The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-07-05

Karl Marx.
an order to unite, understand
each other"
Emancipanta Stelo.
l.
The Language Obstacle In Our Move
ment.
XKIITHOUT doubt the language con-
NV fusion is a great obstacle in the
international correspondence between
labor organizations, but in no country
is this obstacle felt in such a degree
in the daily work of the party as in
America. Consequently the question
how to satisfactorily solve this prob
lem is one of the most important con-
fronting our party.
We here in America are so used to
this language confusion, that we hard
ly realize what an enormous amount
of energy is used every day for mere
ly going around the language diff
culties, energy which, if released,
could be employed in direct party
work. A satisfactory solution of this
problem, therefore, means saving of
an unimaginable amount of energy in
form of time, money and better under
standing.
We realize easily this language
obstacle in the international cores
pondence between parties and other
organizations; in the int. congresses,
where now three or four languages are
being used officially, translations to be
10 NJ oil
tons and minutes; in the spreading
of propaganda by books and pam
phlets to be translated into the Ian
guages of all civilized peoples.
Here in this country we feel this
language obstacle in our daily life.
Our conversations with the fellow
workers in the shop are made diff
ficult; our organizations, for instance
our party, must have a peculiar and
clumsy form, consisting of language
declarations and language branches;
the cooperation in our City Central
Committees and District Committees
is difficult and unsatisfactory, because
in these bodies English must be used as
an auxiliary language tho the majority
of our membership consists of foreign
comrades, of whom very few are COM
petent in this language; we must
spend lot of money and time in sup
porting newspapers and publishing
pamphlets in every language.
In spite of all this energy that is
spent lot of misunderstanding oc-
cur. Being myself foreigner and be-
sides student of this problem | can
give many an example of this, for in
stance how d. o. must take the floor
several times and with great trouble
explain some party affairs to those
delegates, who are not able to i'm
mediately grasp the meaning.
This energy is lost energy, and the
more of it that we can save, the more
effective will our organization grow.
The language obstacle was great
enough in the S. p and is still greater
in our party. In the S. P. it
could be enough that one mem
Der of the branch was competent
and could serve as delegate to
the County Committee or as secre-
tary, but in our party all or most of
the officers and delegates must be able
to take part in meetings where Eng
fish is used as an auxiliary language.
The secretary who receives commune
cations, Endorsed organizers who must
attend organizers meetings, delegates
to the F. S. R., defense councils, etc.
At time the party instructed the
branches to order also their foreign
literature thru the districts. This
instruction was soon repealed, but if
it had been kept in effect, also every
branch literature agent must have
been able to write English well enough
to order books from the district.
The tendency Of the party is to
more and more make the foreign
language declarations only propaganda
and translation bureaus, not organiza-
tional parts of the party This is quite