The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 2, 1927, Page 7

The Story of Okanogan Apples - ONG while ago man found the land of the Okano- gan. It was a wild section of the Great North- west. It was a land of wonders, The Columbia river drained the country and connected the United States with the Canadian border. Pioneers entered the hew land. Some sought gold and silver. Others were interested in hunting, fishing and trapping. Many settlers located on’ the land and planted or- ehards, Fort Okanogan is one of the historical spots in romance, It marks the place where the first white settlement was made in the state of Washington. It was where the ‘native Indians met their paleface foes and signed a treaty of peace. A large portion of the Okanogan country is still included in an Indian. Reservation. But the white man has made Okanogan famous because of the superior quality of big red apples grown in the orchards, One time I made a tour of the land of the Okano- gan, I had spent many. years in the Northwest and written many stories about the apple growing sec- tions. of different states. The Okanogan country ap- ~spealed to. me for recognition, I desired to know it a8 an open book. So I climbed into an auto stage, at Wenatchee, and journeyed into the irrigated vale of Okanogan. A dust storm forced the. stage driver to make a detour. The noise from a moving wagon attracted our attention. The shifting sands lifted and the atmos- phere cleared. A strong wagon of the plains hove in sight. It was drawn by four big western horses. The driver pulled on the lines and the horses stop ped. The wagon was loaded with apples in boxes. The teamster said he was hauling the apples to the river, to be shipped, by steamer, to the nearest railroad station. There was a story in that caravan for me so I talked. With a note book in hand, I walked round the wagon and tried to count the boxes. The man who owned the team and its cargo had something to say. He opened one of the boxes and gave a nice red apple. He asked a question. I did not reply. There came a moment of suspense. Both men were wondering just what thoughts were chasing through the brains of the other fellow. “What are you getting for those apples?” I asked, in a very quiet tone of voice. “One dollar per box, delivered at Wenatchee,” the man replied, without showing any signs of flinching. “You cannot produce apples like these, for that money,” I ventured to suggest, as the nice fruits were examined. “It costs you more than one dollar per box to grow, pick, pack and market the apples.” “Yes, you are right. They cost me one dollar and five cents per box to grow, harvest and deliver to the buyer,” the man confessed, after a little figur- ing in his own mind. “You farmers beat the world at figuring profit -nd loss,” I blurted out not thinking what effect my words might have on the rancher. “Just how you CHEAP SKATE? The Crisis In Liberalism: - NDER the same title as this article, John May- nard Keynes some time ago wrote an article in which he indicated that British liberalism was in a critical state and the old theory of laissez faire was yielding to the ideas developed by the present-day order of monopolistic imperialism and fascism on the one hand and the proletarian revolution on the other. That this crisis is a deepgoing one is proved by*the fact that in England, the classic land of liberalism, the liberal party has been relegated to the position of third party and the labor party has forged ahead of it. In addition to that, there is an internal crisis within the liberal party which indi- cates a further polarisation of liberalism towards the labor party on the one hand and towards the conservative party on the other. This inner crisis takes the form of a fractional fight between Lloyd George and Asquith and then between Lloyd George and Earl Grey. t F onmereround was long bankrupt in fact in Eng- land before it received its theoretical death sen- tence in the post war period, for the practice of liberal laissez faire England was increasingly be- coming one of regulation of industry by law, of un- employment insurance and other forms of social legislation, of imperialism (which begets a theory that is directly opposed to liberalism) and of other practices which directly contradict the whole lib- eral theory. Now comes Harold J. Laski and in a quiet book geview of a not too important book announces his @postasy from liberalism and goes over in his own special field of political theory to the Communist position, To those worried liberals who have been érying to hold onto their philosophy in an age which mo longer gives it any color of truth and validity; to those few liberals who were not either going over to the position of sympathizers with the labor move- ment or the contrary position of defenders of im- perialism, the apostasy of Harold J. Laski will prove a fatal blow for he commands considerable prestige among them as one of the few apostles of Nberalism in the field of polities that is still capable of writing books that heve an air of heving some- thing to contribute to a philosophy that is going inte bankruptcy. | Poco: Age ron cg e greeted: ese choiee of a method of announcing the bank- ruptcy of liberalism; he has written no leading ar ticle expressing his now views nor given any such dramatic title as Keynes’ slthiedestemiapboaampe te: A kee but he is obviously a more thorough-going thinker and has followed his thoughts to their logical