“I AM AN AMERICAN” was the rallying cry of Tom Hickey, a Texas Socialist and publisher of his own magazine (Hickey 6). Hickey, like many other agricultural farmers at the time, was jaded on the issue of ever decreasing living conditions for farmers in Texas. Hickey and other socialists of the era believed that intolerance of the poor farmer by the government was “utterly foreign to American spirit as exemplified by the fathers of our country.” (Hickey 6). The poor living conditions of Texas farmers has it’s roots in the “need” for a permanent low-wage class, perpetual debt, and wage slavery. Having a permanent class of low wage workers was seen as essential to maintain a pure race free from the “biologically impoverished tribes of marginal
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Blacks were expected to be sharecroppers because it was “their natural economic condition” (Foley, 35), an upward mobility was out of the question for blacks working in rural Texas. Despite the predisposed position in society that blacks experienced they were not viewed as outsiders to the nation. “Blacks, whatever else they might be to whites, were not “alien”” (Foley, 63). This permanent class of wage workers was not a conspiracy of anytype. When Texas Congressman Box was asked “what you really want… is a class of people who have not the ability to rise… This is what you want, isn’t it?” Box responded “I believe that is about it” (Foley, 53). This shocking rhetoric shows that maintaining the heir of white superiority was an anchor of society that was not going to …show more content…
The amount of debt that was accumulated to purchase the necessary farming equipment was huge. This lend to farmers becoming “creators of their own bondage” (Foley, 73). The massive debt being accumulated became a cause for the growth of socialism in the state, as a farmer wife put it ‘At the present time we are in debt about $400.... I wish that the whole State was socialist” (Foley, 80). The rise of wage slavery allowed for publications such as Hickey’s “The Rebel” and “Tom Hickey’s Magazine” to take rise. In “Tom Hickey’s Magazine” Hickey believes the current situation to be unstable he claims that the current situation will allow “The pendulum of tolerance will swing forward to a greater measure of individual liberty” (Hickey, 7). However Hickey was vague in terms of his support for worker liberation of all races. Hickey in “The Rebel” “printed letters from white tenants expressing their racial animosity toward mexicans” (Foley, 112) this shows that Hickey was not a total egalitarian socialist in terms of liberating all people from wage slavery. Later in time during the great depression the situation the situation in terms of what form of government would stop the rapid accumulation of debt changed to abstract theories of governance. In a 1933 issue of “The Toreador” an engineer by the name of Howard Scott wrote an article titled “Technocracy...Claim of
Blacks were expected to be sharecroppers because it was “their natural economic condition” (Foley, 35), an upward mobility was out of the question for blacks working in rural Texas. Despite the predisposed position in society that blacks experienced they were not viewed as outsiders to the nation. “Blacks, whatever else they might be to whites, were not “alien”” (Foley, 63). This permanent class of wage workers was not a conspiracy of anytype. When Texas Congressman Box was asked “what you really want… is a class of people who have not the ability to rise… This is what you want, isn’t it?” Box responded “I believe that is about it” (Foley, 53). This shocking rhetoric shows that maintaining the heir of white superiority was an anchor of society that was not going to …show more content…
The amount of debt that was accumulated to purchase the necessary farming equipment was huge. This lend to farmers becoming “creators of their own bondage” (Foley, 73). The massive debt being accumulated became a cause for the growth of socialism in the state, as a farmer wife put it ‘At the present time we are in debt about $400.... I wish that the whole State was socialist” (Foley, 80). The rise of wage slavery allowed for publications such as Hickey’s “The Rebel” and “Tom Hickey’s Magazine” to take rise. In “Tom Hickey’s Magazine” Hickey believes the current situation to be unstable he claims that the current situation will allow “The pendulum of tolerance will swing forward to a greater measure of individual liberty” (Hickey, 7). However Hickey was vague in terms of his support for worker liberation of all races. Hickey in “The Rebel” “printed letters from white tenants expressing their racial animosity toward mexicans” (Foley, 112) this shows that Hickey was not a total egalitarian socialist in terms of liberating all people from wage slavery. Later in time during the great depression the situation the situation in terms of what form of government would stop the rapid accumulation of debt changed to abstract theories of governance. In a 1933 issue of “The Toreador” an engineer by the name of Howard Scott wrote an article titled “Technocracy...Claim of