The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-06-27
BY J. LOUIS ENGBAHE.
Especial 10 The DAILY WORKER

I MOSCOW, U.S.S.R., (By Mall.
Just across the way the workmen
are busy putting the finishing
touches on the magnificent new six
story home of the Isvestia, the daily
publication Of the Soviet Power.
But we are now in the offices of
the Pravda, the central organ Of the
communist Party of the Soviet
Union, splendid in themselves. In
the days of czarism the Pravda Build
ng, next door neghbor of the Isvestia
building, was occupied by the Russ
kye Slovo 1.-THE Russian World, the
biggest and admittedly the best at
that time Of the bourgeois daily press
that once boosted a circulation Of
100000 copies
Below in the courtyard an endless
stream of wagons pours thru unload
ing huge rolls of newsprint. 1t comes
from Finland, Sweden and some from
Germany. The Soviet Union is not
yet able to produce all the newsprint
that its many publications require.
That steady arrival of rolls of news
print was the same in the days of the
Russkye Slovo as it is now with the
publication of the Pravda. But that
is all The printed word that few
hours later converts this blank news
print into hundreds of thousands,
millions of copies Of newspapers, to-
day has a different message, the call
to struggle, the will to build, to fight
for the New Order that has dis
placed the old.
Has Excellent Foreign News.
My visit to Pravda was made by
appointment with David /. Icok, its
foreign editor. Comrade Icok has
three assistants who divide the vari-
Gus nations of the world among
themselves and, with the aid of re-
ports from many able correspondents
in foreign lands, supplemented by
Class" RUSSIAN Telegraph Agency,
give to the readers of the Pravda an
excellent foreign news service.
'How big an editorial staff have
you altogether" was a question that
came instinctively to my lips, as !
envied this machinery for gathering
foreign news.
1--WE have about 100 editorial
workers altogether" replied Icok, in
quite a matter of fact way, and when
told him that we had only a bare
half dozen on the editorial staff Of
The DAILY WORKER, he smiled
and was willing to discuss the diff
cult days of the Bolshevik press be-
fore the revolutionary triumph Of
1917. The difference between an
editorial staff of half dozen and
one hundred, in this instance, is the
difference wrought by revolutionary
change.
We went first to meet Comrade
Maria Illitchova Ulianov, the sister
of Lenin, who is the responsible
secretary Of the Editorial Board,
meaning that she has an influential
place in shaping the editorial policies
of the paper She also gives con-
siderable attention to the develop
ment of worker correspondence. In
fact it was in the office of "Rabochya
Krestyanskaye Correspondent" - The
Workers and Peasants Correspon-
dent) that we all had our pictures
taken at the end of my visit, the
camera, ever present, being con-
sidered one Of the most valuable adj
iuncts Of every Soviet publication.
Pravda has three photographers with
three assistants in this department.
Workers Gifts Everywhere.
But this is getting ahead Of the
story. Comrade Illitchova was not
in when we first arrived at "IIer
Room" This gave us an opportunity
to look around bit in the most at
tractive editorial office that have
ever seen. Here felt the intense i'm
terest that the workers and peasants (
take in their press. Fittingly ar
ranged about the room were many Of
the gifts that had been received by
the paper from its readers. There
were only a few, however. Most Of
them had been sent TO the Museum
of the Revolution, for safe keeping
and preservation.
On the huge, flat top desk, how
ever, there stood the latest gift, a
Of the Lenin Mausoleum
under glass dome, made by the
workers Of the great Moscow factory,
"Eectrolampa H." It had just been