OUGHLIN: Holy Medicine Man by JOHN McCARTEN IIHandmade? 01 Cours. Nol!11 "Why, most everything in this store is made by machines nowadays. If it weren't, I wouldn't be selling half these things, and you couldn't buy them. They'd cost too much." F MANUFACTURED articles had to Fifty years ago, there were only 4,000,000 I be made by hand, very few American factory jobs in this. country-today there iamilies would be able to enjoy electric are twice as many. Because industry de­ lights, automobile, silk hose, daily news- vised machines to make products at low apers, telephones, or the other comforts cost, more millions of people could buy and conveniences of life today. Even the them. And because more were bought, necessitie, such as food and clothing, more men were employed making them. •"ould be scarcer and more expensive. And General Electric scientists and engineers, here wouldn't be the number of factory by applying electricity to the machines of obs there are in America today, or millions industry, have been responsible for much of f other job selling, servicing, and supply- this progress. Their efforts today are creat­ Ing the raw materials for the hundreds of ing not only MORE GOODS FOR MORE PEOPLE new products that machines have made AT LESS COST, but also MORE AND BET­ ossible. TER JOBS AT HIGHER WAGES. G-E research and engineering have saved the public from ten to one hundred dollars for every dollar they have eartJed for Getleral Electric GENERALeELECTRIC ..A 13aLanced..Menu 0/ Vacation !Readin'g HISTORY- AMERICA IN MIDPASSAGE By Charles A. and Mary R; Beard A history of the last decade by America's most noted historians. It also is Volume III of the classic "Rise of American Civilization" and follows the style and pace set in that great work. $3.50 BIOGRAPHY- JANE WELSH CARLYLE By Townsend Scudder

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THE MAC-MILLAN COMPANY 60 Fifth Avenue, New York THE AMERICAN MERCURY ~Jk!fi~~£r~Jk!fi~~~Jk!fi~~£r~Jk!€t~~il~. ~ v~~~W" TABLE OF CONTENTS NU~~ER ~ ~ June, 1939 ~

~+ Father Coughlin: Holy Medicine Man John McCarten 129 ~.~ Pioneer's Return Adelaide Walker 142 ~. Germany Can;t Winl George Fielding Eliot 148 ~~.[t Ghost Goes to College Roy A. Benjamin, Jr. 157 ~ Elliott Roosevelt: The President's Problem Child Herbert Corey I6r Lunacy, Right and Left...... 168 San Francisco, A Dying City Phil Hamilton 169 ~+ Negroes Reject Communism George S. Schuyler 176 ~ Capsule Wisdom...... 182 ~ Peep Show Leonard Ross 183 ~ Buchmanism: Opiate for the Classes Ernest Sutherland Bates 190 ~+ Misdeal. A Story Andre Maurois 198 ~ ~ The General Slocum Disaster Alan Macdonald 203 ~ r~~ Don't Be Your Own Architect!: Roger Burlingame 209 M Education for Ward-Heelers Will Irwin 216 ~ "Painless" Childbirth Anonymous and Dr. J. T. Bolotin 220 ~ ~ AMERICANA ....•...... •..••••••••••••••••• 225 ~ THE STATE OF THE UNION: ~ College Men and the State Albert Jay Nock 228 ~ ~ POETRY: W ~+ I. Decoration Day , ., Louis Stoddard 233 .~ ~~. II. These Dark Hills Jesse Stuart 233 ~ III. Surf-Board Rider. Edith Cherrington 234 IV. Spring Song Catharine Connell 235 ~ V. Plantation Girl Luella Stone 235 .~ DOWN TO EARTH: ~b) How Domesticated Are We? Alan Devoe 236 ~ THE LIBRARY: ~ America at High Noon Alfred Kazin 240 +~ ~~ CHECK LIST ••.•.•....•...... •••• IV, 244 ~ I"'~~ OPEN FORUM...... •••••••• 248 ~ CONTRIBUTORS. •...... •.....•...... • 256 ~ RECORDED MUSIC. •.••.•••.•...... •.•.....•.•.•••••••••••••.•.• •• XIV ~

~ Lawrence E. Spivak Eugene Lyons J. W. Ferman ~ ~""'i( Publisher Editor Business Manager ~ ~~IDiV~~~~~~iV~~~ID~~~ID~i~~~

Published monthly by The American Mercury, Inc., Mercury, Inc. Entered as second-class matter at the at 25 cents a copy. Annual SUbscription, $3.00 in U. S. post office at Concord, N, H., under the Act of March and Possessions. Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Spain and 3, 1879. Five weeks' advance notice required for Colonies, and the Republics of Central and South change of subscribers' addresses. Indexed in The America. Foreign subscriptions, $4.00. Publication of­ Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. The Ameri­ fice. Concord. N. H. Editorial and General offices, 570 can Mercury, Inc., accepts no responsibility for sub­ Lexington Avenue, New York City. Printed in the mitted manuscripts. All rights reserved. No article United States. Copyright, 1939, by The American may be reprinted inwhole or partwithout permission.

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TAXES are necessary-you couldn't run a city, state or government without them. But they do mount up. Fact is, a considerable part of the money you pay us for telephone service goes right out in taxes. Bell System taxes for 1938 were $147,400,000­ an increase of 560/0 in three years. In 1938 taxes were: Equal to about $550 a year per employee Equal to $9.50 per telephone in the Bell System

Equal.to $7.54 per share of A. T. 8(, T. common stock

BELL TELEPHONE SYSTEM You are cordially invited to visit the Bell System exhibit at the Golden G4te InterrHu;on~# 'Exposition: S4n fr4n,iscQ viii VOLBMEXLVII JUNE, 1939 NUMBER 186

The American MERCURY

FATHER COUGHLIN: HOLY MEDICINE MAN

By JOHN MCCARTEN

F consistency is the hobgoblin speculations. He has flaunted his I of little minds, the Reverend priestly humility and flouted. a Charles E. Coughlin has a massive cardinal of his church. He has intellect. In .the ten years that he boasted of his part in the founding has been broadcasting sermons on of the United Automobile Workers politics .and economics from the of America and charged its leaders Shrine of the Little Flower in with being "atheistic communists." Royal Oak, Michigan, he has been He has jeered at Al Smith for being as flexible in his convictions as he friendly with the. Du Ponts and has been remiss in his facts. He cultivated a cozy intimacy with has been a vociferous supporter Harry Bennett, the chief of the of democracy and an advocate private police at Ford's River of the corporate state. He has Rouge headquarters. He has re~ hailed· Franklin· Roosevelt as· the joiced that there is no anti-semitic anointed of God and condemned problem in the United States and him as "a liar" and "a scab." He published his own plagiarism of an has loudly proclaimed. his· love of attack on the Jews by Paul Joseph organized labor and denounced the Goebbels. He has frequently pro:" Congress of Industrial Organiza­ tested his devotion to the truth tions. He has reviled the specula­ and supported the "factuality" of tors ofWall Street and made a tidy that notorious •forgery, the Proto­ profit for the Shrine through silver cols of the Elders of Zion. He in- 129 13° THE AMERICAN MERCURY sists, to the embarrassment ofmany that characterized the I 3th cen­ Catholics, that the encyclicals of tury" by introducing "communis­ Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XI tic international banking." He have inspired all his utterances. finds nothing incongruous in the Although he changes most of his idea of associating international opinions as often as he changes his banking with communism. He uses collar, Father Coughlin has one the term "communistic" after the belief to which he has remained fashion of Adolf Hitier to describe persistently faithful. He is firmly anything he doesn't like. He once convinced that a return to the advised his listeners, in all serious­ economy of the Dark Ages will ness, that "there are three kinds of cure all our ills. He acquired this communism represented in the notion while attending St. Mi­ world today. There is the indus­ chael's College in Toronto, where trial communism of Russia, the he was taught by the Basilian military communism of Japan, and Fathers who ran the school that the financial communism of ·Wall poverty and wealth are acts of Street." He has a genius for com­ God, and that usury, in its ancient pounding such absurdities. sense, is the root of all evil. Since Coughlin occupies a negligible this sort of medieval economic position in the hierarchy of the philosophy has its modern counter­ Roman Catholic Church. As pastor part in the economic philosophy of of a parish that includes only a fascism, Coughlin's pronounce­ couple of hundred families, he is ments frequently sound like Ger­ officially among the clerical small man or Italian propaganda. As a fry, even in his own diocese. The matter of fact, they frequently are. fact that he is the curator of a A· good part of the material used million-dollar Shrine adds little to in Coughlin's recent anti-semitic his ecclesiastic stature. Under his broadcasts was culled from the management, the Shrine has be­ publication World Service, which is come more famouf> as a fountain­ put out by the Nazis in eight lan­ head of dubious propaganda than guages in order to disseminate their as a place of religious worship, and ideas throughout the world. The the pilgrims that it attracts are ob­ Father's anti-semitism, which he of viously more interested in seeing course denies, is evidently based on Coughlin than in honoring Ste. his theory that the Jews brought to Therese. Practically all.the pub­ an end what he calls "the glories licity that Coughlin has received FATHER COUGHLIN: HOLY MEDICINE MAN 131

has been of doubtful value to his hears confessions, and visits hi~ church. Much ofit, in fact, has dis~ parishioners as if he were just an tinctly handicapped the propaga~ ordinary priest. They seem rather tion of the faith. astonished that he is able to man~ He has yet to reveal the slightest age his pastoral affairs when he has regard for even the simple ameni~ so many other pressing matters to ties of his office. At various times attend to. Actually his priestly during the past few years he has tasks are sOITlething less than diffi­ distinguished himself by publicly cult, for in looking after his tiny tearing off his Roman collar, by flock he has the help of three as~ suggesting the use of bullets in... sistants. In summer, of course, he stead of ballots, and by attempting has to entertain the pilgrims, but to beat up an inquisitive reporter. the rest of the year .the Shrine is His behavior has brought down virtually deserted, and Coughlin upon him the disapproval of his never has any trouble finding time , bishop and the censure ofhis Pope. for his extra~curricular activities. But he continues to hold forth He conducts his private enter~ weekly on subjects nicely calcu'" prises from a bleak, inelegant lated·to arouse more prejudice than office in the basement of the piety. With oracular rotundity, he Shrine, to which only his employees plays Charlie McCarthy to Goeb~ have easy access. At the moment, bels, and smiles benignly when his his staff consists of 105 young performance is cheered by the women who handle his correspond~ Fuhrer's little agents throughout ence and prepare the bales of the land. Although his discourses propaganda with which he floods are his private affair, and not a re1i~ the country. Despite the fact that gious function, he does not hesitate Coughlin's radio audience nowa­ to use the Shrine as a broadcasting days is less than half as large as it studio on Sunday afternoons. On was in 1934, when he had an esti~ such occasions, he does not permit mated following of I 0,000,000 peo~ the members ofhis congregation to pIe, the girls on his payroll are enter. When he goes on the air, kept very busy. Ever since he only those immediately connected became openly anti-semitic last fall, with the program are allowed to Coughlin has been inundated with remain in his presence. mail. Coughlin's associates are fond of Coughlin never underestimates pointing out that he says Mass, his own importance. In ordinary 132 THE AMERICAN MERCURY conversation, he speaks -of various ways describes the victims of his Senators as ifthey were his personal anathemas as "anti-God." He as­ delegates to the Congress of the sumes the prerogatives of the deity UnitedStates, andfreely prognosti­ with all the confidence but none of cates the defeat of any proposed the dignity of Father Divine, the legislation ofwhich he does not ap­ wizard of Harlem. prove. He makes a point of being When he -first announced that solemnly secretive about his finan­ Kuhn, Loeb had lent money to the cial advisers. They are so highly Bolsheviks, Coughlin boasted that situated, he hints darkly, that it his information was derived from a would create a sensation if he were White Paper of the British Gov­ to divulge their names. He loves to ernment which he had in his appear mysterious. He delights in possession. This caused quite a stir, hidden documents and apocrypha but when Coughlin was asked to ofall descriptions. A few years ago, produce his White Paper, he ad­ he- compared Bernard Mannes mitted that he didn't have it after Baruch with a prince called Ma­ all. He claimed, however, that his ·nasses who had, he said, dismem­ charges against the old American bered Isaiah. According to the firm were substantiated in a report Catholic Encyclopedia, the story of the American Secret Service. that Isaiah was cutin half by The Secret Service department Manasses is wholly legendary and promptly denied the existence quite probably a myth. Coughlin, of any such report. Thereupon however, related the story as if it Coughlin finally broke down and were undisputed history, and in­ confessed that his information had 'sisted that Baruch's middle name come from a Father Dennis Fahey was -- Manasses no matter what of Dublin, the author of a book anyone said to the contrary. At the called The Mystical Body of Christ time of this attack, Coughlin listed -in the Modern World. A hysterical Mr. Baruch, along with Eddie anti-semite, whose prose style com­ Cantor, as the most dangerous bines the more esoteric features Jews in the United States. Lately of Oswald Spengler and Julius he has transferred that anathema Streicher, Fahey was a very ob­ :to Kuhn, -Loeb and Company of scure character until Coughlin New York City, which he suspects promoted him into an authority on of-having _helped to finance the world affairs. On this occasion, Russian Revolution. Coughlin al- though, Fahey wasn't much help FATHER COUGHLIN: HOLY MEDICINE ·MAN 133 to his barker, for it turned out ately apparent. Before the obscure later that the famous White Paper, matter could be discussed any fur­ as identified in The Mystical Body, ther, he proceeded to describe one contained no reference whatever ofhis favorite methods of restoring to Kuhn, Loeb. The·· putative prosperity. "Ifthe government will sources of Coughlin's radio mate­ stop issuing non-negotiable, inter­ rial have a habit of drying up in est-bearing bonds," he said,"and this fashion. But although his care'" start distributing negotiable, non­ lessness .with facts sometimes be'" interest bearing bonds, this de­ trays him into outright slander, he pression will be licked. With never voluntarily retracts any of negotiable, non-interest bearing his statements. bonds, everybody will be able to make a little money, and that will II go a long way toward solving our economic problems. Why, if every For a man with such a peculiar man bought just one shirt, and talent for invective, Coughlin is every housewife just one sheet, we amazinglysubdued when you meet wouldn't have to worry about. the him in his officeat the Shrine. In cotton surplus. And God knows private he speaks in an amiable we can all stand another shirt~" baritone that contains no hint of Coughlin is similarly anxious .. to the fantastic brogue tha.t he affects dodge any inquiry into his. anti­ on the air. His manner is bland but semitism. His response toanyques­ .guarded, and he is a master of con'" tionabout it is the following versational nonsequitur. When in a garbled concoction: "I do not dis­ recent interview with the writer, like the Jews. I dislike the commu­ he .•. was asked how his theory of nists. There is really no anti-semitic "production for use with a profit" problem in the United States. But differed from the ordinary capital... there is a semitic problem. 1 believe istconcept ofproduction for profit, that theJews should· have.their full he suggested that if the word "con... rights as a minority." sumption"were substituted for the Coughlin is· sleek and stocky, word "use," the difference between with' fat, pink jowls and a formida­ the .. system of "Christian capital­ ble double chin. Although he used ism," which he advocates, and ordi­ to be quite an athlete, he hasn't nary."atheistic capitalism," which taken much exercise in recent he deplores, would become immedi... years, and today at, 47 he carries a 134 THE AMERICAN MERCURY comfortable little paunch. Despite Coughlin's financial arrangements, his bulk, however, he is extremely and he has made quite certain that energetic. He is so anxious to do nobody ever will. He operates things in a hurry that he even cele~ through a kind ofholding company brates Mass in a faster tempo than known as "The Social Justice Poor is customary. His impatience with Society," which, as a charitable or­ delays of any kind has frequently ganization, is not required to pub­ got him into some untidy squab~ lish any statements. The Society bles. A couple of years ago, for in­ includes no troublesome stockhold­ stance, he decided to buy a tri­ ers and is managed by Coughlin angular plot of land opposite the and a couple of his secretaries, who Shrine. He succeeded in taking are officially designated as trustees. over all but one corner. The owner While he refuses to discuss the of the corner had a profitable gas ac tual resources of his Poor So­ station on his property, and was ciety, he is not only willing but rather reluctant to make a sale. He eager to talk about the expenses wasn't coaxed. Without pausing to that he incurs throughout the year. dicker, the Father proceeded to He is proud of the fact that he is build a gas station of his own as able to spend $1200 a week to take close to the other as he could care of his Shrine and ten times legally get. Today the two estab­ that amount to put one "Golden lishments are still sitting side by Hour of the Little Flower" on a side, and the original gas station, radio network of forty-six stations. despite cloudy rumors that the "I like to spend money," he says. 'proprietor preaches communism, "It increases production and con­ continues to provide plenty of op~ sumption. I spend enough of it, position for Coughlin's Super­ God knows, and I hope to keep on Shrine Service. A good many ofthe spending it until I've put millions citizens of Royal Oak are glad to in circulation." The millions that help Coughlin's rival. In his own Coughlin puts in circulation un­ bailiwick, the Father is none too doubtedly include a number of popular, and even some of the large donations from those who are Catholics in his parish take delight interested in seeing his ideas take in describing him as "The Mad hold among the masses. Around Monk·of the Shrine of the Silver Detroit it is generally accepted, Dollar." rightly or wrongly, that his angels Nobody knows very much about include certain local men ofwealth. FATHER COUGHLIN: HOLY MEDICINE MAN 135

To date the only tangible prod~ III uct of Coughlin's open~handedness with the money he has collected is Coughlin began to broadcast in the Shrine of the Little Flower. An 1926. Up until then, his career had architectural miscellany, which has been uneventful to the point of frequently been compared to a tedium. The son of the sexton ofa silo, the Shrine is by no means im~ church in Hamilton, Ontario, he posing to look at. Its most distin~ attended parochial schools, studied guishing feature is a cruciform under the Basilians at college, and tower, 150 feet high, on·which a was ordained a priest in 19 I 6. After monster figure of Christ has been his ordination, he taught philoso~ carved along with similarly spec~ phy for a while at a jerkwater col~ tacular figures of the Archangels lege in Texas, and then came north Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. At again to act as an assistant priest in night, illuminated by a battery of Ontario, Detroit, and Kalamazoo. searchlights, the Tower resembles When he first went to Royal Oak, the tombstone of a Gulliver. Be~ there was no parish there at all, and neath it, the main body of the before he could begin to preach, he Shrine huddles disconsolately, had to build a little church. His looking bleak as a barn. Because original Shrine was an insubstantial Coughlin has failed to attract a frame affair with a seating capacity steady congregation to his church, of 800 - more than adequate for the· Shrine may well become a a parish that then included only diocesan white elephant if he is twenty~eight families. The Shrine ever removed from the air. was barely completed when the Ku Without the contributions of Klux Klan, which was flourishing his radio audience, Coughlin would at the time around Royal Oak, obviously have a hard time keeping touched off a wooden cross one the Shrine out of bankruptcy. evening in the church yard. Whether or not this consideration According to an official souvenir has anything to do with the strange booklet distributed at the Shrine, failure of his superiors to remove this inspired the Father to take to him from the air is a question that the air. In prose that is singularly the ecclesiastics of the Detroit dio~ similar to Coughlin's, the booklet cese, which embraces Royal Oak, relates that "When the fiery cross, have never discussed in secular kindled by the hand of bigotry, circles. spit out its angry flames within a THRAMERICAN MERCURY . few yards of the little .shingled most a million. congratulatory .let~ church, Father Coughlin said to terse From that tim.e until he made himself, 'I shall build a cross which the mistake of trying to elect they shall not be able to burn.' " Lemke in 1936, Coughlin was sel~ Whereupon, the booklet goes on, dom out of the news. His remarks, he announced to his parishioners however footless, were promi­ that he was going to preach against nently displayed in the papers, and bigotry on the radio. In the light of his ideas, however fatuous, were his present activities, this legend is earnestly discussed. He was com­ neatly ironic, but·like most legends pared with Richelieu and Savon­ it isn't precisely· true. Coughlin arola, and frequently described as actually went on the air to get the most influential priest in the money to clear up his parish debts world. Under the circumstances, it arid he was inspired to do so by was hardly odd that he should fall a Detroit press agent and promoter into the error of believing himself named Frank Ward. infallible. What is odd, though, is Coughlin's first program was a that the error should still persist, children's hour, devoted to a dis~ after he has been so often exposed. cussion of the doctrines of the Coughlin will go to almost any Roman Catholic Church. It was lengths to avoid admitting that he mildly popular until 1930. Then, is wrong. It is not so long ago that with the gloom of the Depression Archbishop Edward Mooney of 'setting in all around,Coughlin de~ Detroit was compelled to refute cided to go to town. Abandoning Coughlin's charge that the CIO his catechism, he delivered a series was anti-Catholic. In order to pre­ ofdiscourses on the menace of com~ vent the spread of the priest's mis­ munism. The·series was something statement, the Archbishop re­ of a success.· It wasn't until he quested Coughlin to publish his started to talk· about. the menace refutation in Social Justice, a maga­ of Hooverism, however, that he zine that the Father founded··· in became a national figure. With feel~ 1936 to serve as a medium for his ing against Hoover running high, propaganda. Coughlin promptly Coughlin's attacks on him were so renounced all connection with the triumphantly received· that after magazine and transferred its owner~ one discourse on the subj ect ship from his own name to that ofa "Hoover Prosperity BreedsAn~ henchman called Walter Baertschi, other War," his mail included al- a real estate operator from Toledo. FATHER COUGHLIN: HOLY MEDICINE MAN 137 Thereupon Social Justice became a country fromcommunism, biItwas secular organ; beyond the .. pale of a trifle vague about the means of the Archbishop's censure, and at­ salvation. Beyond encouraging his tacks on the CIa identical with followers to remember the spiritof Coughlin's continued to appear in St. Francis of Assisi and to read its.· pages. Nowadays Baertschi is Pope Leo XIII's encyclical "On back in Toledo selling real estate, the Condition of Labor," he had and Social Justice, which claims a little definite to recommend. Soon circulation of230,000, is controlled afternieeting LeBlanc and Harriss, by Coughlin's Poor Society. Al­ though, he blossomed out as an ex­ though Baertschi still thinks that pert on monetary reform. His Coughlin's economic notions are thesis was simple. Said he: fine, he's too busy running an or­ We have inflated our credit dollars be- ganization of his own these days to . yond·all bounds of reason. Instead of devote much time to the Father. having 54,000,000,000 credit dollars outstanding against our gold deposits, Baert'schi's organization .is known we have gone on pyramiding our obli­ as "Friends and Neighbors, In­ gations until. the greatest prosperity corporated," and has· as its altruis­ debt in the history of civilization is confronting us. The only two ways out tic aim the abolition of, all taxes on are revaluation of our gold ounce or real estate. repudiation of our debts; One way is In his choice of friends and asso­ Christianity. The other way is Bol;. shevism. ciates, Coughlin has never been particularly discriminating. Back This sounded fine, and·- so did his in . 1930, he was supported by speeches iIi favor ofthe remonetiza­ Harry Jung, one of the founders tion· of silver, and his followers of the American Alliance, a society proudly hailed him as the greatest ofred-baiting patrioteers. A couple authority on finance in the coun­ ofyears later, while passing through try. Early in 1934, however, the New York City, he fell in with Treasury Department revealed George LeBlanc, an investment that Amelia Collins, one of Cough­ counsellor, arid. Robert Harriss, a lin's secretaries, had been specu­ commodity broker, who both lating in silver futures. Miss Col­ seemed anxious to have him act as lins, .it turned out, had -bought a spokesman for the revaluation of 5°0,000 ounces of silver with the the dollar and the remonetization funds of the Radio League of the of silver. At the time, Coughlin Little Flower. Since she was ob­ was talking a lot about saving the viouslyacting as a front for Cough- THE AMERICAN MERCURY lin, the Father's subsequent ora"" gram wasn't adopted, he remained tions on silver sounded hollow. on very friendly terms with the headmen of the union, and they IV frequently dropped in to see him at the Shrine. When Homer, Mar­ From the beginning of his career tin, lately deposed president of the as a demagog, Coughlin advocated UAW, evinced a desire to dicker not only monetary reforms hut in­ privately with Henry Ford, it was dustrial reforms as well. He insisted Coughlin who arranged·the meet­ that every worker was entitled to ing through his pal Harry Bennett. join a union of his own choosing Later on, by releasing to the Dies and to receive a just annual wage. Committee a stenographic copy He encouraged industrialists to of some off-the-record comments soften their hearts toward their made by Martin at a private meet­ workers and permit Jesus Christ to ing at the Shrine, Coughlin did his act as board chairman at their bit to ruin Martin's standing in the meetings. He also suggested that UAW. Martin's private comments they devise some profit-sharing were to the effect that most of the scheme to insure adequate com­ UAW leaders were communists. pensation for labor. While acting as By compelling Martin to acknowl­ a champion of the working class, he edge them in public, Coughlin saw nothing wrong in refusing to made it virtually impossible for the employ union workmen in building union leader to get together with his Shrine. He saw nothing wrong, fellow union officials. Coughlin's either, in proposing that the gov­ motive in douhIe-crossing Martin ernment take over the functions of was apparently to render the split collective bargaining, thus openly in the UAW irreparable. He hates admitting that he favored the everything connected with the fascist method of dealing with the CIO, and is anxious to wreck its problems of labor. Coughlin has unions. His current ideas on labor always hankered to dabble in union are of the most reactionary brand. affairs. When the independent In the magazine Social Justice he is union that was eventually to be­ continually whooping it up for come the United Automobile company unions. Workers of America was founded Coughlin has never been loyal to in 1935, he attempted to formulate anybody but himself. In his per­ a program for it. Although his pro- sonal relationships he is just as op- FATHER COUGHLIN: HOLY MEDICINE MAN 139 portunistic as he is in his political word, Coughlin. terminated the beliefs. Back in 1930, his closest friendship. He has behaved in a adviser was Representative Louis similar fashion in many other in­ McFadden of Pennsylvania, who stances. Among his former pals enjoys the unwholesome distinc­ only a few have escaped his be­ tion of having delivered the only trayal, the most prominent ex­ anti-semitic address ever heard in ception being Huey Long, who was the House. Through McFadden he assassinated while his friendship secured most of the facts and fig­ with Coughlin was still hot. ures that he used in his early dis... When Huey Long was alive, courses. He relied on McFadden so Coughlin often made common completely -that he submitted his cause with him. For awhile, they sermons to the Representative for had something approaching a De'" approval before delivering them troit-NewOrleans axis, the power over the radio. Then· one day in of which was demonstrated when December 1931 McFadden made a they inspired 4°0,000. people to speech in the House ofRepresenta­ send telegrams to Washington pro­ tives demanding the impeachment testing the World Court bill. In ofHerbert Hoover, which resulted their fight against the United in his being attacked by every States' entry into the World Court, Republican paper in the land. In Long and Coughlin were assisted the midst of the critical bom­ by William Randolph Hearst. The bardment, McFadden requested publisher has always been on cor­ Coughlin to say a few words in his dial terms with the priest, and _has favor. "I certainly will," Coughlin on occasion entertained him at responded, "just listen to me next San Simeon. After Long's death, Sunday." When McFadden tuned Coughlin fell in briefly with the in on the priest a few days later, he Reverend Gerald Smith, Long's heard him say: "Representative self-styled successor, but their asso­ McFadden should be expelled from ciation didn't last very long. Congress for making such charges Neither of the holy men had against our President." To explain much use for the other, and today his change of heart, Coughlin ad­ Coughlin's manner becomes rather vised McFadden that he "wanted strained when any inquiries are to provoke a comeback from the made about his collaboration with White House." With this lame and Smith. Ordinarily Coughlin speaks absurd ·excuse for welshing on his with unctuous kindliness about THE AMERICAN MERCURY practically everybody. His de­ Justice," he has pursued such an scription' of Franklin Roosevelt' as opportunistic course that he has a man with "an honest heart" is baffled even the blindest of his fol­ identical with 'his description of lowers. Today those followers are Huey Long. Today, of course, concentrated in Ohio, Pennsyl­ Coughlin considers Roosevelt, his vania and Massachusetts, where former hero, virtually a commu­ they excite a degree of attention nist, while he considers Long an out of all proportion to their num­ example of the "true democrat." bers by noisily picketing radio sta­ "Huey Long," the Father says, tions that bar the Father's sermons, "really had the welfare of the peo­ and indulging in the cruder forms ple at heart. He was not a political of Jew-baiting. Too scattered to scalawag and by no means a fascist, mean much at elections, they man­ potential or otherwise. The tempo age to put the heat on Congress by of events called fOf a strong man. showering legislators with letters His death was most untimely." and telegrams whenever Coughlin gives the signal. The synthetic v character of that pressure, how­ ever, is making it less and less Compared with Long, Coughlin effective. . is a political pipsqueak. Whereas Coughlin's following, which used Long, with his "Share the Wealth" to include a great many Protes­ clubs, was astute enough to intro~ tants and Jews in his eadiermoney­ duce into the United States a brand reform incarnation, is today over­ of demagogy ostensibly free from whelmingly Catholic. The applause any alien taint, Coughlin has made he receives from Fritz Kuhn's his pulpit the sounding board for Bund is not worth much, since ideas openly imported from Ger­ its membership is extremely small. many. Instead of. waiting to con­ The loud approbation of Adolf salidate his position as a pseudo­ Hitler's anti-Catholic press for the radical, the Father ,has 'flopped Royal, Oak,preacher is one of the heavily into the diametrically op­ curiosities of the Father's scram­ posite camp. He has thus disquali­ bled politics. That Coughlin should fied himself to play with any degree be permitted by his spiritual su­ of plausibility the role ofthe savior periors to exploit his connection ofdowntrodden labor. Although he with the Roman Catholic Church still rants endlessly about "Social to attract an audience for his FATHER COUGHLIN: HOLY MEDICINE MAN 141 evangelism of intolerance is not unpredictable, he has held his fol­ easy to understand. In a land where lowers during the Depression· by feelings against religious minori­ supplying them with various scape­ ties have usually taken the form goats for their misery and discon­ of anti-Catholicism, a priest in tent. Although his influence is the role of preacher of intolerance waning, a recurrence of the condi­ toward any minority is surpass­ tions of 1932 would undoubtedly ingly strange. It is an open ques­ restore a great deal ofhis popu­ tion whe.ther he has the right to larity. But whatever happens, he intimate, as he consistently does, will never become the Messiah of that his Church endorses his doc­ the lumpenproletariat, whicp is his trines. From the point of view devout ambition. On his record, he of Catholics who deplore his ac­ is a political incompetent, who will tivities, it is regrettable, to put it never be anything more than the mildly, that he should be able to advance man for a shrewd and boast that his bishop, with his capable mob leader. Meanwhile;he imprimatur,. authorizes everything is a rather pathetic creature, .suf­ he says. fering from delusions of grandeur Coughlin is a man that nobody and demonstrating somewhat sadly can trust. He is a dangerous friend "the effect of unlimited power on and· a scurrilous· enemy. Politically limited minds."

