About Woodrow Wilson's concentration camps......

Little known is it that FDR is not the first president to have relocation camps, and Japanese Americans were not the original target. Nearly 30 years prior to World War two, German Americans were the targets and the most interesting thing is that very little is written about this. History has been virtually expunged of this topic. Historians do not write about it, so history books don't contain it, and even from various news journals at the time it was largely unreported. When it was reported, some of the blurbs on it were small and not noteworthy.

The first American President to have internment camps got away with it.

I could only find a handful such articles about the incident, one of which details the treatment of war captives. "How the United States Takes Care of German Prisoners (June, 1918)" The other stories I found are often times reported in passing, they detail the harassment of citizens, business owners, and others who clearly don't exist in a war or battle context.

One such citizen was Agathe Wilhelmine Richrath who:

MISS AGATHE WlLHELMINE RICHRATH, instructor in German at Vassar College, who has been taken into custody at Poughkeepsie on a charge of being pro-German and of circulating German propaganda, has tendered her resignation and it has been accepted. Miss Richrath will be interned as an alien enemy.

The paragraph above the one I quoted lists Dr.s Richard Goldschmidt and Rhoda Erdmann were both detained and interned as well.

Richrath's internment did actually get reported in the NY Times, along with the names of several other people in passing.

Finally, quite a scene was created when the government went after Heinrich Bockisch:

STATUS OF M. WELTE & SONS DEFINED

Official Statement Issued by Bureau of Investigation of the Alien Property Custodian

E. M. Atkin of the Bureau of Investigation, Alien Property Custodian, New York, issued the following statement on Tuesday last relative to M. Welte & Sons:

"Heinrich Bockisch, the factory manager and a large stockholder in M. Welte & Sons, Inc., was taken into custody by the United States Government on April 22, 1918, on charges of German propaganda. He was ordered interned and was removed July 2 to Fort Oglethorpe, with 17 other alien enemies.

The story talks about a fight on the street and more.

These are all names which are lost to history at this point, but what I'm getting at is that Woodrow Wilson's concentration camps were real. The government did not just intern foreigners(which is bad enough) but they also went after those who emigrated to our country, set up businesses, were attempting to be productive members of society, may have planned on staying, and some who were even full time citizens. One of the most "well known"(His name is specifically listed on Wikipedia) internees was Dr. Karl Muck, who once he was released from his year of detainment, left the country.

http://tinyurl.com/kdel444

How the United States Takes Care of German Prisoners (World War One era concentration camps)

How the United States Takes Care of German Prisoners (June, 1918)

A VISITOR TO THE PRISON CAMP AT FORT McPHERSON, GEORGIA, DESCRIBES THE COMFORTABLE LIFE LED BY THE INMATES

By Reuben A. Lewis

WHAT sort of treatment will American soldiers receive when the fortunes of war leave them prisoners in German hands? The question is one that may come to have a very poignant interest as the great struggle goes on; and we shall have the right to ask it in a most emphatic manner. For, in championing the cause of humanity, we are fighting with clean hands. We already have several hundred German prisoners in the United States, and this article was written to tell how they are faring.

"Prisoners of war shall be treated as our own enlisted men," is the rule that prevails in the three prison camps that the government has established at Fort McPherson, Georgia, at Fort Oglethorpe, in the same State, and at Fort Douglas, Arizona.

I recently visited the camp at Fort McPherson, which is the largest of the three, containing eight hundred and sixty-five officers and men from the crews of the German cruisers Kronprinz Wilhelm and Eitel Friedrich. As I surveyed the prison barracks from the outside, I thought that life in limbo must be doleful and monotonous. My impression was heightened by the somber hue of the plain, buff-colored quarters with a background of bare trees. The compound, high upon an eminence, seemed lonely, especially with the surrounding strands of barbed wire and pacing sentinels here and there. Within I expected to find a lot of heavily bearded Germans, crestfallen and pitiable, with nothing to do.

