The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 12, 1928, Page 5

RED CARTOONS, 1928. Edited by Walt Carmon, With an introduc- tion by Robert Minor. Cover De- sign by Hugo Gellert. Daily Work- er Publishing Co. $1. Reviewed by A. B. MAGIL. T= publication of the annual book of Red Cartoons should be an event in the life of our movement. It has been noted often enough to have be- come a commonplace that the revo- lutionary movement in this country, whatever its other weaknesses and in- adequacies, has been unusually fertile in powerful artists. Some have put it: funny how all the best cartoonists seem to have been cornered by the Reds. But this is putting it the wrong FRED ELLIS way. It is not the Reds that have cornered the best cartoonists, but the Reds that have given them the stuff of which the best cartoons are made. The class struggle has made Minor, Ellis and Gropper what they are. And the publication of a collection of car- toons that have grown out of the class struggle is therefore an event, an im- portant artistic event in the life of our movement, Vd ® Red Cartoons, 1928, is the third of the annual collection of drawings from the pages of The DAILY WORKER. By far the greater part of it is de- voted to the work of Fred Ellis, who during the past year has become the regular staff cartoonist of The DAILY WORKER. The other ‘artists repre- sented are William Gropper, Hugo Gellert, Jacob Burck, Maurice Becker, William Siegel, M. P. (Hay) Bales and K. A. Suvanto. The art of Ellis dominates this book. It is the art of a man who has not merely seen and sympathised with the struggles of the workingclass, but who has felt them down to his very bone. They have been part of him all his life, not by choice, but necessity— the iron law of class. “Fred Ellis,” s Robert Minor, himself one of greatest of American revolution- * troduction to the frit twenty and all this time a member in d standing a: iis wulea. A work- » his cartoons are saturated with a nk workingclass bias. Never has ade a cartoon which was not in interests of labor. His cartoons, ven with the touch of genius, have a fighting quality and strength which mark him as one of the really <great political cartoonists of this time.” (it ELLIS OUTSTANDING. IN “RED CARTOONS” need hardly be added that Ellis never | has and probably never will receive | the Pulitzer prize for the best cartoon | of the year.) I should say that Ellis’ work has us. And he is something more than a/| great political cartoonist. He is a} revolutionary artist who in a society in which even vevolutionary art rarely | escapes some taint of the febrile es- theticism of the dominant bourgeois | class, has retained the simplicity, the | vigor, the massive creativeness of the revolutionary proletariat. And it is/ this which makes Ellis in certain as- | pects of his art greater than any of | his contemporaries. Gropper, for ex- ample, a much more versatile, more subtle artist, seems almost an esthete beside him. There is nothing of Grop- per’s intellectual restlessness, the con- ict between lyricism and satire, in Ellis. Ellis seems stolid by compar- ison, But it is the stolidity of assur- ance and strength rooted deep, the stolidity that shakes worlds — the beaten, groping stolidity of the work- ingclass struggling inexorably to its power. do Mh te Ellis is the most “proletarian” of all” American revolutionary artists. | His best cartoons are usually vivid dramatizations of ‘simple mass emo- tions. Hate and love, ridicule, pity— | these are his stock in trade. Strikers have referred to scabs as “rats” for | years. Ellis has taken this simple, | obvious idea and built out of it what is perhaps the most powerful cartoon in the entire volume. The drawing| shows an el train in the back-ground | and a huge sign: “I. R. T. Strike-| Breakers Apply Here.” Facing the; sign, with backs to the foreground and slimy tails sticking out, is a hord of rats. And the perfect caption: “To Take the Place of Men.” The effect of this cartoon is like a whip across the face. Bitter and sardonic, the entire class struggle is | presented in a flash. The bitterness of this picture holds the secret of Ellis’ peculiar power. It is what I mean when I say that he is the most “proletarian” of all our revolutionary cartoonists. It is as a tragic rather thah satiric artist that Ellis touches greatness. And he has the capacity | of lifting himself up to crucial and tragic moments in the life of the workingclass as in his magnificent Sacco-Vanzetti drawings. (These have been included in a separate volume.) Biche * Not only the tragedy of the exploit- ed workers, but their hidden power, the menace of their insurrection loom large in the drawings of Ellis. The Chinese peasant rises with pitchfork