The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 27, 1934, Page 5

_ advice (fortunately). CHANGE — SS WORLD! || By MICHAEL GOLD ICE in this country the workers’ threatre was a curious hybrid of which traces may still be found in museums like the Rand School. Its history was usually this: a Shakespearian ham, temporarily or perhaps permanently unemployed, discovered Socialism and what he believed to be a meal ticket. Using his thespianism to good purpose, he always was able to impress leading “comrades” with the fact that he ‘was ® profound artist weary of commercialism and determined to give the cause of “the people” his all: his burning temperament, his correct elocution, his scientific mastery of the entrance and exit, and his collection of wigs. The “people” must be uplifted. All that he asked for himself was the immortality of the pioneer and a modest weekly wage. Again and again, one found such persons at the helm of a workers’ theatre; presented with a free locale, a group of idealistic yOung untrained actors, and a potential audience. What invariably resulted ‘was a wretched amateur performance of Ibsen’s Enemy of the People, or Galsworthy’s Justice, the condescending ham strutting and ranting his way through the leading role. And the weary flock went unfed, and stopped buying tickets, and every one of these “workers’ theatres” ‘was a dreary flop, and the thespian returned to haunt the vaudeville booking offices. All of which proves you can't fool the workers all of the time. The workers’ theatre which has sprung up under the aegis of Cgmmunism in America is made of sterner, fresher and more vital stuff. It has quickly learned the elementary lesson that Ibsen and Galsworthy were sick-hearted bourgeois reformers, with almost nothing to say to the working class. Also it has learned that Broadway acting, ell except the occasional accident, is a stale, soulless and boring technique of which artists in the bourgeois theatre despair. 300 Where A Dozen Were Before workers’ theatre, starting from scratch, as pioneers must and should, is building its own technique, its own actors, directors, musicians, playwrights, audiences and historic mission. Three years ago there weren’t more than a dozen such groups in America. Today there are over three hundred. They perform nightly under conditions that would crack the morale of a Broadway veteran; at strike meet- ings, in smoky dance halls, at picnics, in the streets. It is a hard school; but they learn something new and powerful in it. This theatre is on its way to something. It will not be so long before even the bourgeois critics may begin to understand that a new theatre art has grown up under their dull noses, and without benefit of their skeptical * . This is not the place for a discussion of the workers’ theatre; the intense self-criticism by which it grows may be studied monthly in the pages of that splendid magazine, New Theatre. I want merely to submit a few impressions of a recent evening I enjoyed with the workers’ theatre. In mid-April there will be held in Chicago the second national theatre festival of the League of Workers’ Theatres. Different sections of the country are now holding their regional competitions, to decide which groups will represent them at this national olympiad. Last week, in the Fifth Avenue Theatre, I attended the New York finals, in which eight groups competed. The Ukrainian Workers’ Drama Circle won the honors in the foreign-language contest, and the Workers’ Laboratory Theatre in | the English-speaking group, a popular and just award. What was clear in the performance of both groups was that subtle realism and psychology have little place in the workers’ theatre. Subtlety and psychology are the fruits of leisure; but the workers’ theatre is on a perpetual barricade, and its art and its audience are formed by struggle; it must build with satire and heroism. The Ukrainian group showed that they had grasped this aesthetic necessity. Their play was done in a broad poster style. The tempo was not as rapid as the new art demands, but sufficiently interesting to hold even @ foreign audience. They pictured in broad outlines the exploitation of the Ukrainian worker in this country by all the debased nationalist elements: the priest, the journalist, the businessman and his wife, the double-crossing politician who sells the immigrant vote to i, *h the old parties. 