The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 22, 1927, Page 6

anette si Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 1927 An En counter Letter of a Young Pioneer in U.S.S.R. { Three days ago our leader told us, that from Poland pioneers will come to Kijeff and that we'll meet them dni the railroad station, All pioneers thought at first, that the expected are children like ourselves or perhaps fuotballists, because in summer ar- rived footballists from abroad, But the day before their arrival our teacher told us, that those are very unhappy children: the father of one was shot for the sake of the workers and the revolution, father of another was sent to prison and the same is the case with all the others. We were grieved very much and all of us even the not organized children, exclaimed: we all will go to the station. After the lesson there was much | agitation: some of us said, that the Polish children will not remain in Kijeff, but will travel farther; others | said, that they will go to school to gether with us and there were even such, who said that they will arrive in the night and that it will be im- possible for us to see them. I will not boast, but I always direct the publication of the wall paper and 1 had a secret idea, I told nothing. but went away and wrote the followmg article: “We will be visited by Polish chil- dren, very unhappy children, but they are such revolutionaries like ourselves and they fulfill the same tasks. We have all—they have noth- ing. There is no sense in it to meet them with drums and red neckties only. Comrades, what would be your feelings, if the father or mother of some of us were killed for the revo- lution, what, would be then? I made the following proposals: Let us collect money and buy pres- ents for them to show them our pro- letarian sympathy and gladness. T pasted the article to the wall and said that it was written by order of the Young Communist League. This I did to evade questioning and discussion. the | But the pioneers not quite agreed | with it. They said that it is neces- | sary to collect money but not to buy| presents, but to arrange a festival. | The teacher approved the latter idea | and I consented, for to be sure I was | | the initiator of the proposal. The train arrived at 9 o'clock in| the morning and we pioneers and even all the not organized children | were at the station at 7. There comes the train. | A drum rattles; we see them de- | scend from the train, all very thin | and pale in discoloured shirts, but) their looks tell us that they would} | not submit to the bourgeoisie, even if | it were very difficult, but on the con- | trary would fight on. We got acquainted on the spot, | surrounded them and went together | to the school, where all was ready for | the tea, pasty and so on. We look on them and it seems to us as if we) were long ago acquainted, born to-| | gether with them. ae It was difficult to.speak with them, but we have Polish children at school, | who know Polish as well as Russian. They were our translators and told | us all that was said and very disgust- | ing it was to hear. of the capitalism | and all its horrors. | Afterwards we began to speak. We explained who was Iljitch, how | the pioneers are working and told them of many other things. Then we showed them our school, | books, work shop. | Regarding our teacher the Polish} children told us: She is like a mother to you. Our teachers are malicious—one can’t go near them. | It became dark but we talked and ‘talked and even the unorganized chil- dren didn’t wish to go home. Afterwards we went through the town with our drum and sang the “In- ternational,” being ourselves a réal | international: Poles, Russians, Jews and one Grizko Yashchuk, even a Moldavian. | —SERGEJ BELOFF. | By J. RASHELL. On the horizon of a light blue sky, a toiler bends holding a plow. He is tPotting after harnessed horse. The sun bakes down upon his neck. The wind fills his eyes and lungs with dust. Day in, day out, he passes across the vast green fields. Year in, year out, the soil is swallowing his power. Tt saturates his sweat, and in return fives bread to man. His eye engulfs the greatness and wideness of the horizon. He breaths the spaciousness of the broad border- less fields, and his heart becomes as mtle as the tender field flowers. is mind is as light as the mild winds that blow over the stalk of a corn field. Thus he works the land eagerly, industrious and creates food for men. Far away from the wide green} fields, and from the clear blue skies, LETTERS FROM Editor, The DAILY