The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 6, 1926, Page 13

} ‘§ e * Every day of ours ts a new chapter In the Bible, Every§page will be great to thousands of generations. We af those about whom they will say: The lieky ones lived In 1917. . And you are still shouting: They perish! You are still whimpering lavishly. Dunderheads! isn’t yesterday crushed, Ilke a dove By a motor? i Emerging madly from the garage? Fhe culture of Russia is fresh with a new spirit that is significantly contagious. Even a mystical poet such ag Andrey Bely is affected. Theosophy and sym- bolism become secondary for the moment in the great ehange that has marked the new Russia, Russia be- comes for Bely the new Nazareth. He composes & cycle of poems, Christ is Arisen, dedicated to the pro- letarian revolution. Christ and revolution become subt- ly synonymous. Bely’s reaction is instructive as well as curious. It rev: the sweep of the new motif, the conquest of the old are beginning to be converted—while Bely’s Christian - symbolism may be ancient and encumbering, sentimen- | ‘-"*ind mawkish, the mood awaked in him by the revo- m is indicative of the penetyativeness and power « ghe new culture. in the stories of Pilniak, dinner, Seifulina, Semenov and many others the tempo of the revolution has trans- lated itself into the spinit of fiction. The stories of these new writers, many of whom are not -members of the Communist Party, are all infused with new resolve, characterized by new dynamics. The morbid, mystical motif of Dostoievsky, eo vivid an expression of pre- revolutionary Russia, has been discarded. Literature ‘|taas become extrovert.- The introspective is unempha- Jeied. As in the literature that ‘preceded the Renais- sance, individual eccentricity is uncultivated, Great motifs, social motifs, revolutionary motifs have become the fashion. Mayakovsky does not sing of a lock of hair. but of social revolution. An active era, poet and novelist write of active things, moving nee chang- ing things, dynantic things. _& contrast in cultures, y the new. Even the religious | By V. F. Calverton Meanwhile in America, Waldo Frank, with the pan- derous pomp of a heirophant, prepares us “to enter the domain of the noumenal,” to “recetve mystery” which “is the beginning of participation in a truth merely beyond the scope of our accepted words,” and to perceive in “metaphysics and a true understanding of the religious experience,” ‘the solutiSn of our dilem- ma. In the antagonisms of the two reactions is reflected The one exhales the vivd vi- tality of a rising culture, the other the parthian re- treat of a decadent one. When the Czar Listened (To the Ninth Anniversary of the Russian Revolution) By JIM WATERS Listen! Listen listen! I hear something; Do you heart it? Something walking; Do you-feel it? How it vibrates When its heel and toe Make contact with the-earth, “It is something, something walking, And its strides are long and heary. Ivhear something, Something walking. Listen! Listen, Listen! I hear voices; Do you hear them? Voices chanting; Do you feel them? ‘There are husky voices chanting — In a solemn monotone; ~~” And the rumble of their voices Sounds like distant thunder, Distant thunder amd a storm. I hear voices, Voices chanting. Listen! Listen, listen! It is coming: : Do you heart it? Coming towards us; Do you feel it? For its heavy boot bites deeper in the earth ; And the thunder of the voices, Interspersed with bitter laughter, Knifes the silence with the lightning Of impending storm. It is coming, Comingstowards us. . Listen! Listen, listen! + They are reading ; reading ; Do you hear them? Proclamations ; Undetstand them? They are reading proclamations That banish us from earth. : It’s the revolutionary workers Seizing power of the nation For their red flags flood the city In a scarlet flame. They are reading proclamations That banish us from earth. Alexander Blok “ (Concluded ‘from ‘page 4.)