WHERE SHALL PROGRESSIVE VOTERS TURN IN 1928?
Nye, U. S. Senator Gerald P.
WHERE SHALL PROGRESSIVE VOTERS TURN IN 1928? A Progressive Republican, A Socialist, A Liberal Democrat and a Communist On the Political Prospects of the Presidential Contest SENATOR NYE...
...Where is this prosperity...
...Eastman recommends...
...That cannot be true...
...Eastman that things in America move with groat rapidity and spin so fast that perhaps we ara...
...In addition to leading this reconstruction from the point of view of business effectiveness, the Oovernor has also been the state leader in the determination that the Improved state machinery shall be used for enlightened services to the whole people of the State...
...I ask you...
...The March of Empire It is quite true that this blssssd Capitalism of ours does not provide to the measure It ought bread or security for the workers or peace or freedom or brotherhood...
...When progressives talk as good Socialism as Senator l"Jye- there is hope for the western progressives.'' 1 I 'havt only1 'dae criticism to 'makei 1 ftoumn't help thinking that Senator Nye's' thaghlficent drama of the American people and vampire bats of prosperity came' td a weak fifth' act...
...I have before me the statement of one U. 8. Senator, who is a leader in his party, in which he says: "I am quite sure prohibition will not be a troublesome issue in the resolutions committee nor on the floor of the convention...
...T am...
...On the wisdom of the change by which we gave up steady and voluntary Increase of temperance for the experiment eg apprying national force, the-"^overran* hah left no vagueness in his position He has nothing to say against local prohibition to the Northwest and the South...
...Wherever politics are discussed the major portion of that talk is devoted to the 1928 prospect...
...NORMAN HAPGOOD BOOSTS GOVERNOR SMITH AS LIBERAL By Norman Hapgood MY part of the discussion is to explain why I think independent liberal voters should be enthusiastically behind the movement to nominate and to elect to the Presidency Oovernor Alfred E. Smith...
...I do not think we shall hnmedlately get It On * large scale...
...As President of the Board of Aldermen he made committee appointments to the Socialist group exactly as if they bad been Republicans or Democrats In equal numbers...
...a director of (he League for Industrial Democracy...
...I may not be as good an authority as Mf...
...My progressive friends from the West sspC "utilise political machinery ssnn daily the Republican Party as best jo* •wan", some of them hare made a gal*, lent struggle and hare won scensthtng bat nothing like enough., The consolidation of capitalist control and the march of American imperialism have gone on almost contemptuous, of such little reforms as they have brought about Progisssltlsm of this sort lacks both philosophy aad method...
...that I want to see imperialism march on without a hugbtier effort than ' has yet been made to.check It and substitute.for It toternatidpal cooperation...
...I am not arguing that a party alone can solve these questions and solve them right...
...I am arguing that political action affords a r~tr*Kt* way of real constructive progress...
...Socialist Party Activity I am hot going to say that the state of the Socialist Party internally or externally, in numbers or to spirit, is what I desire or what we must have if Socialism is to win...
...It was a mere accident that hte cabinet, appointed by him, contained thirteen Protestants, two Catholics and one Jew...
...that be "has heard-scene talk .of, the formation of a third party...
...Where is this prosperity...
...From the stsntfnpsnjt of the individual American It is a question whether we can keep such partial liberties as we have won or whether a' ruling class by coercion and cajolery, by injunctions, militarism and control of the courts, by standardised education, and recreation can continuously exploit a fairly well f«d lot of Robots...
...And I can't be a Democrat because the Democrats haven'.t any program except to.oppose the Republicans...
...It will be built on the interests of the working class and must have its alliance with the' farmers...
...Witness the enthusiasm many Progressives still fed for that cumbersome and dangsrous huk the Sherman Anti-Trust Act—a law that has done more harm to labor than it bss done good to the smaB business man...
...Possibly that is a contributing factor...
...That time win come when, and only when, the people of the United States awaken to what is happening to their greatest heritage as Americans...
