The Will to Power

...Italian Socialists are raising their heads above war'* misery and destruction...

...Indeed, for Mr...

...Democracy, to justify itself, must include aristocracy...

...Who will it I...

...It ia regrettable that the significance of heroic vitalism waa net elaborated more explicitly and precisely in these directions...

...the tragic confidence in power itself as a guarantor of human dignity...

...alont wrapped in my thoughts, bow many seasons have I seen go by, following each other into oblivion T . . . How many yesterdays of my youth He buried here...

...And, where in this new blossoming of Socialist hopt, will wt of tht United States be...

...It can't be that— with the willingness to settle for half a loaf at elections such at the one just pttt —our ideological belliet are full...

...Such -i.like, Mr...

...Russian and Britiah diplomat* displayed vary virilt activities ia behalf of their constituents, but th* American official tup-port waa quit* feeble...

...Bentley Sdvet many indicanans that he is aware of such con¦Meration...

...In 1912 he promised the Persian courtier millions, but the latter died a few years ago.still waiting for at least a fraction of the sum...

...Bentley's treatment of it—pertinence snd value...

...Bentley's defense of democracy on the aristocratic premise of its critics...

...French Socialists will meet soon to reform their lines...

...but many times they compel as much by their stylistic—often epigrammatic—effectiveness as by sober compilation and evaluation of evidence...

...Among the latter firmans was the one given to a certain Sapeh-Salar-Azam (commander in chief) by Shah Nassered-Din in the early nineties of the last century and covering the five northern provinces of Persia: Azerbaidjan, Gilan, Khorossan...

...Such an elaboration would not only have made clearer the bearing of the doctrine on contemporary issues...

...and sometimes I see the ghostt of these dead yesterdays rise up, bringing poignant memories, and whispering to me: 'Was it worth while?'" How many Socialists — left, right, center and elsewhere—I wonder, have felt this self-same soul-searching cry within them—"Was it worth while...

...The Portion government managed to ovado th* pressures, and as yet the question has not boon settled Nehru — and the Hope for Socialism from HAMY LOMTIN To the BdiUri A PORTION of a quotation from the writingi of Jawaharlal Nehru, in the November 11 ittut, ttirred within m* my personal hopet and aspirations for the Socialist ideal which hat boon my guiding spirit ever since I wtt a youngster growing up in our movtmtnt Tht lintt werei "The years I have tpent in prison I Sitting...

...Bentley urges, is not a monopoly of fascists, and though it may mn , rpered tat tray for fateitm, it ^ .dentinal with it...

...Khoshtaria obtained this particular firman through his sheer persuasiveness...

...Equality ot opportunity, of course, is a generally accepted democratic principle...

...they suffered from "delusions of grandeur" and an "inferiority complex...

...O.N the whole, Mr...

...And without the latter, "aristocracy" is a politically meaningless abstraction...

...But this is beside the point...

...Massnderan and Astrabad...

...Characteristics such as these give heroic vitalism—and Mr...

...several of them were sexual failures, and this, Mr...

...Their "realistic" appraisal of the role of power in the social process is a valuable corrective to the complacency of liberalism...

...For me the strength and promise of The New Leader, at its best, was not only that it was a free forum of left opinion, but that it withstood, to a great degree, the pressures towards orthodoxy which haa given most magazines an official coloration...

...Iron —A Note on The Oil Intrigues From VICTOR C. SVIMONOff To I he Editor: A I'ROPOS of David Dallin's Moscow to Huyhdad of the Nov...

...One cannot have worked mor* than four year* at an absorbing Job, giving it a large measure of intellectual and emotional identification, and leave without a sense of loyalty and some possible misgivings...

...Bentley explains, individual analysis it "safer" than "generalizations •tout epochs," but its value Ifcs in its wltvanje for such generalization...

...Othen will join tht procession—and tht cry for the formation ui a newer, more vigorous, more outspoken Socialist International will again be the fiarion call to "workers of all countries" .to "unite...

