THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1928 Page Five ELLIS OUTSTANDING Hugo Geilert's Cover Design for “Red Cartoons” ! The STOCK EXCHANGE IN “RED CARTOONS” OF ART-MODEL 1928 RED CARTOONS, 1928. by need hardly be Edited added that Ellis never By art even has its Walt Garmon. With introduc- has and probably will receive MICHAEL WEBB. The industry an never middle-men leap from tion by Robert Cover De- the Pulitzer prize for the best who “poverty” Minor. cartoon MODERN painting is organized on to riches, like the obscure boys who sign by Hugo Geilert. Daily of year.) Work- the a commercial basis, "like the cleaned in the bull market er Publishing Co. I say that Ellis’ work has up recent sl. should jproduction and sale of pictures,” ac- in New Yolk. Thus Andre Salmon something more than a touch of geni- Reviewed by A. B. MAGIL. i cording to Louis Lozowick, the well the French critic has a us. And he is something more than a art collection jknown left wing artist, who has just worth millions. Fis did not THE publication of the annual book great political cartoonist. He is a “shares” | returned from Paris. Lozowick cost him a cent, since is the of Red Cartoons should be an event revolutionary artist who in a society it. custom stopped off in Paris on his way home painters, in the life of our movement. It has in which even revolutionary art rarely of unknown French whose ¦ from the Soviet Union, where he ex- are future, pre- been noted often enough to have be- escapes some taint of the febrile es- prospects all in the to hibited some thirty of his drawings sent critics with of their work. come a commonplace that the revo- theticism of the dominant bourgeois samples lutionary and collected considerable material Now many of the painters who gave movement in this country, class, has retained the simplicity, the on the theatre and other weaknesses vigor, the massive of the Soviet cinema. Salmon gifts during the twenty years whatever its and in- creativeness He reports the and adequacies, has been unusually revolutionary proletariat. And it is that workers’ of his activity as a critic have fame fertile peasants’ government gives the art- while in powerful Some put this which makes Ellis in certain as- Salmon has a fortune. artists. have : ist every encouragement, and that it: funny how all the best pects his art greater than any of an really cartoonists of Moscow publications pay well for the What artist like Picasse seem to have been cornered by his contemporaries. Gropper, for ex- J western art industry the drawings they use. Art Soviet thinks of the Reds. But this more versatile, more | in the is putting it the wrong ample, a much said, function,, i 3 hard to say, but Lozowick reports subtle artist, almost esthete | Union, he has a social seems an subject speculation that he is friendly to the revolution- beside him. There is nothing of Grop- I and is not to by private dealers. In Paris the level ary working class movement, and per’s intellectual restlessness, the con- 1 that every evening he tunes in his between lyricism and satire, in of talent among painters is higher, flict the in radio in his Paris studio to the Mos- Ellis. seems by compar- but artist is a “wage-slave” Ellis stolid huge cow wave length so that he can hear ison. is the stolidity of a commercial machine that has But it assur- its the Kremlin chimes. ance and strength rooted deep, the art factories, advertising agents, stolidity that shakes worlds the middle-men, and speculation like any beaten, groping stolidity of the work- jother commodity under capitalist “Smash the Frame-up!” ingclass struggling inexorably to its methods of production. power. * • • • • • Ellis is the most “proletarian” of A young artist in Paris, Lozowick all American revolutionary artists. reports, begins his career by turning His best cartoons are usually vivid his paintings over to a “marchand” dramatizations of simple mass emo- or dealer whose business it is to tions. Hate and love, ridicule, pity—- create a market for the artist’s work, these are his stock in trade. Strikers j By exhibitions, critical articles, wire- have referred to scabs as “rats” for pulling, gossip and other methods years. Ellis has taken this simple, I of publicity the artist’s work gains obvious idea and built out of it what a reputation and his pictures go up is perhaps the most powerful cartoon in price; and the art dealer cashes in the entire volume. The drawing in. Meantime, the artist works on shows an el train in the back-ground assignment. He must furnish a spe- and a huge sign: “I. R. T. Strike- I cified quantity of pictures a month. Breakers Apply Here.” Facing the Painting has become so robotized sign, with backs to the foreground that pictures are referred to in the and slimy tails sticking out, is a hord trade as “numbers.” The artist