The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 25, 1926, Page 6

Page Six meer er THE DAILY WORKER THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WCRKER PUBLISHING CO. 1113 W, Washington Blvd., Chicago, Il, Phone Monroe 4712 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (in Chicago only): By mall (outsids of Chicago): $8.00 pér year $4.50 six months | $6.00 per vear $3.50 six months $2.50 three months $2.00 three mouths | Address all mail and make out checks to | THE DAILY WORKER, 1113 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, IHinois J. LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F, DUNNE ae sequen uel MORITZ J, LOEB.. ... Business Manager | Entered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, at the post-office at Chi-| cago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. : | Advertising rates on application. | Not Blasphemy Alone Seldom have the Yankees of Massachusetts—the state that started the Morgan puppet, Calvin Coolidge, on his. political career—been so aroused as they are over the Bimba _ blas- phemy case. As the trial opens today, the original charge be- comes obscured in face of the despotic acts of the authorities against} the foreign-born population of the industrial centers of the. state. The elergy, always to be found playing, the role of informers to and assistants of the police and jailers, are especially active in this case. The funeral of a woman whose family objected to a flabby-| lipped priest mumbling lies over her dead body, thereby depriving the dispensers of holy water of the opportunity to collect booty thru perpetuating ignorance and fear, has aroused the christian ire of these creatures as only they can be aroused when their game is exposed. The Massachusetts exploiters of labor propose to utilize the trial for a two-fold purpose: first, in a; eampaign to terrorize the foreign-born workers so they will be meek and servile slaves and submit to the wage cuts and other impositions by the bosses and, second, force the workers back into the churches so their families can be brought under the deadening spell of the. clergy, preaching contentment to them in conformity with the admonition of St. Paul: “Slaves, be obedient to your masters; for the powers that be are ordained of god and he who resisteth the powers that be, re- sisteth an ordinance of god.” This is the religious benediction of things as they are and as the bloodsuckers of labor would like them always to remain. Blasphemy against an imaginary master in the skies is utilized to force subserviency to the real masters on earth. God, alone, with 290 i the puny assistance of his personal agents on earth is not sufficient; | his power “must be supplemented by. the police, the courts, the! left:no stone unturned tp force the is- jailers and all other mercenaries of the state power. That fact alone is sufficient to refute the very existence of a god. As Marx well said “religion is the opium of the people,” and today in Massachusetts the words of the founder of the revolution- ary movement are being amply vindicated. In: this trial our efforts to resist the imposing of religious-superstition upon the workers by parading forth laws long fallen into disuse must be foreign-born workers. Rewarded by Tammany Hall Mr. James P. Holland, as president of the New York State Federation of Labor, carried out the treacherous policy of “reward your friends and punish your enemies’»in the last election in New York. Now Mayor Jimmy Walker, the rag-time, jazz-comedian, male Broadway butterfly and cheap songwriter, has rewarded the gallant labor leader (?) by placing him ina soft political berth as commissioner of the board of standards and appeals. The salary attached to such a job is a mere stipend, compared to the actual income, most of which is derived from collecting graft for special privileges, part of which, of course, goes. to. keep the corrupt Tam- many machine in working operation. js Mr. Holland is not a visionary, he is practical and not at all an idealist. With his well-known elegance of diction he will probabl; justify his infamy by saying “I seen my opportunity and I grabbed it!” Like others of his kind he is in the labor movement for what he can get out of it. He used it as a spring board to catapult him- self into a soft job where the graft is big. As he moves up in the official Tammany family the labor | Jieutenants of capitalism also move along their own path to the pie counter... Another Tammanyite, John Sullivan, who has long been} president of the New York City Central Trades and Labor Council, | now comes into the job as president of the state federation, formerly oceupied by Holland. The Central Labor Council has elected} Joseph Ryan, vice-president of the International Longshoremen’s Association, to take the place of Sullivan. Someone else will take his former job, and so on. - No wonder such creatures oppose the creation of a class party of labor. It strikes at the very heart.of their connection with im- perialism, which is cemented by their alliance with the professional political flunkeys of Wall Street. Can’t Defend Himself Washington’s birthday. was the occasion for capitalist pol- iticians of all stripes to