The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 2, 1929, Page 4

daha Four DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, , WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2 2, 1929 Shop : LEADS iN FIGHT THE REVOLUTION SHOOK ON WAGE CUTS, SPEEDUP SYSTEM Awakens 1 Militaney of Workers (By a We A month was announced in reorgan the near future. periences the what it n up, lower tion firmer po union, etc. After keeping the we work for three months, newed pr larger shop, with chinery, with less shop, but d before. F pected, mor tion a its 0 tack against The three pa mbers work- ing in that shop felt t it was the opportunity to become more effec- tive in the shop. At a regular nucleus, it was di regular monthly ad cond 2 the treacher cialist wit ing directly t to exy in the shop, ous role of ager, and prec ers rea ad of it, t be smart en looked at : is issued regularly nt The workers of the looking with an ety to- ward the forthcoming i The number _ of our ee in the 'y. Two workers into the party nucleus. That the significance of a shop } paper in places where a large num- ber of workers are employed. S. VERNER. GOVT POISONED 7,000 LAST YEAR Mostly Workers Are Victims Liquor poisoned by the United States government caused 1,565 deaths in 1928, an increase over 1927 of 256. report of Chief Charles No an examination of the Medical Examiner yesterday disclosed. The r rt stated that only 130 deaths, directly traced to alcohol, were recorded during the year, but that there was “a marked increase in homicides, motor accidents and in accidental deaths from falls. Most of these were directly trace- able to poison alcohol.” Commanding special attention is the fact that of these deaths caused by liquor, which the government Parsee at its source, but takes no steps for its destruction, most of | the vietims were workers, who are unable to afford the protection that the government vouchsafes to the wealthy /in their luxurious night- | clubs and cafes. Executives and THE RUSSIA The Russian workers intended their revolution to usher in a thor- ough cultural transformation. The effects of this gigantic historical ef- rt have been felt in all branches of he Russian theater, from the most conservative to the most experi- mental. The Moscow ized by Art Theatre, organ- Stanislavsky and Nemiro- artistically on the works of Shake- speare, Tolstoy, Gutzkov, Ibsen, Hauptmann and Chekhov, It car- ried naturalism to its highest point. The unsuccessful revolution of 1905 plunged this theatre into symbolism nd Chekhoy became its favorite st. Throughout the reac- years 1906-1915, Stanislav- troupe performed Chekhov's agull,” Andreyev’s “Life of ” Hamsun’s “Drama of Life,” Maeterlin Bluebird,” mir- ng the lusion, despair and impotence of the defeated intelli- The 1917 Revolution, pro- anging life of the Russian nationalized the theatres of | The new audiences, | led by the civil wars, were in- erent to introspection, and were ately intent on creating a better world. For a while the Mos- cow Art Theatre failed to respond to e needs of the new times; it con- In 1922 Stanilavsky’s troupe In 1922 Stanilavskys troupe Europe and the United where it had a phenomenal artis success. On its return to the Soviet Union, it began to ac- knowledge the changes that had taken place. In 1925-26, it pro- duced Bulgakov’s “Days of the Tur- bins,” dealing with a fami f Tsar- ist officers during the civil wars. There was widespread objection to the counter-revolutionary spirit which pervaded the play; neverthe- less, the Soviet gcvernment did not suppress it, and it ran for about two years. These two years, however, brought the Moscow Art Theatre closer to the life of the people, and| the next play it produced reflected something ef the contemporary ' spirit. The “Armored Train,” by | Vsevolod Ivanov, deals with an in- cident in the civil wars, in which the Reds and Whites struggle for the possession of an armored train. The train symbolizes machinery, through the control of which the workers are to emancipate themselves. The guerilla warfare, portrayed on the stage with striking