The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 29, 1926, Page 8

(Continued from page 1) ; class? No, he cannot. But what about the other candi- dates, for example, Senator Pepper? Senator Pepper is spoken of as a Coolidge man. He is known as a close friend and loyal supporter of the president of the,United States. This should ordinarily be enough to condemn him in the eyes of every worker and poor farmer in the country. A loyal supporter of Coolidge is a loyal supporter of Big Capital. But Senator Pepper is @lso an active man im the state poli- tics of Pennsylvania. And whom does he line up with in the state? With none other than the steel trust, the most brutal capitalist corporation in the country. He is a trusted and loyal servant of the Mellon interests in Western Pennsylvania. How, then, can working men support Senator Pepper? They cannot, of course. They must fight against Senator Pepper and politi- cians of his class. Then there remains Pinchot, the present governor of the state. What about him? Governor Pinchot is a politician with a history. He was a Roosevelt man im the days of the “Progressive” revolt against the old guard of the republican party. He is supposed to have remained a progressive up to this day, whatever that may mean. However, what is the real truth about Governor Pinchot? He is not exceptionally friendly to Big Capital, but he is very much devoted to the interests of medium and small capital, to the independent manufacturer and rich farmer. He ts less brazen and not so brutal in his attitude to labor as are politicians of the type of Congressman Vare or Senator Pepper. But he is a capital- ist and an opponent of labor just the same, He pretends to stand for square dealing and clean methods im politics. In this respect he may be somewhat better than Con- gressman Vare or Senator Pepper. But what does this ni¢kel’s worth of virtue amount to in the light of the class nature of his politics? He may be more decent than the next man in the daily run of human affairs but as a politician he is a capitalist. Republican Candidates Are Capitalist Candidates. WHicu brings us back to the fundamental] question in the situ- ation, namely, the class nature of the republican party. A political party is an organization for struggle to possess and control the machinery of the government. Political parties and their candidates fight for office, that is, for control of the government. Everybody knows that. : Now, why do political parties struggle for the control of the government? To promote and defend the interests of certain classes and groups in society. Hence, political parties are class organizations and the struggle between them is a class struggle. Most of the capitalists are fully conscious of this fact. Most of the workers are not conscious of it. That’s why the capitalists of the United States are well organized politically. They have two the workers are just beginning to awaken to the need of a poli- tical party of their own. The republican party has come into being as a party of the capitalists. Now, with the United States having become the chief imperialist power in the world, the republican party is function- ing mainly as the party of Big Capital. This fact finds its full and undisguised expression in the administration of President Coolidge. é What is the conclusion? The conclusion is that the republi- can primaries in Pennsylvania were primaries of a capitalist party and that the candidates in the es were capitalist candi- dates. Vare, Pepper, and Pinchot, whatever their differences in platform or personal records, are agents and servants of the capitalists. . Booze, Prohibition and the World Court. YES, there are differences between these candidates. Just there are differences between various groups within the capi- talist class. The struggle between Vare, Pepper and Pinchot re- flects these differences among the capitalists. Big finance capital wants the United States to join the world court. Why? Because the interests of the international bank- ers, the exporters of capital into foreign countries, will be served better and more effectively than now if the United States govern- ment establishes its influence more formally and officially in at least one of the political agencies of world capitalism. The world court is one of those agencies. The League of Nations is another one, Senator Pepper, a supporter of President Coolidge, had voted in favor of the United States joining the world court. Senator Pepper, like President Coolidge, represents the interests of Big Capital within the capitalist’ class. Oongressman Vare is more representative of the commercial and industrial interests of Pennsylvania. These groups are less interested inthe world court than the international