The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 30, 1927, Page 6

epee nae * hermes Page Six Unity of Anglo - American | Labor Against the Unity of Anglo- American Greed By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL. REAT BRITAIN'S foreign secret nounced in the Ho’ there would be no ary, Austen Cham f Commons, on surrender of 6 THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1927 | The Baumes By I. JEROME | Although the Baumes Crime Com- | mission was ostensibly appointed by |the New York State legislature to | investigate the “causes and preven- |tion of crime,” not a single one of | the twenty-odd measures proposed by t{ the Commission and written into law | by the 1926 legislature gives evidence of the slightest attempt on the part of the sponsors of those measures to Law: A New Weapon Against Labor {a separate trial to which each defend- {ant was previously entitled. Another law relieves the prosecuting attorney | of the necessity of offering evidence immediately after his opening .ad- dress. By making the opening address | of the defense follow that of the pro- /Secutor and not, as heretofore, upon the closing of the case for the State, the law hopes to hamper the defense. | ‘Then come the infamous series of sen- n China “until the Chinese could preserve | derstand the causes of crime. The | tence i eg AY bh deg ol Hiding wa Mga < of the Commission was seem- | Ces a ne cerns Fuel ski Agee That stand im becom interest to all la * conducted in utter ¢ ard of | tion, bide Let Aha iss.) “a ihe i perialism in the Orient more and more dovetail with the sion to bring forward 8 single bill | res to 8 perth i h pon hd ao licies 0 and Wall’ Street designed against the mainspring of | lor the same offence in the second de- ee i i lete silence regard-| tec the maximum punishments have ig cee ; ing the present social system which is| been increased from ten to fifteen ny anstons the following, Interests and the breeder of crime,| years and from five to ten years re- ,., |the Baumes Commission has in ef-|Spectively, To the existing penalty Reports that the Unit- fect denied causality to crime. What-| for felony five to ten years have been éd States government has agreed to place its forces in| ayoy investigation the Commission has | added to the first offense, ten to fif- Shanghai under the general British command were cur- made has been solely in the direction | teen y sto the second, fifteen to rent here today, altho the reports stated that there is some conflict between the leaders of the American and British forces in Shanghai as to how this~co-operation shall be carried out. This report is partially confirmed ,from Washington where it is admitted that, “a certain amount of co-oper- ation between the various powers is recognized as nec- essary in the disturbed situation at Shanghai.” * * * To be sure the Washington government, for the sake ef appearances, tries to put on the face of independent action. The report from the White House offers this camouflage: . “American forces in China will be maintained under complete American control and direction, and will not be ‘pooled’ with the forces of other powers, or subjected to any international control, it was announced at the White House today, following the cabinet meeting. “. .. It was emphasized that the U. S. marines and Bluejackets will retain their identities, and there will be no unified control.” The sugar-coating on this bitter imperialist pill should not fool American labor. If the enemy imperialists can pool their interests in fighting the Chinese workers and peasants, then the workers of the United States and Great Britain ought to be able to develop their solidarity in support of the Chinese working class. * * . In the House of Commons, Monday, Ernest Thurtle, Labor Party member from Shoreditch, called the atten- tion of Sir Austen Chamberlain to the charge of General Chang Kai-Shek of the People’s Armies, that the Nan- king looti and outrages were committed by northern troops driven out when the Southern Army entered the city. Of course, Austen Chamberlain, after the best man- ner of our own secretary of state, Kellogg, who has a lie mill all his own that is now busy trying to get him out of his latest dilemma in Mexico, answered: “Information derived from British and American sources is to the contrary.” “The lies of the American kept press are as welcome to Chamberlain as the support from American guns. * * * The same dispatch, as to what took place in the Brit- ish House of Commons, declared: “A few other Laborites questioned him (Chamberlain) regarding the happenings in Nanking, but the Laborite Leaders remained quiet, and the government benches shouted down anything that sounded like criticism of | the government’s policy.” Thus the toiling masses in Great Britain, and the situation is the same in the United States, must. develop their own struggle, against their own chosen but traitor leadership, in support of the Chinese