A PAGE OF EXCLUSIVE FEATURES
A PAGE OF EXCLUSIVE FEATURES Letter to a Young Idealist fvEAR BOB:—xou wnie mat you u»ve; II decided "to cast in your lot with the " workers" and that you will give, your Uflairrti- training...
...with the trial and hopeless failure of an...
...Do the bright young men who provide Clodhopper's mental nourishment advise hint to Join the Wheat Growers' Association, ascav* tain the amount of wheat required, plant dmV that much and no more and deliver it through his own marketing associations...
...Thanks, oM wHAT'S WRONG WITH THE fARMER BlaESSED be the farmefc Somebooy m always helping the farmer...
...Thar* if every day a wider consensus that th* inevitable outcome of democracy la the control by th* people themselves, not only of their own political organization, but, through that, also, of the mam instruments of wealth production...
...However, Mongolian Mastodon wheat ii just a little too productive and the price goes down to nothing...
...Society Dynamio The difficulty with all ot these proposals was that they regarded society am Static...
...Da Tocqnevtlle drove horn* this troth to a reluctant world two generations" agoSome there are who Imagine that democracy is merely the substitution of one kind of political machinery for another...
...The day before the minority leader, Charles Donbhue, was left stranded by his ignoble band of idlers...
...Always the individual seeking salvation one* side of his class and usually at the expense of his class...
...Another d«f still better and gave birth to triplets besides...
...The United States agricultural department has dis.covercd a brand of Afghanistan corn that yields 200 bushels to the- acre sad is sef*> husking...
...The remedies they propose are purely individualistic...
...Adler retorted: 'My only comment Is that th* absence of the .minority is obvious.' And he added: T-don't doubt that the minority members always will be pres^dnt at the beginning and the end of the session that they may draw their pay.'" * e * In the session of 1»1» we had th* opportunity, one Thursday, of representing the "great" Democratic minority hi - the Assembly—th/(t is...
...Bernard Shaw, Sidney Webb, William Clarke, Sydney Olivier, Graham Wallas and ' Annie Besant are the authors...
...Low wages...
...if you recall, we were part of that body for several terms)—may have come to the attention of that honorable amalgamation of loafers or else they simply became sensitive to their own behavior...
...mffwL\ yt my advice and join th* SoSgV- 'ay your dues, riad the party P g* to meetings of your branch, ¦f™, ."wing there is to the labor * COUI»try today was put into |Mpg-the untiring efforts of .Socialists...
...to Mr...
...Why here it is...
...have independent incomes of their Wrr or are living on padded expense actroants, like the other labor skates...
...Even the bankers sod Coolidge are helping the farmer...
...We did It gracefully...
...has become dynamic The necessity of the constant growth and development of the social organism has become axiomatic...
...Adler, majority leader (Rep...
...It is now, however, becoming increasingly recognized that political changes bring with them corresponding changes in social and economic relations...
...v So you will have to take the bitter with the sweet, consoled with the thought that if you were working for some commercial outfit, yoo would find no such colorful contrasts, no mcb...
...his I carta, St...
...No avenue of advancement existed for even exceptionally gifted eons'of the people...
...Add to this, intelligent political action in conjunction with unions of wage earners, the government ownership of railroads, minus water and wreckers, and (there is no doubt, that the lot, of the farmer could be greatly improved...
...Well, that's rlchl Our friend...
...Socialists aa wen aa individualists, realize that important organic changes can only be (1) democratic, and thus acceptable to a majority of th* people, and prepared for In the minds of all...
...They feared and hated us, and they had good reasons for doing so...
...a world of status and of P^a| man eat social inequalities not differing essentially from th* feudalism of the past...
...Then there will be no more sleep for the majority and darn tew absentees...
...them wore missing...
...gs today because many of HffiF*t pioneers are tired, cynical or ^¦^^onng America in colleges and high hJMactones and on farms, in work_^BBSlB,,'ners that Socfah'sm today looks |Mrc5<Tns fight for a better world for all The Fabian Essays THE HISTORY,OF SOCIALIST THOUGHT -By HARRY W. LAIDI^R...
