The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 22, 1934, Page 5

DAILY WORKER, W YORK, TUESDAY, MAY 22, 1934 Page Five CHANGE | THE — WORLD! By MICHAEL GOLD ESTERDAY a comrade-worker in Tampa, Florida, asked the question: what was meant by the writer in saying that the New Masses weekly often fell into the bad habits of a certain kind of Communist academicism? Of course, this criticism of the New Masses was a minor one, and was inserted into a long eulogy as a bit of balancing self-criticism. No revolutionary institution or individual should ever be given a blank check of praise. Not until the final victory is won can we rest on our oars, or crown ourselves with the laurel wreath. Leave that to the windy Fourth of July orators. Self-criticism is the strongest weapon in the arsenal of Communist ideology, and the real guarantee of the final victory. This does not mean the sterile skepticism and doubting of the liberals, of course, but a sharpening of one’s tools for action, a scientific dismissal of every experiment that fails, and a constant search for new tech- niques. The New Masses is the best revolutionary weekly, I believe, this country has yet produced. It is among the best publications in the international movement. But it has faults, it can be improved, and it is the task of its every reader and well-wisher to co-operate with the editors in widening and deepening its influence by constant critic- ism (as well as praise). Coffee, Motor Cars and Eunuchs CADEMICISM, in the capitalist countries, has come to be a term of reproach aimed at the intellectuals who have been cut off from the life of the masses. Tt is not that one places a crude utilitarian demand upon the arts and sciences, It is capitalism that does this; we don't demand, as they do, that novelists write advertisements for motor cars, like that gross vulgarian Irvin Cobb, for example, or that eminent psychologists like Dr. John B. Watson, the behaviorist, give up their science, as he has done, to study psychological ways and means of selling more tons of coffee and making more profits for the exploiters. No, what Communists say is that art amd science under capitalism are rapidly losing the vital force that was theirs in the first flush of the capitalist revolution. . Leonardo Da Vinci was the genius type of artist-scientist developed in the first stages of capitalist expansion. He was a great painter, in- ventor, architect, mechanic and theorist, who saw life as a whole, and believed the welfare of humanity to be the object of his multifarious labors. Today, culture under capitalism has split its workers into two camps; half of them are degraded slaves of the profiteers, hired brains that function blindly to turn out adulterated food, perverted and lying journalism, poison gas an other fiendish weapons of war, patent medi- cines, jerry-built houses, all the shoddy of this commercial civilization. The other group serves a different function. Under the Czar in Russia, as well as in our own South during the days of chattle slavery, it was a serious crime to teach the serfs how to read and write. Culture contains a great deal of dynamite, if distributed among the masses. Today the priests and professors of capitalist culture unconéciously do what the Czar did, and keep this culture from the masses. They surround it with high walls of red tape and a complex “honorific” technical terminology, to use the favorite epithet of Thors- tein Veblen, who first attacked this “higher learning” in America. ‘There are thousands of theses presented each year by candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in our colleges. The vast major- ity are about as useful to the human race, or as understandable, as an inflamed appendix. ‘They are medieval vestiges of a more vital scholasticism, And the professors who read and write them are spiritual eunuchs, with a philo- sophy of art for art’s sake, and learning for learning's sake, which en- ables them to brag of their castration. Thorstein Veblen himself was an illustration of this disease of academicism. He was one of the most original political and economic thinkers who ever criticized American capitalism. But he wrote in a barbarous academic style that was like a Chinese puzzle; he tried to conceal his thought; he had the professorial fear of the masses. To move them to action on these life-and-death issues must have seemed a horrifying probability to him which he avoided like leprosy. . * Thought and Action Are One IFE as a whole, and the unity of thought and action, theory and practice, is one of the