The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 18, 1924, Page 4

Page Four THE DAILY WORKER. —————— nest Published by the DAILY WORKHR PUBLISHING CO, 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Til. (Phone: Monroe 4712) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail: $3.50....6 months ; hc months B: Hl (in Chleago only): 4 m$4.50...6 months $2.50...8 months $6.00 per year $8.00 per year Address all mail and make out checks to | THE DAILY, WORKER 1113 W. Washington Bivd. Chicago, Ilinols J. LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F. DUNNE MORITZ J. LOEB... {smn BALtOF® ome business Manager —_—_ Entered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1923, at the Post- Office at Chicago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879 <p 290 Advertising rates on application see Communists and the Constitution In the brief filed for the prosecution in the su- preme court of Michigan, 0. L. Smith, assistant attorney general, argues, in reply to the defense claim that the criminal syndicalist law is unconsti- tutional, that “He (Ruthenberg) should spurn any assistance that document might afford him rather than to plant his entire defense within the protecting folds of the document, by claiming that the act he has been convicted of violating is uncon- stitutional in six different particulars.” The assistant attorney general is of the opinion that Communists should not appeal to the consti- tution since they are opposed to that document and declare that the claims made for it, of pro- tecting the liberty of the American people and Probing the Slush Senator William E. Borah, of Idaho, is conduct- ing an investigation into the campaign expendi- tures of three capitalist parties: the republican party, the democratic party and the LaFollette party. The investigation is a fake. The three parties are tarred with the same brush as far as contribu- tions are concerned. It is true that the big cap- italists lean toward Coolidge. They know Davis has not the ghost of a chance, so they are placing their eggs in “Silent Cal’s” basket. LaFéllette is just as willing to accept money from millionaires as Coolidge is. None of them draw the class line. What is the difference between a Vanderlip and a Lamont? In“contests where the balance between the re- publicans and democrats is fairly even, Wall Street contributes evenly to both sides. As far as Wall Street is concerned, it has implicit confidence in both of the old parties. Neither does it fear that LaFollette will interfere with its business, but it does not like the idea of supporting a man who has so many workers and farmers in his train. Wall Street fears the masses. It fears them just as much as Threadneedle Street fears the masses behind the traitorous government of Ramsay Mac- Donald. Wall Street prefers the devil it knows to the devil it does not know so well. It prefers the avowed candidates of big business to the spokes- men of the disgruntled bourgeoisie. It does not like the idea of having querulous politicians poking their noses into its private affairs. But it can’t help it. The politicians know that the best way to attract the attention of the money bags is to begin securing them democratic government, are a sham and a fraud. The Communists, says Mr. Smith, want to overthrow the constitution and adopt a new constitution providing for a Soviet form of government, and what right have they under these conditions to appeal to our constitution? The answer is very simple. The only way the Communists can prove to the working class of this country that the constitution is a class document, is by showing them thru its actual operation that it never protects the workers in the excercise of such rights as freedom of speech, press and as- sembly and always protects the capitalists’ prop- erty rights. The constitution says: “Congress shall make no law abridging the rights of freedom of speech, press or assembly.” That sounds as if we have freedom of-speech, press and assembly in the United States. But the test is not the words in the constitution, but how it operates. During the war congress passed the espionage law which abridged the right of freedom of speech, press and assembly. The supreme court said it was not a violation of the constitution, provided that the speech or writing which was prohibited and punished created a clear and present danger of criminal overt act on the part of the reader or hearers. Thus the first test of the constitution, by appealing to it, showed that there were limits to freedom of speech, press and assembly altho the constitution said congréss could not abridge these rights. By appealing to the constitution and testing it in practice its high sounding words were shown not to mean what they seem to say. The test of the criminal syndicalist law carries the exposure a step further. In thecase of the espionage-law, the supreme court ruled that there must be clear and present danger of violence, de- struction of