The Masses, October 1913

I’ve finally made it back to The Masses. This issue is fun and refreshing, a breath of red air after much New Age-ing.

One thing that’s important to them as a periodical: they are much, much better at self-presentation than any of the other (the English) journals. Their attitude is much more playful, even as their non-guild socialism has much more of a connection to actual labor crises. Instead of a huffy elitism, they foster an inclusive but intellectual atmosphere. It makes me wish that The New Age was a monthly, or a bimonthly like The New Freewoman. They seem to work themselves bitter.

The first page of each issue is always great—including their editorial statement (I think I covered that in the first post on The Masses) and a few fun micro-advertisements for the periodical itself. This month includes micro-columns labeled “One Less” and “One More.” “One More” is a boost to The Masses from Harper’s. “One Less” is an angry piece from someone who is getting the magazine by accident (or malice): “I do not want it… I am not in favor of Socialism at all… I stand for God and Country, Christianity and Patriotism, and for Law and Order.” This inclusion comes across as cute and tolerant—The Masses inoculates its audience to opposition by making it small and legible.

My 1913 self lives under a rock: I hadn’t heard about the Thaw murder case! Read more here, and in The Masses, who use Thaw’s escape from prison to undermine the biased justice system more generally.

Perhaps the best extended argument in the issue is under the headings “Towards Plutocracy” and “Toward Feudalism.” Here the editor (Eastman, I believe) attacks labor reform by pointing out that business interests overtly call their philanthropic reforms “a good investment.” It takes a small logical leap to see that the investment only makes sense if it is a more pernicious sort of repression—The Masses is on the case.

Quick notes:

There’s a short essay/story titled “Soap and Water” by Leroy Scott, in which he describes an encounter with a homeless and alcoholic working class woman, and how the encounter surprised him. It’s nice because it seems mostly evenhanded, neither romanticizing nor instrumentalizing (as much as possible) the woman in the story. Well, at least its sentimentality is covert.

There’s a dark Poe’s-“Raven”-esque story about a melancholy young man who talks to Death… punchline in the story.

Louis Untermeyer, the great anthologist and minor poet, contributes a positive review of a play, “The Quandary” by J. Rosett.

“What’s-His-Name” by Eugene Wood is the sort of pointed criticism of the Old Testament God that would go viral on high school liberal facebook these days.

The world according to The Masses is one where socialism is in trouble—“The Worldwide Battle-line” recounts some successes, but the general feeling is one of unease. The biggest threat to international socialism seems to be politics—they get sucked into the system and start compromising. Familiar?