The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 17, 1935, Page 5

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 1935 <*MON LET'S Go . “fo “HE HOTEL ey. OY A Plan for the President! by del | * Questions and | ee aueeay WASHINGTON AUDITORIUM e ME WHITE HOUSE! HOME OF fi WALL STREETS CHIEF EXECUTIVE. } it'Ll maKE A SWELL WORKERS CLUB WHEN WE TAKE Power! FoR worKers/ Change GercHa By MICHAEL GOLD HE web of evidence against Hauptmann, accused of the Lindbergh baby kidnap- ing, is being drawn tighter with every wit- ness. The weakness of the defense is demonstrated by the tactics used by Hauptmann’s attorney, the florid, windy shyster, Mr. Reilly. This eminent bunkshooter has been reduced to innuendo. Hauptmann was caught red-handed with the ransom money. This is the basic fact in his in- dictment that cannot be talked away. He has also been identified by Colonel Lindbergh and “Jafsie” as the man who received the money from them one dark night in a graveyard. Jafsie talked with the kidnapper for over an hour, face to face. Lindbergh only heard his voice. Yet they are sure Hauptmann is the criminal, but such identification, it seems to me, is always questionable. Under the stress of emotion, no human being can be said to be a scientific observer. If the verdict on Hauptmann depended only on this iden- tification, Hauptmann would be acquitted by any fair-minded jury. But there are so many other strongly circumstantial details against Hauptmann, including the fatal and established fact that the ransom money was in his possession, that big- mouth Reilly has been forced to trot out the whole bag of tricks that every shyster knows. * * * Amiable Old Imbecile ) keee his cross-examination Mr. Reilly has man- aged to slip dozens of hints that point to the most horrible suspicions. Every lawyer or this sort has a real Bowery melodrama mind. Among other things, Mr. Reilly has tried to make the jury sus- pect that that aged clown of the Bronx, Dr. Jafsie Condon, is really the brains of a gang of desper- adoes who did the kidnapping, and that with the most marvelous and melodramatic criminal cunning known in modern times, he has managed to ap- pear as the chief accuser of the innocent Haupt- mann. Even an American jury will net swallow this, however, Jafsie is an amiable old irabecile, straight out of the plays of Gilbert and Sullivan. He has been a school-teacher for many years, and he is also a Bronx patriot. On the witness stand, he could not resist putting on a show that would have gone well in any vaudeville house. And his voice trembled whenever the Bronx was mentioned; this amazing old character referred to that region of weedy lots, apartment houses and baby carriages, as the beautiful Bronx, the most beautiful bor- ough in the world! Reilly tries to make this man appear as a kind of super Al Capone. This is, of course, just a bit of courtroom farce. There have also been some sinister hints against Lindbergh. A Tarnished Galahad 'HIS famous flyer, who is the idol of America, is certainly no plaster saint to those of us who can see an inch beneath a surface. Lindbergh, in his own way, has been traitor to a great ideal. His father, the Congressman, was a brave and un- compromising progressive, who spent his life fight- ing the bankers and the trusts, and concluded his honorable career by standing out, with a few other honest men at Washington, against Woodrow Wil- son's and J. P. Morgan’s unholy war. But the son, from the first moment that he came into the public eye, has associated with all that is reactionary and plutocratic in American life. His solitary flight across the Atlantic was certainly one of the remarkable feats of the century. Lind- bergh became at once the symbol of everything that is clean, brave and youthful, a Galahad of the air. But he allowed Herbert Hoover to use his glamor when that flunkey of big business needed votes badly. Lindbergh, the Sir Galahad, has also allowed Limself to be used to cover up the racketeers in American aviation who were growing rich on gov- ernment subsidies. He has never uttered a single word in defense of any American liberties, but in- variably, whenever he takes a public stand, is a willing tool of the Tory gang that exploits America. Bunk and Baloney LL this we know, but when the Reilly wind- bag tries to start a whispering campaign that maybe Lindbergh himself had the baby kidnapped, that perhaps it was an illegitimate baby, etc., etc., one can only say, bunk and boloney! To begin with, wealthy people have much easier ways of dis- posing of unwanted babies; all they need to do is hire a lawyer like Reilly, and he will suggest a thousand devices. Again, if Lindbergh had been so insane as to go to