WORKER: Many of our radical friends seem to take a gloomy view of the Left Wing split in China. In to-day’s is- sue of the paper, for example, O’Flaherty in his excellent column says, “Chiang-Kai-Shek has dealt a serious blow to the Revolution.” All this seems to me an erroneous view of the situation. Let us review some history. We know that the Kuomintang contained within itself all elements of the workers, peasants, and middle class. We can safely as- sume, I think, that what Chiang did A Toiler in crowded large cities under turbid | skies, are people paying the price for | the products of the fields, eating to | | their hearts’ content. But they never | find time to ask themselves who has given the sweat to the soil to grow the foods that gives them health and strength. . The rich, the masters of life, throw a bone to the toiler for his toil, and he never knows who is enjoying the bread that he produces thru toil. Sometimes toward twilight when the | faint rays of the crimson sun are pat- | ting his face and painting it a red dish hue, and the coming cool eve- | ning breeze is playing with his dis-| heveled hair, he is trudging over the| broken furrows of the vast fields, | weary, bent, thinking, “How long will} parasites consume my strength? How | long will this devilish play. continue?” | OUR READERS Right to become more Right and the Left more Left,—to show that they are fighting over something vital. This will make those Lefts who are not Communists approach that po-| sition more closely. | Thus it seems} to me that recent events are not re-| grettable from our point of view. On the contrary.—Robert Julian) Kenton. Artists, Plays and Proletarians. Editor, The DAILY WORKER: Many of our young dramatists and | artists in general are attempting to/| | destroy the dragon of bourgeois cul-| jnow he always intended to do, inas- | much as he is in the middle class and|ture. But in its place they are is a product of his class. Also that creating a monster of mysticism and | the middle class was afraid of the|confusion. I am especially referring growing power of the Left Wing. | here to those artists disgusted with Again, it must be remembered that capitalism and the prostituted art. he was trained in a Japanese Mili-| What is the trouble? As a reac- tary Academy which also left its im-| tion to capitalism and its legitimate press. offspring, bourgeois art, our artists | The question now arises: would it| begin, so to speak, to walk on their have been more advantageous for|heads. They create something which the radicals if the split had occurred | is neither bourgeois, proletarian, not later, say after the capture of art. Peking? 1 say no! Consider. It) When these works are presented in was the policy of Chiang to incor-|the name of proletarian art, it is porate tle defeated troops with their|time that we take note of it. And Northern militaristic generals into|when Harbor Allen, in reviewing Em the Canton armies. Already the|Jo Basshe’s drama, “Earth,” says southern troops were being out- among other things, that it is an hon- numbered—later they would have | est attempt,—I am inclined to ask} been swamped—and the northern him, for what “it is an honest at- generals would all be for Chiang. | tempt?” The “count-your-days” | Chiang’s power would have increased | staging surely does not count the/ greatly. days of capitalism. Of what else it! ‘Let us observe, now, our side of counts the days, is quite mysterious. the picture. First, the Left Wing! The decaying of capitalism and the | possess the of Hunan/consequent heavy footsteps of the| provinces Hupel, Kiangan, Shensi, and’ Kian- sen,——the last two coming in with the so-called Christian General. Secondly, the right-wing general in proletarian revolution has thrown our | liberal-radical intelligentsia off their feet.. And in its blind search for something new, it goes off at such a . Shanghai said that Anhwei Province |tangent of muddleheadedness that ig doubtful... If he admits that it is| only Greenwich Villagites can gloat “doubtful” it is fair to assume that/over the “deep” it. will be in the hands of the Left) nothingness. Wing. Especially since Hankow is| The masses to whom they are ca- sending troops to Wuhu in that pro- | tering cannot understand them. The vince, Also the section about | daily struggle in mine and factory! Swatow, in Kwantung Province, are too crude that the masses should which is north of Canton, according | understand any of the mystic bosh to an unconfirmed report is in the| handed out to them. Under capital- hands of the Left, If true, it cuts|ism, we cannot have a proletarian off Canton from Chiang, except by/art but we can and must approach | boat, thus making, the capture of|the struggles and yearnings of the that city with its arsenal fairly easy.