The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 11, 1929, Page 4

. . Published by the Comprodaily Publishinglg’o., Inc., daily, except Sur : SS P. r Square, New ¥ City, N.Y. Telep Stuyvesant 1696-7-8. Jaily SO ‘age Fou Addrees and all checks to the Dai orker, 8 Union Squ a Y ee tral Organ of the Ce S MacDonald’s Mission of : By A. S. = 'T was left to “Labor” Minister, MacDonald to discover the magic rdstick” of the year. With this “yardstick” it is proposed to measure all the different categories of naval armaments of England and of the United States to “exactly” suit the particular naval needs of each country on a “parity” basis. This operation is termed by the bourgeoisie and the reformists as “naval reduction.” In order to estimate the significance of these pacifist maneuvers which reached a superficial climax in MacDonald’s one-man show trip to the United States it might be advisable.to briefly touch on some angles of the problem as a whole. G At, the depth of the armament problems lie the basic economic contradictions between the capitalist powers. The chronic decline of England has reached a new stage of acceleration, while the “prosper- ous”,U. S. is noting the developing signs of a depression. The slogan of the “Freedom of the Seas” is‘raised sharpen than ever. leading capitalist countries pressed by their inner contradictions are also in the race. We, then, see the sharpening of the contradictions on the world’s markets, the inter-capitalist state tariff war, the wrangle about the debt settlement and reparations followed by discussion on armaments, arbitration, World Court, etc. Great Britain at present has 1,345,232 tons of naval! vessels of all classes, while the U. S. possesses 1,293,972 tons. In the present dis- cussions capital ships do not figure, because their distribution was regu- lated by the Washington Conference. While, other classes (submarines, aircraft carrie! lestroyers, etc.) are still kept in the background, the issue is centered around the cruisers. Great Britain requires many fast- going light cruisers while the U. S. needs somewhat less but of heavier type.. Of this class Great Britain has 62 ships of a total of 401,791 tons and the U. S. 33 ships totalling 300,500 tons. According to the latest unofficial figures Great Britain proposes to agree to have fifty vessels of a total tonnage of 339,000 ‘by 1936 (which is 20 vessels less than it was willing to accept at the Geneva Conference), while the U. S. would have 36 cruisers with a total tonnage of 315,000. . “REDUCTION” BY ADDITION! The seeming reduction on the part of Great Britain would be com- pensated by the construction of more effective cruisers to replace the old ones. The U. S. on the other hand while it would still have some 24,000 cruiser tons less, would have six large cruisers more than the British and a tonnage greater by 15,250 tonsi, than it would have had, had it carried out the full program of naval construction approved by «the Congress. This is how naval armaments are to be “reduced.” But France, Italy and Japan also enter the picture at the proposed five power con- ference. Already,eJapan declared it also wants to have “parity” while France insists that the five-power agreement must become part of the Geneva Draft Treaty. In connection with the discussions around the other types of vessels to fall under consideration at the conference fur- ther and deeper contiadictions will come to light. In view of this situation, in which MacDonald’s trip has not ef- fected an iota change for the better, must be estimated the hopping shout in the limelight of MacDonald. In substance ani in form it was the greatest pacifist mockery ever staged. MacDonald, who in 1924 initiated the cruiser building program, aims at completing it under the mask of this pacifist fakery. The U. S. and the other powers on their part are willing to play the game. Not the slightest protest was raised on the part of the bourgeoisie of Great Britain or of the U.S. In fact this act of MacDonald received their full approval. “PACIFIST” MEETS A “QUAKER.” the House of Bishops invoked the blessings of god to shield the efforts of MacDonald. His reception in New York was fitting the man and his purpose: two cruisers escorted his boat While infantry, | artillery and other regiments of the army met him and gave an “honor guard” to him on the shore. Just by the way let us say that MacDonald is acclaimed as a “conscientious objector” to militarism and as a “con- vinced pacifist.” Well, anyway no one expected him to protest, and he did not, not even for the sake of a show, the same as he “fought” against the war by going to the Belgian front cn auxiliary service. The other | ™ the course of his three days conversation with Hoover, not a | single problem affecting the situation was discussed. Hoover in an interview, said he has nothing to report but: “We, fortunately, have no controversies . . . to be settled, and therefore we can discuss our problems as related to human welfare in the very largest sense.” i What the narrower sense of “human welfare” means to Hoover was subtly expressed him on Sept. 18 in a speech broadcast. said in part: “Never has there been a president who did not pray that his administration might be one ef peace . . . yet these men have never hesitate] when war became a duty of the nation. And always in these years the thought of our president has been adequate prepared- ness for defense as one of the assurances of peace.” “Note this and hear MacDonald speak in the U. S. Congress, at banquets or with bankers. In Congress he said: “. . . there can be no war hetween us. It is impossible. . ” At a banquet he said: *. ... The end of war is extremely near... .” NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. But this pacifist mask had to be somewhat loosened so the British and American press begins to “explain.” Says one American paper on the above assertions of MacDoneld that they are “. . . ‘unfortunately, . absolutely absurd . . history has shown that the bitterest wars are those which have been waged between peoples that at some previous time were the best friends.” Quotations could be cited end- lessly in the same vein until we get to the “London Times” which sum- marized the results of the trip as being “Everything and nothing.” What is the deeper significance of this pacifist phrasemongery dished out to the world everyday for the last three months? We need not here deal with the special aims of pacifist agitation except to say that whenever the contradictions in the capitalist economy of the world There he | are nearing a point of crisis we are treated to the most intense pacifist | activities. maneuvers like the present. WHAT IT ALL MEANS. And behind this is hidden the real significance of such ON THE 11TH ANNIVERSARY OF “ARM ISTIC = Worker nmunist Party of the 0. 8. A By Mail Gn By Mail (out SUBSCRIPTION RATES: / New Tork only): $8.00 a year: e of New York): $6.00 a year: $2.50 three months $4.50 six months: $2.00 three months $3.50 dix months; 2 a” ; By Fred Ellis ‘Democracy Southor Rio Grande By HARRISON GEORGE. We attract the attention of the reader to the following news item, ‘taken from the United Press Service of Nov. 4. = “Mexico City—Six backers of Jose V oncelos, anti-re-elec- tion candidate for president, were wounded in a fight in Tampico, advices said today. Vasconcelos, upon receiving the news, asked President Portes Gil to guarantee protection for his followers.” “What is important about this?” And we must answer that it is not important at all, so far as being anything unusual, but that its impo e is considerable since it is only one of countless such incidents taking place in the election campaign now going on in M For it can be understood, from the fact that these sort of shin-digs and gun fights are a matter of ordinary daily occurence, that the present Mexican election, just as those in the past, is being settled by that prince of Mexican democracy—the 30- 30 rifle. In spite of all the lon¢ months of puffing and blowing, trying to ke the present election something different, an illusion dearly de- an imperialism which is stage director of the play, there remains just as much “democracy” in the coming election of Wall Street's favorite, Ortiz Rubio, as there ever was in Chicago in the election of Mayor Thompson. In fact if we change the names a bit, the news of Mexico's “first, only, and marvelously democratic elec- tion,” sounds exactly like an election day in Chicago, the dead, the dying and wounded ali included The reader may ask: Yr sider by Ameri MORROW, THE LION TAMER. And it is well that things be understood th row has been shown to be such an exc¢ that none other than Calles, whose front name nds savagely as “Plu- tarco,” has been domesticated and trained to sit up and bark, or roll over and play dead at the Command of Ambassador Morrow. City may truthfully be said to have become as Yankee as Chi s, for since Mr. Mor- tamer of wild beasts fact the Communist Party in Ch for all the arrests recen made, might be able to hold a meeting and expose the Portes government, Calles, Ortiz Rubio nad his “opponent” Vasconcelos as boot lickers and one and all of Yankee imperialism—but the Commu- nist Pai of Mexico forbidden to do such a thing in Mexico City Moreover, while in Chicago a worker might be able to nenounce Presi- dent Hoover as an imperialist, if