text:
A Board of Trade return . . . (1907)
A Board of Trade return gives the number of persons killed on railways in the United Kingdom last year in course of public traffic as 1,169.
Of these 166 were passengers, 438 servants of companies or contractors, the remainder trespassers, suicides and persons passing over level crossings. The number injured during the year was 7,204. In addition 45 servants and 28 other persons were killed, and 13,211 people injured upon railway companies' premises, but in which the movement of vehicles used exclusively upon railways was not concerned.
Labels: May 1907, R1907, Railway Industry, Workplace Deaths, Workplace Injuries Links to this post
The Premier Railway System. And Those Who Work It (1907)
A few instructive extracts are given by the Paris Herald from an article by Hector Macfarlane in a recent number of the Railway Magazine upon the L & N.W. Railway whose greatness as "the Premier line " we are called upon to join with the author in eulogizing, and whose stupendous wages bill it seems to be expected we shall contemplate "in wonder and amaze." The income of this company for the year of grace 1906 was considerably in excess of £15,000,000 and it is anticipated that the present ideal of £20,000,000 will be realised within a few years.
Of this £15,000,000 no less a sum than £5,300,000 was paid in salaries and wages. This amount includes the salary of the General Manager who, it is alleged, is in receipt of the fairly adequate "dot" of £7,000 per annum. Of course all the members of the staff are not remunerated upon the some generous scale— quite. A number only receive £3,000 or £2,000, and even £1,000 and less is well within the experience of a considerable number. In fact, according to an examination made by the Railway Review it would appear that there are some in receipt of less than £53 per annum seeing that £53 is the average which the Railway Review informs us the total wages bill works out to per head. But then it must not be overlooked that every one of these something less-than-a-pound-a-weekers, have by the exercise of thrift and temperance and whole-souled concentration upon the business of the Company, an opportunity (nearly free and moderately unfettered) of rising to the position of General Manager at £7,000 a year—general managers being always products of such exercises! And if they don't seize their opportunities they have no one to blame but themselves.
But even if it be objected that as there is only one manager, the odds against the aspirant for managerial position are, as that anti-betting organ, the Daily News would say, somewhat "long," there is always the unanswerable retort that these bottom dogs have the gratification of knowing that they are working for "the Premier line of Great Britain" — absolutely the only Premier line in this happy island. No employee of any other line can say as much or nearly as much. The solace which the L. & N.W.R. submerged tenth must derive from that reflection when the baby wants new shoes and Johnny's trousers refuse to stand another patch, and the bread-and-dripping diet begins to pall, must be incalculable— worth another pound a week (or thereabouts) at least.
But Mr. Macfarlane has more information for us. The debenture holders, it appears, draw £1,000,000 per annum as their share of the proceeds of the work they don't do, while preference, guaranteed, and ordinary stockholders annex a matter of £5,000,000 in return for their kindness in providing the means for the working of the Premier transit system. In view of the fact that many of these have probably never seen the great company in action (indubitably an inestimable loss to them) it will he readily agreed, and by none more readily than the less-than-a-pound-a-weekers who merely do the work of the line, that the stockholders' annual share of the income estimated by the Railway Review as representing an average of a paltry £73 per head per annum, is by no means excessive.
Filius Populi
Labels: Filius Populi, May 1907, R1907, Railway Industry, Railway Workers, Shareholders, Working Poor Links to this post
The Reward of Intellect. (1907)
The Publishers' League, in a bulletin directed against the tariff on type-setting machines, reports that the Mergenthaler Linotype Co. has bought up over 600 patents, of which about 50 are used, the others being "locked up" for the purpose of perpetuating the Mergenthaler monopoly. Mergenthaler invented the machine. He died in poverty. The concern which "capitalized" and exploited the invention has become one of the strongest monopolies in America.
Labour (St. Louis).
Labels: Intellectual Property, May 1907, Monopoly, Patent Law, R1907 Links to this post
S.P.G.B. Lecture List. May, 1907. (1907)
Click the picture to enlarge.
Labels: May 1907, Outdoor Speaking, Party News, R1907, SPGB Lecture List Links to this post
Party Notes. (1907)
This month the open-air propaganda commences in real earnest for the season. A Lecture List appears on the back page, but this does not include the week-night meetings.of which most branches are holding two or three each week.
I have to announce another change in the address of the Head Office. After May 1st it will be located at 22, Great James St.. Bedford Row, London, W.C. The removal is another sign of our continued progress.
When the Party was formed its postal address was the Communist Club, 107, Charlotte St., W. There our letters were received and we held our Executive Meetings. But we had no proper office, and the business of the Party was conducted by its various officials at addresses as wide asunder as Ilford and Watford, Tottenham and Tooting. Later we took an office at 1a, Caledonian Road, which was somewhat inconvenient for South London members, and where we were not permitted to exhibit our name at the front door. Afterwards we removed to a larger and more central office at 28, Cursitor St, and now we are installed at 22, Great James Street.
Each succeeding change involved a greater expense, but the growth of the Party enabled us to meet it Our new office is larger and more comfortable, also better ventilated than any of the preceding ones, hut it is still more expensive. however, we have signed an agreement for twelve months certain, and have no doubt that all members, when they view it, will appreciate the change and redouble their efforts for the Party, to enable the additional cost to be met.
The Economic and Speakers' Classes will continue at the new address. The former will be held on May 9 and alternate Thursdays at. 8 p.m. J. Fitzgerald is the conductor. The Speakers' Class will be held on May 16 and alternate Thursdays, under the guidance of J. Kent. All comrades are invited to these classes.
J. A. Lain has been expelled by the Tottenham Branch, for voting for a Mr. Broadbent, a nondescript candidate, once a member of the S.D.F., at a recent election.
The West Ham Branch have broken out on new ground, having commenced meetings in South West Ham. the stronghold of Mr Will Thorne, M.P. More power to their elbow.
R. H. Kent and F. E. Dawkins visited Nottingham on April 7th. The weather was very unfavourable, but they held a meeting and sold a good quantity of Socialist Standards.
Romford Division Branch are tackling some new districts. They cordially invite those who have regularly attended their meetings during the past season to ''screw up their courage to the sticking point" and join the Party. The S.P.G.B. Club has removed, owing to expiration of lease, from 43 to 39, York Road, Ilford and new members will he welcomed.
The Battersea Branch is forging ahead The premises having been sold they were compelled to give up Sydney Hall, but soon found other suitable quarters.
Copies of the photograph taken at the recent Annual Conference can now he had from Head Office, 22 Great James Street, Bedford Row, W. C. at ninepence each. Postage twopence extra.
Adolph Kohn
Order The Socialist Standard through your local newsagent. If you have any difficulty in obtaining it regularly, please communicate with the S.P.G.B., 22 Great James Street, Bedford Row, W. C.
Labels: Adolph Kohn, F. E. Dawkins, History of the SPGB, May 1907, Nottingham, Outdoor Speaking, Party News, R. H. Kent, R1907, SPGB Romford Branch, SPGB Tottenham Branch, SPGB West Ham Branch Links to this post
The Century of Capitalism: What the Nineteenth Century Stood For (1907)
The nineteenth century was the century of capitalism. Capitalism filled this century to overflowing with its commerce, its industry, its manners, its fashions, its literature, its arts, its science, its philosophy, its religion, its politics and its civil code, more universal than the laws imposed by Rome upon the nations of the ancient world. The capitalist movement, starting from England, the United States, and France, has shaken the foundations of Europe and of the world. It has forced the old feudal monarchies of Austria and Germany and the barbaric despotism of Russia to put themselves in line; and in these last days it has gone into the extreme east, into Japan, where it has overthrown the feudal system and implanted the industry and the politics of capitalism.