such an extreme, granting the ridiculous hypothesis that the baby was illegitimate, how does Hauptmann come into the picture? Where did he get the ransom money? If Lind- bergh was his accomplice, would he not say so, since it would save his life? Would not Reilly have a certain victory if he had this ace card? Would he need whisper, slander, innuendo, all the stop- thief tactics of the clever thief he is now using? * * * Cold As a Banker’s Heart 'T IS all bunk. And the trial itself, with the mil- lions of words the “free” and proud American press is spreading, like manure over broad acres, on the American mind, is the supreme capitalist bunk. ‘When one sees a newspaper these days with great solid pages of type devoted to every trivial angle of this trial, one is sickened by the hypocrisy of capitalism. A poor little baby is kidnapped for money by a dollar-fiend, and then murdered. This is surely most foul, and something must be written about it. But according to government reports, more than a million other babies in this country are suffering from permanent malnutrition, which means they are slowly starving to death—growing up with rickets, tuberculosis, asthma, and the dull, backward minds of the underfed. You would think the newspapers would also shriek this from the housetops, this great crime against the human race and against America. Hypocritically, they are indignant over baby-kid- napping. But mass-murder of the babies of the nation leaves them cold as a banker's heart. They can work up no sympathy over malnutrition and unemployment. It isn’t news. It doesn’t sell papers. Besides, it is “propaganda,” and they be- lieve in art for art’s sake. Also, they believe in the system that murders babies for profit, these Hearsts, Ochses and Whitelaw Reids of journalism. Some day they will stand in the dock, like Haupt- mann, before a working-class jury, and answer for their daily crimes against humanity, World! | Gee LEFTY IS EXHAUSTED AND | EVEN ~WE MASTERFUL SPEECHES CAN'T KEEP HIM AWAKE [Editorial in ‘Pravda’ Considers Picture | ‘Political Event’ By Vern Smith | MOSCOW, U.S.S.R.—The latest | Soviet film, “Chapayev,” has, as| | Pravda stated in an editorial de- j voted to it on Nov, 21, “become a} political event.” | I think this fact caught every | one by surprise. At any rate, no | particular preliminary advertise- ment was given the production, and very little was heard about it while | in the process of photographing. | “Chapapev” is not attracting the | |attention it gets only because it is | | particularly outstanding for pho-! tography. The matter is somewhat deeper. The producers, the two/| brothers Vassiliev, conceived the idea of a film story absolutely his- torically accurate of the last days of one of the many Red Partisan lead- jers killed during the Civil War. Magnetic Leader The man selected was Chapayey, | an uneducated but personally mag- netic type, born leader and strate- | gist, who joined his band of several | hundred to the Red Army and con- |ducted operations in the southern Urals. The film shows how, chiefly through the activity of the political commissar Furmanoyv attached to his squadron, the young Soviet state and the Communist Party led this at first undisciplined and not very well politically grounded nat- ural leader past one pitfall after another, and brought out all that | was best in him, Especially did they | once save him from the fatal politi- | cal mistake of raiding the live stock! |of the peasants for food for his forces, Chapayev, himself, of course, was | splendid material, and the picture \brings out his“ determination, his fiery zeal, combined with simple democracy among his men when off | duty, and care for their comfort. The picture is important, too, for |its correct evaluation of the forces | As says one of the many letters to the newspapers from workers who | took part in the Civil War: “I espe- | | cially like the way they show the white gloves on, but courageous, Sly, and fighting recklessly for their UNCLE JOHN, | arrayed against the workers’ state. | WHIZ, “THAT AIN'T “he WHITE SCENE from ‘CHAPAYEV,’ SOVIET FILM PLAYING AT THE CAMEO —— ie _ Chapayey's orderly Petya and Anna the machine-gun girl, caught in a moment of relaxation. ‘ (Courtesy of Soyouzphoto) | privileges, tories were not easy to achieve.” | Living History | The historical accuracy of the film is guaranteed not only by the |fact that it is based on the book i written about Chapayev by this same Furmanov, and on unpublish- ed diaries of Furmanov’s, which his still living wife placed in the hands of the producers, but on the con-/| stant supervision of every scene by | men and women who themselves | took part in those very same events | | enemy, not as foolish cowards, so|in person and in grim reality. The| grad and Moscow, simultaneously. that people will think we won with | picture is a segment of living his-|The second night twice as man} j tory, every single thing happening | ‘just as it actually did in real life, CHAPAYEY, Amkino’s American premiere, produced by Lenfilm, Leningrad, U.S.S.R. Directed by the Brothers Vassilyev. Now play- ing at the Cameo Theatre. Reviewed by DAVID PLATT “(HAPAYEV” is a completely new kind of film that has come out | of the Soviet Union and one of the | happiest achievements of this great | art. With “Chapayev” the Soviet cin- ema has thrown fetters and rules of pees ice taco techn Chapayev commanding the at- tack against the white guards. (Courtesy of Soyuzphoto) long standing to the winds and gone out on a fresh path and pro- duced a real mass film from below, without noticeable posture or ar- tistry from on top, and with a simplicity and originality of attack that knocks all previous conceptions of film making into a cocked hat. “Chapayev” gives us the weak- nesses, humors, heroisms, tragedies, gaieties, strengths of the masses more satisfyingly rounded out into a complete picture, than any past Soviet film. Gone is the impersonal approach of the heroic period of the early films where the workers were invariably treated as symbols rather than as humans, and often baldly stylized at the expense of a more realistic picture of the time and man. But here in “Chapayey,” the emphasis is overwhelmingly on the Chapayev’s Fighting Spirit Concentrated Revolutionary Ardor One sees that our vic- | But even this is not exactly new, | the same idea has been carried out | | in other films, “Ten Days That ; Shook the World,” for example, and in parts of still other pictures, like “The End of St. Petersburg.” | What is new is the sudden, en- | tirely spontaneous and overwhelm- | | ingly enthusiastic acceptance of the | | picture by the Soviet Union, | Box Offices Besieged The film was put on in three or | four of the main theatres of Lenin- | people as could get in were besieg- | ing the box office for tickets. It is; playing now in every first class moving picture house in the me- tropolis, and there are still the same terrific crowds, long, long lines waiting hours before the show opens, trying to get tickets. White guard band. When you sit in the theatre hear a muttered expletive from your neighbor, an old Red Army man, as he sees the Red sentries fall asleep while the White cavalry steals up for its raid on Chapayev's camp. A groan goes up from the whole theatre as the wounded Cha- payev is finally killed by machine gun fire as he swims a river after human side and we are given an jastonishing insight into the lives |of soldiers and peasants during a | severe crisis which no medium but the film could ever offer so satis- factorily. What is important in “Chapayev” is the absolute freedom from schematic formulations of character or incident of any kind. In fact, | the characters appear to grow and mature right under our eye. They are not static types but human beings growing and changing as their relationships with other living beings change and grow. We see this clearly revealed in the wonderful effect of revolution- | ary thought and action, in the col- lisions of Chapayev; the instinctive |but undisciplined revolutionist, and |Furmanov, the Red Commissar; | and in the beautiful changing rela- | tionships of Chapayev’s guileless or- derly with Anna, the machine-gun girl, As a result of this dialectic | process we see Chapayev emerging ‘||as a figure of truly heroic propor- | tions, the very marrow of revolu- | tionary ardour. ie ne wat is more there is no effort to deform the picture by exag- gerating one side at the cost of the | other. The White guards in “Cha- ; Payev” are presented in a clear, recognizable light, easy to find and fight, without caricature. The un- disciplined Red partisans are shown | in an equally realistic light. Cha- | payev's weaknesses are not spared. Backwardness among the peasants becomes something to be fought not by evasion but by clarification. But | the triumph of “Chapayev” is in its uncanny authenticity and honesty. In conclusion, the playing of Ba- bochkin as “Chapayev” is one of the masterly performances of mod- | ern cinema. The direction of the cast is effortless and spontaneous to a high degree. There is no striv- ing for effect. No beautiful photo- graphs or over-expert lighting ef- | fects necessary to most films which start at the top rather than at the bottom. | As a result there is intensive ac- | tion in the film from start to} finish, every scene significant to the | whole and every moment dominated | by the fighting