COLLECTIVE SECURITY

By THOMAS JEFFERSON

r sincerely join in abjuring all political connection .with .every foreign power; and though I cordially wish well to the progress of liberty in all nations, and would forever give it the weight of our countenance, yet they are not to be touched without con- tamination from their other. bad. principles. .~ From New England to New England in three generations -

PIONEER'S RETURN

By ADELAIDE WALKER

·IT IS curious. I grew up in the where the historical necessity ofhis West, where physical daring time and class had led him. For and moral independence are pro~ my grandfather was a pioneer. verbial. I came from what histori~ Pioneer! The name suggests a anseuphemistically describe as glamorous saga in our national "sturdy pioneer stock." But my tradition. The movies, following parents did their best to make a the lead of our serious historians, coward ofme. I never learned any~ are merely the latest chroniclers to thing important when I was a child. glorify it. In one man's lifetime, I never learned to ice-skate or half a continent conquered for tlimb ladders or risk bruised knees. civilizationr Historians remind us Safety was my mother's wa tch~ that it took man in Europe a word; to be careful, to take no thousand years to make the jump chances, to cling to security and which our West made> in seventy­ comfort, and to ignore - by not five. A man who went west in a even recognizing their existence ­ covered wagon to lands inhabited any larger issue, aim, or conflict. by Sioux and Arapahoe could fly Everything that was routine and back before he died in an airliner. petty was of major importance, But he paid. Paid by giving every and the serious questions of life ounce of physical and psychic simply did not exist for her at all. strength to make this phenomenal Though I blamed my mother for feat possible. And his moral and years, I know now that she could emotional deficit is also part of the not have acted differently, for all pioneer heritage. this was not accidental with her. She had learned it from her father, It has never been an easy thing my grandfa ther. And with him too for men to uproot themselves from it was no unique personal trait, but the homes of their fathers and go an organic thing which he had forth into the wilderness. But in learned in the cruel blind alley other times men have been content PIONEER'S RETURN 143 to transplant civilization slowly. England ethics he brought with To clear the land and build a home him from Maine - a vague feeling was enough for one generation. that anything quite so dependent To the post-Civil War pioneer, this on· chance was fundamentally im­ was not enough. He was born into moral. At all events, with heroic the great age of expanding Ameri­ sacrifice, amid incredible hard­ can· capitalism. To the herculean ships, and with insistence on the effort of making a wilderness traditional virtues of hard work habitable, he must add the con­ and honesty, he built a fortune of suming passion of his age and class several million dollars. - to grow rich. Physically he did the job. The II West got the fruits of American industrial civilization as rapidly My grandmother was a match for and completely as the older, settled him. She gave birth to her first parts of the country. But civiliza­ children - twin girls, one of them tion is an organic process. It can't my mother - when my grand­ be installed like an oil burner or a father had gone on a round-up and chromium showerbath. There was she was alone with a Is-year-old no time for creating, or even for an girl, forty miles from the nearest awareness of the values that begin town. When the. twins were 4 and where showerbaths and airplanes the next child 2, the whole family stop. No timefor anything beyond had such a narrow escape from the what the pioneer had gone west to Indians that they were reported find - success and fortune. The dead and funeral services were held successful ones did not pause, or for them in the frontier settlement. relax, or look back. Those who did, Through the long years that· fol­ missed the prize. lowed she endured, with a fortitude My grandfa ther did not miss. He in no way second to his own, the went west from Maine to Wyoming vicissitudes and hardships of her and Colorado, driving an ox-team husband's struggle. and hunting buffalo. From buffalo, And in this struggle comfort and he turned· to cattIe raising - he security came to be their gods, the .never had any use for mining and only things worth striving for. the wealth men took from inside Unlike their New England an­ the earth. Perhaps this was the cestors, they had no ideal into uncorroded core of stern New which they could sublimate their THE AMERICAN MERCURY effort. Though both of them were culture cannot be transplanted in pious enough, God had lost all its entirety, these became mere living·importance for their genera~ emptyforms, into which they were tion. They struck no roots into the unable to pour life .or content. soil. They built no community. Under the·glamour and excitement They moved from one house to of the pioneer tradition lay a great another, from. town to ranch and void without reason or meaning. back to town again. Finally they This became fully apparent in my built a Victorian mansion as visible mother's generation. For them cuI.. evidence of their hard~won suc~ ture was a pseudo-synthetic prod... cess, but so little did it really mean uct, kept in the parlor like a bou~ as .home that in their old age they quet of paper flowers - just as calmly uprooted themselves from good as the real thing and much their life of half a century and more practical. ... moved to the city a hundred and So there were my grandparents fifty miles away. Many of their after a lifetime of heroic sacrifice, contemporaries moved to Cali~ and no trace of ease, or grace, or fornia at this point, and my grand~ beauty, and nothing to justify mother sometimes regretted that what they had suffered but a they had not. But my grandfather couple .of million dollars. What could not bring himself to retire could they do but make for their completely. children a philosophy to fit? If a The organic group life of the man has sacrificed all the good and early New England towns had no pleasant things of life in order to counterpart in the settling of the worship God as he pleases, .or to West. There was little feeling of free the human spirit from political civic responsibility, or inter~de~ and economic bondage, he can face pendence, or of building for per~ his children proudly and confi... manence and posterity. Before dently; he can give them a heritage the crudity of pioneer life had of struggle and human dignity, really passed, the uprooting, dis~ and the courage to ignore .life's integrating forces of industrialism petty worries and selfish obsessions. were upon them. From the New But if he has sacrificed every England of their childhood, they human value and every possession brought the customs, the morality, of the spirit for money which he is theprejudices, and the religion then too old and worn out to spend they had known there, but since a - or even to remember how he PIONEER'S RETURN 145 on.Ce longed to spend - he can III only. pass on to his children the cautious emptiness ofhis own bleak My grandfather died when I was spirit. He teaches them to take no 14, worn out with his pioneering chances, to be careful, to eat and money-making and without good meals and sit by a .warm ever having used his money for fire and hold on to what they anything. He had never had fun have - though he makes them too with it, nor used it. for power and stupid in the process .to do even prestige, nor "done good" -out­ that. side a stern and .measured gen­ Such poverty of spirit, I hon­ erosity to a periphery of indigent estly believe, has never existed relatives. Stern and measured, not anywhere in the world. Life with­ because he was stingy, but because out roots, without a past or a future he made a fetish ofself-reliance and - the pioneering bourgeoisie was independence and believed that overtaken by its own decay before too much help would destroy these it had· a chance to flower into ma­ supremely impo'rtant· qualities. He turity, was blighted at the start by and my·grandmother never even its'own lack of aim or dream to took that European,orround-the­ carry it forward. world, tour which their best You can tell what they were like friends - the other richest family by their houses. Never have men in town - had had, and which my built for themselves houses of such grandparents continued to promise unbearable .ugliness. The, poorest themselves up to the day of their peasant, the humblest .fisherman deaths. has some touch,of beauty and grace So in the end the only thing my in the place where he lives and grandfather did with his money ­ raises his children. But in the for which he had frozen and building of the West, the rancher, starved and gone' forth into the the .. businessman, .and the million­ wilderness away fromaH that was aire .alike made·· for themselves civilized and· pleasant - was leave homes so lacking in any touch of it to his children. humanity· that after a few years His children by this' time were they themselves could no longer as little fitted to cope with, their endure them and they moved on ­ fortune as if they had won it in a if .they cOlJ.ld - to others newer lottery. My grandfather had .built and even uglier. them each a house and started his THE AMERICAN MERCURY son and sons~in~law in business­ rich would have meant facing the his own, the cattle business - for fact that this pleasant state would which none of them had any par~ occur only through the death of ticular inclination or talent. He their father - filial duty, and per­ believed that young people should haps an unconscious fear that they "make their own way in the world" might seem, even to themselves, to as he had done - work hard and be wishing it - prevented their live meagrely. They were all duti.. giving any thought to their future ful about it and accepted it as the inheritance. natunil order of things (except his Everything might have been all daughter~in~law, who was frankly right had my grandfather died bored at having married a rich fifteen years before, or had his man's son only to live like a poor children inherited a stable, steadily man's wife). profitable business instead of a But their hard work and meagre vast, disorganized, widely scattered living did not bring the results my mass ofcattle, land, and real estate. grandfather had· so obviously ex~ To my grandfather investment pected; none of them became mil~ meant something tangible, some­ lionaires. Perhaps it was knowing thing he lould see and manage~· he that in any real. emergency or il1~ distrusted stocks and bonds, and ness there were, after all, several his surplus had gone into a fantastic million dollars available that kept collection of decrepit office build­ them from making that last ounce ings and inaccessible flour mills. of effort that enabled my grand~ Furthermore, my parents came father to grow rich. into their inheritance at the mo­ Whatever it was, they lived for ment when agriculture and real fifteen or sixteen years modest, estate were tobogganing into the middle~class lives on $3000 or post-war slump where they stayed $4000 a year. Their constant train­ for the most part through the ing in being "practical" and "eco­ "prosperity" of the late 'twenties. nomical," and their carefully nur­ Bewildered by their new wealth tured lack ofcourage and initiative and the crisis which engulfed it, (despite my grandfather's lip serv­ and utterly unprepared for both, ice to se1f~reliance and independ­ all my grandfa ther's children tried ence), had fitted them very well desperately to do the right thing. for this existence. Since facing the They hired lawyers and formed fact that they would some day be family corporations and were al- PIONEER'S RETURN 147 ways very polite to each other money which had cost them, as about the gigantic sums which well as their parents, the sacrifice of they proceeded to lose. There were everything worthwhile in life. no sordid family quarrels 'and no recriIl'li.nations, but the money I was the only one who really which had been accumulated in profited from grandfather's money. fifty years of heart-breaking effort While his children stood around dwindled away in ten years of bewildered and the' rest of the agrarian slump and impotent mis­ grandchildren were too young to management. care, I had made up my mind what When my grandmother died­ I wanted. I wanted to get away. ten years after my grandfather­ Away from my family, from the there was no money left. For the West, from the bleak Wyoming whole ten years my parents and 'town and everything that all of aunts and uncles had worked and them stood for. The remnants of worried; they'· had denied them­ my grandfather's hard-earned for­ selves even the satisfaction of tune lasted just long enough to en­ squandering their money pleas­ able me to settle, permanently antly. The second generation, like though humbly, in the New Eng­ the first, had got nothing from the land he had left sixty years before.

POET TO PATRON

By LANGSTON HUGHES

H,AT right has anyone to say For bread that helps to make W That I My heart beat true, Must throw out pieces of my heart I must sell myself For pay? To you?

A factory shift's better, A week's meagre pay, Than a perfumed note asking: VJVhatpo~stoday? ~ If war comes this year - how will it end? An American military expert explains why

GERMANY CAN'T WIN!

By GEORGE FIELDING ELIOT

·· . E are being frightened out of This is not the Imperial Army of W our wits by the spectacle ofa 1914, by a long shot. That army rearmed and mighty Germany, had been steadily building its already invincible, which is today strength since 1871. Every year a the master ofEurope, and tomor­ fresh class of conscripts had been row may be the master of the called up, trained for two or three world. We are being told that we years, and had the cream skimmed must make haste to throw in our off it to form the non-commis­ lot with the "democracies" of sioned-officers cadre. Every year a Europe, otherwise they will soon fresh class of carefully selected be overwhelmed by Germany and cadets had gone into the officers' herItalian satellite, after which our schools. Every year the young uni... oWn turn. will come. We are even versity men had joined up as "one­ told that Germany may conquer year volunteers" to be trained in Britain and come into possession of special courses as reserve officers. In the British Navy - as wild a flight forty-three unbroken years of this of fancy as this hysterical period process, a military machine had h~s provoked. The warning is shap­ been forged which had no equal in ing into a formula: "We must help the world, all things considered. the democracies of Europe now, or The army was organized in 25 later we shall face a victorious corps (So divisions) of first-line Germany alone." The German troops, plus II cavalry divisions. victory is taken for granted. Behind these, on mobilization in It is· important, therefore, to ex'" 19 14, 48 reserve divisions and 7 amine calmly and coolly the actual Ersatz divisions were called up, and military position of Germany to­ there were· still available for sec" day, and what we may expect that ondary uses Landwehr (second position to be in the immediate reserve) troops equivalent to 16 future. To begin with, let's look at divisions. This grand total of 121 the German Army: divisions and II cavalry divi- 148 GERMANY CAN'T WIN! sians was armed, accoutered, and required to engage for 20 years and equipped down to the last detail; could be replaced only at a very and every unit had a complete small annual rate; the latter were complementoffully trained officers professional soldiers enlisted for a and non-commissioned officers. The I2-year term, and likewise limited officer corps had an esprit and co­ as to replacements. This. force ­ hesion unmatched anywhere; the the famous Reichswehr - was, it General .' Staff, the directing brain is true, brought to a very high of the whole vast machine, had degree ofefficiency. by the brillian't been developing its tactical and and versatile General von Seeckt, strategical doctrines for half a but it was further handicapped by century, and had fully matured being denied tanks and heavy plans to meet· every emergency. artillery, and by the demilitariza­ The French army was probably tionof the' Rhineland. as good as. the German in quality, 1n1935, when Hitler decided certainly as good as far as the upon open rearmament, more or officercorps went, but inferior in less secret measures had already numbers. The Russian, Austro­ been taken to increase Germany's Hungarian, and Italian armies,' for forces. The State Police had been varying reasons, could not be com­ given military training, and was pared with the German. The almost as efficient as the Reichswehr, British and ourselves still clung to though without artillery. A certain· the old principle of a small volun­ number ofyoung men had received teer·· professional army. The Ger­ special courses. A frontier guard man army, in short, was pre­ had, been formed and trained· to eminent in Europe. some extent. Some .military train­ Wh,at is this army like today? ing had been given to such civilian In: the first place, we must take into formations as the SS (blackshirts) accountthe "Versailles gap" from and SA (brown shirts). But when 19-19 to 1934, during which period all was said and done these meas­ there was' no compulsory military ures did not give Germany a training. Germany was, in those 15 larger field force. They provided years, constrained by the disarma­ the Reichswelzr with a reservoir of ment clauses of the Treaty of trained or partially trained re­ Versailles, which limited her army placements, and they provided to a force of 4000 officers and units capable of performing the 100,000 men; the former were duties of internal· police and to THE AMERICAN MERCURY some extent ofgarrisoning fortified divisions, 3 mechanized divisions, places - and that is all. and a cavalry brigade. In East With the issuance of the military Prussia an additional class was laws of 1935, the picture began to called to the colors each year. change. Compulsory and universal In 1937, the first fully trained military service for a period of two class of reservists was dismissed years was reintroduced for all from the army to their homes, and German males physically fit, be­ another in 1938. Today, Germany ginning at the age of 20, as in the has with the colors the classes old Imperial army; and the sub­ called up in 1937 and 1938, plus sequent service in reserve, Land­ about 250,000 of the permanent­ wehr, and Landstunn was likewise instruction cadre: a total of850,000 decreed, the annual classes of can'" men. The trained reserves (two scripts being called up each Octo'" classes) total 650,000, to which ber. At the same time, the resump'" may be added perhaps 200,000 tion of officer-training in cadet who have received the eight weeks' schools was arranged for, and the courses, and 50,000 additional training of non-commissioned offi­ fully trained reservists for East cers and reserve officers as well. Prussia. The grand total is 1,75°,• These methods were supplemented 000; and behind this is a large re'" byarrangementsfor training select­ placement reservoir of partially ed men from the "lost classes" trained men of various categories. (those who would have been called To this again must be added the in the period 1919-1934 under nor'" trained units of the Austrian army, mal conditions) at the rate ofabout insofar as these can be usefully 50,000 per year, in courses of eight employed. weeks' duration. Many former offi­ The organization is· in 18 corps, cers 'were called to the colors, and of 2, 3, or 4 divisions each. Total: the highly trained men of the 49 divisions, 3 mountain divisions, Reichswehr were in many instances 3 or 4 mechanized divisions, 3 advanced to officers' rank after in­ cavalry divisions (with 2 more tensive periods of instruction, or probably in course oforganization). became non-commissioned officers. These are first-line units. There are When the second class ofconscripts 38 reserve divisions, which were was called up in October 1936 it seriously handicapped until a short was found possible to constitute the time ago by a shortage of artillery; army on the basis of 36 first-line this has now been made up by the GERMANY CAN'T WINI 15 1 capture of the whole materiel of Moreover, as to numbers there the Czechoslovak army, sufficient is a very·· severe shortage, as there for at least 34 divisions. It will, is with the non-commissioned of­ however, take a little time for this ficers. It is possible in a few months, unfamiliar materiel to be absorbed or perhaps a year or two, to train a into the German organization. private soldier in his duties; it is Landwehrdivisions exist on paper, less possible to create an efficient but are hardly yet effective units. non-commissioned officer in this Germany can therefore put into length of time. To train an officer the field a total of 90 divisions, is quite out of the question in plus mechanized and cavalry di­ anything like the time which has visions, as against 121 in 1914. been available to Germany. The shortage' of leaders is the most II serious handicap facing the Ger­ man army today. This is a defect,of There is a·very great difference in course, which time will cure. the effectiveness of the 1939 army Today one may confider-tly state and that of 1914, however. The that the German army could not great cohesive element of the latter fight the French, single-handed, force, the officer corps,. does not with any genuine hope of success. exist in the same sense at all. The With every year that passes, the present officer corps consists offour conditions are likely to alter in elements, different in original com­ favor of Germany, as her mili­ position and in military, political, tary machine improves, enlarges, and social outlook: (1) the profes­ gains experience and training. The sional officers ofthe old Reichswehr; French army will grow no larger, (2) the reserve officers and former nor improve its efficiency. It can­ officers called back to service in not. It is already as large and as 1935 after long periods of civil em­ good as it can be made on France's ployment; (3) the former enlisted stationary population of 40,000,­ men of the Reichswehr; (4) the new 000; while as'Germany's army be­ young officers who have come comes more proportionate to her through the cadet schools since present population (Czechs ex­ 1935. It will take some years to cluded) of 78,000,000, it will shake down this heterogeneous eventually far overshadow that of aggregation into any uniformity France in size (even including the of thought and doctrine. French colonial troops) while it THE AMERICAN MERCURY will slowly ascend the.comparative run down the German raiders, and scale. ofquality, in which itistoday how quicklythe British and French so inferior. But that is in the future. armies .can.dispose .of the Spanish Our hypothesis supposes a war and African bases which will sup- now,this year; and today it is the port these raiders. '_ French army, not the German, That a serious menace is here which is pre-eminent in Europe. presented to Britain is unquestion­ Panic-talk has obscured this fact, able. But. that this menace can be yet it remains a towering fact. decisive is highly questionable. The The German navy, when ships stronger the German grip on now building are completed, will Spain becomes, the more African have 4 or 5 battleships,·3 "pocket possessions Germany can acquire, battleships," I 5 cruisers, 2 aircraft the greater the danger from her carriers, a strong flotilla ofdestroy­ commerce-raiding operations, to ers and torpedo boats, and. close to which Britain proved so vulnerable 100 submarines. Except in the last in the last war. The swarms of category, it will be distinctly in­ submarines will compel the con­ ferior to the Frenchnavy,and voying of merchant shipping, and considerably less than one-third the the fast capital ships and cruisers size .of the British. In 1914 Ger­ will attack the convoys themselves. many's navy ranked second in the Here again, we must say .that Ger­ world; today it ranks fifth. many cannot win today, but that Its purpose, however, is plain time is working inexorably in Ger­ from the qualities of its ships, even many's favor, increasing the num­ without the ev~dence ofthe recent ber of ships available, increasing move to· the· Spanish coast. The also her moral authority in Spain Germans learned in the last war and allowing her to tighten her that an inferior navy locked up in grip on Spanish Africa. the North Sea and the Baltic is of It should be added that the Ger­ little use as an offensive weapon of man navy seems to be the most war.. They.mean this time· to use efficient of her three armed forces; their fleet on· the British trade here there has been no compromise routes, the one effective employ­ with training requirements for mentfound for it in the last war. officers and petty officers, as there How effective this employment has been in the army and air force. ·will be depends on how quickly The growth has been slower, but the British and French fleets can the results more certain. GERMANY CAN'T WIN! 153 In her preponderant air force new sources of supply' to, make tip Germany today possesses her prin­ this shortage in great part. cipal military asset. 'Gennan air There is one' othe'r most signifi­ superiority rests upon three sup­ cant consideration to be taken into ports: a superior number of first­ account: the fact that it is not line, airplanes (4000 in operating likely that air power alone can win squadrons, 4000 in reserve, as a decision in modern war. Unable against a total of about 4000 for to defeat France on land, or Britain Britain and 2000 for France);'far atsea, Germany" is reduced ''to the superior facilities for replacement hope ofusing her air, force to win of planes" (a wartime capacity of her victory. She can do thisonly 1000 or more airplanes a month, as by striking with full force at the against 400 for Britain and 120 British Isles, the principal prop of for France); and superior numbers the alliance forming against her. of, 'trained personnel, both flying Can the Germa,n air' force bomb and ground. It must be noted that the British people into submission the German manufacturing ca­ in 'a few days or ,weeks? On the pacity will not greatly increase, available evidence- admittedly while that of Britain is expected to incomplete-of Spain and China, reach 600 a. month by the end of it cannot.- The city of London· is this year, and that of France 250 woefully vulnerable, but its de­ to 300. Besides,' in the long run fenses have' greatly improved since these countries can count on Munich. The Btitish· people are American airplane manufacture to tough-fibered and can take a great $upplement their own. Here is one deal of pounding. If the attemptis factor in which time is not working made and fails, it will have cost for Germany. Against this must be Germany the greater part of her set- the circumstance that Ger­ air force, and will" leave 'her in many's' position in respect to raW difficulties indeed. materials,'and'fuel, at present" the Finally, there is the economic principal air shortages, may be front, and here a word ofcaution strengthened. Unless the eastern is needed. It has been the fashion cordon- (Poland-Rumania) can be to say that Germany cannot stand closed and kept closed - and the the strain 'of war. Perhaps not; German economic agreement with but the same thing was said of Rumania does not indicate it-­ Japan two years ago arid of Italy the Reich will be able to develop at the outset of the Ethiopian 154 THE AMERICAN MERCURY adventure. As a matter of fact, as mail, overshadowing Europe and far as finances and food are con~ particularly England. He should cerned, there is almost no limit to be the last man to wish to put this the resisting power of a great na~ untried weapon (in the larger tion, as Germany demonstrated in sense) to a test it might fail. 1914-1918, as the Southern Con~ federacy demonstrated in the 'six~ III ties. The substitution of forced labor for capital is a process which Sum it all up, and it comes to a dictatorial government can carry this: Germany cannot win a war if on almost indefinitely, so long as one begins today, tomorrow, this year. it is not deprived of essential raw The general assumption, based at materials without which its war least in part on wishful thinking, is industry cannot function. It is in that time works against Germany, the latter respect that the Reich is and in favor of the democracies. handicapped. The more complex As the writer has already indicated, the weapons of war, the greater he does not believe this. On the their requirements for munitions, contrary, give Germany more time, so much more vulnerable will be let her extend her suzerainty over the nation which cannot give its more territory, let the terror ofher industry all the things needful for unchecked advance overawe a few its demands. And Germany is more small powers, and the military seriously deficient, notably in cop~ balance changes. The more sources per, cotton, iron, manganese, nickel, of strategic raw materials she ac~ petroleum, and tin. For some, quires, the less she is vulnerable to more or less satisfactory substitutes blockade. The longer she has to can be found; for others, not. train leaders, the stronger her army The moral factors are less easily becomes. The more ships she puts weighed. Undoubtedly the Ger~ into commission, the more overseas man people do not want war; un~ bases she acquires, the greater the doubtedly one of the principal threat. of her naval and air power props of Hitler's prestige at home to the British sea~lanes. is that he has achieved so much The chances of victory in a without war. That he has been able future war must be viewed from to do so is largely owing to the two angles. First, that of Germany threat of his air force, acting as an on the offensive, seeking to impose instrument of international black~ her will on others; second, that of GERMANY CAN'T WIN! Germany on the defensive, striving in the North Sea. Italy's air force to protect her gains and herposi­ is an untriedweapon in this respect. tion in Europe from allied pressure. The consensus ofinformed opinion In the'.. first case, her chances of is that the airplane is not.likely to winning today depend wholly on be a decisive means ofdealing with her air power plus the possible the battleship. Both these weapons effect of her raids on British com.. can inflict serious injuries on capi,.. merce. They are not bright. In the tal ships under certain circum­ second case, she might fight a long stances, but they cannot open up defensive war, but in the end would the exits from the Mediterranean be pretty sure to lose as the British in: th;e face of superior surface and French empires made their forces. On land, the configuration enormous resources effective. of the Eranco-Italian frontier is But what of Italy? Here the favorable to invasion of Italy from answer is quite clear. No strutting France, highly unfavorable to the and bombast can make Italy a reverse; nor does any informed great military power. She lacks the observer suppose that the Italians very bases for modern military could make a successful stand might -coal, iron, copper, and against the French either here or in oil. In war she could not import North Africa. Indeed, the whole them, being of'all the principal Anglo-French plan of" campaign European nations the most vul­ would appear to begin with a nerable to blockade, locked up ·in tremendous assault, .by land and an enclosed sea with both entrances sea, upon weakand vulnerable Italy controlled bysuperior hostileforces. to eliminate her at once from the Her fleet is sharply inferior to·that struggle. This probably means of France, or to the British Medi­ that, though Italy might gain terranean fleet. Her large sub­ Germany a little time, in the end marine flotilla cannot help her she would be a source of weakness much; the World War showed how rather than strength, demanding ineffective is the submarine against aid rather than giving it. Spain modern war-fleets, whatever its might be more useful because of prowess as a commerce-destroyer. her strategic position and her pos­ Not a single'capital ship ofthe Brit­ session of a war-hardened, stout­ ish Grand Fleet was even torpe­ fighting army. But she has been doed, much less sunk, by a subma­ terribly weakened by two and a rine during four years ofoperations half years of civil war, and to- THE AMERICAN MERCURY day is far from beinga unitednation. These are the present conditions. On the other hand, Poland is a Germany cannot win - now. But sturdy and well-armed ally for Germany ~ext year or the year France and Britain. Her army of after, may be a very different 30 divisions is composed of good Germany. rnaterial, and is well-armed, though Certainly we in the United there is a shortage ofsome types of States have little reason .to fear modern equipment for reserves. either Germany's present power, Certainly she could be counted on or any offensive by a Germany to takecare of a German force at weakened and drained by the strain least equal to her own. Rumania, of war even though shemight be whose army is not considered equal victorious. Either way, weare in to Poland's in quality, has a much little danger while we maintain an more defensible frontier and is by adequate level of naval power, no means to be disregarded. Be­ backed by a sufficient army and hind these two powers lies Soviet air force. Certainly, also, at the Russia, "the enigma of the East." present time, our British and The continuous purges among the French friends are quite capable of higher-ranking officers make it taking care of their own interests doubtful whether the Russian if they have the will to do so. The army could take the offensive in one chance Germany would have to the west; nor does the Soviet fleet win a European war - a swift all­ seem a formidable fighting force. out attack by her air force on But at the worst, Soviet support Great Britain - is precisely the could give Poland and Rumania one· form ot attack which we the one military asset they most Americans could not possibly ar­ greatly need - an air force - and rive in time to help repel. Short could be an inexhaustible source of of such an attack, the resources munitions and supplies. At this of Britain and France are ample writing, ofcourse, after the removal to insure thenl success. It is·wen of Commissar of Foreign Affairs for us to think over these Litvinoff, Russia's role in the event practical considerations at this of war is most unclear. time. GHOST GOES TO COLLEGE

By Roy A.. BENJAMIN, Ja.

· OWADAYS, if a college sopho­ M.A. theses - ata price. Healso N more has a 5ooa-word essay caters to such deans, principals, due. on "The Banking System of and professors as need help on lec­ the Pharaohs,'" or if a graduate tures or.learned articles. student is worried over his Ph.D. Smith operates in a little apart­ thesis, there are two possible solu­ ment-officeonWest I2Ist Street, tions: the victim can do the work in New York City, one block from himself, or he can delegate the job Columbia University. He's been to G. H. Smith. More and more there since 1933 - an, amazing students are choosing the second little man with a devastating self­ course. When. the parchments and confidence and a mind,. developed letters'are distributed this month, by the far-reaching nature of his a good ·many will bear traces of the business, that gallops the gamut of expert collaboration of the said knowledgefrom algebra to zoology. Mr. 'Smith. (Smith is the ghost's There's precious little Smithdoesn't perfectly selected pseudonym.) know, and absolutely nothing that As king of college. ghost writers, stumps him. In his apartment, Smith has put his business on such surrounded by six typewriters and amass-production basis that his 2000 books, he does his ghosting, far-from-ghostly earnings come to attired in a yellow polo shirt, a $10,000 a year. This year, his beltless pair of corduroy ·trousers, clientele inc!uded over 600 men and house slippers. A 120-pounder, and women in colleges and univer­ he has a stringy little 'mustache, sities throughout the country. For eager, darting eyes, wide-rimmed them .Smith did themes, essays, glasses, and floppy hair. At 31, he and book reports. He·employs a still looks like a student. smooth-working staff ofsix writing Smith gets his clients by can­ assistantsand six typists. An M.A. vassing campuses with a form­ himself, but no Ph.D., Smith has letter headed "Every ,Man Today prepared ten Ph.D. and sixty Has a Ghost," which says: 157 THE AMERICAN MERCURY Having complete bibliographical mente He could easily rehash some guides, great experience, and valuable clippings and research at my disposal, paper done years before, but that I can often compile an essay in two days isn't his idea of ghosting cricket. that would cause any other person Each assignment brings a different many weeks offret and care. problem. A list of his "fields of work" quickly convinces the prospect II that. no subj ect can be. assigned that Smith the Ghost does not The usual theme, footnoted, with know. At random, the "fields" bibliography, and guaranteed for cover finance, classical civilization, grade and non~detection, costs be.. music, anthropology, religion, mil~ tween $10 and $20. Book reports itary and naval science, foreign vary from $3 to $10, depending on languages, world politics, and anat~ the book. More complicated sub.. omy. But those are just a few. jects, demanding more than the Smith's letter inevitably wins usual amount of research and in­ responses like the following from terpretation, may run into pretty Princeton: big money. Master's and Doctor's theses, of course, bring in the Dear Mr. Smith: highest fees. A Ph.D. report varies Would you submit by return mail the price of a 6000 word paper? The between $500 and $700, and will subject is "The Supernatural Elements take from 200 to 500 typewritten in Beowulf." pages. Master's average about $300. Or like this one from the University The Ghost doesn't write these of Pennsylvania: longer assignments quickly. He must live for several months with Dear Mr. Smith: the job, devoting an hour or so Some time ago I received a letter from you stating that you wrote essays. to it daily. One Ph.D. thesis, just Will you kindly submit the cost of an completed, required 700 working essay for an elementary course in con­ hours, Smith says, and covered a stitutional law. The subject, coveting period ofa year and a half. Another 5000 words, is on the "Decisions, Philosophy, and Life of Justice Stone recent one was written in 225 of the Supreme Court of the United actual working hours. States." The emphasis must be on in~ terpretations of his decisions. A typical week's work, as re­ vealed by the Ghost's files, would Smith takes professional pride in mean delving in such scattered giving a new slant to every assign- topics as Christianity and Medieval GHOST GOES TO COLLEGE 159 Art, Sun Spot Cycles, Personal greater part of his clients are· "A" Traits of .Competent. Secretaries, students. "This is because most The Unsupervised Play of Chil­ curricula overload the student," dren, the Credit Department in the Ghost explains. "Bright men Modern Banking, How to Get a and women want time for the sub­ Job, Political Implications of the jects that interest them the most. Berlin to Bagdad Railroad, Law Like good business executives, they and Order on the American Fron­ give tedious assignments to me." tier, What I Hear In Berlioz and Experience has taught Smith Schubert, Building Rhythmic Con­ how the Harvard style varies from sciousness, The Character of Jesus, that of Oklahoma State Teachers. Menus for a Nurse's Dining Room, He knows the profs who adore Growth and Development of the polysyllabic themes and he over­ Teeth, and Artificial Respiration. flows accordingly for them. He Smith gives individual attention can split an infinitive or hang a to· each client. He recommends participle for a freshman essay. high-lighted chapters of books to He pounds out bold Anglo-Saxon be read; he advises better study for the California senior writing habits. He invites the student to on "Giant Redwoods" and he drop into his office for personal gushes and coos for the Vassar interviews and advice. Vivid testi­ sweet whose assignment is ~'Social mony. to his ghosting genius is the I Events in the Colonial Period." fact that in the thousands of jobs The Ghost is a tremendous he 'has done, no student has ever reader. He is a Californian who got been caught. Once he wrote seven his B.A. at San Diego Teachers essays on "The Murals of Paolo College, then his M.A. at Michigan Veronese" for students in the same University, in 1931. Throughout class. All seven got hy. his college years he kept to himself Smith writes in six different and read voraciously. Classmates styles, ranging from "e" to "A". called him anti-social, but it was In most cases a"C" student asks swell training for a ghost. Smith for a "C" paper so the professor walked out on his Ph.D. aftertwo won't be suspicious at the sudden years' work at Yale. "What does improvement. As part of his serv­ the symbol mean, anyway?" he ice, though, Smith tries. to pull asks. "At the time I could think these average pupils up to higher rings around most of the Ph.D.'s grade levels. Oddly enough the in the country. Of course I can do 160 THE AMERICAN MERCURY itriow." Many times his assigned make Smith register his business. book reports and necessary· re~ He did - as a typewriting agency. search-reading take him into more Every once in a while a student than a hundred books a week. With resents the circular senttobim, characteristic candor, he admits and shoots back a nasty il

By HERBERT COREY

HEN Elliott Roosevelt began have been satisfied. Today, at 31, W to feel his oats, which was the second son of the President of about as soon as he began to shape the United States still has a whole up as the husky, hard~eyed, blond..; neck despite a propensity for stick­ ish six-footer he now is, he made a ing it out. He has been married career of beating the engineer to twice, once divorced, and is the the cross-roads. He was a super­ father of three children. He, is as beau for the young ladies available full of life as a chuck-a-luck game. in'''i'a reasonable radius. He was a His immediate aim is more dollars, power-diver, a lusty singer ofSweet but his next move will be for more Rosie O'Grady in, the wrong pews, power. He does not admit this. and,he could pull chairs from be­ Asked if he would be a candidate neath unsuspecting guests. He had for anything in 1940 - for Gov­ the big hands and: big feet which ernor ofTexas, Senator, member of foretold his future stature and he the legislature, anything at all­ was looked upon as a clumsy, irre­ he replied: sponsible, likeable young hellion. "Three politicians in one family His'older brother Jimmy, was his are enough. Four would be too father's favorite - suave,well­ many." groomed, ,with a turn for public "Who are the three?" speaking and a tastefor politics and "Dad, and Jimmy, and Mother." the society of the well-born. His He differs from his paternal pro- ,mother seems to'have favored the genitor on political and economic intractable Elliott. grounds. That's for the record. "He is the Roosevelts' problem There is no rift. There are times child," she said. when Elliott registers at the Wil­ She did not say it with a sigh lard Hotel when in Washington on either. If ,Elliott got home with a business. But there are other times whole 'neck his mother seems to when he lives at the White House,

