The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
The Home Front By William E. BOHN Vebloa •* Stylht Tills modest column ia a first class thermometer. I mean the sort that you stick under people's tongues. My mail is an accurate record of...
...But at some point they will take the big plunge into an uncalled-for discussion of whether their children ought to marry people of other races, and from that moment on their argument would become illogical, self-contradictory and hazy...
...I believe it was superb for his purpose, Such terms as "conscientious withdrawal of efficiency" as a definition of sabotage, or "effrontery and tact" aa the requisite qualities for salesmanship sre gems of expression...
...There is, however, another institution in Europe which is almost unknown in America: the devil...
...it is nationalistic, imperialistic and immorral...
...Still, not being black, he is an unsatisfactory substitute, and this may be one of the reasons why the Nazi system, fortunately, will prove to have little durability...
...Which leads back to Thoretein Veblen...
...That's a fitting reward for a good bookkeeper...
...The AFL flatly'turned down the invitation because of the presence of the Soviets...
...I. Altechurer, of the Bronx, shsll be allowed to apeak for a chorus of correspondents...
...Everyone talks Teheran, but here is exactly what it is: a system whereby each of the Big Three powers will be "paramount" in specific areas...
...With Kazakevich, Simmons & Co...
...Morgan gave Cornell a modicum of praise...
...The Daily Worker featured a great democratic debate—with rank-and-file participation, too— over the issue of duet...
...he names them as Abe Fortas, the Undersecretary of the Treasury, and Clifford Durr of the Federal Communications Commission...
...Edgar Ansel Mowrer, commenting on the ideas, says, "this writer thinks it is lousy...
...Robert G. Spivack'a report of a wisecrack which has the Dewey forces frothing—calling the high and mighty Governor "The Little Napoleon From Elba-ny...
...Lombardo Toledano accepted with alacrity...
...Americans, while there are relatively more of them who believe in God, don't believe in his satanic majesty...
...Chamberlain, like Communist Kazakevich, waa going to give a three-months' course...
...Morgan, relying on Cornell's news release, thought that Mr...
...But this is to introduce a letter from a .soldier, Robert Plank...
...The bulk of the speech was taken up with denouncing any Big Power peace and a call for a United Nations Council with small nations' participation, which seemed to be an indirect slap at Cordell Hull...
...Sumner Welles bee-an answering questions...
...Leaving frills such as horns and tail aside, he haa often been reduced to the Agure of a bad black man who has sexual intercourse with white women...
...That Alan Dunn cartoon in the New Yorker recently which showed a newsboy hawking the Daily Worker in the downtown district and yelling: "Get Your Wall St...
...Freedom of Assemblage, that shows it's a democratic nation and eligible for membership...
...Several weeks ago, after reviewing the story of how Communist Fellow-Traveler Ernest Simmons advances Communist interests in what are supposed to be scientific studies of Soviet Russia, Mr...
...Nat Ganley of l,ocal 155 UAW, and some old standbys including -Louis Weinstock of the painters...
...Just why there is no devil in America I do not know, I have a hunch that there is a connection between this fact and the trends of American capitalism which have aet a premium on optimism...
...In an atmosphere of speculation to the limit, of belief in sn unending expansion of sales, in the unchecked rise it) real estate values and in the wholesome effect of all such progress on man's soul, the thought of the devil would be uii seemly and embarassing...
...Dick Rovere's thorough job on Dewey, "The Man in the Blue Serge Suit" in the May Harpers, which takes the boy bigshot to the cleaners...
...The CIO accepted here after some discussion...
...But it is pleasant to believe that if it should be possible to find the truth of the matter and to bring it to the attention of those who are afflicted, this in itself might help ' Inside and Out By MURRAY EVERTT Our Lino't loon Changed Again The day after the Communist Party changed its n. ue, the Daily Worker ran a streamer headline: BROWDER ELECTED CPA PRESIDENT...
...You null say that this has nothing to do with reality...
