The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 25, 1934, Page 7

DAILY WORKER. NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 1934 Lackey Without a Uniform: Appraisal of Max Eastman By Famous Russian Critic Philistine With Head Full of Fantastic Garbage By KARL RADEK (Note: This review of Max East- man's “Artists in Uniform” was published in Izvestia, Moscow, on July 18th. After extensive quota- tions from the book, Radek asks the indulgence of the Izvestia readers for taking up their time with Eastman’s “ideas”. What he has to say concerning these ideas we reprint below.) ee [met literature of the professional baiters of Marx has always been on a stupendously low intellectual level. But compared to Eastman’s contribution, it is a towering moun- tain of science. The Stammlers and Schummachers had at least read Hegel and Marx. Mr. Eastman has never read them. The filippancy which he assumes toward the great- est thinkers of mankind is typical of a little dog to whom a piece of Michelangelo’s sculpture is nothing but a stone to be used for certain needs... . The wave which has swept literary bohemia into politics is apparently creating an anti- Marxian literature which depends upon popular bourgeois encyclope- dic material and newspaper articles as a scientific source. Perhaps our scientific workers can afford to disdain such “literature”; we, politicians, can’t. Lenin said that the turn of the petty bourgeois masses toward politics and the Rev- olution would bring to us these Masses, poisoned with superstitions of the Middle Ages. The political awakening of wide strata of the Western intelligentsia and their turning toward the Revolution con- fronts us with the fact that the heads of these intellectuals are full of the most fantastic garbage. Just think of it: this Max Eastman has been an editor of a revolutionary intellectual journal. ‘The Masses! The intelligentsia have read him and he still has a certain literary name! That Eastman’s intellectual level is that of an ignorant philistine is not realized even by many of those who believe that he is wrong in his criticism of the Soviet Union. They see in him a “revolutionist” who has merely stumbled. But to us East- man is a raving philistine, covering up his ignorance with quotations from tenth-rate ‘iterature. In our s‘ruggle to win the intelli- gentsia, we must reckon with the fact that, as a result of its educa- tion, dialectical materialism, or the world outlook of the modern pole- tariat, is a closed book to it. This proves once more how correct Com- rade Stalin was when he repudiated the condition of RAPP that an ar- tist must first accept dialectical ma- terialism before we can bring him closer to us, We can win some of the literary intellectuals only in the same way in which we won the masses of the people, i.e., by appeal- ing to their own experience and ask- ing them to reflect this experience truthfully. Only by bringing them closer to us in this manner will we be able to guide them farther—to the acceptance of dialectical mater- jalism. Of course, we are not concerned * IW te KARL RADER about the Eastmans. Let them rest calmly on the other side of the fence and play the role of a poul- tice drawing out all that is putrid, which we do not need. However, we shall yet encounter plenty of super- stition even among those intellec- tuals who might join with the work- ing class. In this regard, the fact that Eastman, with his mental bag- Gage, could have once been an in- tellectual luminary is something to pause over... . 'ASTMAN’S book is widely touted by the American bourgeois press. A chorus of scribblers who have nei- ther relation to literature nor any conception of Soviet literature are glad to find material for slandering the Soviet Union from a so-called revolutionary writer. (Another illus- tration of the correctness of Com- rade Stalin’s assertion that Trotsky- ism has become the advance guard of the international Counter-Revo- lution!). From these, howeyer, sharply differs the voice of Lincoln Steffens, who came out in the liber- al New Republic with an adverse erticism of Eastman’s book. Lincoln Steffens is a veteran of the radical humanitarian American literature who 40 years ago began to expose American capitalism, His two-volume Autobiography is a re- markable document of the history of the American intelligentsia. Hav- ing read Eastman’s book, the vet- eran suggests that it would be better to go to Russia to learn what the Russians can teach us, to the end that we may get out of our uniforms. We have to learn +» to see them