The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 11, 1934, Page 5

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDN E DAY .JULY 11, 1934 Page Five CHANGE ——THE— || WORLD! | By SENDER GARLIN ETURNING to my job after a short furlough, I find that John D. Rockefeller has been resting, too. The | old boy celebrated his 95th birthday the other day. News- paper correspondents “covering” the event reported that because of failing health the oil pirate was compelled to observe his birthday away from his Pocantico Hills estate for the first time in fifteen years. John D. instead remained a while longer at his Lakewood, N. J., hhome where he spent the spring. The press also reports that members of John D.’s family “are known to be concerned” about the old man’s health. In fact, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., is planning to make the supreme sacrifice and will not go to Seal Harbor, Maine, for the sum- mer, “as has been his teed for ewe pease He Even Wrote a “Poem” r SEEMS from the news reports carefully gathered by the enterprising press associations and an army of correspondents fhat Mr. Rocke- feller spent last Tuesday and Wednesday in bed, but felt well enough Thursday to take a short automobile ride just outside “the green acres of his guarded estate.” Lovers of literature will be delighted to know that Mr. Rockefeller, in celebration of his birthday composed a poem for the occasion with his own little axe. The fact that the oll magnate composed this bit of lyricism is the best proof that genius does not mecessarily thrive best in adversity. : e's quite % poem, too. What's more, it rhymes! Here it is: “My life has been one long happy holiday— “Full of work and full of play— “I dropped the worry on the way— “And Ged has been good te me every day.” * . * Children Lose Vacations nice for old John D. But I notice by the papers that 15,000 children in New York City are to lose vacations this summer as & result of the curtailment of the free camp service. “Lack of money” was given by Stanley P. Davis, director of the Charity Organization Society, as the reason for this. “Are you better off this year than you were last year?” I heard President Roosevelt ask over the radio Jast week. It was pretty much of a rhetorical question, for the na- tional strikebreaker might have asked, in the spirit of the Winsor McKay cartoons in the Sunday American: “Are you better off now than you were in the ice age? Are you better off now than you were in the stone age?” ‘The answer is that old John D., who robbed one of the most valuable of the natural resources from the American people is still pretty well off, whereas at least 15,000 kids in New York City lose their vacations this summer! * More About Books MONG the letters I found on my return to the office was one from A Stephen Balogh, a talented young writer who is active in the Bronx Hungarian Workers’ Ciub. He writes: “your answer to a ‘Student’s Letter’ is not satisfactory at all. It is O. K. to make demands on the public libraries for Marxist books, but in the meantime what should the comrades read? Did you forget that ‘without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary prac- tice?’ “We have a circulating library in the Bronx Workers’ Bookshop also but our comrades always forget to mention that in their ads. We charge only $1 deposit, no matter how much the book costs, and it never happened that anyone forgot to return the books. We charge 10 cents a week for books that cost less than $1.50 and 15 cents for books that cost more. “But even our library will not solve all thé problems. What we have to do is urge all our workers’ clubs and party sections to estab- lish regular reading rooms, where the workers could come in any time they want to read our Marxist literature. Membership in this read- ing room should be 10-15 cents a month, “And, yes, tell our comrades in the bookshop that it is not against Communist ethics to practice a little courtesy. I wonder if you will publish the above in the Daily Worker.” 