The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 25, 1927, Page 4

Page Four THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, JULY-25, 1927 THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO, Daily, Except Sunday 85 First Street, New York, N. Y. Phone, Orchard 1680 Cable Address: SUBSCRIPTION RATES By T. LOAF. | ee a discussion before the re-| | cent convention of the German So- By mail (in New York only): By mail (outside of New York): | -Democratic Party in May the | “left” wing in the German Social- 68.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per year 96.50 six months | in 1 fern 0 $2.50 three months $2.00 three months Democracy, in its criticism of the} - lSeesent leadership of the Party laid “Daiwork” Address all mail and make out enecks to | particular stress upon the THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. ie xian” policy of the n SOUS ENGDAHL 0 ae eee | S8 1-Democracy that was able by J. Be ENGDAR NS ccc tes ace Editors its allegedly “non-opportunist” policy WILLIAM F. DUNNE fo. | to get an unshakable grip upon the BERT MILLER........+.+. asesney Business Manager |working class of Austria and to d der | velop a mighty proletarian organi tion. The-left opposition in the Ger- man Social-Democracy expected a isi tion, | strong support’ of its stand from the DENCE: Takes | SLSEE —| fraternal delegates of the Austrian | Social-Democratie Party. This they did not get. The. “fraternal dele- | gates” of the Austrian Party behaved The Expalsions in the Shoe Workers’ Union /in the German city of Kiel (place of Tt is not necessary to be an official of an American Federation lithe convention): ithe same manner of Labor organization in order to play the role of a labor agent! .; they had been invariably behaving | of the capitalist class. That role is being done in the approved |in their own 8 oe isan: Hes manner by Daniel J. Fitzgerald, secretary of the Shoe Workers’ Perec. ‘ es eee Protective Union, an “independent” union, which has its main of | nent of the profeianian inaanee.(: | fice in Boston. Of course the orders are carried out by Fitz-| gerald’s man Friday, John D. Nolan of Rochester, who has et hee. Kad caeedGRe ts nae Tata past two years been president of that organization. : Fitzgera 18: jo. Auatetan “osal Democracy he the real boss of the general council, a political machine within the|inus served the delegates with the | union that has but one object in life—to maintain itself at the | gist of the Austrian social-demo- head of the union and to obtain just sufficient members to enable | cratic philosophy: a i v it of al et salaries. E muster now 48 per cen pee ee ‘ a Bi £ Or, Jew Yi " victimized . We improved 7 per cent The shoe workers of Greater New York have been victimized | . anise Sclatcbeat mare nid by almost every conceivable variety of labor faker. Unions hav ss hate hale (laughter). But the| been organized time and again, only to collapse. Even the bosses |jast seven per cent are always the organized a union to prevent the organization of real unions and | hardest (renewed laughter)... We then the membership got control of it and used it against its | have never put to a voter the inno- y " workers have suffered fi a mul- | cent question: ‘what is your stand on creators. No group of workers ave suffered more from a mule | cio? ... Forward, towards | tiplicity of unions. Many workers in that industry are cynical | capturing the state and forward, to- and have despaired of ever achieving anything. But in spite of | wards national unity of all Germans this condition the majority of the district council in the Shoe | Fathi the framework of the Interna- Workers’ Protective Union carried on organization campaigns, | 07" seth fought against an aggregation of the lowest, most tricky and | Ware age gaye Oe j ; ri idea 0: a S- petty larceny gang of bosses that ever infested an industry, and iika codaaeaceeane leaders: wait| at the same time had to fight against a general office that tried! tj) we get the parliamentary ma-| to put every obstacle in the way of real organization. | jority, we shall obtain ane wae 7 hed seas ae a coats “ {power then. This slogan of a parlia- Faced with such obstacles the work of organization pr Bees | tentary majority’ tranetersing, to-the| and the district council and its two principal locals, 53 and 54, | proletariat actual power in the state| although controlling but few shops out of the hundreds in the in-| has struck deep roots in ‘the working | dustry, prevented, by their very existence, the wholesale reduc- etc of See: and pee eas en ;, - a ror: i iti r i ji | Austrian social-democratic le; tion of wages and