The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-09-25

NTARXISM until recently a target
4VA for the malignant assaults of
every nincompoop professor trying to
curry favor with the master class, is
now coming to be accepted as respect
able in certain university circles. 1t
is not unique to find faculty members
of colleges and universities embracing
a sort of emasculated Marxism and
thereby gaining degree of standing
among certain elements of the revolu-
tionary movement.
OF late book written by a profess
sor who adopts the cognomen, 'V. F.
Calverton," which, for want of bet
fertile, is called 1.-THE Newer Spirit
A Sociological Criticism of Literature"
has been attracting attention in revo-
lutionary circles. Some comrades
have referred to it in laudatory
terms, even to the extent of heralding
it is a distinct contribution to Marx
ism.
A careful reading of the book clear
ly reveals it's superficiality and shall
lowness and every Marxist will in.
stantly discern that the whole concep-
tion of the thing is anti-Marxian. The
leitmotif of the book is that that since
the literature of various ages is the
reflex of the prevailing economic con-
ditions and with the rise of new
classes new cultures develop it there.
fore follows that as the proletariat de-
velops within a bourgeois society a
proletarian culture inevitably arises.
MIR. Calverton has obviously come
A'A in contact with the merest fringe
of Marxism. He has learned to re-
peat certain formulas such as: Every
revolution in ideas is consequence
Of a revolution in the social structure
that the material conditions have pro-
duced." Certainly no Marxist will
dispute the soundness Of that assert
ion. But that formula has been the
rock upon which all novices in the
realm of Marxism have met disaster.
Equipped with that quotation many
are tempted to create of historical ma
terialism a mechanical monstrosity
and proceed to apply it to any and
all situations and experiences as one
would apply yard-stick. The author
of 'The Newer Spirit" applies it to
literature in America and makes a
number Of amazing discoveries. He
discovers that as the proletariat de.
yelops in this country a proletariat
culture also develops. On page 142 of
his book he states that Walt Whit
man was perhaps the first to voice
this new departure in America. Fol-
lowing his analysis of Whitman we
are treated to series of intellectual
contortions that conclude with present
day writer's and we learn that Sher-
wood Anderson is "the avater of the
proletarian movement" that Eugene
O'Neal is among the proletarian dram
atists, etc.
LIVERY American Marxist recog-
IL nizes Walt Whitman, not as a de.
fender of the proletariat, but as the
apostle Of bourgeois democracy. In.
stead of voicing "the aspirations and
dreams of the proletariat" he sang
paens to the god of middle class
equality, vitiated by anarchism. His
idea of universal brotherhood was the
fetish of bourgeois democracy where
all are equal regardless of class. His
espousal of freedom in sex life was
also bourgeois; poetic apologies for
the looseness Of the capitalist swine
who, as Marx and Engels said in the
Manifesto mot content with having
the wives mad daughters of the pro-
letarians at their disposal, not to
speak of common prostitutes, take the
greatest pleasure In seducing each
others wives" Whitman's place in
literature is that of apologist OF the
American bourgsoisie just emerging