THE LORD'S ANOINTED
SINCLAIR, UPTON
A PAGE OF EXCLUSIVE FEATURES THE LORD'S ANOINTED MAMMONART—CHAP. V By UPTON SINCLAIR, WHO pays for art? The answer is that at every stage of social development there are certain...
...What We Are...
...The stars have sung rejoicing, And so shall you, despite Ye curie the dawning era And ivruth with its light...
...We sl-.aH find that everywhere they wtre members of their group, sharing the interests and the prejudices, the hates and fears, the jealousies and loves and admirations of that group...
...Ah, there, Freds...
...They struggled against ignorance thst stupifies, against error that oppresses, against intolerance thst tyrannize*, against cruelty that torturei, and against hatred that kills...
...P. LORING WEST...
...The same thing applies to folk tales and love longs—until men take to printing them in books, after %hich they develop fancy forms, understandable only to people who have nothing to do with their time except to play with fancy things...
...We sll are what we are becsuse we are but a fill ' ot notions> prejudices, feelings, virtues, «lies, wisdom, kindness, cruelty, godliness, and "•'lishness inherited from a thousand generations ' ,ne*»tors who were born before we could stop oem...
...You're damned...
...Social claises struggle...
...A Song of Labor Hv HELEN CARY CHADWICK I ung a long of Labor Of itrugglei to be free...
...I'm saved...
...or else he will act of his own impulse—he will lead the crussde, singing the praises of the old-tiifie ways, "idealizing" the ancestral heroes, the holy saints and the founding fathers, and pouring ridicule upon the bobbed heads of the tappets...
...In our hearts the best and a» of NPSS are struggling for suprem"*>• we ara brothers to the most godlike and most depraved...
...if they happened to be poor and friendless, they do not even receive the gratitude of posterity, because their drtnm-children died unborn, and were buried, along with their parents, in graves unknown...
...We did not fast forty days in the wilderness to bring our spirit* nearer to the Infinite...
...Bedtime Stories for the Bourgeoisie WE see where a Republican politician banged himaeif the other day because he wss die appointed with tha way the Reyubluatu a»» running things .n Washington and Albany...
...McAlister Coleman...
...Hut tvheri, on any toil, In reared their ihaft of honor, The record of their toilt Where ruleri fought to ruin Labor rebuilt the State, Where bloody faiths contended Labor outwitted hate...
...They stielce at the recent Birth Control Conference at the Hots...
...Some time ago, 1 read a atory where a twolegged beast, who claimed he was made in the image of God, sought to find out how deep a soulless animal could love its young ones...
...Who fed and elothed the...
...Now when we consider that the poor bass is one of tbe lowest of God's creatures, he isn't doing half bsd, especially when we compare him with the "ornery" crowns of creation who live off the labor of children and who call everybody names because they won't subscribe to infanticide on the installment plan...
...This word is msde synonymous with negation snd impotence...
...Rot not being an ordinary Nordic, I know that most of the good things which make up "our Nordic civilization" were given to us by the swarthy people from southern Europe, from Asia, and (please don't hit me) from Africa...
...Seriously, though, it'a s sweet situation when Ofr children hsve te get their heroes from tha American Magatine and tha pens of men Itlis Stan Crowther and Bruce Barton...
...They sre certsin thst srt standarJs are eternal...
...Leastways, that is what eciencs says, and science is usually right, Wause it never js ashamed to "fess up" when it is wrong...
...for our Liberals, "Wltl* Hefkins at Cleveland ; for our own folks, "Teles About Thomss...
...Having thought up a splendid plan for having a jury decide what plays it U wise for us to lee, tha New York World, that bulwark ef libsralisb* at any time when it doesn't really matter, now wants to have a jury of medics in judgment «e psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and the Ilka Fine...
...No, brother, you go to one church because some BOO years ago, * libertine of a king wanted to marry a few more "Wves thsn the Pope ssld he could have...
...Yet our grest sceptics were sometimes the most sffirmative, and oft*a the most courageous of men...
...Join in...
...I would rathei east my eyes inA» ihe cool jade depths...
...Then after every new operation, he would put the mother on the floor and she would crawl to her puppy in the corner and make over it and lick it and try to nurse it and console it like it was the puppy and not her who was being tortured to death...
...It will be explained to us, no doubt, that'ths whole thing was just a joke and th*t Fall W»s kidding when he took thst jack in the black bag...
...Labor hat wrought their crown, And won a chain for guerdon, Oblivion for renown...
