The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 18, 1934, Page 7

CHANGE ——THE— || WORLD! By SENDER GARLIN OCIALIST leaders are amazingly keen on the question of “ethics.” Consult any issue of the New Leader and you will encounter article after article explaining just why the Socialist Party cannot enter into united front actions with the Communists. The Communists, they repeat over and over again, are “insincere” and “unethical.” It is, therefore, interesting to see how leading Socialists in charge of “Unity House,” the summer resort of the International Ladies Gar- ment Workers Union, sought to prevent a strike of waiters and bus boys by means of pure deception in which they introduced the “red scare.” A worker who visited Unity House recently sends me the fol- lowing illuminating letter. How to Break a Strike “Your column recently on the reception of Mayor Le Guardia by Socialist Party officials at Unity House,” writes J. C. A., “conformed strictly to the facts. I shall confine myself to the narration of another set of facts with which you may not be familiar. “The place is the same, Unity House, ‘non-profit’ organization operated by the International Ladies Garment..Workers Union and members of the Socialist Party. The time is the two weeks leading up to thé invitation to and reception of LaGuardia, fascist Mayor of New York, “It appears that right in the non-profit heart of Forest Park, Pa., discontent was brewing. In fact the brew was so strong that the 60 odd waiters, relief waiters, bus boys and relief bus boys were discuss- ing strike—against the I.L.G.W.U. A rank and file strike committee was set up to deal with the Unity House Committee. “The dining room help at Unity House has been dependent on tips from the guests—nice ‘proletarian’ atmosphere—until this season netting fairly decent wages. But here is the significant development: Formerly no more than 10 per cent of the guests at Unity House were worker-members of the ILL.G.W.U. The 90 per cent were apparently willing and able to support the dining room help. This season, how- ever, many hitherto unorganized workers are in the union and have come out to Forest Park to rest. In July the percentage of union work- ers at Unity House was from 60 to 70. And tips were few. Naturally, workers coming to a presumably proletarian camp do not expect to be forced to practice the vicious tipping system. “The dining room help, with tips, their only compensation, dwin- died to nothing, and the speed-up due to increased guests, were com- pelled to announce their intention to strike. The demands were: $40 a month for waiters, $30 for bus boys, and $60 for relief waiters. “The ultimatum was presenied to Jacob Halpern, manager, for- mer I.L.G.W.U. vice-president and now a winter-time out-of-town organizer. “Our friend, David Dubinsky, I.L.G.W.U. president, is reliably re- ported to have advised the Unity House Committee, composed of union officials, that rather than accede to the demands of these men, the camp be closed, because once these demands were granted more ex- treme ones would be advanced. “Joseph Breslau, a vice-president, disagreed. He advised that the demands be granted without stalling, but ‘don’t take any of them back next season.’ “It looked mighty bad. The management was worried. The workers threatened to strike Sunday, the day of the LaGuardia banquet which you described. There was consternation. “Morris Novick, associate manager and erstwhile national organizer of the Young Peoples Socialist League, used every trick at his experi- enced command to stall long enough to kill the movement. This trump card was the red scare. For days he pleaded that this thing might get into the Daily Worker to the discredit of the Socialist Party. Surely no worker in a Socialist camp would like to be responsible for such a faux pas. This Novick went to the extreme of alleging before a meeting of the men threatening to strike that the editor of the Daily. Worker had actually telephoned him asking whether the report of a strike at Unity House were true. Novick had denied it of course, he said. “The men were put off for more than a week. But they stuck. As a finale, Novick stated that if the dining room workers would not compromise any gain they won would be held against them. They voted 50 to 12 for the original demands. They won. But it now re- mains in the laps of the LL.G,W.U. officials whether they will be given their jobs next season.” These are “Labor Leaders” GOES without saying that Clarence Hathaway, the editor of the Datiy Worker, did not telephone Unity House to find out whether reports of a strike were true, nor did anyone on the Daily Worker staff know that such a strike was being contemplated. Significant to all. Socialist workers, however, must be the fact that these strikebreakers at the Unity House are the very ones who in the International Ladies Garment Workers Union pretend to be “labor leaders” fighting for the interests of the needle trades workers! IN A RECENT issue of the “Unemployed Teacher,” the organ of the Unemployed Teachers’ Association, an anonymous columnist takes an elegant lady for a ride. Such incisive wit deserves the widest circu- lation. Here it is: One Aesthete to Another You may have seen the letter. It appearéd on the editorial page of the Times some time ago. It was captioned .