Part V of VI
The Truth & Its Consequences
Allow US to repeat & recall that none of the great
industrialists ever seriously tried, to create an ever larger Middle Class with
sufficient income for spending which would assure the best, most assured &
lastingly – healthy economy which would also make the rich richer without
depriving the majority. That optimum
condition would remove any fear of a catastrophic end of our democracy, our
capitalism & our Nation.
I repeat: It was Labor alone & by itself which made the
Only working men put their lives, the life of their family
& the Life of the Land at risk to our Nation. With a little but decent give & take
& greater real democracy, we can revive this kind of privileged economy to
make it real for US All, for our admirers & for our deadly foes too. Let all the antiquated Muslim Arabs know this
Fact of Life, Livelihood & Love of Humanity.
Lies cover up history’s great disappearing acts. Greater lies lie entombed before rectified by
historians. Who & what made the
Sure most of the world’s greatest invented for US alone
what made many of them rich & socially, economically & political riding
on the high horse. Certainly the factory
constructors, the railroad entrepreneurs, the mining undertakers, canal
builders & ship owners created hundreds of millions for themselves &
some of them their billions. But they
all hated to pay their work-slaves a living wage. They rather employed their children to enrich
themselves even more & also enjoy their tiny workforce as sexual objects
while fathers often remained unemployed or even abused in workhouses,
church-almhouses or debtors’ prisons.
After too much sinning against their people of the lower
class, some of the worst characters had enough control over the federal
government, to do a few good things which helped many to survive peacetime.
But the workers’ union bashing, murdering organizers,
jailing identified unionists, mauling & killing them by paid hoodlums like
Pinkerton Guards, state militias of the middle – classmen & even the
Federal Army until the worst labor & labor union hater, Henry Ford, had
problems keeping in step with General Motors & all the other daring
investors in the motor car phase of our civilization.
Ford would have been the last to recognize a union or allow
them to organize Labor for greater impact on their work. When he paid $5 a day while his wealthiest competition
got away with $1 as the day’s reward for 12 – 16 hours of hard labor, he meant
all his workers to be able to buy a car of his own handiwork. The gimmick worked. Henry got richer faster. His employee could almost make a living, have
his family fed & live in cheap company housing. That led to more massive mass production,
more spending, with the entire economy off to a better restart, when even the
shopkeepers had no middle class income & allures yet.
Sidney Hillman (1887 – 1946) arrived from
An enemy of the sweatshops with long working hours on 6
days at low pay, he agitated for the 40 – hr week & for a generally
accepted & publicized minimum wage scale. F.D.R.’s New Deal hired him as labor counselor
for the “National Recovery Act”.
After W.W. II he helped found the CIO, “Congress of
Industrial Relations”, while it antagonized the less radical AFL, “Am. Fed. of
Labor”, as being too tame. Shortly
after, he helped to give birth to the “World Federation of Trade Unions”. He died a sudden death. Where are you now that the weak
George Meany (1894 – 1980) wasn’t far behind as the more
radical successor of Samuel Gompers (1850 – 1924) whose British lay – back, unpolitical
labor love made him a cigar maker in
President of the AFL for 37 years long years, in W.W. I
& its peace, he was more an American patriot than a warrior for Labor
rights. Meany was slightly moving the
movement to the center & when uniting with the C.I.O. (Congress of
Industrial Organizations), he was also demanding better pay, also health &
retirement to be added for the good of still underpaid workers & their
family woes.
Meany thought I was anti-Labor when I suggested he demand
an additional wage – increase in bonds & shares of the employing
corporations. He suspected me of enmity
because I was never allowed by
Robert Shanker radicalized
Walter Reuther (1907 – 70) became the model of an honest
dedicated & self-fulfilling labor leader.
From 5 year of working for Henry Ford he dared working in the Soviet
“Gorki Auto Fabrik”. Without him the
United States Autoworkers, UAW, might not have co-ruled General Motors. He remained also a responsible &
responsive plant co-producer at G.M. during WW II. Thereafter he easily qualified as President
of U.A.W.
Still, he didn’t find it easy to deny Communists leadership
roles when the UAW became a strong member of CIO. For the sake of Labor’s leadership, he tried
hardest to rejoin the AFL. But he also quit
again the larger union because of misunderstandings with President George
Meany.
I met George only once when he ruled supreme over AFL. I thought he got plumb stuck in his plumbing
union past. My suggestion of fighting
for a profit-sharing plan instead of struggling against wage deduction during
the lee-period when the Ayn Rand – Milton – Friedman – Ronald Reagan enemies of
unions strove to abolish workers’ put-in in the administration. That was suspect to him. Only when it was too late, Meany let me know
that he & his had missed a last opportunity at power – sharing. He was no meany but did feel a bit sorry for
himself instead of having all laboring men & women at heart.
