The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 10, 1927, Page 6

LPL Ne a oer Er cies Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1927 Ruthenberg Challenged| U. S. Capitalism When It Felt Itself All- Powerful! | By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL. . APITALIST greed felt securely enthroned in New) soft and caressing voice imparting a| How many in the labor movement York C on Tuesday night, March 8th, Its “bomb squad” was ever alert at the great Grand Central Sta- tion, and all along the line of march, from 42nd street to the Manhattan Lyceum on Fourth street, police were anxiously attentive, but the long procession of mourning comrades were permitted to follow in peace the ashes of our dead leader, C, E. Ruthenberg, for a brief part of| in his early youth, derived this iron| United States Supreme Court itself. / the long journey, on their way to the last resting place *neath the walls of the Kremlin, at Moscow, capital city of the Union of Soviet Republics. Yet in this very city Ruthenberg had predicted the downfall of this powerful capitalist state, mightiest in the world today. His prediction was thrown as.a chal- lenge into the midst of court, prosecutor and jurymen, and he got a prison sentence for telling what he believed. Built and strengthened for 150 years, with a seemingly disciplined police force today, a mighty army and power- ful navy; armed forces on sea, land, air with apparently smoothly running administrations in villages, cities, counties, states and nation at Washington, the prose- eutor of Ruthenberg could not imagine the time when the present capitalist. government of the United States of America would cease to. function. The prosecutor’s questions and Ruthenberg’s answers tan thru my mind as we marched, first along Park avenue, the home of the great rich, then into Fourth avenue where the class struggle shows its naked fists in trade union headquarters edging on privately owned shops and factories, then into 14th street and along Sec- ond avenue on the East Side where the workers live in dense masses. The questions and answers are ‘to be found in the court record as follows: “Q. How does the government break down if strikes are going on? A. Thru its inability to function. “Q. What do you mean by its inability to function, I am speaking of the government While strikes are going on, inability to function? A. Yes; if the industries, if the railroads, if the telegraph were tied up in this coun- try thru the strike of the working class, if industry were broken down thru the contradictions of capitalism, ‘it could be very well the fact that the existing government could no longer carry on its work as a government, thru not having the means of doing so. ae ee “Q. We still have our army and we have got our navy and we have our police department thruout the country; how is the government broken down because industry breaks down? A. It would be very conceivable that if such a situation existed that the larger part of the army, as was the case in Russia, would support the workers in their efforts to establish a government that could function. “Q. You mean by that, that the soldiers would desért the regular army and go over to the’ support of the workers, is that what you mean? A. That the army, individuals and units would go over to the support of the workers’ councils, yes.” ee Jydge Bartow S. Weeks began to feel a little uneasy et this point and began asking a few avestions of his ovm, that Ruthenberg answered as fuilows: * *Q. If the railroad workers struck, there are other people in this country besides railroad workers, are there not? A. I presume so. *“Q. Could not the citizens who believe in the govern- ment take the places of the railroad workers, and with less efficiency, operate the railroads? A. The situation that I have prescribed presupposes that the masses at that particular time will have been placed in a position of opposition, that they will have been disgusted, that they will desire a change in the situation in the govern- ment, or otherwise such a change could not be brought about. EY ees “Q. If the masses numerically want to change the form of government, why can’t they do it with the exer- cise of their vote? A. In the first place, I think it has been figured out that one forty-fourth of the people of the United States, of the citizens of the United States, ean block any change in the form of government, that is, thru the arrangement of the method of making amendment to the constitution, the fact that three-quar- ters of all the states are required. “The various checks and counterbalances which were inserted in the constitution in order to protect the exist- ing form of government, the government of the capital- ists, this method is a long and tedious process, and my explanation presupposes the existence of a crisis, when it is a matter of life and death, a matter of getting food, getting clothing, getting homes, having society function, for the people to act at once.” * * * Then the prosecutor again took up the questioning. “Q. But the men going on strike on the railroads cuts down the possibility of transporting the food, doesn't it? A. The new government would have as its— “Q. Please answer my