WHO OWN THE ARTISTS?
SINCLAIR, UPTON
WHO OWN THE ARTISTS? MAMMON ART—Chapter II "From the Dawn of Human History Success in The Arts has been through the Glorification of The Ruling Class and Teaching Their Slaves to Stand in Awe of...
...The worst showing is msds by Government employes whose earnings went down to 58...
...All the world envies us...
...auch ideas trouble sad repel ut, we resent them, and the term "propaganda" it our expression of resentment...
...We flan*, not trust the good-will of other na-tlont whots doctrine is to take cars of themselves and selfishly profit, themselves...
...uch distinction bttween "art" and "propaganda" is purely a class distinction and a class weapon...
...Ths welfare of the people of wis United States," asserts Prof...
...For thirty years he has been studying it consciously, and for twenty-five years he has been shaping in his mind ths opinions here recorded...
...The employers were represented by their* officers, among them L. Cohen, owner of tho Second Avenue Baths st First street snd Second avenue and' the Bronx Baths at Third avenue and Claremont Parkway...
...BATH HOUSE WORKERS START GENERAL STRIKE The Russian and Turkish bath ownert of New York City have locked out their workers, refusing to recognize their union...
...Like Hosrlck, he has chosen an affective simile, and bat put music and fervor into Ml mettage...
...Nearing to ' CJaah on Militarism •'We art the richest nation on earth," says Admiral W. L. Badgers of the United States Navy, "tad if we get into entanglement* of legal diplomacy, we shall bs despoiled...
...His decisions are those of a working artist, one who has been willing to experiment and blunder for himself, but who hss aisp made it his business to know and judge the world's b,at achievements...
...For example, the old poet Herrlck advises: Gather ye rose-buds while ye star, Old time is still a flying, And this asms flower that smiles todsy...
...ths peat gives his advice under a beautiful tlmile snd with alluring melody, and therefore it it poetry, ff we should c»H it propaganda, sll critics weuld agree that we were "stretching the word," and being absurd...
...The book will present art interpretation of the arts from the point ef view of the class struggle...
...Meeting that issue without equivocation, we assert: All art it propaganda...
...Lie Number Six the lie of Vested Interest...
...We resent such idoss, and likewise the persons who persist in forcing thsm into our minds...
...ting Art and Artists . Since childhood the writer lias lived most of his life in the world's art...
...In terms of purchasing power on the hourly basis since 1919, the workers have probably been paid 10 per cent to 15 per cent more than during the closing decade of the last century...
...the notion that new artists must follow old models, and learn from the classics how to work...
...I did this not so much for Foster, Rtrthenberg, Minor and others as individuals, but to back them up in the defense of their civil rights...
...which explsins why all orthodox rritlea agree that Jesus and Tolstoi ape propagandists, while Shakespeare and Goethe are pare And unsullied erestive artists...
...Propaganda may be either' good or bad, according to the nature of the teaching and the motives of the teacher...
...It comes essy to human be-lngs to accept society as it.is* aad to sdmlrs ths great and strong aad wealthy...
...Throughout this book the word artist is used, not in the narrow sense popular in America, as a awn who paints pictures snd illustrates magazines, but in its broad sense, as one who represents life imaginatively by any device, whether picture or statue or poem or song or symphony or opera or drama or novel...
...when such art works are completed, they are beautiful i demonstrations of the fact that ths' purpose ef art' is to embody the artist's ideas of truth snd desirable behavior...
...and* both are preachers...
...It will consider also the rebel artists, who have failed to serve their masters, and ask what penalties they have paid for their rebellion...
...i Admirsl Rodffera snd Prof...
...or as weapons of attack, employed by new classes ris-iag into power...
...It would seem unnecessary to deny such an idiotic lie, but some comrades insist that it be done, and to I'do it on their account...
...Light is shed on them by an important article entitled, "The Movement of Wages and the Future of Prices," by Professor Petul H. Douglas, of the University of Chicago...
...bat there crept hi an evil enemy known as-"German propaganda...
...It is my intention to study these artists from a point of view to far as I know entirely . new...
...to turn their pockets inside out, and see what is in them and where it came from...
...Against this must be set an increase in wages...
...to ask how they get their living, and what they do for it...
...therefore, what was supposed to be, and was for centuries taken to be, a sublime work of art turnt out to be a piece of trumpery and rubbith...