2 * * ‘Damned If They Do, Damned If They Don’t” ND while we're on the subject of books, a comrade from Maple- wood, New Jersey, has sent me an interesting editorial clipped from the “Daily Courier” of Orange, N. J. The editorial is interesting be- cause it is a good example of the pernicious character of some of the anti-Soviet propaganda in the capitalist press. The editoriai is entitled, “Propaganda Can’t Deceive the Young,” and opens with the assertion that “Teachers in the Soviet Union, as everybody knows, take pretty seriously the idea that the purpose of education is to fit the individual for a place in contemporary society. And since contemporary society, to a young Russian, means a Com- munistic state, Russian school children get a heavy dose of Marxism along with the three R's. Iu their work and in their play, they are forever being inoculated with the idea that everything which is not Communist in its origin and purpose is more or less worthless.” The editorial goes on to tell of a survey which Maxim Gorky made to determine what literary men are most popular among Russian chil- dren. Gorky, the “Courier” reports breathlessly, found that the five writers Russian children “most liked to read were none other than Jonathan Swift, Jules Verne, Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens and Mark Twain.” ‘Wowee, what an expose of those Roosians! What the “Courier” did was simply to set up a straw man and knock him down; what this enterprising journal did was to swing a heavy hammer through an open door. The “Couricr” editor, in the first place, starts with the false as- sumption that the Communists scrap all literature of the past and consider valuable only works of contemporary Soviet authors. This, of course, {s completely false; any young Komsomol im the Soviet Union will tell you that Communists consider themselves the heirs of all that is valuable in art and literature. Moreover, they will tell you + both Marx and Lenin were jovers of the classics, Marx's favorites being, among others, Shakespeare, Aeschylus and Goethe. Among the Russian classics, Lenin preferred Pushkin and Nekrassoff. The “Courier” editorial writer concludes with the observation that the survey “indicates that Russian Children have pretty good taste in their reading. But it also proves that the wiles of propagandists are utterly powerless before the magic of the genuine literary artist.” * * . Try It Out In Jersey! scribbler on the “Courier” is either ignorant or stupid, or both. And malicious in the bargain! For it is the very purpose of Soviet propagandists, i, e. teachers, to instill in the youth an appreciation of the best in world literature as well as in the whole field of culture. Let the “Courier” editor conduct a survey in the high school in Orange, N. J., or in any other American city and he will find that the students will vote—not for Jonathan Swift, whose devastating satire, incidentally, is made in American schools to real like a harmless kid story—but Robert W. Chambers, Elinor Glynn and other eminent “non- propagandist’ ’authors! 3 -WHAT’S ON 95th St., 8:30 p.m. Auspices: West Side Br. F.8.U. . 7 Wednesday HARLEM WO! SCHOOL Summer RKERS Lecture Course. Paul Peters on “Negro in Working Class Theatre.” 200 W. 135th St., 7:30 pm. Adm. 6c. ROBERT G. as delegat Yance at 1888 Third Ave, near 104th St. any evening this week. Round trip $1.00. Philadelphia, Pa. JOINT PICNIC, A. F. of L. Trade Union and Relief and the Rank and Pile Group of I.L.G.W.U. Sunday, July 15, at 52nd S. SKLAROFF will speak on “Biro- Bidjan—the Jewish Autonomous Region in U.S.8.R.,” Labor Temple, 243 E. 84th Si., and Pari 6:30 p.m. Auspices: Yorkville Br. P.8.U. PICNIC of Office Workers Union, Sun- Adm. add aay, ‘oe. 15th, at 52nd and Parkside = ve. Entertainment, games, refreshments. Thurs ais Harry Raymond, aliy Worker Staff, will jon MAX LEVIN, National Vice-Chairmen| speak. In case of rein. the affair will ‘4eor,” lectures on “Biro-Bidj New-| be held at Office WorkDers Hall, 130 8. ton Hote!, Broadway between 94th and 8th St, of an escaped prisoner’s account of his experiences in a Nazi con- | counts that are being spread abroad centration camp.—Editor’s Note. . Arrival at Sonnenburg THE month of April, 1933, the first group of prisoners, I among them, was transported to the camp of Sonnenburg under the vigilance of police and Nazi shock troops. For hours and hours we remained standing in open cars. From the very beginning we were subjected to a wholé series of brutal abuses. After us, were to arrive one by one from the prisons of Berlin, Spandau, Lehrter Strasse, Alexan- derplatz, Ploetzensee, and from all over Germany, trucks and trains filled with prisoners. The itinerary is Schlesischer, Bahnhof and then Sonnenburg. Upon leaving the “Gruene Minna” (popular term for police wagon), each one is put in chains and kept under guard. And so we cross the station to the cars, leaving behind wives who watch us mutely, eyes blinded with tears. Two by two, in our