At the end of twenty years the amortization is taken care of...
...No P*sMess "leader" stands with his mouth open before the millions...
...allpowerful corporations as being private in nature is to close eue*» eyes to economic realities It * quite obvious that control of then* vital industries and vital naturil resources carries with it eontrft over the lives of mankind...
...Individuals may read Marx and_ have theories...
...But what our friends in Sweden are doing seems to me of the utmost significance...
...The simple'folk in this small town were provided a great treat...
...The congress of the cooperatives decided te declare war op the galosh trust...
...On a capital of less than a million dollars the trust realized a profit of more than twelve and a half millions in fourteen years...
...1,OO0|D9O increased from 20 to 46...
...He can pay his installments...
...Thank God, too, ] there are no pictures of thousands gf people marching or saluting or otherwise acting like regimented ¦mmntities...
...The whole affair is national business now, but it started in Stockholm in 1904...
...the tie years after 1929, money earnings of workers fell 35% and the cost of living fell only...
...Yale University Press, $2.50...
...Living in Sweden in these latter days, they dominated for the common good rather than for their private income...
...They mean much more than appears on the face of the figures, for the cooperative price structure controls the markets...
...By Marquis W. Childs...
...These Swedish people, quietly and sensibly, are building security without sacrificing all the beautiful things and all the little funny things that have made them different...
...There is no sacred tj*mh, no consecrated flag...
...These are modern heroes...
...The result is fascism, a sort of hypnotism...
...The legal and administrative machinery varies from industry to industry and, often, from enterprise to enterprise...
...There are three | types for different income levels...
...There is no exploitation...
...A recent study reuudV that in 1929 here were over Silxi nonfinancial corporations Isv country of which 299, or**** than 7 100th* of one per cent, control about half of the corporate wealth...
...government always makes a} mess of business used to be mouthed with a solemnity that j suggested holy writ...
...Here is a roll of honor: Albin Johansson...
...The state conj stantly adds to its holdings, while ) the corporations are limited to j what they now have...
...The proportion of the tax paid by persons with incomes under $5,000 was less than one-half of one per cent...
...There were private companies in the field before...
...So, while ! the state is gradually taking over (the property, it has the means of j preserving and developing it...
...far beyond the Arctic ! Circle, is a mining town where the I mine workers, through a local ! government which draws on the ! company through the power to j levy taxes, provide themselves with ! all the means for a satisfactory ] family and community life...
...Near the Arctic Circle fall is early, winter is long, and spring late...
...The city supplies fabricated materials at rock-bottom prices, furnishes the plana and supervises construction...
...The worker has insurance...
...President Hoover's Research Committee on Social Trends, in summarizing its findings, admitted that "The indications are that even in our late period of unexampled prosperity there was muc poverty in certain industries and localities, in rural area* as well as in cities, which was n of a temporary or accidental rs-u-e...
...The Swedish workers didn't say: "Socialism in our day...
...A Famous Victory But the figures, the pictures, the facts of this movement are eloquence enough...
...The - poor devil who has had his attention fixed in this way is merely irritated if you remind him of life • is Canada or New Zealand or some other place where they have no Mussolini or Stalin...
...What brains...
...They their own water power—so y*era in remote valleys and fpafeera far beyond the Arctic forces as these, there cannot be about it any of the nationalistic nonsense which is so prominent in some other countries...
...Thus, ir...
...The depression was short in Sweden because the relative purchasing power of the classes ?ad not got as far out of balance ai< in America...
...This battle over the winter footgear provided many a thrill...
...But so far as American workers are concerned these castles are mostly in the air...
...iDistribution of *#Mft* Few students of govenaHwtt and social science deny tfca^SBoaeaaw power has great, if nc^jjUuMMsei weight in governmental mtntrS nap in the shaping of the liWa of .Hm people over whom H ajaitiUsoii' Today economic power J<MN|s mere and more to reside in fi§9' aed fewer people without anMh<poturb> bility to the public amjwtteedt any effective means of cajjprol over them by the public . jsj...
...A galosh is more worth fighting for than a flag...
...They are not even troubled by the idea that they are postponing the collapse of the capitalist system...
...One should never abandon hope...
...Even the passing of a national forest law in 1600 probably meant only that the king was looking out for his property...
...I At Kiruna...
...Castles in the Air A man's house is his castle...
...Our author remarks (p...
...But American Socialists would not pay attention to a little thing like that...
...In the 41 years from 1870 to 1911, over a million patents were issued...
