China and the U.S.A.

Chu Teh, commander-in-chief of the Anti-Japanese National
Revolutionary Army. With Mao Tse-tung, Chu Teh shares the
command of the large army force which is today throwing back the
invading Japanese armies.

PUBLISHED BY WORKERS LIBRARY PUBLISHERS, INC.
P. O. BOX 148, STATION D, NEW YORK, N. Y.
209 OCTOBER, 1917

library

Uniwrrity of Texas

Austin, Texas

CHINA AND THE U.S.A.

in

BY EARL BROWDER

FRIENDS AND COMRADES:
Tonight I want to talk especially about China. We
know, and the larger part of the American people are coming
to know, that the bombs that are dropping on Shanghai
today and blowing into bits tens of thousands of women and
children, as well as men, that the inhuman and bloody un-
provoked attack upon the Chinese people about which we
read every day, is something that affects our lives here in
New York and in Kings County just as much as the threat
of Tammany does.

Our lives in America cannot be separated from those of
the people of China. Just as we recognized our close relation-
ship with the Spanish geople when Hitler's and Mussolini's
airplanes began to rain bombs upon Madrid, just so we have
to recognize our close connection with our Chinese brothers
now that they are suffering from the same enemy.

This attack upon the peace of the world by Italian and
German fascism and Japanese militarist-fascism is not alone
upon those who suffer today at this moment. Let us not have
any illusions that America can be separated from the world.

*-<

666076

The worst enemy that America has today is the one who
would lull you into thinking that America can be kept
separated, can be isolated, that these are troubles only of the
rest of the world, that we should just keep out of it, that it
doesn't concern us.

We Communists have been shouting this warning from
the house-tops for the past several years. We are glad to see
that slowly but surely the whole country is coming to under-
stand that there can be no security for us in America from
the horrors of war unless we take deeper and more active
interest in preserving the rest of the world from these
same horrors.

Wc have been given several general expressions of this
truth by official leaders of the American people. The official
spokesman of the United States, Secretary of State Cordell
Hull, addressing the Pan-American Conference in Buenos
Aires, a few months ago, stated this very aptly and excellently.
He said:'

"It is now as plain as mathematical truth that each nation in
any pare of the world is concerned with peace in every part of
the world."

If we are concerned with peace in every part of the world,
we certainly have to be concerned with war, the absence of
peace. In China today there is a terrible war being waged
against a people which stands before the whole world as the
very symbol of peacefulness.

The Chinese people have been too peaceful. The Japanese
imperialists have found, however, in the past couple of weeks
that even an extremely peaceful people can be driven too far,
that finally they will turn and defend themselves. One of the

4

most glorious pages in world history is the news that the
Chinese people have begun to defend themselves effectively,
that the Japanese imperialists have been cracking their shins
against the defense in Shanghai.

But let us have no illusions! While the resistance of the
Chinese people, which is only beginning, will surely bring
the Japanese imperialists to grief finally, a great deal depends
upon what we and the rest of the world do with regard to
this struggle. If we allow Japanese imperialism, with all of its
modern implements of warfare, to proceed unhampered
against the Chinese people, while we of America actually
join in this Japanese aggression, we are preparing trouble for
America. The United States is accepting the blockade of
China. We continue to allow scrap iron from the United
States to be shipped from the docks of Brooklyn every week.
Scrap iron from Brooklyn is going to Japan to be made into
shrapnel and bombs to be dropped on the Chinese people!
Washington issues orders that American ships shall stay
away from Shanghai. But Washington doesn't issue any
orders that all ships shall stop carrying shrapnel from Brook-
lyn to Japan.

It is here that we begin to understand that we Americans
have a duty, a responsibility towards the Chinese people,
and that that duty and responsibility are exactly the same as
our duty towards world peace, our duty to ourselves. We
cannot protect the peace of America, the peace of New York,
the peace of Brooklyn, if we allow scrap iron from Brooklyn
to destroy the peace of the Chinese people.

America had to go through a long revolutionary war to
establish itself as an independent nation. Modern China is
going through its war of independence today. When we had

5

our war of independence, we found friends from other parts
of the world who came to help us. It is an established part of
American history that we won our war of independence
largely because of the help of our friends from other parts
of the world.

It was only a few weeks ago that the President of the
United States acknowledged this truth in a speech that he
made on the occasion of the unveiling of a monument in
France to the American soldiers who died in the world war.
President Roosevelt said:

"We, of this country, have not forgotten, nor could we ever
forget, the aid given us by France in the dark days of the
American revolution."

