Page 15 - To Dragma March 1932

It To DRAGMA frlARCH, 1932 27
(Socialism, or
By J E S S I E W A L L A C E H U G H A N , Alpha
TT T H I N K we are riding for a fall," she said thoughtfully. M y friend is
I an Alpha 0 , a successful business woman who has clung for years to
her conservatism, but that night the crisis had moved a step nearer
to us, and the talk had turned to fundamentals. "What have you to
read?" and she went home with a Socialist book under her arm.
I t is not strange that thinking Americans should lend a receptive ear
to the Socialists just now, for the disaster has come upon us which they
kept prophesying, with the persistence of Cassandra, through the boom
years, and as a result of the same causes to which they drew attention.
Their words, like Cassandra's, were lost in the shouts of prosperity, but
economic vengeance grinds more slowly than that of the Greeks, and it
may be that modern Troy will listen in time.
This is not the place to discuss the causes of the depression—the i
anarchy of production for profit and the slowing up of purchasing by
the masses. That these causes have been thoroughly misunderstood by
the heads of business and government is clear when we review the reme-
dies they have offered—wage-cuts and sales taxes, public economy, pri-
vate spending, and reduction of the payroll—remedies which are plung-
ing us farther and farther down-hill. Socialists alone are demanding now,
as they demanded in the good days, that industrial anarchy give place
to planned production; that heavy taxes upon the higher incomes relieve
the working classes from taxation and check the disastrous accumulation
of private capital; and that the people take over public utilities as the
first step to abolish the outworn profit system.
If not the beginning of Socialism, then what? I t may be, as optimists
tell us, that we have already reached the bottom, or at least a temporary
stopping-place in the slide; on the other hand, there is nothing visible in
the prevailing policy of business and government to bring a halt short of
that level almost reached in some nations after the war, the level of
barter and hand-to-mouth existence.
Long before that, of course, something will happen. That happening
may indeed be another great war, already whispered about as a cure for
the crisis, but a cure which would probably mean the end of Western
civilization. I t is quite possible, also, that the American people may decide
in time to set industry upon the path toward Socialism.
If, on the contrary, things are simply left to "muddle along," the al-
ternatives are pretty sure to be either Communism or some type of Fas-
cism—dictatorship of the proletariat or dictatorship of armed capital-
There is already a friendship to Mussolini's regime among our financiers,
who draw to themselves daily a more menacing proportion of power,
and there needs only some sudden emergency to throw openly into their
hands the government and its armed forces.
Chaos—Which ? yy
Election is not a horserace nor one's political allies
one's house guests.
Nothing is so likely to bring this about, of course, as the threat of a
Communist uprising. The possibility of a successful Communist revolu-
tion in this country is extremely remote, but Americans will not consent
to starvation peacefully, and the Communist organization stands always
ready to fan into mob violence the flames of grumbling discontent. There
is some cause for anxiety, too, in the fascination that Communism seems
to hold for many well-fed and well-clothed persons. We Americans are
intellectually indolent and far from politically-minded; and Communist
revolt is easier of comprehension than Socialist economics, besides pro-
viding greater excitement for a public educated by the movies.
I t may be that even you, gentle reader, have read somewhat more
widely upon the Communist experiment in Russia than upon the Socialist
experiment in the United States.
Perhaps you have happened upon the leaflet "Milwaukee Gangless,"
gotten out by the conservative Committee of Ten Thousand, or upon the
financial column in the Herald Tribune praising the achievements of that
city in sound finance. The Herald Tribune does not mention, however,
that good government in Milwaukee began with the triumph of Socialism
in 1910, which still continues with a Socialist mayor fifteen years in office.
Perhaps, also, you have heard Norman Thomas, and admired the
brilliancy and high-mindedness of the Socialist candidate for President.
Have you voted for him and for the less-known persons upon his ticket,
you who possess the vote? And if not, is it because you have examined
the Socialist demands and found them wanting? Or is it because you are
afraid he will not win, and want to have the fun of a triumph Wednesday
morning? Or because you dislike the accent or the manners of those
Socialists you happen to have come across?
Perhaps we should remind ourselves that Election is not a game or a
horse-race, and that the purpose is not to "pick the winner." Moreover
there is no obligation to invite to tea all the members of one's political
Party; in the fight to save the republic one's trench-companions need
Rot always be chosen from the Social Register.
I t is highly probable that the fate of America will depend upon the
v°tes that will be cast during the next five years. While the two great
Parties were bowling the industrial machine ever more swiftly along the
capitalist road, the Socialists alone raised the danger signal, "Chaos
ahead." Xow we are catching sight of that chaos in the distance before us.
M'ght it not be the part of wisdom to pause and make some inquiry as
t o the other road which they still continue to point out?
j . This message, gentle reader, has been dull and possibly annoying.
tB u so was Cassandra.