The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 4, 1924, Page 6

ll RTE S Page Six THE DAILY WORKER. Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO., 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Il. (Phone: Monroe 4712) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail: $3.60....6 months $2.00....3 months | 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 ams W. Washington Bivd. Chicago, Illinois 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, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. <= 290 Not a Workers’ Platform LaFollette’s idea of a platform for the presi- dential elections is a pitiful exhibition of helpless- neas before the problems of modern society. _Tink- ering with the tariff, building waterways, amend- ments to the constitution, etc., jostle proposals for tax reductions and “house-cleaning” in the depart- ments. All of it is proposed from the point of view of the small manufacturers, merchants, law- yers, rich farmers, and the middle class generally. Not one item betrays the slightest desire for a fun- damental change in the interests of the workers and bankrupt farmers. But for the stupidity of the old Republican machine, there is little reason why the LaFollette program should not be adopted by the big busi- ness interests in control of the G. O. P. True, it is not their program, but there is nothing in it that really threatens them. There is no relief pro- posed to the mortgage-ridden farmers. The small concessions made to the demands of labor could easily be blocked by the machinery of the wonder- ful constitutiqn of the United States. The Coolidge backers would only have to gulp a little harder to swallow the LaFollette program. Dividing it fundamentally from any working- class. character at all, however, ‘is the naive idea that this milk-and-water program is sufficient unto itself, that it is not necessary for the workers and farmers to organize their political forces to put anything across, that all they murt do is to get politicians in the old parties, “good men,” to stand for these things. The exploited toilers of America are beginning to realize that even a real program of action—which LaFollette’s is not— would mean nothing unless backed up by a sepa- rate and distinet: party, organized on a working- class basis, and fighting all down the line against all. parties of capitalism. Advertising rates on application. Send in ‘that ‘Subscription Today: Coolidge Agrees “Probably the best proof that the newly-enacted tax law is not. conducive to the welfare of the great masses of the industrial and agricultural areas is to be found in the fact that Coolidge signed it. The new law is a hybrid product of the manipu- lations of the Democrats and the apologies of the weak-kneed progressives. It aims to satisfy every class in society except the working and poor farm- ing classes whom it does not even consider. Its only claim to difference from the original Mellon scheme is that it reduces the surtaxes of the multi- millionaires from 50 to 40 per cent instead of to 25 per cent as Coolidge desired, and that it caters to,the interests of the middle stratum of our capi- talist class a little more than the administration Republicans planned. The shadow of the progres- sives is seen only in the scratch on the tax-paying skin of the lower middle class. The new tax bill fails in every respect. The progressives parading as the defenders of the in- terests of the masses against the exploiters de- serve the roundest denunciation for the shameful way in which they surrendered to the biggest and blackest of our financial and. industtial overlords. In gssence the new tax bill’is a victory for the upper crust of our capitalist class. The adminis- tration. has gotten the multimillionaires much more than they expected at the time the Mellon campaign was launched. None of the employing class leaders believed that they could realize the entire Mellon program in this session. Months ago when the kept press was predicting ‘that Coolidge would veto the Democratic-insurgent «measure we declared that he would do nothing of the kind, We saw thru all the fraudulent propa- ganda of the reaction fighting to get as much as it could: for its own class. “Silent Cal's” denuncia- tion of the very bill which he sighed is merely a ~ warning to the working masses that the employing “éla _ better taxation scheme for itself and is a promise has not given up the fight to win an. even to the exploiters that’ their interests will be vigorously defended ‘by the Coolidge clique. ’ Send in that Subscription Today! Republican party leaders are certainly in an e assing position. President and congress are fit-loggerheads on the largest issues before Con, , and both must be endorsed at the con- vention. The program of unity and harmony will have to be sought in a demand for the “open shop,” the right of capitalism to do as it damn pleases, the necessity to