| workers. Nearer to the masses in And it must be borne in mind that) work and deed should be the clarion the people are with the Left. | call to these artists sympathetic with | Again, when two groups are fight-| the aspirations of the masses. ing, it is logically inevitable for the | —EUGENE KRELNEN, ’ incomprehensive MISSISSIPPI RIVER GOES TO RECORD HEIGHTS Following months of rain and storm over a large part of the Mississippi river watershed, the great stream has gone to record heights, flooding huge areas in its middle and lower stretches, Man-power has been conscripted to strengthen dikes and other barriers. Top view shows the waters near the top of the sea wall at Cairo, Ill., where the flood waters of the Ohio join with those of the Mississippi, creat- ing such a mass of water that the flow is the largest ever recorded in the history of any river. Official forecast was that the crest would be near the top of this sea wall—the water on the outside being higher than the portion of the city beyond. Lower view, taken thirteen miles north of Cairo, gives an idea of the disaster. There is water as far as one can see, with only the tops of the houses and barns showing. HOW MOSCOW WORKERS RECEIVED THE NEWS OF SHANGHAT'S FALL News of the fall of Shanghai into the hands of the revolutionary liberation movement of China reached Moscow early in the afternoon of March 21st. The TASS telegraph agency telephoned it to the newspapers and soon the presses were turning out a single-sheet “extra,” printed one side only, sponsored jointly by “Pravda” and “Isvestia.” This may seem quite an or- dinary proceeding in America where any new turn of a racy scandal is greeted with an “extra,” but it is something very much out of the ordinary in Russia, where there are seldom more than one or two in a whole year. The News Spread. Long before the paper appeared on the streets, how- ever, the news had filtered into the city. First of all | it was caught up by the universities, and one such in- stitution, the “Stalin University of the Toiling Peoples of the East,” staged a big street demonstration in front of its building, at which Chinese and Russian speeches and songs alternated. ' After this short program the students and the gathered crowds formed into a parade and marched five abreast to the office building of the Communist International, the world staff of the proletarian revolution. Sun Yat-Sen Students. Here the marchers were greeted by speakers in vari- ous languages, Chinese, English and Russian predomin- ating. Close on their heels came marchers from other schools, prominent among them the Sun Yat-Sen Uni- | versity, bearing proudly the blue velvet flag of the/| Kuomintang side by side with the embroidered red ban- ners of their school. It was not long before the factory whistles of all Moscow were cheering, and as quitting time came the workers, hundreds of thousands of them, formed im- promptu parades and, like the students, marched to the Comintern. Revolutionary Order. Headed by factory-club bands, bearing aloft special streamers and banners with slogans on which the paint was still dripping wet, the workers, men and women, streamed in from all parts of the city, not in any, regu- lar planned parade formation yet maintaining abso- lutely perfect order. From four o’clock until almost midnight the endless detachments of Moscow’s army of workers deployed be- fore their own international headquarters, demonstrat- ing their joy at the great victory of their Chinese fel- low-revolutionaries. And this is only the beginning, every Chinese comrade in Moscow is lionised, workers’ clubs are making gifts and holding innumerable smitchka meetings to show their solidarity with the fighters in the new East. DEFEAT—LAST STATEMENT _ Stand up to glory, soldiers! From this spot. We shall not stir, till bone is torn from bone. The White Guards riddle us with effective shot, And their countless mercenaries bear like stone. Our bones shall break, our nerves from nerves shall sever, We ebb and sink, first of the rebel waves. But armies follow. The dream shall perish never, Stalking in victory through laurels on our graves. Not tomorrow shall the ponderous shells Beat down the people, who press to dawn ahead. Take cheer, O comrades, in these flaming hells, We fashion daybreak! So be happy. So be dead. Behind