The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 3, 1926, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER THE DAILY WORKER| Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO, 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. Phone Monroe 4712 eh alse adc Dest SUBSCRIPTION RATES igs By mali (in Chicago only): By mail (outside of Chicago): 98.00 per year $4.50 six months | $6.00 per vear $3.50 six months 2.50 three months $2.00 three months Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER,<4913 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Iilinols J, LOUIS ENC WILLIAM F, MORITZ J. ditors ..Business Manager DU LOEB. Entered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, at the post-office at Chi- cago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. Em 290 Advertising rates on application, — <a —— Another British Report on Russia If complacent astonis| capitalism in the English speaking world was and decidédly favorable report of tion to the Soviet Union it must be the recent report of Frank Nelson, T. C. R. Moore and Capt. R. E. Bourne, at the comprehensive the I 1 trade union del completely dumbfounded at Robert Boothby; Lieut. Col. tory parliamentarians, of England. In order to soften the blow to their-conservative colteagues who have so assiduously repeated and improved upon all the weird tales concocted by the pen yalets that grind out lies from the white-guard centers of culture and light located in Riga, Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, ete., and who were responsible for the hoax known as the “Zinoviey * to the British Communist Party, the four conservatives in- in considerable nonesense about “dictatorship over the prole- tariat,” “unjustified violence and the usual list of exploded lies. But on a number of points they depart from the beaten path of their kind. They proclaim their Belief that the Soviet govern- ment is permanent, that it-cannot be overthrown, and they ad- vocate full recognition of the government of that country. What is! of most interest to workers is the statement of the tory investigators that: “The information supplied to us by many sources indicates THE BULK OF WORKERS AND PEASANTS ARE BETTER OFF SINCE THE REVOLUTION THAN BEFORE. * * Class and caste have largely broken down.” What the trade union delegation said in this regard is re-echoed by the conservative supporters of Baldwin. It will be difficult in Britain to make the workers believe that the revolution in Russia has not immensely improved the condition of the workers and peasants of that country. The report also indicates why the Russian trade unions and the Soviet government are anxious to have delegations of workers from other countries come to Russia and see for themselves what is being accomplished by the government of workers and peasants. When the facts are so overwhelming that even conservatives who are most bitter cl enemies of the workers are compelled. to render a favorable report on conditions in the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, those workers of the United States, who are or- ganized in labor unions, should demand that their unions aid in the movement to send a trade union delegation to investigate the facts regarding Russia. Crowe Arbiteates a Labor Dispute The newspaper scale, recently expired between Chicago Typo- graphical Union No. 16 and the newspaper publishers of Chicago, carried a clause that in cases of men being discharged, who believed themselves aggrieved, the complaints should at first come before a committee of two, consisting of the president of the union and the president of the publishers’ organization. If no agreement is reached in a case it goes to a committee of six consisting of an equal number representing each organization. In ease of failure of the commit- tee to agree the matter is referred to the state’s attorney of Cook county. a“ Recently a printer was discharged from the composing room of Hearst’s Herald-Eraminer because he refused to work overtime. He was perfectly within his rights and the laws of the union to re- fuse. Hence he appealed his case thru the stipulated channels and it came up before the notorious labor-hating, union raiding state’s attorney, Robert E. Crowe, head of a venal political machine. Crowe decided against the union and in favor of Hearst’s underling who discharged the man. This again emphasizes the fraud of arbitration and blasts again the illusion that there can be such a person as a neutral arbitrator in a dispute between capital and labor. In the next contract with the publishers the union must eliminate the arbitration clause and regain for Chicago newspaper printers the job control that they so long exercised and that was taken from them by a downright swindle. The Passaic Bomb Scare We thought the agents of the Passaic mill owners had exhausted every underhanded deyice known in order to defeat the magnificent strike of 16,000 workers who have for eighteen weeks challenged the power of the bosses. We had almost forgotten the “bomb con- spiracy” hoax, which is almost as ancient as the famous “shell game” used in the days of the stage-coach to separate gullible rustics from their mone But the Passaic bosses and the police, having made their own contribution to frightfulness against workers on strike in the form of gas bombs, now proceed to try everything ever used in any strike in this country. The latest was, according to the New York Times, a