LETTER XIX

MY DEAR JUDD:

We have come to the end of our task. I have tried to show you what is going on in our country, and the job you have to do.

We are moving towards a new American revolution. That does not mean riot and tumult, as our enemies try to represent; but neither does it mean slavish submission to every repression of government. There is the best American precedent for resistance to tyranny, and those good ladies who call themselves “Daughters of the American Revolution” would be shocked speechless if I were to quote to them the authentic words of Sam Adams and Patrick Henry and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson on the right of the people to overthrow unjust governments. Said Abraham Lincoln, in his first inaugural address: “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.” There can be no question that those words come precisely under the specifications of the California “criminal syndicalism” law, and a man who said them today would be sent up for fourteen years, to cough out his lungs in the jute-mill of San Quentin prison.

We have to get rid of the capitalist system. It is close to breaking down, and will soon be unable to run the factories it has built, or to bring food to the people in its giant cities. We have got to stop producing goods for profit, and learn to produce them for the use of those who work. I have pointed out the way to make that change under our Constitution. I say: if there is violence, let the capitalists start it--and then you, Judd, and the rest of the workers, can finish it!

Abraham Lincoln hated the slave power, just as I hate the capitalist power; but he moved carefully, keeping the mass of the people with him, and pushed the slave power against the wall, until presently it revolted and began the fighting; then Lincoln called for seventy thousand men to put down the rebellion, and presently he called for a million, and before he got through he had freed the slaves, and put an end to that evil forever. And maybe that is going to happen again; maybe when we get seriously to work, the capitalists are going to organize their armed bands of rowdies, as they did in Italy, and as they are now doing in France and Germany and England, and set out to thwart the people’s will as expressed at the polls. If that happens, Judd, let us have the traditions of America, and the moral forces of America, on our side.

I am one who believes in those traditions; coming, as I do, of a line of naval ancestors. My great-grandfather once commanded the frigate “Constitution,” and I am standing by the old ship--while our money-masters and their hired political servants are trying to torpedo it. When I try to read the Constitution of my country in a public place, and a drunken chief of police throws me into jail, and drunken newspaper publishers shout with approval--well, Judd, I bide my time. I once spent two years reading the history of the period prior to the Civil War, and I know what the moral forces of America are. I know how long they wait, and how slow they seem to be in getting into motion; nevertheless, they are there, and I make my appeal to them, and I expect to hear it answered. I am taking care of my health, with the idea of living to sing once more the Battle Hymn of the Republic: “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!”

I have written these letters as an act of service to my country. I personally am not suffering, as you know; I have won my fight, to the extent that I am an independent man, and no one can muzzle me. But how can I be happy in this so-called civilization, where I see on every hand about me war and the preparation for war, poverty and the despair which poverty brings, crime and prostitution, suicide and insanity--such a mass of misery that I cannot face the thought of it, and all those beauties of nature and art which in my youth set me a-thrill from top to toe, now mean hardly anything to me, because of the wrongs I see about me--and all so needless, Judd, so utterly, utterly needless!

And something just as bad as the misery of the poor, the decay in the souls of the rich! To see a whole society chasing false ideals, vanity and luxury and waste; admiring and imitating wretched parasites, who have millions of dollars and not one useful thing to do! I know a few of these people, Judd, their lives touch mine here and there, and the truth is they are just as unhappy as the poor, and just as much to be wept over, with their jazz and their bootleggers and their petting parties and their pitiful empty heads. A brief little hour of excitement and display--and then so much suffering, and bewilderment, despair about life, and cynicism about everything sound and true. I think of the millionaire youth I know, drinking himself to death; and the gay young society matron with a venereal disease in her blood and terror in her heart--I feel like calling upon the useful workers of America to organize and save the rich from the misery of being out of work!

What we want, Judd, is a world with neither rich nor poor, but with people who live by producing, and not by taking what others have produced. We want to make that sort of world, and we call to our aid all men and women who are willing to work for it. We want to study this problem, and fill our minds with real information, and stop reading the poison press of our enemies. Indeed, Judd, it is not too much to say that we want to make over our moral and mental life, so that we cease to admire the ideals of our exploiters--waste and the display of waste, plundering and the power to plunder. We want to teach ourselves and our children to admire useful labor, and social vision, and loyalty to the cause of those who produce. We who serve that cause call one another “comrade,” or “brother,” or “fellow-worker”; and we invite you to join our ranks.

