The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 12, 1928, Page 3

Report S00 MURDER FOLLOWS: BOYCOTT AGAINST JAPANESE GOODS Chinese Papers Report 2,000 Wounded (Continued from Page One) dock workers unloading Japanese goods walked out permitting the freight to pile on the wharves, Japan- ese merchants. were completely boy- cotted. Yesterday a Japanese steamer sank off Pingtan, carrying with it a large number of Chinese seamen. The Japanese consul accused Chinese of sinking the vessel and communicated with three Japanese gunboats in the region. The bombardment followed. * * * SHANGHAI, March 11—Workers and peasants in Northern Kwangtung province are reported to have gained control of a number of additional vil- lages and to have expropriated their landlords. Worker and peasant de- fense corps are being strengthened in anticipation of a possible attack by the authorities at Canton, Reports from Canton state that the Communist led Hunanese troops have taken a number of villages in the vicinity of Kireilin. Kuomintang au- thorities are concentrating troops in Canton, fearing an attack on the city by the worker-peasant troops from Hunan. Increase USSR Textile Machinery This Year | The manufacture of textile mach- inery in the Soviet Union will be in-| ereased 140 per cent during the cur-| rent year at a cost of about $15,000,- 000, according to a report issued here by the American-Russian Chamber of Commerce. This will represent only 45 per cent of the total of the new textile machinery to be put into the industry this year, the statement adds. Several new looms have been recently invented in the Soviet Union which not only double the output of present day looms but can be manu- factured at less than half the price. Almost six hundred Hungarian terrorists are coming to this country in an effort to spread fascism and to raise a loan for the maintenance of the Horthy regime. above, by a well-known Hungarian artist, pictures one phase of the white terror in Hungary. Hungarian Fascists Torture Milit = 2 | THE DAILY WORKER, YORK, MONDAY, MARCH 12, 1928 SEG eA ey ant Workers Page Thres Chinese Murdered as Japanese Gunboats Bombard Large T: BARE NEW WHITE TERRORIST PLOT Try to Cripple Industry | in Donetz Basin | (Special Cabie Tr ; DA | MOSCOW, March 11 jin Pravda points out that the counter- jrevolutionary plot discovered in the |Donetz coal basin shows for the first |time with startling clearness the new forms of struggle t ng used jby the counter-rev “During the last + have systematical production by ¢ by arson, by flooding yoa planned of equipment, by provoeatc alings with workers,” counter-revoluti | sabotage these, the editorial continues, “probably t in other branches of Soviet industry. The nu* |merous fires in factories and mills of like |tion. “If in spite of all thi |of the Soviet Union is rapidly pro- |gressing, the extraordinary inner |stability of Soviet power, the sound The drawing the economy Ricl ORES FOUND IN SOVIET UNION MOSCOW, (By Mail).—At the an- nual session of the Geological Com- mittee in Leningrad, a summary was made of mining explorations of the committee during the past year. Iron ore areas have been discovered in the Crimea estimated to contain 370,000,000 tons of ore. In Siberia manganise deposits have been discov- ered estimated at about 600,000 tons. Extensive explorations were made in the districts rich with precious metals—Yakutsk, Transcaucasia and Central Asia. Great coal deposits have been dis- covered in Petchorsk and Transcausia. Anthracite has been discovered in the eastern slant of the Urals. British Tory to Head Greek Police Force LONDON, (By Mail).—British con-| trol over Greece was Strengthened when Sir Frederick Halliday, the head of the British Police Mission in Greece signed his third three-year contract with the Greek Government. Halliday will attempt to reorgani the police forces in those dis where the protest against the govern- jment has been particularly strong. iets More Wage Reductions| New wage reductions in 14 in-| 'dustries were recorded during the| month of February, according to a] monthly publication of the Labor | Bureau, Inc. The heaviest of thes reductions were made in the texti jindustry, with the metal and building | trade following closely. | THREE WORKING CLASS PLAYS By K. DURANT. liege two short plays to be presented tonight by the Workers Theatre are wholly concerned with problems of workers’ life. “The Scab” by Max Geltman is good melodrama, the con- ct between the worker’s family ties, his wife and new baby, and his class interests, the union and the strike. A ten per cent wage cut and a new baby at the same time puts any miner in a bad fix. Tom scabs to pay the doc- tor’s bill and buy milk for the baby, | but at the crucial moment—well, go | and see for yourself what happens at | the crucial moment. It is a picture of what is happening in a hundred miners’ homes and at a hundred pit | mouths in Pennsylvania and Ohio to- day; the union committee in action, the picket lines and the cops. At the first performance at the Triangle | Theatre the audience booed the cops and the seabs; the next time they may | join in the strikers’ songs. That will be the beginning of a successful work- ers’ theatre. “Aftermath” by Mary Burrill, re- surrected from the files of the “Lib- erator,” is the story of a Negro boy | who goes to France in the great war for democracy and comes home to find that his father has been lynched. | The bible says “love your enemies,” | but that wasn’t what they taught that | Negro/boy in France; they taught him | to shoot and gave him guns to