The New Leader Book Page
SLADE, PAUL
The New Leader Book Page Waddye Read By PAUL SLADE THE DISAPPEARING DAILY. By (humid Garrison Villard. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. 285 page*. $3.50. ThIS imM book. Mr. Villard planted tha seeds...
...Villard planted tha seeds of his own critical destruction in such abundance that a simple recital of what's in "The Disappearing Daily" is in itself sufficient to write off the suthor as s sound judge of newspapers and newspapermen...
...It is an eloquent expression of historical fatalism...
...Every young critic feels like sn "esprit fort* if he can find some fsult with ate...
...He likss Columnist John O'Donnell...
...Meyer has "yielded too much to his patriotic desire to serve the government's war program...
...And yet, when it comes to summing up the results of the Revolution which started under such hsppy circumstances, this is whst Mr...
...But on what grounds can he ignore the fsct, ably documented by the Friends of Demoerscy, that Cap-taia Patterson's editorial line has paral-leled ths Hitler-Goebfaels line...
...the same Villard who was a gallant fighter in so many splendid causes...
...Moreover a certain reaction ia growiag among aome of the critics against th* many and exaggerated honors which were bestowed upon me during th* first Mm* after my arrival in America...
...He doesn't say right out that be likes the Csptsin's loud mouthed Propaganda Minister...
...on policy, the isolationist publishing front merits fulsome praise...
...He chose instead to write something in the nature of a historical essay on the Russian Revolution (he begins with the revolutionary movement of 1906—hence the plural in his title), snd the result, I believe, is disappointing...
...Gannett is good beesuse hs fights the Administration, right or wrong, snd th* Ists Frsnk Knox was bsd beesuse he Isid sside his own vigorous opposition to the New Desl to join Roosevelt's official family in tha nation's most critical hour...
...For the formulation of his "general attitude to the historic event of a revolution," Mr...
...As s writer whose work exists st the present time only ht trsnslstion, i And myself la a rather difficult and thankless position, which ia especially apparent in the case of the Joseph epic...
...Revolution is the work of tRe unknown in travail...
...He likes tha Midwestern branch of tha Patterson-McCormirk Asia because Col...
...The book contains some interesting material and some stimulating comment, but I am afraid that its defects outweigh its merits...
...The New Leader Book Page Waddye Read By PAUL SLADE THE DISAPPEARING DAILY...
...And what ar* "the lessons o" th* Russia" Revolution for the Western World...
...2) His hstred of Frsnklin D. Roosevelt...
...I suppose it must he so...
...As it is, "The Disappearing Daily" is a tragic and shameful document, the more so because it comes from a pen that was so long a potent force for good...
...Thus Captain Patterson is good because he opposed (snd opposes) ths war, and ilugene Meyer's Washington Pott is bad because Mr...
...It ia a great pity that Mr...
...I will grant that he ia opposed to the war in Europe on solid, honest conviction, and thst his pacifist position hss been consistent...
...It would only be a pity if many persons who might have eajoyed the Joseph story were discouraged to read it by reviews which describe this, in my opinion ¦ quite popular and amosing book, as sn exacting work of burdensome wisdom What Lessons From Russia...
...No, he merely reports that Mr...
...Villsrd's lively chspters on ths Bennetts, Frank Munaey, the Jewish Daily Forward, the Pulitzers, the Associated Press, Godkin and William Lloyd Garrison—well, thst would have been a real contribution...
...But thst doesn't mstter...
...New York: Harper, 1944...
...Patriotism, evidently, is bad when it's worn on the other foot...
...There is a trend to monopoly—witness the growth of the chains—and there is an even greater danger "that our dailies will be more and more controlled by individuals of enormous wealth, committed to the preservation of the status quo because of their material prosperity...
...I mutt confess thst I feel psrticulsrly sensitive on this point whenever s book on Russis is concerned ss perhaps in no other field hss thers been an equally widespread disregard of this elementary requirement...
...finally, under ths totalitarian control, the youth ef tbs country developed "a uniform attitude to life . . „ frightening in its rigidity, and a "robot mind...
...In the preface to his book, Mr...
...It is marred, in the first place, by extreme carelessness in matters of detail...
...It is to be regretted that he has not writtea a book of memoirs which might have been sn important contribution to th« still obscure history of German-Soviet relations...
...Lenin appears as a providential man whose ultimate success wss predetermined by the total rottenness ef the pie-revolutionary regime and aa equally total inability and helplessness of the Provisional Government...
...Briefly, it is: The totil number of dsily newspspers in th* United States has drooped from 5,042 in 1*20 to 1,764 todsy...
...Harvard University...
...I don't want to give the impression that Mr...
...This is the measure of Mr...
...all fit neatly into an utterly incredible pattern...
...Colonel MeCormiek is good because he hstes the Administration, and Marshall Field is bsd because he likes it...
...O'Donnell has "earned the especial dislike of Mr...
...Villsrd bestows his unqualified approval on sll th* seamiest elements af the press...
...According to the author, there met in Russia, in 1917, "The great man, born for the chance, and the historic occasion . . . where this man could arise...