(See the picture at the bottom of page 137)

BARRACKS IN THE CAMP FOR GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR AT FORT McPHERSON, NEAR ATLANTA, GEORGIA

The first shock came when the sentinel stationed at the inner strand of the barbed-wire barrier swung open the inside gate and admitted me, together with the officers who had promised me a view of the camp. Instead of war-weary, thin, morose men, I saw rotund figures, well and even nattily dressed in naval blue unforms. Their faces were round and wore no evidence of inward misery. Most of them smiled readily, and looked at me with friendly curiosity, for civilian visitors were rare.

"That fellow is a pretty good advertisement for our carte du jour," the mess officer chuckled, as he indicated a three-mundredpounder named Schultz. "Come into the kitchen, and I'll give you a gentle hint why."

It was an impromptu call. As the officers stepped inside the room, where savory odors made an attack in force upon my nostrils, the prisoners scrambled to their feet, clicked their heels together at attention, and saluted. The stove, a big modern range, shone. The pots and pans glistened. The floor was spotless.

"Let's see your karte," the commander suggested.

And here was the day's menu:

Breakfast—oatmeal, rye bread, butter, coffee.

Dinner—tomato soup, Vienna steak with sauce, potatoes, bread, butter.

Afternoon—tea and cakes. Supper—cheese, bread, butter, tea.

"No war rations here," the captain commented. "Their food is prepared by chefs who formerly served on transatlantic liners. The German taste is catered to, even to the extent of serving sauerkraut, sausage, rye bread, and Limburger cheese. In fact, they can have anything, provided it can be bought with the food ration allowance of forty-four cents—the same as is given to the American enlisted man. There is virtually no waste. The last estimate was one fiftieth of one per cent. Quite a contrast with the half-pound loss per man per day in our own army!"

The serving of tea or coffee in the afternoon impressed me as being rather a luxury for prisoners of war, but the officers explained that it would be a real hardship to the sailors to forego this customary little repast.

There was nothing else about the compound that seemed luxurious. The arrangement of the buildings is as simple as their architecture. All are constructed of undressed lumber, painted a dull buff, and lacking in frills. They are grouped in threes, so that each barrack has a mess-hall in front and a bath-house in the rear. The prisoners can keep clean, for there is plenty of hot and cold water, with shower-baths and modern plumbing.

(See the picture at the bottom of page 138)

A SAILOR FROM THE KRONPRINZ WILHELM WITH A HOME MADE MOTION-PICTURE-PROJECTOR

The living-quarters are of the same design as those in which the candidates for commissions in the first officers' training-camps stayed—long, one-story affairs, with three intercommunicating units. In front there is an office partitioned off from the barracks. There, a rather important personage, the warrant officer, holds forth.

(See the picture on page 139)

POLE-VAULTING IS ONE OF THE MANY FORMS OF ATHLETIC EXERCISE PERMITTED TO THE PRISONERS AT FORT MCPHERSON

Beneath the barracks I noticed freshly disturbed earth, with here and there a yawning excavation. This recalled the one startling event in the history of the camp— an escape.

When the prisoners were moved into their permanent barracks, after a brief stay in the quarters of the regulars at Fort McPherson, they were at loss for elbowroom. They desired to write letters and play games, to study, to get a little privacy. The mess-halls were available for reading, but they were not private.

Some keen-eyed fellow observed that, owing to the slope of the ground on which the living-quarters were built, there was an intervening space between the earth and the floor, ranging from two to five feet. With a spade he dug and cleared out the earth, gaining a greater leeway. Soon he had made a little cubby-hole, floored and enclosed, between two of the posts supporting the barracks. Because it involved digging, and because the term was timely, the subterranean retreat was called a " trench."

The idea met with instant approval, and soon the space beneath the barracks was honeycombed with trenches. More than a hundred were excavated to serve as carpenter-shops, furniture-factories, study-rooms, and even tea-houses. They had a great vogue until one wily crew of ten restless Germans tunneled more than thirty feet and dug their way out to temporary freedom under the surrounding barbed-wire fence.

