The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 19, 1924, Page 5

"The idea becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.” --Karl Marx. “The Teapot Special’? Supplement THE DAILY WORKER. SECOND SECTION March 19th, 1924. This magazine supplement will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker. Senator Walsh and the Teapot Dome By WILLIAM F. DUNNE, S ENATOR THOMAS WALSH, of Montana, is leading the fight against the Teapot Dome steal. In Washington during the last few months Senator Walsh has appeared as the’ champion of the people against the looters of the natural re- sources and has made many caustic utterances relative to the domina- tion of the government by oil in- terests., It is notable, however, that Sena- tor Walsh, in his. crusade against government by oil, has not said any- thing about the Standard Oil Com- pany or its subsidiary—the Ana- conda Mining Company—the gigan- tic metal, lumber and water power monopoly that owns the state he is supposed to represent and owns him along with its other goods and chattels, Walsh, Copper Trust Man. There are a number of contradic- tions in the Teapot scandal, appar- ent contradictions rather, that re- quire explanation and none is more /f puzzling .to the uninitiated that the activity of Senator Walsh—the man whom the copper trust elected. in 1918 and who has before and since -his re-election been the foremost but not the best known champion of re- action under two administrations— Wilson’s and Harding’s. Walsh was the legal expert of the Wilson administration. He was the champion of the armed ships’ bill— the pet measure of the British Ad- miralty—the first step taken towards our participation in the European holocaust. He passed upon the con- stitutionality of. the conscription law; he was largely instrumental in overcoming the anti-constitutional difficulties in the earlier drafts of the espionage act and was always able to throw the mantle of legality over the most_subversive acifs of the Wilson administration. Sitting with Walsh as the junior senator from Montana is Burton K. Wheeler—an entirely different type. A supporter of Walsh during the early part of Walsh’s political ca- reer Wheeler obtained Wa!sh’s first senatorial nomination for him. Hé was appointed United States Dis-||. trict Attorney thru the influence of Walsh and was serving in that capa- city when this country entered the war, Recalls, Wheeler. Wheeler refused to prosecute the | men and women whom the Anaconda Mining Company picked out for per- secution; he interfered in no way with free speech, free press and as- semblage during his term of office and, if my recollection is correct, not one single individual was con- victed under the espionage law in a federal court in Montana. More than that Wheeler served notice upon the corporations of Mon- tana that his office could not be used to railroad to jail labor men who had displeased them by their activity on behalf. of their class. Montana with Wheeler as U. S, -district at- torney was a splendid proof of the Communist contention that convic- tions of radicals result under war conditions only by the servants of the capitalist class abrogating all guarantees of individual freedom on which capitalist democracy is based. So} zealous was Wheeler in up- holding the constitution that he was marked for slaughter by the Ana- conda Mi: Company and in Mis hour of when every capitalist paper in Montana was demanding his blood—actually, Senator Walsh deserted called into Washington and forced to resign, the national party ticket; the ma- chine democrats afterwards admitted that they stole 2,700 votes from Miss Rankin in order to put Walsh over. Votes for Esch-Cummins Law. Is there ony need of further ar- gument to decide who owns Senator Walsh of Montana? That the Teapot Dome scandal is merely the outward manifestation of a conflict that is taking place within the ranks. of the capitalists—between oil capitalists particularly—that men like Walsh are playing the game for, the big capitalists and care nothing for the interests of the masses de- spite appearances to the contrary, is further proven by *Walsh’s endorse- ment of McAdoo for the presidency after he himself was responsible for linking up MeAdoo with oil. Me- Adoo, the attorney for the Republic Iron and Steel Company, the fixer per press denouncing the strikers as Pro-Germans and enemies of the na- tion; he condoned the murder o2 Frank Little by copper trust thugs and he defended the “rustling card” system of the Anaconda Mining Company—the system whereby a man is required to tell the history of his life simply to get permission to “rustle” for a job—when I at- tempted to get fn exprdssion ot sympathy for the miners from him while the strike was on. ‘i Just a few days ago, in a letter to one Fred Marvin, a professional red baiter, Ed. Shields, business agent for the employers association of Bill- ings, defended Walsh against a charge of radicalism; Marvin had asked Shields if Walsh had ever been friendly with William F. Dunne and Shields replied indignatly that “Walsh is like the granite of our hills” and had never had anything to-do with Democrats Had Big Ideas About Doheny Before He Was Caught 6¢fALIFORNIA agrees with the Senator from Montana (Thomas J. Walsh), and California agrees with the Senator from Nevada (Key Pitman) that you must not overlook nor forget that the great West is populated by free-minded and independent American citizens. (Ap- plause)... And CALIFORNIA, THEREFORE, PRESENTS HER GREAT AND DISTINGUISHED SON, BORN IN THE STATE OF WISCONSIN. In poverty he started, a surveyor over the Southwest, a cowboy in Kansas, a pros- pector over p ically every state of the West, a discov- practical erer of the oil fields in southern California, and FROM THENCE HE BUILDS HIMSELF TO