The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 21, 1928, Page 5

THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1928 Page Five MEXICAN FESTIVAL: A TRIBUTE TO A LEADER (Written Especially for The Daily Worker.) (CATA, Morelos, Mexico (By Mail).—Ten thousand peasants, on foot and on horseback, have jammed into the plazas of Cuatla to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the assassination of Emiliano Zapata, the great agrarian leader. Most of them are® is — —~ armed. ; document which is short but effect- They are a picturesque group, at- ive, providing for the division of the tired in their regional costumes: | /@7g¢ estates, the restitution of lands and waters (for this is a region of little rainfall), to the “despoiled peo- | ple” by the “complete expropriation of exploiting landlords who have for |ny reason opposed the revolution,” |and expropriation of the remainder | with partial indemnification. After Madero’s success in 1911, Zapata continued under arms, pend- ing assurances that the land progran: would be carried out; Madero came down in person to this town of Cuatla and embraced Zapata. Made- ro promised to take no military measures against Zapata and to under take a solution of the land problem. Madero failed to fulfil his promises. Zapata took up arms again. When Madero was overthrown by Huerta, Zapata’s cause gathered new and | vigorous headway, and, for a time, he%controlled nearly the whole of southern Mexico, and there appointed a provisional government. At one time his armies entered the capital. Carranza refused to grant Zapata’s demands until he had laid down his arms, so he refused until Carranza known Mexican| promised to grant the claims of the peasants. Zapata is reputed to have once said to Villa, “How can Carranza understand our needs, his kind sleeps in beds; we sleep on straw mats.” oe And so for a time Zapata set up an independent regime in the south, where he minted hand-pounded silver dollars, passed jaws with the aid of the Convencionist Congress and pro- ceeded to distribute lands. He was finally tricked into ambush ard shot down—April 10, 1919. His work was not entirely lost. Though Carranza immediately re- fused to recognize his land-subdivi- sion, Morelos today has had more land distributed and more ejidos or village-commons restored than any other: state in the Republic. Today Carranza’s name is anathema among the peasants, and Zapata is the greatest popular hero of the Mexican revolution. Today, nine years after, Zapatismo is a living force, and peasants come for miles from far states to pay homage at his grave. And this year, too, they cheered Sandino of Nicaragua. DIEGO RIVERA Internationally Communist artist, who has depicted the life of the Mewican peasant in his paintings and frescoes. broad, high-peaked sombreros, with huge up-turned brims, fully three feet. across; with their red kerchiefs, their white and pink shirts, their white trousers, and leather huaraches or sandals. Most of them have scar- let ponchos or serapes, slit in the center so that they slip easily over head and shoulders. They have come with bands, a dozen bands; and their horses’ hoofs clatter up and down the sun-slashed streets between the low, flat-roofed, adobe multicolored houses, among the orchards and gar- dens that crowd into the very center of the town. One sees few white faces, a few mestizos; this is an Indian ‘center; and here was the cra- dle of the Mexican revolution. Even before Madero, this region was in reyolt against the dictator Porfirio Diaz. * * * In 1911, Zapata launched his fa- mous agrarian Plan de Ayala, in concert with his followérs. «It'is a ART YOUNG'S DRAWINGS “Frees”? With a Political Kick in Them TREES AT NIGHT. By Art Young. Boni & Liveright. $3. Reviewed by WALT CARMON. is a splendid addition to one’s library —tho you will be tempted to tear out some of the pages for framing. It is unfortunate that a collection of ONG ‘batons: Bilis; Gropyer, See drawings of our own Art Young Minor and others of the _ Bret | ust be in so expensiye an edition, artists in the American revolutionary | 5, each of these drawings ‘are well movement, unequalled in any coun- RSE gh pny 4 g. All of them are made try in the world, Art Young’s satin |by an artist who sees in trees “some- ical, Ps droll eat a0 i aed thing kin to the human family, with drawings were a bright spot in the it; roots in