The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 5, 1932, Page 4

Saar j DAIL “Y W ORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, JULY 5, 1932 rker Porty U.S.A. 1ath St., New York City, N. Y. Address and mail checks (o the Daily W Telephone AL; xept ‘Sunday, at 50 E. Cable “DA!WORK.” . New York, N. ¥. forker, 5 SUBSCRIPTION By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six Borough of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. six mont RATE months, § two months, $1; Foreign: excepting one year, $8 hs, $4.50. Roosevelt’s Mate IOHN N. GARNER, present chosen as Democratic ¢ eaker ¢ the Roosevelt forces and William Randolph Hearst Hearst is an arch foe of the Soviet imperialist war with Japan. Practically a nonentity until the won special glory in the eyes of the capitalist class by of the s ales tax advocated by Wall Street into line by waving the flag and im the Hi of the House of Representatives, was date for Vice-President by a deal between llow jingo publisher. Union and a violent advocate for present session of Congress, Garner vigorous defense ig the Democrats shouting that the and by tical entire system of capitalism is endangered if the budget is not balanced at the expense of the working class, As a contender for the presidential nomination, he put forward an open red baiting platform of destruction of the Communist movement. He has the support of the Ku Klux Klan of the most reactionary southern lyr Garner is a true mate for the Wall S of the rights of the workers, by running on the same reactionary enem: ticket as Roose’ exposes the true. parade as a champion of the interests self in his platform and actions in Congress. In the election campaign he will have Wall Street elements of the southwest and neher eet candidate Roosevelt. This face of Roosevelt, who is trying to of labor. Garner has exposed him- Roosevelt is more cunning, to be shown up as an abject tool of “Socialism for All” ORE and more apologists of capit ists who have in the pas “platforms” ciple.” Like debauchees who have they have now become chastened ani and adopt an “unequivocal stand.” A: reformists find salvation in Norman Thus “The World Tomorrow,” as they went along, are now settling alism and dyed-in-the-wool reform- shifted about in circles, manufacturing their down 2 drunk deep and ca d announce they will “go straight,” nd what is this stand? These open Thomas and his socialism. “men of prin- roused much, a magazine which announces itself “as a journal looking to a new order based on the religion of Jesus,” comes out in support of Norman Thomas, not merely because it prefers him to the other candidates, but because thi t of all we are supporting socialism as socialism.” what is the socialism which they he that fi ism for inevitable” immature people to recog: 00! eialism less destruction if 1 st their feeble ideas ha and ‘therefore they conceive their ey oy the eas a state “we are frank to say ld? It is a super-class ‘convince them that so- task “to awaken ze this fact before events overtake a. fate upon them which could have been accepted with it had been accepted voluntarily.” “explanation” of the socialism which they mean and and.” Their “socialism” is coming They generously offer their pious m above classes, therefore, any ism was un- eptable to the s th they are, they the devil to them this devil is revealed in the explanation They say “if it seems strange to some of eligious journal should take a more unequivocal at- titude t towards litical problems, we remind them that it is the genius ef religion (!) . . . to see things in sharp outline. The genius’ is not now appreciated because it usually deals with issues and symbols which are irrelevant to the real moral and socia’ intend to make it more relevant.” In other words: “The World Tot 1 problems of the modern man. We morrow” is learning that the dope peddied by such magazines does not sell today any better than other capitalist goods. and so they mean to palm off their on them. They must deal in goods that are saleable to the masses, old wares by putting a new label These sanctimonious ladies and genttemen think that if they string together their bankrupt ideas and call it fool the masses better than before. form this service: they show that the ist clas “socialism” they will be able to By their action, however, they per- socialism acceptable to the capital- which they preach is the same brand which the Thomases and the Hillauits are offering in a slightly redder hue in the hope of preventing the movement of the masses to Communism. Another Attempt to Revise Marx HERE has appeared the first issue of a new magazine which calls itself the “Marxist Quarterly.” American problems is of great interest therefore pick up this magazine with it possible that we have a school of Mi not heard before? Alas, the very first pages shatter to deal again not with Marxism, but Any attempt