FOUR

THEMILITANT Weekly Organ of the Communist League of America [Opposition]m, NO. 10,Telephone: DRYdock 1656 NEW YORK. N. Y.' Saturday, March 8, 1930

Demonstrate on March 6th MINERS! BUILD LEFTAs Unemployment Grows WING AT SPRINGFIELD

The efforts «ot "Prosperity President"Hoover, Big Business, and industry In gen-eral, and other agencies to hide the acuteconditions among: the Corking massescaused by unemployment already directlyaffecting seven million workers, are ot noavail. Figures and reports from all partsof the country show wide distress andmisery in a situation that has become nowworse than the depression of 1920 and 1921.Charity flops are overcrowded; black coffeeand cheap bread are the luxury doles han-ded out to those who wait in the longlines of mission houses, charity institutions,etc. Capitalism cannot employ men and•women willing and able to work, and somillions of human beings must suffer ^coldand hunger. Not a single copper cent oftheir unearned increment will the rich mas-ters give, up without the compulsion of theraas 5 pressure of the workers. That Is theway of the capitalist system — the systemof rue claw and fang.

.Protests and demonstrations of the un-employed masses in New York, Chicago,Cleveland, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Min-neapolis and many other cities throughouttne country jire met with clubs and black-jacks, guns and tear gas, police wagonsand Sailings of working men and women•ad their children. It is government —thegovernment of the American ruling class—the Wall Street bosses-^- In action. Thusthey try to maintain dominion over themasses. With cohesive organization of alltheir forces they meet the protests of theworkers.

Capitalist society cannot eliminate un-employment. Only a social system servingthe interests alone of the proletariat andexploited peoples can lay the 'jasls for theelimination of unemployment, exploitation,misery and degradation of the masses.Only in the Union of Socialist Soviet Re-publics has the basis been laid for cooper-ative work on behalf ot the producers. Theworking masses in the United States alsomust have as their objective the abolition,of the capitalist system and its replace-ment by a Workers' Republic. /Join Unemployment Demonstrations on

March 6thBut today mass unemployment, the

problem of the masses to exist is a pressingconsideration. The unemployed and em-ployed, the workers organized in laborunions and the unorganized workers, menand women, white and colored — all mustunite in protest and action to demand ofthe bosses that exploit them and the gov-ernment that protects them — work or com-pensation; shorter hours of labor to providework for the unemployed; abolition of thespeed-up system that sapa the energies ofthe workers and leaves them^worn out anduseless at an early age.

All elements among labor, no matterwhat their particular economic or politicalviews, if sincerely wishing to endeavor torelieve the distress prevalent among allstrata ot the working masses can find abasis for united action against the commonenemy — the wealthy employing class andtheir governmental hirelings. Sectarianismand aim for group advantage can do onlyharm. The problem of mass unemploymentwill face the workers for a long time tocome — till the overthrow of capitalismlays the basis for its elimination. Fromindustry and government can be forcedcertain measures of relief, provided there ismilitant united action.

Demonstrations have been conducted innv t-ities already under the direction of

organizations, including the Corn-league of America (ODDoaition).

On March 6th demonstrations againstunemployment and for relief of the unem-ployed will be held in cities throughout theUnited States and in other countries sim-ilarly affected. They are under the aus-pices of the Trade Union Unity League inthe United States. We have spoken beforeof the narrowness of the movement spon-sored by the official Communist party andthe T. U. tf.L., and its failure to endeavorto develop a genuine and broad united frontmovement for the unemployed. We shallhave occasion to speak of it yet again,including the adventurism in calling forstrike action in the height ot the depres-sion.

On March 6th, however, all militantsand Communists, workers of every shadeand opinion should make it their businessto get into the demonstrations whereverthey are held; to help broaden them; toprotest as one body against the scourge otcapitalism—unemployment; and to demandwork or compensation..

"In the name of the rank and file!"This is the pretentious claim of the call is-sued for a convention of the United MineWorkers to meet at Springfield 111. onMarch 10. The call is by a self-constitutedorganization committee, the main body ofwhich'is made up of the Ftshwlck Parrlng-ton Illinois union administration under the1Lewis regime.

With the exception of Howat, Brophyand Dorchy, who have at certain 'times inthe past upheld the standard of militantstruggle and fought against the destructive,treasonable policy of John L. Lewis, theother signatories to the call have all, dur-ing these years not only indorsed thewhole of Lewis' policy, but actively car-ried it oui in every one of its treasonableacts.

The destiny of the rank and file coalminers lies in their own hands and theirsis the task, now more than ever, to act,and to act in their own interest. Militancyand courageous self-sacrifice by the coalminers everywhere gained union conditions

STALIN PERSECUTE!RAKOVfKY , At the same time that Stalin, in order to face the difficulties accruing

from his peasant politics, again and again makes use of the proposals of theOpposition, btu in distorted form, or resorts to dangerous ultra-Leftism; whenevents have confirmed the analyses of the Opposition, he becomes more andmore brutal to the members of the Left Opposition who persist in understandingand representing the clear tactics of the proletarian revolution.

Yesterday it was the assassination of Blumkin. Today we receive themost alarming news concerning the health of comrade Rakovsky.

Christian Rakovsky is weakened by malaria and Is ill with seriousheart trouble. The doctors most categorically ordered a stay in the Caucases.The political Bureau refused; Deported together with his sick wife to theSiberian winter, Rakovsky at Barnaoul is exposed to the most miserable livingconditions, to temperatures ot 40 and 50 degrees below zero. Our comrade hasrecurrently suffered from most alarming heart crises.

In addition the usual tactics made use of to exterminate the Opposition—the difficult conditions and hunger — have been directed at him. They havedestroyed his means of llvllhood in refusing him the historic work which he wasfitted tor.

The working class remembers the role played by Rakovsky, latterly inFrance where he represented the proletarian state as Soviet Ambassador.That was before the united fury of the reactionary Le Matin of Paris andthe hatred «f Stalin resulted in his replacement by the clumsy Dogalevsky,aided by the traitor, Bessedovsky. The working class, particularly in the SovietUnion, the Ukraine, in France, know well Rakovsky's heroic and valorous life,completely devoted to the Revolution. He has remained steadfast and inflexibleto the Bolshevik ideal in the face of the fury of the Stalinist degeneration.

The bureaucrats of the Secretariat are preparing a new assassination.But the workers will not permit the cruel persecution of one of the most t»iedand valuable fighters, for his devotion to their cause, for his high-mindedfirmness.

Over 8,000,000 Women Toil at Low WagesAccording to the Women's Bureau of

the United States Department of Laborthere are 8,500,000 women wage earnersIn this country at the present time. Theirfigures assert that one woman out of everyfive works in the mills, factories, stores andoffices throughout the land; and that outof every five workers in the country oneis a woman.

These figures compiled under the direc-tion of the capitalist government of theUnited States show how important is thewinning of the women workers to the labormovement. With 20% of all the Workerswomen, the need of actively drawing theminto the labor movement is of major impor-

tance.Throughout the United States, the wo-

men workers are the lowest paid and mostexploited section of the proletariat. Theemployers In the unorganized industries arein very many cases, discharging the menWorkers and hiring women to do the samework at much reduced rates of pay. Inaddition, the employers are attempting toforce the women to toil long hours, Inwhich they are quite sucessful althoughsome states have adequate laws that aresupposed to prevent the women from work-ing more than a certain amount of hoursweekly. It has been shown in many cases

Contnued on Pace G

for them in the past. Militancy and aknowledge of what needs to be done willshow the Way out now. To the rank andfile this convention can become anotheropportunity to extend the struggle so Wellfought in the past U will become so onlyby courageous action on their part to puta stop forever to tne sell-out policy of theofficialdom which has brought the unionto almost com piste destruction and forceddegradation upon the miners.

Immediate Needs of MinersAt innumerable times the coal miners

have given voice to their burning needsand decisively brought forth their demands.They are yet to be translated into actionand no opportunity should be lost sight of.Again it is necessary for the militantsamong the rank and file to point the wayto united struggle for severance with allthe corruption of the past and with all thosswho have served as the tools of the oper-ators. To take up the struggle aggressivelyagainst any further wage reductions; for aminimum wage scale and for control ofoperation of machine mining by the work-ers; to eliminate the deadly speed-up anddivide the work among the miners; to fightfor the'shorter workday so as to afford em-ployment for all and to organize the coalminers in every field.

Audacity and militancy in every work-Ing class arganizatlon and the battle ishalf won. This Is the particular task ofprogressive and Left wing coal miners tothus show the way.Send Delegates to March 10th Convention

The progressive and Left wing minersshould send the largest possible number ofdelegates to this convention to endeavor tocompel a genuine struggle for these im-mediate demands and needs of the coalminers. The Left wing, organized in theNational Miners Union, has a two-fold task:to strengthen and extend their own inde-pendent' organ!- atlon, and, at the sametime, to build a Left wing in the U. M. W.of A. The Left wing; the N. M. U., mustdemand from the progressives — Howat,Brophy, etc.— a stand on the numerousburning issues confronting tne miners.The program and declaration of policy pre-sented by the Communist League of Amer-ica (Opposition) in the March 1st issue ofthe Militant indicates the path the coalminers of America need to take for therevival of a militant miners' movement andorganization.

FLOOD CONTROL CONTRACTORS GYPNEGRO LABORERS

MEMPHIS— (FP)—-How U. S. govern-ment contractors gyp Negroe laborers is re-vealed by workers employed in the "willowfleets" that ply out of Memphis to work onMississippi flood control. The willow fleetsmake the willow mats for the levees.

