The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn An Old Socialist Views the Future I have been gathering all sorts of memories of the past out of a book entitled Face the Future, by my old friend John M. Work...
...This man seems to think socialism will come down out of the air and magically save the world...
...It is what John M. Work believes in 1958...
...He will tell people what to eat...
...The biggest concerns, "natural monopolies," are to be run by the Government...
...He favors cooperative farms rather than Russian-style collectives and pictures a rural world in which the producers of food have freedom of choice...
...When the author swings away from what is supposed to be his main theme and puts in a blow against alcohol, tobacco or the use of any food except vegetables, he seems to achieve a special eloquence...
...There is no mention of FDR or of the New Deal...
...At one point, the author actually ventures the prophesy: "The world will become a paradise...
...Future historians will find in this volume abundant evidence of the close connection between our form of socialism and various efforts at moral reform...
...It is understood that any uneasy and discontented chap can open up a business of his own whenever he feels like it...
...He will lecture both men and women about matters of sex...
...The socialist world will be free from them because socialism— at least our sort of socialism—will be "democratic...
...German Socialists are referred to, but the British Labor party is completely disregarded...
...He was in at the start when the hopeful organization was set up in 1901 at that famous Indianapolis convention...
...Old John talks hopefully throughout his 173 pages about the socialism which is to save this country and the world, but nowhere refers to an American Socialist party...
...No party officials are mentioned and no platforms quoted...
...Our author has the endless nerve of the constitutional reformer...
...Capitalism will not be here to pervert people's minds—so they will be able to make wise decisions and all good things will come to pass...
...I describe John M. Work as my friend, though I have never met, seen or talked to him...
...Though he is a little older than I am —getting along in his eighties—he is still full of energy and determined to do what he can to save this wicked world...
...But I have always known where he was and what he was doing, and every now and then we have exchanged a letter or two...
...John is different from me in having been longer, more continuously and more officially connected with the Socialist party...
...But the reader finally is able to figure out that they belong in this book because "socialism" is the universal solvent...
...This magic word will save it from the curses of dictatorial mass-operation...
...For a long time, as secretary of the party, he sat at the very center of agitational activity in Chicago...
...How we will make it democratic or keep it democratic he never explains...
...It would be interesting to know just when the chief part of this book was written...
...For 25 years, he was editor of one of the most influential Socialist papers, the Milwaukee Leader...
...All of this is what some of the Socialists believed when they met at Indianapolis in 1901...
...All of the horrors of Fascism, Nazism and Communism worry him not at all...
...But since "the desire to own one's own farm or home is a passing weakness of the flesh," people will, in the end, be sure to make the proper choice...
...It is no more than fair to suppose that he represents a large sector of what remains of American Socialism...
...When I laid this book down, I had a peculiar feeling that I had been in communication with a ghost...
...There is something very impressive about this tenacity...
...Work has in mind for industry, it is a rather free and easygoing affair...
...There is not a word about Norman Thomas or the recent history of socialism...
...Eugene V. Debs, the only party leader who is honored with a mention, has long been dead...
...The difference between the system which we have now and Mr...
...So far as one can picture the system which Mr...
...Many of the author's complaints about poverty, starvation, bad housing and other inadequacies of our civilization were better fitted to the situation of 1901 or perhaps 1931 than to what we see about us in 1958...
...Work's "socialism" would be that in "paradise" more activities would be run by the Government...
...The author acknowledges that we now have social insurance, but complains that it is inadequate...
...It is impossible to dislike such a man...
...It will simply be democratic...
...Work was bred on an Iowa farm and obviously knows more about agriculture than about industry...
...How these things are tied in with socialism may seem a bit mysterious...
...Throughout his discussion, he takes for granted that "when socialism comes" all good things will come with it...
...As I am writing this review, laws to improve it are being considered in Congress...
...THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn An Old Socialist Views the Future I have been gathering all sorts of memories of the past out of a book entitled Face the Future, by my old friend John M. Work (Vantage, $3.00J...
...He will give the ladies detailed directions with regard to their costumes and complexions...
...The others will be taken care of by individual entrepreneurs or by cooperatives...
Vol. 41 • June 1958 • No. 22
