The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-05-13

1N/ERY few workers are aware of the
! Y fact that there is socialist con
gresham in Washington. If we are
any Judge, the voice Of Victor L. Der
ger is not heard far beyond the neigh.
borhood of his own desk in the House
lof Representatives office building
Which in some ways is pity. Because
liz a larger number of workers could
hear the voice of the Milwaukee so
cialist, we are very sure there would
be many more Communists.
If the workers know "Vic" Berger
is in congress, fewer still know that
the editor of the Milwaukee Leader,
this lone surviving socialist daily, de-
livered a speech the other day to his
fellow congressman. 1t appears in the
Congressional Record under the high
sounding title, "A Survey Of Our Po-
litical and Economic Conditions" And
we have received a copy of it.
INEORGE Washington, surveying
M Virginia and Pennsylvania in the
early days of the colonies, in an effort
to steal as much land as possible from
the Indians, didn't allow himself more
latitude and longitude than "Vic"
Berger in his speech, as he dipped in
to all the problems confronting the
human race. 1t was only after he had
7 waded thru some 5000 words that his
impatient fellow-congressman from
Wisconsin, Mr.. Nelson, rose to in
quire:
will the gentleman please tell us
what the Socialist Party really stands
forgive us something of an outline
Of the party's principles"
1t was only then that Berger con-
descended to use up about 200 words
in an effort to tell what the Socialist
Party stood for. This was in effect
that, "The Socialist Party stands for
the collective ownership and demo-
cratic management of all the social
means of production and distribution. /"
THIS reply is typical of Berger's
i whole speech, which is really a
study in pathos. Berger could have
made pretty much the same reply, and
probably did, when someone asked
him what the Peoples Party stood for,
when he attended its convention as a
delegate in st. Louis, Mo-, in 1896,
before he helped organize the Social
Democratic and then the Socialist Par
ties.
Berger's speech in congress stands
with Gompers' political proclamation
for the American Federation of Labor,
in showing that neither man has adj
vanced in thought, let alone in action,
in spite of the great upheavals that
have taken place over the world these
past ten years. And they both join
in an opposition duet to the effect
that:
! 81 am absolutely opposed to Com
lmunism."
DERGER'S speech was a pathetic
- one. He announced that he is not
bothering much what is going to hap
pen after the socialist party has ac-
COAAplASnSu Lnc ldhiuS OVER VI lew
trusts, because that is pretty large
program"
And then this confession:
81 gave Lenin six months for his ex-
pertinent when he took control in No
vember, 1917, but it has lasted six
years, and it may last another sixty"
These are words that fall from the
lips Of man more than "a years old.
On the brink of the grave he shows he
has no faith in the onward march of
his ownacause, and with palsied hand,
he vents his wrath upon the thing he
COMMUNISM.
His whole speech is a warning to
capitalism against Communism. If the
U. S. autocracy will not repeat the mis-
takes Of the czarist autocracy, he ar
CUES, then it will be safe from Com
munism.