Hundreds of colored workers employedon these ships are paid off daily in flimsypaper checks redeemable only at the ship'scommissary. These checks, printed withweak iuk< soon become smudged and il-legible. -In that condition, the companyrefuses to redeem them. The laborer thenloses the money due him. At the end ofthe trip, the Negroes present their checksbut receive cash only for those which arein good condition.

IN THE NEXT ISSUEIn the next issue will'appear an ar-

ticle of the most timely interest by L, D,Trotsky on"THE NEW COURSE IN THE

Page I T H E M I L I T A N T Saturday, March 8,

THE COMINGPATERSON STRIKE

The National Textile Workers Unionis planning a general strike of the Pater-son silk workers within several weeks.Since the Passaic struggle of four years agowhich laid the basis for the present organ-ization of the N. T. W. U., there has beenno outstanding New Jersey strike. Afterthe Associated Silk Workers Union wassplit, the N. T. W. conducted a strikeof several hundred workers for more thanft month.

The N. T. W. is largely known to theBilk workers of Paterson through, the Pas-saic strike of 1926, led by the Left wingnow organized into the N. T. W. The Pat-erson workers aided this heroic struggle ofthe Passaic strikers by raising funds forthe relief of the strikers.

At present, as a consequence of thesplit in the Associated Silk Workers andthe weak organization drive conducted inPaterson since then, the N. T. W. has sev-eral hundred members signed up. It isupon these forces that the N. T. W. isbasing the proposed strike.

Better Preparations Are NeededAs things stand now, unless more

thorough preparations are made before thestrike is called, it will be virtually still-born, even as was the recent N. M. U.strike la 'Illinois- and other even more bom-bastic "strikes" that have been called byunions directed by the Communist Partyofficialdom.

The attitude of the entire apparatus ofthe N. T. W. U. is one of disregard forpreparation. It is further, wholly ineffi-cient to care for its tasks properly. Asnational secretary of the N. T. W. now restsone Clarence Miller, a stupid, lazy career-ist, who has a long record for inefficiencyand laxness in the Young CommunistLeague, the Passaic strike, etc. But hewill take any and all orders of the Sta-linized Foster-Minor, et al, CommunistP/Ufty apparatus.

The N. T. W. has held but very fewfttass meetings and distributed hardly anyliterature, as well as taking other organ-izational steps, in preparation for its pro-posed general strike. The Paterson localof the N. T. \V. is headed by Kushinsky, acolorless and unqualified worker for such* task as the local leader of a big strike.Bis "qualifications'', as with most Stalinistofficials, is the readiness to take orderswithout question. A prerequisite to anysuccessful work among the textile workersby the N. T. W. U. is the removal of incom-petents and untrained people such as Millerand Kushinsky. The rank and file of theunion need to have a say in the selectionof their officials and the conduct of anycontemplated activity.

With a proposed strike of the propor-tions of a general strike of all Paterson silkworkers, there is need of far more ade-quate and detailed preparations. To calltho strike in the near future, as plannedand with the "leaders" in charge, doomsthe strike before the first day is over. Massmeetings, shop meetings, systematic distrib-ution of literature; a rank and file strikecommittee, the sound formulation of a setof demands of the strikers are among thepreparations that yet need to be made. TheStalinists cannot be permitted to play•with strikes for the sake of records and theverification of the "third period". The con-ditions of the Paterson silk workers havesteadily worsened. There is need for amovement and struggle that will bring•bout a strong and large organization, of thesilk workers and gain them better condi-tions of Hvihood, more wages and shortertours.

—FRANK BROMLEY

NEW YORK OPEN FORUMAlbert Glotzer, member of the National

Committee of the Communist League(Opposition) will speak at the Open For-um of the New York Branch of the Leagueon Saturday, March .15th, 1930 at 8 p. m.His subject will be: "WHAT IS THEPERMANENT REVOLUTION?" Admissi-on is free and all interested workers areinvited to attend.

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Miners Death Toll MountsBy Federated Press

Coal mine workers' death toll in 1929was 2,181, according to figures on fatal ac-cidents just released by the U. S. Bureauof Mines. This is an increase of five overthe number of deaths in 1928. Besidesthese men killed on the job, more than120,000 workers suffered an injury involvingloss of working time. Every week 42 menare killed and more than 2,000 injured inor about coal mines of the United States.

In spite of safety campaigns,, the deathrate in bituminous mines has been highersince 1921 than it was for several yearspreviously. It is now higher than thedeath rate in the anthracite, although thishas also risen above the low points touchedin 1924 and 1926.

Mine workers in the United States facea death hazard about twice that of Germanminers, about three times that of Britishor Belgian miners, about four times thatof French miners. In the American minesout of every ten thousand full time workersmore than 40 are killed on the job in thecourse of a year; in Great Britain, lessthan 15.

Even the mining companies enrolledin the National Safety Competition in theUnited States, have brought their averagedeath rate only about one-fourth below theaverage death rate in other mines. Thehazard for workers of all these selectedcompanies is still far greater than the haz-ard for miners in European countries.

Explosions and mine fires that slaugh-ter many workers in one disaster have beenfewer in recent years. But the explosiontwo months ago at McAlester, Okla., thedisaster at Kinloch mine, Parnassus, Pa.,a year ago, the Mather disaster which killed195 men in 1928, and others only less hor-rible that have found their way into theheadlines, remind us that advances in thetechnique of safety are too largely con-fined to the laboratory. Many mines arestill operated in such a way that an explo-

Sailors Face Jobless

ProblemNEW YORK—(FP)—'Shipping's tough,"

is tho sailor's way of describing the worstconditions of unemployment they have facedsince the days just after the strike of 1921.The collapse of Hoover's prosperity hashit them hard.

Ships are laid up, men from asliore aretrying to get the sailors' jobs, and someof the largest companies are "rationalizing"their crews, cutting them down to the low-est possible number. Changing fromsteam to Diesel engines is responsible fora great reduction in the number of menon jobs "below" in the engine and firerooms. The number on deck teas notchanged much.

Many big Users have been taken intodock yards for their winter overhauling,thousands of sailors who work the greatlakes in the summer have come down toaalt water to get winter jobs, and thou-sands of shoreworkers, finding no workashore.are trying to get work on the ships.

The "charitable" Chuch Institute forSeamen still rents tax-free bunks for thesame price as do the Bowery flop houses,but the rooms — cubicles— in their newbuilding are to rent at a higher figure. Thefunds to build this building are donated,the institute pays no taxes, nor does it putout any charity, save an occasional freebed to a man just released from the hos-pital.

Reading rooms and amusement roomsof the institute are crowded by men wornout by tramping from shipping office toshipping office and along the endless beachof New York harbor looking for a chanceto work:. Many men with no work allwinter have had a hard time of it trying tolive. There is no charity for the sailor,though there is plenty of money for the"Sailors' Friends".

Food and working conditions on theships have become worse, too, with thesurplus of men, despite the partial con-trol of these conditions by the shippinglaws. Shipping commissioners have showna more ready tendency to decide fine points— and many not so fine— in favor ofthe masters.

sion of gas and coal dust can sweep throughthe workings and kill instantly all the menwho are underground.Mine Owners Concerned Only with Profits

But spectacular disasters carry off onlya small fraction of the miners who arekilled on the job. While they have beendecreasing, the daily, unnoted tragedieshave continued to roll up a stupendous to-tal. About 2,000 workers a year are caughtin these "trifling"' accidents that neverreach the city press.

More than half of all the coal minedeaths in 1929 were due to falls of rockor coal. These falls of roof and side goon steadily, crushing out one or two livesat a time — rarely as many as five mentogether — and slaughtering more than athousand workers in the course of everyyear. The death rate from these falls issteadily higher than it was before 1920,a direct result of wage-cutting and speed-ing up within the mine. Timbering at theworking face to make the roof saft forthe workers is in most mines "dead work"for which the unorganized miner commonlyreceives no pay. Companies making a driveto cut down the death rate from falls ofroof usually stiffen up the rules and stan-dards for timbering but do not set up afair rate of pay for the timbering. So theworkers continue to take chances — dri-ven to it; even in "safety" mines.

Haulage accidents underground havealso in recent years killed more mine work-ers than the big disasters. Increase inmotor haulage hes pushed up the death ratefrom this cause, especially in bituminousmines. Electricity is in general an in-creasing hazard underground. Power linesimperfectly protected lead to electrocutionsfrom direct contact. Electric machineryis in use in which the making and breakingof "the current flashes a dangerous arc —an explosion hazard as serious as the openlights which are now banned in manymines.

REGISTRATION OF ALIENS FOUGHTNEW YORK—A campaign to prevent

the passage of any form of legislation re-gistering aliens in the United States hasbeen undertaken by the American CivilLiberties Union in cooperation with otherorganizations following the action of theSenate Immigration Committee in votingto report favorably the voluntary regis-tration bill introduced by Senator ColeBlease The bill has been temporarily re-ferred back to the committee through theefforts of Senator Copeland of New York.It is expected that the issue will be foughtout on the floor of the Senate. Two com-pulsory registration bills are pending inthe House.

The Union is opposed to any schemeof registration whatever, on the. groundthat it is "a monstrous scheme of espion-age conceived by would-be patriots fearfulof alien radicals, and useful chiefly to per-secute alien members of trade unions andthe Communist Party".

HAVE YOU READ

L. D. Trotsky's"Tke Draft

Program of tlie

Communist International"?