and see, too, that art is a weapon. There is no per- ception in Eastman’s book that artists in Egypt, Greece, Rome,. in middle-age Europe and in the United States today, had to and did put uniforms on their art; and that they kept them on till the artists themselves came to like and hardly to notice it. In Holly- wood, where a great new art is being molded to fit the purposes of our civilization, the friction throws off hundreds of stories more ridiculous and tyrannical than Max Eastman’s citations from Russia. And Stalin did cast out the tyrants there; he did it, Vielois ‘Terenr Anticipated By Small Oregon Lumber City, During Legion Convention By B. D. PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 22.—The American Legion convention of this state goes into session in Astoria-- a fishing and lumber city of 10,000 population— next Thursday. The Washington State Legion conven- tion meets in Spokane this week. The California state convention was held recently in San Francisco. The intention of these conyen- tions is to place legion officialdom at the head of the anti-labor union and anti-Communist terror drive in the three Pacific Coast states to strengthen the union smashing and strikebreaking machinery of the employers in the four main in- dustries: marine transport, lumber, fishing and agricultural. The situation in Astoria, where there is a workers’ cooperative (milk, butter, cream, etc.) is typical of that in practically all centers at present. The insurance compan: has just cancelled the cooperative’s policy, evidently knowing in ad- vance of Legion preparations, al- though it had remained in’ force after .the dynamiting of workers’ headquarters by vigilantes in As- toria about a year ago. This cooperative is a center of the workers’ movement in and around Astoria. Its members are active in the unions and other working class organizations. The cooperative helps financially the Daily Worker, the Western Worker and the Voice of Action, It assists other working class publications. This is bad enough from the standpoint of the employers and businessmen but—this cooperative pays higher prices than private firms for milk, fish, vegetables and other foodstuffs to the farmers and fishermen, This, in the eyes of the business elements which dominate the Amer- ican Legion is a high crime. There is no doubt that the cooperative plant will be wrecked during the Legion convention, unless the worker's defense is able to organ- ize strongly enough to prevent it. The “Astoria Budget” has been carrying on an intense campaign against the unemployed. This pa- per published recently a list of names of workers and others sign- ing petitions to place the C. P. on the ballot with the demand that they be cut off from unempioy- mment relief—if they were getting it. Boycott measures were urged against those not on relief. Work- ers have already been blacklisted for signing the petitions. This is the atmosphere in which the Legion convention will be held. ARE aos IN Portland, and throughout the state of Oregon, the intensity and scope of the anti-labor drive differs only in degree from that in California. In practically every Astoria, including Eugene, Medford, esntev beginning with Portland and Roseburg, etc. the local workers’ leaders nave been arrested, halls and headquarters raided, beatings administered. In Portland a number of organ- izers have been held on criminal syndicalism. In other cities the authorities and vigilantes have re- sotred to every sort of subterfuge for holding organizers in jail. In Medford one organizer was arrested y|and charged with non-support. Another worker who protested was jailed for “assisting him to escape.” The Cannery and Agricultural Workers union had organized some 1,200 workers in and around Med- ford when the raids took place. There is already, due to bad con- ditions on the Portland docks, talk among the longshoremen of an other strike. The lumber business has dropped to about 30 per cent o capacity. There are about 29,000 registered families on the Portland relief rolls (in a city of some 300,000 population) figuring only four to a family, more than an entire third of the population on relicf. Employment in the agricultural fields this year in the state— getting in the crop—will be of short duration because the crops matured early (where they were not burned out by the drought) and the work will be rushed through. All these factors make it neces- sary for workers to go into action for the right to work and live. It is these factors which have speeded up the terror drive, proving that it