EDITOR'S NOTE—Shortly before this magazine went to press it was announced that five hundred and seven additional German prisoners of war had arrived at Fort McPherson, having been transferred from Fort Douglas, Arizona.

(See the picture at the top of page 140)

COUNT ALFRED DE NIEZCHOWSKI, AN OFFICER FROM ONE OF THE GERMAN CRUISERS, AND HIS PRISON GARDEN

The fugitives were caught by the Secret Service, and the Germans felt a first touch of the iron fist. Thenceforth trenches were verboten.

President Wilson's phrase, " We have no quarrel with the German people," may be hard to understand on the outside of the compound, but not within it. Uncle Sam is merciful to those who cannot fight. The government has placed few restrictions on the prisoners, and they live nearly as they please. They can gaze upon the gruff-looking countenance of Hindenburg. If they wish, they may salute the Kaiser's flag and mediate reverently upon the symbolism of its black, red, and white—" from night to light through blood."

I saw a life-size portrait of the most-hated man in the world adorning, in honor, the most prominent wall in the Y. M. C. A. building. Undisturbed, the German flag was draped above its champion. There was no ban upon the patriotism of the prisoners.

There is only a slight suggestion of the military in the prison camp. For the purposes of administration, the captives are organized into eight companies. A German warrant officer, corresponding to a sergeant, is in charge of each company. He sees that the quarters are kept in order, that the men are supplied with proper clothing, and that they rigidly observe the only two orders of the commandant, Colonel John T. Van Orsdale. The two things that the colonel requires of the Germans are presence at roll-call twice daily, and one hour of exercise.

A glimpse within the neat and orderly barracks indicates that the occupants are sailors, for one sees nondescript kits and chests and many nautical knickknacks. Otherwise the prisoners' quarters are much like the buildings in our own army or navy camps, with their olive-drab blankets and regulation cots and mattresses.

Naturally, it can scarcely be said that the inmates lead a gay life, and yet they have many occupations and amusements. I was momentarily astonished when a lieutenant whispered to me that they were raising an army, and that not a day passed without the creation of a company, a troop, or a battery. In due time, he said, there would be at least a division of warriors; but then he explained that fortunately the fighters were only toy figures.

The toy-shop, where horsemen and foot-soldiers are made with soft metal and paint, is one of the most interesting spots in the compound. In this tiny nook three artizans work from morning to night, and each day they produce about sixty brilliantly uniformed soldiers — French, German, American. English, or Turkish. It is pleasant to add that they work partly for the benefit of the Red Cross. The toys are shipped to various cities by the wives of the officers, and sold. One-third of the profits have been given to the Red Cross—an amount of more than three hundred dollars.

There is a small colony of wood-carvers, fifteen or more devoting hours daily to this laborious art; but the most painstaking craftsmen that I saw were three sailors from the Eitel Friedrich, who had made a six-foot replica of the liner, complete in every point, with life-boats, decks, guns, and even wireless. The proud builders told me that it took three months' time to lay the keel, supply the superstructure, and make the cruiser generally shipshape.

While the prisoners are, to all appearances, satisfied and orderly, a close vigil is kept over them. Two guard companies, each of one hundred and fifty men, keep watch throughout the day and night. Sentinels patrol the grounds. In case of a rush for liberty, a withering voltage may be shot into the barbed-wire fence by merely pressing a switch. Three towers, forty feet high, have been erected at the corners of the enclosure, and powerful search-lights, capable of Hooding the camp with blinding rays at night, are mounted upon the summits. Incandescent lights are set at forty-foot intervals along the fence.

(See the picture at the bottom of page 141)

BUNGALOW IN WHICH THE OFFICERS OF THE CRUISERS KRONPRINZ WILHELM AND EITEL FRIEDRICH ARE QUARTERED

Among the baggage that the prisoners brought to Fort McPherson was an extraordinary piece of crazy-looking mechanism, which seemed to embody parts of a bicycle, a clock, and a camera. A warrant officer was summoned to explain just what the machine was.

