The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 21, 1924, Page 4

; i | Page Four 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....38 montas $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 ) WILLIAM F. DUNNE) MORITZ J. LOBB....... woe Editors: Business Manager Entered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1923 at the Post- Office at Chicago, Ill, under the act of March 8, 1879. <> 250 Advertising rates on application. A Hard Picture LaFollette is still the “voice crying in the wild- erness,” as William Hard, the political correspon- dent who has observed the Wisconsin boss build his machine, calls him. He is the St. John of the liberals, the forlorn hope of the impossible ideal- ists, the projected wish of those who desire a bet- ter day for man but do not “face the facts and fight.” Not that LaFollette, and perhaps many of his admiring supporters, do not fight. But they are sputtering about a billion-handed monster and at- tempt to beat him with sticks. They do not even use a carefully polished little stone, like David is reputed to have shot so effectively at a giant of old. And besides, Goliath was a fairly human giant with only two legs and two arms. Capitalism is an utterly inhuman growth and one that boss LaFollette and his friends could not begin to scotch if they got into the saddle of gov- ernment. The beast would quite run away with them. LaFollette and his liberal lovers nurse their grudges against big business but still take their living from the workers and farmers whom they continue to delude with their own false hopes of making an impossible system work if they sur- mount the IF that keeps them out of power. It is significant that LaFollettte is an “indepen- dent republican.” He promises no one anything. He is a lonely prophet with lonely followers, and he offers them no “reward in heaven.” He knows better than any the tremendous power of the money lords but he still blindly thinks he can hurt them. He would like everyone to be a smug little Bab- bitt under the same old production-for-profits sys- tem that would only produce again the present concentration of capital. Workers would not be M very nor farmers from any- thing but too high railroad rates. LaFollette is indeed a grieving “voice crying in the wilderness”—but the world has moved on. Send in that Subscription Today. The Unemployment Spectre The American workers are now being rewarded for their unswerving loyalty to their masters. The American market is glutted with an immense over- production of goods. The agents of the capitalists have been scurrying thru foreign countries look- ing for markets to dispose of the goods which fill the domestic warehouses to overflowing. Wall Street, which has long owned the Repub- lican and Democratic parties, is entirely satisfied with the republican presidential candidates and will be equally sure to have democratic candidates which will perform the tasks imposed by big busi- ness. } “Thank God for Coolidge,” shriek the big money barons who talk of prosperity in a desperate ef- fort to send their favorite sons to the White House. But it can’t be done that way. Even Cowardly Cal cannot stand in the way of stern economic laws. Over-production, industrial depression, and unemployment have definitely set in. The bosses, with their company unions, their strike breaking * seab agencies, their bunk about good will and co- operation, realize that an economic crisis it at hand. : The contented slaves who, during the war period and the post-war building boom, have been loyally working for the bosses, praying for promotion, being good little boys and spurning the unions and the radicals, are being laid off and sent home. The large cities are over-run with hungry unem- ployed workers. The signs along the Madison street, Chicago, employment agencies, “NO MEN WANTED,” are being duplicated in every city of the land. Wage slaves are forced to hunt for weeks for a job, and they are content to take a job at the masters’ price. Families are starving and bread winners are sick with worry. THE UNEM- PLOYMENT PROBLEM AGAIN STALKS ABROAD. Workers who have laughed at the unions will, for a while be more susceptible to the proven the- ory that strong working-class political and indus- trial organizations are necessary if the workers are to have the fundamental right to dictate the conditions and wages under which they shall work. The Communist slogan, “All power to the work- ers. Let us take over the factories in the interests of the workers, who produce all wealth and are entitled to enjoy it,’ will be more popular than in the days of Daugherty. Let us hope that during the period of unemploy- ment the workers will have time to think