WHAT ARE THE WILD MEN SAYING?
WHAT ARE THE WILD MEN SAYING? Rockaway .Real Estate Booms and Dfaws A Miniature Picture of Our Entire System ROCKAWAY BEACH ha* gone quite crazy. Fortunes — on p>per — have been made in ten...
...Bolshevik leaders are not Socialists and because they ara not they call themselves Communist...
...They will orequire a new outlook and this n»w outlook will come into conflict with the new herd traditions...
...One aale of a lot at a big profit—on* considerable profit on a reaale, one man to boast that he had "made" a thousand or a million or a billion—it really doesn't matter which...
...At first business was more or less "legitimate...
...Fortunes — on p>per — have been made in ten minutes and greater fortunes in ten minutes more...
...The streets have become curb markets and men and women mill around all day yelling and shrieking like so many lunatics...
...Huge profits made on others' labor, the toll being paid by those who get nothing for it, tha gain won by those who merely own pieces of paper—or at best, those who display the low cunning of gamblers and manipulators, adding nothing whatever to the value of that which they buy and sell...
...Bryan's real estate operation* in Miami and Benjamin Winter's operations on Fifth avenue and how money is doubled overnight by the proper kind of manipulation, and how everything is booming...
...Whether copies are still available we do not know...
...Local booster patriota are talking about convention halls holding 10,000 people, about huge theatres, palatial hotels to compete with those of Atlantic City and apartment houses like those of Park avenue...
...The A. F. of...
...little real estateniks and conces- f sionairea began to lick their chops li in happy Anticipation of increased n value* and earning power (created by the people who come there), lo c and behold...
...Th* intellectual ribel is always the herald of progress He always belongs to the living and I do not want to belong to tha dead...
...The wagea, between 100 and 160 murks monthly, in the 'nee of the fearfully high cost of iving, denies tha workers meat nore than once a week...
...Why shouldn't Rockaway follow Long Beach and Coney Island and undertake to back Atlantic City and Miami off the map ? A Judge 1 In the Making...
...There are 130 publications, ntost of them self-sustaining and some actually making big profits...
...New York City...
...Of course, everyone "buys" a lot hoping to sell it to someone whp expacts to sell it to someone who expect* to sell it at a big profit...
...Soon th* indicated fictitious value* of lots became »o great that even the vast hoped-for proaparity that th* projected boardwalk ia expected to bring would hardly support them in tha style to which they hope to become a< customed...
...A lot of peopie are laughing at the lunatics who mill around on the streets screaming meaningleta words and thinking that by doing that they are making money...
...Brooklyn, N. Y. The Government report on this matter is found in "Intelligence Ratings," October, 1918, being Chapter X of the "Personal Manual...
...This is to say that the d*»d rule the living...
...C. Brigham's "American Intelligence" may also be consulted...
...Jacob Panken...
...Ian't your position here nearer to Anarchism than to Socialism, at ordinarily defined...
...The question that faces every reader of this is.< In what class do I belong...
...Germany ia very quiet...
...And the people who dreamed of wealth* and cars and independence and fur wraps and tripa to Florida and box aeats at the Follies will wake up with a big katzenjammer, cleaned out—their dreamt athet and an ache in thair hearts...
...Little bits of sand lots normally used as bads upon which to lay out clam shells in attractive patterns as front gardens to bungalows are now being peddled around as if they were located at Broadway and Fortyseventh street...
...Rockaway real- 4 tors have political influence no less . than Coney Island realtors, and they I are as hungry for profits...
...The herd turns upon the modern as a rebel against the most sacred things, but here and there the light breaks...
...But what is it but an accurate picture on a small scale of Wall Street and the Stock Exchange...
...The more human beings are guided by the goblins of the past the mere eertain are they that they are capable of answering, all questions...
...a boardwalk about to be built—dreams of instant skyrocketing of land (or sand) values...
...Morris Herman...
...1 Berlin...
...In their mind's eyes they had already built a Miami, a Monte Carlo, a Lido...
...Now, there are a lot of little bueinett men and would-be business men and women who live in the Rockaways...
...i , When the Bubble Burst* But it will never get so far...
...Policy Editor, ThoAeew Leader: No doubt you have noticed that t the capitalist newspapers have givI en the uiual A. F. of L. Execui tive Council declaration on the i subject of politics apace on the , front pages with headlines declar' ing that tire American Federation ' was done with supporting thirdparty movements, when, aa a mat. ter of fact, the A. F. of L. did not i endorse the third party in 1924, but only its .presidential candidate...
