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

| CHANGE —-THE— WORLD! By MICHAEL GOLD WE are in the process of watching the birth and evolu- tion of a new national hero. He appears to be a tall, gangling young man with a strong right arm who hails from the cotton belt, and pitches a terrifically fast ball for nine innings a few times a week. At present his name is known to probably more Americans than the name of, let’s say, Nicho- las Murray Butler, who also amuses his countrymen. Down in Sports- man’s Park, in Saint Looie, a crowd of 50,000 citizens howl themselves Oarse when the name of Dizzy Dean roars from the umpire’s mouth, ccording to private reports, even the Mississippi “lifts itself from its ong bed” when the Dizzy goes to the mound to put on his stuff for e honor of St. Louis and a couple of extra thousand dollars World Series money for Frankie Frisch’s boys. The Mythology of Dizzy 1) peeks seems to be quite a boy. Not only did he single-handedly, it appears, win the pennant for St. Louis, but he has managed to accumulate around himself a whole mythology of legends that would do justice to any of the old Greek gods. Dizzy’s what the boys on the sport sheets call “color” stuff. Strong right arm for pitching, but kinda weak upstairs. In the fourth game of the Series Dizzy got lammed with a fast ball trying to break up a double play. It smacked him square in the forehead. It would have been curtains for an ordinary mortal, but not for Dizzy; he just passed out cold for a couple of seconds and then came to fresh as a daisy. Furthermore, it appears that Dizzy has a heart as big as a wagon. After Saturday’s ball game, a couple of smartly dressed gentlemen tried to‘pick Dean up in their fast roadster as he was leaving the ball park. They offered to drive him back to the hotel. Dizzy, whose heart seems to be unspoiled and whose mind is a bit weak, grandly accepted the offer. He almost gave poor Sam Breadon, the Cardinal’s president, heart-failure. “My god,” yelled Sam, “haven’t you ever heard of gam- blers and kidnappers?” But Dizzy just beamed, the idol light shining from his face. Dizzy’s going around town now with a police guard. * * * Fame... And a Fortune ITH each successive game the fables about the Dizzy Dean grow. It helps business along, piles up the gate receipts, gives the news- boys from the big city papers something to write about, and continues building the tradition of glamour and prowess that surround the heroes of the diamond. Dizzy seems to be a simple-minded, Ring Lardner “You Know Me, Al” ball player, raised down in the Southwest on grits and cornbread, gifted with a powerful pitching arm and a keen pair of eyes. But the stockholders of the St. Louis Cardinals and the rack- eteers and speculators who infest organized baseball as they do every other national sport in the country today, have a keener eye than Dizzy’s pitching one and a stronger arm when it comes to counting the season's profits. Like everything else in the country, baseball is not run primarily for the fans, but for the pocketbooks of the stockholders. Communists are often ridiculed for their insistence that everything in the present capitalist system is a “racket.” Hollywood recently caricatured the Communst who shouts on Mother’s Day, “It’s a racket!” Well, it is. It’s a racket for the flower merchants, for the candy manufacturers, for the pulpit. The sickening sentimentality that is deliberately fos- tered by the manufacturers, the false mother-love decorations that sutround the price on the box of flowers, attest to the way the emo- tions of people are deliberately and viciously exploited by the manufac- turer for his own profit. Baseball, too, the love of sport, is deliberately and viciously exploited by the promoters. * * * * Sports and the People IZZY probably loves baseball. So do millions of other Americans. I remember that we all wanted to learn how to throw a two-finger drop earlier than we wanted to learn why the earth turns around the sun, or the origin of surplus value. But there is a sharp division made in the life of people today: sport, active participation in sport, stops early in life. Life under capitalism is not an integrated life, it is not full in the sense that sport is looked upon as one of the ac- tivities of a fully developed man. And, strange as it may seem, to those who see the Communist as a professional kill joy, he has a firmer, richer belief in the development of the full man, than the health culturist like Bernarr Macfadden, whose advertising caters ' an abstraction born of the library. One has only to look at the Soviet Union to see how sport is deliberately organized as part of the whole life of the proletariat. But in America, baseball is