If it was correct for France to give us aid in the dark days
of our revolution, is it not correct for America to give aid
to the heroic Chinese people in the dark days of their revo-
lution?

But now Congress has decided that in the United States
we are going to remain neutral. Neutrality is a strange word.
It means that we shall "not take sides,'* we shall merely join
in the blockade of China, and give Japan the freedom of the
American markets. That's what neutrality means it seems.
The damnable consequences of the application of this false
and hypocritical neutrality to Spain brought about the com-
plicity of America in the fascist destruction of world peace.
The same thing is happening in regard to China.

The bombs on Madrid and the bombs on Shanghai are
surely going to bring bombs on New York and San Francisco,
unless America changes this policy, and clasps hands with

6

Mao Tse-tung, Chinese Communist, is one of the beloved leaders
of the Anti-Japanese National Revolutionary Army which, in the
terms of agreement with the Nanking Government, is sending its
tremendous force of well-trained and equipped troops against the
invading Japanese. Mao Tse-tung is one of the best-known of
Chinese Communists and is himself the son of peasants.

the peace-loving peoples of all the world, to remove this fas-
cist, militarist menace from the world.

Comrades and friends, China is no small nation. If we
could possibly think that after all we could, for the time
being, abandon some small nations to the aggression of the
fascists, and still think that America might keep out of the
mess — we still could not apply such reasoning to China.
China is no small corner of the world. China has a popula-
tion of 450,000,000, three and a half times as many as in the
United States. Here is a people that has been exploited and
oppressed by the Western capitalist nations ever since they
"opened up" China, as they called it, with warships, some
hundred years ago.

The Western capitalist world smashed the old social and
economic system of China by forcing the Chinese people to
open up their doors to the machine-made goods of the West.
The Chinese people have been suffering from that ever since,
because no matter how backward their old system may have
been, it was at least a system and was their own. But Western
capitalism, Western imperialism, forced the products of the
capitalist nations of the West on this great people, and at
the same time prevented the Chinese people from developing
their own capitalism.

The Japanese have learned the lessons of our Western
imperialism with all of its worst trimmings. Now they are
trying to apply the same imperialist methods, especially as
exemplified by the brutal assault on the body of China.

If the Chinese people are not able successfully to resist
this attack; if this great country and people are really forced
by superior military power to submit to Japanese domination,
let us have no illusions that this is something that will not

8

affect us. Can you imagine what it will mean for the future
of America if the Japanese militarists and imperialists are
able to harness the great continent of China and 450,000,000
people to their particularly backward form of modem im-
perialism?

The peace of the whole world will be shattered and
America will really be faced with a peril,. a million times more
real than that old bugaboo that Hearst used to trot out, the
"yellow peril," the peril of the East. Since the peril of fas-
cism in Asia has become real, Hearst has forgotten about the
"yellow peril" and has become an open apologist of fascism,
as it really menaces the future of America.

And that is significant, because Hearst represents the de-
velopment of fascism in the United States. We will not be
able to prevent fascism from seizing our country unless we
help to prevent fascism from seizing Spain and prevent it
from seizing China.

The Chinese people will have to do the biggest part of that
job. They are organizing themselves to do it. It was five years
ago that plans for uniting the Chinese people to save their
country from the Japanese aggression were formulated and
published by the Communist Party of China. The Commu-
nist Party of China has been, from that day down to this,
moving forward to mobilize the whole Chinese nation for its
salvation and independence.

During most of these five years the Chinese Communist
Party, leading the Chinese Soviet government and the
Chinese Red Army, has been suffering from the military at-
tacks of the Nanking Kuomintang government. Within the
past year, however, under the continued Japanese aggressive
attacks, the Chinese people have awakened to the fact that

9

it was the voice of the Communist Party which showed them
the only road to their salvation.

Under pressure of this awakening consciousness, the Chi-
nese masses have forced their Kuomintang government to
stop their war against the Chinese Soviets and Red Army,
to enter into negotiations for the establishment of a united
national front against Japan, When the latest hostilities
broke out in China there was already the beginning of the
united front of the Chinese people, looking towards, very
soon, the amalgamation of the Chinese Red Army into the
Chinese Anti-Japanese National Liberation Army of the
Chinese People.

