Evening star., 1938-04-24
Bv NC. X. =

ONE more study of John L. Lewis is
contained in Esquire for the
month; one more study to be added
to the dozens already published about
this answer to feature writer's
prayer. It is by William Moulton
Marston and is called Coal -Nourished
Colossus" It is long, but it does not
say q great deal that anybody has not
already read before
Only one statement in it, indeed,
can be rated as interesting. That is
Mr.. Marston's prediction as to the
direction which Mr.. Lewis quest for
political power will take. OF that this
author makes the following observa-
ton:
That he will try to swing millions
Of labor votes to candidates and causes
which he can plausibly connect in
laboring minds with workingmen's
benefits, do not doubt. But to vision
and build new, cohesive political
party on a national scale requires a
type OF creative Imagination which
Mr.. Lewis certainly does not possess.
He has no inferiority feeling
to compensate for, no banner of
egregious Righteousness to fling flaunt-
ingly in the wind. He has only
powerful organism, brain and body,
driven relentlessly from the stomach
region, to seek more ana more OF
whatever lies within practical reach
Of an exceptionally well-controlled
right arm. The complicated machin-
cry Of major political party does not
yet lie within that reach. Nor does
the presidency Of the United States"
For the rest, Mr. Marstons article
is given over to telling us how unfail-
ingly Mr.. Lewis, in his past, has taken
whatever he wished to have, regardless
of such trifling considerations as
ownership and legality. Always, says
the piece, his wishes have been for
power and money.
THE truly distinctive thing about
Mr.. Lewis" comments Mr.. Marston,
hasn't recently been mentioned-his
appetite. Early reports that he ate
three raw beefsteaks for breakfast were
only slightly exaggerated. But hun
ger Like John LIS cannot be satisfied
with mere food. Though his
present income is about $500 per cent
greater than his original coal-dgging
wages he Is still in the mental position
OF Oliver Twist, who kept passing his
plate back for more.
No recompense which he has re-
ceived for himself or his followers, no
strike-won concession of shorter hours
or better working conditions that he
has managed to wrest from unwilling
mine owners, no dictatorial powers
that he has achieved in the councils
Of labor, have modified his craving for
increase in kind any more than
the huge quantities of comestibles
which he consumes daily have
lessened the physical demands Of his
stomach.
In other words. Mr.. Lewis takes
what he hungers for when and where
he can get 1t. A healthy octopus does
precisely the same thing. So, indeed,
do all species-but one.
One wonders If Mr.. Marston isn't
being the least bit hard on labors
Messiah?
As A writer who receives q modest
amount Of fan mail, the reviewer
finds interest in an article in the May
Esquire by Lawrence Martin. It is
called THE Vox Pepper" In it Mr..
Martin considers the case of those
men and women who write letters to
the editor, or to the radio broad
caster, or to the columnist, and so on.
He Is writer and broadcaster him.
self, and he says very frankly that
the unsolicited mail which he receives
is thrilling to him. With this the
reviewers feeling agrees absolutely.
Writing and broadcasting are diff
ferent from facing an audience" notes
Mr. Martin. They are like dropping
a stone down deep well and listening
in vain for the sound Of 1t hitting
bottom. The only evidence that you
have that anybody listened or read is
the mail that trickles in. A lot of it
misses whatever point you tried to
make, but still it is nice that someone
stopped whatever he was at, paid
attention and was moved to spin out
some words about it,
Yes, 1t very nice, indeed. The re-
viewer, when she first began reviewing,
got no such response, and one day said
in bitterness, she remembers, that she
thought she could take q title from
one book, an authors name from a
second, a publisher from third and
a review from a fourth and put them
all together as belonging to a single
volume without anybody noticing the
difference. Very shortly after that
she got her first fan letter, in which
a reader told her that he "highly
approved" her liberal use of semi
colons"!
From that time on she has been
unable to write Q word without feeling
the eyes Of an invisible army looking
over her shoulder. And sometimes,
reading her copy preliminary to leav-
ing it on the editors desk, she has
worriedly counted the semi-colons
over. Liberal Is all right, she tells
herself But not radical. Is there
perhaps one sem-colon here too
many? To such an extent has she
become fan-reader conscious.
|MR. MARTIN. however. makes one
statement with which the re-
viewer cannot agree. It has to do with
disapproving letters. He says that most
Of the unsolicited mail is of this vari-
ETY.. Maybe it Is, by and large. But the
reviewer has not found it 50 in WASH
ington. The readers who do not like
her stun are either too kind or too
Indifferent to say 50. She has had only
q few communications Of q carping
character.
On the other hand, she has a group
Of fairly regular correspondents who
show her by their criticisms that they
really do follow her page, and who
sometimes send her their own COM
positions-not for her to use, but sim.