T his 139 page masterpiece willbe given free with each year'ssubscription to the Militant.Those who have not read this bookshould do so at once, those who have,•will want to read it again and again.It is a devasting exposure of the Rightwing and Centrist positions of Bu-charin and Stalin and also a clear cutrecital of the Leninist position of com-rade Trotsky

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to th« Militantat $2.00

CAB MEN REJECTSCAB TERMS

By ARTHUB G. McDOWELLPITTSBURGH—Another effort to break

the taxi dirvers' new union, strikebornand tested in conflict with the ParmeleeTransportation Co., was defeated by thestrikers themselves when they rejected a,proposed settlement, 1,153 to 1.

Cramming the roof garden of MooseTemple to the doors, the taxi men in thelargest meeting held since the beginningof the strike rejected almost unanimouslyth'e proposal that they abandon their unionand receive in return certain wage con-cessions. The taxi monopoly agreed toa 37 1-2% commission, abolition of fines;damage costs and special charges but op-posed recognition of the union.

Sensing before the meeting that theunionists would not tolerate a non-unionagreement, Parmelee once more startedrecruiting of scabs. Mayor Kline's orderbanning Parmelee scab cabs from thestreets still holds, but the company isexpected to win a court order with theaid of the state public service commis-sion to permit their appearance.

This commission, headed by a formerMellon Standard Steel Car Co. lawyer, hasconsistently refused to permit smaller taxicompanies to operate, although they havebeen able to guarantee service throughrecognizing the union.

A big benefit entertainment was heldat a Pittsburgh theater through the solid-arity of unionized theatrical workers whocontributed 2 acts of vaudeville and allstage, electrical and musical labor invol-ved. The entire city is alive to the chal-lenge to Mellon control of the great openshop iron and steel center. From nearlyevery variety of organiation—including re-ligious—contributions are coming to thestrike chest.

The union is maintaining an emer-gency taxi service for hospitals and sim-ilar agencies. "Union Car" signs are seenon the streets constantly as emergencyvehicles go about their work with unionsanction. The union is thus maintaininga successful taxi service for .the city'sminimum needs.

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then your subscription to the Militant hasexpired. Renew immediately in order toavoid missing any issues.

In addition to the writings ofTrotsky, the Militant regularly pub-lishes articles by Ch. Rakovsky,

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Articles by Martin Abern, TJamesP. Cannon, Max Shachtman, MauriceSpector, Arne Swabeck and other activefigures in the American Communistmovement also appear regularly inthese pages.YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO MISS A

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Enclosed find $2.00 for one year'ssubscription to the Militant. Pleasesend me at once a copy of Trotsky'sbook on the Draft Program.NAMEADDRESSCITY STATE

THE MILITANT, Vol III, Ho. 10, March 8, 1930 Published weekly by the Com munist League of America (Opposition) at 25 Third Avenue, New York, N. Y Su~tription rate: $2.00 per year; foreign $2.50. Five cents per copy. Bundle rates, 3 ceniaper copy. Editorial Board: Martin Abern, James P. Cannon, Max Shachtman, Ma--

Ice sn«otnr. Arne Swabeck. Entered as second class mail matter November 28, 1928. at the Post Office at New York, N. Y. under the act of March 3 1S79 (otm v0 '?,r,

iuroay, March 8, 1S39THEMI LI T AN T

The Proletarian Revolution and the Shooting of BlumkinLenin died. No sooner had the leader

of the Bolshevik Revolution and of theComjnunist Party of the Soviet Union closedhis eyes in eternal sleep, then began theopen and systematic revision of the basictheoretical principles and conceptions ofMarx and Lenin. Coupled with this re-visionism, the Stalinist regime also under-took the falsification of the history of theRussian Revoluton.

For a period of years now, since andbefore the death of Lenin, Stalin and hisscribblers, the Yaroslavskys, Thaelmanns,Fosters, Minors, Cachins and numerousothers hnve lied about Lenin and his teach-ings. They He about Trotsky. They havefalsified and distorted the history of thegreatest event of all time for the toilingmasses—the proletarian revolution of Rus-sia. They have cliaSgured tho Revolutionin a Krotesque and shameful manner.

With a procedure complete"y out of linewith the practice of Lenin and the Bolshe-viks, the Stalinist Centrists jointly withthe Right wing, suppressed tfca views andPlatform of the Russian Opposition, led byL. D. Trotsky, the platform that representsthe continuation of the Bolshevik line ofLenin. They have persecuted the revolu-tionary Leninist-Bolsheviks; they have ex-pelled the outstanding Communists, with•ervlc.es of many years to the revolutionarymovement from the Communist Party ofthe Soviet Union. Stalin and his followershf.ve made a mockery of ideas and theoryand independent Bolshevik thought.

The Five Year PlanThe regime of the bureaucrats has ex-

iled to far-off and desolate points the Bol-sheviks who fought against the Stalin-Bucbarin policy that gave eiicouragmentand support to the Kulaks and Nepinenand that were sapping and undermining;tho strength of the proletariat and poorpeasants and hired men.

Trotsky? after a Ions stmgggle againstthe revisionism of Stalin-Bucharin, presen-ted the Platform of the Opposition to theXVth Congress of the C. P. S. U. in 1927which, among other things contained theFIVE YEAR PLAN for socialist construc-tion in the Soviet, Union. But Trotsky findshimself deported by Stalin and Bucaarinfrom the Soviet Union to Kemal Pasha'sland at Constantinople, Turkey, there tobe in continual danger of assassinationby the thousands of Russian White Guardsthat swurm about Constantinople. BecauseLeon Trotsky remained and remainsa Bolshevik; because in the suppressed(in the Soviet Union) Platform of theOpposition, he insisted upon the revival ofgenuine workers' and Party democracy and•upon a campaign against the growing bur-eaucracy in the Party, the trade unions anain the Soviets; because he and the Oppo-sition demanded the adoption of an IN-DUSTRIALIZATION PROGRAM that woulddevelop industry along modern lines as thetechnical and economic foundation for gen-uine socialist coustuction; because hestressed and fought for a systematic andwidespread development of COLLECTIVEAND SOVIET FARMS; and because h«demanded aa end to the policy of Stalin-Bveaarla that encouraged toe Kulak, gavehim economic strength, the Right-Centerbloc (Stalin-Bucharin) deposed Trotskyand increased their rcrr mtlons ofBolshevik-Leninists.

Tfle Barea»eraey an* the Working ClassBut the neglect of the basic interest*

of the city proletariat and the hiredhands and poor peasants by the Stalinistregime caused wide-spread dissatisfactionin the C. P. S. U. and among the workingmasses. Under the pressure of the work-ing masses and the Bolshevik Opposition,the Stalinist Center was compelled, aftermany years of joint policy and work, tobreak the Right-Center Woe and to under-take another zig-zag, a "New Turn" tothe Left. The Opposition Platform is BOWbeing adopted in piece-meaJ fashion *ythe Party bureaucracy. The turn is ia theproper direction, bat unless the "Left-ward" swing is carried through with gen-uine belief and conviction; unless the turnis accompanied by aa analysis of the pre-sent relationship of class forces in theSoviet Uatoa, so that ths strength oadposslbtMttea of struggle of P.---I ~

J»age * T H E M I L I T A N T Saturday, March », ,

The Policy of the Leadership and the Party Regimebrought out the working class and the Partyfrom its numbness, which was simultan-eously a condition and a consequence ofthe rule of Centrlsm. Objectively Cen-trlsni is condemned by history. Preciselybecause of this, in its desire to pre-serve itself as a leading group, it takesmeasures in order to still more strengthenItself organizationally and ideologically.Forthat purpose it utilizes the giganticpower which the revolution concentratedin .the hands of the party leadership. Cen-trism excluded and is still excluding theRights from the leadership in the TradeUnion- a.nd the Comintern, the Soviet andParty organizations, but only for the pur-pose of substituting Centrists for the Rights.

But what is most characteristic of theCentrist leadership Is that with doubledand tripled energy it concentrated its se-verity against th» Leninist Opposition, en-riching daily Its arsenal with new guns ofcompulsion. The most remarkable inven-tion in this respect which was made afterour platform had been written, is the in-vention which leaves its impression on thepresent epoch and which resurrects in theSoviet Union, the clerical methods of theMiddle Ages. This Is the effort to compelby all means that the Oppositionists of theCommunist Party give up their Communistviews (which was proven by the attitudetowards, the so-called "Left-Centrists''—Schatzkin, Sten, and others; the impati-ence of Centrism, has lately increased stillmore). Life proved the whole inconsis-tency of the Centrist ideologic zig-zagswrong and anti-Leninist ones.

But Centrism, having a monopoly onthe press, continues to falsify the Leninistteachings and leads astray the Party andthe working class by saying that itIK not the Kulatt that attacks us, but weattack the Kulaft (Bauman, Molotov). Theclaim of the capitulators, that Centrism haschanged although it still rests on the sameever-widening social base—the "functionar-ies" with a corresponding ideology, and itspc, nliar apparatus methods of ruling thee-antry and the Party, only proves thatthe japitulators have lost all their theoret-ical conscience and have rolled themselvesinto the mud of Centrism. Because .Cen-trism is condemned by history as a currentnot possessing the requisite qualities, andsooner or later will cease to be a deter-roiuing factor in the life of the Party,We liquidation of the Leninist Opposition,Its dissolution in the Centrist mud, wouldmean nothing else than the presentation ofthe power to the Rights. In betraying theOpposition, the capitulators be'tray the in-terest:; of Communfsm, the Party and theworking class.

