American Messiahs/Forerunners of American Fascism

by The Unofficial Observer

[Simon & Schuster, $2.00]

by Raymond Gram Swing

[Julian Messuer, $1.75]

IT is a pity that the ’Unofficial Observer’ prefers anonymity. He surely is not a press agent for former-President Hoover; he may be for the Department of Agriculture or for Mr. Ickes. Or he may be an honest newspaper man who writes what he observes. But it is difficult to do justice to his rather meaty book because it is impossible to deduct personal prej-udice from the sum total of his conclusions.

The Unofficial Observer and Mr. Swing write about the same men and the same movements, except that the former gives more personalities, more observations, more biographies, and. generally speaking, has done a sounder volume. Both men have written these particular books because at the present time certain political leaders are particularly picturesque and interesting. Mr. Swing, coining back from Europe, tries to analyze the personal and political characteristics of these leaders and to fit them into a world-wide politico-economic tendency toward fascism. The Unofficial Observer, having apparently spent his days in Washington, dodges tendencies and devotes himself to more refined and erudite Winchellisms. Both are competent judges of politicians at work, Mr. Swing is philosophic; the Unofficial Observer is having a tolerably good time.

Mr. Swing dislikes fascists. He has been a European correspondent for many years and is definitely influenced by European ideology, categories, phraseology, and movements. That they do not exist at all in the United States does not matter so much with him. Huey Long in some respects fits the category of Mussolini or Hitler; therefore Huey is a Fascist. Father Coughlin knowingly or unwittingly got an idea or two from Hitler or imitated a gesture here or there; therefore he is a Fascist..

Mr. Swing is a better Workman than the Unofficial Observer, but he spoils his book by this type of distortion. Huey is no Fascist; he is a Louisiana politician with a grudge against Franklin D. Roosevelt. That grudge explains most of the Kingfish’s activities.

The Unofficial Observer seems to be a cynical newspaper man who gives evidence of few illusions but tends to speak well of the New Deal. It is significant that he has omitted Henry Wallace and Rexford Tugwell from among the American Messiahs, which causes me to suspect that he may be employed in his spare time to hand out publicity for the AAA, although that suspicion may be unfair.

Both writers give a much more correct portrait of Huey Long than that which is usually presented to the public. Mr. Swing has gone to considerable trouble to give the Kingfish a square deal. Both hit hard at Father Coughlin. The Unofficial Observer, however, must have written his book before Father Parsons exploded Coughlin’s claims to rigid adherence to papal encyclicals. The statement that the Catholic Church was ever friendly to Technocracy is a bit startling for anyone familiar with Catholic tenets.

Occasionally the Observer lapses into the rôle of a political philosopher, as for instance when, in his very interesting and more than friendly discussion of the La Follettes, he permits himself to digress into an obituary concerning States and States’ rights. ‘The Federal Govermnent,’he says, ‘ must set the pace, using bribes and threats and tax measures to assure State coöperation.’ In another place he uses this phrase, ‘a characteristic sample of the fine art of conservative mudslinging at those whom the conservatives denounce as irresponsible demagogues, What does he mean? And how does his mudslinging differ from a conservative’s?

The Unofficial Observer’s very best chapter is on Senator Wheeler; Mr. Swing’s best chapter is on Huey Long, whom he really appreciates. Both writers have contributed admirable volumes to American biography — although neither seems to appreciate the essentially conservative character of the American citizen. Obviously, they wrote before the Schechter Decision.

GEORGE E. SOKOISKY