worsening of conditions. It was a situation GrasEine: OFF tis: share edges cf the that required militancy and the workers were aggressive to such proletarian struggles in Austria. a degree that they criticised the inaction and sometimes open i 5 P| ray: 2 Bi -N i i jon jg | THEN the Austrian social-democratic | betrayal of the Fitzgerald Nolan machine. A national election is | Tabwas svao Gantig tol Hehte They approaching and Nolan is up for reelection. | were ready to fight in the year 1919, Last year Fitzgerald had to resort to all sorts of political | when their spontaneous revolutionary trickery in order to maintain power and even expelled from the | outbreaks were LIS es in hed organization his opponent, P. Pascal Cosgrove. This year the jane Sey ae eveaave of BEa, district council that Nolan and Fitzgerald thought would suc- seigele against the onward march cumb, to neglect on the part of the general office and the attack! of Fascism. They have entrenched £ t ; | of the bosses is still in existence,.so Nolan simply suspended the arabes yes sda = ee i v i $ i .| trade unions, embracing, wit ie eX- charter of the council and the two a so locals. It is ; per. corat ot Paces dh sllarbena ier formance that would do credit to George L. Berry, Wm. Green,| hom but a small percentage are or- Matt Woll or any of the rest of the more prominent fakers. | ganized (Jess than 50,000 out of 500,- It is to be hoped there are sufficient members left in the} 000), practically the entire Proletar- organization in Haverhill, St. Louis and other places where units|ian mass of the country and leaving * * * * I. * | but a small fractien of the workers of the organization exist, to kick the Fitzgerald machine out of | cither aiouganived “or in the’ yellow. office so that the shoe workers can carry on a fight against the] organizations (about 5 per cent, greedy employers of that industry. | mostly Christian-Socialist). Although |the membership of these social- \ democratic unions in the last years fell from over a million to some- | thing over 800,000, still the Austrian Government Reports Are Political Propaganda proletariat is the best organized in A few years ago statistical reports from the various gener the whole capitalist world. Also, ments of the United States government were fairly accurate and | these unions have built out of their enabled one to obtain a picture of the economic condition of the) midst a powerful political organiza- country. Today, however, with much more elaborate machinery| tion, the Austrian Rocal Democane for gathering facts, the reports are utterly unreliable because they ean oS uaa Hesse 000 are nothing other than mere propaganda for spreading illusions | roth viewae. Of the 3,200,000 votes about prosperity. In order to maintain the fiction of Coolidge! cast in the last (April 1927) elec- prosperity the department of commerce, under Herbert Hoover, | tions, 1,500,000, or 43 per cent, were has been turned into a headquarters for concealing facts about the ies A fr Race ae pasar economic conditions of the country. |now 71 seats against 94 seats of the Tf economic facts do not coincide with the political line of the| bourgeois bloc (mostly Christian-So- Coolidge government, so much the worse for the facts. cialist Party) and has developed a The latest effort of the government to conceal facts under the|formidable party apparatus, busy i i i A with the municipal and other small, fiction of lying figures emanates from the department of agricul- every-day welfare work of the Party ture and dove-tails into the Coolidge policy of trying to convince] and to a large extent always ready thefarmers that everything is all right with them in spite of the|to “share” with the capitalist par- fact that most of them know that the price they can obtain for] ties the “responsibilities” of govern- their products does not cover the cost of production. A recent| ent ry ponderous document issued by the department of agriculture at|NEXT_t the building up of trade : : : 5 unions, an extensive party organi- Washington labors mightily to persuade us that there is real pros-| ,ation, influential cooperatives, the perity ahead for the farmers because the winter wheat crop is| Austrian Social-democratic masses estimated to be 50,000,000 bushels below last year, and that the ere able ee a mumergue EEC 4 i i i etarian guard, the so-c: - —o of Canada, Australia and the Argentine is also likaniacher‘Schutzbun a (about 100, ** But the fiction of the government fades before the light of eet lat than the Carian “Reichs. the facts shed from the stock exchange. It isn’t what the govern-| banner” is social-democratic in its ment says, but