The New Capitalism; Big Business Streamlines Its Propaganda
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
The New Capitalism; Big Business Streamlines Its Propaganda By WILLIAM E. BOHN I AM rubbing my eyes in the midst of the most expert propaganda drive we have *?eVer'seen. Since 19S2 American Big...
...The whole remedy is ts use the government to keep the ways to business enterprise open...
...A Philip Randolph was born in Florida, the sea of a>#athodlst minister...
...who intends to do a bang-up job...
...Jessup opens his dissertation with an anecdote of an Argentine visitor to this country...
...They had to learn the awsr moOoda Jsj^jthe political struggle which was ahead ot them in order to gain full actual citizenship...
...high office of President of the Unjted States Chamber of Commerce, be deigned to call on such a low person as the President of the United States of .America...
...Of course the great American tradition that politics is "a dirty game" not fit for gentlemen, and certainly not for ladies, has played its part...
...He Is against monopolistic capitalism...
...Above all, we want +*M Freedoms and a system of ntaawssSnia* . urity so that we can go forward to pise *w society of equal opportunity Jhr em**" women of every race creed snd...
...tion of slumming...
...A. Philip Randolph ia not a rabb^reas...
...II lljli iIII a s*ye-^to'«T^#|bk,ssgl3 SsMmmmt Of Steeping Car PorterT^ early Thirties the onion was taetstteuttZK I Water MJtA, hem-ever, Rsndetph, likcttS seised the opportunity presented by tbsC tone Section 7A ef NIRA A whfafcjS membership drive soon pet the r)rotacneSi of Sleeping Car Porters on its fast »g»i» ^ in 19S7 the Brotherhood was e*rbft«< M^ porters' bargaining agent with the Pslhnjfc, Company...
...The authors want the best sort of life for everyone...
...Some may even be won over to the thrill ef eutthsjgmm the oppositions lead in aa electee «awjl!^ One thing can be said: democracy dasaS on leadership, snd by relegating weariest4 ferior statu...
...conversation, is 'supposed to have asked brutally, "How did they ever elect you to that office...
...Sums *¦ making ia a valuable and respesashtt ja> ft it is a full time one and not jest Vaaap we believe that the Social Setari^sjnt America should follow the pftsMatt IM Bevcridge report of including among those eligible for voluntary We want education from nursery athtsl professional school on a basis of ahihtttee' rather than ability to pay...
...Their treatment of President Roosevelt snd of the New Deal is aa different from that of the professional Republicans as anything you can imagine...
...Mr...
...the show window...
...But before oar very eyes they are . changing...
...Of this way of economic life Mr...
...sail ounced desires...
...Just when the change started I would not venture to say...
...What a man for...
...He has been outspoke*,* his criticism of certain A. F. of L^aaiaisjw excluding Negroes...
...In these countries capital control, according to Mr...
...Be this as it may, Randolph hss an eye to quite solid and materialistic advantages for his people, which he fains by striking when the iron is hot...
...In politics it regularly faded out long before it got in sight ^rss...
...In either case he is regimerjted...
...He may slowly work up on the production i me...
...The holding of this position is sufficient indication of the authority with which he speaks...
...The ttUe of the Article is Three Kinds of Capitalism...
...7 * * • - ¦¦¦ iA- J IN America, the labor movement tsi esseek I * ^rights movements have often hajs tad m tfi England, leaders ef the BrWsM WteMh/ -en's SufTrssjre M sasl^ewS Labor Party feel that our own p«rssaHep3 ration will give us the greatest upmHasitW for ranking progress in this field- 'Wee at party was first organized, itehjjiwijbw4 of the spirit of equality in a progresstPssmsm ration It wes found however that saw* SB leadership and rank and file, wsmsn est...
...We are, at last, out of'the region of the low-brow epithet...
...A quick survey showed that what I had sighted was bat one rivulet of a stream that apreada through Life, Time, Reader's Digest .and other populsr journals which reach tens of millions of readers...
...These are the women who might have been more politically conscious and active had they not been too absorbed in the struggle to compete with men in business or profession to do much else...
...Fvsav tats crsssk women s working opportunities increased only slowly, contrasted with a tremendous drive toward higher education in colleges and professional: schools...
