The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 7, 1924, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER ‘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 B; ail (in Chieago only): y iso 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.... Entered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1923 at the rene Office at Chicago, Ill., under the act of March 3, 1879. <o 14 Chicago, Illinois Advertising rates on application. Above His Price It is an old rule of capitalist politics that every man has his price. One can safely say that, as a rule, the big interests can buy the services of any man in governmental affairs or ublic life, provided they set a price commen- este with’ the abilities and standing of the man desired. John W. Davis, who is now being boosted for the democratic presidential nomination, has been asked by some friends to cut loose from his big financial connections in order to be more presentable to the masses in Novem- ber. Mr. Davis was for years a resident at the ‘Court of St. James, sometimes known as American ambassador to Great Britain and more often as agent plenipotentiary for J. P. Morgan & Co. in Europe. Today, Mr. Davis is attorney for many big corporations among which is the House of J. P. Morgan. y In view of the dearth of democratic presi- dential timber of passable quality and in view of the hostility aroused amongst the masses towards outright corporate ownership of gov- ernment officials, these friends would like to see Davis come forward as the Democratic white hope and free himself from the disad- vantage of being open to attack because of his financial connections. But, John W. Davis is an old timer at the game of playing politics in the interests of the big bankers and manufac- turers. He is a practical politician of the first water. Replying to the request of his friends, Mr. Davis declared that this is a price “entirely too high” to be paid for the presidential nomination of the democratic party, even in a year having such favorable outlook for success at the polls. The Morgan agent punctuates his refusal to comply with the advice of his solicitous friends by saying that to sever con-| nections with his clients would be against his philosophy. Is this lofty idealism’ or plain business sense dominating practical capitalist politics? Mr. Davis will fool no one. The only reason he refuses to break hig legal and illegal connec- tion with J. P. Morgan & Co. at this junc- ture is that he knows it is somewhat too late to be gf service to him in a presidential campaign. Such a change at this late hour would be looked upon by everybody as mere political maneuver and would not serve its purpose. If Mr. Davis knew that he could get away with clean skirts in such a dropping of clients, he would hasten to accept the ad- vice. The price asked of Mr. Davis is, there- fore, too high only because of the severance of relations with J. P. Morgan just now would not be of aid in bluffing the workers and farmers into voting for him. All this talk of “philosophy and idealism” on the part of Mr. Davis is just that much bunk. It is merely strengthened assurance offered by Mr. Davis to his Wall Street masters that he is with them to the limit and that they need have no fear of his ever cringing and crouching before popular sentiment, like the fake progressive McAdoo did after he was uncovered as the attorney of Mr. Doheny, in order to get polit- ical office. The Price Poincare Paid (The stabilization of the franc, its rise to the level of last December, the victory of President Poincare in the Chamber of Deputies, the passage of the emergency measures which he demanded, are not only fleeting triumphs for French imperialism, but they have been se- cured at a price that is beyond the capacity of even this gang of unscrupulous buccaneers to pay. The emergency measures conferring on Poincare dictatorial powers in regard to taxa- tion and reduction of expenditures were, as admitted by Poincare in the debate in the chamber, introduced at the demand of the House of Morgan and were the part of the conditions under which the recent loan secured penditures; the Ruhr project has been possible | only by not counting the cost. | By far the largest part of French income now goes to satisfy the holders of government ponds and other securities and the populace, while restive, tolerated this condition as long as expenditures were made in other lines which prevented the enslavement of the workers and peasants to the bondholders becoming too obvious. > Today, the demands of the financiers who temporarily halted the downward plunge of the franc have removed the political basis of the Poincare power. The increase of taxation, the reduction of the government employes, the Poplarism EDITOR’S NOTE.