The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 8, 1925, Page 6

(eRe hn eth cela enced inal hte Gi imeiear its sahsadana lished by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. 1118 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, OL (Phone: Monroe 4712) euesne oN, RATES By mall $3.50... if sotiin $2.00...8 months By mail (in Chicago only): $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 1118 W. Washington Bivd. J, LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F. DUNNE} veers DAItOFS MORITZ J. LOEB.......crssencsm Business Manager Chicago, Iinele {ntered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1933, at the Post- Office at Chicago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1878. <p 290 Advertising rates op app“cation The Dawes Plan Begins to “Work” The much touted Dawes plan is beginning to “work.” The unfilled orders of the United States Steel corporation fell off 421,000 tons during March, the head of the Bethlehem Steel corpora tion warns its employes that they will have to pre pare to compete with “foreign low cost labor.” There are close to 3,000,000 unemployed walking the streets of England while British manufacturers are placing orders for shipbuilding and other com modities on a vast scale with German firms whose workers are driven to the extreme of exploitation with long hours and starvation wages. The same story comes from France and Czecho- Slovakia. And now the Swedish iron and steel in- dustry reports a falling off of orders as a result of increased German competition. The Dawes plan is beginning to “work.” And to prove that it can only “work” by the enslavement of the German workers and the concurrent unemployment of workers of the other capitalist nations. Every capitalist “solution” of the contradictions of capitalist imperialism’s economy only changes and intensifies the disintegration of capitalist pro- duction. Such “solutions” only alter the super- ficial aspect, changing the scene on the drama. One industry or one nation avoids bankruptcy only at the expense of the bankruptcy of another. Their relation changes. The drama of disintegration goes on. And it is to be noted that—concealed among the blare of trumpets over the “success” of the Dawes plan—the German finance minister, in a gloomy forecast of German. economic life, states that Ger- many faces a deficit jn the coming year’s budget and predicts that the reparations payments can- not be met next year. While capitalist “solutions” only drive the sys- tem of wage slavery further toward its historic overthrowal by its victims, the economy of" Soviet Russia is improving with great rapidity. The con- ditions and living standards of the workers are now improved above the pre-war standard and still going up. That is one reason that international reaction is anxious to wage war on the Communist movement to stifle the westward sweep of Bol- shevism, if need be, in blood. The Dawes plan is beginning to “work.” Threatening China News dispatches from Pekin advise us that the forces of international capitalism are again get- teng ready to initiate another civil war in China. General Chang’ Tso-Lin, the Manchurian war lord and former foe of Wu Pei Fu, the defeated tuchtn of Chihli province, appears to be the lead- ing militarist on the capitalist payroll. When Chang tried conclusions with Wu last year, he was supported by Japan and France, at least morally, if not in a more material way: But the result of the civil war was not entirely pleasing to either Japan and France any more than it was to England and the United States, who supported Wu Pei Fu. The fly in the capitalist oihtment was General Feng, who is called the “christian general.” Con- trary to expectations Feng lined up with Soviet Russia and is the military leader around whom the forces seeking Chinese unity are rallying. Feng has now taken the place of Wu as Chang’s foe. Judging by political straws blowing thru news dispatches, Feng has the support of the Koumin- tang Party, the nationalist revolutionary party of | China, of which the late Dr. Sun Yat Sen was leader. The forces of world capitalism are looking with a jaundiced eye on the activities of Soviet diplom- aey in China. Only recently Mongolia formed a Soviet republic and big chunks of China are liable to break away at any.moment and become affiliated with the Soviet Union. The profit mongers of America, England, Japan and France, whatever their private quarrels may be, have a deadly fear of the increase of Soviet power in China. Hence it would not surprise anybody to learn inside of a short period, that the capitalist powers will at- tempt a coup de etat in China and establish a pup- pet government in Pekin which will make the vast mineral resources of that country available for the international