The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 24, 1927, Page 6

i { i } -«< © loyalty or at least neutrality from the masses of the population. Page Six TIE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1927 THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO Daily, Except Sunday 83 First Street, New York, N. Y. SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (in New York only): By mail (outside of New York): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $6,00 per year $3.50 six months | $2.50 three months $2.00 three months Phone, Orchard 1680 Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. J. LOUIS ENGDAHL ) as | WILLIAM P. DUNNE: (‘*s100+8ssererecees: Pee BERT MILLER a Entered as second-class mail at the post-o: the act of March Advertising rates on application. , 1879, The Struggle for Shanghai The Chinese liberation movement is giving to world im-| perialism a lesson in strategy and tactics. But unlike the strategy of an imperialist enemy it cannot be applied by the imperialists even tho they understand it thoroly. The People’s Armies are advancing on Shanghai. They meet troops that know they are fighting their own people in the interest of foreign oppressors. Inside Shanghai the working population strikes and demoralizes the rear of Sun Chuang Fang. . The wholesale executions of strike leadefs have not cowed the workers but have increased their resentment and determina- tion. In addition to their devotion to the broad nationalist and workingclass movement the Shanghai workers, with the rich experience of the 1925 strike and the memory of the massacre by British troops, have now the duty, which they understand, ef avenging the martyrs who were executed in the last two days. ‘ Any tyro in- military science knows that Sun Chuang Fang cannot successfully defend Shanghai under the circumstances. He is an imperialist ship in a sea of revolution. Bombardment by the warships of the imperialist powers in Shanghai harbor may prevent the People’s Armies from taking possession for some time but this means serious damage to or complete destruction of property owned by foreign capitalists. Imperialism has no base in the Chinese population in the southern and central and southeastern territories and without passivity or support imperialism in the greater portion of China is defeated. : Nor is there much comfort for imperialism, especially of the British brand, in the recent news that Chang Tso Lin has agreed to march against the People’s Armies. Like the troops of Sun Chuang Fang and Wu Pei Fu, their morale will begin to decline and there will be defections. é The people’s government and the people’s armies represent the interests of the workers and peasants as opposed to the im- perialists, militarists and.landlords. The masses know this and the military strength of the people’s armies therefore is not to be measured only by number of troops and equipment. The strategy of the people’s armies is based on the masses. Jt is the strategy of revolution and the imperialists cannot use it. Imperialism in China can be victorious only by securing} This it cannot do. The Mexican Government Makes a Bad Mistake. If the Calles government has suppressed a meeting of the | All-America Anti-Imperialist League, as dispatches from Mexico City report, it has taken what is not only a reactionary step but a very unwise one. ; Doubtless designed to cater to the prejudices of Secretary of | State Kellogg who says the League is a Communist organization, | the Calles government will find, as all nationalist governments | confronted with imperialist aggression have found, that any con- cessions not actually forced upon it, but made simply as evidence of “good faith” i. e. willingness to submit, serve only to arouse the hunger of the imperialist aggressor. The All-America Anti-Im-| - perialist League is not a Communist organization. It is an organ-| ization which has as its main purpose the unification of all ele- ments who are opposed to Wall Street aggression in Mexico, Cen- tral and South America. The membership includes such well known apostles of Latin American independence as Manuel Ugarte, poet, writer and lecturer, who represents the best of the anti-imperial- in American intellectuals. = walt Street-Coolidge government will be satisfied with noth- ing short of surrender to its program. The Calles government either will become an instrument of Wall Street or it will extend and consolidate the gains of the popular revolution. It cannot take a hostile attitude to mass demonstrations| against imperialism without weakening its own position and ing that of the American state department. America) a dike Ne Wall Street | of the movement. has taken Nicaragua and rules it by armed force. now has the base in Central America from which to drive north | and south against the liberties of the Latin American masses. In such a situation only a statesman who underestimates the | As practical strategy, it has been ef- danger, is preparing a retreat or is more afraid of the masses than of the imperialists, will make common cause with Wall Street inst honest and capable allies. re The policy expressed by preventing a meeting of the All- America Anti-Imperialist League in Mexico City will prove disas- trous to the best interests of the Mexican masses if continued. The most conscious of Mexico’s working class and agrarians emphatic protest. step in this direction, May I sug- gest that a similar column be intro- duced