AND NOW—

June 15 Cents 1939 World a Copy

FOR PEACE AND DEMOCRACY

TO THOSE who have read and supported The FIGHT for Peace and Demoer over the years, we wish to announce several changes in the magazine beginning with the June 1939 issue. These improvements in format are designed to provide a livelier, better medium for expressing the American people's struggle against the Fascist war-makers. They come as a result of wide reader interest in the problems of the magazine, as well as the active study of the publishers and the staff. These New Features! @ NAME—The WORLD for Peace and Democracy is a positive improve the app rance of the title, expressing with clarity the constructive aims of the maga- play, mailing and handlin; This change has heen sevei zine, The fight for peace goes on—but it has become ar that in the planning, until jancial arrangements could be worked this fight is conducted on a world scale. © EDITORS—Dr. Harry F. Ward, Helen Bryan, Margaret Forsyth, DEPARTMENTS. ‘Thomas L, Harris, executive secretary of the Ame ‘Thomas L. Harris, Dorothy McConnell and Dr. Max Yergan nL gue, will write a monthly pa; will form the Editorial Board of The WORLD. world pes ‘¢ movement. Other new de} and Recor A number of further new features are being ” © SIZE—The WORLD will measure somewhat smaller than the worked out present size, This will facilitate westand display, the mailing PRICE Please note that the price of The WORLD will be 15 and handling of th le still keeping it within the cents a copy, $1.50 a year After careful consideration, it was

range of large, pi ‘orial publications.

felt that the change in price would make possible editorial

@ COVER—A heavy, glossy cover will be added. This will greatly improvement il a wide increase in circulation

WITH ALL THE QUALITY OF The FIGHT

The WORLD will b you the sa ¢ up-to-date articles by writers of ational renown that you have found in The FIGHT. The “new edition” will carry further thi

cellent qualities of the maga

Get Under the Wire Last Chance Offer Subscriptions at our present rate of $1.00 a year will THE FIGHT 268 Fourth Avenue, New York City be accepted until May 31, 1939. After that date, the subscription rate of $1.50 a year will be effective. Here In order to “get under the wire,” I enclose $1.00 for a year's subscription is your chance to subscribe or to renew your subscrip-

tion—your last chance at only $1.00. You will receive, Name in efféct, a $150 magazine for a dollar if you act Address quickly. Go to your friends who have been thin! of subseribi ge them to get under the wire. City and State... eee Today! May 1939, THE FIGHT

With the Readers The Contributors * * LUCIEN ZACHAROFF, a frequent T’ your eye to the opposite page, and commentator on international develop- you'll see that our collective magazine is undergoing a change, We hope, a ments for leading American and Euro- change for the better. If the editors c pean publications, was last seen in our read your wishes straight, it’s what you, pages with Those Nazi Planes in the the readers want. That is, the majority March issue, of you. And here, the customer—and ELLA WINTER lives in Carmel, Cali- the majority—is always right. fornia, and has had ample opportunity to see the problems of “industrial agri- WE thought you should know just how culture” at first hand. She has con- these changes were determined. This tributed to The Pacific Weekly and other involves some consideration of the theory publications, and recently. edited, with ine-making, It is a difficult Granville Hicks, The Letters of Lincoln ed art, requiring long training, a high degree of skill, a soft pencil, a Steffens and the ability to read, First, the wine is designed, which is a lengthy GEORGE LrBARON jis an erstwhile in itself. Then, over a period of King Zog of Albania summed up the European scene succinctly New Yorker now in Hollywood. time, the complaints and compliments "Two mad dogs, and two damn fools” LEANE ZUGSMITH is the author of of the readers. are carefully noted, and Home Is Where You Hang Your Child- filed for future reference. At last comes the day. ‘The readers’ reactions over the hood, A Time to Remember and. The years are carefully tabulated, and_ the IN DHS: 15S ule Sinner Soldier” Communkations and results checked by the Gallup Poll. The report is drawn up, on one side of the describes: may be sent to Louis Brom. paper. . This is so that it may be cut up field, chairman, Spanish Intellectual Aid, into seratch pads, May, 1939 York Room City 1114, 381 Fourth Ave

THIS is done. The editors gather in the office. They thrash it all out, taking vouUme 6 NUMBER 7 JOHN GROTH’S work h notes on the pads. After a thorough in most of America’s leading 1 discussion, they compare their notes. It Who Is Encircled? ‘ : 5 JACK REED expressed surprise when is found that one intends to enter art By Lucien Zacharoff ‘we told him that Burgos Gaol “would school but will inevitably be rejected; probably continue longer than the maga- another (a middle-of-the-roader). picks zine.” If he will look at the opposite the Yankees and Cincinnati; while a Associated “Farmers' 8 page, he will see that we have been, in third has defeated himself in a seven- By Ella Winter 1vuSTRATED BY WILL BARNET a measure, vindicated, game series of tit-tat-toe, MORRIS WATSON js an international FINALLY, one of them has a hunch Two Giant Strides. 10 vice-president of the American Newspa- which he defends with unusual. fervor By George LeBaroy per Guild, and is on the national board He does not say “What if?” but “If of the American League for Peace and only!” He prevails Democracy. He writes that the budget Our Shame in Southern France 13 of the Hearse strikers “is approximately NO, that’s not quite the way it's done. By Leane Zugsmith WLUSTRATED BY JOHN GROTH $3,000 weekly. Labor everywhere is And yet the question of taste, of the struggling to get this amount to Chicago reader's likes and dislikes, is the n Burgos Gaol ...... Ne Sa 16 every week. Money and communications thing to a mystery we know of. should go to the Hearst Strike Commit- are just about as many opinions as there By Jack Reed ALLUSTRATED BY CHET LA MORE tee, 188 West Randolph Street, Chicago, are readers. For readers are in the Mlinois,” first place people, with a. million, varying Hearst Learns Hard...... i 21 Mr. Watson, incidentally, forwards an sides—"What a thing is: man!” They interesting leaflet issued by the injune- have different origins, different _home- By Morris Watson tion-ridden strikers. ‘The leaflet reports lands, different educations, different that “MANY STOP BUYING ANY memories and associations, and different “We Are Growing” .... sec 22, HEARST PAPER! They cancel sets of eyes. What is a pleasing page of By David Karr STRATED BY ADOLF DEHN scriptions (Hearst papers admit) type to one gives another a headache they write or phone protests to Pub- And each reader not only is himself, but lisher M, C. Meigs at Hearst is becoming someone else—is_changing The Man Who Joined the Wagner Act 25 Chicago.’ They DO IT NOW! Square, while you watch him. Who will venture By Benjamin Appel WLUSTRATED BY WALT PARTYMILLER MANY STOP BUYING FROM to steer his way infallibly through this FIRMS THAT ADVERTISE. IN maze? Not us! HEARST PAPERS! Hearst lawsuits DEPARTMENTS show people tell firms they cannot pat- THERE are certain practical conside ronize those who furnish Hearst money ations. There are developments of the Radio cess: 4 As to Women...... 24 to fight labor! They DO IT, NOW!” printing industry. There are require- That, we submit, is reporting. ments of distribution, And though we Movies ..... 15 _ In Step With Labor 26 hhaven’t kept a file of your suj DAVID KARR has contributed to sev we have listened to them, studied Books css::, 18 Building the League... 27 eral of our recent issues, and has spo- Wall Street . 20 Youth Notes 28 ken for the American League in various tried to understand what y them. And when we had Editorials 31 localities. His specialty is Nazi activi- these factors, we finally said ties in the United States. "We dre our best opinion—so help us.” Growing” was based “onan interview with a German refugee THE result, our new magazine (and CHARLES PRESTON, dcting not, of course, altogether new by any AARON WOOL, Eaitori Assistant ADOLF DEHN, a Minnesotan in New means) you'll’ see soon. We know York, received a Guggenheim award this you'll read it, for it is for peace and ‘The Fight For Peace and Democracy, publish.

Democracy. ‘That is the main. thing: Executive Committee of the American League for Peace and Democracy, vou will forgive us much so long as we 268 Fourth Avenue, New York, N.Y. Chair BENJAMIN APPEL’S The Power- hold to that line. For, to par Viee-Chaiemen: Robert Morss Lovett, Mrs. Victor L. Berger, house has been published by E, P, Dut- phrase the text, ‘though you speak Reverend William B, Spofford, Howard G. Costigan, Mes, Mary ton & Co. Sections of the book appeared with the tongues of Life and of Fortune Bethune, Tveasurer: Eleanor Brannan, Secretarial Staif: Ex: previously in Tx Fiont, titled Hooker and have not truth, you are become as th, ‘Regina Rakoczy; Women, Dorothy and Tear Gas. sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal, subscription, $1.00, Six-month subscription, Edwards, Single 95 cents. copies, Canada 10 cents. and Yearly For ign, $180 2 year. Reentered as Second Class Matter December 23, 1937, WALT PARTYMILLER hails from BUT besides, we hope you like it fat the Post Ofice at New York, N.Y, under the act of March 3. 1879 Seattle, Washington Bm 10 THE FIGHT, May 1939

|

President Monroe's Message

F: {OW Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives.” James they would succeed in their contest, and resume their equal station among the fonroe is preparing his annual mes Dongress, Jelivered De nations of the earth cember 2, 1823, during a period of ‘national “ The Presi The attempt of the Holy Alliance to strengthen its position in the Western discusses the important problems of a you! a period of Hemisphere at the expense of the young South American republics brought sharp dent n Continents, by the free and independent growth and expansion: highways, rivers and canals, postal service, manufacturing, words from Monroe the Amer etc But the mes ge is dimmed by 115 years; condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be con- tariffs, national defense, piracy, sidered as subjects for future colonization by any Eur powers... . The are seldom quoted. Yet how often do we hear the expres: words of Monroe the political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect from sion, “Monroe Doctrin«

The aptness of this policy achieved a prestige that politicians and statesmen that of America... . We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations have since exploited to the full A thousand dif rent ideas on foreign policy are existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should expressed, all in the name of the Monroe Doctrine. We can perhap der any attempt on their par to extend their sm to any portion of this

onal situation in phere as dang Doctrine if we have a picture of the inte stand the Mo 39, The Fascist Alli 1823 and the spirit of the times. Bolivar was ding the South American peo se gobbles uf ine small country after another, in. + to the United States. Nazi spies in Ameri Fascist infiltra: P ples in revolt a a t the Spanish monarchy and to the establishment of free re publics. In Europe, the Greeks were struggling to maintain their independence tion in the Western Hemisphere threaten our “peace and sal What are we against the Turkish invasion; a str le which brought such men as Byron to ight this menace and to maintain peace? Unite in the active stru “A strong hope for peace and Democracy. Write to the AMERICAN LEAGUE FOR PE. their support. Monroe himself indicated the spirit of the times: thas been long entertained, founded on the heroic struggle of the Grecks, that AND. DEMOCRACY, 268 Fourth Avenue, New York City ia May 1939, THE FIGHT

May, 1939

) \ RAMPLING on Albania, Spain, Czechoslo- { | vakia, Ethiopia, the dictators of the Rome- Berlin Axis shout their heads off to the effect that Gi aly are being “encircled” by the democracies. As they make ready in full view of the world to continue advancing in Central and Eastern Europe, in the Balkans and the Mediter- ranean Basin, it becomes increasingly hard to find simpletons even among their sympathizers to believe the fairy tale of the “encirclement.”

However, many people of the non-Fascist coun: tries still fail to realize that aj cession in. Spain, East Afri Mitteleuropa, is not an end in itself but Who Is Encircled? encirclement of France and Europe for their subsequent conquest. Mein Kampf, among. other writings and orations of Hitler, makes it all too plain that France is The En at alll costs The thief cries “Thief!” and Hitler roars: To be sure, the long-cherished plan to grab the Soviet Ukraine concerns itself with the juiciest plum «We are encircled!” ... An examination of of them all, but Hitler is fully aware that Moscow is the one spot on earth that will not under any France’s easy road down—and hard road up circumstances make an effort to Appease, that it will call his bluff every time he attempts to blackmail and intimidate. London and Paris could be black d_and intimidated because the governments found Appeasement suiting the interests of the pro: By Lucien Zacharoff Fascist Tory cliques they represent. The Cham: berlain and Daladier gov nts knew that they were betraying not only Czechoslovakia at Munich but the political, economic and military int and and France, Nevertheless and the reactionary groups who put them int office feared that they would lose more by t a firm stand in defense of De jumph might have spelled their own ¢ hey sacrificed Czechoslovak French influence

in Europe. Its desertion by France reduced Pari fa status weaker than that of Prague on the eve of the crisis ‘The encirclement of France in which Munich

ward with the conquest of Sp country may be per se, what with its natural r sources which the Fascist” war machinery can find

ready use for, it has even more mp importance to Ger strategic base many and Italy as a Iraly’s intervention, m: rial and ideological, in to Spain’s domestic politics antedates by many years the beginning of the civil war In 1926, duri the third year of General Primo de Rivera's mili sary dictatorship in Spain, he con- cluded ment with Mussolini, Newspaper readers al ned of it only through an incon spicuous official communiqué. ‘The actual contents Of the pact remained unknown. Above, Italian bombers flying over the coast of Spain; Gt right, observation of the Armistice anniversary at the Are de Triomphe in Paris THE FIGHT, May 1939

The Italian war flect during recent maneuvers in the Mediterranean. With Spain Fascist, these ships menace France and Britain Rumors appeared, finding confirmation later, that ‘The protocol was signed as the result of a con- out, General Sanjurjo was slated to head it to- the agreement had two basic points ference between four Spanish monarchists on the gether with Franco, However, he was killed in an 1. Ttaly received the right, in the event of war, to one side and Premier Mussolini and Marshal Italo airplane accident. establish and maintain a military base on the Baleari Balbo on the other, held at 4 o'clock in the after- Among the papers found on him was the draft of Island noon of March 31, 1934. ‘The document states an agreement among Spain, Italy and Germany. Its 2. Spain assumed the obligation, in the event of that: aim was not new—it sought to restore and broaden war, to forbid the passing of rench troops across After receiving complete information each person the pact of 1926, which had been annulled by the her territory Spanish Republic, ‘The particular “event of war” that the sige f the armed and naval force ‘The Italian ope tive base was to be o1 ized in had in mind was not defined in the agreement, But the port of Mahon on the Island of Minorca, Gi fe Council Mussolini es in Spain, Preside fone need not be a profound student of European 1 That he wil directly many was to enjoy equal rights with Italy at this geography and politics to grasp that while the Italian base. The text of this draft does not indicate, as base in the Balearics might have several useful func exertions to overthrow the republic and to repl: was asserted later, that there was also planned a tions, the obligation assumed by Spain—to wit, for- a regency intended to pave the way for ac second Italo-German base in Spanish Morocco. bidding French troops from North Africa to cross ation of the monarchy (this declaration was solemnly re- However, many signs pointed to the presence of peated by Mussolini three tims her territory—would be endowed with a meaning 2. That as a practical proof of the definite such a project. only in a case when with the aid of Italy’s Balearic intentions, he is ready to. put forth 200,000 rifles, 20,000 While Italy tried, if not to shroud in silence, at base, the naval route of the ench oops was closed hand grenades, 200 machine-guns, and to extend to Gen. least to minimize the agreement and its long-range by force hat is, in case Italy fo herself in the ral Franco a subsidy of 1,500,000 pes icance, Germany discussed its aspects rather camp of France’s enemies. 3. That this subsidy has but a preliminary character and openly. Of course, the German writers also at > be followed at a proper time by even more intensified tempted to hide the true intent of the pact, so that The Republic’s Action help in the measure in which it is required by the’ the German newspaper-readers might not fathom When the rul of the Bourbons had been smashed the businesslike progress of war preparations. in 1931 by the eedom-seeking Spanish people, one ‘These were the principl At least two books devoted to the agreement have was founded. TI of the earliest acts of the young republic was the y were followed by details about been published in Germany. One, titled What Is abrogation, without any wavering and reservations, transporting the arms to Spain and the distribution Happening in the Mediterranean (Das Geschelien of that pact, which was deemed unworthy of of funds and munitions among the various organi- im Mittelmeer) and written, significantly enough, Spaniards. by the editor of the Berliner Tageblatt, declares

This move was interpreted in Rome as exceed: Suffice it to remark that for year Mussolini was among other things: ingly onerous and restrictive to Italy clearly disposed to pay for a chance ‘0 establish a ‘The Black Shirts determined to do something war base in the Balearics. His payments consisted Naval 1 Algiers pass in direct proximity to the about it. They did plenty, and one of the most of money, armament and, first of all, of political Balearic Is the Baleares arc by the enemy (the enemy of France) this will place the routes under a noteworthy things for our purpose 1 secret pro- immorality threat. Tt is not only France tocol signed in Rome in 1934. When two years later the 10 rebellion broke alone that can be so theat- ened from the direction of the Balearic Islands. ‘The naval

