The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 28, 1927, Page 4

Page Four THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1927 THE DAILY WORKER Published by tie DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. Daily, Except Sunday 83 First Street, New York, N. Y. SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (in New York only): By mail (outside of New York): §8.00 per year $4.50 six months °6.00 per year $3.50 six months $2.60 three months $2.00 three months Phone, Orchard 1680 Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. J. LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F. DUNNE BERT MILLER Entered as second-class rail at the: post-office at New York, N. Y., under | the act of March 8, 1879, | | carried on to familiarize the workers | ganizer of that party. By H. M. WICKS. similarity between phenomena, but NDER the above heading there ap-/| also detect the differences. To a very peared a letter in Tuesday’s issue | Slight degree there is a similarity be- of The DAILY WORKER, written by | tween the role of Ruthenberg as the S. Richarts, one of -our readers, in| leader of the Workers’ (Communist which he criticises us for what he| Party and the role of Debs ‘as the al- calls our “continual glorification of |leged leader of the socialist party, Ruthenberg.” The correspondent | | grows almost delirious when he con-| Debs’ as leader, In no sense was he templates the campaign that is being| ever the political leader or the or- Its real lea- with the role of Comrade Ruthenberg| ders were the Hillquits, the Bergers, in the labor movement of this coun-|the Abe Cahans, who used Debs as — Communists, Socialists and Hero Worship First, let us consider the role of | try and of the world, Says the indignant Richarts: “It would be all right for sob- a Advertising rates on application.) sisters, a religious sect, Messiah = eabeeemeniegeees oo —=='| peddlers and the like—but for B grown-up scientifically-minded peo- | ple, for non-hero-worshipping revo- A Labor Party Should Be the Reply to Supreme Court’s lutionists, it is absolutely the bunk. ' Anti-Union Decision. The Supreme court decision in the Bedford Cut Stone Com-} pany case, outlawing the ordinary activities of labor unions, has | as the only good feature about it the fact that it has unmasked | a labor officialdom which has been basing its policy upon a theory —which it may or may not believe—that there are no classes in the United States. By its decision the Supreme court has shown to anyone will-| ing to be convinced that it is an agency of American capitalism. | it has kicked into the ashean the whole worker-employer co-oper- | ation-policy of labor officialdom. The Greens, Wolls, and Lewises have been telling the organ-| ized workers to be good, to stop fighting with the boss, to inter-| est themselves in increasing production, to turn their unions into efficiency organs and arbitration instruments. The Supreme court comes along and tells the trade unions that they have no right to do anything that interferes with the profits of the capitalists. Apparently the Supreme court had not heard that under the leadership of Green, Woll and Lewis the unions were really working to increase the profits of the cap- italists. The usual formal protests and promises of great efforts to be made have emanated from official labor circles, but no serious proposal for united struggle againgt the decision and the forces which lie behind it have been made. Nor will such proposals be made. There will be appeals of course to so-called progressive democrat and republican congress- men and senators and probably some legislation advocated, But labor officialdom will not do what was done in Great Britain when the Taff Vale decision outlawed labor unions—begin the organiza- tion of a political party of labor. There are two ways of replying to the Supreme Court decision | —by mass resistance to its provisions and by the establish- ment of a labor party allied with the farmers which will, first by the fact of its existence and second by its activity, draw the cor- reet conclusions from the Bedford Company decision—that is, that the workers and farmers of America must fight as a class against the robbing and ruling class which the Supreme court represents. Callies: and. Kells dire: Mabing War oo Cie—Sieg Joint bombardment of Chinese cities by American and Bri- tish