The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 13, 1924, Page 6

& N e THE DAILY WORKER Thursday, March 13, 192 é DAILY WORKER. shed by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO., 1640 N. Halsted St., Chicago, Ill. (Phone: Lincoln 7680.) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail: $6.00 per year $3.50..6 months $2.00..8 months B ail (in Chicago only): ‘4 ari -6 months $2.50. .3 isanths Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1640 N. Halsted Street $8.00 per year Chicago, Illinois ¥. LOUIS ENGDAM Dt oc sen ences + os Editors WILLIAM F. DUNNE }§ *"* : MORITZ J. LOEB.........--- Business Manager Entered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1923 at the Post- Office at Chicago, Ill., under the act of March 3, 1879. =_™ Advertising rates on application. IRR Sonne doce tte sommes The Coolidge Ultimatum After weeks of wrangling and bitter fighting the house of representatives adopted a tax! measure which was a hodge-podge affair. The tax bill as approved by the house reflects very | wividly the chaos, disintegration and confusion prevailing in the dominant capitalist parties at this moment. ; eves were wondering what Coolidge would do with the proposal of the House. He could not very well veto it on the general prin- ciple that it would be considered bad politics to be in any way at all responsible for holding up a tax reduction measure, no matter what it was. On the other hand the president had been banking so much on the Mellon’ scheme that his acceptance of the mangled house bill might be looked upon as a serious blow at his power and prestige. As was to be expected, Coolidge then began to wield the powerful club placed in his hands by a highly centralized government. Coolidge tried the game played by Wilson during the days when war fever was raging at its worst. He sent an ultimatum, clothed as an urgent request, to congress, demanding a 25 per cent reduction in the 1923 income taxes without delay. But the reaction of congress to this ukase from Coolidge was a curt and effective rebuff to his enroachments upon the right guaranteed by the constitution to the house of representatives, the right to levy taxes. _ The very tone’ and language of the ultima- tum betrayed Coolidge’s motives as solely petty political. It is easy to read in the plea of the chief executive 4n attempt on his part to do some political fence repairing. Congressman Greene, the republican chairman of the house Ways and means committee, lost no time in informing the president that there was no chance to pass any emengency tax legislation because under the present conditions it would be impossible to secure the necessary unani- mous consent for such action. The democratic leader, Mr. Garner, even cast to the winds all pretenses at respect for presidential honorable motives and showed that Coolidge was simply trying to pose as a savior of the masses, while actually he was trying to strengthen the re- actionary republican party. Another War Brewing Germany is getting ready for the next war! Capitalist correspondents in Berlin send this prophecy to their papers as hot stuff. But why wonder at it? There is not a government in the world strong or weak that is not preparing for the next war. The best brains of every capitalist govern- ment in Europe are devoted to the task of pre- paring for the next reign of carnage. This is capitalism. And yet we are told that Com- munists believe in violence. Communism alone can save the human race from this sui- cidal mgnia for war and self-destruction. The last war was supposed to make another war impossible. So said the American war mongers. But to say that another war must not be, today, is to court the dungeon. The United States is preparing for the next war. Germany is preparing for war. Of course. Today she can place 400,000 men in the field. In a few years more she may have 750,000. Her chemists have perfected the most deadly forms of ‘gas. How splendid! And France! Victorious France, totters under the weight of her victory. The franc slips; panic seizes her rulers; a dictatorship of capitalism is threatened. Surely a beauti- ful prospect. Meanwhile Soviet Russia proceeds calmly building up a new order, abolishing the causes of war and offering hope to the workers of the world who are slowly building up their Communist organizations that will abolish capitalism and its evil accompaniments, the most terrible of which is war. A storm is threatening in the Coolidge cabi- net that will soon burst with a violence re- ‘ ling an earthquake. It appears that the nt man was in a caucus with McLean. This ‘boded ill to the friends of Harry Daugherty and other big guns in the republican party. The White House wire of the “principal” to the “Big Bear” at Palm Beach was a surprise to others besides the Public Lands Committee. The esteemed Chicago Evening Post regrets that the “people” are losing confidence in the present capitalist government. The Teapot Dome investigation is largely to blame. It happens that the owner of the “Post” was