Freedom From Want; S. Daily

I have no bills of any kind to pay. The barber comes over three times a week to look after my beard and hair. My laundry goes out and comes back with automatic regular ity. If I become ill, I'm assured of excellent medical atten tion. I am exempt from all forms of taxes, federal, state, [62 ] local. I'm never called upon to contribute to worthy causes.. I have no home and family responsibilities, worries, fears, anxieties. There are no civic or other obligations in mylife. It is the philosophic theory of Marx, Engels, and Dewey that economic security is the first and last law of Hfe; that if you make the people economically secure, you will have solved their major problems. National and international peace, say these philosophers, depends upon making the people free from the fear of want, hunger, and lack-being the oldest and greatest fear in the world. They also hold economic insecurity as the primary cause of crime, and that economic security is the cure of crime.

I know how false this theory is. I have perfect creature security here in prison. But man shall not liye by bread alone. Poverty is not the cause of crime, nor is prosperity the cure of crime. There are no typical paupers confined in this institution. If I depended upon my bodily securities to heal my criminal personality, it would not be healed. My peace and life-gladness are not governed by the amount of food I put into my stomach or the brand of raiment I drape over my frame. My airy room and good bed, in them selves, cannot give me a contented mind and a tranquil soul. The reason is an obvious one, namely, that any mental contentment and tranquility of soul produced by worldly means alone puts an end to growth. Except for an active dissatisfaction, I should now be adapted to this prison environment, institutionalized, a helpless victim to state security. Such inmates we call stir bums. They are the adapted individuals. They are content, satisfied, arrested.

[ 63] It is not yielding to world security that builds character, redeems personality, and releases soul. The reverse is true. EDITOR'S NOTE: It may be said that the Welfare State is not com parable to prison life; that in the Welfare State, government only guarantees minimum needs to its subjects, but without the controls of a prison. Such a distinction is invalid both in fact and by judicial interpretation: It is hardly lack of due process for the government to regulate that which it subsidizes. UNITED STATES SUPREME COlJRT Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. Ill, p.1S1, Oct., 1942 [64 ] WHERE KARL MARX WENT WRONG tLJ Samuel IJ. Pettengill Now that the whole nation is talking about the communist threat to the country-at home and abroad-it seems a good time to ask what is really wrong with Marxism. In 1848, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto, which begins with these words: "A specter is haunting Europe-the specter of Communism."