The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 4, 1924, Page 6

— =. eee Se _of course, do not count in its scheme of things. Page Six THE DAILY WORKER Friday, April 4, 1924 THE DAILY WORKER. Published 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 By mail (in Chicago only): $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 3° MORITZ J. LOEB Entered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1928 at the Post- Office at Chicago, Ill., under the act of March 3, 1879. a C. P. P. A. Fears June 17 Undaunted by the uncovering of McAdoo as a tool of big capital the Conference for Progressive Political Action continues the noble work of digging up Lincoln republicans and Jeffersonian democrats and offering them as candidates of labor following the Chicago endorsement of McAdoo by the Union heads who compose the C. P. P. A. : Its official organ, ‘Labor,” is almost terri- fied by the possibility that the June 17 con- ference of Farmer-Labor parties and groups, to be held in St. Paul, will adopt a platform so radical that Senator LaFollette will be greatly hampered in his appeal to the elec- torate. Jt is doubtful if the C. P. P. A. would view the June 17 conference with such fear and trembling if it had a clear idea of the forces that are at work in this eventful period. Its admission. that it believes that La Follette should be allowed to dictate a plat- form for the working masses of this country to support shows that despite its trade union complexion the C. P. P. A. is without any real workingclass character. It does not want a mass movement of workers and farmers es- tablished inthe United States for the simple reason that sooner or later this kind of a movement would reject all middleclass leader- ship. aidiiie officialdom of the United States can function only in a middleclass milieu; it can- not lead a class political movement and it knows it. It wants a quiet, respectable, timid movement that puts its trust in lawyers and liberal politicians with whom labor officialdom feels at home and with whom it can enter into those quiet little deals that bring so much pleasure, and sometimes profit, to a labor leader. The increased possibility of the success ofa LaFollette campaign has made the C. P. P. A. more reactionary; it scents the fieshpots and it wants no one antagonized but the reds who, Chicago, Illinois sovceese- Editors Business Manager Advertising rates on application. It is a little hard to understand the frame of mind of labor union officials who would sacrifice a mass political party of workers and farmers, carrying the struggle to American capitalism, in the interests of any politician or group of politicians, but this is what the C. P. P. A. intends to do and will do unless the advanced elements in organizations of the workers and farmers are on the job from now until June 17. The number of votes cast for LaFollette will be at best only a barometer of the resentment against the parties of capitalism. Unless this sentiment is crystallized into a functioning organization, controlled by workers and farm- ers, so far as these two groups are concerned, no progress will have been made. June 17 is a workingclass date and its de- cisions will be those of a workingclass gath- ering. “Invisible Government”’ Many liberty-loving liberals are now feeling a hot blush of shame at the testimony ad- duced regarding the extent of “invisible” gov- ernment in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Out of the welter of charges made by the best-trusted agents of our capital- ist democracy, the grafters, corruptionists, crooks, felons, and hold-up men, there has arisen the clear proof that the democratic and republican parties are dominated by a clique, working under cover in behalf of the big busi- ness interests. The effort of the fur-thief, Senator Spencer of Missouri, to turn the searchlight on the shady side of democratic politico-business deals should bring welcome substantiation of the cardinal truth that service to the employing class by the government agents of all capitalist parties is rendered on a strictly non-partisan, and frankly class basis. Communists refuse to get excited over this menace of “invisible” government. To us there is nothing invisible about a government which jails the bravest champions of the work- ingclass, which shoots down unarmed strikers and sets fire to the tent colonies of the helpless women and children of striking coal miners, which aids and abets the railroad corporations, bankers and grain gamblers in driving the farmers to ruin and despair, and which is dedicated solely to the perpetuation of the present capitalist system of exploiting the workers and farmers at home and of plunder- ing the laboring masses in the