The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 22, 1927, Page 3

* “conference” a hollow gesture. ITALY SAYS “NO” TO ARMS PARLEY; JAPAN ACCEPTS Preparation for Balkan | War Causes Rejection ROME, Feb. 21.—Italy has \ flatly | rejected President Coolidge’s propo- | sal for a conference to limit naval armaments. While her official reply, which was handed to Ambassador Fletcher today, is couched in soft dip- lomatic verbiage ig, decisively refuses to participate in a disarmament con- ference. Is Preparing For War. ltaly’s note, coupled with the French rejection of the Coolidge pro- posal, puts a crimp in. the move to limit cruisers, submarines, destroy- ers and other type of naval craft. The hoary argument that Italy can- not limit her armaments while other nations are increasing theirs was again advanced by Italian diplomats. That Italy is building up a large army and navy in preparation for a Balkan war and as part of her imperialist policy is the real explanation of italy’s move, according to those who know the situation, * * * WASHINGTON, Feb. 21.—Japan’s acceptance of the Coolidge proposal to limit naval armaments tickled Sec- retary Kellogg’s peace-loving soul to- day. Kellogg Rejoices. Tn a formal statement issued to-| night he declared, “I am highly grati- | fied at the reply of the Japanese gov-| ernment, which reflects the snirit of | friendly cooperation in which the} principal naval powers must approach the problem of competitive building | if a real solution is to be found. | Conference Date in Dim Future. | That the conférence will not take | place before June 1st, it it takes place | at all. was indicated by Secretary} Felloge’s acceptance of the Japan- | ese sugeestion that the conference be | held a few months efter March, when | the Preparatory Disarmament Com- raission will meet. Not To Disturb Ratio. The hollowness of the proposed con- ference was’ made plain today with the publication of the Japanese note, shich declares that “the Japanese government is further gratified to learn that it is not the intention of the American government at this time to put forward rigid proposals on the ratios of naval strength to be maintained by the several powers in the classes of vessels not covered’ by the Washington treaty.” © ‘Tha rejection of the Coolidge pro- posal by France ‘and Italy make the Daugherty’s Graft Trial Is Postponed The trial of Harry M. Daugherty, former attorney general of the United States, and Thomas W. Miller, post- war alien property custodian, charged | with conspiracy against the govern- ment, has been adjourned until Thurs- day beeause of the death of the son of Juror Number 12, Arthur Zinn, Both the government and the de- fense have completed their cases, and | summing up will begin Thursday, prior to giving the case to the jury. The mén are charged with conspir- rey in connection with the return of! $7,000,000 in war seized German as- sets, for which they are alleged to have shared in a $391,000 “fee.” Daugherty was “ill” with a high) fever. He saidgin court that he had | suffered an attack of ptomaine poi- soning over the weekend, | Lindsey Loses Appeal. DENVER, Feb. 21.—Ben B. Lind- sey, Denver juvenile court judge, to- day lost his appeal for a rehearing of a decision by the Colorado supreme court ousting him from office as the resylt of a contested election case filed by’ Royal R. Graham, now deceased. All Workers} but particularly ‘Irish * workers will want to read “Jim Connolly and the Trish Rising of 1926,” by * G, Schuller with an intro- _ duction by T, J. O’Flaher- ty. “Connolly,” name of THE DAILY easna ke W YORK, f[UESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1927 rage Three | High Society Romance Couples Idler’s Name | With Suzanne Lenglen Raldwin M. Ballwin, of Califor- nia, son of “Lucky” Baldwin and keir to his. millions, looked sur- prised today when asked if he were engoged to marry Suzanne Lenglen, noted professional tennis star and former world champion. Suzanne looked surprised also, “No,” they said. “No, indeed.” Baldwin even went so far as to point out that he has a wife and a pair of twin daughters in the west. He admitted however that he and France for the temperamental star’s own country, on Saturday. He is not sure yet whether he’ will be the man to supercede “cold cash” Pyle as Lenglen’s manager, but admitted that he had talked the matter over with Mademoiselle, and that perhaps there would be an in- teresting announcement on Satur- day just before they leave for Paris. bg Baldwin, who has been following Suzanne around on her tennis tour, said he had not been living with his wife for some time, but that no action toward a divorce had been started. KU KLUX KLAN CITY OFFICIAL IS GREAT DON