Jay Lovestone

“ It was this dictatorial procedure on the part of Coolidge that uprooted even the faintest semblance of organization that the Bankers' Committee would allow the men.
Because of the policy of the mailed fist pursued by Coolidge, the big capitalists from coast to coast placed laurels on him and sang his praise to the tune of "Thank God for Coolidge." The employers rejoiced and the workers gnashed their teeth. It was Coolidge's unyielding hostility to unionism that made him a national hero of the enemies of labor. ”

“ Many liberals, semi-Socialists and so-called Socialists have, since the ascendancy of Coolidge, to the executive chair of the Presidency passed sleepless nights pondering the legal formal responsibility of Coolidge in the 1919 Boston Police Strike. These lovers of the pure truth of the law and adamant adherents of abstract justice, whatever that may be, have been saying that it's all a lie, that Coolidge never broke the strike of police, that he is getting away with credit which is not due him, and that he has therefore been "made by a myth." ”

“ On this day marking the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence from those who exploited our forefathers in 1776 it is time for us to think very seriously of the necessary steps to be taken for signing a new Declaration of Independence—a Declaration of Independence from our exploiters to-day.
We can proudly tread the paths beaten by our revolutionary forefathers. They can teach us much. ”

“ What the Government's proper functions are in the eyes of Coolidge was made clear in a speech he delivered at the commencement exercises at the Holy Cross College, on June 16, 1920; President Coolidge said in part: "Unless property owners had proper safeguards of constituted authority, transportation would clash, industry would shrivel up, all property be destroyed, and all incentive to effort perish. All our freedom comes from the support of the constituted authority." ”

“ Every city, besides, is arming an independent company to protect their committee and to be employed against the government, should occasion require. Not a justice of the peace acts except as a committeeman, Abolishing the courts of justice was the first step taken." The American revolutionists set up a very effective dictatorship to uproot all those loyal to the government of the exploiters and oppressors at that time. Anybody who did not declare himself on the side of the revolution was treated roughly. ”

“ Since the continuation of the Civil War the American capitalists have been consolidating their hold on the resources, industries and government of the United States. But since then there has also been developing a definite proletariat. The proletarianization of the United States has been increasing at an accelerating pace since 1893—the time marking roughly the disappearance of free land and the establishment of the basis for capitalist monopolist control of the basic resources of the country. The struggle waged in the first revolution must be continued by the American workers to-day. ”

“ If we put all the emphasis on our prosperity, that prosperity will perish, and with it will perish our civiliation. Employer and employed must find their satisfaction not in a money return but in a service rendered."
In answer to the vice-presidency notification speech of Gov. Edwin P. Morrow of Kentucky, in 1920, Pres. Coolidge further said: "No one in public life can be oblivious to the organized efforts to undermine the faith of our people in their Government, foment discord, aggravate industrial strife, stifle production, and ultimately stir up revolution. ”

“ Let us examine these "eternal truths" that are hurled so gratuitously by the exploiters at the workingman.
It ill becomes the defenders of the bourgeois class which is a small minority of our population to speak of the sanctity, of the inviolability of majority rule. American democracy to-day is the most crass, tho in spots well camouflaged, expression of minority rule in the interests of a minority, at the costly expense of the vast majority of the population, in the world. ”

“ Coolidge's loyalty to the open shoppers and capitalist reactionaries is given the blanket indorsement of our financial and industrial overlords in the following estimate of the country's chief executive by the president of one of New York City's greatest banks: "Coolidge is a man with a thorough knowledge of basic economics, and in his public life has demonstrated the fact that he is a sane and constructive force in government." ”

“ When the capitalists were laying their plans to drive the American workers and farmers into the infernal slaughter in Europe, the Massachusetts employers did more than their bit. And in the Bay State's preparedness drive and other activities to insure the maximum force to save Dollar-Democracy, Coolidge was more than there. ”

“ It has been said by no less an authority than Admiral Mahan that the American revolution was really won on the high seas in the naval battles between the fleets of Spain and France on one side and Great Britain on the other. ”

“ Tho the Democratic Party was about to face a national election Woodrow Wilson, then President, thus wired Coolidge on his gubernatorial re-election: "I congratulate you upon your election as a victory of law and order. When that is the issue all Americans stand together."
The New York Times of November 4,1919, said editorially: "The one vital election, the one in which the whole country takes a keen interest, is in Massachusetts. Governor Coolidge's energy and courageous action in the Boston police strike gave him a national reputation and won him national respect. ”

“ We are reduced to the alternative of choosing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated masters, or RESISTANCE BY FORCE. THE LATTER IS OUR CHOICE. We have counted the cost of the contest, and nothing is so dreadful as voluntary slavery. ”

“ Indeed, so finished a product did Coolidge turn out to be that Judge Field, his law partner in Northampton and a first-rate politician himself once said: "Calvin Coolidge is a shrewd politician. He has learned the game of politics from the bottom up."
A Machine Man
President Coolidge is a firm believer in the party machine and party loyalty. In actual every day life, loyalty to the Republican and Democratic Parties means loyalty to the employers and financiers who operate and finance them. ”

“ Professor Edgerton has well summed up the role of foreign governments in helping bring the first American revolution to a successful conclusion when he said: "The war had lasted long enough for clear-headed Americans to recognize the extreme difficulty of bringing it to a successful conclusion without foreign allies." ”