plunderers. Already there are rumors that the embargo against the export of arms to China will be raised. A capitalist war against the hundreds of millions of Chinese workers and peasants will be easier started than finished. Behind the exploited Chinese stands the mighty power of Red Russia, and the Communist idea, that is by itself more powerful than armies and navies. We learn from dispatches telling of the execu- tions at Sing Sing, thatthe catholic priest, who had the job of holding, the crucifix to. the lips of the dying but devout vietims of the electric chair, Ww aptly named Father Cashin, , le Nia) q The Los Angeles Election The Communist candidate for the board of edu- cation in Los Angeles polled 28,000 votes in the recent election, This is a real achievement for the Los Angeles comrades and for the whole party. If there is one outstanding and stinking cess- pool of reaction in all America, it is this city of Jap haters, real estate sharks, retired brewers, moving picture actors, fat-pursed Iowa landlords and the Los Angeles Times. It is in this city that the cult of 100 per cent Americanism flourishes like the green bay tree and the Better American Fed- eration has more than once, so it claims, stamped out anything resembling intelligence in the public schools. In San Pedro, a suburb of Los Angeles and one of the great naval bases of American imperialism, raids on the I, W. W. and wholesale police ter- ror, have been commonplaces. Every so often the sailors and marines are turned loose on the reyo- lutionary workers while the press of California capitalism applauds. In such a center 23,000 votes for a Communist candidate and program means a good deal. It means that the Workers (Communist) Party is active, that it has contact with large numbers of the workers, that its militancy has aroused them ind that there is in this reactionary stronghold a real protest against the exploiters which will form the foundation of a powerful working class move- ment. Tt is not necessary that we exaggerate the results of our party’s work in Los Angeles or allow our- selves to think the battle is more than beginning: In such a city at this time a begining is enough and the Los Angeles comrades have shown that in spite of the obstacles they haye made a good start. \ The next task is to bring into the party the best elements with which contact has been made and to broaden the movement into a fighting center for the whole working class of Los Angeles and vicinity. P) Flaying a Menshevik One of the most brutally effective blows ever received by the stoolpigeons of capitalism, who, in and out of Georgia, have carried on war against the workers and peasants of that country in be- half of the plunderbund, was that section df the report of the British trade union delegation to Soviet Russia which dealt with the Georgian situa- tion. So fatal was the effect of this document on the pretensions of the menshevik panhandlers that a veritable shower of abuse has since then steadily emanated from the sub-cellars of Europe’s cap- itals where these menshevik vermin hang out. In a letter to the London Daily Herald, Noe Jordania, prime minister of the menshevik govern ment of Georgia during 1921, attacks Purcell, chair- man of the #ecent British trade union delegation to Russia and charges him with allowing the Soviet government to put blinkers on his eyes. Purcell comes back with a scorching retort ‘that burns the hide off this scalawag. 4 Purcell says: “Mr. Jordania’s abusive remarks about the delegation are to be expected, because their report has killed for ever, as far as the British trade union movement is concerned, the lying and fantastic reports about Soviet rule in Georgia, which he and his friends have been issuing ever since the Georgian people gave them the order of the boot.” Purcell’s interview to the Daily Herald in reply to Jordania’s attack can be read in another eelumn of this issue. It stings: Every day get a “sub” for the DAILY WORKER aud a member for the Workers Party. Towards Unity The general council of the Trade Union Congress of Great Britain, meeting recently in London, rati- fied the decision reached by the Anglo-Russian trade union conference: The decision agreed that a joint effort should be made by the British and Russian trade unions for an unconditional conference be- tween the representatives of the Amsterdam In- ternational and those of the Russian trade unions, with a view to forming a united international trade union movement. The decision also called for the formation of a joint advisory council to promote co-operation be- tween the Russian and British movements. The capitalist press went into hysterics when this announcement was made public. Tories furiously attacked the Russian trade union dele- gates in the house of commons. The