colonies and dependencies. Every workingman, every ex- ploited farmer sees altogether too much of this “invisible” government of the bosses. The only invisible feature of the present mon- archical republic of ours is its much-vaunted democracy. This is invisible because it is not there and there is nothing to see of it. Communists have always pointed out that capitalist democracy is a fraud. )We have told the working masses that this so-called demo- cratic form of our government is in substance an iron dictatorship over the workers and farmers by the bosses, the owners of the means of production and exchange. Time and again the Communists ripped ‘off the mask, smashed the shibboleths, and dispelled the delusions behind which hides the brutal capitalist dic- tatorship; the ‘government masquerading as the representative and servant of all the people. The Teapot and Daugherty disclosures only tell the workingclass a thousand times more effectively this great truth that we have sought to bring to the masses. Moral revulsion, shame, and horror are not in order on this occasion, What we must do is to steel our spirits, call wpon our iron class determination and get on the job to strike at the very roots of the painfully visible and employing class domination of the lives of the working masses. A hot blush of shame is not the way out. There is but one way to end the visible and invisible capitalist tyranny and that is for the workers, and farmers to send both capitalist parties to the scrap heap, organize their own farmer-labor party onsa class basis, fight for the establishment of a workers’ and farmers’ republic in place of the present capitalist re- public, and set up a proletarian dictatorship to take over the industries and natural re- sources of the country and operate them on a Communist basis, collectively in the interest of the working and farming masses, instead of as is being done now in the interests of the own- ing, exploiting class. The Farmers’ Pligh (The hopeless condition of the wheat market is of two-fold inestimable significance. For one thing it reflects the international character of capitalist production. Furthermore, it shows the utter powerlessness of employing class government manipulation in all its half- hearted attempts to alleviate the distress of those farmers engaged in producing a world commodity. Our wheat market is smashed. New lows are the features of the’ daily wheat price columns in the financial sheets. Every capital- ist remedy has proved to be a flat failure. Tariff increase, bankers’ junketing trips of investigation, and senatorial peace cruises in President Coolidge’s royal yacht on the Poto- mac haven’t helped the farmer an iota. Every one of these quack solutions is today anathema to the agricultural masses of the wheat belt. Wheat is a world commodity. Its price is not determined by the wire-pullers of the White House but by the conditions of the world market. Wheat is not like cream, cheese or buttermilk which are commodities primarily of the local market and, therefore, often fit material for capitalist reform manipulations. Liverpool is the center of the world’s wheat market. Here the pulse of wheat prices is found and controlled. The Chicago wheat pit, more or less, echoes the noise of the wheat dealers in Liverpool. In the eight months since last July Amer- ica exported 94,923,000 bushels of wheat compared with 207,978,000 bushels exported in the corresponding period of the preceding year. The reason for this sharp drop is ob- vious. Canada, Australia, Argentina, and the European countries outside of Soviet Russia have had a much larger crop available for the world market this year. The collapse of our domestic wheat market is brought about by this world condition. ‘ It becomes plain that the salvation of the American wheat farmer, as well as the re- demption of every suffering producer of other world commodities, depends on a complete, fundamental international reorganization of the world’s system of production and ex- change. Capitalism cannot achieve this neces- sary, basic reorganization, because that would mean its total obliteration in favor of a Com- munist system of industry. Hence, in order to save themselves from utter ruin, the poor wheat farmers must pitch in their lot with those forces of every country in the world fighting for a thorogoing overhauling of the present system of capitalist production and exchange. For the farmers and producers of basic commodities ever again to look for relief in the fraudulent legislation measures of cap- italist government agents is the height of folly. _ The source of the evil of the disaster is international in scope. The remedy against the distress must, therefore, be international in scope. From