"TO YOUR KNEES, O LIBERALS!"
Oneal, James
"To Your Knees, O Liberals!" Croly Crawls Into the Al Smith Camp By James Oneal ¦Jlf R. HERBERT CROLY of the New Republic in a long and agonized editorial comes to the support of Governor...
...This regards the nation as a conglomeration of steel and brick and stone with farms and woodlands and mountains as a sort of extensive backyard...
...Suppose workers and fanners had no votes...
...Recently Jules was asked his opinion of war and he answered: "It's like this, Monsieur...
...We do not have in mind the ordinary publicity regarding their candidates and the "issues," although a flood of this is also evident...
...Not till the complete emancipation of the capitalist class after the Civil War did "bunk" become the conspicuous article in American politics...
...The party announced that t would enforce the law...
...When a politician represented the interests of a commercial class he said so...
...Can one get something "progressive" out of something that is "stagnant...
...Just now of course, lie is to be back-scratched and handpumped for the sake of his vote next November...
...We did not fall for Herbert's hokum during the war and as Socialists our attitude was justified by what happened, but here is the Progressive Pontiff rising to declare that the campaign of the Socialist Party candidate, Norman Thomas, lacks "political reality...
...What about Raskob and Ms cronies ? Herbert is perspiring SO we will not add to his discomfort...
...One is the city viewpoint...
...of the fire" and he proposes "to see whether the rugged characteristics of those who settled Iowa" are going to do such a hateful thing...
...The course of Governor Smith has...
...Finally we got into it...
...As a member of the Executive Committee American Negro Labor Congress (Philadelphia), I am calling your attention to the following statements printed in the Dally Worker...
...arey notes in his letter...
...Everything had gone wrong...
...The bus did not arrive for the New Jersey laborers although their tickets were as good as those provided by Smith and Hoover for use nexV'November...
...If you n Philadelphia have not yet learned what -he Communist movement is and can in tny way be influenced by it we urge you ¦o get into it...
...We are talking to ..ores of intelligent Negro workers who how a deeo interest in the economic and lolitical situation in this country at •resent The Workers (Communist) Par/ are on the Job here in Philadelphia oreading above reports from soap box, lass meetings, etc...
...Al Smith and his followers have been doing: a lot of blustering about the "mudslinging" of those who want the world to know about his Tammany record when he was an Assemblyman, but you will notice that he has not yet defended that record...
...The Socialist never throws his vote away because he is voting for an ideal, a principle, a movement...
...With greetings and hoping for an early ;ply, I am...
...He admits that the parties that nominated Hoover and Smith are "both stagnant pools of muddy political vegetation...
...5. of libraries for suspected books, doctoring history text books, terrorizing of teachers, the notorious A. Mitchell Palmer and his successor, Daughterly...
...This is the reason why the...
...Jury 30, I find the following blistering attack on the Socialist Party...
...Croly Crawls Into the Al Smith Camp By James Oneal ¦Jlf R. HERBERT CROLY of the New Republic in a long and agonized editorial comes to the support of Governor Smith...
...Reading Socialists decided to inforce the law and relieve the working lass of a fiscal policy that was delriving many of their homes...
...Ask them...
...For that problem concerns itself not solely with the prices of corn and wheat and live stock...
...Take some of the garbage which Mr...
...Others have tried the dose...
...The vagueness of these windy platitudes on farm relief indicates to any shrewd observer that the old-party businessmen still believe that the farmers will fall for any old promise, no matter how far distant it may be front the rather grim realties of the present agricultural situation...
...been the opposite of that of Mr...
...Sept...
...International Labor Conferences...
...Yes...
...ja all the- history of the Labor movenent In this and other countries no group ias ever earned the hatred that the Comnunlst movement has and that is why t is today an outcast among decent men and women...
...Fraternally yours for Socialism, A. J. CAREY...
...In the South, the Socialist Party reuses to admit Negroes into its ranks tnd holds meetings at which the prac.icea of Negro segregation are' strictly ;nforced...
...Looking for a bus ride, Henry...
...Each group had purchased tickets which were to take them to a picnic at Keansburg, N. J., to boost their respective candidates...
...One of the contributors to this number declares that the voice of personal rivalries and purely selfish interests has now been silenced, and great well-coordinated federations have been founded, well-fitted to represent the whole of the employers against the great workers' organizations, and to offer public authorities the counsel and cooperation of a body which doea truly stand for the employers In general...
