The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 11, 1926, Page 6

THE DAILY THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. | 21118 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, Il. Phone Monroe 4713 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mall (in Chicage only): By mall (eutelde ef Chicage): $8.00 per year $4.50 six monthe | $6.00 per year $3.50 six months $2.50 three months $2.00 three months Address all mai! and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 1118 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, IHinele (otic Besa SS TD J, LOUIS ENGDAHL Wéitors | WILLIAM F. DUNNE | Business Manager | MORITZ J. LOEB.. ui Entered ay second-class matl September 21, 1923, at the postofiice at~Chi- cago, [il., under the act of March 3, 1879. <<aRe 290 Advertising rates on application. ian The League—a Battleground Silence and deep gloom envelopes American apostles of the} league of nations as the heroes of Locarno desperately strive to create the illusion that the league is an instrument of peace instead of a place for preliminary maneuvering for the next world war. The immediate cause of the crisis is the carrying out of the Locarno pact that enables Germany to take the permanent seat on the council of the league that has been reserved for her since the signing of the treaty of Versailles. In theory there are six perma- nent seats reserved for Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and the United States. The two latter have as yet remained outside the league. Locarno paved the way for Germany to enter. But the entrance of Germany strengthens England and weakens France.. So the French government demands that this special extraordinary assembly of the league counterbalance Britain by admitting Poland, the pawn of France, and as a pretext, advocates also the admittance of Spain and Brazil. Austen Chamberlain favors the admittance of Spain, because he believes that Spain can be brought under British influence. But the other British tories resent any move to enlarge the league coun- cil at this time. They are satisfied to have Germany alone take her seat and insist upon leaving further enlargement until the seventh assembly of the league next September—if it lasts until that time. At present Britain has the upper hand in the league, but the kaledioscopic changes, the shifting of influences over the | smaller nations and the growing power in Europe of American im- perialism, make any move exceedingly dangerous for Britain. Cham- berlain does not perceive this, but the powers behind the tory party are fully aware of the situation. With the French franc still falling a Dawes plan for that nation is imminent, which means American domination of the nation that only recently was well on the way toward domination of all Europe this side of Russia; Italy is bound by chains of gold to Wall Street; Turkey is also being gradually drawn into the circle of Yankee imperialism and penetration of all Europe apace. The en- trance of the United States into the world court will give Wall Street | an opportunity to devise legal formulas that will enable it to pack the league against Britain, if the league survives this present crisis, and prepare for the inevitable collapse. The perpetuity of a league of nations presupposes world unity of imperialism—an utterly impossible thing. The league is a battle ground today wherein the conflict is limited to diplomatic intrigues. _But there is every indication that the time is near at hand when it will burst the confines of Geneva and engulf the whole world in the next imperialist slaughter. , Defy Labor Injunctions! Again a part of the American working class is confronted with an injunction. This time it is the auto workers in Grand Rapids who three weeks ago went out on a spontaneous strike against the attempt of their arrogant employers to impose intolerable wage cuts. There was a time in the labor movement when injunctions meant defeat and disorganization for workers on strike. But, as a matter of self-preservation, the workers began to faunt and ignore and hold in contempt all injunctions issued in labor disputes. The vile railroad injunction issued by Federal Judge Wilkerson at the behest of his political boss, the odious attorney general, Harry M. Daugherty, of the “Ohio gang” of political crooks, was defied by the railroad workers and the strike continued in spite of the mandate of a corporation flunkey who sat upon the federal bench. In the Paterson mill strike injunctions were issued every day against the strike leaders but were openly reviled and not one of them was ever observed. Today the Grand Rapids strikers are confronted with their first injunction and they should defy it and continue their strike as tho the injunction judge did not exist. The injunction is the result of plainly usurped power by corporation hirelings who be- come judges. Even the supreme court of the United States has de- cided that workers have a right to peacefully picket andthe strikers sn Grand Rapids should insist upon that right, no matter what a petty-fogging judge may say or do: - pn RD ESS) Trane eee ay Historians used to express surprise that the Pretorian guard once. sold ancient Rome at public auction. No one can possibly get a kick out of that tale today, when politicians in control of city, state and nation stand ready at all timesto sell the whole damn works to the highest bidder. The pretorians were amateurs compared to the Mellon-Coolidge gang at Washington, Len Small at Springfield or the aldermen of the city of Chicago. Decorate the Mahogany!