The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-10-02
BY LOUIS GOLDMAN
ALONG THIS WAY, by James We'll
don Johnson. New York. The
Viking Press. $3.50.

don Johnson. New York. The
Viking Press. $3.50.
In an earlier book. THE Auto
biography of an ex-Colored Man, "
Mr.. johnson gave the world his basic
philosophy, in the form of fiction.
The Autobiography was first pub
lished anonymously, and did not fol-
low the lines Of Mr.. Johnsons life,
as the present book does. Perhaps
for that reason it was possible to ex-
press more crudely there the yearn-
ings of man like johnson, a mem
Der Of the highest social strata of an
oppressed race, but who lives rather
in the closest intimacy with the ruiz
ing class OF the oppressor race.
The most striking idea put forward
by the protagonist Of the "Autobiog-
raphy' was in regard to the final So
luton of the Negro question" Con-
densed, it was this,
The Negro bourgeois will never be
able to rise while there exists along
side Of him the Negro masses. drag
ging him down The determination Of
the Negro masses is really too much
to ask, but what other solution can
there be?
1t is interesting to learn from
Johnson's new book that most of
the writing of the Autobiography"
was done while he was acting as
American consul in Venezuela and
in Nicaragua-in the latter country
while American imperialism was es-
tablishing its stranglehold on the
country through bloody repression,
The first 224 pages of the book
probably are the most astonishing
that ever came from the pen of a
Negro leader" Such stuff has
scarcely been written even by white
stuffed-shirts for the past ten years.
1t is the blandest personal autobi-
ographical material in the Victorian
manner I've seen in a long time.
Pages are devoted to the minutest
details of family matters, to the books
johnson read as child-af1d whole
paragraphs and pages might be lifted
out Of it, and if you read them SO
detached you would think you were
reading the memoirs of any boring
old member of the Union League,
willing to pay for publication. You
wouldn't know you were reading the
memoirs Of member of an oppressed
nation in America, and of one who
had since become leadef-no mat
ter in what direction-of his people.
The next most astonishing pages
are the last ones. In between are
pages describing what may at times
have been a really militant nislead-
ership. This part ends about 1890
the exact date is a little vague. And
after that-nothihg. A few. pages of
vapid generalities about the posi-
ton of the Negro in America, and
his future-one suspects purposely
kept vague-and then 1.-THE END"
The word Of "Scottsboro'' is not men
toned. OF the tremendous wave of
militant struggles of the Negro peo-
pie, their growing unity in struggle
with white workers, not a word.
About 100 pages are devoted more
or less to Mr.. Jol1nson's imperialist
adventures in Venezuela and Nicara-
qua, referred to above. And less than
that to his work in the National AS
ISOLATION for the Advancement of
Colored People. The book has Ala
pages. The rest is blather about his
friends among the Negro bourgeoisie,
and how nicely he was treated by
this and that influential white man,
as he pursued his musical, literary
and political career.
Once he gets into the 80 pages or
so devoted to his career in the N. A.
A. G. p tl916-i930), johnson deals
with material which is the subject
matter of.ofie of the most basic ques-
tons facing the Negro people and
the: revolutionary working class to-
day. Every time he describes a lynch