6 May 1939, THE FIGHT aanacamae

a

small colonies in the Western Hemisphere were con- rouge from England to India also passes near them in the warned his countrymen that strategically the danger ‘eastward direction, while between Gibraltar and Malta was so clear that he found it dif cult to grasp the fronted with the imperialist encroachments of a ra- e no supporting British points for the defense of heat with which certain chauvinistic circles in Eng- pacious European power, they found a way to resist land were wishing for the Rebel triumph. Captain that power, a way that was summed up by a keen In the issue of October 21, 1937, an editorial leader of one of the colonies in these words: “We Hart at that time pointed out that the class inter- in the French military organ France Militaire thor- ests and sense of vast holdings were blinding the must hang together if we are not to hang separately.” oughly examined the question of possible conse- English reactionaries to the vital strategic considera- How much more effective would be the applica- quences of the setting up of an Italo-German base tions involved. tion of the principle of collective security against the in the Balearics. ‘The article concluded ‘The significance of those remarks is equally ap- modern aggressors not by a handful of weak states naval measures for Fr plicable to the ruling clique in France. but by all smaller nations now threatened a5 Ie is impossible by aerial an and England to straighten out, to counter-balance the in What Spain Meant well as by the great nations of England, France, clusion of the Balearic Islands in the naval strategic system the United States and the Soviet Union, where pop- of Ttaly which is at the same time threatening Tunisia and Few disinterested people today make the mistake ular sentiment is unanimously for peace! The road

Egypt from the direction of Lybia that it was a “mere” civil war in Spain. It is be- of appeasement which to date has been followed by A few days after that editorial, on October 26, coming increasingly clear, now that all Spain has the Chamberlain and Daladier governments has en- couraged the Fascists, who thrive on easy prey ob- 1937, the question was again discussed in the pa fallen into the Fascist hands and Mussolini, threat-

ening France on the once safe Spanish frontier, is tained by blackmail and bullying but who invariably of France Militaire, this time by General Cugnac: demanding French possessions in Africa, that it was sound a retreat in the face of sincere concerted ac- On the pretext of aiding the Spanish Rebels and more than a defense of the legal Loyalist Govern. tion by the peace-loving peoples of the world. Let struggle against Bolshevik i the French government heed the clear words of its selves in the Balearic Islands, the Germ fortified the General Gameli c is an easy road, but that are implanting themselves in the Canary Islan Bigger issu were at stake, ‘The Spanish strug- toast of Spanish Morocco, in Ceuta and Mellla. ‘This has gle constituted a step toward a universal war. road leads downward.” ‘The great French people been going on since 1936. Te is absolutely indispensable for France to preserve in The “peaceful conquests” of Austria and Czechoslo- with their unforgettable past, with their splendid complete safety her routes of communication with Ne vakia were further steps, England and France hav- army, a people that has repeatedly demonstrated its a's route to India passes by Gibralta ing “guaranteed the independence of both these valor on the battlefield, has been humiliated long ential to France and England, are countries. enough by the Chamberlain-Daladier policy of un- in direct jeopardy as a result of positions occupied by Gi Hitler and Mussolini wanted and needed Spain, necessary capitulation to Fascism, But through the yy and Kaly « year ago. Such an extended transitional as they wanted Central Europe, the Balkans and rmiasmic fog spread by the Fascist Axis and its sy ate is becoming abnormal and. alarmin the Mediterranean Basin, because they want France pathizers among British and French officialdom, Tn case of war the French will be actually cut off from people are beginning to discern the hard road, of Algiecs and Moroceo by the naval and aerial bases at Ma and Europe! the orca, Ceuta and Melilla on the Mediterranean. The Cx which General Gamelin also spoke, the road up. nary Islands bases lie near France's Casablanca-Bordeaux At the dawn of American history when thirteen foute and exactly on the Dakar-Bordeaux route. This is an_ exceptionally serious dilemma for our mobili German troops bring a gun into the Siegfried Line on France's eastern border The French Government has good reason sees that the Italians remain on Ma nat fortifications are being by time the French G Italian. divisions, without ‘which

Ie certainly was, General! We must recall also, in this connection, a_de mand set forth and materialized by the Italian Gen- eral Staff, the substance of which was that from the very beginning of the Spanish War there be under- taken the seizure of a sector of territory with a radius of ninety miles having Gibraltar as the center. Springboard to Paris We must recall the heavy German batteries ‘mounted in the western Pyrenees in the Irun sector (these batteries were installed at a height of 6,000 feet not far from the French border and a few hun- dred miles away from the fronts of the Spanish Civil War). We must bear in mind the demand of the Ger- man General Staff, which sought and materialized the seizure of the coast line and of the hinterland ‘of Biscay (as a source of raw materials and as a ase for operations against France and England) We must recall the presence in Spain of entire lian and German divisions. In substance, Spain witnessed an ack on the life-and-death interests of France, England, the West. France is now threatened with suffocation from the north, east, south, southwest. ‘The first battles of the Fascist-plotted world war took place on Spanish soil. From the very beginning. of the “civil war” the more astute students of Euro pean affairs maintained that Franco's victory would spell an initial defeat for France and England Liddell Hart, an outstanding British comments tor on military matters, whose loyalty to his own country and sympathy for France are undisputed, THE FIGHT, May 1939

Associated “Farmers”

By Ella Winter ILLUSTRATED BY WILL BARNET i | (ODAY in the farm area California farm laborer and the factory worker to California, Oregon and W day. Oh, yes, exce that the provisions of the nomic Fascism is mar Wages and Hours A don’t apply to riculture. T re’s no one to blame but history nd evolu: tion for this change in California; for the fact at farmer is being wiped out. m problem in any small agricultural com- the small independent be- munity in California illustrates the simple, basic But the sm: farmers suffer from these changes economic problem of the world today—the problem ice has been made for them in our

ings” ; humanity is not their concern ” have chosen their weapons: ing the law into their own hands, Why Won't They Starve? like Garet Garrett of of work picketing ord inces, intim. Then cor

| pressure on the re the Saturday nd ask why don’t the farmer (oh, so different a creature from the laborers starve acefully? That is, allow agricul- ciated” er!) force, violence and violation of ture to continue growing into a large-scale industry the Constitution. ‘The people still have their choice with monopoly corporation owners in control, who. belief in the law of the la as and when they will to suit their under the law of the land, collective bar profit ra and spend money like water to break der the law of the land, cou: and a stubborn re- unions. The “ ” to the economists” becomes fusal to be buffaloed out of their ri ts by loud- gitators”—w rs who demand the mouthed v lante threats or the qu er pressure of is the corpora ion owners, in their role have de anded (and taken) the the financial agent in the bac ‘ound. Agriculture in California has evolved, and it has right evolved into large-scale indust Tt never seems to dawn on these good Am s for papers whose nnction it is to ma “farms” today od feel secu in demanding the right to housands and hundred: ricultural worker h: to the d their children to school, farmer. Ej do not loyees;hirin ently ricultural work done or, who contracts for so much “Stoop labor” to pick American De ht to continue peas, cut beets, cotton, ants are fi crops of prunes, apples, pears, apricots, peach 's American Democracy, while 1 ing for Mr. Hitler's F 1 farmers, buy the crop, whose price is determined rn and Midd as simple at, and 1e American people marke } corporations, not individu pack, crate it; but we must realize it more ship, and buy and sel pt that the quickly, d act more quickly, if we are to save our ig is done in the open m the swastika the Associated Farmers

live in tents instead of in city blossoming pe F tree and e1 ery

i Associated Fascists would be a better name for these gen- | try who till the soil from large office buildings and decree | serfdom for the agricultural workers ...An expose of a West Coast movement that is dangerous to American Democracy

I went to interview an Associated “Parmer”: I “Phen why didn’t you set the wage lower still?” wanted to see what he talked like and how he really 1 asked. felt. I called on the head of the Associated “Farm- “We can't take it all out on the backs of the work: ers” of one of California’s agricultural counties. Tt s\" replied ole Mr. Associated Farmer. was during the Bakersfield cotton strike of last fall isn’t just oratory that tells you the “Associated cotton wages had been lowered from $1 to 75 cents armers” are Big Business and the utilities. Look a hundred pounds (making about $9 a week that an this: t average picker could earn for a period of pethaps nsamerica Corporation (up before the S.E.C.} at present for questionable practices) controlled three months), and the pickers had walked out of in assets and the fields. It was a spontaneous strike, but they banks in 1937 holding $1,620,000,000 came to the union (the United Cannery, Agricul cover $1,424,000,000 in deposits representing 483 tural, Packing and Allied Workers of America) and branch banks in California, 32 in Oregon, 9 in asked for help and leadership, and of course the Nevada, union did not turn them down, Mr, Associated California Lands, large growers of grapes, prunes, Farmer, however, would not believe this. “The es hes and grains, owns more than half a million Reds came in here weeks ago,” he told me. “They res; is worth almost $14,000,000 and had an in- went up an’ down the cotton rows, agitatin’ and come of over $2,500,000 in 1936. tellin’ the pickers to come out. They'd arranged Kern County Land Company owned 1,250,000 the week an’ day an’ hour of the strike, weeks acres in California and New Mexico in 1933 and irrigation com- fore, and they knew the very row it would start all the capital stock in 14 canal and (Irrigation costs $9 an acre, whether water Mr. X wanted to know who we were and where panies. we lived and where we came from and why we is used or not; farmers have to pay this, and there: were there. He was already in his mind’s eye add- fore, have to reduce wages, they feel, if they don't ing our names to the enormous “blacklist” the make enough to meet both bills.) soctated Farmers maintain, which you qualify for Miller and Lux, one of the biggest old corpora- by daring to believe and say that a living wage is tions ia the West, now owns 178,000 acres in three part of America’s Democracy. When he was fin western states; its earnings in 1937 were $2,087,565. ished we asked him who he was. “I? Oh, I'm jes’ ole X-Y tryin’ to get along.” Farmer CalPak He said he wasn’t anti-union. No, sir. “Why, California Packing Corporation, or CalPak, op- some of my best friends is in the AF. of L.” He crates canning and packing plants in 10 states, Ha- said he had no objections to his workers forming waii and 45 cities; it has 20,000 acres in orchards, workers seasonally, and made a groups, “‘they can go to church, or form baseball employs 35,000 clubs, or better their condition in any way—if it profit of close to five million dollars in 1937.

betters ours too.” Mr, X explained carefully why These are some “farmers” of California wages for cotton-picking could not be higher. There ‘The California Railroad Commission reports that had been a meeting of the Associated “Farmers” a the four big railroad companies, Santa Fe, Western months before and in the Fresno hotel room Pacific, Union Pacific and Southern Pacific, were few Farmers, as were the Pa- wages had been set at 75 cents. (No union men all financing Associated and no cotton-pickers attended that meeting.) But cific Gas and Electric (who kept Tom Mooney in growers were California Gas Com- even at that wage, said our informant, jail 22 years) and Southern not making cotton pay this year. (Continued on page 24)

Lat Barut ‘THE FIGHT, May 1939

i In “Confessions of a Nazi Spy” and “Juarez,” the Warners attack the great problems of our time . . . A development linked to the pro- gressive activities of the new Hollywood

Two Giant Strides

ar By George LeBaron

to catch its close kinship with the struggle between villainy is directly linked with the fundamental struggle between Democracy and Fascism. Goeb- Democracy and dictatorship in the world today— particularly that phase of the struggle exemplified bels is pictured giving orders to his henchmen, ex- by heroic Spain. plaining that the way to win a following for Fascism in the democratic nations is to raise such slogans as True “Confessions” This is political clarity of a sort Spy melodramas are not new to Hollywood. tt will make Father Coughlin and Senator Rey~ But Confessions of a Nazi Spy is more than that. nolds squirm. By the same token, it will clarify Frencis Lederer, who plays the part of a Nasi spy in It is more, even, than an exposé of Nazi espionage the political thinking of millions of Americans so and intrigue within the United States. It does what that they will take a second look the next time some “Confessions” is a native of Ceechodovakia. no one a year ago would have dreamed Hollywood demagogue tries to take them in by a specious ap- would attempt: it names the Nazi chiefs of Ger- peal to natural patriotism and national pride. many as its chief villains, and it shows that their John Wesley, who with Milton Krims wrote the

HAT CRASHING sound you may have heard during the past few weeks was probably. ‘a couple of Hollywood gods of taboo tumbling

off their pedestals. Two of these hitherto all-pow- erful Thou-Shalt-Nots, which were pried loose from their moorings by Walter Wanger’s Blockade last summer, have now been definitely overturned by Warner Brothers. ‘The Tweedledum and Tweedle dee of Hollywood taboo, one is called Thou-Shalt- Not-Discuss-Politics-in-Motion-Pictures and the other is called Thou-Shalt-Not-Say-Mean-Things- About-a-Nation-Where-Hollywood-Films-Are- Sold. Forward-looking people, both within and without the motion picture industry, have long deplored the reign of these two taboos. It has been argued over nd over again that films, like any other medium of expression, should be free to discuss the great prob- lems of our time. And certainly polities and foreign relations rank high among the history-making ques tions of the present day For the first time in history Hollywood motion pictures point an accusing finger at a world power with whom (at this writing) Uncle Sam_ has “friendly” relations. ‘The Warner Brothers’ Con- fessions of a Nazi Spy mirrors the government of the Third Reich as a monster intriguing against the peace and Democracy of the world. And the Warners’ Juarez, already completed and currently scheduled for release, presents in magnificently dramatic form the little-understood conflict between | young Mexican Democracy and the foreign puppet dictator Maximilian. Few of those who see Juarez, and they will number scores of millions, will fail | 10 May 1939, THE FIGHT

stars indicates the special importance the screenplay (based to a considerable extent on former Gman Leon G. Turrou’s book about the recent attach to this film. Muni plays the Mexican In- dian, Benito Juarez, who was the Lincoln and

Nazi spy trials in New York), knows a thing oF two about the machinations of reactionaries—he Washington of his people. Brian Aherne acts the dramatized the Scottsboro Case in his play They puppet emperor, Maximilian, placed upon the Mexi- Shall Not Die—and is very proud of the political can throne through the intrigues of the French insight of the film. Wexley feels that in producing it crown, Bette Davis plays his wife, the ambitious without pulling any punches Warner Brothers have Empress Carlotta, and John Garfield is the dashing, not only struck a powerful blow in defense of world feneral Diaz, of Juarez’s military staff. William Democracy, but have greatly advanced the film i Dieterle, who made Blockade, directs the picture dustry in America, Artistically, the film seems fully as promising as Of Mexican Democracy it is politically. Associated Film Audiences ‘The script of this film, written by John Huston is the organizational expre n of progressive audi- (son of actor Walter Huston), Aeneas Mackenzie, ence opinion, recently published an article through and Wolfgang Reinhardt (son of the great Max) its Hollywood branch which remarked that “the is a brilliant and profound study of statecraft. Max: picture follows a documentary method, using news- imilian is sympathetically shown as. the idealistic reel material interwoven with the story, and ac- young noble who is disgusted at the villainy of Euro- companied by the voice of a commentator. Thus, as pean politics, and who takes on the emperorship of well as bein a great contribution to the socially- Mexico under the misapprehension that a people's minded cinema, it represents a vital techn plebiscite (secretly engineered by the terrorism of tribution to the aesthetics of the motion picture: the the French military) has asked him to assume the use of a new method of interweaving documentary throne. But while well-intentioned, he is a pro- and dramatic material. foundly autocratic ruler, animated by the From producer Robert Lord and director Ana- theory of divine right; and the refusal of Juar

tole I wvak down through the ast, which includes to accept the prime ministership under his benevo- Edward G, Robinson, the French import Lya Lys, Tent despotism moves him to attempt ruthless sup- Paul Lukas, Fra ederer, Dorothy Tree, and pression. And Juarez, in turn, finally victorious, the son of anti-Nazi Ernestine Schumann-Heink, while he understands how the humane Maximilian there has been great enthusiasm during the produc was tricked into his position by the treachery of the tion of this film. Robinson had previously gone on French court, nevertheless insists on the death pen- record as favoring an embargo on trade with Nazi as an example to those who alty for Maximilian Germany; Francis Lederer, born in Czechoslovakia, challenge the right of the Mexican people to rule has taken to the public platform repeatedly in pro- themselves. test against the Nazi rape of his homeland ; Dorothy ‘There are several magnificent scenes in this film Tree, as a member of the Motion Picture Artists In one, a pure-blooded Spaniard who is Juarez’s Committee, has been active in aiding the victims vice-president, tries to persuade Juarez to step out Edvard G. Robinson portrays a G-man in “Confessions of the Rome-Berlin-Tokvo Axis in Spain and China of the presidency, although still retaining real lead- of a Nasi Spy.” Robinson favors an embargo on Germany Warner Brothers have allocated a huge sum for ership, because the fact that he is an Indian mak advertising and promotion. ‘The nation-wide open- it difficult to obtain the support of the “civilized” ing May 6th will probably be the picture event of friendly powers of the world such as the United the year. States. Juarez’s answer is a classic of profound Juarez will be another great Paul Muni starring political judgment. Yes, he says, in effect, I am just vehicle, but the prodigal use of other great name a poor Indian, looked down upon by the civilized There have been occasional earlier pictures, such as world. But the struggle of my Indian people for Blockade, which dealt forthrightly with problems equality, and the struggle of Mexico for Democracy of our day. But the main expression of Holly- Left: Juares, the Indian leader of Mexican Democracy, and independence are in esence the same ruggle wood’s progressivism, up to these two Warner ven- discusses the people's problems. Seated beside Paul Muni So perhaps it would be just as well that I remain tures, has been not in films themselves, but in the ‘as Juarez is Joseph Calleia as the vice-president president, as a symbol of the unity of the two. civic life of Hollywood folk. Since Hitler, Mus- Later this vice-president turns on Juarez, and solini, and the Mikado went berserk, and since their Below: Brian Aherne as Meximilian, the puppet emperor who was installed over the people of Mexico; and Bette wages civil war against him at the very moment sympathizers here appeared in their true colors, when Juarez’ is hard pressed to cope with Maxi there has been a steady growth of vigorous and clear Davis as his wife, the ambitious Empress Carlotta milian’s French legions. Being nearer to the Ameri- sighted political activity in the film capital. can border, the traitor seizes the munitions and ar- tillery which Abraham Lincoln has sent to Juarez. Hollywood for Progress ‘One of the most intensely dramatic scenes ever ‘The most striking symptom of this growth is in filmed shows Juar going alone and unarmed into the activity of the Motion Picture Democratic Com- the camp of the traitor to confront him. As Juar« mittee. This organization, numbering among. its approaches, the traitor becomes terrified, and orde leaders Melvyn Douglas, Miriam Hopkins, Glor his: arrest. No one will arrest the solitary Juarez, Stuart, and screenwriter Philip Dunne (son of Fin- and he comes on, the populace and the hitherto re ley Peter Dunne of “Mister Dooley” fame bellious troops gradually gathering behind him. The ndent body dedicated to the preservation and

rties, to bringing the traitor, desperate, orders his guard to fire on the extension of American-civil Ii

approaches his headquarters. The New Deal to California, and to campaigning for crowd as Jua troops refuse to fire. ‘The personal resoluteness and liberal candidates in local, state, and national elec audacity of the people’s leader have triumphed, and Te played an important part in recalling the the rebellion is broken, Juarez. turns to the main reactionary Democrat, Shaw as mayor of Los An- Republi- enemy, Maximilian and the French generals, and geles, and replacing him with the liberal

finally defeats them. An interesting sub-theme in can, Bowron, who was backed by the good govern- the film is that Juarea, the great democrat, had won ment forces. It was instrumental in the election rlier victory over the native Mexican reaction of the New Deal Democrat Olson to the governor- ship of California, and of the New Deal Democrat