bomb plot. A certain scab named Purpura is alleged to have told the police that some attempted to pl 2 bomb on his premises and he frightened them away by firing a shotgun at them. Immediately after the report of this episode two valiant detectives discovered two “bombs of expert workmanship” in an iron fomidry nearby. The story bears all the ear-marks of the customary police frame- up. In case the combined assaults of the police thugs, the courts and other tools of the mill owners does not work the agent provoca- teur and frame-up artist is called in, It is not at all unlikely that the mill owners or their tools in Passaic will murder a few of their own scabs in order to get.an opportunity to jail the strike leaders. The bomb myth indicates tlie next step, but the Passaic strike leadership will not be caught napping but will be able to expose any such crude frame-ups ‘as have characterized similar strikes in past years. IN THIS ISSUE—@! Coolidge Speaks of the Dead in Order that There May -Be More Dead By He M. M. WICKS Like all his recent utterances the Decoration Day speech of Coolidge, delivered in the great marble amphi- theater at Arlington cemet was a glorification of the military might of the United States. But it went beyond his customary speeches in that it was decidedly a defense of the imperialist policies of the Mellon-Coolidge administration, touching upon the question of the world court, the league of nations, disarmament, the war debts and other problems affecting the foreign rela- tions of this country. Coolidge boasted of the fact that never before in its history has the | United States possessed such a gi- gantic peace-time. army and navy as at the present time. That the admin- istration contemplates still greater armaments was indicated »y his state- ment that: We realize that. national security and defense cannot be safely neg- lected. To do so is to put in peril our domestic tranquility and jeo- Pardize our respect and standing among other nations.” Here is stated, in scarcely veiled terms, the doctrine of violent con- quest against other nations that stand in the way of Yankee imperialism. Unless the armed power of the United States is used without stint to smash thru all barriers erected by rival im perialist powers the government of the House of Morgan Will jeopardize its-respect and standing among other nations, How pathetic! At all costs it must retain its respect! Then the armed power, the greatest we have ever known in peace time, is to be made still more mighty so it can crush the workers of the United States when they grow weary of the cynical and brutal use of the govern- ment power to reduce them to help- less slaves of the master class. This is essential in order that our domestic tranquility be not imperiled! A simple analysis of one sentence of Coolidge’s memorial day address reveals the double role of the armed imperialist forces of the United States —wars of conquest abroad, crushing of the workers at home. Fatuous Verbiage. After this proclamation of greater war preparations Coolidge reverted to his customary insipid and disgusting role of pacifist in the service of im- perialism, in a manner reminiscent of the late Woodrow Wilson, who in- dulged in the most exalted sentiments of peace while preparing for the slaughter of American workers on the battle fields of Europe in order that the world might be made safe for in- vestments of the House of Morgan. After a blanket benediction of all wars in which this country has parti- cipated, declaring that America has never fought a war for a wrong cause, the White House “spokesman” said: “As a people we have not sought military glory. The armed forces of America are distinctly the forces of peace. Everyone knows that we covet no territory, we entertain no imperialistic designs, we harbor no enmity toward any other people. We seek no revenge, we nurse no grievances, we have inflicted no in- juries, and we fear no enemies. Our ways are the ways of peace.” It would be a difficult task to con- vince the inhabitants of Haiti, Santo Domingo, Mexico, the » Philippines, Chile, Peru, and other places where the gunmen of American imperialism have been seen in action, practicing every known form of ruthlessness, that the ways of this government are the ways of peace. The victims of the “water cure,” that monstrous form of frightfulness practiced by American armed forces in the Philippines, which consisted of forcing natives to drink until many of them died in agony, the people of Haiti whose duly constitut- ed government was seized and dis- persed under martial law in 1915, un- der the benignant reign of Wilson, and which is to this day under the terror of American bayonets, are far better judges whether this country has inflicted injuries upon other peoples, especially those unfortunate enuf to live in countries whose terr!