The daily worker. [volume], April 05, 1924, Magazine Supplement, Image 6

About The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
A COMRADE - - - -
LENIN is dead. Never more will
we see this powerful forehead,
this marvelous head radiating revolu
tionary power; these gleaming, pene
trating, attentive eyes; these ener
getic and vigorous hands; never more
will we see this human statue molded
out of one block on the frontier of
two epochs of human evolution.
The peak of thought, of feeling,
of the will of the proletariat has
collapsed. His energy flowed up in
invisible currents -to wherever l the
heart of workers beat, to where the
conscience of a powerful class Is
formed, to where the weapon of the
battle of liberation is being forged.
Across the centuries Lc#;in ha# been
and will remain unique, without
equal.
Lenin —The Lender.
Comrade Lenin was above all •
leader, a leader whom nature gives
to humanity but once in a century.
His is of those who give their name
to their epoch. He was one of the
greatest organizers of the masses;
like a giant, he advanced at the head
of a human wave, organizing the
innumerable human units into an
army of disciplined work, crushing
the adversary; he dominated the ele
ments in throwing the light of his
powerful mind upon the straight
roads as well as upon the obscure
alleys where resounds the rhythmic
step of workers’ columns following
the red standards of revolt.
What is it that made of Lenin so
inspired an expression of millions of
beings?
It was above all his extraordinary
understanding of the needs of the
masses; he possessed a myterious
sense which enabled him to perceive
in the masses the movements, the
thoughts which were most imper
ceptible to all others.
No one could listen as he. He lis
tened with patience and attention to
an old soldier, a peasant from some
far away place, a worker.
It was enough for him to exchange
some words: with a humble peasant
woman to determine the pulse-beats
of the life of the country places; one
word caught from a worker during
a meeting was enough for him to
feel the road taken by workers’
thought. He disentangled the com
plexity of social relations, and before
the eyes there arose the picture of
the life of millions of beings.
Simplicity in Bearing.
Lenin had a singular talent for
talking with people; he got so inti
mately near them that they confided
to him all their doubts, their de
sires, their questions.
For every one Lenin found a
simple language. Hating the ene
mies of the working class with all
the force of his mighty soul, break
ing with them brutally, definitely,
categorically, Lenin knew how to
convince; he dissipated all the doubts
The Italian Elections Under Fascism
By GIOVANNI GIGLIO.
THE ITALIAN electoral campaign
is in full swing. But the opposition
parties have not been able to hold a
single meeting as yet, not only be
cause of the fact that open air meet
ing are, as a rule, never allowed by
the police, but also because the fascist
volence makes it impossible for the
candidates of the opposition parties
to return to their constituencies,
from which they have been driven or
compelled to escape. Here are two
or three examples:
Signor Salvatore di Fausto, ex-
M. P. and a prominent member of
the Partito Popolare, sends to his
Vicovaro constituency, a small
town within the Rome province, his
private secretary with instructions
to do some canvass work. At the
small railway station of the con
stituency the private secretary is
soon noticed on his arrival by three
fascisti and followed at a close dis
tance on his track. The secretary
gets aware that he i s being closely
followed by the three fascisti and
therefore tries to elude their pursuit
by entering swiftly into a church.
But the three fascisti notice his
move and follow him tnpado the
church. Perceiving the impossibil
ity of getting rid of his spies, the
secretary very wisely, as you will
■ee, tries to approach them.
of those men who did the militant
work. It is for this reason that
Lenin possessed a marvelous attrac
tion; he charmed people; they came
to him (not as to a chief, but as to
the best friend and comrade, the
most experienced, the wisest; and he
bound all these peopld'to himself by
means of a cement which no force
could have loosened.
Never more will there be found in
history a leader so much loved by
those near him. Everyone had a spe
cial feeling for Lenin. It was not
for his vigorous: intelligence and for
his iron fist that he was loved. No,
he was simply loved. He bound
people to himself by intimate bonds.
He waa a comrade in the real sense
of the word, this great word to
which the future belongs. Such will
be in the future the relations be
tween people.