working class. . * . The clash in China just now centers in the Yangtze Kiang Valley, where “the interests” of Great Britain are dominant among the imperialists. The British are invaders in the Yangtze. Every “right” claimed by the British, which Chamberlain says proud Britain will not surrender, is a privilege imposed on the Chinese people. In his book “The Awakening of China,” James H. Dolsen points out: “When the other great powers at the close of the last eentury were parcelling China among themselves into “spheres of influence,” England secured the recognition of her priority rights for the exploitation of the Yangtze Kiang Valley. “This district includes the rich central provinces. in which her financiers have heavily invested in coal and fron mines. The very powerful British and Chinese Cor- poration, Ltd.,-formed jointly by the Hongkong-Shang- hai Banking Corporation, the great English bank of the Orient, and Jardine, Matheson & Co., the leading Brit-| ish commercial firm in the Far East,—represents the interests of Great Britain in that part of the world....” “While British commerce with the Orient suffered greatly during the World War and the trade of Japan and the United States largely increased, England is stil] the largest factor in China’s world commerce thru her control of Hongkong. “Of late years British capitalists have invested large sums in the erection of cotton factories, silk mills, etc. Indicative of the spread of their interests is the rise in the number of English firms in China from 236 in 1880 to 590 in 1913. Five of the largest cotton mills in Shanghai are British owned.” * * * It is to protect these British “interests,” as well as American investments, that will be reviewed in an- other article, that a new regiment of marines is being hurriedly assembled in this country to be rushed to the other side of the earth. The Anglo-American Im- perialist Alliance is being knit together in defense of profits in the Orient. Before Nanking the murder guns of the navies of both Great Britain and the United| States joined in slaughtering thousands of peaceful in- habitants. Nanking was shelled contrary to all the laws of so- called “civilized warfare.” Nanking is an unfortified city, teeming with halg a million people. This should have been protection enough against the rain of death that only the weapons of modern warfare are able to inflict. But profits are at stake in China. and the Peo- ple’s army had taken over Nanking, bringing it under the revolutionary banner and the laws of “civilized war- fare” did not apply. In the name of profits, the Anglo-American alliance holds Shanghai. It plans to duplicate there, on a larger seale, the wholesale murders that it committed at Nanking. “WAR!” on the Chinese people is the plan of the Wall Street imperialists. This can easily be read into the latest report of Minister to China MacMurray and Admiral C. S. Williams, commander of the Wall Street’s Asiatic Fleet, that all Americans be withdrawn from Nationalist territory “and the undertaking of some ac- tion sufficiently strong to prevent perpetration of fur- ther violence by Chinese.” This is merely propaganda to help ease the Ameri- can people into the slaughter. The violence in China has been the violence of the imperialist invaders under Anglo-American leadership. Against the Anglo-Amer- ican imperialists the fist of American labor in aid of the courageous, struggling Chinese working A poled etl ack of punishment, and te this end it has effected the enactment of a series of laws that for sheer savagery, fot | blind, ineffectual vengefulne hould | turn the heart of Mussolini green with | envy. In the light of capitalist justice the Baumes Laws are, of course, the prop- er and regular mode of procedure. | Capitalism carinot eliminate the source of crime! The structure of capitalism is built on criminal foun- dations, and an axe at the base of crime would be an axe at the base of capitalism. To destroy crime Capi- talism would have to destroy the marsh where crimes are bred. It would have to end the basis of the present economic system. It would have to put an end to the state where conflict is the condition of human re- lationship, where man is made antt- social, and the innate quality of co- operation degenerates into competi- tion. It would have to abolish the evil of classes. It would have to de- stroy the crime of private property and the vast pyramid of crimes built upon it. It would have to end ex- ploitation, poverty, unemployment, wars. It would have to cease brutal- izing human beings with toil and twer ive years to the third, and i ence is made mandatory for | th offender. In addition there are laws setting obstacles in the way | of appeals; a check has been put on executive clemency; indeterminate sentences have been extended by mak- ing two-thirds of the previous maxi- mum sentence the new minimum; commutation of a sentence cannot be made to less than a year; the grant of parole has been