The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 3, 1927, Page 6

ed . Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, ew YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 1927 As Our Loss Is Great So Every Comrade Must Make His Task Greater By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL. HARLES EMIL RUTHENBERG is dead. Our leader has been stricken down at his post, sud- denly, without warning that death was so near. Let new courage speed as swiftly to every comrade in the land, to renew the struggle for Our Cause with greater energy than ever before, as our greatest tribute at the bier of our standard bearer who is gone. Only a few short weeks ago, before the mighty throngs gathered in Madison Square Garden here in New York City on the occasion of the anniversary of Lenin’s death, Ruthenberg called America’s workers to new and greater revolutionary struggles. Thus for more than a score of years, Ruthenberg the revolutionist, had waged relentless combat against Amer- ican capitalism, toiling ceaselessly as an agitator, ed- ucator and organizer among the workers, ever doing his utmost on labor’s side of the class struggle. ON it's The masier class recognized in Ruthenberg one of its most relentless enemies. It attacked publications he edited. It broke up meetings he addressed. It outlawed the Communist Party he helped organize. In savage desperation, it put him behind bars in its bastilles, in Ohio, in New York and in Michigan. Ruthenberg spent years in the prisons of the capitalists, but his spirit was never broken. Instead it was steeled for more dauntless assaults against the capitalist social order. EC Re In the hour that death came, all of us who knew Ruthenberg felt that he would live many years to help develop and guide to fruition under Communist stand- ards the American revolutionary movement. He was always strong physically, a tireless body reinforcing an ever-active mind. He was not yet 45 years old, yet appendicitis came, like a dagger in the night and struck him down. The end could not have been more sudden, nor more unex- pected. Sar eae | Ruthenberg at the moment of his death was the General Secretary of our Workers (Communist) Party. He had | held this position practically from the day that he stepped out of Sing Sing Prison, in New York State, in i922, His was a difficult task. He was not only called on to lead in the party’s struggles, to formulate and de- velop its policies in a multitude of different activities, but he was also compelled to bear a heavy burden of the Party’s routine work, raising its finances, as well as those of The DAILY WORKER, attending to the details of organizational work and stimulating the Party’s cam- paigns. It was a super-task. Yet Ruthenberg never faltered. He brought to each day’s task new vigor born of his unfathomable faith in the cause in which he served. baie the as . Ruthenberg was born on July 9, 1882, at Cleveland. His father was a longshoreman. He received his educa- tion in the city’s public schools. and later occupying an executive position in achinery of big business, Ruthenberg never wavered in his loyalty to the working class. Tt was in 1 at the age of 27, that he began his ten years of activity as city secretary and organizer of the Sécialist Party in Cleveland, Ohio.. He immediately be- came a nationa] figure in the Socialist movement, al- ways a leader of its revolutionary elements. In the his- forie struggle between the “reds” and the “yellows,” that culminated in 1912, in the Berger-Hillquit demand for the expulsion of William D. Haywood, Ruthenberg was already recognized as the leader of the Party’s left wing, and Ohio, especially Cleveland, was stamped on the American socialist map as RED. + Se 28 Ruthenberg edited the Cleveland Socialist, 1911-13, in addition to his other duties. With the beginning of the world war this publication became the Socialist News, | |could hardly understand each other. which he carried on from 1914 to 1919. At St. Louis, in March, 1917, Ruthenberg was a mem- ber of a committee on war and militarism that drew up what later became known as the “St. Louis Anti-War Proclamation” of the Socialist Party. While other spokesmen of the Socialist Party faltered, under the growing governmental persecution, Ruthenberg devel- oped his attack on the war in harmony with the procla- mation that had been issued. “In the great public square at Cleveland, before thousands, he called on the workers to\refuse to be conscripted for the war. He was arrested with Alfred Wagenknecht and Charles E. Baker and Sentenced to a year’s imprisonment. During the trial of Eugene V. Debs, at Cleveland, in 1916, the prosecutor brought Ruthenberg into the courtroom from his prison cell. Before the capitalist court Ruthenberg reaffirmed his stand for the St. Louis Anti-War Declaration. At the workhouse, at Canton, Ohio, where Ruthenberg was first held as a prisoner of capitalism, he was subjected to many prison tortures, including being strung up by his wrists for hours, his feet barely touching the floor. This was the penalty he paid for the slightest infraction of the prison rules. aN ey. In the Socialist Party split, that took place in 1919, Ruthenberg joined with the forces that organized