right wing leaders in the unions and also the right wing of the labor party denounced Pureell and those who took the initiative from the British side in taking steps to promote the solidarity of the workers of all countries. That the general council of the Trade Union Congress has ratified the agreement reached by the unity committee, is significant. It proves that the right wing leaders in Britain have suf- | fered an overwhelming defeat. It is the most en- | couraging news that has reached the ears “of the working class of the world for many months. The TI, W. W. marine transport workers at San Pedro, California, are reported to have actively as- sisted the Workers (Communist Party to make |the party election meetings at the harbor a suc cess. While this is, of course, the unofficial aetion of the membership, which has learned in the bit- ter struggle with the capitalist state that the Communists have the same rlutionary goal as they have, and they have a more realistic way of waging the struggle and, after all, are not so in- tent on getting votes as to’ rouse the masses of workers to struggle. roca 'THE DAILY WORKER FERDINAND LASSALLE’S CENTENARY By HERMANN DPUNCKER (Berlin). OES Ferdinand Lassalle belong to the ranks of great Communists from Marx to Lenin? It is true that Lassalle who was by seven years the younger, called himself Marx’ disci- ple, looked up to Marx as the leader of the party and earnestly sought his friendship; nevertheless Lassalle was never a Marxist, either in his funda- mental philosophical attitude or in his political tactics. This became glaringly evident on. various occasions, and only Lassalle’s early death prevented Marx. and En- gels from public! disowning him dur- ing ‘his lifetime, and meting out politi- cal justice to hi as to a Proudhon or a Bakunin. Later on, Marx, in a pitiless way, ran down Lassalle in i. letter to Kugelmann (1865) and, the marginal noted to the Gotha ind gram, the program for an alliance between the Bebél- ‘Liebknecht group at Eisenach and Lassalle’s partisans (1875), he smashed the essential points of Lassalle’s theory into smith- ereens. : HE leaders of social democracy, which pretend,to be Marxist, in- deed concealed hoth condemnations from the mass of their members for many years. The marginal notes were only published 16yyears later, the let- ter to Kugelmann 17 years after the other letters had: been printed. Even in the Marx-Engels corre- spondence certain very harsh expres- sions against Lassalle seem to have been suppressed by the publisher. This is how the socialist party of Ger- many guards against any wrong being done to its party saint Lassalle. As a matter of fact, the socialist party of Germany has much more in common with Lassalle than with Marx, altho now it is far behind Lassalle in “prac- tical politics” and can no longer claim to be heir to his views, for he was at least always a bitter opponent of the bourgeois party. ASSALLE was no doubt an emi- nent personality, a man of genius. Possessed of titanic ambition, of an extraordinary passion for work, of quick intellectual grasp, a clever and witty writer, one of the greatest ora- tors of history—all qualities which made Lassalle prominent in the bar- ren field of the intellectual life of the day in Germany, it is easy to un- derstand how he must have struck 1 around him, how such extraordim ry homage and admiration was paid A bags (By, Sian -—There is con- siderable animation now in this city in connection with the elections to the Moscow Soyiet and to the dis- triet Soviets, The streets are full of groups of electors who after the conclusion of the election meeting demonstrate with banners and posters bearing variou devices in front of the Moscow Soviet building in the Soviet Square to cheer the representatives of the proletarian power. The present élections stand out be- cause of the exceptionally large num- ber of electors participating in them. The partici; rs are not only those who are organ: in trade unions and not only manual and office workers employed in enterprises and institu- tions, but also groups of unorganized workers. OUSEWIVES, persons engaged in home: industries, carmen and cab- men, doctors, ete, in fact groups hitherto outside the political and so- cial life, but which, having realized the importance ofvthe role of the Soviets in the construetion of the new state and the meanjhg of the participation of the workers;in the construction of the new life, felt impelled to take an active part in such construction, and to neminate. their own candidate to the Soviets, , The Moscow Soviets show better Ise the superiority of m and the full value ients of the October ystem has abolished d any other special has given the right jose Who work, ork and gain their existence without eX- ive now the right to