davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31
1885 PLANS IN
NEW YORK DISTRICT

Having completed its quota of
100000 pieces of literature sold in
1884. the District Literature Depart
ment in New York is making a
drive to sell 100000 pieces of liter
allure during the coming year, The
method Of socialist competition will
be used extensively. To stimulate
the activity of the units, sections,
and mass organizations the follow
ing prizes will be awarded to the
winner of the competition:
$3.50 worth of books to the section
of the Party that reaches the high
est percentage of its quota.
$50 worth of books to the liter
allure director of the winning sec
ton.
$50 worth of books to the PARTY
unit receiving the highest percent
age of its quota.
SIS worth of books to the liter
allure director of the winning unit
Second prizes will amount to halt
the above amounts.
The individual comrade in the
District selling the highest amount
OF literature will receive SIS worth
of books.
The individual comrade selling
the second highest amount will re-
ceive $3.50 worth of books.
Thu n1t,a ,31k,4;a.. ,,.,fy
proportionate sale of literature as
compared with average dues pay
ments for the months of January
February and March. This puts all
sections and units on an equal foot
ing no matter what their member
ship. In the contest, a certain
number of points will be awarded
for agitation material, a certain
number for theoretical material. and
a certain number for amount of
cash taken in.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31

aim our sharpest criticisms, warning
the workers that behind his phrases
is the mailed fist Of the capitalist.
Take Father Coughlin as an ex-
ample. He attacks Wall Street. He
breaches a jeremiad against the
rich. But his advocacy Of the pri-
vate ownership of the means of
production, his attacks against the
Communists, his close tie-up with
the most predatory forces of Amer
lean capital, all stamp him for what
he really is, one of the most dan
gerous enemies of the working class.
His job is to steer the workers who
are aroused over their intolerable
conditions into the camp of fascism.
Lenin taught us that our criticism
must especially be directed against
those enemies of the workers who
mask their enmity with the great
est demagogy. With such mislead-
ers there can never be the slightest
compromise On the contrary our
main blows must be struck against
them.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31
Questions and Answers

Question: Although Father Cough
is rnislesder Of the working class,
would not the best method of ex-
posing him, be to give him moral
support, and allow him to expose
himself in practice?-R. A. S.
Answer: While it is true that
Father Coughlin's actions will ex-
pose his demagogy, we would not be
acting as Communists If we were
merely to depend upon self-expos-
ure. In organizing the masses for
struggles around their immediate
needs, we must continually warn
them against takers such as Father
Coughlin. His type of social dema-
gogy is far more dangerous than
the open hostility of the reaction
aries.
Their hate is so apparent that
the workers can be modified
against them. But the misleader
whose heart bleeds over the woes
of the working man conceals his
ruling class purposes with radical
phrases and smooth words. 1t is
against his sophisms that we must
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31
NlEfAChCu ul
J. GERLANDO

ly many essentials of Marxism that
are confused in the minds of liberals
and sympathizers. His task is an
important one, one that adheres
closely to Lenin's statement that
the main duty of the Bolshevik is
patiently to explain" His profound
grasp of current happenings, his
ability to discuss brilliantly their
MARKHAM Interpretation in a style
that is compact, as we'll as readable,
fits him ideally for this task.
Literature and Dialectical Mate
rialism," though less than twelve
thousand words long, is an excellent
example Of Stracheys genius for
saying a great deal in a short time.
for explaining simply without con-
descending, and, what is quite i'm
portant in his particular function.
for keeping his emotions largely in
the background and his thinking in
the foreground. For anyone who is
at all uncertain about the implica-
tons Of revolutionary literature, its
role in the class struggle, the effect
Of fascism on modern literature, the
application of dialectical material
ism to culture, I recommend this
booklet as the shortest and most
brilliant introduction to the study
OF revolutionary literature that has
been written yet.
Some have called Strachey a
polite" Communist. Mere polite
ness, we all know, will never bring
about a revolution, Strachey's DO
likeness, however, is not the Emily
Post sort; it is, rather. suave
manner of writing and speaking
that is especially effective with
those white collar professionals,
workers, and intellectuals, who are
often easily frightened. Indeed. so
great is Strachey's suavity that
many of our tender bourgeois critics
who, ordinarily, are ready to yell
ouch" at the slightest abuse. have
apparently read this essay through
very diligently. without losing
their precious tempers and, Judging
from several of their reviews, with
considerable respect for Strachey's
points. OF course they have under
stated their respect as much as
possible.
John Chamberlain, for example.
agrees that Strachey's general thesis
is sound enough" He spends no
time discussing it, however, and, in
stead, uses more than half of his
review to piddle around with minor
details, expanding them out of their
true proportion, so that readers of
the review who have not read the
book are bound to get a distorted
idea of what the essay contains,
unless they already know enough
Of Mr. Chamberlain to be on their
guard.
GENERAL of the liberal critics
" have applauded Strachey on one
particular point: His appeal to such
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31

