The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 14, 1928, Page 5

THE THIRD DEGREE: A POET’S PRISON DIARY By DAVID GORDON. Hees a pretty tid-bit. Tony tells me this story: He and a certain cop were good friendg. However, since Tony had need of some money he “double- crossed” his friend by attempting a store robbery on his beat. The cop was tipped off and Tony will,accom- pany me to the reformatory the day after tomorrow. Said Tony: “He was my best frien’ but he said if I’d try anything on his beat he’d ride me good. Boy, he sure did wallop me on the head with his club, He said he’d do everyt’ing if I'd be caught .robbin’ on annuder cop's beat but if I double-crossed him he won’t do anyt’ing for me.” * * * This morning I harvested an excel- lent crop of mine, There was good cheer from the American Civil Liber- ties Union and from The DAILY WORKER. A former teacher of mine promises to get my old high school teachers to sign a letter to the court in my behalf. Before I could finish reading. my correspondence I was compelled’ to be “interviewed.” He must be a very old man because his brains are very rusty and his intemperate temper is lisgustingly crusty. He asked me to answer questions. When I tried to answer them he stopped me. I wished to be exact since I do not trust the future kindness of any court if I am not exact. He testily denied me this privilege and figuratively spat his senility into my face. I tried to feel humble, to spare his filthy impatience but I guess my true feelings reflect- ed themselves in my eyes whenever I met his sneering gaze. In conse- quence he raged on until I was dis- missed, threatened with, “I'll fix you!” I suppose this means an un- favorable report of myself, Each time I look at the fellow with the jaw broken by the “bulls” he ‘is shaking his head bitterly at ‘he irreparable loss. When he dis- covered that I’m a Jew he said, “Well, I’m no fanatic myself.” * . ° Conversation about “bulls,” Said one future “reformatory boy,” inter- rupting: “You got nothing on me. See this,” he said opening his mouth. It was filled with a rubber jaw. “The ‘bulls’. did that. I was about half dead before they threw away the pipe.” * le “Listen to this,” the first fellow said. “They once wanted to make a fellow admit something. After they beat him a while the poor suck- er ran up the stairs. Well, he met another keeper at the head of it with a pipe. He got slugged and ran down the stairs like a rat and got slugged by both until he dropped from exhaustion.” * * * No, I’m not sorry to leave this ni Even tho the boys here are not such a bad bunch. It will con- eern me no longer how much the cock- roaches scurry about the cell, nor Fi longer of the killing air and sunlessness of this grave for living beings. It’s very late now. There is no use waiting for a word from home. The keeper just passed on his hourly round. I don’t suppose they even had the decency to telephone my parents. i wish the nickel is returned to me. The 1928 “Red Cartoons,” edited by Walt Carmon will be published in time for May Day distribution, it has just been announced. The volume, which is the third to be published, will contain the work of Ellis, Grop- per, Gellert, Burck, Siegel, Don Brown, Suvanto and others published during the past year. JIM TULLY and short story writer, author of “Circus Parade” which is illustrated by American novelist William Gropper. Tully recently returned from a visit to San (uen- tin Prison, California, where he saw Tom Mooney. Claude M’Kay’s ‘First Novel: A Story of Harlem HOME TO HARLEM. Claude Mc- | Kay. Harper & Bro. $2.50. | Reviewed by WALT CARMON. LAUDE McKAY, after a long ab- sence, comes back to Harlem, the Harlem he evidently has missed a lot, loves, so well, knows so thoroughly and presents in such vivid, gay colors in his first novel “Home To Harlem.” Claude McKay, poet that he is, gives us Jake, a poet of life. He -pre- sents Jake in a Harlem setting, and around him revolves the life of Har- lem in a good deal of its sordidness and beauty, its poverty of living and its richness of life; its simple mind- ed and/very human mass of Negro worker$ who love life above every- thing, who can find so much song and dance and music in it. It’s a picture a poet would give. us, not a realist, yet realistic for all that. eR Sie In France, during the war, Jake escapes from the army when he finds Negro soldiers are given the heavy work