The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 22, 1925, Page 6

‘ Pace Six rT THE DAILY WORKER Published by. the » DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO, 4112 W. Washington Blvyd., Chicago, M1. Phone Monroe en| SUBSCRIPTION RATES : By mail (In Chicago only): By mall (outeide of Chicago): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months | $6.00 per year $3.50 six months $2.50 three months $2.00 three months Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 1113 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, Il!Inols snot coated ove ast Seema mshi tha koe Rathi eit Nabi siee M J. LOUIS ENGDAHL onameseenesersmrerercenssnammanomnanaenssors MATIC WILLIAM F. DUNNE f she MORITZ J. LOEB.... Business Manager Entered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, at the postoffice at Chi- . cago, lil, under the act of March 2, 1879. wi 290 Advertising rates on application. | ——— Rats and Sinking Ships It.is a well known fact that rats desert ships that show a tend- ency to sink. The unsteadiness of the British tory government is illustrated by the report, that. several members of the. cabinet} backed by the powerful publishers, Rothermore and Beaverbrook, are} leading a political conspiracy against Baldwin, to put David Lloy¢ George, liberal leader at the head of a new coalition government, Lloyd George claims that only a solution of the land problem} can save the British empire from disaster. He now comes forward with a proposal to nationalize the land with compensation to the owners, extension of facilities for state credit to agricultural com- munities, reclamation of unproductive areas and a development of a small holdings policy. Behind the demagoguery of Lloyd George is a scheme to enlist the agrarian elements on the side of the capitalists in the struggle} against the industrial proletariat. The British ruling class have no better tool at their disposal for this work than Lloyd George. His were the slogans that bamboozled the workers into putting their energies into the manufacture of war munitions when the German military machine threatened the empire. The,men whose names are associated ‘vith Lloyd George in ‘the proposed coalition government are among the closest supporiers.of the fascist movement in England and the most outspoken enemies of Communism and the Soviet government.. They are Winston Church- ill, Birkenhead, Sir Robert Horne and the newspaper. magnates Beaverbrook and Rothermere who cook up all the Bolshevik scares for British consumption. The proposed political move shows that despite the tremendous majority secured by the tories in the last election, their strength has been shaken by the many er thru which England has recently passed. The victory of the miners and the leftward swing, of British | labor is undoubtedly .the strongest factor in bringing the charlatan Lloyd George out of comparative obscurity again. The British working class will undoubtedly keep a close watch on this mountebank’s movements. The Seamen's Strike Very encouraging news is coming from the headquarters of the Marine Transport Workers’ Union, of the Industrial Workers of the jis to talk of the role of one of the | a Communist society, | ploiters, | zines are used by the ruling class to | as the bourgeoisie tighten their grip By JAY LOVESTONE. O talk of the role the Corns | press plays in the class struggle, most powerful weapons employed by the revolutionary proletariat in the struggle for the abolition of the bour- geois order and the establishment of The capitalist press is an integral part of the state apparatus of the ex- The capitalist press is part of the whole mechanism. Side by side with the army, the naval forces, the institutions for mis-education, the bourgeois newspapers and maga- maintain itself in power. N fact, the development of a class press serving against the workers is as much a criterion of the power-of any national capitalist group as is the development of its spy system and military apparatus. The press of the exploiting class functions all the more ffectively, with all the more cunning, over the prol¢tariat. The press serves the capitalists as a fountain source for new strength, for winning over new allies, for poisoning the minds of the ‘workers. The poison pen of the employing class is one of the most dangerous foes that the proletariat has to con- tend with in its struggle. N the United States, the capitalists have developed what is perhaps the most effective subservient press in the f possession of any ruling class. We do not speak here merely of numbers. Nor do we speak here merely of the influence that one or a handful of the so-called national newspapers wields lin this country. We speak here of the extremely dangerous role and the almost immeasurable dynamic part played by the American press in mo- | bilizing sentiment for the exploiters |and against the workers. Truly, the | American press has altogether too of- jten succeeded in painting, the Ameri- | can government as a government play- ing’ a neutral and non-partisan role in the struggles of the working class. | The poison pen of Wall Street has on |many occasions served to paint’ the devils of:our ruling class as saints in whoge hands the safety of our work- ing ‘mass rested. One need only recall the part played by theseapitalist press in the great national°“strikes of 1922. We have not forgotten the myriads of sticks of dynamvite that the railway workers are Stipposed to have employed during the- $9220\shopmen’s strike. The out- World in New York. Already some ships have signed up under a new agreement with a considerable increase in wages and. better working conditions. That the shipping companies signed up their erews in the M. T. W. hall makes good reading. There is muth more to