The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 21, 1927, Page 6

4 { ‘ } j | } i j } i] i Page Six T HE DAILY WORKER THE DAILY WORKER'Lenin As Philosopher Publ 1113 W. Wash: -— d by the ton Blvd., DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. » Tl Phone Monroe 4712) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (outside of Chicago): $6.00 per year $2.00 three months ind make out checks to 1113 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago, Il, tors By mail (in Ch $8.00 per year ths all mail THE DAILY WORKER, ss Manager oom. | the post-office at Chi: | ( Entered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, cago, Ill, under the act of Ma 1879. | EP 290 ‘Advertising,rates on application, | ; = we — Wall Street Whips Its Agents Into Line | The essentially imperialist character of the democrat party| leadership, differing little if any from that of the republican par has made itself clearly apparent in the clash over American policy | in Mexico. Southern democrat planters and northern middle class repub- | licean spokesmen, to put the division in its crudest form, are lined | up against big industrialists and bankers of both north and south. | The division takes place also along religious lines—northern cath- olies splitting with southern protestants on the Mexican question. Heflin, a southern and a protestant; Wheeler, a northern democrat and a protestant; Borah, a northern republican and a protestant, are in opposition to Walsh, a northern catholic democrat, and to Reed of Missouri, a protestant, both leaders of the democrat party. But the religious division serves only to obscure the real issue. The forces aligned for and against aggression in Mexico and Latin- America are divided on the basis of economic interests. The cotton growers of the south, whose enterprises are not yet dovetailed into the rising industrial structure that is being erected in that section, on the foundation of coal, iron an | water power in close proximity to each other, see little benefit for themselves in the southward drive of Wall Street imperialism. Like the middle class agricultural, trading, small professional and industrial elements of the north, the southern democracy, especially with a market crisis on its hands, feels disinclined to share the additional taxation burdens of mil- itarism. bs But the Wall Street leadership of the democrat party, in which must be included Reed of Missouri, in view of his speech in support of Coolidge and his attack on the Ooolidge critics, has got its in- structions. Reed said, according to dispatches: in the difficult situation that now presents itself I do not propose to interfere with the efforts of the executive ....° I do not want to weaken his hand in the efforts he is making. . Reed, like Walsh of Montana, also rose to the defense of the democrat catholic church.~ Walsh, including his rosary beads, is owned by the Anaconda Copper Mining company—a subsidiary of Standard Oil. The acceptance of the resolution providing for arbitration of Mexican dispute, presented by Robinson, democrat from Arkan- by Kellogg, and the statements of democrat leaders defending the catholic church and criticizing the opposition to the Wall Street- Coolidge program, means two things: 1. That Wall Street has decided that the time is not yet ripe for more open aggression in Mexico and Latin-America. It has sounded out popular sentiment and discovered that progressive in- crease of forcible measures will get little popular support and that it risks raising a serious religious issue which would tend to weaken its control. Wall Street has served notice upon the democrat party ivaders that the democrat opposition has gone too far in its criticism of Coolidge on the Mexican question and encouraged popular dis- approval, On a question of such importance to imperialism as the use of armed force to compel obedience to its mandates, Wall Street is nnwilling to allow thirst for office and opportunity to score points for the 1928 campaign to develop into open and continued criticista during the course of which many unpleasant truths might be told. Both democrat and republican parties are instruments of Wall Street and this fact has not been shown more clearly for a long time than by the sudden change of front in the senate on the part of democrat leaders. Its sham opposition turns into support of Wall Street the moment it gets instructions. | The labor movement, the workers and farmers of America, | can easily make a serious mistake by taking the arbitration pro- posals accepted by Kellogg as the end of aggression in Mexico and Latin-America. They are nothing of the sort and are intended only as a means of allaying popular discontent until Wall Street can better organize its forees. The demad for withdrawal of all armed forces from Latin- America must continue, The threat of war has not disappeared; it has merely been concealed for the moment. the sas, Organization in the Auto Industry The of the American Federation of Labor hus authorized a conference of union