The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 4, 1927, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1927 Ruthenberg Told Judge of Capitalists Meaning of Word “Expropriation” GDAHL. By J. LOUIS EN word there, the word ‘ex- ¥ 1 unusual It wa Comrade New York « Ruthent with vi State in t tal ‘in is ks speaking. Our ess stand in the archy la New York d to have been instrumen- to of the left wing of the so- cialist p: i held a national conference in New York City, June 21-24, 1919. Thus the judicial lackey of the exploiters, who insisted on sitting as trial judge in spite of the fact that an af- fidavit of pr ice had been filed against him, recog- nized that something sual was taking place in the land. Worke: estly and sincerely advocating a definite prc he abolition of capitalism. The judge was correct in his viewpoint. > socialist party there had prevailed the opinion among large sections of the socialist m te end capitalism was to buy it out. A Can of Spiced D By JOEL. SHOMAKER long time ago there lived a big fish known as the shark. The shark family kept house in the oceans of water that covered most of the surface of the earth, As those waters have a depth of about two miles the sharks had plenty of room for colonizing. The shark f and became m of the deep, Man has not been able to count the mil- lions of vicious Some are nown as cov 5 are sed as bull-head sharks and many r the plain title of dog-fishes. The shark is a sleek member of the royal tribes of the devouring others. It does not have to worry about the next meal for the F s generally kept in motion hools of little | does not ker record of meals. | Man has al been afraid of the | carniverous ark family. He av the swimming holes, where sharks | congregate, and tries to remain on the land as much as possible. The man-eating shark does not hesitate to take the life of a man and satisfy appetite. | A few years |was on the screens of the picture shows of the earth. The masters of \finance were much troubled over the | matter of feeding the multitudes. For | the young men were facing cannons It lives by | ° The sltark ago the World War, “T am always ready to look into the merits of anything new,” was my reply, as I grasped a clean toothpick. | That’s fine stuff,” the man with big goggles in front of his eyes, vol- unteered. “It will make a good cheap food for the workin man." “That is nothing but dog-fish,” 1 st shouted. “I have caught those fellows by the hundreds. The .only use I have for them is to bury in the ground for fertilizing the soil.” “You will never get rich,” sneered the man of wealth, as he started to turn and walk away in disgust. “Your idea is to feed the working people im spiced dog-fish, so that you and others of your s can ss fortunes by profiteering on the s of humanity, face, for T was daily food necessit most hissed in his little out of humor. ‘Cus out al! of that talk about the in the foud of the work- said the man with goggles stamped a broad shoe and profiteerin: he scowled at. me, much the same as a! , wild animal. “We ‘ave two classes of people on this earth. One makes and the other does not make I am g'ad that I am able Money is the thiag that talks.’ “Glad to hear you talk as you act,” I returned with much emphasis. “I do not possess wealth. I have lived for more than fifty years and at no time have I had an income of as much og-Fish THE SITUATI ON HAS CHANGED 342, That view had and the old men were unable to work. | 45, bi seateend Coes nig hago | eal cs ‘ Nr. been urged by The spirit of commercialism had to| “You Poor fool,” grunted the ani-| POR , ; many. prominent 1p yt ae high tension. The man|™al that, I classed as a man shark, | Imperialism Talks Differently in the Orient Today. members of the |with money wanted more wealth. It “{ understand you work seven days} socialist party, in the week, for one of the money-| |was the day of the future million- then as now. It was from the Weft wing of the socialist party, in- spired by the Bol- shevik revolution in Russia, and later organized as the American sec- tion of the Com- munist Interna- tional, that ca talism received Sketch of C. E, Ruthenberg at one of the several trials in which first clear chal- he appeared as a witness for Com. lenge, that made munism. it sit up and take notice. There was Ruthenberg, the champion of Communism, and Judge Weeks, th¢ spokesman, at the same time the jury, judge and prosecutor of capitalism, facing each other in the capitalist court room. Thus did our com- rade Ruthenserg, so suddenly taken from us, appear as one of the first symbols of the more conscious strug- gle of the American working class against its capitalist oppressor. ae ea Ferguson is a lawyer and throughout the case acted as one of the Communist counsel. It was he who asked Ruthenberg the question: “T would like to ask you to explain in the phrase there, ‘When the workers take possession of the means of pro- duction,’ as you have now used it?” Ruthenberg answered, “Yes. The-view of the social- ist, the left wing socialist, was that, with the establish- ment of a