MR NEILSON AND RUSSIA.

Evening Star, Issue 21319, 25 January 1933, Page 12

MR NEILSON AND RUSSIA.

TC TUB EDITOn. Sir, —You add a footnote to my last letter;—“Mr Neilson’s opinion strikes ns as great nonsense. Under a Capitalist system any of lus ‘ exploited class,’ by thrift anil intelligence, can become Capitalists, or anything else, and a very large proportion of them are Capitalists to a greater or less degree.” There are three words in that paragraph- “Or anything else,” and I am bound to say that is what the great majority of our exploited class is fast becoming. What is the position? Those who used their intelligence and became thrifty have since either lost all their proceeds of thrift,, or are in the process of so doing, and as for those who are below this level, there is simply not even a glimmer of hope left, but slow starvation staring them in the face. Have yon read Mr Fenner Brockway’s ‘Hungry England’? If you have not, then, I think even a casual perusal will certainly bring you back to earth with a thud. Britain’s Prime Minister has said: “ Even if trade was to go up as high as expectations could expect, England would still have an army of 2,000,000 unemployed. Not much hope of any of these two millimis becoming Capitalists, unless by taking in each other’s washing. Mr Montagu Norman, of the Bank of England, says lie simply cannot see any daylight yet, unless a' faint glimmer in the far distant future. Wo here put out tho Hon. Mr Coates for his extravagance, and returned the United Party. Then the two coalisced, and the lion. Mr Downie Stewart became Finance Minister. Now he has resigned, and the Hon. Mr Coates gets his old job back again. Perhaps, if he can lay his hands on a few millions' ho may employ the .unemployed in digging holes and filling them up again. Well, it will give work, and Mr Forbes says: “No work, no dole.” But digging a hole, etc., might fill tho gap and conform to the idea. No. the Capitalist system is working in the direction of less Capitalists, not more, and this will get ns nearer to Socialism, because wo shall then have only a few to deal with, and a greater number to assist in the expropriation of these huge private combines. to bring about the change to common ownership and control in the interests of all for use only.—l am. etc., P. Neieson. January 2-1. . [Wh at we have not got down to is the condition prevailing under a Socialist system, concerning which wo i-oad “ Eight hundred thousand of Moscow’s 21500.000 population will be expelled under the new passport system. Undesirables will be given ten days to leave the city. Persons arriving in cities without* permission will be expelled within twenty-four hours. Outcasts must move at their own exmense.” —Tho cable is from Moscow.—Ed. E.S.]