The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 17, 1928, Page 8

Se eee THE DAILY WORKER Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASSN, Inc. y, Except Sunday Y le Address: “Daiwork” Phone, Orchard 1680 83 First Street, New York, SUBSCRIPTION RATES By Mail (in New York only): By Mail (outside of New York): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months ix months $2.50 three months. Address and mail out ch THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y- ROBERT MINOR DUNNE on WMS. as second-class mail New York, N. ¥., under the Borah Beats Them All Senator Borah plays a very peculiar role in the republican party. He is the official wielder of the white-wash brush—a sort of official fig-leaf to cover up the naked corruption of the govern- at the post-o act of March eat 1879. ment in Washington and the party which he serves. ioe In the Nicaraguan war Borah pretended to oppose it in order to put himself at the head of any feeble protest that there might be, and he then did the dirty work for President Coolidge, for the state department and for Wall Street, by preventing any discus- sion of } agua during the Pan-American Union Congress at Havana. ally, as chairman of the foreign relations committee, he brought in a report against the withdrawal of the troops in Nicaragua. In the Sacco-Vanzetti case, he played a somewhat similar role, and so with every other “dangerous” movement of protest that threatened to get under way. His latest and in many respects his dirtiest job is the one he is now performing for the Sinclair-G. O. P. liberty bond scandal. Here he has made a “brilliant”? suggestion—that the republican party hand back that portion of their corruptly-received campaign funds of 1920, which covers the amount that they have actually been caught receiving from the Teapot Dome bribe. This money is to be given to none other than the briber, Harry Sinclair, which of course would hurt Harry’s feelings very much! In order to make up the hole thus created in the republican treasury, a cam- paign for small contributions among the masses is to be waged, to get the $160,000 back. The masses, of course, will enthusias- tically rally to such a cause—namely, the washing of a little dirty oil from the white house dome. Likely as not, the republican party will accept the suggestion. After all, it is their duty as gentlemen to give Sinclair back his $160,000, since they failed to-deliver Teapot Dome! Borah could have made no more cynical proposal than this. eee In this connection, we want to make a prediction, although we are fully conscious that prophecies are always a dangerous business. The pr tion is that Senator Borah will come out with yet another white-wash scheme, and that it will be accepted. In fact, it has already been suggested in his letter to the present chairman of the republican national committee, William M. Butler, That is, Borah will suggest, and the republican party will accept, the proposal to make an “expiatory goat” out of some one. ‘The trick is to select someone who ddées not matter too much, throw aj] the blame upon him, have all the other guilty parties grow ndignant about him and denounce him, and thus settle the affair. In the first phase of the Teapot Dome scandal and the other scandals connected with the Harding administration, the burden of sin was so great that one goat was not sufficient, and so in turn Denby, Fall and Daugherty were sacrificed. Thus the republican party as a party, and the national government as a government made “atonement” for their crime. * s . This goat business is a little trick borrowed from religious ritual. When a particularly heinous sin had been committed, one for which the sinner or the sinners should have been sacrificed, a goat was sacrificed instead. This was done to fool an outraged god, and, according to the accounts of the priests, it always worked. Besides, the priest got the dead goat after the sacrifice. This method proved so effective that capitalist politicians have adopted the scheme. Whenever a sacrifice is required to appease the wrath of just-awakening masses, the old trick is turned anew. Someone is selected “to be the goat,” in the hope that the masses will be fooled and satisfied. . To finish our prediction—the goats in this case will be Sin- clair and Hays. Sinclair will be punished as suggested, both by having his “tainted” money seornfully rejected (eight years after it was accepted and only because the truth has now been revealed). The other goat, Will H. Hays, will be indignantly denounced. He may even be bullied by the senatorial investigation committee. It is not beyond the realm of the possible that he will be indicted, and that nine years from now the prosecuting attorney will re- quest a dismissal of the case for lack of evidence. The trick is a little too threadbare to work again, and we are here exposing it in advance. But the thing that should be more interesting to those elements who believe that there is a difference between Borah and the most reactionary politician in the republican party in the matter of the loyalty of their services to capitalism, is that Borah is as usual playing the dirtiest role of all. He is putting a coat of white-wash over an edifice that should be torn down. Anyone who still has faith in him should watch closely all of his actions and see how many times he has performed and will again perform the same trick. Chicago Working Women Wake Of the cight million women gain- fully employed in industry in the United States toddy, only 250,000 are organized, or only one woman out