The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 17, 1926, Page 11

| Barbusse a ) instant later one of the men was sitting on it | alMench, and our friend crouched before him, ping his knees, pouring out words of every rs toe it} ‘Vell then, I don’t ask what you believe! I ly |don’t ask what you think! I ask what do you Y: | do!” 0D) §o he smashed into~ that confusion of ideas, d |ianguages ahd gestures which has lasted without a stop since the time it prevented the tower of Babel from reaching from earth to the ‘sky. in} «gay, look .; .” >| But they didn’t see anything! ‘| The other man sat there without any more to say than a gutted fish, because if he had spoken, he would have had’ to say “I’m only a rag,” and a4 —] re nobody likes to present himself in’ such a light. “)| And afterhaying “been turned’ upsidé down by ““ |the sincerity of the'one, he was turned downside- ¢ t Ali moving ieubbhsy’ of ‘the’others. mm Mee ne He “at us just ‘the opposite’ of a | bisa mi him! He said? “You must |bé se tig mi “Be what, did you say?” nh “Believers! You must throw away’ the old things you believed in, but not the teen id | power to believe.” And with one blow he separated those ike dif- ft |ferent things. He lifted his eyes to the immense empty sky, and he went so far as to add that miracles sleep, and sometimes they awake. While he talked like that he was something like Jesus, in spite of his trousers and coat. Be- cause it’s not certain that Jesus believed in God, as those who talked for him said; it’s quite pos- sible that, on the pe he wanted to free men from God. him. They thot; ‘Me, I’m not bad, but maybe he’ll catch someone ‘else up, like that; I don’t want to be scraped like that.” In fact, everybody was hostile to him: You ean imagine what a eommotion there was hs P ready for a military retreat thru the vil- Inge lati Hight. voi} 10% qoow odvr oaot In the crowd there was a Negro. The Negro was the center of an attentive circle, glances and stares turned upon him like the spokes of a wheel. “What a difference between him and us!’ ex- claimed someone. “What a resemblance!” answered the Crier. Someone else said: “He always has to disagree with everyone!” But he showed that there were differences of surface between all those who were standing in the crowd, that you could see right away, in pass- ing; but under these differences were endless esemblances that you could only see when you ed to look—. Because a man is always a i@}; sometimes he’s black, sometimes he’s white, -|but he’s always red. That, and the military retreat, made people think about the war that was being made up there, and about the bands of men in the trenches, struggling in lakes of slime and filth, leaning! forward like the figureheads of ships, and of-the daazling massacres, and then as far as eyes eould ;}see across the fields, of the heaps of carrion and garbages:, And mene that, how many invisible familiés Waa pi fo A pregnant woman, sala ‘with hollow eyes and bared teeth, (she had a mask of death, this doubly sacrificed creature), stared at the horizon, down there, down there... . He lifted up his hand so that they could see that hand, and said that the hand at the end of an arm is a peaceful hand, Has it claws? No. ay ot a weapon, it is a tool. It is made for fe things. : “l@that’t true, let’s quietly work out our des- tiny,” said a reasoner. “No, because it is a false destiny, maneuvered by others than watnehres: To do, you must Sant undo: ” A man passed, ‘distributing, torches for ‘the retreat, and put a torch in his hands, ;, . The basin of the fountain was near. » He hrew the’ flaming lamp, into the water... The torch, as- tonished, went out. A great discussion arose over this; around him the words Glory,..Vietory, France, Deliverance, were’ heard. But he beat down the empty phrases: like-a battering ram, and they saw that these phrases had no arin But the diseus- sion grew. Well, however it was, people kept away from | : The preacher came, and then the mayor. The, Preacher: Brethren, this life is impos- sible; you must draw up plans for another lifé. You can’t make things«go, as they are now ar~ ranged. (And he explained the inside and the outside and the financial and the economic, and the acrobatics of the governing clique, and the stopping up of holes with promises.) The People: Yes, you can’t give satisfaction to all at the same time. There must’ be layers of countries one on the other, and plenty of millions of exchange, and the granar ieS must manufacture wheat on the spot, and the céllars must’ become natural fountains of wine. The Preacher: that you can’t get on in this earthly life. The Mayor: “Excuse me, gir’, T don’t agree with you. ” -.. In his judgment it was right here on this earth that improvemént must bevin, and he said so to the citizens. To improve it, there was tte Ballot. And the Mayor explained that the Ahing to°do was to-do nothing; ‘but that thru doing nothing we should end by ‘doing «all. ; There: he touched on a: tender spot in’ publie opinion. “Yes, there you are!” they ‘did. “Everything goes from bad to worse, and you must“fix every- thing but not change anything! And ade must. Get - Thawiee Lanter You see then; that it is plain - begin everything over again but never begin!” “Nothing but words!” cried the Preacher, and he pulled two Latin words out of his collection, to_show off better that all this was nothing but windy words. “Tn your business as in my business, it’s the world that exists only in speech and writing that matters!” He pointed to the doorway of the prison near- by. The eye of a little boy followed his pointing arm, and the little boy read aloud in,a shill voice what was written over the prison door: “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” And everyone stared at the .writing with open mouths, as of they were looking with-their mouths, The Crier burst into:a guffaw-of laughter over them all, as he had when the baron of New York came to their village. The laughter showed up vividly what had been said, and: how. ridiculous it all was. Everybody. laughed,” and: they .saw it was’ the Preacher.and the Mayor they were laugh- ing at because ‘only: the oo and the Mayor didn’t laugh. But laugh as + they rela, they. were enceweslty -Tagsed, ; (To be continued next week in the wah Magazine Supplement of The DAILY Wor ork ib —the issue of Saturday, April 24.) Out! High School Students—and even Professors—are Beginning to Rebel against the Militariza- tion of the High Schools, says Maurice Becker, Cartoonist of The Daily Worker. “May Day Poems by Henry George Weiss March! THE First.of May is Labor Day ' Where’er the blood runs red,. We've made it so by all our woe, And all our martyred dead; Then come, ye sons of labor, come And join the rebel throng ° That marches over all the earth A hundred million, strong! Oh, why be,meek? Ye are not weak! The crimson flag, unfurled, Floats high today, this First of May, ja O’er one-sixth of the world; ; ‘Then damn the tyrant to his. face And join the rebel throng That marches over all the nents A hundred million strong! » anor We Have Too ONCE more the breath of spring is on the air, Once more the April showers bring to birth Phe grass and ferns to cover up the bare Long reaches of the earth Once more the miracle of change is, wrought For all to see, who have the eyes ‘to see; The maybuds blushing on each. slender stalk, me The green leaves on-a tree, Ah, Boding Season, pregnant with the New And harbinger of sunshine and of ay We of the Revolution, we haye too... at Our April and our May! ‘Tha at sit We %