the Communist Party as opposed to the elements that went with the Communist Labor Party. He was the first sec- retary of the Communist Party that established its head- quarters in Chicago, Then came the Palmer raids and the resulting persecutions. It was during this attack on the young Communist movement that Ruthenberg was indicted in New York State and placed on trial with I. E. Ferguson, charged with having participated in a Left Wing Conference of the Socialist Party held in New York City, June 21-24, | 1919. They were charged with criminal anarchy under a law passed in 1902, seventeen years before. Ruthen- berg’s testimony and speech to the jury constituted what ‘was considered the most revolutionary challenge made in a court in the United States. Ruthenberg was convicted and, like Ferguson, Harry Winitsky, Ben Gitlow, James Larkin and others spent years in the prison of New York State. ad * * During most of the time that Ruthenberg was in prison, the Communist movement was forced to lead an illegal existence. It was again coming into the open when he was released. Upon regaining his freedom he took up the task of building Communism’s open expression, the Workers (Communist) Party. It was at the last conventiqn of the illegal Communist Party, held at Bridgeman, Mich., that Ruthenberg was again arrested, with nearly a score of others and in- dicted under the so-called criminal syndicalism law of that state. He was again convicted and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment. The conviction was appealed to the United States supreme court which was expected to hand down its decision very shortly. Indications were that it would be an unfavorable decision. * * * This was the life of a revolutionist in the United States, a life that had really just begun. We all had hoped that Ruthenberg would be saved for many years’ activity in the Communist movement. But Ruthenberg is dead. The task of every comrade thus increases, with the staunchest soldier gone. Let every comrade be equal to the greater task. At first factory worker, | An Editorial from “The Chinese Guide in America” HE following editorial is reprinted from the English supplement of “The Chinese Guide in America. “This publication reprints the statements of the Central Committee of the Work- ers (Communist) Party demanding {the withdrawal of American naval forces from Chinese waters and the recognition of the Chinese nationalist government. “The Chinese Guide in America” declares, “There has been no weekly presentation in English of the crisis in China from the point of view of the Chinese and edited by us. (The DAILY WORKER, printed in New York City, presents the news -|from the most favorable paint of view, but it is not edited by Chinese).” |—Editorial note. se A Symposium On Intervention In China. The first appearance of this supple- ment is being devoted mainly to a symposium on the intervention in China. The editor has written to prominent leaders in American thought and life and has gathered statements of representative groups. Some of these are printed in this edi- tion. The three points of view pre- sented all express a distinct desire that China should and must be free and independent. President Ray Lyman Wilbur of | Stamford University is sincere in his |sympathy for the aims and aspira- tions of the Chinese nationalist move- |ment, but expresses a hope for pa- | tience on the part of its leaders. Chinese patience regarding exploita- |tion and domination by foreign pow- |ers is both historical and proverbial. | The article by T. H. Lee shows clearly | that even under the most trying con- | ditions there is very little danger of disorders arising which could get be- yond the control of the officers and leaders of the Kuomintang. The armies of the south have proven by | their actions that they are a part of| a governmental system represented by the Nationalist government and jnot merely a jfinanced by foreign there is no danger that they will al- low themselves or any provocative in- cidents even such as the show of armed forces of Great Britain and America, to divert them from their goal, the unification of China for the Chinese. Their support rests upon the will of the masses of peasants and city workers who faithfully and | obediently support them. | The president of Stamford Univer- sigy hopés for the ultimate control by the Chinese of their territory and of their affairs, but counsels “within a |reasonable time.” Similar expressions |have been made by the state depart- jment of the United States. The Chinese have just as little confidence in the verbal and. written statements of the American and other imperialist governments as is expressed in the statements of the Workers (Com- munist) Party of America. The Chinese believe in deeds as well as words. The promise of freedom for the Philippines and the talks of peace and good will for Haiti, Nicaragua and Mexico are the precedents which determine this attitude on the part of the Chinese, even though America at times has seemed to be more fair than some of the other imperialist nations. In view of this distrust which is |the result of the acts of foreign diplomacy itself and not due to any acts by the Chinese, we feel it would have been a master