The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 23, 1930, Page 4

Y, AUGUS' NEW YORK FARMERS The Past aid the Present To the comrades abroad: | This letter is from an old grand- father, Semen Samofaloff, born in | the Voronej District, village Kaltsh. Actually Semen Samofaloff is DATLY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDA The Pol ic By FRANK HALL, T 23, 1930. KS) Across th hroniierv By ED. FALKOWSKI. (Editor’s Note: The writer is a newspaper man at present in Eu- rope. While he is not a Communist, his article affords a sharp contrast e SIBERIA SPORTSMEN WRITE U.S. WORKERS Their District Attached to New England in International Socialist Competition Farm Hands Working Today for Little More Than Room and Board; Ready for Struggle See their cruel faces, Their sodden and vicious faces, That blank and brutal expr That hard, inhuman expre That coarse, dull, ignorant look. ion, ion, How it used to be before, |plan of work, to the organization Siege a ing in the little town Armavir—in to the role of capitalism on the Po- ie pil ae Chia terete Nera ve ste ‘ See him go by swinging his «lub | lish side of the frontier and the| Tomsk (Siberia) July 4, 1930. | participating in the shock brigade traditional good-natured and {ridden and unpainted kitchen, it was| 0 you, dear friends, to the work- To keep up his coward’s courage, workers’ rule in the Soviet Union. |'Tc the New England District Or-|movement of our district. =. of the farmer and| difficult to realize where he could|&"S; Peasants and employees I boa With a gun on his fat hip. Last weels Mr. Falkowski told of ganization of the Labor Sports; The sports organizations, in the ed children are things | muster the strength for a 12-hour eS present letter. H See his well-fed mug. | his arrival in Warsaw on his way to} Union of America: jcoume of their steve have egret or the New York state/day. In the house was his sister,| |, i! the. on ere mua know about} See the brute strut, | the Soviet Union and of the efforts! ear Comrades:—The sports Rabedian ee fe rete aS eet ales to be told|hcme for Sunday. She was em-| the life of our Soviet Union. | How brave with his club and his gun | of Polish exploiters und grafters tol sanizations of the city of Tomsk |CCmpettiom paying thelr chiet: at goose and grand-|ployed as maid of all work in a About the Red Army. | Against an unarmed opponent. discourage him from continuing his| Sends its warm greetings to the tention to thc fulfillment of the | all hard work and tales, |neighboring town. com- on the New York state | plained bitterly ch enough, the climate is| lov wages. ‘ops grow and peaches] Nothing to Lose! Ready for Action! | pen, but it brings no| ? “What's this country coming to?”| of the;is what one hears from poor farm- | | ers all over the state. y answer it themse’ with he statement: “If things keep on n ri to the farmers crops have been drought, but since ed in advance farm-/like this there will be 2 upt even when the|and I wouldn’t mind good. Farmers have| They feel that they have not orn for fuel when crops have|lese, that things could not well be been good, because they could get] worse. prices and because corn was In another farmhouse the works per than coal. had already been abandoned and the Lost All In Last Crisis. farmer had a job in the city. They | expe to lose the farm an. and they were praying that could keep his city job.” Work for Room and Board. Twelve farm hands near Elmira worked 12 hours per day, 7 days a week, for $60 per month. That means 84 hours per week for a frac- less than $15. But this is good, compared to another big estate of | ne rich farmer who paid only 5 for the same amount of work. | Just as the manufacturers in the | city take advantage of unemploy- ment to cut wages, so the rich farm- ers and farming corporations ex: ploit to the limit the farmhan Lost Faith In Congress, God, Ete. The poor farme ‘e conscious of the leak, but they do not yet) krow where to lay the blame. They blame the stock market swindlers | and they blame the president and | they curse when anyone mentions the “farm board.” Some still en- tertain the idea that congress or Hoover will “do something,” and} was in passable condition. This|some believe that “God will cause farmer specialize] in milk and eggs, |the righteous to prosper,” but for because he had not been able to|the most part I should say they make expenses raising farm prod-/ have lost faith in congress, god, the | uce. He complained bitterly of the |farm board and the president. and swindlers who force the farmer to| they are