The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 9, 1927, Page 4

Page Four THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 9, 1927 THE DAILY WORKER Published by te DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO, i Daily, Except Sunday 83 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Addre=s SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (in New York only): By mail (outside of New York): 68.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per year 98.50 six months $2.50 three months $2.00 three months Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. J. LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F, DUNNE “sia | All of these men, with the exception : y, s 4 ceptior BEPT MILLER.. business Manager of DeLeon, lived through the world Entered as second-class rai! at the post-office at New York, N. Y., undes/ war, but only one of them can be said the act of March 8, 1879, to have represented the interests of Ss the working class after the war. That le Phons, Orchard 1680 “Daiwork” In the development of the labor | personify certain stages. In the his- tory of American labor five men stand out as embodiments of various j uel M. Gompers, Daniel DeLeon, Eu- —. an |movement, as in all other social ine| stitutions, certain individuals come to| stages—Terence V. Powderly, Sam-} |gene V. Debs and C. E. Ruthenberg. | To Commemorate Ruthenberg’s Birthday---Fight the War Danger. ie hi Had Comrade C. Ruthenberg torty-five years old today. Young in ars, he was at the time of his death already a veteran in the ranks of the revolution. It is impossible to commemorate the birth of Ruthenberg without re- calling, in face of the pr t war danger, his role in the American labor movement precisely ten years ago at this time. In the dark days of this country’s entrance into the world war, when frenzied mobs of maddened jingoes were howling in the wake of the w. mongers, when the old national leaders of the Socialist Party, of which Ruthenberg was the local leader in Cleveland, were wallow- ing in the slough of sentimental pacifism, perverting the revolu- Advertising rates on applicadoDs| one was Ruthenberg who, at the time cnet nana a of his death last’March, was the high- est type of American labor leader yet {produced in the United States. only did he possess the organizational |ability, the broad experience in the best of the older leaders, but he pos-| ved he w ve been|* , | ed he would have beer of the movement that made him the ssed a Marxian-Leninist knowledge superior of any of them. However, we do not yield to the, illusion that it was Ruthenberg who created the environment in which he | worked, but that he himself was the |best product of the new labor move- |ment that arose out of the agony and jashes of the great imperialist con- vulsion known as the world war. The Labor Reactionaries. Of the five men we have chosen as typical of certain stages and who Not | tionary movement into pro-German channels or shouting with the/ played prominent parts in the labor jingoes, Ruthenberg defied them all and took the lead in the anti-| movement the first two, Powderly and draft agitation which led to his first arrest and imprisonment. Gompers, were avowedly reactionary Ten years ago, in the face of the last world war, our late leader |2t the time of their deaths, but both ¥ i Be, lof them had played parts at certain gave to the American labor movement a militant example of how | stages. Powderly ‘became: the leading a revolutionist should face the task of combating the criminal |figure in that amorphous mixture of slaughter of workers by the imperialist butchers. jlabor elements, small shopkeepers, Today, when Britain is openly striving to provoke war against | Professionals, known as the Knights a a oie, ae : ae jof Labor. Defeated on the field of the Soviet Union, when the United States imperialists Carry ON economic struggle it lapsed into weird their own conspiracies in their own interests with the same object | unscientific and utopian cooperative in view, when the mighty financial power of Wall Street is used/ventures that were fast submerged to finance white guard governments in Europe, when the ink is|y the terrific tempo of capitalist de- hardly dry on an American loan to the fascist dictator, Pilsudski|Y¢opment. In the great labor up- eage| has “ ; SON heavals of the 80’s Powderly cut a of Poland, it is not difficult to perceive the fact that the United ory figure in his fight against the| International, has just received the commandant of Moscow. CARRYING RUTHENBERG URN At the Moscow railroad station, Smeral, of Czecho-Slovakia, mem- ber of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist of The DAILY WORKER, who can be seen behind Smeral and Yakolev, urn from Comrade Engdahl, editor States is following its own policies against the Soviet Union in |eight-hour movement and his own or- backing the servile governments that are forever on the auction ganization was swept into the move- | bloc, for sale to the highest bidder to carry on their campaigns ™ent in spite of him. | i 4 7a iy s | The leader of the more advanced | of forgery, provocation and murder against the workers and pea- foresaVOl laboe “thats tank imstie: with | sants’ government of the Soviet Union, or to