The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 3, 1926, Page 8

Oe nn mete met reenter spares unnensnnentier— eens - The Triumphant Exploiter of the World. (Continued from page 1) Great masses of workers are still following the lead of the cap- italists. This is manifested most clearly by the fact that the repub- lican and democratic parties continue to receive the support of con- siderable numbers of workers. In a sense, the American workers of today are politically more backward than the American capitalists were in 1776. As far back as a hundred and fifty years ago, most of the Amer- ican merchants and manufacturers had already realized, what may be properly termed, the need for INDEPENDENT POLITICAL AC- TION BY THE CAPITALISTS AS A CLASS. These merchants and manufacturers consequently broke with the dominant political leadership of that time—the king and the aristocracy. Why? Be cause that leadership was supplied by a class whose interests were hostile to the immediate and historic interests of the young capitalist class of America. These young American capitalists were no longer satisfied to be led politically by their class enemies. Hence, the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War and the tri- wnphant establishment of an independent capitalist government in America. Today, one hundred and fifty years after the declaration of inde- pendence by the American capitalists, the conditions have become ripe for a second declaration of independence—the political inde- pendence of the American workers from the leadership and tutelage of their class enemies, the capitalists. * * JNDEPENDENT POLITICAL ACTION BY LABOR is the central y idea symbolizing the historic necessity for the political liberation of the American working class. A Labor Party, based upon the trade unions and including all other labor organizations, is at this day the concrete expression and the practical instrument for making labor’s independence a reality. An alliance between the politically organized workers on the one hand and the organized farmers on the other hand is the only effective means for the upbuilding of a political power that would be strong enough to struggle against and combat the political and economic domination of the capitalists. —ALEX. BITTELMAN. Has American Labor. Revolutionary Traditions? IOR decades any sign of militancy on the part of the American work- ers has been met with the cry of “Those damned foreigners.” Capital- ism and its agents among the labor bureaucracy has been at great pains to instill into the minds of the workers the belief that class consciousness, class struggle and revolution are essen- tially “foreign” and un-American, and that labor’s role in this country has always been what they are trying to make it today—a passive appendage of the master class and its submissive slave. Nothing can be farther from the reality. As it robs it of everything else, capitalism has robbed labor of a past that it might be dangerous for it to remember. For despite the fact that the American labor movement may have had even more than its fair share of yellow “leaders” and self- seeking politicians, the American pro- letariat has a history of stubborn and heroic struggle—sometimes more con- scious, sometimes less conscious—but always along definite class lines and for definite class issues—that-reaches far back into the early years of the republic. In the course of the last century thousands of workers in this country fell fighting as workers and in the workers’ cause. Hidden away in yel- lowing newspaper files, in the pages of musty amd forgotten old histories and in the memories of veteran fight- ers in the class war, are scores of tales of mass action, of brilliant and audacious triumphs wrested thru sheer force of reckless daring and high- hearted courage in the face of over- whelming odds, of resistance to the death in the face of defeat, as well as countless repetitions of the familiar epic of solidarity and dogged endur- ance thru months of slow starvation during lockouts and strikes. And scores of grim instances, too, that it is well for American workers to know and remember, of the clubbing and bloody massacre of defenseless men and women and children by federal troops, and militia, and police and mine guards and just plain thugs in capitalism’s employ. In most European countries the lead- ing engagements in the class struggle of that land are widely known among the workers, forming a proletarian tra- dition and source of inspiration for to- day’s conflict. But here partly, per- haps, because of the vastness of the land, and the isolation of many of the communities in which those battles, particularly the miners’ and the rail- roaders, were fought; partly, perhaps because of the hurry of life that leaves little time for remembering ; but mostly because of the devout wish o/ the labor bureaucracy to keep the movement entrusted to their tender care free from every taint of class struggle, past, present or future, that it may be wholly seemly and respect able in the eyes of their masters— the vast majority of the workers have only the vaguest conception of their heritage as members of the American proletariat. With next week's issue of The DAILY WORKER Magazine Section will commence a series of sketches of the high spots in the class struggle in this country (a thoro treatment would demand many thick volumes). It is planned to rehearse the half- forgotten details of the famous strikes like the Homestead and Pullman and Colorado, adding comment from the contemporary labor press giving the struggle thru the eyes of the workers of the period; to