The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 8, 1924, Page 6

Page Six « THE DAILY WORKER THE DAILY WORKER. Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO, 1640 N. Halsted St., Chicago, Il. (Phone: Lincoln 7680.) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail: $6.00 per year $3.50..6 months By mail (in Chica, $4.50..6 months Address all mail and make out cheeks to THE DAILY WORKER 1640 N. Halsted Street J. LOUIS ENGDAHL ( WILLIAM F. DUNNE } °*** MORITZ J. LOEB Entered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1928 at the Post- Office at Chicago, Ill., under the act of March 8, 1879. $a ole dRhadte tt Ras eal ids eos lena Ue -_ Advertising rates on application. Northwest Storm Signals First-hand news of the whirlwind that is wrecking the homes of capitalist politicians in the northwest was brought to Washington last week by Governor Preus of Minnesota, the pet of the steel trust, who still holds office be- cause he has not yet had to stand for re- election. ‘ (he observations of Gavernor Preus have been made from a crack in the door of the cyclone-cellar in which he and his henchmen have been living for the past few months and are reasonably accurate. He shattered one of the fondest hopes that the old party heelers have been entertaining i. e. that LaFollette would be too, ill to take the field for a campaign. Governor Preus, looking somewhat battered and with a hunted iook in his eye, allowed that so long as one breath of life remained in the LaFollette body he could carry eight northwest states without using it for speech. Governor Preus is no academic observer of northwest politics; he knows the temper of the workers and farmers and he feels that something drastic must be done, but he is silent as to remedies. It is a new situation and politicians of the Preus type are at their wits end. The preparations for the June 17 convention are being made under his nose and he is painfully cognizant of the fact that the professional politicians in and out of the labor and farmer movement are underestimating the significance of the mass political uprising in the northwest. Preus made one feeble squawk about the German element in the northwest situation, but it was only a halfhearted attempt to éx- plain something he did not understand and the complete bankruptcy of the capitalist parties in his territory is shown by the fact that he failed to resurrect the menace of Communism —hitherto the first count in the indictment of the workers and farmers when they have shown a disposition to revolt. Such testimony from leaders of the capitalist parties relative to the strength of the farmer- labor movement brings into bolder relief the cowardly tactics of the official leaders of the labor movement. With the steel trust governor of a great state like Minnesota conceding his own and seven other states to LaFollette as the leader by force of circumstances of mass political dis- content the refusal of labor officialdom to recognize facts and break with the capitalist parties becomes treason of a particularly offensive kind. It is the inexorable trend of events all show- ing that a great and fundamental change is taking place in the attitude of the exploited workers and farmers of America towards their exploiters that proves conclusively the conten- tion of the Workers Party of America that the difference between Cleveland and St. Paul, June 17 and July 4, is a class difference— June 17 will be a convention of the rank and file of workers’ and farmers’ organizations demanding action; July 4 will be a convention of bureaucrats and middle-class elements inter- ested in hampering the rise of a mass working- class party that they know they cannot lead. The German Workers Pay The social-democrats of the world must swell with pride when they read the following demands made upon the German government by the industrial and financial lords as the price for which they will agree to give it further support in meeting the allied demands: 1. The political power of the trade unions must be entirely destroyed. 2. The government must cease to negotiate directly with the trade unions. 3. The ie ly Soe day law must ‘be repealed. 4. A single front of trade unions in industrial decisions must be prohibited. 5. Obligatory governmental arbitration in labor over wages must be restricted. 6.. The return of all economic machinery, be- ginning with the state railroads, to private hands must be undertaken. 