The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 18, 1925, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER uf Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. 1113'W. Washington Blvd.) Chicago, I). SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (in Chicago only): | By mail (outsids of Chicag>): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months | $6.00 per vear $3.50 six months $2.50 threa months | $2.00 three months Address all mat! and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 1113 W. Washington Bivd,, Chicago, Mlinols —_—— J, LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F, DUNNE (*"" MORITZ J., LOE: Entered as second-class mail September 21, 1 cago, ll, under the act of Ma .. Editors Business Manager at the post-office at Chi- , 1879. SS 290 ‘Advertising “rates on application, Sena: to‘Hold His Job One of the most despicable tricks ever indulged in by a labor faker, desparately fighting to hold his job at b expense of the mem- bership of the union, has come to light in the present. elections. now going on in the Chicago locals of the Amalgamated Clothing Work- ers’ Union. Sam Levin, present manager of the joint board, ordered. three members of the union who were distributing, pluggers for the opposi- tion candidate, Nathan Green, removed from their jobs in the shops. Levin instructed the chairman of the shops to send the men over. to his office. . Arriying there he informed them that they could. not distribute the pluggers. He said he didn’t object to_one side of the plugger which,advocated voting for Green’and against him, but that he did object to the program which advocates progressive reforms in the union. This may seem strange to members of unions that are conducted along decent lines, especially ‘those older unions of Chicago where bulletin boards are maintained in the shops and it is the duty of, the shop chairmen to pest all publicity matter of any nature when cam- paigns for election of officials are going on. But so low is the official- dom of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers that they actually re- move from their jobs workers who dare support opposing candidates. The Amalgamated used to proclaim its progressivism and sneer at the reaction of the A. F. of L. unions, but should any member of one of the oldest, avowedly conservative and most powerful of the A. FP, of L. unions, the International Typographical Union, indulge in such antics as those performed by Mr. Levin, he not only would be removed from the ticket, but expelled from the union. It is about time the gangsters and self-appointed dictators in control of the Amalgamated were removed, and the organization be brought back to the path of ordinary tnionism. World Court Debate Opens Today According to schedule the long awaited debate on this country’s participation in the world court will open today in the United States senate. Put forth as the proposition of the republican administration, first sponsored by the Harding-Hughes group and now considered the principal issue of the Coolidge-Kellogg administration in the sphere of international relations, the senator who will introduce the proposition is not a republican, but a democrat. A prepared speech of 25,000 words is to be delivered tomorrow by Senator Swanson, a democrat from Virginia, who is ranking mem- ber of the for@ign relations committee. Senator Borah, chairman of the foreign relations committee anda republican, will be the leader of the fight against the republican administration. He will be supported by such republican gladiators as Hiram Johnson of California and Moses of New Hampsire, both veterans of the historic league of nations fight that sent Woodrow Wilson into retirement, a defeated and discredited lackey of Morgan, after his spectacular performance at the Versailles “peace” conference. While the situation looked favorable for Coolidge’s proposal a few weeks ago, as the time of convening congress approached the ranks began to waver. Formerly depending upon the solid demo- cratic support in the senaté, with the exception of Reed of Missouri, it now develops that Reed has a number of others with him. The total estimated opposition is now 15, while 32 is the number required to defeat ratification. Events transpiring in Europe, which reveals the role of the league of nations as the machine thru which the imperialist nations pave the way for future wars of conquest, will do much to strengthen the opposition. The working class of the colonies and the home countries of im- perialism are potential pawns in this game of imperialism. The world court proposal is the demand of Wall Street. The working class of the United States, instead of supporting the futile opposi- tion engineered by the industrialist group around Borah, should in no uncertain terms let it be known that the warlike pre- parations now proceeding in this and other countries will be fought with the utmost energy. Workers conscripted into imperialist wars must learn how to turn the tide in their own interest instead of per- mitting themselves to furnish banquets for buzzards on foreign battlefields. France Nears Cabinet Crash Vor the third time within less than two months the government of France faces a crisis, The ineluctable position in. Which it finds itself as the result of the collapse of the franc makes impossible the continuation of the present chamber of deputies for the simple reason that no one party is strong enough to put a competent revenye program into effect. The right, under the Poincare Bloe