The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 10, 1926, Page 13

= | Pe EINE IT OE TE REN EEA ECO AT NTMI IIS FR SARA AS a So NN ERSTE ASSESS) HRN AERTS REESE SRR Second Thoughts on The first article appeared in last week’s issue of the magazine and dealt with the tactics of force and vio- lence fm the revolution of 1776. By JAY LOVESTONE. The Form of Government. E can.understand why the Ameri- can capitalist today is shuddering at the word dictatorship. When they hear the word dictatorship uttered by workers they know that it means the dictatorship of the workers to supplant the present dictatorship of exploiters, When the bourgeois apologists speak of the holiness of the present form of government they try to make us be- lieve that the people living in America have always had the same form of government, that this present form of government is immutable, that it has eternal blessings for the masses, Our revolutionary forefathers, when they decided to destroy the domination of the British ruling class, did not put_ much faith in the then existing governmental institutions under which they were living. Our forefathers de- cided to set up their own govern- mental apparatus. The first thing they did was to clean out the courts, which then, as now, were the bulwark of the reactionaries, the Tories (those who were ioyal to the existing govern- ment). In a letter which Lorn Dunmore, governor of Virginia, wrote to Lord Dartmouth, dated December 24, 1774, he gave a description of the govern- mental apparatus set up by the revo- lutionists to displace the existing gov- ernment. He said: “A committee is chosen In every county to carry the Association of the Congress into execution. They inspect the trade and correspond- ‘‘ehée of every merchant; watch the conduct of any inhabitant; may send for, catechise and stigmatize him if he does not appear to follow the in- structions of their Congress. Every city, besides, is arming an independ- ent company to protect their com- mittee and to be employed against the government, should occasion re- quire. Not a justice of the peace acts except -as a committeeman. Abolishing the courts of justice was the first step taken.” The American revolutionists set wp a very effective dictatorship to uproot all those loyal to the government of the exploiters and oppressors at that time. Anybody who did got declare himself on the side of the revolution was treated roughly. Even before the Declaration of Independence was is- sued, Connecticut declared that there This is the second and concluding article by Jay Lovestone on the revo- lutionary methods of struggle em- ployed by the colonial fathers in over- throwing the rule of the British crown. should be no more freedom of spe: for those who were loyal to the gov- ernment and against the revolution. Those’ loyal to the government were not allowed to get together. Such priv- ileges were accorded to them in cases where they were attending funerals, and then they were watched carefully by the committees of safety which were set up by the revdlutionists. Those loyal to the government were completely disarmed, The first American revolution also set up a very effective “cheka” for weeding out Tory elements. Let- us see how this “cheka” of 1776 worked in Massachusetts, the state which has given us that flower of all Americans —Coolidge. “In Massachusetts it was provided that a meeting of the inhabitants of each town might be called, at which a strong patriot should be chosen as chairman. Any citizen present at the meeting might give him the name of anyone suspected of Tory sympathies and, if a majority pres- ent voted affirmatively, the person named was arrested and tried at the next session of court. If convicted, he was shipped as soon as possible, AT HIS OWN EXPENSE, to Europe or the West Indies.” Those refusing to accept allegiance to the revolutionary government and continuing their loyalty to the over- thrown government were put into jail, kept there forty days and later de- ported, in many cases to some part of the British dominions. And if any of these loyal to the government returned the penalty awaiting them was: “Death without benefit of clergy.” “Foreigners” Help American Revo- lution. A lot of talk is now going the rounds about “Bolshevik money,” about money from other countries, to help finance the revolution in America. This is sheer nonsense. The only ones in Anierica who have seen Bolshevik gold or gotten any money from the Soviet government are such capitalists of the type of Henry Ford. Revolutions are not created. artificially, Revolutions must grow out of the objective condi- tions in the country, Still, it is very instructive to note the role foreign money played in insuring the success of the first American revolution. The French government spent at least 25,- 000,000 francs in financing the Ameri- can revolution, to overthrow the gov- ernment existing in America in 1776. It has been said by no less an author- ity than Admiral Mahan that the American revolution was really won ‘mn the high seas in the naval battles between the fleets of Spain and France on one side and Great Britain on the other. Professor Edgerton has well summed up the role of foreign governments in helping bring the first American revo- lution to a successful conclusion when he said: “The war had lasted long enough for clear-headed Americans to the Fourth of J uly recognize. the extreme difficulty of bringing it to a successful conclusion without foreign allies.” The French fleet and French sol- diers had much to do with the sur- render of Cornwallis (defending the existing government) to Washington, champion of the revolutionary govern- ment. Yes, our American bourgeoisie today would not like to confess to the work- ers that it was largely thru the al- liance of our American forfathers with “foreigners,” largely thru the use of “foreign” money that the first revolu- tion was a success and that a goodly portion of the foundation for the devel- opment of capitalism in the United States to its present heights was thus laid, Cheating the Workers, HE workers paid for and fought the revolutionary war. The workers took seriously the slo- gan of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. While the wealthy stayed at home, or often hired substitutes to fight for them, the work- ers, the mechanics, the poor farmers had to go to the front. The suffering of the soldiers at Valley Forge defies description. At the same time the rich were waxing fat on fabulous war profits. Many of the leaders of the revolutionary movement in 1776 preached radical doctrines to the work- ers, but these leaders failed to put these doctrines into practice except against the British ruling class. Adams summed up the situation very well when he said: “The petty aristocracy of clergy, loyalists, and merchants scorned the poor, had no belief in their political wisdom and at the same time was thrown into period panics on ac- count of fear of them. It was ail very well