The Changes In (lass Relations

The capitulators befog the capitalquestion: what kind of a turn is takingplace in relation to the class forces in thecountry? It is true, as we shall see, theysometimes talk about it, but then onlywhen they have to sow panic in the midstof the Opposition. But ordinarily to themthe turn in the country and the Party Iscovered by the turn in the policy of theCentrist leadership—which is of course notthe same. The turn In the country contin-ues to nnfold unfavorably for the prolet-ariat There undoubtedly is a Left turnIn the Party, but Its reasons and characterare distinguished from the turn in the lead-ership. For the Centrist leadership theturn towards the struggle with agrariancapitalism was a matter of compulsion.This Is a turn of the bureaucratic groupunder the pressure of events but theturn in the Party—we have in mind theworking scetion of it—is a class turn. Butwhile the Center makes its Left steps onthe agrarian question, with excuses adap-ting itself to the moment, the turn in theParty Is a genuine revolutionary one.

The Centrist leadership conceals verycarefully the contradictory processes goingon In the country. One of the most harm-ful reculiarities of the Centrist leadershipis to cover up the traces and to presentevery thing In a rosy light (everythinggoes from good to better). But it does notsucceed in hiding everything. The loud scan-dals that occur periodically prove how farthe decomposition of the Right-Center ap-paratus has gone in the Party as well asIn the Soviets and Trade Unions. Beginning"with the heights of the commissariats them-selves and ending with the county com-mittees bourgeois rust penetrates the pores>* the uroletarian dictatorship. The pri-

By CHRISTIAN RAKOVSKY

We give below another excerpt from the theses of Rakovsky, Okudjavaand Kossior, which chacterizes the economic policy ot the Centrist leadershipin connection with the Party regime. That the new five year plan, worked outunder the whip o£ the Opposition, represents a big fact and an important sup-port for the further struggle of the Opposition, only the pedants of the ultra-Left phrase can deny. On the other hand, the claim that the Five Year Planremoves all or even the basic differences, can only come from the capitulators,who have been waiting for an excuse to get on their knees. Rakovsky verycorrectly insists on the unbreakable bond and relationship of all the parts otour platform. In conection with this he gives the basis for thedeclaration of the opposition to the Central Cmmltue, and over its head, to theParty.

The sense oC the declaration in the interpretation of comrade Rakovskyis the following:

"You made a principally new and important step, in the question ofindustrialization. But this step will not achieve your purpose, if you will noton the one hand evaluate a series of theoretical assumptions, and on the otherhand. If you will not make radical reforms in regard to the Party, the tradeunions and the Soviets. If you sincerely and seriously want to get on this roadyou must first of all reestablish the Opposition in the Party." This politicalsyllogism, the Opposition transformed into a political act, by presenting the de-claration for its reestablishment on the Party. —Editors.

owner in the village have already succeeded sants, the new law on food taxes, the rais-in partly getting hold of the apparatus, sub-ordinating it to their class interest.

Sometimes through the official materialwhich presents a picture of general wel-fare and idyllic relations between theworking class and our government, therebreaks through like lighning throughclouds, tragic facts, such as themurder and lynching at the Grivno Stationwhich throw an instantaneous but^ clearlight on the realities. The press had toregister the words of the defense at thetrial: "A passing quarrel occurred betweenthe working class and the apparatuscreated by it". In the same newspaper, inthe speeches of the prosecuting attorney,was noted the fact of passive and indifferentconduct of the Communists and YoungCommunists present in the mob during thewild lynching scene. If one can analysepolitically the event at the Grlvro Station,he will understand that it has a more symp-tomatic significance than one or anotherresolution at a Party conference. A no lesssymptomatic significance is the fact thata worker was boycotted by his craftsmenfor joining the Communist Party, or thefact included in the report about organ-izational conditions in Bakinsk, where thefalling off of workers reaches 25% of thenumber of applicants in a year. Workersleave the Party in spite of the fact thatmembership in it insures to a certain ex-tent against the loss of one's job. As faras the moods of the village are concernedis is significant to point out, that the re-sults which were brought by the "chaoticcharacter of the grain collections'' resultedin the village in a bloc between the poorand middle peasants with the Kulaks.

Industrialization and the Classes

The capitulators try to single out theIndustrialization and the building of col-lective farms from the whole chain ofCentrist measures—from its general pol-icies. Considering them as a sort of "mat-ters of their own" they also attempt toregard the "new course" of Centrism asindependent of the immediate reasons thatcalled it forth. Finally they avoid or befogthe biggest and most basic questions: Whatconditions must be fulfilled that the indus-trialization and the building of collectivefarms shall not remain mere paper reso-lutions (like the resolution on Party dem-ocracy at the end of 1923), that it shallnot be stopped half-way, or that theyshould hot givo results directly oppositeto those expected.

The new Centrist servants and accoun-tants, the capitulators, supporters of un-prlncipledness, and posslbleism, avoid an-alysing the most important sides ot thequestion of industrialization and the strug-gle against agrarian capitalism, knowingthat an honest discussion of these questionswould reveal the double faceness and con-tradictions of Centrism, its inability to geton the road of continuous Socialist con-struction. In reality such a discussionwould have revealed that

1. The policy of Centrism remainsBight on the Labor question and the Partyregime (here it even went to the worstcompared to the past) and partly in thevillage (not allowing unions of poor pea-

ing of prices on grain which gave the well-to-do peasants an additional 350 millionrubles); all this not only disturbs the in-dustrialization and building of collectivefarms but puts it under the direct threatof a break-up.

2. The Left swing of the Center (in-dustrialization, building of collective farms)fs a compelled one—on the one hand, by thepressure of the Rights who wanted tosweep aside the Center with the aid ot theKulak and grain strikes, and on the otherhand, by the pressure of the dissatisfactionof the working class, whose interests werehit by the grain strike; and finally by thepressure of the Leninist Opposition. Theremoval of the effect of the latter two fac-tors would immediately create the condi-tion for a new Right swing of the Center,either with the leaders remaining at thehead, or by way of removing the presentlead-srs of that part of the Party whichfollows the Right leaders.

8. The only real guarantees againsta new recession of the Center to the Rightis the Leninist Opposition whch consistent-ly expresses the interests of the prolet-ariat and the village poor.

Ihe Five Year Plan

The capitulators consider the five jearplan from the arithmetic viewpoint exclu-sively, not taking into consideration, evenfrom such an approach, that as a result ofinflation and the drop of the buying powerof the Chervonetz, the figure of investmentsis in reality much smaller than the five yearplan shows. They leave out the main ques-tion: wJmt change in the class relationsIn the country will the five year plan bring?This "oversight" on the part of Radek andCompany is fully understood insofar as thefive year plan is the fig leaf to cover uptheir capitulation. Meanwhile here is whata coeditor of the official organ of the Gos-plan Planned Economy" (Strumlin) is com-pelled to admit. If the Five Year Plan willbe realized fully—at the end of five yearsthe rise of the per capita national incomewill be 51% in the city, 62% in the villageand 40% for the well-to-do part of the vil-lage. However, this Is under the conditionof the stabilization of prices on agriculturalproducts on the level of 114%, that is 14%higher than in 1927-28. Meantime the indexof the private agricultural sector has risen37.9% in only this one year.

Further, the actual income of the work-er (city) is supposed to go up by theend of the five years by 68%, but the pro-ductivity of the worker is supposed to rise100-110%. At the same time, the village,through only the .difference in prices, willget 3.5 billion rubles, and in the govern-ment expenditures for industrialization onlyabout 10% will be allotted. The growth otwages in the first part of this year amoun-ted to 7.1%, but the price index of the col-lectivised sector went up 8.5%, private,19.3% and the agricultural, as we al-ready saw, 37.9%. The conclusion: thecenter of gravity of the wealthy part of thevillage in the general economics of thecountry will grow further/notwithstandingthe talk about the struggle against agrar-ian capitalism.

Without unions of poor peasants, thepolitical influence of the wealthy peasantry

Thi sharpening of the class struggle vate Nepmen in the city and the well-to-do

will grow to a still greater degree, insofaras the Kulak will continue to group abouthimself the middle peasants and part ofthe poor. Further, the bureaucratic me-thods of rationalization, with the aid otadministrative pressure, ''blacklisting'" andtricks of a la Larin may create such abreak away of the working class from theParty, such a political minus, which It willbe impossible to compensate by the bestachievements of industrialization. TheParty leadership expects to support itselfon 'the groups of poor in the village, butthe latter are a mere fiction. "There isalmost no work conducted among the groupsof poor" wrote one of the members of thecollegium of the Commissariat of Agricul-ture, Latzis (Pravda, December 23, 1928)Another ft, »t: In Siberia there are 15thousand cooperatives, and in them thereare only 266 groups of poor organized (fig-ures by Komarov, member of the territorycommittee.)Centrists Fear Workers and Poor Peasants

In regard to the working class as wellas the peasant poor, Centrism continuesits fdrmer policy of fear and lack of con-fidence—this is a feature of bureaucratismgenerally. Centrism fears the real rarti-cipation of the laboring masses in Socialistconstruction. Of course it would like tosupport itself on them, but with the con-ditions that the masses should not occupythemselves with "politics", that is, shall notjudge and what is more, criticise the"general line". Centrism kills the actualinitiative of the masses. If under the in-fluence of sharpening struggle in the vil-lage Centrism should be compelled to per-mit unions of pfeasant poor, it will put themunder such bureaucratic supervision, thatthey would very rapidly resemble oui- tradeunions, out of which bureaucratism hascastrated the class and revolutionary con-tent. Industrialization and a struggle withagrarian capitalism, directed by the appar-tus, which is partly worn off and whichhas lost its revolutionary enthusiasm andin many of its links is decomposed, will beunder constant threat of break-up.

