The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 21, 1924, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER. Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO., 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. (Phone: Monroe 4712) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail: $3.50....6 months $2.00....3 months By mail (in Chicago only): $4.50....6 months $2.50....8 months $6.00 per year $8.00 per year Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY, WORKER 1113 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago, Iilinols J: LOUIS ENGDAHL ) WILLIAM F. DUNNE) * MORITZ J. LOEB... Editors Business Manager Entered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1923 at the Post- Office at Chicago, lll, under the act of March 3, 1879. ee 290 Advertising rates on application. —————————————— ——————————— Gary’s Indorsement Judge Elbert A. Gary, chairman of the United States Steel Corporation, has just returned from a three months’ pleasure trip to various South American countries. Judging from the steel magnate's observations, we find that Gary is one of those rare individuals who is in a position to combine pleasure with busi- ness. But it is just such:combinations by our rul- ing class that serve as the introduction to deep- seated political, economic and military conflicts at a future date. Upon his return Mr. Gary said: “I think South America offers a good field for the investment of American capital. I saw important business men and presidents of all the provinces in South Amer- ica,,and they impressed me favorably.” These re- marks are of considerable significance. Gary’s word in the world of capitalist finance goes a mighty long distance. His advice and indorsement most often border on law in the realm of industry. Already, American capitalists have invested close to four billion dollars in the Latin-American coun- tries. The findings of the United States Steel Corporation head will go a long way towards in- creasing American capitalist participation in the industrial development of South America. For the few monopolistic capitalist owners the problem of investments translates itself\ into a question of diplomacy, dollars, and dividends. For the great mass of workingmen and poor farm- ers this glowing repert is only a precursor of the development of a state of affairs in which their homes, their security, their very lives are endan- gered. American capitalists are taking advantage of the present weakness of their European com- petitors to consolidate their hold on Latin-Amer- ica. Our imperialists, flushed with an arrogant pride because of their newly established recognized world business leadership, are driving the less de- industrial countries into most harsh bargains. Yet, worms will turn sometime. Once the Euro- pean capitalist groups get back on their feet and challenge our imperialists’ plunge, the war clouds will hover and hell may let loose in another capi- talist conflagation. We will be told then to fight and die for one of America’s “bedrock” principles: America for the Americans. Likewise, when the masses of these countries protest against and re- sist their exploitation by our capitalists, our em- ploying class government will rush us to the dis- tant climes and lands to defend “law and order,” “civilization,” “national honor” and a multitude of other abstractions behind which there lurk the endangered heavy dollar investments and fabulous dividends. So long as the ownership and control of capital remains in the hands of a special class levying tribute inthe form of giant profits on the vast number of workingmen and poor farmers for the right to use the capital which they themselves have produced, wars, class and national, civil and international, are the inevitable outcome. No league of imperialist looters, no sweet lullabies sung by the loudest of liberals, no fake peace for- mulae, can essentially alter this terrible condition. A thoro-going reorganization of industry on Com- munist lines, with capital which is socially used being socially, collectively owned and controlled, alone can turn these tidal waves of destruction en- gulfing the strong and weak countries alike. Ping Lung Is Dead Not. even the hysteria incidental to the open- ing of the baseball season could shade the heart thrills that the kept press drew out of the dying breaths of Ping Lung, pet poodle of a man who really wears trousers and bears the name Ignace Jan Paderewski. Ping Lung is dead of over-eating. To the last the best chefs of the Pullman service on the Tiinois Central Railroad were trying to stuff the dog’s stomach with appetizing food. We have only sympathy for the poor dog who fell afoul the way of “civilization” as we know it in the year 1924, where parasite men and women of a decadent class must not only have their poodles, but also the privilege of doing them to death with barbaric attentions that no respectable dog would tolerate if he could help it. We wouldn’t be surprised if the dog world had already put the name of Paderewski on its growing black list. The Chicago Tribune sent its correspondent to Colombia to report that there was no graft in the $25,000,000 Colombia pact. The Tribune never was able to discover any faults in the social system that it so ably supports. THE DAILY WORKER C zecho-Slovdhia’s Social: Democracy. Freedom of the press has been abolished in Czecho-Slovakia by the Social-Democrat gov- ernment of that young republic. Corruption