3 The Audience vs. Mr. Krutch g iors theme is crude propaganda, I can hear Mr. Krutch, that voluble propagandist of flappy liberalism, declare. But the audience roared with laughter as the mean, comic exploiters whirled through their affected poses, danced, orated, hailed their ally Hitler, quarreled with each other over the loot. The audience had a good time. And the sudience felt deeply the wrongs of the gray, grim worker in the khaki shirt, bewildered by all these plausible lice, but crushing them heroically at last. Whatever Mr. Krutch or Mr. Gabriel may assure each other, thousands of people certainly as sensitive as the average garment buyer or Broadway racketeer enjoy such a play, and loathe the kind of thing Mr. Krutch and the garment buyers approve. For the time being, let the fact be enough. Newsboy, the prize-winning sketch in the English-speaking group, is a dramatized poem, done swiftly, sharply and effectively. The director has used some of the futurist technique, with added elements that belong in the workers’ theatre. The newsboy yells of tabloid murders and divorces, but all around him the great social crimes go on, which his bosses will not print. The irony of this is driven home in a series of powerful theatrical devices. What is lacking is some humor. The Jewish group had a great deal of that in their knockabout sketch showing a busy day in the Forward office, with Abe Cahan howling at his venal poets and editors, “Write, damn you, write!” The New Experimental Theatre trotted out a Groucho Marx and | first place. his Brain Trust, who solye the country’s problems by burning up all the wheat, steel, clothing and houses, then finally Suggest that an American military man be sent to rape Queen Marie, thus bringing on 8 war, etc. Crude, but a good burlesque, and more to the point than the works of Mr..Seldes’ Minsky. * The Pioneers “Strike Me Red” ged the Pioneers. About a hundred of these healthy kids went through several scenes of the operetta, Strike Me Red, written by the late Harry Alan Potamkin. The music was fresh and charming, and the kids acted and sang with wonderful gusto. They carried the house by storm, and the audience yelled, “More, more, more!” Do people do that at the Ziegfeld Follies? Or do they leave a play by Eugene O'Neill with courage in their hearts, and a feeling that the world can be taken away from the pimps, racketeers and war-makers of capitalism, and fashioned into something good? I doubt it; but the Workers’ Theatre does these things: it heals; inspires; vivifies; it leads to the future; it believes in something, and teaches others to believe. z (From the current issue of the “New Masses”) Snare ena ca SS Letters On “Daily” Circulation ear Comrades: Iam a steady reader of the Daily Worker. I do without tobacco fast to buy a “Worker.” If it were not for the Daily Worker I would have folded up long ago under the strain, but the revolutionary movement is all that has kept me going. —0. B., Lincoln, N. B. Find enclosed $2 for a 3-month subscription to the Daily Worker. If I do not hit the bread line by that time I will try and scrape up some more for renewing it. Would as soon lose a foot as to do without the Daily Wrker. * Comradely yours, ica T, M,, Stockton, Calif. * Daily Worker. - Money is very scarce, but we have managed to squeeze out another dollar, which please renew my subscription. / ALY By ROBERT GESSNER, Instructor, New York University The horse marines surround Strike Headquarters. They squat on their horses at the Irving Place and Third Avenue intersections of 16th Street. At the door of Germania Hall the foot patrol stand looking at you. In the long corridor several sergeants lean against the wall, smoking cigarettes. They have “the situation well in hand. Upstairs several thousand as- sembled proletarians have the taxi traffic of the City of Greater New York tied up and in their hands. They control the most effective taxi strike ever called in the history of New York. Ninety per cent of the company cabs aren't rolling. They stop you at the large sliding door. “Reporter?” the door guards ask. “We don’t want any of you lousy reporters writing us up for your kept press—telling the people we're run by racketeers and gang- sters—telling ‘em we're hoodlums | and rioters.” “But this is for the Daily Work- er,” I said. “Oh! Why didn’t ya say so in the Gowan in. Say, that was a@ swell story this morning—the only honest job out of all them papers.” They sit orderly in their chairs and stand along the walls and be- hind the chairs all in order. They are a strong, manly assembly. You can see the dark rings under their eyes from all-night picketing, and/| many