...It Is our private hunch that the tornado took sue look at Herrin and went by en the other side muttering to Itself, "What can a poor, timid little tornado do to a tough town like that...
...McAlpin and every one of them had an economic background and a sense of socisl direction that many professional "radicals" of our acquaintance sadly lack...
...cool flaggf ringed pond...
...Their unknown nainei are legion...
...I spoke of the corruption of the judges, and he contradicted me with a smile...
...And exactly so it has been with our recognized and successful artists...
...And hymnt were lung of heroes, And martyrs' wreaths were wove, For Kings whose soldiers conquered, And lainti whose converts strove...
...Don't Uks yourself too seriously...
...there come all sorts of novelties startling the elders — modernists sapping the old-time creeds, and flappers adopting the vices of men...
...At least, those eyes looked much more soulful than those of many human beings I have met...
...So he took s mother dog with a puppy, and laid her on the operating table and cut first one thing and then the other out of her poor body...
...The answer is that at every stage of social development there are certain groups able to pay for certain kinds of art...
...SCEPTICISM "Scepticism...
...he who pays the piper calls the tune...
...And just wait until ha dies and you ro«d the obituariee about him planted in the newsta**1* offices by Press-Agent Poison Ivy Lee, ths farfamed editor of ths Subway Sunt If you ipd any mention of the fact that in reality tha ip...
...e • ? We see they have indicted Senator Wheeler agaia and we expect to survive the surprise of learning that everybody connected with Teapot Dotrie has got off scott fee and even been presented with a Congressional medal for distinguished public service...
...Our advise to all rising young bandits la cut out the rough stuff, join up with the Republican administration and do big stealing In a big way...
...It should need no stating that Rolls-Royce automobiles ere not made according to tha tastes of rag-pickers and dit-Vdi^gers, nor yet of poets and saints...
...It will be our task to study the great art periods one after another, taking the lesdi ig ar sts and showing what they were, what they believed, how they got their living, and what they did for those who paid them...
...armiei - Hewardcd by a frown...
...such enemies Of the tribe must he put down...
...Of late, there has been a heap of loose talk about inferior and superior races...
...and we answer that it is purely a question of c'ass prestige...
...they are made according to the tastes of people who can afford to pay for RollsRoyce automobiles...
...others win, and set new standards, according to their interests...
...But Chapman made a break...
...And I Jo to snother church because another king made himself a legitimate widower by divorcing the o«l wives with a meat axe whenever he hankered ™r a new one...
...Now if Chapman, the mail bandit, had had the good luck to have been tried by a couple of politicians for swiping property from the Government he wouldn't need to have been ntrvous...
...When we look close at that subject, we always find that the superior races are I, my, and wo, while the inferior races belong to the tribes of you, they and them...
...If you had been born in China >'»u would worship s crockery Buddha in a porce»m temple, and if I hsd been born in GreenI would pray for fish bait to a wooden totem Pole carved out of a stranded mast by my grand'•ther...
...This is art, the critics will aver, this is real, genuine, authentic art...
...There was nobody arosnd to slip him his money, so hs got a gun and made a mees of getting it...
...The critics will lesp to Ogl's support, hailing him as the Lord's own Aointed, a creator of masterpieces, dignified, serene, secure in immortality...
...Freda Hogan, who adits tho Oklshoma Leader when Oscar Amsrtnger is awsy with tha Illinois Miner, wrote us ths other day that she had had her hair bobbed—-snd it is our bet that she leeks prattier than ever...
...I never vivisected s dog and hung his soul on a clothes-line...
...If our thinking about the arts were not so completely twisted by false propaganda, it would seem an axiom to say that the i':rst essential to understanding any art product is to understand the public wh'c ¦ ordered and paid for that art product...
...Hence we find the ballad close to the people, simple and human, frequently rebellious...
...Ballads cost nothings you can make one up and sing it on any street corner...
...e • * ? We weren't really convinced that it was Spring until a German band came tooting down the black, Isabel, our black cat, forsook her four charming white kittena to look wistfully out the wlndew inW the backyard and our feet began to hurt, all in the course of one day...
...Each one of them for' mulated some article of it—Oplaioas of Anatole Praaca...
...For example, for our Communist friends, "W|t]| Dunn at Seattle...
...Thi Phoenix of the ages, The koiti of light tvhence ran Creation'I glorioui gospel Of work, bequeathed to man...
...Ogi will be called on by his masters...
...And yet what we csll religious convictions are not our convictions...
...00...