un- j of rats. And the perfect caption: lertakes to supply 10 or 15 numbers I “To Take the Place of Men.” within a given period of time. As j MANYNOTED FRED ELLIS The effect of this cartoon is like a his market widens, the money he re- j whip across the face. Bitter and ceives for his “numbers” increases, !j WRITERS IN way. It is not the Reds that have sardonic, the entire class struggle is Ditto for the “marchand’s” profits. cornered the best cartoonists, but the presented in a flash. The bitterness The dealer is in the position of a Reds that have given them the stuff of this picture holds the secret of capitalist who obtains a concession “DEFENDER” of which the best cartoons are made. Ellis’ peculiar power. It is what I in an undeveloped country for next The class struggle has made Minor, mean when I say that he is the most to nothing; as his sales increase, his “proletarian” all PH. D. SEES THRU GLASS EYE to announcement just Ellis and Gropper what they are. And of our revolutionary DARKLY profits, dividends and shares go up. cartoonists. It is as a RECORDINGmade, June number the publication of a collection of car- tragic rather People who buy paintings may or the of the thafi artist Ellis toons that have grown out of the class satiric that touches may not get “aesthetic” pleasures Labor Defender, a special Mooney- struggle is therefore an event, an im- greatness. And he has the capacity Studies Communist Activities But Trees Hide the Woods out of them; but what is most in- Billings issue, will include articles by portant artistic event in the life of of lifting himself up to crucial and tense is the speculation. They "in- our tragic in the of writers of international reputation. movement. moments life the vest” in a young artist as they would * * * as (COMMUNIST) there is the now famous incident of a For remembered, workingclass in his magnificent THE WORKERS’ it must be Schnei- in a new plant; invest- In answer to a cabled request by Sacco-Vanzetti (These PARTY AND THE AMERICAN certain wire sent, or supposed to have der says and the little Red Cartoons, 1928, is the third of drawings. have byway of elaboration, that ors follow the big investors, just like the editor, Henri Barbusse, noted the annual collection of drawings from been included in .a separate volume.) TRADE UNIONS. By David M. been sent, at the Boston 1925 emer- “the Workers’ (Communist) Party, • * • the lambs on the New York stock French Communist author, writes on the pages of The DAILY Schneider, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins gency convention of the furriers, “by which directs the at- WORKER. Not only the tragedy of the exploit- Communist exchange trail the bears and bulls.[ | another bloody fascist crime, the By far the greater part of it is de- University Press. $1.25: C. E. Ruthenberg, secretary of the tempts to penetrate ed workers, but their power, into the Ameri- Some time ago the American million- Sozzi murder. Fremont Older, edi- voted to the work of Fred Ellis, who hidden Workers’ Party of America, to Wil- can trade unions, the of their loom Reviewed by JOHN L. SHERMAN. in under control of aire Barnes (of Philadelphia) pur- tor of the San Francisco Call, who during the past year menace insurrection liam Weinstock, a reporter at con- ...” has become the large the the Third International. This chased a score of paintings by the has been, connected with the Mooney- in the drawings of Ellis. The has here .” regular staff cartoonist of The DAILY «rOMRADE” SCHNEIDER vention to the Daily Worker. . . the Chinese peasant rises with is main reason for the failure. Russian painter Soutine, who works Billings case since 1916, contributes WORKER. The other ' artists repre- pitchfork made the grade. (page 79). And where did Schneider carry on betrayed That Beckerman and “Frenchie” in Paris. Up to that time Soutine the leading article. James P. Can- sented William Gropper, to the revolution, one of the get information that at time are Hugo and Nicaraguan A union card in skilled the the might have had something to do with was not a “figure”; his art was curb non, national secretary of Interna- Geilert, Burck, Becker, the dies with his fist sneezed of the of the so-called Com- Jacob Maurice towards the plane crafts is surely not to be at. activities developments is perhaps unknown stock; Barnes’ purchase landed him tional liabor Defense, writes an inter- William Siegel, M. P. (Hay) Bales thrust of American Ph.D. Hopkins. mittee to Preserve the Trade Unions to imperialism circling overhead. Nor is a from Johns our investigator; that there might be on the Exchange; people said if ap view with Warren K. Billings at and K. A. S.uvanto. The secret that meetings of protest “arranged by the drawings, of defeat are never draw- It is no between S3OO some significance in the fact that his