The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-04-24
The CRIER By Henri Barbusse

of that dirt. What are-we anyway? Boxes for
them to throw their clinkers and Stag into?
There it is. Think it over and We'll come back
Tuesday to hear what you have decided to do
about it." 7DR asEa e9
They went away, very orderly and polite,
having set forth their clear right not to be
poisoned.
He knew that chimney, of course, which you
could see from anywhere in the neighborhood,
like the opposite of lighthouse. But he made
an inquiry, from which it was found that the
master of the chimney smoke was great per-
sonage who made a lot Of money out of it.
His chimney was metallic, and had all the mod
ern improvements possible to chimneys and
used waste products and by-products and Gin
ders. 1t was an Integral combustion" CHM
ney, he said. But having noticed on his one
visit to the factory that the smoke was as
phyxiating half the town, this parsonage had
approached the project and the under-prefect,
the deputy, the senator, and the minister, to
choke off in advance any interference with his
chimney.
Tuesday, as they had said, the people came
for the mayors answer They waited, gently
grinding their teeth because of the cinder-
dust.
"There are higher interests, he said
well them"
There are higher interests"
He had said, he too-the phrase which the
others said, which they have said since the
world has been world or rather since the
appetites of the mighty have not dared go en-
tirely naked, and have had to cover themselves
with words. He had said the phrase that
makes wars, and great misery and incalculable
slavery-and which is lie.
For that business of the chimney was exactly
in miniature, the great business of capitalism
over the world.
They didn't move One said:
This superior interest. . it's just not
superior interest at all; riches, dividends.
The poor. the masses of poor people.
Briefly, he served up to the mayor, so to
speak, old scraps of himself But the mayor
said:
whats all that stuff and nonsense?"
Well, at last they had to walk out on their
feet; dragging across the door-sill of the may
or's office their neatly polished shoes, their
wooden sabots, their bare feet calloused by
the roads.
T TITLE things happened Then the big
- things.
There was fine to-do, that morning. There
was talk of a loan for military constructions,
and the under-prefect sent to say that public
opinion must be felt out
The town hall was full. The gentleman was
there He didn't have much hope in this NUM-
cipal council, knowing the ways and the ges-
lures of the new mayor. But you have to do
him the justice of admitting that he returned
to the attack with the persistence of a clock,
and really tried in every way to ram resigna-
ton and passive obedience into the people.
The audience thought, looking at this gentle
man: "Look out! There'l be an uproar."
The first to talk was young, and spoke his
thought crudely: asn
'They want to use up the money of the
whole world in this dangerous nonsense. Let
them fight it out among themselves, these
gentlemenp e-.~r as,
"And our country! What will you do with
our country?" cried the new mayor
The young man: "They put up that word,
Our Country, for all to see; and then they
make republic with a clean face and dirty
body"
"Over the republic is France, bandit!" thun-E
dered the mayor. aw ynS nov yas a. ls7