spirit of Chapayev, the people's hero, as he begins first | to darken then to brighten under the guiding light of Furmanoy, the Red vers Pays Glowing Tribute ToChapayev Film | JMMEDIATELY after the release |4 in Soviet Russia of “Chapayev,” one print was sent to the Chapayev Division, where four showings were | held for the men and their officers. | The picture was received with great | enthusiasm by the Red Army mass- es, and lively discussion followed. | In the name of the men and of- ficers of the 25th Rifle Division (Red Banner Order of Lenin), a letter was sent to the Leningrad jcinema trust, in which the Chap- |ayev Division thanked the directors Vassilyev and the entire producing collective for the splendid film that |Teproduces the heroic struggle of |the Red Army and the partisans | in the epoch of the civil war. The | |men and officers of the 25th Di- | | vision ask for the speedy release of |a silent version to be shown to new soldiers and the farm collective villages. see 'HE Leningrad Association of the) Russian Revolutionary Cinema to the Directors Vassilyev of the film “Chapayev”: “The secretariat con- gratulates you on your great crea- tive triumph. Your ‘Chapayev’ | marks a new stage in the victorious | |development of our cinema art, a |new and decisive step forward on he path of the establishment of Socialist realism. The joy in this victory is shared by all creative workers. Its great deserved success with applauding audiences testifies that the highly artistic revolution- ary film so long desired by the pro- letarian masses has finally ap- peared, | “We hope for continued success in the creation of new films, not less | worthy of our great epoch. | “The Secretariat: EISENSTEIN, | DOVJENKO, KULESHOV, GOLOVNYA, MUTANOV, MARYAN, RAZUMNY, ROS- | HAL, VARLAMOV.” Book To Be Published On Life of Chapayey International Publishers an- nounces the publication in the near future of a book on Chapayev, written by D. Furmanov, who was | attached to the Red Division com- | manded by Chapayev in the civil) war. Red Commissar, until he takes on the proportions, as Eisenstein cor- | rectly noticed, of a character out | of Shakespeare's great historical Father Always F inet To Sing a Film ‘Chapayev’ Greeted by Soviet | Working Masses with Overwhelm ing Enthusiasm Consiruction Supervised By Participants in Actual Events re dis} And, ed by the sur- of course, ap- plause when another force of Red Cavalry brought up by a message carried by a woman member of Chapayev’s squadron wipes out the Enthusiasm Reflects Successes As mentioned above, the film be- came such a sensation that after it had been running two we 5 Pravda devoted an editorial to it, and that is something, because Pravda editorials never deal with non-essentials. Both the editorial and the flood of workers’ letters to the papers show clearly that the interest in this picture is not for itself alone, good as it is. It is a reflection of the knowledge that this year the Soviet kolkhozes in a num- ber of districts have for the first time in history smashed the men- ace of famine brought on by drought, that the transport indu: try begins to work normally wher as it was always hitherto a w point in Soviet economy, that now Soviet blast furnaces are producing some 33,000 tons of pig iron a day, 105 per cent over the plan, along with over 30,000 tons of steel, 103 |per cent of the plan, that the |Donbas mines are producing over | 180,000 tons of coal a day, over 100 |per cent of their plan, that the shops are full of articles of general use with their number, variety. and | quality increasing daily, that hun- | dreds of thousands of news en- gineers and technicians, sons of worker and peasant families are taking over the management of this enormous industry, that the whole |face of the country and city is +changing for better because of the terrific building campaign, not only | of factories but of dwellings, clubs, | and amusement places. Socialist construction has won, |and the Soviet worker and farmer | are beginning to reap the fruits of victory; they feel it in their im- the working masses of Watching it, it is not unusual to | proved meals and they show it in| their dress. The election campaign | now going on has made them still more realize that they are Masters | of the country. The film, “Cha- payev,” came along just in time to give an opportunity to express their loyalty, their confidence, and their | enthusiasm for the things for which ' Chapayev died. nd Dance, Says Chapayev’s Son IT cannot be too strongly empha- sized that the hero of “Chapayev, The Red Commander,” which is now being shown at the Cameo, ac- tually existed, just as he is por- trayed in this remarkable film. The