The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 9, 1924, Page 6

Aline PS RE DRAENEI HEI Page Six ‘THE: DAILY WORKER. © ARES I SR SE A SESS Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. (Phone: Monroe 4712) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail: $3.50....6 months $2.00....3 months y mail (in Chicago only): $4.50....6 months $2.50....3 months $6.00 per year B. $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. 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. <Q 290 Advertising rates on application ———————————— What Will Peoria Do? When the 600 delegates of the Illinois State Federation of Labor gathered yesterday at Peoria, they faced a - terrific responsibility. They are charged with the duty of organizing and carrying forward the struggle of the labor movement against the enemies that beset it. They must face the heart- rendering suffering of the miners, 50,000 of whom are totally unemployed, while the rest are on part time. They must take a stand on the Ku Klux Klan, which is being used by the employers to break strikes, to terrorize the workers, and to. sup- press labor generally. They must rally the labor movement against the state-wide “open shop” move- ment which is devastatingly riding over the unions. These are only some of the most burning and im- mediate problems at Peoria. How will these problems be faced? There are two points of view at Peoria. One it that of the officials, such as Walker, Olander, Farrington, and others. It declares against a fighting policy; it wants to form an alliance with capitalist poli- ticians like Len Small, and win the bosses’ sup- port on the industrial field by producing more than the scabs, as Farrington proposed to the miners’ convention. It is the policy of class collaboration that these men propose, and it is the most destruc- tive policy for the labor movement that could be brought forward. It deserts the struggle and abandons the rank and file to the tender mercies of the employing class. Against the class collaborators there will be brought forth the policy of the left-wing elements, led by the Communists and the progressive miners. This calls for a fighting policy; it demands relief for the unemployed, to’ be forced from the em- ployers and the state government thru a series of gigantic mass demonstrations, rousing the entire working class; it declares for war against the union-wrecking K. K. K.; it calls for a great or- ganizing campaign to bring into the labor move- ment every working man and woman in the State of Illinois. It denounces the alliances with the capitalist politicians, and call for a class political party of the workers and poor farmers. It asserts that the workers must begin preparations for tak- ing over the government, for the overthrow of the power of capitalism, and. the institution of a work- ers’ and farmers’ government. What will Peoria do? Upon the line-up in the Peoria convention future history will judge the Illinois labor movement, and the rank and file will learn who are the agents of capitalism and who are the fighters for the working class. Get a member for the Workers Party and a new subscription for the DAILY WORKER. The Way of Counter-Revolution Because the Communists have set their faces like flint against any splitting of the miners. of Canada y from the United Mine Workers of America, the so-called One Big Union of Winnipeg has begun to pick uy and reproduce the usual capi- talist and anarchist slander against Soviet Russia. In addition they announce, in the current issue Free Speech in Denver The arrest of Ella Reeve Bloor on the streets of Denver last Friday has raised a storm of protest in that city, which is forcing even the reactionary labor_ officials to line up against the police prac- tice of arresting speakers, and of attempting to censor their talks. Ella Bloor is one of the veteran agitators of the Communist movement, and wher- ever she goes, there things begin to happen. It was so in Denver, and while the free speech fight draws in larger and larger circles of workers, incensed at the police suppression, the Workers Party is growing in that city. Colorado is a state-that has long been noted for its brutality and stupidity in handling the labor movement in all its phases./From the days of the Cripple Creék fight, thru the Ludlow massacre, down to the deportation of Foster by Pat Hamrock and now the arrests Ella Bloor, Stanley Clark, and William Dietrich, it is a long.record of cynical disregard of their own laws by the hirelings of capital, brutal suppression, and iron dictatorship. All of which is a part, perhaps necessary, in the education of the working class. Every such inci- dent in a text for a Communist lecture, and enlists more soldiers under the banner of revolution. And Now It’s Navy Day Militarists in America have taken