The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 23, 1928, Page 6

‘ties ater aersnec con eens its Page Six , THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1928 THE DAILY WORKER Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Inc. Daily, Except Sunday 88 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: SUBSCRIPTION RATES am 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 “Dalwork’ Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y ‘ .-ROBERT MINOR SS Assistant Editor... ..WM. F. DUNNE Kotered as second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. ¥ the act of March 3, 157 The Red Victory in Germany The first dispatches from Germany misrepresented the elec- tion results by under-estimating the tremendous gains of the Communist Party. Later telegrams from bourgeois news agen- cies have shown that even The DAILY WORKER’S news columns failed to reflect the immense significance of the Communist victory. | | under | The gist of the news is that the Communist Party of Ger- many is rapidly winning the leadership of the working class of that country away from the social-democratic party. The gen- eral fact that the Communist gains are tremendous in the large towns and industrial districts, while the social-democratie party made inroads in the ranks of the middle-class followers of the “liberal” bourgeois parties, is even more important than the proportions of increase as between the two parties. The social- democrats’ gain of about 1,200,000 votes is an increase perhaps partly among backward workers in light industry, but largely amongst the petty-bourgeoisie, whereas the Communist Party’s gain of more than half a million is an increase absolutely confined to the working class. In the two great working-class sections of Berlin, Wedding and Friedrichshain, the Communist Party heav- ily defeated the social-democratic party, while in the.city of Ber- lin as a whole the Communists gained 227,000 working class votes whilst the social-democrats gained only 124,000 votes, doubtful as to class character. ; established in the dis-} e agitating the. capitalist As one of These facts, which were not clez patches from Berlin Monday morning, correspondents when they estimate the results today. them telegraphed, they begin to realize that: rded by the Communists in Berlin, into the tally of the big- Proportionately, the sure than the more unist Reichstag repre- with fifty-four votes, rliament. of the Third Interna- Moreover it was the | The secessionists opposition) failed to get a single behind them —N. Y. “The staggering gains r which were manifest only tod ger labor party (the social- revolutionary Reds triumphed in moderate disciples of K Marx. sentation mounts from fifth to fo exactly 20 percent higher than in “Not even the most op imis tional predicted a victory of such orthodox growp of so-called Stalir of the Lenin League (the Trotsk seat, not haying the Soviet treasu Times. | Allowing for the little lie as to the Soviet treasury being be- hind the Communist Party of Germ this dispatch is certainly not without value as an admission from the enemy camp that our German comrades have made stride in winning the} German working class for the revolutionary working-class cause. t co s, the dread aroused | x the working class is mingled of the s al-demoeratic party, coalition government in he coming German min- an assurance of an open In the capital cities of i by the Communist gains with rejoicing at the increased v one of whose leaders will now Germany. The Pa istry, to be headed by road for its own finance. Yes, the bourgeoisie of more than one country can get satis- faction out of the prospect of a new German bourgeois govern- ment headed by a social-democrat such as Otto Braun and with the labor-hating Dr. Stresemann as foreign minister. But the outstanding result of the elections in Germany is the| Red victory of the German Communist Party. The revolutionary path is drawing larger and larger n s of German workers. The bourgeoisie of all capitalist countries must sleep less pla-} eidly—the German working cla: s going red. The spectre of Communism is haunting Europe. | Elections are not revolutions. As mobilizations of the work- |" ing class, as training for revolutionary action, as a means of di ilfusionment and of exposure of the inefficacy of capitalist elec tiovs, the recent elections in France and Germany and the muni ipa] elections in England have been effectively used by our revo- jytionery comrades of those countries. | * Now comes the election in the United States, in which the Communist Party of America will undertake to make a record worthy of comparison under the differing conditions. The Communist national nominating convention which opens Friday night in New York—the first in the history of this coun- try—will be the start. Now let us make the American Commun- ists’ red campaign surprise the American bide! yi ens a Lazarus to Dives | You were born to the purple and cannot help That I lie in the gutter—so— The system that grinds you did not make, | Nor did you ordain my woe. Before your father’s father and mine | The seed was sown we reap; | And it isn’t your fault, at all, you say, Whether I laugh or weep. Aye, and I know you speak the truth, » But harken the truth J tell; Though it isn’t your fault, and it isn’t mine ds That I live in a pauper’s hell, Yet the hate that springs from the woe I have sf. Shall harry you to your grave, shall feel, though you've never earned, wrath of your father’s slave! —HENRY GEORGE WEISS. ja new THERE’S MONEY IN IT By JAMES P. CANNON. 