The Clinton chronicle. (Clinton, S.C.) 1901-current, August 21, 1947, Image 9
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If You Don't Read t
THE CHRONICLE
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Volume XLVII
Clinton, S. C, Thursday, August 21, 1947
Number 34
Where Karl Marx Went W rong
Address by the HON* SAMUEL B. PETTENGILL
Former Confrn—mm from Indiana (Democrat, 19S0-S8)
Now that the whole nation is talk
ing about the communist threat to
the country—at home and abroad—
it seems a good time to ask what is
really wrong with Marxism.
It was mnety-nine years ago that
Marx and Engels wrote the Ccma-
munist Manifesto which began witn"
the words, “A spectre is haunting
Europe, the spectre of Communism. ’
This sounds* like today’s newspaper.
That was the year before gold was
discovered in California—before the
covered wagon began to roll across
the plains. Please keep this date in
mind. It is significant to what I
shall say. „
A little later,' Marx, in London,
y/jote Das Kapital, the Bible of the
communists and socialists. As a re
porter, Marx, was accurate. The
conditions of the workers in Eng
land a century ago, as he-points out,
were very grim. Women pulled ca
nal boats along the tow-path with
ropes over their shoulders. Women
were harnessed, like beasts of bur,
den, to cars pulling coal out of Brit
ish mines. In the textile mills, child
ren began to work when they were
nine or ten years old, and worked
twelve to fifteen hours k day. It is
said that the be£s in which they
slept never got cold, as one shift;
took the filace of the other. It was
said that they were “machines by
day and beasts,by night.” Tuber
culosis and other occtipational dis
eases killed them off like flies.
Conditions were terrible. Not only
Marx,, but other warm-hearted men,
such as Charles Dickens, Ruskin and
Carlyle poured out a literature of
protest which was read around the
world.
On his facts, Marx can scarcely
be challenged. But his diagnosis
was wrong and, therefore, the rem
edy he prescribed was wrong also.
Preached Gospel of Hate
Marx said these terrible conditions
were due to greed, exploitation, the
theft by the owners of the mines and
There must be laws requiring the in-1 plant diseases, and cheap transpor-
spection of milk and meat. There j tation. American wheat now feeds
must, be laws for honest Weights and pillions today in the Europe that is
been re-distributed to the workers,
it would have relieved their condi-'xnent
tion but slightly, and for but a little
time.
So, the class struggle, as the rem
edy for these conditions, was wrong.
What was wrong? What was the
real trouble?
Low Productivity At Fault
It was. the low productivity of the
workers. And, as the workers can
be paid out of production—whether
in England a century ago, or in Rus
sia today—wages must be low and
i hours of work long when produc
tion is low. -
Production was low because tools
and equipment were poor, because
human backs-had to do what slaves
of iron and steel do today here in
America, because capital had not
been accumulated to buy better tools,
because freedom had so recently e-
merged from centuries of feudalism
that the inventors and scientists and
businessmen had not had a chance
measures. Otherwise, some men
would risk death to human beings
to make a greater profit.
I do not disparage such legisla
tion at all. I endorse it as part of
the responsibility of modern govern-
adopting the philosophy of Karl
Marx!
Aluminum was so expensive in
1870 that Napoleon the Third, of
France, had an aluminum table set
for state dinners, more valuable than
mei). In union there is strength. In
harmony there is hope. Cooperation
inventor and investor, and manager
and the worker with his “know how.”
The answer is to substitute slaves ofjj S Uncle Sam's middle name!
iron and steel for the strength ofj
human backs. The answer is consti
tutional liberty, which sets men free|
and says that what any man honest
ly makes is his “to have and to hold.” j
Wages can be paid only out of thej
product, and the larger the produc
tion, the higher the wage. The more
is put to work, the less children and
women and men have to work at
killing toil. ^
Let’s not divide mankind today in
the struggle of classes. Let’s unite
mills of the “aurplus valua” pro- and the Fords.
duced by the workers. That was his
diagnosis and therefore his remedy
wals to preach the gospel of hate,
of the class struggle, of the re-dis-
bution of wealth, of the confiscation
of property, and its ownership and
management by the State, which ak
ways means the politicians.
