The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 13, 1924, Page 19

Separating the Chaff from the Wheat By ALFRED KNUTSON, Within so-called farmers’ and work- ers’ movements, like ‘the Nonpartisan gue and several state i’armer- Labor parties, there have not besn, heretofore, hardly any distinction between the make-up of their mem- bership. In the Nonpartisan League, for instance, it was usually felt thet hired men on the farms, the tenants, the small farm owner, the well-to-do farmer, the small banker and the small business man, had common economic interests. The enemy of all was thought to be “big busi- ness”, and for that reason they were urged to unite their political forces, in order to administer a death blow to this one monster—the exploiter of them all, Such was the talk of League organizers in the northwest. However, with the advent of more acute economic coiflitions, we are be- ginning to witness a different line-up between these various elements. At the recent Nonpartisan League con- vention, held at Bismarck, N. D., when such fundamental matters as “recognition of Soviet Russia”, “lan for the users”, and “a five year mora- torium for working farmers”, were brought to the attention of the dele- gates, the officialdom of the League, the lawyer-and-banker-leaguer, show- ed their disavproval by refusing to consider them at all, while some fifty or sixty honest delegates, hard pres- sed financially, manifested their sym- pathy with these necessary demands ef the farmers and the workers, Just recently R. W. Frazier (one cf the prominent old-time leaguers), chairman of the republican party in North Dakota, announced that, “for the sake of harmony” he was in favor of the candidacy of Coolidge. This is a brazen betrayal of the real interests of the rank and file of the farmers and the workers in North Dakota, and can only serve to separ- ate still more the petty bourgeois elements from ihe class conscious workers in both town and country. In South Dakota this same filter- ing process between the cjasses is in evidence. The vgo-called minority group in the Farmer-Labor party have omitted from their platform, the two most important planks adopted by the Pierre convention, namely, “land for the users” and “a five year moratorium for the working farm- ers’ Batcheller, the leader of the Farm- ers’ Union in South Dakota, comes out in the press and states that the farmer is made to look like a criminal by his insisting upon these obviously necessary measures. Beck, the agent in the state of the reactionary Gom- pers, talks pompously about how “fundamental democracy” is en- dangered by such a “radical’’ pro- gram. Bates, Bartling and others, who have been prominent and “good” leaguers and Farmer-Laborites in the past, express themselves in a similar tone. The guns of the opposition are trained against Tom Ayres, the South Dakota farmers’ and workers’ candi- date for United States senator. To } the discomfiture and dismay of the pussyfooters and politicians in the state, Ayres is insisting upon a mo- ratorium and land for the users. He could hardly have thrown a bigger bombShell into the camp of the reac- tionaries than by thus fearlessly giv- ing expression to the vital needs and demands of the exploited farmers. The struggle in South Dakota is interesting and of the greatest signi- ficance to the farmers and the work- ers of the entire country. Here, in embryo, we witness the separation of the chaff from the whieat,—the petty bourgeois philistines and middle-class : F AMINE philosophers are slowly, but surely, losing their grip on the masses, A Bunch of Live Wires - - ~ By Bai R. Browder . HE livest bunch of live wires I to be foung in the trade unions of this country, is in the Trade Union Educational Lezgue. ‘The center of discussion wheaever pro- gressive policies are being advocated. All over the country the trade unions ' are being stirred into new life by this band of militants, with their uniform program of progress, and their fight- ing spirit directed against the em- ployers and their agents. The T. U. E. L., the left wing of the American labor movement. It is the one out- standing promise of a bigger and stronger labor movement in the near future. ; Central and important in the work of the T. U. E. L., is THE LABOR HERALD, monthly magazine of the league, which has been published for the past two years. This maga- zine has established itself as an authority on trade union preblems in America, as well as the guide and in- spiration for the fighting left wing militants. Interesting and well-writ- ten, in contains from month to. month the most fundamental information and analysis of the working class ang arguments for militants, arming them for the struggie. Every city and town has its local general group of the T. U. E. L., where the militants gather from all, sections of the labor movement; each industry in each center has its in- dustrial groun working with its inter- national’ committee; and in -each