The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-01-22
Change
the
World
BY MICHAEL GOLD

n ONE of the lousy fophouses of our re-
markable nation in one of those dismal
sewers where millions, probably, of Amer
leans groan and curse through the dark
nights, an unemployed worker was handed
a little circular recently.
,s- He has forwarded it to the Daily Worker, and
asked for our comment. The hophouse was not an
ordinary one, but was run by the racketeers of
religion, our comrade informs Every hungry
bug that crawled on the floors and walls and
Swarmed over the tired bodies of the unfortunate
workers not an ordinary bug, but had been
blessed by theologians
ply. The Stops handed out for coffee and stew was
administered by holy hands. Angel wings lowered
in the dormitory at night, and if you fond
of angels, you could forget the foul air, the spit
ting the coughing and snoring of the human be-
.ings sleeping here. The lumpy, filthy mattresses
were carefully made that way so as to provide
test for saints The whole set-up, dirt, bad air,
mean poisonous meals, charity and hypocrisy,
good picture of the Church Militant in action
the church saving the world from sin,
Stops and Propaganda
IT is BAD enough that the fat bishops and preach
ers insult the brotherhood of man with these
horrible lighthouses. But with their stale crullers
and chicory they also hand out their propaganda.
The poor freezing hungry devils who are forced
have to swallow load of theological excrement.
Is there any one crueller in this world than
reactionary priest, rabbi preacher?
Could anyone other than parasitic Man Of
God write some of the phrases contained in the
fophouse circular forwarded by our comrade?
Christ you will remember" the document be-
gins, 'was born in manger. Nothing spectacular
about that manger. Just a simple old wooden box
with a charred edge such we've all seen as kids
down on the farm. Or maybe a crude trough of
stone"
Fair enough The blurb then gushes on about
this manger. 1t was made by "caIloused, sweaty
hands, filled with whatever poor man could find
field grass, wheat boarded bit by bit from for
gotten harvests" and so on. These people are very
sentimental about the Manager in which a child
was born two thousand years ago. But they never
have purple adjective or tear to shed for the
millions of kids born today in homes that are
colder and dirtier than mangers-the homes of the
unemployed of the world.
Religion is like that. 1t is designed to turn
your eyes away from your own real problems so
that myth becomes more important to you than
your own flesh and blood. So that you prefer
wind to food, heaven to earth, death to life.
That Wonderful Manager
WELL, says the pious author of the circular this
manger wasn't ordinary manger, however
1t than a picturesque setting for the
birthplace of Christ. 1t meant the starting of
New Deal for everyone on earth"
1t seems that love- hope, courage, and a new
chance for all were born that blessed day in the
manger, according to the anonymous author. "a
new deal for everyone" no less.
Starting where? In Royal PalaceP No. That
new deal started in hand-hewn, sweat-stained
wooden box-symbol of all that was rough and
plain, hardy and fortnight, humble and wholesome
in life"
You Greedy Unemployed!
AND now we come to the whole point of the cir
cular, the moral that will burn you up, as it
did me.
This new deal started where every new deal
has started-at the bottom. Where this nation
started, on the ground level, where the going was
tough, and where man had to make his own
luck out of whatever came handy
And that's where new deal will have to start
in this country if it starts at all. An end to our
soft living, our greedy waowing our diotic show
ing off. An end even to desire for these things
that rot and waste life. Let's start Plain living
Straight thinking. A fresh start in manger That's
what you need and need today--to be born again
In manger."
Capitalisms Puppet
THIS is the religious mind in action 1t tells the
starving unemployed (all of them former wage
workers. that their former soft living and greedy