warships continues. The excuses given for these atrocities are of the most puerile character and, since there is firing across the Yangtse river by the Nationalist and the militarist armies, and British and American ships are in between, there are always stray bullets to be dodged by the fearless. Yanks and Britons protected by the steel walls of their armored ships. These wat vessels have no more right to be in the Yangtse than a Chinese fleet has to sail -up the Mississippi and fire in- discriminately into the cities on its banks. These aggressions are becoming more frequent. Step by step the United States is making war upon the Chinese liberation | movement. who own and direct them, dare not make public their real plans. Never in the history of the United States, not even at the time when Wilsonian phrases intoxicated millions with a mad blood lust, has there been a more hypocrital policy’ followed in American government. In all the welter of civil war that has found the imperialists financing and encouraging the bandit chiefs and militarists who have burned, murdered and raped, one American has been killed. Even the usual imperialist slogan of “protecting lives and property” has had no basis in fact since no American property | has been confiscated. But American warships cruise up and down the Yangtse, they have bombarded and murdered hundreds in Nanking and they are working hand in hand with the other powers. Coolidge and Kellogg lie when they say that their attitude toward China is a friendly one. The roar of the guns in the Yangtse and the shells bursting over the cities, towns and villages along its shores give these two procurers of mass murder the lie. The American workers and farmers must know that Coolidge and Kellogg are plotting war and making war. From this knowledge will follow action. There is not a single| worker or farmer in the United States who wants to aid in the slaughter of Chinese workers, peasants and students who fight against foreign domination. There is not a single worker, member of a union or not, who wants to aid in smashing the Chinese trade unions so that native and foreign robbers can have easy pickings. Yet these are exactly the things that Coolidge and Kellogg, by using the armed forces of the United States without authoriza- tion from any source that has legal standing, are doing in China. They have the blood of Chinese workers and peasants on their hands already. They must be allowed to shed no more. Let Coolidge and Kellogg know that William Green of the American Federation of Labor does not speak for the masses of American workers when he approves the Coolidge-Kellogg policy. Away with this state department—Civic Federation leadership of the American labor movement. ; not help our cause. | movement, It is like the socialist party slop } about Debs—“Though Jailed He Speaketh.” The socialist party has. “lost its heart and soul and is forced to sustain itself with legends about the purity, etc, of the Messiah Debs. “This sort of thing has not helped the socialist party. It will Childish hero- worshipping antics amuse outsiders. “This letter is not meant to de- tract from the services that Com- rade Ruthernberg rendered to the He played his part gallantly and loyally, But is The DAILY WORKER so _ poverty- stricken ideologically that it must work itself into a religious frenzy over his death?” * * x the beginning of his letter Mr. Richarts informs us that he is a * |a campaign standard-bearer for their |Party because, for obvious reasons, ‘none of the real leaders could func- | tion in that capacity. His virtues as |a working class leader were utilized |to cloak the utter poverty of the so- jcialist leaders, Naturally, in such | circumstances, they had to create and | perpetuate the Debs myth, which |smacked strongly of religiosity. In | criticising the socialist party for the |Debs myth our reader is on solid |ground. It requires but little per- |eeption to detect the socialist fraud. Now, let us consider the role of Ruthenberg. Was he the idol for | political manipulators back of the |scene? Did he absent himself from the Party conventions when there was a conflict over policy as did |Debs? Did he austerely stand aloof |from and above the conflict? Every- {one knows he did not. Even as far back as 1912, at the | Indianapolis convention of the social- \ist party, when the Hillquit-Berger- Job Harriman-Stitt