The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-06-18
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IN recent trip in an American liner crossing the
Arabian Sea- going from Singapore TO Port Said,
joined a crowd of men in the smoking room who
had assembled to hear two business men discuss the
Shanghai situation and commercial prospects in the
Philippines With the exception of a Christian Sci
ence practitioner and myself every man present
was either a banker, well-to-do business man, a
member of the professional class or some one who
had retired to leisured security. There was dia-
mond merchant from Antwerp, rich oil men from
California, rubber planter from Malay, bankers
from Detroit, Pittsburgh, Denver and business men
from everywhere
American politicians and theologians are wont to
declam against the contention of the radicals that
class lines well defined beneath the stars and
stripes. Had these gentlemen been present the out
spoken expressions at this meeting would have been
a revelation. Detroit bankers We'd with California
oil men in denouncing trade unioniss scoundrels
and socialists persons who should be given short
shrift. The concensus Of opinion was that Soviet
Russia was Red menace that should be destroyed
utterly by the armed nations of the earth.
Shanghai is disgrace and China is an mpos-
sible situation" said Of 1.-The speakers "The
United States, Great Britain Japan France and the
smaller nations of Europe should unite and send a
force big enough to subdue thoroughly and forever
those Chinese" he continued amidst uproarious APP
plause. after the fear Of God has been put into
their hearts and the Chinese shown their place then
their country should be partitioned among the pow
ers and the resources developed for the good of
civilization"
That high order Of civilization had existed in
CHINA over four thousand years, that the land and
resources of China belong to the people who occupy
them and that foreigners have no more legal or
moral right to invade the country than a high
binder has to commit acts of brgandape are matters
which seem never to have occurred to either the
speakers the auditors.
Discussing the union labor movement gentle
man from the floor, who an English office
holder of some kind said:
II fought through the world war and saw blood
shed enough to last a ftime, but 1 want to say
here that am ready instantly to shoulder my rifle
again when the government decides, as eventually
1t must, to externinate without mercy the gang of
organized labor hoodlums who think they are going
to get England by the throat and who are responsible
Tor the present chaotic conditions of the. British
Empire"
"Hear! Hearl" cried one of the Detroit bankers
"All I've got to say" drawled one Of the Long
Beach oil magnates, "is that we in America have
got enough of strikes and we are going to have no
more! 1t would be almost much as a mans life
would be worth to sponsor a strike in Los Angeles
and we have laws on our statute books that make
it practically criminal offense to order strike of
any magnitude in California. RadicaIism in Amer
lea is dead a doornail and we viii never see a
repetition of the big-scale strikes of the past"
As to Soviet Russia plutocracy here assembled
was a unit. In their disposition Of the Reds the
speakers stormed the oratorical heights. Every
adjective in the vocabulary of coarse abuse was
employed in berating Soviet authority. Ignorant as
they of the philosophy and economics of Com
munism, nevertheless, these men were keenly alive
to the fact that Soviet Russia was real menace
and that Sovietism constant challenge to the
institutions of international capitalism Their dis
position of the Workers Republic was similar to
their solution of the Chinese problem-armed in