The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 24, 1928, Page 6

tT Sigman eR: THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1928 Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party Published by NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Inc., Daily, Except Sunday 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: “Dziwork” Phone, Stuyvesant 1696-7-3 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By Mail (in New York only): } §Sper year $4.50 six months _ $2.50 three months By Mail (outside of New York): $6.00 per year $3.50 six months $2 three months Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y. Assistant Editor Entered as second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. ¥ -ROBERT MINOR .WM. F. DUNNE ¥. under the act of March 3, 1879. VOTE CoO For President WILLIAM Z. FOSTER For the Party of For the Workers: \ MMUNIST! For Vice-President BENJAMIN GITLOW the Class Struggle! Against the Capitalists! Tammany Al’s Martyrdom Unable to discuss fundamental political differences with the republican party for the simple reason that the two parties are prac- tically identical as agencies of Wall Street, the democratic presidential candidate, Al Smith, has trotted out the religious issue in the hope of gaining sympathy as one who is persecuted because of his religion. Thus we are treated to the edifying spectacle of an avowed desciple of Romanism assailing religious intolerance. This is an old jesuit trick—accuse your enemies of the crimes of which you are guilty. Unfortunately for Smith there issa very slong and very black record of the period that his church and the governing power were synonomous; a period during which the church was supreme. It is not accidental that the thousand years during which the popes ruled the world of old Europe will be forever known as the dark ages. In-those days ignorance was a virtue and intelligence acrime. For pompous bigots, the most ex- travagant luxury; for those who dared to think, the dungeon, the rack and the stake. But no longer does the church weild the power that it once held. Instead of being the chief instrument of oppression and ter- ror in the hands of feudal barons, it is now but one of the many instruments in y hands of the imperialist master class of t United States. No one with any degree of intelligence thinks for a moment that the pope will rule America if Smith is elected, because the church itself is the servant of imperialism. Wall Street would rule Smith, just as it rules the present Coolidge-Mellon-Hoover adminis- tration. It is not church rule but class rule that enslaves the workers today, as of yore. Only a class party of labor can lead the working class on the road toward its eman- cipation. That party in the United States is the Workers (Communist) Party. Mussolini’s Successor Since the fascist coup that placed the brag- gert despot, Mussolini and his black shirt hordes in control of the government of Italy, the real power has been the general council of the fascist party, the direct agents of the big industrialists and bankers of Italy. Evi- dently weary of acting as the invisible pow- er a decree is now published to the effect that the general council is a part of the gov- ernment; that it will sit in the meetings of the cabinet and “give advice.” It is announced that this move is made so that the council can decide who shall be the successor to Mussolini if and when he is no longer able to function. That presupposes, of course, the continuity of the fascist re- gime. Like all despotic governments the fascist regime likes to delude itself with the idea that it will last forever. But even the fascists ought to realize that systems do not last simply because they cloak their tyrannies in terms of legality. All governments rest primarily upon force. Fascism, like any other form of capitalist despotism will exist only so long as it has sufficient power to impose its will by ter- ror upon the majority of the population. Through crises the masses eventually gener- ate that accumulation of energy and concen- tration of force that will enable them under the leadership of the revolutionary proletar- ian party, to overthrow the dictatorship of Mussolini and his bandit hordes. The general council may be able to choose the successor of Mussolini, provided he dies soon enough, but it is the oppressed and bleeding working class of Italy that soon or late will choose the successor of fascism. The class that must inevitably rise on the ruins of fascism will be able to perpetuate its rule, not by tyrannical measures but through democratic centralism as exercised by the dictatorship of the proletariat, in which the masses of workers and farmers directly par- ticipate in the conduct of their own govern- ment. The Lie Factories Still Busy. London is a strong competitor with Riga as the center of lying propaganda against the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. The latest invention from the camp of the im- perialists and their servants, the white guard and menshevik exiles and the anarchists of the Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman calibre, comes from London, where the Daily Mail reports that attempts have been made on the life of Leon Trotsky since his “exile.” The story is absurdly fantastic and relates that Trotsky’s cottage was besieged by ‘sharpshooters who attacked from behind trees, while Trotsky and his son stood them off. Everyone who has the slightest informa- tion regarding Soviet policy will instantly perceive the absurdity of such a fantastic tale. The agents of the imperialists interpret Soviet policy in the light of their own policies, which include cowardly, furtive assassination of political opponents. Trotsky has been de- cisively defeated politically ; he no longer has any following in the Soviet Union; in no sense is he a menace to the workers’ and peasants’ government. The London lie factory was particularly unfortunate in concocting this latest piece of fiction, in view of the fact that Trotsky is living in a city (Alma Ata) with a popula- tion of 65,000 instead. of a wilderness where sharpshooters can conceal themselves in trees. It is not at all astonishing that the same villifiers of the revolution who now shed tears over the imaginary hardships of Trot- sky were among his most vicious traducers when Trotsky was following the leadership of the Bolshevik party. Such “friends” | should cause Trotsky to ponder over his course and impel him to repudiate his errors as some of his former associates have done. Training for the Class Struggle Gratifying indeed is the response this sea- son to the opening of the Workers School. Within a few short years the Communist school of New York has outgrown every other school that even made a pretense of teaching labor topics. The registration this year exceeds all previous years. Those workers of New York who consider the labor movement as the hope of the work- ing class and who want to perfect them- selves to be able to fight’ effectively for their class have come to realize that the Workers School is unique in America; that it offers adyantages that cannot be obtained in any other place on the Western Hemisphere. In the best sense of the word they receive training for the class struggle. Registration for many of the courses is still going on. Let every worker take advan- tage of this school this winter and thereby be better fitted to challenge the despotism of the employers and their government. “EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE” Old Parties Not for Farmers To judge by the statements of re- publican and democratic politicians, | the farmers are pretty well off, and| |the farming question is only based on the wish of the politicians that the farmers enjoy a little more of Agricultural Workers Must Ally With Workers [eee of a surplus wage class (these | In City to Overthrow Capitalism life than at the present time. The question is: has the farmer) ducts in the country was $7,900,- had ample time to “study” the ques-| the kicks of the farmers. The farm- | got a kick coming? |000,000. In 1926, the value rose to | He decidedly has. general fact that regardless of elec- | siders that in 1926 the value of the |tion campaigns, the farmers owe|farmer’s dollar was only 62 cents, | fifteen billion dollars in mortgages | then one recognizes that the farmer \and debts. This, at the rate of 6 per|has a real kick coming. In 1926, cent interest, makes an outlay of|the real farm income was only 2 $900,000,000 in interest alone per |per cent higher than before the war. annum, or an average of $150 per | farmer. Wartime Overproduction. There is the other fact that dur- jing the world war and immediately |after, the government stimulated | the production of grain of all cate- | gories. Overproduction, not only in the United States, but in other im- | portant grain-producing countries, brought about a slump on the mar- |ket. It4s true that in certain coun- |tries there has been a_ periodical shortage due to bad crops, but as a whole there has been overproduc- tion, with, the result that when the grain is marketed, many farmers do not obtain a price even covering the cost of raising it. There is another vital factor: the growth in the number of automo- biles has eliminated millions of horses. This means that areas used |for the production of animal feed It is estimated that | CAMP sara t now lie fallow. 20,000,000 acres have thus been tak- len out of production. Other Aspects. There are other aspects of the case, terest. No one can escape taxes, even though during the period of 1923-26, the tax collector was not inclined to use any and all methods to collect taxes. During that per- |iod, the practice was to allow the |taxes to continue, in the hope that | better years would enable the farm- jer to meet his obligations. The same applied to interest: mortgages were not foreclosed, for this would have meant that the banks would have tens of millions of acres of agricultural land on their hands, | which they would not be able to dis- pose of. As it is, many banks came |into possession of farms and they | were white elephants. | A few of, the factors may be shown in the following: In Michi- gan in 1919, which was a year of high prices, 29.9 per cent of the net rent was paid in taxes, while in 1921, a, year of low prices, taxes represented 70.5 per cent of the net income. Covering a period of seven years, an average of 52 per cent of the net rent on 415 Michigan farms was paid in, taxes. According to investigations made, the same ap- | plies to Indiana, Arkansas and other | states. | In other words, a fifth to more (than a half of the net income must For instance, taxes and in-| At