The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 17, 1927, Page 7

THE AMERICAN “BLACK. SHIRTS” ° N a series of articles that appeared in the liberal weekly, “The Nation,” in July 1921, written by Arthur Warner, the statement is made’ that: “By the constitution of.the United States three branches of government were established; the leg- islative, the executive and the judicial. In the last two years a fourth has been set up: the American Legion.” * + * CG be the constitution provides for three branches of government. But this does not mean sure that they have any existence in actuality. The exe- cutive power, as administered by Cal Coolidge today on behalf of great business, is probably the mightiest ssed by any ruling potentate in the world The legislative branch of the government is It plays a puppet role, best revealed in its subservience to Coolidge-Kellogg-Wall Street policies in Nicaragua and China. The judiciary, also is the lap dog of the money power. If it remained shrouded in any shred of judicial hypocricy, that was torn from it by the failure of Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis D. Brandeis, heralded as pro- gressives, to interfere in the least with the legalized murder of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. * * * RTHUR WARNER was, therefore, entirely wrong when he referred to the American Legion as the fourth branch of the American government. When necessary the American Legion becomes the right hand of the executive power of the government, and in an extremity characterized by the rise to power of a fascist tyranny, it becomes the government it- self, with the So-called legislative and judiciary powers crumpled in the dust. This is something for the whole working class to consider with the American Legion spending a holi- day holding a convention in Paris, not to the liking of the workers of France, * * * ARNER, in fact, contradicts himself when he out- lines the nature of the American Legion as fol- lows: “Organized ostensibly to continue the friendships that developed in the fighting forces and to advance the legitimate interests of former service men, the Legion has grown away from that into a super- government. It gives orders to public officers and is fearfully consulted by them; it is accorded quasi- official standing thru the privilege of occupying government buildings, as in New York City where it enjoys commodious offices in the Hall of Records, or in Arkansas where the old State House at Little Rock was turned over to it; it has received from the War Department in advance of publication the so-called ‘slacker lists’, ostensibly to rectify errors, but with possibilities of abuse that can readily be imagined; it has established a censorship of public meetings and by actual cr threatened violence sup- presses freedom of speech; it is attempting to dic- tate the instruction in our public schools and pass upon the qualifications of the teachers; altho nom- inally non-political, it has actually sponsored a host of bigoted and repressive laws and policies.” * * * Then Warner, the liberal, joins the socialists in talking about “the return of the community to a ” normal existence,” and the demobilization of “intol- erant 100 per centism” and deflating “historic super- patriotism.” As if existence could be “normal” under capitalism; as if there could be “tolerance” under the system that battles for the private owner- ship of property. The applause of the Ameriean Legion, and of the ruling class generally, at the burning to death of Sacco and Vanzetti in the elec- tric chair is the best proof of capitalist “intoler- ance” in the so-called period of “normalcy.” * * * To be sure, the American Legion in different perieds functions in different ways. In the period immediately following the war, when the American Legion was first organized, this fascist crew was the forefront of the capitalist attack against radical workers’ organizations. Its shooting and hanging of innocent workers brought quick results for em- ployers who feared the desire of labor for organiza- tion. * * * With the crushing of the stee! strike, the railroad shopmen’s strike,» the several coal miners’ strikes, By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL and a host of smaller struggles, extreme measures on the part of the capitalist tyranny and its fasci lackey, the American Legion, became unnecessary, since the spirit of the workers, who had been be- trayed by their officials, was to a extent large broken. Mr. Warner continues: “Present tendencies in the American Legion ap- pear to be away from violence and intimidation, but the change is one of practice, not principle. The Legion is still imbued with the spirit of repres sion and coercion, of prejudice and unreason which the war nourished.” ? But the fact that the last war retires into the background does not mean that the Legion will give up its violence and intimidation. There are new “war situations” in Nicaragua and China, the ger of the new war against the Union of Republics, the fact still vivid that following the exe cution of Sacco and Vanzetti hardly a hall in a the land was available for workers in which to hol memorial meetings for their dead. The Legionnaives are equally quick to respond as lobbyi lative halls or lynchers in the open game of murder. i 1 < sts in legis- The constitution of the Legion hypocritically de- clares that, “The American Legion shall be al lutely non-political and shall not be used for dis- semination of partisan principles or fer the promo- tion of the candidacy of any person seeking public office or perferment.” But this clause has meant nothing to the Legion conventions that have de- clared for rigid restriction of immigration, for the total exclusion of the Japanese; for universal com- pulsory military training, for the publication of the “slacker lists,” for congressional legislation requir RY oe i SA EAP aE a ing the basis of all instruction in elementary publie and private schools to be the “American language,” against the release of conscientious objectors, against the amnesty for political prisoners, and against he reduction of the army under 175,000 men. Let it selece tion of be remembered that it was a choice leading generals, admirals and diplomats, with the official blessmg of the government, whe the Maintenance of Supplies” during the general strike strikebreaki organized ng “Organization for Great last year in It is the same kind of an outfit that 2d the organiz American Legion in this country, and that will convert the legion to the same strike-breaking purposes, on a_ nation-wide , when the occasion requires. 1s the capitalist ¢ finds in the Amer- vern ion the best supp of its “blackshirt” In an extremi when the workers threaten to power, i the capitalist power that calls sm to take over the r ns of government and institute the “black shirt” under Mussolini in I , under De Rivera in Sp and-under a host of ican Legion “heroes” in many of Europe’s capitalist lands. tyranny that now reigns las remai rs of France to It } reveal to work the wor and farmers of the United States the reale fascist nature of the American Legion. Let American labor profit by this lesson to the full. It will s best insure the success of its strug; in the future in the time when the black shirt American Legion. whether under this or any other name, becomes the only and dominant branch in the American government.