The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-06-14
A semi-LesaI Party


markable feat, indeed, to organize
secret party convention of some $50
members right in the face Of for
midabIe military dictatorship aided
and abetted by labor union takers and
social-democratic traitors, then, upon
return to Berlin, they were in hiding.
When you came to campaign head
quarters which was located in one
building with the general Office of the
party and the editorial rooms of the
"Rote Fahne Cred Banner'D, you
would not be admitted without Gre
dentials. II you had convinced the
keepers of the gate that you were
no spy and no provocateur, you would
still be disappointed to find in the
building only minor party function
aries busy with routine work, while
absolute silence was maintained as to
the whereabouts of the leaders. Only
in a roundabout way was it possible
for me to meet some members of the
new C. E. C. Of the party. One of
them was in actual disguise which
had changed his appearance to such
an extent, he said, that his own
mother would hardly recognize him.
These precautions were imperative
in spite of the party's return to legal
existence. The party had just emerged
cut of a five months underground
starvation. Even in the worse times
OF persecution the illegality could
not be complete, for the simple reason
that it is not possible to drive under
cover mass party Of several hundred
thousand. The return to open exist
ence was not so much a result of
slackening persecution as a Selling of
liberties by the masses whom no
reichswehr (miIitia) could subdue.
But while the government was forced
to tolerate the activities OF the party,
it kept close watch over the leaders.
After had left Berlin l learned that
warrants were issued for the arrest
of the fourteen members of the new
c. e. G. Of the party before the COM
ing election so that they might not
hide later behind the immunity Of M.
P's The "Rote Fahne" was repeat
edly issued and repressed and reis-
sued Party headquarters in the
various cities were being raided and
some permanently occupied by the
police. Some party members had been
sentenced to 8 and Is months i'm
prisonment for spreading appeals of
the Executive Committee (this is what
they call freedom Of elections in a
bourgeois democracy. In Thiringia
the democratic" landtas Estate par
liament) had inacted law forbidding
the May first celebration, and the
same body deprived a Communist re-
preventative, Neubauer, Of his parlia-
mentary immunity in order that he
might be delivered to the authorities
for trial on the ground of treason.
High Treason.
This treason" business, in spite of
the tragic aspect it assumed for some
of the comrades, does not fail to pro-
woke a derisive laughter among the
German workers as manifestation of
the stupidity of the present reaction
1t is well known fact that the Fas-
cist forces of Germany are armed
to the teeth. 1t is well known that
the proletarian hundertschaften
lighting battalions) were by far less
equipped with rifles and ammunition
than were the Rights. Now, while
the government suppresses the pro-
letarian units with an iron hand, while
it allows the Hitlerists to arm openly,
to make armed demonstrations and to
do as much sabre rafting as would
make the spirits Of every old general
soar high, it declares it an act of high
treason to state openly, in the press
or on the platform, that there are
armed units within the empire. Mind
you, not the arming itself is criminal,
II it is done by bourgeois forces, but
the mere mention of its existence.