The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1934-02-24
True TO
Type
America Needs
More, Louder
Squawks
BY GILBERT SELDES

~J NAAOGEA SAADNG
1.-THE peOple?" cries Bernard
Shaw in one of his new plays.
Let them have a voice. Let
them have a choice. They've
neither at present. But let 1t
be a voice to squeal with when
they're hurt, and not to pre-.
tend to know more than God
Almighty does"
It happens that ION the
Rocks" in which these lines
are spoken by a disillusioned
old Socialist, is specifically a
defense not of God Almighty,
but of dictators, the modern
mans, a practical substitute
for divine power. But I am so
much more interested in 1.-The
voice to squeal with" that !
am goinc to pass the political
question. I've been thinking
about squealing for some time.
but being an American I call
it "squawking." I calculate we
QO0G SQuaWK uaII eL4OuSA4'
Soviets, Perhaps
There is another homely word
for what mean: belly-achlng,
and it suggests that while
remedies for acute physical dis
orders have multiplied by the
thousand, and we are all either
victims of dyspepsia or saved
from it by a variety OF pills
and potionS, we do nothing
about another order Of ills. We
take all sorts of impositions
and gratis, lying down. We do
not complain.
And I am not thinking about
politics, either. If the great
unconsulted body of taxpayers
wants to complain about some
thing done, under the Hoover
policy of doing nothing or the
Roosevelt policy of trying every
thing, the way to complain IS
hard enough; but you can get
q Republican or a Communist
to do it for you-without any
effort. There ought to be little
Soviets, little local gatherings
In every ward and township, to
talk about our troubles. But at
least we have the newspapers.
Kick and Kick
I'd like to see long and loud
complaints when a chlld's toy
breaks 10 minutes after you
put it together-and not COM
plants from the child, but from
his parents, to the store that
sold the toy. I'd like to hear
complaints to publishers If Gas
may happen) they issue a
worthless book; and to pro
ducers of plays and movies. And
to hotel keepers who do not
put dark roller shades on their
windows.
The only people who get
squawks, now, are neighborhood
dealers; they are handy, they
are small, they have no ma
tional reputation and they are
frightened of us, valuing' our
patronage. Counting them out,
we have arrived at the stage
when the seller is always right.
We get less than we pay for
and rather than make a scene
or write a letter, we suffer in
silence.
Prize fight fans are an ex-
ception, but they boo on prin-
pie at nearly everything.
People go around saying that
Americans have lost their old
rugged individualism and their
old fighting spirit and their old
self-reliance and their nerve
and their morale and a lot of
other distractions. All I see
is that a lot of Americans have
lost their kick. Or, at least,
they have let the habit of kick
ing slide to one side: the side
OF the radicals.
A thousand letters of protest
against a dull movie would
probably have more effect than
ten thousand columns of razz-
ing in the newspapers. And be
q very good thing for the health
of the people making the pro-
tests. AS Freud has taught us,
suppressions are dangerous.