1928 is a year of ferment in capit- alist America out of Which will come changes of:a profound character. Con- | \currently with the collapse of “per- | manent prosperity” and with the growth of unemployment, the revolt of the industrial workers grows apace. Ferment and the beginning of change —these are the clearest signs to be |read in the kaleidoscopic march of events of the year we are living in. Industrial peace has gone the way of “prosperity” and with it has de- parted all the semblances of validity of those theories and doctrines which, were designed by the apologists of | capitalism to “supplant” the class struggle. The great strike of the coal miners bears eloquent testimony to the inability of capitalism to maintain industrial peace and order as well as to the inexhaustible re- sources of the working class. New Wave of Strikes. The new strikes of the textile work- ers of New Bedford and the oil work ers of New Jersey represent the be- ginning of a wide-scale extension of |the strike weapon which will smash | the class-ecllaboration schemes like | eggshells and hurl them into the serap heap of history. ; The strikes, big and significant as they are, represent only the begin- ning of a new wave of unavoidable! |struggles of the American workers vhich will lead to a decisive change in all class relationships and raise | the consciousness of the workers to and higher level. The unrest | | of the farmers and the stubborn fight |of the Nicaraguan people represent | further proof of the shaky founda- tion of American imperialism and of the progressive development of coun- ter-forces which will aid in its un- \struggle against capitalism jicance and importance of the nomi a-| Thi Capitalism cannot maintain peace jand prosperity. Poverty, unemploy-| iment and war are its offspring, and is the |workers’ law of life. The period of the beginning of a the agglomeration of forces making for their extension is the period also when the bankruptcy of all reform- ist movements, parties and cliques, which deny the class struggle, has become most manifest, The Com- munist Party alone charts the course program and slogans for their co- ordination and further development. | This is the great task which all the | circumstances of the present moment assign to the national nominating con- vention of our Party which convenes | on May 25. Must Unify Workers’ Struggles. The struggles noted above, monopolist capitalism, are place on various fronts. The great task now, in the presidential election year of 1928, is to unify and co-ordi- nate these scattered and sporadic fights, to give them a clearer polit- ical direction and to weld them to- gether inte a general, national strug- gle against the whole American im- perialist regime, From this arises the gréat signif- tion convention of our Party convention will be*the single natic center of resistance to ction and | the only guiding light for the conduct on all fronts and on a national scale. Our nominating convention will not create illusions. We know the limi- tations of parliamentary activily. We doing. know the power of capitalism will not new wave of these struggies and of | of the workers through the complex | struggles of today and outlines the | and | others also, which have arisen out of | the irreconcilable contradictions of | taking | and development of the workers’ fight | be overthrown by a resolution in con- gress. But we also know the great value of election campaigns as a} means of revolutionary propaganda and mobilization. A Communist re-} mains a Comnunist whether he is the organizer of a strike, a soldier in the) |army cr a representative in congress. Communist representatives in the capitalist congress—and they will be there in spite of all, make no mistake about it—will use their positions with powerful effect to mobilize the work- ers for mass struggles outside. Lenin} tanght us this and Liebknecht and others have exemplified it. Tt is from the revolutionary stand- |point that we emphasize the over-} shadowing import of the nominating | | convention which will mark the open- jing of our 1928 election campaign. - Convention To Be Turning Point. This convention must and will sig- nalize a turning point in the develop- ment of our Party. We must make the break there, definitely and finally, with all ham-stringing prejudices and | tendencies toward passivity in the | field of parliamentary election activ- j ity. The Party must emerge from |the convention more clearly and dis- j | tinctly than before as a national