to carry on the betrayed revolution, and the Nicaraguan dies with his fist thrust towards the plane of American imperialism circling overhead. The drawings. of defeat are never draw- ings of déspair. Always there is the call to battle. And even in the un- evenness of his work—and Ellis’ work is not always good, it sags visibly at times—there seems to be reflected the uneven progréss of the struggles of the workingclass, IT have some faults to find with the editing of Red Cartoons, 1928. There is not enough variety in the selection of cartoons, too many of them expres- | sing approximately the same, idea. And} several of the most powerful of Ellis’ | ; cartoons have been omitted. I under- | | stand that loss of cuts and other | jmishaps have prevented them from | being included. This is not the fault | | of the editor of Red Cartoons, but it | {seems to me some provision should be !made for preserving every DAILY | WORKER cartoon. A HISTORY OF WARFARE Somewhat of an ‘Aristocratic’ Viewpoint MARCHING MEN: The Story of War. By Stanton A. Coblentz. Unicorn Press. $5, Reviewed By N. SPARKS, 'T is somewhat hard to find the exact aim of this rather ambitious book. It is not a history of war as a science, the development of strategy and tac- tics, but rather an account of the de- velopment of the methods and scope of warfare throughout the ages and .thru all lands. Within the limitations ‘of this subject the book has some “Value, which is not enhanced however by the author’s style, which is remi- niscent of an encyclopedia article or of the antiquated textbooks of a gen- eration ago. . . ’ To lend unity to the work the author conceives his subject fancifully as the story of “the growth of the war- od.” This silly personification lends a teleological slant to the whole story, actually carrying the author into such a métaphorical morass as to aseribe a ‘certain condition to “the astuteness of the war-god.” Of the fact that the real unity underlying his story con- sists in the development of the pro- ductive forces and of economic sys- ‘tems, which have been the determin, ers of the development of warfare, the author seems to be absolutely ignor- ant. Instead of being grounded upon the idea of the economic basis of war, the book takes a purely psychological viewpoint and concerns itself with the owth of “warlike psychology” and ie “militarist mind.” Quite consist- ently he considers the only enemy of the “war-god” is “the growth of a Pacific international. psychology.” There is not a word of the working- | class or of its role, | The author’s own viewpoint on the | last war might be described as a sort | of aristocratic pacifism with a pro- ally tinge. He deplores primarily the killing of geniuses and intellectual | lights. For the masses he has only an aristocratic contempt—contempt | for their “malleability.” The actual accounts however of the | methods of warfare of different cow = | tries and different afes will repay! reading to anyone who is altogether | unfamiliar with the subject, and the} author deserves credit for the thor- | oughness with which he disproves the old lie of the “natural warlike or combative instinct.” INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS, 881 Fourth “Avenue, New Yo: have reconily added to their seri “Voices of Revolt,” volumes on V. I:} Lenin, Georges Jacques Danton, Aug-| ust Bebel, and Wilhelm Liebknecht, | and are soon.to issue a volume on Eugene V. Debs. This series, in which were previ- ously published volumes on Nobes- pierre, Marat, : Lassalle, and Karl Liebknecht, consists of small volumes attractively printed and bound in boards, in which are collected some of the outstanding utterances of the pioneer revolutionary leaders. Vol- umes on Thomas faine, Wendell Phillips, Michael Bakunin, Rosa Lux- gnbare, and others are in prepara- tion. { something more than a touch of geni-! § Each volume retails at fifty cents, and boxes are supplied for each four volumes, THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, Y 12, 1928 Hugo Gellert’s Cover Design for “Red Cartoons’’ PH. D. SEES THRU GLASS EYE DARKLY Studies Communist Activities But Trees Hide the Woods (COMMUNIST) AMERICAN THE WORKERS’ PARTY AND THE TRADE UNIONS. By David M Schneider, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University Press. $1.25; Reviewed by JOHN L. SHERMAN. “COMRADE” SCHNEIDER has here made the grade. A union card in one of the skilled crafts is surely not to be sneezed at. Nor is a Ph.D, from Johns Hopkins. It is no secret that between $300 and $500 is usually necessary to se- cure admissien into such closed unions as the Plumbers and the Bricklayers. A fairly comparable cordition is im- posed on those seeking entrance into the closed union of the Doctorate. This