“Béauty in Our Schools” and signéd Nelli¢ Louise Condon. In her letter, Miss Condon chided Professor Jay B. Nash for expressing in public the opinion that there is not enough beauty in the school environment. Miss Condon insisted that the schools are well provided with things of beauty. “I would show him,” she wrote, “. . . class-rooms, corridors, stairs and yatds clean with paint, ... shiny windows through which the children can see snow, rain, sun, and the unsurpassed New York sky. ...I would show him , . . little ones singing games in the yard . . . pianos breeding patriotism.” “Last but not least,” said Miss Condon, “I would show him thou- sands of children from the homes of the unémployed fed daily and abundantly by the sacrificial kindness of the Board of Education's personnel.” Let us now proceed to drop a few lines to Miss Condon, as fol- lows: ‘i Dear Miss Condon: I am e¢ternaily grateful to you for your lovely, lovely letter in the Times. It did something to me, Miss Condon,—it did something to me down here. Will you believe me when I tell you that up to the moment I read your letter. I was completely oblivious (blind fool that I was!) to the aesthetic aspects of such spectacles as the feeding at school of thou- sands of children of the destitute! It is with the deepest sense of shame that I confess that appalling deficiency in my nature. I say “Thank God for your letter!” for it brought the fresh breath of beauty back into my withered soul. To think that until a few days ago I was so unimaginative as to view such things as unemployment and starvation only with a feeling of bitterness. The thought that thousands of children have to be fed at school because their unemployed parents are destitute was for me only a source of rancor. But now—now I see! You have shown me the light, Miss Condon, and my soul is at peace! Beauty! The beauty of it! Thousands of starving children, thou- sands of unemployed teachers, thousands of closed schools, thousands of evicted families, thousands of painted stairways, and pianos breed- ing patriotism and shiny windows and raindrops and the unsurpassed New York sky! Ah, what a vision for the artist! The rhythm of it! The symmetry of it! The soul-stirring, kaleidoscopic movement of it! May I express the hope, Miss Condon, that some day we two, lovers of beauty that we are, may join hands and with joy in our hearts, trip our way merrily past garbage dump and flop house and breed line, with a heigh-ho ond a hay lackadey, ¢n4 drench our souls in ‘Re loys’ "5 cf it all! Ah, beauty, Miss Condon! Ah, beauty! Ah, wilderness! Ah, nuts! DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1934 Militant Phrases in “The Catholic Worker” Hide Program of Fascism An Analysis of Paper’s Program on Issues Facing Workers By OAKLEY JOHNSON CCASIONALLY readers of the} Daily Worker may run across a little monthly periodical called The Catholic Worker, which is now a little over'a year old and claims 35,000 circulation. Most are amused | though some are puzzled by The Catholic Worker, which carries on its masthead pictures of two mus- cular toilers, one a Negro and the} other a white worker. (For the first six issues both were represented as white, but such chauvinism was soon corrected.) The Negro holds @ sledge on his shoulder, the white worker a pick: the pick and sledge instead of the hammer and sickle. (We wonder if in succeeding issues the two workers will be wearing gocd Russian beards.) The Catho- lic Worker is edited by Dorothy Day and Dorothy Weston, with the liter- ary and persistent backing of Peter Maurin, chief contributor and logi- cian. The Catholic Worker looks like a regular fighting paper; it is chock full of militant articles and even prayers about strikes, evictions, Ne- gro oppression, war preparations-- and even self-criticism. It attacks capitalism tooth and nail, and goes so far as to criticize Irish policemen because they beat up workers at demonstrations. What does this unwonted “radi- calism” mean? Are