—Here is the first of a series of articles that will run in the DAILY WORKER during the week, by J. T. Murphy, the prominent British Communist and trade unionist. He tells of the brilliant fight of the workers of Poplar, the big working class dis- trict in London, that has always carried on a_ tremendous fight against labor’s biggest problems, among them that of unemployment. Murphy writes as follows: cut in the wages of those who remain, the dis- os Se continuance of reconstruction work, the scal- ing down of military appropriations, is bound to enrage all sections of the French middle- class and peasantry; the workingclass is al- ready hostile and with elections coming in May the best informed political observers in Europe give Poincare three months of power at the most. The franc will continue its toboggan slide despite drastic economies because there is no possible way of making the French budget balance except by demobilizing the army, cut- ting out all military appropriations, abandon- ing the occupation of the Ruhr and increasing taxes in a manner that will bring revolt from the thrifty peasants who have been told that Germany and Russia will pay the French war debts. Everything points to actual bankruptcy of the capitalist economy of France in the near future and it will not be surprising if, before the end of the year, an open dictatorship will have wiped out all democratic camouflage in which the imperialists have been indulging and a French Mussolini will try the hopeless; task of saving French capitalism with which the fortunes of the House of Morgan are now intertwined to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars wrung from the hides of American workers. Imperialist Thunder In his first public address since his appoint- ment to the cabinet, Mr. Curtis D. Wilbur, new secretary of the navy, has shown his teeth as an imperialist par excellence. Addressing the annual banquet of the Young Men’s Christian Association at the sumptuous Willard Hotel, in ‘Washington, Mr. Wilbur ‘de- clared his naval policy to be for a fleet second to none in strength. He assured his listeners that “the navy would be prepared to calm any spirit of hostility that may assert itself” and that “the army and navy have been the great- est agencies we have had.” In this address Mr. Wilbur was not mouthing any empty phrases. He was sounding a chal- lenge and a warning to the American working and farming classes. It smacks of historical irony and sad truth that a man who has been chosen to fill the cabinet post of one who was, in a large measure, driven out by hostility to the government, should, only a few days after his appointment, threaten to use the force of government against a recurrence of such hos- tility. But beyond this historical irony and sad truth there is lurking a most serious danger to the toiling masses of the country. In the last decade the American navy has increased in value more than 259 per ‘cent. This increase in wealth towers above the rapid strides made by all other items in the posses- sion of the country or any individual. It is the best evidence of the determined policy of our imperialist. capitalist class to dominate the world markets and achieve unchallengable supremacy in the various spheres of influence and investment. The rapid growth of the military and naval forces in the last decade have gone hand in glove with the steady in- crease of financial and industrial power of our capitalists in the world market. Mr. Wilbur is an old timer at the game of rendering services to the capitalist masters. Mr. Wilbur hails from the golden state of California. hind prison bars today. Consequently when Mr. Wilbur speaks he means business, profit- able business for the imperialist class of this Mr. Wilbur was a member of the} was of foreign birth; near! California State Supreme Court which bears a large degree of the responsibility for the inno- cent Mooney and Billings still languishing be- By J. T. MURPHY. When the Poplar Board of Guar- dians, headed by their Communist leader, Edgar Lansbury, and his father, George Lansbury, waited on the new Minister of Health, John Wheatley, and secured from him the rescinding of the Mond Order of 1922, they levelled a challenge which has roused Liberals and Tories alike, in the defense of class inter- ests, Not so much because Wheatiey had cancelled an order which none of his predecessors dared put into operation, but because it registered the triumph of a new principle in dealing with the probiem of unem- ployment which, if allowed to de- velop thruout the country, would shake the foundations upon which capitalist economy nad been operat- ing for a century. Poplar declared that if the workers avpealed to them for relief because of their in- ability to find