The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 11, 1928, Page 5

THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1928 HENRY L. MENCKEN(A Strange Funeral in Braddock BOOK REVIEWS and COMMENT AS A “SOCIOLOGIST” adhe Shceenmyptnd ‘The Gentle Art of Poisoning the Minds of the Workers Listen to the mournful drums of a strange funeral, | By JOSEPH *REEMAN. fails to mention in this group the Listen to the story of a strange American funeral, In the town of Braddock, Pennsylvania, me must be careful, however, not . , , ‘OU ask what I think of Mencken to yield too much to the working class Where steel-mills live like foul dragons burning, devouring man and earth | PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUE f by proclaiming ideals “which would ment of the American petit-bourgeois. War “Salesmanship” | Take all of his pet ideas and com- IN! pare them with the superstitions of John Reed ab a bociclogist? aad iy | THE WORLD WAR. By Harold Ag Mencken as a sociologist t be |the “average” intelligent hundred- ‘ Paid ; x a . i ciologist can’t be percenter: you will get a book that is It is spring. Now the spring has wandered in, a frightened child in the | £7 a ag Ahead Ae nee pehomaslirestea cia egies bo possessing classes.” a League of Nations hit upon in the last war was a fortunate stroke far: “A war to vindicate international mE: discussed seriously. Even a sound citi- zen like Ernest Boyd, who thinks god smart set is willing gels have suspended land of the steel ogres, And Jan Clepak, the great grinning Bohemian on his way to work at six in the morning. funnier even than the “American Credo.” He has laughed at Green- wich: Villagers, politicians, the Ga is placing increasing reliance on the technician to bols- : Se the laws of capital- ist development for fit, twits the Balti- more Sage for put- ties before the horse of economics, The philosopher of the and the catholic an- to ditch Marx and Veblen because they’re “dull writers,” and thus con- fuses a proletarian scientist and a lib- eral pedagogue as exponents of the Same point of view. Mencken has never understood socialism because he is a typical bavarian spuzbuerger, a bohemian in outlook, a good Ameri- can citizen, a romantic wovshipper of the alleged glories of feudal society. It was his hard luck, intellectually, that he first heard of socialisy,from a profound revolutionary thinker like Robert Rives LaMont. Sabie Mencken * Mencken makes no bones about his “sociology,” which makes him a much safer “thinker” from the working class point of view than a lot of “lib- erals,” “radicals,” etc. He says capi- talism is good and democracy a lot of hocus-pocus, schweinerei and flap- doodlery. It is true that under capi- talism (which for all its beneficiaries, including the author of “Prejudices” is a pleasant system) democracy is a fake pure and simple which shouldn’t fool anybody but half-wits and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Mencken should be given a congres- sional medal or the seat of Compara- tive Archeology at Dukes University for his services to American capital- ism as a sociologist, for his defence of private property and his attacks on Soviet Russia. The fact that he raises hell about a lot of things is only proof that the court-jester can stick a pin into the king’s hip so long as he supports the monarchy. Dis-/ cussing Mencken as a sociologist is like discussing Coolidge as a poet. He knows less about the laws of econo- mics than a Puritan about real virtue. _ * «# But to tell the truth I don’t think it’s as a sociologist that Mencken is or has been the hero of the day, but as a social phenomenon. First grant him bis virtues: he is clever, his style 1 reading a pleasure (it’s not easy to imitate it, either! I’m try- ing, as you see). He observes many truths about individuals and books; he is vigorous and above all, rarest of all virtues in modern ink-slingers, he is honest.. I agree with a lot he says about people, and with nothing he ‘says about society, but I always feel that he means what he says, and though that is no virtue in a politi- cian, it is no doubt a quality. which is very useful for a writer. As a so- cial phenomenon Mencken fulfills a real function, He is a “character” that does for the “average” American what Sam Johnson did for the “aver- age” Englishman; he is the embodi- Wall Street’s bene-j ting the cart of poli-| | booboisie, the national specimen, and the rest of it, but at bottom, and often right up on the very surface, his no- tions about life and society are very much like theirs, ¢ In common with congressmen, col- jlege professors, cub reporters, Eighth St. poets