The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 24, 1929, Page 4

i § ee eer wore, — Fee = = Aes ublishea by the Comprodally Publishing Co. Inc., daily, except Sunday, at 26-28 Union $ sé SS SUBSCRIPTION RATES: . bE ae a Cael nie al” rope Reape eer by Ty ya aires Rigs mK f Worker’ By Mail (in New York only): $8.00 a year; $450 six montha; $2.60 three months Page Four Adress and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. ¥. ‘ é q By Mail (outside of New York); $6.00 a year; $3.50 six months; . $2. mi Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U. 8. A. —— PARTY LIFE The Econo Bucharin-Lenin-and the Tenth Plenum Inner and Outer Contradictions. Lovestone, the leader of the international right wing in America, already a renegade, is an outstanding and illlustrative example of how low'a right wing opposition can sink, A leader of the Party during “normal” times, he at once, wt real struggles are approaching, became, first, a concealed opposit (Ninth Plenum and Sixth World Congress), then prog d to open fight against the Communist International in the Party (Sixth National Convention) and, last, as a renegade, went over to employing counter revolutionary tactics in his struggle agai: the Party, fighting it with fascist methods (burglary of National Office) and sinking down to the level of denouncing comrades to the police (his caucus documents) anc establishing collaboration with people that declare themselves to b« tools of the American ochrana (Jackson, the self-confessed agent of thc Department of Justice). It took years for a Hoglund to travel from his brand of “communism” (left socialism) to regular social-democracy but Lovestone has rationalized his renegadeism; the Amer wp” allows him to travel his road in six months. en the ionist One of the stepping stones of Lovestone is his theory of “primacy of outer contradictions.” The basis of this standpoint is to be found in Comrade Bucharin’s recent articles, where he stresses the theory that domination of finance capital does away with competition INSIDE the capitalist states and establishes a sort of organized capitalist planned economy. The competition, according to Comrade Bucharin, is removed to the sphere of international relations. The German and Russian delegations at the Tenth Plenum fought very efficiently against this wrong theory of Bucharin, and the Plenum showed that this theory is nothing new and has a rather old standing. Already Comrade Lenin fought against this theory when Bucharin published his book on the economics of the transformation period, when he stated: “Finance capital has destroyed the anacrhy of production inside of the big capitalist countries.” Lenin received a copy of that book and in the margin he made the following note: “Has NOT destroyed.” Comrade Kuusinen reported how Bucharin at the First Congress of the Communist International, in spite of the. objections by Lenin, succeeded in getting his idea worked into one of the resolutions. Bucharin and his followers of the right wing speak about the substi- tution of planned production for anarchy in the capitalist system of economy, but simultaneously they demand in the Soviet Union less control and freer conditions on the market. This theory is an indication of a decided lack of confidence in the péwer of the working class and overestimation of the strength of the bourgeoisie. Lovestone’s exceptionalism in America is based precisely upon the same tendency of underestimating the strength of the working masses and overestimating the strength of the capitalist class: exceptionalism, “second industrial revolution,” etc. Such a pessimistic and cowardly passivity is nothing else than opportunism, and the Tenth Plenum, following the line of the Sixth World Congress, could do nothing else than condemn this theory which attempts to liquidate the Marxian conception of the fundamental con- tradictions of capitalism. The Tenth Plenum stated categorically that the standpoint of the conciliators is wrong when they declare that the inner contradictions in the capitalist countries are softening, that the inner markets can be organized under the capitalist system, and that the anarchy will remain only in the world market. Furthermore, this theory has been refuted through the development of capitalism during the last few years and means nothing else than a capitulation before reformist ideology. x LOVESTONE- LORE— BRANDLER By MAX BEDACHT Lovetone’s burglary of the National Office of the Communist Party and his theft of materials and documents from that office, and his subsequent detective story designed to attack and undermine the Party and to break the morale of the Party membership, are not the only activities of Lovestone in his capacity as an agent of the Ameri- can bowtgeoisie. Lovestone also, and very definitely, is engaged in building up an American gathering basin for the growing radicalization of the masses, in order to serve the bourgeoisie as a deflector of the revolutionary energies of the masses. It is in periods when a decided leftward trend of the masses mani- fests itself that the opportunist becomes most valuable for the