eyes are discolored from blackjacks and nightsticks. But you can feel the mass of them the moment you pass the door, the strong unity of them, vigorously in- tent on their goal. When I start writing on my pad they keep com- ing up asking what paper it’s for. They smile and nod when I say, “Daily Worker.” This spirit of each man seriously taking it upon him- self to protect his fellow workers and their interests reminds me of | Jack Reed's account of the Bolshe- vik soldiers stopping him every few feet in the October seizure of the White Palace. “What did you average a week and for how many hours?” I asked several men around me. “Between eight and nine.” “Eight- fifty.” “Between four and five days at fourteen hours a stretch.” I figured it out: 63 hours a week at $8.50 was thirteen and one half cents an hour. “That's not even starvation wages,” one hackie said. “It’s worse than being a slave in China,” another said. A hackie was speaking from a small, well-lighted platform at the head of the hall, All the speakers were hackies. I was the only person | in the hall who was not a hackie. The crowd laughed spontaneously at the speaker's reference to them as being led by racketeers. ‘ Cin, Hae |ARRY CANTOR, dubbed “Eddie” by. his. buddy-hackies, is one of the young, energetic leaders of the Taxi Cab Drivers Union of Greater New York. “The Workers’ Clubs throughout the city are making collections for us,” he shouted as the next speak- er. “We should not criticize them because they’re Communists, but be proud of their support.” The crowd cheered. 1. L. D. Holds Theatre Benefit Tonight For “They Shall Not Die” The New York District of the I. L. D. has arranged a theatre party for “They Shall Not Die,” tonight, for the benefit of the Scottsboro Defense fund. Seats avail- able at I. L. D., 870 Broadway, or Royal Theatre, W. 45th St., off Broadway. WHAT’S ON WORKERS SCHOOL Spring Term, third week of registration. Classes are filling up. Register now, 35 EB. 12th St. *~ WORKER, YEW YORK, TUESDAY, MARCH 1934 “You don’t find those heels on Park Avenue who are riding in scab cabs supporting us,” he “Nor do we want those he: port us. We want worke’ up this strike by arresting our lead- ers, but the rank-and-file can con- duct this strike without leaders and win. “Eddie” Cantor came off the plat- port us—workers like us!” form, recognized me and asked me The crowd cheered again. to tell the boys about the press “They're going to attempt to break | censoring the strike. He introduced ‘What's Doing in the Workers’ | Schools of the U.S. if J, GORMAN, vice-president of | tions, to popularize the course in the A. F. L. United Textile | Problems of the Negro Liberation Workers Union, is terribly worried | Movement, given by James W. Ford, | | by the presence of the Workers | School students among the textile | workers. Senator Walsh, of the | Senate Labor Committee asked him organizer of the Harlem Section of the Party. The course will deal with the present conditions of the Negroes, and the methods and or- | last week whether the Communists have schools. “Yes,” he told the| Senator. “These young people are | Spreading throughout the country | and are preaching these destructive | Philosophies.” * | Well, we can promise these gentlemen plenty to worry about. We will build bigger and better Workers Schools, and we will train more and more workers for { ganizational forms to win them to the revolutionary struggle for the self-determination of the Negroes in the Black Belt and against capi- talist exploitation. + 8 An innovation in the curriculum is the coordination of the courses in History of the American Labor Movement and the course in So- cial and Political Forces in Amer- ican History so that they comple- the class struggle so that they | will know a labor faker like Gor- man the minute they see him, and armed with these “destructive” doctrines they will know how to destroy the Walshes and the Gor- mans and their kind, and they | will build a new society where | workers rule for their own in- ‘The Los Angeles Workers School, terests and where labor fakers amd | which has 120 students in its first stuffed-shirt lackeys of the bosses |term, has moved to new quarters have no place at all. | where they have more classrooms, : 7 an auditorium, a gymnasium, a Conference in Boston April 1) panquet hail, a-lunchroom, a li- The Boston Workers School (in| brary, a reading room and offices. Senator Walsh's own State of Mas- | Volunteers are preparing the builde sachusetts, in many cities of which | ing