Show S CALL ON BRAINS J FOR SUPPORT Regimented Propaganda Is Modern l Idea Established Order Bolstered by Intellectuals No conscientious student of ot letters let has been Inclined to take too seriously the alarm that has been felt elt over the future of ot literature In proletarian state After all aU It was only a natural part of ot tim the revolution rev rev- that the Intellectuals should have been regimented for propaganda propaganda ganda purposes History shows that It Is the part of ot tho the Intellectuals during stability to support the established order and when tl that at order becomes Insupportable able to express In varying ways the ferment that precedes all fundamental shifts In political pow pow- nr or pr Thus Tinis the writers In Russia Hussla long ago ugo been became me revolutionary nn And AmI when the revolution re came they extolled the new regime moro more I blatantly but not less effectively I than tho the writers In a capitalistic state bend their art toward support of ot the homely virtues ues whence capItalIsm capItalism capitalism cap cap- draws Its strength Writers know v this Somerset Maugham In the preface to East and West takes pains to Inform his readers renders that the editor of the magazine magazino maga maga- zinc zine where his stories mostly appeared ap never told him what to write or what not to write If It It were wera not at least suspected that writers are aro regimented under whatever political system such declarations of ot Independence would be But Dut there are arc degrees of regimentation regimentation regi regi- as of ot everything else During a revolution the subtle concealment con concealment concealment con con- of ot propaganda under a layer of ot art disappears and the skilled writer becomes as unscrupulous unscrupulous lous bus as any hack hade p- p publicity agent That Is what happened In In Russia when in the phrase of ot Max Eastman Eastman Eastman East- East man the artists were werd put In uniform The Russian revolution Is now an accomplished fact The need for obvious obvious ob ob- ob- ob Ious propaganda anda lessens The Tho dIehards diehards die- die hards may still believe belle that there Is Isan Isan isan an unlimited distinction between true proletarian writers and bourgeois In In- But Dut Karl Radek one of Communism's most powerful thinkers thinkers thinkers think think- ers realizes that undiluted propaganda propaganda ganda may eventually defeat Its own ends At a congress of or Soviet all-Soviet writers In Moscow Radek said that the bars must ue be let down and that the old theory or of or he who is not 4 with us Is against us would woul 1 no longer rule In the arts And so BO It may soon be that the writers of ot Russia will lay aside their uniforms and the Russian art artists In mufti will find new me means ns for sion Out of the chaos of revolution re may appear tho the nee needed ed security Is the basis of all aU art At tl the tho o tame same time It may be well to speculate S late on the theory that the reason why literature has so lagged In the 3 years ears of America Amerl a Is because of or orIts Its regimentation under such banners ban ners as Puritanism and Materialism The growing determination of our writers to work under different standards and to tall talk openly of tho the place of propaganda In art Is as significant sig- sig as Radek's Hadek's movement In the tho opposite direction Washington ton Post |