when the common people were to be goaded to action and war .. . to talk about all men being created equal and of the rights of all to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, but once the war was ‘won, the old doctrines of the supe- rior rights of the well-born to gov- ern and the superior sanctity of their property came once more to the fore. . +. “The people had been under the delusion that they had fought an eight years’ war for the rights of man and at the time of the forma- tion of the constitution many towns objected strenuously to this further limitation of the franchise. Dorches- ter claimed that mén might be ‘use- ful and respectable members of so- ciety’ even if they did not possess £50,” The Washingtons and the Hamiltons tried their hardest to stop the revolu- tionary movement from proceeding fur- ther and from altering the relation- ship of classes, yet it was an altera- tion of the class relationships in favor of the common people which was the outstanding feature of the revolution- ary war propaganda. Since the first American revolution the history of the United States has been a history of the struggles of the masses for an alteration in the class relationships. The first phase of the American revolution was not really complete until the election of Jefferson. Jef- ferson, it must be remembered, was the spokesman of the workers and the poorer farmers. Hamilton, his chief opponent, was the leader of the Fed- eralists, the big commercial interests which desired the establishment of a strongly centralized government, a na- tional bank, higher tariff, an army, a navy, and even talked for some time of establishing an American titled aris- tocracy, For weeks the first senate was debating as to the title that should be given to the president and how the senators should be addressed. The decisive vote for Jefferson in the college of electors was cast by one who served a four-month jail term for violating the sedition law passed by the Federalists against the working and farming masses. With the victory of the North over the South in the Civil War the hege- mony of the American bourgeoisie over ali other classes was complete. Since the continuation of the Civil War the American capitalists have been consolidating their hold on the resources, industries and government of the United States. But since then there has also been developing a defi- nite proletariat. The proletarianiza- tion of the United States has been in- creasing at an accelerating pace since 1893—the time marking roughly the disappearance of free land and the es- iablishment of the basis for capitalist monopolist control of the basic re- sources of the country. The struggle waged in the first revolution must be continued by the American workers toduy. The American workers have sp'endid traditions to live up to. Cém- rade Lenin has well pointed that out some time ago. Our traditions of struggle in the first American Civil War in 1776, in the second American Civil War in 1861, in the subsequent heroic battles against the railroad cap- italists, the coal kings, and the oil barons affords plenty of inspiration. On this day marking the one hun- dred and fiftieth anniversary ef the signing of the Declaration of Independ- ence from those who exploited our forefathers in 1776 it is time for us to think very seriously of the necessary steps to be taken for signing a new Declaration of Independence—a Decla- ration of Indepéndence from our ex- ploiters today. We can proudly tread the paths beaten by our revolutionary forefath- ers. They can teach us much, Let us learn from them. Let us act, Book Review The Humanizing of Knowledge. By dames Harvey Robinson. G. H. Doran, Pub., 1926, $1.00. ROBINSON wishes to educate the adult worker, it seems. He enumerates the difficutlies: Scient- ists, ete., write only that they may continue to be held in respect by their confreres; it does not matter to them whether or not the “masses” under- stand them; in fact, if these “masses” are by some latent ingenuity able to their work intelligently they are contemptuously termed “popular- izer” by their high-brow colleagues. Then there are the economists, histo- psychologists, philosophers, phil- Ologists, and so on down the line, who live alone on their separate isles of economics, history, psychology, etc., the sea of life, and who, altho the means may be gained by the mere de- to broaden and make more sen- wet minds, do.not try to help E e he inevitable bridge from one to the other. College presi- are all of the conservative school, In order to hold their jobs safely they c it voice the very mild- regards any change of curriculum, as laid down by a board ny of trustees. Still, qn the fingers of one hand could not be counted the number of college professors who have not already fallen into the rut of static conservatism before having received that distinguished position. The human mind, he says, can hardly be said to have been given a show in getting an education, but he lays the fault and blame at the door of no one. He expects knowledge to be “humanized.” How? Not by some fundamental change in society as it exists now, but by the changing of the attitude of college professors, scientists, of educators in general. Dr. Robinson igs a philosophical idealist. According to him knowledge will come to man, not by the con- certed action of man, but by that so obviously subjective factor, a change of attitude on the part of the learned. Indeed, it is wearisome to hear Dr. Robinson exaggerate the role of the intellectual in bringing about the real “humanizing.” It is as ridiculous to petition the board of education to dye its curricula with a more liberal tinge as is the idea that wo should buy 51 per cent of the stocks of all indus- trial and commercial enterprises and True, educational reforms can be had after some little or much agita- tion, but these reforms come only in spasms between which long periods of precious time are spent with only agi- tation, and nothing more of material value to the uneducated “masses,” and without the slightest change in our Joseph Caillaux present dehumanizing of knowledge. What is fundamental is a change of the economic structure of society from capitalist to proletarian. Such a gi- gantic transformation will do thou- sandfold more than to try to turn the attitude of scientist and teacher from being conservative to being open- minded. Dr, Robinson writes his book in an easy style, that even some “laymen” might be able to understand. The book, too, is made in a way that can | easily be carried by “laymen” and the print ig quite readable. David Gordon. Ie this Mott lemme A story by M. J. Olgin. lustrated by Fred Ellis. Mexico and Its Labor Strug- gles, by Manuel Gomez. The Great Labor Battles of | 1877, by Amy Schechter. Orig- inal cuts and illustrations. thus become the owners of this, our | The Man Who Wants to Save French| Cartoons by Bales, Ellis, Vose, country of capitalism. Finances by Taxing the Poor. Jerges and others.