The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
A Page of Features Americana The Home Front By WILLIAM E. BOHN Kid Quiddities f' 8ESE are great days. The iVew; Forfc rime* has discovered that college freshmen don't know much. This is not...
...Winifred Homeward, the Talking Woman...
...and the two Russian liberals are asking damages...
...My colleagues on The Sew Leader staff will serve rjooges...
...The plane crashed in France...
...It finds many parallels between Leinsdorfand Toscanini...
...The typical Jew was Prof...
...neck—demanding inclusion...
...The little red school...
...How does he manage in this book dealing with directors...
...I recall two of his recent popular works...
...Oh, it isn't that she's always giving her own version of the Sermon on the Mount," one of the people in the novel cracks, "tat that she always carries her own portable Mount right with her and sets it up even at a cocktail party...
...The" suggestion that the American Communist Party commit suicide was made in all seriousness some months ago by The fVetp Republic...
...The scene is net in the Davies movie...
...If high school graduate...
...he was tossed into the Lubianka, These was, of course, no case, no charge, but he languished there for week after weak, month after month...
...But the film version is expected to be an expanded account with the lessons of his success, etc., etc,'and anti-labor material may get in...
...The sections dealing with Walter Damrosch and Stock are first rate...
...WilBrie, Wallace, Joseph E. Da vies and their brethren eould be made to read it and- understand It, they might realize tfcat it is possible to recognize the need for wartime and post-war collaboration with Stalin's realm without kidding yourself that it fa a special kind of democracy- Tie chapter in the book devoted to the American Communist Party is one ci the most lucid analyses of 'thai Fifth Column that I hare seen...
...He covers with special fullness the most recent years, furnishing materials not-to be found in my Biography, the American edition of which appeared ih 1935 and the German in 1937, This section- of the book belongs to Che Jvery best things which have been written about ,«ujrfc.' **The classification of material which the author adopts for the later section is not in every respect a "nappy one...
...But only Stowkowski really deserves the titie...
...That's what ¦Post progressive people do in Australia...
...Ewen bits on a happy formula: the director must carry" the "composition in his head, he must hear every detail of the performance, he must know the background of the work, and he must have a personality which rivets and holds the attention of the orchestra- and of the audience...
...as hand noare as a horse, a portly presence with a voice that smothered you under a blanket of molasses and brimstone...
...This is not precisely j,*,,, but it is very fit to print...
...The Rickenbacker story which was published confined itself to the Rtory of the Pacific...
...Wall, our Andre Raynal gave us the story several months ago and we had it all set up for one issue under the stream**— "Behind the North African Invasion...
...At the age of 36 he had the honor of being the youngest man ever appointed to the Australian High Court...
...Besides, Anzac opinions of our present war strategy now sound just like California...
...Joseph J. Ueberberg, ex-presideal of Biro-Bidjan...
...It must be said, however, that Ewen does futl justice to the significance of thhr great man...
...One can come at it only by indirection...
...Gideon Planish, are not wholly coincidental...
...I could fairly hear Joe Kelly's fatuously fatherly voice urging the young prodigies^ in the direction of the correct answer, "Yee> yes, that's fine, Joan, Casey Jones was certainly a great railroad man, gad if Thomas Jefferson-did not invent electricity he certainly had red hair-whieh really amounts to the same thing...
...The man from Australia said not a word against our grand strategy...
...It's a dungeon, dart and dismal...
...It is possible to sketch in what a director must be and know and do—as Ewen does most rewaTdingly in his introductory chapter...
...uess> Who?:—It is being whispered about in literary circles ^* that the references to persons, living or dead, in Sinclair Lewis* new novel...
...No forma...
...RS...
...A last-minute switch in the offensive i—rtnad it to North Africa (whereafter the Nazis took Toulon and Marseilles and arrested some of the French Generals...
...For each composer he presented a sort of autobiography...
...But there is another approach, another way of discussing an artist, going beyond the giving of judgments and opinions, a way which leads in an entirely different 'direction—the way of biogra-l>hy...
...But, he says in effect, the^Japanese never •Breed to it...
...Henry Travers does not pray the carpenter...
