The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-14
The Farewell Address of George
Washington the Little.

w I1lG
Calvin Coolidge, who will continue to be
president of the Wall Street Empire until
March H. 1929, made a speech on Armistice
Day in which perhaps he intended to equal
Washington's farewell address. And the
principle he wished to give mournful world
that will soon lose him as a ruler, he pro-
nounced in the inspiring phrase:
Preparation Limitation and Remuneration"
What does it mean? Preparation" he
explained, means more war cruisers, the per-
manent adoption of the system of conscrip-
ton in war; and the expenditure of many
more hundreds of millions of dollars for war
equipment with both eyes on Great Britain
as the rival Imperialism against whom to use
it. And Limitation" means a policy of
maneuvering to limit the military equipment
of all possible rivals, while remuneration
means lying to the masses OF the world
about peaceful" intentions of the war max
ers, so as to facilitate the war preparations.
The whole purpose of Coolidge's speech is
recognized by the capitalist press as that
of propagandizing in favor of a monster
navy. The rest is flowers. 1t is true that
his miserable pawn-broker's soul made
Coolidge lick his chops over the one hun
bred billions of dollars which he said the
United States spent on the last world war
"half the entire wealth of the country when
we entered the conflict" But the whole
tone of the speech as well as its content
showed that Coolidge meant this as his final
strut upon the stage as the worlds best
saber-rattler
There is absolutely nothing funny about
it, though.
Behind the ridiculous figure of the little
Massachusetts strikebreaker, is in fact the
most terrible war machine ever known in
the history of the world. Coolidge described
the war machine of the Wall Street Empire
in 1917-1918 with the words:
"The great organizing ability of our indus
trial leaders, the unexpected strength of
financial resources, the dedication of
tire power under the universal service
law, the farm and the factory, the railroad
and the bank, 1900, 900 men under arms and
100000 in reserve, all became one
mighty engine for the prosecution of the
All together it the greatest power that
any nation earth had ever assembled"
And all the increase that he asks for, and
more, will be added to the gigantic military
and naval power of American Imperialism.
There seemed to be in Coolidge's words even
a wistful jealousy of the immeasurably
greater opportunity that his successor will
have to play with the lives and deaths of
tens of millions of men in the imperialist
war to come.
Seldom has even an absolute monarch
gone SO far as Coolidge did in bluntly NAM
ing the nations against whom he intends the
use of the ornaments he asks for. Of course
Great Britain is first among the capitalist
nations to whose naval strength he COM
pares the naval strength of the United
States. Already the imperalist rivalry has
gone so far that the rulers forget to con-
ceal their thoughts. The reference to Bri-
whom his marines are making war, as "our
outlying possessions" and the plea for more
ships, tell two-thirds of the story. The I'M
told third is that which relates to the am
bition to destroy the Union of Socialist
Soviet Republics. But on the whole this
little would-be George Washington has made
his farewell address fairly clear. 1t is a
shrek for war, shrek for conquest of
world, and a shrek of envy of the bigger
Imperialism which will succeed the imperial
ism of his own administration.
The working class and the working farm
ers of this country should study the utter
ances of the heads of the enemy class Their
cry for more machinery of war, means war.
1t will again be called ''the war to end war"
and defense of our country" but it will be
just what the last war was-except much
bigger and blooder-a war of imperialist
conquest.