The Realm of Books
The Realm of Books The garment Worker's Inspiring Story A Review by Theresa Wolfson gvM-g STEPCHILDREN. By ggrak Gertrude MiUin New fork Boni A Liveright. $tM0. gn. Millin might...
...th* suthor .hrawdly depicts the psychology of the dweller* of these town* and polltt* out th* essential ch*rs«t*ri*tics of these people...
...prefaced by an Introduction by Ernest Boyd...
...By Hurry L*t Andrew* and Rru«* Weiriek...
...The description of the role which the trade agreement played in the history of the union, is another interesting story of control...
...lands and holding different political beliefs, thrown into a melting pot seething with complex industrial and social conditions, and emerging a unified group with group consciousness and group vision...
...It must satisfy 'seasonal and fashion changes...
...Levine recognized that the stories of the great strikes of 1009 and 1910 told themselves...
...N, Y.i Maemilltn...
...Rased upon the recognition of the danger of the small shop, In union agree-imnls, the International Ladles (iarment Workers' Union has adopted an industrial program that Is unique in the trade union world...
...By Lewis Honum...
...and classes, lectures, and educational mass meetings were developed...
...Those who think that the proletariat have no sense or appreciation of art have their answer in this almanac...
...Millin looks on life fearlessly but not coldly...
...The smsll skirt and cloak Shops of the early days of the Industry, familiarly known as "moth" shops, were to he found on Division street snd East Hrosdway...
...Though the clothing industry boasts of being one of the fourteen leading industries of the country, with an annual product of over a billion dollars, it does not bear all the ear-marks of monopolistic industry...
...He returns to his fundamental contention that the critics who ignore the economic and social approach to literature are certain to go astray in their Judgments, and byway of illustration he considers the writings of Professors Woodberry and Sherman and H. L. Mencken...
...former professor of economics, author of several boo!;*, and recognized scholar, to become thi story-teller of this history it set a lofty stand ard, not only for trade union literature but for all social and historical literature...
...By" l'rlnc...
...For Dr...
...This judgment leads Calverton to a critical examination, of some of Mencken's pronouncements, and he ha* no trouble in showing confusion and contradiction, a complex of moods and judgments that are characteristic of the middle class radical tossed her* and there by -the absurdities of the present social order...
...God's Stepchildren" is a fine pier* of work, done by an author »hd has clear perceptions and a deep, understanding beside that ttttt valuable quality—pity...
...Th s wss evidenced cWarly in "Maria Chapdelaine" aad new In a book ef aa entirely different character, "Blind Msn'* Bun*," A* ons resds what p>,t*e* in the Un-' conscious of Mike 6'Brpdy of fisa'-j that of the old Hebrew *hopk**per, or his daughter's, one feel* how very .ympat hetic and penetrating I la M. Hemon'* analysis...
...I If any Italian reads this, we advise him or her to orda* s copy post heat...
...It i i a book that has given equal importance to artistic presentstion and scholarly information...
...A Socialist Almanac ALMANACCO SOCIALIST A JTALO AMERICANO, ltti...
...Both writers have a dtip lympathy for races to which they do not belong, as well as a profound knowledge of their subject »nd * genius for creating atmosphere...
...Every movement of social significance evokes a reaction from the, union...
...It is so i human, so full of the virtues and vices of human...
...When tuberculosis, flat feet, round shoulders and other occupational diseases were rampan*"- amonj...
...The small, filthy sweatshops of the '80's and '90's, the long working hours, tl.e low wages, the periodic appearand snd disappearance, of the union, make way for the period of greater union strength,growing complexity of the industry, and developing union leadership of 1900...
...Situation...
...MS catholicity of treatment by editor, J. S. Vsn Teslssr, a well rM»fnbed student of the subject, Jj compiling the volume, is highly rtmmendable...
...They need no embellishment...