union the Leagué militants co-oper- ate to carry on their vital educational work. There is a place for every liye wire and militant, and a task for each one to carry out.. The Trade Union Educational League is thus made the most interesting and active section of the labor movement. In Chieago the general group of the T. U. E. L., meets once a month, on the fourth Wednesday, at Wicker Park Hall, 2040 West North St. Every progressive, militant, and revolutionary worker in Chicago should be interested in getting into the work of the Trade Union Educa- tional League. Such a bunch of live ires, electrifying the labor move- ment and charging it with new life, will naturally draw to itself all the other tive wires in the movement. movement in America and of the industry, as well as backing the gen- world. Even its enemies read it,|eral publications. Thus the Railroad which proves that THE LABOR| Committee publishes the RAILROAD HERALD is an establisheq institu-| AMALGAMATION ADVOCATE; the tion. Needle Trades Committee publishes Grouped around the Trade Union = Pagegrreseane bing ava, loa Educational League are the left wing | {tades Committee issues’ the ; ee i : ‘ GAMATION BULLETIN; the Print- ro ia ere muik ae ga ing Trades Committee is responsible needle trades, are sections of the T. pa Ph las he Stags sonore a U. E. L. Others are, independent, eo kk secs “9 Pancunenree ang the members of the League work Suritane acne WORKER: and with them along with many non-mem- the Mining € ‘ bliche ae bers in that industry Such industrial |“ “™ne = a banoommeen committees, directing the left-wing 1 aga em ogo on a national scale within the broad NER. A complete network of or- scope of each industry, are function- ganization and press is thus being ing in the Railroad, Metal, Needle | Woven throughout the labor move- Trades, Printing Trades, Food and ment, consolidating and _ centraliz- Leather, Textile, Marine Transport, | im the left wing movement. : Tobacco, and Coal Mining Industries.| The Trade Union Educational Around each committee is being built | League has also published books and Bp a ae pour of ba ol | pamphlets covering all _— of the ropagate and organize ior in 41 labor movement, national and inter- eisai, the labor party, militant pared in the Labor Herald leadership, and the other phases gif Nine publications have been the League program. issued, the circulation of which have These left-wing live wires are also | run into hundreds of thousands. Th's building up their own press in each! library constitutes a arsenal of facts THE NEGRO IN POLITICS - - s;toverrrorT waiteman yet in tue clutches of the un- scrupulous politician of both Races. From year to year he votes oa the simple f@.th that the goodness in character of the candidate is suf- ficient force to improve his sccial conditions. There is something pathetic in the child-like way the Negro voter looks at politics. The entire Race is without any political ideals, Its professional politicans are solely interested in politics only in so far as they may derive gratt and lucrative jobs. The platform or . Program of a candidate is never con- sidered, but the extent of his power to purchase votes, Nevertheless, there are manifest here and there among the younger men and women against this condi- - tion. They make up as yet the few who are able to understand that poli- tics is but a reflection of economic conditions, that government today is but an instrument in the hands of the rich of capitalist class, and that its laws and policies are envolved primarily in the interest of its class. The Negro who advocates Treva the Negro messes are much opposition from the t set | ican ge} “The Negro C 'e ers in some way or other live on the “The Negro and the Workers Party.” | terest to white as well as Negro bounty of the white capitalist class. |These articles will be of extreme in-| workers. Most Negro higher schools and col-|— - leges are supported by the contribu- tions of white philanthropists; also otter ngeations ater of = etic | ThE Deportations Delirium of 1920 or non-descript character. The Negro heads of th instituti the | 3 chenptnd Saher of Une ‘Race. They By LOUIS F. POST wakes Haan or “as ea ; Assistant Secretary of Labor from 1913 to 1921. vocate other than a capitalist ticket | % ; in politics. The Negro leader has sold | 4 ; $3 out the man-hood of the Race. : Sa : é Yet slowly but surely we of the | 3 A vivid recital of events in which the Seow tues $e phat and al$ the author took part, and a start- eee ; ling exposure of Attorney General 1 Ss yh Bi : Palmer’s assaults on the eonstitu- eries © les * . é The above is the first of a series |3 tional rights of the wage-workers. of articles to appear regularly in “The Daily Worker” on the question of oe Negro.” the tes, of some |§ Cloth, 350 pages, $1.50 postpaid. as Tollows: ‘Negro Leadershing” “The Negro | $ tee -! tie ndasren Fedbage « tot CHARLES H. KERR & CO. and the Dark- | 4 339 EAST OHIO STREET CHICAGO