This is the cottage in the village of Alloway in which Robert Burns was born

obert Burns...

He spoke for the

common man

UST as poor mortals can add
: stn to the brilliance of
the heavenly stars, neither can
these lines nor the millions of
words which will be spoken or
written on this, the 198th an-
niversary of the birth of Scot-
land’s ploughman poet, add
_anything to the lustre of his
“genius. Like the stars, the
genius of Robbie Burns is im-
mortal as Time, shedding its
warm human rays upon
whole world.

Around a humble Ayrshire
“clay biggin” -in the early
hours -of“~ January 25, 1759,
and within a few hundred
yards of the old Alloway kirk

which -inspired Tam O’ Shan-’

ter, the elements stormed in
a mighty symphony of wind
and rain and rolling thunder.

Inside, in semi-darkness a
mother gripped in the storm
of labor pains, was giving birth
to her firstborn, her son
Robert An angry gust of wind
tore away half the cottage
roof. and thunder rolled like
the crash of cannon. Beside
the exhausted mother, her
beautiful face lit with the joy-
ous smile of a Madonna, lay
her son, destined from that
stormy hour to become Scot-
_jand’s national Bard and poet
laureate of all toiling man-
kind.

«Twas then a blast o’ Janwar’
win’
Blew hansel in on Robin.”

By TOM McEWEN
“No wonder,” Burns told his
friends of later years, “that

one ushered into the world

amid such a tempest should

be the victim of stormy pas-
sions.”

*

The genius of Robbie Burns
lay in his proud humility,
his passionate love of all na-
ture, his conscious knowledge,
even amidst the most severe
poverty, of this superior sta-
tion in life and his hatred of
all injustice and pretense.

In an hour of deep des-
pondency, “half-mad, half-fed,
half-sarkit” (half clothed), the
revelation of his genius came
to him and he knew then, in
singing the struggles of his
people in immortal words,
“that on earth his name was
to live forever.”

Writing to the “Noblemen

and Gentlemen of the Cale-
donian Hunt” (an exclusive
club of Scottish aristocrats
and literati) on April 4, 1787
in a dedication to the “Edin-
burgh” or second edition of
his poems, Burns said:

“Though much indebted to
your goodness, I do not ap-
proach you, my Lords and
Gentlemen, in the usual style
of dedication, to thank you
for past favors; that path is
so hackneyed by prostituted
learning that honest rusticity
is ashamed of it. Nor do I
present this address with the
venal soul of a servile author,
looking for a continuation of
these favors; I was bred to
me plough, and am independ-
ent.”

In these dynamic words
Burns elevates the independ-
ence of honest toil far above
the tinsel, glitter and power
of bourgeois society.. “I was
bred to the plough, and am
independent;” an independence

which suffered untold poverty, -

hardship and ’gree; but never
the surrender of his manly
right to speak out on behalf
of his “ain folk” at all times
and under all circumstances.

Today in every corner of
the world, in Africa, Cyprus,
Egypt, wherever peoples strug-
gle for independence and an
end to the rule of harsh im-
perialist taskmasters, one can
hear the voice of Scotland’s

ploughman poet fearlessly pos-

ing the age-old question:

If I’m design’d yon lordling’s
slave—

By nature’s law designed,

Why was an independent wish

E’er planted in my mind?

If not, why am I subject to

His cruelty or scorn?

Or why has man the will and
power ‘

To make his fellow mourn?

In the span of nearly two :

my

centuries, the Bard’s question
is being answered; in the gi-
gantic struggles of the com-
mon peoples of many lands to
throw off the yoke of imperi-
list tyranny and exploitation
and assert their right of in-
dependence. In the lands of
socialist construction which
Burns foresaw in his Tree of
Liberty, and in the millions
of peoples of all lands far be-
yond the land of his birth,
who claim him as their own
because he sang in golden
words, the song that lives in
their own hearts.

To millions the world over
Robbie Burns’ Tree of Liberty
is the symbol and consuma-
tion of their hopes and aspira-
tions. . . and achievements.
Wi’ plenty o’ sic trees, I trow,
The warld would live in peace,

man;

The sword would help to mak’
a plough,

The din o’ war would cease,
man.

Like brethern in. a common
cause,

We'd on each other smile, man;

And equal right and equal laws

Wad gladden every isle, man.

*

In the society of his day the
hypocritical “Holy Willies”
and pretentious sycophants
met with all the blistering
anathema and scorn of his con-
tempt. But the poor, the hum-
ble and the downtrodden,
those’ who suffered from
“rack-rents”’ and the heavy
hand of oppressive tyranny,
the great heart and genius of

* of Burns, sometimes in ecstasy;

Robbie Burns comforted them
and spoke out loud and clear
on their behalf.

All nature sings in the poems

sometimes in sadness. The
timorous mouse, the lark
soaring in the heavens, the
half-hidden mountain daisy, @
wounded hare to these
voiceless children of nature
he gave a voice which is im-
mortal. Little wonder that
with the passing of time learn-
ed men who have given of
their talents to studying the
star of Robbie Burns aré
faced-with a whole constella-
tion.

To his native Scotland he
bequeathed a gift of priceless
riches, now shared in every
corner of the world where
common working men and w0- —
men struggle and toil and
hope.

His Cottar’s Saturday Night,
first dedicated to his own
countrymen, has become @
world ideal, opening new vist-
as ‘to human _ brotherhood;
peace and common respect.

What African, Cypriot,
Malayan Chinese, Russian of
other, who, today does not
know that:

Princes and lords are but the
breath of kings,

An honest man’s the noblest
work of God;

And certes, in fair virtue’s
heavenly road,

The cottage leaves the palacé
far behind;

What is a lordling’s pomp? —
a cumbrous load,

Disguising oft the wretch of
human kind

Studied in arts of hell, in
wickedness refin’d.

From the deep crystal wells
of the Immortal Memory 92
Robbie Burns all humanity
drinks, and finds new streng

for the morrow.
_—

HREE of the richest fam-
ilies in the US. the
Rockefellers, duPonts and
Mellons, are at least eight
times richer today than
they were 20 years ago.

Their pooled fortunes,
which totaled a meagre $1,-
326 million back in the de-
pression years of 1937, to-
day comprise corporate
wealth that adds up to the
astounding figure of $11,
947 million — from some-
thing over one billion to
nearly 12 billion,

The figures will be pub-
lished and analyzed in a
forthcoming book by Vic-
tor Perlo. :

“ |. These three fam-
ilies alone own more pro-
ductive capital than all the
workers in the U.S.A., or

World's richest families

all states, or the entire pop-
ulation of a number of
countries in which these
families have their enor-
mous investments,’ Perlo
reports. ;

The duPonts’ wealth rose |
more than sevenfold from)
$574 million to $4,660 mil-
lion. The Mellon empire
expanded more than eight
and a half times, from $391 |
million. to $3,769 millions. |
The Rockefeller fortune |
multiplied from $397 mil- |
lion to $3,518 million, OF |
seven and a half times. da

These are minimum esti-
mates, Perlo reports. The
reported corporate fortunes |
“exclude hundreds of muil-
lions of personal property |
and secretly held business |
property, which cannot be]
estimated.” 1

oe

JANUARY 25, 1957 ~- PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 10

*