day to day it becomes plainer that there is but one way out of the present misery for the workers and farmers of the United States, as well as every other country in the world. That way is to line up in the international struggle against world capitalism, against the rule by the class of world bankers and manufacturers, led by the Communist International. John Fitzpatrick sees no contradiction be- tween the resolution of the Cook County Farmer- Labor Party urging the workers to keep away from the democratic and republican primaries and his action in urging the workers to support Small, Fitzpatrick is a prominent member of the Cook County Farmer-Labor Party. “The action is perfectly logical” declared Mr. Fitz- patrick to a DAILY WORKER reporter. Any- body who can see where the logic comes in is fully qualified for a rest in the Coolidge cabinet. A legion commander speaking in California recently declared that in the years to come the American Legion would rule this country. If that day ever comes all roads to hell will be jammed with human traffic, on the road to com- parative peace in the infernal regions. ge JOIN THE WORKERS PARTY -e@ i “The Story of John Brown” 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. se . The Eve of the Tragedy. OHN BROWN was now fifty- nine years old, and in the last year of his life. He had been disciplined in a terrible school in Kansas, hut what he was about to attempt seemed sc mad, so reckless, and so suicidally brave that many men of the South claimed, after the attempt, that he was but an insane man, and many of hig conservative friends chose to take this view of the case, also, Brown's Program of Action. Yet John Brown was not insane. Coolly, rationally, like a clear- headed strategist, he had figured out the situation. He was an Abolitionist, and was determined to do anything to end the brutal slave system. Peaceful agitation had been goirg on for decades, but the North was still apathetic, and the South was only more inflam- ed and settled in its ideas. - What John Brown felt was needed now, was to make the men of the North and the South realize that there would be no peace in the land while slavery endured. What they must see was that men like himself would rise to break that loathsome peace. He-would go to the South, capture the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, in Vir- ginia, and run off all the slaves he could find, He would take the hills about the Ferry, and with a guerilla band move thru the coun- tryside, making slavery a shaky institution, If he failed, he could but lose his life. He would at least stir the nation on the issue of slavery, and force men to take sides. There was too much neutrality and si- lence in the land on this issue, this institution that to him was a bloody crime against God and hu- manity, He could not fail, he felt; success or failure would achieve the seme results. Events proved that he was right. Lecturing in New England, John Brown spent tnat winter and spring in New England, giv- ing occasional Jectures and mect- ing all the leading men of the Abol- ition movement, who collected money for him, tho he did not fully reveal his plans to anyone, George L, Stearns, Gerrit Smith, the philanthropist; Frank B, San- born, the Voncord school master and author; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a brave, noble com- mander in the Civil War, and a charming man of letters after- ward; Theodore Parker, cne of the greatest and most sincere Chris- tian clergymen produced in Amer- ica; Samuel G. Howe, and others were among John Brown’s sup- porters. ‘Thoreau and Emerson he also met at various, times, and both were passionate admirers of the stern, pure soldier of liberty. While their Captain was gath- ering arms and money for the raid, some «f Brown’s men were quartered in a farmhouse near Harper’s Ferry, while others were studying the region, and mapping out routes for the attack and the retreat to the hills. “Men, Get Your Guns!” It was a cool fall night, the 16th of October, 1859, when Captain John Brown gave the command his men had heen impatiently await- ing for months: “Men, get your guns; we will proceed to the Ferry.” Says Mr. Villard, at times an ‘eloquent chronicler: * “It took but a minute to bring the horse and wagon to the door, to place in it some pikes, fagots, a sledge hammer 1d « crow bar. The men’ had been in readiness for hours; they -had but to buckle on their. arms and tnruw over their shoulders, like army blank- ets, the long gray shawls which served some for a few brief hours in lieu of »vercoats, and then became their winding sheets. In a moment more, the commander- in-chief donned his old kattle-worn Kansas cap, mounted the wagon, and began the solemn march