The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 6, 1927, Page 6

j Page Siw THE DAILY WORKER THE DAILY WORKER) Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. 1118 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Il. Phone Monroe 4718 ee —————__ SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (in Chicago only): By mail (outside of Chicago)! $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per year $3.50 six months 2.50 three months $2.00 three months CLR iinet heat ARE RC ADEE Sela Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill, — J. LOUIS ENGDAHL \ WILLIAM F, DUNNE BERT MILLER ..... sssanecaneenennoneneereess Editors Business Manager Ea AM RTS aN RS A ne Entered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, at the post-office at Chi cago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. wipe 290 Advertising rates on application, Foreign Investments and the Struggle in the Labor Movement American capitalists invested in other countries a grand total of $1,906,705,101 in the year 1926. Lenin, writing in 1915 on “Imperialism,” speaks of the “HAND- ¥UL of people who plunder the entire world by simple clip- ping of coupons.” He said: According to pre-war and pre-war bourgeois statistics, the export of capital brought an annual income of cight to ten billion francs. Now, of course, this income is much larger. Today we find that the export of capital in one year by one count alone—the United States—is equal to the total income of ALL capital invested abroad by ALL nations before the war. The total foreign investments of the United States are estimated now, according to Moody’s Investor’s Service, at $13,000,000,000. Figuring the average income at 6 per cent (and this is a very conservative figure by reason of the immensely high returns de- manded by American capital because of its dominant position) we get an average annual income from foreign investments alone of $780,000,000. In other words, the United States, based on Lenin’s estimate of pre-war income from foreign investments of ALL countries, is now securing a sum equal to about half of the total pre-war income from this source. Even if we take into consideration the lower purchasing power of the dollar the sum is staggering. It is convincing proof of the extent to which American finance capital has extended its sphere of influence to the whole world outside of the Soviet Union. The tremendous income from foreign investments, in addition to the huge profits of domestic capitalism, furnishes the explanation for the reactionary tendency in certain sections of the labor move- ment. This is the basis of all the worker-employer co-operation policies, social insurance schemes installed by corporations, “wel- fare work,” “efficiency unionism,” like the B. and O. plan legalized in the Watson-Parker bill, and all the other schemes designed to throttle genuine trade unionism. Said Lenin in the same work from which we quote above: It is easy to perceive, that from such @ large additional profit (for it is received in addition to the profit which the cap- italists extract from the workers of “their own’ countries), labor leaders and the upper strata of the workers’ aristocracy CAN BE BRIBED. So the capitalists of the “progressive” countries bribe them by a thousand different means, direct and indirect, open and secret. The enormous salaries of the American labor officials, removing them far from the level even of fairly well-paid workers are one of the methods of the bribery to which Lenin refers. It makes no difference at all that these salaries appear to be, and quite often are, ratified by the more privileged sections of the working class. This in itself is only a proof that imperialist cor- ription, “parasitism,” Lenin calls it, affects other groups in addi- tion to officialdom. Here is the secret of the struggle now going on in the trade union movement. The drive against the left wing has for its purpose the erushing of all resistance to the imperialist program for the trade union movement. The movement is financed by the super-profits derived from the tremendously profitable foreign investments totaling $13,000,000,000, dispensed in one form or another to the labor agents of imperialism an investment which American imperialism is only too willing to make and on which it receives returns averaging far higher than the 6 or 7 per cent it extracts from its foreign loans. The offensive of imperialism is today principally INSIDE the labor movement. It is only when the more exploited sections of the workers revolt, as in Passaic, that its offensive, aided by ite labor agents, appears openly and directly as a means for the destruction of trade unionism. The exposure of the methods of imperialism and its tools, and the development of effective methods of combatting them, is the most important task facing our party and the left wing. Have We Prosperity? Yes. This is the scientific answer to the eaption. prosperity all-inclusive or one-sided? Here is the answer: CLEVELAND, Ohio-—The offices of the Motten Distributing Co., 1010 St. Clair Ave., Cleveland, were the scene of a near riot when over a thdusand jobless seeking work, stormed the building. The men began gathering