engage in any de-| powderiy and the Knights of Labor| based task that may be set them by their buyers, the imperialist | was Samuel M. Gompers, head of the| masters of the capitalist world. newly-created American Federation| In the last war Ruthenberg, in the thick of the fight and in|°! Labor. But the great clash of class | 2 > ee 4 ie g 2 |interests that culminated in the Hay- face of the greatest peril, established himself as a courageous | market bomb disaster sent Gompers| leader of the masses. He, more than any other individual, came) scurrying for a safe refuge. As years to personify the American Communist movement that arose out|passed his cowardice in face of the of the war, and the collapse of the old social-democratic parties capitalist enemy changed into the ef the Second (Socialist) International. In America, as in other |e Coe ne ee ak countries, a tremendous impetiis was given to the development of |to attack the militant elements of the the revolutionary movement by the brilliant achievements of thej|labor movement. One treachery fol- Bolshevik revolution in Russia. Arising from the identical causes | lowed upon another until early in the that caused the collapse of the old International the Russian TENG: | Seece Wis anne to cyeey Us lution became a tremendous revolutionizing factor in the labor Wks neta Ge ans roahee Gee movement of the world. Comrade Ruthenberg was among the| tieutenant of capitalism in America. very first of the American leaders to appreciate its full signifi- The Socialist Leaders. cance and its implications for the future of the labor movement in|, With a fair understanding of Marx- this country. From the first he was the most able defender of | ian criticism,-Daniel DeLeon, leader lof the socialist labor party of that the Russian workers’ and peasants’ government and, at the time|day, assailed both Bideely aad of his death, was taking the lead in the fight against the war|Gompers and for a considerable time danger, whose ominous clouds were already lowering upon the|gained a powerful following. His in-| horizon. | ability Baines fo apply. caning Hi Only by a relentless fight against imperialism and the threat Hernecqan ea Se eae ne of war can we pay tribyte to our dead leader, whose birth we to-| playing directly into the hands of the day commemorate. {reactionaries by deserting the main istream of the labor movement ahd trying to organize new socialist-con- trolled “pure” unions. Considerable impetus was given to |the agitation for dual unions by the Sheffield Journeys to Rapid City. The American ambassador to Mexico, James R. Sheffield, ; : . » . . :_’|great American Railway Union strike responsible for the recent diplomatic scandal that swept over him lof the early nineties, under the lead: when President Calles called his bluff on his military threats, is| ership of Bugene V. Debs who later, the most recent visitor to the summer resort of the asthmatic | under the influences of certain social- president of the United States. Sheffield is slated for the discard| democrats, used the organization, ) because the dirty scheme of the administration to terrorize the|ter its, defeat by the combined Mexican president by pretending to reveal to him the plans for American military intervention failed to terrorize him into yield- ing to the demands of Wall Street. When Calles published*to the world the alleged military plans of Sheffield in Mexico City, and “Nervous Nelly” Kellogg in the state department at Washington} declared the documents had been stolen and then altered by forg- ers to make it appear that the peace-loving, gentle, child-like gov- ernment of the United States was planning military intervention. This excuse was too lame and was greeted with derisive laughter because of its crudity. | forces of the government and the | railroad companies, as the basis for | the organization of the socialist party. For years Debs was the principal |socialist propagandist in the country, hough he never played an important role in the leading political and or- ganizational work of that party. In Bukharin carrying the urn fro! the speeches were made at Comrade ices, to the wall of the Kremlin. Engdahl. Behind Kolaroff is Piatni TO THE WALL OF THE KREMLIN } m in front of Lenin’s tomb, where Ruthenberg’s Moscow funeral sery- Behind Bukharin are Kolaroff and isky. . spite of this-he did personify the early stages of that party—a fiery mili- tancy vitiated by a sentimentalism strongly flavored with christian so- cialism and populism. The Crucible of World War. When the world war broke upon humanity DeLeon had been dead for almost a year. toward the war might have been can never be known. He did not, how- lever, in his writings seem able to grasp the great changes that had taken place and the transition from competitive capitalism into imperial- ism, characterized by Lenin as the “final stage of capitalism” passed by} him unnoticed. Powderly, an old man,’ at the outbreak of the war, played no part in the labor movement. He had| long enjoyed the quiet of a soft gov- ernment job, the reward of the execu- | tive committee of the capitalist class | for his treachery to the working class. The record of Gompers is too well known and too odious to need extended comment. So anxious was hex to serve