thru the chill night to the bridge into Harper’s Ferry, nearly six miles away. " “Tremendous as the relief of action was, there was no thought of cheering or demonstration. As the. eighicen men with John Brown swung dowa the little lane to the road from the farm house that had deen their prison for so many, weary wecks, they bade farewell to Captain Owen Brown, and Privates Barclay Coppoc and F. J. Meriam, who remained as rear guard] in charge of the arms and suppiies,(The brothers Coppod read the future correctly, for they embraced and parted ‘as men do who know they are to meet no more on earth. The damp, ionely night, too, ‘added to the solemnity of it all, as they passed thru its gloom. As if to imtensify the sombreness, they met not a living soul on the road to question their purpose, or to stars with fright at the sight of eizhteen soldierly men coming two by two thru the darkness as tho risen from the grave, Plans Well-Laid. “There was not a sound but the tramping of the men and the creaking cf the wagon, before which, in accordanes with a gen- eral order, drawn up and carefully read to all, walked Captains Cook and Tidd, their Sharp's — rifles hung from their shoulders, their commission, duly signed by John Brown, and officially sealed, in their pockets. They were detailed to destroy the telerrapn wire on the Maryland side, and then on the Virginian, while Captains John H. Kagi and Aaron D. Stevens, brav- est of the brave, were to take the bridge watchman and so_ strike the first blow for liberty. But as they and their comrades marched rayidly over the rough road, Death himself nioved by their side.” (To Be Centinued Saturday.) (The Arsenal Is Captured.) The Rural Rebellion 472 xvrson cattle, the banker had to be called upon for advice and such a thing as getting loans from the banks, even the smallest, without giving details as to what the money was to be used’ for, was absolutely unthinkable. It was considered a great effrontery to this supposedly unselfish “benefac- tor” of the farmer if the information asked for was not gladly and cheer- fully given. New Viewpoint. But what is the situation today? Owing to the economic crisis in agri- culture a great change has come about in the psychology of the farmer towards his small town dictators. To be sure, he is still dictated to by the same dictatorship, but what a collos sal difference there is in his attitude towards his petty masters! No longer does he cringe and fawn at the feet of the banker and the lawyer every time he asks. for a “favor.” He has begun to assert his rights and inde- pendence and is convinced that he and not the banker or the lawyers is the useful member in. society. When it is suggested to the farmer that the town dictatorship ought to be composed of farmers and workers instead of lawyers and bankers, he nods his head approvingly. Main Street Potentates. It is also very noticeable that the town dictatorship is not in the habit of asking the advice and the opinion ‘of the farmers and the town workers as to what shall or shall not be done in the community. Instead it has ‘become a well-known fact that the small town dictators are seeking the advice and approval of the bigger dic- tators in the larger industgial cen- ters. All this the farmer can now see clearly when the situation is ex- lplained to him. Just at present he js not easily fooled by high-sounding phrases like “democracy” and “the will of the people.” The “Beneficient” Banker. For several years these small town dictators have ruled in their re- spective communities without let or hindrance. They have bossed the job by means of the iron hand of eco- nomic pressure, conscientiously car- rying out the orders of the big in- dustrialists and financiers of the country, and the farmer has always tamely submitted to what he thought was the “inevitable.” Whatever the banks and “the leading citizens” of the town told him to do, that he did. Tf he desired to improve his farm with new buildings, machinery and — | IS not very difficult to make the average farmer understand that we are living under a capitalist. dic- tatorship. All that is necessary in order to make this perfectly clear to him is to point out how the small towns have been and are being gov- erned. Maybe he did not understand the situation very well before, but now, when he cannot get much for his products and finds it impossible to pay the debts he owes, he is criti- cally analyzing the conditions that obtain in his community and thruout the country. < z The farmer will readily agree with you that every small town and the country surrounding it are _dominat- ed politically and economically by three outstanding types: the banker, the lawyer and the mayor. Whatever this dictatorship decides to do in