THE CHATTER BOX
THE CHATTER BOX New Year's Night On The Bowery Oh, short and yet interminable year, Wherein you span this drab inconsequence. How you must titter at their sodden cheer, . .. The vain abandon...
...The poor always low enough to please...
...Waters darkly surging Lilies Ut the stream Trees are always urging Man to live and dream...
...Working girls provide the most victims of this treatment as workers are generally' caught during'the rush hours...
...The general sentiment among the working people of the city is that for the first time in the history of Reading an administration which represents them h»d been instilled...
...This is how you make a red: rake his job and take his bread, Take^the roof from above his head, Fake his hope and leave him dread...
...The trade unions are very friendly and this friendship has developed out of long and earnest service of Socialists in the trade unions...
...There is no hesitating hope that two capitalist parties as alike as twins might do something, no search for a Messiah, no retreat front*a sififufworld wifh a little group of serious thinkers...
...Fa, said that "Good in his infinite wisdom" had given certain Christian gentle - : .men control of the property interests of the country...
...The count evidently has a flair for publicity,.in view srfthe fact that he is to lecture''bejire' teamen?-* rmbs at on*.,., thousand dollars per lecture^ jvith a stipulation (hat he shall have a-bot-r tie of champagne o day...
...He is confident of his Position and determined to go ahead...
...MORTON ALEXANDER...
...The writer of the editorial tried hard to find some "real causes" in addition to the first cause but on analysis all prove to be one...
...Acting under the Governor's orders and with his knowledge, a company of these gunmen precipitated the massacre of strikers at the Columbine mine, where six miners were slaughtered and a large number wounded...
...Let us hope that Reading will inspire the workers of other cities to follow the example of the workers of that city...
...Only 48 per cent of the ground owned by...
...But this is not another cause of "far reaching" nature but the first cause mentioned by the World...
...I could not walk to-day through the streets of the sad Nicaraguan capital as an Ambassador of Good Will from these United States, while out Marines stand embattled against a little band of patriots, a hundred miles away...
...I find it too late.now, at my thirty seven years of being bred and brought up as an American, to' call Washington, Oates, and the rest of the Revolutionary heroes, a lojt of dirty outlaws, bandits, and the rest of the epithets that are fed to the newspapers today by our.State Department anent the implacable Revolutionists of our tiny Sister Republic to the South...
...a moment...
...The transit system of New York City is an instance...
...It is a piece of tragic humor...
...Instead of Milwaukee and Reading there should be thousands of large cities administered direct by workingmen and women through their own party...
...Let us hope that a precedent Is hereby established, and that Mrs...
...Cold light that is kindled in these men's eyes...
...Ah, good, they say...
...4 One stake the worker has: his jdui Take this away from aim, yon strsJ^td ''""'"'ifwjr rob *3 All fhat may hold him safe and oases, Yoa sow revolt...
...There are several millions now who gave their votes to the two partis* of capital Jam who may be reminded that they .also gave...
...Then there is the "service" provided for the millionswho mU?t use the "fines...
...OUT OF A JOB This it how-yon make a red: Take hit job and take ait bread, ' 1 Take the roof from above hit h*m%4 Take %is hop* and Uave him dread...
...If I were Lindy, the flrat thing I would blurt out to the American General of the Marine Corps stationed .at Managua would be—"Hello, General, what's all the shooting for...
...We turn to the third factor mentioned by the World and this, also, is merely the first one, again in disguise...
...The big thing we could do right now before this matter spreads into another Rlffian adventure for us, with thousands of lives lost and millions expended in public treasury, is to just quietly recall our soldiers, tell the Central Americans that they will have to straighten the matter out mjaWOM} themselves, and go home with the glory of having realised our error by trying to be an unwelcome peacemaker...
...The figures regarding the change in farm ownership in his own state of North Dakota are simply amazing...
...It is a notorious fact that at rush hours the packing of human beings is disgraceful...
...Wall Street, I understand has a different standard - of valuation...
...But, masters of men, take heed, take heed...
...WHEN Lindbergh gets to Nicaragua on his GoodWill, Lone Eagle, We, Spirit of St...
