The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-02-14
CURRENT EVENTS
BY T. ]. O'FLAHERTY

THOMAS A. Edison is alleged tol
i have answered $50 questions and
discussed the hereafter on the eigh-
tieth anniversary of his birth. He
has been following this routine on
every birthday as far as | can re-
member. The great inventor should
try his hand at inventing a new way
OF spending his birthdays. Of course
it is quite possible that Mr.. Edison
says "umph, ugch" and leaves it to-
the ingenuity of the reporters to fill
ir the rest. And since reporters are
not famous for ingenuity they simply
look up the files of the papers on
Edison birthdays for the past twenty
years and send the result to the COM
posing room.
Whether Edison believes that there
is a life after death (what noble
bull?) is not near as important to
the working class as that Edison's
inventive genius should be COM
mercialized in the interests of prof
its rather than used to tighten labor's
burden and help the producing class
es secure more of the good things in
the bosom of nature that await the
touch of some mechanical Midas to
be turned into commodities more
precious than gold for the use of hui
man society. Edison's speculations
on the hereafter may be more inter-
esting than those of Harry K. Thaw,
the moron, but they are equally fu-
tile.
THE worker who votes the demo-
i cratic or republican ticket because
his father and grandfather suffered
from the same kind of political
myopia should take lesson from his
superiors, using Supporters" in the
sense that those who are able to
amass the most money are the cream
of humanity. Henry Ford once ran
on the democratic party ticket
against Truman H. Newberry for the
coveted office of senator from Mich
iean. Ford lost because he did not
spend enough money. Newberry lost
because he spent too much. Ford is
now for Calvin Coolidge, who has as
much individuality as one of Henry's
automatic machines. William RAN
dolph Hearst, a democrat, favors
Calls election. The fetish of party
regularity is dropped into the dis
card when it suits the purposes of the
capitalists. is it not about time the
workers should consult their own in
terests and burn the capitalist politi-
cal bridges behind them.
Coolidge's proposed partial disarm-
ament conference will be held, in the
opinion of a New York Evening
World correspondent. But he cynic-
ally observes that the peace-makers
will meet, talk and depart without
getting any nearer peace but consid-
erably nearer the next war to end
war. So many leaks have developed
in the White House diplomatic boiler
that Coolidge kept his lips tighter
than usual about his plan for a re-
duction Of naval armament confer
ence. Had the news leaked out Wall
ObIeeI UGdIo AulSAS hlohS q hAAAAhS III
steel and other stocks that perk up
when the drums beat and the bugles
call for carnage but drop when a
decoy pigeon is sent out from one of
the capitalist dove-cotes.
T T. Walton Newbold, star performer
J.at recent banquet given here I'M
der the auspices Of the New Leader,
socialist party organ, in letter in
the current issue of the Nation,
rushed to the defense of the British
and American oil companies, who are
represented by the renegade as little
Red Riding Hoods clasping hands for
mutual protection while travelling
thru the commercial jungles infested
by the wild beasts turned loose by
the Soviet oil monopoly. Mr.. New
bold, with the parting goodbye" of
the foreign office fresh in his men,
DRY is availing himself of the oppor-
tunity to spew his venom against the
Soviet Union before American audi
ences.
Continued on Page TaVo)