The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 30, 1934, Page 5

=. oa WORLD! By MICHAEL GOLD E WAS a short man with a coal-black beard, and a great impressive head, with eyes that could burn with indignation at any human wrong, or soften with pity or sparkle with brilliant wit. At any time, by selling him- self to the class he hated, he could have lived in comfort, had a fine home and all the luxuries of a well-to-do burgher. But he preferred poverty to intellectual treason; persecution to obedience to laws which he knew were only the legal front of an oppressive class; the hatred of the police and the professors to falsehood. He knew, in return for the tenacity and honesty with which he fought for the working class, exile, hunger, bitter insult, daily travail, arrest and death. But he never wavered in his convictions of the truth; he never altered or softened one word of his condemnation of the ruthless exploitation by the capitalists of the proletariat; he never sank into the swamps of scepticism or despair, or turned to the world which would have paid him well for ceasing his attacks upon them. He was one of the few truly great men humanity has known. He was one of the most profound philosophers in the history of human thought. And he was an unflinching revolutionist, an ardent fighter, an implacable opponent of all evil. His name was Karl Marx. The Humanity of Marx "| AM a man,” Marx once said in answer to a question put to him by his daughter, “and nothing human is alien to me.” Nothing was alien to this man. Nothing that men experience and suffer was unknown to him; nothing that was human escaped the interest of his thought. For first and foremost, he thought in terms of people, of what they lived for, what they suffered, what they dreamed of. His great theory of historical materialism which has helped in revolutionizing the scientific thought of the world, is based upon a simple observation, so simple generations of bourgeois professors find it impossible to see it despite their high-powered eyeglasses. It was, that at the basis of all civilization there lies the fundamental truth that the ways and methods that man pursues in getting his food, in finding shelter, in reproducing his kind, determines the social relations in which he lives. A simple thought. And yet, how many vials of hatred, how many kegs of poison, the professors have emptied on Marx in denial of this elementary truth which any child could see. And they emptied their hatred upon him because it was so simple and because it was a truth; and the professors are not paid their annual salaries to tell truths. On the contrary, chairs in philosophy are conferred upon the most skillful deniers of the truths of Marxism; this ts a funda- mental maxim of bourgeois universities. Marx As a Teacher LL his life long Marx fought the capitalist class. Early in life, he . perceived that any further growth in the progress of humanity, any change in society, must inevitably be wrought by the working class. Only the working class, Marx saw, could be the instrument which abolishes forever classes among men. The bourgeoisie is the Jast class in society which lives on the labor of any class, Only the proletariat, conquering society, appropriating the instruments of pro- duction, will be enabled to rule without living and feasting on the labor of another part of the population. And Marx fought untiringly to teach, to educate, to help develop the knowledge and understand- fg of the workers. He was always extraordinarily pleased when he learned that some worker, who had educated himself, had made efforts to write on po- litical or philosophical questions. He was mere pleased by this small beginning of hard-won knowledge by some tanner, like Joseph Dietzgen, than by the whole host of obscure, imposing tomes’ of the university gentry. He helped, he taught, he worked indefatigably as the leader of the First International, and as a lectureer, to further the education of the workers. About the reviews of his “capital” he once remarked it was | simpler for the workers and children to grasp his meaning than for all the learned professors put together. . . . Was Marx “Ambitious?” ‘HE bourgeois biographers would often have us believe that Marx was nothing but a cold, calculating monster, nothing but “a brain” and one who simply used the proletariat as a stepping stone for his own personal ambitions. This is typical of scoundrels who can see men in no other light than as images of themselves. Did Marx suffer as he did, endure poverty and persecution as he did, simply to further his own