The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 10, 1934, Page 5

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1934 Page . “We Must Fight Imperialist War Before It Breaks Out; We Must Fight It Daily, Hourly ”—LENI IMPERIALIST WAR if | Methods Used By Wilson Administration in Whipping Up War Hysteria Is Model for Roosevelt’s Preparations for New Conflict LLS THE RESIDENT CA | The New York Times. DRAFT BILL SIGNED; REGISTRATION ONJUNE 5; NATION TO ARMS; — ; \ By SENDER GARLIN The drums of war are throb- bing once more! All the agencies of the Roose- | + velt government are geared for the coming conflict. “WOODRING TELLS HOW ‘NEW DEAL’ AIDS WAR PLANS,” an- nounces the New York Herald Trib- une cn Jan. 25, 1954. The Roosevelt administration has already begun its publicity campaign to line up the American working class behind the new imperialist conflict which is both imminent and inev- itable. Bearer of Wilson Tradition President Roosevelt at the Jeffer- son Day dinner recently acknowl- edged that he was the bearer of the traditions of Woodrow Wilson, the last war president. There is, there- fore, ri nm to believe that Roosevelt ll adent also the “traditions” as well as the technique of the gigantic publicity machine which was built up by Wilson in order to mass the Amer- ican people behind the Wall Street war, President Wilson, on April 14, 1917, 3 few days after the declaration of wet cing} iy. authorized ‘The Committee cn i sion,” ostensibly to avoid censorship of the press but actually to flood the country with war propaganda. This committee was under the direction of the State, War and Navy Departments, “and a civilian who shall be charged with the executive direction of the Com- mittee.” This civilian was George Creel, a personal favorite ef Woodrow Wil- son, who had shown his prowess as a publicity man for him during Wilson’s camp2ign for the presi- dency. Under Creel’s direction was built up one of the most effective war propaganda machines in his- tory. One month after the formation by executive decree of the Committee on Public Information, Congress passed the Espionage Act (June 15, 1917), which provided severe penalties for anti-war activity. It was under this law that Eugene V. Debs. and Charles E. Ruthenberg, founder and leader of the Communist Gar. were convicted and sent to Brison, The Trading-with-the-Enemy Act was passed October 6, 1917, and the Sedition Act was passed May 6, 1918. All of these measures were used to throttle anti-war agitation. “The whole business of mobilizing the mind of the world so far as Amercan participation was con- cerned,” declared Newton D, Baker, Secretary of War under Wilson at a banquet in honor of Creel, “was in a sense the work of the Committee.” (The Committee on Public Informa- tion, of which Czeel was the head). Creel, at the present moment, it is interesting to note, is N.R.A. di- rector in the state of California, where William Gibbs McAdoo (Wil- son’s son-in-law) was recently cata- pulted into the United States Sena- torship on the wave of the “New Deal” presidential campaign. The far-flung activities of Creel’s Committee are an indication of the pattern which the propaganda for the next war will take. Tts achievements are boastfully re- corded by Creel himself in a book (now out of print) called “How We Advertised America.” This volume, the author announces is “The First Telling of the Amazing Story of the Committee on Public Info-mation That Carried the Gospel of America to Every Corner of the Globe.” What was the precise nature of this “amazing story”? Sur-ed un bv Creel himself, “The Gospel of America” was carried to every corner of the globe by a highly efficient, relentless apparatus which helped poison the minds of the Amer- ican masses with propaganda in the Rewepenery, movies, schools and Put Over Liberty Bond Drives ‘The Committee on Public Informa- tion, for one thing, helped, by means of 45 war conferences in 37 states, as well as a large number. of local con- |to ferences, to force the purchase of bil- REGULARS UNDER PERSHING TO GO TO FRANCE WOODROW WILSON, war-time President.