The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 25, 1924, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY YVORKET;. Published by the LY WORKER PUBLISHING CO., 1640 N. (Phone: Lincoln 7680.) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail: $6.00 per year $3.50..6 months $2.00..3 months By mail (in Chicago only): sf $4.50..6 months $2.50. .8 months $8.00 per year Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1640 N. Halsted Street J. LOUIS ENGDAHL } WILLIAM F, DUNNE MORITZ J. LOEB. Chicago, Ilinois | eeeeereeceseere Editors ..Business Manager 923 at “the Post- Entered as second-class mail Sept. 21 March 3, 1879. Office at Chicago, Ill, under the act of > Advertising rates on application. == Teapot and the Colonies The colonial beneficiaries of American im- perialism, on whom our soldiery and House of Morgan spokesmen have been urging govern- mental reforms based on the American plan, are convulsed with laughter these days. Uncle Sam, self-appointed guardian of the morals of backward peoples, has been caught in an illicit alliance with highly questionable characters—oily footsteps have been’ discov- ered leading to his bedroom—and from one end of the Western hemisphere to the other brown faces are crinkled with smiles. This is a source of great embarrassment to our best people and Congressman Fred A. Britten, of Illinois, recently returned from Cuba, gives tongue in protest. : A “Suggestions for political changes in Cuba, says Mr. Britten, “are met with cartoons of Uncle Sam smeared with muck, mud and oil and labeled, ‘Why not clean your own house first?’ Mr. Britten quite rightly ascribes this cocky attitude on the part of the proteges of the sugar trust to what he calls “the hysterical investigations” now being conducted in the senate. HL Gi ‘i There may be some hysteria in connection with the investigations now under way, but it is manifested mostly by the persons and inter- ests whose misdeeds have been disclosed and Mr. Britten’s testimony is the best evidence of the fact that not only at home, but thruout the territories of small nations conquered by the armed forces of American oil, sugar, steel and finance-capital there is a rising wave of dis- content and resentment against oppression and exploitation by American capital. aa Perhaps the workers of Cuba, Haiti, the Philippines, Mexico and South America will learn the lesson of Teapot Dome before the American workers. If they learn it together in the same hard school so much the better for them and so much the worse for American capitalism. Will not some other scandalized and indig- nant flunkey of the oil-lords gladden us with tidings of occurrences similar to those in Cuba from other mortgage holdings of the American rulers? _Thru Wrong Spectacles The contest for the senatorial nomination now being waged in the republican party of Illinois is of first-rate interest to the workers and farmers of the entire country. This is true, not because there is any doubt as to the outcome of the contest, or because the com- petition in the primaries is so keen. There is no doubt that the present Senator Medill McCormick of Harvester Trust fame, the gentieman who has condoned and upheld the outrageous Wall Street invasion of Haiti, and whose whole record in Washington is one of unfaltering service to the biggest capitalist interests, will win the nomination on April 8th. But the significant fact is that some trade union leaders, with the frank support of the insurgent bloc in Washington, are attempting to wage a plainly hopeless fight in the reac- tionary republican party of the state. If LaFollette refused to play this game in North Dakota, a state which has been his im- pregnable stronghold for many years, why should the progressive forces waste their time and get into a hopeless contest against so powerful a capitalist machine as the republi- can party of Illinois? The forces fighting to put over Newton Jenkins against McCormick or Deneen in the republican party of the state, are off on the wrong foot. They are looking at things thru the wrong spectacles. The republican party cannot possibly afford the working masses a chance for effective/political action against the big business interests now strangling the coun- try, politically and economically. Instead of spending energy in useless, demoralizing fights in the house of the enemy, the labor forces should rather devote this time and energy in building up their own house, their own polit- ical machinery. Now isthe time to build up a powerful farmer-labor party, speaking solely for the working masses of the city and farm and committed to waging a relentless fight on the capitalist exploiters of the workers and farmers. Uncle Sam is getting a little bit stouter and more determined with each passing year. While his whiskers are gray, he has plenty of vigor, judging by the manner in which he hauls a professor with peaceful inclinations before an American flag and demands that he “teach patriotism.” It appears “Uncle” is getting along very nicely on an oil diet. A dispatch from Rome states that the pope has blessed Chicago and everything within the city limits. The dispatch does not state what effect this is supposed to have on the typhoid in the water L | alsted St., Chicago, ll. | | Ferns eI THE DAILY WORKER ) | | | The zenith of our capitalist democracy, of lour employing class centralized governmental | power over the workers and farmers, is in the |Department of Justice, with its mighty army lof detectives, spies, marshals and nondescript