the papal bulls and bears getting red, as well as in the red? Or just red in the face? Take the matter of the unem- ployed, now. Do you think The Catholic Worker is going to stand idly by while thousands and maybe millions starve? Certainly not. They're out for “Action’—that is, “Catholic Action.” They favor Houses of Hospitality. Says Peter Maurin, in his own inimitable schematic prose (October, 1933): “The Catholic unemployed should be given hospitality in Catholic houses of hospitality. ee a “We need Houses of Hospitality to give to the rich the opportunity to serve the poor.” A later issue (December 15, 1933) speaks of ® “Co-operative Apart- ment for Unemployed Women,” but. it appears, as one reads on, that it is “a home for single unemployed Catholic women.” And the Catho- lic Labor Guild, according to Michael Gunn (February 1, 1934), rules thus: “Any practical (sic) Catholic. who is willing to sacrifice (sic) himself for the love of God and the welfare of his neighbor is welcome among us.” .. . This solu- tion of unemployment is simply a reiteration of monastic charity, which has failed oftener and longer than anything else; and it is not even offered as a solution for all workers, but only for Catholic workers, ‘We can find something more mil- itant than this in The Catholic Worker (we're out to show that it’s @ hot—even if not red hot—radical organ). Take the business of evic- tions. Yes, The Cathoiic Worker is Positively opposed to evictions. The November, 1933, number contains a pledge whith its readers are asked to sign, a pledge which declares that “evictions are morally wrong,” that nevertheless the landlord should not “suffer loss or be made to bear the burden of caring for the sheiter of the unemployed,” and that “sacrifices should be made on all sides’ After this militant docu- ment we are not surprised to learn that The Catholic Worker has or- ganized its entire office force for “eviction cases.” When they hear! of an eviction they go out to move the furniture—not back into the old apartment, but somewhere else! They have an unemployment—ex- cuse us, a Neighborhood Council, which looks after evictions. In one case (October, 1933), on Fifteenth Street near Avenue C, “four husky young men of the Fifteenth Street Neighborhood Council peeled off their coats and fell to work at the moving jobs. Four flights of circu- lar stairs to go down, ... a block and a half to the new place, up one flight of stairs there.” A Vicious Attack on Capitalism Evictions: and unemployment are only a beginning for The Catholic Worker. Although its editors favor the Catholic Labor Guild, they're in favor of labor unions, too, and they report (October, 1933) with approval the declaration of Father Francis (My hand is now on my heart, Miss Condon, honest!) . J. Haas of the N.R.A. Labor Advis- ory Board. “Every worker has the duty to himself and to his fellow- men to join his union and to be proud of his membership,” said Father Haas, who later helped to break the Minneapolis strike. “Unionism is the way of life. . . It means conference, cooperation and peace.” However, this paper also reports things that are far from peaceful, as in the headline (November, 1933), “Nation - wide strikes advance as workers fight for justice against capital's ruthless War,” following this with the sub- head, “Brutal Injuries and Tear- Gas Are Police Answer to Defense- less Women and Child Pickets.” Some readers, not quite grasping the necessity for Catholic action on this new labor front during the present depression, evidently ob- Jected to the radical tone of some of the headlines, and the result was a featured editorial, “Why Write About Strife and Violence?” (June 1, 1934). In this aside to the pious, the editors of The Catholic Worker regret that they cannot concentrate “more on the joy of the love of God and less on the class strife,” but they have set out to address’ the workers. “If we attempt with un- due optimism to minimize the crisis, if we do not recognize their plight, we are forcing them to turn to Sheets such as the Daily Worker, which does take cognizance of their condition. At the scene of every strike the Daily Worker is sold, and the workers road it because it deals with their problems. We, too, must deal with the problems which con- front them. . .” re you have it: Honest journa- lism. at last! This explains another headline in this issue: “Soap Unior: Vis TOLYAU ARCHBISHOP HANNA NAMED |-~wary na COMMUNIST ACTION IN SCHOOLS AS INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATOR CHALLENGE 10 CATHOLICS, Shows Up P. & G. ‘Profit-Shares’ as Exploiter’s Dodge.” The work- ers understand these tricks now, so