The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 21, 1928, Page 6

THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESD/.Y, FEBRUARY 21, 1928 THE DAILY WORKER a 7 Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Inc. Daily, Except Sunday 83 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: 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 $2.50 three months. $2.00 three months. | Phone, Orchard 1680 “Daiwork” —_— ¢ ‘Addrest and mail out checks to SHE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. -ROBERT MINOR .. WM. F. DUNNE 31 Rditor......... 7 «Assistant Editor.. Butered es second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. ¥. the act of March 3, 1879. under Lewis Gang Resorts to Murder John L. Lewis and Rinaldo Cappellini evidently think,as many | have thot before them, that if their gunmen shoot down, one by | one, all whom the miners select to represent them, they can win in | the desperate effort to hold the Miners’ Union for the coal opera- | tors. The murders of Lillis, Joe Cicero and “Big Sam” Grecio, the attempt to murder Frank Benito, which resulted in the shooting of the gunman, Agati, and the threat to murder Alex Campbell are part of a consistent policy of the Lewis machine in the anthra- cite. Murder as a method is nothing new, and it is a typical method of reactionary forces thruout the world. There have been and still are fools and liars who say that the method of assassination is a method of revolutionary workers. On the contrary, it is not and cannot be. Historically and in the every-day practice of all forms of reaction, monarchist fascist, bourgeois (and on down to Gom- persism in struggle against the militant workers), assassination is the typical weapon of reactionaries where the arm of the capital- ists’ legal means of murder is not sufficient for their purpose. But the coal miners of the Anthracite fields are no cowards and the methods of assassination will not cow them, will not bend them one inch from the struggle for their Union, but will only steel them for a sharper and more determined fight. They have faced the gunmen of the operators many times in the past score of years, and will face the gunmen of Cappellini, the operators agent, just as readily, At the worst, the coal miners can be de- pended upon to defend themselves and their chosen representatives against the Cappellini gang of killers. The dastardly charge of “murder” against Benito whose only offense was that he prevented his own assassination by shooting the gunman first, is another hideous example of the methods of the reaction. The frame-up system is no less dangerous than the pullets of Cappellini’s gang. It is to be hoped and expected that the coal miners of District 1, will-adequately defend themselves trom the bullets of thé assassins, and will not let their leaders be shot down, But they must not lose sight of the prime necessity and fail to seize the present opportunity to weld the courage of the miners into a big and strong defense organization. The hangmen will try, by perjured testimony and the trappings of the “frame- up,” to finish what Cappellini’s gunman failed to do to Frank Be Therefore organize all the militant workers in the An- theacite into a powerful arm to save him—organize the Interna- tional Labor Defense. The “Save the Union” conference is the biggest means by which the miners can mobilize their forces to put an end to the methods of murder, pillage, bribery, selling out and strike-breaking, which are the methods of Lewis, Cappellini & Co. The reign of terror must be answered by sweeping this gang of murderers headed by Cappellini into oblivion as far as the Union is concerned. If Cap- pellini must continue to curse the coal miners with his presence in Eastern Pennsylvania, let it be as an open member of a coal company detective agency, where he belongs. “Cappellini must go!”’—the miners say. Right. And the miners must see to it that his assassins are put out of business. Frank Benito must be saved from the clutches of the frame-up. The “Save the Union” moventent in the Anthracite must be swelled to a flood by the blood of Lillis, of “Big Sam” Grecio, and of Joe Cicero. The Miners’ Union must be saved. Mr. Aillquit “Revivified c The announcement yesterday from the law-offices of the socialist party leaders to the effect that that party will be “re- vivified and once again become a factor in American politics” is interesting even tho it is only about 90 per cent untrue. Altho the “revivifying” fluid in the form of money is formally requested of workers and workers’ organizations, the statement itself shows that the yellow leaders have little else to say about the working class, and absolutely nothing to say for the working class. The present class character of the socialist party is further indicated by the conditions on which they hope to “inherit the mighty protest vote of the LaFollette campaign.” The socialist party