The Long, Long Patience of the Plundered Poor
Wright, Chester M.
The Long, Long Patience of the Plundered Poor By Chester M. Wright ITDWIN MARKHAM r speaks .somewhere of "the long, long patience of the plundered poor," and a recent rereading of eaHy American...
...AND that'* not all: Wdrs and rumors of wars, Dictators rattling their sabers, Armies on the march...
...there was no glass on his table, no prints on his walls...
...In collaboration with William I Seroggs...
...They cannot he enumerated in a brief review of the work, but the- conviction that grows with each page is that in spite of the fact that the world has been brought so close together physically, psychologically, mentally, we continue to be moved by thoughts and ideas that time and progress should have outmoded...
...The moral would seem to be that the plundered poor would better discard some of their long, long patience...
...Say rather of his master's neighbors...
...perhaps it is another ease of the triumph of hope over experience, as the French say of a second marriage...
...Harper apd Bros...
...V Meet the Rockland Light and Power Company, modern heir of the pirates of the romantic era of history...
...One recalls that other era of good feeling when rstfawut was re-elected President in 1820 by a vote hrTr*mg one to make it unanimous...
...And this grim picture is drawn by John Bach McMaster...
...PEACE BETWEEN CLASSES fg*HE United States News calls for an era of good 1 feeling for the New Year and would have the President "proclaim peace between classes...
...Unwittingly, our friend has supplied the proper comment on this line of reasoning...
...Father* looking for jobs...
...Mothers lacking food, Children skistming ** else* homes...
...All this could have been found out quickly and easily...
...But it is easy to exaggerate the gain—and to whom does the worker owe that gain, such as it is...
...When the job was completed, the multitude found that the "revised" rates were actually higher for many consumers f p. Captain Kidd was a piker compared with the R.L.P.C...
...That is a piece of barbarism which 150 years of philanthropy, and land settlement and science could not erase—except with the help of labor unions...
...jiafyfjy 7 leu*' Iljeav ~~~~ 1Q$6...
...Moreover, it was testified that the rates of the company are the highest in the state...
...In the low, dingy rooms which he called home...
...Ushered in with "Hapy New Year" What did you bring us...
...Published last Friday by the Rand School Press ($2.50), this hook hies fair to be oa the "must" list for all those interested in the labor asd radical movement...
...That this was aa absolute and deliberate lie did not make any difference to our Communist friends and their '-united-front" allies...
...There's a bright spot for you For the canvas of 1936...
...And now, about to usher in 1936, What have you left us...
...coal he had never seen...
...And every time we say it We remember That year* are, after all, Simply one dam thing after another...
...The era of good feeling blew- up and was followed by a tense struggle of economic classes and groups...
...But here nobody was into resist in fairness...
...This is rather modest...
...He has, as he' says, observed, selected, arranged, and recorded the processes, and, in so doing, has attempted to gauge their thrust, estimate their lateral : extension, and left to the masses . whose welfare are intimately bound up by the outcome of these processes the making of the decisions (hat cannot long be escaped...
...He goes on to discuss in detail the excellent introduction to the book written by Professor Morris R. Cohen of City College and talks of the importance of the book to labor...
...Now, whether it was adjusted quietly because of the decent and intelligent attitude of the mother, whether it was due to the new "line" from Moscow, whether it was reluctance to hurt an institution which has many radicals on its staff, or reluctance to embarrass Professor Harry P. Ward, head of one of its depart-ments and Chairman ef the American League Against War and Fascism, himself a "fellow-traveler" if not indeed a Communist party member, I do not know...
...Happy Sew Year...
...Diplomats chanting ancient shibboleth*— And the only bright spot in the picture...
...Not a law book, it is written for the layman...
...Her husband is a Negro, who, incidentally is not even living in the country...
...If his rusting cutlass can be found it should be donated to the R.LP.C...
...John Chamberlain of the New York Times heads his two-column review with, "in view ef the contemporary squabbles attending the question of the constitutionality of the New Deal legislation 'Lawless Judges...
...matches he had never heard of...
...Harry Hansen of the World-Telegram says among other things adds, "Nor will the explanation that this book comes with Socialist auspices serve to minimise its importance...
...It is the fourth of a series on America in its foreign relations sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations...
