The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 18, 1928, Page 6

: a Page Six HE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 1928 THE DAILY WORKER) Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Ine. Daily, Except Sunday $3 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 $6.50 per year $3.50 six months $2.50 three months. $2.00 three months. Phone, Orchard 1680 “Daiwork” Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. ROBERT MINOR WM. F. DUNNE Assistant Editor.. &nterea as second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. The Miners Are Coming Out! That section of the Western Pennsylvania coal fields which John L. Lewis has purposely kept unorganized,—the four counties of Westmoreland, vette, Greene and Somerset—is today a bat- tleground of great importance to the United Mine Workers’ Un- ion. Lewis deliberately broke up the organization which a large section of these miners spontaneously formed in the 1922 strike —exactly because these mines are of strategical importance to the fight to unionize the entire mass coal miners of the United States. Nor does anyone fail to understand the reason Lewis did so. In these counties the coal of the quality required for mak- | ing coke for the Steel Trust mills is to be found. As a deliberate | service to the interests of the Frick estate and the Steel Trust, Lewis destroyed the organization which arose among the rank and file of these miners and excluded them from the settlement. Among these miners none were more important than those | in the Fayette county coke regions around Brownsville; and none were more faithlessly handled and vilely betrayed by Lewis. But the indomitable courage and fighting will of these workers around Brownsville is now being shown in action. They are responding to the strike call. The Washington county miners were equally betrayed by Lewis in 1922, and these workers are showing the stuff they are uiade of by resisting all efforts to disperse their picket lines by state troopers. The mere fact that these miners are responding to the call to strike proves the strength of the Save-the-Union movement. Lewis and his Fagans are busily at work trying to break this strike in the usual style. But these miners at least know Jofin L. Lewis and cannot be deceived by him again. False reports of the most sinister character, intended to demoralize the strike in the unorganized fields, have failed to hold these miners back. The boycott of the entire mining situation by the capitalist press and by the big news agencies, leaves the strike movement to its own news resources to disclose the extent to which the} Socialist Party--- A Study in Bankruptcy mine workers are walking out. The news boycott, however, is itself eloquent proof that the news is not “good news” for the cap- italist press. Reports that have been received indicate a tre- mondous sweep of the walkout in Western Pennsylvania, Illinois, nd some other sections, while from some sections it is as yet # ficult to get the news in detail because of the silence of the capitalist press. But all indications received are that the Mine Workers are making good. The movement has the accumulating power of an avalanche. Socialist Party Is Not Neutral The former pastor of the Brick Presbyterian church who is now the dauntless leader of the revolutionary hosts of the socialist party as its candidate for president, puts himself before the world in a Christ-like pose—just as one would expect of the Reverend Doctor Norman Thomas. In accepting what he called the “‘apos- tolic succession” as the nominal leader of the counter-revolution- ary, anti-labor party, the gentle follower of Jesus, Hillquit and Sigman expressed his trepidation at the thought of world convul- sions and sighed for a better world “without:revolutionary and catastrophic woe.” This at a “socialist” convention! But all the while, this gentle parson was casting his clerical robes around the gunmen of the Sigman gang in New York and Chicago, the Lewis gang in the Miners’ Union, around the police thugs and strike-breakers, are now in active warfare against the working cl. on a thousand fronts in the United States. The socialist party is in fact supporting the most reactionary of the trade union bureaucracy in its war against the workers in the unions and in the miners’ strike. The Reverend Thomas and the party which choses him to lead it in the coming campaign are not neutral in the class struggle, but are active partisans. When the socialist party convention struck out from its con- stitution all reference to the class struggle, it was an inevitable and necessary act for that party. When the socialist party be- comes, as it has become, a mobilizing agency for breaking strikes, crippling the trade unions and preventing the formation of a la- bor party in the United States, an agency for holding the work- ing class back from class struggle and from reaching class con- sciousness,—then the only way that party can conceal its actions in the class struggle is to deny that there is a class struggle. With the praying parson as the bearer of its yellow banner, with the cold-blooded carreerist, lawyer Morris