The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-02-28
(continued from page ID


ed &45,00O,0O0 and the navy ESQ.,
100000, not to speak Of the air forces.
Now as to whose budget Snowden's
was. The corporations profit tax was
dropped, also the phone charges re-
duced; the McKenna duties reduced
and inhabited house tax Withdrawn
all for the benefit of the middle class.
For the workers, food taxes were re-
duced, and the cost of living some
what lowered. With the sliding wage
scale prevalent in most industries, q
wage offensive would naturally re-
suit. But even without that, the cap
italists found way to make up prev
ious prices for the workers. Tea i'm
ports were restricted, and prices
raised, with terrible exploitation on
the colonial plantations and profits as
high as $50 per cent (Makum Tea
Coz
DUMORS Of sugar shortage of 8
IN million tons in world consump-
ton were floated and the price was
lacked up, with fortunes for the re-
finers. A wheat-harvest scare was
manufactured, and flour went up %
per cent from April to August, 1924.
The chemical and drug trusts, with a
complete grip on the market squeez-
ing out all undersellers. And so it
goes. The government went wild pre-
venting strikes, and moved not a
finger to stop profiteering. Boys are
earning 10 to 25s. week ($225-5.75)
and agricultural laborers getting such
low wages (27s.) that even liberals
had to protest and vainly fight the la
Dor government for 30s. minimum
wage And Snowden's cure was a
beet subsidy and tariff to wipe out
unemployment, with 5000 workers
more in the beet industry! In Au-
gust, 1924 the cost of living generally
was as high az before the budget.
The capitalist class was the only one
to benefit. Why, Snowden told us:
a. : solution of the. nnemploy-
ment problem. IN the opinion of the
government, is to be found in the full
: development of all our national and
natural resources, and in the scien-
tific organization of production, end
ing with the elimination Of waste in
every sphere and every department"
Sounds "kind-of-like" Coolidge and
Mellon, doesn't it? Its significance
was that it incites wage reductions,
increases unemployment by a more
efficient capitalist method of exploita-
ton, invites subsidies, ETC. What tor
les couldn't dare try, Snowden did
for them, and labor must be crate
full! And the rude Communists call
him lackey of capitalism!
2 On education, much was pledged,
VI and nothing done. Regulation of
the flow of young workers into indus
try, training and maintenance, and
similar pledges meant nothing in their
lives. Minors didn't help elect Mac
Donald and Snowden.
A The housing problem was wretch
" edly bungled. The building
trades workers were to be bambooz-
led, while building material profiteers
were to abandon themselves to an
orgy of unregulated profits. Pledges
to commander" factories, ration
surplus housing accommodation, /"
abolish slums, promptly build an ade.
quate supply Of decent houses, and re-
sist decontrol till the shortage is sat
ished," all petered out in Intellectual
plans to build 2h million houses, if
the banks would finance them, the
builders listen to reason, the workers
surrender WIDELY to the employers,
the next government be willing.
Wen take into consideration that the
labor government had no majority
But we'll check up on their sincerity
by looking at similar instances where
they had power. A little case, but in
dicative is this: The workers took
over four houses which had been