for use as a cultural center, Gorman does not dare to show his| and members of the John Reed face because the textile workers | Club have volunteered to put in a know him too well) is starting right | series of frescoes on working class now, in the middle of its Spring) history. They ate appealing for Term, to prepare to mobilize mass | funds for the school, books for the support for a bigger Workers School | library, a typewriter and mimeo- in the Fall. They are having a|graph machine, and volunteers to Workers Schosi Student Conference | assist in the office and in the li- on Sunday, April ist, at 3 p.m., at| brary. We are not clear about the 919 Washington Street, to discuss | address of the new premises. The the work of the Workers Schools | old address is on the same street, in Boston and vicinity and through- | 224 South Spring Street, where in- ment each other instead of dupli- eating each other. These courses are popular with trade union members. Registration for the Spring Term is now going on at the Workers School Office, 35 E. 12th Street. * * out the United States. A. Markoff, Director of the Central Workers | School in New York, will be the | main speaker. They have invited | all workers’ organizations, especially | trade unions, to attend this con-| ference and to help make the} Workers School of Boston such a} weapon in the class struggle as can | really send fear into the hearts of all enemies of the working class. | In the Detroit Workers School | they are going to make a deter- mined effort to draw workers from the automobile industry and from | the shops im general inte the school on a mass scale, Their | slogan is: “Every factory must be | our stronghold.” They have set themselves a quota of three hun- dred students for their third term. They are calling a conference to prepare for this next term on Fri- day, April 13th, at 8 P.M., at 323 Erskine Street. All sections of the Party, mass organizations, trade unions, and trade union opposi- tion groups are called upon to send delegates to this conference. Register Now Before It Is Too Late The registration for the Spring Term of the New York Workers School is already over five hundred, with four classes closed because they are filled to capacity. This is a record for a Spring Term, which usually shows a drop in registra- tion. Special efforts are being made, through the Party units and sec- | ers of the Bronx and Harlem are formation can be obtained. + * The Harlem Workers School, of 200 West 135th Street, New York, has begun registration for the Spring Term, which opens April i6th. Many new courses have been added to the curriculum, which includes Principles of Com- munism, Political Economy A and B, Marxism - Leninism, Trade Union Strategy, Negro Liberation Problems, English, Spanish, Rus- sian and many more. All work- urged to register at this school immediately. Collected $14 for Austrian Workers The Harlem Workers School held * @ a rally recently at which they col- lected $14 towards the support of our Austrian comrades. eoae 1a Students of the Brownsville Workers School recently founded a Short Wave Radio Club. They set themselves the immediate task of building a short-wave set with the aim of making every member a licensed operator. All workers in- terested in short-wave radio are urged to get in touch with the club at the Brownsville Workers School, 1855 Pitkin Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. cae id Ail news and comments on Workers Schools throughout the United States should be addressed to A. Markoff, Workers School, 35 East 12th Street, New York City. me as “a professor from New York University.” A hush settled over the hall. I was the first white-collar speaker from the outside to appear before them, and they in turn were my} first striker-audience. “You've been hearing great speeches from your fellow-hackies and I don’t see what you want to listen to a prof for, except that I want to congratulate you on your success to date and pledge my soli- darity with you” They cheered. “Whatever I have to write about) this strike I can’t get printed in any paper except one, nor in any maga- zine except one.” “What are they?” several voices shouted. “The Daily Worker and the New Masses!” The paper trimmings on the ceil- ing trembled with the cheer. “You are winning this strike,” I concluded, “but you taxi-workers will never get justice from the oper- ators until the day arrives when you own every single cab in New York yourselves and there are no more companies!” They cheered even louder yet. TUNING IN TONIGHT’S PROGRAM WEAF—660 Ke. 7:00 P. M.