The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-11-17
w "A q I
- e -
WORLD!
By Joseph Freeman:

E0Rste years great lit
circles about attitude art the of
anay Gordon santae flung their imagination around the left
wing literary liberal critics from reading what left
wing actually they could accurate es
mate as to what in reality were the points in dispute
Writers otherwise fairly rational committed themselves in print to
extraordinary conclusions They said Ienn and Too shared
p the views art They said Fascism and Communism had
identical attitudes toward literature The series OF nonsensal assertions
was infinite =
nyenting whom
they knock other writer's less honest because abdy
that ftwing writers
and are slaves the Kremn They nothing
proysanda policies They poetry
indeed they enemies and art They put artists in uniform
oaly accurate history the lewng movement in arts and
time the
myself with dipping casually into the files OF the New Masses
contain hundreds of letters between the editors and contributors OF
that psca seriously discussing problems OF revolutionary art
HINDER date of April a. 1888 ABcY
talented writer letter protesting the publication in the New Masses
Edwin Role entitled Homage to Karl Marx which began
Here the dim Of the dusk with the wings Of birds and
the of their cries and the slim lines Of the trees
Against the and horizon
hase dipped in the thunder again for finaIut with
our Toes the dying enraged the poweries
fathers and sons of decay made strong in despair and
the thoughts all who die
knowing certain the vicor smiling above them
From there poem quite beautifully to de-
sef the steo the revolution great
wodh cumulative fateland" Of our day when
his words like ves in
with sparks showering penetrate The COM
ulajaoFatng anniversary of Marks DEATH ended
~~r Now, fifty since his days
meth last midnigh we-his countless heirs
n all lands his wisdom in BRAIN
a~@". of half a century,
- to, fnprssnae the earth with newer life to vim
battle; and, CLASHES, to
the final right to supremacy
TO TyIs poem dignity romantic in its warmth Abe
other things he complained that no
with here in the dim
that it has been done 200 times plus
B54re dim and there
dus subievey effectively revolutionary movement And
added II Communist and am a
ngstaudng reputation Why disgrace US all with rpeS
ARc knowledge and belief freeborn Amer
tated by Moscow god His opinions are his own
disagreed with them In defense OF EDWIN
Fofey letter. part of which I cite here:
little unfair to Edwin Rolfe He has grown
member Of the Young Com
that be that poet he is
advanced towards Communism yourself Nevertheless as
describing emotional world Of those who have de-
veoped toward Communism
OUR POETS NOT TO FALS1FY THIS ASPECT
are action bourgeois their feelings
Our emotions painfully than Ideas Some
represents only the result flat stale and
Improbable Tsn
II better growth following the evolution OF
honestly And do not think is possible 10
thunder again for final
tilt from the dim of OF the dusk with the wings
their cries and the slim lines OF the trees against
and horizon.
"You have already the road to Communism
that YOU forgotten birds and horizon But
oe young must be sincere and really creative
world OF the literature in which we were all
brought up BY acknowledging it and moving out OF it.
generously replied that my letter was a uioue 70
m gold huor continued to disagree about
the insisted that te style Of that particular poem
Role should not be encouraged
Kremn is making of its literary policy
Here are enchmen" in America who in duty bound
I'd follow the straight path Haunting independent opinions
each other unconvnced
uolnpg the Daily Worker through Michael Gold.