New-York tribune., 1921-10-09
ictment of Modern War in Fiction Other Fall Publication

It Is incomprehensible how a literary
gunner Of the caliber Of Mr.. Dos Passos
should turn his back on the real tar
gct-which Is war--tilt his guns up
ward toward the zenith and begin
shooting at blenishes-for the most
part purely accidental and uncharac-
teristic blemishes-which, to him,
marred the technique Of Americas per-
formance In the fray.
Let me admit at once that tho ma
chine, as such. was imperfect. 1t car
ried within itself all the imperfections
Of the millions OF humans Of whom il
was composed, and 1t was just as good
and as bid as were they 1t held all
their immense potentialities for sacri-
flee, splendor, cowardice. beauty and
evil and meanness Of soul. 1t was
magnificent, fine, glorious. and It was
| rotten, degraded, cheap. 1t was as high
and as low as the human soul. It's
discipline was not an external yoke
The soldiers themselves ,'orporals
sergeants, top sergeants and "loots"-
welded the power, and they them
selves made it bearable or severe. The
yoke, the discipline, was as decent as
the men themselves, for 1T was CT the
men-and, in the large, the men were
decent, Just and fair.
Tyranny Of Discipline
Three Soldiers" is fierce arraign-
ment of the abuses in the American
army, as that army functioned in
America and in France. It relates the
misadventures Of three doughboys, who
rebelled against the tyranny of the
army discipline, and how these rebels
Jared. But I do not believe that the
prevailing mood Of Mr. Dos Passos's
three heroes in the A. E. F. is truly
representative Of the prevailing spirit
of the soldiers OF the A. 2 3. II might
conceivably, have been The temporary
passing mood Of some Of them in their
black moments of impatience, bitter
ness or despair, but it was not their
normal, habitual or governing mood
any more than is the expression Of 8
man who has hit his thumb with the
hammer instead Of the nail his normal
habitual expression. And to portray
the A. e. For, indeed, any considera-
ble body Of human beings collected to-
gether--in such terms IS like portray
ing the sea in terms Of the dirty scum
which sometimes rides on It's top. Mr.
Dos Passos has painted the sculn ex-
cellently, with vigor and power, and
he had right to paint it, for tho scum
was thers-but why has he left out the
sea7 For the sea was present~~as well
as the scum which rode on tha top
His portrait, therefore, though true in
some respects. lacks the distinction
which comes from the artists percep-
ton Of the real, inner truth behind Che
outer, and often misleading, veil of
external fact.
The trouble with this well-written
brilliant and often poignant and NOV
ing book Is that it is lop-sided. It's
author did not see life in the army as
an artist should see life anywhere, an
tensely and as a whole. He saw only
ona thing, and he saw that so pas
sionately that he was unable to see
the rest Of tho circle at all. And the
thing which he saw with such pas
sionate intensity, and resented with
such bitterness, was, In word, re-
straint. His three heroes hated re-
straint, and they hated the man higher
up in the army who kept them in re-
straint. / suspect that Mr., Dos Passos
also hates it, for he has not used much
Of 1t in this book. He has strung TO-
gether a series Of distorted, excep-
tional, embittered episodes TO repre-
sent the norm. In thus distorting the
real truth, he Is, possibly, good propa.
gandist, but a bad artist, for he has
Judged as an artist in order to prove
his propagandist theme. Which is the
chief defect in most propaganda
literature.