The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 17, 1924, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER. oo Published by ithe DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO., 1118 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. (Phone: Monroe 4712) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail: 5 $3.60....6 months $2.00....3 months By mall (in Chicago only): $8.00 per year $4.50....6 months $2.50....3 montus PETAR REE CRT SILESIA GS Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1113 W. Washington Blvd, $6.00 per year Chicago, IIlinols J. LOUIS ENGDAHL ) WILLIAM F. DUNNE ) MORITZ J. LOEB. + Editors jusiness Manager Bntered«as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1923 at the Post- Office at Chicago, Ill, under the act of Murch 3, 1879. <> 250 ‘Advertising rates on application. Dawes, the Philanthropist Since General Hell an’ Maria Dawes was nom inated for the Vice-presidency on the Republican party ticket the uncanny silence surrounding “Cautious Cal” is unbroken by the deluge of piffle which hitherto sought to sell this alleged enigma to the voting public. The “general” is better copy, and if the election is pitched into Congress and Coolidge dumped into exterior darkness, Dawes may be a much more valuable Wall Street lackey than he is now. Therefore the Republican national committee passed the word along to its editorial supporters to feature Dawes as a good hearted fellow who smokes a pipe, plays the harmonica and has a soft spot in his heart for children. No doubt we will be informed before election day that he never killed his father, beat his mother or stole candy from a kid. Dawes is the president of the Central Trust Company: Bankers are supposed to be hard- hearted but not so with Dawes. His heart is soft as putty. While others may deserve the curses of the proletariat for their consistent effort to accu- mulate more wealth to the utter exclusion of more noble pursuits, not so the philanthropic Dawes. He thot of the suffering poor who had not a place to lay their heads. So he built three charitable institutions—which are not exactly charitable— known as hotels where the almost down and out can get in out of the rain for trifling considera- tion. The charge, we are told is not for the pur- pose of making profit but to save the honor of his guests. His press agents do not mention a word about the organization of the “Minute Men of the Consti- tution” organized for the purpose of breaking strikes and establishing the open shop. This is one of the accomplishments of General “Hell an’ Maria” that will not be featured in the papers between now and the day when the workers an “Hell an’ Maria” into a political hole as deep as the Christian place of eternal punishment. Send in that Subscription Today. ® ? Poincare’s Puppet The election of Gaston Doumergue to the presi- dency of France is the next step in the sharpening of the class conflict in this European imperialist republic. Doumergue was elected as an avowed conserva- tive over Painleve, the candidate of the so-called left bloe which was victorious in the last election. Doumergue is only the puppet of Poincare and ran as the candidate of the national bloc, the apostle ofthe interests of the Comite des Forges. The very attempt of the national bloc to run its own;candidate in the facé of the last election re- sults, in the face of the severe repudiation it suf- fered thruout the country indicates that a serious turn of events is soon due in France. Doumergue and those behind him know that as president he will be unable to get along with so hostile a cham- ber. A new election is not improbable. Why are the imperialists of France toying with the expressed wishes of the French masses. One thing is certain. The avowed reactionaries are not anxious for another election at so early a date. They know very well that an election at this time will only prove more disastrous to them than the last one. Clearly, there must be another line of strategy the imperialist coterie of France is pur- suing. They are driving headlong toward using their control of the military forces, towards the utilization of the military machine of Mangin and Foch to erush the working class and the poorer peasantry. A crisis will soon grip France. Judging from our historical experience in other countries and in France on previous occasions of similar tests of class strength, the smaller capitalists, the petty bourgeoisie will waver, retreat, and desert from the fight. The left bloc of today will not be able to stand up in the face of a concerted attack by the biggest French financiers and the military group. The Unified Socialists will run away from the struggle. It is the irony of history, yet historically clear and logical, that the last semblance of parliamen- tery democracy should be completely uprooted in the very country which was supposed to be the barrier against the menace of Prussian militarism. Only the Communists can save the French work- ing and poor peasant masses from the iron heel of French imperialism. In the battles that are to come in France it will be the