The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-05-25
GRAFT AND CANISTER

| a fertile field in the most highly de-
veloped capitalist system. Because
of the struggle for more profits at a
faster rate, the capitalist employs
gangsters and gangster methods for
the glory Of gold"
In the A. F. of L.
Gangsterism is woven into the
whole fabric of the trade union
bureaucracy of the American Fedora
ton of Labor. To terrorize the
workers in the trade unions, to keep
the leadership in the hands of the
men that collaborate with the bosses
against the workers, the union mis-
leaders have developed one Of the
largest groupings of gunner and
gangsters in the United States. The
bosses have aided the union bureau4
cracy in this development, fearing
the real organization of the workers
in revolutionary unions and dreading
the overthrow of the fascist leader
ship Of the A. F. of L.
Why gangsterism emerged from the
soil of American capitalism more
readily than it did in most Euro
pean capitalist countries can be
found in the history Of the capitalist
system in this country Euopeaa
capitalism grew out of the feunda-
tons of feudahsm and through a
struggle between the rising capitalist
class and tn efeudal landowners. In
America capitalism developed with
out the letters Of feudalism. As
Frederick Engels put it, it developed
without any kindly disposed feudaI
background Competition reached
its highest expression in early Amer
lean capitalism, with the resulting
brutal, violent struggles.
In a letter written in June 3, 1886,
Frederick Engels, one Of the founders
of Marxism, described the origin Of
capitalism on the American CONT
nent as follows;
For America, after all, was the
ideal OF all bourgeoisl a country
rich, vast, eXpending, with purely
bourgeois institutions unIeavened by
feudal remnants or monarchial ira
ditions and without a permanent and
hereditary proletariat Here every
one could become, if not a capital
list, at all events an independent man,
producing or trading, with his own
means, on his own account"
Then there were the unconquered
and uninhabitatcd huge tracts of
land in the great West There was
the constant surge Of the pioneers,
with its violen. struggles, sAootings,
battles and wars. There followed the
gold rush days to California.
In addition" Ergo!s wrote in a
lister letter 1892, "tn2ye is the in
difference to human lie succumbing
in the struggle OF ccrlDe lion On the
pare OF a soc.a,y grown ~ on a
purely capitalist basis; the deliber-
ately~ fostered ant3g0nism and
struggles engendered by the capital
lists between the immigrant workers
who came in large numbe-s-2ll lead
ing to the growth Of corruption,
violence to an eXtremc degree upon
the very basis Of capitalism without
any feudal background.
When the capitalist state reached
its full bloom, when the free land
disappeared; when the colossal en-
ergy of the development had
slowed down. and the division be-
tween classes had grown sharper
when the capitalist class had Gre
ated its state power on a firmer base,
il did not eliminate and could not
eliminate the corruption. violence,
race conflicts and the brutal, gang
ster element that had grown up in
the infancy Of this system. These
forces were incorporated into the
capitalist structure. into its state ma
chinery and became an inseparable
part of it.
Price Fixing Rackets.
Later, with the growth of imper-
ialism, monopoly capitalism, the
justification of industry and the
development of price fixing organiza-
tons, the gangsters were drawn into
these new forms of American capt.
talism. With the postwar crisis of
capitalism, fascism began to show its
head in Italy, Hungary, Poland, Ru-
mania, Germany and other countries,
due 10 the sharpening of the basic
conflicts, antagonisms of capitalism.
The crisis reached a particularly
virulent form in the United States
beginning in November, 1929 This
ready made element of gangsterism
is now being utilized in the United
States in the development of fasciSm
the rapid disappearance of the So
called democratic rights, the open
expression of the direct dictatorship
of the capitalist class in its drive
against the growing revolutionary
STR Of