—This command is a contribution to American slang by the eminent aldermen of Chicago, utilized when they want someone to pay them graft for special favors they render in their capacity as members of the city council. Get a member of the Workers Party and a new subscription for The DAILY WORKER, Get the Paris Commune Edition! Be sure to get your PARIS COMMUNE EDITION of The DAILY WORKER next Saturday, March 13, The NEW SATURDAY MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT of that issue will contain the famous article of Lenin, “THE PARIS COM- MUNE AND THE PROBLEMS OF THE DEMOCRATIC DICTATORSHIP”—published for the first time,.we be- lieve, in the English language, Written in July, 1905, in the midst of the stirring revolutionary events of that year, the article shows the master hand of Lenin who, more ably than any other except Marx himself, could draw the lessons from the great event of Paris and apply them in the real life of his own time. Don't fail to ‘the next edition of the Daily Worker Saturday Magazine, French cities ( In Memory of the Commune By Vladimir Ilyitch Lenin. The eighteenth day of this month will be the fifty-fifth anniversary of the Paris Com- mune. We publish here an article written by our great revolutionary leader, Lenin, on the fortieth anniversary of the Paris Commune, Next Saturday's Daily Worker will be espe- cially devoted to the memory and lessons of the Paris Commune. The New Magazine, Saturday section of The Daily Worker (March 13) will publish an article by Lenin which deals with the subject more extensively, se HIS is the fortieth anniversary of the proc- lamation of the Paris Commune. According to established custont, the French workers are celebrating on March 18 the memory of the Com- munards. And in the end of May they carry wreaths to the graves of the victims of bloody “May Week” and swear oaths that they will fight unflinchingly until the complete victory ef their \ ideas, until the final completion of the task left by the Communards. Why are the workers, not only of France, but of the whole world, honoring the men and women of the Paris Commune as their predecessors? And what is the inheritance left by the Com- mune? The Paris Commune arose spontaneously. It was not consciously or painfully prepared for-by anyone. The defeated war against Germany, the sufferings ‘during the siege, the unemployment among ‘the workers, and the ruin of the petty- bourgeoisie; the fury of the masses against the upper classes and the incompetent war leaders, the revolutionary ferment in the working class, which was dissatisfied with its condition and tended toward attother social system. The reac- tionary composition of the national assembly gave ground:for fear for the fate of the republic. All these’ andimany other factors combined to force the Paris population into the revolution of March 18, which unexpectedly put power into the hands- of the national guard, that is, into the hands of the working class and its ally, the petty-bour- geoisie. It was ‘an event unknown in previous history. Up to that day, power had been in the hands of the landlords and capitalists, that is, in the hands of their trustees who composed the government, so-called. After the revolution of March 18, when the government of M. Thiers fled from Paris with its troops, police and bureaucrats, the people re- mained the masters of the situation and power passed into the hands of the proletariat. But in contemporary society, the proletariat, enslaved economically by eapital, cannot govern politically without breaking the chains which bind it to capital. It was for this reason that the course of the Commune inevitably took on a socialist color—that is, it tended to the overthrow of bour- geois rule, the rule of capital, tended toward the tearing up of the foundations of the present so- cial order. The movement was in the beginning quite hazy and indeterminate. Even the patriots joined it in the hope that the Commune would resume the war against Germany and carry it to a victorious end. It was supported by the petty merchants who were threatened with bankruptcy if there were no moratorium of their obligations ‘and their rent (the government had not been willing to grant them this moratorium, but the Com- mune gave it). And