...The Allies had written the secret treaties into the Vesailles Peace...
...And what a spread...
...The peace was an abomination...
...The Socialist Party in Reading declard that it "would maintain capitalist law nd order...
...Just use the tickets provided by the brokers and the happy workers will arrive at the great American picnic grounds...
...Hoover...
...He believes that Smith "has been generous where Hoover has been niggardly" but Smith's party represents a "coalition of state political aaaaaaam...
...What we have in mind is the canned stuff that is^provided as editorials for the small dailies and weeklies...
...placed on working class tomes...
...It appears in a long article headed "U...
...tt is because the city viewpoint is winning out and that all the rewards of the present capitalist set-up are being monopolized by the cities that there is a farm problem today...
...The "Practical" Voter QNE of the things that takes the joy out of Hfe for a Socialist, is the advice givgn him by "practical" folks before every election, that "it's no use throwing your vote away...
...610 South 6th street is constantly growing in numers and influence...
...Glimpsed in a Queens drug store: "Patronize our circulation library of excellent fiction...
...Wretched logic, to be sure, but it is of a piece with the labor man who follows open shop Raskob in nolitics...
...The Raskobs, Butlers, Kenneys, Olvanys, Smiths, Hoovers, -duFonts...
...The same was true of the politician who represented a landed interest, a slavery interest or a merchant interest...
...It would take a pretty strong stomach to stand for a typical Tammany record of 1904 and thereabouts...
...without unity of conviction or vitality of impulse...
...But the big and little business men who see to it that they collect the wealth produced by the workers on the farms and in the factories have in their hearts nothing but contempt for the "rubes...
...Herbert oozes erudition...
...The same reasoning applies to Hoover...
...Sadder But Not Wiser Yes, Herbert wept...
...Finally, Herbert sorrowfully remarks: "The Democracy is still open to conversion...
...Today a railroad politician does not represent a railroad interest...
...in spite of which diversity they are able to maintain close touch with each other, to hold consultations on important questions and conflicts and to cooperate as a single section, entitled "Holland" in the International Organization...
...What folly» All of Herbert's stuttering leads him to pull Al out of the depths gad to embrace him...
...This will likely appear in many small dailies and weeklies as original stuff by the local editor...
...tine art of seeming to say something without'doing so" is practiced by the professionals...
...The same applies to the items of the agenda of the...
...The long line of "good men" they selected in the past, turned out to be no better than the parties that nominated them...
...So are you, Herbert but we shall not try...
...The poison squad is an essential industry of the parties of capitalism...
...The best manifestation of this contempt is in the platforms of both old parties...
...The Socialist leaders of the Pullman Porters have lined up with William Green, president of the A. F. of L. "They have accepted the policy of segregation and non-organization of black workers advocated by Green and the reactionary officialdom of the trade unions...
...If so where can I get the socialist Party reply...
...It openly declared upon taking office in Reading, Pennsylvania, that it would maintain capitalist law and order...
...He votes for what he wants...
...What we call "bunk" was unknown...
...A few specific concessions to prorressivism on his (Hoover's) part would have had a disproportionate effect on public opinion and would have done much to leaven the lump of American politics.' . . . There is no reason in the world why Herbert Hoover, if he had attached any importance to the support and good opinion of progressive voters, should not have thrown them an occasional bone to gnaw upon...
...It is now eeneral...
...Try it as the healthy man might try association with i leper on the ground that leprosy is not harmful...
...In Holland, for instance, there are four employers' organizations, each of which represents a specific religious denomination (Calvinlst, Catholic, etc...
...But Herbert tries again...
...Ah, that's fine...
...Hoover is eliminated because fes party represents the "vested interests...
...All those employers who are members of the I. L. O. Governing Body belong to the Executive of the International, and it is this Executive which determines the policy to be pursued individually bv the employers' representaUves on the Governing Body...
...We shall pay no more attention to the thing...
...Prominently displayed is a biography of Al Smith, "Up From the City Streets...
...This close coordination enables the International Association to exert an enormous influence on the work of the International Labor Office...
...One editorial bears the caption, "A Farm Boy Will Tackle the Farm Problem...
