The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 3, 1928, Page 6

4 ka Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1928 THE DAILY WORKER —_—___—______. Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Inc, Daily, Except Sunday $3 Fiest Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: SUBSCRIPTION RATES By Mail (in New York only): By Mail (outside of New York): $2.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per year $3.50 six months $2.50 three months. $2.00 three months. Phone, Orchard 1680 “Datwork” ‘Addrest and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 3% First Street, New York, N. Y. ..ROBERT MINOR .WM. F. DONNE ~office at New York, N. ¥., under 3, 1879. Entered as second-class mail at the po the act The Anti-Strike “Formula”~-A Conspiracy Against the Whole Working Class The anti-strike and “peace in industry” proposal made by the American Bar Association and endorsed by the official com- mittee of the American Federation of Labor, on which hearings will be held February 16, 17 and 18 in the New York City head- quarters of the bar association, is the fruit of a conspiracy en- tered into by the class.enemies of labor and reactionary labor officialdom. Here in the “formula” of the bar association worked out in conference with the blackest section of labor officialdom, is the synthesis of “trade union capitalis ciency unionism, “nonpartisan” political action. In other words this “formula” which is to be enacted into law if the plans go thru, is the quintessence of the surrender policy carried out by a whole series of rapid maneuvers in the last five years by labor officialdom. The “formula” is to be translated into an “American labor | policy.” Working hand in hand with Wall Street government it} is the logical step following the adoption of the “Monroe doctrine of labor” for enslaving the Latin American masses. It is the lineal descendant of the “higher strategy of labor”—the theory that denies the class struggle which rages in acute form in Penn- sylvania, Ohio, West Virginia.and Colorado at the exact moment that peace in industry obtained by surrender of the workers is preached by the bureaucrats and the bar. | The government of Wall Street is to be the arbiter of wages | and working conditions and the instrument for enforcing obedi- ence to decisions--from the workers. This is the “solution” for low wages, speed up, unemployment put forward by the official leaders of the labor movament. The united front of reaction must be smashed. It can he broken only by the most energetic and tireless work in the ranks of American toilers. * To expose the slave conspiracy, to prevent the enactment of the slave legislation proposed, to drive out of the labor movement those officials who are trying to sell our en- tire class to its oppressors is a major task of our Party and every section of the labor movement. The American working class, once it knows the sinister pur- port of the proposals of the labor officialdom, will not be long in showing its determination to submit to no further assaults upon its organizations and living standards. Kellogg’s Ban on the Soviet Union Railway Loan ihe state department continues its hostile policy toward the Soviet Union. But whether Secretary of State Kellogg’s denuncia- tion of the $30,000,000 Soviet Union railway loan, now being floated by the Chase National bank and other smaller financial institutions, is a hangover from the past or a sign of an intensifi- cation of hostility toward all moves leading toward recognition, remains to be seen. It will be interesting to watch the reaction of the Chase Na- tional bank, the second largest financial institution in the United States, to the state department’s objections. Undoubtedly the feverish protest made by the National Civic ¥ederation against the flotation of the Soviet Union railway loan has a lot to do with the public attitude of the state department. Kellogg himself, as one of the leading lights of the “Bolshevik menace to American institutions” school has to do something to save his face. It is obvious that when one has been claiming, as has Matthew Woll, one of the most active henchmen of the state department, that the Soviet Union is flooding the United States with gold for the purpose of “financing subversive propaganda,” it is embarrassing in the extreme to have the Soviet Union come into the American financial markets for a loan. Unless something can be done about this by the professional anti-Soviet Union propagandists they run the danger of being forced to admit that revolutionary movements, the Communist Party of America in this case, arise out of the class struggle in their respective countries and while they derive inspiration, guid- ance and support from more experienced revolutionary movements in other countries, the Soviet Union in this case, they must de- pend upon the working class