The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 10, 1926, Page 6

Page Six Publis Washingt Riva : DAILY WORKER PU BLI ISHING co mM Phone Monroe 471% 1113 W. Chigago, JBSCRIPTION RATES” By mall (In Chicago only): |. By malt (outside of Chicago): $8.00 per yoar 50 six months | $6.00 per year $3.50 six months $2.50 ths | $2.00 three montha 3 all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, 11, J. LOUIS ENGDAHL | WILLIAM F, DUNNB Entered as second-class mail September 21, 19: BHditors Business Manager MORITZ J, LOEB... 23, at the post-office at. Chi cago, Ill., under the act of March 3, 1879. GP 290 Maver Sing rates on application Trouble Ahead for Coolidge From now on \ for the Coolia 1 The threats of Senator Borah in connection with the seating of Vare from Pennsylvania and Smith trom Illinois constitute in reality an announcement of intention of Borah to begin his campaign for the presidential nomination in| 1928 | And he has plenty of issues. The denial of the right of transit across American territory to Alexandra Kollontai, Soviet Union ambassador to Mexico, by Secre- tary of State Kell has not been taken with good grace by sections 0 1 press and in his pose of the defender of the nciples of capitalist democracy, Senator Borah has been able to | the | powers, Two Supreme By Cc. E, RUTHENBERG. The role of the capitalist govern ment in the class struggle is to strengthen the position of the capital- jist class economically and politically jand to weaken the exploited workers their and the struggles. president during ion, gave striking proof of the governmental the revision of the in last this of use In law and the funding of the power to com war the n t used capitalists econom: ly, and thru the adoption of the V son-Parker bill, which for all practical purposes takes of the govern- strengthen . the from the railroad workers the right to strike, the workers lost a powerful weapon in the class struggle, On October h, the supreme court of the United States handed down two decisions which are equally striking »s proving that the judicial | power of the government is used in the same manner. One of these deci- sions strengthens the ‘capitalist gov- ernment and the other is another step from the workers the right New Powers for the President. The first decision referred to deals strike a responsive chord among millions of people who are weary | with the right of the president to re- of the grotesque caperings of the Coolidge official household. An officia Roumanian queen lengths to extend a w to enter the but goes to unheard-of come to her, country workers’ and pe riendly nation, while at the same time condoning the most out-| rageous and flagrant violations of the capitalist moral code in the} fully forever to prejudices which it march of history elections, cannot has fostered carefully, liquidating. The Coolidge myth is being wiped out. appeal succes but which the iron Not so much by Borah large | ‘ | udom whic 4 not only allows a royal debauchee like the! , move federal appointees from office. During the more than a century and quarter of the existence of the U. S. government, congress has repeated- and then bars the representative | ly passed laws limiting the power of ints’ government on an official mission to a|‘#e President in removing appointees }of the government from office. All these limitations of the president's power are swept away by the supreme court decision, Altho under the con- are | Stitution the president can make ap- | pointments to certain offices only, “by | and with the advice and consent of the senate” the supreme court gives the but by a constant succession of stupidities which have brought great | president the right to remove any ap- disgust and disappointment to his capitalist masters. The next few months will witness many interesting encounters | in Washington and unless we are entirely mistaken Coolidge will | be on the losing end of all of them. As yet the issues are more of a popular than of a fundamental | character, but as the struggle progresses the cleavage between the | finance and industrial capital—upper and. lower sections of the |° middle class and the big banking interests—will become clearer. In the meantime, the fight for*advantage in the preliminary heats for.the republican nomination, will be of a guerilla nature, | but in some ways will be all the more deadly. In the next two years, as the struggle between conflicting sec- tions of the capitalist class sharpens, every effort must be made to point out to the working and farming masses the class issues which the rulers raise a smoke screen to hide. Governor Moore’ s Aid to Passaic Strikers Governor Moore of New Jersey has completed his tour of the Passaic strike