The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 18, 1935, Page 5

* ie DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1935 Page 5 By MICHAEL GOLD | EWIS MUMFORD has established him- self, through many interesting books, as a keen and provocative critic of Amer- ican capitalist culture. I have watched his work with the per- sonal interest that one feels for the friends of one’s youth. Yeats ago, Lewis and I and a group of other young New Yorkers, including, strangely enough, that sterling conservative, Henry Hazlitt, of the New York Times, were members of a kind of informal hiking club. Most of us worked during the week and Sun- days we would walk down into Staten Island, stopping in the afternoon at some French tavern in the midst of green fields, where for fifty cents you could get a sevén-course dinner and a bottle of wine. It was. talk, talk, talk all the day. We were all in that intense period of one’s life when the mind is not yet formed, and every idea is as chal- lenging as the taunt of a private enemy. Henry Hazlitt had a full crop of hair at nine- teen. He was an attractive youth who had much of the precocity of genius. His mind seemed the keenest and most logical among us, but even then there was an unnatural caution in all his opinions. This youth was conservative as any New England grandad. Hazlitt never made any of the gener- ous mistakes of youth. He was never led into any of those experiments that make the world go forward. It was perhaps inevitable that he would wind up his days in a premature middle- age writing capitalist editorials for the New York ‘Times. Lewis Mumford was at the other extreme. A voluminous reader and ardent student, he was al- ways on fire, with ideas, a passionate reformer whose approach to the world was through esthetics. For a lad raised under the Ninth Avenue elevated, he was curiously British, and was saturated with Ruskin, William Mortis, and Bernard Shaw. His talk, poetic, copious and brilliant, was an intel- lectual delight, and reminded one of Shaw. . * * Planning Esthetic Utopias HADN'T the college training or background of Mumford, but even then I sensed strongly the quicksands of unreality that lay under the flash- ing stream of his words. Lewis Mumford wanted & socialist world as much as I did, but he couldn't be convinced that it took the working class to bring it in. He was forever planning glorious esthetic utopias that would prove so irresistible to the middle class that they would shed all their wealth and their bourgeois habits of mind, as in a great camp-meet- ing revival, and suddenly come to God. But life doesn’t work out that way, and today we see many of these esthetic utopians, men like Ezra Pound and Gorham Munson, drifting into fascism. A man like Pound uses the same whirl- ing rhetoric to glorify Mussolini that he once used in homage to Brancusi. Pound never had faith in the creative powers of the working class or any understanding of its historic role. His class snob- bery proved stronger than his poetic “democracy,” and he landed where many of these gentlemen will be found when the fascist assassins and torture squads go hunting workers and inteTiectuals—in the camp of the bandits. Lewis Mumford is bitterly anti-fascist, as so many intellectuals can well be, without understand- ing that it is even impossible to defeat fascism without an organized working class. He thinks you can build a house with only the architect. * * * Out of Touch with the Masses LL these memories of Mumford return as the result of a recent exchange of letters. I should like to quote @ paragraph or so of his letter to me: “T have, I think, been growing steadily, toughen- ing up, getting firmer, getting a betier hold upon both outer and inner worlds since 1925 or there- abouts; how much of that you have seen I haven’t the faintest notion. One of the difficulties is that much of my work gets published in professorial magazines. To which you will of course retort that it is my old habit of being out of touch with the masses. And to which I answer: No, no honest thought that has a grip on reality is ulti- mately out of touch with the masses. “I wasn’t one of the booze boys that stopped thinking after the Armistice; I wasn’t one of the prosperity boys, who thought heaven and earth were witnesses to the New Capitalism; in March, 1920, six months before the bust, I said in an article in the Herald Tribune that the whole pros- perity business was a fake, which should deceive no one. By the same token, I didn't suddenly be- come one of the Communist boys, when the stock- market broke and jobs in advertising agencies got scarce, “But I cannot swallow Marx or Lenin whole... and I think I am of service in reaching the en- gineers and technicians