beginning to turn to prac- sell low and then sell the same|tical ideas for a solution to the produce high to the city consumers. | farming problems. | This farmer could see that although; They are ready to listen to or-| he was better off than-the major-| ganization. They have nothing, and, ity of his neighbors that it-would | therefore, they have nothing to lose not be long before he would be|by a change. “Things couldn't be reduced to the same condition as|any worse” is what they say. the rest. Only organization can help the Rebbed By Middlemen. workers and only organization can | He received 8 cents for milk that help the farmers and farm laborers. sells after bottling for 16 cen! The recent disclosure.ofthe food The dairy robbers have now raised | Swindlers show up clearly the graft | this one cent in New York City, | Swindle and politics back of the food pretending that there is a short-| profiteers. | age. But the farmers did not get| Thus while farmers are forced to any of this raise in price. This|sell for almost nothing and the | farmer received 23 cents for eggs | urban workers are forced to pay that sell in the city for 36 ad 45) high prices for food of ‘which there | cents and 15 cents“per pound for | is a plentiful supply, the food profi- | chickens that sell at 35 and 40 cents.| teers and swindlers destroy food, Another farmer had lost his farm | jack up prices, rob both the farmer | a year ago and has been a farm) and the consumer, pile up fortunes | hand ever since, working for $30|for themselves and find plenty of | a month. This farm laborer was a| protection from those higher up, | a wreck. To see him on a Sunday| just as do the grafters in other afternoon sitting in his hot, fly-| lines of business. me “dad crisis of 1 S their farms belongings to the bank- | ole families were evicted de look- u rs and their families swelled unemployed looking in vain for . Needless to say that these bank- rupt farmers never recovered what they lost at that time. Those who hung on in the face of starvation scon found themselves going from bad to worse and in the present crash farme of New York state have been struc! blow from which no recovery ible short of rev- olutionary organization and revolu- tionary demands upon the govern- ment. Typical of the plight of the New York farmers are some of the farms that I visited in the northern part of the state. Out of a dozen farms only one DO: LABOR SPORTS athletes this Sunday to show their | stuff in the fir t part of an Eastern District championship track and |field meet. The events will be run ;off at the Pelham Bay Stadium, Pelham Bay Park, Bronx. The sec- ond, and more spectacular, part of the program will be run off at the | Ulmer Park on Saturday, Septem- While millions of workers in this country and in England are star- ving, the American capitalists are spending millions of dollars on sail- boats to sail against Thomas Lip-| ton’s Shamrock V for the interna-| tional cup. | During this and next week the American contenders will hold elim- ination races. The international|ber 13.° This affair is to be cele- race will be held September 13 in brated in connection with the Inter- the Long Island Sound. | national Youth Week. The last track and field meet held by the Eastern District, on Jun 7, did not get very good sup- | port from the revolutionary labor movement. Come on, comrades! Give your support to the L. S. U. The L. S. U. must be built up into an organization which will be able to give its best forces to the build- ing of Workers’ Defense. All out this Sunday to Pelham Bay. No admission charged here. On Sep- tember 13 there will be a small charge of 50 cents, which will also include dancing in the evening. Eastern District Training School. It is important to train workers | for the class struggle in the trade | unions and_ political organizations. | The same can be said for the sports movement. The L. S. U. is prepar- ing to hold a Five Weeks’ Physical Instructors’ school beginning the | Sept. 15, to be held in Camp Kin-| derland. By the way, this is one | of the most beautiful workers’ camps around New York. The tu- ition fee is very nominal, only $50 for the full course. Every workers’ | organization, fraternal and trade union should send at least two stu- dents to this school. The school} will not only train sports leaders, but also leaders for Workers’ De- fense work. Send in the entries to the Labor Sports Union, 96 Fifth Ave., Room 309. T..U. U. L. and Sports. The revolitionary trade unions are beginning to realize that unless they carry on sports