Pioneer

Russian Unity. MENSHEVIKS JOIN BOLSHEVIKS ACAINST "FOREICN OCCUPATION." Avanti," the organ of our Italian com- rades, recently received a telegram from Zurich announcing the re-union of the Bolsheviks and Menslieviks in Russia. According to the mes- sage the Menshevik Central Committee adopted a resolution on October 21st, deciding to support the Bolshevist regime in defence of the country against foreign occupation. It is further affirmed that as a result of the decision of the Menslieviks the Bolshevist Government has re- leased all the Menshevik leaders who were im- prisoned. The invaders are not Germans now- hut British and Allied troops.

t TO MRS. JONES. A Pew Reasons why You should Vote Labour. Your Husband's Task of Providing 468 in Taxes a Year And the Consequent Result on Social Reform. To Mrs. John Jones, 1 Housewife, 1 South Wales. 1 My Dear Madam,—-When I wrote my letter to your good man, Jo h n, last wee k —w h ic h by the voilr good man, John, last wepk-whieh, by tJw t way, T trust you read-t lie pains and heaviness j of a severe attack of Spanish 'flu had made me overlook, for the moment, the fact that you, no less than John, are going to be the object of canvassers' wiles during the coming woek; if you have not already discovered that the mana- gpl" S daughter, tlw squire's wife and the rest of them have discovered that a worker's kitchen on wash day is not a bad place for a clitat on quite a friendly footing with a worker s wife. I trust that if that visit has been paid, that you will have duly appreciated it; and that you will remember that etiquette demands a return visit on the proper "A t Home" dav. Of course, something, a thousand things, ill- deed, as I know from my personal experience as a worker's wife's husband, may prevent your appearance in the home of "my lady," in which case you will not fail to renew the friendly bond that the canvassing visit knit when next you see your visitor—whose eyas wandered so inter- estedly from your wash-tub around your little kitchen—you will not fail to cement those bonds bv approaching her on the street. Of course, if /that meeting takes place after the election vou will get an extremely warm—cut. And you know that as well as T flo, don't you. THE CANVASSERS. I Now, I have got a much keener appreciation of your shrewdness and instinct" than I have of John's—perhaps because being a mere man 1 do not understand the magic by which you jump to conclusions that are only reached after very hard thinking by myself for instance, and 1 know that you are likely to have asked your- self what possible big,^ advantage will come to your superiors oolite upper class that their women are so anxious to cultivate you for the sake of your newly given vote at this time. Noti will not believe that they do it for the reason that they are anxious to do the best for you and John and the little ones, though that will have been the reason given to yon. either by inference or direct statement, according as the canvasser was used to the work. How can you believe that when you know how these same ladies despised John and you when the .ailure of John's wage to meet the expenses of the week brought John out on strike" for an increase whilst their husband's anxiety to serve you has been amply shown by the manner in which he has fought all Jolni's demands, even when the fighting meant starvation for you and the little ones. Then was the time for these people to answer in deeds their professed con- cern for you, and. believe me, their answer w hich they then made in the shape of police and soldiers was much nearer expressing their real feelings for you than their present honeyed words, and sweet smiles and warm friendliness. Of course, John has a short memory over these things, perhaps because he was attending lodge meetings, or even picketing those days, but you cannot forget so easily because the children's cries for the bread that you had to refuse be- cause the larder was so perilously empty, still sound in your ears. If you had had the vote for some time l should not need to remind you of these unplea- sant things, for you would have studied out for vourself the connection between politics and your bosses' interests on the industrial field for yourself. But the vote has been yours for such a short period, and that period has been one of such worry to you, what of ration-books, jam shortage, and epidemic illness, that T am afraid that so far you have not stopped to think what the vote means to you, and how you should use it. If I may say so, the death announcements are still the most important columns in your paper, and a good murder or divorce are more interesting than the Parliamentary re- ports which you only glance at now and then, and infinitely better reading than the leading articles that always deal with politics in such a dry as dust manner. You don't read "leaders" yet, do you, Mrs. Jones p OUR CLASS. Because these things are true T have under- taken the ta.sk of trying to tell you why you should use your vote this time, as well as to try and persuade you to vote for Labour, because [ know that in Labour representation alone will any advantage come to you from having the vote. We of the Labour Party do not pretend