The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 16, 1926, Page 4

"ee Pege Four = THE DAILY WORKER THE DAILY WORKER|TEARFUL TR Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING 00. 3218 W. Washington Blvd, Chicago, Ml, Phone Monroe 4713 SUBSCRIPTION RATES | By mali (in Chioage only): By mall (outside of Chicago): } 90.00 per yoar $4.50 six months | $6.00 per year $3.50 six months | $2.50 three months $2.00 three months | Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 1118 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, Hlinele J, LOUIS ENGDAHL t \ WILLIAM F, DUNNE cameeesee EGItOPS MORITZ J. LOEB, scriemeemenvevnrn Business Manager Watered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, at the post-office at Chi- cago, Ill, under the act of March 8, 1879, 2=™ Advertising rates on application. Chaotic Capitalism The German cabinet has fallen, civil war rages in Poland, British ecomomy is demoralized as a result of the general strike with a million miners still out and hundreds of thousands of workers remaining on strike in sympathy in spite of the orders of the Gen- eral Council of the Trades Union Congress. In France the left parties have united against the debt settlement with America. Where is the boasted stability of European eapitalism? The kaleidoscopic manner in which the scene of huge conflicts shifts from place to place in the world arena is in itself proof that world capitalism is very sick and weak. If we may be permitted a medical analogy we will say that European capitalism especially is like a patient suffering from an imeurable organic disease. The disease shows itself in different areas and various forms. The doctors and nurses—diplomats, generals and admirals, the social democratic orderlies, economists and editors— treat each new lesion in the structure of capitalism as a separate disease having no connection with the basic disorder. Each time they succeed in healing one grave disorder they an- nounce that the patient is cured only to see a new outbreak in some other part of the body before the echo of their triumphant proclama- tions has died away. - A short time ago the eyes of the world were on Ohina and the struggle of the Chinese workers and peasants against imperialism was weakening its whole system. The Chinese struggle has entered a new phase where the importance of organization of broader masses of workers and peasants and the consolidation of its forces over- shadows the purely military operations. For a moment world cap- italism breathes easier in the east. But then comes the British general strike opening a new strug- gle, a new phase of the battle of the British working class against its rulers. Then follows the downfall of the German cabinet brought about by the decay of German capitalism poisoned beyond permanent repair by what was supposed to be a remedy—the Dawes plan—and precipitated by an alliance of the parties on the left. Hard on the heels of the German crisis comes the Polish col- lapse. France falls into line with a renewal of the financial and polit- ieal crisis in the form of a declaration against the debt settlement by the left bloc. These events are of world importance in themselves but they appear as isolated instances if we fail to understand that they are produced by the efforts of world capitalism to place the burden of the war on the backs of the workers, to reconstruct capitalism in its former stable form at the expense of the workingclass. This is the only way that capitalism can achieve even temporary stability, but it encounters the resistance of a working class disillu- stoned by its struggles to maintain its living standards and which, in spite of the continual deceptions and betrayals by the social- democrats, follows more and more the line of the Communist Inter- national. The resistance by the workers to attacks on their wages and working conditions have revolutionary significance in this period even when this resistance, as in the British general strike, does not take on a revolutionary character. The workingclass is moving fast in the direction of new great atruggles produced by the pressure of lowered living standards and the threat of new wars growing out of the intensified conflicts be- tween sections of the capitalist class. This is the lesson of the events of the last week. Jefferson Cannot Defend Himself As the centennial of the death of Thomas Jefferson, author of the declaration of independence and second president of the United States, approaches, various groups of imperialists are endeavoring to utilize his memory for their predatory aims. Efforts are being made to purchase Monticello, Jefferson’s old Virginia home, and perpetuate it as a memorial—not to what Jeffer- son represented in the history of this country, but to utilize it to glorify the shabby patriotism of the imperialist plunderers of today. Felix M. Warburg, Wall Street banker, Thomas Fortune Ryan, another banker, and the clownish Charles 8. Dawes, Morgan lackey and vice-president of the United States, contemplate donating one hundred thousand dollars each to the fund for the purchase of Monticello. 