L'Oncle Sam: Power Luster

L'Oncle Sam: Power Luster

Efforts to explain the world economic depression led sapient Professor Corrado Gini of the University of Rome last week to divide homo sapiens, like Gaul, into three parts. This was important because the French semi-official newsorgan Le Temps proceeded next day to take the division most seriously. It is simple, logical, best of all allows everyone else to shift the whole blame for nearly everything upon L'Oncle Sam.

"The cause of world economic depression becomes clear," wrote Professor Gini, "if we will but consider humanity under the great divisions Homo Orientalis, Homo Europens and Homo Americanus.

"Homo Orientalis works just sufficiently to provide food and shelter for himself and his dependents. Up to the present time Homo Europeus has regarded work as a means to an end. ... He has always been ready to abandon it for intellectual joys when he felt his future was assured.

"We come now to Homo Americanus. He works for work's sake, like an artist for art's sake. He does not know when to stop and, in fact, never stops at all, so that the result is bound to be stupendous overproduction followed by world depression."

Commenting, Le Temps accepted with satisfaction the theory that U. S. overproduction is the cause of world depression, but doubted that U. S. citizens "work for work's sake," pointing out that U. S. labor unions work tirelessly for shorter hours. What, then, supplies the U. S. urge to work? "In the last analysis," observed Le Temps, "the American overworks to overproduce and thereby overenrich himself. The super-assiduity of Homo Americanus springs from his lust for Power."

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