The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 12, 1927, Page 7

(GS ARES Shia ee | . Adifferent Saxon. pretty Jewish girl who boarded the train somewhere in Holland fBured me that Russia was a good face to keep away from and she was ble to marshal some damning facts 1 proof of her contention. Her uncle once owned a medical tory in Leningrad. This was in days of the Czar. Today he is at an employe in the same institu- |< were on our way to Berlin and & is the custom in situ@tions like fat people talk to each other to kill e. If you are a one hundred per t American and cannot communi- with a fellow mortal in any lan- age except the American deviation B ke English tongue, you will cer- Binly welcome conversation even in 'I was going to Russia. What kind if a country was it? Did the revolu- fon make any real change in the Jeoples’ mode of living? Did the peo- dle live “better than before? Are they eating more? The little Jewish girl who was trav- ling from Amsterdam to Berlin did tot like Soviet Russia because the government favored. the workers too much, In the old days those who had foney could have a good time and bnjoy life. Nowadays it is not con- idered “good form” to live riotously nd uselessly. I was informed that the Jewish masses were better off ander the new dispensation than un- der the old, but that the rich Jews were out of tucls This little Jewish girl was shed- ding real tears over the death of her other in Amsterdam and she was turning to Berlin where she worked in a theatré as a piano player. She was opposed to the Soviet regime be- cause she did not know better. It is easy to meet such people on any transcontinental train. It is also easy to meet others who know better and hate the Soviet Union quite class- consciously. Their hate is so bitter ‘that the mention of “Leningrad” has |them grinding their teeth and only |the more liberal of the white Russian |emigres will stand for anything more modern than St. Petersburg. Yes, Russia is a bad place for the zich Jew nowadays, the fair traveler ‘believed, but the Jewish workers had 8 better time than under the Czar. When I remarked that rich people, regardless of race, usually get along alright in countries where govern- ments are based on property owner- ship she readily agreed. I finally got as far as Riga, after passing thru two little countries and a half, since leaving Berlin. The half is the Danzig corridor, which is Po- land’s road to the Baltic, Plenty of officers on the train. Plenty of uniforms everywhere. Plen- ty of bayonets at every frontier. At the railway station in Latvia, an American traveler rose from his seat in the dining car-and looked thru | a window at a gatdily dressed per- son who stood with an air of author- ity on the platform. | “He must be commander of the garrison or the chief of police,” he remarked, turning to me. “Not a bit of it,” I replied; “he is tho stationmaster. The chief of police 1 around here would wear a crown and: the mayor would not even walk in such plebian surroundings. He would be carried in a curtained litter.” Money seems to be. very plentiful in Lithuania and Latvia but it does not seem to be much good. Being con- fused by the constant changes in the currency, I trusted to the general integrity of the public servants and took what I got in exchange for what I gave. An American dollar is almost sure to find its way into a thrifty sock in most. European countries and this is so of Lithuania and Latvia. These are known as “potato repub- lies.” Lithuania has the same religion as [reland, tho tubers do not seem to bea decisive factor in determin- ing religion, as Latvia is Lutheran. It takes several gorgeously dressed officers to inspect passports and sev- eral others to fondle the baggage. 1 will never forget the look of disgust on the face a Latvian customs man who ransackea my grip for a box of cigars and went away empty handed. Portfolios ana portable typewriters séem to be above suspicion. Indeed, a journaiist is considered quite a fel- low on the continent of Europe and ' 3 even tolerated in England. Americans seem to think that jour- nalists\, are natural-born liars and treat them accordingly, while Euro- peans think the art of lying is no mean accomplishment, putting jour- nalists and statesmen in the same classification. As a result of this different way of looking at the same thing European journalists fare well except in countries where the cur- rency is good for anything except guessing at what it will be tomorrow. In such countries nobody fares well but the bankers who make their own money. So, when you decide to take that European trip, bring your typewriter along and your brief case, and if you intend to visit London, let your hair grow and walk hatless with long strides down Fleet Street and you will be mistaken for a duke who has joined the Labor Party, on his way to the Cheshire Cheese to hear the famous parrot say funny things about the Prince of Wales. We aré in'the station. The train to the U. S. S. R. will leave in a few hours. The restaurant looks inviting. A porter grabs your baggage and promises to kéep an eye on it. Sus- . « picious-looking characters hover ! around the restaurant. Perhaps they até the journalists that invent the fairy tales