music but upon making it them
selves.
We cannot point out too insist
entity that it is in the music that
the workers make themselves that
the strength Of the revolutionary
music front lies. But how are they,
untaugnt by capitalist education,
without the opportunities of ex-
pensive lessons, to use their normal
musical talent to best advantage?
Our social system will keep them
from this, to the limit of its power
over them. The only resource is for
them to organize music schools for
themselves. No one will endow
thesel The workers must found
them and conduct them laboriously
by their own effort.
SO We greet the newly formed
Music Division Of the Workers
School, affiliated with the Workers
Music League, which opens its first
term January 8. May it live long
and prosper!
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31
CLEVELAND SECTION
FULFILLS QUOTA ON
LENIN SETS

when our section received direc-
tives from the District Literature
Department in regard to the Lenin
Sets, they included quota for us
to dispose of eight sets. We have
six units in our section, with a
total of 80 members, and, frankly,
I thought our quota was too high.
I underestimated the ability of the
units to absorb such a quota, think
ing to myself that if we succeeded
in disposing of five sets through the
section we would be doing well.
Nevertheless, l raised the queS-
ton in the section committee and
started to agitate the units on the
necessity Of each one of them get
ting set for their unit library,
I sent them clippings dealing with
the achievement of International
Publishers in putting out the set at
such low price, and started social
list competition among the units.
THE review as published in the
Daily Worker Oec. 81 was sent to
every unit buro, and with it plan
on how they could secure set for
their library and sell sets outside
Of their unit. The plan we sent
them set forth these points:
ID Units to buy sets on payments
as low as so cents a week.
"2) Unit members to purchase
sets on same terms.
"3) Units to dispose of 100 rattle
tickets at 10 cents each, for which
they would get a Lenin Set and
have $500 for their literature fund.
- Unit members to go over a
list of workers and intellectuals who
are known to be interested in the
revolutionary movement, approach
ing them to buy a Lenin Set.
80 Each unit to get at least one
mass organization to purchase a
Lenin Set.
Results up to date show that
our Section has already disposed
Of IL sets. We are confident that
with more effort we will see our
original quota doubled"
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31
TUNING In