The greatest simplicity was the
essential trait of his policy; it was
not the simplicity of naive people;
it was the simplicity of genius. He
found simple words, clear slogans,
easy solution of the most compli
cated problem. Nothing was more
foreign to him that sinuosity, pose,
sophism; he hated all that. He ridi-
Vladimir Ilyitch Ulianov—Nicolai Lenin
By MAX BARTHEL (Berlin).
In the workers’ quarters of Prague and Berlin,
London, Paris and Copenhagen
A clanging hammer struck crashing:
“Lenin is dead, Comrade Lenin!”
An outcry from the cities of Moscow and Vienna,
Bombay and Cape Town with frantic heart,
A wailing arises from depths of grief:
“Lenin is dead, Comrade Lenin!”
Odessa bends in sorrow to Moscow:
“There lies pur father at our feet,
He whom earth’s disinherited greet,
Leader of the poor, Comrade Lenin!”
Paris is ifi tears, Vienna wails,
Rome and Athens are struck down.
The other cities come and ask:
“Comrades, what is it?’’—“Lenin died, Lenin!”
Chinese coolies, despised, spat upon,
The yellow stokers of pitching ships,
They shudder and imagine dreadful cracks:
“Lenin is dead, Comrade Lenin!”
And all the slaves of the colonies,
Negroes, Mulattos, and slender Malays,
Arise like lightning and say and cry:
“Lenin is dead, Comrade Lenin!”
t
Then silent are the cities of Moscow and Berlin,
Rome, Prague and London devoured with bitterness—
Hereupon a voice speaks clearly thru sorrow:
“Lenin is dead? Lpng live Lenin!”
So, with the most fascinating
smile on his lips, he ventures to ask
he three “gentlemen” to be so kind
>s to tell him what they wanted.
“Your d d skin,” answered in a
wild chorus ihe three ‘‘gentlemen.”
The secretary was shocked. Then,
me of the fascisti continued: “We
know that you are the secretary of
Mr. So and So and we also know the
iurpose of your coming here. Now,
he best you can •do is to follow us
ack to the railway station.” The
•secretary attempted to rorke a timid
protest, but he soon repented for
Having made the attempt.
When he, in company of his three
guides, reached the railway station,
the fascisti requested him to tele
phone his candidate in Rome. And
he was compelled to warn by phone
his candidate not to think any more
of his constituency. Three days
later the candidates went to his con
stituency and under the protection
of strong police forces was able to
hold a meeting. But the day after
the meeting the fascisti had their
terrible revenge, by murdering three
of the candidate’s friends in the
constituency.
Here Is Another Example.
The province of Bari gave, in the
last election (1921), heaps of votes
to the socialist ticket. A few days
ago, Signor Vella, a socialist M. P.
for Bari, tried to get in touch with
culed this cursed heritage of the old
order.
Enemy of Sterile Verbiage.
He knew the value of action and
was the most implacable enefny ol
all sterile verbiage, and at the same
time he guided his Party in a mas
terly way and he swept along all
the workers. He was a dictator in the
best sense of the wora: Absorbing
all the asps of life, he made the ex
periment with thousands of men in
his marvelous spiritual laboratory
and directed with his audacious hand
as a powerful chief.
He never adapted himself to the
backward ones; he never passively
noted down events; he knew to
march against the current with his
whole aroused ardor; 'to ought a
chief to be.
Comrade Lenin has left us; he
has gone away forever. Let us dedi
cate all our forces to his heir, our
Party. May this Party be animated
by his spirit, his will, his illimitable
daring, his devotion to the working
class.
Let us all know how to listen to
the mass as did Lenin, our common
chief, our great master, our immortal
comrade.
his constituency and, as the local
branch of the fascist party had
warned him beforelrand “not to show
his face in the streets of Bari,” be
fore leaving Rome for Bari, he
wanted to make sure that the gov
ernment would protect him. The
government let him know that in
structions had been given providing
for his personal security at Bari.
But when Signor Vella reached Bari
he was received by such a hostile
demonstration from the fascisti that
he deemed it prudent to take shelter
inside the. perfect’s house.
