The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 18, 1924, Page 9

There is an old saying that poets are born, not made. This is only a half truth, which is the most danger- ous kind of a lie. Poets, in order to be made must first be born. Most of them could stay unborn and un- made, as far as we are concerned. Prose writing comes easier to some than to others. Those who write best are not usually the most prolific writers. This is unfortunate, but it cannot be helped. , Invited Again. The DAILY WORKER has extend- ed several invitations to its readers to tell of their experiences thru these columns. The invitations were usual- ly given the frozen lid. Perhaps our readers were led to believe that a correspondence school in journalism is necessary in. order to qualify. one to write for The DAILY WORKER. On the contrary, those who have been spoiled of capitalist papers and by capitalist schools of journalism have a hard time living down their past, on a working class paper. Read the title of this article. “What does your boss look like?” We are not building up a rogues’ gallery. Nothing of the sort. But we would like the workers who read this pa- per, to write in and tell us about the work in the shop or wherever they toil for the boss. We want a picture of the life in the ‘industries. The boss is a very irritating part of that picture. He May be the owner of the factory, or he may be only the owner’s lieuten- ant, whose job is to drive the work- ers to the limit of their endurance, turning out wealth for the owners’ profit. Everything Interesting. Not alone would we like to have you write about the bass, but also about incidents that take place in the shop, anything that has news value or prop- aganda value. And to a Communist a piece of news that has not propa- ganda value is as flat as a pancake and not near as palatable. A Commu- nist can turn anything into propa- ganda, or else he is not a Communist. Your boss may_be a lean and hun- gry individual—the kind that Caesar did not like in his vicinity. Remem- ber what he said about Cassius? Fat and Lean. Or your boss may -be a fat man, half a dozen chins trembling under the original, bushy eyebrows, such as the bouncer in one of Charlie Chap- lin’s early comedies sported, His stomach may prevent him from pick- ing up a dime off the ground, without considerable difficulty. He may have to use a special chair from which to give his weighty decisions to the Prospect of War (Continued from page 4) time what a great meaning history had in reserve for that innocent joke. Leninism and American imperialism— these are the main two forces now struggling in Europe, over the Atlan- tic and the Pacific and the fate of humanity depends upon the outcome of this struggle. Our American capitalist enemy is more pewerful than our disorganized, European capitalist enemies. Amer- ica is doing now part of our work. It is organizing European labor. The revival of the Second International means that, temporarily and out- wardly at least, the European prole- tariat will have to conduct its strug- gles not on a national scale, but on a continental scale. As the recogni- tion of the necessity for resistance penetrates into wider and _ wider masses of workers, their slogans and ideas become more and more revolu- tionary. And more _ revolutionary ideas mean a more favorable ground for bolshevism. Every success of Americanism, as far as it will be suc- cessful, will ‘inevitably result in a greater concentration of energies on the part of the proletariat, which fact alone insures the growth of bolshev- ism on a larger scale and in a more concerted, more ype pacneiet eres The future is with us! “help.” But lean or fat, light or weighty, we want to hear about him. We are not merely concerned with his personal appearance — that will serve to embellish the story. What he does in general or better, what he did in particular. That is what we are after. We Want The News. The DAILY WORKER is interested in getting the news from the work- shops. And we would like te have it told just as one worker would tell it to another after the day’s work. For- get that you are writing for publica- tion. Take your pen, or better still, your typewriter, as if Steve Brown was sitting in front of you, and begin at the beginning. There is no parti- cular way to begin telling a story. That depends on you. I usually begin at the beginning. For example, Jack MacLaughlin comes home one evening and While his wife is getting supper ready, she notices that his brow is flushed and inquires “What's the matter this eve- ning, Jack? The boss getting under your skin again?” ; Jack Curses Amiably. “Yes,” replies Jack, deleting the string of terms that would lend em- phasis, if not dignity, te his language, but for the moderating influence of Mrs. MacLaughlin, “that beetle-brow- ed, empty-headed, atavistic moron pulled off as dirty a trick today as I ever