The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-08-11

49, AAo 40 NAC 0AAbA 1AbAOAC
in series reviewing the struggle
to develop The DAILY WORKER
into a mass organ. This series is
written with the purpose Of teach
ing and encouraging the readers of
Our Daily to help develop its in
fuenee among the broad masses of
the American working class. This
article is a comment on a letter
written by P. B. Cowdery that ap-
peared in yesterdays DAILY
WORKER.
BY J. LOUIS ENGDAHL.
TT is no easy task to develop our
4 Communist daily, The DAILY
WORKER, into mass organ.
1t is no easier than to develop our
Workers (Communist) Party into a
mass Communist Party. y
These two tasks are accomplished
only thru difficult, ceaselesS work,
even when aided by the best Of cir
b cumstances.
1t may be said that in no country
in the world, not even in the Union
of Soviet Republics, is the Commun-
list International satisfied with the
influence of it's press. 1t seeks to
increase that influence, thru spread
ing the reading circle of our various
publications, whether it is the
Pravda in Moscow, the Rote Fahne in
Berlin, L'Humanite in Paris, or The
DAILY WORKER in Chicago.
The letter published in yesterdays
issue of The DAILY WORKER, sent
in by P. B. Cowdery, shows how to
build, how to develop the mass in
fiuence Of our paper. 1t is no ex-
aggeration to say that Cowdery's let
ter was the most important part of
this issue. 1t knocks the props from
under those slackers who try to find
excuses not to struggle for their
cause, rather than to theoretically
overcome all difficulties.
There are many who claim that
The DAILY WORKER can be pop
ularized to such an extent that the
workers will be forced to read it in
spite of themselves. That is an
easy escape from the hard task of
doing the real work of building. 1t
will be found that these advocates
of popularization are even willing
to sacrifice the Communist character
Of their paper, in the belief that
readers must be secured first and at
all costs.
Many improvements can be made
in The DAILY WORKER. There is
no doubt about that. Perfection is
far away. improvements are being
made to develop an appeal to larger
masses of workers. But those So
called improvements" must never
be permitted to rob our DAILY" of
its Communist character. That is
something that every DAILY
WORKER builder must have in
mind as he goes about getting sub
scribers in the same spirit that he
seeks recruits for the party. Cow
derry is such a builder.
If you read Cowdery's letter you
will remember that he is at work
building DAILY WORKER routes
in Chicago. He places our paper on
newstands, canvasses for subscrip-
tions, delivers the paper as a carrier,
collects for the paper each week and
then tries to get renewals. 1t is in
getting renewals that the crucial
test comes. Cowdery wrote:
1.-THE first week | lost seven out of
ii serves | had obtained. | nearly
quit. could sell 40 or so papers to
those | met for the first time, but 1t
seemed they just would not read 1t
successfully. The next week | lost
eight out of 81, having obtained IA
new ones. That was still discourag-
ing. commenced to study my meth
cd of interview. At the next col
lection, July "a, had "a OF which
l lost seven; July 81, had 81 and
lost only five.'
Cowdery found that he had to win
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