Wilson combina- | tion put through the notorious Article | II, section 6—a convention from which | Debs absented himself during the de- | bates on the question—Ruthenberg, a reader of our paper and is a Com-| young man in the movement, fought munist, but that he is not a Party member. We will not quarrel at this {time with our correspondent over that peculiar type that claims to ac- cept Communism in theory, but re- frains from action by away from the Party, except to state that one cannot be a Communist and neglect the first and most obvious duty of a Communist—that is, to join and support and accept the discipline of the Party. Communism is not a dead dogina, but a synthesis of revo- lutionary theory and action. To pro- | fess to accept the theory and remain away from the party is sectarianism, unscientific and therefore anti-Lenin- ist; it also smacks of religiosity, in | spite of our reader’s protests to the contrary, because it presupposes that Marxism is something that can be | divided into two parts (theory and | practice). One who fails to realize | that Marxism cannot be separated in- | to two parts does not understand dialectic materialism, hence is quite | likely to fall into precisely the errors that impelled our reader to upbraid jus for what he imagines to be our | own shortcomings, when in reality the ficial outlook upon the revolutionary movement. $2 eo he ERTAINLY one who cannot dis- tinguish between the Ruthenberg campaign of the Party and what he \calls “the socialist party slop about Debs” cannot be credited with any pronounced erudition in the realm of dialectics, where one. must not only be able to estimate correctly the remaining | fault is to be found in his own super- | ‘against the conspiracy to railroad out |of the party. those militant elements |around William D. Haywood, who led} |the losing fight against the yellow | element. | Louis emergency convention, it was | Ruthenberg who played the outstand- ing role in formulating the party pro- gram against the imperialist war. It jwas also Ruthenberg who was first | to defy the courts when the draft act {was signed by Morgan’s president, Wilson, and to go to jail for it. When the socialist party leaders en- deavored to maintain control of the | party after they had been defeated by | their own membership and had forced | the lit, it was Ruthenberg who be- came the first secretary of the young {Communist Party. He was the one joutstanding national figure among | the older national leaders of the so- |cialist party who travelled the road |}to revolution instead of sinking in- |to the swamp of reaction with the Bergers and Hillquits. In the long travail of building a Communist Party in this, the .most powerful citadel of imperialism on earth, Ruthenberg remained the out- standing leader, the unifying force among the conflicting elements that arose then of necessity and must arise during such transition periods. To the day of his death he oceupied the position of Party leader. es es a our campaign to popularize the Party among the masses by rela- ting the life and achievements of Comrade Ruthenberg we do not in- | | Then, five years later, at the St.) It is making war without declaring its intention and} this is evidence that Coolidge and Kellogg, and the imperialists | Fascism In City Hall Plaza The democratic mayor of New York City certainly displayed his respect for democracy Monday when he welcomed the agent of the detestable fascist government, Francesco de Pinedo, to the city. De Pinedo is one of the flock of aviators that Mussolini |sends to various parts of the world for propaganda purposes. |The city hall plaza looked like a bandit retreat as some two hun- | dred black-shirted plug-uglies stood in military formation while |De Pinedo posed on the city hall steps with Tammany’s Broad- | way butterfly mayor, Jimmy Walker. | Elaborate preparations were made by the police and other | officials to see that this agent of the foulest regime on the face |of the earth was unmolested by anti-fascist elements during his stay in the city. In the morning the bomb squad detectives visited the headquarters of the Workers (Communist) Party and searched everyone in the building and informed the Italian mem- bers that they would not be permitted to leave the building until after 4:30 in the afternoon (after De Pinedo had been welcomed by Walker). The threat to telephone