The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 5, 1934, Page 7

CHANGE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 5, 193 \ You Can’t Duck'| Hurricane Under a Beach Umbrella’ TENDER IS THE NIGHT, by F.) THE—— Broken Promises --- Net Trck from Phila. Result of the ‘New Deal’ | | By SENDER GARLIN WORLD! Scott Fitzgerald, New York. Charles Scribner’s Sons. $2.50, Reviewed by PHILIP RAHV SCOTT FITZGERALD made 4 * name for himself in the litera-| ON OUR WAY. By Franklin D, | tration of banking and industry Roosevelt. New York: John Day & went ahead at an accelerated pace. Co, $2.50. (All of these facts are admitted by sg government statistics.) to Bring Workers to See “Stevedore” NEW YORK.—The Theatre Union receives a great many letters from workers expressing their apprecia- tion of both “Peace on Earth” and the current play “Stevedore.” Labor Missing in Levy's Novel of the Northwest agi Reviewed by DAVID RAMSEY 3—There are still over 16 million | following letter from an I. L. D. IN the book under review President | workers without employment. The Branch in Philadelphia illustrates Roosevelt, to quote his own words,| average relief stipend all over the| the profound effect “Stevedore” pro- g HE stirring news arrives from Toronto, Canada, that a beauty parlor for dogs has been opened up right in the It’s a rea! swanky place, according to the Toronto Daily Star. “Tt will cater particularly to prized pups who will start off the day with orange juice and corn- flakes, lie on silk cushions and have their nails manicured and tinted to match the dress of their mistress,” according to this enterprising heart of the city. newspaper. The doggies’ beauty parlor is t ness booms there’s no doubt that others will be started in various parts of the Dominion—crisis or no crisis. tablishment provides every kind of teeth to trimming their nails and to the buckaneering reporter for the Toronto Star, the daily routine is something like this: The dog starts the day at 7 Juice and cornflakes. At 10 a.m., given a whole packet of best quality raisins; at noon, vegetable soup; at 3 p.m., believe it or not, it’s a the evening a meal that would be “As well as that,” related the proprietor of the shop, “she wanted the dog to have special accommodation, not to be disturbed in any and to be soothed at night if it started kicking up a fuss. way, “One dog was brought in on had a special little silk coat and one maid to attend him constantly; in the back of the car a silk ball It seems, also, that one bourzhooie was anxious about his terrier. It has one ear up and the other down. Star investigator, “if the beauty parlor could put the offending ear into proper position—that is, down, They didn’t see how it could be done, except by weighing it down would be changed.” NELSON, who sent the clipping in from Toronto, makes this tart * comment: “Tf you read the clipping I'm enclosing, you will find that the class differentiation among the dogs has penetrated even to this lonely I'm quite sure that most of the working class dogs have quite as healthy a hatred of those upper class pooches as we have country. of their masters and mistresses. Dog Catchers in the Canadian Soviet Republic I'll give the order to snare all these high-class mutts instead of poor kids’ dogs. “But, kidding aside, with all the horror and poverty that exists here —with a mother of six kids dying in childbirth from starvation and lack of medical care (the whole family existed on dry bread through- out the winter)—with hungry, undernourished kids fighting for better Telief, a snob-nosed mutt begins its day on orange juice and has his When will this nightmare end?” nails tinted! . * 'HE bourgeois press, which is so aghast at “propaganda in art,” has recently been indulging in an orgy of consolation poems on the In the comfortable columns of the New York Times (4-11-34), you find the following inspiring bit of verse: IN TIME OF HUNGER I can go hungry and hold up my head— Appear to men as if I fasted not; Can bluff it through with nothing in the pot, And make believe that I am fully fed, For I have other meat and other bread That will sustain me in my secret plot Against the gnawing hunger and the hot crisis. Uneven