7:oO-wEAF-our outlook for 1es5-sens-
tor Hendrix shipstead Of Minne-
sofa.
woR-sports Tslk-stsn Lomax
wJZ-Amos n Andy.
wABC-Myrt and Marge Sketch.
-woR-Lum and Abner-5keteh
wJz-Plantation Echoes
wABc-Just Plain Btll-sketch
3O-wEAF-Armsnd Gerard. Bass
Wired Davis-sketeh
wOR-Mystery Sketch
wABc-The o'Neills-sketch
74s-wEAF-Unele REra-sketeh
wOR-channing Choir
wJz-Dangerous Paradise-sketch
wABC-Boske Carter Commentator
800 WEAr-Eimber Orch,
WOR-Lone Rsnger-Sketch
WABC-Emery Deutseh, Violin.
15-WABC-Edvin c. Hill, Commentator.
3o-WEAF-Gladys swarthout, Sopranol
Symphony Orch; Mixed Chorus
wOR-Concert from SIS. Aquitania
WJz-Carefree Carnival
wABC-Ksts Smiths Revue
300 WEAF-Gypsies Orch.
wOR-The witch's Tale.
WJZ-Minstrel Show.
WABC-Warnow Orch.
$780, WEAF-House Party; Goodman
Orch: Conrad Thibault, Baritonei
Martha Mears, Songs
wOR-Corrinna Mura, Soprano.
WIZ Like Your Nerye-Sketch
wABC-Gluskin ORCH; Block and
SULLY, Comedy; Gertrude Niessn,
&5-WCR-Vecsey Orch
1000 wEAT-Esstmsn orch; Lullaby
Lady: Male Quartet.
wOR-Jack Arthur, Baritone.
wJZ-America in Music; John Tas-
k.r Howard. Narrator,
WABC-wayne King Orch
o:ts-WOF-Current Events-E e. Read
1890 wEAF-cugat. Goodman and Mur-
ray Orchs until $50 am: Ma
ria Jeritsa. Soprano, at 1850 pm,
wOR-Ksmp Orch.
wJZ-Same as wEAF
WABC-Proyress in l534-Miohael n.
Davis and c. Rufus Rorsm OF jus
Illus Rossnwsld Fund, Chicago.
io.4S-WAEC-New Years Celebration By
Byrd Expedition at Little America.
ii.o0-W O1S-Eews.
WABC-New Years Eve Dancing
Party ito AMI.
I:i5-WOR-Lymsn Orch.
50-WOR--St. Thomas Carlton.
woR-Dance Music ito AND.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31
Revolutionary Literature VS.. Mae West

NOW stumbling
~ of the white guards the backgusrds
who insist that workers don't for books
especially revolutionary that the American
Brooklyn Dodgers lose
than read the best of revolutionary literature
admit that he has met fine
from discussions and books And
admit that in fault
particularly whose
fought the Revolutionary War but had been of
those scattered their seed Plymouth Rock
expelled with 16 other farmers from his milk producers
association Red Sunday morning that
spent his stock his fields
pleasure watch him handle his horses
clod of dirt until the soil between his fingers like silk
But when urged him down literary gathering Hart
ford the fire died out in his hand and
incident hearten those whose chief job it is
with dime and the boss sheets
Street" continue hauling their
But knock the out of them approaching
farmer the right what do get? He
Weekly which prints sketches poems
the feature the Daily Worker He'll through Whit
taker Chambers Their Voices"
story he's read He'll listen for hours when tell him
the
like himself And I'll pair of leather
boots that won't take before him to listen
literary talk"
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31
StenOgrGpher
-By ALKER WIN slow.

W a Il n Z n L \ ) l. U N
Girl those KEYS fingers thoughtess precision
to clip black the white
dear Sirs)
to guys who neither dear sir,
taking from finger tips dripping toll,
poured myriad-rain like those keys.
Your life streams out through the mail;
the ashes in the bottoms Of a thousand incnerators
dim your eyes
Those sheets you fold folding your own flesh,
and each letter you seal
has your future sealed within it.
Practise this word, girl.
let your life and hope spread to your hngertirs
let each letter swing down from your heart
to your hand,
prepare your trade for the coming day,
punch those keys with defiance
this word: Comrsde-
and write beneath it, II with you
and feel the machine beneath your hands
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31
MEETING JAN. 10 TO START
GIGANTIC LITERATURE
DRIVE IN NEW yOpV

To initiate its drive for a mani
fold increase in literature distribu-
ton during 1885, the New York Dis
trict is holding meeting Thursday,
Jan. 10, 8 pm, at Irving Hall, 18th
Street and Irving Place. Literature
agents and agit-prop directors of all
units and sections, and literature
agents of all branches and mass
organizations are asked to attend
the meeting. 1t is expected that 500
literature actives in the New York
District will attend this meeting.
The literature campaign, which
will be started with this meeting,
has as its purpose entrenching the
units of the Party and the mass
organizations in their shops and
neighborhoods.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31

Orders have been issued by
Harry Hopkins to cut millions of
unemployed workers off the relief
rolls. 1t is absolutely essential for
all workers to give their fullest
support to the Workers Unem-
plcymcnt and Social Insurance
Bill. H.R. 1898. Send your vote =
the Daily Worker today. Get yoi
friends to vote, Get them 10
come regular readers of the Dali
Worker, which rs Sponsoring tn
Sill. Get them tS snhser.o'. III
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31
THE LENIN SETS