THE PINNACLE OF SUCCESS SUCH AS EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN LOVES AND “ADMIRES, AND CALIFORNIA’S SON. THE LIFE OF THIS MAN IS A TYPICAL ROMANCE OF AMERICAN IMPROVED OPPORTUNITY, AND WE TAKE PRIDE, THEREFORE, IN PRESENTING TO THIS CONVENTION AS THE MAN OUT OF THE WEST WHC CAN REACH THE HEARTS AND THE SOULS, .NOT ONLY OF THE DEMOCRATS OF THE WEST, BUT OF THE GREAT FREE-THINKING PEOPLE OF THE WEST. CALIFORNIA, THE GREAT GOLDEN STATE, PRESENTS EDWARD L. DOHENY FOR VICE- PRESIDENT.” (Applause. ) (From the speech delivered by Delegate Lorin A. Handley of California, nominating Edward L. Doheny {wr Vice-President of the United States. . ++ “And on this day when the sun sets upon this great state, the state of successful and able men, Massa- chusetts hopes that you will have nominated Edward L. Doheny, a self-made man who is needed in this hour of reconstruction, and the ticket that you nominate will be successful in November.” (Applause.) (From speech delivered by Delegate Michael L. Sullivan of Massachusetts seconding the nomination of Edward L. Doheny.) _ These speeches were delivered on the eighth day, July 6, 1920, of the last national convention of the demo- cratic party at the Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, California.—Official Proceedings of the Democratic Na- tional Convention, pp. 437-438. for big business,.the spokesman of the Anaconda Mining Company in the Wilson administration, is the choice of Walsh for president. Walsh voted for the Esch-Cum- mins bill—the heart’s desire of the open shop railway interests, but} poses as a friend of the railway workers, He has helped to hand the Anaconda Mining Com ulously valuable phosp of Montana; he has sales. weber the radicals. Shields, as a defender of Walsh, speaks.for the anti-labor forces in Montana. He was formerly business agent of the Clerks’ Union in Butte, and during the 1917 strike had a brother who was a gunman for the Anaconda Mining Company. Shields became too rotten for even the con- servative Clerks’ Union, was forced out and immediately went to work openly for the bosses he had worked for secretly as a union official. Walsh is trying to capitalize the respect that the workers and farm- ers of Montana have for Wheeler because of his stand during the war; when I say respect, I mean exactly that, because ler was support- ed by thousands of workers and farmers who hated. the democratic party and all it stands for but who felt that to desert Wheeler in the face of the Mining Com- pany attack was to play into the company’s hands. Walsh comes up for re-election this year and Wheeler is going to be placed in gn embar- rassing position. If he supports Walsh he will lose his worfing class following and if he does not he must sever his connection with the demo- cratic party. The Daugherty inves- tigation is Wheeler’s own work but Walsh will try to take credit for it altho he hates and fears it. The Anaconda Mining Company will suf- fer as a result of the Daugherty investigation that has grown out of “ the Teapot Dome scandal—the scan- dal thet was supposed to kill off several strong competitors of the Standard Oil Company—-the parent of the Anaconda. Exposing His Own Bed-Mates. * It is the irony of fate that a black reactionary like Walsh should be one of the instruments used to expose the detailed nature of the control of government by capital and capital- ists and to bring into the fierce light of day the corrupt practices by which his Anaconda Company backers op- press and intimidate the workers and farmers of the state he lives in and whose rulers he serves. Such a paradox could only occur in a period like this when the bank- tuptey of the farmers and over-pro- duction in industry has undermined the foundations of American capi- talism. Capitalism dies because it cannot reconcile its antagonisms and correct its contradictions. No more striking evidence of this fact can be had than that a copper trust senator, seeking to conciliate popular sentiment in order to secure re-elecion and fur- ther aid his owners, cverturns the boiling pot of oi] and must now watch its reeking streams flow on and besmirch before the eyes of the people the very interests he was seeking to protect. In Montana ‘such things as I have ‘cited builds a farmer-labor party; in~ other states the same thing occurs with the exposure of their local ex- ploiting interests. The streams of discontent and disillusionment unite and American capitalism now. faces a revolt of farmers and workers; a revolt that they would like to blame the Communists for but which they know is the result of inability to loot with the old secrecy and effi- ciency, The former red baiters now are dodging the penitentiary amid the laughter and jeers of the work- ers and farmers whom they fooled for a little while but whom they fool no longer. Give us more Walshes and capi- talism will be an easy conquest. IMPEACH COOLIDGE! Palm Beach igs the favorite ren- dezvous of the oil crooks. Rather dangerous place for a politician be- fore election. We note that Edward N. Hurley and Representative Fred ° A. Britten of Chicago had their pic- tures taken there last week. Brit- ten is the lad who is defending the oil crooks in the house of represen- tatives. What’s that? OUT WITH DAUGHERTY! Miss Eugenie Dennis of Atchison, Kansas, is shown telling officials of the Burns detective agency how to solve crime mysteries. We suggest she get her charmed system working on the chicf criminal, the honorable William J. Burns. BURNS MUST GO! If Diogenes ever came to Wash- ington with his old fashioned oil lamp looking for an honest man he bong very soon lose hig illumina- ion, IMPEACH COOLIDGE! Surely the Department of Justice is a place that an honest man should keep away from. Even honest sleuths are not wanted there.