The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 25, 1924, Page 6

Campaign Notes of a. District By ARNE SWABECK. tt] A FOLLETTE or Foster,” said the secretary of the miners’ lo- cal at Johnston City, Ill. to me, “is the issue amongst the Illinois miners in this election. As far as we are con- cerned the old parties are not consid- ered, we are thru with them.” He was a LaFollette supporter. This statement vividly illustrated the distance traversed in rapid tempo during a short span of political de- velopment in this country. LaFol- lette versus Foster—the representa- tive of the small capitalists and cer- tain sections of the labor aristocracy or the representative of the revolu- tionary proletariat—that is the issue which demands a definite decision by the workers, not only now but after this election as well. It represents a certain analogy with conditions of the politically more developed countries of Europe. An intensive struggle for the leadership of the masses of work- ers between the socialist traitors and their supporters, the labor bureau- crats, and the petty bourgeoisie on the one hand and the Communists on the other, preceding the establishment of a real united front for the victory over capitalism. * ¢ Perhaps the beginning of this strug- gle was more clearly indicated thru the Chicago factory straw vote con- ducted by the local Workers Party. First the general break away from the old parties and secondly the heated debates as to the issue—LaFollette versus Foster. The great majority of the factory workers canvassed by this straw vote and even a good proportion of office workers employed by the same con- cerns showed that they were thru with such outstanding tools of capi- talist exploitation as Coolidge and Davis. While many would step up to the canvassers, indicating that they had taken the “great step away from their old party” and voted for LaFol- lette, whom some of the bosses call radical, others would proudly an- nounce “I am for Foster,” knowing that theirs was the class conscious part. Those were also the ones who would immediately sat out to con- vince their fellow workers that this was a class issue—Communism versus Capitalism—even tho the latter may wear the mask of LaFollette progres- sives. ’-_ *+ * Getting on the ballot by nominating petitions is tedious work. Yet the cir- cularizing of petitions offers splendid opportunitites to bring this issue to the workers. One of our Chicago party members confessed to me that nine hours’ work on one Sunday for one of the Communist congressional candidates had netted him only 61 signatures, but he had missed no op- portunity to explain to the workers the issues that were at stake. And then—nine hours, voluntarily, of such tedious work show the stuff that some of our party members are made of. Evenings, when our party workers went out to get signatures, time was too precious to allow for lengthy dis- cussions. One respectable citizen, after having signed his name to a Workers Party petition presented to him exclaimed, “I will sign for any- body except these d— bolsheviks.” Our comrade was in a hurry to leave but he managed to leave a DAILY . WORKER in this citizen’s hands and get the promise that he would read it. Butting into another family this comrade had no sonner mentioned the word petition than the man of the house curtly informed him that there was only one kind of petition that he would ever sign his name to, “What kind?” queried our comrade. “Only a Communist petition will do for me,” came the reply. Well, all adults in that family were immediately, signed up. Canvassing the outskirts of the city one young chap, in informing one of our party workers that his father was not home, said, “You may come back later, Of course, I cannot guar- antee that my father will sign his name ‘to your petition, you see, he is ruling in the case of our party. only a socialist.” * ¢ @ Seemingly nothing could stop La- Follette in his own state, Wisconsin. Nay more—supporéed by the Milwau- kee socialist party, bankrupted by the traitorous selling out of their official leadership, annihilate all working class opposi- tion. Although filing nominating peti- tions containing nearly twice the amount of signatures required by the state, his chief satellite, Attorney Gen- eral Herman L. Ekern ruled that the deposit their straw, looking slyly at}. names of the Worker Party candi- dates for president and vice presi- dent, Wm. Z. Foster and Benjamin Gitlow could not appear on the ballot. That privilege would be reserved only for LaFollette and Wheeler even tho they were ‘nominated in the same manner. Meanwhile the police under the jurisdiction of the socialist mayor of Milwaukee discovered that the “restricted zone” rule could con- veniently be applied against Workers Party street speakers, no matter what part of the city that might be. Never LaFollette was ready to _Capitalist solidarity knows many methods. When one fails another will be tried. And so when our com- rades of Gary, Ind., approached the banker who is in charge of the arm- ory of that city to make arrangements to rent the premises for a meeting, bringing with them the necessary to speak and for what party. Upon being informed that the speaker would be Wm. Z. Foster, the candi- date for president of the Workers Party, he said: “Nothing doing, Fos- ter is not a good citizen.” This was the verdict of a banker. Nevertheless Foster will be on the ballot in Indiana and he will also speak at Gary. The steel ‘workers will know that a vote for Foster means the first step toward class ac- tion. To many of them the issue La- Follette versus Foster has gone a long way towards complete clarification. The brutal capitalist exploitation, as particularly manifested in the steel mills, breeds class consciousness and continually strengthens the founda- AS AGAINST THE PROLETARIAT The United Front of Capital mind the regular republicans, the LaFolletteites and the Salvation Army that were holding forth in the same zones, Our party fought both obstructions compelling