Evening star., 1939-09-24
Country's Middle Class Hopes
To Middle Through to Rights
Isolated Attacks Are Launched to Redeem Virtues
of the American SYSTEM but Cohesive
Program Proves Elusive
By Walter B. Pifkin,
By Walfer B. Pnkin,
Author Of Life Begins at Forty"

1.-THE country must join us in ar effort
to save Americas great middle class, now
threatened with destruction"
So spoke the minority House leader,
Representative Joseph w. Martin, jr., of
Massachusetts,, at the Maine rally on
August 26.
What did he mean? Who belongs to
the middle class? How is the middle
class threatened with destruction? If it
were destroyed, what would be the harm,
In the long run? Why all the pother?
Let's not call 1t the middle class. Peo-
pie resent that name. They tell me 1t
suggests that there are other classes
higher and better-and that's un-
American. All right! Away with the
odious phrase middle class!
Let's call it the muddle class.
Were all muddled. No mistake about
that" Men and women will tell you that
frankly when you ask what their trou
bles are and what they are going to do
about them. 1--WE don't know exactly
what's wrong. We don't know what to
do. We lack leaders and programs. We
must find ourselves.
What They Say.
Says an Indiana hardware dealer to
me: I'm less than half as well off as
10 years ago. But work just as hard as
used to. Everythings screwy."
Says young newspaper editor: Flor
ida's hitting new all-time low In both
business and government. Crooks pros.
per. Nobody else does. I'm fed up"
Says high school principal bitterly:
"I've been here in California 3O-odd
years. Everything's worse now than ever
and getting still worse day by day.
Says a Connecticut manufacturer:
"We've just Jailed gang of crooks who
stole more than a million from Water
bury. But there are just as many others
left. They suck us businessmen dry"
And so on, from Maine to California.
6hrieks and groans. Indignation meet
ings in back rooms. Whispering over
teacups.
Who are these people? How do they
happen to belong to the great muddle
class?
Well, you run into muddle the minute
you try to answer these questions. I've
run into it over and over again as talk
with the compliments.
Definition Challenged.
Out in the Ozarks sober citizens pro-
tested that took much too broad view
In defining what most people call the
middle classes had said that anybody
who believed in and tried to work toward
the basic American ideal of widespread
comfortable freedom had a right to be
counted as a member of the middle
classes. Then I added that a person
could live in minimum comfort on $500
year. So, it seemed to me- family
whose income exceeded that sum per
member surely had claim to member
ship.
But out in the Ozarks they said I was
wrong. They said that I should not in
clude all the more successful working
people, because the middle classes are
bourgeois They're little capitalists.
Shopkeepers, small-town bankers, land
owning farmers (but not tenant farm
ers). landlords in general
But most successful skilled workers in
America are little capitalists" I told
them. That's what makes us different
from every other large nation. These
workers are land owners. They own
their own city homes or suburban homes
or even small farms. They own stocks
and bonds, to some degree. What's more
to the point, they want to own more
property and to enjoy its profits. At
heart they aspire to become bigger and
better capitalists. The ruin they have
s>.A> Iz%>
dream at ALL
So there you are! See why call them
all the muddle class? They're muddled
over their own membership Muddled
everywhere.
Worse Muddle May Come.
Maybe you don't agree with my defini-
ton of our middle-o -the-road Ameri-
cans. Well, that makes us all little
more muddled, doesn't it? And you will
never understand today's terrible crisis
unless you accept this confusion of fact
and ideals and methods as the root of our
worst evils. These evils are converging
slowly in social revolution that will be
the worlds worst muddle, unless leaders
arise to clear mems minds before they
act too rashly.
Stripped of all detail, the Muddle Glass
is threatened with destruction in two
ways, from within and from without.
From within it is menaced by the COM
placency, ignorance, coWardice and lazi-
ness of its own members. From without
it is being looted by greater variety of
parasites, racketeers and plain criminals
than the world has ever before seen. But
the inner danger is vastly worse than the
outer. Parasites and predatory groups
seek the money of the American people.
Money is tangible Its effects are also
visible and feelable. Have money and
you wear silks Lack it and you wear
rags. Have money and you are free.
Lack it and you are slave. Hence the
victims of assault and fraud and sponging
detect and rebel against money losses
long before they understand the subtler
losses of personal freedom and the right
to progress.
This is why you find two kinds of move
ments starting among these millions of
outraged people. One kind centers effort
on ending loot and jailing looters. The
other kind strives rather vaguely (as
rule) to reach common, constructive
program which will revive prosperity and
insure freedom. The first movement is