...What might those issues of 1928 be...
...Where is this thing called Prosperity...
...Those who still own their farms in North Dakota have mortgages amounting to 41 per cent of the value plastered upon them...
...I do not know that such is not the case...
...Aad I for one have not such an assurance to...
...Eastman hadn't been expelled or excommunicated by the Workers' Party I am not sure he would have had quite so much time for pure thought, and I am not so sure that pure thought is all that we need in this emergency...
...He bss no national program at all...
...Oovernor Smith in a truly noble state paper put beyond any question his own position toward his church...
...The time will come, and I hope soon, when -what is left of our democracy will be salvaged and government caused to respond to the interests of the many rather than the few...
...J refer to his closes: side-stepping of the Child Labor amendment to which he was pledged and his declaration against the federal inheritance tax...
...j am not much interested to third parties or fourth or fifth or other numerical parties...
...Eastman asamed...
...We know of the 10 per cent wage reduction in the textile industry effective December 1st...
...On Third Parties Here Oovernor Smith's record has been consistently fine...
...In the last fifteen years farm tenantry has increased 100,000, and to the same period the number of farm owners was decreased by 80,000...
...ocrattc Senator, having changed nothing but his,address, This situation Is Ideal not only for the professional politician but tor the grafter and the mors "re...
...He has, ones ssors, found a Man...
...sponsible" seeker after special privilege...
...The Bank's Figures The bank reports breathe prosperity, we are told...
...Eastman upon the methods of spirital rebirth, but I doubt If suicide Is preparatory to it...
...whs'golisjvir* * begin by agreeing ratijer Substantialri with Max Eastman '"though '¦ not completely...
...One of the issues voted oh to large numbers next will be the question of the farmer and his appeal for justice...
...They have...
...I think It is just the appropriate time for gloom...
...Eastman's Jove...
...In my opinion, however, the Governor's water power policy is a more contributive help to agriculture than anything else likely to be discussed during the campaign...
...The facts are that a. few same minds under, the 'pre&ejit' order oi our political life and determining the, course of each party.' 'Such proceedings give the people a Hobson'8 choice when they mark thenpresidential ballot...
...We have already come to a point where the general issue is a choice between industrial anarchy and planned control of economic processes...
...Look at the textile situation...
...shwsdy to «d*> ence, all "qf them ^.vtog programs that touch the fundamental social problems of the United States, and which correspond to parties, isx Europe that roll up millions of votes .at every election...
...He and I on occasion might have something of a discussion about Marx and Lenin though I should 'be property fearful of tackling such an antagonist...
...HapgoooTs Messiahs f My friend Norman .Hapgood wont bother about parties...
...is obligated to the League for Industrial Democracy for their cooperation in making it possible for us to reprint the the four speeches as articles...
...Whatever else you think of Tsnuuany*» gross election frauds repeated year after /ear as needed and Tasnmany'i degradation of the city judiciary they prove this: Oov...
...I also concede that Al Smith did a big thing when he pardoned Jim Larkin and Ben Gltlow...
...They get their returns in tax reduction bills, or in subsidies, or through some corrupt agent of the government, In whose hands for safe keeping is intrusted the care of the property and interests of all the people...
...Yet Americans, when considering politics at least, feed upon it...
...For those who understand the science of politics in the deeper manner of Marx and Lenin, each period has its own appropriate or primary task...
...There hi some talk of his not knowing as much, about, national and international questions as he knows about questions of New York State...
...how long...
...Are thd...
...Interested of course in a party with a philosophy...
...I do not believe we shall have a strong and effective political movement of the sort commnoly called a third party by 1928...
...Can it represent anything other than debts, loans made the public which simply represent figures on bank books upon which handsome rates of Interest are paid...
...Eastman, what I am afraid of in your plan of pure thought Is this, that the march of life goes on and that while we are thinking a great many things may happen to us to stop our thinking and that, moreover, we shall think more effectively if we do our part to that march...
...Hapgood thinks...