cornerstones of the Marxian philosophy. Tt was best exemplified in Lenin, assuredly a great ecOnomic sci- entist, perhaps the greatest in our time. Lenin knew as much as Veblen and all the professors, but he wanted not only to understand the world, but to change it. * . Immersed in life, in the dynamism of the revolution, close to the every-day need of the masses, his style is crystal-clear, and beats with an irresistible power and passion. He is not afraid of being understood by the masses; on the con- trary, he writes to them, and for them. He is their teacher. He trusts them, has faith in their creative force. Always in Lenin's mind, from the days of the first debates on proletarian art in Russia, while the cannons of the civil war were still booming, Lenin insisted that culture must be taken away from the small minority of capitalist intellectuals, who had held a monopoly on it hitherto, and socialized among the masses. Today, in the Soviet Union, the meetings of the scientific academies are great mass-affairs, and millions of workers and peasarits share in the building of a new culture. Veblen Rather Than Lenin OME of the writers in the New Masses are academic followers of Veblen rather than revolutionary disciples of Lenin. Their cautious, ingrown, technical style, adapted to the exchange of ideas that goes on in capitalist colleges, betrays the old fear of the masses, This is what I was criticizing. It is a basic fault in much of our written propaganda. Many of our pamphlets are addressed, not to the workers, but to specialists in economics and politics. They are Ph. D. theses with a Communist content. We need research, we need theory, but we need, most of all, to go to the masses. Whoever has not learned this difficult art at the pres- ent hour is not helping Communism in America, * * * No Marxist Criticism in America? ‘HERE was a letter in this column’ recently which illustrated this academicism among writers, for example. Tt was by a young author named Hoffman, praising the “Partisan Review,” a literary magazine published every two months by the John Reed Club of New York. It has only gotten out two issues, and is not a bad magazine, but is as promising as some of the other regional John Reed Club journals. But this eulogist felt it necessary to insist that there had been no real Marxist criticism in America until this particular little magazine appeared. “Marxist criticism in the past was judged by its temperature, and not by its science,” he charges in effect. “It was often hysterical.” This is, of course, an ignorant slander. Joseph Freeman is now writing a book tracing the growth of Marxist Iitetary criticism in this country since 1914. It will describe the cultural struggle that finally made possible such magazines as the Partisan Review in 1934. And it will show, T hope, that “temperature,” which our haughty _young academic sniffs at, is the Leninist dynamism without which the writing of any “Marxist” is only another sterile and ingrown exercise ef an intellectual dangerously remote from the masses. “Korn Fleks’”? New Delicacy in U.S,.S.R.— From a Moscow Diary Ry WALT CARMON | MOS8COW.—Because | the Literary Gazette in a recent is- sue editorializes against “puritan- | ism” . . . soon, this paper comments, | Gorky and Shakespeare are going to be fine-combed . . . Dos Passos’ | play “Fortune Heights” is being) produced at the famous Kammerny | Theatre, directed by Tairov . . . also at the Trade Union Theatre. . . .| Sergei Tretyakov (Rear China) is a cultural jack-of-all-trades; he works in photography, movies, grapho- | phone records, newspapers, all af- fairs “on the border of art.” . Many literary evenings these days, Gladkoy (Cement), Panferov (Brus- ski), a contest for the best reading of Mayakovski . . . At a literary evening for L. Kassil (Shvambrania, Conduit), leading writers assembled, acclaiming him as best writer of stories about children .. . He said/ he wished they didn’t ... An ex-| hibit by Kravehenko, noted wood- | cut artist, is attracting a great deal) of attention .. . Goebels advises} German movie directors to take) Eisenstein as @ model, and Fisen- | stein, in an open letter to Goebels| in the Literary Gazette, tells him) the Nazis. haven't the guts to, tell the truth ... A Million Postmen, new play at the world-famous Chil- | dren's Theatre . . . The repercus- sions of a long literary discussion for “purity of language” are still be- ing heard: on the appearance of the third volume of Panferov's Brusski, Serafimovich (Iron Stream), one of the oldest Soviet writers, eulogized Panferov