A strong letter of mine which my travel companion, one of
President Ike’s col. lt. secretaries, laid before Ike 8 years too late almost
convinced the expresident (on his way to his Gettysburg address) that he was
wrong calling a national health insurance socialism. I remembered that he willfully delayed the
statehood of
As an afterthought I wondered why I never joined a labor
union. I had belabored that thought in
different places & different time but always imagined that I was strongest
standing alone as a talking & writing mechanism when there was a fight for
fairness to be fought. These internet
pages are late expressions of disgust with destroyers of a decent capitalism, a
large middleclass, earning enough to support a great economy of a great Nation. I can think of no more savage barbarians
& atrocious terrorists than President Reagans, Bush II, Dr. Frist,
Gingrich, Milton Friedman & other disciples of the Russian – trained –
Communist Ayn Rand.
Ford’s $5 a day for 8 – to 10 hour’s work was the beginning
of Labor’s interest in good work & much work for the owners advantage. Only occasional sit – down strikes to force
wage increases impeded a little the boast of proprietors of great productivity.
But all school text books for all levels of education
preach the untruth. They lie when they
repeat the old prevarication that the captains of industry made US wealthy,
& that those stockholders, private entrepreneurs & partnerships created
the large American middle class. I
repeat: That is the eternal, hellish & damnable biggest lie.
All the above bosses desired & hired the cheapest
available workers. If fathers wanted livable
wages, the big ones hired kids, teenagers, poor girls & too often preschool
slavekids of whitest skin. The father
was good only for carrying his tots to factories & mines to be exploited
there for 10 or 12 hours, 6 days a week & bodily humiliated & often
raped.
The Homestead Act
created some thousands of unemployed owners of ¼ section, up to 160 acres but
most of them never paid off their small debts.
What was meant to save Civil War veterans for pioneering duties didn’t
end the woes of workmen who were always replaced by cheaper new immigrants.
It was only the daring & often deadly unionizing
dedication of some radicals among immigrants which finally enforced improvement
of workers semi-security. The sharp
shooters among state troopers & private armies of Pinkerton Guards could
not forever stop justified demands for freedom from fear.
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s election taught the 2
Then in World War II, even women by millions became
unexpected wage owners, & men in the war industries made good & better
money even if corrupt corporations started to earn billions instead their
millions. But best of all was the
Democratic struggle for the “G.I. Bill of Rights”. Quite a few million veterans got their
monthly $75 while they trained in industrial schools or were educated in
colleges.
This Great Act, so vigorously apposed by “Mr. Republican”,
Senator Taft, became the greatest law which made ours the greatest land. In the beginning over 7 million better
trained & best educated became teachers, supervisors, directors & well
– paid citizens. Within a decade, we had
millions who earned enough, had priority positions & could threaten the
boss to start their business by themselves.
Some 60% of the population began to feel like well-off & rather
secure middle class persons.
Those who made plenty of money, forgot that Democrats had
made them rich & became Republicans for most selfish reasons. They turned anti-labor union sufficiently to
try to destroy all the rights trade unionists gave their lives for.
The Silver Lining?
After all, Robert Owen’s socialistic or utopian farming
community in
Nearly a thousand of his religious followers found too
little work on only 5000 acres in the
George Ripley (1802 – 80) was a Unitarian transcendentalist
with sparks inside “the you & me” like Quakers. Since William Penn’s stab in
Robert Ripley (1893 – 1940) was a Californian who also
worked on publications & continued his odd ways by publishing the
unspeakable “Believe it or Not”.
Horace Greeley (1811 – 72) made his politics the content of
his “N.Y. Tribune” after literature & daily news didn’t make his “Gazzette”
attractive to the masses. Although in
Congress for one term, he suffered under old Republicans the way Hearst did
under old-fashioned Democrats. But he
made money enough to enjoy traveling & gave the world a piece of his mind.
John H. Noyes (1811 – 80) would have US believe that Christ’s
second coming had recently happened.
Thus some of US could use a holy life without worrying about
livelihood. Fired by Yale or losing his
preacher’s license, he secured his own survival by his Bible Communism &
wife sharing commune of workers even while adultery was a severe crime. Only
the richest were allowed to indulge. In
the 19th century, this John the Baptist established the “Oneida
Community” which liberals called utopian.
But when he would only allow the élite, himself included, to procreate
the germ of life of the future, the
Robert Owens (1801 – 77) had inherited from his good father
Glasgow Cotton Mills & his social sentiments. Cooperatives, later the ideal of all the
Scandinavian countries, tended to become socialistic. Together father & son, founded in 1825
the New Harmony Colony in
Then the son went back to
All agricultural workers everywhere were mistreated in all
respects. Local social souls tried their
best to supply simple inexpensive success.
In
He founded the “National Farm Workers Association” which was soon a fighting segment of Chicanos
& Filippinos as members of the AFL.
His call for a national boycott took 5 years to meet some success. Partly it was the fault of the Teamsters
Union which wanted the poorest as paying members but their affiliation with
Reagan re-Publicans was a double – crossing institution. As said elsewhere, Reagan campaigned against
infiltration of our borders by poor Mexicans but helped the big farm biz to
hire thousands of “illegals” at wages below the minimum required for survival
& nothing for health care, retirement pay & accident victims.