161 THE AMERICAN MERCURY does his telephoning from that au­ White House, Elliott found the at­ gust address, and has his business ac­ mosphere was a bit dank. The young quaintances call on him there. The men around the President affected choice between hotel and home is an amused liking for him, which not casual. was definitely not reciprocated. The American Society of Broad­ Perhaps they thought they might casters met at Washington on one use him in an emergency; but they occasion. Elliott not only wanted to soon gave up that idea. They were be made a director, but he was kid-gloved, lastex-ed, and learned boosting a friend for the place of - he was none of those things. Life czar. President and Mrs. Roosevelt was a very amusing proposition to were not in the city at the time, and him at the time. On one occasion Elliott arranged for a state dinner he issued invitations to a tea at the at the White House at which· fifty White House and then left town. broadcasters were to be his guests. When the social secretaries at the Perhaps not the gold plate, but cer­ White House learned what had hap­ tainlyall the best linen and china, pened they had to cancel the bids, an act or two, and maybe a little which Elliott thought was good for Scotch. Elliott likes Scotch. Some a big laugh. He was as unpredictable ofhis best friends steered him away and active as an Airedale pup. from that plan. They pointed out "What'll that damn boy do that there were 450 other broad­ next?" asked the young men. casters who could not be invited for reasons of space, and would there­ II fore be sore, and that an untram­ meled press would rip his innards Elliott did a most surprising thing. out if he tried such a trick. Elliott He got control ofa string of twenty­ gave up the idea reluctantly. He three radio stations in Texas. They was not precisely convinced, but are little ones for the most part­ he was out-shouted. 100 watt-ers - which are as a rule It is entirely likely that the Pres­ not favored by big advertisers. But ident has looked at his offspring's Elliott is a go-getter. He did not goings-on with tolerance. That send his name in to the big adver­ seems to be a characteristic of the tisers by the office boy, but walked Roosevelt family. No doubt he in on them. The son of the Presi­ likes to see the young fellow get dent is not to be turned down by ahead. When FDR moved into the any man in big business. He got the THE PRESIDENT'S PROBLEM CHILD advertising, on which he received a prise. He is wholly engrossed in his commission. an top of his salary, own affairs, although he may have and became a. vice-president of the helpers. Elliott has always resisted Hearst radio chain. He resigned authority. He would not go to this somewhat later, but no signifi­ Groton, which is an extremely fine.. cance is to be attached to his resig­ haired private school, and his sub­ nation. Hearst is liquidating his af­ sequent references to Harvard were fairs and·the radio chain was one of regarded as unfortunate by some the affairs; the job was washed up excellent judges of expression. in any case. Elliott lost nothing. His opposition to higher. educa­ As a broadcaster in the Southwest tion broke down for a briefperiod he is listened to. People would after·he won the Groton-Harvard listen to the son of.the President battle, but after six months either even if he had nothing to say,· and the boy or Princeton surrendered. Elliott has things to say. He may The record is not wholly satisfying. not be a deep thinker, but he knows He did not have a liking for low on which side ofhis bread the but­ company - this must be empha­ ter spreads best. In Texas it spreads sized - but some of the company on the Texas side. he liked might have been consid­ "IfI question an Administration ered low by certain others. Those program or policy," he once said, "I who have a full set of reverences do so in the spirit that what infor­ might find fault with him. On one mation I have gleaned in the South occasion he is reported to have said may. be helpful to the Administra­ of his honored father: tion and not in the spirit ofhatred, "I don't think the Old Man ever distrust, or of questioning the sin­ caught a damn fish." cerityof anyone." He whooped around afterPrince­ Before considering Elliott as a ton, held various small-time jobs partially finished· product, the raw and had a good time without break­ material should be more closely ex­ ing his neck. So far as outsiders amined. An apology seems advis­ could see he was heading for the able at this point, for an indelicate showers before he had even got into phrase· is about to be used. Elliott his uniform. He married the rich, has always been as independent as a pretty, and charming Elizabeth hog on ice. Anyone who has ever Donner of Philadelphia, begat a seen a hog on ice will recall that the son, and appeared at intervals on beast has no partners in his enter- the first pages from widely sepa- THE AMERICAN MERCURY rated spots on the map. After his ter of a well-to-do, not rich, busi­ father had been elected President, nessman of Texas.. There was no Anthony Fokker bethought him-­ doubt about it from the start. They self that he needed a salesman for spent as much time together as they his airplanes. Young Mr. Roosevelt could and the vandals ·of the press knew only those things about air­ wrote things, but the young folks planes that might be learned by fly­ stood pat. The wife in Philadelphia ing in them, but he was given a also stood pat. Presently Elliott $20,000 job, plus a somewhat inde­ went to Reno and alleged in legal terminate commission on sales. form thatElizabeth Donner Roose­ President Roosevelt did not object velt had been "cruel." Then the to his son's venture into business. divorce was granted on her cross­ Elliott said so later on. complaint, and Elliott and Ruth But·the airplane business was a were married. Mrs. Eleanor Roose­ twitchy one at that time. 'Post-­ velt, being interrogated by the master General Farley, acting· un-­ vandals, declined to say that she der instructions, had canceled some had given the matter any thought: mailcontracts and young officers of "It is their lives they must live," the Army had been killed while she said. "Not mine." trying to fly the mails in the pigeon-­ Elliott's name was dropped from coops the Army then used for the Social Register, which was ofno planes. Congress began to ask ques­ importance to him. He was more t:ions. Young Mr. Roosevelt denied interested in bull and stallion gen­ with heat that he had ever been a ealogies at this time, for the young lobbyist for the aviation business. Googins-Roosevelts had settled on Then it was discovered that he a 1500 acre ranch in Texas, and planned to go on a .selling tour Elliott gave his attention to live­ through· Europe. Elliott ·had seen stock, especially when the photog­ no objection to the idea, but he ad­ raphers were around. Th~re is al­ mitted that his father had put his ways someone to call the attention foot down on it. ofa young man with a big name to One day Elliott got Qut of an SOIne proinising·prospect, however, airplane at FortWorth. In the and he looked into the possibilities group gathered to meet him was of the radio business. He bought Miss Ruth Googins, dark-eyed, one broadcasting station with his black-haired, p~etty asa peach, wife's money -$20,000 or some filmy in white. She was the daugh-- such sum ~ in his own name and THE PRESIDENT'S PROBLEM CHILD she ultimately bought·two more in enough: there are plenty of unsuc­ hers. There isa community-of.. cessful - worse, half-successful­ property law.· in Texas, anyhow. Roosevelts around. Elliott is no,t Other· stations were linked with yet· a power in the politics of the them. '·Elliott had developed as a Southwest and he may never be. promoter. But he is on his way. The Young "He is a swell salesman," one ad.. Democrats who do not like him mirer reported. ."He deals only speak of him as The Young Dicta­ with· the big shots. He knows how tor, 'which may be merely malice. to take your $5°,000 and buy a sta" What Elliott wants now is plenty tion with it and let you h~~ half of money for good living and the stock." security. Nothing wrong about that, of He is regarded as a hard lad ... in courSe. He became first vice-presi.. the radio industry, where hardness dent of the Young Democrats of is taken for granted. Vice-presi­ Texas. He had not been in Texas dents get their jobs because they long enough, some said, to know a can bring in the advertising, and jack rabbit when he saw it. His lose them when they cannot, and father's name won that honor for Elliott's vice-presidents change like him, of course, but he was able to the red words in the electric signs, take care ofhimself after he got in. they go in and out so fast. His radio Some of the Young Democrats chain had one or two bad yeats tried to jack him out of office·· and while the depression was at its low­ he went two-fisted on them: est, but Elliott was in there batting "Show me· a better man for the all the time. So were his vice-presi­ job,"he said, "and I'll give it to dents. Lately he has been making him." some money. When.he makes more money he can look into his persopal III prospects for power. At a guess, he is not bothering And thatalmost sums up the tech­ about power right now because he nique of .the Roosevelts' problem always has before him the example child. Use the leverage of the fam­ of his elder brother. It was Jimmy ily name and position to the limit, who was passed the gravy,who but remain independent of it­ made money in the insurancebusi­ dependent on yourself - all the ness, thereby reaping 0Ile full­ same. Realize that the label is not length article in the Saturday Eve- 166 THE AMERICAN MERCURY ning Post and two full-length arti­ tainst which is more important. cles in rebuttal in Collier's. Jimmy And Elliott wants to get s,ome­ played his father's hand in Massa... where. Moreover, he.wants to·be chusetts politics, until he was his own man when he gets there. eased out by Massachusetts politi­ Therefore Elliott is starting to cians. He came to Washington as build himself up in the Southwest the Crown Prince, and Secret as a wholly self-bottomed person­ Service men guarded his home and ality. He would not catch at a coat­ his wife and his daughter and him­ tail to save himself from drowning. self, until he acquired stomach He has broadcast criticisms of the ulcers. The movie industry is the New Deal. This broadcasting has dumping place for eminent per­ been done with an underhum to sonages who have been dumped, the effect that he is just repeating and Jimmy landed with Sam what he hears. He has merely re­ Goldwyn at $30,000 a year. Mr. ported on the love the Southwest Goldwyn has been photographed bears for Cactus Jack Garner, well in the act of smiling several times knowing that if he said anything since the landing. else in Texas it would be held against This sort of thing would not do him, and in spite ofthe fact that for Elliott. He almost burned his his eminent father regards Mr. fingers in that aviation episode. Garner as a biological error. He has

Not quite, of courset but the tips said things about taxes, which is not certainly got warm. His worst regarded as good parlor conversa­ friends admit that he is bright. He tion in Washingtont but which goes has the same liking for his elder big out where the taxes are being brother that a second son might be paid. He has sneered at the Good expected to have under the circum­ Neighboring of the Mexican oil ex­ stances. He has observed that propriators, which definitely makes Jimmy, who has been loyal to his good hearing to Texas ears. He is father and as suave as any of the not getting in the way ofany of to­ suave young men and has spoken day's politicians. Texas still remem­ with the voice ofEsau has not been bers carpetbaggers. He is just build­ getting anywhere politically. Jimmy ing himself up. Making allies, per­ has made some money, the precise haps. Perhaps even making friends.

amount being a matter of debatet Twenty years from now a big but the voters have not called for Roosevelt in the Southwest.•.. him. Nor have the precinct cap- Figure that one out for yourself. THE PRESIDENT'S PROBLEM CHILD

He may never be the big Roosevelt has not stepped so far that he can­ in the Southwest. But, if that is not step back in. When he calls on whathe wants to be, he seems to an advertiser he is the President's be going about it the right way. son. When he told the FCC that it Elliott is playing his cards close had not been playing the game to his shirt. He has not quarreled quite as nicely as the radio industry with the Administration, but he has would like, he was the'President's edged away from the New Deal. son. Most men in the business will He flailed the Federal Communica­ say that what Elliott told the FCC tions Commission mercilessly dur­ was true and needed telling but ing recent public hearings in Wash­ that no other man dared tell it. ington. The FCC is one of the pets Elliott is the President's son. of his eminent father. It has the But when the New Deal comes to power ofa silent and quibbling cen­ anend he will continue to be Elliott sorship which might conceivably Roosevelt, prosperous young busi­ be ofgreat value in a hot campaign. nessman and fearless reporter of Elliott so definitely called atten­ facts. He will be away out in the tion to some of the FCC's faults sun, away from the shadow - can'" that Chairman McNinch· ran to' tinuing all the while, however, to the White House the very next day. be an affectionate son. And some'" He would scarcely have done that where in the future in the South... if he had not believed that the west will be discovered Elliott President listens to the problem Roosevelt, reaching for power. child on occasion. First 'lie must get the money. Elliott has stepped out of the Those who know him well think he shadow of the White House, but he will get both.

NOTE ON UPLIFTERS

By LOUIS D. BRANDEIS

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. LUNACY: RIGHT AND LEFT Everybody in Germany is a Na­ The Soviet people are unanimously tional Socialist - the few outside behind Stalin and the Communist the (Nazi) Party are either lunatics Party. ... Only criminals, spies, or idiots. Trotskyists, underground vermin, - Adolf Hitler, speaking at Klagenfurt, and other social scum are opposed Austria. to the Party of Stalin. - Earl·Browder, American communist Fuhrer, at theHippodrome, New York.

Nazi Germany has solved its labor If there is anyoneliving in poverty problem. No loyal German is with­ in the Soviet Union, it can only be out work. Only enemies of Hitler some small remnant of counter­ are in want. revolutionists who have refused to - Volkischer Beobachter, April 10, 1939. merge themselves with the new social system. - New Masses, March 28, 1939.

By kissing an Aryan girl, the Jew Comrades who maintain political, insulted not only the girl, but the social or personal relationships with entire German nation. Trotskyists or other enemies ofthe - Remarks of the Court at a trial in Soviet Union are guilty of trea.son Hildesheim, Germany. not only against the Party but against the .entire international working class. - Instructions to members of the Amer· ican Communist Party.

The task ofuniversities is not to Until I became a Marxist I couldn't teach objective science, but the design my experiments properly. militant, the warlike, the heroic. - J. B. S. Haldane, eminent British - Dr. Kriek, Nazi author of Education scientist, in the New Masses, February in the Third Reich. 28, 1939. (Compiled by Charles Yale Iiarrison) 168 SAN FRANCISCO, A DYING CITY

By PHIL HAMILTON

OVERING over San Francisco officially set the populadon for the H today is an air of hustle and past four years at a stationary bustle and hullabaloo. There is loud figure, 693,000. talk about the big new bridges, the Thecommercial colic from which spectacular Golden Gate Interna­ the city is suffering has plenty of tional .Exposition. So many en­ painful symptoms. Business failures thusiastic noises are being made in 1938, for instance, increased in that .. an impressionable listener number by 18.8 per cent over the might suspect a second, gold rush previous year and 52 per cent over just around the corner. A more the 1923-1925 period. Manufac­ cautious one, though, might turing employment and payrolls detect a faintly hysterical note in declined 14.3 and 13.4 per cent the hearty hosannas. He might respectively from the 1937 level, even be reminded of a ship's to 60 and 57 per cent of the· 1926 orchestra blaring outa jazz tune as level. Wholesale trade slumped ap. the bow of the vessel sinks slowly estimated 14 per cent under 1937. into_: the waves. For, behind the Department store sales ill 1938 fixed smile on its· false-face, San fell off 11.3 per cent from the· pre­ Francisco is a mighty sick city. vious year. Railroad .carloadings Throughout the United States dropped 18.2; automobile sales births annually exceed deaths in an 31.5; bank clearings 9.9; real estate approximate.ratio of three to two. values (measured by sales) declined For instance, in 1937 recorded 1 I per cent. School attendance births totalled 2,201,609 and deaths slumped from 1°7,362 in 1934 to 1,45°,715. But in San Francisco 1°5,066 -in 1938. These downward deaths have exceeded births each trends were more emphatic in San ·yearsince 1928! The best that the Francisco than in n10st other large city Health Department can do in cities. publishing population estimates is The civic salesmen of San' Fr~n­ to refuse to admit an actual loss and cisco aren't ignorant of this state, of 169 17° THE AMERICAN MERCURY affairs. Even as they turn brave San Francisco Los Angeles smiles on the audience, they are 1910 ...... 6,866,148 1,709,294 1920 ...... 9,466,798 4,]4°,°74 bickering and back-biting among 1930...... 12,448,242 25,920,159 themselves. They blame labor. 1937...... 8,764,382 18,610,713 They blame business. They blame 1938...... 7,95°,289 20,264,264 politics. They even blame Grover The worst aspect of the shipping Whalen. They blame everything situation is that most of the boats handy, and all the while San Fran­ which have abandoned the port are cisco grows sicker and sicker. American-owned. The few new­ The financial fog which has comers are foreign vessels. This settled over Frisco is thickest means loss ofemployment for Pacific around the famous harbor. Shipping coast seamen. It means that once­ is the mainspring of the city's com­ busy repair and docking facilities merciallife and this vital spot has have fallen into disuse. The hun­ been hard hit. While other seaports dreds of Iittle businesses which have been climbing out of depres­ cater to ships and personnel in home sion, San Francisco has stood by ports where vessels remain for long and watched the withdrawal or stays have been crippled or wiped serious curtailment in service of out. It is true that about three thirteen major steamship compa­ times as many ships use San Fran­ nies. One after another the lines cisco Bay as use the actual port. have crossed San Francisco off their But then it isn't especially profit­ itineraries. Last year, despite the able to sit on the empty docks and city's pleas before Congress and watch the ships go by. the President, the big intercoastal Less spectacular than the slipping Panama Pacific luxury liners were sea trade, but painful in its own withdrawn from Pacific waters. right is the decline of business In the past ten years the harbor ton­ from the interior. Farm produce, nage has declined nearly a third­ for example, is staying away from ebbing in 1938 to the lowest figure San Francisco by the trainload. The since the opening of the Panama recent and little-publicized farm Canal in 1915. San Francisco ton­ boycott is a case in point. This nage figures look even sadder when thrust into the commercial heart of compared with those of the port of the city is an unorganized and Los Angeles - which show a gain leaderless, but nonetheless dev­ for last year, while San Francisco astating, boycott by a large num­ was losing ground: ber of California farmers. SAN FRANCISCO, A DYING CITY 171 The movement started early in ample evidence of a definite trend to avoid San Francisco as a trade center 1938'when an organized boycott on the part of a large number of was tentatively considered by As.. producer farmers and others through­ sociated Farmers, Inc., which claims out the area naturally tributary to the city.•.. As a concrete example of the 3o,boomembers in California. The trend, members of a co-operative pear proposal was quickly rejected, but association decided to ship the 1938 the effects lingered on - entirely crop through Sacramento, though the unofficial but still strong. One re.,. cost of so doing is $1.20 per ton in excess of the rate charged through San sultwas the blank refusal of eight Francisco. The feeling that actuated California counties to exhibit at this move is widespread. the Golden Gate Exposition. Last summer the Hotel Associa­ This rural wrath seems to be tion charged that, due to the farmer based on·· the feeling - held by boycott, local hostelries were ex­ many farmers - that labor-union periencing one of the worst seasons activities in San Francisco have ever known, while Los Angeles been particularly detrimental to hotels had been bustling with the interests of fruit, truck, and activity during their. normally stock farmers. The farmers charge quiet season. Another Hotel Asso­ the unions with racketeering and ciation statement revealed that the unions charge the farmers with A large number of hotels are already unfair obstruction of the organiza­ in the hands of mortgagees and receiv­ tion of farm help. More than once ers, while many others are on the verge unionists and farmers have come to of bankruptcy. And almost every week some discouraged and disappointed actual blows. Phil Bancroft, fruit hotel owner throws up his hands and grower and vice-president of Asso.. quits. ciated Farmers, expressed the farm sentiment this way: II Iflabor unions are going to declare our milk, wool, and other products "hot," What's wrong with San Francisco? then we may have to tear a leaf out of The press and the businessmen San Francisco's book and declare all blame "labor trouble." San Francisco "hot." This labor bogeyman lifted its Just how hot these farmers frightful head five years ago when have made it for San Francisco is some 150,000 workers became gen­ indicated .in a secret committee eral strikers for a day, bringing report made to the Chamber of production, distribution, transpor" Commerce which found tation, and other services to a ,'THE AMERICAN MERCURY standstill.' It ,was then that CIa too, have a word to say against the' Longshoreman Harry Bridges ex­ business interests. Theyclailli that ploded into prominence as a labor San Francisco is guided by "imme.. leader. Opposed to Bridges is hard­ diate selfish interests and not the hitting Harry Lundeberg, leader broad interests of the entire area." of the sailors, strongman of the All the while this blaming-bee is seagoing crafts, and AFL Teamster going on the city's business lords ally. The,CIO and the AFL in San are engaged in a frantic attempt to Francisco are about evenly divided stem the careening commercial in strength and number. And both toboggan by blasts of optimistic sides mean business when they gird oratory and liberal doses of "con-' for an occasional waterfront skull­ structive publicity." Official re­ cracking melee. assurance that" San Francisco is A city-wide Employers' Council, not a ghost town" set off the cam­ aiming to function as one big union paign in a spectacular broadcast at of those who employ, was launched a jittery mass meeting of several at the beginning of this year. At a thousand salesmen herded into the town meeting attended by em­ Civic Auditorium by Chamber of ployer representatives, labor lead­ Commerce brass hats. Salty.letters ers, and 10,000 spectators, paint almost as deadly as bullets· began manufacturer W. P. Fuller, Jr., to fly between the defenders of the voiced his version of the city's city's fame and those who told of troubles. "San Francisco," he said, its plight. "has seen goon squads, beefsquads, The wordy battle still rages­ blood" violence, and civil warfare. with besieged loyalists denying San Francisco has seen citizens everything, attacking rivals loudly beaten in the streets and intimi­ shouting "Ghost Townl" And in datedin their homes. San Francisco San Francisco, pardl1.er, them's has seen enough. She wants peace." fighting words. But the Labor Unions have an­ Terrified at the prospect of,the other answer to the question, What's waterfront debacle becoming known wrong with Frisco? They call it to the East, local impresarios of "employer trouble." They blame publicity studiously avoid men­ the businessmen with inefficient tioning the annual harbor-cargo and discriminatory management. tonnage figures. Instead they broad-:­ The farmers, in turn, put most of cast statistics which lump together the,blame on the unions, but,they, cargo handled in all ports on San SAN FRANCISCO, A DYING CITY 173 FrancistoBay.They also are lavish finish his journey to San Francisco with'figures .• on ".registered ton~ ona ferry, wonders why his train nage" of arriving and departing did not cross on the $77,000;000 vessels. This phrase "registered span. The answer is that although tonnage" doesn't refer to cargo at the bridge carries inter~urban tra.ins all. It refers to' the aggregate it is not strong enough to support registry weight of ships (loaded or the transcontinental steam loco~ empty) which touch at the port, motives. The bridge' was designed and every ship is counted each time to carry only the lighterelectrically itarrives and each time it departs. propelled trains. To make' it suit~ Another figure the civic statisti~ able for carrying the heavy steam cians have a fondness for is the total engines and' main-line trains would cargo handled in the San Francisco have called for more money than Customs District. Happily for the was thought justified. Opened in optimists, this..Customs District 1936, the Bay bridge carried takes in ports from Monterey (one 9, 104,765 vehicles in 1937 and hundred miles south) to Eureka 8,621,196 in 1938 - with a corre~ (three hundred miles north). sponding slump intoll revenue. While'thehallyhoomen are'try­ The really big bridge headache, ing to exorcise the business· debade however, is caused by the beautiful by' denying its existence,' city ofii~ structure stretching across the har~ , ciaIs have no program at all except bor entrance at the Golden Gate. to get themselves rehired at elec­ This bridge has the world's longest tioncome November. Mouselike span between two piers; an awe­ Mayor Angelo Rossi crochets his inspiring'4200 feet. Less inspiring time awayat CityHall hoping that, is the fact that clearance above somehow, things will get better. water surface is, for the largest When questions about business ships, quite too scant for peace of get too pertinent, San Francisco's mind if not for safety.·.The 42,000~ civic salesmen like to point quickly ton Empress of Britain, .measuring but proudly to the new bridges 2 I 2 feet from mean waterline to spanningthe bay and Golden Gate. topmast, squeezed under the bridge These structures do look magnifi~ at low tide with a baresix feet to cent in the newsreels, but a closer spare, .and the bay was calm. In examination is not so impressive. rough water, a vessel such as the No doubt many a, visitor from Empress would have to remain the'East, .detraining at Oakland to outside San Francisco's 'protecting 174 THE AMERICAN MERCURY harbor. And if larger ships than "Shine for '39" became the talis­ those now afloat are built and their man guaranteed to cure the pecul­ top rigging is higher, San Francisco iar brand of jitters which had the will be a closed port to them. city in its grip. Hard-pressedbusi­ Another unhappy fact about the nessmen and taxpayers began sing­ Golden Gate Bridge is its operating ing this tune with fervor born of deficit of $429 a day, or more than desperation. Long before opening $150,000 annually. The taxpayers day the statistic jugglers had con­ are worried, for ifrevenue does not jured up some wonderful, if some" produce bond interest for the what wishful, advance figures. Un­ bridge, the taxpayers must. The happily, the true figures were not so bridge revenue for the last six strange as the fictitious-and not so months of 1938 was $5234 daily, big. Attendance for the first 72 days, the operating expenses $5663. And comprising one quarter of the the latter figure allows nothing for 288 days of the fair, reached only reduction of bonded indebtedness. 2,468,371, instead of the 5,000,000 needed to break even. And even III then a considerable number of admissions were paid for at less The biggest and easiest money San than halfthe regular rate, including Francisco had seen in a long. time thousands of children at 10¢ each. was the cash coughed up by the At the end of the first month Federal government to help pay money was coming in so slowly for the big bridges. And so it natu­ that employed personnel on the rally seemed like a fine idea to grab grounds had to be cut from 12,000 another chunk ofthis bounty while to about 7000. When customers the grabbing was good. The second failed to show up in expected num­ bait·was the Golden Gate Exposi.. bers, thirty cashiers lost their jobs tion. So the doctors of publicity one day, twenty-two on another. began whooping it up for a new Most days, before the cuts, the exposition to cure the city's dol­ employees outnumbered the cash drums. Mud was pumped up from customers on Treasure Island at the bottom of the bay and some anyone time. Concessionaires were $5,000,000 was pumped out of the demanding, and getting, rent re­ U. S. Treasury - and San Fran­ ductions. And, according to police cisco had the Golden Gate Inter.. reports, pickpockets, disgusted with national Exposition. the meagre take, packed up and SAN FRANCISCO, A DYING CITY 175 went home. A month after echoes per cent pick-up. The United from .the booming· guns of the gala States as a whole gained 7.7 per opening celebration had died down, cent; Los Angeles 10.4; Portland and it became known that Treasure and Seattle I I. By the end of Island's cash registers were playing March San Francisco trade was in dirges rather than swing tunes, a sharp decline while Los· Angeles there was talk heard around town was holding steady and some areas ofthrowing theexposition directors were still advancing. into the bay and closing up. Gloomy as the picture may be, From an economic standpoint, however, it is not without its rays the best that can be said for the of hope. There are many who fair is that it has furnished employ­ stoutly believe in San Francisco's ment for a considerable number of future. And they base their calcu­ people who would otherwise be on lations on the notion that the bot­ WPA. Instead ofbeing the build-up tom has been reached, with condi­ for a super-colossal and altogether tions so bad they can't get any stupendous Gold Rush Centennial worse, and so must get better. It in '49, the present fiasco has a much may well be so. The next few years better chance of becoming, for may bring about an upturn in the Californians, the fair to end fairs. city's fortunes. In the meantime, down along Beyond a doubt, the city is slip­ the waterfront more and more ping. Every day, businessmen are docks fall into idle emptiness. Up telling each other in loud whispers along Market Street more and that poor old Frisco is on the skids. more buildings are plastered with Business conditions throughout the To Lease and For Sale signs. Up country were better last January across the beautiful bridges, fewer than during that month in 1938. and fewer vehicles travel. ... Some But trade statistics reveal that the day before long, perhaps, the peo­ San Francisco area was not doing as ple of San Francisco will stop well as other sections. For example, whistling in the dark and turn Dun's Review "Regional Trade around to face the taunt of "Ghost Barometer" shows Frisco in a 6.2 Town." NEGROES REJECT COMMUNISM