- tory contained wealth coveted by the avaricious plunderbund of Wall Street. “No Imperialistie Designs.” As to the imperialistic designs that Coolidge denies, a careful analysis of the balance of his speech will reveal the motives of this country. He de- fends the imperialist conspiracy en- gineered by Wall Street that resulted in cowardly and subservient senators voting adherencé of this country to the world court, which is the entrance to the league of nations, that most ambitious of all dreams of world im- perialism. No one who understands the real character of the government of the United States can doubt for a moment that the Mellon-Coolidge gang wanted to enter that tribunal for the specific purpose of intriguing to ob- tain a better foothold in Europe for the titanic struggle that is being waged by American imperialism against England. Not only did the president praise the world court but he stated that the league of nations ought to be able to provide Buropean countries with “certain political guarantees which our country does not require.” . Surely no more palpable misstate- ment was ever uttered, in view of the continued failure of the league . to formulate even the most insignificant agreements ‘because of the clash of interests that turn every conference under its auspices into a farce or, what is worse, a threat of another world war, Armaments, Debts, Loans. Turning his face toward Europe the Down East Yankee who acted as a megaphone for the House of Morgan brot up the question of armaments and proclaimed ‘his conviction that “they gre in great need of further limitation of armaments” and con- cluded the sentence with the promise that this country would lend them every assistance in the solution of their problems, - Nations engaged dn, competitive armaments cannot pay, interest on Wall Street loans, so the. White House agent of imperialism. yjll extend the assistance of this goyernment to so limit arms in Europe that Morgan can make profitable loans to them. His comments upon armaments were in line with the recent, administration proposal for a zoning system of, arms limitations in Europe | which in prac- tice would disarm thoge nations in Europe likelyxto fight. én the side of Britain and permit ‘those potential allies of this countty, to maintain umies for “security.” Dwelling upon the “illusion that Rurope can recover its’ former stab ility if it will consent to the benev- olent aid of the United States, Coo- lidge pictured new opportunities for imperialist expansiom? * “Such a condition will likewise give opportunity to devote our sur- plus wealth, not to the payment of high taxes, but to the financing of the needs of other nations, Our country has already thru private sources recognized the requirements in this direction and has made large advances to foreign governments and foreign enterprises for the pur- pose of re-establishing their credit and their private industry.” Stripped of all its verbiage this utter- ance can mean nothing else but that the interest of this,country in Eu- ropean limitation of armaments is only for the purpose,,of realizing op- portunities for investment of the enormous surplus thgt, flows in ever increasing torrents into the hands of American bankers from all parts of the world where workers slave for Yankee enterprises, The statement is also noteworthy becayse of the ad- mission that this country “thru priv- ate sources” has already made large advances to European countries. Those “private sources” were the Wall Street banking!’combines and this wtterance of Coolidge completely identifies the policy ofthe government with the policy of Street as one and the same thing. Imperialism iampant. The memorial day, vaddress was in every aspect one of the most flagrant imperialist utteranceg,, ever recorded. Boiled down it means, chat this coun- try is to maintain a powerful military machine to defend its, vast interests that are growing ever greater. It means that the United States thru its investments is becoming more and more involved in all conflicts of the old world; that countries securing loans must be content to submit to political domination hy the agents of Wall Street who will dictate what arms they shall and shall not bear. (One of the chief characteristics of imperialism is the fact that where finance capital is invested the im- perialist government must be able to dictate the political policy of the country.) _ Then, as a climax to the enunciation of the imperialist pro- gram of the Mellon-Cooldge govern- ment, we have a eulogy of the debt cancellations, the most flagrant of which was to relieve the tyrannical government of the despot, Mussolini, of 75 per cent of the italian debt and place it on the backs 6f American tax- payers in order that’ Morgan might profitably extend hispower to dom- ination of the industries of Italy. Coolidge’s Interpretation of History. While discussing the problems of war and reconstruction in Europe, the person who wrote the, felt called upon to general causes of wa ously pondering the duced the following interpretation: i “Peace has an ecanomic founda- tion to which too little attention has been given. No student can doubt that it was to a large extent the economic condition of Europe that drove those overburdened countries headlong into the world war. * * Whole peoples were drilled ‘ and armed and trained to the detriment of their industrial life, and charged and taxed and assessed until the burden could no glonger be borne. Nations cracked under the load and/ sought relief from Intolerable pres- sure by pillaging each other.” While citizens of the United States are accustomed to dull, boresome ut- terances from presidents, it has usual- ly been the custom for the party in power to find an advisor for the presi- dent that would avoid some of the most obvious pitfalls that betray his. total worthlessness except as a rub- ber stamp for the particular economic , After labori- estion he pro: ‘of historical class he serves. Evidently the present administration suffers from a pathetic poverty of even ordinary