The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-07
Bv ROBERT MINOR

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EVENTS Of sharp class struggle
Il caught up with and swamped
General Johnson's conference be
fore even its first day was finished.
The open shop moguls-Teagle of
Standard Oil, Swope OF General
Electric, and Pierre S. Dupont
sought to build dam against the
rising flood Of class struggle. But
the class struggle flood is rising
more rapidly than the concrete can
be poured.
The purpose of General Johnson's
field day Of criticism" undoubtedly
was to form a protective shell
around the real conference Of big
industrialists and bankers which
begins in Washington this morning.
The hearings last week were given
the character Of 'labor's" and "little
mems" opportunity to present their
case. For this reason, on the plat
form with johnson were exhibited
the stuffed shirts of the social
faScists-Willian Green, John L.
Lewis, Sidney Hillman, ETC., while
DUPONT, Swope and Teagle were
held in the background. Every
thing was given the character as
much as possible of q working
peoples" affair. In the Offing, not
yet openly and formally enrolled as
full partners, were the direct lead
ers of the Socialist Party.
Never before was the desperate
dependence of the strikebreaking
trust heads upon the officials of
the American Federation of Labor
so clearly exhibited.
THE Socialist Party, decidedly dis
turbed by the course of the class
struggle in America, which is driv-
ing large numbers its members to
the Communist Party, and severely
shaken by the Austrian events
which have blown up the whole pro-
gramatic theology Of the Second
International, was unable either to
participate or to fail to participate
without severe costs. For the "five-
ring circus General Johnson and
the open shop finance-capitalists
had arranged a program Of labor
leaders jumping through the open
shop hoops at the crack of the
Generals whip. The Socialist
leaders had to jump through the
hoops or else to fail to jump. The
Socialist Party leaders have really
from the very beginning supported
the monstrous strike breaking pro-
gram of Wall Street known as the
MIRA. From the visit Of Morris
Hillquit and Norman Thomas to the
new President Roosevelt at Wash
ington, up to the present days, the
Socialist Party leaders have dozens
of times exhibited their support of
the N.R.A. in all of its strike break
ing character. But in nearly al
cases there had been enough con-
fusion thrown around the issue by
the radical yerbage of social
fascism to conceal the real meaning
from thousands Of sincere workers
who are misIed by the Socialist
Party.
At the washington hearings,
amidst rapidly moving events which
exposes the MIRA. in more naked
character as a brutal drive against
the living standards and political
rights of the American workers -
it became impossible to avoid taking
stand either for or against the
N. r. A. This became necessary
partly as a result of the fact that
the Communist Party appeared and
forced the issue clearly by openly
denouncing the N.R.A. as a great
offensive against the American
working class.
The Socialist Party was compelled
to throw the dice. In a press re-
lease of the text of Louis Waldman's
speech, issued to the press before
the hearings, Waldman said:
1--WE support the N.R,A. for the
good it has done in abolishing
child labor, abolition of home
work, and the principle it csta5