By GEORGE S. SCHUYLER

.HE failure of communist propa­ Negroes with -"literature," stag'" Tganda in the United States is ing countless demonstrations and most strikingly attested by its fruit­ marches, endorsing Father Divine, less missioning in Aframerica~ Su­ nominating black nobodies for perficially it would seem that to office, and courting Negro leaders. the Negroes, who have the lowest But despite this prodigious ac­ economic and social status in the tivity, the American Negro re­ Republic, bolshevism would have mains cold to communism. With the strongest appeal. No other the communist indictment of tra­ Americans, not even the malarious ditional mistreatment of black Southern crackers, appear to have America by white America, . he less to lose and more to gain from agrees. But he rejects the Mus­ revolutionary overturn. Most Ne­ covite cure. During his three­ groes, generations after Emancipa­ century struggle to avoid ex­ tion, enjoy today less economic, termination, he has developed cer'" social, and political rights than the tain special techniques of survival, Russian moujiks under Nicholas II. and most communist methods run Still subjected to systematized counter to them. He is suspicious of economic spoliation and race dis­ any program that over-simplifies crimination, there is .bitterness. in his problem by ignoring shadings their hearts. and nuances, and recommends Naturally the communists re­ identical tactics in Birmingham garded Negroes as sure-fire con­ and Buffalo. verts, and have proselyted them After a century of'listening to these twenty years. They have black hustlers with Valhallas for tried every bait, device, dodge, and sale, the Negro has become wary of argument to win black adherents. schemes for instant salvation. Such Holding interracial dances, defend­ movements have habitually at­ ing Negroes afoul of the law, tracted only the lunatic fringe, bulldozing landlords, inundating goaded by a handful ofdisgruntled 176 NEGROES REJECT .COMMUNISM opportunists. Marcus Garvey, with same time he is more cutoff than' his •.. incomparable Back-to..Africa the white man from the pre" set-up, could corral only 30,000 American. past, and therefore less members.· More jeers ,than cheers responsive to European nostrums. currently greet theamphigories of The white proletarian has a back... Father Divine, and the followers of ground ofserfdom reaching back to kindred· dark-town messiahs are Caesar, Greece, and beyond. It's noisier than numerous. Even the almost his native state. The black Negro clergy no longer wields its proletarian was a free man until old-time influence. And whereas modern times. Arid,' finally, the two dollars was once sufficient to totalitarian state is too reminiscent buy a black ballot,. Mose now talks of the slave plantation. knowingly about patronage. In Moreover· most Negroes see in short, the Aframerican. is perhaps a successful mob-revolution here the most cynical fellow intheUnion, the final triumph of their historic and is less likely than thewhite pro­ antagonists, the Poor Whites. Re­ Ieiarian tosign his deathwarrant ina gardless of Marxian theories and moment. of emotional intoxication. soap-box interpretations, the Af... True, he has only his life to lose, ramerican cannot .regard· the white but he wants to hold on to that. proletarian as his friend and com­ rade. His advance since Emancipa.... The communists started out by tion has been in the face of the ignoring the·fact that propaganda stubborn opposition of the whites which· might split the ears of the with whom communists urge him ¥uscovite groundlings falls hol­ to unite. He cannot quite believe lowly upon those of Sam. Like his that any revolution will cause the white brother in the USA, the crackers and white proletarians up American Negro is a proletarian by North to view him with sudden compulsion and not by choice. He affection. His healthy cynicism regards the bourgeoisie with adula­ inclines him to doubt that on the tion rather than antagonism and, day the hammer-and-sickle .flies Hke most other Americans, cannot from the' White House he will be see "culture" except in white tie accepted on terms of equality. and tails. His consuming ambition White proletarian prejudice is to .become a bourgeois himself, against the Negro was originally as and in this he is a carbon copy of strong in the North as inthe South. his white fellow-American. At the As early as the late 'sixties Negro THE AMERICAN MERCURY workers vainly sought inclusion in some Negroes should identify them~ the white labor movement. The selves with the Communist Party; Knights of Labor fell partly be~ some colored citizens have been cause white unionists wanted noth~ caught in the current of every ing to do with black unionists. The movement that has 'swept across AFL has been the most effective the American scene. What em~ agency in barring Negroes from all bittered many to the point of see~ but manual and menial labor. Be~ ing Red was the memory of their cause of this deep-seated antago­ treatment during the World War, nism the majority of the mills, fac~ when Americans advised the French tories, and stores operating on a people not to treat Negroes as non-union basis retain the color victorious soldiers, but as pariahs, bar. What toehold the black worker so as not to "spoil" them. Hustled has gained in industry has been in home after the Armistice, they spite of the white worker. were faced with a nationwide effort to "put them in their place." II Small wonder that some toyed with communism. After the Civil War, the most However, until the late 'twen~ militant proletarian movement in ties, all these black followers of the'South was the Ku Klux Klan. Lenin could have been crowded During Reconstruction, political into a corner drug store with no power and economic preference discomfort. A few Negro "leaders" gradually shifted to the white sought vainly to justify occasional proletariat that had served and handouts from the Party by scar­ starved under the old regime. ing up followers, but they were Promptly it legalized jim-crow loud~mouthed, unkempt comrades cars, schools, restaurants and hotels, who aroused the same antagonism disenfranchised the Negro, taxed in most American Negroes that him without representation, made they did in most whites. Capable justice a terror, and forced black, Negroes during that period were workers to the economic fringes busy in the fields of insurance, real where they hang so precariously estate, education, journalism, re~ today. A revolution that would put ligion, agriculture, social work, and these people in a dictatorial posi~ the professions, acquiring automo~ tion does not attract the blacks. biles, property, and college training It \vas inevitable, however, that for their children, so there was NEGROES REJECT COMMUNISM 179 little first-rate material from which communists among Negroes. As Moscow emissaries could draw an soon as the case broke, the NAACP, able leadership. Those potential with years of experience in han" leaders who joined up found Com­ dling.and \vinning legal victories in munist Party restrictions a hin­ the South, hired a firm of dis­ drance, hence the Party seldom tinguished white Birmingham at.. benefited from their abilities. torneys to defend the youths. Small wonder, then, that the This automatically blocked any Negro masses, led by men and charge of Northern "invasion." women who by contrast with the The NAACP spent $7000 in pre­ Negro Communist leaders were liminary work and refrained from prodigies ofintellect and integrity, threatening the Alabama authori­ not only turned a deaf ear to the ties or identifying the case with black Reds, but looked with doubt the overthrow of capitalism. and suspicion on the white folks The NAACP was in no way pre­ who selected them. pared for the tactics of the com'" What small success Communism munists who shortly muscled in. achieved among Negroes, reached White agents were sent to the boys' its highest point during the 1932-­ parents .and guardians with wild 36 Depression, when, strangely tales about the Association. In a c:!Ilough, more money was available little while the ILD was repre­ than ever for the purpose of pros­ senting the accused, and pro­ elyting the Negro. Rivalorganiza­ ceeded to do all the wrong things tions Were set up to wean away the - assuming, of course, that its membership of groups long main~ primary purpose was freeing the tained by Negroes for their pro­ boys. Its ballyhoo was effective tection and advancement. One of everywhere except in Alabama, the first of these organizations, where the boys were jailed. Com­ formed to steal the thunder of the rades streamed to Alabama, and American Civil Liberties Union two or three narrowly.missed the and the National Association for rope and faggot. The Governor the Advancement of Colored Peo­ and other officials were swamped ple, was the International Labor with denunciatory messages. Defense, originally headed by a There has never been a satisfac­ Negro shirt-front. It was the ILD's tory audit of the collections and mishandling of the Scottsboro donations but Samuel Leibowitz case that did most to discredit the charged that the ILD collected 180 THE AMERICAN MERCURY $25°,000. At any rate; little money during· the Ethiopian aggression, was left after "expenses" were have been hard pills' for· the colored deducted. No previous communist comrades to swallow. campaign ever garnered more gold Negro' communists once ter­ or fell shorter of its. goal. Eventu­ rorized by Party discipline are to­ ally, the communists were so dis­ day singing the blues. One of the credited that they relinquished the disgruntled is Charles White, a case to more sincere hands. After Negro organizer, who was ousted that, four of the lads were freed. from the Party after having spent Negotiations for the release of the some time in Russia, and having others are proceeding favorably. been active in America. He charges that the Party has been replacing III all of its Negro organizers with white ones; that in New York, The greatest growth of Party where the Party cantroIs over work among Negroes paralleled the $1,5°0,000 in activities ofone kinq. expansion of the New Deal. Here and another, it employs less thaI} was hope where there had been fifty Negroes, most of these in me'" hopelessness. Negroes played 'a nial jobs. Harold Williams, an or­ prominent part in the organization ganizer since 1923, charges that the of the unemployed who were Communist Party treats N egro~s later incorporated into the Work­ exactly like the GOP, subordinat­ ers~ .. Alliance, and a number of po­ ing their problems to "broader" tential working-class leaders were interests, and that Negro member­ uncovered. Some of them later ship has declined 79 per cent in the rendered distinguished service in New York area in the past year. the great CIa organizational drive The late Dr. Reuben Young, an in 1936-37' But the activity was ardent Negro communist, who had short-lived. Negroes in charge of returned froni Ethiopia and Russia, many of these organizations and was booted out of the Party be­ unions were ousted in the old cause he criticized its neglect of familiar manner. Then the security African work and the sale of oil t,o of the WPA has caused many to Italy. Mrs. Frankie Duty, a Negro cease listening to Moscow. Stalin's organizer who had served for three stopping .of funds for African years on the national board of the revolutionary work, along with his Workers' Alliance and three. years opportunistic sale of oil to Italy on its New York general executive NEGROES REJECT COMMUNISM 181 board, resigned from the Party, The effectiveness with which Ne­ and in the Amsterdam News said: gro organizations have successfully' •••,I resigned because I want freedom mobilized money and numbers ofspeech, and action, neither of which behind the defense of the Houston is permitted in the Communist Party ••. Because I questioned them (the Martyrs, the Elaine "Rioters," communists), they did all they could to Dr. Sweet of Detroit" the Federal sabotage my work in the Alliance. The anti-lynching bill, and the cam­ Workers' ,Alliance is nothing but a - communist racket. They collect 55¢ paign for educational equality indi­ from everyone who joins and 2S¢ a cates that they are not novices. month dues ... Every day the mem­ They fought on the barricades in bers of the outfit come around solicit­ irtgfunds for this and that, until the East St. Louis, Chicago, Spring­ poor Harlem people on Relief .•• field, Washington, D.C., Long­ . haven't enough left to eat on. view, and Tulsa. The speeches and There seems to be a complete writings of post-Civil War Negro unanimity among thinking Ne­ labor leaders indicate that they groes as to the effectiveness ofcom­ were then as familiar with the munist work among Negroes. It is class struggle as are communists. nil. The writer has gathered'opin­ Even the slim claim that com­ ions of Negro' observers in Dallas, munist agitation has increased the Philadelphia,Chicago, Milwaukee, Negro's militancy is untenable. Cleveland, Birmingham, and other This'would discount the influence centers of communist effort among of the 200 Negro newspapers and the blacks. They all sound the magazines with their 1,500,000 same. ,This report from Detroit weekIy circulation, the virtual more' or less sums them up: disappearance of illiteracy, and the The effort putforth to hook the Negro NAACP, with its 400 branches _has been sporadic and ineffective ... the Party has generally passed the peak functioning since 19°9. Being a of its effectiveness among the Negroes. canny fellow, the Negro is militant All that remains of the vigorous breast­ when there is hope of success. beating, tub-thumping era of 1930-32 Otherwise he bides his time. There is a sort ofalluvial deposit or residue of terms, and the techniques of mass may 'come a day when he will go -organization and movements. Red, but that will never happen But even",these techniques are until ,he first 'sees white Americans not new to American Negroes. waving the Red flag and learns They were fighting for economic, that Marxism is, at last, really pop­ political, and, civic rights long be­ ular. Right now it's enough trouble fore the Communist Party existed. being black without going Red. CAPSULE WISDOM

THE AMERICAN MERCURY'S monthly Stuffed Shirt Awards are bestowed upon the authors of the following assorted profundities: ThomasJ. Pendergast, Kansas City boss, after his indictment: "There's nothing the matter with me - they persecuted Christ on Good Friday and nailed Him to the cross." Stephen F. Chadwick, National Commander of the American Legion: "The Dies Committee is the most important thing to the American people since the Constitution." Senator Robert R. Reynolds of North Carolina: "The only people in the world who are excited about what is going on in Europe are the people of the United States." Mohandas K. Gandhi: "All should resort to simultaneous disarma­ ment. 1 am certain as 1 am sitting here that this heroic act would open Chancellor Adolf Hitler's eyes and disarm him." Oswaldo Aranha, Brazil's Foreign Minister: "Only communists repudiate their debts." James J. Hines, Tammany chief, after his conviction: "Dewey has his conscience to live with." Viacheslav Molotov, Premier of Russia: "The basic historic task of the second Five...Year Plan has been fulfilled - all exploiting classes have been completely eliminated." Dr. Charles Seymour, President of Yale: "Boys now never go from Yale to saloons." Senator Key Pittman, chairman ·of Foreign Relations Committee: "Nothing any witness could say would change my mind on the subject at all." Count Stephen Csaky, Hungary's Foreign Minister: "I have formal assurance that Germany does not intend to attack either Rumania or anyone else." Dr. Henry Noble MacCracken, president of Vassar College: "America is God's last chance to save the world." ~ ThecreatorofH*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N visits a Five-and-Ten Cent Follies in Chicago.

PEEP SHOW

By LEONARD Ross

HICAGO'S Loop ends at Van civious Betrayer!") can be seen for C Buren Street. State Street IO¢. "Marihuana - Weed With south of that is the asylum of bur­ Roots in Hell!" runs up into more lesque shows, pawnshops, flop­ money - IS¢. If neither of these houses, chili parlors, hamburger parables intrigues you, there is joints, and noisy saloons where you always good old White Slave Racket can get a stein of beer for a nickel Exposed! - or even Abyss of and a deadly glass ofgin for a dime. Shamel, showing "Pure Maidens This is the Bowery of Chicago ­ Devoured By The Vulturous Pas­ flashy, bawdy, vulgar; the sidewalks sions of MenI" ,are always ,sprinkled with cigarette It wasn't easy to steel. myself butts, the air heavy with sweaty against the whispers from the demi­ smells. The commoners who ramble monde, but I did - at first. Then, up and down this impolite stretch weakened by the moral crisis, I are what is known as down-at­ surrendered to the evil eye of a heelers -misfits, offcasts, bums. place called "Continuous Show­ I explored South State Street on Special Today - S¢." This was a a muggy spring afternoon. It was really miserable dive with drawings like walking through a particularly ofhappy, nude women all over its cheap carnival. Values have gone open foyer. Tantalizing signs sent haywire here. A pair of socks sells mymetabolism way upby proclaim­ for 8¢, ties for 9¢, undershirts for ing: "DaringI" "Sensationall" "Re­ II ¢. You can buy razor blades for a veals all!" "Straight From Paris penny, and 50¢ will get you tatooed Exposition!" (It didn't say which for all time by the Tatoo King. On one.) Over the ticket booth was this the cuItural side, South State placard: "Nickel-Odium." There Street is right up there fighting. It was no telling what the mind that is clogged with gimcrack movie thought that up might do next, so houses. Wages of Sin ("Deceived I paid my s¢ and went inside. and Deserted She Shot Her Las- The interior was bare, dirty, and 183 THE AMERICAN MERCURY dreadful to behold. Some ten men legiate as if it were mere child's were crowded before a platform; play. He had a good left jab. The'n all but three had their hats on, and quiet fell, with a bang. The wires all looked guilty. They were a quivered, the hammers nursed strange cross-section of American their wounds in silence, and we all manhood. There were two out-and­ stood there, dazed. We didn't even out bums, a man in freshly-pressed have the sportsmanship to applaud. tweeds, several minors who appar~ "Jeeze!" breathed one of the boys ently held to the theory that hats in front of me. He looked as if ne cause baldness, a hollow-eyed young had seen a ghost. man in a·raincoat, and an elderly Suddenly a man appeared from gentleman who looked like "My behind a curtain and raised his loved ones are cared for!" in the hand. He was a man you wouldn't insurance ads. They avoided each want to meet on a sunny day. His other's eyes, and no one spoke. face was hard, sleek, refractory. On the platform stood a battered Your glance bounced back off that piano. Its front was removed so face. He cried: "No one can say that doubting Thomases could this wunnerful playin' wasn't wort actually see it work. A blind man five cents!" No one was man sat at this denuded instrument. A enough to challenge this. "Now, large sign said: "Blind! No Fingers men. Behind this curtain is some'" on Either Hand! He Plays!" No thin' no live, red-blooded, he-man sooner did I take my place among would ever want to miss! Three my peers than the man at the piano dancin' beauties, right in the flesh! began to assault the keys. The No more'n twelve inches from your wooden hammers went like all fury, very eyes!" He dropped his voice the piano wires screamed in pain, confidentially. "You men know and the strident fury of Tiger Rag why we can't show our real show howled in the fetid air. The man out here in front. I don't hafta go swung it and the piano hovered on into details. I ain't sayin' nothin' the edge of insanity. You never about police regulations. . .. Al­ heard such a rumpus. The man right, alright! But behind that played like a demon in extremis. curtain is the real thing! When you He played very well, for a blind see this, you've seen everything! Only man with nofingers on either hand. twenny-five cents, men...." He annihilated Tiger Rag, swept The two bums promptly pushed into Hallelujah and tossed off Col- forward, paid their quarters, and PEEP SHOW I8S wen t behind the curtain. (If those "Next," the Man cried fer..; gents weren't decoys, then all my vently, "that sizzlin' betll ofjire---:­ years of haunting phony auction Gingerl" sales have been a waste of time.) Out came the sizzling ball ofjire, Four or five. of the men paid.their Ginger. The fire had been extin­ quarters. The minors consulted guished long, long ago. Ginger was hastily, growled in disgust, and a blonde - older and huskier than ~eft. I paid my quarter and went Kenosha, who was no sylph. She behind the curtain. I was facing a had even less expression. She was tiny stage that was. no more than chewing gum. She wore an opaque four feet long, two feet deep, and brassiere, sensible tights as such about a foot offthe floor. The b~ck­ things go, and a pair of house slip.. drop seemed to be an assortment of pers. Her dance can only be de­ sarongs, sewn together by a para" scribed as a slight drooping of the lytic. shoulders relieved by ap. occasional -"Alright, men!" the Man an­ nervous twitch. Once she raised a nounced. "First is our hot little hand; then, exhausted, fell back Spanish dancer! Okay, Kenosha!" into the twitching. She chewed her A victrola record began to croak gum, indulged in a, final half­ and out came the hot little Spanish hearted "bump," and went away. dancer, Kenosha. She was neither "And now, the girl the whole hgt, little, Spanish, nor a dancer. town's talking aboud" the Man She was a mammal with gross fea" cried loudly, but without con­ ttlres and the expression ofa paper" viction. "The one and only­ cl~p. She wore a feathery brassiere, Frenchy!" feathery tights, and a pair of old Out came the one and only, street shoes. Her thighs, I am Frenchy - a black haired, tallow­ forced to report, were bruised. Her skinned girl who worked up a "dance" consisted ofshuffiing each rather good sweat by throwing her big. foot cautiously and snapping elbows around pointlessly while she two fingers. The feathers on the tried to fling her abdomen out of br~ssiere were the only things that the front entrance. Her eyes seemed seemed to move. I was grateful for to be fixed on a distant star. She this. After a moment Kenosha went through all the historic varia.. stopped, without any ,warning tions of rolling, grinding, shimmy­ whatsoever, and disappeared be.. ing, and champing at the bit. Then hind the outragedsarongs. she stopped dead in her tracks, 186 THE AMERICAN MERCURY hitched her brassiere up, and eye-level, were narrow observation walked off. The performance for slits. The other men had taken up real, red-blooded he-men was over. their posts expectantly; the shills betrayed their function by hanging II back. I went to a free space, put my eyes against the hole, and saw 'Now, menI" the Man cried, with the moist, beady stare of all the the air of one about to pull a giraffe other men's eyes. We were looking out of thin air. "That was only a right at each other. It was weird, weak sample. Back here -" he like looking into a tank where eyes, pointed to yet another curtain instead offish, swam. I lowered my "- there's a certain booth where glance hastily, and discovered that the girls go to town f Dancin' on the booth had a large round mirror mirrors!" His voice became sedu­ in the center of the floor.On lous. "No need to go into details. benches around the side sat none Any you men here been to Paris other than our old friends Kenosha, know what I'm talkin' aboutl" Ginger, and Frenchy. They were in His voice became brave, exultant. the same unforgettable costumes. "When you see this there's no Kenosha was yawning. Ginger still more to see! Only twenny-five chewed gum. Frenchy was scratch­ cents...." ing her back. The two bums promptly pressed The victrola began to play. forward again, waving quarters. Kenosha got up, stepped on the The men hesitated. Then a rab­ mirror, and began to imitate a bity little man with glasses and a dying Gaul. It was the same pitiful mustache stepped forward weary, dreary dance she had risen nervously and went behind the to a moment ago. The eyes peering curtain. The man in the business through the slits dropped to the suit snickered and paid his admis­ mirror with a unanimity rare in the sion. A fellow with a sour expres­ democratic state. There was noth­ sion forked over. "My loved ones ing special to see. Ginger followed are cared for" went behind the Kenosha, and Frenchy followed curtain. I paid my quarter. No Ginger. price is too high to pay for Art. Frenchy stopped. The victrola I saw a big square black booth, stopped. The exhibition stopped. about eight feet high and four feet The men left the peep-holes, look­ wide. On each of the four sides, on ing annoyed. We started to leave. PEEP SHOW Suddenly a man called to us from a "Men," he whispered, "this flight ofstairs I noticed for the first booth's been here eight years, time: "Up here, men! This is where which gives you an idea how popu­ the real thing goes on. It's free. lar it is with the real man public in Just follow me!" He gave us a Chi. It's run by the girl in there, finger-wiggling come-hither ges­ and the management don't get a ture. We trooped up the long flight cent from. this special show. ••• ofstairs as one man. On the second I'm just here for your conven" floor we entered a room with red ience." He eyed each of us in turn. walls, lit by several dim red lights. "I ain't gonna give you a speech, It seemed very erotic. In the center men. I got only one thing to say. of this lusty chamber was another When you see this, men, you'l1 see peep-hole booth. It was the same the end of the road!" Someone size as the one downstairs, but it coughed. "The one and only Pifi, was octagonal and it had a top. In­ doin' her famous Parisian dance J I stead of open slits, this box had advise you not to take your eyes binocular peep-holes. Next to each off her for a single minute! Pick aperture was a coin slot and a suc­ your favorite view, men - bird's cinct sign: "Look Up," "Look view, worm's view, close-up. The Down," "Look Straight Ahead." end ofthe road, men! I got plenty The man who had trapped us said nickels here. ..." softly, "Come closer, men, where I There was a minor crush as men can talk to you· private." He led us got coins and hurried to their to a corner. "Come closer, men." "favorite view." By the time I The men wouldn't come too changed a dollar, only "Look close, and I don't blame them. Straight Ahead" was left. There Our guide can be visualized, was a little tin plate behind the vaguely, as the sort ofcreature you slot~ so. that I could see nothing. A would expect to see if you picked victrola began to play. The ape­ up.a damp rock. He had long, un­ man cried, "Drop your nickels, combed hair, long side-burns, pale men! Let 'em have it, Fifil" There eyes, and a pornographic look. His was a cannonade of metallic clicks. skin was alarmingly like. floor wax, The tin plates flipped up. From my and his teeth had the rich patina of post I saw the face, neck, and phil­ cigarette smoke. When he smiled I anthropic bosom of PHi. She sort of waited for a hyena to howl wasn't the sort of girl you'd bring nearby. home to meet Mother. She looked THE AMERICAN MERCURY more like a Trixie than a Fifi. Her man came over to me and said, eyes .were grotesquely -mascaraed "Nuts! If you see anything, let me and she had on rayon underthings. know." 1 saw nothing and I let him She was, I suppose, dancing. The know. He stood right next to me only part of the action I could see for several minutes, . waiting for was a frenetic oscillation of her bulletins. All was quiet on the shoulders. The rest ofher responded libidinal front. solely through that phenomenon Again the men began to leave physicists call "sympathetic the peep-holes. The rabbity little vibration." In twenty fleeting man with the mustache looked be:­ seconds the tin plate dropped. wildered. The businessman sneered I inserted another nickel. The tin quite openly now. "My loved ones plate flipped up. Fifi was still os­ are cared for" kept his dignity. The cillating. The tin plate dropped Man suddenly yelled, "Give 'em down and I inserted another nickel. 661" and there was a stamped~. This piquant process continued for This time I got "Look Up." Look­ several minutes. Then the men ing up revealed a mirror in whichI began to desert the peep-holes saw the reflection ofFifi from head in annoyance. The change-maker to waist, a bodily zone which was watched us like a hawk. Just at the clearly hors de combat. strategic moment, when we were In a few·moments the men re­ beginning to look for the exit, he treated from their posts, silent but yelled, "Fifi! Show them Fuzzy annoyed. Now the beast played his Wuzzyl" trump card. He exclaimed, "Just The men rushed back to the a minute, fellows! I'm gonna ask peep-holes in a frenzy; there was a Fifi if she won't put on the dance downpour of nickels. This time I she did at Spider Kelly's in Juarez." got "Look Down." Fifi's slightly He rapped on the door to the animated legs were revealed to me. booth; it half-opened. "Fifi," he She was dancing on a mirror. She said earnestly, "I was just won­ had on a pair of orchid tights and derin' if you wouldn't put on the high-heeled boudoir slippers. What number you did down at Spider her dance was supposed to be I Kelly's. You know what I mean. have never succeeded in figuring Just for this special group oEmen." out; in idle moods I think of it We heard a nasal feminine organ simply as "Diana and the Oil­ say, "Naw. I don't put that num­ Burner." Suddenly the sour young ber on for nickels." PEEP SHOW "Aw, 'come on," our provider Two or three views per man was cooed. "Just this once." enough. The sweet sound ofnickels "I don't think I ought to, Joe." dropping stopped, for good., The "Aw,' go on~ These men would hollow-eyed fellow in the raincoat ~. ..,, apprecIate It. went up to Joe and said coldly, They discussed this moot point "What a gyp!" for a few breathless moments, just Joe smiled. fbud' enough for us to hear. Then "Is that all?" asked Hollow-Eyes Joe cried triumphantly, "Okay, bitterly. men! She's gonna do itt" Joe said, "Yeh." He began to "The men beat their heads against· count the money he had taken in. the booth grabbing views. I got "Exit straight ahead." '~took Straight Ahead." We left the Red Room en masse, ,:The victrola sang nostalgically of went through a corridor modeled Sweet Sue. The nickels dropped, after the Black Hole of Calcutta, the 'tin plates clicked, and 'we'saw and took a long flight of stairs Fifi, the girl of no man's dreams, which let us out at the front of the inthe dance she had done at Spider building on South State Street, Kelly's. I have never been to away from the entrance'. The men Spider Kelly's, but I got a pretty who run the "Nickel-Odium" are good idea as to why Fifi was work­ no fools. ing in Chicago. The alleged dance I had spent $1.70. Men were still was exac'tly thesame demonstration entering the tantalizing prem'ises. of semi-static vegetation she had I walked up South State Stre~t, been doing all along for a nickel. taking very deep breaths.

DEFINITION

By JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE

A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman, of the next generation. BUCHMANISM: OPIATE FOR THE CLASSES

By ERNEST SUTHERLAND BATES

ISTORIANS will doubtless be ford Group Movement, entitled H. busy for halfa century ferret­ Moral Rearmament: the Battle for ing out all the fingers that helped Peace. Edited by H. W. ("Bunny") concoct the Munich pie last Octo­ Austin, the British tennis player, ber. But already it is possible to the first edition of 250,000 copies know who heated the oven and was printed in England in Decem.. kept the atmosphere at the proper ber and consists of some twenty" level to create such a masterpiece two manifestoes, all clearly Buch.. of political cookery. That man was manite in inspiration and phrasing, none other than Frank Nathan which had appeared in the British Daniel Buchman, known in the press in the preceding eight months. colleges as "Old Moral Uplift" and The signatures on these manifestoes among his followers as the great include those of 25 peers in im.. "Soul Surgeon," founder of the portant government positions, 12 Oxford Group Movement and baronets ditto, 33 MP's, 37 cham" Christian Apostle to the British pion athletes, 21 leading journal.. aristocracy. ists, 17 trade union heads, anum.. It sounds utterly fantastic to as­ ber of industrialists, and a few dis" sert that an obscure Pennsylvania tinguished academicians- in short, Dutch ex~Lutheran minister and a fair cross-section of the British YMCA secretary, later notorious ruling class. Among them are Earl as the leader of an unsuccessful Baldwin; the Marquess of Salis~ erotic revivalist movement in Arner­ bury; the Earl of Clarendon, Gov­ ica~ colleges, should ever have tak­ ernor~General of South Africa; en a leading part in determining Lord Desborough, President of the the destiny of Europe, the British London Chamber of Commerce; Empire, and therefore the whole Lord Milne, former Chief <;>f the world. It is fan tastic. Yet the proof Imperial General Staff; Lord Stamp of it is in a pamphlet extensively of the Bank of England. It was for circulated by members of the Ox.. these people, and people like them, 190 BUCHMANISM:OPIATE FOR THE CLASSES 191 that Neville Chamberlain acted in honor ofthe founder ofthe Oxford his journeys to Hitler. Manifestly, Group and attended by members then, Moral Rearmament is a his­ of both Houses of Parliament." A toric document of some importance. week later came the manifesto of The slogan "Moral Rearmament" Earl Baldwin and the other barons, asa solution for all theills of the asserting that "the realneed of the world was presented by Frank Buch­ day is Moral and Spiritual Rearma­ manon May 28, 1938, in a London ment." A week later, Bunny Aus~ speech in which he expounded the tin, speaking with the political ideas reiterated in later manifestoes. authority of a good tennis player, Said Mr.' Buchman: asked "that the youth of the world The world's condition cannot but cause let their voices be heard in a call for disquietand anxiety. Hostility piles up the Moral Rearmament of the na­ betw~en nation and nation, labor and tions. .. ." He added, "That ap­ capital, class and class. ... The crisis is fundamentally a moral one. The na­ peal has already been put forward tions must rearm morally. .. . Imag.. by those of greater authority than ine a rising tide of absolute honesty myself. .•. As Herr Hitler has and absolute unselfishness sweeping across every country-.•.• A wave of said, ·'A great future lies before the absolute unselfishness throughout the youth of Germany....'" Until na!ions would be the end of war. the end of November manifesto In other words, if men would only after manifesto reiterated the be perfect, they would be perfect. "Moral Rearmament" slogan like This astounding idea fairly swept the incantation ofa magic formula. the 'British privileged groups off The only variation on the theme theiJ feet - especially when they came on November nineteenth, discovered that British airplanes when the manifesto ofBuchmanite were lacking. It was one of the im­ journalists pledged them, in the puls~s that impelled Mr. Chamber­ interest of "a programme of Moral lain to Munich. Rearmament," to observe "a disci· The manifesto~s of the MP's, pline of expression in our profes­ made public at the beginning ofthe sional dealings equal to that which Czec:hoslovak crisis, announced their we expect from a Minister of the cop-version to the. principles of the Crown. .. ." In plain English~ "crusade for Moral Rearmament these journalists undertook not to which appears to be spreading rap­ write anything which might be un­ idly." It all happened "at a recent comfortable for Mr. Chamberlain. dinner at the House ofCommons in Various rumors and revelations THE AMERICAN MERCURY about·the Munich background-were meriting· this soapy appearance is then gaining ground. The "disci~ the ingratiating and beamingly pline of expression" must be even confident manner of a well-trained more rigid now, after Moravia, salesman for one of the better~class Memel, and Albania. business firms. He claims to be on intimate terms with his employer. II "I know that he is a personal god," he has said. "Look what he -has A movement with such influence done for me!" Without intellectual upon the makers of British public interests of any kind, but with re~ opinion and policy must have in it markable concentration ofpurpose, ' sources of appeal beyond those ·of he has devoted his entire energy to the traditional religious· "revival" the single pursuit of spiritual sales­ with which "Buchmanism" has manship. Slow-witted but dogged~ usually been confused. Actually it ly deterrnined, he has built up has almost nothing in common with a movement in which older religious the familiar revivalist movements. techniques are adapted to modern The difference lies in the character advertising conditions. of the leader, in the methods em~ Born in Pennsburg, Pennsyl- played, and in the social position vania, of German-Swiss ancestry, of the converts. Mr. Buchman was educated for the The traditional evangelist.has al... Lutheran ministry at Muhlenberg ways been a strong -personality, College and Mount Airy Lutheran gifted of tongue and capable of Seminary. In his earlyenvironment moving vast crowds to emotional he found the two religious tradi­ fervor. Frank Buchman is none of tions that have raised him to these things. Middle~sized and greatness. The Lutheran Church, slightly rotund, bald and bespec­ which never broke away com'" tacled, he would not attract atten~ pletely from its Catholic origin, tion on a casual meeting. The only retained auricular confession· as a mark of distinction which even his means of spiritual growth in· the disciples have been able to discover period .before confirmation. ,And is, in the much quoted -words of according to Quaker beliefs, with Harold Begbie, "that mien of scru~ which everyPennsylvanian is famil... pulously shampooed and almost iar, it was possible for every man medical cleanliness so characteristic to obtain spiritual guidance from ofthe hygienic American." Supple- God by consulting the Light BUCHMANISM:OPIATE FOR THECLA~SES 193

Within.,'Through combining these ."Sharing" was the old Catholic'" two essentially antagonistic princi­ Lutheran principle of private con:.... pIes, as no one with a .logical mind fession transmogrified by having 'cQuld have ..done, and vulgarizing . the confessions made in the,.pres­ both of.them in subjection to sales­ ence of the whole group. Natur­ manship needs, Mr. Buchman was ally, considering the age of the at last able to cf(~s~-breed the penitents, most of the confessions ..:exotic flower of "Buchmanism." had to do with matters of sex, and But it was a long process. For the the sharing came down to erotic first, forty-three years. of his life excitement. The public "Wash­ B-gcllman led an undistinguished out," as Buchmanian jargon called existence as' a small-town Lutheran it, was piously supposed to prevent .minister, and college YMCA, secre­ any future return of sinful desire. ·ttlry. This long.preparation was it­ After the "Washout" came"Guid­ ,luminated by but one'glowing ex- ance" obtained 'in "the Quiet perience. At the appropri~teage of Time" by "Listening-in to God" 30, he enjoyed a vision ofChrist on or conducting "Two"Way Radio the Cross which produced in him, Chats" with, Him. These pleasant he says, qa dazedc$ense of a great chats could be had either in private ·spiritual shaking-up" so great that sessionswith F. B. - as Mr~ Buch­ ,he •succeeded shortly after in con- man liked" to be called - or in verting a youn~ college student larger group meetings. The tech­ who "went to church that night, nique'is fully described bya devout became a good Christian, and later disciple, A. J. Russell, in his for a successful barrister." Sinners Only: By 1921 Mr. Buchman had Then, of course, Frank suggested the ,.formulated.his .prograQl. Fortified inevitable Quiet Time. Taking two sheetsofnqtepaper,he hatlded me one. .• by .faith and the right introduc­ We sat dOWh and listened in prayerful tions, he 'went to Oxford and silence..•. Nothing exceptional came; 'gathered about hip.1 small groups of quite a lot ofordinary human thoughts, but no luminous ones.... I wrote students in the two aristocratic col­ down my thoughts; then read them -leges of Corpus Christi and Christ's. aloud to Frank, who confidently and (He ·kept away, from intellectual surprisingly pronounced them to be God's thoughts. Ballio!.) 'To taenlt inhigplyselect "r~ligious .house-parties," he re­ Whenthe disciple has be,en prop­ vealed the great principIes of erly.washed-out and guided, he is· "Sharing'~rand "Guidance." able to enjoy the personal com,;. 6 194 THE AMERICAN MERCURY panionship of the deity ever after.' The Four Absolutes -:- Absolute Purity, Absolute Honesty, Absolute Love, and As another convert, V. C. Kitchen, Absolute Unselfishness. says in his I Was a Pagan, "I Sin Blinds and Sin Binds. 'emerged' into God-'€onsciousness Jesus Christ still Suits, Saves, and once~" Satisfies. all at The proof of it? Dur­ P-R-A-Y stands/or Poweiful Radio­ ing his unregenerate pagan period grams Always Yours. Mr. Kitchen had been a most sin­ A SupernatU/:al Network Over Litle "Wires. ful smoker and drinker, but he now A Spiritual Radiophone t'n Every Home. never downed a drop or puffed the Gotl, has a Plan/or Every Man. tiniest puff; he had been in the The, vulgarity and lack of intel­ habit of quarreling with his wife, lectualcontent in the Buchmanite but, now no harsh word passed his parody of religion limited F. B.'s lips; he 'had ffi;ade a practice oide­ Oxford following in·the early days fra:uding his partner in an advertis­ to less than 5 per cent of the stu­ ing.firm by padding his expense,ac'" dents, and in· 1924 he" decided 'to cou:nt, but he now 'wrote out a shift hisa,ftack to Americat At that check to him in fuUrestitution. time no Oxford sponsorship was Then "miracles began to happen." claimed for the movement. Invita­ God "guided me to the discovery tions to the Buchmanite gatherings of a check 1 had folded up, put in New York were given simply in away~nd forgotten ~made out the name of+tYhEGroups: A First to,me for the exact amount He had Century Christian Fellowship," guided me to give my partner." meeting at the Hotel Plaza. The Further miracles, too, were forth... likeness toFirst Century Christian­ coming: ity c()nsisted, ofcourse, in the com­ Oile day ..• God ,guided me to mon devotion to,the principles of write<7a plan for advertising trans­ "Sharing" and "Guidance." The atlantic steamship travel. It was a branch of advertising in which I had First Century Christians -shared had no experience al)d a subject I knew their1ittle property and were nothing about. I asked forGod'sh,elp guided to persecution and death; in the matter an.d almost immediately TwentiethCen~ury a co,mplete and,' original plah came to their- followers. my mind. ..• At another time .. . shared their little erotic excitements God guided me to make a certain in­ and were guided to the Hotel Plaza. vestment..•• F.B.'s most devoted American To F. B. himself, in the Quiet follower, the Reverend Samuel Time, God has suggested'a rematk­ Shoemaker, apJ;,piscopaIc!ergyman, able seri~s of'slogans: had formerly been secretary of the BUCHMANISM: OPIATE FOR THE CLASSES 195

