The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-20

Dear Comrade Editor:
Now that one of the most extern
sive campaigns of the Communist
Party is over, I wish to make few
suggestions. The primary one is
that of public speakers. I personally
believe that comrades with a notice
able accent are detrimental to the
Party and the movement in gen.
eral as far as public speaking is
concerned. Permit me to bear this
out with an example.
About a week ago I took some
young worker to street corner
meeting. The comrade who was
speaking had a very noticeable
German accent. was very inter
ested in what he was saying and
Immediately saw that the comrade
had very fine intellectual back
ground, and had also participated
in many of the workers struggles.
However, my friend was immediate
ly repealed and biased because of
the fact that the comrade was a
foreigner With all my pleading OF,
Listen to what he has to say and
not how he says it, my friend
would not have foreigners tell him
how to run things in this country.
And yet when this worker heard
Paul c. CroSsbie speak at q public
school around the neigborhood, he
was instantly interested and at the
end of the lecture he applauded
boisterously.
Surely comrades, this is no light
criticism. If there are people, and
there must be millions, who do not
like to hear foreigners tell them how
to run their" country, let us give
them public speakers who can COM
mand attention by their Yankee
look and their Yankee speech. I
am sure it is not asking too much
and yet the good it can do the Party
is infinite.
INV.
NOTE: Certainly the Party must
utilize its forces to the best adj
vantage. And this includes a con-
sideration of the best people for
certain work, a weighing of the
various factors in given situa-
ton that will permit the choice
of comrades assigned to give the
best results. In assigning speak
ers, the choice should be dictated
by such considerations.
But the careful consideration of
the best choice for speakers can
not become of such a character
that the Party makes inexcusable
concessions to the mistaken ideas
or backward prejudices of certain
workers. Undoubtedly, many work
ers, for example, have been
poisoned by the capitalist press in
their opinion of foreign" workers.
Also, many workers have been
poisoned by the ideas of white
chauvinism, the idea that the
Negro worker is inferior" But do
we on that account refuse to place
Negro comrades on our speaking
stands? Do we hesitate to send
| Negro comrades into white"
neighborhoods or white comrades
into Negro neighborhoods on that
account? Would we not be guilty
of assisting in the spreading of
the poison Of chauvinism If we did
that? Is 1t not our duty to combat
this poison by boldly defying these
bourgeois prejudices with which
the workers have been innoculated
by the ruling class?
OF course, we try to be skillfull
in our fight against chauvinism.
We do not simply close cur eyes
in sectarian blindness to the sit
uation as 1t exists. We try to de-
veiop methods of combating the
rrcjuaices Of backward workers.
Fer example, in Negro neighbor-
hoods, we take into account the
Nationalist poison which the Negro
niisleaders pump into the minds
of the Negro masses about being
wary of Whitehall whites, includ-