strictly regulate trade unions, uphold the courts in the issuance of injunctions against , and shoot or deport all Communists and js.” On such a program, the G. O. P. will find THE DAILY WORKER When Progressives “Fight” On the eve of the adjournment of the first session of congress it is natural to review tho outstanding events of its life. This’is awather difficult task under the cireum- stances. Practically nothing has been done by the much-heralded congress that was to be dominated by insurgents. Consequently, of all the events of an uneventful session the most impressive one is the utter failure of the so-called progressives to make even the slightest dent in the armor of the reactionary old guard. The fight over the liberalization of the rules in the House of Representatives turned out to be a | disaster for the insurgents under the LaFollette banner. The slick Nicholas Longworth, spokes- man for the biggest capitalist owners, handed ‘the Wisconsin delegation a lemon in lieu of a victory. In the Teapot Dome affair LaFollette emitted a few faint remarks. His colleagues in the house were mum on this occasion that was so fruitful of real danger to the reaction. On the matter of taxation, Mr. Frear, who is the ‘acknowledged fiscal expert:of the LaFollette camp, was putty in the hands of the shrewd democratic floor manip- ulators. The showing made by the LaFollette followers in the house tax debates was visibly dis- graceful, if the interests of the workers and poor farmers are to be accepted as the criterion of worthwhile legislation. Now it is a recognized fact that the Howell- Barkley railway measure, which does not even pretend to weaken the iron grip of the financial interests on the railways of the country, is one of the pet measures of the so-called progressive bloc. Yet, eyen this empty, hollow piece of legislation which has been the source of so much noise and so many impotent promises to the railway workers is betrayed at the last moment by its very sponsor. Hiding behind a verbose diatribe against the ad- ministration, Mr. Barkley has just withdrawn his bill. The excuse for giving up the fight and flying from the battle even for this insignificant sop to the workers is that there is no chance of passing it in view of the imminent adjournment of congress. The same spirit of do-nothingism and flight from the front was also shown by the LaFollette house floor leader, Mr. Nelson of Wisconsin, on the ques- tion of adjournment. This supposed champion of progressivism did not gather sufficient courage to even protest in words against the reactionaries voting to adjourn congress without having acted on the most pressing needs of the rural and city working masses. Yet, Mr. LaFollette and his ilk dare to ask the oppressed and exploited to’ follow. them. é Send in that,Sdbscription Today. {8 ° Cleansing Bulgaria Much glide is evidenced in the dispatches cir- culated by our capitalist class oyer the reported losses of the Communists in the recent elections held in Bulgaria. For the moment let us not debate the veracity of these reports. We have seen the Communists defeated too often in the columns of our employing class press. Assuming that the statements relative to the Communist defeat are true, we propose a series of questions meriting the most. serious and urgent consideration by the farming and laboring masses the country over. ; Where was all the much-wanted freedom of bourgeois democracy in these Bulgarian elections? Were the workers and peasants of this Balkan vassal state of allied imperialism permitted to vote even with the limited choice permitted to partici- pate in the elections? Were the Communists al- lowed to have their own press? Were their leaders released from jail? Was the military ban against the Communists lifted at the time of the elections? The answer to all these questions is a decisive NO. The elections in Bulgaria were more of a farce than capitalist elections customarily are. No pretense was made to have the balloting take on even the faintest resemblance of a free parliamen- tary campaign, to the very limited extent that such is ever possible while the capitalists own the press, the schools, the government, the industries and the armed forces. The bayonet in the hands of the hangmen of the Bulgarian masses was the victor in the last elections, The Communists and the workers and peasants were robbed of the right to express even their most limited voices. The Communists of Bulgaria were not defeated in an open election. e ex: ploiters and oppressors of the Bulgarian masses, with the help of the foreign capitalists, simply made it impossible for the Communists to par- ticipate effectively in the campaign. : They Abandon the Fight In the judicial elections just held in Illinois, ie workers had no opportunity to vote against the capitalist candidates in any fashion. The old Farmer-Labor party of Fitzpatrick, Buck and Brown, has quit. The action some. months