WHERE THE NEWS ENDS
LYONS, EUGENE
WHERE THE NEWS ENDS by EUGENE LYOMS A RECENT English novel about Rossis resU oa a silly paae* of misinformation, the more carious because the etiTsfhu passes as an authority on Russia. His...
...Duranty ever attempts to read Dm FsstMt be may discover how juvenile his assumption is...
...second, a Cooperative »eer*sentation Committee...
...His synthetic here, Ivan (ft would be Ivan), when still in his teens, is exiled to Siberia as the aftermath of a brawl in a brothel...
...The result is an extraordinarily interesting book, a distinct contribution to British economic, social, labor and cultural histery...
...In such oase the only effect of the appointment will be to pay a campaign debt and by that much to strengthen the thoroughly reactionary Republican Party, The beet we can hope is that the Mayor will be able to do so much of the work himself that the office of Deputy Mayor will be a sinecure...
...Books on the movement in the Scandinavian countries have appeared in recent years and even the government sent a commission abroad to study and report on the movement...
...And it is something which it would be well for all to 'bear in mind in reading the article of William E. Bonn in the same issue on "American Labor Needs Strong Foreign Policy to Fight Fascism...
...It provides as answer to those who doubt whether the workers have tile ability u «•" duct mammoth enterprises sea* they discharge the werkless owner* of modern industry and orgeats* » Cooperative Commonwealth...
...Duranty's strange «noraoc* D of the simple fact that Das Kapttal ins net a secret underground volume under the Tsarist regime...
...It repeats many phases of the struggles in the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union in New York late in 1926, when the union was almost ruined...
...Fortunately, the international officers of the union took hold of the situation before it drifted to disaster and restored democracy and discipline to the union...
...Detroit Mich...
...That social democrats in America take this stand is to be deplored by all who wish to advance democracy into the field of industry in this country...
...By the same token there is more urgent need today than ever before for a genuine movement of defense for political prisoners anywhere in the world, regardless of the nuances of their political faiths...
...Those at all familiar with Russian revolutionary history knew that political prisoners were recognised as such and given specie) privileges denied to ordinary criminal a. They were isolated sat neutralised physically, but frequently given eonsideaahle scope far continuing their intellectual work...
...Members with little knowledge of union discipline fall for this, and the first thing they know they are being secretly led into disaster by the local section of the Communist Party which pull* the strings...
...But we cannot for the life of us see why a Mayor whose favor with the people rested on his declared sympathy with the) moat important and progressive features of the New Deal should appoint as Deputy Mayor a man who is avowedly opposed to New Deal policies...
...Their treatment in Hitler's Germany is far more blood-thirsty than in Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany...
...American participation in a foreign war, no matter how noblesounding the issue, would only result in stifling the' growth of social democracy in our nation...
...Large production concerns branched into the retail trade and big chain stores attacked the cooperative rival while the capitalist press demanded heavier taxation of cooperative funds...
...trade unions, in sheer defense was compelled to go into politics to defend itself against parliaments loaded with landlords, capitalists, financiers and their lawyers...
...This does not mean that we advocate participation in war...
...I ess not help doubting the sincerity and the motives of those whs defend the victims of persecution in Germany or the United Stste* but raise not a finger—far worse, go out of their way to Justify— persecution of the same order and on a vastly larger seals ia Rossis, SPECIAL NOTICE DEADERS and friends of The New Leader are advised thai no one outside of the editorial department is authorized to solicit stories or other material for publication...
...Fifty years ago this sort of distinction was somewhat plausible...
...Maybe the American Labor Party will have the deciding voice...
...Then* works are clesaioed by the Secret Service in its archives...
...Stewart Way...
...Books . . . and Writers All books reviewed in these columns may be purchased at the Rand Book Store, 7 East 15th Street, N. Y. Cooperatives—Ban of Private Profit By JAMES ONEAL THHE Cooperative movement, although nearly a century old, appears to be a new discovery in the United States...
...What is to be done with the plotters, who always create a situation favorable to the bosses, is for the international officers to decide...
...If Mr...
...Let us hope that American workingmen will get this viewpoint Perhaps the, welfare of the world depends on their decision...
...Marx may Stories the scientific instrumentality, the logical system, for one who a a; ready a revolutionary by temper and contacts and social nam rub...
...Vaughn Bach man Brokaw...
...The transformation of the peasant lad into a highly ideological revolutionist is accomplished by a hook, a book t* possess which meant death...