of the _ years wasted in piling up profits for the capital- ists, while they receive a meagre wage. Let us hope that the workers will decide to abolish this Easily Satisfied The progressive bloc in Congress thru represen- tative Nelson of Wisconsin issued a statement con- gratulating himself and his associates on their splendid accomplishments during the last legisla- tive session. He accuses big business of being a “class conscious group of financiers” whose head- quarters is dangerously close to a certain well known street in the lower eni of Manhattan Island. We have a sneaking suspicion that the cautious progressive is referring to Wall Street. But it would bea break of congressional ethics to be so rude as to mention the name of the institu- tion from which his party, the Republican party, has always taken its orders, Mr. Nelson claims credit for everything that was not done in Congress to the “people.” He does not however, claim any credit for what was done for the “people.” He cannot because there was noth- ing done of any consequence. It is true a child labor law was passed. But it has yet to run the Supreme Court gauntlet. .The Supreme Court is a past master in the art of murdering laws that hurt capitalism even a little bit. His group helped to whittle down the Mellon plan a little, tho we believe Mellon is on the whole fairly well satisfied. He did not get all he wanted but he has nothing much to kick over. The work- ers are not worrying very much over tax plans. They have nothing to lose but their chains which are fastened by capitalism. They are now worry- ing more about unemployment. Mr, Nelson says the capitalists’ are class conscious. He is right. They have brains enough to organize their forces on the basis of their class interests. The workers are also learning that lesson. That is the reason they went to St. Paul to organize a class Farmer- Labor party. Mr. Nelson may be satisfied with the results of the last legislative session. The class conscious workers and exploited farmers are not. The so- called progressives are quite willing to pose as the saviours of the “people” but they deeply resent any effort on the part of the workers to save them- selves. Thus we have La Follette slinging feather pillows at Wall Street because it does not give the social layer he represents a comfortable place at the capitalist pie counter and slinging mud at the class conscious workers who insist on abolish- ing the capitalist system that takes from them the product of their labor. Instead of being a pro- gressive he is a bunion on the sole of progress. At Last! Recently while in a facetious mood we remarked in a paragraph that it was surprising that the California capitalists, who blamed the Industrial Workers of the World for almost every other mis- fortune that befell the sunny state, had not yet charged them with responsibility for the foot and mouth disease which caused a loss of millions of dollars to the cattle breeders of California. Now, a Mr. Fisk, district attorneyjeéolerinty an- nounces that the I. W. W. is responsible for the foot and mouth plague and a general roundup of the wobblies will be launched. Every sex pervert and low grade moron not in jail, will be mobilized by the gentleman with the very appropriate name to beat up and jail the members of the labor or- ganization which is a thorn in the side of the cap- italists of California. It is almost unbelievable that such a charge should be made by a person holding a responsible position and some of our readers may be inclined to dismiss it as a light yarn., But it is a very se- rious matter for the thousands of workers in Cali- fornia who may be persecuted by these capitalist hell-hounds because they refuse to bend the knee to mammon. The I. W. W. in California should be supported in their fight against the most brutal and lawless section of the American capitalist class by every class conscious worker in that state. And they in turn should realize that district at- torneys and other capitalist servants are in a posi- tion to use the powers of government against them and their class simply because the workers do not exercise their political power to take over the ma- chinery of government as a step toward the over- throw of capitalism and the establishment of the rule of labor. Berry to the Front George L. Berry, the most outstanding strike- breaker among the reactionary per capita sharks in the American Federation of Labor, opened his campaign headquarters in the Waldorf-Astoria, New York, from which palatial hotel he will con- duet his fight for the vice-presidential nomination on the Democratic ticket. In an announcement, Berry denounced the Re- publican convention for its reactionary