last, even the bourgeois re- publicans were in the beginning sympathetic to it, fearing that the reactionary national assembly (the “hay-seeds,” the rustic landlords) would re- store the monarchy. But the main role in this movement was undoubtedly played by the work- ers, (especially the Paris handicraftsmen). There had been going on among them, during the last years of the second empire, an effective socialist propaganda, and many of them belonged to the International, Only the workers remained faithful to the Com- mune to the end, The bourgeois republicans and the petty-bourgeois withdrew from it soon: some of them were frightened by the revolutionary so- cialist, proletarian character of the movement; others deserted it when they saw that it was in- evitably doomed to defeat. Only the workers fearlessly and unrelentingly supported their own government; they alone fought and died for it, for the emancipation of the working class, for a better future for all toilers, Deserted by their allies of yesterday, without any support whatever, the Commune was doomed to failure. The entire French bourgeoisie, all of the landlords, the bourse (stock exchange) mag: nates, all big and petty thieves, all exploiters waited against it. This bourgeois alliance with the help of Bismarck (who freed 100,000 French war prisoners to fight against revolutionary Paris), succéede@ in rousing the uncultured peas- ants and rural pétty-bourgeoisie against the Paris proletariat. 1 besieged with a ring of iron half of Paris (thg other half was besieged by the German army). In some other of the larger les, lps Saint-Etinne, ey ‘ Dijon, etc.) the workers made attempts to seize power in order to proclaim a Commune and help Paris, but these attempts ended in quick failure, and Paris, wihch had first raised the banner of the proletarian revolution, was left to its own re- sources and doomed to certain defeat. For a victorious social revolution two condi- tions are necessary high degree of development of the forces of production, and preparedness of the proletariat. But in 1871, both of these condi- tions were lacking. French capitalism was in- sufficiently developed. Ij was then a country, in the main, of petty-bourgeois (of master-crafts- nien, peasants, petty merchants, ‘ete.) On the other hand there was not a working class party, no preparedness, and no experience in the work- ) ing class. The large masses of it did not yet . clearly understand its problems and the means | for their solution. There was no firm political organization of the proletariat, no broad unions, and co-operatives. But the main factor that the Commune lacked was time, the opportunity to gain insight into their tasks and carry out their program. It had not had the time really to begin its work before the Versailles government, supported by the en- tire bourgeoisie, began military operations against Paris. And the Commune was compelled to think first of all of self-defense. And up to | the end, which came in the week of May 21-28, | it had no time to consider anything earnestly. _But in spite of these unfavorable cireum- sfances, in spite of its short life, the Commune found time to take certain measures which were enuf to show its real thot and aims. The Com- mune replaced the standing army, that blind wea- pon in the hands of the ruling classes, with a general arming of the people; it declared the church separated from the state, abolished the church budget (that is, the state salaries to the priests), gave popular education a purely lay character,—thus striking a hard blow at the gen- . darmes in clerical robe. On the purely social field it had time to do but little, but this little ig striking enuf to-show its character as a popular government, working man’s government: ‘night- work inthe bakeries was forbidden; the system of fines, that legal form of robbing the workers Was abolished; and last, there was proclaimed the famous ordinance that tlre factories and shops deserted by their owners or closed down, were fiven to the workers’ co-operatives in order to start production again. And as if.in ordér“to ‘emphasize its character of real democratic, prole- tarian government, the Commune decided ‘that no official or member of the government’ could Wave a salary‘higher than the normal wage of ‘the tei20) and in no case higher than 6,000 frati¢s 1,200) a year. Sae “ATL these things show clearly enuf that th ~€bmmune was a deadly threat to the old world, based on slavery and exploitation. It was for this reason that bourgeois society epuld not rest erage as long as the red banner of thé'pro- riat waved over the city hall of Paris. ‘And When the organized forces of the bourgeois’ gov- ernment at-last succeeded in subduing the pootly organized forces of the revolution, the Bonapart- ist generals, defeated by the Germans, but '!bravé i’ the face of their defeated fellow-citizens, those Rennenkampfs and Meller-Sakomelskis of Franee, fishered