...Marx, called Das KapitaL and just to own this book would have sent anyone to Siberia...
...Nothing they think about reetches the world of life outside...
...A noble beginning...
...When Serge himself was finally able to leave Rossis in MM, after a campaign in his behalf by French and Belgian intellect**!*, the Soviet authorities confiscated all his handwritten works, "the fruit of years of intense labor: an eyewitness' account of ska events that took place in France in 1910-1918, a novel, ems poems...
...IT was not until after 1917 that "politicals" began to be herded * together with murderers, thieves, dope fiends, and treated, it anything, less humanely than the garden variety criminals and perverts...
...The ChernychevSkys and Kropotkins of today an beaten down to their very minds...
...Mr Duranty kai merely taken it for granted that the treatment of political prisoners under the old regime was as brutal, as unenligbtentd, as under the new...
...That policy is suicide for the workers...
...SAYS .AMERICAN WORKERS MUST BE READY TO FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY Editor of The New Leader: Permit me to express my hearty approval of William E. Boon's excellent article in The New Leader, entitled "American Labor Needs Strong Foreign Policy to Fight Fascism...
...Neutrality is no longer a duty...
...We shall soon look forward to the killers protesting that helpless men, women and children, the aged, the sick and the infirm, insist on getting in the way of Jap air bombs and machine guns, thus further outraging the killers' sense of "morality" and "humanity...
...When one recalls the raid of die Japs on Korea in the nineties and the brutal murder of the Queen, later followed by outright annotation, the invasion of Manchuria and setting- up a wooden dummy whose policies are determined in Tokio, and the hideous war conducted against millions of men, women, children and babies in China, coupled with the sanctimonious assurance that all the killers want is "cooperation" of China with the Jap butchers, one can appreciate the "moral" fervor of the Japanese imperialists...
...One of the old devices of this destructive clique for many years has been the organization of Communist members, a few innocents and a few "wild men" into a "rank and file" committee...
...To say that the working class has no stake in such a struggle because of the imperialist history of many of the democratic nations is to say that it has no interest in preventing these nations from ultimately becoming concentration camps ruled by merciless DilHhgers...
...John Panzner...
...The alternative is for the Mayor to see to it that the Deputy Mayor shall not have anything to do with these most important city affairs...
...It should champion the human rights net merely of the victims of Fascist persecution hut of the teeming political prisoners ia Russia, including those put into prison or seat into exile by Lenin sad Trotsky and in many cases still retting there...
...It is {die to say that the New Deal is a national issue and the position of Deputy Mayor is a city office...
...COMMUNISTS IN THE AUTO WORKERS gACK of read grievances of the workers in the Michigan automobile workers' sit-down strike this week were the old intrigues of Communists in the union...
...For more than twenty years the revolutionary I tanas writer Gatto Mammone had worked on a history of the European labor movement A refugee from the Fascists of his native last he went to Russia...
...affiliate, some years ago took severe action against the Communists by amending their national constitution, which to this day provides that Fascists, Ku Kluxers and Communists are ineligible for membership in the Miners' Union...
...Competition with the capitalist world has bean keen...
...When such contribution* can be used, the request for them will naturally come from the Editor or Victor Riesel of the editorial department, and no one else, unless be is specifically authorized by the editor...
...No revs'*** ess adequately present its scbfcvemeatt for the reader...
...In the last election it received five times as many votes in New York City alone as Debs received in the entire United States when first he ran for president...
...This latter provision is less severe, but it is effective when to it is coupled alertness in watching the camouflaged "rank and file" Communists...
...Let no one say that democratic Socialists are inconsistent in approving such a policy...
...DUT my concern here is with Mr...
...eWrilsrioa aa a relatively ignorant child without the alights* preparation for Marx's menage this assy ransfor-nation des* little credit to the novelist...
...No doubt he is quite sincere in his opposition to the policy of social and labor legislation which the people of this city and of the nation so emphatically approved in the general elections of 1934 and 1936 and which by plain implication the people of this city again endorsed on the second day of this month...
...IN MICHIGAN HAS JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT POLITICALLY Editor of The New Leader: I wish to congratulate the editor of the New Leader for the fine articles, entitled Labor Conflict over Industrial Unionism...
...COOPERATIVES BEGIN STEADY GROWTH From this humble beginning developed the gigantic cooperative enterprises in production and distribution, both wholesale and retail, *) The English Cooperatives...