a worker does the same in Mexico, | he is subjected to possibilities of death of deportation, according to The actions of the two respective governments reflect, av already | indicated above: (1) that the accelerated development of capitalist con- | tradictions threatening an explosion had to be met by a “peaceful” re- adjustment in all spheres for the postponement of the outbreak to a more favorable time; (2) that this process of readjustment tekes into consideration the existence of the Soviet Unioy as,a potential market not open to the free penetration of the capitalists and that it js an an- tagonistic political power with an opposed social and economic basis, dealing with which by military action is on the order of the day as a temporary toning down of the capitalist contradictions; (3) that for this | purpose the alliance of all great powers must be established, meanwhile each government seeking to strengthen its position against those of the others with whom it has direct controversies; (4) that in the first round Great Britain is forced to give some formal concessions; (5) that the U. S. has reached a new stage in consolidating itself politically, econ- omically and from a military point of view as a leading imperialist power. As after the Washington Conference, so even now the armament race will go on. The contradictions between the capitalist countries will grow with the intensification of the inner contradictions in each coun- try. The growth of these contradictions is directly enhanced by the growth of socialism in the Soviet Union. War, therefore, is inevitable in the present period. MacDonald’s role and that of all reformists and pacifists,is ob- viously two-fold. On the one hand they aid the capitalists in their war preparations and on the other by lulling the masses into the feeling of security they prepare for delivering them into the hands of the im- perialists, MAY CHARGE RHINELAND SOLDIER BABIES AGAINST REPARATIONS The Morgan-Young world bank for collecting Urfcle Shylock’s dar debts is having a hard enough time overcoming international imperial- ist contradictions while attempting merely to come into being, but its future, if it is to have one, promises to be even more stormy. The latest complication has reared its head in the Rhineland, where 15,000 babies, by actual count, have been presented to the German domestic servants, salesgirls and factory workers by occupation sol- diers of the French, American and British armies. Most of the soldier sires, who have now evacuated the terxitory, got out from under paternal obligations by the simple expedient of having themselves transferred as soon as efforts to establish claims for support were made, and con- sequently the care of their children has been thrown upon the already overburdened Rhineland workers. A bourgeois woman’s club at Cologne has started a move to pin down, by judicial action, the responsibility of the decamped fathers, and is arranging to bring suit in a London court as a test case. The sug- gestion has been made that the sum for the upbringing of the post-war babies be deducted from t'e reparations account. On the basis of 50. marks each for 16 years, this pega amount to hearly $21,500,000, i whether he be privileged as a Mexican to die for it, or as a foreigner to be deported for it, and according to whether the Mexican prosecutor is told by the nearest American consul to act under Sections 33 or 30-30 of the Constitution of Queretare, which has cost a lot of trouble for all the Mexican workers and peasants have gotten out of it. Why may one be against Yenkee imperialism and Mr. Morrow more or less safely in Chicago, and not in Mexico? Is it that the Mex- ican masses have forgotten the countless insults and invasions, the in- trigues and armings of* murderous bands, or do they fail to see the evident fact that American imperialism after all these efforts has finally succeeded in riveting the bonds of colonial slavery on Mexico? Althought those chains are carefully draped with the Mexican national banner—so far. Not at all! It is precisely because the Mexican masses still—and with good reason—have not los tone iota of their hatred toward American im- perilaism and now realize, vaguely but with growing certainty, that the Mexican bourgeoisie ha? surrendered to Wall Street, that it is unhealthy to sveak disparagingly of Mr. Morrow in the streets of Mexico. For Mr. Morrow is the ruler of Mexico since Morgan's Bank has bought and paid for the Mexican government. * ‘The manager of the Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company (British) at Vera Cruz, who furnished General Aguirre with money for armed re- volt last March, lost his money. The