The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 28, 1924, Page 6

‘THE DAILY WORKER. Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO., 1118 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. (Phone: Monroe 4712) SUPE CRTON. RATES By mail $3.50... % rath $2.00....3 monthe By mail (in Chicago only): $4.50....6 months $2,50....3 montis $6.00 per year $8.00 per year Address all mail and. make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1113 'W. Washington Bivd. Chicago, Illinois J. LOUIS ENGDAHL ) Editors MORITZ J. LOEB..........0000000.Business Manager Entered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1923 at the Post- Office at Chicago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. Advertising rates on application. God and Coolidge Every time Coolidge receives a defeat, time Congress administers the President a drub- bing the country is treated to a series of. prayers and a fidod of paeans in behalf of the “Cautious al,” the silent employing class watchdog of the White’ House. The’ other day Coolidge was repudiated by his own party leaders on the bonus question. _The presidential veto was overriden more decisively than the Chief Executive could ever foresee in his worst nightmares. This was a severe loss to the prestige of the president as a party leader and to his chances of succeeding himself in the coming campaign.’ The extent of the blow struck at Cool- idge can best be seen by the fewness of the presi- dential vetoes overriden by Congress in the his- tory of the American government. Up to McKin- ley’s administration only twenty-eight vetoes were discarded by Congress. Of these, sixteen were passed by Congress in the administration of Presi- dent Johnson when the legislative and executive divisions of the government were at war with each other. Of all the bills passed. by Congress over the presidents’ vetoes, the one in which Coolidge was 80 soundly trounced was the most important. No sooner had Coolidge met defeat than the big- gest industrial’ magnates and financial kings join- ed in a mighty chorus of praise for the Chief Exe- cutive. From Gary down Coolidge was reassured that the most powerful of our powerful were be- hind him to the bitter‘end. Typical of this out- burst is the song of praise sung for “Silent Cal” by Guy E. Tripp, Chairman of the Board of Direc- tors of the Westinghouse Electric Company. Said this capitalist solon: “Thank God we have Calvin Coolidge in the White House. When we amend- ed the Constitution and decreed that senators were to be chosen by popular votes we throw away the safeguards with which our forefathers had sought —to-gutrround us. ‘We are reaping the results of that ill-advised action.” This is a welcome clarification of the issue. Cool- idge speaks for the upper crust of our ruling class. Though he is the supposed. representative of the “people,” he is interested. in guarding the iriter- ssts.of the biggest exploiters only. The plea made ‘or the abolition of the direct-election of the senate and the thanks rendered the almighty invisible god blast ‘all the talk of the capitalists about the dang- eridemocracy is in because of the discontent of the masses. The Junkers of America finance talk the same language that their prototypes spoke only yesterday in monarchist Germay. The German feudal Junkers. talked of the Kaiser and God and denounced democracy openly. Our American cap- italist Junkers today speak of Coolidge and God and-dishonestly sneer at the very democracy they ask the workers and farmers to die for. “For the Glory of Britain” British workers are begining to understand that they have not yet conquered political power. The lesson is being driven. home. again, through the disclosures of the terrible conditions of labor exist- ing at the great Empire Exhibition at Wembley. Waitresses at the Exhibition restaurants, putting it atrociously long hours for the “glory. of the Empire,” with total earnings of about $4 per week, including tips. Eating facilities are shown to totally inadequate, with exhorbitant prices. Wash- ing and lavatory accomodations for the workers were absent. Union labor was not recognized. Conditions of labor generally were found to be rotten’ in the Exhibition, conducted by the Govern- ment supposedly in the hands of Labor. Labor has been associated with the British Ex- hibition since its inception, but unless proper trade; union conditions, of employment are sub- stituted for the present state of affairs, Labor will have to consider very ‘seriously its withdrawal from any association with the Exhibition.” These were the words of Fred‘ Bramley, secretary of the Trades Union Congress, after