...Many would discuss raoial problems with fairness snd intelligence as long as physical snd psychological differences, economic, political and educational arrangements are concerned...
...The British unions had invited the Soviet unions and had extended invitations to all other unions in the world...
...It certainly haa not It* basis would hi the psychological need of many persons to believe in bad black men who have intercourse with white women...
...In Europe there are no Negroes and therefore no feelings about them...
...Generally speaking, Europeans who believe in God also believe in the devil...
...But there does seem to be evidence thst people do...
...They proved to me that Vtblen is very much alive amqng us...
...All kinds of interlocutors —with a quter glitter in their eyes—will think they have you completely cornered when they hiss: 'Would you like to have your daughter marry a Negro...
...Miscellany c CAPTAIN EDDIE RICKENBACKER has been gome around making speeches praising the Soviet Union, and one M.P...
...After all, Comrade Browder started off as a bookkeeper, and before he acquired a set of ghostwriters, he wrote, during his stay in the penitentiary (like all true revolutionists), a tome—but his was on Accounting for Cooperatives...
...Says Mr...
...It may ha noteworthy that io Europe, where the belief in the devil has also decreased, the Nazis have aligned his role to the Jew...
...Labor Notes The international trade union parley which was called for June by the British Trades Union Congress, has been called off...
...The review was so poor s piece of criticism that it was amusing—especially the remark by Matthews that he was surprised to learn that Veblen was s Ph...
...What can be done to exercise all these devils and their substitutes...
...Welles was silent...
...It is hard to see how economic circumstances could be primarily responsible for that...
...The Nazis have even taken pains to equip him with some physical characteristics of the devil, such as deformed feet...
...The Jew of Nazi mythology is, as far as his business activities leave him time, engaged in seducing or raping "Aryan" women...
...Events will tell...
...It was on Veblen's The Higher Learning in America, Matthew's review was a futile attempt to rebut a devastating expose of the American university...
...And don't let anybody tell you that there wasn't democracy in the sessions of the Communist Political Association...
...Look at Tugwell and Wallace in the government, Wesley Mitchell in economics, R. L. Duffus and John Chamberlain in journalism...
...The official reason given was transportation difficulties—but the betting was high last March that the conference would not convene...
...It was the charge of contact with him which brought so many "witches" to the stake...
...While they may have helped to channelize the emotions, one is forced to conclude that the emotions themselves must spring from some deeper sources (as you said...
...TOO S«b»fita-fe Devil I HAVE no doubt that absence of the devil is one of the things that make life in America so pleasant...
...What the People Are Talking About The people are talking about: • Forrest Davies' "official'' piece in the Satevepost on Teheran...
...The first question from the floor was: What are your criteria for admitting countries into the United Nations Council...
...The criteria are simple," replied Welles, "if the nation practices Freedom of Press, Freedom of Speech...
...Just why anybody ahould foel a need to believe such a thing, I do not know...
...It now turns out that a number of party-line trade unionists who had been denying they were Communists all along have now joined the Communist Political Association...
...A few weeks ago I made a few glancing remarks about the old boys style...
...Some critics, like Mstthews and Mencken, found Veblen's English clumsy...
...Final...
...Driven out by the door, he has a way of re-entering by the window...
...Roosevelt calls it his "great design" but it turns out to be a Big-Power peace...
...Kelly Postal, former secretary-treasurer of the Minneapolis truckdrivera union, whose five-year prison sentence became a civil liberties cause, was paroled this week in Minnesota after serving almost a year...
...But what sources...
...My mail is an accurate record of public ezcitement about this or that...
...Closing Bids and Asked...
...on the job, how much csn thst be...
...Now it turns out that Cornell has appointed Chamberlin fo- just one week...
...James Agee's piece in the current Partisan Review on "Pseudo-Folk Culture," which goes to town on Hazel Scott and other practitioners of the cult...
...Hagen wrote: "Germaa generals liked to run their country behind some civilians in the government chair...