January is the month when
special efforts should be made to
distribute the new So edition of
Lenin's Collected Works during the
Lenin Memorial Campaign. AS the
campaign progresses we must make
strenuous efforts to carry out our
slogan, "A Lenin Set in Every Unit
and Workers Organization"
An example of the possibilities in
this field is given by the following
letter received from Section 3, Cleve-
land.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31

MUSIC Is of two kinds: that which
NA one makes ones self or with
ones fellows; and that which is
made for one by the skilled Inusi-
clan. OF the two, bourgeois music
has emphasized the latter to the
practical exclusion of the former.
The bourgeoisie knows perfectly we'll
that music made by the masses will
express the masses, will be liked by
them more than they like bourgeois
music and will be used in the strug-
gle of the masses against their OPP
pressors. The proletariat is learn
ing in this era of imperialism these
very obvious things. And it is in
teresting and instructive to observe
that while workers do not by any
means disregard music as relaxation
and as pleasure, they do, practically
universally, condemn its use as
dream escape from the reality Of
their class struggle, and they do
insist not only upon listening to
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31
NEW YORK SECTION
ORDERS 80 LENIN SETS

Section 2, New York, is composed
of 10 units, most Of them shop
nuclei. The section literature di-
rector reports that Is Lenin Sets
have already been sold in the sec
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31
CHANGE
THE
WORLD!
DEAR Mike Gold:
By MICHAEL GOLD

DEAR Mike Gold:
It is too bad that we haven't had our big guns
going all along the line for the Writer'S School of the
John Reed Club. Here it is only few days before the
first term is to begin and have aroused only little in
the revolutionary be held the United
The fiction poetry,
portage four of the important fields Of tera
abe
revolutionary Alfred North Michael
Gold Granville Edward Newhouse
Philip Rahv Berry Mangione
Burnshaw Rofe Gertrude Diamant
Schneider
years pointed out the growing need
writer's particularly
writing At almost John Reed Club
symposium groups
their discussed problems revolutionary tera
the to about such school
mody proletariat" whispered
that they writing would it
possible their manuscripts and to give them little
o time
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31

NOWLEY makes one other point
in his review that is important
to consider. Strachey uses the term
Unconscious fascist" as Michael
Gold originally used it to designate
writer's whose work was fascist in
implication. even though those
writer's were not aware Of being
fascists. That term. says Cowley,
els losing its Importance now that
wholly conscious fascism Is becom-
ing prevalent among u.s. While il
is true that conscious fsscism is
more prevalent now than it wa
when Gold first used the phra
there are still dozens of inflW
writer's. like Joseph Wood Kl
and Henry Hazlitt. who wo
stoutly pooh-pooh the accusati,
that they were fsscists, but who, by
their so-called liberal writings, are
surely paving the way to fascisn,
Listen to Mr.. Krutch. for instance.
speaking in his recent book, Was
Europe a Success?":
There is no activity more prae-
tical or more Immediately useful
than that of the great poet who
does not Temphasis minel act as an
instrument for so changing social
conditions that men may be happy
but is a direct producer Of happi-
ness, a direct communication Of the
ability both to endure an imperfect
world and to see its imperfectiens
as beauty"
This statement recommend the
sort OF passivity that Messrs. Mis-
solini and Hitler would have en-
Enthusiastically advocated before thAy
marched into power, After reading
Mr.. Krutch's statement, my conell,3-
sion is that he is not only "fas-
cist unconscious" but also sadly
unconscious.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31
Party Literature
To the Masses

ton, and she has Just placed an
order for is more. She claims that
Section . will reach its quota of
one set to each unit in very short
time.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31