indulge in the usual eulogy of the “father of his country.” The world court is the dominant political question | today and so the general of the revolutionary armies was quoted) by both sides of the controversy. .Whoeyer wrote the ‘speech | that Mr. Coolidge delivered before representatives of the national educational association tried to utilize the avords of Washington} to justify the present policy of American imperialism; while Mr.! Borah, chairman of the foreign relations committee of the senate, in his, Chicago speech, utilized the same sayings of Washington to prove the opposite. Unfortunately Washington cannot defend himself against dis- tortion of his utterances and writings. It goes without saying that) both Coolidge and Borah are wrong. One who interprets conditions of today, when there exists a well-developed system of world econ-| omy, in the light of the revolutionary beginnings of capitalist so-| ciety indulges in absurdities. Nothing Washington said one way or) another can be applied to the world situation of today. His memory as only invoked by statesmen whose acumen and thought-processes are so iow that they have nothing whatsoever to contribute to polit- ical discussions. Washington played a revolutionary role in his day. In that} respect he was decidedly unlike either Coolidge or Borah. Coolidge | is today as much the symbol of reaction as was George III of Eng-| land in Washington’s day, while Borah wants to turn the tide of history back to the early days of the creation of the national states, | Tt is useless to try to imagine what Washington would do were he here today. We only know what he did d0; and neither the pro-| court nor anti-court.camp have a right to claim him as theirs. | * new ‘subscrip tion iat i Get a member for the Workers Party aud 4 tho DAILY WORKEK cis Sh 4 |be the question of American adherence | al justice. | many of whom are up for reelection | j half a step forward, as far as unity By H. M. Wicks. Mit one outstanding issue in the coming congressional elections will to the permanent court of internation- The senate resolution en- dorsing the participation of this coun- try in that international tribunal did not conclude the conflict, but only in- dicated a new phase of the struggle. | The petty bourgeois bloc supporting Borah has already opened a new bar- rage against the world court senators, this fall. But their opposition is | based upon the erroneous assumption that the United States is a weak, in- experienced, gullible government be- ing entrapped by the machinations of the malevolent conspiracies hatched by the British statesmen. Only Ame- rican statesmen are inexperienced in the wiles of “old world diplomacy.” The Europeans are Machiavellian so- phists who conspire to lure poor old | Uncle Sam into their clutches. Such | is the dismal picture painted by the opposition in the senate, A Challenge to Britain, re from going into the court at the behest of Great Britain, the United States entrance is a challenge to Britain. Added incentive for this country to take a hand in European political affairs has existed since the sixth assembly of the league of na- tions held in September, 1925, when Britain gained the upper hand in that body. From that date onward the propaganda of Mr. Bok, who handled the Wall Street slush fund to debauch evérything capable of being corrupt- ed, assumed a more aggressive form. Locarno, which proved to be not} only an international move against| the Soviet Union, but also a move on the part of British imperialism against its great rival, the United States, brot the question to a head. While join- ing in the general clamor hailing Lo- carno as the dawn of world peace, the Wall Street bankers did not permit themselves to succumb to their own propaganda of pacifism. They under- stood the full import of Locarno, and sue of this country’s adherence to the world. court in order to use that poli- tical weapon as a means of defending their economic interests. In the affair of Mosul, where Bri- tain used the court to create a legal cloak for the league of nations to steal that valuable oil region from the Angora government, the true role of the court was revealed. Its decisions are relied upon to direct international policy. “Advisory opinions” provided for in the covenant of the league give the court unlimited powers; with the nations affiliated with the league granted. full authority to enforce the decisions by military might. Wall Street forced the United States.. government into the world court because it desires to wrest con- | ternational action, to trol of this part of the league machin- ery from the hands’of Britain, prepar- atory to dominating the league itself. In this struggle it counts upon sup- port from both France and Italy, two of the four nations now occupying permanent seats in the league coun: cil. New War Threats. OR Britain this is an important phase of its life and death strug- gle against the mighty moloch of Ame- rican imperialism.’ If it loses this strategic position that it has so re- cently gained, it is then definitely out of continental European affairs. With- out being able to utilize the support of small European nations, especially Greece, in its struggle to gain controh over that vast strétch of territory ly- ing between the éastern end of the Mediterranean sea and India, the Bri- tish empire faces dissolution. No one can possibly conceive of Britain, chal- lenged by Ameridan imperialism in every part of thé! populated world, sinking into impotency without a ter- tific struggle. The coming eéléctions, when at- tempts will be Made to arouse the workers over the: world court ques- ‘tion, will’ present; a splendid oppor- tunity for Communists to expose the imperialist designs of Wall Street; the role of the goyernment at Wash- ington as the pawn of bank capital and the new threats of war that must inevitably arise out of the intrigues within the league and the world court. Instead of the United States being the weak, inexperienced nation Borah pictures to us, it is a swaggering giant, the most powerful colossus that ever strode the eafth. That we must make clear to the workers so they will fully comprehend the fact that instead of heralding the dawn of peace our entrance into the world court signalizes preparations for new wars in which nations will be annihi- lated and millions of workers will face destruction if capitalism is per- mitted to have its way. Must Enlist Union Support. In the trade unions the agitation for world unity of the labor move- ment to offset the world conspiracy, of the imperialist powers can forcibly be put, by explaining the need for in- challenge the threat of devastating the ranks of labor in imperialist trenches. The at- tacks against the’ Soviet Union, the exploitation of the ‘colonial peoples, and the menace this exploitation con- tains for labor in this country can be intimately connected with the system of mandates established by the league of nations, the administration of which are, legalized--by the court. Besides the agitation for world trade union unity, resolutions against American adherence to the world court should be proposed in order to introduce — politicale:“discussiogs on class lines and thereby stimulate a tendency toward political conscious- By A. LOSOVSKY (Continued from yesterday) ' ‘E have seen that the British trade union movement has made one step forward, the German two steps backwards and the French, owing to the balance of power between the unity and reformist trade unions, only | is concerned, To gauge correctly the mood which exists at present in the trade union movement attention should be directed to the congress of the Norwegian trade unions, which was held at the end of last August. The Norwegian trade un-/ ion movement, just as the entire Scandinavian trade union movement, | has its peculiarities. It did not have to go thru a war and post-war crisis and had the benefit of several years in which go develop normally. From among the unions in the Amsterdam International, the Norwegian trade union movement was the first to.take up a left attitude by participating in the foundation of the R. I, L. U. The Norwegian trade unions always kept up a ¢ennection with the R. I. L, U. altho they were affiliated to the Amsterdani International, In 1923, the Norwegian Trade Union Federation decided to leave the Amsterdam In- ternational, but stopped half-way, postponing the question of affiliation to the R. I. L. U. for an indefinite peri- od. And thus it remains up till now floating, so to speak, between Am- sterdam and Moscow, In 1924, at the Scandinavian conference in Copen-| hagen, an attempt was,made to draw the Norwegian Federation into the Amsterdam International, but this met with stubborn resistance on the part of the Norwegian trade union mem- bers. Norwegian Unions for Unity. Altho the correlation of forces with- in the Norwegian trade union move- ment is not in our favor (Communists are in the minority), nevertheless, in| spite of the fact that the right wing | maneuvered all the time towards Am-| sterdam, the congress of Norwegian trade unions adopted a decision de- serving of serious consideration. The congress decided to give ener- getic support to the Anglo-Russian committee and to all its measures directed towards unity by the estab- lishment of an ofgdfiizational connec- tion with this cominittee, The con- gress expressed ditsgif in favor of an international wn congres# and for) the establishment Of an all-embracing world federation of trade unions and resolved not tasaiiiiate either to ti . | tional, f, Amsterdam International or to the-R. {. L. U. before the establishment of a united international, This policy of the;Norwegian trade union congress is very characteristic. It deserves attention because it re- flects the present frame of mind of a considerable number of trade union organizations. A number of trade un- ions not affiliated at present either to Amsterdam or to Moscow have adopt- ed a waiting attitude, refusing to affil- jate to either of the internationals in the rhope of compelling thereby the establishment of one united interna- As the struggle for unity gains in strength and as more and thore sections of workers favor the estab- lishment of a united international, the fusion of organizations maintaining a waiting attitude will go on. One should bear in mind that such a situation is frequently called forth by the endeavor to preserve national