...If this is th* last testament of a liberal, come to th* end of a long and (99 per cent) glorious road, it ia a moat disheartening note for our times...
...It k herd to believe thst this Is the same Villsrd who wss the crussding editor and publisher of Th* Nation in Its better days...
...BOHN: Many thanks for your kind letter and year Heme Front article...
...Villard's present judgments...
...All one needs to do is to list what Mr...
...A book along these lines, together with Mr...
...the kolkhozy became "organized slavery, more efficient and all-embracing than the patriarchal despotism of th* old serfdom...
...The main thesis of the book is something else...
...Of Lenin, Mr...
...He likes the Washington smear sheet published by Captain Joe's little sister, Cissie Patterson, because while "the Times-Herald does not reflect a vital personality throqgh its pages" snd "lacks drivs and force...
...Villard likes about contemporary journalism: Hs likss Joseph Medill Patterson's New York Pail* N*we because it "eon tinues to pass upon issues with peacetime detachment and unbiased scrutiny sf whst is going an...
...He Is eritiesl, but almost always on purely professional grounds...
...Roosevelt snd the war ia Europe, while the Christian Science Monitor, applauded ia one breath for its unassailable journalistic excellence, is paaned in th* next because "ia its active and positive urging ef forcible resistance to aggression, it has leaned to the sid* ef war and American participation in It...
...This is in the first place as you felt quite rightly, ¦ humorous, and to the same extent a linguistic work, that moana, a work of tha language in which I was born and to which I am much too old to become unfaithful as an artist...
...Mann Comments on Critics Prom THOMAS MANN DEAR DR...
...He '.ikes Frank Gannett because he is "warm-hearted, sympathetic, sincere, and generous," and is "profoundly interested in the progress of all the people," and is a "truly patriotic man...
...Treviranua refers the reader to a quotation from Victor Hugo which he has put at the head of his narrative...
...There are some persons who are irritated by this kind of "pedantic" criticism, but I am old-fashioned enough to insist on fsctual accuracy in what it supposed to be sn historicsl account...
...By MICHAEL KARPOVICH REVOLUTIONS IN RUSSIA: Their lessons far the Western World...
...I ranset deny thst tha good humored and superior words you found on behalf of "Joseph j th* Provider" aad against some of the professional critics have given m« great plessuie...
...Treviranus to present the victory of the Bolsheviks in 1917 as an inevitable event...
...On what grounds esn he ignore the fact that both ths New York Daily Now* and Chicago Trihuni have not only defended but even applauded aome of the aelf-profsssed Fascists snd Bundists in the mais sedition case in Washington...
...Br G. R. Trevitanus...
...There ii sn explanation, of course...
...In mj opinion, this is sn essentislly wrong reading of historical events, and the author dismisses the possibility of a democratic development in Russia far too lightly...
...trsnslstion, if such s thing exists...
...it does "stand for some of ths old-fashioned Americsn ' traditions that ought not to be abandoned...
...Robert R. MeCormiek "has been placed In ths .roaition of defending the rights and liberties of the American press...
...Wrong names and wrong dates abound in the text as well as in the index and th* bibliography...
...Apparently it was this fatalistic approach that led Mr...
...Treviranus writes with obvious admiration . In a sens* he is ths hero of the book...
...Neither am I reassured hy the author's general approach to his problem...
...All newspapers stsnd or fsll on their position on the wsr snd F.D.R...
...Villard's twisted conception of the roe I role being played by the most dsngerous elements In American journalism stem from two simple facts: (1) The author's bitter opposition to the wsr...
...Even the 1944 Oswald Garrison Villsrd gsgs s little on diis...
...And he likea Westbrook Pegler be cause "whether Pegler is right or wrong, no one can question his morsl snd physical courage or his desire to serve his country...
...VilUrd didn't look a little closer...
...Humor is closely connected with language, and not everybody ia capable, like you, of feeling the humorous spirit of the work through the denaturalising snd stiffening trsnslstion, slthough it is s fees...
...Treviranue, s former member of the German Reichstag and of the Bruening Cabinet, speaks of his "thirty odd years of contacts" with Russia...
...And there is too much standardization and too much entertainment (comics, gossip, snd so forth) in place of straight news...
...What should happen, will happen...
...William Randolph Hearst and hit shameful chain get off with s soft impeachment, ao doubt because they too hate Mr...
...In the eases cited above, Mr...
...Roosevelt beesuse of his searching criticisms of tha President himself, his Administrstic.t, his policies snd inconsistencies...
...In thia interpret * t ion...
...Eventa determine, men accept...
...and more in the same vein...
...Trevirsnui arrives at: under the Soviet bureaucracy, "the common folk found themselves more enchsined than before...
...3.00...
...One is moved to ssk the suthor" » all this is true, then why does he think Lenin to have been such s great mas...
...What bothera me most, however, ii one fundamental ambiguity ia the au-thor'a discussion of the Revolution...
...for the national minorties, liberty in political matters remained on paper only while the exercise of cultural autonomy waa conditioned by the proviso that "what to read and write, the Moscow censors had to decide...
Vol. 27 • August 1944 • No. 33