The Catholic Worker ruthlessly ex- poses them. . * * The Catholic Worker on Lynching IT WAS in November, 1933, that The Catholic Worker came out with a definite statement on the Soviet Union, in a boxed front page item: “The Catholic Worker believes that Soviet Russia, in view of its mliitant atheism, should not be recognized by the United States.” It would seem that “Catholic” is more important than “worker” in the title of a periodical which at- tacks the only workers’ country. But we can excuse a small error like that—especially since the rec- ognition came anyhow—because in the same issue appears an article attacking lynching. “Supposed Forces of Law and Order Are Con- spiring in an Outrage” declare the indignant editors, incautiously; and they approve the fight against the Fairfield Alabama ordinance pro- hibiting mixed meetings of whites and Negroes. Furthermore, “Scottsboro Boys Are. Children of Mary,” says The Catholic Worker (December 15, 1933), and all good Catholics oughi to help defend them—except that they shouldn't give. money to the International Labor Defense, “a Communist affiliate,” for the “Com- munists have taken Over the case to make propaganda ... The boys lie in jail forgotten.” Yet the paper says in another place (May 1, 1934), “Undoubtedly the mass action of the Communists throughout the country has kept the nine Negro boys who have been framed alive.” And then, in a burst of self-criti- cism, there comes the headline: “The Communist Says: ‘Welcome, Negro Brother!’” followed by a de- scription of the friendly atmosphere pervading a Communist dance where both races mingled. Then the finale—the forced admission that in the same neighborhood where the above dance took place are three Catholic institutions: a maternity hospital which is only “for mothers of the white race,” a home for homeless boys where Ne- gro boys can’t get in, and a church in which the pastor’s Negro-hating received publicity. remarks have “We Have Sinned Exceedingly—' exclaims The Catholic Worker (July-August, 1934), and tries to make up for it by mentioning the jailing of Angelo Herndon: “Cases of injustice such as this lead many Negroes to join the International | Labor Defense, a Communist affi- liate’. «.” ie, Defends Everybody Against Communism E Catholic Worker discovers that there is a Communist Workers’ School in Harlem, ‘so it promptly establishes a Catholic Workers’ School in Harlem (at which E. A. Carter, Editor of Opportunity, is a frequent lecturer). It discovers that there is a Julio Mella Club among the . Spanish - Americans, so _ it straightaway suggests (June 1, 1934) the organization of a Miguel Pro Club (Miguel Pro was a Mexican priest shot by the government in the anti-church campaign). The Catholic Worker itself was founded —after the tremendously successful Hunger March of 1932—to combat the Daily Worker. Says Peter Mau- rin, in one of his Hasy Essays (May 1, 1934): “There is a very grave and subtle danger of infection from Communism,” which reminds us of the opening sentence of the Communist Mani- festo: “A Spectre Is Haunting Eu- rope, the Spectre of Communism.” Again (June 1, 1934), Peter Maurin says: “And because clergymen are not interested in tie sociology of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Thomas Aquinas and Blessed Thomas More the forgotten man is becoming interested in the sociology of Karl Marx, Lenin and Stalin.” And for good measure, (Decem- ber 15, 1933), here is Peter Maurin’s economics: “Mony invested ‘increases production. Increased production brings a surplus in production. A surplus in production brings unemployment. Unemployment brings a slump in business. A slump in business brings more unemployment. More unemployment brings a depression, A depression brings more depression. More depression. brings red agitation. Red_ agitation brings red revolution.” Who Are the ‘Forres Behind “Legion of Decency” Drive? Yesterday’s instalment analyzed the program of the “Legion of Decency” and told who was be- hind the campaign to make the moviss a more effective propa- ida agency—behind the pretext ‘purifying” it—Editor’s Note, ee . By TOM BRANDON 'VERY movie crusade of the Church and other bourgeois in- stitutions of reaction have been ac- companied by an inseparable coun- ter-part: Censorship. As a result of its two main “clean-up” drives (1904-1909 and 1913-1921) the Church in America has succeeded in establishing a network of cen- sorship regulations and apparati that cover the entire nation. The first main drive for “cieaning” the movies was propelled by the desire to completely destroy’ and te- move this “evil machine” which had the power to bring some light