7. As the necessity of reparations payments will compel transformations of German production, the internal markets must be prevented from fall- ing into the hands of foreign competitors by the oo of new and the raising of existing customs es. This proposal to enslave the whole German workingclass, and which the government will accept because it is the creature of those who make these demands, is the heritage the social- democrats have bequeathed to the German workers. It is the logical outcome of the murder of the revolutionary aspirations of the German workers in 1918, the slaughter of Liebknecht and Luxembourg and the policy of kindly toler- ation growing into aid and comfort for the German capitalists—the reverse of the policy adopted towards the workers. It is a fitting epitaph for the traitors of the social-democracy who joined with the capital- $2.00..8 months enly): $8.00 per year $2.50. .8 months Chicago, Illineis evevoeceece sRditors Business Manager ists of the world in denouncing the revolution- ary tactics of the Communist International and it ig an epitaph because the social-democratic party is dead and no longer a factor in the German nation. It played its treasonable role long enough to allow the German capitalists to set up their dictatorship, while all the time denouncing the dictatorship of the workingclass. German prisons and concentration camps are now filled with the best of the German workers and the Von Seeckt dictatorship commits such horrible brutalities upon them that Prussian nobles are moved to protest. When they are released— those who do not die of wounds and starvation —they will go back into industry at the mercy of the German money lords. who, as their first condition, specify that the unions must be destroyed. It is a cruel joke that in the old days the power of the social-democrats was based upon the unions and the unions blindly followed them into the treacherous swamp of parlia- mentarism and reformism. Kurt Sorge, speaking for the Association of German Industry, says, after detailing the We- mands of the capitalists: German industry is willing to make sacrifices for the. welfare of the reich, but only on the basis of these conditions. Only when the rubbish is swept away from internal politics can German in- dustry turn its attention to foreign problems. Yes, it is a noble heritage left the German workingclass. (Che elementary privileges of organization, political activity and working conditions are classed as rubbish by the big- bellied plutocrat who capitalizes their misery. The issue is clear at last. It is the working- class of Germany, headed by the Communist Party, against German capitalism with no or- ganization of social-democrat traitors left to mouth with Sorge, Thyssen and Stinnes the “sacrifices” the industrial lords are making. It is a terrible price that the German workers have paid for clarity of vision but it is the price that every other workingclass will pay which, does not learn in time that the doctrine of class-collaboration means death to the workers. Who Are the Sane? There will never be enough good dwellings for the workers at the price they can afford to pay as long as the wage system lasts. Capital- ism will no more give the workers pleasant and sanitary dwellings than it will give them plenty of food and clothing. To do this would remove the “incentive” furnished by the desire to keep soul and body together. That this sacred tenet of capitalism —the alleged need for war on others of his class—reduceg the worker to the status of a dog fighting for a bone is of no importance to the capitalist class. That class never felt so secure in the pos- session of its loot as when there were two workers for every job. It long ago eliminated competition in the basic industries and from its struggle in doing so it learnt the lesson that competition for the necessities of life makes worker fight worker. It learned the lesson a little too well for its own good, however, and the cunning machin- ery that threw the workers onto the streets now works for the destruction of its owners. Capitalism has destroyed competition in its own ranks and it has also smothered the last spark of hope in the breasts of millions of workers. It has taught them the tragic futility of struggle with their own kind and they are possession of the machines and the wonderful plentitude of the things they have made. Hungry workers at the factory gates are no longer a measure of the security of the wage- system; they are now a menace to it and they even dare to raise their voices against the power of government that protects the wealthy against the starving, but the, industrial ma- chinery works on and only horrible war can bring a scarcity. : ’ War, too, is a new danger for capitalism. It hesitates to arm the millions that hate it and give them new grievances in the shape of the torn and bleeding bodies of their loved ones. The defenders of capitalism, in the face of |world-wide failure, are panic-stricken. The plan of salvation proposed one day is discarded the next; they all talk at once and say noth- ing; a thousand well-advertised panaceas are tried and found wanting; the newspapers try to allay the alarm but succeed only in proving that there is reason for alarm; one capitalist statesman after another tries to stem the tide of popular discontent, struts for a few mo- ments and then flees from the madhouse at- mosphere of capitalist parliaments. Capitalism is no longer able to control the mental processes of the masses and in the ab- sence of dumb acquiescence is helpless and afraid. In this chamber of horrors but one organized force in the world faces the future with con- fidence—and a program. The Communist International is the only sane organization in the whole welter of confusion because it has faith in the driving power of the masses, it knows that only the workingclass possess