Communist party alone, the party which has determinedly fought the eapitalist class, that will stand up and answer blow for blow and unswervingly defend the inter- ests of the proletariat. i THE DAILY WORKER The Usual Way There is much excitement in Japan over the pass- age of the Japanese exclusion law by the United States congress. Mass meetings are organized in order to arouse the fighting spirit of the Japanese people. A very critical situation exists, rendering hostilities between this country and Japan possi- bilities by no means remote. The capitalists of the United States and their Japanese brothers are fighting desperately over the privilege of robbing China. Ninety-nine per cent of the noise over the “yellow peril” is due to this struggle. The Japanese imperialists are feeding the fires of race hatred by pouring oil from the Teapot Dome government of Washington on the flames. The American imperialists are picturing the dangers of a yellow invasion which would lower the standard of living of the American work- ers and perhaps give our sturdy Americans a yel- low streak. If our patriotic capitalists cared about maintaining the standard of living of the Ameri- can workers, they would not make it the principal order of business to smash unions and establish the open shop, the only protection the workers have against the greed of their masters. When one capitalist nation goes to war with another the real reason behind the conflict is never made public. The war is for democracy, religion or some other shibboleth. Sometimes a citizen or subject of the combative nation is killed ind then the war is on to avenge the dead. This is likely to happen in the caselof Japan. The New York Times reports that a Japanese worker planned to kill an American consul. Had the al- leged plot been successful we would now be listen- ing to the beating of the war drums and the patri- otic speeches urging us to defend our honor be- cause a Japanese, driven crazy by the war mongers in his own country assassinated an American. Only the end of the war would let some of the truth out. but by then the capitalists of the victorious coun- try would have won-and the workers.of both coun- tries would have lost. Watch out for an “incident” that may set the match to the powder magazine, Cleveland Carmen Are Bilked Streetcar motormen and conductors were given a taste of Coolidge and the G. O. P. on the occasion of the recent convention. The carmen had been awarded an increase in wages by an arbitration board. The company refused to accept the award. A strike -was called to enforce the arbitration verdict, the date falling at a particularly favorable time for the men, the night before the convention opened. Winning a victory was dependent only upon a determination on the part of the union. Then things began“to happen. Happening “No. 1. Officials from. the interna- tional union office, after consultation with national politicians, order cancellation of the strike order |Wvithout receiving any guarantee whatever that the —~erTarmers of the United States “are going to ant arbitration award will be enforced. Happening No. 2. Local union officials, under pressure from their superiors and from local poli- ticians, obey the order and violate the orders of their own rank and file. Strike postponed one week. ‘ Happening No. 3. Street car corporation im- ports rifles and machine guns, armors many cars, trains scabs, and makes a thousand preparations to break the strike. All this is going on while the politicians are postponing the strike. Happening No. 4. After the convention is over, after the rush traffic is gone, after the corporation is fully prepared to break the strike, the union officials find out that this would be a very poor time to go out, for the company is all ready to break the strike with guns and scabs. Strike is called off for another week, while the corporation president issues an ultimatum that the foolishness must stop. A splendid exhibition of the labor policies of the G. O. P. and also an exposure of the corruption, timidity, treacherousness and general bankruptcy of the union officials that will sell the interests of the workers any time, for a smile or a handout from the rulers of the country. The Postal Clerks Because President Coolidge vetoed the bill passed by Congress increasing the pay of the postal clerks the latter are very angry and threaten to express their displeasure in a practical way at the polls next November. Will they? The postal clerks have good reason to be angry but no reason for disappointment. If they ever expected anything else from the lackey who won his reputation by breaking the strike of the Boston policemen, they should not be postal clerks, but inmates of a home for the feebleminded. The clerks are out to beat Coolidge, but in beat- ing Coolidge they may vote for another servant of Wall Street on the Democratic tieket who will make nice promises but will nevertheless obey orders from the owners of this country just as well as Mr. Coolidge. Between the Democratic and Republican parties the postal clerks have only the choice of two evils, But