at the doors of the company at 5:30 a.m. in response to a newspaper ad for 100 men to distribute telephone directories. By 6:45 over a thousand men formed a milling meb In the rear of the building where they had been instructed to apply for jobs. When the rear door was opened the men made a rush forward each hoping to be in time to be hired. In the rush windows were broken and as the crowd inside grew, a partition gave way and the crowd surged Into the main office of the company. The men packed in like sardines, and unable to force their way out, were forced to stand for three hours while waiting to be hired. The company officials did not even condescend to inform them why no one had as yet been hired by 9:00 a. m., or whether or not anybody would ever be hired. The men, many of whom had beén out of work for months and were flat broke, were in no mood to be bullied and shoved about by the officials of the company, and soon fists began to fly. Police re- serves were called out and cleared the building with their usual brutal tactics. Later some 60 men were hired and the rest disperred, and told to “keep moving.” It is not vecessary to adorn this tale by pointing the moral. But is this @ ARTICLE X. By WILLIAM F, DUNNE HE present position of the social ‘tat party bureaucracy is the inevi- table result of their inability and un- willingness to draw the correct con- clusions relative to imperialism—the stage of capitalism, of their denial of the role of a revolutionary party, of the necessity for the dicta- torship of the working class, of their failure to understand the role of the trade unions as the rallying centers of the whole working class, of their failure to understand the methods and reasons for the struggle for imme- diate demands in the period of imper- \jalism, and of their endeavor to draw {a line between the masses of the So- viet Union and the proletarian state power of the Soviet Union. HE socialist bureaucracy becomes the ally of the trade union bureau- cracy and, not so openly because of their better understanding of the means of fooling thé masses, but just as consciously, the ally of imperial- ism itself. For the struggle between right and left in the trade unions is essentially a struggle between those working class elements who feel the pressure of imperialism and those who benefit from it to some extent, {Meer socialist party bureaucracy has the ambition to become the intel- lectual expression of the trade union bureaucracy, It dreams of leading a labor party, of becoming His Majesty Morgan’s loyal opposition. It will not lead workers to struggle because it thus comes into conflict with trade junion officialdom and the ruling class and jeopardizes its chances of “sane and constructive leadership.” Lest some reader think the above is an exaggeration of the policy of the socialist party bureaucracy and that it still retains some integrity, I will quote from an article by David P. Berenberg published in the New Leader for Dec. 25, It is called “Un- \til the ‘Spree’ Is Over.” HE whole theory of betrayal and of profiting from betrayal is set forth in detail in this article. I will quote at length for the reason that rarely does One come across such a (Special Moscow Correspondence of WILLIAM F. KRUSE. | nor so long ago the labor press thruout the world proudly noted rat the “Krestianskaya Gazetta” Peasants’ Gazette), the great farm veekly of Soviet Rhssia, had at- ained the circulation of a million copies.” A paper like this is @ power o be reckoned with in any country, ind doubly so in Russia, where a single newspaper may and often does spread its light to every man. woman ind child in a whole village. The history, growth, achievements and functioning of this paper is therefore sure to interes tall readers of the workers’ press the world over. History of Peasant Papers. Prior to 1917 there was no special peasant paper in all Russia, and the establishment of a real class paper of the peasantry was undertaken only after the November revolution. Dur- ing the first period of the development of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Re- public, newspapers functioned chiefly as a means of carrying the news of civil war and anti-intervention strug- gles to the masses. Papers ai this time were distributed free of charge, and large quantities were printed. With the advent of the new economic policy, government support to the press was curtailed, papers had to be paid for, circulation naturally drop- ped, and the work of making the newspapers real, self-supporting or- gans of mass expression was begun in earnest. By the end of 1923 eight provincial peasant papers had been established on a self-supporting basis, including the central peasant daily, “Bidnota,” which then had a circulation of 16,000. This circulation has since been built up to 200,000. This daily, which is linked up with “Pravda,” is, however, rather an organ for the most advanced peasant elements. The very fact of ite being a daily is a sign of this since the mass of the peasantry, tho finding a newspaper a necessity, has not yet come to the point of requiring news in daily install- ments. Obviously a cheap, popular, weekly, mass organ was needed and the XIII