book shows how “Comrade Schneider made the grade. Pao ee Amalgamated Clothing nization, he ” The Workers is a gre: holds. “Its aggre: fighting capacity democracy account for i enal growth and succes Not just “democ’ but “thorough dem of Bockerman and “Frenchie!” Is thi simple ignorance or ig it a necessary condition of “making the grade?” President William Green came t the 1925 conver tional Ladies’ Ga Union, we are told, eloquent plea for un yeness, T, and thorough phenom- in the Inter- y national. In the course of his address he said: “I am liberal enough to respect the opinion of every man. I think I can be classed as a radical many times, and I have no q 1 with a member of our union who may be classified as a radical. In fact, I am glad to see the. spirit manifest it- self, -” (page 95) Does “Comrade” Schneider want us to believe that he here is taking Wil- liam Green at his word. It is necessary to read this mono- graph to appreciate fully how, “facts” may be made to plead the cause of reaction and corruption, Only a first- hand examination of this “study” can illustrate fully how the elaboration, of one side of a story side by side with the playing down of the other can'do the trick required of students who would attain their Doctorate. For is it only the observance of professorial moderation which ex- plains the report of the 1927 conven- ion of the United Mine Workers in ich scores of progressives were kept out of the hall, hundreds of false delegates were packed into the meet- ing, at which beatings and sluggings were meted out to a number of others and at which not a single progressive measure received even a_ hearing which explains this convention in such dignified terms: “The pfogressives charged that the administration had not only unseated one of their adher- ‘ents, but that it was also responsible for the beatings that several of them suffered.” (page 58) ~“* * Then we have such interesting items as the following of an entirely differ- ent order, less professorial, and— shall we say it—illuminatingly in- accurate: “. . District 1, 5 and 9 which comprise the anthracjte:” again > there is the now famous incident of a certain wire scnt, or supposed. to have been sent, at the Boston 1925 emer- sncy convention of the furriers, “by C. E. Ruthenberg, secretary of the Workers’ Party of America, to Wil- liam Weinstock, a reporter at the con- vention to the Daily Worker. . . .” (page 79). And where did Schneider get the information that at the time of the activities of the so-called Com- mittee to Preserve the Trade Unions meetings of protest “arranged by the Communists in New York, Chicago Baltimore and Boston were turned into anti-Communistic demon- strations?” (page 112) * * * An unverified report states that “our author” was at one time a mem- ber of the Workers’ (Communist) Party; that he was, earlier still, a er of the Boi ik Party in the nion, Pe report i untrue was merely circulated b) the teaching staff of Johns Hopkin in order that “Comrade” Schneider of thi s economic seminar might more eas t the from within of that in: jon in its at to “capture” the Workers if this is the case, these efforts e been far 1] successful, acco ing to the opinion of this revie than have b the efforts of the Com munists whose purpose, according t¢ “Comrade” Schneider has been te “cawture” the American trade unions! For “Comrade” Schneider also ha: succumbed to the current conviction held by all good li and Dep ment of Justice nts that the exclu- sive objective of the Communists iz to “capture” the ‘ganized labor movement. How widely’ this concop- tion is held is only by degrees coming to light. ** * Imhis conclusion, after an examina- tion of the six organizations whch the Communists have made a speeial effort to “capture,” he declares: “It is apparent from the forego- ing study that the Workers’ Party and the Trade Union Educational League have failed in their attempts to gain control over the American Labor Movement. . . .” (p. 108) There are reasons, he contends, for this failure to capture these trade unions. This is a safe generalization. All things have their reasons. There is probably even a reason why so many good hod-carriers are spoiled by going to Johns Hopkins! The reasons for the Communist failure to “capture” the labor movement are ap- proximately two, says ‘Comrade’ Schneider, “Perhaps the most important single cause of the lack of success | suffered by the Communists is the lack of “knowledge on the part of their leaders concerning purely American conditions.” This shows, of course, remarkable insight! The Communists have failed to expture the needle trades—(or have they really failed?) The reason why Sigman, for instance, has succeeded (or has he really succeeded?)