unity, Frequent: ly our supporters have been advised not to affiliate to the R. L L. U. it this should be instrumental in causing a split, but to work for the fusion of the R. I. L. U. aid the Amsterdam, International into‘éne united interna- tional. ‘ What is our attitude to this kind of decision? We consider that the Nor- wegian trade union congress, which up to quite recently occupied an in- definite, position, is promoting the cause of unity bya decision of this kind, The Anglo-Russian ‘committee cannot but pay atténtion to organiza- tions which, while ‘outside both the in- ternationals, are Wffering it support and help. It must®get;into close con tact with them and as the connection between the Anglo-Russian committee and all the organizations in sympathy with the cause of unity gains in spite of the right wing of the Amste: dam Interriational, Conclusions. What are the conclusions that may be drawn from this brief review of the Various congresses which have just concluded? First of all the British and German congresses demand com- parison, The German congress em- bodied the theory and practice of the Amsterdam International in its adul- terated form, The British congress de- serted the old posftions of Amsterdam and in doing so ¢athe in opposition to the Amsterdam Pifernational, What is pecull in this sitvation is the fact that th rman trade union movement is no’ @ most important mouthpiece of sterdam, whereas strength, the cause will progress ‘ yp the British, thestraditional British ~ ness on the part of the organized workers. This will serve to place part of our program before the mass- es and at the same time will be a blow at the traitorous Gompers’ pol- icy of no politics in the union by proving that in its last analysis the slogan of no politics means capitalist politics in the form of “rewarding friends and punishing enemies.” Into the Shops. Thru our new form of organization, the shop nuclei, we can bring the dis- cussion into the shops, mills, mines, the railroads, by developing ordinary discussions regarding the every-day affairs of the workers into the desired channels, thereby engaging in mass political education, This most important and fundamen- tal work presupposes. intensive educa- tion of our own membership so that each party member will be familiar with the broader aspects of the ques- tions involved in this country's ad- herence to the world court and be able to carry the discussion into in- dustries.among the great masses of workers, organized and unorganized. Such work is real mass education and it will enable us to sink our roots deep into the masses of labor and become their leaders in thought and in action. The necessity for preparing our own membership for such work is fully recognized by the agitation and pro- paganda department of our Party and intensive training of our membership in these tasks is progressing rapidly. Anti-Militarist Agitation. Combined with the work in the unions and factories we must also take advantage of this imperialist ven- ture into the world court by launch- ing anti-militarist agitation on a broad ‘scale. In this work we must rip the imperialist masks from the faces of the pacifists in the service of imperialism who acclaim the world court an instrument of peace. By ex- posing them we expose the mailed fist of the agents of the House of Mor- gan writing the death warrants of millions upon millions of the youth of this land and of all other lands. In the schools, the colleges, in train- ing camps; everywhere, the youth is to be found, by word of mouth and with millions of leaflets and pam- phlets, we must bring home to them the full realization of the monstrous crimes that are in preparation against them. On the public platform our speak: ers and candidates must challenge alike the spokesmen of the House of Morgan and their petty bout opponents of the Borah-Reed-LaFol lette-Blease calibre, Appeal to Petty Bourgecisie. Reve appealing to the working Masses and the youth of the work- ing class to resist with, all. their might the world court program, the open encouragement of the great combinations of predatory wealth by the Coolidge administration as eyi- Three Trade Union Congresses its own traditions, is also destroying the conservatism and reactionary pol- icy of Amsterdam. British Unions Go Left. The British trade union movement is moving to the left, not only thanks |to objective conditions, but also owing ito the schematic and systematic work (of the British Communist Party and minority movement, In Great Britain jan unwavering growth in the intluence of the Communist Party and the revo- |lutionary minority within the British trade union movement is in progress. |The swing to the left is acquiring an ever clearer character due to the | steadily increasing efforts on the part |of the Communist elements. in the |trade union movement. In Germany there is quite a different Picture, There the influence of the Communist Party has considerably weakened during the last year and a half. The Communist Party in the trade union movement has been de- voping backwards, The influence which if wielded in 1923 is on the wane. The last congress in Breslau was the apotheosis of re- actionary blockheads with an