Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1922-03-06
THREE SOLDIERS
Ex-ScrH'icc Man 'itics Much
Bcrated Author.


Three Soldiers" by John Dos Passos
(Doran).
After reading Three Soldiers
by John Dos PassOs, one can't help
feeling sorry for the man wh)
wrote it. If Dos Passos f.
sincere, and the book is too pas
sionate and vengeful to allow the
reader to believe that he is not, he
got less out of the war than any
man who had the privilege of being
in it. | use the word privilege adj
visedly. The ex-service man, re-
CARELESS of how pleasant or how
hellish his experience in the army,
or his subsequent treatment by an
Indifferent or ungrateful govern
ment, cherishes his share in the
great war as a birthright that can
never be taken from him.
Three Soldies is the story Of
three American boys caught in the
draft, put through the mill, and
who becoming the inevitable vic
Tins of degrading discipline, soul
soaring military drill and autocrat-
ic officers, went straight to the
demnition bow-wows. The author.
n recent Harvard graduate, learned
well his literary tricks for secur-
ing dramatic effect. He makes
such a good case for his hero when
he has to wash barrack windows
and pick UP cigarette butts that
one honestly feels that Sherman
was a literary mollycoddle when
1t came to defining war.
noo Doeunet ~ ig
deviIishly deliberate as it is will
fully misleading. is his assumption
that his three characters are aver
age Americans that their expert
ences are the average of soldiers
in France. and that their degrada-
ton is the logical and inevitable
result of their army life. If he
had contented himself with re-
counting the yarns he had picked
up from fighting men and his own
experiences in the battle Of Paris,
all would have been we'll and good.
Although the language of the
book is unnecessarily and disgust
ingly vile, Dos Passos sings a
wicked quill and is a whiz at de-
scription, color and detail. But
when he tries to draw deductions
and adorn his tale with moral
he spills an awful dud. We ali
| know that the war would have
been fine II it hadn't been for the
army. There Were men in every
outfit who through lack of char
acter went TO the bad They would
have done the same thing in civil
life. No man came out OF the
army the same as he went in. lie
was either better or worse.
The authors idea of an army is
an organized mob. Patriotism to
him Is hating the Germans every
drafted man Is dupe, every vol
unteer fool. His three soldiers
went along because they were
afraid not to. They had but one
dominant idea, the satisfying of
their personal desires in which
they were assisted by the French
nation. for consideration.
Dos Passos probably got what
he set out for when he wrote
Three Soldiers. his name in the
papers and money in the bank. He
and his merry trio were long
time getting out of France, but
when they did we suspect that they
| bought themselves croix de
guerre which they pinned ccnspic-
uously on their uniforms, end os
they threw out their chests, hailed
each NJ. j. with "Who won the
WARP n. p. W., Ex-A. r. r."
Mrs. Francis King. author Of
THE Well Considered Garden" and
Pages From Garden Notebook"
LScribner). has been awarded the
George X. White medal for emil
nent service to horticulture by the
trustees OF the Massachusetts Hor-
ticultural society. This is the high.
est horticultural honor awarded in
the United states. and Mrs. King is
; the first woman to receive it,