The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 20, 1934, Page 7

——THE-— | WORLD! By SENDER GARLIN COUPLE of years ago I spoke at a meeting of farmers in a town out in North Dakota. The meeting was ar- “ranged jointly by the United Farmers League and the In- ternational Labor Defense. “The Soviet Five-Year Plan” was the subject of the talk, and the meeting place was the American Legion Hall Of course we had to pay $12 for the use of the hall, but the im- portant point is that the hall was available to us only because there were a.number of members of the Legion who were also active in the United Farmers League, the militant organization of the farmers. ‘A couple of days earlier a meeting was arranged in the Williams County court-house in Williston, N. D. The lecturer spoke from the judge's bench, and so many farmers showed up to hear about the collectiviza- tion program in the Soviet Union that even the jury box was filled up. ‘That was one court-room where a fellow could feel perfectly at home. Previously that American Legion button on a man’s lapel had seemed to me a sinister thing; but after that meeting in North Dakota it was clear that one must differentiate between rank-and-file Legionnaires and the officers which dominate the organization. . . . * How It All Started IPHESE reflections occur to me because of a controversy which has developed as a result of a reference which I made to the American Legion in an article on the recent truckmen’s strike in Minneapolis, This article contained the following paragraph: “After the ‘Battle of Bull's Run, Chief of Police Johannes asked Dr. E. T. Boquist, commander of the Fifth District of the American Legion posts, to enlist 1,500 men as special deputies. This was after a batch of uniformed cops and deputies had been sent sailing to the Minneapolis General Hospital, so it wasn’t a bit surprising to hear that after a short delay Boquist informed the police chief that the Legionnaires couldn’t serve as deputies because it was ‘against the Con- stitution of the American Legion.’” This promptly brought a letter of protest from Carl Carlson, a member of the American Legion, who felt that I had slandered the vet- erans by implying that fear of drubbing by the strikers was the chief Motive behind the “refusal” of the Legion to act as deputies in the Minneapolis strike. In commenting upon this protest I wrote that “there is no doubt that sympathy for the striking truckmen among many rank and file members of the American Legion was one of the factors in the decision not to act as deputies. This should, perhaps, have been more strongly noted in the article. . .. I insist that the spectacle of an army of hired deputies getting a vigorous shellacking from the strikers had a most salutary effect on many of the legionnaires—particularly the brave ex-officers.” = CHANGE Leaders and Rank and File , this by no means “closed the incident,” for P. V. Cacchione, chairman of the City Committee of the Workers’ Ex-Servicemen’s League, sent in the following sizzling letter: “Dear Comrade: “I desire to make a criticism»at this time in regard to your article in the Daily Worker on the strike of the Minneapolis truck drivers. You stated that the rank and file of the American Legion refused to come out against the strikers because they were afraid of being clubbed, or words to that effect. ‘The truth about the matter was that the Dis- trict Council of the American Legion stated that they could not depu- tize their members because it was against their constitution. “A member of the American Legion wrote a letter to the Daily Worker taking exception to your statement. You answered in the Daily Worker last Saturday and persisted in substantiating your original statement. Surely, this is an attack against the rank and file. Should we attack the rank and file of the Socialist Party because they will not participate in demonstrations with us? Should we call them social- fascists because their leaders pave the way for fascism? Should we say fo all sincere elements that are against fascism that do not par- ticipate in demonstrations with us that it is because they are afraid of police clubs? This is practically the insinuation that is cast at the rank and file of the American Legion. “What is the truth of the matter? Twenty thousand truck drivers were on strike. Twelve per cent of the male inhabitants of the United States served in the military forces. This is computed on the basis of 65 million male inhabitants in the nation. Let us give you the benefit of the doubt and cut this percentage in half, and say 6 per cent of the strikers were veterans. That would make approximately 1,200 avet- erans that participated in the strike. I hope that the Daily Worker Editorial Staff now realizes why the leaders of the American Legion stated that they could not