The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-03-11
By HARRY CANNES.

MILLIONS of jobless workers demand Work
h or Wages The capitalists, through their
police and courts, reply with brutality and
jail sentences. On the top the imperialist ex
ecutives in the government, answer with lies
about declining unemployment, lies about fu-
ture conditions. This barrage of fakery is not
new. At the very beginning of the crisis every
capitalist spokesman first denied there was a
crisis or any unemployment. Now that this
lie has been showed down their throat by mil
lions of workers who came out on the streets
on March 6 to demand Work or Wages, again
we get a stream of ev-smelling bunk. Nor
will this stop the fight for unemployment in
surance and the organization of the morgan
lied to fight wage-cuts and the attempts of the
bosses to shift the burden of the crisis on the
backs of the workers.
On the first of the year, every capitalist
politician and economist became a prophet.
What were their prophecies? What were their
analyses of business conditions? By their past
fruits we shall be able to understand their pres
ent outcroppings.
On January 1, 1880, millionaire Mellon, sec
rotary of the treasury said: During the win
ter months there may be some slackness of
unemployment, but hardly more than is usual
at this season o Teach year."
this season of the year," Even Green, strike
breaker n-chief of the American Federation of
Labor is forced to admit that unemployment
is about as bad as it was in the severe crisis of
1921. With 43 per cent of the building trades
workers unemployed, and % per cent of all
workers in the A. F. of L. walking the streets,
this. to Mellon, is usual" 1t is usual for
Mellon to picture 100000 workers starving.
Robert P Lamont, secretary of commerce
voicing the views of Hoover then said: 1.-The
nature of the economic development of the
United States is such that one may confidently
predict, for the long run, continuance of pros
perity and progress"
What has happened is continuance of the
progress of the growth of the unemployed army
and the decline of imperialist economy
Then up spoke w. C. Clark, vice-president OF
S. W. Straus and Co., mortgage bankers and
supposed authority on building activities:
"The construction industry is now confidently
looked upon as the industry which will save
us from the business collapse, cushioning the
decline in business activity and stimulating the
forces of recovery" New York Evening Post,
Financial and Business Survey, Jan. 2 193O).
This is the crudest bunk yet spewed by the
capitalists in the present crisis. The same line
is slung by Hoover. Lamont, Klein, Green and
Davis But what are the facts? Building thus
far has declined over IS per cent below 1929!
Hoover's public works building program has
completely collapsed (Annalist, JAM, Feb,
March, all the figures of the F. W. Dodge
Corporation, and those published by Mr.. Clark's
own outfit, the S. w. Straus and Coz This
"cushon" has not absorbed the tremendous
shock of capitalist decline.
Naturally we would find William Green do
ing the predicting stunt along with his capt.
talist friends Green overlooked with exhuber-
ance and confidence in the capitalists who make
lit possible for him to receive 100000 year
So he said "The presidents conferences have
been effective in checking this drift toward
pessimism With the great back-logs" of pros
perity assured by public service institutions
and governmental work as we enter 1880, we
can look ahead with confidence"
The only thing that the presidents confer
ences have been effective in" is instituting
mass, drastic wage cuts for the workers. thanks
to the assistance of Mr.. Green, Mr.. VOL, Mr.
Lewis and the other misleaders What has this
assured prosperity amounted to? There arc
100000 jobess in the ranks Of the A, F. of l..
alone. Steel production has dropped Is per
cent. Freght-car loadings are 20 per cent be-
low last year. Automobile production is down
but we will come to that later. The outlook
for the workers in the A, F. Of L., along with