The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 26, 1926, Page 8

Gary, Florida and the Negro Workers (Continued from page 1) working class which will prove the surest guarantee for the suc- cessful liberation of the whole Negro race. The Negro farmer, the peon of the South, is the closest ally of the Negro worker in this struggle. The farmers make up the bulk of the Negro population of the United States. They are the most persecuted, outraged and oppressed. It is mainly they that spend their lives in the hell of cannibalism that go under the name of southern chivalry. It is they, therefore, that will back the Negro worker to the full extent of their abilities for any ef- fective struggle for the liberation of the Negroes. Tt is also true that large sections of Negro professionals and intellectuals must and will play an important part in these strug- gles. In fact a good number of them are engaged in organizing Negro movements against race persecution and discrimination. But the one idea that is still lacking in most of these movements is the basic and decisive idea, namely, that the hope of the Negro race are its toiling masses, and that the leaders of Negro strug- gles must and will be the Negro workers. The Negro profession- als and intellectuals must adopt this idea and make it their own, if they wish their efforts for the liberation of the race to be pro- ductive of real results. Unity With the Labor Movement is an Essential of the Struggle. THE struggle of the Negro race against race discriminations and for complete economic, political and social equality must have the support of the workers and poor farmers of the United States, if it is to be successful in the achievement of its aims. The capitalists of the United States—white, black and yellow—are all opposed to the Negroes, not on the basis of color but mainly and chiefly on the basis of class interests. The Negro race is a race of toilers. It is oppressed and persecuted to advance the in- terests of the exploiting classes. Hence, the capitalist class of this country is vitally interested in perpetuating the present stat- us of the Negroes. Not so with the workers and poor farmers. Despite the pre- judice against Negroes that may still exist among certain sections of white workers and poor farmers in the United States, prejudice which is assidiously cultivated by the ruling class, yet the surest ally of the Negro masses is the American working class. Be- cause it is only the working class, which is an oppressed and exploited class, that is compelled to carry on a real struggle ‘against capitalism—the main source of all forms of exploitation, class and racial. : Unity with the movements of workers and poor farmers must become a basic principle with the race liberation movements of the Negroes. The two have a common enemy and in their unity ‘ies the assurance of their mutual success. The Negro Labor Congress, The Negro Labor Congress, though the youngest, is.about:the ‘nly Negro organization that has a fundamentally correct out- look upon the Negro question. It is, therefore, its duty to in- troduce into the other and older Negro movements in the United States the correct conception of their roles and tasks. But the chief demand of the hour is organization. _ ‘The Negro workers must be organized into trade unions to- gether with the white workers. Th Gary disaster is an alarming reminder of this burning need. ; . The Negro farmers must be organized to struggle jointly with the poor white farmers. The agricultural crisis and the capi- talist government are hitting both severely. Hence, white and Negro farmers must organize to protect and defend themselves. The various Negro movements must be brought together on a wnited front basis. This is a timely and burning question. Upon the successful and quick solution of this problem depends largely the effectiveness of the Negro struggles for their emancipation. Unity of action among themselves and unity of action with e labor and farmer movements of this counrty generally—these are the immediate pressing tasks of the Negro masses in the United States. This is the answer they must give to the recent lynching in Florida and to the disaster in Gary. ALEX. BITTELMAN. O’FLAHERTY ARTICLE NEXT WEEK. The next article by T. J. O’Flaherty, “New Days In Old England,” will appear in the July 3 issue of the magazine, All Hell Can’t Stop Us (Tune: Hold the Fort.) Now the final battle rages; Tyrants quake with fear. Rulers of the New Dark Ages Know THEIR end is near. CHORUS Scorn to take the crumbs they drop All is ours by right! Onward Men! All Hell can’t stop us! Crush the Parasite! Tear the mask of lies asunder; Let the truth be known; With a voice of angry thunder, Rise and claim your own! Down with Greed and Exploitation! y must fall! ‘ Hail to Toil’s Emancipation! Labor shall be all, us; —Ralph Chaplin. “NELL GWYN.” E Gish sisters, both stars in the movie world, are great actresses in the opinion of a large following. Oth- ers have added to their name, if not their glory, the well-known name of “The Gush Sisters.” You may belong to either of these camps into which movie opinion seems definitely di- vided. Or you may belong to neither camp and see this picture, in which case the “gush camp” will win another adherent. The story is concerned with the rise of Nell Gwyn from a poor orange seller at the doors of a theater to a star on the stage and the favorite mis- tress of King Charles II of England. The king sees her one day, becomes interested thru her quick wit, and when rain comes down in torrents at the theater (they had no roofs on theaters then) he adjourns to a nearby inn, where he asks the little orange seller to accompany