The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 8, 1927, Page 6

cake, x speed. raphe the comic hero gets under the train due to his _~ Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 1927 The Movies--They Don’t Satisfy Part 1—Their Uniformity and Their Tricks. By IV. KULIK. The American films impress one with their uniform- And this in spite of their incredible technical pos- The American moving picture concerns ha’ built large cities, such as the largest cinema city, Holly wood, near Los Angeles, specially for the production of their film Everything is there—mountains, rivers, ailroads, steamships, an entire air fleet. If a steamer 1as to be drowned or burned, they will sink or set fire to a real steamer. Not millions but billions are spent on the cinema industry. But it pays and brings profits. And what profits! Don’t Use Them. But they are not to be envied. The American films do not know how to avail themselves properly of all these advantages. Maybe the market does not ask for an appropriate (from our point of view) utilization of all these facilities. We repeat, the American films im- press one by their uniformity, And here is the proof. | The American motion pictures can be divided into three categories: The trick films, the psychological | films, and the psychological-trick films. Fs | Poor Ideas. “The last type. prevails. Not so long ago the Ameri- | can spectator was satisfied with mere tricks devoid of | any psychological portent. Lately a certain change was noticed in the taste of the public. The spectator began to ask for deeper meaning and “ideas.” However, psychological films devoid of tricks could not get any foothold. The mixed type prevailed. There are tricks to thrill tHe nerves and ideas to serve as mental food. True, the ideas are quite poor. All of them cut and] dried. What Kind of Tricks? Let us consider the tricks in general and the pro- duction in particular. This will be quite appropriate because in America the tricks are of greater importance than the production itself. The pursuit of tricks often relegates to the background the fundamental idea, the | general character of the production and the play of} the various artists. Without tricks the picture seems dull to the American spectator. This is easy to under-| stand. Having worked all day like a beast of burden, having killed all his thoughts by chewing tobacco and | gum; dazed by the hufmming of the factory and the| noise of the streets, the spectator calls for a mighty | dose of tricks not to tickle but rather to tear and to| pull at the nerves. This refers fot only to the moving picture theatres. In all parks and entertainment places, in all “Coney Islands,” it is understood that the car has to rush down from the top of the tower either into a precipice or into the water, that the turning disc has to throw you over the barrier, that the staircase must break beneath your feet, that the ball has to be aimed not at a wooden target but at the head of a living Negro. But let us return to the cinema. | Circus Stuff. | We are not going to dwell upon the comic films, nor | upon the cowboy films which are entirely built upon acrobatic circus “stunts”; we will also omit all “chasing” films, whether they deal with automobiles, trains or steamers. It is not worth while to dwell apon all these, for it is extremely boring day after day to see those films in which the hero jumps with his horse from a high rock into an abyss, and escapes; in which | the automobile, with the tires, the motor and the wheels gone, nevertheless wins the race; in which only the hero and the heroine remain alive after the wreck of the steatier, in order to get married; or in which the hero safely jumps from under a train that is moving at full The only variation being supplied ‘by the fact stupidity, while the tragic hero does it te save his sweetheart or the daughter of a millionaire. The Daily Symposium Conducted by EGDAMLAT. THE QUESTION.* Do you approve America’s intervention in China? THE PLACE, West Farms and Boston Road. THE ANSWERS. I. Shroeder, 1051 East Tremont avenue, storekeeper: “No. We have our own affairs to take care of and shouldn’t interfere with the affairs of a foreign coun- e Chinese can rule their country without, our John O’Brien, 1470 Daly avenue, chauffeur: “We've had enough fighting during the last war. This is China’s private fight and it’s none of our business to interfere.” William P. Mooney, 994 McLean avenue, taxi driver: “T do like h--l! It’s just the rich men’s good doings and the poor men’s fight. Why should we send our troops to prot the ‘property of the rich,” R. Storey, 1553 Saint Lawrence avenue, soldier: “No, “he Chinese should govern their own country. We ~“uuldn’t like to have any foreign country interfere vx our affairs. We must, therefore, keep our hands off Csina.” Jean Nelson, 1088 East 180th street, student: “No. We have no cause to interfere in ‘Chinese affairs. America’ for Americans and China for the Chinese.” H. Tepper, 1401 Bryant avenue, fur business: “No. It is a civil war and other countries should not inter- | vene. Under the able leadership of the Kuomintang, China will soon come into its own,” Miniatures By THE HADJI SAYD-IBN-ABDULLAH. Spook in Fifteenth Street The house is a charnel-house, from cellar to garret full of the ghastly odor of dead aspirations, of fussy, solemn-looking idleness, outworn routine, and the petty |ing used as a camouflage for Amer- | sidiary | increase as compared with 1925. Economic Notes. By T, LOAF, HILE “war days are recalled” as.