conference of American consuls in Mexico, called together by Morrow just before the revolt, had laid the plans too well, and too many Mexican workers and peasants (forgetting the necessity of a clear class fight of the proletariat allied with the revolutinoary peasantry), were deluded by appearances into supporting a “progressive” bourgeois government against an obviously reactionary feudal-clerical bloc—failing to take an independent. position against both. CASHING IN THE BLUE CHIPS. The British lost their moaey and Aguirre lost his life, though his colleague, General Esc given a job to his counter-revolutionary taste leading Russi guards against the Soviet frontier in Manchuria. But’Morgan’s bank won. Then the Mexican bourgeoisie at Mr. Morrow's command, made peace with the church, assured the feudalist land-holders their land would not be given to landloss peasants, and these peasants and the | workers who had, without invitation, aided the Mexican bourgeoisie (and Wall Street) in suppressing the insurrection,*were disarmed and some of them shot. Ortiz Rubio, the candidate who weathered the storm borne safely in the lap of Mr. Morrow, is now facing two candidates, only one of which can be said to be a real rival, since the other, Vasconcelos. ha sno good reason for existenc ept to lend a false air of reality to the election that is to legalize Mr. Morrow's choiee of Rubio—and to detract attention from the third candidate—the only real political oppo- | sition to American imperialism, Triana, the candidate of the Workers and peasants Bloc. . iD Ortiz Rubio, the dummy put up to baptize with ballots as the sahetified head of the Mexican republic (now a colony of the United States) has at least the quality of standing for something—American imperialism. Vasconelos, the other bourgeois candidate, 1s famous chiefly for having a way with women, and in an election where nobody i ding for re-election, is the candidate on the “anti-re-election” ticket! But to assure nervous Yankee stockholders that things will be quite all right even if Rubio loses to Vasconcelos, the latter recently announced himself and his policy as firmly adhering to “Pan-Ameri- canism,” i. e., the Monroe Doctrine, the apple of Hoover’s eye. One may ask, if this is true; what all the shooting is about. Well, it furniShes nealism to the fake fight, and comes from Vasconcelos’ followers taking it seriously. If they did not take it seriously, Vas- concelos would be laughed at for appealing to President Gil, Rubio’s campaign manager, for protection against Rubio’s gunmen. The present messenger-boy of Mr. Morrow, President Portes Gil, put up so to speak to introduce Ortiz Rubio, has had the nasty, if well paid job of keeping up appearances. Only the expert teaching of Mr. Morrow in Yankee demagogy and hypocrisy could put over the trick of advertising new laws “establishing” freedom of the press and “abol- ishing” capital punishment, at the same time the Communist Party is outlawed, its paper suppressed, presses smashed and its members shot officially—or just shot. Also, the stunt is put over of introduenig one of the most viciously anti-labor fascist “labor ‘codes,” getting Yankee corporations to “object” to it as “ruinous,” and Portes Gil staging a fight” against them “in defense of the rights of Mexican toilers” ne of whom, if he knows what it means, would cheerfully die fighting against it. ONE ANTI-IMPERIALIST FORCE. But as indicated above, there is one social force in the Mexican election seriously challenging Yankee imperialism. This is the Worker and Peasant Bloc, with its candidate Pedro Triana. Although harried by, persecution and fascist terror, and betrayed in part early in the campaign by the treason of Ursulo Galvan, head of the Peasants’ League, expelled for class treason from the Peasants’ International and from the Mexican Communist Party, the Worker and Peasant Bloc is hewing a new independent line of struggle against all bourgeois puppets of Wall Street, fighting on a basis of irreconciliable class struggle—thus clarifying the minds of the masses and laying the Basis for future struggles which are certain to come in ever sharper form as the workers and peasants feel the increasing weight of Yarfkee im- perialist deposition. In its election propaganda it says: “The workers and Peasant Bloc has no illustion on thé “legal” result of the voting. And if it takes part in the election, it is, firstly, to mobilize the masses in a real, independent srtuggle that will give them consciousness of their froce and prepare them later to finish forever with the regime of bourgeois exploitation of labor and to es- tablish a revolutionary government of workers and