You may be interested to know that a few days ago I re-
ceived some letters from the leaders of the Chinese Soviet
government and the Chinese Red Army, written just before
the Japanese invasion at Shanghai, on June 24, from the city
of Yenan, in the province of Shensi, the headquarters of the
Chinese Soviet government. They came from the three prin-
cipal leaders of the Chinese Soviets, the organizers of the
Chinese national liberation movement, the men who very
shortly will be in the news cables as leaders of that great
armed struggle of the Chinese people. With your permission,
I am going to read these letters to you. The first letter is from
the President of the Chinese Soviet Republic, Comrade Mao
Tse-tung. He says:

"My dear Comrade Browder:

"Taking advantage of a comrade's visit, I am sending this
letter to you, our respected Comrade Browder, good friend of
the Chinese people and leader of the American people.

"Both the Communist Party of China and the Communist
Party of U.S.A. are confronted with a historic task, the task of
resisting and overthrowing the aggressive policy of Japanese

10

imperialism. The Chinese Party is endeavoring to bring about
an anti-Japanese national united front. Although our work is
passing through a difficult period, we have already made prog-
ress and we are doing our best to bring about the desired result.

"From several American friends, and from other sources, we
learned that the Communist Parry of the United States and
the masses of the American people are deeply concerned with
China's struggle against Japan and have given us assistance in
many ways. This makes us feel that our struggle is by no means
isolated and we are heroically assisted from abroad. At the same
time we feel that when we achieve victory, this victory will be
of considerable help to the struggle of the American people for
liberation. The world is now on the eve of a great explosion.
The working class of the world and all the peoples who desire
liberation must unite for the common struggle.
"Revolutionary greetings,

"MAO TSE-TUNG."

The second letter I want to read to you is from Chow En-lai,
one of the greatest political thinkers, writers and organizers of
the Chinese people. He writes on the same day:

"Comrade Browder:

"From the comrade who visited us we learned what concern
you and the Communist Party of the United States have for
the Chinese revolutionary movement and what enthusiastic
assistance you have given us. This news gives us great stimu-
lation.

"Comrade, do you remember the Chinese comrades who
worked with you in China ten years ago? I am among those
who made your acquaintance at that time. Unfortunately
Comrade Su Chao-chen, whom you knew best, is no more with
us. He died of sickness in 1929, when he was working under
the most difficult conditions.

"Since the Sian incident, the Chinese Communist Party and
the Kuomintang have again started negotiations. We are deal-
ing with a new problem of the united front which is not exactly

11

Sditt^^tS t™, *£~*» and
kind of cooperation wS^S'A 18 ,. 31 ^ Merent froni **
1924 a „d , 92 7. The olwl 7 ^ Kuo ™"g Ween
Present time is to nl I™! ^ , United front at *■
at the present d ° e X ~ e ™ P "' ^ Tbm ' ia ^'^
united front and the ^ZtoT/^fc ^^ abou£ ^
«d complicated. As to X alt LT f T VT devious

est— of * e a 4^ Iy itr^:^s

opmion on out united front wo k ?L ° fi 7° U V° «" >™ r
two patties on both sides of ^PaX £"' ^ With om
*e devil of agression in the PacSfnd ft o* T^n
aggressors, we will surely succeed overthrow all

Enthusiastic Bolshevik greetings to you,

"CHOW EN-LAI."
And the last of these letters is from Phi, t i. l
■*ta* genius of the Chinese Red X He ^ *"'

States, the American wS.^fiT *%<*„* <***!
fiends of the CJn nese nat " a I Si * ^ B,! Amerk ™

thusiastic greetings llbetatl011 » w «>«* our en-

p-X e fe tr Sir :nr utmost ? ^ ** °^

U and strug P I P fo £ fc? g ° UC 4 J?"^ *np*Ufc
In this struggle w! hop " w . 1 ^ W)e ? tion of China.

assistance. & »^^^^ t *??*

baric system of fascism. Our futuret iTl, If* , and br "
be illuminated by the proVrLs ttt ! U g J Md , * hound *
hemispheres. P g " that IS bound * shine in both

pej:^ ^ ^ f*"* of the Chinese and the American

11

Library

limvamty of Texas

Austin, Texas

wig live the victory of our struggle against fascism!

"CHU TEH."

Comrades, what can I say of these messages from our Chi-
nese comrades?

We have a great duty to perform. We must make the
American people understand that the cause of the Chinese
people is our cause, the defeat of the Japanese imperialism
is our concern. We shall not allow America to be used as a
base by Japan to make war against the Chinese people. We
have to organize, first of all, to shut off the flow of all com-
modities and credits from this country which help the Japa-
nese imperialists.