...Wilson had encouraged them with his "Woe to those who oppose use...
...Democracy had been thrown into jail...
...Of course, neither Smith nor Hoover was responsible for the swindle, hut the incident is symbolic of their parties...
...Let me assure you that many white nd black workers here are curious about his situation and that In their eyes he-policy of "indignant silence" or suerlaUve haughtiness is palpably weak nd tends -e arouse doubts in their minds i to the political clarity or revolutlon7 integrity of the Socialist Party...
...We may try » raise roses in the ice packs of the Arctic Circle but when we confront your erudition we humbly sbsnilto away, knowing that we are helpless in discussing issues with such * The Fine Art of Bunk JJEFORE the extension of the suffrage to those without property, politics was a profession of gentlemen who said what they honestly believed...
...Perhaps Al won't form a new party...
...He reminds us of the college man who was shell-shocked and who stutters...
...They represent various groups of the capitalist class but cannot be honest about it...
...He decides to support Smith in a mood of "patient and watchful hesitation...
...That is dignified and erudite...
...He simply will not let-bis hero suik...
...The Socialit Party has "accepted the policy of 3gregation and non-organization of olack orkers...
...The Bus That Fails gOME two hundred men and women, some supporters of Hoover and others supporting Smith, were swindled in Jersey City...
...Two years before we proceeded to make the world safe for Democracy, Herbert used the columns of The New Republic to show Wilson how lovely everything would be if we got into the big fight...
...At bast Herbert does not "anticipate" It Al may depend upon some of the "traditions of the Democratic party...
...It is all canned, paid for and delivered because of the cash of the Raskobs, the Mellons and their ilk...
...Slogan for faithful Republicans and Democrats: "Vote for God and Country and Super-power...
...He has not even been rebuked or censored yy the Socialist Party...
...If we gave attention to it ich week we would have little space for lythlng else...
...Not a week passes that this itput from the Communist sewer does ot appear...
...The Socialist Party is treacherous...
...Randolph has openly declared for Smith, the candidate of the Democratic Party, the party of the southern lynchers...
...Each party is going to give the laboring class a big picnic if it wins...
...This is old stuff and it has its place in political warfare...
...The Democratic Traditions Looks rather bad for Smith's party...
...It is the Employers' International which prepares the work to be done by the employers' delegations...
...Owens and their kind enjoy the picnic...
...We have failed to notice an epidemic of hoarseness among them after their party "won...
...Are the' practical voters proud of the fact that they have in the past voted for the candidates selected by Big Business...
...The oldest doorman stationed at the French Foreign Office is an old soldier who has seen much service in war...
...And there is "progresaivlam...
...Smith is slipping into the depths by this time and Herbert reaches out and grabs the Tammany Sachem by the hair...
...f N THE past, employers' organizations have grown up much later and more slowly than the trade unions, and in fact, the chief stimulus to their formation has hitherto been the steady rise of the trade unions...
...We gather from his speech last Saturday that r»U Curtis approves of the Republican Party...
...It is ill of the same kind and we have somehing more important to do than to rive .Mention to these adventurers...
...What traditions ? Those associated with its support of slavery, or with Cleveland's breaking of the Pullman strike, or Palmer's sweeping Injunction against the striking mlnera...
...Little wonder that the practical adviser turns out to be a cynic after a time...
...It seemi that the shadows are gathering around Smith and the shadows deepen when we are told that few of the Democratic • Congressmen "have shown any scruples about giving the electric power combines all that they demand...
...We will not press the painful point as Herbert is already stuttering...
...Let Them Slop Their Hogs" 'J'HERE are two ways of looking at America, as some of the modern sociologists have been pointing out...
...Murphy To Speak On Philosophy and Religion Timothy P. Murphy will speak on "Philosophy and Religion" at the IngersoU Forum, 112 West 67th Street, on Sunday, September S, at 8 p. m. AdnuaEmployers of All Lauds, Unite...
...We shall not take up more space to consider the rest of the garbage...
...Wilson had gone along with the European imperialists...
...Why get excited about one 3ek's output...
...nee the organization of the first local f the Pullman Porters The New Leader .as given more space to their struggle tan any other weekly In this country, >th news and editorial space...
...THE NEW REPUBLIC...