...Four approaches are presented in the addresses of Senator Gerald P. Nye, Max Eastman, Norman Hapgood ancj...
...RALPH CHEYNEY...
...In our text-books, since childhood every one of -us Americans is taught to glogt and glory over the story...
...To-morrow's hunger and to-morrow's due, An endless round of old stupidities...
...Its assumptions are the creed of the ruling business and financial classes and these classes in turn provide the endowments which enable the economists to teach...
...It is especially humiliating for women ami girls whose daily experience is one too often of shocking insult...
...It might be well for the delegates from these suffering" nations to bring a complete list of those who have been killed in their respective countries within the past thirty years...
...They are attempting to shield Governor Adams from the righteous wrath of the workers whom he has...
...Union Gives Strikers Christmas Gifts Members of the American Federation of Full Fashioned Hosiery Workers expressed a spirit of solidarity for members on strike this past Xmas in s most practical manner...
...Liberals of this type have little to offer of value to the masses...
...One might as well expect a human being to, be healthy by permitting a parasite to attach itself to a blood vessel as to expect reasonable and decent transportation with private parasites sucking its substance...
...Ws are gisd that Baer did...
...then renew To-morrow's • burden, and no sight of ease...
...Lt .. ' '"^ksvmav'i ..cal '" The CssMdgs outfit at Washington has been ma* If great eateries abont economy...
...H. 8. Celia Rotter is beck from Reading, Pa., aglow with the wonder of the inauguration of a Socialist regime there...
...The ugly hypocrisy Of the thing would choke me to death...
...An American rebel can only be one who is in revolt against the' United States Government and this terminology shows that the imperial guardians at Washington regard Nicaragua as a territory of the United States...
...Red tempest's warning is in their sighs...
...Colorado's Governor Editor...
...Come stand in Hne *r the job exchange Where hope flare* briefly...
...If it be because we have allowed money interest in our own land to invest its gold down there for gain, and that money is threatened with loss through a successful revolution, then 1st us admit quite frankly to the world, that where George the Third failed in bis dream of imperialism, we intend to succeed...
...And after the same military man had given me his devious explanation, I would retort in no uncertain tone—"What right have Americans fighting men who want to be free...
...At the beginning of the strike, the Governor sent an open letter to thSj strikers denouncing them ss "lawbreakers and un-American*," and their strike ss "illegal...
...Soldiers of the*Cooperative Commonwealth, we salute you...
...Four Points of View ^*/E direct the.attention of our readers to the discussion of the political prospects this year which appears on page 4 of this issue...
...For nearly forty years prior to his election as Ooyernor, be was a member of the State Senate, and during all of these years the records will show that he never east a single vote in apposition to the interests of the corporations or in defiance of their wishes...
...The victory itself was representative of the Socialist and I.abor movement which maintains intimate contact and cooperation...
...Smith is now the Messiah and who will play that role four years later remains to be seen...
...The "contagion has been increasing for years...
...Senator Nye is frankly worried, but he clings to an uncertain hope that the two parties of capitalism Y and their leaders will rise to the occasion and do something to relieve the distress of urban and rural workers...
...Hapgood found a messiah in \\ oodrow Wilson who was to "keep us out of war...
...This frequent'use of executive power is the development of imperial power...
...Let us then proceed to tear up every existing record of our own past, appoint Morgan or John p. Jr., Emperor of the Americans, set up court in Washington, run through the Social Register from Park Avenue down to Palm Beach, set up (he...
...Having dropped the afore-mentioned wreath, Lindy can then stride through the streets of Managua over a layer of roses, bannered with Stars and Stripes, and anthemed by the "Star-Spangled Banner...
...To all this may be added the testimony of Health Commissioner Harris'who declared to1 the Transit Commission that the increasing crowded conditions constitute a serious menace to health...
...Over in Italy, to grant the request of bis wife, who had given birth to a male iruld, Mussolini announced the liberation ot three hundred political prisoners who bad been living in terrible exile on the wastes of volcanic islands...
...Hence the white washing stories sent out to the labor press...
...Norman Thomas, each representing a particular point of view...
