NEw- MASSES •• MAY, %9Z6 IS THIS IT? IN THIS ISSUE Is this the magazine our prospectuses THE WRITERS talked about? We are not so sure. This, BABETTE DEUTSCH, winner however, is undoubtedly the editorial which, of this year's "Nation" Poetry Prize, in all our prospectuses, we promised faith­ has published two volumes of poetry. fully not to write. She has recently visited Soviet Russia. As to the magazine, we regard it with ROBERT DlJNN is the author of "Ameri· almost complete detachment and a good deal can Foreign Investments" and co-author with of critical interest, because we didn"t make Sidney Howard of it ourselves. "The Labor Spy." ROBINSON JEFFERS' "Roan Stallion, We merely "discovered"" it. Tamar and Other Poems," published last We were confident that somewhere in year, established him as one of the impor• America a NEW MASSES existed, if only as tant contemporary American poets, He live. a frustrated desire. in Carmel, Calif. To materialize it, all that was needed was WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS is well to make a certain number of prosaic editorial known as physician, modernist, poet and motions. story-writer, and is the author of "In the American Crain... We made the motions, material poured in, and we sent our first issue to the printer. NATHAN ASCH is the author of a collec­ tion of vivid short stories published last Next month we shall make, experimentally, year under the title, "The Office." He slightly different lives motions, and a somewhat in Paris. different NEW MASSES will blossom pro­ fanely on the news-stands in the midst of NORMAN STUDER Ia one of the editors our respectable contemporaries, the whiz­ of the "New Student." bangs,. the success-liturgies, the household M. H. HEDGES, editor of the official organ aphrodisiacs, the snob-baedekkers and the of the Electrical Workers' Union, is the department a~ore catalogues. author of several labor novels, It's an exciting game, and we'd like very ART SHIELDS is on the staff of the much to draw you, our readers, into it. Federated Press. He has covered scores of What would you like to see in the NEW strikes in the industry of which he writes. MASSES? Do you want more cartoons? More labor stories? More satire--fiction­ KAROL REMBOV is the pseudonym of a poetry? How about criticism of books, thea­ young student and writer in the field of tre, art, music, the movies? labor. How would you feel if the NEW MASSES HAL SAUNDERS WHITE is a member of went in for some confession articles) Amer .. the faculty of Yale University. lea is going through a queer period of stock· EDWIN SEAVER is a young poet and taking. • Maybe we'll get some well-known critic living In New York. tired radicals to tell what made them tired; or induce same quite unknown people, who GEORGE STERLING is San Francisco's are, however, rich both in experience and in poet and First Citizen. honesty, to describe their experience in SCOTT NEARING, recently returned from print. Soviet Russia, is well known as a radical We would like to fill a page with letters educator and author. He lectures to tens of from all over the country telling of indus­ thousands of American workingmen yearly. tries. occupations. changing social customs, WHITTAKER CHAMBERS is a young the daily work and play of Americans every­ poet, who recently left Columbia in prates' where. We see this as a possible feature-­ against the censorship of the undergraduate a monthly mosaic of American life, In which literary magazine. the tragedy and comedy, the hopes and dreams of the most obscure American mill town or cross-roads village will be chron­ icled with as much respect and sympathy THE ARTISTS by our correspo11-dents as If they were re­ WILLIAM GROPPER, remembered for his porting the political or artistic events of a drawings in the "Liberator" and "Dial," is European capitaL Will you write us a letter now drawing regularly for the "Sunday of this sort? Will you send us ideas for World" and other feature.? "Freiheit." ADOLPH DEHN is a young Minnesota artist, who has been spending the past two years in Paris and Vienna. A PRIZE OF $50 DRAWING BY A. RONNEBECK STUART DAVIS is a painter and one of SIGNS OF SPRING the first contributors of the old "Masses." In order to add zest to this game of coop­ erative editing which we invite you to play, ART YOUNG was with the old "Masses" we offer a prize of $50 for the best letter of from the start. He was a contributing 500 words or less submitted between now editor of the "Liberator" and is now embel­ NEW and July I. The editors will judge the con­ MASSES MAY, 1926 lishing the pages of "Life" and the "Satur· test and announce the winner In the Sep­ day Evening Post." Volume 