Functional socialism

CHAPTER XIII WHO CAN, SHALL

We remember the fable of the prince who walked naked in the procession and whose people saw only the royal garments. It was a child—forerunner of the prophets—who remarked that he had nothing on. We laugh at the blindness of our ancestors, but is ours the clearer vision? Do we, for example, see that millions of our people are naked? Do we see that scores of our putative leaders have only to speak to disclose minds equally naked? Do we see—perceive—the grim anomaly of this nakedness in a land of plenty and this mental poverty in a land rich in intellectual wealth? And more to our immediate purpose, do we see the reason why these millions are naked? Do we see—and realize—that they are in desperate need because somebody—not the community—has the power to say that they shall not work? Have we, as our brothers’ keepers, any right to say that they who can work shall not? Rather is it not our supreme privilege to declare that they who can shall?

UNEMPLOYMENT OR LEISURE

Probably never before in our history has it been so vital, so urgent, that we shall see things exactly as