bankers. Vare is, therefore, less outspoken and enthusiastic about this proposition. In the local politics of Pennsylvania, Vare is in- timately "bound up with the bootlegging industry and is, there- fore, championing the cause of the wets. Governor Pinchot is in many respects a typical representa- tive of the smaller manufacturer and merchant and of the rich farmer. As a representative of these groups, Pinchot at various times came into conflict with the bigger capitalist interests of his state represented by the Pepper-Mellon and Vare groups re- spectively. This fact reflected itself also in the more “liberal” attitude of Pinchot towards labor, particularly when the griev- ance happened to come from Western Pennsylvania which is dominated by the Pepper-Mellon group. Booze amd prohibition also played their part in the republi- can primaries in Pennsylvania. But this issue is being tremen- dously exaggerated to cover up the more fundamental causes of the struggle within the republican party and more particularly to divert the attention of the toiling masses from their real griev- ances against the capitalist class as a whole. powerful political parties—the republican and democratic parties |: +-to hold amd operate the government in their interests... While}. There Is No Other Choice But A Party Of Your Own ‘Leaders of Pennsylvania Federation of Labor Support Capitalist Candidates, D®SPITE all these facts the leaders of the Pennsylvania Federa- tion of Labor decided to support the capitalist candidates. These reactionary bureaucrats lined up on this question not as representatives of labor against the representatives of capital but as supporters of various groups within the capitalist class. Some of the labor reactionaries proposed to support Con- gressman Vare, others favored Pinchot. There may have been some in favor of Pepper. The labor federation decided, after much wrangle between the wire pullers for the various capital- ist groups, to indorse Pinchot for senator and Beidelman for governor. This decision is contrary to every interest of the workers of Pennsylvania. It again surrenders the workers to the tender mercies of their enemies, the capitalists. What should be done? The proposal of the Workers (Com- munist) Party and of the left wing in the trade unions is the right kind of a proposal. The workers of Pennsylvania must have their own ticket in the field. They must force the formation of an independent political organization of labor to place a labor ticket in the forthcoming elections. " The outstanding lesson in the Pennsylvania primaries is in- dependent political action by labof; a united labor ticket in the elections; the formation of a real labor party. China is today the scene of a conflict which will change hu- man history. Few workers of America realize how greaj!y their own interests are interwoven with this struggle going on in the Orient. Many do not know of the existence of a Chinese labor movement and its influence on the great struggle now going on. These things, and the significance of the “May 30th movement” will be told of in a coming issue of The DAILY WORKER Mag- azine. The Riveter’s Song. By BUELL DOELLE. Rat-a-tat-tat, | start in the day! ScREW up your face you fat Polack And call down for another plate. Baby, it’s hot on the tails of these spikes! Sing your song, little one!—rap me again, Right in the pit of my sick guts! Rat-a-tat-tat, I'm singing away! Wait till he gets up the air, Speed— Catch a.smoke while he blows up the fire..,. yon: eo See the swell-build on the blond girl below! Get back up there and yell to the Wop— Cup a hot spike for the girl, bum. Rat-a-tat-tat, | sing it along! ~ I say, how’s that for a fast one! Look out while I poke in this hole. Rat-a-tat-tat!—see how it busts through clean! Catch a spike, Polack, let’s finish this plate. Sing to your blond from the top stage! : Rat-a-tat-tat, I've made out a song! Three Poems By JOHN B. CHAPPLE. H I can trail a horse ’round a field And handle a tractor too, But I’m damned if I’ll learn to produce more and more And hand it all over to you. For you can get out of your limousine And learn to trail a horse too, Or else keep on on your road to hell And we'll hasten the trip for you. A Job for the Workers. Walls, walls, walls, Walls of capitalism ; Chasms, chasms, chasms, Chasms of capitalism; Cities, cities, cities, Builded, builded, builded, Builded by— Builded by workers— Then why don’t the walls and the chasms and cities Belong to the workers? My People. MX People are men of the farms, And men who toil on the docks And men who handle the axe, And men who are punchers of clocks, My people are men who are slaves, Slaves who yet fail to see, But they’re eager for someone to tell them, And that is the job for me. —