brains. Everything in the above quotation is ridiculously wrong except the as- sertion that peace has an economic foundation. The conflict in Europe arose not because the people were drilled and armed, but because each imperialist power endeavored to secure control of territory that would enable it to dispose of its surplus pillaged from its own exploited work- ers. Armies and navies were main- tained in order to defend the far- flung interests of the groups of na- tions that precipitated the war. The nations were not by nature warlike ‘as Coolidge said in another place, and they did not maintain armies because they enjoyed military parades, Furthermore industrial life was not impaired by the drilling and arming of the population but on the contrary, in spite of the vaporings of Calvin ‘Coolidge, great industries sprang up devoted exclusively to the manufac- ture of war materials because effect- ive war machines must today rely upon the efficiency of the industries that form their backbones. That is one of the reasons why the United States as an imperialist nation is gradually driving Britain to the wall, In addition to being the banker of the world this country has the greatest industrial perfection and can, on short notice, mobilize a tremend- ous army. It was not merely to amuse themselves that the industrial mag- nates of the United States decided a few months ago to proceed to equip their plants so they could be changed from péace industries into producers of war materials within a few hours. The Impending Slaughter. Coblidge utilized his memorial speech supposed to be devoted to the war dead to pave the way for still more dead. His words, as he turned toward Europe, conveyed sinister threats that, if carried into effect, will strew the face of the earth with un- numbered millions of corpses in other imperialist wars. The crosses over the graves at Arlington and in the countless acres of war dead in France will mutiply ten thousand fold until the day will come that the sun will never set on ground that has not been saturated with the blood and fertilized with the bodies of the working class of America if Coolidge and the class he represents have their way. Workers perceiving the real impli- cations of the matchless slaughter that is in store for them if imperial- ism is allowed to march forward un- checked must break away from the old parties of capitallsm—both of them representing imperialism in its most ghastly form—and create a class party of labor that will challenge it this election the government that with such cynicism prepares to doom to death in the defense of Morgan's in- terests *he youth and childhood of this nation, Protest Imprisonment of Communists Démonstration of 25,000 workers in London, England, for the release of imprisoned Communists Three Hundred Years of Negro Slavery LOVETT FORT-WHITMAN The importation of African captives into the new world as slaves, begin- ning in the 16th century, was the means of solving the labor problem of that period. The American colonies found«a rich fertile soil, a favorable climate and a land blessed with bound- less natural resources. But it was the problem of securing an ample labor supply, which could assure the exploi- tation and development of the natural wealth of the country. The French and Spanish planters in the West Indies had used African slave labor for perhaps more than a generation, before the practice was introduced in- to the North American colonies. The indentured servant system was rapidly proving @ failure among the American colonies as the inherent weakness of the system lay in the fact that the servant could not be kept for life and after completing his period of in- denture could himself become a free- holder, thanks to the super-abundance of land. Beginnings of Slavery. The purchase of some twenty Afri- can slaves at Jamestown in 1619 marked the introduction of African slavery into the North American col- onies, Slavery at the start proving quite profitable, especially in the culti- vation of tobacco, rice, indigo and the other commodities peculiar to the warmer regions of the country, at once encouraged and lent impetus to the rapid development of chattel slavery ‘as an institution on the North Amer- ican continent. As yet there existed no racial ill-feeling between the Negroes and the poor whites during the early advent of the former into North America. Racial prejudice took on a definite and pronounced form only after slavery had become part and parcel of American economic life, The-Slave Traffic. Although slavery existed in all the colonies, in the North, the slave had more the status of a domestic servant, but in the South characterized by its large plantations, the slave was a com- mercial factor. In the early part of the 19th century slavery having proved itself economically unprofitable in the North there developed a strong public sentiment for its abolition. Yet, we find that the puritan-fathers of New England, although denouncing the institution of slavery as a great moral evil had no moral scruple in making large profits in maintaining a three-cornered trade thru the importa: tion of molasses*from the West Indies, converting it into rum, sailing to West Coast Africa, there exchanging it for slaves, carrying their human cargo to the West Indies and the Southern States’ and deriving huge profits, Cotton and Slavery. But it is to be noted that thruout the colonies even in the South there had developed