elected to the Soviets, te in the government is no other quali- the property ” qualification to vote to all of the state, fication, The electioy “figures to hand show that 95 per cent of the workers took part in the Moscow elections. » By its large seale election campaign the Moscow Soviet has brought about the’ participation of a large number of non-party persons in the elections, and it has shown from the beginning how keen non-party workers are to do their duty as citizens, the Moscaw districts, about 50 per cent of the candidates elected to the Soviets non-party. As com- pared with ldst year, the number of women electéed!to the Soviets has also very much ingreased. A characteristic feature of the pres ent elections, which speaks for the activity of the masses, is the large number of addenda to the election pro- gram of the to the Soviets, (APRIL 1 him. The greater men with whom he might have been compared, Marx and Bngels, had been abroad since 1849, and were thus remote from Lassalle. Lassalle had remained in Germany as the last of the Mohicans of the Com- munist revolutionaries. No wonder op the self-consciousness. which characterized him even in his youth gradually assumed dimensions which led to painful conflicts and.thus modi- fled even his view of life in a way which made it still more difficult for him to accept the materialistic con- ception of history. An idealistic con- ception of history was more in keep- 4iig with his mental attitude, one that regards the great personality as the bearer and manifestation of the spirit of his time and, in a certain sense, “makes history.” “You see here the remarkable spectacle of an agitation which has seized hold of the masses, which has roused a whole nation to take a stand passionately on one side or the oth- er—all this emanating from the con- science of a single man.” (Speech at the Dusseldorff trial, 1864.) IHUS, Lassalle could, on one occa- sion (1860) write to Marx: “Hatred in the masses can accomplish any- thing, if only there are five people in. the whole country who possess under- standing also.” This is a Nietzschean- ism which defies all socialism and shows a complete want of understand- ing of the significance and the nature of a revolutionary “party.” Lassalle is possessed by an “ideologism”—as Marx once called it—which constantly limits his sotial discernment. This had the most serious consequences in his idealistic worship of the state, and in this connection led to the worst derailments in practical politics. ASSALLE cannot boast of a com- pletely uniform philosophical and political view of life. He was an eclectic in the grand style, who today was under the spell of Marx, tomor- row under that of Rodbertus, but was never free from that of Hegel. . In a letter to Marx, Lassalle refers to Hegel’s conception of history, “to which I subscribe in all essentials.” The spirit, the spirit of the people, expresses itself in history, embodies itself in the moral community, the state. On one occasion, Lassalle ré- fers to science as “a neutral territory, a sanctuary which must on no ac- count be devastated by the storm of political hatred.” It seems that the state is to Lassalle almost another such “neutral territory.” This does not indeed.prevent Las- salle on the other hand, in one of his These addenda touch on social con- ditions, municipal economy, national education and health. Another feature which deserves mention is the friendly spirit exist between the non-party and party elec- tors, which has created an atmosphere of.mpanimity and has eliminated” all antagonism. A apes non-party masses have had _every opportunity during the years of Soviet government to realize that the Russian Communist, Party is the only true champion of the workers and that it is due to its guidance that the Union of Soviet Republics has grown in strength politically and econ- omically. The rapid development of the re- construction of the municipal economy of Moscow and for the gubernias, which compares favourably with the better than anything else the efficieng; of the party as a guide and leader, ENCE, the elections show non-party masses have accepted ist Party—the vanguard of the work- ing class. these years set the example to the past, shows to the workers of Moscow } laboration is reported in a recent issue The Moscow Soviet which has all 1th, 1825) writings, from representing the “ac- tual conditions of power” in: a very telling way as the native soil of con- stitutions. Lassalle believes in revo- lution, but does not want to bring it about,-but, to “humanize and civilize it.” Lassalle organizes the working class by the formation of the General German Labor Association on’ May 22, 1863, but emphatically declines the thought of a dictat6rship of the pro- letariat. In his speech, “The \Work- er’s