Evening Star Newspaper, March 22, 1931, Page 28

MANY TRIALS FACED BY AUTHOR IN U. S. There Are Many Oppormnities for Success, but There Are Also Many Discouragements. (Continued From Third Page.) ‘goun! such opportunity no writer 4n ;‘Smer land can. hope for. The gz;w.em has been well said about Lewis’ lists of the writers he likes and dislikes—hoth groups have re- ceived from the American audience at- tention, reputation and fortune. The reputation and the fortune may not have scemed to the author large enough, but they were better, probably, than the author could have earned else- ‘where. - This is not the sort of comparison which is madesbetween the American and reading public, but much as I admire Europe for those aspects of culture in which Europe is superfor, I believe this comparison is Just. I cannot take seriously the criti- cisms of the American audience made by European authors, who at the same time hasten to get their books trans- lated for us, or who contribute to our magazines, or who sell their stories to our film companies. In the size of the audience and in tho variety and the hosvitality of their tastes, this country is a writer's para- dise. Not only do cowmpetent artists have their chance with us, but to an | extraordirary extent the young and un- tried. Those will not agree with me who still have an unpublished manu- script in their desk, but such critics cannot be numerous. From year to| year, good times and in bad, book- | sellers and managers introduce to us the new novelists, the new playwrights and with undiminished curiosity we examine the offering. What more | should an author ask for? ‘The phenomenon of the American sudience deserves, I think, more em- phasis than it usually gets. Its size is difficult to compute. We know approxi- al mately the upon the “movies” each week, but we do nct & novel are sold, but we do not know many people have read the novel thor who has something to say. Of course, not all these readers read Many of them do not know [ influences, ma America today he has to contend with several kinds of censorship, all of them powerful and from his point of view all of them disastrous. Books suffer from these restricting zine suffer still more, the films suffer most. The author knows that when he serializes a novel in a magasine he is more likely to en- counter an invitation to cut something out of his text than when he pub- lishes in book form And if a film company buys the story which did get rinted in the magazire, he knows that fore it reaches the screen it will be Chln‘;d beyond recognition. He feels that here he has a very real grievance. He refuses to believe that the audiences for ‘books, for magazines and for the films are of such utterly different men- tal and moral fiber as to need three dis- tinct degrees of protection. Since the film company, if it buys his book at all, buys it because it is a popular success, the author feels that the censorship of the films comes too iate; the public has already been damaged. ‘When I speak of various kinds of cen- sorship, I am not referring to legislative attempts to suj indecency. Clean- minded pec 1o hiave, diffared us. o b8 practical value of such legislation, but few authcrs are bothel by it. A competent author can say what he likes and stay within that kind of law. In certain moments of literary history a powerful legal *censorship has tended to increase literary skill. One doubts whether Voltaire would have sharpened so fine a pen if his message had not been so urgent within him, and if his fear Bf priscn had not been so strong. And I do not refer to those restric- tions which a difference of medium imposes upon & true artist. You can say things in conversation which you would hesitate to write in & book, and you can print in a book what you would hesitate to put in the dialogue of a play or a film. In actual life you may pass a profane fellow on the street and notice only that a man is swearing. In a book you would see clearly the individual words his profanity uses. but you might skip the 'guu;e if it didn’t interest you. On the stage the same ofapity would hit you with a terrific pact, with a quite exiggerated em- phasis, partly because in the theater you can’t skip, and partly because we give many times the attention to the ted word which we give to ordi- nary conversation, and many more in | times the attention to dialogue theater mnnuummmw - | mediately around it has cradled more i HR i *as it 1s, or as he to understands it. him from the other finantial It discourages the whole truth. On it offers him large inducements if he will tell saccharine only I'R.rflll truth or truth, crusaders tons | DOOKs often ence. o this countries, but in the United States tpical problem of theirs is ac- tusted. ican author can appeal to lence in book form or in the On the stage which give access to the wide audience