ago by the leaders of this group, endorsing capitalist can- didates on the plea of fighting against the injunc- tion, foreshadowed their present complete capi- tulation. The Socialist party is still on the ballot in Ilinois—but it also had forsaken the battle and had no candidates. All the old leadership against the capitalist parties has deserted to the enemy. None too early, therefore, has the Mlinoig Labor party entered the field. Nominating Duncan McDonald for governor, and ring for a full ticket in the fall elections, it gives the workers of Illinois their only guarantee that when they go to vote next time they will not’ be presented with the alternative of choosing between two sets of capitalists. By J. T. MURPHY. (Member, British Communist Party.) (Written Especially for the Daily . Worker.) see F it is still necessary to make clear that the Labor party has become the custodian of Liberalism then the general chorus of approval from “all classes” for the budget of the labor government adds to the proof already given. Mr. Snowden simply beamed when Labor cheered, the Liberals praised and the Tories gave grudging appreciation. We had better examine the situation. What Have the Workers Got Out of It? The following reductions in taxa- tion .on foodstuffs will for a short time add to the spending power of the workers: Reduction in sugar. Reduction in tea.. Reduction in cocoa. %4d per pound Reduction in coffee. d per pound In addition extra dried fruit tax has been abolished. Sweetened mineral abolished. Entertainment taxes on admission prices up to 1-3 either abolished or re- duced. These reductions every worker will appreciate. But. the trouble arises when another part of the policy of the Labor party comes automatically into operation. A reduction of 5 points in the index figure of the cost of living brings reductions of wages at, the month end. So the railway workers, transport workers, building workers, cotton operatives, ¢tc., will automat: ically come due for reductions in wages within a few weeks. So what is given with the right hand will be taken away with the left, and the in- creased purchasing capacity which Mr. Snowden has boomed so much as a trade reviver will be very much curtailed. In practice it will work out on the lines of the old Liberal slogan —cheap labor as a stimulant to trade. Then, of course, we must not for- get the activity of the price manipu- lators, who have a knack of making} the best*of new situations. When the public has shown that it can pay the high prices, these manipulators set to work .to bring about an artificial shortage of the goods on which taxes have been.reduced. This permits them to take the tax reduction for them- selves as the most deserving of the community. The people who will actually gain are the middle classes. Their sala- ries do not fluctuate so violently as the workers’ wages, and so the sliding scale won't operate downwards so far as they are concerned. Then the la- bor eommodity will be cheaper for the small employer as well as the big em- Ployers, and they wil! be able to join in the chorus of the industrialists who are particularly anxious for low wages—cheaper labor will help them to compete more effectively on the foreign market. But they haye re- ceived other gifts from the budget. Gifts to Others Than the Workers. The corporation profits tax, against which the Federation of British Indus- tries has fought so long, has been abolished. The inhibited house duty, which has especially annoyed the lower middle classes, has been abolished. Motor license charges ave been re- duced. (And of course the workers have two or three each of these things.) Then comes a reduction in tele- phone charges. These are all gifts to the middle classes and the capitalists. And it will be observed that these are addi- tional gifts, for all the other reduc- tions apply to them also with a further advantage over the workers. Where- as these classes can filch by the nor- mal operation of the capitalist and constitutional labor machinery the gains which the workers secure from 14d per pound d per pound water tax is the budget, the workers cannot par- ticipate in the concessions granted to the capitalists. Nor can they retain the gains which the budget gives them without breaking their agree- ments with the bosses and struggling every inch of the way. No wonder there is a chorus of approval from all the capitalist papers. They know that what the workers gain on the roundabouts they will lose on the swings. But it will take a little time for that to happen, and for that little time the workers will be grateful. They will ascribe their gains to the credit of the Labor party and the La- bor party will gain votes. The middle class people, who were'so scared at the advent of a Labor government are feeling that this is something worth supporting and the Labor party will get more votes. And probably all of them will be exceedingly annoyed if any