what the stock exchange does that counts and the| composition and Molar iB pid Chicago market closed Saturday noon with a very material set- Pepe pee eae Snr ne ee back in wheat prices because of the large scale movement of| councils (dissolved in 1928) as shock | freshly harvested winter wheat and indications that it would far| troops against the growing danger of exceed the crop of last year. The prices were sustained fairly high | Fascism, but unlike Germany it has) because it was thought the long dry spell would produce black- Sole kak Netty a He 1ust and destroy millions of bushels, but the rust did not mate-|defence organization as the ‘Front- rialize. When the farmer does not suffer from the blight of rust,|kaempferbund” is. All these years he suffers from low prices. He has no chance, no matter what) it had never bac occasion. to face and happens as long as Coolidge’s pals, the bankers, the railroads, the Se aeee ES ie al flour trust and the rest of the gang get theirs. and even now its role during the re-| A contributing factor in the decline is the information that| cent proletarian uprising is not alto- the identical places throughout the world, that the department of | gether clear. agriculture claims have failures, in reality have bumper crops,|]T is a fact that the proletarian creating a situation where, in the parlance of the stock exchange,|“ masses of Austria had been more “the buying demand will be too slow to absorb the selling.” used to radical action than the Ger- The poor farmers will have to organize, not only in this coun-| try alone, but internationally, in order to overcome the anarchy in agricuitural production. As part of the great producing class of the world, their only salvation is to ally themselves with the pro- letarians in the cities, instead of permitting themselves to be vic- timized by the scheming politicians. In this country it is not the Coolidges or Lowdens that will aid Entered as second-class mai! at the post-office at New York, N. Y. the act of March 8, 1879. SiO ae eeresior aia >: 1O be sure, fraternal delegate Ren- leadership of the Austrian Social- Democratic Party had been and is on the face of it more “radical” than the leadership of the German Social- Democracy. It is well known that the Austrian Social-Democracy was | mass | Austrian social-democracy was the {instead upon the mercy of the Allies The “Left” Social-Democracy in Action smallness of the Communist Party of Austria cannot be altogether ascribed to the tactics of the social-democracy, still it is a fact that they have been able to meet the influence of the Communists with more dexterity than their political brethren in other coun- | ries. What is the reason for it? | WE shall indicate it but briefly. The | "' Austrian social-democrats (the ‘Austro-Marxians” as they are often | called because of the special trend or } ‘school” that they have developed in the camp of Marxist ideology) had aj peculiar line of development. Be-| cause of the feudal character of the old Hapsburg monarchy that had been for years denying to the workers} elementary civic rights and had been | basing itself upon the feudal priv-| ileges of a landed aristocracy, miti- gated for the benefit of the grow- ing large bourgeoisie, the social- democracy, as the representative of the proletarian masses, had not 4 able to “grow in” into the institutions of the capitalist state with the same rapidity as other parties of the Second International had been doing it before the war. Moreover, under the gressure of the disfranchised and much exploited masses, the social- democracy had to undertake m ac-| tions that more often than net met with a sharp and bloody suppression on the part of the bureaucratic state. Shooting of workers was not rare in the realm of the Hapsburgs, but it was met by proletarian cadres that | have become more accustomed to| demonstrations and mass strikes. The fight of the workers in Czarist Russia and particularly the Russian revolution of 1905 had a deep effect upon the workers in the Aus- trian Monarchy. Thus the leader- ship ,of the Austrian social-dem- ocracy, although in its ideological and | psychological make-up rather akin to the opportunist majority in the Second International, had to develop a tactical line of mass action that was keeping them more rooted in the proletarian masses. The largely poor existence of these masses had been likewise working against de- veloping an atmosphere of petty- bourgeois-opportunist satisfaction. NOTHER no less important factor | shaping the character of the present | \ nature of the old Hapsburg mon- archy, composed of so many nation- alities with their movements