11

11 system the common peo-
uid hope for nothing,.Brib-
Wsorruption, nepotism, and
Boiracy at the public purse
@nings done in the light of
pen, shameless, and whole-
The Scots members of par-
4 t sold their votes. Many of
Biook from Walpole’s cashier
a§aineas weekly for services
bed.

reformers and progressive
j=nts of the successive tory
iments were branded as
rous revolutionaries, Jac-
and disaffected persons.
rms of protest were viewed
sonable and seditious. All
¥ithizers of France and Am-
were ferreted out by gov-
nt spies and railroaded into
s or transported to penal
es.

vb such representatives it is
wonder that under Burns’
i pen and reyolutionary
s strong feelings were being
fthed against the landlord-
mnt class of both Scotland
ingland, which later were to
/ up into mass riots, free
a fights, and demands for a
koratic franchise.

ne’s pamphlet “The Rights
Jian,” widely advertised by
9 ession in English, was trans-
4 into Gaelic and spread rap-
through the highlands. The
td erofter of the highlands
the lowly cotter of the low-
read how, in France, man-
suffrage followed the pay-
of two sous in taxes, how
ity and tithes were abolished,
game laws were not harsh,
how chartered towns and
ypoly commerce had disap-
‘ad .And when, in addition to
as, the harvest of 1792 failed,
He swept the new industrial
7: and cClimaxed the set of
mstances which saw the
of the “Briends of the Peo-
Society.’ This society de-
led among other democratic
Ss “equal political representa-

4

©

A MAGNET attracts iron
filings, so did Burns attract
* ttention of his own country-
{ who were advanced in their
Ss for political liberty and for
iom. Thomas Muir, a brilliant
4tish agitator and leader of
“riends,” who was rescued
4; the horrors of Botany Bay
é in_ American frigate sent by
feresident of the United States,
la friend of Burns.

Getings were dispersed and
orators deported to Botany
Feyiction of crofters and
i crowding into the industrial
3 began with renewed vigor.
landlords and growing mer-
it class got closer together as
Ms crashed and colonial pos-
ons began to question the au-
ity of the motherland. The
fe sentences meted out to
lreds of fighters fanned the
prectionary flame throughout
sountry; pamphlets and trans-
ms of others from Hrench
led forth in thousands.
id despite arrests and de
ations, with the stories of the
ach Revolution still fresh,
nt hungry working class ora-
held forth to thousands that
fical reform was but a pre-
mary to a more equitable dis-

| Scots
ial Bard

— pene IS

tribution of property.
In such stormy times Burns

‘lived and died. It was the black-

est period of reaction and famine
Scotland ever knew. The lamps of
liberty burned low. It destroyed
physically at an early age its
greatest genius, and suppressed
many of his most revolutionary
poems.

QW Burns would have wel-
comed the great achieve-
ments of the Soviet Union. With
what great enthusiasm he would
have worked for the five-year
plans and the policies of the So-
yiet government in agriculture, in
which are expressed the highest
forms of the life of which he
only partly dreamed.

When Hitler with his distorted
knowledge of Scottish history,
through the mouth of his under-
ling Wilhelm Boehl, attempted to
address the Scottish people as an
oppressed nation under England,
his words fell on barren soil. He
did not know that the Clydesid-
ers, whose early thoughts were
moulded on good advice by their
mothers with apt quotations from
Burns, were among the first to
rush to the aid of the young
Soviet Republic.

The spirit and traditions of
Robert Burns and William Wal-
lace dominate their hearts and
tmainds, not that of bestial fascism,
which seeks to drag the world
into a black midnight of medie-
val madness. Today the iron and
smelting works pour tons of
metal for munitions and ships
and the Clydesiders are building
ships for the victory of democ-
racy.

Today the Clydesiders, knowing
that ship construction governs
the flow of war materials over
the world’s oceans and influences
preparations for the coming of-
fensive, are making good the
pledge adopted at a national con-
ference of shipyard workers in
London some months ago.

“« .. To ensure, by every means
in our power, still greater output
of ‘all classes of work, and the
still speedier delivery of new
ships and the quicker return to
service of those that come to us
in need of repair.”

They are fighting, as we are,
to defend our “tree of liberty”
and all the fruits of centuries of
popular struggle; our democratic
rights, our civil liberties, our
unions and associations, our cul-
ture and our great progressive
traditions, And in this fighting
for a greater democracy and a
wider form of freedom that de-
mands above all the annihilation
of fascism, these famous lines
will be well remembered:

“Then let us pray that come
it may—

As come it will for a’ that—

That sense and worth, o’er
a’ the earth

May bear the gree and a’ that

For a’ that and a’ that

It's comin’ yet for a that

That man to man the warld
o’er

Shall brothers be for a’ that.”

In FRussiz

Many a Red Army man
owes his life to women like
those shown below who go
into the front lines to aid the
wounded. At the front and
at the rear and deep in en-
emy-held territory, Soviet
women share in the defense
of their country. Only re-
cently the Mosco wradio an-
nounced “the death of the
beloved daughter of the Soviet
people, commander of the air
force regiment, hero of the
Soviet Union, Major Marine
Raskova, who died in the
execution of her duties.”

In Britain...

The part British women are playing in in-
dustry and the services is illustrated by these
pictures. LEFT—Miss Mary Harrison, first
woman to work as a railway guard for the
London, Midland and Scottish Railway, is
now only one of the hundreds of women em-
ployed by British railroads. BELOW—Wo-
men of the British ATS, engaged on secret
and important work at an experimental gun-
nery camps, operate the Kine-Theodolite in-
struments which record the bursts of A.A.
shells on a photographic film. By pressing
an electric switch, a photograph of the gun-
fire is automatically taken by Kine-Theodo-
lite instruments operated by other ATS
women over a mile away. From the photo-
graphic film the effect of the firing can be
ealculated. ATS women also make the slide

rules and other equipment for these ex- -

periments.