1 Number 1 tember issue, meanwhile publishing usable I. KLEIN is a young artist of promise letters as they are received. whose work was firat seen in the .. New Yorker." Single copy, 25 cents Subscription $2.00 a year BOARDMAN ROBINSON Is known for his OUR COMING-OUT PARTY EDITORS: fine drawings in the old "Masses" and Egmont Arens, Joseph Freeman, Hugo Gellert, Michael Gold, lames Rorty and John Sloan. "Liberator." He accompanied John Reed The NEW MASSES had a great on his first trip to Russia during the war. coming­ ExECUTIVE Bo.utn: out party in March, with a huge debate at WANDA .GAG is a young painter who will Egmont Arens, Maurice Becker Helen Black, loh1S Dos Pa.uos, Robert Dunn, Joseph Free­ Manhattan Opera House between Scott ,.,.,., Hugo Gellert, Michael Gold, William Gropper, Paxto1S Hibben, Robert L. Leslie, Freda hold an exhibition at Weyhe'a Galleries in Nearing and a speaker from the National Kirchwey, Louis Lozowick, lames Rorly, John Sloan and Res Stout. the fall. Security League. About two thousand per­ CONTltiBUTING EDITORS: LOUIS LOZOWICK is a painter, and sons attended, and the discussion was broad~ Sherwood Anderson, Cornelia Barns, Carleton Beals, Van Wyck Brooks, Howard Brubaker, author of ''Modern Russian Art." He de· cast over the radio. The subject of the de­ Stuart Chase, Glenn Coleman, Miguel Covarrubias, Stuart Davis, Adolph Dehi/.n Floyd Dell, signed the sets for "Gas," the mechanistic bate was ..Recognition of Soviet Russia." MIU' Eastman, Waldo Frank, AI Ff'Ueh, Arturo Gio'VIJftitti, Susan Glaspell, • J. Glinten­ play recently presented in Chicago. kamp, John Howard Lawson, Claude McKay, Lewis Mumford Eugene O'Neill Elmer Rice, About the second week in May there will Lola Ridge, Boardman Robinson, Rita Romilly, Carl Ruggles, Carl Sandburg, Upton Sinclaif', F. S. HYND is a student at the Art be another party to greet our first issue. Genevieve Taggard, lean Toomer, Louis Untermeyer, Mary Heaton Vorse, Eric Walrond, Student's League. The NEW MASSES pre· Walter F. White, Edmund Wilson, Representatives of all the big labor unions, Jr., Roberl Wolf, Charles W. Wood and Art Young. sents his first published drawing. the various radical parties and poets, musi­ BusiNESS MANAGn: OTTO SOCLOW was one of the younger cians, playwrights and other artists will be Ruth Stout. contributors of the "Liberator." present. There will be a concert of modem Published monthly by NEW MASSES, INc., Office of Publication, 39 West Eighth Street, New HANS STENGEL, formerly one of the music, speeches, and then the audience will York: Michael Gold, President; Joseph Freeman, Vice-President; Ruth Stout, Secretary; James editors of .. Simplicissimus, .. now contributes be invited to criticize the make-up of this Rorty, Treastwer. issue. Copyright, 1926, by NEW MASSES, INc. Reg. U. S. Patent Office. to many American magazines. Application for Second Class mailing privilege pendin~r. A. RONNEBECK is a sculptor whose exhi· Watch the radical press for an announce• Subscribers are notified that no change of address can be effected in less than a month. bitions in New York and Europe have at· ment of the place and time. Unsolicited manuscripts mwot be accompanied by a stamped and addressed return envelope. tracted wide attention. JUNE. 1926 3 WE ARE BORN IN THIS ISSUE Writing in the Emporia Gazette, THE WRITERS William Allen White greets the NEW MASSES, is delighted that the infant John Dos Passos is an American seems so lusty, and gives it six months novelist and playwright whose most to live I recent book, Manhattan Transfer, was Mr. White is wrong. Despite his published last year by Harpers. chronic obstreperousness, he remains like all liberals, a loyal child of our Marguerite Tucker is a writer and old mother capitalism, not realizing that musician living in New York. she is now some years dead; that Grace neither in life nor in the arts can she Lumpkin was on the editorial continue to nourish the children of the staff of the World Tomorrow. new world, who, even in America, are Esther Lowell is one of the New rapidly outgrowing their intellectual York representatives of the Federated swaddling clothes. Press. However, Mr. White unquestion­ ably gets us. He says, in effect, that Arthur Garfield Hays is a well­ we come not to chide the old woman, known New York attorney who has but to bury her. Right. And as for often represented the American Civil our own likelihood survival,of we sub­ Liberties Union in its fights for free mit that the future of this new world is speech. probably a better gambling chance than Margaret Larkin is a young poet and the awkward and uncertain present of playwright of Santa Fe, New Mexico, capitalism.