hopes to be revivified by means of drawing into its own com- position the lower strata of small-town capitalists to take the place of the working-class elements which it has lost. This is clearer when we reall the Hillquit plan for the new form of or- ganization—a non-dues-paying form modelled after the Tammany hall type. A vote cast for the party, and not the holding of a card, payment of dues, and party discipline and activity, is to make one a member of the party. The “mighty protest vote” is not to be drawn after the social- ist party, according to the plan of its leaders, but the socialist party as a shell of a formerly working-class organization is to be dismantled and its fragments swallowed by a new leadership com- posed of the Hillquit-Oneals together with the homeless democratic and republican politicians of the LaFollette movement. _ And already the petty-bourgeois policies of the socialist party begin to look more and more like the typical “non-partisan” poli- cies of trying to get results out of the democratic and republican parties by means of “pressure.” For the newest declaration of the socialist party says that “it will do its best to make the old party candidates face at least some of the issues without straddling them.” The “most successful” campaign which these pseudo-socialists foresee will be a house-cleaning in which all working-class furni- ture is to be left behind while the “socialist” lawyers, store-keep- ers and superintendents move into a new flat with the democratic and republican lawyers, etc., a flat which will be steam-heated - the steam heat. " uccessful campaign” should be one in which all strag- lass elements that may remain in the socialist party od and fight, ayainst\it as the most ae | urg an en: our class. z necessary for “workers and workers’ organizations” to supply The a gling working- get out of it fe from the plant of the small capitalists. At any rate it will not |< THE HRADLESS Satake a By Fred Ellis John D. Rockefeller Jr. spends a million dollars on the cheap labor of unemployed workers at his Sleepy Hollow estate. He calls it charity. The Philosophy of D EDITOR’S NOTE—This is a con- tinuation from yesterday’s issue of fhe DAILY WORKER of a dis- cussion of a letter written by A. Joffe before his suicide in Moscow a few weeks ago. In yesterday’s issue the author of this com- mentary, Comrade J. Yaroslavsky, quoted the report of a member of the Medical Commission of the Cen- ‘ral Committee of the All Union Communist Party showing that the condition of Joffe was beyond all possibility of cure. Cane ee (Continued from Last Issue.) It is very sad that the Party should be obliged to answer such charges. 3ut what else can be done when the arty is accused of not even agree- .ng to spend 1,000 roubles on the -reatment of the sick comrade, where- as in reality, if we consider only the treatment abroad during a period of -hree years, 36,000 roubles were spent on Comrade Joffe’s health. Let the proletariat judge whether this is a case of stinginess or whether we were not rather as generous as this coun- try can afford to be only in very ex- ceptional cases. Not Communist Attitude. But physical suffering is one thing and the complaint of having been de- prived of a fortune by the revolution is another. Before the war, Joffe ceally was a rich man. But is it a proletarian characteristic to complain chat the revolution has deprived a nember of the Party of his fortune? The proletariat takes part in the revo- ution and knows that by the revolu- ion it can but “lose its chains and gain the whole world.” No, the com- laints of Joffe do not spring from proletarian soil. They represent the hilosophy of the petty-bourgeois vevolutionary, who before his death asts up accounts in his note-book and eckons that he has spent so-and-so 1uch more on the Party than the Par- y has spent on him, That is a rotten ort of “philosophy.” That is not a Sommunist attitude towards the Par- y and the working class. Just as inadequately founded is hat the Party would not permit Joffe -o write memeirs to the order of the Anglo-American bourgeoisie without the least control, and that the Party lemanded the right of previously re- vising all that might be published by a member of the Party holding a diplomatic position, It is not only the right but also the duty of the Party, to demand such a revision b: che Political Bureau of the Central Sommittee or by the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. And it is a di- rect shame to have to read this com- plaint that in this way Joffe lost $20,- 00, and it is a still greater shame that such considerations should serve to conceal the fact that Joffe was in- serested in reporting characteristics of the “real leaders of the revolu- ion.” And that at the order of An- slo-American publishers! Such a rot- ten philosophy must be eradicated root and branch wherever its seed has fallen. It must be destroyed as anti- proletarian. “The