this strike than a mere increase in wages. There is the very important matter of international solidarity. When the British seamen who were betrayed by the traitor Havelock rages attributed to the striking textile workers were indescribable, even by I the bourgeois press. The coal min-| ers, ae were not spared. In Wilson wentt on strike they sent a call to the American seamen to did them. The M. T. W. did not take much time to reach a con- clusion. Their reply to the communication was a strike. . In the meantime Andrew Furuseth and Victor Olander, officials of the Seamen's Union affiliated to the A. F. of L. were waving their wooden swords and threatening a war of extermination against the Communists. They are now twiddling their thumbs while the ship owners are compelled to come to. terms with the Wobblies, who were wise enuf to leave the job of fighting Communism to the capitalists. The Marine Transport Workers’ Union not only won an advanced position for themselves in the international army of labor, by their class conscious courageous action, but they also. made. substantial material gains for the seamen who followed their lead. Which proves that belly crawling to the boss may be a good thing for labor fakers but not for the rank and file. The strike of the M. T. W. and the partial success won by it to date establishes that organization as the only mass organization of American seamen that is willing and capable of leading the seamen in their struggles for wages and working conditions. The American seamen .no doubt will give their answer to Andrew Furuseth, that whited sepulcre of hypocrisy, the American ally:of the notorious bootlicker Havelock Wilson of Great Britain, by lining up with the Marine Syransport Workers’ Union, the union that fights the employ- ers nationally and internationally. 8 Andy Mellon’s Melon Andrew Mellon is secretary of the treasury in the Coolidge cabinet. When he is not reefing his brow over the problem of liqui- dating his liquor business, he is enjoying himself and bringing hap- piness into many wealthy. homes with new schemes to slash the in- come tax payments of the ruling classes. The Chicago Tribune, under the caption ““The Popular Gardener” recently carried a. cartoon depicting the G. O. P. represented by Mellon, in a garden with his pruning knife followed by a group of happy children,, labelled “the tax payers.” A disconsolate jackass representing the democratic party is looking mournfully over the fence. A big melon representing boodle saved by Mellon’s tax re- , duction scheme is laying alongside a sign marked “Andrew Mellon Patch.” Men and women of wealth, Sehethee they are democrats or repub- licans rejoice over the success of Mellon’s tax reduction schemes. | Even Robert M. LaFollette, Jr., declared recently that the rich man is entitled to relief from “over taxation.” Mellon is their man, and rich prohibitionists will not begrudge Andy’s ventures in booze pro- vided he can save them enuf on their income tax to make possible a trip to Europe where champagne is cheaper and more accessible. Andy Mellon is concerned with making an easy life easier for the ruling class, and automatically making a hard life harder for the wérking class. Cardinal Hayes of New York declares that to test “nearly every human relation from the cradle to the grave by an economic valua- tion” is a reactionary step. There was atime when the cardinal’s successors tested every theory by the rack, the thumbscrew'and the men maiden. We prefer the ways of sciénce: tannins a! The Chicago Tribune now mourns that Americans pWitlowed all ‘wy ALEXANDER BITTELMAN. HE Bolshevization of our press is only one phase of our general task —the”*Bolshevization of the party. Hence;'{its ‘Bolshevization of our press will proceed at the same rate of de- velopment’as the Bolshevization of the party’as a whole. The sooner we makeour party a real Bolshevik party; the:sooner shall we have a real Bolshevik ‘press. Special. Problems of Our Press. However, the Bolshevization of our press. offers some special problems. This is: particularly true for our for- eign-language press. And it is these special problems of our foreign lan- guage press that we are going to dis- cuss in this article. Our foreign language press must become more American. In what sense? Naturally, not in the sense of the imperialist jingoes, or the American legion,.or the ku klux klan, Their conception of American- ization is not ours. To them Ameri- canization means loyalty to capital- | ism, submission to the government of Morgan and Rockefeller, betrayal of | the workers and servitude to the capi- talists. While our conception of Amer- icanization is the exact opposite. It is closer contact with the life and struggles of the American working class, more attention to and a better understanding of the problems of the clase struggle in the United States, closer unity between the foreign-born and native-born workers of America, and, above all, a more intensive and a more effective struggle against the rule of Amerftan capitalism. ‘We must be ffank about the short- comings of our foreign language press. We must say very definitely that most of our foreign language pa- pers do not live in the world of the American class struggle. They are busying themselves with nearly every- thing under the sun but the lives, suf- ferings, hopes, ambitions and strug- gles of the American workers. Considered from the point of view of newspapers, our foreign language papers are not bad. That is, they car- ry lots of news, good feature articles, etc., all of it of great interest to the readers. But consider the quality of this material from the point of view of the class struggle in the United States and from the point of view of building in America a mass Commun- ist Party and