battle with the But when my wife is hungry, when my child Goes supperless and cries herself to sleep, ‘Then am I helpless, then is born the wild Impulse to wring my hands and weep— Confused, defeated, slow to understand Why too much food breeds hunger in fhe land. . * And in “The Conning Tower,” that urbane, loftily-ironic column of ¥F. P. A. was recently published the following bit of propaganda in support of the Roosevelt N. R. BEGGAR The valley lay all spread with snow Of apple, peach, and cherry; The Beggar Man was walking siow, His face was brown and hairy. ture of the past decade as the voice and chronicler of the jazz age. This, in a sense, was his strength, as he| showed himself capable of quickly} responding to features of American) life that other writers assimilated} rather slowly; but it also proved to} be his greatest defect, since he fail-| ed to place what he saw in its so-| cial setting. He himself was swept| away by the waste and extravagance | of the people he described, and he identified himself with them. Hence the critics who, at his appearance on the literary scene, saw in him @ major talent in post-war Ameri- can literature, soon realized that} here was another creative promise petering out. The fever of the boom) days settled in his bones. In the end he surrendered to the stand- ards of the Saturday Evening Post. In these days, however, even Fitz- gerald cannot escape realizing how near the collapse of his class really | is. In his new work he no longer writes of expensive blondes and yachting parties, lavish surround- ings and insane love-affairs from the same angle of vision as in the past. These things are still there, but the author's enthusiasm for them has faded, giving way to the sweat of exhaustion. The rich ex- patriates who trail their weary lives across the pages of the novel breathe the thin air of a crazy last autumn. The author is still in love with his characters, but he no longer entertains any illusions con- cerning their survival. Morally,| spiritually, and even physically they are dying in hospitals for the men- tally diseased, in swanky Paris hotels and on the Riviera beaches. Yet, having immersed himself in the atmosphere of corruption, Fitz- gerald’s eye discerns a certain grace even in their last contortions. The morbid romance of death sways his| mind, and signs are not wanting that instead of severing the cords | | that bind him to their degradation, | he prefers to stick out with them to the end. Even while perceiving their) doom, he still continues to console and caress them with soft words uttered in the furry voice of a} family doctor pledged to keep the) fatal diagnosis from his patients. | Ce Ce | number of things happen in Tender Is the Night. First, let) us introduce Mr. Warren, a Chicago| | Millionaire who rapes his sixteen-| year old daughter Nicole. This non-| plebeian act drives the girl out of her mind, and she is sent to a sanatorium in Switzerland, where she is partially cured and where) she meets Dick Diver, a young American psychologist who marries her. Nicole is extremely wealthy and the Divers lead a model para-| sitic life, flitting from one European | high spot to another, accompanied | by a varied assortment of neurotics| and alcoholics. Wherever they go! they are intent on smashing things/ up. Dick Diver’s strength and charm fall apart in the insufferable atmo- sphere of sophisticated brutality. In the course of time he realizes his role as a live commodity bought by the Warren family to act as hus- band-doctor to their crazy daughter. And Nicole, sensing Dick’s grow- ing despair, flies from him to the arms of Tommy Barban, the stylized young barbarian who is potentially an ideal leader of a Nazi storm- troop. When the plot is thus bluntly stated, stripped of its delicate intro- spective wording, of its tortuous} Style that varnishes rather than reveals the essential facts, we can easily see that the book is a fear- ful indictment of the moneyed aris- he only one in Canada, but if busi- Tt seems that the new es- | service for dogs, from cleaning their giving them a shampoo. According a.m. sharp, no later, with tomato demands his mistress, he must be dish ot oysters and cream; and in the pride of a French chef. a silk cushion the other day; he dangled for him to play with.” “He asked,” writes the Daily for a long period, so the muscles * . And when I become Commissar of day of dread, JAMES LARKIN PEASON. . A.