his bloody masters that he descended to depths of depravity | to which ordinary vassals of capital- ism would shrink from contemplat- ing. Using his office in the interests of the impefialist war-mongers of Wall Street during the war, he be- came their most militant defender against the revival of the labor move- ment after the war. He passed away, faithful to the last to those whom he had so long served, with maudlin patriotic twaddle upon his lips, and his remains were accorded a place of honor alongside the graves of some of the biggest capitalists this country has produced. Debs, who also never perceived the significance of the im- perialist era, viewed the war as a of native-born white, protestant, to shield him in his degenerate pi His eventual undoing was n one hundred per cent Americans, ractices. ot so much because his prosecu- _ Sheffield will probably not return to Mexico City. Henry L,| tors were revolted at his assaults upon the young woman, but be- Stimson, the diplomatic flunkey who helped the gunmen of Wall| ©ause his political star was on the wane in the inner circles of the Street disarm the Nicaraguan liberal forces in order that Diaz, the | Klan. Convicted and sentenced, Stephenson expected his former chosen. president of the American imperialists, could hold undis- | ®8S0ciates of the night-shirt brigade to secure his release. Months | dragged into years and he still remains in the penitentiary. Hence, The individual who serves as Wall Street’s ambassador in} #8 a matter of self-preservation, the former grand dragon turns Mexico is unimportant. What is important is the vicious imperi-|UP0 his associates. The governor of the state, the mayor of In- alist policy being conducted in Mexico in order to protect the in- | dianapolis and other luminaries are wondering where the lightning | puted sway, is proposed as successor to Sheffield. terests of the Rockefeller oil concern, the Guggenheimer mining interests and Hearst’s land interests and to extend in general | Rushville, Indiana, and would like to pull the cavity in after him | j will strike. Senator Jim Watso What his attitude, |Comrade Ruthenberg, then secretary gigantic crime against humanity and opposed it upon purely sentimental grounds. The watch-words of the nineties fell flat when uttered before the working class audiences after the world war. For his opposition to the war Debs was finally sent ‘to prison. Revolutionary Fight Against War. While the nation was preparing to slaughter its youth and young man- hood in the interest of the invest- ments of the House of Morgan in Europe and when congress had passed the draft law with the intention of conscripting the youth into the human slaughter house only a handful of members of the socialist party dared raise the demand for opposition to the war and call upon those within draft age to refuse to register. The outstanding leader of this group was of the city central committee of the socialist party of Cleveland, Ohio, who made his living working in an office of a clothing concern. He was the first man in the United States arrested for opposition to the draft and for his activity was discharged from the first for which he worked and became for the first time (June, 1917) a paid official of the party. From that time onward Ruthenberg was a national figure in the move- ment. He with Alfred Waganknecht and Charles Baker served jail terms Let’s Fight On! Join The Workers Party! In the loss of Comrade Ruthen- berg the Workers (Communist) Par- ty has lost its foremost leader, and the American working class its staunchest fighter. This loss can only be overcome by many militant work. ers joining the Party that he built. Fill out the application below and mail it. Become a member of the Workers (Communist) Party and carry forward the work of Comrade Ruthenberg. I want to become a member of the Workers (Communist) Party. Name Address Oooupathan <0 esi wes cess duets Hoey n has retired to his aperture in | | Union Affiliation..........seeeeees Mail this application to the Work- after being convicted for opposing the imperialist war. | Upon his release from jail at the! close of the war Ruthenberg was the| one outstanding national figure in the | old labor movement that cast his lot) with the Communist movement in this | country. In his own life he personi-| fied the best traditions of the old! party carried over into the period of| world revolution. Despising the! treachery of creatures of the Powderly | and Gompers calibre, he at the same! time avoided the mechanical, almost/| grotesque Marxism that character- Ruthenberg’s Place in American Labor Movement Observations on War and Revolution by Ruthenberg “We find at the beginning of the war in 1924, that there had developed during the preceding decades the im- perialist policy in all the great capi- talist nations; notably in England and in Germany. “The struggle for concessions, the struggle for what we now might call ‘ ‘mandatories,’ or colonies, had been ized DeLeon, and although being the} going on for a long term of years. equal of Debs in courage and ability! We found repeatedly that the govern- as an organizer he avoided the senti-| ments ‘came in conflict with each mental swamps of utopianism and| other, as for instance, France and correctly