con- clusions which land him, as indicated above, in the field of Communist theory in his own special sub ject. Laski’s declaration appears in the review of Pro- fessor R. M. Maciver’s book, “The Modern State,” a book which, judging from Laski’s review is of not very much importance. It serves, however, as @ foil for an expression of Laski’s new conclusions, Although his conclusions are expressed in the com- plicated language of academic writing, yet they are clear, sharp and decisive. Laski writes: ‘T CANNOT, in the first place, understand what he means by words and phrases like ‘solidarity’ or ‘common interest;’ I see no unity of any kind in society except what is put there by men, and I see none possible of achievement except by a complete reconstruction of the foundations of the present order. “Professor Macilver seems to me to write as though there is somehow a unity in society which a force called ‘progress’ or ‘evolution’ is unfolding; I cannot see that this is so... And, as a corol- lary view, he seems to lay far too little emphasis upon the importance in the social order of the sys- tem of property. (Emphasis mine throughout the citation—B. D. W.) It is, im fact, from the rights annexed to property that a social order takes its color, Society may make its impact upon the state; but the state also makes society, and the whole pro- By Joel Shomaker expect to break even on apples, that cost you five cents more per box to market than you get out of he deal is a problem in mental arithmetic I cannot solve.” “J reckon you are one of them city guys that farm on paper,” the farmer retorted, as his eyes twinkled, ‘I'll bet a dime against a nickel cigar, that you never farmed and don’t know a darned thing about apples.” “There is where-you are wrong,” I replied. “I was brought up on a farm, I have had much to do with apples—trom the tree to the consumer. You have been reading my articles and editorials on farming, for a long time.” *“Excuse me, sir,” the man begged, “you must be one of the farm editors of the state. I took you for @ politician out here in the sagebrush, telling the Tangers how to vote.” “Right you are on the score of me being a news paper editor. Wrong you are on the political idea, I am out here trying to find out what we need to better conditions on the farms.” “Well, since you want to know how I come out on apples, I am going to tell you. It might be of service to you, in getting a railroad and better trans- portation for the farmers. “If I pick my apples, box them and han! them'™to the river and ship by steamer, to the buyers, for one dollar per box, I lose only five cents on eath box. If I let the apples stay on the treeg and do not pick, pack and haul them to market, 2 lose the whole crop.” The man filled his pipe, struck a match and began to puff out tobacco smoke. The team moved on to the south. The stage went to the north. I did a lot of thinking about the possibilities of apple grow- ing in the Okanogan country. I presume the rancher smoked his pipe and wondered why the newspaper man from the city was meddling so much about producing and selling apples. Moral—When you see a big red apple from the Okanogan country, do not conclude that it hides pockets of yellow gold owned by the rich old farm ers, for it may represent the giving of an entire year in producing the crop and a donation of five cents for every box, of one hundred or more apples, just to help along the trade of the world. - By Bert Wolfe cess of life is set in the context of what its prop- erty-system implies, Rights, for instance, which Professor Maclver admits the state exists to main- tain are always, in fact, relative to property, whether it is freedom of discussion, equality before the courts, or a living wage that is involved. The re- sult of unequal property is, accordingly, that the state exists actually to protect unequal rights and in ‘maintaining the universal conditions of social order’ it is, again in fact, maintaining unequal rights. This is the great truth in the Communist answer to the classical political philosophy. There is a real sense in which the modern state is substantially the ‘executive committee of the capitalist class.’ To those of us who believe that the present system involves the class-war as its inherent logle, this a» pect of the problem is urgent, and needs more die cussion than Professor Maclver had devoted to it” Shadow of Death on Them. Shadow of death on them, the dauntiess brave, Shadow of death on them because they stood Amid the press of battle for the siave, And organized their class to fight for food. Shadow of death on them because the tears Of little children wrung their taut heartstrings; Shadow of death on them because the years Had made them foes to Profit Butcherings, Shadow of death on them because they cried Their murdered brother's blood aloud to Gain; Shadow of death on them, their lives denied, Because they pointed to the martyred slain. Shadow of death on them, the grisly chair Waiting beyond their barred cells in the gloom; Shadow of death on them, the strangled fear, The mouthing monsters and the ghastly room. Shadow and death on them. And must they die, In that they felt too much the misery Embodied in a starving baby’s cry, . In women driven on to harlotry? Shadow of death on them. And must they pass, Seared and consumed, because we are too meek, Teo spiritiess in courage as a class, Tw dare the Bosses’ might—to rise and speak? Henry George Weiss.