...The purposeful effort to maintain a critical voice—not only on Stalinism but all imperialism—is tht Socialist task today...

...Mr...

...The question is whether "a aingle life" (rather than the lives of a society of individuals) suffices to exhibit the significance of a social doctrine...

...But opportunity to develop and exercise skills is one thing...

...The confusion of might with light...

...Persia, headed then by General Riza-Khan, who eventually became the king of Iran Pekhlevy, wisely took advantage of the Soviet's bombastic generosity, chimed in most harmoniously and also declared the concession null and void...

...Who will tit at tht first session of tht new international Congress and sptak in our name...

...Bentley finds in heroic vitalism, Of particular interest is Mr...

...Sometimes « attributes the rjse'of the phiJ*°Phy of heroism to "a deep sense •» • contemporary political failure": J*ajetimes he speaks of it as a "Jailore of nerve among the dis¦Uasioned intellectuals...

...Seven worshipers do not make a century...

...Bentley writes about artists as an artist, and in characterizing his treat-sient as literary biography no disparagement it intended...

...And the converse rejection arises from a "tense of disvalue in a mechanised world...

...To be »<"*, as Mr...

...Bentley's treatment of heroic vitalism succeeds admirably in bringing out effectively both its strength and failings...

...it would also have added concreteness to the elements of positive vslue which Mr...

...Bentley suggests, may have been "the mainspring of their adulation of virilt potency...

...Boatley nevertheless confines himself to ^tdeas in the context of a single life," because "the individus.1 is after all the chief concrete reality in the social organism...

...and Mr, Bentley has not indicated whether •••a in what way the psychological forces *Mek account for the genesis of the ••rtrin* also account for the social ac-wptanct and effectiveness which it has r*or such an account, social and Political considerations are inescapable...

...the worship of the past in the service of the future;—these criticisms, and others as basic, Mr...

...Firmans, in Oriental countries, are royal grants...

...but gives the impression of being content, in the end, only to change the basis of classification...

...Who will be the first to call all Socialists together—to show them the way...

...Among such concessions the most interesting to oil producers of the world wan the so-called North Persian oil concession, held at the time by a Russo-Georgian industrialist, Akaky Mepho-dievitch Khoshtaria...

...A Note From Bell On New Leader Frees DANIIL If U I WISH to thank the editors of The New Loader for their gracious note of regret at my resignation aa managing editor of the paper...

...New York University...

...In the Oil Weekly of April 3, 1!)26, I gave an extended resume of the case...

...British Socialists tre preparing to re-examine their philosophy and present their vlewt to a world which (it is hoped) will soon be don* with war...

...Thus the Anglo-Persian purchase of, the Khoshtario concession turned out comically: Khoshtaria got the rash and the Anglo-Persians received in exchange a file of worthless firmans...

...Let us rite above the hates that exitt between our "battle-weary" leaders...

...MR BENTLEY has not get out to search.- the 19th century for proto-fatcist*—* pursuit which he rightly regards as neither very* significant nor irsef u)—h«t ha* examined ''the advocacy of hero-worship by modern writers who aWelUw democracy," chiefly Carlyle and Nietzsche, and more brMrtly, Wagner, Shaw, Spengler, Stefan George and D. H. Lawrence...

...It ia because democracy alone can produce aristocracy, because democracy alone can offer careers open to talent, that we are democrats...

...Those who were dissatisfied with average humanity had perforce to believe in superior humanity or believe in nothing " Throughout, Mr...

...sometimes J* regards hero-worship ss "a •'¦atom of the failure of plutocracy...

...But an aristocracy of talent is less objectionable than other aristocrscies perhaps only to the talented...

...The heroic vitalists were searching for "father-substitutes," were stable to "cut the cord of maternal attachment;'' they were personalities in which "masculine and feminine were at war...