° - f is no miracle, but a natural phenomenon, ‘The. revolution is the mission of the “Scythians,” the Asiatics, who “Haye held the armour shield, be- tween two hostile races, that of the Mongols and ot Europe.” For, generations, these Scythians have been mocked and oppressed. Then came the hour of reckoning and the Russian sphynx look- ed around with “hatred and love,” a glance which stirred the old world to its foundations. It be- came terror-stricken at the sound of the barbaric lyre,” which gends forth a summons to the frater- mal banquet of work and peacé, A struggle be- EEPING over the edge of thjs column we see that Comrade Calverton goes to bat on Russian culture. That’s a good tip. We'll put one over on Russian physi- culture to keep him company. In Rtssia they believe these two go together. Two years ago when the British Trade Union Dele A produetion-on your machine for a number of years; PE Nae NES gation gave Russia the once over they found 2,400 fac tory clubs with over a million members . promoting sports. The trade unions backed these clubs, They have their teams in soccer, wrestling and gym work. Swedish drili is the big feature. Moscow had 39,000 physical culture circles and it was estimated the Worl efs Clubs had a total of 100,000 circles. They have grown fast since then. Sports magazines from Russia come occasionaly to the Bug. (We'll send a copy to any American sports Bug that’s interested.) Boxing, the noble art of nulli- fying noses, is unknown there. Soccer is the big game. Russian soccer teams played in Germany last year and ran some of the best European teams bowlegged. The other day, a recent visitor to Russia told us that baseball teams were springing up in many towns. Here’s hoping they learn the game well enuf te send over a team with a pitcher good enuf to make Babe Ruth think he’s got holes in his bat. In this country the boss backs up sports in the shop. In Russia sports are run by workers and organized Labor backs them. A little ofthat here will do cg Labor Movement a lot of good. S23. 0 ERE’S something the British Trade Union Delega- tion learned that most Sport Bugs don’t know. In Russia: “A worker who is suffering from fatigue, or is run down in general health, by application to his Trade Union is sent to one of these establishments (rest homes) free of charge. The rest houses have a considerable acreage of ground attached to them where games are organized.” When you get weak in the knees from turning gout or when you feel you got lead in your feet at the end . of a hard day’s work—think this over! In Russia the : nen who work—get rest and sports. In this country ‘he men who work—get more work. And the more hey work the more the boss rests ... and the more he plays golf. eo 2 6s .¢@ COUPLE of weeks ago we spoke of the way Negro athletes were Jim-Crowed at college. Now Ray Vaughn of the Colgate team reports he was kept out ! of the game against Pittsburgh because of a protest made by that team against his presence in the game. He reports also that the manager received a letter from the Navy officials prohibiting his playing against them. He had played every game on the Colgate schedule previous to these games, Further evidence.of race-prejudice in American col- leges bobbed up in the Chicago-Penn game. Coach Stagg of Chicago sent in Fouche, a colored line-man. Here’s the result as a newspaper viciously reports it: “Few persons in the stands knew that Chicago sent in | a colored substitute lineman near the end of the game. As it happened, Ed Fonde, of Mobile, was paired against him, Thayer tried to tell the Southerner his opponent was a Jap. To prevent trouble the Penn coaches called n Miller to relieve Fonde.” The “Negro athlete suré gets a dirty deal at college. These huge “foot-ball stadiums with class rooms around them” where race-prejudice is rife, are misleadingly * called “centers of education.” ‘ * ¢+ © @ cchnininahio ajeenntiiion PE es } There are many Workers Sports Clubs’ aout end We will be glad to give ‘notice of their at | country. tivities if you’ will send the information to aoe oe zine Section for the Sports. al ~ 2 \ he. ae ee meme --* gan, a struggle for life and death, and all nature echoes with its music, the music of hatred and love, of destruction and creation. Many have heard this music, but Alexander Blok was the first to introduce its notes into literature, the literature of Russia and of the world, ? 7 “The Twelve” and “Scythians” are pot a turn- ing point in Blok’s credtive activity, but merely a further phase in his development. They. are the most forceful expression of Blok’s vision of Russia as the heart of a new world culture, and in the expression of this vision he became the poet of destruction and creation +t is