The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-08-11

not justify" etc. ETC.
This is just little passage from an editorial
in the current number of the Nation the
standard weekly organ of a section of liberal
ism which includes the softer type of middle
class "Jeffersonian" reformers, LaFolletites, a
section of semi-labor journalists, ex-preachers
and portion of the leaders of the socialist
party, most notably the Reverend Norman
Thomas
The quoted words are from what appears on
its surface to be defense of the New Bedford
strikers in what the Nation calls "the jolliest
riot that ever came to our attention when
240 pickets were arrested on July 80"
"Some $4,000 strikers have fought for six
teen weeks against 10 per cent wage cut, and
still there are almost no strike-breakers in the
mills sounds almost like praise of the fight
ing qualities of the workers.
And Judge Frank Miliken of the third dis
trict court does not reflect credit on Massachu-
sets justice by his handling of the New Bed
ford strike cases." (Here we see that the
Nation is slipping into the thought methods of
liberalism its concern is already shifting away
the matter of credit upon Massachusetts JUS
tice'') Then the editorial begins to clarity its
point: the real complaint is that 'the statute is
very vague" and what the Nation wants is
that every striker shall be able to know "whe-
Their he is committing crime or not when he
walks on the picket line" For,
I'm some cases Judge Milliken has ruled that
mic atin in larU hers is wit
out a permit in other cases he has called such
picketng common-law rioting. His rulings
are the more remarkable because the strikers
were not molested in forming large picket lines
in the first three months of the strike. PER
HAPS THE POLICE WERE TOO LENIENT
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE STRIKE IN
THE FACE OF THE RECKLESS DEFI-
ANCE OF LEFT-WING LEADERS, but that
cannot justify Judge Millken in deprivng the
\ workers of recognized legal rights" (Our
emphass9
This is the political essence of this dirty
strike-breaking editorial:
The editors of the Nation realize that the
fight of the textile workers owes its success
largely to the tactics of forming large picket
lines in the first three months of the strike, >"
and they regret the success of these tactics and
think perhaps the police were too lenient at
does not fail to see the source of the successful
tactics in ''the reckless defiance of the left
wing leaders,
Here we have it ALL The Nation" must Gre
ate an impression that it takes sides with the
strikers, though not precisely saying so. But
s'the police were too lenient' in not doing some
thing more effectively to remove the "left-wing
leaders," and the strike-breaker judge made a
mistake in that 'the strikers were not molested
in forming large picket lines in the first three
months of the strike" The Nation" is really
complaining that now the beans are split, the
left-wing leadership has proven that it can lead
"a strike, that it can organize an effective union
and can provide the only tactics that win. And
now there must be, ON the part of the capitalist
Judge and police, some of that inconsistency
which is the bugbear of liberal fools, in order
to break the strike destroy the union jail the
mass leaders of the workers and restore the
control in the situation to the mill owners, the
notice and their agents, the right-wing leaders,
Rattv. Binns and company, the political cou-
sins of the Reverend Norman Thomas and the
strike-breaking socialist party.
So this is liberalism!
The workers of New Bedford and Fall River
should thoughtfully take warning from this
strike-breaking editorial which expresses a GER
tain mood of the petty business class that forms
a. basis of liberalism and the socialist par
- This class cannot consistently be relied
upap by the working class in, any real test