—-is be- cause he knows more about American conditions than Hyman! If anyone For it must be remembered, Schnei- der says by way of elaboration, that “the Workers’ (Communist) Party, which directs the Communist at- tempts to penetrate into the Ameri- can trade unions, in under control of the Third International. . oo Ehis is the main reason for the failure. That Beckerman and “Frenchie” might have had something to do with developments is perhaps unknown to our investigator; that there might be some significance in the fact that his conclusions are drawn at the end of 1927 after the left wing set-back in- stead of early in 1926 after the left wing victory seems altogether to have escaped “Comrade” Schneider. Have the Communists failed to “capture” any unions? * 4 rade” dis der, internal evi- ed a consider- information—and in- her “comrade,” J. B man, th, as. one will immedi es who reads this mon “Comrades” But the ultimate test, activities with- even when judged our wishy-washy “how they work in dards of pragmatism is: the leng run.” * * And to form a true estimate of the success of Communist activities within the trade unions during the past period we must take account not only of the results of these activities n the narrow sense but, w ly more important, we are ot take account of those activities which are now developing without the re- actionary organizations which could not have arisen without the earlier efforts. It is, of course, doubtful whether Schneider, Salutsky-Hardman and orman Thomas can understand such ts of dynamic development. is beyond the minds of liberal prag- matists! A study of the influence of the Communists within the trade unions which will terminate a year from now will have a completely different con- clusion to draw. For the great events now going on in the labor movement could not have taken place except for the facts that the Communists worked in the unions, were victorious, were set back ‘and rose again during the past few years—as they. will con- tinue to win, be set back and win again—from now on until the final victory of the workingclass. * Charges Against Police Whitewashed in Court Murray Render and William Dow, who were severely beaten by mem- bers of the Industrial Squad under the command of Acting Lieut John E, Broderick at the recent six-day bike race at Madison Square Garden, were given suspended sentences in the West Side Court. No charges were made can see anything in this reasoning, against Broderick and the other de- he\is welcome to the insight. tectives. * t u a That explains | of the suc-| Q © TROTSKY By MICHAEL WEBB. |. ketene! painting is organized on a commercial basis, “like the | production and sale of pictures,” ac- ,cording to Louis Lozowick, the well | known left wing artist, who has just returned from Paris. Lozowick stopped off in Paris on his way home from the Soviet Union, where he ex- hibited some thirty of his drawings jane collected considerable material jon the Soviet theatre and cinema. |He reports that the workers’ and | peasants’ government gives the art- jist every encouragement, and that | Moscow publications pay well for the |drawings they use. Art in the Soviet | | | } | | | Union, he said, has a social function,4 land is not subject to speculation by |private dealers. In Paris the level of talent among painters is higher, but the artist is a “wage-slave” in a huge commercial machine that has its art factories, advertising agents, middle-men, and speculation like any ;other commodity under capitalist jmethods of production. . * 8 | A young artist in Paris, Lozowick reports, begins his career by turning his paintings over to a “marchand” or dealer whose business it is to create a market for the artist’s work. By exhibitions, critical articles, wire- | pulling, gossip and other methods of publicity the artist’s work gains a reputation and his pictures go up in price; and the art dealer cashes in. Meantime, the artist works on ignment. He must furnish a spe- ‘ied quantity of pictures a month. Painting has become 80 robotized that pictures are referred to in the trade as “numbers.” The artist un- dertakes to supply 10 or 15 numbers within a given period of time. As his market widens, the money he re- ceives for his “numbers” increases. | Ditto for the “marchand’s” profits. | The dealer is in the position of aj capitalist who obtains a concession in an undeveloped country for next to nothing; as his sales increase, his profits, dividends and shares go up. People who buy paintings may or may not get “aesthetic” pleasures out of them; but what is most in- tense is the speculation. They “in- vest” in a young artist as they would in a new plant; and the little invest- ors follow the big investors, just like \the lambs on the New York