The New Party Line

Oh, Franklin Roosevelt told the people how he felt, We almost believed him when he said: "Oh, I hate war, And so does Eleanor, But we won't be safe till everybody's dead." That was a popular Communist song, until last week. Then, at a secret meeting in Manhattan, the national committee of the party announced the new party line: dropping the anti-war campaign, favoring aid to Britain, lend-lease help to Russia, higher wages, the right to strike, organization of the unorganized--in short, a return to the Popular Front that the Communists junked when the Hitler-Stalin non-aggression pact was signed. Said Comrade William Z. (for nothing) Foster: "A victory for Russia will enormously strengthen democracy throughout the world." A Russian victory would strengthen U.S. Communists. But a Soviet defeat, which was far more probable, might leave U.S. Communists not only men without a country but men without a creed--because all their ideas have come from Russia.

The comrades were pretty sick, for Communist propagandists know how weak Russia is.

When Germany invaded Poland and World War II began, Comrade Mike Gold, foremost Communist pundit in the U.S., exulted: "I feel like a boy again!" Last week Comrade Gold confided how he felt when he heard of the invasion of Russia: "The first hour was awful--I shall never forget it. Now it had come--the thing we so feared for five, ten, 20 years." Meanwhile the U.S. showed no disposition to give up the job of rooting out domestic Reds because Stalin was fighting Hitler (although anti-Communists were alarmed at Washington reports that prosecutions were to be dropped):

P:In Manhattan, Morris U. Schappes, City College tutor, ex-Communist and a leader of the College Teachers' Union, Local 537, was convicted of perjury.

P:In Oklahoma City, Mrs. Ina Woods, wife of the Oklahoma secretary of the Communist Party, was sentenced to ten years in prison for criminal syndicalism.

P:In Washington, New York's Congressman John Taber, charging fellow-traveling in Henderson's OPACS, named Robert Brady ("He is one of those birds in the price-fixing outfit under Henderson.") and Brady's wife ("She was the business manager of a magazine known as Friday which ties right into the Communist front.").

Also under fire was the U.S. Housing Authority, whose Bernard Ades was once Communist candidate for Governor of Maryland.

Nobody expected the Communist Party to fold up at once. There were some arguments that if Russia fell quickly, and Stalin was succeeded by a Muscovite Darlan, Hitler could take over the Communist International, make even more effective use of U.S. Communists than Stalin had been able to. But the general belief was that the mainspring of U.S.

Communism would be broken.

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