in such bloodshed as Paris had never be- fore witnessed. The beastly militaty killed about 90,000 Parisians, about 45,000 were arrested,’and ety of these were shot; thousands were sen- heed to hard labor or deported to the colonies. ‘Altogether, Paris lost about a hundred thousand of its sons, among them the best workers of all crafts. The bourgeoisie was satisfied. “Now an end has been made of Socialism for a long time,” said its leader, the blood-thirsty pygmy, Thiers, after the bloodshed, instituted among the Paris prole- tariat by him,and his generals. But the bour- geois crows were crowing in vain. About six years after the overthrow of the Commune, when many of its fighters were still Jailed or in exile, a new labor movement began in France. A new cialist generation, enriched by the experiences of its predecessors, but not disheartened by their lefeat, grasped the standard which had fallen i the hands of the fighters of the Commune, and carried it with confidence and_ bravery, shouting: “Long live the social revolution! Long ve the Commune!” And after another three years the new party of labor and its agitation in e country compelled the ruling class to release the Communards who were still imprisoned by the” government. ; The memory of the struggle of the fighters of ‘the Commune is celebrated not only py the ‘French workers, but by the proletariat of the ‘whole world. For the Commune did not fight ‘for a local or narrow, national purpose, but for ‘emancipation of all toiling mankind, all the ‘er for the social revolution, the Commune re- ‘eeived sympathy wherever the proletariat suffer- led and fought. The vision of the life‘and death its hands for two months, the vision of the heroic aroused the enthusiasm of millions of workers, awakened their hopes and drew their sympathy toward socialism. The thunder of the guns of Paris awakened the most backward strata of the over the world an impetus to the strengthening of the’ revolutionary socialist propaganda. There- fore, the cause of the Commune is not dead; it _ is living in all of us. 4 The cause of the Commune is the cause of the cial revolution. The cause of the political and feomonic emancipation of the to “i the cause f the proletariat of the whole’ » And in this sense it is immortal. * Czariet ie, the commandérs of the punishing expe- Davin age net the ‘Russian workers ‘and peasante in 18 “Criminal Aliens”---or : Criminal Ruling Class By B. BORISOFF, AY after day millions upon millions of printed pages are carrying their lying, polsodous propaganda to all parts of the country. The daily press, this instrument.of American imperial- ism forthe shaping of public opinions, is repeating with different variations the same story. Hundreds of thousands of aliens have smuggled themselves into our country. These foreigners}are a menace to publicmorality, peace and | order. They ate ‘the source of boot-|4@pitalism from top to bottom,” legging, thé (source of _ unceasing crimes and, murders, ‘They. debauch the innocent ‘souls‘of the hundred per- cent American public officials and politicians. It. is necessary to purge our country of them. They must be deported! This agitation is being reinforced by truly remarkable statistics. It is being said, for instance, that forty percent of all. the aliens in Chicago lave penetrated illegally into the sountry and that the majority of these forty pefcent are undesirable, criminal elements. The newspapers also report that the department of labor has requested: all the prisons, insane sylums, char- itable institutions, etc., to furnish data, as to the péfcentage of criminal, sick, disabled, and degenerate aliens among their inmates. All this for the purpos of creating a prejudiced, hostile atti- tude toward the foreign born among the masses of the native petty bour geoisie and in the ranks of the hun dred percent American labor -aristo- cracy, The government of the Morgans and Rockefellers, the government of im- perialist oligarchy, is apparently de termined this year to carry the man- date of its masters and to pass the brutal laws against the foreign born. American imperialism is in need of these laws: a First, to maintain the division in the ranks of the American working class by bribing, on one hand, the aristocratic upper layers of the work- ers with a few crumbs from its table, and by reducing, on the other hand, the lower strata. of the workers to the. condition of virtual slavery. Second, to prevent at all costs the organization of the unskilled workers in. the basic industries where the for- eign, born predominate. Third, to create conditions for the intensifica- tion of exploitation and the means of crushing every resistance on the part ef. dhe workers.. There must be no repetition of the steel strike. There must. be,;no more strikes of the min- ers... The workers of the stock yards must be muzzled. The textile work- ers should receive no quarter. Wages must go down. In the struggle for the conquest of the world market im- perialism. sees no restraint to its ty- ranny, no bounds against its exploita- tion! of “democracy” are one after another being abolished, and complete and un- divided dictatorship of an imperialist oligarchy is steadily asserting itself; the exploitation of the workers and of the'small farmers, by the handful of bankers and big industrialists.