at home for their existence. It is only by their services to the working class that they can live and work for the overthrow of capitalist imperialism. But apart from the “Russian gold” theory, there is evident in the anti-Soviet Union policy of the state department the hatred of the ruling class for the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics which overrides even the desire for interest and profit. Not even the growing antagonism between British and American imperial- ism can prevent Wall Street’s state department from banning the Soviet Union railway loan while Royal Dutch Shell, Britain’s oil trust, is locked in struggle with Standard Oil over the question of the purchase of oil from the Soviet Union. It is from such incidents as this that thru the fog of imperi- alist propaganda and intrigue we see clearly the main line of struggle today—that between the Soviet Union, symbolizing the class interests of the workers, farmers and oppressed colonial peo- ples, and the imperialist powers. When the United States senate voted 53 to 31 against the. “oolidge program of selling the government-owned morchant r'ne to private capitalists, it came near being a division along y lines---with the “insurgents” counted as a separate party Ki y bich in this, ease is found in alliance with the democratic party. | The roll of those republicans who voted with the democrats for the Jones bill against the Coolidge plan reads like a roll of the insurgent and near-insurgent caucus, except for the strange pres- ence of Willis of Ohio, who is famous for the saying: “Harry M. Daugherty is as clean as a hound’s tooth,” but who is now a can- didate for president. With this exception the so-called republican votes that were cast with the democrats for the bill was for the ‘most part the traditional small capitalist opposition to the policies of Wall Street. The democratic vote, however, was purely a pre-presidential ~>-e--aign vote, Such antagonists within the democratic party as .” the “B. and O.” plan, effi- | | | ACROSS THE TRAIL , By Fred Ellis Matthew Woll, vice president of the A. F. of L. and acting president of the “red-baiting” National Civic Federation, is fighting against the recognition of the workers’ government of the U. S. S. R. By JACK STACHEL H hoes Central Executive Committee of our Party has taken a very im- portant step forward when it decided on the organization of a full-time three months _ trainin, course “for Party” it other Party workers. Lenin understood, full well the im- portance of training Party. leaders, Party organizers, Party propagand- ists. In the teachings of Lenin, par- ticularly his writings connected with the building of the Russian Bolshevik Party, we find numerous remarks on this score that could well be ap- plied to our party. And Lenin not only wrote about these things, but saw to it that they were carried into prac- tice and thus he built the strong and powerful Bolshevik Party of Russia that took power in 1917. Lenin not only wrote, “Not a single class in history achieved power with- out putting forward its political leaders and spokesmen capable or or- ganizing the movement and leading it,” but also set himself to the task of training these leaders and preparing them to lead the masses. In the present period of the great offensive of the employers of this country openly in alliance with the labor bureaucrats, the Wolls and the Greens, in their efforts to destroy the trade unions, part and parcel of the entire plan to mobilize the entire country for a coming imperialist war, we find at the same time a growing consciousness on the part of the masses, a left trend, a resistance to the offensive of the employers as is testified by the heroic struggle of the miners in Pittsburgh, Ohio and in Colorado, by the resistance to wage-cuts on the part of the textile and show workers of New England and by numerous other struggles. At his moment when we are face to face with coming important struggles, the following writing of Lenin must be taken to heart by us: “The ‘material elements’ of our movement have grown enormously since 1898, but the conscious lead- ers (Bolsheviks) lagged behind this growth. This is the principal rea- son for the crisis which Russian So- cial Democracy is now experienc- ing. The mass (spontaneous) move- ment lacks “ideologists” sufficiently d theoretically to be able to and all waverings; it lacks leaders with the wide political out- look, revolutionary energy and or- ganizing abilities required to es- tablish a fighting political Party on the basis of the new movement.” While we are in a sense much bet- ter off than were the early Social Democrats (Bolsheviks) of Russia at that time, because we have a, well or- ganized and centralized Party fol- lowing the leadership of the world Party, the Communist International, yet much of what has been said above is true of our Party as