of every 35. Among the men. workers, one out of every eight is organized. Ik , working women play in the political life in this country. The intensifica- tion of the class struggle and the misery created through unemploy- ment will even’ more than hitherto draw the woman worker into the poli- tical field. is ver, asy to understand, in the} Realizing this, tne conference cor- face of these facts, why it is that rectly adopted a program of which Women are much more ruthlessiy ex- the outstanding feature is the organ- poted than men in industry. It is |ization of the women workers into Us duty of every class conscious |trade unions and for the stimulation «nan worker to agitate in-her work- jof the existing organizations and the or factory for the need of a Sti jorganization in her industry. sho building of new ones. The conference went on record for a labor party and | ewer 2 Geared i Yh SSNS My y RA PRIS THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1928 THE DAM DIDN’T HOLD WATER, BUT IT HELD PROFITS no td corns x Fae By BERTRAM D. WOLFE. The tide of corruption rises higher and higher in Washington, ‘and re- veals that the whole Washington gov- ernment adds to its guilt before the American masses as a strike-break- ing machine, as an instrument of im- perialist aggression, and as a docile tool of Wall Street. The last eight years have been a period of unparalleled corruption which eclipses even the regimes of Grant and McKinley. Wall Street is willing to pay high prices for big “favors” that it ex- pects from its tools in Washington. As the business of American govern- ment grows greater and the size of the favors it is prepared to deliver grows along with it, the high cost of bribery and corruption goes up with the price of other commodities. It is not because the capitalist politi- cian’s virtue is esteemed more dearly to him personally as a “use-value,” but because the “exchange-value” of that particular commodity is rising with the magnitude. of the labors he is expected to perform. Harding's First Act. The character of the Harding- Coolidge administration was dis- closed immediately upon Harding’s taking office. Within a month after he had taken a “solemn” oath to “uphold and defend,” etc., he had signed an executive order transfer- ring the nation’s oil reserves from the navy department to the interior, in- volving at least Denby and Fall and himself in the guilty knowledge of the oil scandal. The investigation that was started for the political purposes of the dem- ocratic party and of the so-called progressive bloc in the republican party, was suddenly stopped when jit revealed only too clearly that the | president himself was over his ears |in the oily mud of the Teapot Dome graft, and that key members of the |cabinet were involved. Another |motive for suppression of the facts was the rising tide of the movement for a Labor Party, and yet another the discovery that Standard Oil was just as much involved~as Sinclair and Doheny, who, in spite of their size, are relatively small potatoes when compared with the Standard. Closely following on the oil scandal, came the necessity for the Harding administration to cover up the war grafts, to save Newberry, and to de- fend Daugherty. Then scandal fol- lowed scandal with such rapidity that only the suspiciously sudden death of Harding saved him from open and public disgrace. A new presidential election cam- paign is on, and the lid is again be- ling lifted just a trifie from the ‘pot jof Washington politi Already the lunsavory stench is so strong that ;many a politician of the capitalist parties is wishing that it had never been raised, and official Washington is worrying as to how they can jam the lid down again. Now that the pot is being stirred it was to relieve such conditions, industria! ,and political, that various women’s trade unions and working men’s organizations, representing 16,000 working women, met in confer- yence at the Ashland Auditorium ere they formed a permanent or- faniaton called the Chicago Federa- fi of Working Women. The con- ference worked out a program for fu- | ture activities amongst the working women and housewives in the city, At this conference a correct estima- was made of the part that the ifor the recognition of Soviet Russia! | clair bonds; Pr) for furthering the political and edu-|ugain, it is perceived that Will Hays, cational advancement of the working | women, ‘ Working women of Chicago: Join your trade union! Form a_ union! Join a housewives’ organization! Form a housewives’ organization! Af- filiate- your organization with the Federation of Working Women’s..Or- g@hizations! Togéther we can com- bafour exploiters on the political and jeconomic field. Let us declare war |against imperialist wars and fight | president, thought-controller and cen- sor of the movie industry and former chairman of the’ republican national committee and postmaster-general, bathed both arms in the mud; that the former secretary of war, Weeks, was the recipient of $60,000 worth of the Sinelair bonds; that Dupont, the big financier of the munitions in- dustry and other chemical industries, already involved in the Dye Trust scandal, received $75,000 of the Sin- that $50,000 went to Fred W. Upham, while he was treas- urer of the republican national com- mittee; and above all that Andy Mel- lon, the so-called master mind of the last eight years of Wall Street ad- ministration, is involved along with the other cabinet officers previously exposed. As for Hays, he has already acknowledged disposing of $160,000 worth of the bribe. Mellon “Washes