bour- geoisie and most dangerous for the working class. In such periods, the bourgeoisie expects from the opportunist traitor that he divert the flood of radicalizing sentiment before it reaches revolutionary con- sciousness and revolutionary proportions. The task of the opportunist is to direct this sentiment into channels of pro-capitalist action, the basis and purpose of which are covered by pseudo radical theories. This is the root of the present attempts of Brandlerism to build up a néw international to fight the Communist International and to support the “socialist” international which is already too much discredited to play this treacherous role alone. This is why, just at this moment, in the third period, we are confronted with the splitting attempt in the | American Party. This is why just at this moment, Lovestone is playing his role as a leader in the fight against the Communist International and its American section. Lovestone tries to keep secret his national and international con- nections with the openly recognized and easily recognizable opportunist agents of the bourgeoisie. He protests against being put into the same pot with Brandler. He gets indignant when he is mentioned in one breath with Lore. He vociferously cites his zeal in the struggle against | Cannon to disprove accusations which link him with Cannon. But all | of these protests cannot eradicate the fact that Lovestone today speaks % the language of Cannon, that he fights the fight of Lore, and that he | carries on the propaganda of Brandler. To prove that, we need no | artificial constructions or interpretations, The bare fact’ suffice. Can- nons “Militant” prints Lovestone’s argument on Gastonia and on the Trade Union Unity League Convention and Lovestone’s mimeographed sheets repeat Cannon’s arguments on the same points. Lore’s “New York Volkszeitung” is fighting Lovestone’s battle against the Comin- tern and Lovestone is using Lores arguments against the Comintern. Brandler’s paper “Gegen Den Strom,” anticipates all of Lovestone’s slogans and arguments against the Comintern even before Lovestone uses them. An outstanding monument to the shame of Lovestone’s renegade | activities is the New York Volkszeitung of Friday, September 20. In this issue, Lore devotes fully two pages, and over, to the struggle against the villification of the Comintem. The theme of this specific | manifestation of Lore’s favorite pastime is Lovestone’s so-called appeal to the Comitern. In this issue of the Volkszeitung, Lore reprints from Brandler’s paper, “Gegen Den Strom,” a seven-column article entitled “American Tragedy” or “The Clique Which Rules The Comin- tern.’ Not satisfied with this quotation from Brandler, which in turn, is a quotation from Lovestone, Loré writes a four-column commentary on it entitled “How a Mass Party was Systematically Destroyed.” In these two articles, we find the Trotskyite Lore and the “anti-Trontsky- ite” Lovestone voluptuously wallowing in the same mud. In Moscow, although still in the ideological and physical bondage | of factionalism, I had long and repeated arguments with Lovestone, Wolfe and Gitlow, on the question of the perspective of the fight which we were then carrying on within the Comintern but essentially against the Comintern. Blinded by the poisoning influence of years of fac; tionalism, I, too, saw in the struggle of the Comintern against faction- | alism in the American Party, a manifestation of the bad quality of the Comintern leadership, yet in some saner moments, I raised the ques- | tion: where will that lead us? I contended that under no conditions | could we allow this struggle to develop to a point where we would fight the Comintern from the outside. First, because in doing so, we would have to accept the alliance of all of the enemies of the Comintern, mentioning specifically Brandler, Trotsky, Souvarine and Lore; and secondly we would have to accept, as the only justifiable theoretical basis of such a struggle, Trotsky’s theory of Thermidor, My own greatest crime in connection with our campaign in Moscow was my failure to bring these discussions out into the open and to raise these issues out in the open, Had I done this, the activities of the dedegation of our Party in Moscow would very probably have taken a different course. Certain it is, however, that if I had done this, Lovestone would not havé dared to dish out all the lies that he, together with Brandler and Lore are now peddling concerning my attitude in Moscow. These lies are, of course,, not directed against me individually, but aim to dis- credit the Comintern, the Party and its leadership. These discussions in Moscow ended with a continuation of my active | participation in the Lovestone policies. | carries out his reactionary plan of the so-called Pan-Asiatic Labor | tion of the process of revolutionization of the rank and file members | of the reformist unions by placing themselves at the head ‘of the class | , Struggle of the proletariat. | of the best organization and preparation for this struggle, and the We finally agreed that we j mic Struggle and Tasks of the Co the THESES UPON THE REPORTS BY COMRADES THALMANN AND LOSOVKY 2, THE RADICALIZATION OF THE WORKING CLASS AND THE REFORMIST. TRADE UNIONS. 