offer least of that immortality which the writer wants. When the run of -nghy is over the piece is rarely sovived in pur country. When the film has had it day it become very much of the past. The magazne is more permanent than the film, but far less 80 than the book. Any writer knows that the book gives him his best chance at present of speaking to later tions. Once his work is between covers and safe on the shelves of a few hun- dred libraries, he has all the chance of immortality which he ‘can hope for. Any one who tells us, therefore, that books are passing, to be replaced more and more by films, does not know the tem| ent of authors. Even though me so fiilm-minded that we no Jonger buy a book, the author. I am sure, will at his own cost publ'sh his film story in book form, so that it may be convenientiv examined by the guri- ous and the admiring hereafter. 1 make this point not through any hostility to the fllms; personally I be- lleve t the talking film opens u the wonderful new art which we have had for a cen- . But from the author’s stand- the film has this great disad- . | should be scrupulously h P possibilities of a| American public the picture of life they wish were true, but know is not. To an honest writer this would be writ- ing fmmoral boaks for money. ‘This vague but effective kind of cen- sorship bears upon books. It m‘;;pe-u. the world. The perhaps, from the el that its clients are & very special with 1 tastes, and that those umored. Just how the magazine editor and his sales department arrive at their estimate of the mentality of their readers, no author has ever found out. When the author talks with the editor, p wide interests, but he gets the impres- sion that the editor looks on hlsv;‘m readers as morons. It appears to the author that when magaszines publish good material in such varlety that the whole experiences of life are covered, the magazine as soon as the manmnnt t:'rmlned what the exclusive tastes of readers are, magasine stands still or begins to go down hill. But whether or not the author is s y e United States ma‘u:hu to publish it in a megazine, he must ask himself which magazine is receptive to, stories of that | kind. The editors ean tell him in ad. { vance what sort of stories they want. | Of course they want quality in the ma- terfal they ask for, but a masterpiece on the wrm!m; subject would not b'e‘ i not,_enougl facets of cannot be its life is short and until | g, been found authors to praise the films They may base her grou o otl nd, but their unwillingness W a lum fore the pubjic only say to them. I wonder sometimes if the editors themselves realize how far they go in_this. tendency toward censorship. Jove. he finds him an intelligent man with | q l{m«mmuuyomnmm . | and absurd but actual case, t, | of mine wrote a short story in which { | thwarted. his | may , Achievement Spurs Mellon At 76, Secretary of Treasury Believes Accomplishment Is Greatest Compensation Offered by Life. BY EDWIN ALGER. NDREW W. MELLON, who has been ucreur;rol the Treasury under three Presidents—Hard- ing, Coolidge and Hoover—cele~ brates another y _next ‘Tuesday and thus goes quietly on to- vard a record of longevity, both as a gaunber of the cabinet and along the thway of life. ith one exception, and history casts the shadow of a doubt on the exact length of this firevum- cabinet officer’s service, Mr. Mellon has served longer as a Secretary of the Treasury than any other man in American history. Strangely enough, the one exception, Albert_Gallatin, like Mr. Mellon, came from Pennsylvania, too. At the turn of the last century: he served for a period of 12 years, but during two of those years he was abroad on & diplo~ matic ‘mission, and Congress declared his cabinet office vacant during his absence. I don't know what the cir- cumstancés were, but it does seem that, even so far back as a hundred or more years ago Congress was in the habit df taking a wallop at the Secretary of the Treasury. Time Touches Him Lightly. ‘The first impression one has of Mr. Mellon, after reflecting on the span of more than 10 years he has spent in Washington, is how lightly time has touched him. Yet on the 24th of this month he will pass another milestone— his_seventy-sixth, to be exact. But there is about him a quality that seems ageless. Unlike so ‘many men, he defles classification in any If you didn't him on the in your mind as a man in the 50s, or the 60s or even the 70s. It would be most difficult to identify him with any 5 or 10 year segment of a man's life; instead, one would have to jump the years to somewhere near a round number like 20—then guess haps his air ot detachment and composure that gives him that ageless quality. Perhaps it's even his serenity, for he is serene. If he is_growing old by the calendar—and that's about the only \Adhble sign—he is doing it most grace- Mr. Mellor{s Background. people—farmers. in Baitimore, went over- which was - then &*‘:‘S i & ggfigeggfig { ost | Ing, and the windows are an_unknown. and business, however, he was far more “just & Pittsburgh banker.” h, and the territory im- great industries than perhaps any other spot on earth. And, as some- one has sald, the Mellons “rocked the ‘They spon ided capital for them, took them over SECRETARY MELLON. 