The daily worker., 1926-01-16

~ 10 uOl Ouly against GT6dL DT1Jctlu
that the holy war on foreign monop-
oily is to be directed, nor is crude
rubber the sole commodity involved.
It was announced at the first session
Of Mr.. Hoover's congressional investi-
eating committee that the investiga-
ton would cover artificial control Of
prices Of rubber, coffee, Egyptian long
staple cotton, camphor, iodine, nj
trates, potash, mercury, and sisal."
To the average American worker
or poor farmer, suffering day by day
under the extortion of monopoly price
in this land of the meat trust, the
sugar trust, the harvester trust, the
oil trust, the steel trust, and the
copper trust, etc, it must seem
decidedly curious to see the govern
ment get so excited about capitalist
monopoly. Within the last few years
the United States has been the scene
of some of the biggest meat packing,
textile, oil and banking mergers in
history, and all of them have been
officially approved by the govern
ment, which is now actually taking
the lead in move for consolidation
of the railroads. AS for systematic
limitation of production, it has been
practised openly within the past two
years by American producers of sugar,
tobacco and cotton. At this very mo-
ment there is in existence a U. S.
government commission Established,
incidentally, by Mr.. Hoover's depart
menD for the express purpose of main
tanning the price of oil by assisting
in curtailing production!
The Stevenson act in Great Britain
was, after all, only defensive meas
ure against the American tire mag
mates who, knowing themselves to be
the greatest consumers of crude rub
ber, had presented a united front to
the producers and had forced the
price of rubber so low that many
British companies were thrown into
bankruptcy. Sisal, which is mention
ed as 'governmentally monopolized"
commodity because Mexico produces
95 per cent of the worlds supply, has
had it's price controlled not by the
Mexican government or the state Of
Yucatan in which it is principally
grown, but by the American harvester
trust, which purchases practically the
entire output. Every attempt of the
Yucatan planters to protect them
selves by pooling their sales has been
ruthlessly crushed. The struggle of
the U. S. government against foreign
monopoly" in sisal can only mean an
effort to still further intrench the
monopolist control Of the Interna-
tional Harvester Co.
The Chicago Tribune is hard-boiled
about the matter. In an editorial en-
titled, "Yes, We Have the Bananas.
But" it laments that 1--WE have no
rubber today" 1t proposes that we
get the rubber in the same way that
the United Fruit Co. got the bananas
(Which was by enslaving half the
population of Central America and the
small islands of the Caribbeans and
establishing an imperial system of
rule over them-with the aid of the
U. S. government). The editorial then
continues in the following strain:
1T would be better for Americans
to drop morals out Of their complaint
against British prices. If there is any
way by which government interfer-
ence with supply could be stopped it
is American interest to find it until
American rubber in the American
back yard can be produced. But we
have no complaint in principle against
the British. We cannot afford to
have. It is our principle. II our cot
ton growers thought they could save
themselves from hard times by re-
stricting their output and raising the
price in Lancaster they'd do it If half
the mill workers in England were put
on the street."
Thus 1t is apparent that American
capitalism is hardly interested in at
lacking fnOnonoIv Tho Qovarn oantts