...Other unionised trades, including newspsper printing, have fallen considerably...
...Lie'Number Two: the lie of Art Snobbery...
...But"'Prof...
...Here it an utterance of exactly ths oppotite kind, an utterance of moral conviction and resolution...
...the notion that the purpose of art it entertainment and| diversion...
...Morality is the science of conduct...
...John Hsynes Holmes will act at chair* Are You as Well Off as Your Father...
...and so the #word bears s stigma, and when this book applies it to some honorable variety of teaching, the critics tay that we are "stretching itt meaning," and being absurd...
...and since all life it conduct, it follows that all art — whether it knows it or not—deals with the question of how to be happy, and how to unfold the possibilities of the human spirit...
...When the forts of felly fall, Find your body by the wall...
...the notion that art is something esoteric, for *he few...
...the ability to live at peace with the reat of the world...
...Thlt book will endeavor to demonstrate that exactly the same thing applies to ths phenomens of the class struggle, as they appear either in rsal life or in wonts of srt...
...We list six great art lies now prevailing in the world, which this book will discuss: Lie Number One: the Art for Art's Sake lie...
...Farm labor went to 83, unskilled labor to 80, and slaughtering and meat packing to 83...
...The artist may be overwhelmingly convinced that his particular propaganda is of supreme importance, whereas the experience of the race may prove that it is of slight importance...
...Tomorrow will bs dying...
...It will be demonstrated that vital artists make their own technique...
...Therefore, I hasten to drop Ogi and his sons and grandsons, and to say in plain English that this book is a study of the artist in his relation Is the propertied classes...
...But it Is different ia the case of ideas which require eeacentration of the attention aad ait-fort of will...
...Nesring, "depends primarily upon two things: ths capacity to produce end dittribute wealth inside the United States...
...These questions are of the utmost importance to the workers...
...The Jesuits have been carrying on a propaganda of their faith for 300 years, and one does not have to share this faith In order to admit their right to advocate it...
...Orthodoxy Is my doxy, and heterodoxy is the other fellow's doxy...
...aad yet, if we called thsm propaganda, how many critics would object...
...This was not true during the war years...
...The next time the ttorekeeper tells you that you pay more because wages have risen remember this conclusion by a competent economist...
...But let the artist, in the labor of his spirit and by the stern discipline of hard thinking, find a real path of progress for the race...
...Lie Number Five: the lie of the Art Pervert, the notion that art has 1 nothing to do with moral questions, i It will be demonstrated that ail art ; | deals with moral questions, since I ; there are no othei .questions...
...Let the victors, when they coma...
...A large part of ths world's art treasures will be taken out to the scrap-heap, and a still larger part transferred from the literature shelves to the history shelves of the world's li-brary...
...It will study the artists who are recognized and honored by critical authority, and ask to what extent they have been servants of ruling class prestige and instruments of ruling class safety...
...The reduction in the number of hours has probably more than taken away such advantage as Labor has gained in the rate of pay per hour...
...The book purposes to investigate ths whole process of art creation, and to place the art function in relation to the sanity, health and prejress of mankind...
...J , , ' • ' tut-¦ *•«*•• - '¦¦ m\ i...
...ths notion that art excludes propaganda and has nothing to do with freedom and justice...
...As commentary on ths above, wa add, that when artists or art critics make the assertion that art excludes propaganda, what they are saying is that their kind of propaganda it art, and other kinds of propaganda are not art...
...Now the point Irt question is this: some unscrupulous Communist propagandists are using my connection ; with the Labor Defense Council as a | means of discrediting the Socialist I Party by spreading the report in a ! surreptitious way, in accordance j with "underground" methods, that II am really with the Communists and ! a Socialist In name only...
...It will study art works as instruments of propaganda and repression, employed by the ruling classes of the community...
...The workers, in retaliation, have declared a general strike, tying up over thirty establishment...
...Nearing will debate the question, "It Military Preparedness Necessary for the General Welfare of ths People of ths United States...
...Douglas concludes: "It seemt probable that the American workingman can purchase less for the standard week's work today than during the nineties...
...on Sen-day afternoon, March 15, at Town Hall, 113 West 43rd street...
...It will at i*mp\ to set up new canons in the arts, overturning many of the standards now' accepted...
...As commentary we add that whether a certain propaganda is really vital and important is a question to be decided by the practical experience of mankind...
