The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-02-19
Confined from Last Weck)


THE "MetropoIis" and "The Moneychangers,"
l. though better propaganda than art, are
nevertheless of interest to for what they reveal
of their authors psychology at this period. The
former novel grew out of his observations of the
life of the idle rich during his fame as the author
of "The Jungle" His celebrity made him naturally
an object of curiosity and interest to these rich
people; and its secrets, such as they were,
readily exposed to him. 1t happened to be within
his power, if so he chose, to remain in such life.
group of capitalists had come to him. he relates
in "The Brass Check, with proposition to found
a model meat packing establishment; they had Of
fered me three hundred thousand dollars worth of
stock for the use of my name" and he adds: eff |
had accepted that offer and become the head Of
of the city's commercial places, lavishing full
page advertisements upon the newspapers l might
have been invited TO be the chief orator at
banquets of the Chamber of Commerce and the Ma
tional Civic Federation, and my eloquence would
have been printed to the extent of columns; might
have joined the Union League Club and the Cen
fury Club and my name would have gone upon the
list of people about whom uncomphmentary
may be published under any circumstances. At the
time l might have kept more apart
ments on Riverside Drive, with just as many beau
tiful women in them I wished, and would
have criticised me, newspaper would have
dropped hints about love-nests'" This opportunity
no temptation in reality, appears nevertheless to
have intrigued his Imagination sufficiently to make
such temptation" the theme of his novel;
Its hero comes to New York and undergoes the
temptation of wealth and luxury. 1t is a kind of
ironic sequel to the unfinished trilogy of the Civil
War; its hero is the of the who fought
in Manassas to the union from destruction
The union had by that epic agony, been saved-for
what? For this, says the dsillusioned author
pointing to the waste and vulgarity and trivialty
of the life of the "Four Hundred. 1t will lie
seen that the theme psychologicaly precedes that
of "The Jungle" and it is not surprising to find
the book reveatory Of an actually less mature
point of view than is shown in that masterpiece.
It's emotional effects are of a iucelessly ethical
character. The young hero turns his back upon
these temptations and resolves to an honest
living. One remembers Jurgis in "The Jungle; he
could not turn his back Packingtown-he had to
live its life; and only thus arc enabled to know
what Packingtown was. Yet, through some iden-
LITIGATION of himself with his young arstocrat in
this later book, the author is unable imagine his
surrender to metropolitan luxury, even for a mo-
ment; so that never learn, in any emotional
sense in any but that of factua detail, what
metropolitan luxury The degringolade of
high-souled young man under such nfuences-and
possibly his eventual revolt under other influences
was the story called for by the theme 1t never
written; only the surface details presented. So
meagre use of the vast powers displayed in ''The
Jungle" suggests internal conflict in connec-
ton with this theme, and we may perhaps be per-
mltted to look there for the to this literary
riddle-f it is permissible at all to inquire why a
writer does not always remain at his best
THE Moneychangers' a sequel to "The Metro
polls" had the central character The story
was based upon the panic of 1907. 1t might have