...MODERN PIRACY ¦M the days when pirates sailed the seas and looted ships * of their silks, spices, gold and other treasure, there was something of romantic glamor about them and their exploits...
...By Gertrude Weil Klein [ AM not one to become easily wroth over the un-OiristHke character of the church...
...Was 1934 any happier than 19S3, And how much happier than 1935 will 1936 be...
...But the Communists uttered not a word of protest...
...BUT have mo* thought of this...
...Babe* born to unemployed (Holy Church frown* eav Wsth control, you know!} To face the fats of other millwvs That never had a chance...
...To obtain this advantage, they had, however, exposed themselves to the danger that exists in writing of occurrences to which one is close, and without having the benefit of the detachment and perspective which, at times, is the historian's principal advantage...
...Old Federalists and J effer sonians had forgotten old quarrels as the differences between the parties faded and everything was happy at Washington Four years later the lid was torn off with the election of the second Adams in the House, and in 1828 gentlemen high in the social order declared that the French Revolution had been imported when the "rabble'' swarmed into the White House, left the imprint of muddy boots on the carpets, and drank Andy Jackson's punch until they were drunk...
...Also, another one of the people who knew about the dispossess notice, and kept quiet, is a valiant fighter for Negro rights who did not keep qquiet when another institution, WEVD, connected with the party of which she is a member, was accused of alleged discrimination toward Negroes...
...Million* hungry and despairing the world over...
...The masses becoming daily More conscious of their power, More determined in their demands...
...Reserved tables at $10 and up, Toppers, tails, decollete, Confetti, cocktails, champagne...
...QOOD-BYE, 1935...
...a clear-headed, tireless and usually accurate historian...
...They have emerged from the trial to which their effort exposed them with a history that will serve the twofold purpose of being useful i to those who want to follow events as they happen with a proper understanding of their relation to each other, And of being helpful to those who may be called upon to make of it the raw material out of which the history of these times will be compiled in the future...
...Science enabled the worker to make so many things that the boss couldn't take all of them away—except under certain circumstances...
...IN-this work, the author, and his collaborator, have avoided the pitfalls into which the historian, writing long after the events which are discussed have transpired, is liable to fall...
...America's participation, or lack of participation—because either might be said with truth—in the conditions which Japan provoked in the Far East, the monetary policies of .thS Roosevelt Administration asd their reaction on other Governments, foreign debts asd America's part in trying to-collect them, the ptesWHsef '•Maf trade by reciprocity,' bow Latin America fared smear the "good neighbo r" policy aamn.....il by President Roosevelt, naval ratios end nstioaol purist^es^armof country's continued aloofness from the World Court and the League, and the problem of American neutrality are among the many subjects to which the author has applied himself...
...I, being a somewhat lethargic person, had forgotten the whole thing...
...Herschel Brickell of the Post discusses "Lawless Judges" sympathetically and at much length and concludes by saying, "Such exposures are valuable as correctives and cannot be made too often or too thoroughly," and "Mr...
...He it the owner of capital and does not risk his life in the struggle to accumulate...
...By Bon Carlos [ '"LWAPPY NEW YEAR...
...Some of them did it, however...
...On such a pittance, it was only by the strictest economy that a mechanic kept his children from starvation and himself from jail...
...Some time ago S story appeared in the newspapers in regard to WEVD, the Socialist radio station located in a Times Square hotel...
...CO here's "Hail to the Chaos that is" *~ From which shall rise— If YOU will it, WORKERS OF THE WORLD— Even in 1936, The new State of Man, The Socialist Commonwealth...
...And we're supposed to say "Happy New Year" And like it...
...be more helpful in meeting the problems which involve our well-being...
...Also, had there been any desire to be fair the thought might have occurred to some one that since the radio station is housed in a hotel perhaps the betel had something to do with the order and a quiet word to the station might have remedied the alleged wrong...
...How to explain .his...
...In other words, it is both a history and a reference work...
...In this case, there was an additional angle of great interest...
...Small farmers in the South and West and the new enfranchised workers of the cities backed Jackson, whose leading supporters frequently appealed to the "lower orders" against the "aristocrats" cjf the East...
...X Sin ieaasjlj), this craze for printing "money tickets" to solve economic problems has appeared in every crisis and during many wars only to bring disaster in its wake...
