The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1931-11-06
G. B. Shaw Compares
Russia and America

suggests you are obtaining more
than your fair share. their income
tax commissioners will look into
the matter; and if they find that
you have been specializing or ex-
plotting the labor of others, your
relatives will presently miss you
and you will not turn up again.
And there will be no visible
jury to intimidate. no visible pa
trolman to corrupt, no visible ma
gistrate or judge with an interest
in your booty. Your sole guaran-
tee that this invisible power will
not be maliciously used against
you is that it is to the interest of
the secret tribunal tokeep you a
live and at work and at large as
long as you are of any use to your
fellow creatures, and that only
when you become or try to become
thief or beggar is it worth any
ones while to take the trouble Of
liquidat;ng you-or shall / say
humping you off?
It was that eminent and highly
respectable English Tory property
owner, John RuSkin, who pointed
out that there are only three pos
Sible sorts of persons in human
society: workers, beggars and
thieves. A Russian would per-
haps put it more shortly by ad-
hitting only two sorts: producers
and parasites.
Now the theory of capitalism is
that without the incentive of be-
coming parasites men will not pro-
duce and that parasitism is there
fore one of the inevitable costs of
production. A factory, it declares,
is impossible unless there is a
landlord to let the land on which
: it stands for the highest competi-
tive rent he can obtain for it, the
, capitalist extorting the highest
! interest his spare cash can COM
: mand from it, the employer deter
7 mined to make its profits cover
t both rent and interest and a:
l much as he can make for himself
D by keeping down to the utmost thu
] cost of labor which is sold to hin
p at heavily cut prices by workers
t who must either work or starve.
i Russia confutes that theory b!
showing you factories with full
I modern equipment, modern Ameri
: can machinery and several Ameri
cans on the technical staff who de
liberately prefer life in Russia t
: life in America, working at full
I pressure without a single parasite
q Rent goes into the public excheq
: uer as advised by decease
/ American named Henry GeorgC
{ who happened strangely enoug
9 to possess some common sense
e interest on capital follows it, b
Al an obvious deduction from hi
principles; profit goes the sam
ST way, and the public fund thereb
L created is used to build and equi
/ new factories and establish colle'
le tive farms for the production
~ food on an unprecedented sea
to maintain a formidable army
=, liouidate Mr.. Winston Church,
ID and Mr.. Rabbit if they procee
q from anti-revolutionary ink-slinl
q, ing and platform balderdash
IL anti-Russian military business al
" to distribute what is left in mo,
rs abundant well-being for the wor
ch ers.
There is no need and no roo
= in the whole process, from begl
+ ming to end, for any idler, par
e site or exploiter, save only the
CT evitable Russian baby who pre-
as Soraciously on its mother and W
hu not even move across the room u
less it is carried. And even t
,Is baby has to pay back when it
ne old enough to work.
an There is no longer any use
ID protesting that all this cannot
NJ done because human nature
go greedy and selfish. 1t is bel
ID done. 1t works. 1t pays. A
cal even the greedy and selfish do I
Ter want to exchange it for life
IN America.
ow Also it works without party p
ftics, votes-for-everybody electio
Ter and all the rest of the shams a
ice follies which profess to ACHE
ge the aims of democracy and, as
pie matter of fact, make their deft
on an automatic certainty.
gu When the Russians give a mar
national job to do they do not
M another man to prevent him dol
ng it and amuse themselves by watt
ng ing the sport and betting on
They did not allow Fundamental
led farmers to control scientific eC
der cation, nor ask the opinion of
rs village wagner on finance q
IKE foreign policy. Yet the neglect
lily. these pseudo-democratic prec;
tons has not restored the tyrrs
~ of cars, princes of the chul
u and mobiles, nor thrust back
49, people into serfdom and chat
= slavery.
M Strange" says Mr.. Babb
a. "How do they do it,"
ich Thinking by the Exiles
Simply enough. The makers
the Communist Constitution of
nun Wet Russia in the days of tn
lIlll persecution and exile had plel
of time to think, mostly in Sib
ia. (In Detroit, Pittsburgh, n
n York and such places there is
u time to Think
VII These exiled Russians ponde
on the natural history Of manli
They saw that their own ca
proved that the curious factor
nature which we call provide
4. always takes care that every
A man community shall produce
u proportion of socially consci
tious and intellectually interes
persons necessary for govern