polit- }ical party im all respects which chal- lenges capitalisia and its reformist agents on every field ‘of the class struggle, including the elections. The socialist party which long ago abandoned the class struggle as a gu g principle in practice has, at convention, also given up | the pretense of even formal adherence | to it, wkich it was compelled to make in Debs’ time. It has turned its face |away from the proletariat and made its apneal in the squeaky voice of liberal veformism to the middle class } By Fred Ellis Our Communist Nominating Convention The selection of its candidate for president—a liberal preacher alien to Marxism and the proletarian move- ment, a sanctimonious Sunday face for the week-day fakers who control the organization—was oniy the logical outcome of the anti-proletarian orien- tation of the socialist party. The Communist Party, which is the party of the working class, will steer a diametrically opposite course. Our nominating convention will rep- resent the national gathering place end concentration point of the labor militants, It will resound with the slogans of the class struggle and pro- claim the irreconcilable fight against the capitalist order. It will declare solidarity with the embattled work- ers and oppressed nationalities and races on every sector of the figh | against American imperialism. From this line of policy it naturally follows that the presidential nominees of the party will be selected from the standpoint of their representation of the class struggle program of the con- vention. Just as the socialist party, cpenly adopting a platform of liberal reformism, chose a candidate whose milk-and-water political character symbolizes that apostasy, so will the Communfst Party select candidates who represent and sympolize the class struggle and the militant workers. The rominating convention which witnesses the unfolding of the ban- ner of Communism in the forthcoming presidential campaign will be an event. of historic significance for our party and for the entire proletarian move- ment of America. More than that, it will be a signal to the entire world, and particularly to those countries’ and territories under the bondage of American imperialism, that a force is arising within its own borders which remnants of the disintegrated LaFol- lette movement. openly challenges its power and which will eventually overthrow it. One More Trust~—Retail Chain Stores Form Merger By SCOTT NEARING. iNEW YORK bankers and merchants announce a retail store chain with a capital of $100,000,000. The chain will take over department stores and \other \throughout the United States. merchandising — enterprises The president of the new system says that large chains of department | storas are inevitable; that 115 mil- \lion people in the United States “de- | pend upon the retail stores for the |commodities necessary for their daily \life and comfort”; hence there is no ‘reason why an association of depart- ment store owners cannot establish an ‘economic organization that will rival ‘General Motors or U. S. Steel as a junit of capitalist power, The new | ‘president adds a pious wish that the department store will not drive the independent retail dealer out of busi- ness, American capitalism entered its _menoely phase immediately after the civil war, Canal building and! railroad building were its earliest ex- pressions. Then came the organiza- tion of the Standard Oil Co. in 1870. From that year until 1901, when the US. Bteel Corp. was organized, most of the important producing groups in the United States were trustified to a greater or less degree. Development of Trusts. Retailing remained in the hands of small business men until after the Spanish-American war of 1898. The great impetus toward chain store or- ;eult. A retail shop could be started with a few hundred dollars and a small line of credit. Hundreds of thousands were in existence. The re- tail dealer was willing to work from breakfast until late at night, 6 or 7 days a week, and at a miserable in- |come. This competition was hard. to meet, Economists held that in such fields small enterprises would continue as in most European countries. Monopoly Capitalism, ganization came with the war of 1917. This latest announcement of department store consolidation is in line with the vigorous policy of cen- tralizing retail business pursued by American financial interests the past 26 or 80 years, Trustification took place first in the basic industries. Great outlays of capital were involved, The technical organization of railroads, steel mills and mass-production factories made competition by small rivals a virtual impossibility. Then the monopolists turned their attention to retailing. ere the problem was more diffi- Nothing of the kind happened. In- stead of the growth, side by side, of small shops and worker cooperatives, on the European model, American ré- tail trade went steadily to chain-store enterprises. Mail order houses, a unique American institution, proved immensely profitable; chain stores penetrated the grocery