witnessed in my life.” MacLaughlin works in a railroad freight yard and his boss is a beefy fellow by the name of Sidebottom. The Surly Sidebottom. “You know old Finklestad,” con- tinues MacLaughlin, as he proceeds te demolish the supper. Wife nods. “Well, shortly after the noon hour to- day, Sidebottom told the old man who had a fairly easy job, oiling trucks and doing the odd jobs, that he would have to pull his pound from now on or look around for anether job. Finkel- stad has been there for over fifteen years and has given the best years of his ‘ife to the company. “But Sidebottom, in order to make himself strong with the railroad chiefs, has lost whatever spark of humanity he ever had in his soul. He forced poor Finkelstad to take a truck and haul heavy loads for the rest of the day: The old fellow was barely able to walk home. Had No Union. “I told Sidebottom I had a good mind to ock some of the mutton out of » but he just growled and walked away. What can.we do? We had a union once and did not have enough brains to keep it.” You could tell your story in this conversational style. On the other hand, there is Bill Stafford, the foreman on the docks. He is a shabby leoking fellow, with a very vile tongue. John Casey, comes home one evening and while smoking his pipe after supper, Tom Shachtstein, a neighbour, walked in. Casey is laughing. Shachtstein asks him what he is laughing at. “I am laughing at Stafford, that sawed-off foreman of ours. He was as mad as a hatter today. Everything was going wrong with him. He hired two men early in the morning. They were hauling flour to the gangplank, every truck carrying 1,200 pounds. The man on the handles was pulling like the devil, but his partner who was supposed to shove, was more of a liability than an asset. Stafford fired him after cursing. a blue streak at him. A Catholic Cursing. “According to the union rules, there must. be two men on each truck and the greenhorn on the handles know- ing that, sat down on his machine, took out his pipe and lit up. “Stafford was fit to be tied. He is a good Catholic and it is said that he goes to holy communion every day in the year. But he swore like the devil. ‘Holy jumpin’ Jesus!’ says he as he sat in front of the fellow sit- ting down on his truck smoking, ‘Suffering baldheaded Christ!’ That was not the worst of it by any means. Stafford Had a Fit. “Old Stafford chased around look- ing for a partner for the boy with the pipe and finally landed one. But after ‘a few minutes the new arrival got What Does Your Bits Look Like? thirsty and walked out to the soft drink parlor, and when Stafford came | around again, here was my brave lad sitting on his truck with the old reli- able in his mouth. Well, if ‘Old Bill’ goes to communion tomorrow morn- ing, he’ll have to tell the priest a long string of sins first.” Perhaps you are an_ insurance agent. It is not a key industry, but there are thousands of insurance agents wearing out shoe leather col- lecting nickles and dimes that build castles for the financiers who own the companies. The capitalist govern- ment used the insurance companies to good advantage during the war to sell liberty bonds, thrift stamps and boost every move of theirs to keep the people calm while the war raged: The agents go into the homes of the workers and if they are loyal white collar slaves, they injeet the poison of the master class into the minds of the workers, particularly the women? Useful Propagandists. These agents are continually driven by the officials of the companies in the endeavour to produce more “busi- ness,” the shop word for insurance policies. On every Saturday the dis- By T. J. O’Flaherty trict_superintendent gives the agents a lecture. It is usually a fusillade of insults that no worker in overalls would stand for. iy Plenty of News. An insurance agent could tell a very interesting story of one of those meet- ings. In fact there is wealth of good material that the DAILY WORKER is more than anxious to get lying around the country. We depend, on our readers to send it to us. Do not forget in writing that you are telling a story. If your grammar is not perfect, we will take care of that deficiency. But we want to get the news, the live throbbing news that is turned out every day in the mills, mines, factories, railroads and every other place where the workers give their brain and brawn to create wealth, the major part of which goes to the master class. In writing about your boss, and of the incidents of your employment, you will be helping materially to lift the heavy hand of oppression from the shoulders of your class and to abolish the cursed system which has made of this world a valley of tears for the workers. MENSHEVISM IN GEORGIA (Interview with the deputy chair- man of the People’s Commissariat of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federa- tive Soviet Republics, Comrade Mirsa- Daut-Gusseinov.) After