a reversal of the rulings on the ballot, and our street speakers, interrupted now and then by involun- tary visits to the Milwaukee police station, addressed thousands of work- ers. The names of our presidential candidates are now on the ballot while ever growing numbers of work- ers come to listen to the Communist message delivered by our speakers. Actual demonstrations teaching these workers that the capitalist face is by far the predominating part of the La- Follette movement. They are turn- ing toward the leader of the revolu- tionary proletariat—the Communist Party. . *e8 Strange enough, precisely the same methods to hamstring the revolution- ary workers attempted in the state dominated by LaFollette were pur- sted in Indiana, dominated by the steel kings, the Ku Klux Klan and home of the headquarters of the grandest collection of reactionary union fakers. But they failed just as miserably there. : The political lackeys and lickspit- tles of these dominant powers in In- diana secured an injunction restrain- ing the Board of Election Commis- sioners from placing the candidates of the Workers Party with those of other so-called minor parties on the ballot, giving their usual flimsy excuses for such action. It is in' to note that the injunction this time it could not stand the test. A demand for a rehearing finally re- Klux mayor and his Ku Klux helpers and sheriffs closed the hall on Mother Bloor, the Workers Party campaign speaker, and drove the assembled workers on the streets. He prohib- ited any Communist meeting in the town. Then the miners who filled the streets to hear the Communist mes- sage marched to the city limits fol- lowed by their wives carrying chil- dren in their arms. “A pathetic but impressive sight,” said an eye-wit- ness. Under the flickering glare of a lantern the.meeting was held That, however, did not end the fight. One week later Wm. F. Dunne, Communist candidate for governor of the state, spoke to a much larger gathering right in the heart of the town. The mayor of Madison, Ill, issued the same sort of an edict against Communist. campaign meetings and closed the halls. It only resulted in a bigger protest meeting addressed by Mother Bloor at Granite City which is virtually built together with Madison and ruled by the same steel trust. The numbers of this gathering was further increased at the subse- quent meeting addressed by Comrade Dunne, Surely great efforts are being ex- erted to line up the Illinois workers for LaFollette. Here is where this tion for the revolutionary movement. Down in Christopher, Dl, the Ku a confused rebellion against the strike- ‘Rockefeller lawyer and Eg amount of money, he asked who was. O i bor party has prompted many work- ers to look toward the LaFollette movement believing that that is it. Said the secretary of the big miners’ local of Staunton, Il. to me: “I am for LaFollette because I believe it is the beginning toward a labor party. On most of the other progressive is- sues I agree with you fellows. I am with you in the fight to rout the labor fakers who have infested themselves upon our movement.” He did not realize that the LaFol- ette movement has served as the main factor to defeat the labor party. While the LaFollette movement has two faces ready made, in Illinois it takes great care to appear primarily under its labor face, yet the state campaign committee is dominated by representatives of non-labor elements, Progressive republicans, republicans, progressive democrats, Irish-Ameri- cans. German-Americans, etc. Not that this composition is anything in- cidental or for that matter different from any other state. Nowhere has the manipulations in the pre-election maneuvers of the astute but visionless trade union bu- reaucrats become as politically cor- rupt as in Illinois. The labor endorse- ments of the “progressives” was skill- fully engineered \to include Governor Small; the champion among corrupt capitalist politicians; s “good roads governor” who ilds _ hard roads in the state paying the workers 40 cents an hour, working ten hours a day. As the mitiers, due to unem- ployment were compelled to engage in this kind of work, they realized why these were called “hard roads.” This Governor Small as soon as the zero hour for the filing of independent — nominating petitions had struck, an- nounced himself as a regular repub- lican; a supporter of Coolidge and Dawes and all that Wall Street stands for. This, however, did not disturb the labor politicians in the least. They knew the game and are continuing their indorsements of capitalist poli- ficians. ‘ s ¢ @ Meanwhile unemployment is in- creasing in Wisconsin, Indiana and Iflinois. The big factories are laying off help, steel production is at a low ebb and many mines have remained closed for months. The workers are feeling the realities of the capitalist method of production. Two hundred Illinois mines have re- mained closed for more than six months, the remaining 197 are operat- ing, averaging one-third time. Forty- three thousand Illinois coal miners have been unemployed for more than six months, the remaining 62,000 av- erage two days a week. September, 1924, found 97,000 fewer workers em- ployed in the factories of the state than the same month last year. The free employment agencies report 142 applicants for each 100 jobs while 68 per cent of the entire working popu- lation of the state are on less than full-time schedule—starvation and misery ’in prospect. From the old parties nothing can be expected. From the captalist govern- ment or the capitalist manufacturers’ organizations nothing but ruthless prosecution of the capitalist aims in the class struggle can be expected. ‘The LaFollette movement offers no hope of relief for this prospective starvation and misery. On the con- trary its avowed aim is to keep capi- talism in power and maintain the capitalist system of production. Only the Workers Party organizes and pre- PSYCHOLOGY HISTORY, SCIENCE, LITERATURE Any Book in Print at Once. 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