...If we leave Wendell Willkie out of the reckoning, their ideas do not jibe with those of any of the Republican leaders...
...I want to see it survive for every poor boy and girl in America after me...
...Randolph impresses Roi Ottley...
...We want decent housing sad e» inanity planning for all...
...VTET even in trade unions women hare been * conspicuously lacking in leadership and participation...
...Though he held the...
...The numbers of women in public office, both elective and appointive, increased very slowly, and their in-clution m'polnTfcal organisation was almost insignificant...
...How far Mr...
...In rare instances, women won their way from club activity to public office...
...Johnston sad his friends to lure them back by chanting the charms of "the peoples capitalism...
...He came North to look for an education, and he entered City College of New York, but his first real schooling in economic reality came when he was fired fag the Old FaBRrrer Line for trying to iWllpihJ JiilHl ljs.fr i<T the living condi-tions of the steamship company's waiters...
...John K. Jess up in the Sept...
...Johnston started with, breathtaking audacity...
...Here too, developing attitudes of greater permanence and an improvement in the standards of communal responsibility for children and housekeeping will give them new opportunities and should bring a new appreciation of their responsibility for leadership...
...He starts in solemnly with all the apparatus of a man...
...Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson were for freedom...
...The robber barons accepted this wicked theory...
...The whole implication of the article is that if New Deal policies continue our visitor will win his bet...
...Then it leaked out that the man runs four .rather small business concerns (total number of employees, 1,700), has union contracts in all of them and has never had a strike...
...The National Reconstruction Administration was wrong in stamping out chiselers...
...The fact that it flows so strongly in itself suggests reservoirs of reserve supply...
...For the first time they will face an era of real independence...
...For today almost 30% of American women over fourteen years of age are self-supporting, and these numbers will increase...
...It was the culmination of a long campaign during which, starting in' 1880...
...The whole performance is popular, •ported, easy-mannered...
...He went even further in the direc...
...Monopolies are to be prevented by law...
...Publications...
...Jessup and his fellow propagandists are from the disgruntled fellows deep in Union League chairs will be suggested when I report that they approve of the operations bf the Farm Security Administration...
...Men went into polities as s way of earning a living, usually acting as the Charlie McCarthys of big business This is changing as government becomes a balance of forces and political office, and therefore holds greater prestige...
...Then we come to America...
...Randolph wants the Negro to fight tat est, bat he wants him to fight it on a far qru4 *n> quo basis...
...The Distaff Side Women Move Into U. S. Politics By PEARL WILLEN IN 1920, two years after the close of the first * World War and half a century after the formation of the first Woman's Suffrage Association in tfie United States (and in fact in the world) women ef America obtained the right to vote in their country's elections...
...Having openly made a mess of things, it could think of nothing better to do than sit in over-stuffed chairs and emit dog-in-the-mangerish growls at "That Man in the White House...
...Unemployment, starvation, poverty—being incidental to evolution—were inevitable—even salutary...
...No, the apostle of Socialism is strangely absent from the picture gallery but very much present in the argument...
...Johnston, more or less approximates the complete bureaucratic* tyranny, of Russia...
...He may become an official of the Auto Workers Union, an organization with more than a million members...
...far turning out armaments...
...Randolph's organising genius had resulted in ponderable social and economic gains for his people...
...women must sac to it that mm ef them wiH he from distaff side...
...That is the way things have been for ten years...
...Moreover, that trend will force even non-wage earning women into more active life out- ¦ side the home than ever before...
...The simplified and popularized history of economic theory and social development would be very persuasive to any one iifhocent of any smattering of history...
...A nation of chiselers will give us a new heaven and a new earth...
...One fellow cannot bo expected to read everything front , Fortune down to the pulps...
...And his alternative is some of the hair of the dog...
...w»j tej - bean conditioned by his years oJ liagih far an "Indivisible" American demorraey...
...They are against unemployment and for social security...
...WahsB drive h» a center, it is to be found |n the dynamic and photogenic personality afd^JtevaStOn...
...Johnston the psychological predicament of modern man...