one asks them to think over the situation of Britain as revealed by the budget. The National Debt. ‘When Mr. Snowden began to speak of the burden of debt he followed en- tirely in the footsteps of Mr. Bald- win. He said the same things, took the same attitude, refrained from tell- ing the truth about the situation by giving only partial information. He said: “At the highest point in December, 1919, we had a dead weight debt of approximately £8,000,000,000, .... in- volving an annual charge for interest of £345,000/000, after allowing £19,- 000,000, which at that date was ap- proved interest on the American debt. +++. We have now a nominal dead- weight debt of £7,680,000, involving interest charges of £305,000. .... Al lowing for the nominal addition by conversion, the total debt reduction, both external and internal, since 1919 has been over £650,000,000 practical- ly the amount of the national debt at the outbreak of the war. I think the committee will agree that this is a wonderful and highly creditable na- tional achievement.” Apart altogether from glorying in the continuation of the payment of blood money and 5 per cent patriot- ism, this statement as it stands gives the impression that by taxation, econ- omy and so on the British govern- ment, the bankers and, of course, the people have been making marvelous efforts. It gives the impression of things being on the mend, of capital- ism getting on its feet, and British capitalism especially forging ahead, reviving the faith in its permanency. ‘Why did not Mr. Snowden tell the workers, especially, that the time had come for the complete canceling of this debt? Why did he not say frank- ly that the £650,000,000 paid off the national debt had been paid out of the sales of old war stock? Why did he not say that this war stock was being sold at bankrupt prices, in the main to those who had sold them to the government at war prices, and who were principally in®-ested in the per- petuation of the national debt? He states that this is the last year from which any income can be derived from this source. If this means any- thing at all it is that, having paid £350,000,000 per year for five years, i. e., £1,750,000,000 in interest, the state has only managed to reduce its debt from £8,000,000,000 to £7,680,- 000,000, altho it has paid back £650,- 000,000 out of the sales of war stock. A little arithmetic will show that, altho the government has paid out £2,400,000,000 since the end of the war, it has only redueed the amount upon which it has to pay interest by £320,000,000. So £2,080,000,000 have been paid for the privilege of killing nearly a million of the best manhood of the country, wounding another 2,000,000, playing a leading part in devastating Europe and creating w. employment and misery on a scale hitherto unparalleled in this country. In addition we have to go on paying at the rate of over £300,000,000 per annum without reducing the debt one Routing the Two years ago it was the national indoor sport of the leading corre- spondents and editors to talk them- selves blue and their readers sick over supposed defeats and collapses of the Soviet government. Lenin was being buried daily. Moscow was in the hands of and redeemed by czarist pogrom agents and hooligans every other hour. » Soon the stuff went stale. Now it is the American Communists who-are being routed daily by the. same gentry. liam Hard, who is simultaneously the correspondent of the cleanest liberal weekly and one of the dirtiest reactionary dailies, is the latest one to enter the lists inst the Com- munists. The occasion is the rather auspicuous one of LaFollette’s fit of Tage and eleventh-hour confession of his own incompetency and bankruptcy in the present political crisis. Mr. Hard wants his readers to be- lieve that LaFollette’s: wordy on- slavght on the Communists has spelled the doom of the Workers Party and has tolled the knell of the St. Paul convention, This is simply another case where the wish is father to the thought. LaFollette’s outburst will hurt him more than anyone else. His open admission that ‘he still thinks it possible for the Democratic and Republican parties to serve any- body but the reactionary big capi- talist interests is a clear note of dis- illusionment for many of the workers and farmers who, prior to this decla- Communists ration, might still have had some faith in him, The Communists, who have been the steel rod in the whole farmer-labor movement the country over, who fought for the organization of a virile political party of the ex- ploited masses against the capitalists while many self-styled progressives and so-called liberals were still devoid of courage to take a stand or were still attempting to wash the oil off the backs of the donkey and the ele- phant, have time and again told the poor farmers that LaFollette is un- worthy of their trust and that he would, double-cross them and leave them“in the lurchjat the last moment. ‘What the Communists have said KU KLUX SHRINERS WAX POETICAL OVER ABSENCE OF WIVES KANSAS CITY, June 3.