him when he finds her still before the doors. Her nimble wit and entertaining ways win the king’s interest, a gift of a pair of silk stockings and a chance to “go on the stage.” She is a star immediately. (They always are.) The king falls madly in love with her and forsakes a charming mistress on hand for Nell Gwyn, his new favorite. The old flame fights for her lover (and the favors that come with the love of a king), but our Nell triumphs thru her cleverness. The king is not well and dies. But in the end we are shown that the love of Nell Gwyn was, after all,.a really, true love. Ho-hum! Here again is a picture where histo- rians could not convince the movie di- rector. We have read a few things about Nell Gwyn—“a favorite of an English king whose many good deeds to the people made her loved by all.” But the movie director decided Nell was something else again. Anyway, he wasn’t interested. In- stead’ of Nell Gwyn, a great actress, a’ Woman of ‘some influence in her A PEEK EACH WEEK AT MOTION PICTURES time, we have a Nell Gwyn who is an irresponsible if clever child, whose mimicry and little tricks you soon tire of and wonder why the king forgets the other lady, who, in the language of the times, is “a hot mamma,” Dorothy Gish is not Nell Gwyn— not Nell as she was, if those historians did not He to us. And the scenario written for her was no help, Histort- cal accuracy, a picture of the times, conditions of all classes in this period, all seemed of little importance to those concerned with making the picture. The director would have been much better with the Ziegfield Follies. Thra- out the whole story Nell was display- ing as much of herself as the movie censors would stand for. Low cut gowns, generous hosiery display and transparent nighties were part of every scene. Which is all right in its place—and the bedroom scenes pre- dominating were probably the place. But these were not essential to good drama or good acting, tho they might have been good substitutes for the ab- sence of both. There was little to interest the hon- est movie fan. The photoplay was the usual hokum, with very poor character drawing, and thruout the picturization of the dissolute court and ruling class you were continually éffered apologies for guiltless “Good King Charles.” In the beginning of the picture the king, on being told of a wit’s remark that he “never said a bad thing or did a wise one,” replies that he was respon- sible “only for his words, while his actions were thosé of his minister.” Which was smart, was it not?—and after all, what need of a king to worry over the acts of his ministers, even in those days? Dorothy Gish “wasn’t so good” in this picture. The scenario writer was worse. And the director will probably get an increase in salary to handle bathing beauties after this job. If he does, it will be -worth seeing. Nell Gwyn isn’t. w. Cc. Upton Sinclair to an American Capitalist. June 5, 1926. My dear Mr. APPRECIATE your reading the “Letters to Judd” and taking the trouble to write me so fully on the subject. I quite understood your point of view. You are correct in your im- pression that I have never let a mil- lion dollar contract. I. once handled a quarter of a million or so in the publishing of “The Brass Check,” and I came out thirty thousand behind, which you will take to be proof posi- tive that I am incompetent; but I was satisfied, because I had got several million Americans to read the . book. Most of the time while you have been letting million dollar contracts I have been investigating the conditions of life of the laborers who do the work which makes the million dollar con- tracts possible; also the activities of the million dollar contractors in con- trolling and corrupting our political system. I have done a little investi gating in your own “Philadelphia, cor- rupt and contented,” so I know ex- actly what I am talking about, I quite understand that it is the cus- tom of business enterprises to finance new construction out of profits. If the shareholders followed the plan of foregoing the dividends and putting these dividends into new construction no one would object; but take the case of the Amoskeag Company, which you mentioned, The records show that dividends were paid right straight alone, and the new construc- tion financed also, which is simply a way of cating your cake and having it at the same time, The difference between us is one of principle, You think that big business {fg entitled to any profits it can make, and I think that the making of big profits leads automatically to social revolution, — . I am yery much ashamed to learn that a German socialist has taken your money to investigate conditions in Russia, I have no doubt that he will find many dreadful evils to re- port to you. For these evils which he reports you yourself will be directly responsible. You were an active and voluble member of the American capi- talist class which waged active war upon the Russian workers’ govern- ment. The Russian nation has been ruined by three years of capitalist war, and the people demanded “‘peace, land and bread,” and attempted to get it. But you used your money and the money of your government to subsi- dize war upon the workers’ govern- ment on twenty-six fronts. You even sent in American troops on several fronts, and killed many Russian work- | ers without even the formality of a declaration of war. After this I do not wonder that it is taking the Rus- sian workers a long time to struggle back to prosperity, and Iam sure you will understand how obvious it seems havoc which you and your capitalist sia, instead of sending so-called socia}. ists, for whom real socialists have to blush. Sincerely, Upton Sinclair, ay