the earth and its arms radical and revolutionary press, In stretching toward the sky....” ee old beter abe Me eee orker, ily Worker, New Masses M What Is a Working Day to a Capitalist? been vividly displayed. Many of us still chuckle remembering his gay, little short-lived publication Good, Morning and its glorious campaign ings are included in the Red Car- | 2Pital may consume the labor power toons collections of 1926 and 1927,| Whose daily value it buys? How far It is a pity there has been no sepa-|may the working-day be extended be- fate collection of Art Young—of the/yond the working time necessary for (Drawing of Michael Gold by Don Brown.) Third Degree - By MICHAEL GOLD. Five strong detectives are in a cell with a prisoner, By God, they know they will make him speak! They push against each other blindly, like mad, thirsty bulls pent in a cattle car, They are anxious, there is not enough room for them in the dark cell, Their heavy suits hamper them, their white collars choke them, They grunt and sweat and curse as their blackjacks rise and fall, Five strong detectives in a cell with a prisoner. They have eagerly twisted the arms of the prisoner behind him until the bones cracked. They have battered his pale temples with their blackjacks, and kicked in his fourth rib, They have walked on his spine, and beat his mouth to a bloody pulp. They have blackened his eyes, and flattened his nose, The five strong detectives in a céll with a prisoner, “ae And by; God, they will surely make him speak. ed The moon, like a white innocent, blunders in, and then vanishes, knowing she’s not wanted, And.a taxi-cab rolls by in the street above, with a drunken girl laughing to her man. And a guard rattles his keys down the corridor, and the gas-jet whistles a lonely little tune, And prisoners in the prison turn on their cots and dream they are home again, While the five strong detectives argue in the cell with the prisoner, Telling him, by God, he must surely speak. Oh, lead blackjacks, plead wth the prisoner to speak, and hard shoes,|as it would for him to be a nation- and hairy Judas-knuckles. And his pounding heart shetts that he must speak. And his bleeding body weeps like a baby gnawed by a rat, Speak! And his brain bursts with agony and screams, Speak, Speak! And his blood moans! Your woman waits for you, if you will only speak. And the whole world roars with a million wild voices in his ears, Oh, Jesus, man! Speak! | But the prisoner will not speak. It is a peaceful night in the city. | There are men and women idling through the hot summer streets. Policemen lounge at every corner under the tall are-lamps and dreamily | swing their clubs, Ministers are pondering sermons in their studies, and the Mayor is! drinking lemonade at a roof-garden. | Judges are reading poetry aloud to their wives after the irritating day in court. Lovers me side by side in the dim movie houses and tingle as their bodies | touch. Mothers put their babies to bed, and father smokes his calabash pipe, There are a million homes so quiet that clocks fill them with tickling, And there are five strong detectives in a cell with a prisoner, And they know, by God, they can surely make him speak. NEGRO CAROLING DUSK. An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets. Edited by Countee Cullen. Harper & Bro. Reviewed by LEBARBE, | ih EVER has the Negro’s power to absorb a spirit—a national, rather than a racial spirit—from the soil, the cities, the surface life of a nation |been better shown than in this an- |thology of verse by American Ne- groes, edited by Countee Cullen, who |has sponged up plenty of this spirit in the years spent in two of Amer- ica’s most eminent knowledge mills. pies are 219 poems in this book, wr itten by 38 poets (24 men and 14 women) and 20 of these poets are un- der 30 years old. With a few excep- tions, these poems might have been written by any white 100 percenter skilled in the art: by a Harriet Mon- roe or Amy Lowell. About a dozen of them might have been written by a Carl Sandburg, an Arturo Giovanitti, a Michael Gold, or a Ralph Chaplin and these, I think, are the poems that save this anthology from being a pretty pale tome. The rather ordinary uniformity of the poems in “Caroling Dusk” is not necessarily the fault of the Negro poets. It is the fault of the com- piler, it seems to me. “As heretical as it may sound,” Cullen writes in his foreword, “there