activities among the young workers in and outside of the union they will not be very successiul in holding the young workers in the union aud at-| tracting others to the union. There-| fore the Industrial Needle Trades | Workers’ Union, the Food Workers and the Jewelry Workers’ Union The bourgeoisie indulge in the; most expensive sports to gratify their desires and at the same time endeavor to show their “superior- ity” over the bourgeoisie of other countries. Boating and boat racing: in the capitalist countries is exclu- sively a bosses’ sport. No matter how necessary it is for the workers % get out for fresh air and relaxa- they are unable to do so. It is only in the Soviet Union where the workers enjoy all sports, boat- ing as well as others. Boxing. The ceaseless attempts of the boxing trust to bring “foreign” box- ers into the country and develop them fo: “international” bouts bring them results now and then. The latest such find is an Argen- tine lightweight, Justo Suarez. In the first three fights he has had in the United States he has proved that what he lacks in boxing science he fully makes up for in aggres- siveness and stamina. The last fight, in which he knocked out the veteran Tiger Flowers in six rounds, showed that he will make a dan- gerous opponert for AI Singer or Kid Berg. But the writer does not think that he will get this chance before having several more fights which will bring in more money for the promoters. After all, boxing is a racket, in which the state par- ticipates. through its boxing com- missiom and it must be worked out so that the boxing bugs are trimmed from all sides. Fellow workers! watch the an- nouncements in the near future of boxing bouts promoted by the Labor Sports Union, not for the interests of an individual, but to help train workers for Workers’ Defense. Labor Sports Union Notes. Boys! the Eastern District is During the Czarist regime the sol- diers were treated as dogs. Every. where you could find inscriptions “The entrance in the garden is for- bidden for soldiers and dogs.” The soldier had to salute every minute the officers. The soldiers used to be at that time quite illiterate, stup- id; he was taught only to praise the czar and the ezarina and coming “rg to| home from the army he was good | | only to be considered as cannon fod- | der. The soldiers were always sent into barracks situated in cities far away from their home. That was done in order to tear him from the masses of the workers, so that he would agree every minute on the order of the officers to attack the workers in case of an insurrection or of their economical or other re- quests. The soldiers were abomin- ably nourished. They were sent by detachments for preparation to the sacrament and for confession, And f a soldier confessed to the priests his sins the next day he was sent] to court because the priests told everything to the officers. Such was the stupidity of the Russian sol- diers in the time of the ezar. Now— i After the October revolution the Rec Army has become a true defense of the laboring people. The Red} Army is the own army of the folk. Whole legands are sung about the Red Army. A worker, peasant or employe entering the Red Army is here educated, gets not only a mili- tary education, but also a political ind a social one and in finishing his nilitary service becOmes a useful izen of our Soviet Republic. We, | the Soviet citizens are closely bound with the Red Army. The barracks of the Red Army are situated in the center of the city, so they can entertain a close connec- ticn with all the other workers. In the barracks you always can find clubs, a wireless, all sorts of circles, a band, etc. From the army the! soldier can pass to a university and | study there in any branch he wishes. | According to Soviet laws the/ family of the Red soldier are in full security during his service. | Such is acutally our Red Army) which we can consider not only as our defense but also as your de- fense. -—-SEMEN SAMOFALOFF, clube around the union. What are | the unions located outside of New York doing? How many sports clubs can the Miners’ Union show? How about the Detroit Auto Work- ers’ Union? The New York unions challenge you to revolutionary workers’ competition. Let’s hear from you through the columns of our Daily. Daily Worker and L. S. U. The L. S. U. showed that it is on the job in helping to raise finances for our Daily last Sunday at the Daily Worker picnic. Comrade Sa- pirstein, an N. E. B. member of the L, S. U., raised over $5 with a set of boxing gloves. The workers present at