...They have not promised to be nice adfcgie tilL/Hitler "knocked out They are consolidating their new empirlvdrawoil, quinine, tin, rubber from the islands, building new indus-•«fes near the sources of materials, making full use of native labor *0PPly...
...Finally he was released, and GPU-chief Beria personally made his apologies...
...Far from playing down history, modern educators have tried to play it up, to vitalize 4t, to dramatize it, to tie it in with the interests of the students, to make it count in current life...
...And to expect that the Kremlin will give up its most potent instrument of international influence is Utopian...
...All were killed...
...CIO is dead-serious in its opposition to any kind of anti-union propaganda on the screen, and is making itself feit in Hollywood...
...but is connected in some ways with his Mission to Moecou...
...who stopped in at thm point...
...PAUL STEFAN "DICTATORS OF THE BATON...
...The feature has been dropped...
...But these negative factors are negligible by comparison with the- positive advantages that it -rives Moscow in dealing with other governments...
...The type was lifted at the last moment, and the presses rolled...
...Everyone, it is true, knows the task of the director...
...I shall fire upon you...
...p» Veil of Censorship-—The other afternoon it appeajad a* a . * passing item in Edgar Ansel Mowrer's dispatch—so I suppose that now it can be told...
...Hugh Russell Fraser had accused the "social study ejttrettusts" of having "a contempt for the facts of American history...
...I wanted to be tied up with the future rather than with the past...
...Surely Wilhelmina Whosit of Sioux City should have received a Britanica or a portable receiving set for some of those questions...
...The League was named in the' Washington Grand Jury sedition indictments...
...How- many such future great ones may be in this country, unknown and perhaps unemployed—that is something which no one can tell...
...The mass meeting will handle Rick without gloves...
...But then came the war, and this man...
...Not only does each composer speak for himself, but for each one, his most authoritative connoisseur appears as commentator...
...It is •aly through cleverness, courage and enterprise that we have man's...
...The N. Y. World-Telegram had a "Beat Bets" box for radio programs where the radio-editor packed her favorites...
...This remark applies also to every sort of interpretation, even to that of the work of art itself...
...That is ao—partly—because* this man, whose foresight led to the setting up of the Pacific War Council, is frankly and energetically a Labor man...
...They need no dies...
...He was an old man, illiterate, something of a -renins* hut ms work-sheet reveaiea that he bad been busy prerioealy on Japanese woodwork and German furniture...
...This is the method of Ewen...
...on the contrary, he has utilized Fifth Cohirrms everywhere in support of his national interests...
...Suppose that the United'Stares possessed in every other nation a great "army of high-minded men and women who placed - American interests above the interests of their own country...
...WE must all be modest in attempting to understand and describe the nature of the director's art...
...Wafter should have been brought more strongly into the foreground...
...You, deaf readers, are to be the jury...
...to hold them ofT...
...I thought we didn't Med waking,- but I was Wrong...
...Freedom of the press...
...By Damdj Ewen...
...Some one gave W.W...
...True,'on occasion it gums up attempts at rapprochement between the Soviet and notr-Soviet governments...
...chapter devoted to Toscanini under the title...
...urself: Is this as good as the prose of SSS2""&, Lincoln oT**&VU^^ Hfe** Then send iu^* vote, The ^SgS^ffi^ gjtjMogy- and English^ verse appears on this' page...
...The suit by Grigorieh* and Mansvetor against Walter Winchell is up again, and the libel complaint wflt shortly go before a jury for decision...
...Under tfte title, Showman Conductor, he includes Stowkowski, Koussevitsky, MitropouloB and Iturbf...
...There should be more study of the men ui women whose lives have personified and advanced the democratic tradition...
...The number of planes **ich MacArthur can send against them is pitifully small...
...European tradition, according to Ewen, is represented by Walter, Fritz Busch, Bwcham and Mbnteux...
...with sympathetic warmth...
...The effect produced must be something magical, and for this there is neither definition nor explanation...
...This poor little Russian carpenter had been busy doing some repair work in the U. S. Embassy in Moscow during the days of the "Moscow Trials...
...Jfr • John L. Childa, George S. Counts, and other...