-starvation regime: MAN |structure by | small but very powerful group of in-| that the new deal like the old deal! | dividuals so set in authority that| means the sharing of greater profits | they dominated business and bank-| by the rich; and the sharing of His step was firm, his step was free, His clothes hung down in tatters; But not to him (and not to me) Are clothes a thing that matters. His eyes were blue; and the rim of blue Around the sky were mountains; And as he walked his fringes flew From him like spray from fountains, tocracy, But Fitzgerald’s form blunts this essence, transforming it into & mere opportunity for endless psy- chologizing. And on account of it many a reader will let himself float on the novel's tender surface, with- out gauging the horror underneath. The reviewer is inclined to think that in creating the figure of Dick Diver, Fitzgerald has created—per- haps unconsciously—the image of ® life closely corresponding to his Up from the south To watch a world aborning, And bird-song set to vibrating The silver air of He did not beg (as His years lay on Than snow upon the apple wood ‘Whose fragrance No prodigal, nor passer-by, But as a prince returning Home, he viewed his land and sky With a land-and-sky lord’s yearning. If ever I saw a man at peace On earth, ‘twas this scarecrow, a Beggar Man in pride and grease, Tramping the Shenandoah. . , . we. the economic future of the minor poets in the U. 8. seems assured, as long as proud members of the Fourth Estate, like the Times and Tribune continue to be own. The truth is that Nicole can be understood as a symbol of the entire crazy social system to which Fitzgerald has long been playing Dick Diver. And lastly, a not too private post- criyv to the author. Dear Mr. Fitz- gerald, you can’t hide from a hur- ricane under a beach umbrella, he came with Spring morning, a beggar should) ; him younger fed his hunger. ; - Garlin to Lecture on Theodore Dreiser in Philadelphia Tonight PHILADELPHIA, May 4.—Sender Garlin of the Daily Worker staff will speak on “The Evolution of Theodore Dreiser,” Saturday night at Boslover Hall, 701 Pine St., under the auspices of the John Reed Club of Philadelphia. Garlin will discuss Dreiser's nov- els as well as his sociological writ- ings, his support of the revolution- ary movement during 1931-32, and his recent public utterances in fa- GA. in the market for tripe like this. TUNING IN 1:00-WEAF—Baseball Resume WOR—Sports Resume ‘WsZ—Description, Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs 1:15-WEAF—Religion in the News—Dr. Stanley High WOR—Talk—Harry Hershfield 7:30—WEAF—Himber Orchestra; Demarco Sisters, Songs; Eddie PePabody, Banjo WOR—Robbins Orchestra WJZ—Bestor Orchestra WABO—Serenaders Orchestra; Paul Keast, Baritone; Thelma Goodwin, Soprano 4:45-WABC—Jones Orchestra 1:00-WEAF—Teddy Bergman, Comedian; Betty Queen, Contralto; Bill Smi Baritone; Stern Orchestra WOR—City Government, Talk ‘WJZ—The Hudson River School and Its _Heirs—Sketch WABC—Rich Orchestra; Morton Downey, Tenor; Mary Eastman, Soprano 8:15-WOR—Velvetones ‘Trio 20-WJ2—Bavarian Band 30-WEAF—The Pert That Steel Is Play- ; 10:30-WEAF—Fight the Gangster and the|a banquet held jointly by the In- ing in the Recovery Program—W. 8. Tower, Executive Secretary, Iron vor of Roosevelt's regime and the NRA. Questions and discussions will fol- and Steel Institute js: Pg erat oa Heater, Commentator low sie: eneitp A4p-WEAR oT Be Acted WE'LL SEND THE DAILIES WITH WABC—Fats Waller, Songs PLEASURE _,, WOR—To Be Announced Syracuse, N. Y, 9:00-WEAF—Voorhees Orehestra: Donald | Dear comrades: Gontealtos ane Boris. th eee I am twelve years old and a mem- tosh EB Maaboees Last the Junior International WOR—Newark Civic Symphony Or-| Workers Order branch. I want to Woes’ priilip Gordon, ‘Conductor | try to sell the “Daily.” Would you WABC—Grete Stueckgold, Soprano; | Please send me three papers every is Tice we ee day and five on Saturday? I am :30- WEAP—Real fe etch; Beatrice Fairfax, none sure that I can take care of them Wd2—Duchin Orchestra and pay my bills. WABC—Looking at Lift—Roy Helton Comradely yours, 9:45-WABC—Fray and Braggiotti, Piano i. K. 7 10:00-WEAF—Hayton Orchestra; Saxon pce RO eRe SSS WOR—To Be ‘Announced RAISE $80 FOR “DAILY” Wy2_The Other Americas—Edward | | ENDICOTT, N. Y.