...It simply needs to he pointed out that bad as things wars, the Tsars' successors haw made them look mild by contrast...
...This new class slowly acquired a consciousness of its, interests and through trade unionism, Chartism and Owenism endeavored to improve its lot and to break the monopoly of political privileges held by the ruling property interests...
...He made the mistake," Serge attests, "at taking along his manuscripts and documents...
...We do not question his ability or his sincerity...
...As for intellectual pursuits by political outlaws, to get -back to my starting point, there is the testimony of Victor Serge, who writes from long years of personal experience in Stalin's prisons and areas of banishment Of his feflewprisoners he says: "All their intellectual works are confiscated when they leave...
...The author is concerned to inform the reader how and why a distinct class of wage workers emerged from the old simple order of ruling landed squires...
...The time for such action has now come...
...to be preferred to these hypocritical butchers of the innocent...
...Sincere men cannot be expected to act with vigor and zeal in support of policies which they disapprove...
...It is much as if President Roosevelt, in a similar case, should choose Senator Glass or Alfred E. Smith to be his chief aide and understudy—and we can't think of anything more unthinkable than that...
...It is curious to note that the evolution at cooperative political action followed closely that of the trade unions, first the petition stage whore friendly legislation is asked...
...But one mast read this hook *» obtain a comprehensive view of tah gigantic movement sad its auun* fold activities...
...It is in Siberia that he becomet a Bolshevik...
...THE JAPANESE KILLERS have received a pamphlet from the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in New York City which is announced as the "First Comprehensive, Factual Statement, with Official American and Japanese Documents," The "moral" position of the Japanese killers in China bulks large in this apology...
...If our new Deputy Mayor is to be entrusted with any duties in connection with these most vital affairs of the city administration, his sincerity itself will be a handicap...
...When the wage worker appeared he had been "uprooted from his native soil, separated from ownership of his tools, and deprived of control over raw materials — On the roads he was s vagrant...
...Curran nor very helpful to Mr...
...LaGuardia...
...Today it has no sense...
...Stocking their little shop in Toad Lane, London, with flour, oatmeal, sugar, butter and candles, they excited the derision of the curious...
...I hope that the Social Democratic Federation will soon be in a position to contribute its share towards building this movement throughout the nation...
...The death penalty for heresy or for mere discussion of overt sets which did not actually take place was introduced fat Russia by the Bolsheviks...
...When they earns eat of there, the world will see with stupefaction the portion at the intellectual production of an epoch that was that choked off...
...The disdain for life, the urge to exterminate physically those who disagree, the kicking over of every last remnant of decency in relation is political adversaries are worldwide phenomena...
...Del Ross, Calif...
...that we just began to fight This seems to be the real beginning of a political Labor movement in Michigan...
...The fact that the members in a national convention placed Fascists, Ku Kluxers and Communists in the same sack is significant A number of other international unions have provided that no Communist can hold office in the union or be elected a delegate...
...Yale University and an amazing range of other activities that reveal the creative genius of the working class when it seriously undertakes some vast and difficult task...
...No matter bow pious and high-minded they may sound...
...Chernychevsky, Kxopotkir sal others did important writing while actually in prison...
...and a nek section of Russian revolutionary literature was composed by exiles in Siberia...
...But we wish it with double earnestness now that he has chosen the lieutenant provided for in the new charter...
...The Soviet censor robbed him of everything.1* ¦ • • • RUSSIA, of course, is not alone in this pest-war attitude towsrd political offenders...
...What is mors, revolutionary woriu were not only read but written in Tsarist exile...
...The honwia of Tsarist persecution are too wall known for anyone to suspect sac of a perversa intention to whitewash them...
...Elizabeth H. Thomas...
...May it go forward and bless not our country alone, but also the whole earth...
...His assumption, it happens, is wrong...
...By Sydney EL Elliott...
...The United States is particularly well situated to prevent war by economic - action.— Editor.] • • * WORKERS SHOULD BE WELL EDUCATED AGAINST TARIFFS Editor of The New Leader: Your remarks about "The Power of the 'Mores'" in your November 13 instalment of "The American Labor Conflict Over Industrial Organization" are good...
...Such an arrangement would not be very complimentary to Mr...
...As to our defeat in the last Detroit election, I will say...
...But let the novelist tell it: "How the book got there, sad why Ivan was snowed to read it, is hard to say for anyone who has never bean a Russia...