...Some arts, of course, are chcaper than others...
...When we come down-to brass tacks, we share these virtues with all the higher animals, and even the lower ones are not entirely bereft of them, for I have observed bass fanning the golden eggs in their little trundle beds below the water to keep them clean and shining and protoct them against enemies...
...They gave us our alphabet, numbers, algebra, architecture, art, astronomy, medical science, music, laws, and raiigion...
...this grandeur has to be subscribed for in advance by the "diamond horseshoe," and consequently there '. as never been such a thing as a proletarian grand opera —if you except the "Niebelung Ring," which was so effectively disguised as a fairy story that nobody but Bernard Shaw has been sble to decipher Its incendiary message...
...A hotisu of grey cut itone opposed my view From the red drifts of an even' sky...
...Oh, yes, there is thst blsssed soul of yours, and you claim that you'rs the only "critter" that has s soul, snd what's mors, thst that soul is so allfired precious that all kinds of people you would have lynched if you had "known them, bled and died for no other reason thsn to ssve thst measly soul of yours...
...At flrst, we suspect they will have to be a hit sugar-coated so as to gst the youfigstars who have been brought up on such things as "frank en the Gunboat, "With Clvle in India," "Betty Biewit at High School," otc...
...That intrinsic vslue of 86 cents is derived from s fsw ouness of chemicals, a few pinches of mineral baits and a few buckets of water which compose the human body...
...and we answer that they are blown about by the winds of politics...
...But I hsve looked in the eyes of msny a dog, and I saw his soul...
...We shall find them subject to all the social stresses and strains of the time, and fighting ardently the battles of their class...
...Of all tho art forms thus far devised, the most expensive per capita is the so-called "grand opera...
...they have been men who looked up to the ruling classes by instinct, and served their masters gladly and freely...
...They attacked everything that fetters the mind and tbe will...
...I'm right, you're wrong...
...I, for instance, belong to the Nordic race, and ordinarily that would be enough to convince any good Nordic that the good Lord used a special brand,of clay in constructing me and that He worked years and years to give me that nice pale tint which distinguishes me from other rsces...
...some lose, and their glory fades, their arts decay...
...We take off Armitage when we think of five or six Protestant Ministers with guts enough tocome out publicly in favor of birth control...
...i„ our 8B.cent body flowg thg blo(>a of •very rsce on earth...
...Our Noblo Nordic Anceatore While our noble Nordic ancestors were still rsaming ttie woods and caves of central Europe, tumbling, boosing, fighting, and killing, the Egyptians had reared their pyramids, the Greeks their temple< the Romans their Coliseum...
...m • » The fact thst the recent Mid-Western tornado skipped Herrin ruined s lot of perfectly good sermons pointing out how God punishes the usrighteous...
...On each granite piece corefrd u itli nn icy net I recognized the mark of red gnarled hands...
...the degeneration of the tribe...
...Beginning with the primitive art forms, it would be possible to arrange the arts in an ascending scale of expensiveness, and to show that exactly in proportion to the cost of an art product is hs aristocratic spirit, its subservience to ruling class ideals...
...AAfcs Coal digger...
...And she kept this up ur.'-il she "gave up her soul" on the last trip to her puppy...
...Newspaper accounts of the ending of the trial said that sll hands, including the proeecution at the trial, were on the lust of terms and that *«*n tk* judge joined In the laughter at the witticisms of the lawyers...
...But does it...
...One leads to heaven, the other to hell...
...Did you never see a poor deluded hen sit on a door knob for weeks and weeks and fret and starve herself until there was nothing left but bOnes snd feathers just because her mother heart was longing for a flock of fussy little chicks...
...corrigible old scamp waa as flinty-hesrted s business pirate as ever made an Independent oil company walk the plank, we will eat Armltsge...
...1 hear the chorui—i Jehovah'i marching iphires Exalt the praise of l.abor Through all the eternal years...
...and the arts stand a chance of immortality, to the extent thst they serve snch idesls...
...Don't think you know it all The greater man that aver livad wasn't worth over 86 cants...
...Grappling'the throat of nations, The Church and State have bred Thlir dronei to rob the living And fatten on the dead...
...The blue and white and red J sate As I ga:ed into the...
...If they did not do so, they paid the penalty by a life of conflict and exile...
...while out there in the wilderness somewhere howls a lone gray rebellious wolf, attacking and seeking to devour everything that is beautiful and sacred in life—and the howling of this wolf is not li t, it is vile and cheap propaganda.* The critics are certain that the decision is purely a question of aesthetics...
