The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1946-11-15

out the country, thus saving long dis
lance freight hauls on raw material.
and finished products forth and back
II millers and packers refused tt
serve for a scientifically determined
lcost plus an open-not hidden, pad
lded profit = reasonable profit - then
condemn them under the power of EN-
inant domain as public nuisances and
take them over" as matter of public
policy.
Economy of Abundance
And don't worry about "black mark
cts" Such things flourish under mono
poly and scarcity. Under this plan
there would be no scarcity. The as
sured incentive of certain profit for
primary producers, with no danger of
soaring prices one day and plunging
prices the next, would guarantee cap
acity production at all times. A farmer
would not read the market page in the
evening then start to town the next
morning only to find the market glut-
ted and prices plummenting when he
arrived. Thus, such plan would,
even in that unsocialized sector of our
economy (farming) be much safer
than gambling on the cratic spiralfng
and plunging that characterizes our
present marketing system.
What this adds up to is that mans
pantry would be his castle No mono
poly-swine would be permitted to get
its snout into it. Food, the essential
foods for good nutrition, would be al
most as free from monopoly manipula-
ton as air. 1t could not be cornered
by heartless monsters while people
starve for remember that dealers do
not sell food to supply human needs
but to make money. If you've got the |
price you can take it, if not, you can |
leave it, even if your children starye
for milk.
| realize the plan is defective. 1t
does not go to the root of production,
to the source of supply, but considera-
ion is given to the millions of highly
ndiyidualized, capitalistic minded
armers who are not yet ready for soci-
alism. But they will be ready for it
when we have world overproduction
md prices hit the skids. Also no pro-
vision is made by which all persons
AN earn even the small amount re-
uired to buy food, under such a plan. s
But neither does the present system S
make any such provisions. {
A "Patch Test"
This, however, is not intended to be
he final answer. 1t is a mere test-a {
atch test, if you please. But it would S
o long way towards answering the
entury-old question-will socialism r
Tork? And even half loaf yes the a
heel' of loaf, would be better than t
O loaf Even one camel's nose in the S
9nt-door would be better than whole t
erd of camels, hogs, dogs and lions
the tent
However if, after a fair and honest h
'ial, it was not satisfactory, if the V
asses rose up and demanded the re-
I'm to private monopoly of food, arti- s.
cial scarcities and the ever present a
abnormal granary, the dangers of =
ALTERATIONS and the weighing of the
ltcher's thumb (Which one pays for
1T never gets) it would be quite easy
abandon the test. We would, how II
rer,. by actual demonstration have g.
oven the falsity or correctness of the II
aims of dreamers, crackpots and y
ideals. Also it might put stop to et
UGH of the underground uprisings, p
IRENE leftisms, proletarianisms, all 70
which are striving for solution to In
e problem of eating. sa
Why don't you opposers of change OF
We us a demonstration? Are you 81
raid we'd like it? We challenge you,
fly you, dare you to make the test us
prove by demonstration that Right he
right and Left is wrong? he