The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 31, 1932, Page 3

ty ae Page Three es “SEND ME BOOKS TC |THIS PRISON CELL” Song of the Hunger March By ALBERT GALATSKY. ROM the cities, from the farmlands, Where the wolves of hunger run __DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1932 AWARDED GORKI PRIZE | ¢ USSR THEATRES ARE FOR THE WORKERS 2 RE ACS RRR Meri cm Came the armies of the workers, pneraaredectrieneerenenantrs ‘Mak ‘f ry a wi ‘ashi fe x °c - » ams Test Makes You Feel the World Is Young and Art | pbk vtech acta i Some Personal Experiences; Vivid Letters Is Just Beginning” Round about them stretched a country | from Class War Prisoners a Fat in cattle, rich in grain, | eoisianiagemestoseacaaniiehatatan 3 Who could here conceive of hunger VERN SMITH comrades of By L. MARTIN around them are all plain working we, Serenata’ beaint pega tass Y- COnam 4 : people. None of the be-Jeweled | Must have had a madman’s brain! ‘are imprisoned Sy [® ' Gevressing to go to a show | luxury here that is flaunted in the Vet in en ae ty ounty jail: We sea e vss] ‘ 1 ¢ in every town and city ned here in our cell in Germany these days. Most | faces of the starving unemployed As the Hunger Marchers passed ‘i pe a aa he ‘ ger Q e : ire group ar of the theatres and movie houses eem to be half empty. Only rich Germans and foreign tourists can ford the admission prices; they are out of the question for most German workers. when the American opera season opens. No stupid rich people com- ing to sleep through the opera so that their pictures may appear in the rotogravure or their gowns be mentioned in the society columns of the papers. The Moscow grand In the halls and on the sidewalks Hungry, freezing workers massed. Every city, every viilage, Cheered the Hunger Marchers on, Sent a delegate to join them On the march to Washington. happen t You know som! You have to make your case to the workers. You have t do what lass elements, ~ v if you kindly ead of the king you lative’ to the ‘class ppreciate. espe What a contrast when you reach | opera—acclaimed even by capitalist | ‘art of 7 en by Karl the Soviet Union! Here all the | press correspondents as among the | vhi' i hav nae i 5 amusement places are always | most aageokt produced in the wie a4 pipgiel ona i mae | s bears ya thee: hens crowded with all the workers they | world—is all for the workers. And | Sues ane Wout an Geawiied | | and exposures. 10 Oe will hold, Admission prices are | they respond to good music and | GRAN! Race to Wrastlingtor. | duct yourself in coi every: Gays ae fairly high for tourists and high- | fine acting as no capitalist audi- | Grace Lumpkin, author of “To | shaker nia sat aca Lenin and Pree aie nce ea nnyalue” this paid specialists, but not for work- | ence has ever done. | Make My Bread,” whose novel was | ea aoe aoe n | ing everything to your use and the 1 ee take up whole Corus | among the three American revolu- oe | use of your fellow You 1 and their workers | ~ VISIT to the Meyerhold The- | tionary novels to receive the Maxim With @ single firm demand | the Octo ber | have to take the offensive. You do in the ee seats in the house |“A tre in Moscow will make you | Gorki award at the Maxim Gorki Cee ee ea } ‘ | what you can to win the cas ee | feel the world is young and art pessantonbt gti ad (etl ag Revolution per ee ou Toa ne ce hat you continue to ystem, other workers to strugs If you are convic auspices of the Writers’ Federation. “To Mak iy | Bread” will be reviewed by V. J. Revolutionary ‘ | ‘lubs and hardships could not stop the | White and Negro fought as one Iam a mem- and I pre- is just beginning. All conventions of the capitalist stage have been t’s go to the theatre in the the chance Leningrad. Sad Otdikha, which | scrapped or must pass the severest Jerome in Ti "g is Till they s' S ieeatent : ENIN’S writings and speeches | b about my ig o ‘uesday’s issue of ill they staged their demonstration | to d ropa: la is ied, but “Garden of Rest.” Theater | tests to prove they are worth re- | paiy Worker. af oP On the streets of Washington, | auring the period of the develop- | Seg auch Barger. 