The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 12, 1925, Page 12

Sts 2 PS = By Elsa ‘Isa Bloch ALVIN COOLIDGE, in his message to the congress just opening its session in Washington, saw fit to in- clude—at the very end of the docu- ment—a few words about the group which of all the exploited working class of the United States is the most exploited, the most persecuted—the workers of the Negro race. HAT Coolidge had to say about the Negro in America is of im- - portance, not as an expression of the personal opinion of Coolidge—for it is not as an expression of his belief that the president sends this annual mes- sage to congress—but as indicating the trend of opinion and the probable course of action of the group of bank- ers and industrial capitalists who are behind this and every other expres- {sien of the government. It is particu- larly. significant as indicating the opinion of the leaders of that party which for over sixty years has been held up to the Negro race as its only possible saviour, the republican party. T first glance, the few sentences which the message devotes to the question of the Negro workers are without definite meaning. They seem —at first--to consist of a few doubt- ful compliments, a few meaningless abstractions, and a few half-hearted promises, to which no one need pay much attention, But look further. For every promise made to the Negro workers, some phrase is brought in a little later which definitely repudiates that pro- mise! What Coolidge gives to the Negroes with one hand, he promptly takes away with the other. Then look once more, There is not only a negation of every promise made, but there is actually a threat, politely veiled, but none the less a threat, that the government will not tolerate any attempt on the part of Negro workers to do away with the abuses from which they suffer. And there is a very definite assertion that the party for which Coolidge speaks does not for a moment consider the Negro as worthy of real freedom or real equality. “It is fundamental of our institu- tions” says the message, “that they (A Speech in Moscow). HAT will be the nature of future wars? The work done by the Military Scientific Societies of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics and in gen- eral accomplished by its military scientific-theoretical thought already provides sufficient material for us to give a fairly exhaustive reply to this question. The first element determin- ing the nature of any future war which the Soviet. Union may be com- pelled to conduct, is its peculiar so- -¢ial-class nature. The war which the ‘Union of Socialist Soviet Republics will wage, will not be a national war. It will be a revolutionary class war. This means that our army will not fight for any kind of narrow-national interests, will not fight in order to conquer or to encroach upon the pro- perty of other peoples, but in order to protect the conquests of our revo- lution from the attacks of the internal and external class enemies of the proletariat. This factor is reflected in our entire constructional work. it is just this which determines the worker and peasant class nature of our army. It permeates the entire system of our ‘organization, and finds its reflection in the méthods of training and teach- ing in the army and in a number of other practical results. Another characteristic of future wars will be their all-embractng and decisive nature. There will not be a clash over trifles which cafl be quickly ‘solved. No, the future war will be between two different social-political and economic systems, each of which ch ely Piece seek to guarantee to all our inhabi- tants the right to live their own lives under the protection of the public law. ... This does not in- clude any licence to, , . . violate the established customs which have long had the sanction of enlighten- ed society.” ND just what are these customs? Why, segregation, of course, and inferior education, and inferior homes, and all of the practices which make up the burden of social inequality that degrades the Negro race! These are the “established customs” of which Coolidge is speaking. These are the practices which he is so eager to have us realize are. fundamental to our,-present society. The custom of forbidding the Negro to live except in a narrow section of the cities, and the practice of mobbing a Negro who dares to go outside of this pale—as a mob so recently attacked a Negro physician in Detroit whose home was outside of the prescribed limits— these customs are not injustices,— they are “established customs which uave long had the sanction of enlight- ened society.” President Coolidge, in his eager- ness not to alienate any of the votes of the votes of the race-proud and prejudiced middle-class whites, and in the hope of driving a wedge into the solidly democratic south, is fol- lowing in the footsteps of President Harding, another representative of this same party, who in October, 1922, committed himself as “uncom- promisingly against every suggestion of social equality.” HE average white worker, uncon- scious of the burdens under which his fellow workers of the Negro race suffer, and the average Negro worker, unless he is trained to take note of delicate shades of meaning implied in a phrase, may see nothing significant in Coolidge’s wording. But the south- ern cracker, the northern real-estate dealer, and others whose profits de: pend upon. keeping the Negro down, will hear and understand. The Negro, says Coolidge, “should be protected from all violence.” But a little later on he adds that the “right (of Negroes) to live their own lives. ... does not include any li- excludes the other, How does this arise? This arises from the class nature of the Soviet state. Our state is organized both politi- cally and economically on a quite different basis from the bourgeois world surrounding us. A profound and irreconcilable contradiction lies at the basis of our economic and political organization and the organization of bourgeois states, and once this con- tradiction commences to be solved by military. methodism, it will lead to a sharp, profound and in all probability long drawn-out encounter. This latter factor is in the first place connected with the fact that we ourselves, our Soviet Union, represent very palpablo dimensions both from the point of view of the size of the population and also from the point of view of our economic resources. On the other hand we will have against us all or a considerable part of the bourgeois capitalist world, which in turn can raise tremendous forces against us. That is the reason why, when it is a question