property, or some other overt act re- sulting from writings or spoken words to make them punishable. The criminal syndicalist law punishes the mere utterances of ideas or the mere statement of these ideas in writing. They make punishable the advocacy of a doctrine or principle. In the Michigan case the process of whittling away the rights of freedom of speech, press and assembly is carried even farther, and the state of Michigan seeks to punish for “assembling with” an organiza- by making trouble. It is the most successful form of blackmail. The Pacifism of LaF ollette The pacifism of LaFollette, like that of Ramsay MacDonald, is only skin deep. When subjected to analysis, we find it is no different from the paci- fism of J. P. Morgan, Calvin Coolidge or any other distinguished proponent of capitalism. LaFollette is engaged in a great vote-catching contest. Even if he had the intention of doing jus- tice to whatever scruples he has saved after a career in the political bawdy house at Washington, his socialist allies would not stand for it. “Fightin’ Bob,” speaking in Cincinnati, made his position on war quite celar. “I am not a paci- fist nor an advocate of peace at any price. I can conceive of conditions under which I would fight to repel aggressive acts of any power, that at- tempted to seize territory or imperil the national life of our institutions,” he declared. This sounds familiar, does it now? Almost like what Secretary of State Hughes would say! “Our institutions” may be situated in the state of Wisconsin, in the Philippines or in China. They may be the properties of the Standard Oil com- pany in Roumania or the dollars of the House of Morgan loaned to Persia. And the “pacifist” La- Follette would call the armed forces of the United States to action in behalf of those “institutions” just as readily as the “pacifist” Ramsay McDonald orders British airships ot bomb Indian villages in the interests of British capitalism. Soviet Recognition fOne of the most vocal advocates in congress of the recognition of Soviet Russia was Senator Wil- liam E. Borah of Idaho. Tho the senator made it quite clear that Communism was anathema to his American conscience yet he professed to hold that the principle of self-determination was worthy of resurrection from the grave in which it was laid by its principal supporter, Woodrow Wilson. But of late, the Idaho orator has kept quiet on the question of Soviet recognition. While the bearded Baptist, who runs the department of state, combs the sewers for his anti-Russian propaganda, the tion which advocates a doctrine even tho that or- ganization has not advocated the doctrine in the state of Michigan. The supreme court of the United States has had the question whether mere utterance or writing of a doeument can, be punished, under the consti- tution, before it for two years and has not rendered a decision. It has heard arguments in the Gitlow| case, which raises this issue, for the first time in the supreme court, twice, the first time in March 1923 and again in November 1923, but has not handed down its decision. Evidently the supreme court is evading the rendering of a decision on this issue. The Ruthenbeurg case raises a question which means the emasculation of the constitutional pro- hibition to a further degree than the Gitlow case. An adverse decision in the Ruthenberg case means that the fraud of the claim that the constitution protects the liberties of the people is still further exposed. The Communists raise the constitutional issue in order to make the courts themselves tell the truth about the constitution. There could be no better Communist propaganda against the illusion of “American democracy” than to have the supreme court of the state of Michigan or the supreme court of the United States tell the workers of this coun- try that when principles and ideas are involved which threaten the class rule of, the exploiters, members of the working class can be sent to prison for mere utterance or writing of these ideas, in spite of the constitutional clause, “Congress shall make no laws abridging the right of freedom of press, speech or assembly.” Get a member for the Workers Party and a new mighty-voiced senator from Idaho, on his once favorite hobby, is as silent as Coolidge is on the Ku Klux Klan issue. What is the reason? On what meat have our erstwhile valorous defenders of the “right of all peoples to govern themselves as they see fit” been feeding, that they have grown so dumb? We have not heard a peep from Senator LaFollette since he formed the alliance with Gompers, Vanderlip and Spreckles. The suspicion is growing that our gallant Borahs, LaFollettes and Co. who hurl yerbal thun- derbolts at the “predatory interests,” have lately been listening to their “masters’ voice” and are as anxious not to irritate the Wall Street boss as is Charles Evans Hughes. But the decision of France to recognize the Soviet Republic may knock the padlocks off the lips of our “progressive” “senators. Peace