...I think the day will come when we shall have a bigger and better Socialist Party...
...On the two prngresslu issues of national scope em which be has recently spoken or acted he has gone wrong...
...We hold fast to that religfion In-spite of the fact that many of its articles of faith have already proved wanting...
...Let me tell my friend, Mr...
...with an economic basis and with an interest ahead...
...The New Leader...
...When war sHiililjim n to be .thrown out of then* office*, the Governor kaSoted upon a special election m order that the dtstriots wtnea wishes to pe, repres^swo wy ciahstx should not remain ¦Wlawil nawpsHdatinn .ta'easss like the Jim Laakto pardon and the Ottlow pardon, he has shown precisely the sssne attitude on freedom of opinion that Is being so nobly, upheld to the Supreme Court of tha United States by Justice Holmes and Justice Brsndeis...
...Indeed as I followed Senator Nye* flf» ores I could net but feel that some at them proved not so much a decline ia prosperity as a grpwti} in concentration of control...
...However, that "eliminates only one of about twenty million from consideration in that connection, and to attempt to review the field of would-presidents in 15 or 20 minutes of time would be folly...
...And assuming that Mr...
...Tonight he still holds Ms beautiful faith...
...Then again: "Sharp platform distinctions without radical,difference...
...POLITICAL Prospects for 1828," ought to be an easy subject for discussion...
...Take the one amtoh actually to the banks, subtract ft from the S3 billion claimed to be on deposit In the banks, and we have a balance of 62 billion...
...If that- be -the case then we can well afford to adjourn now and save words...
...His five years of absence have obscured certain American happenings such as a triumphant Socialist campaign in Reading, Pennsylvania, which is no mean city, or the continued effective administration of the Socialist mayor of Milwaukee...
...It does not all happen under Republican administration...
...I do not expect a miracle...
...I used to belong, to the Socialist Party, but they fired me out for adhering to the Bolshevik program before Lenin died...
...s: I sincerely hope that, even though there must be sharp distinctions in the platforms of the two parties, that both will incorporate in their platform planks absent since we have all become so accustomed to seeing them there in past years...
...Sees Socialism Growing The Socialist Party does need to be born again...
...To some people this orgy of stocks and bonds sales may spell prosperity but to, those who wUl admit the...
...that the American consumer in 1926 paid thirty billion dollars for products for which he, the farmer who produced it, received only1'ten billion dollars...
...President can remake a party...
...That is that I will not be a candidate myself...
...The corporations must be prosperous...
...Eastman mentioned, would mean to the year 1928 suicide for that party...
...Still better...
...We fa|re.less.than five billion to circulation and of this has than one binton is in the hands of the banks...
...Statistics bear out his statement...
...I was going to agree with him as to gloom appropriate to this particular period In our political development but that 'agreement was- som^whs^t spoiled for 'toe1 by Senator' Nye's eloquent speech...
...that farm living costs have increased 68 per cent, farm taxes 112 per cent, grain freight rates have doubled, that the freight bill on a car load of hogs has jumped from $45 to $130, that gang plows have Jumped from $50 to $125 in price and that the binder which before the war cost him $120 now costs $245...
...statisticians to overturn that' statement...
...dulge...
...We ham a '/Senator from New York who began his political career aa a, Itepuhlicap Mayor of Ann Arbor sod Is today a Dam...
...Smith's heart bleeds for the slums and for everything else...
...As one writer has so well expressed It: Let us tear the blinds from before our eyes and place that which is human, something more divine, far above the worship of property, and wealth, and power, and Big Business as we have mome to know It to America...
...How much longer can America be kept under the anaesthetic...
...Smith's Religion . One of those questions on which he has spoken is his religion...
...HlesnhV tmperiahsm Is only the vague, pious ante tlmsntallsm to which all politicians hte...
...that your lfesslshi don't assay at 10» per eent...
...If the East insists upon monopolizing both parties, there must follow a new alignment, and a new allignment Is certain to follow if this condition continues...