deputize their membership. Undoubtedly, many of these veterans were members of the American Legion. “This statement that you made is an attack against all sincere and honest veterans in America. We hope to see a rectification of this mis-statement in the near future.” P. V. CACCHIONE. Cacchione’s position is supported by Comrade Earl Browder, Sec- retary of the Communist Party of the U.S.A., who declares that “the criticism of Comrade Cacchione against the article is absolutely correct. Tt was an error of the Daily Worker not at once to have corrected this mistake. By lumping together the rank and file of such organizations as the American Legion with the reactionary fascist leaders, one plays Into the hands of the reactionary fascists and social-fascist leaders.” * * * . The Source of the Error r ADMITTING that I failed to differentiate sufficiently between the officer-leadership of the American Legion and its rank and file, I don’t agree with Comrade Cacchione’s restatement of what I said, for example, his categorical assertion that T “stated that the rank and file of the American Legion refused to come out against the strikers he- cause they were afraid of being clubbed, or words to that effect.” Nowhere did I make this statement! Just what was the source of my error? Firstly, I failed to draw the class lines in the American Legion—between the officers and the rank and file members. Secondly, I did not emphasize that while in this particular situation in Minneapolis the official leadership of the Legion refrained from attempting to mobilize the Legion—the element of fear of attack by strikers was not the chief motive. The fact is that where the class position of the bourgecisie is jeopardized, the members of the ruling class will put up the most vigorous fight in the streets against the working class. The best evidence of this is found in the way in which business men of the type of Lyman—who was killed in a clash between striking truckmen and deputies—rushed to enroll as deputies in Min- neapolis. Thirdly, I did not point out that the rank and file of the veterans, while resisting mobilization at the call of their officers, will fight with the utmost determination as part of the working class, It is a matter of record that members of the Legion have on a num- ber of occasions given splendid examples of solidarity with strikers in various parts of the country. One recalls, for example, the action of rank-and-file veterans in guarding an organizer for the Young Communist League in Bicknell, Ind., during a mine strike several years ago. More recently, members of the American Legion dropped their clubs and refused to attack workers in an International Youth Day demonstration in Youngstown, Ohio. Moreover, during the recent Veterans National Rank and File Convention, held in Washington, there were in attendance as regular delegates nearly 100 members in good standing in the American Legion. These, I understand, sup- ported the three-point program of the Workers’ Ex-Servicemen’s League and the telegram of protest sent to Toledo against the use of the National Guard in the Electric Auto-Lite strike. & . . . . _ When the Showdown Comes | LEARLY, the task now is to translate this sporadic and unorganized protest of the rank and file into united action with the membership as a whole for the purpose of preventing their officer-leaders from using them as catspaws against the workers. When the time comes _there will no doubt be a real showdown: the leaders of the Legion who were the officers during the imperialist war will take their place with the counter-revolutionary forces. Meanwhile it is our job to separate as many of the rank and file members of the Legion from thé perni- cious influence of their officer-leaders. And this jcb belongs not alone to the Workers Ex-Servicemen’s League, the militant organization of “the veterans, but to all who are fighting against war and fascism, The World of | the Theatre New Theatre NEW THEATRE, Official Organ of | the League of Workers Theatres and National Film and Photo League, June 1934. 19 cents, eta Reviewed by IRVING GORDON Increased in number of pages and improved both in format and con- tents, the current issue of New Theatre marks a distinct advance over previous releases of this maga- zine. Although New Theatre is the offi- cial organ of the League of Work- ers Theatres and the Film and Photo League, it is in no sense of the word simply an organizational journal. Its contents include varied articles on the drama, film and the dance. Recent events in these fields are reviewed and pertinent items of news are reported. In addition to discussions of the organizational, ideological and artistic problems of workers’ theatres, the professional theatre is considered in relation to our rapidly changing society. Outstanding among the