The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-07-07
BY J. LOUIS ENepAHL.

BY J. LOUIS ENGDAHL.
lEvEN the socialist and labor press
- has its pen prostitutes. That is the
conviction that forms itself the quick
est as we read an editorial in Victor
Berger's Milwaukee Leader, and go
thru an article In Justice" the official
organ of the International Ladies' Gar
ment Workers Union.
Since John NJ. Work, former nation
al secretary of the socialist party, is
the editorial writer of Berger's paper,
we take it that the editorial, Common
and Uncommon Honesty" which is an
attack on the Communists, was writ
ten by him.
The article in Justice, with the head
ing, Working Together" appears I'M
der the name Of Norman Thomas, and
is also given over in great part to
slandering the Communists, not only
in this, but in other countries.
Not of the Working Class.
Neither Work nor Thomas have
ever been a part Of the working class.
Work was a lawyer and first gained
prominence as speaker and writer
in the socialist movement. He went
to Berger's Leader" during the war,
and, like a faithful slave, carries out
all of Berger's editorial policies, even
to the flow of malicious lies against
the Communists. The outlook of the
ex-lawyer, Work, may we'll be ex-
pressed in the sentence to be found
in the state platform recently adopted
by the Wisconsin socialists, declaring
that Honesty was never at such a
low ebb as now" and again, ''The So
cialist party has stood honestly E.
in peace and in war"
Work and the socialists are for
honesty. And, of course, the Com
munists are dishonest. Which, trans
lated, means, so far as we are able
to learn, that Mr.. Work and his
friends wouldn't do a thing, for all
the world, to shock anyone under this
capitalist social system, while the
Communists are always doing the
shocking things. Mr.. Work contends
that this honesty business constitutes
one of the essential differences be-
tween the socialists and the Commun-
lists"
They Worm to the Front.
Now for the Reverend Thomas just
a moment. Work was a lawyer.
Thomas was, and perhaps still is,
preacher. Like Work, however, he
graduated and became an editor. The
writer's and speakers, no matter
whether lawyers or preachers, always
manage to worm themselves to the
front in a working class movement.
While flirting with the pink edges
of the class struggle, Thomas has
been or is associated editorially with
such bourgeois sheets as The
World Tomorrow and The Nation. He
was one of those selected to show the
workers in New York City how to run
daily paper when the socialist daily,
The Call, became The Leader. Its I'M
timely end is now history. The trou-
BILE with The New York Leader was
that II did not have Victor Berger
to drum up department store adver-
Using. Otherwise it might have de-
yeloped into parallel to any capital
list rag, just like its Milwaukee name
sake.
Thus, while John III. Work still has
daily in which to attack the Com
munists, the Reverend Thomas must
peddle his wares, elsewhere. in this
instance in the VIGOROUSLY anti-Com-
munist mouthpiece of the dictatorial
Sigman regime in the International
Ladies' Garment Workers Union.
Workers Know the Brand.
Such is the background of this
Work-Thomas alliance against Com
munism. Glass conscious workers and
farmers are we'll acquainted with this
lawyer preacher combination.
II was in the meetings of the Ar
rangements Committee for the Nation
al FarmerLabor Convention at ST.
Paul that William Bouck, head Of the