A good beginning would be to organize a few mass demon-
strations around some of these Japanese scrap iron ships on
the docks of Brooklyn. Most important of all, we must make
our government in Washington understand that the will of
the American people h to throw the moral influence and
economic power of our country into the scales of battle to
help the Chinese people.

Can we afford that America shall do less than is being done
by the Soviet Union? The Nanking government of China
announced a few days ago that they had just signed a pact
of mutual non-aggression with the Soviet Union. This gives
serious pause to the Japanese imperialists, who understand
this as of practical help to the Chinese people which will
block their way to conquest; they cannot laugh it off. But
when our good Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull, gave a
very valuable and excellent reminder to the world of the exis-
tence of very solemn agreements — the Kellogg-Briand pact of
Paris by which Japan had pledged itself to America and to
China and to the rest of the world not to resort to war to

13

settle any disputes; and the Nine-Power pact, which guar-
anteed the integrity of China— the answer that Mr. Hull got
to this very valuable reminder was the word from the Japa-
nese War Office that they didn't consider that this reminder
required any answer at all, that it was not serious. The only
kind of argument that the Japanese militarists are able to
understand today is the argument that is backed up with
economic and material action.

The Chinese people are organizing the military side of the
struggle, but if we want the word of America to have any
influence on the future of world peace, we had better make
use of American economic power, at least, if we want to
influence world events.

A necessary step for the honor of America, for the inter-
ests of America, for the interest of world peace, is for America
to sever all economic relations with Japan until Japan with-
draws her armed force from China, and respects her solemn
covenant with the United States to keep the peace of the
world; her solemn pledge that she made when she signed
the Kellogg-Briand pact and the Nine-Power pact.

We further propose to the government of the United States
that it begin to negotiate with all nations of the Pacific which
want peace for a particular agreement to act together for that
purpose.

The American people are interested in peace, and we hope
our government is. We know that the Chinese people want
peace, and that they are all united now to fight for peace
in that country. We know that that great Pacific power, the
Soviet Union, wants peace. A pact for mutual defense of
peace in the Pacific between China, Soviet Union and the
United States will certainly guarantee peace in the Pacific.

u

If we want peace, we must strive to unite the peace forces
of the world. Perhaps if we look at Europe, we might say
this is very complicated and difficult. But when we look at
the Far East — at the Pacific — it becomes much simpler. Three
powers have it within their grasp. All that is required is an
agreement to work together, and peace can be guaranteed.

We propose to secure the peace of the Pacific and on the
basis of that to develop a real world peace program for the
United States.

By helping our Chinese brothers and sisters, we can, at the
same time* help the cause of peace throughout the world.
We can hasten the day. of the destruction of the fascist and
war-making governments, and the installation in their place
of people's peace-loving governments. We can protect the
interests of the American people, we can keep America out
of war, by keeping war out of the rest of the world.

The only alternative to this program is the speedy engulfing
of America into the new world war.

We say with the Chinese people — they shall not pass; with
the Spanish people— they shall not pass; and here in America
also, the war-makers and fascists shall not pass!

The American people will unite their forces to control our
government for democracy and progress; unite with the pro-
gressive and peace-loving peoples of the whole world to de-
feat the fascists and keep peace and progress for the peoples
of every land.

This pamphlet is the text of a speech delivered on September
2 at the Coney Island Velodrome by Earl Browder } General
Secretary of the Communist Party, at the opening of the
Communist municipal election campaign.

The News from China —

No question about it — if you don't read the Daily Worker you
don't know the news from China.

Again and again the special cables and the special corre-
spondence of the Daily Worker have been the first to tell America of
some of the most important developments in that great country
fighting for its freedom.

The Daily Worker receives this news, collected by hundreds of
devoted men and women, because it is not merely a purveyor of
information — because the Dally Worker is a fighting newspaper,
aiding in the struggles of the Chinese people as tt does in the
battles of workers and progressive people everywhere, for peace,
freedom and prosperity.

DAILY AND SUNDAY WORKER

f "~~ "— " Mail This Coupon — 1

DAILY AND SUNDAY WORKER
oO East 13th Street
New York, N. Y.

Please send me the Daily and Sun-
day Worker for six weeks, as per your
special . oiler. I "enclose $1.

Name .

Address .

City State.

Special Offer I

By using this special
coupon, you can secure
a six-weeks' subscription
to the Daily and Sunday
Worker for only $1. This
offer is for a limited
period only, and does not
apply to Manhattan and
the Bronx, where the
paper is for sale on the
newsstands.

s^m

I^^H