—More than $80 WABC—Rebroadeast, Byrd Expedition | ¥@5 raised for the Daily Worker at Racketeer—Thomas Thacher, For-| ternational Workers Order of Bing- won hehe Coie \Sidate hamton and Endicott. WdZ—Barn Dance WABC—Peter the Great—sketch fe eee Mario, Soprano ( Tell your friends and shopmates about the Daily Worker. Let them read youx copy, Ask them to sub- sariber WEAF—Madriguera Orchestra WOR—Weather; Olman Orchestra WABC—Sylvia Froos, Songs “without argument and without ex-| country is only about eighteen dol-| duces on all workers fortunate tended explanation seeks to set forth| lars a month for a whole family. In| enough to see it. a very busy year.” It is the record} of a year of “the redemption of | as low as seven and eight dollars) a month. In addition, relief ad-} simply the many significant events of| the South and West it often runs} Dear Comrades: We are a group of workers in the International Labor Defense pledges to the people of America| ministrator Hopkins has announced| of Philadelphia, One of our com- and the consummation of the hopes| that he intends to drop 1-3 to %| rades saw your production, “Steve- of the many who looked forward to| of all those now on relief rolls by| dore,” and has returned filled with a better ordered common life.” In-| stead of attempting to refute the} official pap that Mr. dishes out, it will be interesting fe list a balance sheet of his accom- the new deal | Promises 1—“By drastic measures to elim-| inate special privilege in the control | of the old economic and social a numerically very} ing.” ised 2—“To seek a return of the swing generations had been’ sweeping to-| ward a constantly increasing con-| centration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands—a swing back in the} direction of a wider distribution of the wealth and property of the na-| tion.” | 3—‘Furnish jobs and adequate re-| lief for the unemployed.” | 4—Peace may be assured through | practical measures of disarmament.” 5—“To drive the money-changers out of the temple of our. national life.” Results 1—A much closer fusion of the State with big business than existed before, and the steady development | towards Gerard Swope’s plan for the | open dictatorship of big business. 2—Dividends and interest pay- ments during 1933 reached their} highest levels since 1931. Large in- comes increased considerably; small incomes fell. The real wages of workers was sharply cut by the! rising cost of living. The concen-" August. | 4—The expenditure of about} during the current fiscal year. | 5—The 100 largest banks have in-| |plishments during the first year of | creased their resources from 40 per cent of all commercial deposits to over 52 per cent, Peas 'HE list of such broken promises could be extended indefinitely, but they all boil down to the fact more misery by the workers. It is| an ironic joke on Mr. Roosevelt that lof the pendulum which for three | his publisher had to change a typo-| graphical error which read “private! party” to “private property.” This | is precisely what Mr. Roosevelt has | done so well. He has defended the interests of private property against | the rights and well being of the| workers, There has been a new deal) for the big bankers and industrial- | ists in that their super-profits are being restored. On the other hand’| the new freedom for the workers has meant that they are starving to the tune of a bigger and better ballyhoo than Hoover gave them. Mr. Roosevelt: claims that we are | on our way. He does not add that his way is the road to hunger, fas- cism and War. But millions of Amer- ican workers, farmers and intellec- tuals in fighting against the N, R. A. and the feverish preparations for war by the Roosevelt regime, and in fighting the development of fas- | cism in this country, are determined | to turn the American people off on to another road and start them on their way to socialism and peace. The Making of | ols Wexley’s Play on the Scottsboro Case THEY SHALL NOT DIE. A Play on the Scottshoro Case, By John Wexley. New York; Alfred A. Knopf. 