Capitalism has taken possession of our planet; its fleets bring together the continents which oceans have separated; its railroads, spanning mountains and deserts, furrow the earth; the electric wires, the nervous system of the globe, bind all nations together, and their palpitations reverberate in the greatcentresof population. Now for the first time there is a contemporary history of the world. Events in Australia, the Transvaal, China, are known in London, Paris, New York at the moment they are brought about precisely as if they happened in the outskirts of the city where the news is published
Civilised nations live off the products of the whole earth. Egypt, India, Louisiana, furnish the cotton, Australia the wool, Japan the silk, China the tea, Brazil coffee, New Zealand and The United States the meat and grain. The capitalist carries in his stomach and on his back the spoils of the universe.
The study of natural phenomena has undergone an unprecedented, unheard of development. New sciences, geology, chemistry, physics, etc., have arisen. The industrial application of the forces of nature and of the discoveries of science has taken on a still more startling development; some of the geometrical discoveries of the scientists of Alexandria, two thousand years old, have for the first time beenutilised
The production of machine industry can provide for all demand and more. The mechanical application of the forces of nature has increased man's productive forces tenfold, a hundredfold. A few hours' daily labour, furnished by the able-bodied members of the community, would produce enough to satisfy the material and intellectual needs of all.
But what has come of the colossal and wonderful development of science, industry and commerce in the nineteenth century? Has it made humanity stronger, healthier, happier? Has it given leisure to the producers? Has it brought comfort and contentment to the people?
Never has work been so prolonged, so exhausting, so injurious to man's body and so fatal to his intelligence. Never has the industrial labour which undermines health, shortens life and starves the intellect been so general, been imposed on such ever-growing masses oflabourers. The men, women and children of the proletariat are bent under the iron yoke of machine industry. Poverty is their reward when they work, starvation when they lose their jobs.
In former stages of society, famine appeared only when the earth refused her harvests. In capitalist society, famine sits at the hearth of the working class when granaries and cellars burst with the fruits of the earth, and when the market is gorged with the products of industry.
All the toil, all the production, all the suffering of the working class has but served to heighten its physical and mental destitution, to drag it down from poverty into wretchedness.
Capitalism, controlling the means of production and directing the social and political life of a century of science and industry, has become bankrupt. The capitalists have not even proved competent, like the owners of chattel slaves, to guarantee to their toilers the work to provide their miserable livelihood; capitalism massacred them when they dared demand the right to work – a slave's right.
The capitalist class has also made a failure of itself. It has seized upon the social wealth to enjoy it, and never was ruling class more incapable of enjoyment. The newly-rich, those who have built up their fortunes by accumulating the filching from labour, live expatriated in the midst of luxury and artistic treasurers, with which they surround themselves through foolish vanity, to pay homage to their millions.
The leading capitalists, the millionaires and billionaires, are sad specimens of the human race, useless and hurtful. The mark of degeneracy is upon them. Their sickly offspring are old at birth. Their organs are sapped with diseases. Exquisite meat and wines load down their tables, but the stomach refuses to digest them; women expert in love perfume their couches with youth and beauty, but their senses are benumbed. They own palatial dwellings on enchanting sites, and they have no eyes, no feeling for joyful nature, with its eternal youth and change. Sated and disgusted with everything, they are followed everywhere with ennui as by their shadows. They yawn at rising and when they go to bed; they yawn at their feasts and at their orgies. They began yawning in their mother's womb.
The pessimism which, in the wake of capitalist property, made its appearance in ancient Greece six centuries before Jesus Christ, and which has since formed the foundation of the moral and religious philosophy of the capitalist class, became the leading characteristic of the philosophy of the second half of the nineteenth century. The pessimism of Theognis sprang from the uncertainties and vicissitudes of life in the Greek cities, torn by the perpetual wars between rich and poor; the pessimism of the capitalist is the bitter fruit of satiety, ennui and the impoverishment of the blood.
Capitalism, bankrupt, old, useless and hurtful, has finished its historic mission; it persists as ruling class only through its acquired momentum. The proletariat of the twentieth century will execute the decree of history; will drive it from its position of social control. Then the stupendous work in science and industry accomplished bycivilisedhumanity, at the price of such toil and suffering, will engender peace and happiness; then will this vale of tears be transformed into an earthly paradise.
(Paul Lafargue in the Socialist Herald, Milwaukee)
Labels: 19th Century, Ancient World, Historical Development, May 1907, Paul Lafargue, R1907, World Capitalism Links to this post
Mixed Media: Ansel Adams (2013)
The Mixed Media Column from the June 2013 issue of the Socialist Standard
Ansel Adams: Photography from the Mountains to the Sea
The Ansel Adams exhibition, Photography from the Mountains to the Sea, was recently at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. Adams's photographic modernism was an attempt to create 'extraction' in photography, as opposed to the impossibility of applying painterly 'abstract impressionism.' Adams used f/64 focal lengths, small aperture settings, in order to give great depth of field, sharpness and clarity and pioneered a zone system for translating perceived light into specific densities on negatives and paper. The foreboding mountains, river and sky are menacing in his 1942 The Tetons and the Snake River. He was a believer in unfiltered visualization in the sense of Blake's 'If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is, infinite.'
Adams was influenced by Emerson and his social responsibility to humanity and nature, and also Edward Carpenter's Towards Democracy which advocated the pursuit of beauty in life and art. Adams wrote 'I believe in beauty. I believe in stones and water, air and soil, people and their future and their fate.' His landscapes are a form of worship, a pantheism like Spinoza's 'deus sive nature' which led to his advocacy of wilderness preservation and environmentalism. His 1937 Clearing Winter Storm depicts Spinozist perception 'sub specie aeternitatis.' Adams is close to Wordsworth in his sonnet The World Is Too Much with Us which critiques the industrial revolution and materialism which places humanity out of tune with nature.
Adams's 'creative photography' is Wordsworth's 'poetry as emotion recollected in tranquillity.' His rock-pool photographs such as 1960 Rocks and Limpets, and 1969 Sea Anemones are 'cleansed perception' like Wordsworth's 'the earth, and every common sight/to me did seem/Apparelled in celestial light.' Adams's 1962 Stream, Sea and Clouds evoke the Wordsworth line of 'a sense sublime/of something far more deeply interfused' or in Adams' own words 'I saw more clearly than I have ever seen before or since the minute detail and I had within the grasp of consciousness a transcendental experience.'
Adams photographed US President Carter in 1979 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980. As befits a transcendental artist his photograph of The Tetons and the Snake River was included on the golden record on the NASA Voyager spacecraft in 1977. In a 1983 interview in Playboy magazine, shortly before his death, Adams was outspoken in his opposition to the Reagan presidency.
Ansel Adams: 'I know that I am one with beauty and that my comrades are one. Let our souls be mountain. Let our spirits be stars. Let our hearts be worlds.'
Labels: Edward Carpenter, Environment, June 2013, Mixed Media, Photography, R2013, Steve Clayton Links to this post
Blind and Deaf to the Natural World (2013)
The Material World column from the June 2013 issue of the Socialist Standard
One of the advantages of the market 'mechanism' – so we are told – is its ability to adjust economic activity to changes in the situation in which it takes place. In particular, investment capital is supposed to flow away from geographical areas where the risks of economic activity are rising into areas where the risks are lower.
Things do often work this way for risks associated with social conditions. Turbulent labour relations, armed conflict, political upheaval and extortion by corrupt government officials are among the risks routinely factored into the expert assessments of 'business climate' that guide investment decisions.
However, it is by no means routine for such assessments to take account of risks coming from the natural environment – earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and other natural disasters, and changes caused by global heating.
Earthquakes – no lasting impact?
For example, there is no sign of large-scale capital flight from southern California or the Greater Tokyo Region, both of which are virtually certain to be hit by powerful earthquakes in the not too distant future.
In one chapter of The Coming Tokyo Earthquake (Tuttle Publishing, 1995), Peter Hadfield analyzes how different Japanese companies will be affected. Some will bear much greater losses than others; building firms based outside the danger zone will make a good profit from post-quake reconstruction.
