War: The Numbers Racket

First there was the big "Five-Antis" campaign of last year. Since then. Peking propagandists have been adding a bewildering list of numerical sins to the jargon of Communism, alongside "commandism." "dispersionism," "tailism," and kindred diseases. Not to be outdone, the Tientsin financial and economic department confessed that it was beset by the "Four Know-Nots": not knowing what its officials were doing, not knowing the amount of capital invested in public enterprises, not knowing losses & gains, not knowing the amount of cash on hand. Last week the Peking People's Daily proclaimed a new self-criticism campaign, labeled: "The Five Too Many." The Five: "Too many tasks, too many meetings, too many documents and forms, too many organizations and too many concurrent posts for cadres." In some localities "another too-many has been added—too many check-up teams."