stroke of diplo- macy, at least, for the American gov- words with deeds and kept all troops from the war areas. Foreign troops |have a sinister meaning to China and |the Chinesee. |burdens, increased taxes, further }domination by foreign powers have |always followed in the wake of the | “civilizing” influences of the marines and soldiers of the capitalist coun- tries. It is hoped that all groups will unite | for the purpose of demonstrating that |\the American workers and people sin- ernment, to have coupled their “fair’’| Heavy governmental | Marchi 8th--What? By ROSE PASTOR STOKES. N 1910, the first Socialist Women’s Conference was held in Copenhagen, Denmark. At this conference Clara Zetkin, the grand old woman of the Communist International, proposed a special commission for work among women. The proposal was adopted by the con- ference and the body of socialist women delegates— again at Clara Zetkin’s suggestion—declared March 8th International Women’s Day. March 8th is the birthday of Rosa Luxemberg—the day that gave to the proletarian world one of its most valiant spirits. Whose life and martyred death will in- spire to heroic effort millions upon millions of the proletarian masses the world over. * * International Women’s Day with us is not an occa- sion for “glorifying” woman as woman. ‘Nor is it a separatist expression that either deplores women’s “in- ferior” position—or asserts her superiority. No, we celebrate in the Communist spirit—the spirit that recognizes one front, the proletarian front. That calls upon the proletarian women in home and in factory to organize, to join with the men, the youth, the children of their class to fight against every danger that threatens them all together. In this spirit March 8th is being celebrated in every part of the world. Even the most remote countries show the stir of life in the masses of working class ‘women. In China, for instance, the work of centralizing the activities of proletarian women’s organizations has been going forward for years. There is the “Loka Kai” (party of the 8th of March) which already in 1923 published a newspaper of its own. In China the women are today not among the least vital factors in that heroic struggle against imperialism. * They began with slogans such as “Down with the traditions and customs that enslave women.” “Equal and similar education for men and women.” | “Equality of marriage and divorce laws between the sexes.” “Protection of motherhood—assistance to working- women!” But today, the cries of “Down with Militarism!” | “Down with Imperialism!” are the cries of the women as well as the men of the Chinese masses. And in the final conflict against exploitation, great * Whim DOLLAR PHILOSOPHY The Story of Philosophy, by Will Durant, Simon & Schuster. $5. Will Durant is cashing in on his “Story of Philosophy.” He has given up his lectures at the Labor Temple and has gone in for “don’t-you-think- Bergson-fascinating” lectures before women’s clubs at $300 a throw. _ Four hundred thousand culture-crazed people have invested five bucks in the book, which they display in subway trains, but seldom read. These are interesting social phenomena; but it’s of the book itself’that I’m going for to sing. _ The most interesting thing about the book is not its frothiness. Nor its feeble jokes. In the 600 pages that make up the “Story of Philosophy” |no mention is made of Marxian philosophy, which is infinitely more sig- nificant than Nietzchcan philosophy (to which Durant devotes 50 pages); than Bergsonism (to which he devotes 16 pages) or Jamesian pragmatism (to which he devotes 11 pages). ‘ Marxism is not merely an economic theory; it is a complete philosophy. This is something which few bourgeois historians of philosophy realize, despite an occasional mention of Dietzgen in the standard texts. | Marx, assuming materialism, and using the Hegelian dialectic (which Durant dismisses in a few contemptuous paragraphs) worked out a new, and in our conception, adequate system of philosophy. One does not expect Will Durant to accept that system of philosophy. One expects him, however, to consider it as a philosophy, as a way of looking at the universe and to mention it, if only casually, in his book. : HARRY FREEMAN, | HEROES AND HERO WORSHIP The Theatre of George Jean Nathan, by Isaac Goldberg, Ph. D. Simon & Schuster. $3. _ L_understand that next to being a great man the most desirable thing is to be his biographer. Isaac Goldberg, Ph. D., of Boston, having become convinced of this platitude, has written “critical and biographical studies” of Havelock Ellis, H. L. Mencken, and now—George Jean Nathan. | Goldb g has a religious nature, but it has become sublimated into a venerationYor men. Some of his other weaknesses include studied attempts at purple writing; a fearless desire to write lightly—when the heavy gown | of the schoglmaster is so painfully in evidence; and a minor genius for feeble puns, What is(true of his books on Havelock Ellis and H. L. Mencken is also true of this recgnt probing into the well-known facts of Nathan’s life and | works. Thuithe most valuable aspects of this book are the photographs | of the hero from the time when he was six months old to the present day, | fascinating to