Hillquit, as its actual leader, and with Jim Maurer, whipped and tamed by Hill- quit and trained to be himself a willing servant and executor of the orders of the reactionary Hillquit and Berger—the socialist party strains to recover every possible force so as to throw itself more actively than ever into the class struggle on the side of reactic.. .gainst the working class. The class struggle does not cease, your reverence, when you and your party lie to the working class by denying the existence of that struggle. The working class will better understand the role of the so- cialist party of treason to the workers and of sycophantic service to the capitalist class, because of the very fact that the last con- vention of the party flung undisgdised to the breezes the yellow banner from the hands of an anti-Marxian, counter-revolutionary, ¢elerical-tongued, puppet for the reactionary gangsters of the labor | | = | | | | | | PENS YLUANIZOnI0 By JAY LOVESTONE. Nationally the socialist party doesn’t amount to a row of pins as an organization. Except for a few centers like Milwaukee and Reading, the socialist party has no local or- ganizations. In these two cities, the organization is maintained on the same basis that the republican and demcecratic parties are kept up—gov- ernment office patronage. In Mil- waukee and Reading thé socialist party is, practically speaking, an out- and-out third, petty bourgeois party. In New York, whatever organization there exists, subsists on the funds of the yellow Jewish Daily Forward and retired insurance agents, liberal bour- geois widows, and a handful of law- yers. But ideologically, the socialist par- ty still has some following. This is true nationally. Debs may be dead, but whatever is left of the following of Debs is still in the main going to the socialist party in election cam- paigns, Of course, as a distinct force of opposition in the everyday strug- gles of the workers, the socialist par- ty is at most a minimum quantity. Not only are socialist party officials us- ually lined up on the side of the re- actionary trade union bureaucracy but very often they are the pace- setters in the vicious moves made against the left wing and the mili- tants in the labor movement. As a parliamentary force, however, the so- cialist party must still be somewhat reckoned with by the labor movement tho its strength even in this field is steadily dwindling. The present convention of the so- cialist party marks a further loss of even the slightest pretence at social- ist character this party formerly used to make. We cite four outstanding events at this convention to make our point emphatic and conclusive. The Class Struggle—Unconstitutional Those of us who were once in the struggle pledge that applicants for membership had to sign. In those days the socialist party at least made a gesture—empty as it was—at belief in this fundamental principle of Marxism. Today, the socialist party under the pretence of thorough Amer- ieanization, has already deleted from its constitution the section pro- viding that only those who believe in the class struggle shall be eligible for membership. The American con- stitution framed by merchants, specu- lators and land barons, has become the source of inspiration for the American socialist party. One recalls a_ signifi: moment at the last conve. United For years the constitution of the United Mine Workers of America, particularly its preamble, smacked of socialist thought and showed definite imprint of socialist influence. At the convention of the United Mine Work- ™ of the Mine Workers of America. | bureaucracy. But the “line of apostolic succession” is not from Debs. It is from Gompers,—what thane is of ii. ers of America, held in Indianapolis in January, 1927, Lewis and _ his union-wrecking agents succeeded in deleting from the cone ae and “AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES socialist party will recall the - class | ” There is » no class | COSSACK WAR ON NINERS {preamble of the union, the sections referring to the class struggle and socialism. Lewis’ machine also amended the constitution of the United Mine Workers to persecute workers engaged in coal digging. Clearly, the vilest section of the corrupt trade union bureaucracy is setting the pace for and giving the leadership to the socialist party. What Lewis and his henchmen did in 1927 to the constitution of the United Mine Workers of America, Hillquit, Berger, Thomas, Maurer and company did to the last remnant of socialist ideology in their party constitution a few days ago. We may confidently expect that the next time the socialist party convention meets, if there will be a next time for this corpse, it will decree decisive mea- sures. aganst workers who, by choice instead of by accident, came to this country, Blind to Class Conflicts. The socialist party convention didn’t say a word about the activi- ties of its party in the present sharp class struggles. The socialist party has no program for such decisive battles of the workers as the 13- months miners’ strike, the struggle wave of textile strikes, the struggle in the needle trades industry, the ris- ing tide of discontent in the