son, Alexander Vassilyevich Chap- ayev, makes this fact immeasurably real, Alexander is now 23 years old, the mechanization and motorization of the Red Army. Listen to him as he recalis his childhood memories of his father: “I. remember my father’s first days in the Red Guard regiment. It Hee in Saratov, towards the end of 1917, “My father took me with him to the city. They gave him a com- pany of untrained men, chiefly peasants, and he had to turn them into a fighting detachment. “T lived in the barracks with my father. On the drill ground, and during the instruction hours, I al- ways observed the bearded grown- ups carefully, as they learned how to walk. One of them said: “Tye been walking for thirty years, and I thought I knew how But Chapayev says — learn, yor don’t know how to walk yet.’ eed “tT seemed to me that my father was very strict with his pupils. He made them repeat the same movement many times, often rais- | ing his voice; he was very rough with them, But he had no sooner given the order, ‘Dismissed,’ then he dronped his ‘tone of command,’ and if was difficult to distinguish in the mass of laughing and danc- ing s¢idiers their superior, who a minute before had been so stern and exacting. My father was always the first one to sing and dance.” From his father’s comrades, Alex- ander has learned how he became a member of the Bolshevik Party.) In 1917, in full uniform, with all the stripes he had won on the Aus- trian front, Chapayev went to the chief of staff of the 218th Ermo- shenk Regiment, who was the head of the soldiers’ revolutionary com- | mittee. Chapayev pointed to the medals and decorations on _ his | breast and said: “I want to join the Party, These chronicles. give me a right to it.” LOSE upon the first showings in Soviet Russia of “Chapayev” came a flood of reminiscences by | former comrades of the Red Com- |mander. One of them relates that | @ 13-year old girl, Lidia Yagonuva, | following interview with his eldest |who acted as Chapayev’s orderiy, | | broke her wooden camp spoon and | | without much hesitation went into |the home of some peasant and | “requisitioned” a metal spoon. In jand a student of the Academy for|the next village, many miles dis- | tant, the Division stopped to eat. | Chapayev stared at the new spoon. | -_ i um Chapayev'’s children, Klavdia | _ and Alexander Chapayev, dis- | eussing the remarkable film cen- | tering about their famous father, | | (Courtesy of Soyuzphoto) | “Where did you get that? What have you done with the wooden | one?” | Blushing young girl volunteer told the Com- |mander what she had done. Chap- | ayev’s face grew red with anger, and | his eyes biazed. | “Gallop right back and return the | spoon to its owner!” | Another incident: Chapayev was | standing in a small boat and super- vising the construction of a pon- | | toon bridge over the White River, | when suddenly a bit of shrapnel | | wounded him in the head. Though | jhe was covered with blood, the} |Commander cried out to his fright- ened men: | and stuttering, the , it's nothing, keep | ing, children. I needed this | blood-letting. I haven't done any- thing, haven't smelled gun-powder, ‘for two weeks!” Answers This department appears daily on the feature page. All questions should be addressed to “Que> tions and Answers,” ¢ /o Daily Worker, 50 Ease 13th Street, New York City. Question: Has the AAA ers?—Newcomer. benefited the farms Answer: The processing taxes levied on essential food products have increased the cost of living for the thout benefiting the poor or small farmer. The money from the taxes and the other bonuses went in the main to the rich farmers and to the ba and insurance companies In 1934 th come was arol farmers’ share of the national ine d 9.5 per cent although about 24 per cent of the working population was on farms, This does not give a true picture of the poverty o! f the small farmer ince the bulk of the income went to farmer In cotton some 200,000 were driven off the land as the res t rate restriction of produce tion Las Novem there were 1,700,000 rural families (about 7,000,000 persons or more than 25 f the farm population) dependent on d of share croppers, tenant n laborers and poor farmers. mnment s of small farmers showed that the return pe: rm to these families in 1933 was 07 56 for the entire year after all ex- penses paid In the farmers are staggering under a fe debt of between $8,000,000,000 and $9,000,000,700 plus a short term debt of about $4,000,000,000. Despite the ruinous consequences of the drought which accentuated the destructive policies of the AAA. tae Roosevelt administration has an- nounced that it will press its policy of driving the poor farmer off the land. The Department of Agriculture