GUIDE TO GOOD READING

O'Casey's third volume
records Irish struggle

IT IS NO accident that the finest modern autobiographies
—books like Gorky’s Trilogy, Mike Gold’s Jews Without
Money, and Sean O’Casey’s work in progress—should be

produced by working class writers.

account of one’s life today one
needs more than a knack for de-

tail, intellectual subtlety, wit and.

humor or an evergreen memory
for the sights and sounds of the
past. One’s life must itself have
meaning as never before, histori-
cal meaning. It must be linked to
the destiny of the class in whose
hands the future lies.

Furthermore the writer must be
conscious of the future and of his
vital link to it. C
ness will make him able accurate-
ly to recreate and interpret his
actions and all that has happened
to him. ‘

Only this aware-

The working class writer is es-
pecially fortunate in this respect
because the source of his know-
ledge is not the experience of
others, warmed over in his mind,
but his own labor, hardship, hate
and love, his own direct encoun-

ters with the dying world and the
world that is being born. He is
so persuasive because, whenever
he presents us with an idea, he
shows us the event from which
it sprang.

* * *

DOCK WORKER, hod carrier,
stonebreaker and playwright of
the working class, each of Sean
O’Casey’s lines seems part of a
poem of struggle in which every
feeling but self-pity is released.

New instrumental
group organized

OF INTEREST TO all youthful
Vancouver musicians is the for-
mation of a progressive instru-
mental group, founded to give
young musicians an opportunity
to express themselves. Those in-
terested in joining the new group
are asked to phone Jim Thomas
at CE, 7155.

To give a meaningful

It is his passionate objectivity
which makes Drums Under the
Windows, the third volume of his
autobiography, so valuable as a
record of the Irish nationalist
movement from the beginning of
“the century to the Easter upris-
ing. For he not only devoted his
days and nights to the furthering
of Irish freedom and culture; he
understood, at the same time, the
bourgeois limitations and religi-
ous provinciality imposed upon the
movement by so many of. those
who took part in it. And he saw
these fatal defects long. before the
corruption of his cause was to be-
come so pronounced as finally to
drive him into exile. :

There is nothing trivial in the_
sharp, kidding humor which O’-
Casey directs at dozens of his
co-workers for Irish liberation.
Love there is, but there vis also
reason and proletarian clarity.

These; qualities drew him to
James Larkin, militant leader of
the Irish Transport* and General
Workers’ Union; and to George
Bernard Shaw, about whom he
has written the chapter, “Green
Fire on the Hearth,’ which is
one of the most charming and
eloquent fantasies in literature.

O’Casey has the Gaelic Lea-
guers say of Shaw: “A man with-
out a soul; nothing is sacred to
him—not even the slums!” Nor

are they to O’Casey who grew up .

in them and saw men and wo-
men die in them like lonely ani-
mals for the greater glory of
Gold. And although the book
ends with the failure of the up*.
vising and the execution of its”
leaders, we know that Sean has
learned why the defeat came
about and what forces, missing
that time, must be gathered for
the final victory over all mas
sors,

Drums Under the Windows, ob-
tainable at the People’s Coopera-
tive Bookstore, 337 West Pender,
is a Book Union selection for Sep-
tember-October. -The other Book
Union selection is The Dead Stay
Young by Anna Segher's, reviewed
in the September 1 issue of the

Pacific Tribune.

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\

i

+ Sweet land of liberty...

WAR OR PEACE? THAT WAS THE QUESTION

What happened when Pablo P. Dove
appeared before the Un-Americans

WASHINGTON

WHEN che House Un-American
Committee hearing opened, there
was a good crowd on hand and
the press tables were overflowing.
Behind the raised dais where the
committee members sat, movie
and newsreel cameras had been
set up. “We will ‘have a mytsery
witness to testify and there will
be sensational disclosures,’ the

‘chairman had told us.

The door behind the dais swung
open and the “mystery witness”
flew in. Yes, I mean flew, because
the witness was a white dove,
with dark patches around his eyes
and thick, downy legs. Before we
reporters could express our as-

_tonishment, the committee mem-

bers filed in, followed by Chairman
Dood. The Democrat’s represen-
tatives Dood, Hood and Kood, sat
on the left. The Republican rep-
resentatives Pixon and Hixon, sat
on the right.

Dood rapped his gavel and told
the committee counsel, Frank:
Teetfallow, to call the first wit-
ness, 2 ;

Teetfallow stood up, pretending
not to see the dove, and called
out,- “Is Pablo P; Dove in the
room?”

The dove advanced to the ont
of the room, with a rare combi-
nation of shyness and pages

“That’s me,” it said,

“No foreign accent,” said Nhe
Dally Stench teporter sitting next
to me.

“Take this chair—I mean perch
—and raise your right hand—I
mean wing,” said Téetfallow. ‘““You
solemnly swear to tell whole truth
nothingbuttruthselpyouGod? Sit
down. Please state your full name
and address,” said Teetfallow
sourly,

“Pablo Peace Dove,” replied the ;

bird, “and I live in the hearts jand
hopes of all mankind.”

“Where did he say?”
Dood.