to do instead of fighting Ger- mans. He is in England when the armistice is called, and finally the call of Harlem brings him home. On his first night home, he meets a little girl who charms him. The code of both is unmoral. Likeable children, they respond joyfully to each other, and when he plans to call again he finds he did not get her address, Only after a long time does he find her again, this time to keep. It is a simply-told story of the la- bor, loves and adventures of Jake. Unmoral, plain-spoken, a warm, pas- sionate note runs thru it all, intense but human and unspoiled. Told in a simple pleasing style, it makes delightful reading, Yet with all its virtues, “Home To Harlem” can by no means be a complete, or |near complete, picture of Harlem life, McKay, brilliant poet in the days of the “Liberator,” is still more poet than serious novelist. Authentie as is his picture, it is only a part of the whole canvas. His Jake, simple-mind- ed, lovable proletarian, who instine- tively knows that seabbing is not the |thing to do, is pictured in a life that jleans too heavily to cabarets, bar- rooms, unmoral and immoral women —a life generally that is not a life of the bulk of Negro workers, if eight to ten hours of heavy labor a day |mean a thing, It simply can’t be jdone. ; As a whole, ‘Home To. Harlem” is jonly a simply told story, But in that simplicity there is an unescapable quality that makes it a pleasure. Claude McKay of “Liberator” days, is poet again in his first novel, THE SPEECHES OF LENIN New Volume in ‘Voices of Revolt’ Series [NTBBNATIONAL, PUBLISHERS, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York, have ‘just published a small volume of speeches of V, I. Lenin, made between 1917 and 1923, as Volume 8 in the series “Voices of Revolt.” The most important utterances of Lenin from the moment he stepped on Russian soil after the March Revolution until his grave illness in 1923 are included in the volume. The address to the soldiers of the Izmailov regiment on April 28, 1917; the speech on the “immediate situation,” delivered be- fore the Petrograd Conference of the Bolsheviks, May 10; speeches deliv- ered on the day after the November 7th Revolution, discussing the Soyiet decrees on peace and land; speeches dealing with the nationulization of the banks; the @ispersion of the con- stituent assembly; the Brest-Litoysk peace; short speeches delivered at var- ious Moscow factories where workers were being recruited for the front; as well as important speeches deal- ing with the origin of the world war, and the relation to the peasantry, are included. ‘The volume also contains the, last made by Lenin, at the plenary session of the Moscow Soviet on No- vember 19, 1922, entitled “From NEP Russia to Socialist Russia.” This volume of Lenin’s speeches is an addition to the growing Lenin litera- ture in English, and contains a great many important pronouncements on policy and tactics. A very imporiant introduction by A. Kurella, analyzing the main feat- ures of the speeches included in the | volume, and the sxplanatory, notes given in the back of the book, greatly enrich its contents. The book retails at fifty’ cents. Other volumes in this series in- clude: Lasalle, Robespierre, Marat, Karl Liebknecht, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Bebel, Danton, Debs and Ruthenberg. All this chorus of calumny, which the party of order never fail, in their orgies of blood, to raise against their victims, only proyes that the bour- geois of our days considers himself the legitimate successor to the baron of old, who thought every weapon in his own hand fair agnimt the plebeian, while in the handy of the plebeian a weapon of any kind con- stituted a erime. f --KARL MARX, THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY Tom Mooney By WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD. I Tom Mooney sits behind a grating, Beside a corridor. (He’s waiting.) Long since he picked or peeled or bit away The last white callous from his~palms, they say. The crick is gone from out his back; And all the grease and grime Gone from each finger-nail and every knuckle-crack, (And that took time.) ba Tom Mooney breathes behind a grating, Beside a corridor. (He’s waiting.) The Gold-men from ten cities hear in sleep Tom Mooney breathing—for he breathes so deep. The Gold-men from ten cities rise from bed To make a brass crown for Tom Mooney’s