...We have the most effective machinery of propaganda the world has ever seen...
...I agree In general with Senator Nye's description of the unreality qf J the prosperity that has drugged us...
...I belonged to .the Communist Party, and they fired me out for adhering to the • Bolshevik program after Lento died...
...In the last five years the value of all farm property in my state has fallen from $1,759,000,000 to $1,191,000,000...
...In my own state of North Dakota see what has happened...
...In arranging the discussion, the League secured the best representatives of four different viewpoints...
...In many industries already the issue is' between public monopoly for the general good and private monopoly prevailing for profit...
...Is it hope that reform will come within the parties, or one of them...
...Indeed, there is just one political opportunity in the year 1928 which does -appeal to me and that is an opportunity te do sensational work which Implies some collective thinking on this whole matter af political alignment of forces here in the United States...
...And after all is said and done, are we or should we be, first concerned with who shall be the candidates of the parties...
...The net profits of" all the corporations, 430,072 to number, are listed at 7% billion dollars, -About 1,000 of this number got 66 per cent of that profit or 5 billion dollars of It...
...Is it because we do not know the truth about things...
...It proves mainly an hn— piuiemcut nYltjgaiWue...
...Perhaps they get caught in the act now and then, in which event Congress can be expected to hush things up...
...When the party platform is read it will be adopted...
...the rewards in the form of campaign contributions, which that plan unquestionably wins...
...And the primary task for American radicals in a period of depression and Inaction like this is thinking...
...John B. Edgerton, President of the National Association of Manufacturers, on October fJttr declared that "Outside the few gigantic corporations which don't have of bothesssbout competition sod by whose large profits the public is misled, the common run of manufacturers fay America today are in about as unhappy a condition as their fellow producers, the farmers and I challenge the...
...The impression i have, after a five if ease Absence from the United Stater, Ts> that''the country has got to spinning so fast it has gone to sleep...
...It is Just as interesting to note in passing, a comparison of this profit of one thousand corporations with the profit of agriculturists, constituting one-third of our whole population, whose net income, say nothing of profit, in only about twice the profit of the thousand choice prosperity recipients...
...Is anyone foolish enough to ask to whom the government elected by such aid would respond first and last...
...Of a secondary group of 917 corporations winning profits of one to five million dollars, less than onefourth of 1 per cent of this number made 25 per cent of the whole profit of the group...
...But I am not OfBOnS JtBf the socialist Party becaum sueiu thug p hope that' something bigger and better «»f'tsppraM 1m not quite sure how, but...
...Their minds are regimented in schools and by newspapers...
...You are aware of the unwholesome condition ertstlng in the mining Industry, and of criminal increases and of the continued increasing record of bankruptcies and foreclosures which are virtually choking the courts...
...Senator Lodge in 1923 on the floor of the Senate declared.that 90 per cent of the campaign funds of both,parties came from New York.City...
...But inspiring that he warn ss progress Irs as .Mr...
...This'would'be a radical departure In the American movement, but the time for a radical departure has come...
...In other words, I do not choose to run...
...Is it because we don't care...
...That march Is a march to war...
...Our Socialist movement is so weak and ineffectual, thirty or so years after its birth, that there's nothing for It to do but be born again...
...What IS To Be Done...
...That ip net his sffnjr But.be has looked at coudltiuus to New York State very closely and he knows that tiMbjsSSjfWwtsli used .the Constitution of...
...Those Terrible Foes Oh, I hear my good friend Norman Hapgood, who is here to speak for the Democrats of the prospects for 1928, say: "But this all happens under Republican administrations, take on Al Smith and a Democratic administration next year and then watch the rebuilding of confidence in government...
...asleep...
...I am glad that wi srs sssnag it sash flowers rather than ¦with brickbats, :lnst...
...Hapfnt>arFy<^Mesflah est* i I IP ¦» JefWli...
...And in two sessions of Congress I have watched Democrats play band, in hand with their terrible' foes, the Republicans, on virtually every major issue which has come before that body...