about.Soviet Russia. There | are plenty of white guardist papers | on the newsstands but no papers from | the, Soviet Union. Women sit pa- tiently at tables, faces painted. They gaze with a look of infinite patience | at the travelers. Perhaps things were | better in the old days when Czarist officers traveled back and forth this way-- From what I heard those Rus- sian nobles threw some wild parties. Earl Carroll’s little “tale of a tub” was as ginger ale is to champagne compared té the sprees that impe- THE DATLY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1927 “Paige Seren traveler who could speak half a doz- en languages including the almost un- known English, that the reception was for two French delegates from the French railwaymen’s union who were on their way to Moscow to at- tend a convention of Russian rail- way workers. The Frenchmen were paragons of sartorial perfection and the hands with which they drove home the points of their arguments were equal- ly eloquent in twisting the tapering ends of their mustaches. They har- angued the crowd in French and the linquist who accompanied them did the right thing by their speeches in A Russian Peasant. rial Russia’s dashing nobility indulged in, Finally there is a hurrying and a scurrying and my porter grabbed my baggage and off we go. “Mowskwa,” he said. I nodded assent, which was the only language.-I could converse in with appreciable results around here. He seemed to glow with pride at the word. But when I unloaded a few kilograms of Latvian and Lithuanian | coinage into his palm, he uttered a series of noises that did not sound pleasant to my ears. Perhaps he was thanking me. And perhaps I| had given him a nickel in American | money. However, I was on board a train | for the Workers’ Republic and I was happy, ‘tho cold and sleepy. H A uniformless steward wrestled with my language but I finally suc- ceeded making him understand that I ‘would have some bed clothes even if the luxury cost a ruble and | a half, Pinally wrapped up in warm | blankets I put the capitalist world | behind me for the time being as the train pulled out silently for Moscow. Up for breakfast, I noticed a pauc- ity of Witskers on the train. I also noticed that the passengers carried towels on their shoulders and soap in their hands, The vaudeville joke on the alleged aversion of Russians to goap proved to be like most other jokes, the reverse of the facts. Toilet facilities were not up to the standard of an American Pullman but the din- ing car was superior, even discount-| _ ing the .presence of wine, beer and spirits on each table. So to break- fast. We are still passing thru capitalist territory. Snow, snow everywhere, and more,coming. We reach the bor- der that,.separates Latvia from the Soviet Union. Red soldiers in long grey overcoats carrying dangerous- looking rifles are evident. Porters rush into the trajn and depart with the passengers’ baggage. Another customs inspection! If anybody can sneak a dutiable article into Soviet Russia unknown to those argus-eyed officials, such aj} person could demonstrate that spirit rapping is real. There is no hurry about the business but things get done and after several pockets get hit in the solar plexus the train starts up again. There is as much snow here as there is on the other side of the border but otherwise things are not the same. We come to a village. The train slows down and stops. There is a big crowd of peasants, workers and soldiers outside, young and old carry- ing an assortment of banners. A band is playing revolutionary airs. The people are singing. Little boys are perched on trees and trying to outshout their elders. The sleeping- car student puts on his cap and over- coat and joins in the demonstration. the band played a bar of the “Inter- | |nationale,” at which the red soldiers | |stood at attention. } | As soon as the last cheer left the \throats of the gathering, the train sped on its way and in course of time we arrived in the Eternal City of the working class—Moscow. Here we are besieged by an army | of drosky and taxi drivers, the latter | being in the minority. Drosky drivers are by no means communicative or talkative except when they are fight- ing for a fare, bargaining for the | price or seducing a tip out of a pas- senger. An American woman—at least a New Yorker—who understoda™ the Russian language took pity on me ing the enemy. A go-getting taxi drixer finally convinced us that his mode of conveyance was speedy and safe so we surrendered. It was a sea- going hack of ancient vintage. It took two able-bodied seamen to man it. Our scanty baggage was piled into the vehicle, and the young man who sold us the ride gave orders to the chauffeur to proceed. . The weather was bitterly cold. For- tunately there was no wind and over- head the sky was clear and blue. | Posters advertising the appearance of Harold Lloyd and other well- know American movie celebrities met one on every corner., Trolleys passed crowded to the doors. How like the United States! A traffic policeman held up his little red club and our rattler came to a halt. My New York acquain- tance looked around and remarked that the person with a portfolio who stood waiting for a car reminded her of so and so in New York some