JUAN Turns Nurses Quarters Into Harem —Commissioner 0, W. Hendershott, elected to the city council less than one year ago, on a ticket supported by the Ku Klux Klan, stands liable against him for official misconduct, is sustained at a meeting of the city couneil to be held Feb. 28th to hear the case. A bitterly contested election was held last April from which the more intelligent voters held aloof, the hooded cult fighting it out with the corrupt political machine. Hendershott, one of the favorites of the klan, was made superintendent of public safety and under this head he was superior officer of the city hospital, with the staff of nurses sub- ordinate to his dictation. From charges brought against him now by the mayor’and chief-of-police one would conclude that Mr. Hender- shott thought it was a harem he was taking charge of. In the seventeen charges brought against him by the nurses, he is alleged to have been guilty of undue familiarity, indecent proposals and overt acts, The city papers are handling this case fully and the charges of the nur- ses, which are spicy in the worst sense of the word has been given full publicity in one paper and while de- leted in part in the other, was raw enough. Commissioner Hendershott is a married man and member of the bap- tist church of which he is a constant attendant. Mayor Stout is also a member of this church and is being much blamed for exposing the names of the nurses to the public by his frame-up when many think the fight is being waged for purposes outside of the couneilman’s misconduet. CURRENT EVENTS (Continued from, Page One) Belgian princess. The foreign min- ister of Belgium is a socialist and if the Swedish foreign minister is not, there is not much difference. Of course Sweden and Belgium will not declare war on each other. They can’t afford-it, for the good reason that them the luxury. Self-determination nowadays is a standing joke. Coun- tries cannot even make war without permission. 2 TE french nia ts” nouvering inthe Alps. This @neans that France is getting ready for a tussle with Italy. .A few years ago France and Italy were allies in the great ef- fort to save the world from German militarism. Now, Italy wants some- thing France has in her possession. Hence the military preparations. The imperialists might be able to save the world for democracy if they were not le * 9 damned bunch of thieves. LLIAM EF. BORAR is opposed to the ‘imperialistic policy of the the military leader of the Easter Week Rebel- lion, is a magic name to every Irish worker who © has within him a single * spark of the divine fire of revolt. PRICE 10 CENTS. The Daily Worker - 33. First Street New York City me * . 4 Coolidge administration, in words, But he supports the imperialistic sys- tem in action, Coolidge is doing just what he must do. Borah, in Cool- ’s position would carry out a similar program. There is one way to kill imperialism. That is to or- the workers industrially and , establish a workers’ gov- and begin the task of laying | vant i" e foundations of a new social order. Ship Lost in Typhoon, h MANILA, Feb. 21.—-No trace of the Shipping Board freighter Elkton, which was last heard from last Wednesday, had been found today, according to word reaching here. It is generally believed here that the @ erew of, 86, sank in the vicinity of Guam. Suzanne are sailing on the liner | PARKERSBURG, W. Va., Feb. 21. | to be impeached, if charges brought! England and France will not allow Facts and Fables About Washington andthe Fathers | (Continued from Page. One) the three million colonists tose in rebellion against the rule of Britain | because of their love of cquality and | liberty and their hatred of tyranny |,and oppression. Nothing is farther from the truth. In the first place, only a small per- tion of the settlers in the Colonies took an active part in and for the | revolution. Large sections remained |passive thruout all the years of |. struggle, or sided with whichever {group had the upper hand for the moment. Fully 25,000 colonists were enlisted and fought against the revo- ‘lution under the banner of King George. | John Adams, one of the outstand- |ing figures from the. very start on |the side of those fighting for inde- pendence, wrote’ that “New York and Pennsylvania were so nearly divided, if their propensity was not against us, that if New England on the one side and Virginia on the other had not kept them in they would have joined the Britizh.” On another occasion he wrote, “On mature delib- eration I conclade . .that more than ene-third of the inffuential charae- ters were agvinst it (the revolu- | tion).”” | Large mumbers of eolcnists were |foreed int> the war much against their own desires. Our intrepid | “fathers” of