The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 1, 1930, Page 3

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1930 “WORK OR WAGES’-A SHORT PLAY ON A REVOLUTIONARY THEME “Where all good, great and pious : A Revolutionary Play In Three Scenes The many workers’ organizations which have been requesting just such propaganda material as “Work or Wages” will welcome this short play. Each of the three scenes, of which we publish the first this week, is really complete in itself, and could be presented singly as well as together, at mass meetings or other revolutionary affairs. There is a great dearth of short stories and plays which deal, in a Communist way, with the class struggle in this country, yet the need of such material is very great. There is only one place from which it cam come—from those active in the struggle. We hope therefore, that others will take the hint and write down, just as you would tell it to your shop-mates and friends, some of the stories of working class life that you meet up with, every day. We dont expect to develop Gorkis and John Reeds overnight. But we do know a beginning in this direction can and must be made. —EDITOR. * * By M. DWORKIN SCENE ONE (Twilight. Autumn. A _ worker's home. A drab atmosphere. On the wall facing the audience a bright red placard depicting the class struggle, i-e. two giants in combat. Working woman, rather young and handsome, but emaciated and aged from toil and privation, is sitting in a rickety old rocker, a babe nervously jerking af] her empty breast and crying spasm- odically. Four little pale girls, in- cluding a Negro child, are playing on the floor with empty tin cans.) WORKING WOMAN (Sighs)—“No work....Hungry children.... How quiet....All joy gone....No work.... Day in and day out a giant of a man returns home from a city overladen with riches——A man who has toiled since childhood producing mountains of wealth, is left breadless.... (Baby at her breast cries nervously). “Hush, my darling, it’s only the beginning. We, the working class, are growing stronger every year, and with every struggle. Hush, my darling, our day is coming....But now there is a fa- mine in the land....(Rocks baby back and forth and stares at the chil- dren who are playing on the floor). FIRST LITTLE GIRL: (Licking empty tin can bearing a label of fish.) “1 love fish. It was so long ago since mother gave me some fish and bread. It was Christmas, I think, and we had a nice smelly needle tree in the house. It was so long, long, ago. And I am so hungry.... SECOND LITTLE GIRL: (Licks hungrily at a tin can bearing label ot baked beans.) “I love beans. We had some once, on a Sunday. It was su swell. I think maybe it was in the winter. I know, snow butterflies danc- ed outside, and our house was so warm. We had apples too. Oh, gee, but I am hungry now.... (Drops weakly to the floor.) THIRD LITTLE GIRL: “Serves you right. Don’t lick empty tin cans, you'll cut your tongue and it will bleed.” SECOND LITTLE GIRL: “Then I will suck my own blood. I am so hungry. My papa says rich people always suck working people’s blood, that’s why they are so fat and rich.” (Landlord appears in the door, and disappears.) t THIRD LITTLE GIRL: “I don’t think it’s nice to cut people, and eat their blood.” SECOND LITTLE GIRL: when you are hungry....” LITTLE NEGRO GIRL: (Claps her hands joyfully noticing appearance of landlord in door.) “Oh, gee, a man like a tree....Oh, trees.... I loves'em so. They sings and dance in the wind, and washes their hair in the clouds....” (Rises in ecstasy, at- temps to dance, drops to floor.) “I's so hungry, I can’t walk....” (Drops weakly to the floor not parting with empty can which she is still licking.) (A cat appears in the rear window staring hungrily with green eyes at the children on the floor. It is ter- ribty emaciated. The children at- tempt to drive it off. It does not move.) WORKINGMAN: (Staggers in, car- rying a few bundles under his coat. Seats himself at the table. Children surround him. He caresses them. Observes empty tin cans on the floor. +. -Silence....Attempts to read red- covered magazine, on whose cover the letters, “U.S.S.R., 1930,” are plainly visible. He smiles hopefully): “The Workers’ Fatherland.” WORKING WOMAN: (Downheart- ed, eyes lowered.) I am pregnant again...” WORKINGMAN: (Bitterly) “Great heavens! How can we.. (Paces Madly across the room. The children watch him... .Silence.) WORKING WOMAN: “How could T help it?... The sun had risen for me when my first was born. But... now, try and feed them.... (She