Page:The Masses, Volume 1, Number 3.pdf/3

 E

D

I

T

O

OUR ANTI-MILITARIST CAMPAIGN IT IS gratifying to see the enthu­ siastic welcome given George R. Kirkpatrick's article in the Feb­ ruary number of The Masses on "The Boy Scout Movement." The demand for the article has been so great that it was found necessary to print it separately in leaflet form. Of the 100,000 copies that were printed a large part had been ordered in advance. We are receiving letters daily telling us that the article should be put in the hands of every father and mother in the land. This aggressive stand against militar­ ism is one of the most cheering manifes­ tations of the growing signs of unrest among the workers. It argues a foresight rarely before displayed by the working class in our country. They seem to be de­ termined to stop the spread of the mili­ tary spirit before it is too late. They realize that greater even than the danger of war is the danger that our boys trained in church and school to the use of weapons will be made to fight their very own class in its struggles for larger pay and better conditions of labor. No matter what sophistical arguments may be advanced by advocates of militar­ ism, the workingmen know that the sol­ diery has been used before against them when they were fighting for their eco­ nomic improvement, and they argue justly that it is likely to be used against them in the future as well. Obedience is the alpha and omega of what a soldier should know, says that very Christian organ, The Brigadier, the oracle of the boy scout movement. What better word to conjure with when workingmen are ordered to shoot workingmen in a strike? The time has come when laborers can­ not be caught even when young and turned into the instruments of their mas­ ters. This we can clearly see from the cordial response of the boys themselves to Kirkpatrick's warning. Offers have come from many boys' organizations to help us in our fight against the scout movement. The Masses has taken up a systematic campaign against militarism. It will pur­ sue that evil wherever it crops up, whether in the comparatively open form of boy scouts in the churches, of military drills in schools and colleges, or in the more in­ sidious and more dangerous, because more hypocritical, guise of other associations that claim spiritual relationship with the gentle founder of Christianity. We invite all interested in the antimilitarist movement from the workingman's point of view to stand by us and give us aid and support. A l l contribu­ tions on the subject will be carefully con­ sidered, and all information concerning military or anti-military activity will be highly appreciated.

R

I

A

CONTENTS Editorials. Thomas Seltzer The Boy Scout. Frontispiece. A. O. Fischer._ Revolutionary Mexico. I. Diaz and the Revolu­ tion. Carlo de Fornaro. Drawings by Author. Iolanthe's Wedding. (Continued.) Hermann Sudermann. Illustrated by Frank Van Sloun__ Signs of the Times. Rufus W. Weeks The American Wholesale Contract System. Piet Vlag Garotte. Reginald Wright Kauffman. Illustrated by Charles A. Winter A Vow. Stefan Zeromski. Illus. by A. O. Fischer Socialism and Success. Drawing by Art Young. Thomas Seltzer The Classmates. Inez Haynes Gillmore. Illus­ trated by Frank Van Sloun Irrelevancies and Irreverencies. Thomas L. Masson. Drawing by Art Young Co-operative Woolen Mill. Magnus Brown City Vignettes. II. A Glimpse of Fate. Edwin Björkman. Drawing by Samuel Schwarz The European Situation in Cartoon. Hahn The International Menace of the Roman Court (Cartoon). Wm. Washburn Nutting

The

3 4 5 7 9 10 10 11 12 13 15 16 16 17 18

Masses Publishing Co. 112 E. 19th St., New York City

SUBSCRIPTION

RATES

Yearly, 50 Cents Half Yearly, 25 Cents Extra 25 Cents per Year for Manhattan and Bronx Send all communications, contributions and exchanges in­ tended for the Editor to Thomas Seltzer. 219 West 100th St., New York City.

WRITING DOWN TO THE MASSES This magazine is written for the masses. It is not written down to the masses. Some friends have advised us that if we would live up to our name we must lower the tone of our articles and stories. That is to say, the writer for the people must not give the best that is in him, and he must not give it in the best way he knows how. He must not tell what he knows and feels. He must tell only what he thinks the people want to know and feel. His ideas must come to the people diluted, predigested, sugar-coated, atten­ uated, vulgarized, slangy, or, we are told, the people will not understand them. We do not share this opinion. We be­ lieve the best writers are those who, with­ out having to belie themselves or descend from their own level, can find an immedi­ ate and intelligent response in the hearts and minds of the people. Bunyan, Dick­ ens, Tolstoy are examples. It would be easy to multiply examples from every age and every country. In Europe at present the most popular writers are the writers who give instinctively and with perfect sincerity the choicest creations of their minds and spirits in the choicest form. Do we in this country ever hear of an author in Europe on the same plane as our Ella Wheeler Wilcox? We do not. But we do hear of Maeterlinck, Haupt­ mann, Anatole France, and such. Now, no one in Europe can claim knowledge of the dominant currents in present 3

L

S

American literature unless he is ac­ quainted with Ella Wheeler Wilcox. This business of writing down to the people has been sadly overdone in our country—with what appalling results anyone who cares for good literature knows. Is it not time to turn a new page? (But, for heaven's sake, not of an Amer­ ican novel!) Writing down to the people is like walking downstairs when you want to reach the roof. It is no doubt easier and quicker, but you will find yourself in the basement instead of on the roof, and in darkness, instead of in the full light of the sun. No doubt, the man whom The Masses wants to reach often dwells in the base­ ment, or in some dark hole of a tenement, or is to be found digging deep down in the shaft of a mine. But by descending, in literature, to the level of the basement dweller, the author will merely dim his own light and obfuscate his own brain. He will not send one ray of light into the tenement, the basement, or the mine. There is only one way. Take the men from out of their dark places and let them climb with you to the height, where there is nothing to intercede between their vision and the sun. The ascent may be slow and difficult, but it is the only thing worth the while, though it is "no good," we are told, from a commercial point of view. By giving of his best the author will not be performing a charitable or "up­ lifting" act for others. He will simply be charitable and uplifting to himself. For woe betide the writer who once starts on the downward course of "writing down" to the people. He will soon be so deep down himself, as to be quite beyond the reach of the lowest writing down.

CARLO DE FORNARO P R O B A B L Y no writer in Amer­ ica can speak with more au­ thority on Mexico than Carlo de Fornaro. Fornaro was the owner and editor of a liberal paper in which he kept up a fearless cam­ paign against the government in a fight for Mexican liberty. When he found he would be gagged, he left for the United States, and wrote his book, "Diaz, Czar of Mexico." Diaz seized upon an unimportant pas­ sage and had Fornaro convicted by an American court for criminal libel of a cer­ tain Espindola, a tool of his. It was striking in the trial that the big American interests and persons close to high Amer­ ican officials showed extraordinary zeal in helping Diaz convict Fornaro. Fornaro served his term of a year, refusing all offers of pardon.