one of the excuses for the investigation. He got the neat sum of $92,000 for securing valuable in- formation. Of course he has confidence in our _ present government. It was very good to him. m- JOIN THE WORKERS PARTY og ‘Back to the People’ The poweful capitalist interests are not re- treating before the assault that is now being made against them, The American constitution is reputed to be a most inflexible document. (There is no other constitution so difficult to amend and which puts the government at so respectable a dis- tance from the influence of the masses. Yet, while the Teapot committee is busy digging into telegrams and secret codes the senators and congressmen of both the republican and democratic parties are joining hands in mak- ing the constitution even more rigid and more difficult to amend than itis today. To some this task may be an impossible one in view of the already excessive rigidity of the constitu- tion. Nevertheless, this is the case. United States Senator James W. Wadsworth, of New York, a multi-millionaire republican, who has inherited millions of dollars from his father, once one of the leading real estate gamblers in the country, and who is himself now one of -the notorious bond sharks, is the author of a bill innocently called the “back to the people” amendment. In the house of rep- resentatives, Congressman Finis G. Garrett, of Tennessee, democrat, is the sponsor of this measure. The amendment provides for new and slower procedure for changing the constitution. It is to be a substitute for Article 5 of the constitu- tion, but will retain the already objectionable feature of this article which provides for the ratification of any constitutional amendment by “three-fourths of the several states thru their legislattres or conventions, as one of the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress or the Convention.” The Wads- worth-Garrett proposal adds to this check against exercise of political power by the masses the following dangerous stipulation: “that the members of at least one house of each of the legislatures which may ratify shall be elected after such amendments have been proposed; that any state may require that ratification by its legislature be subject to confirmation by popular vote; and that, until three-fourths of the state have ratified or more than one-fourth of the states have rejected or defeated a proposed amendment, any state may change its vote.” This is a most dangerous move being made by the big business interests against the work- ers and farmers. Here we have an attempt to use the skillful device of so-called “confidence in the people” and the cumbersome parliamen- tary machinery in order to blind the workers and farmers to the uselessness of capitalist demacracy. The Philadelphia Bar Associa- tion, the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Asso- ciation, the National Security League, and other reactionary organizations of the employ- the urgent duty of every organization of the working and farming classes to resist-the en- apa of this vicious measure to the bitter end. The Spanish Dictatorship _ It appears that the Spanish dictatorship of Colonel Rivera, and the gang of militarists that had committed all the outrages in the Philippines and Cuba, once so roundly denounced by our, American “humanifarian” capitalists, is due for a serious jolt, _ This clique of capitalist hangmen who have main- tained themselves in power b; slaughtering the help- less unarmed Spanish workers’are now being buried on the very field where they had previously scored their greatest victory. It was thru their supposed opposition to the Moroccoan military campaign that the Spanish Fascisti came into power. Once they seized power in Spain these Fascists pursued the same~ imperialist ventures, Now the Rivera dictatorship is about to be over- whelmed by a horrible military disaster like the gov- ernment which it overthrew. The Riffians have’ broken thru the Spanish lines and are pushing thru in wedge formation. The bankrupt Spanish government is rush- ing reinforcements, The outlook for the Spaniards is hopeless. The reverse is so serious that the govern- ment’s life is threatened. The Outlook Jn Japan Dire political consequences are expected in Japan as a result of the conflict between the cabinet and privy council over the question of giving an eighty mil- | lion yen loan to the insurance companies, Despite the refusal of the privy council and the house of represenattives to sanction the measure, Viscount Kiyoura is going ahead with this policy of favoritism to the big insurance interests. Thus the viscount is following a policy contrary to the wishes of every other branch of the government. This dictatorial attitude of the ruling clique of Japan will precipitate decisive struggles in the Island empire. The working masses of Japan have been showing in- creasing signs of discontent. A great struggle for the extension of franchise is now gripping the country. The outcome of this fight for a democratization of the Japanese government