has as its main motive wage-cutting, strikebreaking and the open shoo. Faced with great difficulties be- cause of the constant arrests, police patrelling of halls and bookstores. etc., the District Party machinery has managed to keep its officiel pee Dia Action. in dis- tribution. this whole period it missed only one issue. ‘Anti-Soviet Slanders Delight Bourgeois Press tee, before our author had ished his exposure . . . The 27% in Ree like everybody else, had to be in the service of a new and universally hopeful civilization. * INCOLN Steffens is not in a posi- tion to check Eastman’s lies. He is ready to admit that much that Eastman says may be true. Admit- ting that not everything in our lit- erature is satisfactory, Lincoln Stef- fens tries to emplain it by the hard- ships of the Revolution. However, admitting that Eastman’s lies are partially true, Steffens likens East- man to the passenger who had missed his train because of his pre- occupation with his baggage—the old bourgeois ideas, to which be- longs hero worship. But the Rus- sians, Lincoln Steffens says, “have a new democracy. They think that no matter what happens . ... the im- portant thing for them is to hang together and not permit any more heroes splitting them up.” And Steffens adds: “It seems to an old politician like this reviewer, that there is a scientific suggestion in that, not a point to stab Stalin with.” We are not going to prove here to Steffens that the so-called heroes bewailed by the Eastmans are rot, and that the Russian workers and their Party have raised heroes who help them build socialism to a pede- stal unknown in history. We quoted Lincoln Steffens’ reflections merely to show that even the elder gen- eration of America’s radical intel- ligentsia, remote from Bolshevism, and not even familiar with the facts in the case, was able to discern, through the froth of Eastman’s anti-Soviet slander, a lackey of the bourgeoisie hiding his uniform. September “Fight” Must Be Utilized, Says C. A. Hathaway “RHE September issue of ‘Fight,’ the official publication of the American League Against War and Fascism, has just come off the press. This is a special issue concerned with the second U. S. Congress against War and Fas- cism called for Sept. 28, 29 and 30, in Chicago. “With the present war danger a reality; with Japan openly and secretly mobilizing for its impe- rialist attack on the Soviet Union; with Hitler and the in- dustrialists sharpening their at- tacks upon the German workers; with the Roosevelt regime rap- idly adopting fascist tactics, this Chicago Congress must be our mobilization point for a united front formation against impe- tialist war and fascism. “This special issue of ‘Fight’ must be utilized in our prepara- tion for the Congress. With this issue we can reach workers, farmers, professionals and the lower middle class with whom we have not had any previous contacts. It must be utilized in securing delegates to the Chicago Congress from all organizations willing to join in a struggle against imperialist war and fas- cism, “Let all mass organizations and districts, sections and units of the Party order a bundle of the September ‘Fight.’” Cc, A. HATHAWAY Place orders with your local City Committee of the American League, or if there is no such or- ganized group in your city, write direct to “Fight,” 112 E. 19th St., Room 605, New York City. [TUNING IN| 7:00 P.M.-WEAF—Baseball Resume WOR—Sports Resume—Ford Frick WJZ—Stamp Club—Capt. Tim Healy WABC—Charles Carlile, Tenor 7:15-WEAF—Homespun—Dr. William H. Foulkes WOR—Danny Dee, Commentator WJZ—Flying—Captain Al Williams WABC—Jones Orchestra 1:30-WEAF—Martha Mears, Songs WOR—Robert Bedell, Organ WJZ—Madriguera, Orchestra 7:48-WEAF—Sisters of the Skillet WABC—Mary Eastman, Soprano; Concert Orchestra 8:00-WEAF—Bestor Orchestra WOR—To Be Announced WJZ—Rochester Civic Orchestra, Guy Fraser Harrison, Conductor WABC—Fats Waller, Organ; Beele Street Boys, Songs 8:15-WABC—Dance Orchestra; Reis, Tenor 8:30-WEAP—Canadian Concert WOR—Dance Orchestra WJZ—Northern Lights—Dramatic Sketch; Major Leon Richardson, Narrator 8:45-WABO—Modern Male Chorus 9:00-WEAF—One Man's Family—Sketch WOR—Della Baker, Soprano; Wil- Mam Hargreave, Baritone ‘WJZ—Variety Musicale WABC—Dstroit Symphony Orchestra, Victor Kolar, Conductor 9:30-WEAF—Chicago Symphony Orches- tra, Henry Hadley, Conductor ‘WOR—Dance Orchestra WJZ—To Be Announced 10:00-WEAF—Rey Knight's Cuckoos WOR—To Be Announced WJZ—Pedro Via Orchestra WABC—Variety Musicale 10:15-WEAF—King Orchestra ‘WOR—Pauline Alpert, Piano WJZ—Male Quartet 10:30-WOR—Van