...But that party' for which we look will not emerge in 1932 or later, or if it does perchance emerge,' It will emerge -with a weaker philosophy' if Societies* retire mto trial'profound-'contemplation which has been suggested and do no active campaigning whatsoever.Our Unreal Prosperity Let us look for a minute at the background of things...
...I would like to see a small group of serious people who believe to the science of revolutionary engineering with class forces, and who are not soared out of their wits when some labor politician calls them "intellectuals" gather together and begin to'do a little-honest and conscientious mental work -on the American problem...
...He Is less of a progressive than some of hh friends chum even, in state affairs...
...an editor and publicist qf pronounced liberal views, ,., NORMAN THQMA$ — Socialist candidate for tfovefnor of New York and Mej#r <rf New York City...
...lfs" or "ands" about It...
...You have in other, words a living refutation of this creed to which somehow we still hold and one whose propaganda we are still drugged...
...For too long have we as a people been content with being repeatedly told that all was well, while predatory interests have grasped for everything within reach, made our government mainly an Institution to guarantee the investments of Americans abroad while small though praiseworthy Investments at home can go to the damnation bow-wows...
...It must have helped him a lot to have some of us keep on saying that a bleeding heart Isn't enoagh and that there Is more planning necessary at this juncture...
...have SS bfBhm on deposit thebanks, we wonder how it can he...
...It must be in the factories...
...It will'hoi'..be born full grown from' the brain of Mr...
...that farm indebtedness has increased from four to twelve billion dollars In the last fifteen years...
...qan> be a Republican because the Republicans haven't any program except to oppose the Democrats...
...1 his made the discussion of particular value to voters and organisations of progressive views...
...Thus the march of empire toes on...
...the United States to bring the coercion of national opinion, on a purely social matter, on huge masses of unsympathetic free dtlsens, were guilty of political blunder almost deserving to be called a political crime...
...Asleep Too Long For too long have we permitted the customary lullabys to keep us off our guard while tpe very government we helped to create gives away, or sells for paltry fees, the nations great resources of privileges which stack still further odds against the masses of people...
...So puny an Infant has only one choice—either to die or become great...
...as are the Republic anst But now, as if to' win a more1 de| serving place in the estimation of the big boys, the Democrats are actually outMellonlng Mellon himself...
...If they did you ask the ha-, possible of thorn...
...For a time they fought the Melk>n scheme of tax reduction, but they got into line in time and are as deserving of...
...It will follow when the people in the great West, the North and the South rise up in defense of their own Interests...
...The fact that Mr...
...It was perhaps a fortunate thing that he was compelled to apply his convictions to a crisis to such a delicate matter as' ^texteo...
...You see, Mr...
...As Norman , Hapgood dwells on these blessings, I only I want to urge him to recommend to the j Governor that he fix up the grade-crossings before restoring the early colonial j conception of what it means to be lntoxi[ cated...
...After we heard all about what> was the'matter' We were told that' he hoped that: his party would do what every person including Senator Nye knows that it, hasn't the'slightest intension of doing and can't do as it is now constituted, On occasion I . have applauded the hone, "which creates out of its own wreck,the thing,it contemplates...
...EASTMAN FINDS GLOOM APPROPRIATE ATTITUDE By Max Eastman ¥ DON'T know U-fty I should be asked flfj' speak, on ' Political' Prospects _ for 1928, except because I am the one man in the radical movement who most certainly hasnt any ' such prospects...
...They might a* Well close their eyes when they do the marking...
...Who the Four • Debaters Arm GOtAth r.~N¥B*>*tm*i-Stater Sematar from N*rt*£>akota, eUch ed through the «#><# of ike Nom Partisan League<¦ MAX EASTMAHr-famieT editor of, -The Masses," a Communist of ¦the Twttky, persuasion...
...It is true that we have not prospered as we ought...
...I don't mean to say that these old parties haven't any economic program...
...But when will they so rise?' What is holding them down and away from such action...