is of tremendous importance to the entire Far East, The Trial of Forbes The trial) of Charles R. Forbes, former Director of the Veterang Bureau, is scheduled to open in Chicago, March 17th, before a federal court. On the eve of his trial Mr. Forbes feels confident. One of the clubs he is swinging is a threat to name the “higher-ups” if serious effort should be made to visit punishment upon him for his crookedness in ad- ministering beer a wen - oe Very ning by ter In this he is pursuing the polic: 0) r. Daugherty who is defying the Banate. the House, the President and the whole country simply by threatening to tell the truth about a number of leading figures in the Government, Mr. Daugherty ig today without question the most werful man in the Government for this very reason, Porhgoe Mr. Forbes is the next powerful man because he ig the next most crooked man in capitalist politics. Under these circumstances we don’t ex, much from the Forbes trial. Disarmament must, wait, says Ramsay Mac- Donald, until—the pigs begin to fly. Disarma- ment will wait until the capitalist system is overthrown, say the Communists. S IT true that Communists advo- cate splits everywhere and under any circumstances? Or is it true. that the tactics of the united front that ‘we must avoid splits everywhere and under any circumstance? James Oneal, the editor of the so- cialist organ, “The New Leader,” again attacks the Communists. James Oneal is the socialist who more than anyone makes it understandable why the Third International adopted the name Communist, abandoning the name socialist as the synonym for shame and betrayal. James Oneal attacks the Commun. ists as perpetual splitters, as incor- rigible disrupters of every organiza- tion, « In the March issue of the New Leader, the official organ of the so- cialist party, hé accuses the Commun- ists of wanting to split the May 30th convention of the farmer-labor move- ment. Oneal writes under the head- ing, “The United Affront”: “The Minnesota conference accepted the Communist professions of good faith and permitted Communist delegates to associate themselves with the Farmer-Labor Party is issuing a call for a national conference to meet in St. Paul next May .. . Now then, turn to the issue of the WORKER of December 22, 1923. Here will be found an article by John Pepper on the proposed May conference. ... . But in his artiele he writes of the ‘tremendous tasks’ that face the Com- munists. They are always facing ‘tremendous tasks, and ‘great his- torical tasks.’ But the task he has in, mind in this article is the neces- sity ofthe Communists splitting any organization that may be organized next May. This he writes, ‘Is the greatest historical task, the task which stands before all other tasks.’ Of course, this ‘task’ is jutified on the ground that bourgeois elements will creep into the conference. But who are the ‘bourgeois elements’ in the view of all Communists. The answer is easy. All who do not ac- cept Communist. ‘principles’ are a part. of the ‘bourgeois elements,’ The Pepper article is an announcement of what the duty of Communists is in the event of them getting into any conference on the score of the ‘united front’.”’. Is it really true what James Oneal asserts, that the Communists want to split every organization, that the Communists want to split the May conference of the farmer-labor move- ment, and that my article said that the task before us is “the necessity of the Communists splitting any or- SPLIT S AND CLASS ganization that may be organized next May?” ,_ Of course James Oneal’s assertion is a lie, a conscious, deliberate .lie. He cannot quote, nor does he quote a single phrase from my article or any other articlé published in any Com- munist publication, which says a single word to the effect that we want. to split the May conference, And on the contrary, if he possessed at least the literary honesty, after having long ago lost his revolution- ary honesty, he could quote hun- dreds of citizens from scores of ar- ticles and manifestos wrttten by all Communist .writers (including my- self) for strengthening and building up the May convention. I will quote here word for word what I really wrote in my article of December 22, 1923, in the WORKER, under the heading, “La Follette, the Third Party and the Labor Party.” I pointed out that the following tasks face our Party: “1. We must realize that our chief enemy is big capital, the government and the political parties of imperial- ism. We must understand the revolu- tionary significance of the | political mass upheaval of all the lower classes of American society against ruling imperialistic capital. Our first task is, therefore, to throw into the scales the solid forces of this revolutionary Process. against capitalism. That means that we—regardless of how little we may like it—must retain a political alliance with the Third Party movement against the capital- ist parties. “2. It is in the deepest interest’ of the working class and the American revolution to render the split between the capitalist