for na-| tional liberation. Against the in-| creasing danger of a “national unity” between the social-democratic labor leaders and the bourgeois nationalists within these nationalities (as in the Czech territory, in Western Galicia etc.), the German part of the Aus- trian social democracy—which was the leading part—could set only one weapon the appeal to the interna- tional solidarity of the workers, coupled with a temporary solution of the problem of nationalities on the basis of national autonomy within the framework of the existing state. Incidentally this program of the Aus- trian Social-Democracy was the only one, by which the tottering Austrian state could be yet somehow kept and maybe knit together. Its final down- fall was due to the imperialist de- velopment of Europe. bebe the necessity for more radical mass actin and the necessity for “in- ternationalism” were the two main factors that have shaped the char- acter of the present Austrian Social- Democracy. As the Austrian social- democrats were not so strongly tied to the Austrian state, their social- patriotism was lacking the strong imperialist trend of a large part of German Social-Democracy: hence their vacillation and pronounced paci- fism during the war. If we add yet that owing to the influence of the Catholic church, they had to institute ! for a time a “free-thinkerish” anti- religious movement, we get an ap- proximate picture of these “leaders” of the Austrian masses. 'YPICAL centrists, their every po- litical confession contains the un- avoidable formulation of “on the one hand” and ‘on the other hand.” On the one hand they are for a Soviet Republic, but on the other hand for bourgeois democracy; they are for workers’ councils and against them, for the Soviet Union and against, for arming the workers and against, for the necessity of Two-and-a-half In- ternational as against the Second and at the same time for unity with it, finally for proletarian dictatorship, but—not now and not by force. Their political conduct after the fall of the Hapsburg state and the establish- ment of the top-heavy Austrian Re- public was fully in line with their make-up. They choked the revolu- tionary movement in Austria and re- fused to join Soviet ~Hungary and Soviet Bavaria, throwing themselves and later the League of Nations. The reason they put forward was that that Austria would be unable to keep itself and would be surely invaded by foreign troops. Bet the result they have obtained is that Austria is choking economic- ally inside the tariff walls put up by the neighbor states. She is under the constant control of the League of Nations and is constantly watched by the “Little Entente.” True, the social-democrats have put out a pro- | time ‘when such action would surely jians from a constant veiled coalition gram of political unity with Germany (so-called “Anschluss”), but im- the kernal of the Two-and-a-half In- ternational and is at present con- sidered by all, the “model” of a so- cial-democratic party. Althofgh the man workers and it is altogether clear that they have moved considerably to the left. It is also a fact that the the farmers, but the support of the drive to build up a class party that will be a political expression of the interests of the workers and the farmers. karen icmesacagh perialist France together with the “Little Entente” and surely also Po- land are jealously watching against such a step; the only means to achieve this presents itself in going for the bait of England in whose in- terest it might lie, particularly in view of the planned anti-Soviet’ cam- paign. But this would mean getting embroiled in a war, or exactly getting into a mess which they allegedly wanted to avoid by refusing to join the revolutionary wave of 1919, at aj strongly enhance the chances of an| European revolution. | HEY went out for “democracy” and} for getting the country “social- | ized” by “evolutionary methods.” To obtain 1t they formed a coailuon gov- ernment witn the bascist Chrisuan- | Socialist Party in which they stayed | trom the beginning of 1919 till the} end of 1920. They left the coalition, | practically pushed out by the grow- | ing Fascist reaction on the one hand} (remember the Ford meney!) and the discontent of the masses on the| other. Since then the question of | coalition has been disturbing the party; then although the discontented | masses were able by outvoting the right wingers at -the party conven- tions to prevent an open coalition, they have not been able to prevent! the social-democratic parliamentar- in Parliament and other representa- tive bodies. The masses had to see the great “socialization” program given up step by step