What's What in America (ePub)

America is a heterogeneous conglomeration of humans comprising a homogeneity. They are all alike, yet they are unalike. All corners of the earth have contributed in the making, yet the one hundred millions have all been blended together into the huge melting pot and we call them Americans. They were attracted to "the land of the free" and remain here because no other country offers such prizes and such liberty. All are engaged in a wild scramble for fame and fortune, yet they are sadly disorganized. While they have their labor unions, churches, colleges, societies, and cults galore, and while they have their governments (city, county, state and national), and while the more successful ones (capitalists) have their organizations (trusts, monopolies and banking institutions), there is no organization of the whole. Nobody seems to take into account the tremendously important fact that all men and all industries are now interdependent, and that therefore they must all be organized into one organization.

One of the most marvellous things in America is the fact that we are so unorganized that at any [Pg 2]moment the whole nation may be tied up and bound hand and foot by strikes. Any morning we may wake up and find the nation paralized. Labor is becoming so organized that all industries are at its mercy. The cost of living continues to rise, and we are powerless to prevent profiteers from monopolizing our products and making prices to suit themselves. We have no way to make people work if they don't want to, even if we starve. Under our present laws we cannot prevent strikes and walk-outs, even if we perish. There is nothing to prevent a few men from cornering the market on all commodities and paralizing the nation's industries.

And yet there is a remedy, and a simple one.

Free thought reigns supreme in America, and the national mind and character have been moulded in a remarkably liberal manner.