The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-05-13

come to mean more than men.
 There is only one fly in the oint- ment of profit greed, and it's a big one. It is this, machines have no purchasing power, and sooner or later, the mountains of cornno- dities which they have produced cannot all be bought back. So the machines stop and are overhauled, while the men that have attended them, also stop working, and stop buying. Some call this overproduc- tion and others call it under-con- sumption. They are both horses of the same color. Inability to con- sume (under consumption causes surplus of commodities (over-pro- duction). We play with words, and the devil plays with fur economic and social stability.
 The evil of machines, so called, under our present economic sys- tenn, has been recognized, and there has grown a school of near-econo- mists advocating both the reduction and efficienc yof machines. Eco nomists of that school are in the saddle at the present time in Wash ington, and what a ride they are giving us in their attempt to create an artificial scarcity. Crops have been plowed under, breeding stock slaughtered, machines silenced, and the public debt soaring. We are on a spending spree that would make the prodical son look like a piker. And to what end? We still have so many unemployed that our Federal Government is afraid to count the noses.
 often wonder if there isn't some connection between our national mess and the presidential fishing parties. It is significant, it seems to me, that both Trynothing Hoover and Tryeverything Roosevelt, our two depression presidents, are ac- complished fishermen. Some imp has whispered to me, that they don't go fishing so much for the sport and the fish than for the in spiration that they get out of 1t. The fish, being possibly one of the most gullible animals, probably helps them to reaffirm their waning faith in the gullibility of a large number of the American public.
 An example of this gullibility, even among politicians, was evil denced when city council of large municipality considered the discontinuance of the use of snow removing machines so that lot of men could be put to work with shovels removing snow. The scheme was acclaimed with great enthusi- asm until some newspaper wit went one better, and suggested in his col umn, that the men shouldn't be equipped with such modern things as shovels, but instead, that they should be equipped with soup spoons, thus giving employment to many more men. The joke carried the day, so the snow removing ma chimes were used, and the men, the shovels, and the spoons were un- used.
 Machines are fine things, and the work of the world could become child's play if they were used pro- perly. All this should lead us to be- iieve that an adjustment between machines and man power has ne- come an economic necessity. It IS quite possible that in the near fu- tire the stress will be on produc- tion for use instead of production for nrofit. I realize that some of our grinding accredited college economists will frown upon such a scheme, claiming that 1t will inter- fere with the initiative of dogs fighting over the same bone, but l think that we can safely assure them that under this system of pro- duction and distribution there will be a bone for every dog and some left over.
 I reluctantly gaze into the past and conjure the figure of a man who advocated such a system of economy, Karl Marx. It seems to me that Marx would have accom- plished much more without his whiskers. The timid souls, and these are in the majority, never took to him or his philosophy be- cause of his whiskers. They sus- pected that something evil was lurking back of those whiskers. Psy- chologistS of the conservative school have capitalized heavily on those whiskers by representing radicals, both in cartoons and writings, as he. .uhiskered individuals. It is my