and their own revolutionary achievements, foremost among them the workers’ councils, pushed out of existence and finally dissolved, and the whole party going clearly to the right. UE, the party was pushing forth its program of social legislation: | child labor laws, 8-hour law, protec- | tion of home workers, unemployment | funds and was thus able to keep its| foothold in the masses. But the! masses saw the effect of this an-| nulled) by growing unemployment} (about 180,000 unemployed), by the| mounting cost of living and by the anomalous condition of the whole, economic life of the country, absolu-| tely deprived of any possibility of} existence and without a ray of hope) to change it under the present condi- tions. True, the party has entrenched | ~ itself particularly in the municipality | of Vienna and was developing there! a grand program of housing as well as a program of workers’ entertain- | ments, sport, education etc., thus} again offering the masses some re-| formist crumbs. But the masses had| to see their tenement law trampled} upon by the emboldened landlords and their treasured defence guard de- prived, thanks to the weakness of their leaders, of any real chance of arming itself. IN the meantime the fascist reaction was on the march. Events were developing in the neighboring Fas- cist Hungary that were not only strengthening the hand of Fascism in Austria but were foreshadowing | a possible plunging of the country in- to a violent counter-revolutionary turmoil with the figure of a Haps- burg returning to his “happy Aus- tria.” The provocations of armed Fas- cist Government with its reactionary police troops, recruited from the most backward peasant communities, against the defenseless workers reached a culmination point, The masses were demanding retaliation for their murdered brothers. Capi- | talist justice was freeing the mur- derers and mocking the workers. The masses lost patience. They were looking for leadership. The small Communist Party could not organize the movement, but it was able to penetrate it, give it the necessary slogans and put itself unflinchingly in its lead. The masses moved. HIS time the “model” Social Dem- ocracy could no more play with their usual phraseology, they had to face the rising masses, they had to act. And they acted so that their real role as the marauders of the revolutionary labor movement will no more be concealed to the Austrian working masses. They did everything not only to “bring order” into the mass movement, to retard its impe- tus, but in their political cretinism they decided to use this uprising of the masses to force their parliamen- tary schemes of a coalition govern-| ment with the very butchers of the masses. This they were doing at a time when they themselves by their anti-revolutionary tactics were de- priving the masses of every vestige | of forceful pressure. In consequence | they were slapped in the face by the| emboldened fascist Seipel govern- ment. " | | (We Austrian Social-Democracy has} now shown its counter-revolu-| tionary face to the masses. It has| clearly shown to the masses that it | cannot exist as the party of revolu- tionary hope; it has no future. To be sure, thanks to the fear of “interna- | tional complications,” of a foreign, invasion, and furthermore thanks to) the particular character of the Aus- | trian political life (practically a two-| party system), the Austrian Social- | Democracy will still be able to func- tion as a “People’s Party” and will try to resist a decline. The reported “heated debate” in the councils of the party about the immediate tac- tics proves that ordinarily patched- up differences between the “right” and the “left” elements in this cen- trist party will probably now be- come more apparent and will have to be actually fought out in the open. Bet more important than this is the fact that the Communist Party of Austria has in this movement re- ceived its new baptism. Onlv a short | who were in Berlin several years ago. Tolstoi’s “Power of | Darkness” Opens at) 55th St. Cinema | The Russian Cinema seems to be! in the air and on the screen. With! “Crime and Punishment” heavily at- tended, ‘Resurrection” in its Holly-} wood version showing throughout the | country, “Ana Karenina” announced | as Greta Garbo’s next vehicle, the | Slavic situation eventfully cli-| maxed by the 55th Street Cinema’s | presentation of the American pre-| miere of Tolstoi’s famous tragic in- terpretation of the Russian peasant’s | soul, “Power of Darkness” at the little film-house on 55th street. “Power of Darkness” is the sister | production of “Crime and Punish-| ment” directed as it is by the same | regisseur, Robert