The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-06-19
Stories of Workers
LEES in "AnViL, -
Edited by COnroy
THE ANVIL, edited by Jack Con-
roy, May-June Issue.
Reviewed by
LEONARD SPIER

THE evergrowing maturity Of
American proletarian literature
is reflected in the steadily improved
contents of the little magazines
which are managing to survive their
eternal depression. Particularly is
this 50 Of the Anvil" Not alone
are new writers appearing, but the
veterans" too are rapidly flndirg
themselves and are turning out bet
ter work than 50 short time as
year ago.
The Msy-June issue of the AN
vii" is very encouraging. New sub
jects are tackled, demonstrating
that working-clas stories need not
suffer necesaritly from lack of
variety. For example, Collar"
story which happens to be one of
Joseph Kalars best pieces, is q psy-
Geological study of "straw-boss"
who has been given the bounce"
Another instance is the diverting
but penetrating skit by Joseph
vogel, called 'Violets Are Blue" At
Hotel Blue Jay, Vogel finds
batch of reformist delegates gath
cred to consider ACCESSIBILITY of pc
titioning the government to act on
behalf of the Working Glass" Com
munists keep out, reads a large sign.
Vogel catches his reformists with
their pants down and tells us all
about it, and does make a swell job
Of it.
Saul Levitt contributes a subject
likewise novel. In Below the Belt, ="
worker who regularly visits "one
of those joints" this time, to his
embarrassment bumps into his boss
who, 1t seems, also likes "the look
OF whore's legs" discovering to his
apparent surprise that the boss and
he, the worker, are the same "be-
low the belt"
The story is we'll told and con-
tains many interesting ssides on the
life of the workers. Nevertheless, 1t
reveals g. pernicious tendency which
may have been missed by the au-
thor himself. 1t is not the bust
ness of the revolutionary writer to
show how human" the boss is as
a man. His class-conscious duty, on
the contrary, is to show how in
human the man is as a boss. Lev
tits story tends to blur the essential
issue, that Of the class-struggle and
leads to the corroding conclusion
that after all the worker and the
boss are both human-all too
human, ETC., etc.
THEN there is Jesus Saves" by
l Robanoff, about a man who
iustifies his vicious scab actions by
religion; "A Holiday in Texas" part
of forthcoming novel by Nelson
Algren, dealing with life on Texas
ranch; Life, Death and Winters
End" very ambitious title for a
rather disappointing sketch by
Goldfarb. The most genuinely pro-
letarian story is an excellent de-
scriptive narrative by Willard Mas,
"Cannery Mothers" which has as
its subject the foreign-born women
Shaving at cannery. Mas writes
wildly and convincingly. The story
is we'll worth reprinting in THE
Working Woman"
Among the poets in this issue are
H. H. Lewis, Orrick Jones, Henry
George Weiss and Norman Mac
leod, well known to readers of work
ing class literature. MacLeod's
poem, 1.-The Fallow Years." however,
is marred by lack of clarity and
confused imagery Outstanding for
its power and simplicity is Weiss
poem, "Lenin Lives" Clark Mills,
Frank Ankenbrank, Jr., and j. M.
Sherry also contribute to an ample
and generally satisfying selection
Of verse.
Embellished by line-cuts j. G.
Rogers. the Anvil" shows undeni-
able advance, and supported by the
workers, will, we hope, continue to
do 50.