years ago. As if bitten by a telepathic bug the person ~mentioned turned around and suddenly leaped on our running board, inflicting several smackers on my fellow passenger. This is the most popular form of salutation in Russia. Their contempt for itinerant germs is only surpassed Re! their hatred of the capitalist sys- m, The taxi driver managed to take us to the: wrong address just as would happen to one in New York, provided the driver knew you landed from a trans-Atlantic liner and suspected you were a stranger in the city. By the time our dilapidated flivver shook us out of its system at our destina- tion he had managed to shake several rubles more than he had a right to out of our pockets. (To Be Continued) A Word in Passing WHEN PEOPLE meet in Union Square. TO VOICE their pleas for the granting. OF LIFE to. TWO MARTYRS who died for the cause. OF LABOR. FAT CAPITALISTS win the assistance. OF OUR POLICEMEN who club down. THEIR BROTHER PROLETARIANS. TO MUFFLE their voices. And. WHAT do these blue-coated laborers. PUPPETS OF THE POWERS that be, do but. MUFFLE THEIR OWN chances for freedom. UNIFORMS do not make aristocrats. OF PLEBIANS. OUR FINEST (?) are born. OF HUMBLE suffering forefathers. WHOSE GREAT DESIRES probably were. TO SEE THEIR SONS happy men. AMONG MEN. BUT WHO FOUND that it was for lords. TO WHOM THEY DID NOT PRAY. TO DECIDE what their sons would be. So. THEY HAVE BECOME armed destroyers. OF THE IDEALS of their forbears. AND THIS the blue-coated ones SHOULD BE TOLD. I do not thank you, —TRAAL THAISIS. A Spee | collaboration ever written. RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP By Wm. Z, Foster 89 East 125th Street I inquired what the shouting was about and was informed by a fellow | Wrecking the Labor Banks By WM. Z. FOSTER Tiwe Collapse of the Labor Banks and Investment Companies of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Here is a record of trade union treachery without equal in American Labor history. It is a story of crooked leadership; disas- trous policies; looting of the treasury ; rifling the union insurance funds and pension | money. A most astounding account of events that ' nearly wrecked one of the great American trade unions | and resulted in the loss of over twenty million dollars | from the funds of the railroad workers. The story is | written from authentic documents and official records | -of the Engineers’ convention which lasted for seven weeks. ‘Wrecking the Labor Banks” stands out as one of the most dramatic exposures of the dangers of class 25 CENTS Send one dollar for five copies THE WORKERS LIBRARY PUBLISHERS THE WATSON-PARKER LAW By Wm. Z. Foster .. AS New York, N. Y. and jointly we succeeded in defeat- | |; with a purpose. It Jays the basis for him to say some- thing kindly about Bolshevism; that is that the Oom- — Visit to the Soviet Union , Russian. At the end of every speech | | BOOK R EVIEWS Re A FABIAN MUDDLEHEAD WRITES ON COMMUNISM. COMMUNISM. By Harold J. Laski. Co. $1. A PROFESSOR of political science in the University of London has written a contribution to Henry Holt and Company’s “Home University of Modern Knowl- edge” a book on “Communism,” which is one more fu- tile attempt of the intellectual scavengers of capitalism to ridicule the revolution andj particularly its theoretical founder, Karl Marx. Harold J. Laski contributes nothing new in his book as far as criticism of Marx goes. He merely repeats the old wheezes of the Austrian school, perverted and vul- garized, to lay the theoretical basis for an attack upon Bolshevism and the Communist International. Like all apostles of fabianism this professor begins with what he arrogantly imagines to be a refutation of | Marxian economics. Laski states that the economic , system of Marx is “in no small degree self-contradic- tory,” and then proceeds to the most flippant and vapid criticism. He tries to refute the fact that the amount of socially necessary labor-time required to reproduce a commodity determines its value and asks why it is that certain things have value that required little, if any, labor to produce. On page 96 of his book Laski says the Mafkian theory of value “hardly explains, with- out strain, exceptional cases, like a First Folio of Shakes- peare, or a precious stone discovered by chance.” This argument is so ancient that history does not record who | first presented it, but every nincompoop who started an anti-Marxist crusade has repeated it in one form or another, We will blast that to start with and then proceed to other imbecilities of the author. In the first place Shakespeare was not a wage-worker and although his work was unquestionably a social product of the period in which he lived it certainly was not a product of socially-necessary labor-time; nor are his first folios to be considered in the category of commodities, although they have a price. Many things can have a price with- out being commodities. Among these are, as Marx ob- served when dealing with just such specimen as Laski, professors, who sell their talents and consciences for a price, but certainly they cannot be said to have a value determined by the amount of socially-necessary labor- time required to reproduce them. As to the “precious stone,” the diamond falling from