peasants. Our program: All land to the peasnats! The factories to the workers! All power to the Workers and Peasants!” Why We Call Ourselves Communists. By V. I. LENIN. . (Delivered at the Petrograd Conference of the Russian Social- Democratic Labor Party-—Bolsheviks—on May 10, 1917.) As to the new name of the party, the word “Social Democrat” is incorrect, is scientifically improper. Marx and Engles have more than once pointed this out. If they “tolerated” this word it is because the situation after the year 1871 was a rather peculiar one; there was re- quired a gradual preparation of the masses of the people; revolutions were not on the order of the day. Democracy 3s also a form of state, and even the Paris Commune had advanced to a higher plane. And now the entire world is placed before a practical question—the transi- tion to socialism. The social democrat Plekhanov as well as other social- chauvinists all over the world have betrayed socialism. We must call ourselves the “Communist Party.” o . ; “ur Flies In Socialist Berlin. / With five social-demoeratic officials of Berlin under indictment for-acceptnig graft from the notorious Sklareck brothers, who with the connivance of the municipal government have been reaping a rich harvest in city contracts, Mayor Boess has rushed forth with a bluster- in statement which tries to explain away the gift of a highly valuable fur coat, presented to his wife by these same Sklarecks. Since his return from a tour of American cities, on which Boess hdped to perfect his technic of corruption, he has been the target of what he calls “hostile ard dishonoring” attacks on the segre of the coat, accepted, he says, through “carelessness.” After the ridiculously low “price” of the bribe became an open secret, Boess hastened to in- form his benefactors that he would devote the difference to charity. So far as known, the sole object of charity who has benefitted by his grafting remains himself. Boess in his statement denied having any knowledge of the high credits enjoyed by the Sklarecks at the “socialist” controlled city bank and threatened to sue everyone who has been “libelling” him. Pro- ceedings have been begun against the contractors for wholesale bribery of the social-democratic officialdom, OF BREAD nm, from “The City of Bread” by Alexander 4 copyrighted by Doubleday—Doran, New York. TRANSLATED FRO" THE RUSSIAN Reprinted, by permii Neweroff, published —_$=—$—$—$———— (Continued.) The woman lashed out at him with a towel, and Mishka plunged back into the human whirlpool, running around among the Kirghiz. The Kirghiz crowded about him from all sides, making such a din that even Mishka was somewhat abashed. One snatched at his knife, another at his cap. One, a very old man with black teeth, even seized hold of his jacket. He babbled something and pulled it off Mishka’s shoulders in order to try it on himself. Mishka shouted to the Kirghiz: “T won't sell cheap.” ‘ ‘ The old Kirghiz had ¢just managed to squeeze himself into the jacket when the railroad cars began to jerk forward. poe Mishka tore the jacket from the Kirghiz, but where was his knife? Then he found the knife, but the Kirghiz tore the thong from his hand. Mishka nearly cried with vexation: “Give me quick! I have no time!” By now the cars were in motion. Right before his eyes they were gliding off. sind: The wheels spun round, the station with the Kirghiz spun round, the whole earth spun round beneath his feet. Mishka rushed over to the train, but the doors opened out on the opposite side. If he tried diving under the car he would be crushed beneath the wheels. Mishka raced along like a little foal after an immense iron horse, the toes of his bark sandals caught as he ran, his jacket weighed him down like stone, . He could no longer force his legs to move, they were ghing way under him, his mouth hung open, his breath came sobbingly. He caught sight of a step no the prake platform, flung out both hands to seize the iron handle, grasped it, and was dragged along, face to the rear, by the moving train. He clung desperately to the iron handle, tlfe whole weight of his body suspended from his arms. He could feel his body being dragged down under the wheels, as if he were being sucked into a bog. The wheels crunched, they wanted t otear him in half, to grind him into little bits. Mishka’s leaden feet dangled, the trani went faster and faster, and his feet in their bark sanrals pulled him down like two heavy weights. There seemed no hope of his being able to draw them up to the footboard. If he let go, his head would be shattered on the rocks, on the iron rails below. “Good-by, Tashkent!” “Good-by Lopatino!” Death! Mishka’s hands would soon be torn