The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-08-31
Told You So

WHEN Fred Marvin, the enterpris-
ing gentleman who furnished
Red scares to the bankers and the
daughters of the American Revolu-
ton, at so much per scare, was
found guilty of libeling a prominent
pacifist woman and soaked to the
tune of $4,000 damages, it was
feared that worthy successor to
Fred would be hard to find. But
Matthew Vol, q vice-presiden5 OF
the American Federation of Labor,
learning that Fred got all his
secret" information about the do
ings of the Communists from the
columns of the Daily Worker,
stepped into the vacuum and is now
peddling the same line of green
goods that brought his predecessor
much notoriety and some cash for
several years.
WHO'LL is not a chicken-feed peddfer
F" of Communist "plots." He is a
big merchant. Any newspaper that
agrees to run Mats picture and an
nounce the fact that he is an Of
fetal of the Civic Federation can
have brand new ''plot" as soon as
Matt has time to read the Daily
Worker. If the Daily Worker pub
fishes a resolution on new tactics in
trade union work adopted at a con-
gress of the Red international of
Trade Unions, or speech by Com
rade Bukharin on the political stu
alton in the United States, Matt
begins to have labor pains and de-
livers "Red Plot"
UNFORTUNATELY for Matt, the
capitalist editors are beginning
to get sick of his stuff. Marvin was
more clever. Fred issued his scares
through prominent society ladies',
who had to be played up anyhow in
Difference to their status in society
and their connections with the pow
ers that be, behind department
stores and corporations that carry
on extensive advertising campaigns.
The newspapers also know that
Matt fears the Communist propa-
ganda because his job is at stake.
When the workers get wise to Matt
and his fellow-labor takers, they
will no longer pay him fat salary
for betraying their interests to the
employers and sitting down with
the grand moguls of finance who
spend most of their time thinking
up schemes to break strikes and
make the open-shop universal in the
United States.
I ABOR DAY is nearing, but now
~ adays it is robbed of whatever
working class significance it had
previously. Though the labor move
ment Of the United States was the
original prepayment of May Day as
the rallying day for the workers of
leaders set up the first Monday in
September in opposition to the first
of May. Until recent years the
central labor bodies in the various
cities held parades on Labor Day
with whatever unions that happened
tc be on strike at the time, or, most
recently, taking the part of honor
in the march.
OUT, nowadays, strikes are tabooed
- by the reactionaries, and in most
cities picnics have taken the place
Of parades. These affairs no longer
have much if any labor character.
High moguls of the state and city
governments are invited guests and
in the City of New York prominent
militarists have places of honor. In
Denver, Colorado, a scabby labor
paper by the name of the Colorado
Labor Advocate announces that the
Denver Post of the American Legion
is giving an American flag to the
best uniformed union and that the
labor hating newspapers are giving
q loving cup for the best float.
THIS is only another straw which
L shows which way the wind is
blowing in the old trade unions. The
bureaucracy has plumbed the depths
of betrayal. They have gone over,
body and soul, to the employing
classes. Most of the reactionary
labor leaders now have substantial
stakes in the capitalist systems.
Their loot is invested in industry
and they are just as willing that the
workers should be exploited and
kept tamely at the machine as the
bosses of industry.
THIS period marks a definite turn
ing point in the history Of the
labor movement in this country,
and, indeed, in every country. What
it taking place here is an interna-
tional phenomenon. 1t is true that
in Europe the reactionary trade
union and political leaders of So
cialist and labor parties parrot
more radical phraseology, but, in
practice, they are all of the same
stripe. Social democrats in Europe,
leaders of the British labor party
and the bureaucrats of the American
Federation of Labor are all playing
the same role, serving the interests
4 ~. !