The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 24, 1926, Page 10

(A church. Candies are burning on the altar, Over the altar a large black wooden cross. On the steps before the altar, a ragged man with tortured face, barefoot. He supports himself against the altar with one hand.) THE PRIEST (in his vestments, enters the open door of the church followed by two small altar boys in their surplices. He proceeds to- wards the altar, stops abruptly, stares at the tattered person): A man before the altar. Un- holy hands touch the holy shrine. Blasphemy! Be gone! Be gone! THE RAGGED ONE: I am in my house. THE PRIEST: Do fot blaspheme. What do you want here? = THE LARGER ALTAR BOY: priest’s robe, timidly): CTOOR x THE PRIEST (glances hastily towards the rome, cries, out);. Empty! Where is the Sav- jor? ,, THE SMALLER ALTAR BOY: Why, he is standing at the altar. (tugs the Your Reverence, the THE RAGGED ONE: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. THE PRIEST (stares at the ragged one, gradually seems to recognize him. Outraged): What? What does this mean? Why, the Sav- ior must hang on the cross. THE RAGGED ONE: And if he were to de- scend to life? You yourself teach that your God is not dead. Now you see: he lives. THE PRIEST (confused) : longs on the cross . . comes to mass The Savior be- If the congregation Finds the cross empty , The Savior here, alive, like a human being ‘ (screaming) Back to the cross, we need a dead God. THE RAGGED ONE: Yes, one who neither sees nor hears, a lifeless piece of wood. THE PRIEST (in despair): Such disorder- ly conduct! You descend from the cross as a human being descends from his bed. You bring confusion into people’s hearts not becoming in the Savior buice THE RAGGED ONE: Do you not celebrate my resurrection today? Surely you know that I am alive, THE PRIEST: We teach that to the ignor- ant, the common people, THE RAGGED ONE: Why? THE PRIEST: They bow to our wilt the better when they believe in you. THE RAGGED ONE (astonished): I do not understand that. THE PRIEST: They fear to anger you when they rise up against us. THE RAGGED ONE: Not that did I teach. THE PRIEST: Your teaching is a distort- ing mirror; everyone sees his own face distort- ed in it. THE RAGGED ONE: My life taught dif- ferently. THE PRIEST: Your life? Do we know whether you ever lived? THE RAGGED ONE: So you teach some- thing in which you do not believe? THE PRIEST: today? i THE RAGGED ONE: What do you call a fairy tale? THE PRIEST: The Resurrection. THE RAGGED ONE: Blind eyes! - , This is Who believes in fairy tales A hun- The Red Givieb dred times have I arisen before you, and you have not seen it? THE PRIEST ‘(severely didactic): You do not know. the legend that is woven around your name: you arose only once; in Jerusalem, THE RAGGED ONE: No. A hundred times, in everyone whose love ‘was stronger than death. In every fettered rebel languishing in prison, I lived. In everyone that you hanged on the gallows, I was crucified. THE PRIEST (outraged): Blasphemer! THE RAGGED ONE: Can God blaspheme God? THE PRIEST: Your divinity is question- able; you. yourself called yourself the son of man. THE RAGGED ONE: There is only one God: the human being who loves. : THE PRIEST: You talk of love. Did you rebels love the victims they killed? THE RAGGED ONE: In pure hands, mur- der is a g deed. . THE P- ST (outraged): Criminal! Mur- derer! munist! THE RAGGED ONE: Do you want to call the police? THE PRIEST (raging): What am I talking to you for? You do not even exist. You never lived. THE RAGGED ONE: Not for you and your like, THE PRIEST: A dead person may not arise } again. That is not provided for in the law. It is for the dead to be dead. Back to the cross! THE RAGGED ONE: It seems to me, the Church teaches that every sin committed cru- cifies the Savior anew? THE SMALLER ALTAR BOY (eagerly): Yes, that’s the way I learned it in my bible class. , THE RAGGED ONE (suddenly terrible): You crucify me daily, hourly. Wherever any- one suffers through your guilt, wherever a child cries from hunger, wherever a sick per- son dies in misery, wherever one wearies in the labor of the day, there am I crucified. THE PRIEST: But you are dead, a lifeless ‘piece, of wood, you can, see. nothing]. ~ ~ THE RAGGED ONE; Your guilt is so im- mense that dead matter acquires eyes to see it and lips to cry out against it. THE SMALLER ALTAR BOY (begins to cry): I am afraid. THE RAGGED ONE (tenderly): Be not afraid. -(He kneels before the child). Look, now I am smaller than you, and that is as it should be, for you are the future, little man, little God. “ -— By Hermina Zur Muhlen , THE PRIEST (screaming): Blasphemy! THE RAGGED ONE (gets up): You blas- pheme God. Every deed, every .one of your gestures is blasphemy. The paunch that wad- dles past the starving, the silk gown that rust- les past the half-naked: blasphemy. The fac- tory that reaches to the sky and engulfs the life of the worker: blasphemy. The stinking cellar hole in which the poor live: blasphemy. The brothel in which love is purchasable: blas- phemy. The battlefield upon which humam be- ings die in order to fill your pockets: blas- phemy. You, yourself, your being, your exist- ence: blasphemy! 3 THE PRIEST (jeering): You will not do away with us; THE RAGGED ONE: Do_you think so? D you not know that,I actually descend fron every cross to which you nail me?. That arise from every grave in which you lay me? A man can eat no more than his stomach will hold, P t “a b v 1 f. fi By HENRY GEORGE WEISS. d ti Nor wear at any time more than his flesh will stand. ‘ x ° Or to sleep in more than one bed, in one room, in one house, ; Or to be in two places at the same time, . Also it is impossible for him to ride in two automobiles at once, Yet big, fat men corner a million meals, | Possess unto themselves a dozen autos, A dozen suits, , A dozen homes, With dozens of rooms, And dozens of beds, . ment. of dishwater, J sheviks! A hundred men are trying to sleep on park benches tonight. A thousand men are wriggling bare toes thru decrepit shoes on bare pave- Men are jostling each other in bread lines for a crust of bread and a bowl Women and children are begging on the streets for a bite to eat, Out in Kansas, California, Washington, the sheriffs are raiding the hobo jungles and giving homeless men hell for being homeless, / ; ® \ It Is, of course, due to the superior force of capitalists and the lack of Bol-