the investigation conducted in response to deep discontent among _ the’ workers. ‘The glory of Britain” today, under the Labor Goyernment, is thus seen to rest, as it has always rested, upon the pitiless exploitation of the work- * ers, not only in private industry but also in Gov- ' ernment undertakings. British workers will have to learn the lesson that the real glory of the British workers will only come with the establishment of ». a Teal workers’ government, the Soviet Govern- pent of Britain. Em 290 every Prati Garvey, “provisional president” of the projected Negro republic in Africa, is reported from Boston ‘as swaying great meetings of his race to tears and cheers. Garvey’s utopia of an African capitalism is, atone and the same time, the sign of a great awakening of the toiling Negroes to their Foci on and an opium to smother their 5 What's in a Name? Much has ‘been said about the “victory” of the' left in the recent French elections. Herriot has| been painted as a genuine radical. Briand has been labeled a sizzling red. Painleve’s political picture has been put in a crimson frame. Everybody knows that the Radical Socialist Par- ty of France is neither radical nor socialist: This outfit of capitalist politicians merely assumed the name to fool the working masses into, believing that there was something radically social about their policies. As a matter of fact the leaders of these parties have advanced on the ladder of By JAY “LOVESTONE. 'HE leading financial observers con- tinue to see.a Steady drop in busi- ness. Employment is failing in many industries, prices. are declining in some cases, and wage cuts are increas- ing in frequency. ft The latest view of the situation ac- cording to Dun's is summed up as follows: French imperialist polities principally thru their waging an aggressive battle in behalf of the bank- ing and manufacturing interests of France. The keynote to the policies of the so-called new left government has just been struck by Paul'Pain- leve, who is slated to be the coming president of the republic. In an authorized interview, printed in one of the metropolitan papers, Painleye. an- nounced his policy as follows: “In taking over power in France, as we shall shortly do, we liberal and democratic republicans wish to show we can make organized society as its stands work in the interest of all.” This declaration makes clear what the workers of the world in general and the working class. of France in particular may expect from the “radical” government. The new cabinet will be an agency of the French imperialist capitalist class as much as the Poincare clique was. It will use different words; sweeter words undoubtedly, more camou- flage to hide the mailed fist always in’ readiness for being swung against the masses. The admitted purpose of Painleve is to make capitalism work in the interest of all. That's an impossibility. The present system of production and exchange works very well for the owning class. How it has been working for the laboring and farming masses can be seen best from the conditions in which the work- ing and farming classes find themselves’ today in the capitalist countries. Finally, we feel certain no one will be fooled by the expectations from the present order of ‘so- ciety working in the interest of all classes with renegades like Briand at the helm. The French “radical” Briand, like the American reactionary, Coolidge, was made by breaking a strike. When the French Confederation of Labor called a rail- way strike in 1909 he smashed it by forcing the railway workers into military service. Obviously there is nothing in a label. The workers of France know the poison despite the false label worn by the “left” and will treat it as such. Aid the Ruhr Miners! Initial remittance of $4,000 for relief of the lock- ed-out German miners of the Ruhr, sent yesterday from Chicago by the International Workers’ Aid in response to cable request for international .as- sistance, shows that the American workers are alive to the necessity of world-wide solidarity. It is indeed a heartening thing to see this solidarity expressing itself in practical .deeds. ‘Financial assistance may be a small thing, but it is, the be- ginning of larger deeds that will finally bring even backward American Labor into. the revolutionary currents of the world struggle. The stakes of the battle being waged in the Ruhr are such, that even conservative-minded miners must realize that the German struggle is their own. The coal barons of Germany, following the hint given them by Dawes and their own natural inclinations, have launched a drive to: force the miners to work 8 hours underground, instead