a different thing. There were 50,000 fans out there in St. Louis and 50,000 more in Detroit shouting their heads off every time Pepper Martin took a head-first slide into second or Hank Greenberg leaned his bat against a fast ball. They were playing in the World Series too. It was vicarious base- ball, phantoms of their own longing were smacking out homers, strik- ing out the third man with the bases full, or making a miraculous stop of a line hit. If the Cardinals win, there will be 50 or a 100,000 St. Louis workers who will shout as though they had pitched the final victory. In Detroit, the same. Auto workers, perhaps, who remembered the Bloody ‘Thursday at Ford's. Longshoremen, who remember the big maritime strike. Workers love baseball. But baseball, in its own way, is also used as. an “opium of the people.” It is a great “democratic” sport. But Edsel Ford never sat in the bleachers. Sports have been taken out of the hands of the people. Th *' have been “organized.” Baseball, too, has its bosses. The “bosses” are cashing in on the “heroes” and cashing in on the frustrated love | of the péople for sports. Dizzy Dean will get his share of the World Series money, part of the 127,109 dollars. He is already part of the unwritten history of the baseball diamond. But, for the fans, there is another and more immediate practical use for baseball bats: In Toledo, in Frisco, in Rhode Island, many a striker has bounced a beautiful home run off the skull of a hired deputized thug with a bat the same weight and the same color that Hank Greenberg is getting paid to swing. * * . Contributions received to the credit of Mike Gold in his socialist competition with Jacob Burck, David Ramsey, Harry Gannes, Helen Luke, Del and the Medical Advisory Board, in the Daily Worker drive for $60,000. Quota—$500, Chalfin $ 5.00 Andrew Morsey 1.00 Robert Nelson 1.09 Hyman Hirschorn . Previously received .. 1.00 Total to date + $69.68 to the sick and the shamed, or the neo-Humanist, whose “full” life is { DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11,1934 |Vital Articles In Oct. Issue of | ‘New Theatre’ NEW THEATRE MAGAZINE, organ | of the League of Workers Thea- tres, October issue, 10c. | Review by | MANFORD ETTINGER | | THE utter bankruptcy of the bour- | geois theatre playing its cheap | and tawdry stock-in-trade, while all | ;around it the very foundations of | | bourgeois society are being shaken by an intensely dramatic conflict) |which is of the very essence of| | great plays, is again strikingly shown {in Melly Day Thatcher's article, “Drama in Dixie,” which is a fea- ture of the current New Theatre. Miss Thatcher records her impres- sions of the theatre on a recent trip through the South. There is drama in plenty in Dixie. as anyone who has played a part in the struggle of | | the NegroSpeople for liberation well | knows, but the little theatres and | | stock companies of the South can) not, or will not, see it. | Other important features of this} issue include an excellent article| by Bela Belasz, tracing the Fascist | development of the German film output before Hitler came into |power. The similarity of present day trends in our own films is ob- | vious, | John Gassner, who is the Thea- | tre Guild's playreader, contributes | jan interesting article on playwrights, | Shorter articles and reviews are| |contributed by David Platt, Virgil | Geddes, Robert Forsythe, and ‘others. Stella Adler, of the Group Theatre, expresses her enthusiasm | for the opportunities now being at-| | forded Soviet actors by the workers’ | | and farmers’ government of the U. | /S. 8. R. | ‘The chief weakness of the issue lies in its scanty treatment of the | Workers Theatres, which are swiftly | developing to artistic and political maturity. This weakness is no doubt due to the fact that, especially in| |recent months, there has been a | phenomenal influx of prominent | theatrical lights into the ranks of | the “sympathizers” with the revolu- | tionary theatre movement. | ‘These new recruits from the ranks |of the bourgeois theatre are eager | to write of their experiences and | impressions of this new and vigor-/ |ous current in the theatre. They | are eager to express their dissatis- | faction with the decadent bourgeois theatre. On the other hand. those | most active in the workers theatres |are usually overburdened with work and have no time or energy to | write of their theatre. j Nevertheless, in spite of the dif-/| | ficulties of getting suitable material |on the workers theatres, we must {look for an improvement in this l|respect if New Theatre is to ade- | quately fulfill its task of, “profes- | sionalizing the Workers Theatres and revolutionizing the professional | theatres.” SUNG TO THE TUNE OF “OH SUSANNAH” By MARTIN and ROBINSON (W.L.T, Shock Troupe) 1 iD you ever hear the story of a thousand miles of strike? From Diego to Seattle every port was shut up tight; Those longshoremen! And the seamen too! All the workers got together and they showed what they could do! Refrain: Labor Fakers! Here's our ABC: You can take your arbitration and go dump it in the sea! 2. | Waex the whole West Coast went out on strike they wanted better pay, And they got a call from Ryan, he’s the head of ILA: “All you workers! This is what I say: Leave it all to Franklin Roosevelt and the good old N.R.A.” Refrain: “Labor Fakers!” ete. 3. HEN Vandeleur and Casey and their bosses’ hired crew, They engineered a sell-out and they said the strike was through: “Fellow bosses! ‘We almost were too late! But we got them back to work again and now we'll arbitrate!” Refrain: “Hey, you fakers!” ete. § |AVE you heard of Mr. Axtell and his pal Olander, too? They are two great friends of labor and they lead the IS.U. Where do they lead ‘em? To the fink halls where the bosses Refrain: “Hey, you fakers!” etc. It’s plain as plain can be— there can Shanghai them to sea! 5. R. AXTELL said by radio there ain’t no East Coast strike, For he’s there to make you do Are we striking? just what the big shipowners like, You're godammed right we are, Show the Axtells, Greens and Ryans that their gas won't get ‘em far! Refrain: “Labor Fakers!” etc. 6. (OW the seamen and longshoremen sent the bosses their demands, And instead of taking orders they are giving out commands: No more fink halls! Starvation wages no more! And we'll stick it out until. we win just what we're fighting for! FUNING: IN | 7:00-WEAF—Jack and Loretta Clemens, Songs WOR—Sports Resume—Ford Frick WJZ—Amos ‘n' Andy—Sketch WABC—Myrt and Marge—Sketch 7:15-WEAF—Gene and Glenn—Sketch WOR—Comedy; Music WJZ—Martin Orchestra WABC—Just Plain Bfll—Sketeh 7:30-WEAP—Minstrel Show WOR—The O'Neills—Sketch WJZ—Armand Girard, Baritone WABC—Jack Smith, Songs 7:45-WEAF—Frank Buck's Adventures WOR—Studio Music WJZ—Shirley Howard, Songs WABC—Boake Carter; Commentator 8:00-WEAF—Valice’s Varieties WOR—Interview WithJ. Wilder Tasker, Football Coach, Rutgers WIZ—Story of Steel—Sketch WABC—Easy Aces—Sketch 8:15-WOR—Little Symphony Orchestra, Philip James, Conductor, Sylvia Cyde, Soprano WABC_Fray and Braggiotti, Pieno 8:30-WJZ—Ruth Lyon, Soprano; Charles Sears, Tenor WABC—Stevens Orchestra 9:00-WEAF—Captain Henry's Show Boat WJZ—Death Valley Days—Skeich WABC—Gray Orchestra; Annette Hanshaw, Songs; Walter O'Keefe, Master of Ceremonies; Sports—Ted Husing 9:15-WOR—Larry Taylor, Baritone 9:30-WOR—Lum and Abney—Sketch WJZ—Mixed Octet; Larry Larsen, Organ; Robert Childe, Piano; Joan Blaine, Narrator WABC—Waring Orchestra 9:45-WOR—AIl and Lee Reiser, Piano 10:00-WEAF—Wnhiteman‘s Music Hall with Helen Jepson, Soprano, and Others Concert ve Minutes in Holly- wood! Music; Sketches 10:15-WOR—Current Events—H. E. Read 10:30-WOR—Vaugh de Leath, Songs; Jack Arthur, Baritone WJZ—The Economics of Free Compe- tition—Professors P. H. Douglas, Garfield Cox and R. M. Lovett, of University of Chicago 10:45-WABC—Fats Waller, Songs 11:00-WEAP—To Be Announced WOR—Dance Music WJZ—Campo Orchestra WABC—Y.M.C.A. Program; Speaker, Robert L. Ripley 11:15-WEAF—Jesse Crawford, Organ WABO—Busse Orchestra 11:30-WEAP—Dorsey Orchestra ‘W3Z—Coburn Orchestra WABC—Kay Orchestra 12:00-WEAF—Dance Music (Also on WABC, WJZ, WMC, WOR, WEVD) |Marx’sFriend and ‘Correspondent? (O. «~was §=Doctor Kugelmann |W whose friendship with Karl | Marx led to the famous correspond- ence which, in the words of Lenin, | “reveals Marx as a man who im- | mediately responded to all questions |on the labor movement and world | politics?” The correspondence. | under the title “Letters to Dr. ; Kugelmann,” has been released for | the first time in English by Inter- national Publishers. | Kugelmann (1830-1902) was a | Surgeon and gynecologist with a large practice in Hanover. As 4 | youth he had taken part in the revolutionary gle of 1843. Study of Marx’ “Eighteenth Brumaire” and “Critique of Political | Economy” aroused his interest in | the author of these volumes and | through the German poet Freiligath | he began correspondence with Marx | (then in London) in 1862. The doctor’s friend: most valuable to Mar: able to secure publicity for “Capita | and keep its author well informed | on German affairs. He was a mem- | ber of the First International and | attended the Lausanne and Hague | Congresses (1867 and 1872) delegate. | Yet Kugelmann, despite his pro- fessed championship of Marx, never quite grasped the essence of Marx- |ism. While admiring and even | worshipping Marx the thinker, the man of science and genius, Kugel- mann could not