Montana labor news., 1934-11-29
This Cock-Eyed
World

eight years ago last May | was parad-
ing Chit, O., behind red flags with a
homemade dagger in my pistol pocket,
ready to drive it in the heart OF
Plutocracy. And you ask me to be
patient"
well" says Sonny consolingly,
maybe you was a bit previous, Dad.
During most of the time you're talking
about we still had the open frontier,
with its boundless opportunities. Al
most anybody with CUTS and gumption
could get out of the working class, and
hence a class conscious, revolutionary
proletariat was impossible. But
now"
But now" sneers Buddy, the open
frontier sports KEEP-OUT signs; the
boundless opportunities are bound and
bonded; the children of the folks that
Travelled west in covered wagons shout
ing OREGON OR BUST are treking
east in rafting Fords busted; and the
proletariat is wearing hearts and seats
out on park benches twelve million
strong. ready to vote for anybody that
promises three nor beans in the fed
eral free soup bowl; while the peasan-
try is eking out a precarious existence
raising cockleburrs, blowing under
cotton and preparing hogs for burial
in soap kettles-but where is your
revolution 7"
well, Dad" Sonny starts
That's it, Dad" Buddy spits, Il
started out to be the daddy Of a revo-
luton. now I'm already the grand
daddy of revolution, and if something
doesn't happen soon I'll be the great
grand-daddy Of a revolution. I don't
mind working for posterity, but if pos
terity keeps running away from me,
I'll be darned if I buy roller skates to
catch up with it."
ooh, shut up" I chimes in. "What
do you fellows want, the thing or the
noise of the thing? Ever since |
know you two, you've been bellyaching
about shorter hours, higher wages,
abolition of child labor, initiative, ref
erendum, recall, women suffrage, Old
Age pensions, unemployment insurance,
and bigger and better p%oorhouses. Most
of them noble reforms you got already.
Now comes along the New Dealer and
promises the balance and you wonder
why your disciples walk off with him"
"But them reforms were only i'm
mediate demands" Father and Son
pipe up.
so they were," I comes back, "and
if getting most of them isn't immediate
enough for you, you better get up early
yesterday"
"Well," the two reluctantly admit,
"the old party politicians did swipe
most of ii reform thunder but where
is the common ownership and demo
cratic management Of the means OF
production and distribution, for that is
the thing we're after?"
"Ohe, is it," | sneers. I'm glad
you brought that up. From the way
your crowd the world over acted, I
took it for granted that that was only
your ideal, something like the heaven
on earth pious souls try to establish
by padlocking speakeasies. But if you
really are after that production for
consumption order, it seems TO me you
are doing surprisingly nicely"
"How Gomez" begot and begetter
want to know.
"Well," I comes back, didn't that
old side-kick Of yours, Upton Sinclair,
gather in some 100000 votes the other
day in sun-kissed Cal. on a platform
dedicated to the proposition of produc-
ton for consumption, and him a man
who had written 40 books to the same
end; and a OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
running against him who promised to
repay his campaign fund contributors
with a 30-hour work week and a two
hundred buck old age pension for their
~superannuated ~employes?"
"Ye-e-s, but
ooh, can your butts. And didn't that
Farmer-Labor outfit in Minnesota
sweep the state the other day on a
platform stating rudely that Capitalism
should be abolished Immediately, and
replaced by a sensible economic sys-
TEN based on Socialism? ?"
"Ye-e-e-s" but"
"Ouit buttingl And didn't the La
Toilette boys up in Wisconsin run and
run out a bunch of certified New Deal
ers on a platform promising a planned
society and a redistribution of wealth.
From your standpoint now, that pro-
nunciamento isn't so hot, but it's at
least 200 per cent hotter than the
platform Old Man La Toilette ran on
ten years ago when your whole crowd
boosted him?"
"But, Adam, most of the men you're
talking about are not class conscious
revolutionary Socialists"
mo, they amt" I tells 'em, land
some of them may be demagogues be-
sides, who go back on their promises as
plenty enough of your crowd have done
There even may be a few Noskes and
Ramsay MacDonalds among them. But
when you see politicians, good or bad,
grab the drum majors baton and
shout Follow Me- you can bet your
bottom boots in what direction the pro-
cession is headed to. So instead Of
bellyaching around this sanctum about
the small vote you got last Tuesday,
congratulate yourself that today your
ideas are percolating in more think
pots than you imagined in your wild
est fancy. The trouble with you two
guys is you're suffering from ingrown
theories. The thing you want is ON
ing all right, but because it amt COM
ing according to your specifications, it's
liable to run over you before you see it.
The inhuman race never progressed by