...In a time like the present, when International trusts, cartels and other Forms of international cooperation arc dominating economic life, the conception of "class solidarity'" is at least as effective among the employers as among the workers...
...The A. N. L. C. Forum held every Sunlay afternoon at Alliance Hall...
...Maybe be reflects that no other party would have given a man l§ba>-htsn abwiasatattasifisi sae> VloA^Saaoaadoz...
...Just why an intelligent person should ay any attention to this sort of thing orfl the ComraeTttstS posses our comrehension...
...He tries hard but sweats and pants in an agonized effort to make contradiction reconcile contradiction and is happy when it is all over...
...Such honesty would bring a political revolution...
...He is proud for example, that he voted for Socialism when 'Gene Debs was its standard bearer...
...Then segregation...
...Italy, Latvia, Norway, Japan, Poland, Portugal...
...Poison Squads rJ,HE poison squads of the two capitalist parties are pumping their drugs at high pressure into the newspaper offices throughout the country...
...Isn't he fine...
...but the laborers never arrive at the glorious outing...
...Herbert then gathered a large number of his editorials into a special supplement just to show that The New Republic had led American hosts into the path of righteousness in company with God...
...Herbert gazes into Al's face aad another thought comes...
...Before his departure Governor Smith spent the morning in his own suite at the Democratic National Committee's headquarters in the General Motors Building.—Adjoining columns in the Brooklyn Eagle, August 24...
...In his recent book on Political Behavior Frank Kent devotes a chapter to what the capitalist politicians say and why they say it...
...Embraces Al Smith All of which appears to be a condemnation of Al and his party, bat you are not a man of university training...
...It is not merely a question of equalization fees and the like...
...Barbert mops his classic brow and turns to the cause of God and Tammany Hall...
...The New Leader: In the Daily Worker, Friday...
...Herbert stutters and goes on...
...He adds that "absolute sincerity and a successful politician are utterly incongruous and impossible...
...The war ended and Herbert wept...
...Their biggest asset "is the line art of seeming to say something without doing so" and they "would be consciously comfortable on either side of any issue...
...It had been used before in moderate doses...
...Capitalist poUclans had ignored the vile conditions slated to prostitution which were spreadng venereal diseases throughout the city, he Socialist Party proceeded to enforce he law...
...Still, so far as Europe is concerned, employers are now so closely associated that it may happen before so very long that they will become sh'.nlng examples to the trade unions of what association should be...
...This group has already been cooperating for 20 years, and It maintains an office of its own in Brussels, the seat of the Employers' International—THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS...
...Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Esthonia, Finland, Prance, Germany, Greece...
...Spattered with mud, he was a sad sight...
...Contracts, offices, frnchises, sinecures, graft and everything to make a ruling class happy...
...Still more notable ia the fact that it has been found possible to concentrate all the employers' organisations in the International Employers' Association, notwithstanding the variety of form, etc., which thaw tags in diffsmot countries and the differences between their political and religious views and their methods of handling economic and, still more, social questions, etc...
...The Democrats will look after their drugs and thousands of readers of local sheets will have the opiates pumped into them...
...War is abominable, but the army...
...8. Communist Party Denounces Lynching...
...hUaderphla, Fa...
...Holding on to Al, Herbert says that maybe Al will "try to form a new party" because the present party is what Herbert says it is, a party "without unity of conviction or vitality of impulse...
...Time after time The ew Leader has attacked the policy of acial discrimination and exclusion...
...The other and older viewpoint is that of the farmer who looks upon America primarily as a 9# te W&ftS «tw starting its edges «# cJw> ing-houses for the distribution of agricultural products...
...We have a sample of the Republican output before us...
...The buses that we're to take them never appeared and the laborers returned home with their families...
...Raskob is abominable, but Smith...
...Try it if the experience of >thers is not satisfactory...
...Do you think that a man of his erudition would for a moment consider that Thomas person, the ' Socialist candidate whose campaign lacks political reality...
...Mobs had raged at home...
...Watchful hesitation...
...The biggest capitalist magnate supporting Governor Smith is Raskob of General Motors...
...It was a terrible half bear, writing this learned editorial...
...It seems strange to Herb that descendants of his boyhood chums "should rely on the federal government to help pull them out...
...And this is exactly the way that the old-line politicians are approacliing the farmer...