ambitions? If he had been ambitious, as these gentlemen are, he would have proceeded as they did on the road to success; by lying, treachery, boot-licking, blackmail, fraud, and exploitation. This is the way the ambitious become successful in the capitalist world. They said the same about Lenin, now about Stalin, they have always said it about labor leaders who were unwilling to compromise themselves or be bribed. It is impossfble for these gentlemen, as it is for all bourgeois and philistines, to understand devotion to a cause despite heaven and hell, except as a means to advance or enrich one’s own pocketbook. But Marx, unfortunately for these panderers, was not cut after their pattern. He was a man that only a revolutionary movement could produce; and a man of such caliber that he helped - produce, in. return, a revolutionary movement. * . . Marx Was a Man UT Marx was also cut after a pattern which our comrades them- selves at times fail to grasp. Marx at no time became an ingrown, blind bigot; he did not succumb to narrow sectarian understandings of people and events. He did not eschew “culture” in the name of “economics”; he did not sneer at emotions as though emotions were incompatible with being a true revolutionist. He lived fully, vitally, completely. He sometimes got drunk; he sometimes made mistakes; he liked a pretty face now and then. : Liebknecht describes an incident in his biography of Marx dur- ing which, in an English pub, Marx and his friends had “a bit too much,” A fight ensued; in order to save their necks the company went out into the street. “Now we were out in the street,” Liebknecht writes, “and Edgar Bauer stumbled over a heap of paving stones. ‘Hurrah, an idea!’ And in memory of mad student’s pranks he picked up a stone and clash! clatter! a gas lantern went flying into splinters. Nonsénse is contagious—Marx and I did not stay behind—we broke four or five street lamps.” Besides this, Marx loved poetry, knew whole acts of Shakespeare by heart, and wrote Capital in the bargain. I do not mean that every member of the Communist Party should start breaking street lamps because Marx did it once. Quite the contrary. I’m simply illustrating that Marx could laugh as well as fight, love as well as think. This is sometimes important to remember. DON’T LET HIM GET YOU, MIKE! It's Michael’s turn today to fall under the axe of Little Lefty. Gold has been. looking pale these days. Tom Butler esos -$ 1.00 Abe Ajay . % 25 House Party at Dora Bressler’s . + 12.00 Previously Rec'd. ...........55 . 665.40 To the highest contributor each day, Mike Gold will present an autographed eopy of his novel, “Jews Without Money,” or an original autographed manuscript of his “Change the World’ column, DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1934 ‘ Texas Legislature Plans $5,000,000 | Celebration While Unem Insane Sleeping in Jails; Hospitals Too Crowded = By LOUISE PREECE AUSTIN Texas.—Up Capitol Walk they marched—more than |five hundred starving men, women, jand children rallied by the Austin | Unemployment Council to demand | ‘relief. Pompous politicians turned to gaze in fear and amazement at |this ragged group of people. Negro | Workers marched along at the side of white workers; Mexican workers {comprised a large part of the line with the marchers, all of them swarming into the capitol building and toward the office of the State Board of Control, on the first floor. It was this department which was authorized last month by the legislature to administer relief, and to work toward the complete elimination of all those on relief rolls. Immediately thousands of destitute workers found themselves cut off from further relief. And state relief officials now found themselves face to face with many of those whom they were denying bread, The tramp of hundreds of feet on the stone floors of the building and the sound of angry chatter brought solons running from the second floor, where the legislature was holding its fourth special |“relief” session. Reporters deserted |the press tables and flocked down- stairs. Crying children milled about the feet of everyone. Police Not “Invited” But the crowd of marchers, in orderly fashion, waited in the cor- ridor outside the board of control Office while the committee to rep- resent it went inside. R. S. May- \hall, chairman of the Unemploy- |ment Council, shook his finger |under the noses of the officials, shouting. “Winter is coming, and jyet these people have been cut off | from relief. Many have not eaten in several days. Three hundred children in the Tenth Ward alone cannot attend school because