head; They gather round great oaken desks—each twists Two copper bracelets for Tom Mooney’s wrists. And down sky-scraper basements (all their own) They forge the spikes for his galvanic throne. The Gold-men love the jests of old Misrule— At ease at last, they'll laugh their fill; They’ll deck Tom Mooney king, they will— King over knave and fool. And from enamelled doors and rearward office-vaults, Lettered in gold with names that never crock, They will draw back the triple iron bolts, Then scatter from the ridges of their roofs The affidavits of their paper-proofs Of pallid Tom fool's low and lubber stock. ii Tom Mooney thinks behind a grating, Beside a corridor. (He’s waiting.) (Tgm Mooney free was but a laboring man; Tom Mooney jailed’s the Thinker of Rodin.) The Workers in ten nations now have caught The roll and rhythm of Tom Mooney’s thought— By that earth-girdling S. 0. S., The subtle and immortal wireless Of Man’s strong justice in distress, The workers in ten nations think and plan: The pick-axe little Naples man, The rice-swamp eoolies in Japan (No longer mere embroidery on a screen), The crowds that swarm from factory gates; At yellow dusks with all their hates, In Ireland, Austria, Argentine, In England, France, and Russia far (That slew a Czar),— Or where the Teutons lately rent The Iron Cross (on finding what it meant); At yellow dusks with all their hates From fiery shops or gas-choked mines, From round-house, mill, or lumber-pines, In the broad belt of these United States, The Workers, like the Gold-men, plan and weke,— What bodes their waking? The Workers, like the Gold-men, something make,— What are they making?— The Gold-men answer often— “They make Tom Mooney’s coffin.” Iv Tom Mooney talks behind a grating, Beside a corridor, (He’s waiting.) You cannot get quite near Against the bars to lay your ear; You find the light too dim To spell the lips of him. But, like a beast’s within a zoo (That was of old a god to savage clans), His body shakes at you— A beast’s, a god’s, a man’s! And from its ponderous, ancient rhythmic shaking Ye'll guess what ’tis the workers now are making, They make for times to come From times of old—how old!— From sweat, from blood, from hunger, and from tears, From scraps of hope (conserved through bitter years Despite the might and mockery of gold), They make, these haggard men, a bomb,— These haggard men with shawl-wives dumb And pinched-faced children celd, Descendants of the oldest, earch-born stock, Gnarled brothers of the surf, the ice, the fire, the rock. Gray wolf and gaunt storm-bird. They make a homb more fierce than dynamite, They weld a Word. And on the awful night The Gold-men set Tom Mooney grinning (If such an hour shall be in Truth’s despite) They'll loose the places of much underpinning In more than ten big cities, left and right, (From “May Days,” Edited by Genevieve Taggard. Boni and Liveright, N.Y.) Minor Music by Henry Reich, jr. Reich’s brilliant verse is well-known to the read- ers of the “Daily Work- er. In this book is contained his best poems: Tale of Ye Dizzy Knight, His- ov The Sons of Esau, ete, Handsomely bound with gold engraved title. WORKERS LIBRARY PUB- LISHERS, 39 East 125th St, New York City, — cs Vets for Suppression PHILADELPHIA, April 13.— Aroused by criticism of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Legion, made by Dr, Thomas Woody, a professor of the University of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia county council of the Veterans of Foreign Wars has adopted a resolution demanding that the doctor be “silenced.” ‘Are you a “DAILY WORKER” worker daily? APRIL 14, 1928 “BERTIE’S” (BERTIE) ER full name is Bertolina Miglian- ico. She works in the cutting room. When one of the cutters needs a pattern or a cutting ticket he |shouts “Bertie!” at the top of his voice, and prestd! there is Bertie, |like Aladdin’s genie, risen out of the floor with the desired article. Bertie is searecly five feet tall in her high-heeled department store shoes, On first glance she seems to be a child scarcely more than seven- teen years old. It is only when one {has come closer that one sees the tiredness of her flabby body, the |drooping mouth (that with intense ef- fort she manages to bolster up into a smile); it is ouly after one speaks to her that the listlessness of her voice and the burnt redness of her eyes become plainly visible. And words, one immediately