their cue from the Dawes plan. War is the inevitable outcome of that project, and the jingoes, sensing the fact, are rushing to get ready. The nation is to be mobilized on September 12, as a slap in the face of the rest of the world, and a warning that the Dawes plan has behind it more than pious wishes. Now comes announcement of Navy Day in October, which is to let the world know that on the sea, also, Ameri- can imperialism is pushing forward. The most tremendous armament race that the world has ever seen is now on. It is camouflaged behind the official shelving of obsolete battleships, called “djsarmament” moves. But the really ef- fective war machinery developed by the past ten years experience in mass murder—aeroplanes, sub- marines, poison gas, and mass mobilization—are being feverishly piled up in every country, not least in the United States which now has accepted the job, via Morgan, of ruling the world. Navy Day is another demonstration of the brazen militarism that grips America. It fits right into the concerted drive, which will land this country in war just as surely as imperialism is the inevitable outgrowth of capitalist exploita- tion. For the working class there is but one an- swer: “Down with mobilization day! Down with navy day! Down with the capitalist system that breeds wars! , Establish the dictatorship of the workers, the only alternative to the present dicta- torship of the capitalists!” Get a member for the Workers Party. Nothing Doing, Mr. Batt! The DAILY WORKER is in receipt of a letter king it to support Mr. Dennis Batt for the State Legislature of Michigan. Mr. Batt is running on the ticket of the republican party and is, presum- ably, a member of the same party with Coolidge and Dawes. How anyone, who pretends to any working class consciousness, could think that this paper would give Batt anything but the public ex- posure that a traitor deserves, is hard to under- stand. Batt once proclaimed himself a Marxist, a revo- lutionist, and was a member of the Communist Party, later of the Proletarian Party. He went to ‘Russia as a delegate from the Detroit Federation of Labor, and there declared himself one of the real “reds” of America. He always was in the front ranks when there were cheers to be given for the dictatorship of the proletariat. And then gradually, upon returning to the U. 8. Batt began looking for a nice fat job. The Com- munist movement has no fat jobs for anyone. So Batt became more conservative, gaining thereby the of their Bulletin, that they will split the miners of Nova Scotia at any cost. That these adventurers who run a “union” on the profits of a gambling game will do all the mischief they can is granted, but now that they are exposing their hand so open- ly, the damage will probably not be so large as threatened a few months ago. The traitorious reactionaries, at the head of the U. M. W. of A., of whom John L. Lewis is the king- pin, are deliberately provoking all the militant miners everywhere. Lewis has openly boasted that he will force the fighting miners to secede, or else he will throw them out. Lewis wants the militants out of the union, in order that he shall have a free hand to sell the miners again and again to the coal operators. In spite of any good intentions that may animate individual members of the O. B. U., there can be no question that the split policy they advocate fits exactly into the plans of Lewis. In its effects if is equally a betrayal of the interests of the miners. And that the split policy brings counter-revolu- tionary effects in its train, in other issues besides those of the union, is proved again by the O. B. U. Bulletin which, becanse Communists in Nova Scotia and the United States fight against their split de- sires, turns around to slander the revolutionary Russian workers who have established the only workers’ government of the world, cementing its structure together with their blood. Spread the DAILY WORKER in this campaign and watch the big results in a stronger American Communist movement—a bigger Workers Party. Byer day get a “sub” for the DAILY WORKER and a member for the Workers Party. editorship of the Detroit Labor News. Then he became more conservative still, and was thrown out of the Proletarian Party by his 16 party com- rades. Then Batt began to support the labor party movement, switching soon to the C. P. P. A. From the C. P. P. A. he quickly graduated into the Gom- pers camp, and thence into the republican party. This renegade is now asking the workers to send him to the State Legislature. His name goes out, coupled with that of the millionaire Couzens, and upon the same ticket with “Open Shop” Dawes. The man who, in 1921 at the first convention of the Workers Party, said he could not join an op- portunist and un-Marxian organization, now finds himself with the blackest camp