_ “That was just propaganda, Mr.
Chairman,” said Teetfallow.

“Oh,” said Dood. ‘

“He didn’t say Stockholm?” ask-
ed Pixon.

“Did you say Stockholm?” ask-
ed Teetfallow.

“No,” replied Pablo. “But I’ve,
been there. J have also been to
Paris, London, Peking and New
York, And I have been to Mos-
cow. I’d like to tell you about
that trip—”

“Never mind,” ” rasped Teetfal-
low. ‘We will decide what you
shall tell us. You will say what
We want you to say.”

“How do you know what I am
going to say until I tell you?”
asked Pablo.

“Mr. Chairman,” said Teetfal-
low, “I suggest you warn the wit-
ness against contumacious con-
duct.” But the chairman, at the

asked

“sion wherever

moment, was admiring his new ©

yellow necktie and failed to hear
the counsel’s suggestion.
* * *

“IN ALL THESE CITIES,” Mr.
Dove continued, paying no atten-
tion to Teetfallow, “I have been
organizing an army. Not a regu-
lar war army, but an army for
peace. In fact, it is called Parti-
sans for peace. Our program is
very simple. It calls on all nations
‘to outlaw the atomic bomb and
other means of destruction, and
proposes that the nations get to-
gether to work out an effective
system of controls.”

“Did he say he was for PEACE?”

“asked Hood.

“Why, yes, I did,’ said Mr. Dove.

“In that case,” Hood said, “I
don’t see any point in continuing
the hearing. Everybody knows
that if a fellow goes around open-
ly calling for peace he is a sub-
versive. We don’t have to prove
anything.”

“That's right,” said Pixon.

“Now, now, wait a minute, gen-
tlemen,” said the chairman. “We
unselfish public servants should
not be presented as favoring war.
That would only play into the
hands of the Kremlin. We must
say that we are for peace and
that those who call for peace are
really for war. Now the sensa-
tional disclosures that we aim to

make here today in interrogating ~

this witness is that he, the afore-
said Pablo Dove is really and tru-
ly in favor of war.”

“Sort of hard for me to follow,”
said Hood.

““Won’t be easy to do, either,’
said Hixon,

.“That’s because you fellows do
not understand our program of
selling the truth to the world,”
the chairman said testily. “Con-
tinue the examination, counsel.”

* x raf ete :

“WHAT IS your opinion, Mr.
Dove, concerning the war in Ko-
rea,” Teetfallow demanded.

“Peace partisans oppose aggres-
it occurs,” said
Dove. “We condemn armed in-
terference from outside in the
internal affairs of the peoples. We
insist that an end be put to such
intervention in those countries,
such as Korea, where it er taken
place.”

“Ah,” said Chairman Dood, smil-

ing triumphantly at his colleagues.
“What did I tell you! Everybody
knows that we are not making
war in Korea, that we are making
peace. Theréfore, when this char-
acter here demands that we stop
making war, he is really demand-
ing that we stop making peace. So”

it follows he is for war and, not

for peace.”

Turning to Dove, Dood demand-
ed. “Don’t you know that it is the
Koreans and not the U.S. troops
who are aggressors in Korea?”

_ peace,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 6, 1950 — PAGE 10

“Are you kidding?” asked Dove.

“Silence, silence,’ shouted the
chairman. “We ask the questions
here,” ‘

“Mr. Dove, are you now or have
you ever been,” Teetfallow asked,
“a member of the Communist par-
tyeu .

“As it hapens,” said Dove “my
Partisans are broader than any
political party. Our movement
includes all who sincerely want
including of course, the
Communists.”

“Please give the names and ad-
dresses of all Americans who want
peace,” demanded Teetfallow,

“Listen, bub,” said Pablo. “If I
knew, I wouldn’t tell you. Maybe
you didn’t notice, but I am a dove,
not a pigeon. And besides, if you
want to know the names of the
Americans who are for peace, I
suggest you look about you. Look
down the street. Look everywhere
for they are all, with a few minor
exceptions, for peace.

“Mr. Chairman, I recommend
we cite this bird for contempt,
said Teetfallow.

“Right,” said the chairman,
“and after that take him to the
chopping block. There’s nothing
I like better for supper than boil-
ed squab.” ,

“You should live so long,” said
Pablo. And winking one bright
eye at the press table, he flew
out of the window. .

—_ ROB. F. HALL.

COLORFUL HISTORY

Czech newspaper
marks milestone

RUDE PRAVO, Czechoslovaki-
a’s leading workers’ paper, cele-
brated its thirtieth birthday this
month. In 1920 it was read by a
handful of workers; today it has
a circulation of 750,000, by far the
biggest ever achieved by any —
newspaper in the country, and re-
ceives 3,000 letters a month from
its readers, 4

In 1929 Rude Pravo was banned
from distribution through news
vendors and railway kiosks; later
it was banned for various periods
during’the depression years.

In October, 1938, the paper was
banned fovether with the Com-
munist party, only to continue ap-
pearing illegally under the occu-
pation and to publish its first legal
issue again on May 5, 1945, when

the population of Prague revolted ~

against the Nazi occupation for-
Ces,