Mercy of Trusts. The farmer has to buy manufac- monopoly prices, prices determined in part by high protective tariffs, prices on which the trusts make \their hundreds of millions of dol- lars of profits. The farmer has to sell his crops at a time when he has mo capital to handle them with, with manipulators of the exchange man- euvering so that prices decline when jthe farmer is in greatest need of money. What solution have the republi- can and democratic parties for this |situation? What do they offer as |a remedy and what help do they “promise” the farmer? They prom- These “studies” have been going on for 8 years. The democrats who | have been in the U. S. congress have | tured products produced by trusts at | \ise him a “study of the problem!” | |tion, The democrats knew that it There is the $13,000,000,000. But when one con-| would be a national issue, for the | of the capitalist parties, as will be} |farmers have been complaining and |in 1924 this was greatly responsible |for the La Follette movement. Though this movement disintegrat- ed, the situation of the farmer has not improved, and continual com- plaints, the introduction of the Me- Nary-Haugen bill in congress and its veto by Coolidge indicated clear- | ly that this would be a big issue. | Neither of the capitalist parties ean tackle the problem, for if they |dared to do so the farmers would | perceive that they have no solution | whatever. Economists today de- |clare that rationalization—introduc- tion of high power machinery and | speed-up methods—will eliminate large numbers of farm laborers, put |agriculture on an industrial basis and lead to the cultivation of large areas—which means, as in industry ‘and trade, the driving out of the ‘small farmer, the farmers of small means. This may be_progress—and un- doubtedly it is—but it creates a sit- uation, as in industry, which the capitalists and their parties cannot by Pred Ets Told You So. | AX SMITH is busily engaged try- |** ing to convince the voters that is wet but not soaked, that he is a Catholic but! not a_popist,}} that while he admires and re- veres the “holy father” from a distance he would no more let him run the white house than he would permit the wizard of the Ku Klux Klan to do it. Hoover is denying that he santioned the bringing of the religious issue into the election campaign in order. to iil start the bile rising in the anti- Catholic voter. A pox on both of | them. They manage to. get the masses excited and take a sort of gambling interest in the election |campaign. This, however, has one advantage for the Communists, lhe T. J. O'Flaherty | Tea eae ILLIAM Z. FOSTER and Benj Gitlow, the national standard- | bearers of the Workers (Commu- |nist) Party, are having splendid | meetings because of the interest | aroused in the election campaign by | the hokum put out in the press, | from the platform and over the radio by the capitalist parties. The | workers want to hear all sides of the question. This is our gravy. | Thousands of Communist platforms | and millions of leaflets will he read | by the workers and those who are |having the gudgeon grease removed \from their thinking machinery will {have no difficulty in making the |right choice. They will vote Com- munist and join the Workers (Com- | cope with. It means the proletar-|munist) Party to help carry on the ianization of the farmers, the crea-|*truggle against capitalism. pet a § ‘armers will have to leave the land, as in the past 6 or 7 years, and go} to the eity in search of work.) This is the capitalist solution to} HERE is a terrible row in the ranks of Christian Science. Our readers are aware that “scientists” do not take death seriously until it comes to the question of claiming the deceased one’s estate. The pres- ent row is due to the allegation made coming elections—but the farming} by Christian Science Parent Church i problem will remain and with Amer-|in London, that Mrs. Mary Baker | jer will again trust one or the other | evidenced in the votes cast in the ica’s rapid rationalization of all in-| Eddy, the founder of the cult, “used | dustry, including the farming in-| drugs and consulted medical doctors jdustry, the conflicts will become |on many occasions during a long |more acute—until a war intervenes| period of years when she failed to |and food production will be required| get help through Christian scien- /on a larger scale than before.| tists.” To the denial of those allega- Whether under such circumstances tions it is further alleged that |the small farm will be revived is | “Mother” Eddy, was served by six , questionable, for with government doctors and at least four dentists. / aid large areas will be put under cultivation under pressure of high-| power machinery, which will release | larger numbers of men for war pur-|/ AA ina] to the naked eye as a Holy Renees [Roller or a Methodist deacon. Since These are some of the contradic-|1 attended 2 trial in Boston where / | tions which capitalism cannot solve | Christian Science property was being —contradictions which will demand) fought over by rival claimants I 2 solution ever more sharply as the | have not attached much importance years go on. to the alleged mental weakness of | Meanwhile, the farmer has a kick Mrs. Eddy’s followers. “Mother” jcoming. He will have to learn how | Eddy’s alibi for taking drugs was to kick properly—and line