naturalism, re- sults in a victory for the Reds. The | Moscow Art Theatre continues to play its old repertoire, but has add- ed new plays portraying the new ussia. Its technique continues to \be considered the best naturalism in | the world theatre. * people, the country. linck. toured States, } The Moscow Art Theatre has de- veloped several studio theatres where younger actors and play- wrights experiment with new forms. One of these, the Musical Studio, | had a successful season in New) York several years ago. It special- izes in lyrical operas, and its reper- toire contains Lecocq’s “Daughter of Madame Angot,” Offenbach’s “La | | Perichole,” and Aristophanes “Ly- sistrata.” The technique of this theatre is naturalistic, tinged with the spirit of modern theatrical ex- | | periments. Its productions are marked by lightness and charm and are very popular in Moscow. The most important of the Mos- cow Art Theatre studios bears the name of Vakhtangov, one of the| most gifted Russian directors. | Kakhtangov was profoundly af- fected by the 1917 Revolution, which he accepted wholeheartedly. “Art,” he said, “must go with the | people; the artist must rise to the ! people.” Vakhtangov worked with | the Commissariat of Education, un- der Lunacharsky; and took charge of the commissariat’s department of vitch-Danchenko in 1898, developed | | absorbing the energies of the Rus-| | geois world. “Trust D. E.” (i. e. De- heads of big business are allowed | theatrical directors, through which to drink the best licuor unmolested | he organized the People’s Theatre. in the uptown residential district,,;He came to believe that naturalism protected by the same government | was incompatible with the new or- which poisons the liquor to be sold|der, and revised his productions in later to workers. | that spirit. Every play, Vakhtan- The report of the medical exam- | gov asserted, must be given a spe- iner ended with a prediction that|cial form, must be viewed from a more deaths would be caused by | contemporary standpoint and must poison liquor in the present year|be produced by the characteristic than in the year just ended. | methods of a theatrical collectivity. Vakhtangov’s most important pro- “ * as. duction was Gozzi’s “Turandot,” Judge Says “Publicity viens. stin played to crowded Czar” Whalen Would houses in Moscow. This is per- > | formed as a gay comedy, with sharp n° Anybody to Sin | contemporary allusions, bright set- |tings and a touch of the circus. ohn Johnson. arrested in the Vakhtangov died prematurely in vlice roundup Saturday night as a/ 1922, but his theatre continued to suspicious character, was brought! produce plays in the tradition he jefore magistrate Hirshfield yester- | founded. @y by detective Joseph McCarthy | who said that information against mn had not been drawn up, He for 48 hours to get the plain- iff before the court. Magistrate Hirshfield refused the létective’s request and added: “I yon’t be a party to the whim of the commissioner to make the ‘ont pages. I won’t help this czar | if publicity. It’s enough to drive a nan to crime.” * * 8 The “Kamerny Theatre,” directed by Tairov, developed as a reaction | against the two dominant tendencies jin the contemporary Russian thea- tre: Stansislavsky’s naturalism and | Meyer hold’s conventionalism. In Stenislavsky’s theatre, the play- wright furnishes the moods and ideas, and the actor is the mere mouthpiece of these moods and | ideas. Formal discipline is relegated | to the back ground, and the troune MITTEN, SCAB N THEATRE music ond other subordinate ele- ments. Through this “theatricaliza- tion of the theatre” Tairov achieved great successes in such productions as “Girofle-Girofla,” and Ostrov- sky’s “Storm.” In 1925-26, the Kamerny Theatre produced ‘“Kuri- kol,” “Rosita,” and Eugene O’Neill’s “Hairy Ape.” Tairov’s version of the “Hairy Ape” differed from its American production by social em- Pease at the indiideal qth | 4@iPhia politics involves the Mitten himself,” Tairov drew on the deeper |*@>-herding traction interests, the Philadelphia Rapid Tr: implications of the text. In pow ful scenes he projected the