the picnic showed their interest in boxing by putting the gloves on and watching the work- ers getting some practice in the art of self-defense, which today for workers means workers’ defense. Besides this ‘attraction the soccer game entertained the workers well. This is just one example of how the L. S. U. can help the labor movement. There are many others, but this alone should convince every class-conscious worker that his duty is to support the L. S. U. Send in your contribution and application for membership now! BOXING With Young Stribling back from England, where he recently knocked out Phil Scott in the record time of two rounds, the boxing racket is taking on new life. This feat makes Stribling the outstanding heavyweight for the title adorning the brow of Max Schmeling. In the past he has been considered a bet- ter wrestler than boxer. But his knock out of Van Porat, a few months ago in Chicago and recently of Scott, places him in the front ranks of the heavies. The writer is of the opinion that if Stribling and Schmeling meet the Georgian will come out the win- ner, provided the bout is on the level (27). Before these two heavies collide we can look forward to a barnstorming tour of Stribling which will help to build him up into a big attraction. Articles and Drawings Wanted Comrades are asked to contribute articles and drawings for this page. These should deal with current events in a light and satirical vein, or should be articles descriptive of conditions in housing, farming, ete. Articles and drawings for this page should be addressed to Saturday Feature Editor, Daily Worker, 26 bringing out its best track and field" have taken steps to organize such Are Jia Ot Union Square. New York City. i | “socialist,” as we were reminded Thad goes the club On the head of an unarmed worker, | A jobless and hungry work Never on the head of a m The armed against the unarmed That’s all your bravery con: That’s the sum total of your stupid wisdom. For whom are you wielding those clubs? | Who put those weapons int Perhaps you do not realize As the watch-dogs of the ill. As the mercenaries of the For blood money Are you willing to help tl It is they who put the weap Can’t you see that you are Don’t you know that some day, And not so far off, We will wrest those very weapons from your hand, And then you will pay Even like the dogs your pri The czar’s police? Humanity groans under the Not, however, without retaliation. There are casualties on you! Relent while it is still time. One of these days your masters will not be there To pay you blood money. Then you will run as you never ran before, With no place to run to, -gotten gain of thieves, | jonaire. sists of, | o your hands? your true role oligarchy. he rich enslave humanity? ors into your hands, waging a losing fight? | | ‘ototypes, thud of your clubs, r side too. | RED SPARKS By JORGE SOCIALIST FUNERAL ELOQUENCE. Each time a celebrated scoundrel croaks, the same thing occurs. There is a kind of graveyard tradi- tion. Delegates arrive from all bourgeois associations and institu- tions and in turn develop their points of view with respect to the qualities of the deceased. The burial begins at 10 a. m. and at 2 p. m. still continues, with the corpse in the coffin on the ground, stoically enduring the speeches. In death the deceased has to endure that which in life he was rarely subjected to; to listen to the eulo- gies of his fellows. To listen .. .| and keep quiet. This is still more true when the dead is a prominent when reading the speeches given at the burial a short time -go of Juan B. Justo, a social fascist who passed from this life with our enthusiastic permission. But on reading ac- counts of the speeches we are given the following: One “socialist” commenced his speech thus: “In this solemn moment there is room only for silence.” He started out thus and kept on talking for twenty minutes. Another one said: “Here, before this corpse, this fallen giant, a fall that has the character of thunderous noises .. .”—and we go on without finding out what kind of thunderous noises are referred to. Another “socialist” chief, despite his own activities as a banker, clinched his fists and declared: “The only hatred of the deceased, was his haterd of the powerful whose influ- ence is built on the needs of the people.” Really we don’t under- stand how Senor Justo, who was a powerful South American financier, was able to hate the powerful, as the other “socialist” financier said he did. But the prize for eloquence was earned by the speech of the secretary of th “socialist” party of Argentina, who over the coffin de- clared: “Socialism is where lies the deceased.” That is to say, that “socialism” of the social fascist brand, was laid out in the coffin in the cemetery awaiting burial, and certainly we conculde that by the time the news reached” us it must be fittingly interred. 