and chautauqua orators, he | believes that history is made by great individuals. In common with book- keepers he believes that the majority of mankind are incurably and hope- lessly stupid and that wisdom and superior brains are god’s gifts to a select few. In common with elderly spinsters who invite bad artists to tea he believes that a real artist must be sick, preferably syphilitic. In Z- a Gar ~~ a oa common with every devotee of the Book of Etiquette he believes that civilization is a matter of a small aristocracy, In common with every police-court judge he believes that the Bolsheviks are evil and stupid. In common with every cloak and suit manufacturer he believes that capi- talisnr is good enough for the world and that if you have money you're all right. You could go on like this for a long time. * * Where Mencken differs from the rest of his fellow-compatriots is in his genuine love of literature that is not too new, his quixotic devotion to learning and culture. This is what makes him the god of the learned professions, the intelligentsia, It is not for nothing that he is read, imi- tated and worshipped by all the younger editorial writers of the land, or that he wraps himself in the Stars and Stripes in any real controversy. He is a Jeffersonian liberal in poli- tics, an anarchist in philosophy, a bo- hemian in his pose, a free lance kid- ding the authorities and abiding by the status quo; a trusted citizen who raps the Declaration of Independence and fights for free speech. Could there be a more perfect popular “phil- osopher” for the middle-class intel- ligentsia with its fear of machine civ- ilization and the working class? Ambulance-Chasing Lawyers ~ Are Hurting Law Business Instigated by the New York bar association, the New York county law- yers’ association, and the Bronx county bar association, representing the so- called “ethical” sections of ordered by the first department of the appellate division of the Supreme Court, embracing New York and Bronx counties. A Supreme Court justice will be ap- pointed with full power to investigate the books of attorneys and accident insurance companies. They Work This Way. Ambulance chasers have become openly so unscrupulous in their prac- tices that they are hurting the law business generally, lawyers say. “Ambulance chasers” are shyster lawyers who send solicitors out to look for accidents, particularly acci- dents to workers who are injured on the job. They make connections with venal hospital employes, especially with doctors and interns, who try to _ induce the worker while his mind is still hazy after the accident, to, sign contract with the lawyer on whose Payroll: the doctor is. Lawyers Get 75 Per Cent. The action of the Supreme Court is a result of the serious inroads which the ambulance ra have made on the business of the “ethical” attor- neys, with the luxurious office suites. - Workers who have gone thru the hospital and legal mill following an injury on the job have found that both the shysters and the more “ethical” practitioners always take about 75 per cent of the award for the worker’s injuries. Meek Mose (By Federated Press) Frank Wilson used to be a mail carrier in Harlem, New York’s Negro district. Off duty he wrote plays. Now he is not only the star of Porgy, Playing on Broadway, but one of his ; plays, Meek Mose, is being pro- is with an. all- ype tor the mince minor he law fraternity, a “sweeping investigation of ambulance chasing lawyers” has tot W orkers’ Education in Capitalist U.S.A. By travelling 500 miles every week for the last six weeks in buses, elec- tric trains and steam railways. at a minimum fare of $20.00 a week, D. E. Early, the first circuit teacher of the National Agitprop Department of the Workers Party, has been able to found and Keep going courses in Fun- damentals of Communism, and related subjects in six cities in upper New York State, most of which had never bad classes before of any character. These cities include Niagara Falls, Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo and also Erie and Jamestown, Pa. In Buffalo there are 23 students en- lied; in Niagara Falls, 21; in Erie, 8; in Jamestown, 9; in Rochester, 23; id in Syracuse, 14; making a total of 18 students receiving instruction thru @ circuit courses, Sells Literature. In the short period in question, Early has sold over a hundred dollars worth of literature, the students have paid over $100.00 in tuition fees, and new members and subscribers for the DAILY WORKER have been secured. In addition, thanks to the activities of Comrade Early, mass meetings were arranged for Lenin Memorial, for Hends off Nicaragua, and Hands