Evening star., 1948-08-27
Red 'InteIIectuuIs' CONGRESS

AS ordinarily happens, the summer sea
son is chosen for international gatherings
of specialists and other interested per-
sons in various fields. Perhaps the most
piquantly noteworthy of these gatherings
Is the one now in session at the former
German city of Breslau, renamed Wroclaw
by its Polish occupants.
Arrogating to itself the imposing title
Of World Congress of Intellectuals," the
gathering is attended by some 500 dele
gates from fourteen countries-all of them
obviously on the left side of the theological
spectrum, ranging from deepest red to
pinkish pink. small United States dele
cation is headed by o. John Rogge.
The program of the Congress was pre-
pared in advance by committee of French
and Polish leftists who are planning to
Safeguard the peace and answer war
mongers and imperialists" who seek to
break it. This program started off with
a bang by an address from the Soviet
novelist, Alexander Fadeyev, one of the
Congress guiding spirits and President of
the Soviet Writers Association.
Coming from him, it is not strange to
discover that the United States was the
arch villain of his discourse, with our
bourgeois" culture prime target. Among
other pungent quips, he described our
magazines as 'reactionary wastepaper," ]"
our swing music as "the contemporary St.
Vitus dance" and most of our writers as
"aggreSSive propagandists," their books
emitting "a poisonous gas against our
peoples popular democracy" And he con-
tinued: IF hyenas could type and jackals
could use fountain pens, they would write
such things" as these Western writer's pro-
duce. Asserting that "the contemporary
culture of American Imperialism Is giving
off stencil of bitter decay" he called upon
progressive intelectuals everywhere" to
fight unfiinchingly "the American expan-
sionists and their agents In Europe who
want to WELD their truncheons over the
whole world. They, with imperialsts of
Britain, France and italy, want to hand
cuff all mankind and turn the whole planet
into a police station under American
supervision"
Another international gathering has
just closed it's sessions in London. This
was the Congress on Mental Health, at
tended by eminent authorities from most
of the world outside the Soviet Union and
its satellites, which were not represented
because Moscow decided that it was not
scientific but political" in character.
Dedicated to surveying what is psyche
logically wrong with the world, the Con-
gress turned over the task to a perma-
nent World Federation on Mental Health.
May it not be suggested that one of the
first subjects of study for the new Fedora
ton be the Wroclaw World Congress of
Intellectuals? If the addresses before that
gathering keep up the pace set by Mr..
Fadeyev, the study should be we'll worth
while.
However, there would be scant chance
that first-hand investigation by the Fed
Grafton would be tolerated, because the
Wroclaw Congress is quite choosy on whom
it lets in in its meetings Representatives
of the American and British Embassies to
Poland have been refused entrance to the
Congress auditorium, while at least one
prominent American journalist, the resi-
dent correspondent for the New York
Times in Poland, has been similarly barred.
This was in reprisal for an advance story
in the Times predicting that an attempt
would be made to turn the Congress into
sounding board for support of Soviet
policies against the United States and
Britain. The Congress published agenda
and Mr.. Fadeyev's inaugural address prove
that the Times forecast was entirely
correct.