1 Range yt vs don't suggest “rest” in the bai ae a ibiecira, php | | ing revolution in Russia in 1917 are | vexations, interferences nore z ee eal beens wy lve wp to it "t will mrodiies interesting re | a rot begat cao contained in Toward the Seizure | subtlety and ingenuity is required by such .aieennee arden really seems v ES @ greater march to come Bee 2 pri r . erty fe name. it is a little park in | sults. And the audience, nearly “Cari i, TYEE Lib: Bakiibery ct -yfockers | of Power, Volume XXI of the Col- | Of tHe Prisoner. eee Nearing, Lenin and which are two or three theatre | all of whom are workers, are made arin, or the Drowns the sound of fife and drum. lected Works, which has just been Betton Re Sr ‘ Beret Far cantieelie | to share in the Bl aiteatae e they watch you so closely, you can the county houses, for stage ys, va Wee ” published in two books by Interna- | do little but endure, that, too, is | a and moving pictures, The yaude- | to build up a new proletarian stage Unemployed And the proletarian armies tional Publishers, New York. useful, and has to be carried on | ine ecuduaes technique that will surpass any- with staunchness and courage, and ville theatre is an open-air one, It has a roof to protect the audi- ence from showers, but is open on hree sides to the summer air. Be- tween acts at the show houses the audience stroll about under the trees or patronize the lunch rooms and open-air beer garden. There is none of the hectic rush of Broadway here. The workers are out for an evening’s relaxa- snd a restful good time. Sure their jobs, safeguarded by so- ‘ance against sickness, old ents Soviet. workers feeling of s ity that we can never know under capitalism. Per- haps that is why there is such an enjoyment here, so t American amusement places. ce an operetta showing in tre this evening. and acted, al- uction is some- the conventional lines h or American operet- esemblances make all the more strik- a show absolutely WHERE i nm audiences have dined to swallow almost. un- in all their entertainment. theme deals with France ermany in the World War. pandering to na- s, no glorification of imp: Money is not de to appear the main end in Workers are not made to ap- r as inferior characters or the s-of the piece. Princes and liongires and other para~ hot held up as heroes. operetta, on the contrary, nd heroine are workers. asions to superiority of s and their hangers-on held up to ridicule. And the only thing glorified about the war fs the spirit of revolutionary dis- gust it aroused in class-conscious French and German workers alike. WALL NEWSPAPER OUTSIDE THEATRE Outside the theatre is a wall newspaper, where workers may write any criticisms cr suggestions about the show that occur to them. And writers, producers and every- one else connected with the the- atre pay Close attention to these reactions of their worker audi- ences. If answers or explanations are called for, they appear side by side with the complaint. The criti- cisms we see on the board are of all kinds, One wants to know why shows can’t start at 7 instead of 8. Another doesn’t like the end- ing of the play, thinks it artifi- cial, And so on. ee OVIBT workers don’t have to travel down-town ‘tp see all the best shows. Many of them are brwught ‘to them right in their fac- ton neighborhoods. ‘The workers of the famous Puti- lov factory in Leningrad, for in- stance, have a “House of Culture” of their own. It is a huge modern club-house, with library, gymna- sium, rooms for every kind of so- cial activity and an auditorium that seats 2,500. An American theatre occupying as much space would pack in twice as many seats; regardless of how rotten the posi- tion of the cheaper seats might be. But this auditorium is laid out by workers for workers, along spaci- ous lines, and every seat is good. ‘To this workers’ club-house, and to others like it, the Moscow Art ‘Theatre and other first-class shows come first of all. The first-nighters of the Soviet- Union are not stuf- fed-shirt snobs of “high society” as in the United States, but work~ ers right from the factory bench. t's their approval or disapproval that makes or breaks a show in the Soviet Union. NEW FACES AT OPERA See the first-night crowd at the opening of the fall grand opera season in the big Opera House * (Bolshoy Theatre) in Moscow. ‘That’s all we could see, for we couldn't get. tickets ourselves—the workers of Moscow factories hav- ing had first shot at seats, ‘The high white pillars of this imposing opera house have looked down on many previous theatre crowds. They have seen czars and princes, landowners and capitalists arrive in costly carriages and li- -qnousines. They have witnessed the ‘ “gffectations of countless fine- gowned ladies and their foppish jords, But never a worker passed through them before the revolu- tion, except to flunky to the rich within. But tonight the crowd who surge ‘capitalist propaganda | thing the known. In the show we saw, the audi- capitalist class has | encé is taken into confidence right from the start. The director is on the stage in his ordinary clothes, mingling with the actors. The first two acts are in the nature of a burlesk, and he kids with the au- dience about what they see on the stage. You get so intimate that you almost feel like shouting back, “That's a good one,” or “That's nos so hot” from iime to time. SATIRIZE BOURGEOIS TENDENCIES The burlesk is directed against bourgeois affectations