June 23, 1937

New York City

Mr. Charles W. Pipkin
Editor
The Southern Review
Baton Rouge La.

Dear Sir;

I have just read the proofs of Frederick L. Schuman's article, "Leon Trotsky: Martyr Or Renegade?" I understand that it is to be published in your summer issue. I wish to state my impression that the ignorance and incompetence which the author reveals in this article is matched only by his prejudice. He discusses the background to the Moscow trials - the struggle between Stalin and the Left Opposition led by Trotsky - without even mentioning one of the most crucial episodes in that background - the Chinese Revolution and the split and discord it caused within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He misquotes the title of Trotsky's pamphlet, "The Defence of Terrorism", and refers to it in such a manner as to infer that this work is a defence of individual terrorism. It is not. It is a defence of the revolutionary terrorism established by the government of Lenin in the days of the civil war which followed the October Revolution. He questions the authenticity of Lenin's "Testament". Not even Joseph Stalin has done that. In fact, Stalin has admitted the authenticity of that document, and Stalin's admission of its authenticity was equally as available to Mr. Schuman as was the original text of it from which he quoted. He states that Trotsky's documents are merely letters to friends, and these not originals. When one writes letters, what does one do? Does one send the originals to those to whom they are written? Mr. Schuman falls down even when questions of the most elementary logic and common sense are involved. I was a witness at the Trotsky Hearings in Coyoacan, conducted by a Preliminary Commission of Inquiry of which Dr. Dewey was the chairman. Trotsky's documents are not merely copies of letters sent to friends, and Schuman knows that they are not. Many of his documents are depositions concerning his whereabouts, and his way of life during the periods when he was alleged to have had conspiratorial meetings with defendants and witnesses of the Moscow trials. Others are copies of telegrams which prove that his son was in Berlin when he was alleged to have been in Copenhagen, a photostatic copy of his son's passport showing that his son did not go to Copenhagen as alleged and the like. Schuman knows this also. His misrepresentations can only be explained as downright prejudice. I could go through his entire article illustrating, documenting, and outlining inaccuracy, prejudice, misinformation, and misrepresentation on almost every page. But that is not worth the time and the bother that it would

March 2, 1959

Dear Mr. Farrell,

I am enclosing one page of your MS along with some
pages of quotes from MEIN KAMPF. I have a suggestion to make, and
you, of course, may do as you please about it.

It so happened that the new American edition of this
damn book just came in the other day; it seemed to me a good plan to
find in it the passage you were quoting from, and to make the footnote
reference to the American edition instead of to the French, since the
former will now be available to our readers. I am not sure that I have
found the same passage (for that matter the two editions may not be
the same), but it seems to be the same; it is on page 415 of this edition
and is enclosed. The trouble is this: In this section of the book,
Hitler is not talking about propaganda, but is criticizing education
that is based on unintegrated factual knowledge (similar, indeed, to
Veblen's indictment of modern educational methods, but at the same time
in something of a fog). Your sentence (on page 21)--

In other words, fascist propaganda breaks down intellect,
destroys moral force and courage, and seeks to turn the
individual into a functioning series of conditioned reflex-
es....

I don't for an instant doubt the truth of this sentence, but I don't
believe it follows from this particular part of MEIN KAMPF--if indeed
I have found the same passage you used. In other words, I feel that
this passage is mild compared to some others (also enclosed), and that it
would be better tactically to use the best ammunition to hand.

The suggestion, then, is that you base this paragraph (on
page 21) on another part of the book--the quotes I am sending, as I said,
are merely suggestions, but they are pretty clear, and there would be
no occasion for anyone's saying you were distorting the meaning in or-
der to make a point. Or perhaps you can find even better passages than
those I am sending. In any case, please get the MS page--as it stands
or as you may wish to revise it--back to me by the first possible air
mail. The rest of the MS is at the printers'.

