The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 16, 1928, Page 6

+ x Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1928 THE DAILY WORKER Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS’N, Inc. Daily, Except Sunday $3 Ficst Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: “Datwork” SUBSCRIPTION RATES By Mail (in New York only): By Mail (outside of New York): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per year $3.50 six months é $2.50 three months. $2.00 three months. Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. ay es Phone, Orchard 1680 ROBERT MINOR -- WM. F, DUNNE Euterea as second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. the act of March 3, 1879. Editor.... Assistant am 21 ¥., under “The Reds Alone” “The one exception” says Mr. Julius Henry Cohen, open shop leader and chairman of the sub-committee of the American Bar Association, which offers the new anti-strike law proposal—“the one exception” to the unanimous approval of the effort to ham- | string the labor movement, “is the organ of the Communists.” And the New York Times writes in a headline; “Reds Alone Oppose Labor Peace Plan.” These labor-baiters have said more than they realize. . Of all forces in the labor movement, the “only” opposition to a measure proposal of major importance concerning the life and death of the trade unions, is voiced by the Communists. Does not this mean a little something more than the open-shopper, Mr. Julius Henry Cohen, realizes? The treacherous officials of the labor unions join with the most reactionary employers in propos- ing a law governing the lives of the trade unions from the benches of federal judges. aid of those leaders, being led into the trap. Mr. Cohen says that | only the Workers (Communist) Party thru its central organ, The DAILY WORKER is offering leadership against the anti-labor law. This is food for thot for millions of American workers. But Mr. Cohen makes one little mistake. He does not follow out his reasoning. He forgets the “little” fact that the American working masses will be compelled to oppose the anti-labor law. The logic of life itself will compel them to fight, and they, as well as Mr. Cohen, will see that the reactionary trade union bureau- cracy supports the anti-labor law that strangles them, and that | “the Reds alone” give the ringing call to battle against it. Therefore it will not continue ta be “the Reds alone.” be the Communist Party and the masses, Being “alone” in refusing to betray the workers, “alone” to take the lead in attacking the workers’ enemies, means to be with the masses when those masses move in their own interests. It will Lincoln and Revolution. That pompous ignoramus and defender of American imperi- alism, Senator Reed Smoot of Utah, utilized a Lincoln Day address at Washington to make a tirade against Bolshevism. Revealing his utter incapacity to deal intelligently with his subject he | lumped Communism, liberalism and ultra-pacifism together in the general category of “internationalism” and demanded their sup- pression. The Utah senator, in attacking pacifism, is unappreci- ative of one of the most malignant supporters of imperialism and p~-—-@uidcotly is not aware of the fact that Communists are the only real destroyers of pacifist illusions and that specific form of reac- tion that passes for liberalism. ‘ Smoot must also be ignorant of the publicly expressed opin- ions on revolution of the very man whose anniversary he utilizes to vent his spleen against all who are not old guard republicans or he never would have chosen such an occasion for his outburst. We are quite sure that Smoot and his ilk would never approve the following: “This country and its institutions belong to the people who in- habit it, Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing govern- ment they may exercise their constitutional right to alter or amend it, or their revolutionary right to dismember and overthrow it.” Those are the words of Abraham Lincoln, uttered on the oc- casion of his first inaugural address. It is a Lincoln quotation that is studiously avoided by those imperialist orators who know of its existence. Certainly, in view of such an utterance in one of his inaugural addresses, it is ridiculous for Smoot and the other supporters of Wall Street rapacity to try to inyoke the Lincoln tradition as justification of their crimes against the working class of the United States and their savage butchery of colonial andj; semi-colonial peoples. We do not base our revolutionary activity upon the utterances of Lincoln, or Jefferson or Payne. The present need for revo- lutionary action against imperialism is sufficient justification for us. We will not, however, permit the Smoots to utilize the tradi- tions of the outstanding figures of American history for their own reactionary aims. That “Hun” Propaganda A curious contrast between the sorely pressed British imper- ialism on the one hand and the savagely militant and powerful American imperialism of today is given in the incident of the “Edith Cavell” film, a moving picture show in which the old anti- German war-time bunk is