in American poli- tical life. Gompers was dragged into the LaFollette move- ment—only after he had received the price of his own dictatorship in the approval of congressional and state candidates on the republican and demo- cratic tickets. Dawes fights against the socialists—which is ungrateful, considering that the socialsits are the instruments by which his plan is being put across on the European workers, A panic is on among the reactionary labor of? ficials. Each wants to outdo the other, in showing how respectable and how collaborationist he is, But the class struggle goes on and will throw them on the serap heap of history. Join the Workers Party and subscribe to bern DAILY WORKER! THE DAILY WORKER (Continued vo pagel.) the private monopoly system over the Political and economic life of the American people.” During all these years the Wisconsin Senator has looked upon John Sherman, father of the still-born Serman anti-trust act; as his god. Even in the July 4th let- ter accepting the presidential nomina- tion by the Progressive Conference, LaFollette spoke of Sherman as “The clearest-visioned Republican states- man of his time” and called the Sher- man Law, enacted by a Republican Congress in 1890, “the most effective weapon that the ingenuity of man could devise against the power of monopoly.” This weapon has proved ingenious indeed! ‘The trend of economic de- velopment in the United States has for some time proved and proves to- day that the economics on which the LaFollette movement bases its politics is hopelessly wrong. Concentration of industry and finance has been making strides in seven league boots. No amount of indignant yapping could or can prevent this tendency. Assuming that all the witch-doctors’ remedies against trusts proved successful, the very day on which free, capitalist competition could be restored, would be the day on which this competiton would start to dig its own grave and thru elimination and mergers would continually beget concentration of ownership and centralization of con- trol—trustification. Trusts Go Forward. Despite years of hunting the trusts with whips and torches, the giant corporations have steadily gained in| strength. |The march of the forces} making for large-scale production has gone on apace. The thirty-three power- ful Standard Oil subsidiaries whose value of the commodities produced by these workers mounted to 87.7 per- cent of the total. During this decade, 1909-1919, the proportion of individually owned plants declined from 62.4 to 47.6 per- cent; the percentage of the workers thus employed fell’ from 12.2 to 6.9 percent; and the value of these pro- ducts sank from 9.9 to 5.7 percent of the total. And Wisconsin, the citadel of La- Follettism today ranks fifth in the proportion of its manufacturing in- dustries which are corporation-owned. The Badger State has 92.6 percent of its manufacturing plants owned by corporations. Concentration Goes On Apace From 1914 to 1919 the number of manufacturing concerns producing less than $5,000 a year declined from 97,060 to 65,485. In this period the plants producing from $20,000 to $100,- 000 annually rose from 56,814 to-77,- |911; plants turing out from $100,000 to $500,000 rose from 25,847 to 39,647; plants producing from $500,000 to $1,- 000,000 yearly mounted from 4,320 to 9,208; and factories producing more than one million dollars advanced from 3,819 to 10,414. Thus, the most concentrated industries show gains in strength from 200 to 300 percent: Then, the number of wage workers employed by corporations producing a value of less than one million dollars fell from 4,560,241 to 3,923,662. On the other hand, théestotal employed in man- ufacturing industries increased in this period. At the same time the number of workers employed by manufactur- ing establishments producing one mil- lion dollars or more rose from 2,476,- 1006 to 5,172,712. Finally, in 1914 less than half of the total value of manufactured -products were turned out in plants producing oil wells and pipe lines overflow and (tein than one million dollars. By undermine the country are thirty- three living monuments to the ineffi- cacy of anti-trust legislation and to the uselessness of judicial dissolution suits. The tobacco, steel, copper, coal, and other monopolies tell similar stories. But it is the dull, dreary, and ap- parently uninspiring figures of Amer- ican economic development that plumb the depths of the economic fal- lacy of trust-busting. We find that, in the manufacturing industries, the proportion of establish- ments employing 501 and more work- ers increased from 28 percent in 1909 to 39.6 percent in 1919. At the same time the proportion of manufacturing establishments employing from one to fifty. workers fell from 26 percent in 1909 to 19.4 percent in 1919. In 1909, only 25.9 percent of the manufacturing