and administrators and scholars and scientists...” * . . Socialism Without Workers a COURSE Lewis Mumford has been doing a great socializing job in reaching this class, and breaking the intellectual hold of capitalism on their minds, But he still believes you can have Communism without a party that can organize it, or a social- ist world without the workers. Is it enough to- day that one attack capitalism, or attempt to in- spire a vague revolutionary mood in the middle class? Whoever does not also teach them the fun- damental truth of socialist politics, that the work- ing class is the historic class that alone can usher in socialism, is he not leaving them unprepared for the specious logic of fascism? Writers like Ramon Fernandez and Romain Rolland have begun to see this clearly, and I am still as sure as I was years ago that not seeing this plain is the fatal lack in Mumford’s philosophy. I hope he will be present at our Writers’ Congress in May, where all this will be discussed. For the First Time in English LUDWIG FEUERBACH The classic exposition of dialectical materialism, for the first time in complete, ungarbled English translation. Itincludes "= ~- = === * other material by Marx | iiemotn arenes ee on dialectical | New York. : mat ¥ tan Lenin recommended Bee Siete rag retin toa Feuerbach as “the hand- | me your catalogue and book of every class-con- Pook news. scious worker,” rating it with the Communist Mani- festo. | Address ... INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS 381 FOURTH AVENUE @ NEW YORK, 1 Name .. LITTLE LEFTY WORLD of the THEATRE | Stale Satire on Spanish Aristocracy FIELD OF ERMINE—A play by | Jacinto Benaventé, adapted by | John Garrett Underhill, produced by Crosby Gaige, Inc., staged by Ben Ali Haggin. Reviewed by LEON ALEXANDER ACINTO BENAVENTE is a Nobel Prize winner and one of Spain’s foremost dramatists. This does not prevent the play under review from | being dull and formless, as well as | somewhat moth-eaten in subject matter. ‘The play deals with the problems of one of Spain’s foremost noble families—royal blood flows in its veins—on whose doorstep is left the natural and only son of the de- ceased head of the family, and, if the descendance is recognized, the only heir to the dead man’s for- tune. Irene, Marchioness of Montalban, is all for keeping the boy and rec- ognizing him. Doubts, however, child, for the demimondaine who was his mother was at the same time having an affair with a shady young man who now turns up to blackmail the noble family —or to furtrish them proof if they want to contest the boy’s paaternity. Upon discovering that the child is not her brother’s, the Marchion- ess sends him callously out of her home; then, since she has grown to love the boy, repents, takes him back—and love conquers all, even the pride of blood. Panoat gate | ‘HE early Benavente, satirist and realist, consciously or not, stood against the aristocrats, on the side of the rising bourgeoisie. Satire was the weapon of the bourgeois revolu- tionary playwright: He flung his sharpest barbs against the aristoc- racy, and against that provincialism which is the social child of feu- dalism—There is not a character in the play toward whom the audience can feel any affection; with the exception of the boy, they are either scoundrels or fools; the aris- tocracy of Spain are described as greedy, hypocritical, selfish, ill- mannered—or good-naturedly stu- pid, like the Duke of Santa Ollala, an uncle of Irene’s and led by the nose by demimondaine, blackmailer or interloping go-between. Irene re- mains only an abstraction, a vague symbol. However, nineteen years have passed since “Field of Ermine” saw its first production in Spain. Time has not been kind to it; its humors have grown stale, its irony has lost its edge. Benavente was writing of a Spain still emerging from a feu- dalism whose past power had been based upon the mercantile exploi- tation of its colonies. These col- onies were gone, lost to more ag- gressive capitalist cuntries. Its feu- dal superstructure was crumbling; a rising industrial bourgeoisie chal- lenged the rule of the aristocracy. The recent bourgeois revolution has finished the job which economic change began; the very social soil from which “Field of Ermine’ sprang has been changed. Today, the irony of the play falls mainly on uncomprehending. ears. Ben Ali Haggin has given the play one of the “hammiest,” most amateurish productions of the sea- son, and set it in a Spanish in- terior in the best Alice Foote McDougal style. The acting is in general on a par with the produc- tion; outstanding only was the work of St. ClairsHayfield as the Duke of Santa Ollalla, and Alma Kruger in the role of one of the Marchioness’ viperish female relations. Alex