deal, besides, with other strikes and clashes that are practically unknown, tho no less hotly fought, if on a smaller scale, and to tell something of those early strug- gles in the days of the first coming to power of capitalism that are of such significance in the history of Ameri- can labor, such as the general strike of 1877 that swept the country Iike a great conflagration, striking terror into the hearts of the bourgeoisie and causing them to exclaim, “The Com- mune is here!” A. 8. “THE BAT.” OME years ago when we were at the tender age of transitidn from short pants to long ones, detective sto- ries kept us up many nights. We read them in bed and up to the wee hours of the morning, despite the watchfulness of our parents to pre- vent it. We were obliged to burn the lamp very low (there was no gas or electric light in the room) to avoid waking the folks, and the dim lights and creepy shadows in all corners pro: vided a weird background that helped to raise goose-flesh all over us. “The Bat” is just such a movie story. Tho it did not give up the thrill of our youth, it was really good fun. Three distinct plots inter-cross each other to keep you guessing until the last minute as to who is “the hat” —the mysterious “killer” and thief, who is finally captured by the clever detective.“ There is robbery, murder, secret doors and secret passages from which dead bodies drop out! Shad- Ows are played up by clever photog- raphy; lights go out mysteriously— you will find all the elements of the good old hokum that will prove good fun (or are you too jaded for such “nonsense”?) and about whieh you will laugh thruout. Louise Fazenda, comedienne of pie-throwing comedies of the past, plays in her old make-up for “comedy relief,” of which there is plenty, both with her characterization of a stupid maid and that of a “hick” detective. Both are ancient burlesque laugh pro- vokers, but you will find them still working in good order. We found after seeing this picture that we still like “mystery” stories. We don’t read them any more for lack of time, but in the movies they stil! give us the impression they are not give you some as well or you ean write us and tell the pop-eyed world what little we know about movies—which . Very. Jikely,you may.think is plenty. . ~About.minety percent of the pic- tures we see, before having seen them give us the impression they are not worth seeing. And after we have seen them the percentage is usually higher. Mystery stories and comedy, outside of a few truly worth while films we rec&@, still give us what little pleasure we can get from the movies. . “The Bat” as a play was a success. It looks like one in the movies. And now you can read it as a book as well, which makes it a profitable brain child for the author. You will likely waste your time reading the book, but you A PEEK EACH WEEK > AT MOTION PICTURES will get a lot of good fun out of seeing the movie. Spooky and weird non- sense, that’s true, but worth-while diversion if in need of an hour’s re- lief after a hard day’s grind of rolling up profits for your master, w.c. - “KIKI” Kiki ts a horrible example of what happens to a French play when it is sterilized to meet the demands of American morality. The heroine is meant to be an audacious little hoy- den brought up on the streets of Mont- martre; in the original she may have been a piquant and intriguing char- acter. But since counter to all con- sistency of both plot and character, Kiki’s technical virtue must be pre- served intact at all costs until the marriage ring is safely in sight, the result is a fatuous and vulgar mess. The manager of the theater from which Kiki has been fired after being a chorus girl for a night takes her to his home, after a wild drunk in a cafe. He says: “Kiki, have you ever been kissed?” She replies, looking heaven- ward im starry-eyed innocence: “I never knew my mother.” And so it goes, Despite Kiki’s ostentatious and pain- ful purity, the part, which has some good lines, might be tolerably carried off by one of the many vivacious flap- pers flapping around the movies at the moment. But, evidently, the star is the thing, and Norma Talmadge, with her mature face and figure and heavy kittenishness, makes it ridiculous and very dull, “PARIS.” Montmartre is also the scene of “Paris,” a picture with a fairly foolish plot, but with good acting and re- markably beautiful and distinguished photography. There is a_ typical Charles Ray hero, an amiable and lav- ish American millionaire who goes around exuding dollars and chivalry, and heaps gifts upon the Apache he- +‘ roine in his efforts to win her. He is ‘ rather more foolish even than the law in these cases allows. But the Apache girl and her lover, a singularly hand- some pair—Crawford is her name, I think—act with a fire and intensity that really carries conviction. The swift grace of their movements com- bine with the fine photography to pro- duce some scenes that are far above the usual movie level. It may be noted with satisfaction that the lady turns down the amiable millionaire for the impecunious and wholly unvirtu- ous Apache desperado, A. 8. As the Russians See Them Gloria Swanson Douglas Fairbanks A. Nielsen _ In Memory By JIM WATERS. ‘ I remember A crash of a shriek, falling walls, And groans of death. We dug him out of a snarl Of broken scaffokling, bleeding and numb, And laid him on an old door. He swung his head like a top And talked about Jesus, His kids and his old woman. When the doctor came, he was dead. I remember, six ragged kide And a red-eyed old woman who couldn’t cry Staring vacantly at the corner as he read: “Mike Surrento’s death is the will of God.”