The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 10, 1926, Page 14

- WHAT AND HOW TO READ PRP OT a a ttt tae Under this title we will publish period. ically, at. least once a month, one article or More giving our readers advice and guidance in the systematic reading of books for the purpose of self-education. We were fortunate to secure the co-op- eration of several competent labor educa- tors and journalists for the conduct of this department of the magazine. The editors and contributors to this depart- ment will expect our readers to feel per. fectly free to write to us on whatever difficulties they may have in the matter of selecting and reading books. Our aim is to be of the maximum possible assis- tance in this respéct, ; We are opening this department with the following article by Arthur W. Cal- houn, teacher of economics and history in the Brookwood Labor College, who will assist our refiders in the selection. and reading of books on genera! economics and economic-history, location of indus- trial resources, modern capitalist corpo- rations, foreign trade and related sub- jects. The names of the other contribu- tors to this department will be an- nounced later. FACTS AND FANCIES IN AMER- ICAN HISTORY. By ARTHUR W. CALHOUN, you went to the public school per- haps you remember some of the fairy tale stuff they palmed off on you as American history. It told of Chris- topher Columbus, a bold hero anxious to advance knowledge and to convert the heathen to the true faith. It pic- tured bands of noble souls pushing their way across the Atlantic in search of freedom. It painted for our admi- ration a race of superhuman, idealistic patriots, who sacrificed and suffered in order to cast off the British yoke. It fed our pride in America by recount- ing in inflated phrase the process by which these same fathers made the constitution of the United States “‘the most remarkable’ document ever struck off at a given time by the hand of man.” Then began the panorama of na- tional greatness, with the spotless Washington in the presidential chair. We learned how America fought for the freedom of the seas. We traced the, struggle against chattel slavery and’ learned how the boys in blue died to set the Negro free. We saw the stars and stripes as the emblem of hope to struggling nations. We heard how the United States drove Spanish tyranny from Cuba and the Philip pines, and now at last our children are regaled with fanciful tales of Amer- ica’s fight “to make the world safe for democracy.” What else could you expect? Who- ever writes history,.writes it for a pur- pose, and in so doing selects the facts that fit his purpose and colors them by the light of his own interests. No one can help weaving his own hopes and desires into the fabric of his story. UT the rosy version of United States history is the deadliest ob- stacle to American progress. It binds people’s minds to the dead past and prevents them from taking hold of the means On which a free future depends, Looked at even in the most superficial way, it is apparent that if children get the notion that a hundred and fifty years ago politicians were noble statesmen, while now (as observation teaches) statesmen are measly poli- licians, a sense of political helpless- mess very agreeable to the ruling in- ferests will be cultivated, O* course the reality is far worse than that. Americans are systematically deluded about all the vital eluments in the na tion's history ad are consequently un- able to take a realistic attitude toward present problems. Let’s try a different version of Amer- ican history. When eastern Europe had developed economically to the point of wanting profitable trade con- nections abroad. a pious slave-catcher, Christopher Columbus, found the way. Immediately all the land-grabbers on the Atlantic front of Europe got busy. As fast as possible they killed off the red-men and annexed all the resources in sight or in imagination. In order to make profit'out of them, they kid- napped boys and girls, men and women, in the streets of British towns, or got their hands on them in other ways, and sold them into slavery iy America. The only thing that kep‘ this slavery from béing more exten sive was the development of man hunting in Africa and the Negro slave- irade to America. side the Atlantic they duped the com- mon people into fighting for independ- ence, and then in secret convention saddled the country with a constitu- tion cleverly constructed with a view to keeping down democracy and put across by dishonest propaganda. When rising discontent forced the granting of manhood suffrage, the ruling inter- ests cleverly built political machines to prevent political equality from hay- ing any effect. When the. workers pushed hard for free schools in order that they might know how to use their citizenship, the authorities granted the schools, and then used them as a means. of kidding the workers into ac- ceptance of things as they were. Every. American boy was endowed With equal opportunity to become pres- ident! By means of the Civil War, the ris- ‘ing capitalism of the East got its grip on West and South and paved the way for the triumph of big business, which then, by the war with Spain, and by participation in the World War, ex- tended the grip of American finance to all corners of the world, so that the American workers are tools by which American capital rules and exploits the human race, d porn is a different story.’ We ought to be able to fill in the details and answer objections. Fortunately, there is at hand a book that will do the business. It is “Social Forces in Amer- ican History,” by A. M: Simons, which - 40,000 New York Cloakmakers on Strike When there got to be big enough business interests ——— has just been re-issued by the Inter- national Publishers. Simons wrote the.book while he was still a socialist, and it is in the main an entirely- ac: ceptable account of the past of the United States, Possibly a few points need to be touched up, as, for instance, his stressing of the idea that America was discovered partly on account of the closing of trade routes to the East by the Mohammedans. As a matter of fact, the routes to the East were still open, and the force leading to discov- ery in the West was rather the in- creasing development of the western Huropean nations so that they needed bew outlets In tho main, however Simons’ version of American history is correct, and besides the book is not very hard for an intelligent worker to read. Suppose you try it, asking yourself at every step: “What has this to do with the fix the American workers are in pow?” ERE are some questions that will help you to get the most out of your reading: 1, What conditions in Europe laid the foundation for exploitation in America? 2. What methods were used in or- der to establish exploitation firmly in the new world? 3. What did the War for Independ- ence mean to the American workers? 4. Show just what sort of deal the workers got when the United States constitution was put over. 5. What: enabled the property in- iy wat woke meet OE RF wk terests to retain their hold in the new nation? 6 How did the opsning of the frontier and the expansion of business affect the chances for a big labor move- ment? 7. How were the workers affected by the conflict between western, south- ern and eastern _jnterests, culminating in the Civil War? 8. How was the labor situation af- fected by the. overthrow of slavery? 9. What does American history show about the nature of political par- ties? : 10. How has the rise of big: busi- ness affected the nature and prospects of the class struggle? HAT will do fora startér. If you are keen to know more, suppose you read Jim Oneal’s “The Workers in American History” (which won’t hurt you, even if you don’t like Jim), and Gustavus Myers’ “History of the U. S. Supreme Court” and “History of Great American Fortunes.” Myers is like Simons, a renegade radical. He has gone Simons one better in that respect and has atoned for his past by writing a book of bunk on “The History of American Idealism,” but you would never have expected. in the old days that he would come to that: His old books are as worth reading as ever. If you strike any snags in this read- ing in American history, let’s hear about them. Maybe if you do a first- rate job of answering the questions the answers might’ make an article worth publishing. — searper scene oe f f