trade, the meat trade, the drug trade, the cigar trade, the candy trade; a great con- solidation broke into the baking in- dustry and virtually absorbed it. Merchandising went the way of other industries in the United States—the way of trustificatiom - C How were the centralized merchan- dising agencies able to meet the com- petition of the small trader working his 16-hour day? (1) The big chains got large amounts of credit on liberal terms. (2) They bought for cash in large quantities. (3) They sold for cash and thus avoided slow accounts and bad debts. (4) They utilized modern book- keeping. (5) They hired and trained store managers whose work was outlined and routined until to use Frederick W. Taylor’s phrase, “it could be handled by a trained gorilla.” The United States has been called the classical land of capitalism, Cer- tainly capitalist concentration has gone on with surprising rapidity and it is evidently destined to cover every important field of American economic enterprise. The department store in- dustry is the latest in a long line of instances where competitive capitai- ism has given way to monopoly capi- talism—another step on the road to @ cooperative commonwealth. A AN dQuTs wer the approach of the presiden- tial elections, the democrats are | hiring the usual flock of bright young | journalists to expose G. O. P. corrup- tion. The republicans have hired | equally bright young journalists to | expose Tammany corruption. | In commenting on the recent crop | of books exposing the wholesale loot- ling of the city and state treasuries | by the Pure and Perfect Knights of | Saint Tammany, Judge Olvany, head | of the organization, makes no attempt |to refute the charges. His only de- fense is that the other guys are just as bad. Judge Olvany is right. But so are the other guys. id * ° apee widespread development of ignorance among the police pop- ulation of Cleveland together with a new passion for savety devices can be learned from the following item. Safety Director E. W. Barry had been assigned to forestall the cal- amity threatened Cleveland by the. presentation, in play form, of Elmer Gantry, the novel in which Sinclair Lewis photographed an American preacher amusing himself, in the sprightly way of the clergy, by reading the bible and seducing wom- en. At the hearing called to decide the fate of play Safety Director Barry proved himself a true police- man and brightened the lives of his hearers by the following scintillat- ing remark; “Has this guy Gantry ever been tried and convicted?” * * * ROOF of the infallibility of British justice is bringing distinct com- fort to the legal performers of Scot- land and England. Sometime ago Marion Gilchrist, a woman of 83, was murdered in Glasgow. The police, having power to arrest anybody in the city of Glasgow, went out and did their duty by picking up a certain Oscar Slater, whom they didn’t like anyway. Oscar thought it was a joke. He had never even met the Gilchrist woman and was certain he had never killed anybody. He was tried for mur- der. It was a warm day, the rush season in the courts, so the judge and his hired help decided to call Slater guilty and close up shop for the day. This they did. Oscar was sentenced to hang. Mass protest fol- lowed. The courts decided kindness was wisdom and remembered them- selves to Oscar by giving him life imprisonment. He has been in jail since. The British courts have now decided that Slater was innocent and have promised to give him a new trial gratis, This is understood to mean release. It is a great relief to Oscar Slater, who has been in the rather uncomfortable Glasgow jail for 18 years, to know that British justice is inevitable and may catch up to a man just five minutes before he dies. He “|may now step out into capitalist Britain, a free man, with permission to carve out a career for himself in the ranks of the unemployed. * * * Building in an airplane and getting a birds’-eye view of its editors thru the windows. The little pigeons perched on stools riveted into banana peels are all the colors of the rainbow, red and green and blue and yellow, mauve and tan and black and yellow, purple and orange and white and yellow, but mostly Yellow. New insight into the value and trend of eduéation in American capitalist universities can be gath- ered from the announcement of a New York theatre that it will hire none but college graduates as movie ushers. The picture above shows the scholars of City College improv- ing their minds at the annual flag rush. Negro Lynched Outside Of Courthouse in Texas CENTER, Tex., May 22—The American citizenry of this town yes- terday showed their respect for legal forms by removing a Negro, Evans, from the jail here and lynching him just outside the courthouse, THREE DIE IN FIRE NEW ALBANY, Miss., May 22.— Three daughters of J. S. Ownes, edi- tor of the New Albany Gazette, were | Ger to death, while Mr. and Mrs. wens narrowly escaped Hes as their home was he Poem composed in a moment of | ecstacy while passing the Forward | ey ee, t— ) rE goa NINE = SUT eae D2