they have no clothing.” beforehand to the hunger march, |had no time to appear on the jscene. The frightened relief offi- tation. “And we will return if you do not keep them,” declared May- hall as the delegation departed. A few days later two other groups of unemployed, numbering several hundred, went before the House of Representatives and the Senate demanding relief legisla- tion. Grimly they stood in the galleries and watched their leaders | below as they took the floor. |Grimly they departed after their demands were presented. One of them remarked, “We are going to eat if we have to fight to do it.” Legislature Plans 5 Million Dollar Celebration Rebellion seethes among the unemployed of Texas as groups |march on relief agencies demand- jing food and shelter. While the legislature sits in another special session, making plans for a $5,000,000 Centennial of Progress celebration in this state, the unem- |ployed are eating out of garbage cans. The special session of Sep- {tember cut down the relief ap- |propriation to $1,000,000 per month, | the legislature appropriating only | $6,000,000 out of an_ available $3,500,000 is “bread” bonds. | Approximately twenty per cent lof the $83,000,000 spent on “relief” |last year went for administrative |Purposes. This year, while a great- er number of people than ever are istarving, State Relief Administra- tor Adam R. Johnson warns, “We must be most judicious in admit- ting clients to the relief rolls.” The case load for October was 267,321, which is 2,000 more than in September, but eight per cent lower than was forecast. A larger load will occur with the ending of seasonal farm labor, which has |paid only starvation wages to al- |ready undernourished workers. Moreover, thousands could not. get jeven these jobs this year, as per- |sons thrown off relief rolls were forced to take them. Cotton Crop Slashed This miserable situation was es- pecially prevalent in the cotton industry. Texas grows one-third }of the nation’s cotton. This year jthe Bankhead measure and the draught slashed the cotton crop here nearly 50 per cent, the esti- mated yield being 2,345,000 bales as compared to 4,428,000 bales of last tin police, not having been invited | jcials made promises, without hesi- | year. Only one crop area reported is in better condition this year than jlast, and this is South Texas. And | the crop here has been offset by the Mexican side of the Rio Grande Valley which promises, for the first time in history, to have a larger yield than the American {valley. The Mexican landlords, taking advantage of the situation caused by the greed of the Amer- ot Be Unemployed family and ican landlords, are moving the Mexican cotton slaves from Texas into Mexico to grow the crops there. The general curtailment of cot- ton in Texas, in addition to keep- in November. season means the end of employ- | Ment for about 25,000 cotton. work- ers alone, and a total of 125,000 in- dividual workers for all the various crops. Wallace Calis Situation “a Blessing” realized their situation now that |the time has come for them to dis- pose of their surplus tax-exemption certificates. In Bexar county (in |South Texas), the farmers realized |that their county was short of its |cotton quota of a 9,030 baie allot- ment. They crowded angrily into The Aus-|the office of Fred W. Mally, county | agent. Mally, pleacing with them | not to get “panicky,” tried to |placate them with the promise that |those who had surplus certificates could dispose of them to those |who needed certificates, and in |this manner have their wants ful- filled. | In San Benito, just outside the | Valley, farmers took their shot- Short Wave The science of radio communica- tions is increasingly pressed into | service by the ruling class for the distortion of reality in its own in- terests. This column started last week with a bang. Here’s what one of the enthusiastic letters from a ham has to say: “So help me, it’s about time you thought of this idea, and let me tell you, it’s FB, in fact, |very FB. I am very much in line |fér forming a relay chain around the country and not only that but around the world. . . Any time you waat me, I'll be there with wings. My whole: ‘Junk Box’ is ai your disposal and, furthermore, jam willing to part with some greasy dollars for the building up of a club ‘Rig.’” And get a load from this com- mercial: “My nine years’ experi- ence as Morse operator for West- ern Union, Postal Telegraph, the railroads and the newspa;ers; my experience as telegraph repeater attendant for A. T. and T., and my experience as manual and me- chanical radio operator