The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1930-05-23

matter was being attended to somewhere in the
east and Knutson was helpless until the oracle
had spoken One would think that it should not be
necessary for Knutson to wait for the latest tnes-
is; that he might possess enough intelligence to
write few hundred words explaining the funda-
mentals of communism without running the risk
of losing his pie card But he was mute and the
League politicians went thru their hocus pocus
without let or hindrance from the "leader of the
masses" in North Dakota.
1t should be noted that while Alex Moral the
unknown soldier of agrarian revolt went to the
trouble of making an ass of himself the liquor
question, he did not essay to reply 10 the open let
ter sent by Taylor to Knutson in which the former
criticized the United Farmers League for its OPP
portunistic policies. 1t is true that Knutson in
letter to Taylor quoted that noted feminist" Karl
Kautsky in support of the policy of the United
Farmers League-Kautsky the theorist of the
Noskes and Scheidemanns of Germany; the
derers of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg
and the hangmen of the Spartacus revolt. But
knutson had the discretion not to make his letter
public.
The liquor question is not the major problem
that confronts American workers and poor farm
ers The main problem is how capitalism can be abol
ished in the shortest possible space of time But
the liquor question cannot be ignored by the Amer
lean workingclass. They cannot ignore the dangers
Inherent in the building up of tremendous espi-
onage agency, recruited from the most reactionary
elements in American life. The army of shoppers
spawned by the white-livered hypocritical Anti
Saloon League, the breeding nest of the Ku Klux
Khan, is a menace that cannot be overlooked.
1t must be admitted that while the Soviet gov
eminent is making a sincere and honest effort to
eliminate the evils of alcoholism it has not made
as much progress in that direction as it has for
instance in building up state industry. First it
tried absolute prohibition but was licked bv the
bootleggers 1t then sensibly dropped prohibition
and substituted government control of distribution
and sale. AS a result about one billion rubles
from the goverment-owned liquor industry goes
into the Soviet treasury every year to be used for
among other things, the purchase of tractors from
the dry Henry Ford. Leon Trotsky is absolutely
opposed to the governments traffic in LIQUOR. but
the more elastic Stain is in favor of it, as a
temporary expedient. On the liquor question the
"opportunst" Townley is Stalinite, after a fash
ION.
Only an idiot will blame all the ills that society
is afflicted with the capitalist system. On the
whole the human race is much healthier today
than under previous social orders The engineer
the doctor. We don't know whether the seven-year
itch is still tcklish problem or not, but we
know that epidemics that laid waste large areas
OF the world before the advent of modern and san
ltary engineering are now few and far between
Capitalism has developed the machinery of pro-
ductlon and distribution to the point where Social
ism is not only possible but inevitable and socially
necessary. With the increasing efficiency in the
field of mass production comes an increase in the
almy of unemployed. The avenues of distribution
are choked with goods and the people who ploduc-
ed them are unemployed and starving In brief
this is why capitalism is bound to go not because
1t cannot or will not solve the liquor problem or
cure the seven-year itch
1t is quite possible that mankind will be wrestl-
ing with the liquor problem one hundred wears
from now. Maybe, under the Soviet system. Com.
nlunlst old maids and males with an Anti-Saloon
League complex will be going around with battle
axes smashing the doors of restaurants where H.
quor is sold. We are not prophets But we know
That the human race since the dawn of history
mas tasted the merry giggle soup and who knows
but that they may be warming their tummies with
the juice of the grape and more potent distilla-
lions until the end of time.
In the meantime out of deep and hearty wisl
to see the Communist movement develop in the
United States we hope that Messrs. Knutson anc
Moral will have their crowns lifted and have fresl
gray matter substituted for the cobwebs that nov
| dwell in their think tanks.