to really apply Marxism to t to all class-conscious workers. We a certain degree of expectancy. Is arxists in America of whom we have all hopes and disclose that we have with the crudest attempts to revise Marx. The magazine declares its purpose to be “an attempt to cross swords with the bourgeoisie on the field of culture.” is to cross swords w! vulgar examples of social-fascist conceptions. doing, however, What is succeeds in ith Marxism and develop the most The editors even go so far in their attempt to assume a@ revolutionary coloring as to appeal “for the cooperation of the leading cadres of the proletariat” on the grounds that this magazine is “organized under the banner of Marxism, Leninism and Stalinism.” Let us take just a glance at some of the ideas put forth under such an ultra-revolutionary label that it even claims to represent @ Stalinism, existence of which Stalin himself has denied. As could be expected, the social-fascist character of the new magazine is revealed most clearly in dealing with current political problems. Examining the situation in Germany, “On top sit the capitalists with the social mate of the relation of forces: , We find the following typical esti- democrats, at the bottom sit the peasantry with the Nazis and the prole- ariat with the Communists.” This is a paraphrasing of fundamental ideas of social-fascism; namely, the linking up of open fascism with Commu- nism, with social democracy posed as the bulwark against both. Our self-styled Marxists are not content to leave it at this. Accord- ing to them the capitalist class is conducting a life and death struggle against fascism, while the latter is equally revolutionary with the Com- munist movement. They say: “The all revolutionary militarism, whether Communism capitalist class further suppressed in the form of armed Hitlerism or . This decree aims to disarm the peasant and proletaridn masses as a prelude to the armed intervention of imperialism in the war of annihilation of Soviet Russia.” ‘What shall be said of such a Marxism, which sees the disarming of fascism being carried out by capitalism of Germany; which further sees the essence of fascism as being an arming of the peasantry; which further proclaims that the successes armed intervention against the Soviet Union; of fascism diminish the danger of and which declares that Hitlerism and Communism are both revolutionary and both militarist? It is impossible to think that such fundamental judgments as these could be accidental. These are not mere “mistakes.” Their function is to hide the historic role of social democracy in the present period, which is to prepare the way for fascism and usher it into power in the most painless possible manner, ‘These gentlemen go even further, as the representative of the class inter however, by putting forward fascism ests of the peasantry against capital- ism, They deliberately attempt to hide the role of fascism as the instru- ment of finance capital for the open the working class and peasantry, and smashing of the mass movements of thereby also hide the role of social democracy as the agency for disrupting the working class from within and prepering the way for open fasci ‘ism. The new “Marxist Quarterly” announces that the owners and editors are Emanuel Kanter and David Silver, both of New York City. workers who may be misled by the All title of this magazine are hereby ‘warned that the firm of Kanter & Silver are merely a branch office of | ther international socialefasoist: trust known as the Second International. cked upon the waves | ON HIS HIGH HORSE By EARL BROWDER | NEW wave of bankruptcies has | 4% begun, which is the forerunner | of another and deeper financial | crisis than that of 1931. Within | two weeks, 28 banks closed their doors in Chicago, and some of the biggest banks were only saved from collapse by throwing the small ones ; to the dogs, and by a huge mobili- | zation of funds o f the Reconstruc- tion Finance Corporation, whose president, General Dawes, resigned to take over diréctly the leadership of the big Chicago banks. A brief survey of the main items in the credit structure will serve to indi- cate the severity of the financial crisis now impending. Total liabilities of credit instiu- tions to the “public,” which i sdes- ignated as “accumulated savings” of the nation, amount to 50,850 mil- lions of dollars. This includes 28,000 millions in savings deposits in banks; 14,000 millions in equities of insurance policy holders, and 8,000 millions in equities of share- holders in building and loan asso- ciations, ‘These huge sums are invested in the main in four types of secur- ities: government bonds, stocks (in- dustrial, railroad, etc.), private bonds; and real estate bonds and mortgages. By far the largest part is represented by the last three mentioned. During the three years of crisis, the liabilities of these credit institutions have