UPTON SINCLAIR

PASADENA CALIFORNIA

March 15, 1926.

DEAR FRIEND:

I do not think that since the world began there has ever been a people so lied to as the American people to-day. There are 110,000,000 of us, and at least 105,000,000 are completely befuddled by a campaign of deception, backed by the whole power of American big business, the newspapers, the magazines, the movies, the radio, the vast machinery of government, and the two major political parties. I am supposed to be working on a novel, “Oil,” to the writing of which I had hoped to give the next year; but I couldn’t stand it, so I took a couple of months off, to pay a debt which an honest American owes to his ancestors--to help break the power of the organized knaves who are looting our country in broad daylight.

I have written a little book, “Letters to Judd.” It is running serially in the “American Appeal,” where some of you may be reading it. Judd is an old carpenter who has worked for us off and on, a typical, old-fashioned American; I have taken him as the type of person I want to reach, and have written him a series of nineteen letters, telling those elementary facts which our ruling classes are trying so desperately to keep hidden from us all. This is the first time I have covered our political and social problems fully, since “The Industrial Republic,” which was published 19 years ago, and has been out of print more than half that time. My mail is full of letters asking for something of the sort, so here you have it.

The book tells why there is poverty in the richest country in the world. It proves that in America for the past thirty-five years the rich have been growing richer and the poor poorer, and it shows exactly what the rich have done to bring this condition about, and exactly what the poor will have to do to change it. It explains unemployment and hard times, the money system, inflation, stock watering and manipulation, the tariff and the trusts. It studies the world situation, explaining the wars we have had, and showing how the present system is preparing new ones. It discusses Russia and the revolution--in short, everything the average man or woman needs to know about affairs at home and abroad, and all in plain, everyday language. It is a 100% American book, intended for 100% American readers, and it is written and published as an act of love for our country.

A few times past we have had great crises, and it has been found possible to reach the people by a pamphlet. Paine’s “The Crisis,” and Helper’s “The Impending Crisis,” “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” “Progress and Poverty,” “Looking Backward”--these books have helped to make our history. I am making a try at this kind of thing; I mean, I have put aside everything else, and done my best to make a good job, to get the facts, and make them fool-proof, as well as knave-proof, and to present them in such a way that anyone can understand them. Thirty years’ study of our problems has gone into the book, also thirty years of learning how to write. Having faith in our people, I have borrowed money, and gone ahead to make the plates and print twelve thousand copies; now I am appealing to you to do the rest of the job--to see that the “Letters to Judd” reach the millions of “Judds” who need them.

The book will be in two editions: first two thousand cloth bound, price $1, to enable my friends to pay the cost of the undertaking; and second, ten thousand copies, paper bound, a neatly printed wire-stitched pamphlet, to be sold at meetings, and passed about among workingmen and women; this is the form for which I hope to get a million or two circulation, and I have put the price so low that nobody will suspect me of making money--15 cents a copy, or ten copies for a dollar. This 15 cent price for a single paper copy is a price for meetings and book-stores--I cannot mail the book for that, because, including postage, wrapping, and overhead, it costs about 15 cents to handle an order in my office. What I ask you to do is to order at least 10 paper copies to give to your friends, and in addition a cloth copy for your library. I will take a gamble and say: place a $2 order, for one cloth and 10 paper copies, and when you have read the book, if you don’t find it worth distributing, you may send back the whole lot, and I’ll send back your money. I ask for a prompt response, as I want to advertise the book, and haven’t the money. Both editions will be ready for shipment by the time your order gets back to me.

Our reprint of “The Moneychangers” has been ready for a couple of months, and if you haven’t seen it, here is a reminder. This novel, first published in 1908, tells the story of the panic of 1907, how and why it was brought about by the elder J. P. Morgan. I do not recommend it as a great work of literature; reading it over, I found many crudities, some of which I remedied. But I will guarantee it a lively story, full of facts about Wall Street which the American people do not yet understand.

