The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-13
By MORRIS PITMAN

NEW YORK. - A crowd which
overfowed Irving Plaza Hall, with
every inch of standing space filled,
listened with intent interest to a
discussion of "the place Of the in
teIlectual in the workers struggle"
on Sunday night. Speakers were
Mary Van Kleeck, Of the Rus
sell Sage Foundation, Granville
Hicks, author and professor at Van
Rensselaer, College, and Earl Brow
der, general secretary of the Com
munist Party, Sunday night.
The meeting was held under the
auspices of the New Masses and
the John Reed Club.
1t was crowd which represented
many walks Of life, and many poll
tical tendencies. 1t was serious
crowd. Of teachers, social workers,
scientific workers, Office workers,
wage workers, writer's, artists Their
intent attitude, and the many ques-
tions which the speakers were still
answering at midnight, testified
that intellectuals in America are
seriously thinking of the revolution
airy movement, and what attitude
they must adopt to it.
Mary van Kleeck discussed what
attitude the intellectual must adopt
toward the working class; Granville
Hicks spoke of the attitude OF the
intellectual to the Communist
Party; and Earl Browder spoke OF
the attitude of the Communist Party
toward the potential allies of the
working class, and particularly to-
ward the intelectuals.
Mary van Kleeck, head Of the in
dustrial research department of the
Russell Sage Foundation, who re-
signed from the N. r. A. in protest
at its strike breaking role, described
how her own experience convinced
her that every position but that OF
putting the working class struggle
first tends inevitably to slip into
Fascism.
The issue, she declared, is that
of "the principle of possession YER
sus the principle Of creative work"
And in that struggle, she asked,
where does the allegiance Of the
intellectual worker belong?" The
necessary aim of such a struggle,
she declared, must be the creation,
of a classics society, and eff the
intellectual workers attempt to put
the principle of creative work into
operation without putting the work
ing class in the vanguard OF the
struggle, they will fail"
Possession and State Power
They will fail, she said, because
the power Of possession is the power
to control production, and from that
power comes the power to control
the government-and such gov
eminent is not a democracy, but an
instrument of possession, a govern
ment which will defend capitalism
when that is needed, a government
which will suppress the class strug-
gle under the guise of represent
ing the whole, and calling for unity
in the interests of the whole ma
tion.' From there it goes on to dis
courage strikes, and to develop in
struments which will actually pre-
vent strikes.
you will recognize this in a more
highly developed form in Italy and
Nazi Germany" she said.
She told of her visits to Austria
oil
Democrats were still in power, and
of her conviction that the program
OF the Socialist parties would not
solve the problems of the workers,
because it put the struggle Of the
workers into the background.
Similarly, she declared, the real
issue in the Madison Square Gar
den meeting on Austria, was the
issue of whether or not there should
be a clear-cut discussion of the real
questions confronting the Austrian
working class.
Nationalisim VS.. InternationaIism
Referring to those who would like
to make the American workers
'VA o65AO q Pu1C lJ lldtlU1ldl S6IuSBlS,
she declared her conviction that it
cannot succeed cut off from the his
t ORIG, worldwide international
struggle of the workers against the
possessors, for the building of a
society in which classes no longer
exist.
Granville Hicks, one Of the best
known Of the American intellectuals
who have come out in support of
the revolutionary working class