Now, the fund where I had my retirement savings at the time when I read this book invested in Japanese companies, so I wrote to the director of the fund to draw his attention to Hadfield's analysis and ask whether their portfolio managers took these differential effects into account. I received a courteous reply, assuring me that what I was suggesting was quite unnecessary because earthquakes, though tragic from a humanitarian viewpoint, have no lasting economic impact of any significance.
Water: 'a good thing in real estate'
Nor is the rising sea level deterring investment in low-lying coastal areas. In Washington, DC the SunCal company is promoting 'a new upscale housing development and retail center' along the River Potomac, right at sea level. Eddie Byrne, SunCal's vice president of project management, is quoted as saying that the name of the development – Potomac Shores – 'invokes water, a good thing in real estate' (The Washington Post, 28 March 2013). And this after Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and all the other storms that have been battering the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the US!
Recently I was looking at some internet ads for seaside properties in Florida, built right on the beach and selling for upward of a million dollars. The realtor who placed the ads offered to answer questions about the state of the market, so I took up the offer. No, he told me, house prices are not falling in anticipation of the rising sea level. On the contrary, they are rising. Clearly buyers are not worried about the sea level. I asked how difficult it was to get these beach houses insured. Also no problem, he assured me.
Carbon bubble?
In August 2012 the Carbon Tracker Initiative (CTI), a project of Investor Watch, issued a report by Jeremy Leggett and Mark Campanale entitled Unburnable Carbon: Are the World's Financial Markets Carrying a Carbon Bubble? (www.carbontracker.org). The authors argue that the financial markets overvalue hydrocarbon companies – in February 2011 the combined value of the top 100 coal companies and top 100 oil and gas companies was $7.42 trillion. This is vastly inflated because it ignores the risk that environmentally responsible governments will force companies to curtail operations and leave much of the remaining coal, oil and gas in the ground. When this happens the 'carbon bubble' will burst, triggering a financial crisis.
In a response to the report, The Economist (4 May, 2013) notes that in 2012 the top 200 companies spent $674 billion developing new reserves and suggests that they are betting on governments not taking effective action to restrict hydrocarbon extraction. That, after all, has been the situation up to now. In that case the 'markets' (i.e., investors) are not mistaken in their expectations and there is no carbon bubble.
What is the CTI really about? The key person behind it, Jeremy Leggett, has long been committed to environmental causes – in the 1990s he was a prominent figure in Greenpeace International – and also to relying on market mechanisms to solve environmental problems. His real concern is not helping investors maximise their returns or even maintaining financial stability but saving the planet.
How does he hope to achieve this worthy goal? By manipulating the market – i.e., persuading investors, most of whom know little about the environment and care less, that disinvestment from hydrocarbons is not just good for the planet but in their financial interest. It will be marvellous if the subterfuge works! But that's a rather big 'if'.
Psychological block
Isn't it in the interests of the capitalists themselves to preserve the ecosystem? Don't they depend on it like everyone else?
Of course. The trouble is that they are incapable of rationally assessing their interests. Their money-making obsession creates a psychological block against any idea that they sense may threaten their pursuit of profit. They repel the voice of nature from the very threshold of consciousness, so the question of factoring it into the equation can never even arise.
At some level the capitalists rightly fear that the natural world demands an end to the system they embody. They blind and deafen themselves to nature so that they cannot see they are harming it or hear it screaming in its death agony.
Labels: Capitalism and the Environment, Carbon Emissions, Earthquakes, Environmental Disasters, Floods, Green Capitalism, Japan, June 2013, Material World Column, Natural Disasters, R2013, Stephen Shenfield Links to this post
Old Gods, New Tricks (2013)
The Halo Halo! Column from the June 2013 issue of the Socialist Standard
Since a court ruling in Athens in 2006, it is no longer illegal for Greeks to worship their ancient gods. Just what Dionysus, Apollo and co had done to get themselves declared illegal in the first place is unclear. But anyhow, they're back, and they're gaining popularity here and in the US too.
You'd think we'd got enough confusion with the ones we already have. But perhaps that's it. After 2,000 years we still don't know whether Jesus is a Protestant or a Catholic, and the Shia and Sunni versions of Allah don't have much time for each other either. So, with UFO sightings, crop circles and the Loch Ness monster not as popular as they once were, maybe there's a gap in the mumbo-jumbo market.
Any Christians thinking of converting should find few extra demands on their gullibility. Miraculous deeds and virgin births as a result of liaisons between Zeus and mortal women were ten a penny in the ancient world. They even had a flood myth every bit as good as Noah's.
Zeus had decided, because of mankind's wickedness, to destroy the world with a great flood, and Deucalion was advised to build a boat to save his family and animals. After drifting for nine days the flood subsided, and they came to rest on top of a mountain. He was then told by an oracle to repopulate the earth by throwing behind him the bones of his grandmother. Fortunately he interpreted this to mean the stones of mother earth, and these sprang to life as human beings as they fell to the ground.
Another story Christians will have little trouble with is about Heracles and his struggle with temptation.
Bible readers will recall how Jesus, after wandering in the wilderness for 40 days, was tempted by Satan to turn stones into bread. (A fairly sensible suggestion – he could, after all, feed multitudes with a few loaves and fishes). But he refused – for the rather puzzling reason that 'man does not live by bread alone.'
Satan then took him up a high mountain where they could see 'all the kingdoms of the world.' If he bowed down before Satan, he was told, all this would be his. (Satan had apparently forgotten that Jesus was the son of God. His dad made it and already controlled the whole lot.) Not surprisingly, Jesus told him to get stuffed (or rather, to 'get thee behind me').
The temptation of Heracles, on the other hand, was a real test. In one of his numerous adventures he was out one day when he came to a fork in the road. One branch was a good, wide road but narrowed and got stony as it went on. By it stood a beautiful, gaudily dressed woman calling him. The other fork was narrow and thorny but got better in the distance. By this was a plain, modestly dressed woman. She also called him. These two, it turned out, were 'Vice' and 'Virtue.'
Now most Greek heroes would have grabbed 'Vice' and made off her without even giving her time to fix her makeup. But holier-than-thou Heracles chose 'Virtue'. That's what you call willpower over temptation.
(His moral standards did sometimes slip, however. In another story we are told that when visiting the king of Thespis he managed to get all fifty daughters of the king pregnant. This amazing feat was carried out in a single night.)
For anyone determined to believe, then, but finding contemporary gods not bizarre enough, there are a number of Greek paganism websites to help, www.hellenismos.us, for example: 'Any questions that you would otherwise feel embarrassed to ask, ask here,' it offers. How embarrassed the average questioner is we can only guess, but one asks:
'I am currently learning the skill of flint-knapping; that is, the skill of re-creating stone-age tools using stone-age methods. As I was practicing the other day I thought to myself, 'To which God/Goddess would I make offerings to in this regard?'
The answer – obvious really – was 'For craftsmen and other similar professions there would be a special devotion to the cult of Hephaistos-Vulcanus, and likewise that of Athene-Minerva Ergane, whose domain is especially that of manufacturing in its various forms.'
Jesus Christ! What happens if they find themselves worshipping the wrong bloody god?
Labels: Ancient Greece, Ancient Religions, Halo Halo Column, June 2013, Nick White, Paganism, R2013, Religious Belief Links to this post
50 Years Ago: The Labour Party Itching For Power (2013)
The 50 Years Ago Column from the June 2013 issue of the Socialist Standard
The Labour Party, itching for power, is like a man listening to the last few football results with seven draws on his pools coupon.
They suffer. They perspire. They are fearful lest a wrong word should shatter their glorious dream.
That was why the Labour Party was so worried about the railway strike which never got started. Perhaps the strike was something of a forlorn hope. But, after all, strikes are the only weapon workers have in their disputes with their employers.
