The daily worker. [volume], November 21, 1925, New York Edition, Magazine Supplement, Page 3, Image 9

About The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
Conservation and Thrift Day
THURSDAY, the fourth day of “Edu
cation Week,” the capitalist press,
pulpit and paritcularly the public
schools deluded the children and
grown-ups with the capitalist slogans
of industry and thrift. It was “Con
servation and Thrift Day.”
This slogan contains the most sub
tle, menacing poison for the working
class. As a means of mentally stupe
fying the slaves in industry in ranks
with religion and patriotism. Hun
dreds or thousands of workers actu
ally believe that the solution of la
bor’s ills lies in practicing those capi
talist virtues of industry and thrift.
Day after day this illusion is care
fully fostered. In the columns of
newspapers, from the pulpits, on the
moving picture screens, on screech
ing cards in the street cars, on the
backs of pay envelopes, in the house
organs of the slave pens of industry,
by every conceivable means of public
ity the workers are implored to work
industriously and save a portion of
their earnings each week, “for that
is the road that leads to prosperity."
On every hand the sovereign work
ers in this unsurpassed democracy
are regaled with the wondrous tales
of industry and frugality. After the
worker has received his wages and
has paid for the necessaries of life
for himself and family he is told that
he can save a part of his income by
placing it in the bank where it can
draw interest. This is called “mak
ing money work,” or “making money
make money.”
LET us see how this thing works
out in practice. All banks claim
that their greatest desire, as benefac
tors of the American people, is to see
the entire population open savings ac
counts and draw interest on their
money. Os course there is no possi
bility of any such thing happening
because of economic facts we shall
presently set forth. But let us, for
the sake of getting to the bottom of
the question, assume that such a
-£)>i*g.#d baWien. When all the work
ing class has deposited a certain
amount of its earnings in savings
banks, who then would produce the
surplus-value with which to pay in
terest on this money? Since money
itself possesses no properties that en
ables it to increase in value, and with
every person in the nation depending
upon income from savings, it is cjear
there would be no income for anyone.
Everyone would starve to death ex
cept those w'ho proceeded to apply
their labor power to machinery and
raw material in order to produce the
necessaries of life. In fact a nation
of savings bank depositors would be
the greatest calamity that could be
fall the banks for the simple reason
that they never could, by any strat
egy, devise a method whereby the
110,000,000 people in this country
could realize interest off savings,
therefore the whole banking system
would collapse.
Apologists for savings banks will
charge that we have reduced the thing
to absurdity and that there are cer
tain benefits to be derived by the
working class establishing small sav
ings accounts. We shall examine this
claim in the light of economics and
see where it leads us. The average
worker receives the value of his la
bor-power—that is sufficient to enable
him to recuperate the strength he ex
pends in production from day to day
and to raise and educate offspring
that will take the place of this gene
ration of wage-slaves. In order to
save money the workers proceed to
practice thrift. They economize on
the necessities of life. The result is
that those industries producing neces
sities are forced to curtail production.
The decreased demand forces the cap
italist to decrease the number of his
workers. These workers eventually
flood the labor market and thru fierce
competition the wages of labor sink.
These wages keep sinking as long as
the workers keep saving. Instead of
raising their standard of living by
practicing these capitalist virtues, the
working class lowers its standard of
living, until the point is reached where
they must, of necessity, practice the
most rigid frugality in order to main
tain a standard of living a trifle above
that of Chinese coolies.
QIURELY it would be a sight for the
gods to view the spectacle of
labor struggling for years to raise its
standard of living, only to voluntarily
surrender its gain under the delusion
that by saving part of its earnings it
would elevate itself to the position of
the capitalist class!
“Work and Save” is a slogan orig
inated by the capitalist class for the
purpose, of befuddling the minds of
the working class. The whole propa
ganda of industry and thrift is aimed
toward making more docile slaves.
DANISH LABOR DELEGATION GREETS
LENINGRAD TRADES UNION COUNCIL
LENINGRAD, U. S. S. R. (By Mail) —The Danish workers’ dele
gation that is now in the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics recently
visited Leningrad where they studied the conditions under which the
workers carry on production. While in Leningrad they visited the
Trade Union Council headquarters where they exchanged greetings and
discussed the manner in which the unions are functioning in Soviet
Russia.
The delegation was very much pleased with the reception ac
corded there) by the Russian workers and expressed their desire to
come into closer relations with the trade union workers of Russia.
The delegation also visited the trade union museum, which is con
trolled by the Leningrad Trade Union Council, and visited the club
rooms maintained by the Russian unions where the union members
gather and discuss the economic questions that are facing them.
A Danish non-party worker, Skium, who is in the delegation and
had visited Russia in 1919, declared, "In these six years wonders have
been accomplished. Even the untrammeled imagination of a sympa
thizer with the Soviet Union would have been unable to imagine the
great metamorphosis which has actually taken place. Instead of a
hungry, exhausted, ruined Petrograd, I see a bustling town with con
tinual economic and cultural progression.”
The other members of the delegation expressed their surprise at
the conditions existing in Russia and promised upon returning to their
country to tell their brothers there about the astounding progress that
Russia’s workers have made in the short time that they had the reins
of government in their hands.
The Danish workers’ delegation consists of six metal workers, two
chemical workers, two food workers, two sailors, a printer, a municipal
worker, a mail carrier, a transport worker and an unskilfed worker.