the means of subsist- ence then they must give relief according to the needs of the appli- cants without regard to wages paid in the neighborhood. If wages were lower than the relief which was granted then that did not prove that the relief. was too high but that the working conditions of the work- ers were a scandal to civilization, Tax Rich, Help Workers. So consistently had they applied their principles in one of the worst areas in the kingdom so far as un- employment and living conditions are concerned, that it passed beyond the power of the Poplar Guardians to find the money and meney had to be secured from other authoritics. This broke down the independence of the guardians in relation to re- lief, and forced the inequalitics of the districts, both in numbers of unemployed and relief payments, right ‘to the front. The higher authoritics prosecuted the Poplar Guardians and forced them into prison for six weeks, But the Guar- dians won. By their victory they were able to transfer 250,000 Pounds per { annum onto the other boroughs of the Metropolis so that the rich bor- oughs have now to pay where pre- --A Fight For the Unemploy viously they escaped. It is this extraction of money from pockets of the rich and the attack upon the low wage standards along lines which annoy the supply and demand politicians and employers, that is upsetting the equanimity of whe ruling clays. Poplarism is a se war attack along the hunger ine, The counter attack by Asquith, leader of the Manchester School ot Likerals, only served to carry the fight a stage further. George Lans- bury’s reply damned the whole in- stitution of poor law administration. Poor law relief in Mngland has been a safety valve against revolution for a hundred years and more. But it has not stood alone, There is in-door rélief when the applicant goes into what is called the work- house. There is out-door relief. There is state insurance and count- less charitable organizations operat- ing on this problem. Asquith de- mands the revision of the poor law because Poplarism is in danger of making it into a weapon for the extraction of money from the rich and damaging the bargaining power for low wages in the labor market. Lansbury callg for new methods of dealing with relief because the inci- dent of its operation is demoraliz- ing and hateful to the workers. History of Poor Law. The history of the poor law in England is one of the most terrible to recount. It stretches far back to the beginning of the seventeenth century, and its trail along the in- tervening centuries is wet with the blood and tears of the aged, the infirm, the broken, the demoralized and battered by the soul destroying machine of a developing capitalism. It is a story of horrors only para- lelled by the storiés of the slave trade. By the act of Wlizabeth in 1601 the state for the firs! time “acknowledged its responsibility to the poor and destitute.” Previously this had been the function of the church. The parish (a village or group of villages) constituted the unit and the applicants for relief had to apply to the overseer or a magistrate for relief. A century later application was first to the overseer and if refused thvi to the magistrate. The form of relief was either: (1) out-door relief, or a week- ly pension of a shilling or two at home; (2) in-door relief m a work- house, or house of inaustry. The eighteenth century saw an impetus given to the workhouse form of re- lief, for the overseers were empow- ered to farm out the poor and any applicant for relief was refused without they expressed a willing- 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. ei ae * John Brown’s Men. - awa WRITTEN almost en- tirely of John Brown, and be- cause of necessities of space I have given little attention to the brave youths who fought under him at Harper’s Ferry. Yet here I must stop and with only the facts, paint some portrait of the men who followed. dohn Brown. It will be seen that they were no ordinary ruffians, no bandits, ad- venturers or madmen, as the South called them at the time. They were young crusaders, thougltful, sensitive and brave. They had a Palle, of life; and they were filled with passion for social justice. One may dis- agree with such men, but one must not fail to respect them. There were twenty-one men with John Brown at Harper's Ferry, sixteen of ‘vhom, were white and five colored. Onl, co were of. old American pioneer stock. Students Not Fanatics. John Henry Kagi was the best educated of the raiders, largely self-taught, a iine debater and speaker, and an able correspond- ent for the New York Tribune and country. His boast is a warning to the masses| the New York Evening Post. He that they had better keep in mind what they are up against in showing hostility to the strikebreaking