rises, comforts him caressingly.) I re- alize it’s hell....Comrade....” WORKINMAN: (Rises, magazine ‘open, his eyes glow hopefully.) “No! It is not! The change has begun. We are not alone!... Our numbers are increasing daily. I have seen thousands roaming the streets home- less, naked, hungry....They are or- ganizing—demanding work or wages. ...All day long I have heard the cry of the millions of hungry children. (He begins to unwrap bundles.) “And —.They shall not hunger...” WOMAN: (Suspiciously) “Where ~did you get it? WORKINGMAN: (Placing in the center of the table a tiny can of sar- -dines and a small loaf or bread.) “No, but men get theirs.... Only I haven't their courage to rob as much....An act, for which, if caught, would be | imprisonment for quite a long while. It is not public ofl land, you know, but, a loaf of bread for wife and fam- ily....(To the children, cheerfully.) Now, to the feast! (They sit around the table, he cuts a thin slice of bread for each child, placing a tiny fish on it. He gives the woman the same portion, taking none for him- self. All eat rejoycingly, particualr] the children, He reads red-covered magazine): My dream....Thousands of new factories, schools, towns and cities,—a new world is being built, for and by the working class! The work- ing class its own master! My eye gazes across a turquoise sea, and I reach out my hand to them, even far beyond the sea. To the east where the sun is rising! A chain of working class solidarity, from continent to continent, for a new life! CHILD: “Pa, can I have some more bread? WORKINGMAN: Gictcay) “I \can dream, and I can realize my |dreams! I have the strength, I am jone of the millions of the oppressed. The beginning has been made. Rob- bers, beware! We are rising! (Out- side a marching election band strikes up with all its familiar fanfare. The children run to the window.) “Wall Street is out to elect a new set of bell boys to take the place of those now at the city hall. (Ironically) Hurrah!, my fellow citizens, rejoice! (Then, bitterly) The Romans are rol- ling in wealth while eight million starve. But there’s going to be an end to this. The working class is ris- ing. This year the working class has put forward its own demands and its own ticket. (As band noise dies down and orator’s voice begins, “My dear fellow citizens,” Workingman strides forward, raises fist and exclaims,) “Vote Communist, that's what the workers will do, and fight for work or wages!” (A knock on the door is heard. Workingman starts nervously.) OLDEST LITTLE GIRL: (Alarm- ingly) “Oh, mother! I think it’s that nasty man again that was here last night and tried to kiss you.... I wish he wouldn't come no more!” WORKINGMAN: (Notices her eyes still lowered, exclaims with rage, comforting her.) “Oh, it's nothing new, dear....They have owned us and abused us for centuries!....They will no more! “’Tis the finale....” WORKING WOMAN: (Restlessly, shows him an eviction order.) “It’s six months rent we owe.” WORKINGMAN: “How foolish you are! We have been paying rent for twelve years, hungry, starving, but paying rent! Rent! Unearned blood money of the whole accursed lying bourgeoisie! Why, the place is al- most paid for, and I am still a tenant. I shall not move from here! I have paid for it with my sweat and blood! WORKING WOMAN: “Yes, but he has the deed.... (A louder knock is heard. He instructs older child to open the door. She and children re- | tire.) CHILD: (Goes to the door reluc- “Arise, ye, prisoners of starvation!” |< On to Nov. 4th!” Placard on the wall courageously) “Here he comes, landlord, bootlegger, and mighty ruler of this town. Christ! Tonight it will be a fight to the finish with your faithful and obedient ser- vant, the robbing landlord!...” LANDLORD: (Enters, a sly fel- low of about 40, beaming of face, light fat cigar, observes crumbs on table, shouts victoriously.) “Forward America, business is good! Let us keep it good!...” (Inquires com- mandingly.) “Where is she?” He: Do you own her too? Landlord: (challengingly) everything around here! I am, the landlord! I own the property. You are here only a tenant. You don’t pay your rent regularly. The law is on my side.... In fact I am the law....! He: (Furiously) I know it....! But, I built this house, and thous- ands of others like it, and I intend to live in it! I am out of work, but I do not intend to starve! This is a most elementary law of every liv- ing being! Much more of a man who lives amidst plenty....! (in the dis- tance the song of: “Solidarity” is heard faintly and the