The Labour Party, let it be recorded, did not oppose the strike for any reason connected with the welfare of the railway workers. They opposed it because they judged that it may have damaged their chance of winning the next election; it might have upset their Treble Chance. For Labour, as for other capitalist parties, votes are tremendously important.
Mr. Wilson is doing his best to gather as many of them as he can. He celebrated May Day, for example, by propounding a plan to ". . . make a reality of the Commonwealth . . ." (although there was nothing very new in what he said—just some more mucking about with Imperial Preferences).
He also threw in his now customary make weight about the Labour Party not being prepared to see Britain as a second rate power.
Now all this may have been palatable to retired colonels in Bournemouth and to the floating, drifting voters whom the Labour Party has wooed so coyly for so long. But it has absolutely nothing to do with the Socialism which Mr. Wilson protests he stands for, nor with the working class interests he professes to defend.
There must still be some members of the Labour Party who can remember the days when strikers were people to support and when patriotism was something of a dirty word. What do they think of their party, as they watch it take its inevitable path to the status of a fully fledged party of capitalism, with power as the one and only object of its miserable life?
(From 'The News in Review', Socialist Standard June 1963)
Labels: 50 Years Ago, Harold Wilson, June 2013, Political Opportunism, R2013, The Labour Party in Opposition Links to this post
'A Banner with a Strange Device.' (1908)
The Shoreditch Branch of the Social Democratic Party has a banner of which, no doubt, the members are exceedingly proud. It bears what at first sight would appear "a strange device." But when one recollects the hopeless confusion obtaining in the ranks of the S.D.P., when one remembers its pro-capitalist tactics and propaganda, 'tis not such a very strange device after all. "Reform Delayed is Revolution Begun" it reads, but it must not be regarded as an injunction to the working class to oppose reform with the object of beginning the revolution. That is not the intention of the Social Democratic Party, as is evident by a reference to the list of "immediate reforms" (commencing with the most immediate— "the Abolition of the Monarchy") of which its program is composed, it appears on the S.D.P. banner as a warning note to the exploiters. "Do you wish the revolution delayed?" asks the S.DP. of these, "because if you do, pass the reforms we advocate in our program. We know," they sometimes add, "these will not affect the position of exploiter and exploited in the least, still, pass them as soon as possible." They will assist the exploiters to maintain their supremacy, and therefore it will be to their interest to pass them.
If any member of the Shoreditch or any other branch of the S.D.P would like to dispute the conclusions we of the S.P.G.B. draw, the columns of The Socialist Standard are always open. We may, after all, be wrong. We are not popes and claim no infallibility. We are always willing, and indeed anxious, to hear the other side, and to give all our readers an opportunity to hear it also. We know the Social Democratic Party claim that they object to palliatives "if they obscure the issue." Well, what is the issue? Briefly, it is that so long as capitalism endures the workers must be poor. Exploitation of the working class by the master class is the essence of capitalism. Exploitation means that the wealth which the working class alone produce is taken from them, and therefore they are poor, degraded, brutalised. The master class will not get off the backs of the working class as the result of appeals by the S.D.P. or anybody else. The workers will he enslaved so long as they remain there, and therefore nothing but the establishment of the Socialist Republic will avail. The advocacy of anything short of this obscures the issue, side-tracks the working class, causes them to devote their energies to reforms instead of to organising for the revolution, and ultimately lands them in the bog of disappointment and despair. If, as members of the S.D P. sometimes state, they are opposed to the advocacy of reforms if they obscure the issue, they should at once give up the program by which they set such store, and work only for the revolution. That, of course, means leaving the S.D.P. and joining the S.P.G.B.
The receipt of a copy of this paper is an invitation to subscribe.
Labels: Anti-Monarchy, Impossibilism, Left-Wing Reformism, R1908, Reforms, September 1908, Social Democratic Federation Links to this post
Some Indiscretions of Wm. Thorne, M. P. (1908)
Our old friend, William Thorne, M.P., writes a very nicely typed letter, on Gasworker Union note, in reply to questions addressed to him by a correspondent relative to certain actions of his own and the position of the "Labour" Party. The letter deserves a wider publicity and it, or most of it, shall have it.
William writes: "I beg to say that I have never actually supported Mr. Percy Alden during the last Parliamentary election, but I remember attending a meeting at which I was chairman, which was held at Tottenham sometime prior to the General Election, when Mr. Alden was the adopted Parliamentary candidate, and I spoke a few words in his favour."
That's clear enough, isn't it ? When you take the chair for a man and speak in his favour you are not actually supporting him, you're only— well —it's ridiculous to say that's support! Good old Bill. Let's try some more.
"I have known Mr. Alden for many years . . and I have always found him a very good man in advocating the claims of the workers, both in regard to hours and wages, etc., and he was one of the most active men upon the Central Committee in forcing the hands of the local authority in bringing about better sanitary conditions for for the workers."
But Bill wouldn't support him for that. Not actually! Don't support good men, Bill, don't. Only say a few words in their favour.
The letter proceeds: . . . "I am a member of the Labour Party in the House of Commons, and all members of that Party are pledged to abstain from identifying themselves or of promoting the interests of the other great political parties, and I carry that principle out so far as possible. I believe in perfect discipline in regard to organisation and political parties, and in my opinion the Labour Party in the House of Commons would be absolutely useless if it did not preserve its entire independence of the other parties, in the House. I do not believe that any of the members of the Labour Party are prepared to support candidates of the other political parties, but if they do, they are committing a breach of the Labour Party's constitution."
Lovely! Bill believes in perfect discipline — as far as possible, He is fixed and immovable— except now and again. He is stern and unbending—not 'arf he aint — only in places he gives. The Labour Party would be absolutely useless if it did not stick to its constitution and refuse to support candidates of other political parties, and Bill didn't support such a candidate. He only gave him a little assistance'
Good old William. I wonder if he read that letter over before he let it go.
A. James.
Labels: A. James, Labour Fakirs, Labour Party, Labour Party hypocrisy, Percy Alden, R1908, September 1908, Will Thorne Links to this post
"Social Peace" in France (1908)
Another example of the harmony existing in the present social order is provided by the recent disturbances in and around Paris. In spite of statements to the contrary, and wilful blinking of the facts, the Socialists' contention that there exists in society a class struggle—a state of war between capitalists and workers—is borne out daily by our own experience as wage workers, and by passing events recorded (or suppressed) by the newspapers.
In and around Paris on the first of May, 1906, strikes were declared in many industries : the eight hour work-day being the principal demand. These resulted mostly in victory for the masters. However, the workers in the building trades, particularly the labourers, the masons and bricklayers, did not lose heart, but have kept up an unremitting battle for better conditions by means of other methods than big strike movements. They practised a continual harassing of the contractors, striking in detail without notice, practising "Sabotage" until, indeed, they have gained, piecemeal, some useful concessions.
This "sabotage" is worthy of some attention. Many French workers, finding the carefully prepared strike so often a failure, and the matching of Labour's centimes against Capital's gold louis such a long and painful process, have taken to this form of "passive resistance." For instance, the masons and labourers would strike a certain yard or building and be quickly replaced by a fresh gang of their comrades, who would proceed to "make mistakes" in the measurements of the work, or would develop a tired feeling so that the work would not get finished, and generally "raise Cain," thus proving very expensive strike breakers, get discharged, be replaced by yet another set of "hands," who would "help" the employer in the same way. This would go on until the latter found it would pay him best to concede the men's demands. Of course it is very unkind of the saboteurs, but it seems more intelligent than starving on strike for three or six months. The contractors, becoming vexed at these attentions, played a little card of their own, and in April declared a lockout, which, had it continued would quickly have involved 200,000 men. However, the employers found it more paying to open the yards again after a few days, and until recently things jogged along in much the old style.
Now we gather that a strike has been on for some time in the sand-pit district of Draveil, some eight miles from Paris, and that there have been some encounters between the police and military and the strikers—begun, doubtless, in the usual way, either by a striker punching a strike-breaker or vice versa, or, as is often the case, by some act of police provocation.