anyone interested in the contemporary theater. | 4 —SENDER GARLIN. | and the corresyondence between Nathan and Eugene O’Neill which ar- masses of China’s women will have been trained in the | struggle for a new life for themselves and their class, | and will fight as the Russian working and peasant women | | fought—side by side with the men, for a Soviet China. | \ \ \TALES FROM THE DARK In Germany, in England, in France in the recent great struggles of the workers, the women of the working military . adventure|cerely hope for the liberation of|class proved their fighting powers. imperialistic| China from foreign domination and! Here in America there have been a few isolated but groups. Through their long patience | will express this desire by an earnest | thrilling examples in recent history, of the participation ‘footsteps of Sun Yat Sen, learned well the lessons of the many pitfalls of foreign diplomacy and jdraw immediately its troops and ‘naval forces from China.—Editor. Around The | By C. SARA SHERMAN. | | ROUND and around the mill-| | gates they walked; it was bitter) |cold that morning at 5 a. m., but | their bodies were filled with heat.| |Hand in hand they walked, their |fingers interwoven as if to say, | “Together, together .. . . Onward {Comrade .....” | | No time for silly s' ths, glimpses | or lamentations, he ‘l,oked at her, | but she did not blush, for she was/| not the heroine of the! old society, | trated his. They were ‘wo kinds of people in the old world, wut like one) for a new world. In sp2ech they Way over in the other parts of the | world where they were born, she in| Russia, he in Italy, way over there | their tongues were divided by boun- dary lines, that had filled beings | the profits of a few.. On the picket-lines there is no na- | tionality, there is no race, no nation- | al hatred, just a bitter determination to WIN. 5... Around and around the mill gates they picketed and Solidarity they sang; bouyantly, defiantly, triumph- antly, leading hundreds of workers in march and song. Children of the striking fathers and mothers march- ed forward, children of four years, j children of six years, children of all ages. Pale workers’ children, thin little voices, they too sang. Women | marched in back of them. Mothers, | grandmothers, gray-haired women | with scorched faces, flat-chested, | with knotted hands of toil, eyes of denial and now new hope. Men fol- but the woman of a new world.) ; Straight forward her pa 2 eyes pene-| | with hatred against each other for} Mill Gates men marched in a deathlike ‘gait, faces full of pity, contempt and re- venge All marched together ..... to- | gether. Around and around the mill-gates ..... ragged they were, yet for years and years they have been making clothes, woolen, silks, cotton The sun crept out from a distant corner way up above and looked down at the mass of human beings around and around -the mill-gates It seemed as if she was smil- . .. All eyes looked upward + «++ @ new hope. Restlessly she clenched her pale white little hand in his large browny hand, there was full understanding . . «+ » Comrade! It is coming! Their hopeful dreams. A little closer comrade! Hearts beat. They moved towards each other. Young bodies, young hopes, a YOUNG WORLD “Fellow-workers,” she cried out in joyous pain, “let us march by |the mill-gates until we WIN.” We work in the mills, and we shall also A moan! head,” a cry was heard. Blood, bo on ai Cossacks! Gangsters! Police! “Let them alone,” hundreds of workers shouted. “Defend them, brothers and sisters.” Children cried for pity and fear. Around and around the mill-gates ‘and to the prison cells they walked, jfirmly, bravely, heads uncoveréd and bleeding. Arm in arm, fingers interwoven. There were no silly sighs, no blushings, no useless prom- ises. Life was the promise. “Comrade, we need each other,” jhe said, pressing her frail little hand | with sparkling eyes of anger, old | LETTERS FROM | lowed last; beautiful young boys) “Yes, comrade, the struggle needs us,” she answered. OUR READERS | Praises DAILY WORKER. Editor, The DAILY WORKER: |The inestimable work which your |paper is doing for the workers of America, and the fearless struggle { that you are carrying on against; every treacherous element within the | ‘organized ranks of American work- | $4 is recognized by our club. | | Therefore, at our last meeting the whole membership decided that it should render you all possible assis-| | tance, moral and financial, in order | | that you could carry on the struggie for the emancipation of the whole | working class. | In view of your good work, we are hereby sending you $5 as our hearty | support, which you should use in fur- | ther promotion of your great work | among the unorganized and unen-| | lightened workers of America, Wishing you much success in your | | great work, I remain very sincerely yours, For the Slovak Workers’ Dra- matie Club of Cleveland, Ohio, ROSE | KELLER, secretary. i Heckle British Laborite. To The DAILY WORKER: On | Thursday evening, February 24, Jes- sie Stephens of the British Labor Party, delivered a lec*ure in the Elizabeth Labor Lyceum, in which she praised Ramsay MacDonald and disparaged the work of the left wing in the general strike. She also had ‘a few bitter words to say about Soviet Russia. Aftér her talk one of our local | comrades asked for the floor. When he tried to point out the fallacies of Miss Stephen’s talk, he was forced to sit down. Other lefts in the hall heckled the speaker. The result of this meeting is that the right wingers will have some- thing to talk about for a little while, and that: Jessie Stepheng will re- member her unexpected rebuff at Blizabeth. CELIA BECKER, California Quakes Again. —Check of the seismograph at the government’s volcanic observatory at the base of Mount Lassenjn at Mineral today disclosed that seven mild tremors occurred in that vie cinity yesterday. , The shocks were accompanied by subterranean rum| lings bf) He'll ; REDDING, Cal, March 2. (Ins.).