Books: Party Life

I CONFESS—Benjiamin Gitlow—Dutton ($3.75).

Red letter day in the Red career of big, soft, heavy-eyed. 48-year-old Benjamin Gitlow came on May 14, 1929. The scene was Moscow's regal Red Hall. The occasion: a full meeting of the Praesidium of the Communist International. Purpose: to whip the recalcitrant U. S. delegation (Gitlow, chairman) into line behind Boss Stalin. In charge was Stalin himself. It was 4:00 a. m. Leaden-eyed, grey-faced with weariness and capitulation, the world's top Communists had heard Stalin denounce the U. S. comrades as Right Wingers, "rotten" diplomats, Hooverites, Babbitts, bourgeois...