A PAGE OF EXCLUSIVE FEATURES
A PAGE OF EXCLUSIVE FEATURES Tracking the Wrong Bugs OCKEFELLER'S girl, Abby, got her-ic self married to a young New York , -» v lawyer. The papers say the poor thing will have to get along on...
...Whenever I hear anyone making...
...THE Radical Doctrines of capitalism And adequate expression In the following editorial emanation from Commerce and Finance: "As the world alipa into 1925 we have all become—every one of ua —tha owners of hundreds of millions of able-bodied serfs...
...We | are fair-haired and longheaded...
...And may I not urge/ each one to show his or her interest by sending in suggestions on housing, for consideration by the subcommittee to which I belong...
...there was not enough work to go around...
...or else, 'Utilising the modern invention callaM capitalism, we can mass It in wa$-s that will enable us...
...When the door was shut the occupant, one might say, was in inner darkness...
...With money—and the labor of bonded slaves...
...The boll weevil re-established the balance of Nature and if the meddling scientists of the Rockefeller Institute are prevented by proper legislation, or by force if necessary, from interfering with the boll weevil their is no reason to doubt that the South has a rosy future before it...
...We \ ill now stand and give our I'ladge of Allegiance...
...As it is, they only (hnkc more people w.ork more, which Is a perfectly silly thing to do, in a world where people starve because they raised to., much to cat'and go bare-footed because th»v made too many shoes...
...cotton choppers and pickers lesped and bounded st their task...
...Isn't it lucky that both Comptroller Craig and Mayor Hylan are full-fledged citizens of this State and of the United States...
...while fool notions jumi on a follow •ad are adoptee1 before we can say scat...
...horse, Ampere, or of Charley Dawes* neither...
...Second mortgages can only be negotiated under grinding conditions...
...What ¦.»m driving at is that in a civilization where **WWng people already produce more than they with their income, working people can't « nmeatted by being enabled to work more, bscause the more they work the sooner they work themselves out of work...
...j The divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will, has | peopled moat of the earth with round-heads and made them to be j hewera of wood and drawers of I water...
...The result of all thia letting dowu of legal restrictions is that the professional and white-collar classes are living today at exorbitant rents, under crowded and and unsanitary conditions auch as they have never before been subjected to...
...Asiatic dreamers like Moses, Buddha, Zoroaster, Christ and Mohammed gave W mankind the great religions which hold the human races in loving , ambrace, between tbe wars for,eternal justice, civilization and culture...
...The soil was rich, the climate kind, and the cotton farmers multiplied like cotton-tails...
...Before the hook-worm serum invaded the South everything was lovely in Dixie...
...even the speeches of William Jennings Bryan could not have saved the Southland from Civil War and ultimate self-extermination...
...Rightly reasoning that science was a foreign im-portation, it joined the Ku Klux Klan, barred evolution from the schools, and forbade the mentioning of Darwin's name in public...
...Dear kind all-wise Mother Nature, ever solicitous for the welfare of her children, brought the boll weevil to the cdtton belt and the boll weevil "saved the South," as a former head of the Agricultural Department of the United States enthusiastically proclaimed...
...But then came the War...
...Millions of people who in happier days had regarded work as the fruit of original sin developed a violent passion for work...
...With such wealth we can hope to do two things...
...The single-family house makes a bigger demand on tbe tenant, too, in the way of cost of upkeep, and performance of certain services...
...The one sound remedy was to have torn down the house entire, but of course no one proposed anything so drastic...
...In the meantime, the Rockefeller Institute has made the yellow peril more perilous than ever...
...Thus engaged civilization - *Se aafe from Asia...
...Everybody who knows anything know that that there is an oyer-supply of labor in the world and tbe Rockefellers are mainly responsible for this sad state of affairs...
...And the dirty, heathen eutt Went and made an aw fill font 'Caute we merely tentenced him to fifty wtll...
...Adam Coaldygar...
...We hate all (At...
...If they would go after the bacilus which causes over-production, that is the disease which makes.' want by creating superabundance, they might become real benefactors of mankind...