restricted; and com- pensation for good conduct has been considerably diminished. On such stuff is the salve our heal- ers offer to the crime-infested body of society. In an age when criminol- ogy has definitely established the economic substratum of crime, when statistics show the incontrovertible correlation of crime and economic con- ditions, when judges and lawyers in confessional moments, attest that practically every criminal case that comes before them is directly or in- directly chargeable to cne of the many social evils resulting from our heinous economic system—in such an age the law-givers of the Empire State of the greatest, the grandest, nt | the most enlightened, etc., land in the world bring before the people with degenerating them with squalor, cease | thinning the frail bodies of children | in mines and mills, cease driving girls | and women in despair to the streets, | cease wringing the brawn from work- | ers in their prime, to throw them} used-up on the serap-heap, cease send- | ing millions into the mouths of can-| non. It would have to destroy the crimes on which it flourishes. It WOULD HAVE TO CUT THE GROUND FROM UNDER ITS FEET. | IT WOULD HAVE TO END ITSELF. Capitalism dares not end crime. It can only engage in a continuous building of an intricate, artificial, legal system for the protection of the seurce of its power—private proper- ty. Property commands all duties and is above all restraint. It is preemin- ent over social welfare and is holier than human life. Property is the Supreme Being in the Capitalist re- ligion. All things are in awe of it. All things serve it. And Justice serves it. Justice under capitalism is a uniformed sentinel mounting guard, bludgeon in hand, before the sacred door of Property. Before the eyes of Justice human happiness may be -vio- lated, human brotherhood trodden un- der foot. Justice, the sentinel, is blind. -He sees only the one concept of his concern, the God in whose im- age he is made—Property, before whose inviolate door he has been comsmanded to stand, against the calls of Need, against the moans of Despair—bludgeon in hand. The exclusively punitive character of the Baumes laws is apparent to all who study them. There is a law to strengthen the system of identifica- tion and detection of criminals. There is a law compelling physicians to re- port to the police any case treatea for pistol-shot wounds. There is a law providing for the taking of finger prints on arrest and before conviction. A number of laws have been enacted to make bailing very difficult. One law—worthy of the best days of A. | Mitchel Palmer, provides for a joint | trial, in the discretion of the court, of much pomp and circumstance a crim- inal code that takes no cognizance ct the social order from which crime springs. The Baumes laws are an at- tempt to bring back -madiaevalism. They will no more deliver us from crime than the rack and the torture- chamber in whose spirit they have been created. They are punitive and brutal in intent, procreated by reac- tionaries and procreating reaction. In what way will the workers be affected by the Baumes laws? In one way or another every repressive law jis utilized against labor. The Espion- age Act, nominally a war-time mea- sure designed against offenders who might give aid and comfort to the enemy, was turned into a savage on- slaught on the labor and radical move- ments. The Ciayten Act, notwith- standing its pro-labor. sections, has been repeatedly turned against labor in times of strikes. It stands to reason that the bosses will not be slow to utilize the Baumes laws against the workers on every pretext. The fact that these laws are not couched in anti-labor language will not stand in the way cf their being used against the workers. Mil- itant workers are always felons in the eyes of the capitalist law; and all the laws against felony will be used against them. They will be finger- printed and stigmatized. They will be held under excessive bail. They will be arrested for strike-duties, and their offenses will be counted as felonies punishable with long prison-terms. They will be arrested in masses while picketing and be given a blanket-ttial |to expedite their conviction and im- | prisonment. * The workers of New York must |take a stand against the infamous Baumes laws. They must not wait until the laws have done their deadly work. Every plan on the part of the bosses to throttle labor must be frus- trated, every effort nipped in the bud. Organized labor throughout New York State must demand the immediate re- peal of the monstrous Baumes laws and the abolition of the Baumes Com- | defendants jointly indicted, instead of mission, © SOUTHERN PREACHERS NAIVELY APPEAL TO COTTON MILL MEN TO IMPROVE CONDITIONS By LAURENCE TODD (Federated Press.) WASHINGTON (FP).