in regard to sports. The Amer- a ican people, and especially the young D ipo pene Column, workers, are very toad of ae ne coor ie hapa . ... | that is not unwholesome at all. Taking advantage of the invitation’ jealize that The DAILY WORKER ta write altout The DAILY bids a can’t give a few pages to sports, but FR, } want to ssy a couple of words | yey a column would make it more Pett, DATLY WORKER has consia- | meeverting eee sereptable ‘to - a e : ~\ the young worker. evavly improved, since its transfer to | z eke thas my suggestion will be Mew York, and I am very glad of iti taken into consideration and that The it is an interesting document. (Edi- torial Note.) | Peles, Ste SHANGHAI, January 25, 1927. {they know, but none of their con- | foreign devils, and is bitterly hated ‘by all the Chinese. The following letter is from an American missionary in China to one of his former classmates in the Uni- versity of Minnesota. We publish the letter, not because we are in agreement with it, but be- cause it shows the trend of thought among a section of the American clericals who have been “civilizing” the Chinese. As a first hand account of impressions produced among this class by the great upheaval in China| Things are moving in China, but whence no one knows, There are a few predictions made by some of the Chinese, but these are largely found- ed on hopes. Writers of articles in America and England speak as if clusions satisfy me. With most of them, their past experience and pre- sent status, play a larger part in the forming of their conclusions than any investigation that they may have re- cently made. This is partly true of even liberal journalists, with whom T would ordinarily have much in com- mon. The movement is so large that} we cannot tell what are all the forces moving it, or at what angle they will converge on a resultant—You see I remember my physics—. I shall try to avoid the prophetic role, therefore. | Frankly, I don’t know what is going | to happen, and I don’t believe that any one ‘else does.. But I am joining | forces with the first group, that is the Chinese, and using their method, | I think there will be a New China. | Even Preachers See. In today’s paper, Eugene Chen of the southern government says “Chi- nese nationalism is an indestructible and invincible force”. We can all see that a keen nationalism is emerging. The literate classes in China, num- bering about thirty or forty millions, are more patriotic than they have | been for the last five years. | The student world is all afire. Three years ago it was largely a stu-| dent movement, but there is more| solid support now. The gentry and} chambers of commerce are joining in. | The heat, born out of the continual) agitation, is also burning; away some} of the dross so long in official life, and a new type of government of cial is coming to the front. A trust- worthy administration is beginning. It does not comprise all of the of- ficials, but it makes up a very in- ficential minority. The old type of official, even though he is supported by a large army, is rapidly losing | out before this new type. Some of them have faded away*like paper in aflame. Today they are firmly en- trenched, tomorrow they have fled to Jepan. Hate Britain. Great Britain is the target of the political movement, and has been ever since the May Thirtieth Affair. She) is the Beelzebub among all the other| Taking a long view of British policy, we must sym- pathize with the attitude of the Chi- nese, but in recent years a change has taken place in British attitudes, Or rather they have not been so im. perialistic in China as some other powers. Notably Fraace, and Japan. The French have hela up the pro- visions of the Washington confer- ence. So’have the Japanes: in part. The Shameon Affair in Canton, was done by British and Trench. The French were not blamed at all. The Shanghai strikes were begun in Japanese mills, and the shooting of the students was an International Affair. All the powers ought to. be blamed equally. But as each one of these and other incidents have oc- curred, the agitation that, followed would center on the British, This result has been secured by some manipulation on the part of people behind the scenes. It has served to prevent the dissipation of the force As I see it, the movement which has been largely anti-British, could Missionary Writes of New China | for something to happen. At any sud- | States. against the military war iords, but the laborers have been the chief wea- pon against the foreigners. So far, the Chinese laborer has | been content to be in the same organi zation with the Chinese capitalist. How long will he be content? As a! side diversion, he has already begur several strikes in strictly Chinese concerns. When that becomes move frequent, on which side will the southern government stand? Business Men Scared. Right now, we are in the midst of a great excitment. Foreigners have been and are leaving the interior for the coast. Gun boats are coming from every country, and also troops. | The ostensible purpose is to protect} foreigners, It is a situation fraught | with danger. If some foreign soldier | sticks a coolie with his bayonet, or| if some crowd gets out of hand, and| shots are fired, a great wave of de-| structive anti-foreignism will sweep over China, Boxer days will return. As many or more lives will be lost, as were lost twenty-six years ago. No foreigner has been hurt yet, at least not seriously. At the clubs