THREE CONVENTIONS
THREE CONVENTIONS AS THIS issue of The New Leader reaches its readers, three important conventions of workers are coming to a close. The Amalgamated Clothing ,Workers of America in Philadelphia,...
...Wheeler is certainly aware of the Tammany-Republican alliance in throwing the Socialists out of the Assembly a few years ago...
...Hundreds of thousands of party workers are employed on election day to "round up the vote...
...We listened in on this lecture about American musk, broadcasted from Station IZZY, given by Profesier Gwumpson, of Gwumbi* University, before the Ire* Castle Chapter of the American Lesion, last night "Ladies and Gentlemen: -a "We have no tolerance or respect for the opinioM of foreign bom so-called music lovers...
...Only a small minority support its two parties intelligently and this intelligent class to chiefly those who profit handsomely from the system and those who serve its parties as agents and officials...
...Now Burns slinks out of Washington to follow his chief, Daugherty...
...All three organizations are represented in the successful union banks of New York...
...The Amalgamated Clothing ,Workers of America in Philadelphia, the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union in Boston and the Intffrnational Fur Workers' Union in Chicago have been receiving reports from their officials upon the past two years' work, and planning two more years of activity, All three unions have been faced with similar problems, and all three have met them with courage and success...
...It is known that Burns' bureau had even engaged in spying yn members of Congress, opening their mail, searching their desks and shadowing them...
...In one of our high schools an examination in physiology ostensibly devoted to teaching ideals of health is really devoted to the manufacture of cannon fodder...
...Millions of copies of old party organs reach these voters daily and weekly...
...w iti On with Jazz and the dance, we say, and off w> pretense...
...could not ignore Burns...
...Last week Senator Wadsworth stamped upon the frail bodies of our children by objecting to the Senate giving consideration to the constitutional amendment for the abolition of child labor in the United States...
...We always detested the hypocritical run tan* who, after preaching stern and rigorous decoru® in daylight, sneaked off behind rocks snd shsdow* »» night to purloin a hug or a kiss...
...0 Our job is to win the disgusted and to educate the "hereditary voters.''^ This accomplished, the two parties of capitalism fall...
...Words fail us to express our contempt for this "representative" of New York...
...But give us the 'Alabama Blues,' ot 'She Didrt Ssj Yes and She Didn't Say No,' a dizzy drummer sn"' dreamy saxaphone, and then can heaven be far M»IM' "We are finding ourselves through Jazz...
...We also hope that the action of this pompous aristocrat will spur the working class to the need of independent political representation at Washington...
...i 1(> A movie with a Pola Negri, or any other softiv*»* seductive, silk-sheathed dame, furnishes the inipif»»T Any hall will do for a rendezvous, we mean danc* !»«• and any good band can furnish the conventions rnytw» and convulsions...
...THE SUPER-PATRIOT IN entering the penitentiary to serve a term of ten years Governor McCray of Indiana adds force to the statement that "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel...
...Oh, ladyI with your lady's wile In me a sonnet you inspire...
...ident states that "his conservatism will torn mand confidence" and that his "broad and liberal mind" will also bring him support We presume his fundamentalism will alio command the confidence and his modernism the support of the churches...
...A. T. And Abe expects a new pair of shoes, for himidt out of these rhymes...
...Many million* of dollars are spent fotlhese purpose...
...AW while*the foreigner* pot up their bluff about unW-standing th* Nibelungen Ring, the tone lyrics of busy, and such truck, let u* just get closer in our dam» halls and cabarets, pot In a loud needle on thatdsnw record, hook up the loud speaker, and pump pianola till the bellows squeak...
...Brass bands and other forms of entertainment are employed to win the interest of the voters...
...tions should adopt a rule prohibiting lt|bud matches by the delegates...
...Despite all this activity nearly one-half of the voters in this country cannot be induced to support the parties of capitalism...
...Burns is a synonym of how low capitalist control of government can sink...