contribu- tors to the June issue is John How- ard Lawson. His article “Toward a Revolutionary Theatre,” is interest- ing largely because it was written by Lawson. There is little that is new or startling in what he writes, but it is encouraging to see that Lawson, after years of indecision on the question of his place in the class struggle, has subtitled his article: “The Artist Must Take Sides.” Whether it was Michael Gold’s ana- lytical criticisms in the “New Masses,” or whether it was his re- cent direct contact with the class struggle in Alabama that has made Lawson face reality, the fact is that in this article he does take sides— he sides with the workers, The most impressive feature of the issue is Michael Blankfort’s “Sketches Toward an Aesthetic for the Revolutionary Theatre.” This is apparently the beginning of a much longer essay that is to appear seri- ally in the magazine. Under these circumstances, without knowing what is to follow, it is difficult to criticize the article intelligently. None the less, on reading it, one has the feeling that it is all much ado about nothing. This feeling arises from the irritating consistency with which Blankfort refuses to pursue his ideas to their conclusions and to clinch his points. In his introduction, Blankfort states that the revolutionary the- atre presents problems that are very different from those of a bourgeois theatre. He feels that these new problems must be investigated, and that the key to this investigation lies in the audience, He proceeds then to define audi- ence and to distinguish it from “Mob.” After having proved to his satisfaction that audience and mob are different things, his next point is that the audience can be under- stood only by understanding the in- dividual. John Jonesi is the’ indi- vidual he chooses for study. George Jean Nathan is quoted to the effect that John Jones goes to the theatre to see himself other than he is. Blankfort questions this idea of Nathan's, He does not refute it, however, and proceeds with this “wish to see himself other than he is" as the basis for the third sec- tion of his article. The Wish. The Wish would appear to be an adaptation of the Freud-Jung-Ad- Jerian libido, with the frustration Particularized as an economic frus- tration. And from this, Blankfort concludes, we get a new approach to the problem of revolutionary theatre. But, unfortunately, this intellec- ,tualizing about the wish doesn’t Provide any particularly valuable approach to problems of the revolu- tionary theatre. The revolutionary theatre has very real and yery pressing problems. Chief among these is the replacing of the indivi- dual ideal of the bourgeois theatre With the collective ideal. How shall we write and how shall we produce plays in which mass is hero? What shall be our forms of expression? What shall be our methods of work? These are our problems, not what means shall we devise to tickle audiences, In his article, Blankfort says that refusing to consider the audience makes for Art for Art's Sake theatre. But there is an op- Posite extreme—pandering to audi- ences—that makes for Hollywood theatre, Paul Romaine’s open letter to { DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 260, 1934 5 (Continued from yesterday) IMITROV’S eyes flashed, he raised his voice: “It is necessary to show clearly that Fhaelmann is the clearest and best head of the German prole- tariat, and is a great asset for toiling humanity. Say everywhere that it is a question of honor for all men and women who stand for art, science, and culture—real culture. Those who now sit and do not move a finger to rescue Thaelmann share the re- sponsibility for his fate. In our case Hitler and Goe- ring, the fascist hangmen, were forced to retreat. Thaelmann can be rescued only by a gigantic moral and political campaign in the whole world, which will also greatly strengthen the fight of the German proletariat. I am convinced that the feel- ing in Germany itself greatly helped to secure our release. Such a feeling was created that it pene- trated deep into the ranks of the Nazis. Finally, the pressure from outside and from within was so great that the Nazis could no longer detain us. This is still more necessary in the fight for the release of Comrade Thaelmann.” “You have spoken of mental and physical de- struction. How did the Nazis treat. you in prison?” “The instructions from above, from the investi- gating judge, were very strict. They wanted to re- duce us to physical and moral wrecks. It was for this purpose that we were ordered to be put in fet- ters. I was kept in fetters day and night for five months, from April 3 to August 31. The fetters con- sisted of heavy steel arm-bands, which were held close together by two links. On this point the Nazi authorities acted directly contrary to the law. In the orders relating to criminal procedure, para- graph 116, it is expressly stated that hand fetters may be used only if a prisoner has made an at- tempt to escape or commit suicide, or if he is danger- ous to other persons. None of these three cases applied to me. The fettering is something which cannot be described, one must have experienced it in order to realize what it means to be in fetters for months. I would say that an execution is easier to bear than this fettering of the hands.’ “And how did you manage, in spite of this, to hold out and show such strength and courage at the trial?” Dimitrov smiled. “Do you know, a revolutionary, & Bolshevik, must not die. He must in any case live and fight. He who is filled with this idea can stand the most rigorous measures, And one must not only hold out, one must also endeavor to make good use as far as possible of the time spent in prison, | even when in fetters. One never knows whether one may not be released at the twelfth hour. One must prepare oneself for this eventuality in order to go on into the fight not as an invalid, but with increased strength. This is the attitude to which I firmly adhered right from the beginning.” Dimitrov pointed to a pile of exercise books. “See here,” he said, “there are my extracts and notes, made while reading in prison. I worked about ten hours every day, and T have studied especially German history and world history.” “Did you really think yourself that you would be freed?” Thaelmann Must Be Freed!” Dimitrov Says in Interview “The prospect of release was for me a big ques- tion mark. If I can express it in figures, I would say that for a long time the possibility of being re- leased was for me only about one per cent.” “WHOM do you consider to be your chief opponent at the trial?” “The chief opponent was the national socialist government. The Public Prosecutor was only act- ing on their instructions. But my anger was di- rected much less against Dr. Wirner and Dr, Pari- sius, the direct agents of Hitler, Goering, and Goeb- bels than against the so-called defenders, especially Dr. Sack. The Public Prosecutors simply fulfilled their task as ‘faithful’ officials, but Dr. Sack, who Was supposed to be a lawyer and defender, was the direct political agent of the fascist hangmen. He took the most base advantage of the difficult situ- ation of his client, Torgler, and in fact misused tt for his dirty political purposes, to justify the Nazis, the real Reichstag incendiaries, and to discredit Communism. I can say quite openly that while I was in prison I suffered great mental and physical torture on account of the hand fetters and the cunning chicanery, but that was nothing compared with the moral suffering I had to endure owing to the fact that a Communist was defended by such a man as this Dr. Sack. This circumstance rendered it very difficult for me to conduct my political de- fense properly before the Court. And this applies also to the other accused.” “The way in which you defended yourself, how- ever, called forth universal admiration. Many peo- ple were of the opinion that you are ah exceedingly well-educated man.” “It is true I have studied a great deal. Every revolutionary should do that. But it is not suffi- cient to have only theoretical training. It is abso- lutely necessary for our Communist leaders to make a close study of Marxism-Leninism, of the writings of Lenin and Stalin. But theoretical study alone is not sufficient. It is particularly necessary that one should be steeled in the constant fight in the ranks of the masses in legal and illegal activity, in the constant overcoming of difficulties and dangers of the daily struggle, and so acquire a firm, revolu- tionary character and will. The interest of the revolutionary class, the cause of Communism must become part of one's flesh and blood.” “Many journalists who were present at the trial were surprised that you did not think at all of defending and saving your own person.” “There can be not only no contradiction, but also no difference between the cause and the per- son of the revolutionary. I could say, for example, Dr. Teichert shall defend me as a ‘man,’ and as a Communist I shall defend myself. I cannot imagine myself divided into halves; at one time a human being and another time a Communist. Such a thing is impossible. The ‘Leipziger Neueste Nachrich- ten’ once wrote: ‘Dimitrov is the programme of the Communist International become flesh.’ I cannot think of a better description of myself. That should be the aim of every Communist.” Eva LaGallienne, and Leo T. Hur- witz’s review of “No Greater Glory,” are both excellent contributions to the only revolutionary theatre mag- azine in America, which also in- cludes the following articles: “Take Theatre to the Workers,” by Al Saxe; “Lawson Crosses the Class Line,” by Lester Cohen; “From a Director's Notebook,” by Stephen Karnot; “The Stage Was Not Set,” by Anne Howe; “Steve- dore Cast Votes ‘No,’” by Herbert Kline; “Workers Theatre: A Criti- cism,” by Conrad Seiler, and other timely and incisive departmental features and reviews, TUNING IN 7:00 P.M.