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Pun intended...even though you don't know it's a pun yet...
"When there is want in a land of plenty."
Here indeed is a paradox. And this writer firmly believes that if it were humanly possible to stay the hands of politicians from signing politically expedient documents and statutes; gag them to silence their similarly expedient utterances and purge their thoughts of forthcoming elections, a fair distribution of the nation's wealth could become a reality. Here, again, we may safely disregard man's laws and turn to natural laws, for an answer. In Nature there is no waste. Everything, animal and plant, when its life is terminated, returns to its original elements, either in the soil or in the waters. Here, through chemical reactions, it is broken up and again becomes a beneficial part of these elements. But man's laws not only permit waste, but actually seem to thrive upon it.
This is particularly true in political, governmental and social spheres. Modern civilization, of which our American loose-leaf form of Democracy is a major part, seems incapable of producing unselfish statesmen. As examined by the thinkers and philosophers of the world today, general conditions point unmistakably to a decrease of intellectual and moral fiber in those who are elected, or take by force, the responsibility of public affairs. America's financial, industrial and commercial systems need revamping by humanitarians, not politicians. The fact that these systems are all-powerful, as well as gigantic, should not give them a license to act as dictators.
In truth, America has less to fear from a political dictatorship than from a financial, industrial or commercial dictatorship. Certainly no reasonable or reasoning person will deny that our financial system, so cleverly interlocked with the international system, needs a thoroughgoing house cleaning. Were this done, and done according to the principles set forth in the Constitution of the United States, industry and commerce would be forced to change their tactics and operate in a less plutocratic, dictatorial and monopolistic manner.
And again we may safely turn to Nature. She does not permit monopoly. Nowhere in either the animal or plant kingdoms will one find monopolistic tendencies. Monopoly, political, industrial or economic, while it is undoubtedly beneficial to a few, is destructive to the mass. In the final analysis, monopoly is self-destructive, and any system that has within it the germ of self-destruction brings widespread disorder to other systems directly or indirectly related to it. Essentially, monopoly is a form of greed and the similarity is decidedly, if amusingly expressed, by calling the reader's attention to a pig pen at feeding time. Invariably, the fattest porker will push and shove and shoulder its way to the feed trough. Greedily it comes very close to monopolizing all the available food. Thus it grows faster and fatter than the others in the same pen -- and reaches the slaughterhouse first! Here we observe how greed and monopoly ultimately does lead to destruction.
Which comes from...
Friend Earthworm
(c) 1941
George Sheffield Oliver,
Oliver's Earthworm Farm School.
I'm not joking:
All because I was researching earthworms because almost all my garden is doing really, really well and loaded to the hilt with nightcrawlers except one bed and I'm trying to figure out what they don't like or how to get them in to work that bed...
"When there is want in a land of plenty."
Here indeed is a paradox. And this writer firmly believes that if it were humanly possible to stay the hands of politicians from signing politically expedient documents and statutes; gag them to silence their similarly expedient utterances and purge their thoughts of forthcoming elections, a fair distribution of the nation's wealth could become a reality. Here, again, we may safely disregard man's laws and turn to natural laws, for an answer. In Nature there is no waste. Everything, animal and plant, when its life is terminated, returns to its original elements, either in the soil or in the waters. Here, through chemical reactions, it is broken up and again becomes a beneficial part of these elements. But man's laws not only permit waste, but actually seem to thrive upon it.
This is particularly true in political, governmental and social spheres. Modern civilization, of which our American loose-leaf form of Democracy is a major part, seems incapable of producing unselfish statesmen. As examined by the thinkers and philosophers of the world today, general conditions point unmistakably to a decrease of intellectual and moral fiber in those who are elected, or take by force, the responsibility of public affairs. America's financial, industrial and commercial systems need revamping by humanitarians, not politicians. The fact that these systems are all-powerful, as well as gigantic, should not give them a license to act as dictators.
In truth, America has less to fear from a political dictatorship than from a financial, industrial or commercial dictatorship. Certainly no reasonable or reasoning person will deny that our financial system, so cleverly interlocked with the international system, needs a thoroughgoing house cleaning. Were this done, and done according to the principles set forth in the Constitution of the United States, industry and commerce would be forced to change their tactics and operate in a less plutocratic, dictatorial and monopolistic manner.
And again we may safely turn to Nature. She does not permit monopoly. Nowhere in either the animal or plant kingdoms will one find monopolistic tendencies. Monopoly, political, industrial or economic, while it is undoubtedly beneficial to a few, is destructive to the mass. In the final analysis, monopoly is self-destructive, and any system that has within it the germ of self-destruction brings widespread disorder to other systems directly or indirectly related to it. Essentially, monopoly is a form of greed and the similarity is decidedly, if amusingly expressed, by calling the reader's attention to a pig pen at feeding time. Invariably, the fattest porker will push and shove and shoulder its way to the feed trough. Greedily it comes very close to monopolizing all the available food. Thus it grows faster and fatter than the others in the same pen -- and reaches the slaughterhouse first! Here we observe how greed and monopoly ultimately does lead to destruction.
Which comes from...
Friend Earthworm
(c) 1941
George Sheffield Oliver,
Oliver's Earthworm Farm School.
I'm not joking:
All because I was researching earthworms because almost all my garden is doing really, really well and loaded to the hilt with nightcrawlers except one bed and I'm trying to figure out what they don't like or how to get them in to work that bed...
And I think I'll just leave it at that. 
(Me)
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