...Intertwined with every chapter— whether about cooperatives, power, mines, forests, rubber, flour—there is the story of the man, or of two or three men...
...What happens in the great stretches of the rest of the world becomes unreal...
...In Russia they are planning...
...It is, then, a case of state capitalism...
...Though he does not write as a Socialist or trade unionist, he naturally gives full credit to the Social Democratic Party, the trade unions and the cooperative associations...
...51$ persons reporting incenses of ttfM.ftM Or over...
...And in the short period of ten years, from 1920 to 1930...
...let's build houses...
...It is not a company town...
...All are largely owned and more or less completely dominated by the government...
...Housing for Workers Now 15T< of the population of Stockholm—factory workers, building workers, common laborers— are living in the beautiful cooperative houses...
...But In planning any project, general theory is not the point of departure...
...The state is all, the individual is nothing...
...The procedure is pragmatic...
...industrial Crt^i The report aiso verifibd the dft repeated statement that when .a depression sets in, tbe .worker...
...I but all of the rents are low...
...Even the worst cases may yield to treatment...
...The people have a sense of common ownership and common interest in the preservation of this source of wealth...
...Human beings have put their character and brains into the building of this new way of life...
...We are beginning to talk about such things...
...All prices are low and profits modest because the people themselves are in the field...
...They get things done...
...The s,tate has taken over the - great waterfalls, built great dams and owns the trunk lines of transmission...
...He is perfectly right in not making extravagant claims...
...Childs is not a propagandist of any sort...
...But the heritage of the past has been thrown out of the window, the individual life has been stripped bare...
...They don't know that the state is merely the executive committee of the capitalist class...
...Other Utilities Nor is this vast expansion of electric power at an end...
...So simple-minded Americans or ---1—— Circle enjoy electricity in their homes...
...The book is in popular style, a real • story with pictures, but it is packed full of economic and social wisdom...
...And the way is open for all Swedish boys and girls who show talent to get the necessary training and make their way in the field where these men have led...
...There is light all around—and air—and a -vegetable garden—and 1 a flower garden—and all modem j improvements—and a fine play- j ground...
...Their city male it possible, and they helped build it...
...The hundreds of thousands of members control the great organizations democratically...
...In any business system they would have dominated...
...BL They are funny people, these, pwedes...
...They get what they want at prices they can afford...
...And they live in them and own them...
...Capitalists get rich and the country goes to the devil...
...He adds the possible te keep the price dews...
...they are part of out industrial set-ups, under a capitalist society...
...Those dumb SWedes haven't imagination enough to worry about what to do in a revolutionary situation...
...Here comes in the story of the galoshes...
...They hire the best business man in the field and he gets the goods of best quality and at the lowest price...
...Perhaps their good luck is partly due to their never having studied political theory...
...In that year the city began to buy out-lying land for future homeneeds of its citizens...
...they have been subordinated...
...The report continues: **Tliin cop* centration is made even more pfr nificant when it n recalled tads* as a result of it, approximately 2,000 individuals out of a pnpMj tion of one hundred and twentyfive millions are in a position lis control and direct half of <<<»•* dustry...
...It was made by the labor unions...
...For each commodity, for each sort of project, they devise a suitable method...
...In the administration of all of them there is a growing sense of social ownership and responsibility...
...MM tefirttng » comes of frees S15MM **-»«<*>.«*, and 6,376 reporting Meornes' of from $100,000 te lUMfit...
...So that when the people took over the government, this source of wealth had not been laid waste—as here in America...
...Begin with forests...
...The industrial mechanization of modern society has transformed our social relationships...
...They are somewhat apologetic for the fact that foreigners find the annual congress of the union dull and boring, taken up with the price of knackebrod and the development of the newest margarine factory, lacking in fine flights of oratory...
...Bat our political Header* have failed to see that by leavufb...
...now they are competing and must charge low rates, about 2 cents a kilowatt hour...
...Anders Hedberg, Axel Dahlberg, business administrators, with Branting and Hansson...
...under the New Deal, he rcitl '*ooKfr wages of industrial weaars *4ki» clined by 2 per cent, tHlk tip [ dividends of large eprpe^pons'fm> creased by 17 per cent...
...economic power through the ownership and control of Industry, tradi, commerce and finance in private bands, the basic social proHenm remain unsolved...
...The "down" payment is eighty dollars, and the installments whereby the family gains possession are very lew...