Duzer Orchestra WJZ—Barn Dance WABC—Michaux Congregation 10:45-WEAF—Siberian Singers, Direction Nicholas Vasilieff, Tenor 11:00-WEAF—Lomberdo Crehestra WOR—Weather; Lane Orchestra WABC—Sylvia Frocs, Songs 11:15-WABC—Grey Orchestra 11:30-WEAP—Whiteman Orchestra WOR—Trini Orchestra WJZ—Martin Orchestra 11:45-WABC—Grofe Orchestra 12:00-WOR—Barnet Orchestra Claude A Red Builder on every busy street corner in the country means a tremendous step toward the dictatorship of the proletariat! { | | | A Novel of P —________By DANIEL Synopsis east looking for work. He st food and csheiter, and is in: to apply for work at the Ma taken on in the labelling dep: with Lentz, another young wo: adventures on the road. His . | i. | EN the uproar stopped and Cliff got outside, it seemed to him that he had been for weeks among the clattering machines and heaps of wire. There was a foul smell in the air all day, Now the sky looked wintry blue. The sun was setting. Cliff always liked the sun. He liked to lie on the grass and be baked by the huge fiery ball. But, now he could only catch a glimpse of the up, sinking beyond the horizon. If it had been warm now, he'd haye run away. He stood waiting for Pop. looked into the oil-greased, tired faces of the men, passing by. They walked slowly, dragging their ex- hausted bodies. It seemed to him that a strong wind would blow them off their feet. They looked like a swarm of black heads, They looked a funny lot to him, “God, I don’t know how they can do it,” he replied, “spending all their time in this joint.” | Pop noticed him, standing, watch- ing this procession. “Burk did put you on, eh?” The old man smiled. “You're lucky.” Cliff was silent. He nodded. “Well, I'm darn glad I started you off with a job. Now I guess Till have to find you a place to board. A man that puts in a day’s work is got have a place where to rest an’ there ain’t no room in my house, you knows it.” “Sure,” Cliff said, indifferently. He left it all to Pop. “Now, let me see. I guess I'll take you up to Porson. She asked me some time ago if I knew of any boarders.” Pop looked at Cliff in- quiringly. “It's O. K. with me.” They walked up to the boarding house. He | * 8 * | in her forties, was busy prepar- ing supper when they came in. She wiggled back and forth carrying heavy pots, wiping her hot face with | her apron, After exchanging greetings Pop asked if she had a place for Cliff. “Yes,” she said, uncertainly,” bu‘ d'yu know him, Ed?” “Yeh, I do.” “I'm afraid of these fellers. I had one a month ago runnin’ away on me with two weeks’ board. You know, Ed, I ain’t go no man, an’ work like the dickens to feed my two small boys.” “Oh, I don’t know. He wouldn't GOING EAST last cold rays, like sabres sticking | RS, Porson, a fat, short woman | roletarian Life | | i HORWITZ : Cliff Mulligan, young western worker, is hoboing ops over in a small town for ed by Pop, grizzly old worker, cDermott Wire Works. Cliff is artment. He becomes friendly rker, to whom he boasts of his first day of work is over.) ,do that, Mrs. Porson,” Pop said, | hesitatin; | “At least if I could get the first | week in advance.” “That's O. K. He works with me in the same shop. I'll see to it that you gets your money.” Pop assured her. finally consented. “Well, I'll be seein’ you,” said and walked out. Cliff's appetite was sharpened by | the steaming pots on the table. He sat down to eat. He filled himself up with hot chow and bread and ae Pop YX oO | | | | meat. He hadn’t eaten a meal like that for a hell of a long time. When he was through with sup- | per, the landlady showed him a jroom from which she has just cleaned out some storage. It was small and ingy. The only light came from a gas jet, hanging down from the low ceiling, patches of | paper were torn off the walls. Here and there a cockroach was scurry- ing. Cliff didn’t mind. He was used to this sort of lodging. He felt well fed. The bedding was sofi. His bones ached from the hard day’s work. He sank into sleep as soon as he closed his eyes. ane * WEEK passed and Cliff was still | in Blackwell. He didn’t like the work at the MacDermott Wire | Works. The most he had ever done was work on a farm a couple of days now and then. It felt stupid to put in six days a week for twelve bucks. Nine went to the landlady for board and room and three dol- lars was left for butts and lunches. But he had plenty of food and a “I reckon your word is good,” she | —||Nazi Who Set | Reichstag Fire To Tell Story | NEW YORK—Storm Trooper J. | Kruse, self-confessed last surviving | member of the Brown Shirt group | which