The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 2, 1927, Page 9

____- THE METROPOLIS. Don’t let anybody blurb you into believeing “The Metropolis” is the greatest blah-blah that ever flickered. That’s a lot of hooey. And so is most of the picture. But don’t let anybody keep you away from . It's worth a six-bit investment to see the settings, photography, imagination and artistry in the picture. “The Metropolis” is not up to some other Ger- man pictures we have seen. It fizzles in the story it tells, in sequence and in artistic honesty. It only proves once again that all is not art that glitters in Europe. The story is “R. U. R.” done over, de- vitalized and revamped to be less annoying to those who might ‘get worried about revolution. The background of “The Metropolis” is the fu- ture machine age. A giant intellect runs a so- ciety in whose cities workers live under-ground, mere cogs whose lives are broken in pulling levers and guarding machines. An upper super-class en- joys the product of their labor, Things” go on ex- ploitingly until a female bible-banger, in the cata- combs of the city, teaches the ideas of Christ which have been long forgotten. The son of the Giant Brain who runs tbe city falls in love with this fu- ture Aimee McPherson and when the slave workers revolt, they jointly save the machine civilization and bring about the unity of Brain and Brawn when the Giant Intellect shakes hands with a foreman and actually admits workers are human beings. After which, we are led to. believe, Capital and Labor live happy ever after. That’s the kind of a mulligan this turned out to be! However, despite the story, the producers in touching the subject, could not avoid its dynamite. The mechanized workers, the system that crushes their lives, the uprising of the slaves, the machines —all this despite the fake of the story—give one a feeling of a great underlying force that must be uncomfortable to a hundred percenter. One. New York critic sensed this so keenly and went home so uncomfortable that he condemned the picture as a lot of working class propaganda! It isn’t that by any means. But it is a good deal for six-bits. Much more, in fact, than we get in most of our mov- ies. }t’s worth seeing because it offers something dif- ferent from the ordinary run of pictures. It also has elements of things that workers will understand. There’s little danger that a worker will be stuck on any of the molasses. It’s too gooey. In New York, “The Metropolis” is being shown at the Rialto.—W. C. THRU DARKEST AFRICA. In the last few years a new type of film has rightly gained in popularity. Pictures like “Nan- ook of the North,” “Grass,” “Moana,” “The Gorilla Hunt,” have brought to us primitive human and animal life still existant in far corners of the globe. The habits, customs and the struggle for exist- ence of primitive peoples have been set before our eyes in all their interest and color. Different stages of civilization are vividly portrayed. The popularity of these films are bringing many more into exist- ence for early showing and many more won't be too many. ‘ “Thru Darkest Africa”—in search of the White rhinoceros, is not the best of these pictures. It is abominably sub-titled in circus’ fashion. Its straining after effect in bombastic wording is an- noying and distracting from the interest of the African life the picture presents. However, even the titles can’t kill the picture and tho not as great in interest as preceding films of this type, “Thru Darkest Africa” is well worth seeing. If you are in New York (at the Cameo Theatre, “The Salon of the Cinema’”—isn’t that a wow?) there’s an added interest in the showing of Chap- lin’s old classic “Shoulder Arms,” on the same bill. It’s as funny as ever it was and worth the second once-over. ee WHAT OUR COMRADE WOULD ASK. Shall we mouth a few speeches and turn and forget? Is it honor enough that his ashes shall lie Where the Red Flag of Freedom triumphant is set ' O’er the walls of the Kremlin and streaming the sky? Nay, not to our comrade the pomp of a grave, The roaring of cannon, the rolling of drum, The Red Flags of mourning, half-masted that wave As he passes from battle to lie in the tomb, Are honor if only reflection they be the militant courage of them who acclaim, the every day battle of slaves to be The strength and devotion that’s li with his So y, and lay him low sadly, turn from his ashes to finish the task Of upbuilding the party he suffered for gladly~ “Tis all of the honor he ever would ask! ~-HENRY GEORGE WEISS. EDITOR'S NOTES (Continued From Page 1) the best training ground for citizenship in that it does not train residents for participation in govern- ment.” Which means in frank language that life in a mill village is slavery for the workers, and nothing short of it. But these conditions are still waiting for an organizing campsign to bring the workers into the unions and to enable tkem to fight success- fully against this regime of slavery. a * * HE sinister angle in this move of the southern churchmen is the attempt to induce the employ- ers to organize company unions and by this td fore- stall the coming of real, genuine unionism into the southern mills. These churchmen complain of “the general absence of labor representation in the fac- tories” and innocently advance the idea that i | would be helpful and desirable for employers to have a proper share'in making and enforcing the regula- tions by which industrial plants are controlled.” * * * NDOUBTEDLY, the first real attempt at union- ization of the south will make the employers very susceptible to the plea for compahy unions. And it is reasonably certain that the trade union reactionaries will seize upon such an opportunity to “cooperate” with the bosses to prevent the es- tablishment of real unions by planting instead some acceptable to them modification of company ‘union- ism. But the workers must not be fooled by any such proposition. They must fight for the thing that they need, namely, militant unions to fight the employers and protect the workers. * * * By is very essential that the nature of the develop- ing struggle of the miners be clearly understood. Hesitation in prosecuting the fight, confused notions as to its scope, will only weaken the strikers and strengthen their enemies. The strike must be made a national bituminous strike. Only in a national strike can the miners bring all the resources of their power to bear in the