the community becomes the rule and law for everybody else. To be sure, ev- erything is done in the name of the “republic” and “the people,” but since the farmer has begun to quit thinking the thoughts of town dicta- tors and started to think indepen- dently, he realizes that such tactics are employed for the purpose of win- ning his confidence and support. a arora iss sath a > «di ae Snubbing Our Civilization there is a tendency toward an 2 them get killed in the proper crease in the rate of suicides. But | patriotic way. that can be explained. The workers are awfully ungrate- If people want to die and can find}ful and uppish these. days, They no war td get killed in, what can|turn up their noses at our pretty they do? If they cannot get the| civilization and snub it—-some profiteers to accommodate them by| committing suicide’ and others by shooting them down on the battle-| starting a revolution, field, they are simply compelled to do the job in the less artistic man- ner, for to endure the blessings of present prosperity showered upon us by our benevolent capitalism seems to be out of the question, Yet, you muy be one of these un- godly blasphemers who think that if this earth was run right it would be a mighty nice place to live in. You have tho effrontery to deny that poverty and hunger and slavery and suffering and dirty tenements and By J. 0. BENTALL. : HERE sre two ways in which you can snub this petty civili- ition: One is to commit suicide; the other is to create revolution. 4 Life pach Paes "pa he bad way because e number of ere Sn Sgro claims of $1,300, were pai a who had decided that hell qpuld be no worse than this capital- ist earth, ‘This is $150,000 more than was paid for lives lost in automobile accidents for the same period. One peculiar fact looms. up on the horizon of civilization’s di There has been a steady falling off in the rate of suicide since the beginning Washington Jingles SILENT CAL COOLIDGE: Now why the hell don’t you resign? If you did that it would be fine. WILLIAM J. BURNS Reds is the guys I investigate; ugus' de-|vagged clothes and child labor and I aint no creek, I'm damn Cae aida ae door of the | Woman’s cebasement and man’s deg- And ay cut out that feclieh stem war, It has also become a forceful radation are necessary to keep a ‘You know with me you can’t get rough. sinful race humble before God, You argtment in favor of mate come out in open rebellion Listen: Also weep a bit: against If you want to Pa sen go to|cur most sacred institutions ~ You gr rll ade ran OE heaven before God decides that your | want to eliminate the very founda-} It aint expensive as I thot. time has come, the handiest thing tion of Christianity and make ple Ob sure the government kin be bought, in the world to have around is a|happy in this world when it will ‘pads on good Christian war, and then you|clearly be seen that by so doing Pepe jayne te sata can go right into the front rank|you rob them of the humble longing Sie pled hl abs aa ee and be almost certain of a speedy |for the mansions in the sky. Is ‘Now I con't make ‘ne hit. death, accompanied by @ secure} You come along and take away Ne loves me, that’s a fact, cinch on a reserved seat at the angels’ concert, That beats the ch rope route all hollow, which nine out of ten ends at the entrance to the coal shovelers’ scab gang where there is no pay for overtime and the devil is the boss, and where the Vol- sted Act covers everything from light wines to rain water, and where prohibition agents have had to go out of business because of a shortage in liquids, / And here people have .called war sinful when as a matter of fact it has saved thcusands of well-mean- ing prospective suicides from hell and landed them in the ranks of heroes ‘that have come thru the from the people the very desire to die sand give them an inspiration to Divorce Prices Boosted. live. By doing this you steal from| ALTON, Ih, A 3,—Lawye! the masses the thought of suicide |here met and Riot tase tec are: and openly undermine the sacred|ing as low as $10 for a divorce, and mission of war which has proven so|forthwith set the rate for getting successful in claiming the loyallhappily unmarried: $50 if slaves from self-destruction, by tested, $100 up if contested, 4B THE DAILY WORKER: I have just letter to Tom Tip and I want to do Dolla’s family. I within a week or so. et he east he ne, en tribute a dollar a a or 8. hite in the blood surely small vie appeste’ of late, however, that 'Ohie ca AS WE SEE IT By T, J. O'FLAHERTY. An Irish worker from California does not understand why we favor an Irish Republic and yet throw the hooks into the zeign of the Catholic, potitical machine in Ireland. If our correspondent had to choose be- tween an Irish republic, which