you can hear the wildest rumors bat- ted back and forth as gospel truth. Every foreigner and many of the Chinese are looking for something to happen. That’s the first prerequisite den noise we all jump, thinking it may be a mob, To illustrate, Mr. Raven, a banker in Shanghai was sleeping peacefully one night. He was rudely awakened by a stone hot water bottle being pushed out of the bed, ‘by one of the sleeping child- ren in another room. This sound he thought was that of a crowd of Chi- nese, and he rushed for arms, I think the business group are more excited than we missionaries are, but every one is very nervous. This tem- porary situation will soon quiet down, unless some false move is made. There are so many possibilities of a false move. The danger is not as great as news dispatches would have you think, War Time Sociology. I am enclosing the list of our courses in Sociology. Perhaps you would like to see our line up. I think for a school of five hundred, we are doing well. Much better than older schools of the same size in the United When I return in 1928, we hope to have two of us giving full time to Sociology. Elizabeth has told you that I shall be in Chicago next fall. Note—For further information about China read James H. Dol- sen’s book, “Awakening of China,” $1.00 a copy. Order from The DAILY WORKER Publishing Com- set 33 First Street, New York, w. ¥. Another Student Kills Self; Girl This Time GADSDEN, Ala., Feb. 23. -— Miss Estelle Woodham, 19-year-old student of Douglas Academy, committed suicide at the home of her sister be- cause she was “tired of life,” it was learned today. Miss Woodham is the 16th student in the United States to commit suicide since the first of the year. Still Practicing with justice have been anti-foreign. ficient. . Labor Movement Starts, Intermixed with the political aspect are other things. There is a labor, . ; ’ |from the working classes. Factory will not let this action of the Calles government pass without an | workers iit Ghinm kaw a:aitatlvaepotey: | There are perhaps a half dozen fac- movement beginning. This aims at the usual things, but it’s also patriotic and anti-foregn. The new govern- ment receives a lot of its support tory cities in the whole country. The population is about fifteen per cent urban. c There is a government department to look after the interests of the |farmers and laborers. But they are ‘not doing much for the farmers. The laborers are entirely illiterate, and any agitation easily stirs them against the foreigner who owns a factory or ship line. The laborers have been the most efficient weapon against the powers. They furnish the | strike personnel, and also the pickets Dr. H. E. Catterson, above, of Spokane, Wash., is said to be the first regularly established physi- cian in the vast territory.of east: ern Washington, northern Idaho. and western Montana. Fifty years ago he entered the wilder- ness as a circuit doctor riding on horseback over territory consid- erably larger than the New Eng- land States. Isolated communit. But while I believe that it satisfies | mga fa tnt ales th. needs of the worker as a worker | pret ties dadtlaat cy i e pretty fairly, I don’t think it satis- ches sfaarclO “fies his needs as a human being. The raternally y . theatre review column is a very good A YOUNG READER. x ‘ yr eo ies knew when to expect him and had their sick ready for treat ment when he arrived. He stil! ig practicing. which have been so effective in Can- | ton against the introduction of Bri- jish imports. The Soldiers in the southern government have been used Congres Today! WITHDRAW ALL U. NO INTERVENTION IN MEXICO! Vie Bunny and Rachel had, dinner, and then strolled on the water front; it was one of those warm nights that come now and then in Southern California; there was a moon on the sea, and a long pier with gleaming lights, and the sound of an orchestra drawing the lovers, At the entrance to the pier was a big bate hall, owned by the city, where very proper dancing was chaperoned by a religious city gov- ernment. Bunny and his bride danced—oh, surely it was all right to dance a,little bit, in this well chaperoned place on what ought to have been their honeymoon! But in between the dances, while the orchestra was still, something shook the hall, a dull, sombre blow, like distant thunder, making the windows rattle, and jarring your feet. “What's that?” exclaimed Rachel. “An earthquake?” “The guns,” answered Bunny. “Guns?” And he had to explain the fleet was practicing. There were a score or so of battleships stationed at the harbor, facing some unnamed enemy; and now they were at night target-practice. You heard them now and then, day and night, if you lived near the coast. ; So Rachel couldn’t dance any more then. Each time she heard that dull boom, she saw the bodies of young men blown into frag- ments. The capitalists were getting ready for their next war; what business had the socialists to be dancing? They drove ‘along the boulevard which follows the harbor-front. It is fifteen or twenty miles, and there are towns and docks and bridges and railroad tracks and factories, and inland the “subdivi- sions” for the homes of working people. It is one of the world’s great ports in the swift making; and those who have charge of the job, the masters of credit, see rear- ing before them that monstrous spectré known as “direct action” or “criminal syndicalism.” The “In- dustrial Workers of the World” had had a headquarters, where they met to