for Mackay Radio ave taught me all the tricks of the trade, and I should be more than willing to teach those |tricks to comrades.” wees * + Last week we quoted the radio communications laws that apply to amateurs. In short, an amateur may transmit any type of decent message (business, news) from 7:00-WEAF—Jack, 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-Front-Page Drama EXCELSIOR! Little Lefty beats them all today with $19, more than half coming from a group of T. B. patients in Westchester. The Big Shots may bend the knee! A. C. Miller ..... Workers of Prog. Fur Dying Shop .......... Little Lefty’s Westchester Admirers . ‘ Nature Friends Thaelmann Troop Previously received . Total .. Del will beautiful colored portrait of his cartoon charaeters every day to the highest contributor. Little Lefty Vip, “THIS ,\S HOW YOUR WA STOMACH LOOKS WHEN You fave | HAD R Goop LUNCH | ‘WJZ—Plantation Echoes; Mildred Bal- ley, Songs; Robinson Orchestra WABC—Just Plain Bill—Sketch 7:30-WEAF—Hirsch Orchestra ‘WJZ—Red Davis—Sketch WABC—Paul Keast, Baritone 1:45-WEAF—Uncle Ezra—Sketvh WOR—Dance Music ‘WJZ—Dangerous Paradise—Sketch ‘WABC—Boake Carter, Commentator 8:00-WEAF—Bourdon Orchestra; Jessica Dragonette, Soprano; Male Quartet; Football—Grantland Rice ‘WOR—Lone Ranger—Sketch WJZ—Jewels of Enchantment—Sketch WABC—Easy Aces—Sketch 8:15-WJZ—Dick Liebert, Organ; Arm- bruster and Kraus, Piano; Mary Courtlandt, Songs; Male Quartet WABC—Edwin C. Hill, Commentator 8:30-WOR—Katzman Orchestra; Lucille Peterson, Songs; Choristers Quartet ‘WIZ—Goodman Orchestra; Dwight Fiske; J. Harold Murray, Songs WABC-—Court of Human Relations {SUPPOSE Nou ‘HAVE NOTHING “0 ERT — MISS GOODHART HAS BEEN 1) SUSPENDED FOR’ INVESTIGRTION® ». MRCMERNY TAKES OVER HER CLASS |! recA (titre Life in the Sunny South | ing thousands from jobs, will make | the relief situation even more acute | The end of the crop| Small cotton growers have also| ployed Starve guns and stormed the office of the county agent with the statement that the feilure of the government Cops Getting Special Courses in Strike to send their tax-exemption cer- i tificates earlier had caused the Breaking jgathering of their crops to be re |delayed until they were part Then came the long looked-for ruined by the draught. And while rain, and thirty or more counties, in- this draught was hitting all of the Middle West, shriveling the crops and causing livestock to die for lack cluding the devastated Panhandle. received relief from the draught. At Tyler the sanctimonious Chamber of eee Commerce was having a board meeting when the first downpour hit. While farmers outside lifted their faces gratefully to the skies, these business men rushed to the windows of the office singing, “Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow.” But the destruction program con- tinued, although grass was begin-| ning to look green once more. Weary cattle gave lingering looks at crops which were beginning to |revive as they continued their) |march to the city abbatoirs. Now} |with the “surplus” of cattle de-| |stroyed, the government has started | |slaughtering the sheep and hogs.) Families Sleep on Open Highways The unemployed are facing a cold | winter without food and clothing, ! and many of them have no shelter Transient camps are full, and | homeless families are sleeping on the open highways in the chilly fall |weather, Infant mortality is on the | increase, tuberculosis and pellagra ear Dallas, Texas. shack ny me ,of water, Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace called the situation “a blessing.” As he dived deeper into plans to further reduce the are taking gigantic strides, and the “surplus,” in Texas alone one/hospitals no longer attempt to treat thousand _ persoi per day were |it, | being added to the relief rolls. Nearly two million cattle have been taken from Texas herds, |ranging from the famous Long- {horns to the Jerseys. Forty thou- |sand were on hand at one time when there were shipping orders jfor only 10,000 head. State Ad ministrator Adam Johnson fairly tore his hair. The feed bill for the There are so many insane that the poor wretches no longer able to retain their reason are sleeping on the floors of jails and outhouses | because the state hospitals are filled | to overflowing. If the jails are| crowded with the insane this win-| ter, then where will there be room| for the authorities to put the un- cattle was costing §10,000 @ day, employed arrested in ‘strikes and| and this was more than was per- | hunger demonstrations? mitved for the unemployed. The legislature is helping to} remedy