| ny nes depart for China an-| other war phenomenon has appeared | in our finance-ridden community; the | “war babies”. It will be remembered that this was the name for the stocks | of companies that dealt in various | war materials and were the direct | beneficiaries of the bloody business. The rise’ in, the stock value of the | Bethlehem Steel Company and other | war contractors on the’ declaration of war is still in the memory of Wall| Street speculators who are just/ yearning for a repetition of that) feast. | The recent rise in the value of the | Bethlehem stock is a proof that these | speculators do expect an enlarged demand for arms and ammunition, | mainly for the “operations” of the American marines in China. eke The fact that the American invest- ments in China form only a fraction of the British and that the total amount is comparatively small is be- ican “disinterestedness” with regard | to China. According to the estimates of the | Commerce Department, American | business interests have approximately | $70,000,000 invested in China, while approximately the same amount has been put by the same interests in “educating” the Chinese to the bless- ings of capitalist civilization, by | means of missionary and philan- thropic enterprises. But we need only to glance at the names of the American concerns that | are “interested” in China and at the amounts invested to see that the in-| vestment affair is not as simple as | it is presented. | * * * me It was the “SOCONY,” the Stand- ard Oil Company of New York, whose | name became most prominent in the} bloody attack of foreign aggressors | against China. Then it is the “So-| CONY” that has the largest single investment in China that probably | equals the total of all the other Amer- | ican business concerns; its one sub-| corporation, the Standard | Transportation Company, has a capi- tal of over $7,000,000; it is not the| only subsidiary that is operating in China, not speaking of the fact that also other Standard Oil Companies or cheir branches such as the Vacuum Cil Company, the Texas Company ete. are doing business there. But th> “SOCONY” is doing incomparably more and, to facilitate the marketing of its products that are sold all over Cnina it has invested much capital in warehouses, dockage facilities and so on, ‘ As kerosene and petroleum are the principal commodities that are’ nec- essary in peace time and still more in waz time, particularly in the case of China whese armies because of lack of railroad transportation, must de- pend much more on motor equipment; the “interest” cf “SOCONY” in the happenings and their outcome in China cannot conceivably be small. Who knows the history of the Standard Oil, abroad as well as home, must know that it will “hold on.” * * . However, it is not only the actual investments but to a great extent also the foreign trade possibilities that en- ter into the “Chinese Problem” as far |' as the United States is concerned. | It is not our aim now to point out | the necessity of an enlarging foreign | trade for the capitalist economy of | the United States. We shall speak| some other time about the growing productive capacity of the country | that makes imperative an ever en-| larging foreign outlet. As far as| China is concerned, the total of| Amecican exports amounted in 1926 to $110,205,014 and showed even an The great importance attached in this country to the Chinese trade can be seen from the fast of introducing | the “China Trade Act” that exempts American trade compan‘es in China from taxes on income earned in China. American “Chambers of Com merce” have been created in several Chinese trade centers, as in Shang- hai, Peking, Hangkow, Tientsin and Harbin. In a word, preparations have been made to capture Chinese trade and to install American capital there for good. * * * So it is the potential trade that primarily is being jeopardized now by the recent developments, As ex: graft of those who do not merit even the ‘tiny pay they get. The Library is closed until four in the afternoon; closed on Sundays, closed on holidays, closed to the stu- dious out-of-work during the day, closed to the employed on their off-days ... with an ignorant, underpaid girl as sold Guide to the Perplexed. Important volumes are rotting on the shelves, their leaves uncut. ’ * . The First Lord of the Circumlocution office—uncom- monly well-paid himself—sits entrenched in a sanctum to the rear of the Library. He gets his pay for treating