the motif. Barred frem Great Britain, where the bourgeoisie fears the slightest offense to prospective customers in Germany, the film is said to be eagerly bid for by American capitalists. This sort of gutter-propaganda is still good for American internal consumption as a means of preparing the masses for the next world war—and it’s good even if the Wall Street Empire were to have an alliance with instead of against Germany. Nowhere in the world have the workers a bigger task of fighting the imper- jalist war propaganda than in this country. The most dengerous of that propaganda however, is the steady stream which is directed to psychologizing the American workers for a war of American imperialism against the Union of Socialist Soviet Repub. The He Didn’t Lie This Time ‘The British imperialist propagandist, Sir Phillip Gibbs, has, for some strange reason spoken a few words of truth — that “America is the most dangerous nation in the world today.” But \ he gives a confused reason, The real reason is that the Wall ‘Street Empire is the most capable of depredations on the rest of i slavery upon exploited class and peoples, capable of taking e lead in the next world war for the redivision of the world for xploitation. Witness the present criminal war on Nicaragua and the brilliantly advertised plan of conquest of all of Latin-America. Witness the Coolidge’s Four-Billion-Dollar Navy, deliberately planned for the coming world war. For once, and within certain limits, Gibbs didn’t lie. The Wall Street Empire is the most dangerous force in the world. Vid This means that so far as these “fat boys” | are concerned, the workers without leaders, or rather are with the} “Edith Cavell” slush, with all its high price, is only poate Dolaen! | | | | “THERE ARE 400,000,000 OF US!” The Revolution Spreads to the Chinese Villages. By Fred Ellis EDITOR’S NOTE—A Joffee, for many years a member of the Com- munist Party, recently committed suicide in Moscow, leaving a letter in which he attacked the Party, the Communist International and the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics from the point of view of the petty- bourgeois class, citing among other things the money contributions which he had made to the Party at a time when he was a prosperous petty bourgeois, remarking (from the class point of view of the petty bourgeoisie) the fact that the Revo- lution of the Russian working class | had confiscated his property, and renouncing the teachings of Lenin in favor of those of Trotsky. Mutilated and “edited” versions of this letter has been published in this country by various enemies of the working class. Not only in- cluding the capitalist press, but also the “New Leader,” organ of the socialist party. The latest of these mutilated versions was pub- lished by Mr. Max Eastman, the renegade “Communist,” in a recent number of “The Nation.” In that version Eastman omitted certain portions of the letter which most clearly showed the moral break- down and petty-bourgeois whining of Joffee. The DAILY WORKER will pub- lish the full text of the letter, the first part of which appears below. Joffe’s letter will be followed by an article commenting upon it by J. Yaroslavsky. The Joffe letter is as follows: . * * Joffe’s Letter to Trotsky. My dear Leo Davidovitch, I have all my life maintained that a politician, or any person occupying a public position, must understand when to retire from life, and that it is better to do so too soon than too late. When, long ago, the suicide of Paul Lafargue and his wife Laura Marx created a great stir in the var- ious socialist parties, I, inexperienced youth as I then was, emphatically championed the rightness in principle of their standpoint, and, as I still remember, I very vehemently replied to August Bebel, who was greatly in- censed at the suicide, that even though there might be objections to the age limit set by Lafargue and his wife, since it was here not a question of years but of the possible usefulness of a politician, the principle could by| I no means be attacked of the retire- ment of a politician from life as soon as ever he was convinced that he could be of no further use to the cause to which he had devoted all his efforts. More than thirty years ago I ac quired the philosophy that human life is only of value to us so long as and in so far as‘ it serves that infinity which mankind represents to our mind. Seeing that all else is finite, | work in its service is senseless; where- as humanity, though possibly not ab- solutely infinite, is yet not likely to | meet with its end for such long ages to come that it may be looked upon as an infinity. And he who believes in progress as I believe in it, can very well picture to himself that, even if our own planet perishes, man- kind will by that time know the means of removing to other, younger planets. my opinion the right to say that throughout my conscious life I have been true to my philosophy, that is to say that I have lived my life pur- posefully, because I have lived it in fighting for the dood of mankind. Even the years of imprisonment and penal servitude, during which a man