"| HAVE SEEN THE HORRORS — AND LIKED THEM’

George Bernard Shaw great

admirer of Soviet ac

WHEN GEORGE Bernard
Shaw, great dramatist and out-
spoken critic of capitalism, died
last week, glowing tributes were
paid to him in the daily press by
writens who vilified the Irish-born
genious throughout the whole ar-
ticulate period of his life-time.
“No accident, however, was the
word picture of Shaw which they
sought to create—a sage and wit,
but slightly. fey. A caustic critic,
but not to be taken too seriously.
A zealous reformer in his youth,
a white-bearded clown in his old
age. :
What were they so afraid of,

these writers who sought to bury
Shaw’s great message with him or
failing that, to distort the legend
“that even in his lifetime he had
become? They were afraid that
readers would recall not the witi-
cisms with which Shaw compel-
led the world’s attention, but his
erushing indictment of capitalism,
his vision of socialism as the
world’s future.

It is worth recalling that Shaw
celebrated his 75th birthday in
‘the Hall of the Labor Unions at
Moscow. On that occasion he
said: :

_ “Now that I have finally visited

your country I shall be in a posi-

tion to answer those people who
say to me, ‘You think the Soviet

Union is an extraordinary coun-
-try, but you have never been

there and you have never s¢en

the horrors thereat first hand.’

Now I. shall be. able to answer,

‘Oh, yes, I have. I have seen all

the horrors and liked them very

much.”

“Russia has been the first coun-
try to accomplish the revolution.
The English people. should be
ashamed that they have not been
before you, and with England the

_whole of the West should feel
this, shame and envy you your
honor. When your experiment has

achieved its final victory, and I
“know it will; we in the West, who

are playing at socialism, will have

to follow your example whether
We want to or not.

“T find it difficult to leave off
talking. When I now look round
and see all these faces with their
new expression and glance such
as one can never observe in the
capitalist West, I feel that I should
like to talk to you for ten hours.
However, dont be afraid. I will
not carry out that horrible threat.
I will only say, on behalf of my-
self and my fellow-travellers:
Heartiest thanks for the recep-
tion which you have given us, for
all your care, which has rendered
our journey as agreeable in the
present as it will be memorable
in the future.”

* * *

THAT SAME YEAR, on Octo>
ber 11, Shaw made a speech over
the Columbia Broadcasting Sys-
tem, which was heard by hund-
reds of thousands of citizens in
the United States and Canada.
His message, addressed to Ameri-
cans, would be banned from the
air today. Here is what he told
Ameficans who proposed to visit
the Soviet Union to “enlighten”
the Russian workers:

“They will not treat you with
deference, for those Russians do
not stand in awe even of an
American lady. In fact, I must
break it to you that their feeling
toward you will be a mixture of
pity for you as a refugee from
the horrors of American capital-
ism, with a colossal intellectual
contempt for your political imbe-
cility in not having established
communism in your own unhappy
country.

“But they will be quite friendly
and helpful, just as they would be
to a lost and starving monkey,
and if you are nice to them they
will take you to their bosoms and
tell you the stories of their lives
on the slightest provocation. They
are so free from all your worries |

and anxieties about your affairs ©

and your children and your rents
and taxes that they can afford

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| never a Marxist.
CRYSTAL STEAM BATHS—Open:

hievements

to be kind to you and they are
so proud of their communistic in-
stitutions that they are only too
anxious to show them to you.”
Shaw warns Americans not-to
expect a “paradise” in the Soviet
Union of 1931, however:
“Russia is too big a place for
any government to get rid in 14
years of the frightful mass of
poverty, ignorance and dirt left
by capitalism. Russia is 8,0007000
square miles big, which is more
than 4,000,000 bigger than the Un-
ited States. I am afraid there is
still a good deal of the poverty,
ignorance and dirt we know: so
well at home, but these evils are
retreating there before the spread
of communism as steadily as they
are advancing upon us before the
last desperate struggle of our

bankrupt capitalism to stave off —

its inevitable goal by reducing
wages, multiplying tariffs and ral_
lying all the latent savagery and
greed in the world to its support
in predatory warfare masquerad-
ing as patriotism.” :

* * x

IN NOVEMBER, 1939, Finland,
inspired and encouraged by anti-
Soviet politicians both in Germany
and the Allied countries, provoked
war with the Soviet Union. The
hue and cry for an immediate

“switching of the war against.