industries employing 75 percent of the workers and account- ing for 79 percent of the total value of the committees produced, were cor- 1919 the proportion of the total value of manufactured commodities turned out in plants producing more than one million dollars annually was well over two-thirds. Hurting Workers Indeed, in so far as the effective- ness of the anti-trust laws matters, they have proved their mettle only against the organizations of the work- ers. Such bitter experiences have thes anti-trug edicts proved to the workingman that, today, even the American Federation of Labor is for their repeal. It is significant that the Clayton Act, once called by Gom- pers the “Magna Charta” of Labor, has lost nearly all of its favor with its worshippers of yesterday. But even if LaFollette’s program were realized, would it be desirable? The answer is decisively No! It is not large-scale production, it is not highly centralized industry that is responsible for the suffering and hard- ships of the great mass of population. poration-owned. By 1919 the propor- tion of corporation-owned manufac- turing establishments rose to 31.5 per- cent; the percentage of workers em- ployed reached 86.5 percent; and the Small-scale competitive capitalist pro- duction, assuming that it could be perpetuated, is socially undesirable. It would deprive the masses of many of their gains achieved by them thru years of bitter struggle for higher standards of living. Standing On Its Head LaFollette’s economic program is standing on its head. Marx would say that “It must be turned right side up again, if you wonld discover the rational kernel within the mystical shell.” The trouble with the present system of production and exchange is not that it is highly developed. The basic trouble is that the highly con- centrated, large-scale means of pro- duction and exchange, used, are privately owned for private Profits. The way to end these anti- social conditions giving rise to unem- ployment, long hours, degrading work- ing conditions and numerous other causes of suffering among the masses is to end the private ownership of capital. But this is precisely what LaFollette is inveterately opposed to. LaFollette is a determined defender of the private ownership of capital, of the means of the production and exchange, socially‘used. The socialization of the trusts, the socialization of the well- developed means of subsistence, is anathema to LaFollette, for it would mean the end of the private profit, the capitalist system. Use Immediate Objectives Consequently, no one will swallow La-Follette’s anti-trust proposals, ‘at a gulp. In the light of the story of our economic development aim Number 1 of the “Progressive” platform striv- ing for “The use of the power of the federal government to crush private monopoly, not to foster it” holds out no hope to the workers. And so long as private owners, cap- italists, are with us to coin the advan- tages of large-scale production prim- arily for the enhancement of their profits, point Number Four of La- Follette’s program, “the repeal of ex- cessive tariff duties especially on trust-controlled necessities of life,” becomes a meaningless phrase. Point Seven, seeking “legislation to control the meat-packing industry,” is simply another instance of flying in the face of facts. For years LaFol- lette has been after the packing in- terests. Yet, today, their hold on the government is a strong as ever. This is due to the facts that the owner- ship of so vital a necessity is permit- ted to rest in private hands. This is just what LaFollette refuses to dis- turb. Misleading Politics Turning our attention to the second, the political phase of LaFollettism, we are not surprised to find the strongest opposition to working class action. When the “Progressive” platform says that “class gains are temporary,” it is merely befogging the issue. His- tory’s verdict on this point is as much opposed to LaFollettism as the science of economics is to his anti-trust pro- gram. The story of the American Rev- olutionary War, the outcome of the Civil War, the gigantic strikes waged by our workers, the demoralizing at- all socially: Tuesday, September 9, 1924 LaFollette Program Opposes Labor’s Rule tacks and outrages perpetrated by the LaFollette group against the move- ment'for indepenent working class political action, and the very cam- paign LaFollette himself is now lead- ing, all give the lie to this unfounded proposal, The best way in which the greatest number of the members of any econ- omic group can achieve the maximum politico-social advantages is thru co- ordinated disciplined political action on a broad scale against the opposing economic group. This, of course, is class action. This is exactly what LaFollete is attempting to do in be- half of his own class of small manufac- turers, petty