The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-08-31
The Problem, of Leisure

<he Problem of Leisure
Some of the Mira liberals and So
cialists have already begun to worry
as to what the workers will do with
all the leisure that will come in with
the Blue Buzzard Utopia.
It is wonderful to be able to look
so far ahead. Haywood Broun, in
lyric passage, that almost, but not
quite, reminds one of Shelley, fore
sees a happy proletariat going in
heavily for golf, Landscape painting,
glee clubs and maybe book reading.
Jacob Panken is not a golfer, but
wants the workers to take Up pino-
ellie. Oswald Willard and Bruce
Bliv present a united front for raj
fla basket-weaving. The melancholt-
Gus j. Wood Krutch would be salts
fed with nothing short of nation
of Morris dancers.
This is a problem that has always
bothered the booboisie. They con-
ceive of the workers as a herd of
mad bulls whom it is dangerous to
leave out of the fenced pasture. Give
them higher wages, and they'll spend
it on drink, chorus girls and Monte
Carlo. Give 'em leisure and they'll
waste it in rape, arson and tobacco
chewing.
But if Mira means shorter hours,
it also means less real wages The
price of living is going up much faster
than Mira raises. Which means the
workers will have a Sterner problem
of how to pay the landlord, the but
cher and the doctor.
Mira doesn't propose to free the
wage-slaye's nose from the mean
grindstone where it always has been.
A steel mill, coal mine or cotton mill
wage slave is still going to be glad
TO take off his shoes in his leisure
time and just rest-rest.
Maybe all these bubbling liberals
don't know i but Mira also means
the most intense speed-up of the
workers, what that sanity liberal,
Sidney Hillman, first named, pro-
duction standards"
Anyway, whose business is it how
the worker spends his leisure? He
earns it, he earns every moment of
freedom, god knows. He pays with
his lifeblood for the little leisure"
he will get under Mira He has
right to misuse" his free time, if
he wants to.
This snob assumption that the pre-
sent crop OF pasty faced liberals are
competent to instruct the worker as
to life! Even under capitalism, the
average skilled worker is a superior
human being when compared with
some of the authors and advertising
men have known. He is q crafts
man, he enjoys life with gusto, ana
even though he may never read a
book, when he does begin to read and
think, his tastes are solid and Honest.
Compare folks ike Walter Lipp-
man or Christopher Morley, fer in
stance, with any honest plumber .or
bricklayer. Which OF the two species
would bore you least ON desert is
land? Friends, we all know the an
swer
Sports
No doubt that in our Communist
seetarianism we have shut our eyes
to many of the human habits of the
American worker. Sport is a major
interest with the American masses.
Up to my twentieth year, was an
athlete, crazy about boxing, wrestling
and all the rest of it. I can remem-
Der working all day for an express
company, singing 1000-pound cases
around. After twelve or fourteen
hours Of this, I'd come home, grab
bite, and rush off to the gym. Here
I'd box for half an hour or so, punch
the bag, skip the rope, do various
.setting-up exercises, then go out with
a crowd for five mile run in trunks
through the hot or cold New York
streets. What a nightcap!
Yes, and we followed the baseball
scores and we're passionate fight fans.
But when became a radical I drop
ped all this, because at that time
15 years ago. sports were considered
a strictly bourgeois form Of time
wasting.
One was supposed to get all the
exercise he needed on a soapbox.
Communism has broadened since
then, and labor sports flourish and
are a valuable auxiliary to the revo-
lutionary movement. Sports keep
he proletarian youth fit, give them
a feeling Of pride and solidarity.
The Daily Worker has a mighty
good sports column. Now I would
like to see us take up the question
of beer.