...The dread of the moment having passed, no one is now heard to say that rights were restrained or their constitutional guarantees imi paired...
...Government within the past few years has shown as tacrrwisg recognition of these factor* anS tendencies...
...Communist and Fascist sloganeering go round and round and come out at some unexpected places...
...This plan—or lack of plan—doesn't work...
...Our industrial progress may well be measured by the number of patents issued by the United States Patent Office and their rate of increase...
...This has general results so far as the working of capitalism is concerned...
...Twenty thousand acres have been purchased for only six million dollars...
...Justice McKenna...
...In this, the richest country in the world, in 1929, the peak year of oar prosperity, only 4.04,4.327 persons out of an adult population of 75,000,000 filed federal income tax returns, which were required to be filed by single persons having an income of at least $1,500 a year and by married persons having an income of at least $3,500 a year...
...Even more significant is the fact that in the same year, 93 per cent of the total federal income tax receipts came from less than 3 per cent of the income taxpayers, who reported incomes of $25,000 or over for the year...
...They don't worry about the theory of capitalist production...
...And while the great aunben of workers ia the UaHee Mates wejft earning slwddagjy lew wage*, there were in SRtt...
...They are all involved in every campaign, and every victory is their victory...
...They know their business...
...In the short space of one generation, we have become so accustomed to the use of electrical slaves to ^transport us, feed us, clothe us, light our way, amuse us, count for us and the like, that we are unaware of the veritable revolution that electric power has effected in industry, transportation, agriculture, communication, recreation, medicine and home life...
...Building Security Mr...
...But the only . cure for such a victim lies precisely here...
...and own the loveliest little .¦•oaes, each with its garden...
...Among these places are respectable liberal journals and the mouths of college pro lessors...
...They have not been eliminated...
...Childs* narrative...
...He frequently mentions with respect achievements in Norway, Finland, Denmark, England, Ireland, the United States and other lands...
...But the rent for a beautiful, comfortable, hygienic home becomes so low as to seem Utopian...
...To plan without bareness and ugliness, to cooperate without dictatorship and uniformity, to preserve a private life in a cooperative society—that is Socialism...
...To speak of these gigaatk...
...Don't laugh...
...The author is not trying to make out a ease for Sweden...
...In Stockholm 50,000 workers are living in "Magic Houses...
...But the general idea of the domination of public interest is common to all...
...The Stockholm Cooperative Housing Society was formed in 1916, and six years later the national society to cover the whole field...
...For almost 100 years after the adoption of the Constitution, i. e., to 1870, only 120,573 patents were issued...
...The government, too, through being in the business on a large scale, has the machinery for supervising all forest lands and i enforcing all regulations...
...That didn't mean much...
...The Swedish worker's clean, neat, bright home may also be called a castle in the air—for it is in the air, also in a garden...
...Discussing the timidity with which some approach social change, and the readiness with which they seek to obstruct it by raising the Constitution as a barrier, the Supreme Court, speaking through Mr...
...Only threuA Socialism can those problems up met and social justice and stability secured...
...Electric energy has become one of the most vital forces in modern life...
...Income taxpayers with Incomes bit low $10,000 in 1988, sufferer a decrease in income of 5 per cent, as compared with 1932, whits the te$> 8,000, with incomes of over $60,000, increased theirs by 16 pc cent, and the number of persons wftlt annual incomes of over...
...Within a year another seventy cents was sliced off the price...
...The trust got scared and sold to the society one of its own factories...
...The members of the family do as much of the work as Englishmen must take one sort of dictatorship or the other...
...I heard a typical American say the other night: "I would rather starve in a land where I can speak my mind than grow fat in a Communist security...
...But it serves the public interest in two ways...
...A fine speaker sent ou to oppose the formation of cooperatives went up into their valley and made such a speech as had never been heard there before...
...During the same period, the value of plant and equipment of central electric right and power establishments increased twenty-five times, from $504,740,352 to $12,664,376,962, and the gross income of the electrical industries rose from $463,982 to $3,944,360,333—an increase of 850rr...
...Commissioners Frank P. Walsh, James C. Bonbright and David C. Adie, in their minority report to the New York Stale Legislature's Commission on Revision of Public Service Commissions law made this basic finding: "On the basis of this intensive investigation, we find that effective j public utility regulation in the State of New York has broken down and that the consumers of the state have been abandoned to the exploitation of the public utility companies without any effective restraint by the Public Service Commission...
Vol. 19 • February 1936 • No. 9
