Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
Where the News Ends By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN Odds] and Ends IN a recent column I referred to the delightful ¦ending of Aldanov's "The Fifth Seel." A distinguished French author is offered s...
...The men who took the lead ia setting ¦> die A.L.CJ.A...
...Propagandist misrepresentation plus official sanction adds up to one ugly word in my political dictionary...
...It was the fact that Tukhaehevsky never made a public confession:at all...
...and the film shows him doing just this...
...Each fears that the dossier bearing his name in the files of the OGPU contains data which will some day place him before a firing squad...
...Since then it has been as thssgk the evil genius of Italy, each year when fiat calendar day returns, were haunted—like mm smaller, more ignoble Macbeth—by 'iskm sf his past misdeeds...
...David Dubinsky and has such CIO reprnanZ tives aa Clinton a Golden and Walter Keener mm its Executive Committee Many ef SW leading economists snd political scientist...
...Tabouis simply doesn't understand what the discussion is all about...
...Ideas have been ironed out of that sheet just about as thoroughly as in the case of its fellow Communist organs in Moscow...
...And to fight of ttea apparitions, he plunges each returning sssen into new and even more desperate esvflttta...
...Thomas's intimation that, if President Roosevelt and Premier Churchill have their way, sad-war Europe will be subjected ¦ the worse than Bolshevist tyrauw of "Anglo-American gauloitsn under an English -speaking sen* lordship...
...Up to now, not more than one-half of ear working population has been insured against unemployment...
...They fairly asked for it...
...His prases troubles must be sufficient to demand Hi entire attention...
...The whole film is a crude glorification of what the elegant language of one of the Messrs...
...This bill is a monstrous proposal, an insult to organized labor...
...What sort of picture would this give to American youth...
...It must be paaaed subject to thorough discussion and possible amendment—as soon as possible...
...Very few of the miners—except those already in the services—would come up to the military or naval requirements...
...Service in the Army of the United States is an honorable service...
...In 1937, precisely on the fatal anniversary, at murdered Nello and Carlo Rosselli...
...On being approached by Kangarov, his inspired retort is "Merde...
...Without some such practical measure to bridge the gap between military and civilian life, all of our adulation ef national heroes becomes mere hypocrisy...
...They esse* be solved without labor's direct partieintth...
...The sword hangs ear him...
...beat splendid accomplishments to- Us «5Z : The American Labor Conference on tetsW...
...Thte must net Algernon Lee Attacks Thomas Statement on Comintern End From ALGERNON iff To the Editor: IT is interesting to note Norman Thomas's cool aaaujnptaM 1 that the American and British hostility to CotnmuniiB and distrust of the Moscow government, which Stalin aoaftt to allay by dissolving the Comintern, is just a matter af "Axis anti-Communist propaganda...
...at order, analysis or discrimination...
...Warners advertisements called "two guys named Joe...
...j As to the finding' 4f a job, he will not be left helpless and friendless...
...Anyone who has lived and worked in Moscow knows that Politbureau secrets, for obvious reasons, are extremely well kept...
...In some form or other it will be paaaed...
...At any moment it may faH...
...j. e^ EDITORIAL COMMENT A CHALLIMCf TO LAiORS POWER AMERICAN LABOR has itself to thank that such a pernicious measure as the Con-r.allv-Smith BIB can come anywhere near panning the Congress of the United States...
...Surely, provisions like these for the reception and care of men who risk their lives for their country should be adopted and implemented in time so that this machinery will be set up and ready to operate the minute the first returning soldier comes down off the gangplank...
...widening of scope of our present social security measures...
...WORK Oft HOHT...
...To the Editor: The Negro Labor Committee with which are affiliated the progressive trade unions of this city —both AFL and CIO, and representing more than % of a million workers of all races and religious beliefs, is definitely opposed to the City of New York granting tax exemption or making any other concessions to the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company for the building of its new housing project...