is the probability that Negro poets, dependent as they | are on the English language, may | have more to gain from the rich back- ground of English and American po- etry than from any nebulous atavistic yearnings toward an African inheri- tance,” That is all very well if Amer- ican Negro poets are writing primar- ily for a reputation and a position approved of by the 100-percenters; but if they are writing for the ex- ploited members of their race, I think they would be wiser to forget a little of this “rich background” and to concern themselves with the vital present and their particular relation- ship to it. * * * The poems which Mr. Cullen has chosen (with a few excepiions) show a striking uniformity in their ac- ceptance of the Negro’s inferior posi- tion in the present social and econ- omic scheme of the United States, as well as of the “higher traditions of English verse.” Apparently, the edit- or would have his poets write cerebral verse, smelling of the lamp, rather than perhaps less beautiful copy smelling of the arm-pits of a race still in bondage! As it is, the anthol- ogy impresses me as an exercise book rather than a social document. Do not misunderstand me. I would not have the American Negro poet a tortured Job any more than I would choose to have him ea pollyannic Eddie Guest. It would be serious artistical- ly for him to be an isolationist, just jalist. The Negro worker, for exam- ple, must stand shoulder to shoulder with his white brother in their mu- tual struggle for economic emancipa- tion. But I would like to feel that Negro poetry is his own, whether it is in the “best English tradition” or, not. “Caroling Dusk” certainly is not| wholly a bad anthology, but I do not hink it is a consistent anthology. There are some beautiful, some tech- | nieally strong, some vital poems in it as well as some puerile poems. Not | strangely, I like best those that come | closest to the rebellious and revolu- tionary tradition. } I would like to see more wark songs, blues, folk songs, and rebel songs and fewer of the highly pol- ished sonnets, lyrics, Japanese hok- kus, and French light verses in the AMERICAN CLASS WAR Peete? wee Mo | LANUSYON HUGHES, | book. Claude McKay, for example, has written much better stuff than the few poems Mr. Cullen has chosen to represent him in “Caroling Dusk.” * * * The American Negro has the emo- tional capability, the originality, the artistic conception, and the power of creation needed to produce a vital | race poetry. The race that has given | America its greatest sum of folk; ‘ongs in,the Negro spirituals or slave j songs—the immensely _ influential} stimulus of ragtime and jazz to} American music—and the promising verse which has already been written by Phy: Wheatley, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Claude McKay, Countee Cul- len, Langston Hughes and others, | capable of producing an may be American Pushkin or a Negro Whit- man. But if such'a poet is to be pro- duced from the present crop, living Negro poets must get better leader- ship in the direction of closer contact with the great struggling masses of | of the ezar and his famil NERSE AND Reactionary Writer Has a Terrible Dream SECRET SOCIETIES OLD AND; EW. By Herbert Vivian. (Londons 1927). Reviewed By CY OGDEN. THE author of this volume is an Eng- lishman who is suffering from the rabies. He is under the delusion that all revolutionists are evil-minded per + sons who meet in dark cellars, wear masks, and communicate with eacly other by complicated signals. These “vile creatures” stir up the “rabble” against their god-ordained rulers andi lead them to bloodshed and murder. = The French Revolution ard thé Commune of Paris were caused by such secret bands, subsidized with for- {eign gold. The Carbonari, the Young Turks, and other revolutionary groups were merely bloodthirsty villains who murdered, raped and committed many | other crimes which the author enum- erates again and again with an ob- vious thrill of sadistic pleasure. 