American millionaire invests in Sou- Folsom prison. Anna Louise Strong The art Ellis dominates is necessary to se- Communists in New York, Chicago of this ings of despair. Always there is the and SSOO usually conclusions are drawn at the end of tine he must be a good thing. Others writes an article on China and J. B. . . It is the unions Baltimore and Boston . were book. art of a man who has call to battle. And even in the un- cure admission into such closed 1927 after the left wing set-back in- also invested. Andrews, legal adviser of the Nation- not merely and sympathised Bricklayers. turned into anti-Communistic demon- seen with evenness of his Ellis’ work as the Plumbers and the stead early in 1926 the left al Association for the Advancement the struggles of work—and (page 112) of after Soutine is now a kind of General the workingclass, but is not always good, it sags visibly at A fairly comparable condition is im- strations?” wing victory seems to have of Colored People, writes on lynch- has felt them to altogether Motors on the Paris art exchange. who down his very seems posed on those seeking entrance into ** * ( ing in United Hugo bone. times—there to be reflected the escaped “Comrade” Schneider. A successful artist enjoys the usual the States. They have been part of him all progress of the Doctorate. Geilert, uneven of the struggles -of the closed union An unverified report states that Have the Communists failed to privileges of success; he is pointed well known artist and sec- his life, not by choice, but necessity—- the workingclass. This book shows how “Comrade” retary of the Anti-Horthy League “our author” was at one time a mem- “capture” any unions? out like a Rockefeller or Baron the iron law of class. * * von “Fred Ellis,” ? Schneider made the grade. writes on Hungarian fascism in the ber of the Workers’ (Communist) * * * Huenefeld; tourists are writes Robert Minor, of * * American himself one I have some faults to find with the * Party; United States. T. J. O’Flaherty con- ‘he greatest of that he was, earlier still, a taken to his Paris studio as if it was American revolution- editing of Red Cartoons, 1928. There Clothing “Comrade” Schneider, internal evi- tributes a brilliant satire on the re- ary artists, in the to The Amalgamated member of the Bolshevik Party in the Niagara Falls or the Woolworth introduction the is not enough variety in the selection dences disclose, a consider- lease of Sinclair in the oil steals, book, “was r r j Workers is a grant organization, he Soviet Union. Perhaps this report i: received Building. He may or may not have for twenty of cartoons, too many of them expres- able part his information—and in- by Art Young. rs and all j holds. “Its aggressiveness, vigor, untrue and was merely circulated by of great talent; who can tell, when what with illustrations this time a member in sing approximately the same, idea. sight—-from another “comrade,” good standing And i fighting capacity and thorough the teaching staff of Johns Hopkin; J. B we consider ‘talent depends so much A work- several of the most powerful of Ellis’ Salutsky Hardman. That explains In addition to a feature on the : his cartoons saturated with a | democracy account for its phenom- in order that “Comrade” Schneider of on tastes determined by critics, pub- arrest of Bela Kun in are cartoons have been omitted. I under- much, as one will Vienna, two trunk enal growth and success.” (page 60) ear, immediately per- licity, and American millionaires. workingclass bias. Never has stand that loss of cuts and other I its economic seminar might more items of special interest are a letter just ' oives who reads this monograph. made a cartoon which was not in mishaps have prevented them from Not “democracy,” mind you ily carry cut the “boring from within” Thus for instance, art exchange spe- from Hungary telling of a raid on democracy.” But the predict interests of labor. His cartoons, being not but “thorough Shade policy of that institution in its at ultimata test, “Comrades” cialists that Picasso’s stock a worker’s home and a letter included. This is the fault and from of'-en with the touch of genius, have: of the editor of Bsckcrman and “Frenchie!” Is thi tempt to “capture” the Workers Salutsky Schneider, of the suc- is bound for a flop. Just now the Greece describing the oppression of %of Rod Cartoons, but it n fighting a cess of the Communist Eiffel tower and Picasso quality and strength which , seems to me 3ome provision should be simple ignorance or is it necessar. Party. activities with- share hon- workers there. mark him as one of the really -great made for preserving every DAILY condition of "making the grade?” If this is the case, these efforts in the trade unions, even when judged ors as the chief sites of Paris; and political cartoonists of this time.” (It WORKER