8 *@ IT’S AN ILL WIND. There is a lot of noise coming up from the Sunny South, where tobacco farmers are finding out what a blessed thing capitalism is, as they discover that the price the Tobacco Trust will pay them is be- low the cost of raising the weed. ill bet nobody has noticed any lower prices for their smokes. Which may account for the fact that though the poor farmers go broke in the South, and have noth- ing to live on but fat-back and Anglo-Saxon “superiority,” they should be comforted by the news that the trust, the American To- bacco Co., made a bigger profit this year than ever before. Put that in your pipe and smoke it! fey ROG THINGS AIN’T WHAT THEY SEEM Last Friday the capitalist press | Soviet manganese, It says: “There gave a few slobbering headlines to the New York Edison and Associ- ated companiés, whose head guy made a big flare about “reducing | ments,” ‘then, for those who think there is no war danger, it adds: rates” for electricity. Due to the depression, he said, the company thought it was only fair to help the “small consumer” by cutting the rates for juice. Who says that biy | graphy. i two cents per kilowat hour, and all the benevolent company asked was | that a “small meter charge be made” | as it was “entirely unjust” anyhow, | that the householder expect the com- | pany to pay for its machinery. Alas! | When we woke up, we found that the Edison company would get about P2,700,000 a year more out of the) “small consumer.” And the other | day old Thomas Edison got off such | a wise crack. He said that the lack | of prosperity was caused by the| “nsychological fear of the workers against spending money.” We sup-| pose the Edison company was fig- | uring on getting around that “fear.” | All we got to say about Edison is | that we hope soon to write his bio- | CAPITALIST PRESS “FACTS.” The ginks who run the capitalist press are very boastful about “giving the facts.” The poor cub reporter who fails to get the exact address of a murder, or who dares to say that it occurred at 8:59 p. m., when it really happened at 8:58, is raked fore and aft by his city editor with lectures on the enormous im- | portance of facts. Of course the | poor devil has to reverse his engine when it comes to handling stories about workers, like the N. Y. Times writer, who gravely “estimated” the August 1 demonstration crowd at 5,000. But the Herald-Tribune Sunday got off a new one. As an “explanation” added to the story of the Chinese Red Army, it said: —“Some of the names of leaders of the Communist armies are: Gener- | als Chu Teh, Mao Cheh-tung, Chang } Teh, Chu Mou, Chu Mo-teh, Mai Tsai-tung and Chu Tak.” That makes seven generals in all. The | only trouble‘is that only the first | two really exist, and the other! seven are capitalist press variations | and mistakes in the names of the | first two. But no alarm need be} felt. The Red Army will take Han- | kow just as quick with only two; generals, Mrety { ON GETTING MIXED. Roaming around among the small | town minds last week, we observed a few ladies—not women—but ladies, immensely concerned be- cause, in Chicago, t babies had | got mixed up. This shocking, that is to say Chicago, incident, has for weeks occupied nearly as much space as Lindy’s baby in the capit- alist press, which makes all such nonsense seem tremendously im- portant. A mixup that really amounts to something is told about in papers the workers don’t read. “The Annalist,” for example is a paper for bosses, and its leading writer takes a whack at Hooverian | boloney in the following courteous terms: “July has come to an end without giving any indication of the ‘unmistakable and definite turn toward prosperity’, which was so loudly announced a fortnight ago from certain quarters which ought to know better.” Incidentally, the ' Annalist takes a poke at Mother Mattie Woll’s campaign against { * 8 THINGS is not enough manganese in the | United States to supply more than a very small part of our require- “American manganese should be reserved for exploitation in the next war crisis.” This logically make one think that they figure corporations are heartless? Perish | tage of you there. that Soviet manganese will be cut Ameri trip, He was told tales of indescrib- atrocities, of