The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-04


last session when the reactionaries
were running rampant, neither he nor
one Of his brother progressives lifted
their voices, seriously, to stem the
footing.
Blaine, Demagogue.
Besides La Toilette, there is Blaine,
who defeated Lenroot and VIII take
his seat in the next Senate. Blaine
has a bad labor record. He was
bitterly denounced by the Wisconsin
Federation Of Labor. He is a blatant
windjammer and demagogue. He
is a political opportunist and a man
without even a glimmering of what
the class struggle is all about.
He will undoubtedly eventually
break with what meager progressive
ties he now has and will become an
other Lenroot, whom he was able to
defeat only by $4,000 vote margin,
in spite of Lenroot's hundred-per cent
bad record.
POwerless Frazier.
Of the other senators there are
Frazier, former Nonpartisan League
governor from North Dakota, stolid
and impotent; Nye, a young editor
Of baekwoods North Dakota weekly
and also a Nonpartisan Lacquer, not
quite as ponderous as Frazier but
man who is as unconscious of what
is going on and what to do about it
as the former; Dill, from Washington,
who recently married $5,00U,000 in the
Coy feminist champion Rosalie Jones;
Wheeler of Montana, an easy going
GROWER who after he has let out a
few banks let's it go at that; Howell,
of Nebraska, graduate of the navy
college, Annapolis, well trained en-
gineer and OF sincerely that is on
a par with his colleague Norris,
much above the others, but far from
a radical; Borah, Reed of Missouri,
eonstitutionalists and legalists, who
play their own games and who really
make no claim to being liberals;
Brookhart, mounting ass who has
curbed to heel and will continue to do
so; Shipstead of Minnesota, the So
called Farmer-Labor Party senator,
who is probably the biggest fake of
all.
Shipstead of the 400.
Shipstead plays the social game in
Washington and no one can do that
here and escaped unscathed. His wife
particularly is a social fan. She
chases after the big numbers in the
social-political field and apes their
foibles. Shipstead is a complete dud.
lie let's out little Murray now and
then, but more than that in the five
years of his service in the Senate, he
has done nothing.
Fundamentalist Nelson.
That completes the list in the SEN
ate. In the House the lineup is even
more pitiful. The progressives con-
sist almost entirely of the Wisconsin
delegation. The leaders in this group
are Representatives Nelson, Frear and
Lampert.
The first was national chairman of
the La Toilette Wheeler campaign.
he is an unadulterated babbitt with
fundamentalist slant. He views
everything from the standpoint of
whether it is politically expedient. He
goes in heavily for religion "of the
good old bible kind" and until re-
Gently, when he became alarmed at
rumors Of strong opposition against
him in his district, was engaged in
spending most of his time and that
OF his clerks on the government pay
roll in gathering material for book
to prove that fundamentalism was
scientific" He is now preparing
himself to go back to the hastings
to convince the suckers that he is
carrying on the banner of progress.
They Play Politics.
Nelson has been in Congress for
twenty-five years. Frear and Lam
pert are pretty close to that record.
Outside of that and the well-filled
purses they have and the property
holdings they possess, they have moth
ing to show for this service. They
are politicians whose sole purpose is
reelection. They have no more con
seriousness Of a lass-struggle than if
it did not exist. Revolution gives
them the creeps. They are as vigor-
Gus in their denunciation of the idea
as their reactionary associates.
They Drift.
This then is the lineup which will
hold the balance of power in the
coming session. They will meet this
opportunity without leadership, with
out any OF them having the capacity
for leadership, without a program, or
ideas for program, other than to
continue in office. Anything they
do will be forced on them--but it is
highly improbable that they will do
anything. The elder La Toilette, for