...In its 220 large page* will be found contributions on '.he development and present posture of affairs among It.Han i-orkert, critical articles on the, Italian Fatciiti, the work of the Italian Socialists In this country, the progress of their movement, Important personsl!tlss and other material so placer' and Illustrated at to make ths publication one that thinking Italians will consider a prize to possess...
...Cehr.it more ttutn a superstition...
...would have been to decline a little," I* his final comment BOOKS RECEIVED ¦ i. > I, ,., i tets ' .• ft, At Uterstars >4'<l M UNDER THE LEVIS...
...The critic seems to imagine that wte paint before wo eat," writes Calverton, "that men fought originally for art-exprossion and not for food...
...It it a book that is written for ths rsnk snd file of the working class as well as for the scholar and student of social movements...
...New York...
...Levine points out a number of important facts...
...N. Y.i Lonfm»n», Oreea e ( JAMES...
...Nothing ran confirm the relation of psychology to economics and the interdependence of these two fields, as strongly as does this picture of human groups experimenting with economic forces...
...By Martha Dltklntea-Blanthl...
...This contact of 'outsiders' with the concrete realities of the industry has broadened the story of the book into a chapter in the history of social reform in the United States...
...To this very day, the union has retsined the idea of joint responsibility snd joint control of the Industry, ss It wat first promulgated in that famout agreement...
...Barring technical inventions, the...
...Millin might have called her .^,1 "A Passags to South Africa," Sjjjl it »he ahewa the aame com understanding of the foreign Eg) (ht ii writing about aa did E. KJSrster in his "Passage to India...
...been an "industrial experiment station...
...The other contributions snd selections sre the "Diary of a Mad-nian," by Gogol...
...As soon as he sees his kin-folk in the terrible state of riviliza-ti*a in which they live, he can no longer live a white lie...
...And when the members became Interested not only In the whyi and wherefore of their own union, but also in the great social forcea of the World they lived in, the Educational Department of the union was created...
...Italian Sue in I ini Federation...
...And when the General Executive Board engaged Dr...
...Levine analyzes the reasons for this typo of open mimledness in the preface to the history: "The technical simplicity of the industry has been the main cause of it* human complexities...
...It It a guide to ths future, for the last chapter has not yet been written...
...New York: MacmWan...
...and "Plays by Maliere," containing six of the French master's best Inown comedies that are as real today as they ware in his own time...
...When the 1022 convention of the Internstionsl Indies Garment Workers' Union authorized I General Executive Board to publsh a history of the union In celebration of its twenty-fifth anniversary, it sponsored a unique undertaking...
...the workers, the Union Health (enter was established to assume the responsibility of ths health of the members...
...Equsl division of work, week work, commltteis on grievances and shop-disputes, abolition of tub-contracting, and standards of tsnltstion sre only a few of the questions considered snd settled in these agree ments...
...Barry has very little black blood in kisl, to little that his wife thinks he ii white...
...Seldom has the Labor movement produced such a beautiful publica-tipn as this almanac istued by the' Italian Socialist Federstlon...
...When the garment workers expressed a crystallised desire for recreation, the Unity Heusa at Forest Park, Pa., and the Villa Anita Garibaldi in Platen Island were opened...
...f half-breed* of South Africa, the Staards, as they are railed, with fir strange mixture* of white and Sck blood, with their ambitions to ¦ilk with whites, talk with whites, yd marry whites, are as comprehensible to Mrs...
...Such critics must be reminded that "it was only when economic difficulties were lightened that art-creation could begin to grow...
...There ai" moments when the reader is carried away by the sheer dramatic qualities of the incidents described...
...Psychoanalysis snd the Critic," by Herbert Resd...
...L u j Hemon A Review by MARY P. FULLER BLIND MASS BUFF...
...The first installment of "A Sociological Criticism of the American Drama" is contributed by Walter Long and here for the first time the reader will find an interpretation of early American drama in terms of economic and seetionsl evolution...