...One would think from press accounts that American troops are fighting those who are seceding from t£e American Union pr engaged in insurrection against the United States Government...
...The Socialist has a program of education and action...
...Giving Until It Hurts Remember the days when - the threeminute orators during the great war were urging us to "give till it hearts...
...Secretary Wilbur, who prior to accenting the position of Secretary of the Navy was chiefly distinguished for his proficiency in writing bedtime stories for children in California, has proved himself as unfitted for his post as the late unkunented Secretary Denny...
...The greatest honor is due only to those who are civilized enough to admit an obvious mistake...
...Monasteri que Little flowers creeping Round the hallowed hall Stars are fondly peeping Thru its ivy wall...
...We deserve what we get...
...A little over six score years ago, a little band of patriots stood out in bleak New England against the mightiest nation in Europe—the British Empire...
...Reading, the eyes of a world is centered on you and your newly elected Socialist administration...
...helsikae, no piroskyu, no sad songs...
...To be sure, China and Latin-American nations were weak before intervention, but they can-' not become strong so long as big bullies sit astride their necks...
...THE CHATTER BOX New Year's Night On The Bowery Oh, short and yet interminable year, - Wherein you span this drab inconsequence...
...Blood flowed then Because a foreign tyrant sought to impress his' imperial will upon a small nation who loved liberty greater than life itself...
...Just how Cooh'dge will meet the situation with soft words at Havana remains to be seen...
...very adroitly announces fas discovery that the ladies rule America...
...The stipulation will undoubtedly be complied with in New fork, but just what will happen when: the Count hits the corn belt is^not for us to prophesy...
...W E V D Flashes Picked Up Oat of the Air From the Proarams of Station WEVD, the Eugene V. Debs Memorial Station . | "OUR" NAVY TJ//E are throwing hundreds of millions of dollars Sway every year on naval appropriations, and now the Jingoes have the brass to ask for still larger appropriations...
...Only this time the Uncle became careless and by some queer error sent real soldiers with real guns, and real bombs and real bullets, and the result is read Into the news . . . dozens killed on both sides and hundreds bleeding from wounds...
...I cannot for the world of me reason ouw what we, with our glorious Revolutionary tradition are doing in a foreign land that is trying to set itself free from its own tyranny...
...BELT IS NEEDED Out in Cotorndo,- the hall of the striking miners was broken into by the police and a free fight followed, with the result that a- hundred strikers are now in Jail...
...This weakness is not another factor but largely a result of financial and political imperialism...
...Life somehow has a habit of refuting the theories of the economists...
...What responsibility that has come to Socialist members has fallen to them by voluntary choice of the unions...
...Here the acquirerrient of public power by workipgmen in a.' large' city has been so rafe that it becomes a unique affair...
...cure for rickets...
...Iron Co., the leading factor in the present disturbance...
...China has remained helpless for many years because of her domination by the powers...
...Ironically enough, j(he Association elected lor their president far the coming year Henry Pairneid Qnbam, president of the American Museum, at Natural History, ana of Bryan's cj^ef opponents, and a prominent rxipularjaer of the theories of evolution...
...Plundered through private interests in accord with the "initiative" of economic theory, this transit system is about the worst to be found anywhere in the world...
...Such gesture might off-set in measure the little episode of lagt week's Christmas present and New Year's greeting that Uncle Sam sent to his little brown stepnephews in the hills of Nicaragua...
...The United States is an imperialistic power and we have been guilty of imperialist offenses against weaker nations.- To'cfescnre this fact-is to give comfort to the imperialists themselves...
...All this we put up with as a tribute to the sacred cow of private enterprise...
...This is a frightful change, but it shows the tendency of capitalist development to reduce the American farmers to the status of European peasants...
...Ah, good, they say,.to loosen frpm the grip ; Of costive thought, and madly to forget, " ^ , What may be lost within this giddy trip When all their sloven senses pirouette...
...Near Jerome Park Reservoir, in the Bronx, the union has completed the building of sis apartment bouses, containing some three hundred apartments of -from three' to five rooms each, at a cost of $1,825,000...
...The thousands who attended the reception, the banquet and the ball, were representative of the various trades and occupations of a typical industrial city...
