The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 15, 1924, Page 6

Yage Six THE DAILY WORKER. 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 By mail (in Chicago only): 4 $4.50....6 months $2.50....3 months $6.00 per year $8.00 per year Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1113 W. Washington Bivd. J. LOUIS ENGDAHL \ WILLIAM F. DUNNE {“ MORITZ J. LOEB. Chicago, Illinois ... 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. GB 290 Advertising rates on application 1 ee A Little Brother to the Rich Prime Minister of His Majesty’s government, James Ramsay MacDonald, received a gift of $135,- 000 worth of stock in the McVitie-Price Biscuit Co., from his close friend Alexander Grant, mem- ber of the conservative party. That was in March of this year, shortly after MacDonald assumed office in the name of the British Labor Party. In June, a few months later, Alexander Grant was elevated to the peerage by the government of J. Ramsay MacDonald, and became Sir Alexander Grant. This is what the capitalist papers call an “un fotunate coincidence.” What they mean, of course, is that the present publicity is unfortunate. “Con- servative and liberal party leaders understand per- fectly Mr. MacDonald’s reasons for accepting the gift and intend to maintain silence,” remarks one capitalist reporter. Of course, all the old-time servants of British imperialism understand. Gifts of this kind are an established thing in British politics. The only ones who will not understand are the workers who la- bored under the illusion that they had put a “La- bor Party” into office. To suddenly find out that their highest representative is accepting secret gifts of huge sums of money, from the hands of a leading member of the conservative party, and from a man who later becomes a direct beneficiary of the “Labor” government, does come rather as a shock to the simple-minded workers who believed in the label “Labor.” Mr. MacDonald explains that he “was forced, against his will” to accept this gift because the cost of living is so high at No. 10 Downing Street, that even his huge salary could not meet it. He had to have a battery of automobiles to conserve his health. Mr. Grant presented him with the automobiles, just as a “personal friend” interested ~ in Mr. MacDonald’s health, and then added the big block of biscuit company stock to take care of the upkeep. “Against his will,’ Mr. MacDonald ac- cepted all these kindly favors, and, presumably also “against his will,” Mr. Grant later received a tit-for-tat in the shape of a peerage. Burton K. Wheeler must have had some inside dope on the British Labor Party. Last Friday we printed an interview with this American disciple of MacDonald, in which he declaréd for a third party in America “exactly like” the British Labor Party in everything but name. He said he wanted’ bankers, manufacturers, and small business men generally in “his ty, because, he said, he saw no reason for-refusing such little aids to polities as the offer of automobile rides which such kindly supporters could give. We trust that we are \not unduly icious when we entertain the thought that Wheeler might have known how it was that MacDonald was able to ride in automobiles while carrying out the policies of the British Empire in the name of a “Labor” government. like that of J. Ramsay MacDonald in Britain, The more we learn of MacDonald and his government, the more we are inclined to believe that such would probably be the ». The “little brothers” of Brit- ish capitalism and imperialism are being imitated as closely as possible by the American “little brothers.” Probably the most unkindest cut of all, how- ever, that MacDonald has received as a result of his venture into the biscuit business, was the wel- come into the capitalist class given him by Otto Nicholson, conservative member of parliament, who remarked before the Junior Imperial League, that it would be interesting to see if the newly- made capitalist, MacDonald, would now support the capital levy that is advocated by the Labor Party. “Defense Day” There were flags hanging from some windows and on a few wagons. The capitalist press tried hard to whip up excitement. The prostitute Hearst press outdid itself in jingoism. The pen peryert, Arthur Brisbane, was more asinine than usual. He used Jack Dempsey as an argument for prepared- ness. But Jack stayed at home during the great war. And his preparedness did not prevent Angel Firpo, the Argentinian, from knocking him into the press section during the early part of the big fight in Boyle’s Thirty Acres a few years ago. Germany’s preparedness did not keep the Kaiser out of the woodyard in Holland. It did not save the Czar from sleeping in the bottom of a deep hole in the ground. The American capitalists