'J'lie Party Keg hueThe Opposition of the years ]923-24

foresaw the tremendous harm to tho pro-letarian dictatorship coming out of the per-version of the Party regime. Events havecompletely justified the prognosis : theenemy has climbed in through the bureau-cratic window.

•Now more than at any other time itmust be said loudly : a correct democraticParty regime is the testing stone of thepresent left course.

There is an opinion held even by somesteadfast revolutionaries, that a "correctline" in the sphere of economics must "otitself bring about a correct Party regime.This view, with it's pretence to dialectics, isone-sided and anti-dialectical, because itignores the fact that in the historic process,cause and effect change their places re-peatedly. A wrong line will increase awrong regime and a wrong regime willstill more disfigure the line.

Under Lenin there was a correct line.But it was precisely Lenin who pointed outthat the apparatus with its anti-proletar-ian methods, turn a correct line into itsopposite,

"The machine isn't going where w«guide it, but where some illegal, or lawlessor God-knows-whence derived speculatorsor private capitalistic businessmen, eitherthe one or the other are guiding it. Amachine doesn't always travel just exactlythe way, and it often travels Just exactlynot the way, that the man imagines Whosits at the wheel."

That is how Lenin expressed himselfat the Party congress at which, he appearedfor the last time. What Lenin signalisedat the time—as proof of the influence of thebourgeoisie on the apparatus, developedthanks to the policy of the Centrist top.By selecting people not according to theirability, experience and tried honesty, butexclusively according to the principle otadaptibility, the Centrists gave that lux-urious obuquet the songle folwers of whichbear the names of our great cities: Smo-lensk, Baku; etc. Centrism did not createbureaucratism. It inherited it togetherwith the other general peculiarities, cul-tural and others—with the conditions ofour country. But instead of combattingbureaucratism, Centrism developed it intoa system of government, carried it overStal! and the Centrist apparatos are nmic.

Continued on PP»« e

Saturday, March 8, 1930ME MILITANTPageC

THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN GERMANYAND THE CRISIS IN THE COMMUNIST PARTY

I. The Legend of the New Revolu-tionary Wave.

"Our sister-party has measured up toits tasks. It is our party which is stim-ulating, promoting, and organizing thegrandiose revolutionary revival of thelaboring masses. It can be stated thatnot a single day passes in Germany whichis not marked by the mobilization ofthe masses and street-fighting."

These are the words in which theFrench Communist organ, Hnraanite de-scribes the situation in an article entitled,"Street-fighting the position in Germany''.

How the German Communist Partyitself appraises the position is clearly re-vealed by the illegal leaflet which it dis-tributed on the first of February, proclaim-ing that "the tottering chariots ol capital-ism at break-neck speed careen towardsthe abyss and destruction." Every issueol the Berlin Hcte Fahne purports to rep-resent the workers as engaged in "conquer-ing the streets", in putting the police toflight and here and there in setting upbarricades.

But daily the hard language of factscontradicts this legend of the rising revo-lutionary tide. Of the three million unem-ployed who with their families compromisesome six to eight million proletarians, notone percent heeded the call of the partyto join in the hunger demonstrations — thecall of this great and powerful party whichrallies three million votes.

When the workers of Hartmannsdorfnear Chemnitz in red and highly indus-trialized 'Saxony were recently shot downlike rabbits by the unbridled police fury,the factories were not closed down, theworkers did not storm out of the shops todemonstrate against the fearful bloodbath,as was the case last Fall on a hundreddifferent occasions in Austria. No, the widemasses of the proletariat remained as dumbas the red shops of Berlin were the firstand second of May when Zoergiebel wasshedding the blood of the workers. Theworkers remained as silent as when In Sep-tember the party called for the struggleagainst the worsening of unemploymentrelief, and later called upon them to fightHilfarding's finance program in December-

The most important symptom of a ris-ing revolutionary wave — the extraordinaryrise in the activity and initiative of thema'sses —is missing,

It. Towards the New 1923? -In the last few weeks and months the

analogy >of 1923 has been used more an'dmore often in the German party as well asIn the entire Comintern press.

The German party leadership and theComintern regard the present situation ofGerman capitalism hopeless. They pointto the extraordinary rise of the index ofunemployment, the symptoms of crisis ina section of industry and talk already of theapproaching collapse of stabilization. Thegeneral social crisis following the collapseof the stabilization will, so the theoreti-cians of Stalinism think, reach in the im-mediate future, the intensity and profun-dity of 1923. The pace of this process, theyconsider, will be accelerated by the begin-ning crisis of American capitalism,

There can be no doubt that a seriesof crucial phenomena are making them-selves felt in German capitalism. The clo-sing down of industries, bankruptcies, etc.does not However, signalize the approachinggeneral collapse of German capitalism butthe extraordinary degree reached In the pro-cess of the concentration of capital. Theyear 1929 was record-breaking for the num-ber of mergers, cartels — in a word for thegigantic advance on the road of concentra-tion. The enormous increase of unemploy-ment also is intimately bound up with this.The gigantic concentration makes possiblethe vast extension of the rationalizationprocess. In the most important branchesof German industry production in 1929, de-spite the numerical decrease of the workersemployed, actually increased. That Js, pro-ductivity actually rose. It is Just suchphenomena that reveal the fundamentalcontradictions of stabilization. In the samemeasure that the productive forces developthey come into conflict with the prevailingsocial order.

In the wake of these processes the so-cial antagonisms have also grown unusu-al! v acute. The huge proportions of the

By KURT LANDAU

mass unemployemeut is exciting the un-rest of the entire working class. The exe-cution of the Young Plan-in the form, ofimposing its whole burden on the masses,the forced increase of the indirect taxation,the custom duties, and tax-remissions to thebourgeoisie accentuate this unrest.

But it is a long way from the dissatis-faction of the masses to their revolutionarywill to struggle. If anything sounds thedeath-knell of the present policy of theGerman party it is obviously the fact thatin 1929, the year of the most brutal and re-actionary offensive of the social democraticgovernment, our Party has not been able toadvance the working class a single stepforward. The parliamentary and democraticillusions of the masses which a far-seeingBolshevist leadership could in this stagehave surmounted, have instead remained in-tact, thanks to the adventurist and zig-zagpolicy of the Thaeimannites. In so far asthese democratic illusions were undermined,it was, however, not in favor of Commun-ism but of national socialism (Hitler) whichhas doubled and tripled its ranks in theindustrial centers.

Do we find ourselves then, on the eveof an acute revolutionary situation—of anew 1923? Positively not. But if therewere a real Bolshevist party in tho leader-ship, the German working class-could in-deed organize its effective resistance to thedeveloping capitalist offensive. If, indeed,the German Communist Party organizeda systematic struggle against' the YoungPlan, rallying the workers in the shops andthe unemployed about the concrete tasksof the day, It could lend wings to the ac-tivity and initiative of the masses and pre-pare them for the victorious counter-offen-sive of the morrow.

III. Radicalization of the Workers,Political mass Strike, «nd Strug-gle for the Streets.

Something has already been said in theforegoing concerning the radicalization ofthe masses. It would be ridiculous to deny—as the Rights do—that a certain degreeof radicalization of the masses is percep-tible. That, despite Thaelmann and Neumann,the German party has remained a massparty with great sympathy in the proletar-iat and that this is the case despite thesense of shame that these sympathizers feelat the bombastic phrases and systematicself-deception of the Communist leaders andpress—ris due to the clrcuinstance thatgroat masses of the proletariat want toflght. That they do not light, that they donot follow the battle-slogans of the party,is not their fault but exclusively that of aleadership which is incompetent to applythe ABC of a bolshevist policy.

The Thaelmann leadership has placedthe German party In the state of self-de-lusion in which the Austrian party hasfound itself for many years. Since 1919,the Austrian Communist Party has beenwaiting — except; for short Intervals — forthe revolution. Dedicated to the bold ideaof the armed Insurrection, the Austrianparty has not, by and large, worked in themass organizations and workshops; andwhenever the proletariat begins to move,this party immediately proclaims the gen-eral strike and only stops short of talkingof Soviets.

In the "Third Period'1 the Austrianschool has attained to international ram-ifications. The theses of the Wedding Con-gress of the German party explain why thestruggle for "every-day demands" has out-lived its usefulness in the following terms:"the process of the radicalization of themasses has made rapid progress and isbeing transformed into open iftass action.The balance of forces has undergone afundamental change...The May-Day strug-gles in Berlin are a turning point in thepolitical development of Germany. Theconditions are maturing for the approachof an immediate revolutionary situation, inthe course of the development of which thequestion of armed insurrection will inevit-ably arise on the order of the day..."

It is from this appraisal of the situationthat the party leadership approaches everyquestion. This fateful over-estimation ofthe given processes of crisis cripples it inthe task of the real systematic organiza-tion of the revolution in Germany

The slogan ot" the political mass strikemet with catastrophic failure already thefirst and second of May; later it met withan even fainter echo. It is the very failureof tkis watch-word that should have openedthe eyes of the Thaeimannites to their ex-aggerations— if they had eyes to see.

In 1823— which is represented to haveso much in common with the present situ-ation— there were no less than 47 politi-cal strikes, embracing 3506 shops and320,000 workers. The number of workingdays lost, through political mass strikesamounted to 1,048,283. What o£ 1929? Nota dozen shops, fewer than 30,000 workersjoined in a political mass strike — despitethe events of May First.

The economic struggles, for the year1929, no less contradict the party thesis ofthe "stormy will to struggle" and the reso-lute counter-offensive of the proletariat.The following comparative index figuresshow this to be the case.