landlord rises in fury. The two struggle desper- ately in exact pose like two giants on the red placard on the wall. Landlord, about to be conquered, draws revolver from hip picket and fires a wild shot which strikes the light. The house darkens, except for red placard on the wall which re- mains illuminated faintly red. The song in the distance has now reached its climax and breaks off abruptly.. In the door on the left two stalwart cops appear. Protected by them the bootlegger-landlord rolls out.. Out- side his voice is heard bellowing vic- toriously: “Forward America, busi- ness is good! Let us keep it good.... Ha, Ha, Ha.....! Silence outside, below, rumbling and mass shouts are heard: “Work or wages! We shall not starve amidst plenty! Work or wages!” The placard on the wall grows bright red now. Working man silhouetted against bright red pla- card in heroic pose looking hopefully down into the rumbling street. In the distance a shrill alarming whistle of a cop is heard. Marching men and women with flag and posters, carrying such slogans as “Against | I own the Speed-up,” “Vote Communist,” | “Demand the passage of the Unem- ployment Insurance Bill,” are seen tantly.) “Oh, but I hate him....” WORKINGMAN: (Approaches red The Black Bear has sent his hench- men spying and working against Red Bear and his followers, Red Bear has caught the Haywood Bruin, the Black Bear's jester, spying on him and has called in the wood he has slain Preach- er Polecat for blinding the animals. Ot says Red Bear, is what keeps the march against Black Bear from be- ginning. O! Is a link in the slave-chain. Get rid of these links and the chain breaks. The thing to do is to fight together and win all the animals over, . Now We Go On: Each day animals were won to the side of Red Bear against Black Bear. The first day the barnyard folk enlisted. An O! burst from the chain. As it fell, the Weasel sucked the chain together. Neither he nor Black Bear saw the one link less meant one O! less and so many comrades more, He thought to re- patch was to re-chain exactly as before. Score: One—On! The second day the lake-fish joined. A second O! popped from the chain, Score: Two—Through! The third day the mountain ani- mals signed up. A third O! went. Score: Three—Free! The fourth day the animals of the valley. Another O! Score: Four —Soar! Weasel sucked the chain to- gether again. Red Bear grew. The fifth day the sea fish, An- other O! Score: Five—Strive! The sixth day the animals who bore into the earth. The Red Ants lined against the Black Ants and defeated them. Stool Pigeon tried to tell Black Bear but the Bat swooped down and laid Stool Pigeon low. Score: Six—Get Ready to Mix! The seventh day the sea fowl. Score: Seven—We'll Make Earth Heaven! On the eighth day the Eagle and Condor. The Condor spoke with can- dor: “I'll get the vulture!” The eighth link popped. Wease! saw but two links left and ran to tell Black Bear. Black Bear waos too sure of himself to listen. The buzz , the silly Butterflies made him feel gay. Score: Fight—We Have Not Long to Wait! Niehth day: the birds of the land | We and the leaping animals of the jun- gle. Score:Nine—Get in Line! Tenth day: one O! left. Use it for a chain in Black Bear’s nose The ted Bear Army and the Red Bear) Bear was an earthquaksa to him. “March of the Red Bear” streaming by the window. Abrupt curtain. Navy and the Red Bear Air Forces and the Red Bear Marines are drilled and ready. Score: Ten—When? Now! By now Red Bear was ten times the size of Black Bear who did not know how strong the Red Bear was. The Black Bear was deceived by his own noise into thinking he had a large army behind him. But he had only his few henchmen, and two of them—Skunk and Stool Pigeon—were dead and the Black Ants destroyed. The Gnats were making so much hum the Black Bear thought he had a million fight- ers. The Red Bear forces moved for- ward. The Lark sang: “War on the palaces, Peace in the cottages. With brain and brawn Stoutly drawn, Thought and heft— Left—left—left!” The Black Bear sent forward his Rats. Red Bear’s army of the land and the Bats of the air forces quick- ly defeated and routed them. The Condor took a sharp dive and pounced on the Vulture leaving nothing in the air but the floating feathers. Swordfish saw Crocodile about to swallow the Sea Bass, and weeping as he was doing it. “I am/ doing it for the good of all,” said Grove the Crocodile. “Why is Grover wailin’?” called the Swordfish, | slicing the Crocodile in two and sav- ing the Sea Bass. The Red Bear Army pushed the Black