Evening star., 1934-08-05
BAN ON PERSONAL GAIN
MAKES COMMUNISM FAIL
Advantages Seen in Developing Some
Form of Modified Capital
- istic System.

declared. operate inevitably 10 alter
this system. He knows that through
the years the present system will
automatically provide the apparatus
of its own change and improvement.
With the sweep OF progress exploita-
ton VIII be stopped. inequalities re-
dueed, gross poverty exterminated.
Condition Improving.
Slowly. but surely, our condition
automatically improves. Already we
have installed cooperative economy
to an astounding degree. It Is not
recucible tn statistics. but it might
be safe to estimate that at least Is
per cent II our economic life Is al
ready on a socialistie basis. At least
20 per cent of all our national in
come Is devoted TO activities under
governmental control.
Our public schools, for example. are
pure socialism. They are made pos
sible by the tremendous productivity
Of capitalism. They work INCREASINGLY
for more democratic order. As the
capacity Of government and the in
telligence of the masses increase, the
extension Of public control over pri-
vate activity will be practicable and
wise. Life will become cleaner and
finer.
The direction OF this development
no man can foretell, not even a
Marx. Modern science under the
present competitive system viii Ger
tainly create agencies now unsuS-
pected that will reconstruct our pres
ent order. The capitalist system will
provide Its own modification Of the
privilege OF property. In the late
lamented jazz period oversanguine
employers began a movement for en-
ploye stock ownership which ended
most unhappily. In the same period
security operators developed an in
vestment trust device that through
gross mismanagement and misfor-
tune came to grief. 1t Is de trop to
refer to them in these times, but 1t
may we'll be that through some such
instrumentalities as these there will
come social betterment beyond our
present abilities TO imagine. Or it
may be that social insurance, pensions
or annuities will be magic social
agency.
On the other hand. the economic
future may not lie In economics. but
in biology. A genuinely socialist so
ciety must be free from that large
element Of defective. delinquent. de-
ficient and anti-social individuals now
dragging upon all progress. The
problems Of crininality. feeble-mind-
edness, disease, degeneracy and in
sanity are infinitely more pressing
than the problems Of economies.
Present Order Adequate.
As for the millions still among us
whose lives are shadowed by poverty,
unemployment and mean labor-they
should not be misled by any mirage
Of new order Of golden plenty. 1t
is within the possibilities Of our pres
ent order to stamp out the harsher
forms Of these age-old social evils.
The means Of this happy end lie quite
as much In the realm Of biology as
of economics.
It is the unquestionable certainty
Of the gradual development Of
fairer economic order through out
present system that makes attacks on
the system so unwise. They arouse
false hopes and unnecessary bitter
ness and make for disorder, stupid
legislation and demagoguery. They
obstruct the reasoned consideration
Of the possibilities Of real economic
improvement.
The more dangerous Of those who
attempt to tear down the present
system without q sound alternative
to present are not the honest but
fanatic reds" who fofnent general
strikes, but the parlor pinks who
preach the collapse of the present
order. These kid-glove dilettante
critics Of the present order enjoy
soft-handed existence made possible
by capitalism. They inevitably dis
play in their private affairs keen
sense Of property rights and a most
bourgeois devotion to the profit mo-
tive. It is pity that they cannot
all be removed to some isolated Com
munist community, where in the
simple and unwashed smocks Of all
the comrades they would be forced
to labor for the cause and for such
rude living as 1t would provide.