The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-04-30
A Thread of
Understanding
BY MOLLY PITCHER

By now it Is an accepted common
place which even the most bourgeois
economists admit, that capitalism is
subject to periods of crisis during
which unemployment, dependency
and chaos reach especial heights. And
even to the most innocent it is ap-
parent by now that each succeeding
crisis comes sooner and lasts longer
than the one before. Now, it would
seem, we have reached the period of
equilibrium: perpetual crisis.
With callous objectivity, Wall
! Street economists have hailed with
glee the apparent boom of new in
dustry, war industry" they call it.
Herein they have hoped to force those
profits which naturally accrue from
the application of men to machines
under capitalism. Hereby, they have
thought, the blot of unemployment
can be erased from the fair escutch-
con of plutocratic rule. War, like
false patriotism, becomes the last ref
uge of the scoundrels.
Well, the profits have and are ac-
cruing, fast and thick. But unemploy-
ment is still rife. chronological adj
vances every day eliminate thousands
of men who will never again be
needed. Conservative government
estimates predict that even at the
height of war prosperity at least
seven million men will find no place
in the industrial machine, and more
and more farmers will be uprooted
from their little places to make way
for profitable corporation farming.
Nazi Germany found way to end
unemployment: smash labor unions
and make every man a slave to the
state at crust-a-day wages. American
workers are on their guard
But the unemployed, the upright,
fine American citizens fretting and
chatting under prolonged idleness,
what of them? Eager for a chance to
earn a meagre living, they follow the
will-o-wisp of war work" promises
Here is an excerpt from the letter
of a New York building-trades work
er: "Since there is nothing in New
myself 270 miles up to Portsmouth
N. H. All along the way, the towns
like Newport, Providence, Boston,
Portsmouth, are literally seething |
with activity; men are coming into |
the towns by the thousands. There |
are no facilities for living, and the
conditions are generally dreadful; |
hours of work are long and wages
small, and with everything considered |
you wonder why you left home for all
this After working about two weeks,
laying cement blocks in mud up to
my ankles, sleeping in bed too short
for my long legs, eating food that was
an insult to my stomach, | was laid
off Most of this defense work, you
know, is not in the way of permanent
structures. There is work for car
penters and electricians and plumb
consists mostly of prefabricated or
wooden structures. In Portsmouth,
however, due to the climate, they ;
we're putting up homes with cement
)ases. These homes are thrown up
o provide quarters for the many who s
lave migrated there to work in the
hipyards, submarine bases, airplane
,ases, bombsight factories, etc."
While this mans experience is typ !,
CAL he at least has a home and an
employed wife to return to. But
over the nation whole !
antilles are camping and tenting out,
Waiting for jobs that never materi-
lie or end abruptly after a few beg t
.arly weeks. t
Even that last resort, war, has (
allied to jack capitalism even tenn /
orarily out of it's last crisis. Ii