‘e two films symbolize the new Hollywood Downey to the United States Senate, ‘The activi- at its highest stage of development thus far. But ties of this group serve as an index of the new Holly- the change had been brewing for some time past. (Continued om page 26) n THE FIGHT, May 1939

timaneteiteiiie

cess

1 May 1939, THE FIGHT Front—have been tirelessly working to relieve con- in the camps. That is. not enough, nor ditions Our Shame while the fth Column in France has been tire: Tess working to crucify the refugees. he Fascists are in possession of Spain but that war to repel Nazi German and Italian Fascist in In Southern France vasion is not over, And it never was confined to Spain, It Is Our War It is still my war and your war, although the We must help the refugees of Spain, the men, women bombs are not falling on us, the dead are not chok ing our street, we have not been robbed of our cities: not yet. Iv’s still our war, although tonight and children in the French camps . . . An we shall not sleep in graves dug in the unyielding sand, we shall not chew at donkey meat or gag at American speaks for the Spanish writers who cannot polluted wi we shall not helplessly watch our uncared-for, wounded friends rot away of gangrene: not yet. It is still our war Maybe it is clumsy of me to repeat that phrases

but Tam not writing with an e facile pen. I’m writing at second wand, as a proxy By Leane Zugsmith fellow-writers in concentration camps in France ‘They can’t just now. Antonio Machado, ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN GROTH cone of Spain's greatest poets, never will. He died

a refugee. I want the others to live, not in co: 1 camps where the driving sand gives'them eye ail-

ments that blind the not in any of the camps E AMERICANS who have come back with the Left on a later date than October Ist, where dysentery and scabies strike them down. I from Spain tell us that at the moment of 1934.” About one hundred out of one thousand interned being exposed to bombs and shells you don't Can the refugees go back to that? A small num intellectuals have been released through the work ber have been deceived by the French authorities Nine out of ten react the way you had expected. You may be afraid of intellectuals in other countries. but not the way you thought you'd be afraid. You as to where they were being sent, or driven through are still there teache archite neers, doctors, may be numbed and that isn’t what you had ex- despair at the death and degradation in the concen- journalists—scientists, artists and writers—some of pected. Anger or resolution may make you for- tration camps—and a handful of them escaped back them internationally renowned, some of them getful of danger. But under fire, unheeded and to France. Can they remain as they “We known only in Spain as the men and women who

are treated like infected dogs,” a Spanish soldier unknown reservoirs open up in hun carry on the day-to-day tasks of maintaining and fortify them and to transfigure them. ‘They say writes from one of the camps. His letter was furthering civilization. that about the S| aniards and the International printed in the Manchester Guardian ‘They know, as we know, that there is no life Brigade men at the front and about the civilians for the intellectual under Fascism. The bonfires A Soldier Writes of Germany and Italy are now burning all over in the besieged cities. But they don’t say that about the homeless betrayed heroes—the Spanish men, The food ration here consists of: 8 A.M., a tin their land, For example, Catalan, the language some wounded, some crippled, of hot dirty water meaning to be coffee; 3 pat, always used by the Catalonian peasants, has now women and childre some perishing of malnutrition or of the cold—in half a pound of bad bread and a tin of six small been forbidden in Catalonia. It follows: Professor the concentration camps in France. and very bad sardines to be shared among three Pompeu Fabra, the distinguished intellectual who There is little to exalt the 460,000 refugees people. And that’s all. Next day, sardines again. unified the Catalan literary language, is among the herded into primitive encampments on French soil. We sleep in a shelter of 40 yards by 24 yards with refugees. Thirty-four out of the forty-three mem- raw, more than 300 people. There is no room to They lack: shelter, medical care, decent and suffi bers of the great “Institute of Catalan Letters” fled cient food, the simplest sanitary facilities. They lie flat on the floor but only sideways. Outside, in before Franco, among them C. A. Jordana, trans- have: barbed wire surrounding them, the “prote the open, sleep over 1,000 more. The ‘lavatory’ is lator of Shakespeare into Catalan and Paul Romera,

tive” custodianship of the Garde Mobile, Spahis avfu Catholic member of Parliament and translator of and Senegalese guards equipped with bayonets, rub- The way they dragged us into these holes from Dickens into ‘atalan, ‘The writers, Rafael Distro, of listening the border! I walked without being allowed to Arturo Serrano Plaja, Sanchez Barbudo; the sculp- ber truncheons and sabers, the privileg to Franco's traveling loud-speakers through which stop for over 26 hours. People that fell on the tor Enric Casanoves; the painter, F ancesco Gali; they are exhorted to return to Franco Spain roads and resisted to go on were knocked by the archeologist, Professor Bosch Gimpera; sabers of the guards on horses. It has been some-

Yes, they are being urged to go back where they because it was much worse, The place prepared the 1937 Government Prize, the novelist Anna came from—so that almost all of them, if not all, for us down there was the beach, with room enough Muria; and eleven first-rank professors from the can be killed or imprisoned under Franco's “Law for 70,000. When I got there, there were more University of Barcelona are among the refugees. of Political Responsibilities.” Thousands of Span than 150,000 and no shelter, just the cold and Perhaps those exhausted teachers or those tor damp sand, and no food yer given, In here, I rented writers or those famished scientists, huddled ards have already been slaughtered through this s. Five boys have Jaw which condemns virtually anybody in any wa have been two and a half d inside the barbed-wire fences, can tell themselves associated with the Loyalists he text even al died. Perhaps they were sick already or got ill that they are proud of the knowledge that most of lows for the inclusion of al in marching, but no medical attention was ready Spain's intellectuals rose at once to the defense of is a Spanish doctor one of army, work- Bidaule writes in the French There Spanish Democracy. ‘They should be proud. But and, as the vote was secret, there can be treated ing today, but he has no help, no medical material, let's not expect them to warm themselves with as public enemies all those who since 1934 or at no medicine, nothing. We'll die like flies soon. pride or feed themselves with pride; let's not ex- the latest since 1936, have not taken any active part Ir would hay been better to have been killed by pect honorable memories to heal sick bodies. In- in favor of the rebels.” ‘The English weekly bombs. stead, let us who live in a country that still cher War In Spain, continues to quote M. Bidault, It is “something unwritable.” It is also in- ishes the treasures of the mind, look to our own having written: “MM. Daladier and Bonnet would thinkable and unspeakable, But we will writ pride. We have the privilege of being able to work about it and think about it until d he people of the for the release of the Spanish refugees. We may be imprisoned immediately for having been elected by the Popular Front, even Flandin himself could remaining free countries of the world have acted have the honor of assisting them to live once more not contradict anyone if he were told that he flirted to end it The people of Franc Popular like human beings THE FIGHT, May 1939 B

rnounce that on each of the mentioned days for we ITLER’S April Fool joke on the world— may miss you one day. You can't imagine how. interested Tam to know if you will receive this letter. If so, I shall write often.”

to listen to his unedited saber-rattling as rebroad- Ravio They Fly Through the Air ORMAN CORWIN'S They Fly Through the dir With the Greatest of Ease, a splen- air-raid, is did anti-Fascist verse drama about an mains. that Hitler’s bell creating quite a sensation in radio circles. tended mainly to f National’s fan mail from some- Corwin is one of the five men to whom the net that only. blue- works must look for most of their serious 4 cast by German stations because Adolf prefers not Ps to disturb his followers, who are getting fed up where in Germany . . . The ‘The others are Archibald MacLeish, Irving Reis, fon cannon garnished with butter. William N. Robson and Arch Oboler. s for the old and often-exploded argument that FC. . defines bad programs Oboler, by the way, was the embarrassed recipi- Germans can’t listen to foreign broadcasts because ent of a telegram of congratulation from Father they are forbidden to do so by the Nazis, note the Coughlin after the opening of his new series of plays over N.B.C. He has now gone into seclu- fact that fan mail to the American networks from we do have newspapers. But Goebbels says that sion until his pride grows out again.

Germany has increased tenfold during the past year, and consider the following letter which recently the people will realize the truth—he'll keep the was received by the National Broadcasting Com- lies for himself By the time this is printed those New York de- pany: “The most devilish is the education of our youth. partment store ads for unassembled television sets “From: Somewhere in Germany If a teacher gives religious training he is consi will have some semblance of honesty, for N.B.C.

ered an enemy of the State. The wedding cere- at least expects to be presenting such programs by “To: The Speaker of the German Hour, mony is performed by a Storm Trooper the first of May ‘The sets themselves probably ~ “New York place of a Bible Text, a quotation from Mein are all right to play around with, although the “Before beginning, I must say that I doubt that Kampf is read. At other times they still speak of picture is certain to be much too small for comfort. you will receive this letter, for a severe censorship God, and say ‘With God's Help.’ But the ad-writers’ intimation that the air was rules in free and codrdinated Germany “The impudence with which they lie is unb simply bursting with television programs should “Here one can do only what is pleasing to the lievable; but Goebbels tops them all. We thought attract the unfavorable notice of the Better Busi- Gentlemen above. But the fact remains that most a short time ago that he was done for—all kinds ness Bureau. Germans listen to foreign reports and not to those of rumors were floating about; but you know, of here, for we have lost faith in our government in course, that this type of man is the most useful spite of the motto of the Berlin Radio Station, “Dear Announcer, Mr. Marsching, let me know Wrong With Radio Ueb immer Treu und Redlichkeit,’ (Practice if you receive this letter—I hardly believe you will. HE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS always Faith and Honesty). Our government has My Address, of course, is false. If you wish to get COMMISSION has indicated that in the adopted this motto too, but the people know what in touch wtih me, do so through the Mail Bag on future it intends to frown upon and possibly take to think of it. We are also acquainted with the the air. Please say, ‘Letter of A.B. receive disciplinary action against stations making use of edom’; but we detest the use made of then I shall write you in greater detail. 1 the following types of program: terms from the bottom of our hearts. told a number of people shout your broadcasts 1. Any form of fortune-tlling Goebbels said of the Jewish pogroms that the They all like to hear you, Just don't mince any 2 Astrology, graphoo , numerology and other German people acted spontaneously. ‘These w words. have created bitter feeling among the German peo- “And don’t be frightened by the saber-rattling ple, ‘The truth is, the people had to look on with in Berlin, for the people sympathize with America, 3. Solicitation of funds. gnashing teeth as Storm Troopers and Black Shirts land and France, not with Mussolini. Nor do 4s Tibco or defamatory fatements smashed and plundered everything. the people want Communism 5. Failure to give all parties to a controversy an “There is a deep rift between the people and the ‘Mit Gruss eallinpa asso aeiareat Meiiteae government; and here it is proven once again that “AB. 6. Sketches, jokes or song lyrics bordering on the a minority rules. ‘The people must bleed and the “{ have just been able to send this letter. Call big shots bathe in champagne. How long can this 7, Programs giving offense to racial or religious me please on the 29h, 3ist of March and on last? April Ist—A.B—Letter Received.’ Please an- groups. “How stupid they make us, and how they lie to 8. Biased political, religious or racial commenta- us about everything, above all in these infamous 9. Blood-curdling shows for children, speed s, this -deification. If we weren’t forced oe to, no one would listen to this swindle. The big- 10. Glorification of liquor-drinking. gest fraud is always when we have'to vote. When 11. Use of too many phonograph recordin half the votes would be NO the results are always 12. Misleading, false or fraudulent advertising. ements interspersed be- YES; and then they say that 99 per cent are be- 13, Advertising announ;

tween numbers of a cone hind the Fuhrer. At the most, it is 10 percent; 14. Too much advertising matter. and these are the recipi ernment sal They receive, of course very high ries, other- ye Query to the F.C.C.: How much is too much’

they wouldn’e codpe advertising matter, please? could write much more; but you would only shake your head at some of it and say that it can't H. G. Wells and the Australian government be possible. I am thinking just now of the. so: went round and round during the author’s recent called Inheritance Law for peasant land (Das visit to the antipodes. Seems that Wells broad- Erbhofgesetz).. They say that the peasant has re- cast some caustic remarks about Hitler and Mus- gained his freedom: what a swindle! In reality he solini when he arrived, so Prime Minister Lyons has been expropriated. Today everything is Co took it upon himself to scold his visitor in a pub- mon Property (Volksgut). ‘The term is no longer lished statement, Wells retorted by charging cén- Farm Owner, or Factory Owner, but Manager of sorship, whereupon R. B. Orchard, executive of ‘Operations, a man who can be replaced at any time mS the Australian Broadcasting Commission, called by someone else. him a “quarrelsome old gentleman.” Where’s that “We have come back to the Middle Ages. We southern hospitality? are just as ignorant as in those days even though —Grorce Scorr 14 May 1939, THE FIGHT

RISIS is Herbert Kline’s documentary rec- 1242, where the German invaders were defeated. ord of the betrayal of Czechoslovakia. ‘The story is told in broad strokes with very little Sergei Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky, his dialogue. The manner of the acting, the sets, the

initial sound film, is a historical tapestry dealing brilliant photography suggest a popular folk epic. with a specific event in Thirteenth Century Rus- But the most amazing aspect of the film is that it sia, The two films are as far apart seems like a modern story as current as tomor- in form, execu- Mowes tion and methods as any two motion pictures could row’s documentary film. We must also note the possibly be. Yet they have much in common; they extraordinary contribution of the famous Soviet are both anti-Fascist films; both political films. composer Prokofieff for his score. There are pa Strangely enough the Soviet historical film is more sages where the fusion of image and music almost deliberately political than the contemporary docu- “Crisis” and “Alexander Nevsky” lifts the spectator out of his seat. ‘ mentary record. In a statement about the produc- tion of Alexander Nevsky, Director Eisenstein —seven centuries apart, and Current Films says: “I do not believe that any period in history witnessed such an orgy of violence to all human yet treating the same theme W UTHERING HEIGHTS (Goldwrn-Uni ideals as has resulted in recent years from the grow- ted Artists): Mr. Goldwyn brings the ing insolence of Fascist aggression. ‘The suppres- strangest of all English novels to the screen via a sion of the independence of the so-called small coun- scenario by Hecht and MacArthur. Unfortunately tries, blood-drenched Spain, dismembered Czecho- every day . . . a fine pride in the fact that it was Emily Bronté’s novel suffers much in the transfer. slovakia, China gasping in desperate struggle, these Czechoslovakia which, perhaps by its own death, The film is quite conventional and quite dull. It realities appear like a gory nightmare. Nothing was going to redeem liberty in Europe.” And doesn’t even evoke a real feeling of the famous Eng- could be more terrible.” And that final sentence then the Sudeten sequence—the unforgettable scenes lish. moor. Even The Hound of the Baskervilles is essentially the spice of Mr. Kline’s film. of Nazi terror—the blood-stained pillow and the ‘The lack of material, the difficulty of getting beaten’ and murdered anti-Fascists. There is also good “coverage” has been a major weakness in most a beautiful sequence at Solidarity, a children’s camp, political documentary films. Herbert Kline,. who where the famous satiric artists, Voskovec and Wer- gathered the photographic record for Heart of ich, lead the children in anti-Fascist songs. Spain and who collaborated with Henri Cartier on The film goes on to show us how the May mo- Return to Life (both of them for Frontier Films), bilization stopped the Nazi bluff for a time. For the has a “nose for news.” In Grisis he has done a rest it is concerned with the second crisis, when the wonderful job of reporting—a job a thousand times “bastion of Democracy” was finally betrayed. Here more difficult in film than in any other medium. we are given a picture of the force of Nazi pres- The picture begins in Prague, immediately after sure: the big show of the many hysterical Nazi mass the Austrian Anschluss, Refugees are pouring in: meetings, the Nazi method in the elections; the Nazi the old bearded Jews with sad eyes receiving help funeral with its obscene display of vulgarity. Vin- from a Czech relief station ; the little" Austrian boy cent Sheean’s commentary is obviously satiric and

trying on someone’s donated blazer; the warm scene even vitriolic. Despite this, the Sudeten scenes are of the babies bathing, symbolizing the free mingling the weakest section of the film. The image and of all creeds and races in democratic Prague. We sound-track do not blend successfully. The pho- are shown the face of the Citizen of Prague. As tographer shot these demonstrations in a very me- we see women and young people listening to lec- chanical way; his emphasis was on the abstract tures on the methods of defense against a Fascist beauty of the image, regardless of the content or attack, as we see the horrifying spectacle of a little the intended interpretation of the shot in the final child being fitted with a grotesque gas-mask, we