they are not obliged to choose the lesser of two evils in the coming elections. The St. Paul convention which is now bringing into life a na- tional Farmer-Labor Party that will represent the interests of the exploited workers and farmers and is pledged to wage relentless war on the robber class that Coolidge serves, will provide the postal clerks with the weapon to punish Coolidge and at the same time strike an effective blow in their own behalf. Merely jumping from the Republican fry- ing pan into the Democratic fire will do them no good. They must learn to yote for a party of their class, fight for a party of their class and join up with the rest of their class in the movement to eliminate capitalism and establish on its ruins a Workers’ Soviet' Republic. Fight Splitting of Unions (Concluded from yesterday.) (Editor’s Note: This is the second installment of the letter from the Communist International to the Ger- man Communist Party Frankfort Conference in April, on the trade union question. Yesterday's install- ment closed by quoting the resolu- tion on that subject drawn up in January. The letter then continues: ) oe NLY a short time has elapsed since this. What has changed since then? 1, The Party has become legal: The future will show how long this legality will last. (It need not be said that we must retain our illegal apparatus, which we shall still require.) 2. The leaders of German Social Democracy, and the leaders of the ADGB. (General German Trade Union Federation), are working with per- serving determination at provoking a split in the trade unions, and are en- deavoring to bring this about by means of expulsions and similar measures. 3. Within the CP. itself the Left has won a decided victory. 4. The Reichstag elections are fixed for the beginning of May. These are the most important changes which have taken place since the time during which we collabor- ated with the delegation of the Left in drawing up the well-known resolution in the trade union question. ** * Reactionaries Want Split. The fact that the leaders of the ADGB. are working perseveringly to- wards a split in the trade unions, and are resorting to the most despicable provocations in pursuit of this object, naturally adds greatly to your dif- ficulties. And yet, this fact does not by any means create a perfectly new situation. Similar provocation has often enough been offered in the past and will be offered again in the future. And as regards the other above men- tioned political factors, these could not in any case form a basis upon which we could undertake a revision of our tactics in the trade union ques- tion. We are well aware that there are conditions under which a split in the trade unions becomes inevitable, and we have no intention of binding our- selves in principle in this respect in Germany more than anywhere else. We know that sooner or later the re- formist leaders will bring about a split in the trade unions, as they have done for instance in France. But on the other hand we know equally well that we communists are interested in pre- cisely the reverse, in the maintenance of unity in the trade union movement. | As already mentioned aboye, the question of the tactics to be pursued towards the trade unions by the Com- munist party is a question of the fate of the German CP. as the mass party of the revolutionary proletariat. The question at present raised in the CP. regarding the trade unions, can only be properly solved if taken in combination with the question of the future prospects of the German revo- lution. Schematically considered, two possibilities exist: a) Either a more or less rapidly maturing of a fresh revolutionary up- lift, bringing about the decisive strug- gle within a few months, or, let us say, in the course of one to two years, b) Or a somewhat longer drawn out period, extending over a number of years. In the first case, the errors commit- ted by the German CP, in the trade union question would naturally be ob- nation of those workers who do not want to pay. members’ subscriptions to the reformist trade unions out of their hard-earned pence, for the work- ers are daily witnesses of the-treach- ery of these unions, and have even to look on whilst’ the leaders fetch the Reich militia against fighting workers. We can well understand the revolu- tionary impatience of many hotspurs among the workers, the indignant clenching of fists against the leaders of the ADGB. But emotions alone are bad advisers in a position so difficult as your present one. ** Invented Unions Ridiculous. It is ridiculous to suppose that we could suddenly invent some new form of organization for the working class in place of the trade unions. The trade unions were not invented by Grass- man, or Wells, or Dissman, or any of these people. It is nonsense to as- sert that we could easily find some “new type” of labor organization in Germany. This is mere empty imagin- ation; when the wave of revolution rises again, the new type of workers’ organization will be the workers’ Soviet. But even then the trade unions will continue to exist; we shall only reorganize them and inspire