The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-11-05
By Upton Sinclair

vas JNGN s1LCSL SiAS PNSAAN~NSNON-
Black Oxen" and | asked the author
of this Regeneration" novel some per-
sonal questions about the cause of
her youthful appearance, and she re-
piled that it was none of my damn
business; which caused great hilarity
among the assembled gentlemen and
lady authors. But my enemy came to
hear me lecture on "Mammonart," and
said so many nice things that l
couldn't quote them, and invited me
to tea at the St. Francis. I had an
idea that if that tea-party could have
lasted a month, instead of an hour, |
could have told Gertrude Anterior so
Of Kings" and the mess they are
making of their world, as to shake
Just a little her lifelong trust in
them. She is honest, and has a
conscience; it is the facts that are
lacking in her equipment.
After thirty-five years of offering
incense to Mammon, Gertrude Ather-
ton has apparently not found spiritual
peace with her deity. "Black Oxen"
comes as kind of life-confession; the
novelist puts herself into the soul of
an elderly woman, rejuvenated by a
miracle of science, and comes back
from Europe to inspect New York So
ciety. A more devastating picture of
waste, futility, and above all, bore
dom, could not be drawn by muck
raker's pen. 1t is difficult, in dealing
with realistic" fiction to be sure just
how much of this impression is in
tended. What, for instance, does Ger
trude Atherton think of the libations
of liquor which are poured out be-
fore the throne of Mammon in his
metropolis? There is hardly chap
ter of her book in which somebody
doesn't take drink of something
alcoholic, and all the great cere-
monials and crises of the story are
preceded by and accompanied by
number of rounds of all varieties of
booze. The old people drink, and the
young people drink, and likewise they
all hate one another-except when
they are making love; and sometimes
they do both at the same time.
To me, of course, the most interest
ing part of the novel is its COM
mentary on political and social
theories. Quite casually, in passing
from tea-party to dinner-table, and
from dinner-table to grand opera.
Gertrude Anterior solves the prob
lens of our distracted age. For ex-
ample, the problem of war, and the
peace settlement which is worse than
war. The novelist admits that our
statesmen are blunderers and min
conpoops, but she explains that our
establishment, after the glorious
thrills of wartime, is a mistake; we
must go on having wars, and wait
for evolution to bring US to state
of development where we will stop
having wars. Those foolish people
who have the idea of stopping wars
now, without waiting for evolution.
will feel themselves properly rebuled
by Gertrude Anterior, and will sub
side into their places; and likewise all
revolutionists and Socialist agitators,
Whom the novelist completely ami
hllates with her sarcasms. She makes
clear how dangerous it is to let the
ignorant mob, which can understand
nothing except revenge, have anything
to do with trying to remedy social
injustice. We must wait a thousand
years, until our ruling classes have
! acquired sufficient intelligence to do
things better; and if we want to see
how they are learning to do things
better, all we have to do is to read
"Rlack Oxen" and watch them gamb-
ling and drinking and idling and
dressing up, and going from tea
parties to dinners, and from dinners
to grand operas, numbering one an
others regulations, seducing one an
others wives, and always and every
where being what they consider bril-
liant and fascinating and wonderful
and prominent and famous and great.
(To Be Continued.l