Cesare told me that he modeled his struggles for abused
manual workers, especially those at stooped, labor on the activities of Mother
Jones (Mary Harris). She had left the Cork
Irishness just before the potato disaster.
From
John L. Lewis (1880 – 1969), & Jimmy Hoffa , were
equally daring but not unselfish like the 2 above. The lobbyist became the dictator of the
“United Mine Workers of America” without remaining in the AFL. When the union of all trade unions was
essential, he controlled the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations). While often betraying his miners to the
corporations, he went as far as betraying his nation during WW II. His speeches remained ferocious to his end
& that of go – it – alone CIO.
Jimmy Hoffa (1913 – 75), too, played games with his
followers & often sided with the Republican exploiters; even worse, he
racketeered with Mafia & similar criminals.
Just 20 of age, he helped organize the “International Brotherhood of Teemsters”. As president of it when 44 of age, he pushed
out those who protested his corruption.
Declared a criminal by a jury for 3 serious crimes, he only served a few
years. His restoration was short-lived
& his life too. Without a corpse, no
autopsy no certainty. But the hatred of
the Kennedys of him may be the solution to the 2 enigmas on both sides.
Like the Labor Unions, Ralph Nader made himself into a huge
institution which tried & tried again to make
An embittered Nader became his own obstructionists when he
ran for the presidency, he knew he could never win. But he wilfully made his former allies &
the Democratic Party the big loser. It
seems that the Devil is not just in details but in charge of our entire
structure.
______________
All our main Broadcasting enterprises, living entirely on
the billions of capitalism’s advertizing “needs”, charity and sufferance, had
their muckraking programs narrated by leading broads & other
broadcasters. Teachers, Social Workers
& people with hearts loved these hours of castigation of the evils of
greed, over-charging & constructing tools of murder by shoddy
materials. The regular warnings though
of repair people in all sorely needed jobs was just considered
name-calling. The big guys as the little
ones who pretended that their wares, their work & whole whirl were
wonderful were hardly ever fined, never jailed for cheating their customers by
fake advertizing, fake handiwork & fake usury. Great are the muckrakers for pleasing the
National Conscience. But where the
profit motif is the only determinator, humanity descends back into the subrace
of monkeyish primates. Could it be that
our present – day muckrakers are paid for their indirect advertizing the availability of pseudo – repair – shop owners;
if they are willing to do or undo what desperate consumers wanted to be fixed
by fixers, all could add to the legitimate cost of carrying on life and
livelihood.
The Great Depression depressed wages – fewer jobs, more
& more unemployment & the old – new misery until the moron Hoover –
Mellon financiers declared mental, economic & political bankruptcy.
But before all the leading, crest falling speculators,
brokers & bankers had to commit suicide, the real Messiah had His First
Coming. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the
most trying from their fabulous Ivory League Colleges, F.D.R. made an obedient
Congress legislate a chain of New Deal Trials & Errors & really saving
grace, too. His only mistake was to kill
off surplus pigs & burn some feed & food instead of feeding hungry
school kids with them.
But the so – so – employed built roads, bridges, all the
not affordable underpinnings of a recovering economy. We cannot discuss here all the great medium
& negligible attempts of investing all non-existing cash, credit vouchers
& ideas into jobs for survival although the Social Security Act was his
masterpiece. In future, the injured, the
permanently sick & the retirees did not have to starve to death. Their meager nest-egg would ensure that there
could never again be a so-wretched Depression because there were to be millions
of people to invest their small life insurance in bread, clothes &
rent. This made a Democrat the greatest
saver of our Nation, our Democracy & whatever capitalism the most evil among
us would vote for.
Of greater impact though was F.D.R.’s freeing Labor from
legal suppression by the old slavocracy which had taken over even the
Even under President Wilson, Henry Ford had to recognize
Labor Unions whose power to press for higher wages kept growing by leaps &
bounds. Through F.D.R. all bounds &
binds were cut. The ever more powerful
Labor Unions enforced wages which were high above those of “bourgeois” clerical
workers. Within a few years, more than
10 million manual workers earned middle class pay & more than that. Strong Labor Unions got their President
elected 4 times, even after war work doubled & tripled wages &
salaries. Some thought that most
Americans were Middle Class even when the Great War bombed its course to peace
& unemployment.
But Congress had felt Democratic pressures & enacted
the “G.I. Bill of Rights” under various memos & chapters. The gist of it was the gift of true middle
class status of each of the ex-fighters if they went to study or endow
themselves with training, all paid by US. Government, with cash left to raise a
family but time left for studies while leaning on a broom or other supporting
job devices. This greatest legislation
made us 80% middle class.
