Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-21
Champions the Individual
Continued From First page.)

Continued From First Page.)
In spite of his pince-nez and the
scholarly black ribbon attached, he
seemed far less the professor than he
had in 1918. A decade OF self-ex-
preston had mellowed him. He sat
down with a group of us about little
round table, and he joined at once in a
| conversation that was neither enlight-
ening nor literary nor especially worth
while-juSt comfortable. Though he
is a man who rides his hobbies very
hard. he does not spur them into every
breach. He knows how to be human.
Ludwig LewisohnS eyes, dreamy
and usually half closed, lie. under
thick lashes and a handsome brow.
'Sculptural," Roy Sheldon used TO call
Lewisohn'S forehead, and when Shell
don did a bust of his friend he gave
the upper part of the head a treatment
which brings out a certain similarity
with the Houdon bust of Washington.
The features. Of course, are quite DIFF
ferent. Lewisohn's face is heavy. plastic
and sensuous It betrayS the man who,
when his own sentiments or passions
are involved, will not judge effectively
the face Of q man who dislikeS Venice
because its marvellous palaces once
housed a deSpotism.
When Lewisohn is not in argument
he is a placid. kindly person with few
prejudtceS and many naive admirationS
Neither his inoffenSive glance nor his
comfortable figure labels him as a realis-
tic novelist who upon occasion can
sharpen his pen points into contro-
verSial lanceS. At home he sits before
his fire, surrounded by books and
Egyptian figurines, spoils from Greek
antiquarians and Jewish heirlooms, with
his hands in his lap and his feet apart.
One might almost say that he sits with
his knees akimbo.
Speaks Of Serious Things.
His voice is deep, elaborate, studied.
When he speaks of serious things it Is
never lightly. He gathers himself to-
gether. His back Strengthens and his
right hand comes up to emphasize the
rhythm of his words. Like Oscar Wilde,
he astonishes his friends by speaking
inevitably in perfect, rounded. beauti-
fully constructed sentences. Artist in
everything-even in the vanishing art
OF converSation-he knows to a nicely
when to introduce a startling expletive
or an emphatic phrase which will
shatter the pattern Of his periods.
THE state" he once burst out in q
quiet discussion of his years Of European
travel, Should be the servant, not the
master. My country, right or wrong,
Is oratory. All governments can be as
wrong as any single person. Then. as
the cockney says, The nawSty old gen.
tlemen who put themselves out as being
the country, they ought to be shot -
Wholeheartedness is Ludwig Levi
sohn's battle cry. Whatever scrapeS he
has got into have been ransomed by this
saving grace: He, the hero or the VIC
tim OF the occasion, has been playing
the game as he saw fit to play it. If in
moments Of photographic zest he SAYS
too much. his earnestness pardons him.
II he flies into passion, it is an honest
passion. He may be wrong, but never
cheap, never false. He is straight
forward.
IF my individual experience didn't
raise a general ISSUE" he has often said
to me in the last five years, I'D feel
that had no right to be talking and
writing about myself so much. But in
the last analysis my whole life phrases
the question of the individual and the
state whether, In government,
the cultural unitary' state is not infe-
rior to the cultural pluralistic.
Opposes Cultural Unitary."
II am trying to oppose the cultural
unitary' type Of state" He rolled out
the phrase with full insistence upon
its resonant vocableS. 1t Is not for Moth
ing that he has spoken from the aca-
demtc chair and on lecture tours all
over the country
"A cultural unitary' state" he re-
sumed, stamps every citizen with the
same stamp. Whether in advertising.
In amusement, In work or in thought.
our own American tendency TO crystaIIize
all individuals in single type Is dam
gerous. 1t leads to RECOMMENDATION of
the personality. Every one comes to
resemble his neighbor."
Ludwig LewtSohn held up a pIumo
nand with every finger erect, and as he
spoke he checked off upon these fingers
his enumerations:
Take any individual type-type A.
or type B, or type C, or type D. Ask
yourSelt whether any Of these definite
types OF consciousness should ever try
to function like any other type lust he.
cause it may be surrounded by a numer-
lcal majority from which 1t Is different.
L hold the ideal of a community
Where the individual Is let alone. Since
the story of man has been recorded he
mas always been at the mercy of his fell
lows. FIRST We had the religious state
everybody had to be of the dominant
Tenglon or he got burned at the stake.
NOW we nave the nationalistic state
everybody has to be a nationaIist or he
gets knocked on the head. MY ideal,
tne state OF a thousand years hence, is
the cultural pluraliStic' state. where
everybody can do as he pleases. where
mere are as many ideas as there are
people and where the government limits
user to the collection Of taxes"
AS Ludwig Lewisohn first phrased his
!dea In talking with me, it sounded
IKE Utopia, yet only few nights later
ne conf1ded to a group of us that sew
eral times already he had run into