The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 26, 1927, Page 7

_ as rationalization and the struggle \ ‘tral newspapers, leading regional and . nail ‘\, THE NEW COMET THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 26, 1927 The Workers’ Press jNStEAD of the newspapers repre- enting different political parties usually exist abroad we have | nm Soviet Russia only worker and| péasant newspapers. These worker | and peasant newspapers differ from each other. There are leading cen- provincial newspapers, mass news- | papers, peasant newspapers, national | néwspapers; trade union, coopera-) tive, economic, military, Young Com- | munist, Pioneer literary, sport, eve-| ning newspapers, wall newspapers, | ete., etc. je| All these newspapers serve the in- terests of the workers and peasants. There are no newspapers in the U.'S. S. R. for the bourgeoisie. Such | newspapers as the nationality papers | and wall newspapers, eitc., which were never known before the revolu-| tion, are of especial interest. The | national newspapers are a product of the November Revolution. They are a mighty instrument in rousing the class consciousness of the toilers of the minority nationalities. They help| them in creating their own national) republics federated in the Soviet Union, On April 1, 1924, there were | altogether. 113. such nationatity news- | papers; on February 1, 1925, 139, and on August 1, 1925, 162. Thus we see an uninterrupted growth in the number of nationality newspapers in the-U. S. S. R. The circulation of these newspapers is increasing still faster: from 250,000 copies it has in- ¢reased to 700,000 in a period of less than eighteen months. The wall newspapers are another and no less important sign of cultural develop- ment. They are a powerful tribune. They exist in almost every factory and every institution. They exist in every mine. ‘These newspapers take up all the defects in the enterprises. They combat the violation of laws concerning the protection of labor. They deal with all dark sides of the life of the workers. They also record all progress made in industry such against bureaucracy, etc., etc. * * * There is a huge army of worker and peasant correspondents, consist- ing of about 350,006, of whom 100,- 000 are worker correspondents and 250,000 peasant correspondents or- | ganized around these wall news- papers. These worker and peasant | correspondents organize purposely to | produce local wall newspapers, but | ‘they also participate in the general | public press. The national con- | gresses of worker and peasant cor- respondents writing for “Pravda,” “Krestianskaya Gazetta” and other hhewspapers are ‘a-sign of one of the ‘most remarkable mass movements. Only in the Soviet Union, under the dictatorship of the proletariat, can the svorkers and peasants make such ex- ‘tensive and free use of the printed word in the interest of a socialist transformation of the country. Thousands of journalists who work | ‘at-the--bench, hundreds of thousands of~-journalists’-who work with the plough—all these are now writing. There are at the present time in the U. S. S. R. such publications issued for the worker and peasant corre- ‘spondents as the ‘Worker and Peas- ant Correspondent,” “The Village Correspondent,” “The Railway Work) er Correspondent,” “The Path of the Worker and Peasant Correspondent,” and many other papers and suppie- ments to the national and local news- ‘papers. In the words of Lenin, the Com- munist Party and Soviet press is not only a collective propagandist and agitator, but also a collective organ- izer of the toiling masses. Each of the 7,200,000 copies of the 600 Soviet newspapers (before the revolution the total circulation of the, press did not exceed two ‘and a half millions) helps the workers and peasants to select the best ways and means for their promotion along the path of ‘socialism. The press of the U. S. 8. R. serves the cause of the prole- tarian revolution. This press is a ‘worker and peasant press in the truest sense of that word, and it is not merely a press for the workers and peasants. ERLIN, Nov. 25.—Drs. Schwass- Because they thought that men who slave within Damp, gassy, winding tunnels mining coal And daily risk their lives for meager dole Are not automatons, that they could win More food and clothing for their needy kin; | Because they dared to look up toward a goal Instead of groveling blindly like the mole They were shot down as only dogs have been. It happened thus at Ludlow, now the soil Of Columbine is stained with miners’ blood; The State Police and coal lord’s thugs are free. . . . And now throughout the land the men who toil Can see that Justice and Are trampled on and slain in coal-dust mud. COLUMBINE, COLO. By WALTER SNOW. THINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR we —Drawn by M. Pass. that Liberty A LIVE STREAM (A Sketch) | celebrating on the 10th anniversary By Lev. Rimski. IXTY versts from Moscow, buried in the foliage of the gardens and parks, lies the once religious and his- | toric Sergevo-Passad. The little cosy town with its crooked streets reminds one remarkably of the gaily colored ginger-breads one sees at Christmas. The flat and