and Tin Soldie Secretary of the Navy Wilbur desires t the airship ZR-3 should serve as a peace symbol be- tween Germany and the United States. It is rather easy to talk peace to a man when you have your foot on his neck. The Dawes plan is the United States’ foot on the German neck and unfortunate- ly it is not the capitalist neck, but the neck of the German working class. The ZR is a warship, not a peaceship, While Wilbur drools about peace, the chief magistrate of the nation is presented by Rodman Wanamaker with a set of tin soldiers equipped with aircraft, which was manufactured in Ger- many and brought over on the Zeppelin. Wana- maker is a millionaire department store owner. subscription for the DAILY WORKER. ne. 1d, Tin soldiers and peace! \ ok HR pepsin dedetrae i — eee THE DAILY WORKER Saturday, October 18, 1924 A “New Volapuker’” as I.W.W. Editor By HARRISON GEORGE. “The mountains look on Marathon, And Marathon looks on the sea.” But both of them look startled, When fools write history. ‘We are moved to improve thus upon Byron by reason of the interminable nonsense filling the’editorial columns of the Seattle Industrial Worker, in attacks upon the theory of working class “leaders.” The most recent ex- ample, from the issue of Oct. 8, writ- ten by the editor, whose modesty we respect by permitting him to -remain unnamed, is the following distortion of history: “In the ancient years European culture was threatened by imper- ial barbarism, At Marathon the hosts of brute, supreme power met the democratic forces of human freedom. At Marathon, liberty, such as was then developed, was so jeal- ous of authority that its supreme command was divided among ten generals, any of whom only ruled for a single day. And this power of democracy met the idea of efficiency as expressed in selfish rule and so vanquished authoritarianism that the story rings today, and long sought victory is called a Marathon.” Aside from the rather extraordinary interpretation of the Athenian slave- holders being the protagonists of “the democratic forces of human freedom,” there are other and bewildering stu- Pidities in the quotation, which is a fair sample of the whole unintelligible editorial. Everybody, except this be- fuddled fool, knows that “a Mara- thon,” far from being a “long sought victory,” is the symbol of physical en- durance, especially in a race. We have “Marathon dances” and “Marathon races,” in which athletes of all nations join, not because of any military sig- nificance of Athenian spearsmen, but because,. after the battle, Phidippides, the runner, already exhausted, raced afoot the twenty-two miles between Marathon and Athens and fell dead. Browning has made it the.theme of a great poem. But when pedagogy combines with demagogy to confused the honest workers who read I. W. W. papers, silliness has its serious side. These workers, busy with dodging blacklists and getting a living out of Weyer- hauser’s lumber camp foremen, have little time to dissect the historical distortions of an editor, who was in- flicted upon them by a committee, im- bued with a sense of responsibility and impressed by a gray pompadour and a precise pronunciation. These workers are semi-weekly and gravely informed that “leaders” are threaten- ing their “democracy,” their “liberty.” They have none of these blessings, but, nevertheless, the editor warns that they are seriously endangered. These menacing “leaders” are usual- ly classified indefinitely as “politi- cians.” Many times they are disclosed as “Communists.” Nearly every issue they are connected more or less direct- ly. with “Harrison George.” And with what purpose? It is not that, as said by Lenin, “instead of old leaders who have a common sense viewpoint on things, new leaders are put forth (con- cealed under the slogan of ‘Down. with leaders!’), who prattle supernatural nonsense and spread confusion.” So we see that it is not a question (Continued from page 1) tories unite with the unemployed to compel the bosses to keep the unem- ployed on their pay roll. oes 8 UNEMPLOYMENT COUNCILS. The way to get relief for the unem- ployed is thru unemployment councils. The workers employed and unemploy- ed must unite to carry on a struggle for the unemployed. They must fight as a class against the scourge from which the workers suffer. Send delegates from the factories, from the trade unions, from labor pol- itical organizations, from groups of unemployed, and organize the unem- Ployement council to make the de- mand and carry on the struggle to compel the capitalist bosses and the government to pay the unemployed ‘wages. Hold mass meetings, send delega- tions to the shops and the city coun- cils, the state legislature and congress to demand action to relieve the unem- ployed. Put an End to Unemployment. There is only one way in which to put an end to the frequent hard times and the suffering it causes for millions of workers who are unemployed. That is by ending the system of industry which causes