AMERICA TO-DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 239, 9 October 1934, Page 7

AMERICA TO-DAY

POLITICAL CHAOS.

NEW DEAL A FAILURE?

RISE OF UPTON SINCLAIR.

THREAT OF SOCIALISM.

(By MARC T. GREENE.)

NEW YORK, September 6. The political situation is fast becoming chaotic. Issues usually having nothing to do with politics arc cutting deeply into definitely-drawn party lines; long-established distinctions are being obliterated; and Republicans and Democrats alike are viewing with alarm the portent upon the political horizon of an entirely new party, possibly more than one, made up of the malcontents of both the old groupings. And now into this turmoil of conflicting opinions of how to get the country out of" the slough in which it still is deeply mired there introduces itself a new factor, a factor which to the conservatives of both the old parties is disturbing and ominous, the author-reformer-politician, Upton Sinclair. Yesterday, figuratively speaking, he was chosen Democrat candidate for Governor of the great State of California, second largest of the union; to-morrow he is very likely to be elected. And what may happen on the day after to-morrow is the thing that has the political leaders of all factions and a large portion of those factions themselves lying awake o' nights trying to figure out. Still a Socialist. For Upton Sinclair, mark you, is a Socialist. He is, as he states, "above labels," political or otherwise, but he is as much a Socialist to-day as he ever was, and more. He is making his fight under the Democratic banner for reasons of expediency. He has a "plan," another added to the many thus far evolved for bringing America, and perhaps the world, out of the clouds and again into the sunshine of prosperity and content. He submits to the electorate of California "Epic," which, translated, is "End Poverty in California." "Epic" would take the burden of taxation from the poor and moderately well-to-do and place it upon the shoulders of the rich through an entirely new 6ystem of taxation. "Epic" would open to the needy the vast tracts of unused, but arable lands of the State of California, mostly owned by the large interests, that they might thereon produce life's necessities and be happy in the process —perhaps. "Epic" would give to every needy man and woman over CO years of age a pension of 50 dollars a j.ionth without distinction or over-inquisitive investigation. And "Epic" w-culd very largely eliminate altogether the use of money and inaugurate a system of barter and "token" payment. In brief, "Epic" would destroy capitalism and end the profit system, and to do that is the high objective of Upton Sinclair and his followers.

So, then, America, having throughout all these years taken the thing called Socialism very lightly indeed, now faces it in reality. "I will make the country face thi3 issue and deal with it," declares Sinclair with vehemence. As Governor of California he would become immediately a powerful and a vital force in American affaire. He might or might not, very likely would not, have the Legislature of the State with him, but if that body were against him a tremendous volume of popular sentiment would certainly res-train its opposition. Thunder On the Left. So, then, as the American papers are saying, there is "thunder on the left" in American politics. The gentle, usually reserved, kindly-disposed Upton Sinclair is, in these desperate times, gathering a following that increases in articulateness and the vehemence of its demands faster even than it swells in volume. And it is he who to-day is responsible for the question several millions of long-time Democrats are asking themselves, "Am I a Democrat or am I not ?" And there is no one to answer. Upton Sinclair has split, or at least is about to split, the Democratic party wide open. At that prospect the Republicans, now girding themselves for a rebuke to the Ncw'Deal at the November Congressional elections, declare themselves as full of glee. But regard them out of the public gaze and you will perceive that their smiles turn at once to comical expressions of perplexity, i: not of concern. For they, too, ar=> worried, and they, too, are troubled by nightmares in which the grim spectre of socialistic democracy hovers over California, with its face turned upon Washington. Fifth Winter of Depression. ■ "Where are we—if anywhere ?" Americans, political leaders, and everybody else, are asking one another. The present is full of woe and the future is far from rosy. The coming winter, fifth of depresion, will very likely be the worst yet, what with the hundreds of thousands nearly or quite ruined by the unprecedented drought throughout half the country last summer. The Government is said to be extending aid to one family in every five throughout the nation now, and this proportion will certainly be increased during the winter. Many people, having enjoyed several prosperous years, had accumulated a substance that has more or less seen them through thus far. But, generally speaking, this substance is exhausted now, which is bringing the ominous forecast, "the worst is yet to come," into the daily converse of most of the people of these United States. A few months a<ro confidence was far more apparent than to-day, because every month, every week, indeed, that elapses without any realisation at all of the hoped-for improvement as a result of a dozen plans and schemes adds to the general gloom. A year and a half of the "New Deal" and the Administration behind it has achieved little or nothing for the common people of America. The Administration's statisticians and proponents are just now, on the eve of the elections, striving to impress the people with a long array of figures, but the stark and gloomy facts are that the country is just as far from a return of the long-awaited "prosperity" as ever, and, if you take any stock at all in the Republican contentions, a good deal farther. The Republican argument, furthermore, is that if the- nation gives, at the November elections, the Roosevelt Administration a mandate to carry on with the process of "ruination of the country," America is done for, and will be in a receptive mood for anything from Communism to Fascism, with a strong probability of the latter, (To be concluded.} . j