The most conspicuous result was that those who were helped
the most by taxpayers & boasted of the best job turned Republican. Their children too turned the tables on their
benefactors, the Democratic Government & the Unions who fought for
them. First some 25% called it
conservative reaction. An equal number
called themselves born – again religionists & became the worst haters of
their people even as they blabbered about Love & Heaven for the meek, wretched
workslaves here on Earth. This evil
boisterous hypocrisy is getting us back to the same kind of capitalism which
had killed in the 19th & part of the 20th century our
Democracy, our community interests, our struggle for all & especially the
most down- trodden. A more feeling world
hates all our government stands for. Our have – it – all kill their
customers. But there is no renewal in
sight unless the capitalism of Adam Smith & the Mills is restoring decency,
fairness & national pride. Away with
greed, selfishness & doglike attacks on civilization.
The G-8 nations are, of course, the economic masters of the
world. With new progressive Communist
and the presidents rotating, what
Once good Republicans were among the leaders of the solar –
wind – water – dominated clean air fuel.
Now, that the greed of so-called religionists monopolizes the
oil-ointment heaven, they make life a living hell.
I repeat that F.D.R.’s gigantic
Jokichi Takamine (1854 – 1922) slipped out of
Fascistic Hirohito, a bit of a biologist & poet,
learned from Mussolini to become insanely power-hungry because he “owned” a few
flying aces similar to Italian Balbo.
Knowing that only surprise & good luck promised a measure of
success, he, Tojo & a few German – trained admirals & generals could
get him more & more needed raw materials.
He treacherously planned for the attack on
Success went to the emperor’s head. He over-extended his brutal, untutored &
dirty forces so that oil, tin & food additives couldn’t pull him out of is
self-chosen disaster. General McArtur
did. After his self-glorious take – over
as king over the emperor, he saved this throne, a bit of the imperial prestige
& the suffering, overcrowded islands under the now sinking sun.
He invited scores of
Of course, as a borderland to our wartime friend &
immediate archenemy, the
The Second Industrial Revolution could have ended the world
as we knew it.
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) stemmed from the Danube where
it refused to be blue, at
He left the Newtonians & their mechanics in a hole when
he discarded the old, gray theory & replaced it with his “General Theory of
Relativity” while the entire neighborhood tried the first big world suicide
attempt, W.W. I. His formula of E=Mc²
related energy to matter. It also determined
that all matter could be converted into energy if we were smart enough to
discover all the methods to explode or implode all matter.
Hitler was a greater & more successful teacher who
started & ended his revolting life with the destruction of people who
mattered a lot. But both had simulated
anatomizing effects.
For
But our Korean & Vietnam bloodbaths renewed our &
their half-dead industries, vastness of well-paying employment & the
enormity of war profiteering. The
unusual big shares the common workers accidentally received were soon annulled
by several directed inflations. Then,
the European & Asiatic consciences reestablished their social safety net
& let the greediest of the greedy here at home recapture the lead of our
banks & other financial profiteers who couldn’t stand the dollar & yen
world leadership of 19 Japanese & 2 German banks.
Freedom of Thought
Our Free Press, once very dependent on the post offices
almost removed US from the English pressure press before we were the U.S.A.
Peter Zenger (1697 – 1746), a German print devil, was not yet 20 of age when he
left the great Printer Bradford & established the “New York Weekly
Journal”. Backed by many radicals, he
wrote out stinging attacks on Governor Cosby.
A high-handed libel judgment made his jail cell a quiet
place for continued editing in his political struggle via a free full court press. His courageous lawyer, Andrew Hamilton,
finally made a jury free this champion of a free press. Zenger called it “
Since that time, owners or their editors, learned to abuse
this greatest of all privileges, once thought to be the best tool for safeguarding
a democracy. Benjamin Franklin’s (1706 –
90) “Pennsylvania Gazette” became a great teacher to the entire world by his
publishing great words, good one-liners & wonderful, instructive
materials. His yearly “Poor Richard’s
Almanac” alone was worth founding a library for all. He, all alone kept adding discussion &
learning institutions. This led to the
“American Philosophical Association” & the “
Great that
The Hungarian, Joseph Pulitzer (1847 – 1911) was a great
Union partisan when he wrote only for the Germans in
At 22 he was elected to the Missouri State Legislature. To underwrite his progressive ideas, he
acquired the 2 local papers. He was hero
– worshipped at his new home. That made him
wish for more influence.
Hearst (1863 – 1951) had inherited his father’s “San
Francisco Examiner” and made it influential with his cheap sensationalism. He got super rich and established his
press-power in all big cities with crazy, dishonest short careers in politics
&
His sensationalism, mixed with anti-corruption politics,
made him famous & rich enough to buy the “N.Y. Money Journal” beating
Joseph Pulitzer at his own game. New
acquisitions made him control popular papers in
Two terms in Congress didn’t endeer him to fellow Democrats
or any Republicans until his wealth made him the right-wingiest
Republican. He moved away from all but
movie ladies in his imported castle – monestary at San Simeon but died so as not
to witness the downfall of his heiress Patricia, a Hearst daughter of his son
Randolph.