innovators and inquirers to the studied incivilities and prevarications of a pseudo-radical bureaucracy. He comes to work, in lordly fashion, at the hour of:two in the afternoon. In the evening, there is stir and commotion. The soft- berth men, the professors of half a dozen inexact sci- ences, are taking their vaudeville turns. Bye and bye, the girls in the class-rooms are getting wise to them and leave them in disgust. | The ghost of an elderly, kindly-faced lady, ita faded | silk dress of a bygone fashion, is walking the shady corridors, tremulously shaking her head and softly moaning. She might be one of the Nine Muses, or the embodiment of any real science, for anything the faculty | members know about her when they brush past her on} their way to the class-rooms. In life, she was known as | Carrie Rand. ed pressed by one capitalist, the signi: cance of the onward sweey uf the Nationelist armies is. . . “that foreign markets for all nations will become more competitive and that competition will become more ruinous, that . everywhere groups that feel that they are being “exploited” will resist the operation of foreign capital in their respective territories ne "And he ends with the admonition that the United States “must of necessity ‘be one of the ma- jor victims”, if such distrust of for- eigners (read capitalists) should be- come prevailing among the peoples “whose territory is developed (read exploited) by. foreigners.” * * ” That outside of the potential trade’ also the actual American trade will soon begin to feel the results of the American “friendliness” toward China is more than probable. The Am>ri- can firms wili*then join the British | in lamenting that “business came to a standstill” and will be as eager as} chiefly contracts”. Already the dispatches from Shanghai speak of the fact that “many small foreign firms, agencies of American manu- facturers, will be bound to close their doors . ” Soon we shall hear more of the difficulties of American traders jn China, which will, among others,*throw a light on the value of the imperialists’ threat of blockading | China at a time when Chinese revolu- tionaries are quite efficiently block- ading the capitalist exploiters and oppressors off Chinese territory. | My Country "Tis of Thee | By NAT KAPLAN. By NAT KAPLAN, Competition Leaders of the Mormon Church an- nounce that they are planning to build a branch in Hollywood, but Reno will continue to offer better in- ducements. * * * Bad News “Tension in the soft coal industry may compel an extra session of Con- gress.” Is there.no end to the mis- lery of long-suffering Washington correspondents? * * * Peace The idea seems to be that we are bound to have peace, even if we have to blackjack and bayonet the “hea- then” for doubting our honesty of purpose. * * * Turn The Other Cheek Mr. Coolidge vetoes the farm-re- lief bill and plans a social trip to the western farmers, * ee Where Black Sees Red The courts give Texas colored citi- zens the right to vote, but what’s a court decision between 100% Nor- dics? , Pee les Fundamentalist Charity Early Franco-catholic law forbade church burial for stage folks, but Dr. Straton is probably eager to provide any sort, ye aE The Effete East A Detroit dentist is held for kill- ing his wife with an iron bar. Here in New York it apparently takes two to perform a similar job. * = * Newspaper Note One of the larger metropolitan dai- lies has been criticising the tabloids. Recently it devoted more than an en- tire page to a “scientific” study of the principals involved in the latest murder, and a sob sister’s resume of the place of American womanhood in the annals of murder. * es The Old Hokum Bucket “In my coffee houses the effort is made on the part of each girl to spiritualize food and service.” “This .country will never fight a war, of aggression.” “The Citizens’ Military Training Camps exist for the mental, moral and physical development of the American youth.” “The church is the answer to the quest of all aching hearts, all seek- ing souls.” . * * . Ask Me Another! How would the genius who writes Macfadden’s editorials square himself if the chief caught him eating a non- vegetarian steak? * roa A Dyspeptic’s Idea Of Hell Being cast adrift on a raging sea without an ounce of bicarbonate of soda. e *. . Vanishing Americans Add Nick Carter, folks who can blush and corset salesmen. . * * * There Ought To Be A Law Agin It! It develops from recent court hear- ings that neither Mr. Ford nor Mr. Macfadden write their own signed articles. Why not a literacy test for publishers? * * * Ingenuity Two hard-working Amherst Col- lege graduates, Justin Spafford and Lucien Esty, compiled “Ask Me An- other,” and F. P. Adams and Harry Hansen cash in on its extensive pop- ularity by offering the very original “Answer This One,” . One used to think that there was a certain honor among authors and columnists, +e * Fascisti Refrain Be it ever so rotten there is no place like Rome. Connecticut Labor Gets aR Rough Deal