two lay-| | Councilman vd: ae, ers of society irrevocably dividea|Chatged openly in councils that a and the lone individual fighting in|high city official had been on the blind rage and tragic impotence a/P@yroll of the Philadelphia Rapid hopeless fight against the limita-| Transit at a salary of § tions of his own nature and the in-/ Year. Such a charge is really not Worker Has No Chance in Court (By a Worker Correspondent) The newest “scandal” in Phila- power of the established shocking, at least not in this city 926-27, Tairov produced| Where it is considered the usual Desire Under the Elms”|thing by many of the higher ups in Has-|* inistration to be compensated financially | public s to whom they rer at enormous expense to the and Hasenclever’s “Antigone.” enclever, one of the young German expressionists, wrote his play in 1916, as a protest against the world war. Tairov adapted the play to symbolize the international struggle against imperialism. * ‘ser- vices” people of Philadelphia. Councilman Trainer good product of the old Penrose- |MeNichol school of polities, and in| recent years has been a valuable as- set of the corrupt Vare machine, himself is a * * The stormy petrel of the Soviet Union theatre is Vsevolod Meyer- hold. This gifted director came to the November Revolution with twen- ty years of struggle and experiment- ation in the theatre behind him. In the past ten years he has not hesi- tated to reshape the contents of plays and to attempt every imaginable ex-| periment in staging and acting. Ver- haeren’s “Dawn,” which he produced; in 1921, was staged in a semi-cubist manner. An effort was made to bring} the audience and the stage into closer communion. Actual sailors came on the stage, mingling with the actors, and at the play’s climax an actual telegram from the battlé- field was read, announcing the vic- tory of the Bolshevik trops over Wrangel. The Meyerhold Theatre’s next production was Mayakovsky’s “Mysteria Bufee,” which was played on May First. This was an immense holiday spectacle dealing with con- temporary events in a “heroic, epic and satiric” manner. The “Magnifi-| though I am a director of public cent Cuckold,” by Crommenlynck, | Safety, still I am entitled to prac- produced in 1922, created a storm | tice lew.” by the introduction of the “construe-| Ernest R. Lowengrun, first tivist” method in staging, and of | sistant to the city solicitor, declared “biomechanics” in acting. Both these | that several members of the ¢ methods were a direct response to/legal staff have been retained as At any rate, Trainer’s charges frightened a considerable number of the leading politicians, who are now on a wild rush to “cover up” before the big storm, in the form of an “in- vestigation,” breaks. One of the first to, do so was Di- rector of Public Safety Lemuel B. Schofield, one of the leading lights of the present administration and formerly assistant district attorney under Monaghan. Schofield made a declaration, stat- ing that he had been counsel for the traction company from early in 1926 until December 1, 1928, a few weeks ago, when he resigned, as his new duties as police chief interfered with his legal work. “I handled about 5G damage suits monthly for the company and argued many appeals, one of them in November,” said Schofield. “While I received a hand- some salary, it was not $15,000. Al- the spirit of the times. They, torneys for the traction company. stressed, on the one hand Russia’: al “There is no harm in this,” Low- |need of machinery to build the so-,engrun is quoted as saying. “You \cialist state, and on the other the|¢annot expect a man to give up his need of sports to build the bodies of entire practice for the meager sal- its citizens. Meyerhold produced the |ary he receives from the city.” “Death of Tarelkin” in 1922, and| Oh! No! There is no harm in all “Earth Prancing” in 1923, in the|this. .Of course not. Especially same manner, The following year he | When one considers the fact that the created a furore by his introduction| Philadelphia Rapid Transit Com- of neo-realism in Ostrovsky’s “For-|pany and the republican