The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 16, 1926, Page 9

| (ries, an ab worker and a great master of science, had a ser- fes of work-rooms constructed for his personal use in the Museum of Paris which he directed. Each room was de- signed for a special otcupation, re- ceiving the necessany books, instru- ments, anatomic devices, etc. _When- ever he tired of one task, he stepped into the neighboring room and dedi- cated himself to another; this simple change in his spiritual occupation, as they tell; meant a rest for him, Marx was quite as untiring a worker as Cu- vier, but-unlike the latter, he did not have the means to install several study-cabinets. He rested while he walked up and down his. reom;. from the door to the window there was -vis- fble on the carpet a totally worn-out strip as sharply defined as a foot-path in a meadow. At times he stretched out on the sofa and read a novel; sometimes he read from two to three together which he took up intermit- tently: like Darwin, he too was a great novel reader. Marx especially loved those of the eighteen century and particularly Fielding’s Tom Jones; the modern writers who enter- tained him most were Paul de Kock, Charles Lever, Alexander Dumas pere, and Walter Scott—the latter’s “Old Mortality” he called a master- Piece. He manifested an outspoken liking for adventurous and humorous stories. At the peak of all romanc- ers, he placed Cervantes and Balzac. Don Quixote was for him the epic of dying knighthood whose virtues were becoming absurdities and toomfoolery in the bourgeois world which was just then arising. For Balzac his admira- ‘tion was so great that he wanted to’ write a criticism of his great work “La Comedie Humaine” just as soon as he had completed his economic study. Balzac was not only the his- torian of the society of his time, but also the creator-of prophetic figures which were to be found under Louis Philippe, as ye and which deve pletely only after his death under Na- poleon Tit. ’ Marx read all European languages and wrote three, German, French and EngWsh, to the marvel of people who knew these languages; he gladly re peated the expression: “A foreign language is a weapon in the struggle of life.”. He possessed a great talent for languages which his daughters in- herited. He was already 50 years old when he began to learn Russian, in spite of the fact that this language has no close etymological connection KARL MARX with those old ‘and modern ones that he knew. After six months he had already gained sufficient mastery of it to be able to delight in the read- ing of the Russian poets and writers whom he especially valued: Pushkin, Gogol and Schtscherdin, The reason for his learning Russian was to be able to read the documents-of the, of- ficial investigations which the govern- ment suppressed on account of their frightful revelations; devoted friends had procured them for Marr who is: certainly the only West-Buropean economist to whose knowledge it came, Besides the poets and romancers, Marx had still another - very note- worthy means of resting spiritually; that ‘was mathematics for which he felt an especial liking. Algebra even offered him a moral consolation; he took refuge in it during the most pain- ful moments of his agitated life During the last illness of his wife, it was impossible for him to occupy himself in the usual manner with his scientific labors;-he could only escape ~ PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS — BY PAUL LAFARGUE the pressure which the sufferings of his companion exercised on his being by submerging himsélf in mathemat- ies, During this time of spiritual pain, he wrote a paper on infinitessimal caloulus which, acconding to the state- ments of the mathematicians who know it, is supposed to be significant and will be published in his collected works. In higher mathematics he found again the dialectic movement in its most logical and, at the same time, most simple form; according to his opinion, only that science was really developed which. had reached the point of being able to make use of mathematics, Marx’ library, consisting of more than a 1,000 volumes: which he had carefully collected in the course of a long life of research, did not suffice for him; and for years he was a zeal- ous frequenter of the British Museum whose catalog he-rated very highly. Even his opponents have found them- selves compelled to recognize his ex- tensive and profound knowledge which he possessed not only in his Bread Riots in Berlin own field of political economy but also in history, philosophy and the literatures of all countries, Altho he always. went to bed at a yery, advanced hour, he was neyerthe- less always up between eight. and nine o’clock In the morning, took his black. coffee, read his -papers, and then went into his study where he worked until two or three o’clock the next morning. He interrupted. him- self only long enuf to take his meals and of evenings, when the weather permitted, to take a walk ‘to Hamp- stead Heath; during the day he slept two or three hours on hig couch; In hig youth he was in the habit of Stay- | ing awake whole nights at his work. Working had become a passion with Marx; it so absorbed him that he .of- ten forgot to eat because of it. It was not seldom that they had to call him repeatedly for meals before he came down to the dining room; and scarce- ly had he eaten his last bite when he was off to his room again. He was a very poor eater and even suffered from want of appetite which he tried to overcome by eating highly salted © foods, ham, soaked fish, cavair and pickels. Hig stomach had ‘té pay for | the colossal activity of his brah? He