The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 27, 1926, Page 8

God, the Supreme Shoe Manufacturer. (Continued from page 1.) spats, and became the best of all business men, keeping books and exploiting labor for surplus value: When the Communist editor was brot to trial, the prosecutor declared that “the people must be protected in their belief in god.” Yes, it is necessary, from the point of view of the manufac- turing interests, to make the “people” (that is, the working people) believe in some variation of the god myth. Or at least, to make them see the whole of the universe in the form which has a supreme authority at the top. This is necessary in order that the working masses will feel that it is ‘natural’ to have a superior class at the top of earthly affairs, owning the social machinery of production and distribution, ruling, exploiting and judging the propertyless workers, even as ‘‘God” is Supposed to rule, to exploit and to judge the entirety of human kind. Human- kind is supposed to be made “in the image of God,’—but the fact is that god is created (as a mythical figure) in the image of the kings and emperors, and, in later days, in the image of our own Rockefellers and Morgans. And God always changes with the system of exploitation. -At the present time of tremendous change—or rather in the period which is now nearing its end; the last stage of capitalism —many changes in the forms of religious belief are to be seen. We see an inconceivable number of weird and semi-“rational’* religious forms spring up. We even notice that parallel to the effort to establish a single mighty world-oligarchy, as shown among other things in the league of nations and world court. a recent effort is being made to create a “universal religion.’ And some big Jewish financiers are fostering an effort to recon- cile the Jewish and Christian faiths. Among petty-bourgeois philosophers we find a renewed growth of “agnosticism”—the effort to find a pseudo-rational basis without, positively denying the existence of “God,” but saying, “I don’t know,” and thereby evading the matter. ‘“Agnostics” are only a variation of the cult of capitalism which does not dare to conceive of a form of society which has no ruling, propertied class, and therefore, does not dare conceive clearly of a universe which has no ruling, all-own- ing God above. The agnostic sees the universe in the same form as that in which it is seen by the believer in god—-he sees the world as a pyramid with the exploited masses below, but says the pyramid leads so high in the clouds that he cannot see whether. there is a god on top of it or “something else.” - UT the “blasphemer” in this case is a Communist. His con- ception of the universe is that of historical materialism. To the Communist view, the Marxian view, the universe is not a re- flection of the passing forms of social institutions, with a great mass of perpetually enslaved men at the bottom, under a mon- strous pyramid of authority above. The Marxian, ‘the Communist view of the universe absolutely excludes all such questions as the existence of a god. The Marxian is therefore not ai “agnostic,” but an atheist. He seeks to throw down the system of exploit- ation and of rule over the masses by a_ superior human ruling class. He foresees clearly a society in which there will be no superior human authority, and he does not build a mystic image of “divine authority” in mimicry of the human rulers. The dic- tatorship of the proletariat is not reflected in a mystic system. The Marxian knows that system of superior authority in society is a temporary, not an eternal system, and his scientific material- ist philosophy becomes a powerful instrument in his hands to bring about that change. He knows that with the disappearance of a class society, with the disappearance of all necessity for state authority (even, finally, the disappearance of the need of the working class state authority), there will inevitably disappear also all forms of religious belief, all concepts of the rule over man- kind by a mystic image of human rulers. The Marxian, -the Communist, helps to free the working class of the superstitious conception of the universe, thereby help- ing the workers to direct their energies toward their liberation from the rule of the capitalist class. Anthony Bimbe is there- fore, hailed to court as a blasphemer. But the tremendous changes that are going on in the ma- terial basis of production are reflected at this time by a stirring and unrest even in the bourgeois world’s religious forms. Con- tradictions within the capitalist system bring conflicts such as the “evolution trial” at Dayton, Tennessee. The rapid industrial- ization of the backward southern states brings the conflict to establish the variations of religious superstition that are better adapted to exploitation of workers