The Building Trades Federation now declared a 24 hours general strike as a protest against the repressive measures of the Government, and a large body (five to ten thousand it is reported) of strikers went out to the strike district to demonstrate in favour of their comrades, the sandpit labourers. The forces of wholesale slaughter were let loose upon the demonstrating workmen, with the result that many were injured upon both sides and several of our fellow workers were killed.
The English papers, as usual, served their masters well by reporting the affair in such manner as to prejudice, as much as possible, British workmen against their French brothers. Divide and rule is the masters' motto, and indeed, in the Press they have a powerful means of keeping the workers fighting one another instead of uniting to fight the common enemy —the masters.
The Government's next step was to arrest eight prominent members of the General Confederation of Labour (C.G.T.), this being followed by the declaration of a 24 hours general strike, which, owing to the numerically weak membership of the C.G.T., was rather an exhibition of weakness, although several newspapers could not be brought out and others were published under great difficulties. When later, the electrical workers struck for a short while, the military engineers were quickly at hand to replace them.
Now these stirring events arise directly from the efforts of working men to improve their lot and the endeavours of the masters to retain their privileges. Further, such events are not confined to Paris or to France, for this country has its Peterloo, Featherstone, and Belfast, America has its Colorado arid Homestead, and so on throughout the capitalist world.
The game of profits versus wages is seen to break out into barricades and sabring and shooting; the class struggle cries aloud for recognition. It is irrepressible because the workers are robbed, and are beginning to know it. Here then is generated the energy essential to the overthrow of King Capital. Here his undesirability is perceived by the worker, and the desire to get rid of him is bred.
As to the French workers, recent events show that they as well as other workers need to get control of the armed forces in order that these may no longer be used against them : the road to this control lies through Parliament. The workers must get behind the guns: to march up to their muzzles—the practical outcome of the "direct action" favoured by so many French workers and trade unionists—is simply suicide.
John H. Halls
Labels: Building Industry, Class Struggle, France, French Trade Unions, John H. Halls, Paris, R1908, Sabotage, September 1908, State Repression, Strike Waves Links to this post
The Society of Tomorrow (1908)
The result of all the more or less ingenious plans of the future society is but to demonstrate the possibility of the Socialist System. All who have nothing to lose and everything to gain by the social transformation easily persuade themselves of the excellence of the future society. Even the petit bourgeois – the small capitalist – having the presentiment of his impending ruin, being tormented by the knowledge of his insecurity and filled with a feeling of vagueness, is quite ready to say "Yes, Socialism is an excellent thing, but, alas! it is Utopia!" And to show you the Utopian character of Socialism he invokes, first, human nature; secondly, the indestructible selfishness of humanity that results in the war of each against all; and thirdly, the opposition of those who possess, which he declares impossible to overcome.
How does the Marxian conception comport itself in order to reduce to nothing this triple impossibility?
Human nature! This has been invoked every time there has been any question of advancing a stage in history. The slave-holders called to witness this same human nature in order to clinch the absolute impossibility of the abolition of chattel slavery. In his "Politics", Aristotle, "the giant of antique thought", sought to demonstrate that the Greeks are by their very nature destined to dominate the rest of human kind as masters. Nature is eternal. And every dominant class desires – quite naturally – to eternally prolong the régime which secures its domination and enjoyment: it considers, therefore, its own system as natural. Its nature becomes Nature itself. It does not see beyond its own interests, and it confounds the laws of its own conservation with those of the universe. It suppresses history – which only exists by changes – and invents a physical theory of society, which theory seeks to persuade us that inequality between men socially is as eternal and necessary as that between the organs of the body. The laws of Nature are not slighted with impunity, therefore the system of the exploitation of man by man is, according to the exploiters, a law of Nature. Every revolt against it is consequently madness or a material impossibility.
To these interested sophisms the Marxian conception opposes the true history of humanity. It demonstrates the fact of the perpetual changes that occur and have occurred in forms of production and appropriation.
Human society is a particular case in universal evolution. Nothing is eternal and unchangeable. Everything is variable. By showing that the struggle of the classes is at the base of history, Marxism unveils the historical mechanism and shows that every given social form is entirely relative, entirely conditional.
Classes and systems succeed each other and differ from each other. Thus all objections drawn – by the hair – from that much invoked "human nature" are destroyed. Marxism does not recognise man in abstracto. It knows only the owner of the slave, the feudal lord, the capitalist, the proletarian, and other "historic categories". It replaces the vague and confused by that which is concrete and clear, and abandons generalities to the psychologists, philosophers, and metaphysicians.
Better still – by analysing scientifically the capitalist system, the Marxian shows not only that Socialist society is possible, but also that it is necessary. Collective organisation of labour is possible because it exists. It is present in the factory, in the mines, in the great stores, in the great financial establishments. It circles the world by railway and ploughs the ocean in Dreadnoughts. Individual exploitation is in flagrant contradiction with this collective organisation. From this come crises – catastrophes which demonstrate more and more that the capitalist system is becoming impossible. Soon it will be no longer for us to show the possibility of Socialism. It will be the task of the partisans of the present tottering system to prove the possibility of its continuation by any normal and progressive development.
As to the selfishness of individuals and of classes, not only does Marxism not deny it, but it utilises it to organise the proletarians into a class party, preoccupied above all with its interests, which, happily, are in complete accord with those of the social organism and of true civilisation.
There remains the third objection – the third pretended impossibility of Socialism – the resistance of those who possess. The Marxian conception is easily victorious. Socialism becomes possible just in the same degree as great capital absorbs smaller capitals, and production on a great scale supersedes small-scale production. Socialists have not to expropriate the owners – they will only expropriate the expropriators. They will restore to society the property which has been stolen from society. They do not fight private ownership of objects of immediate consumption. They struggle against capitalist property, against the oligarchy of property – the monopoly of the means of production.
The possibility – nay, more, the inevitable historic necessity – of Socialism springs thus from the play of economic forces. The organisation of the working class and the conquest of political power by this class indicate the first stages on the route to be followed.
(Ch. Rappoport in Le Socialisme. Translated for the Socialist Standard.)
Labels: Ancient Greece, Aristotle, Charles Rappoport, Historical Development, Human Nature, Objections to Socialism, R1908, September 1908 Links to this post
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Home / Books / History of the County of Guysborough
History of the County of Guysborough
This study of the history of Guysborough County, N.S. was submitted by Harriet hart in the Akins Historical Prize Essay competition for 1877.
History of the County of Guysborough quantity
This study of the history of Guysborough County, N.S. was submitted by Harriet hart in the Akins Historical Prize Essay competition for 1877. The excellence of her work resulted in the award of the prize to her by the University of King's College. The prize was established by Thomas Beamish Akins in 1864, when he presented to the Governors of the University of King's College as Trustees a sum of money which then yielded 30 lbs per annum "to be devoted annually to the best history of some one or more Counties of this Province."
Harriet Cunningham Hart, born into a merchant family in Guysborough, and marrying James E. Hart, of another prominent merchant family of the community, thoroughly and clearly recounts the stories of the development of Guysborough County; from the French period of settlement in the early 1600's, to the latter half of the 1800's; when most areas of the counties were thriving fishing, farming, and trading communities. Hart discusses the numerous settlement patterns, providing thorough research on the Loyalist settlers of the village of Guysborough.
The work is fully indexed and recently revamped by the Guysborough Historical Society; republished in 2016.
Harriet C. Hart
Guysborough Sketches and Essays, (2009 edition)
The Lonely Hills of Bantry
As I Remember It, Life as a little girl growing up in Guysborough during late 1800's and early 1900's

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


"I loved your movie, THRIVE, but I really wish you had left out the part on ETs," he said.
I was preparing for a screening of our documentary at a national Occupy conference, and the A/V tech was sharing this reflection with me.
"I just thought it undermined your credibility," he continued.
He still thought most people weren't ready for it.