Also, my wife has published a new volume by Mrs. Kate Crane-Gartz, author of “The Parlor Provocateur.” The new volume is called “Letters of Protest,” the price is $1 cloth and fifty cents paper. The book is full of that burning indignation at social injustice, combined with motherly tenderness, which has made Mrs. Gartz the bewilderment of the prosecuting officials of Los Angeles county. They want so much to send her to jail, but they don’t quite dare! I was talking the other day with a prominent physician of Los Angeles, and he mentioned his intimate friend, the president of the Better America Federation, the propaganda society of big business here in California. “He doesn’t love you, Upton,” said the physician, “but Kate Gartz is the real one who gets his nanny.”

The money which has come in from our “Loan Plan” has gone into the printing and binding of “Bill Porter” and “The Moneychangers,” a part payment on a new edition of “The Cry for Justice,” a new binding of “The Jungle,” and finally, this circular. More money is needed for a new printing and binding of “The Profits of Religion,” and for advertising the “Letters to Judd.” Also my novel, “Sylvia,” is out of print, and I’d reprint it if I could afford the luxury. So I tell you again about this “Sinclair Loan Plan.” Those who believe in my work and want to promote it lend me what they can afford, and the money serves as working capital, to pay for the new plates and stock of books which a publishing business has to keep on hand. The lenders receive a certificate of indebtedness, and have the right to buy each year a quantity of my books at half the retail price. Thus, if you lend ten dollars, you can get $5 worth of books for $2.50. These books must be ordered in one shipment, so as to save handling costs; under the Loan Plan you may place one such half-price order every year. The saving takes the place of interest on your money; it amounts to 25% interest--a pretty good rate, but not so high as millions of poor farmers are having to pay to national banks all over the country--see my “Letters to Judd”!

I want to cover all the details of this Loan Plan, so as to avoid having to write long explanations. If you have already come in under the plan, and have your certificate of indebtedness, you may order books once in the year 1926, to the amount of one-half of your loan. Thus, if you have loaned $10, you may order $5 worth of books for $2.50; you can get, for example, one cloth and ten paper copies of “Letters to Judd,” one cloth “Mammonart,” one paper “Bill Porter,” and one paper copy of Mrs. Gartz’s book, all for $2.50. I will throw in a copy of my wife’s “Sonnets,”--and if you know any place in the world where you can get as much value in books for the money, I do not!

If you are not at present at subscriber to the Loan Plan, you are invited to join. Send $12.50, and you will receive a certificate for a $10 loan, with the privilege of getting your money back at any time on thirty days’ notice. Also you will receive $5 worth of books, and will have the privilege each year of ordering another $5 worth of books for $2.50. Most of my readers say they don’t want the certificates, but I send them just the same; paste them in your autograph album, and some day they may be worth the price in that form, and without hurting the publishing business!

Sincerely,

UPTON SINCLAIR.

P. S. We have received from our German publishers, the Malik Verlag of Berlin, five stately volumes, the “Collected Novels of Upton Sinclair.” From Gossizdat, the State Publishing House of Moscow, we have a list of various editions of our books which have been issued in Soviet Russia; counting, not new printings, but separate publications under different titles, there is a total of sixty-nine. Michael Gold, recently returned from Russia, writes: “The sort of people who in America know Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan, in Russia know Upton Sinclair.” We are advised by the Japanese translator of “The Jungle” that the book has just been issued, but the government compelled the publisher to recall all copies, and cut out the last chapters, dealing with Socialism. The Japanese translation of “Mammonart” is about to appear. From Warsaw comes an offer from a large publishing house to issue twenty of our books in a cheap library, at .95 zloty per volume, about thirteen cents American. A Czechish publisher applies for all books not hitherto issued. We have a review of “Mammonart” which was broadcasted from the radio station of the Labour Party of Australia; also a letter from a Ukrainian writer, telling how our plays are being acted there, and our novels made into movies. We have established book-store agencies in London, India and South Africa, and we learn that readers are circulating our books in Java, Honduras, and Iceland. We await returns from the U. S. A.