almost complete absence of any opposition. We are thus faced with two types, two methods of Communist work in the trade unions. A comparison of these two methods with the example of Great Britain shows us at a glance how work should be carried on in line with the decisions of the Comintern, (Continued in next issue) trade union movement, in ses Traction Magnate Seeks Renomination to U. S. Senate on G.O.P. Ticket SPRINGFIELD, Ill, Peb. 23 — The primary petition of Sen. William B. McKinley, traction magnate of Cham- paign, seeking renomination for U, 8. Senator on the republican ticket was filed with Secretary of State Emmer- son by former U, S, Marshal James BE. McClure, Carlinville, The petition carried 2,000 signatures, Frank Smith, Dwight, who will oppose McKinley has not as yet filed his petition, Other filings were: Congr an, 6th District, republican, Mil A. Fuerst, Chicago; State representative, 4th District, republican, J. J. Kveton, Chicago; 40th:,District, democratic, Thomas Ww. Ashbrook, ,Taworville, Get your ug now for the Inter- national con of the T. U. E Ly Sat., March J,-at 8th t Theater, t denced by the assaults upon and threats to dissolve the federal trade board and the commerce commission furnish ‘exceptional opportunities to appeal to the small bourgeoisie that keenly feels the weight of this op- pression. Not the least of our tasks with this elemént of the’ population will be the exposure of the hopeless- ness of the’ program of the Borah bloc and its tgtal incapacity to deal with the situation. In the actual cam- paign we can show to these elements the picture of their own future in the ranks of the proletariat and win the support of many of them. ‘The Impoverished Farmers. 1b the agricultural regions, particu- larly the corn belt of the middle west and the cotton belt of the south, we can deliver heavy blows against the Coolidge-Mellon ‘brigands and. ex- pose to these impoverished farmers the role:of the government as the servant of imperialism by arousing them.to fury against an, administra- tion that cancels billions of debts to aid Mussolini, the fascist tyrant of Italy, while refusing to place funds at their disposal to cancel their farm mortgages, the foreclosure of which dooms uhcounted numbers of them to all the horrors of forcible expropria- tion from the property on which they and their ancestors haye lived for generation after generation.. Connect ing their woes up with the great im- perialist banks by pointing to the fact that..most small mortgage holding country banks are the mere collecting agencies for Wall Street will add fuel to the flames of their discontent and alienate great masses of farmers from the domination of the political scoun- drels who operate these banks and at- tend so-called farm conferences in Communist Tasks in Relation to the World Court order to;play the political game of such unprincipled adventurers as Frank 0, Lowden and other “friends” of the oppressed farmers, Anti-Imperialist Drive, Te world court, as an instrument of imperialism and war, offers op- portunities for the broadest mass work, It is seldom that one issue is 80 openly imperialistic as to contain menacing threats to all elements in society with the exception of the small upper strata of great capitalists. The spokesmen of the opposition to the world court in congress—the Borahs, the Reeds, the Bleases, the LaFollettes and Shipsteads, are tn- capable, because of their political training and their subserviency to the middle bourgeoisie, of rising above the monotonous and senseless répeti- tion of shibboleths of a by-gone day. They hark back to the isolationist pol- icies of Washington and Jefferson— when manufacture had not yet given way to the beginnings of modern in- dustry, and when capitalism was still in tis infancy—in a futile and gro- tesque effort to rescue from the dead past a policy for the living present. This. bankruptcy .of the outstand- ing opposition to the world court con- [spiracy leaves the path open forsour party to play the dominant role in mobilizing the masses for a great anti-imperialist crusade. With a deter- mined beginning in this campaign we can reach with our message millions of workers and other elements affect- ed by the imperialist campaigns of the government—who now only know us thru the designed distortions of the capitalist press—and by leading this struggle go far on the road toward becoming a mass party and a power in American political life. NOTES OF AN INTERNATIONALIST The Dilemma of the By JOHN British Labor Party PEPPER. Mi pie sharpening of class antagon- ism in Great Britain begins to, ex- Press itself also within the powerful mass organization of the British pro- letariat, the labor party. More and more clearly appears the contour: of a right and ‘a left wing in the labor party. Ever larger proletariam mass- es affiliafe from below with the labor party but at the same time the official party leadership marches even further toward the right. The official: Mac- Donald leadership is making.’ the greatest efforts to convince. the-beur- geois world that they are really: not so very dangerous; that they are. real- ly not the class party of the proletar- iat, but a universal party in the old liberal sense of the word. The government of Great » Britain roceeds (and quite systematically) with ever sharper measures against the working class. The persecution of the Communists is only a ‘prepara- tion by which the government .:seeks to expose to its attack the left flank of the working class. The conserva- ‘tives speak up openly for a general attack against the trade unions.,: Un- employment insurance is beginning to be handled with brutal rigor. « Hun- dreds of thousands of unemployed workers have been stricken from the maintenance lists in recent months. The government is proceeding with all war preparations for the month of May when the conflict in the coal industry will break out and when it must be fought to a»conclusion, In addition to the unofficial fascist or- ganization the government is founding official strike-breaker organizations, it is arming. a special police force. HE working class views the com- servative © government’s prepara- tions with growing uneasiness and be- gins also to demand from its leaders ‘that ‘they prepare themselves for the fight. .The tight leaders of the Mac- Donald stripe seek to retreat from the battle, seek to surrender the interests of the proletariat undefended, to. the bourgeoisie. A dual danger menaces the present labor party if itycontinues to remain inactive; on the one side its masses could be diverted, left- ward toward the Communists; on the other, discouraged and disillusioned, they might return to the liberals. This dial danger has now impelled to action. the left wing leaders of the labor party. They openly support the perseemed, and imprisoned Commun- ists. partly. because théy know. that af- ter the wiping out-of the Communis the attack will be directed against themselves, but partly also to show the: masses that they are at Jeast as left, as revolutionary, as the Commun- ists. ‘At the same time, however, they try to push the leadership of the labor party toward the left. This is the ex- planation of the demonstrative atti- tude of Wheatley, Wedgewood, Lans- bury and Maxton in withdrawing trom the executive committee of the labor party because it does not wage the class struggle with sufficient energy, because it adapts itself too far to bourgeois parliamentarism, thereby they seek to assure themselves a fre hand for their political activities. Twenty other labor party M. P.’s have identified themselves with the four left leaders of the labor party and there “r not only the possibility, bute 6, probability that an or- ganized left wing of the, British labor party will crystallize around th leaders. "te OW- tar ‘the movement tor the or ganization of a left witig in the NN shown by expressions by such actual- ly non-revolutionary leaders like Brailsford, the editor of the New Leader, the official organ of the inde- pendent, labor party. He writes: “A growing number of comrades demand @ more aggressive party leadership in parliament, a different tone on the platform of the public meetings and the expression of the feeling in every- thing the party does that we are en- tering upon a period of decisive strug- gles. Our leaders may perhaps be satisfactory successors to liberal lead- ership, they hold their own in the parliamentary debates, they bear themselves with distinction on cere- monial occasions, they play the polit- ical game according to all traditional rules in order to be able soon to suc- ceed the conservative government. But are they fighting with the enthusi- astic determination expected from a general staff in this critical period of class struggle? Are their speeches and tactical moves in parliament the expression of the grim determination of the masses to give battle? This at- titude is lacking in the house. ‘It is absent also in MacDonald's ‘public speeches and aboye all it was utterly undiscernable in the speeches at the Liverpool party congress,” Lansbury’s Labor Weekly also turns more and more sharply against the MacDonald leadership and states that a.great dan- ger threatens; that out of the labor party a neo-liberal party be. formed. Of what use is the mighty party ma- chine, the paper asks, if we do not use it in the class struggle? , The 168s of industrial monopoly more and more radicalizes the British working class, The left wing found its first organization form in the “min- ority Movement” of the trade unions. it is a mighty step forward when the left wing now commences to organize ~ itself also upon the political field. The labor party in its present-day form and with its current tactic is a means for “liberalization” of the British work. ing mabses. An organized left wing jean block this liberalization process, can serve as the crystalization point for gathering the broadest masses in- to the camp of the class struggle. The | ee miners’ conflict next May will cour: ply bring to a head all these antagonisms. The crisis of next May will not only signify for Great Britain a social crisis on the broadest seale, but likewise a fateful crisis for the labor party, Unless all signs fail the MacDonald leadership will finally betray the: fighting working class and thereby—since the organization of the labor § ‘8 left wing can on); shortli interlude—make doula the formation of a Communist mass a es