up with|the uniting of “the mental energy the militant workers in the city and | of the world’s hope of recovery thru fight. The task of aligning him) faith in materia *medica and the with the city worker devolves upon | spiritual power resident in the Chris- the Communists. | tian Scientist's understanding of | man’s eternal spiritual nature and * * Christian Scientist looks as nor- William Z. Foster received one red vote in Tokio, Japan, beating Norman Thomas by a neck and a halo. It is a custom among Ameri- can residents in the Nipponese capi- ence the thrill of voting for or against a presidential candidate. Judging by the returns, the vote was taken in embassies, consulates, speakeasies and the public library. Hoover got the ambassadorial and shine the mahogany undoubtedly cano who was caught ‘in the book | place is the guy who voted: Commu- nist. | whooped it up for Al and the Ameri- | |paign. Sixty-one dollars was ‘raised | immediately and a committee of six | was elected to put the decision into |effect. The committee @onsists of |Jenkins, Solnitzky, Gordon, Zub- lars and hopes to complete its quota |within a short time. Comrade |Solnitzky is the treasurer of this |committee. The Nucleus also or- |dered two thousand leaflets for dis- (tribution, and has elected a com- for the open-air meetings. | ee. This is good work. The $100,000 |Communist Campaign Fund is swel- | ling, but it will take a lot more gas catia ee | origin.” Now, chew on that. ORNER |PDNA FERBER, the novelist is a ticklish sort of person. She was The old syndicalist attitude towards a" ardent Hooverite until some cus- voting has no place in the Workers toms officers went over her person |(Communist) Party. Every vote|for hin and ankle flasks. Now she cast is a notice served on the capi-| is for Al. Miss Ferber arrived from talist class that the workers are|Eyrope recently and before the tal to take a straw vote every four|koff, Patrinos and Careathers. The | mobilizing their forces for the strug- Photographers had a chance to years, so that the exiled sons and|committee reports that it has raised | gle against the robber system of ex-| “Shoot” her the snooper searched daughters of America may experi-|nearly one hundred and fifty dol-| ploitation. A Communist vote is| her. It would be bad enough for |not merely a vote against Hoover, | Hoover to lose a vote if his misery , |Smith and Thomas, but a vote|men had found something besides (against Wall Street, American im- talcum powder in Edna’s silks, but \perialism, the capitalist government t0 draw a minus and p oheimeaear ett and for a socialist society arfi a) hand a plus to Al without a single |) |Workers and Farmers Government. 4™op of consolation—Well, Herbert | the consulate vote, the boys who mittee to assist in the arrangements|Do not neglect to register. Vote|@S8 you say, “prohibition is a noble | experiment,” but you ought to stick _to kissing babies and keep your | | hands off the women. | Checks for twenty and fifty thou- bel an cake | | Communist! eae tee eae Well, strange tho it may read to paign out of financial difficulties. |the old fashioned voter, a Commu-|The National Office is preparing a nist vote in Japan is just as wel-|dozen pamphlets on various issues |come as a Communist vote in Mil-| of the camnaign. Hundreds of thot- waukee. Ours is an international sands of those leaflets will be issued |Party and the task of the Workers |for mass distribution. All this will |(Communist) Party is chiefly de-|cost money. The example set by | voted to mobilizing the American | Nucleus No. 2 in Pittsburgh, should lmasses for the struggle against be followed by every other nucleus | capitalism here, it is part of the in-|thruout the country. \ternational army of labor, that is, * * \fighting in all lands to transform this world into a federation of * The latest word from Utah is en- couraging. When the National before it can lift the election cam-| sand dollars are pouring into the |coffers of the democratic and re-| |publican parties, but the ten and) one dollar bills are coming our way. | Not enough of them, tho. We would not object to a few fat checks, but there is not a capitalist in the| | United States foolish enough to send jin one. He knows better. He is ‘class conscious. He supports the| |parties that stand for the system) | that he thrives on at the expense of. | the workers. It is up to the work- ers and poor farmers to support the Communist Election Campaign. Send OW, that the Queens sewer bri- gands have fought and won a political victory in the primaries, thus making the borough safe for graft, there is no reason why other patriots should not take advantage of the opportunity afforded by the election campaign to collect some dough while the cash is running around looking for a warm spot to nestle. A man by the name of John Mooney figured he would get $100,000 out of John J. Raskob, by threatening to blow him up unless Negroes Respond to Red Drive By H. C. WILLIAMS. The Workers (Communist) Party, vealizing its historical role in the class struggle against predatory imperialism, cannot overlook an im- nortant section of our population, the Negro race, and particularly the proletarian elements which con- stitute over 98 per cent of that race. vanguard of the proletariat is to engage in battle against the twin narties of capitalism, the republi- “an