"When the Kronprinz Wilhelm was raiding shipping on the Atlantic," he volunteered, "we captured an English liner. On it we found several reels of English war films. Curious to know what the enemy was doing, the crew wanted to make the movies move. It seemed absurd, for there was no projecting-machine aboard. However, we also found clocks, cameras, and a bicycle, and one of our mechanics announced that there would be a showing. He dissected the bicycle, took some wheels from a clock, and combined what he needed with the lens and shutter of a camera. Sure enough, there was an exhibition, and only one criticism was heard. The bicycle sprocket and chain, used in turning the shutter of the machine, made a terrible noise by banging against the biscuit-tin that contained the film. It sounded more like a boiler-factory than a motion-picture show."

This primitive projector was discarded shortly after the prisoners reached Fort McPherson, for here they are treated to the movies twice a week. Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and Roscoe Arbuckle are the star attractions, and the most corpulent one is the favorite.

I saw one group of men who were enjoying a little performance of their own. They were gathered about their "wireless station," and had just "raised" Berlin. From a small wooden box, two knobs, a scrap or so of tin, and a few bits of string, humorists had constructed a fake radio outfit. All doubts as to its power and range were removed, for upon the side of the coilbox was marked in bold letters " five thousand volts."

The operator was busied in receiving war news, which purported to come direct from the Kaiser and General von Ludendorff. Some of the messages were personal, for a brother-in-law of the general was for a time interned here as an enemy alien. The harmless little box sank battle-ships, killed thousands of troops, and even heralded the coming of peace. But rumors fly in all military circles, and this " intelligence bureau" has never been banned.

(The picture on page 143 takes up the entire page)

Some of the prisoners are content to while away the hours tinkering with toys and baubles, but the greater number follow trades, play in one of the musical organizations, attend classes, and write letters or diaries. I saw one fellow teaching a pet lizard. Another, with his head cupped in his hands, was studying Sanskrit. There is a colony of pets, which includes dogs, rabbits, cats, and a parrot.

There is more reading than writing, for the government restricts the correspondence of the prisoners. Each inmate may send out two letters and four postal cards each month to friends in Germany or America. Although incoming and outgoing .mails are carefully censored, there is no limit to the volume of letters and newspapers that a prisoner may receive.

The officers do not mingle with the men. Off from the larger group of barracks is a spacious bungalow, surrounded by a rustic fence and some patches of flowers. Here the commissioned officers are quartered. Though originally a bare, unadorned structure, it has been converted into an attractive abode. Under the direction of the residents, porches, fashioned from limbs of trees, were added on the front and side. There is an air of coziness within the quarters, and they are sufficiently large to permit a study-room and bunk for each inmate.

Several means of earning money are open to the men. They operate a laundry, a tailor-shop, a barber-shop, and other little enterprises. Five clerks are employed in the office of the camp executive. No one, however, is compelled or urged to do any labor except about the men's own quarters and in the kitchen.

The camp theater is the amusement center. It has a twenty-foot stage, with two sets of scenery and many properties. There are several companies of players, who offer light skits of their own composition. Vaudeville artists give variety to the shows. Patriotic plays have been presented, and in one a submarine was prominent. A grand piano from the Kronprinz Wilhelm occupies a prominent place near the stage.

Athletics are stimulated in every possible manner. The government, as has already been stated, insists that each prisoner shall have one hour of exercise daily, but he has the option of participating in the setting-up drills or playing games. The Germans have taken a fling at baseball and football, but neither of these has gained the vogue of fist-ball, in which a ball is batted to and fro over a net with the closed fist.