1, The continued radicalization of the working class and the sharpening of class battles leads to a growing crisis in the reformist trade union movement. Already the Sixth Congress of the Comintern and the Fourth Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions have recorded the fusion of the reformist trade union apparatus with he bourgeois state and with the large monopoly capitalist enterprises. Ouring the last year, in connection with the unfolding of the class con- fliets, this process has gone still deeper. Just as social democracy is volving through social-imperialism to social-fascism, joining the ranks of the vanguard of the contemporary capitalist state in the suppres- ion of the rising revolutionary movement of the working class (Zor- May Day atrocities), the social-fascist trade union bureau- , during the period of sharpening economic battles, completely ing over to the side of the big bourgeoisie, defending compulsory bitration, endeavoring to harness the working class to the yoke of capitalist rationalization, transforming the reformist trade union ap- paratus into a strikebreaking organization, This is openly disclosed in the “new program” of the reformist General Confederation of Labor in France and in the decisions of the last trade union congresses in Ger- many and Great Britain (Hamburg, Swansea), “Industrial demo- eracy,” which embodies the joint pressure of the capitalists and the reformists on the working class, has become the official slogan of the Amsterdam International. This International strike-breaking pro- gram is based upon the idea of active cooperation in the ‘enforcement of the economic policy of the capitalists by means of the direct col- laboration of the reformist trade union machinery with the employers’ apparatus (“peaceful” wage agreements, participation in the super- visory boards of the trusts, etc.) and with the bourgeois state appar- atus (“industrial councils,” economic organs of the League of Nations, compulsory arbitration boards, ete.). At the same time international reformism intensifies its efforts to throttle the revolutionary class movement of the proletariat in the colonies. Albert Thomas frater- nizes with the leaders of the yellow unions of the Kuomintang hangmen. Under his leadership Bunzi Suzuki, the agent of Japanese imperialism, Congress. In this process of rapid fascization of the reformist trade union apparatus and of its fusion with the bourgeois state, a particularly harmful role is played by the so-called “Left” wing of the Amsterdam International (Cook, Fimmen, etc.) who, under the cloak of opposition to the reactionary leaders of the Amsterdam International, are trying to conceal from’ the workers the real significance of this process and are forming an active and constituent part (and by far not the least important) in the system of social-fascism. Naturally, the situation becomes more and more intolerable for the workers, when in their economic struggles they must remain under the leadership of politically reactionary, strikebreaking wire-pullers. These treacherous blacklegging tactics of the trade union leaders at a time when capitalism is widening and intensifying its offensive with the ob- ject of tremendously increasing the exploitation of the workers, are the main ‘source of the growing crisis in the reformist trade union movement. : 2. This growing crisis has found its expression in a number of countries in the stagnation of the reformist trade unions (Great .Bri- tain) and in the mass growth of the revolutionary trade unions (India, Latin-America, U. S. A.). It has also found its expression in a keen distrust of the trade union masses towards reformist bureaucracy and in the onslaught of the social-fascist trade union bureaucracy on the revolutionary trade union opposition, in the ever increasing expulsion of members of the revolutionary opposition from the reformist unions and in the threats of the expulsion of “tens of thousands” (statement by the president of the reformist Metal Workers’ Union in Berlin). The more the unions which are converted into simple accessories of *capi- talist economy the greater will be the growth of the crisis in the re- formist trade union movement and the more severe will be the attacks of the trade union bureaucracy upon the revolutionary trade union op- | position. The struggle within the reformist unions has already be- | come unusually sharp. The pressure brought to bear upon the trade | union officials by the masses of the workers is so strong that not un- | frequently the lower links of the reformist unions feel themselves forced to act against the trade union wirepullers who, in order to transform the unions into strikebreaking agencies and into tools of capitalist stabilization, are pursuing the policy of class disruption, expelling the best revolutionary elements from the unions, abolishing the last vestiges of trade union democracy, presenting ultimatums (“reverses”) to the revolutionary opposition, and heading for the fas- cization of the trade unions. 