4 It is a pity that Jefferson cannot be heard on this question. Dead men cannot defend themselves against ghouls who defile thet: graves and memories, ‘ * If Jefferson were alive today and endeavored to repeat his revo- Intionary activities against the despotism of this day as he did of his day by helping to organize secret, conspiratorial, revolutionary committees of correspondence, the Warburgs, the Ryans and the Daweses would be the first to strive to destroy him. On the other hand, Jefferson, who crushed the federalist party because of its in- famous alien and sedition laws, would fight those creatures who today encourage criminal syndicalist laws. ‘The man who con- eeived this country as a haven of refuge for the oppressed and exiled of the world would certainly not approve the present anti-foreign- born crusades. A whole era divides Jefferson from those who today strive to befoul his memory by perverting it to reactionary uses, The memory of Jefferson, the revolutionist of his day, cannot be utilized to cloak the imperialist depredations of today. The revolutionists of today will defend the revolutionists of yesterday against the ghouls of history. Get a member of the Workers Party and a new subscription for The DAILY WORKER. AITORS By William F. Dunne PACIFIC LABOR\ \ é LONDON, May 4.—Shortly before midnight last night, J. H. Thomas, his face trembling, tears streaming down his cheeks, stag- gered out of the House of Commons, crying, “It’s all off. The strike is on. I’m going home—broken.”——News Dispatch. War Preparations Against British Strikers Recorded By U. S. Capitalist Press AC plain as the fact of the great British strike itself is the further fact that the British government openly and deliberately took upon itself the task of emashing labor in the interests of the mine owners and the rest of the capitalist class, One needs only to read the dis- patches to such newspapers as the New York Times which frankly champions the cause of the caplital- ists as against the workers to under- stand that the British government functioned during the general strike as what Engels called “special bodies of armed men,” te know that British capitalism concentrated all its forces of oppression into one agparatus and that apparatus is the regular and spe- cial police forces and the army and navy. HE declarations of such men as J. H, Thomas, member of the Privy Council during the war, MacDonald, who while Labor Party premier sanc- tioned the use of methods against the workers and peasants of India which were more brutal than those of Bald- win, Henderson, Clynes and the rest of the right wing leadership, to the effect that “the strike is not an attack on the constitution,” their complaint that the government was exceeding its authority, their efforts to give no of- fense to the bloody imperialists of which the personnel of the British government is composed but to outdo them in patriotism instead of telling the workers that the wage struggle must take on a political character if victory was to be secured, simply aided the government in its strategy. HIS strategy was to force the issue of capitdlist government. versus the trade unions—to appear as the champion of the interests of the ma- jority of the British people against the onslaught of a minority. Such a strategy can be met and counteracted only by a resolute, con- scious workingclass leadership with full knowledge of the implications of the struggle, a leadearship which is using all its energy to rally and solidify the workers’ ranks for the overthrow of capitalism and the estab- lishment of the dictatorship of the workingclass. HE right wing leaders of the Brit- ish Labor Party and the Trade Union Congress are just as much afraid of the workers as are the cap- italists. They had a common mect- ing ground before the strike was called. Not once during the strike did it appear in any of the dispatches that the reformist leaders made any at- tempt to capitalize for the extension and broadening of the strike the flood- ing of Britain with troops, the occupa- tion in the best military and naval style of industrial sections and ports, the special legislation enacted, the suspension of all ordinary. liberties and privileges, the open threat and the obvious preparation to crush the labor unions by military force, [AT part of these preparations were is told in extracts from dis- patches culled from the Chicago and New York capitalist press published in connection with: this article. The evidence of correspondents who chronicled approvingly the events here set forth shows that the British government declared war on the trades unions and the workingclass the moment the strike was called. The