working class state, that state would proceed to expropriate the present owners of industry and es- tablish social ownership of industry.” Then Judge Weeks, referred to as “The Court” record of the trial, hurriedly interjected: “You use an unusual word there, the word ‘expropri- ate’. What do you understand to be the meaning of that word and what is the meaning of it as you use it?” Ruthenberg’s answer was: “I understand the meaning of the word ‘expropriate’ to be the taking by the state, the existing government, of certain property necessary for the whole of society, and transferring the ownership from individuals to that state or government.” Further extracts from the record show that Comrade Ruthenberg and Judge Weeks fought it out this way: “By the Court: “Q. Does that mean with or without compensation to the present owners? pensation. “Q. So that when the word ‘expropriate’ is used in| military purposes. The CMTC’s can| | aire. So something had to be done to | boost prices on the common necessi- \ties of the overworked and starving | people. | Some wise man, holding down the swing of a swivel chair, suggested |the idea of utilizing the food fishes | of the oceans. He pounced upon the dog-fish—one of the lowest of th sharks—as a possible table delicacy for the human family. | The dog-fish is listed as a shallow water scavenger. It swims along the | beaches and collects the garbage ant! animal refuse from land and sea. It jis the under-water gull of the sea !and buzzard of the shore. It is one| } of the unclean fishes. | Man decided to commercialize the stinking dog-fish. The fish were jeaught in traps and seines and on | hooks tied to set lines, The catch went to fish canneries, where the flesh was cooked and put in tin cans, to be marketed as a new fish, One day I discovered a group of | men tasting a fresh food. A sales- |man, with a glib tongue, was extoll- |ing the virtues of the fish. Men would | dip small toothpicks into the pre- {pared mess, lift a morsel to their | lips and carefully taste the stuff. | “Have a smack of the new food,” | called a well-dressed man I knew as in the |@ growing capitalist making profits | jon the labors of working men. grabbing institutions of the city, and draw a salary of less than fifty dol- lars per month.” “T plead guilty,” was my quick re- ply. “That is because of the sharks. You want me to exist Ly eating the carcass of a low dog-fish member of the man-eating shark family. When I am a few years clder, I suppose you will favor casting my body into the sea, to be devoured by. sharks that they may be made fat enough to slaughter and put in cans to feed the working people.” “No use of our talking any longer. | Time is too precious,” said the man as he started to move on. “I will say one thing more. There are two classes of people in this world. The one that makes the money is the only one that counts. You can go on with your writing, talking and speak- ing for the working people, but you will never get anywhere. You will live a poor man, die of starvation and be buried in the potter’s field. The people you prattle about do not pay for labor. Money talks.” . | I shoved the can of dog-fish back to the inner edge of the glass case. The | salesman picked it up and placed it ise a shelf in the rear, The crowd passed on. I hooked my cane over my left wrist, waved a parting salute | to the fish-monger and was lost in the midst of the rushing throng of men and women seeking pure foods. | By P. FRANKFELD. | MERICAN imperialism is today | the most powerful, most ruth- | less and most feared imperialism in |the world. American investments jabroad total 25 billions of dollars. {are voted every year by congress for Importance of Anti-Militarist Work | thing not concerning them either di- rectly or indirectly. This will offer a splendid opportunity for the league to educate the masses of | young workers to the real dangers jof war and the purposes of militar- A. It would mean without com-| Greater and greater appropriations | '*™- , | Anti-militarist Struggle. The importance of carrying on a the soéialist program, you, as a student of socialism, | now accommodate 35,000 each sum-| Struggle against militarism in the understand it to mean:to take private property without compensation? A. Yes. The ROTC has 185,00C en- New and more | | mer. | rolled in its ranks. | this time. U. S. cannot be over-estimated at A struggle against mili- “Q. Does that view of yours, that theory of yours, deadly gases are being invented. In| tarism is a struggle against capi- contemplate the person from whom it was taken with- out compensation, and who is not himself a worker, should become a part or should have the full powers in connection with the state of voting in that new state, of voting and holding office? A. My personal view would be that during the transition period, that those who did not render service to society in the form of useful labor, would very likely be excluded from the suffrage, although that is not necessarily a condition to the existence of that transition period. ecw “Q, You say that