the sky, and such like astronomical and geological monstrosities, it would have value just the same asa diamond that becomes useful to mankind in the usual process of extraction from the earth. The value of such a diamond is determined by the amount of socially-necessary labor-time required to reproduce one of equal weight and brilliancy. ° . From this insipid analysis of value, Professor Laski then proceeds to rehash the illusion of the Austrian school of economic fallacies and repeats the dirge t the third volume of Marx is a contradiction of the first volume. He is too stupified with fabian prejudices to perceive the fact that the contradictions which he im- agines he sees in Marx’s economics are in reality con- tradictions in the capitalist system of wealth production itself. In scientifically recording and analyzing these contradictions Marx, in his monumental work, Capital, gave to the world a splendid example of dialectical ma- terialism, that to this day baffles even the most erudite | of the professional wise men of the university chairs, in spite of the fact that they are so comprehensively dealt with by Marx that thousands of intelligent work- men understand them, | Henry Holt & | Says. . * * The stupidities of Laski’s economics are only equalled | by his crude conception of the history of Marxism. In- stead of viewing Marxism itself as a product of a given period of history, this fabian apologist of capitalism views it as a vagary of an individual who based his | work solely upon that of other economists~-Adam Smith, Ricardo and the classic school of economics. He ex- plains the collapse of the First International not on the basis of the material conditions existing after the Paris Commune, but on the ground that Marx was ill and dis- | illusioned, There is not one sentence about the fright- ful reaction in Europe and the chaotic conditions in the labor movement that stimulated anarchism and threat. | ened the International with the blight of Bakuninism, Just as Laski proves that he is mentally incompetent to deal with Marx, so he displays his astounding ig- norance when he tries to deal with Hegel. Says Laski: | “Progress—-which for Hegel is the movement toward perfect freedom—is thus the contradiction of one as- pect by another.” Just as Laski ignored the historical conditions that enabled Marx to achieve his work—the | appearance upon the stage of history of the proletariat | as the carrier of the revolution of the future—-so he failed to perceive that Hegel was limited by his times and that in his system progress was supposed to come to a close with the realization of the “absolute idea” as personified in the limited monarchy of Frederick William | Ill. Like all of his calibre, Laski is unable to separate the reactionary political conclusion of the Hegel’s system from his thoroughly revolutionary method of reason- ing—his dialectic. But the distortion of Hegelianism {s done by Laski munists by opposing certain objectionable features of capitalism as a negative force, compel the positive force (capitalism and its agents in the second socialist inter- national) to more carefully consider their shortcomings and overcome their defects. This mess of learned sophistry concludes with a de- funciation of the Bolsheviks because they view the state as an instrument of coercion in the hands of one class to hold another class in subjection. To him the state | is not as Lenin declared, a “product and manifestation of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms.” On the | contrary, according to the London fabian, “where demo- | cratic government prevails, the state is in the hands of | the people to mold as they will.” His conelusion is the banal comparison of democracy as opposed to dictatorship, and ignores the fact that an | open and avowed dictatorship of the proletariat, such as | exists today in the Soviet Union, is the highest form of democracy that has yet been realized upon the face of the earth, because it is exercised in the interests and through the participation of the overwhelming majority of workers and peasants of that vast country, while in those capitalist countries eulogized by his book the most flagrant tyranny {is cloaked by democratic phrases, To recount all the misstatements, the inaccuracies and Plain prevarications abounding in this book would be to repeat all the familiar arguments of all the enemies of the Soviet Union and the Communist International. | One can read the book in vain for an idea of what Communism really is, but as an exhibition of mental gymnastics it has certain comical merit. —H, M. WICKS, | geois artist nursing his aches and shedding dry tea’ | shek and Fegg | by General Tang Seng-chi in Honan and Hupeh. “ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE—” VAUDEVILLE. By Aben Kandel. Henry Waterson Co., New York. $2. 