Who's Afraid of What?

To survive, Manhattan's Communist Daily Worker has had to make a few bourgeois compromises. It has added a horserace handicapper, a crossword puzzle, a gossip columnist, and comic strips--The Nebbs, Gene Byrnes's Reg'lar Fellers, and Gluyas Williams' gentle panels on suburbia. But last week it was having trouble keeping its comics. Writers Stanley and Betsy Baer said they did not want their Nebbs in Communist company, and the Worker let them go. Then Artist Byrnes said he wanted to withdraw his strip. The Worker said no. It would not cancel its contract with the Bell Syndicate. Byrnes threatened to fill the strip with anti-Communist digs. Taunted the Worker:

"The management... is willing to risk being won over to the Free Enterprise system of Wall Street and the N.A.M. by the 'propaganda' in Reg'lar Fellers. Well, there's your challenge: don't you trust Jimmy Dugan and Fatso to stay true to capitalism ... in the columns of the Daily Worker?"

John N. Wheeler, head of Bell Syndicate, thought the challenge worth taking. Any time he could sell his features to a Communist press, he regarded it as "a worthwhile propaganda achievement."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.