The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 28, 1927, Page 6

®6.First Street, New York, N. Y Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO Daily, Except Sunday Phone, Orchard 1680 — ae » By mail (in New York only): © $8.00 per year $2.50 tt $4.50 six months RIPTION RATES By mail (outside of New York): $6.00 per year $2.00 three months ke out chee $3.50 six months | 69 iy THE Street, New York, N. ¥. J. LOUI Pies eae er ak 4 WILLIA maitre * BERT MILLI — bat fee ; a Wytered as second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. ¥., under March & © The Farm Bloc and “Progressive” Leadership— | fi ” Futile and Dangerous. The veto of the McNary-Haugen farm relief bill and the ‘passage of the McFadden banking bill reveals the futility of the’ farm bloc. fe _ the but American Fed The farm bloc senators and congressmen combined with the banking interests to put over the McFadden bill which Coolidge @igned. The farm relief bill got the ax. The bankers have what they wanted. They are in a position to squeeze the farmers a little harder than before and in addition to this their agents in the house and senate, having voted for a bill they knew Coolidge would veto, can now avoid the wrath of Their record on the matter is clear | followers of the farm bloc. the farmers are still denied relief. The farm bloc senators and congressmen are enthusiastic exponents of the “nonpartisan” policy. So are the officials of the Workers and farmers are told) Continuously that no good purpose can be served by leaving the! ‘old parties and forming a party of their own. #lways pointed out as a shining example of the power that can be exerted in congress by a judicious use of the processes of the| ration of Labor. = primary law. ; The “good men,” the “friends of the workers and farmers” that have been sent to Washington from the middle west and northwest, not only have been unable to enact any real beneficiary Iegislation for the masses but their recent attempt in this direc- tion, the alliance with the bankers without guarantees, has given " fiw life to the leadership of such enemies of the farmers and rep- fesentatives of the banking interests as Dawes and Lowden. © It is true of course that Coolidge’s veto of the farm: relief bill antagonizes large sections of the farming population but a the same time it demoralizes the farm bloc following. The farm bloc is} By DOUGLAS P. HASKELL Editor, The New Student. | HE score of suicides among stu- dents since the Christmas vaca- {| tion have succeeded in doing one | thing; they have managed to make It makes fools of the living. Hardly had their possible the continuation of the process of fooling the farmer that) tragic Dance of Death got fairly un- has been the principle activity of the capitalist politicians of the|der way than there began also, led mid die west for fifty years. The farm bloc leaders canndt escap responsibility for this situation. They made support of the farm| e| by the eminent clergy, the circus of the living clowns, the Great Explain- Every “authority” had an ex- relief bill a test of loyalty to the farmers and since the alliance) pianation; and he delivered it like is, for example. onou We cannot disregard, of course, the tremendous mass pres-| deaths to be the culmination of the a a the £ wor practical.” va and the militarist adv nery of imperialism ich are opposing its use in Latin-America. —~-surefor the farm relief bill as the principal factor in determining attitude of Dawes and Lowden for farm relief but it is also) tue that they seized the opportunity to weaken the farm bloc by | iluting its policy with their own and appearing as champions of| psychology found the fault to lie in ] Christianity, the killing of curiosity | farmers. enemies of the masses. r party as “jm.-| thought the reason was “cowardice’ with the banking interests, Lowden and Dawes are in a position the Clown Grimaldi, very, very seri- to appear just as legitimately as farmers’ friends as Brookhart| ously. An eminent rabbi pronounced these movement toward “self-expression.” A famous psycho-analyst declared them due to “the desire to hurt.” The leader of a modern school of |by the radio, too much booze and ; *. Lowden and Dawes are now definitely presidential candi-| sitomobile riding, and not enough| ‘dates. They entered the race the moment the Coolidge statement} playing of pirate, cowboy or miner. attacking the farm relief bill was made public. They have out-maneuvered the farm bloc leaders. f Yet it is precisely this element, together with A. F. of L. _ officialdom which attacks the advocates of a lal Futile and dangerous, the leadership of the farm) _ bloc and the so-called progressives is playing into the hands of| |’ HE divines laid it all to “modern philosophy and psychology.” A most important sociologist and put in a good word for Christian- ity as a stopper. The president ot a large university | offered “a materialistic conception of ** The whole history of the farm relief legislation with its|the universe.” final tragic farce of the banker-farmer alliance and the rise of) The editors of a most dignifiec un- |dergraduate pape. called it “ander- Lowdens and Dawes to new influence is one of the most} caucation.” erful arguments yet delivered for a party of farmers and} 6), the contrary. raid x’ newspaper- | ‘kers. In the work that must be carried on for-a labor party be-|was too much edneatinn; too much} | €xposure of the role of the farm bloc and so-called progresgive! riding professor in New York, there tween now and the 1928 elections not the least important. is the| “inquiring mind” without enough “in- | | hibitions.” An expert on mental hygiene in- lers as elements whose historical role is that of keeping the! ojuded in his formula “an increase in American Imperialism Geis More Cruisers. Get Another Subscriber for Your DAILY WORKER, farmers and workers in the camp of their enemies—prisoners| freedom of speech and action, an itior- |dinate desire for speed and thrills, | disregard for law and order, the di- | vided home, and the continued breed- | ing of the nervously unfit.” | Somebody mentionei “war -hys- teria.” LAM in such fashion every clown in the show got out his own favorite Out of the excitement over the invasion of Nicaragua, the) either puffing it up or exploding it, hina, the nav The milita difficulty fy Ris | Nicaraguan invasion and supporting the farm bill, the votes to} ' inerease the number of fighting craft. Hye is a choice example of imperialism at work. jpular sentiment is undeniably against the conquest of Nicara- Y ures which accompany it, the ma-|any more than do the authorities. ' trengthened by the same elements While , controversy with Mexico and the dispatch of gunboats and troops] very, very seriously; and if all of | department has secured three more cruisers. ever on the job, managed to collect without me; there are plenty of reasurs why m the anti-Coolidge forces denouncing the| ¢nyone should commit suicide. them were talking the truth, there is only one thing sure for you and The “Facts.” |THE facts about the suicides, ac printed in the newspaper: point toward any single explanation ‘Through all the reporting there runs \the inability to meagure death with words. Blanche Cabathuler was sup- This is sufficient to prove that lacking congressmen and| posed to have killed herself after Le- tors directly responsible to the masses and subject to the|ing scoldeq at she dinner table, no opposition to American impe Wall Street. baseball. discipline of a party of worker and farmers, there is no genuine lism in Washington. The bankers’ press ‘in New York City is working cvertime ing to create the impression that Coolidge did, an heroic act n vetoing the McNary-Haugen farm relief bill. 1, was heroic— “Babe” Ruth demands $200,000 for two years’ work at play- That ought to cause a few more wage. workers to on the low wages they are receiving in comparison for very necessary social labor. more than that. Rughy Wile was not | concerned with a‘ simple scolding but. spoke about life as a whole: “Every- thing is dark and worthless. I have found life barren and futile.” If Rugby Wile thought he hated life, J. Morgan Derr was simply tired of it: “I have experienced all iife has to. offer andsam better dead” is what he wrote. Cassels W. Noe at the University of Wisconsin cheerfully announced he’ “wanted to find out how things were over there’—he seemed to have no fear about it. But one of the girls destroyed her life, little bubble and blew it very hard, | THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1927 { supposedly, because she was- afraid |to face her parents with her poor | grades! y In all of this, maybe the reporters were kidding the public, and maybe the youngsters were kidding them- selves. Of course some of the psychia- trists and physicians found these peo- ple simply abno: But since any- body who-commits suicide can never be called anything except “abnor- mal” that doesn’t help explain very much. | The Medical Side. HE reasons for the large number of deaths might be personal rea- sons or they might lie in