...In fact, so favorable were conditions in Dixie, that folks would eventually have starved to death, on account of the over-pro duction of cotton, if the hook-worm had not come along and saved che situation...
...s speech Intimating, fasti this flint the greatest country on the face, of God's earth, I will hit him on the nose provided that he is much smaller than I urn, otherwise I will call on a cog to pinch him for acting 'riotously.'' I think th| Constitution ia swell snd I will never ssy nothing against sny of our lows except that ths virgins of the Middle West stuck one over on aa when thai passed that louay Prohibition Amendment...
...b) The creating, by Act or th* Legislature, of municipal and town housing Commission* with power to carry through town planning, to build tenement houses, to control funds Intended for hoDSe-bafldlng purposes, to condemn and pnrehai* by eminent domain land and other real property, thus making It possible to wipe out slam districts aad prevent the holding of land for speculative purposes...
...In fact, I would be one of the world's greatest scientists right now, if It were not for the fact that a rather limited vocabulary prevents me from saying things in a way that nobody can make out...
...The spectre of hunger taunted the overcrowded cotton yards...
...Freedy awiped a piece off Hank's deak when the latter wasn't looking and aa soon aa ha finds a literate member of the American Defense Society who can tell him what it is all about he is going to print this piece in the New York Commercial...
...Asia is, waking up...
...There was sailing in the land of over-plenty...
...Each of us can hope to have more to spend...
...Then I msy get my picture in the Daily News...
...Ia Freddy Marvin present...
...The hook-worm dope had made Labor a drag on the market...
...to "remold the entire world neirer to the heart's desire...
...Since private enterprise has failed to provide adequate housing for the people, and since one tenth of ths inhabitant* of the United States are living" under condition* menacing to health and moral*, and since In the City of New York there still exist over 15,000 old-time, unsanitary tenement houses, with at least JM.OOfl bedroom* having no window* giving access to the open air, and alnce a weaken**) law haa permittee1 af *ii> tie-family house* being eat Bp late two flat* on each floor without air-ahaft or conrt being provided, and line* all authorities agree that pro Hi yielding private venture* cannot balld suitable dwellings for less than a monthly rental of 115 a room, which I* about double what the aaakilled or small salaried worker ran pay, and since ¦Ingle-family house* are leas >• Mr lent and more coatly to build and to live in than small maltiple dwelling*, and since financing- la th* • run of the housing problem—th* Socialist Party contend* that the time ha* come when tenement-hoaac con ¦trurtlon must be dealt with by th* community a* a whole, and a* a public utility...
...I will save all my money except when the Association of Advertising Agents says I shouldn't, and I will do Htm John D. Rockefeller does snd give bright, • shiny dimes to my golf a caddiea...
...The more families which csn rest on one foundation, so to speak, be sheltered under one roof, and Warmed by one chimney, the lower tbe rent for each group...
...And then ware will be hell to pay And when that fatal day comes "and gray c'.ouds ¦ yellow men smash ou...
...Such a tenant can't shoulder a charge covering cost plus profit...
...The fac* is the bonus, fees, etc., often bring up the interest paid on the whole project to twelve or fifteen per cent...
...The class will stand and recite in unison that beautiful poem dedicated to the U. S. Marines in ' Halt...
...We have a mortgage on the fives of both the living and the unborn in practically every nation of Europe except Russia...
...With capital and the flaming judgments of history'a great assize we have "become the owners of hundreds of millions of able-bodied serfs...
...I am hostile to science...
...r> ' ¦ oj n> afraid I haven't been very successful in *«*""*" my profound ideas across...
...We ahall have, if not gold pouring in, then its equivalent in merchandise...
...cotton belt and mining e»nip civilization, blame it on the Rockefellers, «»8o invested-their ill-gotten gains in science in-il*wd of giving monkey dinners and dog parties wfd marrying their daughters to European counts gJWfl no-accounts, who know how to spend money "•'the right way...