Philadelphian Society at Prince- Princeton campus. Joyous under­ ton. This organization, virtually a graduates gave the "Christian local branch of the YMCA, was Student".a fine coat of gilding, comfortably housed in a handsome and finally pulled him off his pedestal. Gothic building guarded by Dan- By the time he departed once iel Chester French's statue of - more for England, Mr. Buchman "The Christian,Student" -astar" was guided to seek his converts less gazing youth doubly armed with a among sex..morbid college students football and Bible. The society was than among those college and com" easily persuaded to invite Mr. munity leaders who were most Buchman to Princeton. conscious offailure and impotence. The results of this first incursion "Stress Slogans, Not Sex," said the were somewhat disappointing; only alliterative Voice Within. The shift a few sheepish sheep were gathered in policy soon brought results. Mr. into the fold. But after more ade- Buchman always had a fondness quate preparatory propaganda, Mr. for'men in key positions, but to Buchman launched a second Prince" gain their adherence was now the ton campaign in 1926. There were central point in his program. His the usual "religious house parties" godly "boring from within" to win and erotic confessions. Without over the people of influence and winning many actual converts, the importance was very similar' in Buchmanites did succeed in make method, however'different theulti­ ing themselves a public nuisance. mate aim, from that used by Nazis They were denounced in the and communists. And it worked Princetonian, and the students de- even better in the highly class­ cided, by a large majority of those conscious groups of society to voting, that "Buchmanism in any which he addressed his efforts. form" ought not to be connected "Snob appeal" wason his side. with any religious organization in Every distinguished convert brought the University. In defense of his haIfa dozen others in his train. Old activities, Mr. Buchman is said to friends in high positions gained the have told President Hibben that 95 courage to come out openly in his per cent of the students were ad- support, and new friends of still dieted to one or another form .of higher position were won over: Dr. sex perversion. But the President, Streeter, the Provost of Queen's at whatever cost to free speech, College in Oxford; Dr.. Geoffrey banished Mr. Buchman from the Allen, Fellow and Chaplain ofLin.. · 'THE AMERICAN MERCURY' colriCollege; Dr. P. S.Allen, Presi­ old ex-bootlegger" known'in his dent of Corpus Christi College; profession as "Bill Pickle.'" Mr. Julian Thornton-Duesberry, its Buchman discussed the Depression chaplain; Loudon Hamilton, ex­ and gave his solution: masterofEton;Howard Rose, priest The President's social trends report in­ bfSt.Peter~leBailey; Dr. Grensted, dicates there will surely' be a revolu­ professor of the Philosophy of tion in tHis country. We are going to Christian Religion. With .such make it a spiritual revolution. What hunger marchers need is to be "changed." names enrolled, the Buchmanites felt themselves justified in ceasing There followed a much-advertised to be merely a "first century Chris­ house party at Briarcliff Manor tian: brotherhood" and becoming and a quick transcontinental trip. "The Oxford Group Movement," On his return to England, his though"legally they were denied welcome was almost a royal one. the .right to use the title - an at­ The Archbishop of Canterbury tempt to incorporate tinder it being gave a'reception for him, and the refused by· the authorities. Lord Mayor ofLondon another. In Legal or not, the new name the spiritual' week-end that fol­ helped greatly. With the prestige lowed in London fully 5000 people of Oxford' behind him, Howard took part, with representatives Rose led a "team" offifteen Buch­ from forty nations among' them. manite missionaries to Holland in Henceforward, Frank Buchman's' 1927 and another team of seven to position was established as one of South Africa in 1928. In 1930, the the pillars"of the British Empire. Reverend J. W. Margetson, Pro­ vost of St. Mary's Cathedral, wel­ III comed a team ·offifty to Edin­ burgh. In 1933 F. B. himself Since the movement has not been brought a team of sixty with him organized as a separate sect, but in one more attempt to conquer his represents itself to be an inter­ native land. The Oxonians secured denominational revival of spiritual a crowd of2300 curiosity seekers at energy throughout the Protestant their spiritual mass meeting in 'the Church, accurate statistics as to the Waldorf Astoria, but they ob­ number of Buchmanitesin the tained few distinguished American world are quite unavailable. The sponsors besides Bishop Manning center of their strength is in and William Gillaland, an 84-year" England; they have made some BUCHMANISM:-OPIATE- FORTHE-'CLASSES 197 headway in South Africa and in idence just at the time when it was Canada; their "teams" have been being abandoned by most ofthe enthusiastically received in Nor­ orthodox churches. The emotional way, Denmark, and Holland, and relief obtained by transferring they claim to have missionaries in human burdens to the shoulders of sixty countries; the only greatna­ deity is naturally great. In the tions left uninvaded are Russia, present period ofworld catastrophe Germany, and Italy, which have it is not surprising that Buchman­ new religions of their own. Prob­ ism flourishes to the degree it does. e~plains, ably at least 100,000 individuals This also, 00 why 0 the have at one O time or another been reception ofBuchmanism has been

present at Buchmanite "house so 0 different in America and 0' in parties," but this estimate is some­ England. American statesmen and what invalidated by the number of businessmen are far from convinced "repeaters" included. The Buch­ that they are through; their energy manites themselves have rather is still strong; they still have

carefully refrained from compiling abundant faith in themselves 00 and lists of conversions, relapses, or re­ are little disposed to trust thesolu­ conversions. The importance of tionof their problems entirely to the movement is not to be judged God and Frank Buchman. But the by its numbers but by the social ruling aristocracy ofGreat Britain position of its devotees. is tired and ready to welcome a Obviously Buchmanism matches, philosophy of escape. for certain people, the emotional In the mid~Nineteenth Century needs ofour day. The lingering be-­ a noted English clergyman and lief in a Special Providence - a writer, Charles- Kingsley, declared deity intervening in the details of in the bitterness of his heart that hp.manaffairs - may be made to the Christianc:hurches had so far

seem plausible when 0 thesenumans forgotten Christ's message 0_ ofsocial profess to desire only suchhniver­ justice thatieligion had become sal goods as absolute honesty, un"­ little mote than "an opiate for the selfishness, love, and the preserva'" masses." It was left for Frank tion ofpeace. Through its doctrine Buchman, in a -further stage of of "Guidance," Buchmanism has decadence, to turn religion into an reinstated the idea ofSpecial Prov- opiate for the classes. MISDEAL A Story

By ANDRE MAUROIS

· ow you are back in France, It is for readers such as you that N dear friend, and an ocean one writes!" After the second arti­ separates us. This gives me courage cle, in which I had tried to analyze to write you. You hadn't noticed, not only your work but, by reading at least I hope not, that your stay between the lines, your character, here was a fairly unhappy little you told me, "I cannot imagine a episode for me. As long as you were greater pleasure than talking with in New York, I wouldn't have you some day about the books we dared tell you about my pitiful both love. The authors you men­ little disappointment. Now I think tion are those I most admire; what telling it will relieve me. you say of them is also what I Do you remember the letters think. What evenings we could you wrote me before coming to have together talking about our America? I suppose you have for~ mutual friends, of Merimee, of gotten them. They are on my table Chekhov, of Foerster, and of de­ at this very moment. They are lightful Katherine Mansfield." enthusiastic and charming. You I don't believe you can imagine had just published your first book, what these sentences, to you but you were not yet known in probably banal and polite, meant this country. You had read the to me. You don't know what my two articles I wrote about you. I life is. I live with my parents who think they gave you genuine pleas­ are booksellers of modest means, in ure. You told me, "No masculine a middle-class section of New critic has written about this novel York. The apartment is homely, the profound, fine things it· in­ somber, and furnished in the style spired in you. Only a woman could of the 'nineties. My room has describe ·the character of Clarissa plain, one-colored white walls with with so much penetration.... two or three photographs on them, 198 MISDEAL 199 one of them yours. I· bought it so I I thought best suited to under­ wouldn't have to ask you for it. stand me. Everything brought us It is my mother to whom lowe together, identity of taste and my taste for books. When I sympathy born of my admiration started to write she helped and for your books. You scarcely knew encouraged me. I tell you this be­ anyone here besides myself; it was cause you might wonder why I I who made you come and who still live with my parents, since I 'arranged your lectures at the earn quite a comfortable living School. 1gave you serious, weighty, contributing to newspapers. It is and noble arguments in order to partly from gratitude, and partly obtain your consent; the true through fear of being lonely, be­ reason was simply that 1 wanted cause I am really a very solitary you all to myself for several weeks. person. That will surprise you also. If you knew with what love ­ In New York you must have it's strange, but 3000 miles away heard that I had a host of friends. I am no longer afraid ofwords ­ That's true,- but with none of them I prepared for your visit! I had do 1 have any real intimacy. seen all the current plays in order Am I homely? I often look at to'choose which might amuse you myself in the mirror. My face is most; I took French lessons to too round; my mouth is a little improve my accent. And finally I weak; and my nostrils are too made arrangements to have you large; my eyes seem - oh! not stay with Harriet Benson. ' beautiful, but perhaps you can It was at the last minute that I find an indulgent adjective; I've made this decision. I had reserved just crossed out three, one after the an apartment for you at a hotel, but other. I think I would have made eight days before your arrival I either a pleasant wife or companion was spending the evening with for a man, perhaps jealous, but Harriet (who was my best friend certainly faithful and loyal. No in college and who remained so man of my acquaintance'hoped for after a brilliant marriage), and that much from me, at least none suddenly, looking. at that perfect I would have chosen formyself. house, almost too perfect, admiring those pictures (I knew you liked Perhaps you realize more clearly Degas and Renoir), and· above all what your arrival in New York studying Harriet, who reminded meant? You were the type of man me so much of the heroines ofyour 200 THE AMERICAN MERCURY novels, I told myself, "It is here, a hundred times more beautiful n(1ttirally, that "he ought to live." and·a hundred times more charm­ In five minutes I had obtained ingthan I. I even had you stay at Harriet's consent to offer you a her house. I gave you to her. I room in her house. showed her to you surrounded by Do you remember getting off all the prestige of her money and the" boat onto the pier? I. had come her taste. You will never know how with .Harriet, and loug before the bitter that long ride in Harriet's gangplank was lowered, I recog'" car from the dock to her house was nized you. My heart was beating. for me. t looked at her dress and at That was silly, since I didn't know mine. Hers was simpler, since I had you, but it's a fact; I love facts. gone to great expense to please Naturally you couldn't recognize you; but I knew that you found me, but the minute you put your hers perfect and didn't see mine. foot on American soil we ap­ I was silent, but you didn't notice proached you. We spoke a few that either. You and Harriet words, everyone of which I could didn't say anything ofconsequence, repeat to you even now. You spoke but you both seemed excited·and of the boat, the trip, your first im­ happy. I understood that the game pressions. But after that, I hardly was lostbefore even starting it. . listened. I was only interested in Did you notice that during your the glance that you exchanged entire stay you scarcely saw me? with Harriet. Doubtless neither of I think not. You used to pass your you was conscious ofit, butfor me, days with Harriet. Evenings you: passionate spectator, that look went to the theatre with her,ancl contained the whole future. "Now sometimes with her husband. Sat-" it's done," I thought bitterly. urdays you left town for week-ends "Between them they. have formed in their Long Island home. Some­ afriendship, or rather a complicity; times, since you are naturally 1 don't know what sort of silent polite, you used to say, "We oug:ht:" understanding. Oh! what a fool to invite Ida," and Harriet would" I've been." telephone me very affectionately. What a fool I really was. Just I always refused. I found. excuses, when I had hoped to keep you and I used to invent engagements for myself, to enjoy the smallest and work to be done. You both minutes of your visit, I had you thought my excuses. very natural, meet, in the first second, a woman or more exactly, you didn't even MISDEAL 201 take the trouble to think about But just because she is beautiful them at all.You had performed and rich, and because she has' too your duties of courtesy and friend­ much .success, Harriet hasn't the ship. You had a great time to­ time to sound the depthsoffriend­ gether. You were happy alone, and ship. She skims over' the surf~ce of happiness is a nonchalant egoist. sentiments and ideas. Oh, she Hence I disappeared during skims with infinite grace, but those four weeks. I vanished from should a man like you be content your life., And on the last day, with such superficial charm? Don't when I came to take you to the you hope for something more seri­ boat, I was so natural and smiling ous, and penetrating sometimes? In that I think you suspected nothing. reading your books, I had often Today, distance having made this thought thatyou, surely more than unhappy adventure seem unreal other men, would be capable of and almost fictitious, I should like silence, of contemplation, and of to'try to plead'my case with you. that long quest done together, which ought to be, I think, .the II basis for real friendship. I still be­ lieve'l was capable of giving you It i~n't such a bad case. If you that kind of friendship. had taken the trouble to talk with You men are strange. You dom­ me, to reassure me, to tame me, I inate, us and surpass us by the force . think that you would have found of your thought. 'You understand, possibilities in me, reserves of construct, explain. You have more sentiment, observations that might style and more vigor than we, but have surprised you. I think that, to as soon as it is a question ofjudging the writer you are, to the novelist women, we are a hundred times you should be, I could have more .discerning. than you. Once brought much more than Harriet. more, you must not feel that I Don't think I am trying now 'by want to blame you for preferring any feminine device (b~t am I Harriet to, me. About her, I,' agree feminine?) to destroy the image of (or almost agree) with you; it's my friend. I admire Harriet a lot; not a question of her. Perhaps she I find her delightful to look at, and is worth more than you know, for for, a woman of the world she is you encouraged her during your still amazingly "fresh" and sin­ entire visit to show a childish and cerely curious about culture. useless .side which is paft of her 202 THE AMERICAN MERCURY nature, but not the only part. nor of a banker. We love people No, it isn't Harriet, or even you and notappearances. While you ... personally that I quarrel with at But I let myself go in ridiculous this moment, but rather all men, complaints. I am wrong, and I ask always attracted more by a beauti­ your indulgence. This isn't at all ful face, a well-cut dress, and nicely what I wanted to write you. What I arranged hair than by a soul worthy had hoped to tell you was that a of attracting you. Who is it you poor girl made a holiday of your love, then? A hairdresser? A dress­ coming, that she has been very maker? A manicurist? A beauty unhappy for a month, and that parlor? Aren't you capable of dis­ now she has regained her senses. covering beneath a little less per­ She asks nothing of you, except fect exterior, promises of happi­ that you think of her with friend~ ness? We women are not like that. ship and sometimes, for the sake of Men who 'have had the greatest her love, cast a more curious and success in love - were they al.. more penetrating glance on the ways the most handsome, the best women whom at first sight you dressed, the most famous? Not at judge as without beauty. You will all. We know, it seems to me, how see, my friend - you, to whom so to ferret out and reward strength many others have caused suffering and genius under all their guises. - with how much pleasure they We are not the slaves of a tailor, will repay you for your trouble.

FOOL'S WEALTH

By EDGAR DANIEL KRAMER

WOULD buy bread I would buy clothes I And wine to sup And shelter, too, With the gold I plucked With the silver I found From a buttercup. In the gleaming dew.

Men laugh and jeer When they see my face, And drive me away From the market-place. THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER

By ALAN MACDONALD

N New York City the morning with a nearby engine. Payne I..of June IS, 1904 wasserene and lighted his pipe, throwing the cool. Down in the Harbor the SS. match on a bench. Then he lighted General Slocum, a big white ex­ a lamp to" work by and began his cursion steamer, rode at a Hudson job. Around him as he worked in River dock, and as the crew that cabin, wherethere was no rule washed her that morning she against smoking or fire, was a mis­ gleamed like a swan in a pond. The cellaneous collection of nautical Slocum was a side-wheeler, 250 impedimenta and junk: a dynamo; feet long, three decks high, and the steam steering-gear, for the licensed to carry 2500 passengers. cabin was directly under the pilot Advertised as the finest excursion­ house; two barrels of cylinder oil; boat in the Harbor, she was insured a barrel of mineral sperm and a for $70,000, more than half her cost. barrel of machine oil; paint pots, She was thirteen years old - young life preservers, paddle buckets, for a ship - and had recently been camp stools, old hose, two bags of refurbished and repaired. charcoal, and three barrels of beer Walter .Payne, a Negro porter, glasses, packed.in hay. was one of the men engaged in pre­ His lamps filled, the Negro went paring her for the day's excursion. up on deck and found that the His first task was to fill the Slo­ Slocum was under way, bound cum's fifteen or twenty lamps. In around the Battery and up the East the daytime these were kept in a lit­ River to the city recreation pier at tle cabin at the end of a companion.. the·foot of Third Street. There she way oft the starboard side of the was to take on the 1358 persons­ main deck, called the"second cabin more than 750 of them babies and down in the hold". This morning children'-who were going to Lo­ Payne found the cabin lighted with cust Grove, Long Island, on the a lurid glare, for a mechanic with annual outing of St. Mark's Lu­ an open oil-torch was tinkering theran Evangelical Church, at 2°3 2°4 THE AMERICAN MERCURY Sixth Streeton the lower East Side. II The Slocum arrived at the pier at aqout 8 :20, and for· an hour the First-Pilot Ed Van Woert held the wives and children of the thrifty wheel until the Slocum reached the St. Mark's Germans streamed entrance to Hell Gate, opposite aboard. The fifteen waiters for the Ninety-second Street. Here, in bar, dining room, and deck service obedience to an old tradition, the were on hand, and the ten-piece master entered the wheelhouse. German band. After abeer or two, Under his eye, if not his hand,.the the band took up its position on the white ship paddled serenely up the promenade deck and began to play. East River. As the crowd assembled, two But suddenly a thin black cloud men watched with particular con­ puffed up the port side of the ves" cern. They were St. Mark's youth­ sel, just forward of the pilot house. ful pastor, the Reverend George Apparently it passed unnoticed, ex­ C. F. Haas, and the sixty-three­ cept for two boys who saw the year-old ship's master, William H. smoke and spoke to Captain Van Van Schaick, forty years a licensed Schaick. To the first one, the cap­ pilot and thirty a master. Near the tain gruffed, "No danger-boil.. pastor stood William Pullman, ers." The second angered him by treasurer of the church, who had entering the wheelhouse and was paid $350 for the use of the Slocum ordered to get the hell out and that day. Captain Van Schaick mind his own business. stood on the hurricane deck, by the In the meantime another boy pilothouse. He was a tall,well-built had appeared at the entranceto the old man in a black frock coat,white bar on the main deck, where John collar, and black bow tie, the only J. Coakley, a deck-hand who had sign of his authority being a viz­ been on the Slocum for only eight ored cap. He had icy, staring eyes, days, was having a beer. The boy and looked bored and weary. ran to him and whispered breathL At 9:30 the mate reported that lessly, "There's a fire down that everyone was aboard. The Captain stairway." Coakley ran to the cabin gave the word and the .General where the Negro had filled the Slocum - beer flowing in the bar, lamps, and found it filled with chowder cooking in the galley, thick, black smoke. Through it he clams being fried and served­ saw flames rising from the hayiri cast off. which the glasses had been packed. THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER 2°5 Coughing and choking; 'Coakley signaled the engine room, ordering tried to smother the fire with can­ a full stop. But then he caught him­ vas, but this was too cumbersome. self .. and gave the signal for full He nextseized the bags of charcoal speed ahead. "Keep her on her and threw them on the flames. coursetill I lookinto this," he said Then, thoroughly unnerved, he to his pilot, and went Ollt. In a mo­ ran to the deck in search of the ment he was back; the flames had mate, yelling "Fire,. fire," like the met .. him on .the stairway to the sea-tyro he was. deck below. "She's gone, Ed," he Mate Flanagan, an iron worker said, "we must beach heron North by trade who did not have a mate's Brother Island as quick as we can." license, ordered Coakley.to unreel North Brother Island, from that the hose on the main deck and then point, was a good two and three ran·to·the engine room, where he quarter miles; to this day veteran ordered the engineer to begin masters and pilots wonder why pumping water intothe stand-pipe. Van Schaick did not beach the On deck Coakley and some others Slocum along the Bronx shore or had succeeded in straightening out on Little Hell Gate Island, where the hose, but when the water there were mud flats. Reluctantly, surged into it the hose burst like they admit it was a mistake of an over-filled sausage. Later in­ judgment to try to reach North vestigation proved that it was Brother. Yet Captain Van Schaick linen - one of the captain's econo­ held steadfastly to his course, mies. Deckhands next brought up as though the smoke and fire a rubber hose used to wash decks, were spray across his bow. He but they could not remove the first did not· sound the alarm for the hose; the coupling was rusted solid. help that was a stone's throwaway The nozzle of the linen hose was on either shore, nor did he do any­ abandoned four feet from the en­ thing to rally his disorganized trance to the cabin, and water crew. While passengers .begged flowed uselessly from the pipe. him to put into shore, he stood.si­ Meanwhile the mate had called lently in the· prow of the boat, as up the speaking tube to the pilot far away as possible from the fire. house. Pilot Van Woert heard him The Slocum burned .1ikewell.. say, "She's afire, Cap'n Ed," and oiled tinder. While the crewstrug~ told Van Schaick. The old man gled with the hose, the thin smoke­ trembled; he reached forward and puffs became dense black clouds. 206 THE AMERICAN MERCURY In great gusts the smoke was swept bow and stern all who could back across the decks; thick coils climbed over the rails, caught their eddied a.round the lower deck toes on the two-inch extension of space, driving the choking pas­ the deck, and hung over the water. sengers in a great crush to the stern. One of the passengers whose cloth­ Two or three of the crew braved ing was on fire leaped into the river the smoke to tear down the racks at 133rd Street. Immediately scores that held life-preservers, only to of others followed him, to be find that they were worse than use­ whirled to death inside the paddles less __ straps broke, canvas tore, or left struggling in the Slocum'$ and pulverized cork spewed out on wake - about one in ten of them the deck. Others found the fire saved. Off 140th Street the forward buckets empty and the lifeboats so rail, to which the desperate passen­ rusted in the davits that only an gers were clinging like flies, gave expert, with time and tools, could way and hurled them into the wa­ possibly release them. ter just forward of the port paddle. Off I29th Street the first flames Only a few slipped through. On shot above the decks, but still the the decks the passengers were com­ Slocum gave no alarm. The fire pletely trapped; everywhere they was seen, however, from a dredge were scorched by the terrific heat at Lawrence Point, Astoria, and or choked by the smoke. The the signal was sounded from there. burning .boat offered no refuge Four tugboats nearby heard it and from fire, and the waters below set out after the burning ship. At were already full of the dead and the same time a policeman on Ran­ drowning. Then, as the .Slocum dall's Island telephoned head­ finally approached North Brother, quarters, and shortly craft of all the wind let go full force, and the kinds set out in the wake of the terrified crowd saw a huge wall of Slocum. fire coming. They pressed backto­ The flames increased. Off 132nd ward the starboard rail, crowding Street, about a mile from North scores into the water and others to :Brother, they raged ten or twelve death. The ship grounded with a feet above the. top deck. The pas­ shudder, and the whole starboard sengers .faced the alternatives of side of the hurricane deck col­ probable deathon the burning ship lapsed, throwing hundreds more or possible. escape by a jump into into the river and the fire. It was es.. thetide-riven waters below. In the timatedthatfour hundreddiedhere. THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER 2°7 III close in on the Slocum, while their crews shouted to those aboard, With the Slocum beached at last, "Jump, jump." Dozens did jump; all the rescue forces converged. On some landed safely on the tugs, North Brother, Dr. William Wat... others struck stanchions and bars son had put the patients of the Is.. or missed the boats and were land's contagious-disease hospital drowned. under lock and guard, and waited Within ten minutes·of beaching, on the beach with doctors and sup­ aU life had been driven or burned plies. The fleet of tugs, launches, from the Slocum. She rocked there; and rowboats rushed in. Fire-boats almost at right angles to the nar­ and fire-apparatus from the shore row, shelving beach, burning furi­ began to throw water on the burn­ ously, enveloped from stem to ing vessel, but it had no effect. The stern, flames leaping sixty feet in heat was so .intense that rescue the sunlight. Later, burned out at boats could not get alongside to last, the smoldering hulk drifted take off survivors; heat scorched north to the flats off Hunts Point, the faces of the crews and set fire where she sank; and divers began to the paint. On the starboard side to bring up body after body from the water churned with women her paddle houses and lower decks. and children, struggling, shriek.. For ten days the search for bodies ing, drowning, clinging to paddles, went on, ending only after a search ducking faces and heads in order of all the coves from Staten Is­ to stand the searing heat waves land to Throgg's Neck. The tides from above. Rowboats skirted the carried some a dozen miles. mass, pulling in those who still The half-mile square commu­ lived and tossing back the dead. nity of which St. Mark's was the Boats that went close were over­ center heard of the disaster through turned when too many tried to newspaper extras. Those who had clamber aboard. Rescuers who remained in the parish rushed to dove into the water - the water the church or to the Bronx, where was thirty feet deep to 'a point they lined the piers opposite North ahead of the paddle house - found Brother. The church posted great themselves entangled in the. arms bulletins of the dead and missing, and legs of the victims. Running and.almost all night Sixth Street the gauntlet of the heat and the between First and Second Avenues gusts of fire, tugs at last began to was impassable. Every now and 208 THE AMERICAN MERCURY then the grief-stricken crowds ants, and ordered a re-inspection of broke into the. hymn, Ein Feste all the excursion boats in the .har­ Burg 1st Unser Gott. The death bore Van Schaick .. was tried for toll was terrible; 600 families were manslaughter and sentenced to ten represented on the Slocum and all years in prison. In the hospital his lost one or more members, or were plight and his silence under criti­ wiped out entirely. Of the 955 dead, cism touched the heart of a nurse all but a few dozen were members thirty years his junior, and on the of a congregation which numbered eve of his prison term she married about 1200 souls. him. Twice PresidentRoosevelt rg~ When the Slocum struck the fused her pleas for apardon,bnt North Brother shore Captain Van on Christmas Day, 1912, Van Schaick leaped off the bow into Schaick was pardoned by Presideht the shallow water. One side of his Taft. Harbor captains, pilots, arid face was so burned that one eye nurses raised a fund of $6400 arid was dimmed forever, and he split bought him a farm near Amster­ a heel on a submerged rock. Later dam, New York. He and his wife he was arrested and held crimi­ went there to live, but in a year \1r nally responsible for the disaster. two she .left him because, she sai.d, President Roosevelt shook up the of his cruelty. He died in 1927-at steamboat-inspection service, oust­ the Masonic home in Utica~':"­ ing two inspectors and eight assist- alone.

DICTATORSHIP For Cronos knew that no human nature invested with supreme power is able to order human affairs and not overflow with inso­ lence and wrong. - Plato, Laws, Ch. IV DON'T BE YOUR OWNARCHITECTf

By··ROGER BURLINGAME

'KNOW thata resolve is much like you who pay ~ through the.nose. I a button on a fat man's coat ­ . .'. Those are the theories. My to button it is to undo three others. bitter experience does not substan­ Nevertheless I have made one re­ tiate them. And this same bitter solve that is flat and final and will experience has proved to me that last as long, I hope, as I do: I shall ours is, beyond a doubt, an age of never again undertake any kind of experts. construction without first hiring an expert. I came to the country after a life I know that.there are folk who of city-living, and many. burdens despise the services of experts, dropped from my shoulders. I was who hark nostalgically back to free, secure, no revolution could their jack-of-all-trades ancestors. get me. I had bought an old house To them architects and suchspe­ full of tradition and surrounded by cialists are parasites, .luxuries, su­ fertile soil. There was abundant perfluous agents who reap large water. It was beautifu!. profits out ofa job that any normal, My wife and I did not want to intelligent person could do for go primitive - at least not all the himself. That, in the country, is way. We had work to do and we the popular· belief- an architect conceded the value of electricity, is· an exceedingly high-hat young plumbing, and even oil burners. man who makes pretty sketches, But, we thought, it is silly to pay produces elaborate blue-prints, and a lot of money for those things; makes you buy innumerable things they can all be done very cheaply, you do not want. He orders all the if only we put a.little thought into most expensive equipment; not our remodeling and work it out from a good mail-order house, but bit by bit. We were in no hurry. from big, fancy concerns. He prob­ We had lots of catalogs, in which ably gets a rake-off from the manu­ the prices of sinks, bathtubs, facturer on 'every item, and it is stoves, pumps, heatit>:g plants, and 2°9 210 THE AMERICAN··MERCURY other units were quite remarkable. with my various new friends, they We would shop around until we all arrived at once - at a moment, found what we wanted and then 1 suppose, when a general depres­ buy it; in that way we would sion had struck the countryside. I acquire a special affection for each held separate conferences with each little thing. And, finally, what a while the others looked at the view. bulge we should have on our ex­ The general silence was remarkable. pensive neighbors who had put The plumber was a charming themselves into the hands ofarchi­ man who frankly told me that he tects. and contractors1 would do our jobs as soon as he We were very clever about it. finished with some more important We began by making friends with work he was doing for a contrac­ the local people. We flattered our­ tor somewhere else. The carpenter selves that.we· got along very well and mason would be glad to come with the natives because we re­ as· soon as· the plumber got out of garded them as our equals, if not, the way. But the plumber could indeed, our superiors. I began by do nothing until the others had going regularly to a roadside beer finished, and there were actually garden where I knew· the artisans moments when the technical ex­ of the countryside gathered after igencies required the work of all the day's work. The bartender was three in close conjunction! During highly co-operative. He would the following week theysentin their point out a mason, a carpenter, figures and I must admit they were a plumber in the crowd and I unexpectedly low - for a while would invite him to have a beer we were the envy of all our extrav­ with me. I took a lot of time over agant friends. Then the equip­ this and had some good talks about ment from the mail-order houses democracy, communism, crop con­ (which I had insisted on, instead of trol, the machine age, local govern­ letting the artisans work through ment, the birth rate, brewing, their own proper channels) did not Prohibition, and the double stand­ arrive. Then parts of it arrived and ard ofsex morality. It ended by my others did not. Then slowly­ making many appointments, and oh, how slowly1-the work began. soon many specimens of automo­ In the course of that summer I tive archeology were rattling up fired three men, stopped one fist the rubble ofmy driveway. Though fight, and failed to stop another. I had carefully spaced the meetings Of the jobs my workmen friends DON'T BE YOUR OWN ARCHITECT 211 dId, I have since replaced one ing been my own architect, I then septiC tank' twice, a.nother once, a became my own contractor. pump twice, a heating unit once, a It was autumn, an unpropitious hot~water system twice, one com" time to begin a house. Neverthe.. plete sewage disposal. system three less each assured me he could get times, and, judging from the noises his job done before the freezing which alarm us each day, there is weather. I spent days on the tele~ much yet to be done. ... But phone reassuring myself about through that summer I retained this..I got good, reasonable .. esti.. my faith in the local artisans. mate$. The mason came and began to excavate. He worked magriifi.. II cently while I stood and watched, thinking of all I was saving by Sometime later our little farm" dodging the architect'and the con" house got too small for our needs, tractor. Then it happened that I and' I decided to build a' small was given a difficult and exacting additional guest house, 'cottage, or, job in my own professional field as my wife grandly termed it, which would keep me away from "lodge." Someone suggested an home ;t good deal of the time. So architect and I laughed. An archi~ I started off gaily, after securing tect for a house 26 x 30? My wife from my artisans a number of and I were architects enough for solemn promises. that. So we drew upa pretty set of Three weeks later I came home plans and telephoned for •the car" to find the excavation a desert; it penter. He was delighted with the was, that is, totally uninhabited. I plans, explained that he was a telephoned my men and found . builder and, indeed, contractor they were out on other jobs. When as well, and was accustomed to this I finally got the mason he told me kind of job. I winced when he he had arrived at a point where he said "contractor"; I told him I could not proceed without the did not believe in contracts, that carpenter; the carpenter had the I was' friendly with many local plans. I asked him ifhe had tried artisans and that if he would do to reach the carpenter. The ques.. the woodwork, I would find my tion astonished him. My 'friend own masons, electricians, plumbers, had a telephone in his house only and so on. He made me an estimate So that the rich and great might and I was delighted with it. Hav.." call him. He rarely called anyone 212 THE AMERICAN MERCURY except in cases of, illness or" as I They had quit, it developed, learned later, financial stringency. because neither the electrician nor· The carpenter, it appeared, was the' plumber had 'arrived when the waitingpatientl¥ to be told when job was ready for them. These we were. ready for him. Direct gentlemen, when I asked them liaison between these people does why, suggested that they were not not exist; they depend upon a cen­ clairvoyant. They were both sur­ tral co~ordinator. I resolved then prised that I, being on the job to "stay at home - or at least to continuously, had not told the come home every night until plumber and the electrician pre­ things were under way_ cisely when to come. In other I then discovered another aspect words, I was expected to have of. this business. Everything' ran such' an exact technical knowledge smoothly for a week or so. My of the work that I would know to own job had reached a phase where the minute the time for the en­ I could work at home. Thus I trance of each new technician. could go out every few hours and Now, of course, 'we must all wait look'at my house. The work was for the thaw. And so the winter going on in what appeared an dragged through. .'. _ orderly way. I engaged an elec­ But the most pointed example of trician and a plumber to come at my failure as an architect and whatever time the Qthers were contractor came when I installed re~dy for them. Abruptly, one day, my heating unit. I wanted, of no one appeared. For a full week course, the convenience ofoil. One none of them could be reached at day I managed to corner my all. Abandoning the telephone, I plumber long enough to discuss drove to their houses. Frightened with him the cost of what, in my children stared at me, inarticulate; abysmal ignorance, I called an if they'could be induced to speak "oil~burning furnace." He covered they told me that dad and momma acres of'paper with figures and were away, they had no idea where. finally arri}'ed at the conclusion~ If momma was present she told me that he could install this instru­ that ,her man was twenty miles ment for $300. I asked him if this away. This presented a vivid pic­ meant complete. Complete, he re­ ture of how our modern civiliza­ plied, to the last radiator. I agreed. tion has decentralized the old-, When the installation was fin­ fashioned artisan. ished, he presented his bill, which DON'T BE YOUR OWN ARCHITECT was, to be sUre, just $300. But two He had read some of my books' days· .larer . a· ,magnificent ·tru'ck and, though I think he disapproved arrived and from it was unloaded a of them, he professed a certain ad~ fi~e, ,new, shining, and exceedingly miration for my general ability and compact piece of machinery. The usefulness. "I hope," he said, "there boss of this expedition presented hasn't been any misunderstanding." me with a bill for $250' I talked and he talked. I· said oil­ "For the oil burner," he said. burning furnace and he said oil;. "But it's in!" burning furnace. Then, at last, his He looked alarmed at this, went eyes lighted. "Oh," he said. "Well, into the cellar, and came back well, well." He laughed and he smiling. tried not to laugh. I'm afraid I "No," he said, "there's no oil got very mad. He did his best to burner there." quiet me. "Well, what is it, then, that my "It just· happens," he said, plumber installed?" "that I never in my life met any­ "Why that's the oil-burning body who didn't know the differ­ furnace." ence between an oil burner and an "But I understood it was com~ oil-burning furnace. You see the plete." furnace is a unit complete in itself. "It is." But you have to have an oil burner "Then what's this for?" to make it work, 'just as you have "This is the oil burner." somebody to shovel coal intoa I got my plumber as quickly as coal-burning furnace to make it possible; I made the matter appear work. This machine, you might so urgent that he came in some­ say, shovels the oil into your oil­ thing under a week. I explained burning furnace. Well, well, well," the thing as calmly as I could, so he finished, "it's a funny world." as not· to alarm him. I had agreed, I told him, to have an oil-burning III furnace installed, complete, for $300. Now, suddenly, it was to It isn't a funny world. I have since cost me $550. learned that. My 26x 30 job cost "No," he said. "I lived up to my me upward of$7000. Counting the agreement. I presented my bill. It fee of a good architect and· the agrees exactly with my estimate." reasonable profit of a good con­ My plumber was an old friend. tractor, I believe $2000 could 214 THE AMERICAN MERCURY have been subtracted from the pentry. They must not step on one total. The job of remodeling the another's province,· even·. to the main house with plumbing, heat­ extent of·a telephone call. .In a ing, wiring, and other accessories, job such as my cottage they might counting replacements, cost some have done this without disaster; $10,000. With a competent archi­ but their training. is based, as it tect and contractor allowed to should be, on more complex jobs. choose their own material and, Just as the proper functioning ofthe under reasonable guidance, their cylinders of an internal-combus.. own methods, I believe I might tion engine depends on a· proper have cut $3000 off this cost and timing mechanism, so must the had, to boot, a real sense ofsecurity proper functioning of artisans de.. in my structure and equipment. pend upon the co-ordinating mind Yes, the world may look funny of a co-ordinator. to a man like my plumber when he In my maturer reflection on my meets someone like me - but not building experiences, I do not, otherwise. It is an exceedingly therefore, blame any of the willing well-ordered world, but it has, as artisans who worked for me. On I said, moved far beyond the the contrary: I believe lowe them grasp oftheamateur. It is a world of an· apology. If they took me for a well-trained specialists, each equal ride, it was at my own bidding. If to his function but so necessarily they were confused or disordered, absorbed in that function that he haphazard or negligent, it was be­ can have no time or space in his cause they knew from the start mind for outside matters. that they were working for a man The men who worked for me who had only the vaguest inkling were right. In a society patterned of what he wanted done, and not on the machine, the units of that even that much of any of the social scheme can no longer be ex­ technics involved. They have given pected to· inform one another of me, to be sure, a pretty liberal their functions. Indeed, any such education in these matters, but show of initiative on their part there is not time enough left in might be highly dangerous. The my life to learn what the dullest smooth working of our civilization architect has mastered in respect depends upon extreme specializa­ to a single· one of the building tion. The mason must stick to trades. The information of experts masonry, the carpenter to car- and its instruments were patiently DON'T BE YOUR OWN ARCHITECT 215 perfected by centuries of labori­ contractor. Their fee, which looks ouslyaccumulated knowledge. so large on the first plans, goes to Who am I, then, to attempt to pay for alifetime of study. From co~ordinate work? How can I this sum you may deduct the loss, hope, alone, even to bring to­ of your own time and energy, plus gether the proper experts? The the delay and disorder I have study of experts has -become a described. Let the good architect t~chnic in itself; it must be so. The pick a good contractor and let the specialist -in my case - at least as contractor pick his material. For far as my home life is concerned ­ they are experts in an experts' is the -architeet. Another is the world.