Nationale can never solve the problem. The Herriot left and the Painleve left group both failed. Briand, the wily strategist, who has steered, the ship of state thru many raging seas of political strife cannot avoid crashing upon the rocks of disaster. Tuesday Louis Loucheur, the millionaire finance minister who tried to solve the problem that baffled the now discredited Caillaux, the “finance wizard,” resigned in despair. Where Caillaux pulled the cabinet down with him, Loucheur by resigning tried to save the rest of the Briand cabinet, _ ~ But the franc continues to fall, closing yesterday around 28 to the dollar. Not even Ahe patehed-up agreement with Britain over the Syrian and Turkish struggles can save the present government. me Soon there must come new elections when the Commun- Party of France will conduct a drive tovexpose the bankruptcy ff . the parties of the bourgeoisie and rally the workers against the ¢apitalist government itself. on . Mussolini is absent from the front pages of the’ newspapers late- ly. His reception at. Locarno and his display of cowardice in .re- maining away froni London have not contributed to make him fon menor “Copy: ie a Workers Partyydnd A new subsetiption Phone Monfoe 4712 / | | | | party Mir. -, THE DAILY WORKER Mellon Hands out Christmas Presents DONATES FIVE MILLION DOLLARS TO TWO OF HIS F RIENDS AND REMEMBERS HIMSELF. MMEASURABLE is the contempt in which the ruling clasg of this coun- ttry holds the working class when it can get away with such a flagrant fraud as the Coolidge-Mellon “tax re- form.” The government, which is the executive committee of the capitalist class, knows that the aVerage worker merely reads the headlines in the rep- tile press on such questions as tax reduction and if those headlines so- lemnly assure him that the “common man” has been benefited thereby he immediately proceeds to whoop it up for the grand and glorious republican that is so considerate of the workers that it reducés his taxes. While many workers can and do ac- curately keep track of the percentages of the base ball scores during the season and while they have no trouble figuring up the averages of. their fa- vorite bowling teams, when it comes to salving problems that directly af- fect their own economic condition they leave that to the headline writ- ers, who see to it that the reader gets thoroughly saturated with misinforma- tion. Three Chief Beneficiaries. 5 Np chief’ gainers as a result of the Mellon tax reforms are the men, who have the largest incomes, According to last year’s re dirns, based upon the 1924 tax law with a surtax of 40 percent, three tax- payers made returns on incomes over $5,000,000. Their combined was $27,955,319, and they paid in taxes the sum of $11,000,000, Under the pro- posed Mellon plan which cuts the sur- tax 20 per cent these same three, if their income is identically the same as it was last year (and it will be }much more), will get: away with a combined tax of $5,244,464.32. It is interesting to know precicely who these three taxpayers are. Mr. Mellon, himself, is one of them. The other two are Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. The reduction.these three received was more than the total reduction realized by the 2,000,000 taxpayers commencing at the $4,000 \ bracket down. Then we may take the next three highest taxpayers and we get interest ing figures. These three reported in comes over $4,000,000 each and less than $5,000,000. They paid in taxes for last year a total of $4,274,317. Un- der the Mellon plan the taxes of these three will be reduced $2,616,701.12. Other figures prove that the 3,000 richest exploiters of labor in this country will receive reductions total. ing more than $100,000,000 next year ——that is figuring their income on the basis of last year, Mr. Mellon’s “Reform.” ELLON and the supporters of his plan contend that it is the most farreaching tax reform ever prop sed to a United States congress. They claim that only one who is well train- ed in the mysteries of fiance capital The Red Versus By T. DOMBAL, Moscow. N the coming events which are going to determine the fate of la- boring mankind, the peasantry will doubtless play a tremendous historic part. In the fight between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie at the present re- volutionary epoch, it will be the peas- antry that will decide the outcome of the struggle one,way or another. Al- though, the peasantry, for a good many reasons, will not be able to be- come the leading factor in this strug- gle; nevertheless its role will be tre- mendous, even if only because on a world-scale it comprises over a billion human souls, which means from 60 to 70 per cent of the entire race. Since the peasantry used to be considered as the most conservative and back- ward element in society, the bour- geois ideologists have based all their hopes for the preservation of the cap- italist order upon the political neu- trality of the peasantry, Now, after the imperialist world war a sharp change has taken place in the peas- antry. * ST of all, there has grown in the peasant the consciousness of thé antagonism between his interest and those of the bourgeoisie and the landlords, secondly the class. differ- entiation has grown among the peas- antry. Thirdly, ever increasing masses ot the toiling peasantry are beginning to realize the community of their in- terests with those of the proletariat. The importance of the peasantry in the coming world-events is taken into account not only by the revolutionary proletariat but also by the