The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-09-15
What Has Millionaire HilquiI to
Do With Socialism?
BY I. AMTER.
Prisoner No. $3.50.


and that he (Cahan) has progressed with the
times Norman Thomas, liberal can }date of
the Socialist" party, in letter to the Tele-
gram openly disavowed himself of MarXism
and year or so ago vigorously advocated the
change of the name of the party to conform
more to the ideas of Cahan.
Hillquit Yields the Baton.
Morris Hilquit, millionaire lawyer and "emi-
nent MARKHAM" is the theorst of this capt.
talist party, and such was chosen to de-
liver the keynote speech at the N. Y. state
convention OF the socialist" party. His speech
showed we'll that the question is Justified:
What has Hillqut to do with MarXism-what
has the socialist party to do with Marxism?
The worker is not interested in scientific
names-he is interested in the methods that
will lead to his liberation from the system of
exploitation. unemployment, low wages muir
derous speed-up, imperaist war. MarXism is
the science that analyses capitalist society,
establishes the principle of the class struggle
the struggle of the working class against
the capitalist class-the necessity of over
throwing capitalism and of establishing the
proletarian working class) dictatorship.
MarXism establishes the economic basis and
also the political principles out of which are
developed policies, strategy and tactics lead
ing to the revolutionary goal
he People S Candidates.
The working class and the capitalist class
have nothing in common. Their interests are
opposed to each other A political party rep
resents the interests of one or the other class
and to pretenl that it can represent both
classes or the people" generally is to lie. 1t
is an attempt to hide the class struggle and
to make the workers believe that their inter-
ests can be represented and promoted by
party of the people" This is the claim alike
of the republican, of the democratic, of the
Socialist party. This means that they all
represent the interest of the dominant class
the capitalists, despite their phraseology. The
national socialist" party of Germany is an
extreme fascist party having the aim to estab-
lish fascist dictatorship, yet it's platform
contains radical" working class demands"
The American Socialist party parades work
ing class demands" but we shall see what re-
lation they bear to Marxism, the science of the
proletsrian revolution, when millionaire
MARKHAM Hillquit, member of the executive
committee of the Socialist" International, ex-
peun led them in his keynote speech at Schen-
ectady.
Democracy" Constitutional Guarantees"
Finally, capitalist government is supposed
to be democratic" that is the so-called
rights of the people" are alleged to be guar
anteed by the constitution and Cannot be
Marxism poses the proetarian die
tatorship against the capitalist dictatorship
which is in force today. This capitalist die
tatorship uses democracy" at a time when
capitalist production needs an awakened work.
ing class to do the work, that is, when there
is greater need of skilled labor With the
passing away of this need, owing to the in
PRODUCTION of the automatic machine, division
of labor, speed-up, etc, the skilled workers no
longer play their former important role in
production and masses of unskilled and semi
skilled workers take their place. This de-
velopment is part of the system which also
brings about mass unemployment, low wages.
speed-up, imperialist war, ETC., against which
the workers fight.
Then democracy with its guaranteed
rights" disappears and the capitalist dictator
ship shows itself in its real form-open, or
gained state violence, which in our day takes
the form of a fascist dictatorship. Every
capitalist country of the world today is either
a fascist dictatorship or is rapidly developing
in that direction-this including the United
State, signs being anifested on all sides
Hush. Hllquit Speaking!
What has Hillquit to do with this MARKHAM
analysis? Or, what has the preacher, Norman
Thomas, the standard bearer of the Socialist
party, or the whole Socialist" party to do
with it?
Let millionaire Hillquit the MARKHAM"
speak! He spoke at Schenectady about the
economic crisis which faces the people of
America, and was worried because paper
milionaires of yesterday have become paupers
today. The smaller concerns are fast drifting
into bankruptcy" 1t should worry the work
ers lot that millionaires and smaller con-
Germs are going bankrupt-but Hiquit sheds
tears because section of the capitalist class
suffers from the crisis The MARKHAM saws
that the worker and capitalist have nothing in 4
common and that their interests are antagon-
istic. Therefore "the people" of which Hill
quit speaks is the capitalist class still domnat-
ing the workers.
The Cause" For Unemployment
What is the cause of the economic crisis,
which extends throughout the world? Even
conservative bourgeois economists admit today
that it is overproluction-too much produc-
ton, which finds no markets. According to
Hillquit, it is an act of individual capitalists
or groups OF them. He speaks of the wheels
Of industry being arbitrarily stopped" Hilouit
is intimately connected with Burns Bros, coal
dealers, and the office clerk could readily tell
him what is the matter The matter Is mar
Sets which cannot keep up with production,
his taking on an international scope, and
being combined with a world agricultural
'rlsis and meeting with a general decline of
capitalism in certain countries produces an
crisis of the most serious nature.
Does Hillquit see that this is inevitable |
inder the capitalist system, and not the re-
ut Of the "arbtrariness" of capitalism? He
ioes not-he is only worried about his mil
ionalres being reduced to paupers!