knows that Bertie is not a child, that she is a woman, an old woman. Old with the despair that shattered illusions cre-| ate, old with the horror of the deadly monotony of the factory, broken with years of pain and self-denial and in- timidation. In reality she is twenty-five years of age, She has worked in the fac-| tory for twelve years. As a reward, | she now receives twenty-two dollars a week, and even the manager, even | Mr. Bright condescends to call her| “Bertie” in a familiar tone. In an-| swer, Bertie usually twists her little | apeface into a synthetic smile and| answers “Comin’, Mister Bright,” or “°N a minnit!” And after she has done what she has been\told to do, |the corners of her mouth droop| |again, her breasts hang limpid like pouches attached to her skin, and she relapses into gloomy lethargy. But this week Bertie is happy. She flits through the factory whistling jlike a caged bird, singing continually. |The song is ended but the melody jlingers on.,..” There is a sparkle |in her brown elf-like eyes as she jrushes from one job to another. “Just Charlie and me, and baby makes three—we’re happy in my blue heav- en....” All notice unusual gaiety and are happy and sympathize with her. “Tell why your song is sad, never glad, blue river, blue river— do you hold the memory of a van- ished dream?” Bertie is working here for the last week. Next week and she will be married to Charlie, land goodbye! forever, to the factory! And so Bertie is happy. Mr. Bright is giving her her bridal costume in reward for the twelve years of youth she gave him, and the workers have collected fifty dollars amongst them- selves and are buying her a set of silverware, and Ted Lurie, the col- lege student who is working there in order to save enough money to ¢on- tinue his education, has promised her a copy of “Sapho” with which to start |, her library. (Poor child, she will not understand it, and place it in a cor- ner of her room unread.) What more can a girl want? “Only one thing, John,” says Ber- tie to Muller, the cutter, “I’l die be- fore I let my children work in a fac- tory!” Books Received The Republican Party: A History. By William Starr Myers. The Century Co, The Democratic Party: A History. By Frank R. Kent, The Cen- tury Co, Women in Soviet Russia, By Jes- sica Smith. Vanguard Press. | America in Santo Domingo. By | Melvin M, Knight. Vanguard Press. Foma Gordeyev. By Maxim Gorky. 2 vol. Bee De Publishing Co., New York. 1928 Elections Coolidge Program Two pamphlets by Jay Lovestone The various cap- italist parties are soaked in oil— Coolidge chooses not to run— But what about the workers? How will they vote this Election Year? These two pamphlets tell the story. Spread them far and wide. COSTUME CLARENCE DARROW then, from the bitterness of her| (Caricature by the Italian artist, | Fort Velona) Balance Sheet of Bourgeois Revenge WENTY-FIVE THOUSAND men, women, and children killed during the battle or after; three thousand at least dead in the prisons, the pon- toons, the forts, or in consequence of maladies contracted during their cap- | tivity; thirteen thousand seven hun- dred condemned, most of them for life; seventy thousand women, chil- dren, and old men deprived of their natural supporters or thrown out of France; one hundred and eleven thou- sand victims at least. That is the bal- ance-sheet of the bourgeois vengeance for the solitary insurrection of the eighteenth of March. What a lesson of revolutionary vigor given to the workingmen! The governing classes shoot in a lump without taking the trouble to select hostages. Their vengeance lasts not an hour; neither years nor victims appease it; they make of it an admin- istrative function, methodical and continuous, (Lissagaray’s “History of the Com- mune of 1871.”) ———————— Charles E. Ruthenberg: Selections from Speeches and Writings, Voices of Revolt Series. Inter- national Publishers, The Story of the American Indian. Dr. Paul Radin. Boni & Liver- ight. Page Five FACTORY SKETCHES : Robbing Union ‘Treasuries in Strike Periods ee offer prolific opportunities for corrupt union ten their bank a¢counts at the ex- pense of the workers and they often take advantage of them. Although strikers may be hungry there will only too often be found union offi- cials degraded enough to steal from officials to fat- their meager strike funds. The min~ ers have suffered much from this: evil. The seandal in District 