gov@rnment placed the army and navy on a war footing, it organ- ized special auxiliary war services and after the passage of the emerg- ency act—itself a war measure—it issued instructions to the military forces which legalized any steps they might care to t@ke from the arrest of strikers to mass murder, ELDOM has. the leadership of a great trade union movement had such an opportunity as was given the right wing leaders’ of British labor. “Given” is the proper word because the general strike was opposed by them. But to MacDonald and Thomas this opportunity was no glorious chance to deal a deathblow to British imperial- ism but a reason for sorrow and tears. Weak and cowardly, this sec- tion of the labor leadership was weep- ing when the strike was called and when it ended, Not even the splendid array of stern- willed: workers behind them could give them courage. They have the viewpoint of the ruling class, they are obsessed with the ‘idea of empire and they could only wail of the losses to “England” caused by the strike, fe them England is not the England of the toling miners, metal work- ers, railwaymen, dockworkers and seamen, but the England of the mid- dle class subservient as always to the traditions of the past even tho it is no longer the bearer of those” tradi- tions. The.correspondent of the New York Times, reporting Thomas’. speech at Hammersmith «while the strike was on, describes iim and hig type with rare accuracy as “a Conservative try- Premier Baldwingrose . . . and amid a stillness that was startling in comparison to the hubbub which had gone before said: “I have a message from the king, signed with his own hand.” “This message proved to be the proclamation de- claring the country.'to be confronted with a national emergency. Bald- win read the message and then moved that the commons reply to His Majesty that an emergency does in fact exist. “ ‘The declaration ot tan emergency carries with it the imposition of the death penalty for ref of duty in the armed forces of the crown. Guarantees are strech that all per- sons who continue or resume their work in faithful duty to the country will be protected hereafter from reprisals or victimization by the trade unions, and the government will take all necessary steps to se- cure this. His Majesty's government will take effectual measures to prevent victimization by the trade unions of any man who remains at work or who may return tq work, and no settlement will be agreed to by the government which does not provide for a lasting period, and for its en- forcement, if necespary, by pénal- ties. = —3 No man who does_his duty by his government will be ‘teft unprotected by the state against ‘subsequent rep- risals, A motion by James Stewart of Glasgow to reject the regulation re- lating to the employment of armed forces in connection with the vital s@rvices was defeated in the Com- mons by a vote of 201 to 86. The members, wearied of arguments with the Laborites, did not even discuss the motion, ' The government today made an- other appeal for volunteers to do police duty during the strike as spe- cial constables. Already 250,000 such constables have.been enrolled. . This force will be called the “Civil Constabulary | Reserve.” It will be paid as a full time force.. + + + Those eligible fpr the new vol- unteer police force are officers and enlisted men of the Territorial Army and senior divisions of the Officers’ Training Corps and former military men who can be vouched for at territorial headquarters, . . . Employers are asked to encourage their employes to enroll. Orders issued at Portsmouth are to the effect that any order given to the naval personnel in connection with the services declared by a sec- retary of state to be vital becomes “a lawful command” under the naval discipline act. At the Bow street police court two men received prison sentences for being in possession of documents the publication of which would be in contravention of the|emergency reg- ulations. . . . ence to the return Thefe was a refer- the Prince of Wales from France} on account of the general strike injthese words: “The Smiling Pripce, who, it is understood, will be} called out on The government’ is intensely proud of its military measures against the strikers. It feels that its “great convoy” of provisions along the main London thorofares yesterday with a big escort of sol- diers armed to the teeth and a plen- tiful display of machine guns was worthy to rank with the mammoth wartime convoys on the roads of France. Today 150 motor trucks filled with provisions were convoyed thru the heart of London by a big detail of soldiers . . . but nowhere was any interference attempted. There were altogether too many machine guns in evidence, too many cartridge belts and wickedly glistening rifle bar- Tels, The government’s pride in the awe-inspiring martial panoply with which it has regaled London . . . is clearly shown