them with a different spirit. The trade unions are the historically given form of mass organization for the duration of the whole epoch. Even if the Ger- man proletariat does not succeed in utilizing the trade unions in its fight for emancipation before the victory of the proletarian revolution, the tnions will none the less play a very important role during’ the proletarian revolution, and an even more im- portant one immediately after the victory of the proletarian revolution. Recollect the experience gained dur- ing the Russian revolution and in the Russian trade union movement. Up to the October revolution the Men- sheviki had the majority in the trade unions. And yet a very considerable section of the trade unions revolu- tionized by us helped us to seize power at the time of the October revo- lution. After the October revolution we won over the trade unions rapidly, and these rendered inestimable serv- ice to the proletarian dictatorship. Without the help of the trade unions, the proletarian dictatorship could not have been maintained even for a few weeks in Russia. This was repeatedly and rightly pointed out by comrade Lenin. ‘Your German Mensheviki are only a very little’ worse than the Russian Mensheviki, whilst the German com- munist’ proletarians—of this we are revolutionary workers. This argument does not hold good. Were it a fact that but few. workers are remaining in the Social Democratic trade unions, it would be all the easier for the firm kernel organized by the communists to capture the trade unions from with- in. But the real facts of she case are that these Social Democratic unions are not by any means so weak. At the present time they count double the number of members possessed by them before the war. To this must be added that the slightest improve- ment in Germany’s industrial circum- stances, and it is quite possible that such temporary improvement may take place as a passing episode, will enable the old traditions to be re- vived and the Social-Democratic trade unions reconsolidated. The number of organized. workers has diminished. This is true.’ This confronts us with fresh tasks. We must form organizations in the ranks of the unorganized. We must work among them. But it is unallowable to desert the trade unions, and to leave them in the hands of the Social Demo- crats. There are many practical difficulties, Moscow cannot foresee all these be- forehand. In this respect you will have to depend much upon your own exertions. ' The resistance against the Social Democratic leaders must be organized from below in the trade unions. Every expulsion of a comrade must be -re- sponded by a struggle, a resistance, if possible by a street demonstration, a mass declaration of solidarity from below, ete, . Deserters Not Good Communists. We are told that the best revolu- tionary workers are leaving the trade unions. No, no, a thousand times no! Those who leave the trade unions against the instructions of their com- munist party cannot in any case be regarded as the best and most revolu- tionary elements. We Bolsheviki were frequently told the same during the years from 1908 till 1914. And we invariably replied: those who leave the Menshevist trade unions in diso- bedience to the instructions of the Bolshevist party are not the best and most revolutionary elements, but the worst disciplined—at best emotional revolutionists. If our German CP. is worth anything, it must abovo all prove its capability to carry out the directions issued by the party with reference to the non-withdrawal from the reformist trade unions. Remember what Lenin bequeathed us in his mag- nificent book: “Leftism—the Infantile confident—will not prove to be worse communists than the Russian com- munists. eee Dual Unions Hopeless. a If you attempt the immediateforma- tion of parallel trade unions aided by practically formless unemployed or- ganizations, factory council represent- atives and other such organizations, you will only arrive at hopeless con- fusion. You will not create powerful proletarian organizations on such lines. The result would be more likely to be trade unions of the unemployed than trade unions of working com- rades. The unemployed can and must be organized. Under favorable circum- stances they can play a very im- portant part in the preparation for proletarian revolution. Nevertheless, it is impossible to build up parallel trade unions of the unemployed. After you had formed these parallel trade unions, the masses would de- mand of you, on the very next day, that you conduct successful economic struggles. Under the conditions ob- taining at present in German industry, and with the counter-revolutionary German Social-Democrats and the ADGB attacking you from behind (and iterated by a victorious revolution, whilst in the second case a mistake made by the German CP. in the trade union question would unquestionably and certainly lead to disaster. We have already stated that the German CP., whilst doing its utmost to increase the chances of the first Possibility, must at the same time so Tegulate its tactics as to be armed for the second possibility. see Must