under instructions from high | | Nazi circles set fire to the Reich-| stag, will be one of a number of| | witnesses who will testify before the | American Inquiry Commission, the group of prominent American law- | yers who have been carrying on an unofficial inquiry into Nazi ter-| | Torism, at the next session of the | group. The commission, which sat in New York on July 2 and 3, will | convene in Washington during the | first week of October. Besides the original group of American lawyers, including Clar-| ence Darrow, Senator Edward P. Costigan, Dudley Field Malone, Ar- thur Garfield Hays, Roger Bald- win and a number of others, there | will be a group of foreign jurists who will sit on the Commission | vith equal rights of examination of | sses and preparation of re-| port Among the foreign mem-| bers who will be part of the Com- | mission are: Sir Stafford Cripps, parliamentary chairman of the La- bor Party; Sir Slesser, ex-Lord Justice for England; the Hon. D. | N. Pritt, Kings Counsellor, ex-At- | torney General of Great Britain; | Gaston Gergery, attorney and par- | liamentary leader, formerly of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Fench Chamber of Deputies; Maitre |De Moro Giafferi, noted French | criminal lawyer; Senator Morizet of France, | | | | | | place all for himself to flop. The winter set in; it was freezing to beat the devil, He was in no hurry to get anywhere. One town was as good as another. He’d stay till it got warm. During the week, he hadn’t seen much of the other boarders. They | would be through with their supper before he'd come in. In the morning oe be out when he was still in| Sunday was the first time he ate breakfast with them. There were eight men beside himself. They didn't speak much and whatever they said Cliff couldn’t understand, They spoke in foreign languages. Only one husky fellow, whom they called Steve, said a few words in | English. Steve, it seemed to Cliff, was get- |ting a kick out of arguing with aj | red faced looking Pole. Steve would | say something about a union and! mention some politics and the long, | straw moustache of his opponent | would rise like a cat’s tail. Steve | would chuckle. Once a chunk of | food got stuck in his throat and he | spluttered into the plates around him. The men cursed. (To Be Continued) Sensit MAN'S FATE, by Andre Malraux. Harrison-Smith and Robert Haas. $2.50, Reviewed by ISIDOR SCHNEIDER 1O ONE can leave this novel with- out respect for it. It is the work of a writer who brings to a broad but sensitive understanding the com- pleting gift of a beautiful and ex- pressive style. Intellectually this remarkable novel is one of the purest expres- sions of the sympathizer not yet completely won over that I have yet seen. Because through the sensi- tiveness of his perceptions he can feel the sufferings of the decadent bourgeoisie, he comes dangerously close to. sentimental sympathy for them; because through his intel- ligence he understands that their actions are not always expressions of their will but incidents in the unavoidable destiny of capitalism, he comes dangerously close to jus- tifying them. Only in the last sec- tion of the book, one of the most elequent perorations in contempo- rary literature, is the danger defi- nitely overcome. In a literary sense, Malraux be- longs with the masters of the bour- geois decadence, although he works not in the manner of Proust or Joyce, but in the manner of that naive immigrant artist, Joseph Con- rad, But where Conrad travelled among primitive people, Malraux, also a wanderer, travelled where he could see dead and buried civiliza- tions as in the sand-blotted cities of ancient Arabia; or dying civili- zations like Mandarin China. Soli- tary travelers, as we can see in the work of Doughty, Colonel Lawrence, Conrad and now Malraux, become obsessed with the problems of per- sonality, probably because their own, as a result of their lonely jour- neys, is projected so sharply and disproportionately aganist an alien mass. It may even be that Malraux has done this against his own con- scious desire, but in his novels, so far, he has contained in the line of the great bourgeois decadents who, conscious of death, have concerned themselves with the dissection of personality. . d be story Malraux telis is one of the most tragic and heroic episodes in the Chinese Communist revolution. In 1927 the Kuomintang, invigorated and led by the large groups of Communists allied with it, had swent on to victory after victory. While Chiang Kai Shek marched his army toward Shanghai, the revolutionary