have planned “Defense Day” because they see the need for having better prepared and better trained cannon fodder when they need it in the next war to protect their graft. |Good Man Friday, 2 THE DAILY WORKER There were too many defectives to be separated from the sound ones in the late war. If the test was a success, we may haye them more frequently and “Black Jack” Pershing may not be retired from the “active list” in the army. Silent Cal may re-engage him. “Defense Day” is the pro- duct of his brain. So we are told. He is a willing tool of capitalism and progressive ideas are as wel- come to his brain as a lettuce sandwich to a hungry cannibal. The masses do not appear to be greatly excited over this “Mobilization Day.” Even the labor fakers know that the workers do not want another capitalist war. It is true that Gompers thru his Matthew Moll, endorsed it, but the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor did not dare endorse it officially. One Chicago labor faker, official of the Team- sters’ Union, got his beefy face in the papers by issuing an order advising all teamsters under his jurisdiction to carry flags on their wagons. The department stores turned out their thousands to join the patriotic exercises. The swaggering mili- tarists have their day. If the voters can be con- vinced that a bigger army and a larger navy is re- quired, congress may be more generous with ap- propriations. The capitalists are preparing for another war. It may be with Japan. It may be with England. Or it may be a war for the conquest of Mexico. Their armies will be composed of members of the working class. The workers will be used to forge the chains of slavery tighter than ever on their own limbs. But the capitalists, besides needing cannon fodder to protect itself against the foreign foe, namely other capitalist nations that covet the wealth of our native capitalists, need them still more aaginst the “enemy wéthin.” That enemy is the working elass which is bound to throw off the shackles of slavery that now keep them chained to the chariot wheel of the capitalists. This is the strongest reason for the frenzied efforts made by our ruling class and their military tools to turn the United States into a gigantic barracks. The capitalist government of the United States is keeping itself in readiness to defend capitalism against its natural enemy, the working class. The working class must also prepare to come to grips with capitalism. In order to do this, education and organization is necessary. The Workers Party of America, fraternally affiliated with the Com- munist tInternational, calls on the class conscious workers of America to join its ranks and prepare for the day when the workers of this country take over the power from their masters, and establish on the ruins of this war-breeding capitalist system a Communist society which will abolish war and the threat of war by eliminating the profit won the cause of all wars. The Reason Why Do you remember the sudden and terrific on- slaught of telegrams in the capitalist press about a new anti-Soviet revolution in Georgia? It was supposed to have occurred just about a week ago coincident with the opening of the assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. And were you wondering at the meaning of this new “revolution” particularly in conjunction with the meeting of the assembly? Well, if you were, if you couldn’t get at the significance of it at a first glance, so to speak, you can see it now. It is very simple, awfully simple. Here is the reason why: The league took cognizance of the Georgian revo- lution by passing a resolution, proposed by Francee, Great Britain, and Belgium, directing the council to “seize any opportunity to help return that country to a normal situation.” Do you see it now? The so-called great powers have been looking for an opportunity to step into the affairs of the Soviet Republics of the Caucasus for the noble and most humane purpose of return- ing these countries to a “normal situation.” “normal situation,” we shall of Harding!) that prevails in such countries as China, India, Egypt, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, ete. We would request youto look into the state of~affairs of every nook and corner in the world where capi- talist imperialism is holding sway, where the capi- talists of America, England and France (not to speak of the lesser powers) are engaged in culti- vating civilization by means of rapine, murder and robbery. We know what this normalcy is, and this is the sort of murderous business that the League of Nations is planning to do in Georgia. And should you further inquire into the reasons for the particular interest that the great powers are now taking in Georgia, we shall ask you to read the following: Indications that Great Britain and France are con- templating eventual intervention in Russia came up today in the assembly. The rich oil deposits in the Caucasus caused the big powers to renew an interest in Georgia coincidently with the outbreak of a revo- lution in the soviet s Itho during the last four years delegations of ians seeking independ- ence and support from the league have been turned away. The rich oil deposits in the Caucasus. That should be sufficient to explain the reason why. It’s all too simple this logic of the imperialist rob- bers. It is something like this: We have got to have new resources of oil. Georgia has lots of them. But Georgia is ruled by a Soviet Republic, by a government of workers and farmers, which intends to use the riches of its country for the benefit of the toiling masses. Therefore, move on Georgia. Fabricate revolutions and then send troops to sup- press them. This and nothing else is the meaning of this latest decision of the League of Nations to estab- lish “normal conditions” in Georgia. In conclusion we want to express our gratitude to the Chicago Tribune, out of which we took the above quotations, for supplying us with the Reason Why. Oh! Mr. Davis! R. JOHN W. DAVIS, the Wall Street lawyer and democratic candidate for the presidency, is grow- ing belligerent, almost revolutionary in his utterances. At least, so the headlines which feature his speeches would lead us to believe, At Grand Island, Nebraska, Satur- day, Mr. Davis cast himself in the role of a valiant knight who donned his armor and rode forth as the de- fender of the Holy Grail of our liber- ties. The constitution, our knight de- clared, in a spirit of high exaltation, is the defender of our liberties. It grants us, simple American citizens, “Freedom of speech; freedom of press; freedom for assembly; trial by jury; the right of religious worship according to the dictates of our con- science; freedom from search and seizure; freedom from conviction by bill of attainder at the hands of any legislature; and all that long calender of things that makes every man a free-born and independent citizen.” These we will never surrender our Knight of the Holy Grail of Liberty thunders: , “Never! Shall we sur- we surrender them at the demand of any legislature or a majority of the legislature? Never! Shall we sur- render them at the demand of a ma- jority “of Congress? Never!” And then our Knight rises to the high note of defiance and tells us what to do if these liberties are attacked: “And if we are disposed not to sur- render them, what is our guarantee and our protection for their perserva- tion? “It is that when any congress, any legislature or any executive passes a law or undertakes to enforce a law that would deprive us of them, we will ignore the law and declare that it has not value or substance.” That is good revolutionary doctrine, indeed. “We will ignore the law and declare it has no value or substance.” That is the spirit of '76, and of the Declaration of Independence, which said that the people had the right to alter or abolish a government which did not serve their needs, if need be by force. We will ignore the criminal syndicalist laws which rob us of the right of free speech and freedom of assemblage. We will ignore the es- pionage laws which congress may pass in war time, in violation of the render them at the will of the major-|constitution. We will declare that the ity of the people? Not so long as in- dividuals remain to claim them! Shall Daugherty Injunction and its hundreds of prototypes, which rob us at one blow of the right of freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of assem- blage, “and all that long calender of things that makes every man a free and independent citizen.” It is our right and our duty as free-born Am- erican citizens to ignore and declare of no value these laws. And if we thus assert our rights, what will happen to us and what shall we do? Our Knight of Freedom tells us: “And when we are arrested for its disobedience, what happens? We stand before the court and say, “This law under which arrest has been made is no Jaw at all, and we call upon you to so declare; to declare that our liberties have been invaded, and to release us from this unlawful cus- tody.” Oh! Mr. Davis! Oh!! Mr. Devis!! Oh! Knight of the Holy Grail! Oh! Oh! How our thundering, defiant Knight of Liberty and Freedom has fallen! We shall go to the courts! The courts that sent Eugene V. Debs to prison for ten years ‘when he dared follow your precept for the preserva- tion of liberty, Mr. Davis? And weren't you Solicitor-General of the administration in power and charged with prosecution of this case? The courts which have declared every as- Monday, September 15, 1924 By C. E. Ruthenberg sault upon