5 of \the United Mine Workers of Amer- ica following the 1922 strike was. only one of the many cases of such’ corruption that might be cited. The needle trades and other unions have also had their experiences in this jrespect. The recent cloakmakers* |strike in New York was an example. | Although the general control of the strike was in the hands of the left |wing, the right wing leaders were |strong enough to intrench themselves |in various committees carrying om vital strike activities. Result, exten |sive graft by them in spite of all |efforts at proper control. Then, with fine irony, these same ultra-reaction- jaries raised cries of graft against the left wing leadership. Under the head of “organizing ex~ | penses” the labor corruptionists cover up much of their dishonesty. Vast sums of money are swallowed up it fake organization campaigns. An jexample was the recent A. F. of Le | campaign to organize the steel works ers. This burned up some $75,000: left over from the 1919 steel strike }as an organizing fund. Only a few score of workers were actually or- { ganized. Another case in point is the U. M. W. A. “organizing cam- paign” in West Virginia for the past |couple of years. This, under the leadership of the notorious Van Bitt— ner, has squandered scores of thouss ands of dollars with no tangible pet sults. What reactionary labor lead> ers understand under the head of “organizing expenses” was evidene by the banquet given by Frank Fee ney in May, 1925, to the Philadelphia’ “open shop” employers at a cost of $7,000. * (From “Misleaders of Labor,” bye William Z. Foster. Trade Union E@u= cational League, New York.) ’ Serie orders. to us. Beethoven: Leonore Overtm 67350-D. By Albert Sammons. In Four Parts, on fwo 1 17002-) ---17008- RUSSIAN PROLEYARIAN SONGS ON RECORDS Vidol po Pitersko) (Dubinushka) Marseiliaine (& Tohornys V: Hymn of Free Russig (4 Moskow) Ech ty Dolia, Moya Dolia (National) Umer bedninga (&Korobusbka) 20033F 20071 20074 Karie Glaski (& Lapti) Russian Potpourri & Songs Polianushka & I was there Poet & Peasant—Overture Light Cavalry--Overture Gold & Silver--Vienna Lite Ukrainian Lyrie Songs. Ech ty Doha, Moya Dolia 0054E Her FEE Chu miesiae—Letell kukushkt 64000F Ey uchnem—Hymn Svobodnoy Ro: 20042F Ya chotchu Vam_ razskazat—Tchu 20110 Povarrt ix Rusuisich Pleyen—Part 1 72226 Volgie UKRAINIAN WORKERS’ SONGS ON RECORDS e712 e716 27117 27119 HOW I CAME TO AMBRICA Song by, N. Dancsenko Words by E, Zukowsky SONG OF HAYCUTTERS Chorus and Orchestra Words by Ivan Franko Masterwork We have pretty good results from the “Daily Worker.” would like to know, if there are more readers, who are delaying their We would like to hear from them, and invite them, to write This would enable us to keep our advertisement in the “Daily Worker.” MASTERWORKS SET NO. 75 Beethoven: Quartet in D Major, Op. 1 B: Lener Strin uartet o: juda pest. * an Six Biter on Three 12-inch Double Dise Records, with Album. $4.50 Complete, No. 3. By Sir Henry J. Wood aud New Queen's Hall Orchestra, In Four Parts, on Two 12-inch Double Disc Records, Nos. 67349-D Vartini: La Trille du Diable jThe Devil's Trill), Sonata. y Uchnem & Moskwa (Hymns National) On the Volga & She Stood in the Field Black Eyes; scene of the Volga Boatmen “Bolshevik” Galop & Novaya zizn—Waltz Liubev 1 Vexna—Vesna PrekasnayaeWaltz Dream @ Autuma—Charming Waltz F. Sarmatiff, Comedian jagnyet—Gibel Varyaga Ach, Zatchem Eta Noteh—Harmoshka Warshawianka—Pochoropnyj Marsh Nikolajev——-Yablotehko—Ya tchachotkoyu stradaye 2 Dubinushka—Chorus of “Russian Izba”—Vniz po matushkie pe MINER FROM PENNSYLVANIA REVOLUTIONARY FOREVER Of All The Great Players But we 18, No. 3. $1.50 Each. 2-inch Double D. $1.00 Bach, Dise Records, Nos. ‘eron) hik kutcherinvy WE ALSO CARRY A LARGE STOCK IN SELECTED RUSSIAN, UKRAI- N, POLISH AND SLAV ECORDS, We will ship you C. O. D. Parcel Post any of the above Masterwork Series or we will be more than glad to send you complete Catalogues of Classic and all Foreign Records. 1928-20 cents, Coolidge Program—5 cents. WORKERS LIBRARY PUB- LISHERS, 39 East 125th St. New York City. Surma Music Company 103 AVENUE “A” (Bet. ALWAYS AT YOUR SERVICE I a nt EE ON AS NS Radios, Phonographs, Gramophones, All OKEH, Od: eon, Columbia, Victor ing Accepied—We Sell Sell for Cash or for 6-7th) NEW YORK CITY Pianos, Player Pianos, Player Rolls. Records.—Piano Tuning and Repair- Credi emerently, Reduced Prices,