...The same thing holds true of Russia, only more so, since Russia is' not hampered by any racial or class inhibitions in seducing,muddle-headed foreigners into acting as agents...
...note to the editor went out this week...
...We can't help picking up an item from The Nation's "fat the Wind...
...On- this side of the Atlantic only the South Americans have had opportunity to recognize this fact...
...We thought it would be quite o.k...
...The book deals with these men, especially young Lemsdorf...
...The search for the criminal has been carried on with all the techniques of your {irorite author of mysteries...
...all ready and eager to follow the Kremlin's line of argument or action...
...The upshot is this: without revising our grand strategy we oust send enough to the Pacific front to harass the.Japs, to inter-*»e with their plans, prevent their building an empire the congest of which will take years of time and millions of casusfUties...
...Alexander Uhl of PM, Russell Porter of the Tiwtm, aad a host of other's, wanted to use the story, with credit—but wanted to know whether it ted been cleared by the Washington censors...
...r\ouble-Cross in Vichj:—The rumor had spread that General Maxim Weygand had told an American official: "If yon come with one division...
...But politics hi creating a jam...
...The Naris, however, retrieved the report...
...In connection with these men and otters the author—and this gives cause for special re-joicing—recounts tire histories of the orchestras ot Philadelphia...
...This section is in itself a veritable paragon of description, interpretation andbiogra-phy—written with as much knowledge as love...
...In just a little while every advertiser was down en the ir.-r...
...But, ah...
...Wilbur F. Murra answers the educational conservatives with a devastating thoroughness...
...They may not use dynamite, but these social studies that they keep talking about certainly sound, suspicious...
...I$Jaturally Ewen does not overlook the directors who function only over the radio, men like Barlow, Black...
...No matter how deeply we disapprove the Soviet totalitarian way of life, we have no ealternative but to' accept it as an existing fact...
...THE authors of this small book, honest democrats of radical persuasion, have no illusions about the Soviet paradise...
...The special Soviet edition of Life included pic-tares of unnamed individuals typical of the dif ereat peanjhsi who make ap the Soviet Union...
...Naive editorial writers and politicians have argued that because Russia has gone nationalist with a vengeance, it has no need for a COmrnu-nist International...
...I think our grand strategy is ri»*t...
...And as for William James, to whom many of the undergraduates assured a place in our annals to which he never dared aspire, Joe would not h»« had the least trouble about him...
...A Washington correspondent tells us of the latest line:—Publisher Henry "Luce and his wife, Rep...
...As far as Busch Is concerned, the author lacks the experience Which we enjoyed in Dresden...
...But a good many of the heroes among the author's "dictators" are still comparatively young...
...Without such a practical adjustment, there can be no durable post-war settlement...
...Hurra quotes an onftial Council statement: "The historical development, the conflicts and the trends of American democracy quit be taught...
...Raissevfbsky belongs rather under the beading Of European TratH-tknta...
...L25...
...An attempt to determine the reasons why one director electrifies musicians and hearers—while another does not—is almost certain to lead to naught...
...Well," Dr...
...fellow-traveler news-sheet Another, and meee ta> dtgnant...
...put up or shut up, said this master of mots...
...Splendid," said Mahler, "but after all what do we know about my symphony...
...Whoever gives us the life of a director efrrfftuiB much...
...Among the characters involved in the back-fence gossip is "Windy Winnie," of whom Lewis writes: "Winifred Marduc Home* ard . . . that was a woman...
...And the carpenter waved his hand—"But ifs perfectly all right...
...Pittsburgh and other American cities, Ewen does not feel obliged to flatter all of these r*en...
...the dissclution of the- Comintern is -the firs* and inescapable condition for cooperation with Russia, then there clearly can be no such cooperation...
...Evatt told enough—most of it off the record—to convince ** that that comfortable feeling is criminal...
...Everywhere they control trade union movements, cultural groupings, important' press and radio outlets, a thousand and one other instruments of pressure and power...
...Paragon...
...He shows us the inner growth of the man, his tradition, the things that helped him to develop...
...Since the battles of the Coral Sea...