the Bill of Rights constitu- tional! The courts which have held in the case of Benjamin Gitlow, the Communist candidate for vice-presi- dent, that the mere utterance of the words of a doctrine of social change warrants ten years imprisonment un- der the constitution! The courts which issued the Daugherty Injune- tion and hundreds of similar injunc- tions which are the worst form of in- fringements upon the liberties sup- posedly given the people by the con- stitution! Oh! Mr. Davis, Knight of Liberty and Freedom, what a farce you have made of your effort to be Mr. LaFol- lette and Mr. Collidge rolled in one— to compete with Mr, LaFollette, the exponent of recall of judicial decis- ions and Mr. Coolidge the exponent of constitution as the guarantee of our liberties. But beware, Mr. Davis. Your ap- peal for defiance of infringements up- on our liberties may be taken serious- ly by the class which suffers from these infringements—the working class. It may find other means of ex- pressing its defiance than an appeal to that worst expression of the class gov- ernment of this country—the last bul- wark of the property system which Tobs the workers of their oak Hed courts. Straw Ballot Drive Starts in Chicago (Continued from Page 1.) Communist candidates, William Z. Foster and Benjamin Gitlow, and the capitalist party candidates, Coolidge, Davis and LaFollette. The largest establishments in vari- ous industries have been selected, among them being the printing, ma- chinery, electric, clothing, food and packing, candy, mail order, railway shops, street car shops, automobile and building industries. The various factories and plants will be covered by Workers Party and Young Workers League members with- a nine days’ concentrated campaign. Each factory is in charge of a Factory Captain. This work will be done dur- ing the noon hour, when the workers are having their lunch, or at other places between five o’clock and seven o’clock in the morning when workers are coming to the shops or some And should you inquire into the meaning of these]. The LaFollette- Wheeler movement in the United |“8tificant words: States promises that it will give us a government | beg you to consider the normaley (bless the spirit plants are changing shifts. Dittribute 25,000 Ballots. At least 25,000 ballots will be dis- tributed during this Straw Ballot. The ballot is called the DAILY WORKER straw vote, one side of the card con- taining the names of the! United States presidential candidates and the other side an advertisement for the DAILY WORKER. Thus, in addition to the straw ballot within the main industries of Chicago, which will be a better gauge of the attitude of the workers than the bourgeois ballots be- ing taken at county fairs, etc. the DAILY WORKER will be made known to thousands of other workers. Straw ballots have but litle real meaning, of course,, since even the actual elec- tions are only of straw value to the workers, but we can use them as a medium for getting Communist ideas, literature, the Workers Party program before the workers. Then, too, it is another way of carrying on the Com- munist election campaign in addition to the street and other meetings. Distribute DAILY WORKER. The party in Chicago will follow up the factory straw ballot by organiz- ing squads to distribute the 10,000 Special Chicago DAILY WORKER edi- tion for the Foster-Gitlow campaign meeting on October 12, at Ashland Auditorium. The 10,000 DAILY WORKERS of that edition will be distributed free among the workers at the same factor- ies and plants which will be covered in the straw vote campaign. This is a logical follow-up of the straw vote and campaign to obtain signatures to place Workers Party candidates on the ballot in Chicago and the State of Illinois. Party Orientation Toward Factory. However, the important factors growing out of these campaigns of various kinds in the factories and shops is that graduually the party members will begin to think of carry- ing on the political work of the party in the shops, mills and factories and will get away from purely internal branch activity or routine parliamen- tary, neighborhood, middle-class work, | Instead of distributing the DAILY | WORKER or other literature from house tohouse and which takes a much longer time, comrades will take it for granted in time that literature should be distributed at the factory gates, either from the outside or inside, pref- erably the latter. In carrying on these factory campaigns, comrades are learning how much more effective the Comunist work is that way. If organ- ized politically within the shop, as shop nuclei, the work wil be bet: ter, far more systematized and organ- ized. Factory activity and organiza- tion is in the direction of real Com- munist activity. As such increase