The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-01-10
World Front
By HARRY CANNES

- By HAIRY CANNES --t
On Stain Wells Interview
G. B. Shaw, ct al
The Class Struggle
QUITE controversy has
VI been stirred up in the
stodgy liberal press in Eng
land over the Stain Wells in-
terview.
We are sure that readers
Of the Daily Worker. which
recently published this interview in
full. will be interested in the fol-
lowing comments on the interview
taken from q, series of letters writ
ten to the liberal weekly The New
Statesman and Nation" of London.
First there is Bernard Shaw, who
berates Wells for trying to teach
Stain a lesson or two about the
class struggle.
Just contemplate the situation
for moment" he writes. Here
is Russia solving all the problems
which we are helplessly trying to
buy off with doles, to brighten off
with ornaments, and to charm
away by prayers for revival of trade.
In the course Of solving them polit-
ical discoveries in applied political
science of the most thrilling inter-
est and vital Importance have been
made
"He (Stalin is a statesman Of
unique experience, compared to
whom the rulers of the western
powers, hanging on to an automatic
and evil system with an equipment
of emoty phrases. fictitious histories,
and obsolete routines. seem like rows
of rickety figures in a worn-out
wax-works. The privilege OF an in
terview with Stain is an honor and
an opportunity of which the most
eminent social philosopher might
well be proud"
ANOTHER contributor, John r.
n Barter. writes:
1.-THE first thing which strikes one
with startling suddenness on read
ing Mr.. Weiss conception of So
ciajsm is its considerable similarity
to the Socialism of two other think
ers %. who profess distaste for the
Marxist conception Of class war I
refer to Goebbels and Hitler, whose
cooperation with the Ruhr capital
lists leads them to refer to this type
Of society as specifically German
Socialism analogous to Mr.. Wells's
'Anglo-Saxon Socialism, II would
be. of course, unfair to classify Mr..
Wells with them, in any other
respect, as with AL Capone; but his
failure to understand the issue is
as great as their conscious misin-
terpretation of it.
TN his statement that Stalin's
class war propaganda has not kept
pace with the facts, Mr.. Wells
reveals hirIself as the incorrigible
Panglossian optimist. He overlooks
that the facts have kept pace with
the propaganda. Like Pangloss,
who considered everything to be for
the best Cmentslitv changes says
Wells to Stalin). he ridicules the
class war as nineteenth century
survival even when it hits him a
singing blow in the face with the
occurrence Of every strike. shakes
him violently by the shoulders in
the recent sporadic civil war In the
United States, and virtually ami
hilates him (or should do so with
the crescendo of attacks on the
working class which we have seen
in Germany, Austria and Spain
these last two years
J NJ KEYNES, the liberal econo-
y. mist, comes into the discussion,
in his support of Wells as against
Stain. end receives the following
renlv from cora Russell:
I'm England todav no one has
personal power. (Mr. Keynes's
words. Have not the landlords
personal power. the bankers. the
heads of armament firms. the law
yers. the heads of BIC. and the
press? Whv cannot we adopt q
new economic policy drawn up BY
Mr.. KEYNES tomorrow if nobody IS
ex-rting power to prevent it? As
an economist. Mr.. Keynes must be
well aware that. our values being
what they are, the measure of every
individuals power in our society is
his bank balance or credit
Wells, it appears, is no prophet
in his own country, and least Of
all in his own political family