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GUIDE TO GOOD READING—1

‘Atomic Imperialism’ important

contribution on vital

JAMES S. ALLEN’S book,
Atomic Imperialism, is by far
the most important general work
yet written upon the vital sub-
ject of atomic energy. He deals
authoritatively with the adap-
tion of atomic energy for mili-
tary and civilian uses, and with
many other significant aspects
of the question. But the book’s
greatest value is that it adds a
whole new economic - political
dimension in the public discus-
sion of this most critical issue.

In this respect the book an-
alyzes most effectively the far-

reaching monopolization that has

taken place in the production of
atomic energy, and particularly
the A-bomb. This is now the
largest. single industry -in the
U.S., as Allen points out. It is
supposedly government - owned

and controlled, hut actually it is |

run by big capitalists and is the
source of gigantic profits for the
big monopoly groups, Morgan,
du Pont, etc.

In this new and swiftly ex-
panding industry, as Allen also
demonstrates in complete detail,
we have the most complex ex-
ample of the interlocking of the
government and the monopolies
—of monopoly state capitalism.
It is a fundamental trend of
monopoly capital not only to
dominate the government politic-
ally, but also to penetrate the
state structure and.thus to con-
trol its operations.

The highest expression of this
in the U.S. is precisely the atomic
energy industry. Here there is
an unprecedented combination
of monopoly-political controls,
government subsidies, private

profits, the militarization of nu-.

clear science, and the autocratic
control of the workers, _

In tracing the development of
this vast atomic monopoly and
its complex tieup with the state,
Allen also demonstrates its de-
cisive influence upon U.S. for-
eign policy. The book is well-

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named Atomic Imperialism, for
a decisive pressure in Wall
Street’s current drive for world
mastery comes precisely from
the huge aggregation of monop-
oly capital now involved in the

: Capsule

Reviews

FIVE FINGERS :

International spy plot set in,
Turkey, with James Mason and
Danielle Darrieux carrying the
load. ‘‘Justice’’? triumphs, but
not over the boredom.
AFRICAN QUEEN

Beautifully photographed ad-
venture piece about a missionary
(Katherine Hepburn) and 4@
river launch pilot (Humphrey
Bogart) who traverse a suppos-
edly unnavigable African river
during the first world war to
blow up| a German gunboat.
African people relegated to back-
drop status, Overrated.

MY SIX CONVICTS

A superficial, hammed up at-
tempt |to provide a Freudian
psychological study of six con-
victs who served as aides to a
prison psychologist. There is a
bare hint the social and econ-
omic system might have had
something to do with the men
landing in prison.
WITH A SONG IN MY HEART

Purports to tell how Jane Fro-
man, the American singer, con-
tinued her, career after a plane-
crash injury. ,Any merit the
singing may have is cancelled
out by the syrup of sentimental-
ity ladled out by nuns, wounded
soldiers and nurses with hearts
of gold.

subject

production of atomic energy, or
more specifically, of A-bombs.

With great clarity and force,
Allen lays bare the _ sinister
dangers of fascism, and war con-
tained in the national and inter-
national schemes and maneuvers
of these ultra-monopolists and
super-profit grabbers.’ He ex-
presses the utter cynicism of the
Baruch plan which is simply a
bare-faced scheme of the monop-
olists to prevent a world peace
settlement, to stimulate A-bomb
production, and to keep this
lethal weapon within the con-
trol of aggressive U.S. imperial-
ists,

Atomic Imperialism (obtain-
able in Vancouver at the People’s
Cooperative Bookstore, 337 West
Pender Street, price $3.25) is a
“must”? for all those who wish
to know about atomic energy
and the huge capitalist organiza-
tion and sinister political con-

siderations involved in _ its. pro-.

duction, and‘who desire to know
the way in which this tremend-
ous new economic-political-mili-
tary force may be brought under
democratic control of the people
aird made to serve their needs.

—WILLIAM Z. FOSTER.

ROBERT BURNS—

“His language the living speech of the

common people.”

GUIDE TO GOOD READING—2

David Daiches does full justice
to Robert Burns in new work _

LOVERS OF poetry, and all
sensible Scots, owe a vote of.
thanks to David Daiches for his
book, Robert Burns recently pub-
lished in Pngland.

