The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-12-30
ny-wLLIAM Z. FOSTER.


If there is one thing in this discus
| sion more than another that gives
me gentle pain it is the high and
lofty air of intellectual superiority as
sumed by the leading comrades of the
minority. This is q hangover from
the reign Of Comrade Pepper. Al
that time It was quite the mode for
the ''intellectuals" Of the minority to
ridicule with disdain the efforts of the
merely proletarian members of the
c, E. c.. as expressed by the various
theses. statements. etc, which they
submitted. This practice, which was
Inflated for those following it, we
thought had passed But the party
discussion shows that it is still the
fashion with the minority leaders,
In NOW many articles do we find
this anti-Communist attitude perme-
ating their arguments. With what as.
surance they brag Of being the only
bonaflde Communists in the party
that they are the MARKHAM trunk Of
our organization. That is the burden
Of their whole song. Now, nauseating
though such an attitude may be, it
has at least one advantage for the
comrades Of the minority to praise
themselves so highly as Marxists II
they did not tell US Of this Ma4xism
it could not be known otherwise. Ger
tainly no one would discover much
Marxism in their advocacy Of 9
"class" farmer-labor party to flight
the battles Of the working class"
The fact is not a single one of the
minority leaders, despite their cease
less Dragging. has ever written any
thing which would from a MARKHAM
point of view attract a moments no
tice outside of our party. This is true
also of the most outstanding Marx
list" among them, Comrade Wicks, who
but a few weeks ago was urging the
left wing printers to vote for the
Gomperite, James Lynch.
Now what is there to this endless
claim of the minority, who never
cease blowing Of their Marxism, that
they are the only element fit to direct
the policies Of the Workers Party?
Fortunately we have a little some.
thing to go on in this respect. This
question, too, has been passed upon by
the Comintern. It was when the last
delegation was in Moscow to get de.
cision upon the moot question of the
third party alliance" It came about
this way: Comrade Pepper, on behalf
Of the minority. carried on a vicious
eampaign of Misrepresentation to dis
cedit the present C. e. G. as lot
syndicalists and opportunists. In
his campaign he was militantly. il
not very effectively, assisted by other
members of the minority who sent to
Moscow the most bitter series of let
tiers it has ever been my unhappy lot
to encounter in a revolutionary organ.
ization. The writer's not only gave
the most glowing accounts of their
own revolutionary activities, but they
assailed the majority from every point
in the compass, and from many that
the compass never heard of.
After this big barrage, which was
hoped would smash the majority's
poor defenses to the ground, Comrade
Pepper drew up his army in full array
and made a frontal attack upon the
present c. e. C. by demanding that
the Comintern removes it from power
Although so badly discredited by the
convention, he demanded that the
party be turned over to the tender
mercies of the minority. He asked
that the minority be given four add
tional members on the c. E. c., full