(See the picture at the bottom of page 144)

THE DUMMY WIRELESS STATION AT WHICH THE GERMAN PRISONERS RECEIVE IMAGINARY WAR NEWS DIRECT FROM BERLIN

(See the picture at the top of page 145)

THE KITCHEN CORPS WHICH SERVES FOUR MEALS A DAY TO THE GERMAN PRISONERS AT FORT MCPHERSON

The captives are not without benefit of clergy or lacking in the matter of friends. The Y. M. C. A. director and a German Lutheran pastor provide athletic supplies and materials for work, after the order has been indorsed by the camp officials. A number of German-American institutions have seen that the prisoners should want for nothing. Last Christmas the receiving officers were swamped with such quantities of canned goods that there was no place to store some of them. Colonel Van Orsdale was obliged to send out to the prisoners' friends the rather curious message that only delicacies were acceptable.

Play does not consume all the time of the prisoners, for they must clean up their quarters, serve in the kitchen at certain times, and do what their warrant officers order. As in all places, there are some "conscientious objectors " to work. When a prisoner rebels against the orders of his officer, he must face the camp executive, who boasts that he can accomplish the change—bad German, good German—by a simple little formula. Strong-arm methods are barred, but a vulnerable spot has been found—the stomach.

The experimental laboratory in which these reactions occur is a small tin house. When one of the captives gives way to his national temperament and endeavors to make his will law, he is escorted to the shining little retreat and assigned to a seat within the structure, through which few rays of light filter. Seven days on bread and water are sure to reduce him to subjection. The little tin house is familiarly known as the Good German Factory.

The United States was probably the only one of the Allied nations to take German prisoners before any of its own men fell into the hands of the enemy. Just what treatment American captives will receive in Germany is still a matter of some uncertainty. We may find occasion for protest, but we are not likely to try to balance the misdeeds of schrecklichkeit by reprisals in kind. German captives will be treated humanely, however few or many we may have of them; and plans are even now being made for the reception of large numbers who are likely to be sent over from France.

I repeat that Uncle Sam, championing humanity, fights with clean hands.

Here's how you spell "Distributive Justice" in German: Verteilungsgerechtigkeit

Considering that "distributive justice" is an ideal that progressives wholly ripped off from German intellectuals, I thought we all ought to know how to at least spell it in it's native tongue. It's a Germanic idea so why should we all act like it's American? Just a few notes:

This is the Wikipedia page for "Verteilungsgerechtigkeit", and this is the Google translation of that page.

There are various books out there that discuss Gustav Schmoller's ideas of Verteilungsgerechtigkeit, such as 1, 2. There are of course other intellectuals to be named besides Schmoller(Such as Adolph Wagner), but this long German word is your key to researching this if it suits your fancy. You will get results that are in the German language, but they can be translated on the fly online.

If these progressives want to import German ideas or rely upon them, fine. But they do not thereafter get to act as if they were the smartest people in the room and came up with something brand new out of thin air, and when they pass off crusty old German ideas as new American ones we should nail them on it. There really isn't anything new about progressivism at all, and in the end, tyranny is older than Liberty. Liberty is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man.

http://tinyurl.com/oua8h3k

Gustav Schmoller - an important source of Germanic ideals in early progressivism

I recently wrote about how John A Ryan, the "Right Reverend New Dealer", used the writing of Gustav von Schmoller as a source for his idea of "distributive justice." As I noted then, another person influenced by Schmoller was Emily Greene Balch. There are plenty of others:

Thorstein Veblen was influenced by him, having written a piece on Gustav von Schmoller's Economics.

William J. Ashley, gave his inaugural address to the University of Toronto with a dedication to Gustav Schmoller on page 2.

W.E.B. DuBois, like Emily Balch, studied under Schmoller.

Richard T. Ely, Florence Kelley, John Graham Brooks, and Henry Carter Adams were all students of Schmoller's in their travels to Germany. Florence Kelley would be involved in various publications, she translated one of Friedrich Engel's works into English, but probably most notably, one of Florence Kelley's protege's was Frances Perkins, an appointee of FDR to Labor Secretary. Henry Carter Adams was an advisor to Committee on Interstate Commerce.

