the wages of the German miners had first been forced down, and then these low paid workers had been brought into direct competition with the British miners. The result was that the British coal exports to Italy and other countries had been severely cut, the market going to Germany. Mr. Cook cited detailed figures in support of this contention. "It has not only lowered the German Miners' conditions to Coolie standards," he said, "but it has taken the bread and butter out of the mouths of British men and women. It has damned British and German workers alike.
"I blame no one for the mistake of the Dawes Plan," said Cook. "We all make mistakes. But it is possible to rectify this one."
"The Dawes Plan is the scheme of the American financial dictatorship to prevent social revolution in Germany," said Harry Pollitt (Boilermakers). "Dawes is a notorious open shop advocate, a leader of American Fascism, and a representative of J. P. Morgan and Co. But the Plan will not accomplish this purpose. While the Plan remains in effect, lower wages, longer hours and internal social disturbances are inevitable in Germany. Those who support the Dawes Plan are inevitably driving the German working class to revolution.
"The capitalist press and the capitalist class never flatter labor leaders," Pollitt continued, "unless they have done something bad for the working class. The Pilgrim Society of America—an exclusive New York club—has invited Mr. Ramsay MacDonald to dinner. The invitation, to use their own words, was 'in order that we can express our tribute of admiration to the great statesman who as Prime Minister contributed so vastly to the adoption of the Dawes project, upon the success of which the whole world depends so much for the economic and political recovery of Europe'.
"Financiers, bankers and capitalists," exclaimed Pollitt, "use that sort of language to disguise their intention to hold the apalling conditions of the German workers like a pistol at the head of workers all over the world. This resolution will be a message of hope to our German comrades in their efforts to build an organization that will fight the new imperialism that has got hold of their country. We shall march forward together to the overthrow of capitalism, which is the only way to insure the abolition of reparations and the establishment of peace for the whole world."
Only one delegate spoke for the Plan, and he apologized. No one rose to defend the MacDonald Government. The motion was put and was carried with practical unanimity.
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