The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-08-27

place, think that our press has the
erect in many instances OF frightening
away many workers who might other
wise be inteWstedl | think that the
small numerical strength OF our party,
the desperate struggle it is making
for a position of power in the Ameri-
can working class movement, has the
effect Of making our press too fam
bouyant, too hysterical, at times too
insistent, too loud and screaming. 1
believe, secondly, that the traditions
of yellow journalism" in America
have not yet been, entirely overcome
in our press. think there is too
much of tendency towards sensa-
tionalism, toward the picking out of
issues that cannot be described accu.
rately as working class issues. Third
| think there is too much tendency
on the part of the comrades who con.
tribute to our press to exaggerate, to
fail in accuracy In recording the strug.
gle Of the workers, and that this more
than anything else tends to discredit
our press, to make workers doubtful
OF the statements, to weaken its infiu-
ence.
Workers Are Critical.
And what is the process by which
this is brot about? 1t is idle to saw
that workers are not critical in their
reading. It is true that they may not
be very critical Of the capitalist press
but as soon as worker discovers that
the Communist press is challenging the
capitalist system he begins to read it
very carefully. want to- tell YOU as
the result Of concrete experiences that
a lack of accuracy in news stories of
the struggles of the workers. exagger-
alton, wild statements, do more to
drive workers away from our press
than any other one thing.
Suppose, for instance, that we are
chronicling strike and we say that
there are twice as many workers strik-
ing as are actually involved, and sup
pose we say that they are asking for
dollar when they are asking for a
hfty-cent increase, and suppose we say
that the bosses are using gunner
when the bosses are not, for some
reason or other. Suppose we build a
story in which the only accurate state
ment is that group of workers are
on strike. 1t doesn't make any diff.
ference how much you pledge your
loyalty to their struggle. Those work
ers do not give damn for your
pledges. They look for facts. If these
are not correct, they will doubt every.
thing you say, and this, comrades. is
recognized by the c. 1. 1t has pointed
out this error time and time again. and
| hope that those comrades who feel
moved from time to time to contribute
to our press will bear this in mind.
One other reason why our press is
not mass press why its influence Il
small, is that 1t is not a workers
press in the best sense of the word
Because the workers press not only
must be read by the workers. it must
be largely written by workers. BY
this | do not mean professional Jour
nalists. The Communist International
has spoken on this question as we'll
and In all the parties of the C. |. those
responsible for the press are as rap
idly as possible developing groups and
chains OF workers correspondents.
At the present time we have some
20 or 80 worker correspondents Iocat-
ed in all the principal centers of the
United States, about third of whom
are non-party workers. Within the
next year we should try to quadruple
this number. At present so per cent.
perhaps two-thirds, of shop and lob
news and struggles of the workers is
sent in by the workers themselves
We must make it 100 per cent work.
ers' paper. 1t is not sufficient that
these news stories and this CORE.
spondence just be written by workers
There is no particular magic in hav.
ing workers write for the press unless
they write things that our press wants
to record. The workers in this conn.