108p) of & great and pow- erful finan institution for the tur- bulent, , h-and-tumble arena of pouummma of %: m&n “:- teresting gs _about . Mellon, however, has been his abllity to pre- serve, throughout the 10 years, the same calm and pol an which characterized him whe: came to Wasl n. I don't believe any man In contem- poraneous public life has captured to as great a degree, though with less in- tent on his part, dulmbue'l imagina- tion than has Mr. Mellon. how the ne dwelt on his ap- pointment one of the wealthiest men in the world, Mr. Mellon has never confirmed t statement. But there was an_element of that at- tended his being Beeretary of the Treasury, and people will talk' and newspapers will write—about surprises. Mr. Melion-in Office. But you want to know about him as he is today. I went to see him in his office in the Treasury Buflding. It's a 1on | pequtiful room in the southwest corner the second floor. Three windo on 3 face the south and overlook a with an equestrian statue of Gen. man of Civii War fame in in . _On the west side, a single window looks out on the White House and gives one & view of & of the Execu- tive Mansion. ‘The room is oblong, with high ceil- by Ble. veivet portieres, The fur- lue . e niture is mahogany and Mr. Mellon sits behind a large double desk. On the walls are ofl paintings—life size—of Secretaries of the Treasury in days gone by. Directly behind Mr. Mellon's desk is the DW‘ of Gallatin, and that flery old gentleman — portrayed with a stern, relentless gaze — made even more forbidding by his hawklike nose and tightly set mouth—furnishes 8 sharp contrast to Mr. Mellon, whose customary e: is one trial | ness. And there are other contrasts in of the industries have been interested and, as a family, still are interested in. ‘When Mr. Mellon entered the Gov- ernment Le resigned as president of the bank, and severed all other cor- poration connections. He left the cloi- . | this distinguished and aristocratic old room. For example: On one wall is the original given by Ale: Hamilton, the. first Secretary of the Treasury, for the first $50,000 he bor- rowed from a New York bank, with which, along with another $150,000— all borrowed, too—the Treasury De- partment of the Federal Ggvernment was brought into existence. partment today deals in The room also has place, with an honest-to- fire crackling cheerfully and adding its warmth and color to the statel essential Colonial surroundings. mentioned that he was | tach ?{fl:;ry swivel c’?hnr—he tilted back ml: &l Df?“ up against desk, whicl lnmn'? & suppleness I i fore. I shall have at 76. Mr. Mellon comparative youth Mellon’s life to da remembers very well the receipt in Pitts- burzrr;’ of the news of Lee's surrender. “There of gentle- | crashed that they prefer not to accept stories about married people unless they are falling out of love. They mention that the public just now likes a good deal of action in its murders. Or, to give you an extreme colleague the hero went canoeing with the heroine Sunday afternoon. When the story lp-! peared, the author found that his hero | was now canoeing with the heroine on Saturday afternoon. The day made no difference to the author, but the editor explained that most of his clients would disapprove of «canoeing on Sun- day. The circulation of that magazine is several millions. It is idle to add anything about the censorship of moving pictures. I sup- pose there are few authors who do not resent this national scandal. Practic ally none of the most cherished class of ancient or modern literature couid te put on the American film without serious alteration. Under the law you could not put in the “talkies” th> life of Galahad, nor the story of th> Na- tivity as it is given in the Gospels. However wonderful the medium of the may be, the subject matter avail- able for them hes been strangely limit- ed, and by a procedure which to the average citizen seems extremely secre- tive and consequently ’ ‘When the American author reflects upon these conditions even in his para- dise, he inclines to agree with the spirit of Sinclair Lewis’ remarks, even though he does not subscribe to those remarks in detall. The American author has no' jusv quarrel with the reception he gets from his own people, not 5o far as pub- lished criticism or material rewards are concerned, but the truer artist he is and the more conscientious, the more he finds his activities hemmed in and ':fin?:'" h:n such a wu:ox o{‘up. portunity and discouragement as liter< .t has not known before. Other same 5 American author under public pressure may become a mere entertainer or a time server. Our one hope becomes clear when we reverse our enumeration of the facts. We can discuss more sides of life in the magazine than on the screen, more sides of life in the novel than in the magazine, and—most important of all— cultured and serious people discuss more sincere from Balkans Forsake Beer And Sip Light Wines VIENNA, Austria.