By means of a sound objective
approach, suported by what be-
comes, at times,| a line-by-line
commentary upon Burns’ poems,
Daiches establishes three pro-
positions, all of prime import-
ance, ‘

First: To evaluate Burns pro-
perly, one must see him not as
a freak-instance (the ‘inspired

THEATRE UNDER THE STARS

FIR could have written
script for new musical

IN THE GENEROUS advance
publicity given to Timber, the
Theatre Under The Stars’ first
production of the season, much
was made of the fact that the
script had to be changed daily to
correspond to developments in
the current woodworkers’ strike,
Why, we don’t know, although
the script might very well have
been written’ by Forest Indus-
trial Relations, the employers’
agency.

(Presented as a world premiere
and touted as “ta sensational all-
Canadian musical,’’ Timber proy-
ed in fact to be quite run-of-
the-mill — pulp not wood. It is
conceivable that loggers might
have found it amusing, but only
as a caricature drawn along typi-
cal Hollywood lines.

‘The story is a variation of one
fundamental to capitalism and
as false. The timber tycoon’s
daughter meets a logger, one of

“a group just returned to the

city, and falls in love with him,
Over her father’s objections she
joins him in the pub, where of
course, the boys are flinging
their money around. The boys
admire her clothes, whip up a
collection to buy a similar snap-
py outfit for their special girl
friend, blonde of course, and the
girl friend makes a play for the
self-made timber tycoon,

By this time you are away
ahead of the story — so was the
audience. The blonde persuades
the tycoon to allow his daughter
to marry the logger and they all
celebrate together.

The songs were about as mean-
ingless as the story, regrettable,
because Don Garrard has a fine
voice. The dancing, however,
was good.

The only touch of realism in
Timber was provided by the
scenery, It’s too bad TUTS pro-
ducers can’t find something bet-
ter to go with it.

—HAL GRIFFIN

ploughman’’) or as a talented in-
novator, On the contrary, he
was a true genius, who carried
to culmination the rich and
ancient poetic heritage of the
Scottish nation.

“Any fool,’’ says Shaw, “can
make a beginning.’’ Only a gen-
ius can do so much better than
anybody else that he marks the
limit of attainment along, that
line.

To the Edinburgh ‘wits’ and
“men of feeling’? who patronise
Burns as an ‘inspired’ semi-
literate, the Scottish speech in
which he moved most freely and

‘attained his highest fight was a

mere dialect—quaintly barbaric,
perhaps, but intrinsically a proof
of lack of ‘‘culture.”’

It was, in fact, the reverse of
this. When Chaucer was, by his
poetic genius, making English
into a literary language, the
foundation of modern standard
English, a group of Scottish con-
temporaries only a little less
gifted were doing the same thing
for the Scottish variant of the
“Anglian’”’ language from which
both derived.

Political and historical  cir-
cumstances: created the condi-
tions favorable for the develop-
ment among the titled and the
well-to-do of that Angilcising
tendency which saw in the name
Scotland a mere vulgarism for
North Britain.

In resisting this tendency and
giving literary expression to the
language which had survived as
the living speech of the common
people, Burns was not only con-
tinuing a great tradition.

He was preserving the poetic
heritage of Scotland from the
vulgarisations of the imitation—
English, He was more truly
cultured than those who sought
to impose upon him their, phoney
“culture.”

Second: Burns, already reco”
nised by the discerning as P!?
ably the greatest song-writet
that ever lived, achieved fat
more in this field than is gen@!
ally realised.

Even the best editions of t®

_ “complete” works of Burns 1e4 ‘

out or misattribute a large BY
ber of delightful songs. for whit
—as is now clear—virtually °
absolutely the credit should 2°
to Burns.

It was not only that he re

wrote many old songs, and com
pleted many that survived only
as fragments. He fitted words
to many dance tunes that |
never had words before.

In thus giving a new currency
to these old airs, and to the spit J
of the words he remodelled or
istored, Burns, in, fact, preserve
the national music of Scotland .
nobody before had done, f
tellin’
yitie®
jem

Daiches. makes’ the
point. that many peculia
that, critics have noted as “P
ishes” in Burns’ versification ®
really brilliant examples.
Burns’ talent for making wore
and music, sense and sound
a reinforcement of the other:

«ast
Third: In rebelling ag@¥
the pseudo-culture of the ‘all

and the expensively educ@
Burns identified Scottish |
tional culture with the pe
cratic revolt against oppres*
and exploitation.

a mea®

It has been said—with st
ure of truth—that the mili
proletariat is in its own estimn
a “counter-aristocracy.”? The cof
letariat and its peasant allie>
whom Burns was one) 4? a4 '
envy the rich. They hate bh |
despise them as reactionar ©
and degenerates,

d

And no poet ever express

this mood more fully thar son
Robert Burns.—T. A. jack

adie

f

: 8
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 4, 1952 — PAGE