191 pages, $2. bh ee Reviewed by HAROLD EDGAR FADING John Wexley’s “They Shall Not Die” in the somewhat decorative “Volume which Alfred Knopf has recently published is the | present reviewer's third contact with the play. The first was the manu- script itself which the author per- mitted him to read, then there was the Theatre Guild’s production in February, and now again we are more than ever impressed by the play’s simple power. This is a se- yere test: many plays which are effective on the stage appear thin and watery when they are set down in cold type. At our first reading, we might have been swept away by the sheer excitement that this dra- matization of the Scottsboro case must inevitably arouse in every hu- man heart; in the theatre, the pres- |ence of Negro players (who are al- ways the most affecting actors when their manner is easy and unspoiled) might have had something to do with our enthusiasm, but in printed volume, there remains nothing but the play as a play. How does it stand the test? The answer, as suggested, is that it is always a clear, moving, significant drama. Wexley’s achievement in “They Shall Not Die” has been taken too much for granted in a rather pecu- liar way. On the one hand, the hasty and perhaps melodramatic in- troduction of the story in the first act, has been severely criticized on the grounds that it does not pro- vide a sufficient social explanation for the behavior of the sheriff, the town lawyer and the others who are planning the boys’ execution. On the other hand, many have praised the play simply as a literal transcription of the facts. Between these two reactions, one a rather too one-sided censure, the other a patronizing applause, there are the various shades of hesitant praise or blame expressed in the dramatic re- views. Some felt that the play should be seen (or read) for the sake of its valuable “propaganda,” others that because of its “propa- ganda” it was too hot and too “an- gry” to be art! But all of these points of view, arising from differ- ent sources and motivated by dif- ferent interests, have this in com- mon: they do not completely real- ize the dramatist’s problem or ap- preciate his accomplishment. It was no easy matter to take the complex material of the Scottsboro case—dramatic as it is—and so ar- range it in a closely knit, lucidly progressing sequence of scenes that an audience unacquainted with the facts (as most of the Broadway au- diences were) would be forced to accept them as the truth, whether they liked it or not. What Wexley has done is to tell his story in a way that gives no evidence of “an- ger” (except to those so ignorant as to believe that his facts are inven- tions!) or even of any overemphasis, while preserving at the same time its unmistakable, justified partisan- ship, 4 IOREOVER, the characters—with the possible exception of some of the officials at the beginning —always have a raciness and an original tang that we rarely get in plays of this kind, particularly when they are based on living models! But the Negro boys, the N.L.D, lawyer, the counsel for the defense, the various prosecuting at- torneys and most of the others all emerge as people whom we know not as stock characters in a pattern that has become familiar to us but as living beings with their own in- the | dividual qualities. Each of them is typical yet none are stereotyped. As a result, they have a special kind of | reality which makes them extremel: \effective in the theatre—effective |and convincing. They act on the au- dience and the reader not only through the underlying soundness of the law’s argument but through the emotional logic of the dramatic medium, in the sense that while the characters remain altogether cred~- ible in terms of the strictest actu- ality the author lends them at the same time a certain picturesqueness, an extraordinary theatric colorful- ness. Hence, without obvious exag- geration, coarse melodramatics, or sensational phrase-mongering, the play achieves something beyond conviction: it becomes eloquent with an eloquence that does not seem to derive from the playwright but from the characters themselves and the situation. In other words, if this play is effective propaganda, it is largely because Wexley knew how to shape his material into good the- atre. There are not many Ameri- can social diw.