The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-31
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That Baby Rattle And So On
By JORGE

l. Hat DdUy INdll1C -fA1hO OO OU
A reader who, correctly enough, lamentS rash
statements" in our paper, feels hurt that we
printed what wasn't true. 1t appears that when
that Baby Rattle was finally pulled off at
the Audubon Theatre in Washington Heights,
New York City, it was live white baby pig!
Yes, dear comrade, we learned that, too Be-
fore you had informed us. But also we learned
indirectly from the woman who was making
some clothes for the genuine human baby with
which the theatre was beginning the rattle, that
because a lot of excitement was caused by the
announcement, and the Society for the Proven
ton of the Exposure of Capitalist Barbarisnn--
or some organization like that-had interviewed,
they switched off the human baby for the baby
pig.
And also we learned that in Brooklyn the
same stunt, with live human baby, had been
carried out. If you want an affidavit for It.
you won't get it from us. But so we are In
formed just as in the case of the Audubon
Theatre.
incidentally, comrade, do you think that capt-
talists, who murder and rob our class every day
of their lives, are above rafting off human
baby? Why trouble your soul then, at diver
gence from the exact fact that in this particular
instance they wanted to but didn't dare, that
they started to- but had to stop?
1t is all right to let us know we we're incor-
rect, but it is not all right to get morally IN
dignant about it.
The same thing might be said to another
comrade who took us to task because Hurst and
Coder were NOT killed but were only pretty
killed, and the Daily said at first that
they were. Which is not correct charge in
the first place. Because:
At first they were kidnapped, and the Daily
said something more. AS days went by, re-
ports-published in Texas-said that they were
believed to be dead. And that's all we said.
We published the story of the capitalist re-
porter who said that the klansmen had beaten
them into inconsistencies and thrown them
into the river.
Now, comrade, if you we're beaten unconscious
and thrown into the river, what would you ex-
pect the Daily Worker to do? Put little piece
on page three saying that we didn't know
whether it was an exact statement of fact or
not but if things keep going like this we win
have our suspicious that the XII Kluxers are
not being fair?
And only around the sixth day, and after the
Daily had received direct wire from Texas that
said Hurst and Coder had been killed did the
Daily say so fatty 1t certainly was a marvel
that they were not! The Kluzers did the best
they could and it was no fault of theirs that
murder was not done
And we would forfeit every right to lead the
American working class if we did not rouse the
workers everywhere TO perfectly healthy class
anger and protest all Pecksniffian protest
to the contrary, Notwithstanding.
The function of Communists is not merely to
be statisticians to observe and record history
but to CHANGE IT And if our comrade who
is passionately devoted to exact detail doesn't
think that the Texas Kluxers are murderers,
let him go down there and carry out the work
of Comrade Hurst. If he is beaten half to
DEATH perhaps he wouldn't object if we, in rous-
ing the workers against it, made the terrible
mistake of saying that the Kluxers used whips,
when the "fact" was that they used wet ropes.
The Daily strives for accuracy, because it is
more damning than vagueness and inaccuracy.
The important thing is the basic issues involved,
in this case of the lynch terror. 1t we can get
the exact detail so much the better. But we
refuse to be mere bookkeepers.