still persist- ing on the Soviet stage. They are swept away by a rush of sailors of the Red Navy. “Let us show you some real life in the Red Navy to- day,” they shout, as they clear the stage of tawdry capitalist trim- mings. They bring on new scen- ery themselves and start a serious play of navy life, for the audience to judge whether they don’t like it much better than the sort of show they have seen burlesked. Curtains are not dropped in this show while scenes are being changed. You not only share with the actors their emotions, but you come to understand some of their technical problems as well. There are many novel and daring experi- ments in presentation. For in- stance, moving pictures are shot right onto the stage at certain | points to carry us quickly to a new scene of action. Anything new that may produce a good effect is worth trying out, and if the workers don’t like it, we and they will work out some- | thing better next time. That the spirit at this Soviet theatre. | No deadly fear here—as in capit- alist America—that a show will be a box-office failure unless it is along conventional lines and con- tains all the old sure-fire cliches that have brought in the dough before, ree HE lid has been taken off the artistic life of 2 whole people, you feel when you catch a glimpse of developing Soviet culture. Millions of workers and peasants not only have the opportunity to attend theatres, movies, operas, etc. for the first time in their lives, put they are free to take part in building up a new art and culture that will express and aid their struggles and enrich their whole lives. Just as the Soviet workers have won the factories through their revolution, so too they won the theatre and all the cultural equip- ment of the country. It is theirs to do with it what they will and can. And the possibilities are end- less. In the United States grand opera belongs to millionaires like Samuel Insull (or did till recently), pied it enjoyed in comfort only by the rich. Workers, if they go at all, can afford only the worst seats. moving picture industry be- to another handful of mil- “RELIGION IN U.S. S. R.” NEW POPULAR PAMPHLET booklet which should serve as a handy tool with which to overcome the influence of religion and the “Christmas spirit” among the workers, has just been issued by International Publishers. It ai : VEEL i i 2 “FIRED!” gE a By ROBERT DUNN. FTER his strenuous labors in or- ganizing textile manufacturers to improve their profits, George A. Sloan, president of the Cotton-Tex- tile Institute, sailed recently “for a vacation in the mountains of Switz- erland’. His parting statement contained this piece of willful ly- ing: “Having served during the past year on the Gifford Unemploy- ment Committee, we know from contact with relief agencies . . . that generally speaking the unem- ployed have been cared for.” Thi would make an appropriate epi- taph over the graves of the 2,000 who died from starvation in New ‘York City alone in 1931, Mr, Sloan's industry has contributed as much or more than any other to the cur- rent starvation. Even those few workers who were lucky enough to have jobs averaged only $10 a week. Nominal wages of cotton workers are back to 1918 levels. Recent reports to 2 conference of the Southern Summer School states that “most—ofthe (cotton mill) vil'age children are under- nourished and rachitic, while a large proportion of the adults are pellagra-stricken”. And a report on the inadequacy of relief, printed in the super-class magazine, For- tune, says that North Carolina has 100,000 unemployed textile workers with another 100,000 on the pay- rolls of closed plants, most of whom are begging on the roads, having long ago exhausted their savings from low wages paid them before the depression.” This is the way Mr. Sloan’s in- paogad has “cared” for its job- less. Build « workers correspondence group im your factory, shop or neighborhood. Send reguiar letters to the Daily Worker. Strong in freedom newly won Raise aloft the scarlet banner On the dome of Washington. | 'T has often been started that American coal is “blood stained.” | The slaughter of 54 miners in the Shafer Mine at Moweaqua, Ill, on the day before Christmas, just adds new emphasis to the fact, and adds also the important detail, that this | killing was in an old abandoned mine used for “make work,” “em- ergency work relief work.” The men killed were unemployed miners, driven into what they knew was an extremely dangerous, burning, gas- filled mine by the cries for food of their hungry children. PREVENTABLE | ‘They were denied other relief by what is probably the richest mining state in the world, and further- more a state, whose employers and state militia had just smashed a strike against a wage cut which | was reported first