grown, but the market of their assets to offset these liabilities has been dropping catastrophically. Developments Since March 12 Let us assume that even after the terrific financial crisis of 1931, the financial institutions were still solv- ent on the whole, still able to meet their obligations on March 12, 1932. Then let us see what has happened since that date. Between March 12 and June 18, the index of the stock market value of 25 leading railroad stocks dropped frfom 28.59 to 12.74. ‘That means that for every dollar of railroad stocks held as security to cover “savings” of the “public” in the various financial institutions on March 12, less than 45 cents re- mained on June 18, more than half of the market value of these secur- ities being wiped out in that period. During the same period the market value of 25 leading industrial stocks dropped from 122.56 to 68.88. That means that for every dollar of industrial stocks held by the finan- cial institutions, only 57 cents re~ mained as current assets on June 18th, Exact figures o n real estate mortgages are not available as yet, but it is generally known and ac- knowledged that their status is even more catastrophic than that of the stock market, On all these categories of secur- ities something more than half their value has been wiped out in the first half of 1932, while the liabil- ities of the financial institutions holding them have remai ned the same. It is quite clear that these institutions, taken as a whole, are hopelessly bankrupt. The 50,850 millions of dollars of “public savings” still exist on their books, as liabilities, but their ability to pay out these cavings has ben cut in half insofar as their assets consist of stocks and mortgages. What is the relative standing of banks, insurance - companies and Ex-Servicemen Are Shock Troops of Unemp- loyed Demanding Relief building associations in this debacle ofcredit? It is generally known that the banks are in extreme diffi- culties. Already something be- tween 3,000 millions and 4,000 mil- lions of “savings” in the banks have been wiped out by the simple proc- ess of bankruptcy and the closing of a multitude of small banks with total or partial loss to the depos- itors. Those still operating must thank Mr. Hoover's gift of 2,000 millions through the Reconstruc- tion Finance Corporation and the additional 1,000 millions now before Congress. The insurance cornpanies are in a worse situation. Already last Jan- uary they avoided public revelation of their condition by the simple expedient of continuing to show their assets upon the basis of the stock market values of July, 1931, instead of January, 1932, but this only made their last condition worse than their first, because July now An Eye Witness Account of Socialist Construction By BOB STONE (Moscow) HAVE now been in the Soviet Union for seven months, and during that time, I have had the opportunity not only to witness but also to participate in the building up of socialism in the Workers’ Fatherland. For 16 years, the revolutionary workers of the U.S.S.R. under the correct guidance of the Communist Party have successfully defeated attempts of the capitalist world to destroy the only country which is building socialism, In 1917 the workers here over- threw completely the capitalist gov- ernment; they defended themselves successfully against the following years of intervention; they restored their industry, and now at the completion’ of the Five-Year Plan in 4 years (1932), they hav@.Jaid the foundation for a socialist so- ciety. Plan Classless Society. Now, on the threshhold of the second Five-Year Plan, the work~ ers have undertaken: the final li- quidation of capitalist elements and of classes generally; fully to de- stroy the causes which given rise to class distinction and exploita- tion; to overcome the survivals of capitalism in the enemonomy and consciousness of people; to trans- form the whole working population of the country into conscious, ac- tive builders of a classless society; also to complete the reconstruction of the whole of national economy, to lay down a new technical base for all branches of national eco- nomy, All this means that the workers of the U.S.S.R. are going to elimi- nate classes, no bosses, no slaves, no exploiters, no exploited; that the workers will become reborn— @ new man will come into exist- ence; industry will be developed with “never before witnessed tem- po”; the increase of three times of all main articles of consumption as compared to 1932, This and many other achievements will be- come a reality atthe end of the next Five-Year Plan, Soviet Russia Today. Today, over 62 percent of the peasantry are organized in collect- ive farms (Kolkhoz) and another 20 percent in the state farms (sov- khoz), Not later than 1933, farm- ing will be organized 100 percent in collective or state farms, The industrial workers are’ me- chanizing the farm through