small compartments, we cross the outskirts of Berlin on our way to Sonnenburg, where men grow quickly gray, where limbs are crushed, nerves shattered and often life snuffed out. Our arrival at the concentration camp is greeted first by the warden, @ Nazi of the most savage variety. Rifles and pistols, triggers cocked, are pointed at us. And immedi- ately we hear: “You Communist pigs! Keep your filthy heads up.” “Hey, there, stand at attention, you blockhead.” Then comes the order to sing the National Anthem. There are many | who do not know it. The Nazis beat the prisoners with the butts of their guns and strike them across the face with fists. Those who do not march in step are kicked in the shins with heavy hob-nailed boots. The inhabitants watch from behind their windows as we go through the village, and shake their heads in silent rage. Everywhere we meet gloomy faces, seldom do we see a smile. So, assailed on every side by oaths, kicks and blows, we arrive at the prison courtyard. Our pockets are searched. We are told to write home that we are very well treated; if we don’t, we are warned, the consequences will be on our heads. The police lieutenant, warden of Sonnenburg, and his aide, Bruening, state that the prisoners have abso- lutely no reason to complain, and | concerning the treatment of the inmates will be carried out to the | letter,” and that if anyone “at- tempts to escape, he will be shot | down without warning.” . . THOSE of us who arrived at the beginning of April were forced to sleep on the bare ground. When straw was given to us later on, we ran a veritable gauntlet down the stairs and through the courtyard to carry it to the sleeping quarters. Nazis stood a yard apart and struck the prisoners with chairs, iron bars and clubs. Many of the prisoners were so seriously wounded, that they were immediately taken to the hospital ward. This torture is one of the most indelible memories of Sonnenburg. The Nazis call this, “The First Straw Waltz.” During the period of the celebra- tion of Hitler’s birthday, later in April, we were driven out of our beds, or rather heaps of straw, at 5 o'clock in the morning and at 11 o'clock at night, were required to stand at attention in front of the beds, dressed only in our shirts. A Nazi, himself scarcely able to read, climbed up on a chair to teach the prisoners to sing the National An- them. Shivering with cold, we sang and sang until we could no longer stand up. All this because we ex- pected the visit of an inspector and it was desired that he find us in a jolly, singing mood, celebrating the birthday of our Chancellor, Adolf Hitler. During this “celebration” police and guards carefully watched the prisoners to see whether any smiled or grimaced at the mention of Chancellor Hitler, or at the cries of “Hitler will give us work and bread.” As a little change of routine, it Was announced at night that, “To- Escape from the Nazis! The Sonnenburg Torture Camp This is the second installment {that at the slightest infraction of | morrow morning at 4 o'clock the | 2% camp discipiine, all the bloody ac- | whole camp will take reducing ex- | Pr ercises.” After a sleepless night we were forced to leave our cells at the | “ break of dawn to begin the most | Political Prisoners Club Formed to Fight Against Prison Abuses NEW YORK.—Under the auspices of the National Committtee for the ; Defense of Political Prisoners, a group of ex-prisoners met recently decided to organize a Political mers Club, lows: 1. To coordinate the prisoner re- horrible of the tortures at the con- | lief of the unions, International La- centration camp of Sonnenburg:|bor Defense, etc., and to carry on} the combination of military and ical culture exercises: Up. Down Up! Forward March... this for hours and hours. . Drill Until You Faint TS type of exercise is specially | prepared and organized to de-| moralize the prisoners and drain | methods of police, corporal punish-| every bit of their energy. The first |ment in prisons, and for improved/ transport was drilled until many of the men fainted. But, “On Your Mark, Forward March,” went on and on. This always lasted until most of the prisoners were on the ground, their hands and arms bleeding, their bodies racked with pain.. At first the prisoners exercised in ci- | vilian dress; later they were given lightweight convict suits. Every prisoner is looked upon as @ soldier of the lowest rank and is Obliged to salute every Nazi he meets, regardless of his position. The Up Down exercises are prac- iced