heads to consider organization | of the aytomobile industry, The conference will be held in Washington, D. C., and is to in | clude represeniatives of all unions haying jurisdiction over various | departmenis of the industry, The jurisdictional issues which will | executive council $3.50 six months | », jas {ism and ¥ ‘and Revolu | sharp |resulted in decadence in ‘gical ‘evel of t's |ers send agitators to the villages, sup- ENIN is usually extolled as a great leader, ghted revolution- jon of Marxism in merits in the the- Sretieat field of Marxism, they are so immense that he may be considered one of the greatest theoreticians | of Marxism, Such works as “Me pirio-Criticism” and on” (this “booklet,” since its appearance, has been a thorn in he side of the leaders of the Second International and of the anarchists are of unusual breadth and insight. , Lenin realized that there is line of demareation between theory and practice, that they are links of the same chain of life, The great leader was therefore far from | being indifferent to what philosophy | Marxism js to hold, for theory is not divorced from life, from human but it cuts into it and directs h, since it is a reflection of > reality. A correct philoso- in his opinion, must of necessity as a fa ‘ois: lead to successful struggle just as a correct hypothesis leads to practical discoveries. Yet Lenin was so much engrossed in “practical” questions that even such abstract work as “Materialism and Empirio-Criticism” had a definite relation to the state of affairs of the Russian Marxists at the period of 1906-1908. After the revolution of 1905 was drowned in the blood of the workers, a part of the Russian intellegentzia, disappointed in social life, took to the “evaluation of values” of culture, The interest in one’s own soul, sex and God superseded social interest. This literature, mysticism, and idealistic wanderings in philosophy. This spirit of pessim- ism and decadence infected many Rus- sian Marxists. Beginning to question themselves about the future of the Russian and international labor move- ment, they went on to question the philosophy of Marxism. In social and practical affairs they still adhered to Marxism, but its philosophic part they began to regard as “obsolete” which jhad to be “revised” or changed. In the pafiscs g of the west there was in vogu@yat that time the empirio-critical philosophy (which takes as its starting point the ele- ments of “experience” and “critic- ism”), disregarding the question as to the reality of spinit and matter, and to this fashion all philosophical revision- ists resorted as to the last word of philosophical wisdom, ,Some of the representatives of this tendency were renowned men of science, but in phi- losophic matters they were quite con- tused, The philosophic reactionaries were shrewd enough to realize tha their discredited idealistic philosophy (which does not regard matter and force as ultimate reality, but Spirit jor Mind, that is, a @iivine elemenc) would regain its position, if certain representatives of sgience could be |made to join their amd wagon. It | became imperative jornament and g | perfume the philosophy of priesthood |so that it would not wre the ill smell jof the church. | Disguised under a sragbal cloak of a | new terminology, the"idealists thought they would pass unnoticed. They would simply have to declare#themselves ad- ents of the doctrine of “pure ex- per! ” (that is, tojrepudiate meta- physics or the search after what, is ven us in “experience,” namely, the essence of matter)... They would have to insist that we can deal only with real elements of ‘what is experi- enced (we may remark in passing that the American product pragma- tism is very much akin to that em- pirio-critical tendency). The prestige of science’ which is supposed to re- flect objective reality will then be undermined, degraded to a mere utili- tarian set of rules and not at all to a body of laws applying to the universe. Therefore the claim of the scientists that science operates in a material world,’ subject to casualty, has no theoretical validity. We have a right to seek “real” life elsewhere than in science, namely, in the realms of re- ligion, for since faith is a part of experience which’ “satisfies” the re- ligious person, since it yields results and promises a ¢uturelife, it has .a legitimate right to) existence and By ALEXA! POGONTCHENKOV Moscow Worker Correspondent HE alliance between the urban workers and the peasants is one of the most important conditions for the final victory of the Soviet system and for, socialist structure. In order to bring about this alliance in the best way possible, factories and work- ers’ organizations accept patronage over a given village, rural, district, ete. .The aim of such patronage is on COMRADE KOSIAKIN Village Correspondent of Mary, Ria- zanskoj Gub., U, S, S. R., one of the students sent to college by the peas- ant paper Krestianskaya Gazeta. ants, (the workers of the given fac- tory, for example, make the “adopted” districts a present of a tractor) on the