...the notion that the end of art it in the art work, and that the artist's sole task is perfection of form...
...but of all these forms, the one which bores us most quickly is the parable— a Utile story made up for the purpose of illustrating a special lesson...
...That is, it costs 2.8 times as much for a worker today to support himself and his family as it did for his father buying the same sort of food and clothing back in the nineties...
...Lie Number Four: the lie of Art Dilettantism...
...That is, on the hourly basis the rise in wages has a little more than overtaken the rise in prices...
...it is pleasant to do this, and the poet who givee such advice awakens a* opposition...
...Its thesis is that from the dawn of human history, the path to honor and success in the arts has been through the service and glorification of ths ruling classes...
...outside the grasp of the masses...
...Are prices higher because wages are higher, or, on the contrary, have money Wages risen in an effort to keep up with prices...
...But now, take four linet by Matthew Arnold: Charge once more, then, and he dumb...
...The present writer hat for twenty-one yean been carrying on a propaganda for Socialism, and hat a sturdy conviction that hit time hat not been watted...
...The workers were represented by Walter Ley, Leo Wlnick rnd William Collins, A. F. of L. organiser...
...Professor Douglas' final conclusion is "that price increases have not been caused, in their initial stage at least, by increases in waget...
...Manifestly, all this depends upon the meaning given to the term propaganda...
...This article has been reprinted by the Academy of Political Science, New York, and many labor union locals would do well to get it...
...the poet is bidding ut light for truth and justice...
...Frank J. Moneghan, Health Commissioner of New York, acted as arbitrator...
...We hope to prove it both psychologically, by watching the art process st work, and his torically, by analyzing the art works of the ages...
...Some artists say that the purpose of art it beauty, and they produce beautiful art works to demonstrate the truth of this doctrine...
...This, you note, contains no suggestion of reprobation...
...That fight is also my figh...
...That kind of'propaganda will take care of itself and requires no encouragement from me...
...What is art...
...To our surprise we discover that the strongly unionized buim-mg trades as a whole are estimated to have exactly the same purchasing power for full-time weekly earnings now as during the decade of 1890-1899...
...The claim that I am with the Communists and against the Socialists it on a par with some other falsehoods published in Communist organs to which my attention has been called, and which I have uniformly ignored...
...The conclusion to which he has come is that mankind is today under the spell of utterly false conceptions of what mrt is and should be...
...Military preparedness, will not promote produotion or distribution st homo, snd as for the remainder ef the world, normal relations with ear neighbors depends upon toe establishment of equitsble economic and social relations...
...I We put the further question: What it great art...
...It will be demonstrated that this He is a defensive mechanisri of artists run to aeei, and that its prevalence meant degeneracy,'not merely in art, but in the society where such art appears...
...entertaining them, making them pleasant to themselves, and teaching their subjects sad slaves to stand in awa of them...
...It is my simple duty, | and I do not care what union the • victim belongs to...
...We can only Lumma-rize Professor Douglas' .onclu-j sions: He begins by estimating that in 1 the year, 1923, the probable relative cost of living was represented by the index number 281 if we take the cost during the decade from 1890 to 1899 as 100...
...MAMMON ART—Chapter II "From the Dawn of Human History Success in The Arts has been through the Glorification of The Ruling Class and Teaching Their Slaves to Stand in Awe of Them'9—UPTON SINCLAIR By UPTON SINCLAIR MANY mi variou» are the art-forms which the sons P and grandsons of Ogi have invented...
...Morality and Art As further commentary we explain that the word morality it not used in itt popular tente, as a set of rules forbidding you to steal your neighbor's purse or his wife...
...of utterly vicious and perverted standards of beauty and dignity...
...It is evident from Professor Douglas' figures that not all unions have tucceeded ' in railing real waget calculated in termt of full-time weekly earnings, but on the whole it would appear that unions have helped...
...1 Admiral Rodgera and Prof...
...an escape from reality.< It will be demonstrated that this lie" is a product of mental inferiority, and that the true purpose of art is to alter reality...
...Here i* sn attitude of relaxation toward life...
...in the city...
...New if hereafter nay Communist whispers it into your ear that I asa with the Communists In anything except their rights to free speech and ether civil rights, just entwor by turning your back upon him and leaving the vulgar faleifier to himself...
...as poetry hit lints are exactly at good at Her rick's...
