The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-01-30
A Revolutionary Play~For a
a While>>By Elmer Rice
eve, the People" Unmasks Capitalism and
Then Ends With Liberal Whine

ers from schools for radical actiyi
ties, and the murder frame-up in
labor struggles.
Necessarily the play develops to-
ward the theme of mass struggle,
and here the trouble starts. AS
long as Rice deals with individu-
ais, he treads on firm ground; as
soon as he tries to show masses in
action. he stuInbles and Skids.
More, he falsifies history. The
shooting up of the demonstration
at the Apologize plant is based on
the Ford Massacre. But Rice has
castrated this great working class
struggle: he has stripped 1t of its
organizing force, the Unemployed
Councils and the Communist Party,
and, instead, we have a group Of
workers who have managed to per-
Suade their ex-foreman, Davis, TO
serve as their spokesman and plead
in christian humility with the boss
who has thrown them out on the
streets. The whole scene is not
only politically utopian and reac-
tionRry, but has about as much
life as q collection OF Semaphores.
From this point on the play be-
gins TO sag and goes from bad 70
worse. Allen Davis and his sweet
heart, Mary Klobutsko, who In the
first part seem to have the makingS
of sturdy young revolutionists, be-
come vague, sentimental anarchist
rebels; Hirschbein, the professor
who gets fired out Of the univer-
sity, is a similar type, with more
than a suspicion of the neurotic;
the Rev. Thomas Williamson, who
in the early scenes is q genial, but
Intellectual old gent, Is transformed
at the end into a yeritable tribune
of the people; and the murder
frame-up itself is Invested of. all
class content and becomes simply
dirty deal' to an innocent In
dividual.
One hesitates TO attribute such
distortions of the fundamental i'm
plications of the whole first part
of the play solely to the authors
confusion or ignorance. ss
AND it all ends with protest:
n meeting against a background
Of huge American flag, in which
not the workers speak for their
framed coInrade, but his relatives
and friends, with the pastor pre-
siding over all. Out of which all
emerge:
l.. A plea against persecution OF
the foreign-born because those who
came over on the Mayflower were
also immigrant foreigners. 80
Q. A plea for the life of a framed
young worker because he is the
sweetheart of one person, the
brother of another, the former
pupil of third and the friend Of
several other worthy characters.
3. A plea for "fair play for the
workingman because the Declare
ton of Independence says all men
are born free and equal. ssa
4. A plea dmplicit) against the
revolutionary way out of the crisis
because if enough decent people,
get together, capitalism can b
reformed, cleansed and furnigated.
All of which would undoubtedly
win the approval Of socialists and
liberals (not to mention many
capitalists), but is quite the oppo-
site Of what I'VE, the People,
started out to say.
Considering that this Is Broadway
and that Elmer Rice has In the past
shown considerable talent in re-
vealing the surface of social reali-
ties, but little understanding Of the
complexity of social forces that
drive history onward-the history
of individuals, as we'll as Of groups
and classes--"We, the People" goes
a long way, a way that many
middle class intellectuals are trav-
cling. The future may see Elmer
Rice go even farther. But certainly
others, perhaps unknown Is yet,
will and must 60 farther