-is intensified all the time. And finally, the fact of the’ ever: growing decay, degeneracy, and crim- inality of the ruling class. itself. This decay and. degeneration penetrates the entire social Organism of American NE after another monstrous scan- dals develop before the eyes ‘of the American people:—the “Teapo: Dome scandal; the colossal steals ’6f the funds appropriated for the cate of the disabled war veterans; the ex pose of the aluminum trust, ete., ete, And_-in all of these scandals the high- est. governmental officials and even “the principal” were involved in such a ‘manner as to disclose how the Rockefellers and the Morgans by thé se Of their’ millions set up thelr Zovernment out of the dullest, most mercenary, criminal elements. ‘As we descend ‘to the state and municipal apparatus. of the ruling nower, we find the same picture, One litical standal follows upon’ the jeels of another. Today it is the news of a state governor who stole public ‘unds; tomorrow it is the news .of mportant municipal officials following n full dress attire after the coffin of n assassinated™vice king; the day fter tomorrow it is a coroner and sheriff granting the freedom of city 0 millionaire bootleggers in order hat they may Continue the business ‘or which they were put in jail. Or igain it is related how a state’s at- torney participated in a banquet with prominent bootleggers and vice kings and was photographed in their pleas- ant company. Simultanéously it “is explained that the state’s attorney: in question owes his election to office in a great measure to. the services of these bootleggers and vice kings. Endlessly, day after day, similar stories appear on the pages of capital- ist newspapers. r Out of the drawing rooms and the clubs of “society”—the same stench. Day after day the newspapers are recording either a scandalous, piquant divorce suit, or a description of an all-night drinking “bout, or a sensa- tional murder committed by some “society” degenerate, It is from such manifestations off” its own corruption, decay and e-" generacy that American imperialism strives to detract the attention of the people by trying to attach its own qualities to the “aliens.” Such a cam- paign of vilification directed against bale must not be left unchalleng- cj hgshalgicet with an organization of a unitted front of labor against the attack of American imperialism ‘down-trodden and abused. As the vanguard fight- “of the Commune, the sight of a workers’ govern- ment, which captured and held a metropolis in fight and sufferings of the proletariat—all this proletariat, sunk in a deep sleep, and gave all In order to pass the necessary laws, |upon the most exploited, disfranchised, public opinion is being energetically | unorganized and therefore ‘helplegs moulded. This is the reason for the|clements of the working class the organized attack against the “alien,” |slanderous campaign of the ruling as against the “criminal,” the “un-|class must be answered with a power- desirable” the “degenerate,” the “vi-|ful movement. cious” element of the population, To the most backward workers it is HIS agitation is of two-fold service |@cessary through a campaign » of to American imperialism. Firstly, publicity to show just who are the it mobilizes to the support of the rul-|T¢@lly destructive, undesirable, crim- ‘tf; cliqe the masses of the petty inal and degenerate elements of so- bourgeoisie (especially those in the | “ety: ; ranks of the ku klu Klan) and, also} It is necessary, as a part of the draws in (or neutralizes) the many |campaign for the protection of the thousands of native workers who are | foreign born, carefully to collect and backward politically and who are | disseminate among the broad masses reared in prejudice and hostility |facts (of which there is no end) that against the foreign born. Secondly, | Will give them a correct picture of the the noisy agitation against the “dan- |Tuling class, ser” threatening from the “vicious, The campaign against the “destrue- ‘degenerate, “criminal” aliens serves | tive,” “dangerous,” “degenerate” al- ‘o divert the attention of the working |iens.must be answered by the work- uasses andoof the petty bourgeoisie |ers with a campaign against. the “de- rom some of the sad facts of reality. | structive,” “dangerous” and “degener- Fact nimbe: ; xtife striker and took him to jail jemo: ion of striking textile workers. , rutally attacked ‘strikers as they paraded thru street demanding@Wigher wages, shorter hours, better 4 the shops and humane treatment free their hasan, “