low little houses look quite coquetish with their paine and home-like flowering plants behind the window panes which re- flect the bright sun. And below is the old Sergius Mon- astery with its golden cupolas, look- ing as if it had been thrown there from a great height and has taken shelter in this green retreat. The walls of the Kremlin stand there mute and immovable, keeping guard over the sad and cruel history of Russian tsars, demented boyars and monks. The old bricks form a huge triangle which looks as if it had been welded together with blood. Once upon a time the dark banner of the most brutal and cruel Russian feudalism floated here. * * * To this monastery came streams of idlers-—half demented people, monks, people “possessed by a devil,” and sang the praises of the all-pow- erful Russian slaveowner, obeyed and served for centuries by the cruelly ill-treated and exploited peasantry. From here the poisonous dope of re- ligion was spread throughout the country. The church bells sounded the death mann and Wachmann of the Hamburg | knell to those whom the monks and astronomical observatory have, with the \aid of photography, discovered a new comet located in the Constellation of Fishes an@ has the brightness of a star of the thirteenth or fourteenth magnitude, making it invisible to. the naked eye. The same two astronomers also dis- covered a new star three days before their announcement of the discovery of the comet. The star is in the Con- stellation of Orion, now in the south- eastern evening skies. * ‘ * The new star discovered in Orion is one that has suddenly become bright enough to be recorded on astronomical instruments. Such discoveries are the result of formerly faint stars that could not be recorded suddenly exploding and becoming bright for a time. Stars are suns, centers of solar systems. The one discovered a few nights ago by the German astrono- mers is 2,000 light years from the earth, That means that the light that left the Constellation 2,000 years ago, travelling at the velocity of 182,000 smiles a second has only now reached the earth. This tremendous distance, that cannot be reckoned except in light years, gives one some concep- priests promised an Eden in heaven as compensation for their miserable life on earth, The peasants sent up their prayers to the empty heavens fand suffered insults, oppression and misery while tsars, landlords and their lackeys in their gold stitched liveries enjoyed to the full the life on earth, Thus centuries passed. . . . But November came and scattered w tne winds all this bigotry. swe? away with an iron broom the tsars and their gilded slave-owners. New sounds fill the earth. New songs are heard in the fields. New life is bubbling in this former land of serfdom. During ten years stone has been added to stone in the construc- tion of this first Workers’ Republic in the world. On the morass of the black hundred system of old a big cultural movement is growing and spreading. Gigantic, cultural con- struction is going on and in the fore- most ranks of this work we find the same Sergiev workers and peasants who for centuries imbibed religious and black hundred dope from the poisonous ‘source in the keeping of the priests. * * * tion of; the immensity of the universe. The old citadel of ignorance and sunerstition—the Sergiev uyezd—is yellow | of the revolution a unique and un- precedented achievement. ‘Thruout | the uyezds there are no more illiter- ate people. Among the 10,000 peas- ant and working class - population there is not a single home industry worker, not a single peasant or peas- ant woman and worker who cannot read and write. This achievement is entirely due to the Soviet power and to the untiring voluntary work of Soviet society as represented by the Society “Down with Illiteracy.” The cultural move- ment in the uyezd has attracted the best forces among the working class } and peasant youth. There is an en-| ormous thirst for knowledge among the peasant population, adolescents and adults alike. Hundreds of cultural-educational institutions have sprung up on the ground fertilized by the October rev- jolution like mushrooms after a life- giving rain. Thruout the Sergiev Uyezd there is a considerable number of cultural oases: 150 first grade schools for peasant and working class children; 100 Red Corners, 11 read- jing rooms, 52 schools for semi-liter- ate people, and 48 schools for people who cannt read and write, libraries, perambulating libraries in every vil- lage including the remotest. Ninety- | five per cent of the children attend schools which are preparing strong | young reserves for the cultural rey- olution. How many illiterate people have been taugkt here to read and write? At first the number of illiterates was |enormous, but by perserverance it | was possible to liquidate the illiteracy |and ignorance of these people and to |make them useful members of the | Soviet State. In the course of three years 6,000 people have been taught to read and write thru the efforts of the “Down with Illiteracy Society” and the Soviet State. One can say that 6,000 blind people have been giv- en their sight in the literal sense of the term. Among them are home