interpreted. events’in the| Germany over Morocco. The ques- labor movement in the light of Marx-| tions at stake were questions as to ist-Leninist analysis. | which country: should have the right Even with the fragmentary facts|to exploit this unexploited, unde- brought out in this brief sketch be-| veloped territory. These conflicts in fore him the worker can easily per-| Which the governments fought the |ceive that of all the outstanding fig-| battles, thru diplomacy, of the capi- ures in the American labor movement | talist class, reflected the imperialist Ruthenberg alone represented the ee the Serene of imperial- ‘ |ism, the securing of these conces- a tie Lehn ose sions for the benefit of the home capi- ; - ; talist. ica, and in the light of present threats Gis IS OUT OF THIS PROCESS of a new world war against*the Sov-|pj74T THE WAR DEVELOPED. IT iet Union and for further division of | tg OUT OF THIS PROCESS THAT the world among the imperialist) OTHER WARS WILL DEVELOP IN powers his work is as valuable and| THE FUTURE, FROM THE STAND- | message, American imperialist power in Central and South America. oe polde Howes teu rab ans OU paieca Just how far Stephenson has —at Jeast until the storm blows over. lers Party, 108 Hast 14th Street, New gone in his exposing of the graft York City; or if in other city to The workers of the United States ought to fight against the vicious policy of the government in Mexico and do everything in their power to aid the Mexican workers and peasants drive from and corruption of the republican-klan machine in Indiana, is not | Workers, Party, 1113 W. Washington | |known and may never be known, for the simple reason that steps| #!¥» Chicago, I. their land the agents of the oil and mining trusts and of the bank-| will be taken to release him or in some other way stop the scandal. ing houses of Wall Street. The Klan Explosion in Indiana. Hoosier politicians are all hunting their holes because of the recent interview of a district attorney with David C. Stephenson, ‘in Indiana, just as it is in Ohio, reigned supreme, or as it is in Il |The shady election practices, the most brazen ballot-box stuffing ‘and bribery of the electorate has become the ordinary procedure , where Daugherty and Harding linois under the Len Small gang, ‘or in Pennsylvania under the Mellon-Vare-Fisher corruptionists. | | | mor: We do not refer to the cas al indignation against him, e of Stephenson because of any He is no bette nor worse than former imperial dragon of the Indiana ku klux klan, now serving! any other political boss in this country. We expose such creatures a life term in the penitentiary for fiendishly torturing to death in| in order that workers may come to hold in the utmost contempt the process of a most depraved debauch a young woman named/| the public servants of the capitalist governments in the various Madge Oberholtzer. Stephenson, for a number of years the most! states and in the nation and to despise the hirelings of capitalism powerful political boss among the republican grafters in Indiana,|in the labor movement who tell workers to support candidates of a friend of the late President Harding, of Harry M. Daugherty | the old parties of capitalism, instead of creating their own labor and the rest of the Ohio gang, used his position in the hooded order} party against the parties of Wall Street. ‘ 4 ~~ ” m4 Distribute the Ruthenberg pam-j phiet, “The Workers’ (Communist) Party, What it Stands For and Why | Workers Should Join.” This Ruthen- | their work, and brought back to many berg pamphlet will be the basic pam- phlet thruout the Ruthenberg Drive. Every Party Nucleus must collect 50 cents from every member and will receive 20 pamphlets for every mem- ber to sell or distribute, Nuclei in the New York District will get their pamphlets from the Dis- trict office—108 East 14th St, Nuclei outside of the New York District write to The DAILY WORK- ER publishing Co,, 33 East First Street, New York City, or to the National Office, Workers Party, 1113 Most Important Phases of eae Our Activities. By A. GUSAKOFF. With the coming of the summer months, a new field of activity was opened for our party. A broad field, which if properly utilized and ex- ploited, meant a big gain for the party, meant a greater possibility to reach thousands of workers thruout the country, conveying to them our spreading our literature among them, our party monthly or- gans, and daily newspapers and giving them the correct interpretation of many important events. This field of open-air work if prop- erly organized, and earnestly sup- ported by ALL the comrades, would give us, as the fruit of our work: New members, new numbers of sympathi- zers, more funds to continue our struggle, and a great number of new readers off our dailies and periodi- cals. More Attention Needed. But it seems that many comrades of our party do not pay much atten- tion to this important work. Com- rades who are appoined to speak and act as chairmen, do not show up at meetings, comrades responsible for the distribution of literature are fail- ing to appear, and it even happens, that comrades who are in charge of the platform, flag, and other neces- sary implements do not show up at all, This proves to us, that many of our comrades consider this work of