region. He is back at his desk. In a statement is- sued from the executive offices, it is pointed out that the governor found that the employers “did not object to their employes joining the union, but that they would not subscribe to the principle of the closed shop”; that, further, the textile barons do not intend, in the event of the settlement of the strike, to re-employ all the work- ers that were formerly employed; thirdly, that they “had never re- fused to treat with their own employes and were still willing to do so.” The Passaic workers have had sufficient experience with the officials of the cities and state of New Jersey not to put very much reliance upon the “good offices” of Governor Moore. In the bit-| terest days of the strike, when the reign of police bestiality against | the Passaic workers, their wives and children, was at its height, Moore did not lift his little finger to call a halt to the conditions which were arousing the mild protest even of conservative capitalist sheets. When men and children were being brutally clubbed by the police, when the fire hose was turned on pickets and sympathizers in zero weather, Moore and his tribe were conspicuously and blithely | unaware that anything was wrong. Moore’s efforts to “settle the strike” are not being made in the interests of the strikers whose unswerving courage has brought} them the admiration and solidarity of the international labor move- ment. The desperate condition of the mill bosses, whose profits | have been sadly cut into by the long months of the struggle, dictates | the sudden interest that is being taken in the strike by the governor. His solicitude is inspired not by the sufferings of workers but by the sufferings of his masters, the textile capitalists. The assurance of a successful outcome of the strike is the continued and unbroken solidarity of the strikers, and the determina- tion of the whole American labor movement to keep up their sup- port to Passaic. The Moores offer the strikers no guarantee of an honorable settlement. (CURRENT i EVENTS bor.” It is the official organ of the standard raflroad labor organizations. [t is edited by a democrat named Ed- ward Keating. There is very little By T. i oO" “O'Flaherty. im the paper to justify its name. Dur- —$—_—————=—=—=—=en |ing the recent election campaign it | (Continued from page 1.) boosted capitalist candidates and | between republicanism and monarch- | spent thousands of dollars putting out ism under capitalism, special editions in the various states se 64.6 in support of so-called “friends of la- VEN the capitalists are beginning | bor.” In Montana, this fake labor pa- to protest against the outrage ies, Ne etude k wane trated against cco and Van- | Cate for . Perth, who. have already. spent six |/ADOF party candidate. But the farm- years behind prison ‘3 for a crime er-laborite won despite the treachery they have not committed, Those two |! Labor. Pre re workers would be now feeding the 5 worms but for the protests of the in-|]N # recent issue of Labor there ap ternational labor movement, The slo- peared an article on the British gan of the working class was: “Sacco | empire conference that is now taking and Vanzetti shall not die.”~ This is | place in London, ‘The article would Stull the slogam of labor, At this late} do justice to King George’s head pot- date italist press, :ealizing that |boy, tt boasts of the power of the the state of Massachusetts blundered, | British empire and declares that the and-that this blunder tends to sharp | main business of the empire is peace. en the class antagonisms comes ®ut | {t is hard ‘to use restrained language against the judicial flunkey Thayer |in dealing with this flunkeyism, It and makes him the goat, In @ Case | helps to prove that our labor leaders where the ruling classes Of Massachu-|have hit the bottom of reaction and setts are guilty. HERE is a labor paper published in Washington D, ©, called “La that the most reactionary of reaction- aries, Aa those who bad been consid- | in office is concerned. | war. pointed federal office holder, irrespect- ive of the opinions of the senate as to the correctness of the action of the | president. Under the decisions of the supreme court, the great army of appointed of- fice holders of the federal government are under the complete control of the president so far as their continuance Altho the Pre- sident has not yet the right to “hire” at will, he has the right under this ; Supreme court decision to “fire” any federal appointee as may deem fit. The supreme court has established an autocracy so far as the tenure in office of federal appointees is con- cerned. The president of the United States will hereafter wield a power so far as the federal appointees