industry workers, peasant girls, peas- ants and working men and women. But having reached this cultural lev- el, the population asks for more: Give us knowledge. This cry is heard at all peasant meetings, at workers’ meetings, in schools and homes. Give us #sowl- Cautious Cal Plagiarized His 1928 Slogan By F. H. SHOEMAKER I though it rather strange that Cool- idge should be original in the most sensible thing that he has done since being elevated to the office of the President of the U.S. when he came out with the following “I do not choose to run.” I thought if this is only original the president should be en- titled to considerable credit, but, in making a perusal of history I came upor. the phrase, “I do not choose to,” and I found where silent Cal had stolen f€ from. This is nothing more or less than British propaganda, and someone should call attention of this fact to Willyum Hail! Thompson, ex- alted ruler of the greatest crime cen- ter of the world. On March 22, 1775 Edmund Burke made_a.speech in the British parliament, and his subject was on the “Conciliation of the Amer- ican Colonies.” While delivering this { speech on several occasions he used the term, “ I do not choose.” Speak- ing under the heading of “The policy of force” Burke said: “A further objection to force is that you impair the object of your endeavors to preserve it. The thing you fought for is not the thing which you recover; but depreciated, sunk, wasted and consumed in the contest. Nothing less will content me than whole America. I do not choose to consume its strength along with our own; because in all parts it is the British strength that I con- sume. I do not choose to be caught by a foreign enemy at the end of ‘this exhausting conflict; dnd still less in the midst of it. I may es- cape; but I can take no insurance against such an event. Let me add that I do not choose wholly to break the American spirit; because it is the spirit that.made that country.” * ° ° Editor’s Note:—Coolidge’s plagiar- ism is well known. A number of his speeches have been taken bodily from familiar sources. The first glaring in- stance of this practice was when he eulogized the state of Colorado from | his summer “White House” in the Ad- irondacks. That speech was taken verbatim from the Encyclopedia Brit- annica. Probabiy a secretary entrust- ed with writing his speeches was feel- ing rather indolent on that and other similar occasions. FOOD SLAVES AND A. F. OF L. “I have for a considerable time read many articles for, and by, Wil- liam Green, the president of the Amer- ican Federation of Labor, saying that our trade unions are strong and we don’t need any Labor Party in Amer- ica, And so on, and so on. Nice words such as William Green always says. But what the hell does William Green do or say for the slaves in the food industry? Must we be left out of this world? Are we not human be- ings?” J. A. T., A FOOD SLAVE. New York City. BOOST DAILY WORKER. I am back again in California to edge and we will learn quickly to till the soil properly and to manage our farms on new lines. To be with- out knowledge is like being without eyes,—say the peasants. One must say that literacy acquired by such gigantic efforts is working miracles in agriculture. There are model cor- ners in connection with intensive cul- ture. Here as everywhere the beacon of Lenin’s genius is shining bright. take charge of the DAILY WORKER in this territory. Let’s work for greater DAILY WORKER, | solid party, increased activity and better co- operation. You can expect my full cooperation from this end. Financial conditions are very bad and the un- employed army is increasing in num- bers every day but in spite of the hardships we shall carry on our work. Paul C. Reiss, Daily Worker Local Representative. | amateur sociologist. Page Sever A WARD HEELER’S BIOGRAPHY OF HIS BO; UP FROM THE CITY STREETS: Alfred E. Smith good and Henry Moskowitz. Harcourt, Brace & Co. IOMRADES, Fellow-workers, Ladies and Gentlemen: Permit me to intro- duce you to the man who on his own proud admission, never read a book, tho it is reported that he likes the Book of Job and the gospel according to Saint Luke, . Norman Hap- Tho Norman Hapgood’s name leads that of Moskowitz on the cover we suspect that the former minister to Denmark and general literary utility man for William Randolph Hearst never penned a line of this book, the juiciest collection of biographical tripe ever jammed between two covers. a ae Henry Moskowitz, who was the first commissioner of the ci husband of Mrs. who is the political advi Emanuel Smith. Mr. Moskowitz, be- ing a good politician, realized that the public is at the present time in the ¢ 8rip of a biographical epidemic and i = any public. person who knows enough é to blow his nose politically is liable \ to find himself on the menu of an omniverous reading public. I said that Henry Moskowitz was a commis- * sioner of city markets advisedly and “AL” SMITH. with malice aforethot because this is the kind of a book an inspector of fish, game and meat would write. ” * ~ Alfred Emanuel Smith was born in 1873 at 174 South St. under the brooklyn Bridge in a district which was at that time almost