The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-05-23
BY ISRAEL AMrER.

BY ISRAEL AMTER.
" N merica faces a revolution" de-
~ clared Magnus johnson when
campaigning, for election to the Unit
ed States Senate. The propaganda
was effective among the farmers and
workers of Minnesota and Magnus
Johnson was elected
johnson assured his electors that
he would make great noise at Wash
ington, and that he would roar with
the loudest of the progressives. But
Johnson's roaring has all been of
milk: smooth and sweet, as it comes
from the COW. Johnson does not
think of the revolution any more
although the situation of the farmers
has become worse, with no prospect
of betterment.
La Toilette, on the other hand, has
been roaring in the Senate for many
years. He struck a brilliant note
when the Teapot Dome scandal was
brought on the scene. Here he was
able to shine; the republican party
was being completely discredited and
La Toilette could begin to hope that
the fragments of the party would be
gathered up in a new party with him
self as the leader and spokesman.
But history is not made up of scan
dals; it is the product of sterner fore
es, the scandals merely showing the
lrottenness of the prevailing system
La Toilette has pricked the surface
of the powerful forces that run the
government and has made attempts
to uncover them. Is it because he
cannot go any further or that he dare
not go too far, for fear that the work
ers and farmers will learn TOO much
of the system and it's methods?
Both hypothesis are possible. La
Toilette has had to deal with the
present rulers of society; he has been
compelled to take a stand many a
time. His refusal to approve the war,
his militant defiance of the war mania
showed that, at least, he had the back
bone of man with convictions. That
was glory enough to carry him along
for long time. His fight against the
railway trust was a good one, and
perhaps he believed and still believes
that he will be able peacefully to con-
quer that trust and the many others
that govern the United States. That
is his illusion and the illusion of the
many millions of workers and farm
ers of the United States who under
stand little of the political forces
fighting for control.
The workers of the country have
awakened somewhat to the nature of
the power that confronts them on ev-
cry side. Although they may not be
able to make synthesis of events
under democratic (capitalist) re-
gime and succeeding events under a
republican (capitalist) regime and
thus arrive at the conclusion that
something generally is wrong with
the whole capitalist regime and sys-
tenn, still for the past five years at
least they have begun to believe that
the employers, manufacturers and
financial magnates have entirely too
much control of government. Hence
they have begun to think in terms of
political action by the workers. Need
less to enumerate the trade unions
that have gone on record in favor of
labor party-even though such
Expressions of opinion have been
systematically sabotaged by the trade
union officialdom. Needless to men
ton the trade union locals which
responded to the referendum of the
Trade Union Educational League on
the question of Labor Party, and
the great number which never received
the referendum because of the oppo-
sition Of the local secretary of the