he favors, and the Catholic church, he would choose the latter, as life is only short at best and he does not want to run the risk of having to associate with Martin Luther, Rob- ert G, Ingersoll, Charles Darwin and Lenin on the other side of eternity. Now, we feel just the other way about it. Wherever the above men- tioned comrades are we want to be there; whether it be to hell, heaven or purgatory, But that does not answer the question why we are for a republic in Ireland and against the Roman Church. In the first place we favor a workers’ republic in Ireland as the Workers and Peas- ants of Russia have. This form of government would enable the pro- ducers of Ireland to determine ‘the conditions under which they live and give them the opportunity to build up a state of society where poverty would be eliminated and knowledge, the foe of ignorance and supersti- tion, available to all. se. + © . The Roman Church is the bitter enemy of the emancipation of the workers in all lands frora the rob- ber rule of capitalism. It wants to keep them enslaved so that in their misery they will look to a world beyond the grave for consolation and a reward for the miseries they suffer in this world. While believ- ing this humbug they are easy prey for the clergy of all denominations who in return for a fee, promise them access to the sanctum sanc- torum of a deity who exists only in the imagination of the clergy who have commercialized religion and made of it the best paying business in the world today, outstripping. even the oil business, It would take too long to tell the story here but if our correspondent will read “Labor, Nationality and Religion,” written by James Connolly, he will learn something of the relations of the Catholic Church to Ireland that will remove some of the superstition from his brain. The Roman Church in Ireland and in all other countries has been and is today the enemy of progress and general enlightenment, and for that reason among others we condemn it, - set @ The long expected has happened. The Communists are charged with responsibility for the Teapot Dome expose. The friend who hands us the taffy is none other than the well- known, Mr. Fred R, Marvin, associate editor of the New York Commerical and authority on what is not so in the radical movement of the United States. After thanking Mn Marvin for the kind compliment which I re- gret to say we are not entitled to, our readers will be interested to know by what mysterious process of rea- soning Mr. Marvin arrives at the re- markable conelusion. oesesevss First let us give the gentleman’s location. He had the opportunity for taking the credit of exposing the re- publican grafters, from LaFollette and the democrats at a dinner given by the Indianapolis branch of the National Metal Trades Association. Now, let him shoot. First, the Com- munists “got” Denby because of that worthy’s efficiency as navy secretary. The Communists not being in favor or large navies unless they are under Communist discipline, got on the poor Michigander’s trail and greased the skids for him. It’s quite plausible, but, Denby was fretting along very well with his job as far as the Com- munists were concerned. Given a little more time he would have the entire navy on the rocks and then the Communists would only have to con- by | quer Switzerland, sail into New York harbor and hold up the United States with the Swiss navy. Indeed, had Denby not been go busy testing the amphibian qualities of his ships, he might have given the rest of the country away to his friends. No sir! Denby was a perfectly good Secre- tary of the Navy. ones @ We got Daugherty because he stopped mass action in the railroad strike. We confess to a little pride in our share of the credit for Daugh- erty’s exit but what an excellent Communist propagandist he was? While Victor Berger the socialist rep- resentative was trying to smooth over the rough spots in the capitalist sys- tem, so that the workers would find it tolerable Mn. Daugherty was giving the ‘Amerigan workers and farmers a es pe agen mun: : “Here they are, your capitalist rulers. Denby, Fall, Daugh- erty, Hamon, Jess Smith and many other crooks dead and alive. do you like your leaders? What about getting together and booting the whole darn lot of them into oblivion establishing a workers soviet re- After listening to rangue the workers look at Daugherty and Co, and an application for membership in the Workers Party. Why should we be in a hurry to kick these fellows out? “eee The rest of Marvin's talk is not interesting. The Communists would be mighty glad however, if they had as many papers, billions rubles and hundreds who build up the wealth of this coun. try that is a, the plunder. ¥ ” \ The Com- this md Ay ‘