railway unions, and the movement for a gen- une labor party. We must give the socialist party leadership credit for keeping quiet about its role in these struggles. Insofar as it did anything at all, it participated most valiantly on the side of reaction and against the workers, All the socialist party. convention could say about the most important strike in the history of the American labor movement, the present miners’ strike, is to call upon the strikebreak- ing government, which has been issu ing hundreds of injunctions and evic- tion orders against the miners, to nationalize the coal industry. That’s Hillquit’s solution. This is Maurer’s panacea. Maurer has been signifi- cantly silent about the miners’ strug- jgle, tho he is still president of the Pennsylvania State Federation of | Labor, a body which one may natur- a Three “Leaders” of the Bankrupt Socialist Party By Fred Ellis coe ee CHILO LAGOR ally expect to be vitally concerned with the coal diggers’ strike. To ask for nationalization of the coal mines by the Coolidge government, by. the Mellons, the Fishers, and — the Schwabs, is to ask for support from a hangman. , But this is the role of the socialist party today. Instead of exposing the government for what it is, Hillquit, Thomas, Berger, Maurer and their ilk are working overtime to strengthen the old and develop new illusions among the workers regard- ing the character of fraudulent American democracy. Imperialism Endorsed. There was a time when even the opportunistic socialist party did not dare endorse the League of Nations. Now Mr. Hillquit feels that his party has made sufficient progress as a full fledged member of the camp of the enemies of the working class to hand out bouquets even to the League of Nations. The League of Nations is held up by the socialist party be- fore the workers as a panacea. On this question, the socialist party is even far to the right of such weak- kneed, petty bourgeois politicians as Borah, Norris and Shipstead. The latter are opposed to the League of Nations. They see in the League of Nations an instrument of imperialist aggression. Hillquit sees in the League of Nations an agency of lib- eration of the colonial masses. The extent to which the socialist party is today dominated by capital- ist ideas is made painfully evident by the remarks of Hillquit anent the imperilist invasion of Nicaragua by Wall Street troops. To quote the New Leader, the mouthpiece of the deca- dent socialist party, “The highlight of the address came in his words on the Nicaraguan adventure: “Of all the monstrosities per- petrated by our government, this is the most revolting. What is it that we are doing in Nicaragua? If it is war, it is unauthorized and unsanc- tioned by the people or congress. If it is not war—ts is murder.’ ” In this moment of highest excite- ment on the part of Mr. Hillquit, he unblushingly admits his organic kin- ship with Mr, Coolidge in Washing- Leaders of the bankrupt Socialist party. Left to right are Norman Thomas, socialist presidential candidate. James H. Maurer, candidate for vice president, and Victor Berger. ton, and the strikebreaking marines in Nicaragua. Mr. Hillquit is not complaining against the imperialist aggrandizement of the American gov- ernment. He is not seeking to mob- ilize masse of workers and exploited farmers agze.st the Yankee imperial- ist domination of Latin America. All lawyer, is the legal sanction, the con- gressional authorization for this im- perialist onslaught. It is not the murderous crime against the Nicara- guan masses that he is protesting against, This “brains” of the social- ist party is vitally concerned with maintaining every legal fiction and camouflaging most effectively the outrages committed against the Nica- raguan people so that the American working class will not be aroused suf- ficiently against the Wall Street gov- ernment. Berger Shakes Hands with Kaiser. The whole farce of the socialist a very dramatic way. The New York press reports that for nearly four minutes the socialist party convention stood with bowed heads in a demon- stration of the keenest appreciation of the successful westward trans- Atlantic flight by German monarchist agents. During the last imperialist war Kaiser Wilhelm II appealed to all his loyal subjects in Germany, China, United States and elsewhere, to rally to the banner of Prussian imperialism, This appeal did not fall on deaf ears, as far as Mr. Berger was concerned. Mr. Berger was op- posed to America’s entering the last war not because he was against American imperialism from a work- ing class viewpoint but because he was for German imperialism. Just now, while the impending im- perialist war-is in the making, Kaiser Wilhelm II, who owes his head still being on his shoulders solely to the Bergers, Hillquits and Thomases of Germany, sent a cable of congratula- jtion to Von Huenefeld, pilot of the Bremen. On the same day, the so- ‘eialist party convention, which has re- elected Victor Berger as its national chairman, congratulated Von Huene- feld, who was piloting the plane fly- ing the colors of the old German mon- archist regime. Von Huenefeld is expected to be a nationalist candidate