you will have to con- clude that most of this material, par- ticularly the treadtment of it, is no good. Our foreign language press must become more American. It must re- flect’ and explain the struggles of the workers in the United States first of all and only then, as a secondary proposition, devote its attention to the the allied lies during the war. Yes, apd,the few who did ad ke diet were thrown into jail, with the wld ee Tribune, " aur? particular interests of Pa srneeett . apnea The: Bolshevization HE DAILY WORKER the present anthracité strike, we see he entire capitalist press loyally serv- ng the interests ofy the operators igainst the miners thru the skillful propaganda that is; now. being made. The anthracite miners are supposed to be receiving high wages. The an- thracite miners are supposed to have big bank accounts: ‘Last but not least, the country’s coal bins are just THE SOURCE OF OUR NEWS overfilled with anthracite. NDER these. conditions, it is clear to the’ workers that they must build their own press. But precisely | because it is so necessary for the workers to have their own press, it appears that the difficulties are not realized by the workers who suffer most from the lack of a press of their own, ou language groups. Si paduty of a Bol- shevik is to se: firs! tot all, the capi- talists of his own country. A Bol- shevik press has predisely the same duties, Our foreign language come more political, . is must be- party as a This is true for the whole. In this instamee@, as in many others, our press mer reflects the general - political ii rity of our party, We must: becot tical. 4 Merely to report a item is not enough, important. It is also not enough mere- ly to express indignation or joy, as the case may be, at a particular event in the class struggle. What is de- cisive, what really makes a newspa- per a political organ, is the lead and direction it gives to its readers for concrete political action in a given situation. Some of our foreign language pa- pers carry a good deal of political news, internal and foreign. Nearly, all of them publish’ editorial com- ments and special articles on political events. But very few, if any, are giving’ real, syste direction to the masses as poli organs of a nplitical party. & The editors of our language press forget at times that the task of our papers is not alone to entertain, not only to educate, but maitily to crystal- ize sentiment and opinion among the working masses for Mefinite and con- crete political stru; against capi talism. We seem~ e losing sight of the fact that ow “papers are or- gans of a political p whose motto more poli- is: Fight against @apitalism; first, last and all the timéy Our press or- gans must therefor fighting or- gans. They must practical less6ns for every given ti be able to, extract for the workers able to extract workers from mB. They must factical lessons ery given situ- ige forward party policies and @ them upon the workers for action ff every phase of the class struggle. Our foreign lan- guage press must become more poli- tical. A Better Party Press, Our foreign language press must be- come more a party press. Here we touch one of the weakest. (or, shall we say, sorest?) spots in the make- up of our press, Bvery language pa- per is a kingdom bynitself. Of course, they all owe loyalty to the party. None of them will ever think of con- sciously going contrary to party pol- {cies and decisions. But all this is besides the point, "The fact of the matter is that our foreign language Press is not a party. press inthe real sense of the word. it, there is no uniform political in our. papers. ‘There is no political agreement, con- sistency or uniformity even within the limits of one paper. Every political writer has a policy of his own. It is clear that such a condition cannot..be permitted to exist in a Communist Party. Second, the life of the party is: very poorly reflected in our press. Judging by the amount of space that our party life is given in our press, by the treatment it receives, and by the general way in which it is handl- ed, one would think that the party is This is not) a sort of a fifth wheel. only bad, in a general way but. ab- solutely detrimental to the growth of our party and of our press. Third, the Central Exeéutive Com- mittee has, up to now not really di- rected and managed the affairs of our foreign language press. There has been no unifying and centralizing or- gan to transform our foreign language A working class, to succeed, must have a fighting press. It must be a press. which, speaks for the workers as effectively and as unflinchingly as the best of the bourgeois papers do for the capitalists. Class interests, the interests of the working man, must be paramount and must serve as the only source of inspiration for a fighting proletarian press. This, in ba f Our Foreign- -Language Press press from an aggregation of so many papers into a unified whole serving in a@ concerted manner the task and struggles of the party. ip The Bolsheyization of our foreign language press must begin by cor- recting these defects of our press. There will be created, as part of the Agitprop department, a special bu- reau to centralize and co-ordinate the work’ of. our papers. Party editors and party writers must meet in peri- odic conferences to familiarize them- selves with current party policies’ and to bring about the maximum co-ordin- ation and agreement in the carrying out of party campaigns. The Agitprop department will ar- range to unify the political line of all of our party papers. Td Bolshevize our foreign language press means at this moment to make it more American, more political and more party. THE TASKS OF THE COMMUNIST PRESS effect, means that a fighting proletar- jan press can serve and live only as an