as 19 per cent, but now appears to be at least 23 per cent, ‘ . regard to the Moweaqua mass | of the U. S. Bureau of Mines safety department, stated Dec. 28 that safety provisions were almost lacking, men worked with naked lights, there was no rock dusting, etc. He stated flatly that the ac- cident could have been prevented, and added that 99 per cent of the explosions in coal mines can be avoided. | MINERS SLAUGHTERED ; The death of these 54 was not | an isolated incident. | Labor Research Association, 80 | East llth St., New York, in its December, 1932 monthly news let- murder, Daniel Harrington, chief | “Fired”--A Literary Apology for German Fascism zinger. (Century Co.) Reviewed by BENICE MICHAELS! eae Sie PICTURE of the corroding ef- fects of unemployment upon individual workers — that is the most outstanding contribution in “Fired,” by Karl Aloys Schen- zinger, a German writer. From the high-paid banker to low-paid salesgirl—we get a sharp, moving description of the lives of various characters caught in the engulfing disaster brought about by mass lay-offs. There’s the hopeful and naive engineer, Bruno Steffens, who is unable to grasp the implications of the economic turmoil which throws him out of his job; . his landlady, whose weak-willed, piti- able husband resorts to shady busi- ness ventures, and whose daughter, @ thin, emaciated girl is thrown on the scrap-heap after a period in a sanitorium where she was sent to recover from the health-break- ing grind of the department store; Herr Aue, the proud, confident, but no longer secure banker who, rather than appropriate the rest, of his daughter Margot’s life-sav- ings to pay a debt, hangs himself; and finally Margot herself, office secretary and Steffen’s sweetheart, rendered sterile from an abortion, rather than marry into a loveless life with her father’s successor, grabs at a Straw, and opens a lit- tle shop in the face of cut-throat competition from department stores around her. OM the middle-class, down to the proletariat, we see the con- fusion, terror and despair which envelopes these jobless individ- neighbor, com- By Carl Aloys Schen- 271 pp. $2 struggles to combat their starva- tion existence—and with the grow- ing strength of the left-wing move- ment in Germany. Only twice does he gives recognition to the mili- tancy or organized workers—at a protest demonstration on the Ber- lin streets, and at a political de-~ bate of both Nazi (National So- cialist, or Fascist), and Commun- ist representatives. ‘The author, instead, concentrates upon the reactions of individuals to whom organization is offen- sive something which they are reluctant even to discuss — and when his hero in.pulsively does de- cide to “join,” he goes over to the reactionary Hitlerite party. “I be~ lieve I am moved neither by con- viction nor by emotion,” he tells his cousin, a National Soctalist. “What drives me toward your side is simple, naked misery”— further proof of weakness and confusion. , using the cousin as a mouthpiece, gives his views on the fascist and Communist programs. “Tt (the Communist Party) has big ideas and big shortcomings. Our ideas are grand, too, and no Tess grand are our flaws. But both cur- rents are young and powerful. Perhaps they will mingle some day.” tt One This is simply an apology for open fascist dictatorship instead of bourgeois democracy, which is concealed dictatorship. The au- thor deliberately conceals the class basis of fascism by implying that fascism and Communism are two classless currents that may under certain circumstances flow into one channel, The fact that the author has selected a hero who goes over to the Nazis is a clear indication of his political viewpoint. Despite the fact that the author may be subjectively confused, he is. ob- jectively defending the fascist program, ee eect S a novel of present day Ger- many, millions of whose work- ers are now in the class of the “Fired,” the book is weak in its treatment of the organized moye- ments against unemployment in the militant trade unions and un- em} organizations; on the other hand, it is an excellent des- cription of the other side—the side of the bewilderment and hopeless- ness of those who have not yet learned the lessons of organiza- MINERS SLAUGHTERED IN. PREVENTABLE DISASTERS ter: “Mining Notes” giving figures only up to the end of October, which does not include the Mow- eaqua explosion, says: “The death rate from explo- sions in bituminous mines is much higher this year than last. Deaths from explosions have actually risen, in spite of the great decrease in numbers of man hours worked and a corresond- ing fall in the total number of deaths from mine accidents. Up to the end of October, 78 men were killed in explosions in 1932 as against 64 during 10 months in 1931. The explosion