Mexico Inaugurates a President
NEARING, NELLIE SEEDS
Mexico Inaugurates a President By NELLIE SEEDS NEARING ASKY, of perfect azure, dotted with fleecy, flaky clouds! Three huge planes circling low overhead! At each turn, they dip low,...
...peon* —Mexicans of every rank and posi. tion, bare-footed, clad in their gar, menta of toil, wearing their broad sombrero* and their many-lined serapis, with pistols at their hips and musket belts around their waists...
...They contend that the State or commune has certain functions to perform which cannot be ignored...
...However, they refuse to go the length of Syndicalists in correcting these errors...
...The industrial guilds would deal with transit, agriculture, mines, etc...
...Save] Zimand, "Modern Social Movements," pp...
...Bertrand Russell, "Proposed Roads to Freedom (N...
...Such was the remarkable picture which I witnessed at high noon on Tuesday, November 30, in tha City of Mexico, -' The tropical sun, darting down its . fiery rays, from which only the , American guests were protected by a canvas awning, seemed to intensify , the ardor »nd* solemnity of the occa. sion...
...the consumer has rights which must be respected...
...foreign diplomats, clothed in all the regalia of their high dignity...
...The consumers under guild Socialism would bo safeguarded by holding the power to tax the guilds, scouring from them for the com1 munity their surplus after payment ef the cost of operation, etc...
...Many modern Socialists feel that the "guildsmen exalt too highly the importance of mere production by placing it in a* position co-equal, if not superior, to the social organisation for the satisfaction of the individual's needs...
...The guild Socialist movement was definitely launched in England in about the year 1912 by A. J. Penty, A. R. Orage and S. G. Hobson...
...Manrique, the newly elected Socialist Governor of San Luis Potosi, with his flowing black whiskers end beerd, and kindly, gentle eyes...
...But the memory of it all, the beauty, dignity, sincerity and reality of the demonstration, heve made an indelible impression on my memory...
...Y.t Macmillan, 1920, 452 pp., $2.75) (a handbook describing the various schools of Guild thought...
...S. G. Hobson, "National Guilds and the State" (N...
...G. D. H. Cole, "Guild Socialism Restated" (London: Methuen & Co...
...A- J- Penty, "A Guildsman's Interpretation of History" (London...
...Y.: Holt, $1.75...
...Y.: D. Appleton A Co., 1922, 850 pp., $2.50) (the best critical, yet sympathetic survey of the movement...
...The department, which alsa operates th* telephones in Sweden, requests en eppropriation for next year of $15,800,000...
...They have also made a part of their philosophy de Maeztu's doctrine of "the functional principle" — that groups are entitled to rights only as a result of the performance by them of certain useful functions...
...While this group has never been large, its influence has been considerable, although, on account of the recent divisions in its ranks, that influence has lately waned...
...Again and agein the storm of appreciation buret forth, the bends struck up the Mexican National Anthem, and all rose to their feet to pay respect to the newly inaugurated President...
...These guilds would be divided into industrial and civic guilds, and, according to some, also into distributive guilds...
...Their demand that the development of personality rather than mere productivity be the ideal of the new society has supplied a needed element in Socialist thought...
...r ¦ • The Guild Unit '' The gijild unit would be the national guild, highly decentralized...
...186-207, with bibliography...
...j Such writings as that of the Socialist artist, William Morris, have likewise had their effect...
...It would contain representatives of the regional guilds, and the latter in turn would contain delegates from the loe^I guilds...
...These social thinkers have done yoeman service in stimulating vital thought on future social tendencies and possibilities...
...1924 is calculated at $5,628,000, and i special table in the report shows that the profits during the last ten years ire equal to an average ennual Interest of eight and one-half per cent...
...national and oven international prganization" ("Guild Socialism," p. 240...
...The net income iron) the Swedish telegraphs for...
...Do you believe that ultimate authority should rest with the State aa representative of tho consumer...
...Samuel Gompers came in for his share of applause...
...H. Cole and his followers, on the other hand, denying the sovereignty of the Stale, would set up communes composed of representatives of producers and consumers to take charge of certain functions, such as by iking, the provision of capital, coercive powers, and, to an extent, the regulation of incomes arid prices...
...Guildsmen would rely to a very considerable extent on the development of trade and industrial unionism to bring about the guild system...
...They would be given virtual autonomy so long . as they satisfactorily performed the functions allotted to them...
...The guild of medieval times, as Dr...
...Modern industry, on the other hand, "takes for granted unskilled, minutely divided labor...
...Eegionale Obrer* Mexicans, gesed with ewe end wonder at th* exhibition of feeling of these picturesque, primitive, emotional people, end joined in it in ao far as their Nordic repressions would permit...
...Roads To Freedom By H. W. LAIDLER, Ph.D...
...VI—GUILD SOCIALISM , GUILD Socialism has sought to combine the good points In the more orthodox Socialist schools with those urged by the Syndicalists and the Anarchists...
...Y.: Macmillan, 1920, 406 pp., $4.00...
...These departments are run on a business basis, being financed by the Government and bringing good returns on the money advanced...
...PROBLEMS FOR DISCUSSION What were th* forces leading to tha birth of tho school of Guild Socialists...
...Whet era your critlcsms, if any, of the yuildmon'* creed...