...And did you ever, you, an able-bodied 200pounder, try to take some of those fuzzy little chicks away from a mother hen and have the poor thing turn on you like an enraged tigress...
...We particularly like to remark of Dr...
...But may we in all humility suggest thst a jury of newspaper readers be formed to Judge the cases of former editors <f liberal weeklies who work their heads off during elections to get reactionary corporation Iswyars into office...
...Such evils must bs corrected...
...Coming Down te Braes Tacke Yes, folks, no use of bragging about our souls or sympathies or love...
...I img a long of million i H'Jto dart to do and be...
...Red Gnarled Hands /STOOD at a quiet pond's flaggfringed brink, And saw the fishes in the rushes ploy...
...For life is never a static thing, it is always changing, always subjecting its victims to new dangers, forcing them to new efforts...
...It's bad enough when they're alive, this sickening adulation of mesn-seuled shrimps like Chaunoey Depew and John D. But when they're dead I well as someone ssld, "De Mortals, Nil Nisi Hokum*" Scads of kids will grow up thinking that Ckauncey Depew, for example, tha sneaking little lobbyist for the Vanderbilts, waa a great and good Wan with only the public's Interests at h«art.r Every rotogravure seetion is worklsg overtime to conveyy the impression that John D. is somehow a kindly old thing who would never think of doing anything so nsughty as rebating and who epoftds his time giving bright nlckles to dull caddiea...
...So loonder crowds are staring To set the stare of yian Hise up and look with longing Down Freedom's long arrears...
...A Plea for Tolerance DC N'T be so cocky...
...When it comes to religion there are only two *»ys about it...
...Well, I wouldn't be so cocksurs of hsving a monopoly on souls...
...There Is simply no chance whatever...
...A man is waking That never yet knew birth Since Adam turned a toiler And broke the virgin earth...
...In times of eternal order and prosperity there come luxury and idleness...
...And while our ancestors were making the nights hideous by bullaballooing for Valhalla, which was their conception of a heaven in which they would find eternal hliss by drinking the blood of their slain enemies out of their skulls, the gentle religion of Buddha and Jesus hsd already supplanted the hersh creed of Moses...
...He could just have sent for a copy of Life ©T some funny paper and put his feet up on the desk and swapped wise cracks with the judge...
...They denied only negations...
...Our judges are not bought...
...We have an elegant new brown hat called ArmHage...
...Maternal Affection Then, too, human parents, especially the mothsrs, hsve such a deep lovs for their young, and this proves conclusively that they are made of finer clay than other creatures...
...Either the ruling class is threatened by the attacks of outside enemies, or else there is a new class arising inside the community...
...He took a chance...
...Now if some smart Democrat could only popularise this practiceOur idea of a grand, good book is Sinclair Lewie's "Arrowsmith" which skins alive the medual Bab bitts...
...they are selected...
...e • • 0 • Josh Liebermsn, over at Pionssr Youth, t«ll| as thst ho csn't find any books about Lsbor add liberal heroes fit for juvenile consumption and opines that we will have to write books of «gr own for the kids...
...Perhaps you did, and perhaps you didn't, and if you did, the chances ara that you kicked the poor "brute" and never dreamed that you kicked a mother love as deep and self-sacrificing as that of the best woman who ever fought for her children...
...Some mute, inglorious Milton here m^y rest...
...These groups may be large or small, but they constitute the public for that kind of art, and determine its quality and character...
...Ray Petty, who, in speaking of the fact that so many folk* who oppose birth control do nothing for children after they are born, said, "Spare the sperm and spoil the Child...
...H'Ao built the priest his tei.iple1 WJio made the road and town...
...Also, "Gold by Gold," by Herbert Gorman, is S book worth sitting up with...
...Labor hat fought their battlet...
...We did not pore over the ancient writings to find the faith toning nearest to the longings of our hearts...
...and in the course of these Isbors, what Chance is there thst the ruling classes will fail to make use of thatr most powerful weapon, that of art...
...And vateh the glint of icale.i among the sombre greens...
...Stand back...
...If you have water on the brain, yeu may be worth more on account of tha sdditional water...
...It would not be difficult to prove that those Frenchmen of (enius who are celled sceptics piofetsed the most magnificent credo...
...The only permanent factors art the permanent needs of humanity, for justice, brotherhood, wisdom...
...Many years ago I was talking with a captain of industry, prominent in New York political life...
Vol. 2 • April 1925 • No. 14