the key that will unlock the gate of the future and that organized for struggle against the scat- tered remnants of capitalism the workingclass will win under Communist leadership not only everything that capitalism has deprived it of but still greater victories as the result of an unfettered science and industry that is the basis of Communist economy and culture. ge JOIN THE WORKERS PARTY -oe “" Tuesday, April 8, 1924 MacDonald Following the Old Traditions 2-7 “=H jURPHY EDITOR'S NOTH:—Today we publish another article by J. T. Murphy, the British Communist and trade unionist, telling of the conditions confronting the work- ing class in the British Isles, This article will be followed by another tomorrow, A FEW weeks ago, I ventured to write, “The traditional policy of Britain is taking its own inevi- table course whether under the garb of pacifism or war. She must com- bine against the dominant power in Europe, whoever it may be.” France dominates the situation and Mac- Donald perforce must aim to bring her to heel. Within a single week three important steps have been taken in this direction, The reduc- tion of the reparations tax from 26 per cent to 5 per cent has been con- firmed. A further letter has been exchanged with Poincare. The air estimates have been increased, The first item can be counted one up for Germany and British trade. Tt met with slight opposition. Lloyd George divided himself. from the Liberals against it, indicating by the) way that the united household of liberalism js not so happy as it might be. But his opposition was only a question as to the value of this concession to Germany as a bargaining weapon, The Fost was the opposition of Toryism to what might be deemed the abolition of a little tariff reform. MacDonald Aping Wilson. But the letter to Poincare gets us on to another plane, This is MacDonald’s first big effort to step into the arena cf Kuropean politirs as the re-incarnation of Wilson. Wilson fell before Clemenceau and Lloyd George thru making conces- sions in order to preserve a dream. Not only were his concessions ac- cepted but his schemes were seized by others as the means to outwit him and the forces he represented. His Lergue of Nations scheme was ¢aken out of his grasp and made the instrament of the Allied Su. preme Council which left Wilson out in the cold. From that day forward there has been a constant struggle within the League for the «domina- tion of its policy. MacDonald’s em- ~hasis onthe League is as much a part of the rivalry between France and Britain as it was when Lloyd Seorge sounded g similar note. Mac- Donald wants Germany in the League because it is perfectly clear that any rehabilitation of Germany is going 19 give Britain a fairly good grip upon the actions of Ger- many. His plea for interrational control of occupied areas is directed towards limiting the military power of France. His concession which alters the British government’s at~ titude to the relation of debts and reparations from that ag defined in the Balfour letter, is no concession in policy but only an indication of change of circumstance which he aims to use in a dual direction. First to get as much as possible out of reparations and second, to draw America into joint action with Brit- ain with a view to modifying the debt relationhips. Freedom o By WILLIAM F, DUNNE (Cilcaco and its environs are typi- cally American and altho it is the habit of the capitalist press to ridicule the Latin-American for their ee ee demanding, in ever increasing numbers, the|lack of trainng in the use of the franchise when there is gun-play on election day, the Chicago press has been devoid of editorial comment on the manner in which the Cicero elec- tion was conducted—kidnaping, slug- ging, shooting and murder with vic- tory going to the faction that mo- bilised the largest number of gunmen. A great myth has been built up around the ballot in America. To listen to the eulogies delivered by eepisee publicists one would be led to believe that when election day rolls around the populace rises to the stature of an intellectual giant and |goes to the polls, each one a ruler jin his own right, equipped with a keen j nowledge and armed with a deep (conviction concerning the weighty iproblems his ballot will aid in solv- ying(?) The Middle Class Electorate. Campaigns we have witnessed and participated in do not bear out this rosy view and it is our opinion formed after several years of rather close observation of the great Amer- can public that the middle classes, of which the electorate now is mostly composed, is the most stupid and therefore the most easily fooled ag- gregation that ever were deluded in to believing that they rule a nation. The proof of this theory is easily brought forward and as conclusive evidence of the truth of our state- ments we submit a composite photo- graph of the city, county, state and national officials who are now and have been in power for the last fifty years. If further proof is wanted we sub- mit as additional evidence the issues upon which elections havq been founght for the same period of time and challenge any doubter to do two things, name one issue vitally