Evening star., 1936-06-20

Illustration by Gordon
Grant, from "Sou'lUeSter
Sails" by Arthur H. Baldwin.
(RandOn1 House,
on November 8, go to the polls and
record his judgment Such is the
process of politics as it appears TO the
casual observer. But let's look behind
the scenes! 1t is possible to present
briefly a few Of the more important
factors and their makeup"
THESE factors" he then discusses
They are, he says, the political
machines, opportunities for patronage
(Which, he remarks, have in no way
decreased the efficiency Of the Demo-
cratic machines, control of propa-
ganda. the attitude Of pressure groups,
sectional feeling, class feeling and
most important-the economic situa-
ton.
IF, at election time" writes Mr..
Wallace, the price Of wheat and corn
and other agricultural produce is up,
if business recovery continues. if the
stock market is rising, Franklin Delano
RooSeVeltS chances of reelection are
good. If, on the other hand, the bot
tom drops out the commodity market,
business slows down and the stock
market crashes, Franklin D. Roosevelt
may be defeated.
"In 1884 James G. Blaine went down
to defeat largely because of the acci-
dent Of having stood on the same
platform with the man who coined
the famous phrase, Rum, Romanism
and Rebellion Although the phrase
suggests that religious bias was the
decisive force in the campaign, it was
only by the Sheerest chance that it en-
tered the campaign at all But in
politics there always is the possibility
OF break which the opposing party
may turn into victory. Such break
may well occur in the course of the
campaign of 1896.
In the last analysis, it will not
necessarily be the candidate who has
presented the most clear-cut program
Of action or that based on the Soundest
economic theory, who will win the
election. Instead it may be Zone is
tempted to say it will be- the candi-
date who has most successfully manip-
ulated and placated the various and
sundry forces that dominate America"
Mr., Wallace's article is called, ',Po-
htical 1mponderables."
THE July Hsrper's Magazine carries
the first of three excerpts from
an photographed work-as yet un-
published-which Carl Van Doren is
now writing. The article is called
Postwar: The Literary Twenties."
Leading up to that gala scene by a
survey of literature in preceding years,
Mr.. Van Doren says:
Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells had
already agitated many minds and had
convinced some, and John Galsworthy
and G. K. Chesterton were beginning
to be talked about. But in America
there was Paul Elmer More and no
H. l. Mencken could that be, the
reader wonders, only James Gibbon
Huneker. Stephen Crane and Frank
Norris had died too young and Theo-
dore Dresser had been suppressed
Villa Gather was barely, and James
Branch Cabell wrongly, known. The
reputation Of Edwin Arlington Robin
son was as obscure as most readers
found his poems. Still no Robert
Frost, no Vachel Lindsay, no Edgar
Lee Masters, no Carl Sandbug, no
Edna st. Vincent Millay nor Elinor
Wylie, no Amy Lowell and only pre-
liminary grumblings about free verse
Mark Twain and William Dean How
ellis and Henry James had already set
tied into being classics, and Edith
Wharton and Hamlin Garland seemed
10 be succeeding them. No Sinclair
Lewis yet no Van Wyck Brooks nor
Ludwig LewiSohn. John Reed was an
undergraduate at Harvard, Randolph
Bourne at Columbia"
Then he describes the contrast, the
American Renaissance, unlike any
thing that had ever happened before. :"
"Mencken'S burly voice, hooting.
The tom toms of the Emperor Jones
throbbing in Macdougal street. Law
yers wranghng over Jurgen and the
public taking sides. Debates about
Main street, whether villages were or
were not what Sinclair Lewis said , e.
look at Spoon River Babbitt becom-
ing q byword Scott Fitzgerald with
his new fashions in heroes and hero
ines. What was the Younger Genera
ton coming to? Eliot and the Waste
Land, for worshipers and parodiStS.
Copies of Ulysses slipped through the
customs and passed from eager hand
to hand. Edwin Arlington Robinson
gravely, profoundly revisiting Camelot.
Robert Frost bringing me poem for
the Nation all the way from Vermont,
and the two Of Us sitting through
lunch at the Century Club and the
whole afternoon, talking about farm
ing. Innumerable young women
wondering what it would be like to be
like Edna st. Vincent Millay q. if she
were like her poems. Elinor Wylie ar
irving from Washington, to be poet
and queen Of poets in Manhattan.
MARX TWAIN rising to another
stature with his posthumous
books and becoming q touchstone for
criticism. Remember the War: Three
Soldiers, The Enormous Room, What
Price Glory? Poor Randolph Bourne,
Poor John Reed! This Simian World.
The past recaptured and revalued in
Wells Outline of History and Van
Looms Story of Mankind, which
Charles Beard told me he thought was