platform. He said the Democratic party had an excellent opportunity to crystallize the progressive spirit thruout the country. In this work the honorable Mr. Berry in his own opinion would be able to render invaluable aict Mr. Berry is one of the two outstanding figures in political life today who has made whatever rep- utations they have thru the breaking of strikes. The other one is Calvin Coolidge. The DAILY WORKER is strongly of the opinion that Calvin is taking credit that belongs to others, when he claims that he was responsible for smashing the Boston Policemen’s Union. Samuel Gompers should get the roses. But about Berry’s right to the laurel wreath there is no doubt. He has not alone broken strikes of his own union but he helped himself to union funds and is now the proud boss of several thriving corporations in Tennessee. Labor leader and business man! A good combination, that may not sound so good to the class conscious workers but should sound mighty good to Wall Street.. And Sammy who in- duced La Follette to denounce the communists and the St. Paul convention is for him! THE DAILY WORKER Saturday, June 21, 1924 insky to St. Louis and have the three The election for General Secretary-}0f them tell the members just why Treasurer of the Journeymen Tailors|they thought that they should be which takes place in the Chicago Lo-| elected, The Soderberg - Sweeney cal today, differs very radically from|forees managed to vote this down. So |The overwhelming victory of Sillinsky | MAX J. SILLINSKY the usual A. F, of L. elections. seldom does the office seeker ask the members of the union to voto for him only if they agree with his platform, that it is unique. Max J. Sillinsky who hails from Cleveland is the candidate who is ap- pealing to the Chicago Tailors to cast their vote only after giving a careful study of the platforms upon which the numerous candidates are running upon, Sillinsky or Sweeney. Although there are some five can- didates for the office, the race is actu- ally between Thomas’ Sweeney, and Max. J. Sillinsky. In spite of the fact that. Chicago is the home town of Gus. Soderberg, another one of the candi- dates, and that he received the nomi- nation from his local union which is the largest in the, country, he is not conceded a chance even by his most ardent followers., The sweeping vic- tory by a 9 to 1 majority of Max J. Sillinsky over Soderberg in St. Louis, the second largest local. which also nominated Soderberg, has eliminated Soderberg from the race, The election campaign has been an exceptionally bitter one, especially against Sillinsky. Soderberg and Sweeney although seemingly rivals in the race for office, have formed a united mud-slinging front against Sillinsky, and to the credit of Sillinsky he did not rotaliate. However, the numerous rank and file “Sillinsky for Secretary” committees that have sprung up during this heated contro- versy, has come to the defense of Sillinsky. Sweeney Slings Slander. “The Tailor,” official organ of the Journeyman Tailors Union, has been filled with controversal articles on the coming election, all of which has been used to show the virtues of Sweeney and the vices of Sillinsky. The stu- pid use that Sweeney has made of the “Tailor” to further his own inter- ests must in many quarters react against him. He evidently has no pro- gram except one of vilification against Sillinsky, The rank and file of the Tailors wants to know from the candidates just why they should be elected to the highest office in the union, ‘and Sillinsky is the only one who has stated his program. In St. Louis the supporters of Sillinsky wanted to bring Sweeney, Soderberg and Sill- Candidate for Secretary of Journey- _ men Tailors’ Union. eS was the rebuke of the rank and file to the forces of reaction. They Tell it to Sweeney. Sweeney says that he ought to be re-elected because he was the father of week work. Eneborg, former chair- man of the G. E. B., and Robert Funk a member of the G. HB. B., says that Sweeney is very careless with the truth, and that everyone knows that it was Sillinsky who fought for a whole week in the 1917 convention for the resolution on week work, which was endorsed by a referendum and written into the constitution. In an open letter to the local unions, Funk shows clearly that wherever Sweeney has attempted to branch out as a strike leader, the locals affected have failed to nominate him, and that genrally he has avoided strike cities. cities. Sodenberg’s claim for election to the office of Secretary-Treasurer, is that he was responsible for the pres- ent standard of wages and working conditions that prevails in the city of Chicago. The rank and file of Chicago takes exception to this. accuse