question. I will come to the new government later on. A. It would. “Q. When the workers go out on strike, the railroad workers, that paralyzes the railroads and prevents the transportation of food unless volunteers take their ? A. That is the very point of my illustration that the capitalist system brings about the situation.” inate * Mr. Rorke, the prosecutor, here yelled, “I object,” but the court decreed that Ruthenberg might answer, and he did as follows: “The capitalist system brings about this situation where workers are compelled to strike in order to secure enough to live on, and this paralyzes industry, and this will compel the workers to take steps to change the system in order to eliminate this paralysis of industry, this breakdown. . * . “What steps are the workers going to take at that point to change the system? They are out now. They have gone out on strike. What steps are the workers going to take, to take the railroad and change the sys- tem? A. I have stated that in such a crisis there would very likely be set up workers’ councils which would as- sume the state power and begin to function as a gov- ernment and would take control of the means of produc- tion and distribution and operate them for the good of society. ‘ . “Q. Do you mean these workers, proletarian workers, are going to take these railroads and other sources of distribution and production at that point? A. I mean that the working class will take these means of dis- tribution and production and operate them. “Q. Do you say that at that point a working class state. has been established? A. I stated that in such a crisis, workers’ councils would be established which would begin to function as a government.” Wie ” And it was of that change and its triumph that the marchers thundered as they sang “The International,” marching in memory of C. E, Ruthenberg, who had cour- ageously challenged American capitalism in the hour H EPSTEIN |T CA figure standing be- | |4 fore me, as if alive, A tall and stalwart figure, and full of noble} |grace. Here he is looking at me} | with his light grey eyes of a bluish | jhue assuming a bright steel gaze in| moments of serious reflection. | By And | here is his face, refined, intellectual | |and firm, with its even and sharp| jlines. I can hear his deep, emotional, | tone of inner warmth of feeling and | of unusual strength and conviction, | It is the voice of a leader. | I have often asked whence has this | |son of a German longshoreman, who | |knew so much want and suffering |shod body, this steel character, and| commanding’ personality ? | | Yes, he was born to lead. |who have seen him but once will | never forget the impression he made jupon them. And this impression |was even more intensified the more intimately one had come to know! him. | It is true that as Communists we| must not allow ourselves to fall into sacrificing and forceful, but unelas- the fact of this heavy and unreplace- able loss to keep to the rule. The deep feeling of personal, painful re- gret must find its expression. * Due to specific American condi- tions the labor movement of this country has not brought forward the type of a leader that we have seen in Europe. Something was always lacking even in the best of our labor leaders. One sidedness has always been one of his weaknesses. On the one hand, Debs with his over-senti- mentalism and emotionalism often | losing himself in the dim realms of abstract and beautiful phraseology. | On the other hand we had a Daniel) DeLeon—hard, inflexible, unyield-| ing and narrow sectarian. | Debs’ heart always throbbed in ac- | cord with the wishes and needs of| the masses, he identified himself) with the masses and he was one of | them in fact, but he was not their | leader, At times he stood at the} head of great labor struggles, but he lacked the real qualities of leader- ship. He lacked the theoretical and analytical line of Marxism. He gave himself up to every new wave that. came along and he was tossed along by the waves, compass. | Those | Cae like a ship without a} * 7 Daniel DeLeon was proficient in theory, the most thoro Marxist in Ameri An obstinate fighter, self- sacrificing and forceful, but unelas- tic. DeLeon did not understand the Leninistie method of giving in in case | of necessity, but not giving up; that| tho we must not compromise on main principles, yet it is often necessary to detour from the main road in order to achieve the main objective. DeLeon probably had the qualities of leadership, but he lived twenty years ahead of time. He did not have the capacity to adapt himself to the ob- jective conditions of the labor. move- | ment of his time. Therefore he had} to fail, just as Debs, his exact coun- terpart, had to fail. * * * Charles E. Ruthenberg was the! first comprehensive leader that the| labor movement of this country pro-| duced. In Ruthenberg there was a} combination of all.the good qualities | of both Debs and DeLeon, minus their weak points. It was not his fault that our Communist movement has not had time to develop to any extensive dimensions and his great} capacities for leadership have not met the suitable conditions for their full display, Ruthenberg was an excellent Marx- ist. This meant a whole, lot in the | American