for his choice of language, style; Gorky took issue with that, wants “classical” style, simplicity, and Novikov-Priboy (Tsusima, Flight) and a dozen other writers on in the press . . . The Village out theatrical groups on kolkhozes, has appeared .. . Irwin Piscator, noted German director, has com- pleted the film version of Anna Seghers’ Revolt of the Fishermen (published in the States—remem- ber?) in Moscow .. . While 35 Ger- conference united “against Fas- cism” . . . Albert Abramovitz, artist of the New York John Reed Club, opened an exhibit of wood-cuts, drawings and water colors at the Museum of Western Art... The most discussed event in the foreign colony is the first appearance of what are called “Korn Fleks” (Corn and turned out of a Soviet factory. Soviet kids went crazy about them, but it’s spinach to most grown-ups ... they want their corn straight. Schools o (This column appears every Tuesday) School Opens in Newport, Il. WORKERS SCHOOL opened Jast week in Newport, TIL, “in the heart of the black belt,” their letter informs us. Undaunted by the approach of warm weather, they have scheduled their first term to go through the summer months to July 30. Four classes are held Mondays and Fridays at 7:30 and at 8:30 in Political Economy, Colo- nial and Negro Problems, History of the Labor Movement, and English. The address is 2nd and Washington Sts. in the Unemployed Council Hall. Chia pier) 14 Courses in Sacramento School The Sacramento Workers School, which announced that it would open not later than the middie of May, opened on schedule last week on May 14, and the term will con- tinue until Aug. 15. Fourteen courses are offered in Principles of Communism, Marxian Economics, Trade Union Strategy and Tactics, Workers Correspondence and Jour- nalism, Radio, a general course in short and long wave radio, and others. The Advisory Council in- cludes Lincoln Steffens, James Branch, Leo Gallagher, Sam Darcy, Anita Whitney, Beatrice Kinkead, Dr. M. H. Crawford, Esther Good- man, and George Morris, The school has its own building at 1529 Eighth St. To cope with the problem of de- velopment and of their teachers, the Chicago Workers School is calling a meeting of all its instructors this week to organ- ize a seminar to be conducted through the summer months. One of the important questions to be oe ™p in this rein will be: a the pedagogical leary of presenting the sub- ject? Cees Senge) Chicago Conference To Take Place June 24 Preparations for the conference to expand the Chicago Workers School are going ahead full blast. Mass organizations are urged to elect delegates to this conference, which will take place on June 24. pedir shoves ete oaei Peston ean New Pamphlet Gives, Important War Facts SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—The California State League ts War and Fascism has just publ a mimeographed pamphlet present- ing statistics and facts on the war danger. This pamphlet, available to all, contains vital material on the costs and profits of the last war, the scientific and military prepara- tions, and the legislative and in- dustrial preparedness now existing for an imperialist conflict. The dis- armament conferences, the Roose- velt program, fascist activity in the U.S.A. and Soviet Union’s peace policies are briefly but pithily sur- veyed. This pamphlet may be obtained by sending 15 cents to the California State League Against War and Fas- cism, 741 Valencia St. San Pran- cisco, California. joined in the discussion still going! Theatre, a new magazine to help| man_ writers concluded a successful | Flakes to you), better than Kelloge’s| “There ts no such thing as an | independent press, mmiless it is in the country towns.”—John Swin- ton, |@OME experiences which to some extent aecount for the uniform, dry and ultra-reactionary character of the average small-town newspa- per, were told to me recently by a one-time editor of a weekly in Dobbs Ferry, N. Y. Besides filling twelve pages or so a week with half-way fresh news, the small-town editor is expected to sell advertising space and solicit job- printing in his spare moments and on some occasions mail the paper to subscribers when it comes off the | press. His job is made doubly hard | in most cases by the circulation in | his village of a daily, from some nearby city, which covers the whole county. If he tries to inject an honest touch in his reportorial and editorial policy, he meets with active objec- tion from the manager or owner of the paper. It is for this very reason that the strengthening of the revolutionary press is of vital importance. There