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220 HARPER'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE

that faculty is beginning to atrophy with-in me. For a normally endowed creature

conversation with the comrades becomes

increasingly impractical.

You cannot forever, with convictionand without nausea, keep agreeing that

the Soviet Republic is in every particular

absolutely swell. Yet if you inadvert-ently utter such a gentle criticism of that

perfect state as a reference to a few good

features of America might imply, you dis-

cover that you have not only deeply

wounded and unpardonably insulted all

your fellow-workers but that you have re-

vealed yourself to be a swank and sub-versive fraud. And so you search for

some slight morsel of conversation which

might leave your comrades' tender feel-

ings intact. You seldom find any.

Suppose, for instance, that in order to

prove the genuineness of your proletari-

anism you show them the piece of Wool-

worth jewelry that you wear as proudly

as a shield upon your breast. Do they ap-

plaud you? Not much. They finger

your bauble avidly until they find upon

it the microscopic legend "Made in Italy."

Then you learn to your chagrin, and the

deafening of your ears, that the thin dime

you spent only yesterday has already been

converted into a lure to keep the Wool-worth waitresses in Detroit from sitting

down any longer; a fabulous robe for

Barbara Hutton's baby to wear to the

Coronation; and finally, into several hun-

dred bullets with which Spanish rebelsare at the moment riddling Soviet planes.

Or suppose you tell them quite spon-

taneously about the sad-eyed Italianwoman with the sick husband and the

cute grandchild and the son-in-law who

got caught with the policy slips, who is

being dispossessed from her railroad-flat

across the street. Do they rush out to

attack her cruel capitalistic landlord?

They turn back from the window and be-

gin to attack you. They tell you scorn-

fully that if your attitude were correctlycollective you would rejoice in the old

lady's plight. You would be glad that

she is going to lose her pewter coffee potand her new pink linoleum and the ab-

surd little grappa glasses that she uses

only on Easter Day, because such personal

losses as these swell mightily the ranks of

the miserable, and bring the Revolution

at least an hour nearer.

Such things as these and many moreyou will learn if you listen to the com-

rades long enough. For myself, I stopped

listening to them for good on that sunny

day last spring when three of them saw

me in Washington Square giving six-year-old Tony a quarter to sing "I don't want

to make history, I just want to make love,"

while he pretended to polish my shoes.

Publicly and amid the startled giggles of

benchfuls of fat Italian mamas, they de-

nounced me for the sly,slinking, treacher-

ous supporter of child labor that I was

proving myself to be.

And so I'm not going to join The Party.

Neither am I-though I feel myself being

strongly goaded in that direction-goingto become a Fascist or a Republican or aCatholic or a D.A.R. I still believe that

the world would be a nicer place if all

young men stopped killing one another, if

all old men could die without ever know-ing the gnaws of hunger, and if all littlechildren could get their fill of milk and

sunshine and soda-pop. And yet-and

yet-should the Revolution really come I

now know with a certitude that will never

again be shaken on which side of the bar-

ricades my mangled body will be found.

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I IThe Easy Chair

GOOD AND WICKED WORDS

BY BERNARD DEVOTO

THE Easy Chair has read Mr. StuartChase's three articles on verbalisms

with much interest and approval. How

important the Easy Chair believes their

subject to be is shown by the fact that it

has devoted eight of twenty-six monthly

essayshere to various aspects of that sub-

ject, has touched on it in others, and, be-

fore taking over this department. pub-

lished four articles about it in the body of

the magazine. Everyone who tries tothink effectively must constantly allow

for the habits of mind which Mr. Chase

analyzes, the structures of abstract logic

which he describes, the personifications

and abstractions and verbal proofs which

he exposes, the misunderstandings to

which they lead, the meaninglessness of

much activity carried on in the name of

intelligence and received as meaningful

by most people. Everyone who dealswith thought or with human beings must

understand the errors produced by the

universal disposition to accept words as

things and logic as a functional relation-

ship among things. Furthermore, since

science has done more than any other

human activity to extend man's control

over his environment, and since it has

done so, as we believe, largely because it

has freed itself from verbalism, the con-

clusion is indicated that the widest possi-

ble extension of its method would be

beneficial to mankind.

But the Easy Chair desires to suggest

that that conclusion also must be limited,

because it too is meaningless as an ab-

solute. Mr. Chase's articles serve here as

the basis of analysis, but the Easy Chairintends no rebuttal. having shouted with

delight over the greatest part of them.

But it is important to point out that every-

one who undertakes Mr. Chase's search

must sometimes succumb to the evils he

is exposing, and to point out that the

search itself has implications that Mr.

