The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-12-19
THIRTEEN
(CopyigItt 1926 By international Publishers
Co., IRc)

selves IN. everything. IucJ jump Inv 'iA'A
tiny imps over Vanka's joys, and they crouch sll-
emily beside his sorrows. And Vanka hlmsell,
tiny weak resembling callow kitten, seems TO
be the victim of his 49, 1t is not he who scurrles
iovfuIlv thru all the departments, squeals, ana
shakes hands with everyone he meets when a
Communist from the factory is elected to the
Moscow Soviet, and it is not he who whistles
frenziedIy and shouts Down. when some men
sbeyik attempts to bambOOZe his comrades
It's the Is that do all this.
Vanka himself is quiet and bashful, modest
and timid.
And when it happens that the menacing clouds
of a shutdown gather over the factory, NanKa
feels With all his little inner self his Ii becoming
alarmed. and then little gray wrinkles appear on
his straight childish forehead, and the little bells
of his voice cease ringing thru the corridors. me
blue oilv shirt wanders about like silent shad-
ow. and does not know which way to turn.
Vanka is afraid to go to the director, tho he
knows that the director is red-one OF thelr
own, a workman-director, Communist
The atmosphere of the directors Office is some
what oppressive. The place breathes great stern
ness, and it is as if the walls are about to come
together and crush little Vanka. And on the
walls: "Be BRIEF" ''Time is money" and many
other posters, and among them, portrait OF old
Lenin himself vladimir Iyich, so dear and near,
asks smilingly
rascal don't disturb the director"
This means that he must go out thru the cOrri-
dor to the yard, and thru the yard into the repair
shop, then to the clubhouse where, upon "a little
door there is a modest inscription:
The r. G. S. NJ. nucleus is located here.
Vanka is 13, and the constitution requires IA!
Here is exactly what it says: "Any young
worker fourteen years of age or over, is el1glale
to membership in the league" ,re
And in the meantime he is allowed voice but
not vote. Oh, how he longs not to be just advls-
ory: 1t makes one feel hurt and wrOnged;
Grishka is a member with full vote, and he is
in the same grade and in the same shop :.
And so are Fedka Senka, Vaska, Stenka and
Skinny vanka. What have they done to deserve
it?
It's all the fault of the Is.
And when a resolution is being voted upon at
meeting, and a whole forest OF hands springs
up above the blond moss of heads-he wants so
much so much to raise his hand together with
the rest, but he is afraid 1t seems to him that
everyone is cycling him with the warning, cyan
ka don't forget the constitutional
Every evening the entire factory gathers at the
big club. The grownups in the reading room
with the newspapers; the young people each ac-
cording to his inclination.
First of all-the girls go to MaslOv, to the Ii
brary:
'Give us a novel. :"
'Now, what's the bright idea?"
They become dumb and hide behind Jolly
Manka. And jolly Manka says saucily and
ceqnettishly: ssn st
"a novel, an interesting one, where they write
about love. {" .Y'
''You fool, don't you know that those books are
not for us? They're written for high'school
girls isa @es -'apA
"That's enuf, now; beat it"
Manka swiftly puts her hand into her bosom
and pulls out book, and on the books it says:
kaya."
'There, take a look at this~
And she scampers off to the hall-the others
trailing after her.
Twilight fills the hail. From the row of cards,
appeals and posters, only one stands out boldly
-"The Code Of Labor Laws,"-and under the