...We antwer: Groat art is produced when propaganda ef vitality and importance is put across with technical cosape-Unco in liini ef ths art selected...
...to put to them the question already put to priests and preachers, editors and journalists, college presidents and professors, school superintendents snd teachers: WHO OWNS YOU, AND WHY...
...So far we have been talking about average gains...
...The rite in men's clothing it undoubtedly due to unionisation, and the tharp drop ih the wages for slaughtering aad meat packing, by contrast, Professor Douglat suggests, it due to the success of the packing houses "in preventing the unions from getting mere than a foothold in their industry...
...The unionized bakers and men's clothing workers, on the other hand, have increated their purchasing power from an index number of 100, in 1890-1899, to 121 and 128, respectively, in 1923...
...The union appeals to the public to assist them in this lockout-strike by not patronizing establishments unfair to Labor...
...itself a piece of ruling-class propaganda, a meant of duping ths minds of men, and keeping them enslaved to false standards both of art and of life...
...When a man is attacked on that ground I am his defender, and for this I j want no credit...
...We shall give a definition, and take the rest of the book to prove it...
...On the other hand, it gives us a painful wrench to he told that there are moral tacaflsBeas snd heroic splendors in the souls of unwsshed and unbeautlful work-ingmen...
...or if he belongs to any union at all...
...We assert: Art ia a repreaenta-tiee ef life, aaediied by the personality ef the artist, for the petpes* ef modify-ing ether peraooalitioa, inciting these «• changes ef feeling, belief and action...
...Ths writer thought thst he could trust his critics to look it up in the dictionary j but during the serial publication of the book he discovered that the critics share that false idea of the word which was brought into fashion during the World War—this ides being itself a place of propaganda...
...It is an interesting snd significant fact that the gains In wsget hsve been very unevenly distributed...
...As to the Labor Defense Council By EUGENE V. DEBS My attention has several timet been called to a matter in reference i to the Labor Detente Council which requires a word of explanation...
...testing and revising them by the art-works which he ha 1 produced, and by the stream of other men's work which has flowed through his mind...
...But all we are doing is to use the word correctly...
...By NORMAN THOMAS ARE the workers better paid than they were in the last decade of the nineteenth century...
...Do unions help the workers to get more wages, counted not in terms of money but of"what money will buy...
...A conference wss held to negotiate an agreement, at which Dr...
...Some artists preach self-rettraint, and some preach self-indulgence...
...I gladly accorded to this body the use of my name in raising 1 funds and consented to be named as | vice-president in its list, of officers...
...and that present-day technique is far and away superior to the technique of any art period preceding...
...The Standard Dictionary defines propaganda, as: "Effort directed systematically toward the gaining of support for an opinion or course of action...
...It will be demonstrated that with few exceptions of a special nature, great art has always been popular art, and great artists have swuyeJ the people.' Lie Number Three: the lie of Art Tradition...
...let him make himself master of the technique of any one of the arts, and put that propaganda adequately and vitally before his fellows— and so, and so alone, he may produce real and enduring works of art...
...This Council was organised to provide defense for Communists prosecuted under the so-called criminal syndicalism and other laws because of their activities in the Labor move-I ment, the purpose of the defense being the preservation of the right of free speech, free assemblage and other civil rights in the United States...
...Take, for example, thst favorite theme of poets, the following of our natural impulses...
...We take certain opinions and courses of action for granted: they come to us easily, and when in a poem or other work of art we encounter the advocacy of such things,, it does not seem to us propaganda...
...Short of this foundation in social justice, ns amount of military preparation, will prevent conflict and destruction...
...And to, notwithstanding the Communists at a party refused to lift a finger to help me out of prison, I stand with the Communists of whatever name or number as I would with any others in their fight for free speech and I shall gladly do all in my power to keep them out of prison...
...It is universally «nd in.•capably propaganda) sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately, propaganda...
...Our >wn martial, fervor wat of course not propaganda, liwJ»A'uth and justice...
...let him reveal new impulses for men to thrill to, new perils for them to overcome, new sacrifices for them to make, new joys for them to experience...
...Scott Nesring of the Rand School of Social Science dsfls not agree with Admiral Rodgers...
...Against this, however, must be set the fact that although Labor has made a real gain in diminishing the length of the working day, it has paid for thjs gain by a lower purchasing power for a week's work...
Vol. 2 • March 1925 • No. 11