3. The present stage of internal development in the reformist unions conforms to the general transitional period in the co-relation of class forces on the whole. The working class has already become suf- ficeintly strong to be in a position to take up the counter-offensive. The trade.union bureaucracy is still influential among certain sections of the workers, but the revolutionary unions and the revolutionary trade union opposition are increasingly winning over large masses of | workers belonging to the reformist unions. This predetermines also the tasks of the Communists in the reformist trade unions: not to with- draw from these unions, but to contribute in every way to the accelera- i} 3. THE ECONOMIC BATTLES AND THE REVOLUTIONARY TRADE UNION OPPOSITION. 1, The Ninth Plenum of the Communist International and the Fourth Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions placed be- fore the Communist Parties and the revolutionary trade union move- ment not only the task of independent leadership of strikes but also bringing about of working class unity from below, in the factories. Already at that time the disparity between the growth’.of the political influence of the revolutionary trade union movement and its organiza- tional scope was pointed out. With this in view, it was proposed to reorganize the Communist factions in the reformist unions from the bottom, and also to recognize the revolutionary unions on industrial lines (in countries with dual unions), to institute democratic cen- tralism, and to set up factory committees as the basis of revolutionary unions. Attention was at the same time called to the danger of the social-democratic traditions and of trade union legalism which was par- ticularly apparent then in countries where no independent revolutionary unions exist (Germany) in the slogan of “compel the trade union bu- would fight “to the last ditch” within the Comintern. Even to that policy I had raised the objection that it was not within our power to determine the location of this last ditch. I contended that we might believe to be still fighting within our rights within the Comintern and i yet the ‘Comintern itself, which, after all, is the only body to decide | as to what is permissible within its boundary lines, may tell us, at a certain point, that we have exceeded the limit of the permissible. This argument was answered by Lovestone with the statement: Well, then we will be expelled. Thereupon I made the categoric statement which was, the last one in this discussion, that on the day I will be expélled from the Comintern I will make application for re-admission, accepting any conditions the Comintern may put upon me. Why should all this be recited here? Not so much, for the purpose of confronting Lovestone’s-Brand ler’s-Lore’s lies with the actwal facts, but primarily in order to show that Lovestone’s alliance today with Lore and Brandler is not an unconscious and incidental one but was clearly anticipated by Lovestone even before the American Commission made its final decision on the American question. It was exactly my crime and a proof to what extent factional blindness can lead one, not to have seen then already the clear design in Lovestone’s aims. It was my crime to Believe that the unavoidable perspective of an organizational alliance of Lovestone with Trotsky, with Lore, with Brandler was only a’ hypothetical possibility and was not the inevitable outgrowth of an ideological affinity, Lovestone, Lore and Brandler maintain that Bedacht proposed an organizational alliance with Brandler, after our delegation had re- ceived information about the condemnation of Lovestone in the draft of the Thesis of the German Central Committee, If it were possible to straighten out the crooked channels of thought in the head of Love- stone I would, as an answer to his ridiculous assertion, recall to his memory the following facts: First, that I protested: in the | prasence ve reaucrats” (Zwingt die Bonzen) and also in diplomatic upper combina- tions of the leaders of the revolutionary unions with the heads of the reformist unions. . 2. The danger could and was bound to become particularly ser- ious in the subsequent period of the growth and unusual intensification of the class fights. It-is precisely in this process that the forces of the Comintern have become consolidated (and it could not be other- wise) on the basis of sifting out the anti-Leninist and opportunist ele- ments. A similar regrouping was inevitable also in the revolutionary trade union movements (the split of Hais and Co. in Czechoslovakia, of a section of active functionaries of the trade union departments of the ©. P. of Germany, etc.). The decisions of the Comintern and the R. I. L. U. have achieved their object. The Communist Parties and the revo- lutionary trade unions (in countries where the trade union movement is united, as well as in those where it is divided) have made hig progress during this period. In comparison with the strikes of preceding years, there is to be observed better preparation, a better application of the united front tactics, and progress in the struggle against trade union legalism and in the enforcement of the economic and political slogans of the Communist Party. Experience has shown that the successes of the revolutionary trade union movement during this period were in direct ratio to the determination with which these decisions were car- ried into effect. 