eee and landlord reaction, " The slogan launched by the prole- tarian vanguard, “The revolutionary alliance of workers and pi ints for the fight against capitalism and tand- lordism” has met with vivid response among the peasants. Ever since the time when the more advanced and class, conscious elements of the peasantry have created the Red Peas- ants’ International under the name of the srpactongs Peasants’ Council | (Krestintern), slogan has begun to assume organ: ra forms. The bour- geois is fully aw: income | could have congaivantar such a bill. His plan should.nof be considered a real reduction in revenue. Any haif-wit on earth can bring about a simple reduction in revenue by simp- ly slashing all be both direct and indirect. For instance it wp be a simple thing to take taxes off all necessaries of life, knock out taxes on all incomes under $5,000 a year and make every- one receiving above that amount pay t all out in taxes, But such a propo- sition would be nothing less than sui- sidal for Mr. Mellon and his class and, resides, it simply isn’t being done un- der capita.ism. Much more iugeblaee. is the scheme ot Mellon. In his tagtimony before said: “In determining what taxes should. first be reduced, itjg, important to bearin mind tne distinction between a reduction in taxgs, which simply reduces revenue. “A reduction of the jower brackets in itself meanS no, increase in tax- able income, A map with a $5,000 salary does not carry, funds in non- productive investment, and a reduc- tion in his taxes dant therefore a, create additional taxable incomes. “A reduction in the surtax, how- eyer, increases the gunt of capital which is put into, pygductive enter- prises, stimulates. business and makes more certain that there will be more $5,000 jobs to go around.” It-is with such sop! istry that tl Coolidge administration. donates hundred million dollars to three tho: sand plutocrats. The government b longs to these three thousand, or « least the most powerful of this nun ber, and still they object to payin; for the conduct of that government. Mr. Mellon’s proposals simply meai that the financial- magnates of the country are to be réleved of paying heavy taxes in order that they may have more to invest in profitable in- dustry. In other wotds so that they will have more capital with which to exploit labor. The’only manner conceivable in whiéh“'profits can be made is through exploitation of Tabor. Nothing y value what- soever jintil labor r has been ap: plied to it and its value is determined by the amount of socially-necessary .cbor-time required to,reproduce it. But Mellon evades tyais plain fact by stating that with this, money invested in industry more men will have $5,000 jobs and since these five thousand a year men do not inyest in nonproduc- tive'securities (tax- pt securities) they will pay suffici income taxes to make up for the loss on the great incomes. sh NOTHER illusion inated by Mr, Me and his gang of imperialist yegg-men is that of every person having an interest in the government.” If ,people pay in- come taxes they will,feel that they have a share in the overnment and will therefore —— their “invest- 1 being di.sem- tries to hinder the ‘rdeation of such an alliance, to gainuliver to its side the prosperous and ‘é¥en the middle elements of the pedantry, and by their aid to subjugate to itself the village. It may safely be stated that the coming revolutionary events— the decisive encounter petween the proletariat and the “bourgeoisie will be preceded by the fight between these two classes for this mighty ally, for the peasantry. i hahie fight for the peasantry Is growing in extent thruout the world, assuming a mere and more or- ganized character. On the one hand, is gathering under it creasing numbers 0 well as of the newly, and political organi: ing peasantry, besides contact with the lefty. groups of those ag: tion which are st! landlords, wealthy its or petty- bourgeois leaders. . the other e Krestintern banner ever in- le existing as economic ns. of the toil- establishing Ing and radical tural organiza- ‘dominated by reaction, in league the wealthy peasants, is trying capture the peasant movement apd to direct it into its own channel, n nly nationaily in the different countgies, but also in- ternationally upon a world scale. Already before the formation of the Krestintern, the capitalist and land- lord reaction had. @pdeavoured to create a “black interna- tional.” On their part, the wealthy peasant, upon the initiative of Stam- bulisky, created the “people’s green agricultural international,” which to this day retains its Slavonic charac- ter, not having made any consider- able headway. 7 Along with these attem) there could recently be noted the reports of the social-reformists of the menshev- ist type to draw the peasantry into the sphere of influence,” It was not gratously that Otto Bauer published his book “The Fight for Land, Field and Forest,” neither ig it by mere accident that the Second.International onvening shortly;at; Paris a confer. ence on the tye and peasant question, But by far{the most brilliant proof of the gro’ struggle for the peasantry and at time to us the most danger the black ingeand onan of the decision o the 12th eee con. 4 hand, the vase th capitalist ~ , the committee on bs sah end means he | ment.” Surely no one who sees the manner in which the petty bourgeois shopkeepers hire jay-bird lawyers to show them how to evade taxes can be induced to believe that taxpaying in- creases love of government. The aver- age taxpayer has about as much