Voters no longer follow the advice of editors, especially
since even big cities have only one paper surviving the storm & drang of
multiple revolts.
James G. Bennett (1841 – 1918) was an earlier heir of a
well-reputed “New York Herald”. He
caused sensations without applying cheap tricks. He loved to deal with famous people which
made his reporters famous & competitive.
He sent soon – to – be – famous Henry M. Stanley to search for
missionary Dr. David Livingston who had been cut off from his Egyptian relations
by an Arabic – Islamic born-again movement in the
His recognition “Livingston, I presume” made
Our leading reporters, editors, radio broad casters &
T.V. anchor persons have now “incomes” in the millions, &, therefore, they
are respected by leading politicians & corporation C.E.O.’s & chairmen
of the boards. Most of these top earners
think they equal in reputation our millionaire movie stars &
sportsters. You can have them all. What are they worth per pound as smelly
corpses unless they can sit with the late billions right at the side of Jesus
or in
But due to their financial standings & sitting as
directors at many corporation tables, they all have inside information on stock
& bond developments. Therefore any
of their timely purchases or sales by the hundred millions are illegal, real
crimes, but nobody is punished for “clever” transactions like Dr. Frist’s
family medical health corporation, Bush’s & Cheney’s secret trust funds or
the dumb – playing exchairman of Enron, Kenneth Lay, and other crooks like
these.
They are my slew of stereotypes, my favorite hoodlums, the
real terrorists to their slavish adherents, disciples or defenders of these
defendants. They are out of control as
they control you & me. How long? How long must the
If the Knowlands, father & son, publishers &
editors of the “Oakland Tribune” had known that a Barbados Negro of highest
caliber & integrity would one day become majority owner, publisher &
editor of their once so rightwing political standard, they might not have died
when the conservatives of
This Robert Maynard (1937 – 93) advanced with flying colors
through
Although never a millionaire, his Oakland Tribune went down
into insignificance, he remained the poster “boy” of the liberal establishment
& the sponsor of many poor fellows & girls who hoped to write their way
out of the remaining ghettos.
American journalists of world-wide experience &
significance, Dorothy Thompson (1894 – 1935) was the greedy master, or
mistress, of entreating & of magnificent style. As wife of Sinclair Lewis before WW II, she
became the best-known warner against Hitler’s aggressive ambitions. Churchill & England were most grateful
when she lanced her beautiful but only epochal warning in favor of Churchill’s
I am sure it gave student John F. Kennedy the material
& élan to reverse some of her greatness & have it co-authored as “While
England Slept”. He entirely forgot that
his father, sent to threatened St. James by an understanding F.D.R., detoured
by way of
Among publishers, Henry (
This missionary boy took on his 2nd wife as
helpful coeditor who was also a wilfull partisan of Republican causes. Her sharp tongue got her into Congress,
Catholicism & an Italian ambassadorship to the pope’s liking.
I remember my tourist bus on my tour by way of
I interrupted the loquacious local when I asked first in
his Italian lingo: “Why did your army march into San Merino when Ambassador
Clare Luce scolded your nation for allowing a Communistic (city)government in
this tiny Republic?” When he didn’t
answer my question I shouted it loud & loudest in English. No answer either. But he shut up for the rest of the day as I
was told, when I was the only one to climb up to take close-up photos of the 3
spectacular fortresses on 3 steep hills.
All Luce magazines suffered from midlife crises but were
revived in new splendor after his & her death.
There are more learned & actively involved critics of
our piratical capitalism. I never heard
these named muckrakers. I am certain
that our 3 biggest TV networks programmers of that harsh attack on the decency,
honesty & non-criminality of our repair people, immobile car salesmen &
other crooks were aware of Ida Tarbell (1857 – 1944), Lincoln S Teffens (1866 –
1936) & Upton Sinclair (1878 – 1968).
They truly made their mark on the history of our economy of
evil leaders. Ida enjoyed her taking on
the oil of Rockefeller’s, “Standard Oil”, in her articles for “McClure
Magazine”. Others learned from her the
blame game.
Lincoln Steffens’ biggest blunder was committed after he
saw a bit of the Soviet Russia de-velopment & postulated too loudly: “I
have seen the future & it works.”
Even Socialists lost faith in him.
Otherwise this
Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” exposed the
His namesake though became governor of
I looked at the face & related features of reporter-counselor
Jeffrey Birnbaum on the educational T.V. program & recognized his mother
Lucy or Lucille Birnbaum. As a
first-year U.C.,
One evening, after a seminar, she introduced to me her 2
sons, aged 6 & 7, I think, & her husband too. She also insisted that she had to see me in
the cafeteria between 2 morning classes.
She was on time, carrying a large leather briefcase. She opened it while we sipped a bit of coffee
& pointed at piles of news paper clippings.
All featured the same Italian names.
“Why do you show me these Mafiosos? I’m not interested in them”, I interrupted
her joyous referring to one central figure.
