The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1930-01-16
Report by Noted Author
Portrays Strikers Lives
Sinclair Lewis Paints Startling Pic
ture of Textile Workers
Condition.
(By DIR. j. A. DuBois)

The late eminent Tree Surgeon
Davey was fond of likening the
tree to man. AS the act of res
piration is performed through his
lungs, so the tree respires Though
its leaves, only reversing the pro-
cess of absorption from the air by
retaining it's carbon dioxide and
exhaling it's oxygen. He makes a
good comparison and it can be car
ried further. The tree setting rs
roots into the soil becomes attach
ed to its locality. and so man
whose lot has been to become root
ed as I have for nearly half CEN
fury in Sank Centre, cannot fail TO
be most intensely interested in all
things intellectual, and
otherwise, which have to do with
that community's development.
And especially does this apply to
the progress made by its bows,
those boys we have seen growing
up in our midst, although it would
seem that I have had hardly tirae
to notice them. Here is this lad,
Cinclair Lewis, concerning whom
1 am submitting, to follow these re-
marks OF mine, an excerpt relating
to some of his recent work. In the
years that have passed, however
much many may have criticised
the methods employed by Lewis.
certain it is that he has pricked
some bubbles which needed ex-
ploding. In his mastership of
irony he carries formula BILE
weapon. He is now dealing with a
subject that is going to dem;tnd
more and more of the attention of
the American people as the years
roll by.
I believe he has an inspiring as
sistant in Dorothy Thompson,
whose article entitled "The New
Patriotism of Peace" which APP
gpeared in the December number of
the Pictorial Review and is con-
densed by the Readers Digest IN
its January number, I wish every
reader of the Herald might have
the chance to peruse.
I believe Lewis is capable of do
ing better work than he has yet
done.
People of Sank Centre keep Your
eye on our boys.
The following is the newspaper
excerpt above referred to:
Cheap and Contented La
Dor" is the grimly ironic title
of the book on the strike Of
cotton mill workers in Marion,
N. c., by Sinclair Lewis, auth
or of "Main Street" and "Bab-
bit" which is to be issued next
week by the Textile Workers
and the Women's Trade Union
League of Pennsylvania.
The book will be sold to raise
funds for $50 families of noun
tain mill workers who are job
less as a result Of the strike.
Sinclair Lewis went to Mar
ion while the strike was in pro-
gress to write a series of arri-
cles which were syndicated by
the Scripps-Howard papers
| These articles have since been
expanded, revised and consid-
erably added to and have been
turned over to the United Tex
tile Workers and Womea.s
Trade Union League by the
author entirely without cost.
Fifty thousand copies of the
| book are being printed as the
first edition and the publish
| ers believe the selling cost will
be reduced sufficiently to en-
able more than 90 per cent Of
the retail price of each volume
to be used for relief purposes.
In his title, Cheap and Con-
/ tented Labor" Sinclair Lewis
takes a fling at those Southern
Chamber of Commerce boost
ers who seek to attract indus.
tries to their towns by adver-
Using the conplacent charac-
ter and frugal tastes of these
100 per cent Anglo-Saxon"
workers. Critics who have
read the advance proofs Of
this latest Lewis work agree
that he has done one of the
most gripping and quietly eff
fective pieces of ironic journ-
alism that has appeared in q
number of years.
r s-i