...We want sfpl for equal work established not oaty •«# eiple but enforced by law and ¦custom, wal for compulsory registration and if aatate conscription of women during' the was SB gency in order to prosecute the war aeesm snd to establish the princrpht Saw*^sa»»< duties to the state as do men...
...13 issue of Life...
...which in the past, has .often been a handicap, can be turned to advantage in the building of a world which will offer tecurtiy far all , Our popular orators are fond of pointing out the dangers of Fascist philosophy for women...
...With slight variations, this is the leit motiv which runs through all of the mounting literature of the "new capitalism...
...This has of course been caused two main factors: 1) Most women in industry have had so many home duties that they have had no time for union work...
...At his friend fc Ottley says, "if Randolph has his way, Negnnt will continue to hammer on this evil sf Crow until the monster is buried for ah ttes...
...Throughout the country they have, especially of fata, sent' their representatives to public hearings, have communicated with their congressmen, and used their personal influence to secure their ^nds: • * • IMPORTANT as this was, as a signpost, it * was still of minor import in leading women to participate in public life...
...Now women are becoming increasingly aware that only theft themselves can improve their status sad that their own deep' desire for security...
...Formal economics are sedulously avoided...
...To such a man working for the government threatens no great change in his status...
...T__ - - Contrast this with women in the United Nations who are not only being given opportunities for work in every job of Which they* are physically capable (and there ssmat few indeed left of which they sre niOJ hot they are being urged to take training%for ail sorts of jobs they have never been W before...
...President Roosevelt, after 25 minutes of...
...What they are proposing, in fact, is something like a Small Business Security, Administration to take care of all the little fellows and save them from or keep them in line for the big ones...
...twenty states had individually given mamen the Suffrage in state elections...
...I am not suggesting any malevolent plot...
...It is the purpose of Mr...
...For they differ...
...hW ers...
...The writing is strictly high class...
...They hijrsfastiiLed their amendment to Congress '. osshj^ yhsfc since 1878, during which time hi was never reported out'of committee...
...Their notion is, merely, that the New Dealers have failed to find the best way to end the one and secure the ether...
...last vestiges of belief in "laisasa ihisr^wm bring all functional groups into political activity...
...had to find outlets, and one of them was through the organisation of innumerable associations or clubs, which finally totaled about lOjOyO, and took two forms...
...Big Business Streamlines Its Propaganda By WILLIAM E. BOHN I AM rubbing my eyes in the midst of the most expert propaganda drive we have *?eVer'seen...
...One was purely social-and self-cultural...
...Back in the mid-Twenties, when economic conditions were not too onerous even in Harlem, there wag some talk of organising the Pullman porters...
...fair to expect an equivalent sjbpc-m at m creased democsacy on the home front...
...The United States government, the trade unions and the American people are treated with becoming respect...
...Such depressions aa cannot he avoided by these means are to be taken care of by social security...
...Thss- may not even rear those young, for fear they make them unfit citizens for a dtcUstrrshrp'''What a compliment In a dispatoh from Germany on February 18th of UOriesg, an official was quoted as complaining that women are asking for professional appointment, as he points out that women are"wwsfa^4«gf«% *tlnh...
...America can avoid becoming a fascist state by preserving "the chance to take a chance...
...A very embarrassing sort of world...
...This 1 iterary-joui nal istic-eeonom ic-argumer...
...This does not mean, the author proceeds to explain, that he approves of everything which American capitalists have done...
...Then we come to the capitalisms of democracy...
...British capitalism, we are told, js over-bureaucratic...
...The Labor movement, after years of comparative indifference to polities, has now realized that only participation in poirtsmil lrfe can insure its claim to society's benefits And -so it is to be hoped wotsml' too wffl mature in political life...
...Philip, fia^doipfc Mr...
...I first spotted ; the trend in The Saturday Evening Post...
...Jbj*bb1mm T\EMOGRACY, iT it is to flouriffc, >u'ue»*ak ' *^ velop toward greater partkipeajsn, mf ail citizens m politics...
...He is straightforward, a fighter- whs myi what he means and then goes after sit...
...Suppose ne is one of 220,000 employes of General Meters...
