The toiler. [volume], May 28, 1920, Image 1

About The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922

Image provided by: Ohio History Connection, Columbus, OH

                
NlVSftSf,
J U N 4 ' 1920
THE
Tip a New Member
NO. 121.
Published
at Cleveland, Ohio.
CLEVELAND, OHIO, FRIDAY, MAY 28th, 1920.
Address all mall to
3207 Clark Ave., Cleveland, 0.
$1.50 A YEAR
A DOLLAR FROM YOU NOW WILL SAVE US!
A dollar from you will make it possible for The Toiler
continue its mission.
A dollar from you will, in fact, save The Toiler from
sharing the fate of dozens of Socialist papers, which had to
suspend publication because of the increased cost of product
ion. A dollar from you RIGHT AWAY, will give The Toiler
many months of continued life.
WITHOLD THE DOLLAR AND THE TOILER MUST
CEASE PUBLICATION WITHIN A FEW WEEKS.
We place the matter squarely before every one of our
10.000 readers. Give immediately your answer.
HERE'S THE TROUBLE. We have an editor who edits
the Toiler among other things. We have an office force and
many who volunteer in the work of getting The Toiler into
your hands. We have a printer who takes able charge of the
work of printing The Toiler. We have an army of boosters who
faithfully labor week in and week out getting subscribers and
thereby supply the money with which to print.
BUT WE HAVE NOTHING TO PRINT THE TOILER
ON
YOU'VE GUESSED IT! We have no paper and the print
er has no paper. The paper wholesalers have no paper. AND
WE MUST HAVE PAPER IF WE ARE TO HAVE THE
TOILER AS A STEADY MENTAL DIET.
The print paper situation is a most serious one. Most
weekly papers have spoken their minds about it and called for
help long ago. Knowing what was ahead, we had prepared as
best we could .to weather the storm for many
weeks. But now the supply we obtained is exausted. Only
enough of our stock remains for one more issue.
THIS MEANS THAT YOUR DOLLAR WILL HAVE TO
REACH US BY RETURN MAIL.
Paper production does not equal consumption. As you
might know, the big capitalist dailies get first attention, are
served first. Little, common, truth-telling folks like we, have to
be satisfied with what is left. Jit is altogether probable that
we'd never be allowed to buy even one pound of paper if
those at the top of the paper combine knew what we used it
for.
But when we buy paper, some one else buys for us. Enough
said.
Some have claimed that the paper shortage has an art
ifical aspect, that one of the motives of the thought control
lers is to silence the outspoken weekly papers which the
awakened portion of the working class supports, by denying
these workers' weeklies print paper. Shall we be victims of
this plot if such plot exists?
Something you did not know is that attempts have been
made to kiD The Toiler. Yes, and very recently.
We have had plenty of troubles. Printers we have had
have been threatened and we have had to go elsewhere. Our
office has been besieged by gentlemen who come with author
ity from the government, that is, if Palmer represents part of
it, and he does. But we managed to keep going, even managed
for months to keep in paper when other periodicals had very
difficult sailing.
Now a crisis is at hand. The paper situation has grown
steadly worse. As we said even some of the largest printers
and paper wholesalers cannot get newsprint.
HOWEVER, WE KNOW A WAY OUT. We can extricate
ourselveiLfrom the difficulty WITH YOUR HELP. We know
just what to do to buy the paper we need. We know whom
to approach to buy it for us. 1
ALL WE NEED IS THE CASH. WE MUST INVEST IN
TEN TONS OF PAPER. THIS AMOUNT WILL LAST US
FORTY WEEKS. IT WILL COST US ABOUT $2,500.
IN SHORT, WE CALL UPON OUR 10.000 SUBSCRIB
ERS TO DONATE TO THE TOILER THE SUM OF $2,500
FOR TEN TONS OF PAPER.
And we cannot buy a pound unless we have cash.
We don't intend 10 brag, but The Toiler mnst be fulfilling
a need or it would not receive the support of so many work
ers. We take it for granted that you want The Toiler to live.
THE TOILER WILL LIVE IF YOU SEND IN YOUR
DOLLAR TODAY.
We have made calls for The Toiler before. We have made
calls upon our readers asking them to put forth extra effort
to get new subscribers. Never have we asked for an outright
donation to keep The Toiler alive and doing its duty. This we
now do.
WE DO IT BECAUSE WE MUST.
We face without fear the trials of publishing a workers'
paper in this age of reaction. We have so far beaten our enem
ies. Up to now we have overcome the many obstacles in our
path. We have given you a paper for less than the cost of pro
duction for months, for the dollar a year subscription has nqt
paid production costs. While we had a balance in the trreas
uery, we felt it our duty to continue this popular price. After
all, our purpose is not to make money but to educate the work
ers. We think we have done our duty.