rivaling that in the government used as a pat- tern by the Czech bourgeoisie—the American system—has been revealed and the answer of social-democratic lovers of democracy has been to compel editors to give the names of their in- formants on all public questions. The capitalist press of the world has been sounding the praises of the Czecho-Slovakian government and the president, Professor Masa- ryk. It and he have been held up as models for all young nations to follow. The ruling class of Czecho-Slovakia has great ambitions. It wishes to become the dominant force in southeastgrn Europe; it hates Soviet Russia and has entered into an alliance with France for purposes of offense and defense against the wishes of the mass of the people; Czecho-Slovakia is today simply an outpost of French imperialism, mortgaged both to France and the House of Morgan. Its working class is well organized and a large section of it is revolutionary, the’ Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia being one of the larg- est in the Third International. The social-democrats of the second interna- tional in Czecho-Slovakia as elsewhere are playing the game of the imperialists and have been entrusted by the bourgeoisie with the task of smashing the working class movement. There is no doubt that the gag law just passed is another step taken by the social-democrat government to assist the capitalists of their own country and of France and America in en- slaving the workers and peasants, The social-democracy abhors centralization of power for more efficient waging of the struggle against international capitalism but its adherents in all countries show a remarkable unanimity in the aid, comfort and support they give to the capitalists. In this their policy is uniform. Burns Wants More Money William J. Burns, in the absence of his former boss; Harry M. Daugherty, is carrying on a lone but seemingly successful fight for an increased appropriation for “red-baiting” activities during the coming year. The appropriation bill has already passed the house and is now before the senate. It has been shown during the oil hearings and the investigation of the department of justice, under Daugherty, that the Burns government sleuths have been used to a very great extent in shadowing congressmen, stealing their papers, tapping their telephones and trying to “get the goods” on them. With these facts known what a cowardly bunch of old party politicians must be in the house of representatives to consent to increase funds for this purpose, as well as to carry on a general attack against all forms of progressivism. No doubt Mr. Burns will have equal success with the craven spirits, making up the majority |of the membership of the United States senate. Capitalist provocateurs of the type of Mr. Burns will never meet with real opposition until the fearless spokesmen of a class Farmer-Labor Party begin to invade congress in large numbers. Another family is wiped out by a grade cross- ing accident. It is charged it was a “wild Balti- more and Ohio Railroad engine” that did the killing. But if there had been no grade crossing the accident would not have happened. But it costs money to abolish grade crossings, and the stockholders of the “B. and 0.” would rather have their dividends, even tho they drip with the blood of the railroad’s victims. That’s business, It is declared that Bavaria is planning to an- nounce an amnesty for Communists as a blind for the freeing of Count Arco Valley, the as- sassin of Kurt Eisner, head of the Bavarian Soviet Republic. We shall scan the lists of those released, however, before we admit that there has been the least change of heart of the bloody fascisti dictatorship over this section of Ger- many. : “Firemen again show selfish heroism,” chants a daily paper over the corpses of nine firemen, done to death in another firetrap holocaust. But that ought to spur the workers on to rid the cities, that have sprouted up under capitalism, of all the dangerous firetrap buildings that are a menace to the health and the life of all workers, There is no choice for a rank and file worker as between June 17th and July 4th. There may be a choice for some of the so-called leaders of labor. But workers had better watch out for the leaders who are trying to pin their hopes on July 4th, A headline declares that “Chicago Faces Shortage in Common Brick.” But since there are plenty of gold bricks being handed out on every side, the town still manages to get along. “Where do you stand on June 17th?” is a question that demands an answer from every worker in the nation THE J The violation of “a gentleman’s agreement” between two thieves is by itself not an. event of startling im- portance. But when this violation is so decisive, as shown by the vote of 323 to 71 in the House and 76 to 2 in the fenate for barring the Japa- nese, from America, then there must be special reasons for the pursuit of such a policy. The provisions of the Johnson bill aiming at the Japanese are by themselves not new measures. Similar proposals were put forward in sundry Congresses of the past. It is of no small import to note that not a single one of the fire-eating “progressives” in the Senate or House was immune from this anti-Japanese fever. In the House the terrible Wis- consin radical triumvirates—Cooper, Frear and Nelson—were as meek as sheep. . In the Senate not a finger was lifted nor a voice was raised by any of the stalwart insurgents to stem the tidal