The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 19, 1926, Page 8

amt” } Look at Minnesota (Continued from page 1) strument through which they can elect their own people ‘to office and to support and control them after they have been elected. In the Farmer-Labor Association of Minnesota the toiling masses have got an organization which can be made to do for the workers and poor farmers what the republican and democratic parties have been doing for the capitalists. The Enemies of the Farmer-Labor Association. HE Farmer-Labor Association of Minnesota is confronting strong and powerful enemies. It has got to contend with them inside as well as outside. There are the republican and democratic parties still in‘existence and struggling desperately to combat the growth of the farmer-labor organization, And there are also agents of the capitalists—big and small—present WITHIN the farmer-labor move- ment trying to destroy it from the inside. Thus Davis is challenging the nomination of Mangus Johnston as the candidate for governor on the farmer-labor ticket. This con- test will be settled by the primary elections and, we hope, in favor of Johnson and against Davis. We say this not because we con- sider Mangus Johnson the ideal candidate. Johnson has serious and fatal shortcomings. He is far from being the clear, conscious and consistent champion of the interests of the masses against their ex- ploiters that the workers and farmers need as their representatives. But Mangus Johnson has got the support of the workers and farmers in the Farmer-Labor Association whereas Davis is opposed by them his support coming from the professional politicians, the middle class elements and the reactionary labor officials. Mangus Johnson is the choice of the party having been nominated for the office of gov- ernor by the convention of the Farmer-Labor Association, held at St. Paul, in March. To support the nominee of the convéntion means in this case to support the farmer-labor association. It means to strengthen the movement against its enemies from within and to enable it to develop into an effective organ of struggle controlled by the workers in alliance with the poor farmers. Spread the Minnesota Idea: [THE Minnesota idea should be spread to other states and locali- ties. It is a correct idea inasmuch as it is founded on the prin- ciple of’ independent political action by labor in alliance with the poor farmers. It is also a practical idea. This has been proven most convinc- ingly by the development and growth of the Farmer-Labor Associa- tion in Minnesota. And it is the only possible idea at this state of affairs. For anything else short of it means the continuation of the futile and hopeless game that we have witnessed just recently in the Illinois and Pennsylvania primaries. : The Workers (Communist) Party has pointed out the way towards spreading the Minnesota idea. It proposed the putting for- ward of United Labor tickets and Farmer tickets in the coming elections as a step in the direction of a Labor Party which would _make an alliance with the poor farmers for joint struggle against the capitalist parties. —ALEX. BITTELMAN. Choice Bits of Futility and Reaction “The little African gold cubes are easier to read now that new electric fixtures have been installed at head- quarters. It has been suggested that the assembly room be called the Great White Way.”’—Dick Small, Teamsters’ Union secretary, in the (Oakland. Calit.) Union Labor Record, “A very short session of the Dan- ville (l.) Trades and Labor Council was held on last Friday evening, due to the fact that the delegates were desirous of attending the May and Dempsey shows.”—Vermilion County Star (Danville, I1l.). “The British general strike .. » fully attained its purpose of winning for the coal miners a fair considera- tion of their condition.”—Joseph E. Cohen, in the American Appeal, “‘They (my property interests) be- Jong to any great movement that ‘can go on and do this job, and whenever the Amalgamated is ready to do that thing that they talk about in their preamble, or can show me that it is in a movement for that thing and it is “time for me to turn over the property interests of the A. Nash Co, to the Amalgamated, I am ready now or at any time to do it.’ (Speech of Arthur Nash to A. C. W, A. convention)... It is, of course, no wonder that he was given a tremendous ovation by the delegates when he concluded his ad- dress.”"—The Advance. “The contest for the nomination for governor on the Farmer-Labor ticket is not developing any animosity what- soever. It ig only a friendly contest to satisfy two factions of the progress- ive movement of the state.”