The Washington herald., 1921-08-28

poltroonery IL not essentially Amer
lean, 1t is essentially democratic;
the inferior man always shows It
Il am. tested by the prevailing
definitions, bad American. ! do
not believe this country has the
glorious future that patrioteers
talk of. It will probably remain
| second rate for a long while-a
mere miich COW for England. Most
| Of the American ideals. so called
that know of seem to me to be
idiotic. II they were sound, I'd
probably jump into the nearest
| river. The sort of country they
conjure up would be simply a para
disc Of bounders. forward-lookers,
| right-thinkers, all sorts of stupid
towards. / do not believe that CIV
ilized life is possible under de-
mocracy.
Free-for-An speech.
I am an extreme libertarian and
believe In absolutely free speech,
especially for anarchists Socialist J
and other such fools. Once those
fellows were free to gable ad lib,
democracy would be reduced to an
absurdity; the mob would 20 stark
crazy. I am against falling men for
their opinions. or, for that matter,
for anything else. am opposed to
religions, because all Of them seek
to throttle opinion. do not be-
lieve in education, and am glad I
never went toya university. Beyond
the rudiments, 1t IS impossible to
teach anything. All the rest the
student acquires himself His
/ haR al Il l..
for him. never learned anything
| In school.
My scepticism Is intolerably Of
fensive to the normal American
man; only the man under strong
foreign influences sees anything in
it save a gross immortality. II the
notions of the right-thinkers are
correct, then such stun as mine
(and particularly such stuff as |
shall write hereafter) ought to be
put down by law. ! believe that, in
the long run, 1t will be put down
by law-that free speech is too
dangerous to democracy to be per-
mitted. But I surely do not COM
plain about that. The Puritans
have a right to determine the laws
of their country. And I reject the
sentimentaJty that the minority
also has ri&hts."
A BIT Of His Life,
To hear him talk about college
professors one would think Mencken
had studied them at several "insti-
tutions of learning" and had a
string Of degrees on his belt But
no; he attended Knapp's Institute
at Baltimore and was graduated at
the age Of 16 from the Baltimore
Polytechnic. When he was Is his
father died and the boy got a Job
as reporter on the old Baltimor .
Morning Herald. now suspended
He has been connected in some ca
pacity, from cub to editor-in-chief,
with Baltimore newspapers ever
since. His independent studies have
led him quite deeply into biology
and psychology and he is known as
something Of a psychoanalyst
Mencken's first book was Ven
lures Into Verse" Then have fol-
lowed George Bernard Shaw: His
Plays The Philosophy of Fried
rich Nietzsche," The Artist: a
Drama without Words" "a Little
Book in C Major" "a Book Of Bur-
lesques." * Book of Prefaces.
Damn! A Book of Calumny," I'm
|
Language" ''Prejudices: First Sc
ries." and "Prejudices: Second Sc
ries." On a number of others he
has collaborated.
Talks lawfully Rough.o
Henry Louis Mencken is the bad
boy Of American letters. He doesn't
go behind the barn to smoke his
corn-silk cigarettes, and he uses
naughty words. Yet on the whole
nobody can say he fas damaged the
neighborhood. He is great
shocker. perpetually running out his
tongue at respectable things. point
ing to the biological phases of
love, tearing aside the sentiment
| from death.
Nobody agrees entirely with him.
Mencken would be the first to call
such an unimaginative person a
moron. AS an iconoclast he incurs
the wrath of those who would con-
denim man for pointing out the
chuckholes while he cannot build a
road. AS a piercer of balloons he
fncurs the wrath of those persons
suspended from them.
Although he may he accused of
rarelessness with a sharp ak. ne
| d
stroyer of pish. tosh and twaddIe.
He is Americas great idol-smasher.
las necessary as a housewrecker in
a growing community. At least
some of the things the American
nublic worships are but clay and
Menrken is the man to start them
crumbling.
Guilty Of Righteousness.
By his sympathy he has betrayed
himself as some sort of a demo-
crat, some sort of an uplifter, some
sort Of a patriot. Through his works
and through his conversation run
threads of genuine concern in the
future Of the boobery; he is fight
ing those he believes are setting
up false canons for art and politi-
cally are leading the muddlewits
astray.
And the Young visiter, for one,
will always stick up for a man who
is personally so agreeable and an
swers all his letters the day he gets
| them.
uuG