—Not Less Government But Less Governments!—Mayor Angelo Rossi of San Prancisco. 7:15—Billy Batchelor—sketch 7:30—Arlene Jackson, Songs 7:45—The Goldbergs—Sketch 8:00—Reisman Orch.; Phil Duey, Baritone 8:30—Wayne King Oreh. 9:00-——Bernie Orch. 9:30—£d Wynn, Comedian 10:00—Cruise of the Seth Parker—Drama- tie Sketch 10:30—Mary Small, Songs 11:00—John B. Kennedy 10:45—Robert Simmons, Tenor; Sears Orch. 11:15—News; Ru8so Orch. 11:30-—Whiteman Oreh. 12:00-—Vailee Orch. 12:30 A. M-—Denny Orch. | WOR—710 Ke. 7:00 P. M.—Sports Resume 7:15—Comedy; Music 7:30—Footlight Echoes 8:00—Grote Orch.; Frank Parker, Tenor; Betty Barthel, Contralto 9:00—Morros Musicale 8:30—Harmonica Band 9:30—Success—Harry Balkin 9:45—Eddy Brown, Violin 10:00—Teddy Bergman, Comedian; Betty Queen, Songs; Rondoliers Quartet 10:15—Current Events 10;30—Johnston Orch. 11:00—Moonbeams Trio 11:30—Dance Music WIJZ—760 Ke. 7:00 P. M.—Amos 'n’ Andy 7:18—Improving Local Government in New Jersey—Governor A. Harry Moore of New Jersey; Thomas N. McCarter, ‘Ohairman Local Government Pian ; Charles P. Messick, Chair- Planning Board nd Eddie Albert, Songs 8:00—Blood Money—Sketch 8:30—Adventures in Health—Dr. Herman Bundesen 8:45—Bavarian Band 9:00—Alice Mock, Soprano; Edgar Guest, Poet 9:30-Duchin Oreh. 10:00—Gale Page, Songs; Stokes Orch.; Ray Perkins; Nathan Milstein, Violin 10:30—Mario Cozzi, Baritone 10:40—Hillbilly, Heart Throbs 11:00—Olsen Orch. 11:15—News Reports 11:20—Anthony Frome, Tenor 11:30—To Be Announced 12:00—Masters Orch. 12:30 A. M=Kemp Oreh. | WABC—860 Ke. 7:00 P, M.—Myrt_and Mi 7:15—Just Plain Bill—sk 7:30-Serenaders Orch. 7:45—News—Boake Carter 8:00—Little Orch. 8:30—Volee of Exprience 8:45—California Melodies 9:15—Ruth Etting, Songs 9:30—Minneapolis Symphony Orch.; Paul Lemay, Conductor 19:00—Gray Orch.; Stoopnagle and Budd, Comedians; Connie Boswell, Gongs 10:30—Harlem Serenade 11:00—Charles Carlie, Tenor 11:15—News; Nelson Orch. 11:45—Light Orch. 12:00—Soanik Orch 12:30 A, M.—Pancho Orch. White Chauvinism Masked As “Political Criticism” By GENE GORDON (Org. Sec., San Diego Section) Although I have been in San} Diego but a short period of time, I see here an unhealthy manifesta- tion of chauvinism of a strange species. This chauvinism takes the form of “political criticism” against Negro comrades. Six months ago, or less, there were five Negro party members in San Diego. Today there is one. In the Unit in which this Negro comrade attends, he was not elected as a delegate to the Section convention. He was simply over- looked. The Unit organizer, when questioned, mumbled that “it isn’t) certain if he is a member of our unit or the other,” There was not @ single Negro in the Section con- vention. When I came in here, a young Negro appeared in the Party office and said he wanted to be back in the League. This Negro had made a mistake, on trial in a case here, of repudiating connections with the Communist Party, as a condition to release. The fact is that he had! attended a national training school previously. It was a bad mistake. But that is not the point. The point is that the attitude of most of the comrades is intolerant. I proposed to him that he repudiate his mistake, his former statements, and come back into the League. He said he did repudiate then and there. On this, I advised that he be taken back. But later our Section Organizer and other comrades insisted on a signed repudiation; and no effort has been made to even get it. No effort has been made to clear up the confused issues. At a fishermen’s dance here there was a violent outbreak of chauvin- ism. Party and League comrades had attended the dance, but there was no public denunciation of the chauvinism. I have made state- ments in the League buro and the Section Committee here that the League and Party members abetted in chauvinism by failing to take a stand; that the matter should be —C. §&. Solway, Minn. fully investigated. But there has been no move. I am convinced now that nothing will be done except by directly bringing charges. A young Negro comrade who is now in the Party, was sent into Im- perial Valley for strike work. He failed to show initiative and since then has been practically ignored, although he is trying to do some work among the Pioneers. I brought him up as a proposal for the new Section Committee. The Section Organizer’s comment was that the Negro comrade lacked initiative and shouldn't be on such an important committee. To sum it up: passivity toward chauvinism