class and the other classes as wide as possible. It is, therefore, a paramount Communist task to shatter the capitalist united front. We must drive the LaFollette group to split with the democratic and republican parties. It is one of our most important tasks every- where, in every trade union and farmers’ organization, in every Farmer-Labor Party, in every Third Party, to begin a mighty campaign which will force the La Follette group into making the split. : “3, We must make every effort to split away the workers and exploited farmers fromthe well-to-do farmers and small business men. It is the greatest historical task, the task which stands before all other tasks. to develop the class consciousness of the workers and exploited farmers,” My article, therefore, really does speak of splits; but of what kind. of splits? Do I advocate or propose any split of the May 30 convention? Not at all in'my-article, hw only in James Oneal’s lying imagination. I advocate two kinds of splits in my article: (1) The split between the capitalist class and the non-capitalist classes; (2) The split of the workers and exploited farmers from the well- to-do farmers and small business men, I, therefore, advocate the split, the breaking up of the united front of the capitalist class. I want to tear away the non-capitalist classes of our society, the farmers, small business men and ‘workers from the leaders of big capital and political parties of big capital, and I want to separate organizationally as well as ideologi- cal the proletarian elements, the workers and exploited farmers from the other non-capitalist classes, from well-to-do farmers and lower middle class. I say in my article that the class struggle of the working class will more easily make heaflway when capitalist. society cannot set up a united front against the working class. I claim that the capitalist class and its government would be- come: essentially weaker if the non- capitalist classes would: lose confi- dence in the social and political lead- ership of big capital, I analyze the situation, showing that such a break- ing away of the masses from the leadership of finance capital is pro- gressing and. that all signs point to the development of a Third Party movement. ‘ At the same time my. analysis goes further and makeg it clear that the non-capitalist classes, altho in certain respects they. have interests in com- mon against financial capital, never- theless, have interests which vary in many respects. Therefore, we Com- munists, as representatives of the proletariat, must make every effort to render the workers and exploited farmers conscious of these differences of class interests. I claim that we as Marxists must ‘not underestimate the tremendous political significance of the breaking away of the non-capi- talist classes from the leadership of finance capital, but at the same time we should not forget that these lower middle class masses will always hesi- tate; and only the working class, schooled and unified in capitalist pro- duction itself, will show the neces- sary discipline,. centralization and collectivist spirit to take over the leadership in the overthrow of capi- talist society, My article advocates, therefore, two kinds of splits wnich must be STRUGGLE By JOHN PEPPER self-evident for every Marxist, for every consistent representative of the working class. I advocate the split of all non-capitalist elements from the capitalist class, and the split of the working class and ex- ploited farmers from the gelatinous, formless, hesitating, atomized, non- capitalist mass. But at the same time every Communist, aed of course my article too, advocates the united fron® of the working class, advocates and helps to organize the May 30th con- vention which tries to build up the united front of the workers and ex- ploited farmers. It is a deliberate lie to state that the Communists want to split the May 80th convention. We know that | the May convention will not contain only elements of workers and ex- ploited farmers, The class conscious- ness of workers and exploited farm- ers in our country is not yet so far advanced’ that they have separated everywhere and all along the line from the lower middle class and well- to-do farmer elements. But our attitude to the May 30th convention |from the first moment was uncondi- |tional. support. I personally have gone so far as to express the view that after we make a strong fight against it, we must accept even the nomination of La Follette if the ma- jority of the exploited farmers and workers in the May convention will decide that way. We are for the May 30th conven- tion; and. as against all the lies of James Oneal we are today the most loyal fighters against the postpone- ment or abandonment of the May 30th convention. We fight for May 30th and we fight against July 4 be- cause May 30th means the united front of the workers and exploited farmers, and at the same time it means the split from the movement of well-to-do farmers, small business men and labor aristocracy. We Com- munists are for