Bittelman Writes On Why Revolution Is Inevitable in the U. S. In the chapter, “The Socialist Revolution in the United States,” from his forthcoming book, Alex Bittelman takes up’ the questions, “Is the Socialist revolution in the: U, S. A. inevitable? Is it possible? Can it be victorious?”, and gives a decisive answer in the affirmative. This chapter examines and re- duces to naught the bourgeois and reformist argument that though the Marxian-Leninist theory of the proletarian revolution may have had a certain validity in the epoch of the “old capitalism,” in the epoch of Marx and Engels, and perhaps even a certain validity for indus- trially backward countries, it does not hold at all for industrially and culturally advanced countries, and certainly not for such a country as the United States of America. Quoting copiously from Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin, and from Comintern documents, Bittelman proves conclusively that the pro- letarian revolution is inevitable in the United States. He concludes with an analysis of the character of the revolution in the U.S. A. This chapter from Comrade Bit- tleman’s forthcoming book is printed in the Febrvary issue of “The Communist.” Every Commu- nist should put a copy of this issue into the hands of a Socialist worker or a member of the A. F. of L, % ‘ & arise as to the actual father of the | STOP aGiTRTi LEFTY — ME IN \y, ru Hanns Eisler Exiled From Germany and Music Banned By SERGEI RADAMSKY lutionary German refugee com- poser, arrived in this country a few days ago. Every effort has been made by the Hitler government to ferret out all of Eisler’s music and to destroy his influence with the workers. To own one of: his records in Germany is punishable by im- prisonment. To be caught singing one of his songs is punishable by torture. _ Nevertheless, thousands upon thousands of records of Bis- ler’s revolutionary mass songs are still played in Nasi Germany and his popularity is as high as ever, The spreading of revolutionary musi¢ among the German workers | was not an accident, nor was it | easily accomplished. The Commu- nist Party in Germany had to fight the old beer garden atmosphere and | nationalistic ditties of the middle class which had found their way to the masses. In this cultural and musical de- velopment, the German workers were led by Hanns Bisler. The class struggle in Germany, strikes, barri- cades, First of May celebrations, and other demonstrations, are bound up with his name. Eisler is a pupil of Schoenberg. He also had earlier musical train- ing in the classics and old tradi- tions of music, possessing knowledge and technique of the first order. His chamber music, piano compositions and songs were performed at many music festivals in Central Europe, which gained him recognition as an 1 KNOW WHAT'S BEATIN’ You— RAND IF YouR UNION CAN'T GROW WITH Strategic Retreat! iIN' NOURSELE L Just St€P our] } MY PIONEER ~fROOP A’! WILL HELP ALL WE CANIN OTHER WAYS, OK, ? Noted Composer of ‘Comintern’ | Arrives for U.S. Concert Tour | | > “THANKS Par = | THIS IG Swett) ~ OF oul o> | WORLD of the MOVIES | Fake Pacificism | | Questions 11 bees EISLER, the famous revo- | What Earl Browder Thinks Of Burek’s Cartoon Book| HIS collection of Burck’s cartoons dealing with the New Deal and the N.R.A. is an historical document. It | contains the essence of the Communist,Party analysis of Roosevelt’s policies in the form of a pictorial argument, the convincing power of which is inescapable, Shostakovich’s Brilliant Opera And the New York Music Critics outstanding figue among the young modern composers of that period. | ak | | areage however, was not happy in | the surroundings ofthe musical | bourgeoisie. To be one of a great} number of decadent musicians méant a futility stagnating to his talent. Only when Eisler came into| the struggle of the ‘working class did he find his medium and with it grew his power of composing music| which expressed not only the life and battles of the German workers, but of the working class of the en- tire world. He pointed the way to many new composers, among whom were such | talents as Stefan Volpe, the com- poser of “Rote Soldaten,” beloved by the masses in Germany, as well as in the United States and many other countries, Risler has taken an active part in| the struggle of the working class of Germany. That is why his songs find instant response from the masses. Elven the bourgeois critics have been forced to admit that the music of this revolutionary com- poser is “unique,” “vita’” “brilliant,” “powerful,” “stark in its essence,” (Deutche Algemeine Zeitung.) The anti-radical “Leipsige Folks Zei- tung” also had to admit that Bis- ler’s music was “not just for the connoisseur alone—it appeals to