are con- cerned, whtch even the Czar during he darkest days of Russia might have nvied, The effect of this decision is to carry further the centralization of the governmental powers, which has been developing at a rapid pace in the U. S. in recent years and which gained a new impetus during the period of the Congress cannot always be de pended upon to quickly do the will of the capitalist class. There are minor ities in congress representing group: within the capitalist class which some THE DAILY WORKER times obstruct the win of the big capitalists of this country. There are also the so-called progressives largely representing the well-to-do but dis: satisfled farmer of the West. ¢ The dominant great capitalists of jthis country chafe under the obstruc- tion which these groups. sometimes put in their way, The centralization of the governmental power, with greater power in the hands of the president whom they are certain of, means more ‘expedition in carrying out’ of their program, The supreme court decision is a ‘step in this direction. It is another blow at the much-boasted “American, democracy! nvhich has re- ceived so many ‘blows so that little of |it remains as a result of most con- gressional and supreme:court actions during recent years, «: Limiting the Right to Strike. The dominant capitalist oligarchy jin the country is determined to rob the workers of their! most powerful weapon’ in the day today struggle for higher wages and better working conditions. American/éapitalism today is the ruler of the world. The only fly in the ointment so far as its pro- gram’ of unlimited exploitation and the amassing: of greater and greater for- tunes for the favoritefew is concern- ed, is the danger that Jabor may be- come dissatisfied and begin to fight for a larger share in the enormous product of American industry. The strikes of the workers interfere with the smodth development of the capitalist program. Just. as the vest- iges of democracy which still remain so far as the government is.concern- ed are being step, by step whittled away, so the workers’ right to strike is to be first limited and then abolish- ed completely: The attack on the right to strike and thus to carry on a struggle for higher wages and better working con- ditions is being made in three forms: First thru the development of the com- pany unions and employees’ represen- tation plan thru which the capitalists are trying to befuddle the.workers and make them believe that there is no necessity of their being..organized on a-class basis to fight for their inter- ests. Second, thru ipa action limiting and practically abolishing the right to strike, as in the case of the Watson-Parker Dill, controlling the railroad workers under which these workers must first subihit their de- mands to the railroad 6whers, then to a board of mediation, then to a board of arbitration and finally to’a board of conciliation, before they can take steps to enforce them thru a strike. After the workers have “mediated,” ‘arbitrated” and “conctliated” such a period will “have elapsed that they will have to make neW demands in order to fight for hag worth while. ‘ The third form of state is thru the supreme court decision, which has now made it the highést law of the and that under certain*tonditions the workers do not have the right to strike vt all. The case decided by the supreme court rose under the iméustrial court aw of the State of Kansas. ‘The unit- d Mine Workers of America made an agreement which provides for increase in the wages of apprentices at cettain periods and at certain ages of the workers, The owners of a mine in Kansas refused to abide by the deci- sion of the union in reference to the wages entitled by one of the miners under their agreement and rules. The United Mine Woerkers local called a strike to enforce its agreement with the mine owfers and the rule of the union, The supreme court decided that the strike to collect back wages which the mine owners refused to pay to the miner involved, altho it was proven that he was entitled to a higher rate of wages for a period before it was granted by the mine owners, was il- legal. The basis of the decision was in the words of Justice Brandeis, that “the right to carry on ‘business—be it cail- ed liberty of property—has value. To interfere with this right without just cause is unlawfuJ. The fact that’ the injury was inflicted by a strike is sometimes a justification, but a strike may be illegal because of its purpose, however orderly the manner in which it is conducted. To collect a stale claim due to a fellow member of the union who was formerly employed in the business is not a permissible: pur- pose.” This decision of the gupreme court is bound to have a far reaching