-WEAF—Baseball Resume tts Resumé—Ford Frick WJZ—Amos ‘n’ Andy—Sketch WABC—Enzo Alte, Songs 7:15-WEAP—Gene and Glenn—Sketch WOR—Al and Lée Reiser, Piano WIZ—Result of Poll on Roosevelt Policies; Sports High Spots WABC—Just Plain Bill—Sketch -WEAF—Lillian Bucknam, Soprano WOR—Tex Fletcher, Songs ‘WiZ—Jewels of Enchantment— Sketch, with Irene Rich Kemper, Songs 1:45-WEAF—The Goldbergs—Sketch WOR—Joseph Mendelsohn, Baritone WJZ—Grace Hayes, Songs WABC—Boake Carter, Commentator 8:00-WEAP—Jack Pesrl, Comedian WOR—Dance Orch. 7:30- WJZ—Life Is Too Short—Sketch WABC—Maxine, Songs; Spitelny En- semble R:15-WABC—Rasy Aces—Sketch -WEAF—Dance Orch. WOR—Lone Ranger—Sketch WJZ—Commodores Quartet WABC—Everett Marshall, Baritone 8:45-WJZ—Baseball Commeént—Babe Ruth 9:00-WEAF—Fred Allen, Comedian WOR—Ttalics—H. Stokes Lett, Jr W3Z—Geldman Band Concert on Mall, Central Park “Are We Civilized?” Makes Lullaby Out of Key Issues “ARE WE CIVILIZED?” produced by Raspin Productions, from a story by Harold Sherman, featur- ing William Farnum, Frank Mc- Glynn, Stuart Holmes, Anita Louise, Leroy Mason, presented at the Rivoli Theatre, ae ers Reviewed by TOM BRANDON 1! an advance publicity story in the New York Mirror, Miss Bland Johaneson, film critic, used up about 500 words and a headline to ballyhoo the coming of the super- social film that dealt with “those who seek to ‘suppress individual liberties.” She pointed out (in ex- change for a nice big ad) how Di- rector Edwin Carewe had confessed to “taking home the story with the usual misgivings.” And that since “the script left him weak and ex- cited at the finish,” he became en- thusiastic and undertook the job. Carewe is the social-minded director who launched the theme-song epi- demic some years ago with the film “Ramona,” (the man that millions of movie-patrons are looking for with murder in their hearts) and who then dropped out of the movies for a while to devote himself to a “new project for garbage disposal in Texas.” “Are We Civilized” is an unusu- ally poorly constructed movie, that will leave you also “weak and ex- cited.” Weak, from the dull and distorted excursions into history; “excited” by the cowardly and ig- norant manner in which Director Carewe, writer Sherman and the Raspin Productions have flirted with an enormously vital subject without ever once facing it directly. Centered around a liberal pub- lisher. whose cables have been sup- pressed by the New Government (German, English, American?), is built up a story of his struggle to achieve free speech and a free press. At a dinner given in his honor by the Chief of the Bureau of Cen- sorship instead of praising the New Government, the publisher (Wil- liam Farnum) exposes the censor- ship of his cables. The government. demands an apology and sends of- ficers in monkey-suits to burn his books. And there in his study, with the monkey-suit men piling up his ‘WABC—Nino Martini, Tenor; Koste- lanetz Orch. 9:30-WOR—The O'Neill’s—Sketch ‘WJZ—What a Haircut—Sketch, with James Dunn, Actor WABC—Looking at Life—Roy Helton 9:45-WOR—Dramatized News WABC—Emery Deutsch, Violin 10:00-WEAF—Hillbilly Music WJZ—Lopez Orch.; Talk—Ed Sulli- van; Male Quartet ‘WABC—Rebroadeast Byrd Expedition 10:15-WOR—Current Events—H. E. Read 10:30-WEAF—Other Americas—Ed. Tomlin- son, Author WOR-—Robison Orch. WJZ—Denny Oreh.; Harry Richman, Songs WABC—Albert Spalding, Violin; Con- rad Thibault, Baritone 11:00-WEAF—Ferdinando Orch. WOR—Weather; Méonbeams Trio WdZ—Pickens Sisters, Songs WABC—Nick Mucas, Songs books, the Chief of Censorship Frank McGlynn, who also plays Lincoln), with his flerce generals wait several hours while Wm. Far- num saves the day by delivering in- stead of an apology, a long dis- course on the history of “civiliza- tion” and how the burning of his books will not destroy civilization. As he talks and pleads to his op- pressors, scenes from old movies are cut in. In rapid succession you see the earth cooling, the First Man (with a full set of teeth right out of a Pepsodent ad), Moses, Buddah, | Confucius, Caesar, Christ, Moha- med, Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Lincoln, Napoleon, ete. At the end, just before the pub- lisher dies, he explains that sup- pression of freedom of speech, burn- ing of books, the barbarism of war are not the fault of a few... “we are all equally to blame.” That de- stroying books is not just destroy- ing books, but destroying something in here (point to heart). And just before he fades out, he instructs his son to tell them, the burners of the books, to tell them the truth. And just