is separated from the immediate participation in the fight and work for humanity, cannot be deducted from the number of purposeful years of his existence, since they served, as years of self-cultivation and self-edu- cation, for the improvement of later work, so that they too can be counted to the years of work in the service of mankind, i.e, to the purposefully spent years of a man’s life. In this sense of the word, I believe I can safely affirm that I have not spent a single day of my life purposelessly. Now, however, the moment is ob- viously approaching in which my life will lose its sense and in which I shall; consequently be faced with the duty of retiring therefrom, that is to say of ending my existence. Already for some years past, the present leaders of our Party—in keeping with their general policy of| not giving the members of the Oppo- sition any work—have refrained from employing’ me on any work, either in the Party or on the Soviets, of such a character or extent as would enable me to exploit my abilities to their maximum degree of utility. For the last twelvemonth, as you know, the Political Bureau has removed me,! as an Oppositionalist, from all Party| or Soviet activity. Had Been Inactive. On the other hand, partly perhaps as a result of my illness and partly} for reasons that you will know better) than I do, I have for the past year| taken hardly any part in the prac-/ tical oppositional struggle or in the} work of the Opposition, After great struggles with myself Russia without giving up my activity as a teacher, the Medical Commis- sion declared, in the presence of the chief physician of the Central Com- mittee, of another Communist doctor, and of A. J. Konnely, chief physician of the Kremlin Hospital, that the Russian sanatoria could by no means help me, but that I could hope to be cured abroad, seeing that hitherto I had never been treated abroad for more than two or three months at a |time, whereas now they must insist on a hospital treatment of at least half a year, without prescribing any maximum duration thereof; in such circumstances they did not doubt that, if not definitely cured, I could at least hope to be restored to sufficient health to be able to work again for a considerable time. Some two months after this consul- tation, the Medical Commission of the Central Committee, which had itself invited me to the said discussion, had not yet undertaken a single step, either in regard to my journey abroad or in connection with my treatment here. On the contrary, the Kremlin pharmacy, which had been wont to make up my prescriptions for me, had been forbidden to do so any further, so that I was deprived of the gra- tuitous medicaments I had been ac- customed to use and was forced to provide myself at~my own expense with medicines from the city apothe- caries. Obviously the leading group in our Party had about this time be- gun to fulfil their threat of “hitting the Opposition a blow in the stom- ach,” a threat also applying to the other members of the Opposition. Grew Worse. As long as I was still healthy to work, I did not trouble much about this. But as I grew worse and worse, my wife commenced to take steps with a view to having me sent abroad, |and applied not only to the Medical ;Commission of the Central Commit- and with extreme reluctance I turned! tee but also to N. A. Semashko in to that realm of work, to which I! person, who had always been loud had hoped to have recource only when’ jn’ advocating the principle of “pre- comfletely invalided, and devoted my-! serving the Old Guard.” The ques- self wholly and entirely to scientific,| tion, however, was shelved again and pedagogic, and literary matters. Hard as I found this at first, I gradually penetrated deeper into this work and began to hope that even in this con- nection my life would find that nec- essary inner usefulness of which I spoke above and which, according to ry standpoint, can alone justify my e, But my state of health grew worse and worse. Around the 20th of September I was, for reasons unbeknown to me invited by the Medical Commission of tion of specialists. The commission cess of both lungs, myocarditis (in- flammation of the cardiac muscles), chronic inflammation of ‘the bladder, chronic inflammation of the intes- tines and appendix, and chronic poly- neuritis. The examining professors told me categorically that my condi- tion was much worse than I had im- agined, and that I could not even hope to resume my courses at the high schools (1. Moscow State University and Institute for Oriental Research), indeed that it would be much more reasonable to give up all such ac- tivity. . Furthermore, I was to remain no the Central Committee to a consulta-; diagnosed an active tuberculous pro-! the world, capable of strangling weaker nations, capable of fasten-| True to Philosophy. Nonpen at Moscow and ought not to Mankind will thus continue to exist,!delay a single hour in getting treat- jand consequently everything done -in | ment, but should go abroad at once to \its service in our time will also leave|@ suitable sanatorium. Since, how- lits traces in those distant epochs of|ever, such a journey could not be the ‘future, thus imparting to exist-!effected in the space of one or two ence its sole possible sense and pur-| days, a certain treatment in the poly- pose. Herein and herein only can I|clinic of the Kremlin was prescribed recognize the sense of my own life.