—At right top is repro- duction from New York Times of May 19th, 1917, proclaiming decla- ration of war and conscription, Wil- son’s main election slogan five monhs before the declaration of war was, “He Kept Us Out of War.” The accompanying article vividly describes the war propaganda ma- chine built up by the Wilson regime. majority of these bonds, bought by millions as @ result of a combination of high-pressure publicity plus down- coercion (in hundreds of in- ces) are now in the hands of nkers who bought them far below par during the early crisis years. ‘The bonds are now above par be- cause the United States treasury is actively supporting the government bond market, with the result that tremendous profits are flowing into he vaults of the bankers. While the Liberty Bond rate on the market was 86 in January, 1932—as a result of the present financial program of Washington—it is now 101, with the be: 's 95 the chief beneficteries, It mobilized a corps of 75,000 vol- unteer speakers, known as “Four- Minute Men” whose shrill voices were heard in 5,200 communities by a total of 755,190 people. “They invaded,” report the authors of The United States Since 1865, “theatres, moving Picture houses, churches, and civic and charitable meetings to urge the buying of bonds, a fuller war effort, and the crushing of sedition.” The Official Bulletin of the United States, published daily by Creel’s committee, set the tone of the war news the papers throughout the country prin‘ed. Creel’s Committee furnished a vast amount of boiler-plate (syndicated material) to 16,000 country news- papers, It published 30-odd booklets in the “Red, White and Blue Series” in sev- eral languages. A total of 15,000,000 copies of these frenzied pamphlets were released on the American public, including millions of copies abroad. Creel’s Committee arranged tours for the Biue Devils (French soldiers), Pershing’s Veterans and Belgians “rounded in service. Forty-five war conferences were held. A volunteer staff of several hun- PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUH aired persons was organized. for the purpose of translating war propa- ganda into foreign languages for con- | sumption among the millions of for- eign-born workers in the United States. Arranges War Exhibits Creel’s Committee arranged war oxhibits, and a series of inter-allied war expositions. It secured millions of dollars worth of free advertising from the press, outdoor advertising agencies, etc. It used 1,438 drawings prepared by volunteers for the production of posters, window cards and similar material. Tt published a daily bulletin called “Information Service,” which went to 100,000 contacts. It sent a daily “women’s features” to 2,861 news- papers, as well as 292 pictures shuw- ing women engaged in war work. It sent the press special material vn labor, religious and other sub- ‘sets, It built up a special mail and photo ervice for the press; schools and ‘ibraries were supplied with propa- yanda material, and reading rooms were opened by the Creel Committee n Europe. Missions were sent to important sections of the world “to look efter American propaganda on the spot.” The war expositions were arranged in 21 cities. and seen by 10.000 peonle, and earned a total income of $1,- 438,604. Mobilize Artists for War The Creel Committee organized a Division of Pictorial Publicity which mobilized thousands of paint- ers, sculptors, designers, ilyistrators and cartoonists behind “the war for democracy” and “the war to end all wars” under the leadership of a president who had been “too proud to fight.” The Creel Committee organized a stereoptican slide department, whose propaganda was gleeful'y utilized by Young Men’s Christian Associations, Young Men’s Hebrew Associations.) mittee. One was Countess de Bregas, | | who was borrowed from the French | colleges, high schools, Chambers of Commerce, and charitable organiza- | tions. The stereoptican slides went over big, especially with the Y.M.C.A. sec-| retaries and the ministers of the| gospel. Taking “Ruined Churches of} France” as the first subject, the Creel Committee gradually worked their customers up to “Our Boys in| juilding a Bridge of Ships} France”; .“ to Pershing”; “To Berlin via the Air Route”; and, finally, to “Trench and Trench Warfare.” During the single year of the ex-| istence of this stereoptican depart- ment, a total of more than 200,000 slides were distributed. This partic-| ular end of the war propaganda machine was in charge of Prof. George F. Zook, professor of Modern European History at Pennsylvania State College. ‘The savant had been patriotically “lent” to Creel’s Committee by the institution. Other “scholars” helped out, too. Long before the “brain trust” was formed, Prof. James T. Shotwell came down to Washington from Columbis to serve on the “National Board of Historical Service.” It wos he who nrenrred “tow Var Come to Amer- ica,” the first of Creel’s Red, White ond Blu Books. John Dewey did not leave Morn- ‘ngside Heights, but while Profs. Dana, Beard, Catell and others were being fired by the