Having done it, we now call upon you to do yours. It is
very little we ask. ONLY ONE DOLLAR FROM EACH OF
YOU. But the dollar must come in a hurry so we may begin
negotiations for the ten tons of paper.
ARE YOU WITH US?
THEN SEND THE DOLLAR;
THE SOCIALIST PART Y CON VENTION
By Amnion A. Hennacy.
'STOMrar-'ffs aecoMFLisHMEircs
1. Killed a resolution which expressed
sympathy for the imprisonment of Jim
Lark in and Benjamin Gitlow.
2. Shut off debate find refused to
answer questions brought by the Il
linois delegation concerning the pussy
footing in the defense at Albany.
3. Refuised to seriously consider the
idea of unity as expressed by Debs.
4. Dropped the plank which called
for expulsion of elected officials who
voted for military appropriations.
5. Decided to try to form a New
International composed of "all tiue
Socialists of the world", although re
taining affiliation witli the Third In
ternational. fi. Refused to take a stand for the
taxation of church property.
7. Inserted a plank providing for
the registration of migratory workers
in order that thev might, vote.
S. Election of members of the Na
tional Executive Committee by pro
portional representation killed.
9. flag rule generously applied
against the minority; especially by the
lawyers in the delegation from New
York.
10. "Tts ULTIMATE AIM in polities
is to secure a majority in Congress and
in every state legislature, to win the
principal executive and judical offices,
to become the dominant and control
line political pnrty of the country", in
order to accomplish Socialism." '
The nbove results of the Socialist
Party Convention recently held at
New York City, in Finnish Hall at
6th Ave. and 127th St., establishes tht
Socialist Party as a Centrist factor
among the Socialist parties of the
World. Using the radical phrases of
former times and seeking to create
enthusiasm thru the name of Debs,
they nominated him on a platform and
declaration of principles which the
capitalist press has greeted as Sane
and Conservative.
LINEUP IN THE CONVENTION.
From the challenge by Kruse of Il
linois that the Call had announced
Hillquit as Chfinnan of the first day's
2ftioir befiue ho was elected by
atc. of 91 to Eugdahl's 29 until "tho
ciose of the convention the proportion
of radical votes continued about the
same. The vote of 33 to 103 on the.
majority and minority platforms; the
106 votes fcr 8tedman and the i6
vote; for Kate 0'IIare for candidate
for vice-president, up to the votj of
40 for remaining in the Third Inter
national as contrasted with 90 for re
maining in if hut forming a New Inter
national of Centrists, shows that about
one third of the convention was fairly
radical.
Kruse, Engdahl, Glassberg, Tucker,
Holland, Bircher and Walter Cook com
posed the Left Wing; Berger, London,
King, noehn, Cannon Solomen and
Karlin and Block the Right Wing,
while Panken, Hillquit. Lee, Berlyn,
O'Neal, Henry and Saltis composing
the Centre or more rational Right.
THE PLATFORM AND DECLARA
TION OF PRINCIPLES.
The Platform and Declaration of
Principles was supposed to have been
presented to the membership for con
sideration two months previous to the
convention. The statement made on the
floor of the convention by delegate
fllnssberg of New York on May 10th.
that copies of the piriform were read
for distribution on the preceding Satur"
duy was not answered by the Majority.
In fact they were published in the
capitalist press before the delegates
had an opportunity to read them elso
where.
The Minority wanted to have the
Platform and Declaration of Principles
referred to a committee of 9 to be
elected by the convention, as they did
not want the ideas of the Majority
to be railroaded through the conven
tion before tho Minority had an op
portunity to consider it as a whole,
and to propose a substitute. This mo
ticn was defeated by a vote of 5S
to SI and the matter was taken np in
the convention acting as a Committee
.if the Whole.
When the Declaration of Principles
was read not a ripple of applause
greeted it, which would seem to justify
the assertion made by Tucker that:
"The platform was written by
lawyers so that the Department
of Justice could not find any
Socialism in it. so how could
the workers be expected to understand
it." To which the Majority repiled
that if they would read it over several
times they would understand it;
which led the Minority to wonder how
many times the average worker would
have to read it over to understand it.
The Minority Declaration of Prin
ciples, while taking a bettor Inter
national and Class Conscious stand,
was rather vague and was not as clear
ly expressed as the less radica1. stand
taken by the Majority.
Kruse created applause when he op
posed the insertion in the Declaration
of Principles of that phrase from the
Declaration of Independence which
admits the Tight of revolution when
the people want it, because such a
revolutionary phrase had no placo in
the mlid declaration of principles of
the 8. P.
The majority leaders mado no at
tempt to answer the argument made
by Classberg that it was practically
impossible to obtain Socialism by
"orderly and constitutional method."
by electing officials and amending the
constitution of the U. 8.
