The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 26, 1924, Page 8

sections of our rural populations is of such serious portent to the pol- iticians, especially in presidential election year, that some alibi must be) offered. At first the tactic was to de-| ny that the farmers were badly off, the Republicans maintained that they | were prosperous but didn’t know it. This Christian Science prosperity was not antidote for eighty cent wheat that costs twice that to raise, so a nqw tack was tried. The Montana Department of Agri- culture has found out the real reason why farmers fail. They just don’t know their business, that’s all, To be a proper farmer one must be an ex- pert in soils, a botanist, a biologist, a weather prophet, an agriculturist, a machinist, a merchant, a banker, a traffic manager, and a dozen other things which in the city may pull down $5,000 a year—each. It ought to be great consolation for the Da- kotans, disposed after three genera- tions of slavery, to learn that all that’s wrong with them is that they don’t know farming. Out of fifty-eight farmers in a re- cent survey only twenty-three had been farmers before settling in that part of the country, and only ‘one was a native Montanan. The former vocations of the others were: two ~doctors, one miner, two deep-sea div- ers, two school teachers, two black- smiths, one bartender, three maiden ladies, two cowpunehérs, one sea- go- ing engineer, one mail carrier, one globe-trotter, six musicians, two dray- men, two butchers, two milliners, two jack-of-all-trades, and two wrestlers. Anatole We print below a Foreword which the world-famed writer Ana- tole France has written to the French edition of Jack London’s “Tron Heel,” which has just been published in book form. “The Iron Heel’—That is the forceful expression which Jack Lon- don uses in order to characterize the Plutocracy. The book which bears this title appeared in the year 1907. It portrays the conflict which one day will break out between the Plutocracy and the People, if the gods in their anger so permit. Ah! Jack Lon- don possessed that genius which per- ceives that which remains hidden from the mass of men. He possessed powers which enabled him to antici- pate things. He foresaw all those events which are being enacted in our times. That fearful drama which he presented in the “Iron Heel” has, up to the present, not become an ac- tuality and we do not know where and when this prophesy of the American disciple of Marx will be realized. Jack London was a socialist, in fact even a revolutionary socialist. The man who, in his book, discerns the True and foresees the Future with its Wisdom, Strength and Goodness is named Ernest Everhard. He, like the author, had been a worker who earned his bread with the labor of his hands. For you must know that that the man who wrote fifty wonder- ful volumes, all permeated with the defiant and challenging spirit of life and who died young, was the son of a worker and began his magnificent career in a factory. Ernest Everhard is full of courage and wisdom, full of strength and gentleness, all of which qualities are common to him and the writer who has created him. And in order to complete the similarity existing between the two, the author gives his hero a wife possessing a great soul and a strong mind, whom The digest of this report concludes | from this showing: “That means that. 'most of them were totally ignorant | of the industry which they sought to i pursue, and, in addition, were unfa- miliar with the part of the country in ‘which they sought to produce a living. They Immew nothing of its soil, its climate, its labor conditions, its prices, its production costs and its markets. Should a sailor walk into a watchmaker’s shop and apply for a job as a watch repairer he would be acting in a manner no more incon- gruous than the deep-sea divers, the carpenter and the wrestler, and any of the rest of them, in boldly taking up the difficult pursuit of farming in a strange country. The report says that it is not surprising that these strangers failed in large numbers,” “The attempt of inexperienced and unfit met to suceeed under conditions requiring phe type of agricultural ability and experience produced its natural results,’ says the report on the survey, “In the area of heaviest failure 51% of those who went upon the land were without previous farm- ing experience and 30% had no cap- ital.” So the report maintains that the reason why Montana farmers fail is, first, because they are not Montanans, second, because they are not farmers. The report itself gives the lie to this conclusion. The survey showed 61% non,farmers, 39% farmers. The 61% produced 51% of the worst fail- ure, the 39% produced 49%. The single Montanan in the 58 is such a minor factor that there is no basis of comparison. Farming is an industry requiring work and brains. An experienced farmer ought #% do better than an inexperienced city man. But many thousands of farmers have been so ground down by their years of profit- less labor that they have remained ignorant of improved methods that have come to the notice of the bet- ter orientated city man. The very diversity of the farmer’s work makes much of the knowledge of the car- penter and the school teacher, and the butcher. and all the rest of them come in mighty handy. But this is not the solution of the problem, The survey itself shows that ex-farmer and ex-city man fail in about the same ratio. This attempt to,set farmer against farmer according to past vocations is ridiculous. To go over the same ground covered by this survey and find out why each of the 35 city men turned to farming would throw inter- esting light on the workings of the capitalist system. It would be found that some of these carpenters, ma- chinists, engineers, etc., were victims of a lost labor cause, and blacklisted because of their activity on behalf of the working class. So the only way left for their families to get bread was to scratch it out of the soil. To gather those fifty-eight farmers to- gether and have them tell one an- other their life stories would give a qualified writer the basis of the great American Play and the great Amer- ican novel, both. It would uncontro- vertibly prove the need for the soli- darity of the working class, of land and of town, for the common cause France Speaks of Jack which reminds me that against the poor everything and anything is per- mited. All proletarians of Europe have, like their American class com- rades, felt the imprint of the iron heel on their own bodies. One of these days, however, the fight between Capital and Labor will again flare up. Then one ‘will ex- perience days like those of the revolts in San Francisco<and Chicago, the indescribable horror of which Jack London has already portrayed before- hand. Nevertheless, there is abso- lutely no ground for the assumption that on that day (be it near or dis- tant) Socialism will again be ground hoa the iron heel and choked in 00 In the year 1917, someone had ex- claimed to Jack London: “You are a terrible pessimist!’ Sincere socialists reproached him with bringing fear to the Party. But they were wrong. Those who have the rare and precious gift of being able perceive things be- forehand, must openly call atiention to these dangers which they sense in advance. I recollect that the great Jaures said more than once: “With us the forces of the classes against which we have to lead the fight are not sufficiently known. They have the power and they are credited with possessing virtue. The ciergy have ; forsaken the mora)s of the church in order to take up those of business; and the whole of society will, as soon as it is seriously threatened, enter | the field in order to defend itself.” | He, too, was right, just as Jack Lon- don was right, in holding the prophetic mirror before us in order * reveal our failings and shortsight- edness, We will not compromise the fu- ture, It belongs to us. The Pluto- eracy will fall. Now, in its fulness of power, one already recognizes signs of its collapse, It wil) disap- pear, because every caste regime is doomed to death. Wage slavery must her husband makes a socialist. And/ disappear, because it is unjust. It we know that “Charmian,” together | will fall at a time when it is still in- with her husband Jack, withdrew) solently boasting of its strength, ex- from the Labor Party so soon as this | actly as slavery and serfdom fell. party betrayed signs of moderatism. The two revolts which form the subject of the book which I here present to the French reader, are of a bloody nature. They exhibit, in the plans of, these who provoke them, such treachery and in their carrying out so much cruelty, that one asks oneself whether they would be at all possible in America, ih Europe and articularly in France. For myself Pwould not consider them as possible if I had not before my eyes the example of the June days and the crushing of the Commune of 1870, And when one observes it closely one notices already today that it is worn with age. The war, which the large industry of every country brought about, the war which was their war, the war from which they hoped to acquire further wealth, has brought so much and so widespread devastation, that the international Oligarchy has itself been shaken, and the day is approaching when it will comp crashing down on a ruined Eu- rope. I cannot, however, say that it will collapse at one blow and without a struggle. It will offer resistance. Its Why the Farmers Fail » aur mos T# wholesale bankruptcy of large | of ridding themselves of the para- sitic coupon-clippers who live off the sweat and blood of America’s work- ers, What is really the matter with our farmers is that they are trying to wage an individualist struggle against a capitalist regime. The plutocratic collectivity made up of railroads, banks, _ elevators, packinghouses, chain stores, commission _ brokers, canneries, implement. makers, seed wholesalers, fertilizer magnates, and all the others who stand between the producer on the land and his fellow- producer in the city—they are er- ganized. Thru their Chamber of Commerce, Manufacturers’ Associa- tions, Rotarians, Kiwanis, Ku Kluxes, and other organizations they control ° two major political machines and such side shoots as occasions may demand. Thru the control of these parties they control the American government, the .}° State, in all its branches.. Thru the control of the political State they are able to enforce their claim of ownership of the socially essential public utilities. The formula of cap- italist power is simple: Exploitation thru ownership; ownership thru polit- ical power; political power thru class organization. The workers and farmers must fol- low the same formula. Alone they can do nothing. The Montana sur- vey declares that 30% of the worst failures had no capital. That is false. One hundred per cent of all failure had no eapital, relatively speaking. That’s why farmers fail. That’s why workers are robbed. -When they have all capital, collectively, there will be no further failure or robbery. London last war will perhaps be long drawn out and be marked by..ups and downs. Oh, you heirs of the proletariat, oh you future generations, you children of the new times! You will conduct the war, and if ever cruel reverses. cause you to have doubts as to the success of your cause, so will you again pluck up courage and exclaim with the noble Everhard: “It is true we have lost this time, but not for always! We have learnt several things. Tomorrow we will take up the struggle again, more equipped and ‘strengthened in wisdom and dis- cipline!”’ “The March of the Workers.” At a certain meeting in Moscow of representatives of Communist youth organizations from about 20 countries, those present were called upon separately to sing the most pular revolutionary song of their league. England, Russia, Bulgaria, Mexico, Sweden and a number of others responded—in fact, all but one delegate rendered a selection, and sad as it may be, it was the one which represented the United States. With all the jazz music in this country, with all the dances and entertainments that we ourselves run, we have developed a work- ing class music, You never see a group of Euro- pean organi’ workers 4 young march thru the streetg without sing- ing. Their voices are no better than those of the American young be sin ers. We have been so busy “with the actual work of organization that we have overlooked the very import- ant function of a revolutionary youth movemen' ng. In the nick of time, the Young NG WORKERS LEAGUE Workers League comes to the rescue with a song book whose equal it will be hard to find. “The March of the Workers,” now being sold by the Y. W. L., is about the best work- ers’ song book I have ever seen; and I have in my possession a copy of nearly all song books published in this country and have seen most of those published in Europe. Con- tained therein are, of course, the best songs of the European move- ment. But we have not been back- ward in including the best that has been created in this country—those by Liebich, Gomez and Mike Gold, as well as an American version of the Carmagnole by Harrison George, The make-up of “The March of the Workers” is excellent, and the price of $1.00 makes you wonder how the league could do it, There are only one thousand copies on hand, and we have made sure that our order wag put in even be- fore the ter delivered this mea- ger supply. Besides, you can get & co) of the so (without the music) for twenty-five cents, What a thrill it will be to the Fg Py white collared slaves in the New York subways to hear a bunch of the league members warble “We are the Youthful Guardsmen of the Proletariat,” and from what we know of the Chi , Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Kansas City (and oth- er) wage slaves, a movement that * songs with the members capable of will win their admira- tion if not their support. This address is only of value to 1,000 ple: Y. W. L., 1009 N. State st. Chicago, IIL. zs,