reconcile himself to | Marx the revolutionary, the leader | and organizer of the revolutionary | He be- | triumph | | ultimately, but he rejected the pro- | proletariat and its party. | lieved socialism would letarian class struggle and expected | socialism through reformism. | However, Kugelmann continued his interest in Marx and stimulated | knowledge of his writings. letters he cherished as “the great pride of my life” and he urged the | Social-Democ- his | leaders of German | racy to publish them after | death. This was done, though not with- |out the “accidental” excisions at | which Social-Democracy wes |adept. When Kautsky published | the correspondence in the Nene | Zeit, theoretical organ of the Ger- }man Social-Democratic Party, he | suppressed a letter containing an | extremely severe criticism of Lasalle jand of opportunism masquerading jas “practical politics” generally | This letter, still unknown to Lenin | when he wrote his preface to the | Russian edition of the letters in} | 1907, was publicized by the Marx- | Engels-Lenin Institute at Moscow, | which has the complete collection. | Their publication today, because they contain so much that is timely and valuable for the modern | revolutionary movement, is a dis- tinctive event, not only in the world of Marxist-Leninist publishing, but in the working class movement as ‘a whole. Policy The following is a press inter- view with the President of the People’s Commisars of White Russia, Comrade N. M. Goloded. * * By MOISSAYE J. OLGIN (Continued from yesterday's issue) ; “No wonder. This year every member of the collective farm will | receive for évery labor day—5-7 kilograms of cereals, 7-10 kilograms of potatoes, and 1-2 rubles in cash. Remembering that every member of the collective farm accumulates during the year from 300 to 500 labor days and that quite often a family has two to three workers, the labor of whom is counted, we arrive at a situation where the household of a collective farmer receives 300 to 400 pood (a pood is 40 pounds) of cereals, often as many as 1,000 pood of potatoes, 1,000 to 2,000 rubles in cash, not counting the products of the orchard and the vegetable garden. Collective Farmers Well Off “Every collective farmer has a vegetable garden in addition to the gardens of the collective farm. Thus he has a sufficient amount of vege- tables and fruit. In addition to the collective herd every member of the collective farm has a cow in his own individual possession. Not so long ago we had about 40,000 cow- less peasant households. This year every one of them received a cow at the expense of the state. (The state organized the purchase of calfs and cows, which were dis- tributed among those peasants that had none; the calfs and cows were given on the terms of individual possession and on the basis of long- term credit). This means that the peasants are sufficiently provided with dairy products, The peasants are raising pigs individually in unlimited num- bers. As a result of the growth of the peasants’ income the purchasing power of the peasantry as regards industrial articles has grown. The peasants now demand goods of a higher quality. i Industrial and Agricultural Labor “The wages of the industrial workers have also risen consider- ably. But the level of the workers’ well-being cannot be measured by wagés alone. Outside of the wages there exists also social Insurance at the expense of the government. The appropriations for social insur- ance in White Russia this year amount to 80,000,000 rubles. These sums are spent on houses of rest, sanitariums, aid to the sick, etc. In case of sickness the worker receives relief equal to his average monthly earning. The workers are supplied by the state with bread, fats, sugar, cereals, vegetables, tobacco, and candies at fixed prices which are about three times lower than the market prices. “On these products which are purchased at fixed prices, the worker spends no more than 30 per cent of his earnings. aid is given to the workers at the expense of the insurance funds. The workers’ children receive free tui- tion in the schools, and school at- tendance is obligatory. In school the children receive hot lunches free. In a majority of cities and schools, hot dinners are also served. All these measures raise the well- being of the worker and in their totality far exceed the worker's in- come from cash wages. Rents are paid at the rate of 5 to 15 per cent of the workers’ wages, depending upon the rate of his wages. Many workers receive other privileges as regards rents. It must be noted that the social insurance fund of White Russia is proportionately Jarger than that of the whole Union.” Deficit Covered by U.S.S.R. “Why is that so?” asks Comrade Goloded. “The