The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-09-01

The following arucle is TO appear
shortly in number of "Interna-
tional Literature" published in
Moscow by the International Union
of Revolutionary Writers.
eff you can't carry from New
York, then buy in Berlin.
Everything: Canned goods,
sugar, soap, toilet paper, pen
ellis, ink, winter clothes, can
openers, toothbrushes, shoe
strings, and so on, and so on,
and so on. Otherwise you will
go hungry, dirty and ragged in
Moscow" thus good friends
earnestly advised me.
"You will be guided, guarded
and watched all the time in
Moscow-the GPU," they warned
me.
1.-THE peasants and poor folks have
control and they're the stupidest
people on earth. You will be sadly
disappointed in Moscow" estimable
gentlemen who had especially studied
the Russian experiment" told me.
ooh, and what might happen to
your poetryl There's only propaganda
in Moscow" charming ladies with
artistic SOILS exclaimed
'gThey only want to make Commu-
nists out of yol-all, you and the
rest of these Negroes going in that
group-and get you slaughtered when
you come back home-if the Ameri-.
can government let's you come back, ;"
genteel colored people told me.
you'd better stay home"
I HCan't,, I said. Il want to see
Moscow"
So when the Europa sailed from
New York on June IA in the year of
our one-time Lord 1882, there was
in group of % Negroes going to
the Soviet Union to make a film,
BLACK and White'i
No One Pale or Undernourished
Moscow met us at Leningrad-in
the persons of some officials Of the
NIeschrabpom for whom we were to
work And among them was Ne
gro! None Of these men from Mos
COW appeared pale and undenour-
ished or in need OF the canned goods
we had brought And certainly col
ored Comrade Whiteman didn't look
anything like
"a motherless chile
"a long ways from home"
And he has lived in Moscow for years.
The banquet they spread for us at
the october Hotel in Leningrad ran
all the way from soup on through
roast chicken and vegetables right
down to ice cream and black coffee.
And an orchestra playing dinner mu-
sic. All of which was
-'fBetter, better, than gets at
home"
The speeches we're short and warm
with proletarian greetings and the
orchestra played the "Internatio-
nale":
"Arise, We prisoners of starva-
ton"
But we were all little too full of
good food at the moment to give that
line its real meaning.
arise, We slaves no more in
thrall."
We did better on that: we Negroes:
Moscow and freedoml The Soviet
Union! The dream Of all the poor
and oppressed--like us-come true.
"VOl1 have hnaf1 yoa11C11t
"Ycu shall be all"
We slept on the Express roaring
through the night toward Moscow. In
the morning we emerged from the
train to the clicking of a battery of
newspaper cameras and the greetings
of a group of Moscovites come to
meet us. And among them were two
more Negroes! One was Emma Har-
ris who's lived in Russia for 30 years,
sings. and makes the best apple pies
in the world. And the other was a
grandly black boy who we thought
was from Africa-but who turned out
to be from Chicago. His name was
Bob
Carried Along In the Crowd
Our hands were shaken. We were
Rugged and kissed. We were carried
along In the crowd to the bright sun
shine Of the street outside. And there
a flock of long shiny cars waited for
us-Buicks and Lincolns-that swept
us through the Moscow boulevards
making as much time as the taxis
in Central Park. We drove across the
Red Square past Lenin's Mausoleum
and the towers and domes of the
Kremlin--and stopped block away
at the Grand Hotel.
Our rooms were ready for us
clean and comfortable, with hot and
cold water, homelike settees and deep
roomy chairs. Courteous attendants
there were, baths and elevator, a
book shop and two restaurants. Ev-
erything that a hotel for white folks
at home would have-except that,