workers ssized the arsenals and police posts and held |the city for him, French Novelist Treats Chinese Revolution with ment ivity and Judg SF ANDRE MALRAUX But Chiang Kai Shek and his clique of bourgeois officers in the army, and his business-men sup- porters in Shanghai, had already arranged a betrayal of the Commu- nists and of their own national revo- lution. They made a new alliance with the Western imperialist diplo- mats and bankers. First, through deception, they disarmed the ma- jority of the Red contingents; then, callously, they butchered the revo- lutionary workers. Some of the troops escaped to become the nucleus of the great Red army that is protecting and advancing the vast Sovietized sections of China. Some escaped in disguise to Japan, or to the U. S. 8. R., or to other refuges, to prepare their return and their reentry into the struggle. How does Maltraux tell this story? Never with a sense of masses in motion; always in the detailed and complex reactions of suffering and sclitary persons. And because the individual, preseaicd alone, must appear in the pathos of isolation, there is in such a presentation al- ways a tone of defeat. ve the individuals whom he writes about win their individual victories in the general triumph of the workers, we see them. without elation, unable to rally into cheer- ing, celebrating tumults. They are exhausted by their tensions, their personal problems. Kyo cannot throw off, even in the heat of ac- tion, the numbing misery of his wife's cesual end quickly atoned for betrayal; Chin, the terrofist, who blows himself up against an empty car in which he believed Chiang Kai Shek was riding, is half-insane from the death neurosis produced by his first assassination; even |Katoy, the veteran revolutionist, is shown racked by the torment of obedience to orders that he feels will lead to failure, By this, I do not want to be un- derstood as opposing psychological analysis to fiction; but to point out that its use here is in the manner of the bourgeois decadents, and that, to an extent, in covering mass ac- tion, the method is out of place, and dangerous. For as I have pointed out, above, showing one man against the world leads to defeat- ism. Reyolts are not made by gatherings of hermits. The characters on the other side, the native bourgeois, and their stools, and their masters in the European concessions, are drawn with the same conscientious details. It is in the contrasts of these two sets of characters, the men of the revolution and the men of the coun- ter-revolution, that Malraux re- veals at their highest his stern and keen judgment and his emotional orientation. On the one hand we have the devotion, heroism and honesty of the revolutionary work- ers; on the other hand the cynicism, the morbid sensuality, the sick pride, and the futile deceits of the bour- geoisie. Malraux leaves no doubt as to the ultimate issue of the conflict between these two sets of antago- nists. The bourgeoisie is demora- lized and poisoned even by its vic- tories; the proletariat is disciplined and strengthened even by its de- feats. NE of the phases of the conflict is presented confusedly. The im- pression is given at one point that the Communists, Chinese and Rus- sian, did not understand the situa- tion, and the risks of their alliance with the Kuomintang. The alliance was unavoidable and the risks were understood. The alliance was nec- essary for a number of reasons. As it developed, Communist participa- tion in the nationalist revolt en- abled so effective an agitation that the movement not only survived the reaction but laid the base for its growth to its present great heights; it established the Communist Party representing the interests of the Chinese people; and it smashed a tion in China, the spirit of com- promise, the bargaining psychology. The Chinese people today realize how dangerous it is to go into partnership with capitalism. They have learned a lesson in political realism which their customs and in- stitutions had blinded them to, until the Kuomintang betrayal. Now the Chinese class struggle is stripped in this respect, as in cthers, of the checks and traditions of Confucian feudalism, as the only Party uncompromisingly | Great obstacle to revolutionary ac-||_ _scMe THEATRE, 1th ST. & UNION SQUARE — Always LABOR AND By DAVID Gasoline from Salt Water M FRENCH inventor. has announced that sa supply a substitute for g: The well known fact that water always found in proximity to oil deposits led him to believe that the former is the initial element of oil According to the