New-York tribune., 1920-08-27
Books uey~.d1 BY s,.uo

We are getting little sick and tired
of receiving letters from readers who
want to know why we haven't enough
courage to review Upton Sinclair's The
Brass Check.
"The book review columns of The
Tribune" writes Morris E. Thorne,
"have always been source of pleasure
to me. Recently, though, I have been
nursing a grievance, and it has grown
SO that must write to you about it, l
have always been impressed with your
efforts to be fair and impartial in your
comments and your reviews. l always
imagined you liberal, perhaps a
socialist p.
Several weeks ago I had the good
fortune to read The Brass Check. by
Upton Sinclair. That book is really the
most valuable in the country. 1t tells
the truth! Is that why none of the
newspapers will review it? Are they
really playing into Mr.. Sinclairs hands
by acting just as he writes about them?
1t sure seems so on the face of things.
And you, too! Arc you an accessory
to the crime? I hope not. Perhaps
you, too, have a family to support and
must therefore do your masters bid
ding. If so, sympathze with you.
Come now, Mr. Broun, for the sake
of your family, for Haywood Sd,
whom I have grown to like and for
whom I know you would give your life,
play fair. The Brass Check is a book
that should reach the masses. Will you
help? Surely you know what a tre-
mendous message it carries for the
people. 1t was what we were waiting
for, and now that it has arrived it is
ignored by the very ones who try to
palm themselves off as friends ~ of
the people. May the good Lord deliver
us from such friends, Yours for fair
play"
AS Mr.. Thorne suggests, we are lib
eral or perhaps a socialist CD, but we
must confess that his letter and some
of the others rss'concerning The Brass
Check have perturbed US not little at
the impulsive quality of radical thought
We object, for instance, to being cited
before the Almighty as a Judas who
has tried to palm himself off "as a
friend 90 of the people, We don't re-
member ever having made any such
claim. Unfortunately, also, we are un-
able to writhe at the picture presented
of ourself as hesitating between being
cast out into a binding snowstorm or
keeping silence about Upton Sinclairs
book. Some of our readers, we feel
sure, believe that on the morning The
Brass Check was published every news
paper reviewer was summoned to the
telephone and told, This is J. P. Nor
gan speaking and John D. Rockefeller is
here with me. If any of you fellows so
much as mention Upton Sinclair's The
Brass Check We'll break you. Do you
understand that ?-break you''
As matter of fact, it didn't happen
to us. We have reviewed or commented
uTon Upton Slnclalrs S The Brass Check
in the columns of The Tribune no fewer
than four times. Sinclair mailed US
a copy of the book shortly after it
was written, but that copy went astray,
although we later received one from
him. Meanwhile, we borrowed the book
from some one who had told us about
i. and commented on it few davs
later, on March "a on the editorial
page of The Tribune. On Sunday
March %, we wrote wo-column re-
view of the book And on May we
devoted the better part Of column
to it. In this issue we reprinted part
of an article by Mr. Sinclair in The
Appeal to Reason, in which he wrote:
"Ghere are not many literary review