The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-02-03

Worker cartoonist who died IN Mos
COW two years ago, is the best proof
that books about the Soviet Union 90
not have to be written after the fash
ion Of Eve Carrot Grady and VIII
Durant to be popular and human"
Marjorie Smith, an energetic news
paperwoman and novelist, accom-
panied Ryan Walker to the Soviet
Union on a Workers Delegation in
Oct. 1881.
II was neither good proletsrian nor
good bourgeois when I started out
on that morning Of October. 1881, /"
she writes. II was just another curl
GUS human being out to see the Rus
STA Of today, about which I knew
nothing whatever, which was precise
ly what knew of the Russia Of pre-
vious days. But, was open-minded.
Every human being who sets out TO
see the Russia Of today insists that he
is open-minded."
In spite Of the fact that
she would be described as a
sophisticated" newspaper woman for
whom there Is nothing conceivably
new, she got quite jolt when she
and Ryan Walker were Swallowed"
by dick from Scotland Yard.
She and Walker had just paid q
visit to the London Daily Worker for
whom the latter was making a strip
similar to the famous Henry Dubh"
and Bill Worker" series.
Somehow" writest Miss Smith,
ut never once occurred to me that
Scotland Yards vigilance would in
clude me. The truth was that I was
bawling the deuce out Of Walker for
mixing up with any political organ
izetion that would involve such
things as policemen, when a good
locking young man OF about thirty
five barred our path. r was not too
angry to forget to be charitable, so
I paused long enough to say: Obi
Walker, give the poor fellow some
American money
Walker fumbled through his
pockets and brought out a dime. To
our establishment the man refused it.
Instead, he introduced himself as Of
ficer Harrigan of Scotland Yard, and
with feigned 'this-hurts- me more
than-it-hurts-you' look, demanded to
know what we were doing in the
Daily Worker Office, and where were
cur passports?"
OF course. the author Of From
Broadway to Moscow" got many
more surprises when she reached
the Soviet Union-but, Of course,
Of an entirely different kind, with
the result that she began to suspect
that her "sophist,catiOn" was of
the skin-deep variety.
She discovered. for example, that
the dread GPU" are really swell
guys whose job it is to lead the strug-
gle against counter revolution, spy
ing and banditism"; that it is against
the law for tourist to give a native
American money in exchange for
Russian rubles; that speculation was
severely punished: that members Of
the Young Pioneers could make the
managing editors of American bour-
geois newspapers look sick in dis
cussicn on economics and sociology;
and that the morality of the Soviet
Union was something which de-
prayed publishers of American tab
loids could not even comprehend.
''From Broadway to Moscow" con-
tains some appealing descriptions Of
various personalities-some of them
American Communists. There's the
American Conrade," for example.
"T'he American Comrade was TYPICAL
ly American she writes =.
"a cross between night city editor
and a walking delegate for the car
penters' union. I gathered that he
represented the American Communist
Party in Moscow, in some building
called the Conintern
From this building the three of
us went for walk, for the American
Comrade seemed bent on showing us
the capital of the U. S. S. r. He was
very young and very enthusiastic 4.
this American comrade. He spoke
wit h typical Western drawl,
stressed his "the's,' wore typical
American clothes, and scattered
Americanisms through his Russian
descriptions. All in all, the man did
not look like a dangerous radical
I wondered, as we walked along, why
this young man with the soft voice
and pleasant smile was in Moscow,
and if he were part OF this web of
the Red Srider' that one reads of so
often in American newspapers.
made up my mind to ask Walker
more about internal politics as soon
as We were alone again"
Walker was for more t. Il 80 years
an active artist in the workingclass
first in the Socialist and
later in the Communist Party. He
did not come to us, however, until
the crisis revealed to him the true
nature of the Socialist program. In
the interim between the formation
of the Communiet Party and his en-
trance into it, Walker worked in q
technical capacity for bourgeois pub-
LEGATIONS. all the time oppressed by
his feeling of isolation from the
workers and farmers - thousen ds of
whom kuew and loved him for his
"F9nrv Dubbr IS well as for his chalk
talks which he gave on numerous ma
tional tours,
The hook Jacket or ''From Mos
COW to Broadway was designed by
his co-worter Ja"ob Burck, staff ar
tist of the OniIv Worker.
RYAN Walkers ingenious en-
thusiasm over everything he saw in
Russia. his plowing letters from the
collective farms and cities which he
visited-while his wife remeined in
Moscow = are all recorded In the
rooS. This enthusiasm end his I'M
sparine activities resulted in his I'M