splits if the split is in the interests of the class struggle of the workers, and we are against splits if they are against the inter. ests of the ¢lass struggle of the workers. ,The tactics of the united front has two sides, the’ splitting ond the°unifying sides. It aims to unite all workers to fight capitalism; and at the same time it aims to split away all workers from the formless, general, non-capitalist mass as well as from the reactionary or yellow socialist leaders, i (NOTE:—This article was written before the St. Paul conference voted to postpone the May 30th convention to June 17th—Editor). By IURY LIBEDINSKY Published by THE DAILY WORK- ER thru special arrangement with B. W. Huebsch, Inc., of New York City. Coyprighted, 1923, by B, W. Huebsch & Co. 2 ee (WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE) The Russian Communist Party branch is governing this frontier city and fighting the counter- revolution. Earlier installments tell of the fuel shortage that pre- vents seed grain from being fetched on the railroad. The Party meeting decides to send the Red Army far away for fuel, at the risk of leaving the city open for bandits and counter-revolutionists. It also decides to conscript the local bourgeoisie for wood cutting in a near-by park. Varied types of party members are flashed on the screen: Klimin, the efficient «president of the branch, who still finds time to have a sweetheart; Robeiko, the consumptive, whose devotion is killing him; Gornuikh, the brilliant youth of 19 on the Cheka; Matusenko, the luxury- loving place-hunter and Stalmak- hov, a practical workingman revo- lutionist. Gornuikh, disguised as a@ peasant, overhears talk in the market place about a plot of counter-revolutionists to seize the town while the Red Army is away | @etting wood. The Communist company is summoned but, perhaps, too late. Robeiko is d d out of his house and shot, Klimin’s sweetheart is butchered and Klimin and Stalmakhov are overporered and hurled into a dungeon, The counter-revolutionaries are in pos- session of the town, with the Red Army away. Klimin and Stalmak- hov are butchered before the Com- munist company led by Gornuikh can arrive. The Red Army ap- pears at last with great reinforce- ments and the big battle begins with Karaulov, a rough Cossack revolutionist, in command of the Red forces.—(NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY). FTER all, one had to live. “On principle,” he had not e to work in the Soviet school, he knew no trade, and his stores and sav- ings had soon been eaten up. From pyaar me week, from seed me month, from year to year, lived all thru the Revolution in the hope that the bloody, hated, incom- prehensible power of the Bolsheviks over his country was on the point of falling, and that fhe old real life would return. He had hated the Bolsheviks ever since the first threatening thunder of the October Revolution; beg were entirely strange to him; there had not been any of them in his past life; their doings, behavior speeches, were for him alike incomprehen- sible and full of contradictions. The Bolsheviks seemed to him low and tal and at the same time - pp Aig lying Jesuits and at the same time narrow, inflexible doctrinaries. The mere sight of the Soviet posters in the streets upset him, and he hardly left his |}.Kolchak time. house even in day time, shrivelled up, let himself go, started drink- ing home-made spirits, quarrelled over nothings with Margarita Semenovna, and for whole days on end either played patience or lolled on the sofa and re-read the books of his diminishing library. The Czecho-Slovak revolution destroyed his hopes of a return of the old order of life. He saw then the abuses, robbery and bribery of the governing bourgeoisie, the ig- | norance, stupidity and _ senseless cruelty of the officers. He was sorry for the Whites and contemp- tuous of them, behaved towa them with the feeling of a father for a drunken idle son who had not justified the hopes that had been set upon him. The life gf people | in this world began to seem to him a miraculous absurdity, and he was visited by misanthropic dreams of the destruction of all mankind. On the day of the revolt, from morning on, vague runiors went about among the townsfolk who had been mobilized for the getting of fuel, When in the evening, after a preliminary roll call, they had been shut up in a big dark room and heard from the courtyard the disturbing, warning roll of the drum, malice and fear, joy and anxiety, filled the room with’ laugh- ter, shouts and a rumbling, angry murmur. And then Karaulov him- self, accompanied by two respect- ful silent figures, came into the room, and threw the light of an electric torch on the now quieting crowd. Under the thin light of the torch he saw on all those faces, old and young, beautiful and ugly, clever and stupid, on all of them glee, hope and terror; he under- stood, and said, not loudly, but so that all could hear, addressing the Commander of the Third Company, apa Baran dh , with a! slight squint, standing respectfully