The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-22

cheers where faith is lost. The moral indig-
nation that once Numbered for Christian
probity, began to stutter for the liberty"
program of Tammany financed by Raskob.
The liberalism that once scolded oil mag
mates for not getting a licence before raping
Mexico, now praises Morgan's man Morrow
for complicating the rape with seduction.
What once was a voice CRYING almost for
SANDING eff" "but" and "unless'), now
whispers yes to the slaughter of Nicaragua
if only the grave be decorated with flowers.
The Nation is in fact in rapid transition
from liberalism" to the frank upholding of
the ,blood-and-iron policies of United States
Imperialism. 1t is curious coincidence that
in the same issue of that paper with
Menckcn's article is leading editorial which
reads:
"NIr Hoover's decision to go to South Amer
lea splendid piece of personal and inter
national strategy for which the President-elect
deserves the warmest praise. The months be-
tween election and inauguration with their empty
publicity and their tedious political intrigue have
always been embarrassing to Presidents
elect. Mr.. Hoover escapes from besieging office
seekers and goes where his presence will do
most for international goodwill He will sail
down the West Coast, the Andes, and come
Colombia, Ecuador Peru, Bolivia Chile, Argen-
tina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Venezuela. Since
President or President-eect of the United States
has ever visited these countries Mr. Hoover's
visit will be interpreted as an unusual gesture of
recognition and friendship. He will doubtless
spend most of his energy in preparing the ground
for improved international trade, but scarcely
escape the critical comments of the South Amer
lean press concerning military policy in the
Caribbean The understanding developed by such
ms nf IoSt Inn vain Sr Oh
the grOsser expressions of Imperialism
This full-blown Imperialism is different
from the imperialism of, say, the New York
Herald-Tribune, only in that it is more CO.
wardly. 1t sprinkles its guns with flowers.
Or, to go back to the smile of Mencken, it is
a bull rather than COW that is mooing sadly
for the calf of sentimental (and Intellectually
talk against Imperialism. The Nation makes
itself another defender of Hoover and i'm
perialist war and conquest of Latin-America
This 'cow torn from it's calf of liberalism,
and transformed from a COW into a bull of
militarism, is mooing only very faintly-the
best bull can.
For long time The Nation has been
changing, along with its audience of middle
class intellectuals, from liberalism" to what
might De called llDerCdrlanlSnl. IL 1OunQ
vent for its sense of Justice" in giving its
columns to defense of the ludicrous "Anas-
tasia" whom lot of half-witted American
ladies of wealth proclaimed the daughter
of the dead car" From that denuncation
of injustice" The Nation passed quickly to
condemnation of the Massachusetts, police for
being "too lenient" with New Bedford textile
strikers, and at time when the world was
ringing with new additions to the proof of
the innocence of Sacco and Vanzetti, it found
a new dignity in hints of skepticism.
American capitalist imperialism is conquer
ing the theology of certain new sections of
the middle class, and The Nation is among
the conquered. But that is the historical role
of liberal journals. Now we may expect
The Nation and perhaps many others of it's
school, to howl for the liberty of the marines
in Nicaragua rather than the liberty of Mica
ragua, and otherwise to devote itself exclu-
sively to the rights of the sons and daughters
of the RENTER class to booze and adultery.
1t has to be liberal" about something, doesn't
a.