...Why does Broadway-columnist Danton Walker plug (without mentioning his name) Joe Kamp's vile propaganda booklets...
...Spreading beyond the actual Communist parties in all countries are the vast peripheries of fellow-travelers, stooges and ujhoerints...
...It is utterly childish to overlook the value of such support to any country...
...he said...
...But we're really very sorry...
...To ask him to throw away this sword may make gpod liberal logic, but ih the logic of real life It turns to gibberish...
...that's all right...
...And he has used it with great success...
...R?R- EWEN is one of the busiest writing>men' irt music...
...THE ««bu, the American woman careerist, and it is a reasonable bet that in 1955 she will be dictator of the I'nited States and China...
...That means holding the line on other fronts...
...Whod Put Me Hhs in History...
...Hontxiger's plane-crash last year was not accidental, but arranged...
...Be speaks as the executive secretary of the National Council for Social Studies, which is a department'of the National Education Association...
...But even this is not all...
...In the Times, on'April 15th, Dr...
...I always recall a remark made by Mahler to a ¦well-known musicologist who showed him an analysis of his latest symphony...
...The Times experiment shows that it is about time that they should be...
...m ««ered to select poems, new poems, poems k...
...Hitter is the central enemy...
...he might well have gone further in the direction of enthusiasm...
...For this latter volume his scheme was a clever one...
...If you come with twenty, I shall embrace you...
...As conductors of tomorrow Isler Solomon, Sylvan Levin and the Negro, Dean Dixon, are grouped together...
...at every grade level...
...was too much alive to sit peacefully on the hrach...
...If jou agee m these poems are good, then I must eat my words right neie i«e yon all in this corner of my column You y...
...I y°nng men and women speaking from the deplfceof «h* w*r gfcttience...
...Only in rare cases could I telL But not only I sense the differences—not only the experts,—but all the thousands who listen, even those who know-nothing about music in a profession...
...At his press conference last Monday Dr...
...Koussevitsky, bo has taught and helped so many young artists in his Berkshire Music Center, has assured the author of this review that for every great American orchestra be knows of a native-born American conductor worthy of leading it...
...George Jefferson and Thomas "Washington walk arm-in-arm km the pages of examination papers, while William Lewis and John L. Green find it difficult to decide whether to fight each other or make peace...
...Wendell Willkie's book is selling like pre-rationing hot-cakes used to, and movie companies are interested in the film righto...
...A Page of Features Americana The Home Front By WILLIAM E. BOHN Kid Quiddities f' 8ESE are great days...
...house should have locked ks doors against all these lias from Teachers College...
...Hitler's extreme nationalism has not deterred him from meddling in other peoples' affairs...
...of the Aviation Ministry, appoint one of "the boys" to pilot: he was prepared to sstcriflce himself, crash the plane, kiH Huntxiger, destroy the report That "block-headed Alsatian" had to be eliminated to save the Vichy Triumvtrate, Petain-Darlan-Weyg^pd...
...Music Comes to America and The Book-of Modem Composers...
...T hey know by instinct who done it Ifs these modernists, these revolutionists, these discontented intellectuals who always Hint everything improved...
...Granville Hicks has quit his radio program ic»leelng books and authors...
...HWraworn in...
...Democratic political headquarters are net eery keen on the release of a film which would boost Willkie's political stature—and just about the time of the next political campaign too...
...Maestros of Music By Dr...
...As the story appeared, readers will remember, it was still a revelation—and one managing editor of one metropolitan paper, after reading it, cabled all his key bureau* "to wake tip...
...Evatt confided with a grin, "I just Wtorally joined the Labor Party from the start...
...In China, the Comintern m effect" has-its own armies, and everywhere in the Far East it has organizations which represent outpeetr of power...
...A Labor Foreign Minister 1MHEX I include Australia in our home front I am betraying a " personal attitude...
...Alliance Book Corporation...
...and the Bismarck Sea, we could be ««used for thinking that MacArthur has enough: men and- ma-*ani to take care of things in his sector...
...She was an automatic, self-starting talker...
...EVATT came—as did Madame Chiang Kai-schek—to wake " us up about the situation in the Pacific...
