The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-01-20
POLICE Who CLUB,
JUDGES Who JAIL,
SHOW PARTY need
By ALBERT WEISBORD.

against: that is tire question.
A strike is also an aveat thu
clears the brain of the worker, He
learns IN an unforgettable way who Is
his friend and who is his enemy.
L. S. Government Is Boss Machine.
During the Passaic strike, the class
character of the state was clearly re-
vealed to the workers. Day by day,
ample evidence was furnished that
the American government is ma
chine controlled by the bosses, and
that the capitalist state is merely an
instrument of force to keep the work
ers in subsection whenever they dare
to fight for better conditions.
Boss Government in Passaic.
Let us see what the workers learn
cd about government-city, state and
national government during the Pas
sale strike.
1. Police and police clubs. The
workers learned that these are used
to break up picket lines and to cripple
men, women and children, fighting
for better conditions.
2. Sheriffs and deputies. These are
the reserve troops of the bosses, sent
in when the police failed. The sher-
iff had two jobs: to shoot to kill the
workers who fought their bosses. ard,
where that was not necessary, to
throw them out Of their homes, and
establish "riot law" where all civil
liberties for the workers were to be
wiped away.
Textile Bosses Own City Government.
3. The mayors and commissioners
of public safety were found to be
controlled body and soul by the own
ers Of the textile mills. The COM
missioner in Passaic operated bust
ness through which he obtained spe-
cial favors from the textile operators.
The mayor of Garfield was an open
employee of the Botany Worsted Mill.
And so on.
4. The judges-who were they?
One judge owed his appointment di-
rectly to the mill owners and was d.
rectlv their agent Another was a
member of the Chamber of Commerce,
and was himself an open shop en-
ployer. These were the local record
ers. The "higher-ups" were more re-
fined. but of the same stripe.
State Government Versus Workers.
5. The state officials The state
secretary of labor McBridge, used
his office to spread such lies as that
the mills in Passaic are the cleanest
in. the world, that, they pay their
workers the best in the world, that
the bosses in Passaic are the most
intelligent in the world. etc At the
same time, Governor Moore ratified
the sabre. In various speeches, he
exhorted the citizens, practically, to
go on lynching bee and by sheer
force to drive the union organizers
out of Passaic. Then he tried telling
the workers to go back to work and
then he might do something to settle
the strike.
Nor did the state legislature fail
to show where it stood. "For or
Against" 1t passed legislation that
refused protection otherwise accorded
to the kind of picketing that was
going on in Passaic.
Federal Government Versus Workers.
6. "Our' national government.
Millionaire Secretary of Labor"
Davis told the workers that he was a
worker once, and that therefore they
Should go back to work and stop be-
g.,
not stop being "dirty foreigners" then
he, Secretary of Labor Davis himself,
would deport the whole blooming
push. AS for Coolidge, he was too
busy at that time seeing Charleston
dancers to notice the Passaic strikers.
As for members of congress, how
could they pay attention to the Pas
sale strikers when they were busy
protecting the Passaic bosses by an
IS per cent tariff? By means of this
tariff, the good congressman showed
how they could protect the "infant"
industries of this country so that such
s'infant" industries as the $50,000,000
Botany mill could club down the
workers here, just as the Dawes plan
is doing in the German plants of the
Botany mill. Every possible lie, from
the lie that the strike leaders had
100000 in Russian gold to the mean
est SANDER, was peddled by Senators
Edge and Edwards of New Jersey,
both of whom knew where their bread
is buttered.
How Government Fought the Workers
1t was no wonder, therefore, that
during the strike the workers learned.
They learned that the police closed
down all halls and meeting places of
the strikers during the critical per-
iods of the strike. That wholesale
arrests, searches, and seizures were
made illegally and legally That the
hnion headquarters were raided and
nnion officials seized and thrown into
Jail. That the prisoners arrested were
tortured inside the cells, given far
eical trials under heavy bail and then