The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 5, 1927, Page 5

———— & THe New Macazine Section of THE DAILY WORKER i - Second Section: This Magazine Rection Appears Every Saturday in The DAILY WORKER. SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 1927, ALEX BITTELMAN, Editor EDITOR'S NOTES We. do not know definitely what the outcome will be of the “War Game” now. taking place around the Panama Canal, but it is safe to assume -that, among other things, new arguments will be discovered in favor o£ Coolidge’s so-called disarma- ment schemes, The theory of the Panama war game deserves a little consideration. What is it? It is assumed that an Asiatic power called the Orange, bour.d by a treaty wth a Euuropean power called the Black, are makng a combined attack on the Panama Canal from the Atlantic and Pacific sides. The task of the game is to repulse this attack. To see that this innocent looking game is earnest preparation for the grim business of real war, one has got only to put actual reality into camouflaged imagery. Call the imaginary Asiatic power by name and you get Japan instead of Orange. Do the same with its imaginary ally, the European power, and you get England instead of Black. And what have you got? You have got a vivid forecast of the - coming world war for the mastery of the Pacific between American imperialism on the one hand and England and Japan on the other. The commander of ‘the canal zone forces, Brig. Gen. Charles Martin, in a statement to the press, said the following: All conditions ef actual warfare are being simulated, even the espionage system. The in- ternational situation is growing worse hourly and the canal is expeeting to be attacked from the Pacific by the Asiatic-Orange (Read: Jap- anese—A. B.) forces. The attitude of the Blacks (Read: English—A.B.) is quite puz- zling. Both the Blues (Red: American—A.B.) and Blacks seemingly do not wish to consider the situation acute, yet the hitherto courteous policy of the Blacks has changed to a cool curt- ness. The recent note from the Blacks to the Blue state department can easily be construed as an ultimatum, or-at least a finality. Exactly. This is how the thing is going to happen. And while we are being kidded with “prosperity,” preparations are going on for the bloodiest war the world has ever gone through. It is time that the American labor movement wake up to this danger. * * * PS ea outstanding event in the life of the sixty- ninth congress was undoubtedly its handling of so-called farm relief measures. The critical condi- tion of American agrieuvlture, the deep dissatisfac- tion of the farmers together with the aggressive stand of various farmer organizations were instru- mental in compelling congress to pay attention to the farmers’ problems, Labor, on the other hand, can not even claim that much. Labor did not figure at all in the deiibera- tions of the last session of congress. And the reason for this was that labor as a class failed to struggle politically. Primitive as the farmers’ struggies were, in- sufficent as was their program and the basically wrong tactics of the Farm Bloc, yet on the whole they waged a political fight which at least com- pelled attention. What has the official labor lead- ership accomplished during the same period? * * * It is true that the McNary-Haugen bill, which was the bone of contention in the last congress, is totally inadequate to meet the present needs of the toiling and poor farmers. At best the measures con- tained in the bill would relieve somewhat the pres- sure upon the well-to-do farmers, leavng the ex- ploited mass of them precisely. where they were. To really improve the conditions of these masses much more sweeping and radical measures would be necessary, and for these the farming masses must organize to struggle. It is also obvious that the tactics of the farm bloc in congress were basically wrong. _ The alliance be- tween the farm bloc and the elements representing the bankers and financiers carried over the top the McFadden bill in which the bankers were inter- ested, but failed to get Coolidge’s signature for the McNary-Haugen bill in which the farm bloc was interested. In plain language, the leaders of the farm bloc were fooled. They showed lack of po- litical maturity and a completely wrong outlook when they based their tactics on the expectation that the banking interests will stand by the farm relief meas- ures to the end. . The alliance that will help the farmers is an alliance with labor AGAINST banking capital in- stead of with it. Herein lies the lesson of the farmer bloc’s recent experience. However, there is a lesson in this for labor also. The first question that forces itself to the front is: Where is the labor bloc in