HARTFORD, Conn, April 7—Com- pulsory unemployment insurance was rejected by the Connecticut legisla- ture without debate. The measure would have made employers take out insurance to compensate their work- cvs during periods of idleness. Employers are lining up their forces against‘the shorter work week bill for women sponsored by state la- bor organizations and the League for Women Voters. The bill to make 48 hours the limit per week in factories and 52 for women in stores is bitterly opposed by employers. jthey to “liquidate their outstanding ‘Read The Daily Worker Every Day ! Unemployment in Lyons We look in vain for any news of unemployment in |“Progress” and “The News,” the papers of Lyons. It |is not “news” at present. It was talked about at one ltime, but as unemployment continues it is no longer interesting. And, besides, why trouble the lucrative, commercial efforts of the Lyons bourgeoisie at their | majestic fair? : Over the town, over the suburbs, the hills, the rivers, the Lyons mists lift their cold veils, covering the hidden misery. A sound of spades and pickaxes. labor, dig, push wheelbarrows. These are textile workers, dyers, metal workers, who are employed here at this work. * * * One of the workers who seems to handle his shovel with difficulty: “At first,” he says, “I could hardly stand it. I thought I would have to give it all up. What |do you want, I am a dyer, it is not the same kind of work. My son is a soldier in Morocco. The two others are unemployed. My little girl, who is fourteen, fs @ textile worker and also unemployed. I am a widower. For three weeks I was out of work. I’ve got to work here. I’ve tried to feed the kids. . .” For a bourgeois can chose his profession and live by it, but when capitalist crises come the workers are workless, have to take it all in order not to perish. That is bourgeois law. « They make three franes an hour. In some ‘shops they work only five hours. When it rains too much, one worker told us, they don’t want us to work and “then don’t pay us.” “By scarce, hard work they. man‘ age to steal several hours a,week from us. If we protest the employers are only too glad to discharge the refractory ones, on the slightest pretext. This makes for economy.” * * * Textile and metals are particularly hard hit at Lyons and in the suburbs, Thousands of French, Italian, Armenian, colonial and other workers are unemployea. The mayors of the sections and the unemployment committees make up the lists and every day register more and more names. Men and women come to the soup kitchens, which now, thanks to theqnited front and the committees, are open to foreigners also. Outside Lyons, in the chemical plants of Saint-Fons and Venissieux no help whatever is given to the un- employed, to the women or children. One socialist mayor replied to demands: “The mayor- ality is not a milk cow!” (sie) Fifty men who Step by step our comrades of the unions and the | unemployed are forcing aid from the municipality: 9 frances to the totally unemployed, nothing to the par- tially employed and to foreigners. A totally unemployea worker, with a family of three, receives 105 francs & week. A mere shade of advantage, one over the other, but it shows up the odiousness of refusing aid to the partially employed. : *. * . Still M. Herriot casts a few cents to the unemployed of Lyons. . .He is-taking care of his little popularity -But there are communes in the suburbs where no aid is given the workless. To a labor delegation, M. Herriot replied a short while ago: “You are right. The exploiters have made huge sums. Logically they ought to pay. But what can we do against the industrialists?” A naive admission! What can the bourgeois radicals and reformists do against their masters, against their own government? The Letter-Box This is a report on the Weepah gold strike as re- ported by several of the local prospectors returned from there. They all say it is the bunk, the pay streak is about the size of a hat, as usually the case. Much of the news from there came via Tonapah, the Universal staff correspondent there is an ex-editor of the old Appeal to Reason. E. N. Richardson who used the prestige gained thereby to swindle thousands of work- ers by various stock swindles, such as oil, potash, a fake colony scheme, old prospect holes, after cleaning up here, he went to Tonapah where he is on the job as publicity man for a bunch of promoters of fabulously rich mines? About 5 or 10 per cent of the money taken in on stock sales is applied to mining, the balance keeps these parasites in luxury as they continue promoting new ones. Without ever taking out a shipment of ore, even hear of it. Look at the picture of Horton, the discoverer. | You can see he is no desert rat as he has a bay win-| dow like a gambler. The real desert rat is so thin he always carries lumps of ore to keep the wind from blowing him away. He as a rule is a hard worker, knows his business ang seldom sells a claim. He usually earns and spends his own money. Some of them