The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-02-17
MILLIONAIRE RED TO SAVE
SOCIETY

MlbLlONAlhE KED III SAVE
SOCIETY
And now it appeared that there
were a great many people who had
ideas as to how to save society,
and they all wanted to see Bunny,
and waited for him in the lobby of
his hotel. One had sure cure for
cancer, and another perpetual mo-
ton machine actually working; one
wanted to raise bullfrogs for their
legs, and another to raise skunks
for their skins. There were dozens
who wanted to prevent the next
war;, and several who wanted to
start colonies; there were many
with different ways of bringing
about socialism, and several great
poets and philosophers with manu-
scripts, and one to whom God had
revealed Himself-the bearer of
this message was six feet four and
broad in proportion, and he lowered
over Bunny and whispered in an
awe-stricken voice that the words
which God had spoken had been set
down and locked in safe, and no
human eye ever had beheld them, or
ever would. Several others wrote
that they were not able to call be-
cause they were unjustly confined
to asylums, but if Bunny would get
them out they would deliver their
messages to the world through him.
There was one more nut" and
his name was ]. Arnold Ross-no
longer "junior." He had a plan,
which he had been turning over and
over in his mind; and now he gath
cred his friends to get their reac-
ton. Old Chain Menzies, who had
been long time in the movement,
and watched most of its mistakes,
Chain was working in a clothing
shop, as usual, and giving his spare
time to getting up meetings. And
Jacob Menzies, the pale student
Jacob had got a job teaching school
for a year, but then he had been
found out, and now was selling in
surance. And Harry Seager, who
was growing walnuts, and escaping
the boycotts. And Peter Maggie,
who was helping his father run a
union plumbing business in an open
shop city, and spending his earn
ings on four page tabloid monthly
ridiculing God. And Gregor Nikol-
aieff, who had done his socialist
duty working for a year in lum-
Der camp, and was now assistant to
an x-ray operator in a hospital.
And Dan Irving, who had come
from Washington at Bunny's ex-
pense-these six people sat down
with Rachel and Bunny at a dinner
party in private dining room, to
discuss how to save society with
million dollars.
Bunny explained with becoming
modesty that he was not putting
forth his plan as the best of all
possible plans, but merely as the
best for him. He wasn't going to
evade the issue by giving his money
away, putting off the job on other
people; he had learned this much
from Dad, that money by itself is
nothing, to accomplish anything
takes money plus management.
Moreover, Bunny himself wanted
something to do; he was tired of
just looking on, and talking. He
a big paper, but he had no knowl-
had thought for a long time about
edge Of journalism, and would only
be blunderer. The one thing he
did know was young people; he had
been to college, and knew what a
college ought to be, and wasn't.
What we're doing-Rachel and
Jacob and the rest of us Ypsels-
is trying to work on young minds;
but the trouble is, we only get them
few hours in the week, and the
things that count for most in their
lives are the enemy's-I mean the
schools, the job, the movies-every-
thing. So want to get some stu-
dents together for a complete life,
twenty-four hour a day; and see
II we can't build a socialist disci-
pine, personal life, with service
to the cause as its goal. Rachel
will agree with me in this--I don't
know If anyone else will think
one reason the movement suffers is
that we haven't made the new
moral standards that we need. Our
own members, many of them, are
personally weak; the women have
to have silk stockings and look like
the ,bourgeoisie, and their idea of
freedom is to adopt the bad habits
of the men. If the movement real
ly meant enough to socialists, they
wouldn't have to spend money for