The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-08-13
1.-THE american Dream 7
OF Prof: Millikon Is An
Apology for Reaction

is nearer the truth: nearly all pro-
gressive ideas which have been
crystallized into legislation after
decades of struggle, have come to Us
from Europe. This is true not only
of our earlier history (the influence
of the French Revolutionists, the
ideals Of bourgeois democracy but
Of the present day. And even the
capitalist countries of Europe
though not as rich in natural re-
sources. are ahead Of America in
progressive social legislation, such
for example as housing, social insur-
ance. health protection, labor laws,
prison reforms, reduction Of Hitter
acy, etc. The most progressive OF
all, of course, is Soviet Russia
Adillikan claims that the solution
is either better application of SCI
ence to industry" or "to teach people
to use their small incomes so as
to get more satisfaction out OF
them" He ignores completely the
fact that the crisis has been brake
upon the application of science to
industry, has hindered further tech
biological progress; also the fact that
further chronological advance would
increase chronological unemploy-
ment and deepen the crisis. As for
AGillikan's alternative, 100000 job
less Americans without any income,
average or minimum, have rapidly
learned how to live on nothing per
year. but have not been able to get
much satisfaction" out of it.
MILLIKAN cites statistics to show
liA that the percentage Of our popu-
lation gainfully employed has risen
in the past so years from SAT per
cent in 1880 to 1913 per cent in 1890.
This only proves the percentage, but
not the actual number, Of parasites
has decreased sIightly-a larger per-
centage belonging to the working
class which has nothing to sell but
its labor power.
I'VE have practically abolished
starvation "-that will be welcome
news to millions Of starving Ameri-
cans. I wonder how often Mr.. Mil
likan leaves his laboratory to visit
bread lines, slums, sharecroppers,
tenant farmers, the homes of unem-
ployed workers? Statistics prove
that there is starvation and plenty
of it in the US.A.; 100000 under
nourished children in this country
according to the League of Nations
report; the sickness rate in New
York City rose SO per cent from
1880 to 1892 according to the As
ISOLATION for the Improvement Of
the Condition of the Poor; the We'll
fare Council of New York reports
increased starvation among the I'M
employed during the past year; the
number of suicides has grown enor-
mously since 1929.
He also says the economist sees
little hope of abolishing these ups
and downs" by which he means
crisis or depressions; he blames them
on psychology! A depressiCl he says,
the corrective that nature has pro-
vided to bring us back to normal"
The California physicist Jumps to-
gether Russian fanatics" Nazis and
Japanese jingoes as menace num-
Der L. threatening American ideals,
trying to plunge the world into war.
(The whole world knows that the
Soviet peace policy is today the
strongest barrier in the road to war
along which the capitalist world is
tarevling at breakneck speed.) He
praises our civil liberties-freedom
of speech Cor example in Frisco,
Minneapolis, AlabamaO in contrast
to "deSpotism" in Nazi Germany,
fascist Italy and Soviet Russia CA
favorite method of slandering the
U.S.S.R. is to lump proletarian and
fascist relationships as identieaD.
He attacks, by implication, the Mr..
A. as representing a paternalistic
attempt to do the same thing in the
U.S.A. as fascism has done in Italy,
Germany and Austria and Commu-
nism in Russia. This is an example
Of Millikan's exact, painstaking, SCI
entiflc thinking! One wishes he
would stick to his own subject,
physics, in which, presumably,
he repudiates sloppy, sentimental,
inaccurate and wishful thinking. In
stead he utilizes his scientific. rapn-
tation to give authority to ultra
reactionary muddled and unscien-
tiflc propaganda. against the. work.
ing class. against Communism and
against the Soviet Union. Outside
his own field, Millikan is an. ignor-.
anus, whether he attempts to rec
oncile religion and science, or to
refute MARKHAM economic science.