discuss this program; and the masters made incessant war upon them. The address which Ruth had given to Bunny was an obscure street in’a working class quarter. There was a fair-sized hall, with lights’in the window, and the sound of a piano and a child’s voice sing- ing. Among the cars parked along the curb Bunny found a vacant space, and backed into it, and was just about to step from his car, when Rachel caught him by the arm. “Wait!” There came rush- ing down the street a squadron of motor-cars, two abreast and block- ing the way entirely; and from them leaped a crowd of some fifty men, carrying weapons of various sorts, clubs, jhatchets, pieces of iron pipe. They made a rush, for the entrance, and a moment later the music ceased, and there came the sound of shiieks, and the crash of glass and battering of heavy blows. “They’re raiding them!” cried Bunng, and would have run to the scene; but Rachel’s arms were flung about him, pinning him to his seat. “No! No! Sit still! What can you do?” “My God! thing!” . “You're not armed, and you can’t stop a mob! You can only get kill- ed! Keep still!” The sounds from within had risen to a bedlam; the hall must have been crowded, and everyondifinside yelling at the top of his lungs. And that horrible drumming of blows— you couldn’t tell whether they were falling on furniture or on human bodies. Bunny;was almost beside himself, struggling to get loose, and Rachel fighting like a mad thing—he had never dreamed that she had such strength. “No, Bunny! No! For God’s sake! For my sake! Oh, please, please!” She knew in those dreadful minutes the terror that was to haunt the rest of her life—that some day in this hideous class war there would come the moment when it was her hsuband’s duty to get himself killed. But not yet, not yet! Not on their honey- moon! bs It was like the passing of a tor- nado, that is gone before you have time to realize it. The attacking party emerged from the hall, as quickly as they had entered. They were dragging half a dozen prison- ers, and threw these into the cars, of which the engines were still go- ing; then down the street they went roaring, and silence fell, - It was permissible for Bunny to get out now, and run into the hall, with Rachel at his heels. He had one thought, the same as on that night when he had run over Mrs, Groarty’s place, crying, “Paul! Paul!” They,.were certain to have We must do some- LEADERSHIP IN THE GENERAL STRIKE, IN ACTION,” by M. L. Burns. London, 2s. Labour Research Department. | Ramsay Mac Donald, J. H. Thomas, Arthur Pugh, Ernest Bevan, and the| other responsible leaders of the British General Strike have at last made. their “explanations.” Their report was presented to a corference of Trade | Union Executives, held January 20, 1927—more than eight months after the | termination of the strike. | “The miners were to blame,” This, in effect, is the conclusion reached | by the spokesmen for the General Council. ' | * * * The argument runs as follows: “There was to be a wage reduction any: way. As John Bromley said, the railwaymen have taken their reduction why should not the miners take theirs? Since a reduction was inevitable the _ miners were in error in raising the slogan of ‘Not a penny off the pay.’ Rep-— resentatives of the General Council on the eve of the strike had already se- cured an agreement involving wage reductions in all probability to which the members of the Cabinet would have agreed. Ten days later the Genera Council signed and accepted the Samuel Memorandum. On this issue they | broke with the miners after the leaders refused to accept the Samuel Memo- | randum as authentic. The acceptance of the Samuel Memorandum, even if it had involved a reduction in wages, would have prevented the long and bitter struggle which the miners waged from May to November, and as a result of which they were compelled to accept a wage reduction.” = * * This argument is obviously far from the statement of trade-union policy made by A. B. Swales, president of the Scarboro Conference in 1925, It is| | not even a defense of existing standards. It is merely an excuse for ac- cepting a reduction in wages without making a fight. British Labor leadership has reached just this stage as a result of the sharp class conflict of the post-war years. Ernest Bevin, who was the fight- ing leader of the Lefts a dozen years ago has become the Samuel Gompers of the British Trade Union Congress. Bob Williams, immediately after the Russian Revolution, was urging British workers to unfurl the red flag over Buckingham Palace. At Margate, on October 11, 1926, he urged British workers to take it easy, elect some more labor representatives, and then wait and se¢, * * * The British General Strike did at least this rauch for British labor lead- ers: it showed the rank and file that such men as MacDonald and Thomas were no longer willing to make a fight éven against wage reductions. In | | their prime they struggled forsbetter standards of living. During the war they gained many concessions for the workers. Through the post-war reac- _ tion, however, they have become defenders of a decadent economic system | which forces the workers to carry the chief burden of disintegration. | The Strike did more than this, however. It gave the Minority Movement | funetioning in various localities a chance to test out the ability of younger men and women who, up to that time, had never been called upon to assume large leadership responsibilities. It developed