The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-06-21
AS WE SEE 1T
BY T. }. o'FLAHERTY

The New York Nation is satisfied
that the last Congress, in spite Of its
faults was not such a bad congress
after all. For one thing, it exposed
lot of corruption. Liberals are
gluttons for punishment. They do
not want to abolish the rotten social
system that breeds corruption. If this
corruption could only be kept from
exhibiting itself indecently, the liber-
ais would be happy. The last Con-
gress did not function very well for
the capitalists. That we will admit.
But neither did it do anything for
the workers. 1t was capitalist con-
gress, but the capitalists quarrel
among themselves over the division
Of the loot with the result that the
plans of the big fellows do not al
ways move as smoothly as they would
wish
What the big capitalists would like
better than a congress which does
not always carry out the instructions
to the letter, is bald dictatorship
such as exists in Italy. But even
Mussolini's boosted regime is now tot
tering and the American papers which
up until few days ago, referred to
him as the man who saved Italy from
destruction, now mutter, II told you
So" Nothing succeeds like success.
Only a short time ago the Chicago
Daily News published an interview
with Mussolini, in which the murder
chief was boosted to the skies. 1t
took two seasoned reporters to de-
scribe Mussolini the man, and Musso-
lini the statesman. But he must re-
sort to murder in order to hold his
power. His days are numbered. The
American capitalists will not look so
favorably on Fascism from now on.
The money they spent on it is money
wasted.
The dictatorship or the capitalists
in the form of Fascism may hold back
the wheels of progress for time, but
not for long. Capitalism has outlived
its usefulness and must go. 1t will
not go down because it governs thru
a dictatorship, but simply because it
is no longer able to satisfy the needs
of the people. With machinery of
production developed to such point
of efficiency that enough of she neces-
stiles of life can be produced in a
few months to supply the needs of
the world for a year, the warehouses
are choked with things the workers
could use for their upkeep and COM
fort but which they can not purchase.
The result of this crazy system is
unemployment and starvation.
One would imagine that such an OBJ
vious deficiency in the capitalist sys-
tenn would open the eyes of the work
ers to the necessity for making a
change. The Communists tell them
that the capitalist system must be
overthrown and production for use be
substituted for production for profit.
The capitalists tell the workers that
but for capitalism they would starve,
because there would be no work. But
prominent capitalists die every week
yet the wheels of industry do not
stop. Things go along as usual be-
cause the workers are actually rum
ming the industries they do not own.
Now, if they can run them profitably
for master, why cannot they run
them at least as efficiently for them
selves. There seems to me no good
reason why they should not.
The last congress was bigger fail
ure than usual because the two CAPT
talist parties are breaking down and
the small capitalists represented by
LaFollette and the so-called progress
sives are getting pinched by the big
ones. Therefore, they are grumbling.
They don't want to abolish capital
ism, but they want to shove it back
into its baby clothes again, and ex-
hibit it to the workers and farmers
as smiling youth without bit of
evil in its system.
The Socialists and the other brands
of reformers have much the same OBJ
ject. The Communists say that at
tempting to reform system that is
in an advanced stage of decay is as
ineffective as putting a mustard plas-
ter on wooden leg. The thing to do
is to begin the reconstruction of So
ciey on a Communist basis, but be-
fore that work can be started, politi-
cal power must be taken from the
capitalists and all power placed in
the hands of the workers.
"A dictatorship" the liberal will
growl, would smell just as sweet I'M
der any other name. But Dictator
ship of the workers is more demo-
cratic than the abortive democracy