Year No. of No. on No. of work-Workshops strike ing days lost

1929 115,000 1,80,0,0001928 5,672 328,529 8,519,7131927 8,144 232,704 2,945,815

These figures bear an unmistakeablemeaning. They show that the party lead-ership has not succeeded in combattingthe reformist trade unions' policy. Theleaderu of the "free" unions, on the otherhand, did succeed to a large extent in bol-stering up their class-collaborationist policyof "Industrial Peace."

We have the same picture of the "suc-cesses" of the struggle for the streets. Ifthe party was yet able, despite all its pre-ceding mistakes, to lead out tens of thou-sands on to the streets, the position has,be-come considerable worsened since then.The first of Feburary which was to havebeen the signal for a large scale mass actionagainst unemployment and the rise in thecost of living, resulted, it is generally re-cognized, in a pitiable fiasco.

f one were to believe the party press,the outlawing of the party is a matter onlyof days or weeks at the most. The partyleadership is daily engaged in preparingthe vorking class for the Imminent illegalityof the C. P. and proudly proclaims thatthe Party cannot be proscribed, as little asthe Red Front Fighters League.

IV. Is the Party Threatened byIllegality?

It is a fact that the left wing of thebourgeoisie, particularly the Social Demo-cratic party and its press, energetically sup-ported by the Democratic Party, demandsexceptional measures against the CommunistParty, in this sharpened offensive againstthe party, the Right press has been leftfar behind the "Vorwaerts" and the pacifist-democratic "Welt-am-Montag". This re-markable fact naturally has its deeper ex-planation.

The more the Coalition regime crumbles,the more the heavy-industrialist and right-wing circles of the German bourgeoisie de-mand the head of the Muller Government,—after Hilferding has already been Ignominl-ously driven from the cabinet—all the moredoes the Social-Democracy inveigh againstthe Communist Party, in the hope of im-pressing its indispensability as a police-guard of the bourgeois republic. The legendof the putschist plans of the CommunistParty, which are circulated daily by thecapitalist press, is the axis about whichrevolves .the struggle of the S. D. P. topreserve the Coalition. The proletarian deadof Hartmannsdorf, Worms and Hamburgare an integral factor in this struggle.

Apart from this, the Social-Democracyhas latterly become confident that the Com-munist Party is impotent to carry on asuccessful fight for itc existence In a stateof ^utlawry. The inglorious end ot the RedFront Fighters League which on its pro-scription simply disappeared, confirms theSocial democracy in this expectation.

The possibility of the suppression ofthe Comunist PaPrty certainly exists.

But the S. D. P. clearly perceives thatthe banning of the C. P. G. would be any-thing but popular; granted anywhere neara reasonable policy of the party leadership,the struggle for legality could evoke a deepresponse from the masses. If this is not

the case to-day, If to-day the wide masse»of the revolutionary proletariat stand asidein a waiting attitude, the S. D. P. shouldbe grateful, first and foremost to the "Bar-ricade-philosophy" ot the Communist lead-ership and the methods of pseudo-revolu-tionary gymnastics that the C. P. dailyapplies, inasmuch as it proclaims struggleto be an end in itself.

But what the S. D. P. fears and whatwill probably deter it from driving ths Com-munist Party into a state of illegality afterthe fascist precedent, is the awakening of themasses, who are sympathetic towards Com-munism and who would be able better tocontrol the policy of the party than atpresent. Finally it is precisely in a condi-tion of legality that the contradiction be-tween the policy of the party and the revolu-tionary necessities becomes more and morecrass, so that the outlook for the gradualdisintegration of the Communist Party ap-pears more attractive to the social-demo-crat than the risk of illegality.

But in the last analysis, this questionwill not be settled by a careful weighingof the pros and icons byZoerglebels andGrzynski, but by the further developmentof the class-struggle in Germany. Thetragedy of the situation lies in this: thatthe Thaelmanhs and Neumanns objectivelyplay into the hands of the Zoergiebels andSeverings, inasmuch as their pseudo-revolu-tionary gestures push the revolutionaryproletariat into passivity.

So for instance^ the illegal leaflet of theparty on February first called for demon-strations for the slogans— "All Power toWorkers! Long live the Struggle for thedictatorship! For Soviet Germany!" Be-sides this the leaflet contains a long dis-sertation on the "History, Forms, and Tech-nique of Barricade-Fighting".

The masses responded to these sloganswith their feet: they did not appear.

And louder than ever the bourgeoispress is calling for exceptional measuresagainst the C. P. G.

V. The Struggle for a New L?ftWing in the Party.

Up till now the gainers from the enorm-ous, mistakes of the party have been ex-clusively the Right wing, which has be-come a serious menace to the Party. Theyseize hold of the glaring mistakes and de-feats of the party leadership to broadcasttheir own opportunist views of the unitedfront policy, trade union tactics, etc.

The one-time Left Wing in the Party;that had already for the most part beenexpelled years ago, has up to the presentbeen unable to re-form its ranks. Thedecisive obstacle to the reorganization ofthe forces, has become the Leninbund. Ofits grave confusion In the fundamentalinternational questions In connection withthe Russo-Chinese Conflict, the declarationof Rakovsky, etc., much has been said andwritten. No less fateful for the Leninbundand through it, for the whole Left movement,has been its sectarian and opportunist policyin all the basic German questions. Aboveall, its radically false position on the Com-munist Party, which the Leninbund con-siders as already lost. This attitude whichunderlies the organizational form of theLeninbund as an independent organization,has led to tho complete isolation of theLeninbund from the party masses and hasresulted in a permanent crisis of disin-tegration, in the course of which a numberof good comrades of this organization haveseparated themselves from the Leninbundand the policy of its leadership and em-barked on open opposition.

The Leninbund which, at the time itwas founded, was an organization of somethousands of largely active comrades, nowekes out only a shadowy existence. Ex-cept for some more active and firmly es-tablished groups (Westphalia, Baden, Cen-tral Germany) the Leninbund no longerdisposes anywhere of strong positions.

The meandering way of the Leninbundhas caused the Left groups that had" re-mained in the party, to adopt a waitingattitude, to avoid being overtaken by a likefate. This Is particularly true of the so-calledWedding Opposition which dominated Wed-ding two years ago — the most proletarianand powerful districts of the party in Ber-lin.

Thj Wedding Opposition too has manyContnued on Page 6

T H E M I L I T A N T Saturday, March 8. 19930

WORKERS NAILEMPLOYMENT LIE

DETROIT—(FP)—Published reports ofIncreased employment were branded as"damned lies" by workers interviewed byFederated Press.

Ford workers, asked to comment on arecent report that most Ford workers areto go on full time, said that a layoff lanow actually in progress. They claim that35% of the remaining workers have beenlaid off since the big layoff of 30,000 workerslast fall. This is due to the new policyof the Fcrd Motor Co. in letting out con-tracts for parts to sweatshop firms. Untilrecently this policy was, confined to bodiesand wheels but now it has expanded untilthe brake, housing, rear-axle and shock-absorber departments have shut down.Workers in those departments have beenthrown on the street. Newspapers reportfrom time to time the visits of parts com-pany officials with the announcement thatthis policy is but beginning.

The tool department, affected by this,has already dispensed with 200 of its skilledworkers and foremen admit the probabilityOf another 200-500 being laid off.

Foundry workers laugh at the possi-bility of full time with tho comment thatcylinder blocks are stacked by the thou-aaads ia the foundry yard. They expect aShut down in the foundry within a week.Already many departments having directconnection with the foundry are workingeix hours a day, two or three days pe,r•week. Their wages are correspondingly low,for Ford River Rouge workers are paid, notby the day, but by the hour.

Reports of increased production are"so much hooey", according to one worker

'm a strategic department. Far from in-creasing production, he says, officials con-template a cut from about 5,000 to 2,600ears dally.

Ford salesmen bear out these reports."The New Ford jast ain't goin' over," saidone to Federated Press. Chevrolet salesmentake up the refrain wi.th the added pointthat ia spite of an extension in time pay-ments the new car just isn't selling. OneChevvie salesman, of the "up-and-coming"variety lamented that he had not made asingle sale in five months. "And the newChevvie is a flop," he lamented.

600 girls have been laid off from thei. L. Hudson Co., foremost department storete town. Other stores had already done so.Chrysler office woikers report a cut of 40%in their force some time ago.

The Employers' Assn., which usuallypublishes employment statistics weekly, hasnot done so since the beginning of the fall.Requests for such figures have brought theresponse that the figures are not being com-piled.

Inconspicuous statistics from threecompanies show the factual situation in theauto industry. Buick reports January 1939shipments as 7,299 compared with 13,008 ofJanuary 1929. Reo reports a slight de-crease of 329 and Hupp, a larger firm, re-port* a decline of 1.400.

No wonder the city welfare departmentreports 'the worst situation in 35 years",with o*er 14,000 families directly depen-dent on it tor their subsistence!

POLISH CON&mOffS «ROW RAPIDLYWORSE

WARSAW — { F P ) — Unemployment Israpidly growing, and all industries exceptcoal mining an depressed. Agriculture isBuffering despite the export bounty ongrata. Government allowance for unem-ployment relief ia only $!.»« per month fora maa with a wife and child. The mini-mum subsistence cost tor 3 persona in a,family is astmtated at flS.OO per month,IOIHB HOURS, LOW WAGES, FOB ¥OUK-

DJEtX W0BKEBS

WASHINGTON—Average full-time hoursper week la foundries in the United Statestn IMS were 61, and in machine shops 50.S,while foundry wages averaged W.4 centsan hour aad machine shops wages 83,3cents a* hour, ears the Bureau of LaborStatistics,

JUS* ff5B»LO«EXT IH BOCXBSTBKROCHESTER. N. Y.—Alarmed at the

Hanker et uaesiplojred, the Rochester citycauacU has roted to establish an emergencyunnaptoyauat bureau to handle "all newcase* which present themsehres to the pri-Tftte agencies who win, in turn, refer themte this bureau." It is estimated thai out ofa warfcfng votratattoB of 100.96ft. 8S.OT6 aretffle.

