The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 15, 1930, Page 4

Page Four DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1930 A HISTORIC NOVEL DEALING WITH SOVIET FARM COLLECTIVES By MELVIN LEVY. Perhaps no phase of life in the So- viet Union is more fitted for use as literary material than that of the new farms. Brusski: The Soil Redeemed” is the first Soviet of fiction translated that deals with the d, both between m e and the poor peasants with the kulaks, The story is simple. It deals with a group of poor peasants who establish a col- lective on a piece of land which tl stupidity of a former “noble” own and the greed of a kt have allowed to lie idle for tions; and with thei the forces, of nat forces of supersti: tagonism which labe And behind all ment of turbu fully portrayed It is spring Into a meet co! the po and demands “I want land, pea +. BY ide village. It been divided up yet. And so it should not be wasted we'll We're go- ing to form a fellowship of the poor “Morgan the Magnificent” Is Expos “MORGAN THE MAGNIFICENT” By JOHN K. WINKLER Vanguard Press By ALLAN JOHNSON ‘t is possible that Mr. Winkler, like so many “scholars” reads everything and understands nothing. But it is far more probable, if his biography of Morgan can that Winkler is one of that pitiful breed of writers who are only too eager to cast a halo about the head of any member of the ignoble great who has managed to steal a large fortune. Winkler’s Morgan is a god (Winkler actually calls him that) a sort of superhuman person who through superiority in intellect, physique and courage became “the greatest indi- vidual the world of finance had ever known.” Moreover, Morgan is de- picted as a patron of the arts, a 20th} century Lorenzo the Magnificent, and a stern but kind-hearted man who endowed a hospital every morning before breakfast and permitted child- ren to entwine his huge watch chain around their little fingers. Winkler unwittingly permits us to catch a glimpse into the machinery of modern myth-making. Here is Morgan, a bestial crook if one ever) lived, portrayed as a superman so magnificently endowed that the workers of America should thank their lucky stars that so great a man as he once directed their lives. “In the panic of 1903,” says Winkler, “Morgan was the dictator of the United States in all save formal title,” and the inference is that the workers of America were stupid for not grant- ing him the title as well. Winkler Creates False Impression. The important facts in the follow- ing brief resume of Morgan's life are available to anyone who is willing to spend a few hours in research in any good library. Needless to say, Wink- Jer doesn’t mention any of them, e; cept in two instances; when he di: cusses Morgan’s sale of condemned rifles to the U. S. Army and when he mentions the formation of the United States Steel Corp. In each case, Winkler deliberately paints an inac- curate picture, as a cursory examina- tion of the records will reveal. John Pierpont Morgan was the son of Junius Spencer Morgan, a clerk who later became the partner of Peabody, financial representative of the United States government in England during the Civil War. Ac- cording to the New York Evening Post of Oct. 26th, 1866, “Peabody and Morgan undermined the very cause Snap Shots of | South Street By the “BOSUN” This monument to capitalism and religion is supposed to be “a home away from home” for the various members of that tribe that eke out a precarious existence by following |the sea for a living. That is, when- ever we are lucky enough (or un- |lucky) to find one of those floating |bug-infested coffins that O'Connor, of the Shipping Board, would call a he climax of the book comes with | ship. a drought which spreads over the| It is a home, but a home to stay community and threatens to destroy|away from as far as the saltwater crops. The war with nature is|seaman is concerned. This joint is flected in the war between the | supposed to be a Church Institute for members of the collectives and the |Seamen. It is, but of the comercial- superstition and the interest of those !ized variety. You may get almost who desire their failure. On the one|anything there from a needle to an side there are prayers and lamenta-|anchor if you have the dough. It tions. On,the other—the government | maintains half a dozen special police- provides a tractor. Under the lead- | men on’ duty in the lobby in order to ership of Stepan Ognev work is start- |impress the erring seaman of the ed on a dam which will irrigate the |need of religion and the importance elds. The time is short. The in-|of saving his soul, meanwhile the cident of the dam building is power- | Institute will take care of his money. ful and) exolting. Last Sunday evening during relig- The Soil Redeer ious service one of these erring shell- moving and instructive book. It is|backs had just paid his