in the official state- ments issued... . Firstly the Victoria Docks were occupied by troops, as if they were a strategic point in the heart of the enemy’s country. On Friday two full battalions of one of the crack guards regiments, the flower of the British Army, were transported in motor trucks across London and in- stalled there for an indefinite stay. They were so thoroly equipped for possible trouble with inhabitants of the tough dock region that they had a truckload of barbed wire for mak- ing entanglements. A number of armored cars also went with them. A signed statement from Premier Baldwin appeared in the British Ga- zette reading as follows: “Constitutional government is be- ing attacked. Let all good citizens whose livelihood and labor has thus been put in peril bear with forti- tude and patience that with which they have suddenly been confronted. “Stand behind the government, which is doing its part, confident that you will co-operate in the meas- ures undertaken to preserve tHe lib- erties and privileges of the peoples of these islands. “The general strike is a challenge to Parliament and is a road to an- archy and ruin.” Many charges were made by the police . . . and 72 arrests brought the total in Glasgow since Thurs- day night to more than 200. In the southern area . . . sixty arrests were made. ,.. A number of rioters were brought before the sheriff's court and sentenced to three months’ hard labor in the ma- jority of cases. Noah Ablett, representing South ‘Wales on the Miners’ Federation ex- ecutive, was arraigned in police court today on charges of making a speech in Battersea, “which was lia- ble to lead to disaffection among the civii population and the troops.” Warrants have been issued for the arrest of all the leading members of the Communist Party of Great Brit- ain, The government is taking steps to Prohibit the withdrawal of funds from banks for the aid of the strike without official sanction. It is be- lieved that this is the first move to prevent the Trades Congress re- ceiving financial aid from the unions in other countries. f ing to please the Moderates without, trying to “get peace” at any price and infuriating the Patra We quote from thi i speech? If the people who talk about a fight to a finish carnjed It out in that sense the country would not be worth having at the end of it. 1 have never disguised and | do not disguise now that | ec in favor of the principle of the gen- eral strike. No ong will disagree, however, that the fundamental prin- ciple of trade unionism is not only the right for men organize but the e that legal right is collective bargain- ing. The workers have no right to Say to the employers, “YOU MUST NEGOTIATE UNDER THE THREAT OF A STRIKE,” but it is equally right and just that the workers should not be asked to carry on negotiations under the threat of a lockout, From the start | DELIBERATELY WENT IN TO GET PEACE, Let there be no mistake about that and in spite of all that has been said, ! repeat that it is the duty of both sides to keep the door open, pLancy put, right during the height of the strike, Thomas was while the government was deploying its troops into strategic positions and occupying workingclass districts, he was doing his best to destroy the morale of the strikers. Unity in the face of the enemy, whoever he is and wherever he ap- pears, is the first principle of strug- gle whether it be open war or some small dispute. The bringing of ever greater pressure to bear on the en- emy, to throw into the struggle ever larger forces, to demoralize the forces of the enemy, to strike where he least expects it, all these are elementary rules of military operation, wey did not the leadership of the Trade Union Congress and the Labor Party appeal to the colonial workers and peasants in India, Africa and Egypt to support the strike of the British workers? Why did they not say to them: This is your opportunity to strike a blow for your freedom, Because the reformist leaders would rathep see the strike lost than won by methods which would see the work- ors on the road to power, because they think of England, capitalist England, first, and the working class last. The British capitalists consider themselves the guardians of England and the empire and rightly so, they own them, But for leaders of workers to adopt this viewpoint is simply to deliver the workers under their influence to the ruling class in every crisis, “i Ba British rulers may and un- doubtedly did differ on the tactics to be used in fighting the workers, but on the main question—who should rule in England—they were a unit, State, church and press were solid against the strike. And here we make the connection between the right wing leaders of the Thomas type and the blackest reactionaries who backed the government. What essential difference is there between the Thomas statement that “the workers have no right to say to the employers