...But that's . We trouble with profound ideas...
...But, alaa...
...You boya said that awell...
...Freddy aaya that he haa anooped around 70 Fifth Avenue and he haa found out the den of the dangerous men who work for the L. I. D, He aaya that the leader of this gang Is none other than one Harry Laidler, who ia known to his crjnies aa "Hank the Red," and who wrltea naughty articles about super-power in Ontario...
...All together now, "I mat gouging out hit eye to enforce the reason why He ihould love the Start and Stripet above all rite...
...Removal of the former legal requirements has also permitted old tenements of six and seven rooms to bo divided into two flats...
...Summarizing these facts, which are accepted by experts as axioms, do you wish the housing plank in the Socialist platform to run somewhat like this...
...Prof...
...a, • Now we will hear the report from the Master of the Boy Snoops...
...The places of the kindly hook-worms were taken by pep...
...yes' when my boos saka me to, and I think that Calvin Coolidge ia a greet snd mighty statesman snd I will never make no fun of him or his mechanics...
...And we, therefore, urge upon the voter* consideration of the following proposals to solve the noosing erld...
...A fever of enterprise swept the hook-worm belt...
...2. In 1901 there was an investigation which resulted in the creation of a Tenement House Department and a tinkering set of legislation measures dealing with dark rooms and other intolerable, insanitary enditions...
...Too much Labor power in a land of boundless resources created a condition which soon became the despair of statesmen and economists...
...While asleep Asia dreamed of worlds beyond our world...
...There you have it in a nutshell, and with the exultation of an enthusiast...
...Why don't they go back where they grew/'' That was just splendid...
...l McAlistsr Colemaai ' I Learning from History "The study of economic history has been in vain if it haa led us to think that men are ever content with what they have...
...Fortunately, Nature had another card up her sleeve...
...to remold the entire world nearer to the heart's desire...
...The South woke up with a start...
...Raising money on building loans in the open market is an expensive undertaking...
...r) The issuing of Stat* and municipal bond* to provide fund* for the Commission* to construct tenement houses or to loan at a low rate of Interest for building tenements by trsde unions, bona-ftde cooperative societies, or to Individual families, for the erection of houses for their own particular use...
...Then came the young whippersnaps from the Rockefeller Institute with their confounded hook-worm serum and aoe what happened...
...Stand up Freddy and tell all your playmates about the plots you anooped up today...
...Then came the inevitable, The Might of over-production fell upon the South...
...4. Up to 1915, the tenement house law grew stricter and enforcement better...
...But the Rockefellers thought they could improve on the creation, and started the Rockefeller Institute which made war on hook-worms and sleeping sickness bugs, and thereby destroyed the beautiful balance which an all-wise Providence had established for the benefit of living creatures...
...The cause of this long sleep was the little bug which created sleeping sickness...
...Be-pW long the holy lands of Asia will bristle with bayonets...
...I won't read no aedPloua literature bat will take all iaauea of 'True Stones,' 'So This is Paris,' and ths like...
...d) The amending of the Farm Loan and Postal Saving* laws aad the Federal Reserve Act to a* to allow of a less restricted aa* ef fund* far building loan* to municipalities, trade union*, cooperative societies, and Individuals seeking to build homes for their own oae...
...Socialist crew, Anarrhittt and Commnnitti, too...
...Now which one of you ran tell teacher what should be dona to naughty fellers like Roger Baldwin and Norman Thomas, 'and other wicked agitators who go around talking about things like Free Speech and such...
...The borrower can get a loan for his first mortgage at 6 per rent, but it will cover only about fifty per cent ot the outlay on the entire venture...
...Without discontent there * could be no progreas upward...
...Health and Bonded Slaves for Progress (fanterisl m Tk* CkriMim* Ctntuiy, April...
...We will optn the exercises by slngimjrour famous Hymn of Hate, which is as follows...
...Thia cunning little animal fastened itself to tbe inner workings of cotton farmers, sapped enough exuberance out of their systems to prevent the over-production of cotton...