film. This is one of the more subtle aspects of begin to appreciate G. E. R. Gedye’s remark: “No documentary film-making, but it is a crucial one. one living through this summer in Prague could There is no formula. But other shots in Grisis hint fail to be conscious of something almost sublime at a solution. Look at the way the final scenes of

in the attitude of the humblest person one met the refugees are handled to express the feeling of Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier in the Goldwyn yer- destitution and tragedy; look at the beautiful ren- sion of Emily Bronté’s novel, "Wuthering Heights” dering of the final demonstration ; or, look at the first shots of the Nazi spectators watching the pa- 20th Century-Fox) created more intense picture rade. In addition, Mr. Kline's structure is much of “moor psychology” with less pretentions about too long—too padded for the story he tells. I un- art and literature, derstand he has prepared a four-reel versio Let Us Live (Columbia) : Columbia was afraid to let us know that this film is based on Joseph Di- Thirteenth Century Nazis neen’s story of miscarriage of justice, Murder in F GRISIS is a-document of tragedy, then Alex- Massachusetts. But despite that, Director John ander Nevsky is the most aggressive and pointed Brahm has given us an artful and warm picture of film that we have had since the coming of sound in human beings. It is interesting to note how much

niotion pictures. This long-awaited picture by one Mr. Brahm has taken from Fritz. Lang's You Only of the world’s most brilliant film-makers tells the Live Once. This is more than a typical jail film. story of the Thirteenth Century defeat of the Teu- Midnight (Paramount): Another in the series tonic Knights by Alexander Nevsky and the Rus- of perennial French films starring Claudette Col- sian people. Eisenstein calls these knights “the bert. This is another variation on the Cinderella ancestors of the contemporary Fascists” who “under- fable, with Don Ameche as the smiling taxi-driver took a systematic advance eastward in order to sub- prince. jugate the Slavonic and other peoples, in precisely The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (20th C the same spirit as contemporary Fascist Germany is tury-Fox) : This may be Mr. Zanuck’s idea of the

trying to do, with the same frenzied slogans and role of the scientist under our society, or how popu- the same fanaticism.” lar science should be presented to the movie fans, or The film is huge not only in the number of people how inventors live and love—but to us it looks like in the cast, but in the way it tells its story. ‘The nneral whitewashing of some of our “great public major part of the picture is concerned with the fa- utility corporations.” ‘The Federal Theatre Project's production of “Pinocchio” packs thems in at the Ritz Theatre in New York mous battle on the frozen Lake Peipus, April 5, THE FIGHT, May 1939

ND WHEN in the morning they looked at him on the bunk, where he lay, his face again to “Shut up! Shur up!” and fell on the little man, from whom Julio had to pull him, weak and shak A each other with haggard sleepless eyes, they the wall, whimpe found Dallardo demented. . . . They had “Oh all right,” id Antonio, in disgust; “keep ing. Even Julio, always the most calm, began him- no stomach for the morning chicory, but they knew quiet! Nobody’s going to hurt you.” His own self to tell under the strain, glaring at the others they had to drink it or go hungry. But Dallardo nerves were jangled from the sleepless ordeal of through hostile bloodshot eyes, speaking sharply would not come out to get his. He lay still under the previous night. He could not cope with much the bunk, pressed against the wall. He did not HEN Dallardo did get out of the bunk move. He shrank away from their touch and During the next day and the day after the as he started later on to do regularly—it was would not speak to them. cobbler somewhat recovered, took nourishment, got only to kneel or prostrate himself before the Nor had they the least appetite for the ‘roe, out of the bunk the few times necessary, and even scrawled cross on the back wall and give himself attempted, weak and shamefaced, to apologize. But up to voluble prayers and lamentations, intoning though they either had to eat it or starve. But Dallardo would not come out for that either, He his eyes never left them, his face never lost its endless paternosters and snatches of Te Deums, was deaf to the remonstrances of Antonio and expression of terror. He had reached the stage even repeating mutilated Latin phrases of unknown Mena; he kept his silent converse with the wall. here he could not trust anybody, and only blind meaning and appropriateness, merely because he The air was charged with electric menace from unreasoning fear had hold of him. Mankind had had heard clerics using them. He confessed vol: which he. shrank; sight, sound, memory hovered played him false, and so he could not trust any man. ubly, with much beating of the breast, and Antonio in it, And the child took refuge in the deepest, His whole present nightmare was against all rea and Julio were treated to hatrowing accounts of darkest corner he could find, shrinking away from son, and so he could not trust even his reason. the poor man’s depredations: the few pesetas he it, shutting his senses to it. Everything was conspiring against him. Especially occasionally held out of his meager earnings from Tr was moving on towards evening, and still was he affected by steps close outside the door, or his wife for the vino he drank during his long wine. Dallardo clung to his wall, his shirt by now wet the entrance into the cell at mealtimes of the hairy shop debates; the half-dozen surreptitious visits and muddy giant with the food. He would cringe away and he had made in his life, always under the influence press back against the wall, his body stiff, his eves of the vile grape that was his ruination, to the “You've got to come out of there,” said Antonio bulging, his lips trembling. When at one such “wicked” quarter behind the cathedral, to “Peque’s” 1 for perhaps the hundredth time there all day time the hairy one, feeling playful, made & mock brothel, “Lola's,” and once in a blaze of glory, to Dallardo did not answer. threatening step toward him, he emitted a shriek, Luis groveled now for the blasphemous i “Come on out,” said Julio; “no one’s going to and kept whimpering loudly for over an hour be- thing he had said once in that hous touch you.” fore they could quiet him of the devil. He would writhe in an Dallardo kept a resolute back to them. Nights, when the condemned were dragged down pentance over what he considered his one real de “He's got-to come out of there,” said Antonio; Il, were the worst His low nervous whim parture from marital fidelity (the rest being “we've got to make him.’ would rise to,a high-pitched steady wailing professional and not in the same category) with 2 ‘They seized him, Antonio by the ankles and Julio Te was acid on an open sore to Antonio, who would buxom mustached housemaid who ha i by the shoulders, and dragged out, He kicked lap his hands over his ears, beat his feet or his and justly indignant over this assault on her virtue and struggled, screamed in terror, and grabbed fists on the floor, gritting his teeth, writhin by one so small and impotent, and had only sub: the edge of the bunk as they lifted him so that he the lash of the sound, Once his self-con ol was mitted because she could do no better at the mo- could not be pulled further; finally they dumped not enough to contain him; he rose, screaming ment and she thought him more proficient than 16 May 1939, THE FIGHT

“You see, sefior, how simple, how very, very sim- from the opposite wall. ‘The scream reached its ple it all peak,-then died down. ‘There was a second’s sharp A nod from Antonio. seratch of clutching, convulsive fingernails on the

‘So simple. And logical. All that wants is rusty bars, and then thud on the bricks outside listening to be convinced.” Julio remained, frozen to the bars. Antonio, Another nod. Solemn, the guards would be there in a mo- knowing that “But some people—some people will not listen. ment, leaped up, and seizing him by the shoulders, Some people—will not be convinced.” His lip tried ‘to pull him down; but he held like iron, and trembled. A film of moisture apeared in his eyes. Antonio himself lost his grip and fell, striking “Oh, but they will, they will!” said Antonio the floor heavily. He tried again, frantic, from the wall and push- quickly, “They will listen.” the side, bracing his leg against “Ah yes”—eagerly—"'they will! ‘They will!” ing with all his strength. Julio's hold gave, they Given time he would have recovered if nothing crashed up against the opposite wall and hit the happened; not fully perhaps—in that atmosphere— floor, a flurry of arms and legs; Antonio pinned but enough to make living with him bearable, his arms and rolled with him violently against the But something happened. wall under the window, throwing a blanket over their protruding feet as he did so NTONIO awoke one night with a start. It None too soon. A flashlight cut a swath through was about midnight; the air around him was the dark, fell on the door; moved to the floor, to the atsolid swimming black, fetid and oppressive. He other wall, lingered a second on Dallardo’s trem- looked around him. What had wakened him? bling lips, bulging eyes, moved on again, touched ‘What instinct urging him? What slight unfamiliar the end of the blanket, moved up, touched the edge sound, recorded in his unconsciousness as he ‘of an exposed, trousered knee. But the angle slept.» « from the window made it impossible to go up more. Julio, next to him, was sitting up also, They Ie flicked once more around the cell, touched again both listened. A rat squeaked, blundered against on Dallardo, and went out. the slop-bucket, and looked at them for a second’s ‘After the steps and the loud shouting voices in

fraction with glowing yellow eyes. Drip of water, the hall had crystallized on their door; after the the fidgety breathing of Dallardo, the pregnant loudest voice had, cursing, rattled and tried the whispering silence of the hall outside keys until he had found the right one, when they

‘And then there-was a slight scrape on the out finally opened the door and flashed their torches,

side wall, as of so ambling shoe leather, a scratch Julio and Antonio were on the floor, covered with ing at the bars omebody was trying to get up blankets, apparently peacefully asleep. to that window! Julio crouched, tense Antonio The owner of the loudest voice kicked them. knelt beside him, “Get up out of th:

A loud scratching on the bars, the suck of ex He was hog-faced and bloated. His open uni- cited panting. ‘Though they could not see, they form coat was thrust aside by his protruding ab- knew that a face was at the bars, looking in. “Then domen, half a shirt-tail was out, his breeches were a sibilant whisper: “Papa still open, He smelled of alcohol. He wiped his Julio jumped to his feet, trembling, and started mouth on the chevrons of his sleeve as he glared at he was. He bared everything, seeking to accom- toward the window; and coincident with his ac the men, now crouching plish at one blow the paradox of making atonement tion there was a sudden shot, sharp as a slap. A “Trying to escape, we Try- for the sins that had landed him in his present plight ing to escape, eh?” scream—a boy’s voice—filled the cell to ret and demonstrating to a just God that there were tion, drove electric needles into Antonio's spine. They did not answer, He flashed his tor really no such sins and it was all an unfair mis- Julio gave an inarticulate frenzied cry and jumped the two of them and then on Dallardo. “Which take. His prayers had the effect of a mental up scrambling to the window. Two more shots. of you did that boy come for? What did he want?” and he always rose from them much re cathartic, One came into the cell, missing Julio’s head by some ‘They made no response. lieved. They were very violent: violent in their miracle, and sprayed the cell with slivers of stone (Continued on page 26) prostrate start, violent during their duration with much waving of arms and beating of breast, violent in their tearful, relieved conclusion—so violent, in fact, that Antonio was forced to move the slop- bucket out of the way for fear that the little man would with his gesticulations upset it. But they Antonio and had a beneficial, purging effect which Julio, for all their surly amusement, respected. Dallardo was quieter after them, and even slept muttering to himself. Burgos Gaol ‘As the days went by his improvement became increasingly noticeable. His psychological need passed slowly from that of making atonement for his beliefs to that of justifying them; and Antonio At first, there were three others in the Fascist dungeon with found himself forced to listen to long tirades on Socialism, pointless, obscure, consisting mainly of Antonio Moros . . . But they came for Caldeveras, and slogans and denunciation, uttered with the tone and v4 emphasis of irrefutable logic. Dallardo exhaus Antonio’s last hope of escaping execution went screaming tively examined every angle of his subject, and went over each point several times in each day's dis down the hall . . . Part Three of a story of Franco Spain course, avoiding only mention of the Church, even as an economic factor, out of fear of antagonizing his God at the other end of the cell. Antonio agreed with him implicitly, nodding solemnly when- By Jack Reed ever a pause in the flood of words around him intimated that the cue for approval had been given ILLUSTRATED BY CHET LA MORE He realized the necessity of giving the little man what solace he could THE FIGHT, May 1939 7

Vermont and Liberty the election, every character in the sales of both editions, although so far To be sure, researchers into Twen- book aligns himself with one side or as we are concerned, it is less than a tieth Century savagery will be amply Seasoxen Tuuper, by Dorothy Can- the other. ‘The sharp relief in which tempest in a teapot. More important supplied with data here. Editorial field; 485 pages; Harcourt, Brace and the villagers stand out is probably the is the fact itself of the availability of writers may have occasion to dip into Company; $2.50. best thing that Dorothy Canfield has the opus in foto to the American reader. this cesspool. But people with such N HER usual competent and facile ever done. And the conclusion, which In offering this complete doimestic special interests have had no particular I manner Dorothy Canfield has it would be wrong to divulge, follows and foreign program and credo of the difficulty in the past in obtaining their written this story of a Vermont consistently from the action. Nazi movement to the American pub- material from the German version. An school-teacher, a middle-aged idealist, Seasoned Timber will doubtlessly lic, neither publisher is putting his average American, however, does not stamp of approval on the bible of Hit- have to swallow an entire egg to find who after twenty years of celibate liv- have a wide reading. It’s that kind ing, suddenly finds his guard against of a book. And just as these readers lerism. On the contrary, two editorial out that it is rotten, and no fouler egg prefaces leave no doubt of disapproval has ever been hatched by any bird. emotional entanglements completely: need the message it carries, so_ th

overthrown by a rather ordinary young forces of freedom need these readers of the filth, obscurantism and bestiality All American publishers who had woman, twenty years his junior. to join in the tremendous effort that from the pen of Hitler and his possible enough self-control to abstain from If this were all there was to this must be made if liberty is not to end. ghost writers. The publishers’ self-jus- printing an edition of Mein Kampf story, it would be only one of thou- —Heten H. Preston tification is somewhat to the effect that and from attempting to clean up on sands of similar novels—somewhat the Nazi and Hitler mentality can be it while posing as public servants, are more competently written than the fully undersood only by reading this hereby proposed as candidates for both majority, but calling for no special The Nazi Book unadorned programmatic statement in the Nobel Literature and Peace Prizes. consideration. But just as we are be- Maw Kaner, by Adolf Hitler; 669 its entirety, that it is the most impor- —Lucien ZacHaRorr tant book of our times, and so on, far ginning to skim over the pages, a little pages; Stackpole Sons; $3.00. into the night. Novel of Owners bored with the eternal conflict between Mu Kaner, by Adolf Hitler; 994 ‘Timothy Hulme's celibate intelligence pages; Reynal & Hitchcock; $3.00. But the first complete Mein Kampf Rope or Goxp, by Josephine Herbst; and the violence of his emotional. up- in English comes to America fifteen 429 pages; Harcourt, Brace and Com- set, suddenly the book becomes alive, years after it was written and in the RMANY is on the brink of seventh year of the Nazi régime. Peo- pany; $2.50. significant and timely ‘bankruptcy, brought there by ple in and out of Germany have tasted ‘Timothy Hulme is principal of Clif the Nazi misrule. But Hitler ‘OSEPHINE HERBST has writ- ford Academy, a poverty-stricken little at first hand the theories and practices J ten herself into the culture of is a milli naire, with money in nearly school, to which a break in the plumb- uropean banks, principally of Fascism. Today the book is a be- merica in novels of a passionate ing has been a major calamity. When thanks to lated confirmation of the numerous integrity. This is an achievement dif- the Academy is offered an endowment other ravings written and spoken by ficult for any artist in transitional 1. Shady real-estate transactions Hitler and his henchmen, not to men- of a million dollars, on the condition 2. Coercing millions of Germans to tion excerpts from Mein Kampf pub- periods like the present, when the world that no Jewish children shall be ad- buy Mein Kampf, while all literary licized here earlier. So, we have a re- struggles parallel the struggle of art'to mitted, and that the tuition shall be competition went up in official bonfires. gurgitation of the cannibal racial doc- be reborn out of estheticism into the raised to a thousand dollars—exclud- Ever since the Reich came under trines, of the obscene hatred of France, realism of the picket line and the con- ing the poorer young people of the Adolf Hitler’s heel, the possession of England, Russia, the United States centration camp, of Fascist wars and vicinity in favor of the ‘“gentlemen’s copy of Mein Kampf has been a mark and all the other well known spew- villages bombed for peace and religion. sons’—a battle is precipitated which of political reliability with few Ger- ings of the Fascist Beast. his, the author's fifth novel, has lifts the story out of mediocrity man households daring to refuse the the theme of ownership. Property. is ‘A new trustee must be elected to most unpersuasive traveling book sales- the hangman’s rope around the throat the Academy within two months—a men. Every: schoolchild is forced to of the owner cla from dispossessed trustee whose vote will decide whether study. the book, no dentist's. waiting- farmers and shopkeepers at the bottom this endowment, with its (to Profes- room is complete without it. —whom laissez-faire historians for- sor Hulme) intolerable conditions, Neither of the two American pub- merly called by the pet name, “the shall be accepted or rejected. It is lishers bringing out within a day of backbone of the nation” —right on up around this election that the conflict each other two unexpurgated English- through the population of faithful rages. Never for a moment does Tim: language translations shows a de struggling little people to the frayed cothy, at the bottom of his heart, be- to add to Hitler’ millions. Stackpole’s intellectuals at the top, and their mas- lieve that he and his faithful cohorts intend to all royalties to ters the big shots of business. ‘The will win, The material advantages to organizations aiding German refugees latter we see wobbling through the the Academy, and to the town of Reynal & Hitchcock have set up a com: great depression, and in the come-back, Clifford, are too overwhelming. But mittee of public figures to administer adopting the union-busting gun tech- the distribution of profits to a fund for never for a moment does he waver in nique of Fascism to save their skins— his fight against the teachers who the Nazis’ vietims, “after deducting all which they see endangered by the anticipate increased salaries, the stu- legitimate expenses” —with no mention Wagner Act, dents who plan a gymnasium and made of whether such expenses embrace Ruin, bankruptcy, middle-class de- heated swimming pool, the townspeo- royalties to the Fuehrer. feat—the picture is terribly true. These ple who expect prosperity, lower taxes, Already the publishers are involved people in the story cannot love, cannot and plenty of money for all. in a legal squabble with attendant pub- Josephine Herbst has written a novel about hope, cannot fight, but like those on In the two-months campaign before licity that may conceivably stimulate Property in Rope of Gold whom the curse of God has fallen they 18 May 1939, THE FIGHT

wander disunited, and lost. Their the words are: America is not like dilemma is summed up in the reproach Europe, and thank the Lord for the Victoria Chance flings at her husband Atlantic and the Pacific. ‘The author from whom she has separated: “Your fills most of the pages of his book showing that America is not like family spoiled everything. Not by loving you too much but by owning rope. He is very scientific about the

things you might someday have. You proof. He draws a map—a pretty lit- might have flung your life into some- tle map with the United States cut up

thing that mattered, but no, you had into twenty separate countries to hem and haw.” The spotlight When he gets all through with his maps, Stuart Chase gives us his pro- moves all over the map of the United States and down to Cuba, where Vie- gram for maintaining peace. ‘Then, de toria Chance has an assignment to do spite all the bright scientific jargon that a series of articles on the sugar mills went before, the program is an old and and where she gets caught in the gen- threadbare one. It’s simon-pure isola- eral strike. The scene is America tionism, Cut off all relations with the . coming out of the depression, entering rest of the world the instant war is de upon the New Deal. The book ends clared. Meanwhile, what does Mr.

