Montana labor news., 1934-11-15

4 = y
Hapless Herbert. had tried to stay
the demise Of Capitalism by pouring
two billions of Socialism into its blood
stream by way of the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation. The poor devi.
didn't have sense enough to know that
when a tree dies in its upper branches
the u is usually to be found in it;
roots. So instead of putting the fer
t~iIizer where the roots could get it, he
poured it on top of the tree, thereby
aggravating starvation below with
suffocation on top.
Under the law Of averages and vari-
atoms, it hardly could be expected that
the United States would be blessed
with two presidents in succession as
dumb as Hoover, and so it happened
that while Roosevelt continued to pour
government credit into bankrupt banks
insurance companies and railroads, he
was sufficiently intelligent to realize
that something had to be done for the
roots upon which all of them feed
meaning the consumers. Thus there
followed the NRA with its attempt tc
balance production and consumption
under the profit system.
At this point the gentle reader is re-
quested to take some good-sized scis-
sors or shears in right hands, inserting
thumbs and appropriate fingers in the
oval handles thereof, Thanks
The upper blade of the scissors is
called production. The lower blade we
call consumption. Now place a sheet
of paper between the two open blades
Of the shears, then close the blades
and you will find that the paper is cut
to the full length Of the shears. Am
right
Yes.
Thanks.
Now take a block of wood, say about
an inch thick and insert it between the
points Of the shears. That done, in
sert the sheet of paper between block
and rear end of shears and close the
blades, and you will find that the
shears cut only a part of the paper.
Am l right?
Yes.
Thanks, awfully.
Now insert a two-inch block between
the points of the shears, repeat the per-
Torrance and you'll find that the cut
is still shorter.
So it is.
Well, the block that %interferes with
the full operation Of the two blades is
profit, and the bigger block profit, the
smaller cut. Balancing production and
consumption simply means to make
both ends meet and they can't meet
without cutting out profit.
Roosevelt did his very best to raise
the purchasing power of farmers and
wage earners. But the capitalist
brethren he tried to save went him one
better when it came to raising prices
with the result that block profit j.
quite a bit bigger than it was when he
started.
During the first months Of the New
Deal, when Roosevelt was accused o.
being a Fascist by Socialists, and So
cialist by the Conservatives, we gave
it as u opinion that he was neither
Socialist nor Fascist; hat his only aim
was t. ave Capitalism and that he
couldn't save it because the capitalists
wouldn't let him.
OF course, there are still a few ar
rows left in the New Deal culver. One
Of them is initiation and there is nc
doubt in my mind that this viii be the
next hot in the arm. Up to now,
Roosevelt only flirted with initiation.
as reducing the gold content of the dol
lar and edging toward the free and UNI
limited coinage of silver for instance,
But he still seems to have a holy fear
of putting the printing presses on the
job.
When he does and does it on a big
enough scale, there will be a temporary