Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-10-09
COUSIN HENRY, UNCLE JOE AND US

We art not of the crowd that is calling Henry A. Wallace a "com
nunst" just because he asks the American people to understand ana
sympathize with Russian viewpoints and detectives and to cooperate
economically with the Soviet Union.
Neither ar w ready to Join the chorus with those who r. caIIro
Wallace a "crackpot" There may be an outside chance that the former
vice-presdent whom F. D R. ditched either doesn't are about r ds
PAIRS 81 saving TIT prlVate-proflt economy and or political democracy
that have been part of the American way of life" If Cousin Henry
is indifferent about such matters he is not too inconsistent in urging
n a Uncle Joe be given his own way in Europe, Asia, Germany aa
Being Socialists, we don't want to save capitalism in this country
cerne about what h neon,e # The countrv 4 ahout thir own w." ~
nomy than with what Joe Stain does about the economy of other lands
Right now we ae thinking about the late Oscar Aner.nger, The
sometimes Socialist scribe who, during the course of World War L.
used to warn readers of the American Guardian" that the only victor
in the recent bloodlettng would be Uncle joe
We submit that present events in the capitalist world are proving
Ameringer to be a gifted prophet. And we now presume to carry on the
tradition of prophecy by telling our fellow Americans that, one way Or
another, the Soviet economy is going to be al important factor in the
disappearance of American capitalism.
So far Is Russia is concerned, capitalism is either going to find
liz with untenable IN world and lie a more-or-iess SLOW
death, or be a casualty in a war that may stop the advance of Russian
communism but that, in any event, will completely finish off all that
is left of freedom of enterprise everywhere in the world"
We have emphasized the above paragraph because it explains why
about conditions here at home than in what Henry Wallace II anybody
else thinks about Russia.
pensable to the freedom of the American people that they lose no time
WINGED that unless the people do that job with their economy the
present owners o n some other group will socialize and control them
in just IS absolute a degree a. the people of Russia have been socializd
and controlled.
We agree with Cousin Henry"-but perhaps for a different reason
That is a fear that the pocy-makers of capitalism have fostered in
American minds. Those policy-makers themselves are desperately
the IN important domestic job that the Russian commies have done
by force and maintained by dictatorship-namey, abolish the old
system of human exploitation.
We want to abolish that system and we want to socialize the
ownership of capital. But there, of course, we diverge from the Russian
way OF Life We don't want to do it by force. We don't want it to come
as result Of economic and social collapse. We don't want a collective
economy to be maintained by dictatorship ~t,f f|,'t.
1t is because w e want a democratic colIectivism that W stress the
importance of a changeover here at home - NOW AND BY THE
We're anxious about that. For we're pretty certain that historical
development isn't going to be halted by the propaganda of proftees
or by the inaction Of the people. The best thing we can get from Russia
is the lesson that nation teaches-viz that were going to collective
much time left to make. our choice. Reading Labor Advocate