The Washington times., 1932-10-25


day-Doran) Dorothy Dudleys "Dreiser is full of fight
ing words (Smth Haas.)
The Unknown Carnegie
wonder what young men of twenty five know of Car
nege His name is enshrined in halls and institutes
and foundations of which, being interested in our
colleges and holding the odd notion that colleges should
give education has analyzed the football racket done
it so WE'LL in fact that you may movie called
"Racketty Rax,' more or less on the same theme In
Pittsburgh the more Carnegie is still the
distant god of STEEL and the of the companies he
took and of the with whom he fought part
of the daily fe in street and banks and office
buildings of the empire of furnaces and rolling mills
In few places it may be remembered that Carnegie
the sponsor in America of smpified spelling. Those
who know the history of labor in America may recall
that Carnegie the absent head of the Homestead
Works when Alexander Berkman shot H. c. Frick Car
negies second in command.
+. It was not, however, to Frcks wound but to the
workers in the mills that Carnegie referred when he
wrote to Gladstone "The works not worth
drop of human blood. I wish they had sunk" He
dsapproved of Frcks hasty summoning of Pinkerton
men, of Frcks arrogant ultimatum to the workers
when compromise could have been reached. Yet he
had to stick by the system That is part of the Amer
can capitalists tragedy
An Admirer Of Dresser
Miss Dudley is great admirer, but not uncrtical
one, of Dresser do not know whether it is admira-
ton or indulgence that leads her to quote few lines
Dresser wrote recently about William Dean Howells,
whose work the whole he despses, "but he did
fine piece of work, Their Wedding Journey; not
sentimental passage in it, quarrels from beginning to
end, just the way it would be, don't you know really
beautiful and true"
I do not know of better summary of the Dreserian
attitude Is wedding journey, any other journey,
"quarrels from beginning to end?" Aren't sentiment
and sentmentality items in the makeup of most human
beings? And what the beautiful and true; the
quarreling or the record of it? Or Mr.. Dresser
making his one joke?
The Importance of Theodore Dresser, far
can see it, has little to do with his writing Sherwood
Anderson once said that Dresser that broke
through fence and all the other beasts of the field
("me and all the Others" said Anderson) poured
through the gap he had made. Miss Dudleys account
of the suppression by the publishers of Dreser first
book is unbelievable because it is true think that
she works herself into too defensive attitude
Dresser. By the time he had written his second book
he treated with considerable respect in America
And when Arnold Bennett declared that Dresser
finest novelist listened and obeyed always
do to wrong headed Englishmen.
A Picture Of American Life
Forgotten Frontiers ranges far from Dresser al
though he is the center of the book II is picture of
America and of the battle in America between the arts
and the official Puritans 1t has sketches of hundreds
of interesting and movements. To the liberal
radical attitude gets tiresome; to work up a genuine
fury over Anthony Comstock at this date little
unnecessary. Yet Boston suppressed can American
Tragedy years after Comsock died, suppose Miss
Dudley is justified She is more justified to me, in
her brilliant portraits and in flashes of insight about
America, which make her book story of the forces
which might have shaped time if they had been
strong enough, if the hadn't come, if the panic
hadn't hit if. it,. fear it is too late. Unless
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