<s of which this can be said. “They Shall Not Die” must live Broadway run. The struggle for the Scottsboro boys is still to be fought to a successful finish. And as part of that struggle, if for no other reason, this play should be derived and performed wherever there is a company that can possibly do it. The Theatre Guild's production was competent, but with a few excep- tions, it lacked fervor and that vi- brancy of emotion which only a revolutionary group to whom the Play is more than just another “show” can bring to it. “They Shall Not Die” should not be allowed to pass away with the rest of the Guild’s repertory. It has a perma- nent value for the proletarian movement as well as for the Ameri- can theatre. NSL Protests Terror Against Students in British University NEW YORK.—The National Stu- dent League has sent the folowing letter to the British Embassy at Washington: Dear Sirs: Frank Meyers, an American citi- zen, and Jack Simons were expelled and several others were suspended from the London School of Eco- nomics for selling copies of the Stu- dent Vanguard after they had been ordered not to. The previous issue had contained a reference to a member of the L. S. E. staff. a reference implying that functions belonging to him as adviser to colo- nial students were functions of a Nolice spy. The director forbade the future sale of the issue. When he was not obeyed, he expelled Frank Meyers and Jack Simons and sus- pended others. This action, the di- rector states, was a breach of dis- cipline. We have just heard that Frank Meyers is in immediate danger of being deported. We consider his ex- pulsion from the L. S. E. a breach of students’ rights and demand his immediate reinstatement, enabling him to continue his studies at the L. 8S. BE. and removing him from any danger of deportation. Very truly yours, ANNIE STECKLER, National Student League, Subscribe to the Daily Worker. One month daily or six months of the Saturday edition for 75 cents, Send your subscription to the Daily Worker, 50 E, 13th St., New York City, longer than the ten weeks of its | inspiration to have us, his com- rades, see this stirring play. He Roosevelt | $1,500,000,000 for war preparations] feels it to be of great educational value to. us. We are Negro com- rades, most of us unemployed, living on relief when we can get it. We are struggling to build an I, L. D, Community Center in Philadelphia—the first undertak- ing of its kind any place in the country. We have many difficul- ties and discouragements. Our comrade feels that your play will give us new courage and strength and reveal to us more vividly the as we, Negroes, must need know it today. We will arrange to have a truck bring 24 of us (the truck's capa- city) for a matinee performance, Saturday, May 12, The truck driver, a comrade, will do this for the minimum cost. Can you co- operate with us in our efforts to get to New York to see “Steve- dore”: If you can give us special prices for a group of 24, or supply a portion of unemployed tickets, we will greatly appreciate your help. Long live the Theatre Union and Plays like “Stevedore” which mean new life or the masses! Comradely, GLADYS HEATH,,Secty, to | John Reed Forum to |Hear Doctor Stern on “Nazi Racial Theories” NEW YORK.—Bernhard J. Stern, assistant editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, and lecturer on anthropology and the social sciences at Columbia University and the New School, will speak on “Modern Race Theories and the Nazis,” on Sunday, May 6, at the John Reed Club, 430 Sixth Ave., at 8:30 p.m. Dr. Stern will discuss the Nazi myth of Nordic superiority and its | practical consequences in the new sterilization laws. New Soviet Musie Will Be Feature of Eugene | Nigoh’s Piano Recital NEW YORK. — In addition to a program of Beethoven, Mozart, Cho- pin and Lisst, Eugene Nigob, dis- tinguished pianist, will play new | revolutionary Soviet music at his re- cttal at the New School for Social Research, 