The well-known Danish author, Nuigord, is accompany the delegation.
The chairman of the delegation is a social derti’octat, Adamson, and the
Secretary a Communist, Schulz.
* * * *
MOSCOW (By Mail). —The Czecho-Slovak, Norwegian and Danish
workers’ delegations and the working youth delegations from France,
Belgium, Germany, Hungary and a number of other countries met in
Moscow and joined the Moscow workers in the celebration of the Bth
anniversary of the proletarian revolution.
Protest Massacres at Canton
By JAMES H. DOLSEN.
The Euro-American Returned Stu
dents’ Association of Kwangtung prov
ince, China, has published a pamphlet
entitled “Massacre of the Chinese Peo
ple in Canton, China, by British and
French Armed Men on June 23, 1925.”
Much has been heard about the mass
murders committed by the British,
particularly in Shanghai and by the
Japanese at Tsingtao. This article
deals with a typical imperialist action
in the leading city of southern China.
Great Britain, according to the
pamphlet, is faced with the contradic
tion that while her effort to control
When the worker understands eco
nomics, when he is able to analyze
this system of wealth production, he
percieves that those who do the work
of the world never become wealthy,
while those who do not work, but
who own the machinery of production
and distribution, revel in the most
extravagant luxury. Those who work
cannot save very much and those who
save most do not work.
Better conditions for the working
class cannot be obtained by following
the advice of the capitalist class. In
stead of voluntarily reducing its stand
China’s finance and to subjugate her
industries hare been effective, the
parallel attempt to dominate the coun
try politically thru subsidizing various
native politicians and militarists have
been failures and have resulted finally
in uniting the Chinese masses solidly
against foreign imperialist in general.
Dum-Dum Bullet Christianity.
Cantonese last June declared a sym
pathetic strike against the British
and Japanese of that city as a result
of the events in Shanghai. The demon
station took the customary form of
a parade, participated in by workers,
students, merchants, and military
cadets. As it was proceeding along
the Chinese street, which runs paral
lel to the island of Shameen, a con
cession owned by the French and
British, the British marines opened a
sweeping machine gun and rifle fire.
There were over a hundred casualties
among the Chinese. Not a foreigner
was injured nor a shot fired in reply.
The pamphlet contains reprints of
various official correspondence with
the English consul and others. Among
these is a copy of resolutions un
animously passed by the American
staff of the Christian College at Can
ton, stating that the procession was
marching peaceably and unarmed
when fired upon. Members of the
staff itself as well as its student body
were kmong the injured. An official
declaration by Foo Ping-Sheung, com
missioner of foreign affairs for the
Canton government, to the British and
French consuls, charged that the
students and unarmed sections of the
demonstration had been picked out for
3
. By H. M. Wicks
ard of living thru savings accounts,
the working class should constantly
strive to obtain more of the product
of its labor so that living would be
more tolerable.
rnHERE is one system of saving that
will benefit the worker, but the
greedy capitalist class never recom
mends this efficient kind of saving.
The worker cannot save by working,
for his sole wealth is his labor-power.
If he saves intelligently he will pre
serve this sole wealth of his, instead
of playing the dolt and squandering it
in the interest of the capitalist class,
only to be thrown on the industrial
scrap heap when the last bit of en
ergy in his body is distilled into
profits. The worker should save his
physical energy by refusing to so ex
haust himself in one day that he
cannot recuperate for the following
day. Workers can save intelligently
only By fighting to reduce the hours
they spend in the slave pens of in
dustry, so that they may have more
leisure, live longer and conserve their
vitality, physical and mental, wbi6h
they sell to the bosses. They should
strive for higher wages, not to save
money, but to live better and longer.
Hard work only increases the prof
its of the capitalist class and saps
the energy of the working class. In
stead of being concerned over the
“natural resources” which are con
trolled by the capitalist class, the
working class and their children
should be shielded from the frightful
devastation of child slavery.
The one method for the workers
most effectively to conserve its're
sources is to drive out the capitalist
class as owners of industry and turn
production from profit into production
for use. Against the poison propa
ganda of the capitalist class we raise
the slogan for the workers to rally
to a labor party of their own, so that
they can definitely break with the
old parties of capitalism that exist to
conserve the interests of the capital
ists and destroy the lives of the work
ers. With that accomplished' '
step in the direction of working class
political action among the broad
masses can be realized. As Commun
ists" we consciously strive to lead the
masses forward to the revolutionary
overthrow of the capitalist govern
ment that defends and protects the
despoilers of the working class and
establish in its place the Soviet gov
ernment of the United States.
slaughter and that the foreign soldiers
would have charged into the Chinese
city, but for the presence of the
cadets. That preparations had been
made in advance for the slaughter is
evident. On the morning of the same
day the city was full of rumors that
the British had predicted an attack on
the foreign quarters by the Chinese.
Moreover, soft-nosed or dum-dum bul
lets were used in the machine gun
firing, contrary to all the rigles of
European warfare.
The pamphlet, is illustrated with
photographs of the. murdered Chinese
and views of the destruction caused
by the reckless shooting.
Pay in Pre-War Marks.
WASHINGTON, D. C., NoV. 20.
American creditors with pre-war
claims against German firms are en
titled to payment in American dol
lars with Interest accrued during the
war, according to an opinion of the
United States supreme court.
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