A Third Party
Cohen, Joseph E.
A Third Party By JOSEPH E. COHEN In hi* presidential address to the convention of the British Labor party prior to taking office, Sidney Webb declared that the spiritual father of the...
...So far as England may be looked tb for guidance, the class struggle is not being obliterated but sharpened...
...That will be the making of the third party...
...The unemployment problem will remain unsolved as long as chaos and anarchy reign in the capitalist economic system...
...Compared with that the experience of the American Federation of Labor has been halting, fn the long past the slogan was: "No politics in the unions...
...Between these the Liberal party it dissolving snd dwindling...
...It is widening in the variety of its following...
...we want to do buiiness...
...So far aa branch autonomy now prevails with each of the locale, it will still prevail Within the one larger local...
...Of course there can't be any conditions...
...code of honor scrupulously...
...A Third Party By JOSEPH E. COHEN In hi* presidential address to the convention of the British Labor party prior to taking office, Sidney Webb declared that the spiritual father of the movement in England was not Karl Marx but Robert Owen...
...Fdr my part, I think we had better forget them and get down to business...
...Later it became: "Reward your friends and punish your enemies...
...As indeed it will be in the approximately near future...
...Ha had no knowledge of outside events and he "could not have anything to do with the public...
...And I miss my guess if two competent organisers could not within six months put a score of our dead-alive branches on their feet, get them to hold public meetings and distribute literature, and bring in enough money to make It feasible...
...So it will be with those who are striving for the better social order...
...It Is in the nsture of an evolutionary, organic growth...
...It is true that during the war wages increased fantastically, bat it is ilso true Mist the high cost of living reached the zenith never recorded before In the annali ef history...
...They are like the errand boys of gross capitalism...
...Therefore, they are lost in the vicious circle of the aid economic routine, and, aa a first step to re-establish normality m their' affaire, are attempting—in many industries have succeeded—la reducing the wages of their employees...
...From both parties lifelong supporters will join the new party, to stay until full victory is achieved...
...The membership meeting held at the People's House last week opened the way by asking tha State Executive to call a eity convention to deal with the proposal...
...Today the people are worse off than before the war...
...BLANCHE WATSON...
...But the Labor party of England was a long time building...
...In whatever language it may be presented, however, it may be obscured by casual and temporary matters, notwithstanding the efforts to resolve it by compromise, that Issue will come to the front and remain there until it a) settled once and for all...
...that muit be done if the party ii to accompliih real work instead of merely keeping up a fruitless routine...
...For years now the votaries of capitalism, capital and labor together, have sought to ignore the fundamental issue between the great majority who toil and the few who have become possessed of the sources of livelihood...
...If the Government think they have kept me long enough they may let me go...
...It has tome distance to go before a distinct party is formed that will have the backing of the Federation's executive...
...Incidentally it may be noted that in his work on "Socialism in England, 1' Mr...
...Workers...
...Yet it Is not straining the parallel to And in the disruption of the two American old parties of this day a situation like that which called the Republican party into existence in 1866...
...Yes," he replied, "if there is any agitation for my release, Which I do not with, let It be on proper lines...
...The war, misplacing and altering all relations of politico-social life, gave free hand to all kinda of speculators to get busy...
...certainly' it, would not require more extra help to do all such work in one office...
...By way of precedent, there is to be mentioned the observation of Wendell Phillips, that remarkably clear-visioned abolitionist, that the success of the Republican party meant the extirpation of slavery...
...When it comes, to use tha expression of .Karl Marx, "whole lections" of the different classes break away, It will be so...
...That would be honorable...
...In a large number it will elect ita candidates...
...The new party cannot move faster than the coming to consciousness of tha public, upon the extent to which it recognises that the new order must be one of industrial and social democracy, the political and economic victory of the common people...
...Soon enough, whether in this election, or shortly after, it will be the first party...
...Use your brain and your power and you shall be free —free from capitalistic slavery...
...It will meet the issue which Lincoln prophesied would remain after his tongue had become still—the right of the producer to the fruits of his labor...
...The office work must be done, and much of it bai to be done in the evenings...
...Just before his operation, Gandhi was asked if he had anything to ssy...
...Gandhi was pressed for a menage to his people, hit followers or the country, but he laid that he wai a prisoner of the Government and must observe the- prisoner...
...They will be on the inside, shaping the party until the party shapes the government and society...
...The remembrance of the previous industrial crisis tortures the thought of the latter...
...Will the coming presidential election have any effect on the economic conditions of this country...