us, chains, and hovels foul with dirt. Ahead, fair dreams, the cities like the- sun. Oh, shall we cower and yield and taste the quirt? Or go down in full armor, free men every one? Something it is, to die with jaw stuck out, In manly act of driving the bayonet home. On glazing eye fair dreams rise roundabout, And grateful Freedom’s kiss makes sweet the quiet tomb. This is our swan-song, soldiers, Give one stare To sun-like cities smiling on ahead. Then tighten grip on gun-stocks. Close ranks there! Stand up to glory. So be free men. Or be dead. SEND IN YOUR LETTERS The DAILY WORKER is anxious to receive letters from its readers stating their views on the issues con- fronting the labor movement. It is our hope to de- velop a “Letter Box” departn.ent that will be of wide interest to all members of The DAILY WORKER family. TWO-FISTED MUSIC (George Antheil’s “Ballet Mecanique”) Staid and conservative Carnegie Hall received the shock of its life the other night. The respectable ghosts of Bach and Beethoven for one hour writhed in agony in the wings. Mozart spun like a top in his mouldy grave while Wagner grinned sardonically. A revolution had occurred on the stage too. Nothing was arranged as nicely and demurely and as expectedly for a symphony. A futuristic curtain hung in back of the stage; a curtain with gorgeous black and white splashing, screaming all over it. An enormous spark plug hurled its rays in all directions; skyscrapers toppled crazily over one another; the elevator trains zigzagged drunkenly as they do; gigantic wrenches and hammers were striking blows;—in a word Metropolis was there. * * * In its place twelve pianos’ were stretched semi-circularly across the stage. A mechanical piano occupied»the cen- |ter. In the rear was a row of xylophones and bass |drums. Electric bells were there and electric horns and whistles and thunder-making machines and wind makers and wind jammers and aeroplane propellers—peculiar looking apparatus for a concert—all were there. The conductor, lean and somewhat fearful, stepped on the platform and raised his .baton. The audience jammed to the pit was tense, expectant and craving excitement. ‘a riot had occurred, many were hurt and the police had been active’ participants. began, _Trrrrrrr rr r Trrrrrrr—the air drills were biting into | the protesting rock. Rat-a-tat rat-a-tat—iron was being riveted to iron—lustily swung picks dug into the earth. Shhh—there’s the warning bell—get out of the | Way you sons of B- Silence for a while. BANG |—off went a stick of dynamite. Trrrr trrrr the drills | again—Rat-a-tat rat-a-tat rat-a-tat. There’s a heavy |log to be shoved out of the way—PUSH. No lullaby | this. The pianos crashed—out you son of a gun, and ‘the burden was heaved away. Like a fury the me- chanical piano. was being pumped—the subway’s got to | be. finished, the tunnel must be dug. Trrrrr_ trrrrrr | trrrr—rat-a-tat’ rat-a-tat rat-a-tat trrrr. Here comes a -lull—lunch time or dream time, Only the silvery notes of an xylophone sound. Dream—dream of water flashing through green forests; of the yielding earth; of polished pebbles sparkling in the sun. And its quiet so quiet; there is nothing here. * * * Whrrrrr the city again—there’s a fire. Hear the en- gines roar—the howling siren whrrrrr. Put out the fire. Block it. Stop it. The ax. The hose. Ssssss— the water hisses on the flames; see the gray smoke—it’s choking; more pressure—axes—bang put it out, out, out. ‘ All right, it’s out, Night time—work stops? No— damn, no, turn on the lights. Shift changes. Begin. Trrrrrrr trrrrrr trr rat-a-tat rat-a-tat rat-a-tat. Let Fathead Miners Consider What They Are After a Little What in the ’ell do you think you're after, miners? ; Sunshine, play, Shorter hours, more pay. O damn them bolsheviks! Ludlow, Cripple Creek, And a Red Wind blowing from the East. | What, by God, do you think you're after, miners? Happiness, bread, And an uncowed head. O damn them bolsheviks! Masaba Range, Paint Creek, And a Red Wind blowing from the East. Mr. Lewis speaking: 4 That'll do, boys! You mustn’t frighten the boss to death or what'll become of Industrial Co-operation? : What in the ’ell are you after, miners? ~—HENRY GEORGE WEISS. Send i : letter today to “The Letter Box,” The ‘ DAILY WORKER, 39 First street, New York City, | Read The Daily Worker Every Day The orderly symphony orchestra was missing too. | It knew that at a performance in Paris of this concert | The baton fell, and then it all | Lenin. By J. Yaroslavsky. Published by The Daily Worker Publishing Company. 