The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-09
By A. B. MAGIL

lars must have not only good
memories, but perfect teamwork
if they intend doing their lying on
the same subject. New York work
ers have been witnessing a pathetic
and highly Illuminating example of
bungling teamwork on the part of
those usually expert liars and fax
ers who still besmirch the name of
that movement which Marx and En-
gels founded by calling themselves
socialists.
On Saturday, Oct. 81, the Daily
Worker and the Freiheit carried the
revelation that Benjamin Schlesin-
ger, socialist party elector and
newly-elected president of what is
left of the scab International La
dies Garment Workers Union, re-
eeived $4,000 from Col Herbert
Lehman, banker and Tammany can
didate for acknowledgement, to
carry on his campaign against the
rank and file. In addition, the Jew
ish Daily Forward and the Amalga-
mated Clothing Workers contributed
$4,000 each, bringing the total of
Schlesinger's Campaign fund.- to
100000. The Daily Worker pointed
out that there was an obvious deal
involved. Col. Lehman didn't part
with $4,000 out of sympathy with
the lettering l. L. G. w. U. Fifty
thousand dollars are a good invest
ment if they can be converted into
votes.
Roger Baldwin, director of the
American Civil Liberties Union, was
chief authority for the information
concerning this financial transac-
ton.
Old Tammany Supporter.
That such deal was not incon-
sistent with Schlesinger's past rec
ord was proven by the publication
in the Daily Worker of Tuesday,
Oct. 80, of photostatic copy of a
letter sent by Schlesinger in 1919,
when he was president of the l. L.
6. w. u, to Samuel Untermyer, cor
roration lawyer, warmly endorsing
the candidacy of Untermyer's son,
Irwin, who was running on the dem
ocratic ticket. Just what this $50
cialist" got at that time for his SER
vices to Tammany Hall we didn't
reveal because-we don't happenato
know. In addition, we might have
mentioned Schlesinger's efforts in
1916 in behalf of the reelection of
Tammany's district attorney, Swan,
and the official committee of the
Joint Board, Cloak and Dressmak-
ers Union, which Schlesinger and his
socialist" colleagues sent in 1921
to greet Al Smith on his election as
governor.
What was the answer of the yell
low Forward, Schlesinger's personal
organ, to these charges? What was
the answer of Schlesinger himself,
who'gets $4,000 year as an adver-
Using agent for the Forward? Not
word all week. Six days of
silence. Until finally, on Friday,
Nov. 2, both the Forward and the
Amalgamated Clothing Workers
suddenly recovered their speech.
Renegade Replies.
Writing in the Advance, organ of
the Amalgamated Clothing Work
ers, the renegade, J. B. S. Hardman,
chief philosopher of "the higher"
class collaboration (of which Beck
erman's piece-work in the New York
district, his terror against the rank
and file, his fake elections are of
course cardinal principles), replied
in characteristic fashion.
"A pretty story this would have
made" writes "Comrade" Hard
man, chad not every part of it been
an ugly lie. To start with, Roger
Baldwin made no such statement.
All he did was to report some time
ago, on behalf of the American Fund
for Public Service, of which he is
a director, that certain loans were
advanced by that fund to the Inter- I.