party are est.” This new method was again a| Practically identical. response to the needs of the times,| What harm can there be in the | reflecting the period of economic | fact that an attorney ostensibly | working for the city is in reality orking in the interests of the P. R. sian people. After the “Forest” came) T.? No harm, except that workers a series of plays satirizing the bour-| injured by P. R. T. vehicles, upon coming into court, find the decks stacked against them and have no chance of winning a case at all. But this is hut typical of the justice |meted out to workers. And a few workers with legs cut off, or bodies ,|paralyzed, what does that mean to the City of Brotherly Love? Noth- ing. -C. A. RABIN. jand social reconstruction which was struction of Europe), produced in 1924, dealt with the “final conflict” between the workers and the bour- oisie, and was marked by rapid n and ingenious settings. Fai “Teacher Bubus,” produced in 192 was a comedy showing the expe jences of a muddle-headed intelle tual who is wrecked because he is unable to make up his mind whether | Tsarist nobility in general, rather to support revolution or reaction.|than on the small town officials |Erdman’s “Mandate,” produced in| whom Gogol was forced to take as 1925, was a clever contemporary symbols on account of the Tsarist drama, dealing with a conservative | censorship. Meyerhold also introduced family which longs for the return|}a number of technical changes in of the “good old days.” Tretiakov’s| the staging and produced a play of “Roar China,” dealing with the Chi-| striking calibre. Altogether, Meyer-| nese revolution, created a profound|hold’s influence has undoubtedly impression, being. performed if the|been the most powerful leayen in midst of the very events it was por-|the transformation of the Soviet traying. Meyerhold reached the peak | theatre. of his theatrical revolutionary peri- | od in 1926, with the production of | greatly influenced by Myerhold and the classic “Inspector General,” by for a time was under his personal Gogol. Meyerhold restored the play! direction, It has produced plays like to what he believed was Gogol’s|“Lake Lyul,” “Air Pie,” Ernst Tol- original intention; he inserted pas-|ler’s “Man and the Masses,” and sages from other works by Gogol, | Bela llyish’s “Buy a Revolver.” and turned it into a satire on the| To Be Continued lis almost wholly dependent on the playwright. For Meyerhold, on the PARIS, Dec. 31.—Jean Assolant| other hand, not moods and ideas, but iad a narrow escape from death to- | the aesthetic convention, is the main hy when his plane flew into a hill. | thing. The actor is a detail in a was thrown away from the plane | | plastic pattern; emotional expres- very slightly injured. |sion is forbidden, and the produc- |tion is dependent above all on the SALVAGE OF LINER. | scenic artist and the director. Tai- Treland, Dec. 31.—The | rov, in the Kamerny Theatre, sought Celtic, having survived the to combine these two methods. In tress of sea and weather, experts | this theatre the actor is the central tere today considering io salyage | factor, while around him the direc- parts. ‘tor coordinates the scenery, the The Theatre of the Revolution was! as- | ,000. per | ‘SPEEDUP XMAS HERDER, PAYS GIFT FOR MEN AT PHILA, OFFIGIALS HENGERER PLANT $12 a Week for 12-Hr. | Day (By « Worker Correspondent) Buffalo, N. Y. (By Mail).—T wards men” that is supposed to be the at Christmas | time evidently does not apply to the | workers. The employees of the de-| sartment stores had an especially | ine” opportunity to see the con-| trast between the increased profits | of their bosses during the holiday son and their own intensified ry. The writer had his “good will” presented to him in the packing room of one of the departments of the Wm. Hengerer Co. store here in Buffalo. It came in the form of huge piles of bundles that had to be packed for delivery the day of sale even if it meant working until late into the night for the packers. The Losses have a rule that all packages must be packed the day of sale, but during the Christmas rush it was