death rate jumped from 2.02 to 3.20 per 10,000,000 tons. These two ‘major’ explosions during December with their 37 deaths have pushed the 1932 total of explosion deaths in bituminous mines up to at least 115 and probably higher—when the figures come in on scattering deaths in small local explosions during November and December —against a total of 79 during the year 1931. Ta Hae OVERNMENT figures for mine disasters in which five or more miners lost their lives, sio'y 2,437 killed in the last ten yeazs. includ- ing the Moweaqua disc_..i. But there is a trick in this. The government lists, for long periods, only those major disasters which kill five or more. The biggest killing in mines is not even in the major disasters, but in the day by day destruction of miners in smail lots, one or two at a time, from rock falls, small explosions, electrocution, underground traffic accidents, etc, “Little” accidents like these, of which no extended record is kept, have easily doubled the number killed in ‘he last ten years, It is safe to say that at least 5,000 have been killed in the coal mines of the U, S. in the last ten years, since Dec. 1922. * * EAR in Inind’ that the death rate is jumping this year, and that those who haye shot down miners: in cold blood to reduce wages ten or fifteen cents a ton, do not hesitate to refuse the few dollars needed for safety measures. Then contrast that picture with this, also from Labor Research As- sociation’s “Mining Notes,” for December, 1932: “In the Soviet Union, 40,000,- 000 rubles were spent this year (1932) for safety protection in the mines alone, an increase from 30,000,000 in 1931, (A rouble is about 50 cents). “Especially important work is being done in improving the safety technique in the mines, to protect workers against the effects of gas and dust. The Council of People’s Commissars of the U, S. S. R. has charged industry with the task of manu- facturing electrical safety equip- ment for the mines. “No fixture is admitted to the mines without detailed testing in the Scientfic Research Institute of the People’s Commissart -of Labor and a thorough study by the Mining Inspection. “An explosion-proof motor has been constructed and approved by all competent mining authori- ties. Electrical fixtures for gas shafts and a safe electrical de- tonator (in handling explosives) have also been installed. “The coming of hundreds of ‘thousands of new workers into Soviet industries and the intro- troduction of new equipment have made necessary the train- ing of masses of workers in safe methods of work. A 2 per cent deduction from all sums applied to labor protection was assigned for this purpese of training in safety, in 1931. Workers doing dangerous work are given special training in safety appliances.” | His writings in this volume cover the period between the dverthrow of the Czar in March and the over- throw of the Kerensky government and the establishment of the Sov- iet power in November. Under the leadership of Lenin, the Bolshevik Party during this period won over larger and larger masses of the workers and peasants and the troops and prepared the successful uprising of November 7. The articles which he wrote for the Party press from day to day, taking up all the problems of the developing revolution, are included. The volume also contains his larger works, such as, Will the Bolsheviks Retain State Power? and The ‘Threatening Catastrophe and How to Fight It. A new and sorely needed revised translation of Len- in's classic, State and Revolution, closes the volume. (°F special interest to all revolu- ionary workers are the speeches «. Lenin before the Bolshevik Cen- tral Committee during the two weeks preceding the uprising in which he argued for the armed in- surrection. The minutes of these meetings are included in the Ap- pendices, which also contain com- prehensive explanatory notes, short biographies of all the people men- tioned in the volume, and impor- tant documents of the revolution. ‘This material helps greatly to un- derstand the revolution and Len- in’s part in it. This volume is one of Collected Works, which when complete will contain all of Lenin's writings and speeches and will number 30 vol- umes. International Publishers has already issued five volumes (8 books) in this series. The regular | edition of Toward the Seizure of Power sells at $2.50 for each book and may be obtained at all work~- ers’ book shops or direct from In~ ternational Publishers, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York. “THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER SPEAKS” AND OTHER POEMS. THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER SPEAKS. By George Jarrboe. With an introduction by Jack Conroy. Published by B. C. Haaclund, Holt, Mirth. Reviewed by HENRY