like the Liberal and the Tory (who are both the same so far as we are concerned) at election time that we are out for everybody and every- thing. We quite candidly tell you that our can- didates are working men like John, and their whole concern is for the workers' good. We do not say this because we are "fanatics" and dislike the wealthy people, but because we quite mndidly recognise that the interests of the workers cannot be served at the same time as the interest of the rich, or as we say. there is a class-struggle in which John an d you have to take sides with the workers against their bosses and the landlords, though John too often in the past has made the task of his side in that "unconscious" struggle harder by voting the wrong men to Parliament. The "other side have always declared at election times that there is no class struggle, and even have done further than that and declared against the idea of classes at all by preaching the gospel of mutual interests. What they themselves think about class divisions you can guess for yourself when you remember how their papers, and them- selves always describe society in sections as the working-class," the middle-class," and 4  \,Tob tyl y cnvid,-d "s "Society," with a capital S. Nobody divided us into classes. The conditions under which we live did that, and they did it because our interests are not identical, but opposng. This division into classes takes place by reason of how a man gets his income. If he works and gets wages, then he is a member of the working-class, with v-ery little chance of ever being anything else; whilst if he gets his income from invested capi- tal, house rents or any other form of profit- making without work, lie belongs to the "middle- s-lass" or "Society," with a capital S. Ac- cording to the amount of his yearly income will lie eventua lly be a middle-class man, or a mem- ber of Society. The only way to make profits is to get a number of men to work for you, for less than the wealth they create by their labour. That surplus wealth that John creates by his labour, is what profits are made up of—nothing else—and when John goes in for a bigger wage it means nipping a hit off those profits. There you will see how the classes are perpetually en- gaged in a tug-of-war. John is pulling for a bit more to bring home, and the bosses are pulling against him to stop him from getting more, since his more means their less. That is a simple explanation of the class-war." Of lourse, John may have more if he will consent to earn more than the extra wages lie wants, but as 1 explained all that, and how it would inevitably lead to a bigger war than the one we have just been through, in my letter to John last week, will not cover that again PARLIAMENT'S PART. Parliament can play a very important part in this class-war which is always going 011. If Parliament is—as it has always been—a posses- sion of the middle and upper classes, they con- trol the whole force of the State—police, sol- diers and navy—and these they can and do use against John and his mates if they strike, and they are driven to act a little roughly because I the bosses will not give in, and things are not going well at home. Acts of Parliament may he passed restr icting the Trade Union powers, and otherw ise serving as obstacles to the workers in their fight for better conditions. Abroad the I powers of Government can be used for the pur- pose of gaining new fields for investment in the wilds of Africa and other backward spots," and this last is ODC of the bi? cause" of war -I itioii II.ItiI Oll tl'ia-ifig to gain more aijd territory for Die use of its Capitalists' surplus wealth, which cannot be used so profitably at home. Again, it Conscrip- tion is not removed from the Statute Book, and I honestly do not think that any Government but a Labour one can bring about the conditions that will allow of it being taken off-titen Jc)ltn can be called to the colours when he is on strike and made to do as a soldier what he re-, fused to do as a man. This has actually hap- oened in France and elsewhere on the Continent. To have all this power on his side it is worth the capitalist's while to go to Parliament, or send his agents and younger sons who are ear- pet-baggers—lawyers and barristers, but to get there he must have your votes, and that is whv he hypnotises J-oliii Ni-ith words and promises (that are never realised) from the platform, and why his Ailfe in(I daughters are trying to soft- wap" yon over the wash-tuh. I know that this has been a hit dry. but you will now hp beginning to see things in a clearer liht, and T can now, T think, pass On to con- sider a fpw facts in-rl figiii-es that you ought to carefully consider before voting next week. JOHN'S QUOTA. It John came home on Monday and promised you a fur-coat, a motor-car. a grand piano, and a thousand pound house. you would probably smell at his breath, or send for the doctor. You know that all those things can only be bought with money, and John has not got so much of it spare as to fulfill such promises. And just as John can only buy what he has the money to pay for. so also is the nation limited to its in- c une. We are being promised from the Coali- tion platform all sorts