26 cents. Simply written, with every point made illustrated by concrete instances from the life and revolutionary activities of Vladimir Ilyitch Lenin, Comrade Yaroslavsky’s 80-page pamphlet is the best popular work on the world’s greatest revolutionary leader that has been translated into English. There are other pamphlets, notably Comrade Losovsky’s “Lenin and the Trade Unions” and Comrade Stalin’s “Theory and Practice of Leninism,” but they deal either with some particular phase of Comrade Lenin’s writing and work or they are designed for workers who have accepted the Communist program. Without being sentimental, Comrade Yaroslavsky’s pamphlet gives much of the human character of Lenin’s family life and background, American workers, tho alleged to be the most “practical” in the world, will neverthe- less be greatly swayed by such incidents as, quoting Comrade Yaroslavsky: “In 1899, when Lenin was in exile in Siberia, Lenin’s mother went to Petrograd in order to appeal to the director of the depart- ment of police to allow her son to go abroad, or at least to transfer him to Pskov. When the director came out of his room and saw Lenin’s mother, he said to her sneeringly, with all the arrogance and cynicism of a Czarist official: ji “You ought to be proud of your children: one of them has been hanged and the other has the noose around his neck.’ ” (Lenin’s brother, Alexander, had been executed for his work for the revolu- tion.—B. D.) And Lenin’s mother replied with extreme dignity: “ "Yes, I am proud of my children.’ ” Lenin was 23 years old and a Marxist scholar when he began the agita- |tional propaganda and organizational work in the ranks of the working class which the reformists and betrayers of the class struggle point to as evidence of what they are pleased to term his “over-emphasis” on the prac- tical side of the preparation of the working class for the sejzure of power. Forming a “circle,” composed of active workers who had the confidence of the Petrograd masses, Lenin threw himself with all the energy, for which he is famous among revolutionists who are themselves human dynamos, into the labor movement. His first leaflet, written in 1895, dealt with a strike in the Semyanikov factory. Comrade Yaroslavsky—and these two sentences are a fine example of the clear and simple style in which the book is written—says that: “He realized how essential it was to react to every strike that took place, to every expression of discontent, and how important that leaflets should reflect what the workers were concerned with most and the hardships they encountered at every step. From these petty things the workers would gradually begin to understand more profound causes of the difficult conditions of the working class.” It will do much good for workers, especially young workers—and many older ones—who yearn for a chance to acquire glory in the more spectacular struggles of the masses, to study well this portion of Comrade Yaroslavsky’s pamphlet. | It is to be noted that this devotion to the rather monotonous routine of | the class struggle did not hinder but helped Comrade Lenin to better his theoretical equipment, for at this time he wrote gne of his important works: “Who Are the Friends of the People and How Do They Fight Against the Social Democrats?” When Lenin went abroad in 1895 to establish connections with Marxist | groups, he was immediately recognized as the new type of leader the Russian movement had until then failed to produce—a combination of Marxist theo- retician, able to convince not only himself but others, and a master in getting \the best out of any given situation by his ability to mobilize the human ele- ments without which revolutionary activity must of necessity consist of mere phrases or fitter itself away in useless effort. Of Comrade Lenin, Paul Axelrod, then a revolutionist, said: “Until now we have not had in Russia a man who combined the knowledge of Marxian theory with the practical qualities of an or- ganizer. Now we have found such a man: he, Vladimir Ulianov Lenin, is the future leader of the labor movement.” As early as 1902-03 Comrade Lenin began to teach the necessity of the ‘alliance of the working class with the peasantry. When the Mensheviks were overjoyed when the middle class and intelligentsia began to make de- mands upon the government and pointed to them as the natural allies of the | workers. Comrade Lenin exposed the hollowness of this pretension and put | forward the idea of unity of the workers and peasants. The demand for nationalization of the land which Comrade Lenin urged the Stockholm