off China and other issues, some of which could not have been arranged other- wise. Also, forums have been set up and the circuit teacher has been able to cover important forums and inner -white{ raising party discussions on the question of the opposition in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, The district reports an increase in activity, an increase in interest and understanding of the party and its|activity of an educational character. | work, an increase in influence over} The interest of the workers in these non-party members, and a genera! | Sees buttons of bright grass on the hills across the river, and plumb trees hung with wild, white blossoms, And as he sweats half-naked at his puddling trough, a fiend by the lake of brimstone, The plum-trees soften his heart, The green grass-memories return and soften his heart, And he forgets to be hard as steel and remembers only his wife’s breasts, his baby’s little laughters and the way men sing when they are drunk and happy, He remembers. cows and sheep, and the grinning peasants, and the villages and fields of sunny Bohemia. Listen to the mournful drums of a strange funeral. Listen to the story of a strange American funeral. Wake up, wake up! Jan Clepak, the furnaces are roaring like tigers, The flames are flinging themselves at the high roof, like mad, yellow tigers at their cage. Wake up! It is ten o'clock, and the next batch of mad, flowing steel is to be poured into your puddling trough, Wake up! Wake up! For a flawed lever is cracking in one of those fiendish cauldrons, Wake up! and wake up! for now the lever has cracked, and the steel is raging and running down the floor like an escaped madman, Wake up! It is ten o’clock, and the next. batch of mad, flowing steel is to be poured into your puddling trough, Wake up! Wake up! For a flawed lever is cracking in one of those fiendish cauldrons, Wake up! and wake up! for now the lever has cracked, and the steel is raging and running down the floor like an escaped madman, Wake up! 0, the dream is ended, and the steel has swallowed you forever, Jan Clepak! Listen to the mournful drums of a strange funeral, Listen to the story of a strange Amer- iean funeral. Now three tons of hard steel hold at their hearts the bones, flesh, nerves, the muscles, brainss and heart of Jan Clepak, And they weep behind the carriage-blinds, and mourn the soft man who was killed by hard steel. Listen to the mournful drums of a strange funeral. Listen to the story of a strange American funeral. Now three thinkers are thinking strange thoughts in the graveyard. “O, T'll get drunk and stay drunk forever, I'll never marry woman, or father laughing children, rl forget everything, I'll be nothing from now on, Life is a dirty joke, like Jan’s funeral!” One of the friends is thinking in the sweet-smelling graveyard, As a derrick lowers the three tons of steel that held Jan Clepak. (LISTEN TO THE DRUMS OF THE STRANGE AMERICAN FUNERAL!) “I'll wash clothes, I'll serub floors . . . . 1... 1 ww children will never work in the steel-mill!” Jan eee wife is thinking as earth is shovelled over the great steel coffin, In the spring sunlight, in the soft April air, (LISTEN TO THE DRUMS OF THE STRANGE AMERICAN FUNERAL!) but my “T’'ll make myself as hard as steel, harder, I'll come some day and make bullets out of Jan’s body, and shoot them into a tyrant’s heart!” | The other friend is thinking, the listener, He who listened to the mournful drums of the strange funeral, Who listened to the story of the strange American funeral. And turned as mad as a fiendish cauldron with cracked lever. LISTEN TO THE MOURNFUL DRUMS OF A STRANGE FUNERAL. LISTEN TO THE STORY OF A STRANGE AMERICAN FUNERAL. (Reprinted from “May Days,” edited by Genevieve Taggard. Liveright.) Boni & |ter up its crumbling structure. The | economist has done yeoman service in | | rationalizing industry and explaining | away its contradictions. The psycho- |logist has been called upon to ex- /amine the habits of the workers and |to develop efficient means of control- | ling their thoughts and actions. The propaganda machines of the capital- | ist countries have been put on a sci entific basis and now have a tight | |eontrol over the press, the radio, the |; | movies, and other means of mass | communication. | The present volume is a contribu- | tion by a professor of psychology to} the technique of capitalist propaganda. | |It is a study of the activities of the | propaganda bureaus of the belliger. how the workers were fooled into | supporting the past war but also of | how they may be fooled into support- ing the next war. ae eh The principle task of