is your view. that is exploited by the socialist party? the view exploited by the socialist party. “Q. By the: left wing of the socialist party? A. The general posit‘»n of the left wing o> the Communists is, that during the transition period there would exist a dictatorship of the proletariat, with the exclusion from the suffrage of those who refused to participate in the new society by rendering useful service. However, that is not necessarily a condition to the existence of the dictatorship of the proletariat, for such an authority on | the subject as Lenin has stated that it is not necessary | to exclude the exploiter from the suffrage in order that | a dictatorship might exist. “Q. But they are excluded from the suffrage under | the Soviet form of government in Russia? A. They are. ee ea Then Ferguson asked Ruthenberg what he meant by the “dictatorship of the proletariat” to which our com- rade replied: “I mean the domination and the control of the gov- | ernment by the working class as it is now dominated | and controlled by the capitalist class.” Which excited Judge Weeks some more. He asked: | “Q. You say domination and control of the government. | What government? If the dictatorship of the proletariat is in control of the government, are they controlling an existing government or a new government? A. It is | my view that the working class will establish a govern- ment in a form that will be suitable to the exercise of the working class power; that is, the form of govern- ment will very likely be the Soviet form of govern- ment.” | ih. Cage Isn't that the view A. It is not Thus Ruthenberg, the Communist, courageously set forth the theories and practices that the leaders of the socialist party had turned their backs on during the whole history of the American socialist movement. This was the program of greater American working class struggle in harmony with the triumphant Bolshevik revolution. It is the program that American labor will adopt to achieve its own victory. { {short as American imperialism |grows and expands, militarism in | America grows and expands propor- tionally. | Latter Day Signs. The recent events in Nicaragua, the sending of marines and warships |of a small and weak nation in order \to establish as president a puppet | |of Wall Street to protect its inter- ests are indications of the acceler- |ated trend of development of Amer- | ican imperialism. The threatened war with Mexico | to safegeard the interests of Stand- ard, and Doheny, and the mobiliza- tion of forces to invade China as }soon as American investments be- |eome endangered as a result of the | victories of the nationalist revolu- tionary movement of China, are pos- itive indications that American im- perialisng has adopted an aggressive policy. Guns Make Empire. Militarism is the product and handmaiden of imperialism. The war department of the U. S. gov- | ernment will begin to carry on its | propaganda early this year in order to attract more young workers, es- pecially to the CMTC. Last year, in spite of an intensive campaign to get the “young people from all walks of life,” i. e., young workers instead of students only, the num- ber of young workers averaged less than 10% of the total attending. The camps will be advertised more ex- and the help and co-operation of em- ployers ‘vith the war department will be closer too. Bringing It Home. The campaign to increase young worker attendance at the camps will be brought right into the large |shops and factories, Militarism will become a living, vital issue to the |acutely the immediate effects of a |to intervene in the internal affairs | tensively this year than ever before | | talism and imperialism. This strug- gle can be put on a broad basis be- | cause it involves thousands of young | students, and we can reach them’on | this issue even if we cannot reach hem on any other. j Present the Problem. To the young workers we can pre- sent the problem in the following fashion: you receive $18, $14, $16 a week, work 50, 52, 54 hours a | week under most unsanitary condi- tions; what interests have you in the 25 billions invested by Wall Street? Why should you fight against fel- low workers in some other countries who are also as exploited as you? To the student we must say: you are an integral part of the working class of America, You are in school to study, not to prepare for war. You will go back into the ranks of the working class after you have completed your education, and as a | worker you have no interests to | fight and die for in China, Mexico, Nicaragua, ete. By presenting the problem in this way, we will be able to awaken the young workers and young students to the class basis of society, mobil- ize for a struggle against militar- ism against capitalism, Prince Takes House. PARIS, March 3,.