2 October New Masses Francis Edwards Fz New Playwrights Theatre, lets out a andspring and a few hulahulas ed Vaudeville, by a new writer named Aben He announces that the end of the “H of literature has come, and anybody v s to write about them in this age of the , I think Faragoh is talking thr side from the fact that the reported d and “Shes” of literature may be sligh aggerated, the implication that the book is an e of collectivist “They” art is miles away from the Vaudeville is very much concerned with the “Hes' “Shes.” The difference is that the author tries to for- malize hi are meant to be any “Heg” and any of specific personalities. * * * Vaudeville uses an ingenious technical device to pre- sent its material. The story is conceived as a continuous vaudeville performance, the characters appearing in or “numbe under such titles ‘he Wire ” “The Sister Ac idiotic simplicity y and “the other woman” be rranged in + obvious pattern. It is a J ‘adden “True written with sophistication and lith material could have been treated sat s man victim. Or th plot is of mothe the 1 with acters ended bourgeois could have been automatized- apparently at fi acquiring al or mé¢ con- tent. But whatever the author's: intenti their execution is muddled. There are attempts ai pointless stylization that rarely come off. it fail to come off that many porti almost unreadable. I am not fi of Elinor Glynn, but she can’t be mu Kandel when ck claim metaphors and similes about Lov a time I thought the 3 ton but he hadn’t. immediately reduced to t « So dizastrously does of the book h the wo e than Abe: an he bon es of its original « * Vaudeville is an irresponsible melange writing. The studied, limpid superficiali passages goes no deeper than a number of able epigrams. Here we have again the and brilliant sentimentality that were cultivated tain of les jeunes several years ago. But sud writing will veer to the most abominable sort of “poetic” flimflam. And in the flutter of these petulant sentences, pungent £ all sorts of of the best rewd, quot- is all so sad. Only it isn’t. A rigorous intelligence might have molded the novel form of the book into something swift and biting. Instead we have in Vaudeville much suave writing, apigrams, poetic posturing, a glittering precocity — and a thoroughly inconsequential book. —A.‘B. MAGIL COMMENT. Napoleons who infest China are divided intc ategories by Vincent Sheean, who contributes a HE | two | brilliant article, “The Choice of Masters in China” t¢ | the November issue of Asia, The old war-horses | in and Sun Chuan-fang Sheean describes s”; the younger war-horses like Chiang Yu-hsiang, who bedeck thems:* , modern phraseological trappings, Sheean call: o- militarists.” . There is little choice between the two groups, Sheean “General Li Chi-sen beheads the labor leaders in Canton, and General Chiang Kai-shek disembowels them in Hangchow; Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang ‘persuades’ them (i. e., drives them) out of Honan to be massacred And Chang T: “militari of course, there is always Marshal Chang Tso-lin, > strangles them in Peking. The barbarity, the sheer feroc' with which the Chinese gererals of all parties | have turned upon the labor leaders and Kuomintang | agitators surpasses | their wars against one another.” anything they have displayed in After describing the war-lords, Sheean, a facile and honest journalist, concludes: “This picture of the choice | of masters may not be very cheerful and is not intended to be. To be cheerful about Chinese politics seems to me to be sheer idiocy. The alternatives for an intelli- | gent and public-spirited Chinese are just two: either to go underground with the radical students and labor leaders and work against the whole system of things which make such a situation possible, or to ignore poli- ties completely and try to find some solution,apart from any government or governments....The first of course can bring only revolution, while the second may produce —very slowly, very painfully—an evolutionary change. Those who burn with a great impatience (and I confess for them much sympathy) will choose the first alterna tive, while those whom age or philosophy or disappoint- | ment has chastened, will choose the second.” —H. F. 1 ES 40th anniversary of the executioneof the four Chicago anarchists as a result of the Haymarket frame-up which followed the intensive agitation for the | 8-hour day recalls the brilliant novel, The Bomb, by Frank Harris, The publication of the book followed a visit to Chi- cago by Harris for the purpose of acquainting himself with the facts in connection with the martyrdom of Parsons, Spies, Fischer, and Engel. The narrative is a fairly accurate description of the actual incidents, with the exception of the story of the private lives of some of the prominent anarchists men- | tioned in the book. Published about 15 years ago by that pioneer, Mitchell | Kennerley, the book is now out of print; it is available, however, in many public libraries. Ss. a. BOOKS RECEIVED—REVIEWED LATER. Ballyhoo: The Voice of the Press. By Silas Ben! Boni & Liveright. The Public and Its Problems. Henry Holt & Co. The North Carolina Chain Gang. By Steiner & Roy M. Brown. University Carolina Press. , Dollars and World Peace: A consideration of Na- tionalism, Industrialism and Imperialism, By Kirby Page. Geo. H. Doran Co. Religion and Social Justice. By Sherwood Eddy. Geo. H. Doran Co. Political Myths and Economic Realties. By Francis Delaisi. Viking Press. Karl Marx: Man, Thinker and Revolutionist. Engels, Lafargue, Plechanov, Lenin, Luxemberg, Liebknecht, Riazanov. Publishers, By John Dewey By Mehring, International