The prefect received him very
kindly, but seemed helpless. “How,”
exclaimed the socialist candidate, “I
was given the assurance by the gov
ernment that I would be enabled to
make my electoral campaign here,
and you do nothing to prevent the
fascisti from organizing their at
tacks upon me ” “Sir, answered the
prefect, “you are quite right, but
you see that I am helpless. These
devils * * * you know * * * and 1
• * * am helpless. Take my
friendly advice; go back to Rome,
and I’ll see that you get safe back
to the railway station.” And the
socialist candidate had to take the
prefect’s friendly advice and accept
also the offer of a strong police
escort on his way back to the
station.
By N. BUCHARIN
AS WE SEE rr
By T. J. O’FLAHERTY.
It would be interesting to read the
reports in the Moscow papers of the
manner in which election campaigns
are waged in Cicero, Illinois. They
may say, “Well what can you expect
in a capitalist country where the only
incentive in public life is not service
to the community as in our Soviet
Republic but the accumulation of
wealth, and as the shortest road to
wealth is via the graft route, why
graft is the rule and not the excep
tion. When graft begins to thin out
the grafters begin to shoot.” That is
about the size of it.
* • * *
Oswald Mosely, M. P. son-in-law of
Lord Curzon has joined the Indepen
dent Labor Party of Great Britain.
Mosely married Lady Cynthia Cur
zon, Lord Curzon’s daughter in 1920.
His wife is a generous contributor
to the Labor Party’s campaign funds.
There is a wild rush on the part of the
nobility for membership in the Inde
pendent Labor Party. The society
columns of the London papers are
filled with stories of dinners and af
ternoon teas at which the King and
Queen rub shoulders with trade union
leaders and “intellectual” members
of MacDonald’s cabinet. This state
of affairs is not universally popular.
* * * *
Thomas Johnston, editor of the
Glasgow “Forward” comments with
his customary on this ten
dency to kiss the royal foot that is
still massaging the neck of the Bri
tish working class. Tom Griffith is
Labor Treasurer of the Royal House
hold. Says Johnston, “Tommy, it
seems had a great time with the King.
‘lf you had slien us there, chatting in
formally with the King, you would
have thought this sort of thing had
gone on for centuries. A more de
lightful half-hour I have never spent.
The King gripped my hand.’ ”
* * * *
“Note it wasn’t his throat or his
ankle that was gripped, just his hand,
the hand of an honest son of toil—
but more, there, was a feeling of con
straint. He obviously looked on us
as friends.” “Not as snobs, but as
friends. Chums in fact.” “Oh,
brothers,” moans Johnston, who is an
M. P. himself, “give us air and loosen
our collars; for we are like to choke!
It may be that certain ceremonials
have to be undertaken; but surely
there is no excuse for those public
exhibitions of snobbery!” No doubt
Jim Oneal will make a vicious attack
on Thomas Johnston for his undigni
fied criticism of His Majesty’s Labor
Socialist (yellow) Government.
Fascist Intimidation.
In the face of this kind about
one hundred of the late M. P.s have
informed their constituencies that
they perfer to retire of their own
will, and it is expected that the op
position parties may at the eleventh
hour abandon completely the arena.
They are already wondering what is
the use of participating in the elec
tion when it is already known be
forehand what the result of the
election is going to De. The fact is
that Mussolini has already ensured
for the morrow a meek and obedient
parliament. He is already sure that
he will have 356 faithful followers
in the future “.Camera dei Deputati”
out of a total of 535 M. P.s.
The result of this election-will be
to throw the crowds of laborers and
farmers outside parliamentary life
and deprive them, as a matter of
fact, of the universal suffrage. In
fact, for them it is almost impos
sible even the total concuest of the
places officially reserved by the elec-,
toral law to the minority. If to this
is added the preoccupation of the
fascist electoral methods, one will
get a clear insight of the meaning
of this election which is aiming at
vanishing with lawfulness and
democracy an oligarchical regime
resting on a daily and systematic
violence. (Election, Sunday, April 6.)