The Washington herald., 1918-03-28

Mr.. Johnson, OF South Dakota, who
sits in the lower House OF Congress.
willing and ready to do some Of
the things his constituents want him
to do. has introduced a bill ITO es-
tablish a government experiment in
tegral of industries"
Anything like this. coming as il
does when the world is on fire. APP
pears TO be very mild. but never
theless must arouse some interest
wherever it is seen and heard.
At the outset the bill provides for
the appointment by the President OF
a Creative Economics Commission.
This Is good. If the commission Is
created with some idea of economy.
and economic economy at that, it
may help some in the present-day
rush and rattle OF things suggestive.
This commission, so the bill con-
tinues. is to be composed of a sec
retary-naming this important func-
tionary frst-and twenty members
representing the various industries:
Agriculture, forestry. animal hus-
bandry. mining. manufacturing. en-
gineering, mechanic arts. transporta-
ton, invention. public service voca-
ton. professional service, domestic
service. personal service and clerical
occupations.
At the outset the sentence of this
commission is for ten years-that is,
| the measure says the members shall
serve for ten years.
The fourth section of the bill,
quite as modestly written as any of
the rest but containing mammoth
objects for the commission to ac-
| complish. is really the big section
| OF the bill. We quote it so the
| reader may grasp some of the things
this man Johnson from South Da-
kota would have done:
That the Commission on Creative
Economics is authorized to plan
and construct a government econ
omic experiment integral or unit
of industries for the purpose of
testing, independent of existing
commercial interests, and by scien-
| tific methods the merits or dement's
of another system of industry not
adjusted to the economic principle
of mutual repression and plunder,
the social contract of which shall
be the donation of labor power by
all employees and the donation OF
the products of labor power to all
employees under the rule of the
common good"
Nothing If not interesting, Ell?
Translated this means that the
commission shall isolate its en-
deavor to some spot where the sor-
didness of ordinary comr1Hrclal life
has not leaked in. and then and
I,nn - 0ol
way of doing things which shall
give to the workers the product OF
their hands. and to the producers a
small part Of the product of the
workers.
In short: it is a state socialism
modified to meet new ideas of some
of some of the individual socialists
but intended to accomplish the same
| results the daddy of socialism
wished upon it long years ago.
OF course the bill will not gel
anywhere. No one expects it to
not even the author; but il the
members should happen to want II
they can get the experiment for q
very modest price-nothing save
$50, 100000, which section 16 appro.
PIRATES for carrying out its provi,
sions.
1t is one of the strange things oi
| Congress that bills are introduced
when members do not expect then
to even come to a vote of the com.
mittee to which they are referred
no, it isn't strange, either. 1t i,
quite the way of legislative bodie.
and always will be, we opine. And
we might add a vagrant observa,
tion, too, to the effect that when the
world seems on its way devilishly
fast backward toward the stone ag,
our supply of dTeamers Increases
faster than they do in normal times
We guess this must be because thu
| need of dreams to bring peopl,
back to their world of reason i!
more acutely needed then. Though
the dreams they dream disappear
when daylight comes. and only th'