Stay in Unions. In the case of a speedy victory of the proletarian revolution we should naturally at once find a large number of new and’ rapidly effective measures jSecuring us the allegiance of the trade unions. But should the maturing process of the revolution require a longer period, and were we at the same time to give the leaders of the ADGB. the possibility of crowding us out of the trade unions, then thi would mean the end of the German CP. The great art of the Bolsheviki, in the epoch between ‘the two revolu- tions (from about 1907 till-1914) con- sisted of the fact that they were capable, besides conducting a relent- less fight against opportunism and liquidation, of preventing by every means at their disposal, their separa- tion from the mass organizations of They did not permit at least two-thirds of the workers would remain members of this last), you would be entirely unable to carry any economic strike to a successful is- sue. And the leaders of Social-Democ- racy have still another weapon at their disposal: they can declare our Parallel trade unions to be illegal, and can throw fresh obstacles in the way of the movement. But as soon as the masses see that our trade unions are unable to carry out successful eco- nomic strikes, they will be disappoint- ed and turn their backs on our paral- lel unions. Our forces would be frit- tered away, and as a result the trai- torous leaders of the ADGB would only have their aims facilitated. It is frequently maintained that the movement in favor of quitting the trade unions has assumed enormous proportions, tha cannot be dammed any longer, and that the trade unions are losing precisely the best and most to be carried away by " phrases. At that time there was no lack of voices, in the Bol- shevik fraction, from impatient com- rades demanding the cessation of work in the Menshevist trade unions, in the Duma, etc, Comrade Lenin fought a inedly and relentlessly Pape untenable “left” tendencies, le declared that we must be prepared, ed, in the interest of the proletarian revolution, to enter not only a reac- tionary parliament or a Menshevist trade union, but even a “pigstye” if |/"We can well understand the Sadie, The Poor Fish A man was locked up in Pennsylvania for eating newspapers. An insanity charge was preferred against him. It seems to me it isn’t r to pick on one man who happened to eat the dope instead of inhaling it as the other addicts do, Disease of Communism.” Above all the chapter Work in Reac- “Should Commu + tionary ‘Trade_Unions?”. Remember the passion and implac- ability with which he even then com- batted communists of the extreme “left,” who refused‘to work in the reformist trade’ unions... Had the II. Congress of the CI., in response to comrade Lenin’s insistent demands, not decisively and categorically for- bidden the communists to withdraw from the reformist trade unions, we should not have had one single com-' munist mass party in Europe today, and we should have had no influence on the existing mass organizations. The leadership of the German CP. is now passing into other hands, into the hands of the Left. This may prove of great service to the revolutionary movement in Germany, but only so long as the Left takes no steps para- mount to a liquidation of the whole tactics of the CL, that is, of the whole tactics of Leninian Belshevism. Were your Party Conference to approve the so-called “new tactics” in the trade union movement, it would signify a renunciation of Bolshevism in one of the most fundamental questions, The CI. would not in any case undertake the responsibility for such an altera- tion in tactics. Were you to come to such a decision, you would place your- selves in absolute opposition to the fundamental decisions of the CI. The CI. would then be obliged to combat your decision, as we are profoundly convinced that it would involve the greatest possible harm-to the cause of proletarian revolution in Germany, and would bring about no less un- happy results internationally. The CI. recommends your Party Conference to confirm the resolution on the trade union question passed ir. Moscow in January of this year, drawn up by the representatives of the Left in collaboration with the EC. of the CI, We recommend you to op- pose positively and emphatically, and supported by the full authority of the Party Conference, those comrades who are withdrawing from the reformist trade unions. We shall suggest to you a number of practical measures for the purpose of forming a united asso- ciation of all expelled members, abling these to fight together for their re-admission into the trade unions, and to co-operate in finding the best solution of the question of the restora- tion of unity in ne ka wou) unions, . Trade Union Unity. — We further propose to you that you take the slogan: “Trade Union Unity” for one of your leading slogans in the coming Reichstag election, and dur- ing the whole of the impending fight- ing period. We propose that you de- clare, in the name of the Party Con- ference, that you are prepared to renounce the immediate convention of @ congress of the union opposi- tion, in