The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-02-09

by John Pepper is written by one
of the best Msrxists in the In
ternatiOnal. August Thalheimer
is also the intellectual leader of
the German Communist Party.)
n OMRADE John Pepper has re-
~ Gently published, thru the Work
ers Party of America, a booklet
which is intended to prepare the
ground for the formation of a la
Dor party in America, which will
embrace all the elements of the
labor movement which stand for an
independent proletarian class party,
and which shall also rope in the
proletarian and semi proletarian
farmer elements. The booklet has
already run into a second edition,
the first edition having been pub
lished in October of last year in
anticipation of the Cleveland Con-
ference on the 18th of December,
1922, on the agenda of which there
also stood the question of the for
nation of a labor party. The pres
ent edition was issued in view of the
new conference of the 3rd of July,
last.
This booklet by Comrade Pepper,
while serving the immediate pur-
pose of facilitating the formation
OF a labor party as mentioned above,
at the same time provides a very
clear and thoro analysis of the re-
lationships of the classes in Amer
lea, which is of very great interest
to the European working class.
America is country where the cap
italist system stands on the most
solid basis and still, apparently, pos
sesses unlimited possibilities. In the
course of the World Revolution,
America will certainly form the
strongest bulwark of counter-revolu-
ton. Finally, America is the coun-
try which is on the way to becoming
the strongest iTnperialist power, and
which already, in spite of her Of
fetal policy of non-intervention in
European affairs, has cast her net
over al lands and seas. For the
foregoing reasons it is of the ut
most Importance that the working
class acquires an exact knowledge
Of the class relationships and of
the tendencies in the development
of the classes in this capitalist Co.
lossus. Such a knowledge reveals
to US that this Colossus by no means
consists of one compact mass. as is
generally assumed in the west,
but that already, elements of So
cial disintegration are to be seen.
Americans like tn pirate Of gigantic
figures and huge standards general
". AS a matter of fact, things in
America are on far vaster scale
and proceed at a much faster rate
than we are accustomed to in our
narrow and Balkanized Europe, and
we should be committing a great
error were we to estimate the pace
and the extent of social movements
in America by the diminutive Eu-
ropean standards. This is not only
on account of the extent of the
country, but is due before all to
her relative freedom from those ira
ditions which check and hamper the
broad masses in Europe. America
is a young nation with a working
class which is still in the early
stage of development.
lie WTlIcT eXdullHCS. IN JN6 UTSJ
place the question as to how it is
that, hitherto, all "Third Parties"
which have arisen in additbn to the
two old parties-the democratic.
and the republican party-after
a short time, during which they grew
into more or less great mass parties,
have, in one way or another, only
disappeared. Comrade Pepper gives
a short, but nevertheless, a most
striking analysis of these parties,
which serves to fully explain why
this is bound to be the case. Viewed
outwardly, we see that all these
Third Parties have arisen in a pc
Rod Of economic depression. have
reached their eliminating point dur
ing the recurrence of the economic
crisis, only to disintegrate with the
return of a period of prosperity
This is the historical law which has
hitherto governed these third par
ties.
The first of this series of third
u