Over 8,000,000 Women Toil at Low WagesContnued from PaPge 1

that these socalled restrictions have notbeen lived up to, and have been placed uponthe statue books as a concession to certaingroups that have conducted campaigns fortheir enactment.

Long Hours for WomenReferring to the wages of women

workers, Mary Anderson, director of theWomen Bureau of the U. S. Department ofLabor, speaking recently in Kansas City,Mo. stated that

"The approximately 80 reports al-ready published by the Bureau, -stressthe fact that thousands of women stillfail to receive a living wage and thatthousands still toil more than 8 hoursa day and 48 hours a week, many asmuch as 10 hours daily and 60 hours aweek, and some much more. In toomany instances women are forced towork in crowded, poorly ventilated, dirtyworkrooms, to strain their eyes becauseof glare or insufficient light, to standall day or sit continuously in a crampedby unguarded machinery and theirhealth jeopardized by lack of comfortand sanitation in plant soi'vico equip-ment."

Of obui'se, Miss Anderson as an officialof the United States capitalist governmentwill not advocate any drastic changes tobetter the conditions of the working wo-men. It is only the women workers them-selves by being organized in militant fight-ing unions and fighting shoulder to shoul-der with the men workers for equal pay foreuqal work who will be able to better theirconditions. They must become active advo-cates of increases in wages, the abolitionof speed-up, sanitary working conditionsand a shortening of hours. In such a strug-gle they will also develop issues of specialimportance to the women workers.

From all parts of the country reports ofthe long hours and low wages of the wo-men workers are received. The Newark,(N. J.) Trades and Labor Council, an Amer-ican Federation of Labor body, reve-alsthat girls' working hours are 12 to 14hours in many big stores, including thepowerful Sears-Roebuck corporation. Theirreport also points out that, laws thatare supposed to limit the hours of laborfor women are difficult to enforce becausefines are nominal and girls who complainare discharged.

Reports from Albany, N. Y. state that

Political Situation In GermanyContinued from Page 5

and powerful district of the Party in Ber-lin. The Wedding Opposition too hasshort-corn lags, characteristic of the Ger-man Left Wing of 1923-26, which it has notcompletely overcome even to»day. This isparticularly true of its ultra-left position inthe trade union question. The best of theseLeft groupings has maintained itself in thePfalz district, where it publishes a papercalled "The Pioneer."

The catastrophic development of theparty since the Sixth Congress has alarmedthese scattered Left groups. In the pastfew months the scattered Wedding groupshare again united and begun to discuss,seriously and actively, the basic problemsof the party.

These forces that bare set themselvesinto motion are still weak, here as opposi-tion in the Leninbund, there as Lett factionia thep arty, at first In Wedding and Pflaz.

But one thing is clear: the old formsof the struggle with its outlived traditionsand watch-words — of which the GermanLeft had more than enough — most besurmounted. The new trend of the Comin-tern and the Communist Party of Germanysince the Sixth World Congress demandsmore elastic, theoretically more deeplygrounded and active factions than the past.

Despite a thousand difficulties In thestruggle against Innumerable obstacles anddtfflcttUea, the pieces are gathering In-side and outside the -party thatwill bolld the Left wing aad that will hareto understand bow to represent and to applythe baste teachings of the internationalLeninist Opposition la Germany.

OS THS CHCTB Of iPBJWSYHARHISBIHUJ. Pa— trP)-ta Jtaaoary

ahowed «a unprecedented fiecUae la balW-Ing -aad construction la Psaasyifante.BuUdlo* permits dropped TT.S% comparedwith January, 1989. Philadelphia reported

in permits this January agatest

during January of this year two womenand five boys and girls died of injuriesreceived on the job, according to the statelabor department. The sharp decrease ofemployment in New York state is accom-panied by the lowering of safety precau-tions, which is usually the case during in-dustrial depressions. Of course, the amountof men killed during the same period waslarger than that of women, neverthelessthe. latter are daily facing the same risksas the men.

JNiglit Shifts in Anto PlantsThe Federated Press reports tha t ' in DC-.

troit women are working 12 hour niglitshifts in the Briggs Body plants, a fiatviolation of the state labor law. Wages,run from $10 to $14 per week. Beforethe unemployment crisis, the women work-era \vere able to earn as high as $18 weekly,but the plant taking advantage of the sur-plus labor, cut the pay, knowing that un-der present conditions there are manyjobless who would replace them.

When celebrating International Wo-men's Day, March 8, the working women, ofAmerica must declare emphatically theirdetermination to fight for better workingconditions -r— equal pay for equal work, endof the speed-up, raise in wages, sanitaryworking conditions, reduction of hours andno night work.

Tlio women workers have shown inmany past/strufgles that they were militantfighters and in tlio future will again showthat they can fight courageously for therights of the working class. Who willforget the bravery of the wives of the coalminers who in a score of struggles bavefought shoulder to shoulder with their hus-bands on the picket line iii sopite of themachine guns of the bosses thugs. Theyhave been among the most active partic-ipants on the pksket line in the needletrades struggles in New York, the textilestrikes of Passak1, New Bedford and Gas-tonia and many smaller strikes throughoutthe country.

International Women's Bay is a timofor the militant women workers to rcdedi-cate themsleves to the class struggle andprepare for future activity. The Commu-nist League of America (Opposition) callsupon a l l women workers to join in the cel-ebration which is held every year for theworking women of the world when tlieymeasure tlieir victories and defeats of thepast twelve months and prepare for futurestruggles.

Reveals Crime of ArchangelExpedition

By FeFderated PressThe leading article in the American

aferetur for March is the Archangel Adven-ture, written evidently by an American ar-my officer who went through that criminalpiece of British muddling for whichWoodrow Wilson was generously ready topour out American lives and treasure, allto no avail. The return of 75 bodies ofAmerican middle western soldiers, uselesslyand tragically sacrificed on the Arctic Rus-sian soil from which they were exhumedlast fall, is the occasion for returning tothat 12-year old wild goose chase againstthe Soviet Union.

Right at the outset the Mercury au-thor states that the adventure "cost hun-dreds of lives, millions of dollars and animmense amount of suffering".

Wilson lightly promised American can-non fodder and American dollars to theBritish general staff and on August 18,1918,announced that the doughboys would beused to guard war material tor czariat Rus-sians against the revolution. In additionthey were to get control of the northernarm of the Trans-Siberian and its feederrailroads from the Bolsheviks. The authorpoints out that the Bolshevfta had alreadytaken all the war material there would havebeen to guard aad teat a very much largertotal force would hare been needed to grabthe railroads.

He concludes: "From the 1«S casketsshipped to the United States from Arch-angel la 1919; from the 75 that arrivedIa New York the other day; from thosewaiting deposition la France; from thehundreds of lonely unmarked grave* ia thetundra —Yaakee. British, French—therecomes ao eragtag. I ahotild hate to bethe atatt aaa who »laaa*d that dreamof a wtater march through Arctic Rtutfa.

That brafotesa crvsaoe waa all tat dem-ocracy. A&ether to aew being plaaaed ia

STALINISM INCHICAGO I. L. D.

CHICAGO—On Monday, February 3rdthe Chicago Joe Hill branch of the Inter-national Labor Defense held its regularelections—well organized. I say organizedadvisedly as I noted several comrades pre-sent who otherwise do not attend much,neither to meetings nor to work of theI. L. D. Knowing thorn all well, I soonobserved that they were members of theofficial Communist Party brought there tovote. Why that was "necessary" becameclear to me later.

Comrade ,1. R. Booth fvd been ourbranch educational director f.u \g timo,being elected unanimously: his ptcgra* baAin the past been accepted without oppt.*tion. His very active work for the move-ment and for the I. L. D. in particularhad always been recognized; at one meetinghe alone brought in 25 new applicationsfor membership. His general working classrecord is well known, including one yearand a half in jail for opposition to the laot.worH war. Ho was now again nominatedfor the position 01 educational director tosucceed himself but that started the"works". Those Party members broughtthere to vote objected to the nomination onthe grounds that comrade Booth supportsthe Opposition—the Trotskyites—no otherreason was advanced.

Narrowing Down labor DefenseAlthough not on the "inside" but still

having hoard enough discussion from timeto time about the "new liue" it is quiteclear that this is what has been put into op-eration in the I. L. D. and used againcitcomrade Booth. Thsre used to be a timewhen the I. L. D. had room for all revolu-tionary and class conscious workers whowere reac'.y to fight for labor's prisonersand for the working class movement ingeneral; but that is all over now.

Comrade Booth defended his right tocontinue in active work for his class. Hereminded the voters of the act that whilehe liimaslf, a "Trotskyite", had been pre-sent defending the "Freiheit" during theseverest days and nights of attack by thebourgeois Zionists he had failed to soe thesevoters present. He stated that no organizedcaucus could prevent his active work forhis class even though they may preventhis being elected for the post for whichhe was nominated. They might even carrythrough tlieir threats of expulsion; but,turning to the other branch members heasked them not let such Stalinist tacticsinterfere witb. the work of the branch orbreak it up. "Whether outside or inside,"said comrade Booth, "I will continue towork for the I. L. D., and I ask you allto do likewise."