unemployment, It is because the industries are own- ed by the capitalist bosses and run for their profit that we have hard times so frequently. It is the capital- ist system which is responsible for millions of worker being without jobs. If we want to stop the periodic curse of unemployment we must fight against the capitalist system. It is the government which maintains and holds that system. It is by taking the governmental power in their own hands—by establishing a workers’ and farmers’ government and abolishing the capitalist ownership of industry— that unemployment can be finally end- ed. The Workers Party is the only party which is carrying on a fight to achieve WORK OR WAGES FOR UNEMPLOYED of “shall ‘we have leaders?” but of “shall we have sincere, levelheaded, able and revolutionary leaders, or leaders. who get out injunctions against each other in capitalist courts, who close the columns of our papers to us if we disagree with their pecu- liar ideas as to the economic faunda- tion of the Soviet form of government, or the necessity of international labor unity, etc. In short, shall we have good leaders or bad leaders?” Among the other qualities of bad leadership which should be added to the above, is the astounding perver- sion of historical analogy. For in- stance, the reference to the “ten gen- erals.” Herotodus, the only one men- tioning that such an arrangement pre- vailed at Marathon, unfortunately for our editor, goes on to show that only by the violation of this idiotic rule of a divided command was the battle won. Professor West in his work on the “Ancient World,” referring directly to Herodotus, says, “At first (when threatened with Persian invasion of Attica) most of the Athenians wished to fight only behind their wails. Soon- er or later this must have resulted in ruin. Happily, Militades, one of the ten generals, persuaded the command- ers to march out and attack the Per- sians at once. The result was due to the generalship of Militades and to the superior equipment of the Greek hop- lite.” There is little indication here of the “power of democracy” mentioned by our cross-eyed historian. The same view is vouched for by the Encyclope- dia Britannica, which says that, “Mili- tades, who seems thruout to have played a more prominent part than his superior, the polemarch Galli- machus, drew up the Athenian army and charged upon the enemy.” And again, “fie Athenians, on the recommendat/n of their strategus, Militades, ete. Nowhere is it indicat- ed that by the happy change of pulling straws it was Militades’ day to com- mand. In fact it is clearly shown that he commanded for at least three consecutive days. More, is was not out of the Athen- ian slave-herders’ great love for “de- mocracy” that the “ten stategi” also called the “ten generals” were given to history. They were merely tribal representatives to the central govern- ment, one strategus being elected by each tribe, and their functions were more, than merely military, having regard to all foreign policy, conduct- ing religious festivals and handling the trade in corn, Tribal jealousy of a folk living 3,000 years ago, appears as an excuse in 1924, for decentralization in the I. W. W., a covert argument for the secession of the Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union from the I. W. W.! Can there be worse leadership than this? : But even these ancient Greeks, so exemplary. in their “democracy” ac- cording to the Industrial Worker, never reached the folly of some of the present I. W. W., who insist that all officials, good, bad or indifferent, shall be retired after twelve months of experience in office, and a brand new lot, bad, good or indifferent ac- cording the will of the gods of chance, take control of the organization. True, this has brought the I. W. W. little but confusion and a sense of having that goal. It is organizing and mobil- izing the workers for a revolutionary struggle to end the dictatorship of the capitalists which now exists in Wash- ington and establish the rule of the workers and farmers. s Work and Vote for the Workers Party. The Workers Party is carrying on the fight for relief of the unemployed now and the struggle to abolish the system which causes unemployment. It is the only party which is mak- ing this fight for the workers. Cool- idge stands for the capitalist system and if need be will use soldiers as an answer to the demands of the unem- ployed. Davis will fight against the workers and for the capitalists. LaFollette, who is asking labor sup- port, hasn’t anything to say about un- employment either in his speeches or platform. He stands for the capital. ist system which causes unemploy- ment. He will help uphold that sys- tem against the demands of the unem- ployed. Workers! Join the Workers Party in the fight against unemployment and the system which causes it. doin the Workers Party in organ- izing unemployment counclis to fight for immediate relief for the un- employed. Vote for the Workers Party