anti-Japanese waves. American Capital Supreme. Before the World War, before the United States became the — leading banking, manufacturing and trading nation of the world, the House and Senate would not have dared to act so harshly against the honor and pride of so aggressive a competing capitalist group as the one dominat- ing Japan today. Before the terrible disaster that overwhelmed Japan in the earthqhake of 1923, our President would have intervened to prevent such rash legislation. Before this great calamity put the Japanese capi- talists temporarily, at least, at the mercy of the only financial and indus- trialist group, the American bankers and manufacturers, for the necessary capital to insure swift and effective reconstruction of the devasted regions and industries of the island empire, the executive department of the American government would have put the brakes on the “hasty” legislative body. . This is what used to happen before American capitalists secured their dominant position in the world of In- ternational finance and industry. It is apparent that the conduct of the House and Senate is the best index of the political arrogance that eco- nomic supremacy develops in the ranks of a national capitalist imperi- alist group. Fooling Laboring Masses. The editors of the leading capital- ist papers and the leaders of the Re- publican and Democratic parties have for years attempted to give the im- pression to the workers and farmers that the interests ef the laboring classes of America demand a policy of hostility towards the Japanese peo- ple. This propaganda serves’ as a cloak behind which there is hidden the conflict of Japanese and American capitalist imperialist interests in the Far East. In reality there is no la- bor problem of this sort involved in the Japanese controversy. To the extent that Japanese labor could pos- sibly ever be a source of competition with American labor in California or in any of our possessions, we can count on our capitalists to employ APANES the cheapest labor power possible, to hire the workers accepting the lowest wage offered and to smuggle the cheapest labor power—Japanese, Chi- nese, Scandivanian or what not— whether there be a law prohibiting such trafficking or not. Consequently, the labor issue must be dismissed from a consideration of the controversy at this juncture, Law or no law, the capitalist economic driving force, the quest for appropri- ating the greatest amount of surplus value possible, will very easily scalé such apparent barriers as the walls of national differences and laws they themselves have thrown up and which at times, get out of joint with the needs and demands of their own class. The American capitalists cannot rightly be accused of being afflicted with solicitousness for the welfare and high wages of their workers whom they afe wont to exploit ruth- lessly. No one will, therefore, take seriously the plea of our legislators who are serving their corporate Pharoas fanatically that their anti- Japanese policy is based on their love for the American workingmen of California or elsewhere. At this very moment the American military governor General Leonard Wood is tacitly and overtly sanction- ing a policy of smuggeng in Chinese cooliesto the Philippine Islands in order to enable the American capital- ists to secure cheaper labor power than even that afforded them by the native Filipino working masses. It has been said and not refuted, that the young son of General Wood, Lieu- tenant Osborn Wood has himself got- ten a goodly portion of the $800,000 he cleaned up in a few months, by aiding and abetting this policy of smuggling cheaper Chinese labor pow- er into the islands. In the light of such practices by our governing class all talk of the interests of American labor. being responsible for the pres- ent anti-Japanese legislation is en- tirely out of place and will not hold water. The issue of race differences and conflicts has been artificially culti- vated and stimulated for a long time by the ruling class of this and all other capitalist countries. Such poi- sonous doctrines have been peddled by the capitalist agents ‘among the working masses of every country in order to prevent the international solidarity of the working class, in or- der to break up the unity of the pro- letarian masses, in order to divide the working class along the lines having no sound organic basis in the welfare and progress of the laboring masses. This vicious practice has been pur- sued by our capitalists deliberately in order to enable them to lead the country into a probable war more easily and to crush the workers with more despatch. Japan Up Against It. The extent to which this policy is practiced by our employing class de- pends upon the extent to which their class interests dictate it. The only barrier or hindrance to the dissemin- ation of race or national hatred amongst the working masses by our NEW (This poem is from a book of poetry by Simon Felshin, which is being pub- lished by Thorhas Seltzer, New York, and will soon appear under the title “Poems for the New Age.” Readers of the DAILY WORKER are already somewhat acquainted with the work of Simon Felshin thru the poems by him. which we have printed from time to time. They will have the op- portunity soon to know his work bet- ter with the appearance of his book of poems.) A Skyscrapers Writing business letters Against the sky. The rows of windows are mouths Breathing a mechanical breath. From the ferry'#at The skyline of the big city Is a magnificent sight. The skyscrapers are honeycombs. They are toy houses. 