...Habits, customs, beliefs, traditions and prejudices associated with the dead of generations ago survive to guide the conduct of the living...
...Now, ^ ainca Riegelmann has since become a jt Supreme Court Judge, to draw the obvious conclusions might be construed ** contempt of court, to we'll _ let that pata...
...It is all ao simple—and so insane...
...Still, Germany is sound—and is ¦oming back...
...There ara aoma lere who believe that the economic iepreaaion it the result, of a plan :onducted by big industry to further ¦educe the standard of living of the vorkers...
...And haven't they endeavored to control education and religion, aa well aa industry...
...The ideas that once became modem now become ancient and are associated with the past...
...A local Gang Assembly- t man, who is a realtor in addition to j being a statesman, undertook to get . authorization for a boardwalk along the six miles of Rockaway ocean front*—and incidentally to make a little money for himself...
...So it goes in a tragic cycle of history, over and over again...
...It seems that all the available funds were nut into machinery and other frozen saaets...
...The corpse does not have to appear on the (scene but it...
...The same thing is true of those who think of the Democratic party in terms of Andrew Jackson and his followers...
...Men and women bought and sold like so many wild people...
...And so the goose that 1 laid the platinum egg* #ill be found lo have been killed and cooked...
...Our position fjbf opposition to "the selection of any special doctrine, creed or science for State support" is not...
...Since the beaches are not ( quite ao accessible as Coney, wealth- i iar people—a "better class" of peo- , pie, aa we democratic anobs call t them—have patronized Rockaway t and the noise and shrieking and in- , sanity that characterized Coney at c ita worst have not been so bad here, j But just th* tame, Rockaway has p grown up crazily, each section and a subdivision, for itself...
...Albany, N. Y Intelligence Teats Editor, Tile New Leader: Can you furnish me with the figures representing the average mental and physical status of the American soldier, as found to be the case, during the period of the operation of the selective draft, and also the source* from whence these figure* are derived...
...Creating "Land Values" It's a great pipe dream, but meanwhile little men and women are milling around on the street yelling "Three for ten...
...So that they find themselves without fluid capital to carry on their induatries...
...Isn't it generally understood by Socialiats that the triumphant State (controlled by the workers, democratically organized) ia to regulate not only induatry, but a great many other human activities...
...It needed but one (park to set the* off, and the lunacy began...
...At present the Party haa 300,000 good-standing members...
...I hope to etum at the end of the weekIf you think it worth while, you an give so much of the informs- i ion in this letter to The N«w | .eader...
...There will be the same tendency to collect in herds and to venerate the ideas that brought Socialism and to protect them 'against all assault...
...Th*y, too, become ghosts and goblins, held sacred by the new herd...
...But as the insanity grew, people paid one-tenth aa deposit and sold at a paper profit, taking another tenth aa dapoait...
...160-1(2) gives a brief though valuable presentation of the matter...
...The Rockaways have a wonderful 1 ocean front beach—about six miles 1 from Neponsit to Far Rockaway...
...Slowly the herd instincts brvak down and eventually they give way to modern ideas and a new civilization is born...
...Vast herds of human beings are thus possessed by the ideas of another age...
...Just because he is certain that his goblins see all and know all he is suspicious of those who live and think in the modern age...
...No sooner thought of than— < thought of...
...Although not within a five-cent fare the whole 'stretch of beach is within eaay reach of the city...
...If the statistics are not available, then perhaps yon can inform me where I can obtain the information I desire...
...But the Rockaways have voters ' a* Well as Brooklyn...
...The big operators will clean up and add their huge profits to the prices that visit* ors to the Boardwalk will hav* to pay...
...But ian't it a fact that the Bolshevik leaders ara Socialists...
...The Party in Germany ia in wonderful state...
...An interesting fact brought out by the army tests is that Socialists and other objectors to the war had the highest intelligence ratings while those who submitted like sheep had the lowest* The Conflict of Past and Present By JAMES ONEAL ANATION ruled by corpses would he a ghastly theme for some novelist...
...A lot more are having a great time laughing at the yaps who think that they will get rich out of this insanity...
...everyone waa talking about it and building caatlea In the air...
...It is the sway of the past over the living that leads to irrational conduct...
