The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 24, 1926, Page 8

h SE Seas eee THE MOTHER CURSE By MICHAEL GOLD, The mother [ifts her fists. She curses. My children, my man, my work, | hate them now, |! curse them, They have drained my life Ike leeches, Left me empty and old! Thunders! blood! Lightnings! Planets crash! Oceans deluge the sky with Cities moan! Die like poisoned rats! Centuries sink! History dies with a scream! Life blotted out! The pillars of the world melt Ike Ice! There ls Nothingness when a Mother curses her man, her_chlil- dren, her mother-work! Listen, O mother, O mother In poverty. Mother with the big fists. Do not curse your own. Children are good. A mate Is good. Your work Is good. Gurse the rich, It Is they who are not good. it Ig they who drain you, It le they you must curse, O Mother. The mother curse on the rich! On thelr parilaments and churches! On their generals and glided ladles! On their Garys and Mussolinis! On their charity, greed and Idieness! The mother curse, the mother curse! It Is they who have drained you, Mother By Ph, Chatzky. THE BATTLE BEGINS “It is the greatest national crisis that his arisen since the fall ef the Stuarts.”"—English daily paper. field is set, the battle cries are clearer Than those that stirred the world in ancient days Shall men be scant of bread and give their labor To rich men for the dividends it pays? Shall children want, shall women bear the burden Of each day’s anxious and more hopeless care, While half-starved toilers in the grimy darkness Sweat on in ever impotent despair? The industry that cannot make worth Hving The lives devoted to ts ceaseless grind Brings no true profit to the heedless nation That looks upon such things with eyes grown blind. Not to make richer some who live in plenty ‘ Should be the aim of greater enterprise, But to give comfort to the striving many, And eweeten life for all beneath the skies. Coal! They have built @ name and fame upon K; Serfs of the blackness caused their wheels to tura, The miner lifted Britain on his shoulders; "Twas furnace flames that made her glory burn. Now if another land raise cheaper fuel Shall this be eaid—they jet their stalwarts die Because they would not pay the price demanded Tho miseries of hunger to defy? Gladly the masters of the wealth they made them Would bring again the serfddém borne so long, But Labor eager, valorous, determined, ‘Will not endure again the monstrous wrong. The field is set, the battle cries are clearer Than those that freedom thundered long ago. Stand to the mighty test! There comes a triumph To a great nation; and the world shall know! ‘ 6 ) “THE ROAD TO MANDALAY.” ERE is another picture that will help to dim the popularity of a good actor, Lon Chaney does all he can in it and does it well, and little more can be said for the picture. To begin with, the title has nothing to do with any of Kipling’s stories or poems. . The story has been taken out of cold storage without putting any new wrinkles on it; the scenario writer has made it a blood-and-thunder Melodrama and the director, Tod Browning, in years to come will never own up to his work, Which, taken all in all, about sums up the movie. The story concerns it- self with a “Singapore Joe,” a pirate on the coast of India, who {s also a keeper of a Bombay house of ill-re- pute. His daughter in Mandalay 1s taken care of by a brother, who is a priest. “Singapore Joe,” played by Len Chaney, is the unknown father who supports his girl—who falls in love with a drunken sot, who {s called the “Admiral,” who is also the trusted Yeutenant of “Singapore Joe.” The father, unknown to his daugh- ter, kidnaps the “Admiral” so he can- not marry his daughter, He is never- theless from a “good family” and had reformed on seeing the pure daughter of Joe, A Chinese assistant of Singapore Joe attempts to attack the girl, who has come to the Bombay dive to save her kidnapped lover. She stabs her father in the ensuing fight, when he comes to save her, not knowing who he is beyond his evil reputation, and she does not find out. And there you are. If you can make out the plot as it is summed up here you will get as much value out of it as there is in the picture. Lon Chaney did very well. Owen Moore gives a splendid perform- ance of the dissolute bounder. Lois Moran might be a good actress, but her part only asks that she look pretty—which she does. H. B, Wal- thall acts the part of the priest much better than priests usually act, We hope that Lon Chaney gets a better picture to perform in next time. After this one he sure deserves it. W.C. MOVIES IN RUSSIA, NLY day before yesterday Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were greeted by thousands of Russian work- ers in Moscow. From half the fron- WHAT’S WRONG (Continued from page 1) A PEEK EACH WEEK | AT MOTION PICTURES oom anaes tler the press reports “their journey assumed a triumphal aspect.” The popularity of these American stars in Russia can well be judged by the fact that-the “Thief of Bagdad,” Fairbanks’ last picture, has been run- ning for over a year in Moscow, So popular has the picture become that, according to a report by Ernestine Evans in an article in the August is- sue of “Asia,” there was a case in court of*a Nepman’s wife being sued by her cook for the slanderous charge of being called “a Thief of Bagdad.” The author of the article refers to the popularity of American pictures as the outstanding news of the movies in Russia. However, Russia movies are also making tremendous strides. Russian movie magazines are {ncreas- ing {n number and circulation. “The Station Master,” a story of Pushkin, is one of the new films fea- turing Moskvin, leading player of the Moscow Art Theater. “Arlita,” an- © other new film, is an fmaginative one whose story is laid in revolutionary Russia of 1917-18 and partly on the planet Mars. “The Bears’ Wedding,” a play by Lunacharsky, commissar of education, has been issued, and all the old folk tales of Russia are being filmed, to the delight of the children and the peasants, on whom they have had such a hold. Leon Trotsky has devoted his pen to this problem and sees in.the movies a magnificent weapon against. both vodka and superstition. “In order to liberate the common masses from the ritual and ecciesiasti- cism acquired by habit,” he writes in answer to the editors of the atheist magazine, “Godless,” “anti-religions Propaganda is not enough. Meaning- less ritual, which lies in the conscious- negs like an inert burden, cannot be destroyed by criticism alone; it can be supplanted by new forms of life, new amusements, new and more cul- tured theaters. Here, again, my thoughts go naturally to the most, pow- erful, because it is the most demo- cratic instrument in the theater—the | cinema. The cinema amuses, edu- cates, strikes the imagination by images, and liberates you ffom the need of crossing the church door. The cinema is a competitor not only of the public house, but of the church. Here is an instrument which we must se- cure at all costs.” WITH FRANCE? Meanwhile the franc is going to hell. Worth ordinarily about 20 cents, its present value is a little over 2 cents. This catastrophic decline of the frane is not caused by any adverse balance of trade (which is still favorable), but by the continuous issuance of paper money by the government to meet its obligations, The fall of the franc must be stopped. But how? * To stabilize the franc France needs foreign credits, But these it cannot get before it agrees to fund its old debts. Which creates a new difficulty. For France to accept the terms of the United States and the British govern- ments would mean the payment by France of an annual tribute of about two billion gold francs. Where are these tremendous sums going to come trom? eee IG capital has a solution. It was incorporated In the so-called plan of the experts, which was’ championed by the Briand-Caillaux ministry. It was on this plan that the ministry met its recent defeat. In short, the plan meant the follow- mg : It would create a sort of a Dawes plan for France, delivering the French masses helplessly into the hands of a combination of American, British and French bankers. Jt would result in new inflation still further ruining the peasantry and the small bourgeoisie. It would result in heavy taxes on the masses, smallor wages, longer , increased cost of liv- ing, ete., etc., in the best style of the Dawes plan in Germany, This ie the plan of big capital, The majority of parliament, made up of —The Australian Worker.| the left block of the petty bourgeoisie | ” ait Mie led by Herriot, the socialists and the Communists, has rejected this plan. Briand’s ministry fell and Herriot came again into office. But what has Herriot got to offer? - He and members of his party (the left block) have been in power before trying to tackle the financial crisis. But always, like the typical petty bourgeois that he is, he surrendered to the pressure of big capital and thus failed to carry out a consistent pro- |. gram of his own. ) N i This time his ministry lived only two days. He was defeated by the | lack of program and determination to ; fight. The coming back of Poincare | indicates a victory of big capital and is a step in the direction of regrouping | of political parties, - se 6 Yaa big capitalists are beginning to clamor for some kind of an open or veiled dictatorship, They seem to think the time opportune for a drastic move in that direction. But whether it materializes or not, the political situation in France will henceforth be. come ever more intensified, The re alignment of parties faster, The workers, poor peasants and petty bourgeoisie will progress- lively line up on one side against the~ growing solidification of big capital The {ssue is gradually crystallizing tn. this form: The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie Jed by big capital or Ai The Communist party of France ie energetically taking the lead for the | establishment of a workers’ and farm- ers’ government, ; AO Alex Bittelman, -