The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-09-10

sition the consequences of which I can only
rejoice that we have escaped"
Far be it from US to becloud the serene joy
of the holy man, but may we not suggest that
he rejoices a bit too soon? 1t strikes us that
neither Hillquit nor his party has been quite
delivered" from its anti-Soviet intervention
position. Both Hilquit and Thomas pretend that
the issue is closed for good. Thomas says:
In common with most socialists I am
grateful to Morris Hillquit for the service he
has done to the party Withdrawing from the
Russian oil case. As matters now stand,
no controversy about this suit from which
Comrade Hillqut has wisely Withdrawn can
interfere with the united socialist action in the
immensely important situation which con-
fronts us here in America
And Hillquit chimes in with sweet harmony
that
The subject has become purely academic
since I have decided to withdraw from it,
. I fully agree with Comrade Thomas as
to the need of united and energetic socialist
action. 1t is with this object in view and not
in any spirit of personal rancor that I close
this quite distasteful discussion"
To which we may add with the proper in
tonation: Oh, yeah? Has Hillquit's oil suit and
the socialist" partys Intervention policy really
become purely academic? Well, not for us
And we'll see to it that this Czarist oil suit is
not relegated to the dust bins of academic liter
ature We appreciate the eagerness of the so
cialist" party to remove from sight this tell-tale
oil-suit Just now on the eve of the election
campaign it would be more than embarrassing
to the socialist" campaigners to keep this issue
alive And just now it is tremendously impor-
tant for us that the masses of workers see the
Socialist party in its true light in its utter
interventionist nakedness.
For, We cannot repeat it too often this inter-
vention program is not the personal program of
Morris Hillqut. 1t is the program of the Amer
lean socialist party and of the Second Interna-
tional Hillquit's socialist" critics, including
Norman Thomas, agree with him in principle.
Thomas is strong for compromising the capital
lists whose properties are nationalizad He makes
a strong plea for this principle in his book,
Americas Way Out" The Czarist capitalists
have not been compensated by the workers revo-
luton for their seized and nationalized proper
ties, and this constitutes an injustice" accord
ing to the cherished compensation theory of
Norman Thomas. Hillquit's effort to recover the
properties of the Czarist oil-bandits is fully in
keeping with ThomGs philosophy on the sub
ject. Hillquit's intervention program is also the
program Of the moving spirits of the Second
International. Abramovich occupies exactly the
same position, and the Second International
blessed Abramovch on his mission to help the
former Czarist capitalists of the Industrial
Party" in partnership with the imperialist Gen
eral Staffs, accomplish their plans for an armed
intervention in the Soviet Union for the pur-
pose of recovering these very oil-lands that Hill
quit is complaining to the capitalist courts
about. During the trial of the Mens8evik in
tervention band in Moscow the American So
cialist party openly and vehemently sided with
the lnterventionistS. The leaders of the Amer
lean socialist party have been raising funds and
are continuing to raise funds to help Abramo-
ich, the Mensheviks and the Second Interna-
tional carry out their unter-revolutionary &C
tivities Of sabotage and intervention against the
workers fatherland
For Hillquit and Thomas it is important to
stop playing mad and unite for common action
in the immensely important situation which
confronts us here in America" The personal
struggle for leadership in the socialist" party
will not deter the two interventionists from
common action to meet the present situation in
America, which is just as important for the
American socialists" as the world situation is
for the Second International This
indeed, calls for united socialist &C
ton" to save capitalism from revolution. Here
in the United States it is the mission of the
socialist party to direct the growing unrest
among the masses of workers along the safe"
channels of petty-bourgeois reforms, along the
channels OF loyalty to the political and economic
Institutions of capitalism. This is the mission of
the socialist" party, this is also its program in
the coming elections. This is the mission of
the socialist" labor-fascsts and racketeers in
the company unions.
Hillquits oil suit is not closed issue and not
an academic" question 1t is one of the vital
issues of the present campaign that confronts
the workers. The issue must be kept alive, and
we'll see to it that it is The workers must be
made to see that to vote for socialist" candi-
dates means voting for intervention against the
Soviet Union voting for the triumph of capital
ism over socialism, for the victory of the imper-
ialist world over the socialist fatherand of the
world proletariat Hillquits intervention policy
is of piece with the policy of the Socialists"
in the unions, in all the struggles of the workers
against hunger. 1t is policy of attacking the
workers standards of living, policy of aiding
and promoting wage cuts of smashing or be-
'aying the strikes of the exploited against star
vation conditions, of attacking and demoralizng
the unemployed in their struggle for adequate
relief and unemployment insurance While doing
lip-servce to the principle" of unemployment
the socialists" fight every attempt of
the unemployed to obtain it. The socialists"
support the fake charity schemes of Hoover and
Roosevelt and make common cause with the
capitalists in placing the entire burden of the
capitalist crisis llDon the workers