pacifist Nicholas Murray Butler for not being suffi- ciently interested in the war—Dewey was writing pieces for the magazine “proving” that the ideclogical basis for the Hun is to be found in the writings of Niet-zche and other Ger- man philosophers. Professors of English literature orepared pemphlets on Gorman war “atrocities,” while mathematicians ‘oxposed” tke alleged violation of treaties by Germany. Speakers from foreign countries were also graciously lent to the Com- High Commission. “Countess de Bregas,” Creel re- | ports, “was second only to Captain Perigard, for in addition to brains and real oratorical ability, she had youth and beauty.” It was among the foreign-born that the Creel Committee found the sled- nv toughest. Ernest Poole, a writer who had called himself a So- cialist and who had achieved some eminence as the author of “The Har- bor,” “His Family,” and other novels, was put in charge of lining up the foreign-born for the imperialist war. “Poole,” Creel says proudly, “quit his literary work at the first call to arms.” Heroic measures had to be taken, it seems, to put the war propaganda Over on the foreign-born, for “there were lies of long standing that had to be met and defeated—lies that at- tacked America as ‘dollar-mad,’ that maligned our free instit is, that denied our liberty and our justice.” Could some of these “lies” have been about the bloody attacks of | Pinkertons upon the steel strikers | fighting Carnegie and Frick in Homestead in 1892? Or the coal miners fighting John D. Rockefeller’s gun thugs when they murdered the miners and their families in their burning tents in Ludiow in 19147 Or the textile workers (many of them foreign-born) who had been beaten, jailed and shot in Lawrence, Mass., in Passaic and Paterson, New Jersey? Or the copper miners fighting the bosses’ deputies on the Mesaba Iron Range in Minnesota in 1916? Did these “lies” have any refer- ence to the smo!dering anger of the workers azainst the cold-b’ooded murder of Joe Hill, Wobbly sony writer and organizes by the Uta! Copner Comnany and the State of Utah in 1915? Other autrovs who helned Poole in his publicity drive on the foreign- born included Owen Wister, Booth Tarkington, Gertrude Atherton and Ellis Parker Bui who won fame by writing gs Is Pigs” for the | Saturday Ev ig Pr This article was after millions forms us. |and attractive that had read it in the English papers, | |the British government made ar-j Tangements with our London repre- sentative to reprint and, at its own | expense, distributed 800,000 pamphlets | | in England. It was also widely used in other countries.” These literary boys were extremely | useful to the Creel Committee, but | in the front line trenches of the pub- | ortant peo- | , who consid- | | licity drive were more | ple like Arthur Bullar jered himself a Socialist and, quite | ikely, a member in good standing in | the Socialist Party. Bullard, the author of “Comrade Yetta,” did his | major service for the Committee in Russia, where he and Edgar G. Sis- son—of the fo: i ent fame— | war. Charles Edward Russell, Socialist | publicist, was in and around the | Comm} , and John Spargo, most | active of the S. P jingoists, helped a | bit, too. Sisson had been editor of Hearst's “Cosmopolitan,” and his long years of work in the Hearst service equiped him admirably for his job in the nda factory. on brought forward his documents “proving” ders of the Bolshevik re in the pay of the Imve- Germen Government. It was John Reed, whose “Ten Days That Shock the World” was hailed by Lenin as a masterpiece, who first ex- nesed Sisson in a scorching pamph- | let. In additio fsson, Creel had the v-‘uxb’2 + nez of Marien E. Pew, editor of the trade organ of the t How Posters Were Used by Creel’s Committee to Incite War Hysteria | Exploiting the “Home” Theme The Churches “Did Their Part” ® YAN. o S34 HERALD TRIBUN Woodring Tells How ‘New Deal’ Aids War Plans Assistant Secretary Studies Recovery Agencies for Industrial Control Hints Urges Rubber for Debts U.S. Should Take Europe’s Payment inGoods,HeSays eee ‘From the Heraié Tribune Bureew WASHINGTON, Jan, 25.—Harry H. Woodring, Assistant Secretary of War, jealed today, in an address before! the ninth annusl Women's Patriotic Conference, the general industrial) mobilization program of the Wer De- partment in time of war, including far-reaching governmental control of industry, finance and labor. larity between the War Department plans and the emergency agencies set up by President Roosevelt in his eco- nomic recovery program. These being studied so desirable features may be incorporated in the War Depart- ment plans. At the same time, at the Capitol, Representative John J. McSwain, chairman of the House Military Affairs | | FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVE! At left top Is headline from Herald-Tribune of last month, 5 26, 1934, saying: “Woodring Secretary of War), Tells H | Deai’ Aids War Pians.” Th: peace-time war budget was by Congress as the essential of Roosevelt's N.R.A.