...aTm^^t^ta%^^& torate with sham battles while the ln-( aiders reap the profits,,' for the farmer and worker It makes, political democracy a rather bad Joke, ThRy should demand a jjure Xood snd.c^iaX act so that the...
...Such demonstrations have then* value...
...The trouble is, Mr...
...As he spoke I rsmsaibsrst how once to the tense war days X want to Mr...
...It Is high time all America awakened h) the frightful hnhiencs which has fastened itself upon our country and the very life of its people...
...truth this prosperity banter is only a, myth...
...NORMAN HAPGOOD—former U. S. Ambassador to Denmark...
...This Is a difficult question on which I have no wish to be dogmatic...
...I think these two parties are both entirely right in opposing the other, but that doesn't help me when it comes to choosing between them...
...In part, yes, but in the main the cause lies in the willingness and readiness of people to swallow course after course of Coueism—this mythical thing known in the present day as prosperity but in other days known as hard times...
...And for the Socialist Party or its members to retire into profound contemplation and discussion along the four lines which Mr...
...It is pointed out that the banks of the United States have total deposits of more than 63 billion dollars, and that the banking business has increased more than 40 per cent since 1919...
...Gov...
...Only this time the Messiah's name isnt Woodrow Wilson bat Al Smith...
...he is not . o member of tie Cemmmitt Party...
...Such method would at least make the game a bit interesting for the average player...
...Again can consideration lead us around in a Circle and get us definitely nowhere...
...To me only one , thing is certain insofar as 1928 is concerned...
...THOMAS SEES PROGRESS THROUGH SOCIALIST PARTY By Norman Thomas | 8PHA2C Ss a Socialist...
...If Mr...
...Instead of deposits the 63 billion had better be called credit...
...these, thousands to feel that they've Raid 8 Tiand .in the making ,of a president and, the construction of a great party pronouncement in the form of a ptat^rw*' Jhade...
...This represents what...
...Smith, Tammany's favorite son and -Aknuedsdgsd leader, cant or won't make hts srsssnaatten give us such an stssaes] si right ss an honest daunt...
...Even now I can bear his exhortation to trust President WUion—an exhortation that was mocked in the result...
...I'm a ,lost sheep on the political borUzm and I don't know Where to go home...
...How absurd It Is to think that one progressive candidate for...
...3 suspect largely as a result of Sooialist activities...
...Even here in New York we have managed to create something of a stir and are still decidedly alive...
...Study ftaecmmg that tho newspaper reports are correct and tha* we do...
...A great deal of so-called prngresililsni Is really retrogressive, it, consists to sighing for the dear, dead days of the small business man and owner...
...We find one-fourth of 1 per cent of .all the corporations to the country enjoying 66 per cent of all the profits of corporations...
...If you want to see the blessings of Adam Smith's type of competition, look at the bituminous coal situation where you have got it and see what it has brought...
...Dwight Morrow has discovered a relatively painless way of administering imperialism, that be has found it is easier to joQy President OaDss into concessions than to try to scare him into them, doesn't prove that we am not imperialistic...
...Had we not rather be concerned with issues...
...An analysis of income tax returns discloses that about 40 per cent or 200000 of the manufacturing corporations of the country lost money last year...
...I certainly agree with him as to the need of that kind of < study which he proposed, a proposal , Which I most heartily welcome...
...I concede that Al Smith might very likely succeed in abolishing grade-crossings and restoring to this country its early colonial conception of what it means to be "Intoxicated...
...The value of live stock in the United States is less for 1925 than it was in 1910 and very near to being only onehalf what it was in 1920...
...Perhaps background is a bad name for it, for I agree with...
...How long can such unsubstantial food serve to 'maintain life...
...I also think it is Important we should recognise what kind of a time it is...
...It will not always be as it is now...
...You will remember, however, that he told us quite frankly that he recommended It because he was cast out into outer darkness where only thought might create something out of chaos...
