The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-11-05
Labor Must Clean Some
Wisdom From Election
for Struggles to Come
BY }. LOUIS ENoDAHL.

AuSIlCdu VOTERS nave decided TO
L vote republican, the greatest graft
exposures will not turn them from
their course.
This has been shown again by the
huge majorlties run up by the two
republican senators-elect, Frank L.
Smith, in Illinois, and William S.
Ware, in Pennsylvania.
The voters were not bothered, it
seems, by the fact that the public
utility multi-millionaire, Sammy"
insult, dumped hundreds of thou
sands into the Smith-Republican
campaign fund, while the Mellon in
terests gathered in a total reaching
into the millions in its effort not
only to elect Ware, but to maintain
a stranglehold on the republican
state organization in Pennsylvania.
This is but a repetition Of the in
difference with which the voters
generally viewed the Teapot Dome"
oil scandal. The Coolidge admin
istration, from Cal down, wallowed.
up to its very eyebrows in one Of
the choicest revelations of political
filth this nation has ever seen. But
this did not prevent the Coolidge
administration from being over
whelmingly reelected in 1924. To be
sure the democrats were caught
covered with the same slime. but
credit for most of the corruption
went to "the Ohio gang" the crew
of political bandits gathered about
Warren G. Harding while he was
president and later attaching itself
to Coolidge.
1t is clearly to be seen that some
thing more than Swimming the slime
off the surface of the open sewers
of capitalist thievery is necessary to
get the masses of the voters, the
workers, into action in their own in
terests. 1t must go deeper than the
so-called wet and dry" issue that
both the old parties use extensively
for campaign purposes.
Some inkling of conscious effort
on the part of the workers to strike
for their own interests at the bal
lot box was shown in Massachusetts,.
Here the leader of the open
shop" interests in the textile indus
try, the multi-millionaire, Senator
William NJ. Butler, was defeated for
reelection, in spite Of every effort
of President Coolidge, also of "the
New England gang" to put him
over.
Butler was the living personifca-
ton Of wage cuts" When 10 per
cent cuts in wages were inaugurated
in the mills, Coolidge became fright
ened and sounded a warning. Bur
the mill owners told him to mind
his own business, they wer satisfy
ing their own hunger for profits as
they say fit and they didn't want
any interference from Washington
Discomfort in the Massachusetts
mills did not flare into another Pas
sale. The grip of the ruling class
terror was too secure for that. But
dissatisfaction did manifest itself at
the polls. The first returns coming
in from the mill districts of New
Bedford, for instance, showed the
tide turning against But1er-Coolidge
rule in Massachusetts. But it turn
ed only in favor Of his democratic
opponent, David I. Walsh, equally a
tool Of the predatory interests, alth0
he serves better the railroad than
the textile interests.
Labor at the polls thought little
Of Saeeo and Vanzetti, its two
champions in prison. Altho Butler
was booted out of office and Coo
lidge thereby kicked in the shins,
nevertheless, the republican govern
or Alvan T. Fuller, who refuses to
pardon labor's prisoners after know
ing full well Of the dastardly frame
up against them, is kept in Office by
a majority Of 10000 votes.
In an effort to make political cap
ital for the 1928 campaign and to
hide its own crimes. the democrats
will raise the cry of "Slush!" in the