THE music of the great composers
1 of the past 300 years served, as
music has always served. a social
function. 1t was mostly ordered,
made for, performed for, and has
since been entirely appropriated for
the use of the bourgeoisie. 1t has
been jealousy guarded from the rest
of society by a system Of high costs
in the making and the hearing Of
it, that have stamped it as a prop
erty of the ruling class.
The bourgeoisie does not make It's
own music. Like it's other prop
critics" this music Is made for it by
few ovsr~paid virtuosi and horde
Of under paid rank-and-fils work
ers of other classes. At the same
time, 1t has preached that this mu-
sic is a universal art and striven
shewdly and calculatingly to destroy
the music and the music-making
capacities of other classes and of
colonial and oriental countries! To
lull the threatening upsurge of the
masses, as we'll as to reap monop-
olistic profits of truly grand pro-
portions, bourgeois music has come
to be heard upon large scale by
members Of non-bourgeois classes,
for the first time in history. during
the last few decades of photograph,
sound film and radio. The much
publicized plan is to induce the
masses to regard music in the same
light as do their masters-that is,
as a relaxation from work, as
pleasant and harmless dissipation,
and as a powerful, drug-like, dream
escape from the suffering and prob
lens of life.
It is already widely known that
bourgeois art music lie. occidental
or European art music is not a
universal but class art of only
part of the earths surface; that 1t
has produced some great monu-
ments, but is now given over to
ancestor worship to such an extent
that the living art is in state Of
decay and breakup; that while it
has produced some phenomenally
skillful performers, it has produced
a general level of musical culture in
contemporary Europe and America
lower than that Of the average
barbarous or savage tribe. This
low level of musical culture is due
to the inherent nature of bourgeois
society which produces here, as else
where, an extraordinary degree Of
skill in a few thousand men and
women and forces an almost COM
plete neglect of their own capacities
by the hundreds of millions of other
people.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31
Closer to the Masses

THE point then this the the stomach
revolutionary literature but we've got to help them to it. We
do this by getting to the by doing better writ
ourselves this helping Reed
Club Writers School recruiting station and drilling ground for
revolutionary writers from the
the past of the chief
Club its approach
SIS Utah appeared given short notice the Partisan Review
There discussion whatsoever the this
written by story issued book form in foreign
languages serialzed and not Daily Worker
the revolutionary press important European
countries.
And here again learn from Soviet
time the
that Pel discussed
but that the
had into
devoted to the book then the
correspondence with the author about the book
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31
Brilliant DialecticalN
Analysis of Literature
In Booklet by Strachey

LITERATURE AND DIALECTICAL
MATERIALISM, by John stra-
chey, COyici Friede. s1.0O.
Reviewed by
J. GERLANDO
IN a period when bourgeois critics
are doing their utmost to distort
the concepts Of revolutionary litera-
ture, to give them the vestments Of
a fad or Of a fanatical religion. John
Strachey's writings serve a signif-
cant purpose. In a direct and pre-
else manner that furnishes a re-
vesling contrast to the fiounderings
Of liberal and conservative criticism,
he analyses and explains intelligent
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-31
of
MUSIC
Music DiUistOn in the Work
erS School


EDUCATION is, with us, capitalist
Il education. 1t is training to be
a cog in industry and business, and
to be a harmless fool after work or
when unemployed. The so-called
cultural subjects-that training in
the erts which not only makes work
besrable and understandable, but
which makes up the content and
form Of leisure. and stimulates to
Imagination and to action in the
correction Of unsatisfactory or in
tolerable conditions of living-these
things are sighted and botched in
capitalist education, the bringing up
we all of us received, whether in
public or private school, in city or
country, in university or trade in
stitute.
Education in music is almost COM
pletely excluded from all Of these.
The considerable hullabaloo that
passes for musical instruction is
mostly more than mere waste time
it is pernicious propaganda for
being a docile slave and against
true self-interest and class-interest.
Most effective musical education,
therefore, is done outside of the in
stitutions of capitalist education.
There are three main types: private
study Zone individual with another
So-called private" Conservatives
run for profit, and endowed
schools run to preserve the social
system under which the wealth
represented in the endowment was
accumulated).
Except where personal integrity of
the teacher withstands the corrup-
ton of the profit system land this
is rarer instance than most people
would believe possible either the
teacher or the student, or both, are
exploited economically. And owing
to the domination of the theory Of
rugged individualism lin this field
known as romantic individualismD
the musician is artistically exploited
by being taught to regard himself
as a priest of art" and his music
as semi-mystical creation Of his
peculiar, individual makeup.