...Gertrude Stein," by Msry Crockett, snd snother installment of the editor's novel, "Adolph Moor...
...Here agaii...
...N. | Y.i Maetslllan...
...By t. ?«fl Spsrllng, N. Y.i Jkrlkn«r...
...One is supposed to have gotten all that from the earlier book...
...The editor, V. F. Calverton, has another contribution to ibis theme in an article "Un Sherman and Mencken and Others," which he further explains as' "a fragmentary critique of American criticism...
...One must read the history to appreciate how deeply the union penetrated into the lives of the workers...
...JAMES ONEAL...
...Step by step we are taken from one period to another...
...It is a momentous epic of human lives—this hlntor/ of the garment workers...
...Therefore, a sprawling system of commission houses,-resident buyers, snd credit agencies, to ssy nothing of extravagant salesrooms, good-looking models developed to satlafy | these market demands...
...It Is true "It Imposed upon the industry a demand for progressive improvements which could not be met on'the existing bases of doing business," But it is also true that the protocol "lifted the women's garment trades from the status ef a desplssd Immigrant industry to that ef national interest and importance...
...Why American Teachers Do Not Think," by Scott Nearing...
...Nothing final is pre-The experimental character this newest of sciences is made Recognised exponent* of the schools of psychosnslytic tatuiht have their say—Freud, J,"1* Brill, Adler, Stekel, Putnam, fwnesl, Jones, Jeliffe, Martin, *T#r...
...His verbal antics and inconsistencies of logic vividly reflect the chaotic Indecision and contrsdiction of our time—snd nation...
...Levine has written this history with the Instincts of a scholar and a poet...
...1.00...
...Interwoven with this account are the warm human emotions, passions, sacrifices, and idealism of a group of workers struggling for bread, for leisure, and for self respect...
...It is in snnual dsvoted to the Italian Labor and Socialist movement in the United .'dates...
...The closing sentence is a fine piece of characterization...
...Even the publication of a history such as this one is, a record of failures and successes not merely a glorification, is an invaluable contribution...
...The Negro and Economic Radicalism," hy Abram L. Harris, Jr...
...By Frederick I...
...The feet thst th* clothing Industry tends to fulfill this theory only in the concentration of capital snd not in the mstter of production is msde th* basis of sn excellent snalysit by the author in the ehspter, The New Industrie...
...The clothing msrket mutt of unit sity fulfill the demands of people of vsrying Income strsts snd varying standards of living...
...While Professor Sherman recognizes the influence of society on literature he docs not admit the sociological factor in shaping the judgments of the critic...
...they belong to the realm of great epics...
...The "Protocol of Pesce," at th* agreement, which wss drswn up sf-ter ths 1910 closkmakera' strike, was known, was filled with the expectations snd hopes Of an industry esger for some magic formula assuring industrisl peace...
...V ACTING AND PLAY PRODUCTION...
...munista, are only indications ef what a microcosm ths union rosily is...
...i.00...
...THE WANDERING EROS...
...And so Mr...
...Levine unfolds...
...It it s most promising beginning in s field that is rich in possibilities snd the first installment is well' done...
...It revolts against bourgeois ethics, but not against bourgeois economics...
...two plays...
...And so it is, even as it is the story of the life struggles of 100,000 other workers in the garment industry...
...neon...
...Ittteateaabarrier which no amount of education of liberal feeling can remove...
...1, The "Journal" give* V. H,*mon't first Impression* of Canada as he VltitS Quebec and Montreal on h» w»y to the land of Maria Chape...
...he would like to attain an understanding of life but would not exert himself toward it,.,so O perpetually evades him sad hit sesrch is futile...
...In typography snd illustration It Is difficult to concave of snythlng that exoelt It In Itt particular field...
...Th* story relates the' mental vegariet of an Irish laborer work;r Ing on the Londor docks, Kcoivlmj" the vision of Socialism and wanting to bring about its mirsolea at onto for his own selfish advantage- Me is not imbued by sny illmlon- of progress for humanity's sak*> he i* easygoing...
