The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-02-18

OF the first of the financially sue.
cessful short story writers,-must
have seemed the original Superman
To the college lads of the time. I
sometimes even imagine that many
OF the present members of the exc
curve committee of the L. l. D., The
world tomorrow and the patrons of
the Community Church must have
been converted by the dynamic per-
sonality and the vivid logic of the
author OF THE Cal! of the Wild and
Martin Eden" Someone has even
told me that the man who writes
some OF the sanctimonious editorials
for the New York World. Walter
Lippman, was one of his earliest
converts to the cause of the Revo-
luton.
i received a letter the other day."
wrote London in one of his insurrec-
tionary essays at was from a man
IN Arizona. 1t began, Dear Com
rade.' 1t ended Yours for the Re-
volution1 ! replied to the letter, and
by letter began, Dear Comrade.' 1t
ended, Yours for the Revolution In
the United States there are 100000
men, OF men and women nearly l.
100000, who begin their letters Dear
Comrade,' and end them Yours for
the Revolution In Germany there
are 100000 men who begin their
letters Dear Comrade' and end them
Yours for the Revolutions; in
France, 100000 men; in Austria,
100000 men: in Belgium, 100000
men; in Italy, 25O,OOO men, in Eng
land, 100000 men; in Switzerland,
100000 men; in Denmark, $4,000
men; in Sweden, $4,000 men; in Hol-
land, 10000 men; in Spain, 10000
men-comrades all and revolution
lists"
guess you can see that Jack Lon
don was a stickler for Statistics
especially those in round numbers.
You can also assume that these sta
tlstics were compiled before the
archduke Ferdinand was shot in
Sarajevo, and long before many of
those who were in habit of begin
ming their letters, Dear Comrade.'
and ending them Yours for the Re
volution,' had a chance to whoop it
up for their respective ruling-class
governments during the recent blood
fest.
Il found that all things were COM
modities," wrote Jack London in
another essay, "What Life Means to
Me-" "The one commodity that
labor had to sell was muscle. The
honor of labor had no price in the
market-place. l learned further
that brain was likewise commodity.
But a lahorer was worked out or
broken down at forty-five on fifty.
As brain merchant / was a
success"
He sure was. London published as
books in 16 years, and many of them
We're best-sellers. Some were trans
lated in numerous foreign languages.
And OF course several were jazzed
into the movies. Was London pro-
letarian writer? Not if the test of
q proletarian writer is one who ex-
presses in prose or poetry the frus-
trations and hopes of class-conscious
workers, as class. True, London
wrote about workers in several Of
his novels. But they were all after
"tachless." They were, with few ex-
ceptions energetic careerists. Like
the acknowledgement Martin
Eden they didn't enjoy working on
oyster-ships, in sweaty laundries, or
even being footloose hobos. They all
wanted to get up in the world, to be
deserving Of the 'little lady of the
big house,"
Jack London brandished the cpl
tibet revolutionist as a description of
himself and his ideas; but he was
gullible enough to swallow Kipling's
dubious doctrine of the White Mans
Burden, believed joyously in the SUI
premacy Of the Nordics, and chung
to socialism, it would seem, chiefly
to give an additional luster of bra
vado and romanticism to This cereer.
"For," according to contemporary
critic, socialism, to London's middle
class contemporaries, was an adven-
ture more desperate than the rush
for gold in the Klondike."
Sender Garlin.