are thousands of small newspapers, prototypes of the one here described, printed all over this country in in- dustrial and agricultural centers. They are practically subsidies of the controlling political party which represents the ruling class and it is quite “natural” that anything that mght open the eyes of the workers would be taboo in their pages. The sad part of it is, the average reader takes for granted what he reads in | the newspaper. It was a surprise to Grant, the editor of the Hobbs Ferry weekly, that a week or so after moving to town he was criticized for living over an Italian grocery store. The owner of the paper suggested that Grant get in touch with the man who had the local monopoly on real estate. He did so and soon moved to another apartment. It was in “Can't Wiseerack on Scottsboro Case,” Says Groucho Marx An interview by Emanuel Eisenberg with the famous comedian, who has recently re- turned from a trip to the Se- viet Union, will appear on this Watch for it! page tomorrow. What's Doing in the Workers f the U.S. Cleveland has just completed a three weeks’ full-time training school, and succeeded in coming out $75 ahead. They have made arrangements to carry through a two-weeks’ full-time training school for Southern Ohio. The comrades in Ohio have set themselves the control tasks of establishing by Sept. 1 a Workers school in Youngstown and In Cin- cinnati. wre Boston South End School Growing The South End Branch of the Boston Workers School, which has grown from 20 students to 45, is ar- ranging an affair to build a fund for next year and continue this good work in the Negro section of Boston. The Malden Branch has just, com- pleted its term, and the Quincy Branch is also doing well. eon @ Suggestion on Teaching Method The director of the Brownsville Workers School sends a letter on the question of concretization of teaching in the Workers Schools. He says in part: “Let us take the point of concentration of capital and production under imperialism. . .. If we approach the problem from the local industries and then Jead up to Morgan, the worker- student will find a real meaning in monopoly capital. We should start with the Brooklyn Union Gas Co., Brooklyn Edison Co., the Brooklyn- Manhattan Transit Co., the Inter- borough Rapid Transit Co. the Borden Milk Co., etc. All of the students in the Brownsville Workers School are consumers of electricity, gas, milk and subway transporta- tion. . . . The Brooklyn Edison Co. is an excellent local illustration and starting point for a study of con- centration of capital and produc- tion. Percy A. Rockefeller is a di- rector of the Brooklyn Edison Co., which is an affiliate of the Consoli- dated Gas Co. of New York. Con- solidated in turn, has amonz. its directors, Percy A. Rockefeller, George Whitney, Charles E. Mitch- ell, George F. Baker. Consolidated is tied up with National City Bank and J. P. Morgan. When this ap- proach is made, the conclusion is that the Brooklyn Edison Co., which the worker-student uses every day, is owned by Morgan, who ‘collects tribute every time the worker turns on the electric light.” . Y. J. Jerome will conclude his eritieal analysis of the Pregram of the American Workers Party at the next general conference of the instructors of the Workers School in New York, Saturday, May 26, at 2:30 p.m. Drive By N. Y. Workers’ School The $1,000 drive which the New York Workers School is conducting to build a fund for the fall term and for its Harlem Branch shows $234.04 collected in the first two weeks. The $1,000 Drive Committee is working enthusiastically and ex- pects to go over the top. A set of Lenin’s Works is offered as the first prize in this drive. All former stu- dents and friends of the Workers School, as well as present students. are urged to help the school in this drive by procuring collection lists or by making donations themselves. Small-Town Editor | | By JOHN WASHBURN much worse condition than that of | the Italian groceryman, but it was in a “respectable” building. The population of the village was largely Italian, but little news of their social and other activities was allowed to get into the paper. Writing a feature story on a small arsenal of ancient weapons in the American Legion hall, Grant referred to the guns as “relics of | man’s ingenuity at slaughtering his fellow-man,” and was called down! by several of the legionnaires. | Backing up the village Board of | Aldermen on the question of fire-| works on the Fourth of July, Grant | wrote an editorial objecting to them | on the grounds that they promoted | war