well. Par- ticularly the fact that the material elements are growing more favorable for the development of a mass Com- munist Party in this country and that we really lack capable forces as or- ganizers and leaders of the move- ment. In the present period we will find the workers ready to struggle. We have the task before us of or- ganizing the unorganized, of organ- izing a struggle against war, and we must have the forces to lead such struggles. The decision of the Central ae utive Committee to hold a_ three- month training course at this time, A Great Forward Step of Our Party therefore, will be greeted by all com- rades. It will mean the training of ‘additional forces that will be abie tu {go out into the field and become the | spokesmen and leaders in the strug- | gle of the masses. The students. to this school will not be those who come for academic train- ing. They are workers from the fac- tories who are chosen for this train- ing not so much because of their preparation, altho this is taken into |account, but chiefly because of their devotion to their Party, and their will- ingness to fulfill the following teach- ing of Lenin: “We must train people who shall devote to the revolution, not only their spare evenings, but the whole of their lives. We must set up an organization sufficiently large in order to be able to introduce a strict division of labor in the vari- ous forms of our work.” When we consider how few really capable and trained forces our Party has then we will appreciate the full meaning and significance of the train-, ing of fifteen or so comrades for lead- ing work in the Party. \The entire Party must support the national full time training school. Support at the present time, since the students in the main are already selected, means chiefly supporting the students who are coming here finan- cially, providing for them books, room, board, etc. It will cost quite a sum of money to keep these comrades here for ful. time three months and provide for them. We, therefore, ask all those comrades that can contribute and all sympathizers that can contribute tc write to the National Organization, Dept., 43 E. 125th St., New York City. All comrades in New York City that are ready to provide three months lodging for any of the students arc asked to communicate also with the organization department. New York workers should gather im mass at Irving Plaza Hall next Wednesday night to give the students from all over the country a prole- tarian welcome. The Urge for Wage Cuts, Wider Markets and Cheaper Raw Materials By WILLIAM F. DUNNE. Certain recent articles carried by such publications as The Annalist (“a journal of finance, commerce and economics”) issued by the New York Times, indicate clearly three things: 1. That there is being carried on a steady propaganda for the lowering of “production costs’—which means wage-cuts for the working class— ostensibly in order to meet foreign competition. 2. That the manufacturing capi- talists are far from enthusiastic at the present prospgct of building “a favorable trade balance.” 3...That powerful sections of the capitalist class are demanding a more aggressive struggle for markets and raw materials—especially in Latin America and China. Emmet Harris, writing in The An- nalist for December 16, under the heading: “Growing Competition From Europe in the Far East and Its Significance” takes as his main thesis the following: “Until we can reduce our costs so as to guarantee a profit in foreign EEE Walsh of Massachusetts and his favorite enemy, Heflin of Ala- bama, as well as Swanson of Virginia and his opponent, Jim Reed of Missouri, with Bruce of Maryland and Wheeler of Montana, forgot their disagreements on such questions as the world court, the Hearst forgeries and the catholic church and voted as good party men to uphold, as a unit, the Woodrow Wilson tradition of government ownership and operation of the merchant marine. This breaking away from their traditional platform, ag a part of the Wall Street republican-democratic coalition, on the part of the majority group of the democratic party is at least partly influenced by a desire to create the fiction of democratic party unity before the election campaign begins. On such issues it is even permissable to deviate from the traditional class base long enough to gain a slight party advantage, But the artificial alli- ance of Tuesday cannot conceivably last. As to the actual merits of the case, this adverse vote, even if approved by the lower house of congress, wifl not harm the Coolidge big navy program. Let no one imagine that the Coolidge proposal to sell the merchant marine is a step toward government centralization. It is just the opposite. The reason that Coolidge favors private development of the merchant marine, under the watchful eye of officials of the navy department, is because such a move will take the question