...What a tremendous indictment of the two-party machine of capitalist politics I Yet another aspect muit be considered before we understand the full import of thi* situation...
...AFTER THOUGHTS Some day, somebody authoritative and experience enough will confess that our modern dancing is a m« admissible excuse for hugging the "other" woman <* man in public...
...The New Leader, as the spokesman for Socialist movement, greets the hundreds '.^P^nibusands of workers in these three unions...
...Oh, Lady With Bewitching Smiles...
...It should encourage Socialists to redouble their efforts in the work of education and organization which will lead to emancipation...
...His chief recommendation was that he kept a house that supplied rats to despoil-erf'of labor, spies and agents provacateur whose dirty services could be purchased from Burns for a price...
...Wagner cannot make the height, Puccini hssn't »»»¦ thing but his mitt, Beethoven couldn't hit the side « a bv" alongside of our ChampioiV Babe Berlins...
...Unwittingly, this Republican survey reveals a great breach in the fortress of capitalist politics...
...They have beaten off attacks of the union smashers, they have maintained their organizations, they have maThfcained the best possible conditions for their members, and they have carried on educational and political work of such character and success that they are in the very vanguard of the Labor movement...
...EXIT MR...
...BURNS AMONG the shady characters installed at Washington was William J. Burns as head of the Bureau of Investigation...
...The capitalist system survives in politics not because of any informed support it rtteives but because the great majority of voters consist of those who are disgusted and refuse to vote and of "hereditary voter*" who know not why they vote...
...The price we pay for these servants of capitalism is too great for an informed working class to endure...
...WADSWORTH AND CHILD LABOR THE youth of the moderA system of capitalist production was celebrated by the crucifixion of childhood in the early factory hells...
...McCray has proven to be one of the dirty spawn now become notorious in capitalist politics...
...We hope that he sleeps well while his retainers continue to sap the vitality of our children...
...Burns himself never explained the mystery of his relations with "Windy Linde" or of the letter's "10,-000 word confession" which Burns claimed to have knowledge of...
...Add this seventy-five per cent of uninformed voters to the 25,000,000 who do not vote at all and we get a startling conclusion: It is evident that only • tiny minority of the voters of the nation offer any conscious and informed support to the two capitalist parties...
...His survey, although not intended as such, is the irifest damning indictment of the two capitalist parties that has ever been drawn...
...Both have failed already in the minds of a great majority of the voters...
...Yet for every 100 votes cast for President in 1920 there were ninety-si* stay-at-homes or absentees—the total stay-at-home vote reaching the vast aggregate of 25,705,068...
...In one chapter he considers what he calls the "hereditary voter...
...And I would yield to your desire, To win your most bewitching *mile...
...It will be recalled that Daugherty on one occasion had Debs visit him in Washington and that he urged Debs to give up his agitation and "obey the law...
...The following paragraph contains the gist of his investigation: Nearly one-half of the voters of the United States fail to perform their civic duty as electors...
...is sickening to hear some of the intelligentsia gru* oozy over a Tannhauser Overture, a Rudolph's Nsrri" tive, or Beethoven's AppassionaU...
...Here is the forest plunder seen Caught tn the thunder of a blade That plunge* purple forest ihade And flatten* twilight to a board To build fine house* for the iord Who come* each day with high-boot tread To look upon the newly dead...
...it urges all its readers who are in one or another of the trades represented to do all in their power to make their work increasingly effective, and it welcomes their decision to join with the Socialists and the whole advanced section of Labor in a great Labor party that will soon place America in a position that will compare favorably with that occupied by Great Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, and other countries in which the workers use their political power as they use their industrial power...
...One of his rat-mind could not conceive of human beings opposing a system wMfth seeks preservation through spies, provocative agents and crooks...
...THE "GOOD" IN TAMMANY HOW unreliable the mere label "progressive" may be is illustrated by%n interview in the Times with Senator Wheeler...