exclusively ithabited by Irish, under the political guidance of Tom Foley. Like most smart young lads of his religious faith Smith served as an altar boy and leter on as a model to the younger set. He developed into a good amateur actor and the nimbleness of his feet as well as the eloquence of his tongue made him popular among his fellows. _Indeed, thru the whole book there is as much emphasis laid on “Al's” ability to make wise cracks as on his oratorical powers. : 4 Smith’s rise in politics was rapid. Unlike Hylan he did not fight the “interests”; in fact “Al” is beloved by Wall Street while popular with the working class. Because Smith, clever politician that he is, knows how to give lip service to the things the workers are interested in materially without in any way awakening dread in the hearts of the money barons. Messrs, Moskowitz and Hapgood make much of the governor’s alleged respect for the rights of minorities and his championship of free speech and the freedom of voting as “an antidote to all forms of discontent, including extreme socialism.” Bless his heart! “Al” need not worry about the right of the people to vote as long as Tammany can count them. is the * * * There is also much made of Smith’s kindness and bigness of heart, his sympathy for the unfortunate inmates of the state’s penitentiaries and his generosity towards political opponents, but the writer remembers an incident that occurred during the governor’s first term in office that shows’ the genial, back-slapping governor in a different light. When Jim Larkin was in prison a prominent individual of Irish extraction, requested the governor to pardon Larkin, so that he could return home to his wife and family. The governor, with a snarl, replied that he would Sooner pardon the meanest criminal in the state, and that Larkin was a disgrace to his race because of his radical views. During his second term in the executive mansion in Albany Smith pardoned Larkin and other Com-~ munists for reasons of political expediency. * * * Alfred Emanuel Smith is one of the most capable politicians i the United States and but for the prejudice that exists against the catholic religion in many sections of the country there is a strong possibility that he would be elected president. He is a colorful personality and is an expert at feeling the popular pulse. He is witty, eloquent and a good mixer. He understands the psychology of the workers and plays with them. At the same time he enjoys the confidence of Big Business. He is the actual head of Tammany Hall, the most subtly reactionary poli- tical organization in the United States, but is immune from the odium attached to that institution. There is no doubt that “Al” Smith is a charming personality to his associates, and if we were not in the midst of a class struggle we could bask in the sunshine of his infectious cheerfulness. But no matter how wide our governor opens his mouth in hearty laughter, or how wreathed his face may be in smiles, we can only regard him as an efficient tool of the employing classes and a dangerous enemy of the working class movement, —T. J. O’)FLAHERTY. MYSTICISM AND LOGIC. SELECTED PAPERS OF BERTRAND RUSSELL. Ninety-five cents. ae collection contains excerpts from the writings of Bertrand Russell before the British Labor Party had tasted power and experienced the glory of empire and before Russell (like Ramsay MacDonald) had diluted his high-mindedness with a good sized shot of imperialist psychology. These essays represent Bertrand Russell as a professional logician and They carry him thru the dags when, after barely re- covering from the shock of six months in a British jail for exercising the privileges and prerogatives of democracy in war time, he journeyed to Mos- cow and discovered that the Bolsheviks were grappling with realities a little more concrete than space-time units and a little less lovely than an abstract conception of an anarchic society. , * * * Modern Library. These writings carry Russell thru his visit to semi-feudal China (about 1920) where he discovered a “way of life which if it could be adopted by all the world would make all the world happy.” Russell at that stage was unable to face the problems of a rapidly mov- ing world and like a good many other war-shocked intellectuals hankered for mysticism. He fell in love with the remote and apparently peaceful life of the Chinese literati which, unfortunately, was based on taxes and rents wrung from the brutally exploited peasantry. And here is a description of the mystically luminous moment in which Russell saw the light: “It was on the Volga in the summer of 1920 that I first realized how profound is the disease of our western mentality which the Bolsheviks are attempting to force upon an essentially Asiatic population, just as Japan and the West are doing to China “...J went ashore and found on the sand a strange assem! human beings, half-nomads wandering from some famine, each family huddled together surrou ings....The flickering flames lighted up the gn: wild men, strong an@ primitive, strong patient pr and children as slow and sedate as their parents, “Human beings they certainly were, and yet it would have been