The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-06-15
AN INTERVIEW WITH COMRADE
STAIN BY EMIL LUDWIG
Soviet Power Rests Upon Millions of Workers and Peasants

upon me and developed in me the taste for
underground MARKHAM literature
Ludwig: What impeled you to go on the side
of the opposition? Was it perhaps the i'll treat
ment on the part of your parents?
Staln:, No. MY parents were uneducated peo-
pie, but they treated me not at all badly An
other matter is the religious seminary which
attended at that time. Out of protest against
the cynical regime and Jesuit methods practced
at the seminary 1 was ready TO become, and
really became, a reyolutionist follower OF
Marxism as the one really revolutionary doc
trine.
Ludwig: But do you not recognize the positive
qualities of the Jesuits?
Stalin Yet they have system and perse-
verance in their work but their basic method is
espionage, prying into ones soul, cynicism and
tauntng-what can be positive in that? For
instance the spy system in our dormitory at
o'clock there is the tea bell, we got to the mess
hall and when we come back to our rooms we
find that all of our drawers and closets have
been ransacKed and thoroughly examined. What
can there be positive in that?
About the Soviet Union, Germany, Poland
and America.
Ludwig In the Soviet Union I observed an
exceptional respect for everything American. I
may say an admiration of everything American.
That is the land of the dollar, the most con-
SiStant capitalist country. These sentiments are
present also among your working class and they
apply not only to tractors and automobiles but
to Americans in general How do you explain
it?
Stain: You are exaggeratng; we have no par
Gcular respect for everything American, but we
do respect American capability in everything
in industry in technc, in literature, in life. We
never forget the fact that the United States is
capitalist country, but among the Americans
there are many wholesome people in the spirit
ual and physical sense, wholesome in their en-
tire approach to work, to practical matters. 1t
is this capabilty this matter of factness that
we appreciate. In spite of the fact that America
is highly developed capitalist country the
character of their industry, the habits of pro-
duction have in them something of democracy
which cannot be said of the old European CAPT.
tahst countries, where the lordly spirit of the
feudal aristocracy is still alive, $40
Ludwig: You do not even suspect how right
YOU are. - .,,.s...
Stain: who knows, perhaps do suspect In
spite of the fact that feudalism as social order
has long been defeated in Europe, considerable
remnants of it still continue to exist in the mode
of living and in manners; feudal atmosphere
continues to produce technicians, specialists
scientists, writer's, who introduce lordy manners
into industry, technic, science, literature The
feudal traditions have not been entirely shat
tered. The same cannot be said about America
which is country Of free coonizers" without
landlords, without aristocrats. Hence the sound
and comparatively simple American manners pre-
Vailing in production. Our economic experts
who visited America have Immediately noticed
this trait; not without certain pleasant sur
prise they have been telling us that in America
it is difficult, in the process Of production to
tell by outward appearances an engineer from
worker. They like it of course. In Europe it
is quite different
But if we are on the subject of our sympathies
to any one nation or rather to the majority of
any one nation we must of course speak of our
feeling for the. Germans. Our feeling to the
Americans cannot at all be compared with our
sympathy to the Germans.
Ludwig: Why especially to the German ma
ton?
Stain: First of all I state it as fact
Ito be concluded tomorrow