The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 28, 1927, Page 5

SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1927 ORKER This Magazine Section Appears Every Saturday in The DAILY WORKER. Tue New MAGAZINE Section of The DAILY W ALEX BITTELMAN, Editor “Join the Army—Shoot Your Brothers at Home and Abroad!”—Drawing by Jakob Burek. Editor’s Notes A new political term is coming into vogue. It spells: Third Termism. The other day the Chi- cago Tribune carried a news item headlined: Third Termism The 1928 Issue, Edwards Says. ELL, it looks to us a convenient sort of a phrase , for the political purposes of capitalist politi- cians who are opposed to Coolidge running for a third term. But the issue involved in Coolidge’s third term for the presidency the United States is much bigger than the p' itself would indi- cate. SRN ATOR Edward J. Edward, democrat of New Jersey, is quite definitely opposed to a third pres- idential term for Coolidge. And for very good rea- sons. He wants his own party in the saddle. He Says: “Any attempt on the part of President Cool- idge to dictate the destiny of these United States for more than eight years will be met with a just and proper rebuke.” Now. we maintain that it is not really President Coolidge who dictates the destiny of these United States, but the big capitalists. They are doing all the dictating that there is to be done in order to maintain the present capitalist system. Coolidge and the republican party are the political executors of the will of big capital. We further maintain that the election of a democratic president, which would undoubtedly please Senator Edwards, would make very little difference in the situation. Big capital operates through the democratic party almost as good as through the republican party, and in some respects even better. iy it to be concluded from this that the American working class and the poor farming classes are to be indifferent to what has been designated as Third Termism? No, not all. Only the working masses must realize the full implications of what Third Termism means, whether it be for Coolidge or ' some other capitalist politician. . + * i is to be observed that big capitalist interests quite generally view with sympathy the idea of Third Termism. It kind of appeals to them. And why? The answer to this question is to be found in the general change of the state of mind of big capital with respect to the traditional requirements of the so-called democratic system of government of the United States, Big capital, and also medium capital, is becoming ever more distrustful of the efficacy of its own methods of government from the point of view of keeping the toiling masses in sub- jection. Ever so often the magnates of finance and industry in the United States are casting glances across the Atlantic, to the seat of Italian, Bulgarian and Polish fascism, sighing and hoping that some day American capitalism may find its own Mus: solini to administer the affairs of state, rc is no secret that the big capitalists of the United States are very favorably inclined, to say the least, towards the fascist governments of Europe, particularly towards Mussolini. We have yet to find the American big banker, or industrialist, or merchant, who upon his return from Italy failed to praise the “greatness” of Mussolini. They all like the hangman and oppressor of the Italian work- ers and farmers. And why? It is the manifesta- tion of a repressed complex for a similar dictator- ship in the United States. Lena Morgans and Garys, who wax so eloquent on the achievements of the fascist regime in Italy, can already scc the day when American im- perialism, powerful and still growing as it is today, will enter the path of decline. These captains of finance and industry, who are now amassing tre- mendous fortunes at the expense of the sweat and blood of the toiling masses of America and the world over, are quite in a position to visualize slackening production, growing unemployment, un- rest and resentment of millions of American work- ers whom the trade union reactionarics will no longer be able to keep in check. Hence, the ques- tion arises in the minds of thé present day rulers of the United States: Do the present methods of government offer. sufficient guarantees against this coming upsurge of class assertion by the American working class? Will the capitalist dictatorship, in the government, masked at present with intricate methods of democratic form, be able to withstand the onrush of working class awakening which is bound to come? ae eee ) VELOPED TAM. TOO ! ~ LSA YOONG CHINA wakes A HIT- By ALEX BITTELMAN Sed the point of view which is gaining ever more favor in the eyes of big capital is to gradually free itself of the mask and camouflage of “demo- etacy” and to institute as much as is expedient the methods of open dictatorship. This trend is quite evident in the political development of American capitalism; away from capitalist democracy and toward capitalist fascism. The system of govern- ment is the same in both instances—a capitalist system—but the practical methods and means of government are different, the fascist methods being more adapted to the maintenance of capitalist rule in time of sharpened class struggles. gl the light of these considerations, the issue of third termism, as far as the working masses are concerned, becomes an issue of struggle against the autocracy and dictatorship of big capital in the American government. The efforts of certain sec- tions of big capital to retain Coolidge in the presi- dency for a third term becomes even more menacing just because of this trend of American capital towards open dictatorship and the use of fascist methods. To be sure, this is not precisely the way Senator Edwards looks at it, but just the same, this is the only way in which the working masses must view it. And seeing it that way, they must awaken ta the situation and prepare to fight. PANIEL J. TOBIN, treasurer of the American Federation of Labor and president of the Team- sters’ and Chauffeurs’ Union, sees a great menace to the American workers in the national wage cut which Mussolini is now enforcing upon Italian labor. Tobin happens to be right, this time. But what is he doing to help Amercan labor to meet this menace in an effective way? Here is what Tobin has to say on Mussolini’s charter of labor: “If this plan succeeds in Italy it is not il- logical to suppose that other nations will be drawn into competition on similar basis—a sort of worldwide race to see who can live on the least. Any economist can see what this means to the present industrial system.” ‘ya question that every American worker should ask himself is this: What are the Italian trade unions doing to resist this nationwide wage cutting measure of the fascist dictator? The answer is that the Italian trade union movement has been outlawed and crushed as a preparatory measure to cut the wages and further enslave the Italian workers. Strikes too have been outlawed. And the most conscientious collaborators of Mussolini in the ~ destruction of the Italian trade union movement were no other than the conservative and reaction- ary officials of the trade unions of Italy. wir does not Daniel J. Tobin discuss this angle of the situation? Is it because it hits directiy home? Is it because it shows up the conservative (Continued on page 2)