...I know that you repudiate the Bolshevik dictatorship in Russia...
...One writer **ys that a person of this type "will hav* fairly settled idea* upon th* origin and nature of the universe and upon what he will probably call its meaning...
...A few are awakened from the sleep of the de*d and desert the herd...
...Robert Marion...
...They read "succees" literature...
...It Is accounted for by the fact that the Communists are constantly losing...
...Tha*/ asked me to remember them to you...
...it was discovered that 0 practically the whole Boardwalk front, with ita immenaely valuable sites for restaurants end amusement Tl parka and hot dog stands, was nailed down and in tha handa of a realty c| company with which thia aame tj Riegelmann waa connected...
...Then came p Borough President Riegelmann with a hit plans for the Boardwalk to im- a prove Coney, to raise its tone, to in- c crease the value of its real estate, h Over tha protests of the concession- d aires, each of whom was interested c in hia little aegment of beach and r his strategic position to fleece tha w people, the Boardwalk was built, and e a beautiful thing it is, too...
...Picture Another Monte Carlo • At Rockaway, everyone wat dreaming that the Boardwalk would increase land valuea and make them rich...
...The book by R. M. Yerkea and C. S. Yoakum entitled "Army Mental Tests," New York, 1920, considers the question in detail...
...Piling Up • The profits Meanwhile the*AssemblymanRealtor who started everything by making a fight for the Boardwalk is aaid to have cleaned up a million and a half,-but don't talk out ' >ud hecauae in a few months thia noblt statesman will want to write a nice, conservative income tax statement Other men have made aaveral millions actually in cash...
...WleB 1 the bubble burata (if it hasn't already buret whan this issue ef The ' New Leader appears) it will b* found that tha vast majority of tha ' "purchases" on the ttreet* in front ' of real aetata offices have been invalid, without deeda, without proof of tha paaatng of title...
...I am leaving for Kovno today— i iust stayed only two daya...
...And everyone went crazy...
...out of that Bedlam will come a magnificent community headache, if it has not already come by the time these words appear...
...So inatead of cottages, the lunatica began to dream of hotela and convention halls and huge theatres, and to- talk big accordingly...
...Socialism eeeka to use it as one agency for Labor emancipation and to transform it into an organ for the aervice ef all...
...Inasmuch aa the American Federation of Labor has never endorsed any political party a,a auch, it could not have ceased to endorse third parties, as ^hose lying headlines imply...
...Kor all practical purposes they are themselves dead and the great, task of civilized men and women is to restore these dead to life...
...Maybe , when the boardwalk is built, he will 1 he elevated to the Supreme Court, too, and to criticize him may then ( become contempt, of court...
...Othera have made a few thousands or even hundreds of thousands...
...The new civilization develops its problems and a new conservative herd appears to prevent any change...
...A lpt of people are kidding themselves that they are going to get rich...
...They read the ada in the papers of new model automobiles and fur coats and wonderful ocean trips and money—easy money —seems oh...
...Pleasantville, N. Y. Dear Folks: I spent last evening w th the Breitscheids...
...And then nothing is needed but a spark to touch it off...
...How else can we explain the amazing conduct of wage workers who vote for parties and candidates that are clearly owned by capitalists, bankers and their kind...
...I had a very ietereating talk with "der Hearn Doktor...
...But after all, what is it but the natural process of our thieving: industrial system—just speeded up a bit...
...Herbert M. Merrill, Stat* Secretary, Secieliet Party...
...A whole community "sold" with the idea of cheap, vulgar, money success as the only thing in life worth while...
...Then the process is repeated over again...
...it should be interesting for ( ts rcari^rs...
...Nothing small about their delirium...
...nearer to Anarchism than to Socialism...
...But just 1 as...
...The chapter in Professor Case's book is the best that we have seen and we especially recommend it...
...is only necessary to imagine it reappearing to complete the picture of modern society...
...What more do you want than just such a situation...
...The Rocka- ! ways have grown up aomething liktd the old Coney Island—that is, craz- ] ily, with a swarm of vermin each ] trying to make hia little profit out of the people's need for a breath of . fraah air...
...Again the dead rule the living and a new race ef moderns is required to challenge the old taboos, customs, ideas, traditions and prejudices...
...Fred Shulman...
...There ia a bit of milding going on here and there...
...Cash was paid, deeds were signed, profits were substantial...
