The daily worker., 1927-01-04


state department would wish, as "a
mission of mercy" but as a robber
expedition to protect loot already
taken from a defenseless people.
SO keenly does the Morgan-Coo-
lidge-Mellon administration at
Washington feel its awkward posi-
ton as its dollar diplomacy stands
stripped naked before the world,
that the president himself is forced
to throw aside the mask Of white
House spokesman" and make his
plea direct to the subsidized press
for better capitalist propagandizing
of the American people.
Coolidge calls it embarrassing
the administration" for the peoples
of this nation to protect against the
war on Nicaragua. He demands
press support of "the government
in its foreign relations" But there
is the handicap that no war has ac-
tually been declared, no civil liberty
suppressing espionage act functions,
as in the last war, with the result
that the real purposes of death-deal-
ing warships, flying the. stars and
stripes in the Caribbean can be
made known on a large and increas-
ing scale. The workers and farmers
can have no excuse not to know all
the details of "The Star Spangled
Banners" most recent depredations
in Central America and, knowing
the schemes of American dnvest-
ments" combat them in the interests
of the oppressed at home and
abroad 1t may be that the cloak
of censorship may be thrown over
the truth to some extent, according
to the censorship established by
Rear Admiral Latimer, Wall Streets
agent on the job. Latimer, with
Kellogg's state department claim
ing to be in complete ignorance,
put a quietus on radio stations in
the neutral zones on the Nicaraguan
east coast. Thus Coolidge's ultima
tum delivered at the White House
may intimidate some Independent
editors and beat them into line. But
even the capitalist press Of the
United States, servile as it is, will
stand in ridicule before the world,
if it tries to hide all the truth, with
the press of all Latin-America and
Europe ablaze with the real mean
ing of "Uncle Shylock's" most re-
cent adventure in Central America.
Silent Cal" undertakes an impos-
sible hushing expedition when he
sets out to explain that he does not
think, in the words of the Washing
ton correspondent of the Chicago
Tribune, that either American citi-
zens or newspapers should criticize
the administration in such a way
that the world at large will get the
impression that the country is not
united behind the president and his
state department"
The same correspondent declares:
President Coolidge considers
that the press is interested in pro-
noting American commerce. -"
In this Silent Cal" is quite cor
rect. The capitalist press is but the
lackey of the profit-taking interests
and as such is very anxious to pro-
mote the interests of its masters.
But there are broad anti-imperial-
istic sections of the producing popu-
lation, in the city and on the land,
that force even their old party
spokesmen in congress to raise the
fight against the interests" of COM
merce. This alone explains why
Senator Wheeler, of Montana, pro-
missed the introduction Of a resolu-
ton in the senate demanding the
withdrawal of the dollar-fagged
battleships from the trouble zone.
Wheeler takes up the struggle while
Senator Borah, of Idaho, head Of
the senate foreign relations COM
mittee waivers and hesitates. Even
the kept press cannot turn deaf
ear to the anti-war demand in con-
gress. 1t cannot remain silent in
the face of the ceaseless assaults
originating in foreign countries. The
great masses of the people OF the
United States will therefore con-
tinue to get some of the truth in
directly, where 1t will not come to
them first hand.
Now the workers also have q
Communist press to throw the spot
light of truth on Washington and
Wall Street.
Coolidge continues the old hypo-
crisy when he feels that the kept
press Should make plain that 1t
supports its government when 1t
(the government) protects Amer
ican interests at home and abroad"
But the American interests" that
Coolidge refers to are the "inter-
ests' only of the 13 per cent OF the
population of this country that owns
30 per cent of the nations wealth.
The 81 per cent of the population,
the workers and farmers, have no