impossible to get out the mountains of merchandise without overtime work. This led the company to make an arrangement which was very profitable for them. They shift- ed the starting hours of the packers from 9 a. m, to 11 a.m. This brought the working day for packers to a close at 8:15 p.m. Of course it led | to a “sleep, eat, work, sleep, eat, work” existence for the packers, for by the time they a ed home, washed, ate, etc., it was just time to catch some sleep for the next day.] But it helped the company. The two hours of business before the pack- ers arrived resulted in a very sizable pile of packages being accumulated. Starting work under the handicap of | a two hours’ accumulation of work | the packers were forced to speed up| to the limit, and keep speeding all| day to get out the work. Especially was this so because the afternoon | rush was well under way by the time the packers had succeeded in over- coming the “handicap” of the morn- ing’s business, The foreman kept playing on the very natural desire! of the packers to get out of the store as soon as B possible by urging them: dominant spirit he | “peace on earth and good will He | the flu.” | The Old Slavery: on Paper Is Welcomed by Factory Workers as Champion in Fight on Bosses the Sea and the New HELD AS THIEF- Slavery on clipper ships, such as the above, has given way to the modern speed-up on the huge ocean-going liners, The seamen still WITHOUT JOB” | “Jobless s Criminals,” | Says Police Chief (By a Worker Correspondent) “I was broke, hungry and sick, That’s why I did it!” In these words Edward Freeman, 20, explained the charges of break- ing into the residence of E. H. Whitehouse, 2287 Glendale Boule- vard. “I came here about 12 days ago to Los Angeles,” he said, “I couldn’t find a job. I didn’t have a "6 WAS HUNGRY | slave 12 or more hours a day, just as they always did on the old cent, I felt half-starved.” clipper ships, Photo above shows one of the old-style slave ships, What’s a youth to do when he is now relegated to the movies. hungry, broke and without friends or a job? Edward Freeman wants “Let’s clean up this pile, boys, if we | want to get out of here before mid- night. You know, the hates to pay for overtime.” $12 a Week. The wages for this semi-skilled work under conditions of a continu- ous speed-up are characteristic of this era of “prosperity.” I know of adult, married workers in this de- partment who were started off at $18 a week! Most of the workers won’t tell what they are getting be- cause the company forbids it, and also because most of them are rather ashamed. Other workers here were getting from $20 to $22 a week. In conversation with girls in store I found that many of them were get- ting the measly sum of 25 cents per hour. That amounts to about $12 a week. In view of these wages how ironie was the bulletin of the com- pany which advised the workers to “eat sufficient good food to avoid There are numbers of young boys in the store (the child laborers, who were told in school that they had a chance to be presi- dent), who get wages even lower} than the girls. In addition to the speed-up, there are other little refinements of tor- ture that make life in Hengerer’s a} constant series of miseries. (named “deficiency experts” by the workers), who keep prowling around the store on the lookout for mis- takes. The packers, for example, are required to work at the fastest possible speed, to be economical of PS an 6 Pp»: \ nll OPEN DAILY i, From 9 « m.-9 p.m. RQ Our glasses are fitted by expert mechanics to insure comfortable wear and neat appearance. a2 Goldin. Tne: we Polen Miller Optical Co.) 1 OPTOME’ TRISTS — OPT! CIANS 1690 LEXINGTON AVENUE., Corner 106th St. DIRECT FRO. M MOSCOW Manhattan Opera House—Tonight 8:30 (Last 11 Performances) ISADORA UN CAN company There | are several efficiency experts} DANCERS Company of 20, with IRMA DUNCAN SUPPORTED BY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Tickets Now At Box Office. Popular Prices VOICES OF REVOLT rg SERIES of attractively printed books containing the outstanding utterances of pioneer revolutionary leaders, with