at attention, who was to be left with his company to guard the monastery. “In case of anything .. . in- stantly.... You understand?” “Just _so, Comrade Commissar,” replied Zhourbin and smiled boldly, squinted at Karaulov, squinted at the silent crowd of townsfolk and asia them a set mth ithe powerful body, sm , crooked glance of cruel, handsom! eyes, and the satanic horn of a Red Army helmet. Pate that dark, nervous night ie | ! Are You Reading “A Week”? ing class have lined up for this measure. It is|’ it, remembering the experience of the Czecho-Slovak mutiny and the The. .Communists were still alien to him, .and he did not believe the things they wrote on their red flags, and for the sake of which they so devotedly died. But, since the people, the workmen, the Red Army _ soldiers—those peasant lads in. soldiers coats—for So many yearg had obeyed them, these preachers of the Interna- tional, obeyed this revolutionary sect that was in composition only half Russian, then, perhaps, they were indeed bringing with them some sort of vital truth. Perhaps , if he had tried working with the Bolsheviks, . . . Per then he would have found this truth of theirs, But he had lain on his sofa and read his books in their fine bindings . . . and eaten them... . | He read a funeral service over his past life. $ And as soon as one company re- turned. to the monastery and it be- came known that the revolt had been suppressed, Konstantin. Petro- vitech asked Zhourbin for leave to go to the town for the day, to change his worn out boots, and at the same time, as he decided pri- vately, to go to the Popedue (Popu- © lar Education Department) and to ask if some work could not be found for him. Besides he wanted to look with new eyes on the loath- ed hae town that had exten up all his life,,and on the unloved but familiar Margarita Semenovna, than whom, after all, he had no one nearer in the world, And so, from the morning, under that thin drizzle that was falling, beside the slow carts that were taking fuel to the town, Konstantin Petrovitch had trudged, listening to the talk the e how Bols' were Anti-Christs, the making them ca wood in the thaw; af ‘how Tene 8 no seed for Commun- the sowing; of how the ists were swindlers, promising goods’ in exchange for food and then pegs to the country. not crockery or calico, but nails, starched collars, powder and ‘lip- salve.... 7 “Ugh, the Anti-Chriats!” said a peasant. ened se t i ie putting hy, eich sth mpena man. shy, crimson: “Arivy “The Cheka ought certainly: to. be “It’s some one told of it...” ; head. The Big Cheap-Skate By J. 0. BENTALL. RATHER uncouth criminal was caught the other day who open- ly confessed that he had hired” out to certain business rivals to carry on a sygtématic labor of setting fire to coms fatitivs laundry establishments. His employers had beat down his wages till now he was getting only the niggardly sum of $50 a week. I take it for granted that he was worth that much to the concern that hired him, or there would have been a further cut, as his trade does not seem to be organized as yet. The job of setting fire to laundries appears to have been a permanent one. At least that is what the |New York press claims. But that ‘the journeymen thus hired were on the regular payroll and that their stated wage was $50 a week hits ‘the moral lump of the metropolitan leditors like a Ered plot” hatched up by Billy Burns and sent in hot via | Helsingfors. The World rolls its eyes and tilts its head as it looks toward heaven in the sanctimonious attitude of a | gossippy woman that nes dciscuverea a scandal and says painfully: “What's to be said of a vreature— we can’t call him a man—who makes | a living by setting fires at the direc- tion of any other creature who will / pay him $50 a week for the das- tardly job?” Why the World goes into hyster- ies over this petty arson affair is be- |yond our ken, unless it considers the fellow a cheap skate for doing it at ‘that scab rate. Personally I think he is getting about all that the traf- fie can stand, especially when I com- pare him with our millionaire tene- ment owners who set big blocks afire by sheer neglect that does not cost them a cent, and when I think of the thousands of lives that are lost in factory firetraps and mines, in tinderlike shops, in schoolhouses, all over the country, And look at the fellows who set the whole world on fire in the great war and who have kept it burning all since—mostly for money, Look at the pilr~.and piles of money—oodles and oodles of graft and profit they get. They seem to be making a comfortable living at the fi business. May I est that the World throw a fit in ir direction also some Sunday morning before it goes to church. Upon mature deliberation,- how- ever, I can easily, see how it must gall the sensitive feelings of our capitalist press to have a clumsy _firebug get into the lime- light and dim the lustre of the glit. tering stars in the brilliant heavens of civilized arson, i } at only $50 per week. ies Bryan Talks To Teachers. Ii, March 12,.— and Senato’