government of the United States. Mr. Wilbur’s plan to have a navy second to none is a challenge to the imperialist cliques of the other capitalist countries to watch their step and not tread on the toes of the pugna- cious capitalist giant. Mr. Wilbur’s threat is a note of arrogant by the French gold reserve was granted. Poincare must now raise taxes 20 per cent, ‘discontinue all reconstruction work—less than two-thirds completed—cut off the payroll a small army of government employes, dispose of government monopolies such as tobacco, quash all plans for increases of wages de- manded by government workers and carry out the pledge already made that no more loans will be issued and government expenditure kept within the limits of revenue. The Poincare government has kept power by a system of wholesale debauchery of the popu- lace that is without precedent in modern Europe; it has catered to the military caste and allowed the most extravagant use of the public treasury for the purpose of satisfying this parasitic group. Its hegemony over Poland, Rumania and Czecho-Slovakia has been secured by huge loans for military ex- defiance to the oppressed peoples of the Philip- pines, Hawaii, San Domingo, Haiti, Honduras and other sections of the Orient and Latin America to stop nurturing aspirations for free-| ican dom from Wall Street’s imperialist domination. We hope and we know that the imperialist thunder of our new secretary not fall on deaf ears,, and farming class of the country are concerned, Too long and too often have the workers and farmers paid the price in blood and dollars to preserve the security and the profits of their exploiters, the capitalist class. { of the navy will ecient beads Morris Hillquit has discovered that Senator La Follette was always one in thought and ac- tion with the Socialist Party. Victor Berger was the navel string that connected both. ge JOIN THE WORKERS PARTY ~~ ) insofar as the working had been a school teacher in Vir- ginia, and had coma to know and hate slavery there, protesting so vigorously that he was finally run out of the State. He practised law. in Nebraska, but left tais to join John Brown in the Kansas fight- ing. He was killed-at Harper's Ferry. Aaron Dwight Stevens was in many ways tho most attractive and interesting of the personali- ties about John Brown. He ran away from his home in Massachu- setts at the age of sixteen, and joined the United Scates army, serving in Mexico during the Mex- War. Later he was sentenced to death for leading a iers’ mutiny against an offensive slavery Major at Taos, New Mex- ico. President Pierce the sentence to three years at hard labor in ort Leavenworth. Stevens escaped from his priscn, and joined the Free State forces in Kansas, for he had always been a firm abolitionist. Stevens came of old Puritan stock, his great- the; ness .t) go into the workhouse. Workhouses accordingly grew apace, But they were dreaded and hated by the poor for their dirt, diseases and devastating fevers that swept thru them. Thru all the period of the enclosure acts when the landlords drove the laborers from the land and stole the common land from the people, and’ the whole period of what is known as the industrial revolution it is one long horror. When the French Revolution drove the ruling class of Pritam into nerv- ous alarm and savage repression of the workers the development of the poor law by what is known as the Speenhamland act drove matters to the very limits of endurance. By this act every wage laborer in the country was reduced to the pauper level. “The magistrates resolved that a certain definite sum was ‘ab- solutely necessary for the support of the poor, industrious laborer and that when the utmost industry of a family cannot produce the under- mentioned sums, it must be made up by the overseer exclusive of rent’.” Pauperization of Workers. This allowance system spread like wildfire. Why bother about paying wages except at the very lowest level? If they were not get- ting enough let them go to the guardians. The workers were driven to the guardians and farmed out by them. Universal panperism pre- vailed. It has been left for the twentieth century to repeat the eighteenth. Thousands of miners in Wales, Lancashire and Scotland are repeating today the experiences of the first battalions of the proletariat of industrial England, The revolts of ‘those years, the persecutions, the hangings,’ the banishments, the imprisonnients, the beatings, seem to belong to an in- ferno of the imagination. But they broke down the old laws and in 1883 the law which is still the foundation of the poor law activities was se- cured. By this act the Boards of Guardian are separate from the bor- ough city and county councils, able to levy their o rates and make their own