The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-10-28
BY WILLIAM z. FOSTER

THE Socialist Party, taking advan-
1 tage of the terrible conditions of
the working class-men, women and
children-in the coalfields, is dang
ling before the eyes of the miners the
will-of- the-wisp Of government own
ership." Sometimes the Socialist
Party propagandistS call it national
ization.
A pamphlet by Powers Hapgood,
who deserted the miners in their
heroic battles of 1929 at the height
Of the struggle to break the strangle-
hold of the corrupt John L. Lewis
machine has been distributed widely
through the coal fields. 1t is entitled
END Slavery in the Coal Fields!"-a
typical piece of Socialist Party dem
agogy.
Every miner and every other
workers. in favor of ending slavery
lin the coal fields and in other in
dustries. 1t is upon this revolution
airy desire that the Socialist Party
banks for hearing, and it is the
proven militancy of the miners which
it tries to capitalize.
The pamphlet does not tell the
miners that government ownership
and control of mines, unless capitalist
government has been overthrown and
replaced by Workers and Farmers
Government, means not more but less
control by workers over their wages
and hours.
The pamphlet does not tell the
miners that powerful groups of coal
operators, supported by John L. Lewis
and the American Federation of La
Dor leaders, are in favor of govern
ment control of the coal mining in
dustry. They want the help of the
government in squeezing out the
smaller operators. They want the
power of the government placed d.
RECTLY behind the coal barons and
the miners placed in the position of
the poStoffice workers and other gov
eminent employees who are not al
lowed to strike, whose wages have
been cut and who have been speed
ed up the same as the miners have.
The Socialist Party, when it talks
of government ownership, pictures
the government as something Sc7'-
ate and apart from the capitalist sys-
TEN, as an agency that has the in
terestS of workers at heart and that
workers can control.
This is not only ridiculous. 1t is
dangerous. The National, state and
local governments are agencies Of the
capitalist class The only difference
under government ownership as in
the case of the strike in the Illinois
mines, where state troops were called
to break the strike, would be that
federal troops would have been used
also.
Hapgood's pamphlet says: BE
cause it will not be necessary to make
profits, wages can be far higher I'M
der naturalization"
But industries owned by capitalist
government (Which is only the
executive committee of the big en-
ployers and banks are also run for
profits. Government ownership in
all capitalist countries is a means
of exercising more control over
workers and making money for the
banks-Who are the real rulers
whether there is government own
ership or not.
The example Of the governmnt OPP
ration of the railroads during the war,
when the railway workers got an in
crease in wages, is often cited as
proof that government ownership is
better for workers. The fact of the
matter is that the railway workers
we're about to strike. The railways
were necessary to carry on Wall
Streets war.
The Hapgood pamphlet says that
under government ownership there
will be six-hour and five-day
week for miners with high wages.
There are about 100000 government
employees in the United States. The
overwhelming majority of them are
poorly paid. All of them who are
not capitalist party politicians have
had their wages cut in the last two
years. Where working time has beer
reduced to five days week wages
have been cut accordingly.
Not even the publicity agents Of
the capitalist class have ever dared
to point to the wages and working
conditions of the great mass of gov
eminent employees as proof of the
generosity of capitalist government
to workers 1t has remained for the
Socialist Party to foster this Illusion
In other countries, like France and
Germany, railroads have been owned
and operated by the government fol
years. 1t was in France that Briano
modified the railway workers into
the army to make them break Their
own strike. In both Germany and
France the conditions of the railway
workers are no better than those Of
workers in other industries. These
are facts that any worker can look
| up for himself.
The Hapgood pamphlet says:
Naturalization of coal mines
means: Regular work at shorter
hours; decent wages; more air pump