reason is quite sim- ple. We have the aid of the U8. S.R. Ever since it was founded, Free medical | the White Russian Republic has not balanced its budget a single time. Its deficit amounts on the average deficit has been and is covered by the sums contributed by the Union Government. Without contributions from the USS.R., the White Rus- sian Soviet Republic would not have been able to reach its present eco- nomic and cultural level. If the policies of the U.S.S.R. were differ- ent, we would not have been able to build factories and plants and to raise our culture. We deal here not with politics alone; we have concrete action directed toward lift- ing the formerly backward nation- | alities.” | Comrade Goloded rose from his chair and came closer to his inter- | with deep conviction, he declared: | “This is why the workers and peasants of White Russia love the U.S.S.R. and will fight to the last drop of their blood for its unity. They will not allow anybody to weaken or disturb this unity.” Comrade Goloded mentioned the nationalist counter - revolutionary elements in White Russia whose orientation was toward separating White Russia from the Soviet Union. Those were the White Russian na- tionalists, agents of foreign fascism. The workers and peasants of White Russia drove them out and now they have no more influence among either the workers or the peasants. The discussion veered to the Jew- ish population. I asked what hap- pened to the “Luftmenschen” (peo- ple without definite occupation, liv- ing, so to speak, on air) of whom there were so many in Czarist times. Comrade Goloded said: Jews Absorbed in Productive Work “The question of these elements of the Jewish population no longer to 30 per cent annually, and this | What the Soviet Union’s National — Has Done for Wh | Jewish Population Absorbed in Productive te Russia jexists for us. The very course of the development has removed it from the order of the day, as it has re- moved and annihilated the ‘pale of | settlement’ of the Jewish popula- |tion—that feature of accursed Czar- \ism. We have raised the culture and the production of the country to such an extent that the entire Jewish population has been absorbed by industrial and agricultural labor. Even the joined the stream of production; even the former petty traders, etc., are engaged in productive labor. The Jewish youth as a whole, irre- | Spective of origin, is now fully en- | gaged in productive work. | “In pre-revolutionary times White Russia did not have any Jews en- gaged in agriculture. At present great masses of Jews are working | on the land. How was this achieved? |The policy of the Government of | White Russia was directed towards | organizing agricultural artels (co- \locutors. In a solemn tone, vibrant operative associations) from among} | the Jewish population. The Coun- cil of People’s Commissars of | White Russia issued a special law concerning the economic rehabi- litation of the small towns with a prevailing Jewish population. This |law provided the organization and |the equipment of the Jewish pop- |ulation of the small town for pro- ductive work: the building of pro- duction cooperatives, the drawing in of the Jewish population into factories and plants, the organi- |zation of agricultural cooperatives, ete. “Lands were especially amelio- rated for the purpose of giving them over to the Jewish toiler. Th government put at their dis- | posal credits, inventory, cattle. We have at present national Jewish collective farms. But in the proc- ess of the reconstruction of the |vilage many Jewish farms merged with White Russian farms thus torming international collective farms in which it is difficult to distinguish between a Jewish and a White-Russian member. (To be contiinued) as al Marx's | LS declassed elements have) Page 5 I | LABOR FAKERS [Whos Kugelman War and Fascism Main Topic of John Reed T a Club | ME national meeting Reed bs, b week, opened with the radiogram which had just been re- ceived from the Secretariat of the International Union of Revolu- ,tionary Writers. Greeting the con- ference in the name of the world revolutionary literary movement, the Secretariat called upon the members of the clubs to “give the best of stheir creative powe ‘o the task of fighting fascism, war and of the John icago last ction and building a socialist re in America.” All d sions and proposals at the Reed Club conference centered around this major task Alfred Hayes, who presented th opening address for the writer: commission, stressed the same prob- lem, Indicating that the conference was essentially a part of the wide- Spread campaign led by the Amer {ican League Against War and F cism, he pointed to the neces sity of the cultural movem breaking down its