As we were finishing our conversation, I sensed someone waiting behind me. I turned to see a young woman eager to talk.
"Wow, I'm glad to hear it, how so?" I asked.
I can't overstate how many interactions we at Thrive Movement have had of this nature. So I want to take a few minutes to share some of my personal reflections on the issue of our having some possible cosmic brothers and sisters.
The numerical chances seem infinitesimal that we are the sole self-aware species in the vast cosmos — with billions of planet-filled star systems just in our galaxy (among billions of galaxies). To claim it seems to me beyond ignorance to outright arrogance.
There are many claims from well-researched sources that we are being visited by off-planet species and have been for centuries, at least. But unless you've had direct contact with a being from somewhere else in the universe, how do you determine what evidence is credible, and what is not? Fortunately, there are researchers who have done some very serious historical accounting on the matter. And there are people who have reported direct contact, whose descriptions match those of the UFO historians and researchers.
I am not going to report on the evidence here, but I will link to it below and refer you to the Thrive website article on UFO/ETs describing the results of our research. I am starting here with my leaning that humans are in fact having direct interface with beings and consciousness from other planets. And if we are being visited by beings from other parts of the Cosmos or other vibrational planes, then at least in some significant ways, they are more advanced in their understanding and powers than we are.
The chances they "just stopped by for a visit because they were in the neighborhood" are slim, given the intention it takes to travel through time and space with any technology. So they must each be here with various agendas — learning about us and our special capabilities, gathering needed resources, looking for a habitable planet, teaching us about how to relate to energy harmoniously, trying to save the human/Earth experiment by keeping us from blowing ourselves up and "nuking the field" etc. There are many books and interviews with contactees describing what they have been told by off-planet visitors. Who knows the full array of their intentions?
If there is any truth to all of this, and their agendas are either benevolent or dangerous or both, to us and to our planet, wouldn't you want to know it?
Imagine for a moment that ETs are here. I am not asking you to believe it, just to try on the idea for a thought experiment. It raises some VERY interesting questions at least, like "How in the world did they get here?" Chances are they are not burning Exxon. They must have a way of accessing energy wherever they are in space. Of course that would fit with the Zero Point Energy theories at the leading edge of the New Physics. I have talked with several contactees who say they not only went voluntarily on ET ships, but were ultimately shown the drive that propels it.
Yes, wild stuff, I know. But they each reported the double toroidal, counter-rotating dynamic we illustrated in THRIVE, and they had not previously known one another to agree on a story.
But it gets even better. If there is a mini black hole at the center of this power vortex, as posited by Nassim Haramein and reported by various contactees, then that might indicate that the device creates its own gravitational field, encompassing the ship. In such a case, the passengers could be protected from the G-forces of extreme acceleration and acute turns that are often sighted, and which would normally flatten any humans inside. It's somewhat like riding in a car and throwing a tennis ball up with your hand. Inside the car, it lands in your hand. Out the window, it is quickly swept backward.
And…stick with me a little longer… Einstein alerted people that when you alter space through gravity, time is also changed. Voila, a common sense explanation of how beings might travel from other star systems without committing the minimum tens of thousands of years that it would take to travel from the nearest one, Alpha Centauri, by conventional means.
Another possibility is that they travel through wormholes from the black hole centers of toroidal systems like suns and galaxies and pop out from the centers of other systems. Of course, when we imagine flying into the Sun, it doesn't seem viable, but we don't have advanced ships… Haramein has footage, that NASA posted on the SOHO site and then retracted, showing huge vehicles making right angle turns and going right into the Sun — followed by huge coronal ejections.
An additional probability is that ETs inhabit different frequency realms than our usual five senses. Our brain activity itself shows adherence to signature frequencies for sleeping, dreaming, meditating, healing, creating and more. When ships blink out, are they just shifting to frequencies that we can't see and hear? Is "travel" completely different in those realms?
I ran a company in Silicon Valley in the '80s that did brainwave biofeedback training for relaxation, creativity enhancement and spiritual questing. We saw Yogis, Zen masters and psychics that could shift brain states the way you and I would shift the channels on our remote. Some could be fully alert and talking while exhibiting the brainwaves that most people experience in deep sleep without dreams. We live and sense in a minuscule frequency band of the electromagnetic spectrum that our instruments have now shown us exists. Perhaps other "dimensions" are simply shifts in vibration too.
UFO researcher Jaques Vallee, after whom the music-playing professor in Close Encounters of the Third Kind was modeled, suggests that over 80% of the contact that humans have with off-world species is telepathic rather than restricted to the frequencies of sight and sound.
I know that many of the most successful technology inventors with whom we are in contact ultimately acknowledge that they have been guided by "interdimensional beings" or actual physical ETs who have much deeper understanding of the workings of energy and the cosmos than the scientist's own education and rational mind would provide.
I know that I was personally guided internally for years — in dreams, meditation, hunches and hyper-flow work states to be able to 3D model the atoms of the periodic table of elements in ways that would have been beyond my knowledge and standard thinking.
Do a search sometime for "Akashic Records" if you are not familiar with the concept of a "field of intelligence" to see how initiates have apparently been tapping it throughout history.
Am I certain this is true? No. I can't prove the contact, but the weight of the reports and the correlation with real world developments is far too compelling to ignore, especially if I really am more committed to discovering truth than to maintaining a fixed worldview.
The five species most commonly reported by contactees are the Greys (small and tall), Nordics, Felines, Reptilians, and Mantids. Some say there are over 50. Some are said to be shape-shifters who walk among us. So just maybe we are already living in some sort of shy, ephemeral, covert version of the Star Wars bar!
This is an utterly vast topic, and it can't be covered in a blog or a lifetime. I am nonetheless confident it is hugely relevant to the fields of energy, consciousness, science, relations, spirituality and much more. In relation to the ongoing Thrive liberty conversation, when I consider the prospect of involuntary interbreeding, or secret deals between ETs and governments that want to rule us, I am reminded that no matter how wise, powerful or technically advanced beings from other worlds of planes might be, the bottom line always needs to be respect for the sovereignty of each individual and honoring of the Non-Aggression Principle. We can learn from all beings but we should subjugate ourselves to no one.
Richard Dolan will be our special expert guest on our next ThriveTogether live think-tank event, ETs Among Us? — Who, How and Why on January 17th from 10am–noon PST. I invite you to subscribe and join us for this and future explorations, or catch the archived versions.
That's my 2 cents (or bitcoins). What do you think about all of that?
Do you think there is sentient life besides us in the cosmos?
Do you think there are beings more advanced than us, and if so, in what ways?
Do you think some of them have been visiting Earth?
If so, what do you think they are here for?
If we are having extraterrestrial visitors, why do you think they haven't been more obvious and public about it?
Do you think some ETs might have played a part in the missing link of our evolution?
Do you want to have contact personally, and if so, why?


An economic development organization in Alabama's Black Belt region is turning the area's plentiful bamboo crops into income for residents.
This article originally appeared in the Montgomery Adviser on February 22, 2016.
Pam Dorr laughs at the idea that a bicycle made out of bamboo would be flimsy. It's not the first time she's heard that kind of skepticism.
She doesn't have to go far to get it. There's enough within a block of her group's workshop in Greensboro to build several hundred bamboo bikes a year, and much more in the surrounding area.
Dorr moved there a little more than 10 years ago to head up a Black Belt nonprofit meant to kickstart a resurgence for Hale County. The goal was to build affordable housing, spur economic development and start youth development programs. Bamboo bikes offered one unique path to doing that.
"We develop products out of stuff we have, and what we've got a lot of is bamboo," said Dorr, executive director of the Hale Empowerment Revitalization Organization and its offshoot, HERObike.
They formed a partnership with the School of Architecture at the University of Kansas, where professor Lance Rake and students help with design work for the bikes. The result is a carbon fiber-laced bamboo frame that appeals to racers and enthusiasts.