...Taxation is to be so adjusted as to favor new and risky enterprises...
...Many new lesdtrt *f by thrown up by the ferment shirt km taking place...
...The ideological background is pictorially provided by cuts of Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner...
...servant ; men, women, and children in the stalessj I nation...
...In May, ^919, it passed afe a special session of Congress' and was eatified by enough states to snaUp ift-to be dad-Bad the law of the land by Aa^^^^.'haSsCsfor the last post-war tleefkmt, , J * ' Women's emergence into full legal citixen-sha^||B*'Va^3aaawshately bring any improve-smwtfc>a»Kical afttira...
...IN 1940 this man Johnston, a .mere youth of 45, * became President of the United Chamber of Commerce...
...In 1914, it was discussed on the floor for the first time and by 1917 its ultimate passing was rssmrped as inevitable...
...In presenting their own ideas, they refer lightly to ideological and social history and lean rather heavily on the experiences of Russia and Germany...
...I think, it would not be difficult to prove that the social welfare advance of the past decade ar more has been greatly increased by the knowledge and interest ef organized women fat these phases of public life...
...si i Except for a year or two whet tttPeedtl the, division lapsed, this has sejidtaai Ja| 1939 to today aa a medium Jar eWaSBM women's special interests, translating Ihml SW , legislative demands, attracting tlmts eajmpl j political work and developing Taw*' 'sWy mat a triers* by the inhibition of working wits sat However, the ultimate purpose rfmssi to be that of stimulating women ts ft i district work as citizens of democracy, Iffw by new training and self tonfideasw aal participate in all the work of to* partt-fat hoped that this will eventoaHy raisl greater inclusion of women in all raajfcjpi offices and their real influence on party ssW The women in the American Labor T» represent, as the men do, trade-unionists...
...The answer seems to be that western businessmen got tired of...
...The credo of Eric Johnston is formally set down In the September Reader's Digest...
...Here we have different tendencies, but here—and only here—is there a chance for "a people's capitalism," a capitalism for everybody...
...Johnston exclaims: "I come from it...
...the dog-in-manger...
...Randolph was the organiser of the Negro March on Washington Movement, which first dramatised the Negro's extremely .realistic attitude toward s global war that is supposedly being fought against Hitler's philosophy of racism...
...at forward battle areas...
...He wants government capital used as a continuous blood-transfusion, but he wants it handed out to capitalists, to little capitalists, independent capitalists...
...A Labor Portrait by John Chamberlain A. P. Randolph - Negro Fighter By JOHN CHAMBERLAIN i But the United Automobile Workers Union, to pick s sjpee)fie mstance, is discovering these days that tie Negro makes as good a union man as any, Jf farther proof is needed, there is always the Negroes' own Brotherhood of Sleeping Car- Porter^, the creation of a Negro leader Jk...
...The abantoos*an""apsjfreha...
...It was not* graciously given...
...If people are regimented by monopolistic trusts they will choose regimentation by the government as the smaller of two evils...
...This was something for the book...
...policy of the elder statesmen and wanted to try a,..new\ tack...
...the other was designed to study and improve civic conditions and to secure better laws, especially for women and children...
...Ww'wtiWwaS ployment for every able bodied d*B*2 wants it...
...The demands upon women for volunteer services in war work and other community activities is tremendous —few women with any kind of self-respect csn escape...
...If big concerns gobbled up little ones, it was all according to natural law...
...But then came that wicked pair,_ Darwin and Spencer...
...a f)rat-rate Negro journalist, as being "all soul...
...2) they have considered themselves as only temporarily in industry until they marry...
...They held, in the language of the Declaration of Independence, that "to secure these rights governments were instituted...
...So capital will be kept busy—and men, too, will be busy...
...Suffragettes" had been jailed fast beaten, (their work ridiculed and"jshomi illCSesM*ap*a bsCmembers of their own sex...
...f , ' - I mast admit that after reading such aa elaborate statement of oar' malady, the care sounds a bit flat...
...For every ounce of Neg-c enemy put into smashing the Axis, he tSnsjaa a ear...
...Prosperoas business is to produce a prosperous nation...