secondary importance, or of no im- portance at all, and exercise much neglect toward it. I think, that in order to make this work a success, our comrades must change their attitude and change it’ as soon as possible. They must re- alize that this is one of the most im- portant phases of our activities, as it enables us to reach great masses of workers, and if earnestly supported will do much good to the party. I want to give here in brief a re- port on the special concentration day of section one, in order to show com- rades of other sections what can be achieved in this work, if the work is properly organized. The Special Distribution. The special distribution day, sched- uled for Thursday a week ago, was organized for the purpose of reaching as many workers in our section as possible. Special articles telling the story of the conditions in many shops and factories of our section, were printed in the special section edition of The DAILY WORKER. The sec- tion decided to mobilize ALL the comrades, and distribute the 10,000 copies of this special issue of The Daily. We organized a net of open air meetings in the section, and all the comrades felt that they are in such a way building the section and popularizing the party in this neigh- borhood. Some Success. Was the concentration day a suc- cess? Well, seven of the ten thousand copies of the Daily were distributed, three of the four open-air meetings were held, some money was collected for the Daily, our message reached on this day thousands of workers of our section, It is important to note that this concentration day gave more enthu- siasm to our comrades to continue and of them the fervor of activity which usually comes to one, when he sees that his work is successful, There is not a single doubt in the minds of the comrades of our section, that if all the comrades would have turned out for this work, the 10,000 copies would have not been sufficient, and at least two more open-air meet- ings could have been held. Open Air Work, One of the as effective today as it was while| POINT OF SOCIALIST ANAL- he was still fighting at the head of| YSIS.”—Testimony in New York our revolutionary forces. trial—-1920, | * * * “During the world war the system of production in Europe, as well as its financial system, was undermined. | The European capitalist countries are unable to produce as much as they jdid before the war. This sharpens the struggle between the workers and the capitalists because the capitalists try to put the losses on the backs of the workers and make them accept a lower standard of life. None of the European countries have been able | to overeqme the forces of destruction of capitalism let loose by the war. “While the United States was not affected the same way because it was not so deeply involved in the war and made great profits out of it dur- ing the first two and a half years of the war, it has become the greatest imperialist country and is exploiting all parts of the world. This de- yelopment of American imperialism will lead to new wars which will let loose upon American capitalism the same forces that are destroying capi- talism in Europe. “The government which will be es- tablished as the result of the revo- lutionary struggles of the workers must be a workers’ and farmers’ gov- ernment—that is, it must be a gov- ernment which will use its powers against the capitalists just as the capitalists now use the power of the government against the workers.”— From “The Workers (Communist) Party—What It Stands For and Why Workers Should Join.” Final Reservations For Russian Trip Must Be Made Now The first group of fifty American tourists visiting Soviet Russia will sail on the Swedish-American motor liner, “Gripsholm,” July 14th. This group of American tourists are made up of men and women from all walks of life. There are lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers, business men and a fairly representative group of workers from the various trades and occupations. There are a number of reservations still open and registration for this first party will close today, Satur- day, July 9th. Those desiring to sail on July 14th or make such trip to Russia in the future should communicate with the World Tourists, Inc., Room 803, 41 Union Square, New York. Furriers’ Wives to Hit At Police Brutality at Demonstration in Bronx Bronx women are urged to attend the mass demonstration at 2 o’clock this afternoon at Clairemont Park- way and Washington Avenue, Bronx, to protest against the police brutality against striking left wing furriers. Kate Gitlow, Rose Wortis and Fan- nie Warshafsky as well as a number of other women prominent in the la- bor movement will address the demonstration, The demonstration will be held un- der the auspices of the United Coun- cil of Working Class. Housewives, Furriers’ Council No. 1. Notice to Comrades. Notice is hereby given that owing to a reorganization in our personnel, Thomas Garai is no longer connected with The DAILY WORKER. Party units, DAILY WORKER agents and sympathetic organizations are asked te take notice of this announcement and act accordingly.—-Bert Miller, for the Management Committee of The DAILY WORKER. W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. READ THE DAILY WORKER EVERY DAY <fibpoonn 4 f ibe *