The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 23, 1925, Page 10

bf MASTERS AND SLAVES (A Sto Synopsis of Preceding Chapters. Nickles and Joe Vavas, migratory workers, meet under a freight train while beating their way west. They get off at Colorado Springs. Joe Vavas, Hun- garian, is a barber by trade, and Nickles, a Greek, has no fixed trade. In Colorado Springs Vavas buys second-hand clothes for the two and they go to look for work. Vavas gets a job as a barber. Nickles manages to get work at Broadmoor, the mansion of the Broidins. His work is constant drudgery. Vavas is class conscious, but Nickles is not. Now go on with the story. (Continued from last Saturday) VI. OE and Nickles met often. They did not agreé on many things, but liked each other a lot. Joe had more free time than Nickles, and would walk over to Broadmoor in the evening. There is fresh air here and the forest.’ Joe felt as if he had been in Colorado Springs from the beginning of time. That is part of a workers’ nature. He has no roots. He felt at home wherever there were workers. “Look here, you ain’t got no idea how much the workers are dissatisfied here.” “Ah, that’t a lot of talk. I think myself they’d like to tear each other’s head off.” “That’s something I don’t believe. No sir There ain’t no reason why they should. They al! work hard, don’t they, and the guy that’s got a family to support suffers the most, even though he works his head off.” : “You can’t do a thing to the bosses. They’re too strong.” Joe was aware that the power of the bosses de- pended upon the workers. But Nickles wouldn’t hear of it. He clung to the belief that there were always people who had others work for them, and lived from the toil of others, and it would always be-so..- Anybody. who is very industriaus and. has luck ean also come around to the point where he would live fromthe ‘work of others. “Why look here, anybody that can talk good American gets along fine?” * * * * NICKLES felt great admiration for Joe. For his enthusiasm, The way he loved his Communist paper for in- stance. It was always sticking out of his pocket. And he would tell Nickles what was in it. Nickles read the “Denyer Post.” ~ ing in it that held him really: The “Denver Post” would always boast about ‘how rich it was. But Joe reported on every occasion how the Communist paper was in financial difficulties. And this was certainly a thing to be wondered at, It was Nickles’ idea that a paper that was always in financial diffieulties ought to be given up. And yet he saw the very contrary, that: the relation between Joe and the paper became the more cordial, the greater the paper’s hardships.. And all these collections . . . ! Joe never tired of sending in at the end of the week the money which he had sayed from his wages. And he didn’t earn much! Nickles was of the opinion—and he told that to Joe—that his actions contradicted his words. Joe always said that all the money, all the property and possessions of the rich must be taken away, and yet he himself gave away everything he had. Nickles thought, why does a man need wealth when he gives away the little that he has? He thought of how Joe had shared with him his few dollars when they had come here—and that he could have bought a much better suit for himself for all the money. And another thing. Every time that Joe read in his paper about a misfortune or that in some country the reactionaries were again murdering vorkers, he would shake his fist, would threaten, say all kinds of things—that the day of judgment would come for those rascals of capitalists. His talk was bloody. And yet as a matter of fact Joe was extremely gentle. Ridiculously so. He would even get out of the way of a caterpillar. , Nickles often kidded him about it. And yet. These qualities attracted him to Joe. He had to admit that he liked him so much precisely on ac- count of these qualities. And he even gave his friend something from his low wages for the Rus- sian children or for the revolutionists packed into the prisons of the Hungarian capitalists, And Nickles didn’t realize that through Joe he learned more about what was happening in this big, wide world to the poor, his fellow workers, than he could learn in the thirty-two pages of the “Denver Post” that he read every day. * * * * Vil. “{t is a privilege to live in Colorado”—Nickles read at least ten times every day in the It was full of pictures. And yet there was noth-! “Denver Post,” Organizing Industry For War! The story of how the bosses are hurriedly organizing the industries of the country for war is The New Issue of the YOUNG WORKER tells how the organization of the big bosses, the Ordnance Advisory Board, headed by BH, H, Gary, which is preparing industry on a national scale to make bigger profits than ever before out of the next told for the first time in slaughter of young workers, How Near Is War? Dark clouds are gathering over the Pactfic and the imperialists are adding more young workers to their armies and navies, The U. 8, navy has been practicing for war in Hawaiian waters and Comrades Crouch and Trum- bull are mn jail m Honolulu because they opposed the coming war! All these preparations of the bosses for war have been exposed weekly in the YOUNG WORKER which carries on a continual fight against capitalist militarism and imperialist wars. Send for bundle orders of the new issue containing this special story. 5 CENTS A COPY. Subscription Rates—$1.50 a year, 85c for 6 months. THE YOUNG WORKER 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Il “But not for everybody”—he thought while pol The sun shone through the window. There wasn’t a bit of breeze. And the heavy dress-coat in which he had t serve! The heavy, parrot-green dress-coat! “I don’t need no steam bath!. . .*® Sweat trickled in big drops down his back, i his arm-pits, down his neck. With all his migh he longed for the evening. For -the forest. For the wind. The soft wind. The forest-wind of which he got go little. * * * * MABSUERITE accompanied him. They waited for Joe. Nickles reached for Marguerite’s ‘hand. An Marguerite yielded it. Nickles was a strong, hansome chap. Amd Mar guerite was a lively, affectionate girl. “~ ishing the knives. . ” It is so natural, after a hot, exhausting day fo: two bodies to find each other in the coel dimnes: of the forest. Did they leve each other? Why not? The were lonely. And both of them wanted to Jeve. Nickles pressed Marguerite tightly, His arm held the girl in iron embrace. Marguerite cried out faintly. Nickles laughed: “Does it hurt?” Marguerite wanted to free herself from his arms eee. yo OE ee ee Nickles laughed. He bit the girl on the shoulder. Marguerite slapped him dutifully on the month although secretly she rather liked his intimacy an: didn’t really resent it. . . They heard steps. Joe came. His face was unusually cheerful. Nickles asked: “Did you catch a sparrow?” _ de “No, but ther’s big things goin’ to happen.”,. “That so?” a = “Yes. Think of it, I brought together all th fellows in my trade, and tomorrow the unfon @ ganizer is coming from Denver.” a “Nickles didn’t grasp the entire significance © the thing, but anyway he was happy together wit his friend. “Just think, there’ll be a fightP*-and Jo stamped from joy. Nickles had never seen his friend go cheerf: before. Joe reported in detail how he had succeeded bringing together the dissatisfied, and that ther was a splendid chap among them, a certain Wi liam who was very helpful to him in the organiz tion, “He is an American. It’s easier for him*—Jo sighed. “Me they call a foreigner plenty of times. “D’you see?”—Nickles said “that’s how your fellow-workers are” And h stressed sarcastically the word “fellow,” “Naturally they are like that, And. . .: they wasn’t that way, you wouldn’t be Mr. Bro din’s servant, you’d be workin’ in the public Iibrar or the children’s sanatorium of Broadmoor, That what they do with them mansions in tur them into something useful. And the Mr, ap Mrs. would be starin’ down at you fram the ne tree,” This statement gave Marguerite and Nickles terrible fright, “Don’t spring anything like that! Marguer‘ might have bad dreams.” They laughed. “Tm tellin’ you, something is happening { Colorado Springs.” Marguerite put in a word; “Is it alright to do such a thing? Will bosses allow: it?” Joe laughed. “Is it alright? The constitution allows ft, ¢ course, the bosses don’t like to see i% The ones that organize are the i they’re stronger they got rower, An vie th got power, they win the fight, was clear, Even Marguerite could not find a flaw in # + | reasoning.