the propa- ganda bureaus of the last war, say: the author, and one which will be equally important in the next, is th: | mobilization of mass sentiment ir favor of the war. This the author admits was a difficult task for: “The governments of Western | Europe can never be certain that | a class-conscious proletariat within the borders of their authority will rally to the clarion of war. Be- fore 1914 the growth of the social- democrats in Germany, the vogue of anti-patriotism in France, and the rise of the laborers in Eng- land filled the governing classes with apprehensi I s freely predicted that mobilization could be paralyzed by a general strike and that social revolution might raise its ominous head.” Other groups that might cause trouble were the liberals and the pacifists. To “turn aside” these “in- convenient currents” it was neces- sary first of all to make the masses feel that the opponent is the aggres- sor and that his entire history “of- fers unassailable proof of a deliberate attempt to maim or destioy us. “These indictments,” continues th author, “come’ with peculiar weight from historians and from other men} who are credited in the public mind with the single-minded pursuit of truth.” He then gives the role of the intellectuals who prostituted them- | selves for this purpose, including the | Manifesto of the Ninety-three in| Germany, the Oxford War Pamph-| ‘lets and the Princeton and Chicago symposiums in America. “The facil- ity with which sincere and dexterous hands may shape cases on either side | of a controversy,” solemnly concludes | {the professor, “leaves no doubt that| {in the future the propagandist may }eount upon a battalion of honest | professors to rewrite history.” | * * * | The next step, after the enemy has | been identified, is the call for unity | and victory. Among those who were | utilized by the propaganda bureaus for this purpose was the notorious Gustav Hervé who had gained the, confidence of the workers before the | war by a struggle against militarism Liberal N, Y. Journalist Reaches Sandino Camp JOIN IN A REAL FIGHT jpaeinemet Carleton Beals, liberal journalist and occasional contributor to Federa- ted Press, has forced his way through the Latin American jungles to General Augustino Sandino, accord- ing to a dispatch. Beals is now in Managua—“American territory”—the capital of Nicaragua, writing his of the political level of the }ity and percen of district os renult of this experiment pis hat ee story, the despatch adds. Beals left from Mexico City. His guide was arrested at Tegucigalpa, al s LENIN RUTHENBERG DRIVE capital of Honduras, but the writer continued on horseback through the jungle and reached Sandino. He spent some time with the Nicaraguan patriot who is fighting American in- tervention, escaping the bombs and bullets of American marines warring FOR 1, Organization of the unorgan- ized, Miners’ Relief. Recognition and Defense of the Soviet Union. A Labor Party, on Sandino. A Workers’ and Farmers’ —————— Government, in circuit course work. It has also AGAINST Injunctions. | Company Unions. Unemployment. Persecution of the Foreign Born. War. proved a good method of breaking in- to comparatively new territory. Build Young “Workers League. In some towns, the Young Workers League has been greatly strengthened as a result of the classes and other activities of the traveling organizer. This is especially the case in Syracuse, where most of the students are young workers, and a League organization of ten members has just been formed. Also, three new party members were secured in Syracuse. since the classes have been started. Erie and Jamestown are cities which are almost never reached by national speakers, and have had practically no OCCUPATION .. please check this bex. 0 wo towns is reflected by the regular- ttendance Join a Fighting Party! Join the Workers (Communist) Party of America i] Application for Membership in Workers (Communist) Party / (Fill out thie blank and mail to Workers Party, 48 EB. 125 St, N. ¥. C.) If you are on strike or unemployed and cannot pay Initiation fee ! UNEMPLOYED AND STRIKERS ADMITTED WITHOUT INITIATION and receive dues exempt stamps until employed. | (Enclosed find $1.00 for initiation | _______ __ __ ents during the recent war and is // | valuable not only as a statement of |; Reed’s short stories have been col- lected by the Vanguard Press under the title of “Daughter of the Rey- olution.” The book will be reviewed soon. social patriots: the Noskes, the Fberts, and the Scheidemanns in Germany and their counterparts in the other countries, who in the name law has the sanction of bourgeois morality about it and