The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-12-19
Continued from Last Issue.)
The Double Standard
xxx.
xxx

ETTPTON SINCLAIR'S idea of litera-
v ture is Socialist propaganda. If
a book contains that, it's good, and If
it doesn',, it's no good" Thus a
young critic, reading these chapters
in serial form.
Let me tell you story. Four years
ago the city of Los Angeles threw a
thousand workingmen into jail for the
crime of being on strike; and l with
a group of friends considered it a
matter of duty to go and make a
speech in defiance of the police edict.
The story of this arrest was tele-
graphed to the East, and a certain
writer, one of the most famous and
prosperous of our humorists-I will
call him Mr.. X-referred to the mat
ter in his weekly contribution to the
Sunday newspapers; causing one of
his humorous characters to remark to
the other humorous character that l
had taken this step as a means of OBJ
tanning publicity. 1t is a stock re-
mark, which l have heard a thousand
times in my life, and l paid no es-
pecial attention to it, understanding
that a man who has to write two
funny columns every seven days must
occasionally be hard up for material.
But it happened that a month or
so later this Mr.. X came to California
to spend the winter, and was dinner
guest of the Pasadena Press Club, and
| was invited to meet him. l went;
and presently Mr.. X was introduced
by the chairman, and rose to make
what everyone expected would be the
conventional after-dinner speech, with
plenty of comic stories. Instead of
that he proceeded in a very grave tone
to inform the assembled press men
of the city that they had among them
first-class hero and major prophet,
whom it was Mr.. KS intention to
honor that evening. This hero did
not cringe like the rest of US before
arrogant power, but took seriously his
duties as citizen of free common
wealth; he had been willing to suffer
arrest and imprisonment in order to
defend the constitutional rights of
humble workingmen; and so on. In
short, Mr.. x was making a speech
about myself, and the blood began to
climb up the back of my collar and
take lodgment in my ears, and | found
myself with an intense desire to
slide under the table and hide. But
there stood Mr.. x, speaking with such
sincerity and intense feeling that
presently he had all the diners ap-
Dlauding, and ! had to get up and
5tammer few words of thanks.
1t was only after l got home and
ad time to think it over that real
-zed the extraordinary significance of
his episode. You see, Mr.. X has
double standard of Judgment: one
when he is among his friends and col
leagues, and can say what he really
thinks; and the other when he is earn
ing his living, and saying what his
paymasters require him to say. These
Two sets of judgments are contradic-
tory and Incompatible; and yet Mr..
X can voice either one with impartial
effectiveness.
Let me tell you another story.
There is in Chicago daily newspaper
which for many years has made
pretense Of liberalism-to the extent
Of saying that it is liberal. 1t pub
fishes a book review section, and
sends that page gratis to many pub
lishers and authors, as a means of
obtaining advertisements; so it hap
pens that for ten years or so / have