of expensive things of which we are badly in need including a big housing scheme. We are to have a million new workers' cottages—really we need more. Though we cannot smell at Parliament's breath, and it is unparliamentary to call a can- didate mad. we can see what the income of the nation has to sayto all these promises, remem- berins: always that they who make the promises are Capitalists, or their tools, and therefore not likely to attack capitalist interests. Now, al- though the war is over we have not stopped spending on the war. but for the purposes of this letter we will put down the interest on the war debt at its present figure of €400,000,000 a year, and add to it £ 100,000.000 for the pay- ment of allowances and pensions, for we shall not wet off for less for some years to come (and we did not ought to, for if anyone deserves the fullest support of the State it is the disabled men. and the widows and children whosÿ hus- bands' and fathers' graves avp on foreign soil where they fell fighting). This gives us a total of £ ;">00.000 000. but to it we have to add the sums to be budgeted for the need s of the State from year to year. We shall not get off there so cheaply as we did before the war for many reasons, but we will be generous and put the fhrure at the pre-war total of £ 180,000.000, bringing our sum now up to £ 680,000,000. That is all wealth and wealth is a tone created by the labour of the workers. Now. there are in the nation something like 10,000.000 wealth pro- ducers (workers) and if we divide the Budget by that- figure we shall see what each man has to nrovide. that i-, C69 per year. With such a fn\-—it will, of eojirse. be taken from John in- di recti v. lie will never see it, but still he will hav° to contribute his £ 68 for all that—but with such a burden, those houses will never come to •' tr'b. nor will aev^iiiK" else so loig as the Capitalist > con Vol the Government. They are hold's r>i"inr°d forth for the election, and if vou at-1 thinking of taking one, Mrs. Jones, don't oive your landlord notice too soon, for yon wH) n'dv tena'? nnr nf those million houses in imagination, unless you vote Labour and n jivIg""Ition. voii vote T,aboili? ,inri T know as well as vou do how necessary that million really convenient, healthy, workers' cot- tnrros are cot tr> <?oc with hot and cold water, twillS, and airv bedrooms, and conveniences f-hati a housewife wants to ease her Work, and secure health to herself, her oiffspring and her husband. Moreover, the Labour Party are going to build them if they have any real say in the Govern- ment-and that dependjs upon you and John and I and the rest of our class. I can imagine that you are going to quote that £68 wlideb I have told you about just now against me. I hope you are, for I am going to answer thai very objection with the official words of the Party, embodied in a resolution passed at our Recon- struction Conference in June—before 'the war was even looking like being twelve months off a finish, and long before this "snap election to exclude the soldier was dreamed of., But be- fore I reproduce that resolution, let me briefly tell you some of the other things that were de- cided at that conference at which John was re- presented by a delegate from his lodge. OUR DEMANDS. I That June conference declared that it was the ditty of the Government to see to it that "the standard rate of wages in all trades should, relatively to the cost of living (an im- portant point) be fully maintained," and out- lined some of the methods hy which this could be helped by Government. Respecting the pro- vision for soldiers and sailors on demobilisation the conference declared that there should be no gap between cessation of pay and separa- tion allowance and the beginning of unemploy- ment benefit; that the amount of the unemploy- ment benefit shall not be the present starvation pittance of 7/- per week, hut at least approach- ing to the combined separation and rations a1- lowance that in view of the change in the value of money the gratuity ought to be, for the pri- vate t20," but move especially did it declare it to be the duty to provide work for the soldier in situations appropriate to the capacity and desires of the men, at trade union standard rates of wages; equally careful and complete was its demands tor the discharged war worker in industry. An important question to the worker is unemployment, and this conference recognised by demanding State responsibility for obviating, so far as possible unemployment by a proper scheme of public work and services so as to keep always up to the prescribed total the aggregate public and capitalist demand for ]a- bour, together with the prohibition of overtime." Education has always been a strong point with us, and again we demanded the removal of the barriers that keeps your sons and daughters, Mrs. Jones, outside of the charmed circles of secondary and university education. A broad highway from the elementary school to the uni- versity, and a chance for the genius of your child to be developed for the good of the nation. Nothing less than that will satisfy us—more we want. Then, again, conference demanded "The million cottages of the Great Peace," and their building by the