THE TIME IS NOW!
Herridge, William D.
The Time Is Now! By WILLIAM D. HERRIDGE WHAT are we fighting for? We are fighting for freedom. Our leaders say so. But what kind of freedom? Often, in the past, freedom has meant freedom to...
...The sword of the people is revolution...
...If Congress has the will, it will find a way...
...For the bosses of the economic system feared that abundance would mean the end of profits...
...The people have been passive in their economic thinking...
...If the machine could produce in this colossal way to destroy Japanese and German Fascism, why could it not produce with equal efficiency to prosper American Democracy ? The answer was, it could...
...Only the spirit of your ancestors can restore the kind of freedom which was guaranteed the people when America began...
...The people want prosperity, not a streamlined dole...
...It has meant poverty and unemployment...
...Here are the elements of crisis...
...Must Stop Tinkering If peaceful revolution fails, bloody revolution is sure to follow...
...He had a right to hope...
...They are the group or groups of interlocking groups which create cartels, control finance and fix prices, wages, costs...
...The time for peaceful revolution is now...
...We lacked the knowledge, science, skill, the ascertained natural resources, with which to build a standard of living which would bring security to the common man...
...It was the hope that if he did the right thing by America, America would do the right thing by him...
...They are the vested interests...
...When war came, the people of America, putting aside past disappointments, rose like a great sea against their enemies...
...They are the vested interests, big business, special privilege, corporate monopoly...
...If they are to rule, the people must declare their revolutionary purpose and compel Congress to give effect to it...
...It was not love of poverty and unemployment that set him sailing East and West to overcome our enemies...
...And for the first time in perhaps half a century, Democracy in America will begin effectively to work...
...They are the people...
...They trusted to their friends upon the home front to make sure that when the war was won, they would come back to find a freedom that was worth fighting for...
...The greatest in this country's history...
...It means confusion and doubt, anger, sometimes despair...
...That freedom must be won before the boys come home...
...They shape America's way of life...
...The people must be many millions strong behind this demand...
...On the one side are the champions of scarcity, organized and resolute...
...Peaceful revolution will prevail...
...It is the operating plan by which the system of scarcity is turned into the system of abundance...
...Labor presses more fiercely to enforce its claims...
...Let each one work as though success depended on his own endeavor...
...It has meant economic slavery...
...What Congress can do, it must do...
...Race hatred flares, class conflict grows...
...It has meant low profits for the primary producer, low wages for labor, high costs to consumer...
...Only Congress can take that action, make that plan, pass that law...
...They hoped...
...There cannot be an end to poverty and unemployment until the people again become the ruling class in America...
...The people of America have waited in vain...
...Disunity prevails...
...It was the age of scarcity...
...Because it was a fact that his country had the power to do far more for him than it had ever done...
...Its name is scarcity...
...Peaceful revolution is the constitutional action which will give the people total use of their resources...
...Often, in the past, freedom has meant freedom to starve...
...Nor was it loyalty to an economic system which had let him down...
...You must be leaders and press the facts on those who have not had the time and opportunity to think the matter through...
...They waited to see the Administration and Congress begin upon plans to build a postwar world upon a new high level of security...
...For they dominate the mind of Congress...
...Sword Of The People Who are these bosses...
...The bosses of the system have one god...
...Then action will follow...
...It means a loss of confidence in ourselves and in Democracy...
...Congress is busy upon plans to build the postwar world upon the prewar level of insecurity...
...In fact, it was not until America had entered the second World War and the productive system had spectacularly demonstrated its immense capacity that the people—perhaps a majority of them—came to understand what such a system might do for them...
...They denied the people the total use of their resources...
...Freedom must be freedom to enjoy all that Providence intended us to have...
...When scarcity was unavoidable, the people made the best of it...
...The age of potential abundance had begun...
...Our leaders are so silent on the point that you would think they were afraid to say what kind of freedom we are fighting for...
...The public mind has always failed to give concrete expression to the public's needs...
...They make the law...
...In the years between the first and second World Wars, this spirit of protest built itself into progressive movements led by men of vision and de-sighed to rescue the nation from poverty and unemployment...
...If they should fail to find that freedom, what happens then...
...It is the law by which Democracy is made to work...
...That was some years before the first World War...
...For now, for the first time, America is dividing upon the issue of economic freedom...
...But mankind persisted until the time came when the problem of production was at last defeated...
...Bloody revolution rises out of chaos...
...There is no trick way to mobilize the people...
...How are the people to become millions strong...
...So they kept the system geared to scarcity...
...These bosses determine the nation's domestic policy and its foreign policy...
...Now they must become dynamic and hurl at Congress a positive demand for total use...
...The sword of the vested interests is Fascism...
...Faith and zeal brought victory in America's first revolution...
...On the other side are the champions of abundance, unorganized and not yet resolute...
...But when it was avoidable, they began to protest...
...Today frustration has replaced that hope...
...For total use is primarily a political, not an economic problem...
...Disunity and disintegration are the stepping stones to chaos...
...Nevertheless, scarcity continued...
...Why is nothing done ? For the same old reason that nothing ever has been done...
...The farmer arms to meet his economic enemies...
...Congress is able to build this machinery...
...Remember, in democracy, rights go with obligations, sovereignty with service...
...It must mean total use of the national resources for the benefit of the people...
...The people have some champions in Congress, but special privilege has many more...
...The time for peaceful revolution may have gone by...
...Faith and zeal are needed for peaceful victory in this second one...
...This demand, organized and insistent, must be precise and clear so that it points the way to definite, constructive action...
...Before The Boys Come Home That is a job for you who understand the issue...
...The people asked that question and answer it in that way...
...Take on the resolution of the battle front...
...But we do not know...
...What does it mean to wait through two long, anxious years and then to find yourself no nearer to security...
...Too many of us have been content to act like robots in a fascist state...
...But uncertainty about his freedom did not stop the average citizen from going gallantly to war...
...But Congress will never have the will until the pep-pie set it free from special privilege...
...Therefore, Congress must build and operate the machinery which will equitably distribute all that America can beneficially produce...
...Faced with the prospect of postwar scarcity, everyone starts out to grab his paltry share of it...
...So they turned expectantly to Washington...
...Unavoidable scarcity was ended...
...This cannot be the kind of freedom the common man is fighting for...
...It must stop tinkering with the old system...
...Outdated System Of Scarcity For centuries, the problem of production had resisted the efforts of mankind to solve it...
...But these movements lacked general support, because the people did not realize that there was no longer any need for scarcity...
...More than two years have gone by and nothing has been done...
...perhaps peaceful, perhaps bloody...
...The soldier knows about this state of things back home and he has grown grim and started wondering...
Vol. 8 • May 1944 • No. 20