his arrival in Moscow, Com- rade Mirsa-Daut-Gusseinov gave the following details of the recently at- tempted revolt of the mensheviki in Georgia: The chief aim of the revolt was, according to the declaration of the leaders of the menshevik gang of bandits, to show to the entente coun- tries that unrest prevailed in Georgia and that the mass of the Georgian peo- ple were against the Soviet power. In the event of the revolt being a success, its leaders had intended to induce the western European coun- tries to intervene in our affairs. Ac- cording to the declaration of Dshugeli and other members of the “Committee of the Independence of Georgia,” the English, and in particular the French, imperialists exercised pressure upon the foreign bureau of the mensheviki toyorganize a revolt in Georgia. And in this connection the leaders of the revolt apparently hoped for timely support for the rebels, chiefly on the part of France. It is characteristic that everywhere where sporadic re- volts broke out, the menshevik lead- ers based their propaganda among the population upon the rumor that the French fleet was approaching. the coast of Batum with landing forces, and also that mass revolts had taken place in North Caucasia. It was therefore, I repeat, the chief aim of the mensheviki to create the appearance of a powerful revolt of the whole population and then to raise the question of the necessity of the intervention of west Europe. The working class of Georgia has remained quite unaffected by the re- volt, of course, with the exception of those isolated workers who are mem- bers of the menshevik party. With regard to the peasantry, the whole of East Georgia and a whole number of other provinces of the Re- public were quite undisturbed and only a few bandit-like assaults by the detachment of Tscholokashvili gave evidence as té the events which were proceeding. It might be mentioned by the way, that this Tscholokashvili did not succeed in rallying a group of more than 15 men and the rumors he spread abroad regarding an army of 20,000 insurgents, proved, as was to be expected, mere empty talk. In West Georgia the mass of the peas- ants likewlse refrained from taking part in the revolt. It must be pointed out that every- where where the mensheviki tempo- rarily gained the upper hand they im- mediately restored the land to the landowners and transferred the muni. cipal and state property back into private hands. All this served to ex- pose to the peasantry the true feat- ures of the leaders of the revolt. The peasants could not help seeing that the movement was led exclusively by nobles, landowners and generals. The red army of Georgia-has shown that it is thoroly worthy of the de- signation of a revolutionary red army. The fundamental importance of the declaration of the “Committee for the Independence of Georgia” consists in the fact that the mensheviki have ad- mitted their complete bankruptcy and the loss of every particle of influence among the broad circles of the»work- ers and peasant population of the country. As regards the remaining sections of the republic, the intellec- tuals and the petty bourgeoisie of Georgia, contrary to the expectations of the leaders of the revolt, have re- mained loyal. In addition to this we have in our possession, declarations by professors, teachers and physicians, which strongly condemn this adven- ture of the mensheviki, as it threaten- ed. the economic and cultural prosper- ity of Georgia with very harmful re- sults, The revolt has now been finally crushed and the mensheviki, who have taken to the mountains, are handing over their arms and delivering up the prisoners they made during the at- tacks of the bandits. By these acts they wish to some extent to atone for their serious crime against the work- ers of Georgia. In a previous article, THE SHOP NUCLEUS AND THE BRANCH, I said, “There shall be representatives of the shop nucleus on the branch (old style—territorial) executive com- mittee and vice versa. This is neces- sary for working purposes, even tho the shop nucleus members are already attached to various branches. in order to influence the work in the ter- ritorial branch. . .” Rather, this should read, “Where- ever possible, there shall be repre- sentatives etc. . .” With the existence of both Shop Nuclei and territorial branches, it will not be possible at all times, because of particular con- ditions, to arrange for mutual repre- sentation between nuclei and branch- es, especially so when a shop nucleus is composed of very many former branch members. When the Shop Nuc- lei Branch is in existence, that prob- lem, however, is solved. Meanwhile, matters will have to be adjusted on the basis of the special conditions. This should also apply to the point, “The shop nucleus executive meets regularly with the territorial branch executive committee.” M. Abern. Open Forum, Sunday Night, Lodge Room, Ashland Auditorium.