As you can see, at several times the ideas that this guy planted in others would end up directly shaping American policy.

http://tinyurl.com/kjfx8yh

Progressingamerica speaks with Mark Levin

The phonecall is up on YouTube now, I got through tonight during the last part of the third hour. Levin has been asking the question for it seems years now "How would you describe our form of government?" and I have been wanting to answer that question for quite some time now. Last Wednesday(In the beginning of the second hour), he did it again and I took the opportunity to answer the question. This really was spur of the moment, if I would have had my preference I would not have done this so close to my efforts as I described to KrisAnne Hall. But he said it so I called. Here's the transcript of what I said:

Last Wednesday you asked the question "This isn't Constitutional Republicanism, so what is it?" and you talked about it a little while ago as well and you're right it is alien.

What we live under is a progressive democracy and I have two pieces of information that I can illustrate this to you.

When I say that we live in a progressive democracy I'm also referencing an out of copyright book by Herbert Croly, that was specifically recommended by former president Theodore Roosevelt.

The first thing, Croly writes about "worshippers of the word" and he talks about the "monarchy of the word." What he's getting at is the Federal Constitution. We've always known that these progressives hate the constitution, and it's written right here on page 44. He says "The Law in the shape of the Federal Constitution"....

Levin: Alright you don't need to read it to me I believe you. As a matter of fact we can do better than that, we can quote Woodrow Wilson.

Yes. Yes, you have a chapter about Woodrow Wilson in your book Ameritopia and I'm so thankful you did that. The other thing I was going to mention, again from Progressive Democracy, is he talks about social legislation. He talks about how legislators have become innovators. And how legislation...... instead of legislation taking care of everything it gets passed off to a commission, and that's exactly what Obamacare does.

Why is Obamacare 3000 pages? Because it's not legislation, it's social legislation. That's why there's been 15,000 regulations that come out of it.

Levin: You know what it really is too my friend, as I'm listening to you, it is a re-writing of the constitution that's what it is. So it's not really a matter of three branches of the federal government anymore. It's three branches and this other thing, which lords over us. Right?

Yes sir, they've been trying to get around the constitution for 100 years and the sad thing is.....

Levin: And it's worked.

They're almost there.

Levin: Let me tell you something, you're very good. Do you have all my books? or...

So here is where he offered me a book and of course who could say no? But I'm certain I left an impression, given that a few minutes after I was off the line he references my call and the things I was trying to get across.

As to the article I mentioned from Theodore Roosevelt, it's Two Noteworthy Books on Democracy"

I skipped a few beats in my call, for example one of the things I wanted to mention is that Croly's influence is still with us today. He co-founded The New Republic. You may have heard of it. When he mentioned Woodrow Wilson I would have liked to have pointed out that I blog about these progressives and that I have it as a personal goal to make it easier to locate the information(and others) that I talked about. But it was not my objective here to go about mentioning the blog site.

Lastly, I intended on using the word framework. This concept of "social legislation" is a powerful one that I wish I could educate more people about; though calling into a national radio show is indeed a good step. But wheras legislation is intended to deal with x y or z, social legislation is different. It sets up a framework in which regulation falls into, like a cup or a bowl, and the regulators take care of the rest. This is how Congress gets away with not dealing with problems and why the massive bureaucracy is abusive of the people. After 100 years, they're arrogant and think nobody can stop them.

Portions of what I stated to Levin, you will catch the similarity to two of my prior blog posts in which I discuss these very things. I don't want to re-hash old posts, but I do want to give you the direct source links and quotes. Here is the post about Progressive Democracy, page 44:

The Law in the shape of the Federal Constitution really came to be a monarchy of the Word. It had been imposed upon the popular will, which was the only power capable of disputing its authority; and its friends came more and more to assume that the imposition was wise and beneficent. A systematic attempt was made to justify the supremacy of the Law. The people were warned that, if they rebelled, the just and awful judgment of the Lord would overtake them. Thus the aspirations and the conviction of the early democrats that popular political authority should be righteously expressed hardened into a system, which consecrated one particular machinery of possibly righteous expression. Reverence for law was made to mean reverence for one specific formulation of Law. Reverence for order was made to mean reverence for an established order. All that the American people had to do to insure their political salvation was vigilantly to safeguard the specific formulation of law and order which was found in the sacred writing.