66 W. 12th St., on Sun- day evening, May 6,8 p.m. Tickets may be bought a tthe Workers Book Shop, 50 E, 12th St., and Nigob’s Studio, 132 E. 23rd St. | Stage and Screen “Marionettes,” Newest Soviet Talkie in American Premiere At Acme Theatre Today “Marionettes,” the newest Soviet talkie, will have its first American showing today at the Acme ‘Theatre. The picture is being re- | leased by Amkino, comedy, a brilliant and humorous satire on bourgeous government. The film, which is now being leading theatres in Moscow, crowded audiences, is full of sparkle and polish. It ridicules in opera bouffe style the political machina- tions of a mythical buffer State called “Bufferia.” “Marionettes” was directed by Protozanov, one of the few So- viet directors whose cinema ex- perience dates back to pre-revolu- tionary days.” It is the first really hilariously funny sound film to reach the Soviet screen,” was the cabled report to the N. Y. Times by its Moscow film corres- pondent. The cast is headed by many of the well known stage and screen artists Martinson, who plays the lead is in spite of his foreign- sounding name a Soviet stage idol who can wear a boiled shirt with the best of them. Other leading roles are played by Tokarskaya and Ktorov. The film has an ori- ginal musical score by 8S. Polov- inkin, and was produced in the Soviet Union by Mezhrabpomfilm. se 8 The Le Vita Trio, known also as the Degeyter Club Trio and the Nitgedaiget Trio, will give a concert on Sunday, May 6, at the Lester Concert Hall, 45 Flat- bush Ave., Brooklyn (near Nevins St. Station). In addition to the Haydn's Trio No. 6, and Dvyorak’s Trio Opus 90 “Dumky,” a trio by A. Drosdow, Soviet composer, will be performed for the first time in New York. * ork 2 The Embassy Newsreel Theatre is show- ing May Day Around the World, beginning Saturday, May 5 at 11 a. m., to continue through Friday, May 1. The cities in- cluded are New York. Boston, Philadel- phia, London, Paris, Berlin and Moscow. Hee Moscow pictures were made by Am- ino. In addition, the Embassy wil show the heroic rescue by Soviet airmen of the ship Cheluishin. JIMMY GRUB and his Silver Guardsmen Exceptional Dance Music MODERATE RATES James C. Grub, 7 York Drive Great Neck, N.Y. Phone: Great Neck 2839-J vital factors of the class struggle | The picture is a feature-length | played in no le&’s than four of the} to! THE LAST PIONEERS—by Melvin Levy, New York. Alfred H. King $2.50, Reviewed by ISIDOR SCHNEIDER 5 Kano PEOPLE in this book are imaginary. So is Puget, the city Indeed, on the spot which I | ize as tts site, there is another and different town.” When a statement such as pears in front of a novel The} ual- usually a notice that the characters | P are drawn from actual perso and the events from t Last Pioneers has already started one of those literary guessing g) mes that critics and knowbodies lik Play. Is Puget intended to be Seat- tle? Is Herman Mero the founder of a famous department store dy ? | And so on. The actual town or he | real name’ “iardly matter, except to |local py + What matters is | whethey e have in this novel typical om town,.and in its bu ers, ty al boomsters. Am va, after the Civil War, saw | @ ped’ arly intense type of capital- | ist imperialist expansion. Reckless, adventurers, often trained in the gambler’s school of long chances | found themselves in the path of destiny. A rich virgin country lay | before them. In the process of ex- tracting riches from it and from their careless neighbors, they piled | up cities and industries. In this in- cidental manner, these “last pio- | neers,” many of them immigrants accustomed to living by their wits, gamblers, saloon keepers from the| | mining camps, became builders and | organizers, | IT is such a group that Melvin Levy | shows working out their strenuous areers, in The Last Pioneers. There | is Herman Merro, who began life as Chaim Chemanski, son of a poor | shoemaker, in a Russian village | Small, shrunken, weak and a de- | spised worker's son, he learend to | respect power, to want power above | everything else; and to realize that indirect forms of power were best— | money and influence which kept | their wielder unexposed. Gold drew |him to Alaska, but, like other | shrewd ones, he let other men en- | dure the hardship and the risk, and |laid traps for them, with women, | liquor, cards and swindles, to relieve | them of the treasure they returned with. From Alaska, he made his | way to Puget, a center of the young | lumber industry. There, Paul Dex- ter, an enterprising Harvard man, had bought most of the land, opened | a bank, and waited for the inevitable | expansion. Tt has, however, several short- | comings which must be noted. It is, almost exclusively, the story of the exploiters; the exploited workers, | | | DARING !