some social cause. On the personal side, the | medical authorities were all sure of |one thing: it’s hell to be young. | “Every virlle adolescent is a poten- tial suicide,” said Dr. Louis I. Bisch, lof the New York Polyclinic Medical School. |mobody understands him, and can jeasily get to pity himself. Youth is | the time of sex battles and also the time when the notions of “guilt” and |“inferiority’ first enter the mind. | Let a youngster in this state of mind jread about other suicides that sound | heroic in the press, and the sugges- tion comes strongly to him to do the |same. “Then there is a showy exit | with pitiable letters left bebin] or | the stressing of a reason for the act | that of itself is relatively unimpor- tant.” The Social Side. HAT had social conditions +o! do | with these deaths? A good deal jcould be said about that, and ve! | little proved, unless you are a Grea’ | Explainer. \te have noticed: none of these young- |sters seems to have been busy at} | work. None of them was doing any- \thing—-yet-—that seemed important jand indispensable. The pre-medics | came nearest to being connected wich the notion of work and responsibility |and importance. Tke rest were all jin the unreal wor!4 of schoo! where nothing really :natters. There was no purpose in life for |them to get very much het up about, Business? The prospect of dog-cat- dog has little appeal to any college sophomore who knows that business is not very much more. Service to | the State?—That means telling mean ‘lies in the “national interest” of blackguards.» To be a bishop is to hire sob-sisters to hand out the pub- licity bunk that will build a cathe- dral. Would you be a big college presider®:? Then learn the trick of saying anything at all to get the search” that won’t keep you from getting more. S in the Europe of Metternich, there is in America very little call for the glamorous notions that make life interesting during student years, Revolution and idealism and senti- ment in college are dead, while there is nothing economic for most college students to fight for in even a mean- ly, selfish way. To be a hero, as every student wants to be, to step out of himself, is forbidden not only by the pertect civilization of Mr. Babbitt, but even by modern “psychology.” This Any adolescent feels that} One thing nobody sceins| mazuma, and spending it on any “re-) ence proves that you can’t start any-| The “Student Suicides” ’ {thing that doesn't first start you; | obviously only mud or mone} can do | that. | Death as a Critic of Life. idea of suicides as a sign of so- |eial decay is shown throughont his- tery. Look at the Age of Napoleon and Metternich and you find a whole trail of suicides and early deaths and Keats and Byron, Novalis and Kleist and Buechner, Leopardi and Bellini and Gribojedof and Pushkin— all of them dieq young, some by their elly, while numbers of others went insane. Look at Russia after the first revolution in 1905 and you find student suicides there. ' HERE’S no getting around it; either a fight has to be put on to | make life generally worth living, or death will cop the 1ound. People may not all be conscious of this de- bate, like Tolstoi, who often put away shis pistol for fear he might be tempt- ed too strongly, but the debate goes on. The Gceat Explainers kid then:- selves out of it by turning to religion or educatio2 or psychoanalysis or and others ty going to hooze or the | movies. No use. | honest than they are, goes straight to his own death, and shows them up for fools, Read The Daily Worker Every Day Negro Rotary Club | Formed by Whites To Fight the ANLC (By Worker Correspondent). RICHMOND, Va., Feb. 27.—Wed- |nesday, Feb. 23, 1927 saw the forma- tion of a “Civico” club among the lo- cal Negro middle class elements. The installation was attended by numer- cus white business men, bankers, poli- ticians, preachers and such like “per- sons of impertance.” These latter lauded the establish- ment of “Civico,” the first organiza- tion of its kind in this city and prom- ised their, support. Officers were elected from the petit bourgeois ele- ments present. The formation of this club should not be lightly passed over. The pres- ence of several of the most prominent white capitalists and their politicians indicates that they are aware of the importance of having their agents among the Negroes to effectively stifle any protest against the outrages of Bourbonism. Another factor, no doubt, is the presence of a local of the American Negro Labor Congress in this city which arouses the hate of both the