Soderberg of trying to force In fact they Sillinsky for Tailors’ Secretary them to accept the 90c per hour when they were demanding $1.00 and that later in the controversy, the employ- ers offered another compromise and again Soderberg wanted them to ac- cept, but the rank and file were de- termined to stand for the $1.00, and in spite of the bosses, and Soderberg they won their point. : A Generous Critic. Sillinsky, on the other hand, as an organizer and at present as a business agent, has a clear record. The at- tacks of Sweeney show that for the life of him he cannot get anything on Sillinsky, so Sweeney accused him of everything, from not being a tailor to being a Communist expecting prej- udice to do the rest. Left Wing for Sillinsky. Sillinsky is far from being a com- munist. That he is and has been for many years an outstanding progres- sive, is well known to many outside the Tailors’ Union. He is an out- spoken champion of industrial union- ism in the needle trades thru amal- gamation. He believes that the ranks of the working class should be solid- ified politically as well as industrially. The sordid stories of the Teapot Dome and the many other scandals have Political significance to him, so he urges working class political action through a class farmer-labor party. He urges the protection of the for- eign born, rightfully seeing in the vi- cious selective immigration bills, with its camouflage of “Americanizing the Foreigner,” a club in the hands of the capitalist class to destroy organized labor. For Soviet Recognition. Recognition of Soviet Russia is an- other plank in his platform. He goes beyond the liberal attitude of recog- nizing Russia because it would in- crease the demand for American made products, but frankly admits that the recognition of Russia by the Tailors is to show their sympathies for the Russian workers as against the world’s imperialists. Organize the unorganized, a cam- paign of education, a higher standard of living, efficiency, economy and serv- ice, along with the regular trade is- sues and left wing trade demands, complete the program upon which he expects to be elected. The issues are clear, it is either you vote for a progressive or a reaction- ary. The left wing in the Journey- men Tailors’ Union is a unit. They support and ask the rank and file to elect as their next Secretary Treasur- er, Max. J. Sillinsky. ECHOES OF FARMER-LABOR MEET ARE HEARD IN GASOLINE ALLEY (Special to The Daily Worker) ST. LOUIS, Minn., June 20.—When the Coast to Coast cruiser “Ophelia Bumps,” piloted by “Bill” Kruse, the DAILY WORKER movie man, arrived at the tourist camp at St. Paul, there were some misgivings over her wel- come. The ancient flivver had been parked among Rolls Royce and Packards in the course of her travels, but that was not in St. Paul where the Chamber of Commerce almost footed the bill for a workers’ convention. All doubts were soon dispelled, ‘for “Ophelia” found herself in good com- pany. To the right were two flivvers from’St. Louis, one of them run by the old-time Oklahoma war-horse, Stanley J. Clark. Parked with them was a machine from Tennessee. All three bore big banners announcing their destination—“‘On to St. Paul, to organize a nation-wide Farmer-Labor Party.” Revolutionize Camp. Behind the presence of these three machines and their load of trade- union delegates is an interesting story of ordinary “Jimmie Higgins” work. Joe Crandall has been a locomotive engineer for many years, and a tire- less plugger for working class organ- ization on political and economic fields. He kept plugging at his fellow- workers with literature and subscrip- tions as well as with a clear-cut. easily-understood line of argument. He made socialists. out of many of his shopmates, good, well-founded so- cialists, too, for with the clarification process of the Russian revolution they moved left with it. In widely separated cities and different indus- trial pursuits five of Joe’s converts heard the call of St. Paul. and influ- enced their local unions to elect them as delegates. And here at the found- ing of the Farmer-Labor mass class party they meet as fellow delegates, while the rank and filer, whose quiet unnoticed work of years ago, contin- ues on the job as before with new shopmates to be made into new con- verts and new revolutionists, Just a bit beyond the Crandal re- union is camped Fred Biedenkapp, who has driven a patched-up Over- land all the way from New York. Fred is one of the leading spirits of the Amalgamated Metal Workers and represents that organization, both na- tionally and locally, at the conven- tion. On the other side is a group of South Dakota farmers, among them Arvil Anderson, Socialist party can- didate for