then, old hatchet face, the Censor Chief (McGlynn) the man with the meanest map in the movies) nods sadly and says, “Never mind telling us, I have seen, I know now. be E is interesting to see how in this film, like in the many topical films of recent times, a real sub- ject is taken in hand but never really tackled. Excepting for several effective statements that announce the futility of war, the “war that we fought because we were told it would save democracy,” this al- legedly “independent” company has skirted around the really vital theme of suppression of the press and the burning of the books, and wound up with a peaceful recogni- tion by the oppressors of their wrong dongs. That the millions of movie-pa- trons would respond enthusiastically to a movie based on the brown- shirted axemen of Nazi Germany who burned the finest books of mankind seems to be obvious. But. this “independent” film company, that produced the super-social pic- ture about the burning of books, is part and parcel of the same Hol- lywood that was forced to lay off Hitler by the U. S. State Depart- ment, and by Will Hays (the Chief of the American Movie Censorship Bureau!) the same Hollywood that was forced to cut out the produc- tion of “Hitler, the Mad Dog of Europe.” “Are We Civilized?” is additional proof that from any section of the capitalist film industry, a film that tackles the burning questions that face the working class in its strug- gle against the ruling class, will in- evitably be a round-about, dema- gogic, lullaby story that will, with ignorance, stupidty or class-con- Stage and Screen |. | ESSE a Katherine Cornell At The) Brooklyn Academy Of Music| Katherine Cornell and her com- pany are now appearing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Rudolf Besler’s play “The Barrettes of Wimpole Street.” This evening ends her nation-wide tour of over. ‘75 cities. George Meader will sing a leading role in “Gypsy Blonde,” which opens next Monday night at the Lyric Theatre. The play ts based on Balfe’s operetta “The Bohemian Girl,” but modernized. Jane Winton, concert singer and motion picture star, has taken over! the role of Nanette Guilford in the leading role in “Caviar,” the musical show at the Forrest Theatre. James Barton is now playing the principal role in “Tobacco Road,” the play based on Erskine Caldwell’s novel at the Forty-eighth Street. ri Roae ae | Maxim Gorki Film “Mother” In Last Week; “Broken Shoes” Returns June 26th Following the run of Maxim Gorki’s “Mother”—‘1905", which is now in its fourth and last week, the Acme Theatre will present “Broken Shoes,” the Soviet talkie which recently played at the theatre, and which is being brought back for a limited run. “Broken Shoes” is Played in the main by children and presents a stirring picture of the social forces behind the struggle of the workers in Germany, Austria, France and Spain. Short subjects at the Trans-Lux Theatre this week include Leo Don- nelly in “Broadway Gossip;” Charlie Chaplin in “The Count” and a cartoon “The Braye Tin Soldier.” Margaret Kennedy's “The Con- stant Nymph,” the British-Gaumont production, has been added to the screen program at the 55th “treet Playhouse. The chief feature is Edgar Allan Poe's story “The Tell- Tale Heart.” Teachers in Chicago Face Another Summer Without Back Pay (Daily Worker Midwest Burean) Chicago, June 15.—While Chicago teachers face another summer with- out prospect of receiving their back pay, John Fewkes and his fellow- leaders of the Teachers Voluntary Emergency Committee staged a huge banquet at the Hotel Stevens in their own honor. Fewkes’ committee, which cap- tured the leadership of the move- ment of rank and file teachers to stage street demonstrations de- manding their back pay, has failed all along the line to win anything concrete for the teachers. Meantime the 75 million dollar loan fund for paying the teachers has carefully been buried under the rush of work at the end of the Congressional session. Congressman Sabath has tacked it onto the loans scious yenom, distort these burning | to industry bill that is now in con- questions | caused his voluntary death, Was it |Mment, absolute separation from the | the impenetrable prison walls of the | ference between House and Senate. Page Seven “Brains Behind Barbed Wire”—German Writers, ‘Scientists ¥ N the 26th of April, 1948—the same day that the States At- torney found no cause to release from prison a man suffering from critical fliness of mind—Erich Baron, the editor, with a last effort of will tied a noose and hanged himself. He was fifty-one years old. Persecuted | Be that as it may, there ie no doubting the strong intellect and the idealistic aims of this writer. Soon after Hitler was put in power, jhe was arrested and brought to Spandau prison. After he was re- lensed he found that his home had been