sectarian ap- proach, in order to win large sec- tions of the American intellectuals in the fight against the twin mon- sters of modern capitalism. The other members of the writers commissions unanimously denounced the “leftist” character of aspec' of the revolutionary literary mov ment. They condemned the would-be critics who alienated sym- pathetic writers by demanding t they become revolutionary-prole tarian authors overnight. They at- tacked the sectarian snobbism that frequently prevents intellectuals from joining our cultural move- ment. They directed a collective diatribe against the leftist charac- ter of some of our creative writings, which frequently consist of uncon- vincing, sloganized tracts disguised as poetry and fiction. Together they showed that a living r lutionary literature could grow only out of genuine aesthetic recreation of the class struggle. . B. MAGIL, who was one of the J. R. C. delegates at the Khar- key conference in 1930, pointed to the advances of our revolutionary literature in the struggle against leftism since that historic meeting; |at the same: time he indice: danger of the opposite 5 which is expressed in the failure to differentiate between non-revolu- tionary literature and the body of revolutionary literature itself. Jack S. Balch dramatized the | Sectarian approach of the move- ment towards sympathetic writers |by showing how several of them |had been frightened away by ex- |tremist tactics. Presented a rich, moving anal |of some of the problems involved jin the creation of revolutionary jfiction. Wallace Phelps discussed jthe role of the J. R. C. magazines, |Showing their effectiveness as lit- jerary organs and demonstrating the jimportance of their creative re- |Portage. Philip Rahv dealt with |the lessons of the Soviet Writers | Congress. | These opinions were endorsed by |the writers’ commission, which in- |cluded Jack Conroy, Jack S. Balch, Meridel Le Sueur, Mark Marvin, |Paul Romaine, Maurice Leon, Bi |Jordan, Richard Wright, William Pillin, Nelson Algren, A. B. Masil, | Philip Rahv, Wallace Phelps, Al- |fred Hayes and Orrick Johns. For |the first time; a number of revy- {olutionery writers from various | Sections of the United States were able to discuss collectively some of |the basic questions that confront contemporary American revolution- | ary literature. | | | | | ‘This department appears on this page twice a week. All ques- | tions should be addressed to | “Questions and Answers,” Daily | Worker, 35 East 12th St, New | York City. tae eee | Question: In the “Foundations |of Leniniem,” by Stalin, the fol- | lowing quotation appears: “But Joverthrowing the power of the | bourgeoisie and establishing the | Power of the proietariat in a single |country does not yet guarantee the complete victory of Socialism. After entrenching itself in power and leading the peasantry after it, the {can and must build up a socialist society. But does that mean that in this way the proletariat can | Secure a complete and final victory for Socialism; i.e.; can it definitely set up Socialism with the forces of only one country and fully guar- jantee that country against inter- vention, which means against res- |toration? That would require vic- |tory for the revolution in at least several countries. It is therefore the essential task of the victorious revolution in one country to de- velop and support the revolution in others. So the revolution in a vic- By William SCIENCE and Montgomery Brown HISTORY : FOR GIRLS and BOYS = I claim that this is the first book of its kind for the youth of the world and that it is the only book which meets their greatest cultural needs in this revolutionary century —W.M.B. . * . A $1.50 book for 25 cents, five copies for $1.00, stamps or coin; paper bound, 320 pp., 27 chap. * . . Money refunded if after examination the book is not wanted and is returned in good condition. The Bradford-Brown Educational Co., Galion, O. Little Lefty (' GONNRE “TRY -fo FIND A HOME FoR You~ werd us! NLL HIOE You IN “TH! CELLAR. “TILL | FINO OUT HOW MOM FEELS No Bargain! ON Such aS IT iSs— KEEP Your MIND THERE ISN'T) Food ENOUGH IN YOUR DINNER? by del "HOLY Smoxe ! n't THouGHT | WAS DOW! “HAT Peoctt f FavoR / Meridel Le Sueur | Questions and Answers proletariat of a victorious country | tl Conference EPORTS of the artists’ commis« sion—which included Santos Zins Maurice Merlin, Stanley De- Graff, Gilbert Rocke and Joe Jones from the Midwest—revealed tho effectiveness of a revolutionary pro- gram in winning the economic de- mands of hundreds of artists and in turning them against war and fascism. Reports by Boris Gorelick of the Srowth of the Artigas Union in New York, and by Gilbert Rocke of the development of the Chicago Artists