with the workers sitting down in one Chase propose we do in order to at ‘of the plants in the great auto strike. tempt to prevent the necessity of sev One feels the negative side of ‘the ering relations with the rest of the picture is pretty heavily loaded. And world? The answer is: nothing. while the social types personalized in He does suggest, however, that we the characters stand out in brilliant build up our navy and army in order and living detail, one regrets the fur- to defend not only the United States but South America as well, recognizing ther tendency to intellectualize and in one of the few lucid passages in the give a subjective coloring to the larger book that the defence of peace in the episodes in which their lives are in- United States requires the defence of volved—a method which certainly our southern neighbors from the in- blunts the drama implicit in the hi roads of Fascism. He even recog- torical background. Still, though one nizes that guns and battleships are not may find fault with Josephine Herbst’s the only implements for defending art on these grounds, in this as in her South American Democracy, pointing earlier books the deep sincerity of her out the importance of pacts, confer- writing, the extraordinary vigor and ences, and defensive alliances. He em- warmth of detail, the fluidity of her phasizes that understanding with the prose have enriched our literature of countries to the south of us is neces- fiction, permanently. sary “for mutual survival in a storm- —Linuian Giixes swept world.” This is an important admission to appear in a book that is The Brown Danube John Heartfeld’s photomontage shows Hitler watering the tree of war otherwise the last word on isolation- ism. Tt is an especially important ad-~ Survey Arrer Municn, by Graham mission when we examine Mr, Chase's Hutton; 253 pages; Little, Brown and reason for advocating for South Amer- Company; $2.50. Part II analyzes the mechanics of ‘That is completely to misconceive the na- ica a foreign policy which is diametri the Nazi economic and financial pene- ture of the total cally opposed to that which he advor HE BLOOD. D tidal tration of Danubia—and here we see cates for the rest of the world. The wave of Fascist aggression in the working out of the grim contra- if chief reason he gives for his attitude Central and Eastern Europe is dictions by which Germany, through nesses will rapidly lead its arti “We are bound together by our geo-

brilliantly described, and its underly- violent capture of the wealth of ciplined unity to disintegrate, to van graphical isolation.” ing political and economic drives are Ceechoslovakia, comes nearer to bank- night. Its grip upon its own power and ‘Then it becomes apparent that all of ucidly analyzed, in this compact vol- people can only be maintained uider stresses. ruptcy. More resources but fewer Mr. Chase’s fine concern for maps has Te is an unnatural hold. It relies on th ume by a former editor of the very markets; more gold, but less foreign hectic fensive war, a war that not taught him a simple lesson in geog- influential organ of British conserv exchange; more and better factories, from every citizen, raphy: namely, that New York is two tive opinion, the London Economist but fewer customers who can and will all of which his oF thousand miles nearer Berlin than it pay. And also—a point to which Mr. n is capable—without time to is to Buenos Aires, the chief South ‘The book is in three parts, First the régime is worthy or is Graham Hutton gives us a detailed Hutton docs not pay sufficient atten- American seaport; that the geographi tion—more man-power, both for pro- achieving anything cal isolation occurs only in the fact and exceptionally well organized pic-

duction and war, but less loyalty and Can such a war end victoriously for that most maps show the North and ture of “The New Danubia,” that Pits ihaijescongeciesatenaciondlite/and steadily increasing hatred, the aggressors? ‘The answer may not South American continent on one States whose economic and industrial In Part III, on “Politics and Pow be long delayed. page and the rest of the world on resources are steadily falling into the rs,” we get a concise but very reveal- —Haroup Warp another page. For in point of actual Fascist orbit. The geographic, com ing account of the vast chaos now de- fact Brazil is nearer Africa than it is munication and strategic advantages of veloping on the heels of Germany's The Tyranny of Maps the southernmost tip of Florida. Per

this complex region between the Rhine advance eastward. Czech, Slovak, haps the most important proof that this and the Black Sea are carefully out Hungarian, Rumanian, Polish, Jugo- ‘Tue New Western Front, by Stu- geographical proximity has important slavian, Croatian, Serbian, Greek—a art Chase; 196 pages; Harcourt, Brace political implications is the fact that lined, and the balance-sheet of strictly material gains to Germany from the veritable witches’ caldron of national ‘and Company ; $1.50 and 75 cents. already Franco is demanding the re- British policy of “appeasement” is minorities, all deceived by the dem: turn of Porto Rico. Yes, Mr. Chase, UART CHASE is a very America is larger than Europe, and shown to be both impressive—and pre- agogy of “self-determination,” is being carious. If aggression had nothing to brewed against Der Tag which may He once wrote there i an Atlantic and a Pacific; but fear from the political factors, the well prove to be also the twilight of e Tyranny of the best defence of “The New West- Rome-Berlin axis might well dom- the Nazi gods. Mr. Hutton warns Words. Now he has written another em Front” is the defence of world inate the world from the Baltic to the tus not to be deluded by the noisy book and it seems that he himself has peace and Democracy. Mediterranean. “peace-talk” of the Fascists fallen under the rule of this tyranny —Haowp Parcrt THE FIGHT, May 1939 19

RENDS in Wall Street took nations, and the Street believes the I a sudden confused turn during next would also start between nations, the past month, reflecting the but would speedily develop into a class @ Such a prospect obviously is muddled state of ind of the money- mad moguls, and for the time being not conducive to rising stock prices. at least, the jitterbugs have taken over

control of the area. ‘The eral, reasons for this sad condition The Street’s Self-Sabotage HUS the stock gamblers consider First, the Street echoed Chamberlain's Es their plight and tremble in their naive “a Hitler grabbed Czechoslovakia, because up to dilemma, Their gloom is deep and isn’t to be wondered that they grow the eve of the robbery, the downtown it bigwigs anticipated that another cautious, At the same time, they deliberately sabotage the very solu- Munich would keep the Nazi nitwit in line, and in a pinch a sizable loan tion to their problems, More security could keep his floundering régime for the nation through a bigger and afloat pending a general review of broader New Deal program, a job for every man at higher wages, and a halt world trade appeasement The Street is gloomy over Europe aimed of course at the smaller na- in sale of war materials to aggressors, tions, and steering of course Nazi- and America, but sabotages the are simple enough fundamentals. land’s ship to the east. Secondly, as Tf we had these fundamentals through the cobperation of what the forecast in this column two months very solution to the problems

‘ago when the proposed W.P.A. slash Street calls “venture” capital, the sec- cracked the market for stocks wide ond of the major reasons for Wall ‘open, the bright business sky of late Street's raw nerves would disappear. 1938 has been considerably: darkened also, is reflected in the record gold flow doubtedly would be lusty liquidation This second reason is. the business and thirdly, the “hate Roosevelt” cam- to this country seeking a safe haven, of such assets both by governments prospects in this country, aside from paiga to kill off the progressive New and the tremendous amount of security to grab all the cash possible, and by in- the effect of the European troubles. Deal legislation has not really been liquidation that has occurred in. the dividuals seeking to escape confisca- There has been a decided turnabout going qui as the Tory New York market every time Hitler tion of their securities. ‘This liquida- since the market foretold the prob- tion would swamp the markets, as has able results two months ago. Whereas newspapers have been boasting since moves a soldier, The fortuitous events the GOP. banker crowd captured that_-made possible a continued flow happened many times in recent months at that time the subsidized propaganda greater representation in Congress. in the Big Business press could see ‘of American factory war materials to when war seemed imminent, World War Europe are quite uncer- ‘At the same time there have been nothing ahead but rosy pictures of fat sin, and there is no guaranty what- several attempts made since the last profits from accelerated business, since A Gloomy View of Europe ever that the same pattern would be war to legislate against war profits, then there has been increasing caution N THE international arena, the followed now. and in addition there have sprung up as the business indices cast their length- Munich moron confounded them Te also must be assumed under the divers price-control schemes devised to ening shadow over the uneasy future all, although any ten-year-old intel- ‘of present-day law devised by the hamper or prevent normal price move- In this respect the Wall Street tickers ligent child would find it difficult to Fascist nations, that anything goes and ments, and thus dampen prospects for almost daily for the past few weeks say why this should be so—since prac- as soon as war starts, every govern- anything like World War-time fat have been seeking a scapegoat for de- lining business, while at the same tically everybody except Chamberlain ment in the conflict would confi k or business prices. and his Fascist-inclined backers knew or commandeer all the foreign assets here is another angle also. The time alibiing for the failure and cau- tiously indicating that the upturn has feared, foretold and warned held by its nationals, And there un World War started as a war between just what did happen. And now, in been merely deferred and will “surely” view of the increased tension and en- develop in this. second quarter-vear. hanced possibilities of war since the oa ‘There is a spoiled-brat attitude of unruly Hitler has kicked over the impatience growing in the financial dis- traces, Wall Street has been closely trict over what is termed “the lack of scrutinizing its own position. follow-through in business harmony The verdict is that the European after the great amount of talle that

vista is gloomy indeed, and may por emanated from government spokesmen tend a period of Napoleonic conquest recently,” The Wall Street Journal which, however, in view of the pres says that the responsibility to bring

ent probable line-up, can only end in about retrenchment in government extinguishment of the would-be con ding as a means of stimulating queror. But if the worst happens business is being tossed back and forth over there, stock prices here and busi- between President Roosevelt and Con- ness generally would be severely ress and thus far neither is willing shocked at first, and afterwards would to take that responsibility. Te can mo fluctuate with the fortunes of war. readily be seen from the business Many astigma = have assumed er- dices why the President refuses to roneously that the World War boom take the responsibility, and it. isn’t would almost certainly be reénacted, hard to understand why Congress is and so are puz led when current war reluctant. Perhaps the Wall Street scares cause a sharp drop in stock Journal should be told that maybe prices and bad dreams for the Street. the persistent and indignant country- The reason is that present-day war wide protest to Congress from small is an_entirely different affair from business and the general public, against the World War days, and a business sniping at the Roosevelt attempts to boom is by no means an assured propo- raise or at least maintain living stand- sition, regardless of experience. So ards, has son thing to do with this the Street reasons that a cash position Congressional reluctance. Business is the safest until the future harmony to Wall Street means one clarified The labor unity negotiations are giving Wall Street the jitters, From left to right: thing—rugged individualism; to the seated, Philip Murray, John L. ‘That this opinion prevails abroad Hillman, Matthew Levis, Harry Woll and Bates Thomas and Daniel A. Rickert Tobin; standing, Sidney nation, another—rugged health, 20 May 1939, THE FIGHT

EoiToRs

At a meeting of the American Newspaper Guildsmen who are on strike against Hearst's Chicago papers

Hearst Learns Hard

The emperor has fallen to a mere hundred thousand, but Hearstism lives on in Chicago, where thugs attack the striking workers... The story of a valiant struggle for human rights against the savage violence of the Father of American Fascism

By Morris Watson

A long time since the eminent ber hose and auto cranks smash skulls wholesale lots as if they were ma- rowing number of individuals are acting effectively in the strike's fa- [: rorian, Charles A. Beard, said in the interest of his Lies chines become obsolete

that no person of intellectual hon- Insecure and jittery vor by refusing to buy products adver- esty or moral integrity would touch reached the end of their patience tised in the st pers. (Among ad- William Randolph Hearst v December 5th of last ye a two-to-one majority vote taken in vertisers, Camels, Chesterfields, Old foot pole. Since then the F Fst pro hundred white collar work orderly, ‘democratic hion, they de Golds; A. & P., Sears Roebuck, Wal- green’s; Buick, Chevrolet, Ply- Fascist and un-American editorial Herald & Examiner and the cided their co No strike in the policy together with Hearst high living ning American have been history of the ld has received such mouth; National Distillers, Schenley

serve their union w Produ rd Oil, Sinclair.) has brought its reckoning. His empire on strike to p pread and diverse is in ho he emperor, himself, is rican Newspaper Gi in fact a barometer of what Adver in the two papers reduced to a mere hundred-thousand- uild contract. Tt w can people think of Hearst has dropped 1,670,731 lines up to last dollar job. violated, not once, but many times. A he stands for. Moral and March 15th, according to Media rec- But while e fallen monarch broods job security clause w nored. Con- pours in from ALF. of L. ords, Circulation has fallen 212,000, bulous San Simeon, also in hoc tractual’ minimums were not paid. unions from Maine to California. the G s.

pirit and his labor policy go march- chiseled. Employees Church, civic and welfare groups have Since ization of the American ing on in Chicago. Thugs with rub- were coerced, intimidated and fired in interested themselves (Continued on page 28) THE FIGHT, May 1939 21

URS IS a time of heroes. Every day, in arise. Some gain the recognition they so “We Are Growing” ve, others struggle, work and die un- richly: des known, Our hero will have to remain anonymous. He is a refugee from Nazi terror, a fugitive from the

In darkest Germany, the people struggle against German C tapo, the fast-shooting Hitler secret police brigade whose terroristic me ods have in- spired fear in the hearts of Germans the world Hitler by devious means . . . The story of “Fritz We'll call our character Fritz Lieder. That's Lieder,” a German worker who recently left his not his real name of course, but Fritz still has rela- country after long years in the “underground” tives living in Germany, and they necessarily, must be protected, for the Gestapo is methodically swift Shortly after this magazine leaves the printshop, it will be carefully scrutinized by Nazi agents in

America. This story will be studied in an effort io determine the true identity of Fritz Lieder. By David Karr In 1933, Frite was an average citizen of a small town in northern Germany. He had a job in a ILLUSTRATED BY ADOLF DEHN toy factory. At eight o'clock every morning he used to appear for work. At five-thirty he returned to his little suburban home. There Fritz used to sit after a good German dinner that included a An election took place in which the democratic the facts realistically. ‘They realized that Hitler stein or two of beer and play with his little young- forces were split; Hindenburg betrayed the Repub- could not be fought in the open. Newspapers which sters. He would delight in reading letters from lic; Hitler became Chancellor attempted to oppose Hitler, found the end swift. his son who was studying medicine at the Univer- ‘There was talk of terror in the big cities. Brown- Nazi party people were assigned to censor the news. sity of Vienna shirted men with swastikas on their arms were Then all the major news ager s were abolished wrecking shops. Jews were being thrown into jail. and the only news that reached the people came Talk of Hitler And then something new made its appearance. The from the government news agency and the canned Sometimes he would amble over to the neighbor~ concentration camp. ‘The comparatively clean jails radio. hood coffee there to sit and discuss politics were already overcrowded with political prisoners with some of his cronies. But Fritz was a jovial Those who were under sentence for murder, rob- Building the Underground plump man and was inclined to laugh at talk of bery and other crimes were freed. Into their cells ‘The “underground” was the only way left: Fascism and of Hitler, a mad Austrian house- were cast persons who opposed the Nazi régime underground was clumsy in its beginnings painter, Into Fritz Lieder’s town came the Nazi police. was afraid to work with it. Two of his more dar- Fritz was a veteran of the World War. For During the night, the mayor disappeared mysteri- ing friends were caught in the first few months. four years, from the time he was sixteen until he ously. Many of the local trade unionists were un- As he told me about it, tears came to his eyes. was twenty, Fritz had served in the Kaiser's army. ceremoniously arrested and taken away. Leaders of __glistened and poured unashamed down his cheek After the Armistice he had returned home and the various political parties were grabbed with the “That's what made up my mind-for me,” he said. married Martha, his childhood sweetheart. same speed as were Masons, members of fraternal “If Willy and Elmer were not afraid, then I was ‘Times were hard after the War. The Kaiser organizations and other non-Fascists not either. Hadn't we all fought in the trenches ‘was chased out by the German people. A republic During the first few weeks some of the more together during the War?’ was set up. But Fritz didn't pay much attention courageous local people attempted to cope with Fritz’s first assignment was to distribute the new to it all, as long as he had enough work to keep the situation by holding protest meetings in the underground newspaper. Stealthily he arose at his family in clothes-and food. streets. The consequences were swift, More meat one o'clock in the morning and made his way to a Suddenly all was changed. ‘The talk of Hitler, for the open jaws of the concentration camps. nearby field. There, under a rock whose location which he had scoffed at so long, became louder. Gradually the people learned that they must face he had been given previously, he found the papers