Very sincerely yours,

JAMES T. FARRELL

Mar. 7, 1939

Dear Mr. Erskine:

Thank you for your letter, for returning page 21 of the mss. of my Silone article, and for the quotations from the Stackpole edition of MEIN KAMPF. I return the following: page 21 of my mss.; page 21a, which contains a revised writing of the cloudy paragraph, your quotations with what I used from them marked, and in addition, a revision of one of my other footnotes.

I was seeking to turn Hitler's own criticism against himself, but I was cloudy in the way I did this. Your criticism was just, and I am grateful for it. I have now rewritten this cloudy paragraph, and in my rewriting, I have been direct, and used different quotations; these I have taken from among those you sent me. This way, there can be (as you suggest) a quibbling over passages taken from MEIN KAMPF. Also, will you kindly make the proper footnote references concerning MEIN KAMPF for me in the MEXICAN ARTILCE- that is change the references from the French to the AMERICAN EDITION. Thanks.

When I wrote the article I didn't have the American edition available and hence, had to use the French edition which I had in my personal library. But obviously, it is best to refer to the Stackpole edition now that it is available.

In one of my footnotes, I quote Stalin, taking this quotation from SOUVARINE'S STALINE. I am enclosing a bakkarx new translation of this quotation, and would you kindly correct my footnote according to this new translation. It is a minor revision, but the change should be made. Thanks again, and your,

Page 180

MEIN KAMPF

At whom should propaganda be directed? At the scientific intelligentsia, or at the less-educated masses?

It must be aimed perpetually at the masses alone!

For the intelligentsia, or what today unfortunately often calls itself so, we have not propaganda but scientific instruction. But judged by its substance propaganda is no more science than the technique of a poster in itself is art...

TheXXARTXXEXTHEXPAEXTERXX

Propaganda's task is not scientific training of the individual, but directing the masses' attention to particular facts, occurrences, necessities, etc., whose importance is thus brought within their view.

The whole art consists in seizing this so adroitly that a universal conviction of the reality of a fact, the necessity of an occurrence, the rightness of something necessary, etc., is produced. But as it is not and cannot be a knowledge in itself, (since its job, like that of the poster, is to draw the crowd's attention, and not to instruct a person with scientific training or a thirst for education and knowledge), it must always attempt to work chiefly on the feelings, and only to a very limited extent on the so-called intelligence.

All propaganda must be popular in tone, and must keep its intellectual level to the capacity of the least intelligent among those at whom it is directed.

Page 565-6

It is therefore essential that a movement for the very purpose of self-preservation stop adding to its membership, as soon as it has become successful. From that time on it should exercise the greatest caution and should thoroughly examine the situation before enlarging its organization. Only by such means will it be able to keep the nucleus of the movement pure, fresh and sound. It must further take care that this nucleus exclusively leads on the movement, decides upon the propaganda which is to bring about its general recognition, and, being in possession of all power, shall perform all actions necessary for the practical realization of its ideals.

MEIN KAMPF, by Adolf Hitler Stackpole Sons Publishers New York City

Page 415

There is today perhaps one single field in which a man's origin really counts less than his own native endowments -- the field of art. Here, where one cannot simply "learn," but must have everything born in him, and is only later subject to more or less fortunate development in the sense of wise fostering of the existing gift, the parents' money and property cut almost no figure. This is the best proof that genius is not confined to the upper classes nor to wealth. The greatest artist not infrequently comes from the poorest home. And many a village small boy has later become a celebrated master.

It does not speak well for the deep thinking of our age that this realization is not made to serve for all our intellectual life. People believe that what cannot be denied in regard to art is not true of the so-called exact sciences. No doubt a man can be trained in certain mechanical skills, just as an expert trainer can teach an apt poodle the most astonishing tricks. But in animal-training it is not the animal's own intelligence which of itself leads to such exercises; and the same is true of man. It is possible, without consideration of any other talent, to teach a man certain scientific tricks, but the process is just as lifeless, as uninspired, as with the animal. It is even possible by dint of a certain intellectual drill to pound above-average knowledge into an average person; but it still remains lifeless, and at bottom sterile, knowledge. The product is a man who may indeed be a walking encyclopedia, but who nevertheless fails miserably in every particular situation and at every crucial moment in life; he has to be given special new training for every requirement, no matter how modest, and is unable to make the slightest contribution on his own account to the development of mankind. Knowledge produced by this sort of mechanical drill may suffice at best for the filling of a present-day State office.

