The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-01-26
By MOISSAYE J. OLGIN

BY MOISSAYE j. OLGIN
The Lenin memorial meeting held
at Madison Square Garden on Satur-
day, Jan. u, was more than a poll
teal demonstration. 1t was an extra
ordinary mass expression of collecti-
visit spirit. 1t was vista opened by
class conscious proletarians into the
future.
There will come a time when the
class struggle with its waste of its
precious human energy will be no
more. The exploiters having been
wiped off the face of the earth, class
less mankind will, in Communism,
attain tremendous heights of mass
culture and mass spirituality, with
creative energy let loose. There will
be no more sordid elemental struggle
for bite of bread. There will be no
brutality and no fear. Mankind
then, will know the joy of collective
work which will be like play, and of
collective play which will be the out
growth and the background of crea-
tive work. Mankind will have holt
days chosen to mark significant turns
in the colorful flow of it's existence,
and the sign of its mass celebrations
will be the white fire of the mass
spirit.
Glimpse of Future.
This future of which only bare
idea can be formed at present, of
which even the outlines can only be
conjectured, touched the Garden"
gathering last Saturday night, and
transformed it into proletarian beau
ty. A realization, at once hoped for
and thrilling, of what life might be
under new system, suddenly came
to these twenty-odd thousands to
make them vastly more than just
listeners to political speeches or spec
tators at a mass performance. It
was as if all of them were suddenly
transplanted Ninto new land, with
new skies overhead.
A feminist Spirit.
Yet there was nothing dreamy or
sentimental about the affair. The
speeches were sober, pointed adj
dresses devoted not so much to Lenin
as to Leninism; not so much to the
history of the Russian Revolution as
to the inevitability of the American
! revolution; not SO much to the Amer
lean revolution in the future as to
the class struggles of the present
time that lead to the overthrow of
the strongest capitalism in the world.
Realistic, scientifically grounded ex-
positions they were, of the forces
working throughout the imperialistic
world and Fastening it's doom. Those
multitudes that filled the vast build
ing from the first tier to the top gall
lery, were given to unders and that
upon their own will, organization, de-
termination, clear-sightedness and
correctness of action depend the has
tening of the historic process.
Historic Forces.
Yet, beyond and above the speeches
there was something even bigger
than the tasks outlined. There was
the keen feeling of historic landslides.
There was the almost palpable throb-
bing of momentous historic forces. The
march of hundreds of millions re-
verberated in the hearts of the mass.
Obstacles were being swept away.
Walls crumbled. Fortresses fell.
Rocks were levelled to the ground.
Uncounted millions marched to their
freedom. Above the irresistible on
rush doomed the figure of the leader
who showed the way to power. Via
dimir Ilyitch Lenin.
Proletarian Visions.
1t was not surprising, therefore,
that the speakers platform should
suddenly become populated with
shapes and ghosts. The platfoi m