of 7, and 10 hours aboveground, instead of 8. If the German miners lose their conditions, what miner can doubt’ that it means another drive against. the British miners, and even against the American? Irresistably, the forces of decaying capitalism pull the American labor movement into battle against the whole rotten system.. The coal miners of America must help the revolutionary miners of the Ruhr, or else see their own conditions of labor also reduced to the coolie level. The whole United Mine Workers should resound with the call for help to the embattled Ruhr miners. “Prospects, Uncertain” Current mill reports on conditions. of employ: ment in the steel industry, in. the current issue of the Amalgamated Journal, organ of what is left of the steel workers’ unto®, show the rapid down- ward trend of industry. From district after dis- trict, the reports are “prospects, woree,”” and “pros- pects, uncertain.” The steel industry, after ing up for a few weeks in the spring, is’ sagging in a most decided manner. Production is reported at 50 to 60 per cent of capacity. For the workers this has quite a different mean; ing than for the owners of industry. The latter must adjust themselves to the difference between $25,000,000 dividends instead of $50,000,000. . This may make a difference in the number of scoyntry homes they add to their household cares; it’ ma make it necessary to put off buying bangin: tb eens for another. month or two; it may ‘the amount of alimony paid to the ex-wives by a few hundred thousands; it may even reduce the ard of living of the luxurious Fidos who may: now have their paws manicured only once a ‘day,’ in- stead of twice. For the owners of industry, the ruling class, de- pression means an adjustment in their. syperflui- ties. But the working class is feeling the gradual slowing down of production in the pangs of hunger, in the lack of clothes, in the worry of unpaid bills, in the inability to obtain medical attention for loved ones, in all the misery of poverty, uncertain- ty, degradation. “Prospects, uncertain”—for -the| working class. But in the growth of revolutionary consciousness of the workers it also reeds Dhee pects, uncertain for capitalism.” ————— SE eee See i “A thirty.per cent decline in steel output in about two months measures the sharp reaction that has occurre:. in that quarter; coal mining has fallen off; some textile units are running at only50 per cent of capacity,.and in most other lines curtailment has been forced by the ‘decrease in new orders. Nearly all reports tell of unusual cau- tion among buyers, of their continued disinclination to purchase” ‘beyond their immediate needs, and of increas- ing competition: among sellers: that causes price concessions in both raw materials and manufactured products. “No check, to the curtailment of steel output has yet come, the industry now operating at about 65 per cent rate.” This marks a reduction of 5 per cent during the ‘week, and con- trasts sharply with the average of around’ 90 per cent reached last March,” The situation is especially critical in the fextite’ market whore at *Fall THE DALEY MEO RICE. Business Continues to Drop River, for instance, the sales of print cloth last week, were only at’ 10° per cent of capacity. Chronicle Takes Same Dark View: The Commercial & Financial Chron- icle sees the ‘situation in’ the same dark’ light. Its’ latest. réviéw ‘of ‘the présent . economic conditions ° is’ as follows: “The flour trade has heen, slow. As a rule shoe manufacturing business has been unsatisfactory, altho in parts of New England there are signs of improvement, Iron and steel. has’ re: mained dull and prices have, doclined further. Output has also fallen off. Other metals: have also declined. As the case’ stands, the output of. steel mills is variously estimated at: 55- to 62 per cent, as against 90 at the, high point in March. Prices’ of ‘carpets have récently declined. weather this spring has also reacted on the petroleum trade, ‘especially ‘on gasoline, because of the restriction of travel. The lumber trade is Jéss ac- tive, and the same is true of the de- mand for furniture. Bullding, tho. still on a: large scale, is not so active as recently. ...° One indication of the dullness in the big industries of the egunfry: is the fact that ‘bituminous coal is the smallest for years past. It is a kind of barometer, . Wage Reductions Increase. The lack of snap in business the country over is being ‘seiged upon by the employers for launching a wage cutting campaign. In Fall River an attempt is being made to slash. wages 20 per cent. Carpet mills have. tried, to rediice! the workers’ pay by 20 per cent.’ ‘Some’ railroads have’ alréady reduced wages. At the shoe factories in’ Haverhjll,, Mass., wages were re- duced 20 per. cent on May 2ist, At Birmingham, Alabama, the Republic tron” &” ‘Steel Co. has cut wages 10 ‘to 15° per cant: To date; five iron com- Panies have cut. wages ‘in this state. Several independent coal companies, ‘among whom are to be found the Pratt Consolidated and the De Hardeben, the largest in ‘the field, have also cut wages. Some ratiroads ‘are reducing their force of employes as a preliminary to cutting wages. The executives of the principal railroads thruout the country are. now conbidering a plan for insti- tuting a five-day week amongst the shop crafts. The Reading Railway The bad has already adopted a shorter week. The Baltimore & Ohio has instituted the, shorter week amongst the twenty thousand ‘men-in its Montclair shop. At this moment the textile industry seems to be the hardest hit. In Fall River, Mass., two-thirds of the spindles are idle. Ih New Bedford, the’ same State, the cotton spindles are running 50 per. cent. ‘In Lawrence and Lowell at about the same rate. In‘ New. Hampshire, the Nashua Manufacturing Co. has been closed for ‘}some time. The Amoskeag, one’ of the largest textile corporations in the world, is running on a four-day sched- ule. “Allin all, 4 very small. number of the- 200,000 workers in New Eng- land cotton rect are employed full time, ——— The Taxation Compromise The end of the powerful campaign launched by the biggest business interests under the captaincy of Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, for the re- duction of their taxes, has come to a halt. By a vote of 60-6 and 376-9 the Senate and House re- spectively haye adopted the measure which is a compromise of the porposals put forward by. the self-styled insurgents’and the standpat Demoerats. The tax bill as enacted saves the multimillion- aires a good deal of money, throws a sop to the upper middie class and a bone to the skilled work- ers and lower middlé class. The surtax on the big capitalists'is lowered 10 per cent. Fundamentally the new law is of no significance in national tax legislation. As a matter of fact the provisions of the bill keep the country in the same position it was before the whole controversy, in so far as the shifting of the burden of taxation from the masses to the rich is concerned. “In view of the decisive manner in which the House and Senate voted on the measure, Coolidge will not fling himself against a stone wall. “The president has already been overridden on the bonus question. He is. “not anxious to secure a further depreciation of | the little prestige he may still haye left in his party. Besides, it would. be sui- eidal for a president. to veto any bill which tends in the least to save any money from. the tax bills— particularly on the eve of a national election. All the horror-shrieking that we have been sub- jected to by the black press about the loss to the’ country in the failure of the Mellon scheme and the adoption of the dangerous: Simmons measure were only clouds of poison gas to hide the real at- titude of the big capitalists toward the tax bill as just passed. Today the best minds of ‘the finan- cial circles feel satisfied with the bill and are mak- ing. it clear to Coolidge that they are not-really anxious to have him’ véto it. Many of them~feel that they have gotten more than they expected when they first’ put forward the Mellon plan. Besides, they fear that the effect of Coolidge being overridden twice in one session would be disas- trous to them from the point of view of endanger- ing his’ chance -of being. sent back to the White House. Just now _this\is the primary considera. tion of. the capitalist, leaders. One: phase.of the taxation: controversy wane not be: overlooked. Thruout the debates on this ques- tion the so-called progressives showed themselves to be a spineless pack. In the House. the LaFollette group led: by Frear of Wisconsin threw away ‘its program at the first sign of battle. In the Senate the “progressives” were swallowed by: the regular Democrats with little if any resistance. If the workers and farmers are to. blame. any- body for the failure of Congress to make the rich, the capitalists, pay: more for the upkeep of a gov- ernment which does the bidding of the exploiters, then the LaFollette “progressive” group, more than any other, is to be adjudged guilty. ; It was within the power of this group to stop the reactionary attempts. It failed and. it failed miserably. ' The workers and farmers whose sup- Cae will remember this. All Hail the Jolly Bishop! *- Bishop William Montgomery, Brown. of. Galion, Ohio, is