businessmen, and mush- room bankers. More Empty Gestures Hence Point Eleven of LaFollette’s program asking for the “Election of all federal judges without party de- signation for limited terms” is an em- pty gesture. With the press, the means of government, information, and misinformation, all being in the hands of the exploiters; with the very men running for office having been trained in capitalist class law and institutions, it is a travestry on the workers’ intelligence to expect them to accept such noisy but worthless phraseology. Last but not least, it is natural for so energetic a spokesman of the middle business interests as LaFol- lette to denounce any attempt that might be made by the workers as a class towards asserting their political power, Such action by the workers would take them out of the Wiscon- sin Senator’s political camp and would in time bring them into a sharp clash with the exploiters of all dimensions and all intentions, as a class. Defeat, for all capitalists of all sizes is the much-dreaded outcome that LaFollette foresees in all moves towards independent working class Political action. This explains LaFol- lette’s undermining the St. Paul Con- vention and his attack on the Com- munists. Workers Do Organize But no wholesale dabbling in the glorification of the non-partisan ap- peal by fraudulent: progressives can change the course of economic de- velopment. Capitalist industry itself, and not evil men or bad spirits, gives rise to an increasingly sharpening class struggle. Capitalism itself tends to lay the firm foundation for the or- ganization of the workers as a class, along political lines. It is the very experiences of the workers in their struggle with all strata of the employing class that give rise to and prepare the ground for the working class setting up its own governing, state apparatus. Thése conditions and such experiences de- termine the character of the new state machinery organically and best suited to guarantee the rule of the working class towards the end of building a social order free from the econqmic class divisions of exploiters and ex- ploited—Communism. AS WE SEE IT (Continued from Page 1) out), and the Dominions beyond the seas, will reside temporarily in a swimming pool located on the Bur- den estate on Long Island, New York. The report did not say whether the prince’s natatory exercises will be turned to good financial acount by his keepers. We have not the slightest doubt but that Great Britain could pay off its obligations to the United States *| by inviting the public to have a lgok at His Royal Highness, at let us say, ten dollars a peep and one hundred dollars for a good substantial look, the prince exhibiting as much of his person as the Society for the Preven- tion of Cruelty to Animals would per- mit. Judging by the amount of space given to His Royal Uselessness by the capitalist press, he would attract more interest than the three man-eating savages, on exhibition in Riverview Park. O ye (me HOULD Gompers die now, a great big question mark would follow him to his grave. What is exciting a large section of the politically animat- ed citizens of the United States is: what induced Mr, Gompers to throw in his lot with Don Quixote LaFol- lette, sworn foe of the trusts and of the “predatory interests.” It is true that Robert never gets beyond the swearing stage with the capitalists and none of them experience an un- pleasant sensation around the, gizzard at the thought of his occupying the White House, but besides capitalists there are also professional politicians who have their own private axes to grind as well as acting the part of general grinders for the capitalist class, So the present capitalist serv- ants look on “Barkin’ Bob” with mis- givings. They “view him with alarm” so to speak, because he may jockey them out of their jobs as capitaliam's favorite ints. . * . UT Sam Gompers, Trusts are his meat, even tho he “skins” the Beef Trust once in a while. But must he not show the enemy that his toma- as little as possible. Of course, Sam- uel would make an important excep- tion. If labor, for instance, wanted to change places with capital, that is, become the ruling power, Sam would then not alone excuse the government for butting in on the side of capital, but would head a deputation urging the army to take action in defense of the status quo. But in ordinary cir- cumstances, Sam as one who arro- gates to himself the right to pose as chief labor manager, one whose job it is to sell the workers to the highest bidder, he resents the interference of th government. referee! 