...From s report of the National City Bank of New York we learn that American manufacturers hava axported, in 1020, 18,000,000,000 worth of products to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Australia...
...Yet, 10 far as concern...
...When YOUNG INDIA entitled its leading article, on the illness of the Mahatma, "The Nation in Agony," it fairly and vividly expressed the state of mind of the one-fifth of the human race who make up the population of India...
...New York City...
...New that war-profits end abnormality ef war-time haws come to an end, the manufacturers most Sad a market te sail their products outside of military commission...
...Webb gave it as his opinion that there might never be an independent party of labor—that the outlet for the worker's demands would be found in another party, likely the Liberal...
...The United States Shipping Board published a report revealing the excess profits on war-contracts, the sneers, the deceits, tha robberies of the technical patriots who were working, during the war, at one dollar a year, in the interest of the Nstion...
...They will not hold aloof...
...That is the issue...
...The Labor party of England does not stand ak>of from the government, as did the abolitionists in this country...
...ALGERNON LEE...
...The third party will be the party of the common people who, as ever, are in the overwhelming majority...
...but we csnnot do businsis if we are not able to compete with other markets...
...The new exigencies of life require a correct orientation in world affairs, and the Coolldge Administration* at Washington must feel the grave responsibility that it assumed in promising liberty, prosperity and welfare to the country...
...it would cause deep hatred and possibly a jaeeaerio...
...But with the end of tha war came also the end of their one dollar a year job...
...while the year before the war exportation wai leu than $2,500,000...
...their brains and think...
...Tha ihut-dowD in the taxtile industry, in the shoe industry and in the clothing Industry tends openly to this puamose...
...while some others eae darkness everywhere and make apocalyptic provisions regarding labor in general...
...Thit assertion may item paradoxical, but the proof ii there, in the great number of new millionaires produced by this country during the war, and in tha scandalous remits of Government investigstions on war-contracts...
...The party that is to come into being must break entirely with the suppotition that public property can be privately controlled for the good of the nation...
...At present, each of the three principal locals needi a paid Executive Secretary, with at least one clerical assistant...
...Second, the proposal does not entail any increase in the number of paid officials...
...The new party is called the third party...
...Told in plain language, the manufacturer...
...it will run second...
...This has been proved by the various federal and state investigation...
...The spectre of unemployment ii invading the United States...
...Unemployment means hunger aad misery for hundreds of thousands of people...
...Any agitation mutt be kept on proper nonviolent lines...
...If they think I am an innocent man and that my motives were good, that while I have a deep quarrel with the Government I love Englishmen and have many friends amongst them, they may release me...
...Similarly it msy be argued that the coming third party in this country may not draw its inspiration so much from Karl Marx as from Abraham Lincoln...
...In many district...
...The change of sentiment among the voters has been gradual but definite...
...That was a long while ago, and it seems still longer...
...They are both if not equally financed by the beneficiaries of huge exploitation...
...So, let no worker be deceived by the panacea of the chameleon, office-seeking politicians...
...Several manufacturing concerns have pot the dilemma to the workers: either be idle for an indefinite period of time, or work at a reduction of wages from fifteen to twenty per cent...
...if It should then teem desirable, to employ yet a third or a fourth outside man...
...The time has arrived for the change to public ownership and industrial administration...
...Neither the pessimists nor tha optimists are justified in their opinions: the former exaggerate and the latter underestimate the real state of conditions...
...your salvation lies with yourselves...
...This is no individual's fault It ii the natural result of a faulty system...
...The British Government did well to take no chances on this man dyiqg in priion...
...Oh, that all tha working claia could and would use their eyes and see: their ears and hear...
...thst an industrial eri|ls is approaching with all Ha disastrous consequences...
...True enough the Labor party holds more than mere workers...
...It was the handwriting on the wall...
...With the revelations in Washington, running the gamut from peace to war, there is now no question but that capitalism has attained its culmination and that rotting and putrid decay has set in...
...First, it is not proposed to Interfere with the branches...
...No one individual can change the economic laws which are the result of collective life...
...snd our employees wsnt work...
...generated profiteer* of commerce, of Industry, of finance, who cleaned the government sajfea, and, with a handful of crumbi and war-time laws, kep^t the people contented and tamed...
...But it must not be on false issues...
...At least it accounts for the stressing of the cooperative approach to the social question, rather than the class struggle...
...The industrial crisis hi invading all fields of production in every State of the Union...
...That may be so...
...that the buying value of the dollar descended to twenty-five cents, thui making it impossible for the working people to save a 'few pennies for future emergencies...