in order to obtain legal aid caused the bomb-squadders to leave without carrying out their threat to hold the Italian enemies of fascism prisoners in their own rooms until after the city hall performance. The fascist aviator was well protected by cordons of police and government agents, and his reception was such.that-he de- clared that he believes “New York is the best fascist city in the world.” What has Al Smith, the real head of Tammany Hall, to say to this? Has anyone heard of Secretary of State Kellogg objecting to the presence in this country of a fascis!; organizer and agitator, whose hands drip with the blood of the Italian working masses? Do we hear any objections from patriotic societies and other defenders of the faith about the activities of this agent of fascist dictatorship ? pe Not a whimper! ' Which proves conclusively that the pretended respect for democracy on the part of the political agents of capitalism—re- publican and democrat alike—is as fraudulent as is their demo- cracy itself. It proves that the government’s objection to the representa- Send in from every local union, fraternal benefit society and}tives of the Soviet Union is not because there is a dictatorship co-operative the demand for immediate withdrawal of all armed forées from China. Let Washington know that we of the Ameri- can working class have no quarrel with the Chinese ‘masses and that we will not be a party to a conspiracy which, beginning with war on them, threatens to engulf the whole world in a bloody struggle to which the world war was child's play. War is being waged against China. Stop it. in Russia, but because it is a proletarian and not a capitalist dic- tatorship; it objects because it is a dictatorship that is at the same time a thousand times more democratic than the demo- cratic republic of the United States and because it represents the majority of the'people of that country, while the fascist dictator- ship is That of a minerity and far closer to the brand of Wall Street dictatorship here that is defended alike by Smith and Walker, Coolidge and Kellogg. dulge in myth-making, nor do we use | the language of the religionist or the | sentimentalist. On the contrary, we| depict his life and his contributions | {to the revolution precisely as they | |were. The reason we emphasize his | life is not because we conside~ him | a Messiah or because he was in- | fallible, but we declare, without fear of successful contradiction, that Com- | | rade Ruthenberg was the personifica- | | tion of the highest development of the | | revolutionary movement in this coun- try. To familiarize the working | |masses with the life and struggles and sacrifices of Ruthenberg is to | dramatize for them the last two de- cades of labor history in this»coun- | try. He represented the best in the} pre-war days and the “best in the | days of black reaction after the war.| | We want the workers of America | to realize that this is the beginning | |of a new era; that Ruthenberg was |the outstanding figure in the new! |leadership of labor of this era, the, era of the breakdown of capitalism | jand the proletarian revolution. We) | want them to understand the differ- | jence between the era of DeLeon, | | Powderly, Gompers and Debs—other | |leaders who have passed within the {past few years—and the present | time. | In this campaign there is no re- religious mummery, no |tales of sentimental drivelling, no/| |messianic dithyrambics such as the| |socialist party bestows upon Debs.| | And indeed one suffers from a most | | pathetic form of political myopia who cannot perceive the difference be- tween the socialist party hero .wor- ship of Debs and the Ruthenberg | campaign of the Workers’ (Com-| munist) Party. * sickening | _ + (OR is it un-Marxism. to recognize \°" the fact that individuals. in their |own lives and achievements frequently | personify a definite class or a class | tendency. It is only the most absurdly mechanical perverters of Marx who | belittle the role of individuals in mak- ling .history. It is a part and parcel of that same bourgeois delusion that frequently raises its head and clamor- ously criticises Communist writers and speakers for “attacking individuals” ‘instead of talking “theory and “eco- nomics.” Men, it is true are puppets of history, products of their environ-| ment, but they also, as Marx ob-| served, make history, and revolution- ists