The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-06-03
"FITz" BROWN
FARMER-LABOR
PARTY BURIED
Caretakers Flying in all
Directions

Gompers is prepared to slaughter the
fatted calf for John Fitzpatrick, who
had wandered far from the non-parti.
san political fold when he launched
his Farmer-Labor party in 1919, thus
serving notice on Gompers that the
sheep who are led to the polls on cleo
ton day to vote for capitalist friends
Of labor" by that notorious reaction
airy would in the future be guided
along the road Of class solidarity and
taught to rely on their own rather
than the promises OF Quondam friends.
But Fitzpatrick has fallen by the
wayside. The masses did not rally to
his Farmer-Labor party, which he
tried to keep within the bounds of
Responsibility. The reactionaries
would not touch his movement with a
forty-foot pole, and he did not feel
any too comfortable in the company
Of the radicals. To use a favorite ex-
preston OF his own, che was in a most
unhappy position"
A Sinking Ship.
The July conference was the final
straw that broke the political cameps
back. There we're other straws that
made the camel tremble at the knees
even before July 8. There was the
withdrawal by Gompers of the $500 a
month organization subsidy from the
Chicago Federation Of Labor, few
weeks before the date of the confer
ence. John H. Walker was busy try.
ing to convince Fitzpatrick that he
was sailing in dangerous waters; that
the Communists would put his ship
on the rocks; that he should put his
unseaworthy political craft into dock
and become an able-bodied seaman on
board the Gompers ship, even tho
Gompers Haunted the skull and cross
bones of class collaboration in the
face OF labor.
The rest Of the story can be told
briefly. Fitzpatrick seeded from his
own convention. The decline was
rapid. His party broke into smith
Greens. He gradually surrendered ev-
cry radical principle he stood for.
Into the arms of Gompers he flew.
Crew DESERVING.
Today his party is no more Jay
Brown has resigned as secretary and
left for~Seattle. Robert M. Buck is
quitting the New Majority, the Official
organ of the Chicago Federation of
Labor and the now defunct Farmer
Labor party. The resignation will
take effect June 81. Unless some &C.
tive person who wants job takes the
initiative in assuming the manage
ment Of the New Majority, that organ
is liable to cease publication. Fitz-
patrick looks upon 1t as a nuisance.
Labor leaders as a rule do not like
to be bothered with papers. Most OF
the organs of reactionary trade unions
are simply advertising sheets run for
the profit Of one or more get-rich
quick artists.
Buck and Brown played a sorry
role at the July conference and
since then. While avowedly for indie
pendent working class political action
they have allowed themselves to be
used as tools by Fitzpatrick against
the national class party movement
which will meet in st. Paul June II.
They have met the fate Of all leaders
who fail to take a determined stand
for the things they believed in. They
failed to satisfy left or right and fell
down between two stools.
"Mueh Joy in Heaven"
There is considerable chuckling in
A. F. OF L. headquarters over the col
lapse of the Fitzpatrick political bub
BILE. While the Chicago labor leader
is assured of the benevolent friend
ship of Gompers, now that he has
donned the regular" harness, the
weekly news letter sent out by Sans
scribbler, Chester Wright, does not
miss the opportunity to take slam
at the dying Fitzpatrick Farmer-Labor
party. 1t says: "The statement con
cludes with a brave claim that the
officers are ready, when we can to
resume former activities, but it is
clear that the Farmer-Labor party as
national movement is permanently
located in the political graveyard"
Buried the Corpse.
The Fitzpatrick uck-Brow polit-
zeal party died on July and since
then it has stunk in the nostrils OF
the class conscious workers. It is
some satisfaction to learn that its