af- fecting the relations of the working class to the capitalist class and point out one case where even relatively harmless mandates of the electorate have been carried out, So far removed from the struggles of the working masses have been the issues in American election rere that in not one national election has a majority of the masses ever been sufficiently to register a vote’ prises and will on one side br the other. A Dangerous Step, He is treading on exceedingly | dangerous ground. It is one thing |to outmanage a Wilson in a Euro- | pean combination at a time when |the economic penetration of Europe by American finance was relatively weak. It is another thing to out- maneuver American financiers when they have got their talons into | Europe and Britain too, The great ; Plea for American intervention has | always been, so far as MacDonald iis concerned, on the grounds of | world . democracy and democratic idealism. But great powers do, not ;move in response to idealism with- |out there is a very material basis for their actions. And America will { | proval of every imperialist organ in the country while his Wilsonian phrases have tickled the palates of social democracy and liberalism as nothing else has done since Wilson announced his fourteen points. “Back to Wilsonism” is the slogan under which the new armament race is to be conducted. Out-jingoing the Jingoes, There appears to be no depths to which the Second International leaders will not sink to serve their masters. Having repudiated their own international, not only severing their connection with it as .leaders, but also severing themselves from its declarations and insisting upon a nationalistic policy governed by only participate in the European competition for something other than the dreams of MacDonald or Wilson, America has up to now kept -herself free from every at- tempt on the part of Britain to play jher off against. France, ! The forces behind MacDonald, I do not mean the working class forces in this case, but. the imperialist forces realize these facts and the so-called replacements in cruisers thave now to be reinforced with in- [creases in air craft and forces. The figures of the new estimates show an increase of 2% millions. 1923-4 estimates totalled £12,011,000; the 1924-5 estimates total £14,511,000. There is a decrease in the cost of the air forces and auxiliary services in Iraq and_ Palestine of over £1,- 300,000, which affects the gross but not the net figures of air votes. The effective increase of £2,808,000 on the “interests. of the Empire, they are doing their level best in every department of activity to prove themselves better imperialists than the advocates of imperialism, The reduction in the Iraq esti- mates is explained by Winston Churchill, whose policy they are pursuing. Attacked in the West- minster by-election he retorts: “If the policy I adopted in Mes- opotamia is wrong why is the present government currying it out? When for the first time I had any responsibility for Mes- opotamia, at the beginning of 1921 the expense was nearty £40,000,- 000- per year. I immediately formed “a native state and set up a home rule government under an Arab king. I withdrew practically the whole army and reduced the expense within a year to less than seven millions and prescribed the net air estimates is attributed to: : “The progressive expansion of the air forces for home defense recently decided upon; to the in- creased requirements of Navy and Army co-operation and to the re- plenishment of stocks 9f technical equipment and other material.” Eight new regular squadrons will be completely formed dufYhg 1924-5 a policy which would reduce it to about three millions, This policy has been pursued ever since by three separate. ministers—Mr. Bonar Law, Mr. Baldwin and Mr. MacDonald.” The reason of British connection with Mesopotamia is well known, It forms one of the chain of countries on the all red route of empire from which will bring the number allotted for that purpose to 18 by April, 1925, | Provision is also made for the ini- tial equipment of six more squad: rons which under present arrange- ments will be formed in 1925-6. By vote A the establishment of the air force is increased by 2,000 toa total of 35,000. It is reckoned that in a few years it will be 40,000. No Change of Imperialist Policy. The reduction of cost of forces for Mesopotamia must on no ac- count be taken as a change of pol- icy, whilst the home defense build- ing of air craft. forces is obviously directed against ffance. There is no other formidable air force to be reckoned with so far us Britain is concerned, There is not the slight- est doubt that Poincare can read the air estimazes as clearly as he has read MacDonuld’s letters. The one he will reckon with materially; the other he has answered with one of his Sunday speeches which concedes nothing. When all the phrases of MacDonald’s statements have been cut away there is nothing left but the bold fact that he is following the old traditions of British policy more effertively than the Conservatives and the Liberals. His cruiser policy has roused Mussolini to action. His aircraft policy has met with the ap- Debauching the Masses. The election campaigns of American capitalism have debauched the elec- torate until cynicism is its outstand- ing characteristic. The soil prepared in this manner is a fertile one for the growth of a widespread corruption affecting all classes in American society; a cor- ruption of which the Teapot Dome and Daugherty scandal is sympto- matic of a diseased social condition just as a boil is symptomatic of the need of a body cleansing. The Cicero election campaign was a fight between two rival groups for the control of the illicit revenues from all forms of vice and therefore was a small ba sg of national cam. paigns waged by the two capitalist parties in which the issue has usually been the determining of which set of capitalist tools shall receive the rev- enues the real rulers allow their agents to collect. The violence in Cicero, in its open character, may differentiate it in degree from the methods pursued in election cam- paigns all over the nation, but to! those who adhere ardently to. the itenets of democracy as preached by ithe apologists of American opiate, 'we say that there has never been an honest election in America and that there never will be while the capi-, talism system stands, In every campaign where the class issue is apparent the ruling class re- sorts to vionbe after all attempts to befog the issue have failed and as larger and larger masses are sxoused by the intensification of the struggle in the (United States, the capitalists and their agents will become more ‘and more brazen in their contempt for the democratic processes upon which they urge the workers and farmers to rely. _ Reason for Hostility. Not the least important reason for the hostility of the old capitalist par- ties and their tools in the labor or- ganizations to the rising farmer-labor movement is their instinctive feeling that the class character of it will swing into action several millions of workers and farmers hitherto unin- terested in political affairs and make much easier a thoro discussion of vital issues. ee brie ‘8 Diy bona ational enter- Learns "be fought out on is- sues that will force capitalist politi- } ~ > > Cape Town ‘to Galcutta which Mac- Donald is as keen on preserving as is Mr. Winston Churchill. The only difference, of course, is in the tune which the respective conquerers ren- der to the listening world. One sings the song of education for the native with good dividends for Brit- ish Industrialists, and work for the workers, and the - other sings the song of Imperial expansion. The difference lies in the degree of hy- pocrisy only. “By Their Deeds, Ete.” Forgetting the songs for the moment and getting back to their deeds we have now got the key to the increase of the air forces, the reductions in the estimates for Mes- opotamia, the maneuvers with America, the sparring with Poin- care. But what of the annoyance of Mussolini? It needs more than the cruiser replacement program to annoy him to the extent of joining with Spain in a navy campaign, and offering terms to.France for a Latin combination in tho Mediterranean Sea, and to proceed with a big navy program. This will be found in a further part of the “continuity pol- iey” of MacDonald. Before the war of 1914 and the development of the German navy scare Britain’s strongest fleet was stationed in the Mediterranean as the great highway of the Empire. Franchise In Practice cians to line up openly with their masters. The capitalist press will of course, continue to laugh a} the benighted citizens of Central and South Amer- ican republics, but the correct posi- tion or the American working class to take is that with the rise of a mass movement of workers and farmers its political education is just beginning and that up to date it has with al- most negligible exceptions always been used by one wing or the other of the bi-partisan political machine of American capitalism ; it is for tactical reasons alone that the capitalist re- frains from ridicule of the American electorate. " There is always indignation in our best circles because of such unfor- tunate occurrences as those at Cicero, yet they are a typically American phenomenon arising from the fact that the American masses are just learning that the right of franchise without a mass party of their own and a program expressing the needs of the workers and farmers is something as worthless as an honest ballot in an election run by capitalism’s gangsters. The indignation. aroused among the moral bourgeosie by i election corruption will be as nothing however, to their rage at the fight against capi- talism as well as corruption that will be waged by the workers and farmers now massing their forces for the most effective utilisation of the election machinery of American government. Now that there {s not the same neceasity to keep the strongest part of the fleet in the North Sea, and Gibralter is not the fortress it was in the years gone by, attention is being given to the concentration of the strongest forces in the Mediter- ranean, It is proposed by the Ad- miralty ‘that eight of the most pow- erful battleships, to which the two new ones now being built may be