May 1939, THE FIGHT

throwing the literature into the street. By this

time, the perpetrator of tue scheme is miles away. The seaport towns are veritable bechives of anti- Nazi activity. Seamen aboard the German boats have greater access to anti-Fascist literature than any other group. Arriving in a foreign port, they

go to designated st chey receive ca

tons of cigarettes “Remtsa No. 3” c the favorite brand, ‘Once back in Germany they distribute them free- ly. The cigarettes burn with a heavy paper aroma which the people have learned to recognize, ‘The white smoke is a signal to kill the burning end and rip the cigarette open. ‘There can be found a thin

printed paper, explaining some political point, or issuing a stirring anti-Fascist appeal. The Gestapo have been driven half wild in their attempts to halt this activity, but except ina few cases, they are powerless. The people have learned to be cautious from necessity In the Factories Of course, the greatest concentration of activity must take place in the factories. This work is hard. Watchmen have been placed in all mun tions factories to guard the premises overnight. Swiftly hiding them in his coat, he started for town. would sweep through the small community. Another Yet, it is not unusual upon entering a factory in the concentration camp victim had been taken. morning to find on the wall a large anti-Hitler Fear was in his heart as he walked. ‘The streets poster, or a big leaflet or painted sign calling for were dark. Not a soul was in sight. Hete was Perhaps the most glorious job which was done united resistance to Nazism.

urtively he crept close, glancing from by the cell movement w the vietrola record Orders were sent to appear singly at a Outsiders would think that the hardest place to He slipped the paper underneath and spread anti ‘ascist_material would be in a con- hurriedly moved on. Under every doorstep went a certain place. imp. Ironically enough, by me centration paper—thin, badly printed, but carrying a message ite arrived and received a small case, a pack- declined to reveal to me because of the Then with a look to either side, Fritz. retraced his age and instructions. He was to go to a nearby which Frit footsteps and returned home to bed at four o'clock. city after first informing his boss that he was ill. danger of exposure and a halt in this all-valu le ‘The dangers of a large organization soon became Promptly at 4 pant. he was to set up the portable activity, the concentration camps are centers of real apparent. Spies could be found everywhere. In vietrola which he was given on a busy street. At literature distribu scious study of anti every factory there were spies. In every coffee 4:03 he was to start playing the twelve-inch record Fascist activity. place in the crowded shop and beer-hall they lurked. ‘The underground It was part I of the “Romeo and Juliet” overture courtyards where the inmates are jammed for ‘organization had to be split into tiny. sections. After thirty seconds he was to shut it off and start “zecreation” periods. These people know only too Groups were divided into “cells” of five. In selling the records at a price equivalent to fifteen well that their lives are almost hopeless unless they each group was a cell-leader. He knew but one cents in American currency. The records sold like are quick to act: therefore they are daring in the other person in the movement. One person from hotcakes. At 4:20 promptly, whether sold out or chances which they will take. another, cell. ‘Thus all orders, ete., were com- not, all the ‘‘salesmen’” were ordered to cease busi ‘The underground movement has two songs which ness and return, ‘The reader can well imagine th: perhaps better than anything else give the feelings municated. If a spy wormed his way into the or- of the anticFascist forces of Germany. One is ganization, he could only catch four persons, where- surprise of the purchasers, who that day. bought of the coneen- as before, everyone was in danger. eleven thousand records of the “Romeo and Juliet” 1¢ Peat-Bog Soldiers,” the song overture only to have it start on a long anti-Hitler tration camps: A Government Job speech after the first few bars. One of the men Far and wide as the eve con wander, Fritz was fired from his factory early in 1934, even had the nerve to leave a record at the local Peat and bog are everyuehere job. This time, he was working station - Not a bird si but he got another police Oaks are st for the Nazi government. His was the tak of nother trick was the use of a large silver coin. from the Jews in the city. It was a Walking through a crowded street, people would We are the P collecting taxes Were ig with our spades to the bog he was in a position to travel drop these plated coins. Persons nearby picking valuable spot. Here freely. He could talk to people, learn their feel- them up were startled at the inscription, “Down ‘The other song also freely sung is called, “The ings and work accordingly with Hitler.” legal Whisper.” It goes something like this: “he problem which was the toughest to lick, We are not seen, woe are not known that of bringing literature for mass distribution The Voice of Freedom We have no badge to sear was into the country. It had to be smuggled in. For Most important of course is the radio, The To reach us any this work, great caution was required “Voice of Freedom” station continues to harass Were nom Or water Sometimes Fritz. would get a me the Nazis. Two of the stations have be n discov Go to the —— hotel and ask for Mr. — ered, but others have sprung up in their place He will invite you up to his room.” Every evening, thousands of German radios turn They only feel

There Fritz would m a traveler, ‘The man to 29.8 meters, They used to listen through the As Fritz’ was speaking the knuckles of his hands tition from his trunk and usual radios, but if you are caught, the penalty is shone white in the sun as he erushed his fingernails would lift a dummy p swift. Now, earphones are used, and the sound is i produce some finely printed leaflets. ‘The paper into his workworn palms. His, I felt, was the was almost as thin as cigarette paper. Fritz would inaudible to passersby in the stree spirit of the real Germany quietly away ‘One of the finest systems, now ut of use, can be “Wien I left my home,” he said, “many people thrust these into his trousers and walk revealed. A man climbs to a roof with a shor ‘That night his cell would steal away and go almost total strangers to me, but who had learned about the job of distribution, In the morning, the plank, a bucket of water with a hole in it, plugged that I was on my way to America, came to me town would be wild with talk of the leaflet. with chewing-gum and some literature. The plank and asked that I give America a message tire would drag in all suspects. Held for a is placed halfway over the street—the bucket on “Tell the people of America that the people of The police he roof part, and the literature on the street end wv days, they would deny any knowledge of the Germany are not Nazis, that 90 per cent of us are Usually they were released, but occasion- hen the gum is removed. ‘The water seeps out against Hitler. Ask them to give us a chance to affair. ally they would disappear. “Dachau,” the word and in about fifteen minutes the plank topples over, prove it to them!” THE FIGHT, May 1939 2B

that his interest is with until he realizes Associated “Farmers” the working farm laborer. ‘The small (Continued from page 9) shopkeeper in the country towns is in the same boat. If the worker makes AS 10 pany. ‘The interlocking business or- wages, he cannot spend in the shops ow ganizations have octopussed beyond all buy his children imagining in recent ye they are in around. He cannot to school ins’ union-smash- shoes so that they can go termingled with citi But the Associated Farmers are in- ing committees and women’s strike- satiable. Not only are they trying to breaking “patriotic” groups, such as ‘cut wages in every crop, they are now Neutral Thousands and Women of the Congress to close the WOMEN memorializing Pacific. ‘The ten Federal camps which house a few where. Take as an example (thoug! thousand migratory workers, where tl he’s no “worse” than many others), & migrants do have a shower, a wooden Mother's Day becomes a day to promote Mr. Charles MeIntosh floor to their tent, some wash-tubs to Mr. Melntosh is a director of Cali- wash their clothes, and a few toys and peace . . . Women of Spain and China fornia Packing Corporation, director of rooms for the children. They recreation Miller and Lux, and president of the are also asking that cash grants of re- San Francisco and Fresno Land Com- lief to those migrants who have no OF ALL the days celebrated in the swers to such broadcasts as those of pany. He's a director of the San Joa- work be stopped. “United States, Mother's Day has per- Father Coughlin, Church groups, both quin Power and Light, just merged In this the Associated Farmers seem haps the greatest appeal to the greatest Jewish and gentile, are uniting to fight with the Pacific Gas and Electric, of to be like those Di gens characters who number of people. All the monthly the dissemination of antisacial which he is also a director. He is couldn't bear to see Oliver Twist get

propaganda. The very fact that the president and director of the Bank of magazines that deal with the home in enough to eat. ‘any way have regular Mother’s Day women all over the country have cho- California, which is the banking con- stories. Clergymen preach Mother's sen this subject to concentrate on, leads cern for his farming and packing opera- Wood, Water, a Shack to the conclusion that the wave of anti IPak. He is a director of the Day sermons. Every man on the street Merchants’ Exchange, of the Oceanic Five years ago the was a great cot wears a carnation in his buttonhole on racial propaganda has gone far wider that day. But it was not until four than people in the East reali and Oriental Navigation Company ton strike in the San Joaquin Valley years ago that the peace movement be- But with this emphasis there goes which is tied to the American Hawaiian Twenty thousand cotton-pickers, Mex: gan to use Mother's Day as a day to another. On Mother's Day there are and Matson Lines, and a director of ican, white and Negro, laid down their promote peace. In Cleveland, Ohio, also meetings to bring home to all of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph and refused to go back at the 60- us the need of the mothers and chil- Company. Mr. McIntosh is a director cents-a-hundred they were being paid Mother's Day has become an. official day for peace, and even in those cities dren abroad. We do not know what of the San Joaquin Kings River Canal then, I was present at the hearings be- is ahead of us in the future for demands and Irrigation Company, a director of fore the government commission ap- where such official ctions have been taken, peace meetings have been on our money and for our moral sup- the San Francisco Clearing House As- pointed to arbitrate the strike. Fam- port. Certainly we know that the sociation and a director of the Russ ilies of cotton-pickers testified that they hheld as a matter of course. It seems a Building, where Associated Farmers and their small children picked from good use to make of the day. year has brought suffering to mothers sunup, “till the sun she go to sleep, During these four years the women and children abroad that is the greatest have their offices. and did not make enough for tort have made very practical use of Moth since the davs of the World War. A Roping the Innocents ‘A Mexican was asked whether he had er’s Day. ‘They have not used it as woman from Spain has just been in to wood, water, or a wooden shack, which just a reaffirmation of women’s desire She tells us that the courage of ‘When the Associated Farmers started I for peace, but as a day to educate for the Spanish women during these dark in 1934, there were few real small the “farmers” said they supplied. peace and to initiate practical measures days is one of the great miracles of farmers in the organization. The As- remember his answer, ringing out over But children need to be fed sociated Farmers realized they must the hall of a thousand people. “Nunca, to insure peace. In some cities Moth: have some sort of front. So they set sefior, nuncat” The very traffic cops er’s Day last year was used to spread and mothers need to be cared for. Not stood” agape at what that hearing re- the boycott against aggressors. The only do they need our money for food about forming their front—their “it vealed, of misery, dirt, disease, inh women promoted the embargo against and shelter—they need to know the nocents” committee. ‘They threatened Japan as well as the personal boycott. sympathy and support there is for them to refuse loans and mortgages to tenant man conditions, and vigilante breaking among women in the United States. farmers, who need the loans to buy of the law—the minimum wage law for ‘And with their proposals for direct seed and pay utility bills; they refused women, the housing laws, the co action, they have never lost sight of the tutional laws about peaceful picketing, to market their crops. ‘They sent paid fact that peace can be insured by peace- WE have written often here of the Last autumn, five years later, there ful means. They have never fallen in- development of women during the war speakers up and down the countryside were the same conditions, the same telling outrageous yarns about Harry to the belief that perhaps we need just in Spain, It is, of course, unfor violations of the law, the same misery; ‘one more war to make the world peace- nate that a war had to be the occasion Bridges and the CLO. Red traffic but the workers were now preponder ful. for the recognition of the need for markers in the roadway became the red antly white workers, “Okies” from the greater opportunities for women. But flag of revolution, in the Salinas lettuce at least that one good thing did come strike; caravans of longshoremen were Middle West, the Dust Bowl, pushing BECAUSE of their real belief in peace- always descending on peaceful villages on to try to find a living in the West— ful measures and because of their prac- from the war. And it is coming in China too. Women who have never to destroy them. Anyone suggesting a living that had been promised them. tical proposals, it is interesting what the women are stressing as their known how to read before are learning that 20 to 25 cents an hour for picking For, and this point the “Associated Mother's Day program for 1939. This to read and to write, They are learn- cherries or “cots or grapes was hardly a Farmers” try to hide, advertisements for year they are concentrating in most ing to take their part with the men in fair, decent, reasonable or American migrant workers appear constantly in Cities against the anti-racial propaganda the vast task of developing the in- wage had brought the words straight the papers in the Middle West—work- that has come to this country from the terior of China. ‘They are finding op- from Moscow. And so, bit by bit ers are asked, are lured to California, banks and grower-shippers of the As on the promise of work and wages. Fascist countries abroad. ‘They have portunities for their great executive They come in numbers—in order that sociated “Farmers” enrolled the unwill- recognized that the whole peace issue gifts and they are finding the pleasure the “Farmers” may have an oversupply is bound up with the democratic rights of being a recognized force for the sup- ing farmers, puzzled and confused, in of all groups, and they are hitting at port of their country. No matter their organization and so be able to depress wages. The this particular propaganda as a direct what may come to Spain, no matter Bur these real farmers are coming to if government erop restrictions or other threat to our peace. Tn some commu what hardships China may be called see that the Associated Farmers’ pr uses drive migrants on relief, the upon to suffer, this much has been rate act, and the Associated Farmei rarmers” complain because they are nities they are building exhibits of anti- gained—woman has tasted the bread of constant lowering of wages and per- taxed; and they start a drive to keep Semitic propaganda, with of that propaganda exposed beside the ex- freedom. It will be hard to put her secution of the quarter million migra migrants out of California on the back into her old bondage again. tory crop-pickers, is not in their interest ground, 2s the Hearst papers so pret- hibit, In other places. they at all. The real farmer is badly caught ranging radio broadcasts that are an- —Dororay McConneu (Continued on page 29) 24 May 1939, THE FIGHT

HERE were only the two of us on the trol- ley. I had no newspaper and was trying to 0 read his. The at he was sitting down e aisle didn’t stop me. I’m a veteran reader of other people’s newspapers. Anyway you The Man didn’t need the eyes to make out the dline on this particular edit Big, black and ieross the top of the front page WAGNER AC MUST BE AMENDED. Who Joined read this item until I was sick of it t, I thought; why he read why doesn’t he turn to the funnies the Wagner Act The trolley clanged down ets. ‘The mo- torman hadn't 3 ned on the electric sand the trolley was full of dusky hal it. No other s came on and I got the feeling that I had aper before id ff we had really By Benjamin Appel + for along time. “I’ve been look- nd I don’t like i s -e somewhere, ILLUSTRATED BY WALT PARTYMILLER “I wonder if I know yo him, He wasn’t and he wasn’t short. He wasn't fat and he wast thin. In the funny light, I couldn't quite make ou the color of his eyes or hair. He might have had dirty-blond hair or dark reddish hair or brown hair. And his face that had fi eemed round, now appe -d more or less square- jawed. He could hay n Irish or Scotch, Ger- man or Swedish. Maybe he was Jewish or Italian? re was no telling, He h kind of face don’t know you,” he sai back of his hand against the headline Wag: ner Act!” he exploded. “That mean ing up

he unions and giving every company union a new lease on life. “There isn’t an open-shop boss or tear-g: fink who doesn’t want to amend the Wagner Act.” What's your trade?” I asked. “I keep thinking, T’ve seen you before I'm a working man, ‘That's my trade,” he smiled, You're not a miner? I onc a lift to a miner in Pennsylvania had a car.” ‘What's the difference? my stop.” He anked at the signal cord. an have the sheet.” He tossed er to me and walked down the His walk reminded walk when they hit land, Bu each foot kind of a walk either. He planted d il like a mill worker on the job. i a difference,” I called as the trolley pulled to a stop. “Maybe if I know your trade, your union, I can remember where I'v you before He turned around, “My uni e Wagner Act.” He siniled a I joined the Wagner Act when it first started and I still belong. He jumped down to the street. ‘The trolley whizzed down the tracks and I suddenly knew the answer. “I thought I knew all about that fellow,” said to myself, And I did. He was not only the man who had joined the Wagner Act. He was “He wasn’t tall and he wasn’t short. He wasn’t the men, the millions of men who had joined the Wagner Act. Maybe it was nny light that fat and he wasn’t thin. I got the feeling put the notion into my head. Anyway I picked up the newspaper he had tossed the man with the paper before” me. With my pencil I inserted one new word in I had seen he headline Ir now read: WAGNER ACT MUST NOT BE AMENDED THE FIGHT, May 1939 25