into the minds of the exploited masses. The second drive, centered around the period of the World War, was propelled by the policy of the Church to fight against “alien in- fluences,” against radicals, pacifists, anti-war fighters. Both campaigns, with the patronly guidance of the Federal government, brought agreement between Church and movie and were followed by a deluge of anti-labor, jingoistic, anti- struggle films. These were backed by the establishment of the political racketeer, Will Hays, as “Czar” of movies to head the producers and distributors’ “self-regulatory” asso- ciation, and by the creation of State Censorship Boards in six states. As a final forceful guardian of “decency” in films, a decision by the U. S. Supreme Court was hand- ed down to legalize the censoring activities of every police department g of in the United States and to sanc- tion the setting up of State Boards in all the states. With the growth of newsreels, the development of independent com- panies not in the Hays organization, the appearance of workers’ and So- viet films, the Hays organization and the State Boards have been found to be not effective enough for com- plete “decency” insurance, that is for tight and thorough control of every inch of film shown in the U. S. Moreover, the State Boards and the local cops require the cen- tral policy guidance of a central au- thority. Recognizing these facts, the Interfaith crusade has as its purpose, the development of nation- wide sentiment for the establish- ment of a Federal Motion Picture Commission or Censorship Board to completely insure the production and distribution of “decent” films. This phase of the campaign is being “co- ordinated” in Washington by the Motion Picture Research Council in support of film censorship legisla- tion that will be brought before Congress this fall. To the anti-labor, jingoistic, pro- war leaders of the Church crusade, it matters not that governmental film. censorship, in any form, is a direct abrogation of the rights of free speech, free press, free as- semblage allegedly guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. On the contrary, in a political at- mosphere already charged with fas- cist-like, undemocratic attacks on workers’ rights, they are massing all their forces for the creation of a fascist-like, forceful film censor- ship that will insure the production of anti-labor, jingoistic, pro-war films. MONDAY—The “Standards” of the Legion of Decency. TUNING IN 7:00 P. M.-WEAF—Baseball Resume WOR—Sports Resume—Ford Frick WJZ—Stamp. Ciuo—Capt. Tim Healy WABC—Mary Eastman, Soprano; Concert Orchestra 7:15-WEAF—Homespun—Dr. William H. Foulkes ~WOR—Danny, Dee, Commentator ‘WdZ—Flying—Captain Al Williams WABC—Jones Orchestra 7:30-WEAF—Martha Mears, Songs WOR-—Robert Bedell, Organ ‘WJZ—Madriguera Orchestra WABC—Jones Orchesira 1:45-WEAF—To Be Announced WABC—Fais Waller, Sengs $:00-WEAP—Madriguera Orchestra WOR—HNew York Philhermonic-Sym- pheay Orchestra: Opera, . Faust, , With Dimitri Onofrei, Tenor; Leos Rethier, Bass; Mostyn. Thomas, Baritone; Louis d’Anselo, Bassi Aida Doninelli, Soprano; Pearl Besner, Seprano; Philine Foleo, Contralto; “Alexander — Smaitens, Conductor, at risehn Stadium. WiZ—Rochester Civic Orchestra; Guy Fraser Harrison, Conductor i WABC—Dance Orchestra; Claude _ Reis, Tenor 8:30-WEAF—Cenadian Concert ‘JZ—Northern Lights—Dramatic Sketch; Major L. Richardson, Nar- tor ral WOR—Philadelphia Summer Conerii Orchestra from Robin Heed Dell, Fairmount Park. Philadelphia, Saul aston, ctor 4 9:00-WEAF—One Man's Family—Sketch Wiz—Variety Musicale 9:30-WEAF—Chicago Symphony Orchestre, Henry Hadley, Conductor WJZ—Goldmen | Rend Concert Prospect Park, Brooklyn 10:00-WEAP—Ray Knight's: Cuckoos 10:15-W2AF—King Orchestra 10:30-WJZ—Barn Dance WABC—Mich=ux Congregation 10:45-WEAF—Siberian Sinzers, Direction ¢ Nichelzs Vesileff, Tenor 11:00-WEAF—Lombardo Orchestra < B at pest 11:30-VEAF—Whitemnn Crchestra, WOR-Trint Orchestra WsZ—Martin Orcrestra =po A Bed Builder on every busy Ss Publication Founded to Deflect Unrest of | Unemployed How to combat Comn is the question, says o1 Peter. Maurin, and fea hesitated too long. And John T. McGinn, helping him out, suggests a little demagogy (Febru- ary 1, 1934): “It is my opinion that, Lat least in our day, we ought to | explain the Incarnation by pro- | Claiming that the Son of God be- | came a Working-man.” (Father Mc- Ginn’s emphasis.) Peter Maurin | takes the cue (March 1, 1934); “We need Communes to create a new society within the shell of the old with the philosophy of the new.” Tut, Tut! Peter, the Cock Will Crow Thrice Thirty Times THY do you lie so steadily, Peter Maurin? You know