“That is my father. In my
parochial boarding school I was treated like a princess & didn’t know
why. When I went home on vacation, I was
also treated well. I received all I
hinted at. I wondered why Mother &
my sisters spent long hours in church.
Father & my brothers handled some business at that time.”
“I graduated age 16.
My father then confessed that all my relatives were leaders of the Mafia
in
“You are too smart & beautiful to be part of these
dirty deeds. Why don’t you go to
college, find some nice friends & marry a Jewish student who may give you a
great, peaceful & prosperous future.
I’ll pay for your education & his.”
“I guess you wondered about my German Jewish name. If my teachers knew that I don’t care for
their religion, they would all report sick.
I believe in Trotzky’s world revolution.”
Shortly after I lost sight of lady Birnbaum while I taught
for a few years in the blizzard countries of
Nobody seems to remember the closeness of the “Peace &
Freedom Party” to Lucille Birnbaum’s thinking & teaching. Nor do they know who drove most of the
rambunctious leaders from Berkeley to become the majority of the “Chicago
Seven” who organized the destruction of good Hubert Humphrey during the
Democratic National Presidential Nomination Convention.
I was later told that Lucille herself couldn’t get
there. As the tired driver of the
Who remembers the time of the first general upgrading of
Negro enterprise? John H. Johnson was
one of the great firsters to force respect on Whitey. During WW II he founded “Johnson Publishing
Co.” & immediately rolled to great success.
His “Negro Digest” became not only the Reader’s Digest of
the Blacks. It was needed & forced
ever more readers among the black elite & forced others to become literate
& get interested in more mass circulation.
Johnson’s “Ebony” became readers’ prized treasure. Its popularity ws guaranteed by the expanding
middleclass, we call entrepreneurs, whose output & money input began to
rival long-existing ghetto shops, restaurants & ghetto developers of
different color.
John took advantage of his rich earnings by buying radio
stations, book publishings & cosmetic enterprises. No doubt he soon became the first millionaire
to leave his family an ever-expanding share of our entire economy. No doubt he soon became the first millionaire
to leave his family an ever – expanding share of our entire economy. No barrier or glass ceiling for this big
business.
James Weldon Johnson (1871 – 1938) made himself a great
educator, poet, folksy organizer & to me & my taste, a good historian
of his race. He played his part in
politics with great success in spite of the enmity of Confederate Congress
Senior officers who wanted to keep the great man segregated.
The Harlem Renaissance owes to him a birthright & some cultural
success. To nobody’s surprise, he became
a wonderful leading man in the NAACP, the “National Association of Colored
People”. In knowledge & its
expression only W.E.D. Du Bois, Prf. Dr. of several better universities &
world reputation was co-founder of this NAACP.
But his temper & superiority feeling through our
When his wife Blanche held Alfred Knopf (1892 – 1984) to
high standards, he concentrated on publishing only the works of 16 Nobel award
winners & 26 Pulitzer Prize laureates, even those who had no chance for
becoming best sellers. Not caring for
high income, so unusual for businessmen, Knopf Publishers were swallowed by
Random House which had efficient agents, book reviewers & rich
resources. Still Alfred Knopf had
influenced the course of literature.
James Harper (1795 – 1869) needed the help of his brother
to found an important publishing firm.
Many of the mid-century works owe their publication to this innovative
printer & publisher. “Harper’s
Bazar” also became a best seller of the polite society and spinster
schoolmistresses. I wish I knew whether
present – day Harper’s monthly magazine is a legitimate descendant of James
Harper’s. As a high-brow intellectual product it is above anything conservative
childishness can produce.
It seems that reporting honestly, admits that nobody can
disguise partisanship in the inborn mission to convert the rest of the universe
to his or her views. The reader is a
good judge if he accepts all news as somehow true. But objectivity never had a permanent place
in the human mind. Personally, I don’t
condemn subjectivity, especially if I know in advance what the writer stands
for & fights for but tells US what he saw, heard & vouches for. Good lies have always been sacrosanct. Indeed, I have met & talked to many
freedom fighters, revolutionaries & terrorists & found lots of them
nice, trustworthy to a certain point as long as I was on my guard. Politicians could try most cautiously to get
at their failures, weaknesses & trickeries too. As long s you talk very civilly & keep
smiling, even a rabid dog only barks without biting. Sheath your sword. Banish the shooting iron & hide your
preparedness from all but those with poison-speeches. Example (perhaps):
A dozen decent demons of book publishing, made a huge &
prosperous industry.
Alfred Harcourt (1881 – 1984) was a New Yorker who liked
reading, writing & editing & thus was most eligible to head Harocurt,
Brace, Jovanovich.
After John P. Zenger & Ben
Frank N. Doubleday (1862 – 1934) learned aggressive
salesmanship at Charles Scribner’s & Sons.
With a good partner he established Doubleday & McClure. The ever changing heads of this group of
publishers of talented writers & owners of bookstores remained at the top
of the trade.
Charles Scribner (1854 – 1936) needed famous editors to
publish the works of recognized stars.