—forty-one protestant bishops and ministers in the south have joined in an appeal to the employers in the new indus- trial south to apply christian princi- ples to their labor relations. Presi- dent Edgerton of the Natl. Assn. of Manufacturers and other mill bosses offer prayer in place of wages, but they call upon the business men of the south to repudiate the harsh anti- laborism that Edgerton has preached throughout the country. This document is efititled “An Ap- peal to The Industrial Leaders of The South.” Needs Improvements. “We are proud of the remarkable growth of southern industry”, it says to the bosses, “and we bring before you therefore, the necessity for the Mmprovement of certain social and economic conditions. “These are, to speak briefly, the isolation of population in the mill villages; the long working tending in many industries and 60 hours; a certain amo we 7-day week which still exists in some industries; the employment of women and children between 14 and 16 at over-long periods of labor; low wage standards in some industries, with tonsequent depressed standards of living; the general absence of labor representation in our factories, Mill Life Bad. “Life in a mill village under com- pany control has generally proved in recent years, to be unfavorable to education, and to understanding and sympathy between the citizens of the mill village and those of the larger community. “We do not undertake to suggest the forms which employe representa- tion in factory government shi take, whether arrangements negoti- ated with regular unions or forms of works councils. But labor is human and not a commodity. Labor gives all it has, including capital through savings, and since labor also has wis- dom, skill and ingenuity to contribute to the greater productivity of our Nanking, 1927. We taught them soap suds and Jesus, The white man’s brother’s good will; Tore down their temples and idols And named the place Socony Hill. We carried the gospel to coolies, Made them swallow Jonah and flood Because blood is thicker than water But oil is more costly than blood. We're sending the marines to Nanking | The crusade is propelled by oil, | Christ’s message will bark in shrapnel Around Saint Socony’s soil. On speed the dividend boys They'll shoot Chinks for their own good Because blood is thicker than water But oil is more costly than blood: “Hey, buddy, the stripe on your pocket?—” “That was for merit and skill “I fired from three miles distance “At Chinks on Socony Hill. “With telescope I watched them wriggle— “And redden that concessioned mud— “Because blood is thicker than water “But oil is more costly than blood.” And Jesus grins from another hillock For Golgotha is untouched by drill And Christian oil may yet gush forth To make it a Socony Hill. We'd have to amend his slogans For his was that old fashioned dud: That blood is thicker than water— When oil is more costly than blood. —CHARLES RECHT. NEW BOOK BY KOLLONTAY By I. DE WITT TALMADGE. OMRADE Alexandra Kollontay, the Soviet ambas- sador to Mexico, makes her literary debut, today, to the American reading public, with “Red Love,” a psychological study of sex relations in the post-war pe- riod. It is one of the most thought stimulating books written for some time and will undoubtedly create a furore. Very little is known in this country of the world’s foremost woman diplomat. With the exception of a few articles printed in the Novy Mir in 1919, and later in The DAILY WORKER, nothing written by her has ever appeared in the American press. The only American journalist who ever gave a true portrayal of her was Louise Bryant in her “Mirrors of Moscow,” published in 1923. It will therefore, be doubly interesting for the American worker, to read the book by this distinguished Communist authoress; whom Lunacharsky considers the foremost authority on woman problems. “Our criteria in sex morals are always changing,” she writes in the introduction to her book. “There is never a standstill. There are merely periods in human history when the evolution of morals goes on more rapidly, other periods (with a general stagnation in all fields of life) when change seems to relax. Only half a century ago Dumas-fils wrote of a “divorcee” as of a fallen creature, while today France openly discusses the ques- tion of equalizing the rights of non-legal mothers with those of legally married women. There remains less and less of the old bourgeois hypocrisy in our way of thinking and judging of sex morals. “I do hope that this book will aid in combating the old, bourgeois hypocrisy in moral values and show once more that we are beginning to respect woman, not for her ‘good morals,’ but for her efficiency, for her in- genuity with respect to her duties toward her class, her country and humanity as a whole.” SEND IN YOUR LETTERS The DAILY WORKER is anxious to receive letters from its readers stating their views on the issues con- fronting the labor movement. It. is our hope to de- velop a “Letter Box” department that will be of wide interest to all members of The DAILY WORKER family. Send in your letter today to “The Letter Box,” The DAILY WORKER, 33 First street, New York