8. In countries in which there are no independent revolutionary unions, trade union legalism is still the greatest shortcoming of the revolutionary trade union movement, consisting in the fear of over- stepping trade union rules and regulations. Hence the insufficient re- sistance to’ the’ attacks of the trade union bureaucracy (expulsions, “reverses”) and the insufficient activity aiming at embracing the masses of the workers from below (enforcement of the new tactics in the factory council elections in Germany, organization of committees of action, etc.). In Lodz, for example, during the General Strike in the Autumn of 1928, the revolutionary opposition skilfully organized the struggle, made proper use of the struggle when the workers were indignant over the new factory regulations and fines, correctly re- jected the suggestion of some Communists that it was premature to declare a strike, developed a wide campaign in connection with the strike, and skilfully linked up the economic struggle with the political struggle against the fascist regime. Yet at the same time the Red fraction of the strike committee revealed an incorrect understanding of our unity tactics, with the result that a defeatist strike committee. was se up consisting mostly of followers of the P. P. S. 4, Another shortcoming in these countries is the fear to apply the new tactics of the revolutionary trade union opposition, believing that they would thereby weaken their positions within the reformist trade unions. This is exactly what the Rights and conciliators are now harp- ing on, just as before they used to speculate (when strike committees were set up in the Ruhr) on the supposed conversion of the Communist Party and the revolutionary union opposition into organizations of the “declassed slum proletariat.” i 5. A great defect in this connection is still the nature of the structure and activity of the.Communist factions in the trade unions. A necessary prerequisite to successful work by Communist Parties for | winning the masses of the reformist unions is the existence of strong Communist fractions in the union capable of carrying out the Party. line in the unions, linked up with each other, and working under the leadership of. the respective Party Committees. The Plenum again places.on record that many Comintern decisions on the question of trade union fractions are not satisfactorily carried out. Trade union fractions-have not yet been organized everywhere where they should have been, in accordance with the decisions of the Second International Organization Conference; and’ where they do exist, they are not always properly organized. In many places where the Communist movement is illegal (Poland) side by side with Communist fractions are so-called Req fractions, The Red fractions should be so built as to represent the widest possible masses organized around the Communist fractions and sympathizing with them. But Red fractions can by no means substitute Communist fractions, anf the Communist Party must not organize Red fractions without securing the leading role of the Com- munist fractions within them. 6. Finally, in the Communist Parties. themselves, there is as yet no clear understanding of the singular importance of trade union work in the present phase of development. Trade union work is regarded as ordinary work of the “department.” ~The Party does not concentrate the whole of its attention, and especially the attention of the factory nuclei, upon current trade union work, particularly, however, upon the preparation for leadership of economic fights. This shows an under- estimation of the political significance of revolutionary trade union work and of curzent economic fights. 7. In countries where there are independent revolutionary trade unions (France, Czechoslovakia), the chief defect up to now consists in the under-estimation by a certain section of the revolutionary trade union militants of the fact that the masses are becoming radicalized, . and also in an underestimation of the new character of trade union re- formism. In France the unitary trade unions were taken unawares and were overwhelmed by the movement. (‘The movement. developed over the heads of the unitary unions, our organizations lacked initi- ative,” said Monmousseau at the October Plenum of the Unitary Unions.) In Czechoslovakia the tactics of the liquidators amongst the leaders of the Red unions were characterized by the top combinations between them and the leaders of the reformist organizations, by collaboration with the corrupt reformist factory councils, which was advertised’ as the united front tactic, by their legalist attitude towards the bourgedis state authorities, by their opportunistic attitude in relation to the strike tactics and particularly in relation to the unorganized. As a result of this, in the first big conflict in which