effect on the organized labor movement, Since is now has been established that strikes may be illegal under certain circumstances, it will be easy for the capitalists to establish many kinds of circumstances which make strikes 1l- legal. Just as the use of the injunc- tion against strikers has been gradual- ly extended to decrease more and more the rights of the workers to use their organized ‘powers during strikes, so we will have this decision of the supreme court gradually drawn out to establish more and more situations in which strikes are illegal. | The Government Against the Workers, These decisions of the supreme court, show once more and clearly how the whole power of the government is mobilized against the workers. Con- gress makes laws against the work- ers. The courts issue injunctions and make interpretation of laws which weaken and limit the workers’ right to strike. The executives use the police power and the soldiers to beat the workers when they do go on strike. The supreme court decisions above discussed are another warning to the American labor movement that unless it organizes its political power for in- dependent political action and carries on a political struggle in its own in- terests @s a class, it will find that the capitalists, using the, governmental power unchecked by a counter-strug- gle of the workers, will rob them of every right to fight on the industrial field and thus complete their enslave- ment. These supreme court decisions are another urgent reason for the organi- zation of a labor party to challenge the political rule of the capitalists and carry on a fight for the governmental power for the workers of this country, Letters From Our Readers WHY THE DELAY? To The DAILY WORKER: G. Brom- ley Oxnam’s audience at the Los An- geles open forum was one of the big- gest and most enthusiastic of recent ones there. When he spoke of the determination of the Bolsheviks to copnteract religious superstition, while at the same time acording to all de- nominations full religious Mberty as distinguished from anti-government ac- tivities, he was drowned in applause. His impressions of Russia agree gen- erally with those of other delegations and even with reports in Communist papers and of returned Communist vis- itors, But he put the average produc- tion of industries at 75 per cent of pre-war, while Russian official reports say many industries are above and the average approximately equal to pre- war, Many questions were asked and answered, but as raised hands grew more numerous. he asked if the meet- ing was to last till midnight, which put an end to it, after which he was surrounded on the stage by eager questioners—I among them, I wanted to know if it was fair to say that requi- sitioning farmers’ products is an in- herent part of Communism. ‘May be I am wrong,” he replied. I suggested that Communism is voluntary ex- change of commodities thru store hous- es conveniently located, “Yes, if you speak of the future,” was the sub- stance of his reply. But Why Delay? In his speech he estimated that America would not be ready tor Com- munism for fifty years, which is not unlike Edward Bellamy's estimate. But why delay? It is beginning to be quite generally admitted that the Com- munists at the head of the Soviet gov- ernment, despite all the difficulties left them by Tsarism, despite the savage attempts of capitalist governments to defeat them and despite the famine are performing a service to the work- ors. and peasants of Russia that is marvelous, On taking possession of their coun- iry—assuming responsibilities and \aeks requiring almost superhuman ‘alth, courng@ and intelligence—they oped the Workers of the world would ao . follow their example and make the “final conflict” brief; but their revolu- tion startled the capitalist govern- ments and parasites, and those imme- diately deluged their dominions with lies about Russia and killed and ar- rested Reds, and thereby, aided by re- actionary labor officials, Thomases, MacDonalds, Scheidemanns, etc., suc- ceeded in preventing the world reyo- lution and prolonging the agony, If the proletarian revolution can succeed in Russia, why could it not have suc- ceeded everywhere at the same time? ‘Why so many liberal people aiding the parasites in prolonging the agony of the birth of the new society? Why delay? sprite 8. SOORBORG, Los Angeles. Drop Capitalistic/ Papers. To The DAILY WORKER: Please find $1 to help keep The DAILY WORKER. Now, the way I look at things, it would) be very easy to keep Thé DAILY WORKER if the workers would drop»¢heir masters’ papers and put the on. into their own paper. But I have lost all \Soeect for the average slave. He wiff not do any- thing for himself. 