The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-12-16
By Upton Sinclair

didn't consult it afterwards; / am
still waiting for him to tell his readers
the vitality important facts which have
been established about fasting.
Again, l was rebuked in Mencken's
review of "Mammonart," for having
suggested an identity in the funda-
mental ideas of Jesus and Nietzsche.
That seemed to Mencken the height of
absurdity; but he did not give his
readers the words I had quoted from
Jesus and Nietzsche, which are in SUBJ
stance identical. My friend Halde-
man-Julius came forward to rebuke
me for disputing with such a
Nietzsche authority as Mencken; so
pardon me if mention that Mencken's
study of Nietzsche bears the date
1908, while you will find in my
journal of Arthur Stirling" pub
lished in 1908, complete statement
of the Nietzsche philosophy, with
TRANSACTIONS of many passages.
Liberty, says Mencken. So let me
quote him a few words from his great
master. cart thou such a one that
can escape yoke? Free from what?
What is that to Zarathustra! Clear
shall your eye tell me: free to what ?"
And that is the time when Mencken's
eye becomes clouded. The darling and
idol of the young intelligenzia has no
message to give them, except that
they are free to do what they please
which they interpret to mean that
they are to get drunk, and read ele-
giant pornography, and mock at the
stupidities and plumbers of people with
less expensive educations. Mencken
has made his school," as the French
say; he has raised up a host of young
persons as clever as their master, and
able to write with the same shillelah
swing. For the present, that is all
that is required; that is the mood of
the time, cynicism, ridicule, and con-
tempt for democratic bungling. But
some day the time spirit will change;
america will realize that it's problems
really have to be solved, and that
will take serious study of exploitation
and wage-slavery, of cooperation and
the democratic control of industry
matters concerning which Mencken
is as ignorant as any Babbitt-boob.
There lies on my desk his new
book, an onslaught upon democracy.
In the fly leaf he has written: Cup
ton Sinclair, to make him yell!" And
perhaps this is yelling-iudge for
yourself. My friend Mencken has
made the discovery that the masses
Of the people are inferior to himself:
but that political fact was known to
every French marquis of the ancient
, regime.
We agree that we want the wise
and competent in power; the question
is, how are they to get there? The
principle Of hereditary aristocracv has
been given long trial, and Mencken
omits to tell us where in history's roll
Of wars and intrigues and assassina-
tons he finds the ideal state. At
present we have government based
on the right of active and enterpris-
ing capital to have it own wav; under
TINS system the American Mercury"
has built up hundred thousand cir
culation, and the popular editor is
not nearly so discontinued as he talks.
But meantime the masses of labor see
themselves disinherited and dispos-
sessed, and the rumble of their pro-
test grows audible. Sooner or later NV
friend Mencken will have to face
these new facts, and choose between
the bloody reaction of Fascism and
the new dawn of industrial brother
hood Being seven hundred and
twenty-three DAYS olded than he. am
going to be his Guide and mentor
through those trying times, and he
will learn. even while he fuses and
scolds and insists that he won't.
(To be Continued)