wrecked, his library stolen, and all his manuscripts destroyed. He was soon afterward arrested @ second time and is today in a cone | He died with the plea that his = family and friends might forgive | “°7*T@tton camp. him, since he no longer felt capable - z s | of carrying on the fight for his life. Scientists | What was Erich Baron’s crime in | the eyes of the dictators of the | Third Reich? For a generation he | raised his yoice in the socialist press | for a better human order—as editor of the social-democratic “Branden- | burg Newspaper,” as head of the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council of the city of Brandenburg in 1918, as | feature writer of the Berlin news- | Paper “Freiheit,” central organ of \the then Independent Socialist { Party. | Since 1922, Erich Baron was gen- | eral secretary of the Society of the | | Friends of the Soviet Union (FSU) | In the illustrated magazine, “The | New Russia,” which he edited, he | supplied incorruptible testimony of the socialist upbuilding of Soviet Russia, He was tirelessly active in forming and strengthening cultural bonds between western Europe and the socialist sixth of the world. Dur- ing the past nine years, many hun- dreds of people sat in his office: | architects, whose untraditional at- titude hampered them from using | their great talents in Germany; en- gineers, chemists, scfentists, whose abilities. were lying fallow, and who wished to place themselves at the service of Socialism. To all of them, Erich Baron was friend and advisor. He made known to the literary community of Berlin many great writers of the new Russia and the Western European spirit. In the Third Reich there is no Place for such a person. Dr, Goeb- bels’ Ministry for Propaganda, with its white-guardist expert, has drawn nightmarish, lying pictures of the Soviet Union. In its money-collect- ing scheme known as “Brothers in Need,” ostensibly for the benefit of German-speaking settlers on the Volga, the Propaganda Ministry makes use of photographs taken during the Russian famine of 1921: it does this in order to keep within bounds of law and order the real hunger in a bogus socialist nation (National “Socialist” Germany), by means of bogus stories of hunger in a really socialist nation, Erich Baron was imprisoned on the morning after the burning of the Reichstag. We shall never be able to learn what horror finally bodily torture? Was it the mental torment of hard solitary confine- outside world for an indeterminate | period? The mouth which could tell | us and accuse the tormentors, is | silenced for ever. Erich Baron—one of the many done to death behind | Third Reich—Hitler's Germany. | Resa Nowe Kurt Hiller A CENTURY and more ago re- formers and utopians attempted to use the weapons of “pure reason” to criticize the existing social order, and to make plans for a new one. But since then, a social class has been formed which fights for a new society, and the Party has come into being which has gathered all the experience of revolutions, and which plans the line of march for the next days and years. The fronts are consequently clearly defined. But between the armies which oppose each other in @ permanent and bloody civil war, there are individuals. They wish to criticize only from their own standpoint, and they fight “on their own.” Erich Muehsam is one of them. Another is Kurt Hiller, lead- er of the “Revolutionary Pacifists.” Kurt Hiller is a many-sided publi- cist and social worker. Very early and with great energy he began to fight for reform of sexual laws. He was publisher of the “Goal Annu- als” (“Ziel Jahrbuecher”), of which the first issue was banned; he wrote several books. He gathered around him the “revolutionary pacifists,” a group of decisive opponents of war, who wanted nothing to do with the anemic and deceptive League of Nations and Pan-Europeanism. He was one of the most noted contrib- utors to the weekly “Weltbuehne” (edited by Carl von Ossietski). During the last few years we find him in a feud with Marxist Social- ism. He dispensed praise and blame —more blame than praise—and gave instruction in the high, strained voice of a worried and idealistic in- dividualist. He was at a loss to know what stand to take in the face of the elections of September, 1930, and the accelerations of the Nazi movement which those elec- tions revealed. He sought for the positive element in Hitler's Na- tional Socialism—and found it in the anti-materialism and anti- HE flight into sterile metaphy sical philosophy—the sole escar which fascism leaves open to mr of intellect—is the very opposite | strict, disciplined scientific thor | The present rulers of the ced. | people—‘the people of poets philosophers”—recognized from very beginning that that kind | thinking and unprejudiced scient! | work, shook the very foundations their