brot to trial before the dread ecclesias- tical court of the Protestant Episcopal Church on. charge of heresy. Bishop Brown’s crime was writ- ing a book, pag “Communism and Christianism,” circulated in hundreds of thousands of copies, which sums up the results of a long life of thot and activity. That no one may be in doubt as to the import: ance (to the church) of this trial, it may be re- called that the Bishops, Protestant | ‘Tp of Arkansas re A seyesitgg geio pal Church; Fifth Bis- 4 dj sometime Archdescen of ‘The ‘soft. pedal is. Ohio and -Special Lecturer at Bexley Hall, the Theological Seminary of Kenyon College. And, as the Bishop adds, with’a twinkle in his eye, he is now. “Episcopos in. partibus Bolshevikium et Infidelium.” Bishop Brawn makes: no bones of his rejection! of the ancient hoeus Pocus’ upon which the church is baged. But he is. goitig to force his accusers to admit ‘before: the world that they algo, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, are not completely brainless. *-He> expects’ to make them admit some slight doubts of the strict accuracy of the mirac- ulous dogmas: they pretend to swallow. And above all; he expects to stir the minds of a few more hundreds of thousands who have not yet ques- tioned these -mouldy ‘superstitions. The world, without question, ‘has: ‘been’ miade @ livelier place by br good Bishop. — The lineidatatin “Solution” After resorting t6 thé lowest’ grade of precinct politics in‘order to béat Hiram Johnson i in the Cal- ifornia presidential primaries, Coolidge has finally made up his mind :on th Japanese exclusion act -and has’ signed the immigration bill. The néw law which tion.of ‘the immigration problem is, briefly speak- ing, characterized. by'the:following points: Immi- ' sia’ Aneligible to citizen- ship. and are therefore. excluded: as settlers. The quotas permitted entry: are to be based on the 1890 census. ing ead. of | the, ‘1910: figures and are to be reduced, from.3 ‘to.2:per.cent... After 1925 there is to be: put into effect a “national origin” clause which will‘limit the total, annual immigration to 150,000, and each, nationglity.” a proportionate, sec- tion thereof determined ‘by. the. per cent. of the total population: the particular: national group has at‘ that time. _ Alb applicants are now to be certified by American: consuls abroad. We do not share the'craft psychology, the narrow craft. outlook with which. the ‘business unionism of Samuel.Gompers is afflicted. We. recognize no need: for conflict or antithesis of interests between the workingmen. of one country and those of an- other. We feel and. know that the emigrant, work- ingmen. ‘of Italy have an’ “enemy ‘in ‘their own and in. the American capitalist.class, but-haye friends in the working class of the United States. We are unal- terably Lopposed to. enabling the exploiters of the workers and the oppréssors of the poor farmers to play upon differences of nationality that are irrel- evant and immaterial, inythe, settlement of the basic points of conflict ‘between ‘the’ working class and the employing,’ aed be acisetn aah of: ‘conflict: inyolving the masses, . . Finally, owe, af Commtiniste, are unqualifiedly opposed ‘to any measure: which: gives more power to the employing class ard’its government to limit the movements of any’ members of the working class-regardless of the nationality or residence, of the ones-affected. We know from our bitter ex- periences ‘in ‘the every day: struggles of the work- ing class that the capitalist class and its govern- ment have ‘already too much’ power oyer the lives and movements of ‘the « ‘working and farining maskes. We-also know that ‘the: employing. class exploits all workers alike, ‘regardless of their na- ality, and merely plays upon su national differences for the ‘sake of of -diviaing ‘the | workers and thus crushing them more more’ easily. We believe that only: the international otha class has the’ right to determine and guide the movements of th rkers the world over.’ : The Chicago - Tribune reproaches the sefator from. Montane fot being. cxoperted ot the charges that he improper! ly. represented oil interests. It thinks that ‘Wheeler, as\an ex-attorney for oil in- terests, should be: a ner co cron represented _ interests in com- Seat ance .. And at that, it does not seem that the i ation is slowing down. 1 its: work. i , Wednesday, May 28, 1924 AS WE SEE IT By T. J. O'FLAHERTY A Washington correspondent com- pared Calvin Coolige’s brain to @ scrapbook, One of the gems from the scrapbook was dropped on memori- al day when the president pointed out, while fishing for the Southern vote over the graves of the con- federate soldiers that both sides in the civil war prayed to the same God, therefore it was only a question of time until they would see things in the same light. After several hundred thousands of soldiers from both sides were killed, God let them see things in the same light, but only when the Southerners had no more money or artillery. eae Some God! The army of General Lee had more religion in its compos- ition than any army since that of Oliver Cromwell, said the genial pre- sident. A favorite method of Crom: | well's soldiers to express their love for the Lord was to spit little Catholic infants. on the points of their bay- onets and looking toward heaven murmur “nits will be lice.” Cromwell could not satisfactorily murder an op- ponent unless he read at’ least one. paragraph from the old testament, It is said that he was seized with re- ligious hydraphobia after news was brought him that his soldiers murder- ed several thousand women and child- ren in the public square at Wexford, Ireland. Coolidge would feel just as exhilirated in 1919 if the news was brought him that every member of the Boston Policemen’s Union was boiled in oil. Calvin Coolidge has made the re- markable discovery that unknown to themselves, the Federals and Con- federates were not fighting over econ- omic issues, but by some unequalled process of reasoning since Woodrow Wilson attributed an economic crisis to a perverse public psychology, the president came to the conclusion that God knew right along what he was doing in allowing the rival armies to slaughter each other. “To protect our American institutions, and our Amer- ican ideals, beneath a common flag, under the blessing of Almighty God.” That was it. The president in wind- ing up this delightfully spicy piece of piffle says, “All about us sleep those of many different beliefs and many di- vergent actions. But America claims them all. Her flag floats over them. Her government protects them. They all rest in the same divine peace.” A splendid government indeed that “protects” the dead by allowing such tommyrot to be uttered over their graves. But then, what could be ex- pected from a human scrapbook? see Chief Collin’s threat to jail every moron in the city of Chicago, would if carried out, compel the police depart- ment to take over Cub’s Park to house the catch. Considering the number of injunction judges and grafting cap- italist politicians elected by the work- ers of this city, one cannot but feel like apologizing to the morons for Putting therm in the same category with the foolish workers who cast their ballots for their enemies on election day, while they are obligated to fight them on the industrial field the rest of the year. 3 j Crime is on the increase, acccord- ing to a report. issued by the Amer- ican Bankers’ Association. Forgeries, alterations and minor thefts show an increase of 48 per cent over last year. This must be one of the blessings ac- cruing to the nation from the ennob- ling experience our. young men had during the world war when they had the satisfaction of glutting t! thirst for human sacrifice either in person or by proxy. The orators who glorify the war killed their Germans by proxy. The protective Department of the Bankers’ Association blame the banks for undermanning their staffs. Rather than give their slaves better Fad working conditions the greedy plute: prefer to take chances with those wh{,, are not much concerned with the pal- try wage that a willing and loyal slave satisfied with. When they are in ie they do as Rome does, re ‘ Mrs. Marshall Field, one of the wives of one of the owners of the great Chicago department store, is creating a’ sensation in Paris. This means that the lady is disporting her- self to the satisfaction of those Bur- opeans who like to gaze on the fe male form divine when properly or— improperly,.. according to and geography—decorated with costly raiment, not necessarily generous. It ust lv costly. We learn that blase is “stunned.” A nude harem would not make a typical Parisian wriggle his eyebrows, so the kind of capers that Mrs. Field is cutting must be left to the imagination, We are not concerned with ‘the lady's method of getting a kick out of life. What we want to get across is that her ability to knock Paris for a string of imported Japanese soupstones is due to the docility and hard jwork of the thousands of men and women who toil in the big slave pen in the Chicago loop. The overworked girls who help to pile up the millions that this parasite helps to spend in riotous living, are lucky if they can buy suf- fi it clothes to appear Rat nd able.” Such is American dem y under the capitalist system. i) i | $