that you must nego- tiate under the threat of a strike,” and the following statement of Cardinal Bourne made at high mass in West- minster Cathedral: “4, There is no moral Justlfica- tion for a general strike of this char- acter. It is a direct challenge to law fully constituted authority and in- filets without adequate reason im- mense discomfort and Injury on mil- lions of our fellow-countrymen, It Is, therefore, totally against the obedl- ence which we owe God, who is the source of that authority, and against the charity and brotherly love which are due to our brethren, “2. AU are bound to uphold the government and to assist the gov- ernment which is the lawfully con- stituted authority of the country and represents, therefore, in its own ap- pointed sphere the authority of God himself.” IARDINAL BOURNE upholds the | | rors and terrors of the last will government, Thomas and MacDo- nald will not fight against the govern- ment. Both are enemies of the work- ing elass which find the government blocking its way both to a decent living standard and to power. The most important lesson of the general strike for British labor and for labor in every land except the Soviet union where they learned this lesson nine years ago and have never forgotten ft, is that capitalist govern- ment is the concentrated force of the capitalist class and that trade union leaders and leaders of working class political parties who have not learned this lesson or, having learned it will not act in accord with it, must be deprived of power in the labor move- ment and driven back into the ranks of the open enemies of labor where they belong and in whose ‘interests they function. That worker next door to you may not have anything to do to. night. Hand him this copy of the DAILY WORKER. The Way Radio Helps the Bosses and Their Government Against the Workers MEET AGAINST © ~ WAR TS CALLED Australian Labor Party Sends Invitations By W. FRANCIS AHEARN, Federated Press Sttaff Correspondent. MELBOURNE, Australia (By Malt). —Tho federal executive of the Austra- \lan Labor Party has Issued formal in- vitations to labor organizations In th United States, Canada, Japan, China, India, New Z ind and several of the, South American republlo to a Pari. Pacific conference to be held at Hono- lulu In the third week of November next. The object of the proposed con- ference Is to bring together the repre- — sentatives of labor and other organiza- tions from countries bordering on the Pacific Ocean with a;view ef arriving at a better understanding In respect to the future peace of the Pacifio. Other Questions.. In addition to the question of peace and war, any business may be intro | duced, providing it is of joint inter- | Pacific importance and is notified in time for its conclusion in the agenda of the conference. ‘The'basis of representation at the conference is not fixed or arbitrary, but it is expected that the delegates | ‘from organizations participating will | be credentialed by the chief executive | of their organizations and be financed by their respective organizations. A small contribution will be expected | from each organization represented to, cover the cost of meeting place, pre-| paring and printing reports, etc. Anti-War Purpose. | The proposal to hold the conference is the outcome of a decision of the fed-) eral conference of the Australian La- bor Party, held in Noyember, 1924, when the following anti-war declara- tion was adopted:: “That this conference, sary that with another great war the hor} eclipsed, affirms it to be the duty of the Australian labor movement to! declare that, under no cireumstances should the workers take up arms in the interest of International rival- rles, but, instead, will Join with the workers of all countries In striving wholheartedly for peace by Inter- national action.” Philippine Island Hemp Exports Hard Hit by British Workers’ Strik MANILA, P. 1, May 14.—The Phflt; pine hemp industry has been hard h by the strike of the British marin transport workers. Hemp exports t England form the greatest item of,e port of the Philippine Islands. ‘i The Manila Labor Congress pat 3 resolutions of sympathy with the I i ish workers, The subscription price to the Amer ican Worker Correspondent is only 5 cents per year. Are you a subscriber 1—Bournemosth, bam, 385° Metres, 1,000 Watts 2—London, 210, 365 Metres, 2,000 Watts “3—Cardiff, SWA, 353 Metres, 1,000 Watts 4—Daventry, 5XX, 1,600 Above are shown the important high-powered radio broadcasting \? stations in the United Kingdom. These were immediately commandeered) by the government during the general strike. With these in its hands the strike-breaking activities of the state were aided in a large measure. — \f labor had had radio stations, these would have been suppressed by { the military. Unfortunately, it is impossible to have secret broadcasting stations. They oan be located by detecting Instruments «|