critical introductions. ~~ Volumes Already Published: I. Maximilien Robespierre; II. Jean Paul Marat; III. Ferdinand Lassalle; IV. Karl Liebknecht; V. George Jacques Danton; VI. August Bebel; VII, Wilhelm Liebknecht; VIII. V. I. Lenin; IX. Eugene V. Debs; X. C. E, Ruthenberg. Bound in Boards, 50c each. Order from WORKERS LIBRARY PUBLISHERS / 35 Easr 1251 Street. New York Crry. materials, to check up the sales-slip of the clerk for mistakes, to check up on the article being packed for te know Well, Chief Justice Taft answered a similar question put to him while price, number, condition, ete, to|/pe was President of the United turn out neat-looking packages, to| states: “God knows, I dont!” he male every package secure against | .aiq, all possible breakage. Every pack- y out of a job is a “Every work er must stamp each article with his | ..i minal,” Chief of Police number so the office can check up| james Edgar Davis. on his work. Unemployment creates crimes, |class-conscious workers say. They also hold that unemployment will always be with us—until we organ- \ize strongly enough to get rid of the pitalist system and all the para- Stool Pigeons. A report is sent in each night as to the number of bundles packed each day by each packer. During) the holiday rush, with the sales-girls | . nf |rushed almost to death, many mis- | tes in the wert P. RINDAL takes are bound to occur. The “defi- | ey x | clenty experts” kept insisting that) —————- a ee when we packers found an error we | this cross checking system the store inform them, so that the girl could | attempted to make stool pigeons out be bawled out. In our department of the workers. there was a sort of feeling of soli-| The conflict of interests between darity that made the packers slip| bosses and workers was clearly | out into the store when possible and | dramatized when one day our floor tell the girl, thus saving her the) manager popped his head into the | scolding and possible loss of her) packing room, and looking at the | job. But when the office saw so few | huge piles of bundles waiting to be mistakes being reported, they bawl-| packed, said, “Great day, boys, one ed out our foreman, and held up as of the best of the year.” As soon as he was out of hearing, a packer re- an example for us to follow the marked bitterly, “Hell! That guy packing room of a few floors above, whose foreman was always eager to doesn’t realize that a big day for the report the mistakes of some poor’ store is a hell of a day for us.” IRVING GREEN. | overworked girl in the store. With Keith-Albee .4 MEO 42nd Street and Broadway Best Film Show In Town Now FIRST TIME AT POPULAR PRICES Days That Shook b& The World 4 THE RUSSIAN “BIRTH OF A NATION” BY THE DIRECTOR OF “POTEMKIN” 146 W. Sith St. AR 1B Noon to Midnight Pp 1OUSE | Popular Prices 2ND SENSATIONAL WEEK “Lucrecia Borgia” with Conrad Veidt and cast of 50,000, Theatre Guild Productions CAPRICE GUILD sis ava Send st Mts. Tues., Thurs. ¢ Bal Wings Over Europe | By Robert Nichols and LITTLE J Thea. 7th Ave. & 69th St, OLSON Eys.8.30. Mats, Tues.&Sat. Maurice Browne }ro GUY ODETTE DE WOLF MARTIN BECK THEA. BERTSON MYRTIL HOOPER 45th St, West of 8th Ave. in @ musical romance of Chopin Evenings 8: Mats., Tues., Thursday. & Saturday, 2:30 BERNARD SHAW’S Major Barbara} REPUBLIC Thea. w. 42 St., Evs, 0 Mts. Tues., Thurs., EUGENE O’NEILL’S Strange Interlude John GOLDEN ,Thea.. 68th ft Biwa EVENINGS ONLY’ ar B:30 i Ethel Barrymore in “PHE KINGDOM OF GoD” By G. Martinez Sierra Ethel Barrymore Thea. we St» | Evs, 8:30; Mats, Bway | Wed. This Week “Tues, and Sat. Chick, 9944. Y 14st..stnay Even. 8:30 ¢ivic REPERTOR 50e; $1.00; $1.50, Mats. Wed.&Sat.,2.30 EVA LE GALLIENNE, Director Mat. Today, “Peter Pan.” Tonight, “The Cherry Orchard.” Thurs, Eve, “Peter Pan.” SHUBERT Pee 44 St.W.ofB' way. 's. 8.30 Matinees New | Year's and satucaage 2:30. WALTER WOOLF in the Thrilling Musical Hit lin ARTHUR HOPKINS Tt OLibA aes with HELEN GILLILAND, Singing Jailbirds By UPTON SINCLAIR. A New Playwrights Theatre Production. Directed by EM JO BASSHE. 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