...does not cost him s cent and, h> sofar as it may imprest peter opinon- in this country- 1* W* tend to breed discord between • and our British and Cesssssr wealth allies, to damp klisJB* enthusiasm for our declared ear aims, to undermine industrial aw military morale, and to strengftSl the very elements who acteaw are aiming at world donuneaw by American (not Angle-Ass*, ican) capitalism and who, tg that very reason, are both spew and covertly attacking the Pen* dent, the Four Freedom* snd $M New Deal...
...Yet some legislators propose to say to a striking worker: "Yeu^ave committed a crime...
...Davies, according to censored despatches from the Soviet capital, included the following modest array of food and drink: caviar, back of dried sturgeon', .herring with dressing, back of sturgeon in sauce, English-style roast beef, cold ham, gelatine, olives, spring salads, radishes, cucumbers, a variety of cheeses, wild fowl, chicken soup, consumme, snipe snd fried potatoes, turkey and cauliflower, strawberry tarts, vanilla icecream, candy, nuts, liqueurs, red and white wines, vodka with hot pepper and champagne...
...Into it were piled pellmell helterskelter all the wild rumors that were flying about, without the slight-eat attempt...
...Needless to say the invitation was not pressed and Troyanovsky perhaps experienced moments of anxious apprehension as to whether contact with such a notorious "counter-revolutionary" as John Dewey might not be enough to cast him for an undesired role in a new treason and sabotage trial...
...The contributions will be raised so that the total income will be $6,000,000,000 annually instead of the $2,000,000,000 required for our present scheme...
...committees ef experts and ---imsan, tives have long been- at work...
...This feeling cannot be established by force...
...At this moment when Negroes are bleeding and dying on faraway battlefields for the tend they love and for the principles of freedom and bone which America today symbolizes...
...But the greatest reform proposed is in the jtekiofhmti^ havTaervioat of physicians aad provision for hospital caret-- Thaw would he rossajpTatee at the prime sources of worry aad suffering and, too, one ef the fleetest causes of onanonric leas to the country...
...But if the 1*^00,00© million organised workers of this country were united and vigorously lad, no set of politicians could put over such a proposal The ostensible purposej>f^the bill is proper j^ad^tiiaaW^" efforftoCmake^bor Itsnnsjgss ferns attractive...
...The citizen fighting and the citizen working must be the two arms of the nation at war...
...Born and bred in the new Russia, she is unhappy fn the effete civilization of capitalist France, and longs for the adoring glances of her Soviet swains...
...The Wagner measure will add farm laborers, domestic employees and other categories addyig up to 15.000,000...
...The joker here is the use of the term Maxist-Leninist without the addition of the indispensable third adjective Stalinist...
...General Organizer, 1X..G.W.U...
...But I have the goods on the "Daily Worker" now, and I shall let the skeleton right out of the closet In a jumbled essentially meaningless sentence about the dissolution of the Communist International our local Communist House-organ expressed itself as follows: "It is a token of the present strength, vitality and basic Marxist-Leninist approach" etc., etc...
...Yes, Aldanov knows people, and how people think and feci and act...
...It does not sear...
...The good of the country demands that they remain right where they are...
...are little masterpieces, worthy of Dostoievsky...
...international affairs than Genevieve Taboutfl...
...It is not a question of the date of tile trial of Tukhaehevsky, whose name, like Bukharin's, Mme...
...MUSSOLINI'S FATAL RAT Fwas on June 10th, 1924, tint Qtaessa Matteotti was done to death by state Mussolini...
...There might be some diminution of the mountains of food that pile up at these Kremlin banquets if their menus were widely available to the Russian people and if some nasty . cantankerous uncoordinated editor could draw a few contrasts between this sumptuous fare of the Thermidorean official bourgeois class in the Soviet Union, and the daily diet of an unskilled worker or peasant...
...The announced policy of the Metropolitan Company to exclude Negro citizens from tenancy in its project because of color or so-called race, is s brazen violation of every decent, democratic, civilised and progressive principle for which the City of New York hss long been famous...
...filled with such gatherings...
...4jJ fet$aja>t conference, their views will be ourliaaj mi discussed...