Other companies make bamboo bikes, but at a cost of about $600 to about $2,500 HERObike is among the least expensive options. That's led to people around the world buying the Greensboro bikes online — most of their sales come from France, Germany, Japan and Thailand.
HERO uses the money to build affordable housing, and bicycles are far from their only project.
The nonprofit's PieLab bakes and sells homemade pies while teaching job skills for the retail and hospitality industry. The youth program will spend part of the summer drying algae out of fish ponds to clean the water and use the by-product for home fertilizer.
They're also planning to install solar energy technology at businesses in the Black Belt that have over $20,000 a month in power bills. Dorr said projects like that help the community while also teaching green technology.
"It's a lot easier to learn it if you're doing it," she smiles.
Meanwhile, KU professor Rake is researching some new uses for bamboo.
HERObike has already branched out into making bamboo skateboards, electric bikes, paddleboards and kids' pushbikes. It even holds workshops to teach people how to make their own bamboo bikes.
About 30 people work there now, a total that goes up and down depending on demand.
The Black Belt, a strip of counties in mostly west and southwest Alabama, has struggled with poverty and unemployment for years. Hale County's unemployment rate was 1.5 percent higher than the state average in December, but that was still 3 percent lower than neighboring Greene and Perry counties.
So, is bamboo the way to solve the area's problems?
You can see more at herobike.org.
HERObike uses carbon-lined bamboo to create bicycle frames. Photo: contributed.
HERObike is also making paddleboards and skateboards out of Black Belt bamboo. Photo: contributed.
Adam Fowler and Mike Gillis from HERObike build one of the products in Greensboro. Photo: contributed.
Brad Harper is a Troy University graduate and lifelong River Region resident who has spent more than 15 years in the Advertiser newsroom, handling everything from video production to page design. He took over as the Workplace and New Montgomery reporter in November 2014. He spends his free time with his wife and son, and loves to travel. You can hear him on the New Montgomery podcast and as a guest on other Advertiser podcasts. If you'd like to share info on a new business or restaurant, catch him on social media or call him at 334-240-0116.


Hito Steyerl at Artists Space, N.Y.
"Are You Alive Or Not?"
Hedvig Bergman studied at KIT and finished successfully her BFA studies in 2014.
She has been awarded to exhibit her works at the Japanese Design and Fashion Fair "Rooms" in Tokyo from February 17 - 19, 2015. This exhibition has been the price resulting of a competition organized by DESIGNBOOM.


This isn't the type of book I'd normally read, but the teaser sounds really good!!
creepy cover. great teaser. look forward to hearing your review on this as i'm not usually an anthology reader.
Dangit, you've added another book to my must-read list. Honestly, if I'd seen that book at a bookstore, I would have bought it for the cover alone, but your teaser sounds great too.
Yikes...this sounds creepy! Thanks for the teaser.
woooooow, creepy. no joke. the cover is scary.
Oooh creepy teaser and creepy cover. I love Garth Nix's writing though, really enjoyed Sabriel & Lirael.


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HOW Targeting inflammation...
Transforming the treatment of pain and inflammation with breakthrough science
Our science leverages two crucial insights by Dr. John L. Wallace and his colleagues. The first identified the mechanism by which NSAIDs cause stomach ulcers and bleeding—radically altering the prevailing medical doctrine. A decade later, his discovery of hydrogen sulfide's anti-inflammatory potential led to the research project that evolved into Antibe Therapeutics.
Dr. John L. Wallace
Founder & Vice Chair
Today's solutions FOR ACUTE pain
The main mechanism of NSAID-induced gastrointestinal damage was identified in 1990 by Dr. Wallace and his colleagues. Several scientific and commercial attempts have since been made to overcome the problem. These have included the development of selectively targeted NSAIDs, the use of enteric coatings, and co-administration of stomach acid reduction medications. None of these efforts have solved the gastrointestinal toxicity of NSAIDs, and some have resulted in increased risk to the digestive tract and other body systems.
CURRENT SOLUTIONS
Hydrogen Sulfide and cellular function
In 2002, hydrogen sulfide was identified as one of three biologically important gases, now collectively termed gasotransmitters or gaseous mediators. Previously viewed as hostile to life, hydrogen sulfide—along with nitric oxide and carbon monoxide—have emerged as central to biology, important in a wide range of cellular functions. In 2003, Dr. Wallace and his colleagues began investigating hydrogen sulfide's anti-inflammatory properties. Over the succeeding years, their work would demonstrate its GI-sparing potential, leading to the design of Antibe's hydrogen sulfide platform.
WHY Hydrogen Sulfide?
learn about CURRENT SOLUTIONS
POSTER: Potent Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Otenaproxesul, a Novel H2S-Releasing NSAID, in a Human Model of Inflammation
GLANVILLE ET AL., PAINWeek CONFERENCE (2022)
Potent Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Otenaproxesul, a Novel H2S-Releasing NSAID, in a Human Model of Inflammation
GLANVILLE ET AL., FASEB Journal
Gaseous Mediators as a Key Molecular Targets for the Development of Gastrointestinal-Safe Anti-Inflammatory Pharmacology
DANIELAK ET AL., FRONTIERS IN PHARMACOLOGY
British Journal of Pharmacology – Special Issue: Hydrogen Sulfide in Biology & Medicine
PAPAPETROPOULOS, WALLACE, WANG (Guest Editors), BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY
Enhanced Analgesic Effects & GI Safety of A Novel H2S Releasing Anti-Inflammatory Drug (ATB-352): A Role for Endogenous Cannabinoids
COSTA ET AL., ANTIOXIDANTS & REDOX SIGNALING
Read Scientific Publications
H2S donor ameliorates paclitaxel-induced neuropathic pain in mice
QABAZARD ET AL., BIOMEDICINE & PHARMACOTHERAPY
Hydrogen Sulfide as Potential Regulatory Gasotransmitter in Arthritic Diseases
SUNZINI ET AL., INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
High-fat diet-mediated dysbiosis exacerbates NSAID-induced small intestinal damage through the induction of interleukin-17A
SUGIMURA ET AL., NATURE SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Read references


Deutsch: Nationalwappen der Demokratischen Bundesrepublik Nepal mit Leitspruch auf rotem Band.
लेखक Defined by the Government of Nepal as the National emblem by the Constituent Assembly Secretariat.
०५:१२, २९ अक्टोबर २०११ १,५५०×१,३०० (९६० किलोबाइटहरू) Sagredo A small adjustment. Can you find it?


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Why You Might Be Interested In West Bancorporation, Inc. (NASDAQ:WTBA) For Its Upcoming Dividend
Simply Wall St
5 November 2020, 11:11 am ·3-min read
West Bancorporation, Inc. (NASDAQ:WTBA) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 3 days. If you purchase the stock on or after the 9th of November, you won't be eligible to receive this dividend, when it is paid on the 25th of November.
West Bancorporation's upcoming dividend is US$0.21 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$0.84 per share to shareholders. Last year's total dividend payments show that West Bancorporation has a trailing yield of 4.9% on the current share price of $17.1. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.
View our latest analysis for West Bancorporation
Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned in profit, then the dividend could be unsustainable. That's why it's good to see West Bancorporation paying out a modest 43% of its earnings.
When a company paid out less in dividends than it earned in profit, this generally suggests its dividend is affordable. The lower the % of its profit that it pays out, the greater the margin of safety for the dividend if the business enters a downturn.
Click here to see how much of its profit West Bancorporation paid out over the last 12 months.
historic-dividend
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Companies with consistently growing earnings per share generally make the best dividend stocks, as they usually find it easier to grow dividends per share. If business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. With that in mind, we're encouraged by the steady growth at West Bancorporation, with earnings per share up 9.1% on average over the last five years.
The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. In the past 10 years, West Bancorporation has increased its dividend at approximately 15% a year on average. We're glad to see dividends rising alongside earnings over a number of years, which may be a sign the company intends to share the growth with shareholders.