City. The Daily Symposium Conducted by EGDAMLAT. THE QUESTION. Who is your favorite contemporary author? Why? THE PLACE. Public Library, 42nd street and Fifth avenue. THE ANSWERS. W. Lee Thorne, 57 West 98rd street, textile salesman: “H. G. Wells is my favorite. I believe he has the keenest insight into modern psychology and philosophy, coupled with an admirable style.” Lilian J. Levenson, 209 Prospect avenue, Bronx, col- lege student: “John Erskine is my favorite con- temporary author. Thank fortune for his scintillating wit! It’s frothy, yes, but when it bubbles away, there’s a clear, sweet liquid left. Three cheers for Helen and Galahad.” H, M. Landau, 340 Riverside Drive, writer: “I don’t read any contemporary stuff. Arthur Schnitzler is my favorite, however. He knows him to limn a pathologi- cal case in a most entrancing manner. I also admire Conrad as a stylist.” Sarah Sofnas, 35 Sickles street, Inwood, N. Y., Hunter senior; “Aldus Huxley is my choice, decidedly. His style of presenting the curious workings of the mind saves him from the boring tone of the psychologist. A philosopher, a stylist, a psychologist all in one—and jan entertaining one, too!” Hyman Bakstansky, 95 Heberton avenue, Staten Island, salesman: “James Joyce. He more than any other modern writer, appreciates the spirit of the times ——the Zeit Geist. Not alone does he portray realistically the activities of men but probes beneath the surface, trying to get the motivations for men’s behavior.” Dorothy E. Chaffers 104 Kosciusko street, Brooklyn, college student: “John Galsworthy—I like the way he preaches, not from the pulpit but from the last pew.” . * * EGDAMLAT SAYS: With the possible exception of H, G. Wells, none of the aforenamed authors have writ- ten anything of what might be called enduring signi- ficance. They have concerned themselves primarily with the petty problems of the individual—weltschmerz, in- trospection, psychology (of the Freudian not the Be- haviorist schools) et cetera; oblivious to the play of social forces upon life, As Calverton would say, they fail to understand the correlation of economics and art. ould | Picking THE favorite writer among our contemporaries is, unquestionably, a difficult task. In our humble es- timation, however, Maxim Gorky, Romain Rolland, Henri Barbusse, Ernest Toller, Werfel, Nexo and Capek are head and shoulders above the Galsworthy, Erskine, Huxley and others named in our symposium today. (We are indebted to Florence Becker, 4704 White Plains avenue, for today’s question. We would be happy to receive suggestions for questions from the cri industries, it is desirable and helpful that it should have a proper share in hess and enforcing the regula- oti” &/ Harry Wilkes» - > Read The Daily Worker Everv Day FOOTNOTES | E | 5 By EUGENE LYONS « Notes on Liberals: (a) The composition of liberal editorials is our idea of a journalistic cinch. Just learn the formula and apply it to the news as it comes along. Others may ponder and grope, but the liberal goes-to it and writes. It matters not how complicated the situation, the liberal formu ties all the loose ends with a nice pink ribbon and makes it fit for company. The procedure \is something like this: First you state the obvious facts of the question under consideration, with a few side-glances of analysis. | Then, having posed the problem and indicated its serious im plications and potentialities, you end with any or all of the fol- lowing: “The New York World trusts that justice and fair play will | prevail and that a saving sense of humor will carry the day.” “Where will it all end? How will these clashing interests, | these deeply-rooted hatreds, these challenging problems be reconciled and smoothed over? The New Republic feels confi- dent that good sense will win out in the end.” “The truth, however, lies somewhere between those two ex- tremes. It remains ith the respectable liberty-loving members of our commonwealth to keep their heads.” These endings go well with editorials on the Chinese situa- tion, the Mexican oil laws, Al Smith’s candidacy, the alarming growth of the Graphic, the Kerensky-Green Beckerman entente, art and life, anti-Semitism, doing a good deed a day, etc. (b) The liberal has an unerring feeling for the compara- tively unimportant. Mention imperialism, and he immediately thinks of the Virgin Islands or Iceland, rather than China or Mexico or India. Mention injustice and he bemoans the fact that a cop was.rough, rather than the fundamental exploitation of the many by the few. ‘ DUMB BELLES LETTERS. Dear Lester: Well dear, here I am again, Lester dear. You’re sure missing a lot of excitement this week, I mean about China. I don’t understand it so good, but the he» I can make out from reading the papers is that the followers of one of the Changs, which is the most numerous family in China, went after the civilized folks in the province of Socony, China. Many Americans were killed or wounded—Dr. Williams wasethe name of the