GEORGE WEISS. eee ‘HIS fourth pamphlet of poems sponsored by The Rebel Poet is at once a subject for praise and censure. The worth of certain poems is obvious. “The Unknown Soldiers Speaks” has been repub- lished from one of the Rebel Poet's anthologies in an important Rus- sian anthology. It is undoubtedly powerful poem. Much can be said for certain others, “The Bells of “Hee*Loos and Out of It All: 1917,” “From a Ditch Before Amiens: 1918, and “To the Young Rakehellers of Flanders.” But when one has said this, one wonders why the devil the author of so many splendid poems had to include such lines as “Auntie dear is roosting here, may she give the earthworms cheer.” Such stuff, while displaying a juvenile clever- ness, has no place in a booklet of revolutionary poems. Jarrboe should know this. One gets the feeling it was flung in to fill out the pages. If so, an unfortunate mistake was made. However, the booklet (price 25c) is worth buying and reading, for the half dozen poems included | in it distinctly worth while. SYMPATHY STRIKE IN ROSSITZ DISTRICT PRAGUE, Czechoslovakia.—A gen- eral strike in sympathy with the striking miners has taken place in the Rossitz district. This strike was organized by the revolutionary unions and carried out in the face of a brufal pelice.terror, Almost all fac- tories were closed down by the strike and the workers marched to four meeting places. At the electricity works soldiers guarded the doors and refused to permit the workers to leave the buildings. Over 5,000 strik- ing workers took part in the meetings and were addressed by the leaders | of the revolutionary unions. THE JANUARY “COMMUNIST” 1. Forward in the Line of the 12th Plenum of the E.C.C.1—Editorial. 2. Economic Struggle—The Fundamental Link in Winning the Masses —Jack Stachel. 3. The End of Capitalist Stabilization and the Basic asks of the British and American Sections of the C, L—by T. Gusev. 4. Unmasking an American Revisionist of Marxism—by Y. J. Jerome. 5. Spinoza and Marxism—by M. Mittin. 6. Book Reviews. A Bourgeois Attack on Philosophic Idealism—A Review by Milton Howard,—Class Culture—A Review by W. Phelps. X Veena eisai a constant alertness for the chance to change from a passive to an active role. ‘Well, while you are doing all this, | either in jail or “the pen” you're | locked up, your movements cons’ ur food is | erably circumscribed, bad, your news of the strugglé out- side cut down, and there is some danger. You may be third-degreed, lynched or framed. If you ar caught in the monotonous machin- ery of the “Big House’ you still have some risks of abuse, etc ‘Time wears on you. You are under @ nervous strain. CONFINEMENT MAKES YOU JUMPY Just at the time you need your | greatest keenness and best judve- ment, conditions make it hardcst to exercise good sense. ment, either isolation or enforced companionship and overcrowding with other prisoners, makes you jumpy. Some brood and grow morose, Some get into a quarrel- some mood, leading to disgraceful “jail rows” ir. which even comrades fight each other over little things that outside would cause only a passing frown. Some feel that they are cut off from activity, for- gottten. Usually there is an ag- gravating sense of time being wasted. However, you reason against it, everybody suffers more or less, in a way that impairs effi- ciency just when it is most needed. Now the best way to keep up morale in jail is to be sure that your time is not being wasted, that you are not cut off, that you are preparing yourself for better activ- ity once you get out. The warden or jailor treats you better if he sees that a lot of people outside are interested enough in you to send you papers and books. of prison life is to be educating yourself and educating other pris- oners. Or, even light reading “passes the time” and releases the tension, varies the monotony and in that elevates morale. Until this year there was no cen- tral committee looking after just this part of the prisoners’ needs, in a systematic manner. Recently, however, there was founded the Committee for Books for Political Prisoners, a sub-committee of the National Committee for Defense of Political Prisoners and the Prison- ers Relief Fund. It gets books anyway it can. Any donation, sent to the Committee, Room 337, 80 East 11th Street, New York, would be welcome. Usually in county and city jails second-hand books are allowed in; usually in prisons they must be sent new through the publisher. Books or money, there- fore, would both be useful. Some idea of the practical value of this committee’s work can be gained from the letters it has re- ceived. SCOTTSBORO BOY WRITES Haywood Paterson, one of the | Scottsboro boys, framed and facing electrocution, writes from his death cell in Kilby Prison: “I am proud of our friends