...wbs> signs no nam* and gives hp adds ias» writes-a postscript: "Aad swtot<e yoU tackle thee* bra is teasers, hav* a am she on roars...
...Furthermore, whether th* Democrats hav...
...WW whole, you are to be envied by those |R*?how looking at you with pity...
...Two-thirds of tha...
...II decided "to cast in your lot with the " workers" and that you will give, your Uflairrti- training and what brains and .fSbje you have to the organized labor move^Egbt at the start I want to go on record it chewing loudly for your decision...
...You sill probably always be in debt, always warned about the financial tomorrow...
...They are rotten peas of the shine rotten nod...
...Aa lately as liSl 150 persons returned a majority of th* House of Commons...
...almost complete industrial individualism, ln which, however, unrestrained private ownership of land and capital was accompanied by subjection to a political oligarchy...
...This particular trait of the farmer is weft known to his helpmates and well-wishers...
...He be_BP-f %n?i°g menace to vthe- union-baiting jg...
...Up went the price ef coal...
...World War 'heroes/ Our'cone and brothers were given models Me killing and robbing...
...Just aa Plato had his republic and .Sir Thomas More his Utopia, so Baboeuf had his Charter of Equality, Cabet...
...Nevertheless, the Essays are so representative of the general point of view ot the members ot the society in the early days aa to' warrant a\careful aummary ol them...
...CO or TO A asamblythe RepubUcan majority won't let them play...
...Too Fabian Society never had a ¦resident and no person or group of p*rsons ever claimed to act as its authoritative spokesman...
...There are seven of these lectures...
...Jasper Tuber over in Yokel township raised 600 bushels of "Early Precocious" potatoes', from one bushel of seed...
...laughing kid he always was, very £r t| 8'.mPle and happy as few of his aR^gphisticated class-mates are...
...Meanwhile tho hold-ups and murder eases are getting more and mere desperate," ? "Com put eery military training In our High schools and colleges...
...farmer trying to beat his neighbors to it...
...Hot much thev do...
...They will sweat, we .fan assure you...
...Unemployment...
...Four of them deal with the basis of socialism, historic» economic, industrial and moral...
...At last the solution...
...Meanwhile the •erlme ways' ia giving much concern to cur social wizards who arg^Jrylng to #nd th* cause and • remedy...
...Until the present century Its form was largely .Utopian, and Its advocates offered "an elaborate plan with specifications of a new social order froar-wblch all contemporary evils were eliminated...
...God helps him who helps himself and the farmer don't help himself although hs is the personification of benighted selfishness* So much so in fact that if I had to make 4 composite picture of the American farmer, I would draw him as a lone jackrabbit trying to surround a pack of wolves all by himself...
...We received a letter from ear "Critical Friend" from Pittsburgh, Pa...
...And as Donohue had to leave for the city am ft -> urgent business, and thereby 1' -jhthe Assembly Democratless, he _.me over to our seat and bogged us to make a motion for htm on tho following morning...
...comes...
...Webb's treatment of this phase' of the subject was in essence as follows: "The historic ancestry of the English soeial organisation during the present century stands witness to the irresistible momorltum of the ideas which socialism denotes...
...We had th* Republicans and Democrats watching their steps in • everything they attempted* to put across, and ln many a^debate we gave them a drubbing they remembered for some time...
...The economic .history of the century is an almost continuous record of the progress of socialism...
...Our children are forcibly taught the 'gentte srf ef killing...
...You SKFJi * great adventure...
...And' so on and on-without end, amen...
...The labor movement today, rank xftd file and officialdom alike, is filled with Mrdrdhnbers and pay-roll bandits, thugs tad hijackers, egotists and shoestring go-^et"ters, .month-shooters and moochers, profesficosl patriots and imperialists, ignoramuses cad ph*nidiots, but—rNowhere else in these United States will yes also, find such free, fine, self-sacrificing men and women, such altogether lovable, altogether human comrades, through thick or 4m, at you will find within the organized labor movement today...
...But, you see, you [¦re an object of suspicion and will be for years m ' ""JNt m*'m "*4bor Bas not vet learned to LvarfTfne strange folks from the "outside iMd" who'want to do something to help aka( It is generally supposed that these roddSk...
