The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-11-02
Wake Up, Professor

Wake Up, Professor.
THE other day We thought that General Hugh john
of the MIRA. reached record of brazen false
hood when he claimed "a definite upward turn" the
same day the Federal Reserve Board issued figures
proving exactly the opposite
But it looks as if the N-R.A general has been
passed in the most extraordinary burst Of ignorance
and fasehood we have seen in long time.
From the august halls of Columbia University it
comes And the well known millionaire retired Pro-
fesSor Of Economies, Edwin r. A. Seligman is the
author
For twenty-five years the Professor was teaching
his students that Marks analysis Of capitalism all
wrong
The Professor fervently declared that capitalism
has found way of keeping the best features of pr-
vate property" while gradually ironing out the bad
features"
And four years ago in the middle of one Of these
learned lectures the crisis descended the Professors
head like ton of brick.
And SO for the last four years of the crisis the Pro-
fessor maintained a pathetic and dignihed silence
about his theories.
pUT yesterday he emerged from his comfortable re-
~ tirement with the following propositions
Propositions one: "the depression is ending" says
the Professor
Can you beat that? Steel production Just crumpled
to rs per cent of capacity and is heading downward
with dizzyng speed since there no orders on the
books Of the steel companies.
The government reports that retail sales of the most
necessary foods are tagging 10 per cent behind last
year, indicating misery than last year
Every week witnesses the closing down of more tex
tile and auto factories and the discharge of thousands
Of workers who were taken for the temporary sum-
mer boom"
Is 1t not a rockbottom fact, Professor that
the Federal Reserve Bank reported three days ago
that the present mountain of Surplus goods IA
now greater than at the beginning Of the Roose-
welt regime?
And is this not the surest proof that the
fundamental of the crisis has been intensi-
Even you yourself Professor have taught on count
less occasions that crisis end while capitalism
chokee under the burden Of surplus which cannot be
sold to poverty stricken workers
Haven't you heard Professor that the bank crisis
Is growing, that production is dropping like plum
met?
Haven't you read Professor, that the New
York Times business index has dropped so per
cent IN the last three months and is still falling?
PROPOSITION two: the fear Of uncontrolled infa-
ton has little basis in fact . and need upset no
one :"
This is so impudent that even the writer's in the
Wall Street financial journals know better.
For not only have they already admitted the cheap
ening of the dollar but have Roosevelts word that
we are going to have still more
Doesn't the Professor know that the dollar has been
cheapened by 3o-4O per cent?
Hasn't he ever heard of the fact that the Roose-
welt government has gone off the gold standard?
Doesn't he know every Federal Reserve Bank report
now admits that it was initiation that shot prices m
ward during the summer?
Can't he read in the newspapers every day that in
flatlon is shooting prices up still more?
Does he actually think that workers will swallow
his learned blarney when they see In their own
daily experience that the 20 per missionary rise
nj Twin hoes
much?
DOESN'T the Professor know that every elementary
textbook Of even capitalist economies points out the
hopelessness of controlling" initiation?
Hasn't he ever heard Of the controlled" German
initiation and the crash that followed it7
Doesn't he know that as soon as initiation stops
prices start to tumble, and then still more initiation
must be shot into the Of industry and that this
process must go on and on until the bubble breaks?
AND then the Professor winds I'D with the following
We are In the midst Of a social revolution
within the framework OF capitalism, which
promises lasting benefits"
This is what the professor had been teaching for
twenty-five years and had thought that the crisis
had taught him lesson.
But capitalist Professors not interested in learn
ing anything. Their function was best described bv
Lenn when he called them Scientific statesmen Of the
capitalist class"
So now the Professor squeaks again of his favorte
theory-the reform" Of capitalism without touching
the profits of the capitalists
He thinks he can have revolution-and still have
capitalism He wants to abolish the evils" of capital
ISM without destroying the deeprooted capitalist causes
Of these evils.
But the workers and farmers of America although
they have no college degrees, know much better than
that, Professor.
Iney Know that 1t is the private capitalist owner
snip OF the means of production the factories etc.
that produces crises unemployment hunger and war
And they know that the only way to solve the crisis
is simply to smash the rule of the capitalist class of
which the impartial" scientific Professor is such m
integral part