this situation by the appro- priation of funds for more buildings, some of which are costing $90,000 each. Texas Experiences Strike Wave ‘Cattle Slaughtered Cattle condemned as “unfit” for consumption were slaughtered on the spot wherever possible. Long pits were dug, and the carcasses of | fl : relievi fresh meat thrown into them and |, Ndi Pah etcatt tot ap OR be | é "7 | jails for the future imprisonment covered with quicklime and earth | . i }of strikers. Their construction is while the hungry unemployed stood | + att r; timely in the eyes of the authorities, about and begged for it. It is re- tor'Vexae’t b hi ported that in many cases where |/0F Texas has heen Lidl SBateerns : fi vatei, (tory for strikes this year. In the qs ORS Scat uret snob i Inimedintely winter, there was the strike of the Mexican sheep shearers in North and West Texas. In the spring, | there was the strike on the gulf| coast of the longshoremen. In the | |summer, the Mexican pecan shell-| ers in San Antonio and the oil| workers in West Texas went on Strike. And this fall, the pecan} 1|Shellers again, the workers in the Radio News Houston Textile Mill, and the! anybody to anybody else within the | workers in the Dallas “hop” yards. | U.S. A. if he does not charge for it| Texas cops have enrolled in spe-| either directly or indirectly. On/cial short courses in the Texas | |this basis the conclusion was| agricultural and Mechanical Col-| |drawn that the primary and most |jege, a- state military school, in| | urgent task of every worker-ama-|order to be thoroughly informed on teur is to offer his services via this |strikebreaking. They are learning | column; the same applying to com-| photography, finger-printing, the | jmercials, ex-amateurs, ex-commer- | yse of tear gas, etc. On the faculty | jcials and interested clubs and in-|is Chief of Police “Boss” Thorpe of | dividuals. Austin, who helped to break up a} : hunger march led on the capitol | Here's good news for New York-|three years ago by the San An-| Reg There is a very good possibility tonio Unemployed Council. | of having a radio communications| state authorities and relief offi-| course at the Workers’ School next /ficials can no longer deny that | erm. The comrades in charge want Texas unemployed are starving, and | o know whether there would be|that those employed are getting |twenty students for such a class;|/dangerously near that stage. The| |those interested, please write to this | armed thugs of the government | |buried, the unemployed slipped out jat night to gather some, although the meat might be polluted, so great was their hunger. | are| column (please enclose a return | brazenly getting ready to handle the | |Postcard). Any workers’ school |situation ‘in their own manner. But | | which has tried or has such a course |the militancy of the working class |will please write to us telling of /cannot be crushed! their experience. * The New York Downtown Club meets every Friday night at 42 | Union Square, one flight up. We) have not heard from the Bronx) Club nor from the Cleveland Club (2). There is a small group in| | Brooklyn that wants to form a club: | they need more members. * 8 New Masses Presents | Challenge to Rice in Drama Controversy The New Masses, America’s only revolutionary weekly magazine, in the current issue enters the Elmer Rice vs. the dramatic critics con- | CMRDE I. A. OF BRONX, PSE |troversy with a suggestion of its GBACQ PSE QSL. N NEMZ WL/|own. Stanley Burnshaw, concluding | BE PBLSHD UNLES AUTHRZD.|a review on “Rice and the Revolu- DAH DIT DAH. | tion,” says: . . Rice assures us that he is| wholeheartedly an enemy of cap-| italism, and some of his past and recent plays, despite their ideological | confusions, provide excellent rea- | |son to take him at his word. Right | {now when he contemplates giving | up the drama, the New Masses} strongly urges him to reconsider. |Let him turn his back on Broad- jway, if he wants to, but why on) WOR—Lum and Abner—Sketch \earth shelve his playwright’s talent | WJZ—Phil Baker, Comedian |When an audience is hungering for pale ge en betta ponte the revolutionary drama—hundreds of 7 ne ‘o- |thousands _ litera. clamoring for eee * and Others; Gary! tore. The New Masses can assure PH ed saver Be \him whee ek i writes ie aes chai a \the revolution met wi pi era nia engs solid left-wing support. But we 10:15-WOR—Current Events—H. E. Read |Wwarn that this audience will not be 10:30-WEAF-—Finding Jobs For American | satisfied with plays that fail to go Bla iG sad to the core of a problem—such as| WsZ—The Message of Israel—Rabbi; Left Bank, which, as