on the one hand; merci- less criticism of Negro comrades on the other. | Today, I spoke to an I.L.D. leader here (a non-party member) about @ Negro contact who had formerly | been engaged in LL.D. work. She} had dropped out of this work for | personal reasons and said she was/ willing to resume the work “but no one had come to me about it.” The LL.D. executive committee member said, “It was hard for the white comrades to work with the Ne- groes.” We cannot deny facts. The Negro comrade who repudiated the League made a mistake. The Negro or- ganizer in Imperial Valley did not show great initiative. The Negro comrade in the ILD. withdrew for personal reasons. But, when the Section Organizer, the Y.O.L. Or- ganizer, and the whole leadership of the Party is passive and indif- ferent to the Negro question, it is not strange that there is only one Negro party member in an entire Section. There are several thou- sand Negroes in San. Diego. There is a complete underestima- tion of the political importance of the Negro section of the working- | class in San Diego, The first step | Ps Pre-Convention Discussion in overcoming this must be educa~ tionals in the units on all phases of the Negro question. The second step must be day to day work in the Negro neighborhoods in recruit- ing into the party, in building the LL.D. and a branch of the LS.NR. Third, all manifestations of chau- vinism must be actively fought by trials and expulsions from the Party. The Organization of Check-up of Decisive Importance By H. LAWRENCE “The proper organization of check up is of decisive import- ance,”—Stalin, From Central Committee down to | unit buros there still remains a looseness of assignment and check- up which prevents the Party from going forward in the manner de- manded by the Open Letter. The guarantee that our resolutions bring the results possible should be one of the major responsibilities of the coming convention. Here are three concrete examples of this looseness of it and check-up: 1, At the last session of the Cen- tral Committee, one of the members assigned to the Chicago stockyards concentration told how he spent his time, a good portion NOT being con- nected with the stockyards. Many assignments distracted his attention and wasted his time. Why these numerous assignments when we know that one comrade cannot carry them out—must fail? 2. Another comrade is assigned by the Central Committee to check- up on stockyards concentration. He lives and works on another assign- ment 800 miles from the stockyards. Has he seen the stockyards in the last three or four months? What is the nature of his check-up? How can he give guidance under such circumstances? 8. District buro representative to Section 3 Committee is assigned by language buro to do work outside section territory. He comes to sec- tion committee meetings about once @ month. He has no definite task in con- centration on industry in the section territory. He is unable to work daily with those having such tasks. He cannot give guidance to the section leadership under these conditions. What Is Needed The guarantee that concentration be improved rapidly requires im- proved organization, which includes the organization of check-up. It also requires a development of cadres to higher political and or- ganizational levels. In my opinion, assignment of leading comrades to concentration sections and tasks should not be made as gestures. It would be better for the morale of the com- rades below if they are frankly told that the insufficient number of lead- ing forces above makes it necessary for them to bear the responsibility. This would be preferable to constant murmuring against “consulting poli- tical engineers” who can never be found when guidance is needed. ‘The development of cadres able to bear such responsibility requires that comrades in leading positions, the ones who have the most experi- ence in the class struggle, who are most developed theoretically, take the time personally to guide the comrades assigned to various im- portant tasks. This means day to day work with them. The Workers School is a vital need in the development of cadres. But we must not lose sight for one moment that the best place to teach —and the best place to learn—is in actual struggle. If our resolutions are to cease be- ing only a source of countless inner Party meetings, the convention should take up the question of the organization of a check-up, what it is, how to organize it and why a correct political line cannot be car- ried out without it. ’ The Taxi Strikers “Receive the Press ” Oil Workers Want to Be Page Five Organized—Despite AFL By JOHN L. SPIVAK TULSA, Okla.