4 The choicest epithets are reserved for the Communists. At every men- tion of them—and they are spoken of j en almost every other page—he foams at the mouth. Murder is the mildest thing he attributes to them. The fate moves him: te tears and to a wholly fanciful story’ of their death and “mutilaticn.” The: description of Lenin might have been written in an msane asylum and is so vile that it cannot be repeated. Only one “secret group” receives any praise, and that is, of course, thes fasci He goes into ecstacies over Mussolini and locks upon him as th “saviour” of society from the “scourg of Bolshevism.” This book has a remarkable resem~- blance to the propaganda literature’ about the Huns and the Bolsheviks that was fed to the mas during the: last war. It may be advance= guard of a new crop for use in thet next war. If so, it is up to the old : standard. i A LIVING WAGE. di Question: “Do you consider ten-del= |lars a week enough for a longshore= man with a family to support?” Answer: “If that’s al] hy can 2%” and he takes it, I should say it'™ enough.” : (J. P. Morgan’s testimony besore \the U. S. Commission on Industrial their race, | Relations.) ~~, Coiviibia \ tae orders. to us. In Six Parts, on Three 12 Beethoven: Leonore Overtu: No. 2 By Sir Henry J. Wood ana } In Four Parts, on Two 12-inc 67360-D. Tartini: La Trille du Diable By Albert Sammons. In Four Parts, on 17002-; fwo 12 20033F Ti 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, io write This would enable us to keep our advertisement in the “Daily Worker.” MASTERWORKS SET NO. Beethoven: Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3. By Lener String Quartet of Budapest. nch Double Dise Records, with Album, $4.50 Complete. h Double Disc Records, Nos. $1.50 Each. ‘The Devil's Trill), Sonata, -17003-D. RUSSIAN PROLEwARIAN SONGS ON RECORDS Vidol po Piterskoy (Dubinushka) Marseilinise (& Tchornyj Voron) Hymn of Free Russia ( Moskow) Ech ty Dolia, Moya Dolia (National) Umer bedninga (&Korobushka) Of All The Great Players But we Queen's Hall Orchestra. 67249-D. -inch Double Disc Records, Nes, $1.00 Each. and in hundreds of publications, his unique slant on the life we livé has Want is a working day? What is with the slogan for “Harding And | the length of time during which Hell.” Some of his unusual draw- marvelous work of a good many years, given unstintingly and gener- the reproduction of labor-power it- self? It has been seen that to these The blackjacks rise and fall, the iron heels stamp on the prisoner’s face. | Books Received Karie Glaski (& Lapti) Ey Uchnem « Moskwa (Hymns National) ARES Russian Potpourri & Songs Polianushka & I was there ously to working class publications The detectives strip their wilted collars, and groan aloud like lovers in| Strangers & Lovers. By Edward | when capitalist publishers were wav- | their ecstasy, G . e | ranberry. The M: Co. The prisoner shuts his eyes for a moment, and sees the million of stars | va eee a questions capital replies: the working day contains the full twenty-four the only two old fashioned artists] bodily powers, to just so many hours ing temptations of contracts. run- ning into fancy figures. hours, with the deduction of the few hours of repose without which labor- power absolutely refuses its services again. Hence it is self-evident that the laborer is nothing else, his whole life through, than labor-power; that therefore all his disposable time is by nature and law labor-time, to be devoted to the self-expansion of cap- Me for education, for intellectual development, for the fulfilling of so- cial functions and for social inter- * * * Art Young is no longer in the cen- ter of the movement. Only occasion- ally do his drawings appear in the revolutionary _ press. Trees’ At Night is not a collection of political eartoons. It is simply a series. of drawings of trees—but what draw- ings! In the shapes of trees, in their outlines against the sky, he vision m in all moods appealing to our emotions. Only Art Young, sensi- tion to the life of nd worker, would > tree, silhouette i . ae ore weary and stad Le course, for the free-play of his bodily Then there’s “Environment”—a| mental activity, even the rest time chasm between tall skyscrapers and °f Sunday (and that in a country of at; its foot a gnarled tree, battling Sabba‘arians!)