governor of South Dakota, who ran on the St. Louis anti-war program into a berth at Leavenworth. Loyalty to principle cost him every dollar he had in the world, some twenty-five thousand of them, but he is just as active and hard-hitting a tighter as ever. Ex-Farmer Care-taker. No need to hide political affilia- tions here, the care-taker is an old ex-farmer who lost the results of his life’s work in the slump of farm prices, and who is now as ardent a Farmer-Laborite as can be found any- where. the campers as tho they were his chil- dren, seeing and hearing everything that goes on, unconsciously serving je local Babbitts far better than their $40 per month wages warrant. gather and fight over the battles of the day's sessions, and review the strategy of the various leaders— and not always in complimentary terms. It is the private’s privilege to grum- ble into the ashes of his own bivouck fire. ing roasted by every delegate every speech. How the gentle per- verters of mass opinion must grieve at this ingratitude. convention reported more rottenly, and still the delegates are not thank- ful! resenting many shades of opinion every point of unanimous agreement that can be stressed lends just that much more support to the chances for the success of that gathering. On the subject of the venality of the lo- cal press there is 100 per cent har- mony in the convention. time the delegates get ready to dis- agree about something along comes the press and cements them into a roaring mad, fighting unit. A vote of thanks should be extended to the ing up the unity of the convention. Paul evidently believes that every wearer of the big white delegate but- ton is a Moscow agent. A newspaper- man at Fourth and Wabash yelled: “Yes, we have your home town paper —get the DAILY WORKER here.” has shifted. To get the close-up and ings, come out to G Cherokee Heights tourist camp. There among the broken and battered Liz- zies and Ophelias one hears of the oppressive conditions under which both farmer and wage worker suffer conditions that drive them together from all parts of the country to make common cause with one another, de- spite all differences, real or imagined, against their common enemy, the capitalist class. A fine type, looking after Around the campfires the delegates Lying Press Unites Fighters. The newspapers of St. Paul are be- in Never was a In a convention of people rep- And every plute scribes for their work in build- But the man on the street in St. Saloon to Auto Camp. Once upon a time the corner sa- loon was the political forum of the workers, At St. Paul today the scene the low-down on the convention do- line Alley, in “Righteous” Riot In R. I. PROVIDENCE, R. L, June 20.— Providence police who are accus- tomed to clubbing workers had the unique experience of answering a riot call to the state house, where the sen- ate had joined in a free-for-all fight. Many solons had black eyes and sore ribs, women fainted and were tramp- led under foot, before the Law’n Order legislature could be quieted by the governor and police. An alleged con- spiracy by the Republicans to pre- vent by force Lieut. Gov. Toupin from presiding over the senate started the fight. Workers Recognize Reaction. NEW YORK, June 20. — Revolt against the reactionary platform and candidates of the Republican party is spreading among workers in New York who formerly voted Republican. Over a 1000 voters cheered Congress- man F, H. LaGuardia of the 20th New York district at a meeting in which he attacked the Cleveland Republi- can convention. ~ ——eaesngine Look How Big! NEW YORK, June 20.—Excess of immigration over emigration and low- er death rates are responsible for an increase in population in the United States in 1923 of 1,943,000, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, which sets the present to- tal at 112,826,000. British Labor Conference. LONDON, England, June 20.—Rela- tions of political parties and trades unions to each other, inter-common- wealth relations, political and econo- mic, world peace, ~migration, racial questions, industrial conditions and le- gislation will be discussed at the Brit- ish commonwealth labor conference. The conference will be held in Lon- don beginning August 18, with Pre- mier MacDonald in the chair. Send in that Subscription Today! The Poor Fish says: | think Cool- idge made a mistake in dumping the Old Guard at the convention. They always drew a full house. People would come from all parts to take look at Lodge's whiskers, Silence may be a good slogan in a hospital, but it is out of place at a convention, AS WE SEE IT By T. J. O'FLAHERTY The New York Nation is satisfied that the last Congress, in spite of its faults was not such a bad congress