The daily worker., 1934-12-26
'YULE' CAROLS
HIDE RUMBLES
OF NEW WAR
Workers Face Increased
Starvation As New
Year Approaches
By Milton Howard

war drowned Cne DlDlnR OIL CHrlSJ-
mas carols, and the gaunt miseries
of the capitalist crisis stalked I'M
impeded through the capitalist
lands of the world as Pope and
president, priest and stockbroker,
sighed yesterday over the pieties of
a legend that has the supreme vir-
tue of being profitable to capital
ism.
In Washington, D. c., Roosevelt,
having spent a happy year dis
pensing more than two billion dol
lars for the building of the biggest
war machine in the history of the
country, basked in the self-com-
placency of hopes fulfilled.
1--WE have seen fulfilled this year
many things that a year ago were
only hopes" he said
Calls for Unity" Of All
He called, with no less hypocrisy
than usual, for all Americans, ex-
ploiter and exploited, Wall Street
and Hooverville. landlords and their
evicted tenants, bankers and the
foreclosed farmers facing pauper-
ism, the bloated and the starving
"to serve and dwell together in
unity"
At the same moment came the
report from the War Department
that the Army had just awarded a
81 ,656.394 contract for the immedi-
ate construction of "A new war
planes. This follows on the heels
Of the recent purchase of 80 new
bombing planes, and ITO attack and
pursuit planes.
Urgent war building is following
the heightened tension between the
big imperialist rivals. Japan, Britain.
and the United States. The Naval
conference has collapsed. Day and
night, the battleships are being
rushed to completion as Davis.
Roosevelt's representative abroad,
uaneuvers against Britain and
Japan for supremacy in the world
markets and naval power.
If the millions of workers who
Yesterday went to the grocery and
butcher stores found that ther pay
envelopes had shrunk in buying
power since last Christmas, the ex-
planation was Forthcoming in a re-
port which shows another price ad-
vance Of l. 85 per cent for November.
bringing the cost of food to a peak
% per cent higher than last March
when the benign Roosevelt took
Office.
Meanwhile, Roosevelt prepared to
give consideration" to the proposals
of the recent secret conference of
industriahsts at White Sulphur
Springs regarding wages, open shop,
and reduced relief.
Confer with Roper
1t was considered significant that
the associate of Roosevelt in yes
terday's Christmas festivities was
Secretary of Commerce Roper, who
addressed the National Association
of Manufacturers in New York.
pledging them action on six points
covering increased profits.
AS Congress prepares for session
within the next two weeks. plans
to slash the real wages of all work
ers through initiation, along with
further devaluation of the dollar.
loom as prospect made necessary
by imperialist world competition for
markets.
At the same time the slashing of
all Federal appropriations for re-
lief came closer as a reality through
open preparations yesterday by
leading administration spokesmen
to block all attempts to halt Roose-
velt's balancing of the budget at
the expense of relief appropriations.
Relief cutting will be major item
for the next Congress.
22.o00,O01 on Relief
Meanwhile, workers and relief
rolls, despite all attempts to de-
crease their number, have increased
to 22,000,000.
In Europe, the capitalist coun-
tries were an armed camp, with the
capitalists in each country fearful
of the growing hatred of the masses
and the impsrialist war plans of
their capitalist rivals.
The presence of the Soviet Union
in the League of Nations and her
peace policy becomes ever more
clearly evident as major bulwark
against war.
Yesterday France chose a new
military chief for her army, Cen
eral Maurice Gamelin as the Hitler
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