Now if that diagnosis and remedy
to, dream and to plan. They have
ha<^ that chance today here in Amer
ica.
Listen. In 1940, before war in
creased our production, it was es-
tirtiated that electric power alone in
this coi^ntry was performing work
equal to the labor of half a billion
men — 500,000,000 men — working
eight hours a day. This is equal to
nearly ten times the total human
labor force employed in America and
fifty times the number employed in
manufacturing. And that leaves out
steam power and gasoline' power and
wiridmill power with their tremend
ous contribution for increasing the
productivity of workers and lifting
burdens from, human backs.
Is it any wonder that America out
produced the world in this last war!
That wages are higher here than
anywhere in the world!
gold. Today, aluminum is found in
I simply point out that if modern. the American kitchen. ; ... . • , . . ir , >,- rc ._ rtU . Ar
America were to go back to the same! N°> my friends, Karl Marx did notj ^ . .. . .
tool, and horsepower that we had!h*ve the answer. He lifted no bur. and equ.pment, the more cap,tal that
when Benjamin Franklin was trying dens from human backs. The answer
to capture lighting from the sky, our; ** * re€ enterprise, kept competi-
production of wealth would at once! by anti-trust and other laws. The
go down 90 per cent, wages would enswer is not in the class struggle,
go down in proportion, hours of la- [ The answer is in the cooperation of
bor would increase to the limit of i 1 —
human endurance, and nothing that
government, or humanitarians, or la-
bor unions, or Karl Marx could do “
would prevent it.
I mentioned the discovery of gold
in California in conpection with the
Communist Manifesto of 1848..
Lacked Proper Tools
With pick and shovel and the pan*
with which men washed gravel from
gold, didn’t men work long hours;
then for a meager return, or none?, I
Didn’t they sleep in filthy cabins,!
Tire Recapping.
Battery Charging. ^
Firestone Batteries.
Radiator Boiling.
Car and Truck Repairing.
TIMMERMAN
MOTOR CO.
Phone 119 Gary St.
of hate and the class struggle, Amer
ica gave the green light to the Edi-
sons, the Whitneys,, the Burbanks
James Watt, the inventor of the
steam engine} which revolutionized
the modern world, and those who
followed him in the competitive
struggle to make a better engine and
sell it for less, did more to take wom
en o t uofthe coal mines, and off the
tow-paths of the Canals boats, more
to take children out of the factories,
live on jerked meat, and weren’t they
often covered with lice?
v If you saw that great motion pic
ture, T’he Covered Wagon,” you will
recall the scenes of terrible toil, of
men and women and children pull
ing the wagons across rivers, and
the trackless desert, and over the
Continental Divide. Families, on
foot, pushed hand carts from the
Mississippi to Salt Lake.
Yet were those conditions due to
greed and exploitation? No,. they
were working for themselves. What
was wrong? Poor tools. The plow
of the pioneer was a wooden plow
constantly breaking, constantly need
ling repairs. In a newspaper yester
day, I saw a picture of a wooden
plow used in Greece today.
Up in Vermont where I was raised,
on land then worth $2.00 an acre, a
mpn back in my great-grandfather’s
time, dug some iron ore out of a hill.
He put 100 pounds in a bag on his
DiximaiD is Better
Made From Ripe
S. C. PEACHES
Enjoy fresh, tree-ripened South CaroHna Peaches
at their%est . . . enjoy them blended with the smooth
delicious goodness of DiximaiD Ice Cream. Ask your
dealer today for DiximaiD Peach Ice Cream! -
While Marx preached the gospel back and walked 80 miles through
the wilderness tp sell it to an iron
foundry in Troy, N. Y., and then
walked home. An infinite expendi
ture of human energyfer to insigni
ficant return.
What was wrong? Greed? Exploi
tation? The class struggle? No. He
was working for himself. There was
no relationship of employer and em
ployee. No one was stealing the
“surplus product” of his labor. He
got all of it—and it was little indeed.