George Santayana & Earnest Hemingway found millions of readers as
had the earlier books written by President Theodore Roosevelt & Edith
Wharton.
Bennet Cerf (1898 – 1971) did much of his own editing in
good taste. His choices for sale were
great successes under the label of Modern Library & Random House over which
he presided for 4 decades. He trained
many young men & women who became fierce competitors.
Today the big book agents are offsprings & partners of
these & other book publishing monopolies.
Alfred Guinzburg (1899 – 1961) was the distinguished
co-founder of Viking Press. His guys
learned to compete with the biggest bookies by publishing first only the most
controversial authors whose works were generally rejected, mocked or put on the
Papal “Index of Prohibited Books”.
Alfred & companions thus bought success for James
Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, August Strindberg & ever more of society’s
rejects. He ended his career as a
wealthy author of the “Literary Guild Book Club”, thus pushing his clients on
the mass publication listings of top newspapers & their special Sunday
editors.
As the result, poets, writers & artists were no longer
starving while they lived even when they earned immortality in death.
Cyrus Kotzrchmar, later called Curtis (1850 – 1933),
founded the greatly influential “The Ladies Home Journal” & “The Saturday
Evening Post”. Even without his dailies
“New York Evening Post” & “Philadelphia Inquirer”, he led his publications
to a political & literary influence san pareil. He allied himself with great editors, writers
& business managers. Without doubt,
the great causes of his time owed him their temporary success of women, Blacks
& other social & political aims.
Money did not seem to give him his place in our economy.
Now, there are hundreds of guide names in all publishing
houses as editors, critics, journalists & reporters. Man doesn’t live by bread alone; he needs
women to butter it & butter him up.
Some thousands broke through the proverbial glass ceiling. But are most of them really happy with their
professional preponderance? How many
keep giving up their positions as presidents, managers & department heads
to try marital success & child-bearing happiness before years creep up on
them.
Today most publications are tainted by mean partisanship
which entails the innovation of new, down-grading essential features &
omitting important happening which could, or should, affect our
conscience. Truth is no longer the first
victim of war. In peacetime, or when
thinking, one can serve hidden masters; plenty of journalists, reporters,
editors & publishing victimizing again victims of evil doers. My recent case serves as illustration of
local chicanery of our “press”.
The records, the press & police statistics disclose
only part of the truth. One private
example: On Friday, November 4, 2005, I limped towards the South on
But an angel offered his life for mine & possibly, kept
the pariah of the parish from murder. It
was a young man in ironman triathlon uniform, wearing a helmet who forced me
back against warm bodies, as he pedaled in front of me where there was no space
left. The murderous “driver” hit him
& his bicycle hard to put both out of functioning. I could only ask: “Do you have lots of pain?
Thank you for saving my life….”
I was pushed across the pedestrian line by one of the 2
policemen who seemed to have run from the church & had already called an
ambulance. Good that all traffic was at
a standstill, or else another moron – driver would have got me to paradise or
heaven if only to get away from this pious hell.
As the lawmen pushed this aged cripple across the line,
that uniformed terrorist mumbled something like: “Go away, we have all the
witnesses we need.” My walking cane
helped me to make it across the street where I could lean on a few sturdy
supports. Lying too long on the crippled
bike before the many bystanders helped him to straighten out on the dusty
sidewalk, the body did not move.
This murderous accident on the pestrian right of way took
place between 8:20 & 8:30. My guess,
was that the ill-treated body of my savior arrived at the Emergency Ward by
9:00 a.m. or a little later. I tried
hard by phone to get my angel’s name, so I could thank him if he was
alive. The moment I mentioned my name,
the police answering service & a dozen hospital offices would hang up on
me. No way for me to learn whether he
was still speaking or breathing. Also
not a mention in police reports by or West HI Today. I wrote them a letter to the editor with the
same negative results.
I don’t know how many of these terroristic culprits had
known me as the Kona Liliko’i Man when they were kids & had loved Bruno’s
Candy, dried papayas, bananas, mangos, figs etc. without hardening &
denaturalizing the good fruits. There always
seems to be a trinity of conspirers hiding the crime of a pious hoodlum:
church, press and police are in this together like in many other unmentionable
crimes against humanity.
As we may approach general peace against the will of all
the beneficiaries of war industries & moneyed corruption, the police will
be strengthened by armies, militias, security agents & other speeders,
drunks, smokers & drug addicts. The
press will have to dig for news even if they have to invent it to nourish
thousands of reporters, editors & their political & police allies. The churches will find ever new ways to earn
political dividends & do the business of the states as long as
anti-government criminals control the mass of political gangsterism. Along with the big farm firms and food
processors these will all be in natural alliance, consuming half of our economy
& earning 90% of the money which foreign powers lend to our bankrupt
system.
Personally, I don’t trust our police. They certainly hardly ever proved that they
should be the protectors of those who cannot protect themselves. Is it possible that some of them are
habituals of ice (Methamphetamine) when they confiscate it from our many
drugdealers & local users?