games in children. The owner of the paper, however, didn’t like that angle and the editorial wasn't printed. Grant was criticized severely by| the Mayor and other officers of the | village administration, as well as the paper’s owner, for printing a/ story on the unemployment situa- | tion in the village. | He reported the meeting of the board as it took place, quoting the Mayor as saying that there was a} tough winter ahead and little hope for any relief for the unemployed. The Mayor told of his futile at- tempts at obtaining work relief projects from the government and very disheartening, but he objected to seeing this in print. The reporter for the nearby city daily, present at the meeting, had “sense” enough not to use the story. The coming of the N.R.A., with its false promises and reams of pub- licity, easily localized, from Wash- ington made Grant’s tasks a little lighter. It helped to fill the paper and thousands of others like it. Grant recognized the fascist color of the Blue Eagle but knew that it was useless to try to influence the owner of the paper, who immedi- ately saw advertising possibilities. He straightaway set Grant to work drawing up a full page layout to sell to the merchants who signed the code. Grant's paper along with thou- sands of others printed columns of ballyhoo about Mr. Roosevelt’s wonderful plan to rebuild industry and bring back prosperity for the ruling class at the expense of the workers. Grant was fired without notice or pay advance for “refusing to co- operate” and sell a lot of advertis- ing, although as he pointed out to his boss he had been hired as a reporter, In an issue gotten out by his suc- cessor, which Grant brought away with him, the president of the local Chamber of Commerce advocated that work and home relief be given only to those who signed the N.R.A. consumer’s pledge. This issue also contained the sensational bit of front page news that the only mer- chant who remained outside the folds of the Blue Hagle’s wings was a Chinese laundryman. The laundry- man, Grant learned, thought the honor of displaying the blue buz- zard was going to cost him five dollars. TUNING IN 7:00 P. M.-WEAF—Baseball Resume WOR—Sports Resume—Ford Prick WJZ—Amos 'n’ Andy—BSketch WABC—Morton Downey, Tenor WOR—AI and Lee Reiser, Piano 1:15-WEAF—Gene and Glenn—Sketch WJZ—News from the South—Mayor J. F. Bright, Richmond, Va.; W. B. Harrison, Former Mayor, Louts- ville, Ky. WABC—Just Plain Bill—Sketch 7:30-WEAF—Eddie and Ralph, Comedians WOR—Footlight Echoes WABO—Serenaders Orchestra 1,45-WEAF—-The Goldbergs—Sketch WdZ—Grace Hayes, Songs WABC—Boake Carter, Commentator 8:00-WEAF—Reisman Orchestra WOR—Grofe Orch.; Frank Parker, Tenor; Betty Barthel, Contralto Segal, Songs 9:00-WEAF—Ben Bernie Orchestra WOR—Backstage Musicale WJZ—Alice Mock, Soprano: Edgar Guest, Poet: Concert Orchestra WABO—Maury Paul, Commentator 9:30-WEAF—Ed Wynn, Comedian WOR—Success-—Harry Balkin WJZ—Duchin Orchestra WABC—Minneapolis Symphony 10:000-WEAF—Operetta, Chocolate Goldier WOR—Eddy Brown, Violin WJZ—Gale Page, Songs; Ray Per- kins, Humor; Lee Sims, Piano; Tlo- may Bailey, Songs WABC—Gray Orchestra; Stoopnagle and Budd, Comedians; Connie Bos- well, Songs 10:15-WOR-—Current Events—H, B. Read 10:30-WOR—Johnston Orchestra. WJZ—What Business Is Thinking— Henry I. Harriman, President U. 8. Chamber of Commerce at A.A A.A. Convention, Washington, D.C. ‘WABC—Conflict-——Sketch 10:45-WABC—Harlem Serenade county and said that things looked | A Reporter Questions Ruby Bates—But He Can Find No “Story” By MARY C. SPEED THE newspaper reporter rose to go. | He was disappointed. He had come to interview five of the Scotts- boro Mothers and Ruby Bates and hoped to get a good story, but| nothing startling had come out. He} asked a few questions of the| mothers about when they had seen their boys last and hew many chil- dren they had and so on—there was | | nothing for a stary. | Then he turned to Ruby Bates. What was she doing now? } Mostly speaking. She hopes to| get a job after the 13th when she| returns from Washington where she | is going with the Scottsboro Mothers to put their plea hefore President Roosevelt on “Mothers Day.” | What was that book she had} with her? “Cement,” by Gladkav. | What had she read before that? “Chinese Destinies.” Where is she living? In a room of her own. Then an amazing question: “Who is supporting you now?” Ruby answers with a quiet dig- nity, gently, almost as if she didn't want to rebuke the reporter for his | impertinence. | “T think that is my own private business, that's not of public in- terest.” The