the revolucion knew how to apply pressure and resurt to force- | ful means: in order to gain support- ers for their cause when oral and | written arguments and persuasion failed. Fisher, m his “True History of the American Revolution” says: | “Men wee ridden and tossed on fence | rails; were gagged and bound for days at a time; pelted with stones; fastened in rooms where there was }2 fire with the chimney stopped on | top, advertised as public enemies, so that they would be cut off from all dealing with their neighbors. They had bullets shot into their bedrooms; money or valuable plate extorted to save them from violence . . . Their houses and ships were burned; they wer compelled to pay the guards who watched them in their houses; and when carted about for the mob to stare at and abuse they were com- pelled to pay something at every town.” Truly, the Ku Kluxers and 100%ers of today, with their methods of vio- lence and intimidation live true to the forms exhibited by their fore- fathers of 150 years ago, The tevolutionary army was a ragged lot. True, the rank and file fought and suffered with dauntless courage, but many of them became discouraged with the corruption which existed among officers and the shopkeeping elements which supplied them with the necessities for carry- ing on the struggle. Desertions grew at an alarming pace. Hart, the well known historian, tells us that one of among the troops was to give the’ offending soldiers 100 lashes or more on the naked back. The whip, which | was usually formed of several knot- | ted cords, cut thru the skin at every stroke. “Sometimes they were pun- ished at several different times, a certain number of stripes repeated at intervals of two or three days, in which case the wounds are in a state of inflammation, and the skin ren- dered more sessibly tender; and the terror of the punished is greatly ag- gravated.” The chief .enterprises in Puritanical New England of pre-evolutionary days were smuggling, the trade in rum, and bringing slaves from Africa or the West Indies to the Colonies. Business never feared adverse. com- iment from religion. Even the preach- ers who were loudest in their damna- ‘tion of sinners’ would invest their savings in these lucrative undertak- {ings whenever théy could do so. | We need not wonder that smugglers, rum and slave traders, were strong for independence from the ¢ mother country, which sought to stamp out the smuggling, and imposed heavy taxes upon the rum and slave traders. | MeMaster, one of the ablest. Ameri- the methods used to keep discipline | ) provisions at the time when Britain jwas spending huge sums to defend the colonies. This policy was de- fended by them for the reason “that it was a good policy to make as much | | money out of the enemy as possible.” | | The South too had definite mate-| | rial interests which brought the large | plantation owners and slave-holders to the support of the war for inde- pendence along with their Northern colleagues, the merchant smugglers. Large numbers of Southerners we: {heavily in debt to British merchants and “saw in the revolution an oppor- tunity to repudiate their debts.” As early as 1732 the British Parliament |had passed a law to protect their merchants, It provided that debts due to British merchants by Colon- jists “might be proved by testimony taken in England” while colonial real estate was made liable to seizure for payment. | “Tt is not always,” said Wendell | Phillips in 1861, “ideas or moral ward. Selfish interests play a large} part in the work. Our revolution of | | wealth joined hands with principle| |and enthusiasm—a union rare in the| history of revolutions. Northern mer- | | chants fretted at England’s réfushl to | allow them direct trade with Holland and the West Indies. Virginia plant- ers, heavily mortgaged, welcomed anything that would postpone pay-| ment of their debts . .. So merchant | and planter joined heartily to get in-| dependence. To merchant indepen- dence meant only direct trade—to} planter cheating his creditors.” } That the revolution was successful | |is due, not so much to the Continent- al army under Washington’s com- mand but rather, as A. M. Simons says, “because it was the American phase of an English civil war. was not so much a conflict between colonies and English government, as it was one aspect of a war between | different divisions of the English} | people on both sides of the Atlantic. | Indeed, it was, in reality but one bat- | |tlé of a great world-wide struggle | | between contending social classes. It was part of the violent upheaval of | society by which the capitalist class | | overthrew feudalism and came into! power.” This struggle in England} was the struggle between the