—St. Louis County (Hibbing, Minn.) Independent. “In asking your permission to file this report in the record I summarize it by saying that it shows that the Workers’ Educational Bureau, of which William Z. Foster is the head, is the smoke screen which was in the early days intended to hide William Z. Foster, the now recognized leader of the Workers’ Party, the political party which is subordinate to the Com- munist International of Moscow. Wan- gerin is secretary of Foster’s amalga- mation section of the Workers’ Edu- cational Bureau, and it is represented or was represented that Wangerin was secretary of the committee in charge of the Minnesota plan of amalgama- tion—so-<alled. Stating it another way, we have the Communist Interna- tional of Moscow in direct charge of the Workers’ Party of America, of which Foster is the leader. Subordi- nate to the Workers’ Party is the Workers’ Educational League, of which Foster is the head and has a division of this league in the Interna- tional Committee for Amalgamation of the sixteen organizations. Foster is chairman of this and Wangerin is secretary. “Foster does not believe in political action nor in economic action; he be- lieves in organized force and murder —he calls it revolution.”—-Bert M. Jewell, president of the railroad em- ployes department of the American Federation of Labor, to the conven- tion of the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen. From the Railway Carmen's Journal, we believe that the year 1928 will mark the beginning of this decisive struggle between democracy and dic- tatorship, And we predict that this struggle will wipe out the remnants of middle-class liberalism and bring the European middle class into the social- ist parties."—The Milwaukee Leader, a socialist party publication, from an editorial June 10. A PEEK EACH WEEK AT MOTION PICTURES “THE GREATER GLORY.” GREATER GLORY, adapted from the novel a “Vienese Med- ley,” is largely a background for the brilliant blonde loveliness of Anna Q. Nilsson—miles removed, by the way, from the simpering Christmas-card angel blondeness of “America’s Sweet- heart.” But the film also attempts a portrayal of the play of social forces in war-time Europe that is a new and welcome departure for the movies of this country. The personal theme cen- tering about Anna Nilsson as the daughter of a wealthy Viennese fam- ily who is driven from home when she is involved in a scandal—inno- cently, of course—and becomes the center of the wild night life of Vi- enna’s “schiebert,” or war-profiteers, is banal enough. It is the Swedish actress’s Vitality and charm alone that save it from actual stupidity. But the picture of the swift decline of mem- bers of Vienna’s aristocracy from propertied security to the poverty and insecurity that they had always trust- ingly believed to be reserved by a wise upper-class Providence exclu- sively for the proletariat, is not at all badly done, The family about which the action centers is first shown in the Spring of 1914—well-dressed, well-fed, with all the quiet self-assurance and poise of position and wealth of long standing. mounting to fabulous heights, and finally the bread-line, food riots, and the last belongings pawned at govern- ment pawnshops. The effect on the various members of the family group is really cleverly shown. Particularly on the old aunt who is the head of the family. At first a dainty, imperious, petted little old lady, and then terribly fright- ened old. woman with no earning power at all, who knows that she is a burden to the rest of the family and daily sees starvation staring her in the face. This process of the impoverishment of the wealthy bourgeoisie in Central Europe has formed the theme of numerous books and articles since the war. It is interesting to observe how the tragedy of insecurity and uncer- tainty which is the daily and familiar companion of the great mass of the workers in all capitalist countries be- comes visible to the eyes of the bour- geoisie only when it touches their own class. The war-profiteer side of the picture ‘is not so well done. The types would be more effective if their brutality and hoggishness were not so crudely and conventionally drawn. As it is, the moral seems to be that if a rich man gorges himself in an ungentle- woman, he is wicked; but if he ob- serves the rules of etiquette and eats politely where the people that he is helping to starve are out of sight, and doesn’t kick his employes, but merely exploits and enslaves them, he is alright. The film would be vastly improved if the producer would cut out the ridic- ulous helmeted figures on horseback, lifted