MICHAEL GOLD

He won world fame as
proletarian writer

MICHAEL GOLD, world renowned author and columnist in the
U.S. Worker for 32 years, died May 15 in the Kaiser Foundation
\Hospital in San Francisco. Ill a long time, he had: been a patient
there since February. Prior to that he had taken leave of his column
writing last July to work on his autobiography. His last column was

headed “Good-bye for a while.”

He struggled against a growing

blindness and put most of his memoirs down on tape. The book will
be published by International Publishers. _ .

Mike Gold is survived by his widow, Elizabeth, two sons, Nicho-
las and Carl, and one brother, Emanuel. The funeral was private,
Public memorial meetings are scheduled on the West Coast, and in

New York for June 16.

_ By JOSEPH NORTH
IKE GOLD was born in a
cold-water flat typical of
the East Side, on April 12,
1894. His parents were penniless
immigrants, his mother from
Hungary, his father from Ro-
mania. They are described in his
classic “Jews Without Money.”
He was not yet of voting age
when he heard Elizabeth Gurley
Flynn soap-boxing on the street
corner. Her words set him on a
course that brought him to the
Communist Party shortly after
it was founded and to which he
adhered till the day he died. He
was long regarded as the proto-
type of the Communist writer
and journalist, totally dedicated
to the working class, his nation,
humanity. He often quoted Walt
Whitman to the effect that the
highest goal of literature was to
serve humanity.
Later studies will reveal Mike
Gold in all his stature. His ad-
mirers and many critics inter-

~- LANCE

: SHARKEY

The Central Executive Com-.
mittee of the Communist “Party.
of Canada sent the following

.wire to the Communist Party of

Austfalia on the death of their
vice-chairman, Lance Sharkey.

“The death of Lance Sharkey,
the grand old man of the Aus-
tralian labor movement and for
many years General Secretary
of the Australian Communist
Party, which he did so much to
build, is a great loss to Austra-
lian’. communists and progres-
sives and to the world Com-
munist movement. We send our
condolences.”

SRS RO ESS TT

ia 8N67-SWNUAT SAID AG-- 40

MICHAEL GOLD

nationally link his name with
that of Jack London and John
Reed. Space here does not per-
mit an adequate recital of all
the plays, poetry, books of his
columns and other writings that
were published. But a swift sum-
mary of his life demands that
the following be said: Mike was
a passionate tribune of the great-
est epoch of man’s history—this
‘time of transition from the capi-
talist way of life to that of so-
cialism. :

_ One ‘can say that Mike Gold
tried to live up to the title of his
column “Change the World.” He
improved on Horace Greeley’s
famous injunction, “Go West,
young. man, go West.” Mike, in
a celebrated colurtin, said “Go
Left, young man, go Left.” That

might well stand as the epitaph.

to his career. ._*
_ The. Christian Century once
wrote’ of Mike: ..
- “Raised. in. & crowded tene-

ment on the east side of. New .

York . ... the author paints a
terrible picture of poverty in its

“most hideous aspects. But it is

no caricature that he presents
_.. there is a recognition of hu-
man values and virtues even. in
the unlikeliest spots.”

Not only was there a “recog-
nition of human values” he was
the poet laureate of man’s quali-
ty, his god-like promise unlike,
say Jack London, whose ideas
were tainted by Nietzsche and
Schopenhauer, the concept of
the elite, the Super-Man.

Mike Gold said, often, that his
faith in man was substantiated
by a science, that of Marxism,
hence that faith would irresist-
ibly prevail. He said that in
his passionate style that was
crystal-clear in its simplicity.

I believe future literary his-

ro
y¢ ah tHe

torians will record that he was
at his greatest as columnist for
this newspaper. That was the
glory of his fulfilled life. I have
heard expressions of grief that
he wrote no novels after “Jews
Without Money.” With all
Mike’s admirers I would have
liked to see more of his plays,
his poetry, but I believe all the
qualities that went into those
forms were the flesh and blood
of his columns. He took as much
pains with them that any gifted

. poet does on his sonnet. He

sought out the exact word, wor-
ried at ‘his prose until he found
it. His columns contained the
sense of character, the clash of
opposites that is tension,. con-
flict, they flashed the color, the
mood, the cogency that goes into
verse. All that was in his writ-
ings for this newspaper and its
working class readers whom he
treasured above all else. That
was the essence of his career
and it suited him.

I belong to that generation
that was moved by his talent,
was one of the young men who
“went Left” under his influence.
Two generations were so affect-
ed by him.

Mike Gold’s famous polemic
with Thornton Wilder in 1930
served as a 21-gun salute to the
great era of the Thirties. Mike’s
piece appeared originally in the
New Republic. It was the state-
ment, an intoxicating credo that
clashed with the concept of the
Ivory Tower. Referring to Wil-
der’s novel “The Bridge of San
Luis Rey,” Mike thundered: “Is
this the style with which. to ex-
press America? Is this the speech
of a pioneer continent?” This
was not the language of “the
intoxicated Emerson,” or the
“clean rugged Thoreau or the
vast Whitman.” Mike demanded
the people of America, the “‘pas-
sion and death of the coal min-
ers ... the child slaves .. . the
modern streets of New York,
Chicago and New Orleans... . .”

