The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-09-02
PART II

L
make my living entirely from writ
ing. Not that I write more here than
do elsewhere, but I am paid pet
ter, and there is a wider Market. IN
America the magazines in which one
can frequently publish stories or
poems about Negroes are very lew,
and most of these do not pay, since
thew are of a social service OF prole-
tartan nature. The big American
bourgeois publications are very care
full about what they publish by or
about colored people. Exotic or hui
morous tales they will occasionally
use. Stories that show Negroes as
savages, fools, or clowns, they Will
often print. And once in blue moon
there may be really sound and Sc
rious literary picture OF black lie III
a big magazine-but it doesn't nap
pen often enough to feed an author.
They can't live on blue moons.
Most colored writer's find their
work turned down with note that
the files are already full of Negro
material" or that the subject is not
suitable, or, as happened to me re-
Gently when I submitted a story
about a more or less common situa-
ton in American ifter-racial life
the manuscript was returned with
regrets since the story was "excel-
lently written, but 1t would shock our
good middle-class audience to death"
And thus our American publications
shy away from the Negro problem
and the work of Negro writer's.
seNo Harlem of Literature"
In Moscow, on the other hand, the
editors welcome frank stories Of
American Negro life. They print them
and pay for them. Book publishers
welcome volumes by black writer's,
and, in spite of the paper shortage,
a great many books of Negro life
have appeared in translation in
| Moscow.
AS to writer's in general, feel safe
in saying that members OF the lit
erary craft, on the whole, live better
in the Soviet Union than they do in
America. In the first place there is a
tremendous reading public buying
millions of books, papers, and maya
zines, in dozens Of different lang
uages. Translation rights of a So
Wet writer's work here within the
Union alone may bring in thousands
of rubles. And there are, in Moscow.
and other cities, cooperative dining
rooms for writer's, specially built
modern apartments with very low
rents, excellent clubs and tennis
courts and libraries all for the
workers in words.
AS for me, I received for one edi-
ton of my poems in translation more
money in actual living value than I
have yet made from the several edi-
tons of my various volumes OF po-
etry in America. For an edition in
Uzbek, a minority language that most
Americans never heard OF (nor l
either till I came here), was paid
enough to live in grand style for
year or modestly for two years
which is more than poetry alone ever
did for me at home.
THERE is in Moscow great curl
L osity for things American, and a
great sympathy for things Negro. So,
being both an American and Negro,
am met everywhere with friendly
questions from children and adults
as to how we live at home. Is there
really a crisis, with people hungry
and ragged when there are in Amer
lea SO MANY factories, so much tech
nique, SO much wheat, and cotton
and live stock? How can that be? Do
they actually kill people in electric
chairs? Actually lynch Negroes?
Why?
The children in the Moscow streets,
wise little city children, will oft-times
gather around you if you are waiting
| for a street car, or looking into a
shop window They will take your
hand and ask you about the Scots
boro boys, or if you like the Soviet
Union and are going to stay forever.
Sometimes as you pass group of
children playing, they will stop and
exclaim, ''Negro!" But in wonder and
surprise long ways from the in
sulting derision of the word Niger"
in the mouths of Americas white
children. Here, the youth in the
schools are taught to respect all
races. And at the Children's Thea
tire there is a sympathetic play being
given of how little Negro girl found
her way from Africa to Moscow, and
lived happily ever after.
'"Here There Is Friendliness"
Strangers in general meet with
widespread courtesy from the citi-
zens of Moscow. "Inastranyetz," they
will say, and let you go to the head
of the line, if there is a crowd wait
ing at the stamp window in the post
office, or standing in the queue for
an auto bus, or buying tickets to the
theatre. If you go alone to the NOV
les, someone is sure to offer to trans
late for you, should they happen to
know a little German or English. If
you hand written address to a citi-
zen on Moscow street, often said
citizen will go out of his way to lead
you to the place you are seeking. /
have never lived in a more truly
courteous city. True, there is not here
anywhere in public places the swift
and efficient directness Of America
| Neither is there the servile, tip-chas-
ing, bowling and scraping service OF
Paris. But here there is friendliness
In Moscow there are often mountains
and swamps of red tape that would
1rive you crazy, wcr, it not for the
.yeatle patience and kindness Of tbs