...It rtadt: "Me (Mencken) is representative of an era that precedes collapse...
...Coming as a result of great strikes, months of privation and hardship, these agreements sre more than pacts of compromise, they are charters of the rights of the workers...
...Chletgt: A. W. Shaw C...
...In fact, the garment industr...
...m it ia difficult to think *f msay people reading or enjoying "Blind Man's Ruff" except for its psyche, logical Inaight snd It*,, easy, hum*, ons, though slightly mofdant style, for the class distinctions, wWth sre dwslt on so exhaustively are too fa-miliar and obvious to thone who ere sympathetic with a socialistic Ideal and too unpalatable to those wV, prefer the states ana...
...Those w" o have been perplexed by this will find enlightenment in the current number of the Modern Quarterly...
...The idea of a literature, literary standards and literary criticism independent of and uninfluenced by the social order in which they appear is subjected to a critical analysis that is keen and convincing...
...I.ito it has been poured the love of beauty and a pride of workmanship that ia a forecast of what enlightened worker* are capable of...
...Voluntary arbitration, industrial courts, industrial legislation,'scientific msnagement, production standards, sanitary boards, unemployment insurance, recreation and education are the outstanding experiments...
...Calverton considers Sherman's sweeping aside Of Dreiser by the assertion that the latter is "bucking" the national genius...
...But always a new crop of small shops would spring up just when the union felt it had established a basis of agreement with the manufacturers' associations...
...At one time money is ,';!ven to the steel strikers, at another time to a modern experimental school, or to the organized workers of foreign countries...
...N. Y.i Dial Pre...
...HISTORY OP THE AMERICAN FRONTIER...
...Hendrik Van tlA-n, * characteristic introduc-U'Mtrated by his own pen—a ?Wct appreciation of the great '"'•¦eh litterateur...
...Mencken is considered as the "vaudeville critic" or as the "prophet of the tawdry run of anti-bourgeois liberals...
...It was the old story of the struggles of an individual to conquer the economic forces which were binding him, and jise out of his class...
...Ml*, ell...
...In 1900 these shops apparently competed with the so-called "giant" shops of Btoadway...
...Millin as are the dark-skinned natives of India, with tMir dread of the Englishmen, to Kr, Foreter...
...Ml* description of the mob reaction ia a London public squsre again tndi-tstts hit knowledge ef human nature...
...Millin looks at her characters from a distance...
...Kropotkin...
...JOURNAL OF LOUIS HEMON...
...By Seen O'Casty...
...It would seem thst it Is ia this field that ths author'* slr.Hl it chiefly exhibited snd is the Otis which most Interests him...
...From the settlement of the dramatic strike of 1890, on through the strikes of 1009, 1910, 191ft and 1923, a body of trade union law has been created which prescribes the rules of the game in human terms as well as economic ones...
...In the absence of potent mechanical factors of organization and standardization, there has been more room as well as greater need for the play of the human mind...
...The result of the wedlock is a half-caste, who in turn has pregeny, After four genera-tloss, Barry, educated in England, married an English girl and comes ¦ilk to Africa as a missionary...
...Thus th' records of the union reflect the changing community interests of i...
...The jobber stepped into the mar-< ketlng arhemc, shifted the responsibility of production to th* small sub-manufacturer, and was responsible for a type of financial concen-' tration that actually defended upon decentralized production...
...The development ef collective bargsining, the attempts to put Into practice the many ideals of control over the economics of an industry, are graphically described...
...When the sweat shops threatened the workers' health, the Joint Board of Sanitary Control was created to establish sanitation standards in the industry and improve the sanitary conditions of the shops...
...When one reads the chapters on the Uprising of the Twenty Thousand and The Great Revolt, one is Impressed with the fact that the union is an unpluinbed Source of dramatic material All the life-emotion humans arc capable of are to be found etched upon the canvas of the history, in broad, strong, realistic strokes...