—The beer business isn't good any more in the Balkans. Statistics recently published indicate that the people are turnirg more to themselves, or to strong spirits, which fact are cheap in IN LATIN AMERICA By GASTON NERVAL. ROADS TO PROGRESS. O the Romans a road was a means to an end, said & well known highway engineer the other day, addressing a meeting of road builders in New York. | Straight as a string, built with un- compromising zeal over all obstacles; streams, marshes, mountains, other men's property, and the numerous other irregularities which lie in the path of material logic, your Roman road was designed to “get there.” But the super highways which our latter- day road builders are advocating, he added, have no such simple duty. They are to be the nourishing arteries of an entire economic system, employing thousands of laborers in their construc- tion and upkeep, stimulating hundreds of wayside industries. It is undoubtedly with this realiza- tion in mind that the Latin American governments are devoting their best efforts to_the construction of central and local ways which will open the young Southern ocountries to motor traffic and the material benefits that this brings. Al to official reports just completed, last year was an outstand- ing one in the development of road construction in Latin America. And this in spite of the economic depression which is being so Intensely felt in that part of the world. ‘The Argentine Republic increased her system of roads to 65332 miles. Colombia increased hers to 19,261 miles. The island Republic of Cuba reached a total of nearly 2,000 miles, with her beautiful and modern central highway across the island, which has just been com| E . During 1830 Chile built 105 miles of highways; lor _built 856 miles: Panama, 33¢ miles; Peru, 250 miles; El Salvador, 300 miles; Uruguay, 440 miles, And s0 on. The Latin Ameri- cans have at last realized that the ma- terial of a nation is measured by the miles of highways and rallways n its territory. HIGHWAYS TO PROSPERITY. ‘The largest highway development in the country’s history is about to be- gin in Argentina, o & _press release from the Pan. '.l.‘rhe cont One of these highways is to be built from Buenos Aires, the ward to Bahia Blanca, thi exporting center. road 1 be about other road will extend from Alres to Cordoba, nearly northwest of the capital city. Bahia Blanca is one most progressive centers, ha vanced during the past 20 years from a small town to & of more than 156,000 people. Cordobs, one of the country's intellectual centers, with ifs ey s ly resque, lying am moun- tains, and mr%a of found at her fne resorts, -American Union. ites the construction | all Toad. tina’s | has achieved na's act DEFENDS ALL WOMEN AGAINST THEIR CRITICS Noted English Author Replies to Oppen- heim and Tells of Trials of Her Sisters. (Continued From First Page. tional normal life of the male is more satisfying to him than the traditional normal life of the female is to her. A | man of average health and talents, with .| & good education, a fair job aud a wife he likes need not be envied by a woman of average health and talents with a good education, enough money to keep hotise on and’ a husband and children 5| she likes. It is true that she has the special problem of switching onto some out- side activity when her children no longer need her undivided attention, 'd | but countless women have proved that But his ithful zest for walking remains with today. It's his chief form of rec- reation. Once & day at least, and some- he walks between his hom N or 1 ly or rapidly. If I walk leisurely, it takes me about 21 minutes: rapidly, betwecn 19" and 20 minutes.” Dislikes Being Explained. T mentioned this little incident to a man who knows Mr. Mellon quite well and he said it indicated how thorough Secretary was in he did il 5 4 - B L year, tures Gov- ernment within its income. These ac- complishments have not’been without strife, however, and Congress has been bitter in some of the disputes it has (Continued on Seventh Page.) expect to find in Central Africa, atre a bit olrd‘-lluh!oned and out of date. lly speaking, it seems hard for in the street to think of Latin ‘These two new highways, which will | an cost several millions of dollars, will be- come when finished a long section of the great Pan-American Highway, the long-dreamed-of international artery, in the