A couple of members, not belonging tothe party, spoke against the objections madeto Booth's nomination and wl'en it cameto election things had been carried so farthat all the non-party members present ab-stained from voting one way or another,not wanting to take part in such manipu-lations. Thus the party caucus won a vic-tory; but a few such victories and there willbe no I. L. E>. branch left.

—A BRANCH MEMBER

No Murder Charge Against

This JudgeBy FRANK I. PAL3CEK

DENVER— (FP)—"Passing the buck>'from one city to the other struck a snagin "Justice" Court in Denver, It was no-ticed for a day however and then forgotten.

A father was brought'into court forfailure to provide for his family, "1 can'tget work," he pled. "Then I'll give you99 days," the judge thundered. "I couldn'tsupport them any better if you did," thedesperate father countered, with some ap-parent justification,

"I'll sentence you to SK> days In Jailaad suspend sentence to give you 48 hoarsto get out of town and take your fasati?with you."

.Some way he got an old Ford andstarted through the Colarado winter to"get wit of town". The babf was ill butfear Of the lodge waa strong. In a Nebras-ka t-wn the yleaa ef the mother that thebaby be taken to a doctor, even it therewere netting te pay the bHl, was agreed to.

The baby waa dead.Harder charges hare not been filed

against the fnage.

Saturday, March 8, 1930THE MILITANTPage 7

The Class Character of the Constitution

- - A Section Devoted to Problems of the Working Class Yo'uth

Whither the American League?The Enlarged Plenum of the Y. C. I.

found its echo in the recent plenum of theYoung Communist League of the U. S. A.The "New Turn" and watchwords were allf£.ithfuhy reproduced according to schedule.Undoubtedly the new zig-zag was very wel-come to Ilijack, Harvey and Green. It savedthem the embam.sslng trouble of reallyexplaining the causes for the disintegra-tion of the League. The Y. C. I. plenumprovided them in' advance with all thenecessary explanations. The resolutionadopted (Dally Worker, February 5-8, 1930)reveals the miserable situation in whichthe Y. C. L. finds itself—but explains no-thing, and lays the basis for further decline.

There is much "self-criticism" in theresolution. Self-criticism plays today aspeaial role in the official Parties andLeagues similar to a safety valve in asteam boiler. Genuine self-criticism couldnever serve the Interests of an opportunistbureaucracy. They indulge In "self-criti-cism"' in order to forestall criticism frombelow. The bureaucracy use self-criticismas the bourgeois liberals view free speech

to relieve the Internal fermentation. Sothey confess their sins, and the member-ship feels that a new clean revolutionaryatmosphere surrounds them. In realit. thenew atmosphere is a most congenial placefor committing new errors.

"The struggle' of the young workerswere often allowed to pass unobserved, andwhen we did participate in these strug-gles we too often failed to give indepen-dent leadership or to develop the neces-sary new forms of struggle (New York,Boston, Kansa City, etc.), and to buildthe league". Really a most remarkableleadership and a most remarkable stati ofaffairs in the League. The sil-nce withwhich such a statement (which revealsparalysis and impotence) is received in theLeague, is a sign that the process of dis-integration and demoralization is very faradvanced.

In the "Third Period" it is necessaryto exaggerate without limit (in Border toconceal the very increasing bankruptcy ofthe present leadership). The third periodmust be confirmed at all costs. Facts areno longer of any importance; so thinkour youth "leaders'". "Thus the economiccrisis is causing the young workers tomove to the Left at an extremely rapidpace (so!). This growing activity on thepart of the young workers finds expressionsin the ever increasing number of youthstrikes...'" Of course in the "third period"it isn't necessary to mention just in whatindustries these youth strikes are to beobserved or to name any of them. Onlythose who are still lagging behind some-where in the second period want to haveexact and accurate information on theseyouth strikes. To determine the extent,the main tendencies, the number involved,light or basic industries—all this seems tobe of no concern to the marionettes in theleadership of the League.

If anyone Is In search for a quotationexpressing underestimation of social re-formism, here is «ne of the outstandingexamples: "The radicalizatioii of the youngworkers takes away the base of the socialreformists among the young workers andwhile social reformism remains the chiefideological barrier, which we have to over-come amongst the young workers, therecan be no real growth of reformist youthorganizations—but only disintegration, pro-viding the Young Communist League playsIts rqle." Everything here is "wrong andmuddied, It is false to say that radical-ization takes away the base from the so-,cial reformists and only politically irre-sponsible people who trifle with the in-terests of the workers would state sucha thing. It is precisely in the period ofnadicalization that social reformism hasall the oppportunities of growth among theworking class. This period likewise makesfor greater opportunities' for Communismand makes more fertile the possibilities ofits growth. "Who will grow faster, whichwill outstrip the other depends on severalconditions, among which the tactics of ther-: *r p'ay .an extremely important and

•

An expression of the "Left'' dangerwe are told is 'Vanguardism". But may weask, What is the origin of this tendency?Who cultivated and nourished it? Who wasit that always flattered the youth andtaught them that they played a special,sanctioned role in the struggle againstdeviations in the Party? Who told theyouth that they were the best interpretersof the Comintern decisions? Who alwaysused the youth as a pawn for every zig-zag move on the Centrist chess-board? Itis exactly that leadership which today criesloudly against "vanguardism" that is en-tirely responsible for the growth of sucha tendency in the Y. C. I. It was foundthen to be expedient in the struggle againstcomrade Trotsky and the Leninist Oppo-sition. But today when dissatisfaction withthe course of the present leadership (Shatz-kin-Sten) the E. C. finds it necessary tostruggle against the very tendencies forwhich it was responsible, and which it nur-tured.

The Y. C. I. and American Leagueplenums were important in that it fore-shadows the "new turn" that is to followin the C. I. and its sections. The "newturn" stated in the resolutions as the needto struggle against the "Left Danger" isa forerunner of the beginning of the newwave of repressions and persecutions againstthe Leninist Opposition. It foreshadowsthe adoption again of a Right course bythe Stalinist Center. The excuse of theLeague, that the need of a struggle againstthe "Left"' is the result of sectarian iso-lation, is just an excuse. The cause ofthe "ectarian isolation is the result of theadventurist and recent ultra-Left course ofthe International, arising from the spurioustheory of the"third period'". In- this "newturn'' the League will once again be the"best interpeters" of the Comintern deci-sions, and struggle' against the "Left de-viations"—and prepare with the Party theswing to, the Right. Such is the honorablerole that the Young Communist Leagues, theworld over, are fated to play under theregime of the Centrist bureaucracy.

—GEORGE RAY

Since the close of the World War agroup of new sects has appeared in Amer-ica, made up of self-styled defenders ofthe American Constitution. The most fer-vent of these are the American SecurityLeague, '.he Key Men of American, theArmy and Navy League, the ConstitutionalDefense League, and the Ku Klux Klan.Even the old corpse of the Sons of theAmerican Revolution — not to mention theDaughters — has been revived and shoutsloudly with the rest.

These organizations have to a degreesucceeded in foisting on America a newreligion in which the fathers of the revo-,lution are nxade the saints and the Con-stitution a holy book. Like all religiousfanatics, the makers of the new religionare ready tct inflict punishments on any-one who dares to question the truth ofthair doctrines. To suggest that the rev-olutionary forefathers were after all onlyhuman beings, with no more power tolook into the future than we have today— and perhaps with Ins—.is to bringdown their wrath upon you. They areequally ready to condemn any one whodeclares that the Constitution is now ob-solete; for they are not realistic enoughto recognize that the framcrs of the Con-stiution 'were not inspired by heaven butonly by the social and economic conditionsof the time in which-they lived.

Not content with practicing their jin-go religion by themselves, those holy cru-saders have done and are doing their bestto instill into the American '•workers aworship of the past and a fear of ques-tioning the American institutions. Likethe early Christians the American workersare ready to suffer rather than reasonout whether or not these institutions hav-ing their foundation in the Constitutionserve their interests or not.

As a matter of fact, the evidence ison the negative side. Take, for example,private property and the protection ofthe individual, comparing conditions to-day with those of 150 years ago. At thattime, most property in Aewriea w;xs thoresult of individual labor. America wasprimarily an agricultural country, withan abundance of virgin land. Very littlecapital was necessary to establish a man'sindependence: Almost anyone was able to.get lanl and clear it for cultivation. After afew years of labor, he would be theowner of property that was theresult of his own toil. A,man with a few simple tools was able

The Militarization of the American YouA new feature in the militarization of

the American youth is taking place inNew York. This act, in face of the recentLondon Conference, and all other peaceand disarmament negotiations, belies theattempts of this government to appear as apromoter of peace. A bill has been intro-duced into the New York State Legislaturecalling for the conscription of all studentsbetween, the ages of 10 and 18 to compul-sory -military training.

To avoid resentment to this open at-tempt at making soldiers of the Americanyouth the bill states ,tn its title that it is"Instruction in boy scout training and kin-dred subjects". But even such a coveringfails to hide the fact that the aim and pur-pose of.this bill is the preparation of can-non fodder for the coming war. As in allforms of military service, the weak andsick are eliminated, and the best physicallyare allowed the "privilege" of participation,which in this instant would mean compul-sion to service.

The bill if passed would mean that allstudents, regardless of attendance at pri-vate or public schools would be forced towear the uniform, take 30 minutes drilldaily, and special training during the holi-days, and summer vacation periods.

?feed of Mass MovementThe passing of such a bill would nec-

essarily set a precedent that would un-doubtedly be pursued in other states. At thepr