...CHEER FROM ITALY...
...And it was a joy to see Esther Friedman's face, what with the memory ef the reception in the Pennsylvania Dutch city, and the rids from there in sa open car...
...Perhaps this statement must be modified in the case of Eastman...
...The rents will be eleven dollars a room a month...
...The T.abor Party of Berks County, largely representative of the building trades, participated in the campaign...
...The apartments have all modern conveniences...
...not Include the city government of Reading seen*** the Socialist* of that city weald be gaflty •f sin in taking control...
...betrayed...
...But their weakness is also an effect of American domination...
...This cooperative plan is being financed by members of the union themselves, and by loans from Jewish Daily Forward, the union bank and an Insurance company...
...For several years past it has been the policy of certain labor leaders, officials >f the A. F. of L., to deliver the votes of Colorado's organized labor over to the Democratic party at each election...
...In Pennsylvania and Obis, where evictions from company-owned houses still go on in this bitter weather, the miners stubbornly refuse to he driven back to work under compulsion of hunger and exposure tn I he sawrwnti._Tbay still need our help...
...Norman Hapgood does not differ from this point of view except that he is certain that he has found a Messiah in "Al*' Smith...
...Note the strange...
...This consists of "the export of capital" of many of the Latin-American nations...
...He is so certain of this that he does not want the Socialist Party to run a "side show" to Tammany Hall's prize exhibit...
...We here know what an educational inspiration your neat four years wiO be to the oppressed of this land...
...Our Sacred Cow '"'THOSE f]roii humorists known as political economists have for decades been drumming into the heads of aspiring youth what they call "economic laws...
...It is the ¦ arias...
...They are the innocents of politics...
...How long it will take that little group to emerge from its retreat to give its message to the world we are left to guess...
...You nourish riot > j What specious plea will the worker heej When ms babies cry from hunger sad „r»e4> ^ What mercy will risen workers show To those who tot tared their families so...
...any event, this was the testimony of some «f the followers, of Bryan at the famous Scope* trial at payton, Tennessee...
...Ah, good, they say, to ape the fattened few...
...An old dusty motto, brought back, cleaned and shining with promise to a group of citizens who need just that to help lighten the burden placed on their hack* by a generation of capitalist robbery...
...The Niearaaroam "Rcbels" '1'HE war waged in the interior of Nicaragua by American forces without the consent of Congress Continues with six American dead, 28 wounded, and the number of "enemy" dead unknown as this is written...
...It cites the "political immaturity and weakness of many of the peoples" of Latin-America as a cause...
...It is axiomatic in health circles," he declared, "that crOwd1ing is ordinarily conducive to the spreading Of respiratory diseases, a grave potential source of danger...
...I cannot understand why we have constituted ourselves as the abettor of the existing tyranny...
...The Colorado situation Is another vivid illustration of the disaster and disappointment that will continue to confront the labor movement everywhere so long as it listens to the advice of leaders who dicker and traffic with the corrupt politicians of the two old capitalist parties...
...Comrades spoke of the duties that an electorate had entrusted them with for four years in terms of hope and pramie* that they would be equal to the task of administering a city within the law of the land, and to the interest of the largest number...
...Its masters maintain ah'oligarchy of control over the workers on the lines And there are even instances of them paying themselves extras for this "service.'"A In spite of the "company union" the lines Witness an upheaval every year of'two...
...The only thing hackneyed in this performance is the old attempt to run away from facts...
...I have ceased to envy him his seat on top of the world...
...1 think it is just the appropriate time for gloom," he said...
...This he will have occasion to drop with due solemnity over the field where six of our Marine Boys fell in glorious battle, and hundreds of the "rebel, bandit, outlaw Sandino greasers" bit the gory dust, never to rise again...
...Mussolini, at any rate, never hears about Margaret Banger...
...As a substitute we must trv to understand the elements "which produce conflict...
...Then he tries to muddy the waters with advice not to use the word "imperialism" on the ground that it is "hackneyed...
...No attempt has ever been made* to "capture" the unions...