reporter had not got his| story, so he rose to go, disappointed. | But before he reached the door Mrs. |Montgomery, the mother of Olin, said: “Is that all? I thought we! were all going to be asked ques- tions and could say what's on our minds.” | The reporter stopped at the door. Allan Taub said: ‘What's on your mind? Do you want to say some- want to say this: We ain't justice. How long we going to let this crazy way of doing things go on?” “There’s so many light-yellow people in Georg’a now, when I gets into a street car I don't know if can sit down next to them or not! And how did they get that way? You know they ain't white women’s children! But what do they do to justice is we getting? Not any! I know my boy did not commit that crime, all the world knows it! Then what they keeping him in jail for? we understand what it’s all about, we Negroes ain't going to stand this kind of treatment much longer, then the white bosses better look out! If they don’t like to hear me) talk like this I reckon they'll shoot me, but I don’t care, we mean it; | we have stood this kind of justice | long enough!” Then the reporter left. Some day he'll wake up to a big story! New Pamphlets And Periodicals REPORT TO THE EIGHTH CONVENTION,—By Earl Brow- der. 128 pages. 19 cents. THE REVOLUTIONARY CRISIS IS MATURING, — By D. RB. Manuilsky. Speech at the Seventeenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 48 pages. 10 cents. COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL, Vol II, No. 5, March 5, 1934, 36 pages, 10 cents. MINERS UNITE! For One Class Struggle Union, by B. Frank, 48 es, 3 cents. “In FLANDERS FIELD WHERE POPPIES GROW.”—The Truth About Decoration Day, hy Mac Weis, 16 pages, 2 cents. The first four are published by Workers Library Publishers, P. O. Box 148, Station D, New York City, and the last: is published by Youth Publishers, P. O, Box 28, Station D, New York City. WJZ—The Overhead Kill—Sketch ‘4 9 WABO- ‘Troopers Orchestra WHAT'S ON 8:15-WABC—Voice of Experience 8:30-WEAF——Wayne King Orchestr WOR-Minevitch Harmonica Band WJZ—Conrad Thibault, Baritone; Tuesday Lois Bennett, Soprano DISCUSSION on “What Is the Meaning ‘WABC—Lyman Orchestra; Vivienne | Behind Dillinger and the Recent Crime Wave?” at membership meeting of Mt. Eden Youth Br. F. 8. U., 1401 Jerome Ave. cor. 170th St., Bronx. 8:30 p.m. Dancing to follow Admission free. RABBI BENJAMIN GOLDSTEIN will lec- ture on “Is Hitler and Fascism Doomed?’ at the Empire Hotel, 68rd St. and Broad- way, 8 p.m. Auspices, Relmoh Glub. Dancing and refreshments. Wednesday JOHN REED CLUB SCHOOL OF ART. Symposium on the “eLfward Trend in Contemporary Art.” Lewis Mumford, Louis Lozowick, Phil Bard. Hugo Gellert, chair- man, at John Reed Club, 430 Sixth Ave., 8:30 p. m. Subscription 35c THE HISTORY OF POLITIOAL Prisoners in the U.S. Speaker, Nat Bruce at Sacco- Vanzetti Br. I. L. D., 792 E. Tremont Aye. Acmission free. Milwaukee, Wise. SENDER GARLIN, on tour for the New Masses, will lecture at the John Reed Club, 312 West State St.. on “Do You Believe ‘Thursday, May 24th. ‘What You Read.” On Teaching Methods By A. MARKOFF ‘THE method of presentation of the subject to the students is a very important problem in teaching at the Workers School. There may be several opinions on this question, but the method we propose is the result of actual experience of teach- ing at the school for a long time. The best results can be obtained if we approach the problem in the following manner: Any new topic must be intro- duced by the instructor in the form of a lecture, interspersed here and is our opinion that this method is not conducive to producing the best results, for if the students read the assigned material without having had any expianation beforehand, they will not be in a position to un- derstand a good deal of the ma- terial, and thus, when they come to the class the next time, they will not be prepared to deal with the questions intelligently. One thing we must particularly guard against in teaching at the Workers School is the tendency to convert the class room into a lec- ture hall. Certain instructors tend there with questions. This should take not more than 50 per cent of the session. The reading material to be assigned to the students is to deal with the problems raised in the introduction. At the following ses- sion a discussion based on the read- ing assignment is to be conducted in the class under the guidance of the nstruetor for about half of the time | of the session. Following this, the next topic is introduced, proceeding n the same manner as above. There are