socialist movement. In the conglomeration of syndicalism, semi- | anarchism and spineless reformism which swarmed within the socialist | party, a good Marxist was a rare| and valuable phenomenon. Ruthen- berg came to the socialist party by| way of Marx and he remained a) Marxist till the end. Ruthenberg was an energetic and courageous fighter. This even his bitterest opponents will admit. In- trepid and obstinate in struggle, he threw himself into the midst of every important labor fight disregarding his own life and security. In this he was like DeLeon, but what a big difference between the two of them, Unlike DeLeon, Ruthenberg was not sectarian. To him the letter of the Marxian theory was not a thing of first consideration, as it was to De Leon, Ruthenberg had an uwnder-! standing and sympathetic ear for the | immediate needs and demands of the | masses. Ruthenberg’s Marxism was rounded out by his Leninism, ) To Ruthenberg mass-activity and mass-struggle were life itself. His road was the highway leading to- wards the American working masses, And this was extraordinary in a man who came to the socialist movement from, a big executive position in ti offices of a great clothing factory, the kind of a position that’ makes a person rather pedantic and detached from the channels of life of the masses. He gave up a great career under capitalism, abandoned his early interests in accounts and fig- ures and attached himself to the life and the struggles of the masses. His mind afd his heart were awake to their needs and strivings. All his strategic maneuvers for a labor par- when it felt eternally all-powerful ty were..expressions of his great de- | Ruthenberg---the Leader |in order. sire to draw the American working class into the struggle against capi-| talism. This was the aim of his life. fe was deeply wounded by the indif- ference of the overwhelming mass of the workers to their class inter- ests and he was always searchivg for the way to arouse them to the struggle for their class interests. . * | Ruthenberg, the intrepid fighter! * can boast of such a record? Im-| prisoned twice and a third imprison- ment awaited him, but death came along and snatched him out of the hands of capitalist justice. Death is more formidable even than the * Alexander Kerensky on “Secret” Mission to the United States. Ruthenberg was never a_parlor- revolutionist. He was «aot a book- socialist, in spite of the fact that he| came to socialism by way of books | and theories. His immense energies | have not allowed him to be lost with- | in the realm of abstract theories and | speculations, At the very start he| became a leader of the Left Wing ot the socialist party. He gave himself entirely to the revolutionary move- ment without conditions or reserva-| tions. | Hillquit and Berger were also op- posed to wat, but what a great dif- | ference between their opposition and his. At the St. Louis convention Ru- | thenberg was the leader of the Left, Wing, who fought for the famous | anti-war resolution. Right after the | convention he carried that resolution | to the working masses. He led the/ great anti-war labor demonstration | in Cleveland, the only one of its kind| in America, And when capitalist justice made him pay the price he accepted it with the joy of one who has done his duty and was ready to| give everything he had for the revo- lutionary cause, . At the famous Bridgeman conven- tion, when it became known that the convention place would be raided by department of justice agents and that it was necessary to escape, it was agreed that Comrade Ruthen-} berg should be among the first to} leave. But he would not go. As) secretary of the party, he claimed, he could not leave the convention be- fore everything is arranged and put He stayed to the last min- ute and was overtaken by the gov- ernment spies. Such was Ruthen- berg—the first to face hard work| and danger, the last to escape from it, Ruthenberg was more than the sec- retary of the party. A builder by nature, he kept on building the struc- ture of the Communist movement in this country step by step and layer upon layer, diligently, unswervingly. A robust builder, with a rich exper- ience and a good understanding of the correct Leninist line—he was the leader of the Workers (Communist) Party and the beloved comrade trust- ed by all. He was but 44 years of age. He was in the best of his years, full of energy and vitality, when cruel death snatched him away from our midst. His last words were the proper climax of his eventful revolutionary life. Charles E. Ruthenberg is dead, but his party is alive. Let us strengthen and build our party, and his. “PRESERVED,” * * The Boss: This trade union preservation was a great idea! Now we don’t need | short figure, his large head with its deep brow sur- | which ended in his untimely death. The aualit | during the worst days of reaction of the world war, | ties of course had little chance to display themselves |the baffled government kidnaped them and forbade ARTHUR MacMANUS By GERTRUDE HAESSLER. HE press last week carried a brief notice of the death of our British comrade Arthur McManus. In one week the American and British movements each mourn the death of one of its best-known figures. Those of our