the organization of over 1700 machine and tractor stations (M.T.S.) which serve the neighboring farms with i power. Th2 Sovlet Union has been changed from an age-old agricul- tural industrial country to an in- dustrial-agricultural country—this. has already been accomplished in the first Five-Year Plan. The proletariat is going forward from one victory to another; there is the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, to- day producing over 150 tractors daily; tho Amo factory making 2% ton trucks and buses; the Nizhni Novgorod Autostroy producing Ford cars and trucks; Electrosavod, elec- tric appliances of all description; Magnitostroy Kuznitstroy are coal and iron giants; Sharikopodchip- nik, the largest ball-beazing fac- tory in the world; Dnieprostroy, when fully completed, will generate 800,000 KWH annually and also the largest electric station in the world —these are only a few of the gi- gantic enterprises that exist al- ready, Many mote are under construc- tion, All this is possible only in @ workers’ country, only through socialism can the working class free itself from the bondage and ex- ploitation of capitalism. G On May First—the International ‘Workers’ Day—over 2 million work- ers demonstrated in Moscow alone, Two jillion workers expressed their solidarity with the workers of the world—expressing the fact that every victory gained in the U.S.S.R. is a victory for the work- ers the world over. The Soviet workers are successfully showing how the working class can build up a socialist. society free from capitalists, Struggle Between Two Systems. But the capitalist world does not let the workers of the U.S.S.R. dev- elop themselves peacefully, There are two systems existing in the world: Capitalism and Socialism, and quoting Lenin “Who will de- feat whom?” the answer is irre- vocably in favor of Socialism, The two systems cannot exist side by side without antagonisms and capitalism in its dying stage tries everything in its power to de- stroy the Soviet Union. Defend the Socialist Fatherland. Workers of all countries you workers in the U.S.A., show your solidarity with the Soviet workers, Do not permit the bosses to send you to fight your fellow workers, do not let the “so-called socialists” betray you. The Soviet Union is the fatherland, the inspiration of the world working class. Follow the example set by the Soviet workers under the leadership » of the Communist, By BURCK The Impending Financial Crash and the Bonus Expeditionary Force faces them with the accumulated deflation of the year instead of only six months. As for the build- ing associations, they have long; been known to be hopelessly bank- rupt, so much so that their secur- ities begin to take on the aspect of German marks of the 1923 period. First Stages of Large-Scale Inflation We have still to examine the role of Government securities in the fi- nancial structure. Here the decline in market value has been on a rela- tively small scale (ignoring foreign government securities, many of which have already declared an in- definite moratorium). This has been accomplished, however, at a cost of “creating a state of credit and currency inflation which is op- erating powerfully to disturb confi- dence in the existing monetary situation,” to quote the words of the “Commercial and Financial Chronicle,” of June 25, This credit and currency fnfiation, which has already made tremen- dous strides, shows the inevitable path of development o f the next months as the only means left to avert the complete paralysis of the whole credit structure. Open bank- ruptey can be averted only by cut- ting down the value of the dollar, of which 50,850 millions stand as claims to be met. Wholesale c ur- rency inflation, the abandoriment of the gold standard, looms in the immediate future. This fact, may be still obs- cured to many, in view of the action of the National: Conven- tions of both Republican and Dem- ocratic Parties, in adopting strong- ly-worded resolutions against infla- tion and for the maintenance of the gold standard. Only the Social- ist Party, through its candidate, Norman Thomas, has come out openly for inflation. But behind this seeming intransigence in de- fence of the gold standard there is going on a general preparation for inflation all along the line. The platform declarations have the same value as the s imilar declara- tions. of the MacDonald-Baldwin government of Great Britain in September of last year. The B. E. F. and the Unemployed Against this background of eco- nomic and financial collapse can be seen more clearly the revolution- ary significance of the Bonus Ex- peditionary Force, consisting ‘of 20,000 ex-soldiers camping on the doorsteps of Congress at Washing- ton, representing the 3,000,000 ex- servicemen throughout the country who are demanding the immediate payment of their adjusted compen- sation certificates (popularly known as “the bonus”). This