in-Chicago and pres party members will see the greater benefit and need of shop nuclei organ- ization and will work to organize the party on that basis. Comrades Asked To Aid. The party will need an average of 20 comrades a day to cover the vari- ous factories properly. There are un- employed comrades who could help every day in putting over the straw yote campaign and DAILY WORKER and other literature distribution. Com- rades should send their wives, daught- ers, sisters or brothers who can get off for a few hours during the noon period, to help out. The job is not easy and every comrade we can get will be needed. ‘The date of the straw vote campaign is Sept. 16-25 inclusive. Send in your name if you can help; also the days you can go to the fac- tories. Address the Local Office, 166 W. Washington St., Room 303, or tele- phone State 7985. You. will be as- signed to a Captain of the factory ana be given the time to report, etc. Reports of the straw ballot cam- paign in the factories will printea regularly in the DAILY WORKER. MacDonald Exposures Shock Great Britain (Continued tem from page 1) created a sensation equal to that which is now agitating British public life over the un- covering of the $150,000 dollar bribe received by James Ram- say MacDonald, socialist pre- mier of Great Britain from Sir Alexander Grant, millionaire Scottish owner of the great bis- cuit manufacturing firm known as the McVitrie and Price Bis- cuit Company of Edinburgh. Of course Mr. MacDonald has an alibi but it must be frankly admitted that it does not sound very reassuring, particularly to those British workers who have had to go on strike recently for an increase in wages and who were warned by the Christian MacDonald against causing strife in the country or striving for “material” things. Biscult King Gets Title. MacDonald was given the $150,000 worth of stock in Sir Alexander’s'com- pany shortly after he became premier. It is also worthy of note that Grant received his title only a few months ago and as the purchase of titles in England is an open secret, the con- nection between the title and the gen- erous gift is rather obvious. MacDonald’s own explanation of the affair is as follows: When he became prime minister, Mr. Alexander Grant, not then knighted, was worried about Mr. MacDonald’s health, and offered him a powerful and expensive auto- mobile with sufficient funds to main- tain it and pay the chauffer. His sal- ary as prime minister and the expens- es allowed by the British government for maintaining Downing Street, ac- cording to MacDonald's version of the incident, forced him against his will to accept the gift. The $160,000 was an endowment to pay the expenses of keeping the automobile. ‘This explanation might be accepted without even the batting of an eye, provided all Englishmen were imbued with MacDonald’s christian socialist ideas, but unfortunately they are not and already the radicals in the Labor ‘Party and the left wing elements in the trade union movement are call- ing for the head of the man who be- trayed them to the capitalists. The British workers are now begin- ning to realize that MacDonald had good and sufficient reasons for drop- ping the “capital levy” demand after he entered Downing Street. How many more members of the Labor Party government have been puchased by the capitalists is the question now on the tongue of every British worker who hag eyes and ears open? MacDonald received the stock to “endow” the car last March and the biscuit manufacturer received the title in June. In an interview given by MacDonald while returning from a golfing expedition in Scotland, he stated that he was considerably pained over the publicity received by the stock transaction. (Anybody in his position would.) He was not so ich concerned qpout himself as he was for the reputation of his good , Sir Alexander, who should be able to enjoy his title, which was giv- en him by the King, because of his munificience in giving away libraries a Is Andrew Carnegie. It takes as much money to endow libraries and keep automobiles in. gasoline as it does to buy a title. Conservative and liberal party lead- ers, being in the same boat with the premier, are not saying very much But the masses are disappointed. They trusted “Mac,” which showed that they lack discernment. This affair, has done more to disillusion them in their “hero” that any number of inter- views on socialism acording to Saint Ramsay. Some of the opposition papers, urge MacDonald to surrender the car, which would mean surrendering the “endowment.” It might be said that the car would be a public reminder of thegraft,whereasthe people would for- get all about it as they did about Lloyd George's connection with the Marconi scandal if the car is parked out of sight. Sir Alexander