American comrades who met him when he lived in| Moscow knew Mac as a genial comrade, always ready to suspend his intense absorption in world labor prob- lems for an hour or two of good fellowship. His frail mounted by a shock of unruly hair, his merry eyes and friendly smile and his broad Scotch accent made Mat one of the most popular and likeable figures in the international group in Moscow. * * * But in Moscow MacManus was already suffering from failing health and the gradual loss of physical strength ies which made Mac the mass leader he was, the,Mac who helped to keep the working class movement alive in England and to teach the British militarists that there was a limit to which the workers could be driven—these quali- in Moscow. Before the creation of the British Communist Party, MacManus was one of the outstanding leaders of the Socialist Labor Party, the only party in England which in those days could boast of any degree of mass work- ing class following. The party was very small as num- bers go, but iis main strength was in the industrial areas of the north of England and in Scotland. It wielded a powerful influence in these districts during the war, among the workers in the large munitions, ship-building and armament construction works, particularly in the Clydeside, This was the seat of the famous shop steward movement. Under the fearless leadership of MacManus and his comrades, a revolutionary spirit was developed which became more and more intense as the war pro- gressed. Persecution and imprisonment and the threats of court martial left the leaders undaunted, till at last them to set foot in the disturbed areas. These were the famous Clydeside deportations which displayed the power of the workers’ leaders by the fact that the government dared not resort to more drastic measures against them. * * * The Socialist Labor Party was very left in. its ten- dencies, and when the question arose after the war of fusing existing working class parties into a single Com- munist party, it held severely aloof. McManus was one of the leaders who at last Succeeded in swinging the best elements of the party into the unity negotiations which ended in the formation of the British Communist Party in 1920 of which MacManus was the chairman until that office was abolished. Arthur MacManus was all his life a revolutionary by instinct, all his life a fighter in the working class cause. For that cause he more than once suffered hardship and imprisonment. Shortly after his return from Moscow in 1925 he was-again arrested along with eleven other Communist leaders as a result of the spectacular “red raids” of the British government. He was sentenced to imprisonment. With health already broken, there is no doubt that this new term hastened his end. He died in the cause for which he had lived. ACCORDING TO GREEN ASN adem CONTRIBUTORS WANTED. We are looking for brief, intelligent, well-written book reviews. should be no longer than 350 words. } | | | They Books discussed must be timely (not necessarily hot off the press), and must be written from the point of view of those who have accepted the Marxist interpretation of society as a point of departure. Each review should carry with it the exact title of the book, author, publisher, year, and price. Also full name and address of reviewer, Those who have been reading the BOOKS department can gather a gen- eral idea of what we should like to get from our contributors. * * * POOR WHITES. The Twilight of the White Races, by M. Muret. $2.50. i Poor Woodrow Wilson. Charles Scribners & Sons. Little did he know, when his Attorney-General, A. Mitchell Palmer, was hounding Reds, that six years later his name would be mentioned as a collaborator of the Third International; little did he know when he kicked ¢ff that his innocuous phrases would, like the eyes of Helen of Troy, set the world aflame. “Twilight of the White Races.” * * * Poor Wilson died before Muret published his Here is Muret’s discovery: There is a black and brown as well as a yellow peril. all rising against the white races. % * * Turkey, E@pt, India, Syria, Persia, Afghanistan, China are The African Negroes will rise soon. How account for this menace to white supremacy? That’s simple, says Muret. “Wilson’s phrases about self-determination and Moscow propaganda done it.” The yellow, brown and black races docilely submitted to the dom- ination of the white race until Wilson came along,‘and started to mouth about the rights of small nations to determine their own destiny; until the Third International came along and started to hand out gold to backward races in an effort to further their own nefarious schemes. * * * Muret’s book contains a good deal of excellent material on the nationalist revolts in Asia and Africa. ridiculous. A GOOD SUGGESTION. As an interpretation of that material, it is . F. “Your column is always entertaining, and sometimes informative,” writes John Ramburg of Brooklyn. “There is one suggestion that I should like to make, however. And that is that you run occasional bibliography on subjects of current and vital interest. “A bibliography on China, for instance, would be far more valuable and interesting just ndw than several columns of wise-cracks about Will Durant