1 can take the Woolworth Tower And swing it about my head. 1 can put my arms about the Singer Building And lift it from the ground. 1 can lean against the Whitehall Build- ing And throw it down. From the ferryboat The skyline is a magnificent sight. I seek the soul of the big city. | seek its heart and its mind, And not simply its local color. | seek the depths of the city, And not its surfac And | do not si ures. | hate its bought love. | hate the poverty and the misery Which it inflicts, | seek in it the lovers of beauty, And the creators of beauty. | hate its so-called popular plays. | hate its commercialized arts. | seek those who have not been con- quered the traffic of the big city. k in it for the worker Who does not fawn on his Who knows he is a slave, And revolts against hie / . 8 stimulant pleas- YORK 1 hate the noise of the big city. It is a noise of traffic. It hammers on my head, And gives me no rest. It is a hammerng Which shatters hopes and golden d Sy And breaks human hearts. This city with its high towers And its suspended bridges Is magnificent; But I also see its tragedy; ) And | refuse to see the marvel In big electric signboards. The skyse' rs are prisons; Their offices are prison cells In which there are pretty stenograph- ers Who fawn on their prison keepers And do not know they are in prison cells. They bgt on the typewriter keys The livelong day, Writing monotonous business letters. They beat on their own brains, They hammer on their own souls, They stun their own intellects Whey they beat on the typewriter keys. In the evening they are permitted to go home. 4 They crowd into the subway trains. Tired bodies are pressed against each other. Breaths and burning desires mingle. The stenographers are young and pretty, And they have burning desires. They go to dance in the evening, They stay out late, And in the morning they drag tired bodies And haggard eyes Back to the typewriter keys To take up again The beating on their own minds, The stunning of their own intellects. Than to be a pretty stenographer E CONTROVERSY === exploiting class is the fear of econom- ic or political loss berng fncurred at a certain historical moment by the spreading of such propaganda. Just now there are no such dangers in sight. The economic conditions per- mit it. The political conditions cry out for it. The “American capitalists do not en- tertain any substantial fear of losing Japanese trade. In 1912, or even in 1916, the threat of “grave conse- quences” hurled at Washington by Tokio, the threat made today by the Japanese government, would have been taken very seriously. Such threats were taken with alarm in those days. Today, however, Ameri- can financial, industrial and commer- cial hegemony in the Far Hast ap- pears unchallenged and unchallenge- able. Japanese capitalists cannot take effective retaliatory economic measures to heal this severe, deep wound dealt to their national honor, which they themselres have so re- peatedly glorified amongst their own workers and poor farmers in the in‘ terest of their class supremacy at home. Neither cat the Japanese ruling class take any telling military, naval or political steps against the United States to give flesh and blood to their present empty threats of “grave con- sequences.” Their leaders, their im- perial elders, can straighten — their spines and make sounds in their throats but they can go no further. They must stop here. The Japanese alliance with Great Britain is today dead insofar as im- mediate effective military economic or naval help against the United States is concerned, Great Britain’s labor Japan in any conflict over an issue which finds New Zealand, Australia, Canada and a considerable section of the working masses at home on the side of the skilled layer of our owr working class. Besides, Great Brit- ain needs the financial and political support of the American capitalist class too much in Europe to dare take a chance on losing such valuable good will. Thus, Japan must today kneel on the carpet at Washington and list- en to the reading of the book of rules set down by the American govern- ment. c The Home Front. An additional extremely important phase of the attitude just adopted to- wards Japan by the United States is to be found in the prevailing political conditions of the country. There is nothing that would serve our ruling class more effectively in diverting the attention and hatred of the working and farming masses towards the gov- ernment because of the Teapot Dome and Daugherty disclosures than such an issue as the Japanese threat of “grave consequences.” It is the practice of all ruling class- es to throw out slogans in times of crisis or stress, which will unite not only the ranks of their own class, but will also win over to their side supporters from the subject, exploit- ed class and confuse the latter groups in such a fashion as to mislead them By SIMON FELSHIN The contractors who put up the sky- scrape! Chose immigrants for the work— immigrants who had the brawn And who would work for a cheap wage. Human blood Went into the building of the: scrapers. Hearts poised on perilous heights. Hearts among steel girders. Blood in the steel and mortar. sky- The immigrants who built these sky- scrapers Came across the ocean, And together with their bundles, They carried golden dreams; But they found only mortar