...Why wot...
...Its purpose, to which its authors have adhered with conspicuous success, is to recount the principal evento in the United States which affected foreign interests, and the principal events in ether countries which had repercussions on our own, during the period under review...
...The reason for this dispossess notice, incredible as it may seem, was that her child was colored...
...Did that matter...
...has an enhanced importance...
...Colored artists had been coming and going all the time...
...sand on the floor did duty for carpets...
...good name ef the Socialiet Party or one,of its- institutions was of no account...
...a diet of corn meal and "sowpelly" and occasional beans...
...But all these "uplifting" forces left the cotton mill barons Of 1932 prescribing a diet for their serfs on which four people could exist for a week on $1.60...
...who put down in his chronicles phases of life which more dainty recorders passed by on the other side...
...Sure, why nott Isn't it the proper thing to say, And don't w* always say it When January first rolls around,/ "Happy New Year," sure thing...
...and there were few unions in the southern cotton mills in 1932...
...This week the Mack utility investigating committee had spread upon its records the details of a 1,000 per cent write-up in the value of a plant owned by the company...
...However, he continues, "like everything else in this life or any other, it is a good deal of a bluff" and asks ''wouldn't that jar you off your swivel chair...
...The growing discontent of oppressed peoples everywhere, Nations increasingly suspicious of capitalist rulers, Workers refusing to tolerate any more Unnecessary poverty and insecurity...
...any event, what is here set down, one who wishes to be fully acquainted with the place which we have come to occupy, and the obligations which we must assume in a world that we govern and that govern us, must ^e read...
...Peace had been proclaimed ''between classes,'' but mere was no peace...
...That wss worth much, though many of the good results it would have brought otherwise were offset by immigration...
...Why get excited about that...
...Fine food, plenty of it...
...Witness this: "A man who performed what now would be called" unskilled labor, who sawed wood, dug ditches, mended roads, mixed mortar, carried boards to the carpenter and bricks to the mason, usually received as the fruit of his daily toil two shillings...
...musicians to use the passenger elevators when coming up to the station...
...Let the shadow of the hate-makers disappear with the setting sun...
...I was particularly curious and astonished because, first, the com-1 plainant herself was a Communist, with all the party protest machinery at her command...
...Here was a case which ordinarily would have been meat for the self-appointed protectors of the oppressed...
...The German experience after the d War also shows that one might be a billionaire possessor of paper money and not be able to buy a suit ploSes...
...A few months ago, the Union Seminary, which rents out apartments, sent a notice to the young* mother in 'question informing her that she was an undesirable tenant and asking her to move...
...And we have t h e co u rageous few who "definitely take their places on the side of the "have-nots...
...The whole story started whoa the members of a band carrying huge instruments could net Be accommodated in the passenger elevators...
...and be kept on exhibition in the offices change ^°mpany to anow the curious how methods The New Leader Book Corner American Diplomacy By Marx Lewis The United States in World Af-* fairs in 1934-1935...
...But when an institution like Union Theological Seminary, which trains men for the ministry, can commit .an act of discrimination against a child because of its color, or for any reason, and against the child's mother solely because she is its mother, it is difficult to refrain from comment...
...The church has much to answer for, but in its ranks are^probably as fair a proportion as in any field of men who are troubled by* the appalling misery and poverty on all sides and bv the incrediWc and wanton accumulation of wealth in one spot, and who really strive for justice as they see it...
...Comrades are urged to buy "Lawless Judges" and judge for themselves its importance to the labor and Socialist movement...
...Not worth a continental" is a phrase which still survives from our own American Revolution, the phrase referring to continental paper money that had become so worthless that it was used by farmers to paper the Cof their homes...
...Let the dawn of a new day in America shine forth as the President becomes the leader of all the people and not the chieftain of a small coterie oi scheming men in a political game...
...WEVD, according to the story, refused to permit Negro...
...N. Y. CRITICS "LAWLESS JUDGES" "Lawless Judges," the new book by Louis P. Goldberg and Eleanore Levinson, has 'received acclaim in the daily press this week...
...not a demonstration was called, not a mass meeting held, not a line sent to the newspapers...
...Over a. are of fragments of boxes or barrels, lit by the spark from a Ant or with live coals from a neighbor's fire, his wife cooked a rode meal and served it in pewter dishes...