white and black exploiters. The Negro workers must-not give any .support to this treacherous “Civico” gang, but build up their own independent power through the A. N, L. C. and the unions to which they have access, building up unions where such are not in existence. Under no circumstances can they if their fate to the middle class, that only seeks to betray the mem- bers of its own race in order to win an approving smile from the white HAT there is something in the/| |among its best young men. Shelley | own hand, and most of them unoctur- | | business success ov cynical criticism, | Some child, more | Ramsay MacDonald Explains Why and How the Miners Were Betrayed 6¢]Q AMSAY MACDONALD Reveals Why Strike Was Called Off” is the headline in the New Leader over an article by the same person. The article is)a weak and uncon- vincing apology for calling off the general strike and deserting the miners. What the miners thought about the policy which MacDonald de- | fends is best shown by the fact that lin the recent Trade Union Congress | conference which considered the whole | question, they! voted solidly against | the official report, casting 900,000 | votes. Donald article: (1) That the General Council, over the protest of the miners’ executive, |agreed with the government on a | wage cut. This is what MacDonald says: “These terms were the best that in the opinion of the General Council could be secured UNDER THE EX- ISTING ECONOMIC AND POLITI- |CAL CIRCUMSTANCES ... The |couneil @onsidered that wages could | not be saved for the time being how- ever long the strike was to last.” (Emphasis mine.) iI F the general strike was not | called to change the “existing economic and political cireumstances” |what was its purpose? MacDonald explains this when be speaks of the theory’of the general | strike: | “This policy never received the | wholehearted support of all the lead- ers who saw that by extending the \line of battle you wéakened it rather than strengthened it and that by bringing new issues into a fight you run ‘the danger of confusing it rather than clarifying it.” The majority of the General Council was opposed to the strike. This we can gather from MacDonald’s state- jment. But these leaders felt that jthey could not oppose the general | strike in the face of the mass pres- ure for action in support of the |miners. They did, however, maneuver with the government to prevent the strike developing its full strength and thereby changing any of the “circum- stances” of which MacDonald speaks. E continues: “Mainly by the PURELY PAR- | TISAN action of the government, the | general strike at the end of the first | week was being forced into constitu- | tional channels, and had the general |council agreed with the miners’ lead- |ers and continued the strike after its industrial effectiveness was ended by the rejection of the Samuel Memoran- dum by the miners, the strike would HAVE CHANGED ITS CHARAC- LY POLITICAL.” (Emphasis mine.) | ‘WO facts stand out in the Mac-| TER AND HAVE BECOME PURE- | HAT is that MacDonald says here? Simply that having tried and failed to get the miners to agree to a wage cut and finding that the government —whose activities MacDonald naively |describes as “purely partisan” (did he expect the government to support | the miners?)—was the real enemy | and must be fought as such, the Gen- eral Council called off the strike and left the miners in the lurch, (2) MacDonald was against both kinds of a struggle—militant action to prevent a wage cut and a general | political struggle against British capi- | talism, | “But,” says MacDonald, “the Gen- leral Council kept its head, and having | done its best as a legitimate industrial |power declined to form itself into an | illegitimate constitutional power and | called the strike off.” TS: “best” consisted in trying, with the aid of the government, | to force the miners to agree to a wage cut. ¢ It is quite plain that MacDonald has succeeded only in proving the correct- jness of Gommunist criticism of the |leadership of the General Council. | That leadership was both afraid and |unwilling to head a struggle against | British government—the only possible |way by which thé labor movement |could have won. |] Tis well to state here that Mac- 1 Donald devotes a long paragraph jto abuse of Arthur Cook, the miners’ secretary and the only prominent labor official who fought through to ithe end but finds no time to explain why the desertion of the miners in May was followed by a consistent re- fusal by labor officialdom to place an embargo on foreign