The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-07
Wall Street Names the President

The election of Hoover, carrying with it
big majority of both houses of congress, is
in no sense surprising to those political OBJ
servers who could look beneath the surface
and see behind the bombast the clowning
the almost incredible piffle that characterized
the campaigns of the two big capitalist par
ties and the little capitalist party masquer
aiding as socialist, and perceive the real
alignment of forces.
1t is too early to state definitely the exact
percentage the republicans got of the 35
senators and the All congressman. But it is
certain that Hoover, the very personification
of all that is vicious in imperialistic America,
will have a working majority that can ride
rough-shod over all opposition. That so many
millions of voters, among them heavy por-
ton of the working class, accepted the maud
lin Qualification of capitalism which is Hoov-
er's creed, is indicative of the continued up
ward swing of American imperialism in con-
tradistinction to the rest of the capitalist
world. The acceptance by the masses of the
gorified efficiency engineer" the vulgar
economist of the doctrine of increased pro-
duction, the speed-up, the hero of syste-
matically starving whole populations in i'm
perialist war, the lackey who could capitalize
the calamity of the Mississippi flood for the
bankers under the guise of saving the victims
of the criminal neglect of grating politicians
who prevented the building of adequate bikes
to stem the recurring inundation of the land,
does not convict the American workers and
farmers of idiocy, as the professional cynics
of the Mencken type would have us believe.
The enormous vote for Hoover falls in with
the MARKHAM observation that the prevailing
ideas of any given period are the ideas of the
ruling class. This holds true of all times and
places 1t is only when economic conditions
are such that the ruling class is in state of
political confusion, when the irreconcilable
contradictions of a slave system become
sharpest, in short when the old ruling class is
no longer able to rule and the subject class or
classes, as the case may be, are impelled to
revolutionary action,-it is only then that
the ideas of the masses no longer correspond
to the interests of the ruling class. The vic
tory of Hoover and the millions of votes cast
for his democratic opponent, Smith, are evil
dence that the overwhelming mass of ex-
plotted workers and farmers are not yet class
conscious In spite of widespread unemploy-
ment among the industrial workers, the
wage-cuts, the frightening of hours, the
union-wrecking drives and the fact that the
capitalist state appears more and more openly
as the enemy of the working class, the major
ity of these workers supported the parties
of capitalism. In spite of the continued i'm
poverishment of the poor farmers and the
cynical contempt with which the republican
administration scorned the proposals for farm
relief, majority of farmers also cast their
votes for Hoover.
However, not all is smooth for the fat
American capitalism.
The exact opposite forces are sharp at
work.
There are, even in this orgy of reaction,
clear indications of the approach of the time
when the masses will break away from the
parties of capitalism. This was indicated
dramatically during the campaign by the in
spring response to the Communist drive
against all the capitalist parties. For the
first time in the history of this country there
was waged widespread revolutionary cam
paign among the workers and farmers.
Proof that there is in certain sections swing
from the old illusions, is the series Of sharp
class conflicts, particularly the long drawn
out struggle of the miners, the strikes of the
textile workers, and the small sporadic
strikes in the auto industry All these are
indicative of sharpening of class conflicts
in certain industries. Countless thousands of