...we substituted for,them that morning— mere wasn't a damn Democrat in the house...
...The federal department ef agriculture is helping.the farmer, A coople ot hundred farm journals are hoping the farmer...
...Since their day we have learned that soda...
...Peudaliam and the Revolution Western Europe, In the middle of the eighteenth century, was still organised on a feudalistle basis...
...reconstruction must not be gene St m that fjaahloni Owing mainly te the efforts of comte...
...It would be different if you were hregular union member^ in good standing Srith the big boy* on top...
...To Sidney Webb, "Barrister of Law and Lecturer of Political Economy at the City of London College," was given the task In these essays of dealing with the historic basis of Socialism...
...aad even August Comta...
...One should think that with such an array of helping hands the farmer would get sows where, bnt he doesn't unless it be the peer house or a job on the street car...
...And he did this in the «rW«f scorn and derision and secret hostility M*o*vert suspicion of many of the members Jfcp United Mine Workers, who flung the memtaunt, "Greenwich Village coal-digger," iMp and could not believe that anyone i*W»PJ3 background could possibly be in ^Fvwerslaughed at such criticism and went ^**s*i"g' coal and organizing new locals SB standing on prcket lines .during strikes ]P going to jail ever so many times...
...No philosopher now looks for anything but the gradual evolution of the new order from the old, without breach of continuity or abrupt change o* the entire social Ussue at any point during the process...
...In due time, the Bandit Dairy company announces a cut ia price of milk from to 2# per found...
...Sparks and Flashes OUR little sketch of the New York Assembly at work (?) had its echo in the hall wherein that august body meets—or is supposed to meet...
...It was a world still mainly medieval In political, in economic and in soeurPS^ lations...
...Socialism, Webb continued, has also an internal history of its own...
...Th* economic aide of th* democratic ideal is, in fact, Socialism itself...
...Broken homes...
...Well, anyway, they had it out among themselves on Wednesday morning a week ago, as' the following dialogue will show, as reported in the "Sun": "Mr...
...What next...
...tt contained 'a rather lengthy and involved question (wo shaB attempt to answer it next week) and enclosed was found one djllar...
...Two try to visualize the socialist society of the future, and one is devoted to the transition to socialism...
...Oh, for tho days whan W* Socialists may hav* some 40 Assemblymen st Albany...
...He has ^Wteough hell many a time and the fires SjSf a...
...So while I'm not a farmer and perhaps know less about farming than the folks who are always advising the farmer, I can't resist lending a helping hand to the farmer, for sell* preservation is the first law ef nature, so I'm told...
...and history shows no example of the sudden substitution of Utopian and revolutionary romance...
...According to the Bonanza Poultry Journal the one-legged widow of a blind hog raiser who hung himself when the bottom dropped out of the hog market, with nine children and a Ford to support, is getting rich on a flock of 200 leghorns...
...and St* consequent recovery, ln th* only possible way, of what John Stuart Mm calls thai enormous share which the possessors of the instruments of industry are able to take from tha produce...
...Congress is helping the farmer...
...Hence in advising the farmer they say precious little about team work, co-operation and organization...
...But hark...
...Advocates of social reconstruction htfve learned the lesson of democracy, and know that it is through the slow and gradual turning of the popular mind to new principles that social reorganization, bit by bit...
...reaches the market the bottom dropped oat of the market and hogs are down to nothing, but the note* are going as strong as ever, N*> hog raising doesn't pay, what next...
...Broken Uvea...
...up went th* price ef rent...
...Meanwhile the hold-up* f«d robberies are getting bolder and more desperate...
...Mgf» •^Cnt now,"I hear, from digging coal MB* of Wales and France and GerWT*m Russia, intending to stout right in in this country again...
...f Now the way I look at the trouble of tne farmers is that the trouble of the farmer Is the farmer...
...This system waa rudely shaken by tho Industrial revolution, brought about by th* Inventions of Crerapten, Arkwright, Hargreaves and others...
...St...
...population tilled the sell and dwelt ln lonely hamlets scattered about th* still sparsely Inhabited country...
...Me for leghorns," cries Brother Clodhopper and leghorns it is until the white spot jm his farm has spread over tbe whole countryside aad eggs are down to nothing: No, there is no money in chickens, bat there) is^rft dairy farming...