...It should demand a special status for such offender* recognizing that they are not criminals hot political adversaries, «sr mental non-conformists...
...Most of us who in 1917 faced persecution for their steadfast Opposition to the World War between the oligarchic powers of that time, even then realized that one day it might be just as much their duty to sanction a defensive war of a democratic country attacked by tyrannical governments...
...It should fight and fight desperately to restore the principle of political asylum...
...Letters to the Editor: Flaeee lactase fell »si aad eaUreee, We wiU withheld bath If aaaseetea, WANTS UNITED STATES TO STAY OUT OF AU EUROPEAN WARS Editor of The Note...
...People habituated to "mores" that call for protection against products of workers of other, lands (tariffs) will require much education to make such folk abandon barriers to trade with other peoples...
...The novel, of course, is Walter Duranty'e On* Life One Kopeck, I am not concerned hare with the absurdity of the author's mm tbajt a. &?teen-year old peasant boy suddenly confronted wit* tat Marx volume would conceivably be turned into a flaming reveiationary...
...Nation, state, and airy must cooperate, if good work is to be done...
...Leader: . Apparently the editorial policy of The New Leader is that America should not hold aloof, if possible, from a struggle in Europe between the "have" and "have not" imperialist nation, sometimes classified as "democracies" and dictatorships, when that struggle finally takes the form of open warfare...
...The policy of Social Democracy is not to remain aloof from a struggle between the fascist and the democratic nations and that struggle appears to be coming on a world scale...
...Eventually the cooperative movement like the...
...Against the enlightened treatment of political prisoners in old Italy we have the unbridled terror of Mussolini's government...
...C./.O...
...But someone had owned t, and taken it to Siberia, and no doubt it had been found somewhere in his bunk and he had been beaten to death, and after that no one had cared much about the book any more, and it lay around until Ivan found it and began to read it...
...off them he was a trespasser...
...The idea is then cultivated that the responsible officers elected by members, elected in accord with union procedure, really do not represent the interests of the members and that the> extra-legal and dual "rank and file" committee does...
...third, atfsaisation of the Cooper*tree IMT and election of its own asjmsomv tives to Parliament BRITISH COOPS DO ENORMOUS TRADE It is when one studies the est* telling the story of the eaerawm business done by the movemest which is made even mote ririi •» the photographic illustration* tact accompany the text, that »• ** some comprehensive MM?W wast British workers have built wHaO leas than a century...
...The latest work to appear is the one before us, s study of the oldest cooperative movement id the world —the British.* This book varies from others of its kind in that the development of the cooperative movement is considered in relation to the general history of British capitalism, the origins of the modern Labor Movement through its relation with Chartism and Owenism and the cultural and political evolution of England...
...The result has been something like another social order developing within the heart of capitalism and growing despite a hostile environment and legislation designed to cripple and eventually to destroy it...
...In . those days, Milwaukee comrades with considerable foresight steered clear of a strictly pacifist attitude, in order to maintain their right to support democratic principles in the future...
...He had escaped the yoke of servitude to a landlord and acquired the badge of wage slavery...
...As Chartism and Owenism passed from the scene a small group of workers, 28 in all, with a capital of $140 founded the.Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in 1844...
...The nation, the states, and the cities have all to face and deal with the social problems of the day...
...This is from a former old time I.W.W., now active in the U.A.W...
...East Pittsburgh, Pa...
...Comrades of The New Leader, either I am not a Social Democrat, or you are misrepresenting American Social Democracy...
...Our own merciless gunmen who shoot down innocent people in the streets are...
...The United Mine Workers, the leading C.I.O...
...In the ease of the United Automobile Workers Union, tens of thousands of new members have joined who have had no previous experience in unionism and its discipline, and under the provocation of brutal bosses their rage is likely to induce them to follow Communists in a course that would wreck the union itself...
...Possession of then hook* <hc not constitute a political crime...
...Our readers will find Use story as told on another page of this issue very interesting...
...Milwaukee, Wis...
...A QUEER APPOINTMENT TJfJE earnestly hope that Mayor LaGuardia will keep his good health and his a ma ring vitality and will stick dose to hi* job through the next four years, as has been his custom in the past Of course we should wish this under any circumstances...
...Marx and auurr other revolutionary economists were freely circulated in the Hbraiiei and available in the hook shops...
...Because it was a shocking book, the book of Ear...
...Against Henry H. Curran personally we have nothing to say...
Vol. 20 • November 1937 • No. 48