that you want no “new” society; you want @ society even older than the one |we have. You want to go back to| medievalism. The Catholic Worker jis against both Capitalism and ; Communism, it says, and thus the more easily it attacks the working class while. blustering harmlessly about “injustice” and “usury.” It | does no good to say (June 1, 1934): “The Church is Anti-Marxist, But Not Anti-Revolutionist,” when you } quote (February 1, 1934), Pope Pius X's statement: “Each class must receive its due share...” There is} no revolution if the class system is| not overthrown. An article of Feb- Tuary 1, 1934, says “the only way to soften the class struggle would be to endeavor to make the’ inter- ests of the two classes synchronize as much as possible.” Again, “It is flagrantly unjust that either (Capi- tal or Labor) should deny. the effi- cacy of the other and seize all the profits,” The Catholic Worker quotes from Pope Pius XI (February 1, 1934). In the Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII the remark is made that “it is not easy to define the relative rights and the mutual du- ties of the wealthy and of the poor, of capital and labor,” which means, not that classes are to be abolished, but that they are to be harmonized. The rich, as well as the poor, Pope Leo wished to have always with us. We must not, he says, “rob the Jawful possessor.” As for those who possess nothing, why, “to suffer and to endure ... is the lot of hu- manity.”| “Religion teaches the laboring man . . . never to injure capital...” (Encylical Letter of Pope Leo XIII on The Condition of Labor, official translation, page 24.) . Behind the “Pro-Labor” Religious Mask HAT is The Catholic Worker driving toward? What does it want? An article appearing March 1, 1934, urges the “Distributive Sys- tem” as the ideal social order. The “Distributive System,” continues the article, is a “modern adaptation of the famous ‘Guild System’” of the middle ages. Peter Maurin some- times calls it a system of “village Communes,’ but he admits that it’s the same thing as “Distributism.” The Catholic Worker wants neither capitalism nor Communism, it says, but “Distributism.” More exactiy, it wants (or pretends that it wants) to return from contemporary de- veloped capitalism to the early stages of capitalism, the “simple commodity economy” that grew out of dying feudalism. What does this mean in practice? It means the fascism of Dollfuss and Mussolini, a “Catholic” fascism which opposes the “Protestant” fas- cism of Hitler; or, more exactly, just fascism, run by one gang of capi- talists instead of some other... . But “Distributism” is exactly what Chesterton and Belloc advocate in The American Review, the maga- zine founded by Seward Collins to openly advocate fascism in America! «+. And we have Father Francis J. Haas and Archbishop Edward J. Hanna as leaders in the N.R.A. set- up, which Wm. O. Thompson said, when he resigned, was leading steadily toward fascism ... The Catholic Worker with its “Mystic- Body - of - Christ” distributism is merely another disguised fascist sheet. Eee Appeal for Bail for Wittenber and Adams, Jailed in Hillsboro CHICAGO.—The Jan Wittenber Committee is making strenuous ef- forts to raise bail for Jan Wittenber, Chicago artist and one of the founders of the Chicago John Reed Club, who has just been indicted by the Grand Jury in Hilsboro, Il. on three charges—one of them, con- spiracy to overthrow the govern- ment. Bail has been set at the ridicu- lously high figure of $4,500 cash which means two or three times as much in real estate, as the local authorities have consistently under- valued property offered as bail — often as low as one-fourth the as- sessed value. The Defense Committee feels that if all the hundreds of friends of Jan get busy at once, enough will be raised to release him from the small town jail where he has been swelter- ing during this broiling summer. The bail does not need to be on one property, but can be on a group of properties which total in value enough to make it impossible for the local fascists to refuse it. Bail is also needed to free John Adams, a Chicago .member! of the Marine Workers Industrial Union, who is held under bail of $2,000 cash. — All residents of Chicago or Ilinois who can. put up property bail, or who can secure stich property from acquaintances, are urged to write at ounce to the Internationgl Labor De- fense, Room 6, 1703 West Madison St. or telephone same Seeley’ 3562. street corner in the country m a tremetdsus stea towerd the dictatorship of the proletariat! jre ism—that | | AND By DAVID The Philcsophy of “Uncertainty” science. Dr. Compton hel wi had bee he latest di