respect for the government as a boot- legger has for a prohibition agent when they try to cheat him out of his share of the graft. The few workers who have had to pay income taxes look upon thé gov- ernment as a brigand, a highwayman, who squanders their money in the same reckless manner in which mem- bers of the cabinet squander oil lands. They consider the government a pack of thieves. Unfortunately they do not understand how intelligently to com- bat the thing. his tax ‘proposals he presonts’ a .con- tradictory haat by excusing his flagrant exensjtion of * by stating that the millions ‘of dollars vy the v2 Gapitalsis wii de reinvested in this country, Instead of employing American workers some of it will go to Italy to enable Mussolini to weld more firmly the shackles of slav- ery upon the working class of that hapless nation; some of it will claim its toll from the suffering of the work- ing class of Germany; another part of it will be used to support the rapac- fous assaults of Major General Leon- ard Wood against the’ Filipino people; it will pay'the gunmen of imperialism in China iiorder that the millions of workers there may be brought undor the doiititiation of Wall Streét. ‘It-will create’ peons ‘dnd slaves, and mighty saveu"” S for the reinvestment of the prof- its of the richest people of the country in industry so there can be more $5,000 a year men, everyone knews*that this profit, for the most part, is of late years being invested in foreign countries. Industrial devel- opment in this country is so advanced that but a very smair portion of that which is piled up as ‘surplus is ever reinvested within the borders of the United States. In Mr. Mellon’s report to congress he emphasized the enor- mous plethora of gold now in the coun- try and the necessity of disposing of it in a profitable manner. Then in VNR The Socdins of the Treasury Cuts down the taxes of himself and his pals Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Ford by more than five million dollars. See TT few $5,000 4 year men. Those that it does create will be merely the vile lackeys and thugs enabling the ruling, class‘ mofe effectively to throttle the working ‘class. Most of the $5,000 a year men are those craven creatures known as “efficiency experts” and “in- dustrial €ngineérs” who spend their energy devising more bestial ways of taking from the wage slaves the last bit of vitality within their bodies in a given period of time. Much nofse is being made over the fact that by raising the exemption to include .all-incomes under $3,500: for heads of families more than 2,000,000 gress at Warsaw last June to create its own black agrarian international | as a counterpoise to the red Krestin- tern. Every emphasis should be put upon the undoubted fact that since that very moment the fight for the peasantry between the world reaction and the proletariat has assumed an organized charactey on either side, and that henceforth it will be waged chiefly under the banner of the two internationals; The red Krestintern and the black agrarian international, The agrarian congress at Warsaw was convened by the so-called inter- national agrarian commission created at the world exhibition of Paris in 1889, upon the initiative of the then premier of France, a member of the Paris Commune. Under the slogan of “professional” unity of all the agriculturists, begin- ning with the large landowner and ending with the poorest peasant, in the spirit of the antiquated doctrine, “The plough becomes the symbol of civilization,” was founded the inter- national agrarian commission, which has since convened congresses (there were twelve agrarian congresses, in- cludipg that at Warsaw) and acted as their executive organ. At first the participants of these congresses con- sisted of representatives of the dif- ferent agricultural associations (al- most exclusively of landowners) professors and other specialists, and later on they were attended also by es of about thirty governments (ministers of agriculture and higher officials), who have established close contact with the international agra- rian commission of Paris and with the International Agrarian Institute at Rome, which had been founded under its auspices in 1905, Ostensibly these congresses have pursued scientific aims and have been convened for the exchange-of infor- mation on agricultural progress, but in fact, they have helped the large landowners to bring pressure to bear upon their respective governments in the furtherance of their particular interests. The Warsaw congress at- tended by about 250 delegates repre- senting 25 countrfes; and also by re- presentative of the league of nations, constitutes the it of all the organized o: the world's agrarian capital againgt the toilers| a persons who paid last year will be exempt from paying income taxes this year, Since the total number of in- come tax payers last year was 4,270,- 421, that means there will be but 1, 270,421 or less, paying income taxes this year. For these people\we hold no brief. They are either big exploit- ers of labor or petty bourgeoisie, with a cprinkiing of labor takers whose tm comes place them definitely in the bourgeois class. Nor do we rejoice over the ‘exemp- tion of the 3,000,000. For the most part they are the lowest, the vilest, the most filthy of the petty bourgeot- sie—small shopkeepers, country bank- ers, lawyers, preachers, university. professors, and salaried petty slave- drivers in industry, They are the chief benefactors aside from the top-notch capitalists, Then.in between the two extremes there