...e) The amending of the law so aa to render legal the a** for building loan* of a certain percentage of Old Age Pensions, Compensation Funds, and Savings Bank deposits...
...You girls sung that dandy...
...and chimney are the biggest item in cost...
...we might call it the war for exeuses...
...JjJH...
...3. By 1917 about 5,000 out of the offending 82,652 old-time tenement houses had been demolished...
...The *jice of cotton fell beneath that of sorghum molasses and swim, bosom...
...Very good, Freddy...
...Resolved, by the National Republican CIul>— That the penal law ot the Slate of New Ycrk be so amended aa to make it unlawful for any person •within the State of New York, not a citizen of the United Sta i» and a resident of this State, to print, or publish or advocate oralb the abolition or amendment of the Constitution of the United of the United States or the State of New York, or to denounce or criticize any public officer of the United States or of any State, or to denounce or criticise any law enacted by the Government of the United States, or of any State or of any civil division thereof...
...J. Lawrence...
...Your suggestions will be welcomed...
...We can waste it, individually, aa every great empire has finally wasted its resources in the past...
...In another generation, Asia will be • '•» wide awake and civilized as we are...
...In consequence, such owners of rotten tenements and receivers of rich revenues as Trinity Church were kicking like bucking bronchos...
...These band-boxes are rented for $1,200 to $2,000 a year, and on a two to three years' lease...
...This development is fraught with great danger to health, for no courts or air-shafts are required, and there exists absolutely no cross draft...
...In 1900, here in the City of New York, about 350,000 rooms without outlet to the open air existed in tenement houses...
...Thus the price was kept sufficiently high to purchase the aorghum molasses and swine's bosom which constitutes the manna of cotton farmers...
...With its temple on the street called Wall and with the tariff, subsidy and the "Ameiican plan" as its law we need now only found a great sanhedrin of multi-millionaires as in the New Jerusalem...
...Just as Popes and Emperors once gathered power, and just as imperial powers rounded up the "lesser breeds" and took "a mi/tgage on the lives of both the living and the unborn," so now "with money and the labor of bonded slaves" we cmi utilize "that modern invention, railed capitalism" (God be praised...
...Leave it to us...
...Solve that item and probably the whole is easily worked out...
...If they don't like thil land, Which we think it grand...
...Laughlin, long time Head of the Department ot ^Economics, University of Chicago, Scribnerl ,M.g.sinc, March, 1920...
...What I'm driving at !s, that my colleagues of the Rockefeller Institute are trailing the wrong bugs...
...On* Hundred Percenter* are his, Of pure, white and Nordical ttack...
...We will keep America fret By beaning the Bolthevik'e block...
...For some 10,000 years Asia has been asleep...
...For instance, the man of tbe family must keep the sidewalk clean and free of snow, see to the garbage can, etc., and the woman must have an eye to the furnace and must forego all such cooperative services as might develop in 1 an apartment house...
...The Rockefeller Institute has found a serum which '» killing the blessed sleeping sickness bugs...
...We pledge our lives, our honor and what have you got...
...6. Builders, who construct houses for a living, say they can't put up a building and earn anything, if the rentals are less than $15 a month a roonij That means, for a family of four or five persons, if decent conditions are to exist, a monthly rental of $60,, and that in turn is just about double what the low-salaried and unskilled worker can afford to pay...
...Well, if I were her, I wouldn't worry too much about that measly income- There are whole mining towns which manage to get by on a good ileal leas...
...If th» owner as landlord is a shark, as borrower he is well fleeced...
...7. Financing is the very heart of the problem of housing...
...I know Rockefelle ¦ means well by saving money on his family and investing it in scientists...
...Neither do I want you galoots to get it into your heads tha...
...The various aspects of the problem are about as follows:1. One-third o' the people of the United States are living under subnormal conditions, and one-tenth in home surroundings menacing to health and morals...
...I will always say...
...They have more i0' B,<MBsT in the under-bruBh than young itJJ"™W...