other hand, it aims to raise the ideolo- pearants. The work- thé one hand, to render economic as- sistance to the poor and middle peas- ply them with books, papers, and ar- range cinema and theater perform- jances, install radio receiving stations, ete, Borodin Rural District. rise at the conference assure that it will be wrecked if ‘they are allowed to deiermine iis policy and program, The jurisdictional disputes between national and international | anions wrecked the steel organization campaign and they will) eifeetually prevent any substantial organization of the auto in-| dustry uniess the unions pool their interests, The automobile industry can be organized if the canipaign begins on an industrial basis and no jurisdictional disputes are permitied to interfere with the main objective—the establishment of a powerful unlom in the industry, Such @ campaign will enlist the loyal support of thousands of militant workers who will take but little interest if it degenerates into a struggle between union heads for jurisdictional rights. The left wing of the labor movement will watch closely the com- |din rural district. Our factory is patron over the Boro- Here there are 72 | villages with 12,000 inhabitants. We have been the yatron cf chis district for more than a year, The workers’ correspondents’ circle decided to see whether everything was going well, and appointed three to make a journey to the district. When we arrived at the little village we knocked at a little house that nes- tles under the high walls of a mon- astery, This is where the Communists live, 6 in ally These fellows are wor- ers in this country disttict—a co-oper- ative worker, agitator, secretary of the rural district executive committee and others, ing conference in Washington and is already prepared to give its complete co-operation for a genuine organization campaign. “Oh, rades!” it 1s you, the Moscow com- We go in. The others, still very sleepy, begin to wake up. While the samovar is warming in the kitchen, we begin talking, “Why have you got joined up to a monastery for?” “Look here, don’t you get any wrong ideas. Surely you are: not afraid we youths are also monks?” We laughed. “There is'no longer a monastery here now, but an agricultural com- mune. Things are going well, and the farm is tip-top.” “Well, how do you manage, and who runs things?” “Things aren’t-so bright here. We have elected a Soviet for form’s sake, but in reality it is the superior who make everything go round.” “Why do you looks#o surprised?” | “It's impossible to do anything else, jold fellow. If we were to put the screw on the monks;-we might get in a mess. For, after all there are many who are still believers, We are ar- ranging things so that they themselves give it to their monks’ and priests in the neck.” “Well, how do you do this?” “It’s done in this way. We have talked with many monks and they are already saying this Sort of thing: “‘We work like horses,’ they say, ‘and we are ill-treated. We have no clothes and nothing to eat, we never hear of meat, and have to put up with cucumbers and a bit of cabbage.’” “They are grumbling. Once there is liscontent, this is just where agita- ion comes in. We do not dawdle, but set on with the job,/and shake them Soldier-Writers “Going to Press” > priesthood may be given, the benefit of the doubt. The bourgeois professors knew very, well whither such philosophy leads. Only a few Russian Marxists were naive enough to fail to detect the ec- clesiastic trap contained in that phil- osophy. Lenin, with his characteristic clar- ity of vision, saw that the road of such a philosophy leads to the church, He therefore took upon himself the immense task of examining ‘the foun- dations of that philosophic tendency and looking for its origin. He found that this “new” philosophy can be traced back as far back as Bishop Berkeley’s (1685-1753) idealism (a theory which makes every manifesta- tion of life depend upon God, and de- clares the material world to be a phan- tom). He proved that in the “new” teaching there are elements of “skep- ticism” (n philosophy which refuses to answer the question as regards the objective reality of matter and spirit but takes the immediate data of con- sciousness as the only reality known), the founder of which was David Hume (1711-76). In 1908 in the volume “Materialism and Empirio-Criticism” Lenin proves that this confused philosophy is but a revival of played out theories. For such a research philosophic sagacity coupled with a thoro knowledge of the subject-matter was needed. It was essential to posses the ability to steer clear thru a sea of details; not to lose oneself in the labyrinths of science. Lenin had to show the rela- tion between science and philosophy, and to analyze them from the stand- point of dialectical materialism or the so-called orthodox Marxian method. And the philosophic part of Marxism is by far not a finished product. _ As it is well known, Marx, tho a diligent student of philosophy, coulld not spare time to write about it, for the foundation of political