Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1935-02-28
For Human Welfare First.

security of the diSinherited masses,
he knew from stark experiences, him
self. His purse was practically empty
all his life, and in a world whose
criterion Of success is the amount in
ones purse, the taunts of the posses
sors must have scared his soul to the
depths. But he wouldn't turn away
from his great vision Of human well
fare. He excoriated the stony indif
ference of the wealthy who ignored
the economic travail of the people.
The so-called aristocratic, reviled
him and libelled him a fanatical
radical Even the economically Sc
cured Of the middle-class denounced
him. No matter how poignantly his
rare and superlatively sensitized spirit
was torn on the wrack of that appal-
ling abuse he never wavered but went
forward, studying, observing, analyz-
ing, deducing and verifying.
His intense love FOR humanity
pulses in every line he wrote. Eco
nomic emancipation to enable human
ity to look up to the stars, away from
greed, hate, discord and spirit dis
tortion, he ceasely advocated. I'm
ceasingly he sounded the truth that
there is no real freedom unless there
is economic emancipation for all.
Would Enlighten.
The morality Of his day which ia
hooed the body and accentuated the
spirit met his volume of short stories,
entitled, Marriage" with storm Of
anathema. The pruriency of respect
ability commanded that the book be
confiscated. 1t was condemned as OBJ
scene, insulting and demoralizing.
The shame complex of sick minds was
Mortified at Strindberg's exposure of
the countless human tragedies brought
about by ignorance and silence on the
subject of sex morality. The prurient
demanded and got a criminal action
against him. And he braved that
humanless ordeal by taking his pub
lisher's place as defendant. And Swe-
dens thinking young people, to their
everlasting credit, leaped to his aid.
He was acquitted. Today, when we
are at last cognizant of the need for
sex instruction for the boy and girl
we can scarcely understand the storm
of hate evoked by the very word
sex" when Strindberg was pilloried.
The first story in his book revealed
an ugly fact which nice people pre-
tend did not exist. What happens to
a fine minded and idealistic youth
because of the sex taboo and the trag-
zeal refusal to enlighten a boy is as
uncolored and truthful as is every
other story contained in the book.
AS a dramatist Strindberg vaulted
to immortality. His tragedy, 1.-THE
Father" is ranked as one of the five
worlds greatest tragedies. 1t waited
ten years after it's completion before
Stockholm's theatrical prod NC ers
dared staging it. for fear of wounding
public opinion. Why? Because it re-
vealed the grim truth of pscho-phys-
ical antagonism which is too often
prevailing in the relations of husband
and wife. Here perhaps is the most
awful result of mating where the
will to power dehumanizes a wife and
sends husband into the cloudland of
living death.
A Playwright.
Strindberg wrote a half-hundred
plays. His one-act drama, Miss
Julia" won world attention because
of its theme, which centers around
Julia, a woman of the upper class
and her relations with Jean, a serv-
ant Before the curtain drops on this
play the humble servant and not the
mistress, is revealed as the real aris-
tocrat, because in Jean are the true
virtues of superiority-and supreme
culture-kindness finely developed
mind and senses, innate love for the
beautiful. and creative in disposition
rather than destructive. In the men,
ial groom in this play, the son of
peasantry, we find the true aristocrat.
Miss Julia, the lady, is drawn as she
is found so frequently in life, a man.
hating, half-woman, minus the mater