Tories | (supporters of the old order) and| the Whigs representatives of capi-| talism, free trade, etc., ete.. Thus the | American revolutionists had powerful allies right in England‘ who did as much to aid the cause of the colon- ists as did ho colonists themselves, It is importént to remember that General Howe, who was in command of the British forces in the colonies during the greater period of the war, “was a most intensely partisan Whig, and had been one of the strongest {defenders of the coloniés in the Brit- ish Parliament. He was absolutely opposed to any use of force against them; believed them to be in the right and entitled to victory.” Certainly the American rebels could not have hoped for a better opponent, who time after time delayed, retreated | and feasted so as to give the ragged | |and poorly equipped forces of Wash-| | ington every advantage.. Time and! again he could have annihilated the colonial forces had he but desired to do so. Howe was finally recalled to England. Parliament investigated his | peculiar conduct and it was only thru | the pleas of influential friends that he was saved from punishment. Thus do we discover that the real facts in the case are quite at odds! with. the “made-to-order” histories which are dished out to us in the} public schools and Fourth of July! celebrations. Of course, we can un-| derstand why the real facts are not} taught. If they were, the false glory} which has been built up around the! revolutionary “fathers” and the in-| stitutions they created would be de- stroyed—and with that would go the lind and unreasoning — patriotism which is so necessary to perpetuate | the present system, | Who Were the Revolutionary | i Fathers? | ; John Hancock was known as the, principles that push the world for- Vv 1776 succeeded because trade and |B Tt} George Washington Simonr writes about him, “He had helped to maintair what would now be called a “land lobby” in London to push his schemes, When Parliament, by the Quebec Act, extended the ju- risdietion of Canada over the west- ern country, his interests were di- rectly threatened, and had the revo- lution not occurred, he would have lest some 30.000 acres of land.” In short, “honest Georgie” was a large seale land speculator of his day. How anyone who knows even the slightest about the means and methods of land speculators ean swal- low the tale about George and the cherry tree, is quite beyond the bounds of ordinary imagination. And! still that silly, story is repeated with | clock-like regularity to school chil- dren every. year. Professor Beard has made a re- markable study of the their wealth, business interests, etc., in his Economic Interpretation of the United States Constitution, deserves a wide circle of readers. Let us once mor@remind our readers that the Sons of 1926 (with their graft and corruption and greed) are worthy descendants of the Fathers of 1776. The Constitution—A Class Weapon. It may be true that the American people do not worship kings (tho one would not admit that judging by the receptions given to foreign princes who visit these shores) but the rul- ing class has carried on a consistent policy ever since the Constitution | was framed,and adopted to make it (can historians, says, “If the infamy; Prince of Smugglers and was to, appear as a divinely inspired docu- of holding slaves belongs to the! stand trial in Boston for smuggling | ment. They have made a fetish out |South, the greater infamy of supply-| the very day when the Battle of Lex-| of it—and woe to him who dares |ing slaves must be shared by Eng- ington was fought, which marked the speak of it in critical or unrespectful land and the North, While the states were yet colonies, to buy Negroes and sell them vinto slavery became a source of profit to the inhabitants of many New England towns ;.. . Molasses brought from Jamaica wa: turned to rum; the rum dispatched to Africa bought Negroes; the Ne- groes, carried to Jamaica or the Southern ports, were exchanged for molasses, which, in turn, taken back to New England, was quickly made into rum.” t That the business was profitable cannot be doubted. “The distilleries of Boston and other ports,” we are told, “especially Newport, Rhode Is- land, became great in number. There are 22 stills in this town alone, and Massachusetts distilled 15,000 hogs- heads annually, Rhede Island had 150 vessels_engaged in the trade.” Smuggling developed to a fine art during those days. From the ac- counts of Lecky and Fisher we learn that smuggling became so popular with merchants and shippers that they lost all sense of gratitude to- ward the mother country when France was trying to annex the ¢ol- onies to Canada. The New England colonies were systematically supply- ing