...that the prices for farm products has increased 26 per cent since before the war...
...TTiere is certainly a profound soI ciological connection between these two programs...
...I have less faith than Senator Nye...
...Nevertheless, on many points I agree with him...
...Then...
...Does this spell general prosperity...
...We do not need revert to ancient history to find examples of thieves who use their gain to buy favors from the administrative branch, spend barrels more of it to win a white-wash from the legislative branch, and then engage an army of detectives to kill Justice in the judicial wing of government...
...He has offered no plan for curbing our march to empire...
...There are 'three "Uih* psjtfis...
...it is true that the fanners and, the coal miners and textile workers and many others In this moat prosperous of countries, to this country where a decent life is the rightful heritage of every child—haven't got It and that tonight on whole hillsides and bleak """in**1"* to Pennsylvania and Colorado the children of the nation are starving to an Industrial warfare that is due to the stupidity, and the cupidity not merely of a few todividual coal operators, but to the whole system under which we live...
...According to these internal revenue figures ninety per eent of American business Is done by corporations...
...There are those who will insist that the issues are already in mind by party leaders and that what they *havj in mind will be done by this convention...
...When they do awaken, just as surely as day follows night, there will be a positive response and conventions and successful* candidates for public office and government generally will become again instruments for use in the promotion of the general welfare...
...nspgood...
...If the Republicans and the Democrats next summer should each nominate a representative of the rule of concentrated wealth, such a demonstration might again be of value...
...Too long now have we let a jolly slap on the back and a Job that afforded a living blind us to the fact that men who have paid the price In a campaign, and as often as not to both parties in the same campaign, expect returns and get them in one way or another...
...I couldn't) get elected Socialist dogcatcher in Greenwich Village...
...The economic program of the Democrats is to put Democrats in office, ^nd the economic program of the Republicans is to put Republicans in office...
...Too easily have we been persuaded to believe that the use of great sums of money in the election of public officials was quite essential to the carrying of the issues to the people, while those elected with the aid of such money have gone along and been continually good hired men for those men and those interests which put up the campaign stake...
...It is a way that Is almost altogether blocked for Americana by {he simple fact that by and large both the old parties belong te the same interests, that there Is no difference between them nationally except a desire for office and that political struggle tends primarily simply to divert the electorate...
...If unsuccessful in winning such cooperation, there is plenty of money, stolen from the people, available to hire Burns detectives to start a back-fire by "framing" honest officials or to shadow jurors...
...There Is some question shout a third party...
...90\i at but not to use...
...It was known to every competent voter in the State that the man who had been to a blase of publicity for twenty years was completely free from the influence of religion in his political acta...
...Senator Gerald P. Nye Four Political Leaders in "Prospects of 1928" "The Political Prospects of 1928" was the subject of discussion at the annual dinner of the League for Industrial Democracy held in New York City last week...
...In the case of the Republican and Democratic parties, speakers representative of the progressive sections of thbte parties were called upon...
...Smith has many virtues...
...When the party platform Is read it wlll.be adopted...
...And the first step towards becoming great, starting where we are now, is to investigate patiently the peculiar terms of our problem and make a great plan...
...It is ss outworn, if we did but realise It, as the attempt to fight modern battles after the fashion of Indian skirmishes...
...Cities Prosperous...
...The attribute In which he is equalled by no American now living is his technical mastery of making over" the government of a great state from a condition in which its ramshackle backwardness was a natural prey of politicians to a condition in which it is a model of effective simplicity for the other states of the Union...
...It is a demonstrated fact that the old doctrines of the efficacy of competition to right all wrongs, of the sanctity of the law of supply and demand, of the automatic control of markets—I say it is a demonstrated fact that these things don't work and arent working...
...the certain and sure hsgmtoess to follow violent revolution which in turn is supposed to follow world war...
...It may call Itself a Labor Party...
...Gov...
...Appropriate For Gloom" The gloomy thing is that an InteBSrent person could stand up here and say, without any consciousness of the irony df It...