—AMUSI Now Playing in Four Leading Theatres In Moscow ACME THEATRE AMUSEMENTS Soviet Sensational Talking Film AMKINO Presents — American Premiere “MARIONETTES” Greatest Satire on Bourgeois Government! Enacted by MOSCOW ART THEATRE PLAYERS and MOSCOW and LENINGRAD BALLETS Lith STREET and UNION SQUARE some of American the the exploiters days of to make it away eloquence to be nt for eloquence and He has pinched t ly to have put metaphors ption. While thi I to the story, it characters, frequently, an air of un- reality Dance League Forms Percussion Orchestra YORK.—A percussion in- been formed by some of the members of the Workers’ Dance League, meet- ing every Monday night from 7:30 to 8:30 at 108 W. 14th St, It has as its purpose the development of a workers’ ion orchestra, trained in dance accompaniment, to assist the proletarian dance groups. NEW strument class has recently percu: various itt In addition a Dalcroze group has been started which meets at the same address, from 8:30 to 9:30 m. Satire on War at | Film-Photo Saturday NEW YORK.—A special perform- |ance of the film, “Hands Up,” an | uproarious satire on war, starring the brilliant comedian, Raymond Griffith, will be given at the Film and Photo League, 12 BE. 17 St, | neither in their misery nor in their Saturday, night, at 8:30 p.m. 7!—HUMOROUS! Produced in the U.S.S.R. Special Original Musical Score (English Titles) Starts Today THR THEATRE GUILD presente— JIG SAW A comedy by DAWN POWELL with ERNEST TRUEX—SPRING BYINGTON —— THE THEATRE UNION Presents — The Season's Outstanding Dramatic Mit ETHEL BARRYMORE ‘Theatre, 47th W. of Broadway ‘Brgs. 8:40, M and Sat, 2:40 EUGENE O'NEILL's Comedy AH, WILDERNESS! with GEORGE M. CORAN The W. of Biwa. | caer MAXWELL ANDERSON’S New Play “MARY OF SCOTLAND” with HELEN PHILIP HELEN HAYES MERIVALE MENKEN ALVIN featosate-thorsasatse0 GILBERT & SULLIVAN All This Week — Week of May 7 “PIRATES OF PENZANCI MAJESTIC THEA., W. 44th St., eves. 8 50c to $2.00. Mats. Wed é& Sat, 50c to $1.50 STAR CAST WALTER HUSTON in Sinclair Lewis’ DODSWORTH Dramatized by SIDNEY HOWARD SHUBERT, W, 44th St. Es. 8:10 Sharp Matinees Wednesday and Saturday 2:30 | FERENC MOLNAR'’S | Mighty Human Document “No Greater Glory” Now Playing 7th Ave, at 50th Street ROXY 35 Cents to 1 P. M. 6th, 8 P.M.— EUGENE NIGOB will give a piano recital at the New School St., N. Y.C. Tickets for sale at Workers Book Shop, 50 E. 13th St, and at the New School. ce for Social Research, 66 West 12th J Gves, 8:45. Mats. Tues. & Sat, 2:45 CIVIC REPERTORY THEA. 105 W 14 St. | A0e-40¢-600-750-$1.00 & $1.50. No Tax | stevedore ——RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL——. 50 Bt de 6 Ave—Show Place of the Nation Opens 11:30 A. M || JOHN’ BARRYMORE | in “20th Century” with CAROLE LOMBARD plus an Elaborate | | MUSIC HALL STAGE SHOW (ROBERTA | A New Musical Comedy by KERN & OTTO HARBACK JEROME. NEW AMSTERDAM. Matinees Wedn pera | W. 42d St. Evgs. y and Saturda: a ae ‘Talking Film Festival “RED HEAD” (poit ae carotter | and Amkino’s Masterpiece | “KILLING TO LIVE” j Sunday, May 13 |] Continuous from 2 P.M. to 11 P.M. |] Tickets in Advance till 7 P. M., 25e. || Gala Performance 8:30 P.M. with Party & Dancing from i1 P.M. to 8 A.M.—s0e Tickets at Workers Bookstore, 50 13th St.; Co-op. Cafeteria, 2700 Bronx Park East WEBSTER HALL 119 East lith Street Provisional Committee of M.W.LU, SYMPOSIUM “Broadway and the Propaganda Play” SPEAKERS: JOHN HOWARD LAWSON MICHAEL BLANKFORT PAUL SIFTON FRANK MERLIN VIRGIL GEDDES, Chairman WORKERS LAR. THEA, in a New Play SUN., MAY 6th, 8:30 P. IRVING PLAZA Isth ST, & IRVING PL. Benet Admission NEW THEATRE 25 cents