science and scientific socialism took up all his attention. Therefore we meet in his works only scattered statements about philosophy itself. This task Engels took upon himself. In his “Anti-Duh- ring,” “Feurbach” and the article Formerly they used to .turn, a deaf ear. Now they are beginning to listen more attentively.” “Well, where shall we go now, and who is going?” The tasks are distributed amongst us. I had to go to a distant village, to collect material about an agricultural artle organized among the poor peas- ants, and to see the attitude of the peasants towards the Soviet system, the workers, and our patronage com- mittee. A frosty wind cuts the face like. 80 many needles. Fir trees cast a bluish tint, and the gaunt aspen. woods look’ dark and threatening. There is noth- ing to disturb the quiet but the sleigh sliding over the frozen snow. ~ Every now and then we run behind the sleigh to unbend our frozen limbs. At last we arrive at tiny village. The street is empty. Commune Makes Progress. We call at the house of the chair- man of the agricultural artel. They will move to new quarters in the spring. In the meantime they stay in the vil- lage. The chairman relates: “We are 11 families, 36 workers, in all 63 people. We till the land col- lectively, we are introducing the 7 crop system. We have 118 dessiatins of land, 52 dessiating tilled. We have al- ready bought 7 ploughs, 4 iron harrows and a 4-horse pewer threshing ma- chine. We have ten horses and 16 |cows. We intend to use 4 dessiatins of land as an experimental field on up a little, We tell them what a.com- is, and what it should be. like. A group of Russian soldier-correspondents “going to press” on the wall- newspaper that contains news of the workers, members of the Red Army and of the The wall-newspaper is one of the most popular methods of distrib- uting information in the Soviet Union, They are edited by the workers them- selves. By D. Kvitko “Historical Materialism” he expounded the fundamentals of dialectical ma- terialism. But neither could he spare the time to go into details, We there- fore meet quite often in their works a statement so pregnafit with ideas that more than one yolume could be writ- ten on it. With this dialectical measuring rod Lenin approached the deviations of the Marxists on the philosophic field, showing into which camp they are be- ing led. In this work (‘Materialism and Empirio-Criticism”) the whole versatility of Lenin’s mind reflects it- self. Here is the agility with which he delves into the philosophic depths, the thoro mastering of the subject- matter, his brilliant polemical style, his. erudition. The scientists he at- tacks with their own weapon (science) and shows how the latest discoveries cohfirm the truth of dia- lectical materialism. But all this he did, not by merely repeating the Marx- ian theses, but by enriching and de- veloping them thru°the latest discov eries on the field of science, for Marx- ism is not & dogma but a live meth- od, whose truth must be revealed and applied in’ afl ramifications of knowl- edge. Therefore, the ability to apply dialectics ‘in’ philosophy, as well as in social quéstions, by far excels the construction: of some mechanical sys- tem, where only terminology is chang- ed. Lenin’ néver prétended«to--found a: new systenii “Infact, he never tired: of repéating that he was simply» a disciple of Marx and Engles. But if we compare: his; power-of thought ard. his theoretical achievements with the pretenders to the philosophical throne, then the “follower” of the dialectical materialism certainly, contributed more to philosophy than the ‘philoso- phers of both’ old’ and’ néw systemy That the bourgeois world has ignored his theoretical works may be explain- ed by the fact-that»one. of ‘the.weap- ons of bourgeois. defense is” silence. As for the proletarian world it is be- ginning to ‘recognize in Lenin a think- er of. first. magnitude, as it .has’ al- ready acknowledged his incomparable genius of leadership. Russian Workers “Patrons” Over Peasants which we will work’ asia the ausente of the agronomist, ‘This. will be profit- able for us and for ’the’ people. We will learn thereby. Good varieties of seed are highly valued and we will gradually go’over to the higher forms of cultivation. If we succeed in getting credit in the spring we will buy a trac- tor. Our patron must help us with respect to credit.” “Comrades, why are you so hard on the priests?” ao his mother, if saa of 60. - ‘How are we hard on thie R COMRADE MIASZOV One of the oldest Worker Correspond- ent of the Building Trades of © Saratov, U. S. S, R. "You haye ikea sway the land from the priest,” “Since ie 00 not: mn the land what’ use ‘is it-to*him? You did not have enough’ land,‘so we. gave it to you.” ‘But you ‘are paying him for his services and that should be enough for him. How mutch do you have to pay him for’a “wedding?” “Six roubles.” - ‘What a lot. This should be enough’ for him.” "°°" * She agreed ‘with us about the priest, but began to bother us with god, and to tell us how*it will be in