The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-02-12
By FLOYD DELL

tive and devoted their profits from "The jungle" to
promote kind of writing hostile to everything in
which he believed.
The Jungle" was in fact the climax of literary
movement in America which had aroused the fea
and anger of large business interests The great
mddie-class reform movement, marked in the noli
tlcaI held by the careers of Bryan Roosevelt and
the earlier Wilson, had produced an audience svrn
patneCc to the telling of unpleasant truths about
American political and business conditions In the
magazine field this called undertaking. tbara
were sensational revelations of the inside WORKINGS
OIL wall street by Tom Lawson of municipal cor
ruptlon by Lincoln Steffens of Standard Oii bisto,
by Ida M. Tarbel of Beef Trust finance bv Raw
Stannard Baker. In the fictional field there was
corresponding literature, written by such men az
Robert Herrick, Frank Norris and David Graham
fniinps inns literature had it's social revolutionary
fringe; Jack London was an avowed revolutionist
ana such socialist critics of society as w 7 Gbent
John Spargo, Robert Hunter, Charles Edward Rms
sell and William English Wang had a wide baar
ing. professor named Thorstein Veblen had writ
Ten devastating book called sThe Theory of the
Leisure Glass; and phrases from it had passed into
general intellectual currency These conditions ara
suInclentIy alarming, in country where every year
In one great industry or another there was a
OtCcer struggle between employers and men, in
winch bullets were the decisive factor And now
young man, by writing a book had mt oroo+
INDUSTRY on the defensive before the whole pnblic
IL was necessary to tighten the grip of business
upon the intellectual world The newspapers were
already we'll in hand; but there was a prom ~
Tree magazines which were making money out Of
undertaking -the very center of the iptelactraI
reDenon Big business struck at this group of free
magazines, effectively, through the medium Of adj
vertlsing. The magazine policies were changed
writers were called off from Investigations of in
dustrial conditions. An immense campaign of on
tlmlsm was begun, and cheerful outlook upon
American industrial conditions was preached and
mace synonymous with patriotism The writer's for
tne most part changed with the times, and adapted
their views to the editorial demand: the others
were sllenced or discouraged. A few prominent
radical journalists, unable to tell the truth any
longer in the magazines, bought one of their own.
Dut tney TOO presently succumbed to the spirit OF
the times. Sinclair quotes, in 1.-THE Brass Check y
the titles OF some representative articles from a
recent issue of that once-daring magazine. GLOW
we Decide When To Raise Mans Salary" "The
Comic Side of Trouble" Interesting People, A
Wonderful Young Private Secretary" "From Prize
Fighter To Parson"
The public deprived of the intellectual stimulant
OF unpleasant truth before it had quite got used to
1t, was easily trained in more cheerful tastes.
Ihose writers who sought to revive the art of muck
rakng found themselves with an Indifferent au-
dlence. People aren't interested in that sort of
thing any more" While as for fiction the old gen.
teei tradition reassered ITSELF the standard of nom
controversality became identical with the standard
OF decency, and any author who dared to violate
this standard ran the risk of finding himself re-
moved IN critical esteem beyond the pale of literary
responsibility.
The measure of the wrath of the masters Of
America and the docility of its intellectual class
during this period may be taken from the Gorky
incident which happened in the spring of 1906, CO.
incident with the Jungle agitation The great Pus
sian novelist, Maxim Gorky, had come to America
to raise funds for the cause of Russian freedom
a cause long since made popular among even the
respectable American integentsia by the writings
OF the American journalist, George KEENAN,
great welcome was prepared for him. But II han
pened that two radical union leaders, Meyer and
Haywood, were on trial for their lives in western
state in the course of an industrial war between
the miners and the coal barons. Their cause had
been espoused by the socialists who now asked
Gorky to sign a telegram of sympathy to Mover
and Haywood. He did So A White House recep-
ton to Gorky was Immediately Cancelled. And then
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