dollar for Publishers, | What passes as a room and was in oe Sane ay, {the act of putting away his receipt of it contained in the complete cat- |C#™e UP and merely shoved him ovek aiogue OF their publications across the lobby with a brusk, “get % z : 0 out of the way you god damn bum” (this probably to impress more re- ligion). The seaman naturally pro- tested this kind of treatment and 1 ox t the idea meets with ridicule and with enmity from the rich peas- ant, its former owner who still looks | it with longing eyes. But finally the fellowship of the poor is started in spite of difficulties and pov- it slowly triumphs. More and poor peasants decide to it with the collective. a erty more of th thi “Brusski issued International room and had a perfect right to be in the lobby. The cop then called ed by Reviewer ® nw coy then cate q|drew h and hit the nan they were paid to represent an profited heavily from their treachery.|{welve hour shift under the most) | While these two patriots were making! apnominable conditions, and every 100 per cent on their loans to the|/two weeks, when the shifts were government, they were actively aiding | changed, the workers who were to go the cause of the southern slave-/on the new shift worked a full 24 holders.” With this paternal tradition | hours at their back-breaking labor. be taken as evidence, behind him, young Morgan's first fiyer in business was characteristic. of the capitalist class was engaged in the most gigantic swindles upon the government. Morgan, although only | 24, decided to make hay while the italist sun was shining. He bought 5,000 rifles which had been con-| demned by the government and sold these same rifles right back to the/ government at an enormous profit.| A congressional inquiry later found| that these rifles were so inefficient) hat they shot the thumbs off the soldiers who fired them. Inasmuch as Morgan bought him- self cut of serving in the army dur- ing the war, he profited almost as | much from the Civil War as his son, | the present J. P. Morgan, profited} from the last war. | In 1893, one of those terrific busi- | ness depressions that are as much a part of capitalism as mass misery and hunger, threw more than 3,000,- 000 workers out of employment. of militant workers were thrown in jail, street meetings of workers were forbidden and the | working-class in general was sub- | jected to the same fierce repression | | that is being manifested in the pres- ent crisis. President Cleveland, who jis universally termed as a “man of \the people” by “liberal” historians, called on Morgan to “save the coun- try.” Morgan was only too willing. | Scores He and his syndicate loaned the gov- | ernment $62,000,000—for which Cleve- land paid them $18,000,000. When Morgan was at the height! of his power, he organized the United States Steel Corporation. The trust was capitalized at $1,200,000,000. Every bit of this over the $50,000,000 that Carnegie’s Steel Company was worth, was pure water. In this single trans- #4.*.. Morgan and his few associates | stole over a billion dollars between them. According to Winkler, “the steel corporation was Morgan’s mas- | terpiece.” We don’t doubt it. It is | pretty difficult for even an American capitalist to steal a ‘billion dollars more than once in a lifetime. | In order to pay dividends on and squeeze the water out of this billion |dollars of watered stock, Morgan’s |company drove its workers in the | most hellish speed-up America has ever known. Every man worked on a Dur ing the Civil War, every part| Partner Convicted But Freed. The nearest Morgan ever went to jail for his crimes was when his part- ner, Perkins, was convicted of grand }larceny in the notorious insurance frauds discovered at the beginning of the century. Although Perkins was convicted, Morgan prevented a prison term. The case suddenly died when it was decided that “Perkins commit- | ted the grand larceny without crim- inal intent.” Winkler’s style is as soft and sticky as his characterization of Morgan, ROAR CHINA—Drawing of a scene from the play by Ryan Walker. over the head with it. Some of the other seamen seeing the treatment of | United States Lines is having some their comrade protested with the re-|painting done lined up | cabins against the wall at the point of the/ foc’sle, fellow sailors). sult that they were all guns of these cops whilst a riot call | was sent in. During this scene in the lobby the religious processian was passing through on its way to the chapel |about “Joy in heaven and Peace on earth.” Truly a monument to god. men was arrested, but even the mag- \istrate thought this deal a little too raw and dismissed the case. This seaman, however, is now refused the right to re-enter the place despite the pointed out that he had just paid his |fact that the U. S. maintains a post|Wwonders. Let us try a little coloniza- office in the building and the