Dreyfus of Illinois said that Berger
and Hillquit played to the galleries in
public meetings in discussing the dic
tatorship of the proletariat an Russia,
but oppose them in convention.
DISCUSSION OF UNITY.
When tho Unity question came up
the Minority wanton the Socialist
Party to recognize the due stamps ot
those, in the two Communist Mrtioi
in order to entitle anv comrades wish-
to leave these parties and accent
platform of the R. P.. to roL'nlnr
Membership in the party. The conven
tion voted to only allow them in as
new members. No attempt was made to
modify the Socialist platform as a
basi' for nnitv with Communist as
Debs wished. In fact sonic of the
extreme Ritrht wanted a nlatform that
would appeal te the Labor Party and
iNon-fnrtisan League, and denounced
the Minority platform as one which
sought to placate the Communists.
During the discussion Block of Now
York accused a leader of the Com
munists of being a spy but refused to
mention the name of the person ac
cused when ehatleneed bv Holland of
Ulili oil to do so.
THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL.
When Engdahl of Illinois rend from
the report of the N. E. C. telling of
their effort to assist in fnrmino- a
new International, O'Neal and Hill-
quu coma not refute this ract. ISngdftlU
also pointed out that those in RnMna
, - -- ---
who were heading this movement for
a new International had just recently
icrt tho and International, but had n it
responded strongly enough to their
rank and file membership to inin the
Third International.
Mover London caused hisses, o-ronns.
and laughter by his advocacy of :i
League of Nations and of our taking
part in it in order to reform it. The
Majority report was passed little dis
cussion heinn allowed fnr the finorilv
roport of Engdahl and Quick to be
heard. Berger, with his motion to
withdraw from the Third International
because of the Wed Terror in Russia
and because the Bolshcviki believed in
violence, presented one of tho most
inconsistent ipectMld of the conven
tion: it being well known that Rergor
is in favor of "defensive" wars, mi 1
favored war with Mexico a few yars
ago.
Vhen asked by Tuckor what the 3o
cialists would do, if after depending
njtetP politics to gain Socialism, they
would be denied control, Panken of
New York with a great splurge of ora
tory said that they would resort to
war. Thns Berger, who claims to abhor
the Bolsheviki because they believe
in violence, upholds political Social
ism which admittedly leads to violence.
The Minority pointed out that because
they depended practically alone upon
the ballot was the main reason why
the Socialists of Finland had to sacri
fice 70.000 lives, and then were de
feated. S
MILITARY APPROPRIATIONS.
Block supported a motion allowing
Socialists to vote for military appro
priations where the State required an
appropriation for the upkeep of a
State Militia (altho working for tho
repeal of this law), until Solomon of
Now fork, after stating that he would
vote for it under any condition and
with, waving arms declaring himself
; American pointed out that the
original motion did not specifically
prohibit such votiug, when the motion
by Block was found to be unnecessary
and was dropped. This new clause was
put in in place of the plank formerly in
the platform which provided for the
rxpulsion of elected official! who voted
for military appropriations.
y
PUSSYFOOTING AT ALBANY.
When confronted with Fix specific
charges accusing the defense of the
five Socialist Assemilymen in Alb.iny
of compromising the Socinlist Inter
nntional position and of minimizing the
class struggle, Hillquit only nttomptel
to answer one of the charges, covering
the remainder with a flow of oratory and
sentiment. Hillquit admitted that one
of the assemblymen started to make a
patriotic defense, and that they had
to squelch him He pointed out several
instances where thev could have eom-
Lpromiftjj)., inferring that they wer. ,
as bad as they might have been, liriiss
was oi ly allowed a short time to ex
plain how ie charges came to be made
when Meyer London was recognized.
He did not answer any specific charges,
but sought to becloud the issue by
more oratory. At the end of his speach
he made a motion, which was recogn
ized contrary to parliamentary law, by
Dawidow of Michigan, who as vice
chairman had with Sharts of Ohio as
chairman, been shutting off discussion
frequently.
Davidow repeatedly Tefnsed to re.
cognize Classberg, who hnd the exact
pages or tnc proceedings of the trial
at hand proving the assertions made
by tho delegation from Illinois, but
instead recognized a motion to tablo
the resolution and expunge it from the
record. The Call did not menti on the
appearance of this question at tho eon-
venuon.
I.ARKIN AND GITLOW.
The resolution condemning the con
viction of 'Larkin and Gitlow
very mild one and was of the kind
usually passed by the Committee of
48 and other Liberal organizations.
The "lawyer delegation" from Now
York Vity were its chief opponents
The Call also did not mention that this
matter was brought up at the con
vention, w
The walls and platform -were decorated
in an unnsnal large number of American
flags and bunting; the red banner of
Socialism nowhere in evidence, whih
brings, to mind the assertion of Tucker
on the floor of the convention that
"by decorating our convention with the
flag of Wall Street we cannot hide our
Socialism. ' '
May 19, 1920.
