OCR Interpretation


The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, January 14, 1920, Image 4

Image and text provided by Ohio History Connection, Columbus, OH

Persistent link: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88078683/1920-01-14/ed-1/seq-4/

What is OCR?


Thumbnail for

4-
UNLIVED LIVES.
By THOMAS MUFSON
I saw her in the subway, sitting opposite to me in a fairly well filled car.
She was reading a paper-covered book and was, apparently, utterly oblivions
of her aurrounding3.
She attracted considerable attention because of the strinking incongruity
between her general appearance and the type of book she was reading.
She seemed to be a woman of about 40 years of age. She wore a heavy
looking, black plush sailor hat, a large, shabby black jacket with extra
ordinarily large buttons, the top one of which was missing, leaving her coat
partly Open; a dark skirt, which matched her coat in shabbiness, and shoes
which once were black. In one hand she held her book, in which she was in
tensely absorbed. In the other hand, which rested on her lap, she tightly
clutched a not very clean handkerchief.
The name of the book that she was reading, which glared out at us in
large red letters, was "Tempted by Love."
The girl sitting next to her looked at the woman, then at the name of
the book, and smiled. A man opposite glanced at the woman and the smiling
girl, and both made evident efforts to keep from laughing outright. Everybody
was smiling. Mirth pervaded the atmosphere.
She paid no heed to the pleasantly diverting commotion she was causing,
this shabby looking woman of 40, engrossed in her novel, "Tempted by Love."
One could see on her face, rather long and pallid and masklike in its utter un
responsiveness to the surrounding agitation, that, mentally, she did not sit
Ik a crowded subway car on her way home from a day's dull work. It was
Manifest that, for the time being, she was in another world, a world of
youth, of leisure and of love. She was enjoying the shadows of emotions and
passions which life, evidently, had not given her to enjoy in the substance. In
the thrilling ages of "Tempted by Love" she was vicariously living her un
Mved life.
I worked alongside of him in a large printing establishment. We were
press feeders. All day long we stood in front of our rattling presses. All day
the black jaws of the devouring machines opend and shut, opened and shut,
and as they yawned open our hand shot in with paper food, and as they closed
the band came out empty, and then went in again, and out again, feeding the
iron beast all day long, while the belts whirred and the machines clattered and
the hours dragged on their heavy way.
The incessant noise penetrated the brain and made it numb. Hands bp
tame black with the black saliva of the ever-hungry presses. Minds and
bodies sagged with the monotony of identically similar mechanical motions,
repeated over and over again. The voracious iron monsters seemed bent upon
crunching between their metalic jaws the suft human hands which flitted in
and out, ministering to their insatiable appetite.
He said hardly a word, my compaion who worked on the press next to
mine. He attended to his work with a dull, dead steadiness, paying no heed to
all that went on about him. Occassionally, however, I saw him cast an in-
The Trend of
the Race.
How strange
strive,
it is that those who
"Look at my hair," he once said to me. jj observed his massive head,
thinly covered with weak looking, prickly, closely cropped hair.
"Can you believe," he asked "that when I as a child golden curls used
to hang down my shoulders? See what has become of me. Some day, when 1 1 And try to join one's friendly host;
look into the glass and think of those curls, Iil go mad. ' Will wear smiles their Maker gave,
f' and
,,,,,. . k' . . , . ., . Desert us when we need them most.
She is a working girl. .All the hours of fce day she works busily m a friend8hip fa world of mn
shop. She has been doing tnai since ner wunwi yr. one is noi vigorous go 8eidom stands Time's truest test;
physically, so that the day's labor tires her out. It is the night that she is
looking forward to the night, when the life of her mind and spirit begins.
She has an irresponsible craving for education, for knowledge, for
music, for literature, for art. Her soul's passion glows in her eyes. A deep
melancholy of her harrowed spirit, the sad pessimism of her unattainable de
sires. Her Socialism is the Socialism of a sensitive soul which dreams of a
better world, a world of freedom and of full-orbed life, and she spends devoted
hours working for the cause. She flocks to radical schools. She takes numerous
courses to be able more adequately to express the things that are knocking
at her soul; to be able more fully to grasp the significance and sense the
beauty of the great masterpieces of art. She eagerly attends classes in so
ciology, inphilosophy and in science, worsniping at ine ieet oi admired in
tellect. She goes to the theater when a cheAhed play is to be seen. She is
II and the Metropolitan Opera
in the fairy land of music and
Spies
found in the topmost gallery of Carnegie
House to have her spirit unfold, for a momei
of dreams.
