The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-07-23
Toller, Freed, Has
Much to Write About
BY J. LOUIS ENoDAHL.

BY J. LOUIS ENODAHL.
TODAY Ernst ToIer cermanys dramatic genius is free
again after five years in Bavaran prison..
ToIers crime was being one Of the active leaders in
an attempt to establish the Bavaran Soviet Republic in
The cables tell US that ToIer appeared "paIe and
ciaed before Reichstag committee protesting against
the prison he and other workers had received
But the latest picture of Fritz Ebert the socialist president
of Germany shows him as fat and sleek
In fact Ebert has been the socialist president of Ger
many all the time that ToIIer has been in prison. And
Ebers scoademocrac (sociaIist party during most
of that re, the most powerful political power in the land
Toer brings back startling contrasts from his prison
experiences under the Ebert-sociaIist rule.
Long prison sentences were given to revolutionary
workers while the enemies of labor acquitted because
their political affiliations were more to the liking of the
judges"
Imprisoned workers were not allowed to visit their
dying mothers, in several and another not
allowed to attend the burial of his child One prisoner was
punished because revolutionary poem found among
his belongings, and another put in strait jacket be-
he had failed to give up copy of Communist paper
in his possession.
Butt
On the other hand, AdoIph Hitler the leader of the
HtIerLudendorff fascist attempt beer hall counter
revolution in Munich last autumn, and Count Arco, the
murderer of Kurt Esne the Bavarian workers PREMIER
received the best of treatment
Hitler allowed to receive visitors in prison. Count
Arco had almost unlimited freedom to leave the prison for
political reasons and to pursue his studies. The Bava
ian authorities prevented Reichstag committee from in
vestgatng Bavaran prison conditions and systematically
dsobeyed German prison laws, such they
sounds like review of American prison barbarism
when Toler adds that hygenic conditions bad, and
the prisoners kept in solitary confinement when
they fell ill., adding that comrade of his had died after
being refused medical treatment.
All this under the heel of socialist presidents rule.
With (socas) sociaI-democratc party welding BAL
of power.
There another story out of this socialist" Ger
many that would indicate where socialist syn1pathes
It the story of young apprentice painter work the
Berlin City Hall.
He saw picture of Wilhelm HohenzoIlern the late
Kaiser, surrounded with imperial pomp. It was sight he
did like swshed his BRUSH dipped in black paint
across the picture that Whems vsage vanished behind
murky smudge
Then along came an Infatuated city official who as he
behed the sight, began calling the painters apprentice
rather hard
The apprentice is reported to have replied, what
did was right That picture of Wilhelm does belong
these republican days."
# is said that this 50 enraged the mOnsrohst official
black you will. haven't any objection"
But, of course, that not necessary Ebert and his
fellow German socialists have painted themselves black
possibly be DONE All Of which the young painter
doubt
For painters usually apt to be thinkers Especially
young painters.
This young painter must have known for instance
that under Karl Severing the socademocatic (sooast
minister of the Interior the -zeitung the labor
batting mouhpece of the eactonares openly proclaimed
that the italian fascist dictator, Mussoni should
eveed in the murder of the socialist Matteot This
tolerated by the Socialist" democracy declared:
"MussoIin's attitude not heroic. He should have
taken the stand that Maeo enemy of the Fascsta
State of Italy. There to regret the
end of this sociaI-democrat (Matteott)."
nonarchist sheet published that under the socialist"
regime of Fritz Ebert, president OF Germany.
And in the same hours the Communist daily in Berlin,
the Rote Fahne Red Flag) ordered suppressed for
weeks because urged revolutionary action Of
the workers.
Ernst ToIer should surely find much material for his
dramatic genius in the transition period thru which Ger
many is now passing-From Capitalism to Communism.
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