Equity, demonstrated the vast opportunities for the organi- zation of ar on an economic basis. Joe Jones—whose mural in e St. Louis Old Courthouse was the center of a bitter struggle—told of local experiences in organizing the artists. In one report, Jack Kainen ana d the dangers of the rise of a national-chauyinist school of painting in this country. One of the most eloquent ad- dresses was made by A. Trachten- berg, who stressed the importance of a creative revolutionary litera- ture in the fight against the en- emies of the working class. He joined in denouncing the sectarian- ism of the 1 movement, pointing out th we frequently underestimated radicalization of American writers and artists Joseph North dealt with the im- portance of the New Masses in winhing the middle-class intellec- tuals and professionals away from fascism and reaction. He called upon the cultural movement to essume a more active part in exe tending the influences of the maga< zine. ‘HE organizational commissision, which included representatives from clubs throughout the country, stressed the necessy of accelerat= ing the peculiar development of the John Reed Clubs in or autonomous groups of writ artists; and of concentrating expression through craft media as the unique contribution of the clubs to the revolutionary movement. Th organization commission propos: concretely, that each craft grour should adopt a craft task dealing with the general subject of the ,,| Struggle against war and fascism; and that creative workers outside the organized working class movye- ment should be invited to con- tribute to these projects. Jan Wittenber, Chicago artist, reported on the Hilisboro ca: Santos Zingali, on the recent Mil= waukee case in which he was in- volved; M. Reynolds, on the terror against the Carmel J. R. C. at the time of the San Francisco general Strike. A resolution pledging the active support of the clubs in the campaign against the criminal syn- dicalist laws was adopted. Other resolutions called for ex tending the circulation of Internd+ tional Literature and the New Masses; for a creative reportage contest for worker-writers; for as- sistance to the German reyolu- tionary writers by translating and publishing their work; for the winning of Negro intellectuals on the basis of a partial acceptance of the J. R. C. program, étc. The concluding address was made by Orrick Johns, who was elected national executive secretary. He stated that the new national com« mittee—which include Pheip. Hayes, Gorelick, Jones, Le Sue Romaine, Rocke, Wright, Ba Calmer, etc.—would take the ini- tiative in sponsoring a broad con- gress of American writers to be iheld in New York early in 1935. torious country ought not to be | considered as a self-contained unit, but as an auxiliary and a means of hastening the victory of the pro= letariat in other countries.” (P. 43.) | My question is, then, how does |the above statement reconcile itself |with the fundamental task of the second Five Year Plan, which is to “build a complete, classless, Sociale ist society."—I. §. Answer: From the fragment. of quotation that you give in your stetement that the fundamental |task of the Second Five Year Plan is to “build a complete, classless, Socialist society,” you have probe | ably made one of two possible mis=" | takes. | The first is that the quote should |read “build towards a complete, Classless, Socialist society,” or the sense of the full sentence or para- graph is such. This is quite in ‘accord with the quote you give from “Foundations of Leninism.’? ‘ The second possibility is that the quote should read, “build a So= | cialist society,” but not a classless one. In the Soviet Union we have. classes yet and will have, but the- first condition for Socialism, namely; that the workers control the means of production exists. Consequentiy. we say that we have Socialism in the Soviet Union, but not classless Socialism. 4 For confirmation of this, you may. refer to Stalin's report to the 17th | Congress of the C. P. S. U. For> ‘the first, on page 70, “The Seven-_ teenth Party Conference declared - | that we are marching towards class= less Socialist socety.” For the sec- | ond, on page 37,“ . . . It will be seen that we have put an end tothe. | capitalist elements in industry and that the socialist system is now the” sole and monopolist system in our © industry.” 3 Del has entered the Socialist | © competition with his colleagues in the $90,000 drive! Quota—s500, | - “I have been waiting,” says his | - || communique from the art de- partment, “for two exciting births | —the new cight-page city ed@i- |< | tion, and, with all due modesty, | (| my own particular child, little || Lefty. Now that the worries of || parenthood are over—tet’s go!”