thug-agents. The nadir of capitalist corruption attendant to the exercise of this tyrannical rule over the |exploited masses in behalf of the financial and lindustrial powers that be, rests in the same Department of Justice. It is natural that Attorney General Daugh- erty, who is the link between the White House and the Stock Exchange, who symbolizes the apex, the height of capitalist dictatorship, should also embody all the crookedness, cor- ruption and bribery flowing out of the disease- breeding cesspool of government by and for the bosses. The indictment brought against Daugherty by the Wheeler Committee is too formidable to be thwarted even by the complicated tech- nicalities of employing class courts. In the Teapot exposure Fall, Doheny, Sinclair, Mc- Adoo, and Denby were concerned only in one line of the political holdup profession—oil. But Daugherty’s dirty business and thievery branches out into all directions. The facts adduced to date in the unmasking of the Department of Justice are without paral- lel in our history, which is replete with such instances of sinister domination of government by Big Business. Daugherty would make Mark Hanna, the first apostle of American imperialism, blush with shame. The Teapot scandal is as white as the first fallen snow compared with the Daugherty regime. The very witnesses called in the Daugherty inves- tigation reflect the depths of depravity and degradation to which capitalist democracy in- evitably sinks. On the front-door steps of the Attorney General’s chambers there rest a liquor scandal, a film conspiracy, espionage over political opponents, and, worst of all, the organization of a band of underworld gangmen and stool- pigeons to disrupt the labor organizations and smash their strikes. Stern, swift action must be taken to put an end to Daughertyism. The workers and dis- possessed farmers are the ones who suffer most from the Daughertys and Burnses. ‘The work- ing and farming masses alone have the courage to uproot this nefarious evil. Every labor or- ganization, every farm oganization, every local union and central labor body is face to face with an urgent, a most pressing duty to make itself heard in unmistakable terms on Daugh- ertyism. Burns and Daugherty must be kicked out of office and thrown behind the bars. They are the dark symbols of a menace—the capital- ist system of industry and government—that is gnawing at the very vitals of the labor and farmers’ movement the country over. Helpless Readers The concentration of ownership and the cen- tralization of control in capitalist industry is proceeding apace. There is not an industry immune from this natural trend of develop- ment digging the grave of the competitive system. Today, the dispensing of news, the news- paper industry, is conducted, like all other in- dustries, on the commodity basis by individual capitalists for sale and private profit. The great mass of the workers and farmers, the readers of the newspapers, are as helpless be- fore the owners of the dailies a they are at the mercy of the owners of the means of produc- tion and exchange. The worker-reader has nothing to say as to who should dispense the news and how events should be interpreted. The workingman is confronted with an ac- complished fact in his morning, afternoon or evening newspaper, controlled by the capital- ist class which exploits him. The trustification of the newspaper industry tends to secure the ruling class a firmer grip on the minds of the working masses. ‘Within the last few years this tendency has been pain- fully evident in New York City. First, the SUN, which was onee run by Dana, was exter- minated. The PRESS was buried next. The GLOBE, the oldest American newspaper, fol- lowed in quick order. The EVENING MAIL was swallowed a short time afterward. Then there was signed the death-warrant for the TELEGRAM. A few days ago formal obsequy was held over the HERALD, which merged with the NEW YORK TRIBUNE. Munsey has been the assassin and undertaker of these dailies. The ease with which the capitalist owners dispose of and dominate so vital a necessity of the working class as the daily news should set the workers and farmers to thinking and do- ing. Slavery is not distant when the vital sources of mental and physical development needed by the many are monopolized by the few. The best answer to and the most effective way of dealing with this menace lies in the building-up of a powerful farmer and labor press. The Chicago Tribune sees profit in the Tea- pot Dome scandal. So did another newspaper owner, Mr. John Schaffer, of the Chicago Evening Post, long before it became a scandal. His foresight brought him nearly $100,000. Now he thinks it is a scandal to continue air- ing the scandal. In fact he is scandalized. The virgin birth theory bit the dust last week in a debate between the Rev. Charles Potter, modernist, and the Rev. John R. Strat- ton, fundamentalist. The boys are quite ex- cited over that 2,000 year old romance of Mr. Ghost ‘ The Nadir of Democracy |Gains and Losse EDITOR’S NOTE;—The economic field, become of increas: ing interest and, importance as a result of the fact that a labor gov- ernment, under the premiership 0: J. Ramsay MacDonald, is in power The DAILY WORKER has therefore arranged to get the best possible articles and the most up-to-date news on the These ar- ticles will be published from time to time by such well known writers as Charles Ashleigh, J. T. Murphy Today we publish the goncluding article by Ashleigh on the important British dock strike. It