The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-05-17


Communist ..........."........ $4,000
Various ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. 100000
The new elections produced the fol
lowing result:
Deutsche Rationale ....... 4,5OO, 600
Deutsche Folkische ........ 100000
Folkspartei ....----............ 100000
Centrum ......................... 100000
Democratic ........................ 100000
Social Democratic .......... 100000
Communists ..................... 100000
Various ...................."..... 10000
VKTHO were the losers? First comes
wv the Social Democratic party
with loss of 5 million votes, or near
ly one-half of what it secured in the
elections to the old Reichstag. Sec
ond comes the Folkspartei with loss
of over million and a half, or nearly
40 per cent. Third and last, comes
the Democratic party with loss of
over half million, or nearly rs per
cent.
In other words, more than seven
million voters, about one-fourth of the
electorate, have changed allegiance.
What sort of people are they? What
social classes do they belong to? It
can be safely assumed that these peo-
pie consist of two social elements:
working class and petty bourgeois, the
proposition between the two being
much more difficult to arrive at. We
might, however, reach an approximate
figure by finding out where these more
than seven million votes went to, and
here we find: That the Communists
secured about one-haif, that is, $780,
600; the Centrum, over 2 million; the
Deutsche Rationale and the Deutsch-
Folkische, about 100000 each.
Now, it stands to- reason that the
three and one-half million votes gain
ed by the Communist Party Of Ger
many are working class votes. 1t is
also reasonable to assume that very
few, if any, working class votes were
cast in this election for the Catholic
Centrum or for the monarchist-reac-
tionary Deutsche Rationale and
Deutsch-Foelkiscfe. II this is SO, then
further assumption can be advanced
that of the five million votes lost by
the Social-Democratic party, about 31a
million were working class and the
rest (11z) petty bourgeois.
n ND here, let's stop for while to
IN realize the significance of these
figures. Three million and half of
German workers, who have voted for
the Social-Democrats to the old
Reichstag, have refused to do so this
time. They have decided to give their
allegiance to the Communist party, the
Party of the social revolution. All in
all the Communist Party received 4
million votes.
MOTE also the significance of the
IN fact that most of this vote came
from the industrial centers of Ger
many; the Ruhr, the industrial Rhine
land generally, Silesia, Saxony, etc.
In other words, the workers of the
heavy industries and of the concen-
trated Industrial regions, the strate-
gic points which are most decisive in
the proletarian struggle for power,
have in their mass accepted the lead
ership of the Communist Party.
THUS is the German Social-Demo-
i cracy paying for its betrayals to
the working class. OF the 100000
votes secured by the Social-Democrats
in this election, the bulk belongs to
the well-paid and corrupted labor-aris-
tocracy and to the poorer sections of
the middle classes. The proletariat,
the real working class is leaving the
betrayers in disgust. This is one of the
main lessons of the elections to the
new Reichstag.