My friends know that I consider The Masses a respite from the acid of the English little magazines that I have been reading. Its international socialist platform supports many ideas/ideals that have become more general since then. This issue responds to several arguments being advanced in The New Age (among others), and I think it provides an important counterweight to the talk of races and nations found in other places referenced in my last post.
From the tophat-wearing bomb-flinging mad-naked capitalist on the cover, The Masses' attitude to the war is pretty immediately apparent. The two main articles on the subject are Max Eastman's War for War's Sake and an anonymous piece titled The Traders' War. The first debunks the racist arguments, while the second analyzes the economic reasons that Germany declared war (further refuting the mythological causes).
The journal holds out the hope that this war will end in a better world.
An antidote? Anodyne, at least.
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