''Revolution!"

A Capitalist and a Communist can usually agree on one point--the meaning of the word "revolution."-To both it conjures up a picture of physical violence, bloody streets, armed rioters, machine-gun rule. When a Socialist talks of "revolution," however, he does not mean a civil upheaval by brute force but rather a radical political change by orderly political methods. He thinks of seizing the brain, not the body, of an electorate.

Such a revolution Socialist Norman Thomas had in mind last week when he addressed a convention of the Intercollegiate Student Council of the League for Industrial Democracy at Manhattan's Barnard College. When young representatives of 30 Eastern colleges were 20 minutes late arriving to hear him, he, always punctual, upbraided them thus: "I'm terribly fed up with the romanticism of your generation. You give advice on every subject, including how not to conduct a revolution, but you never get around to a meeting on time."

The Thomas thesis was the same as the one which won him 881,951 votes in the presidential election: Capitalism is tottering to ruin. A "revolution" (Socialist) is at hand. Socialists must be prepared to set up their economic system when the time comes for "action" (political). Small groups of "parlor pinks" are worthless to the cause. Workers must be made class-conscious, must be given new and inspiring leaders for the "revolution." Organized labor offers no such leaders because unions have gone in for racketeering. And: "The origin of racketeering is obviously in the Capitalistic system. Capitalism, essentially lawless and brutal, is inherently a racket but in America it is more blatantly so."

Socialist Paul Blanshard described conditions in "Socialopia" the day after the "revolution." An international government speaking an international language would control all battleships, airplanes, munitions, postal rates and currency. In the U. S., State lines would vanish and the President and Congress would be replaced by a national Socialist planning board. The Supreme Court ("nine old men consecrated to the mistakes of their forbears") would be scrapped. The State would enforce birth control. Working mothers would leave their young in a communal nursery in each apartment house.

Today's conservatism is yesterday's radicalism. Most thoughtful observers agree that the U. S. is now undergoing a tremendous socialistic revolution which will leave its imprint on the nation long after the Depression has passed. For example: 1) the R. F. C. which puts public funds to private use for the national welfare; 2) relief which supplies jobless millions with a "dole" not very different in principle from Socialist recommendations; 3) Domestic Allotment which, when enacted, will take money from one class to give to another class; 4) Inland Waterways Corp., a perfect example of government-in-business. Because the War Department ordered the transfer of troops from Fort Russell, Tex. to Kentucky, Tom Connally, Texas' long-haired, small-footed Senator, raced to Secretary Hurley to protest "this arbitrary, autocratic and unwarranted action." He was, he said, "coldly and bluntly told that it was no function of the Federal Government to protect the U. S. border from raids, revolutions, thieves and cut-throats." Back in the Senate last week Senator Connally charged that the War Department was concentrating its forces near the larger cities. "The Secretary of War," exclaimed the Senator, "with a glitter of fear in his eye, referred to Reds and possible Communists that may be abroad in the land."

*For a more scientific approach to revolutions see p. 24.

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