of a serious encounter, this can hardly be decided within a short space of time by a knock-out blow. The third factor which influences the nature of future warfare in a decisive manner is the factor of tech- nique. The experience of the imperialist war has shown what a tremendous role technique will play on the future fields of battle. The development of aviation, chemistry and wireless tele- graphy, etc., open up very wide per- spectives in this connection. At the present moment it is even difficult for us to picture how the army which ———___—_—_—_———————————————- rr cense to injure others materially, physically, morally... .” Clever phrasing! The implication is that the Negroes, aS a race, are especially liable to do physical and material injury to. others—that they have in their character something brutal, something beastly, which makes it necessary for the president to remind them that they must keep this instinct in check. And it is just this belief, which Coolidge has strengthened by his message, which is the basis for the lynchings and burnings and hangings of the south. It is just this damnable lie, driven into the consciousness of the whites by a selfish master class which thrives on conflict between races, which gives the excuse for the terror? izationof the Negro in the souther states. Does a Negro show undu self-respect, does he assert his rights in a way displeasing to the masters? Then how easy it is to raise the ery that he has attacked a white girl, ho wsimple it is with this lie to gather the mobs that will do away with this self-assertive Negro! No, President Coolidge does not mean to take from the race-hating erackers their excuse for terroriza- tion. UT,” says Cooidge, “it does mean the full right to liberty and equality before the law.” Notice that phrase, “before the law.” There is a definite line drawn between civil and social equality. But we know too well that it is not necessary to make a law and to have that law placed upon the statute books in order that a nasty discriminatory practise may be put into effect thruout the whole social system. There is no law—in most states—requiring Negroés to live in certain parts of the town. But the law. can and does protect the real estate dealer in his privilege of choosing his own customers. And there is a law—a very definite law— which will bring to trial a Negro who, ;like:;Dr. §weet.of Detroit, fires to protect his own life.and the lives of his family from the attacks of a mob. But even in the case of laws which definitely accord equal rights to the races—there are so many loop-holes thru which the race-hating lawyer may has proceeded the furthest ahead along the path of technical develop- ment in bourgeois countries, will emerge from the field of future battles. will probably be very different from what we have seen during the im- perialist war. The war of the future will to a very large extent, if not entirely, be a war of machines. This fact again brings us face to face with a number of new demands. Finally, the fourth factor which in my opinion will characterize our fu- ture war is the factor of mass for- mations. I consider that once it is a question of deciding serious conflicts, all the forces at the disposition of the combatants will be thrown into the struggle. At any rate, we must not picture future struggles as far as we are concerned, as though we may be able to get along with small armed forces, without touching the wide masses of the population and without harnessing all the resources at the command of the state. I say: “At any rate—as far as we are concerned,” because with regard to bourgeois ar- mies, I admit that the fact’ of the infernal class struggle becoming more acute, may compel them to resort not to the arming of the entire mass of the population, but to placing all their hopes in technique. We may observe signs of this even at the present moment. But even under such condl- tions they will at the same time bring forward such forces which we will be able to fight with by bringing armed masses on the scene, The above are in my opinion, com- Coolidge Is Afraid of the Black Man The Nature of Future Warfare The weapons they will use| crawl, A law in Louisiana declares that there must be no out-and-out discrimination between any one group of people and any other group, sut another law, setting off distinct sec- tion of the city of New Orleans for Negroes, is held to be not in conflict with the first, because—if Negroes are not allowed to buy homes in the white district, why, neither are whites allowed to buy homes in the Negro district! i No. If the law means anything at all to the Negro, it is significant, not for the protection it is supposed to afford him from injustice, but for its work as an instrument of this very injustice. NE thing more: Coolidge is care- ful to tell the Negroes that they have no right to “incite revolution.” This is a new phrase in reference to the Negroes. No former president has found it necessary to issue a warning against “inciting revolution” among the Negro race. And to what does the phrase refer? To nothing less than the historic event in the life of the Negro race, the assembling together in October of this year of a group of men and women, represen- ting definite groups of Negro work- ers, to consider their problems in the light of clear reason and to plan defi- nite and concrete steps to do away with these injustices. Coolidge is re- ferring to the American Negro Labor Congress, branded by the old parties as a “tool of the reds.” Coolidge and his party find it ne- cessary to issue a warning to the Negro race. They find this warning necessary because the ‘first Negro Labor Congress repudiated forever the policy of going to the white master, hat in hand, to beg for a few crumbs from this master’s table. The Negro Labor Congress, say its leaders, will not wait upon the president to put into his message a few half- promises which need never be tn They do not need the “sympathy @ kindness” which Coolidge offers them. They have declared their intention to fight their own battles, to take what is their hard-won right, And, if the Negro Labor Congress remains true to its pledge, no “warning” or threat from Coolidge and his party will cause them to turn back. ee THE MACHINE MAN. A Drawing by Willi Geissler. rades, the four main factors which compel us to arrive at definite con- clusions with regard to the nature of future wars which we will have to conduct, Next Saturday's MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT ’ of the Daily Worker an article on — REVOLUTIONARY THEORY by LENIN oem e amon amonetiean sna ~