in addition, at all military functions. When it is over, the prisoner staggers back to his cell or is carried to the hosptal. The first transports practiced the correct manner of leaving their cells for days at a time. For hours and hours the prisoners sat beside their doors waiting for the whistle or order to leave their cells and stand at attention, Until September the prisoners washed naked at the pump in the courtyard. Serious illnesses resulted | from exposure, (To be continued) West Coast Strike By JOHN ADAMS (One of 11 unemployed workers imprisoned in Hillsboro, Il.) Oh, glorious armada of dead ships, With smokeless stacks and anchors biting deep And empty holds and cargos lying fast And slow paralysis spreading o’er the port And o’er the state from labor’s withdrawn hand. What battle fleet held half the thrill of this Mute evidence of workers’ stubborn fight Glad portent of the final fight to come! Great West Coast Maritime Strike, Toledo, S. P. Convention in the July “Communist” Down | | the fight for the rights of political prisoners. rules which in practice deny released prisoners the possibility of return-| jing to their organizations and ac- tivity. 3. To fight against third degree prison conditions. 4. To expose current pseudo- | Scientific theories of criminology | which serve as a shield for the po- | lice and prison bureaucracy to cover jup their abuse of and brutality to | the prisoners, All those who have served in jai as a result of their labor activity | and ail friends who want to help | this organization are asked to com- municate with the Political Pris- oners Club, 156 Fifth Ave., Room 534, New York City. |Haywood’s “The Road |To Negro Liberation” /Among New Pamphlets | The Road to Negro Liberation, | Report by Harry Haywood to the | VII. National Convention of the Communist Party, U. S. A. 64 pages. 10 Cents. The Sonnenburg Torture Camp, by an Escaped Prisoner. 40 pages. 5 Cents. Women Under Hitler Fascism. Prepared by the Commission Investigating Fascist Activities. 20 pages. 3 Cents, | Ireland’s Fight for Freedom and the Irish in the U. 8. A., by Sean Murray. 16 pages. 5 Cents. The Red Army. Illustrated. pages. 3 Cents. The Communist International, Vol. XI, No. 8, April 20, 1934, Contents: R. Groetz: Ernst Thael- mann; B. Xaver: The Lessons of the Krakow Uprising in 1923; The Economic Situation in Ireland and the Tasks of the Communist 16 Party of Ireland. 32 pages. 10 Cents. Party Organizer, July, 1984. 32 Pages. 5 Cents. All the above may be had at the local Workers’ Bookshops or from Workers’ Library Publishers, P. 0. Box 148, Station D, New York City. THE COMMUNIST. Theoretical on. sboaid be studied by the entire gan of the Communist Party of the U. S. Published at 50 E. 13th St. New York. July, 1934. Price 20 cents. . . Reviewed by CARL REEVE July issue of the Communist, which is to serve as the basis of Political discussions in the Commu- nist Party units, deals particularly with the present strike wave, and with an analysis of the position of the “left” leaders at the recent na- tional convention of the Socialist Party. There are four important articles on the strike situation. “The Great West Coast Maritime Strike,” by Sam Darcy, district organizer of the Communist Party in the Cali- fornia district, gives the back- ground, problems and perspectives of the most important struggle the workers of the United States are now engaged in, the strike of 30,000 marine and port workers on the Pa- cific Coast. There are also instructive articles “The Lessons of the Toledo Strike,” by John Williamson, dis- trict organizer of the Party in Ohio; “The Communist Party in the Birmingham Strikes,” by Nat Ross; and the statement of the Central Committee of the Commu- nist Party on the situation in the steel industry. Especially valuable in Comrade Williamson’s article on the historic Toledo strike is the estimate of the Party’s work in the struggle, the lessons to be drawn by the Party, and the present tasks. The Toledo strike raised the strike wave to a higher plane. A strike of a few hundred workers in the Auto Lite plant, which had been on for seven weeks, was, shortly after mass pick- eting began, turned into a struggle of a large section of the Toledo working class, with 83 local unions voting for a general strike, and the thousands of workers fighting na- tional guards for days on the picket lines, in spite of the murder of two of their number. The struggle of the Toledo work- ers, which was directed against the discrimination and