shoot | with. He brought the guns home with ; him, along with silk scarves from Paris for his sister and mother. What | he did with those guns when he learn- | ed about the lynching, is something to see and think about. a eee The Workers Theatre is not the last word in modern dramatic technique. It does not pretend to be. It is only the beginning of a working class thea- tre in America. The Broadway critics and the Greenwich Village aesthetes would give these plays and these play- ers an awful panning; but that would be no proof that they are bad—or good. Shakespeare did not write these plays, and Meyerhold did not produce them; but happily the Work- ers Theatre crowd do not imagine themselves Shakespeares and Meyer- holds. They have set out to give working class plays for workers; and they have done it. The defects of construction, direction and acting are the defects to be expected from in- experience and lack of funds. More- over, they are such obvious defects that they are certain to be corrected if the Workers Theatre can hold to- gether long enough to gain exper- ience and find the right audience. The problem of the right audiences is important, On Monday there were a few superior young persons present who snickered every time the cop clubbed a striker, The problem for right audience, the Workers Theatre on their present bill “The Renegade” is not so good. “The Renegade” is a telephone monologue done with con- siderable skill by Michael Lenson. Some of the audience last Monday night liked it, or pretended to. But it is probable that the right au- dience—the audience that snicker when a cop clubs a striker— to like it. Renegade” one of the theatre direc- tors had to come out and shush the audience, telling them that absolut silence was necessary for the pr appreciation of this act. The dience was obediently silent; but un- r lence had no effect upon the Seventh Avenue subway trains which thunde past the wall of the Triangle Thea- tre. There is an obvious lesson in this for the Workers Theatre. They will learn that they cannot produce plays which require the reverential hush necessary for proper appreciation of |“The Renegade.” A workers’ theatre must be pre- halls, over garages, in open lots, and whatever other odd corners may be available fot working cl: gather- ings. Seclusion and silence is for the Theatre Guild, but not for the Work- ers Theatre. It must be’ prepared to compete with the roar of subway and elevated trains, with rattling steam pipes and crying babies. (An at- dience which does not have its fair proportion of crying babies, will not be a truly working class audience.) During the best moments of “The was not conscious of the subway trains. + * * Already, in these two plays the Workers Theatre has adapted itself damental to its problem. The simple and effective stage sets are properly suited to meager funds and slight equipment, These are governing con- ditions, because a Workers Theatre jin capitalist America will never have much money and will not be able to employ expensive devices and elab- orate equipment. It cannot be ham- pered with cumbersome properties, set up on union hall platforms. It must seek ways and means to pro- duce the greatest effects with limited equipment. This is a true experi- mentalism, which proceeds not from intellectual theories, but from the practical necessities. ; In “The Scab,” for instance, the stage is set to represent the interior of a miner’s house on one side and an open space at the pit mouth on the other, without any intervening wall. the Workers Theatre is to find au- diences that won’t snicker when a cop clubs a striker. When they get the The scene is shifted, without lowing ithe curtain, by simply switching the its from one side to the other. By will discover that the third number | doesn’t | will not like it, and will not pretend | Before they began “The } fortunately the director’s plea for si- | pared to present its plays in union} Seab” and “Aftermath” the audience | to the cireumstances which are fun- | difficult to transport and not easily | Skillfully managed, this device pro- duces an illusion sufficient to supply | ‘the missing house wall and the im- {aginary distance separating the two |scenes, There is no need to justify this technique by any fine theories of | revolutionary form and content. It| is a simple and practical expedient. | The turn of an electric switch is the | cheapest device for changing a scene; | jeliminating expensive sets and diffi- | eult labor. In such di 5 Workers Theatre is proceeding, a in further progress along this li will discover new tricks for produc-! jing the most effective illusions with | the greatest economy. The first performance showed a lack of practice. Play-acting is hard work and requires a lot of difficult ehearsing. The Negro cast in “Af- |termath” gave evidence of more dis- cipline and experienced training. iy ae ae | In boosting the first efforts of the | Workers Theatre and congratulating them on a successful achievement, we | must not encourage the careless slip- | shod performances that are condemn- | jed under the term “amateur theatri- |als.” That stuff is not good enough. | |The current movies and vaudeville better. If the Workers ; Theatre is to succeed, it must gather }a group of actors and stage work | who have not only the necessar jity, but also the zeal and patience to jsubmit to discipline and hard work | |which is necessary for effective per- |formances. If you are going to ‘switch lights, instead of changing scenes, that’s all right. It is cheap] and effective. But the lights must) be arranged