Russia” did not impress George
Bernard Shaw. The 83-year-old
playwright commented: ,

“Finland has been mislead by
a very foolish government. She
should have accepted the Russian
offer for readjustment of territory.
Is America supporting Finland?
Well, Finland obviously believes
so or she would not have behaved
as she has against a country so
much stronger than herself.”

The attempt to “switch the war”
failed. After three months of
fighting, Finland capitulated and
was treated very generously by
the Soviet Union. But within two
years, Finland joined with Hitler
in another attack
USSR.

Se * *

GEORGE BERNARD Shaw was
Lenin once cal-
led him “a good man fallen among
Fabians”, But Shaw—whose re-
mark that Karl Marx was ‘“pon-
derously unreadable” was widely
quoted in the capitalist press —
understood the debt the world
owed to Marx, and gave this as
his serious opinion:

“He (Marx) never condescends
to cast a glance of useless long-
ing at the past, his cry to the
present is, always, “Pass by; we
are waiting for the future.’

“Nor is the future at al mys-

terious, uncertain or dreadful to,

him. There is not a word of fear
nor appeal to chance, nor to pro-
vidence nor vain remonstrance
with nature ... nor any other
familiar sign of the giddiness
which feizes men when they
climb to heights which command
a view of the past, present and
future of human society. Marx
keeps his head like a god. He
has discovered the law of social
development, and knows what
must come. The thread of history
is in his hand.”

against the’

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HA. 0951 454 E. HASTINGS

Scenes from a

be wiled life

From his retreat in the little Hertforshire village of Ayot St.
Lawrence, George Bernard Shaw commanded the world’s respect
and admiration, and his pungent observations on world develop-
ments; published in the London Daily Worker, frequently dis-

concerted such personal friends as

Lady Astor (above), whose

home, Cliveden House, provided the name for the notorious pro-
Nazi Cliveden Set. In Ayot St, Lawrence, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel
Winsten found the nongenarian playwright a charming and kindly

next-door neighbor.

7
}

CHARLES SIM’S NEW PAMPHLET

Where Is CCF Going?’

“IMPERIALISM is sick, decay-
ing and doomed by history. Neith_
er the bloodthirsty irresponsibili-
ty of a Churchill, the unscrupu-
lousness of a Truman, nor the
betrayals of a Coldwell can infuse
new youth, life or health into the
crumbling world system of capit—
alism.” ; , 4

In his new pamphlet, Where Is
The CCF Going?, Charles Sims,
former Toronto alderman and
Canadian Tribune columnist, ap-
peals to all CCF’ers who want so-

cialism to unite and struggle to-

defeat the Coldwell leadership
which has betrayed the principles
of the Regina Manifesto.

Sims quotes a Comox CCF'er
who wrote to the CCF News: “The

recent CCF national convention in

formulating national CCF policy
gives.one the impression that the
CCF is supposed to be a demo-
cratic socialist party. Under pre.
sent national policy it is neither.”
Sims calls on CCF’ers to return to
the great anti-war, anti-boss
principles of labor. ‘The working

“class movement of Canada can

work out the salvation of our
country, defend and strengthen
the labor movement, but only
through united struggle.”

Sim’s pamphlet is available at

“People’s Cooperative Bookstore,

337 West Pender. Price is five
cents a copy, or bundles of 100
for $3.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 10, 1950 — PAGE 10