The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1946-07-26

| the cream-soil from the farms from
| the basin states. This upholstering eS
| tends, fanned-shaped, for fifty mile
, or more, out into the gulf Ever
islands have been formed and people
following their precious soil, are try
ing to farm them.
If work" was what we wanted
(since work is all our primitive mine
can grasp, this soil could be brough
back to the red ribs of the washed-ou
farms. An army of dredges, flee
of scows and coveys of spreaders ant
millions of men could be employed
for years scooping up and bringing
back and spreading out that rich sill
to the farms from which it came-be
cause of ignorance and greed. Drive
along the Mississippi from Bator
Rouge to New Orleans and you will
rarely ever see the river, though il
may not be hundred yards away
But you will see a long, low hill and
you will wonder. Get out of your car
and climb that hill and you will see
the Mississippi river flowing along a
hundred feet above the level, above
the original bed. It's bed and banks
are composed of soil from millions OF
farms hundreds, maybe thousands, OF
miles up the river and its tributaries
Task Only Started
And yet the bulging-brows will tell
us there's no work to do. And iva,
Grand Coulee, Shasta and Boulder
dams are only pin-pricks on the sur
face of the Herculean task that is
screaming for attention.
All the streams in the Great Basin,
the Columbia basin, the Yellowstone,
under mans control, the water flow
regulated used to power industry, for
irrigation, impounded as seed mois-
ture in arid regions. Hydroelectric
plants should dot the banks and trans
mission lines enclose the country like
a net. Public refrigeration plants
should be located in every community
to preserve food.
1t is estimated that, at the infinit-
esimal cost Gas expenditures go these
days. of three billion dollars (about
the price of one little atomic bomb)
six millions acres of now arid land
could be brought under cultivation in
the West and midwest, thus raising
the income of IL states from Is billion
to 80 billion dollars annually.
All this and more is physically feas-
able. What is physically feasible can
be made financially possible. The
mammnth war machine lie, the me-
chanics of it, is yet geared and ready.
1t needs only to be manned, powered
and put in reverse-constructio in
stead of destruction. And yet we are
told by the backward thinkers that
the work is all done, the pioneering
all over, whereas we haven't cleared
the underbrush.
And this is only a worm's-e view
Of the job before us. The eagles eye
can see more This would be merely
mounting the foothills approaching
the high plateau ahead. The recon
struction (of a world in decay and
ruins) and the new construction, the
greater utilization of the now-known
potentialities of the earth, sea and
sky, is only a prelude to the great
symphony of the ''long reaches" of
the scientific songs and chronological
crescendos that should lure us on and
up.
A really new, and hitherto I'M
touched world is before us, reaching
out hands laden with fruits of the
1iro oil Of coinnan-ond col (nnT'f
forget that sense). The tens of mil
lions of people in all lands are our
customers-if we are theirs. Their
as well as our own chasm
of emptiness, passes all present
human comprehension. We boast of
our comparatively high living STAN
dard, whereas half our population is |
sub-half-standard.
The masses of human being in the |
world are the foundation stones of a |
civilized civilization. They must be |
cemented together in mutual serv-
ice and enjoyment or the structure,
collapse. Full productive employment |
full capacity (some peoples capacity |
for enjoyment is greater than others) |
enjoyment is the answer. Idle men |
means rotting fruit in the west, over |
stocked dairy farms in the north, sur
plus cotton in the south, low prices in |
Twoa, silent factories all over the land |
hence bankruptcies and doldrum-ed |
business everywhere, hence more wars |
and more waste.
Consumption is the water that will |
turn the wheel. The people, all the |
people, must have the means to buy. |
To this there will needs be social her
itage dividends for the aged and other
The more they con-
sumo the better for all. We must not
permit the nostalgia 1ongings for the
good old days" to keep us plodding
along the calfpath of scarcity. We
cannot use yesterday and the day
before as models.
Must Break BottIeneck
Production must not be strangled in
he CONSTRUCTED bottleneck of under
eeded-consumption. We must break
he bottleneck (by abolishing low in
,omes) of consumption and production
will respond. The dear (damned) old
yobbly, propped-up, even government
spanked capitalist system cannot do
hat. 1t isn't over-production that stops
when people are in need;
is underconsumption. People must be
lble to consume, not only the elemen-
airy necessities of life, but also lux
lries
In other words there will have to be
! cooperative society, not only locally,
tut nationally and internationally. The