The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-02-04

dOiuSn AahuIs 10y W AiiAoii oAVPPNA
With an introduction by Mailech
Epstein. Freiheit Publishing Asso-
citation. $1.50.
I APPROACH the task Of reviewing
this book of drawings and cartoons
by William Chopper with senses I'M
sharpened (and unspoiled?) by spe-
cial technical knowledge of the subtle
ties of art. Perhaps this is presump-
tuous. But want to consider book
in which SO much of the flesh and
blood of the life around us is con-
tanned not from the exalted eminences
Of formal criticism, but from the view
point of flesh and blood person who
stands on the ground with thousands
of other flesh and blood persons, par
ticipating in that life so rich in
ironies, tragedies, triumphs and de-
feats-a life arrested and transfigured
in the pages of book by the glow
ing imagination and understanding of
genius.
How do know that this is genius?
don't know and can't prove it. I
merely look at these drawings of
Choppers as thousands of cloakmak-
ers, furriers and other workers looked
at them when they first appeared in
the "Freiheit," Yiddish language or
gan Of the Workers (Communist)
Party, and intuitively l sense in them
the surge of an memorable creative
force, the leap of an imagination that
is disciplined yet free, the play of ar
intelligence that is aware Of social
forces and social implications. And
I assume that this is genius.
In an extensive introduction to "Die
Goldene Medineh" (The Golden Land,
colloquial Yiddish epithet for the
United States), Mailech Epstein, edi-
tor Of the "Freiheit," traces the de-
velopment of the political cartoon in
recent years and particularly the part
it played in Russia during the revo-
luton and the civil wars. The "Frei-
heit" was the first Yiddish working
class paper to introduce the political
cartoon and William Chopper was it,
first staff artist. And perhaps Of
greatest interest to those who have
watched the work of Chopper are the
bits of biographical information con-
corning him that Comrade Epstein
gives. Born on the East Side about
thirty years ago, poverty and fear.
the starved hunted life of Jewish
immigrant family, filled and blighted
his childhood years. At the age of
twelve he was already working as a
dishwasher in cheap restaurant and
spending all his leisure time making
pictures.
Seven years pass and William
Chopper is the staff cartoonist of the
New York Tribune at salary of
$3.50 a week and with something OF
a reputation. At that time, though
he had been reared in a working class
family, Chopper was almost entirely
ignorant of the revolutionary labor
movement. During his years on the
East Side his art had so absorbed hin,
that he had reared out Of it sort
Of ivory tower in the gutter. But
Choppers instincts and sympathies
remained sure. One day in 1918. dur.
ing the war hysteria, his editor sent
him to the I. w. w. headquarters tc
make few drawings of the terrible
red bomb-throwers" The edito,
didn't know that he was sending
Chopper permanently into the ranks
of revolutionary labor Chopper be
gan drawing for the "Liberator" ant
Revolutionary Age" the organ of the
left wing in the socialist party.-~ant
lost his job on the "Tsibune."
His fame was growing. Distinguish.
ed bourgeois critics were hailing hin
as one of the greatest Of living Amer.
lean caricaturists and comparing hiu
with the foremost European masters
Yet this praise and the adulat;on Of
the radical intellectuals didn't coutent
him. He still had no contact with tbs
masses OF the working class from
whom he had sprung and like SO mani
radical intellectuals he was merely
drifting. Until three or four years
ago, when he joined the staff of ths
"Freiheit" as regular cartoonist ane
began taking his chance with the res
OF the staff on getting paid whereye,
the business office had any money. +
was an experiment both for the "Frei.
heit" and for Chopper. 1t need hard 5,
be said that the experiment ha.
proved unusually successful and Bill
Chopper has become one Of the mos
popular and powerful propaganda
Of the class struggle.
|
"Unser Chopper" (Our Gropper)
This is what he has become to tn,
thousands of Jewish workers who arr
the readers Of the "Freiheit." Prac
tically all the drawings in this volume
were first printed in our Party's Yid.
dish language daily and many Of then
! IL = III ~