THOUGHTS ON CURRENT DISCONTENTS

By H. L. MENCKEN

DEMOCRACY is the art and sci... you are against trying a can ofOld ence ofrunning the circus from the Dr. Quack's Salve on Uncle Sam, monkey-cage. you are in favor ofletting him die. * * A demagog's mind is a beauti­ The smarter the politician, the ful mechanism. It. can think any­ more things he believes, and the thing he asks it to think. less he believes any of them. * * Syllogisms ala Mode: If you are The believing mind reaches its against crooked labor leaders, you perihelion in the so~called Liberals. are against labor. Ifyou are against They believe in each and every packing the Supreme Court, you quack who sets up his booth on the are in favor of letting-Wall Street fair~grounds, including the com­ do _it.• If you are against commu­ munists. The communists have nism, you are against democracy. some talent too, but they always If you are against the bench of fall short of believing in the bishops, you are against God. If Liberals~ .. College men take up Politics as a career, making it almost a Learned Profession.

EDUCATION FOR WARD-HEELERS

By WILL IRWIN

. YOUNG college graduate of my in partisan politics. They are taking A acquaintance saved a. little special courses in government, in money and used it for living ex­ the history of political parties, in penses while he settled down in one actual political technique. After of the most corrupt wards of his graduation they are actually start­ city. He took active charge of a ing out at the bottom of the politi­ boys' club at a settlement house. cal ladder, working humbly but Through the boys, he has become hopefully in the political clubs of acquainted with their parents. their districts. The chances are that When his money ran out, he got a next election day one of them will small job at city hall. "I'm building ring your doorbell and urge you to my own machine," he says pri­ vote. He'll be earning his spurs in vately. "Some day, I'm going to that basic chore with which every help clean up this town." A former aspiring political worker' must all-American football star used his , make his start. gridiron reputation to get an in­ In a dozen large universities, significant municipal job, joined deans and professors agree that the his district political club, and is tindergraduatesheaded for political working up quietly. He is on his careers probably outnumber those way. If. the local boss knew his headed for business," which is a plans, and his ideals, he would be startling reversal within a decade. startled. Many of the jobs these young peo­ These young men represent ple secure aren't political, osten­ something ·new and significant in s~bly ..Often they are· minor civil':' American life" Hitherto our politi­ service posts~ The point is that they cal machines have been largely don't plan to stay in that groove. manned by·· ward':'heelers, of.small The little clerkship is not to them education and few ideals. Now a safe berth which will in the slow thousands of college students are process 6fmerit promotion lead 'to deliberately preparing for' careers a third' assistant deputy's job. It is

216 EDUCATION. FOR WARD-HEELERS

a means of earning a living while tades. to mayors,Congresst:nen, or they serve their political appren­ otherofl1ce-holders. Here they can ticeship in the district club and get a fine inside view of the ma­ prepare to Tun for office. chinery.Other students plan to You don't find that out from enter politics through journalism. statistics, naturally, though there They are preparing for jobs on are some pertinent ones. For in­ country weeklies or small dailies, stance, .. 52 per cent of the ·libera! which route is being recognized in a1rts graduates of the University of the universities as a strategic Minnesota since 1929 are in public avenue of approach and hence the service; 40 per cent of the senators departments of journalism and of and representatives .. in the North political science are co-operating Carolina legislature were former more closely. students of the state university, But the greatest number of the mostly in the political-science aspiring apprentices to politics in­ courses. But you find more con­ tend to follow that old, beaten path vincing evidence of what is going - the law. After all, the statesman on by visiting, as I did recently, a without.legal knowledge is incom­ score of colleges. and talking with pletely educated for .. his job. And professors and students. An aston­ the young lawyer needs acquaint~ ishing and encouraging proportion ance$in order to getclients. When of the undergraduates taking the he .joins his political club,. make$ courses in politics and publicaf­ speeches for small-time candidates, fairs say definitely that they intend or helps get out the vote, he is kill-: to take an active part in the ing two or three birds with one· political game. When fifty-two stu­ t>tone. All this.is a familiar pattern, dents showed up this spring for. a of course, and it tendsto perpetu'" vocational guidance conference at ate "government by lawyers." But the University of Michigan on many of these young lawyers are a "politics as a career" their earnest­ new type, in that from college days ness was reflected in this recurrent they have Been. deliberately look~ question:"How can we make a liv­ ing forward to politics, not for the ing at the start?" sake of what they can get out of it They 'were advised to follow but for· the sake ofwhat they can the exampIe of previous political~ put into it. You have only to talk science graduates who have landed with them, as I have been doing, jobs as secretaries or assistant secre- to realize that they have a spirit of 218 THE AMERICAN MERCURY civic service that the political boss Ford, president of the· University would deride, together with an of Minnesota and· a teacher in the incipient grasp of practical politics political courses, .. has: .had govern­ that may some day make the politi­ ment administrative experience. cal boss sit up and take notice. Dean Joseph R. Hayden of Michi­ gan served his turn as deputy gov­ II ernor of the Philippines under Frank Murphy. Almost all of the The training in politics offered by political-science faculty at Chicago the universities nowadays is a mix­ has taken a hand in municipal ture of theory and idealism with politics. Columbia professors have hard-boiled actuality and practical been making, year after year, experience. Professors urge stu­ contributions to good government. dents to pick a party and align Politicians are constantly being themselves with it. The University called in to address college classes on ofChicago uses the municipal elec­ methods for organizing the vote tions as a laboratory. The state of and "keeping the boys in line." Illinois puts into each voting place They finish off by standing as a neutral observer called a "deputy targets for a volley of questions. of the court," and as far back as The Carolina Union at the Univer­ 1924 the faculty persuaded Cook sity of North Carolina is a shining County to swear in a corps of example ofthis. The management is students of political science as a corporation of about thirty stu­ deputies. Distributed among the dents chosen for their brilliance in toughest wards, some students were the social sciences. Fortnightly slugged, some thrown out bodily;, during the open season for politi­ One, telephoning news of an ir­ cians, some leader oflocal, state, or regularity to headquarters, glanced national politics addresses a meet­ up to find a revolver pointed at his ing of students and townsfolk. head. Chicago students still serve at After he has finished, he submits every election, not only as deputies to an hour ofquestions. Earl Brow­ but as watchers for their parties. der, communist, Norman Thomas, In fact, these days some of the socialist, and John Hamilton, Re­ watchers are co-eds. publican, ran this gauntlet in one Many of the professors them­ season. President Roosevelt also selves have varied their studies spoke, but in deference to his office with a whirl at politics. Dr. Guy S. the house asked him no questions. EDUCATION FOR WARD-HEELERS 219 Instances ofmen who studied for Governor of New Hampshire, and politics in college, and who are now now fills a post at Geneva; Robert playing: good practical politics, Rockwell is lieutenant governor of tempered with ideals, are multiply­ Colorado; John Harlan Amen is a ing rapidly all over the country. special prosecutor conducting the They are only the vanguard;·. the spectacular clean-up of Brooklyn; great army of politically-minded Michael A. Feighan is minority graduates is still too young to have leader of the Ohio G-eneral As­ achieved elective office. But al­ sembly; and you can add a score of ready, professors at Chicago, Syra­ minor officials, including state cuse, Iowa, and Michigan can point assemblymen, mayors, and sheriffs. to numbers oftheir former students The movement to get college­ ofpolitical science who have served trained experts instead of political effectively. in recent state legisla­ hacks into administrative jobs has tures. Others are in Congress. gone so far that the battle may be Many are municipal officials. One said to be won. The colleges .led striking fact is the extraordinary that fight; it is clearnow that they number of young college alumni are leading another - the move­ who are now serving as county ment· to leaven partisan politics chairmen - "county bosses," if with men especially educated for you will. Of these, one professor such a career. This. is even more remarked, "A few have fallen into important to the nation. It is the rut of a political machine; the elected officials, not the experts in vast majority have not." the bureaus, who make for us the Princeton, which was one of the choices between economy and first universities to make its politics bankruptcy, between fascism and courses vital, contemporary, and democracy, between peace and war. practical, points to spectacular re­ Apparently the cap and gown are in sults among its alumni: William H. politics to stay. Another generation Vanderbilt is Gov.ernor of Rhode or two, and politics may be recog­ Island, Prentice Cooper Governor nized as one of the learned .pro'" of Tennessee; John G. Winant was fessions, like the law. "PAINLESS" CHILDBIRTH

I. A Mother Protests

ANONYMOUS

T IS MY conviction that mothers sharp, angry cry that announces a I should be present when their living child?·· How many, having children are born - and 1'm not had one child, would know what to trying to be smart or shocking. I do without medical aid ifthe second simply know that too many moth~ should send out storm warnings, or ers areunconscious when the great~ if they should be called in to help est event of their lives takes place. another mother in her moment of Misled by fear or sophistication, crisis? The keystone moment in the encouraged by easygoing doctors, whole arch ofhuman existence, and or muddled by some allegedly the begetter of life ignorant of the painless quackery, they are content procedure! To me it seems to be drugged and asleep when fantastic. their offspring enter the world. I am not an old maid reading a One hears so much about "edu~ lecture, or a one-chick henny-penny cated modern mothers." Yet was telling the world that the sky fell there ever in history such an ignora~ down when I had my baby. I am musas the "modern" woman who the mother of four children, and has borne a child in one of the I believe I know a good deal about '''modern'' ways? Her modernity childbirth. I was 21 when my first may compass the latest wrinkle in baby was born. The first pains set child psychology, but it usually me a-thrill, as it does any normal leaves out one minor element­ mother. I was curious, impatient. Life. How many oftoday's mothers I felt that I was abollt to witness know just what goes on in child~ and have the most important part birth, what a brand new baby looks in, the greatest ofuniversal dramas. like, how it is cared for in its first I felt close to the core oflife. As my few minutes of existence; what the pain grew stronger I closed my doctor does if there isn't that first eyes, breathed deeply and' regu~

220 "PAINLESS" CHILDBIRTH 221 lady, pushed at each pain with all from knowing that, in,an emer­ my strength, and thought in rhyth­ gency I could get along without mic little snatches, "My baby is help, or with only such help as my coming! Will it be 'a boy? Will it be husband could give. I wrote out a girl? My baby is comingI" instructions for him to follow. It was a sort of exaltation. Con­ After the arrival of my first-born sciously' eagerly, I was getting my I had asked the doctor questions first child into the world. And then, and learned the why and wherefore after the excruciating pangs, there of every step taken. I had tried to he was in the world. I saw, as soon be very much among those present. as the doctor did that it was a boy I feltI was ready.... - messy but beautiful. My pain The emergency didn't occur. In was forgotten in an instant. Who fact, the affair was quite an anti­ cared? That first full-lunged cry! climax. It all came off smoothly. No music was ever lovelier. When But what I remember most grate­ it was all over I said to the doctor fully is that I was in controlof the - a little weakly, I suppose­ situation, and not a helpless 'clod. "Next time I won't need you. I'll I shall not go into a detailed recital be able to do everything myself." ofmy two following. births. One of I never really thought I'd have to. them was in a village where the My second child' was due on a only doctor available was a gone­ ba~kwoods farm, a mile from a to-seed old fellow with alcohol telephone, ten miles from a doctor, thick on his breath. Save for the and that on a road' that had never fact that he tied, the cord, I may been attempted by automobile. say that I had the baby unassisted. And my "time" came sooner than Pain in childbirth? Of course I had expected. It would take my there is pain. There's pain in an husband a good quarter ofan hour aching tooth, ,in an earache, in' a to reach the telephone. It would real headachy headache. But child­ take the doctor better than two birth is a pain that goes places'and hours, to reach me. So I made my does things. There is even (and I plans. I sterilized sheets and beds am prepared for' sneers) a certain and old, clothes. I' had scissors and ecstasy in it. And it leaves noach­ silk thread for the,cord. I had the ingmemory. disinfectant my first' doctor had Is it the woman or the doctor .used. I had a stout hand brush. who is responsible for the fact that And I had' the calmness that came so many mothers are "not present" 222 THE AMERICAN MERCURY when their children are born? I Perhaps, if they had been among was discussing confinements re­ those present, they would have cently· with a young doctor. "I understood. Perhaps they wouldn't absolutely refuse to take a home have needed to try to understand. confinement," he said. "It's too Perhaps they and nature .could hard on me, bed isn't the right have lent doctor and child more height; only one nurse to assist ­ effective aid than instruments did. perhaps not any." I asked him I don't mean that all or most or about births without "putting the many doctors are bunglers. I don't mother to sleep." "No," he said, mean that they want the veil to be frankly, "I always insist on some­ drawn just so that the mothers thing at the last. Much easier; can't see. But nurses have been mother always keeps quiet. We're known to talk. "A beautiful child, there to do what's necessary." but those cruel· bruises!" Through my mind flashed the Normal birth can be a relatively recollection of friends who had easy process - if you can learn come from the hospitals without how to take it. I am convinced that their babies, shaking their heads, the "painless" methods are often wondering: "I just can't under­ dangerous and cowardly. Women stand. He seemed so full of life, can enjoy the birth of their chil­ kicking; then they put me to dren to the full, physically, men­ sleep; and when I asked for my tally, and emotionally. It is their baby, they told me it had been right to participate in the greatest born dead. I just can't understand." thing that happens in their lives.

II. A Doctor Comments

By JOSEPH T. BOLOTIN, M.D.

OTHERS are inclined to set into two groups, these maternal M. themselves up as experts on experts. The first, mostly young the subject of childbirth. Their women, insists that the entire claim to expertness, in the final course of pregnancy, from concep­ analysis, is little more valid than tion through childbirth, should be that of a chronic sufferer from emptied of all difficulties. Its toothache who would set up as obstetrical program calls for labor authority on dentistry. They fall as a pleasant, medicated dream. "PAINLESS" CHILDBIRTH The second consists chiefly ofolder Drugs frequently transfer patients wom.en, mothers·of two or more into a wild, maniacal state,that children, who subscribe to the make normal co-operation impos'" belief that childbirth is a grim, sible and a clean delivery more spartan affair, which it should be difficult. Drugs can be used, and in order to promote a closer· con­ are used, at proper stages oflabor. nection between mother and off­ But the doctor should not yield to spring~ Each·of these theses harbors a frantic petition by patient or a half-truth, with the seed of po­ relatives to use them indiscrimi­ tential damage to mother and child. nately. Although inhalating anes­ It is true that the newlywed thesia may be a boon to many sophisticate, .having become preg'" mothers, its promiscuous usage has nant, may turn to hearsay about produced cases of inhalation pneu­ sedatives and analgesics. Fortified monia and shock. Sedatives some­ by amateur information supplied times depress the respiratory move­ by some novice mother, she often ments of the foetus, and since the approaches her obstetrician with desire for creating artificial comfort the question, "How much pain for the mother has been foremost, will I have during delivery? My a "blue baby" - a cyanotic infant friend had no pain at all. She had who may die - is the result. a wonderful doctor." That's put­ Older obstetricians, as a· rule ting the physician on the spot. The assured of the continuation of their problem of normal pregnancy and practice and. prestige, can and do normal labor has hardly entered the restrain insistent mothers. The mental ken of this mother-to-be. young obstetrician, unduly eager She judges the skill of her obstetri­ to render additional "service," is cian only by his willingness to sometimes persuaded to conduct·a dispense sedatives and analgesics. so-called painless labor regardless To that extent the anonymous of the propriety of such a course. mother who wrote the preceding Because of the .. exhortation by article, though her approach is patient or family, many obstetrical intuitive rather than scientific, has cases are converted into patholog­ a measure of justice in her claims. ical ones. In these circumstances, While drugs occupy a definite the attending doctor may resort to place in obstetrics, there are, never­ a .type of interference which is theless, several associated complica­ injurious to both mother and tions which cannot be ignored. child. 224 THE AMERICAN MERCURY The arrival of each new drug is the activities of the obstetrician in hailed in some quarters as a panacea preparation for. the childbirth are for. the alleviation of pain. Moth­ slight. But it is a wise doctor who ers-in-labor occasionally serve as knows enough nottointerfere with mother guinea-pigs. Although the the course of normal labor. What therapeutic value of a drug can be looks to the lay observer (includ­ readily estimated by means of ing, on occasion, the mother) like animal experimentation, some of lack of·interest, usually. amounts I, the less reliable pharmaceutical to an accurate estimation of an houses release their products with.. obstetrical situation. aut sufficient experimental evi­ The desire to be awake and alert dence tosupportenthusiasticclaims. at the birth of the child - so I do not wish to imply that drugs eloquently expressed by the anony­ have no place in obstetrics. But I mous mother - is purely an in­ do maintain' that drugs should be dividual reaction. It belongs in the administered only after proper domain of psychology rather than deliberation by the doctor. medicine. Some of my own pa­ At the same time, however, I do tients, "absent" at the childbirth, not believe that pain must be asso­ have become splendid mothers. ciated with childbirth. Where the Others, though they participated obstetrician is able to lighten the actively in the process, turned out pangs without risk to mother or lamentably less .than splendid. The child, it is his duty in common observations made by. a woman sense and common humanity'to do during her own period of labor so. If a few hours of painful con­ certainly are insufficient as a basis tractions can be safely obviated, it for judgment and advice. They do· is all to the good. The glorification not prepare her for the endless' ofpain for its own sake seems to me complications and sequelae that a piece of superstition. may attend allegedly' simple, nor'" Nor is it advisable to teach the mal obstetrical delivery. Proper conduct of labor to the ordinary respect for every obstetrical pro­ patient. We do live in a world cedure is attained by obstetricians where doctors and nurses and other only after many years of clinical outside .help is always on tap. experience. No individual mother Half-knowledge on the mother's can hope to attain similar expe­ part may cause a feeling· of false rience by virtue of having given security. It may seem to some that birth to her own family. . CALIFORNIA Groundwork was beinglaid WedneSday for an "old maids' assistance program/' MANKIND'S long quest for com­ to be financed by - guess what- a plete happiness is ended, according tax on bachelorhood. . to the ,Golden Gate International A bill to tax bachelors at the rate of $I 00 a year and $S additional for ea,ch Exposition, which reports in its year they remain., unmarried, was publicity clip-sheet: being prepared for introductionin the ' House by a group ofleadingrepresenta-, A "non-allergic" bedroom, designed to tives. protect humans from .everything to The proposed measure defines a ' which they may react unfavorably, is bachelor or spinster as. one over, the part of the University of California's age of 30 and still unmarried. It calls scientific exhibit. on the State Board of Public Welfare to compile a list ofneedy spinsters and FLORIDA to setup a program whereby the tax ANOTHER triumph for American funds could be distributed pro rata. industry is reported out of Key ILLINOIS West in the Miami Daily News: A TRIUMPH of candor in the Not one audible curse was uttered dur­ Plumas Independent of Quincy: ing construction of the 12s-ton schooner, G. R. Steadman, which will The Ellidges, Mister and Missus, be launched from the foot of Simonton Bonnie and Iris were dinner pests·at' St. within the next 10 days. Portola on Sunday. GEORGIA MASSACHUSETTS A· GRATIFYING spiritual revival in A READER of the Boston Herald re­ Atlanta,is. recorded in the sports minds that cultured community of pages of the local Journal: a neglected national resource: When one comes to. think about '. More Baptists witnessed the opening it,. J. game in Adanta than ever before in the wager that America is a country of! history of baseball here. poets. I could name 100 poets, yes 200" poets, .just as fast as I could say their' ANOTHER state is moved by its names in a minute, perhaps less. Great Humanitarian Heart, now FURTHER evidence that the'Ameri-' aching for unwedded womanhood, can people are turning·to religion is as chronicled by the Atlanta provided by.a Boston Globe' dis­ Georgian: patch from Lynn: 226 THE AMERICAN MERCURY Inaugurating an idea that made such a I've really never tasted any gin­ hit with his parish in Missouri, Rev. J. domestic or imported - that can Sterling Ward, pastor of the Lakeside touch it for smooth, mellow flavor." Methodist Episcopal Church, held a beauty contest for men at the church When girl orders a Martini · jay:­ tonight. "That suits me, too. (Turning to waiter) Fifteen men, prominent in the Lake­ But make mine Seagram's Ancient side section, dressed as women, par­ Bottle Gin ... and (to girl) won't aded back and forth across the stage you try one? They're much better and using all the wiles of womankind on the I'm sure you'll like it. (To waiter) Yes, judges to win the coveted prize. make them both with Ancient Bottle Gin."

NEW YORK THE communist New Masses de­ an~ THE ever-accurate American Swed~ votes its valuable space to still con~ ish Monthly tells on an eminent other economic discovery, lady tourist: veyedin a letter from one of its readers: Among recent visitors to New York was Mrs. Ellen Rydelius, celebrated I have stopped paying premiums for Swedish author of a long and popular life insurance. What is the use oflife in­ series of travel books. She spent six surance with fascism hanging over us? busy weeks in Manhattan, gathering material for a book to be entitled New OREGON York in Eight Days. AT LEAST one community in our A MISOGYNIST among copy writers nation accepts punishment in a takes it out in an advertisement in spirit of patriotic joy, according to the New York Daily News: the Oswego Review: LOVELY LADIES OF THE Friends and old-timers around Oswego WORLD SOUGHT FOR N..T.G.'S and Oswego Lake are happy to have MONSTER CONCESSION AT Leonard Hallinan assessing taxes again. WORLD'S FAIR PENNSYLVANIA Serv~ THE much-publicized Escort THE Philadelphia Record news~ ice for lonely ladies in New York hawks throw some light on the City instructs its employees in the progress of higher education in the art of conversation, perhaps in the USA: interests of a certain gin; the In Corvallis, Ore., yesterday, Marion quotes ate from a mimeographed Salisbury, State College sophomore, instruction sheet: swallowed 139 angle worms. When liquors are discussed .say: ­ At Stanford University, Tom Killefer, "Talking about liquors, have you ever 22, bit off the head of a 12~inch water had Seagram's Ancient Bottle Gin? snake. AMERICANA 227 In Easton, Pa., Joseph Stokitsky, IN OTHER ·UTOPIAS Lafayette College junior, picked up a magazine and, in 25 minutes flat, had ENGLAND eaten both the covers. STURDY English womanhood takes THE··· Colonial Theatre, in Lancas" a hand in foreign affairs, the Lon.. ter, defends the honor of a well­ don Daily Express indicates: known Irish dramatist, inthis sign: Naming a cocktail after Mr. Chamber.. This Picture lain's umbrella caused a protest yester­ day at the British Women's Temper" Is Not ance Association Conference at Ayr. HIGHBROW Don't Be Misled PYGMALION PANAMA Bernard Shaw THE strange behavior of a clock is TENNESSEE reported casually by the Panama Star & Herald in the course of an A READER of the distinguished Johnson City Press defends the obituary: humbler ladies of the community On Saturday, when as the evening against chqrges ofsnuff addiction: hours grew into night,· and the clock struck 10:20, her life's task had ended. I think a man is very narrow-minded to say that farm women and poor men's wives dip the snuff. The work­ RUSSIA ingman's wife and the farmer's wife should not have to take the blame NOTE on the progress of Stalinism, alone. I happen to know quite a few as reported to the New York ladies in higher standing that dip it in Times: their own homes ·and some of them in their own rooms. Their own families Moscow has become fish-minded ... don't know they dip. I have been sell­ Not fish to eat,·but to keep as pets and ingsnuff for years and feel that am in feed . .. It seems to be Moscow position to know just who buys and dogma that bread crumbs are harmful dips snuff. Am saying this in defense of to fish. .. So now they have a the poor man's wife and the working­ "worm queue" in Moscow in addition man's wife, and would deeply appre­ to other queues for food and shirts and ciate if you would give it publication. galoshes .•.

(THE MERCURY will pay t I for items acceptedfor Americana. Those found unsuitable cannot be returned.) College Men and the State

NA recent issue of Harper's, John twenty-five years, they would nat­ I, .' Chamberlain wrote, "An aca­ urally call it a middling rotten demic scout tells me that the show. Nowhere is there any.choice youngest generation of college rad­ ofacts or actors; the whole thing is icals ,is anarchistic and anti~State an. all-round flop. Acts and actors in .its· general audook. Joe Stalin all look alike - all bad. The French and' .Leon Trotsky are ceasing to and German shows are as smelly as exercise their old lure." This strikes the American, English, Russian, me as the most important piece of Italian, or any other show now.he­ political news that I have read in fore the public, no matter what the many years. If the scout is right, it press-agents say. The handbills and is a sure sign that spring has come. posters. are got up in flaming style, Even ifhe is not exactly right, he but the show is the same old kind has evidently seen something which of hokum done by the 'same old shows that spring is on its way. In hams and barnstormers. This being the last twenty-five years ofsteady so, the natural reaction is to tell winter .weather it has often been the stage-manager to get the hook. h~rd to remember that spring' al­ Unless I am much mistaken, also, ways has come, and therefore. is the "youngest generation" is not likely .to come again. If this scout looking at all this' from the stand­ has actually seen a crocus or two paint 'of "ideology" or of morals, pushing up, it is no more than you but from the standpaint of results. might expect. Ideologies and morals are all right . The anti-State reaction would be on the posters, but the show. is perfectly natural to fresh minds what interests them, and the show which have not as yet been over­ just isn't there. Posters don't get stuffed with nonsense and addled results, and results are what count. byfalse hopes. Looking at the per­ In other words, I should not be formance government has been surprised if the youngest genera­ putting on the world's stage for tion were taking a realistic view

228 THE "STATE 'OF THE uNION ofpoIitics. They are probably look­ ualonly for acts which lawyers call 'lug at government simply asa malum in se - acts which ·····'are gaqg~t,aJ;lddeciding that the trou­ branded as criminal by what the ble,~ith it is' nothing but, the old Scotch philosophers called ·,·"t:he notorious trouble with gadgets­ common sense' of mankind," '. such which' is that they mostly don't as murder, assault, fraud, theft, work. The scout's young men may arson. It should do nothing about be taking the practical, hard-boiled the .malum prohibitum, nothing view that government is a gadget about acts concerning,' which the which is meant to work for the common sense of mankindisdi­ good of society ,while you .sleep, vided, such as selling' 'whiskey, and is not doing it. This is a good possessing gold, or growing pota­ sound view. toes in one's garden. Under this Looking at government as a theory of social good, in fact, the gadget, here are a few questions malum prohibitum would not exist; which come up. I recommend them there would be no such thing as·' a to Mr. Chamberlain's youngest malum prohibitum. generation of college radicals, hop­ Another school of thought holds ing they will thresh them out as that government should do every­ thoroughly as they can. First, then, thing for society which' it .' can" do since the governmental'gadget ·is easier and quicker than society can supposed to work for the good of do for itself. Natural law is too society, how can it best do' that? slow. Evolutionary processes take Some . say by protecting the too long and involve too much in­ countryfrom invasion, and by pro­ convenience and suffering~' If,· so­ tecting the individual and his ciety gets in a mess, government property against assault and moles­ can pull it out easier and quicker tation. Nothing but that. After than society can work itself out~ that, government should let society Hence it should.' Again, govern­ strictly alone to settle its messes as ment can make easy short-cuts 'to best it can, by its own co:..operative many good things· which' otherwise efforts in accordance with the society could get only by long and operation of natural law. It should painful effort. Hence it should. also let the .individual citizen Government, with its privileged strictly alone to deal with his own posttion, immense resources, and private messes in like fashion. It close organization, can do almost should· interfere with the' individ- everything for ·society - some say THE AMERICAN MERCURY everything - easier and quicker since this school includes pretty than.society itself can do. Hence it nearly everybody, it has always should. carried the day. The question, then, is whether So let us examine the position of it is better to have as little govern­ this third school and ask a few ment as possible, or as much. What more exploratory questions. Should are the pros and cons of this? government run the post office or Natural law works slowly, no leave it to private enterprise? doubt, but on the other hand, Should it issue currency, standard­ when it settles a mess, that mess is ize weights and .measures, fix tar­ settled right, and settled forever, iffs, give franchises, land-grants, which the quick and easy method subsidies? If we can say "Yes," of governmental interference sel­ then should government control dom does. While natural law is the practice of banking, medicine, settling a mess, it does not ,breed surgery, dentistry, agriculture? If more and worse messes - all kinds we say "Yes," then should it ad­ ofunsuspected messes - which the minister charity, provide educa­ quick and easy method usually tion, maintain schools and colleges? does. Trusting to natural law Should it concede that the State means facing a great deal of trou­ owes everybody a living, and pro" ble and suffering which seems un­ ceed accordingly? Should it take necessary, but on the other hand, on a full program of "social legis­ trusting to governmental inter­ lation," with housing, pensions, ference to escape these evils usually doles, and all other measures of means laying up much more pain "social security?" Finally, should and trouble .for the future. There it take complete control and direc­ is plenty of· experience to show tion of all social and individual that government's quick and easy activities? interferences for the present well­ The question is obviously where being of society are practically your compromise is going to stop, certain to insure its future ill-being. and why it should stop at one point Between these two theories of in this progression rather than at what government can best do for some other point. The answer must society's good, which is the one to obviously be made from the long­ choose? A·third school of thought time point of view. Will society' be says to choose neither, but com" better served in the long run if you promise between the two; and stop at this point rather than at THE STATE OF THE UNION that point? Ifyou stop here rather to. serve society, why does it al­ than there, are you taking care of ways seek to graduate out of the society's proximately-good at· the status of a servant and become expense of its .ultimately-good? society's master? Is it in the nature Admitting, for example, that if of any. compromise you could you let government "help business" possibly make, that this should be you do something for society's so - that if you give government present well-being, yet you at once an inch it will take an ell? put it in the position ofan auction­ eer, throw open the way for pres­ II sure-groups, and thus directly bring about a monstrously. dispro­ I suggest that Mr. Chamberlain's portionate state of permanent i11­ young men go through these ques­ being. If you let government tions .with a fine-tooth comb and administer charity, you may keep mull them over thoroughly, and society out of a painful temporary then decide whether any compro­ mess, but as we are now seeing, the mise between the two schools of permanent political and social thought is practicable. If they do consequences make up an extor­ this, I think it may help them to tionately high price to pay for the clarify their anti-State outlook. good you do. They should be able to turn up all Again, can you be sure that you the books they need out of their could make any compromise stop college libraries. Statist literature where you want it to stop? This of all kinds - communist, fascist, question will bear a great deal of totalitarian, or what-not - is lying probing. Why should conceding a about so thick everywhere that new function to government al­ there is no need to recommend any ways be like starting a snowball of it by name - one can't miss it, down hill? Why should govern­ and can't very well go wrong. ment always be reaching out for Literature of the opposing school new powers and functions, always is scarce and harder to find. It is consolidating what it gets, never headed by Herbert Spencer's Social giving· up any except under life­ Stattcsand his essays called The Man and-death pressure? Why should it Versus the State. Compromise-liter­ seek always to aggrandize itself, ature is plentiful; probably Profes­ never be content with the impor­ sor Laski's The State in Theory and tance assigned it? If its function is Practice would do well to start. THE AMERICAN MERCURY

,I ,take it that these young men see that compromise principlesiate are open to suggestions which may not the thing either--:- they: ,are help· them··to interpret their···own distinctly not delivering the'gpods. e~'perience and observations. Every­ They see'" that in the countries where they are seeing society go where compromise principles have down hill pretty fast. In their own been longest in force and most country they see that decent thoroughly worked out, they seem Americans are all. poorer, more dis­ to deliver less goods than in coun­ couraged, harassed, and unhappy tries where they are relatively new. than they were ten years ago.