regime of compulsion and vi lence. The campaign of destructic | which is now being carried on | Germany, expresses itself in variou forms. Ranging all the way from the expulsion of inconvenient pro- fessors in universities, to sheer mur- | der, not one single nuance of stu< | pidity is left out of this scale of | methods for fighting science. Hun- | dreds of scientists and scholars fell victims to the Nazi fight agains’ “liberal thought”—among them | such world-renowned authorities as Einstein and the great physicist, Frank. From the standpoint of the Nazis, this destruction of scientific work is completely justified. It is not a ie matter of unconsidered action, or occasional excesses. The type of the modern scientist and researcher is not that of the comic-strip figure | with which th eNazi theoreticians of | brute force seek to defame thinkers and researchers. The totality to« ward which modern science tends, and the attainment of which is hine dered by the present social order, is diametrically opposed to the sort of “totality” preached by fascism, Today a contradiction exists be- tween the material results of the application of natural and social science on the one hand, and the dominant idealistic philosophy ‘on the other hand. Fascism tries. to “vanquish” this contradiction by its totalitarian principle of “Soul, Feel- ing, and Race.” To fascism, genuine scientific investigation becomes @ form of activity hostile te the State, (To Be Continued) WHAT’S ON Wednesday WELOOME OUR WORKERS’ DELEGa- TION. HEAR REPORT OF CONDITIONS IN SOVIET UNION BY DELEGATES, COME TO MASS MEETING AT IRVING PLAZA, Irving Place & 15th &. WED, JUNE 20 at 8 p.m. Adm. Ife, Anspices Friends of Soviet Union. MONSTER MASS MEETING Wed., Jung 20th, 8 p.m. at Aperion Manor, EB. oth St. and Kings Highway, Brooklyn. Speak- ers: Rabbi Ben Goldstein, Rev. Wayne White, Norman Tallentire, Violet Lyny. Auspices Kings Highway Br. America League Against War and Pasciem. ALL MEMBERS of Old Unity Cooperas tive Organization called to membership meeting at Workers’ Center, 35 E. 12th St, Room 204, Wed., June 20th, 8 p.m. FIRST ANNIVERSARY of the death of Rose Pastor Stokes and Clare Zetkin, Wednesday, June 20 8:30 p.m. at Victorian Room, Irving Plaza, East isth St. and Irving Place. Speakers, Carl Brodsky, Rose Wortis, Richard B. Moore, Louls Hyman. Also Pierre Degeyter Quintette, Pretheft Chorus, New Dance soloists. Admission 25¢. OPEN Membership meeting Film and Photo League, 12% 17th St. tonight 8:30. All_ members must be. present. Visit invited. Harry Austin of 1.2. D. speak on Ernst Thaelmann. TMPORTANT Membership meeting Sac- co Vanzetti Br. LL.D. at 74 F. Tremont Ave.. Bronx, 8:30. SOVIET FILM “Potemkin” gt Fordham Prog. Club, 1998 Jerome Ave. hear Burne side Ave. tonight 8:48. Snbsertption 20, Also Chaplin comedy. Thursday LECTURE by Conrad Komorowskt “Soviet China —Prench Imperialism China and the Par East’ at Prisnds Chinese People, 168 W. 23rd St., Room 12, 8:30. SYMPOSIUM at Pen and Hammer, 1M ‘Ww. Tist St., 8:30. Topic: ‘Vocational Guidance, Clinical Psychology and Menta) Hygiene in U.8.A, and U.6.8.R.” Adm. 15a, Saturday WEEK-END OUTING arranged by 7 Outters Group to Camp Nitgedaiget. $3. includes round trip bus fare—three meals, nights’ lodging Bus leaves June 28rd, l1.a.m. from 140 W. 36th St. For tickets and further information call at 140 W, 36th St., Room 101. BANQUET June 23rd at Ambassador Hall, 3875 Third Ave., celebrating 9th Ane niversary I.L.D, Leon Blum, guest of honor. Speakers, R. B. Moore, Allan Tuab and others. Entertainment. Hot supper. Admission 50 cents. Auspices Bronx 6ece tion LL.D. Sunday BOAT RIDE and Picnic, Sunday, June 24th to Hook Mountain on 8.8, Islander, Dancing, games, baseball. Buffet at city prices. Tickets $1.00 on sale at FSU, 799 Broadway, Room 233. Boat leaves Piet A, Battery Park, 9:30 a.m. Return 11 p.m, OUTING to Camp Unity by Harlem Prog. Club, Sunday, June 24, at 7:30 am, Register in advance at 1888 Third Ave. to assure seat. Round trip $1 Madison, III. FIRST INTERNATIONAL PIONIO AND. DANCE, Sunday, June 24th at Eagle Park, Auspices United Front Committes Against Fascism. Musi¢. dancing, games. General rationalism preached by the Nazis, AMUS E admission: Adults 5c, children free. Bene efit Datly Worker and other presses. MENTS MAXIM GORKT’S 4th and Last Week! “MOTHER” A PUDOVKIN Masterpiece with BATALOV (of “Road to Life’) ACME THEATRE 14th STREET and UNION SQUARE GLADYS ADRIENNE. WALTER HUSTON in Sinclair Lewis’ DODSWORTH Dramatized by SIDNEY HOWARD SHUBERT, W. 4ith St. Evs, 8:40 Sharp Matinees Wednesday and Saturday 2:30 Pan sarbaicaiahbataness (ie ave Paton RAYMOND || The THE THEATRE UNION Presents — ‘Season's Outstanding Dramatic Hit stevedore CIVIC REPERTORY THEA, #8 W 14 St. Eves. 8:45. Mats. Tues. & Set. 2:48 ‘1 B0e-400-60e-75e-$1.00 & S150, No Tam