IXIMAI
ICE CREAM
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AT ALL DIXIMAID DEALERS
A
*1 DiximaiD is Better Made
. ... i What was wrong? Why did he
were, and still are, in the main, cor-; than all the socialists and commu- ; have to work so hard for so little 9
rect, we have no business fighting; nists and politicians of the world | tools. Today the steam engine, in
communism—either in Greece or in combined
the United States. We should ad-; Capitalist Helped Watt
vocate it. It becomes mighty im-1 Yet Watt would be an unknown
portant to ask whether they were name today it one of these despised
correct. I capitalists, a man named Matthew
The diagnosis of Marx was partly; Boulton, had not risked $150,000 on ! have solved his problem
correct. “Man’s inhumanity to man” i jjVatf’s invention. Would he, by the {do jt
has always been a factor in human j way, have dared to take that risk
affairs. Greed can never be defend- i under today’s taxation?
ed whether in business or govern
ment. Sympathy for the under-dog
will always have its work to do. Al
ways, certainly, in Communist Rus
sia—with its forced labor camps and
human slavery.
Greed and exploitation are not
cured by socialism. Stalin and Mol
otov live like oriental potentates with
State dinners that would make Nero
and Caligula green- with envy. All legislation has its place. There
One measure of the progress of
civilization is the mechanical horse
power and tools which supplement
human labor. The steam engine diet
more to outlaw slavery, both in
England and America, than all the
political humanitarians put together.
The laboratories do more for man
kind than the legislatures.
Please understand me. Welfare
the form of the modern locomotive,
could move his 100 pounds of iron
ore .80 miles for 4c—or a ton, one
mile, for 1c! Railroads, paved high
ways, motor trucks and automobiles
and will
to
laws requiring safety
in coal mines—and
ap-
this, in the name of the flowntrod- must be
en proletariat! pliances
But greed was not the main rea- should be enforced, whether private
son for the conditions which Marx | owners or the government runs them
described. If all th«i Nyeplth the, There must be laws requiring fire-
owners of the mines ahd ^wUsihad escapes from factories and hotels
Go To Church
Sunday Morning
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COOPER'S TAXIS will take you
and your family to church every Sun
day (inside of city limits, including
State Training School and Lydia Mill.)
FREE
CALL - 180 - CALL
t—-
Cooper Cab Co.
All Cabs Insured for Your Protection
Lewis Cooper, Owner
even better in the days
come, if we stay American.
Let us say that James Watt, and;
the man who financed him, were i
not humanitarians. Let us say they
put their brains and money together
in a common enterprise for the prof- j
it motive. What of it? Was the re- i
suit good or bad? Did they take the!
women out of the coal mines, or did]
Karl Marx with his gospel of hate:
and the class struggle?
What did the profit motive do?.
It made Watt and his partner, and
all who followed them, work to rnakfe*
they better' engines and offer them at a
lower price to get the market from
their competitors.
Was the result good or bad? The'
profit motive is just as honorable
and useful to mankind as the wage!
motive. Both can be pushed to ex
cess. But, both do infinite good.
The wage motive prompfcs men to
become skilled and‘ efficient so they
can produce more and earn more,
and because they do, all of mankind
benefits.
Tht profit motive prompts men to
make belter^ tools, to cut costs, to
sell cheaper and again 'all of man
kind benefits.
The radio, that sold only 25 years
ago for $300, now sells for $30, or
less, and a better radio.
Competitive Effort Needed
Has the result of the competitive
struggle in the world of radio been
good or had? The result has been;
good—humanitarian, if you please. |
It brings the news of the world,
good music, and'discussion of public!
affairs to the remotest farmhouse,
to people on thejr sick beds. It was
not many centuries ago when star
vation was a common occurence, ev
en where 90 per cent of the people
lived on land—even in England.
Was the conquest of starvation a
humanitarian thing? What con-;
quered it? Who conquered it? Karl
Marx? No.
The time in the' field ( required to
raise a bushel of wheatjlh America
has gone down from 60 hours of hu-
man labor in 1830 to 2 hours or less
in 1930. What did it? The steel plow,
the tractor, the harvester, better
seed, the conquest of insects and
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