—The work- ers themsélves have no idea of how many are in the A. F. of L. union here, nor how many locals there actually are, nor the percentages between re- finery men and the field men. It was only after talking with Judge G. Ed. Warren, president of the State Federation of Labor, Chamber of Commerce and oil com- | pany officials that I was able to }arrive at figures and percentages. | When I finally laid them before | Judge Warren he admitted that he |they were approximately right— which makes me suspect that may- | be they are a little too high! So far as Wildcat William's “official” announcement of his organization's strength, he gave me a figure of | Organizational strength that was | higher than the total number of of! workers in the entire State! But—from the standpoint of what | happened to them since the de- | pression, the number in the union |at this moment is of far less im- | portance than the spirit now prev- {alent throughout the state: organi- | zation—they want organization and they are getting very little help from the A. F. of L. representatives. An organization renaissance is going on before their very eyes and they are doing nothing except to |grant them charters when they |come knocking at the door! ‘The workers are hopeful, they say, that by organizing themselves | they may be able to get a living wage. As it is the vast majority of them who are working are not | earning a livingu wage, since most of them are getting the minimum the code requires and thé increase | in commodities has not been coun- | ter-balanced by an increase in the minimum wage for the oil industry. Food prices have jumped here and in the oil field areas some 25 per cent in the past four months alone. 500 different operations, does not Specify the minimum wage for the various operations. It merely speci- fies two operations and then the minimum wage. It provides gen- erally that the wage scale for the | various operations with the excep- tion of the two specified shall be as of the wage scale paid in July, 1929. Neither the major nor the smaller oil companies pay any at- tention to this clause and pay the overwhelming majority merely the minimum wage. * a bagedche “oil is smiling again” as the companies put it, neither | the fields nor the refineries are working anywhere near capacity, though the amount of production would normally require a greater number of employees than is work- jing now. This is dué to the en- forcement of the speed-up system, whereby those who are working are doing more work than they used to, crowded into the reduced hours. And as near as I have been able to ascertain, the companies do not expect capacity production at any time in the future which will even absorb 30 per cent of those who once worked in the industry, The workers too, are realizing that they cannot get jobs and are still drift- ing back to the land, the factory, railways, and mines, wherever they can. In Tulsa proper, most of the crafts are organized, inspired by the same organizational renaissance that affected the oil workers. What oil does, Tulsa does, and the other crafts followed the lead as soon as the organizational spirit permeated the city. The organizational spirit, however, is being cooled by the A. F. of L. leaders, for though the workers are organized and paying | their dues, their leaders are making no moves to better their conditions, not such obvious ones even as de- Manding that the N.R.A. codes be enforced in that particular craft. There are some in various unions here who are bitterly fighting the inactive policies of the A. F. of L. leaders, who are telling them: “The government is behind you. We'll the} The oil code, which has about | take it up with the government and | work this thing out right.” This | group is the “radical” element and |the strong argument used against | any dissenters is that they're Com- munists, “unpatriotic,” and around | here patriotism is an important | commodity. In most case: works. | . JLSA, however, is essentially an oil town. Seventy per cent of its life depends upon oil. Here are some of the largest refineries and the city proper is virtually the country’s oil center with head- quarters or representatives here. The major oil companies are dog- gedly fighting to maintain the open shop or at least get an ineffective company union. But another fac- tor beside the company union, is militating against the companies’ open shop