7 © AFOLLETTE slams the trusts. He wants us to go back to '76. He would repeal the Sherman anti-trust laW. He would do other things. “Pif- fle!” snorts Gompers. Sam says the trusts are alright. The Sherman anti- trust law is all wrong. Go back to ‘|'76. Well, perhaps he might be will- ing to go back when there are no re- strictions on the sale of booze, but otherwise Sam is traveling with the big tent. He may grind his teeth once in a while at some particular capital- ist, but the system is alright. Mark Hanna was not a bit out-of the way, when he called Gompers one of his “trusted labor lieutenants.” That his- toric phrase was uttered some twenty or more years ago. ied still good. ~ > E DAILY WORKER was of the opinion that Gompers jumped on the LaFollette bandwagon in order to capture the show. His own circus was losing its novelty, and ‘William H. Johnston, manager of the C. P, P. A. outfit, was running away with the crowd. Johnston did not serve his time in the Salvation Army for noth- ing. He was a good circus performer. Gompers might have some ethical scruples against stealing the show, be- ing a vigorous opponent of the “bor- unions. But LaFollette was the class- ic “borer from within” in the Repub- lean party and the socialist party was boring from within the LaFollette party, and Johnston and Warren 8. hawk is still sharp? Gompers does not like to have the government inter- fere between labor and captial except |Sam could see augurs in all Stone were boring from within in the Gompersian aT eatatt camp, 80 It should act as ajsi ing a vigorousu opponent of the “bor-| Wood ' and the whole business did not augur any too well for his prestige as the Shah of organized labor. So he took out his gimlet. (i em ITH Gompers to think was to act. Being spurned like a faded pros- titute by the pimps of the Republican and Democratic parties, Sam acting as if he was LaFollette’s foster father, bestowed his blessing on the new crusaders, at the same time warning all other fakers that he was speaking for labor. A strange silence surround- ed William H. Johnston, and it was denly discovered that Warren S. me found the job of handling the C. P. P. A. LaFollette campaign fund too heavy for him. Leave it to Sam. And if any disgruntled LaFollette sup- porter talks of organizing a Labor Party, or even a Third bourgeois party after next November, he will have to reckon with Gontpers. Sam is a clever boy, if nothing else. ae Se sympathizer (with the author of this column) suggested that it might be a good idea if our readers were invited to id in contributions to “As We See It.” The author of the suggestion hails from Detroit and an By T. J. O'Flaherty idea coming from such an up-to-date Communist balliwick is not to be sneezed at. The invitation is hereby generously’ extended. But certain rules must be observed. First: Our readers must not try to be “funny,” tho humor and sarcasm will be re- ceived with open arms. Second: Don’t feel sore if your contribution should land in the waste basket. We expect to do a land office business and the competition will be fierce. Third: Be concise. Being tedious and long- winded is the prerogative, of the col- umn conductor. Fourth: Do not send poetry unless it has propaganda value. Poems about blades of grass, snails, electrons, atoms or ectoplasm will be frowned upon. Vermin however should prove an inexhaustible source of inspiration, as the supply is almost unlimited. This is not to be taken personally however. ing of vermin come capitalists and le- bor fakers. _* * ‘HOSE wishing to assist in turning out a good co-operative column should address all communications to THE DAILY WORKER, “As We See It” Editor, 1113 Washington Blvd., Chi- cago, Illinois. DAWES PLAN WON’T GIVE HUNGRY GERMAN WORKERS CHANCE TO EAT The extent to which Germany's trained industrial population is idle awaiting the arrangements of international finapciers is indicated by a survey of the leading trade unions June 30, 1924. This survey shows that over one-ninth of the German workers were wholly unemployed and nearly one-fifth partially unemployed on that date. Figures taken from the report show the total membership of the unions Under the head- , increase the competition which Amert- 4 direction | ment along the Dawes plan will vastly'the DAILY WORKER, reporting and the percent of each/can products will meet in world mar- My wholly or partly ers Winall ag Pk ed of German indus- © E ry at which the bankers are aiming German Unions «ship. San will mean an increase in the produc Builders Foren ae are tive power of German labor without a aca Workers 841-300 16.5 corresponding increase in their con- xtile workers. Bret] u suming power. For payment of repar- inters * fl 1100 1% u ations means that they must give + prion Ni away a large part of their product ‘Thus in the metal ‘indust on oe of the workers are wholly yoni bibesinr Fecelving goods trom pther ne- and nearly one-third ‘are partially un- |S 1" exchange. employed. It is this situation which y underlies the prediction that a settle-|_ Subscribe for “Your Daily,” __