the Preneh fleets, garrisons beginning of open conflict. Simons | remarks, that “like all smugglers, ! Hancock cared little for the forms of law, and trusted to bribery and vio-| lence to secure his ends. When his | sloop, Liberty, was endeavoring to ‘run the customs he first tried to bribe the officials, and, failing,| locked up the guard in a cabin and! unloaded the sloop under the protee- tion of a gang of thugs secured for the occasion.” | Another authority speaking of New England says, “Nine-tenths of their merchants were smugglers, One quar- | ter of all the signers of the Declara- _tion of Independence were bred to commerce, the command of ships, and contraband trade. Hancock, Trum- bull and Hamilton were. all known to be cognizant of contraband transac- tions and approved of them.” Randolph, Madison, Monroe, Mar- shall and Washington and many oth-' ers of the leading “fathers” were men of great wealth and power, the owners of vast plantations and large | numbers of slaves. Washington, in his position as royal surveyor a number of years} prior to the revolution, “had used hi position to locate lands for himsel! and | within the limits which he wes sup-| class, with the ‘ |1ible situation. terms, The years immediately following the Revolutionary War were the most critical in the history of the republic. The poor farmers, workers ard petty traders whe had fought ana bled for the cause of freedom were left “holding the bag.” “The last shot had searcely been fired,” says O'Neal, ‘when these vet- erans, retracing their weary steps homeward, were confronted by a ter- Jt is dcubtful wheth- er history affords another such ex- ingratitude s toward its benefactors that the “fathers” dis- played toward the poor Veterans of the war. _ “Many farmers and laborers found that while they were dt the front risking their lives in the struggie the wealthy classes were confiseating their little farms and household “fathers,” | whieh | goods for debts contracted during the | war and imprisoning thousands for debt." »The depths of poverty to which the large masses were reduced during that period can never be adequately the French West India islands with! posed to preserve from settlement.” head, enriched themselves at the ex- eal way pense of these masses. The prisons were jammed to capacitv with debt- ors, the while speculation. eraft and corruption grew and flourished. It is not to be wondered at that those who had given vears of their life to fight against ravelist auto- eracy should now begin t» question where the “equality and democraty” for which they had fought was to be found. The discontent grew by leaps and bounds. Soon the men who had fought at Lexington and Concord, who had tramped barefoot thru the snows at Valley Forge, were up in arms against their new oppressors. In state after state rebellion grew— only to be ruthlessly crushed by brute foree and strategy. During these happenings a resolu- tion was passed by the Virginia House urging all states to send rep- resentatives to a convention in Phil-| adelphia “to provide effectually for the commercial interests of the United States.” The holding of the convention was endorsed by congress in 1787, but the resolution specifi- cally limited the convention business to “the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confedera- tion.” When the delegates assembled in May, 1787, they closed the doors to the public. No member present was permitted to take notes at the ses- sion not to let anyone outside know what was goipg on. James Madison, however, did “take notes, but these were made publie only after his death and fifty years after the Con- stitutional Convention had become history. For four months the secret conclave continued in session. Se- crecy was indeed necessary for the “fathers,” for had the impoverished and debt-ridden masses heard their debates, matters would have termin- sted otherwise that they did. Only 12 states were represented at the convention, and one of these dropped out from the proceedings later on, only 55 were ever present (all men of great wealth and power) and but 89 of these signed the final report. + From Madison’s notes we learn ‘of the supreme contempt expressed by all of the delegates for the toiling masses. Ben Franklin was the only one ever to speak in their favor. Ellsworth of Cgnnecticut expressed the sentiment of \\he majority when he said during a debate of slavery, “Let us not intermeddle. As popu- lation inereases poor laborers will be so plenty as to render slaves use- less.” It was the unanimous opinion of the gathering that the right to rule lay in the hands of the “landed, com- mercial and manufatturing” ele- ments, while the masses were to be exeluded to the greatest degree, Madison expresses himself thus on one occasion, “In future time, a great majority of the people will not only be without of property.’ Of the 65 delegates elected |. land but any other sort}! The Constitution was so framed as to centralize government to the greatest degree, but giving a sem- blance of democracy. Alexander Hamilton and many others urged the sident be elected for life, ag should also That Constitu most impos be realized v after 1 amendm Professor Ar » branch of congress. on has-been made al- ole of amendthent can en we consider that a score of made possible. Smith in his book on the rican Constitution says that less one fortieth of the population the untry, properly distributed, can prevent amendment from be~ ing made to the Constitution, Political Depravity of the Fathers. Runt running, smuggling, and slave trading had schooled the “Fathers” in all manner of fraud, tricks, and demagogy. They were therefore well fitted for the task of drawing up a new constitution for the country. “The delegates,” says McLaughlin, “believed that society existed for the preservation of private property” even as their descendants of wealth and power believe today. Woodrow Wilson, in one of his books characterizes the “Fathers” in this fashion, “The government had been originated and organized upon the initiative and primarily in the in- terest of the mercantile and wealthy classes. Originally conceived as an effort to accomodate commercial dis- putes between stctes, it had been urged to adoption by a minority, un- der the concerted leadership of able men representing a ruling class.” Perhaps McMaster gives us an even better picture of then’. He says, “A, very little study of long-forgotten politics will suffice to show that in filibustering and gerrymandering, in stealing governorships and legisla- in using force at the polls, in g and distributing patron- in all the frauds and tricks age... that go to make up the worst form of politics, the men who founded our state and national governments were always our equals, and often our mas- ters,” When the constitution was finally presented to tke various states for acceptance, the “Fathers” resorted to every means at their command to se- cure its ratification by them. Money, foree, fraud and demagogy were all resorted to. The men who in the con- vention had sneered at and abused the masses now appeared as their spokes- men and champions. Tt was finally adopted—but by a minority vote. Only six of the states adopted it without any qualifications, The remaining seven in adopting it recommended amendments ranging’ from four by South Carolina to-thirty- |two by New York, | worthy of consideration in its! ac | tion is the restricted number of vo | who had any say whatsoever in ¢ | new republic, which had declared th |“all men. are created free and equal, leach with the same chance to enjoy | life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- {ness. “Of the mass of unskilled la- 'borers” to again quote McMaster, /“the men who dug ditches, carried \loads, or in harvest time helped the ‘farmer gather in his hay and grain— \it is safe to say that very few, if any, jever in the course of their lives cast + vote.” The Republic at its first census had a population of four mil- lions, but of these, “probably not | more than 120,000 men ever had the right to vote.” The freemen of that |time constituted about one fifteenth ‘of the total population. The sacred gharacter of the consti- tution and of the revolutionary “Fa- | thers” has been thoroly exploded. But the ruling class will continue to spread false information regarding them as |long it can possibly do so, If the celebration of the Sesquicentennial means anything to the workers, it should mean a campaign of elighten- ment regarding the early history of this country. In summing up some of the points which have been dealt with in the space of this article we cannot do bet= ter than quote the words of Ay M. Simons: “The organic law of this nation was formulated in secret session by a body called into existence thru a conspira- |tory trick, and was forced upon a dis- franchised people by means ef dis- jhonest apportionment in order that the interests of a small bedy of wealthy rulers might be served.” Salvemini, Mussolini Foe, Reaches America WASHINGTON, (FP).—Prof. Gae- tano Salyemini, of the University of Florence, exiled and outlawed by Mussolini, will lecture in Washington on the fasejst conquest of the It workers. Charles Edivard Russell and | former congressman John M, ir of North Dakota are arranging the meet- clin and Viola Lessons Vi | Given by expert teacher, For reasonable rates,’ write! to! JOHN WEINROTH — 6156 LARCHWOOD AVBNUB, PHILADELPHIA, PA, Another es. = aie