and T wish that they knew that I really do appreciate all that they are doing for us... . .. I just feel good tonight and fee like writing. Again I want to let you know that we received some books a few days ago, which you were so kind as to send us and they have been ac- cepted and appreciated with the warmest gratitude. Our diction- aries are just wonderful . . .” Teddy Jackowski writes from the jail at London, Ohio: “Just I am not reply you immediately to your letter because I couldn't write any time when I want, only when I get permission to write. And I was very glad to get them books. So I like to read them books. So I am very much. appreciate for that books. I would like to get more if you could send me. Please for- give me of I the accurately do not write letter because I am foreign born.” Irving Keith, from Deer Island penitentiary, Massachusetts (mow released), wrote: “I would like to get whatever works on Marxist theory that you can get for me and also novels and other works by revolutionary writers. I most certainly appre- ciate anything at all to read. I prefer the above types, because my time would thus be spent in valu- able reading and study for the rev- olutionary movement. .. . . Good books make good companions, es- pecially in jail, and makes the time easier to serve,’ Jim Nine, one of the jailed to- bacco workers, writes from Tampa County jail: “I recently received three books, entitled “Living Philosophies,” “Out of the Beaten Track” and “Grand Mothers.” Those books have been read not only by myself | Confine- | The | best way to avoid the irritations | of eh iti RM were yery inter- ther have some | story books, because they are interesting in a place like this.” | WANTS MARXIAN CLASSICS Oscer Ericson, Imperial Valley prisoners in San Quentin, (now freed) wanted books on the class struggle from the Marxian standpoint, “Including adds, ve authentic in- | nm the different phases | of the social, economic and political struggles of the workers ... and on the U. S. S. R. Then there. are novels and ries written in the same spirit.” He mentions the cen- sorship, and that books barred by the warden are usually sent back to the sender John Lamb, one of the Centralia sentenced to 40 years back in | 1919, asks for Sinclair’s novels, and says that establishing ee is a wonderful Jim McNamara, sentenced to life on a frame-up by William J, Burns and the Los Angeles open-shoppers, thinks that such a committee must be composed of freaks, or else, why should they, in a Christian com- munity want to do anything for workers in jail? Are not the capi- talists Christians? But he says: | “Inform our good friends that if we should ever get ouf and they should get in, we would do the same for them.” Edith Berkman, while confined in a hospital in Massachusetts, facing deportation for leading textile in Lawrence, wro.e: “The riters Report on Kentucky,” and | “The Labor Fact Book,” and espe- | cially requests the committee to send some to Keith in Deer Island. She says: “I think that your ore ganization is very much heeded.” Warren K. Billings, sentenced to life after the Preparedness Day frame-up in San Francisco, wants a German grammar and some-kind of German “first reader.” He is learning the language while in jail. You see, they want, and they need, all kinds of literature. And, in jail, they make the best possible use of it. EYE-WITNESS REPORT OF MANCHURIA GRAB IN HOLMES PAMPHLET, “ALL eyes are on the ceaseless movement of the Ji forces towards the frontiers af the USS.R.” are the words with which W. M. Holmes, of the British “Daily Worker” correspondent in Manchuria, closes a description of Japanese army concentration in Harbin in a sensational exposure of the situation in Manchuria, | just issued by International Pub- lishers under the title, An Eye ‘Witness Manchuria. Holmes succeeded in getting ab first hand the real situation in the country seized by Japanese imperialism during’ his travels . through Manchuria as a newse paper correspondent, This is the first complete, first hand account that has gotten by the sharp cens sorship and espionage of Japan and its puppet government which is seb p. He tells of the Japanese mills tary occupation, the setting out ‘of the Japanese military’ expedition from Harbin down the’ Sungari River t js the Soviet border, of ment of troops along the Chinese Eastern Railway, of the continual drive towards the bor= ders of the U. S S. R. Holmes shows that the “bandits” whom the Japanese are fighting are in reality insurgent Chinese. bands fighting against Japanese penetra< tion. He describes mass strikes on the part of the Chinese workers and Russian workers in Manchuria, which have never gotten beyond the censorship before, The pamphlet is now on sale at all worker's’ bookshops at 15 cents