Party Congress issued in structions for the founding of the “Krestianskaya Gazetta” as a bridge between the peasants and the party organization. Reaches Million, Its tremendous paid circulation and army of peasant correspondents Proves that it has become this in every sense of the word. Now that this circulation has passed the mil lion mark it may well boast of being the most popylar farm paper in the world, and certainly the most inti- mately connected with its readers. This circulation is not localized but spreads all the way from Kanichatka to Crimea, nor is an army of hawkers necessary to keep this circulation from falling. Has Six Editions. This paper acquaints its readers a perfect sample of “socialist” thot. Berenberg predicts a crisis and a crash, Does this lead him to the con- clusion that a united front with the Communist Party, the left sections of the labor movement, will be needed to beat back the tide of reaction? Does Berenberg even visualize the socialist party ‘leading these strug- gles? E does neither, He simply lays down a program by which the masses can be betrayed wholesale— by the socialist party. In “Point 4” Berenberg says: When wages all along the line go down, the worker will begin to come out of his trance... He will be reduced to penury—in some cases to starvation. Then what? If this were Great Britain the work- er would turn to the Labor Party. HERE, THE MUNISTS WILL GET HIM... or us NOT FOOL OURSELVES. Da ~ WHEN THE AMERICAN WORKER GROWS RADICAL HE WANTS TO BREAK SOMETHING. He has not been trained to constructive political thinking. .. The Communist clap- trap is going to get him. 1 am not predicting the Commun- ist revolution. WASHINGTON: AND WALL STREET WILL BE PRE- PARED TO MEET THE EMER- GENCY... The jaile will be filled with politicals; new “red” laws will appear... a feeling of futility and soreness will be left behind. (Em- phasis mine.) NE will notice that nowhere does Berenberg speak of the role of the socialist party in the giganiic struggles he predicts—and in which prediction he is correct, The reason he does not mention the socialist party or issue a clarion call for it to prepare for this period of battle is apparent in “Point 3. Then WILL FOLLOW THE SO- BER MOOD during which the Amer- ican worker will learn to approach his. problems like a mature per son... THEN WE WILL HAVE OUR INNINGS, if we have sense to offer him. (Emphasis mine.) T is almost needless to say that this is precisely the line of reason- ing followed by socialist officialdom with the international situation, with domestic affairs, gives agricultural ad- vice and serves all other usual func- tions of a farm papér. In order prop- erly to serve’ this“vast field it pub- lishes six editions,one each. for Si- beria, Caucasus, ‘Crimea,’ Ukrainia, Central Russia and’ ‘the Red Army. The first three to five pages are the same in all editions, the remaining three to five vary. Peasant Correspondents. The cost of a paid profesisonal news-gathering setvice over this vast territory would be prohibitive—and what is more important, would defeat one of the basic functions of this pa- per. So its news comes from an army of vceiunteer correspondents from every corner of the land. “Selkors” they are called—“Peasant Correspond- ents,” the rural counterpart to the “Rabkor” or worker correspondent of the factory and workshop. This is not a very old institution even in Rus- ysia but of late it has developed by leaps and bounds. In January, 1924, there were only 80 registered Selkors on this sheet, a year later there were already 1,735, while by November, 1925, there were no less than 5,082 regular vohinteer contributors to the paper. The latest available figure (January, 1926) gives 5,475. In addition, there are almost a thousand women Selkors writing for the “Krestianka,” the woman's paper, and a considerable number for the peasant youth, paper, both of which, with several others to be listed later, are published. here, But this army of olunteer “journal- ists” by no means exhausts the list of those who write to and for the Krestinskaya Gazetta. In 1923 about 1,000 letters a month were received, a ag . Sending Them to a Certain Death uy CAPITA you in return paid with their lives), iT: Go ahead, go ahead workers, you giv © world to come, (On the occasion of The New Drive'on Militant Trade Unionism the world over. The conditions’ 6f life become unendurable (as in Germany), the workers organize to overthrow their oppressors and the oppressors’ state, the socialist bureaucracy sabo- tages the struggle, becomes the ally of the capitalist class and when the workers are beaten back to a lower- ed standard of living (as they have been in Germany) cries out to them: “See, didn’t we always tell you, you must wait for evolution and not try revolution?” Among workers there is a@ very obscene but completely dis- criptive phrase for ~characterizing this kind of treachery. So far, a fascist or semi-fascist dic- tatorship has followed this kind of “evolutionary” policy. UT what of the present period when the basis must be laid for the inevitable struggle? What of the millions of workers who do not share in the prosperity and who need. or- ganization, instruction in the elemen- tary