in scientifically run factories. The trial of Bimba is in a certain degree another “Dayton, Tennessee.” But the trial of Bimba is also different from, the trial at Day- ton. The Dayton case was defended from the point. of view of pseudo-rational variations of religious superstition which try to reconcile to themselves the revolutionizing science of Darwin. The Dayton trial was an example of the wavering and evasive contortions of “agnosticism,” which seek, not to undermine “di- vine” authority, but to shift it to a more protected base. But in the trial of Bimba at Brockton, there is no such evasion. Bimba denied the Supreme Manufacturer, and all of the lit- tle shoe manufacturers of Massachusetts, and their priests and preachers and ethical culturists strike at Bimba in vengeance. In this trial the revolutionary worker, Bimba does not ask the bourgeoisie to accept the revolutionary materialist philoso- ahy—on impossible thot—but insist upon exercising the nent of free speech which the capitalist “democracy” pretends to give even to the working class. From this trial of the Communist editor the workers should learn a great deal about the ideological superstructure of bour- geois society which helps to keep the workers blinded for slavery. ROBERT MINOR, Cal Coolidge Comes to the Disarmament Conference Here is the cartoon from Proletarska Pravda, published in Kiev, Ukraina. The artist shows Mr. Coolidge sticking his head from the 16-inch gun of the battleship America, to tell the European governments that they should dis- arm. Of course, the game is to have all those nations disarm with which By F. M. ANK Hodges, secretary of the International Miners’ Union, has proposed an international merger of the coal operators of several separate countries as a means for helping the British coal crisis. This proposal is heartily welcomed by the German coal operators’ paper in the Ruhr, and the German Social-democratic organ, the Vorwarts, In the organ of our German brother- party, Comrade E. Ludwig, shows how the plans of international capitalist mergers create new reformist illusions among the workers, hoodwinking them with hopes of “peace” through the united front of the capitalists. The proposal of Frank Hodges has arisen from the international coal crisis, which is felt especially in England and Germany. In spite of the state sub- sidies, the English coal report has con- tinued to decrease after 1925. New and bitter fights threaten from the side of the miners. The subsidies end April 13 and the capitalists demand longer hours and wage cuts, The de- mand of the miners is the nationali- zation of the mines. ~ The German coal operators have been “rational” and have already thrown out of employment tens of thousands of miners. This means that the interests of the German and En- glish coal barons are contradictory. Both of them are conducting a hard fight at the cost of the miners, It is this competition that Frank Hodges now wants to abolish. . And his inten- tion is to abolish the class struggie at the same time. .This comes out in connection with the appointment of a British Coal Commission advocating 8 He -8 2@ American imperialism expects to have war in the near future. Class Collaboration Alea other industrial capitalists would not mean abolition of..the. capitalist. an- : archy. Nor yet the conflicts aroused ' by the increase of coal prices. The German reformist Loeffler gives epression to these same reformist i- — ‘Tusions in the following words: “It is to the interests of the miners that the bitter competitive struggles on the world market be prevented, for they, as the economically weaker group, have to bear the costs. But an inter- national] organization of the coal in- dustry can exist only if it serves the interests of the coal industry, the min- ers and the consumers equally.” This is class collaboration, national and international, expressed in plain words. No wonder that the German union bureaucrats are holding up their American brothers as an example. The miners’ struggles, now going on or threatening in America, England and Germany, are evidence enongh against this reformist illusion. There is only one means of meeting the crisis, says Comrade Ludwig. That is, the na- tionalization of the coal industry, its operation under the control of organ- ized labor and international under- standing of the miners in collaboration nto their class brothers of all coun- To You, Slaves! By J. D. Spiegel. I — @ thunder from the sky Rise ye workers, rise and cry: “Down exploiters, down ye slayers, Down ye renegades and betrayers!” ant 3 Strengthen your arms, clench your fists; Striving for glory, hold firm: your breasts; Loosen your rage, elevate your fury; Be ye the judges, be ye the jury! Will you conquer the darkness of ~ night, And turn it into a blossom-way For the coming victorious festal day! !