...Chatter Inside and Out By MATTHEW LOW /"*}nc of the foreign c»rrespondents has passed on a story which doesn't really involve ex-Ambassador Joseph Edward Davies...
...If Messrs...
...And the late General Huntzinger, playing up to the Nazis, pressed for Weygand'* court-martial, carrtad through an investigation, and was to fly back from North Africa with his report...
...Incidentally, the editors of this weil-i'lustrated volume have placed the name of Leins-dorf under the photograph of Ormandy—and vice versa...
...Any throng of mere than two psmmsmm constituted %. lecture audience for her, and at shrht of them she mounted an iaaghtary platform, pushed aside an imaginary glass of ice water, and started a fervent address full of imaginary information a boat Conditions and Situations that lasted till the andience sneaked oat—or a little laager...
...The story got around to seme of the foreign desks, and Thursday afternoon as we were going to press the phone started bussing...
...Stalin has in his Hands a- sword that cuts both ways in enforcing his views on other governments—by the threat of releasing revolution and civil war and by the promise of preventing revolution and civil war...
...replied the carpenter, his eyes smiling, "I never mat so many educated people in all my life...
...Every editor takes his pen far hand and every legislator uncork* his mouth-^without taking a preliminary examination—to tell us who must bear the blame for the ignorance of ycuth...
...AFL's William Green may be a main speaker...
...facts of sovereignty can ever make me feel that a chap from down under is a foreigner...
...Wallenstein and Rapes...
...Here Ewen gives us a massr of material, especially American material, about this giant among directors...
...Weygand was forced to resign and was later kidnapped by the Gestapo...
...Clare Luce, are having their tiffs—Fortune Mag ami** 'Bt* f erred to the "Globaloney" school as "narrowminded and vicious I" —but will never divorce because they're both afraid the other might become president of the U.S...
...I have essayed the same task in my biographies of Mahler, Toscanini, and Bruno Walter...
...We're sorry...
...they must work out some method of living together en a Shrinking planet...
...He would have toark that Buach is one of the best opera directors ih"tftesworld...
...It is hard to imagine that Drs...
...a wrong tip...
...are ignorant, it is not because the schools have been modernized...
...IN THE-POST-WAR'WORLD...
...The food is rotten...
...Oor author starts his series of pictures with a loiig...
...The mere recital of this view is conducive to the deepest pessimism anent the post-war world...
...Darlan had General Bergeret...
...Bat trie carpenter offered a friendly smile and replied, "Oh...
...Herbert Vere Evatt, the Australian Attorney General and- Minister of External •fairs, talked—except for his towels—jusl like one of lis...
...The treatment is rough...
...We can't attack everywhere ttonce with all guns blazing—so the right thing is to concentrate on Germany...
...Then—this work would be announced with Toscanini on the podium...
...The conservative heavies play the part of the official flat-foot who is always wrong...
...4 flea From the Pacific IJE...
...Witropotrlus, again, seems to me to belong in the Chapter on Conductors of Tomorrow...
...They forget that intense na^ tionalism is by no means incompatible with political intrusion on other nations...
...The freshmen, for their part, are jajfinned in an ancient conviction that professors ask stupid questions...
...Or-mandy an*'Reiner are also given suitable recognition...
...At the present time, to be specific, these agents are worming their way into- a number of governments-ir:-exile, into underground movements in conquered areas, into emigre organisations...
...I would gd...
...Walker quotes him but uses Kamp's "Constitutional Education League" as authority...
...Counts and Childs are serious in making an equivalent suggestion...
...But in this case the author was dealing with composers...
...They underestimate the , power of that-Weapon in Stalin's hands, perhaps ¦ because they are too much impressed with the fact that it has so often been ineffectual in the United States True, the Comintern contributes to the distrust with which- the outside world looks on Soviet policies...
...He would raise the baton—and it . would te different...
...He agrees *«t it is inevitable...
...In fact it seems to me that in some cases, especially in that of Rodzinski...
...W-heraapon...
...Bat the Lubianka is a terrible place...
...If we had stuck to the methods of the Hoosier Schoolmaster, wa should never have got into all this trouble...
