A report of the District 10 cadres school of the Communist Party held in Kansas City and pulling in students from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska.

‘Communist School in District 10’ by P.C. from the Daily Worker. Vol. 8 No. 94. April 18, 1931.

IT is with genuine alarm that the Christian Science Monitor of Boston, in its issue of March 25th, writes:

“A Communist school for students of six states has started a month’s training period in Kansas City, the first short course in Communism to be given in the Middle West-purpose admitted to make Communists of majority of Americans.”

Indeed there is ample justification for the concern shown by this religious sheet in regards to the District 10 full time training school which has just been concluded. The student body of this school clearly indicates that the frontiers of the Party organization are rapidly being extended into the Southwest and Middle West, that Communism is intrenching itself in this region. Of the 25 students at the school, 5 came from Texas, 8 from Oklahoma, two from Arkansas, 6 from Kansas, 4 from Iowa and 1 from Nebraska. Twenty-three of these twenty-five were native born, and of these 23, seventeen were still living in the states of their birth. In tracing a little further back, the interesting fact is revealed that 9 of the students are grandchildren of Civil War veterans! Eight of the students were women. Two of them Negroes. Average age of the students was 22. Average length of time in the Party or League only 11 months, twelve of the comrades being in the movement less than 4 months!

This reflects the rapid assimilation of new elements which is proceeding in the course of turbulent Party growth in the middle western and southwestern states. A significant feature of the social composition of the students–reflecting the shifting of population from country to city in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas–is the fact that many of the students had worked on farms as well as in industry. This is of particular importance for the development of agrarian work, a key task confronting the district.

Because of the political backwardness and inexperience of the students, the curriculum was boiled down to three basic courses: fundamentals of Communism, Party organization, and trade union work. In addition to these three main subjects there were special lecture courses on Negro work, history of the Three Internationals, history of the Party, and current events. The final week of the school was mainly taken up with practical problems: District three months plan of work, May Day, new forms of unemployment work, shop papers, organization of mass meetings and demonstrations, workers’ correspondence, and how to conduct study classes and groups. Some time was also given to participation in practical work. Comrades E. Gardos of the Chicago district, and Paul Cline, Kansas D.O., were the instructors.

The students manifested remarkable earnestness and diligence in their studies, striving hard to overcome their great handicap of no previous Communist training. Exact punctuality was developed in the class and study group routine. Discipline which was ragged during the first week, was rapidly improved through the exercise of frank self-criticism engaged in by the entire student body. Towards the closing week of school an extraordinary high level of enthusiasm, responsibility and discipline was reached and maintained. Every week marked a visible growth in the Communist stature of the students. At the close of the school all of the students without exception, placed themselves at the disposal of the District Committee, declaring their readiness to undertake any work assigned them anywhere.

As a result of the distribution of the forces developed in the school, the district apparatus was greatly strengthened. The center, Kansas City, was reinforced with three capable comrades. Three of the students were sent to Texas, two to Omaha, and one to Sioux City. The rest were sent back to their home cities and towns.

Holding of the school was made possible only through the unparalleled enthusiasm of the Party membership and sympathizers. Comrades in Kansas City, Sioux City and Omaha made extraordinary sacrifices in financing the school. The students themselves suffered many hardships in regards to travelling, housing and feeding, without complaint.

District 10, the largest in the Party, both in point of territory and population has always been regarded as one of the backward districts–a weak link in the Party structure. But this weakness of the district, this lagging behind, is now overcome. The district training school reflects, and will accelerate the growth of the Party in the important middle-western and southwestern states.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n094-NY-apr-18-1931-DW-LOC.pdf