JAMES T. FARRELL

185 LEXINGTON AVENUE
NEW YORK CITY, N. Y.

Oct. 24, 1940

Robert Penn Warren:
The Southern Review
Baton Rouge, La.

Dear Warren:

Allow me to thank you for your letter. I'm sorry you didn't care to publish my story, but then, that is that. I should be glad to do the piece you ask on Mumford's FAITH FOR LIVING. However, I am not sure that I can get it to you by November 25th. I'll try, however. I am in bad shape at the present time, and need to rest and watch myself. A apparently, it is the result of overwork. Anyway, I was in the hospital in August with a carbuncle, and it took me a month to get over the damned thing. I've only been able to do four small pieces of writing in three months, and am slowly getting back to work. The Mumford piece will require a little reading just at a time when I'm trying to do some work to permit me to take a course this winter in mathematics, and hence, I may be late. However, I want to do the piece because I have been thinking of writing something about the trend to which Mumford and various others are now giving expression. Incidentally, these fellows are becoming a menace to the serious literary artist. They are making of him the same kind of demands that the Stalinists made a few years ago. I have been thinking that I ought a to take up the same fight in defense of the artist's right to do his own work that I made a few years ago against the Stalinists. Hence, if you will give me a little time in case I need it, I shall do the piece. And if possible, I shall have it in to you by the 25th of November.

If you have the book, will you sned it to me, and if not, write and ask Harcourt Brace to do so. Also, please send me whatever book other books you think relate to this tendency which I might also need.

Incidentally, would you be interested in a piece on France by Alfred Rosmer. In case you don't know of him, he is well known in France, and in the international left movement. He is the author of LE MOUVEMENT OUVIRER PENDANT LA GUERRE, a study of the French labor movement from the Union Sacree to Zimmerwald, a book that is, to me, important because of its mass of facts, detailed scholarship, and because of the relevance of what he writes to the present. He could do you a review of all the present

JAMES T. FARRELL

Jan. 10. 1941

Robert Penn Warren
The Southern Review
Baton Rouge La.

Dear Warren:

I'd be very grateful if you could send me some extra copies of the Mumford article- and in addition, if you have any extra proofs of it, I'd be very grateful for them also. I can use them all to good purpose.

Also, I'd be grateful and it would be very useful to send a copy of the article to Professor Meyer Schapiro, Dept. of Arts and Archaeology- Columbia University. He will talk about it, and interest a number of persons in looking up the article, and that way, will help to get it around. I think it ought to get around because it is relevant to the issues of the present etc.

At all events, if you could send me some extra copies and proofs, and one also to Schapiro, I'd appreciate it.

P.S. If you could convince and get Schapiro to do something for you, you'd undoubtedly get a brilliant article- did you read his critique of Wilson in PARTISAN REVIEW? If not, do so. It's very good.

JAMES T. FARRELL

Sept. 2, 1941

Dear Warren:

I would be very grateful if you would send a copy of my Mumford
article to Enrique Espinoza, BABEL, Delicias 2555- Santiago
de Chile. He sometimes translates and reprints articles of mine,
and may reprint this one.

Also, Stanley Young of Harcourt Brace- who kindly gave me review
copies of some of Mumford's back books- never received a copy of
the article. Would you mind sending him one.

If it isn't too much, I'd also like to get another copy myself,
which I need.

How are things going with you? Will you ever be coming to NY?
If so, be sure and get in touch with me. I'd like to meet you.