Rice con- Jonah B. Wise ceived it, is untouched by any rev- olutionary understanding; or Judg- ment Day, which, for all its anti- Fascism, is a needless confusion of 9:00-WEAF—Lyman Orchestra; Frank Munn, Tenor; Vivienne Segal, Songs WOR—Hilibilly Music WdZ—Harris Orch.; Leah Ray, Songs WABO—March of Time—Drama 9:30-WEAF—Bonime Orchestra; Pic and Pat, Comedians WABC—Kate Smith—Songs 11:00-WEAF—George R. Holmes, Chief Washington Bureau I. N. 8. WOR—News WJZ—Denny Orchestra BC. issues, Does Rice want this audi- 11:1 WEARPerdinende Orchestra ence? Can he—will he—yrite al WOR—Moonbeams Trio ' revolutionary play?” A Lesson for Mrs. Meany THINK I OVER TILL | ETT HAD GET Back! WHAT /\ warc A" p00 y| FELLER / I'LL SHOW MRS MEANY} WHAT'S GOING Yo HAPPEN | HAPPENS iF You ARE WHAT ? | FLASHES | ERE is a letter from an office) Stimulating Material On Theatre-Arts Front In Current New Theatr New Theatre Magazine, Dec., 1934. Vol I, No. 11. Publi League of W and Photo Dance Lea Reviewed by EDWIN ROLFE ITH the appearance of i cember brates its first birthday as magazine of the drama dance. Founded i mimeographed pe azine al k readers intensely problems it treats; ence was, by the very mimeo'd publication, t workers in the crafts with which it | dealt, It was not until the app of the printed publication whi know so well now that the physical barriers between the workers in the revolutionary t rts and the great potent 1gclass dience in Americe 0 crumble. This barrier no longer exists; ample au- testimony of this is the phenomenal growth in circulation of New T! tre from less than 2,000 a year to more than 10,000 today more vital proof of the prestige which the magazine and its allied groups enjoy have been the over- flow audiences which have cons: tently jammed New Theatre recitals at the Civic Repertory Theatre. All of this is not merely introduc- tory to the December number of New Theatre; it is essential that the dynamic and youthful forces active in the revolutionary theatre- arts front be properly understood if we are to gauge accurately the of existence, uses the magazine. and popularity 'HE December issue carries on practice of previous issu treats of the varied fields within its scope in a twofold manner—dividing its functions wisely by printing essays and reviews of interest to the theatre’s worker-audience and of guidance for the theatre workers themselves. In the latter category it prints “Stanislavsky’s Method of Acting,” from the notes of M. A Chekhov, a nephew of the Russian dramatist. I do not know how uni- versally these methods can achieve practical results. What is more im- portant is that articles such as these | open the for further discussion and experimentation among theatre workers. Another solid workmanlike article by Jane Dudley, a young dancer of much talent, discusses in clear ex- pository manner the specific ingre- dients of, and approach to, “The Mass Dance.” Here, too, the subject is open for discussion and experi- mentation. Herbert Kline’s article, “Writing for Workers’ Theatre,” appeals to America’s revolutionary playwrights to quit the easy path of cliched and | sloganized characters, which has re- tarded the. growth of the workers’ theatre movement in America for many years, much in the same way that a similar leftism in revolution- | ary fiction and poetry held back the left-wing literary movement for almost a decade. He urges men like John Wexley, Michael Gold, Virgil Geddes and Langston Hughes (many others whom he omits might consider themselves included) to “follow the examples of the revolu- write regularly for the amateur workers’ theatres as well as for the professional stage. .. .” He asks | affirmation Page 5 rt dramas the | yeti the worker-aud: the other content azine are highly a some cases importdnt. (Perh should not have made the a separation ence, most of the ma informative articles, review as I read on to theatre “A Little Child Shall the always enter: t For: alike ythe considers t to be a greater American movie-industry. views of the plays the month, by Ben Blake and Rob- ert Stebbins, respectively, I found to be among the most inci and stimulating contributions this issue. to e other pieces, “Robert Fla= Escape,” by Peter Ellis; “Pi or’s First Film,” by Bela Belas and “Dramatist in Exile.” by Rich- ard Peck provide valuable and necessary background for those in- in the modern film and The “dramatist in exile” is Wolf, whose “Sailors of be produced by the m on December 10. “Below hicago’s is the factual theatre group successfully initiated a mi ment which may succeed in fin break down race barriers