Bear Army back. Beaver wept bitter tears as he moved back- ward. The Lark sang: “The busy Beaver has no spunk, | He sold his birthright to a Skunk. And who with Skunk can sip a tea Just as much a Skunk is he.” The Beaver nibbled on a hemlock tree and died of poison. The Weasel’s spy, the Worm, slunk by, he was seen by an Eagle eye and that was the end of the ‘orm. Red Bear loomed before Black Bear. Black Bear turned white from fright. He, became a White Bear STAGING THE SPEED-UP JIM COOPERKOP By SHIN GODINER Play in 3 Acts, 6 scenes and a prologue. Produced by Benno Schneider, setting by B. Aronson, Dances by B. Zemach, Music by Lahn Adohmyan. THE PLAYERS: Woodrov Rockford (American Mag- nate)—A. Hirshbein, M. Friedman; Lengston (Another American Mag- nate)—S. Nagoshiner; Edgar Howard (inventor of Jim)— I Welichansky; Jim Cooperkop (Mechanical Man)— A. Kopilofsky; Prof. Lee (Psychriatrist for Rock- ford)—Leib Freilich; Tom (a Negro, oldest servant of Rockford)—A. Holz; Jessie (A mulatto, Tom’s daughter)— | Liuba Rymer-Chana Shpiner; | Fornitlive (Rockford’s Private Sec- | retary)—Sara Silberberg; Tornes (Labor Leader)—S. Levin; Robert (Worker, Chairman of the “AKS” Society)—Max Schneiderman Graneck (Speaker)—Joseph Shrogin; | Thump (Negro worker)—G. Rosler; |Bettie Smith (Editors of a Com- munist Daily)—Dene Drute, Fela Biro, M. Fridman, A. Hirshbein; |Lee-Ho (A Chinese laborer)—Michel Goldstein; Jim Cotter (Negro laborer)—S. Straus; Jack (Worker—Stool Pigeon) —G, Rutman: A man with outstreched arm (in the prologue)—J. Shrogin; A Woman—Tina Todrina, Eda Shatzky; Rockford’s Agent—Hersh Gendel; The Spectre—Michel Goldstein; First Servant (in Rockford’s Study)— Bennie Jacobs; Second Servant (in Rockford’s Study)—Munie Dubitsky; Advertising Masques (in Prologue) Guests in the Salon—Workers. The Artef Players have brought to the stage of the Princess Theatre, where they are now housed, a reyo- lutionary drama whose theme at least is of tremendous political sig- nificance. In the words of the printed synopsis, “Jim Cooperkop” and a forecast.” Summed up, the theme, is the boomerang effect of capitalist rationalization on the sys- tem that created it. Godiner has given us his thesis in the form of symbol, through plot that is, to say the least, intri- cate. Woodrow Rockford, American captain of industry, alarmed at the growing rebelliousness of the work- ing masses, is driven to seek a way of stemming the tide of revolution. He induces an inventor, Edgar Howard, to sell him his mechanical man, Jim Cooperkop (Copperhead) after ordering that the automaton be deprived of its heart and brain. Divested of these two disturbance centers, Jim Cooperkop is ready to be turned into the ideal wage slave. The robot, however, proves ineffec- tual to halt the revolutionary march. In desperation, Rockford plans by means of an infernal machine to destroy the earth and all the fac- tories on it. But Jim Cooperkop, Rockford together with his mulatto mistress, Jessie, Tom’s own daughter. The final scene shows the jubila- tion of Rockférd’s arch-competitor Langston, with whom the former vainly sought to enter into a merger. Jim Cooperkop, has now been made to stand high up in a public square, bellowing laughter, at the behest of the gloating Langston and his re- bolize the victorious gayety of Amer- ican high finance, But the revelry is brought to a sudden end by the news of nation- wide strikes in Langston’s plants. Workers in rebellion come marching upon the scene. The automaton, set in motion, marches in the ranks of the revolution, An ambitious work!—the endeavor to dramatize the era of declining capitalism. A master may take a vast project of this type and realize it on a limited scene through a concrete situation. But with Codiner the drama has not crossed from conception to ob- jective reality. The setting is still in the domain of the idea, It stands to reason that such drama lacks the It was Ten Days of Comrade Join- ing That Shook the World! Weasel was so scared he sucked himself to aeath. Octopus hugged himself to death. Black Bear’s army scattaved, and Black Bear hid in a tree. Red Bear bent the tree into the sea, and Red Bear aquaplanes, the Flying Dolphins, ducked Black Bear into the sea, giving him the last bath of his life, The Butter- flies tried to get into their cocoons but the world never moves back but forward. The Hog and Sow lost their sense and roasted themselves in the flames of their pigsty. The Lion found his tail in the Black Bear’s stable and the Porcu- pine found his needles in the