But those tastes of life's beauty, her
pansion
But like the beauty of the flow'rs,
A thing of moments, at its best.
The White Race in it's false pride
state,
Beset with Greed and Greed's Desire ;
Still wears the false mask in an age,
And casts plain Justice in the mire.
The feet of millions trod about
A world beset in Greed and Sin;
And under it's false mask we find,
Humanity's veneer is thin.
r
There's many a flow'r that's with'ring
n the slums by poverty fed;
?here many weary feet press on,
Without a ray of hope ahead,
And those on
smiles,
whom fair fortune
ing periods of the soul's ex-
are hurried, feverish and disturbed; precarious snatchings, stolen
from the precious hours of sleep, for the night is short and the long day soon Know not the heartaches they endure.
sounds its inescapable call of the factory, wWle the eyes are heavy for thel, . ,. ...
, , , A . ., ..... This old world for so many years,
sleep that has been denied them, and the bodj weary for the rest of which it Ha& been steadily gUpping back
has been deprived. However, for two whole peks she casts from her soul all individuals, sometimes,
the burdens that oppress it and goes off fff her "vacation". There she at- It too, gets on the downward track,
tempts to concentrate 12 months ful-orbed life in a fortnight. She succeeds When Ideals are but passing thoughts,
only in casting upon the rest of the year a fcrker shadow of depression and And Greed becomes the Races' curse;
... ii. ix. j hi How can this old world better grow
restlessness and discontent. The years fly with them youth and youth's , w. . , .
strength and buoyant hope. As dreams recede and ambitions disintegrate,
' more vigorous natures grow embittered aai cynical; her spirit withdraws
more and more into its inner being and consumes itself.
The narrow, twisted and broken paths of unlived lives criss-cross and
zig-zag across the face of this amazingly mismanaged world. Vast is the
countless host of those who have manif estetl' died before their time through
the occassional casualties of war or the unremitting casualties of peace, by
industrial disease or industrial accident. Bit aster still and as lamentable
is the innumerable multitude of those who death is not apparent to the
physical senses, of those who died mentally dnd spiritually before they ever
lived. Between these two armies of the quiet dead, restlessly grope they who
voluntary glance of hatred at our sleek wellfed foreman, the "driver," as ever feel the proddings and the stirrings of eiger, craving life's forces, whose
touch, only to recede, who have
he tree of knowledge by which
he beauty of the diviner fruits
e far beyond the reach ef their
the men called him, meaning the slave driver.
I finally struck up a talking acquaintance with my moody fellow press
man. Soon we were quite friendly, and I was enabled to get vivid glimpses
iato his inner life.
I got to know that he was an anarchist. He was, however, the type of
.irhiaf who twnmM anph not through philosophy or through sympathy
with human suffering, but through personal bitterness. For the whole time
daring which we worked together I do not recollect having seen hin laugh
once. His whole personality seemed impregnated with gall and wormwood. He
was fdled with a malignant hatred for God (or, rather, the idea of God), for
society, for all of life. He was widely and deeply read, with a keen intellect
and a spiritual makeup that, I inferred, might have been once responsive
to the best and highest in human existence. But the rancor which corroded his
soul had coarsened a nature which had once been deeply sensitive. Heine
seemed his favorite author, and he interspersed in his talk most biting quota
tions from that poet On one occasion, in a communicative mood, he flashed
Us whole life before me in a few sentences.
"I have never lived," he said to me. "I have been denied everything my
spirit ever craved. I never had youth. Can you realize what that means? I
stepped from childhood into middle age. In between was a stretch of struggle
thirsting lips the tantalizing waters of life
been permitted but to taste of the fruit of
the eyes of their soul have been opened to
hanging upon the tree of life, but which dan
shackled limbs.
We live in a world of unlived lives.
class, of the millions who reach manhcx
f many children of the working
oman W, revive f Be BflflrW
Wrote Platform.
(Continued from page 1)
home and against new experiments in government abroad,
the American people ought to be informed of it imme
diately." Welcomed Chance to Testify.
Nuorteva's statement follows:
"We have been informed that Mr. Gregory Weinstein,
of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau, has been ar
rested and held for deportation, and that similar action is
threatened against Mr. Martens and other members of hia
staff as a last desperate effort to prevent the truth about
the Russian situation, and about the real foreign policies
of the Russian Soviet government, from being placed be
fore the people of America.