in the coming elections in Germany. Under these circumstances, Messrs. Hillquit and Berger must have kept elearly ‘in their minds the congratu- lations to Von Huenefeld by the Na- tional German Officers’ League, read- ing in part: “It fills us with grateful pride that the spirit of German of- ficers conquered the ocean and re- -|vived respect for the sacred colors of black, white and red in far away parts of the world.” any Honest workingman or wom- ‘lan still has any illusions about the character of the socialist party let him or her examine what happened at the last convention. There is no any honest workingman who has the slightest bit of class consciousness class: in him, = he is interested in, as a first class | party convention came to a head in} room today in the socialist party for! Y.W.L. Scores N.Y. Paper as Capitalist Tool | In answer to an editorial in the April 12th Bronx Home News, criti- cizing the Lower Bronx section of the Young Workers’ (Communist) League, with headquarters at 715 E. }188 Street, for protesting against | police interference at their anti-mili- tarism street corner meeting last week the League has sent the follow- ing. statement to the editor of the Bronx Home News. “To the Editor of the Bronx Home News. ‘ Your editorial of April 12th, en- titled “The Young Workers’ Protest,” makes it necessary for us to give re- ply. The Young Workers Communist League would be neglecting its his- torical duty if it did not answer this bit of misleading of the working class youth. “Your entire attitude is a patron- izing one. You attempt to ‘laugh it off. But if we are an organization | whose efforts are to be ‘laughed off,” \if we are the sort of an organization | about which no policeman would give ‘the proverbial three whoops in hades,’ then why, when we demon- strate in front of the Brooklyn Navy Yard against intervention in Ni¢ara- gua, are we clubbed and arrested? “For the same reason that the policeman in this particular case wanted to stop this regularly con- voked, verbally permitted, meeting. “Concerning our struggle against military training in the colleges, you say that discussion of that ‘might reasonably be left to the colleges and their student bodies.’ There are three answers to that. Firstly, we have in the Y. W. C. L. many students who themselves spring from the working- class. These, then, even according to your own argument have the ‘reason- able’ right to take a stand against the militarization of the youth in the schools and colleges. Secondly, as 4 young workers’ organization many of our number would, in event of joining the armed forces, have to serve under those very students who are now being trained to officer us in attacks against young Nicaraguan farmers and workers and the youth of pther foreign countries. , —“Young Workers Communist League Lower Bronx Section.” It is no wonder that the socialist party is being given permission to use the radio to transmit its poison to the American workers. While the socialist party is thus enjoying the courtesies and friendship of the worst open-shoppers in the country, the Communists are fighting on the picket lines, are organizing the un- organized, are leading strikes, are violating injunctions en masse, are resisting wage cuts, are facing per- secution of their press, The DAILY WORKER—in short, are vigorous jmilitant participants in the class struggle. Here is the difference between the | Workers (Communist) Party and the \socialist party. The workers will choose right. That is why our Party is growing, That is why the socialist party is dying. ‘Forel n Born Workers Have New Paper The first issue of the “Foreign Born Worker” came out with the March-April number. The “Foreigs Born Worker” is a mimeographed 8- | page paper, published by the Council |for the Protection of Foreign Born Workers, 89 Union Square, New York City, an organization which has ren- dered and intends to continue renders ing signal service in fighting the gress, bills born out of the 100 pet cent American pay-triotic societies by the open shop bosses, for use as a club over the foreign born workers in case the latter show signs of not being satisfied with their servitude, The current issue of the “Foreign Born Worker” is devoted to showing up the Aswell bill in the house, which provides for compulsory registration of all non-citizens; the Johnson bill, providing fresh excuses for the de- portation of foreign born militant workers, and the Box bill, whidh ; would bring Latin American workerg junder the quota law. There are sev-« eral well-written short editorials in the paper, A feature livening up the Mttle paper is “News Bits,” containing paragraphs of interest to the foreign born workers. An article of partic. ular interest is “The Foreign Born Worker in the Ford Industry.” The sketchessin the “Foreign Born Work« er” are above the. average. Labor Libraries ANN ARBOR, Mich. April 17 Valuable labor libraries are main tained at the University of Michigan here as well as at the University of Wisconsin, consisting of labor news papers, original manuscripts, current — bulletins of trade unions and n books. y — e numerous deportation bills in con. ~ ——)