Party has offended me.” He complained that the Party, actuated by the principle of “not giving the members of the Opposition any work,” had not accorded him (Joffe) any work, “either in the Party or the iets, of such a character and ex- 5 ; would enable me to exploit ny abilities to their maximum deé- sree of utility.” Accusation Untrue. We all know that this is not true, The Party entrusted the Opposition- ists with responsible positions, even was he represented as having affirm- he personifies the vit ‘with government positions (two Peo- ple’s Commissaries, I: N. Smirnov and Byeloborodov) until the time of the XV. Party Congress, until a time when Opposition openly committed actions hostile to the Soviets (illegal, anti-Party printing, street demonstra- tions, organizations of the illegal Red Cross with the participation of A. Joffe, even for the support of anti- Soviet and anti-Party activity), Who- ever reads through Joffe’s letter at- tentively must say that the Party had no right to repose further confidence in people that could act in such a way towards the Party. In one of the illegal publications (“Material for Discussion” of Novem- ber 24th, 1927), the Trotskyites at- tempt to “explain Joffe’s complaint that even the Opposition had not given him any occupation in keeping with his importance. Joffe’s friends kept him away from open (but not from secret? J. Y.) and active opposi- tional work, fearing that as a penalty, he would be prevented from going abroad for a longer cure, without which his work would necessarily be short-lived. A curious explanation. Usually the Opposition complained, both in the Executive Committee of the Commun- ist International and in the Party, of the contrary fact, they complained that they were sent abroad. It is easy to see how miserable, how hypo- critical this “explanation” is. As a matter of fact, Joffe was so ill from the effects of morphinism, that neith- er the Party nor the Opposition could entrust him with any important tasks, “In the face of death men do not lie.” What “truths” Joffe pro- claimed in regard to himself and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, we have seen. For such “truths” we can find a justification only if we disregard the fact that the letter was expressly jwritten to be exploited against the Party. The entire morale of Joffe was so undermined by the illegal ex- istence of the Trotsky group that he was even capable of proclaiming “I heard with my own ears how Lenin admitted that you and not he was right in 1905.” In the face of death men do not tell lies. “I have never doubted,” writes Joffe to L. Trotsky, “that the way pointed out by you was the right way, and you’ know that I have been going the same way as you for more than 20 years, since the be- ginning of the permanent revolution.” When and where did Joffe hear Lenin say that even in 1905 not he, ¥ | Lenin, and the Bolshevik Party, but Trotsky with his theory of the “per- manent revolution” was right, a the- ory which Lenin was wont to call “disgustingly left?” Was this not a hallucination of a morphinist suffer- ing from rightmare? If in 1905 not _Lenin bat Trotsky was in the right, thén Trotsky was also right in the following years, and the Bolshevist Party were wrong. Joffe “never doubted the correctness of the way pointed out by L. Trotsky,” not even | when Trotsky formed the August 'bloe, not when at the time of the im- perialist war he wavered between the Bolshevists and the Menshevists, nor yet at the time of Brest, nor in the trade union discussions. -The Bolshe- | vist Party, however, not only doubted, and Lenin not only doubted, that this way was right; but in a whole series of literary productions they most em- phatically condemned Trotskyism, both in 1905 and in the following years. } The Real Purpose. What purpose was this calumnia- tion of Lenin intended to serve? ‘Why ed several times that the Party had jerred and that Joffe and Trotsky were right, if not with a view to proving the relations between the Trotsky \fraction and the name of Lenin, which they have so unpardonably misused? Nor is this a chance, mor- bid attack on the part of Joffe; it is part of the same philosophy of de- cadence which invents facts (“I heard with my own ears’) for the purpose of justifying the mistaken paths of Trotzkyism. If the actual, non-invented facts, if all the things that Lenin said and did, contradict Trotzkyism and the assertions of the Trotzkyites, then all the worse for those facts, say Trotzky’s adherents. * * * In keeping with what Joffe’s teach- er, L. Trotzky, was wont to say, Joffe could not but estimate the ex- clusion from the Party of Zinoviev and Trotzky as “a historical event of great significance,” which was “bound to be the beginning of the Thermidorian period of our revolu- tion.” And just as the heroes of the petty- bourgeois Social-revolutionary Pariy imagined that they were giving an incentive to the movement of