The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1936-07-24
9I0IO SPEECH BY
NORMAN THOMAS
Blue Network of Ma
W., .,a.oI BrOadcasting Com
uO ~ Friday, July 10, at
EgIIl5yniight, Delivered From
New York City,

New YORK Oi''
the trnult and shouting
Denll nG1adrennnial POLITICAL cam
& our . gaTel are certain basic, abb
pdg .i ClS,lestions that we ought to
Ssf0ll I.;,, y They cannot be answer
b asn riyal professions of devotion
d By ~ li noble distractions as liber-
% ae1 dem democracy. Everybody
l md the the Liberty League, VIII
snoGpD, .ndplph Hearst, Roosevelt,
an ~. Robinson from Arkansas,
Ss1s, .uor McNutt, author of Ind
G'Vs r. military law-professes de-
ns q. N 70 liberty and democracy.
E9ao aars sS is: what kind of lib-
~ and whose liberty?
n.,4io. are means, not ends.
:. i 81 ysIue depends upon how they
iiIa MS to answer these insistent
Lev lss.oti ri Why, if the experts are
81 and we have the resources
~, sauipment to make $25OO a
~. ~ - > minimum for each worker
q he family, should farmers and
g y. ~ count themselves lucky TO
wage g- q thousand to twelve hun
100 WHY. with all our unsatis-
~. "a needs, should there be more
han Az eleven million unemployed?
INV should we be reducing crops
v %T the children of the share
~oDOers 90 in rags and suffer
S ANN nellagra, that unnecessary
S.ssse of malnutrition? If every
,.rtv loves liberty, why are Moo
~ and Billings still in Jail? Why
4 there a Black Legion, a revived
Ep Klux Klan in Florida, Vigilan-
), in California, peonage and ter
wrsn in Arkansas and Alabama?
WV is the effort to organize steel
workers a major social struggle?
L every party loves peace, why
d We spend billion dollars, more
han any nation in the world, on
our army and navy? What answer
have the parties?
We socialists have our answer. |
Ne ncite the grim facts of power
~ tyranny, and drift to war. We
say: It is not the Old Deal or the |
New Deal that has failed. 1t is |
the. system of which both are the
Expression. It is our social order, |
based on jingoistic nationalism and |
capitalism and the loyalties which |
% with them. Our escape from |
var and fascism depends upon our
building a new order, a world fed
Grafton Of cooperative common
Vealths.
How can we expect abunance
when We produce for the profit of |
owners Increasingly absentee own
sis-whose profit depends upon
relative scarcity? How can we ex-
Rd justice and liberty under a
system which rests upon exploit
Aa0l, a system where the few
own " that upon which the lives of
sl Of Us depend, and bv virtre of
.,.al largely control the
-s1ls OF communication, and the
a4ellnery of government /? How
..a we expect peace when each
t .ulon Is a law unit itself in an in
s Jpenae1t world, and rival capt.
an ~l% nations are driven to com
TsS !!q,thlessly for markets, raw
!, I ssr' and profits? The system
: n 1ppIOprlate to war, not peace.
n Va .i,. cannot escape collectivism
- ~ Independence in a machine
, M We can make collectivism CO.
n saS slSe For this end we Social
n :. this campaign. For this
p,si, "e encourage workers to or
h r. snelr unions and consum-
aeir party. -''iYeS' as well as
s5 ! I so.. s3ImIplify this answer by
l,tffoS specific references to our
slIs ~, q = 1895. But first let me
\ n 5,S oef Socialist position clearer
comparison with the posi- i