...M. B. Reckitt and C. E. Bechofer, "The Meaning of National Guilds" (N...
...Niles Carpenter points out, "waa built around highly skilled, small scale handicrafts, rigidly restricted, strongly traditional, fiercely local...
...Forces Influencing Guildsmen i ¦ j Guildsmen have been influenced, not only by the Syndicalists, but by the artistic achievements of the medieval guild, democratically controlled by its craftmen-members...
...Soto y Game, the leader of the agrarian party...
...And as the official party filed down one by one from the rostrum, meny individuals were given a special ovation...
...LaldVer, "Socialism, etc.," ch...
...Books—Niles Carpenter, "Guild Socialism," An Historical and Critical Analysis (N...
...This could be obtained, they assert, as a result of utilization of the credit power which is theirs by virtue of their control of Labor power...
...Hundreds of different groups of Mexican agrarian workers cheered the cry of their party and waved its emblem on high...
...In the vast stadium below, the upturned heads of 50,000 spectators, eager, expectant, hushed, listen with earnest attention, while "lutarcc Elias Calles, with his right hand solemnly upraised, takes his oath of office as President of the Republic of Mexico...
...large scale production...
...At each turn, they dip low, dropping, notfaombs, but flurries of coloredTperfumed confetti...
...Swedish eustomi collections next year will entail an expenditure of $4,410,000, an increase of about $600,000 over this year, while the State railway* request an eppropriation of $4,000,000 to be used principally in new conitruction...
...Three hundred and twenty-one American Labor delegates, brought by special trains from El Paao at the invitation of the Confederation Sweden's Government Railroads and...
...Hobson would give ultimate sovereignty to the State and would make the State, as representative of the citizen or consumer, the highest court of appeals...
...Do you agree with the "fenctioae...
...For Discussion Groups: Literature—Pamphlets: "The Policy of Guild Socialism" and other pamphlets published by the National Guilds League, 39 Cursitor St., E. C. 4, London, England...
...G .D...
...Americans, sombrely clad...
...the civic guilds, with health, education, and pther professions ministering ^."essential, non-economic" needs...
...Aim of Guild Socialism Roughly speaking, Guild Socialism advocates that the title to industry be pelced in the hands of tho State or community, the management in the hands of democratically controlled guilds...
...Santiago d'Iglesias, Senator from Porto Rico, and many more in their turn bowed acknowledgements to the crowd...
...mothers with babes st their breasts | and ragged, picturesque children hanging on their skirts—sisters of I charity, ladies of fashion—all united I their voices in one-vast roar of ap! plause as Calles lowered his arm¦ And while they shouted, and cheered, ! and sang and tossed their broad j brimmed hats high o'erhead, five i hundred white and gray flecked pigeons, harbingers of peace and good will, were liberated from the j centre of the, arena, and fluttered throughout the stadium, flapping their wings in the air...
...They were joined later by G. D. H. Cole...
...Yet the spectacle waa a motley one...
...remorseless change and innovation...
...Telegraph Report A Profitable Year Three of Sweden's most important business enterprises, the customs, telegraphs and railroads, hare just published officii reports on next year's budget, with requests for new appropriations...
...In less than an hour it was over— et least the shouts and the singing snd the cheering, snd the crowd were gone...
...Luis Morones, who barely escaped assassination in the Chamber of Deputies a fortnight before, when a bullet grazed the lower tip of his heart, a huge, brawny, stocky men, wa* given a cheer only second in volume to that which greeted Calles himself...
...A new school of guildsmen, the Douglas-Orage Credit group, would, on the other hand, seek to bring about their goal through the increasing control of credit by the workers...
...and "SelfGovernment in Industry" (London: G. Bell A Co., 1919...
...The oaten was auspicious...
...Guildsmen maintain that Syndicalists and Anarchists have been right in condemning the tendency of many Socialists to concede too great a power to the political State under Socialism and to lay too great emphasis on industrial control by the consumer as opposed to the producer...
...Each guild would contain all of the workers in the craft or industry—managerial, technical and manual...
...Some of the guildsmen have been guilty of.charting the future after the manner of the Utopians of the past, and of basing the future industrial organization not on the logical development of observable tendencies in industry, but merely on their own particular desires...
...It is questionable, however, whether it is possible, as the guildsmen suggest, to introduce into the future social order the general organization and spirit of the medieval gnilds...
...While just turn the school of guild Socialism is not so prominent as a few years ago, its contributions, despite its shortcomings, are of the utmost interest to all students of social organization...
...that such an organization as is proposed may lead the worker to devote too much attention to the organization of production, while "it is as a consumer in the widest sense of the word that the worker will realise his individuality and enjoy hi* freedom...
...It would lay down genera] policies, purchase raw material, etc...
...Relation to Stale The guildsmen of the type of S. .G...
...They have, during their brief career, made numerous changes in their concepts of a newsociety, and will probably continue to do so in the future...
...Receipts for service next year, it is estimated, will exceed expenditures by st least $10,000,000...
...Criticism of Ciyld Socialism It is impossible here to analyze critically all of the theories of the various schools of guild Socialism...
...principle" in industrial control...
...What contribution* have Guild Socialists made to modern Socialism which give promise of permanency...
Vol. 2 • January 1925 • No. 1