take, however, the cinema itself will Two Giant Strides remain an even more eloquent spokes- (Continued from page 11) man, ‘That is why the new trend in In STEP wood when placed in contrast with films, as exemplified by Confessions of what happened four years earlier in the a Nazi Spy and Juarez, is of critical WITH LagorR Sinclair-Merriam campaign. At that importance. A number of other stu- time studio employees, far from having dios are waiting to see the reaction to an independent political voice these films. If they are a pronounced tually terrorized into forking over a success (despite the efforts reaction- day's pay for the campaign of the re- aries will undoubtedly make to knife actionary Merriam, them), other producers will at once go Veteran among the Hollywood pro- into production on similarly significant pictures. The Tweedledee and Twee- ONE of the points in the program of have is to destroy the unity essential to gressive groups is the renowned Holly- dledum of taboo, although toppled, are the American League for Peace and ive action and bargaining by al- wood Anti-Nazi League, headed by Democracy is to “defend the Wagner lowing the employer to bargain with Donald Ogden Stewart, which for not entirely dead. It is up to every Act against all attempts to weaken it each of his employees separately and nearly four years has-been fighting progressive and every progressive or ganization to see to it that, like Hump- by amendment or to cripp! its admin- to set one group of employees against against the Nazis and their American ty-Dumpty, they can never be set up re, sub- sympathizers and agents, and for the istration.” . .. We have, the another. mitted to Congress a statement of our here is a proposal to make it an preservation of American Democracy again. ‘The best way at the moment vigorous opposition to all of the pro- unfair labor practice for a labor union Shortly after the Spanish War broke is to give Confessions and Juarez the tremendous support they deserve. posed amendments to the National to coerce any employee, directly or indi- out, the Motion Picture Artists’ Com- Labor Relations Act. “After careful rectly Such an amendment would headed by Dashiell (Thin examination and consideration of the destroy the Act. The words ‘coer Man) Hammett, was formed to aid Burgos Gaol statement the Loyalists, and through it film lu- amendments,” our direct or indirect’ have a very proposed minaries contributed many thousands (Continued from page 17) reads, ‘we feel that they are desi ed elastic meaning and are susceptible of for the sole purpose and effect of de- any _ interpretation, Leaflets urging of dollars, both in cash and in ambu- Answer me, hijos de putas, or Vill stroying or weakening the benefits now employees to join a union, a picket line, lances, to the cause of the Republic drag your guts out!” enjoyed by labor under the present Act, asa matter of fact anything that a When Japan invaded China, the com- “We saw no boy,” said Antonio and of breaking down the enforce- union might do in furtherance of or- mittee undertook similar work for the sullenly. “We've been asl ment and administration of the Act ganizing the employees or bettering Chinese people. Don’t lie to me, bolshevik dung ithout attempting to deal with their conditions, might be construed Newest among Hollywood progres- He signalled to a guard who dragged each and every amendment proposed,” sive groups, and most glittering in the in a body unceremoniously, by. the the statement continues, “we should Phe amendment which would 4 array of celebrities it has mustered, is arm, and dropped it in the middle of like to point out in a general way prive the Board of the right to invali- the Hollywood Committee of Fifty- the floor. * how several of the proposed amend- Six, which is campaigning nationally The officer flashed his torch on the date contracts is a grave danger to ments would operate to the disadvan- labor organizations. It would allow for twenty million signatures asking an face. “Now I want the truth and em rgo on Nai Germany. It is also tage of labor's rights. an employer to sign a contract with a quickly, you hear me perros! Who “There ase several proposed disguised company union or with an ga change in federal neutrality is he and what did he come for?” legislation in line with the Thomas ments which would give the employer organization which does not actually Oh God, Julio's eyes, Julio's hair! the right to petition for an elec Amendment. Joan Crawford, Myrna on to represent the majority of the workers, Julio thirty years younger, eyes and determine the appropriate bargaining “Among other crippling amend Loy, Bette Davis, Edward G. Robin- mouth open, grotesque, making the son, Paul Muni, Alice Faye, Henry clay around him muddy with his agent. Such an amendment would ments are those which would re-define Fonda, James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, blood— prove extremely dangerous to the suc- agricultural workers so as to deny to ess of a labor union in the process of millions of workers in canneries, Priscilla Lane, Miriam Hopkins, Antonio turned his burning eyes to organizing the employees of a shop or packing houses, tobacco factories, and Groucho Marx, Walter Wanger, and the floor to avoid calling attention to plant. It would enable the employer other industries the benefits of the Act the Warner Brothers are only a hand- the obvious, which flamed like a con- to call for an election at the beginning ‘There are proposed amendments which ful of the filmland notables who com- crete thing in the air around him. But of a union’s organizational drive but would give the employers the complete prise the brilliant roster of this com- Dallardo could_ mana when it still had not gained a majority freedom to restrain employees from mittee. And behind these and other trol; he looked at the child and then special organizations, of course, stand of the employees, or at a time when joining unions and allowing them to turned his wondering eyes to Jul 4 company union is especially strong. coerce employees into joining company the Hollywood guilds and unions. The officer followed his glance and “Many of the proposed amendments unions. Such amendments which for- No matter how forthright a position swung his torch on the tall man. would limit the powers and functions bid strikes unless favored by a major- in civic life the Hollywood (Continued on page 30) of the National Labor Relations Board ity of workers in a plant would deprive by giving to the Board only the powers labor of its strongest weapon—the right He would kneel before the scranled cross of investigation and having all. cases to strike heard by the Courts. This would in “The various amendments which effect do away with the Board and call for a change in the procedure be- place the administration and enforce fore the Board are designed only to ment of the Act in the hands of the delay proceedings and to cause a break-

Courts. Other amendments would down in the administration of the Act. tzive the Courts the right to review the Other amendments giving the Courts facts as well as the law and thus in fact increased power would also serve the re-try and re-examine the entire case same_purpose ‘There is absolutely no need for such The enumeration of the above pro- provisions since under the present Act, posed amendments does not in any way employers enjoy the full protection of imply approval of any of the other pro- the Courts if they feel that their legal posed amendments. They too would be rights have in any way been prejudiced harmful to the rights of labor. by an order or decision of the Board. “We therefore wish to register our “The proposed amendments calling unqualified opposition to any and all for craft elections are entirely unneces- of the proposed amendments and urge sary since the Board may now in its that they and any other such amend- discretion call for craft elections. The ments be defeated.” ‘only purpose such an amendment could —A. E. Epwarps

26 May 1939, THE FIGHT

Bunomne rue Leacue A United Movement in Common Resistance to War and Fascism By Thomas L. Harris | _ RADIO is being used more and more League annually loses a great number program is extended and its membership icans must be made to understand the igue branches with increasing of members who fail to renew—often built up, and at the same time the anti-Fascist implications? of our _cam- . Detroit's report has just come for no reason that can be ascertained finances of the branch are benefited. for relief and against reprisal. into the office as this is being written. by the National Office. Pontiac has a They began a series against Father negligible number of lapses. Without THE Medical Bureau and North “THE summer is supposed to be a slack

Coughlin on March 27¢h, The first going into details, which will be gladly American Committee have launched a time, but doubtless Hitler and his gang

ES speech brought in several hundred let- supplied by the National Office, the one-million-dollar drive for Spanish will give the American League plenty ters but no contribution toward the essential feature of Pontiac’s scheme is refugees and a ca paign against repris- of work to do thro fh the summer cost of the program. It seemed as if the collection of very small monthly als in Spain. ‘They write: months. Regional conferences are the croakings of the cautious were dues which are applied to subscriptions “The power and prestige of the being planned for late in the spring or about to be justified, But on the fol- to Tite Ficur and the following year's United States can and shall be exerted early in the summer to give added im- lowing week, with great courage the membership. If,the League nationally to safeguard their (Spanish refugees) petus to the League's work through Detroit branch extended the time from’ applied such plan with similar. suc- lives and security. Since Washington the summer months and enable the TRE fifteen minutes to half an hour which cess, our membership would be tripled has now recognized the Franco régime, League to shift into high gear in the Rockwell Kent used to such good effect in less than a year. Won't some of it is absolutely imperative that this dip- fall. Provisional plans call for a con- cee that his talk, “Enemies of Democracy,” you city and branch secretaries write lomatic step be transformed into an ference in the East, Middle West, “brought in so much financial response to, the National Office for details of | effective means of protection for those South and Far West, and the executive

that wechave had to ask the assistance the Pontiac plan? who, for nearly three years, stood firm secretary would be glad to receive sug-

‘of an auditor.” We congratulate the in the defense of their Democracy and gestions from individual members of

Serre Detroit committee, which was organ- HERE is another plan which is valu- our own. the League for the program of these ized only nine months ago, on their able both financially and educationally. “It is our primary duty to show the conferences. ess. Theit program goes over The Hartford, Connecticut, branch ar- American public that aid to Spain's CKLW, Monday nights at 7:45. ranged a course of lectures for which people continues to be an essential part ~NEW branches have been formed in Chicago is also making use of the a small fee was charged. The course of the g ascist fight and Birmingham, Michigan and Richmond, dio, as is Brooklyn. New Jersey and included: “World Forces Against that international action in their be- Virginia. We quote from the Rich= New York City have formed a joint Democracy” by Jerome Davis, “Euro- half is as important today as ever be- mond, Virginia, News-Leader

F committee to use this most effective pean Politics After Munich” by fore. The rapidly developing Euro- “About 100 Richmond people met | means of spreading the League's mes- Eichelberger, “Safeguarding Democra- pean situation indicates

ran the picture for four days, and suc- withholding 4

ceeded in selling over 500. tickets sources from wgeressors, granting our through our members. This large sale resources to ‘victims of aggressor na- of tickets netted the branch well over tions under conditions . . . to remove $100. Besides the excellent financial risk of our being drawn into war’ and ‘concerted action’ to ‘withhold from return, we feel that this showing has done much in our fight for Democracy. invading aggressors the means to n ake “To further help our monetary diff Dr. Mitchell of the University of f culties we conducted a drawing which netted the branch $2: Richmond introduced by the Rev. W. P. Watkins of Highland Park Meth- | PONTIAC, Michigan, has a small dist Church, temporary chairman, but most effective branch of the observed that ‘it is a strange situation League. They have recently worked today, with all the peoples of the world | | Biitideciesie which docs amaciog things’. 7774. ise Sy Nip gs era Tk i aT ta 0 loving peace aad haciag re feat ill for maintaining memberships. The ‘March for Democracy parade on April 1st the statesmen cry

THE FIGHT, May 1939 | f

critic for fourteen years on the Post Hearst Learns Hard Intelligencer, and Frank M. (Slim) (Continued from page 21) Lynch, crack photographer on the same

paper. They were caught organizing. Newspaper Guild five years ago about ‘Thereafter, the remaining members of 4 per cent of its eighteen thousand the union were spied upon and q mbers have been involved in strike tioned. Several weeks later the unit OF seven strikes in metropolitan cen- struck, Post-Intelligencer re ters, four of them have been against mained closed down for fifteen weeks.

Hearst newspapers. (This counts the Hearst learned then that th fe was such) yor current struggle as against two papers.) as labor solidarity. Longshore- You" ‘The employees of the chain, whether men and sailors, printers and others

ed, have always made it clear by their aid that white been the victims of one of the most collar workers were their brothers and The American Youth Congress plans ruthless labor policies in America, Dur- sisters. With his Seattle paper closed, a national conference . . . “Student ing the Hoover debacle they took three Hearst settled the strike in. Milwaukee, successive paycuts of 10 pe cent each ‘Then he concentrated upon one of the while Hea t chiseled not one penny off Nationalists” and Student Union most scurrilous campaigns of lies ever his own annual salary of a half-million suffered on the West Coast. By radio, dollars. ‘Though Hearst enjoyed a rep- pamphlet and door-to-door canvassing utation of paying fantastic salaries, the he attempted to convince the people of HAVE you ever watched a group of ‘The American Youth Congress real fact was that any good newspape boys collected near a corner; boys too should be supported in its effort to lead Seattle that he was the victim of the man in his service lived in constant fear start of a revolution. ld for school, too young to have youth to a future which will be pro- of the axeman. If the worker was much experience in the working world? ductive, in a world at peace good and his pay was raised, he was Guilty As Charged They stand there day after day, hang- certain to come to the attention of ‘The National Labor Relat ing around until late in the night; rest QUIET and ineffective for some time, Hearst's traveling _payroll-pruners. Board, after stormy hearings through less, mischievous, ready to fight ; playing the German-American Bund Youth Legend maintains these gentle- Movement in California is now show- which Hearst's lawyers dragged one practical jokes on each other and annoy men made it a practice ‘to swoop down red herring after another, found the ing the passersby. Do you shake your ing great activity. Instead of the old upon a payroll, lay a paper over the head and call them “no-good loafers, slogan “Heil Hitler,” Willie Sellin, management guilty of interfering with, nes and chop off heads according restraining and coercing the employees tramps, future criminals?” its leader, has established the new cry to sal ry received. Protest of local in the exercise of their rights. Should you speak to them you would “Free America.” ‘This group has been executives, to whom the names might The strike was settled on November find them bold and cynical. ‘They most active on the campus, where it is be flesh and blood or mean the differ- 25, 1936. Later, when the would laugh if you talked of jobs. “You dedicated to the destruction of the ence between good and bad work, were Board decision came down, Lynch was see, it’s this way Mister, we know all American Student Union, To make it to no avail When Hearst wanted to rehired, but not reinstate as ordered about it because we tried, it’s no use asier to carry on this campaign in the buy another castle in Wales, or take a by the Board. Armstrong’s heart gave ‘They talk of “chances” in Florid colleges, the American National Party party of merrymaking friends to Eu- (Nazi) has created an organization ind he did not live to know the New York, Frisco. Life is very dull; rope, or bid on a warehouse full of me- final outcome, A United States Circuit they want excitement. calling itself the American Student Na- dieval art, his hangmen cut a wide trail Court of Appeals only recently upheld ‘Hundreds of thousands of such youth tionalists, of suicides sclosed mortgages and the Board’s decision Unless the man- over the country are stranded, disillu- They hope to achieve this destruc broken hear sioned and ready to follow tion by dragging the old red herring agement decides to take the matter to across the well-worn path. By labeling An Ancient Score the Supreme Court, which is unlikely headed leader who appears to. know here he is going, who ssmpathizes the American Student Union it must now pay Lynch and Arm- Except for fear, then, the Hearst strong’s widow back salary. with their plight and gives them a rea nistic,” they hope to frighten students papers were fertile ground for organi For was comparative son for living. Millions of su away from the A.S.U zation. But Hearst workers hardly have been enrolled in the armi ‘The “American Student National- peace along the far-flung Hearst front. had time to cock d the Some thought that Hearst had learned cessful and would-be Mussolinis and may feel temporarily secure be- new protective movement among white a leson. It didn’t last long. From

Hitlers. These destructive leaders play hind their name, but the i collar workers before Hearst began to somewhere in the empire there came a fn the weaknesses and_half-forgotten ties will expose them: their contempt root out the leaders. From West Coast genius with the technic of the company prejudices of the youth—promising to for I ocracy both in principle and papers he fired first Louis B union. Henceforth, it was to be the the halfstarved young people a glori- labelin groups then Dean Jennings. Burgess was an principal Hearst strategy for fighting

s future and immortality, -ommunistic” ; religious editorial writer, Jennings ‘a reporter, the Guild. Company union domina he American Youth Congress has and race prejudice both of many years’ service. tion is the hardest charge to prove be-

c great strides in meeting some of The American Student Union has came before the old National Labor proved itself as an organization of fore the National Labor Relations problems in a practical way. This Board which was created by the famous Board. ‘The Guild suffered temporary year the youth, interested in securing opport American Youth Congress is of the NRA. The Jen nity for all youth to be setbacks as so-called independen holding its National Conference in rings case, heard first, resulted in an to build a better and safer world to unions were cultured in departments New York. The goal of this mecting order for reinstatement. ‘The Guild Boston Record, the Baltimore is to show “How Youth Organizations live in. The A.S.U. has won the re- rejoiced that the right to organize had Post and the Los Angeles Examiner. and the A-Y.C. Can Prepare Youth for spect and support of students over the been upheld. But it rejoiced too soon country. The American Student N: ‘The technic backfired for Hearst’s new Citizenship in Our Democracy.” There Hearst persuaded the N.RA. will be panels on the following topics: tionalists (Nazi) will not get away admin- publisher in Seattle. It also lopped on with taking in vain the slogan “Free istration to overrule its own board! the New York Journal-d merican where Interfaith and Interracial Under The Burgess case died the entire complement of white collar standing. Americ In 1936 the Guild Hearst workers workers chose the Guild in a Labor Participation in Politics and Govern- in Milwaukee had the audacity to de Board poll by a four-to-one vote over WE learn at press time that Ameri- mand collective b: Immedi- a paper pupp Opportunities for Education. Student Union leaders in New ately the Hearst management launched In Chicago, as elsewhere, the com- Recreation and Cultural Activities. York City have wired President Roose- 4 campaign of intimidation and coer- pany unions were formed along craft

Opportunity and Security for Rural vele commending his me age to Hitler cion, Before the campaign had thinned lines for the direct purpose of smash- Youth. and Mussolini, its ranks too far, the Guild unit rallied ing the Guild. ‘The Guild is a vertical Opportunity and Security for Urban “Your message makes you the out- and voted to strike, A few months In its ranks are people of all Youth. standing advocate of peace in this later Hearst struck at the Guild again non-mechanical departments of newspa Peace Action hour, im declares. in Seattle, Washington. He fired pers, ranging through hundreds of clas- Better Health and Glean Living. —Rucia Rakoczy Philip Everhardt Armstrong, dramatic sifications—among them charwomen, 28 May 1939, THE FIGHT stenographers, editors, smelter-pot ferred to earlier, consisted of twenty~ and other unions who have thrown No radio station in Chicago will sell attendants, reporters, pigeon-trainers, three distinguished churchmen of all their resources into the struggle. the Guild time on the air to refute the