so-called bonus, representing a definitely- acknowledged debt’ of the Govern- ment to the ex-soldiers, amounting to about 2,000 million dollars, has become a central question of the life of the entire United States, It represents the hope of continued livelihood to millions of starving people. These people, overwhelm- ingly unemployed workers, have been told emphatically and repeat- edly that as simple unemployed they have no claim upon be pa ment for | ‘They fall therefore, 4 They Have Come! The Heroic § Struggle of the Colorado Beet Workers By EVA SHAFRAN IN the summer of 1929 we started our work among the beet work- ers in Ft. Lupton, Colorado. This was in connection with the first convention of the Trade Union Unity League. We went to the beet workers, most of them Spanish- Speaking, and told them of the or- ganization of the first revolutonary trade union center in the United States. We asked them to elect delegates to this gathering. They were reluctant, careful. (These workers haye been fooled many times in the past, and a great num- ber of their so-called leaders were consciously opposed to the revolu- tionary movement and have cov- ered this up with the pretense of a policy of “watchful waiting.”) But, even at that time, at the outset, the workers decided to send fraternal greetings to the Cleveland (T. U. U. L.) convention and promised to fol- low carefully the developments of the organization. Time passed. We continued our work. We came to the workers, talked to them personally and at their meetings. Reformists Stem Workers’ Progress The beet workers of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, etc., were organ- ized in the Beet Workers’ Associa~ tion. This was a reformist organ- ization. It was led by reformists with a nationalistic tinge, one of whom, Mr. Carpio, a sleek “intel- lectual” politician, said: “Organiza- tion? yes, But first of all we are Mexicans, Then we want to or- ganize in the bounds of the law. We are friends of the American People” (meaning the growers and the Great Western Sugar Co.) And they were true to their dec- laration. They were indeed “friends of” the growers, hobnobbing with them and selling out the workers from season to season. When in February, 1930, the na- tional convention of the Beet Work- ers’ Association took place the T. U. U. L. was officially invited to send fraternal delegates. The T. U. U. L. representatives made a re- port and askd the convention to affiliate with the revolutionary trade union center. The leaders did all in their power to prevent this action, They brought down a priest to make an attack upon the “reds.” They brought down the traitors of the A. F. of L., who made open contracts with the coal opera- tors in Colorado against employing Mexican workers. But soon after the convention, when the workers’ delegates re- turned to their respective locals with the statements issued by the T. U. U. L. at the close of the convention, the beet, workers learned of the program’ and de- mands of the T. U. U. L. and were in agreement with them. They re- pudiated the Beet Workers’ Asso- ciation, organized. the Agricultural Workers’ Industrial Union, with its national office in Denver, Colo., and rallied behind it. In 1930 the beet workers received $23 an acre for digging the beet¢ out of the soil. They worked from sunrise to sunset. Whole families worked—kids of 7, 8 and 9; mother and father. A family of five, when all worked full force, was able to make, 20 acres a season. This meant $460 ‘a season. On this sum of money the family had to live the whole year around. Families of 8, 9 and 10 people lived in little huts, made virtually of cardboard, in holes of 9 by 9 This made for much sickness and disease among the workers. Slaves to the Bosses’ Soil Th beet workers are paid a weekly wage. They get “pay” after the season is over and the work is done. During the current season of work the grower gives them food on “credit.” When the season “is over,” all the debts are deducted, and the remainder, if there is any, is turned over to the workers. This is when “all’s well.” But when the Great Western Sugar Co, decides to cut the prices for the farmers, then the farmer cuts the earnings of the beet workers, and there are no “remains” after the debts of the grocer are paid. Ofter the beet worker continues owing money to the grocer after the seas son is over. From one season into the other. Thus the beet worker is a virtual slave to the soil that belongs to the growers and the Great Western, and is forced to starve, always in debt, in return for sunrise to sunset slavery of the entire family. The beet worker's kid hardly knows what schooling is. From the earliest age he is taken owt inte the fields to slave his years away, The young kids, born and! raised, in this country, hardly undesstand find speak English. Spanish, ¢he lan« guage spoken by their parents, is the only language they