which seem to indica’ phenomena do not scientific laws. If a y not predict a physical eve: speak only of the chance of its oc- currence, it follows, according to Dr. Compton, that society is not subject to social and economic laws. Chance replaces scientific law as the key to the social world and physical u verse, Now Dr. Compion is not alone in his belief that scientific laws are controlled by accident. The same view is widely held among physicists and is percolating down to biologists and other scientists. How did the idea that chance rules the universe displace the concepts of scientific law and scientific determination upon which science has been based, at least in the minds of bourgeois scientists? The principle of uncertainty was developed by Professorr Werne Heisenberg. He claimed that in Physical measurement whatever is used to measure an object somehow changes it, so that actually one can never hope to observe any object at any particular position as it really is before it is measured or observed. For example, whatever instruments we use to measure the speed of a bullet, slow or deviate the bullet by an amount that cannot be exactly determined. At first the principle of uncer- tainty was applied only to atomic phenomena. But Professor Niels Bohr extended Heisenberg’s principle to include all natural and social phenomena. (See Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature, by Niels Bohr. The Macmillan Company.) Such a step was inevitable. Once you begin by asserting that physical phenomena are ruled by chance and that they are subjective in char- acter, you must logically conclude that all things in nature and society happen, not according to scientific law, but according to “pure chance.” 'UCH a position leaves the field open to idealists and mystics of every variety. For if you destroy the basic criterion of science—the ac- curate description and accurate pre- diction of events, you destroy the possibility of science giving us a correct picture of the objective world. And if we cannot ever really know the world, then obviously Communism cannot change the world according to scientific plan. Science is then but one of innumer- able ways of looking at the world, and must give -way to «religion; which ‘is*not “uncertain”: since it is based on the omniscience of God. Of course, the idea that electrons have free will and that they can jump where and when they like (to cite Eddington’s example) is errone- ous. In a sense.it is a deliberate error on the part of the idealistic scientists, since the facts of science show that the universe is not a chaos ruled over by God, but that its dialectic movements follow the laws of deterministic science. In the New Masses of July 31 the writer pointed out certain logical and lin- guistic errors in the principle of un- certainty. It may be useful to de- velop another line of attack here. Physicists found that they could not “exactly predict” the occurrence of certain atomic phenomena, This | LABORATORY , | teraction. | more SHOP RAMSEY simply means that the scientist in describing the mutual interaction of the individual elements of an atom must resort to statistical laws which express the outcome of the physical relationships developed by the ine But a statistical law “pure. chance,” as stie physicists and mathemae ns would have us believe. Nate y statistical descriptions are dee pendent upon the data available, The more complete the data the nearer do our statistical results ape proach objective reality, and the xact is our prediction of a scientific event. Statistical laws can be as exact as non-statisticsl laws. The former are laws of the general, jexpressing the relationship of the elements of a dialectically develop- ing whole; the latter are laws of the particular, expressing individual re- lationships. But both statistical and tical laws describe an ob- @ word about which we learn more and more with the growth of scientific knowledge. . O scientific law can give us an exact prediction, if by exact is meant exhaustive or final or eternal. Science as a branch of human knowledge is continually developing a higher and higher degree of ex- actitude.. It may be that a gap will alw: exist between the degree of exactitude achieved and a theo- Tetically “perfect” exactitude; but it will be a gap entirely too narrow to . admit those winds of chance which the Comptons and Bohrs are so eager to ride into chaos. How do we know it will be? Because it is too narrow now. We know it will be too narrow tomorrow because it is too narrow today. The history of scientific advance proves this with a degree of exactitude too high to admit . uncertainty. The discoveries