—Thou- sands of Shriners are here for a convention, and they are having a gay time. The streets are clogged with parading Masons of various de- grees. A prize was offered for the best convention song, and the fol- lowing from Ku Klux Indianapolis took the prize: , “There ain't no wives with us, “There ain't no wives with us; “There may be wives with some of you guys, : “But there ain't no wives with us.” — “All Classes Are Satisfied!” penny. If this sum went each year to the reduction of debt by payment another * twenty-two years’ would elapse. before it was cleared. But it does not. It leaves the principal un- touched except for the sinking fund of £40,000,000 per annum, which in turn. for the first time cannot come out of the sales of war stocks. Fifty per cent of it must come out of tax reve- nue, Next year all of it must come out of taxation. And this is how the pacifist Snowden clears up the mess of the war. He would not be a party to revolutionary action to stop the fighting, and now accepts with unc- tious satisfaction the task of securing the blood ‘money for the investors in the war, and looks to the spoils of “victory” as a “means to easing the burden”—the payment of war debts by other countries to Britain and the operation of the experts’ report to ex- tract reparations from Germany. There is.therefore no’ basic difference between the Labor- government and the professedly capitalist govern- ments in relation to the financial or imperial aims. It has been an object of the victorious countries to pass on their debts to the défeated countries, Such also is the declared aim of the Labor government, however much it may be cloaked by the phrase, “more hopeful prospects of agreement in Europe.” And what is still more clear’is the fact that because the La- bor party and the government de- cline to attack the vested interests they have no option other.than to fol- low this commitment with the mate- rial means of imperial deevlopment, which again intensifies the exploita- tion of the masses and keeps them on the pathway of illusions. What the Money Is For. In order to prove this contention it is only necessary to examine the ex- penditure side of the budget. 1. National debt charges 2. Fighting forces - £350,000,000 115,300,000 £ 465,300,000 out ofa total of £794,050,000. Five- eighths of the total are direct mili- tarist charges against which the La- bor party has not made the slightest impression or threatened to make an impression, even were its numbers in the parliament greater than they are, The rest of the expenses are almost covered by the civil services, customs and excise and inland revenue, post- office, etc. Then there is a surplus of £4,000,000 to begin the social efforts, extehsion of pensions to widows, de- velopment of old age pensions, the housing schemes. It is calculated that this surplus will be enlarged by special efforts to collect arrears of taxes. The total outstanding amount to £220,000,000. Conclusions. _The budget of 1924 is calculated to rouse the hopes of the workers and the lower middle classes. It satisfies the industrialists, who want cheap la- bor to meet foreign competition, and is likely to intensify the wage strug- gle. The exhaustion of war stocks, the dependence upon the collection of arrears and the collection of repara- tions as the primary means for any so- cial developments are indications of the critical position of British capital ism rather than the signs of its recov- ery. The exhaustion of the war stocks as announced. is equivalent to inform- ing the world that the means of reduc- ing the national debt are at an end without cancellation or vastly increas- ed taxation. Mh 1913 Britain was able to meet 54 per cent of her liabilities. In 1924 she can meet only 19 per cent. The budget is a masterpiece of party strategy for the outmaneuvering of the Liberals and Tories and the secur- ing of a growth of the Labor party. It outliberals the Liberals and leaves no justification for the existence of the Liberal party. It fosters great il- lusions, kindles false hopes and fore- shadows a great but unpleasant awakening. By JAY LOVESTONE would happen has happened. LaFol- lette, who will attend the same con- vention with Coolidge, Lodge, Daugh- erty and “Apricots” McLean of Tea- pot Dome fame, has severéd himself from the great mags of farmers and workers who are bent on organizing a ch farmer-labor party in order to give real battle to the exploiters. The step that LaFollette has taken is, fortunately for the workers, politically suicidal to him and will only enhance the prestige of the Communists who have always warned the working class and the dispossessed farmers against trusting him. The fact- that LaFol- lette was compelled to make an at- tack on the Communists the very heart and body of his first frank words on the political crisis now