the masses, It is new music from a master, sincere and singable.” ‘Those who are acquainted with his Solidarity song from the “Kuhle | Wampe,” “The Ballade of Soldiers,” “On Guard,” Roter Wedding,” “Comintern,” “Address to a New- Born Child,” know the stirring mes- | sage he tells in his music, The workers and peasants of the Soviet Union were quick to appreciate this | workers gather, (From “Hunger and Refolt: Cartoons by Burck’’) | and his “On Guard,” “Comintern” | and others are tremendously popu- | the rank and file. Proceeds of Concerts| to Aid Victims of | Nazi Terror | lar. One hears them wherever | * W bs Treyolutionary movement, under | the leadership of the Communist Party, has brought to its ranks} many musicians whose activities are of great help in the class struggle. In the eight years, 192° to 1933, the music of Germany, for example, | saw a period of great activity among the workers. The revolu- | tionary musicians were able to turn | the old and traditional “gesangs | ferein” into musical vanguards of | the German proletariat. Music, in| one form or another, had its place | at gatherings, celebrations and dem- | onstrations, Thousands of choruses spread revolutionary songs, helping to stir the masses to action. The difficulty has been, and still is, in finding the right idiom to ex- press the class struggle in music, so | as not to be obliged to follow in the! tradition of the old bourgeois dit- ties. At the same time the masses, who have not had the opportunity | of studying and listening to good | music, must be given simple but vig- orous songs. It is one thing to dis-| card the idiom of the decadent com- | posers, but it is more complicated to create @ new one. This Hanns Eisler has done with remarkable success. We, in the} United States, are acquainted with some of his songs, but not by far, to the degree deserved by him or needed by us. He is one of the lead- ing spirits in music for the worker, an outstanding musician, a comrade and always on the battle-line with In these cartoons is combined all the force of Communist theoretical anaylsis with that of the strong- est tradition of American cartooning. All readers of the Daily Worker have noted from time to time the exceptional quality of Burck’s cartoons. But it is only when one gets the combined effect of a collection of this kind, brought together in one book, that their full value is understood, This book will become the necessary possession of all our agitators and propagandists as well as for eyeryone ‘interested in revolutionary art. It is an essential part of the history of our times. EARL BROWDER. By CARL SANDS INLY one thing remained to con- vince us that our (on the whole) favorable judgments of “Lady Mac- beth” were correct. This one thing was an unfavorable judgment on the part of New York’s old guard of music reviewers—Gilman of the Herald-Tribune, Henderson of the Sun and Downes of the Times. But they have come through, laughably naive, scurrilous and superficial, true to type as usual. Gilman confessed at once that the “work had its moments.” (Hearts began to sink at the prospect that any part of the opera could actually have been bad enough to appeal to Gilman as a “moment.”) But reading on we learned to our in- tense relief that the moments were mostly “melodrama of a juven‘le sort.” “Musical barrenness,” im- aginative indigence,”” “portentous emptiness,” “very young for his age,” “yeasty and naive mind,” “pretenti- ous musical sterility,” “premature impotence"—this from a man who has never shown that he has in his whole body as much musical taste or skill as Shostakovich has in his little finger! Better and better, to the final slam: da is not the perfect soil for rely me! musical ideas.” .. . Yes, this is a good sample of what. passes for music criticism in our dailies of large circulation. That Gilman’s column-and-a-half of crude, half-jocular and entirely un- conscious capitalist propaganda is not perfect soil for merely musical (or merely any kind of) ideas is cer- tainly true. It serves most effec- tively to set in relief the very com- petent, subtle and highly imagina- tive propaganda of Shostakovich, who, with equal certainty is the most promising young composer of today. Pen coer BSE the shameless phrase- mongering of Gilman, the more judicious Henderson is pale reading. A few gems must not be left un- quoted. We learn “that it is in the modernistic (!) vein, dealing with undisciplined persons of a low grade whose passions are open and elemental.” (In other words, typical opera characters!) The music is “free and unconventional;” the score is “filled with rhythmic force and insistence,” “rich in orchestral de- vices,” and shows “unquestionable skill in the construction of theatrical