...His figures show that of the total number of qualified voters in the United States, almost one-half declined to vote in 1920...
...Judicious publicity in the Sunday supplements gave this creature notoriety as a "detective...
...So much oil will be eiuded by the delegates that there will danger of a fire...
...If it relies on any "progressives" that can see something "good" in Tammany it may as well prepare itself to be auctioned as merchandise because of its folly...
...Simon Michelet for the Republican National Committee has produced such remarkable results that it is worth a lengthy"consideration in these columns...
...Naturally, the gang that marched into Washington in 192J...
...Here is one of the foremost authorities on the American party system stating that of the voters who do support the two capitalist parties an average of seventy-five per cent are honest but uninformed and who act as they do because of habit, not because of intelligent convictions...
...He was essential to round out the fine collection of con men and "best minds...
...Of these Voters Professor Merriam writes: "Statistical data on this point (the number of such voters) are not available, but from numerous tests I'have made over a period of twenty years, the percentage of hereditary voters run* from sixty-five per cent to eighty-five per cent, averaging seventy-five per cent...
...He knows all this because he complains that only the bad in Tammany is known in the West...
...For what nation besides our glorious United States has created a muiic so universal in its appeal, so rhythmic to the hesrt beats of a progressive world, so cosmic in its harmony with life itself...
...The total vote for all Presidential candidates was 26,713,532...
...Burns is a sign of • decaying social order, an order that will eventually disappear as he did from Washington last week...
...The editor Z parently believes that to tell the truth U, bourgeois virtue, and he will have none of it Literature of Oscar W. Underwood which seeks to market him as a candidate for prt...
...A working class that trusts to it for political leadership confesses itself as unable to take care of its own interests...
...It was Burns' bureau that sent out the annual Miity Day scares of impending bloody revolts, that planted agents in Communist organizations who urged illegal acts...
...Understand Underwood...
...Discussing the prospects of Governor Smith before the Democratic national convention, Wheeler observed that one difficulty is that "many people in the West know nothing of the good that has been done" by Tammany in New York...
...CHARLES WAGNER...
...We will investigate this case, and if found deserving will ask our committee of swsri to consider his request...
...He wanted it to combafr "radicalism...
...The man who is afflicted with an excess of patriotism will bear watching...
...And now Abe Tuvim, troubadour and business to-getter, impounds the following to a dirk lady of 111 quatrains...
...can't shimmy a hip to that sort of rigmarole...
...Dying for Oil Investors would be an appropriate title fOr this exsm...
...Shucks...
...And, lady dear, I would suggest The muse another way to itif : If you would have me rhyme my best, Try your bewitching smile on her...
...This was 8,000,000 more votes than were cast in 1916, and 11,000,000 more than in 1912...
...Automobiles are supplied to haul the aged, the crippled, and the indifferent to the polls...
...Professor Merriam, in hi* *tudy of "The American Party System," ha* thrown considerable light on the mental attitude of large numbers of those who do support the old parties...
...Let us drown out tMjs free-lunching music fakers, with their TschkowsMJ Moskowskis, Bowwowskis, Sehuberts, Bachs, and t" Pachmanns in our own unapproachable, invincible, *"' conquering 100 per cent American Yankee Doodle Jaw (Sustained applause...
...Ole Hanson, Silverware Lusk, Albert B. Fall, Harry M. Daugherty and others are of this type...
...The Republican and Democratic coRren...
...They are followed up by swarms of political orators in the campaigns...
...Spattered with the tears of children, the early fortunes of our capitalists have been later fertilized by the blood of children down to the present hour...
...All three unions have been torn by dissensions brought into their ranks by outside agencies, and all three have courageously taken their stand against such disrupters...
...There have been so many of these super-patriots that have fallen in recent years that we suspect there is a law which makes it certain that super-patriots are fundamentally crooks...