has a double interest in view of the newly declared Traction Strike and the threatening struggle in the coal mining industry. Ashleigh’s in Downing. Street. British labor struggle. and others. article follows: * 7 woe By CHARLES ASHLEIGH. Well, now the dock strike is over, and we may count up our gains—and our losses. The men went back to work on Their demands were February 26. partially gained. They had asked for two shillings per day increase, thus raising the minimum daily wage, in smaller ports to eleven shillings, and, in the larger, They asked also for im- to twelve. mediate measures to be taken t wards the decasualization of their em- ployment, They have won: one shilling in- crease now, and the other shilling increase to take efect on June They have also the prospect of the formation of a special commission to deal with the question of decasual- ization, said commission to consist of of employers. and dockers, in equal proportions, with a chairman appointed by the minis- representatives try of transport. Needed It Now. Thus, is will be seen: they asked for two shillings, and they get one now, giving. the bosses the use of Also, it is just now, during the miserable and damp British winter, that the money is most urgently needed by the work- ers, their wives and families, for the other until June. warm clothing and for fuel. And, as to decasualization, that question of arying importance to the longshoremen, it now seems a long way off. How long will the com- mission sit and deliberate, while the dockers crowd at the dock gates, waiting for the slave-drivers to come and pick out this man and that, send- ing the unneeded men home discon- solate? The settlement was decided after a delegate conference was held at The terms were put up to London. labor struggles in Great Britain, in the their various ports and presented the terms to the men at mass meetings. All ports, with the exception of two, - |voted to accept the terms. It must be remembered, however, that the ‘national leaders urged the delegates f |to appeal to the mass meetings to accept the terms. So they did not return to place the matter impartial- ly before the rank and file, but as special pleaders. However, despite the fact that all demands were not immediately con- ceded, this may be reckoned as a vic- tory. And it is the first victory of any section of British labor for a long, hard time. It should instill the rest of the organized labor movement with new courage and aggressiveness, Now is the time to solidify and ex- tend the left-wing minority -move- ment within the longshoremen’s or- ganization, so far as to be ready to press the matter of decasualization, Our Labor Government. It is quite certain that the speedy settlement of the dockers’ strike was partly due to tremendous private pressure exerted by the government on the dockers’ leaders. During the strike, it was stated in the press that, in order to ensure the transportation of goods, the government was “mak- ing the necessary preparations.” This can be understood in no other way than that they were preparing to adopt the strike-breaking methods rendered familiar by Lloyd George. And the British Fascisti were also organizing their~special emergency corps of transport scabs. Thus, it might have been—had the strike gone on—that we should have had the admirable and edifying spectacle of seeing Mr. MacDonald co-operat- ing with the “loyal” technical corps. Some excitement in labor ranks has been caused by the government’s announcement of its plans to con- struct five new naval cruisers. These are to be eriusers of the “County” type, especially adapted to long cruises. In other words, they are to be the messengers of British Imperi- alism, in the far seas. They are to displace 9,800 tons. This is a beau- tiful evasion of the terms of the Washington disarmament conference decisions which forbade an increase in cruisers of 10,000 tons! Pacifists In Warrior Role, Not all the members of the Labor Party could swallow this scheme, and a rift is visible between the labor politicians who stand more to the right, and those who have ‘a certain proletarian bias. But it is especially painful to watch the contortions of the I. L. P. Pacifists, the gentlemen who have poured voluminous vituper- ation upon the Communists because they believed that, under certain cir- cumstances, when the situation be- O- 2. the delegates, who then returned to comes revolutionary, the workers will No one a result of the Teapot disclosures. But if nothing else is achieved by the investigation in its coming la- bors, it has already caused irrepar- able loss to one of the most harmful in American working class Aside from shedding welcome light on the true nature and role of our government, the oil reve- lations ‘have dealt a mortal blow to that last gasp of American liberal- ism, to that half-hearted, weak ges- ture of the last episode in our liberal- t\ism as exemplified by the first Wilson forces political life. administration. The exit of Mr. McAdoo from the arena of national polities is signifi- cant not so much because one of the | strongest figures has been removed from the scene of struggle but bi cause that most poisonous toxin of liberalism, as personified by | McAdoo, has been fatally impaired | as a decisive force for misleading | sham the workers. McAdoo Served Oil and Steel. It is not the exit of Mr, McAdoo and as an individual that history is con- Trust. future ambassador to | Bri daughter at his home Bolshevik envoy is not i can yet tell how many political futures