effects.” “The transitions from mo- ments of melodic charm to others of crass ugliness and even violence serve to administer shocks to the hearer and keep him stirred up, if not delighted.” But in spite of this (how it can be is not clear), “there did not seem to be any musical ideas of great importance in the opera.” What, oh complacent Beckmesser, is @ musical idea? Is it not possible that you have been identified so long with the musical ideas of the dead, that a living musical idea— the new musical idea of a living member of a class fundamentally hostile to you and your kind—is in- comprehensible to you? But to continue: “The whole at- mosphere reminds one of ‘Wozzeck’ but the style is different.” Yes—the style is different, very different—in fact, almost the perfect opposite. And the atmosphere? As different as the atmosphere of an exploiting and of an exploited class. Quite as simple as that—only a few words. LL.D. Five-Day Bazaar Will Begin Wednesday Ten thousand buttons, with the imprint “Free Clide Allen,” will be issued by the New York District In- ternational Labor Defense for sale at its five-day defense bazaar starting Wednesday in Manhattan Lyceum, 66 East Fourth Street, to raise funds and rally mass pressure for the release of this framed Ne- gro worker railroaded to 35 years! in Sing Sing. So little difference that one con- fuses them—that is, if one belongs to the former. But unwittingly, through innocent considerations of “atmosphere,” Mr. Henderson almost spills the beans. Lady Macbeth and Wozzeck are truly the two outstanding operas of this generation, Both Shostakovich and Berg went to authors of a hun- dred or so years ago for plots that center around the exploitation of the individual by capitalist society. (Why?) Wozzeck is the poor little soldier who is bullied by his officers, experimented upon by the regi- mental doctor, cheated of his sweet- heart and ends his miserable life in murder and suicide. Katerina Izmailova (Lady Macbeth) is the high-spirited young woman who finds herself married (sold) to a rich fool of a merchant, bullied by her father-in-law, takes a common and logical way out through a love affair with an entirely unworthy young man, and tries to.escape from the subsequent dilemma by murder and,finally, by suicide. mc 'T such solutions of such prob- lems are commonplaces of capi- talist society and capitalist art, everyone knows. But in all the his- tory of opera, no composer has ever dared to make fun of it, much less to satirize it. A new idea, Mr. Hen- derson! An idea not only in libretto but (what is far more difficult) » For the sharpest barbs of the satire are in the music. If these critics would try to write an opera themselves and had any self-criticism at all, they would be more humble before their. master. If they were not tatally blind to the cheap role they play as apolo- gists for a social system (of whose rottenness the plot of Lady Mac- beth is a good example) they might haye some self-criticism, As to Downes of the Times, it is in his “review” of February 10 that | the absolute low-water mark of critical incompetence is reached, ~ . (To Be Continued) — \ THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS | seas of blood spilt or the lives of | expose, is allotted about five min- Nh v HEAD, adapted from the play by | Jean Bart, screen play by Samuel | Ornitz and Jean Bart, Universal production, directed by Edward Ludwig. | Reviewed by JULIAN ROFFMAN OME few months ago, a govern- | mental inquiry into the muni- tions industry of the United States | made the front pages of newspapers throughout the country. The stag- gering profits made by the muni- tions barons were emblazoned on the pages of the capitalist press. | But no mention was made of the | human beings ruthlessly crushed. Hollywood, on the constant look- out for sensation whereby it can pour more profits into the lap of the Chase National Bank, immedi- | ately saw its chance to capitalize | on news which was daily attract- ing the attention of millions. | Straightway they selected a play | which dealt in a trite, convention- ally melodramatic manner with | bourgeois pacifism. Pacifism of the type exemplified in that “zenith” of pacifist films “The First World War,” wherein the dominant idea is that peace can only be main- tained by bigger and better prepara- tion for war. The mouthpiece of capitalism, to justify the huge ex- penditure for arms, shouts the slogan, “A nation invulnerable to attack is a nation at peace.” The supposed primary reason for | the production of “The Man Who Reclaimed His Head”—the munitions utes on the screen, wherein the | arms manufacturers of hostile coun- tries make agreements and promises to safeguard each other’s property | during war. More important