COMPLIMENTS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 143, 20 June 1925, Page 17

COMPLIMENTS

AS ONE CRITIC TO ANOTHER.

Mr H. L. Mencken, the critic, is trenchantly dealt with by Mr X V S2? ma "' in "^'Naught's Monthly." The Olympian Mr. Mencken seems to see things only on the surface. Not only that, but he sees only the scum. His 'Americana' is a collection of fanaticisms bigotry, and inane stupidities, culled from our. hastily and poorly written i-ress, but no fair-minded person could call it a truo reflection of American life and thought. "Granted the corruption of politicians, the petty intrigues- of women's clubs, the lack of manners in our small towns, the -shamefacedness with which we look upon cultural accomplishments, the hollow mockery of campaign speechesgranted all that,, but: to offset theso human frailties in our body social and politic, wo cliiim that there is a great deal of common sense, a great deal of slowami painful labour, the transformation of a crude and pioneering people into a more intelligent, a more enlightened, a less hypocritical and a more civilised people. . Mr. Mencken sees a nation writhing and ugly in tho pains of pregnancy, ho .sees the ugly-larva of tho but-Ler-fly. Ho cannot see yesterday or tomorrow; he has no -faith in humanity, because lie- soes only its features, hears only its moiitliuigs, but has never listened to it's heartbeat, in the still nights, or in the hour of pain, or death*"/ or quiet joy. Ho sees the ship rolling'and tossing and veering this way and that, and lie stands at the rail, sneHriii" a'fc the men who built it, the crew who "man it, tho captain in tho pilot house, and tho more or less panicky passengers below decks.

"What ho fails to see is tho tide-rip, tho great, irresistible current of physical, primal instincts and passions, that threaten to wreck it on the reefs. Tlo fails to appreciate that mankind has progressed en'masse a great deal since dugout canoe?, caravels, and brigs were tossed about far mom. brutally on that sslf-?a;uo sea. Ho does not' feel that fsitb of the passengers in the men who rue rminim; mid steering that ship. Or if ha did, ho wo;;IJ desiy it... "U >vyaid iyit Uiw of lair !<liumUoV."-