...f\NE place in the world that is evidently not suffering from rationing restrictions is the Kremlin...
...The book has already achieved a certain critical success, but this, too, has been tempered by a Red blaze of disfavor...
...His reply is to hurl an unprintable word into the face of his surprised and dismayed Soviet Excellency...
...It is now 19 tears aha Matteotti was killed...
...They should—now, not in the distant future—line up their forces and assert their power in such s way as to throw fear into the hearts of all yapping politicans who try to legislate their hates into the statute books...
...SOCIAL SECURITY NOW THE new Wagner social security bill is not * a Utopian document to put on the shelf for future consideration...
...These contributions would be in the nature ef enforced savings, at a time when such savings are vitally needed...
...And what sort of soldiers would these pressed men make...
...Suppose the costumes and landscapes are anarchronistic and the dates s trifle scrambled, she argues1, how does this affect the high moral value'of a film that shows the essential qualities of the Russian people...
...A distinguished French author is offered s transparent bribe for a "bit of dirty work by a Soviet Ambassador...
...With this object ia «ke...
...The bill as it stands new is a ragbag of proposals hern ef labor hatred in the hearts of reactionaries...
...His islands and ports am tenf bombed without mercy...
...Study of these problems for the purposs sf supplying organised labor with adequate, aV jeetive information is, therefore, of th* sj...
...VF all crazy ideas about the solution ef the strike problem, this one of drafting miners into the Army is the craziest...
...One among many compelling reasons for prompt action is the fact that this is one clear and simple way of doing justice to the returning soldiers...
...and at a time when in the workshops and factories of the nation Negro workers are once mere demonstrating their loyalty to America, it would be indeed a colossal disgrace for the City of New York to give its official blessing to the Nazi-Fascist-like housing program of the Metropolitan life Insurance Company...
...He expects us to forget that these feelings prevailed before the Berlin-Rome Axis was formed, before Nazism came into power at Berlin, even before Fascism triumphed at Rome and before Stalin became dictator...
...Where the News Ends By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN Odds] and Ends IN a recent column I referred to the delightful ¦ending of Aldanov's "The Fifth Seel...
...Requiring unions to report membership lists snd financial statements would not keep one man at work anywhere...
...The government will start making the regular monthly payments for him as soon as the bill is passed...
...Tabouis horribly misspelled in her letter...
...Without violence, Aldanov reveals the skeleton in the Comintern closet...
...Jean L. Lewis and tike miners must bear the immediate responafoflty...
...And this is onry one of a series of Gargantuan feasts that have been reported from Moscow...
...An amazingly similar incident,- minus the Rabelaisian touch, occurred in this country in 19*7, with the Soviet Ambassador Troyanovsky and Professor John Dewey as the figures concerned...
...And st June 10th...
...But whatever happens during the next few days, this experience should teach labor leaders their lesson...
...Aldanov's anger is cold, hard...
...But it is definitely net pointed ia that direction...
...Until he finds a job, he will enjoy the same status as any other unemployed worker...
...So— out of anger rather than reason—we shout: Throw them into the Army, where they may be shot...
...The suggestion of such s 'policy is proof' of extreme poverty in social ideas...
...To them, service would be s disgrace rather than an honor...
...The Fifth Seal" is net satire...
...As for the "essential qualities of the Russian people," these do not appear in the film at all...
...In this case, the...
...We should he turning our Army arid Navy into penitentiaries...
...Unequivocally, no...
...meet importance...
...Not one ceases to regard the other with suspicion...
...members of a diplomatic mission traveling from Russia...
...If the ateka were not still suffering under an old grkwente John L. Lewis would be no threat...
...It is a matter of real regret that Aldanov's talent dees not extend to the dramatic...
...Pictures of his approeekkf doom fill his' mind...
...Not one feels himself immune from attack...
...Here is perhaps a case illustration of the value of a free press...
...But the final scene) d the tragedy approach...
...What, then, is the final verdict on Mark Aldanov's controversial book...
...Even Nsdia, the Russian version of 4 Government Girl, has toe breath ef life...