inventor, oil manufactured from salt water by a simple process involving the intro- duction of an unreyealed reagent which transforms chlorated water into gasoline. The salt water ent through a collector feeding several lines through which it is hermetically filtered on to soft coal. ‘t is then carried to an electric oven to be decomposed. The oven contains three spools of insulated copper wire and a central tube pierced with threaded holes into which are screwed tubes con-| taining the secret reagent. Having passed through this device the solu- tion is allowed to settle and is then run into storage vats. The new fuel, known as Sahol, is| supposed to be nearly identical with | gasoline and costs Ss than a cent} a gallon to produce. According to| the correspondent of the newspaper Le Matin, M. Saheur will sell his| formula for two billion francs ($135,000,000) to governments who can utilize his invention for military Saheur. ater will | Purposes. If the scheme is not just the crackbrained product of the in- ventor’s imagination it will no doubt | be bought up by the Standard Oil| Company or one of its international | competitors. It will, of course, not be marketed even if it is practical for commercial manufacture. The oil trust that buys the invention—if it does not steal the idea—will use| Sahol as an economic threat against | its rivals. It will also receive an| exorbitant price from the govern- ment to keep the product a military | secret, and probably be guaranteed | besides a monopoly of the right to make Sahol for emergency use. | Forest Fires and the Drought MONG the more serious con- sequences of this year’s drought are 6,973 forest fires that occurred during the first seveh months of 1934. This number, according to the U. S. Forest Service, is an in- crease of 2,727 fires over an average |taken for the same period during} the past three years. The area burned is estimated at 183,000 acres, which is equal to nearly one-third the area of Rhode Island. The number of fires in- creases each day, especially in Washington and Oregon, with their huge stands of timber, mainly coniferous, which has been one of the two or three chief, and indeed only, sources of supply for construc- tion lumber in recent years. Lack of rainfall has make large areas as dry as tinder and new fires spring up continually. The government shares respon- sibility with the drought for this waste of national resources. It has reduced the appropriations for the forest service so that the efficiency of the lookout system has been seri- ously reduced. And it has inaugu- rated a plan of fighting fires with inexperienced C. C. C. boys. Lack- ing knowledge of the job. A number of such recruits have been cornered by fires and been burned to death. Liver Extract “Conquers Tropical Imess IVER extract, which is used suc- cessfully in the treatment of per- nicious anemia, promises to cure a troublesome and chronic illness of the tropics known as sprue. Drs. C. P. Rhoads and D. K. Miller of New York City report the clinical cures of four cases of sprue which they had not been able to cure with the treatment previously considered standard. By injecting liver ex- tracts into the veins or muscles of their patients they were able to ef- fect cures. In their report to the American Medical Association the two phy- sicians explain that sprue is a chronic illness marked by sore mouth, raw-looking tongue, and in- testinal effects. It occurs in tropic countries and causes emaciation, anemia, and frequently death. The four cases treated were developed in Puerto Rico and China, Drs. Rhoads and Miller point out that sprue requires more intensive treatment with liver extracts than does pernicious anemia. (In 1925 Drs. G. R. Minot and W. P. Murphy discovered that liver is especially ef- fective in the cure of pernicious anemia.) Apparently large amounts of liver must be injected into the muscles or veins so that this ma- terial, which is lacking in the patient's body, is supplied in the most easily assimilable way There will be an interesting de- velopment in the meat industry as a result of this demonstration, which requires large amounts of liver ex- tract. Formerly calves’ livers used to be thrown in with a meat pur- chase as a kind of premium, But when calf liver began to be used medically its price rose to 80 cents a pound, although the supply of Page Seven ATORY SHOP KAMSEY liver was not seriously depleted by- the new utilization. The new dis- covery no doubt will have a similar effect, and we may shortly expect to see calf liver priced at a dollar a pound, despite