cartoon. President William Grten came t have been far less successful, accord- y the standards of your wishy-washy Picasso (being a financial success as A two-page lay-out of photographs the 1925 convention of the Interna- ing to the opinion of this reviewer pragmatism is: “how they work in well as a great artist) disregards on the Mooney-BiUings case is the tional Ladies’ Garment Workers’ than have been the efforts of the Com- Jie long run.” the sale of “numbers” as Ford scorns high point of the many unpublished, Street. He is features in this A HISTORY OF Union, we are told, and “delivered an munists whose purpose, according tt * * * Wall an “independent” [exclusive issue. The WARFARE for unity” in the Inter- artist in more than one sense; tour- | June number will be off the press eloquent pica “Comrade” Schneider ha 3 been tc And to form a true estimate of of address, ists can’t get into his studio. But in about a week and is expected to national. In the course his “capture” the American trade uhions! the success of Communist activities ‘ y the best of stocks has known reach another high mark he said: For “Comrade” Schneider also ha: within the trade unions during the been in circula- an to flop, and the art are tion, bettering the high Somewhat of Aristocratic Viewpoint “I am liberal enough to respect succumbed to the current conviction past period must take account not connoiseurs figure of we nosing the tape. 18,000 reached by the May the opinion of every man. I think held by all good liberals and Depart- only of the results of these activities number. MARCHING MEN: The Story of War. There is not a woi’d of the working- I can be classed as a radical many ment of Justice agents that the exclu- in the narrow sense but, what is vast- - By Stanton A. class or times, and I have no quarrel with a sive objective of the ir ly more important, we are obliged to liiii'f ;; Coblentz. Unicorn * of its role. Communists member of our union who may be to “capture” the organized labor take account of those activities which Press. $5. The author’s own viewpoint on the A New Vanguard classified as a radical. In fact, 1 am movement. How widely' this concep- are now developing without the re- last war might be described as a sort Reviewed By N. SPARKS. i glad to see the spirit manifest it- tion is held is only by degrees coming actionary organizations which could Book! of aristocratic pacifism with a pro- .” self. . . (page 95) not have arisen without the earlier IT is somewhat hard to find the exact ally tinge. He deplores primarily the [ to light. * Does “Comrade” Schneider want us • * * efforts. aim of this rather ambitious book. killing of geniuses and intellectual It is, lights. to believe that he here is taking Wil- of course, doubtful whether j For conclusion, an It is not a history of war as a science, the masses he has only I%his after examina- Schneider, Salutsky-Hardman and an contempt—contempt liam Green at his word. tion of six organizations Soviet Trade the development of strategy and tac- aristocratic the which Norman Thomas tics, but rather an their “malleability.” It is necessary to read this mono- the have made a speeiai can understand such account of the de- for Communists facts of dynamic development. velopment methods graph to appreciate fully how, “facts” effort to “capture,” he This of the and scope The actual accounts however of the declares: is beyond the minds of liberal prag- Unions warfare throughout the ages may be made to plead the cause of “It is apparent from the forego- TOOTHY of and methods of warfare of different coun- matists! and corruption. Only a first- ing study that the by ROBERT W. thru all lands. Within the limitations tries and different ages will repay reaction Workers’ Party DUNN “study” A study of the influence of the ttf this subject the book has some reading to anyone who is altogether hand examination of this can and the Trade Union Educational mojmoN value, which is not enhanced however j illustrate fully hovr the elaboration, League have failed in their attempts Colnmunists within the trade unions unfamiliar with the subject, and the which will terminate a year now Other Vanguard Books, by the author’s style, which is remi- author deserves credit of one side of a story side by side to gain control over the American from for the thor- will have a completely On Soviet Russia—- niscent of an encyclopedia . .” con- article or oughness with which he disproves the with the playing down of the other Labor Movement. . (p. 108) different of the antiquated clusion to draw. For the great events textbooks of a gen- old iie of the “natural warlike or can'do the trick required of students There are reason?, he contends, lor Itntfnface ! HOW THE SOVIETS WORK eration ago. combative who would attain their Doctorate. this failure to capture these trade now