...The bill provides that the U. S~ jEmployment Service be expanded into a network- covering the nation aad equipped to keep an accurate record of the labor market and th place workers of all types in the places where they are needed...
...The coal strike interfered with war production...
...Davies' mission to Hollywood aroused amopg so many serious students of Soviet history and politics was not a teapot tempest over minor anachronisms . It was aroused by the fact that the film wis a lie from beginning to end in its propagandist misrepresentation of the treason-sabotage trials and Soviet foreign policy, bolstered-by'specific misrepresentations of many matters of historical record...
...More notable still, however, is Dr...
...cry that we cannot afford the necessary coat is completely inapplicable...
...set out with detemunstkw sal with bread vision to bring American later into the picture ef post-war thinking...
...This year, at least, at is under no necessity of committing set crimes in order to forget his old...
...If the bill were honestly pointed in that direction, the great majority ef labor* seen in this country Would give St support...
...There is no simpler and easier Way of reducing the "inflationary bulge.'' The sooner this bill Is passed, the sooner the danger of run-away inflation can be boasted off...
...It is with Vermandois that the author ends his commentary on modern Russia on the eve of the present conflict...
...It is urgent...
...The barracks are not s penal colony...
...He shows with artistry the subtle distrust existing among Wislicenus, Tamarin, and Kang-- arov...
...Possibilities of another strike threaten us before the month Is out...
...hnt it bad the same effect of finality...
...The Negro Labor Committee...
...Vermandois, s famous French writer, and his secretary, Alvera...
...What made it more serious was the semi-official character imparted to the production by the introduction of President Roosevelt as one of the figures...
...Velgsjfja has been slow...
...will take pte*»a the HoteK Commodore one of the sent significant conferences held in this paru*eesj...
...Dewey's reply was more dignified and polite than that of' Vermandois, Aldanov's French author...
...Here we have, at last, official saw men taking the initiative, leading the wsjr, g is important that the great army af Isbst, te men and women in the ranks, should ssjfte...
...raat good jady contributed a column of alleged*' lowdown on- diplomatic affairs to "L'Oeuvre" that was a standing joke among foreign correspondents in the French capital...
...At the very least it is a case for the Psrty Control Commission...
...It is tee*, tant that they should carry with them |dp far-sighted effort the rank snd file of the she movement...
...For Vermandois, who badly needs money and who is frequently unscrupulous when he badly needs money, will not sell his name and influence to bolster a Russia which has lost face with international liberals as a result of the mass trials...
...Two provisions of this measure will affect the welfare of the demobilized, fighter immediately and vitally...
...Simultaneously it is suggested that it would be very nice if he would issue, a public statement endorsing the Moscow trials...
...Walled Town From FRANK...
...What especially emphasized Genevieve's true qualifications to me was her habit of professing to tell her readers just what Stalin had said at a recent private session of the Politbureau...
...Now she is at her old trick of muddling issues in America, In a letter to the Herald-Tribune she goes all-out for the Da vies film...
...In the passages devoted to Nadia, the author is witty and cruel, yet Just...
...The opening days of June, 1943, proentew early end to the career of Rome's sraV criminal...
...There wi w assembled for discussion and counsel top resentatives of American Labor and Aaasten aahnterahin Thte union ef fores* has' hen ailtuagHlhid by an organisation which aiasj...
...The financing—except for the part paid by the government on behalf of soldiers—will be taken care of out of the contributions of employers and workers...
...IT isn't often that I catch the "Daily Worker" out on a point of political heresy...
...The Fifth Seal" ia the product of an unmistakably isaline and able mind...
...to punish you, we will put you into our-armed forces...
...That word is totalitarianism...
...I should be very happy to go to Moscow, Mr...
...We grow exasperated, want to hit someone, take it cut on someone...
...He must work with the same enthusiasm which sends the soldier into the fight against all difficulties and dangers...
...LABOR AND THE POST-WAR *BJBM /*|N Saturday, June 12th...
...Like...