is an upper strata of the petty bourgeoisie who didn’t get any tax reduction. Those with incomes from $11,000 to $44,000 a year do not gét any relief (?) from the Mellon tax plan. They are for the most part in- dustrialists who reseht the encroach* ments of finance capital, and Mr, Mel- lon, the Pittburgh banker, has no sym: pathy for them and he knows ine; have but little power and are few in number, so they must bear their af’ fliction in impotency. The Rest of Us. S for the rest of us, who did not pay income taxes last year and do not pay them this year, we cannot get excited over the tribulations of any of the incomé. tax payers. But there are points to the Mellon tax bill that amount to a reduction in the standard of living by placing taxes upon neceSsaries of life. For instance, more than $250,000,000 is paid in taxes on tobacco, while for amusement and recreation where an admission fee is | charged, more than $750,000,000 will be collected to defray the expenses of the capitalist instrument of subjec- tion, whose one>reason for existence is to hold the workers in slavery in order.that the capitalist system may continue, According to the last census (1920) there were 41,500,000 wage earners in the United States, There were some- thing over 21,000,000 families of wage earners. @ last census proves/ that there were in this country more than. 36,- 000,000 wage workers who received less than the previous exemption limit, It-means that most of these received less than $2,000 a year, Mellon’s tax report gives the lie to the much vaunted prosperity talk in the bourgecis press on the one hand and on the other it reveals the finan- cial barons of the country as unwilling to. finance their own government and striving to devise means of transter- ring the tax to the middle class in the form of direct taxes and to the work- ers in the form of indirect taxes, which act to reduce their standard of vibe. ticular, The actions of the landlords cannot be considered as isolated. Before starting the attack, they have reached an agreement with the big bourgeoisie and secured the support of both in- dustrial and financial capital. Ex- tremely characteristic for the whole tacteis of the landlords is the fact that, upon the demand of the bour- geoisie, they have agreed to some concessions on the land question. (Continued in next issue) ART REVIEW -:- AVE you been to see Antonio? It the Black Agrarian International NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL LABOR DEFENSE DANCE ON SATURDAY, DEC. 19 AT 8 NEW YORK, Dec. 16.—A dance wiil be held on Saturday Dec. 19 by Section No, 2 of the I. L. D, at 301 W. 29th St. All New York com- rades are urged to come and help with the work of defense. By Georgiana Bonita appreciation and so penetrating s not, you still have a chance. \The|S¥mpathy has given us this picture. annual exhibition of American paint- ers and sculptors now open at the Art Institute will continue until De- cember 13. We have visited the ex- hibition on several Sundays and each time we have come away with the conviction that if we were permitted to take away the picture of our choice out of the scores of interesting paint- ings, we would take Antonio, Number 189. You will find him away in the corner of the last room at the right, sitting on a park bench, his head rest- ing in his ‘hand. There he is, the itineraiit “Worker. You see that he has; Hothitig in the world but’ the clothes apon his back. You see in his favé the’weariness, the disappoint- ment, ‘and’ the hopelessness, not of his own life alone,’but of the age-old experience of ‘his class. Life has rob- bed him of everything but one. What is it—a memory-or a dream? Decide for yourself. Go and see him and bring away’ with you the: love of the memory of him as we have done, But if we could not have Nikol Shattinstein’s Antonio, we would take Miners, by Knute Heldnar, Number 87, in a room on the left side. Work- ers are issuing from the mine, their dinner pails in their hands, They seem to bring something of the damp and darkness of that other world of theirs: back with them, and.even the sg’ of Se ena be ist morn- 5 for ‘thett eyes. Heavily they walk, their shoulders ERE are other pictures of direct interest to workers. Some because of their working class interpretation, others for their beauty of theme and color. Among these are Planting Po tatoes, by Ross Moffitt, Number 141; A Valencian Morning, by Arthur rider, Number 175, showing oxen bringing in the boat. There is a won- cerlut ploture of a Mexican > by Henning, Number 91. Whiley ere looking at this you will noti¢e that the lovely lady in black beside him is by the same artist who paint- ed Antonio. As you pass down one room on the right you will notice Ran- dall Davey’s Cowboy—simply beauti- ful. So true, so fine and, big and strong, so saturated with the smile the out-of-doors, of the mountains and the plains—so all but alive! Yet we heard a man say in passing: “I don’t like that—his shirt is all open” Wouldn't you have smiled, too? Be sure not to miss Beneker’s From thie Soil, portraying a worker leaning on his spade. The hardened soul-benumbed features recall in- evitable lines from Markham'’s Man With the Hoe, and espectally those from Josephine Man: “Perished thot and halting (Once it spoke--once it sung!) Live to hunger, dead to song, Only heat-beats loud with po fir Hammer on, How long? besibil gic-0 How long?” The institute is open itnout_ Sundays and al pal nelidages awe Sundays , o guard to ai uu to*the rooms Len ebee the eee See ee Peabody's , Singing” .