i formation divulged in the news papers, was not even suggested on | | the screen. | | The expose, coupled with pacifism and a horror angle, was calculated to prove irresistible to the movie- fan. This inflated presumption of |@ sure-fire hit was sadly shattered | | when the bourgeois film reviewers | casually declared this picture to be nothing more than a hodge-podge of confusion. * * oe | ND rightly so. The chief claim | to pacifism the picture has is that its central character is a bril- Hiant, but abnormal, French jour- nalist, who believes that through writing the whole world can be |saved from war and terrible de-| struction. His wife’s desire for | riches and luxury drives him to accept a position of ghost-writer to |a publisher who has political am- bitions. So ardent, so convincing are the writer’s denunciations that within a short space of time the unscrupul- ous publisher becomes the idol of the masses and hence a figure of importance in the political arena. | His position, politically, gives the munitions makers good cause for discomfort and they approach him with enticing offers of further | wealth and fame. Human to a fault, he accepts their propositions and changes the policy of his paper | from disarmament to armed peace. | The gullible public immediately takes up the hue and cry for armed peace and most naturally, war en- | sues. Betrayed by his employer, the journalist goes into battle, still a staunch believer in vacifism. Fate takes a hand and enables him to| discover that his employer is phil- | andering with his wife, while he is| away at the front fighting to keep the home fires burning. He deserts, takes a train bound | for Paris, and arrives home to find | his employer making fervid advances to his wife. In a demoniacal fury, the soldier whips out his bayonet and cuts off the betrayer’s head— thereby reclaiming his own, and establishing the horror motive for | the picture. | ee ESPITE its innocuousness, the ™ picture insinuates its little mes- sage of hate and derision of the masses, furthering Hearst's message —that the people have no mind of their own. Throughout the picture, they are denicted as empty-headed fools, ready to follow any betray- ing leader, clamoring for war or for peace as the leaders wish. The entire blame for war, in the Picture, falls on the arms-makers. The producers would have us be- | lieve that the rulers of the country know nothing about this horrible thing—war. Whether or not Holly- wood tries, consciously, to shield the ruling-class from blame, when the time for war comes and the film industry begins to pour out its war- Propaganda, the masses will be better prepared. Not so quickly will they respond to the call of the film as in 1917. NEW PAMPHLETS MOTHER BLOOR, by Ann Bar- ton. Workers Library Publish- ers, 3 cents, || LENINISM—THE ONLY MARX- | ISM TODAY. A Discussion of the Characteristics of Declining Capitalism, by Alex Bittelman | and V. J, Jerome. Workers Library Publishers, 15 cents. | 7:00-WEAF—Economic Effects | | 7:15-WEAF—Stories of the and Answers This department appears daily on the feature page. All questions shotid be addressed to “Ques- tions and Answers,” c/o Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street, New York City. French War Budget QUESTION, Is it true that the leaders of the Socialist Party of France supported the recent French war budget ini one form or another? Is it also true that “L’Humanite,” the organ of the Com- munist Party of France contained no criticism of is act? I. G, and ©. P Answer: 1. No! Since the signing of the pact of unity between the Socialist and Communist Parties on July 27, 1934, not even the small reactionary leadership of the Socialist Party's right wing has dared to take the responsibility for approving the war budget of French imperialism. Are I. G. and C. P. sure that they do not mean the Radical-Socialist Party of France ? This parts of which the French workers say that it is “neither radical nor Socialist,” has consistently supported most of the war legislation coming up in the Cham- ber of Deputies. The strength of the Radical-So- cialist Party lies mainly in the petty bourgeoisie and the peasantry, and its character as a faithful al | of French capitalism may be gathered from the stamp of treacherous anti-working class renegades that has made up its leadership, men like Millerani Briand and Barthou, all of whom betrayed the French workers. The powerful sentiment, deeply buried in the actions and attitude of the Socialist Party mem- bership, against war and against fascism, was the specific base on which rested the united front of Socialists and Communists. It was strikingly re- vealed at the decisive conference of the National Council of the Socialist Party on July 