The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-07-04
BY DAVID RAMSEY
Science Goes To Bat for Big

Science Goes To Bat for Big
A FEW weeks ago at the Chicago
n Fair more than 800 important
scientists and educators put on a
big show for General Motors. As a
publicity stunt they conducted a
symposium which attempted to pre-
dict how life in America would be
changed by science and technology
The scientists had to compete with
fan-dancers and sword
and the real object of their discus
sion was TO ballyhoo General Mo-
tors products. But both of these
are unimportant. What is important
are the facts they disclosed about
the state Of American technology
today. At present, American work
ers and farmers could enjoy the
highest standard of living in the
history Of mankind If. If they
would cut the letters that capital
ism has clamped upon technology
cal change
A chronological revolution is ma
turing which would ensure plenty
to all Of mankind, but this revolu-
ton in technique has come up
against the barriers of capitalist
social relations. 1t cannot come to
fruition unless it is preceded by
the overthrow Of capitalism. This is
the logic of the facts that the sci
entists related, but it Is logic that
with but one or two exceptions they
carefully avoided. 1t is ironic that
these men, whose lives are sup
posedly devoted to the discovery and
application of rational truths, shut
themselves UP in logic-tight COM
partmentS whenever it becomes a
question of bucking the powers that
be.
A SUMMARY of the revelations
n of the scientists gives us the
following picture of what life in
America could be like, if there were
a workers and farmers, and not
bankers, state.
There is already available a mod
ern house that could be fabricated
in the millions, like so many auto
mobiles. 1t has 5 or 6 rooms, is
equipped with every article of fur
niture, utensils, garage, sewers,
pavements, lawns, trees, etc. A
workers society that would not be
interested in adequate" profits for
manufacturers, or in perpetuating
the hygienic and social evils of
slums for still more profits, could
make these houses available to ev-
cry farmer and worker in need Of
decent housing. BY eliminating
profits these houses could be pro-
duced for about 81, 900 apiece.
Under capitalist conditions the
cost runs from $4,000 to $1,000 per
house. And no unemployed worker,
no employed worker struggling to
earn $40 or SIS week, can afford
such "luxuries" Consequently, the
anti-union A. o. Smith Corpora
ton Of Milwaukee displays pretty
models Of such houses, and Ameri-
can workers have to live in what
bourgeois experts describe as prob
ably the worst slums in the world"
All homes. offices, factories and
schools could be aforementioned.
Temperatures and humidity could
be controlled and healthful condi-
lions maintained all year round.
Every home could be completely
electrified, and all household drudg-
cry eliminated. All routine indus
trial and Office tasks could be made
completely automatic.
There could be hundreds of new
materials synthetic stuffs that
would replace wood and metals and
other natural products; glass as
hard as steel, and metals as elias
tic as rubber; new textiles.
Increased productive efficiency
could satisfy all needs and the
working day be reduced to two
hours.
THIS list of inventions and discov-
4 cries that could be utilized for
benefitting mankind can be extend
ed indefinitely. Why then must
American workers and farmers live
in ratholes, endure mass starvation,
be broken by a n1erciless speed up2
The answer, every ss-conscious
worker and intellectual knows. 1t is
a matter of profits!
Every day in the United States
metal shears cut off hands; punch
presses smash fingers; machines
tear off arms; giant rolls cripple
bodies, chemicals blind eyes. Ac-
cording to the United States Blu
reau Of Labor Statistics, the num-
Der of industrial deaths in America
is estimated to be $4,000 annually
and the number of non-fatal in
dustrial injuries totals around
100000 a year. Most of these
deaths and injuries are due to fail
ufe to install proper safety methods
and devices. Capitalism demands
the hands and legs, the arms and
eyes, and even the lives Of men
and women. They are the inevitable
concomitants Of production for
profits.
BY now it must be pretty clear
that no invention will be marketed,