This “underground classic” was originally printed and distributed by the Workers’ Educational Association, Toronto. Its full title is The Permanent War, or Homo the Sap, and it argues – as political scientist Mel Watkins points out in his Foreword – that there is much to be said on behalf of the “permanent war economy,” despite Eisenhower’s subsequent warning about “the military-industrial complex.”
The author of this Swiftian satire, originally published in 1943, was Lorne T. Morgan, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Economy, University of Toronto. It has been more talked about than read. Now it is being made available agin for the first time in sixty- three years.
As for the future, Dr. Morgan writes, “It can only be an ever-shortening interlude between wars.”
Chapbook 70 pp.
ISBN 1-55246-665-5 @ $12.00
Lorne Pierce, nationally known Author and Editor of The Ryerson Press, writes:
"I read Dr. Morgan's booklet last night, underscored pages
all the way through and sent it to my son a young Lieutenant in the Canadian
Active Force, who is a former student and a great admirer of Professor Morgan.
"I found the first part of this book, in which he analyzes
Fascism, a devastating bit of reasoning. Every incipient Bureaucrat in the
country should be compelled to memorize about six pages of this thumping
appraisal.
"When he turns to Morgan's Plan for Permanent War, he really
begins to cavort. I cannot think of a better example of sizzling scorn or
rollicking irony applied to the contemporary scene.
"On the whole he has the right labels on the right things,
and I think that, whether we like it or not, he has staked off the battlefield
for the immediate future, and the fight will take place just about there."
P.S. – Concluding his Letter, Dr. Pierce writes:
"We need a dozen men like Moore & Morgan rip-snorting through
the mouldy ruins of our House of Death."
Professor Leopold Infeld, collaborator with Einstein in The Evolution of
Physics, writes:
"Professor Morgan's delightful satire is not only clever, instructive and
excellently written; above all, it formulates the most pertinent questions of
our present day."
Professor E. J. Pratt, Canada's famous satirical poet:
"I think that your Homo The Sap is an excellent bit of writing, conceived in the
finest satirical tradition."
Professor Alexander Brady, noted Canadian authority on constitutional problems:
"This essay is an incisive economic satire of which Canada has hitherto had
little. Few can doubt the vigor of the analysis, and the satire should provoke
among Canadians no little thought."
Canadian Tribune doesn't like "Homo The Sap," writes:
"If this be satire – Lord make us a fool!"
P.S. – What a break that Tribune chap got, for the Lord had already granted his
prayer before it was uttered.