Wiene, who also gave us “Caligari.” These two sereen masterworks were made by a section of the Moscow Art .Players Wiene has departed from his usual employment of distorted scenic back- grounds to achieve his effects in “Power of Darkness,” Instead he has | inspired in his cast an intensified and vivid characterization of all roles, even the smallest, which more than compensates for the lack of crooked streets and toppling buildings. Some European critics, particularly those | of the stage, have voiced the opinion! that they have never witnessed such deeply tragic emotional work as is projected by the Moscow Art Group. The famous writer’s son, Leo L. Tol-| stoi, who is now delivering a series | of lectures in this city on his father’s works is expected:to attend the pre- miere. | The surrounding program will in-| clude “The Life of Chopin,” ‘Manhat- ta,” a study in celluloid of Bagdad- on-the-Hudson and “Epitaphs,” a series of jocular tombstone gags. The Theatre Guild’s production of “The Silver Cord” will close at the Golden theatre tonight. A. H. Woods has acquired. for early production, an American com-| edy, titled “Beautiful But Dumb,” by 3 Fred Rath and Joseph J. Garren. The latter is the author-composer of “Collette,” which opens here in October. | Another closing listed for this evening is “Queen High” at the Am- bassador. The theatre will be dark until September when the new Schwab and Mandel show “Good News” opens. s The Palace program of the week inelude: Marion Harris, Walter Mc- Nally; Nitza Vernille, with Charles. Collins, Joseph Napolitano, and) Tosha Samarov’s Gypsy Quintette; William Gaxton, and Co, in “Part- ners,” by Leon Errol; Dewey Barto and George Mann; Al Shaw and Sam Lee; Fortunello and Cirillino; Van Horn and Inez and Julius Schichtl’s “Modern Marionettes.” Morris & Shaw; Hap Hazard; Jerome & Ryan are the feature acts at the Broadway theatre this week. | The playhouse is also showing the Dempsey-Sharkey fight pictures. time ago it has finally cast off the deadly factionalism that had been poisoning the whole life of the party for many years and has cost the party the loss of influence in the masses that they actually had pos- sessed before. The Communist Party of Austria is learning now how to become a mass party. It is being listened to with eagerness by the dis- illusioned working class of Austria. The recent events will surely bring it to the forefront of the Austrian | Workers Name | Address 4 Little Theatre GRAND mening WwW % my B'way. STREET The LADDER All seats are reduced for the summer. Best Seats Cort Theatre, 48 St. E. B'way. Matinee Wednesday. NOW PLAYING AMERICAN PREMIERE of the Remarkable Film Version of TOLSTOY’S “POWER OF DARKNESS” Enacted by Moscow Art Players Directed by ROBERT WIENE, direc- tor of “Cabinet of Calig: “Crime and Punishmen’ Continuous Performance 2-11:30 P.M. Popular Price: 55th St. Cinema West Just }\Let’s Fight On! Join The Workers Party! In the loss of Comrade Ruthen- berg the Workers (Communist) Par« ty has lost its fcremost leader and the American working class its staunchest fighter. This loss can only be overcome by many militant work. ers joiniiy the Party that he built. Fill out the application below and mail j* Become a member of the (Communist) Party and carry forward the work of Comrade Ruthenberg. I want to become a member of the Workers (Communist) Party. se eeeeeeee Occupation Union Affiliation erererrerr yy Mail this application to the Work- ers Party, 108 East 14th Street, New York City; or if in other city to Workers Party, 1118 W. Washington Blv., Chicago, Ill. Distribute the Ruthenberg pam- phiet, “The Workers’ (Communist) Party, What it Stands For and Why Workers Should Join.” This Ruthen- berg pamphlet will be the basic pam- palet 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 Distriop will get their pamphlets from the Dis- trict office—108 Kast 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, 1118 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Il. BUY THE DAILY WORKER working class. AT THE NEWSSTANDS long been outstanding ature. By John Pepper A COMMUNIST TRIA at the Bridgeman Trial By Karl Kautsky Books offered * in limite: NOTE a AT PECIAL PRICE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY E offer this combination of books (at a lower price) to acquaint as many work- ers as possible with some of the revolutionary history of this country. The third book has UNDERGROUND RADICALISM Extracts from the testimony of C. E. Ruthenberg THE CLASS STRUGGLE All Three for 50 Cents, NN quantiti * and filled in turn + in revolutionary liter- , 4 rd —10 L 25 —.25 in this column on hand All orders cash ‘eceivod,