His Hands.” Andrew W. Mellon, who has been a eort of sacred cow of the last ad- ministration, has offered the peculiar alibi that when he received the $50,- 000 in Liberty Bonds, for which he was to send a fake campaign contri- bution of $50,000 to the republican national committee, he returned the bonds, but sent his check for $50,000 anyhow. A likely story! And sup- pose it is true—what difference does it make? It reveals without a shadow of a doubt that he knew how the re- publican campaign fund was being made up, and that he knew of the bribe by Sinclair in return for Tea- pot Dome and that he knew of the purchase of the president and the secretaries of various departments of the cabinet, and that as a good re- publican,. he not only accepted it, but hushed it up. If his story were true, all it would prove is that he was glad to profit by the dirty deal, but pre- fd Capitalist: “Cheest, I had to laugh! I got paid for the damn dam before it cracked!” ‘Mill Pickets in Wisconsin Defy Writs KENOSHA, Wis., March 16, — A small army of deputies invaded Ken- osha several days ago to serve the drastic injunction issued recently by Federal Judge Geiger of Milwaukee, upon every striking worker of the Allen-A Hosiery Company. “Only 40” strike leaders were se! with the restraining order hither according to the complaint made to the federal authorities by the attor- ney for the mill owners. On this basis he succeeded in getting the court’s cooperation in serving the writ on every striking knitter. The union attorney, J. Padway, is now in Washington, D. C. protesting to the so-called independent Senators Walsh, Norris and Blaine against the vicious character of this injunction, Severe criticism is being levelled at the union officials for their order to the strikers that they abide by the instructions of the injunction. Sev- eral picket demonstrations were held despite this order. H. E. Steele, vice president of the American Federation of Full Fashionéd Hosiery Workers, and Carl Holdermann, general board member of the United Textile Work- ers, the parent body of the union, ar- rived here to assume charge of the strike. TWO KILLED IN SNOWSLIDE. TERRURIDE, Colo., March 16. — One woman was killed, a baby was fatally injured, and several persons were missing following a snowslide at Andora, near here today. The dead woman is Mrs. C. C. Hicks. Two houses were carried away in the slide. ferred to let the others do the dirty work for him. j A ‘little further reveals that \the: ‘ting of the lid were $3,000,000 BERTRAM D. WOLFE. worth of Liberty Bonds. bought in the “mysterious” re-sale of oil by the no less “mysterious” Continental Trading Company. Another shake of the investigation spoon will bespat- ter additional dignitaries- with huge and sticky spots of oil graft. Buying a Presidency. All told, the republican national committee acknowledges the expen- diture of over eight million dollars in the campaign of 1920, and over six million in the campaign of 1924. This does not include the much larger state and local expenditures nor the secret campaign contributions and expenditures which have not been un- covered and are not likely to be. All told, 4 conservative estimate puts the cost of electing a president at any- where from twenty to thirty million dollars, and this is probably too low. Most of this comes in big chunks from Wall Street financiers. What they get for it will be the subject of future articles. The Workers (Communist) Party is also entering into the presidential campaign. It is also planning to raise a campaign fund. It is esti- mated that this will amount to $100,- 900 only, but the Communists expect to sell no oil.’ None of this will come in $50,000-chunk contributions. It will come in the main in $1, $5 and The South Slay’Section Gets to Work By WILLIAM W. WEINSTONE, ‘ The plenum of the bureau of the South Slavic section-which was held in Chicago March 10 and 11, attend- ed by over 25 members and by Com- rade Weinstone and Comrade Be- dacht £6¥"the Central Executive Com- | mittee, made marked progress in the unification of the South Slavic sec- tion and in seriously getting down to work to carry on the tasks of build- ing up the influence of our Party in the South Slavic movement under the present favorable objective condi- tions. Overcome Fraction Struggle. The plenum took place after a fac- tional struggle of over two years which did great harm to our section and its influence in the various or- ganizations. But the plenum was per- meated by a desire on the part of all leading comrades te overcome the fac- tional struggle and to start afresh with united efforts, raising the pres- tige of the Party and the section among the workers. Unanimous agreement was reached on the com- | position of the bureau, upon the per- sonnel of the sub-bureau and upon the division of leadership among the former groups by unanimously elect- ing the small bureau and the func- tionaries. The plenum unanimously adopted the thesis of the Central Executive Committee, the stand’ of the Party on the Russian opposition and unani- mously adopted the resolution on thé next tasks of the section that had been previously worked out by the bureau. This resolution pointed out that the situation, among the South Slavic workers was becoming more favorable because of the objective conditions in the country. Activities Increased. On the basis of the February plen- um of the Central Executive Commit- tee, the resolution of the South Slavie s@ction pointed out the need for in- creasing the activities of the Party members in the basic industries in which