going on in the labor movemenl H. N. Brallsford. instinct.” could not place for AMEDICAN • • » have taken except for SOVIET RUSSIA AND HER • For is it only the observance of unions. This is a safe generalization the facts the NEIGHBORS professorial moderation which ex- An things have reasons. There that Communists worked WOttKLBS Arnot.. To lend unity to the Jheir Base work the author INTERNATIONAL PUBLIS HERS, plains the report of the 1927 conven- is probably a reason in the unions, were victorious, were BV RELIGION UNDER THE subject fancifully even why so Wolfe conceives his as *3Bl Fourth Avenue, New York, tion of the United Mine Workers in many good hod-carriers spolleu set back and rose again during Bertram 0. SOVIETS the story growth are J. F. Heclter. of “the of the war- have recently added to their series which scores of progressives were by going to Johns Hopkins! the past few years—as they will con- god.” This silly personification The tinue win, VILLAGELIFE UNDER TIIB lends “Voices of Revolt,” volumes on V. I. kept out of the hall, hundreds of false for the Communist to be set back and win SOVIETS a teleological slant to whole story, reasons failure to again—from A keen analysis the the Lenin, Georges Jacques Dunton, Aug- delegates packed into the meet- “capture” the labor now on until the final of role Karl Bordens. actually carrying the author into were movement are ap- the Opposition in the such ust Bebel, and Wiihelm Liebknecht, ing, nt which beatings and slugging.? proximately victory of the workingclass. of Rus- ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION a metaphorical morass as to ascribe a two, says “Comrade’ sian Party, and a cutting OF THE SOVIET UNION and are soon to issue a volume on were meted out to a number others Scott Nearing. certain condition to “the astuteness of of Schneider. expose of its counter-revolu- Eugene V. Debs. and at which not a single progressive “Perhaps the WOMAN IN SOVIET RUSSIA the war-god.” Os the fact that the most important tionary supporters in Amer- Jessica Smith. received a hearing single Charges Against real unity underlying his story con- This series, in which were previ- measure even cause of the lack of success Police ica. HEALTH WORK explains v IN SOVIET sists in the development of ously published volumes on Robes- which this convention In such suffered by the Communists is the RUSSIA / the pro- Whitewashed in Court To spread this important Alina J. Ilalnes. pierre, Marat, Lassalle, and Karl dignified terms: “The pfogrossiver lack of knowledge on the part ductive forces and of economic sys- of pamphlet we havo Liebknecht, consists of small volumes charged that the administration had their leaders reduced Order from tems, which have been the determin- concerning purely its price below cost. of the of warfare, the attractively printed and bound in not only unseated one of their adher- American conditions.” Murray Render and William Dow, ers development WORKERS LIBRARY PUB- author seems to be absolutely ignor- boards, in which are collected som. ents, but that it was also resp nsible This shows, of course, remarkable who were severely beaten by mem- 100 pages of outstanding LISHERS, 39 East 125th St. ant. Instead of being grounded upon the utterances of the for the beatings that several of them insight! The Communists have failed bers of the Industrial Squad under the NOW ONLY cents. pioneer revolutionary leaders. suffered.” (page 58) 35 New York City. the idea of the economic basis of war, Vol- to capture the needle trades—(or have command of Acting on * * Lieut John E, the book takes a purely psychological umes Thomas faine, Wendell * they really failed?) The reason why Order Today From Phillips, Bakunin, Broderick at the recent six-day viewpoint and concerns itself witk the Michael Rosa Lux- Then we have such interesting items Sigman, for instance, has aucceede. bike emburg, are prepara- race at Square Garden, growth of “warlike psychology” and and others in as the following of an entirely differ (or has he really succeeded?) —is be- Madison were tion. given WORKERS LIBRARY the “militarist mind.” Quite consist- ent order, less professorial, and—- ause he knows more about American suspended sentences in the West ently only PUBLISHERS he considers the enemy of Each volume retails at fifty cents, shall we say it—illuminatingly in- conditions than Hyman! If anyone Side Court. No charges were made “Leave Me for Somebody Else to the “war-god” is “the growth of « and boxes supplied for each four "... can see 39 E. 12 5 St., New Read and Multiply My are accurate: District 1, 5 and 9 anything in this reasoning, i against Broderick and the other de- York i Power!” pacific international psychology.” volumes. which. coniDrisu the he is * —The Daily anthracite:” again welcome to the insight. tectives. . Worker.