Reader” (1863) he protests against “the enormity of having called upon the working classes to aim at a class supremacy over the other classes.” HE liberation of the working class can only be effected by the work- ing class itself. Lassalle repeatedly violates even this essential Marxist doctrine of the later First Internation- al, Besides his passionate appeal to thé working class, hope for help from above, for the help of the possessing classes, finally even for the help of a “social monarchy,” is constantly crop- ping up. This places Lassalle as a utopian socialist, back into pre-Marx- ist socialism. “The fetters must be struck off your feet; but only in peace, thru the ini- tiative of the intelligenzia and with the sympathetic help of the possess- ing class,” exclaims Lassalle in his “Speech on the Labor Question” (1863) to the German proletariat. How did Lassalle imagine the real- ization of socialism? Universal suf- frage is to him the great instrument of peace which will make the state accessible to the wishes of the prole- tariat, without any necessity for the undesirable “wild proletarian revolu- tion.” The workers form productive associations, and the democratic state —possibly even the reactionary Prus- sian state will make the start!—con- tributes the capital: In this way, pri- vate capital will gradually be ousted by competition in a perfectly peaceful manner, and there will be no need for .|@ brutal expropriation of the bour- geoisie. On the contrary: “The workep will never forget that all property which has once been ac- quired is inviolable and lawful.” (“La- bor Programme” 1862.) HIS being Lassalle’s fundamental attitude, it is easy to understand his so-called “tactical evolution.” Las- salle wanted action, he wanted most of all to see universal suffrage estab- lished as the political foundation. The General German Labor Association developed too slowly for him. Bis- mark was already coquetting with the idea of universal suffrage. At this 2 yh ROR: juncture Lassalle intervenéa personal ly in order to stimulate Bismarck, the junker, to quicker action in this direc- tion, in order to make history! Las salle had a series of private political discussions with Bismarck in the wit- ter of 1863-64, And in the agitation of the last year of his life—Lassalle died on August: 31, 1866—he made more and moré.definite references to this help from above, in other words, from the extreme right. “All extreme parties have a natural affinity for one another,” he said in his speech at the trial for high treason in 1864. Lassalle for instance ad- dressed a telegraphic complaint to tion of the right of assembly on the part of a progressive mayor, as he. the “cartridge prince” with a personal petition—all actions which td a lutionary like Marx would” r seemed absolutely impossible. Mark indeed jeered, with bitter justifica- tion, at the “practical politician” Las- salle, who “wanted to play the part of the Marquis of Posa of the prole- tariat with the Philipp II of the Uck- ermark.” (Letter to Kugelmann 1866.) HAT which Lassalle with his own hand wrote in 1865 in his letter to Marx and Engels about his Sickingen drama, came to pass in a terrible way on Lassalle himself; _ “For in the final analysis, Siokin- gen’s diplomatic amalgamation of his insurrection with his non-revolution- ary action, and the failure of the for- mer, arose just from the fact that he was unable in his heart to make a final break with the past, with which he himself was still connected and which he represented.” Lassalle’s political legacy had fur ther disastrous effects on German ‘s0- cial demcoracy. It euphemized that attitude towards the bourgeois state which was finally, but in a more cynic- al way, expressed by revisionism, and, since 1914, has been sanctioned be fore the whole world as the supreme political practical policy of the soctal- ist party of Germany within the peace- ful precincts of the coalition Polley. Lassalle’s nationalism and Bernstein's reformism form the theoretical points of support of opportunism against Marxism. It is thus no mere coinci- dence that in the present-day socialist party of Germany a new Lassalleism has been spreading for some time and that from that side the slogan is heard: Back to Lassalle!