July 26, 1919 Page Four THE COMMUNIST THE COMMUNIST industry, following the closing of the war markets, there has OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF AMERICA been an added effort on the part of employers of labor to reduce wages. In this they have had some measure of success and the DENNIS BATT, Editor workers are fighting back with every means in their power, Organization Committee, Communist Party of America The restraint upon strikes imposed by the government durJOHN KERACHER DENNIS BATT ing the war no longer binds the workers and they are availing KOPNAGEL ELBAUM themselves of the opportunity to regain lost ground. The exJ. STILSON JOHNSON ALEXANDER STOKLITSKY amples set by their European comrades have made them more bold in their demands; these examples have also served as a DENNIS E, BATT, Secretary ALEXANDER STOKLITSKY, Organizer warning to the capitalists. STILSON, Treasurer Many concessions are being offered the worker if he will but censent to have his Samson locks shorn and not become too SUBSCRIPTION: radical. The bosses have learned that it is expedient to give the 00 per year Single Copies cents workers some concessions to keep them off their trail. 00 six months Bundle Rates on Application The most common concession that is being offered to the Published Weekly By THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE slaves is the democratizing of industry. The worker is to 1221 BLUE ISLAND AVENUE, CHICAGO, ILL.
have a share in the responsibility and the profits. It will be MCGREGOR, Bus. Manager noted that these bosses unions which are to be organized not touch upon the fundamental question of the abolition of the profit system. The profits of the capitalist are to be guaranteed.
THE SHANTUNG GRAB.
His right to them is not to be questioned. His sacred per cent is not to be abolished. Thus the cause of the troubles of the In acquiring Shantung Japan has evidently put one over working class is to remain. It makes no difference whether the on the Peace Conference. In order to hold Japan in line it was workers participate in the management of industry of not necessary to allow her mastery over China. During the war the profit system of production will continue to breed wars and Japan has seized provinces in China, and with true brigand panics.
spirit, insists upon retaining possession of them.
China wishes in the matter were ignored. And why not? is evidenced by the fact that their intellectual hirelings of the That the capitalists consider the present situation serious China is powerless and has been a doormat for the Great Pow press are counseling them to keep cool and not to antagonize ers for many years. Those who are weak receive little con the workers.
sideration at the hands of the strong. Might is Right throughout the universe. Only the fit survive. In spite of the lofty ideals of the capitalists, and when such great exploiters of labor as The interests of the workers are directly opposed to those which are supposed to actuate the Great Democracies, China the International Harvester Corporation offer to democratize is turned over to satisfy the imperialistic ambitions of the Nip their factories it behooves the workers to be cautious. The deponese capitalists. As a protest against this rape, China has mocratizing of industry is nothing more or less than a palrefused to sign the Peace Treaty but that means nothing. Protests are worthless unless they are backed up by power, and liative. It will, perhaps, stave off the day of the total collapse China is powerless.
of the profit system and keep the capitalists in the saddle a while longer.
The Shantung steal is such a barefaced outrage that Wilson has been forced to excuse it on the grounds of expediency.
It is openly stated in many leading papers that the only way the better classes can hope to retain their present position is by making concessions to the workers.
THEY WISH IT WERE TRUE.
We are reminded of the siege of Troy and the story of the The wish being father to the thought, hireling editors of wooden horse which gave rise to the axiom: Beware Greeks the capitalist press are telling of the tottering condition of the bearing gifts!
Hungarian Soviet Government. There were many such tales in the early days of the Russian Soviet, and these reports bear a THE BAND OF NATIONS.
striking resemblance; not only in the tales that are told, but also in the fact that they are universally untrue.
Mankind has long dreamed of a league of nations; to link Unquestionably, the Hungarian Soviets are having a hard together into one vast confederation the peoples of the earth struggle to maintain their power, but it is also true that each has been the vision of the philosopher and the idealist. Down day they grow stronger. Just now they are having trouble with through the ages poets sang and dreamers dreamed of the the Jugo Slavs and Roumanians. If they succeed in disposing Parliament of Man. All efforts toward this end have failed of these enemies before Fall the future of the Soviet in Hungary including the attempt made by the peace delegates at Paris.
is assured.
They failed, as did others before them, because of the conflict of interests inherent in class societies.
The fact that very little is being said in the capitalist papers about the bolshevik offensive would indicate that all must be When Woodrow Wilson sailed for Europe he was looked well with the Red Army.
upon by the unthinking as the saviour of suffering humanity.
The possibility of Allied intervention seems to be small He bore upon his shoulders a great trust. His was the task of The Fourteen With the organized workers planning general strikes to prevent liberating the peoples from the yoke of Mars.
Allied invasion of Hungary and Russia, the capitalist class will Points, the formula by which freedom was to be forged, were think twice before starting a campaign of intervention. Such to be beacon lights to a just and democratic peace. Fired with an invasion is liable to precipitate a revolution in their own the ideals of a medieval crusader he set forth, only to find the countries and the capitalists hesitate to run such a risk. They wooden sword of democracy impotent against the armor of capitalistic imperialism.
are pinning their hopes on backing some counter revolutionary leader in an effort to overthrow the Hungarian Soviet. So far The maze of conflicting interests presented at the peace no reactionary leader of any prominence has appeared, and table could not be solved by a mere democratic formula. Bourthe workers grow stronger day by day.
geois brains and ingenuity were not equal to the task. The division of the spoils of war could not be accomplished in accord with the Fourteen Points. Too many appetites must be satisBEWARE GREEKS BEARING GIFTS!
fied; too many ambitions conflicted with one another. France The country is experiencing an upheaval of reconstruction must be protected, Italy and Japan demanded their pound of There are numerous strikes in various sections of the country flesh, England must have her lion share, and the interests of and the so called labor leaders are at their wits end trying to the United States must be looked after.
serve their masters by keeping the workers on the job. The ca Over all lay the shadow of Bolshevism the menace of the pitalists, as well as all other forces of reaction, are bewildered awakening proletariat. The great problem was to divide the in their frantic efforts to cope with the situation, spoils to suit the taste of the conquerors and to protect them Many causes contribute to this general unrest. The most against the threatening storm of working class revolution.
Important is the decrease of wages real wages that has been something must be offered the peoplo which would resemble going on for some time past. The depreciating value of the the ideals for which they had fought. So the Robber Band sedollar has shrunk the wages of the worker faster than he could renely wrapped itself in the cloak of a League of Nations and boost then by strikes and other means. With the slackening of dictated a brigands peace. Capitalists expect this alliance bo