...In the late Twenties and early Thirties, when the United Mine Workers ware publicly adhering to the slogan "No Backward Step," John L. Lewis saw his dues-paying membership melting like snow in April...
...Perhaps women win have to be convinced that the great game of politics is "as interesting as bridge" as a leisure time pursuit...
...s RANDOLPH'S attitude toward th...
...There is the fascist kind "of Italy, German and Spain...
...The reader may well ask: What, no Karl Marx...
...But long before Pearl Hsrbsr Mr...
...The porters, however, ^tare'lijri^ curiously similar to thst of the pre-1941 John L. Lewis...
...This sort of ob-.jecjkion to things British, by the way, runs pretty steadily through a^l the literature of this new campaign...
...He got acquainted with Wil-¦ .liam Green and Philip Murray, and found that he liked them...
...Jessup is Chairman of the Committee of Editors of Time, Inc...
...If government spending, the author thinks, continues after the war we shall be gradually moving over into the class of Russia and Germany...
...If necessary, government banks are to nuke capital freely available to new men with new ideas...
...His theme song is at the start of the story...
...He wants legisuttk* h enforce the constitutional guarantee agate* being deprived of life, liberty or prapsrty without due process of law...
...In England women have just won a fight for admission to the Home Guard, and uVte .expected that the Brtrsh Army will soon permit women reporters, nurses' and -the A.T.S...
...Jesaop sketches in greater detail than did Mr...
...PHIS thesis is formally developed at great * length by Mr...
...B. u a* Ottley has written, he has a sire* a ssoss that aha Nagse never gets anything -xeept« times of great general social -poms...
...social workers, professional people, teste wpmen . . . and housewives...
...WV apeeifically for improved social...
...The government was, according to them, incapable of securing anything good for anyone...
...But nothing now cari change this trend...
...He does not quite go the length of saying it, but he doubtless believes that in this way we shall lose the war even though we win it...
...The Fastest, thesis that women are inferiors with' no functions but to keep the home and bear the young is too well known to need re-stating...
...This will be aided by the mere physical fact of their being left .as a majority in civilian life as was evident during the 1943 campaign in the numerous appeals to women voters and the flattes^g roses assigned to women by candidates Women must go into politics—they must learn as the trade unions did that they must be organized into groups and then only will their representatives have power and be listened to...
...The men who do the writing are evidently not inspired by any ordinary political motives...
...The business cycle is taken for granted, bat it is to be modified by the manipulation of public credit...
...la The Saturday Evening Pest and Reader's Digest this Lochinvar fsspteteet'ef the West hss done more thsn sjiyooe else to give the movement its sloPt Post of August 28th, Jack cknowledges thst American were "in s deep hole" and that 'hi the most eligible savior in ale he tells is essentially the ssic success-story: invalid father, boy SgfAtegway through college, service in the Marines and then the rugged, rapid, independent road upward in the business world...
...The beautiful universe pictured by Smith and Jefferson disappeared, and the bearded Marxists had a chance to say that their theories had been proved correct...
...W paratively little part and a Wtonal lpa*4 was organised...
...democracy hss beer seprhai tf much resourcefulness...
...Wt want the enforceyeat^iaw discriminatory laws which shams emf *Wa ican heritage...
...It naturally attracted nothing but humor from literate arid intelligent section* of the population...
...However, increasing numbers were making the terrific struggle to maintain family and job, and still others giving up family in order to follow their professional lives more freely...
...Even in these cases, it was usually to get the "women's vote" rather than aa tribute to their ability...
...Big bosi-, ncss, this argument runs, threw the American people into the arms of the New Dealers...
...ta-tive current appears to be not all accidental...
...There is the Russian sort, in which the flow of capital is completely controlled by the bureaucrats...
...Laisses faire has not one friend left...
...The unions, of course, are to be recognized, and labor ia to be well paid...
...Since 19S2 American Big Business has looked pretty unattractive...
...This f rustoa>ion...
...This South American offered to bet $1,000 that we shall have a revolution in the United States within five years...
...Russia has already given Jpoeacp^ perilous front line responsibilities...
...believes in the Fear Freedoms, in against the principles of racism...
Vol. 26 • October 1943 • No. 40