speak. Very few of these kids know hil'w to read and write. Between 1930 and now lie two years of economic crisis. The $23 per acre that the workers got at’ that time were reduced by the growers to $15, $8 and as low as $3 per acra’ And if in former years some be# workers may have been lucky to get jobs in the winter months in some other industry, now it is out of the question. The steel mill in Pueblo, Colo., is shut down, The packing houses in Denver con- stantly lay off workers. “The meager earnings of $460 a year per family (the best paid fam- ily) of 1930 has been reduced to $150 or $200. The beet workers feel that are or no work under these conditions means starving to them. They must win this struggle if they are to continue living at all. Tho July issue of “The Commu- inst” is a special anti-war number. Have you bought a copy yet? Government has itself acknowledged in writing, and already partially liquidated in cash |in 1931. The Bonus Expeditignary Force is un- questionably merely the shock- troop of the unemployed mi‘¥ons demanding relief by the Go.>:n- ment from imminent death by star- vation. How deep is the need of the starving masses can be measured by the heroism and tenacity of their shock troop in Washington. The march upon Washington, it is true, was initiated in an organized fash- ion by the Workers Ex-Servicemens League when, in May, its leaders appeared before the Congress Ways and Means Committee to support the Bonus Bill and were thrown out of the committee room. Stember and Ford, the ex-soldiers’ commit- tee, told the arrogant Congressmen that they would return with a com- mittee of thousands, and immedi- ately began the organizational measures to make good their word. ‘The movement quickly swept far beyond the organizational confines of the Workers Ex-Servicemen’s League and became a spontaneous mass movement all over the coun- try. “Fight Has Just Begun” Superficial observers, who did not understand the deep social roots of the movement, expected that the B. E. F. would quickly break up and disintegrate, especially after its demand had been defeated in Cc.1- gress. They looked upon the move- ment as something in the nature of a parliamentary gesture. But this was no mere lobbying excur- sion, It is a movement of masses, of millions, fighting for the bread to save themselves and families from immediate starvation. Only with understanding can be appre- ciated the untold heroism | with which these men made their way over thousands of miles without a penny to carry them, overcoming the most brutal police terror, seiz- ing railroad trains and even whole railroad terminals (as in Cleveland), in the most revolutionary manifes- tation ever witnessed in America for generations. Only from this berlaaiy can be understood the of a hungry, stubborn persistence 9 ints ts Sclecoieahuccaren tutta tadl icc | maintaining themselves over: many long weeks in the face of persecu- tion and the demoralizing activities of a fascist leadership imposed upon them by the police. Only thus can be realized that the Bonus Expeditionary Force in Washing- ton, in the face of apparent defeat in Congress, refuses to recognize any defeat and puts forth the slogan, “The fight has just begun!” It is a fundamental duty of the entire working class to rally to the support of the Bonus Expeditionary Force, by word and by action. The fight for the bonus is only a part of the fight of the whole working- class for relief from starvation, And it is imperatively necessary’ that this fight shall be linked up most intimately with the whole fight for unemployment insurance at the expense of the government and employers for the entire body of starving iillions of unemployed and their families. Significant Beginning Especially significant, therefore, is the action of the Unemployed Councils in Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland, in organizing collections of food to send to the support of the B. E. F., together with large . delegations to directly carry the message of solidarity with the ex- servicemen of the masses of workers generally. This may well become the prelude to a manyfold greater march upon Washington of the starving masses in their fight for bread. It must likwise be linked up with the fight against imperialist war. The Bonus Expeditionary Force in Washington is the most signifle cant beginning of mass struggle against the deepening consequences of the crisis, This struggle, with the. continued deepening of the crisis and the impending financia) crash, is bound to draw in ever wider strata of the starving masses, In this great struggle for bread the revolutionary workers and their organizations must now, moré than ever, throw all their forces, overe coming all hesitations and vacillae tions, forging in the struggle new battalions in that greater Workers? Expeditionary Force i march along. the Toad to therevoe iu 1 ‘ : Ri; i ¥ nsf rs