theory and tasks of the class struggle? What of the paralysis and death that come to a labor moyement which abandons all idea of struggle because of sops thrown to various sections of it by the ruling class with a deadly purpose in mind—like a thief throws a chunk af poisoned’ meat to the dog who endangers the success of his looting expedition? ERENBERG replies and in reply- ing he gives away the secret: “Item 4:” FOR THE PRESENT THERE IS NOTHING TO BE DONE. NO AMOUNT OF ‘HUSTLING,’ ‘DRIV- ING” ‘URGING, ‘GETTING TO- | GETHER,’ or whatever else it may be called, WILL BRING NEARER | BY A SINGLE SECOND THE TRAIN OF. CIRCUMSTANCES THAT ALONE CAN MAKE THE WORKER RECEPTIVE TO OUR PROGRAM. Social forces will bring him our way at last. (Emphasis mine), Tt is any wonder that a leadership which exudes this poisonous fatal- ism finds itself in the camp of the worst enemies of the working class— the agents of imperialism in the labor ovement? 'NNHIS doctrine, a product of a pseudo- intellectualism which partakes of Peasant Newspapers in the Soviet Union year later this had increased five-fold, and December, 1925, a total of 63,974 communications were received by this newspaper. The nummber by no means shows a steady mechanical in- crease but varies widely from month to month, according to the time at the peasant’s disposal for writing, and his interest in matters that call for com- munication. Thus, shortly before the collection of the tawes there was a very heavy correspondence, and again was another flood of letters asking It must be noted that altho on the staff of twenty secretaries reads the mail and distributes it according to the questions raised. Matters deal- ing with law and legislation are re- ferred for reply to one of the 400 ex- Derts on soviet law attached as col- laborators (unpaid) to the newspaper. Questions of agriculture are similarly dealt with in detail by the experts em- ployed by the peoples’ commissariat for agriculture. Similarly with other departments of the government. There is nothing cursory or superfic- fal in the treatment given this corre- spondence—it is the voice of the peas- ant masses, and it is heeded care- fully. Recently the tax laws were remod- elled by the Narkomfin in response to peasant correspondence, and Lenin, prior to the introduction of the new economic policy, gave serious heed to similar communications. After Len- in’s death the council of people’s com- missars provided for the preparation of a monthly summary of this peasant correspondence for the information of all members of the highest govern- mental units. Thus it can be seen that this is probably the most signifi- cant peasant tribune that the world has ever seen, = alte ne 1 inten ii f" } ime things in ‘this world and I'll give on the Hudson where 51 the atmosphere of the dim recesses of Greenwich Village and the smug- ness of the well-paid Jabor leaders in claw-hammer coats at a’ Civic Federa- tion dinner, is a denfal~of Marxism which gees socia) forces as something the revolutionist must use and not wait for, Revolutionists, as Marx, pointed: out, make history just as well as history makes revolutionists. A hee is the philosophy with which ‘the intellectuals of the socialist party have been saturating the leader- ship of the trade unions under their influence. It finds its reflection in the policy of worker-employer cooperation and “efficiency, uniogism” in such formerly militant organizations as the International Ladies’ Garment Work- ers and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, This policy, hitherto pursued with some caution -by the leadership of these unions, has been given a tre- mendous impetus by the outright Pressure of the American Federation officialdom and now converges with the “Baltimore and Ohio” plans, Wat- son-Parker government mediation (thg governor’s commission in New York) in war on the ‘sections of the membership which are ‘not ‘under the influence of the socialist party bureau- cracy. NLY agreement on main lines of policy could bring such close or- ganizational cooperation as can be seen in New York and elsewhere with Tammany Hall supporters enlisted side by side with the New Leader, the Dally Forward, the needle trade union officialdom and the socialist party bureaucracy against the majority of the membership. The socialist party leadership is not only “making tove to reaction,” as Norman Thomas so delightfully puts it, but has long ago lost its virginity, become promiscuous and appears as ® hardened old madam whose role is that of procuring new recruits for the house of prostitution where workers are supposed to lose all shame and which ig run under the name of “American trade unionism” by the la- bor agents, of- imperialism—the Greens, Wolls, Lewises and other lesser lights. » (To be continued.) There are results from these com- plaints ‘if they are found to be justi- fied. Thus “during ‘the past year there were recorded 452 cases brot to trial as a ‘result of letters of com- plaint, 108 Communist Party mem- bers were’ expelled and 63 were ‘dis- ciplined, 532° -officials were removed from their positions, 150 subjected to lesser penalties, and 23 imprisoned. Publish Many Journals. This publishing house issues