the members of the Commun- ist Party and enabled that organization to intensify its propaganda, particu- larly in the mining fields, and to spread a clear-cut class struggle concept of the General Strike. The Labour Monthly for January carried a long article describing the work of the Communist Party during the General Strike. * * * In both “The General Strike” and “Trades Councils in Action” are found descriptions in considerable detail of the splendid efforts of local leaders to, offset the failure of the Central Trade Union Congress and Labour Party} leadership to direct the General Strike. ; The MacDonald-Thomas leadership grew up in an era of world peace and imperial plunder,—when standards of living were still high; when the trade unions were still satisfied to make immediate wage demands and when the outlook for “prosperity and progress” was still bright. Those days are past in Britain. Post-war developments have intensified the class struggle and thrown upon the labor leaders an immense responsibility for formulat- ing the tactics necessary in the reconstruction’ of society. Britain is in the | throes of a revolution. The labor leadership which was competent to handle | problems of wages and hours can not adapt itself to workers’ defense in Gen- eral Strikes. The Trade Union Congress report on the General Strike indi- cates this very greatly. The task of providing the new leadership rests with the minority movement and the Communist Party. —Scott Nearing. COMMENTS. The followers of Harry Waton have deviated from their fierce mono- theism. They have discovered a new God—Oswald Spengler. } How they manage to square Marxism (no matter how cockeyed their in- terpretation of it is) with Spengler, who expresses the mysticism and pes- simism of a dying class, we do not know. “The Decline of the West” is an attack on the seientific method of tackling history, in the first place. You cannot understand history, says Spengler, in terms of cause and effect; you can only grasp its course and its significance intuitively. This is semi-mystical hooey carried over from jergson. i In the second place, “The Decline of the West” is an attack on the Marxian notion of the dialectic. Civilizations rise and grow and kick off like mushrooms, according to Spengler. They are organic entities and have no connection with one another. j Spengler’s book is one of the most comprehensive ideological attacks on Marxism. How many so-called Marxists and neo-Marxists fall for it is | beyond us. —f.F. | * oe * “Intellectual Vagabondage,” by Floyd Dell, contains one of the tew at- tempts at a social interpretation of literature that has been made in this country. “Mammonart,” by Upton Sinclair, and one or two books by V. F. Calverton are the, only other books published in the United States which attempt to tie up literary with social movements. —H. F. * * * , For those who want to get the full tragedy of the recent Convention of the United Mine Workers, I suggest that they acquire a copy of the “Auto- biography of Mother Jones,” (Chas. Kerr & Co.). This mighty woman, who has spent a precarious life in the movement to organize the workers in the coal mines of America, télls some of the vivid episodes. The book is written simply, directly, and vigorously, as befits a person who can hurl profanity in such fresh and dynamic combinations. Clarence Darrow contributes one of his characteristic drawling, “Aw- | shucks-what’s-the-use” essays in the form of an introduction to the book. | —S. G. * * * i | “The American Labor Year Book, 1927” ($1.65) contains much valuable | material for those who deal in social facts. It is prepared in a skillful man- ner and offers an excellent source-book for active workers in the revolution- ary movement in this country. Some of the subjects handled include Trade Union Organizations, Strikes and. Lockouts, Labor Legislation, and Legal Decisions. s —S. G. | “THE GENERAL STRIKE,” by R. Page Arnot, 2s. “TRADES COUNCILS! | | ) : i | t “ taken Paul away on that lynching party; and how could Bunny save him? The first thing he saw, in the doorway, was a man with a great gash across his forehead, and the blood streaming all over him; he was staggering about, because he couldn’t see, and crying, “The sons- o’-bitches! The sons-o’-bitches!” Near him was another man whose hand had been slashed across, and a women was tearing her skirt to make a bandage. A little girl lay on the floor, screaming in agony, and some one was pulling off her stockings, and the raw flesh was coming with them. “They threw | her into the coffee!” said a voice in Bunny’s ear. “Jesus Christ, they threw the kids into the boiling coffee!” Everywhere confusion, women in hysterics, or sunk upon the floor NICARAGUA ! HANDS OFF CHINA! S. WARSHIPS FROM Don’t Delay! | sobbing. There was not a stick of furniture in the place that had not been wrecked; the chairs split with hatchets; the been gutted, its entrails lay tangled on the floor. Tables were overset, 4 ago and crockery a e metal ,urn which the coffee had been overset, and its steaming contents running children into it, one after another, as their franti¢ parents them out. The flesh had been cook- ed,off their legs, and they would be crippled for life; one was a ten year old girl known as “the wobbly song-bird;” she had a sweet treble, and sang seritimental ballads and re- bel gongs, and the mob leader had jerked her from the platform, say- ing. “We'll shut your damned mouth!” (To Be Continued),