...GANDHI'S POSITION Editor of The New Leader: In view of the fact that reports to the effect that Mahatma Gandhi had compromised with the government, to the end that he might be released, will you give space to the following, which is of value in itself, quite outside of this connection...
...My quarrel with the Government is there and will continue so long as the originating causes exist...
...How soon this esrth could be transformed and by the alchemy of social order made to blossom with beauty and joy.— Eugene V. Debs...
...It ia on the way...
...However gradual the sentiment has changed, now comes the sudden turnover which denotes tha final decision...
...Today, with the fire still burning under the apparently extinguished ashes, bread lines are not advisable.' Besides, an indefinite period of unemployment would have a dangerous effect upon the market abroad which the American manufacturers are anxious to conquer...
...on the high coit of living, •peculations, profiteering, monopoly, etc...
...while some other concerns are working at a reduced number of heura and limited number of employes, hoping, by se doing, te establish competition among the workers and to reduce the wages...
...That cannot be...
...Similarly, the organization of tha third party, however far it should be from stressing the abolition of wage-slavery, will nevertheless be the means of bringing forth the new civilization...
...That it has not seen him s i the greatest force for their good, as well as for the good of his own people, is a tragedy of the first order...
...Space permits me to toueti but one more point Our three locals have distinguished themselves chiefly by a petty "borough patriotism," each scheming to get ahead of the others on a Debs meeting, all-joining in a disgraceful annual scramble for the proceeds of the Forward Ball, and so forth...
...The workers should organize themielves industrially and politically to be more effective in their defense and attacks against the capitalist class...
...even though Abraham Lincoln wat aot an avowed abolitionist...
...The ground is shaped for a political landslide...
...but it is undeniable that this country is troubled by the after-war problems...
...THE CRISIS IN AMERICA By ANTHONY RENZI Soma people affirm with virginal candor that we are living in the best country In the world and ia the best possible way...
...I hope that such a convention will be held, that every branch will be represented, and thst the question will be decided on its merits...
...They combine their ideals with practical statesmanship...
...Certainly, whatever may be the source of its economic and social philosophy, the American party will be the continuation of democratic experience in this country...
...May I take, a little space to answer some ill-founded objections and to state what seem to me the important features of the plan...
...Times have changed...
...It ties the secretary to hit deik, even though it doei not keep him reslly busy...
...The New Leader Forum LOCAL CONSOLIDATION Editor of The New Leader: I do not know whether others will think it necessary to go on discussing fine paints of constitutional law involved in the effort to get action on the proposal to consolidate the locals in Greater New York...
...It is nonsense to expect the same man to attend properly to hii office duties and alio to visit the branches frequently, and do the many thing...
...It may be added that, ai a rule, the man who is fittest to be executive secretary ii least fit to be organizer...
...Then there had been prolonged attempts to eompose the slavery question by compromise...
...While In Massachusetts the woolen and cotton mills are inactive, hero in New York, teveral clothing manufacturers have announced that they cannot reopen their factories if the clothing workers' unions do not sign e now agreement regarding new conditions of wages and hours necessary to the life of industry...
...How far the coming convention will go along the way of the great change will depend to an extent upon how the axpdsnre of putrid capitalism stirs the electors into a realisation of the root of tha evil...
...But it is apparent that the electors are splitting into two camps, Conservative and Labor...
...the bulk of the work done in the local offices, one executive secretary with posiibly two clericsl workers could essily handle i t As for special work in connection with primaries, nominations, campaign activities, and so forth—well, in each of the locals we often have to hire additional help for these things as it IB...
...The two old parties have long since ceased to have any perceptible difference between them...
...The primary causes of industrial unrest are, therefore, the instability of the home market and the greater commercial expaniion abroad...
...One manufacturer is reported as saying: "The public wants clothes at a cheaper price...
...It it doomed...
...He was supposed to be "civilly dead...
...It will not be...
...If we can save salaries of two executive secretaries (potiibly also of one clerics) assistant, not to mention office rent) we can employ two organizers without adding a cent to our expense...
...The first cannot be done away with by the mere reduction of wages nor by creating a period, longer or shorter, of unemployment to force the workers to submit to work at reduced wages, because it would be a dangerous step...
...want the American workeri to compete with tha workers of the above continents...
...Consequently outside work—real organizing work —is grossly neglected...
...Both old parties fail in leadership, in stamina, in purpose, in substance: They go to pieces...
Vol. 1 • March 1924 • No. 9
