Evening star., 1937-08-28

formed such concept within his own
mind. He is innocent, passive and
kind. He has the defense Of the de-
fenceless, in other words.
At the end, after he has seen his
German friend to the boat in Shang-
hal, he reads in the paper of the Eng
lishman's death and sees the Russian
in company with the Spanish woman
at the door of the brothel of which
she Is an inmate. Apparently there is
no recognition between these former
travelling companions. Later the Rus
sian joins him to tell him, again with
out recognition, how he became a mur-
derer. 1t is obvious that he is mad.
Russian and Austrian alike, the au-
thor seems to say, were gifted with
saving innocence, but the Russians
physical force is too great to allow
him that other saving quality, pas
sivity.
Thus We have the four survivors,
the German with a fevered dream in
his mind and disease in his body; the
Russian, crime-stained and living in
mad exultation over that memory; the
Spaniard, prostituted by forces of
which she has no knowledge, and the
Austrian. looking on, unreachable in
his pasSivity, poWerless but compre-
hending, perilously safe.
The parable may, of course, be ap-
piled to the present political condi-
ton of the Western World, and from
the authors arbitrary method of
choosing different nationalities, one
must suppose that he has intended it
to be so applied. But beyond that
there is the parable of humanity, the
vision Of the futility and the tininess
OF our efforts toward conscious achieve
ment and Of our construction of sys-
tens Of conscious growth as against
the senseles brute NAV out Of which
We came and into which we can be
sucked again, with the uneventfulness
OF pin sinking in the ocean.
Mr. Prokosch writes with great
beauty. Physical filth, human degen-
eracy and imponderably beautiful
earth he treats with one touch-a sort
Of ruthless tenderness His present
book has certain obviousness; its ar
bitrarily imposed structure makes it
predictable as to conclusion, and there
are times when it repeats itself. But
it has the unmistakable quality of
conviction glowing through it, and
that quality, Of course, is what dis
tlnguishes between a living work of
art and a set of admirable inten-
tions.
AMERICAN STUFF. An Anthology
OF Prose and Verse by Members
of the Federal Writer'S Project,
With Sixteen Prints by the Federal
Art Project. New York: The Vik-
ing Press
We are told-and who are we, mere
taxpayers, to deny it?-by the pub
Usher of this volume that it displays
to us the New Deal in the role of
art patron. Imposing sight! Secre-
tary Farley doing a Macaenus? Or
Harry Hopkins posing with the nine
muses.? Alas, that so beautiful
vision should be confined to the OBJ
scure covers Of book! How much
better If it were to be painted en-
duringly on the walls, say, of one Of
the new Government buildings. After
all, have they not already put up
murals that are very much in kind?
But it is not fair, Of course. to
damn any work for the sake of its
sponsors. Nor, for that matter, is
1t often necessary And so, ridiculous
as this Writers Project is, one must
give the present volume the usual
examination on the basis of its own
claim to critical appreciation.
1t Is, then, we are told, work done
in "off-time' by writer's who are en-
ployed on the estimable Project. It
is not work, you comprehend, which
has been assigned to them. There
fore, the taxpayer has not financed
this particular volume Instead, it
would seem that the kind and moth
erly Project has done no more than
serve as an excuse for the writer's
on its pay roll to get their compost
tlons into print; a sufficient interest
attaches to them, as publicly financed
artists, for a publisher to see some
point in bringing out an anthology
of their opera, and the Project itself
has simply collected the manuscripts.
The selection, after this, was turned
over to committee of such congenial
spirits as Franklin P. Adams, Morris
Ernst, Lewis Gannett, Travis Hoke
and Margaret Marshall. The royal
ties are to go to the authors them
selves. So the connection with the
Project would seem to be somewhat
tenuous; it simply gets down to
selling point. Yet, one feels sure,
without that selling point to help it,
such a volume as this would be long
time looking for a home. AS it is,
1t Is only reasonable to prophesy a
fair sale for it, if for no other reason
than that long suffering taxpayers
may feel it worth the price of the
volume to find out just what sort
OF talent they are subsidizing And
this knowledge may be very salutary
thing.
The above statements do not mean
that the volume is all bad. 1t is not.
A few things in it are good, many
are mediocre. Only here and there
does 1t lapse into positive awfulness;
no more often, in fact, than does
the average anthology of work that
has not had time to prove its value.
So that one can say Of american
Stuff that it Is on an average mod
estly competent from the point of
view Of craftsmanship. Nowhere,
however, does it come above the
craftsmanly level.
Its subject matter, however, is an
other thing. One is informed that
the selections were made "for artistic
excellence or simply to represent the
range Of interests covered" and so.
from the latter stipulation, one can
assume that subject matter has been
at least as much in the judges minds
as the question of merit. Yet, even.
with this deliberate attention to
range of interests" the material
displays most unexceptional single
ness of idea. Where it is set in con-
Temporary time r. is c0u,roy,lv ,,ra