The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-11-14


EDITORS NOTE:-This article was
received some weeks ago, but owing
70 pressure of news and party mat
ters has not been published until now
TT is seldom that seemingly pure
1 military matter engages the atten-
ton of the average mind as has the
mis-named Mitchell" episode. There
are countless conflicting speculations
and a multitude of unbridgably d.
vergent theories as to the meaning
and outcome of the air-service CON
troversy. Yet there is a certain com
mon characteristic-the are all cen
tered around the personality Of
Mitchell He is viewed as the sole
cause, the instigator and likely cul-
minator of the affair. gh
The fact is, while the denoted brig
adier-general is circumstantially ap-
pearing in a principal role in the mat
ter-he is but a temporarily magni-
fed cog of a machine. 1t is with the
purpose of shielding from the public
eye this machine and its plan to loot
the public treasury for the extension
of aviation. that attention is mislead-
ingly focused upon Mitchell.
AN attempt to get at the bottom
a of the air craft situation and it's
accompanying entanglements by a
mere study Of Mitchell's publicly adj
vertised connection therewith-is to
see the 'fat lady" and assume her to
be the whole circus Mitchell is
made conspicuous by publicity and
the fat lady" by her poundage. Still,
she is but a part of a circus, of
which there are many side shows, all
dominated by the big tent" for
there in the big tent are found the
principal actors as well as the man
ager and owners.
The "big tent" in the "air circus"
is Washington, D. c., the principal
actor, the government, and the man
ager and owner, American capitalism.
THE United States government like
4 any other government is charged
with the duty of protecting the in
terests of its ruling class. Since the
well-being of the American ruling
class rests upon the exploitation of
the bulk of its own people, as we'll
as commercial supremacy over those
foreign capitalist groups, who COM
pete with it on foreign soil-it be-
comes the duty and task of the gov
eminent so to arm itself as to enable
it to subdue the potential enemies of
American capitalism, both at home
and in foreign spheres.
For more than three years has the
military eye of the government look
ed with jealousy and anxiety upon the
threatening development of military
aviation of France and England, and
so, to safeguard its master, American
capitalism, the government has deter
mined to build up its own aviation to
point of being second to none.
1t is in this process of building its
aviation that the government is com
PEELED to consider and cope with a
number of factors, and it is this that
provides the Mitchell and other less
conspicuous side shows.
THE administration must remember
4 the next election. This demands a
gesture at economy. 1t is deemed
politically inexpedient to expend
large sums for military purposes,
without first paving the way for such
extravaganza. To meet this problem,
that of not driving away votes, be-
cause of large aviation expenditures,
the administration has set out to
mold a favorable public opinion to-
wards such expenditures. This is
done by a widespread propaganda in
favor of air craft extension. OF this,
the attempted propaganda trip of the
Shenandoah was part, as well as
the Hawaiian flight and the much
heralded Mitchell affair.
Under ordinary conditions "insub-
- ordination" or, conduct unbe-
coming an officer and gentleman -
of which Mitchell appears to be gull
ty, is quietly disposed of by a court
martial, because it is not conductive
to military discipline to make hero
of an insubordinate, or a virtue of
disrespect to superior officers. Why,
then, this about-face of military ira
dition in the case of Mitchell? Not
only is there no attempt to silence
Mitchell; on the contrary, a large Sec
ton of the press is 'front-paging"
him, and President Coolidge has pro-