after all. For one thing, it exposed a lot of corruption. Liberals are gluttons for punishment. They do not want to abolish the rotten social system that breeds corruption. If this corruption could only be kept from exhibiting itself indecently, the liber- als would be happy. The last Con- gress did not function very well for the capitalists. That we will admit. But neither did it do anything for the workers. It was a capitalist con- gress, but the capitalists quarrel among themselves over the division of the loot with the result that the plans of the big fellows do not al- ways move as smoothly as they would wish. Cae i, What the big capitalists would like better than a congress which does not always carry out the instructions to the letter, is a bald dictatorship such as exists in Italy. But even Mussolini’s boasted regime is now tot- tering and the American papers which up until a few days ago, referred to him as the man who saved Italy from destruction, now mutter, “I told you so.” Nothing succeds like success. Only a short time ago the Chicago Daily News published an interview with Mussolini, in which the murder chief was boosted to the skies. It took two seasoned reporters to de- scribe Mussolini the man, and Musso- lini the statesman. But he must re sort to murder in order to hold his power. His days are numbered. The American capitalists will not look so favorably on Fascism from now on. The money they spent on it is money wasted. The dictatorship of the capitalists in the form of Fascism may hold back the wheels of progress for a time, but not for long. Capitalism has outlived its usefulness and must go. It will not go down because it governs thru a dictatorship, but simply because it is no longer able to satisfy the needs of the people. With machinery of production developed to such a point of efficiency that enough of *he neces- sities of life can be produced in a few months to supply the needs of the world for a year, the warehouses are choked with things the Workers could use for their upkeép and com- fort but which they can not purchase. The result of this crazy system is unemployment and starvation. se 8 vious deficiency in the capitalist sys- tem would open the eyes of the work- ers to the necessity for making a change. The Communists tell them that the capitalist. system must be overthrown and production for use be substituted for production for profit. The capitalists tell the workers that but for capitalism they would starve, because there would be no work. But prominent capitalists die every week yet the wheels of industry do not stop. Things go along as usual be- cause the workers are actually run- ning the industries they do not own. Now, if they can run them profitably for a master, why cannot they run them at least as efficiently for them- selves. There seems to me no good reason why they should not. ** * The last congress was a bigger fail- ure than usual because the two capi- talist parties are breaking down and the small capitalists represented by LaFollette and the so-called progres- sives are getting pinched by the big ones. Therefore, they are grumbling. They don’t want to abolish capital- ism, but they want to shove it back into its baby clothes again, and ex- hibit it to the workers and farmers as a smiling youth without a bit of evil in its system. * The Socialists and the other brands of reformers have much the same ob- ject. The Communists say that at- tempting to reform a system that is in an advanced stage of decay is as ineffective as putting a mustard plas- ter on a wooden leg. The thing to do is to begin the reconstruction of so- ciey on a Communist basis, but be- fore that work can be started, politi- cal power must be taken from the capitalists and all power placed in the hands of the workers. 2 2s “A dictatorship,” the liberal will growl, “would smell just as sweet un- der any other name. But a dictator. ship of the workers is more demo- cratic than the abortive democracy that capitalism now boasts in the United States. It would serve the majority of the people who are work- ers. It would function during the transition period from capitalism to Socialism’ and unlike the Fascist brand, would be in harmony with evolution, It would be the bridge over which society must pass from capitalism to Communism. The dictatorship of the proletariat in Rus: grows stronger year by year, while the Fascisti in every «vun- try are slippii despite their mur- derous methods. The capitalists are between the devil and the deep sea. They don’t like congress any too well and they are going to have some dif- ficulty in establishing an open dictat- orship. Send in that Subscription Today, — tn @ would imagine that such an oby -— Ts = < <2 a