congress? Why hasn’t the working class and the labor movement a group of senators and congressmen to function as a bloc in the name and in the interests of labor? We do not mean to imply by this that the present farm bloc is all that the farmers need. Nor are we of the opinion that the present policies and tactics of the farm bloc are in any way adequate really to serve the interests of the toiling and poor farmers. Far from that. To become truly representative of the farming masses, the farm bloc must thoroughly radicalize its program, break with and wage a real struggle against the old capitalist parties and orien- tate itself definitely on an alliance with the working class. But with all this in mind we still maintain that the so-called crowned and official leadership of our labor movement is even more backward than the official leadership of the farmer movements. And we therefore continue to press the question: Where is our labor bloc in‘congress? * * * About the only willing concession that big capital would make the farmers if the latter press hard enough is to sacrifice Coolidge. Lowden and vice- president Dawes are already in the offing. Both of these worthies fave been trimming themselves SY) « for the republican nomination. Both have “cham- pioned” the McNary-Haugen bill, and Lowden even took a trip to Scandinavia to study agricultural con- ditions there. We know of nothing that would recommend either ‘of these two gentlemen as a friend of the farmers any more than we could recommend Coolidge, despite the fact that Lowden is supposed to be a “dirt” farmer and Dawes is known to be a “dirt” some- thing else. However, the boom is on and who will undertake to forecast the result. One thing is cer- tain that if the tide runs too high against Coolidge, big capital will not hesitate a minute to throw him overboard, since there are so many others willing to serve who could be fool and exploit the masses, * * * Last week’s condition on the London stock ex- change was rather erratic. according to capitalist used more conveniently to . By ALEX BITTELMAN financial experts. No wonder, since the world situa- tion of British capitalism is erratic, too. The Chinese snarket is slipping fast and-the Rus- sian market may go the same way if the “die-hards” in the British cabinet prevail. One may say that the decline of British capitalism and its world power is beginning seriously to affect the minds of Eng- lish statesmen. Nothing illustrates this better than the truly stupid way in which the Soviet Union is being threatened, villified and attacked every day. “Blame it on the Bolsheviks” seems to have be- come the alpha and omega of British capitalist statesmanship. Anything that goes wrong — and nothing seems to go right»with British capitalism now-a-days—is blamed on the Soviet Union. The obvious, intention of the British government is to shift responsibility for its own failures and in- cidentally to mobilize sentiment in favor of its criminal conspiracies against the peace of the world and for war against the Soviet Union, * * * At last the Supreme Court of the United States felt compelled, for reasons best known to themselves, to affirm the cancellation of the oil land leases and contracts awarded dishonestly to Edward L. Doheny by Albert B. Fall during the latter’s regime as sec- retary of the interior. It would seem from this that it was no longer possible to cover up the down- right robbery of the people’s wealth perpetrated by the oil magnates—the same fellows who are now driving us into war with Mexico—in combination “with ieading men in the American government. Says the opinion of the Supreme Court: The facts and circumstances disclosed by the record show clearly that the interests and in- fluence of Fall as well as his official action were corruptly secured by Doheny for the making of the contracts and leases. . .that the con- summation of the transaction was brought about by means of collusion and corrupt conspiracy between Fall and Doheny. Quite outspoken, isn’t it? And an interesting phase of the whole business is that practically the same statement holds true with regard to the infamous Teapot Dome oil leases held by Harry F. Sinclair, And now who are the fellows who refuse to recog- nize the Mexican land laws, who are plundering Mexico even more violently than they do the United States? Precisely the same people. In his reply to the inquiry of Senator Borah, for which the Cool- idge administration is now trying to cook up some- thing against the senator from Idaho, Calles of Mexico says that the people who refuse to the Mexican law are the companies con- by the Standard Oil of ws sake of whose profits Kellogg and Cool- ge would have the American people go to war with Mexien. tt i a : :