"We welcomed the opportunity the propsed hearings
before the Senate Committee would give us to state these
a world in Greed hears not the voice j f acts anfj to refute tne hysterical lies which are being
apreau auoui our government anu auoui tne nussian oo
viet Bureau in New York.
"Soviet Russia, victorious over her internal enemies,
has no desire to interfere with the internal affairs of other
countries. It was, and it still is, our hope that now that the
futility oi intervention in and of the blockade of Russia
has been proven with such diastrous results to ouroppon
ents we would be allowed to live in peace with other
countries.
Attempt to Prevent Peace.
liberate attempt to prevent the impending peace and un
"I regard the mean persecution of our bureau and the
frantic man-hunt of all friends of Soviet Russia as a de
derstanding with our country and to prevent a fair hear
ing before the Senate committee.
"I feel confident that the large masses of the Amer
ican people, in spite of the manufactured prejudice against
us, will now, at least understand that there are forces at
work who are afraid of getting the truth about Russia be
fore the American people.
"The Senate hearing would also have have opened
wide-if we were permitted to testify-the Augean stables
of the work of Russian reactionaries in this (Country, whoj
J When man's desires are growing
worse ?
-FOHN V. DAGANHARDT,
Piqua, Ohio.
IQ
I.W. W. Demands
(Continued from 1st page.)
ers now lie in jail charged with mur-
er and about to be tried.
"Fifth Those who held sway in
entralia showed their love for justice
y seizing the I. W. W. attorney and
hrowing him into jail also, in order
that the I. W. W. might have no de-
ender and that these crimes might
be covered up. And when Attorney
Ralph Pierce was sent from Seattle to
defend our boys he was escorted back
to the train and driven out of Cen-
ralia .
"SixthWorking hand-in-hand with
with Jihfi nntil-nninn flfwnts through:.1
ut the state, hoodlums have made this jhave squandered on abonimable plots and intrigues tens
uiwav. (UG VMlL, wre blOIIlil.K. IUC CUUVailOll HID ItXlCttLlUll LILUL IIUISH LU III H. HIT- - ! j. j . M .
ity the latent powers which slumber in the heart and mind of every child? j8m all over Washington The result mim"0nS of money lent by the American government to
What andobted glimpses of precious, natural gifts in the children of the is that liberty lies broken and ravished Russia.
workers awaken trembling hop in the heart of the parent, to end only in throughout the lumber country, and j "ft geems tn6re are many people besi(je Mr Borig
forced leglect and ginal athrophy?
"But knowledge to their eyes her ample page,
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll:
Chill Penury repressed (heir noble rage,
And froze the genial current of their soul."
How many men and women feel that they have lived the full physical. tude more a red KTo1 o horror
dflmnrrarv ha hn rnnlnood hv tha
r "J - -r . i l i iv. l ' it .ii v
rule of the mob and the eunman. i JBaKnmeuev ana nis crowa wno wouia not iiKe to nave
1 these matters made miblic.
Lumber Trust Behind Terror.
"These few facts we do know. And(
we know that behind them lie a multi- D. Of J. men as Authors.
mental and spiritual life which they were capable of living? How many can
which is filled with the names of our
nightmare to me. I awoke from my nightmare to find my youth, with all
its possibilities, no longer before me gone. Can you know what that means ?
"When I think of what my life could have been, and what it was and is,"
he said, while a brooding light burned in his brown eyes.
There were times when the light in his eyes was not that of a sane man.
I was convinced that he was not entirely sane.
"There also appears to be another reason tor the desire
to deport us. We have conclusive evidence that agents of the
Department of Justice have actively participated in the or
ganization of the Communist party of America and that
fdMnuf.WArUoro Riff a lirm 4-1! i
s?y that they have received that complete and harmonious development, that tuted vnaB has concealed it all and
ample and abundant nourishment by bread and books and schooling, by peace has to kindle mob passion all over the i
with poverty, illness, loneliness and ever broken hopes. That period, youth of mind and leisure, by the joys of social life and comradeship and love, by country by wild, screaming lies.