...Much more serious is the fact that kit emphasis is on the psychological significance of the doctrine only for the individual hero-worshipers who formulated it Though recognizing that our concern it with "ideas in the complex of social reality," Mr...

...the rejection of a supernatural ground of values in behalf of a failh in the superhuman...

...Bentley's account, is the response ef the sensitive artist to mechanistic mstenalism and the religion of humanity...

...Resile* tat raltvanee of the "heroic vftaiista," at h* oailt thorn, it not that their rejection of democratic value* haa tcm uken up by th* fatcitU, but that their insistence on arietoeratie value* hat not been taken up by the democrats...

...Bentley unsparingly criticizes heroic vitalism for postulating two species of men...

...Now ia the time to start anew—building a unified, clarified, determined Socialist movement...

...Bentley establishes with eloquence and insight...

...U Canadian Socialists art on tht march to their goal...

...Their insistence on values as man-made, and as expressions of a dionysian life-force, is a groping for a naturalism not confined within the bounds of mechanism...

...for the present the following will suffice...

...Will" they bt 'Social-Democrat*,' will they be "S.P.ert," will they be American "Liberals...

...How many of us sre there who wait year in and year out for the tide to turn—for our dreams to come true—for our aspirations for a better world to rise in ever greater crescendo in the hearts and minds of men...

...Wo must not fail the millions of Socialist workers all over the world—and ourselves...

...Khoshtaria, upon learning that his concession was nullified by the Soviets, hurried to England and managed to sell the concession to the Anglo-Persian Company for a million dollars, a sum ridiculously low compared with the actual value of the potential enterprise...

...The Soviets ostensibly were seeking to get rid of the "hateful imperialistic exploitation...

...Nevertheless his insights are often illaaunating...

...But —with the ssme faith that Nehru hat, and knowing that it hat been worthwhile to live for end dreary of that far horizon, I make thit seemingly weak and lonely plea to those many thousands who can't seem to make their voices heard...

...This insistence he interprets as "the sstarrr't attempt to gat beyond politics with its parties and economics and businessmen...

...Bentley's analysis is psychological, and though cautiously applied it remains literary rather than scientific psychology, and at times gives even the impression of parlor psychoanalysis...

...At the same time he makes clear that the high seriousness and artistic sensibilities which gave rise to the heroic vitalistsW*criticism of bourgeois democracy cannot be overlooked by anyone concerned with the realization of moral and esthetic values in contemporary society...

...There are many, I believe, who feel and dream as I do...

...At the time this writer was in Persia, a three-cornered fight was going on in Teheran between the Soviets, headed by Polpred Shoumiatsky, and using the very same old bourgeois fox Khoshtaria, who hsd Joined the Soviet in its New Economic policies, the American concern of Sinclair Oil, headed by Ralph Soper, and the Anglo-Persian, represented by the letter's main office (in charge of South Persia oil properties...

...Bat even than, no en* won the case...

...opportunity to constitute a social class , in which power and deference are concentrated is another...

...Or will our (daces be r. served in th* hope that Socialists of tht greatest industrial nation in tht world will tamo day in the ftr off futurt grow up to the adult stature of the reet ot tht worldT ¦ There seems to be no answer now...

...Hero worship, on Mr...

...bat he no more than '¦fatly hint* at them...

...One would have to be a hero-worshipper to imagine that the "concrete reality" o( a society is sufficiently embod->n its Carlylea hud Nietzsches...

...8th issue of your esteemed publication, permit me to add the following: In the early period of the Soviet's ascendency to power, when their noble utterances and revolutionary attitude contributed so much to winning the sympathies of the world, the new commissars with a great fanfare annulled the foreign concessions that the Russian industrialists had secured through the formidable pressure of Tsarist ambassadors abroad...

...1 shall continue to contribute to the paper, as your editorial note stated, so long as The New Leader adheres to that critical spirit and independence of "party lines" and "official apologias" which gave it its deserved reputation...