The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-09-16

JSuuSu QlBBluB luLO Tue past. DuL IL
might be well to recount the activi-
ties Of the ruling classes in their
own wars. Much is made of the fact
that worker and farmer soldiers
froze, starved and died thru a ter
rible winter at Valley Forge during
the revolutionary war. School chill
dren today are not told that this
was due to the fact that the food
gamblers and profteers,-supposed-
ly loyal, of the time were busy
selling what the revolutionary army
needed, to the British army quarter
ed in Philadelphia and able to pay
good prices.
Is this the honesty that is to be
restored?
A. M. Simons, writes Of the civil
war in his Social Forces in Amer
lean History:
so tremendous was the graft in
connection with contracts for mill
tary supplies that most historians
draw back in horror when they have
lifted but a corner of the thick
blanket of concealment that those
who profited by the plumber have
drawn over the mess. One congress
sional committee, headed by Robert
Dale Owen, son of Robert Owen, the
utopian socialist, uncovered frauds
of $17,OOO,OOO in $50,OOO,O0O worth of
contracts.
Graft rendered the very weapons
of warfare as dangerous to those
who held them as to those against
whom they were supposed to be
directed. Carsbines, that before the
outbreak Of hostilities had been con-
demned by the war department, and
sold as condemned weapons at the
almost nominal price of $3.50 each,
were resold by the buyers to the
very government that had condemn
ed them for $22 each"
1t was thru this graft that the
House Of Morgan, international
bankers, got its start.
Is this the honesty that the So
called progressives seek to restore
out OF the past?
Coming down to later days, there
is the embalmed beef scandal during
the Spanish-American war, which
leads up to the American participa-
ton in the world war with its whole
sale scandals too numerous to men
ton.
The trial of Harry M. Daugherty,
former red-baiting and anti-labor at
torney general in the republican ad-
ministrations of Harding and Coo.
lidge, reveals nothing especially new
on American politics. There have
been Daughertys in all administra-
tons since the government began.
The insults and the MELONS have
also left a broad trail all thru the
pages Of the nations history.
The sums paid out today appear
large. B. c. Forbes, financial writer
for the Hearst press, says that
100000 doesn't mean much to Sam
uel insult. Probably less than $1,000
meant to John Hancock, the prince
of smugglers," who was the first to
sign his name to the American Dec
laration Of Independence from Brit
ish rule.
The era Of honesty lies in the
future not in the past. Men can
only be honest when they have no
incentive to cheat and rob their
fellowmen. That can only come
under social order where classes
have been abolished, where no class
remains to plumber an oppressed
class, being forced to establish it's
own tyranny to protect and safe
guard that plumber.
Honesty comes with the abolition
OF capitalism with its dishonesty and
class rule. Honesty can only be an
attribute OF workers rule culmin-
ating in the classless society based
on Communist principles. For the
workers and farmers there can be
no fraudulent return to honesty"
They can only go forward by join
ing the march toward Communism.