of the building of such an auxiliary force out of the hands of congress and place it unofficially under direct control of the executive department of the government. If the Coolidge program is defeated in the lower house it only means the same goal will be reached through manipulation of congress, instead of by the navy department. ot * th markets there is surely no ad- vantage in seeking volume produc- tion in any export line. Only after our costs are on a parity with those of our foreign competitors will mass production for export become prac- ticable. Foreign competition, there- fore in neutral markets, is the thermometer which gives our econ- omic temperature. If it registers high costs and is rising it may signify a serious condition in the body economic. -We have not been a creditor nation long enoygh to rest on our laurels .. . any modi- fication of present world conditions which ¢hould interfere with interest payments on our loans could leave us in a very undesirable situation, provided we build our whole struc~ ture largely on the income from foreign investments.” (Emphasis our.) The writer points out that German steel products, with freight and duty | paid, are being sold 10 to 16 per cent under the domestic price. He points out further that American business- men have lost 84 per cent of China’s machinery trade since 1920, while German gained 17 per cent, Great Britain 8 per cent and Japan 2 per cent. He concludes that “the signifi- cance of all this . . . is the trend to- ward the purchase of European goods which neutral buyers are showing be- cause of lower prices and better credit terms.” ‘ The falling merchandise trade bal- ance is worrying the capitalist ex- perts. This favorable balance has fal- len from $711,000,000 in 1922 to $377,- 000,000 in 1926. Harris shows that his balance is made up largely of surplus exports to Australia and Canada and not of. surplus mer- chandise exports to Asia and Latin America, Harris says: “Our increasing demands for raw silk, rubber, tin, coffee, nitrate, etc, from Asia and South America has piled up our merchandise indebted- ness from $500,000,000 in 1922 to $950,000,000 in 1926... . In other words, our 1922 excess of exporis of $711,000,000 has now been prac- tically cut in half, owing principally to our increasing demands for those raw materials which we can not pro- duce at home.” (Our Emphasis.) Here is the practical expression of the feverish hunt for and conquest of raw materials which Lenin. showed was one of the characteristics of im- perialism. This and the constant ate tacks on the living standards of the masses, while maintaining allies by higher wages and the granting of cer- tain privileges among the labor aristo- eracy, stamps the present period as one of struggle for our class. Lower production costs mean lower ‘wages and cheaper raw materials— both the working class at home and the colonial masses are brought with- in the sphere of exploitation. It is admitted that the income from international loans will take care oi all foreign charges and still leave a favorable balance, but the writer car not refrain from asking the some- what querulous question: “While it is true... that we might allow our favorable merchandise balance to dwindle until we were practically de- pendent upon interest on our invest- ments to meet all these charges, is this a healthy position for our manufac- turers to be placed in?” (Our Em- phasis.) The powerful position of finance capital is to be seen in the timid manner in which the writer voices the woes of the industrial capitalists. But no such hesitation and timidity is'to be noticed in the final conclusion which puts the case for the commodity. expor'ing capitalists in the following definite form: “With European and colonial: mar- kets for our manufactured goods be- ing gradually closed to our trade by one artificial device after another with domestic industries springing up throughout the world, wih our an- ual. payments abroad for raw ma- terials... mounting higher each year, we can ill afford to cease our efforts to retain our foothold in the great neutral markets of Latin American and China... .” (Ameri- ean policy at the Havana Pan-Ameri- can Conference.) The export of finance capital, while it enables the borrower nations to buy such things as railroad and factory equipment from the indus'rial capi- talists in the exporting countries;also builds native industry which supplies the needs of populations formerly purchasing foreign goods and at a further stage enters into the world markets in competition with the older capitalist nations. This intensifies the struggle for raw materials and adds to the im- perialist antagonisms while the ef- forts of the capitalists who formerly enjoyed a practical monopoly in these Wire ity SPARKS From the NEWS age president of the New York Stock Exchange, Mr. E. H. Sim- mons, has broken a