...Up wont th* prises on commodities...
...see they limit production and raise tha prices Just the same, thus eliminating waste and making more profit...
...Poor farmer...
...Besides cows mean Skim milk, buttermilk, hogs, chickens and manure...
...All stndeata ot society who are abreast of their times...
...I hope faint sever turn into the sort of crab who srjjersat young college men like yourself who wirt fc>4o their bit for the under dog...
...We not only fought them on the Boor of the Assembly, but we ' went into their horn* towns and districts and exposed them...
...Boars and broods©ws increase In the corfl belt So'do notes in the banks, By the time the posterity of the blue-blooded breeder...
...The Church, one* a universal democratic organisation of international' fraternity, had become a mere appanage of the landed gentry...
...Much scratching of heads, chewing of straw, wrinkling of brows, deep thinking at agricultural schools...
...superior as he was to many Of the .weaknesses of his time, must needs add a detailed policy to his Philosophy of Positivism...
...Farmer Clodhopper is breaking his back raising wheat' and morb> gages...
...Darwin andltarstatic...
...For th* mass ot th* people there wss nothing but obedience, "Even In England the whole political administration was divided between tbe king and the great families, and not ons person ln S00 possessed so much as a vote...
...Tet we were always on the job aad active at every session...
...Seme brains...
...The new becomes Itself old, often before i« is, consciously recognised as new...
...There is no better proof of this description than the'fact that the Democrats frequently unit* with the Republicans on one candidate tor the Assembly in those districts where the Socialists have a fair chance to capture a seat...
...The administration of justice and of the executive government was entirely in their hands, while Parliament was filled with their leaders and nominees...
...Unless he can conformjlis action to the old labor union slogan: "One for all and all for one," his name is mad, for those who can not help fuWiasertys by...
...One cow gave twice her weight in butter fat in one year...
...I know . tfcgs it took rear guts to come to your decision is view of your cultural and capitalistic fcfxkgroand and I take my hat off to yen twit [jot, Bob, don't expect anyone in the orgjnized labor movement to be doing any hat ]jf "f when you go to work for them...
...The salvation of the farmer it bound up ia the salvation of his class...
...Simon his Industrie .System, and Fourier his Ideal Phslano*tary, Robert Owen spent a fortune in presaimg upon aa unbelieving generation his jfew Moral World...
...thrilling adventures in the mad, sad, bad, glad waj*s of the being we call "human...
...ANNA RAPPORT...
...Tof course, in the conventional sense of the i»srdr you will never be a "success...
...Down earns th* Income and inheritance taxes...
...Easy...
...You are comJSR^moveraent that needs all yon have Pjgeoce, education, courage, patience *aisK!?,aj AJever did the organized labor PS of this country need these things vSES*1* needs them today...
...Damooratie Progress The main stream that has horn* European society towards Socialism during the past 100 years is the Irresistible progress of democracy...
...Anybody can see that the farmer who raises 40 bushels to the acre has got it all 'over the farmer who raises only 12 to the sere sad the main thing is not to help the farmer as s ems* but to help one farmer to best the other...
...outsider" fwising to make sacrifices and they are aljrs'willing to help in this respect at any ' Bat this "success" business has its com^fcuatkra...
...i/When Powers came out of college, as you ijtot coming now, he decided, as you have de•dtA, that instead of joining the hordes of {Mutes who are sitting smugly on the backs It fte real producers of America he'd get a *P digging coal...
...They used to call bin the brow and backbone of the nation and now he is rapidly becoraiifef...
...Meanwhile th* hold-up* are setting bolder and more desperate...
...f The remedy for too much and too dies* wheat is Mongolian Mastodon wheat which raises 40 bushels to the acre...
...So now it's Afghanistan corn, natal the price of corn is so low that it don't pee for the self-husking...
...Wolf at the doer...
...tha gradual substitution ef si ge "teed oo-opersvtion tor the anarchy of the oampetrtiv* struggle...
...No matter or measure of the slightest Importance escaped our attention...
...Said Mr...
...Only on some occasions when some purely partisan issues involve them do they become belligerent Otherwise, they always sulk, truckle, and compromise or else they are ln cahoots with the Republicans ln most of the dirty work...