instructors who ap- woach the problem in a different nanner, They assign reading ma- verial to the students but do not in- troduce the subject beforehand. It to talk all the time and monopo- lize the floor. We find that the students get tired of listening to the lecture, become sleepy or drowsy, and thus a good deal of energy and time are wasted. Whether the method proposed above by us coincides with the ped- agogic principles and regulations does not matter, The fact is that from experience we know that this method works well. We should also bear in mind that our students are workers and have very little time at their disposal and therefore we must guard against oe ing too much reading mate- |report. There was absol they are white or black and if I! white men’ for that? What sort of | It ain’t justice, it’s crazy! And now | Browder’s Report to Eighth Convention of The Communi: EARL BROWDER: Reports to the Eizhth Convention of the Com munist Party. 128 pages. Price 10 cents. Reviewed by M. J. OLGIN 'T WAS my good fortune to listen to Comrade Browder’s speech when it was delivered at the Cleve- land Convention. With intense i terest 500 delegates listened to the ite silence in the hall. Three hours passed Nobody budged. There was a spell over the audience as one chapter of the report after the other was unfolded by Comrade Browder. I have read his speech as 1 lished now in pamphlet form | reading makes even a stronger im- pression. Comrade Browder is most read- abie. In this respect he follows a good example—that of Comrade Stalin. Whether in such theoreti- cal works as “Foundations of Lenin- ism” or in such political reports as the reports to the 16th and 17th | Congresses of the C. P.. USSR what Comrade Stalin has to tell is couched in the simplest and mpst lucid words, which even the plain- est worker can understand. In like manner, every worker can under- stand the report of Comrade Brow- der. The report is the clearest and most succinct statement of the sit- uation in which the Communists work, and of the aims and activi- ties of the Communist Party. The Communist Party must not be hid- den away from the masses. The Communist Party has no interests different from the interests of the working class. The Communist Party must make it clear to every worker that it is fighting the bat- tles of the exploited and the op- pressed. The Communists mv therefore, keep their organization and their activities open before the broad working masses. This is ex- actly what Comrade Browder'’s re- working masses the organization, the activities, the plans, the tasks and the strivings of the Commu- nist Party. This is what we are. This is how we think. This is where we lead. These are our achieve- ments. This is how our organiza- tion is built. This is how we should build in the future. Every worker who reads this report will have a clear idea about the Communist Party. AT THE same time this is a re- port that leads, a report that shows the Communist functionaries and the Communist rank and file what we have achieved and what we have to strive for. It is, in the first. place. a report of four years’ activities after the Seventh Con- vention; secondly, and mainly, it is a report of the nine months’ activi- ties after the Extraordinary Confer- ence last July. It records what has been accomplished and what must be accomplished with the aid of the Convention. But Comrade Browder speaks not only to the Communists, but also to the broad- est masses of the American work- ers. This mass character of the re- port, springs from the fact that. while addressing himself to the leaders and functionaries of the Party, he does so in such clear and convincing terms that it is no more a report to the Party leaders, but also a discussion of problems with everyone interested in the labor movement, The report combines the general with the concrete. Comrade Brow- der speaks about the general situ- ation of capitalism, about the gen- eral crisis of capitalist economy. He draws a parallel between the capi- talist world and the Soviet Union; he speaks about the war danger and fascism, and about the inevitability and necessity of the socialist revo- lution. All these are broad, breath- taking perspectives. These broad perspectives and all-embracing problems. however, are linked up with such concrete and everyday AMUSE port does, It opens wide before the | t Party he num in the ign nerease member number of members in one or another factory, t inions it ke strug: the the role of the va one or another 2 gle. The universal obtains here an extraordinary significance