avoids any- thing which tinges of a class issue. In the last war this idea figured heavily. Those who were arguing for British participation in the war on the grounds of national self- interest chucked this article of faith out of the window and transformed the war into a holy crusade for the: law of nations.” ms Apparently this slogan still has its uses for, “Should there be a next weneral war, war aims of an ideal- istie character will probably be just as important as they were in the last var. International organizations are still so weak that at least one other war can be fought on the pretext of strengthening them.” . + # * After the public has been mobilized for the war it is necessary to keep the passions of the masses at a fever heat. The most efficient method of doing this is to spread stories of atrocities by the enemy. On pages 85 and 86 of this volume there is @ ist of atrocities utilized in the lagt war, and which with a little revampe ing can be made to serve again in the next war. As a matter of fact, the jauthor points out that some of these atrocities are very ancient and one at least was used against the Turks at the time of the crusades. most effective atrocity stories, the author states, are those dealing with sex enormities, mutilation, and the raping of women, all of which “yield @ secret satisfaction to a host of vicarious ravishers.” | them. of the defense of the “fatherland,” betrayed the social revolution into a the hands of their imperialist mas-| The book is a mine of information: ters. ‘of the propaganda literature of the But the call for unity and victory| war and of the thousands of intel: is not sufficient. There are some lectuals in all countries who helped to. minds that require a more subtle betray the workers. Bernard Shaw, technique and which must be fur-| H. G. Wells, and John Dewey are but nished with “war aims of a highly|a few of those mentioned. These yationalized and idealistic type.” The | “liberals” are probably disillusioned, yery opposition to war can be capi-| now that the war is over. But there talized by declaring the present war|is no doubt that the busy psychologists to be a “war to end war” and to|oif the propaganda bureaus will in- destroy the “octopus of militarism.”| vent a new bait for them when the and who now called upon the social-| next war breaks out and they will ists, syndicalists and anarchists to|cnce more do the dirty work of their sapport the “fatherland of revolu-| imperialist masters. tion,” imperialist France. The author —CY OGDEN. VANGUARD ictox 50c each HEAVENLY DISCOURSE c. BE. 8, WOOD Sparkling conversations about human affairs held in Heaven b i JOHN MACY says—A glorious book, serious and funny, sad and CHARLES H. WOOD says—Heavenly Discourse is heavenly. It 1s livine fooling of the highest order. ROMAIN ROLLAND says—Brilliant! Voltairean! DAN MINTURN M. H, HEDGES A young labor leader—ardent—ideal- istic—the idol of the working class. irl—rich—alluring—the political boss. They What happens to the radical? Dan Minturn’s struggle with the temptations of luxury and beauty forms the theme of this engrossing psychologic novel. DAUGHTER OF THE REVOLUTION AND OTHER STORIES JOHN REED Gripping stories of romance and revolution, passionate love and rebellious life, found in New York, Mexico, Paris, by a famous adventurer and journalist. NEW YORK EVENING POS'T says—There is youth and color and fineness in THE HERALD TRIBUNE says—The stories are as vivid as this morn- ing’s headlines—swiftly told and sharply etched. CLOTH BOUND — FULL SIZE — WELL PRINTED At All Bookstores—50c By Mail—b5e VANGUARD PRESS, 80 5th Avenue, New York City. Dated, ek, famous wits THE MAIN STEM The fascinating adventures of Sifm and Blondey, migratory workers dut- ing the world war, exposing a thrill- ing life with its own language, ste opinions and emotions. THE 7 TRIBUNE says—This story of hobo life is frank and unperfumed, rich ineident and racy in language. THE COMMUNIST JANUARY, 1928 1. Lenin to the American Workers A letter by Lenin, hitherto unpublished, written in Janu- ary, 191 2. The Crisis in the Labor Movement By WM. Z. FOSTER The Secretary of the T. U. B L. analyzes the causes of the crisis in the trade unions and what the left wing can do to save them. 3. America Discusses the Russian Opposition By BERTRAM D. WOLFE who are the supporters of Trotsky in America? An anal- ysis of the discussions by Lore, Eastman and Abramo- vich on the controversy in the Cc. PB. of the Soviet Union, Rates: Yearly sub, 2.00 6 Mo. sub. 1.25 Single copy -25 And Other Important _ Articles, Order From: The COMMUNIST and one month's dues.) 89 E. 125th St. New York.