...IN DARKEST TENNESSEE The American Association for the Advancement of Science has been meeting in the anti-evolution state of Tennessee, where many of the Inhabitants believe that the Bible was originally written in English, that Ood 1i a Presbyterian, and that the wend Began In the year 5000 B. C. on October, 24th, at 4;30 o'clock in the afternoon...
...But if we still retain one solitary vestige of honesty in our pose as a land of the free, we ought to just tell our home talent investors to go down their and fight it out for themselves...
...the union Is occupied by the buildings, so that there.will be plenty of space for parks and playgrounds...
...Acting under the Governor's orders and with his knowledge and approval, these state gunmen have gone from camp to camp in the strike sone arresting strike leaders and throwing them into Jails, refusing to brint charges against them or bring them tc trial, and when effort* were made tc secure their release they would be immediately and secretly spirited away to some other jail in some other locality and in this way deprived of their right to their- day te court...
...proper number of dukes, carls, counts, lords, ladies, pages,, retinues, and the,tike, ar.d give up this indecent pretense at 'Democracy and Republicanism...
...It was all done so quietly, they said, so assuredly...
...This is especially true of the data he presented regarding agriculture...
...History has an ironic way os-twisting her past episodes Into the present...
...It is unnecessary to review what happened...
...Eastman's counsel reads like-a disappointed man who has decided to retire to a monastery...
...The scientists assembled in darkest Tennessee discussed ' alrhost everything .under, the scientific sun, from the age of the earjn and the movements of electron* to the...
...The public outside of Colorado is' entitled to know the truth about this new chapter In Colorado's disgraceful labor record...
...And the truth is: that Governor Adams, elected largely by the votes of misguided labor, has from the beginning of the strike played the role of the Artful Dodger, blowing first hot and then cold, flirting with the miners, while secretly conniving with the coal' corporations on the most effective plan to break the strike and drive the miners back to work Governor Adams for many years has been a willing and dependable tool ol the great corporations of the State, and especially of the Colorado Fuel St...
...Oh, masters of men, no need to fear You won't have soldiers and sailors this year Enough to fight for your empire of greed...
...In my own peculiar mathematics, I reason that all the millions invested by the United Fruit Company in Nicaragua isn't enough value to offset the life of one of our Marines...
...A BOTTLE A DAT Count Hermann Keyserling, the travelling philosopher, arrives here ft>r a lecture Soar, and...
...Poor Lindy...
...Another increased pay was distributed among the Federal strikers at New Years...
...The World admits that "Imperialism of a financial and political kind has played a part" but that "real causes are of a much more far-reaching nature...
...That the word "rebel" has become to be associated with armed men in Nicaragua who object to armed Americans on their soil is an unconscious admission df imperial rule over that little nation...
...DECENT HOUSING - The Amalgamated Clothing Workers celebrated the Oornmencement of a most interesting- housing project...
...Out of nothing through nothing to nothing is their course with usually a large installment of harm...
...The Nicaraguans are referred to as "rebels" in all the American newspapers...
...No bombast, no red flag parading...
...Well, if an average of one military invasion each year for thirty years does not constitute imperialism we do not know what does...
...Here and there a labor man is "recognized" by an appointment and he is expected to use his mmience to keep the members of the unions from having a party of their Own...
...Instead of this the average municipality is ruled "b^ political rings representative of the banks, industries and utility corporations...
...Central Standard Time...
...Blaming God During the strike of the anthracite miners in IMS George F. Boar, mining magnate of Reading...
...There are still enough Kiwanis and Rotarlan boosters sad Daughters of the American Revolution left to build up a fine Imperial Army, and what with our industrial productiveness, we ought to sweep through the continent from Hudson Bay to the straits of Magellan within a year...
...Does it- hurt...
...The New Leader: By means of news' articles sent ou from Denver and given general calculation through the liberal and labor press a very cunning effort has been made tc exonerate from blame and shield from criticism Governor Adams of Ooloradc for the part he has played hi the brutal and outrageous treatment accorded the striking coal miners of the state...
...The casualties are reported while President Coolidge is putting the finishing touches on his speech to be delivered at Havana where delegates from Latin-American countries Will assemble to listen to assurances of the profound affection American imperialism feels for those peoples...
