The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-11-30
Red Rays

ANNo ANo -
MAURICE CONNOLLY, president
LA of the borough of Queens, denies
the charge of reckless grating" in
the building of $16,000,0O0 worth of
sewers in the borough. 1t was al
legged by a political opponent of Mr..
Connolly that from one to four times
more was paid by Queens officials
for sewer pipe as was paid by other
boroughs. Perhaps Mr.. Connolly is
right. The grating may not be
reckless" when we learn that it has
been going on for seven years with
out anybody getting caught at it to
date.
ANYHOW, if the Queens officials
4 swiped the entire sewer expendi-
ture of $16,000,000, it could not be
regarded as monumental contribu-
ton to the sum total of an average
decades toll from grating in the
/ United States. "Boss" Tweed who
did his looting many years ago would
have sneezed at $16,000,0U0, and
probably would have kicked out of
Tammany Hall any democrat so lack
ing IN respect for the dignity of his
profession as to allow himself to be
caught with such paltry sum.
THAT one can look with perfect
equanimity on the trampling on
of strangers pet corns while a
similar painful indignity perpetrated
on those of friend would draw forth
from the same person, expressions of
sturdy indignation, has long been
common knowledge. We can forgive
methods used by those with whom
we agree in the furtherance of a par
ticular policy, while calling on the
gods to witness the Nervousness of
similar methods used by those with
whom we are in disagreement. No
body has been in any political organi-
cation without knowing that many
people are naive enough to attach
more Importance to the means than
to the end
AND so we find the leaders of the
a. British Labor Party, all good So
cialists, congratulating Gales, the So
cialist president Of Mexico, for putting
bullets in reactionary counter-revo-
lutionist leaders who organized a
military revolt against the govern
ment in the interests of the feudal
landowners, the catholic church and
certain American imperialist in
terests. But when the government of
the Soviet Union was obliged to stand
lwenty Czarist agents of the British
government up against a firing
squad, those same socialist labor
leaders expressed their horror and
Indignation at such 'uncivilized'' ac-
ton. Is it because the Mexican re-
dictionaries were tools of American
imperialism, while the Czarists were
doing the bidding of the British
Foreign Office?
III is reported that reporter for
one of our morning papers got fired
for falling asleep during Rev. John
Roach Straton sermon. This religious
maniac seems to WELD more power
in this city than "Scarface Al" Ca
pone yields in Chicago. The head
of an organization for the advance
ment Of atheism is held in $500 bail
for having bothered" the dominic by
sending freethot literature to him by
mail. The judge held that there was
not the slightest possibility of con-
verting Straton to anything, and that
therefore the atheist propaganda
was guilty-until proven innocent
of Fostering him. Well, as Arthur
Brisbane would say, our atheist
friend is lucky that he did not mail
copies OF an atheist magazine to
Straton when the latter was walking
on all fours, and was president of the
Gorilla Inquisition.
WHILE on the subject of preachers.
l wish to comment on a criticism
made by reader on my review of
Paxton Hibben's life of Henry Ward
Beecher, particularly the part that
deals with the preachers seduction
OF the wife of his friend Theodore
lllton. A council of methodists gave
their fellow skypilot vote of conf
dence and that settled the matter as
far as the Encyclopedia Brittanica
was concerned. Possibly seventy-five
per cent of the gathering that gave
Beecher coat of whitewash had J
seduced the wives of fellow-preacbers
or were seduced by them. The pointt
is that history is not so much corr
cerned with the seductive triumnbs
OF outstanding personalities as it is
win WIN 'helr success in helping to in
1luence. the course of events. Whether Q
beecher was guilty of the charge pre-
TERED against him or not does not
prove much beyond his hypocrisy.
ana TINS, vice we take for granted ia