The lad from the East Side

was a proud American and a
€ommunist to his core, to the
end of his. days.

Canadian Communists
_ send condolences

The following letter was sent
by the Central Executive Com-
mittee of the Communist Party
of Canada to the CPUSA:
._ “The Communist Party of
Canada: sends its condolences. to
you and through you to Ameri-
can progressives on the death of
Mike Gold. He was one of the
pioneers in the field of proleta-
rian literature. As a writer, col-
umnist and novelist, he not only
wrote with a sharp pen, expos-
ing the evils of American impe-
rialism, but actively participated
in the many-sided struggles of
the American working-class and
democratic movement for social
progress.

“His death is a blow to all who
knew him and to the Communist
movement.”

-tablishment of regional assessment systems - ‘smnet! i?

}. and at the present rate of growth. the assessir the

favors the wealthy in order to subsidize P!

a
THE ONTARIO. LEGISLAT
IN SESSION

ae

The acute problett
of municipalities

A WEEKLY COMMENTARY

By BRUCE MAGNUSON
Ontario Leader, Communist Party

yt
HE centennial conference of the Association Oi
Mayors and Reeves has called for a mus 4
incial conference to discuss the municipalitt ‘
financial problems. Mayor Lester Cooke of Bartlé rail
of the association, criticized the provincial govern
not providing sufficient leadership and told the * at
meeting in historic Niagara-on-the-Lake last wee ving
of the items on the agenda were dog-eared from Ne
raised at previous conferences. rectil
Mr. Cooke said that local government is 0n the 4
end of practically every social problem brought
technological change. The question of wh0 !§ 7 a
for these problems must be resolved. Becaus yh
resolved, municipalities find themselves sad led t
fare, crime, education and other problems but
sufficient money to cope with them. ust
Mr. Cooke added that senior governments ra jin?
larger role in urban affairs. “In the main, we? wlic 8
more services at public expense . .. There is P? ;
about the increasing size of the real estate tax. }
Running like a red thread through this years q the
was the alarm about the rising property tax moar
senior governments and non-elective societies: sitié
commissions of all kinds, were stripping mum ;
all real power. :
* * * if
A few days before the conference, M
Minister J. W. Spooner presented the estim apb
partment to the Ontario legislature. One paragr pile
from his remarks will immediately show the bas
phy behind the Tory braintrust at Queen’s Park dt

“In our increasingly complex society: 4 pf
g y Cc mp. etwee? Py

Ss
=
=
=

SS

ynicipal ue
ates °

lopment must be viewed as a partnership be «ities od
enterprise and public agencies. The responsiblt pm
public agencies are as important as those © |, pf

developer. It. is the public agencies that normal sh
many. of the services that determine whether oF nus t
ticular development will be successful. And ie the
forget that it is the public agencies which anil dev
sponsibility for maintaining services to suppor” a if
ment over the decades to come—and for correct ig
lic expense, any serious defects that may ©°
time passes.” ; fall!
Somewhat later in his remarks to the Lesis’ sry
well as to. the conference of Mayors and Reeves: a
er-spoke of assessment of the real property ta? ns of
“most important aspect of the financial opet4 iG
cipalities. Here is-what he told the Legislature, ml.
“... To improve the quality of this tax ba in the
partment is actively encouraging municip2 iv The
age of trained and experienced municipal 455°", ol)
ers makes it impossible for me to make the ©" nis it
systems mandatory throughout the province * 100g
On the other hand, I am pleased with the p08 oo {0

municipalities and school sections, exclusivé within
and separate towns, will be on a regional basis
to four years..." 52 11 t?
A new municipal structure must evolvé one! A
fet

and economic developments. But for the preser s
-cy to carve out administrative districts and ial

rovine! “eh

tions of local government piecemeal to pr
ments and the. Tory cabinet under the guisé oa
governments,” means to destroy local governn
tioning on a democratic principle in this provi" y ws,
pose is to extend, rather than reduce, the proP vate

enterprise, developers and profiteers. Mr. 9

As one member pointed out in debate 0" 74,
estimates: “The provincial government has © i af
circles around taxation issues for years. CAPE i
the paper tiger, inflated just as its ego |S: "ing, 1
own tail and it will only be a few more mom #
before it punctures itself...” all

I would agree with these sentiments, 9% be sheaf
Mayor True Davidson of East York when she $4 py,
a municipal-provincial conference, to deal wit the
sponsibilities and tax reform, can be held bella
Ontario election.

“it
June 2, 1967—PACIFIC T RIB

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