...New problems will appear that we cannot foresee and the old ideas will net be adapted to their solution...
...They live in our century physically but mentally associate witii Jie dead...
...Imagine the puler of some nation rattling his bones in a swivel chair or a judge issuing a decree while his ancient skull is only partly concealed by a black cowl—lawyers, editors, politicians, clergymen and statesmen issuing from their tombs to expound their daily round of wisdom and crawling back after a day's work of imposing it upon the living...
...The tendency of so many human beings to follow a course of conduct that is against their own welfare has led many psychologists to claim that acceptance of non-rational beliefs must b« considered as normal...
...But someone sometime* will have to atop buying and telling, and build, and get the benefits of the Boardwalk crowds...
...God knowa that ia low mough here...
...And' so it is liktly that the vast majority of the parcels will return to their original ownera—or more probably to the Realtor-Statesman or some other firm of big real eatate gamblers...
...i Anarchism and Socialism Editor, The New Leader: In your anawer to a correspondent who recently protested againat your aympathetic attitude toward th* doctrine of Evolution, you stated that The New Leader "fights for free education in all fields . . . and will oppoae the selection of any special doctrine, creed or science {or State support...
...Out of that Bedlam people think they are "making" money...
...The man who votes a Republican ticket in the belief that it is the party of Lincoln has his conduct guided by dead men of the middle of the niweteent.h century...
...You will be surprised to know that, though the economic conditiona of the country is in a woeful atate, the Party has all the funds it can possibly uae...
...I call attention to this matter, so that our comrades in the organized Labor movement may be urged to offset the advantage that old party heelers in the economic movement may take of capitalist, newspaper misrepresentation...
...He regards the modern man et» an impious intruder among his ghosts and goblins...
...The minority of those who think are compelled to live in the society of ghosts and goblins that walk in the minds of the majority...
...And then we'll go along, making profits at a normal, natural rata until the next insanity...
...j Aa Coney ( Uaed to Be Coney Island used to be like that, t only infinitely worse...
...So a "profit" of a thousand might eaaily have been only $100...
...Anarchism seeks the abolition of tha State...
...They have endeavored to control education and religion by State power but they have compromised with religioua organizations and that they have failed to control education and thinking is evident by th* struggle if the Russian working class to get rid of the dictatorship...
...Chapter X of Case's "Non-Violent Coercion" is an excellent survey of the army tests while Professor Barnes in his "The New History and the Social Studies" (pp...
...They hear every day about Mr...
...so desirable...
...and industriously thinking they are creating land values by writing worthless checks for fictitious land corporations...
...By that time the prices of land will have become so enormously ^high that after paying rents, in order to make a profit on whatever will be for sale, prices for food ia restaurants, amusements in tha theatrea, lockers and room* in bathing houses and the rent of bungalows, rooms and suites in hotelt will havt to be ao huge that no one but the weaKiiiest will be able to afford to enjoy it...
...Am I one of the herd under the sway of the dead or on* who lives in the present and looks forward to a better and nobler futur...
...But many, many othera have "bought" land and "sold" it without even a dead to prove it, without a transfer of title, without even a valid check to bind the operation...
...We hope that the time may apeedily come when organized Labor will definitely resolve to take up independent political action, but in tha meantime our comrades can show that the A. F. of L.'has even endorsed Socialist, candidates on occasion, and that the failure to follow our English cousins does not imply that organized Labor ia any more committed to the Republican or Democrat party than to any third party, headlines to the contrary notwithstanding...
...It could not have repudiated" a position that it ha* never taken...
...This is civilization ruled by the dead...
...He will have strong views upon military and naval strategy, the principles of taxation, the use of alcohol and vaccination, the treatment of influenza, the prevention of hydrophobia, upon municipal trading, the teaching of Greek, upon what is permissibly in art, satisfactory in literature, and helpful in science...
...The details are pretty well known by now to all newspaper readers...
...What is it but a picture 40 our whole industrial system T A Letter from Comrade Pan'ken Editor, The New Leader: The following letter from Comfit Jacob Panken will be of interest to your readers...
...So evident is this tendency in history that I have determined that if w* realize the ideals of Socialism in my time, as soon as the new ord«r is stabilized I shall join th* new minority...
...However, something like this prevails in modern society...
...They became hysterical, crazed with the idea of quick profits, huge fortunea made overnight...
Vol. 2 • August 1925 • No. 34