...So, lady with beguiling smile, Although I much would win your praise, I fear you needs mutt wait a while, And pray the mute to change her ways...
...This public institution for sex rocreation, the Amw lean dance hall, and cabaret, is a healthy step tow*" open diplomacy- •< __ 1. A. DE WITT...
...In this latter crime the workers of the nation share the greater responsibility...
...Without jaxz life would be razz...
...J*» f pep, go-gettem, put it across, bring home the b*con-j making good...
...Burns left despite the fact that he was asking an appropriation from Congress of $2,250,000 for the wprk of his bureau and its swarm of yeggs...
...Every map and woman in the United States who ia 6n the card index which he left behind in Washington may consider themselves honor ecf^n having been singled out for this distinction...
...Two crimes survive against the children of the working class, one their continued destruction in industy and the other election of poodles of the owners of industry to legislative bodies...
...THE Chatter-Box THE SAW MILL Here in a kill of dusty gold The sliding mill where death is tolled For pine and spruce and evergreen...
...f The Communist Daily Worker, in it, U. sue of May 7, says editorially, "The Sigmta...
...Even while McCray was using the mails to swindle thousands of people out of their earnings, he was conspicuous in trying to have the American Legion mob Eugene V. Debs a few years ago...
...The Olympian gods, the centaurs, the Nai*» the fauns, and all the ilk of Elftnland are shiver* shoulders, quivering limbs, and bobbing bobbed MP to the tantalizing melodies of our genius...
...The suggestion is continually made that the student who does not care for his health would not be fit'for military service...
...A REMARKABLE SURVEY A SURVEY of the voters of the United States made by Mr...
...They have been in the forefront of that section of the Labor movement that has stressed the ne$d of independent political action, and they have taken an intelligent interest in the affairs of their fellow workers abroad...
...He must be aware of that compounc of graft, election thievery and service to capitalism which go to make up what we cal Tammany in New York politics...
...THREE CONVENTIONS AS THIS issue of The New Leader reaches its readers, three important conventions of workers are coming to a close...
...Politically, the whole capitalist system of society is much weaker than Socialists think it is in the United States, ft is evident that it rests on indifference and igndrance...
...If "progressivism" can show some affection for this foul thing it is a vague and abstract thing that is unreliable and that can only serve to decoy the workers to their own undoing...
...Meantime evidence has shown that the Department of Justice itself was headquarters for bootleggers, dope fiends and men with pasts...
...The largest vote ever cast for President was in 1920...
...These figure* are confirmed by the observa^on and judgment of others, and may be considered reliable...
...But the mute is n^ elutioe vamp, Who lead& me half-way to a rhyme And then suspends me for a time, So playful i^the little scamp...
...He count* them, and divides ty four— So many hitleides to the floor...
...It still has years of schooling before it and considerable training to fit it to rely on its own numbers, power, initiative and leadership...
...If we make allowance for those who were unable to vote because of sickness and other reasons, which would account for a few million of absentees at the most, the total number of absentees is still staggering...
...Tons of free literature are sent out by the party agencies to these voters...
...Considering that thrift, hard work honor, initiative, and similar virtues coosti-tute the secret of success, we congratulate Harry K. Thaw, Harry M. Daugherty, a^J other Harrys...
...H i 11 q u i t-Forward-Socialist administratis that rules by dictatorship in the lntem«ti^J [Ladies' Garment Workers' Union] ha, j. ways had longing eyes on Tammany H,l| -m New York City and State...
...It is generally a flag hoisted to conceal some worthless merchandise or even deliberate swindle...
...Practically all these voter* divide their votes between the Republican and Democratic parties...
...These voter* are those who inherit their political opinions from their ancestors, tho*e who vote a ticket became of habit and veneration for their father* and not becau*e of any sincere attempt to make an intelligent use of their voting power...
...Hats off to 100 per cent Am«n«» Jazztime...
Vol. 1 • May 1924 • No. 18