union smashing under the N. R. A., which became a fight for the right to organize, picket and strike, and which had a highly political character, inspired the workers throuhout the country. Its effect is seen in the Milwaukee strike, in the present situation in San Francisco and in Minneapolis. The fight of the Communist Party and the militant workers, to pre- vent betrayal by the A. F. of L. leaders, and the mistakes and les- sons of this fight, are thoroughly dealt with by Comrade William- son. The article of Comrade Ross on Party, since it involves not only the struggle against fascist terror, but also the struggle for the rights of the Negro workers, the fight against the differential maintained by the N. R. A. which is aimed to keep the wages of the Southern Negro lower than the wage level in the North. Age a of these strikes, the failure uild organized opposition groups inside the A. F. of L. unions stands out as the chief weakness of our work in the trade unions. In Bir- mingham, as elsewhere, Comrade Ross points out, our influence re~ mained too much unorganized and therefore the A. F. of L. leaders were able to put across the final betrayals. The article of Comrade Ross shows the rapid progress made by the Party in the South, especially in the leadership of struggles by the Negro workers, These four articles, taken to- gether, give a rounded picture of the most important recent struggles of the workers of the country for higher wages and for union condi- tions—struggles of a heightened political level aimed directly against the union smashing and _ strike- breaking decisions of the N.R.A. and its Labor Boards. rr ee Support of the Pacific Strike 0* THE West Coast today, the armed forces of the government are trying to drown in blood the strike of the 30,000 longshoremen, seamen, and port workers. The ar- ticle of Sam Darcy gives the events leading up to the present situation, the beginning of the strike, and the struggle of the workers to achieve unity, in the face of the splitting tactics of the Ryan machine. Darcy’s article gives an under- standing of the present urgent tasks in the strike—tasks not oniy for the workers of the West Coast, but for every worker in the United States. The spreading of the Pacific Coast strike to the Gulf, Lake and Atlantic ports, the immediate breaking through of the treachery of the A. F, of L. misleaders on the West Coast, and the achieve- ment of the general strike in all industries on the Pacific Coast, these are the tasks of the mo- ment. ee The S. P. “Left” Leaders ti ba Socialist Party Convention— A Communist Estimate,” by Vv. J. Jerome, must be read and studied by every Communist in or- der to understand the sham “fight” between the so-called “wings” of the Socialist Party leadership. The article, analyzing the S. P. conven- tion in Detroit, shows that Norman Thomas and other “left” socialist leaders are “the emergency squad of the social-democracy when capi- talism is hardest pressed.” They are *| trying to retain a radicalized rank and file under their leadershin—to retain them in the camp of the social-fascist party in order to again betray them to fascism. In their decisions at the Detroit convention the sham “left” leaders, in every instance, when it came to action, adopted the Right program. These sham “left” leaders—the lib- eral pacifists of the Thomas stripe; the “militants,” and the “Revolu- tionary Policy Committee”—when it came to the resolution on the N.R.A, and labor, offered no pro- gram for struggle against the NRA. and against Roosevelt's “New Deal” program of hunger, fas- cism and war. They gave only mild “criticism” of the N.R.A, “criticism,” which did not strike at its capital- istic nature or make proposals for a fight against it. On the question of the A. F. of L. bureaucracy, one of the chief bulwarks of the capi- talist. system, these “left” leaders provided the majority vote to pass the reactionary trade union resolu- tion which deleted even mild criti- cism of the A. F. of L. misleaders. The resolution on the farmers. drew no difference between the classes of the farmers, lumping the rich farmers and the toiling farm- ers together. The alliance, between workers and farmers is not men- tioned. There is no demand for the smashing of Roosevelt's A.A.A. farm program. In fact the program could well be accepted by Roosevelt. There is no program of action taking into account the strike wave, no demand for a struggle on the Scottsboro case, or the demands for the Negroes or foreign - born