South Slavic workers are en- gaged in order to better prepare for the struggle against the war. It pointed out the need for conducting a campaign within the fraternal organ- izations in favor of the miners and to the reactionaries that are’ sup- {porting Lewis against the rank and file of the miners. | The resolution also emphasized the need for utilizing the fraternal or- \ganizations in helping to organize the unorganized, as was recently done in Detroit among the automobile work- ers. The resolution furthermore em- phasized the need for increasing the activities of South Slavic members in building shop nuclei, issuing shop pa- pers and establishing shop commit- tees in unorganized plants. ‘It point- led out that there are good prospects for increasing activity among the ‘women workers, brghging the idea of class struggle inj the women’s or- WILLIAM W. WEINSTONE. »|ialists in the Balkan states. ganizations among the South Slavs as well as drawing more of the women South, Slav members into greater ac- tivity within the Party. Discuss Unemployment. The unemployment situation was also considered, and the need for specially getting the South Slavic workers active against unemployment was prominently emphasized. It was pointed out in the conference that the I. L. D. has a strong section among SOwfH"’Slavic workers but there is a need for giving still further support by the South Slav fractions to the building up of this organization. The resolution and the discussion pointed out the favorable prospects of building up united fronts with pro= gressives in the various fraternal or- ganizations, that the leadership of these organizations were growing more reactionary while the rank and file are becoming more militant. The possibility of building progres- sive blocs as means of struggling against reactionary leadership on be- half of the workers is more favorable than ever before, Workers’ Correspondence. © Consideration was given to the building up of the circulation of the Radnik and of the Slovenian paper by undertiking good propaganda, in- creasing workers’ correspondence and enlivening the paper as a whole, at the same time that the section works of The Daily Worker. The “plenum pledged its support for the building up of a strong Balkan Federation to counteract the efforts of the imper- Youth and Pioneer work also received atten- GOH rrr ‘With the help of the Central Exec- utive Committee, the South Slavic Section was able to adopt these reso- lutions and to take an important step away from factionalism for a real merging of the various groups and pone a4 ‘ TURN OUT THE CORRUPT POLITICIANS! $10 bills from individual workers all over the United States. A few la- bor organizations may maké™ contri- butions in a bloc of $25 or $50 or $100. It is a pitifully small fund to measure against the billions of dol- lars spent by the capjitalist parties. But the Communists have other ways of spending electoral campaign funds and know how to make a little go long way. \ One of the issues. of the presiden- tial campaign—a dramatic although not a central issue—has already been provided by the latest exposures of the Washington government. It is for the building up of the circylation. a government of crooks and grafters, in the pay and at the direct service of Wall Street, and one of the is- sues of the campaign be summed up in this slogan: Turfi the grafters out! The Movement in Great Britain WHAT IS THIS MINORITY MOVE- MENT? Published by the N. M. M. Great Ormond Street, London. Car eeeene though it is into six- teen pages of reading matter the latest M. M. pamphlet effectively an- swers the question of its title, “What Is This Minority Movement?” r It answers in detail the charges fashioned by capitalism for the serv- ice of our opportunist trade tnion bureaucracy, such as that of disrup- tion. It proves by facts and figures that not the M. M, but the “clever” statesmen of trade unionism are re- sponsible for splitting and disruptive tactics, The likeness between the bosses and their labor lackeys is neat- ly ticked off by quotations from those “friends” of the labor movement, Joynson-Hicks, Winston Churchill and The Economist. * * The decline of wages, the growth of unemployment, the tragedy of Poor Lad relief, the catastrophic drop in trade union membership are shown as the fruits of the vicious alliance now more open and unconcealed between ‘the Monds and the Mondite T. Us leaders. < The contrast between the highly centralized machinery of the bosses and the splintered sectionalism of British trade unionism with its con- sequence of a multitude of petty in- terests squabbled over by a horde of petty officials (lick-spittling now to the boss and now to his mugh-adver- tised fyll-time lackeys) is clearly shown and the remedy of speedy amalgamation by industry, factory and workshop committees and the cleans- ing of the trade union ship of the jbarnacles impeding its progress are set forth. The program of the N. M. M. con- cludes this brilliant answer to the question, “What Is This Minority Movement?” An appeal to all mili- tant trade unionists to join up and get busy is on the inside cover, , frontispiece shows a dogged worker bearing the working class banner aloft. I think it a pity that no list of the secretaries of the various M. M. sections is given so that readers could easily make contact and also realize the extent to which the M. M. is fast establishing itself as the mili- tant leader of the many and varied trade unions that make up the British for a real, solid unification of the sec- trade union movement. Keep it moy- '