unmentionable horrors and of wide-spread suffer- amg. in the meantime, he found thousands of Polish workers at the railroad station seeking an escape from the Polish paradise he was asked to believe existed. They were looking to America with its six mil- lion unemployed and starving work- ers. Take up the story from here). i. IDING toward Negoreloje. End- less stretches of barren plain flow by, Now and then a rickety village, a collection of straw-thatch- ed roofs, punctuated the meloncholy wastes. Peasants in rags watched able | the train plunge across their smail world. Barefooted boys drove flocks | of geese across the fields. Shrivelled } women hunched in doorways, talk- ing. Everywhere poverty of the | crudest, most hopeless description. In my compartment sat a judge. | His dignity did not permit him to read the largest letters in a news- Does it annoy you the worm turns, | paper without pinching his glasses Or rather that the beast at bay fights back, ‘And that often you are paid in kind? to his judicial nose. From the sa- tiny folds of his cravat a small dia- mond shot forth fiery gleams. “What will you do in Russia?” he was say- | ing repeatedly. misery there! “Only poverty and They'll take adzan- You'll be lucky if you return with a shirt on your back!. . .” Fat Grafters’ Slander. A parrot-nosed business man who seemed pregnant. 2° inb baritone to the serious observa- tions of the judge. his sa... fingers bore jeweled rings. A thick watch-chain traced a drunken U against his vest. He not only agreed with the judge, but brought out his own life experience to bear wit- ness to what he said. “Do you think I would work as I do if I wasn’t sure I could make profit? Every- body is built on the same model. No- bedy will work for nothing. The Communists are trying to operate against human nature—and you can’t change human nature, you know!” A ticket-collector drifted in, wip- ing the sweat out of the band of h’. hat. “You are not afraid of Bolsheviks?” he asked, I asked him why I should be afraid. He answer- ed by saying 1 had “courage”—what- ever he meant... . When the judge arrived at his station, he bid farewell, eyeitg me pathetically. I was surely on my way to certain destruction, he must have thought. With the business man it was the same, Sweated, Superstitious, Fear. Toward the late afternoon the ticket-collector sat in the compart- ment. The Bolshevik theme ex- hausted, he varied the subject to complaints about his long hours, low wages, and monotonous work. Sly- ly he hinted that a small money offering would not be altogether un- welcome. ... “But why do you think the Bol- sheviks are such bad people?” I in- quired trying to drive him to a def- inite explanation of the lack of sym- pathy he manifested for Russia. “How can one respect people who blow up churches, who respect no one’s liberties,” he asked. more.” “How do you know? Do you talk with any of the Russians at the border?” “God no! Why, that would mean immediate discharge from work! Tn fact, one could be court-martialed. We are state employes, and the laws are strict.” Death to Exchange Talk. “What about the soldiers at the border—don’t they ever hobhob with Russian soldiers?” “In the name of the Father and the Son—no! Why, that would mean death. It is treason to have any- thing to do with Communism, or Communists,” “And you people with so little freedom of your own, your wages so low that you’ve got to beg—your freedom so narrow that you can't talk to another human being only because he happens to wear a dif-| ferent uniform—what have you to fear from a dictatorship of the pro- letariat when you already suffer crisis.” Why? Because it will be a war against the Soviet Union. * HAM FISH-— a contribution 8 “I knew Ham Fish at college. He was already a poor ham and a poor fish. Once in a football game he seized up the ball and ran with {pathetic and mistaken zeal—in the wrong direction. When the time came for the election of senior of- ficers, Ham Fish and another snob named Bacon were nominated and expected to be elected; but their! classmates-who knew them too well, voted against this combined menu of ham, fish and bacon. Perhaps Americans as a whole will wake up to recognize Representative Fish for what he is and vote against him. Meanwhile, Fish swallows hook, grit and sinker, and the the thought! Rates would be cut) off from America~in the “next war Alumnus Harvarddiensis ” “Russia ; is not a right kind of country any | |worker sportsmen of New Engiand and to the American proletariat. The international] solidarity of the proletarian sportsmen and of the whole proletariat is the best basis for the final victory of the work- ing class in the whole world. Comrades, our district is attached to you (New Fngland) with he ob- ject of establishing permanent con- nections between us, the contract of internatio. 