RIPOSTES
61
"democracy" should protect itself with dictatorial elements, and Lion
Feuchtwanger, who leads the international literary assault on literary
criticsof the U.S.S.R. Not long ago Obed Brooks found Mann "com-
pletely and critically class-conscious as a member of the bourgeoisie,"
while Paul Peters labeled Feuchtwanger a "wishy-washy, impotent
liberal."
Le plus ca change, Ie plus c'est la meme chose.
The picture is incomplete without some of yesteryear's
New Masses
estimatesof well-known members of the Order of Enemies of Mankind.
In 1927 Harbor Allen named three poets whose songs of "steel,
smoke, iron noise, city, soil" had an exemplary "flavor that nips and
tingles." One was Gold. The others were William Ellery Leonard and
]ames Rorty, both Order of E. M. The
New Masses
favorably noticed
booksby Suzanne La Follette, Charles R. Walker, Charles Yale Har-
rison, and V. F. Calverton. The praise of these leading members of the
Order of E. M. was penned by the late Paxton Hibben, Bernard Smith,
M.
P. Levy, Bennet Stevens and Joseph Freeman. Robert ~unn,
Director of Labor Research, credited Walker with being "largely res-
ponsible" for the second writers' delegation to the Harlan coal fields. In
1932Edwin Seaver found Edmund Wilson, now Order of E. M., to be
"a new and vital tendency." When early the following year the editors
arranged an anti-Nazi symposium, four of the 14 invited contributors
wereWaldo Frank and Horace Kallen (now candidates for the Order)
and Sidney Hook and the indefatigable Rorty, both officers of the Order.
In March 1934, the editors scolded Prof. Meyer Schapiro and John
Chamberlain for not realizing how deeply and rightly the workers hated
Fiorello La Guardia; today the editors support La Guardia-while
Schapiro and Chamberlain are confirmed members of the Order of E. M.
But there is more. In 1933 Edward Sagarin wrote as follows about
Andre Gide (in the
New Masses,
be assured) :
"Nothing is so odious to him as the lie. He would not resort to men-
dacity even if it could 'prove' what is most dear to him . . . master of
French prose and leader of French thought. . . . What is really inspiring is
the fervor with which Gide has gone left. He does not mince his words,
he leaves no room for doubt, no chance in case of a crisis, to retreat. He
has committed himself openly and sincerely ...
a great gain for the left-
wing movement ...
of the entire world."
Gide has since criticized Stalinist culture in and out of the U.S.S.R.,
and expressed agreement with some of Trotsky's views. He has been
declared a deep-dyed liar and promoted Commander of the French
Lodge, Order of E. M. In June 1927-this gets warmer-the editors
wrote:
"'What the
New Masses
needs is a Max Eastman!' say hosts of critics,
who will be elated to know that Max Eastman has returned from abroad,
that he is a member of the
New Masses
Executive Board, and that he pro-
mises to be a frequent contributor."
Now we are hot-but
getting hotter. In October 1926, Gold wrote
of the Grand International Commander of the Order of the Enemies
of Mankind as follows and
ad nauseam:
