The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 10, 1924, Page 6

Page Six Pee hnatinane inowntiellen roahemacnstsanitoid € Pe bear: dd aasmatenaell Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING C®., i640 N Halsted St., Chicago, lil. (Phone: Lincoin 768, SCRIPTION RATES By mail: $3.50..6 ~ronths $2.00. .3 months By mail (in Chicago only): $6.00 per year $800 per year $4.50. .6 months $2.59. .3 months Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER : 1640 N. Halsted Street Chieago, Ilinoin J. LOUIS ENGDAHL | WILLIAM F. DUNNE 5 .... Business Manager Sept. 21, 1923 at the Post the act of March 3 . | Advertising rates on application. SS SE Entered as second-class Uffice at Chicago, Ill, unaer — Rationalizing Reaction That section of the Socialist Party that of which the New Leader is an expression is very pessimistic about the radicalism of the farm- It resurrects the hoary doctrine according ich the present discontent in agricultural | sections is caused solely by low prices for farm | products and proceeas upon the theory that} there is only a temporary dislocation of mar-| kets—in fact that the widespread bankruptcy | of the farmers is merely a passing phase, that prosperity will return. We do not intend here to do more than} point out the typically false premise on which this conclusion is based—the premise that American agriculture is not undergoing a fundamental crisis with the -farmers losing their ownership of the land—because we are more interested in the studied attempt made to discred:t the farmer-labor movement of the northwest. With this mass movement that is calling the June 17 convention the Socialist party has seen fit not to co-operate. At first the reason was that the Communists were identified with it, but now the process of ra- tionalization has gone a little further. Farm- ers are unreliable politically, says this socialist sage, they have voted for democrats and re- publicans and only the industrial workers can | be. trusted. This might be mistaken for a very crude and | inadequate Marxism if it were not for the fact that the Socialist party is supporting the Cleve- land meeting called for July 4 by the Confer- ence for Progressive Political Action—an or- ganization whose sole justification for existence | is that it endorses candidates on both capital- ist party tickets and is depending upon that | organization—controlled by trade union bu-} reaucrats—to launch a national labor party. | Bankruptcy cannot extend further than this —rejection of a mass rank and file movement of workers and farmers in the hope that al national labor party will be established by the most reactionary set of trade union officials in; the world, officials whose every act and utter- ance is a confesssion of subserviency to middle class and capitalist politicians. : Right today the Conference for Progressive Political Action is split between the demo- cratic and republican parties; the breach will | grow wider after the old party conventions and the uttermost concession to the mass de- mand for a farmer-labor party will be the endorsement of LaFollette as an independent candidate. The editorial as a whole is an admission that the Hillquits and O’Neals are in the Gompers camp, body and soul, and that the | remnants of the Socialist party, if any survive thru the year, will be willing to join with the workers and farmers in a class farmer-labor party when the bureaucracy of the labor unions is ready and not before. ers. South African Unrest Fate has been a little slow in overtaking Jan Smuts, the Woodrow Wilson of South Poland Quits Poincare The Polish government has not shown any unusual! brilliancy but it has apparently had enough sense to mania, at the behest of Bessarabian adventure, is an undertaking whose risks are wholly out of proportion to} the possible returns. There is in Bessarabia at present a strong movement for independence and union with Russia as an autonomous republic. The Rou- manian boyars, vassals of France, will probably try to suppress the movement by force and if this attempt is made the Red Army will come to the support of the Bessarabians who were subjugated by Roumania during the period of turmoil following the Russian revolution. The| Bessarabians naturally prefer the opportuni-| ties offered them under a Soviet system to the! bitter exploitation to which they are subjected by the Roumanian aristocracy and the struggle in Bessarabia, therefore, has an economic as well as a nationalist foundation. The absolute dependence of the Poincare government upon the House of Morgan, shown by its agreement to conditions for the recent loan that make further lavish military ex- penditures difficult to negotiate, has already had its effect in Eastern Europe. The puppet states along the Russian frontier were willing to take French money and munitions for war | on. Soviet Russia when she was weak ‘and | French militarism was sweeping the little | states into line. Today the situation js en- tirely changed. Soviet Russia is the first! power on. the continent and neither Poland! - the little entente cares to further irritate | er. | The refusal of Poland to back Roumania is | probably the first step in the dissolution of ; French hegemony in Eastern Europe; it is | doubtful if France will ever receive anything | in'return for the millions of francs expended | to weld a ring of iron around Germany and | cut off Soviet Russia from the rest of Europe | by a “cordon sanitaire.’ | The Polish workingclass has been showing | such militancy of late despite the terroristic| activities of the government that a war against | Russia in behalf of the Roumanian Bessarabian claims might easily result in outright revolt. It is the peculiar quality of the Soviet govern-| ment that it grows stronger'in proportion to) the increase of workingciass strength in the| capitalist nations and no tactics of the capital- ist class can counteract this phenomenon. The alliances that France has consummated in Eastern Europe, as is the case with the! Franco-Polish-Roumanian pact, will be found to be worthless paper agreements when actual | warfare against Soviet Russia looms as a result of them. i | The Red Army of the Russian workers and, peasants and the Soviet power are proving | themselves the greatest peacemakers in ail) t Europe. | Encouraging The Legion | The core of any army is still human and herse- flesh, and all the new devices, guns and machines, gas and flyers, are simply supplementary arms, battle preliminaries, rather than the essentiajs of combat. | The world has just been informed of the inverl- tion by a Danish scientist of an automatic steel “soldier” which can fire a rifle or a machine gun. It ‘would be interesting to learn what would be de- cidéd by a battle between two such “armies.”— “Serutator”, in the Chicago Tribune. | We submit the above to console the members | of the American Legion and other lovers of | war who may, in view of the publicity given mechanical devices of destruction, begin to be- lieve that there will be no need of human sacri- fices in the next war. We would want no mis-| apprehension of this kind to deprive us of the most amusing and asinine spectacle ever fur- nished—that of the ivory-domed legionaires informing the war-mongers of the ineffable joy Africa, but has at last caught up with him. His cabinet has been forced to resign and he is now confronted with a solid opposition composed of the Nationalist party and the South African Labor party—a bloc whose unity. is the result of the tyrannical rule of Smuts, long the darling of the liberals the world over because of his advocacy of the league of nations. Smuts was one of the leaders of the Boers in the war against Great Britain but so'd him- self to the British imperialists when the strug- gle was over and has been the tool used in oppressing his own countrymen—one of the slimy individuals whom Great Britain has al- ways found purchaseab'e in her colonies and without whom she could not rule. The bloody suppression of the strike of the South African miners in 1922 alienated the workers and since that time the nationa'ist movement has been ga‘ning strength. The last, Smuts majority was secured by gerry- mandering and trickery, but the coalition of the labor and nationalist parties in the coming election will make the success of such tac- tics more difficult. The victory of the Labor party in the motherland has given great im- petus to the South African labor movement and it will not be surprising if the result of the coming election is a government much more advanced than the present personnel of the British cabinet. The developments in South Africa are of additional interest because they corroborate! the contention that in India, Egypt, Australia | and South Africa the colonial later morve- . ments, because of the great advance made by colonial industry durite the war and the con- sequent lessening of dependence upon Eng- land, are rapidly losing their imperialistic out- look and acting as independent units, ‘t gives them to be made responsible for furnishing the requisite amount of cannon-| fodder. The pacifisis, as 4 rule, have but little sense of humor but we have seen several of late who were smiling broadly at the “rebukes” | administered by the loud-voiced dupes of American imperialism. Our Position on Hiram Hiram Johnson had tough luck in Michigan and elsewhere. His chief difficulty seems to oe that no one can discern the difference be- sween him and Coolidge. Coolidge is credited with breaking a po‘icemen’s strike but Hiram went out of his way to denounce Tom Mooney and has taken credit for the appointment of William J. Burns. These achievements would tive him an even break with Cal only Cal has he machinery. As far as. we are concerned we have watched Hiram’s efforts to show that he is) entitled to the leadership of the republican party with much sympathy and consider that he has proved his contention with everything except votes. We believe that the gamblers, bootleggers, white-s'avers, oil stock salesmen, hop-peddlers and other criminals who put over Harding for the capitalists in 1920 will make no mistake by picking either Johnson or Coolidge. Like the woman whose drunken husband had.a fight with a bear, we feel that it is the first fight we ever saw in which we do not care who wins, All we have to say about the primary elec- tion in which Governor Small was re-nomin- realize that backing Rou-| France, in_ her; |mentary work necessarily done out- ion. Only Bulgaria, Czecho-Slo- vakia, Greece, India and Roumania | ratified the convention. Altho Ger- | | quently so far as the biz primary THE DAILY WORKER Thursday, April 10, 1924 | | EDITOR'S NOTE,—Interest in | the British labor movement is in- tensified by the setback given the Ramsay MacDonald labor govern- ment in parliament on Monday. In order to understand the British | situation you must read these ar- | ticles by J, T. Murphy, British Communist ‘and trade unionist. They will appear in the DAILY WORKER during the remainder of this week. Today’s installment is as follows: se The 48-Hour Week. ‘THE Government has practically | committed itself to the ratifica- tion of the Washington Convention establishing » legal 48-hour week jin industry, The term industry ex- empts in this case agriculture, transport by sea, and commerce, under which head comes large sec- | tions of the distributive trades. It js rather wide in. its application of the 48-hour principle, taking an av- jerage over a period of three weeks ‘and permits a nine-hour day for five days when there is a Saturday half hoiday, The limit of hours worked may be exceeded. in the following circumstances: 1—In case of accident, urgent work to be done to machinery and plant or force majeure. 2—In continuous proces- ses carried on by succession of shifts subject to the condition that the working hours shall not exceed 56 in the week on the averare. 3— where by regulation the government may allow. (a) permanent excep- tions in preparatory and comple- side ‘the limits laid down for the general working of an establishment and, (b). temporary exeentions “so that establishments may deal with exceptional cases of pressure ~ of work.” In the latter case the max- imum of additional hours shall be fixed, and overtime at time and a quarter be a minimum rate.” Compromise Terms. These are typical English quali- fications which only an Englishman who is past master at compromising could have drafted. The Washing- ton hours convention was drawn up by a commission of which Tom Shaw, now Minister of Labor, was chairman, and Miss Bondfied was a member. Mr. George Barnes was at the time of the Washington Con- ference the British government’s labor representative and received a special wire from Mr. Lloyd George to sign the Convention. That it will go thru when Mr. Henderson presents it to Parlia- ment as his first Bill is fairly cer- tain.’ But the government is striv- ing also for International ratifica- tion first to raise its prestige in the International Labor Movement and second as a means of. struggle against foreign commercial compe- many, France, Belgium, Switzer- land, Italy, Spain, Sweden passed eight-hour day legislation, much of it has vanished and Germany espe- cially is secking to bargain repara- tions for the ten-hour day. On the other hand of the membership of the Trades Union Congress 244 mil- lions have’ the 47 hour week or ‘ess. These have been achieved thru trades union action and conse- industries are concerned the. ratifi- | cation does not make any difference to their hours, But jt will mean a lot if ratification can be used to stem the reaction in Europe. It would encourage the workers in Europe and that of course will help | British commerée so far as advan- | tages in competition are concerned. | Accordingly’ Miss Bondfield’s state- | ment at Geneva can be taken | an indication that the British gov- | ernment will take the initiative in calling an international -coaference | to secure simultaneous ratification. | She said: “The Br'tish Government would endeavor to fulfil what it re- | | garded as a duty in view of the. statements made on its behalf at, Washington, and would promote all practical means to secure simu'ta- | neous ratification of the convention | by the various countries.” Amelioration Offered. : That both the French end th Germans will use the repurations | question as a means of fighting the | Convention can be taken for certain. | But in any vase the British Gov- ernment has nothing to lose even by independent ratification. troduces no violent change here whilst it will act favorably towards them in Europe, Now we can sum up the little bill of social amelioration which Labor Government will be able to present | the workers and poorer sections of the population. Then we can turn ef what it is giving the imperial- ists, 1. Recognition Soviet’ Russia, 2. Abolished the “gap” in Unem- ployed Insurance pay cfid other an- noying features which had been the subject of much unemployed agita- tion, 3. To the artisans, it will tell of the Rent Control extention, the re- duction of rents and the bui.ding of cheap houses. , 4. To the farmers it’ will point to the advancement of loans and the extention of the Trades Facilities | Act to their industry, the initiative in co-operative farming. 5. To the agricultural Laborers it {will point ‘to tho restoration of the Agricultural wages boards. 6, To the workers in industry it will point to the ratification of the Washington Convention, tne le; izing of the 48-hour week, the viathon of pen by re- placements for the Navy, the suc- ated against the opposition of the world’s greatest newspaper is that this opposition was about the only asset he had, cess of the Courta of I airy, Reformism to Nth gree. 7. To the unemployed on reliefsit , It_in- || will recall the Poplar debate and the canceling of the Mond Order. 8. To the women it will point to the removal of certain taxes on food stuffs (yet to be announced in the budget), the proposal for’ widows’ pensions and the extension of. in- | surance to cover many other phases of social life, to their attacks on rents and housings possibly the ex- tention of the purchase to women on same terms as men, With its left hand it will hand out these things to the poorer classes to prove that its policy of gradua‘ism is a working practical policy, With its right hand it will also make its free will offering in order to prove as Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Henderson declare “that they art not 2 class party, or that in any sense io they place one class before another, but are indeed re- al'y non-party serving the interests of the nation as a whole.” So in this direction too Reformism is in full swing. The Empire. The first statement Mr. MacDon- ald uttered as premier in relation to the Empire was one on Indie, where Reformism In Full Swing - Following O!d Imperialist Policy. In addition the capitalists have nothing to complain of in the way of grants in aid. The Government {has agreed to continue the policy | {of the previous government in re- lation to the grants to the Sudan | | Government «and have votea a fur- | j ther £8,500,000. This is for the pur- | | pose ostensib'y at any rate, the de- | velopment of irrigation and let it | be observed according to the Colon- | ial spokesman “which is now for all practical purposes in the hands of the Sudan Plantation syndicate. | This syndicate shares the spoils be- tween Itself, the Government, and the planters.’ y And now for the colonies and more» good business. The new} |'Trades Facilities Bill which passed; its second reading this week pro vides that the British government pay up to a maximum of three- quarters of the interest on any loan raised in th's country ér the Do- minions within. the Emipre for the purpese of embarking uvon an un- dertaking of public utility charac- | ter. The vayment is not to amount to more than £1,000,000 in anv one | dy ne secured lavish praise from | vear, and the limit which is placed i Saat Roe Lee ee. ene | upon payment is five years. the a definite warning to the Swarajists of all shades that -the British Government would stand no | movement of India that thought it was going ‘to get anything by un- constitutional action was mistaken. India would onty get self govern-| ment when the British Parliament | permitted it. Later the Labor Lord Olivier made the statement to the effect thet India will be administered until 1929 in the manner now in| use. In 1929 a Commission of In- quiry will be set up ‘to review the working of the present system of “semi self-government” and say whether what is called the experi- mental decade has proved that na- tive India is ready for and capab‘e of complete self goverrinent, or whether some further period of pro- bation is necessary to inake sure that the withdrawal of the British element of avthority will not be followed by civil war or widespread anarchy, So the Tories xre auite| satisfied. When the Prime Minis-| ter trounced MacNeil afew days ago it was on his faithlessness to the tradition of “continuity in for- eign affairs.” That he is carrying this policy thru ts evident on the question of Egypt too, The Gov- ernment has again announced con- tinuity and the Egyptian National- ists are protesting vigorously. They declare this statement of MacDon- ald’s only strengthens the policy of legalizing “the usurpation of Egyp- tian rights, inasmuch as the four reseryed points grants +o Great Britain all the essential powers and domination.” MILITANT ‘Trial Subscription Coupon! Enclosed please find $1.00 for two | months sdbeenetion to THE DAI- | || LY WORKER to be sent to: NAME ... | STREET NO... ..ibecseneescate | cITY . | STATE eh Sohania tame Put my name on the Honor Roll: | FEARLESS main purnose of th's propoal em- anating from the Imnerial Confer- lence is to stimulate orders for goods | from this country and to he:p to | some extent the unemployment from which we are now suffering.” The bosses have no grounds for complaint against Labor's service to the Empire. And now let us_ see them in action on Foreign Policy. After the first steps in the direc- tion of the Recognition of Soviet Russia, MacDonald set about what he ca‘ls an atmosphere under which peaceful negotiations could be con- ducted. And then continuity once more again. Whatever he may haye said, whatever the Labor Party may have said about the revision of the Versailles treaty, the Labor Gov-! ernment has to say nothing abou it, That in effect is the rebuke de- livered to Henderson in the Burn-| ley by-election this week for hav- ing ventured to speak party politics instead of remembering that he was a member of the Government of the Nation. Henderson said the treaty must be revised. MacDonald says whatever your private opinion may be the government has not declared for that and we must continue where the others left off. So the Labor in office is different to Labor | out of office. And now Mr. Hender-| son has been elected he at once Proceeds, to make amends ‘and de- cares, “I=go not to serve a party but the Nation. Not to look after particular interests but everybody's | interests.” And there you are. WE To Our New Building ARE With Thousands of New Readers MOVING | Au Together To Victory HELP US MOVE New Subscription for 10,000 New Subscribers by | | : : une Flas Noweee Lath opinne state | Please send me........more trial | sub. coupons, I'll try to secure | Send All Subscriptions more trial subs. | THIS OFFER GooD ONLY | UNTIL JUNE 15, 1924. | No agents commissions given on [ | trial subscriptions. | eee ee to 1640 N. HALSTED ST, CHICAGO, ILL, ‘get out of the business. By J. T. MURPHY So pleace follow continuity, First. the development of the League of Nations. Germany says MacDonald must come into the League and w hope Russia, This week the Repar- ations tax of 26 per cent on im- ported goods from Germany has been reduced to 5 per cent, On practically the same day as this de- eision is made a dispatch is sent to Poincare favorable to stronger »mil- itary control over German arma- ments and pointing to a League of Nations control. On the same day in an interview to the Daily News MacDonald projects not cnly the League of Nations control over the military resources of Germany, but also the Internationalization of the Rhineland under League of Nations control. With regard to. Repara- tions he awaits the Report of the Financial inquiry with a view to drawing America more closely into the arrangements : contemplated jj order to secure help against Fran with regard to payment cf deb It will be a case of Britain an America advancing the credits to Germany with the Thomas. Rail- ways and other industrials as se- curities and a struggle with France as to how much she is going to To combat France’s military development and to take away the. scare which France has always put un concern- ing military aggression MacDona'd proposes the Internationalizing of the Rhineland. To get reparations he proposes the granting of the loan by British and American fi- nance and to get the payments of Debts from France he proposes to jointly work the oracle with the American Government in the final arrangements as to the disburse- ments arising from German recoy- ery. The League of Nations is to be the cover for the business be- cause as MacDonald says, “it will be much more comfortable even to Germany to feel that she is under the supervision of a collectivity of | which she is a part than to be the special victim of some particular na- tion’s control.” To sum up. Instead of a revis- ion of the Treaty of Versailles the Labor Government is going to de- velop it. Instead of being an instru- ment for the ending of Imperialism she is going to pull off what Lloyd George was unable to do. She will make a partnership with America to colonize Germany by the same methods that have already been adopted for the colonization of Austria and Hungary. When this account is presented to the capital- ists of Britain as the prize for giv- ing the Labor bureaucracy the spoils of office they will have no grounds for complaint. Reformism is indeed in full swing. THE DAILY WORKER To First Place in Circulation Do Your Share of the Moving Today by Getting a THE DAILY WORKER POWERFUL The Organ of the Advancing Working-Class. BRILLIANT —— ee ee | Premium Subscription Coupon Fill in your premium selection here T have sold one year’s sub | THE DAILY WORKER for whieh Tenclose $....... “ Please send me THE LABOR HERALD THE LIBERATOR SOVIET RUSSIA PICTORIAL for 6 months without charge in ac- cordance with your special offe Street No......... 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