—Prince Carol has week ego for safe conduct to Buchar- est to visit his father, King Ferdi- nand, who is seriously ill. Prince Carol, however, | mitted a project, originating with the royal family and the Roumanian gov- ernment, to buy a house for Prince Carol’s permanent home, either in Prince Carol has welcomed the offer and has asked young workers who do not feel that he may select a house in the out- France or Italy. skirts of Paris, received no reply to his request of a | has re- ceived Colonel Balef, attached to the | Roumanian household, who has sub- | That Telegraph Pole | | | ANY years ago, I stood before a monument in| Damascus, smiled—and pondered. | It was a peculiar thing—that monument: a sort of | Cleopatra’s Needle of Modern Imperialism. Imagine, if | j you can, the upper half of a telegraph pole. done in| bronze, (without idealization, without embellishment) and | set upon a pedestal in the public square for the happy | | contemplation of the enslaved populace! | tee ed | | Last year, when the papers were full of the accounts | jof war between French and Syrians, I remembered that monument. Monuments, it seems, even when cast in bronze, don’t make imperialist rule permanent, but that one seemed especially a symbol of revolt. The Arabs fought. Damascus, which was the capital of Sultan Pasha Atrash, brave leader of the astounding Druses, was lost to the French, | Natives were forced to surrender the city and with it, |no doubt, the public square—the site of the bronze chastening rod—a rod of Science wherewith the absentee | {exploiters belabor and torment the native workers. During those months last year, the Arabs suffered heavy losses, but they “punished the enemy” (had it but been in person!) severely. " . * * The struggle for Syrian independence is not yet ended —although the battle of “Peaches” against “Daddy” Browning may crowd out of the news altogether the French-Syrian conflict. Suffice it to say, the Syrians are still fighting their would-be saviors, the French Imperialists. But what I set out to tell was not the story of the monument, nor the square, nor the defeat or victory of the French or the Arabs, What I meant to tell about was the stuff the Druse women are made of. But if you’ve read about the monument, perhaps you'll read further. It is, said of the Arabs that all of them are born fighters, but of the Druses it is said they are the bravest and most formidable fighters of all the Arab tribes. You can then imagine what the Druse women are like when you are told that the women of this tribe are braver and fiercer even than their men. a Last spring, at the height of the Syrian revolution, it was frequently reported that several battalions of women appeared in the ranks of the Druses, and fought as fiercely as the men. Battalions of Druse women also appeared in defense of the ancient city of Damascus which the French had bombarded and partly destroyed. When the villages were attacked the women who were left behind took up arms and defended their homes. Once the French attacked a village ruled by a woman chieftain. She lost no moment but called together all the able-bodied women and men in the village, and led them, armed, to defend their homes against the imperial- ist invaders, More than 30,000 Syrian lives were lost since the French were given the mandate over Syria. During the world war, the Allies had promised Syria a native government if they came in on their side and helped them “lick the Turk.” The Syrians accepted the bargain and did their share of the “licking,” then found —to their sorrow, that there is no pledge made by a robber nation to a little nation that the robber nation is bound to respect—especially if the Capitalist League of Nations endorses the sentiment, te ae Since the League had given the French Imperialists the mandate over Syria, there have: been twelve native rebellions against the invaders. And the women of the thn Sune’ the Druses, have done their warrior- share. The Syrian armies are said at present to be encamped in the wilds of the Lebanon Mountains. There each vil- lage on the crest of a hill is a citadel, and the Druse men and women are prepared to defend with their lives their right to freedom from imperialist domination. Some day, the masses of Arabia will gather in the when a Soviet Syria will melt down that “chastening rod” of Imperialism to turn the metal to the beautiful uses of machinery of production, owned and controlled by the workers. In that day, too, they will, perhaps, spare one small bit of the metal for a modest figurine—the fearless, in- trepid Woman Warrior of the Druses. TO THOSE WHO DARE (Dedicated to Sarah Victor on March 11th, 1927.) EERE Out of seconds,—tiny bits of Time, Centuries arise in awe or inigrace, But who’s to count the years of One who chimes With Liveliness in Life whatever there's to face? — The Years remain mere carvings in the air. My Song of Life and Love and of their mighty sway To those erect,—to those who dare. ABRAHAM VICTOR (Detroit, Mich.) Square of Damascus to celebrate their true freedom— NotI. Yet, let Time's chisel eat the bone and flesh away, xi “Radio VXZ, the Angel City Eve- ning Howler, Winitsky’s orchestra, in the main dining-room of the Ad- miralty Hotel, broadcasting by re- mote control.” And then presently “Radio QXJ, the Evening Roarer,” giving elections returns big figures now..