workers. The “Declaration of Principles” passed through the convention by these “left” leaders is the old anti- revolutionary platform, newly phrased. It embraces bourgeois de- mocracy, and dodges any indica- tion of the revolutionary way out of the crisis. It spreads the old il- lusions regarding “superseding capi- talism” “by a majority vote.” It opposes by talk of “true democra- cy,” the Marxist-Leninist concep- tion of the dictatorship of the pro- letariat, of the smashing of the cap- italist state and of the setting up of Soviet power. On the question of war the bour- geois pacifist conception of war is given. There is no mention of turn- ing of the capitalist war into civil war against the capitalist system, of fighting against ones “own’t im- perialist government. The article of Comrade Jerome thordly explains the international setting for the “left” talk of the socialist leaders—the attempt to re- capture prestige among the masses following the betrayal by the so-~ cialist leaders of the German and Austrian masses to fascism without a fight. These “left” leaders are now laying the basis of new be- trayals of the masses to fascism, of ushering in fascism in other coun- tries. They do this by prating of the virtues of bourgeois democracy, throwing their main attack against the Communist International and by the canard that the Soviet Union and the fascist governments are both reprehensible dictatorships. They become “left” leaders in or- der to put themselves into a posi- tion once more to save capitalism and to betray the masses to fas- cism. The article gives an excellent history of the treachery of the “New Beginning” group of the Ger- man social democracy, which cor- responds to the “left” leaders in the United States. By ett does not mean,” Comrade Jerome says regarding the so- cial-fascist “left” leaders, “that the proletarian rank and file of the Socialist Party is to be identified with the ‘Left’ demagogy of the social-fascist leadership. The basic proletarian sections of the mem- bership are undergoing a process of genuine Left-radicalization. Their aspirations are for Socialism, for Communism. But insofar as they lend strength to the misleaders, in- sofar as they allow themselves to be deluded into believing that the Party which is the apparatus of social-fascism can serve as an in- strument of revolution, they work counter to their own revolutionary strivings.” Article on Steel The statement on the steel in- dustry describes how the enemies of the steel workers—the Iron and Steel Institute, the Roosevelt “con- ciliators” and Labor Boards, the A. F. of L. officials, Mike Tighe, William Green, et al, the “Com- mittee of Ten” of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers (A. F. of L.) which com- bined with Green and Tighe,—suc- ceeded in betraying the steel work- ers and in preventing them from striking for their demands. The Party statement calls on the steel workers to unite in every mill, to oust their false leaders, and to or- ganize, under the leadership of the Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union, a united struggle for their economic demands and against the company union, Roosevelt steel ar- bitration board. There are other important articles in the July Communist. The edi- torial, on the Darrow report on the NR.A.; the article of William Pat- terson, national secretary of the In- ternational Labor Defense, on the ninth anniversary of the IL.D.; the article of Bill Gebert, district or- ganizer of the Communist Party in Chicago, on the control tasks in that important concentration dis- trict; the article of F. Brown, on Improving the Work of the Party Among the Foreign-Born Workers. Because of the articles on the strike wave, and the important analysis of the newest trends among the Socialist Party leader- ship, the July Communist should be bought by every Communist, and studied and discussed in all Party Units, The proposed program is as fol- ; 2 To fight against the parole| | LABORATORY AND By DAVID RAMSEY The Coming Stratosphere Hop ‘HE coming tosphere f Captain A. W. Stevens and Maj W. E. Kepner will take place so! time during the latter part of They will take off in a furnished by the Ni Geo- Air Corps. The American ex! upper atmosphere w and 16th persons to ris! in stratosphere hops. In h Professor Auguste Picc Charles Kipfer reached an al! of 54,166 feet. On Sept | Soviet balloon, the U.S.S.R., reached the record altitude of 62,324 feet. | | This year, on Feb. 1, anot! | balloon, , attained | even