66k’ back over past history; go back 6! Christ's time, Buck White writes in’bis book, “The Call of the Carpenter,” that Christ was an industrial worker of his day. I can name only afew. We read of Sparticus leading the wlaves. They got him. Rosy Luxepburg, Nebnek Lepatta, Frank Little nd many oth- ers that are behind bars, like Mooney. I wonder at times that I am not with him, as | was helping him hand out strike leaflets at the Union iron works at the time of the car strike, and the police took him and his wife, and they told me that they had a notion to take me. But I did not try to run away. There was one more fellow-worker with us, and he skipped and did not come back for months, Well, I will state again, as long as we have a money system we will have slavery. Money has tobe made value- less and place all on labor and reckon by labor's ti rs and min- utes, in place of and cents, Then everyone would have to have a time card and everything would have labor's time stamped on it, and every- one would have to be a useful mem- ber of society. Then crime would dis- appear and the great powers would vanish. Zepatta had a good plan. They did not handle any money. Everyone had a brass check showing he was a member of the state. Now, hoping the workers will keep. up The DAILY WORKER, as it is the only way to keep posted. I have not bought a capitalist paper for years. With my best thoughts for the party members, | remain, a worker. W. H. Flood, Jauntsville. On Kellogg. The Editor:—Enclosed is a check for $5.00 being a contribution to keep The DAILY WORKER fund, Assure you of some more a little later. I like The DAILY WORKER and fully be- lieve it strives to live up to the prin- ciples it is fighting for, Specially do I want to thank you for the editorial appearing in last Thursday's issue entitled: “We Stand By Our Guns.” It is sharp and to the point and I bet the capitalist servant Secretary of State Kellogg has not had the epistle read to him any plain- er than that; it is worthy of being put in frame and hung up in his private office, There are few of Kellogg's type who hate the Communists any more than he, Personally did I hear him last summer at the Norwegian-American centennial denounce the radicals and told us, if we did not like this country and its “institutions” to get out and go where they had such government that would suit better, Kellogg may, for some time, sup- press a radical “organ,” but he will never-be able to suppress the cause and the principles for which it is fighting. J, F.—Alms, Wis. (The following letter has been sent to the Nation, New York | liberal weekly, by Eugene Lyons, writer and publicist associated with the earlier stages of the Sacco- Vanzetti défense. The DAILY WORKER believes the point raised by the writer is of sufficient im- portance to warrant the publica- tion of the letter in full, particu- larly since the denial of the appeal for a new trial by Judge Thayer, | in spite of the proof of the inno- cence of Sacco and Vanzetti brought forward by the defense, raises sharply again the class issue Involved.—Editors’ Note.) DITOR, The Nation, New York City, Dear Sir: The Sacco-Vanzetti case seems in | serious danger of becoming respect- able. If: it; does, it will not matter much how the affair ends. So far as | Sacco»and Vanzetti themselves are concerned; nothing the Massachusetts or federal courts can do will give them back their lost years or the fine Bhysicaband mentalgvigor with which they started. The crime aghinst them is irreparable. The only thing they have left;to comfort them is the class character of their ordeal. When that is obliterated by well-meaning persons who see in it only an exception to the rule of justice rather than the example and type of that justice, the case will! be dismally lost—even if the victims should eventually be released. It wil! be lost to the radical and labor move ments for whom it symbolizes—or did in the past—a larger and more basic struggle. Sacco and Vanzetti them- selves would, I am sure, be the first to agree with me in this, 'T is perfectly natural for the New York World in its belated concern for Massachusetts justice, to center attention upon William G, Thompson. Thompson is not only a crackerjack lawyer, but excellent window-dressing for an unpopular popular cause. It is perfectly natural for the World to dis- miss with a shrug the five years be- fore Tohmpson’s conscience reacted to the case. Back in 1921 the World showed how little it was equipped to understand a case of class persecu- tion in a series of smart-alecky arti- cles sensationalizing and distorting the Sacco-Vanzetti case as the work of three super-propagandists! The at- titude of these new friends implies too baldly that now at last the affair is in safe and sane