|for me in the interim. In answer to And if I now look back on my past|my direct question as to what pros- life, 27 years of which I have passed| pects of recovery I had abroad and in the ranks of our Party, I have in] whether I could possibly be cured in again and the only thing my wife could attain was that she was given | the medical diagnosis in writing. This ‘diagnosis enumerated my chronic dis- eases and pointed out that the coun- cil of doctors insisted on my going \abroad “to a sanatorium of the type of Professor Friedlander’s, for a stay of about one year.” In the meantime I have now been for about nine days in bed, since all my chronic ailments have aggravated and increased, as I suppose is only natural, and, worse than all clse, my old inflammation of the nerves has jentered upon an acute stage, so that I suffer excruciating pain and can no longer walk. As a matter of fact I have during these last nine days been without any medical assistance, and the question of my going abroad is being dis- cussed, Of the doctors of the Central Committee not a single one has been to see me, Professor Davodenko and Dr. Levin, who visited me, prescribed }Some trifles which were naturally of no avail, but themselves cOnfessed that they “could do nothing” and that it was essential that I should go abroad without delay. Dr. Levine ex- plained to my wife that the matter was presumably being delayed in the Medical Commission for the reason that the latter was under the im- pression that my wife would accom- pany me and that “would naturally cost very much.” If non-oppositional comrades fall ill, they, and sometimes also their wives, are sent abroad, ac- companied by our doctors or profes- sors; I myself know many such cases and must also admit that when I first contracted, my nervous disease I my-| of self was sent abroad together with| ing , ; er rd Pd i ’ The Letter of A. Joffe my wife and child accompanied by Dr. Kannabich. But at that time these newly-introduced usages were unknown in the Party. My wife replied that, however seri- ous my condition might be,-she by no means claimed that either she or any other of my relatives should be sent along with me, whereupon Dr. Levin assured her that in such a case the matter could be far more speedily settled. My condition is going from bad to worse, and the pains grew so atrocious that finally I was obliged to ask the doctors for relief of some kind, To- day Dr. Levin was here and repeated that they could do nothing and that the only salvation for me lay in a speedy departure abroad. In the evening my wife heard from Comrade Potemkin, the doctor of the Central Committee, that the medical council of the Central Committee had resolved not to send me abroad but rather to cure me in Russia, seeing that the specialists insisted on a more protracted treatment and considered a short treatment useless. On the other hand, the Central Committee was prepared to spend about $1,000 (2,000 roubles!) for this purpose; more than that could not be granted. As you well know, I have in the past more than once given our Party 1,000 roubles and certainly more than I have cost the Party since I was de- prived by the revolution of my for- tune and I could no longer pay for my own treatment. (To Be Continued). Octopus of Tory Imperialism’ People, with one ear lopped, try to conceal it with hair and avoid a crowd, But those both of whose ears have been chopped off imprudently pass through the ceritre of the vil- lage. Thus goes a Hindu proverb which embodies a psychological truth. This has been illustrated in the per- formance of The Daily Herald, an organ of the British imperialists in the guise of a labor paper. The Daily Herald seems to believe that the Indians decision to boycott the Simon commission was due mainly, if not solely, to misunder- standing, and misrepresentation of Labor’s attitude towards the commis- sion. The Herald’s theory is evidently based on the assumption that Indians set a great trust in the labor party and hoped to gain much from it. Labor Party Betrayed India. If Indians really cherished any such illusions were they not effectively dispelled by the labor government when it merrily fell in line with the bureaucracy in India and sanctioned the ordinance law in Bengal, which La put militant workers in jails to rol ~ By giving cordial support to the Simon commission, the labor party violated its own resolutivn passed ai the Blackpool conference only a, few weeks before the announcement of the Simon commission. Could the people of India hope to achieve any practical benefit from the professions of sympathy of such a party? Now; the Indian people are convinced that any labor M. P. is as good an im- perialist as a Churchill or a Birken- head. The labor organ is preaching to Indians “on the need of being a little more realistic in their