in its latest proposal has indicated that 600,000 more farm families are to be taken out of production and herded on sub-existence home- steads. The aim of the A.A.A. has always been to strengthen the position of the rich farmers at the expense of the poor and small farmer, and to fasten more securely the control of the Wall Street monopolies over agriculture. Laboratory and Shop By David Ramsey EXPLODING A FICTION It is a favorite fiction of the ruling class that they constitute a superior caste who are socially and biologically predestined to rule their inferiors, The theory of the ruling elite is an important part of fascist ideology, and is used by the fascists to justify their reducing the working class to a state of servitude. There is, of course, no basis in fact for the nonsense that the bourgeoisie are superior to the working class. But since this is so commonly propagated by the capitalists and their apologists, it is well to cite the recent observations of Dr. David Wechsler, chief psychologist of Bellevue Hospital, on this point. He says that “it is not true that there is inevitably a small percentage who are congenitally so superior to others as to make them the inevitable rulers of their fellow-men.” He further points out that his studies have shown that the ruling class is not composed of superior individuals. We all know that there are physical and mental differences between individuals. Some are stronger; some have better memories; some have better creative ability. But with the exception of the genius and the defective, the differences between men do not affect the fact that the average person is fully capable of participating in social and poli- tical activity. The experiences of the Soviet Union have shown that once the masses are freed of the curse of capitalism, the new society frees and de- velops the latent talents in them that capitalism suppressed. : . . SOME NEW FABRICS Three interesting new fabrics will bear watch- ing. One is woven of copper wire and ordinary textile fibers such as cotton, silk or rayon. It can be woven or knitted without svecial machinery. The fine copper wire prevents shrinking or stretch- ing, and is able to conduct electrical currents. A rug made of this new material could be plugged into the nearest socket and heated to warm the room. Bed clothes could also be kept at proper temperatures. Heated clothing could become prac- tical and have wide-spread use in both outdoor and indoor work. The fabric in airplane wings could be kent warm to prevent dangerous ice forma- tion. All of these are possibilities whose introduc- tion will be conditioned by the vested interests which they will threaten. A second fabric which is already produced com- mercially in England is reputed to be creaseproof. In the finishing stage the textile is treated with a resin which makes light materials proof against all kinds of creases. Since it cannot be applied to heavy materials, the problem of baggy pants still awaits a solution. A third fabric is water-repellant. The treatment can be applied to almost any fabric from silks to cloth. A colloidal wax in a water solution is ap- plied between washings, and makes the material water-repellant without injuring it in any way. EN do, President National Association of Manufra. 9:00-WEAP—Capt. Henry's Show Boat WOR—Hillbilly Music WJZ—Death Valley Days— Sketch WABC—Gray Orch.; An- nette Hanshaw, Songs; TUNING 7:00 P.M.-WEAF—Himber Orch, WOR—Sports Resume—Stan Lomax WJZ—Amos 'n’ Andy— Sketch WABC—Myrt and Marge— Sketch 7:15-WEAF—Jack Smith, Songs Walter O'Keefe WOR—Lum and Abner— 9:30-WOR—To be announced Sketch WJZ—Puture of the NRA— WJZ—Concert Orch WABC—Just Plain Bill— Sketch 7:80-WEAF—Minstrel Show WOR—The Street Singer WABC—Nick Lucas, Songs WJZ—Shirley Howard, S. Clay Williams, Chair- man National Industrial Recovery Board, at Annte al Convention National Retail Dry Goods Ass6t., Hotel Pennsylvania WABC—Waring Orch. Songs 9:45-WOR—Al and Lee Retz» ‘WABC—Boake Carter, Com- er, Piano mentator 10:00- WEAF—Whiteman’s Mue 8:00-WEAF—Vallee’s Varie- sic Hall; Helen Jepson, ties WOR—Little Symphony Orch., Philip James, Cond.; Charles Fite, Piano WJZ—Forecast of 1935— ‘Talks by Leaders in Va- rious Fields cf Endeavor WABO—All-Girl Orch. and Chorus, direction Phil Spitainy 8:30-WABC—Johnson Oreh.; Edward Nell, Baritone Edwin ©. Hill, Narrate Speaker, Clinton LL. Ba Soprano, and others WOR—Channing Choir WJZ—Melodic Strings 10:15-WOR—Current Events— H. EL Read 10:30-WOR—Kemp Orch. WJZ—The AAA as a Recov= ery Measure—Joseph 8. Davis, Director Food Re- search Institute, Stanford University; Charles J. Brand, Executive Director Code of Fair Competition for Fertilizer Industry WABC—Stevens Orch,