...The record of the century ln English social history beSJna...
...commented that only three or four Democrats wore present...
...The ideal society was represented as ln perfectly balanced equilibrium, without need or possibility of future organic alteration...
...aad th* masses found themselves born Jpto a position af lifelong dependence upon, a class ot superior birth...
...grans of Pennsylvania and a beloved ggwof all that is best in unionism to the jSgttled rank and file of the miners...
...As i matter of fact, you will be singularly .lucky g the onion officials to whom you offer your, lovices at the sort of a wage that you wsoldn't sneeze at in any commercial enterprise, do sot throw you out the door without so much as finding out what you can do...
...As I said iefore, you will, as an "outsider," always be underpaid...
...Just the thing to keep debts down and land up...
...and the doings of the New York Assembly will again be featured on th* front pages, as these were (n the oast when a real opposition confronted the two «M fraud parties...
...Bloob, minority leader (Dem...
...The manor gave way to the- mill, the mine, the factory...
...Next fall when the bushel of" $3.00 Precocious has grown into 40 bushels, the price at the potato house is 30 cents 100 pounds...
...If -success means going steadily Jniliils a worthwhile goal, doing the thing wet yon best love to do with the best that is it you, then the most successful young man 1k*t I know of is Sowers Hapgood, a workjig pick miner and member of the United Jwte^Workers of America...
...Finis...
...Some forty of...
...Cupid broke th* window-pane...
...D THE' most comprehensive statement of the early ( Fabian approach to socialism is contained in the Fabian Essays, edited by Bernard Shaw and based on a series of lectures ^delivered by prominent members of the Fabian Society before London audiences in the year 1888...
...And get this straight before you begin: It ajgl tare you lots Of disillusioned heartbreaks Ipdr on...
...Unions of farmers, regulating production among themselves, buying and selling through their own organizations with-thc ultimate goal of reaching consumers without the divine intervention ef middle men, gamblers, and speculators-^snch an - organization could lift agriculture,, out of the morass it is weltering in and bring it- eventually to the high level of Danish agriculture...
...Feed the corn to hogs sad gag rich on hogs...
...Onr tale about their extraordinary and .laborious activities during the month ofvjanuary each year (it was drawn from facts...
...Tha ecionomlo organisation was of a oluHMr character...
...the butt and backdoor beggar of the nation, I wish I could help the farmer for I have m, hunch that if the farmer goes to the devil, my stomach will bf-empty and say back will bear all the outward signs of s bare existence...
...So little element of permanence was there in this Individualistic Order that, with the progress of political emancipation, private ownership of the means of produotion has been, ln one direction or another, successively regulated, limited _ and superceded, until it may now fairly ' be claimed thatPthe Socialist philosophy ot today la but the conscious and explicit assertion of principles of social organization which have been already In great part unconsciously .adopted...
...S) gradual, and thus causing no dislocation, however rapid may be the rats of progress: (» not regarded as immoral by th* mass of the people, and thus not subjectively demoralizing to them;' and (4) in this country at any rata, eonatitntlonal and peaceful...
...Never miaul what becomes of the increased yield...
...see The truth te that AI Smith's "progressive" Democrat Assemblymen are now and have been for many years a miserably weak, ineffective and utterly humbug opposition against th* upstate Republican majority...
...Always, one...
...But the ameii never left us...
...Poor income...
...Then, fop, Hie office-holders, themselves well-fixed, ake advantage of the fact that the...
...The S^Hoflttsit departments of 46 sovereign States are faeJpinjff the farmer...
...Though a very small minority, we wore often able to defeat the passage ot had legislation by exposing its character and shaming the majority against voting for it...
...Ia ltl* there war* hot two of us in the Assembly, yet we were successful In killing several rotten bills...
...Ton men out of a 150 ia a tiny minority...
...e e - e What a genuine opposition can do waa demonstrated when 10 Socialist Assemblymen were at Albany ln 1H8 and whan even * lessor number of them were there during other years...
...Adler: 'What's the use of coming to Albany when the majority won't work?' Mr...
Vol. 3 • February 1926 • No. 5