the ‘other world. ‘The first to enter the kingdom of heaven, will be the czars, then the priests, then gentry, and last of all the peasants,” “Well, what about us Communists, where will we go?” ‘The old woman was taken aback, she demurred ‘and then said: “You ++ you will go to hell.” We burst out laughing. “Well, when we get there we will set_up a, Soviet government.” The old woman looked at us, and agreed. ~ 4 “Right you are, I am sure you will set up your Soviets there,” and she cackled.. From there we went to another vil- GET YOUR UNION TO TELEGRAPH CONGRESS TODAY! | Read the Resolution Adgnted Unanimously ft tthe Minnesota Farmer- | WITHDRAW ALL U.S. WARSHIPS FROM pete ahd NO INTERVENTION IN MEXICO! HANDS OFF CHINA! —- Conference Meeting at, St. Paul. It Appears on Page ) 1 To ; in the nature of the problem. (Copyright, 1926, by Upton Sinclair.) To Bunny that seemed a pathetic thing about the Socialists. Take a man like Chaim Menzies; he had the long vision, the patience of the elderly worker; with ages of toil behind him, and ages ahead of him, he did not’ shrink from the task of building an organization. But he was never allowéd to finish the building; the masters would knock it, down overnight; they sent in spies, they bribed the officials and sowed discord, and in time of strikes their police and gunmen raided the offices, and jailed the leaders, and drove the workers back into slavery. ‘So here was a curious situation—the masters in their blindness working as allies of the Communists. ‘Verne and his oil op- erators and the rest of the open shop crowd saying to the working people, “No, don’t listen to the So- cialists, they are a bunch of old fogies, “The Communists are the fellows who can tell you.” One thing Bunny had felt certain about—the workers ought to deter- mine their tactics without bitter- ness and internal strife. But now he was beginning to doubt if ever that. were possible. The dispute be- tween thé two factions was implicit If you believed in a peaceable transi- tion, your course of action would be one thing, and if you didn’t so be- lieve, it would be another thing. If you thot you could persuade the masses of the voters, you would be cautious and politic, and would avoid the extremists, whose violent Ways would repel the voters. So you would try to keep the Commu- nists out of your organization, and of course that would make them hate you,.and denounce you as a compromiser and a class collabora- tor, and insist that you were in the pay of the bosses, who hired you. to keep the workers under their yoke. «And then the Socialists would counter with the same charge of bribery. Chaim Menzies never fail- ed to declare that some of the Com- munists were secret agents paid by the bosses to split the movement, and expose it to raids by the police. Bunny, of course, knew, from talk he heard among his father’s associ- ates, that these big business men had elaborate secret agencies for the disrupting of the labor move- ment. And these agencies would work either way; they would hire old line leaders to sell out the work- ers, calling off strikes, or calling premature strikes that couldn't win; or they would send in spies to pose as reds, and split the organ- izations and tempt the leaders into crime. - Incredible as it might seem, the government secret service, un- der that great patriot, Barney Brockway, was up to the neck in such work, At the trial of .one group of Communists the federal judge presiding remarked that ap- parently the whole direction of the Communist Party was in the hands of the United States government, Ix. Bunny was always having the beautiful dream that his friends ‘were going to be friends with one another. Now he took Rachel to call on Paul and Ruth; and he liked them so, and they must share his feelings. But alas, they didn’t seem tof Both sides were reserved, and avoided talking politics as carefully as if they had been visiting at fhe monastery. But Bunny wanted them to talk politics, because of his own inner debate, and he felt that they ‘were members of the working class, while he was only an outsider, Per- haps one might convert the other; but. which one he wanted to be the converter, and which the converted, it would have been hard for him to say. Bunny questioned Paul, and learn- ed that “he had given up his cae- pentry job—the Workers’ Party was paying him a small salary to give all his time tg organizing. Paul ‘had met Joe and Ikey Menzies, the young “left wingers”; and Bunny told about how he and Rachel had helped to put Ben Skutt out of busi- ness at the trial. How he wished a Socialists and the Communists t work together like that, in- rans of making things e the enemy. (To be continued) lage, where elections were taking place to the peasant committee of the Mutual Aid Society, From conversations I gathered that the relations between the peasants and the patron are good. The only com- plaint is that he does not visit them often enough. This is not so~»easily, remedied. There are 72 villagers, Ii is not possible to visit them all. a eee iaEcE SN