The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-10
By JOHN PEPPER

WHAT are the outstanding facts
" Of the elections?
The two big capitalist parties con-
Quoted lively fight for the con-
troll of the huge state machinery of
the United States. Unlike 1924,
there was no third" capitalist party
in the field. The working class was
represented by only one party, the
Workers (Communist) Party of
America. The socialist labor party
is fossilized sect, which long since
eliminated itself from the pulsing
life of the class struggle. The So
cialist party of America, which still
claims to be working class party,
has been transformed completely
into a party of small businessmen
and progressive" intellectuals.
The class relations between the
Communist Party and the socialist
party were characterized by the fact
that the Communist Party claimed
the inheritance of the 1920, Debs
vote, which was a working class ex-
preston of revolt and protest
against imperialist war, whereas the
socialist party put forward its claim
to the petty bourgeois LaFollette
vote of 1924.
A Victory of Finance Capital.
The elections demonstrated the
complete bankruptcy of the farmer
labor movement. The farmer-labor
parties of the northwest lost all
their significance for the working
class and became petty-bourgeois
tools inuthe hands of the capitalists.
The Official" organized expressions
Of labor, the American Federation
Of Labor and the railroad brother
hoods. were divided, partly support
ing Hoover, partly Al Smith, but
they were one in manifesting their
eagerness to uphold the present cap
italist system of society.
The outcome of the elections is a
republican landslide. Hoover car
RED not less than 40 states and re-
ceived 444 electoral votes, as against
states with 81 electoral votes for
Smith. The huge, hitherto unsur-
passed number of 22,000000 people
voted fer Hoover. The 1917 million
votes for Smith represent about
twice as large a vote as any demo-
cratic candidate ever received and
equal the largest vote any success
full republican candidate ever got
before. The capitalist press halls
the registration of 43,000,000 voters
and the actual participation of from
IS to 80 million voters in the cleo
ton as the greatest triumph of
American democracy" Reality
shows that the mobilization of these
vast millions of voters, the over
whelming majority of whom are
workers and poor farmers, is big
victory for imper;alist reaction.
The Reasons of Republican Victory
What are the basic reasons for the
tremendous Republican victory
Without giving detailed analysis
we want to enumerate at least the
most significant ones:
l. A considerable improvement
in the economic situation Of the
country during the last few
months, which strengthened the
illusion of the masses about ere
publican prosperity"
2. The ability of the repub-
lican party to mobilize the forces
of the Protestant Church, the ku
klux Klan and the American
Legion.
3. The superior organization
and finances of the republican
as compared with the democratic
party.
A. The tremendous pressure ex-
crcised by the manufacturers and
other employers on the workers in
favor Of the republican party
5. Besides these general rea-
sons, there was a sectional rea-
son: the. effects of the Industrial
ization of the south, which made
! it possible for the republicans to-.