...Housing for the Workers "THE WOMAN'S POINT OF VIEW" By HARRIOT STANTON BLATCH T N this the last of the series JTof articles I promised to The New Leader, I wish to enlist the interest of readers in the platform to be presented at the approaching Socialist Party Convention...
...I thought that you would agree with me...
...With ita revelations of dolichocephalic superiority and brachycephallc stupidity, science (?) writes us a new apocalypse...
...But alas and alack...
...and written by one of their membera...
...Bed Time Stories for the Bourgeoisie ' NOW if all you boyt and girls who want to be successful Americans will come over to this side of the page, we wfrk»iaft our own class in Americanization...
...The creation, by Act of the Legislature, of a State or Town Plan nlng Commlislon with power to Investigate local condition*, to take over the right* and duties of local Commission* when the latter fall to act, to build tenement house*, and to control State fund* appropriated ¦ ss loan* for building purposes...
...The law went from bad to worse, 5. The biggest change which came about through modifying the law was the cutting up of high-class single-family dwellings, floor by floor, into small two and three-room flats with bath and kitchenette...
...That i* a cunning idea, but us good Republicans don't mention oil these days, the word has unpleasant connotations...
...Every economist knows that discontent with his lot u*» ht I**-a quality of divinity by Which every man ' ia* given thi capacity for' progreas...
...The waters of its sacred Nile, Ganges •ad Jordan will become the maneuver-grounds of submarines...
...But, alas...
...I'm not...
...Wouldn't it be better to put them in the jug for six months...
...We will conclude our exercisea by reciting the American Credo: "I am a native-born American and everyone else can go to Hell...
...Otherwise they would have to hold the meetings of the Board of Eeti-mate in the Tomba if that criticizing public ofH cers' clause got written Into the law...
...Amen...
...Cotton acreage increased by leaps and bounds...
...to the defense of the Capitalist System-one System, pure and impregnable, now and forever more, in the name of Judge Gary, John D, Rockefeller and Nlcholaa Murray Butler...
...Deprived of hook-worms the farmers stormed the industrial centers in search of work...
...The most die* heartening thing that could possibly happen would ' be th* existence of inert, ambitionless, ignorant content with conditions of life wa all know ought . to be changed...
...iVhen the good Ix>rd created hook-worms and sleeping sickness bugs He knew exactly what He was doing, and so did Noah when he took a pair of each of them into the ark...
...may as wall make up our minds sooner or later to ths fsct that no 'solution' of tha Labor question can be' found which wiH eliminate a perennial discontent...
...This is mainly because foundation, roof...
...you may now leave the room, and be sure and take a copy of the Nsw York Commercial with you...
...It is calculated that some 300,000 bed rooms without windows giving access to the open-air still exist in Greater New York...
...He can afford to meet cost and that only...
...Did I hear une little kiddie say, "Boil them In oil...
...Instead of visions In the sky, ¦BPtte dreamers will see bombing planes...
...We , . . do not wish to see it eliminated...
...8. Single -family houses are much more expensive to build than multiple dwellings...
...I believe we have got it good here in America and anyone who ain't a success ia plumb lazy snd good-for-nothing...
...Weltering in the throes of over-production the South turned on science like a cornered rat...
...On the othsr hand, I with the Rockefellers would spend their kale more in conformity with the fashion set by the idle rich instead of blowing It in on hook-worm and sleeping sickness cures...
...Under this law, the owner was required to cut a window between the inner room and the room next to it, much as if Providence opened a vent between Hades and Purgatory...
...He was hermetically sealed from air and light...
...The\ aoothing gas of their prophets will give way to '.Poison gas...
...The boys in the trenches were so much worse ofT than the babies in the tenements that it was easy to get the folk at home to economize on housing requirements...
...They invaded the coal fields of West Virginia, Tennessee sad Kentucky looking for work...
...Now all listen while I read loud a resolution passed unanimously by the National Republican Club...
...The papers say the poor thing will have to get along on an income of only |28,O00 a year...
Vol. 2 • May 1925 • No. 22