in the middle of the 18th century a growing sentiment for the abolition of slavery as an insti- tution, There were, abolitionist socie- ties in Virginia, in the Carolines, and other parts of the South, but following their invention of the cotton-gin, the carding machine and other inventions highly profitable to the cultivation of cotton, the slave took on a new and increased value. The grip of the ruling class of the South was tightened upon the institution of slavery and cotton became a stable commodity of the South land, Ther it"is that the most brutal and evil features of slavery manifests themselves, The wealth of the ruling class of the South is center- ed around the production of cotton. It is a class that becomes exceedingly wealthy, political dominant, develop- ing all of the characteristic arrogance of an old world landed aristocracy. The North by virtue of climate, soil and other geograprical features is rapidly developing an industrial life. Along with the merchant class de- velops manufacturing. Thus, we have in the first half of the 19th century two economic systems rapidly devel- oping within the political frame work of the same sovereign state. The con- tradictions arising from this social anomaly express themselves in the bitter struggle thru. politics for the capture of political power by either slave-owning class of the South or the manufacturing interests of the North, The struggle tho of a peaceful character at the start thru-out a period of some twenty or thirty years gather- ed in its intensity and irreconcibility, culminating in the civil war of 1861. Abraham Dincoln was elected to the presidency in 1860 representing the new and budding manufacturing class of the North. It was the first real vic- tory of the recently born republican party. Tt was an expression of revolu- tion and progress. The triumph of the republican party or manufacturing class of the North was the death-knell to the slave-owning class of the South. The secession of the states of the south from-the union implied a deter- mination on the part of this slave owning class to conserve its property interests, ~Rolitically Disfranchised. The Negro has very religiously ad- hered to the republican party since his emancipation and because he does not know that the party which was once revolutionary and on the side of social progress has since the last thirty-five or forty years become the sabode of rank reaction. The clauses of the American constitution. purport- ing to guarantees the Negro certain rights and privileges today have be- tome absolute “dead lette: The Negro was used by the repub- lican party following the end of the civil war merely as an ally to aid in breaking ‘the political resistence of the once dominant class of the slave owning states, This having been ac- complished the Negro was no longer needed and was soon thrown over- board. Thruout the nineties one south- ern state after another politically dis- franchised the Negro people without the least opposition on the part of the party which he had always regarded as the champion of human rights. Lynching and Jim-Crowism have not diminished, lynching and mob violence have ever been on the increase. Res- idential segregation, industrial dis- criminations, peonage and every other, social abuse to which a people could be subjected has been the lot of the Negro during his period of- so-called freedom. After-War Problem. With America’s entry in to the world’s war the Negro was found ready and loyal to what he called his fatherland. He believed in Wilson’s enunciations of the rights of weaker nations and the freedom of the op-, pressed; but in spite of all his fine patriotism, his deep spirit of self- sacrifice, no political gains or social improvement was his reward; and -to- day we find everywhere the ascend- ency of a reactionary policy to ever keep the Negro people of America as an inexhaustible source of cheap labor for the employing class of the nation. The future of the Negro people of America lie with the onward advance of the revolutionary workers. Firemen of Chicago Seek Wage Increase from City Council The city firemen of Chicago are once again sending their association presi- dent, William §S. Johnston, to inter view the~ politicians in charge of the city departments to get their attitude toward a wage increase long desired by the firemen. The city council turned thumbs down on the modest request of the firemen and in making up the pres- ent year’s budget, made no allowance for a wage raise. The firemen, aside from the ac knowledged danger of their work, the long hours and lack of hope for ad- vancement unless willing to become a satellite of some minor politician, suffer from low wages compared to the present cost of living and the necessary extra expenses of the work, such as the purchase of uniforms, They are now trying to get an allow- ance for an increase from their pres- ent salary_of $2,200 a year by means of a clause in the mid-year appropria- tion bill to be passed by July 1. Gang Warfare Breaks Out in Fashionable J j ; Hyde Park District _ Gang warfare was carried into the fashionable Chicago Hyde Park dis- trict when two men were shot down in their tracks and another fatally wounded by mysterious assailants who escaped in an automobile, \ The men have not yet been identi- fied, but the method of the killing and subsequent escape of the slayers led police to declare the dead men were — the victims of gangsters, SEND IN A SUB! |