candi- dates, Foster and Gitlow, and demon- onstrate your demand for abolition of the system which is responsible for unemployment. Make the bosses pay the unem- ployed. Abolish capitalism which causes unemployment by creating a work- ers’ and farmers’ government, Central Executive Committee, Work- ers Party of America, William Z. Foster, Chairman. C, BH. Ruthenberg, Executive Secre- tary. Subscribe for “Your Daily,” the DAILY WORKER, Join the Workers Party! done something desperately demo- cratic, but the habit sticks and our Industrial Worker says it is good be- cause of the “ten generals.” Unfor- tunately, the Encyclopedia Britannica says that, “The strategi (ten gen- erals) acquired great power from the fact that they were frequently re- elected for many years together, and so had greater experience and con- tinuity of policy.” There is little left of our editor’s argument. However, it may be noted what happened to this wonderful na- tion whose “culture” of slave mas- sacres by the ephori, and whose lead- ing philosopher described the work- ers as “articulate instruments.” After the increasing “democracy” under Hphialtes and Pericles, the “discip- linarians” and the “brute forces” of Sparta fell upon the “democratic for- ces of human fredom,” ten” generals and all, and made an end of Athens. Let the Encyclopedia tell why. “In the ‘Peloponnesian war,” it says, “which ruined the Athenian empire, the issue of the conflict was deter- mined less by any intrinsic superior- ity on the part of her enemies, than by the blunders committed by a people unable to carry out a consist ent foreign policy on its own initiat- ive, and served since, Pericles by none but selfish or short-sighted advisers.” The applicability of the last words to I. W. W. editorial policy is particular- ly apt. But demagogues need no excuse from history for their meddiesome- ness. They continually play upon the sincere workers of the I. W. W. membership in an effort to convince them that they are not the leaders but the led. At least such is the threat they postulate. Yet, in jhe estimation of the Communists, the most obscure member of the I. W. W., who knows the rudiments of the class struggle and talks of them to the backward workers, the scissorbills around him, is a leader. ‘These class conscious fighters of the I. W. W. are leaders, and insofar as the I. Wr W. itself takes direction of the spread of revolutionary ideas, it is a leader of the class struggle, it is taking the function of a revolu- tionary political party. Unfortunate- ly or fortunately, its ranks have be- come so filled with ordinary workers that it mo longer expresses a clear revolutionary ideology. It is more of a union than a revolutionary political party. It fights for wages and not for power. So it is fighting leaders. We prefer, to the silly editorials of the present day editor of the Industrial Worker, the cry that rang from the deck of the Verona at erett in 1916, when the armed white guard, asking for leaders, was met with the cry, “We're all leaders.” They were in 1916, but not in 1924, Better than anything I could say to answer the ignoramus-cry of “Down with leaders!” put forth by this insect-minded editor of the Indus- trial Worker is the words of the great leader Lenin, who says: “People bend every effort to con- celve something extraordinary, and in their zeal to Intellectualize, they become ridiculous. It is common knowledge that the masses are div- Ided Into classes; that the classes are usually and in most cases led by political parties; ... that politi- cal parties, as a general rule, are led by more or les: ible groups of the more influential, authoritative, ex- perienced and Independent leaders, elected to the most responsible posi- tions. All this is elementary. It is simple and plain. Why then, this whole rigmarole, this new Volap- uk?” (Note: An artificlal language. H. G.) The only reason for it is, as men tioned, that under the alarmist cry against leaders, leaders of experience, ability and revolutionary ideas, new leaders, leaders whose devastating harmfulness has all but wrecked the I. W. W., are to engage in a fight— not to hold office—but to direct the ideology of the I. W. W. to mere job. unionism and against revolutionary unionism. The issue is not “No leaders” but “Which leaders?” Workers Imprisoned In Germany Roumania They are in for about 70,000 253,000 3,000 US who are out Their wives are blacklisted. They can get no work. Their children need help. Winter is coming. The class war knows no geographical boun- daries. Toda: OUR help. help. the workers of omorrow we may need THEIR urope need GIVE in the spirit of , Self Help and International Class Solidarity and get others to International Workers’ Ald, 19 So. Lincoln Street, Chicago, Ill. Here is my contribution to help the prison- “CFS Ofvenminmenineenrnmnnnnind thelr families, NOM cossscssccsssesssanssnsssotsannaseertssensssonenssctnnseteentannn w. whe ence a class is menace: by economle or na- tur iA ‘ 7 ’