—whereas the class conscious. proletariat of the Third International cries: Forward to Marx and Lenin! tions demonstrate to the whole world what a workers’ government means and what power and force there is in the Russian Communist Party which | has the support of enormous numbers of non-party workers ready at any time to lay down their lives for the Soviet government and for the preser- vation of all the achievements of the October revolution. OR Soviet power is the slogan of the present elections. “Long Live the Russian Communist ‘Party. Such is the desire of all hon- Plan to Have the “Union Scale” Slide with Bosses’ Profits An interesting wrinkle in class col- of the Film Daily, the leading trade journal of the motion picture indus Very seldom, do trade union affairs get mention, or especially favorable the leadership of the Russan Commun-| mention, in its columns. Yet here is a-union, a brand new union, that is spoken of in very friendly terms. It is to be an industrial union at that, taking in operators, musicians, Soviet of other towns, will in its pres-|door men, janitors, ushers and what ent composition work no doubt as|not. But its seale is to be very elastic energetically as before in the interests of the working class population, which, having in the Soviets representatives | makes a killing, wages will go up, if of all its groups, will be able to take cipal economy and with the improve- ment of social conditions. Day after day the results of the elec- as as mae Monee court, Brace & Co, $2. oe oueo movement. Such a a volume is Sin- clair Lewis's latest, his Arrowsmith, Arrowsmith reveals the doctor in the salesman, So many of the doctors after all are not so different from fell, rather than scientists with useful knowledge for a suffering world. RROWSMITH gives close ups of UL? SS Arrowsmith, by Sinclair Lewis, Har- HE fellow who gets a large part of the income of many workers is Ye Old Family Doctor, so a book that tells how the doctor runs his business is of particular interest to the labor all his varieties even more fully than Babbitt does the real estate man and’ tors and salesmen. They are first of all businessmen with something to the country practioners chatting and is to depend upon the amount of profit that the boss makes. If he there is a slump, they are to slide. an active part in the work connected |It is explained that this will auto- with the further development of muni- | matically grade the workers according to ability, the less able gravitating to- ward the cheaper houses and eventual- ly out of the industry. ¥ — together about collections; the medical student who figu that this pathology stuff may be all right ‘lettions to the Moscow Soviet est non-party workers who go home at: ter the elections echoing these senti- ments. ‘Then the election excitement will be replaced by the everyday work of the newly elected Soviet members thé same slogans will guide them in their endeavor to achieve maximum suc- cesses in their work. The present elections are the clever- est and most convincing demonstra- tion of the consolidation and the might of the Soviet power.—A, hiasiueo A Kudrin. There is net so very much differ- ence from the proposal of the leaders of the miners and other unions to cut wages to enable their employers to “compete” with their own mines in non-union flelds. These-are union lead- ers after the bosses own heart, W Bulgarians Fight Over Legacies LONDON, May 6.—A hearing at- tended by a large number of titled persons was held Thursday at Via- reggio, a dispatch to the Morning Post today related. The former Em- press Zita, King Boris of Bulgaria, Louisa, first wife of King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, and a number of princes and princesses, gave testimony in a dispute over legacy payments made to his staff by the will of the late Duke of Parma. we Denied Air Post to ‘Poet ROME, May 6.—It was officially denied today by the government , the portfolio as minister of air been offered Gabriele Wannunsto, poet. McGurk Institute for search and finds that its” corner of the main stre’ power Go Getter principles, compromise was Dr. Pickinbaugh. “Bat Pie and Get Pyorrhea” got the bakers’ goat he ae quick to can the phrase. things as his professional career expands but his greatest disillusion- but his dope on the way to succeed is a smart looking office on the best of the sur- gical clinic where the business of sel- ling operations is conducted on high Sharpest of all the satires is that of the public health officer in the busi- ness of handling out the kind of public health advice that won't offend the business interests, Always ready to When the health department's slogan ‘OUNG Arrowamith sees all these ment is to come when he enters the purpose of free research into,the foun- dations of medical knowledge, quently thwarted by the soeial clim| ing and busin aspirations of its There are pure scientists, it is true, but theyre continually handicapped and fretted by the Go Getters, Yet real progress comes from what pure scientists get done in spite of | difficulties thrown in their: way, HE story is told power but it is m There is a warm ; young Arrowsmith and his who laughs with him at Measured Merriment,” bunko chaps at the top of slonal lndders.—Art a Bismarck with regard to the. lmita- — had also, as early as 1858, approached wey