seaman \is expecting mail at the general de- livery desk. “A home away from | home.” and he occasionally drops a sentence that is reminiscent of a 19th century | Bostonian preacher of the gospel. | Nowhere in the biography is there an indication that Morgan’s fortune | was built up through eiiploiting mil- | lions of workers in this country. The author evidently has no quarrel with |the capitalistic system. This is the |fundamental weakness of the book. | ‘The book is an interesting comment jon the Vanguard Press, which not so |long ago solicited dollar bills from |radicals on the plea that it would publish books dealing with labor | problems from a militant point of view. May we expect soon a landa- | tory biography of Legs Diamond, or | perhaps of Mussolini? | paid the magnificent sum of $1.62 per) couple of days ago when one of the |seamen refused to start at 6 a. m.| ‘where the priest told the seamen a! | and work to 5 p. m. but demanded an |8-hour day and Able Seamen’s pay, | he was told by the steward to pull | When the riot squad arrived the sea-|off his overalls and “get the hell The S.S. President Roosevelt of the in and bathrooms its passengers’ (mot the Seamen are being hired fon this job. They are day and a 11 hour day at that. A ashore as there are about 15,000 more |seamen to pick from.” A little healthy influence of job action on one of these ships by some of the M.W.I.U. members would create} tion on one of these liners and we'll | paint ‘er all right. What do you say, fellow workers? Suji Muji on the Luckenback Line Brokenback Line ought to be the name. The deck gang is forced to jsuji muji by light at night. (Suji| |muji is a delete mop.) Even the| |quartermasters are sujing the bridge | |around jlingoes are heard. “job action” would not be out of place on this line either. “Two Men Wanted”—One Thousand | Apply. Shipping board offices in West St. About 1,000 men are crowded in and the place. All kinds of The telephone rings. A concerted rush is made towards the desk. The ringing of the ‘phone means (perhaps) a job. “Two men wanted.” An old shellback pulls out his papers. Counts out 45 dis- charges. This means 45 different ships under the American flag. No good. Another one counts out 52 and a third one 68. The last two get the job. About a thousand seamen, old and young, retire again toward the entrance to wait for the next ‘phone call, mumbling, cursing, threatening. | Mr. O'Connor and others, when | these mumbling, cursing, threatening seadogs finally see the light and line up in the Marine Workers’ Industrial Union there will be a different pic- re. The telephone will still ring) |She has an Iron Mike so no human |The man longest ashore will get the : j tu at night on the Harry Luckenback. | py¢ it will ring in the union hall. | power is needed to steer her. The quartermasters therefore, together | with the mate on watch, suji muji despite the fact that this is an open | breach of the safety law. | | She is equally hard down below. | |Here the watertender is doing the work of the oiler and the fireman on watch whilst these are forced to sufi and paint. Hard and hungry this} line. Plenty of overtime and no time | |back. All hands on deck sujing going | through the fresh water lake in the Panama Canal. A little touch of first job out and a couple of extra hands will be put on our god damn ship. The 2 watch system will be changed into 3 watch system and finally into a 4 watch system thereby enabling all of these 15,000 seamen now out of work, to obtain a ship. It has been done on the ships. That day Mr. O’Connor and others, we shall see whether you have forgotten how to suji muji and splice a wire. A different flag will also fly from the mast head then. Join the union fel- low workers and speed the day. The following is not only the sec- ond scene in a series of three, but is also complete in itself, suitable, singly or in combination, for pres- entation at mass meetings or other revolutionary affairs.—Editor. By MEYER DWORKIN. | CHARACTERS: Working man Working woman Cop Social Worker Liberal Prostitute A throng of jobless, and A squad of cops SCENE—A public square of a late afternoon. Surrounding the square are rich shop-windows dis- playing various luxuries. A jobless worker is lying on a bench under WORKING WOMAN (raising her smallest child high and facing the city) “Not yet two years old, and always hungry! And soon as it grows up, the gold-patriots and flag-wavers will force it into a uniform to defend their pelf against an imaginary foe. (She exclaims) War against war!” (All jobless applaud her). COP: “Heh!” WORKING MAN (drops down ex- hausted by her and the children on the bench, Jobless surround him. He raises threatening fists). “God dam them! A man strong and will- |ing to work should be able to find} |work! To earn enough for himself | you daming?” WORKING MAN: swinish world!” “The whole a