in midwestern metropol Of the other contributions to th terested drama Priedrich U Evar Theatre Alice Mason-Dixon Line” account of how a workers’ issue, I found “The Snicke: Horses,” by Em Jo Ba cerpt from his play Clock” — disappointing; the contro- versy between John Howard L: son and Paul Sifton on the Siftons’ “Blood on the Moon” is somewhat Pointless to readers who have not seen the play, since the discussion obscures rather than clarifies the nature of the play itself. HERE ere still other articles and the usual brief notes and reviews, all of varying interest Harold Edgar, in a letter which appears in the December issue, up- braids the editors for what he con- siders the over-use of the word “revolutionary” in the magazine's contents. I suppose by this that he means there are too many exp) sions of generalized faith, of affir= mation in the political and aesthetia principles which guide the maga- zine. While it is true that the con- tinued reiteration of one’s faith alone would become meaningless and absurd in any magazine, I cm- phatically do not find this to be the case in New Theatre. It is necessary to reaffirm our position as frequent- ly and as effectively as possible, par- icularly today when the workers’ theatre movement is growing at an unprecedented rate; and when such is combined with the solid information and accurate di- rectives that New Theatre consist- ently prints, it makes for what, in my opinion, is one of the outstand- | ing magazines in the revolutionary | tionary dramatists of Furope, who | Cultural movement them to write plays “with real peo-/ thought to Ramsey? By worker which I hope will serve straddlers, Andre Sennwald of the New York Times: “After reading Andre Senn- wald’s glib rhapsodic praise of Lawrence Stallings’ The First World War, and after haying seen this film recently shown at the Rialto Theatre, I find myself unable to refrain from expressing my personal reactions to this picture. “When Hollywood varies its usual monotonous prexentation of the themes of sex and crime which make up nine-tenths of its entire output, it finds a very fer- tile field for sensation-mongering in the theme of war. But there is little that is new, and less that is significant, in this latest of- fering of the Fox Film Cor- poration. “After a hodge-podge of news- reel items showing the gathering war-clouds prior to 1914, there are offered for our delectation a few scenes of battle on sea and land, a prison camp, then scenes depicting the treatment of the by del | ple in them”; to include in their! and CLOSEUPS las the first popular blast against |that ace among unprincipled| | | | | | | | NOBODY'S Doesn't somebody ever give @ Total to date . $144.41 LENS wounded and the dead. Then more shooting, and finally the declaration of the Armistice. There is some slight reference to the Russian Revolution, for Holly- wood is ever impartial, and is moreover not ashamed to admit that Russia’s withdrawal from the war henefitted the German cause. (Incidentally, the showing of Lenin drew considerable applause from the audience, but this was apparently an unforeseen and unayoidable mistake.) As a fade- out we are shown an American soldier fraternally wringing the hand of a German. “This loosely-knit structure is somehow held together by the cynical voice of a narrator who, under cover of the pretense that he is profoundly shocked by the brutality and unnecessary suf- fering of the war, merely succeeds the better in furthering the illu- — sion that this war was caused ~ chiefly by the pig-headedness of the Kaiser, etc., ad nauseam, and that the world was only saved from the teutonic horror by the prompt and energetic action of the American forces. As a post- script, there is added one of those curious illustrations of what Holly- wood producers consider modern — cinematography, namely, in this instance, the .simultaneous pres- entation of pictures of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin with snatches of current events juxta- — posed in a careless fashion, and ending. as if to mollify such slight pacifist inclinations as the au- dience might possess, with the previously described fade-out of the American and the German shaking hands in comradely fashion, thereby guaranteeing, in some obscure manner that some- how eludes the und of the writer, the ‘keeping of the a peace.’ And it is this film which the phrase-monger Sennwald hailed as being anti-war in character when even the very, very liberal Mr, William Troy of the very, véry lib- eral Nation branded it as a piece of ideological “preparation for the Second World Was.”