The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1919-01-03
PRE-WAR CAPITALISM
CAN NOT BE RESOlV ED
CHANGES MADE FOR WAR Eff
FlCiENCY MUST BE KEPT FOR
PEACE NEEDS.
By w. G. Roylance

70 the pre-War "basis in industry and
fnanee." There is no such basis
Inc present system was evolved out
Oh elements Of systems already dis
migrated. 1t might be temporarily
possible for the government. bv re-
cognlzlng the claims of various bust.
ness interests to reinstatement in
thelf pre-War rights, to make a sort
OF reconstruction of industry and fin
ance on the basis of restricted or I'M
restricted capitalism and profteering
'he interests placed in control. how
ever, would then hold position in
comparably stronger than they held
before the war, because they would be
able to capitalize it. Such policy
would provide for their profits, but
not for feeding of the people and
therefore for the industrial security
OF the nation. Such can only be as
sured by continuing the policy that
brought order out of pre-war chaos.
The situations of the parties in ma
tlonal and international industrial dis
putes have, in fact, been exactly re-
versed. Before the war those who
advocated any modification of unre-
stricted capitalism were constantly
derded as impractical Missionaries,
utoplans, obsessed by devotion to un-
reallzable ideals or embittered by fail
ure in struggle where only the
hardest heads and the thickest skins
could hope to come out unscathed
Now it is the former hard-headet1.
practical men who are put to it to
prove their case. It is up to them to
show how the clock can be turned back
without disarranging all our chedules.
WORLD OVERCAPITALIZED
If these men are as practical and
hard-headed. as they have always
been given credit for being they will
see that any attempt to return to I'M
restricted private ownership of trans
portation and marketing facilities will
seriously endanger capital itself Can
the nation or the world pay it's debts
under the. old arrangements In 9TH
/ er words, will the productive ability
of the world sustain the captializa-
tion of those debts and private over
capitalization, as we'll as the profits
capital must draw from the produce
ton Of the future, if the old system is
to be restored and supported? The
simplest kind of arithmetic will show
that this is impossible. The war has
brought into existence an economic
world problem utterly beyond the
ability of the old capitalist system to
solve; but the necessities of the war
have also given US the method of sol
ution-that is, national and interna-
tional cooperation in the operation
of transportation and marketing ia
cilities, to the end that the most ne
cessary staples may move freely from
the place of production to the people
in need of them in any part of the
world.
If government operation of trans
portation and control of prices and
markets in this and other countries
be continued, if the existing interna-
) tional pools of staples be consolidated
and developed, under the control OF ar
, international board of trade, or SINH
lar body; and if a political league OF
nations with sufficient power to en-
force industrial and economic justice
shall be established, then the worlt
t will be assured against the recur
rence of war. Industrial and econ
omic cooperation will secure peace.
. WORKERS MUST ORGANIZE
| Rut for this scheme to work etfec
{ lively in the common interest the PEG
T nile must control their governments
: and through them the international
: organizations. This means that eacf
: industrial interest in this and othel
: countries must be thoroughly orga
nized for the expression of its will II
: state and national councils. Capital
istic and commercial interests are or
ganized in every country, and unless
their power is offset, and supplement-
: ed by the complete organization OF tn
r farmer and labor interests, any leagu'
of nations will be dominated by tn
: stronger capitalistic groups OF tn
: world, united for that purpose.
B The present strong tendency to !
t world union of some kind only make
II all the more necessary for TIL
E workingmen and farmers to build VI
their organizations Immediately, t
mite upon their policies and thu
{ make their power felt. It rests witt
. them to determine whether the leagu
) of nations shall represent an indus
..1.4. III ,,xsn,, IF fha nnc