Has West Bancorporation got what it takes to maintain its dividend payments? West Bancorporation has seen its earnings per share grow slowly in recent years, and the company reinvests more than half of its profits in the business, which generally bodes well for its future prospects. We think this is a pretty attractive combination, and would be interested in investigating West Bancorporation more closely.
Want to learn more about West Bancorporation? Here's a visualisation of its historical rate of revenue and earnings growth.
If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
Report on rising COVID infections 'missed the peak' and cases are actually coming down, top scientist says
The React report showed that the prevalence of coronavirus across England increased by 50% between early December and the second week of January.
Police advised Government not to investigate harassment claims, MSPs told
Deputy Chief Constable Fiona Taylor has been giving evidence to the Alex Salmond case inquiry at Holyrood.
Kate Garraway shares update on husband Derek Draper's Covid recovery
The Good Morning Britain presenter has written a book about her husband's illness.


But they didn't just stop at the promise; they went ahead and created a new material (called AirFoam and proprietary to Nolah) that does exactly that.
So, is the Nolah mattress worthy of your attention? Have a look at our experience sleeping on it and decide for yourself.
As it turns out, Nolah is a great bed for all types of sleepers: back, side, and stomach. The memory foam is so great at taking your shape that you don't have to worry about compatibility problems. However, you should know that it still has an off-gassing period – it doesn't last long, but you can still feel it.
Cooling Nolah AirFoam™ – The material specially created for this brand of mattresses in order to keep sleepers cool and cozy. The layer will take your body's shape and will absorb any movement that may disturb your slumber without overheating.
Supportive High-Resilience Foam – The layer that provides back support and a bit of a bounce. Bounciness is not usually a feature you see in a memory foam design, but this is a special type of foam, introduced in the mattress to keep things interesting.
High-Density Base Foam – The thickest and most durable layer in the design, this is where the magic of support happens. The foam at the base has the role to protect the other layers and keep their features fresh for as long as possible.
The mattress is covered with a breathable, soft viscose cover that's removable and easy to wash. Also, it's stretchy so it fits around the layers like a glove and keeps them protected and dry.
While it may not seem like much, the Nolah inner-structure recipe works well for all types of sleepers. It's also a lightweight product that doesn't need too much maintenance as time goes by.
Given the fact that we're talking about memory foam, it comes to no surprise that the firmness is at a medium-soft (5.5) level. The surface provides plenty of cushioning and sinkage, but it also bounces back once you settle in.
While it has some type of bounce to it, you shouldn't expect the same flexibility as you would get from a hybrid or innerspring design. So, if you're used to a bit of kickback during other bedroom activities, this may not be the best choice for you. Otherwise, the design is superb for anyone looking to relax and enjoy a fantastic sleep experience!
The AirFoam is a revolutionary material that keeps body temperature at an ideal level during the night. You'll also sleep better because any moisture is wicked away by the breathable cover. Even more, sleep experience on Nolah is rejuvenating due to its impressive pressure point removal system. When combined with its highly-effective cooling system, the result can only be translated in slumber bliss.
This mattress is first and foremost comfortable, but it helps to know it comes at a very attractive price! Also, the producer offers free shipping and return with money back guaranteed, 120 nights trial period, and lifetime warranty.
Overall, we loved the Nolah mattress and we understand why its reputation is so high among sleepers from all over the USA. The design is unpretentious and comfortable, the surface is soft and nice to touch, and you could spend some extremely happy moments on it without worrying about overheating or sweating.


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Hot Research PM
Monster's Scary Valuation
Updated Jan. 16, 2006 11:59 pm ET / Original July 16, 2019 12:08 pm ET
Monster Worldwide Inc . (MNST: Nasdaq)
By Credit Suisse First Boston ($44.22, Jan. 13, 2006)
WE'RE DOWNGRADING OUR RATING on shares of Monster Worldwide to Neutral from Outperform based on valuation.
The stock is up almost 100% over the last eight months, as management has provided greater detail regarding the profitability of the company's North American operations and the potential for margin expansion within its international operations, and has cleaned up the business by disposing of the money-losing Direct Marketing division.
Monster now trades at 19, which is 37 times our 2006 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and earnings-per-share estimates, and has traded past our current $38 target price.
We continue to believe the fundamentals for the company are strong, and we expect solid results and 2006 guidance when Monster reports earnings at the end of January, but we believe valuation now largely reflects both strong top-line growth and improving international profitability, so we see the risk/reward as starting to look more balanced.
For the upcoming December-quarter results, we're looking for earnings per share of 27 cents (although we see the potential for modest upside to our estimate). Our 2006 earnings-per-share estimate of $1.20 reflects 20%-plus growth in Monster's North American operations and 30% to 35% growth in the international business and approximately [an] 150 basis-point operating-margin expansion (including 3 cents of stock-based compensation expense).
--Jeremy Davis
The companies mentioned in Hot Research are subjects of research reports issued recently by investment firms. Their opinions in no way represent those of Barron's Online or Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Share prices at the time the report was issued and the date of the report are in parentheses.
To be considered for this feature, please send material to Research@barrons.com
Monster Worldwide Inc.


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Best Places to Work in DC: Snagajob
Written by Washingtonian Staff | Published on October 29, 2015
Arlington and Glen Allen; 266 employees
On Fortune magazine's list of 50 Best Small and Medium-Size Companies to Work For, Snagajob is headquartered in Glen Allen, Virginia—about two hours from DC—but recently opened an office in Arlington, where it's hiring rapidly, up to 35 staffers. Snagajob is a service that connects hourly-job seekers with employers, and "Snaggers" say they like the mission of putting people in jobs. They're happy to have snagged a job with this firm: "Working here is as fun and stress-free as work gets," says account executive Jordan LaBella. A "culture squad" plans monthly outings such as an office Olympics (relay races, chair dancing) and a St. Patrick's Day party with green beer and bagpipers, plus there's a healthy work/life balance.
Perk: Two days of paid volunteer leave a year.
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How do you Grow Canola?
A job in the agriculture industry isn't just about being a farmer – there are actually hundreds of career opportunities that don't even involve setting foot on a field!
If that surprises you, you're not alone. In what may be the funniest Superman Duffy adventure yet, Chase gets a humorous lesson from his grandfather about the different kinds of agriculture careers…or is it really Grandpa at all?
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Joplin, MO officials have terminated a Joe Becker Stadium lease agreement with the Joplin Miners (independent; Southwest League), but are still interested in obtaining professional baseball.
The Miners were slated to be part of the upstart Southwest League, an independent circuit conceived by Mark Schuster and the Ventura Sports Group. Plans for the league had called for a 2019 launch with six teams (the Miners are among the four that were previously announced), with every team except for the Miners based in Texas. However, it was revealed last month that Miners ownership Joplin Sports & Entertainment–an entity that includes Schuster–had defaulted on its lease with the city after missing a $35,000 rent payment.
City Manager Sam Anselm said the door is open to all offers, including another one from the organization that did not pay the $35,000 due last month for use of the stadium this year. That organization is Ventura Sports Group of Texas, which also formed an entity named Joplin Sports & Entertainment to lease the stadium and stage baseball games and events there. Ventura is forming the Southwest League of Professional Baseball.
Mark Schuster, the managing partner of those organizations, said Jan. 25 the reason for the default is that the league had not come together as quickly as he had hoped. He told city officials last year he intends to start the league with five teams in Texas and a team here that his organization has named the Joplin Miners.
He has been working on securing stadiums in Texas for league play there and has agreements to put teams in Waco and Royse City, Texas.
Joe Becker Stadium has been without professional baseball since the end of the Joplin Blasters (independent; American Association), who arrived to the facility in 2015 after a $4.7 million renovation only to cease operations following the 2016 season. In recent years, it has remained active for other uses–including home games for the Joplin Outlaws (summer collegiate; MINK League) and high school sports.