easier for one to grow intimate with a dog or a cat or a horse than one of them. I knew that they would wait there da er day, perhaps for weeks until a bout came in which they could go to some distant place....Some would die by the w ould suffer hunger and thirst and scorching mid-day sun, i would be dumb. To me they seemed to typify t ry soul of Russia, expressive, inactive from despair, unheeded by the little set of w erners who make up all parties of prog or reaction. I could not believe that happiness was to be brought to them by the gospel of industrialism....” * * * Russell’s political theory at this stage while not quite as luminous as his Volga revelation is at least as mystical. In an essay called “Deciding Forces in Politics,” Russell says: “The progress or retrogression of the world depends broadly speaking upon the balance between acquisitiveness and rivalry. Until 1914, acquisitiveness had prevailed on the whole, since the fall of Napoleon; the first six yea®® has seen a prevalence of the instinct of rivalry.” * ° ° By what miraculous process rivalry gained the upper hand in 1914, Bertrand Russell, once a professional logician, does not explain. In addition to social and political essays, this collection contains excerpts from Russell’s philosophic writings which appear to be decidedly more happy than his ventures into sociology and politics, —HARRY FREEMAN. Notes and Comment E VY Li r Lewi hn’s Upstream spring joy found in their by d in I tive enemy of mentation. and ar dardization and regi- Lewisohn, a Ge early youth in Ch lina; he studied at i spired sh lite campus he w some that from the 2d a part in L tion.) * * * Upstream is th tration, written in too-r ego- mania, at times, contains some profound o education, and th for “the good life.” Woven into the original chrorticle was the tender story of Lewisohn’s love for his wife, Mary. In the pres- ent edition (Modern Librar new introduction writte former The Nation turned Zi Ss that he had lied about the woman whom he now reviles a vixen and a slut, relating, in partial justifica- tion, that she was his senior by twen- ty years. (The complete st it is said, is now found in Lewisohn’s The Case of Mr. Crump, also published in Paris.) Many gentle readers will be disil- lusioned, and the literary police—the bourgeois reviev -will hurl impre- con: 3 cations at this defiant scholar and pray that a plague be on his house which now shelter mate more love- ly than the former, e+ @ RANK HARRIS is undoubtedly one of the most exuber i contemporary times. A ~ renely glides toward fou: ore years his memory grows sharper and his braggadocio more annoy In Latest Contemporary Portraits (M $2.50) the virile author and Loves retails addit reminiscences of such di as Thomas Hardy, Cha Eugene Debs, Lord B: Housman, Henri Barbu: gan and Prince Kropot * * in. Despite a justified skeptic garding the author’s amazingly re- tentive memory (especially when re- producing lengthy conversations, many of which took place as far back as 1880), one must neverthe marvel at the number of celebrities which Harris has managed to meet in his lifetime. Possibly the answer is found in a reply to a query by A. E. Housman as to why the latter was so much sought after by Americans. “Perhaps,” volunteered Harris's companion, “in order to talk about you when they return home and brag of your acquaintance.” In the present volume are found many quaint, interesting and piquant biographical details. For the most part, however, the book is quite trivial, and when Harris essays an opinion on sociology he is usually ridiculous. . . . ONCLUSIVE evidence that the great George Bernard Shaw is in his dotage is furnished by the follow- ing sparkling Shavians culled from “The London Magazine” and quoted with great relish by the New York Herald Tribun “Every man is the same sort of idiot when he is in love. . . + My work is constructive; every play or preface I write contains a message. I am the messenger boy of the new age.” Asked how he would prohibit pove erty, G. B. S. who has lately de- veloped a firce love for Mussolini, replied: “In a variety of ways: if nec- essary, by putting to death every person earning less than £1,000 yearly, or asking for more.” * * * “Upton Sinclair’s stuff recently has been giving me acute pain,” writés A. B. M.° “I liked it very much at first and the irony surprised me. But the guy can be so obtuse and pedanti¢ at times. He probably has the most dogmatic mind in America, not ex- cepting Cal Coolidge and Oswald Garrison Villprd. And his estheti¢ and moral blindspots shriek aloud, He doesn’t seem to realize that his feeling about booze and sex ig precisely the same as the 100 per- center’s in regard to ican in- stitutions.’ That coy chapter on his wife capped the climax. Amy Lowell, Mary Craig Sinclair and ‘My Friend George Sterling’ have one thing in common: they are all lousy, poets.” a a In the forthcoming issue of The Communist (advance proofs of which have just arrived at this office), Ber- tram D. Wolfe contributes a spirited analytical article on the present whys and wherefores of Max Eastman, and especially as revealed in recent issues of The New Masses. —SENDER GARLIN. 3