The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 6, 1926, Page 10

By Henry George Weiss. Mies and miles of muddy ditches, tangled wire, shell-torn earth, and suffering hu- manity stretched out into a drizzly night. Think of a railroad wreck, the wake of a Kan- sas cyclone, the back-roads of a rural county after 4 heavy down-pour of rain, the infernal din jof pneumatic rivetting machines in a ship- building yard. Think of the feel of wet clothes, oozy Slime, numb’ fingers, chattering teeth, swollen. feet. And then distribute all these things along three hundred miles of rotting garbage; multiply them by a million, and the more cheerful details of the picture I am trying to present are yours. Just back from forty days straight in the trenches, Lieutenant Armont lounged in his squalid ‘quarters and dreamed of Hilda—Hilda the liftle German maid, blue-eyed and rope- haired; Hilda, as straight and as fearless as a boy; Hilda, who had kissed him one night in the shade of a linden tree and pledged him her troth. e closed his eyes and saw the crooked stréets of the quaint Lorrainean town; the low stoop where he had so often sat with her; the feeble old watchmaker, her father, who had served with the Prussian army in ’71, and gar- rulously told of licking the French, until his— Armont’s—nerves were on edge. The cigarette burned unheeded until it scorched his lips, and he threw it away with a curse. : God! how happy he had been the day he left for Paris. She had seen him off at the station and kissed him au revoir. Not goodbye, only au revoir. They were to be married on his re- turn. His return! He groaned aloud. He had never returned. An archduke had died in Ser- bia; a sword had rattled in Prussia; a bear had growled in the domain of the czar, and the day that was to grace his nuptials found him en- trenched in front of Paris with a million other mén, his immediate world blotted out with the hideous figtire’ of ‘war. A year had passed since then; a year in which he had gone’ thru a thousand hells; a vear that had brought in its flight not one word of his sweetheart. O damn war! damn war! had he damned war? But that was at first. Now he had schooled himself to endure. Only an undercurrent of dragging hopelessness sucked ever at his feet and made the coarse pleasures obtainable even within this shadow of death and madness pow- erless to lift him out of its grip. He laughed at a fellow officer’s crude jest and lit another cigarette. The rain was seep- ing thru the sagging roof and a pool of water lay underfoot. Inwardly he was crying Hilda Hilda. The crazy door swung open with a bang and ah orderly entered. Stiff as a ramrod he sal- uted. “Colonel M.’s compliments, and would Lieu- tenant Armont report at headquarters at once?” Lieutenant Armont would, and did. Wrapped in his greatcoat he plowed thru the rain and muck, cursing at every -step. The colonel greeted him formally. “Lieutenant, you will arrange to have a squad of your men prepare a grave in the waste to, the south of the main billets, and there await the arrival of Captain X. with a prisoner, a spy, who will be executed in the usual manner.” e , Lieutenant Armont saluted and retired. | ASpy..°. to be shot: Poor devil! He or- pe out his squad and gloomily smoked & cigarette as the wet sod was turned. God! he hated the job. Ten, fifteen minutes passed. The men finished the grave. He glanced at his wrist watch. Three fifty-five. Dark as hades. Slowly, persistently the drizzle fell. There was the rattle of accoutrement, a sharp challenge, then the captain and his party loomed ghostly in the mist. The captain mumbled thru the reading of the charge. The prisoner said never a word. His head was bowed, and the greatcoat swathing- him trailed the ground. Against the stonewall of a basement ruin they stood him. A flare struggled to throw his figure into relief, At the word of command the men fell in, How many times And wept and raved. “Ready! God, it was eold! “Aim!” , —————— ee SS ° a LF oonetay the pre-revolutionary pe- riod, the idea that the cooperative movement is the best dumping-ground for the most opportunist elements was commonly prevalent among the social democratic parties. The left wing in these parties was satisfied to get rid of the ultra-reformists by this means. Undoubtedly the reform- ist political conception of cooperation indirectly strengthened this practice. The reformist tenet about cooperation proclaimed that cooperation is some- thing complete by itself, independent from social conditions and the class struggle. Lenin as a Marxian and revolution- ist, analyzed cooperation from the standpoint of the class struggle. He understood that the cooperative move- ment is a mass movement of the proletariat and petty-bourgeoisie against capitalist’ exploitation, and therefore a phase of the’ class. strug- “Fire!” the dirge of doom. under the light of the flare. leaped forward. “My God, it’s a woman!” LENIN AND The lieutenant shivered. si The rattle of musketry fell on the’ ait like - The prisoner buckled at the knees, hung ir- | resolutely a moment then sprawled forward in a ghastly heap. The cap fell from the head and a wealth of hair surged out and showed yellow With an oath of surprise. the lieutenant He gently turned the body over and looked gle. Lenin understood that because certain economic conditions create cooperation, it cannot be independent from these conditions, but must change according to the changing of conditions, Lenin did not ignore the cooperative question as a minor one. He consid- ered this question from the viewpoint of how the cooperative movement is able to help the class struggle upon the answer he based his tactics. Producers’ and Credit Cooperatives. Already as early as is his polemics against the populists, Lenin dealt with the cooperative question. During this early period, a wave of enthusi- asm for agricultural (producers’) and credit cooperatives was aroused in Russia. These cooperatives were to be the means for peaceful evolution into socialism without a revolution. First the populists fought this con- ception, but later, with the waning of ‘ at the face. THE C O-OPER their revolutionary charact joined with the liberal estate deserting their revolutionary wo « Lenin fought bitterly against cooperative ideas of the popu He pointed out that the credi operatives would serve only the to-do peasants and the poorer p would be left outside. To help development of big estates is no business of revolutionists. The lutionists must help only that will strengthen the struggle the exploiters. The producers credit cooperatives as advan the. populists and company help the cause of revolution. pointed out how ridiculons it think that the’ small operatives (artels) would means Of peacefiit evolirtio cialism “ without’ ‘révolution. cialization of production”*¢ould The light played on it we Mother of Christ, was he mad, dreaming!. face with the bloody froth on the lips and glazing blue eyes. That face! Whose was No, no, it couldn’t be! With acry of unu able hqrror he seized the boy by the should and lifted the head to the height of his o The captain stepped forward. - ‘ ' “Lieutenant, what does this mean?” he gan, then stopped, for Lieutenant fy look was a thing to appall. He wag 4 to the face of the dead woman and sob like a madman, “Hilda! Hilda!” Ts, Pa? ~on- aQiaty Petro. re. re fT oe td et fe eee ee eee oat e cf &