...How often have I heard a good, even a distinguished, performance of a symphony or of an opera, and I have said to myself: "Even Toscanini couldn't do the job any differently, any better, than this wonderful Mr...
...TEAT a crime has been committed is clear...
...Since then sheer verve and vision have made him a world leader...
...The jury mSTvote by letter...
...Mowrer mentioned the hitherto unpublished information that the 1942 Allied strategy Included an invasion of Southern France, Plaas had been set, and military sectors divided...
...P.S...
...That was, of course, a life appointment...
...And I-am half persuaded to believe that it cannot be done...
...Join Day...
...At tile request of the Prime Minister, he resigned, ran for tSe Federal Parliament on the Labor Party ticket, was elected and •0—very soon—was a member of Premier Curtin's cabinet...
...to run it.' . . . But D. C. had a different angle!' For 40 minutes we read the page-proofs over the long-distance wire to the Office of Censorship—and they ordered out all the sensational details on the opening of the continent...
...The plan produced excellent results...
...French front...
...Now each editor uses his own judgment in these matters, for thei-e isn't a military Mae-pencil available for every column...
...In the shaping of war policies and in the scramble when the war is -ended, Russia is the only nation which has large and influential bodies of agents, fanatic and self-sacrificing, inside every country to support its put poses.' In many countries, these agents sit in- the local parliaments...
...William James was not precisely the younger brother of Jesse, but both of them were certainly great psychologist*—so you are on the right track...
...In this issue of The New Leader you will read a carefully written and judicious article in which Algernon Black puts the blame where'it belongs.' You will see that the conservatives themselves were not far from the scene of the crime and that a number of clues point in their direction...
...After the third scream of righteousness whenever she attacks Hitler, Winifred almost makes me tolerate Hitler, and I dont like that...
...I asked him how he happens to b> a Laborite...
...Russia, on its side, must desist from interference in the internal life of the democracies—which means that it must "liquidate" the Third International and- its* member-parties everywhere outside Russia...
...She's the first Lary Messiah, and I'm afraid she's going to get the entire Messiah industry in wrong...
...The GPU couldn't cat it...
...Special emphasis should be given to the study of dramatic, key episodes in the development ¦ our democracy...
...Their great air-fields and concentration of ships and tW>Ps are a growing threat to Australia...
...We now learn that it was not fat*, hat Admiral Jean Francois Xavier Darlan...
...Meanwhile in Washington, D. C, a big meeting deflating the Captain is on the agenda...
...He is one of the British Commonwealth's leading constitutional lawyers...
...He is short, stocky, dynamic...
...That's what the modernists want...
...So we have had a comfortable fearing, a notion that we can let things slide along out there...
...A 8l"""*ng Anthology ' jtWAY back on January 19th, I shouted to all the world: "The ~*ar has produced some swell prose, but riot one line of decent ?P&yOut of the great deep came the answer ftton a poet «m name is Harry Roekolenko, and his response had all Ute cflKrm 5 the prfee rjng...
...Don't ask me why...
...t liber berg was dismissed in 1936—on charges of Trotskyism...
...It is astonishing how much material he has gathered about-European as well, aa American artists, and to what an extent he has blended all of his materials into a 1 iving whole...
...She was something new in the history of women...
...COUNTS AND CHILDS, and a good many other liberals, merely fumble for an escape from an unpleasant dilemma —the need to collaborate with tfoeeia despite its network of Fifth Columns—when they talk of the liquidation of the Comintern...
...I ire rati St Co.:—Henririk Willem Van Loon, after two years of wrangling, is still trying to get his name off the letter-head of The Hmtr...
...Of course, Charles," he would graciously ullulate, "technically you are not exactly right...
...Their book offers' internal evidence that they would not be taken in by any formal abolition of the Comintern which left the Fifth Columns intact in some:new disguise...
...Wners win Books end Writers Liberals and the Comintern By EUGENE LYONS "AMERICA, RUSSIA AXD THE COMMUNiST PART1...
...The thesis of the book is roughly this: Though Russia'and the democracies are different in political temper and economic structure...
...Labor means getting on, peaceful change, liberalism...
Vol. 26 • April 1943 • No. 17
