The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-05-09
CRIMINAL SYNDICALIST LAWS AN
INSTRUMENT OF THE BOSSES

AS I see it, the vicious criminal synd1cahsm
laws now in force are also as bad as those against
sedition. Criminal Syndicalsm laws take in
Communists. Why? Because these statutes
apply in cases of merely advocating No act
mind you! But advocating what? A change in
government control through unlawful force? But
what nonsense! No force that is unlawful Is
being used in America today. Addressing meet
ings advocating~a change in government or ar
ranging such meetings, or protesting against such
evils as have already undermined and subverted
our government are not illegal. They are merely
called SO by savage unlawful officials who take
their orders from our dominant corporations.
And none other.
And though Communists with labor behind
them, may hope to rule America that is not, as
I see it, unlawful but entirely lawful-the will
(if it is the wild of those who constitute ma
jority. And I also believe that Communistic laws,
adapted to American needs would certainly ef-
feet the desired purpose of the COMMUNISTS
government helpful not only to farmers and to
workers but to all. And should that be looked
upon as unreasonable or criminal? And should
it not be arrived at peaceably. think So
But will this program be permitted in Amer
lea? 1 doubt it. The corporation or capitalist
everywhere today is sold to the idea that its
or his reward-the reward for getting and keep
ing money, by whatever means or crimes-can-
not be too great, whereas that of the individual
without money-laborer or thinker-cannot be
too little But this is the real outrage and the
great crime.
The rewards of the individual, where he is
cunning and anti-social, as well as his corpora
ton and his bank are already too great He-has
come to set himself up as a ruler, not only of
the lesser individual but of the government it
self-the machinery and the voice of all the
people-and should here and now be put in his
proper place. He does not deserve to, and can
not wisely or kindly, use all of his wealth and
power, and will not. And therefore it is time,
since he has been endowed enough by nature
with health and skill (all of which he did not
and could not create that he be compelled to
share more equally the fruits of his ability with
those who make the world and the condition in
and by which alone he is able to function and
become what he is. And if he cannot be made
to see that, none-the- less-he can be forced to
do that. And that is what the Communists of
the world today desire, and it is exactly that
that eventually they will achieve.
But supposing now, in order to be rid of this
ILL., the Communists do combine and by reason of
superior numbers and their voting or man power
decide to take over and change this government.
But that all capitalists will call it sedition
treason, revolution, the evil and criminal over
throw of the United States. But is the United
States principally composed Of these laborers or
of its corporations? AS the capitalists see it to-
day, the right to revolt-apparently-dep on
who is doing it-not on any wrongs that may be
holding or the suppression Of the many in favor
of the few but rather the elevation of the few
as against the misery of the many. So it comes
about that it is quite all right for banks and
corporations to effect a revolution in Panama,
but not for the laborer and Communist here.
Not on your life