Montana labor news., 1935-01-17
DRIFTS AND RAISES
(This column contributed by Butte
Miners Union No. -

Inc Register IS d ItnSlOuo PaPSl
published in Helena. In the issue OF
December %, 1884, appears an article
which seems to show that some at
least, of the red-baiters and a%pologists
for capitalism are coming to favor a
new policy. The article deals with an
address by one Captain Rothernick,
delivered to the Newman Club of Mon
tana State University and entitled "A
cure for Communism"
Rothernick says in part: 1.-THE only
remedy for bad propaganda is good
government The present drive
against Communism (by civic and
patriotic organizations is blessed with
much more sense and holds promise
of much more success than previous
red hints 1t is questionable wheth-
err a show of force ever made an i'm
questionable citizen love democracy
o or Communism less" Does not
this prove that even a red hunter can
think, that he has decided there is
something slightly wrong with a sys-
TEN that makes billionaires and bread
lines, that concentrates so per cent OF
the national wealth in the hands OF 4
per cent of the population, that des-
troys food and cotton while people 60
hungry and walk in rags? Yes, some
of these modern red hunters are get
ting smarter than their prototypes who
dubbed the l. w. WIS. Brute force
is still used but they are beginning to
think about basic causes. Education
will be used to persuade the suffering
and exploited people that our free in
stitutions are the best.
Referring to the longshoremen's
strike, Rothernick says there were agi-
tators but few Communists. 1T can
be confidently said that most of the
leaders and the great bulk of the men
under their control are simply would
be capitalists, with nothing whatever
to capitalize upon but their labor"
There is a lot of truth in this state
ment. But that is one OF the main
reasons for a working class press and
literature, to convince this class that
they cannot become capitalists without
exploiting their fellows, that the sys-
tenn is immoral, wasteful and rotten
to the core, that they must throw their
lot in with their class and rise or fall
together.
And how true it is that the workers
have nothing but their labor power.
They are the dispossesed, the disin-
herited class. But that is the very
reason why they form labor unions
and why they seek to persuade the
would-be capitalists in their ranks that
the only hope lies in collective strength
and mass action. And when they do
become powerful and stage an effec-
tive strike, then the owning class
screams thru the subsidized press and
radio, you are being directed from
Moscow You are trying to over
throw our American institutions n
Then the vigilantes, the gunner and
the other dregs and u Of the pro-
fit system are called into action.
Quoting further from Captain Roth
ernick "But ! do condemn some who
have mistaken our liberty as a license
Ito propagate doctrines incompatible
with our free institutions" Liberty is
a relative term, depending on whose
liberty is meant. In one case it means
the liberty Of a handful Of m~illionaires
and paracites to exploit the rest Of
people and in the other it means the
liberty OF a man to work at low wages
and under bad conditions or starve.
1t is plain that Mr.. Rothernick does
not like radicals nor those who re-
fuse to accept low wages and accom-
panying misery and poverty without
protest. We refer him to the pre-
amble Of one of our free institutions,
the Constitution of the United States,
also Article / and Article 4 of the
amendments. Article 4 says in part {:
"The right Of the people to be cur
in their persons, houses, papers and
effects against unreasonable searches
and seizures shall not be violated :"
Remember the vigilante raids in San
Francisco last summer? No one was
ever punished for those vicious, I'M
excusable violations of the Constitu-
ton, Article A.. But it makes a diff
ference, whether you are a 100 per
cent American, protecting the profit
system or whether you are a worker
striving to raise your status from that
of an exploited slave to a self-respect-
ing citizen with a decent standard of
living.