-‘New Program. newspaper publishers, Editor and Publisher. Pew recently praised the American press in the following significant way: “That the masses of unemployed people, with uncounted legions re- duced to the very edge of creature necessity, have remained calm and with no thought of blind violent resistance against the government, as so often happens in such ex- tremity, will some day be credited to intelligent newspaper leadership and a rational and trustworthy re- porting service.” (“Intelligent newspaper leadership” consists in full cooperation with the NRA-Blue Eagle war machine, dis- tortions of labor news, and attacks | upon “the Reds.”) Woodrow Wilson and his publicity agent, Creel, justified the Committee }on Public Information as a lesser | evil for newspaper censorship—some- thing which was, of course, abhorrent | to their “liberal” temperaments., But | what “cooperation” did they seek of | the press in return for “voluntary censorship”? In the “Preliminary Statement to the Press of the U.S.,” released May 28, 1917, the Committee declared that “the only news which we wish to keep from the authorities in Berlin is the kind Which be of tangible | help to them in military operations.” Innccent-sounding, isn’t it? But note what follows as “elucida- tion of above by the Secretaries of State, War and Navy’: “Speculation about possible peace is another topic which may possess e!e- ments of danger, as peace reports may be of enemy origin put out to the combination against Ger- many.” This, one may argue, is a legitimate By SEYMOUR WALDMAN UR things conclusively demon- strate the wa. character of the Roosevelt administration. First: the total allotments, under the guise of “Public” and “Civil” works, for direct and indirect war preparations, Second: the total authorizations and appropriations made and being formulated for purely military pur- poses. Third: the coordination of the New Deal apparatus with the giant indus- trial-military machine of the War Department. Fourth: the beginning of open im- perialist war , the domi- nant note of which is that the :nork- ers’ interests coincide with chose of jtheir prospective murderers, the im- periatists, namely, that both employers and employees must protect “our FOUR FEATURES OF THE NEW DEAL GOVERNMENT EXPOSE WIDESPREAD AND INTENSIVE WAR PLANS The Roosevelt Magiinistrstion Sails Full Sp eed Toward War distance airplanes capable of flying to and returning from the Far East, the War and Navy departments have already been given $1,333,387,166 for the closing fiscal year. Add the $39,000,000 received by the War De- partment from the sale of old clcth- ing, which is to be used for new clothing and equipment (transport) and we obtain the staggering total of $1,372,387,166 as a mere introduction to the real war uilding now being blue-printed. These figures are necessarily con- servative in view of the fact that it is, impossible to estimate how many millions under ©, W. A. control went to the reonstruction of Army forts (those around Niagara Falls, for instance) or to segregate the actual war millions which went into such enterprises as the C. W. A. - P, W. A. War Department construction of Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Washington. trade lanes,” and so on, and so on. |This fort, which has little if any Franklin Delano Roosevelt, hatcher |strategic value, is obviously being pre- of the Blue Eagle, allotted $747,667,223 [pared for a concentration camp. of the $3,300,000,000 iblic Pul is Works fund for direct and indirect |Eagle slaughter war preparations, exclusive of the $248,360,908 given to the War De- partment engineers for rivers and|4 War Del harbors and flood control, a substan- tial part of which goes to seacoast defense for channelling and dredging and also serves to supply military engineers with continual war train- Furthermore, it must not be for- gotten that the tremendous sums handed over to preparations for slaughtering workers are also ex- clusive of the $585,719,943 ap- propriated by Congress, before the creation of P. W. A. and its affinities, for the military activities of the Army and the Navy for the current 1934 fiscal year—$277,050,381 to the War De- partment and $308,669,562 to the Nav Department. Thus, without even touching upon the billions of dollars which are now being authorized and appropriated build a navy “second to none” and for dotting clouds with the lions of dollars in Liberty Bonds, The | thousands of Army and Navy long the the Blue house is sub-divided: Direct War Preparations Following partment from P.W.A Air Corps (airplanes)... $7, 00,000 Seacoast Defenses .... 