There's more in this book and on these pages, I hope that people will be encouraged to read it. Here's my past post about social legislation, Progressive Democracy page 362:

Legislation is being used as a means of modifying social behavior, not social behavior as an excuse for formulating legislation. The legislator has become an innovator. He is dealing with an extremely complex and elusive material, and it is most difficult for him to define in advance how the objects of the law are best to be realized. The difficulty of the job has not prevented him from very frequently trying it out ; but he has learned something from his failures. He is learning that an extremely detailed and comprehensive statute is usually ineffective, because of the impossibility of anticipating all the conditions which affect the operation of a specific rule. Social legislation is coming more and more to demand results rather than prescribe means. Statutes are being passed in the interest of the safety of employees in factories, which merely define safety as such freedom from danger to life and health as the nature of the employment will reasonably permit. The duty of drawing up a set of regulations which will provide sufficient safeguards for the life and health of the operatives is intrusted to a commission. All that the legislature does is to declare that industrial employment shall be reasonably safeguarded. The commission makes a comprehensive investigation of the conditions upon which the health and safety of the industrial employees depend and it issues orders based on the result of its investigations.

http://tinyurl.com/m72sc9x

Speaking with KrisAnne Hall

This Sunday I called into Kris Anne Hall's radio show on GCN, depending on how active you are in your local groups, you may have seen Kris Anne's presentation on the history of the Constitution. If you have never heard her do this, you are missing out.

Here is her educational seminar on the "genealogy" of the Constitution. It's an hour well spent.

Here is the phone call.

If you are interested in being a part of the solution, and helping to make it easier to educate your fellow patriot or even for them to educate themselves, I have a group up on Freedom Connector called "Commuting Patriots" which is where I will be doing the work on Madison's Notes.

Here is the demo that we created.

http://tinyurl.com/nemdm9y

Is "Distributive Justice" yet another idea that progressives imported from Germany?

In his book "Distributive Justice" John A. Ryan writes the following: (page 252)

The Canon of Human Welfare

We say "human" welfare rather than "social" welfare, in order to make clear the fact that this canon considers the well being of men not only as a social group, but also as individuals. It includes and summarises all that is ethically and socially feasible in the five canons already reviewed. It takes account of equality, inasmuch as it regards all men as persons, as subjects of rights; and of needs, inasmuch as it awards to all the necessary participants in the industrial system at least that amount of remuneration which will meet the elementary demands of decent living and self development. It is governed by efforts and sacrifices, at least in so far as they are reflected in productivity and scarcity; and by productivity and scarcity to whatever extent is necessary in order to produce the maximum net results. It would give to every producer sufficient remuneration to evoke his greatest net contribution to the productive process. Greatest "net" contribution; for a man's absolute maximum product may not always be worth the required price. For example: a man who for a salary of 2500 dollars turns out a product valued at 3000 dollars, should not be given 3000 dollars in order to induce him to bring forth a product worth 3300 dollars. In this case a salary of 2500 dollars evokes the maximum net product, and represents the reward which would be assigned by the canon of human welfare. Once the vital needs of the individual have been safeguarded, the supreme guide of the canon of human welfare is the principle of maximum net results, or the greatest product at the lowest cost.