...He and his class have powerful agents in the seats of governing power and law weighs heavily on the side of his dan...
...By Whitney H. Shepardson...
...The modern unskilled American i workman—before the depression came—had a considerably better standard of living than his ancestors did in 1784...
...What a stove was, he didn't know...
...They were ready, Sappy it almost seemed, to shout the story from the house-tops...
...Goldberg is a practicing attorney and one is bound to admire his courage in this bold attack, as well as hie industry in gathering and organizing the material...
...Setae-body was in a damnable rush to "show us up," among them being the same somebodies, who were careful to hush up the story of Union Theological Seminary threatening to close its doors to a little colored child...
...Our chair collapsed and it fjatjuiriiil the combined efforts of the employes of the B*$$r office and The New Leader office to bring us out of the coma...
...Communists do not usually wait to check up on facts, nor is it their habit to go to the source of in alleged injustice and find out in a quiet way whether there has been a mistake and whether ¦anything can be done about it...
...Again one must admit that this had some effect...
...Our modern pirate is of a different type...
...It is a bluff" that defies history and the economic laws of capitalism...
...Governments as stupid and stubborn as ever...
...Pirates risked their lives in accumulating loot and much of this loot traded in Atlantic ports formed the basis of early American merchant fortunes...
...AMASSACHUSETTS correspondent writes us in a serious way of the "greatest and most glorious fandango of a propagandist movement that has happened since Karl Marx died—the Town send scheme for getting more of the capitalistic money tickets in circulation...
...To the development of science in industry...
...CURE they'll have a good time— *^ Leave it to them...
...Of course not...
...that was their attitude...
...By avoiding any attempt at undue emphasis, by eliminating any effort to impose conclusions on the reader, the author, and his collaborator, have given us a book which many Will find helpful, and many more should want to have, so that they may...
...Here whs some, thing that might hurt the Socialist Party—let's spread it as fast: and as wide as we can...
...To the opening of the West, which gave the poor a chance to get land...
...He became the envy of his fellows if, at the end of the week, he took home to his family 15 shillings...
...A GLORIOUS FANDANGO...
...There are many conflicting 'thoughts as one turns the pages and observes the effect that distant apd apparently remote policies have on things that are very dose to borne...
...Lights, music, dance.— "Happy New Year...
...Certainly, anyone whose loyalty to principles and party consisted in more than mere' lip service would have tried for a quiet adjustment under these circumstances...
...More mem that, friend...
...By Their Deeds...
...and join with their fellows to fight for their rights...
...There were resolutions asking for the censure, perhaps the expulsion, of Comrade Vladeck Many of the people who spread this story knew that the regular pianist of the station to a colored girl who has been with . the station ever since its inception...
...When the multitude began to murmur, the R.L.P.C...
...Doe* saying "Happy New Year" Really make anything any happier...
...Doesn't it seem As though thing* hadn't looked go doleful On January first for some time...
...decided to make a ''concession" by "revising" the rates...
...We came dangerously near passing into 'it^csuSer-one when our friend added with reference to money that he announces as his slogan "A Mini for Every Town...
...Thunder oa the "Left" How different the treatment that was accorded one of our instRut-tions...
...To the philanthropy of his masters...
...Roosevelt may ask for a peace, but the smoldering discontent cannot be suppressed by soft words...
...Making victims walk the plank or slitting throats was an ugly tide of the profession, and yet the romance liugeia while the foul deeds are almost forgotten...
...He uses no cutlass to slit throats, but he bleeds his victims just the same...
...He rarely tasted fresh meat as often as once a week" , . • ¦¦ * Thai is a picture of the lives of unskilled American workers shortly after the Revolution, in 1184 Just why men in such cases should fight for liberty is rather hard to imagine...
...but the improvement which springs from that source is .not spacious...
...For the rest, it is an aphorism to say, the church follows the dollar sign...
...The Long, Long Patience of the Plundered Poor By Chester M. Wright ITDWIN MARKHAM r speaks .somewhere of "the long, long patience of the plundered poor," and a recent rereading of eaHy American history shows that the patience is even longer than one thinks...
...We want two mints hi every town and a third one in reserve if one of them breaks down...
Vol. 19 • January 1936 • No. 1