stock exchange trail the bears and bulls. Some time ago the American million- aire Barnes (of Philadelphia) pur- chased a score of paintings by the Russian painter Soutine, who works jin Paris. Up to that time Soutine was not a “figure”; his art was curb stock; Barnes’ purchase landed him on the Exchange; people said if ap American millionaire invests in Sou- tine he must be a good thing. Others also invested. Soutine is now a kind of General Motors on the Paris art exchange. A successful artist enjoys the usual privileges of success; he is pointed out like a Rockefeller or Baron von Huenefeld; American tourists f&re taken to his Paris studio as if it was | Niagara Falls or the Woolwort! Building. He may or may not have} great talent; who can tell, when what | |we consider ‘talent depends so much | on tastes determined by critics, pub- licity, and American millionaires. Thus for instance, art exchange spe- cialists predict that Picasso’s stock is bound for a flop. Just now the Eiffel tower and Picasso share hon- ors as the chief sites of Paris; and | Picasso (being a financial success as jwell as a great artist) disregards the sale of “numbers” as Ford scorns Wall Street. He is an “independent” artist in more than one sense; tour- ists can’t get into his studio. But be best of stocks has been known to flop, and the art connoiseurs are nosing the tape. OPPOSITION Its for WORKERS vy Bertram D. Wolfe A keen analysis of the role of the Opposition in the Rus- sian Party, and a cutting expose of its counter-revolus tionary supporters in Amer. ica. To spread this important pamphlet we have reduced its price below cost. 100 pages NOW ONLY 35 cents. Order Today From WORKERS LIBRARY PUBLISHERS 39 E. 125 St., New York Bu, The STOCK EXCHANGE OF ART-MODEL 1928 The art industry even has» its middle-men who leap from “poverty” to riches, like the obscure boys who cleaned up in the recent bull market in New York. Thus Andre Salmon the French art critic has a collection worth mil cost him a nee it is the custom of unknown French painters, whose prospects are all in the future, to pre- sent critics with samples of their work. Now many of the painters who gave Salmon s during the twenty years of his activity as a critic have fame while Salmon has a fortune. What an artist like Picasse really thinks of the western art industry is hard to say, but Lozowick reports that he is friendly to the revolution- ary working class movement, ai that every evening he tunes in his radio in his Paris studio to the Mos- cow wave length so that he can hear the Kremlin chimes. “Smash the Frame-up!” MANYNOTED WRITERS IN “DEFENDER” + ay egerncete to announcement just made, the June number of the Labor Defender, a special Mooney- Billings issue, will include articles by writers of international reputation. In answer to a cabled request by the editor, Henri Barbusse, noted French Communist author, writes on janother bloody fascist crime, the |Sozzi murder. Fremont Older, edi- tor of the San Francisco Call, who has been. connected with the Mooney- the leading article. James P. Can- non, national secretary of Interna | tional Labor Defense, writes an inter= view with Warren K. Billings a& Folsom prison. Anna Louise St writes an article on China and J. Andrews, legal adviser of the Nation- al Association for the Advancement of Colored People, writes on lynch- ing in the United States. Huge Gellert, well known artist and see writes on Hungarian fascism in United States. T. J. O'Flaherty cons tributes a brilliant satire on the ree lease of Sinclair in the oil steals, with illustrations by Art Young. In addition to a feature on the rrest of Bela Kun in’ Vienna, two items of special interest are a letter from Hungary telling of a raid on a worker’s home and a letter from Greece describing the oppression of workers there. . A two-page lay-out of photographs on the Mooney-billings case is the high point of the many unpublished, jexclusive features in this issue. The June number will be off the press in about a week and is expected to reach another high mark in cireula- tion, bettering the high figure of 18,000 reached by the May number. A New Vanguard Book! Soviet Trade Unions by ROBERT W. DUNN Other Vanguard Books. On Soviet Russia— HOW THE SOVIETS WORK H. N. Brailsford. SOVIET RUSSIA AND HER NBIGHBORS Page Arnot. RELIGION UNDER THE SOVIETS J. F. Hecker, VILLAGE LIFE UNDER THB sovVI ‘Ss Kari Bordens, ONOMIC ORGANIZATION THE SOVIET UNION Scott Nearing, WOMAN IN SOVIET RUSSIA Jessica Smith, HEALTH WORK IN SOVIET RUSSIA Anna J. Haines. Order from WORKERS LIBRARY PUB- LISHERS, 39 East 125th St. New York City. “Leave Me for Somebody Else tol Read and Multiply My Po n Billings case since 1916, contributes” retary of the Anti-Horthy League ~