...Waldo Frank has written the Introduction...
...use of electricity, and sanitary Improvements, the small shops of today savor of the overcrowded conditions of the sweat shops of .yesterday...
...Our mind is still afflicted with dubiety and myopia...
...Since 1919 the number of small shops have increased even more rapidly than in preceding years...
...Sarah Millin's book ia a story of four generations, in which she traces white and black Intermarriage, It begins with the Reverend Andrew Flood, a missionary who has never had a friend, who has bren hopelessly in love with a beau tiful whit* girl, and who has come to South Africa because he has a slater* dttire to put (iod into the heart* of the heathen blacks...
...Life seems cheap in the development ef the whites and blacks...
...He sends his wife) and child back to England and atgtet back to his Bastaard cousins to da what he can to better their livtij Mr...
...The controversies for power between locals snd the International, I the petty intrigues of factions within the union, the injection of political controversies, first between Socialists and Anarchists and more recently between Socialists and Com...
...One of the most serious problems in the life of the union has been the cyclic decentralization of the garment factories, the periodic breaking up of large shopa into small ones...
...The latter -were large shops with installed machines, special salesrooms, and a staff of forty or flfty workers...
...let publishers deserve special 'wtaendsiion at this time for mak-i"t available to every layman "An Onttoe "of Psychoanalysis...
...It is a story which every socially conscious person should resd, for therein is relsted ths sspl-rations, the fsiluret, the journeys through countless morasses in an attempt to reach the sunlight...
...The Monistic Conception of History," by George Plechsnoff...
...All th* rtsU-language, belief*, customs-^»h*y have kept intact, with»\i arrogance, almost without reflection, on this ntw contlnsnt, smid alisn populations, at If Sn innate nsivt *entl-m«nt, which some will dttm intom-prehensihle, had taught them that, to altar in ths least detail what thty bad brought with them from Fran**, and to borrow anything whatsoever from another rac...
...In addition, they are difficult to control, from the point of view of the union...
...Men dlt, Children are born, fall in love and are married, and still the ques-tlen if bloOd differences and traditions thints as brightly and as cruelly SS ever...
...BRANCH CABELL...
...In the description of the union's struggles to control the economics of the industry, Dr...
...Loui* Levine's history of the union, thumbed its pages, weighed it in his hands for several moments, and cried, "Ach, this is the story of my life...
...oth'r vol>"nes are D'An-JjMlo, "The Child of Pleasure," J"««t work (It was written when ff*es twenty-sixt, which was des-*_T* 10 stamp him as a great eT?1!- lh« artiMir interpreter of...
...In '"**) days, when every first-rate cstrlatan and third-rate dilettante Ptsthes and practices psychoanaly-**—for a price—when medical and littrary quacks reap rich harvests •'ieiSxpense of an incredibly gul-' litis public, when so much of the •PUileu., product parades as the t'*l»ln* article, everyone, with the "ill to know will be amply rewarded •Y Investing ninety-five cents in this vl«Wkls eollection of papers...
...Several years ago there appeared in the realm of books the moving, pulsating life story of one cloak maker, Abraham Levinsky...
...The "moth" shops, with their low overhead costs, small investments, and constant personal supervision of the boss, prospered and became the "giant" shops of Fifth avenue...
...membership...
...The defect in the work of Mencken it, In the view of Calverton, due to the fact that Mencken is "anti-bourgeois in morals," but a "bourgeois in economics...
...Levine, as a Marxian student, recognises the importance of the theory of concentration of capital and production as factors In a cspl-tsllst system of production...
...It is at the ame time the story of surging masses beating eonsta'ntly and ' •eiishly upon the anvil of social forces, and hammering out, a patte n for a trade union which is more than an economic institution...
...The Garment Workers' Inspiring Story A Review by THERESA WOLFSON THE WOMEN GARMENT WORKERS...
