The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-11-28

from the war and the reduction Of the
world market, on to the workers thru
forcing down their standard of living,
While not on such large scale, the
depression of 1924 has brought wage
cuts to hundreds of thousands OF
workers in an effort to make them
shoulder the losses to capitalism. The
crisis OF 1920-21 was accompanied by
the open shop drive which reached its
climax in the strikes Of nearly a mil.
lion workers in 1922 indicating the
resistance Of the workers to the at
tempt to lower their standard Of life
In 1924 miners, steel workers, textile
workers, railway shopmen and auto
mobile and other workers aggregating
several million have been without
work for long periods Of time with all
the consequent misery and suffering
which unemployment brings.
A. The decline of world capitalism
must bring with it sharp crises for
American capitalism. "The whole bas-
is of capitalist economy is fundamen-
tally disturbed. A large number of
countries are permanently consuming
more than they produce, hence gold
can no longer perform the function of
world currency. Gold flows in I'M
broken streams into the United
States. The gold reserves of Europ-
can states have diminished to such
an extent that to re-establish the gold
currency would be impossible on
merely technical grounds. In the
place of gold, paper money has been
introduced and its value fiuctuates to
an unlimited extent. There is no
longer a free flow Of loan capital in
and out of capitalist countries. In
place of comparatively secure and
well-denned relations of normal cap
italism, we find universal insecurity.
Instead of production and calculation,
there is gambling and speculation.
Every attempt to solve these prob
lens creates a new one. Any plan to
make Germany pay Preparations must
provide for a free access to world
markets of German goods, but to pre-
vent precisely this was one Of the OBJ
jects Of the world war. Any attempt
of the United States to collect inter-
allied debts, a problem in itself,
creates new problem. English pay.
ments to the United States increase
quite uselessly the gold funds of the
United States and decrease England's
ability to purchase American goods
and hinder the solicitations Of its
currency" --
Under such conditions, the econ
omic crisis of the United States 10
not only a passing shadow, but the
reflex OF the fundamental crisis OF
world capitalism. It Is not a crisis,
but part Of the crisis Of the existing
system. No period of prosperity that
may temporarily arrest the down
ward tendency OF American capitalism
can save 1t from its doom.
s. While as a result OF the cleo
ton Of Coolidge and Dawes some
American capitalists picture a rosy
future for the United States, 1t is not
the government which determines the
conditions OF capitalism, but funda-
mental economic forces which even
the most powerful capitalist govern
ments are unable to control. Even the
capitalists recognize that economic
forces are more powerful than cleo
ton results in shaping the future
economic conditions in this country.
The Annalist, an organ OF Big Bust.
ness, after the election declared:
THE welcome increase In business
confidence which resulted from the
elections, and which was spectacularly