...Each speaks for the "people," or fur the flag, or for the nation or for some other abstraction, yet group and class interests are as apparent today as they were before universal suffrage...
...No commission of "farm experts" such as Al Smith promises to call, if and when he is elected, can work out any scheme for the salvation of the farmer which persists in regarding him as a necessary but somewhat troublesome adjunct to the salesman, the promoter, the banker, the small-town babbitt in general...
...Too would stutter too if you had undertaken such a task...
...Yes, it's Hoover in overalls and it is written to farmers who had to pawn their overalls...
...If not, why not...
...n one meeting addressed by Norman Tiomas in Memphis, a few weeks ago the olorcd people were segregated by the heatre management until August Claesens arranged for seating the audience vithout discrimination as to color...
...L'Europe Nouvelle", a French magazine, has recently devoted a special number to tracing the growth of employers' associations and the same article proves very conclusively that the principle of International solidarity has gone ahead very rapidly among emkjyers, who have developed out of small groups devoted to their own petty Interests into mighty corporations...
...Smith is Kept by General Motors...
...Carey has his answer to its in many issues of The New Leader...
...From the NEW LEADER MAILBAG Editor...
...We have had this advice thrust upon us for many years...
...Within the framework of the Employers' International, there ia also a special association of the Danish...
...They were all laborers with their families...
...Herbert is a "progressive...
...In all the meetings which are held before the opening of the sessions of the Governing Body of the I. L. O , the questions to be discussed at the I. L. O. are all dealt with and examined...
...Then deportations, red raids, Lusk, Ole Hanson, Fred Marvin, Archibald Stevens, Thaddeus Sweet, war graft, peace time censorship, raiding Is This All Liberals Ask...
...It is a matter of viewpoint...
...Here is the great man "musing over the delights of boyhood days" and then changing to the great statesman...
...Roumania, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia...
...Why is that these gentlemen resort to drivel...
...Events •prove that not only have our practical friends thrown their advice away, but their votes as well...
...Get a stomach full...
...It is dying all over the world and the working class will be the better >ff for It.—EDITOR...
...Great Britain, Holland, Hungary...
...A corporation politician docs not represent the capitali>»t class in general...
...The iitor of The New Leader is also the ithor of a pamphlet, "The New Emanipation," more copies of which have been jld than any other pamphlet addressed 3 Negro workers and dealing with their jcial, economic and political problems...
...Be prefers to stutter...
...A bank poodle does not represent financial interests...
...Big business dodged taxes and he burden was...
...Similarly, the International Association comprises various national associations representing Argentine, Austria...
...Machold by Water Power...
...Not at all...
...We nominate for the Hall of Incorrigible Visionaries, the practical workers who do not want to throw their votes away, and yet persist in doing so...
...Most of his party members ia Congress "generally supported the Coolidge policy in Nicaragua...
...Herbert is, and remember are reading an editorial by a wry learned man...
...Immediately after the War, when the trade unions were going ahead so rapidly, employers' associations also made great advances, no doubt in order to counteract the alarming success of the trade unions in securing social right for their members and the working class in perioral...
...They are in a properly chastened frame of mind and would not have asked for much...
...Erudition does not help Herbert BO simply will not particularise...
...It is pollyanna stuff regarding Hoover's return to West Branch, his boyhood home, and is intended to play up the "human" side of Herb...
...Who was lack* ing in that reality during the reign of Woodrow...
...H. Edmond Machold of Watertown, N. Y., whose water power connections of the past undoubtedly will be the target for verbal broadsides . . . was unanimously elected Republican State Chairman today...
...As for the laborers, a liberal spread of injunctions, unemployment, wage cuts, farm bankruptcies and like fare...
...Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish employers...
...As the campaign grows hotter1 no doubt lis sort of thing will come more to the ¦ont and the white and black workers -especially our Negro co-workers and Dmrades are enUtled to a clean cut, fear•ss statement by the Socialist Party...
...Because the suffrage now includes millions whose welfare is in conflict with the capitalist class...
...A power broker does not represent the .super-power interests...
...Laborers will have no more worries...
...In that case Smith could frankly make his appeals to the electric power interests, just as Webster once spoke for the commercial interest and later for the manufacturing interest...
...Has the Socialist Party challenged itch bitter attacks against it and disiroved them...
Vol. 7 • September 1928 • No. 38