tree. Working woman and four WORKING WOMAN (patting her children are sitting across the | children): “You don’t have to, The square on a bench. Nearby sits a |world is beautiful but (her eyes Negro, a giant of a man. Scat- | burn), it will have to be cleansed of tered on the grass are numbers of jobless. On a bench by herself sits a prostitute—over-dressed, fatigued, but cocky and self-assured, with an air that challenges the whole world. A nearby church bell tolls languidly “Qne—two—three—four.” In the distance the humdurm of the city is heard and the foreboding thump- thump of a drum. PROSTITUTE (to jobless youth on the grass): “Am I a social com- modity or ain't I? That's what I would like to know” (sneers indig- nantly). YOUTH: “Yes, you are, like the rash. Go on, you cheap night hawk and ply your trade. Socially you are not of our kind...” PROSTITUTE: “I ain't, huh? Ain’t I! And remember, young man, I ain't no cheap night hawk, and I don’t ply my trade. The biggest men in the city and prominent churchmen are my customers. But hell, I'm tired of those parasites. I am of the work- ing class myself, and am a prole- tarlan, whether you like it or not.” YOUTH: “Yeh, but your kind will never understand 'the meaning of socialism. You are a sort of parasite yourself. Listen, cutie, ain’t you de- generated after a time associating with your big fat men. Rotten lot what they are! PROSTITUTE: “No I ain't, and I think I could still be useful to the working class.” YOUTH: “I am afraid your kind will have to wait until after the social revolution. .. . Only that flame that will abolish capitalism will scourge the world of all its associated evils, including prostitution. COP (to prostitute): “Hey, Mar- tha.” PROSTITUTE: “To hell with you, I have protection, I ain’t afraid of nobody. Why, I almost rule the town ... (Walks off the square. Church bell tolls languidly). JOBLESS (sitting on bench shakes first in direction of the church): “Oh, turn dumb. It’s enough to starve without them everlasting bells.” all the swine that pollute it!” ALL JOBLESS (applauded) Bravo! Hurrah! ‘Tis the truth! WORKING MAN: The whole fire- |hot day I scoured the city for work. Waited in long lines until I nearly dropped with exhaustion. But every- where the same sneer of him securely behind the bars of the employment window. Out of each line numbering hundreds, one or two are hired at a starving wage. I nearly went insane! Work! Just some work to sustain life! God damn it, I will soon kill for my family! CHILDREN (cry): We are hungry! ONE OF THE JOBLESS (who stood under a tree cuts his way through the throng and mounts a bench): “There's a way out!” (In the distance shouts of newspaper venders are heard: “Reds Riot!” “Reds Riot!”), There are so many of us who are starving. Let us pool our forces and the city will begin to tremble. The city is not lacking any- thing. We have produced so much. What has become of it? Bread is dumped into the ocean while we starve! Palatial homes are idle while we are forcefully evicted from our homes into the street! (cops appear. Again shouts of “Reds Riot!”, “Reds Riot!” Church tolls dishearteningly “6.”) Why then do we starve? Why are we roofless? ONE OF THE JOBLESS: Because we don't yet realize our power! (stormy “Hurrah!”) (In a distant corner of the square a group of youthful workers appears with spon- taneous revolutionary songs. Particu- larly “The Red Flag” is heard. A red banner is raised above them. Songs continue.) SOCIAL WORKER: (Appears and is protected by cops.) All those who are hungry and homeless will please register for a free meal and a bed. (She remains unnoticed.) JOBLESS ONE: (To social worker, Jestingly.) And tomorrow, my dear lady, out on the streets to starve like homeless dogs again! No! Thank you! This will be the final act of COP: “Hey!” the whole damned farce between the|Capitalism would squeeze the life CHILDREN (cry): “We ar e/oppressors and the oppressed! ‘Take|blood out of us. It has all the means this message back to your Molochs! |to do so, It rules the church, the _ Young Militant Negro Worker—A Study by Bill Hernandez. hungry!” a onaneoamas To or Wages! (Social worker disap- and family. Mert pears. The square is surrounded by] WORKING WOMAN: “Who &f€|cons. In the distance the shouts of: CHILDREN (cry faintly): We are hungry! SOCIAL WORKER (terrified): And who are your leaders? JOBLESS ONE: Grim starvation and poverty. (To the jobless sur- rounding him): Who will make the beginning to free us? No one but ourselves, the working class. COP: Don’t you want to pay your rent? JOBLESS ONE: We are tired of it. And besides, we have no work, and we refuse to leave the houses | that we built! I am a carpenter. We refuse to starve amidst plenty! Work | “Reds Riot!” “Reds Riot!” is heard.) CHILDREN CRY: We are hungry! WORKING WOMAN (mounted on| |a bench with her smallest child! raised): Not quite two