{up” ideas, Next “hell |the present leaders, following in the,;and persistent effort to urge the | of women in the mass struggles of workers. have|United States government to with- * When the miners of Kansas were in danger of being | shot down by the armed troops sent against them by | the strike-breaking government, it was the women—the | wives, mothers, sisters and sweethearts of the miners who organized and marched right into the muzzles of the guns! They cried: “If you fire you will have to shoot US down! but you shall not shoot down our men—you shall not break the strike!” The troops were withdrawn. | won the victory for the miners. And what of Passaic? Some day, when the complete story is told of the ie | The women in the end | not only on the picket line, in street demonstrations, but |also in the solid work of organizing and administering | relief to the strikers’ families and their children, it will prove an inspiration and a spur to the work of organiz- ing the working class womgn for the ‘struggle and storm of the future. The housewife and the mill-woman equally were united in the closest possible manner, and both as closely uni¢ed with all the actions taken by the strikers as a whole—as same day they will participate in wider struggles—of the working class as a whole. OE ete March 8th! Let us celebrate the work of drawing the women of our class into every struggle, great or small, that con- cerns our class—there is no other way—no short way— of preparing them (one half of the working class!) for the final conflict. On Raiding Ideas By HARBOR ALLEN. 4 NCE I lived in a small town. The men used to get together behind a garage and tell smutty jokes. Some of them were pretty good. They were told with an earthy vulgarity that made the insinuating sophisti- cation of Greenwich Village look mildewed. There was something wholesome about the way these males used to vaily around the back door of a garage and talk ani- mal. Frankness At Times. But if you had tried to be half way as frank about sex at a bridge party or a church. meeting or an open forum they would hawe driven you out of town. It’s all right to be a wholesome animal back of the garage. But at a meeting you’re a banker or a teacher or a merchant or a grocer. You have dignity. You remem- ber that there are morals. You are a pillar of society. You must support the sacred institutions, marriage, church, family. God forbid that you should be lewd. Of course, you may laugh now and then about sex, But you mustn’t discuss it seriously. Sex is too serious a thing to be serious about. Don’t Raid Cabarets. It’s the same way with the raids on Broadway theatres. I’ve sat in cabarets and listened to wise cracks at homosexuality and other irregularities. Nobody thought of raiding. It wasn’t serious, see? You could laugh and forget about it. The chief trouble with “The Captive” is that you can’t laugh and forget about it. That’s why the preachers, the Caml y the blue-noses, the puritans, the other ossifications of a dead era are afraid of it. If “The Captive’ were a joke, they 't care. va do they.mean, “clean up the stage?” Only sex? Not on your life. They want to clean up ped sl too. The stage must be kept dull, conservative, docile. It’s a dangerous medium. The people who tread the stage are not solid citizens. They don’t own homes, pay bills, write checks, speculate, grow fat. them are lean, striving, discontented; many of them are fly-by-nights, gypsies, insurgents, radicals! They lack e. They scorn “propriety.” From Sex To Kellogg. That's what the professional purifier is aiming at. start “ sex. Next he will be “cleaning ] raid you if you laugh at a or a judge or a banker or a dry-agent or a ssional purifier, Next he'll clap you in jail if dare to utter an idea not approved by Secretary (which means, of course, that mustn't utter ideas at all); or if you draw a hero who doesn’t measure up to what the Daughters of tho American " ought to be (which means he’ll i gee | heroic part played by the women in the Passaic Strike, | Most of | bis The Damned Agitatorisnd Other Stories, by Michael Gold. Publishing Co. Ten ‘cents. | Things happen to weople in. the world, in America. And there are | other people who go abot with pencil and typewriter watching the things | happen, putting them do on paper. There is a Pole leading a bitter, | losing’ strike in a New Enpland mill town while his starving wife sits at ‘home cursing him, hugging her child. There are four I. W. W. prisoners | who’ denounced the war and dre freed after five years of dead living behind | steel bars. There is a little hoy of ten working in a coal-breaker, treating we blustering miners to ‘cheap booze on pay day, drinking the stuff ‘imself, Michael Gold has seen these people and the things happening to them and written stories about them, But they aren’t stories. They are big unwieldy chunks of raw material mixed with his own indignation at a world und a society that allow such things to be. Obviously this is a different, an earlier Mike Gold writing, ona who is struggling with language and trying to make words hold thoughts that are blundering and formless. | The Mike Gold of the rapid ironic prose that has become familiar in the “New Masses” is more master of himself and his ideas than the maker of these placid, doughy sentences. \ The three stories included in this, small book are probably good propa- ganda because their indignation is sd) real. But I want to make it clear that ‘they are not good stories, nor, im fact, are they stories at all. Ideas took hold of Mike Gold, dark, despe¥ate ideas clutched his mind fiercely, and he made up the stories to fit the ideas. Now I think he is wiser. He knows how to fuse the two. He doesn’t always do it even now. But he knows how. When he wrote thesefstories he didn’t know how. He saw things happening to people in Amdrica, he was bitter and angry, and he wrote. They are the stumblings of a dark mind in the darkness. —A. B. MAGIL. A WORKERS’ GOVERNMENT Constitution of the U. S. 8S. R., No. 10 of the Little Red Library. Daily Worker Publishing Co. New York. Ten cents. “Workers” does not appear anywhere in the Constitution of the United States. Their interests are pyovided for on page after page of the Soviet Union Constitution. The Sgviet Republic is “a socialist state of workers and farmers”; in order to ‘guarantee workers’ freedom of conscience, of speech and of assembly, the constitution makes provisions that guarantee the separation of church and state; furnish meeting places, etc. “Labor is the duty of all citizens of the republic.” When it comes to elections and to holding,'office, only those are eligible to vote and to be elected to office “who efrn a living by productive and useful social labor.” Many similar provisions are made in the constitution. HY The most important of these constitution provisions are contained ia Number 10 of the Red Library. Besides these important sections of the constitution the volume has two other sections. One is devoted to an analysis of the wightssof trade unions in the Soviet Union. The other describes. the sys' of social insurance in yogue there. Like the congtitution of Mexico, with its labor code (the first of its kind in the world, so far as I know) the Soviet organic law provides im great detail fer the protection of the working masses. Since the Russian revolution was much more complete, its constitution goes very much farther in this direcf’on than any other. Soviet laws protect workers just as United States laws protect property and property owners. Anyowe who wants to know what a workers’ state can do for workers should s; ‘some thoughtful hours studying this book. : —SCOTT NEARING. Daily Worker THE ROMANCE OF MICROBES Microbe fetes by Paul de Kruif. Harcourt, Brace & Co. $3.50. Truth is not only stranger than fiction, but most of the time it is more interesting. In the case of “Microbe. Hunters,” the truth about how germs were discovered makes the sort of book which you pick up at bed- time and read until the alarm goes off in the. morning. % Imagine such.a learned, scientific study as the cause and prevention of disease being founded upon the discoveries of a little old Dutch janitor, who took to grinding lenses and making home-made microscopes in his spare hours between tending fires and sweeping the cobble stones, : This was the man who first saw microbes—awithout in the least un- derstanding their significance; and it is fascinating reading, as de Kruif writes it, to learn about his patient work, and the discoveries, and false Lice tony disappointments of the score of bug chasers who have come r 6 There's a lot to be learned from this book, and a good time to be had in the process, HELEN BLACK. COMMENTS | “Our Colleges,” by John Kirkpatrick (New Republic $1 practically an emasculated edition of Sinclair’s “Goose Step.” This ie (he lost job in a small college in Ohio the day the book appeared) smothered all the vital, juicy episodes in the “Goose Step,” translated Sinclair’s con- versational English into the dull speech of the classroom—and the result was what the New Republic would describe as “an objective study.” HV Aareeiet read is the pation saint of the author of this lemic freedom, the open mind, and the on- hand-on- other-hand kind of research is the eater of his pears ge bg j ( —S. G, “Many Miles,” by Harry Kemp (Boni & Liverigh' ) i second volume of adventures of this self-confessed genius. 9, ek boned lots of tun trying to guess who the thinly-disguised characters (well-known social- a ee ists, anarchists, and Bohemians) might be, if nothing more important can _ be found to do. Kemp seems to feel that he can avoid the bland Soenene by the simple device of using innumerable dots, ast § f