The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-04-28
WASHINGTON
WAS QUITE
DULL GUY
GEORGE WASHINGTON: Rebel and
Patriot. (1762-1777) Vol. 2. By
Rupert, Hughes. William Morrow
& Co. SIS.
Reviewed by JIM CORK.

& Co. SIS.
Reviewed by JIM CORK.
THIS book has been highly praised
by the pundits and damned by the
patriots. 1t is easy to see why the
latter have raised such fire-tipped
birthstone around the premises. AS
an Individual, Washington is restored
to three-dimensional figure-far
removed from the beloved and haloed
"Father-"; and pretty dull and
uninteresting sort of duffer he proves
to be. A gentleman farmer" who
spent most of his time pottering
around his land, horses, pigs and
what not, meticulously jotting down
all his expenses, even the veriest
trifles; man who loved his fox hunt
ing, his table, his wine, his women,
his dancing, his theatre, his jokes and
stories, especially if they were spicy.
He could spend terrific amount of
time and energy doing the dullest and
most trivial things imaginable. A
typical case in point is his counting
of the number of timothy seeds in
a pound-the number being 298,000.
Whew! He never seemed to read a
book worth damnl He didn't seem
to care what was going on around
him, even with empires tottering and
the birth pains of the American re-
public already in evidence. Compared
to intellectual giants like Madison,
Hamilton and Jefferson, he seemed
The veriest tyro.
But to acknowledge the value of
this three-dimensional antidote to the
patriot buffers is to be finished with
whatever of value there is in the
book The portrait he has done, but
-"only that and nothing more"
The typical petty bourgeois mind
and mode of analysis is markedly re-
vealed throuout. Hughes has dee-
troyed the Great Hero of the one
hundred percenters; kicked him out
Of doors. Truth has forced him to
his iconoclasm. And his chest comes
up like a pouter-pigeon's. But the
petty bourgeoisie needs its heroes
badly and 80 Washington is let in
thru the back window in different
guise. There Is dramatic soul devel-
Opment. Somehow Washington, I'M
Ter the adversely and setbacks of his
new (and unexpected role) of com
nander-in-chief of the Revolutionary
Army, is nodded into a superman.
Hitherto a nincompoop, he finds new
depths In his soul. Over the Revolu-
Hon and its child, the Republic, the
spirit of Washington is made to hover
protectingly, like a hen over the egg
It has just created We are made to
Ieel that somehow Washington, more
than any other man, more than any
thing else, is responsible for the sue
cess Of the Revolution. This is pur
est bankruptcy It is essentially a
great man theory Of history, plus
some poetic mysticism between the
fines. The Revolution as social
movement, as gigantic class strug-
gle, as a civil war, making revolu-
tionary tactics necessary and desir-
able if success were to be obtained,
escape Hughes completely.
1t follows from this, inevitably,
that his Interpretation of the treat
nent of the Tories, of the revolu-
tionary terror and dictatorship, of
the role of the Committees of Cor
respondence, will be shot thru with
the usual petty-bourgeois pacifism-
the throwing up of the hands in hor-
ror at the needless cruelty of it, etc.
Now let us get some statistical
evidence:
On Washington: "There was no