hands. ... : uf kyewad the labor and liberal press should follow this lead so readily is pathetic. They gave enough space during those years to recording every step in the exposure of the conspiracy to know better. It was during those five years that the essential class character of the persecution was laid bare, Witness after witness was ex- posed as thief, prostitute, perjurer. The methods of the district attorney's gang and the Boston offices of the de- partment of justice were revealed mercilessly. The prejudice of judge and jury and the black atmosphere of hatred and ignorance in which the conviction was staged were made man- ifest to the world, It was slow, uphill work, Fred H. Moore doing the bulk of it, with the enthusiastic support (after a while) of the class-conscious elements. 'N those years, particularly the ear- Hest, the working class all over the world was made to realize that it was a working class case, Without that, the whole. would be meaningless, ‘The recent Mision are pale by comparison. Tess significant, with peekirand of class-cons, scious nse they would scarcely be 1 annayNonver| noticed,’ 4 bia glorification ot a. capitalist ate torney by the. labor and liberal pr 1s, of course, just thoughtless to the power of suggestion ex- $42 N, State St. The Class Issue in the Case of Sacco and Vanzetti perciers by a great metropolitan dafly. Even a contributor to The Nation | recently accepts the reactionary char- |acterization of Moore. He refers to |Moore’s “long black hair, his some- what dark visage, his dour manner,” | and offhandedly te “Moore’s unfamil- ‘ity with Massachusetts practice.” | Those who were close to the case can only smile at this as a second-hand | caricature, Moore's appearance is what movie people might call “west- rn he-man,” and in any other case jhe would not be mistaken for the |stage version of a long-haired anar. jenist implied in the quotation. any event, his appearance did not prevent him from saving Ettore, Giovannitti and Caruso from the elee- tric chair when he was their counsel in the famous case—a Massachusetts case, incidentally, in which he learned more about court practices in that, | State than 90 per cent of the bourgeois | native lawyers will ever know. It did |not prevent him from wrenching a | hundred wobblies form the grip of “justice” in the famous Everett, Wash- ington, cases, Or from clearing |Charlie Krieger of the Standard Of] frame-up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Or free speech fight. His ignorance of Massachusetts practice is a journal- istic euphemism for the court’s fran- tic and fearless defender. Thompson can testify to that, having come splen- |didly to Moore’s assistance at that time, T is not my intention to minimize Thompson's talents or usefulness. Moore’s last act upon retiring from the defense was to bring Thompson into it for the supreme court argu- ment. But I feel it necessary to pro test against the short memory of the labor and liberal press. It was Moore's work that gave the case its true status, Just before he came to the scene a New York newspaper man was induced to go to Boston to inves- tigate the arrest of the two Itallan workers. He returned to report that there was “no story” in it, not even for the New York Call—just a “couple of wops” in a jam. Several months later, with Moore on the job, it be- came not merely a story, but the big- sest story of its kind internationally, {f he were not a “labor lawyer,” iden- tifled with unpopular causes for so many years, and therefore one of “our own people,” so to speak—if he were, for instance, a conservative corpora- tion attorney who took a conscience case for a change, or a histrionic lib- eral espousing dramatic causes—would his gigantic job on the Sacco-Vanzetti case be so easily slighted? Of course he made mistakes, just as Thompson, being human and fallible, is probably making them now. Five years is a long time for any human being to go without mistakes. And hindsight is too easy an indulgence. UT it is not only Moore’s work that is being forgotten, That is just part of the whole process of mak- ing the case respectable, and’ even those who are least interested in such a consummation are helping ie oe pro- cess unwittingly. The prosecution of Sacco and Vahzetti is a class prose cution, Their defense should be a class defense in which the services of kind-hearted bourgeois at and philanthropists are ety Seeder evils. Cordially yours, Eugene Lyons, Your nefghbor will appreciate the favor—gtve him this copy of the DAILY WORK®R. ‘ , “ORIGIN OF THE WORLD A New Book By Alphonse Guerten Origin of Species Presented in @ New Light N 35 CENTS A COPY Published by the author at Chicago, Mh from taking the lead in the San Diego _