For an aged pedestrian they create dangers by the dozen, or
more: Let drivers stop their vehicle right in a pedestrian lane. Three times I noticed an officer park his car
right next to such a violator to shake his or her hand. Two turned the traffic light off to deny me
the green light when their apparent acquaintance or ohana member plugged my
escape route. My complaint was rudely
rejected: “I am in charge here. You can
wait until I order you to cross the road.”
No reproach for the traffic violator.
No decent treatment for the anguished.
No reproach ever for the huge Coca cola, Pepsi, Bud Light &
Suisan trucks which take too often part of the adjacent lane & create
perils of a collision with light & more vulnerable traffic. Many months since the latter delivery truck
killed the student body president of
Over 30 year ago, a Kona policeman ticketed me for speeding
when I drove very slowly to point out a landmark to my students. A month, or so, later, he dropped by my small
school. He complained that he was
overworked & needed a short rest.
Could he use my couch? For many
months, he napped there regularly.
Finally he insisted that I should defend this new activity as being asked
by me for his help. He overheard one of
the meek students who loudly whispered: “Do police officers also lie?” We never saw him again.
_________________
Hallmark Cards for all occasion proves that the incapacity
or laziness which prevents US all to draw our own message can offer gigantic
opportunities to become an undeserved huge section of our economy.
Staples is another big manufacturer, beginning with steely
ideas of holding papers together. What
don’t they own these days from stations of many sorts to stadium?
Xerox also proves that what you don’t need if you use
old-fashioned carbon-paper can make you rich & influential if you know how
to risk all in the most expensive advertizing campaign.
Above 3 monsters prove that capitalism knows no
limitation. Freest enterprise freezes
the air all around until it ices a big cake for the celebration of the joy of
success. “Winning is everything”.
Theodore Vail (1845 – 1920) probably was an organizer
superior to the McKays, Mackays & Western Union as US Post serviceman, he
thought of faster mail service by special mail trains. For Bell Telephone he made local service more
efficient. Of course, if Vail had not
unveiled the combination of multiple offices of communication such as the
American Telephone & Telegraph Corp, this AT&T would have been midwived
by other capable & zealous communicators.
He blessed
J.K. Mackay came from
They were quartered in the same building at
When the Dulles brothers thought they had thus defeated our
Communist wartime allies, I asked for my reward. Mr. Chatterton gave me a bottle of
whisky. I smashed it over his head as my
only short-term satisfaction. Here also
this janitor had preserved all his thousands of receipts of hundreds of even $1000s
of withdrawals at a time. His private
secretary, a big fellow hikers, saw to it that I received my miniscule wages
& that the typists under her charge copied my Ph.D. dissertation. The ruin of 2 great companies at nearly the
same time became my long – guarded secret. Thus more proof that the suposed efficiency of
our billionaire entrepreneurs established my, more, social & socializing
endeavors without ever exerting influence & more positive, decent &
honest capitalism in the
Of course, the previous monopoly of the AT&T, Am.
Telephone & Telegraph Company, was a more grandiose achievement. Also
It took a William G McGowan (1927 – 92) to break it up with
the help of his friends at court. The
deed was done by his Microwave Communications Inc., MCI. Only this Harvard gent as chair &
president could garner the largest anti-trust settlement. Are destroyers also creators? MCI has been for sale since McGowan retired
in 1991.
Only little industry, tobacco growing & selling &
indigo growing to dye homespun & woven primitive dresses, could be mailed
thanks to Ben Franklin’s British-government mail service. Like in other countries, US were proud of
mail delivery in spite of nasty Acts of God & seasonal complications. With the help of tow-boats, steamers, pony
post, penny post, telephone, telegraph, rail & air shipping, US created a
splendid mail service although separate from those countries which united it with
their equivalent of our phone & telegraph service which we privatized in
their very beginning.
That our US Mail Service was great government power, irked
anti-state Republicans. They ruined postal
savings banks & then used powerful military Anthrax to try killing a few
great Democrats & more postal employees because the evil ones suggested
that our national mail service had become a haven for Blacks who could, by long
loyal & legitimate service, climb the civil-service ladder to enter, &
be paid, like middleclass service people.
A little earlier they made this our greatest non-military
segment of industry a private one, with corporation-style salaries for their
top politicians who started at the summit of evil service ranking. Wasteful also otherwise, like sponsoring our
Olympians & giving this former government monopoly competition, they
defeated & obliterated nearly all of this once greatest institution.
In the old Confederate South started the overnight delivery
of parcel post by privateers & private hands. Fred Smith wanted it to urge out the
This competition found more competition in UPS &
smaller downs too who would be eager to tear the old postal delivery
apart. Possibly this upstart was subject
to offers of selling the whole works because it operated in the beginning on
credit alone. The quotas in legalized
gambling with it on the stock exchange, brokes no good. Sprint had also a good start sprinting in the
same directions, but in
When new creations competed with our ancient U.S. Post Office, the best service before Social Security & Opera