sewing Toom and sewed the tail on again. The Dolphins brought up the false teeth of Black Bear. Kangaroo ham- it back on the Rhino’s nose. The Horse brought the Three Bears a found their Honey in the Heywood conflict!” they all shouted. The Lark sang: “Let us pool our labors together As we pulled our sabres together And what we earn in common Belongs to each and all—” cold with fright. The tread of Red “Peace and bread! “Peace and bread!” ‘ is “the daramatization of an idea | vengefully set in motion by the) cheated Negro servant, Tom, crushes | tainers—a laughing colossus to sym- | mered them into a horn. Ant-eater | with his tongue of musilage pasted ¢ bushel of oats, and the Honey Bees | Bruin’s chambers. “ ‘Tis the final | { Drawing of MADISON SQUARE DEMONSTRATION By BILL HERNANDEZ DREISER AND OTHER WRITERS DECLARE FOR SOVIET UNION The following article has been translated from “New Spain,” a proletarian magazine devoted to | | revolutionary culture.—Editor. & © s | Translated by KEENE WALLIS | The Bureau of the International " ciation of Revolutionary Writ- s has sent out a questionnaire to e most distinguished writers of all countries to make clear to the {masses what would be their action in case of war against the Soviet |Union. So far the following have | answered: Bela Illes, Bernard Shaw, Martin Anderson Nexo, Liam O’Fla- herty, Romain Rolland, Theodore | Dreiser, Jean Richard Blach, H. G. Wells, Egon Ervin, Kisch Stefan | Zweig, and others. All concur in the defense of the fatherland of Com-| munism, All likewise condemn cap- italism. considering it of the very great- est interest we shall reproduce | some of the opinions set forth. Theodore Dreiser affirms that he is “against any conflict with the Soviet Union, regardless of what produces it.” “I consider Soviet Russia,” he adds, “a political and economic system capable right now of competing with Western capitalism, and soon, doubtless, of showing itself the stronger.” igious propaganda vigorous vitality of life. It becomes| ment. Under the direction of Benno | against the U. S. S. R. Dreiser re-|_ 4 thinned into lyrical allegory and Schneider, this pale spectre-play of | gards it as “nothing but a maneuver) In the business of another country fails as an effective medium for| Shin Godiner has been galvanized |of Western businessmen to prepare | is criminal and corresponds only to the dramatization of the class| into a dynamic performance. There |a holy war against the Soviet Union| individual, private, commercial in- are scenes which attain real mastery, ;0r to distract our attention from | terests, not to the sentiments of the It ts to this type that we are forced | notably the prologue and the metal | the perils of an unbridled capital-| masses. struggle to assign “Jim Cooperkop.” We feel that not the process of capitalist sive are the decorations by Aaronson. | | foundry scenes. Especially impres-| ism.” He then proceeds to polem- ize against capitalism. “In our West- rationalization has here been dra-|The present production of the “Ar- |¢rn world the banks and trusts are matized, but the concept of that | tef” is by far the most noteworthy | every thing, the individual nothing. process. In this drama of the class | step this talented group of prole- | The capitalists do not content them- struggle at its climax we see no|tarian players have made toward a| Selves with six per cent, they want clear cross section of social life. The | repertory centered around the funda- | @ hundred per cent. The represen- scene, though nominally America, is America only by virtue of Aaron- son’s admirable settings. The scene of the drama itself is but a vague No-man’s land called America. | Similarly, the time of the play is no definable period that we can call today, that we can associate, let us say, with the present crisis, with un- employment, with government bru- tality, with war preparations. The play is framed in no specific period, but in the abstract idea of the late- capitalist era. What is true of scene is likewise true of character. And here we speak less of stage interpretation than of author's delineation, since the first is fundamentally determined by the second. The characters of this drama of the heightened class strugle fail to convince us that they are alive. We see before us abstrac- tions, brain-children who walk, talk, live, and die more like shadowy creatures than robust human beings. The capitalist is like no living capi- talist anywhere. He is an idea, a spectre, like the red spectre of tha | Comunist Manifesto