MAXIM GORKY ADDRESSES THE MONARCHISTS
I have received a number of letters
from various persons. All of them have
been writteu in a tone of mortal ter
ror and dismnl. 1 feel that those who
wrote them have all experienced mnny
dark -hours, many dark davs: that.
IVaIm I I.. ii.i. I. i ..it t..r(nr..- ,),.(
111(11 in ill If .iiiiimv iviiiii.v. v. .i
their restless thoughts do not le them
flcep.
" Wl.at has become of the good Rust-inn
peoplot Why did hcy suddenly
turn into wild beasts, craving for
bloodt" a lady writes me on a per
fumed sheet of paper. "Christ is for
gotten, hia ideas arc desecrated,"
writes Count P. "Aro you satisfied t
What has become of the croat doctrine
of love of your neighborf What has
becomo of the sacredncss of church and
religion! " ask K. Bruytan, from
Tuuibov.
Some scold and curse, others sigh
and complain i
All are excited, broken down, full
of fear at the thought of this tragic
and great epoch,
Mot having the possibility of writ
ing individual answers to thr.se letters,
1 am answering them all together. Dear
Sirs and Dear Madamoe: The days of
runishment for your criminnl indif
ference to the life of the people hnve
come to pass. All that you are ex
periencing now, all that which tortures
you so, is fully deserved by you and
I can only say and wish you one thing:
Let those horrors of life, which ffn
yourselves have created, take on still
diepcr and more intense forms. Let
your hearts becomo still more rest
less!
Ijct tenrs drive sleep away from
you! Let a storm of madness and
cruelty rage over our Fatherland and
Hum you!
You deserve this. You will be ex
hausted, but it may happen that all
that which is wholesome and honest in
your isoulds, will be purged of tho
slime and the bnseness which was im
planted there, in your souls, to which
you have paid so tit t If attention.
V Mir souls are full of vilcness. lies, a
thirst for domination and of all low
instincts.
Dear Madames: You want to know
Maxtm Oorky, famous Russian author
who early in the revolution cut hit lot
with the Bolsheviki.
what has come over the people. They
have simply lost patience. They were
too long silent. They endured violence,
without, murmuring, for too long a pe
riod of time.
Their servile backs hnve carried the
burden of the rhnsters for too long .i
time. Now they can bear it no lon
ger. T- t ill thev hnve not shnken off
entirely the burden which was placed
"i their shoulders. Yon are getting
frightened too soon, Madam! Between
v.n, what else were the people to do
but turn into wild bents! What have
you done for them to expect different
results! Hnve you ever taught them
anything good; have you sown in
their souls seeds of virtue?
During their entire lives you utilized
t In It labors, their last loaf of bread,
without even understanding that yon
were committing a crime. Yon were
living without asking what you were
living on; without inquiring where lay
the force that fed you. By the bril
liancy of yonr attire you kindled the
Vnvy of the poor and the unfortunate
When you went to your country hornet
and lived side by side with the ptal
r-nts, you looked down upon than
rom ntiove, as though they were u
ontenst race.
They, however, understood. They are
gon.lniitnred. Rut you mode them
wicked. You held your feasts, in which
they, the outcasts, could not partial
pate. And yet you want them to be
prut of ul' Your songs, your music, could
not afford pleasure to the hungry
people. Your frivolity, mixed with con
tempt for the peasant, could not
nwnjeon in his soul a respect for yon.
What have you done .for hirnt liava
you tried to enlighten IiimT No. you
have rather tried to obscure his mind!
Ard von wnnted him to wise
after all thisf Oh, no. you did not
even think of it. The peasant in your
eyes was a sort of cattle. When you
poke to him you treated him us a
savage. Yon did not even want to
behold a human being in him. Is it a
wonder th.m that he has now turned
into a wild beastf
Madam! Your question expresses not
only ignorance of life, hut alio tho
i aypocnsr of a enm
guilt, but does not
l is crimes publicly.
You knew, yon
knowing, how the
human being who
must avenee himself
humnn being who is
has no pity for
clear. Moreover: it
inal whr feels hia
want to confess
could not help
peasant lived. A
is being beaten
sooner or later. A
treated mercilessly
anybody. This is
must he so.
How can yon look for mercy, for
eompafsion, in the heart in which vn-i
;wed vengoanoct Madam! In Kiev
the irood old Ruskinn folk threw ..t
of the window tho celebrated manufact
urer Hrodsky. Tho governess was also
thrown ont. Rut the tiny ennarv, which
was in its cngo, was not harmod. Do
reflect on this occurence. This little
bird awoke a feeling of pity for it
at a moment when hnman beings
were being thrown out of the window.
Evidently, outraged henrts atill have
room for pity. But this pity is not for
human beings, aa the hnman beings
(Continued on page 4.)