1 socialist competition has been signed and this letter must serve as the first signal of what the sportsmen of Siberia are doing in order to fulfill the socialist con- test. Your delegation which visited Siberia has told you, of course, how we are building socialism in our ccuntry. The delegation also ac- quainted you with the sports move- | ment of the U. S. S. R. and Siberia. Through this letter we want t let you know about our achieve- ments in the sports movement in our district. Altogether, 1,145 workers are par- ticipating in the sports movement here. The sport: work is organized at every factory and institution; everywhere where there are five to seven or more members interested in sports there is always a sports |nucleus, the first embryo of the | sport organization. On June 1 we had 43 such nuclei. Our sportsmen are taking an ac- tive part in the socialist reconstruc- \tion and are active assistants of our working class in rebuilding national economy. The sports and physical culture occupy one of the first places in the so-called shock bri- gades movement whith is now in vogue in the whole working class U.S. S. R. Altogether 672 men are under the dictatorship of foreign capitalists and unscrupulous politi- cians?” He twisted his mustache. “You'll see, you'll see! he sighed. “I wish T'll_ meet you when you’re coming back—you’ll be singing another tune then!” Tl. It was late afternoon when we passed a Polish military camp. A white-eagle banner fluttered from a tall pole. Absurdly stiff guards pased before the front gate of the main house. In a sqquare troops were exercising. All grim, humor- Jess faces assuming their tasks | with utmost seriousness. A few chin-strapped police in loose-flow- | ing capes hove into view. As the train neared the border- | line, Polish soldiers mounted the | passenger coaches. Loaded rifles in \their hands, they scanned the out- lying horizons in search of some imaginary enemy. There was a war- like earnestness about them. A Chinaman even wondered whether a war had in reality broken out be- tween the two countries. Nor was one certain whether these soldiers were a menace or a protection ... Passengers on their way to Russia were almost certain to incur suspi- cion of being dangerous characters. Militarism Left Behind. We did not know when we crossed 'the boundary line itself, but some- ,one suddenly noticed another mili- | tary camp, a red flag waving from |a@ mast over it. “Our soldiers! Our | Soldiers!” he cried, thrusting his head out of the window, waving wildly. } Sure enough, there was a group jot big houses huddled together; a | bunch of soldiers stood on the door- steps smoking cigarettes, chatting. Chinese, Japanese, German, a Yugo- |slav, we all thrust out our heads to catch sight of them. We waved |Sreetings; they answered our wav- ings, smiling. Not a gun in sight. Not a sabre-rattling general. Only a group of simple clad soldiers smoking, chatting after a day’s work. It hardly seemed real. Were these the barbarians enslaving the Russian people? The train roared on, drunken with mileage. Its iron whistle screamed eestatically. Villages flashed by, red flags above their club-houses. A full grown moon threw chunks of silver into a passing stream. The engine’s whistle screamed again as jit hurled out showers of red hot! | sparks, It literally leapt over the {new frontier! i Iv. | Negoreloje was the first stop. Over the tracks a tremendous flame- | colored banner bore the legend: | “Communism will wipe out all _ boundary lines.” Did ever any ‘frontier bear such legend? Plainly here was more than a geographical | dividing line: no tremulous map- tracery separating a police-crushed Poland from a dream-drunk Russia. The Cooperative Society. This border separated two mighty worlds. It was the outpost of the territory won by struggling work- ers after a struggle as old as his- tory. Two funiamental outlooks clashed here: behind, the capitalist | empires writhing in blind quest of profits. Before, the beginning of the cooperative society, where class lines are eliminated; every man is a ,of rational rest and to the attrac. ‘tion of as many as possible sports- 'men, men and women, especially | grown-ups, into their ranks. | At the present time, through our ‘sports organizations, we are finish- jing the collection