greater height of 67,508 feet, | but in descending, its three brave | occupants were killed. When Stevens and Kepner make their perilous rise from Moonlight | Valley, South Dakota, they will at- | tempt to lessen the risks by careful | preparations based on the study of previous flights. Their balloon has | @ volume of 3,000,000 cubic feet— | three times the size of the ill-fated Sirius and half as large as the | siant American dirigible, the S. S. Macon. The enormous size of the bag will enable them to carry many | | safety devices, including a great | | parachute. capable of lowering the | a 3 x graphic Society and the U. S. Army | 30, 1933, a} e | best SHOP Notes on Science and Technology take in distances for hundreds of miles. Of equal value are their sur- veying uses. This is of great ime portance in obtaining knowledge of the layout of the terrain on which an army is figh' 5 In_ connection h the military purposes of the flight, it is signifi- ca t that the recent Congress con- ied to cut appropriations for scientific work. The two striking exceptions were appropriations for @ naval survey by the coast guard, and an aerial survey of the Aleutian Islands. Both of vital impor- tance to the war preparations of the American imperialists. The two pilots of the stratosphere flight are on the verge of taking off. They are waiting not only for favorable winds, but also for the possible weather. Strong storms might carry the balloon to destruction; lightning must be 2 ce the bag is filled with , a highly explosive gas. must also make sure that no rain to freeze on the gondola car and thus add weight to the craft. It was this condensa- tion of moisture on the surface of the gondola that probably caused the death of the gallant Soviet fiy- ers on the Sirius. In case ice should form, or if anything goes wrong with the bal- loon, @ huge parachute will lower the gondola back to earth. And as @ final precaution, Stevens and | gondola which will house them and| Kepner have their own parachutes, | their instruments. The balloon is|7Wo portholes have been cut in the | large enough for them to carry | metal shell of the gondola to per- adequate ballast, and small but nec- | mit the occupants to make a hasty essary instruments of balloon navi- | | gation that the other flights were | |not able to take aloft. Considering |the enormous size of the balloon | | Gt is as high as a 30-story build- | |ing), Stevens and Kepner stand a very good chance of achieving a new altitude record, and of bring- | ing back important scientific data. ‘ae cae ‘Se and balloonists do | not make stratosphere flights | | merely to set new altitude records. | They are subsidized and planned by governmental and scientific agen- cies because of important practical and scientific objectives. The logical place for speedy long- | distance flights is in the strato- sphere. Air resistance there is cut down to a minimum; pilots could overcome hazardous weather condi- tions by flying way above thunder storms, dangerous winds, etc. One of the major interests of the flight will be to study and measure strato- sphere weather and flying condi- tions. Along with weather study will be observation of the mysterious cos- mic rays—the most penetrating ra- diation known to man. It is difficult to study the rays because of the blanket of air that covers the earth. In the rarified regions of the strato- sphere, physicists hope to find more conclusive answers regarding the nature and structure of cosmic rays. Since other forms of radia- tion are known to have profound effects on human beings and other organisms, there is the possibility that cosmic rays also have impor- tant effects on the life of man, animals and plants. Stevens and Kepner will take one ton of scientific instruments up with them. There will be spectro- graphs for analyzing the light in| the stratosphere region which may | furnish the answer to the question of the color of the sky in the upper atmosphere. To the balloonists the sky will probably appear bluish- black, since it is the air that scat- ters the blue rays from the sun, | and creates the impression that the | sky is blue. At a height of 12 to 15 miles, the balloon will have risen | through some 95 per cent of the en- | velope of air that surrounds the/ earth. Consequently, the familiar blue of the sky will not be seen at these heights. Other scientific projects will in- clude the bottling of air samples at various altitudes; studies of wind direction and velocity; observations of atmospheric