and George Jean Nathan.” * * * A good suggestion. . We print below the names of a number of books on China. No one of them deals adequately with the subject; nor do all of them combined give thetreader a complete picture of the events in China or the social and economic forces underlying them. They are, however, in our conception, the best books available on the subject. * * * Communist International for December 30. Contains a study of rural conditions and peasant organization, by R. Miff. The Awakening of China, by James Dolsen. of the nationalist movement that has yet been published. Probably the best analysis Omits the peas- antry and under-estimates the role of the middle classes, however. Foreign Financial Control in China, by T. W. Overlach. The story of imperialist aggression in China: China’s Place in the Sun, by Stanley High. ground, and student movement. Material for historical back- Western Civilization and the Far East, by Stephen Hall-King. Historical background, the Revolution of 1911, the industrialization of China. China Yesterday and Today, by E. T. Williams. Valuable summary of events since the Boxer rebellion. British Foreign Office: Report on Labor Conditions in China. Contains report of Shanghai Labor Commission; conditions in Shanghai mills, hours, wages, etc. Why China Sees Red, by Putnam Weale. A Soviet-gold interpretation of the events in China. Record of events 1924-25; the Shanghai massacre. Occidentak Interpretation of the Far Eastern Problem, by Woodhead, Norton, Arnold. Prejudiced imperialist view of the revolution; contains some good material on industrialization by Julian Arnold, however. China and the Powers, by H. K. Norton. with the powers—from an imperialist point of view. A history of China’s relations Rural Economy in China, by Prof. Taylor and C. B. Malone. Only reli- able survey of rural conditions in China. holdings, ete. Farm wages, taxes, size of land China at the Conference, by W. W. Willoughby. The Washington Con- ference and the Shantung question. China’s Awakening, by Tyau. Social results of China’s industrialization by a conservative Chinese. Foreign Rights and Interests in China, by W. W. Willoughby. Imperi- elist expansion into China; unequal treaties; extraterritorial rights, conces- sions, leased territories, etc. China Year Book, Woodhead. Contains valuable statistical data; extent of industrialization, etc. International Press Correspondence. British Labour Monthly. Ewer. * * * These books should be read with a great deal of care. Especially articles by R. Page Arnot and Many of them, particularly those by Weale, Woodhead and .Norton, subscribe to the Soviet- gold interpretation of the nationalist movement, which is delicately inter- twined with fact. The reader should be careful to separate fact from ‘impe- rialist propaganda. MORE ABOUT “THE NEW MASSES.” many months, offspring of Greenwich Village? * * * than Qtto Kahn is. pigeons of the A. F. of L.? Why could it not have | literary interview with them by John Dos Passos. writing. to be afraid of that big fellow. The magazine, which is not its dotage.” “This hasn’t been ‘The New Masses’ first offence. From the very ginning the magazine has seemed to consider it a moral obligation to smarter than Mr. Mencken and more jazzy than the tabloids. What been its contribution toward molding a positive working class culture jand working class art? Sure the pictures have been funny, But one gets jtired of wise-cracks and college-boy cynicism. And in its desire to be ‘prole at any cost ‘The New Masses’ has gone to ludicrous extremes, and printed stuff by Alfred Kreymborg and Waldo Frank that was no m “Your reviewer, Sender Garlin,” writes Benjamin Weiss, “has said.a few things about ‘The New Masses’ that have been waiting to be said for The complete fatuousness of some of its attempts to be jazzy and up-to-date has been trying the patience of many who, like myself, hopefully greeted the birth of ‘The New Masses’ and waited in vain for some signs of its emergence from the nipple and diaper stage. “Your reviewer, however, failed to point out a howling disparity. the issue in which ‘the correct revolutionary proletarian attitude towards sex’ is so pompously discussed, there is not a single article about China, I realize, of course, that China has nothing to do with the correct revolu- tionary proletarian attitude towards sex, but am I cookoo or just a trifle stupid if I venture to suggest that the goings-on in China are vastly more important than any such florid nonsense. Is ‘the New Masses’ a revolu- tionary working-class magazine of the arts or is it merely another demented In 7 . ian’ proletarian “And where has ‘The New Masses’ been in the battles of the working | class against reaction? What part has it played in the fight the left wing in the needle trades is making against the right vib A vests and stool- ‘the the threatened assassination of Sacco and Vanzetti instead of leaving this job to the sanctimonious old lady of Park Row, the New York World? ‘i I remember it did publish one article on Sacco and Vanzetti, a It was very pretty “Personally I think your reviewer was too easy with ‘The New Masses? yet a year old, feems to have definitely entered ‘ protes$ against Ce, /