payments. So long as there is no crisis, no over straining of resources, no great inequalities in payments. and resources they jog along tho continually the subject of investigation, complaint and con- demnation. Local parsons, smug shop keepers, the busybodies _anx- ious for the “dear poor” were always busy with them. While the workers hated them, treated them with con- tempt, and would not go to them antil thoroly down and out. It was not until the wholesale ‘breakdown of state insurance and every other Monday, April 7, 1924 sr megane og means of relief drove the workers en masse onto the Guardians, that the Guardians have been again thrown into the limelight and the previous regulations have broken down. When thousands of workera marched from one board to another, surrounded, threatened them, locked them in their board meetings, it was no -longer: possibie +> keep up the Pecksniff virtues of prying into every nook and cranny of the do- mestic life of the workers before voming to their aid. “very com- mission of inquiry that has been held has condemned the Guardians mostly for different reasons. But now they have zot to go because the workers have broken them as a means of suppressing their activities and turned them to account as weap- ons of attack. Communist Program. The Liberal Party is accordingly proposing the aboiition of the Boards of Guardians and the merg- ing of the County and Borough Councils, The Webbs an.J the Poor Law commissions are much in ac- cord and there is overy probability Government moving lines. The Communist Party has forward another alternative. We demand not only the abolition of the Poor Law institutions but State responsibility for payment of re- lief to unemployed and the admin- istration of the relief to be made by the workers themseives thru the trades unions. The Party chal- lenges the principle of that democ- raey which compels the workers to go cap in hand to the iocal grocer or parson or creature of the petty bourgeoisie. The workers are ca- pable of administering state insur- ance thru the unions, why not un- employment relief too? This the party argues also would help to keep the unemployed and employed workers together and foree upon the union leaders the task of fecing up to the problem of unemployment in its sharpest form, The Party has had some success in its campaign. The first demand in the unemployed Charter issued by_the General Coun- cil of the Trades Union Congress and the Unemployed Workers Com- mittee contains ‘the Communist Party proposal. Once on a time the employers granted relief as a means to reduce wages and to crush the workers with their administra- tive machinery. Today the workers are forcing them to grant relief and along these put taking the administration from their hands. That's the meaning of Poplarism! soon after John Brown for the Harper’s Ferry raid. John E, Cook was a young law student of Brooklyn, New York, a reckless, impulsive ard rather in- discreet youth, to whom much was forgiven because of his genial smile and generous nature. Charles Plummer Tidd escaped after the raid, and died a First Sergeant in one of the battles of the Civil War. He had not much education but good common sense, and was always reading and studying in an attempt to repair his lack of training. (Quick-tem- pered, but kind-hearted, a fine singer and with strong family affections, Courageous Fighters. Jeremiah Goldsmith Anderson, killed at Harper’s erry in his 27th year, was also of Revolution- ary American stock. A sworn abolitionist, he wrote in a letter three months before «his death: “Millions of fellow beings require it of us; their cries for help go out to the universe. daily and hourly. Whose duty is it to help them? Is it yours? is it mine? It is every_man’s, but how few there are to help. But there are @ few to answer this call and dare to answer it in a manner that shall make this land of liberty and equality shake to tne center.” Albert Hazlett, executed after Brown, was a Pennsylvania farm worker, “a good-sized, fir,e-looking fellow, overflowing with good na- ture and social feelings.” Edwin Cappoc, also one of those captured and hung, was well liked even by thé ‘southerners who saw him in jail, and some of them hoped to get him pardoned. He came of Quaker farmer stock, lay brother, was not yet twenty-one when he fought at the Arsenal. He escaped after the raid hut was killed in the Civil War. After the raid he returned to Kansas ard nearly lost his life in an attempt to free some slaves in Missouri. William Thompson, a neighbor of the Browns at North Mba, in New York, was killed at Harper’s Ferry, in ‘his 26th year. He was full of fun and good nature and bore himself unflinchlingly when face to face with death, Dauphin Osgood Thompson, his brother, was