are charged not only -with un- |ravelling the mysteries of the past, | but of utilizing that understanding to | imake history better than it was ever) made before. Can anyone read that| magnificent product of historical | materialism “The Eighteenth Brum-| aire of Louis Bonaparte” penned by | Marx, in which he erected a monu-| ment of shame to that impostor, and/ not perceive how one individual can! personify a class in society? Marx excoriate Palmertson in his “Eastern Question” because he be- lieved in the great man theory? Was it mere rhetoric when he denounced Thiers in his “Civil War in France,” as the most consummate personifica- tion of the corruption of the class he| served? Likewise, would our indignant | reader condemn Frederick Engels for his estimation of Marx as the great- est genius of the past century? Was Lenin indulging in yapid sentimental- ism when, in 1917, he praised Karl Liebknecht as the foremost leader of the working class in Europe and the embodiment of the struggle against imperialist war? The list could be indefinitely continued to prove that all Marxian revolutionary leaders have fully recognized the dialectical connection between the individual and the historical movement, ip ie T° refrain from depicting the role of the individual and to neglect to popularize the work of an individual who embodied as did Ruthenberg the revolutionary movement in the United States would be not only inexcusable stupidity, but a crime against the international Communist movement, To criticise us for popularizing the life and work of Ruthenberg in order that masses of workers may come to know of our party and {ts history is anti-Marxism. It is a part and parcel of that didactic, empty, spurious Marxism that abjures all reference to individuals and that dwells only in the realm of obstractions. Will Rogers Aids Poor Farmers. “The poorest people we have in America, the renter farmers” were referred to by Will Rogers in his’ wire to the NewYork Times, Tuesday. Many of this class, one of the most exploited under American capitalism, are flood sufferers in the Mississippi valley. “Most of the people need help even when there is no flood,” Rogers ad- mits. He will stage a benefit for them #6 rad ZiegTeld theatre next Sunday night. Bankers Dole Out Prizes. Blood money offered by Nassau County benkers for the arrest and conviction of the robbers of the First National Bank of Bellmore, L. I. was split yesterday among a dozen claim- ants, A private dick got $2,250 of the $6,000. $80 For Sustaining Fund. LUZERNE, Pa., April 27.—LKighty dollars for The DAILY WORKER Sustaining Fund has been collected here by Frank Vratarick, which has been sent to New York. BUY THE DAILY WORKER od, the Enemy Paul Green’s Revolts Against the Tyrant of the ; Southern Farmer Reviewed By HARBOR ALLEN For one and a hajf acts “The DOROTHY SANDS Field God,” by Paul Green, at the | Greenwich Village Theatre, is a beautiful and honest play. Then softness creeps in, the same watery, poetic mysticism that marred “In Abraham’s Bosom” by this young Southerner. Paul Green seems un- able to face his characters when they hit the core of their tragedies. He turns their eyes heavenward and shoves a few lyrics in their mouths. Still, of the newer American play- wrights he’s as good as the best; and there are scenes in “The Field God” which glow as nothing I have seen this year in New York. Fight God. Sitting on his porch step in North Carolina, Hardy Gilchrist and Neill Sykes are waiting for the arrival of Rhonda Campbell from Durham. Hardy is a titan of a man, rugged, fearless, afraid of neither God nor man. His wife, Etta, weak, old, God- | ridden, is lead around his neck. Etta comes, young, alive, loving the soil, strong like Hardy, like him scornful of the “just” God who has created the idots of the neighborhood, burned the farmer’s crops, killed their cat- tle, ground them spiritless, feeble. Idiots, drudges, burned-out farmers, gossips, preachers, slaves; a gallery Now playing in the Neighborhood Playhouse Bill of Lyric Drama at their little theatre on Grand Street. daring in the hands of a Southerner, Here is revolt against the iron piety of the South. God is the enemy, cries Paul Green; God is a tyrant, vicious and mean and muddle-headed, robbing us of our strength, cheating us of our | of characters worthy of a Chekov or |a Dostoyevsky drift across the stage, jall