activities. As far back as 1925 oil companies began to fire older employees and to replace them with younger and faster workers. This. however, was only an occasional act. When the depression came, the firing of the oldermen and the hiring of the younger became wide-spread. Now, and during the past few years, it 16 almost impossible for a man over 35 to get a job. What were left of the older workers still in the fields and refineries were then compietely cleaned out when the companies Started the speed-up system and wanted the younger and faster worker. This process has ingrained itself in the worker’s mind. He realizes that within a few years he, too, will be thrown on the charity heap be- cause of his age and he wants an organization to protect him from that. And to this is added the addi- tional militating influence against. - the oil companies: the element of — youth among the workers. This- |element is showing an aggressive— ness which did not exist among the older employees, and there is a dis-_ tinct tendency among them to fight’ for organizational activity, a (To Be Continued) Stage and Screen “Peace On Earth” Reopens Saturday at 44th St. Theatre “Peace on Earth,” the anti-war Play by George Sklar and Albert _ Maltz, which ran for sixteen weeks at the Civic Repertory Theatre un- der the sponsorship of the Theatré Union, will reopen its uptown en- gagement on Saturday afternoon at. the Forty-fourth Street Theatre un- der the management of A. L. Jories The cast and production remairté intact. “One More Honeymoon,” a farce by Leo Reardon, will be presented by John Nicholson and Ned Brown” on Saturday evening at the Little Theatre. The players include Bur- ford Hampden, Charles Harrison, Sally Starr, Ann Butler and Wwil- liam Philbrick. Crane Wilbur’s new play, “Are You Decent,” is scheduled to open next week with Sam Wren, Emily Lowry and A. J. Herbert heading the cast. The theatre and exact day will be announced later. Iturbi Soloist With Philhar- monic Orchestra Wednesday Jose Iturbi, pianist, will appear as soloist with the Philharmonic Or- chestra under the direction of Tos- canini in Wednesday afternoon and on Thursday evening at Carnezie Hall. The program: Mozart’s Con- certi in D minor (K. 466) and in C major (K. 467) and Brahms Syfi- phony No. 2. Hans Lange will conduct at the Students’ concert on Saturday eve- ning with Mischa Levitzki as solo- ist. The program: Haydn's Sym- phony in A major (B. and H. No; 64); Mozart's Serenata Notturna; -- No. 6; Hadley’s tone poem “The Ocean”; Two Dances from “The Bartered Bride” by Smetana and the Saint-Saens Piano Concerto. The program next Sunday . under the direction of Toscanini will in«.. clude Beethoven's “Eroica” Sym- phony and Brahms Symphony No. 2. AMUSE MENTS 2 SOVIET PRODUCTIONS! ANNA STEN in “THE GIRL WITH THE BAND BOX” Directed by B. BARNETT—Producer of “THE PATRIOTS” aso “JGDENBU” STORY OF MONGOLIAN NOMAD TRIBES ON BANKS OF SIBERIAN RIVER AMUR_ (3 Stars) DAILY NEWS. ENGLISH TITLES. NOW SYNCHRONIZED ACME THEATRE ith Street and | Union Square | Midnite Show Saturday —>~RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL— 50 St & 6 Ave—Show Place of the Nation Opens 11:30 A, M. ‘ ‘Bottoms Up” || SPENCER JOHN “PAT” TRACY BOLES PATERSON And a great Music Hall Stage Show | | BKO Jefferson Ms 8. & | Now | OROTHEA WIECK & ALK BRADY in “Miss Fane’s Baby Is Stolen” | also:—“YOU CAN’T BI EVERYTHING” with MAE ROBSON & JEAN PARKER MADISON SQ. GARDEN Twice Daily 2 & 8 P.M. including SUNDAYS SH Night INGLING BAR ALL NEW THIS YEAR § BIGGER THAN EVER! 1000 NEW FOREIGN FEATURES Tickets Admitting to Everything (i 1.10 3. I fren under 12 Fale . Tax, ston Fete See, peers A \—THE THEATRE GUILD present JOHN WEXLEY'S New Play THEY SHALL NOT DIE ROYALE Tee: 45th St. W. of Broadwas. Eves. 8:26, Mats. Thursday and Saturday, 2:20 EUGENE O'NEILL’s Comedy AH, WILDERNESS! with GEORGE M. CO! Thea., 52d St. GU ILDe:: 20 Mats. Thur. MAXWELL ANDERSON’S New “MARY OF SCOTLAND” with HELEN PHILIP HAYES MERIVALE ME! Thea., 524 St., W. of B'way |. ALVIN eel Ev.8.20Mats.Thur.@Sat.2.20 ROBERTA A New Musical Comedy by JEROME KERN & OTTO HARBACK NEW AMSTERDAM, W. 424 St. Evgs. 8.40-~ Matinees Wednesday and Saturday 2.30 WALTER HUSTON in Sinclair Lewis’ — DODSWORTH Dramatized by SIDNEY HOWARD © SHUBERT, W. 44th St. Evs. 8:40 Sharp Matinees Wednesday and Saturday, 2. IEGFELD FOLLIES with FANNIE BRICE Willie & Eugene HOWARD, Rartiett srM- MONS, Jane FROMAN, Patricia BOWMAN. WINTER GARDEN, Biway & 50th. Evs. 8.36 = Matinees Thursday and Saturday 2:30