the Communist Party and the new strike tactics, the liquidators responded by breaking away from the revolutionary trade union movement. A great danger in those countries is also legalism, a respect for capitalist laws. While fighting to the utmost for all legal possibilities, the wevolutionary trade unions should not cherish any opportunistic illusions with regard to the bourgeois state and capialist laws. The strength and influence of the Red unions depend exclusively on the active organization and independent leadership of the economic fights of, the proletariat.. One of the main weaknesses of the revolutionary unions is their inadequate penetration into the factories, the absence (or extremely bad functioning) of the system of trade union delegates in the factories. (To be Continued) of Wolfe, Lovestone, Gitlow, Ella Wolfe and Hankin against the inti- mate political conferences into which our so-called social relations with Ewart had transfornied themselves in Moscow; second, that I protested against the re-establishment of an alliance with Pepper after we, our- selves, had condemned Pepper in the sharpest terms not only before the outside world but among-ourselves and, thirdly, that I proposed after we got knowledge of the German thesis, to leave a comrade in Germany on our way home, to appear in the Convention of the German Communist Party as a tepresentative from the American Party to com- bat the proposed condemnation of Lovestone. The only difficulty in the way of my proposal was our inability to assign such a representative on our-part, and the necessity to have the selection of such a repre- sentative affirmed by the Political Committee in America, s Incidentally, I might take this occasion in declaring categorically that Lovestone’s statement that I wrote the cable of the 15th of May is an unmitigated lie. The articles appearing in the “New York Volkszeitung” of Septem- ber 20 establish with undeniable clarity Lovestone’s connection with Brandler. Lovestone either himself wrote the article which appeared in Brandler’s “Gegen Den Strom” and reprinted by Lore, or, he sent, his so-called appeal to Brandler. The article is, in the main, com- posed of quotations from Lovestoné’s appeal This appeal fofmulated, by Lovestone under the pretense of appealing to the Comintern, was the appeal of an enemy of the Comintern against that body, addressed to other enemies of the Comintern and designed to make new enemies or it. f How the followers of Lovestone can still maintain their pretense of pro-revolutionary aims and desires in the face of the fact that the pronunciamentos of their leaders make most welcome anti-Comintern propaganda in the hands of Lore is more than they can explain to the mmunist Parties masses NAY SELF | Reprinted, by permission, from “I Saw It Myself” by Heart Rarbem H published and copyrighted by E. P, Dutton & Co. Ince New THE NAKED MAN. | ty the Skupshtina of Belgrade, the other day, a spectre was seen— the White Terror personified, Visit any chamber of parliament in Europe between sittings, and it will look the same as any other. These places of assembly so alarm- ingly official are always smaller than one imagined. In their great bec curving lines, their corridors, ante-rooms and lobbies, they resemble geo the circus. But when empty of voices and faces, these chambers of legislature wear an air of calm reflection which somehow intimidates the visitor. Pompous, stiff decorations, in their emptiness they seem particularly empty. That atmosphere of injustice, of the sacristy, which hangs about deserted court-rooms, when silence is imprisoned | there between the hours of sitting, is also in the air, and inspires the same uneasy fear, when one treads in these centralized workshops where contemporary events are turned out in words. And.every parliament chamber looks the same when it is full and in full swing. Here, scandals and iniquities vanish like magic to the sound of the big base drum, after a few wordy encounters, which, from a distance, might give the impression of a debate. Everything is sanctioned by votes cast in advance, so that the difference between the parliamentary system and the prerogative of despotic rule comes:to this: the parliamentary system has only added tremendous waste of time. ... So the Skupshtina of Jugosalvia is like every parliament-house in this ancient world, except that its name is the Skupshtina, not the Reichstag, Reichsrath, Sobranie, Sejm or House of Commons or Cham- ber of Deputies. * * * YELL, Mr. Maximovitch, Minister for the Interior, was answering questions. Under his nose they had thrust glaring testimony con- cerning the savage acts of terrorism committed by government officials and subordinates during the General Council elections. These facts be ‘were patent, well attested, undeniable; they proved once more this he proverbal truth—that elections in Jugoslavia mean nothing but sys- &s tematic maltreatment of voters to make sure of sound votes. And what was the reply of Mr. Maximovitch, who really had none? ra He raised his hands aloft. th “Certainly not!” he exclaimed, “It is all a mistake. Never did ki the world see