coal—an ac- tion which could have saved the min- ers from as bad a defeat as they suf- fered. BS pees is every reason to believe | that MacDonald’s article will be hailed in socialist circles as restrained jand reasonable. He is coming here Easter week and the New Leader is jalready creating atmosphere. We have for instance in the same issue of the New Leader in which the Mac- Donald article appears an apprecia- tion of him by one Kritzer who has |just returned from England where he jattended a meeting at which Mac- |Donald spoke. The New Leader ;makes Kritzer say: “There is still no one to compare in ability with Ramsay MacDonald . . : Mr. MacDonald’s address . . . ;was constructive, statesmanlike and |responsible, while the others, he said, delivered merely ordinary propaganda speeches.” Responsible MacDonald may be, but ‘not to the British workers.—B, D. pe ts ANEW NOVEL Gplon Sinslair VIL Morning came, and they went back to the hospital room. Noth- ing was changed. Paul still lay, breathing hoarsely; and Ruth sat in a chair by the bedside, her eyes fixed upon him, her hands clasped tightly. She was whiter, that was all, and her lips were quivering, never still. The hospital nurse begged her to lie down and rest, but she shook her head. No, she was used to watching the sick; she was a nurse too. The other answered that all nurses slept when they could; but no, please— Ruth Wanted to stay right there. The surgeon came again, There was nothing he could do, time would have to tell. Bunny took him aside and asked what were the chances. Impossible to say. If Paul were going to get weli, he would return to consciousness. If he were going to die, there might be a meningitis, or perhaps a blood clot on the brain. Rachel said the family ought to be notified. So Bunny sent a tele- gram to Abel Watkins at Paradise, telling him to engage an auto and bring the family at Bunny's ex- pense. He debated whether it was his duty to telegraph Eli, and de- cided not to. Old Mr, Watkins might do it, but Bunny would be guided by what Paul. would have wished. Then he got the morning papers, and read their exultant ac- count of the night’s events: the reds had been taught a much-need- ed lesson, and law and order were safe at the harbor. It was the morning of election: day: the culmination of a campaign that had been like long nightmare to Bunny. Senator LaFo had been running, with the backing of the Socialists, and the great issue had been the oil steals; the indicted exposers of the crime against the criminals in power. At first the exposers had really made some headway, the people seemed to care, But the enemy was onty waiting | for the time to strike. In the last three weeks of the campaign he turned loose his reserves, and it | was like a vast cloud of hornets the sky black with a swarm 0 stinging, burning, poisoning lies! It was the money of Vernon Rgs- coe and the oil men, of course: plus the money of the bankers and the power interests and the great protected manufacturers, all those who had ‘something to gain by the purchase of government, or some- thing to lose by failure to purchase. Another fifty million dollar cam- paign; and in every village and hamlet, in every precinct of every city and town, there was a commit- tee for the distribution of. terror. The great central factories where it was manufactured were in Wash- ington and New York, and the pro- duct was shipped out wholesale, all over the land, and circulated by every agency — newspapers and leaflets, mass meetings, parades, bands, red fire and torchlights, the radio and the moving picture screen. If LaFollette, the red destroyer, were elected, business would be smashed, the workers would be job- less; therefore vote for that strong silent statesman, that great, wise, noble-minded friend of the plain people known as “Cautious Cal.” And now, while Paul Watkins lay gasping out his life, there was a snowstorm of ballots falling over the land, nearly a thousand every second. The will of the plain people was being made known. (To Be Continued). World Too Tough for Worker; He Leaves $1 For Gas _ But Fails The world is too tough for me or else I am too tough for the world, wrote Edmund Sentenne, of Elm hurst, Long Island yesterday just before he tried to commit suicide by inhaling gas. ‘ The attempt was made in the home of a friend and Sentenne left a dollar lying on a table to pay for the gas he used in ending his life. He was foupd unconscious, but alive and taken to Bellevue Hospital where he is in a serious condition. Read The Daily Worker Every Day