. itVio n.nin Ko.i-. . - J iL I :-t i. i . . , ...... "Thl I W W Irnnura th K.nJ h.4
(be period when life is to be most beautiful ana most joyous-was an ugiy " P-sassraumng oeauty oi an wnicn - f. nianIra iUa nrnvawn nf norr xvUioU nAW
by a the laws of imnartial nntum nrf hx, tfc. AM. nt nnnmA ;... a """"K us in me iNortnwest. we, """ i"""" " k v
are the due inheritance of all? know who fa the power that can c,0Be form the basis of the persecution of thousands of people,
m us the pages of the nation's press. , . j . ... i
ine superman ana tne superwoman of our soaring imagination are but We know the secret evil force which nave oeen araiiea i""! Uisenea UllO mat program uy BUCn
the man and the woman at our side disinherited long before birth; the is risking even civil war in order to government agents.
. ! 1 - J J K m i m . . J a i I ii r i 1 m . I
cnpP,ea cu.mmation oi tne .ins of a mismiged world, the stunted product ' " ine """T I "We also are prepared to show before the Sente Com- I
of generations of unlived lives U our old enemy, the lumber trust, i r ,
"We make this charge. And we put miuee mat some otner radical activities, tne instigation oi j
The Black Sheep.
(Continued from page 2.)
by cunning. They deified Christ. They
changed him from a saviour of labor
to a God of Rome. Thus the masters
entered the brotherhood and changed
their membership from honest handi
craft into an army of fanatics, camp
aigning for the supremacy of the
Roman aristocrats.
"Christ or who ever it was that led
tiie maaacs at the time of Caesar Au
gustus found that Rome claimed pos
session of the entire earth. Thus in
to get it by his favorite method of
brutality and force. Cunning is an
other lupine characteristic.
"When ever I hear their damned
bells ringing, the whole history of
their perfidity flashes thru my brain
an I feel, as tho it is my duty to wipe
them off the earth."
Th e little speech was made by Ed
Coiuiis to his solitary auditor in his
cell and for the benefit of Rudolph
accross the way. When he had con
eluded, Jack remarked that he did not
need to get exited over it, seeing that
these ancient unions were not product-
s
ancient times. People imagine they
are free because they are told so on
the fourth of July. But we have an
advantage that our ancestors lacked.
We have the printing press. We can
reach the slaves with a message that
win put tnmgs oefore them in a new
light. We will teach them what we
conceive true liberty to be, and when
they once see it, then it is good by
Masters."
"According to your idea all that is
HOW TO MAKE A SUCCESS IN
LIFE.
(With acknowledgment but no apolo
gy to the American Magazine.)
t up to you, the American Congres. which has been charged to Russians, in reality were man
Yours is the duty to uphold the Con-1 jj.-ii , . .
titution of this country. Out in I asu anu inspired Dy secret service agents.
Washington it has been trampled un
er murderous feet. Will you join with
he newspapers and whitewash them?
TWr Editor
mparuai inquiry la Demanded
Until a couple of years ago I was1 "We of the I. W. W. demand that
a lazy girl and I used to get tired in he government make a sweeping, im
the canning plant after working ten artial inquiry into the Centralis case,
or eltven hours a day. Then one night We demand that it send investigators
saying workers of Rome you must ive of true liberty but nthn of
love one another, he simply ante-dated delusion.
nan marx, wno saia -workers oi tne ym Hg j, M They were given
World Unite". But Rome, Jealous of what they were wag liberty,
the power of her proletariat, said to It made them happy It gave thtm
the workers, "We too have seen the hope They had a goa, to Bteer
iignt. ixime ana let us won-mp your that made life worth 1Wn It built
Lord together. We shall give you the up civilization and laid the foundation
temples and the priests of the gods of for jater development. What if it was
Rome, and raise your religion out the a delussion inculcated in their brain
narrow confines of the brotherhoods for the benefits of their Masters? The
and make it the imperial creed of the Masters destroyed them, but hav
empire, wholly spiritual unspotted of warned us with their example. The
the world." cm conscioun worker will not trust
"The slsves fell for it. The masters the words of the masters again."
entered the union. They said 'the "Are we free now " Jack asked.
Nazerine has conquered,' In reality ' "Looks like it. Now, does'nt it."
they had conquered the ftaterlne. Collins replied as he kicked against
They turned the -ductive laborer , the cell door.
Into a religious fsnat:, and Civiliza
tion lay dead for a millenium.
"The arstocrat did not create the
church, he is incspable of creating
any-thing but hell. He stole it, as he
"We can prove that the chief figures in certain
celebrated bomb-plots were agents of a similar nature.
"In other words, some officials have been establishing
that sinister institution which is known in Europe as the
system of "agent provocateur."