years old and |always hungry! And soon the gold-/ patriots of the land will call it to! war against an imaginary enemy. COPS (in loud unison): Hey! JOBLESS ONE: War against war! (All in thundering, “Hurrah!”) (In| the background the group of youth-| ful workers sings revolutionary | songs.) JOBLESS ONE: War against im- perialism! War against those who prepare a secret war against.our only fatherland, the Soviet Union! War against a decaying capitalistic world! War against those who starve us! (Thundering, “Hurrah!” Church bells toll alarmingly. Liberal appears. A neatly dressed fellow of fifty. He edges in among the jobless and mounts a stone platform in the cen- ter of the square. A squall of fallen leaves from nearby trees shower him. The sun disappears. The Square turns dark suddenly. The cops en- circle him.) LIBERAL (surveys the throng, ob- serves the group of youthful work- ers that still sings, his voice trem- bles): Fellow citizens. The economic situation in our land today is... ALL JOBLESS (general excitement, cops bristle in readiness): We know it! (Youthful workers burst out, “The Red Flag!” One youth climbs up a lamp post near a government building and puts up over its en- trance a placard bearing the follow- ing slogan: “Work or Wages! We Will Not Starve!” Square thunders with shouts: “Hurrah!”) LIBERAL (attempts to speak again): The underlying cause of our present misery, gentlemen, is because of the lack of cooperation between labor and capital. . . JOBLESS ONE: (interrupts): This is not the truth! There are other causes. ... The chief cause of which is your rotten system of selfish cap- italism, your worshipping of private property, and the destructive wasteful nature of the whole fabric of indi- vidualism! Your capitalistic system is now headed towards a precipice! It is true, we do not cooperate with capitalism because it is our enemy. “WORK OR WAGES”---A Play On a Revolntionary Theme press, the stage, and it owns the gov- ernment! We starve and they live in luxuries! (Ironically) Therefore, my dear sir, we have nothing in common with capitalism. Our interests are fundamentally opposed. We are ene- | mies, and it will be a fight to the fin- nish between the two classes! LIBERAL: War is destructive and not civilzed . . . (cops surround him closely). In our civilzed epoch other means, more humanitarian, could be found, to settle economic problems. | Force is barbarious and destructive... JOBLESS ONE (interrupts): Oh yes! When the working class begins to stir and use it against his oppres- sors! Read your own history! What is capitalism based upon but constant war and invasfion of weaker peoples’ | territories. Has not your apostle of freedom, your greatest pacifist of to- day, slaughtered thousands of our Russian comrades at the most crucial moment of their history? Who sanc- tions all wars between one capital- istic group and another in their con- stant mad race for new markets? Your press, your pulpit. and your lying law makers! Your pacifism is deception! (All: “Hurrah!”) But your. peace-poisoned sermons are no longer swalolwed by the revolutionary working class! We have long ago classified you as the most dangerous creatures that pollute the atmosphere in our great struggle with capitalism! Look! (Pointing to cops) These are your peaceful means by which you rule the world! Liars! (Thunderous “Hurrah!” out in spontaneous song). LIBERAL (smoothing his ruffed hair, attempts to speak): Well... It is not a bit nice... JOBLESS ONE (ironically): Cer- tainly. For centuries you have en- slaved and brutalized us. Under- stand, from now on, we will accord you like treatment. Besides, we are not “gentlemen.” (Through the square walks hastily a rich over- dressed dame leading a white poodle. Terrified at the last words of the job- less one she seizes her dog into her arms, kisses it, feeds it bon-bons, and hurries away.) CHILDREN (cry faintly): hungry. JOBLESS ONE: We are hungry and oppressed. Now when life around us is shattered into fragments, you are making desperate attempts to mend it again, so that you should be eble to ride on our backs again! You will not succeed! The ground under us is heaving higher and higher every day. We have passed the period of compromises with you, our enemy! Now it will be a war for bread—and @ new world! (Brief interlude while jobless one speaks to throng and youthful work- ers in “background unfurl a red flag singing the “Internationale. The afternoon sky darkens. Liberal struts off. All jobless, under the accom- paniment of the red songs of the youthful workers, form lines in marching order and start towards the city. Red flag and placards are car- ried at the head of the marchers. We are They burst out in spontaneous song Youthful workers burst | “ROAR CHINA”—A By MYRA PAGE. “Roar China” is more than a play. It is an experience, gripping, ines- capable. For a few hours you are one of the Chinese coolies, slayed un- der the lash of British and American imperialism, with hatred and revolt seething in your breast. When, fol- lowing the public hanging of two |Chinese boatmen by the imperialists as an act of showing the “yellow swine” their place, the Chinese mas- ses rise up to drive out their op- pressors, are mowed down, rise again, again are mowed down, and once more rise, battling desperately for |freedom, urged on by their leaders’ |cries, “Rise China, Roar! Roar!"