16, 1934, when by a vote of 3,471 for and only 366 against, the united front agreement was accepted. Thus, even if certain leaders of the French Socialist Party, Fros- satd, for instance, were not unwilling to subscribe to the war budget, the mass conviction of the party membership against war would have prevented such a move. 2. The Socinlist Party leaders not having sup- ported the war budget, “L’Humanite” could not have printed any criticism of their position. But generally speaking, when any cause for criticism presents itself to either the Communist or Socialist Party, there exists a strong and effective critical organ especially set up for this purpose. This is the Committee of Co-ordination, which meets regularly and which comprises a large number of representa- tives of both parties. According to the terms of the united front agreement all questions of procedure and criticism are brought to this body. Prosperity Notes LUZERNE, Pa. (FP).—Francis James, a 42-year- old laborer at one of the Glen Alden coal min had been laid off for five days for loading dirty coal. A month earlier, his best friend had been killed under a fall of rock in the same mine. His wife was in Wales and he had no money to send for her. When the boss told him to “stay home and take a rest” for five days, thus losing a week's pay again, life was pretty dark. When he got home, he laid himself in a miner's toolbox (which is about the size of a coffin), placed some dynamite around him, fixed the electric dis- | charge wires and, satisfied that all was ready, got up and began the following diary: “11 o'clock, waiting. “12 o'clock, waiting. “1 o'clock, waiting, cannot sleep. “2 o'clock, waiting. “2:20 o'clock, and Jack company has retired. “It is now 3:25 o'clock and time for me to face death. No, Joe, death has no sting for me. I feel better tonight than I have for months past. Conscience is a funny thing. Of course, some people have not got any. Well, if you can find it in your heart to forgive me. Kindly raise my pay and forward it to Magg. Please, she is penni- less, “Goodbye, Joe. “And God bless you. “By giving others I have neglected my own, Jack. “If I don’t have a slip up look inside my coat pocket, Jack.” And then Francis James, one of many poverty- stricken and disillusioned miners, crept into his toolbox and closed the lid, completing the circuit. The next morning the remains were found among his scattered tools. No one had suspected the ex- plosion, for in the cellars of miners’ homes rumblings. are often heard from the workings below. (mext door) and his TU ING IN A series of talks under the auspices of the News> paper Guild of New York, take place over WMCA every Monday night from 7:15 to 7:30 p.m. Work= ing newspapermen and women, of which-there are. 1,800 in the New York organization, will speak about the news stories of the day or week—their experiences in covering them, the happenings that do not get into the papers, etc. The speakers will be drawn from all the newspapers in the city. WJZ—Minstrel Show WABC—Lucrezia Bori, So= prano; Kostelanetz Orch. xed Chorus -WEAF—The Haydn: ih, with Otto Librettist; Music WOR—Kemp Orchestra WJ%—Half-Caste Woman— WABC—Gluskin Orchestra; Block and Sully, Comedy; Gertrude Niesen, Songs 10:00-WEAF—Eastman Orch.; Lullaby Lady; Male Quar- tet WOR—Johnson Orchestra of Taxation—Merwin K. | Hart, President New York | State Economic Council WOR—Sports T7k—Stan Lomax WJZ—Amos 'n’ Andy WABC—Myrt and Marge— Black Chamber WOR—Lum and Abner— WJZ—Plantation Echoes: Robison Orch.; Southern- aires Quartet WABC—Just Plain Bill— Sketch 1:30-WEAF—Easy Aces— WJZ—Jackie Heller, Tenor Sketch WABC—Wayne King Or- WOR—Mystery Sketch chestra WJZ—Red Davis—Sketch 10:15-WOR—Current Events— WABC-—The O'Naills—Sketch H. E. Read WdJZ—America in Music; John Tasker Howard, Narrator 10:30-WEAF—The First Seven 7:45-WEAF—Uncle Ezra— Sketch WOR—Studio Music WJZ—Dangerous Paradise —Sketch Months of the FHA— ‘WABO—Boake Carter, Com- James A. Moffett, Federal mentator Housing Administrator 8:00-WEAF—Himber Orch. . WOR—Lone_ Ranger—Sketch WJz—Jan Garber Supper Club WOR—Variety Musicale WABC—The Man From Mars Asks Questions— Harry H. Moore ‘WABC—Diane—Musical 10:45-WJZ—Robert Goldsan, Comedy WABC—Fray and Brag- 8:15-WABC—Edwin ©. Hill, glotti, Piano Commentator 11:00-WEAF—Coleman Orch, 8:30-WEAF—Richard Crooks, WOR—News Tenor; String Orchestra; | WJZ—Dance Music (to 1 Mixed Chorus A.M.) WOR—Jack Arthur, Bari- WABC—Dance Music (to 0 A. MD TAP—Jesse Crawford, tone ‘WJZ—Carefree Carnival WABO—Kate Smith's | loonbeams Trio Revue wo! 8:45-WOR—Boys Club Pro- 11:30-WEAF—To Be An- gram nounced 9:00-WEAF—Gypsies Orch.; WOR-—Dance Music (to 1 Frank Parker, Tenor AM) 12:30-WEAP—Dance Musis y , 4 WOR—The “a ee Tale >