struggle, and win the strike. Any lack of determination to extend the strike its full length, any hesitation in making the tie-up com- plete in the entire bituminous coal industry may prove fatal for the outcome of the strike. This angle of the situation no miner should lose sight of for a single moment. The slogan of the progressive and left wing elements in the miners’ union must be made a reality. A NATIONAL BITUMINOUS STRIKE FOR A NATIONAL AGREEMENT. * * + — the successful outcome of the strike it is of decisive importance that the unorganized coal fields be struck as quickly and fuily as_ possible. The coal barons,and the capitalists generally are placing all their hopes on an uninterrupted supply of coal from these fields. The miners, too, must centre their attention on this point. All the re- sources of the union must therefore be concentrated on bringing out on strike the unorganized miners, * « * A:NOTHER essential to be remembered is that the fate of the entire labor movement of America is bound up with the struggle of the miners. This will be a difficult struggle requiring the utmost concentration of effort. And it is a struggle that must and will be won if the American labor move- ment stands by the miners and does its full duty. The cause of the miners is the cause of the entire working class of the United States. * * * : this struggle the miners will meet the combined opposition of employers and government assisted by hesitation and sabotage from the reactionary bureaucrats in the union. The government strike- breaker is sure to be on the job, as ever, to crush the resistance of the workers. But there is nothing insurmountable iri the combined power of the capi- talists and the government if the labor movement presents a united front in support of the miners and if the struggle is prosecuted with the necessary degree of determination and political understanding. s . ° PoLrticaL consciousness, an understanding of the role of capitalist governments in the class strug- gle, and readiness to engage in political struggle— these are the things that the miners will meet and will develop in the conflict. The movement for a Labor Party will thus receive added impetus. The struggle for the nationalization of the mines will be given more practical content and the labor move- ment as a whole is likely to make a considerable step forward in the direction of more class con- sciousness and more militancy. THEY TALK OF LOVE. They talk of love who never know The suffering, the teafs, the woe Of them the dark earth falls upon From hopeless dawn to hopeless dawn, | Of them the searing gas consumes And seal alive in dripping tombs, Or speak of love who do not care What price is paid a millionaire! —HENRY GEORGE WEISS. MICRO-MOVIES:—Science Hollywood under the lens of the microscope where the movie stars are all bacteria, living body cells, and red and white blood corpuscles, and their dramas are enacted not under the movie camera but under the micro-movie camera. is founding a new Many of the actions that take place in the micro- scopic realm are so slow that the changes cannot be observed by the eye. The micro-movie camera, however, can be set to take one picture through the microscope every five minutes, and the film can then be exhibited at ordinary speed (16 pictures per second). Under such conditions a change which takes place in the course of five minutes would be seen on the screen in about four seconds. This is exactly the reverse of the familiar “siow motion” picture where the pictures are photographed much taster than usual and then also run off at ordinary speed. The camera can be adjusted’ for any speed of photography from one picture in five minutes to twenty pictures per second. The proper speed to be used depends parily upon the magnification em- ployed. The method is already giving excelient re- sults in the microscopic study of living processes. DOUBLE STARS:—Many stars which seem to have nothing extraordinary about them when ob- served by the naked eye, are seen to be twins when looked at throwgh a field glass or telescope. Some- times the companion star is much smaller than the ether so that it cannot be seen without the tele- scope; sometimes both twins are of equal size but are so close together that they appear as one to the unaided eye. Not all double stars are true doubles. Some are only “optical doubles”, that is, the second star merely happens to be almost in exactly the same direction from us as the first star, but possibly billions of miles behind it and in reality has no direct relationship to it whatever. True doubles are actually real companions close to each other and revolving about the same center. THE PARASITIC MALE:—Here’s a little fish story. The female “angler fish” gets its name from the fact that it lives by fishing. A part of the fin on the back of the fish extends into a line with a little bulb on the end that acts as bait. But the male’s method of getting food is stranger yet. The female is about four feet long—the male just four inches!: The male while stil) quite young, takes a grip on the under side of the female with its jaw. The contact sets up a local change in the female, resulting in the extension of a number of blood vessels directly into the body of the male. The male need now no longer worry about a source of food, or even-about eating at all. From now on he gets his food in just the same Way as the young of a mammal do before birth—direct transfer of blood through connected blood-vessels. “He has now be- come a mere degenerate. His only mission in life is to fertilize the eggs”. Those who have seen the film “Stark Love” may find the situation not ab- solutely unparalleled. ——lllllEEaa——————— IN MEMORY OF SUN YAT SEN. Out of the Morning Land His voice went, and his hand Touched flame about him, and a shout that rent The flaccid shadows and brokers’ battle- ment: “Give over, give over, give over! “I am the poor man’s lover, “TI am the poor man’s penny, “Let him use me, there will be many “To follow the furrow I’ve broken; “To follow my death for a token. “O, we who have life for a gift, “Are we at ease to sift “Our singing pain, “Sun-swinging through the rain? “Until the warders of the last release “Blow seaward all the fog, shall no man cease! “Until I, the poor man’s lover, “Have driven death to cover!” . And those who went the way of Sun Yat Sen Had faith, and knew that love would come again. —MARTIN FEINSTEIN.