precedent. It is seldom that Stock Exchange presi- dents break precedents. When they do so, however, it pays them. Mr. Simmons has come out with a declar- ation before the Society of Engineers of Western Pennsylvania to the ef- fect that the United States will con- tinue its prosperity. Why does Mr. Simmons find it necessary to break the precedent of silence usually main- tained by stock exchange presidents. The fact of the matter is that soi of the basic props of America pro} perity have been violently shaken the last eight months. Of course, the; have not yet been totally undermined. If they were, Mr. Simmons wouldn’t waste his time talking about them becatise then, asa practical man, he would know that talk would not be in place for him when there is no chance of fooling the masses. Today there is still some chance of successfully spreading the psychology amongst the masses, that prosperity is a permanent feature of American capitalism. It is true increasing sec- tions of the working masses and the exploited farming masses are less and less susceptible to such ridiculous propaganda. Mr. Simmons said that prosperity is here with us forever. For the same reason Mr. Coolidge told the world that there is no danger in the highly stimulated brokers’ loans. Those speakers were simply propaganda speakers trying to hide ,| "he deep-going recession in American industry. On the same day that Mr. Simmons gave his sales talk, the rail- roads indicated a decline of from 25 to 30 percent during the last quarter of 1927—the. lowest point in railroad income since December, 1921. In the last resort, of course, the workers will have to pay for this drop of income in the profits of the railway barons, unless they firmly resist and hit back hard. The pay envelope and the unemployment fig- ures tell a different story from the one told by Mr. Simmons. Mr. Sim- mons even makes himself sufficiently ridiculous to say that anybody who talks of a decline in prosperity in the United States is a foreign propa- gandist. Mr, Simmons asks us to reject the “foreigner’s” viewpoint. The decline of industry, the severe sconomic recession, the deepening in- dustrial depression, are made in \merica and are suffered by Ameri- can workingmen and exploited farm- ers. Mr. Simmons is just blowing hot and cold. His stuff is threadbare. “ * # Sas Senate Committee investigating the Teapot Dome oil scandal has subpoenaed B. G. Dawes, president of the Pure Oil Company and brother of United States Vice-President Dawes in the Teapot Dome scandal hearings. Let no one have any misgivings. The vice-president’s brother is not go- ing to jail. He is too big and success- ful a capitalist robber to be impris- oned. If jails were to be the reward of capitalist thieves, we would have overwhelming prosperity in the build- ing industry in the construction of jails. But no such fate or.luck will befall the exploiters until a different day has arrived in the United States. The whole Harding-Coolidge cabinet is soaked in oil. Hughes’ whiskers and coat-tails have always dripped oil. But no one would dare accuse so honest and pure a man of being in- volved in a scandal. Mellon is soaked in bootleg alcohol when he is not in oil. daughter” are expressive symbols of American democracy pure and simple. The significant feature about the subpoena of Dawes’ brother to the senate commit'ee is that it is simply further evidence of the fact that the ramifications of this scandal are un- bounded. Oil plays a decisive role in capitalist polities precisely because it plays such a decisive role in capital- ist economy. The vastness of this scandal is only an indication of the oneness of the big business leaders with the government apparatus. —JAY LOVESTONE. eee fields to reduce the wages and living standards of the workers at home in order to meet the new competition, sharpens the class struggle. We can see these processes theor- ized from the capitalist standpoint, and justified, in such articles as the one quoted, right here in the United States. > Back of the financial and industrial capitalists, in spite of the conflict of interests which arises over such is- sues as the tariff, foreign policy, ete, stands the power of their govern- ment, The government of the capitalist backs both the efforts to reduce the living standards of the workers—ag it is doing now in the coal fields— and their schemes for securing their foreign loans, obtaining the cheap raw materials, and extending their markets in weaker countries—as 19 being done now in Nicaragua, and in somewhat different form in Mexico and China. - These are the conditions which put the building of a powerful and mili- tant labor movemerft in the United’ States and unity with the oppressed peoples in Latin America and\ China. as the first point on the order of busi- ness of the working class with no time to waste. Harding and the “president’s .