one killed: So the Big Berthas were drawn up and shelled the city and as soon as enough Chinese is shot we will ask for indemnity. The Big Berthas is also protecting us in Nicaragua and so forth. My brother Percy, who is an awful kidder, says it’s sure tough to be an American nowadays and need protecting wherever you go and how nice it must feel to be a Chinaman or something who can go where you please without a lot of destroyers and so forth tagging after ene. But of course he is only joshing about it, as it must be terrible to be a foreigner. I mean like Chinese or Mexicans and so forth. All the missionaries from all parts of China are fleeing to Shanghai which is getting awful crowded with preachers of many denominations, which is kind of tough on our marines. who ain’t very partial to preachers far as I can tell- . So that’s that darling. Also a lady out in Long Island and her paramour (that’s French for sweetheart) killed her husband by the name of Snyder and now she says she hates her paramour because he murdered her poor husband. I think he deserves it, I mean the sweetheart being hated. But Percy says if she keeps up like that Mrs. Snyder will soon ask for clemency on the ground that she’s a poor widowed woman. Like the boy he says who killed his father and burned down his house then pleaded for mercy because he was a homeless orphan. You will also be glad to learn that Peaches lost out against Daddy and won’t get a cent, but she always said she wasn’t in- terested in the money part so it doesn’t matter to her although somehow I thought maybe she was interested and Percy says, “Myrtle, you’re growing cynical, I swear.” Which all goes to show, doesn’t it? Another thing that’s in the papers is that Harry Sinclair was found guilty of insulting the United States Senate, and the way everybody talks about the senate there wouldn’t be jails enough to go round if everybody that insulted it got put away. That’s about all for this time, honey, except that there’s a trial on in Detroit against Henry Ford for libel by a man named Sapiro. Ford says he doesn’t even read the Dearborn Independent and it’s all wrong about his attacking the Jews though everybody knows it’s the Jewish vaudeville actors and other wisecrackers with their jokes about the tin Lizzies that’s responsible for the whole mess. Take care of yourself, honey boy, and think of your little girl all alone in the big city while her boy is locked up in an asylum. , The Crabtrees asked to be remembered to you. I met them at a party, and also Jack, whom I met in the theatre, I mean the one with the lovely pointed mustaches. So long darling, Your lonely MYRTLE- News That’s Fit To Print—The capitalist press has the machinery for gathering news quickly and accurately. It can therefore be trusted—but only on the unessential. Just so soon as news becomes socially important, just as soon as affairs reach a crisis that affects larger class issues, it turns rabid propagandist: The New York Times will serve as a sample, For a long time it kept an intelligent and apparently honest reporter in Shanghai, Thomas Millard. His stuff was interesting and informative. But as soon as affairs in China reached a climax, out went Millard and in stepped Frederick Moore, a reporter of the opposite type. Moore’s stuff is the most dishonest and the most deliberately provocative of all- that’s come out of China in recent weeks. In the same way we have been getting rather sensible news out of the Soviet Union from Walter Duranty, as Rus- sian news goes. But should something happen to make affairs in Russia more critical—say another blockade or interventionist adventure—it’s dol- lars to doughnuts that Duranty would find himself on a vacation. FROM A GALLERY OF FUTILITIES. 3. An Indignant Author. As Ambrose Smith walked to his Greenwich Village studio after an unsatisfactory—yes, even a humiliating —interview with the editor, he soliloquized somewhat along these) lines: u “So my stories are commonplace, are they? they need is a real plot, is it? What was it you said@/— . I must stop using fictional cliches? “You ass! You idiot! I just want you to get this straight. Every insult hurled at me hits Conrad and Kipling and Rex Beach and Sinclair Lewis and a store of others living and dead. The story you threw aside in your offhand way—what was it you said about it ?— hopelessly uninteresting, trite, lacking in dramatic ap- peal. Why, I took it right out of a best-seller! Its dra- . matic appeal is drawing millions to see it in the movies! “You set yourself up as an editor, do you? A per- spicacious editor, no doubt. You have your fingers on the pulse of public taste, you think. Why, you can’t even recognize a first-class plot when you see it, You've rejected the leading authors of the day when you could have had them by paying me a cent and a half a word. Bah! You're no editor— ; “Damn you, I plagiarize only the best and the most successful writers and you dare to cast aspersions . . .” | | ——