The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-07-05
POSTERS AND LEAFLETS AS PART OF THE MILITARY
EQUIPMENT OF THE KUOMINTANG ARMIES

greeted the troops asA"saviors of the
people," brought them rice, tea, vege-
tables, chickens, everything that they
had.
PEASANTS who had never before
thought of soldiers as anything but
enemies, wretched thieves and MUIR
derers, acted as "spies" for the Can
tonese; gave them knowledge of
enemy troops location, of short cuts,
of secret passes; and in some cases,
took up rifles and aided in the fight
ing.
Sometimes the country people could
not read the simple propaganda
pamphlets; but they were always
hungry for knowledge. When dis
trict was especially illiterate, the
propagandists had to summon the few
men from the village who could read;
drill them swiftly in propaganda work
and pass on.
Posters of the revolution are
slashing, glazing things" revolution
airy art" after the western fashion.
Complete, sure escape from the
sophistication, the delicacy of Chinese
are! Art with bang!
A NEIGHBORING warlord, hands
"A dripping blood, dancing over the
skulls of murdered peasants and la
'borers
A local magistrate, bespectacled,
fleeing in terror, before the army of
the revolution.
A well-known militarist, trapped in
a room, falling back in horror at
bayonets plunging through tn e
walls.
A stalwart youth, with battering
ram, smashing down the doors of
feudalism.
Hundreds of them-magnificent in
their simplicity.
The pamphlets extremely simple;
this was the army founded on the
San Min Chi (three peoples prin-
ciples) of Dr. Sun Yat-sen-an army
which would battle to bring about
government of the people, for the
people, by the people" of China.
THERE are 5000 different kinds of
propaganda addressed to six
classes of people-women soldiers,
peasants, laborers, students, common
people. 1t is estimated that an
average Of $4,000 copies of each type
of propaganda has been disseminated
in the year that it has taken the Can
tonese army to reach the Yangtze.
All of the propaganda originates
from the General Political Depart
ment of the Military Council of the
Nationalist Government which is now
located at Wuchang. One hundred
and fifty people are employed in this
central office, who paint, write, print,
distribute material to 10000 propa-
gandists, who work with the army.
I listen to what Ii Holm, director
= of the entral Propaganda
Bureau, has to say of his corps:
Gone propaganda is worth 20
armed soldiers. There could have
been no northern expedition, had it
not been for our propaganda corps.
1t was the propagandists who paved
the way for the soldiers; who went
among the laborers and peasants and
explained the mission of our army.
"Do not think that / underrate the
value of our army, that hardy group
of men which has suffered untold
hardship and suffering so that China
may be free
"Our soldiers have gone hungry;
thirsty; unpaid, not for months, but
in some cases, for an entire year.
81 am only trying to make clear
that without our propaganda army.
our small armed forces would have
been wiped out. We have had to de-
pend on the propagandists to get the
support of the people.
sour enemies could have well
withstood our steel bullets; but they
cannot hold against US with the en-
tire population of province reused
against them; interfering with their
food and water supply; aiding u.s."
THE way of the propagandist corps
has not been easy. The intense
provincial feeling that one finds in
China is not rooted in superficial
boundaries; the differences are far
more fundamental.
The hardy Hunanese are a swift
sxsttable people. stirred to revolution