and democratic. workers, as the most oppressed and oxploited section of the American working class must ize that the Workers (Commu- ) Party is the only party rep: of his interests, the only Nik force that can liberate him from de- gradation, With the open betrayal of the Negro by the republican and demo- cratic parties at their last nomina- tion. conventions, has come great eruptions and revolts among the Negro masses. Negro workers ap- proached for signatures for the Workers Party candidates have | most cases. Many of them have paxnressed their intention of voting ers of the Party and promise to sup- port it at the polls. I came into contact with many Negro workers who always voted republican or democratic in the past who told me that they were in hearty sympathy with our move- ment. And to show that they meant it they gave me their signatures to help us put our candidates on the ‘The position of our Party, as the|been only too glad to give them in ballot. They were particularly in- | terested in the fact that there are many Negro workers on the Party for the working class candidacies of| ticket in New York State and were |; Whiteman, Minor and other nomin- ees of the Workers Party. In par- be made to| ticular, those Negro workers who have attended our street meetings ‘and read the Party platform and program are enthusiastic support-| day." The Negro|Foster and Gitlow, Moore, Fort-| anxious to know if this was the case in other states and when told that it was so, exclaimed, “Well, that’s the party for me and I will sure vote for you all on-election a be spent by the farmer for taxes. | Workers Republics. ; soy The situation in the northwest is | 4 just as bad. In Wisconsin in 1927,| The campaign to put the Workers 2,598,000 acres were offered for sale | (Communist) Party on the ticket is * 4 on account of delinquent taxes. Drop in Farm Values. | Let us look at another phase of |the matter. During the war years, when prices were inflated, farmers | bought large areas of land. In 1920, |land values stood 69 per cent above the pre-war level. In 1927, this had |declined to 19 per cent above the | pre-war level, but measured in pur- chasing power in comparison with | pre-war values, farm values declined It is estimated that in 1927 the farmer’s dollar was worth 65 cents, the farm laborer’s 70 cents, the ur- ‘ban worker’s only 58 cents, From this fact it might be-deduced that the farmer is not so badly off. In 1913, the value of farm pro- } | to 20 per cent below pre-war values. | | traveling so fast and so successfully \that even the hard-boiled National [Election Campaign Committee is chuckling. Of course this is not an invitation to the.members on the firing line to retire to their dugouts jand take it easy. From now on | the real fun is going to be had. With ‘twenty-one states on the ballot and half as many more ready to go over the ton, it looks as if the Cam- paign Committee estimate of thirty | states will have to be raised. pier ae Street Nucleus No. 2 of Pitts- _burgh is taking the election cam- paign seriously. The unit also knows that the Campaign means money. So at its last meeting it passed a motion to raise five hun- dred dollats for the Election Cam- } Election Campaign Committee in- | structed the comrades in the Mor- |mon State to get the Party on the ballot or forever after hold their peace, it sounded like a dumb sen- tence for them. But they went to work in the true Communist fashion and now—Well as we say in the |movies, “Now, comes the dawn.” You will hear the last of the story in a few days. * a | From now on until polling day in November, registration will be carried on in the various states. Every state has its own registration jlaws. Some have registration open from the first of the year. Others charge a poll tax. Still others like |New York set a definite week for registration. Our comrades should acquaint themselves with the regis- tration law in their particular state and to take the necessary steps to qualify for Oo on election day. he came across. But alas, Mooney ‘has not awaked to the fact that | this is not the way business is done nowadays. The darned fool is lucky if he escapes the chair. * all contributions to Alexander | Trachtenberg, Treasurer, National Election Campaign Committee, 43 _E, 125th Street, New York City. ea, aah * 8 | "THREE Nebraska state banks have been seized by government offi- _ cials. It is alleged that bank offi- cials took unto themselves thou- sands of dollars deposited by citi- zens who believed that the bank is Pennsylvania is the heart of the struggle and.for the first time it history the miners are fighting the | enemies of labor simultaneoysly o: |the political and industrial fronts, |The raid on the Miners Convention |in Pittsburgh by the police, coal! safer than the sock. Those Nebras- ;company detectives and paid “pick-|kans must be clumsy fellows. Per- jets” of the Lewis machine, gives a haps they were too busy urging the graphic picture of the panic that has| American Legion to have the Com- taken hold of the labor fakers.’ munist ticket thrown off the ballot’ ets eis bea Mesa ats af-|as a menace to law and order, to” fo: ire hundreds of pai jugs i to Splckeb? “abl Aetaok the MISE oo C a ee | Convention, but they could not af- ford to provide the militant strik- ers and their dependents with relief during the long y strike a