The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 20, 1924, Page 11

HIS week, I had the opportunity of joining a very interesting excur- sion into the country with Padboeski, the head of the Young Pioneer and Sports movements. He is a most vi- vid and delightful personality, and full of the idea of developing the working class, thru out door life and vigorous sports, into a strong and healthy race, to carry on the great proletarian task of rebuilding the world. . We met in front of the First Hous of the Soviets—two other Americans and myself—where we were joined by our host, who took us in; for without tiresome formalities (no doubt, nec- essary) of giving our credentials, tak- ing a receipt, and receiving them again on leaving, you may not call even upon a friend in any of these hotels set aside for officials and rep- resentatives. It is nearly as hard to see Bill Dunne and Haywood (tho I have not tried) as to call on our Mr. Coolidge. So we were glad that Pad- boeski came along just then with his breezy salute and his red Pioneer neckerchief, and white Russian blouse and ushered us jn without formalities. In his large family room, a few flan- nel shirts were strung on a rope across the extravagant window space, and his wife at once brougit tea and bread and butter, which were served, as I imagine all meals are, on a small table drawn up informally before a sofa, His young son appeared, also in white blouse and red neckerchief, equipped with a camera and tripod, and with an air of great eagerness and responsibility. Then there was a tedious time of telephoning for an Official “automobil. ,” and of receiving a message that a working men’s ex- cursion club was about to board their train and must without fail have the honor of Padboeski’s presence. ! We finally picked up an attractive young Czecho-Slovak couple, and packed in, sardine-fashion, drove off directly thru the Red Square for the railway station. It was worth a sen- sation or two to dash thru the Red Square in a Soviet car, and we payed that tribute. The excursion train had already left, so, calling a G. P. U. man, (successor to the Cheka) we requisitioned, on the Crimea train, a “hard” or third-class section, sacred to railway officials. As we passed thru the car, crowded with all sorts and conditions of people, a young nursing mother quickly closed her dress. Another mother was glad to exhibit her little one, and answered proudly that he had been thru the “October ceremony,” a rather new and not yet fixed form of dedication to the Red cause. October, the month of the Bolshevik Revolution, corres- ponds of course, in the Russian calen- dar, to our November, and we _ find streets and other places bearing the name of “Red October.” Our train pulled into Podolsk, a spe- cial stop for our distinguished selves, just ahead of the excursion, train. A moment later, our company of Young Pioneers streamed out of the latter, and drew up in a very exact line all in their red neckerchiefs, boys and girls, in no fixed arrangement, and listened to a short address from their chief, followed by the young Bohemi- an, who spoke in German, in a spirit that was perfectly understandable if his words were not. Meanwhile, the Excursion Club, bearing the name of a comrade who had died in the cause, had descended and formed in line of march with a brass band at its head, and we fell in behind the band, and marched thru the little village with its deserted Singer sewing machine factories, to the place of encampment of the united Moscow Young Pioneers, As we entered the village street, two stately geese fell into line just in front of us, behind the band, taking themselves very seriously, but falling out of step with the “International,” abandoned us like Tired Radicals. At the encampment-place, a vast hollow square was formed, the excur- sionists, the Young Pioneers and the villagers making a crowd of perhaps a thousand. In the center, on a low mound, the guests of honor took their stand while half a dozen addresses were given, punctuated by salutes and watchwords and as usual at such gat- q a herings, by strains of the “Interna- tional”. It was a beautiful and rather a gorgeous sight, all the boys and girls with their gay red neckerchiefs, many in abreviated gymnasium suits with their great red banners, mottoed in gold, and surmounted by the ham- mer and sickle, enclosed in a flame- shaped hollow metal frame; and ming- led with them the young excursionists jointing with equal spirit in the ceremonies; and in the background on one side, a shaft with a statue of Marx, symbolizing, as it were, the new faith, and challenging on another side, the old faith, symbolized by a pic- turesque little old domed village church. After several addresses, and many exchanges of salute by word and lifted arm, the working-men went on to their excursion grounds, and we left them and the Young Pioneers, in-order to join others in the Moscow suburbs; but not until we had visited their Lenin Memorial House, in its litle fenced apple-orchard, with lawns and flowerbeds about the house, behind it an open-air theater and back of that again a football ground. Within the house, on each side of a central hall. with a large portrait of Lenin facing the entrance, were a library with read- ing table and literature and a visitors’ book, and a work room with exhibits of various kinds of art and handwork of the young people. From there we caught the train, and enroute back to town ate the huge slabs of bread and butter that our host’s thoughtful wife had provided for us. At the Moscow Station, we were met again by the Soviet car and driv- en out to the Lenin Hills, where one formerly went for a well-ordered even- ing meal and to see the placé from which Napoleon had shelled Moscow. The old restaurant is in ruins, and the whole locality has been taken over for a people’s play-ground, and spe- cifically for a great stadium, which in hope at least will be built in the triple amphitheater of terraced wooded hills that follow the bend of the river, gay with clusters of row-boats. Washing the Kremlin walls, the Moscow River Sweeps out in great curves through the country, and from these vantage hills, one looks out across two curves of the river to the domes and towers and walls of “Mother Moscow.” The green plateaus and wooden ter- races were: alive with Sunday pic- nickers. The Young Pioneers had or- ganized the day,—as they have or- ganized the place. Concessions have been leased to Nep. providers, which helps to pay expenses and to start a fund for future development. Kiosks are scattered about and we had milk and cookies in an airy pavilion. Far off on the green, we spied a group of red satanic imps, who as we drew nearer, proved to be dancing-group of