order to ive the leaders of the ABGB, of i AiR mace: Monday, June 16, 1924 ringing the German Revolution the question of the obligation entatled by membership of these trade unions, but to treat this question as we do the oath taken in the bourgeois par- liaments, and to maintain this at- titude openly before the working class. At the same time we are of the opinion that one of the chief tasks of the Ger- man CP. lies in increased work in the factory’ councils and trade unions. It is time that we succeed in making the communist iractions in the trade unions something more than organiza- tions existing merely on paper; it is time for our communist fractions to become something more than mere leader organizations. In so far as we are forced to it by the leaders of the German SP., we must be capable of carrying on illegal communist work in the reformist trade unions. Up to now nobody has adduced any serious argument proving that the resolution passed in Moscow at the end of January 1924 is now already no longer suitable of application. The CI. has taken years to work out it tactics with reference to the trad unions, and it. most certainly has n reason whatever for changing these tactics. Moscow, March 24, 1924, The Executive Committee of the Communist International. Chairman: Gregory Zinoviey. AS WE SEE IT By T. J. O'FLAHERTY The Democratic convention will not have near as much difficulty in select- ing a candidate for the presidency to Place in the field against Calvin Cool- idge as in selecting a vice presiden- tial nominee who can smoke a briar pipe and treat the voters to an occa- sional blast of vituperation and ob- scenity. As far as the two capitalist parties are concerned, the center of. interest has shifted from the presi- dency. Since Dawes was nominated Coolidge gets less space in the capi- talist press than—Hiram Johnson. Perhaps it is a dirty trick put over on ‘Silent Cal’ by the equally silent members of the “Old Guard,” who can be silent while they are sawing wood. “Cal” had a lot of fun since Harding died reading eulogies of himself: in the papers, but now if he has any dig- nity he will either die or say some thing. Silence is no longer golden. se 8 In giving Dawes the second place on the ticket, Republican strategists, guided by"Wall Street, were not solely concerned with giving “Cal” a run- ning mate who would do all the talk- ing there was to be done. They also had in mind the possibility of the ito congress, with the senate select- ing one of the vice presidents to sit in the White House. This was re- sponsible for the “Old Guard's” in- sistence on a frank reactionary tof the hitherto undesirable position of vice president. If anything untimely happens to “Cal” in the event of his being elected, the general, who won his spurs in a hardware store some- where behind the lines, will serve very well. oe 82 Peggy takes the count. Not taat kind of a count, but one just as bad. It's Peggy Joyce, actress, more fa- mous for her ability to snare rich men into her conjugal parlor than for her histrionic ability. Her most recent annexation is a Swedish count, who is trying to polish up a perfectly good title with the profits he expects to gather in the tooth paste business. Counts are as plentiful nowadays as fleas on a dog, but the darned trouble is they have no money. Still, when a pretty tho much used American beau- ty has tried everything else, she may condescend to, take a count for better or worse, generally worse. : 8 x Professor Timothy Smiddy has been appointed minister plenipotentiary of the Irish Free State at Washington, according to an announcement made in Dublin. ‘This is giving Ireland ory’ that part of Ireland known as the, “Free State” more independence tha the British government would ow 4 But beggars can’t be choosers. Cana- dian government officials are talking seriously of declaring Canada com- pletely independent of Britain or “an- nexing the dominion with the United States. Things look none too for the old British lion. The day of his glory is fading. In the meantime the Irish Free State government com- pelled the Dublin corporation to shut up shop, giving.as reason that the cor- poration wasted its time talking in- stead of carrying out the policies of the government or justifying th money expended on its upkeep. Free: dom for the Irish workers appears rather illusory, Es oN a Se Ke , Coolidge’s father is’ almost as goo @ vote getter as his son. He pos for the movies as the news of “Cal nomination came over the rad. “Turn on the faucet,” said the | eraman, and Mr. Coolidge let the eye- 8 6 quiver = glistening dewd: ‘ears of joy! Looks very good in picture, Cal is silent, but his fathe is wet. Shedding tears. of joy may be all right for the father of Wall Street's leading man, but the postal, clerks, who had their increased pay bill killed, are inclined to shed tears not of joy, but of sorrow. Arthur Brisbane regrets for Cal's sake that he did not have a couple of grand- mothers to cry over the radio when the G. O. P. convention honored Cook nomination, ‘aignificance to |idge with the election being thrownesmaid! s »