added, are to concentrate in the Mediterranean. In addition the lighter forces are to be reinforced and the aircraft carrier Eagle, the largest ship of her type afloat, is under orders to proceed to the same station at Malta. At present no submarines are attached to the fleet in these waters but a fiotilla is re- ported to. be ear-marked for the job. Some time will clapse before the whole of this plan can be car- ried out because of the smallness of dock facilities. But it is to be carried out, we are told, - Mussolini Jealous and Hostile. It is this concentration which {s annoying Mussolini, along with the dissatisfaction over the delay in the sharing of the spoils of war in Africa. According to, the settlement of the victors, Italy has to have a slice of territorysein Africa known as Jubuland, a part of Kenya now under the control of Britain, This treward does not appear to be com- ing to Italy quickly enough and go he regards the Mediterranean con- centration as represéntative of @ spirit of antagonism directed against Italy which justifies him in stand- ing no nonsense. So he is going ahead with the armament policy. Much as he would like to get the French to line up with him on this matter and to make.a general Med- itteranean combination, and much as the French foreign office would like to do so, the conflict between the dominant economic forces in eath country are so muca in opposition to each other that the proposal won't work. The Comites des Forges may be a competitor of the British industrialists, but it is getting too much out of her monopoly of the raw material, supplyimg the steel in- dustry of Italy and the large mar- ket ‘for her mianufactured goods _thruout Italy that there is not much likelihood of the combination be- ing brought about, Nevertheless the further we pene- trate thru the “atmosphere. favor- able to peace” which MacDonald has | been talking so much about the more the realities of warlike preparations and maneuvering for positions be- comes discernable. Each of them are talking of the Versailles Treaty. All of them are pursuing their own National and Imperial aims. Disaster Ahead. The forces which underly — the predatory aims are inexorable, They will not give way to MacDonald's rhapsodies, whilst in action he sim- ply follows the old traditions. Im- perialism has got him in its grip and all his colleagues with him. We are moving towards catastrophe and the Scotch ghost of Wilson leads the way with palm branches at the helm of the battleships, with ritan sermons and peaceful psal to dull the christian conscience and the policy of Imperial Continuity as his chart. He says_it is the path to socialism, It may be. But not in the sense in which he means it. Bill to Repeal Esch-Cummins Law Fought by Roads (By The Federated Press) WASHINGTON, April 7.—Hale Holden, chairman, executive commit- tee, Association of Railway Execute tives, protasted to the senate inter- state commerce commutiee, at a spe- cial hearing, against the Howell- Barkley bill which provides for the repeal of the labor sections of the Esch-Cummins law. Daniel Willard, of tle Balttmore & Ohio, seconded Holden's opinion that the Esch-Cummins law and the railroad labor hoard deserved to re- main in fall operation. Holden de- nounced the new bill as a scheme to enforce the closed shop and to dis- franchise hundreds of thousands of railroad employes who “do not de- sire” to be represented by the rogu- lar labor organizations. Southern Pacific Company unions filed tele- grams of protest, too, ‘Holden said the shonmen’s strike of 1922 showed that the public was leased with the railroad labor rd’s actions. It would be fatai to business stability if, when the next downward move in wages ar- rived, the law should encourage resistance to .a wage cut. Senator Conzeng tried in vain to get Holden’s estimate of the date cf that coming reduction in wage seales, Class War Prisoner In San Quentin Likes ‘‘Daily Worker’’ The following letter from o victim of the capitalist class who is behind the gray walls of St. ntin for his loyalty to |; only one of many received from halves of the as war, Seahiee the DAILY WORKER for its revolutionary character and its ex: 5 The letter was addressed to the Business Manager, Comrade Loeb: To the Daily Worker: to your letter of March 22 I wish In repl to say that I am receiving THE DAILY WORKER regularly and wish to thank the comrade who so thoughtfully donated me a subscription. The DAILY WORKER is the best paper that I have seen since the Butte Bulletin went out ba oot) ‘woul financial he field of labo: of existence, r I know that it fulfills a 1 .. If I was on do all in m to make it Mier that - ower ce . a chatacles will be overcome and be preriers Wil give Ie that the workers will give the support it deserves. The staff of editors is of such high calibre that I am sure they will be able to make the paper succeed anybody There is just one suggestion I have to make and that is that 1 hope the will continue to put news ah Ause in the past many papers have fallen dows beeen te abuse Ao you all kinds of success in the new venture I remain, © yours of the working class, W. I. FRUIT, No. A 35715, i