workers’ children, who have been taught by the children of the Duncan School. Only now and in this way has Isadora been able to begin to fulfill her dream of carrying her art among the people, for her struggle for exist- ence (as an instructor) has paralelled the struggle of the Soviets, and I hear at the School the tale of the struggle and hopes and discouragements and the courageous persistence which have been hers. Out at the station, these workers’ children gave a dance interpretation there on the green, of the “International,”while another large group sang with the band “con amore.” Here too, we found the in- evitable open-air theater, though to- day nothing dramatic was offered. In- stead, all the different groups were amusing themselves quite independent- ly with ring-games, ball, gymnastic or rowing, and finally forming in military line, each with its own banner and drums, and each leaving at its own time this idyllic gathering on the ter- raced hills beside the river. This “Stadium” is not only a sport place, where sometime an architec- tural enclosure will be built, but is also an organization,—an organization with a dream of a great future. The dream is Padboeski’s,—of an Inter- national Red Stadium to build up the working class of the whole world for worthy fulfilment of its mission. Its Letters From Moscow SSeS Nn nthe —— eee name already suggests the dream,— “Mekrastad,”"—formed after the So- viet fashion, from the leading syll- ables of the words of its title, “Inter- national Red Stadium.” We all joined the organization, of course, signing membership cards and paying in our rouble. And sooner or later, our American young people will be ap- pealed to for membership roubles, and will be Shown the very picture we made on this holiday. Watch for Pictorial Russia, and the Makrasted number, and be prepared to give your whole-hearted enthusiasm—young and old—to the support of Padboeski’s dream, the building of an Interna- tional Red Stadium. ° On our way back, we visited the Exposition outside the town where wé saw the. Red mounted-soldiers jump- inf hurdles. It really was interesting watching the worker-soldiers training for the defence of the Revolution. Back again in Moscow, we dropped Padboeski at his “Soviet dom” with outstretched hand$. ready to express our gratitude and enthusiasm, and to seal our promise of help for his Red Stadium with a cordial grasp. And we felt just a little rebuffed when we found we must part with a mere salute even so gallantly and joyously given. For, says this original man,— one of the signers, by the way, of the October Ultimatum,—the bourgeois hand-clasp is meaningless, and the thing that unites us is higher than the personal—above our heads, as he raises his hand high. And so we can only imagine what a pleasure it might be to feel Padboeski’s cordial hand- grasp. But the thing that unites us, we shall remember just the same, and that specifically for the moment is the International Red Stadium. MODERN INNOCENTS ABROAD (Continued from page 5) for certain purposes but it had lost its self respect. Now, the trouble began. Our Amer- ican bankers were so innocent! But France did not want to see Germany getting on her feet and England thot France was too strong for her own health and the United States did not like the idea of having German goods flood the world’s markets in compe- tition with her own products. If the Germans must pay reparations, they must pay if in goods and if they pro- duce goods that means congested markets which is not to the liking of the manufacturers in the so-called “enemy” countries, It is a ticklish job. For instance Belgium was receiving thousands of tons of reparations coal from Ger- many. The Belgian coal mines not being able to compete with the Ger- man coal mines whose coal diggers worked for a lower standard of living shut down their mines throwing thousands of Belgians out of work. What can be done about it? The “‘in- nocents” are abroad but they cannot save Europe, England wanted France to get out of the Ruhr, because the once proud dictator of Europe feared a combina- tion of Alsace-Lorraine iron and Ruhr coal, France finally decided to get out, but slowly. Germany is beginning to pay reparations and a young Amer- ican banker is chief bill collector. Al- ready England fears that a great in- dustrial revival in Germany will shut down British factories and the French fear that the same condition will place Germany in a position which threat- ens the safety of France. The capital- ist groups hate and fear each other, because they know each other. They also hate and fear the United States capitalists because they see in them young and powerful competitors, with plenty of money and raw wealth. America has become the dictator of Europe. The shirt sleeve aristocrats are now sitting on top of the world and the only thing that stands be- tween them and happiness is the fear of a revolution, The American bankers cannot res- tore Europe, because the capitalist system has outlived its usefulness. Germany can pay reparations only at the expense of further sacrifices of the German workers and the increased production in Germany necessary to pay the reparations means decreased production and unemployment in other countries. A system under which wealth is produced socially but owned privately cannot last. It cannot sur- vive its own contradictions, There is only one solution to what ails Europe. That solution is not the Dawes Plan. It is revolution. Had ‘the workers of the rest of Europe followed the lead given by the Rus- sian Bolsheviki in 1917 the world to- day would be on the road to recovery from the systematic poisoning of capt- talism. But necessity will compel them sooner or later to follow that example. Capitalism as a world system has seen its best days. In Europe it is making heroic efforts to return to normalcy with the aid of blood tran- fusion from its lusty American cousin. But history has decreed that it will die. And to aid history perform its mission the Communist International is organizing the proletariat of Europe and of the world to hasten its exit and build on its ruins the Soviet Re- publics of Europe and of the world. Subscribe for “Your Daily,” the DAILY WORKER. FOR RENT. LARGE COZY ROOM Near Park and transportation. Inquire Kramer, 2040 Hum- boldt Bivd. YOUR UNEMPLOYED DOLLARS BELONG AT ; CHICAGO’S ONLY LABOR BANK Amalgamated Trust and Savings Bank 371. West Jackson Boulevard 3 Per cent on Savings 2 Per cent on Checking Balances over $1,000 MODERN AND EFFICIENT SERVICE IN EVERY DEPART- MENT OF BANKING SERVICE TRANSFER Your Account to Labor's Popular Bank where 260 labor organizations and ten thousand trade union members bank. 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