whom he seeks to banish from off the earth. And where there is no actual capitalist | | there is no actual proletariat. The workers in the play, even the Com- munist leaders are anaemic types, unconvincing as rebels, as breakers of a system. The structure of “Jim Cooperkop” scarcely makes amends for the error in conception. The plot is a com- plexity of scenes without a sequence ot situations, effective in themselves, but left unwoven into the texture of the drama, Yet, nothwithstanding these de- fects, the “Artef Players” have with commendable efforts mounted a spectacle that is a genuine achieve- mental issues of the class struggle. —V. JEROME. EDUCATE iJun By Jon vail tatives of the church fight against |the human mind and its conquests, | against science and philosophy; they want the masses to remain in a state of slavery. All this must be annulled. Was not the Orthodox Russian church a toy in the hands of the czars? The Synod and its ‘popes’ aggravated the slavery of the reople. If the Russian church had not already been destroyed de- cisively we should have only to hope that its destruction would take place as soon as possible.” Jean-Richard Blach, European writer, speaks more resolutely for “Personally,” he says, “I consider the Russian revolution and its cultural conquests as one of the essential elements of civilization. Whatever calls it forth, open ag- gression or masked attack—I should see in the defense of these con- quests the defense of the best there is in our civilization. I consider it |my duty to be vigilantly watchful that the U.S. S. R. be not touched, | materially, po ally, socially, mo- | rally. And I shall know how to per- |form my duty. | Egon Ervin Kirsch O'Flaherty decide for ei |the ranks of the Red Army. The former says: “In case of war against the Soviet Union—threatened, from the beginning of its existence by the priests ,the aristocracy, and the capitalists—the writer will be found on only one side, that of the Soviets. For myself, I can imagine no other post, in case of anti-Soviet war, than a place in the trenches of the Red Army.” Liam affirms: “If capitalist Europe declares war on the Soviet Union I shall fight against capitalist Europe with all the means at my disposal. During the world war I had to suffer as an instrument of British capital- ism, and it would be a pleasure to me to avenge myself or all that I had to undergo.” There is also Bernard Shaw's | pirouette: “My position in case of war? They will hang me.” And the diplomatic answer of Wells: “I have | always been vehemently opposed to jany enmity toward the U. S. S. R. and I advocate sincere and friendly | relations.” Stefan Zweig: “Any interference O'Flaherty, Irish author, | Romain Rolland, Bela Illes, Mar- | tin Andersen Nexo voice similar opinions. | The Soviet Union can be con- gratulated on this significant ac- tion in consequence of which a host of writers of the first rank, without being Communists, rally to the side of the Soviets when confronted by the possibility of a conflict. In reference to this questionnaire Karl Radek states in the columns of “Izvestia:” “It is difficult to find a better touchstone to prove what the pre- sent literary world represents. The answers of the proletarian writers are clear: They would fight on the side of the Soviet Union, in the ranks of the international prole- tariat. Many have declared their readiness to enlist in the ranks of the Red Army. We do not doubt the sincerity of these declarations, But, for that, we would say to them: ‘If you wish to use the gun you shall do so when you like. We hope that you will handle it better than you have handled the pen hitherto in the battle for so- cialism and the Soviet Union.” |DOG LANE, by Lev Goomilevsky, New York, The Vanguard. $2.00. | When the Russian Revolution overturned the old Tsarist state of |exploitation and terrorism, a new | world was opened up for Russian |workers, students and peasants. This world is now in the making, and Dog Lane gives a fragment of the picture of what is happening in it. Russian youth, especially, rebelled against the old sham and shibboleth |of the decaying bourgeois world |which had tabooed sex and made |birth a matter of storks and safety pins, and Dog Lane is the story of their revolt as it happened in “our Hail to the Soviet Union Building a New World IR By JAMES DOUGHERTY town.” The old religious prohibi- tions and state regulations concern- ing marriage have been abolished jand sex relations placed on a higher |and freer plane by the Soviet Gov- jernment’s