sacrificed hig entire body to his brain; thinking was his highest pleasure. I have often heard him repeat Hegel’s expression—his master of philosophy during his youth: “Even the criminal thought of a villain is grander and lof- tier than the wonders of heaven.” His body must undoubtedly have been a powerful constitution to be able to bear such an unusual manner of living and such exhausting spirit- ual labor. And, in fact, he was very powerful; his height was above medi- um, his shoulders were broad, his chest well developed, his limbs well proportioned altho his spinal column was somewhat too long in comparison with his legs, as is often to be found in the Jewish race. Had he partici- pated in gymnastics . his youth, he would have me extremely powerful man. The only exercise which he had practiced regu- larly was walking; he could tramp for hours, chattering and smoking or climb hills without feeling the slightest fa- tigue. One can assert that he worked walking in his study; he sat down only at short intervals in order to write down what he had thought out as he walked. He also liked to chat- ter very much while walking, stop- ping from time to time as the dis- cussion became lively or the conver sation important. Why the U. S. Is in the Phillipines — By HARRISON GEORGE OW we know what the Spanish- American war was about! It was ndt to free Cuba from “Butch- er Weyler,”-even tho to turn it over to “Butcher Machado.” Nor ‘was it to free the Filipinos from the Span- jards, but rather—we have found this out after a quarter of a century—to free the Moros from the Filipinos! Time was, and the vetérans of those days will bear witness, that the Fil- ipinos were regarded as rather decent people, compared to the Moros, That was when the Moros were still uncon- vinced of the beneficient qualities of United States regulars, who “civilized ‘em with a Krag-Jorgeson” rifle and jumped on ‘their bellies after pump- ing them full of water. T was time, also, when the Fil- ipinos. still believed the promise forced to! Few Filipinos are so.naive nowadays, / But since that distant time the capitalists ‘of the United States have found out that the Philipipnes are resources, hard woote (not to speak of General Wood), sugar lands, rice paddies, gold mines, coal mines and the lord knows what else. Then, in addition, they recently discovered that Mindanao, in Moro-land, was an excel- lent Place to grow rubber, It happens that British capitalists caught the Yankees asleep at the switch and got a monopoly on rubber before the Americans woke up. With the result that American automobile owners afte paying the British war debt to the United States by the way of the British corner on the rubber supply. US it is that Colone] Carmi A. Thompson, personal representative of President Coolidge, is touring the Philippine islands “investigating” the overwhelming demands for inde- pendence coming from the Filipinos who are becoming a little incredulous of Yankee promises, There is a law in the Philippines that no corporation can own more than 2,500 acres of land. For some reason or another, Bill Taft’s supreme court has never been able to declare that law unconstitutional. And it now appears that this law restricts the United States Rubber trust from go- ing into-the islands where the Moros Sulu archipelago, and ‘turning a pa- triotic penny into an even more pa- triotic dollar by developing immense rubber plantations to break the Brit- ish monoply, O we arrive at what is known as the “Bacon Bill” in tee U. S. Con- gress, which would outwit the vigi- lant Philippine legislature, by cutting the Moro country loose from Filipino tule and establishing a rather brass- faced dictatorship of American offic- ers over the territory, naturally con- ducive to giving the American Rub- ber trust anything its heart desires. Colonel Thompson remarks that: “The success of the Basilan rubber planters convinces me that a rubber industry could be developed in the Philippines which would make the United States independent of any for- eign rubber control and keep pace} ** with the automobile tires and other rubber goods required by the Ameri- can people.” HBRE are 1,500,000 acres in Min- danao and Basilan, suitable for rub- ber growing. And Colonel Thompson Observes further that: “Filipino labor is said to be more intelligent and efficient than labor in the Middle West. I am much impress- ed with thelr physical vigor, skill and willingness to work, What is needed is capital.” What can beadone with the en ot capital is explained by J. W. Strong, who introduced Para rubber cultiva tion at Isabella in 1905 and is now manager of the American Rubber com- pany. He told Colonel Thompson that the net profit last year from nearly 2,000 acres of cultivated rubber and some 225,000 trees, was 16 per cent on the investment. A few years of that would pay of the entire original capital charge and. fhe rest is clear velvet. It probably has dene this for this plantation. already, Altho the Moros and Filipings are’ supposed, in the American newspa- pers at least, to be at sword’s points at each other, Mr. Strong remarked that the workers of both races “work peaceably together” and what is more - La point, they work: for 60 7 a wits profits such as this in view, the American capitalists are pre- pared to “save the Moros from the Filipinos” or eyen to save the Moros from themselves, move to the Filipino demand inde- pendence we are hearing a chorus of morally righteous’ editorials in the American capitalist press that the U. 8S. must not desert the Moros; must protect the Moros, the dear little Moros, from the tyranny of the Filip- inos. So as a counter: Fi t bi +