...He imports from Europe, an idea which vou will not want to miss: . J "Just as tardily as Mrs...
...sang out a voice from the balcony...
...It is surprising—or is it?—to find s large number of respectable notables who are followers or readers of Veblen...
...I (alley of San Francisco read your column on the hostesses and the Negroes, 1 read her letter and your fine comments...
...It may be a genuine move on the part of Hagen, the head of the controversial Council on Democratic Germany, to disassociate himself from the Moscow committee, or protective camouflage...
...If he is not allowed to play his role, someone else must What role...
...To me it seems surprising, because, in my view, Veblen was more of iconoclast than Karl Marx...
...The fine folks who have looked down their noses at him have always seemed funny to me...
...There is, evidently, something fascinating to certain persons sbout the notion of the two races going to bed together...
...Lillian Smith, in South Today and in her novel, has given me my deepest clue to what lies back of this...
...The arguments offered by the people in question (after the "plunge") scarcely give a hint...
...It was that, having had its ears pinned back, Cornell finally stopped pretending that there are no experts on Russia in the United States except Stalin's followers: Cornell added William Henry Chamberlain to its summer Russian faculty and Mr...
...Fred Rodell, the progressive gadfly, claims that there are only two New Dealers left In the administration...
...I recall that so-called review by Brander Matthews...
...That is the extent of Cornell's concessions to its critics, and that is the measure of the improvement in the course...
...For fellowa who never turned a frish phrase in all their sheep-like writing lives to berate the style of a man who conspicuously had the individual touch—well, it's the pot calling the sun black...
...Altschuler: "Your view of Veblen's style—as reault of an effort to retain his bread-and-butter job and at the ssme time get across his iconoclsstic thoughts—is correct...
...or Ebert, or Hindenburg, or Hitler, or, as in the* post-mortem caricature, Erich . Weinert the poet, chairman of Moscow's Free Geraiaay Generala' Committee...
...Go to the Devil TllE other day I suggested that there is more to this race question than economics...
...Can it be that in American folklore the Negro has been assigned the role thst the devil used to play...
...Paul Hagen's review of the book on Hitler's Generals in the May 21 Tribune book section, where he takes a poke at Erich Weinert, the head of Moscow's Free Germany Committee...
...They have increased my bewilderment...
...gets up in Parliament to complain petulantly that Russia is placing $2,600,000,000 worth of orders in the United States and little in Great Britain...
...What about Russia...
...For it would seem indeed that there is, in the minds of most people approaching this race problem, a certain undissolved anxiety, inexplicable perhaps to themselves, which defies definition snd discussion...
...Arthur G. McDowell, national representative of the Textile Workers Union, has filed for Congress in the Missouri primaries, seeking to defeat Republican Congressman Walter Ploeser, a reactionary...
...The Cornell Story CoRNELL UNIVERSITY fooled our contributor Alexander Morgan...
...It is impractical to take them at their face value...
...Sad to relate, however, the old bey does not so easily allow himself to be disposed of...
...One of the devil's most importsnt, though least advertised, activitiea is sexual...
...Those interested in building up' racial prejudice had to work with the Jews...
...Literary reflections of this state of affairs can be found in many respected European claaaica...
...D. From personal experience I csn say that the above book by Veblen was no caricature of the American university or college...
...Ferdinand "iilackie" Myers of the Maritime Union...
...Morgan said this would moan sn improvement in the course...
...I do not know...
...He invented some of the finest phrases in our newer vocabulary—such sharp touches ss eons/xiuuu* watte, for example...
...Dialectics FoLLOWING his recent—and important—speech at the New York Times Hall...
...It waa immaterial whether he was known aa the haiser...
...Among those who have unveiled themselves sre Bella Dodd, whose Teachers Union local was expelled from the AFL and wound up in the State, County and Municipal Workers...
...I say something on one side or the other —and the mail that comes in by Monday morning tells how many hoots anyone cares about it...
Vol. 27 • May 1944 • No. 22