— the thing is so real that you catch yourself on the point of getting to your feet and joining in the battle. iT the seventy Chinese actors in the |*cast, the play is also more than a play. | living embodiment of the wrongs and | struggles of the four hundred mil- | lions of Chinese toilers who are to- |day fighting on to victory. The sin- \cerity and intense earnestness which |characterizes their acting helps to offset some of the bungling of the Gold Fish For Hoover | | A pair of goggle-eyed fan-tail | Japanese gold fish, will be sent, | | President and Mrs. Hoover for a” || Christmas gift, so the United | | Press wires from Tokio. These two | |fish are said to be able to live without being fed, and are guar- | | anteed not to turn red. | play which the Theatre Guild has | committed. However, the faults of | the Guild production of the play are too fundamental, to allow of satis- | factory corrections. The deliberate changes from the original text of the play as produced in the Soviet Union are too drastic. Later, we will return | to this point. The action of the play, which is based on an incident which occurred |while the author, S. M. Tretyakov | was in China, takes place on a wharf in the harbor of Wan Hsien, a small city 800 miles up the river from Shanghai, and og the deck of His | Majesty's ship, the “Europa,” anchor- ed in the harbor during the summer of 1926. ‘THE main story is as follows. Hall, an American fur trader who is ;making a fortune by sweating Chin- ‘ese labor at twenty cents a day, and | who purchases Chinese girls for his | Pleasure at six dollars per girl, cheats a boatmen’s guild out of half of their miserable pay. When they protest that they and their families are al- ready starving, he fir®s them and Woo, a Chinese worker whose power- ful figure and ringing voice is sym- bolic of the rising Chinese prole- tariat, tells them that they must re- | volt and throw out tneir oppressors. That is the only way to end their misery. “But how can we? With bamboo | sticks against their cannons?” “It can be done, it has been done,” Woo re- plies, and he tells them of a land where the toilers have won freedom. made changes. All definite mention of the Soviet Union is eliminated, and the whole matter is slurred over so that the audience loses the political si ""eance of this speech). Hall goes aboard the “Europa” to |drive a bargain with Mr. Smith, an English im erialist and competitor. Whe» ready to return to shore, Hall carmot get a native boatman to take him. “We no longer work for you, unless you pay us twenty cents.” “Besides, you cheat us,” the boatmen reply. An English naval officer on boat "aims to shoot the boatmen for Vhi- solence to a white man.” A |Chinese lad who is used as a lackey for the officers on board dashes against the officer and ruins his aim. The lad is hurled into the sea, res- cued by the boatmen and returned to the ship. Then he is made to ap- ologize to the ship's officer for “de- | fiance of a superior.” Mrs. Tourist, a typical western idler “doing the Orient” makes him repeat the Lord's | Prayer which she has taught him. A BOATMAN, under threat, agrees to take Hall to shore. Half-way in, he demands his ten cents from Hall, for he knows, once ashore, Hall will give him nothing. A quarrel fol- lows. Hall tries to seize the boat- man’s oar, and in the struggle he falls into the sea and is drowned. At the advice of his fellow coolies, whose past experiences have led them to fear trouble from this, the boatman goes into hiding. The Chinese were rightfully appre- hensive. All Anglo-Saxon elements in Wan Hsien unite for vengeance. Imperialists, tourists, missionaries, and newspapermen, all rush aboard the battleship and join in the chorus. They insist that Hall's death was murder and but the beginning of a time and again. Cops attack the rear ines just leaving the square, In the distance shouts of newspaper venders are heard “Reds Riot!”, “Reds Riot.”) WORKING WOMAN (standing in center of square on stone platform with emaciated child raised high, shouts): Not yet two years old and always hungry!