...The science long ago became a professorial defense of the social order...
...Arvada, Colo...
...His is not a point of view but the opinions of a man who is perplexed...
...Uncles always send their nephews sets of tin soldiers, toy guns, toy bombing planes, toy sabres, pistols And tittle frivolities, to sort of brighten up the Peace-oh-Earth holiday for them...
...That death toll Would be a complete answer to the Coolidge speech which is intended to smother protest and continue an intolerable situation in the interest of American bankers and no one else...
...Senator Nye's addrejs is of special value in presenting certain aspects of economic conditions in the United States...
...Among these exiles were seven Socialist deputies and other men of culture and breeding who had been thrown in with common criminals...
...Those who attended the celehration from other cities and states must have been impressed with the fact that this ,event in any country aerbss the Atlantic would be regarded as a normal and usual event in the labor struggle...
...I also think it is important we should recognize what kind of a time it is...
...The sooner this is done the better for our National Honor and Conscience...
...Such invasions mean waging* war...
...The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, always a pioneer, is again to be congratulated by all friends of labor...
...He would have a little "group of serious people" study "revolutionary engineering with class forces...
...The speeches tore down neither neaven nor dynasty...
...Owners of this American capital turn to the United States and "demand legitimate security for their investment...
...A little later he appointed private companies of gunmen, armed them and sent them out authorised to stop the peaceful picketing of the strikers and break up the strike...
...For them, aranoaay apparently means retaining taxes paid by each thrift* institutions as the Standard OS af Indiana, which waa dene last week by Secretary Mellon, blowing in hsge soma of the taxpayer*' an an ay far submarine deathtraps, and handing oat fat contracts to the Duponts, the Bemingten Amu, and other manufacturer* of sudden death...
...Those who follow the trade of diplomacy, a profession that has become soiled with foul deeds against weaker peoples, are very careful in choosing their words...
...What this means for women,'children and the aged may be imagined...
...Congress alone has the power to declare war and it has voted no such declaration in any instance...
...The share-owners will, receive three per cent on the money paid in, and as the capital burden of the mortgages decreases, rents will be scaled down...
...This outrage upon the strike leaders has been going an for weeks with the approval and connivance of Governor Adams...
...Louis, Viking, Air Ambassador hop, I trust he will bring the customary Unknown Soldier wreath...
...n»-A» de»W****—i The Reading Celebration THE celebration of the Socialist and Labor victory in Reading, Monday, was, an inspiring event...
...Our Imperialism ALTHOUGH the N*w York World cites the record of thirty-one armed interventions by the United States in Latin-American countries within thirty years it believes that we "will do well to drop the hackneyed phrases,of imperialism or anti-imperialism...
...The brasen attempt of unfaithful labor "leaders" to cover up the guilt and shield from criticism the oily corporation-owned Governor is as stupid ss it Is despicable...
...Within fifteen years, he declares, the number of full farm owners in North Dakota declined nearly one-half while the number of tenant farmers more than doubled in this period...
...The one positive note sounded in this discussion is the address by Norman Thomas...
...How you must titter at their sodden cheer, . .. The vain abandon that they evidence...
...It is not only a menace to the peoples against whom it is used but it is a challenge by one department of the government to another...
...Official honesty for the people...
...In Philadelphia, where the Federal Knitting MQl employees are fighting to maintain a 48 hour workweek, ail strikers received double strikepay which brought the married mens' allowance up to 00 for the Xmas week...
...This is the only worth-while cooperation and it is the only kind that can be enduring...
...I see in Sandino another Marion,—"Fox of the Swamps", aa we boys lovingly read about our own American rebel, in our own history...
...For us to run our own candidates if Smith is nominated is, according to Hapgood, to "throw away the substance for the shadow" We recall that Mr...
...4 \^ -Jv".;- * The discussion is cdncafjor.r.l and, we are sore that oar readers win enjoy the four points of view presented in this sympossam...
...For rendering this service, these labor leaders have been rewarded with petty Jobs whenever Democrats were in position to compensate them Several of these labor officials are now holding appointment* under Governor Adams...
Vol. 7 • January 1928 • No. 3