con- fronting the country speaks volumes for the influence and following won by the Communists. The Socialist Party at its height never attained ch importance or that much pres- and trust amongst the masses to ‘be the very source and center of a political fight involving such funda- mental and vital changes in the class, relations of the land. LaFollette's throwing overboard his last possible excuse for posing as a champion of the working and farm- ing by attacking the St. Paul _|eonyention is only a tribute to the growing prowess of the Communists and to the rising class-consciousness of the exploited workers and expro- on oh Wednesday, June 4, 1924 AS WE SEE IT By T. J. O}FLAHERTY Mrs, Rockefeller McCormick rey ceived a telegram a few days ago from @ man she has not seen in the last 2,500 years. Before she received the message, the gentleman was kind enough to advise her. telegraphically that she would hear from him. His name is Count Sébastian Knodlock Droste, reincarnation of that Egyp- tian king, Amenophis IV, who reigned several centuries beforé the Christian era: The count, however, is not as old as his history would indicate. ‘That he was on this earth before and ran into Rockefeller’s daughter wag just his luck, *.. 8 The modern princess of finance was always accustomed to rank among the mighty it seems.- You could not very well imagine the oil king's danghter being one of the lower classes. Two thousand five hundred years ago she was the Queen Nefret-e-te. The tele, gram read: “I am Amenophis IV com from Egypt with my mummy. You} are Nefret-e-te, I feel you; you must’ come to me.” He will probably touch her feelingly knowing that she has more money now than when he saw her last. John D.’s daughter is not a “nut” as you may believe. Not she, She has more money than anyone ‘of you, no matter how wise you may think you are. se 8 < Ras Tafari, prince regent of Abys- sinia, is now in France accompanied by six subject chiefs as bodyguards and two lions for playmates. He claims descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Most any ordinarily fluent Abyssinian could do that with’ reasonable assurance that his claim would be considered plaus- ible if we are to credit the stories concerning Solomon’s fondness for the ladies. The prince announced his de sire to come to America and expressed his admiration for this country, A ‘prince with Solomon as an ancestor certainly would make a hit here. It is rumored his object in coming ta France was to peddle part of his coum try for a gay time. se William Montgomery Brown, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was found: guilty of heresy tho sen+ tence was postponed until Oct. 14, Had such a trial been held a few hundred years ago, the: bishop would ‘ be given the choice of taking an ins voluntary bath in a cauldron of boiling oil or drinking a goblettul of molten lead. Today his fellow bishops, no matter how anxious they may be to about it, torture the man who is placing their meal tickets in jeopardy must be con- tent with merely advising him that he has preached doctrine contrary to that. held by- the Protestant Wpiscopal Church. The bishop’s attorney, a So+ cialist from Dayton, Ohio, summing up for the defense, implored the trial judges to leave the rebel bishop in the church, for by doing so they would “have succeeded in blending religion and science.” Might as well try mix oil and water. ee Crown Prince Rupprecht and his princess were hailed as the king , queen of Bavaria by a huge crowd 7 monarchists. The socialists are barel; t mentioned in the shuffle to form a new German cabinet. The once proud German industrialists are urging the workers to keep quiet and orderly hoping the Dawes plan will bring peace and prosperity to the father- land. The Nationalists warn Herr Marx, the chancellor, that unless they are given nice seats on the govern- ment bandwagon, the Dawes plan can- not be worked as they own the greater part of Germany’s wealth. Such ig life in Germany, five years after the 1918 socialist revolution. In Russia, where the Communists led the revolu- tion, there is not a monarchist in sight, within the borders of the Soviet republic; the workers and peasants are not waiting on a Dawes plan for deliverance but are marching ahead to real prosperity under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat guided by the ( munist party. The workers ; many can now see whether cay democracy, under which the workers get the thick end of the policeman’s club. is better for them than the dic. tatorship of the proletariat under which the capitalists get it unless they conduct themselves and do some thing useful. : Rote uae ant é Send in that Subscription Today, w~ The Poor Fish Says—The discovered that a whale’s gullet too small to allow passage of a thru it was a greater enemy of ree ligion than Robert 11 . “| people are a nuisance. Religioi hasn't the kick it used to have old days. People know too damn