The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-10-15

Inc masterpiece on the huSSIdu hefOIutiOh ASN
Days That Shook the World" which is being
published in the Soviet Union by State Publish
ing Trust.-Ed.
THE first American city in which the longshoremen
L refused to load war supplies for the Kolchak
armies was Portland, the Pacific Coast. In this
city on the 22nd of Oct, 1887, John Reed was born.
His father was one of those bluff sturdy pioneers
such as Jack London pictures in his tales OF the
West. A witty man, hater of shams and hypo-
crisy. Instead of siding with the rich and powerful
he stood against them, and when the trusts like
great octopuses got stranglehold upon the forests
and other natural of the state he fought
them bitterly. He prosecuted beaten and ousted
from office But he never capitulated
Thus from his father John Reed received goodly
MISUNDERSTANDING blood, frst-class brain and
a spirit of high courage and daring. His brilliant
talents early manifested themselves and on COM
pletng high school he was sent to the most famous
university in Acknowledgement. Hther the oil
kings, coal barons and steel magnates were wont to
send their They well knew that after four
years spent in sport luxury and "the passionless
pursuit of passionless knowledge" their sons would
come forth with minds altogether freed from any
faint of radicaiism. Every year in the college and
universities tens of thousands. of American youths
are thus transformed into defenders of the present
order-into White Guards of reaction.
John Reed spent four years inside the walls of
Harvard where his personal charm and ability made
him general favorite He came in daily contact
with the young scions of wealth and privilege. He
attended the solemn lectures of the orthodox teach
ers of sociology He listened to the teachings of the
high priests of capitalismthe professors of political
economy. Then, like blow in the face of these
learned know-nothings he organized Socialist Club
right in the centre of this stronghold of putocracy
His elders consoled themselves with the idea that
this was only youthful fancy: Hell drop his
radicalism," they said, "as soon as he passes out
of the college gates into the world"
John Reed completed his course, took his degree,
went out into the world and in an incredibly short
time conquered it, Conquered it by his love of life,
his enthusiasm and his pen. In the university as
editor of the satirical "Lampoon" he had already
welded facile and brilliant PEN Now there began
to pour from it stream of poems stories, dramas.
Editors competed with one another for his services
magazines began to pay him almost fabulous sums,
great newspapers commissioned him to report I'M
portant affairs in foreign lands.
Thus he became traveller up and down the high
ways of the world Whoever wanted to keep in
touch with current events had only to follow John
Reed for wherever anything significant occur
ing, there like stormy petrol, he sure to be.
In Paterson the textile workers transformed thei
strike into revolutionary cyclone-John Reed was
in the centre of it.
In Colorado the serfs of Rockefeller crawled out
of their trenches and refused to be driven back by
the clubs and rifles of the gunmen--John Reed
there with the rebels
In Mexico the poems raised the banner of revolt
and headed by Villa advanced upon the capitol
John Reed on horseback rode forward with them
The account of this last exploit appeared in "The
Metropolitan" and later in the book Revolutionary
Mexico" In lyric fashion he pictured the red and
purple mountains and the vast deserts "sentinelled
by the giant cactus and the Spanish needle" He
was captivated by the great plains. Still more
he captivated by their inhabitants mercilessly
rloted by the landlords and the Catholic Church
He shows them driving their herds from the noun
tain meadows, fockng in to join the armies of lib
Grafton singing around the camp fires at night and
tho cold and hungry tattered and barefoot Fighting
magnificently for land and freedom.
The imperiast world broke out and John
Reed followed the thunder of the guns-in France
Germany, in Italy, in Turkey in the Balkans and
here in Russia For his exposure of the treach
cry of the cars 'chnovniks" and the collection
of material showing their participation in the
~ganizaton of Jewish pogroms, he arrested by
the gendarmes together with the famous artist Bord-