not only this million-copy weekly, and this 200,000 dally, but also quite a list of special organs for the country- side. There is a comic paper, Lapot” (Bast shoe) 50,000; Krestyanka, wo- man’s paper, 50,000; “Sam Sebye Agronom” (I am my own agronome)” 70,000, Peasant Youth 50,000, Kous- tarni (Home Artisan Journal) 50,000; Peasant Journal 50,000; Soviet Way (organ for members and officials in the village soviets) 15,000; Selkor, (organ of the peasant correspond- ents) 15,000; Izba. Chitalnya (organ for the antiilliteracy reading _ huts, 50,000. HK Many Lafguages. This is just one of the many estab- lishments for the ‘printing and spread- ing of peasant literature and newspa- pers. These are published not only in’ Russian, but in Jewish, Armenian, Ukrainian, Tartar, etc. All in all they weave a network of contacts between city and country, between the ever- vigilant Communist” Party and the vast masses it leads‘on the road of the revolution, " Subscribe to the The American Worker: Correspondent 1118 W. Washington’ Bivd., Chicago,’ 1. rohimeeenin peor “nwa ANEW NOVEL Upton Sinclair 1926, by Upton Sinclair.) (Copyright, “There will be, Bunny, rest a sured—if I should bust loose in Washington, nothing would ever convince Roscoe and O'Reilly that I hadn’t wormed it out of you. I’m afraid nothing would convince your father, either, But I want to be sure that your own mind is clear, you'll know I haven’t been dishonorable.” Bunny gave him his hand on it; and not one of the veteran poker- players who sat all night in the smoke-filled living room of the “ranch house” at Paradise could have, acted more perfectly the part of impassivity. Bunny even made himself finish lunch, and he wrote ® check to cover part of the debt of the labor college; and gave his friend a hearty farewell and best wishes for his new job. Then he drove off in his car, and was free to look as he felt, which was quite: un- happy! , He decided that it was his duty to tell his father’ about this conversa- tion, It couldn’t make any differ- ence to Dan Irving’s work, and ‘it might yet be possible to keep Dad out of the mess. But when the élder Ross got home that evening Bunny had no time to get in a word. “Well, son, we got those leases!” ‘ “You don’t say, Dad!” “They've been approved, ‘and Verne left for Washington today. They'll be signed next week, and you and me are going to take a trip and have some fun!” IX, * Joe and Ikey Menzies had been out of jail for a couple of months, their comrades of the Workers’ Party having scraped together the bail. Now came their trial, with several other members of the party. The state was undertaking to show that this organization was nothing but the Communist Party under a camouflage; it was the “legal” part of the organization, but the real di- rection was in the hands of an “un- derground” group, which received funds and took orders from Moscow, It advocated the forcible overthrow . of the “capitalist state,” and the set- ting up of a “dictatorship of the proletariat,” after the Russian pat tern. On the other hand, the in- dicted men claimed that they had organized a legitimate working-class Political party, and their attitude to violence was purely defensive. They believed the capitalists would never permit the power to be taken from them peaceably—it was they who would overthrow the constitution, and the workers would have to de fend them, ‘ The prisoners were all tried.at once, and the procedure took three weeks and was quite an education in contemporary problems —or would have been, had ‘the newspa- pers reported both sides. To get the workers’ side you had to sit in the courtroom; and Bunny went whenever he could get loose from the university. He was there when the prosecution sprung a ‘surprise’? witness, and it was a surprise to Bunny also—his boyhood friend, Ben Skutt! Ben, it appeared, had grown a moustache and taken a course in the Moscow dialect, and had turned up as an oil worker out of a job, and been admitted to the Workers’ Party, and before long he got a job in the office. Now he had harrowing stories to tell of the criminal things he had heard ‘said, and of efforts the party had made to incite the oil workers to rise and destroy the wells. On the otlfer hand, so Bunny was told by Ikey Menzies, the Communists were ready to swear that Ben Skutt had himself done all the proposing of destruction—at the crisis of the strike he had spent his time insist- ing that the only way to save the situation was to get a bunch of real fighting men and burn up half a dozen oil fields, (Continued tomorrow.) CONGRESSMEN OBJECT TO POISON IN BOOZE; MAKE IT UNANIMOUS! WASHINGTON, Jan. 4,—Many members of the present congress “drink to excess,” it was chi on the floor of the house by Ri Celler (D) of New York, in course of heated debate over the government's placing poisonous de- naturants in industrial alcohol. Celler made his charge In com: menting on a resolution just intro- duced by his colleague, Rep. Black (D) of New York, . which make the government liable to ho- micide charges in cases where drinkers died from the effects of wood alcohol or other denaturant polsoning. h ie . the eo uncivilized, Sao? Colter oecendas congress put an end te It. be)