the masses by a provocative terrorism, Joffee also tried to impart a heroic motive to his suicide. He describes it as concurring wi.h that “event of tremendous historical importance,” the exclusion of Zinoviev and Trotzky trom the Party, to give “that impulse which is required to hold it back from the path of Thermidorian error.” The XV. Party Congress shved who it was that failed to stop on a downward path, when it became ob- vious to all that the Party is sounder and stronger than ever before, and that, more closely that ever allied with the masses, it is full of strength and energy for the work of Socialist construction and embraces more of the proletariat than it ever did. This miserable Menshevist whine about a Thermidor is altogether ridiculous. Sut it is the essence of that foul philosophy which sees nothing save political decline in a country in which he Socialist movement is developing with unprecedented power a_phil- »sophy which sees in the downfall of its own plans the downfall and enc f the revolution, mistaking i's own va'ion and deeay for the de erioration and decay of the Party. If his was not apparent enough hither- to, it must be patent to every onc that reads Joffe’s letter. This epistle is also remarkable for the fact that ecadence in it the entire incompatibility of Trotzky’s philosophy with the fight for Socialism is fully ~pparent, as is also its incompatibility with the pro- letarian class, a class that believes in its own strength and in the justifica- tion of the Bolshevist Party of Lenin. We know that for many who have chosen the path of fight against the Party, who have allowed themselves to be led astray by the names of some of the Opposition leaders and by their seemingly convincing criti- cism of the Party’s shortcomings, the time through which our Party is now passing is a real tragedy. For two years—as a matter of fact for much longer still—the Opposition has been collecting its forces. Prominent lead- ers and famous orators and writers have arrayed themselves against the Party and armed some thousands of Party members’ for the fight against the Party of Lenin under the pretext that ‘he Party was deteriorating, had already deteriorated, was becoming Thermidorian, and the like. All pos- sible means were adopted. But the result was a tremendous defeat, an ideological and organizatory break- down, the recognition of being in the wrong, and a frantic search for a way out of the blind alley into which they had been led by those that marched “ander the flag of Joffe.” Party is Sound. For many comrades, who have been brought by this fight against the Party to feel themselves morally or actually outside the Party, the way back to the Bolshevist Party will be the more difficult, the deeper this philosophy of decadence has eaten its way into their beings, this philosophy which is to be discerned in every line of Joffe’s letter. Therefore we con- sider it our duty to point out most de- cidedly the anti-Leninist and anti- proletarian dir-ction of this philos- ophy of decadence and disintegration, which hus developed as a result of the defeatist mood of the Opposition, a body more and more inclining to- wards Menshevism. This funeral philosophy can for- tunately seize no more than an un- important portion of our Party. The Par y itself is so sound that it is in a position to instill the sap of life into any that are honest enough to recognize and unconditionally to con- demn their faults; it can imbue such comrades anew with the joy of life, with joy of the victory of the Pro- letarian party which is building up Socialism, THE END. (Continued from yesterday. American imperizlism needs a more skillful spokesman—a _ spokes- man who can give a greater glamor to the sordid and bloody s ruggle for zheap materials, markets and military advantage—-one who can idealize it and arouse millions to a knowledge of the great duty they owe to the American empire, a spokesman who gan make the empire concept a part of the daily lives of all right-think- ing Americans and whose call to them ‘o work out their manifest destiny will have far more weight than Cool- idge could ever give it. Here Comes Hoover. What is the matter with Hoover? ri eea aye pela “he has every thing.” An engineer of high standing, gospel of American HERBERT HOOVER The Salesman for the American Empire efficiency. His policy of placing the department of commerce at the com- plete disposal of businessmen has won him high regard in middle class and capitalist circles. His war record ic excelled by none. Did he not coin the slogan that “food will win the war” and give to millions of deluded Americans’ the warm feeling of self- satisfaction and well-being which is the greatest beauty of charity, made immor‘al by the biblical phrase: “it is more blessed\ to give than to re- ecive?” Proved Foe of Bolshevism. Hoover himself is a millionaire and therefore has that respect for the in- violable sanctity of private