of science are the steps up which man climbs to gain a wider and clearer understanding of things. The “truth content” of science is continually rising in the test-tube of knowledge, but only metaphysicians search for eternal truths. Dialectical materialists set up the criterion of practice for ascertaining the truth of our observations. Scien- tific laws are “true” insofar as they are found to coincide ever more closely with objective reality. The carrying-out of our ideas in prac- tice proves their approximate cor- respondence with reality. This test of truth is the foundation of science and knowledge. We have seen that the principle of uncertainty is not based on scien- tifie facts. It is an attempt to sub- Jectivize natural and social phenom- ena so as to pave the way for idealism and religion. By trying to reduce science to chaos the “uncer- tainty” mongers are indirectly play- ing a reactionary role. The real motive behind their attack upon a consistent maftrialistic philosophy is revealed in Dr. Compton's state- ment “that such a philosophy takes away all basis for morality.” In other words, dialectical materialism is the enemy of the dogmas of re- ligion, which are exploited by the capitalist class to hide the useless- ness of the present system behind ritual and symbol. oe OC Note: Today’s column was done in response to many requests from readers. It is a sample of the kind of short, simple theoretical article that could be run fairly regularly if the majority of readers find it easy reading. Will they write in as to the advisability of more ar- ticles along the same line? By MEL EVANS PITTSBURGH.—Andrew Mellon's University of Pittsburgh has copped another educator's scalp.' This time it is that of Ralph E. Turner, asso- ciate professor of, history. “He sneered at religion,” ex- plained Chancellor John G. Bow- man. The administration paraded other less: gaudy red herrings. “Compleints had accumulated over & number of years.” “His place can better be filled by another man.” “There was. dissatisfaction in the community —among the © business men.” Turner, the popular and brilliant teacher of the university's largest and most enthusiastic classes, was fired. For nine years Turner had taught his socio-cultural interpretation of history. His philosophy. was a mild one, but it developed in his stu- dents a critical attitude which led many of the more capable ones farther and farther left. Turner was tolerated until he had the temerity to attempt a mild ap- Plication of his mild philosophy. He became active in organizations which opposed the high-handed vi- ciousness of the corrupt, iabor- fighting Mellon-Grundy machine. Then he was fired. It was an easy matter to arrange. Twelve of the trustees were directors in Mel- lon banks or corporations. A. W. himself was thirteenth. All but three, A. W. and two others, were directors in some bank or corpora- tion. Trustees: Howard Heinz, H. . McEldowney, George Hubbard Clepp, E. T. Wier. Chancellor Bow- man was a reasonable man. Besides, he was trying to collect a million or two to finish his dream, the 38- story “Cathedral of Learning.” It was easily arranged. pate N July 5, less than two months after he had sisned a contract for the school year 1934-35, Turner Mellon Interests Dismiss Liberal History Professor was fired. So anxious was the ad- ministration to get rid of him that they paid his salary in full for the term of the contract, Protests poured in. from workers, students, intellectuals — from all parts of the section which John Strachey calis the “center of Ameri- can repression.” The Pittsburgh pa- pers were swamped. with letters. Dismayed, Chancellor Bowman, writer of child’s verse, gentleman stockbreeder, waved his herring and justified himself with God. Politicians “leaped to the issue. Republicans and ‘Democrats vied with each other in promising in- vestigations. If the charge that Pitt discriminated against liberals were proved they would know their duty by the people. They would cut off the appropriation! It was a windfall for them, an opportunity to stand with political piety on the side of liberal justice, while they further sabotaged an already im- Poverished educational system, Meanwhile, the businessmen- trustees are well pleased with pious. Chancellor Bowman. He is estab- lishing a fascist academic vacuum at Pitt. He demands that his pro- fessors be godly men, that they have” the qualities of “seer” and “proph- et.” Let them mediate on the God-concept. They have no. busi- ness looking into the Mellon sweat- | shops, or asking why so many coal-_ town pickets die with slugs in their backs. 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