...1 wish we .weren't saying it at an to Marten or elsewhere throughout the world...
...But I doubt whither Its life is quite so precarious as Mr...
...There is one thing in prospect in 1928 which commands my interest...
...But I don't see any indication 'that Al Smith or any other candidate put forward by the old parties is going to turn his attention to the two real and fundamental problems of social life in America—the problem of the growing injustice and impracticallty of our economic system, and the problem of military imperialism...
...But when one of the two great parties nominates a man who is not only progressive beyond the ideas of most Americans, but equipped with all the qualities to make progress popular and successful, then to insist on s side show is to throw away the substance for the shadow, and also to throw grave doubt on the usefulness and ability in this country at the present time of those groups which are most pleased to describe themselves as liberals...
...Hapgood with a problem of hbsrtg ta which L and I thought he, too, was intensely interested...
...Hapgood, this: that degree of prhgresslvimm which he finds, if not in the Democratic party, then in Al Smith, is largely proportional .to the intensity of Socialist campaigns and that by keeping going we have at least reminded the Democratic Party of some things they were likely to forget...
...In fifteen years the number of full farm owners dropped' from 44,000 to 26,000 while tenants grew from 10,000 to 26,000...
...But these parties.play so weak and inconsiderable a part to tiie mad whirl of taste) instinctive life to this country, that our most, eminent publicists are normally quite unconscious Of their ^existence...
...Nevertheless, I think our glpom is somewhat lightened by the 0ymhnU>st4^ snnfyslt with which Senator Nye has spoken to us tonight^ I am most'emphatically for the kind of constructive, thinking which Mr...
...It is a dismal mistake to suppose that his power of '• winning elections, and his still more amazing power of persuading the voters' on complicated matters and political theory, is the whole story of his power...
...ri t'l Let us seek to win that measure, <6f protest from all the people that will force parties to respond to the interests of the people and our country...
...We had more live stock and better live stock in our state to 1925 than we did in 1910, but it was worth less money...
...It is also true that steadHy we march along the road of empire, that imperialism born of the union between capitalism and nationalism threatens not only other countries, but ourselves with the Inevitable ruto that imperialism brings...
...It would be Interesting te-'open the eyes and see just where the cross on the ballot had landed...
...labels on political botUee may mean, aanothmt^ h< In this situation what's'to be done...
...It is equally true that he did not know any one of these state questions in advance of studying them, but when he began to study a question he always proceeded with enormous speed and thoroughness, fHwg the fullest use of every kind of expert and never failing te come out with a solution that would stand the fiercest test...
...Of this number less than one-twentieth of one per cent gathered in 40 per cent of the total profit of corporations...
...Corporations are 430,072 in number...
...How much longer will we slumber while our very blood is being taken from US...
...It gives to our owning and pcaeteatsg class Insurance.in two- enmpapies,, tins, machines for alternative use...
...Nevertheless it is well to recognise the fact that here in America we still hold fast to the religion of capitalism...
...Everything Cut and Dried No...
...But-' such hope is not in order for the Ret publican party...
...The balance hf out among the people, pocket money...
...We find today that both parties are influenced by the same men...
...The farmer would like to find it...
...Everything cooked and dried and merely waiting for the big excursion, Which will afford several thousand politically minded folks a fc-ip to JSansas City,, or wherever else the convention may' be held, and a chance...
...He knows that while 29 per cent of the people live upon our American farms that they are.enjoying only 9 per cent of the current national income that the exchange value of farm lands has decreased four billion dollars since 1920...
...And yet men by the millions are drugged, drugged lb part by coercion and in part by cajolery...
...A Progressive Republican, A Socialist, A Liberal Democrat and a Communist On the Political Prospects of the Presidential Contest SENATOR NYE DENOUNCES BOTH THE OLD PARTIES By U.S...
...Indeed, I question very seriously whether the people will be' heard by either party in their conventions...
...What Is This Prosperity...
Vol. 7 • January 1928 • No. 3