property hls is We ieee prarseirts or a sident of the United States, Finally, Hoover is sound on the Miner Children With Fathers Evidence of the militancy of the striking miners’ children, and the fact that they are fighting side by side with their parents in the strug- gle in Pennsylvania is found in the following letter, written on the sta- tionary of Local Union No. 5071 of the United Mine Workers of America and signed by the strikers’ children of Cokesberg and Ontario, Pa. “We, the undersigned children of | coal miners of Western | Pex ylvania, are sending to you, the Young Pioneers of America, our thanks for your cooperation.... We together with our fathers and mothers, believe that with such a splendid work our union will live. We are sending you our slogan: We don’t want our fathers to’ be scabs!” The letter was received here at the national office of the Young Pioneers of America, 43 E. 125th St. New York. —— question of Bolshevism. It was Hoover who used the allied relief supplies to finance the counter-revo- lution in Hungary and it was his per- sonal assistant who carried out the policy that was consummated by the invasion by the Rumanian army and the slaughter of thousands of work~- ers and peasants. No capitalist statesman speaks more firmly against Communism than Hoover and none is regarded higher by the official] labor leaders who hate and fear revolutionary workingclass theory and practice to the exclusion of all hatred of capitalism. “Peace” Conferences, Hoover’s industrial and commercial conferences have been the meeting ground where bankers, businessmen, labor bureaucrats and fake farmer leaders gathered on a basis of com- mon support of American capitalist democracy” and their fear of mili- tant mass movements. Hoover’s cam- paign for efficiency in industry— more and cheaper production—meets with the approval of the bankers, the business men, the wealthy farmers and the Greens, Wolls and Lewises. Herbert Hoover is the finest type of imperialist leader in this field—he typifies the united front between out- right imperialists and imperialist- minded official leaders of mass or- ganizations on a class peace basis. Union Officials—The Labor Party. Here arises the question of a labor party. It is obvious that with Hoover bearing. the stamp of approval of of- ficialdom as a republican party can- didate and Smith endorsed by the same element as the democrat party candidate, the masses of workers and exploited farmers, lacking a mass party of their own, are caught be- ween the pincers of the two parties of imperialism. The betrayal by la- bor officialdom is the worst in American Labor History. Popularizing Imperialism. Wall Street ownership of both democrat and republican parties and the lack of a labor party assures an imperialist as the next president in a period when it is driving for world conquest. These two men are the choice of the Morgans and Rocke- fellers, but Hoover has first prefer- ence. The smaller fry—”the Ohio gang”—who were mobilized for the .Jav campaign have been put in their places. Their brief activity produced a Harding and a Coolidge—medio- erities both—but today imperialism demands a higher standard. It wants imperialism glorified and popular- ized, it wants the empire concept ta be dominant in the minds of the masses, it wants not grudging but enthusiastic support for its program of conquest from all sections of the population. Hoover—Imperialism Salesman. To take the lead in a campaign to popularize the American empire and to break down resistance to such im- perialist adventures as the invasion of Nicaragua, to ‘sell’ ’imperialism to the American masses a far more skillful and romancic figure than the drab Coolidge is needed. Hoover fills the bill. He has been annointed with refined oil but not smeared with the crude seepage from Teapot Dome and the publicity agents of finance capital are now busy gilding a halo for him. Standard Oil and the house of Morgan have dumped the “Ohio gang” and have picked a republican candidate who will not embarrass the major imperialist program by stealing the White House ornaments, who will follow efficiently the main line toward world conquest and who represents the primary interests of big ‘capital. Not Liberalism But Reaction. The swing from Coolidge toward Hoover is fot a “liberal” manifesta- tion. It is an important indication of a desire for a better organized and better led movement of reaction on the part of the most powerful section of the rulingclass. Prepare For Attack The working class can expect a far more vicious attack on its organiza- tions and living standards and must prepare to meet it. The slogans of our party—organi- zaion of the unorganized, a labor party, work or relief based on union wages for the unemployed, struggle against the imperialist war danger, ete.—will have a far wider application and appeal as the real meaning of tha Hoover candidacy becomes the masses. a4 —_ we on = —— a a ——