It is not contended here that this canon ought never to undergo modification or exception. Owing to the exceptional hazards and sacrifices of their occupation, a combination of producers might be justified in exacting larger compensation than would be accorded them by the canon of human welfare on the basis of net results in the present conditions of supply and scarcity. Unusual needs and capacities might also justify a strong group in pursuing the same course. All that is asserted at present is that in conditions of average competition the canon of human welfare is not unjust. And this is all that is necessary as a preliminary to the discussion of just profits.1

1 A very suggestive discussion of the psychology, the general principles, and the practical limitations of distributive justice, will be found in an article by Gustav Schmoller, entitled, " The Idea of Justice in Political Economy." It is No. 113 in the Publications of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

The footnote is what's important here. First, who was John A. Ryan? He was the Jim Wallis of his day. A corrupt social justice/gospel peddler. John Ryan was called by many in his day "The Right Reverend New Dealer" (second link) for his support of the New Deal. Jonah Goldberg has an entry on NRO about him here, which will give you a bit of an idea and help me get to the next item.

As you can see from his own book, he's referencing Gustav von Schmoller. Who was Schmoller? He was what they called a "Kathedersozialist", which means "Socialist of the chair".(As you can see from that last link, Emily Greene Balch was also influenced by Schmoller) In other words, an armchair revolutionary. I find this kind of ironic, that even this is a term imported from Germany. A modified and updated version of this could be "armchair quarterback". That just goes to show you how infected our society is with Germanic socialist ideals. But after a century of this sort of propaganda in our colleges and even schools, what else would anybody expect?

Here's a bit of what this socialist theoretician wrote:

The decisive ideal conceptions will be influenced not exclusively but essentially by distributive justice. Institutions which govern whole groups of human beings and the entire distribution of wealth and incomes necessarily call forth a judgment upon their total effects. Inasmuch, indeed, as single institutions concern only single men and single phases of life, the justice required will only be a partial one. Naturally this is always easy to attain. A just assessment of taxes, a just distribution of the burdens for the improvement of highways, of the duty of military service, a just gradation of wages are much easier to attain than a just distribution of the total incomes and wealth. But an endeavor towards these ends will never cease; all partially just regulations have significance only in a system of the just distribution of the total. And with this we finally come to the question what can be and what should the State do in this matter?

In our view it will obviously not be a body confined to the extension of justice in criminal law, in the jurisdiction upon contracts and further, perhaps, in the assessment of taxes, but ignoring the just distribution of goods. What sense is there in warming up in the legislatures over the hundredth part of a cent, which a quart of beer or a yard of cloth is raised in price for the poor man, when one takes the standpoint on principle, that his wages are to be regarded as something indifferent and remote from all human intervention. Our modern civilized commonwealth indeed cannot remove every injustice, because primarily it operates and has to operate by means of law. But it should not therefore be indifferent to the moral sentiments of men who ask for justice in distributing wealth and incomes for the grand total of human society. The State is the centre and the heart in which all institutions empty and unite. It also has a strong direct influence on the distribution of incomes and wealth as the greatest employer of labor, the greatest property holder, or the administrator of the greatest undertakings. Above all it exercises as legislator and administrator the greatest indirect influence on law and custom, on all social institutions; and this is the decisive point.

This is what we're dealing with, this is how the elites think. They view the state as the center of our lives, and do not think it tyranny to be this insertive into daily activity. They have openly written: "No, planning is not by itself tyrannical".

What do those of us out here who are being "planned" have to say? Yes, you are tyrants. You are dictating to our lives about things you have no business dictating about.

As to Ryan, John A. Ryan's most widely known book was not "Distributive Justice"(read it here), but rather his prior book "A Living Wage"(read it here). But according to Ryan himself, in his autobiography:

Distributive Justice is unquestionably the most important book I have written

He had his own reasons for its importance, unfortunately his autobiography is locked down under copyright and we cannot see what those are. But I know why I think it's important. From what I can tell Ryan's book is the first time "Distributive Justice" enters the English Language in a major way; that is, here's a popular writer at the time, using this term as a book title that would be sold at book stores and likely used as a college text by some of his peers. Sure, when Gustav Schmoller's work on this matter is originally translated from German into English(Translation date unknown, but the publication was 1894, so it's safe to say that the translation was done around that same time) would be the first time it enters into the language in a small way.(Outside of offhand classroom references by various professors of the late 1800's. But those are impossible to track)

http://tinyurl.com/ol5wfxv