—moonshine! But” in for life thru a stony surface. That’s its blind, unrestrainable passion, its ‘Art Young at his best. Not the best were-wolf hunger for surplus-labor, ‘political cartoonist but a fine sincere capital oversteps not only the moral, ‘artist. but even the merely physical max- rhere*ty: an uneatiny “appeal tn all imum bounds of the working-day. It i 5 usurps the time for wth, develop- the drawings in this book. From the mere and healthy sat ser of rl above-mentioned, he turns to others, i $+! body. It steals the time required for playful, fantastic and humorous. His) the consumption of fresh air and sun- trees at night are camels “humping! jight. It higgles over a meal-time, along the sky,” or dancing girls, lov-| incorporating it where possible’ with ers, elephants, monkeys, youth and} the process of production itself, so old age. _ | that food is given to the laborer as Art Young is no modern. His} to a mere means of production, as coal drawings, he himself calls “old fash-| js supplied to the boiler, grease and foned.” Admiring the work of Fred| oi] to the machinery. It reduces the Ellis one day, he said with a twinkle| sound sleep needed for the restora- in his merry eyes: “Ellis and I are| tion, reparation, refreshment of the left. We draw a leg exactly as it of torpor as the revival of an organ- looks.” ism, absolutely exhausted, renders essential. AMERICAN IMPERIALISM that whirl in the universe of pain, He bites his gashed, swollen lips that he may not speak, He Seslaastae dumb faith that the world he hates will never make him | speak, | That five strong detectives in the cell with him can never, never make him speak. (From “May Days,” Edited by Genevieve Taggard, Boni & Liveright.) A POWERFUL SEARCHLIGHT This new Vanguard series exposes the history and nature of America’s interests in Latin-America, The dark and hidden corners of our relations with these countries are brought to light in the following three books, prepared under the editorship of Harry Elmer Barnes and written by trained economists and highly competent investigutors, The Americans in Santo Domingo, by Melvin M, Knight The Bankers in Bolivia, by M. A. Marsh Our Cuban Colony, by Leland H. Jenks books will leave you ‘with an unforgettable ple- f the condition of these picturesque and defence- peoples under the domination of American dollars, $1.00 each Order Now At All Bookstores, By Mail—add \0¢ for pos age. These books are clothbound, full-tice and Printed on fine paper. Send for catalogue of 75 Vanguard ticles, VANGUARD PRESS, 80 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK — —_ i — ia a a New York. Sonnets to Craig. By George Ster- | ling. With an Inrtduction by | Upton Sinclair. Published by | Upton Sinclair, Long Beach, | Calif. | Lenin: Selections from Speeches | and Writings. Voices of Revolt Series. International Publish- | ers. | Bebel: Selections from Speeches and Writings. Voices of Revolt Series. International Publishers. Wilhelm Liebknecht: Selections | from Speeches and Writings. Voices of Revolt Series. Inter- national Publishers, Georges Jacques Danton: Selec- tions from Speeches and Writ- ings. Voices of Revolt Series. International Publishers. LABOR DEFENDER. The circulation of the “Labor De- fender,” rapidly growing labor pic- torial of the International Labor De- fense, has again increased its circul- ation with the May number, reaching 18,000 net paid copies. This is an inerease of 1500 over the preceding month and 8,000 net gain in the last six months. The current May number, off the press today, to be reviewed later, features an interview with Tom Moo- ney at San Quentin penitentiary by James P, Cannon, and contains arti- cles by Michael Gold, T. J. O’Flaherty and others, all illustrated with orig- inal pho’ \ “Bolshevik” Galop & Novay: Liuboy i Vesna—Vesna Pre Poet & Peasant—Overture Light Cavalry—Overture 20070F 59038F 59036 59035 Gold & Silver—Vienna Life Ukrainian Lyric Song— Diadka Loshad Zapriag: Kirpitehiki—Dwa Arshi Krotitsia-Vertitsia—V Piewn Ach, @ Ech ty Doha, Moya Dolla Volgie HOW I CAME TO AMBRICA Song by N. Dancsenko MINER Words by B, Zukuwsky HAYCUTTERS Chorus and Orchestra Words by ivan Franko Dream & Autumn—Charming Waltz stanta—Botinotckki chem Eta Notch—Harmoshka Warshawianka—Pochoronnyj Marsh Horod Nikolajev—Yablotehko—¥ Chudny miecsiac—Leteli kukush By uchnem—Hymn Svobodnoy tt Ya chotchu Vam_ razskazat—Tchubtehik kutcheriavy Popurri iz Russkich Piesen—Part 1—: Dubinushka—Chorus of “Russian Izba”—Vniz po matushkie po UKRAINIAN WORKERS’ SONGS ON RECORDS FROM. PENNSYLVANIA REVOLUTIONARY FOREVER asnaya—Waltz tehachotkoyu stradaye 108 AVENUE “A” KEH, Odeon, Columbia, WE ALSO CARRY A LARGE STOCK IN SELECTED RUSSIAN, UKRAI- NIAN, POLISH AND SLAVISH RECORDS, We will ship you C. 0. 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. 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