7,000,000 Insular Affairs ...... 1,500,000 National Guard ...... 238,624 Ordnance (ammunition) 6,000,000 176,170 dousing and Techni- cal Construction. 60,152,765 oo 10,000,000 592,161 95,209,72¢ from C. W. A. 25,000,000 Total ..........$120,209,720 'B. Navy Department from P. W. A. Aeronautics .. + 17,500,000 Engineering 712,500 Ordnance .. 330,225 ’s Office (machine tools) . jYards and docks: Construction at Shore Stations ......---..+- 24,210,000 Navy Hospital, Phila.. 2350,000 Storm Damage ...--. s 856,985 Navy — (Statutory) — for construction of 32 warships ordered by Roosevelt .. 238,000,000 Total ............ $276,255,372 National Committee from P.W.’ for Aeronautics 247,944 ‘rect War Ap- propriations «+ »$396,723,026 ee EST there be even a scintilla of doubt about the war nature of the Civilian Conservation Corps one necd plans for war mobilization under the National Defense Act as amended in 1920, It proved both the efficiency of our plan of defense and the equally important success of the Military Procurement Plan—the Army’s eco- nomic war plan—which is in‘rusted to the Assistant Secretary of War.” In fact, as the forthright Woodring points out, “If the Army were so ‘directed, it could organize the veterans of the World War, the C.C.C. men, and through them the adminis- tration cf the emersency relief, into a system of economic storm troops...” As far as the Panama Canal is eonrerned one need only read the columnist of the Army and Navy Journal in the October 14, 1933 issue on “the necessity of American con- trol over communications at the refer to Assistant Secretary offeanal. ..’| And if there is any doubt War Woodring’s article in the Jan- ary 6, 1934 issue of the magazine . Mr, Woodring says “This jachievement—the orzanization of over 300,000 men in more than 1.500 Civi- Mian Conservation Corps camps — vas the first real test of the Army’s Ilen-A Worker Compar: War Prices With Wages ‘By a Textile Worker Correspondent) KENOSHA, Wis.—I worked at the) Allen-A Hosie:y Co., here dutiag the} World War, when we made army socks, and if anyone thinks that war will bring back prosperity or good times, they sure don’t know any- ching about the last one. While it @ true our wages were higher than urdinary, yet the cost of ‘iving was even higher yet. The stockings we made sold for $2 a of the indirect war preparations im- portance of the Coast Guard it should be remembered that these armed boats are now being officered by Naval Academy graduates instead ‘of the customary licensed officers, high as 50 to 55 cents. A pound of sugar was 35 cents, Indirect War Preparations Emergency Conservation Corps: Purchase of Land..... $20,000,000 Current and Anti- cipated Exponses.... 303,362,315 Great Smoky Moun- tains Park Panema Co Coast Guard 1550,000 1,090,000 25,031,872 al $350,944,187 To rec>pitulat Direct War Prepara~ tions Indirect araticns . 350,944,187 Amount already ap- propriated by Con- gress for military | uses of Army and Navy Army receipts from sale of old clothing to be used for purchase of new clothing and for transport .--.. $396,723,036 War 39,000,000 +. -$1,372,387,166 Despite Rooseve't’ $238,000,000 for 32 warships, his leaders in the House of Repzesen- tatives pushed through the $570,000 000 Vivson five-year naval construction build tre Navy up to London Treaty Strength, without a record vote and without opposition. This precram, vhich Vinson, chairman of the House Nayil Affcirs Committee, announced had “the uncuclified endorsement of the Presizent” means the cons‘ruc- tion of the greatest “pcace-time” navy passed the Vinson bill, there is not the slightest doubt around Capitol Hill that Roosevelt's wisnes will be duly executed. ‘The Navy Department Apvropria- tion Bill for the fiscal year 1931, re~ centlv nassed by the House, totals , $295,000 000. Thus Rooseve!t’s leis- ative Heutenants have authorived ‘and apvronriated for the Navy. ex. clusive of the $276 263,372 P.V7.A. di- rect Navy war fund, a tota! of $265,- 000.000—which mks a Peosvelt Navy Derertment grand total of $1,141,265,372, o 8 6 IONGRESS is still waiting for the War Department Sub-Committce of the House Appropriations Com- mittee to complete its secret hearines. Fowever, from indications civen by the war temper pervading Washinz- ton, from people close to the com- mittee, and esnecially from the known views of Chairman McSwain of the House Military Affairs Com- mittee. there is little doubt that the ’s allotment of; War Department approoriation for the fiscal year 1935 will be a huge one. It is h-"-ved that the tetel will jranve from $500,000,000 to $1,009,- 0c0,000. 