from the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” that ramp across a pink- and-white sky to the accompaniment of something that sounds like the tin- tray call for dinner in a country hotel, every time that war or rioting or revo- lution are mentioned, and the night- gowned ones that appear when a gen- eral impression of uplift is to be con- veyed. On the other hand, a number of scenes might be added with ad- vantage to remove a certain feeling of abruptness and difficulty in follow- ing the action of the story, frequently present in a film adapted from a novel, especially from one with a plot that is well somewhat subtly worked out, as that of the “Viennese Medley” is said to be. { The photography is excellent, and some very beautiful Viennese scenes are shown, and remarkably intelligent care has been taken with the minor characters and details, with the result Then comes the war, the krone drop- ping daily, government bonds and in- vestments becoming worthless, prices that the characters do really look like Viennese, and Viennese of the war years, instead of like Americans at Amy Schechter. et ae ee a@ masquerade, “MLLE. MODISTE”— MORALS IN THE MOVIES, “71 FLLE. MODISTE,” one of the month’s best selling movies, might almost as well be called “Bab- bitt in Paris.” The similarity be- tween Hiram Bent, its “wine ‘em, dine ’em, and sign ’em’ hero, and Sin- clair Lewis picture of a typical Ameri- can business man as seen on the screen is accentuated by the coinci- dence of Willard Lewis having been cast for both roles. And in the words of one of the comedy’s many wise cracks, Willard “knows his onions”— especially when it comes to playing the part of an affable nincompoop. Hiram Bent hails from St. Louis, Mo., and, for movie purposes, is a mil- lionaire banana importer. But in Paris he reveals his commercial in- genuity by taking up a side line, women’s clothes. It is around the momentous subject of women’s clothes, therefore, that the meaning and moral of this movie revolve. As Hiram puts it when he opens his “Mile. Modiste” shop with a “splen- diferous” banquet. ‘“Here’s to low necks and short skirts—may they never meet!” The hairbreadth es- cape that keeps the two from meeting provides the germ for a plot. Middle-class morality is a sort of in- describable, indefinable- something that is nevertheless indispensable, one. finds out as the story progresses. Fifi, the model, is the kind of a girl who says she “isn’t that kind of a girl” and she isn’t! When Hiram, as banquet host, introdtces her to all the potential masculine buyers (not of | her, but of her costumes—the distiitc- tion is a fine one) she conceives the naive idea of auctioning off her clothes for the benefit of the French orphans, right on the spot. First her slippers, her fan, etc... . When her dress is being bid for she modestly retires behind a screen, challenging male rivalry from over the top with head bobbing from bare shoulders. Even her tiny undergar- ments reach the hand of the highest bidder, and then the boldest amongst the males opens the bid “For the Screen!” Bidding goes on frenziedly, with Hiram’s protests overruled be- cause “It’s all for the French orphans, you know,” and finally the financially fittest is told to come and get it. Eyes gleam evilly and mouths gape as he eagerly clutches for the screen. It folds together in his arms, disclosing to the breath-holding guests “Mlle. Modiste,’ calm and smiling in her sim- . The fact that Hiram’s buying guests saw a disrobed Fifi only with their mind’s eyes and not with their naughty physical optics made all the difference in the world, of course, as far as middle-class morality is con- cerned. It happened, however, that her high-born lover, present incognito, became somewhat disconcerted before the final unveiling and departed early in a selfish dudgeon. Therein lay the great tragedy. How to convince him that she “wasn’t that kind of a girl?” This problem was happily solved by resort to the green-eyed monster, jealousy, aided by the fact that Fifi had “whatever it is necessary to hang clothes on,” and she also had the clothes. The picture, adapted from the op- eretta, “Fifi,” is full of funniness and well acted, while Corinne Griffith is very easy to look at—and she has a sense of humor that shows itself in Charleston-like antics which appeal to one’s sense of thodernity, to say the least. It’s a far ery from her back to America’s former “sweetheart,” old- tshioned Mary Pickford, who scarcely moved anything but her eyes. a. w. i manly gue po while Pag = — ple little dinner gown, donned dex- look on and occasionally trously between sales, ;