conference to endorse in 1906, was opposed by Plekhanov and others. To their questions: “How can we transfer the land to the state? Suppose the landlords come back?”, Comrade Lenin replied with a dialectical rapier thrust: “We must make every peasant understand that once he has seized the land from the landlords, he must completely reconstruct the state from top to bottom so as to make it impossible for the landlord to return. The government of the country from top to bottom must be a government of the people.” : | Eleven years later Lenin and the Boshevik party of which he was the | leader by virtue of his ability to see everything of importance to the revolu- |tion in its proper perspective and organize to take advantage of every loop- |hole in the capitalist system, demonstrated the practicability of what the | Mensheviks derided as “impossibilism.” . In the revolutionary movement of the United States, perhaps as a sort of reaction to the temptations which prosperous America places before revo- | lutionists, there has grown up a disregard of personal amenities. It may be what psychoanalysts call “over-correction.” Comrade Lenin, merciless to- | ward the capitalist class and the agents of the capitalists in the labor move- ment, was never hard or cold toward his fellow workers, He realized, better than those who try to reconcile a bloodless asceticism with revolutionary ac- tivity, that not only rank and file workers but revolutionists are human beings—human beings subject to all the desires and ills of mankind. Comrade Yaroslavsky says, and this is one of the tenderest passages in a book that in every page breathes tenderness for the memory of the dead leader and comrade, that: “Everybody has observed his great care for the needs of his comrades, and this, too, was the result of Lenin’s simplicity. Everybody knows that he not only knew how to listen to a comrade, but.that he never forgot that it was sometimes necessary TO DO SOMETHING FOR A COMRADE. Everybody who came into close contact with Lenin became aware of this characteristic. I think that at least half an hour of Lenin’s time was spent on an average every day in attending to the needs of some comrade or other, arranging living quarters for him, or, if he were sick, for medical attention, He insisted that we should look after the health of comrades who had broken down, he was always sending some comrade off for a rest or to feed up, or arranging cures for comrades who were suffering from overwork ‘and fatigue. He overworked himself in the care of others, but he appeared to do so without strain or difficulty.” (Emphasis mine.) This very simplicity and concern for others made possible the attack on |him by ‘the counter-revolutionist Kaplan who shot him three times with poisoned dumdum bullets, but the powerful constitution, which his frugal bbderes of living had developed, enabled him to recover—altho not com- pletely. f The simplicity of Lenin, however, was not a humanitarian but a political simplicity. Molded into the working class theoretically and organically, Lenin placed the fullest confidence in workers. It was: Lenin who formulated the now famous reply to the Mensheviks when the discussion arose at the 1903 congress over the social composition and discipline of the revolutionary party. When these elements, protesting against the proposed rule that a revolutionary party should be composed of revolutionists who worked at the trade of revolution, asked: “But what about people like professors and col- lege students? Do you insist that these personally take part in the of the party organization?”, the Bolsheviks replied: many working men as possible, who will join the party. and work in it fas party aitcget Fi After all, revolutions are made by simple peopl ; like “peace, bread and land.” sbemmsnrens satan. 03 b ioep No worker who reads Comrade Yaroslavsky’s book but will feel a great | and renewed pride in his class and a more intimate knowledge and admira- \tion for the great and simple Vladimir Ilyitch, who led the proletarian and peasant armies to victory in a country embracing one-sixth of the earth’s surface. The principal reasons which make unshakable the loyalty of the masses in the Soviet Union to the Hammer and Sickle on its background of crimson are simply set forth in Comrade Yaroslavsky’s work. A great and simple book about a great and simple revolutionist, whose na Paied and directness confounded the diplomats and generals of world capitalism. i BILL DUNNE. | work “We will do without professors and college students; let us have wi 5 :