and steel. On perilous heights they sweated, The beating of their hearts Was louder than the sound of the riv- eting. The summer's heat scorched them, And the winter's cold froze them. Skeletons of buildings rising to peri- lous heights; Skeletons of men form the founda- tions. Shattered dreams, blood and sweat, In the mortar and steel. This city is a mill, Grinding human beings between the millstones, t Whither do the crowds hurry? What do they seek? Some find millions, And some find a few pennies. And tho the ones are no better than the others, Yet those with the millions are the masters, i And the others are the slaves. There are those who roll in limou- sines, % And those who stand on bread-lines. The immigrants were made into citi- zens And as a privilege of citizenship Who takes an interest in her work, | They were sent to the Great War— And does not know she is in a prison| To be killed in the service of the mil- Wy cell. government would not dare to Monday, April 21, 1924 regarding the fundamental issues at stake in the class conflict. For years our capitalists have generated and played on the hatred of the Japanese by the American masses. There is no better way for the employers to drown out the effect of the shocking revelations of capitalist corruption and ownership of government than by stirring up this Japanese bug-a-boo and fanning the flames of national hatred from the fires they themselves have been building so tong. Such a policy is of more than im- mediate advantage to the ruling class, It has tremendous possibilities for the future. The present situation af- fords our capitalists a splendid chance to intensify the national and race hatred of Japan to such an ex+ tent and degree as to enable them, at some future date, when the Nip- ponese may challenge their oriental encroachments, to explode the pow- der magazine of American national- ism and throw the country into a war to the bitter end for supremacy in the Pacific, All the Senate and House talk about our “sovereignty” being en- dangered and challenged by the Jap- anese threat is just that much capt- talist political piffie and is handed out merely to capitalize the prejudic- es and unfounded notions of bourge-\ ois nationalists amongst our own magges. » 4 The Workers’ Side. The chemistries of the working masses and the big capitalists are distinctly antagonistic in politics and industry. All the fuss and whobub are only a smoke screen of poisoh gas to lead the workers astray. The working and farming masses of our country have no ihterest in limiting the freedom of movement of the workers of Japan, England, Russia, France or any other country. We have especially.no interest in giving our employing class the addittonal | Power of its government controlling the movement of the workers of our country or of other countries. In so far as the immediate economic needs of the workers, because of the prés- ent capitalist ownership of our im dustries, may demand certain regu- lations of the movements of the work- ers and farmers from one state to another, from one country to anoth- er, this task of regulation should fall solely within the province of the workers’ and farmers’ organizationg themselves. For the working and farming class es of America to permit their capitak ist government to control such move. ments of the workers of any race, color or creed, is to play into the hands of our exploiting class, to help divide our ranks exactly in the way in which our bosses want to see ud divided, and to leave our front wide open for the employers to break thru, Consequently, every worker, every ex: ploited farmer, in the interest of his own class, must oppose vigorously this anti Japanese propaganda of the- monopolistic bossing class, this cas mouflaged, dangerous move aimed, primarily against the welfare of the American workers and farmers and generally against the working mass es of the world. Africa, To admire this civilization; They were taken from one kind of a jungle, And put into another. There is a stench in the tenement district. i: How do children grow up there? How can people live there? What is the air they breathe? What is their crime, That they should be herded there, Breathing the odor of garbage, Doomed to a living death? Their crime is that they are poor. j The Jewish immigrants Came to the land in the West— They came with their hopes, Which they dragged from tand te land, And from century to century, And these hopes and dreams Were shattered on the dark stairs of the tenements. # The Negroes were brought from Out of the houses of torture, Up from under the ground, Down from perilous heights, Into the light they will ning, The shout of revolt will be heard. The storm-cloud will burst, The millions strength; They will conquer the big city, They will banish its tragedy, And make it wholly magnificent. On that day there will be no masters And no slaves: will realize thelr WOW! COAL OPERATOR NETTED 74 PER CENT PROFIT IN ONE YEAR NEW YORK, April 20—The_ American Coal Co. reports 1923 pro-. fits of $18.46 on each $25 share of stock. This is an annual rate of. 74 per cent. Last year the stock- holders only made 52 per cent. Al-! together these stockholders have re- ceived in profits in the course of, years, one and a quarter times their entire investment. This year’s prow: fits amounted to $1,112, 691, ¥ Ry Surely this misery will come to an end. Out of the depths of the big city The oppressed masses will rise— sil | | | / } ] | } |