The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-11-16
Money Writes

mental notes you will find that
magazine world of fashion in "The
Genius" l used to meet Dresser in
those days, big silent fellow. 1 liked
to talk, and he liked to listen.
In his early days he wrote novel,
SISTER Carrie" telling the story of
a girl of the sort he knew, one who
had no wealth and family prestige to
protect her, and who therefore lived
with a man of the business world; it
seemed to Carrie quite natural to do
that, and also it seemed that way to
Dresser. But the bourgeois world of
a generation ago was performing a
kind of incarnation upon itself, in
sisting that such things didn't hap
pen; an elderly maiden aunt of
Doubleday, Page and Company read
this wicked book just after it appear
ed, and caused the remaining copies
to be locked up. Dresser was poor and
unknown and friendless, and might
have landed in Jail if he had tried to
make any protest. So that was the
end Of "Sister Carrie"-until it be-
came a classic.
A clear-sighted and truth-telling
man has to have tough hide to sur
vive in such world. AS I think
Dresser over, the quality which i'm
presses me is stubbornness. He knows
what he wants, and he will wait as
many years as necessary, but in the
end he will get it. He is like an old
bull elephant, showing his way
through a jungle; nothing diverts
him, he goes on pushing and push
ing. When he gets out, his hide will
be SCARED and knobby, but he will be
the same old elephant.
Dresser in "An American Tragedy"
is exactly the same as in SISTER Car
rie." He has had twenty-five years
in which to observe "the local street
scenes, institutions, characters, func-
tons" of America; and so he knows
more detail about them, but he does
not understand any better how they
came to be, or how they may become
otherwise. His heart aches for the
waste and suffering, he broods over
his characters like a fond mother, ex-
cusing them for everything they do
how could they do otherwise? The
grim stubbornness which made Theo-
dore Dresser one of the worlds great
novelists is too much to be expected
of Carrie Meeber and Jennie Ger
hardt and Eugene Villa and Clyde
Griffiths-they are all weaklings,
grist for the memorable mills Of fate.
The philosophy Of Dresser is the
same as that of Thomas Hardy. Both
Of them see human beings as the
sport Of natural forces never to be
comprehended; and the sublimity of
both rests upon your willingness to
accept their philosophy of moral
nihilism. Hardy has choruses Of var
ious kinds Of spirits and superior be-
ings to explain to us the blind trag-
edy of the dynasts; but Dresser serves
as his own chorus, his pity and grief
is like a monotone of muted strings
underneath his narratives of futility
and false glory.
am not quarreling with this
great-hearted writer because he is not
a socialist in the narrow sense. Scien-
tific socialism is only part of mans
big job Of understanding the blind
forces of nature and subordineting
them to his will. Read a little book
by true scientist, Ray Lankester's
"The Kingdom of Man." and learn
what is the matter with our world.
We have partly suppressed the ma
tural process Of selection and elimin-
alton of the unfit; and we have either
to go on and take rational control of
the improvement Of human stocks
and the environment in which they
grow, or else see our culture degen-
crate and perish. Birth control and
eugenics are the merciful ways of
eliminating the unfit: while SANTA