'E§ dit. which authorizes Roosevelt tol yreswain, who favors the General ' Steff provc~al for the ecnstruttion of ,@ senarate eirplene flotilla of 2000 war plane. the addition of 490 of-' fices an’ 6°90 men at a cost of about $°9070.000. is the author of a f-scist BIN which would authoriz2 the or- | eanization ef a Junior Air Corns Re- serve. This new arm of the servic? With those prices our pay checks in American history—the addition of woyrd train boys betwen th? avs of didn’t last long as when wages were lower, The specd-up was greater, too, so I, for one know whet war will not improve our conditions. But, I'm sure the Allen-A com- pany would like to see another war because they made such big profits at our expense during the last one. And I know what to do if another war does come, that is, organize anti- war committees among my shop- mates to strike against the making of war materials, 165 destroyers, 29 submzrines and 1 plane ““arrier at a minimum cost of $475,000,000 and the purchas~ of 1134 war planes at an estimated cost of $95,00 000. It is more likely, as several Con- gressmen explained on the floor of the House, that this Treaty navy will cost nearer $1,000,009,000 than $570,- 000,000. The estimated annual up- keep of such an armada is about $500,000,000. Though the Senate has not yet 18 and 21 to overate fighting war | planes, 148 of w5'ch are contemn!>ted in the $95,000900 war p'ane bill at- tached to the Vinson measure as an amendment, The coordination of the New Deal apparatus with the giant industrial- | militery machine known as the Mili- itary Procurement Division of the ; War Department is evident in. the (Continwed on page 7) method of protecting “war @ but how, one may ask, cat following request to editors be in preted? “Sporadic epidemics may bree in some of our t ing car would be most un credence to such ins Is the fail in the wear and w evitable m: What is more, the Creel Cc tee and the enture capitalist undoubtedly considered it her storics en the com it Germany” such as, for 2partments, br yas a res corrun ion, f2 of supplies, sale thieving by the “dollar-a. men, to give drat mps woole uniforms o 1917. says, his a culated to persu> foot work supporting the mo pecce with Germany. The name of the film wa films Other we: which showed the the U. S., launching of ships, the bu ner’ ko 2 Plies, that there’s no reason ond the other Russian shouldn't go back home, Who is this George Creel soldiers: whom Mark Sullivan in his city creative spirit . are some of Sullivan's phra: Born in Blackburn, Missouri in 1876, Creel worked as a newspaper= men on the “Independent” in Kan- sas City. Here he becam protege ;of Frank P. Walsh, who became | Wilson’s car gn r in the west. Creel as a “lib: democrat” came in for m “muckraker” while emp! Denver Post (1099-10) Must be noted, 4s = city man; he is also what al as a “creative writer,” being the author of “@untrains of Christ,” “Wi'son and the Issues” and other works. Recommended apparentty, b Creel helped carry on ad vertising ‘publicity for Witson’s cam. ,raign, and when war was declare Wilson put him in charge of thi } “Committee on Public Information, ; During the early war days Creel wa: one of the few who always had eas} access to the president. -The “liberclism” of Wilson ended with the imperistist treaty of Ver- sailles. One of Wi'son’s “liberals” in the cabinet was the Strords- burg (Pa.) lawyer, A. Mitchell Palmer, who conducted the note- rious “red Raids” in 1920. } The drums of war are throbbing) once more—this time under th ‘rection ef the mat-r-demo Frantf Delano Rocseve't, “Tattanel TyAfanes Week.” proclaimed by Rocestv>"t for Fobrvary 12-22, will be uti’ by the war-m kers to r- enzied hysteria of 1917- ‘ery for war is well oiled and gered. Munition plants are working feverishly in anticipation of the cay when workers will be s'aush- tered on the battlefield and stee! sto~ks will shoot skyhigh. Workers: let the Wall Street ¥9 makers know that they can't f wry with it again! Let tr instead tremble at the prospc what may happen to these mongers, as shown by the exan the Russian workers and peas ¥ ‘