conditions at high | levels; and the study of the effects | of altitude on radio transmission | (of great importance to pilots if| they are to fiy in the region). * * E purpose of the flight, of course, is not solely for scien- tific information. An “electric brain” has been designed which will operate a large aerial camera which can take photographs at tremen- dous distances. Each picture will show an area of 150 square milés. In fact, Captain Stevens is best | known for photographs taken miles above the earth and at long dis- tances through fog and storms. One of his most remarkable feats was a Photographs of a mountain taken from a distance of 331 miles. The military advantages of such long- range aerial photographs are ob- vious. They give an army eyes that descent * 8 . Chemical Economies E confusion of economic factors that now confronts the bour- geois world has driven the apolo- gists of capitalism to various brands of magic, for suitable explanations. There are those economists who be- lieve in pure word magic: prices will rise when Congress decrees that they shall. Then there are the economists who go in for money magic: devalue the dollar so much, and prices will shoot up this much. Finally, there are those economists who despair of ever arriving at a solution. They bow before the god- dess of chance, and claim that any- thing may happen. Professor T. J. Kreps of the Stanford University School of Business Administration, now ad- vances his own private brand of magic. It seems that if you pre- tend that economics is a branch of | psychology and chemistry, the whole thing is simple. The interplay of money, credit and prices becomes like the changes of water into steam, liquid and ice. Violent move- ments of prices and money are like a steaming cauldron. Normal eco- nomic movements are like still pools of clear water. Since this chemico-economic world is dis- turbed by the anxieties and aspira- tions of men, the Krepsian theory introduces a psychological factor that the professor is still wrestling. with. Can that factor be the fear that his theory is too preposterous, even for his bourgeois masters to swallow? * [TUNING IN 7:00 P.M.-WEAF—Baseball Resume WOR-Sports Resume—Ford Frick WJZ—Grace Hayes, Songs WABC—Enzo Alta, Songs ‘7:15-WEAF—Goene and Glenn—Sketch WOR—To Be Announced W5Z—Choosing a Career in Lawes Morgan J. O'Brien, Lawyer ‘WABC—Morton Downey, Tenor 7:30-WEAF—Lillian Bucknam, Soprano WOR—The O’Neills—Sketch WIZ—Jewels of Enchantment Sketch, with Irene Rich WABO—Paul Keast, Baritone 7:48-WEAF—The Goldbergs—Sketch WOR—Joseph Mendelsohn, Baritone WJZ—Amos 'n' Andy—Sketch ‘WABC—Boake Carter, Commentator 8:00-WEAF—Jack Pearl, Comedian WOR—Dance Oreh. WJZ—This Night Is Dangerous— Sketch ‘WABC—Maxine, Ensemble 8:15-WABC—Evan Evans, Baritone; Re Mi Trio; Dance Orch, 8:30-WEAF—Wayne King Orch: WOR—Lone Ranger—Sketch ‘WJZ—Igor Gorin, Baritone in WABC—Everett Marshall, Baritone 8:45-W3Z—Baseball Comment—Babe Ruth 9:00-WEAF—Fred Allen, Comedian WOR—Footlight Echoes Songs; Spitainy De WJZ—Goldman Band Ooncert, om Mall, Central Park WABC—Nino Martini, Tenor; Kore telanets Orch. 9:30-WOR—Tox Fletcher, Songs WJZ—Just & Habit—Sketch, with Ralph Bellamy and Sally Blaine WABO—Looking at Life—Roy Helton 9:48-WOR—Dramatized Nows WABC—Emery Deutsch, Violin 10:00-WRAF—Lombardo Orch, = Wdz—Foreign Markets — Henry A, Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture: Dr. Glenn Frank, President Uni« versity of Wisconsin and Others ~ WABC—Rebroadcast Byrd Expedi= tion—Attempt to Link the Arctio and the Antarctic by Wireless 10:15-WOR—Current Events—H. E. Read AMUSE MENTS of the “Don't Fail to See This Film.”—DAILY WORKE! “Im the Land ‘“oscow may pay Soviets" —1934 A C M E THEATRE 14th STREET and UNION SQUARE (FIRST COMPLETE SHOWING) KOLKHOZ (Life on Cooperatives); CHELYUSKIN EXPEDITION; MOSCOW 1$4; SLALINGKAD and GORKI plants; SNOW and ICE CARNIVAL, efe., etc. \\ 3rd BIG ——_ JAMES W. FORD Says: “By ail means Negro and white | workers should see | LAST WEEK + | stevedore CIVIC REPERTORY THEA. 105 W 14 St. Eves. 8:45. Mats. Tues. & Sat. 2:45 ‘30c-40¢-600-T5e-$1.00 & $1.50. No Tax ao at | WEEK NEEDLE WORKERS PATRONIZE SILVER FOX CAFETERIA and BAR 326-7th Avenue Between 28th and 29th Streets Pood Workers Industrial Union leaving from South Tickets: 75 cents in Advance ' On sale at Workers Roo! NEW MASSES AND FRIENDS OF THE SOVIET UNION MOONLIGHT SAIL and DANCE Saturday, July 21 — “S. S. Ambassador” Ferry at 7:30 P. M. $1.00 at the Boat kK shop, 50 B. 13th Street.