just right; and they must be switched at exactly the right mo- |ment. If you are going to show mass } |picketing on a twenty-foot stage, it is necessary to practice the marching {and counter-marching over and over again, with a keen-eyed, hard-bciled | director out front, willing and able to {show his company how to create the greatest illusion under these limita- tions. These ave just some of the problems that the Workers Theatre are tackling, and it is mighty inter- esting to see them at the job. They have already so far succeeded that their present performances are not only interesting but are good, stir- ring, class dramas as well, The Work- ers Theatre are putting on the shows; the readers of The DAILY WORKER should provide the audiences, Go tonight, March 12, to the Triangle Theatre, Seventh Avenue between Perry and 12th Streets, and see these shows. And if the guy next to you thinks it funny when a cop slugs a \striker, poke him in the ribs. Ef you want tickets in advance, or more in- formation about the Workers Thestre, write to Florence Rauh, secretary, the Workers Theatre, 91 Charles Street. hows are USSR DECREASING jassistance to unemployed increases | |basis of Soviet industry and the im- q mense strength of the working class | “The discovery of this plot, how- lever, cannot justify unfounded attac against special . Employing as jusual loyal specialists, the Party |must tend to replace non-proletarian {elements from bourgeois specialist {circles with red proletarian special- lists. The Party now so strongly con- solidated will be, without doubt, able to accomplish this task successfully. Shows Big Decline in Moscow, Leningrad MOSCOW. (By Mail).—The num- sss ‘hing! in itaeoe sovldeny'ge [Soviet Union May Open Trading Office in Chile creased last year (from 82,778 to! 19,815) and the group of unskilled | SANTIAGO, Chile, March 11—The Soviet trading corporation at Buenos workers and employes has increased. | To meet the demand for skilled | workers, the labor exchange is carry ing on extensive work in training the unemployed. During the past year 6,143 have learned trades The labor Antofogasta, Chile, it is widely ru- mored. The Soviet Union has already pur- ar At the present time there are |chased large quantities of nitrates. over 20,000 unemployed working in| collective enterprises. About 54,000 people have gone through the unemployed collective en- terprises. 13,900 unemployed were engaged on. public utility work, of whom 35% were women. The labor exchange supplies 5,900 needy unem- ployed with dinners at reduced rates (in 1926 only 3,000 were served din- ners). Cages ieee) Leningrad unemployment continu- ally decreases. During the period | May-January, the number of unem- | ployed dropped by 16%. Most of the | unemployed registered on the labor exchange offer their labor power for the first time. FIRE THREATENS WORKERS. LONG BRANCH, N. J., Mar. 11— This city was shaken by an explosion yesterday when an oil heater in a large office building exploded, A resulting fire threatened the homes of | many workers in the neighborhood, who were panic stricken by the ex- plosion. sav LISSEN! you CANT ARGUE. WiTH ME UNLESS you KNOW YOUR What Price Aliens in America? by Edith Rudquist An analysis of the sev- eral anti-alien bills; their vicious provisions, and the purposes of the law- makers in proposing them. Spread this timely pamphlet! 10c WORKERS LIBRARY PUB- LISHERS, 39 Hast 126th St. New York City. Be ' BENEFIT IN SOVIET UNION |testify to the validity of this sugges- TICKETS —— JIMMIE HIGGINS FREIHEIT 30 UNION S ‘Berlin Metal — | Workers May | Defy Decree government mandatory is expected to order to force ),00( striking workers in the tool {back to w Whether or {unions will defy tt date is not yet | the workers, continuance of the strike i the mandate is the industr fears that the strike other’ branches of the ATHEISTS GROW IN LOS ANGELES By QUEEN SILVER. LOS ANGELES, Calif.. March 11 ‘The Devil’s Angele mch.of the American Ass f the Advancement of Atheis' plan a vigorous campaign of propa- ganda and educational work for the jcoming months. Their program in- | cludes’ lectures, debates, di jof leaflets and sale of athe scientifie literature, street w during the summer, and pos: ent inment jin the fall to cel the birthday of the local groun next | October. Regular meetings will continue to | evening at 8 p. m. Questions and dis. jeussion follow each lecture, and all |are invited. Admission is free. Another branch of the work of the} 4A’s which is to receive close atten-| | tion during the coming months is |the school students from 7 to 17 years| jof age. It is requested that those Ayres will open a branch cffice at| atheists who have children, or who| business houses here iknow of children who would be in- terested, get in touch with the local secretary of the 4A’s at the Friday night meetings. be held, as previously, at Room 218,| , 224 South Spring St., every Friday |” a 19 WW ~ SB ~“We there is ot Nica- n soil occupied ‘ous in- the Union and South Z the | Ge | Rebel Le: large to be Report Fifty Killed In Mexican Mine Blast 11.—Fifty been » Aurora according 0 bodies ve There were more than }men in the mine when the expl occured, but fifty escapec BIG FIRE IN J JUAREZ, Mexico, } | More than $100,000 4. from a disastreus f waste half a block « ars and Among the place destro3 the Lobby Rar, the B. & E. the Toltee | Bar and the Keno Bar—all familiar to tourists. ENTERTAINMENT NEW YORK EVER WITNESSED ARE E OAILY 107th St. 106 UNIVERSITY PLace & Park Ave DAILY WORKER 108 £.14° STREET: WORKER aar iy i on Tet eee Iwan