loose, Mishka’s head would be smashed to pieces. But things happen differently when you do not want to die. And Mishka did not want to die. He gathered his last ounce of strength, every sinew taut-as wire— and drew his feet up to the footboard. Then he bent his legs and eased his body downward, it was easier’ that way t osupport his leaden weight. “Now I won't fall off.” He was congratulating himself when, looking up, he saw a man onl the car flatform regarding him with an angry eye. He said something, but the rushing train wheels drowned his voice with their clatter. Mishka had understood nothing, but looked beseechingly at the angry man. 1 . “Little uncle, help me The car wheels drowned Mishka’s voice too, swept it out of hear- ing. For a long time the man looked down at Mishka hanging there, remembering instructions—no one was to be carried withou a ticket. “Let him fall!” But then (this'came quite unexpectedly) he seized Mishka by the shoulder and dragged him up to the platform. He set him down near a chest with a-Jantern on it, and said gruffly: “Want to kill yourself?” Mishka was silent. “Who are you?” “Lopatinsky.” “Who are you with?” “My father.” “Where is your father?” “There in the car.” ‘The man regarded Mishka with stern eyes, then turned away. “T’ve had enough of you.” Mishka was silent. He sat by the chest, stretched out his feet in their wide bat! sandals, could scarcely catch his breath from shock. His straine: arms ached, his head was dizzy, he felt like vomiting. He wanted to lie down and be left in peace. Once again Lopatino entered his thoughts. ay He saw his starving mother and his two brothers, and Yashka’s wooden gun lying on the floor. He jerked up his head to rid himself of the disturbing thoughts, turned away wearily and listlessly from the trouble that never left his side. There was no place where he might run away from it. He was going to Tashkent—but it tagged after him like a kitten after a cat. It was a good thing that he had a strong character, and wasn’t given to weeping, else he would have been howl- ing long ago. Comrade Dunayev had brought him luck, but now he had lost it again. Gloomy thoughts filled Mishka’s head, disturbed his heart, forced the tears from hsi eyes. The car wheels jerked at him: You won’t get there, You won't get there, You'll die! You won't get there, You won’t get there, You'll die! The man took a piece of bread from the chest, carefully broke off a bit, glanced at Mishka. Mishka turned away. “Where’s your father going?” “To Tashkent.” “Is it sweeter than to die in Tashkent?” “What?” “Oh, nothing. Of course, they’re keeping a special supply of bread for you there? Just hold out your pocket and let them pour it in!” The wheels clattered. The Kirghiz steppe—empty, arid—raced away from the train. Telegraph poles flashed by. No sparrow perched on them. No wisp fluttered from the telegraph wires. No mujik drove along the little pathway that skirted bankment.. « Only the vast steppe—not a single village. A desert—not even a dog’s bark. L » Only lofty hills with blue heads, and the air over the hills shim- mered like a river. A signal hut with broken windows rushed by. Its rvs roof made him think of Lopatino, with its hungry, empty izbas. Grief beyond his understanding gripped Mishka’s heart, as if some one were squeezing it in his fist. His aching head sank lower, “Has your father much mqney with him?” Why did this man torment him with his questinos? Mishka did not’ want to move his tongue, he was weary: of making up stories. But how else was he to get to Tashkent? Everybody cross-examined you, you had to-make up some kind of ‘tale: for each eet you aaa you’d be thrown out. They’d throw him right off e train like a kitten, and leave his there on the. steppe without without houfes, and say: an * srahaie “He's a thief! He hasn’t any mother or father, He's riding without a ticket and without a pass.” mes ‘ Mishka. looked up .with tired,. reddened. eyes,.and spoke quietly, like a regular grown-up mujik. ] “He had a ‘lot of money, but half’ of it was’ stolen.” * , “Where?” . “His pocket was cut out at the station.” ~ j . re man laughed. 9 “He must be a fool if he let them steal out of his own | a6 “He isn’t used to traveling,” sighed Mishka. sec \ “How ‘did you happen to: be’ left: behind?” er” “I had a belly-ache, I had to get down a minute, and the trai started to go. Father yelled: ‘Hurry up, ump on Adick!’—-but) 1 / tripped, arid ‘cdught on to this step’ and was just going to fall off... Then: you stretched out your hand...” + “And if T hadn’t stretched it out?” “I'd have been killed.” ! “Seems you're a regular bum!” - . “And whogare you, little uncle?” Y : ; (To be Continued) the em-,