...stand the issues and give their support 0 trade union people are to play their parte setting up the post-war world, they was reach some agreement as to what they wax This conference is an important step taetnt such agreement...
...Jane «. IMS...
...To permit appeals to the courts from the decisions of the War Labor Board would throw hundreds of decisions into confusion, cause endless delay—and thus would increase the strains which have already led to numerous stoppages...
...Protests Met...
...This year, Musssha is fully occupied...
...R. CROSSW4ITH Chairman...
...i • * * WHEN I Was in Paris in 1939 and 1940 there w» wss no- more Consistently muddled commentator oji...
...From the moment his army pay stops, he will come under the terms of the unemployment section of this lsw...
...Now by a curious coincidence, just as Stalin, his high functionaries and his invited guests were doing themselves well on the thirty or forty assorted courses of the above listed repast Russia's representative at the Hot Springs food conference was making an urgent plea for larger shipments of American food to relieve desperate need among the Russian people...
...The state dinner for Mr...
...The storm of criticism which the product of Mr...
...All that pertains to the workings of the mind, Aldanov does supremely weH...
...To get the tons of coal which we need, we must have every, miner at his post working with a will born of interest in our cause...
...There ia in the writing ef any successful story-teller a dynamic, driving, emotional quality, slmost wholly lacking in Aldanov...
...Those who have been exempted for work in an essential industry are more needed in the mines than st the front...
...1940, he brought his career 4 malfeasance to its climax, by plunging kh country into war...
...Its omission is a sign that masked counter-revolution is raising its head where one would least expect to' see it...
...that self-oppointed national morale booster, Arthur Upham Pope, who took up almost three columns of space in The Times without meeting squarely one of the unanswerable criticisms'which John Dewey and Suzanne LaFollette launched against the film, Mme...
...af tl is country and of Europe have been at na* far more than a year under the aosfieei a* this organization...
...Each has a horror of ultimate disgrace and death...
...Perhaps the President will end its life with a veto...
...you are practically «Xtraitor...
...The New Leader wishes "the ir tiatanVst this protect the utmost success...
...Ambassador," he said, "after I have finished my work in Mexico...
...Aldanov's great talent lies in the realm of psychological delineation of character...
...Forbidding trade unions to nsake contributions to political campaigns has nothing to do with strikes in war industries...
...They would carry 'a heavy load of resentment in their knapsacks...
...The men working, as well as the men fighting, must feel that this country and this way of life are worth everything that we ceil do and give...
...What better servis.,* the way of pro-Axis ifrliwtg could Hitler desire than this...
...LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Hails "The Fifth Seal" From BLANCHE OFFER To the Editor: With the tumult of the Communist brethren still ringing in their ears, will the populace nevertheless acclaim "The Fifth Seal" a nation-wide best-seller...
...vital world problems, they said, "affect orgs*, ized labor directly or indirectly...
...For, alas, not one of these three fellow-travelers has an iota ot faith in the other two, or in the government of Russis...
...It must arise out ef a conviction that duties and nagnS are shared on an even basis...
...The Russian people, so far as they are shown, play the roles of supers and robots...
...Whatever effect ft has on war production wflt he had...
...It is sn old saying that charity begins at home and the question might occur whether the self-styled Communist government of a country where millions of people are certainly going to bed hungry every night might not set an example of good taste snd moderation by limiting its state banquets to reasonable proportions...
...He is to be paid for translations of his works into Russian (a rare experience for authors who are notion the party line...
...Member, New York City Housing Authority...
...Providing far secret ballots and cooling-off periods is a definite proposal to have strikes—war or no war...
...tional Affairs is headed by William Greases...
...The bill provides in the meet practical and realistic manner for the...
...Troyanovsky, who knew of Dewey's intention to go to Mexico with a commission to take Trotsky's testimony on the charges which had balm made against him in Moscow, ingratiatingly suggested that Professor Dewey would be an honored and desired guest at the twentieth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, in view of Soviet appreciation of his services to education...
Vol. 26 • June 1943 • No. 24