as illue minatin he indie vidua nificance body in Com- le Browder how to combine the er the concrete We are blamed by the bosses and their social-fascist aides for being 1-American.” e Browder's report is the futation of this slander. It speaks of American problems in terms of American reality. It ape plies Marxist-Leninist principles to American life in a manner which shows that Marxism-Leninism is ot something imported, not some thing artificially dragged in, but something that springs from the very soil of the American economis and political life. DPVERY worker, every toiler has been robbed by the m and by the present will find in Com- trade Browder’s report an answer to the question as to what he or she has to do to get out of the mire of hunger, starvetion, _joblessness, hopelessness, despair. Be it a work- er or a farmer, an intellectual or a petty bourgeois, a highly developed radically-minded worker, or a rank and fil all of them will find in the document an answer to the problems of their lives The very fact that a document of this kind could he produced in our Party, is an indication of the growth of our Party, of the fact every- .| that our Party has entered a new stage. The Party is becoming rooted in the factories, plants and mines, The Party is leading large masses. The Party is becoming more inti- mately linked with the basic masses of the American workers The report should be recom | mended to every worker, farmer and oppressed intellectual in this coun- try, both Negro and white. Com- |rade Browder particularly stressed |in his report the necessity for the | workers to arm themselves with |Marxist-Leninist knowledge. Read- ling this report, studying it cares fully, is itself a school of Marxist- | Leninist education. | Stage and Screen | Gilbert & Sullivan Group in Festival Week At Majestic “The Mikado,” now playing at the | Majestic Theatre, is the last of the | Gilbert and Sullivan revivals to be \given here this season. The series - | will close this Saturday night. On Monday the company opens a four weeks’ engagement at the Shubert Theatre in Boston with “The Mikado.” “Oaviar,” a musical comedy, is an- |nounced to open at the Forrest Theatre next Monday evening with Nanette Guilford, George Huston, | Hugh Cameron and Dudley Clement |heading the cast. The book is by Leo Randole, lyrics by Edward Hey- man and score by Harden Church; | Ann Pennington and Lew Hearn |have been engaged for leading roles in the forthcoming revival of “The” |Black Crook,” which opens at the People’s Theatre next month. Cleori Throckmorton, Tony Sarg and Harry Wagstaff Gribble are the ~ | sponsors of the new production | Katherine Cornell is planning to’- | produce four plays here next season, leach for a limited engagement. The |plays include “Romeo and Juliet”; “Rosmorsholm.” Ibsen, “Candida” and “The Barretts of Wimpole Street.” Guthrie McClintic will stage the productions and Basil | Rathbone will play the male leading roles. MENTS | New York's O Communists! See mem. MAY DAY ACME THEATRE nly Showing!—For 1 Week Only! CLARENCE HATHAWAY ANSWERS CORNELIUS VANDERBILT, JR. AND OTHERS in ‘Hitler’s Reign of Terror’ Hitler's persecution of workers! The Burning in Berlin of the world’s hest books! The Fearless Fight of the Daily Worker Against Nazi Propaganda in U. S. A. ‘ Socialist, Communist, Liberals; Unite to Fight Fascism! Mth STREET and INION SQUARE Socialists! Jews! Liberals! IN NEW YORK CELEBRATION Start Today \—— THE THEATRE UNION Present ‘The Season's Outstanding Dramatic Hit) stevedore CIVIC REPERTORY THEA. 195 W1t5t,| Eves. 8:45. Mats. Tues. & Sat. 2:45 ‘BMe-490-6Ne-75e-$1.00 & $1.50. No Tax | ROBERTA A New Musical Comedy by JEROME KERN & OTTO HARBACK NEW AMSTERDAM, W, 42d St. Evgs, Matinees Wednesday and Saturday 2. WALTER HUSTON in Sinclair Lewis’ DODSWORTH Dramatized by SIDNEY HOWARD SHUBERT, W. (ith St. Evs, 8:49 Sharp Matinees Wednesday and Saturday 2:30 In sending ir new subs to the “Daily” please write the name and address of the new sub- acriber clearly, THE THEATRE GUILD presents—j- JIG SAW A come@y by DAWN POWELL with ERNEST TRUEX—SPRING BYINGTON ETHEL BARRYMORE Theatre, 47th Street, W. of 40. Mat. Thur. and EKUGENE O’NEILL’s Comedy AH, WILDERNESS! with GEORGE M. COHAN GUILD eat 52d St. W. of BY J ¥. s. Thur. &Sat. MAXWELL ANDERSON’S New Play “MARY OF SCOTLAND” with HELEN PHILIP HELEN HAYES MERIVALE MENKEN ALVIN Thea., 52d St., W. of B'way AL NV EN ky.8:30 Mat. Pues,,Thor.,Sat, Sahisk FINAL WEEK o> GILBERT & SULLIVA. “THE MIKADO” » MAJESTIO THEA, W. 44th Bt, Se Na 50e to $2.00. Mats. Wed & Sat. 50c vesteet Te