sprung from the soil, speaking fan earthy language. Theirs is real | poetry. The glossy words Paul Green | pulls out of the mouths of his leading | characters in the final scenes is fake | poetry. | Hardy, in love with Rhoda, frozen {by the withered piety of his wife, sets out to fight the. greedy God of. {his fellowmen. - Etta dies cursing |him. Neill goes bad and kills him- | self. Hardy’s hogs die of cholera. His neighbors shun him, His barn is jburned by lightning. When he faith in ‘man, in life. . Except for the end where Hardy rants in blank verse about “the inner light,” this revolt is a roaring song, full of rich peasant poetry, full of yearning for the soil, full of the warmth of animal and ‘human life. With this material, once | he hits his stride, watch. Paul Green |kick up dust. Meanwhile, help his | plays keep alive. | Ben Smith does a lovely study of the farm boy Neill. Fritz Leiber is fine when he isn’t posing. But the \girl, Ruth Mason, is a_ painful amateur. | {marries Rhoda, new miseries rip at} him: a puny baby, church folk who! call him murderer, who beg him to save them from the boll weavel and the cholera by “repenting.” At last Hardy is broken. He rushes out in a storm to meet God face to face, to learn which is the stronger man. God wants revenge—blood for blood. A Daring Southerner. While he is gone, the baby dies. So that’s the kind of God he is, afraid of the strong, avenging himself on the weak, the innocent! Hardy’s faith in himBelf is restored. He and Did| Rhoda will go on fighting this God’ June —and whipping him, “To a radical this may seem old AMUSEMENTS, Margaret Anglin, exponent of the Greek drama, will appear in two special performances of the “Elec- tra” of Sophocles in the Metropolitan Opera House on May 3rd and May 4th. Maurice Schwartz is planning a tour of the Yiddish Art Players fol- lowing the close of their season here 1. Philadelphia, Cincinnati, | Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit and | Buffalo will be visited by the organi- | stuff. But you mustn’t belittle its ‘zation. | Theatre Guild Acting Company in | MADISON SQUARE GARDEN | _ THE SECOND MAN sag) 2WICE DAILY, 2 P.M& 8 P.M. cae Mate ia. and ‘Sat. 28 RINGLING BROS. CIRCUS at Week Pemealian on T 4 RNUM & BAIL’ RIGHT YOU ARE a rene GARRICK Sats. ‘Thurs, and’ Sat Next Week—Mr. Pin Passes By | | { | | | | THE SILVER CORD \Cirele 5678. Th.,b8, Fuof B'y ‘Joh: John Golden iter e sac] Next Week—Ned McCobb’s Da‘ WALLACK'S Weseonttes Mats. Tues. Wed., Thurs, and Sat. What Anne Brought Hom A New Comedy Drama pt Vanities y Thea., 7th Aye. & 50th St. Karl Carroll Sate tiuay's Sboth St, EAA age. sR egret MARTIN BECK THEATRE, 45 St. vs, 8:30. Mats. Wed. and Sat. JED HARRIS Presents a Drama ‘SPREAD EAGLE’ BE SURE TO GET THE ‘SPECIAL ISSUE, MAY FIRST ‘| TIMES SQ. among 10,000 Marvels PAWAH SACRED WHITE ELEPHANT TICKETS at GARDEN BOX OFFICES 8th Ave. and 49th St., and Gimbel Bros, Neighborhood Playhouse 466 Grand St. . Drydock 7516 Every Eve. (except Mon.) Mat. Sat. ill of Lyric Drama ivic Repertory oor € Av. & 14 8 Civic Repertory Fei fyatcits ten EVA LE GALLIENNE Tonight .. “John Gabriel Borkman” Tomorrow “LA LOCANDIBRA” Bronx ; 149th = Stree’ Opera House j3°¢? 2,5°N¢ Pop. Prices. Mat. Wed. & Sat. “ON APPROVAL” The Comedy Success CRIME Morrim. Thea. W. 42 St. MONTH Now in its 6th WALDORF, t Bwar, 50th St, East of ED, and SAT. Mats. W: ‘These’ Comrades Responded Goretzky; N. Y. C... . Gaumberg; Charleston, -Coless N.Y. Coo csyss . G, Arness; Pequet, Minn R. Camker; Los Angeles, Cal... 10.25 J. Bonzar; Utica, N, Y. K. Pultor; Findlen, M J. Lawrie; Seattle, Wash. A. J. Young; Mt, Vernon, Wash H. Leff; N. Y. C. H, Levine; Chicago, Tl, M. Tassman; Bronx, N, W. Heyden; Bronx, N. Y B. Robins; N. Y. C. J. Mares; N. Y. C. Finnish Work. So.; N. Y. C. J, C, Taylor; Oakland, C Kirkgaard; Chicago, I M. Marks; N. Y. C., B. Cole: N. Y. ©. A A. J. Latin; Detroit, Mich. . G. Molnar; N.Y. C... A. Nogine; Winchester, N. H. C. Bayles; San Jose, Cal G, Sinko; Kenosha, Wis N. Borich; Wilkes Barre, H. Schmies;. Detroit, Mich. R. Schreiber; N.Y. C... M. Kushinsky; Coney Is., N. Y. H. McKierman; ,Bklyn, N. Y. A. Dunkefelt; Detroit, Mich M. Spongati; N. Y. C. 8. Halpern; a J. Booker; Bronx, ’ H, Rappoport; Bronx, N. Y, A. Kanotla; Superior, Wis. . B. Pankevich; Haverhill, Mass Bishop W. M. Brown; Galion, 0 M. Tassman; Bronx, N. Y.. ‘ M. Barabosoff: Cleveland, 0!