Chase does not allow for.

Mr. Chase knows that nobody can be

immune to verbalisms. He conscien-tiously warns the reader to expect uncon-

scious abstractions, absolutes, and person-

ifications in what he writes. Well, one of

his most striking verbalisms is his use of

the word "conservative" as an absolute.

He shows that such terms as "labor" and

"democracy" can have meaning only in

reference to specific situations, but "con-

servative" seems to have for him an inde-

pendent existence of its own. He saysheis tired "of fighting things which do not

exist." But he seems to be fighting con-

servatism, and no such thing exists. The

word can have meaning only in specific

contexts, only by limited definition or in

relation to immediate referents. Even in

such contexts it can hardly have a quali-

tative meaning; it must be used quantita-

tively, as a percentage possibly, as a ratio

with something else. Again, in discussing

the verbal fallacy of the wage-fund theory,

he says. "working people in England and

elsewhere had paid a bitter price for fifty

years for a Law without scientific founda-

tion." That is personification. Those

working people may be said to have paid

a "bitter" price for food or, if you like a

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222 HARPER'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE

more inclusive term, for the power and

immunity of their exploiting employers;

but they didn't pay anything for any law,

sound or unsound,

Again, refusing to go to war on behalfof Russia, he acknowledges that he de-

sires to see the people of Russia given

every chance to work out "perhaps the

most .significant economic experiment

ever undertaken." Significant to whom,

in what circumstances, in relation to

whom and what? The people of Russia

are undertaking an economic experiment;

so are the people of Germany, the people

of Italy, the people of Spain, the peopleof Japan. These experiments may have

enormous significance to the people who

are undertaking them, to other people

affected by them, to Mr. Chase, to you

and me. But "most significant" is empty

of meaning. "During Franklin Roose-

velt's first Administration, conservatives

and business men after 1933 opposed in-

creasingly the extension of authority at

Washington." But many "business men"whooped up that extension, saw chances

to make profits from it, made the profits,

and doubtless voted Democratic in 1936.

There is no such thing as a conservative

and, though there are certainly men en-

gaged in various businesses, there are nosuch things as business men. Two per.

sonified phantoms and a concealed as-

sumption.

Again, "by 1940we may have politicalparties which will provide a real issue."

Operationally, there were plenty of issues

in 1936: for example, shall we appro-

priate less money for relief, change the

method of administering relief funds,

and change the methods of raising rev-

enues to produce them? If that is not a

real issue, we must look for real issues in

another concealed assumption-which

suggests that Mr. Chase's use of "real" is averbalism. Lastly, take a good look at

Mr. Chase's climax. "The controlling

issue for statesmen, governments, politi-

cians is to find the human purpose to be

accomplished in the given situation."

Human purpose or blab? In a given sit-

uation politicians or governments may

act to advance the interests of A, B, and

C, or of this class or that one, or a com-

bination or compromise. If the action

thus taken impairs the interests of D, E,

and F, or of other classes,what is "humanpurpose"? The phrase is an abstraction

and personification, pulsating with emo-

tion. It suggests that another concealed

assumption is interwoven here-or several

of them.

The Easy Chair is not attacking Mr.

Chase. It is pointing out that his quest

is in part conditioned byother phenomena

which, in these three articles at least, he

ignores. And to ignore them is to im-pair the inquiry, for they are insepara-

ble from its objective.

Let us do what experience has shown

to be helpful, let us look for a state of

mind. One has already been suggested

by "real issue" and "human purpose."

Well, Mr. Chase tells us !hat, in the cam-

paign of 1936, the opponents of the New

Deal attacked Mr. Tugwell and defended

Mr. Landon with a lot of meaningless(but, let us point out, effective) abstrac-

tions, personifications, and animisms.

That is verifiably true. Note, however,

that, though he sayssuch attacks darkened

counsel, he fails to remark that the sup-

porters of the New Deal attacked their

opponents with another set equally mean-

ingless and even more effective. He says

that the personification of corporations

has thrown the economic mechanisms outof gear. That also is verifiably true, but

it is true that such animisms as "the

workers," "the underprivileged," etc., also

assisted in that stripping of the gears,

and Mr. Chase does not bring that fact

to bear on his question. He says that

"more than one-third of the people in

America are underfed, inadequately

housed, and shoddily clothed." He has

never counted them, no one has evercounted them, and his statement is not

meaningful but emotionally useful. The

only word in it that can be operationally

examined is "underfed," and an inquiry

by nutritionists (granting they could

agree on tests) would possibly reveal a

certain percentage of "blab." "Inade-