of international payments to the funds of the Red Sports International. By the resolution of the sports jconference it was decided that each |sportsman must pay ten copecks (5 cents) for this purpose. | The courses for training sport in- 'structors have been successfully |finished. They were the first sport ‘courses where amongst the students |were mostly workers and children | of workers. fey In this way the sports orgaviza- jtions of Tomsk district live and | work, Now, from our part, we ask you |to tell us in your reply what your listrict of the L. S. U. is doing at |nresent, are you acquainted with se contract of international social- competition which your delega- | tion signed with the sport organiza- j tions of Siberia and what are you | doing in order to fulfill its objects? | When we receive your reply we |shall keep up regular corrspeon- jdence and will write you about everything in which you are inter- ested. Long live the Communist Inter- national, leader of the working class jof the world in their struggles against their exploiters! Long live the international unity of the workers’ sports movement! Long live the Red Sports Inter- national, leader of the proletarian | sports movement. | With revolutionary sports greet- ings. $ SPORTMEN OF THE CITY OF TOMSK, _—_—_ eee Is it any wonder those Polish sol- diers scanned the horizons for trace of the “enemy?” But they ¢annot see an idea, much less kill one. And here is a land whose most terrible weapon against its enemies is the linvincible force of an idea. But an idea that holds all the force and hope of the future within its frame. The station was plastered with eloquent propaganda posters from all lands, in all languages. Posters familiar to rebels wherever slaves fight masters. Giant arms pointing the hills of moving cogwheels em- phasizing the Five-Year Plan. A. green-face hag, thin-lipped and wide-eyed, lifts her hand toward a police-barricaded factory. A host of starving workers follow her. It is a German poster calling for funds to aid the workers’ movement. On the Way to Moscow. The officials went through the usual ritual of baggage examina- tion, making the operation as pain- iless as possible; soon we were on the sleeper Moscow-bound. The night air was cold and bracing. Fields dozed in soft silvery haze. “Tt is Russia!” one cried inside one- self over and over again, thrilling at the very thought. For have not | certain powers denied Russia’s ex- |istence? Do not certain countries | still regard it as if its existence ; were a myth? Yet here we were, |trainbound for Moscow ... And | Where were those infant-snatching | long-bearded fanatics whom one had visioned as typical Communists? Everywhere were clean-shaven young men joking, smoking. One squeezed passionate melodies out of a bat- tered accordion, which he accom- | panied with song. Young women en- tered, alert, independent . ,. One wondered if this were the land of terror and brutality—or did some one make a mistake? Vv. “ All night we rolled ovér -count- less miles, carwheels clickety-click- ing over rail joints. Passing’ tiny villages whose houses threw yellow squares of light; towns whose main streets could be traced in the faint glow-lines against the cool dark. Life everywhere—a mysterious, in- tense life. Thousands and tens of thousands of people scattered in vil- lages and towns spread over these /moon-soaked plains . . . One laughs | to think that anywhere in the world ; Some monster of stupidity could de- | clare that this country does not exist—or can be ignored... Such humor were comic indeed were it not loaded with serious intent... . But these energetic young men, these smiling, serious women,. work- ers with the soil clinging to their boots—these were real enough to convince us that Russia did exist, . . Morning a proud sun walked up the sky, spilling white brilliance. The train roared and thundered on, absorbing the endless miles, piercing the distance with gleeful shouts of its hoarse whistle, The villages al- ready with life: processions of grain-laden wagons were being drawn by horses against grain-col- lecting stations. Here ani there a giant auto truck rumbled through heavy-rutted roads. Though. it. was May, spring had touched the. land- scape with faintest traces of green; most of the trees bore no leaves. One felt that the winter still Jin- gered—that life had not fully thawed producer, entitled to the full social in public swallows Fish.— ‘profit of his toil. A new world in!reminded one the making. out But the warm sun overhead that better days had to come,