"We are ready to bring out all facts concerning this
.1. ii m m m m sae M. w a
i saw vour murazinn with ah thnP here to sift out th monnnaihiiitv i cnarcfe, trie 8rravitv oi which l lullv recomuze. it is clear
JbliJZl BUCceL 0M tbout . "You mu,t he verament'h that some officials implicated in this matter are only too
want them to know is a suffeciently gtenographer who studied manicuring been put into contempt in Centralis xi? jsisxl.
mrK printing p.ant. reaoives iiseu at nfcht and geU to be the wife of a Already one innocent man there has
to a battle of printing presses. If . rsilrsjod president opened my eyes died a ghastly death. And 11 others
that is so, then what becomes of your .nd me l coM are to be tried for their lives. The
theory of machine developments and too oodlums are attempting to provoke
w. i worioi marKeta as i a nlght portion as a rubber he union men into revolt. Will
lactors in tne downfall of capitalism, l in a (Turkish bath, and on Sundays, overnment stand idle?
anxious to prevent us from disclosing these facts.
the
and the liberation of the proletariat,"
Jack asked smilingly
"Remember," Collins cautioned, "the
after ii delivered papers for the news
company I stood outside a cigar store
the (est of the day and asked the
Our Own Hands Are Clean."
'Our own hands are clean. It is not
"My Country, tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing.
Droned Rudolph from the opposite
cell.
has svery-thing he calls his owr. He, "I will tell you, that Uv brains of,01 ,w intelligence.
stole it from the ancient freedman by mankind are still under the same del-j '
canning and knavery, when he fallod ussions thst blinded the people of (Continued next week)
Not Anxious to Stay in U. S.
"Neither Mr. Martens nor I are opposed to going back
to Russia. In fact, it has been our fondest wish to go there
and to participate in the splendid work of Russia's social
. . . .
down faii of capitalism does not neces- gmiimm for their coupons when we who have censored the "truth, in reorganization. We have been staying here as a matter of I
sariiy mean the liberation of the pro-j they came out. The first six months 4 years of existence the L W. W. has duty, Ul the hope it WOUld be possible to dispel existing pre
letariat, it may mean the establish- j enough to bny cod liver oil ever needed to conceal anything. We iHi anA fn af oKliol, mIIaU. .l;a k
ment of an industrial oligarchy thatj ad ipM1 tonic to last for the winter don't need to now. We know our mem- i. . J
will ruthlessly tear away the last and Jollectod enough cupons to get bers and we know that they are in- United States and Soviet Russia.
" . "r TT :r"l ' l "d bi Pcilit- -nd in "I am sure that wW r&m will h establish
uujai u" lu nsea ,na norriDie this Second year I have worked so "Innocent men may be railroad!.1. .. - " ' 7 Y. 1
slavery . Remember that with modern hard end done so wall (I was usher in Clean, stranghtforward American men 111 8Plle 0f ftU tne ""antlC efforts 01 reactionaries tO CU-!
S.tL- wiS,p0mln llrZi' mot on 1 "omm mhy u the victims of ,oal credit the PeoPle of sia. The people of America in gen-
munication, with modern improved now w may cartare to the consump- mobs. Under the darkness of censor- l 4. . Iu . . r f . 1 (V-
methods of spying s tyranny may be, tion eanltorlum. ship any crime may be perpetrated neFal 8re t0 8enslble to Support SUCh policies 88 have been
established more hideous in its aspect 1 M kaDDy ad i hone I will We demand that von lift th. v.n mirsued hv Romp nffiVinla V.oro in roontr to Rnviftt Rliasift.
and mnrn nnmnhlo In ita rinaaniinnna .t . it - 1
" "ST wm your pni, oecaute iney ten me me government investigate; then the
than any the world has yet known, that II will have to nav tho rnllrnnH in trilth will ha lftirti'n. fi..il 11m ...ill
. . ....... I -1 ' " "" " 4ILI HI Will
Capitalism will indeed fall of its own
rotteness. Labor must rise by virtue
advance to send my body bsck home.
V a
iuuii lor oucceia,
1
JENNIE NULL.
(Prom "Success Story Contest" In
Good Morning.)
know who is guilty I"
Why not try the same stunt in your
iocsl? Emulate the example of
Locals Niles snd Tiffin.
"I shall take the liberty of reminding our persecutofi
of the words of one of their own national heroes: Tou can
fool some of the people all of the time; you can fool all ofj
the peonle all of the time, but you can't fool all of thtfj
people all of the time."
v r sUlWn J a. w r'fll

xml | txt