The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-09-06

Of three articles with excerpts from the
ten in the past tense telling how
Governor" Sinclair did It..
By Scripps-Ho,card Newspaper Alliance
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. Elm
little hotel in Santa Monica on a
hot evening in August. 1888. there
gathered a group of men and wo-
men, including five members Of the
Democratic county central commit
tee.
Upton Sinclair, slight, grayish,
ascetic, had come down from his
sunny hillside home overlooking
Pasadena to confer with them. A
friend had urged him to change his
registration from Socialist to Demo-
cratic and run on a Newer Deal
platform as a Democrat. He was
considering the call" and already
he had his plan.
Here he outlined, for the first
time, the Sinclair formula to end
poverty. 1t was a three-fold pro-
gram tackling unemployment, mall
distribution of wealth and in
security.
100000 Out of Work
A million people, he told them,
are out of work in California. I'VE
confront a real crisis in this state"
he said, "and I can see no prospect
of things getting better" He
painted a dark picture. While sup
porting NRA he outlined its weak
nesses and failures.
At least half the jobless in the
United States, he declared, would
never again have work under the
profit system" The dole" made
work and other expedients we're de-
stroying their morale; counties,
states and nation faced bankruptcy.
THE first plank of a political
platform today must be to give the
unemployed work and make them
self-supporting, he argued. why
is this not done? Why has not
every taxpayer demanded that the
destitute no longer shall be fed out
of the tax funds, but shall be set
to work raising their own food and
making their own shoes and cloth
ing and shelter?"
The answer, he told the group,
lay in the fact that "the system"
demands profits, and therefore the
state must buy these things for the
jobless or give them money with
which to buy them
Barter Is Basis
1--WE must summon the courage
to take the wild beast of greed by
the beard" he eXhorted. I'VE must
proclaim the right of all human
beings in this state to own and have
access to the land and the means
of production; the right to labor
and produce the necessities of ex-
istence for themselves and their
loved ones"
Whereupon he outlined the first
of his three attacks on poverty
state land colonies and production
plants, based on scrip and barter,
in which the million jobless could
toll and trade.
There would be set up three state
authorities. One would take over
tax-delinquent land or condemn
and buy other lands and set up
state-managed land colonies. These
colonies would provide adequate
housing and recreation and guar
antee comfort"
Another authority would take
over idle factories, plants, mills and
other production units to provide
jobs for city folks.
To finance these ventures third
authority on money would issue
scrip as a means of exchange among
the state workers and bonds to
finance the ventures. These bonds,
explained Sinclair, would be issued
in low-interest $40 denominations
and pass for state currency.
MY campaign for Office will be
crusade to persuade the people
to withdraw their savings from pri-
vate banks" he said, land turn
them over to the state to be used
for the development of state sys-
tenn of industrial production.
Lend your money to California
and not to the private bankers; let
your money work for you and not
against you. 1t would not be very
long, I think, before the private
bankers would be begging the state
to buy their beautiful marble palaces
at cost, and we should put an end
to the private control Of credit,
which is the tap-root Of our
troubles"
Next: Governor" Sinclair will