The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-09-13
ANTWAR CONGRESS COMMITTEE DEMANDS HANDS OFF CUB
W hat
a
World
By Michael Gold
Our Own Flesh and Blood


liable. interesting and necessary tt
the American working class? With
out a doubt, the Daily Worker, fol
here one reads the suppressed news
of the submerged nation within
nation"
When one writes this way about
the Daily Worker, very often it is
mistaken for a kind of exaggerated
loyalty. The Daily Worker is moi
perfect, yet l would repeat anywhere
the things I say above.
A brief army bulletin on the bat
tlefield is infinitely more exciting
and creative than mountain Of
Sunday newspapers. Any class fight
ing for power needs constant direc-
ton. It needs to be led somewhere
and told why In the horrible ano
sordid reality of their daily struggle
the Workers need to be reminded
conaoantly Of their historic mission
and inspired with the epic poetry oil
Revolution.
And. Of course. this is what the
Daily Worker does. and what the
New York Times does not attempt
to do. lie. for the workers.
This is why workers in Jail OF
other isolation crave the Daily Work
er first, and then any other sheet
Is Ills so strange? It shouldn't be
any stranger than if you offered q
mother the choice of the Empire
STATE Building or her own child, and
she chose, quite normally, her own
flesh and blood.
A Comparison That May Be
0diOus
I have before me a COPY of the
NeY York Times of Saturday, Sep
tenbor 9. 1888, and The Dailv Worker
Of the sane date 1t might be in
teresting to compare tha5a JE5o sheets
each tlc voice OF opposing classes
The New York Times has generally
SOUGHT TO void cheap sensational
ism. only Cccasionallr going tabloid
when temp I'd bv some fine juicy
cjrculatior -b'Ilding epic Of smut
like TIE jUdd-Grav case, But who
could blame business man for be-
ing seducsd by The Dollar? Is he
net human? Easn't he ears, eyes,
Q rc5c. a j3e9&s. likewise nervous
poclzetbcok? So let US forgive the
New York Times Tor printing mil
lions Of words OF testimony in all
the big Greculant seS-mmders
Ia tl-a ScotcGman's egg. it is
batj esliv IN sDoy5. and at various
pha55s CT tle commercial moon. On
tho wi1cle The New York Times has
ST for itself the highest standard
Of any capitalist newspaper, and he
mGintail2cl tlla5 standard. II !
pertlaC7 tte t2st capitalist shee
America. and therefore the mcsa
dangerous to the Working Class.
II purports to be strictly neutral
in its nc-'s reporting. a claim all
American Dapers make. Yes. the
Times is the hig,l-prie5t in the tenn
pie Of objective news. for one of its
chief aims IS to be kind of COM
plete and daily history of the epoch.
1t gives more eoverage to historic
events than any other American
paper, printing in full many docu-
ments that would seem to belong in
the archives, and not in a daily
paper.
Yet. this respectable historian, this
collective NTonmsen of our period
was caught in a whole series of anti
Soviet lies, forgeries and ISLANDERS by
no less than Walter Lippmann. II
has also frequently printed distorted
and malicious accounts of Commu-
mist events in this country.
But let us temporarily forget this
also thoueh father they know eX-
actly what they do. Being truthful
about Communism would help it
along. So good old Grandfather
Times cannot help occasionally Slip
ping out of his old-fashioned garden
of neutrality and tearing off the other
capitalist were-wolves on a lying and
sIandering raid against the working
class.
A Picture Of the World
But here is the New York Times
of September 9th last, an average
day typical of our period. On the
first page of this immense 30-page
paper, one finds next to the mast
head, box with the words, "All the
News that's Fit to Print" This has
been the proud boast of this paper
for some 40 odd years, but nobody
has yet been able to explain what
the words mean. They probably
have some vague appeal to suburban
fathers with Is year old daughters.
Who can tell about these mysteries?
Anyway, next TO this assurance of
purity, is the Blue Nira-bird, with
another assurance, I'VE do our part"
And if you analyze this slogan, it
means as little as the other. Who is
doing what part, and for whom? Is
it something patriotic, or is it the
vulgarity of a new Florida boom?
The first page of any paper is a
picture Of its world. The New York
Times has the best of first pages
daily, and reading Saturday the
9th's headlines is TO live wildly in
all the horror and chaos of the
capitalist nightmare:
Tammany Is trying to jam through
grating tax program, and is being
fought by other capitalists. Yes.
Tammany even suggests a capital
levy, and it alarms the bankers,
though the city bonds go up. Roose-
Welt, in the next column, appeals "for
peoples help TO relieve the needy"
THE President and his wife, starting
mobilization, puts individual aid
beyond the governments" Back to
the old Hoover policy of no federal
aid to the unemployed, only this dis
gushing charity appeal, this hypo-
critical sob appeal to the poor to
help those even poorer (thus saving
the rich) Feisal Of Iraq dies sud-
denly in Berne, the Arab king who
was England's puppet; his son, the
new King, little dark-skinned