...HSrdty "have they modified, In defene* against the homicidal cold, the traditional OOStum* ef th* country whence they cam...
...lalns...
...M. Hemon has a genuine understanding of tl * emotionsl aad' Intellectual life of the working m* a and woman...
...At one time the leaders of the union engage in political campaigns for the Socialist Party, at another time they participate in the plans for a Labor party...
...One feels overwhelmed by the tale Dr...
...John Eimnelt Klnhnun...
...PRINCIPLES OP INVESTMENT, By...
...Poems...
...The old bromide that love it thicker than water holds tragedy st well as truth...
...AVETERAN official of the In ternational Ladies Garment Workers' Union picked up a copy of Dr...
...Louie Levine...
...New York: B. W. Hueberh...
...Th* Freeehee**all this Matte* of Oanad* la observed...
...The book is a scholarly statement of facts, well documented, and presenting an account of early conditions in the industry, the development of union policies, and the struggles for a unified Union...
...Judges, lawyers, engineers, medical men, university professors, social workers, financiers, Governors, Mayors, United States Senators, and Cabinet officers, all play sopie part In the story and help to weave it into the texture of American li' ." , The industry and the union became not only un experiment station for new ideas, but a medium of self-expression for new ideals, political, economic and social...
...It is feverish and frenetic, insurrectionary of mood, but without knowledge of direction...
...Rut what is the national genius...
...It is something mm-,, than its title Implies...
...Calverton conclude-, that us Dreiser represents a proletarian trend in literature he is offensive to Sherman precisely because the latter does not represent such s trend, Bourgeois esthetics appeal to Sherman and these ar* trans' lated into the "national genius" and glorified by him...
...Although th* slender volam* abounds in' picture.* of Marie* nearby country and none of th* cities which are described so filter-estlngly, no written iwfeMnC* I* msde to th* village of Paribouk...
...It realizes deficiencies, but prefers to laugh at them—not to lessen them...
...By Dr...
...Sh» comes to the um ctfttlusion as did O'Neill in "A/I (Jed's Children Got Wings...
...fan * •1 H<w* I • 1 ftclenr ft ¦'1 ETHICS...
...Louis Levine...
...Mencken thrives...
...It is content with superficial remonstrance...
...He is too aoft to conquer their unbelieving cynical questions and tads up by marrying a black and settling down into a sordid, careless, Ultky existence, fiom which he ntter emerges...
...Chicago: 1011 Blue Inland avenue...
...By C.rl Van Botetj ^ffiy f^y The Modern Quarterly Many readers of literary criticism are often puzzled by the conflicting and often obscure judgments of the professionals...
...Front, "**•* the reader will acquire a conception of the fundamentals of the "Nset that will serve him as a use«stton 6"h iU v,rious r"miAhether volume in the "Modern !• Anatole France's classic Thais," of the redemption of •HauUful courtesan through the r* of a holy man...
...Modern Library four recent additions to the "Mesern Librsry" (Boni & Live-rifM) maintain the high standard »f Ueellenee of those previously published, all of which have deserv-edly earned general popular ap-Preval...
...MaomUUn...
...P.x.olU the PRESCHOOL CHILOjeVtrArneld 0«-tefl...
...It u the story of thousands of individuals, coming from different foroig...
...Hinkle and others...
...sae.u.tw...
...The industry attracted men and women with imagination and with large social vision who could test here some of their ideas of industrial life...
...He explains that the small shop has been successful bee euac the technique of the clothing industry hat lagged far behind the evolution of the market...
...In "The Women Garment Workers" wc have the kaleidoscopic picture of thousands of individuals struggling to rise, not out of their class, but in their class and with their class...
...Unlike many workers who are inclined to regard their union as one of a number of institutions in life, taking its place by the side of the lodge, the club and the political organization, this group of wo-kers in the garment industry have assigned to the union the role of school, club, snd friend...
Vol. 2 • March 1925 • No. 11