the tremendous surplus of carcasses available. through the wholesale slaughter of cattle under the drought . Rattlesnakes and Religion HE bourgeois press recently front« paged a Holy Roller preacher who let a rattlesnake bite him twice, re- fused treatment, and recovered without medical aid, as a proof that faith in the Lord is a sufficient an- titoxin. There was much talk of upern: ‘al power and miracles, and there were (among the back pages) explanations by scien’ The upshot of the business was that the preacher's flock were convinced that their local skypilot is one of the Lord's anointed, under the special protection of Jehovah, and |pretty much poison-proof. The simonpure scientists who run the- radio racket hastened to hand the Parson a contract so that he can spill his own theological poison to. millions of listeners. The event is an interesting ex< position of the social basis and role of religion. The evangelical cults like the Holy Rollers flourish among the Appalachian mountaineers be- |cause of the ideological isolation and material rudeness and boredom of their life, and especially because of the unrelieved, gray drudgery which, with intervals of homicide and alcohol, makes up most of their existence, Holy Rollerism, with its orgiastics and emotional hogwallowing, gets the back-country hillfolk. And in | the cities of the seaboard and in- | terior you can meet numbers of so- cially hopeless and world-weary | people who go in for Christian Science, Theosophy, and a dozen other mixtures of the All, the Good, |and “ethical culture.” In both cases jthe result is that the victims are doped, shielded from unwelcome contact with reality. And the social effect is that the victims are diverted from protest against the capitalistic system, which rules that reality, and makes it so anti-human and anti-social, and are rendered somehow content with their narco- tized lot. The mountain preacher with his crude method of attracting notoriety and radio contracts is a kind of un- dressed demonstration of the actual workings of preachers, high or low, everywhere. Cardinals, popes, bishops and rabbis, they exert themselves in contests with imagi- nary evils, practice the most con- temptible demagogy, and assume high, heroic, and nallow poses in order to win the applause and con- j tributions of bosses, on one hand, jand on the other to deceive and befuddle their parishioners into satisfaction and resignation with the capitalist and religious racket... The hokum has a different front, but it is the same hokum. Incidentally, the way the rattles snake business was played up by the press shows how eager the capi- talist newspapers are to promote at every point the confusion which ex-. ists in many readers’ minds regard- ing the possibility of supernatural magic existing side by side with scientific fact. < STAGE AND SCREEN Gorki’s Home Life in New Soviet Newsreel at the Acme On the same program with the new Soviet film, “The Problem of- Fatigue,” produced by the Russian Academy of Science, and which opens today, the Acme Theatre will | present the latest Soviet newsreel, just. rectived from Moscow. Highs* lights of the film include intimate. pictures of Gorki’s Home Life; Nas” tive Songs and Dances; Moscow Children at the Zoo; Dolphin-Fish-" ing in the Black Sea; Lacemakers of Vologda; Ambassador Bullitt ih” Kharkov, etc, “The Problem of’ Fatigue,” the main feature on the program deals with fatigue in In<) dustry and Nature, revealing its na-— ture and prevention, ie TONIGHT Saturday August 25th CONCERT AND DANCE Given by the Freiheit Gesang Farein Jacob Schaefer, conductor For the first fime in Brighton Beach Brighton Workers Center — 3200 Coney Island Ave. GOOD DANCE ORCHESTRA Admission 35c. AMUSE MENTS | Tre Problem + of Fatigue Aci GORKI'S HOME LIFE—NATIVE SONI | At 200—Ambassador BULLITT in FIRST THEATRICAL SHOWING—FOR ONE WEEK ONLY. Revealing Produced in the U. 8. & R. by the Russian ALSO LATEST SOVIET NEWS Study of Fatigue in Industry and Nature! its nature and prevention. ademy of Science (English Titles). GS and DANCES—-MOSCOW CHILDREN Kharkov—Lacemakers of Vologda, etc. - RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL - 50 St. & 6 Ave.-Show Place of the Nation Doors Open 11:30 A.M. HAROLD LLOYD in “THE CAT'S PAW" and a great stage show 2nd BIG WEEK! New Theatre and Film and Photo League present Wed., “ee ‘)OVZHENKO'S First showing of un-cut version and Charlie Chaplin in “TRE IMMIGRANT” New School, 66 W. 12th St. Two Showings: 7 & 9:30 P. M. Tickets 35¢ in sdvance, 50¢ py at Werker's Bock Shop, 50 BE.