The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1952-08-15
(By IRVING BRANT
In Cong. Record, July 7, 1852

In Cong. Record, July 7, 1852
The author, Irving Brant, is wei
known for his definitive biography Of
James Madison. The article is revised
from remarks delivered at the Public
Affairs Institute of the University
of Virginia and appeared in the New
Republic of July Z:
Along with the United States
Chamber of Commerce, the American
Medical Association, Senator Harry
Byrd, Democrat, of Virginia, Gen
eral Eisenhower, and the Chicago
Tribune, | wish to record my solemn
warning against the insidious spread
of socialism in the United States.
am particularly fearful of the doc
trines of the Ohio Socialist, Robert A.
Taft.
| must add at once, however, that
among my theological comrades | also
have my doubts about Dwight ID.
Eisenhower. He has not succumbed to
the public-housing heresy of Senator
Taft, but he has rendered himself
suspect by declaring in favor of Fed
eral pump printing in periods of de-
preston. Pump printing is socialism
Under the American way of life, you
don't prime a dry pump. You just
keep pumping, as newspaper cores
pondents do at a White House press
conference.
In basic strategy Mr.. Eisenhower
displays the soundness one might ex-
pect in a five-star general. 1t is ele-
mental that you cannot put socialism
into effect without vast array of
people in Government service, and
you cannot keep them in service with
out paying them. Nobody except cor
poration executives will work for the
Government for nothing, from pure
love of country. So, if Congress, out
of fear of the people, is unwilling to
take a stand against socialistic legis-
lation, it need only abolish all APP
preparations and socialism will vanish.
IKE SHOULD CONSULT PEABODY
On this subject Mr.. Eisenhower is
fortnight even if he does not go
far enough. He visualiZes some day
of cutting of the Federal budget from
$4,000, 100000 down to $30,000,-
100000 a year. But he has not ade-
quately portrayed the monstrous evil
that has grown up among us. SO
commend to Mr.. Eisenhower ex-rep-
resentative Peabody, of New Hamp
shire, who has dealt with these Social
list hordes. He called on Congress to
free the public from the intolerable
burden they have for a long time
been grooming and Travelling under
-. in supporting legions of sine
cures who appear in swarms like To-
Gusts, upon the land of Egypt, and :.
are . rioting upon the blood and
treasures of the virtuous citizens (if
any such there be- in these United
States . There is not moment to
be lost in retrenching expenditures"
If Mr.. Eisenhower or any other of
my colleagues in the fight against on
socialism desires to reproduce
Representative Peabody's speech in
full, it was delivered on March 10,
178.
Our descent into socialism began
earlier than is supposed by most
political orators, editors, and doc
tors of philosophy. To put the mat
ter in proper perspective, | pro-
pose to give short history of
American socialism, with special
reference to the origin and early
development of the evil.
Socialism was introduced n o
America with the invention of the
Stakhanovite system in 1854. | am
aware that the Russians claim to have
invented this system, but they claim
everything. Under the Stakhanovite
system, employees of the state are paid
or piecework-a a rate which adj
,ances in geometrical instead of arith-
netical ratio to production. An or
linary bricklayer is paid, say 400 .
ubles a month. A Stakhanovite, lay
ng two or three times as many bricks,
S likely to make 2,400 rubles a
month, or six times as much. That
ystem was invented in Virginia. The
irst Stakhanovite was George Wash /;
ngton, who received bounty of 49,
100 acres of public land for enlisting
n the French and Indian War. The
,rivate soldier, the non-Stakhanovite, y
eceived 400 acres, which would more L
han satisfy the average American So l
ialist today.
The American Revolution gave
titanic forward impulse to socialism,
,artly out of military urgency, partly
S an automatic reaction to the es- y
ablishment of nationhood. Because
benjamin Franklin put out an aim
mac with some pious adages in it .