The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1935-10-18
NO MIDDLE GROIJM

NO MIDDLE GROUND
A couple OF weeks ago the Producers
news ran an editorial entitled LET Us
ace CIe dctS; Inc editorial commented
Oh oollIe u lie ,M1S-DeaFS promises and per-
LOI ilie1ltCGS WITHOUT Delng especially lauda-
VI u tIe SSlQ AuS-Deal or the Chief Mis-
D pea Our old friend Ross Shaver. who
81 cans nlInsen a Republican, ran all of
the editorial except the paracranb that
panned Hoover, in his Sweet CO NJ
under the following comment:
There is a wide spread in American
tnought, especially political thought.
Extremists seem to be the order of the
Gay, out surely there must be a middle
ground on which the nation can safely
stand. On the one side is the old
stand-pat group who fight all progress
slVe changes, and on the other the ul-
tId extremists who believe the entire
structure of government must fall or
the country go entirely to the dogs.
In the latter class an old time friend.
Jerome u. Locke, who is for time
plotting Red Flag TaylOr's paper. the
PRODUCERS News, at brentwood. We
nave always had a strong inclination
to like Jerry, but he must be classed as
an extremist. His line of thinking pro-
duced the following editorial, under the
above caption.
No, Ross, there is no middle ground.
BaSlcaIly, there are just two kinds of &C.
OnOmlc or business systems. In one the re-
Slurces and industries are owned bv indi-
vlduals- in the United States by a compar-
alive handful of individuals. who run the
system for their individual profit. no other
purpose. Witness the result all around YOU.
In the other kind of economic system the
resources and industries are owned by all
the people and run for all the people. with
out profit to handful of owners Produc-
ton Tor Use. In the first kind of q sys-
tenn ne who produces the least, or none at
all, gets the lions share of all they pro-
duce. In mass production, or machine age,
there IS almost no limit to what can be
produced.
1t makes no difference whether the pro-
ut system Is run by Democrats or Repub-
hcans, 1t must continue to concentrate the
wealth into fewer and fewer hands. In a
machine age, that requires great CORPORA
tons, like American Telephone and Tele-
graph, railroads, steel trust, Henry Ford
and hundred others, wealth cannot be re-
pile up into the ownership of the Morgans,
Melons and their gang. As it does. the
number of paupers increases, purchasing
power vanishes, the volume of production
Is further curtailed and times get harder
and harder.
As conditions darken and deepen in mis-
cry, mass discomfort grows, and then the
owners and rulers are obliged to clamp
down with more and more restriction of
liberty, less news of what is actually going
on, more hard-bOiled tactics to quell dis
turbances, less and less concessions to labor
anything to maintain their power and
wealth and curb the power of the masses
TO revolt. A continual drive toward fas-
cism (maSs slavery.
We are headed that way now and all the
constitutions we have are no protection.
They viii be scrapped entirely when Big
Business, and the old line parties owned
by it, are finally driven TO such an extrem-
ity. It has happened in half a dozen other
countries already-nOne with as much
wealth concentration as we have-and it
will finally happen here if we are so blind
and stupid as to insist on maintaining a
decaying profit system.
Wilson was elected on the slogan He
kept US out of war; and strapped the SlO-
gan in four months. He and his hackers
knew at the time the campaign buttons
were printed that they meant absolutely
nothing. The Republicans will campaign
next year on ''Save the Constitution" know
ing just as well that it means nothing.
Necessity knows no law-and no conSttu-
ton.
You can also be an extremist If you
choose; stick to the old order and 60 down
with the ship. / doubt that you viii.
ami going to be the kind of an extremist
that wants to do the plain common sense
thing. Take over the great resources and
industries Of this country and run them
without individual profit or ownership
Put all the able bodied to work; let them
produce the abundance that we can have
and consume it all
Increase education, not curtail it as youl
present system is doing. Give every youth
all the training he can absorb; teach his
tOrical truth, not Icing propaganda, IN tbs
schools and take full advantage OF invel-
ton and science. Cut out the most Of the
criminals and raeketeers by furnishing NJ
way in which they may ply their trades
Give the halt, the manned, the blind anC
the aged a taste Of Heaven on earth; We
can produce plenty to do it with Remove