government as méek and liberal-minded as mine. Force? Nothing of the kind. Freedom, I say, freedom, perfect and entire, un- ti paralleled. pe To judge from his words, no cabinet ever shone with purer demo- Ss cratic light than the ministry to which he had the honor to belong. ni With hand on heart, this minister spoke like a regular delegate.to the hi Leauge of Nations. “But,” came the retort from the opposition benches, “on such and n such a date; this happened, and this. ig “Not true! 4 Not true! The facts are utterly false. They have been drawn from ancient‘history, or from the history of the neighbor- 3 ing country. It is the Bolshviks who are circulating these stories to blacken Jugoslavia in the eyes of the world. So-and-So? He has had o the best of treatment. So-and-So? Why, his foot was scarcely trodden x on, So-and-So? Why, he beat the poor gendarme himself!” ; OSs t Nee while Mr. Davidovitch, leader of the opposition and of the.dem- : ocratic Party, was thundering, attested documents in hand, while o his voice was drowned in the resentful mutterings of the government majority, a message was passed down to him. 1 “Come at once to the Democratic Club.” ' He went, There in a corner, crumpled up on a chair, with a ‘ crowd about him,’ was something which looked like a man. He“was . ' battered, ke was swollen and blue and disjointed, yet still alive at the core, so to speak. They were crowding round him, doing what they could for him—and when he was touched, or when his back met the chair, he cried out in pain. Those around explained to Mr. Davidovitch that this pitiable sight went by the name of Iovan Ristitch, tollgate keeper. at Toptchider, just opposite Belgrade. He had been reduced to this plight at election time, for his half- hearted support of the government candidate, by the strong arm of Mr. Sokolovitch, police commissioner at Toptchider. Some, one suggested stripping the poor fellow, as he sat there groaning and struggling miserably to shift his position, as if he was sitting on blazing coals. His back was beaten-blue, striped and spotted bloody marks, “We must take him to the House!” y tals gathered him up in their arms, this living wreck, this man half-broken, as one might gather up a regimental flag riddled with bullets, ’ é To the Sktpshtina.they went, jostling their way in at the doors— and, there, right among the members, propped up this quivering statue of flesh and blood, this memorial to governmental proceedings. They set the body down, like a scarecrow, half-stripped, so that the dreadful tattoooings and beastly marks of the club might clearly be seen. - Lol- ling on the top of this battered body was a haggard head; the hair was plastered down to the forehead with agony and sweat; the eyes were Every member sprang to his feet, and began shouting. The creature became frightened, opened two eyes, and a mouth, his hands trembled as they hung from those arms forged by the King’s Commissioner of Police. He seemed: to be sinking back into the nightmare from which he had only just got free. Were they going to beat him again? The terri- fied look on his face seemed like another wound there. At the sight of this martyr, bearing the impress of the elections on his flesh, the opposition became one menacing body, and yelled with . a single voice: “Murderers!” ‘ fh | by ne! was meant for Maximovitch and all his coadjutors, and his masters, for it was obvious that Ristitch bore the marks of the fists of every man jack among them, from the gendarme up to His Ma- jesty himself. But other members ‘grew angry for another cause and they, in gradually swelling numbers, called: “Shame! Shame!” It was shameful, they said, to bring a man without clothes into the precincts of the most self-respecting .of parliaments, and to lay bare the wounds of a martyr to the ruling regime. And now this roar of indignation smothered the first, » Mr. Maximovitch, of course, was placed in an awkward and annoy- ing position; and, of course, he lost no time in making a scapegoat of | Sokolovitch, the Commissioner of Police who had been so clumsy at I to allow these wounds—or this man—to remain as evidence, and had carried out his duties as police commissioner so carelessly and thought- lessly. He was deprived of his post and proceeded against. i \Nice-minded people, however, who always carry more weight and outnumber those who see too far and shout too loud, were offended, ns rather than anything else, by this scandal in the Skupshtina. t Things of this kind are not done. There is nothing more danger- ous to bourgeoisie peace of mind, consequently, nothing more sacri- Q Iggious, than to tear down the veils, strip a human being to show him 9 as he r is. “Why naked men? There is the cross; wave it'on high ‘ as’ much’as you like: it cannot hear, or speak, or see. And again, there ¥ are the doings which extremists always label as crimes: these you can smooth over as much as you ‘like. But lay a finger on the living sore, tear vest and shirt from the carcass of a common man, to show the marks social truth has left on his body—no, never! That is an un- héard of outrage, the mogt unspeakable of all! ‘ ee