“ Addressing the "Boston Business Men" in November, 1920, he boasted that his election was the best proof of the fact that "Labor" has been laid low in its aspiration to power. He reminded his friends, the Boston Bankers, that in January, 1920, he had, in an address before the Dartmouth Alumni, warned organized labor to keep in mind that it could not live without the law and that the election results bore out his contention one hundred percent.
Finally in the recent anthracite coal miner's strike, President Coolidge pursued the same strategy he followed in the Boston Police 5trike. ”

“ It is my desire that each citizen of Massachusetts should have the equal protection of the laws and be supported to the extent of the power of the Commonwealth in his right to pursue a lawful occupation. ”

“ The American workers have splendid traditions to live up to. Comrade Lenin has well pointed that out some time ago. Our traditions of struggle in the first American Civil War in 1776, in the second American Civil War in 1861, in the subsequent heroic battles against the railroad capitalists, the coal kings, and the oil barons affords plenty of inspiration. ”

“ Tho Coolidge may not be as wealthy as his predecessor, Harding, yet he is where he is today primarily because of his powerful banker-friends who have influenced, guided, and made his policies for years. ”

“ In the bourgeois sense of the word, Americanization is a very dangerous thing. In the bolshevik sense of the word, Americanization at once affords a hope for the future and practical results in the present. ”

“ Workers Know Coolidge as Enemy
In explaining his refusal to reinstate the policemen Coolidge boasted:
"There is an obligation to forgive, but it does not extend to the unrepentant. To give them aid and comfort is to support their evil doing and to become an accessory before the fact. ”

“ The workers took seriously the slogan of the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. While the wealthy stayed at home, or often hired substitutes to fight for them, the workers, the mechanics, the poor farmers had to go to the front. ”

“ The people had been under the delusion that they had fought an eight years' war for the rights of man and at the time of the formation of the constitution many towns objected strenuously to this further limitation of the franchise, Dorchester claimed that men might be 'useful and respectable members of society' even if they did not possess £50. ”

“ A government which does that is a reproach to all civilization and will soon have on its hands the blood of its citizens. I have resisted and propose to continue in resistance to such action."
Such bitter hatred did this revengeful attitude of Coolidge engender among the workers that on July 21, 1920, the Executive Board of the Boston Telephone Operators' Union voted, in special session, not to participate in any Labor Day parade which was to be reviewed by the Governor. The workers expressly stated that they took this attitude because of Coolidge's conduct in the police strike. ”

“ More than that, what is most valuable for us is to compare the tactics, the practices and activities of the American masses and their leaders in 1776 with the advice now being given to the American workers by those whom they still, unfortunately in the main, recognize as leaders to-day. ”

“ There are many representatives and champions of Labor imprisoned today because of their loyalty to the working class. President Coolidge has not raised a finger towards releasing these innocent workers. ”

“ Much ink is being spilled by the robed, untitled and well-paid defenders of the present system in their attacks on the opponents of the capitalist order. These apologists of the exploiting class are shouting against the revolutionists. ”

“ In so far as the assets column of the ledger goes and in so far as profitable business connections are concerned, there is no more lucrative office one can hold than that of the Attorney Generalship.
Mr. Butler, a class mate of Coolidge in Murray Crane's school of New England politics, is one of the leading textile manufacturers of the country. He is the president and director of a half dozen mills running about 10,000 looms and almost 500,000 spindles. The Butler Mill, Hoosac Cotton Mills, New Bedford Cotton Mills Corp., Quisset Mill, Nemasket Mills, and West End Thread Co. ”

“ To speak of Americanizing our Party in the bolshevik sense of the word, means to speak of the Party adopting tactics based on the objective conditions in America, Examination of these objective conditions will indicate that historical traditions much as they appear to the superficial observer as abstract forces, are in reality very concrete elements, very substantial phases of the objective conditions at hand and transmitted. ”

“ With the advent of Coolidge into the Presidency the newspapers opened a strong barrage to prove that "Cal" is a poor man. In order to appease the discontented farming population, Coolidge was even baptized a "rock" farmer whose forefathers blasted the rocks to get bread. ”

“ Delivering an address on Founders Day at the Carnegie Technical Institute in Pittsburgh on April 28, 1921, Coolidge spoke of Andrew Carnegie as "a man who represented American ideals."
How closely President Coolidge is living up to the late Steel King's "ideals" is seen from the following portion of his address to the Massachusetts State Legislature inaugurating his second term as Governor: "It is fundamental that freedom is not to be secured thru disobedience to law. Government must govern. To obey is life. To disobey is death. ”

“ Many of the leaders of the revolutionary movement in 1776 preached radical doctrines to the workers, but these leaders failed to put these doctrines into practice except against the British ruling class. ”

“ They were tarred and feathered and they were treated much more roughly in many respects than the Czarists who were for maintaining the old reactionary government in Russia were by the Bolsheviks. The Communists of to-day can learn many lessons from the American Revolutionists of 1776 in treatment of counter revolutionists, of Loyalists, of Tories. ”

“ These efforts are a great public menace, not thru danger of success, but the great amount of harm they can do if ignored. The first duty of the government is to repress them, punishing wilful violations of law, turning the full light of publicity on all abuses of the right of assembly and free speech. ”

“ They inspect the trade and correspondence of every merchant; watch the conduct of any inhabitant; may send for, catechise and stigmatize him if he does not appear to follow the Instructions of their Congress. ”

“ Commenting on the importance of this attitude of Coolidge, a Boston publication. "Practical Politics," sometime ago wrote: "He knows how to hustle for votes and realizes what the party owes to men who give their time and energy to party work." ”