“Republican Campaign Headquarters in New York, in a bulletin issued at 1 A. M., estim- ates that Calvin Coolidge has car- ried Massachusetts by 400,000 plu- rality—hooray for the Old Bay State! And New York by 900,000 three cheers for the Empire State—ray, ray, ray! And Illinois by—wait a minute there, some- hody’s knocked my glasses off — they’re pulling the rough stuff in this studio. Behave yourselves, girls, don’t you know the world’s listening in on QJX tonight? Mli- nois by 900,000. Whoopee! That noise you hear is the Chicago Comet yelping for his home state! It’s time we heard the Chicago Comet again—sing us a hot one, Teddy— that little warble about the street car comin’ along. You know what I mean?” A broad, jolly Negro voice answered, “Yessah, Ah knows! Yessah, hyar Ah goes!” Plunkety- plunk— “Ah had some one befoah Ah had you An’ Ah’ll have someone aftah you’s gone, A street car or a sweetheart doan’ mattah to me, There’ll be another one comin’ along!” Six or seven years ago the peo- ple of the United States in their “sovereign wisdom had passed a law forbidding the sale of alcoholic liquor for beverage purposes. But the advocates of law and order re- serve to themselves the privilege of deciding which laws they will obey, and the prohibition act is not among them. All ruling class Amer- ica celebrates its political victories by getting drunk. Bunny knew how it was, having got drunk himself four years ago when President Harding had been elected; he could smile appreciatively when the an- nouncer of QXJ tripped over his syllables—“Thass not polite now, Polly, quit your shovin’ this micro- hiccrophone!” The householder next door was a workingman, or clerk, or such humble heing, denied the royal privilege of breaking the law at ten dollars a quart for gin and thirty for champagne. But he could sit here till after ‘midnight, and turn from one studio to another, and en- joy a series of vicarious jags. “Ra- dio VXZ, the main dining-room of the Admiralty Hotel.” A chanteuse from the Grand Guignol in Paris was singing a ballad, and you could hear the laughter of those who understood the obscenity, and those who pretended to understand it, and those who were too drunk to under- stand anything but how to laugh. Bunny was there in his mind, be- pea Wee een this dining-room at ad drunk, and Dad had been drunk, and Vee Tracy and Annabelle Ames and Vernon Ros- Manning sound coe—and Harvey asleep ‘in his chair, and Tommy ANEW NOVEE Upton Ginclair ; Paley trying to climb onto the table, and having to be kept from fighting the waiters: There were three hundred tables in that hall, all reserved a month in advance, and all with occupants in the same con- dition; the tables stacked with hip- pocket flasks and bottles, strewn with the ashes of cigarettes, the { stains of spilled foods, flowers and f confetti, and little rofisy 6f-ttssws- paper tape thrown from one table to another, covering the room with a spider’s web of bright colors; toy balloons tossing here and there; music, a riot of singing and shout- ing, and men sprawling over half naked women, old and young, flap- pers, and motHers and grandmoth- ers of flappers. There would be election returns read, more of those triumphant, glorious majorities for the strong silent statesman; and a magnate who knew that this victory meant several million dollars off his in- come taxes, or an oil concession in Mesopotamia or Venezuela won by American bribes and held by Amer- ican battleships—such a man would let out a whoop, and get up in the middle of the floor and show how he used to dance the double shuffle when he was a farm-hand; and then he would fall into the lap of his mistress with a million dollars worth of diamonds on her naked flesh, and the singer from a famous haunt of the sexual perverts of Berlin would perform the latest jazz success, and the oil-magnate and his mistress would warble the chorus: Wheat do I do? I toodle-doodle-doo, I toodle-doodle-doodle-doodle-doo! (To Be Continued). March: “Young Worker” Has Zur Muhlen Tale Helena zur Muhlen, whose fame as a teller of short stories is world- wide, contributes a tale of a slave revolt in ancient Egypt to the March issue of the Young Worker. After describing the invasion of an old Egyptian town by the Romans at the time of Christ, and the en- slavement of the native population, Miss zur Muhlen gives a graphic pic» ture, of the revolt of the natives against their foreign exploiters. The tale contains many ob: - tions which are of significance ‘to the revolutionary movement today. Diseuss Public Works. | WASHINGTON—(FP). — Te sti- mony favoring the planning of fed- eral public works as a reducer for industrial unemployment was taken Duss: teeven tk messed. senate merce, before it a a resolu- tion creating a committee of 5 sena- tors to study this scheme. The resolution is now before the mmittee on contingent expenses of the Senate, with slight chance of passage. x About -$1,600,000,000 annually is spent on public works of all govern- ment units—local, state and federal. BUY THE DAILY WorKER AT THE NEWSSTANDS he