The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-05-03
Bosses Applaud MGcD Donald

American workers who do their own thinking
will not be shocked at the news that British CAPT
talism is almost unanimous in applauding the Mac
DonaldSnowden budget introduced in the House
of Commons on behalf of the Labor government.
This news should knock another prop from I'M
der the unthinking who have unwittingly accepted
the British Labor government as 100 per cent
victory for the working class.
MacDonald's government keeps on piling up the
testimony that is needed to show the great masses
of workers and farmers that only thru Soviet Rule
under Communist leadership can they attain to
full power.
The Macdonald Snowden budget wins the praise
of "every section of the public, including the con-
servative strongholds represented by the old bank
ing institutions" says the news report. The
American capitalist, H. Gordon Selfridge owner
of a big department store in London, states that
the budget is not only sound in detail but in prn
ciple" while representatives of two American
banks in London "predict immediate beneficial
sale of British securities abroad and improvement
in the financial conditions in the kingdom"
In other words the big bosses and bankers of
Great Britain admit that their position has been
strengthened by the financial policy of the Mac
Donald government. And why not? Among the
Snowden offerings to the big profiteers was the
complete abolition of the corporations profits tax
which means the loss of Sol, 100000 yearly by the
government treasury.
Sops were thrown to the workers, in the shape
of few reductions in food duties, by this Snow
den budget which bears the label Socialist"
since its author, Philip Snowden, has always been
considered of the most outspoken Socialists OF
the British Independent Labor Party. The duty
was reduced on sugar, but it still remains IA times
as great as it was before the war. The duty has
nvrH
dried fruit But they were also cut automo-
biles, foreign films and motorcycles, with which
the workers are not generally acquainted In fact
this is only pushing the British back to the pre-
war free trade basis, and if British profteers are
anything like the q. S. variety, as they no doubt
are reductions in tariff duties will have little
effect on the actual prices of commodities.
The actual policy of the labor government to-
ward the workers is seen in the taxes on admission
to the cheaper movies The tax on II cent seats
in the movies and cheaper theaters has been abol-
ished, but above that to the 1Scent seats the tax
has only been reduced. Seats costing more than
1S-cents will be subject to the same taxes
This is in glaring contrast to the complete abol-
ition of the corporations profit tax.
The budget, therefore, makes vital attempt
to settle the housing and unemployment problems.
The workers, due to low wages, will remain
crowded in the same hovels and when out of
work. as one and a half millions of British work
ers are today, they will be continuously on the
verge of starvation.
In the hour that the workers and farmers revo-
luton struck Germany, when the kaiser fell. the
German socialdemocracy proved the greatest ally
of Junker capitalism So in England. When
British capitalism faced a huge unemployment
army at home and discomfort in all her colonies.
1,oc s,,fO
power to save British capitalism by betraying the
cause of the working class.
The only result, in England, as in Germany, and
everywhere else, will be constant and steady
drift of disllusioned workers and farmers into the
ranks of the organized Communist movement
In the words of Nicoai Lenin, in his pamphlet,
"The Left Sickness Of Communism" written dur
ing the early days of the Bolshevik Revolution in
Russia, and years before the Macdonald govern
ment came into power:
"The formation Of the government Of the Hen
dersons, which is continually approaching nearer
will prove that right, will draw the masses to
my SIDE will hasten the political death Of the Hen
dersons and the Snowdens, just was the with
their Iike-mnded brethren In Russia and In Ger
many"
The Snowden budget, applauded by the big en-
pIoyers bankers and landlords Of Great Britain
should be big factor in driving the workers into
and thus helping to build a real mass Communist
Party in that country
Coolidge may have dropped Daugherty from his
ID. "a ~, ~,