The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-09-30
Workers Protest
Stops Attempt to
B ar BarbusSe


Congress Against War-Professo
Harry w. L. Dana, Mother Bloor,
A. A. Heller and a dozen others. In
the waiting room of the pier was a
reception committee of 20 writer's
waiting to greet fellow writer and
a leader in the struggle for peace.
Circulating up and down the pier
and waiting impatiently in the
street were a thousand members of
the Workers Elk Servicemens
League, who had come to do honor
to the international president of
their organization. What would Ell
lis Island say to this?
Ellis Island said, Don't let him
land" When the inspector came
back with this news you could see
that he was nervous. He didn't like
to think about the crowd.
Barbusee, so we heard, was to be
whisked off to Ellis Island by boat
and tried before a special Star
Chamber court for the crime of try
ing to prevent another war. Maybe
he would be released and maybe
not. We laid plans for doing what
we could-getting a bondsman, get
ting a lawyer, getting protests
through to Washington. Barbusse,
in his short interview, had won the
loyalty of the ship news reporters
he has the gift of winning people
and they crowded round to offer
their advice.
While we were comforting, there
was a comedy ashore. The vessel
bearing the great French enemy of
war was also bearing a big brass
hat of the French army, General de
Chambrun. There was a band to
meet him, and the band played bat
tie songs-"Over There" and mad
elon" and "The Regiment of Sam
bre and Meuse." The big brass hat
went ashore and passed a delega-
ton of French workers which he
thought had come to meet him. He
saluted, and so did they-they gave
him a birdie. The brass hat marched
outside and passed the Workers Ex-
Servicemen's League, and with one
voice thousand of them shouted:
Down with imperialist war!"
Our conference broke up and I
hurried ashore to see what l could
do. On the pier l brushed past doz-
ems of Ex-Servicemen, all of them
asking the same questions: "When
will he land?"-and then, when
they heard that he was being sent
to Ellis Island, "What can we do?"
They were determined to help
their comrade and international
leader, and they We're determined
to do nothing that could harm him.
A demonstration on the pier might
prejudice his case? All right, bud
dy, they said-we'll hold our dem
onstration somewhere else.
l tell you a steamship pier is an
inhuman place. People are dwarfed
there by steel and concrete. HUI
mainly is over-awed by officialdom.
People talk in mechanical voices
but on the pier where the Beren-
garia locked a human voice was
raised, a great shout:
workers, on to Union So"
The good sound of it was ringing
in my ears as l hurried on to the
waiting room to consult with the
delegation of writers.
What could we do? The first
thing was to wire a protest to the
Labor Department in Washington.
We started to compose it--"The
undersigned writer's, members of a
committee to greet Henri Barbusse,
vigorously protest against his de-
tention by the immigration authori-
ties" Was that enough? Yes,
get signatures, Robert Morss Low
EFT, Edward Dahlberg, Granville
Hicks, Henry Hazlitt-hurry, hurry
Mike Gold, John Chamberlain,
Quincy Howe, Grace Lumpkin, all
protesting against the stupidity and
blindness of the authorities.
Suddenly we heard a great shout
from the pier: "He's landedw
Down the pier, escorted by ex-
servicemen, came Barbusse. The
authorities had yielded to the mass
es who demanded their leader in the
struggle against war. He came, first
walking, then, as the crowd
cheered, hoisted on to the shoulders
of the ex-servicemen, while hun
dreds gave the Red Front salute. A
guard of honor spontaneously
formed itself to keep him from be-
ing crushed by his own admirers
Somebody struck up the Interna-
tional and it doomed forth from a
thousand threats above the din of
trucks and taxi cabs.
"Arise, we children Of starva-
ton" And they arose, and more
clearly than ever before | felt the
STRENGTH of the masses united in q