The Omaha guide., 1945-09-29
E#0nN - by ERIC HASS
j. cA@s u. WEEKLY PEOPLE
@@ASa~~

Reading w. Z. B. Dubois 'COlor and Democ-
racy" was for me a tantalizing experience. The
volume traces each Of the viciOusly barbed branches
In which mankind is trapper back to a single root.
The monstrous crimes of colonial oppression, in
spired racism, planned ignorance, unnecessary pow
erty and the scourge of war are shown to be cOnse-
quences of a social order in which ruling class ma
terlal interests and competitive forces reign SUI
preme. 1t eXaltS democracy and 1.-THE unlOOSing OF
the energies and the capabilities Of the depressed
1t raises to first Importance the need for industrial
democracy, the need, that is, for a set-up in which
the actual worker has a voice in the organization
and conduct of industry. 1t carries the reader to
the very bring Of the solution then turns him a
bout, as though in a game Of blindman's buff, and
marches him back into the brambles.
Dubois studied effort to disavow a revoluntary
solution to the great questions confronting man
kind often comes dangerously near intellectual
s%nobbery. The conclusions he adduces concerning
the c%apability of capitalism, he says, ARE not the
ranting Of revolutionists, - but the clear conclusions
Of reasonable men," But are the same conclusions,
when reached by revOlutiOnists-that is, by men
who seek a fundamental social organization.
"ranting''? Would they be less reasonable from
the lips OF a MarXist than from the lips Of DR.. Du-
Bots reasonable men,?
. DIR. Dubois is a distinguished scholar. AS such
he. is teTnally engaged in accommodating facts and
evidence and complaining that facts and evidence
thus far accumulated are "incomplete." But, in
the field Of social science, facts and evidence are
ineXhauStible. They can never be complete in the
sense that no more corrObOrative evidence is left
to unearth. And meanwhile historic forces move
at an increasingly rapid tempo. They refuse to
wait upon the scholar while he a~nnotates his find
ings with new statistics.
/ do not wish to be misunderstood. | believe the
research worker and scholar performs a vital role,
and that facts, facts and more facts strengthen the
cause OF social and human emancipation. But /
also believe that when you see the head of a rat
peeping out of one hole and the tail Of a rat stick
ing out Of another some eightinches away, you can
safely conclude that the body of the rat is between.
And you can act on this conclusion.
There is more evidence Of the cukpability of cap
italism to be gathered by scholars. But that which
we now have at hand, indeed, that which DR.. Du-
Bots has adduced in "Color and Democracy, suf-
fices to convince any reasonable person that colon
ialism, racism, war and class oppression are inner
ent in a system where a numerically small class
mOnopOlizes the means of production. It follows
logically, therefore, that, to abolish these evils, the
system of class rule must be uprooted. In effect,
DR.. Dubois rejects this logic by pleading again for
reliance on the very Instruments which have betray
ed us in the past-world organization, and increas-
ing measure of State control, etc, etc.
DR.. Dubois, has, / think, performed a meritoriOus
service in stressing the war-breeding nature of col
onial Imperialism. But colonial imperialism, as
Lenin demonstrated, is a consequence of capitalist
concentration. 1t is not a question that can be
solved within the capitalist system, and to assert
that it can is to put the cart before the horse. The
oppressed colonial slaves of the world may help to
strike the blow that will ultimately set them free.
Indeed, I hope so, But that blow will fall, when it
falls, not in the colonies, but in the great capitalist
nations themselves. And the hand that will cut
the Gordian knot will be the hand of an enlightened
and united working class aiming for its own eman-
cipation from wage slavery.