F we could speak·today to all our dead I thes~ are the bitter words we must have said:

Here, soldier, lilacs to recallthe beauty of lanes you left behind in name of duty, and·slender tulips from a sunlit bed, warmer than the one· that rests your head; they are yours, sailor, for your memory, to help you to recall the sparkling sea, the funnels swinging and the evening star; these things were youts but they no longer are. How well the hills have kept their old contours, the softly-lighted slopes where evening pours night from a generous cup of days and nights and the untroubled·stars put forth their lights.

Remember the world? How bright it was with color? Flowers roof your dark and narrow cellar.

THESE DARK HILLS

By JESSE STUART.

. As oaks that root deep in Kentucky earth £1.. And these eternal juts of rock that. stand, 1 stand with these dark hills that gave me birth With plow and hoe and slopes ofsedge-grass land. Flesh in my body and blood in my veins 234 THE AMERICAN MERCURY

Are of the substance that has made the oaks; This earth my living flesh, and it remains Strong to endure more than the blackjack strokes. This is the land where I can live and sing, Where I can drink the rain and taste the sun; Where I can work or not do anything But listen to winds blow and waters run. These hills are closer to me than my skin, My roof could be the sky, my bed the rocks; My only music the night blowing wind, The pouring rivers and the barking fox.

SURF-BOARD RIDER

By EDITH CHERRINGTON

ARK against the drapery of blue, D Cresting the darker waters of the sea, Straight as a mast that leans against the wind He comes, a god incarnate riding free! The curving smoothness of the sloping sand Is in his graceful outstretched arms which reach In arching symmetries to north and south. His shoulder line, as firm as any beach, Defies the foaming crescent of a wave. Strength is molded in his breast and thigh, Brown as the hilk that supplement the shore And build the dark horizon for the sky. His is the exultation of the flesh, The bold transfiguration of the dust; A carnal stronghold for the joy of life Which crests adventure and at last is thrust Against a climax when the waters pour His gay assurance out upon the shore. POETRY 235

SPRING SONG

By CATHARINE CONNELL

o name on wintry stone for me N But, oh; I wish that I might be Remembered.in May's memory;

That May, each year, might briefly think Of me and write with fragrant ink In blue or starry white or pink

Some bell-like bud, some airy spray­ Me, proudly hailing sky and day, Me, home at last though not to stay.

No epitaph carved stern and plain When lovers strolling in some lane Might kiss to see me back again.

PLANTATION GIRL

By LUELLA STONE

HE carries clothes with all the savage grace SAnd savage charm of Africa. Her face Is warm and cold, enigmatic, like a storm 'That's warm and cold, approaching. Her bold form Is carved like dark mahogany with strong, Bold strokes of some old carving. In her song She holds the beat of jungle drums; her slow, Low tone the beat of tom-toms. With her low, Slow tone'she barters cotton for a sack Of corn for pone or cornbread. On her back She' carries clothes or cotton but, apart, She holds the beat of jungles inher heartI How Domesticated Are We?

AS WE modern human beings sit completely "civilized" pictur , but I1. in our insulated houses or the eye of science looks at you apartments· and look forth on our more searchingly. Science otes treeless, neon-lighted cities of steel with interest, for instance, the way and·· concrete and macadam, the your dog turns around and ar und dawn-days of. our race seem very before he lies down on the rug and long ago. I t seems to us, in our com­ science finds this senseless beh vior placence, that an almost immeas­ pregnant with significance. Not urahleimmensity of time must very long ago, you see, your ittIe have passed since our horny­ terrier or. spaniel was a wolf He knuckled ancestors chipped crude hunted his prey on the wild, ind­ stone tools and lived naked in the swept plains, and he took his r st in forest..But the scientists tell us a bed or "form" in the tall gr SSe that. these things were· happening Science looks at him now, urn­ only yesterday. They .tell us that ingfoolishly around and aroun on we are a species which only yester­ the hearthrug, and science per­ day was roaming the .primeval ceives a wolf busy at bed-rna ing. woods, and they remind us that, It is the same wolf-character that for all our clever, new-built civili­ your dog displays when, on s me zation, we' are still today separated moonlit night, he stops his sual from our Mother Earth only by cheery barking and emits inste da the thickness ofour shoe-soles. The long-drawn howl. That howl i the signs and evidences of the recency cry that the wolves used to u ter, of our· divorce from the wild, say when they called one another rom th~ .. scientists, are all around us. the hilltops in the morning a the Perhaps you are sitting at this world. moment in a comfortable cushioned The eye of science studiesithe rocking-chair, your pet terrier or cushl.·oned rocking.-ch.air in W lich spaniel at your feet. To the casual - we fancied - you are sit ing, eye, you and your pet present a and finds that even this pice of 236 DOWN TO EARTH furtilture is eloquent of your not­ primeval sea-cliffs of what wasta very-distant primitive past. Why become Europe. th'ecushion in the chair? Because On our farms, the little pigs drop youa!e an-anthropoid not really flat on their bellies when some;­ fully adapted.to the unnatural sit­ thing frightens them, and 'science ting position, and because the deduces that this now-useless'ma­ vertebrae at the root of your spine neuver is a heritage from the forest­ were never designed to bear your boars which thus hid from an en­ body's weight. And why a rockjng­ emy •.. the same. shaggy. boars chair at all? Professor J. Norman whose habit of rooting in the earth Moore speaks one scientist's an­ for bulbs still survives now in the swer when he says: trough-fed pigs. And thus it hap­ The rocking-chair is an .artificial tree­ pens, too, that when the warm top; human beings would never have April sun touches our barnyards, invented these things, because they the farmer's penned-up flightless would never have had parts in their na­ ture calling for their invention, if our geese grow strangely restless, and far ancestors had not .been tree­ sometimes utter a curious honking dwellers. cry. The passage of generations has Every .aspect of our modern not obliterated their response. to world reveals to science some evi­ the old call of the wild, the ancient dence of what may be called the summons to. be offagain toward the Living Past - some hint that the Pole. dawn-days of earth were really only yesterday. Our little house" II cats, petted and be-ribboned, still go through the pantomime of the Because mostof us talk so glibly of wildcat's stalking and pouncing, our "civilization," and assume ..·· so still seratch at our upholstered fur­ blithely that we are far ,removed niture to exercise the .muscles from those rude woods-wandering which their ancestors used daily in forbears who plucked wild berries hunting their~ arboreal prey. High and snared their meat beside a above the canyons of our city water;-hole, it comes as something streets, in the crannies of great ofa shock to learn that atleast one oflice..:buildings, the pigeons still eminent anthropologistlahels honjo precariously lay their eggs; for they sapiens as a creature only "par­ arestill'close to their ancestors, the tially domesticated."And' yet" ,if wild rock-doves that lived on the· we look at the evidence, the rea- THE AMERICAN MERCURY sons for such labeling are plain dial jungle have left a long,; long enough. Our veneer ofdomesticity memory. is thin and recent, and the vestiges It is not alone by our fears that of our old way of life are con­ we show how close beneath our stantly showing through. "civilized" exteriors lurks the There are our fears, for instance primitive man-of-the-past. The - fears which in the modern sleek-styled business suits we don, world are wholly groundless, but as we set off for offioeor factory, which persist and color all our days. conc~al growths ofprotective body­ There is our fear of black things, hair which tell how recently we and ofcaves and darkness, an aver­ wore no clothes at all; the pinching sion so intense, and nowadays so shoes which we affect have not al­ unreasonable, that it can be ex­ tered that structure ofour toes and plained only as a survival from the arches which marks us as a species time when the night teemed with designed for running and leaping our enemies and when every cave and climbing trees. was a lair. There is our fear of loud Beyond the myriad merely· bio­ noises (preposterous in an indus­ logical evidences, there are others trial age), and of sudden move­ even more significant. There are ments - two fears ascribable re­ our insuppressible hankerings, our spectively to our memory of the queer nostalgias. One longing, great roaring carnivores and our especially, still lies half-sleeping in memory of our erstwhile practice every modern man - the longing of ambush. There is our uneasiness to build a fire on a hearth. There is with strangers, a subconscious relic no urbanite so citified that the of the tribal days when a stranger tending of a crackling fire does not was presumably our enemy. Most stir old, old memories in his tuft... curious and significant of all, there eared skull, the smell of burning is our terror of the snake. It is a pine-wood evoke an emotion as an­ deep-grained terror and it will not cient as the race itself. We get our down, even in those regions where heat now, most of us, by adjusting now the snakes are as harmless as a thermostat or turning a radiator­ butterflies. When we prowled shoe­ valve. But once upon a time, not less among the giant ferns and very long ago,we conjured fire creepers, the snake was the subtlest with our own hands, and the cave and deadliest enemy we had, and or forest clearing where the fire­ the great tree-snakes ofthe primor- light flickered was our home. DOWN TO EARTH 239 Every hour of his day, the most Adam Whyte has called "the surge "civilized" of modern men per­ of ancient forces through .the forms rites which proclaim how crust." recently he has left the forest and And thus, say some psycholo­ prairie, how newly-separated he is gists, it is not surprising that we from the companionship of birds suffer nowadays from so many and beasts. We never even write a maladjustments and neuroses. For letter or sign our names without we modern human beings are giving evidence of these things. really still a tribe of lusty-bodied, Our letter A, anthropologists have sun-loving, sky-loving earth-dwell­ found, is only a modification of a ers, now wilfully seeking to accom.. picture·ofan eagle; the letter Cde­ modate ourselves to rhythms. that rives from our drawing of a crane; are not the rhythms ofour earth at the letter N was our aboriginal all, and to life-patterns that have symbol for the water-line. no counterpart in nature. We are There is not a facet of our mod­ still, in our hearts, creatures of the ern lives which does not show, wild. Our spiritual kinship withthe sometimes in thin disguise, what earth sleeps still within us.

THE FREEDOM OF DISCUSSION

By LESLIE STEPHEN I, for one, am fully prepared to listen to any argument for the propriety of theft or murder, or, if it be possible, of immorality in the abstract. No doctrine, however well established, should be protected from discussion. If any appreciable number of persons are inclined to· advocate murder, I should wish them to state their opinions openly, because I should·think that the shortest way of exploding the principle. America at High Noon

By ALFRED KAZIN

HE good do not always die big money and win. He had Frick T. young in America. As they ap­ and Harriman steal their way to proach the last years of their mid­ the White House unobserved, q.nd dle age, .Charles Austin Beard and promised them everything in sight Oswald Garrison Villard can re­ to get their support. No more joice in, the knowledge that they Roosevelt scowl, no more mock have become Elder· Statesmen. alarums of trust-busting, no more They have achieved the respect­ socialistic nonsense. The rest is his­ ability ·that they once derided. tory. "He got down on his knees to Where now are.the old women who us," Frick told Villard. "We cackled at Dr. Beard's An Eco­ bought the son of a bitch and he nomic Interpretation ofthe Constitu­ did not stay bought." tion, stoned Mr. Villard when he To tell that story today is the pointed· to the debris of Wilsonian Villard victory. It is a sweet vic­ promise .at•. Versailles, filled their tory, ifsuch a little one. The Great histories with silly little myths, Meddler to the fat boys, the Anx­ egged Beard out ofthe universities? ious Liberal to the left, he has had Our memorials today are for a good and significant life, if not an Altgeld and .. WendellPhil~i ps, for overly distinguished one. Morally Veblen and LaFollette.·And Theo­ his generation offered few better. dore Roosevelt gets smaller every Yet it is curiously not the story of year. an education. The grandson of the In 19°4, as. Villard tells the story Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison, in his Fighting Years,! Roosevelt be­ and the son of the wealthy, liberal, came afraid early in. the campaign and cuItivated German-born rail­ that. Judge Parker would get the road magnate, Henry Villard, he was given a legacy compounded of 1 Fighting Years, by Oswald Garrison Villard. $3.75. Harcourt, Brace. New England abolitionism, the 24° THE LIBRARY

German revolution of '48, and ord of successive disillusionments. Northern Pacific Railroad shares. The greatest of them was Wood­ It was a noble legacy, and an un­ row Wilson, that scholar in politics usual one; for if he was··given in whose rigid and awkward mind, wealth, he was taught to look be­ grooved upon the aspirations ofhis yondit. It enabled him to sit with generation, Villard saw the best the titans of the day and to despise promise of the liberal spirit. To them; it gave, him what the se1f­ have survived that disillusionment made, the greedy, the hangers-on as Oswald Garrison Villard has sur­ never possessed and could never vived it is an achievement; he was afford to possess - the sense of deeply scarred by the War. But the

their own futility oj capacity to affirm is so rare' in If that heritage launched him, it America. that one looks back long­ also muffiedhim. Perhaps he did . ingly to Villard's many opportuni­ not rise from it because there was ties. He has been so long in the so.little to rise·to; he was born to an anterooms of power, the gadfly of extraordinarily virtuous culture, Presidents and .the confessor. of and he had only to respect it. Yet rebels, that one wonders why he as one thinks hack over his career, never traced power to its source~ with its courage and its anguish, he Oswald .Garrison Villard has al­ remains an exception not among ways judged men by their good­ Americans, but among publish~rs. ness; he has believed firmly that It was his position that gave him man can be good ifhe wills. But the his chance, and what he lent to that trouble is not only that goodness is position that gave him hisdignity. never enough, but .that American He flogged at the coat tails of the life so rarely predisposes man to'be Munseysand the Hearsts; he was good at all. honorable where they were venal, In any case, Mr. Villard has curious· where they were blind, lived close to the major events and sympathetic where they were cold. people of these last six decades.. He It has. been his sympathy - in writes of them intimately. His truth, his capacity to share the suf­ autobiography is history in. per­ ferings of others - that has always sonal terms, a sort 'of. supplement identified him and endeared him to and exemplification, for the period others. covered, to the Beards' story ofour But for· the rest? The story of country's civilization and it makes Oswald Garrison Villard is the rec- absorbing reading. THE AMERICAN MERCURY

