The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-02-18
World Front
BY HARRY CANNES

EXpress-Tr Train Events
War Against Whom?
They See the Handwriting
THE speed of the develop-
1 ment of world events in
the past few weeks is amaz-
ing. Not even on the eve Of
the outbreak of the last world
war was the situation so tense
as it is now.
War is on the order of the dav in
Abyssinia, Mussolini is determines
to enSlave that country. All Africa
Will feel the shock of Abvssinia,g
resistance. All Arabia will shake al
the prospect of a battle against
tascism's new chains around the
Red Sea.
War against the Soviet Union ia
more uppermost today in the minds
and deeds of world capital than at
any time since the DAYS of civil
war and intervention in Russia. The
very haste Of Roosevelt's turn in
Soviet relations is Thermometer
reading showing the rising war
fever. Japan is marching more ar
rogantly towards the Soviet border
for inspired reasons. Britain. while
underwriting MusSolini's war adven-
ture, is aiming at greater battles.
Hitler took the cue. He has accepted
the Anglo-French pact in principle.
He asked for an exclusive confer
ence with the British war-makers.
He knows they will understand. He
knows the real aim
All these maneuvers are not timed
for long drawn-out affairs. They are
gagged for rapid-fir action. The
ground is beginning, to burn beneath
the feet of world capitalism. In
some places like Spain, the fire is
white hot. Eel Debate" organ of
Spanish fsscism, recently raised the
alarm of new maturing uprising
of the Spanish toilers. Strikes. i'm.
employment demonstrations of gle
gantic proportions are engulfng
England, France. Belgium Rumania.
and other European countries.
ENGLAND, which prided itself on
- being the soundest economically
of the lot, is developing rotten f1s=
sures. Scandal, fraud, bankruptcy.
crop to the surface. A Stavisky- type
scandal breaks out in England.
Hardly had the British press pulled
itself up over British capitalisms
recovery when a financial crash
answers "liars!" Reginald McKenna,
former Chancellor of the Excheuuer
head of the powerful Midland
Bank; Sir Hugo Cunliff Owen, head
of the $170,OO0,00O British American
Tobacco Co., are found neck-deep in
the mire of one of England's great
est financial scandals.
But like the Stavisky scandal, this
is only a symptom, a perpetual re-
minder of the instability of capital
ism in its apparent strongest point,
1t is warning to the masters that
the slightest jar near the top en-
dangers the whole delicately- shored
structure. In previous column we
briefly discussed the rising struggles
of British labor which are sending
tremors down the spine of Parliaz
ment.
British capitalism. in this situa=
ton, accelerates fascist and war de-
velopments throughout all Europe
and Asia.
AT home fascism is encouraged.
a Mussolini is egged on for African
bloody adventures.
Hitler is invited to arm exclusively
against the Soviet Union.
Japan is pressed to strike the first
blow, the signal for that war that
British imperialism has never for a
moment left out of it's every major
consideration.
Time is short. The world anti-fas-
cist front is growing holder, strong.
er, more on the offensive.
In the Soviet Union, socialism be-
comes mightier, towering giant in
development and in defensive
ability
British capitalism is faced with
elections and the prospects of
third Labor governmental third
only in number, but not in the tenn
per of the masses behind it. Hence
the British shareholders pray and
work for war to try to turn the tide
internally and externally.
Roosevelt has done his share. But
mass strikes loom as one of the
greatest plaques of Wall Street. How
the New Dealers must hope and
strive for war to help them out.
The question for Wall Street is war
against whom? And that question
has been answered by Roosevelt
against the Soviet Unionl A war of
Japan against the U. S. S. R. Dol
lars, guns, boatloads of goods would
stream across the Pacific. Japan
would be obligated, mortgaged and
ultimately weakened. The Soviet
Union, the main enemy would be
assaulted. Wall Street finds the
prospects desirable.
The next few months will see this
whole situation, much broader,
sharper, deeper, than sketched here,
intensified.
A new round Of war and revoB=
tons are the handwriting on the
wall-and the capitalists have good
eyes.