organ of a disciplined political group of workers. A real proletar- jan newspaper thrives only to the ex tent that it wins the confidence and support of the working masses.. This can be won only if the workers’ press sets the pace and serves as a sort of a lighthouse for the struggling work- ers, Such a press must be the mouth. piece of a_ revolutionary political party, for unless day in and day out the press proclaims the interests of the workers in all their struggles, and gives to these struggles the broadest possible basis, it cannot play a“ de- cisive role in the class struggle. ND here we consider the Commiin- ist press. A Communist press finds nothing too small, nothing too insignificant in the struggles of the workers, to explain, to interpret, and to utilize as a means of arousing the interest of great masses of workers and mobilizing them against their ex- ploiters. Concretely, the Communist press has the following principal tasks to achieve if it is to be worthy of being called an organ of a section of the Communist International, The unification of the workers, the co- ordination of the sundry class con- flicts, the giving of a political char- acter to these struggles, are all ob- jectives of a Communist party, the achievement of which depends to a great extent on the effectiveness of the Communist press, Specifically, a Communist newspa- per, should strive to: capitalist government and the bour- geois order. This must be done not thru mere abstract formulations of {grievances against the ruling class, |but thru such propaganda se will | broaden the outlook of the workers, as will deepen the hatred by the workers of their bosses, for the tan- gible everyday experiences these workers go thru. In short, the propa- ganda of a Communist press must take root in the objective, in the con- crete conditions, in which the working class finds itself at a particular time. 2. Make clear the traétorons role played by the labor lieutenants of cap- ital, the reactionary trade union bureaucracy, This must be achieved only thru bringing to light the actual misdeeds of these misleaders ef the working class, i 8. Be a leader of the workers in advancing their ideolgey along class lines. A Communist press must be 1 red press.’ It can never be a yellow press. A Communist press should never pander to the prejudices, to the political backwardness, to the bour- geois notions with which the masses of, workers may be afflicted at a par- ticular period. On the eontrary, a Communist press must resolutely and openly wage an unceasing campaign against this poison put into the body of the working class by the benr- geoisie. 4. A Communist press: must vinta to elevate the theoretical of the workers. A Com: must encourage the dsvelaiar st revolutionary theory among the work- ers. A Communist press must sys- tematically educate the workers, particularly their leaders, - Marxtem and Leninism. OE Communist press will develop itself into a real leader and teacher of the American workers to the ex- tent that all our newspapers and magazines succeed in these four main tasks. Our Communist press in Amer- ica will become a real steel rod in the lives of our proletariat, only when it suceceds in embedding itself deeply into the hearts of the working masses thru establsihing fits leadership on these four avenues to the fevolu- tionizing of our presently politically backward working class, Chicago Group of Novy Mir Worker Correspondents The Russian Branch of the Workers Party and the Worker Correspondents of the Novy Mir. By M. A. SKROMNY. oe is the first Worker Correspond- ents’ issue of the DAILY WORK- ER. It isthe beginning of a new era in the labor press, the revolutionary press of this. country. The revolutionary press in the Eng- lish language has lacked the worker correspondent, altho the revolutionary press in foreign languages has had them for,many years, The present issue is a great step forward, The workers correspondents of the Russian Communist» daily, the Novy Mir are proud to greet the English Speaking comrades with such an achievement, The Chicago group of | po workers correspondents of the Novy Mir has Jeo, in existence for years. In fact, i issue of ‘the Novy Mir soni firtoen years ago con: tained correspondence from Chicago Later on a group of these correspondents was organized, For the-past few years this group has been functioning as a well organized body, From a mere column once in a while the group has secured a full page two or three times a week in the Novy Mir. The group of the worker cor- respondents is not only seeing to it that all important events shall be recorded in the Novy Mir, but is ac- tually participating in these events. At all important events of the Rus- sian colony a worker correspondent is fotind. not. only as a correspondent but also as a delegate playing an im- it role, as for instance in the rebar ‘convention of the Russian’ chil- dren schools. Lately the Chicago group of the Novy Mir worker correspondents” de Sian ach cided to make ‘another bold,’ stey We decided to open a school’ for worker correspondents where the “green”* workers will be introduced to the mysteries of newspaperdom. Another innovation will be the Living Newspaper which will be issued pe- riodically, Detailed arrangements tor this are being made at the present time. It will be quite a big job, but we are going to do it just the same. It would be much easier ‘for: the DAILY WORKER to conduct such a school than it is for us, and we ex: pect to see this done, In the meantime we are prod of the things that have already been done by the DAILY WORKER in the field of inducing workers to write. We hope that our daily will keep on in the same direction, We wish it more success and power! Long live the DAILY Y WORKERI ” / t i \) 1 i } \} — 1 .