The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-08-02
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

| A SIGH Of relief may 60 up IN certain quarters
as the result Of the suppression Of the San
Francisco strike and the declaration Of martial
law TO handle the Minneapolis strike.
There is little ground for any such feeling of
satisfaction. There are many other serious
strikes in progress and the labor policies OF
American employers may be counted upon to
! start plenty Of new ones.
! The violence Of American employers, aided
and Allotted by local gendarnes and militia, no
more settles our labor disputes than Hitler set
! tied the German situation by shooting a few
hundred malcontents.
| The issues involved in the current labor dis
putes and industrial set-up are clear enough TO
/ anv one who wishes to find them. The present
struggle is not an attempt to supplant capital
| ism by another socio-economic system. 1t is an
endeavor to assure prosperity within the capital
istic system
If this is to be achieved, the essential condi-
tons are perfectly plain to any one with the
slightest economic information and insight
In the first place we must put an end to the
existing high-toned robbery of the American
public through holding companies and invest
ment banking houses. The something for
nothing" business ethics must be condemned,
whether practiced by multimillonaire corporate
manipulators or by Al Capone and John Dill
! linger.
TN the second place, adequate purchasing pow
l. er must be assured for the mass of Americans;
salaried classes, industrial workers and farmers.
Unless these groups can buy goods, factories
can not run and the credit institutions of the
country can not operate properly.
In the third place, we must have planned
economy, designed not so much to enforce the
old and disastrous ideal of productive scarcity
as to insure the maximum productivity COM
patibe with our chronological development and
consumer needs. We should give less attention
to the interests of the small producer and more
to the requirements of the small consumer.
In addition we must do something to lift the
crushing debt of quarter of a trillion dollars
which hangs over our heads, and must battle
against wasteful expenditures for war purposes
which already absorb three-fourths of our fed
eral income.
If anything is clear in the present economic
situation in the United States it is that capital
seems determined to forfeit its rights to leader
ship.
The overwhelming majority still subscribes to
all the old ideals and practices which ruined us
from 1921 to 1929. In so far as they support the
MIRA at all they back up only the measures
which enable them further to exploit the Amer
lean people
IF we can expect nothing from capital, only
L the salaries classes, the farmer and organ
lied labor remain. The salaried classes have
little social vision and take their licking lying
down. The farmers are properly resentful but
they are unorganized, individualistic and the
most treacherous and irresponsible chiselers in
the whole American body polite.
1t is beginning to seem a fact, whether we
like it or not that our only hope of restoring
prosperity resides in the ability of labor to
assert itself and end the major abuses which
afflict us.
Therefore, it behooves labor to be extremely
careful to see to it that its policies are wise and
strategic. 1t equally behooves the American pub
labor, unless it is willing to face the inevitable
alternatives of fascism and ultimate economic
COLLAPSE.