Open, brutal violence has been a management's blasts. Nor will any of columnists, company physicians, nurses, denominations. It investigated and ‘office boys, auditors, librarians, adver- held hearings for six weeks and in con- main feature of Hearst’s strategy in the the other papers tell the Guild’s side tising salesmen, telephone operators, clusion issued a sweeping report in Chicago strike. ‘The first day on the The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago circulators and scores of others. ‘The favor of the strikers. ‘The committee picket line the strikers were attacked by Evening News are too busy preserving denounced the management's violence thugs with lead pipes, blackjacks and the freedom of the press workers, together in one union com- Approximately five hundred strikers and criticized the police and courts for truck crank-handles. Some went to prise a bargaining unit with genuine are standing firm, determined to win, bargaining power. Broken into craft laxity. Tt drew from Mayor Kelly the the hospital. ‘The management ob- units, their bargaining power on any assertion that in the matter of violence tained, from a reactionary, labor-hat determined to preserve their union and fone newspaper becomes nil. It can be the Guild’s hands were “amazingly ing judge, a sweeping injunction for- determined to gain some measure of seen, then, why employers seek to build clean.” bidding picketing and strike activities. job security. Among strikebreakers re- craft unions as a bar to the industrial ‘The League of Women Shoppers, an ‘The thugs continued to attack and maining “loyal” to Hearst is Jack Rob- Guild. organization of women who are deter- maim strikers wherever they could find inson, a professional patriot who writes mined to use their potent buying- them. They threatened wives and fam- a “Soldier Friend” column. Less than “Editorial Associates” ilies, damaged automobiles. In Feb- fa year ago Robinson appeared on the power to secure fair labor standards, ‘tor with Fritz Kunz, Chi- ‘The Chicago management herded also has investigated the strike and de- ruary three armed men shoved gut cided to support it. into the ribs of a Loop garage attend- cago Fuehrer for Hitler. frightened, underpaid girls into the re some of us who see in the Some of the A.F. of L. leaders are ant and hijacked the Guild’s sound ‘The hastily-formed craft unions. It found a few opportunities in the editorial busy mobilizing rank-and-file A.F. of truck, They drove it into the Chicago Chicago struggle something more than department to form a special union L, support for the strike. They work River. Te was fished out by the United mere desire to chisel profits. ‘The through the A.F, of L. Committee to States Coast Guard, damaged to the strike has cost the Hearst empire many there, called euphemistically “The Chi- times what it would have had to pay cago Editorial Association.” A nice Aid the Guild Strikers. Jonathan extent of several hundred dollars. tip-off as to its parentage came when a Eddy, executive vice-president of the to maintain harmonious labor relations. American Newspaper Guild, perhaps The New Gangsters What then? Hearst has always wanted committee of Chicago churchmen held hearings to determine the justice of the foreseeing that this committee can be a The thugs are called “goons” by the to smash labor. Why? Because, says strike. ‘The management and the Chi- potent force toward the healing of la- strikers, the name being taken, ironical- the American Federation of Teachers, ‘eago Editorial Association were repre- bor’s split, has termed it “one of the ly, from a character in a Hearst syn- FF, of L,, ‘he is the chief proponent sented by the same person. most important bodies in the labor dicated cartoon strip. They are the cof Fascism in this country.” Because, movement today.” ‘The head of the successors to Moss Enright, Dean says United States Senator Lewis ‘A National Labor Relations Board OBanion, Big Tim Murphy and the Schwellenbach, he “more than anybody trial examiner has already submitted an committee is Dr. George E. Axtelle finding the ma of the American Federation 0 Gentlemen Brothers, else is advocating Fascism in this coun- fermediate report derers who were launched on their try.” Because, says United States Sen- agement guilty of coercion and intimi- ers. Some officers of the committee dation, and recommending an order of members of the mechanical unions in careers of erime by the Hearst manage- ator Norris, his papers “‘are the sewer reinstatement for fired Guild leaders. the struck plants. One of the chief ment during the circulation wars of system of American journalism.” ‘The New World, official organ of contributions of the committee has been three decades ago. the Catholic archdiocese of Chicago of its exposure of the fake “jurisdiction ‘Through full-page advertisements which Cardinal Mundelein is the spir- dispute” issue. These A.F. of L. lead- and over the radio the management hi Associated“Farmers” itual leader, has come out for the strike. ers are aware that Hearst and his su repeatedly told the public that thirty (Continued from page 24) The paper offered “a special prayer cessors are arch-enemies of labor. In to forty persons are on strike, It doesn’t tily put it, that migrants “lower wages” and word of encouragement to. the this fight it is not only easy, but nat even bother to tell a little truth in and “breed crime and pestilence”! Hearst employees who are on strike.” ural, that they join with the C.LO. order to get over a big lie. It just lies There are so many things to. say hasn't wavered. ‘The Catholic support about the Associated Farmers. I have ‘A long time before the strike Bishop seen them in action so often. Walking Bernard J. Sheil, vicar general of the ordinarily peaceful main down the archdiocese, wrote a series of articles JOY By Egmargo street_of my country town, S: 25, for the Evening American. Incensed STRENGTH THROUGH that September two and a half years by the criticism of the New World, the ago, I suddenly saw the shopkeepers Hearst management dragged the arti and hangers-on marching with pickax cles off the shelf and ran them in the handles, thé cops sending tear gas struck paper. Bishop. Sheil, pointing bombs into the Labor Temple; a small ut that he had no control over the farmer was ruined on this occasion be- me chosen to print the articles, wrote cause he offered to sign a contract with to the Guild as follows: the union, In 1934 I saw a Filipino “The preposterous and totally false was produced that the ap ranch-house burned down and the little impression Filipino workers—who are so useful pearance of the articles at this particu when they take 15 cents an hour for Jar time was in effect a public rebuff on their stoop labor—run out of town at the part of the Catholic bishop to the the edge of bayonets, traffic cops help- courageous Catholic members of the ing the vigilantes, the suiteases of the Newspaper Guild who joined the strike Filipinos flying open and thefr pathetic under the firm conviction that funda- belongings strewn along the roadside. mental moral principles of a Christian L saw three workers shot down and and democratic nature hiad been re- killed outside their own headquart pudiated and flouted by the manage at Pixley in the bright San Joaquin ment; that there was a gross violation Valley, and the murderers acquitted. of the Federal law which guarantees And I was at the trial of the ei the right of collective bargaining to all workers who were jailed for long terms labor; that the attitude of organized because they led a few strikes and the Chicago Evening American was in raised wages. There have been tarring direct contradiction to the spirit and ‘and feathering, workers driven from the letter of the Ei cals of Leo county line to county line, babies dying XIN and Pius XL.” of starvation, tear gas, beatings, long Protestant and Catholic can uni imprisonment, children born in condi- fundamental Christian principles. tions of filth that turn your stomach, churchmen's fact-finding committee re “Pye got them all fooled, boys—even this mustache is ersatz” 29 ‘THE FIGHT, May 1939

and always the kids with scurvy, rick first it was not much more than his smiling lips; he would satisfy every EUROPE « Mi EXICO ets, pellagra, sore eyes. Mind you, former Ii , transposed, idealized. His need, go to extreme lengths to pro- not in dank, underground mining dis- labor did not stunt and exhaust him vide every little comfort and care he SOVIET UNION: tricts, but in the California sunshine, now; his wife did not nag him; his could think of for his patient, fighting You see hom life fe re ly lred—you with oranges hanging heavy on acres brother-in-law seldom appeared, and with Antonio for the privilege, watch- Zowions inet the of peeplonyou ster au irae! mental with ate come ‘n'a and endless acres of sweet-scented trees, when he did, was properly chastised ing over the poor cobbler like a mother with warmth and glory of blossom and and cowed by the knowledge of how over her child, fruit... . thoroughly he was despised. His life But this was only sometimes. Usu- But the U.C.A.P.A.W.A—the ag- was secure Even the ally he sat in his corner, deaf and dead workers’ C.1.O, union—is in mino® nuisances, weather, ‘indigestion to the world. and it is organizing Negro and diarrhea, weariness and the pain Dallardo gradually drifted away and white, processers and shed work- of his callouses and corns, did not even further from reality. Even the ers, gin workers and cannery workers, trouble him, Evenings at the wine- life of his former visions began to pickers and packing workers: and the shop were open and pleasant and in- cease to have meaning. He lived now union is standing shoulder to shoulder variably full of glory for him. His in his realized Utopia, somehow vague- ie “8 with Democracy, against the violent arguments were calm, ‘powerful and ly identified with the word “Sociale Swastika—the Associated Farmers, convincing; he was greatly admired ism.” It was not a world of specific for them—even the saturnine sceptic objects and specific beings, but a world from Catalonia (plague take him, what of feeling, an extraordinary all-per- Burgos Gaol brought him to Burgos!) had to ad- ‘meating sensation of well-being: well- (Continued from page 26) mit his logic. Sometimes, however, fed and healthy and warm; a world his companions in the wine-shop would with no blacks in it, but soft yellows “I never saw him before in my be metamorphosed abruptly, incompre- and greens and blues, light, sunny, cme carat a " said Julio, His face was gray hensively, into army officers, medaled and dry; a world of smiling human ize On the back of his hand, oozing and stern, who listened in an ominous Pian nese blood, was a long scratch, . faces and beautiful landscapes which In the morning they found Dal- and dreadful silence in which his that feeling of well-being, that love, ments, hesitant and fearful, went out to, and enveloped, and em- Flin, HS bint Ele ardo completely mad. sounded empty and meaningless. There braced. But most of all it was a is something in their eyes as. they world of his wife, of her face, of her Steamship pssace, Third lass Tan except ihre HE LITTLE man lay, quite fened to him that inspired nameless body. He lay with her and touched Meson teverdine iverares ethene aad till, on the bunk. Occasionally terror; something in the immobility and rubbed with gentle trembling Sthee ripe ert for deseriptse ‘Barone cate his tongue would strike the roof of of their faces. When this vision came md The the "Open Soviet Road Union” his mouth, giving forth a hollow fingertips her miraculous, resilient to him he would mutter and turn in skin: he kissed her like fire, barely clucking sound; his lips quivered con- the bunk; gasp and sit up staring. touching, all over, bare and white. stantly. He shivered now and again; But it did not come very often, and THE OPEN ROAD fluttered. ‘The world out- He lay with her for countless times in ewsonst, Y his eyelids after a while it ceased to trouble bed, nights and days, enveloped com- NEW YORK side his mind was a void. He did not altogether. Only the pleasant vi- pletely. in her flesh when every slight answer. when Antonio spoke to him. contact was an electric agony, buried Julio sat huddled in his familiar Antonio tended the helpless cobbler, in her breasts, lost in her body. corner, open, unblinking, un- fed him, helped him to and from the Vision turned to ecstatie warmth, seeing, as he had been all night. An- slop-bucket, made him comfortable in flooding his being, so that he was ob- tonio could not expect any help from the bunk. He found in this work livious when they finally came to get him. ¢ from his forced idleness and its him; nodding, smiling gently, needing He turned his haggard dead-white attendant apprehension and thought, only a little help to get to his feet, face to Dallardo on the bunk and be- escape from Julio's ceaseless eyes at only a little leading to shuffle out the gan, slowly, rhythmically, to shake his back, his ‘constant silent_ presence door and in a straight line down the hhim, It still seemed necessary. some- in the corner. Sometimes Meta him hall, nodding and smiling, until finally ANNUAL DINNER how, a sort: of external compulsion, self tended Dallardo, becoming sud- his shuffle was blended in the echoes of the American League for Peace and to keep everyone sane and preserve denly galvanized into an inexplicable of footsteps of others, was gone, leav- Democracy at he Hotel Commodore in mblance of normalcy in the New York. Harry F.. Ws ard, Rockwell desire to help. He would watch for ing only Antonio and Julio from op- Kent and others will speak, $5.00. hours on end with his silent brooding Posite ends of the cell to look at each WEDNESDAY, MAY 17th sales mepaeeteed nay torent eves every flicker of the other's face, other. He could feel the rhythm in his every twitch of his moving, vaguely (To be continued) he shook the other. For whole Travel in... minutes he lost the sense of time, fo The little men ley, quite sill, on the bunk got to watch Dallardo’s reaction in SOUTH the comforting, billowing surge of mo: And for a long time there was ‘Then the little man AMERICA seemed suddenly about to come out of his stupor: his brow knit; his hands RIO de JANEIRO twitched. A look of terror seized his MONTEVIDE EO face; he twisted suddenly, convulsive- BUENOS AIR ES. ly, throwing off Antonio's ha nds, and WEST INDIES Ss then fell back in the bunk, feverishly. Gra ly he subsided again into his stupor MEXI co He never came out of it Round Trip Only 8, when Antonio finally realized it was MIAMI, because he didn’t want to, he ceased ‘Travel trying to make him. The world in which the cobbler now found himself WORLD TOURIS' TS, Inc. was far more pleasant. ‘There was 118 FIPTH TTel.t AVE., ALg. New C6666? York! N.Y. nothing left of Burgos Gaol, nor of any of the events leading up to it. At May 1939, THE FIGHT

\gs of modern science, widely spread by popular education, had given the lie for all time,

‘one would think, to the stupid slanders against the

Jews and other minority races. Econor on, as is well known, can be a fertile breeding-ground of racial intolerance. Be the book of the angels to the credit

Am Democracy little of th sort of thing through many long But that which cannot die within, attacked from without. ‘This is the plain truth of

the toadstool growth of race hatred with which we are confronted. Anti-Semitism in America is today a war implement manipulated by the Nazi ‘of Germany, through their agents the

American Bund and their trusty Fifth ist Father Coughlin. There are more ways. of killing a democracy than by choking it to death. The simplest and best method of combatting lunatic racial theories is education, the dissemination of the truth about races. We must ,, however—and quickly—that we are deal- ing not with mere ignorance, but with an organized. attempt to foment distur vide our people and destroy our national unity. ‘The beneficiary

Representatives Kee, Eaton, Bloom, Shanley and Burgin of the House Foreign Affairs Committee of all this may be reached at Rome-Berlin- ‘examine thousands of petitions protesting the sale of munitions to aggressors Tokyo. “Today Germany is ours—tomorrow the whole world.” ‘That would appear to include even

the U.S.A. The propagation of anti-Semi the United States today is an act of war or an act of treason. It should be dealt with as such.—C.P. A Resolute Policy Eyes on Spain | HE RECOGNITION of Franco by. the victory for Fascism would almost inevitably lead government of the United States a few HE PEOPLE want peace: the American | people do not cover under a mantle of mili- ablishment in South America of Fascist weeks ago came as a derable jolt. People tary glory war's naked horror. America does not s spearheads against the U.S.A. close to official circles were q ite as much sur- seek to escape internal difficulties by the conqu Tt would be criminal folly to wait for a military prised as those far away. Certainly there had. | of other nations. ‘The United States has no forti- threat agai continental United States been no time for the popular feeling of the country fied frontier, no near neighbors who are hostil before trying measures in defense. Why incur to make itself felt before recognition was an- | i this state of peace Americans intend to presery immeasurable casual when resolute nounced. But since it is done, we must turn against a threat which daily grows more ominous, measures short of war, if applied now, can avert around and see whether anything can be found in ‘Ten years ago our peace was secured by the danger? An embargo upon Fascist enemies to the recognition that will work for the good of the mum armament and by pacts and treaties. Today our peace, a factual distinction between victims people of Spain. Fascist aggression driving relentlessly at Man- and aggressors, not open to legal and diplomatic With the rec comes, of course, the Ethiopia, Spain, Czechoslovakia and quibbling, a bold use of the U.S. diplomatic and appointment of U consuls to all the churia, has shattered confidence in treaties, con- economic prestige would nsure our peace for a cities of Spain. Now in the past there has bee Albania assumption that a consul was a more or less glo ons and agreements guaranteed by promi generation. What risks would such a resolute, which Fascist powers have plainly shown they istic and honorable policy incur? ‘The hypo- fied clerk who existed mainly for the purpose of Fascist aggression work- critical friends of Fascism insist that such a course z stranded Americans back to their country break when co venient, might ai zer the Fascist powers into declaring war jewing passports when they had ex

ing furtively in South America and ey n in the U.S.A. has revealed the da er to our peace, Coneeivab to vent their spleen the Fascist But a new conception of the consular service ha Safeguards that, were adequate ten years ago, are aggressors might declare a war they would be grown up in recent years. Perhaps Hitler is

impotent to wage against us; but today any such responsible for it. At any rate he recognized that now inadéquate against Fascist a declaration of war would be an empty gesture German consuls were good agents for the propa- Events compel America to devise a new inda for his own peculiar type of government. to secure our former goal. Americans have not At present exte become more warlike, but they see the necessity of military threat gainst our shores, and an imme- We do not advocate that the consuls of the taking resolute measures against Fascist ageres- diate use of our economic power would forever United States should become propaganda agents sion. ‘The growing anger of the American people prevent the execution of their threats. for the democratic form of government. But the

United States must learn of what is going on Poll show~ Many Congressmen and S tors, though which is reflected in the recent, Gallup majority in favor of boycott of honestly committed to the cause of peace, are not Spain, and certainly the consuls ean be expected ing an increasing man goods, is more than moral indignation at yet clear as to the methods by which our peace can to keep their eyes open. We have always be Fascist brutality, arrogance and falsehood. It is e preserved. We urge you to write to Washing. strong believers in the efficacy of expressed

ton, on behalf of an anti- sgressor, pro-Democracy approval or disapproval of the actions of other the realistic anger of a people who see our peace foreign policy. —T.L.H. ies. ‘The people of America are most con- and security menaced. An adequate foreign policy capable of defe ed that no reprisals be carried out in the new American interests requires not merely defensive The Source of Anti-Semitism ment of Spain. But to express our dis- military strength, but a diplomatic strength able pleas ., or our pleasure, we must know what is to employ the economic power and prest ICANS who believe in racial and reli- happening With our consuls in Spain we should America in our behalf. Every action of lity, those fundamental tenets of owledge so that we can determine abroad increases the subversive Fascist ¢ look with abhorrence on the rise of already at work in this country, and an outright within our nation in recent months. it should be withdrawn.—D. McC. THE FIGHT, May 1939

THE WORLD FOR PEACE AND DEMOCRACY

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