Local Authorities, aided by the Government in a real way. It even specified the I .Ipast convenience it would accept as being "adapted to local, circumstances, and soundly constructed, spacious, and healthy; including, four or five rooms, larder scullery, cupboards and fitted hath also suitably grouped, not more than ten or twelve to the acre, and pro- vided with sufficient garden-ground." Railways and canals, coal and iron mines are to remain under the control of the people, and a new elec- tricity supply has to be set up and nationalised life assurance, too, has to become the possession of the people, whilst all the agricultural land is to be controlled hy thf Government and properly used for the people. Control of processes, and prices of Capitalist industries," with centralised buying of raw material and pro- per rationing was declared for by that con- ference. All those things and more Labour set out in its programme last June, and it also outlined a provisional way of securing the money, a way only possible because the Labour Party has not to pause and sonsider profits" before reforms, but has solely to consider the intertsts of the "common folks" as you and T are called. Here is that way. Mrs. Jones, in the words of Con- ference itself. NATIONAL FINANCE. I "That in view of the enormous debts con- tracted during the war. and of the necessity to lighten national financial burdens, this Confer- ence demands that an equitable system of con- scription of accumulated wealth should he put into operation forthwith, with exemption for fortunes below £ 1,000, and a graduated scale of rates for larger totals, believing that no system of taxation only of income or profits will yield enough to free the country from oppressive debts, and that any attempt to tax food or the other necessities of life would be unjust and ruinous to the masses of the people. "Th:1t the only solution of the difficulties that have arisen is a system by which the necessary national income shall be derived mainly from direct taxation alike of land and accumulated wealth, and of income and profits, together with suitable imposts upon luxuries, and that the death duties and the taxation upon unearned incomes should be substantially, increased and equitably regraded. Tliat the whole system of land taxation should be revised so that by.the direct taxation of the unearned increment of land values effect should be given to the fact that the land of the nation, which has been defended by the lives and sufferings of its people, shall belong to the na- tion. and be used for the nation's benefit. "Tlmt this Conference emphatically protests against the subjection of Co-operative dividends to the excess profits tax and against the re- peated attempts to bring Co-operat i ve dividends within the scope of the income tax. Tliat as during the war the Government has had to come to the assistance of the banking institutions of the country, and that it has been found necessary to pay vcrv high rates for the money raised, adding considerably to the annua l burden resulting from the war, whilst the banks are now pursuing a policy of fusion such as brings them near to the position of a monopoly, the Post Office Savings "Bank should be develop- ed into a national banking system for the com- mon sorvice of the whole community." T think vou will agree with me, Mrs. Jones, that therein is disclosed a possible way of pay- ing for what we want and if those means fail- well, we can always go a little further, being nnha npered by that call for ".profits." T trust that T have ma(10it clear why you should vote Labour, and that next Saturday you and John will early place your crosses opposite the name of your candidate the Labour man. Believe me to be, Yours fraternally. t A.P.Y.

An Anthology of Aspiration.. "THE PEOPLE'S CALENDAR." It is no figure of speech to write that the people are coming into their-own. They have during the last tour years, been fighting and working for their country in, what they were told, was its hour of peril. The war-clouds are passing away, the men and boys will soon he coming back to their homes; the women and girls who have kept the home fires burning *are now preparing to welcome back their men. What sort of Britain What sort of homes are awaiting those men and boys who have risked their all? What visions have been theirs as they watched night after night under the stars? What passionate longings have been theirs for the Britain that was to be their own and not their masters. Poets, writers, dreamers, the leaders from among the People themselves have all looked forward to and waited for this day. A collection of short pithy extracts from a very great number of writers, pointing the way to the full revolutionary enfranchisement of the people, and interpreting how tliat complete en- franchisement shall come about, has been made by Mrs. Dora B. Montehore, and its now pnh- lislie(I by the British Socialist Party (21:1, Maiden Lane, Strand. London, \V,C.2) under the title of The People's Calendar." "The People's Calendar is published at one shilling net, and the booklet makes an ideal Christmas present for one Socialist or trade unionist to give anot her.

WIN YOUR OWN SALVATION VOTE LABOUR 'I (