II in Washington, naturalism in liter· ature, folksiness in liter(iture, mu­ As a record of one's immediate rals on the walls, and the menace of time, America in Midpassage 1 prob· war. Collective security rears its ably has no parallel in historical pristine head. The Beards have literature. Here is the Heartbreak made this amazing epoch in Amer­ House of 1928-1938, the Golden ica's maturing coherent for us who Glow and the Great Smash, the have lived through it. decade of the many earnest hopes Yet the book has its omissions and their mangling, the era of the and its gaucheries. The long chap'" Great Tinkering. The Beards have teron literature, with its tireless not only rounded out the rich enumeration of authors and titles, achievement of The Rise ofAmeri­ is a catalogue ofdoubtful value; the can Civilization, but fulfilled the grouping of.· Honore Morrow and promise of a new history. William Faulkner as "historical Beginning with the last shrill novelists," and of Hyman Kaplan clutch of Hoover optimism, it fol· and Studs Lonigan as fictional lows the declining cycle down, symbols of equal value, seems to down, down. Black Friday and the me ridiculous. German Moratorium, apple-vend· More serious is the absence of ers and the RFC, the great lockout any careful study of Franklin of credit, falling banks and finan­ Roosevelt. The transformation of ciers falling out of banks. Then the the weak and amiable Governor of shadow on the face of history, New York into the New Dealer is a 1932. The Roosevelt stampede; the political event of far greater mag'" only thing to fear is fear itself; the nitude than the destruction of the Brain Trust juggling into Wash­ World Economic Conference, and ington; the NRA. We all support as significant as the slow attrition of recovery. The first foray of the the Democratic Party. Where.Vil· Supreme Court and the whirlwind lard under-estimates Roosevelt, the finish of1936. CWA into PWA into Beards tend to ignore him. The WPA. And what have we got? We cascade of events flows over him; have a Recession! The great whirl one misses not only his responsibil· of the American present: Federal ity, but his mind. Yet it is precisely Arts Projects, political cannibalism of the Roosevelt mind as reflected in the pace and range of his Ad.. 1 America in Midpassage, by Charles A. and Mary R. Beard. ~5 .00. Macmillan. ministrations that the Beards have THE LiBRARY w:ritten, of his improvisations and son who stormed into the White his ambition, and essentially of his House on the peak of the progres­ rhetoric. sive movement in 1913, re-invigor­ What is most remarkable in the ated a whole generation. We have Beards' work is not its astonishing had a slow and grudging acceptance organization of material, but its ofreality; but the motto ofour day elusiveness. They have withdrawn has been improvisation: try any­ so compactly from the slogans. and thing once, hold on for dear life, favors of·· the present that they anything may happen. seem almost scornful ofit. But that The truth is that there is no is the· mark of· the Beard mind, a force in America today that is or­ way ofwriting history with one ear ganized to engineer its future. on the laughter of eternity. They Jackson had a rousing frontier have caught what no other student democracy, Lincoln an ambitious of our recent history has fully un­ middle-class, Bryan half a conti­ derstood - the common dismay nent ofembattled farmers, Wilson a that underlies the ganglingproces­ progressive movement. The pro­ sian out of the promised land, found dislocation of party forces 1928-1938. It is nota tragic tem­ today has not welded people of per. Placed in the world scene, the similar belief; it has weakened story of America's last ten years is them. What we dopossess, for want as disordered, ifnot as desperate, as ofanything else, is a chastened pub­ the Realpolitik of the tired old men lic opinion. Americans scare easily; now holding on to power in Eu­ but the years spent licking the rope.But our very attempt to wounds of economic disaster have slough off old illusions, to attempt not been in vain. If they have not a renascence of national energy, givenus a sense ofour destiny, they has made our failure all the more have enforced the meaning of poignant. survival. It is not that we have had a gap It is ofthis that the Beards speak between our resolution and our when they point to "a generation achievement; it is rather that we disillusioned with respect to make­ have never known what we wanted. believe and yet sturdy in its faith in The astonishing thing about the life." They have illustrated it ex­ Roosevelt wave of reform is that it citingly in their sympathetic ex­ has never been an educational amination of the return to folklore movement; it has not, like the Wi!- and the cultural activities of the 244 THE AMERICAN MERCURY Works Progress Administration. I America of the lost generation,to am heretical enough tobelieve that the Coolidge obscenities.· But they our renewed interest in the Ameri.. had something to'go by - money can past has. been one way ofmark.. in the bank, stocks goingup, power ing time. 1 like that interest; I pre" purring over the. radio and ·.out of fet .' it to the America that once the Golden Glow. But' we? We giggled over Jurgen and Main stand at high noon in a drizzle; arid Street, to expatriate America, to the all our prophets seem terribly tired.

~~~ b~~~&;J

FICTION THE THIBAULTS, by Roger Martin Du THE MIDDLE PASSAGE, by Roland Gard. $3.00. Viking. A rich family chronicle Barker and William Doerflinger. $2.50' Mac­ by the winner of last year's Nobel Prize. Re­ millan. A novel, based on fact, of the slave markable for its characterization, though raids in Africa and the slave ships plying be­ harqly less outstanding for the vivid picture tween the Guinea' Coast and North America it gives of a slice of French bourgeois life. at the beginning of the past century. Ex­ Por those who like novels solid and satisfying. tremely readable.

DOCTOR ADDAMS, by Irving Fineman. OVER THE MOUNTAIN, by Ruthven $2.50' Random House. An account, in fiction Todd. $2.50' Knopf. A combination allegory­ form, of medical split-personalities - the melodrama which will appeal to fanciers of doctors who work for scientific research in­ curious books. The main character is enabled stitutions, and at the same time tty to live to see the world with new eyes, and his com,:, human lives of their own. Sex comes in for ments are beautifully caustic. At the same most of the discussion; it's frank but not ob­ time he indulges in hair-raising' heroics. An jectionable. A really powerful work. odd omelet.

Tfffi YOUNG COSIMA, by Henry Handel SPRING JOURNEY, by Geneva Stephen­ Richardson. $2.50. Norton. Another proof son. $2.20~ Macmillan. Crowded narrative, that troth is stranger than fiction. If the au­ bearing a strong resemblance to the classic thor lacked historical justification for this Broad Highway, of eighteenth century Eng­ story ofCosima Liszt-Wagner, she would be land. Such immortals as Dr. Johnson and accused. of concocting' something hopelessly Fielding appear, besides fictional characters unreal. It's all. troe, though, and' admirable whose adventures enable the author to ex­ foundation for a novel. . hibit the life of the time. THE CHECK LIST

HERE' COMES A CANDLE, by Storm fight against boss and corporation rule;imtil Jameson. $2.50' 'Macmillan. A careful novel their magazines were physically' destroyecl' from a skilful hand, tying together the lives and they themselves dispersed. Miss TarbeWs of the various inhabitants of a run-down mounting conservatism did not save her from London mansion-turned-Iodging-house. The equal loss of influence -just why, iscleaily author restricts herself to the surface of her though unconsciously explained. Those who characters' Jives, and you never feel that her see a need for bridging the gap the World heart is in this particular work. As always, War created between the past and the present, though, her technique is excellent. will find this balanced~ self-critical story he1p­ ful and challenging. \ THE WILD PALMS, by William Faulkner. $2.50' Random House. The story of a young MISS BAX OF THE EMBASSY, by Emily doctor caught in a belated passion, and the Bax. $3.00. Houghton Mifflin. Memoirs of an story of a convict whom the floodwaters of English girl who was stenographer at the the Mississippi confront with the unwelcome 'American Embassy in London during the physical fact' of woman, tormenting him to reigns there of Joseph H. Choate, Whitelaw seek speedy return to the monastic security Reid, and Walter H. Page. Filled with "the ofprison. The two themes alternate in fugue kind ofgossip one might expect, mainlyabout pattern, resolving in the memory of experi­ the social and. personal side of embassy life ence for one" and the safety of .the prison­ and the troubles caused by socially ambitious cradle for the other. Here is no glib tale ofan women. epoch, but the interplay of the irreducible antitheses of life, attraction and repulsion. A FREMONT, by Allan Nevins. $5~00. book far above the flood of fiction. Appleton-Century. "A career that was never quite tragic, never quiteheroic,butalways BIOGRAPHY in limbo between the two - always' in "the classical sense tragicomic" - such is the story DIEGO RIVERA:, His Life and Times, by of' Fremont, explorer, geographer, soldier, Bertram D. Wolfe. $6.00. Knopf. The third and first Republican standard-bearer. More book of'a' trilogy'on the life and work of important than the man himselfwas' the peri­ Rivera. No book about the artist could be od, as exciting a chapter as any in the history dull, he is' himself so colorful and has led so of America. Painstaking scholarship, plus an rich a life. Mr. Wolfe, however, gives us more unerring sense for the dramatic, ,make this a than a lively biography of the man; he sup­ brilliant piece of historical writing. plies analyses of representative Rivera works, as well as some valuable material on the back­ THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF, A GER­ ground and trends of modern painting. MAN REBEL, by Toni Sender. $3.00. Van­ Beautifully bound and printed, the book con­ guard. An ambitious girl who became one of tains effective reproductions of Rivera's oils, the leaders of the Social Democrats tells her sketches, and murals, and a list of Rivera story matter-of-factly, and gives some, per- paintings on public view. sonal lights on well-known personalities of pre-Hitler Germany. While she ,provides no ALL IN THE,DAY'S WORK, by Ida M. sensational new insight into the development TarbelL $3.50. Macmillan. The r~lost impor­ of Germany, the book ,is worth reading as a tant memoir by one of the, redoubtable human document. ' muckrakers since Steffens' Autobiography­ and Miss TarbelPsmost important book since I WANTED TO BE AN ACTRESS,by The, History of the Standard Oil Company Katharine Cornell. As told to Ruth ,Wood~ (1904)' Miss Tarbell did not follow up her bury Sedgwick. $3.00. RandomHouse~" An masterpiece and other writers carried on her account of, Miss Cornell's, career to date, THE AMERICAN MERCURY omitting most ofthe emotions but none of the politics. Reflections on Coney Island are in~ dates. Altogether this volume gives the im­ cluded along with an amazing interview with pression that the actress dwells in another Mussolini in which II Duce yells into Bing~ world where the strife and difficulties of the ham's ear that "fascism is socialism. Fascism is theatre, and of the world in general, seldom communism." Mr. Bingham's argument is penetrate. That impression is heightened by that "the difference between capitalism and the peculiar, fulsome style with which her socialism is in so many respects verbal and collaborator has· chosen to write the book. unreal, that the transition through which we The contemporary reviews of Cornell per­ are now passing may be of a far less drastic formances and the illustrations are good. character than commonly supposed."

MISCELLANEOUS THE SUN AT NOON, by Kenneth B. Murdock. $2.75. Macmillan. Scholarly, read~ WHICH WAY AMERICA?, by Lyman Bry­ able research into the lives ofEliza,beth Carey, son; LET ME THINK, by Harry A. Over­ Viscountess Falkland; her son, ViscountFalk~ street; HERE COMES LABOR, by Chester land; and John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, M. Wright; THEY WORKED FOR A the brilliant and immoral friend of Charles II. BETTER WORLD, by·Allan Seagar. 60¢. These three were members of the same social Macmillan. The first volumes of The People's class, and all spent their lives in a common Library, an enterprise of the American Asso­ ciation for Adult Education, undertaken that quest - to see "the sun at noon" - the ultimate truth. knowledge may be "humanized so that ordi­ nary citizens, who are the people who need it most in our time, may find it understandable KNOWLEDGE FOR WHAT? The Place and useful." Specifically the Library books are of Social Science in American Culture, by attractive, stimulating treatments aimed at Robert S. Lynd. $2.50' Princeton University "the millions of people who read magazines Press. Mr. Lynd, co-author ofMiddletown and trench~ but never books." Dr. Bryson leads off by Middletown in Transition, advances a con~ considering the battle of propagandas which ant criticism of the present dilemma are striving to win over the American citizen, fronting the social sciences. The social scien­ and discusses simply and clearly the bases of tist "hired by businessmen trustees" finds communist, fascist, and democratic govern­ himself caught between the rival demands ments. Dr. Overstreet offers practical and for straight, incisive and, if need be, radically stimulating comment on such questions as divergent thinking, and the growingly in­ unhappiness, wealth, idleness, and so on. Mr. sistent demand that his thinking shall not be Wright tells the story behind the labor news subversive." The author lists twelve social in the newspapers, and Mr. Seagar writes of problems which the social scientist must face, Roger Williams, Thomas Paine, Emerson, "or else-" Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Edward Bel­ lamy, idealists who worked for a better THE LAKE OF THE ROYAL CROCO­ America. DILES, by Eileen Bigland. $2.50' Macmillan. The lake is Shiwa Ngandu in the heart of the MAN'S ESTATE. Adventures in Economic former Bemba kingdom in Northern Rho­ Discovery, by Alfred M. Bingham. $3.00. desia where the author studied the Bembas, Norton. Mr. Bingham's· adventures in eco­ formerly one of the most virile tribes ofEast nomic discovery have taken him around the Africa, and the effect on them of British radical-liberal circuit from Marx to Moses rule. She also traveled widely through (Robert W., who is New York's enterprising Northern Rhodesia and Tanganyika; her im­ Park Commissioner). It is an entertaining pressions are full of excitement, humor, and melange of autobiography, economics, and keen observation. THE CHECK LIST 247

THE LOGIC OF MODERN PSYCHOL­ THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MAKING LIFE OGY, by Carroll C. Pratt. $2.00. Macmillan. IN'TERESTING, by Wendell White. $2.50. If you believe that "all facts are a function Macmillan. First aid for the bored, stressing of their method," this is the book for you. the need for variety in life and describing Among the points stressed are a sobering ways of keeping out ofa rut. Chapters cover consideration of the extent of mankind's Expressing Varied Thoughts and· Attitudes, interest in truth, a very neat evaluation of Varying the Voice and Play of Features, etc. Freud, and a shrewd estimate of Dale Car­ negie's .and others' attempts· to inHuence YOUR CITY, by E. L. Thorndike. $2.00. people. Prof. Pratt's final word is to call the Harcourt Brace. Short, compact study, the re­ psychologists back to the cloisters. We'd have sult of three years' analysis of 310 American lost a good book if he had heeded that call. cities. Not as colorful as Middletown, but packed with facts and conclusions for serious students of American life. THE ADVENTURES OF A HAPPY MAN, by Channing Pollock. $1.50. Crowell. Mr. THE WATCHER AND THE NEST, by Pollock is never smug, and he keeps his sense Margaret Morse Nice. $2.00. Macmillan. Ob­ of humor well to the fore, so his inspirational servation of birds, simple and rather sac­ works are quite easy to take. Never in his life, charine, but full of really good information he says, has he had an unhappy moment; but on bird habits. after perusing these pages one is tempted to suspect that boundless health and perfectly ESCAPE TO LIFE, by Erika and Klaus functioning glands, rather than superior Mann. $3.50. Houghton Mifflin. A gossipy philosophy or intelligence, are the reason. scrambled dish prepared with too little at­ But Mr. Pollock doesn't think so, and he tention to the ingredients. These children of may be right. Thomas Mann are so devoid of political sense that everything anti-Hitler becomes entirely UNSOLVED MYSTERIES OF THE too noble to conform with known facts. ARCTIC, by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. $3.50. Charitable explanation may be found in their Macmillan. Afamous explorer turns detective, admission that prior to the advent of Hitler and, on the basis ofthe existent records and of they were not interested in politics. his own highly specialized knowledge, seeks to explain the fate of the Franklin Expedition, SCULPTURE INSIDE AND OUT, by Andree's death, etc. The resultant book makes Malvina Hoffman. $3.75. Norton. A combina­ fascinating reading for Arctic enthusiasts and tion outline and philosophy of sculpture with armchair sleuths alike. helpful suggestions to would-be carvers of stone, intelligent in its practical suggestions. Illustrations ofsculpture ofall ages, and many CURTAINS GOING UP, by Albert Mc­ pictures of processes, add considerably to its Cleery and Carl Glick. $4.00. Pitman. An in­ value. formative discussion of the contemporary American community theatre, which is con­ LATIN AMERICA, by- T. H. White. $3.75. sidered by marty authorities to be far more Macmillan. A readable history, concise yet important and worthwhile than· the profes­ full. Also one of the very few books on sional Broadway stage. Curtains Going Up Latin America relating the many revolutions tends to bear out this belief, and altogether it and pronunciamentos since the Wall Street indicates a promising future for the native crash in 1929 and the subsequent collapse of drama. Illustrations and appendix material on the many Latin-American dictators, when no plays, costs, contracts, etc., round out a more loans were forthcoming for the support highly valuable book. of their armies. U.S.A. AND THE COMING WAR SIR: This letter is to express my sincere ap­ tion of the views of those who disagree with preciation for the excellent support which him and the cool assumption of some of his THE MERCURY is giving to the people who feel major data - all these so confuse his argu­ that our foreign policy should be strictly neu­ ment that I, for one, am not quite sure what tral. .Month after month your magazine has he is really driving at. given voice·to the sentiments of a minority Professor Beard assumes, for example,· that whose members believe it is not our right or "the possibility of peace and security in this duty to pick out the naughty nations in the hemisphere is clearly open to us." That would feuds of the old worlds. "USA: The Aggressor stand a little proving. In so far as it is ques­ Nation" in the December issue has not yet tionable, it loses force. Further, he tacitly mis­ been equaled, even by "We're Blundering represents the position ofmany, and probably Into War" in April. As most of the press ofall most, of those who disagree with hitn, when types has gone over to the collective-suicide he imputes to them either an ecstatic desire bloc, the common sense policy of THE MER­ or a thoughtless willingness to plunge this CURY is worth at least these thanks. I am not country into war. Many of us think theques­ alone in this sentitnent. tionis notso simple. We think there is a sane JACK SAMSON middle way between that of undertaking to PQrtland, "police the world" and thatof "leaving the Oregon. nations ofEurope to stew in their own juice." This last phrase is not Professor Beard's, of SIR: I am particularly pleased with your course, but in the very week when his article position on the war question. With the Com­ was published I heard it publicly used by a munistParty gone chauvinist, and its fellow­ fairly prominent supporter ofhis views. I feel traveling agencies turned into recruiting sta­ sure the misrepresentation is not conscious tions, it is a deep source of satisfaction to find and wilful. It is nevertheless unjust and un­ some liberals remaining to whom democracy scholarly. is an. end, not a means, and who as men of Much worse than this, however, is Pro­ principle know that only by. democratic fessor Beard's diatribe against the 40,000,000 means can a democratic end be shaped. Americans who cannotboast ofnative parent­ FRANK D. SLOCUM age on both sides of the house. They are "for­ New York City. eigners in letter or spirit," he declares, and on the next page they are "aliens in fact" - a SIR: If Professor Beard had written with phrase devised to include 26,000,000 who are anything like the fair and humane temper natives of this country and at least 6,000,000 that used to characterize his work, I should who have, at considerable cost in time and have been able to read hisarticl~ with under­ money, voluntarily become citizens, not to standing and respect, even though. I might mention those who have taken the first steps not altogether agree with his conclusions. As toward naturalization or who are either too itis, the flood ofwanton insult which he pours young or oftoo recent arrival to have done so. forth against nearly one-third ofthe American Stich phrases are clever, but they are not-':" people, together with the tacit misrepresenta- well, I think they are not quite ingenuous. 248 THE OPEN FORUM

These people, says Professor Beard, "treat SiR: Dr. Beard is hot':'and-bothered about' the United States as a boarding house, not as these' .'foreigners now boarding here." If the thepermanent homeofa people engaged in various foreign elements· are trying to steer trying to make a civilization in their land." this country into war, it is significant that Dr. This' boardinghouse motif runs through the Beard makes no case against the only actually. whole piece, and thoroughly vitiates it as any­ vociferous segment of a foreign group - the· thing but anappealto nativistic prejudice and German-American Bund. In my own Polish passion. There are other things in the article, group, I know it to be a fact that whatever but they are both perverted and obscured by tempered sympathy those born on the other this false. approach. side' may' have for their old homeland, we We expect something very different from American-born condemn, and would be. sin­ the author of The Rise of American Civiliza­ cerely ashamed of, any similar sympathies on tion. The man who wrote that book knew our part. that, in every decade of our history, immi.. It may be true that some foreigners con.. grants and children ofimmigrants were doing sider this country a "boarding house," but in their full share in the laborious task ofprovid­ all honesty it should be admitted that every ing the material basis for civilization .in this opportunity in the world has been given theSe country and were at the same time bringing people to feel that way 'about the United diverse culturalgifts from many lands toenrich States. The evaluation through the years by the superstructure; that in each generation a the folk on ·Dr. Beard's side of the tracks; ,of, good number of them, handicapped though these later immigrants and their offspring as they often were by differences oflanguage and just so much scum, couldn't very well en­ manners as well. as by .lack of worldly goods, hance a superpatriotic fervor in them. What­ honestly earned distinction as inventors, ever insecurity (unjustified) the pure Ameri­ artists, scientists, teachers, administrators, as cans feel from this quarter must be blamed on champions of humane causes,' as .interpreters these Americans themselves. That fear is.sim­ of the Old World to the New and oftheNew ply a matter of bad conscience on the part of World to the Old, - yes, and as true patriots such as Dr. Beard. ' in this adopted home; and that the.undis­ JOHN.SZYMANSKI tinguished majority even though their ways Los Angeles, might fora while seem uncouth to neighbors California. ofsomewhat earlier arrival, were on the whole as well behaved as descendants of Pilgrims. I do not think. that twenty-two years ago COMMENT BY DR. BEARD Professor Beard took seriously the official SIR: Judging by criticisms of my article, pretence that. opposition to [PresidentWil­ either I cannot write the English language or son's sudden decision that we ;must enter the my critics cannot 'read it.· For ·the sake of World War was mainly due to "emotional in­ clearing up some confusion I shalltry to state terests in co-nationals in other countries." If simply what I did not say and what I did say. he did, or if he does, let me suggest a factual I did not tell foreigners in America togo back study of what happened that year in the 98 home. I poured out no "Hood' of wanton in­ per cent native American state of Oklahoma. sult." I did not in any way intimate that for­ And if he thinks that the' people who today eigners here are less worthy' than any other reject the outworn dogmas .·of isolation are people. therefore "hell-bent" on war, or that they are I did say that there are large· bodies offor;. in the main"melIlbersof the boarding house" eigners and foreign-born persons in the United - why, as O. Henry would put it, his statis­ States. I said that this fact makes it well nigh tics lack verification. impOSSible for the United States to pursue a ALGERNON LEE realistic policy based on American .as .dis­ New York City. tinguished from British, German, or Italian THE AMERICAN MERCURY interests. I said that "resident foreigners"­ rather than what someone did.. If the current not all or the resident foreigners - treat the reporter is, as Mr. Walker says, dull, serious­ United States as a boarding house. I said that minded, socially conscious, it must mean city foreign groups make a frightful din when the editors want him that way. They hire him. interests of their co~nationals are involved. I Plenty of lively, engaging souses want jobs. believe that informed and sober readers will But a serious-minded, abstemious moppet agree with me that these are facts and that thrives more hardily, no doubt, on a daily diet they are relevant to any discussion of Ameri­ of crop control, utilities, and stabilization. can foreign policy. LINCOLN BARNETT Attacks on me for citing these facts are to New York City. me only additional proof that these facts are ofvital significance for any consideration ofan American foreign policy based on American THOSE "GOOD OLD DAYS" interests, as distinguished from a foreign SIR: Channing Pollock, in "I Am a Re­ policy influenced by the interests of the other actionary," betrays either his complete lack of nationalities who are hard at work on Ameri~ any philosophy of history or his willingness to can public opinion. I am not denying to any ignore any such philosophy. He wishes to go foreigners or foreign~born American citizens back to the "good old days." So do I. So do the right to express their opinions. Nor am I weall. But how in the name of all that's holy surprised that they get mad when I refer to does he propose to do it? Does he plan to turn the fact that they are expressing opinions. the clock back? Will he hang a 25~year~0Id CHARLES A. BEARD calendar on his office wall? Will he roll his New Milford, 1910 automobile out of the garage? Is he go­ Connecticut. ing to throw his radio on the junk heap? What he ignores is the fact that certain MORE ABOUT THE SOUSE definite conditions which existed then, and which today do not exist, gave rise to those SIR: Stanley Walker's thesis that news~ "good old days." We cannot create those papermen had more fun and were more fun in conditions by legislation; we cannot create the Front Page Era is as sound as the conten~ them by electing either conservatives or re­ tion that more citizens· of Amarillo, Texas, actionaries to public office; we cannot, in fact, carried more guns in 1889 than in 1939. To~ create them at all. Those conditions are gone, day a reporter finds it very hard to maintain and let Mr. Pollock remember that the new an appearance of swashbuckling on an assign~ result of his "good old days" was the auto­ ment~schedulethat sends him from a conven­ matic creation of these new days. Likewise, tion of the Women's National Republican let him remember that what is to come in the Club in the afternoon to a Save Slovakia future will not come from the past but from rally in the evening. No member of Mr. the present. Walker's city staff failed to sense the dismal THOMAS NOYES DONALDSON sagging of professional life that began after Tucson, 1931. Gangster trials featured more statistics Arizona. than gunplay. Technocracy upset every­ body. (It took a pretty good reporter to write about Technocracy after twenty highballs.) PAGING MR. KELLY A reform administration cleaned up the dark, interesting substrata of politics. Even city SIR: I never read a more idiotic argument editors admitted Washington had superseded than Fred Kelly's article on unemployed peo~ New York, in New York's own papers, as No. pIe, in your April issue. His idea seems to be 1 news center. Reporting - 95 per cent of it that these unemployed are a "God~sent" - became repeating what somebody said, group for which we should be thankful, be- THE OPEN FORUM cause they keep us working. Let's follow his and twice as loud, as the bank at which he line of reasoning a little further. These un­ scolds. employed people make work for others: logi­ The key to the· mystery of "Small-Time cal conclusion - more unemployed people Editor" is his blanket indictment ofhis fellow will make more work. So why not scour the citizens as "vulgar, grubby, stupid, hypocriti­ earth for all the unemployed? Those who cal, and intolerant." He forgets that to be a can't get work, those who won't work, and William Allen White, a Sherwood Anderson, those who are unable to work. oran Ed Howe calls for deep understanding of So all these individuals would make work its inhabitants and an affection for them in the and all the others would have plenty ofwork. lir!lt place. Ifhe would stop kicking his town's What a· Utopia; what a helll All these em­ pants and study its basic anatomy, he would ployed people would be kept busy working; be able to move it a lot· farther ahead. He and also busy hopping to keep even with the couldn't start better than· by reading Eliza­ tax collector. The taxpayer would finally beth Hughes' wise little study ofa small town, reach the end ofhis endurance - also the end Smith Street, U.S.A. in your same issue. of his money - and then we'd have more OWNER-EDITOR OF A SOOO-CIRCULATION strikes because the taxpayer would simply PAPER have to get more money. If he got it, the North Tonawanda, manufacturer would have to raise his prices New York. to make expenses (lots of them are in thered now) and thus we would continue running around in the circle which enclosed this hell­ ESCAPE FROM SPAIN ish Utopia. Like a dog running after its tail•... SIR: In the April issue in which you accuse L. THORNTON some of our liberals of being totalitarian, you Philadelphia, include a story by a former American com­ Pennsylvania. munist who escaped from Loyalist Spain. The tone of this article, I should say, is subtly fascist. For he is implying that the Loyalist SMALL-TOWN PUBLISHER cause is communistic, that the International SQUAWKS Brigade was made up of communists, and he SIR: .That rare combination of sneer and says outright that he no longer believes in whine in your last issue should have been en­ what he fought for. This is definitely a fascist titled: A SMALL-Time EDITOR SQUAWKS. approach. For Hitler and Mussolini admit Main burden of his squeal is that he gets themselves that they saved Spain frem com.. pushed around by "pressure groups" and munism! doesn't dare attack anything but the weather. The author of the story to which I refer is But. a small-town monopoly newspaper, far using tactics which are notoriously fascist....­ from being a football is a dynamite-keg, likely the pinning ofa "red" label on a liberal cause. to blow the pants off anybody who smacks it, And I assume that in allowing this article to be even by mistake. I cite national figures, not printed in a magazine which you· edit, you my own books, when I emphasize that his in­ sanction his point of view. Apparently you come from that 7ooo-circulation sheet is sur­ dislike the totalitarian liberal, as represented passed by few other vested interests, utilities, by the Nation, the New Republic, and the New or monopolies (he is all three, combined) in Masses, but you are willing to concede a lot his town. Without his good will, no election to the totalitarian who is not a liberal. There­ can be sure of being won, no business can en­ fore I conclude that it is not totalitarianism, joy maximum prosperity, no charity drive go but liberalism, to which you object. through, nor even a club successfully be estab­ BARBARA FRANK lished. He can dictate twelve times as often, Washington, D. C. THE AMERICAN MERCURY

SIR: I take it for granted that your recent had a deckload oflumber that was kept on articles on Spain - by William G. Ryan and while running down the coast ofSpain. Since Irving Pflaum - will bring down the fearful when has lumber been shipped from Spain to word "fascist" on their heads and yours. England or from England to Spain? Apd do That's how certain liberals, scared of facing you know how deckloads of lumber are the truth, are "demolishing" the articles by stacked? All the lumber is of the same length, former General Krivitky in the Saturday so how would a cavity be made to hide a man Evening,Post. That's how they are "demolish­ without sawing out a vast number ofsections ing"thetruths told by your contributors. But in the middle and repiling? But the most these gentry are scarcely helping their pro­ absurd part to those who' know English fessed principles when they cannot muster the freighters is that the hero wanders about, a courage to face unpleasant facts. stowaway, for days, without any notice taken And the facts are deucedly unpleasant for by mates or captain. Both would jeopardize people who are opposed to fascism. It is be­ their hard-won jobs by permitting this, and coming more and more clear that the com­ imagine the risk to the ship and owner, and munists ran the show on the Loyalist side, and all the complications involved, should the ran it for purposes other than those ofsaving affair come to be known! the Spanish Republic. In a way it may be AL-HAJ AL-FoRD IBN-Roos said that the Kremlin itself introduced Vanadium, fascist methods on the other side, and thus New Mexico. killed the fighting spirit of the anti-Franco groups. THE AUTHOR' REPLIES That is the picture being drawn by persons, SIR: Nothing was said in my article about a all. ofthem opposed to Franco and his backers, cargo oflumber loaded on the deck. The cargo close,to theevents. They doubtless know they going in 'was coal and boxes, which the sailors willbe called names for their pains, but feel it said contained, machine guns and airplane their duty to tell the truth. Incidentally, it's parts; going out, oranges and almonds. not anew picture. 'It's only new to the ,gen­ Nothing was said about the small pile of ~ral, reading public. The labor press which is lumber (used for repairing partitions and so not under Stalin's thumb, here and abroad, on in the boat and having nothing to do with has, told plenty ofthe ugly story ofcommunist cargo) being all the same length. The article terror behind the Loyalist lines and what it says, "arranging so it looked like a solid stack did tohe1p the 'anti-government side to win. of heavy fifteen foot planks." The cable was L. S. ORVIETO there whether Mr. Roos likes it or not. At the Chic4g0. time it looked as though it might cost me my life and I am not likely to forget it. He doubts Bra; ,~'Escape From Loyalist Spain," by the stowaway part. Perhaps he will think ,William, G." Ryan, in. the April MERCURY, that the records of the Stipendiary Magis­ is an assault upon the intelligence of all who trate's Court in Kingston on Hull, England, know Spain, Valencia, and conditions since for July 4,1938 are absurd. Or the statements the war. First, it would have been impossible of the ship's officers toH.M. ,immigration to', have cut loose ten launches. All launches officers of that city that they did not know of and boats at the water-front are fastened by my presence on the ship. It's all in the British chains and padlocked. And I assure you there Court Records, the records of the American never was an under-water cable there to snarl Consul at Hull, and the records ofthe British launches; and the piers are so arranged that Horne Secretary. stretching such a cable would be impossible; Mr. Roos has imagined the, chains, pad­ and if so the sag would permit light launches locks, and piers which were so placed,' that to pass over. cables could not be stretched across. I don't Further, the author says his get-away ship know whether he has ever been, in Valencia THE OPEN FORUM or not, but I do know there wereno chains or Italian troops as follows." ~'The German padlocks, and there was' a ,cable' stretched Condor Legion, 5000 strong, is preparing across which did., not sag enough to let us get to sail from ,Vigo." "These with 12,000 over with the larger boats. I have been 'in Italians aWait only the final review' of Valencia'several times, as my Loyalist mili~ Generalissimo .Franco in'Madrid before"de- tary documents show. ,parting." More serious than these silly doubts of the Does this not favor my side of the, story facts, of course, is the allegation of "fascism" and not that of the pink~ or red.tingedMr. by some readers of my article. This does not Pflaum? take me unaware. I know' precisely how E. J. FITZGIBBON people like Miss Frank feel. It seems to ,them Dorchester, monstrous that anyone should' doubt the Massachusetts. disinterestedness of the Russian and other N-!J communists in the Loyalist camp. In fact, I UNDERGROUND GERMANY. feel with them. It is monstrous that under the flag of idealism and under slogans of democ~ SIR: Mr. Liepmannin his article "Under· racy, the communists should have succeeded ground Germany" tells of the "powerful" in putting over their own brand of totali~ transmitters operated in' Germany to annoy tarianism on Spain. the Brown Shirt dignitaries with denuncia· The facts of that situation are coming out. tions of Hitler. Every child knows that such The article in your May issue by Mr. Pflaum, transmitters can belocated at once, besides the the United Press correspondent in Spain, is fact that it would be impossible to obtainthe onlyone ofmany thatare sure to shed lighton parts and assemble such station in Gen:nany that whole affair. without knowledge of the authorities. Similar WILLIAM G. RYAN nonsense is told,' about the concentration· Milwaukee, camp population. As a matter offactGer~ Wisconsin. many under the Nazi regime is a' quite ex· traordinarily orderly country and has very few prisoners as compared with the United IN PRAISE OF FRANCO States. The total number of prisoners in con. SIR: In"Russia's Role In Spain," in your centration camps never exceeded 12,000 '. in May issue, Irving Pflaum makes .this state~ the last years. The Gestapo seems to be soef· ment; "The victoryofFranco and his allies is ficient that the "underground forces" like Mr. a genuine triumph for totalitarianism. A Sta~ Liepmann, who .flourished under. the,' Re~ lin victory would merely have been a differ~ publican Government, have more .or. less ent variety of totalitarianism." In connection given up; obviously the reason he is here to· with this, your attention is called to the pres· day. In fact, there were several times more ent government ofPortugal, under Dr. Olivi· criminals in the penal institutes before the era Salazar. Portugal is one of the best gov~ Nazis came to powe;. erned, countries in Europe, if not the best. C. VON WEDEL Franco's government ofSpain will be fully as West Orange, good as Salazar's in Portugal. The fact that New Jersey. Franco helped restore to the Spanish people the right to worship God' and helped to set FAME FOR SHELBY them on the road to prosperity even while he was battling with and defeating the Loyalist SIR: Frisco had its earthquake; Chicago communists, proves' my statement beyond had its fire; Boston ," had its tea party; the refutation. Recently I ran across thefollowing Klondike had its gold rush-- but Shelby had statements in the Boston Globe: its fight! It was with real pleasure that I read "Franco speeds evacuation of German and Eric Thane's "Montana Picks a Fight" in'the 254 THE AMERICAN MERCURY April MERCURY. With equal pleasure, and a and Charles Evans Hughes - resourceful, deep chuckle or two, I read this editorial com­ pushing, dogged, matter-of-fact, unscrupu­ ment in the Shelby Tribune, which said: lous, unintelligent, legalistic, grasping." Un­ "Future articles under the caption of Eric intelligent these? Thane will be given little consideration for Hell and damnation, if Mr. Nock and most truthfulness by local people." of the others who earn their bread and butter Having read this, I turned to page 7 of the by laying words end to end, knew a fraction same paper and noted a half-page historical as much about their trade, or pursued it with article written for the Montana Newspaper a half of the intelligence that Ford has de­ Association, one of the largest news organiza­ voted to the manufacture of cars, Hoover to tions in the state, by the "fibbing author." Of the mining industry, or Hughes to the law, such as this is humor made. they would not make such asses ofthemselves. AZILB A. PENNER A. E. CORNELL Cut Bank, Montoursville, Montana. Pennsylvania.

CULTURE IN FRANCE OUR TOTALITARIAN LIBERALS SIR: If, as the ironical Southerner who SIR: Your editorial "Our Totalitarian writes "I Like the North" in your May issue Liberals" struck exactly the right note. Since says, the French have developed culture in the defection of the Nation and New Republic traveling, it must be of very recent date. The we need just such a magazine as THE MER­ worst subway hogs in New York can't com­ CURY promises to be. pare with the average Frenchman when JOHN DEWEY traveling with several pieces of excess bag­ Key West, gage, which he invariably spreads all over all Florida. the extra seats in the compartment. Theonly thing to do is to place it all on the floor while SIR: This is to thank you for your April you take your seat, and watch him rave and editorial. It has got to the point that half of tear his hair. the so-called Liberals think you are a wild This writer, who ironically says he likes reactionary if you do not believe that the the North, gives about as distorted a picture Stalin brand of communism constitutes the of New York City as the lady who recently New Jerusalem. Personally, I am bored to wrote in your magazine on the South. Ifa per­ death with those "liberals" who talk so much son is looking for culture in either the North about civil rights in the United States but or the South) he can find it. But in the North look forward to a system under which no civil rights would be secure. he will not find it in the slums; and in the 0 South he will not find it amongHIiterate JONATHAN DANIELS whites and Negroes. Raleigh, Ex-NEW YORKER North Carolina. Tulsa, Oklahoma. SIR: It certainly looks as ifyou had struck a C'+-!) good gait as a starter. You can't lambaste the "liberals" too mercilessly. They have made an WHO'S INTELLIGENT NOW? awful mess of their jobs. And certainly SIR: In the April "State of the Union," Nock's effort to make us culture-conscious Albert Jay Nock states, "The character and and culture-wishful should be encouraged in qualities of the average Roman of the Empire every way possible. can best be imagined by posing him as a com­ ELLIS O. JONES posite, say, of Henry Ford, Herbert Hoover, Los Angeles THE OPEN FORUM

SIR: May I thank you for myself and many est in the stories which relate to various American liberals who have tried to avoid the branches ofour family, I am not a good judge lunatic fringe while retaining sufficient sanity of how the average reader will enjoy this to avoid being swept by palpable propaganda book. ... The story covers many different into irrationality, for your "Totalitarian strains and shows how much lies back' of our Liberals." Nothing said on the subject is family to explain the present activities of this sounder or truer. generation." ... Clarence S. Marsh, Vice­ FREDERICK W. BEEKMAN President of the American Council on Educa­ Paris, Dean ofHoly Trinity tion, has warm words for four books he has France. read recently: Listen the Wind, by Anne Lindbergh; Action in Aquila, by Hervey Al­ ADVICE-TO-THE-EDITOR Ien; Youth Tell Their Story, by Howard M. DEPARTMENT Bell; and This Peace, by Thomas Mann. .•• SIR: If there is a lake convenient, please Prof. Louise Pound, University of Nebraska, go jump into it. Ifnot, the Atlantic or even recommends from her recent reading: .This the Hudson will do. And don't fail to take Was a Poet, by George F. Whicher; Philoso­ along with you to the depths all your collec­ pher's Holiday, by Irwin Edman; Grandma tion of dyspeptic, misanthropic, soured con­ Called It Carnal, by Bertha Damon; and As­ tributors. They aU-have in common appar­ signment in Utopia, by Eugene Lyons. .• • ently their hatred for the human species Joyously, and with justification, Bart Rich­ (excluding themselves) and never manage to ards of New Castle, Pa., pounces on errors in see anything good, noble or even tolerable last month's article' on the great baseball in people. scandal. The reference to Senator Harding, I admit that their attitude makes good "within a month elected President," should spicy reading. Maybe it is good business for have read, of course, "within thirteen a magazine. But life isn't the crazy, dopey, months," since Harding was not elected until crippled kind of thing your· pages reflect. 1920. Also, the Black Sox Grand Jury handed Whether you .like it or not, there are such in its report on October 6, 1920 and not - as things as real affections, real idealism, nobility a typographical error had it - in 1930. We of character, not only in meek little people stand humbly corrected.... Evelyn Scott, but even in political leaders, public personali­ the novelist, reports that the April MERCURY ties, etc. For all its faults, human life is an was the subject ofdiscussion at Skidmore Col­ exhilarating adventure. Why must you treat lege, where she is teaching. ... Protest it only as a sidesplitting farce? against excessive official intrusion on the Ottawa, HUGH J. WOOD ordinary American's life comes from E. V. Canada. Wilcox, of Chevy Chase, Maryland. "We have too many leaders," he says, "and far too IN BRIEF many followers. If we had fewer millions "What books, new or old, have you read willing to wear a collar'and leash, and more recently?" We 'asked this question of a num­ self~starters, self-goers, self-guiders and· self­ ber of Americans in different walks of life. sufl1cers in our population, we should soon 'Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt writes that she found begin to get somewhere." ••. The article All This and Heaven Too, by Rachel Field, by Dr. Beard in the April issue stirred up "most interesting." The First Lady adds that editorial comment, pleasant and otherwise, she is "naturally interested in a book called throughout the country. Early returns, as we Odyssey of an American Family. •.• My go to press, indicate that Ulric Bell's incisive brother conceived the idea and collaborated portrait ofJohn Nance Garner is also acting as with Samuel Duff McCoy in producing the a stimulant to editorial indignation and volume. Perhaps because ofmy personal inter- enthusiasm in the dailies of the nation. ~~~H~~H~~H~~ ~I THE CONTRIBUTORS I~ ~~~~~~~~~~...

ERNEST SUTHERLAND BATES (Buchmanism: Opiate For the Classes) was literary editor of the Dictionary ofAmerican Biography, and edited The Bible, Arranged To Be Read As Living Literature. Roy A. BENJAMIN, JR. (Ghost Goes to College) is a graduate of the Columbia School ofJournalism at present on the staffof the New York World- T.elegram. DR. JOSEPH T. BOLOTIN ("Painless" Childbirth) has practiced medicine in Chicago for the past fourteen years. ROGER BURLIN­ GAME (Don't Be Your Own Architect!) has written many books, the latest being March ofthe Iron Men (Scribner's). EDITH CHERRINGTON (Surf-Board Rider) lives in Pasadena, California. CATHARINE CONNELL (Spring Song) is a writer of short stories and articles whose work has appeared chiefly in women's magazines. HERBERT COREY (Elliott Roosevelt: The President's Problem Child) lives in Washington, where, he says, politics are "louder and funnier than anywhere else"; he is a well known magazine writer. MAJOR GEORGE FIELDING ELIOT (Germany' Can't Win!) noted author and lecturer on military subjects, wrote the best-selling Ramparts We Watch (Reynal and Hitchcock). PHIL HAMILTON (SanFrancisco: A Dying City), a west coast newspaperman, is currently engaged in literary work in San Francisco. WILL IRWIN (Education for Ward-Heelers) has" in the past thirty years, tried his hand at most forms ofwriting; he lives in New York City. ALFRED KAZIN (America at High Noon) is a frequent contribu­ torofliterary criticism to the New York Herald Tribune and other newspapers and magazines. ALAN MACDONALD (The General Slocum Disaster) is a well known newspaperman who writes for various magazines. JOHN MCCARTEN (Father Coughlin: Holy Medicine Man), a former associate editor ofFortune, has contributed to many newspapers and magazines. ANDRE MAUROIS (Misdeal) is the ,noted French biographer and novelist. LEONARD Ross (Peep Show) will shortly be represented on the publishers' lists by Funny Places, ofwhich "Peep Show" is a chapter. GEORGE S. SCHUYLER (Negroes Reject Communism), author oftwo novels, is on the editorial staff of the Pittsburgh Courier. LOUIS STOD­ DARD (Decoration Day) lives at Esperance, New York. LUELLA STONE (Planta­ tion Girl) is a native ofthe South. JESSE STUART (These DarkHills) is a frequent contributor- of verse and stories to THE MERCURY and other magazines; his books include Head o'W-Hollow and Beyond the DarkHills (Dutton). ADELAIDE WALKER (Pioneer's Return) was born in Wyoming and now lives on Cape Cod; she has been an actress,editor, and playreader. The BetlJehetn Steel 2ui.z TRY IT ON THE FAMILY

Like the Walrus, this month's As a matter of fact this company's Bethlehem Quiz talks of many employees over the age of 40 make things-of safety and age groups up .. . per cent of the total number employed: and alloys and steel terminology. To answer the questions requires (a) 5I % (b) 98.6% (c) 43% no great knowledge of the steel (d) 25% (e) 39.6% industry, and you may glean bits 3. Nickel is widely used in alloying of information that will come in steels to: handy some day when there's a (a) make themshiny decided shallow in the steady (b) increase their toughness, stiffness, flow of small talk. strength and hardness Score 20 for each correct an­ (c) enable fabricators to bend the steel swer. 40 is fair, 60 is good and easily 86 is excellent. 4. In steel parlance a channel is a: Answers on page x. (a) passageway between dropforges I. The campaign for safety in Beth­ (b) rolled structural shape with a lehem Steel plants began in 1916. In section like this: [ the succeeding 23 years accidents (c) trade outlet in the Bethlehem organization have been reduced: 5. The "Panama," now in service (a) 8I~I% (b) I2% (c) 99% between New York and Panama, is the world's first passenger vessel (d) 33·33% (e) I4·5% ofcompletely fireproof construction. 2. Perhaps you have been under the Do you know the name of the steel impression that the steel industry is company that built this outstanding populated largely by men under 40. American vessel r ix The LITERARY BAZAAR FIRST EDITIONS RARE BOOKS .. AUTOGRAPHS LITERARY SERVICES

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A poignant novelofthe menandwomen of one family who loved and hated fiercely but found peace inea'ch other *

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Passenger Traffic Dept. Room 596, South Station Boston, Mass. xii EDITED BY HENRY GODDARD LEACH Feature Articles lor JUDe Why Date the Jews? STRUTHERS BURT Who are the individuals in back of the anti-Semitic movement in this country? What are their motives and. objectives? How are these activities financed? Mr. Burt, in this second article of his series answers these pertinent questions.

ImpressioBs of America G. B. STERN Thinking Ourselves Into Trouble JAMES THURBER America on the Warpath K. R. MARTIN Are Refugees a Liability? FRANK RITCHIE versus HENRY PRATT FAIRCHILD Also in this Issue The Artist's Point of View A Page for Poets The Book Forum The Record Review ------SIX MONTHS lor on'" ONE DOLLAB------THE FORUM AM-6 570 LEXINGTON AVENUE, NEW YORK Here is my dollar. Please send your trial suhscription for six months heginmng with the June issue to: Name...... •

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ORCHESTRAL

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The brightly recorded performances by the talented little orchestra of the New Friends of Music under the deft and scholarly stick of Dr. Fritz Stiedry are the first in America, the disks having been made before the public concert. **tt George Gershwin Music: (Decca Album 31, $5.50). The collected edition of those works by Gershwin intended for performance in concert halls. They are properly performed by Paul Whiteman's Concert Orchestra, which introduced them, and by Roy Bargy and Rosa Linda at the piano. The album in­ cludes Rhapsody in Blue, Second Rhapsody, Cuban Overture, and An American· in Paris. The recording is full-bodied and distinct. A treasure-house ofexciting,out-of-the-ordinary music! CONCERTI HRussIan and Ludmilla" Overture by Glinka •. ; Deep, River .•• Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen .•. Five ***tt Zigeunerweisen, Sarasate: (Victor 15246, Miniatures by White ... 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LI City St.te ~I See SCANDINAVIA this summer on the RAYMOND-WHITCOMB NORTH CAPE Cruise Sailing July 1 on the Cunard White Star world cruising liner "FRANCON IA" Rat:es $550 up

THIS is an ideal cruise: leisurely .•• rich in splendid scenery, picturesque towns and important capitals ... popular alike with young people and their elders •.. attracting discerning travelers from all parts ofAm.erica. On the route are ICELAND MEROK TALLINN HAMMERI=EST BERGEN LENINGRAD NORTH CAPE HARDANGER I=JORD HRSINGI=ORS LYNGEN OSLO COPENHAGEN TRONDHEIM VISBY CHERBOURG NORTHERN FJORDS STOCKHOLM SOUTHAMPTON Raymond-Whitcomb were the originators of Iceland-North Cape Cruises from II America and have had one or more every summer since 1921. This year's contains' { the best-liked ports on all the earlier cruises and so will be exceptionally interesting. J See your own havel agent:, any Cunard White Star office or RAYMOND.WHITCOMB 670 Fifth Avenue 145 Tremont Street - 122 Newbury Street t EW YORK BOSTON I. 320 o. Michigan Avenue 841 Union Connnerce Bldg. OMNIBOOKS CHICAGO CLEVELAND tj,9)