really have good claims, but don’t sell for stock, Not one of the would stock a prospect where rich ore had been struck as it would pay its own way down from the lizard tracks. As Horton the discoverer of Weepah is selling stock, this fact alone proves it a fake. The writer has punched burros over thousands of miles of this desert country and knows just what he is writing. The miner and prospector belongs along with the rest of the exploited classes, When he has ore to sell the railroads and the smelter trust get most all of it. For every dollar taken out of the ground probably 35.00 is spent looking for it. Some of us who know where good rich float is to be found | will never quit looking for it. But we all say to hell, with the tin horn. * * ° a | Calls for Assistance in Workers’ Daily Struggle. Editor, Daily Worker:—As a member of the organ- ized labor body, I would like to give my views on the issues confronting the labor movement, Firstly, the slogan ought to be raised: “Honesty in the trade union movement.” In the local to which I be- long, No. 3 of the International Brotherhood of Flectri- | eal Workers, there was such grafting, corruption, brib- ery and betrayal of the members, that the average worker could hardly believe that such a situation could exist. Strange to say, all those found guilty were very conservative officials, I have yet to find a real radical leader of labor have a finger pointed at him as being | Secondly, to the Communists, the left wing and the Jabor press of the radicals, I BY this—Do not talk too much Communism, but get"down to the workers’ every day struggle for existence. Fight to raise the workers’ standards of living so that he can have the hetter things of life. It was for these things that the pioneers of the trade union mowement gave their ‘lives. Thirdly, I say to the progressives, radicals and the left wing: keep up the good work which you have done lately in Passaic, and are now doing among the furriers and garment workers. Also I think one industry, the auto industry, ought to be organized by the radicals, because the A. F. of L. has been passing resolutions on the matter, and there is where they stop, if they did take out ore of-value the suckers would never |* Never mind the Greens and Wells, the Sigmans and their cohorts, worthy radicals, keep up the fight for unionism! I know it is a hard fight but after all any- thing worth fighting for is a good thing. Get the chil-| dren of the working class, mold and shale them in+ dustrially and politically, and half the battle for a bet-. tert iabor movement and a better humanit 4 i ISRAEL JOSEPHSON. | ’ / John D. Rockefeller, Jr., visiting his father at Ormond Beach Fila., is photographed on horseback, STANDARD OIL! MY STANDARD OIL. (Commemorating the Bombardment of Nanking) 1. We will nog yield the dollar field, Standard Oil, my Standard Oil, The rebel blood must be congealed, Standard Oil, my Standard Oil! The’ heathen bends at our control; We own his body, damn his soul, Now in his breast a gory hole, Standard Oil, my Standard Oil! 2. Murder them or pumps will rust, Standard Oil, my Standard Oil, Send heathen foes to blend with dust, Standard Oil, my Standard Oil! Remember Calvin's noble stand, remember Kellogg’s Wall Street/band, Remember this—our cause is grand, Standard Oil, my Standard Oil! 3. 2 There is no blush upon your cheek, Standard Oil, my Standard Oil, The churches meek, our gold they seek, Standard Oil, my Standard Oil! For oil and god we'll. use the rod 2 And,stain with blood the Chinese sod, 4 And gentle Cal will sweetly nod; Standard Oil, my Standard Oil! —NAT KAPLAN The forces marshalled against The DAILY WORKER showed themselves quite clearly in the Essex Market Court on Thursday. The American Legion, the American Patriotic So- ciety, the Vice President of the International Tailoring Company, Mr. Jacob Cash, the - Bomb Squad and the District Attorney form- ed a united front against our paper. These forces are powerful. They have unlimited means at their disposal, They are determined in their efforts to check the work of The DAILY WORKER in its fight against American imperialism. We make no bones - about the seriousness of the fight ahead of us. The Ruthenbereg DAILY WORKER Sus- taining Fund will be used to defray the ex- penses necessary for this fight, Contribu- ’ tions to this fund will come at a most op- portune time—when they are needed most. We urge all comrades to act at once. N6 time must be lost. Swell the Sustaining Fund and build up our resoure- es for the coming attack, Become a | State... member of the Sus- | Attach check or money order. taining Fund now. ; EEE OR I TT TET ecsaies TP AATF: DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, f New York, N. Y. f Inclosed is my contribution of ...... dollars .... cents to the Ruthenberg Sustaining Fund for a stronger and better DAILY WORKER. I will pay th® same amount tegularly every .scsdececece Name. sey es cevadevgacesl Address dene eesecevevoeeee HOR Dee eee eeeee