interpre- tation of their slogan about getting their Swarajy by their own strength.” New Wave of Resistance. __ There is no more illusion and thi is why aba a new wave—a wave revolutionary movement—spread- in India to day. ‘§ The Trend in Colorado Labor By A. 8. The officials of the Colorado Fed- eration of Labor have been, for somé time now, more interested in their own political interests than in econo- mic and political interests of the workers of the state. Their policy, of course, has been orthodox—help- ing their “friends” and “punishing” their enemies. Really, their political activities have taken up so much of their time that they haven’t been able to any more than notice that the cab drivers of Denver should have been supported positively in the or- ganizational effort they made some- time ago. They didn’t have time to organize the miners throughout the state, let alone effectively oppose the cuts that were imposed upon them in 1925. The packing house work~ ers, the shopmen, the tramway men, all of them, not only suffered defeat under the leadership of Mr. Gross and Mr. Hoag and Mr. Howard and Company, but also no genuine effort was made to organize them again. Too Busy With Bosses. The bureaucrats were just too busy to take any part in the workers’ economic struggles! They did take part in their political struggles, or rather, in the political struggles of the republican and democrat parties, which is as much as to say that the workers were not in on the political struggles at all! Officials Benefit—Workers Lose. The federation officials probably benefited, but the rank and file work- ers did not. There were wage-cuts in the mining industry, wage-cuts in the steel industry, wage-cuts and speed-up for motormen and tramway conductors, unions were smashed right and left, strikers were treated brutal- ly, their strikes being put down by the use of steel and lead. Mr. Howard of the Colorado Fed- eration represents also the farmers, or at least, pretends to! In Weld county especially, agriculturajists once effectively making-a-go-of-it, have had to abandon the farms they used to own. All they have faced recently -have been debts, duns, mort- gages, bankruptcy, depression and disappointment. One used to read a good deal about the farmers’ cooper- atives of Colorado; but these, for the most part, are just mere names at present, the cooperatives as actual, existant economic forces in the hands of farmers, belonging to the past. Both Murderous Toward Labor. Now, it was a democrat who was governor when the United Mine Workers of America led the struggle which culminated’ with the Ludlow massacre in 1914 (the strike did not stop the day of the massacre, but Governor Ammons is just as guilty of. murdering Colorado coal miners as Governor Adams {s, and both of them bear the mark of Cain for the same reason—so that the miners might be further enslaved. Of course it would have been a gross error for the federation offi- cials to have supported the republican candidates in preference to the demo- erat; for they are fully as murder- ous when dealing with labor. Shoup, a republican, was governor in 1920 when tramway strikers were murdered in the city of Denver. Wat- erman, a republican, was “tickled to death” the day the Columbine mas- sacre took place, because (the reason was in the back of his head) he fore- saw this coming fall a republican victory. What Is Futare Policy? Will the organized labor of Colo- rado elect republican and democrat candidates this coming fall? After having concentrated their efforts more on the democrats than on the republicans and being considerably responsible for the election of Sweet as governor, Stapelton as mayor, and Adams as governor (it must be borne in mind that the wages of the miners were cut while Sweet was governor and Stapelton has worked hand in glove with Adams while the present strike has been going on), will the officials of the Colorado Federation endorse again a republican or a demo- erat capitalist politician? A Gain In Knowledge. The workers and farmers in Colo~ rado know what the two old parties mean to them, if they ask for bet- ter living conditions. They know that the agents of either of those parties will shoot them down, Col- umbine massacre is fresh In thelr minds. The prejudiced opinion as to the legality of the strike, the opinion of Attorney General Boatright, is nob forgotten. The hostile attitude to- ward the strikers of the state indus- trial commission 1s. vividly remem- bered. Farmers know their enemies by now. Capitalist class politicians, capitalist class parties are their ene- mies, ‘ Conflicting Interests. President Hoag gets his crumbs in the city hall of Denver, Secretary = |Gross and Mr. Howard are not in need. It may not be to their interesta for the workers to have a party of their own. But the workers, those who have minds with which to think, will want a Labor Party, and they will make it known at the conven- tion of the Colorado State Federa- tion of Labor when it convenes June. The farmers, who have with which to think, will also mand a party, of which they will their cooperatives and @ part. :