only twenty years old when he met the same fate for the cause of freedom. Dauphin was a handsome, inexperienced country boy, “more like a shy young girl _& warrior, quiet and good,” said one of the Brown ‘women later, grandfather been a ca) Brown's Son Sacrifices Life. tain in the Revol wy War. He Oliver Brown, John Brown's was a man of 1 b bravery ana | youngest son, was also twenty of wonderful 3 well over | years old when he died at Har- six feet, with per's Ferry. His co are and Fenerretiiie #7 er ead te her baby died early the next year, ie had a sense of | “Oliver developed rather rk i | “The Story of John Brown” reading, and then it was impos- sible to catch his attention. But in -his last few years he came out very fast. His awkwardness left him. He read every solid book that he could find, and was espe- cially fond of Theodore Parker's writings, as was his father. Had Oliver lived, and not killed himscif with over-study, he would have made his mark.’ By his excr- tions the sale of liquor was stop- ped at North Elba.” John Anthony Copeland, a free colored man, 25 years old, was educated at Oberlin College. He was dignified’: and manly, and in jail there were prominent South- erners who were forced to admit his fine qualities. He was-hung for the raid, Mostly Young Men. Stewart Taylor, the only one of the raiders not of American birth, was a young Canadian wagon maker, 23 years old. He was fond of history and debating, and heart and soul in the abolition cause. Killed in the Arsenal, William H. man, the young- est of the raiders, killei in his 19th year. He had gong, to work in a shoe factory at Haverhill, Mass., when only 14 years o and tho with little education, a good intellect and great ingen- uity.” He was the “wildest” of Brown's men, for he smoked and drank occasionally, but, the Old Puritan captain hiked him, nevcr- theless, for he was boyish, hand- some and ve, Osborn Anderson was also a Negro. He escaped after the raid and fought thru tie Civil War, Franci: Meriam was a Ith; vee bolitionist wh wealthy, al is 10 put all, his fortune into the cause, and came from New England to join John Brown in the raid, He escaped also, and died in 1865, after having been the ca) of . Negro company in Civil ‘ar. : Lewis Sheridan , colored, left a wife and < Semen Ente in, Pee to -, to ‘8 » He was a har- ness oie ee trade, and de- si Gay, St feet mi 0 Revolution, 1 Owen Brown's sons, was stalwart réliable, Se eae in and ht, like all the Browns. He is also said to have been quite humorous. He survived the raid, and died in Pasadena, Calif., in 1891. Watson Brown, another son, 24 old when killed at tie 5 oa and bb adi : ‘ a man of marked pt spe Me character, Brown. wife and seven children still in slavery, and he was trying to raise money to buy them, for they were to be sold furtner south, He failed at this; and joined John Brown in desperation. He was killed at the Ferry, and so failed to free his poor family, as he had dreamed, Shields Green, colored, was also born a slave, but escaped, leaving a little son in slavery. He met Brown thru Frederick Douglass, the great Negro orator, and join- ed the raid, tho many warned him it would mean his death. He was uneducated, but deeply emotional,. and deeply attached to the “ole man,” as he called John Brown. | He was hung after the raid; his age, 23. They were all young men; the average age of the band was 25 years and five months. They were- all strong, intelligent, in love with life and eager for the future; but they chose to attempt this mad, dangerous deed rather than con- sent any longer to the lie and to the power of black slavery, John Brown they followed and loved as-one would a strong and kindly father. ‘There was always something patriarchal about Jol Brown and his soldiers, many ob- Servers said. It made his deed a ie pes story out of the » the si and terrible jus- te of the Lord of Hosts, ; (To Be Continued Tuesday.) (The “Nigger-Thief.”) United Hebrew Trades Leaders Oppose Plan For May Celebration ference representing 100,000 \° ied workers of this city in an fort to oppose the solid capitalist front with the united forces of the work- ers has again sent delegates to the May conference called by the United Hebrew Trades in conjune- tion with the Jewish Verband, and Fi joint action was forstalled by leaders of the United Hebrew trades railroading a motion to table the communication extending an in- vitation to jointly celebrate the com- ing May Day. ‘ A motion to F igtl taal the tan mnt Pee ne con- nce the floor was ami it — declared defeated. os @ motion to hold a parade the coming May Day a debate with the ranly and file in favor and the Haw leadership agen op- |. Some were open ir Fouition wi om like 8, “Pp i Faget F BE of the Labor Party and the Labor fh