will crash and how many mighty careers will tumble as No Hoofs or Horns Here ital to cerned with, but the fact that his being unmasked as an agent of the biggest business interests is, to a tremendous extent, precipitating the collapse of liberalism in our political conflicts. Whoever falls into oil today, falls into bad odor. Anyone who pours oil on his political waters is bound to raise a devastating storm for him, self. It is not difficult to understand the hasty retreat that the McAdoo forces are now beating. Steel is supposed to be king today. It is often said that this is the steel age and our culture is a steel culture. McAdoo, the liberal pretender, has been found to serve the steel in- terests. i Finance capital, thru its merger, with industrial capital, is the czar of our capitalist system of produc- tion and exchange. As Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. McAdoo turned over the Federal Reserve Board, which is the heart of our circulatory system of commodity exchange to- day, to such powerful banking and manufacturing groups of Kuhn, Loeb & Co.; J. & W. Seligman and Co., the International Harvester Christian Rakovski, Soviet Representative s In th Tuesday, March 25, 1924. have to employ methods of struggle such as the master class will not hesi- tate to employ against the workers. The Communists were terrible peo- ple, said these peace-loving gentle- men, because they actually approved of, and applauded, the Russian Red Army. And now they find themselves in the highly uncomfortable position of having to approve the war-like plans of their own lily-white pacifist leader, MacDonald! It is a somewhat nauseating spectacle, Undoubtedly, however, this cruiser project will provoke resentment and protest among the more proletarian elements of the labor party. In fact, this has already become apparent, and protests are coming in from many sections. In my next letter, I shall be better enabled to give an estimate of the extent of the dis-, satisfaction among the rank and file of the Labor Party. Why Not Merchant Ships, MacDonald's plea, of course, was that the building of the cruisers would provide employment for the ship-building workers. This is true; but it would have been just as easy for a government, which was really proletarian, to build up-to-date mer- chant vessels, and to organize a gov- ernment shipping service, in the di- rection of which the organized work- ers would also havea part. There are hundreds of ships in the present merchant service which are old, in- efficient and dangerous. These could have been replaced. But, really, Mr. MacDonald probably thought we should need the new. cruisers for In- dia, the population of which land re- fuses to remain quiet even under the beneficient rule of a labor govern- ment. India and the Labor Government. And this brings me to the speech of Lord Qlivier, the Secretary of State for India. Sidney Olivier is a civil servant of many years’ standing, and had attained high rank in the government service. He was one of the original members of the Fabian Society, the secretarial chair of which he once occupied. He has been gov- ernor of Jamaica. He has been ele- vated to the peerage by the labor government. Lord Olivier’s speech was of such a character that even the fickle, vacil- lating and rather old-maidish writer of the “Daily Herald” editorials was compelled to protest. .Not that Olivier should have made any special concessions, said the “Daily Herald” leader-writer, but his tone might have been kindlier. ‘No one expected or wanted him to make any drastic change,” says the writer of the edi-| torial. This is perhaps true of some people, but he sems to forget the nearly four hundred milions of the a e British Dock Strike much have liked to have heard Olivier announce something quite drastic. Indians’ Iilusions Shattered. ‘ It is pathetic. To think of the millions of Indians who have trust- fully awaited the assumption of power by a labor government, hoping that some real measurge would then be taken towards self-determination. And now their illusions are being shattered with a vengeance. This is perhaps just as well. They will realize that only their own strength, their own power of organ- ization’ and effort, can help them at least until a really proletarian policy is forced upon the government by the British workers, Olivier, in his speech, absolutely rejected the request of many Indian bodies for a round-table conference of all parties to discuss the drawing- up of a new constitution for India, He made exactly the same statements as have Liberal and Tory Indian secretaries before him: that the Gov- ernment of India Act had not yet been fully tested, that time wasneed- ed to see how it worked (it has been in operation three years, that we must have patience (a massacre ef peaceful Sikhs has just taken place. in Jaito, followed by wholesale im-¢( prisonments), and that the policy of the Swaraj Party was “mistaken, ill- ‘informed and unjustified.” It was a typical speech of an imperialistic bu- reaucrat. It was the answer to the suffering and exploited masses of In- dia, the crushing of their hopes, the denial of their faith, and the official hall-mark placed upon their cruci- fixion. Strikes and Rumors of Strikes. And, in the meantime, while the Labor government. pursues its more or less even way, industrial unrest grows and murmurs. In the port of Southampton, there is a strike of 7,000 ship-building workers, who de- mand seventeen shillings and six- pence a week increase. The employ- ers in the cotton trade are consider- ing a lock-out, because of a strike of mill-workers at Thornham Mills, Royton. This would involve about 150,000 workers. Mass meetings of the London street car men have de- cided to strike unless the employers grant their demands for an increase in wages. The engineers (metal workers) are also getting restive, and meetings are being held, thruout the country, to discuss the presentation of demands. 