Grant, made matters worse by explaining the “endow- ent”: “I gave the car to Mr. Mac- AS WE (Continued from page 1) he actually accuses the Republicans of being crooks. He says they have not honesty or virtue and lacking both how can they be otherwise than crooks? The orgy of open graft that reigned in Washington during the Harding administration furnishes the donkey jockey with plenty of ammuni- tion with which to assail his political competitors, but we have a faint idea that two prominent Democrats figure in the graft, one of them at the re- ceiving, the other at the giving end. e620 UT for the “non-partisan” conduct of Edward L, Doheny and Harry Sinclair in bestowing their favors on Democrat and Republican alike in re- turn for services rendered, it is ex- tremely unlikely that Mr. Davis would be leading the “embattled forces of Progressive democracy” today. That duty would have*fallen on the shoul- ders of the beady-eyed William Gibbs MacAdoo, whose long nose smelled the flesh pots around which Harding's bonny buzzard’s hovered and whose long fingers found their way into the spacious pockets of the generous Doheny. The G. O. P. is graft ridden. But the elephant can stick out his tongue at the donkey and say “You too,” Ak Ales. “ 8. Rushes Ships to Honduras: * Land 100.” So.runs a headline in the daily press. And why does the United States rush ships to Honduras? The answer is: to protect American interests? Whose interests? The answer is: The interests of American bankers, and manufacturers who are exploiting the natural wealth of Hon- duras and the workers of that coun- try: Yet there are millions of Ameri- can workers who get thrilled when they see the pictures of American war- ships in the movies. They applaud as if they belonged to them. But the American warships never travel far to protect the interests of the work- ers. y Ne American Charge 4’ affaires, in Honduras has warned the rebel leader, Gen, Gregorio Ferrera, that Donald in order to save his health, for he was riding altogether too many hours in the crowded subways.” If the anger of the British working class means anything, MacDonald may need a subway to save his health by keeping out of the way. The extreme right wing in the | British labor movement has received a severe blow in MacDonald's expos- ure as a common grafter. The com- parison between his venality and the stainless record of the Communist leaders of the Soviet government is frequently drawn. While the conserv- ative and liberal parties may reap im- mediate political advantage from the situation, it will mean more for the British working class that this false image is knocked down, than a mere election victory. The Bolshevik-hating, christian so- cialist, democratic, church-going paci- fist, British premier, is now exposed as the Albert B, Fall of the Labor Party government. —$_. SEE IT By T. J. O'FLAHERTY, the holding of a peace conference is impossible unless they stop their ad- vance on the city of Sam Pedro. In other words the United States govern- ment will insist that the civil war con- tinue until whatever faction is ap- proved by Wall Street wins the upper hand. And then the rebel leaders will face the firing squad. When Charles Evans Hughes puts forth the alleged interference of the Soviet government in the domestic affairs of the United States, he evidently forgot that his agents were working in every coun- ,|try from Mexico to Argentine, openly stirring up revolts, when it suits the interests of American capitalists sup- pressing them when the situation is the reverse. ee © S nd Pious but bloodthirsty fraud, Cardinal Mercier of Belgium, who aided the Allies so well during the world war is again misrepresenting Jesus. Like all the sky pilots who howled for blood during the great car- nage, the Cardinal is now as vigor- ously howling for peace. He makes exceptions tho. The “notorious Com- munists” are the exceptions. Boshey- ism, ‘8 the worthy peddler of spirit- ual dope, is radically atheistic. “Christ and He alone is King of peace.” Too bad the bloodthirsty cardinal did not |remeber this in 1914 when the Ger- mans invaded Belgium. He might have left the defense of Belgium to Jesus. Mercier, like the American windbag, Billy Sunday, is one of the foremost ranter against the working class move ment. Riusay MACDONALD has pub- lished a new edition of his book on Socialism. He deplores the ma- terialistic spirit which the workers have developed since the war. It seems they were more spirit prior to the year 1914. But tod: they oftentimes are tempted to vio. lence in their struggles against the capitalists. The workers in MacDon- ald’s opinion should suffer in silence rather than dislocate the social ma- chinery by unseemly quarreling with the capitalists. What a disgusting hypocrite!