* Her father is a car- penter! (In the distance loud “hurrahs!” are heard and the songs of the youthful workers, a shot of a revolver, sirens of speeding police wagons and shouts of newspaper venders “Reds Riot!” “Reds Riot!” Slowly the sun rises while singing and shouts are heard in the distance —Work or Wages! Work or Wages! Solidarity! To them it is evidently a/ 1] has them beaten by native police. | (Here is one place the Guild has| STIRRING ANTI-IMPERTALIST PLAY massacre of all whites in the Orient. | Europa’s captain demands, “How many Chinese is a white man worth?” The ship’s guns are trained on the shore and an ultimatum given to the | town of Wan Hsien, that two Chin- |ese boatmen must lose their lives to avenge Hall's death, and a monument jerected to Hall’s memory. Otherwise, |the town will be stormed. In vain the Chinese representatives plead and try to offer other amends. On shore, there is consternation. The boatman say, “Why should we die? We have done nothing. Surely |they can ot be so cruel. We must |soften their hearts.” “Their hearts jare full of needles,” Woo scoffs. |“They will dare to storm the town. | Their guns have destroyed other in- {nocent villages. We must organize and fight them. That is the only way.” Once more the envoy goes to plead with the captain. “We will appeal to the socialist Prime Minister of Great Britain,” the envoy tells the captain. “I know only his Majesty's Prime Minister,” the captain replies. In real life, and in the Soviet play, a telegram of appeal is sent to Mac- | Donald, but there is no reply. In |the Guild version, the captain pre- | Vents the sending of the telegram. |The political significance of this change is self-evident. It white- washes MacDonald and his social facist administration. | The Chinese envoy tells the boat- men that there is no way to save the town fro bombardment except to meet the foreigners’ terms. The | workman tells them to all stand as one and fight. The boatmen, how- lever, still uncertain, agree to sacri- fice two of their members. Lots are drawn, Pei Fu, one of those chosen to die accepts his fate stoically, but the other, Chang, rebels at the in- justice. “I have worked hard all my life,” he exclaims, “why do they kill me? I have a little son, why do they kill me?” Woo standing defiantly, with arms folded, legs wide apart, ans- wers him: “Because you are a Chi- ee and a worker.” | The public strangutation of tne two innocent coolies takes piace the next morning at sunrise. As the rope is slipped over Wei Fu’s head, jhe turns to his fellow workers and asks, “Boatman of Wan Hsien, will lyou forget this day?” “Never”, they |promise him, “The time will come | when we will say to them, ‘Do you |remember the two boatmen of Wan Hsien?” Before Chang dies, he asks |to see his son. The boy and his |mother pledge to avenge their fa- | ther's murder. News comes that there are revolts breaking out in other parts of China. Chang’s wife gives the sig- |nal for the Wan Hsien revolt. The cannons’ bark from the ship is ans- wered by firing from the shore, as | the coolies and boatmen organize and jmarch forward to the struggle. | We understand that the Guild | director prohibited the acters from | waving of the red flag in the final |scene, and the actors flatly refused |to use the Komintang flag. This incident is sufficient comment in itself on the Guild’s outlook on the entire production. Under the guise of “less propa- |}ganda and more art” the American | producer has blurred the sharp class issues in “Roar China.” Not only has the play been cut by one third, but the play has been robbed of much of its political character. This has been accomplished, in addition to the changes already mentioned by the introduction of such extraneous elements as a British girl who waxes | sentimental over the Chinese, and jby the deletton of entire scenes | which the Guild director admits were “stirring and rich” but too | stinging or revolutionary in their im- port for the Guild to stomach. By these methods, the denunciation of the imperilast system loses its edge, The audience is left with the er- roneous impression that it is the mean-ness of certain individuals like Hall and Smith which is mainly responsible for the plight of the Chinese masses, rather than the sys- tem of imperialism itself, including the socialist MacDonald regime. Also, there is a blurring of class di- visions within China, between the workers and peasants on the one hand, the only real fighters against foreign imperialism, and the native oppressors, landlords, merchants and militarists. Nevertheless, in spite of these shortcomings of the Guild present- atien, “Roar China” remains a stirs ring play which is well worth seeing, —provided you can’t go to Moscow, and see the original. NEGRO MOTHER TO HER CHILD By V. JEROME Quit yo’ wailin’ honey boy T’aint no use to cry Rubber nipple, mammy’s breast Both have gone bone dry. Daddy is a bolshevik Daddy’s in de pen Didn't rob nor didn’t steal Led de workin’ men, What's de, use my tellin’ you Silly 1i'1 lamb Gonna git it straight some day When you is a man. Wish I had a sea o’ milk Make you strong an’ soun’ Daddy's waitin’ till you come Break dat prison down. ee