construction of which the gov- emments_of all the nations of the Western Hemisphere have been inter- ested for & number of years. Outside of the material which It will represent, this u,: scheme of highway construetion destined to have an immediate effect upon the general economic situation of Argentina, for it will provide work and salaries for unemployed men through- out the country. Thousands of Argen- tine wo)men will find temporary jobs oh these highways to be constructed under government supervision. In this respect Argentine statesmen are fol- lowing the example of Uncle Sam. As is wel ;m:‘:n one of u’n oumnnd:;: items o program for unemploy- ment relief advocated this country was the appropriation of considerable sums of money for highway construc- tion and publle works over United States. After all, it is only natural that the Latin Americans should follow in the footsteps of Uncle Sam in the solution of their unemployment problem, just as they follow them in the fickle changes in fashions, in the adoption of new sports or in the latest dance steps. A PROFITABLE TRIP. More than one hundred American highway engineers and officials are now in Cuba, visiting the recently completed Central Highway of Cuba, as guests of the government of that country. s highway, ted only a few weeks called by officers of the American Road Builders' Association the greatest - bullding project completed Latin America. Four years ago the Cuban govern- ment undertook the work of this mag- & cost of more than in all of | POTtS, and the ai unknown add dramatic touches. Ample publicity given to material achievernents like this hl:sl hvl{h‘wfll do a lot counter- influence of movh:“ and of fiction, which deplct Americans of l::?t: the Latin under the same conditions fathers did fifty years ago. A NEW MONTE CARLO. It is not only with the increasing mileage of their highway systems that the Latin American countries are writ- ing progress nowadays. Bul fac- tories, monuments, stadiums, plads of entertainment, are constantly springing up from the ground all over the West- ern World, “&1 & celerity more com- es. - rts refer to the new /Oasino at Vina del Mat, in Chile, which the “Monte Carlo of South America.” With the official in- auguration of fililln culm'las mnnrt:nl, represen an investmen! seve million %fin, the Chilean resort is sald to rival Monte Carlo, Nice, Biar- ritz and the great playgrounds of the Riviera in the beauty of its seaside setting, the architectural splendor of its buildings and the sumptuousness of its appointments and facilities for the tourist and pleasure-seeker. Press correspondents state that the Vina del Mar Casino, surrounded by a veritable Eden of gardens, that can be done. The Mrs, Strubes should have a reasonable chance of be- He has, as a rule, the Mr. Strube of opposite. Because, 50 far as this is largely & man-made pretend that what men And what men want power. That desire is Tow of their beings. They life tolerable without hope of its gratification. our days, just enough to make his| the! & waster or a slattern. e neither If he is of near his work, and it has every con- o ount which glow at night with thousands of electric 1i ic lights. Of all Oiun attractions, it is not dif- ficult to guess which will draw a larger number of American tourists to the al- in@s (ready famous South American resort. 500 miles | A tin in its system of com- munications. In fact, it will give them an tunity to see the *“ single s of modern highway in the world”; and it will hel em to realize that those from 1613, is extreme- | movi; in which tourists appear ing made Latin America in travel h rustic S SOUTH AMERICA OF 1931 If New York will in the near future have her Radio venience. But there is not enough space Talse a hmu{l in it nor center an amusing social life around it. It is haps one In a box of a thousand enial riend ‘among the nelgnbors. 1 among nel is e looking for & needle in & hay- It takés Mrs. Strube a sent to Europe time with s lowances. Hw earth in its eyes, outside all relations of humanity. Work vanity; it is the way that the woman has of hif onto life, If Mr. Strube is of a more old-fash- ioned type have woman must come to in her time. Bul lthnfimmemfilfi.mflm s L nfi,mmm.hmnm Mrs. Harrington-Strube: There the against the dependence on a rich .__But there are mighty few rich men. The RIVIErs | urous looks crowded in the season. but that is a little strip of coast. of Europe behind it, just as there is all Ameriea behind Florida, and most of it is crowded. And even with these rich Wl over to myself I realized Mmt been one, was a One up as come ways money, lized. appointed to study the project has re- ior(ed f{avorably, and the corner stone Buenos Aires, by the wag. the largest South - American” mesropolis. Wit & population of nearly 2,600,000 in- it s S cnh 8 modern cities in this t 2 Europe, 1 HEHTH]