3 And, in the meantime, a new en- ergy seems to have appeared among the workers. The left-wing move- ment within the trade unions is at last beginning to take shape. Espe- cially among the miners, is the in- fluence of the Red International of Labor Unions gaining. I hope to deal fully with this interesting de- population of India, who would very velopment in my next letter. The Role of McAdoo - - - - - s2isom ] To the political innocents at home} of the state, Consequently, it is ob- and abroad it might appear paradox- ical that the oil, steel, and banking interests should put their trust in a liberal phrase-monger like McAdoo. We find it easy to explain this seem- ing contradiction. In the final stage of capitalism, the stage of imperial- ism, the role of liberalism and civil peace, the role of class co-operation- ists and industrial democracy schem- ers, in the class struggles, is to serve as the handmaid of the uppermost crust of the financial and industrial class in its perpetuation of the vilest outrages against the masses. Thus it was that many liberal apologists of individual enterprise and cabinet social-democrats become the wildest Chauvinists and militarists during the war, 3 Under capitalist-imperialism the class conflicts between the employers and the’ workers invariably draw in the state—the government in all its numerous ramifications. The state, Posing as an arbiter, pretending to act in the interest of all society and above any of the contending classes, serves as a political, soctal and eco. nomic strike-breaking agency. This is “The Story of John Brown,” by Michael Gold. Pub- lished by the DAILY WORKER thru arrangement with Haldeman- Julius Company, of Girard, Kans. Copyrighted, 1924, by Haldeman- Julius Company, i How John Brown Educated Himself. pega are other matters treat- ed in this long and charming letter, wiitten by an outlaw 57 ears cld, to a boy of twelve. One tail that is important is the an- alysis of kis own chararter. John Brown tay¢ his father carly made a sort of foreman in his tanning establishment, and that tho he got on in the most friendly way with everyone, “the habit so early formed of being obeyed rendered him sph oes age gone posed speak in an imperious or dictating wit ih John Brown was ever humble, and se his own faults, but this, habit of being a leader served him in good stead, and made him the born captain of forlorn hopes he later became. Another detail that interests us is his. account of his ly read- ing. Working class Americans, and they are the majority of the nation, do not go to the high schools and_ universities, did John Brown, But they can pom x dl es can an make themselves proficient in _ Particularly in such conditions it is| the capitalist dictatorship—oil, steel, necessary to hide the class character and fii “The Life of Jo vious that liberals of the McAdoo and Wilson stripe and social-patriots of the Ebert kidney become the best statesmen and saviors of capitalist world imperialism. Hence it is per- fectly easy to understand how it comes about that oil, steel, and finan- ciay capital should have chosen Mr. McAdoo, the idol of one of the skill- ed, upper layers of our working class. the railway men, to do their bidding against the whole mass of expropriated workers and farmers. In the role of rendering the most invaluable service to the imperialists —that is, in the role of blinding the workers to the character of the gov- ernment—no one could have served the exploiting class better than, or even as well as did Mr. McAdoo, the Crown Prince of the regime of the liberal Wilson. And nothing could have dramatized more vividly and brought into bolder relief the exit of McAdoo and the crippling of McAdooism in the imme. diate political struggles of the work- ers than his exposure as the loyal servant of that most unholy trinity of ice capita pi n Brown” some field, as he made a surveyor of himself by home study. He also read passionately, he says, the lives of great, gool and wise men; their sayings and writings; the school of biography that seems to have nurtured so niany great men. John Brown nw er went to school after his childnood; but he became an expert surveyor, he learned the fine points of cattle breeding and tanning, he was a students of astronomy, he knew the’ Bible almost by heart, he studied military tacties later in life, he was familiar with the lives and times of most of the great leaders of mankind, and best of all, he knew how to stir men to great deeds, and lead them in the battle. 4 Great men do not need to own a college diploma; they teach vate aging they are taught by e. How meaningless college de- grees would sound if attached after the names of Brutus, Peri- cles, Socrates, Caius Gracchus, Buddha, Jesus, Wat Tyler, Jeffer- beat “jaa William Lloyd. Gar- mn As for instance: Jesus Christ, ¢ D. D.; Robert Burns, M, A. Vie-; tor Hugo, B. S.; John Brown, Ph. D.! How superfluous tho titles of man’s universities, when Life has crowned the sudent with real and greener laurels! Yes, there are aor things not taught in the colleges (To Be Continued Wedn (The Growth of an f