new regulations. This |forward step immediately gives rise | to the question of whether sexual re- lations shall be merely the outcome of physical desire and as casual as going to a movie or whether the union of two people has more to offer than so transitory a satisfac- tion. Dog Lane deals with the ques- tion frankly, revealingly, and with none of the sickening pornography or bourgeois fictior The hook is a product of a transi- tional period in the Soviet "Jnion, which ended in 1925—a period of uncertainty and pessimism among certain student and weaker political elements. One outgrowth of this period Was a re-appearance of the old bourgeois bohemianism in sex relations among some of the youth. This remnant of decadent bourgeois morality was given the veneer of “materialism” and used to debase the purpose of the proletarian revo- lution. “Dog Lane” is a powerful polemic against this misconception and it sets forth the new proletarian mor- ality which is developing, Horohorin, the student is an example of this ten- | dency. He shows an utter lack of a Communist evaluation of the sio-political importance of rela- tions between men and women.on a higher basis than was possible under capitalism. Although a member of the Young Communist League) Horohorin says that love “is a bourgeois business and it hampers our cause! Good health and efficiency; regylar eat- ing and drinking; regular hours of work, rest, and recreation; regular relations with women—that is the most important!” However, when he becomes entangled with a girl who eludes and torments him he finds that the sexual appetite is less easily appeased than pangs of thirst end hunger, and he goes the dire way of sexual abandonment which the young teacher Borrov had fol- lowed before him. He cannot work, he cannot teach, he cannot study, he becomes a useless member of so- ciety. Horohorin lives to conquer his physical desire in work. Not so Boorov who commits suicide and murders the girl to whom they were both so disastrously attracted. Boorov cannot adjust to a world that gives freedom but which de- mands discretion if one is not to be engulfed in the swamp of sexual laxity which spells disaster to the sentimentality of present-cay | | Sex and Morals in the Soviet Union individual and therefore to his rev« olutionary usefulness. Boorov flees and puts a gun to his head. He does not matter. Young students and workers such as Senia and Zoya whose deep affection for one another is the living reality of this book live on to play their part in the building of the new world. It is they who are defining the morals in the new state. Listen to the youthful Senia in Dog Lane: “Twisting the meanings of words, the bourgeoisie always tried to throw dust in the eyes of workmen and of peasants, by claim- ing that Communists do not believe in a moral code. That is a lie! We know that there is a Communist moral code and that Communists are moral! From the point of view of our class—the only correct point of view—everything that weakens our will to build a new world, every- thing that interferes with our search for truth—is immoral. ... Control over our desires, fighting the bare sexual instinct, a comrade- like attitude toward the woman you |love—these are the highest Commu- nist standards of relations with women! It is the foundation upon which rests our moral code, which is as far away from the morals of the former rotten bourgeois society as the sky is from the earth.” Yes, as far as the sky from the earth is the Soviet Union from cap- italist America, Capitalist America ties incompatible people together forever if they cannot afford to buy a divorce from the corrupt courts, Capitalist America brands for life a child which is born out of wedlock, Capitalist America squeals of the sacred ties of the family, but it can- \ not hide the houses of prostitution that line our streets. It ignores the fact that proletarian families are disrupted because mothers must leave their babies and-young child- ren must go into the factories in order to scrape up a bare living. In the Soviet Union the sexes are given equal rights, the cruel dis- criminations against “so-called” il- legitimate children are removed and information regarding birth control is disseminated freely. Young people may come together and part, and prostitution, a concomitant of the “sacred” bourgeois family, can be swept away with the other core ruption of the bourgeois state. RUTH SHAW. Paid subscriptions wi!l solve the financial crisis of the Daily Worker. Join the drive for 60,000 readers, ;