The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1937-01-29
MENCKEN OPTIMIS-
TIC ON THE FUTURE OF
AMERICA
Sage OF Baltimore Says Nation Fit,
Fat And Full OF Sin, Despite


Fat And Full OF Sin, Despite
Excessive Cost OF Salvation
New York, Jan. 22.-In a copy
righted article in the February issue
of The American Mercury out today,
H. L. Mencken, Americas most pes
simistic critic, says: 1--WE inhabit, in
deed, kind of Utopia, and it would
be recognized as such If the preach
ing of bogus Utopians were not so
strident. No other nation in history
has been so favorably situated, or
enjoyed so long a run of good luck
We are as secure against actual fam
inc as the Mesopotamia of Abraham's
time, and as safe against foreign in
vasion as If we inhabited the moon"
Once more he pays his respects to
the New Deal. Were we ridden and
roweled by Hopkins and Tugwell
Ickes and Wallace, Ma Perkins and
Jim Farley, and multitude of other
such jitney Caesars? Then think Of
the rulers of Italy and Germany.
Russia and Spain, even France and
England!
"The New Deal, to be sure, is a CO.
lossal nuisance. 1t itches terribly,
and is an affront to human dignity.
But so is eczema-yet very few men
die of eczema. We have been thru
much more dangerous calamities, and
survived without serious damage.
The Civil War would have wrecked
any other country ON earth, but the
effect here, save in narrow area of
the South, was hardly worse than
that of the annual national drunk on
New Years Eve"
He believes that the vast debt that
was rolled up will be paid off during
ten years of normally; that we are
a tough people and are not easily
ruined AS nation, he says, we go
in for silly things in big way, but
somehow or other we always muddle
through. There was a time, at the
height of the Anti-Saloon Leagues
hegemony, when the essentially
American scheme of things was far
more seriously threatened than it will
ever be by Pennsylvania mine-guards
or Union Square orators. And there
was another time, as the Ku Klux
Khan leaped full-blown from the loins
of the American Legion, when it
looked to be certain that real bath
of blood was ahead. But today the
Zinovievs of the Khan are all in Jail,
the Legion has become so tame that
it's current boss is actually praised by
the American Civil Liberties Union,
and the Anti-Saloon League is as
dead as the More Abundant Life will
be anon. And as for the New Deal:
johnson is gone, Moley is gone, Peek
is gone, and Tugwell has taken a
prudent header into a vat of molas-
SEES. The rest will fade out gradually
and by April /, 1941, even Roosevelt
Himself will be only an ex-President,
which is to say, only the NOTED shell
of a man, with none so poor to turn
ON the dial when he croons."
His conclusions are: This imper-
ial Christian nation, in point Of fact,
is moving toward neither Commu-
nism nor Fascism, though it supports
and endures trifiing minorities who
clamor for both. The great bulk of
its people prefer a sober middle
course-the traditional American
course, hallowed by the Fathers.
That is to say, they prefer to follow
indigenous mountebanks, bred in the
native technique, and speaking the
native vulgate.
after four long years of intensive
and relentless salvation, carried on
by virtuosi of unparalleled ardor and
no visible competence or conscience.
the country is still solvent and even
prosperous, and the best pickings, as
usual, are going to the smartest fell
lows "