“Letters to Judd,” cloth $1.00; paper 15 cents, 10 for $1.00.

“Bill Porter,” a drama of O. Henry in prison. Cloth $1, paper 50 cents.

“Mammonart,” an economic interpretation of literature and the arts. $2 cloth, $1 paper.

“The Goose-Step,” a study of the American colleges. $2 cloth, $1 paper.

“The Goslings,” a study of the American schools. $2 cloth, $1 paper.

The following at $1.50 cloth, $1.00 paper:

“The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism.”

Who owns the press and why? When you read your daily paper, are you reading facts or propaganda? And whose propaganda? Who furnishes the raw material for your thoughts about life? Is it honest material? No man can ask more important questions than these; and here for the first time the questions are answered in a book.

“The Profits of Religion”: A Study of Supernaturalism as a Source of Income and a Shield to Privilege. The first investigation of this subject ever made in any language.

“King Coal”: a novel of the Colorado coal country.

“They Call Me Carpenter: A Tale of the Second Coming.”

“Manassas,” called by Jack London, “the best Civil War book I’ve read.”

“The Metropolis,” a picture of the “Four Hundred” of New York.

“The Moneychangers,” a novel of Wall Street.

“The Journal of Arthur Stirling,” the literary sensation of 1903.

“The Fasting Cure,” a health study.

The following in cloth only, at $1.50:

“100%: The Story of a Patriot.”

“The Jungle,” a novel of the Chicago stock-yards; new edition, cloth-bound.

“Plays of Protest”: four plays in one volume.

The following at $1 in “hard covers”:

“Samuel the Seeker,” a story of Socialism.

“Jimmie Higgins,” a novel of the World War, a best seller in Russia, Italy, France, Germany and Austria.

“Sylvia’s Marriage,” a novel.

“Sonnets by M. C. S.,” 25 cents a copy, 8 for $1.

“Hell” and “Singing Jailbirds,” two plays, 25 cents each.

“The Parlor Provocateur,” also “Letters of Protest,” two books by Kate Crane Gartz, with an introduction by M. C. S. Price for each book, $1.00 cloth, 50 cents paper.

“The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest,” cloth $2.00, paper $1.25.

“The Book of Life,” a Book of Practical Counsel: Mind, Body, Love and Society. Price $2.

“Damaged Goods,” novelized from the play by Brieux; cloth-bound only, $1.00.

We offer for 85 cents a complete set of the following works in the Haldeman-Julius 5-cent Pocket Library (now ready): “The Jungle” (6 vols.), “The Millennium” (3 vols.), “The Overman,” “The Pot-Boiler,” “The Second-Story Man,” “The Nature Woman,” “Prince Hagen,” “The Machine,” “A Captain of Industry” (2 vols.).

* * * * *

Order from Upton Sinclair, Pasadena, California

Books by Upton Sinclair

+The Brass Check+: an exposure of the corruption of the capitalist press. $1.50 cloth, $1 paper.

+The Goose-step+: a study of the class control of American Universities. $2 cloth, $1 paper.

+The Goslings+: a study of the American schools and what the money power is doing with them. $2 cloth, $1 paper.

+Mammonart+: a history of the world’s culture, showing how it serves the ruling classes. $2 cloth, $1 paper.

+The Profits of Religion+: how the churches have been used by the enemies of Jesus. $1.50 cloth, $1 paper.

+The Book of Life+: a work of practical counsel, Mind, Body, Love and Society. $2, cloth only.

+The Cry for Justice+: an anthology of the world’s literature of social protest, from twenty-two languages and five thousand years of history. 890 pages, 16 illustrations. $2 cloth, $1.25 paper.

Novels, at $1.50 cloth and $1 paper

+The Jungle+: a novel of the Chicago stockyards.

+King Coal+: a story of the Colorado coal empire.

+100%+: The Story of a Patriot: the spy system which rules America.

+They Call Me Carpenter+: how Jesus came to Los Angeles.

+The Moneychangers+: how Morgan caused the panic of 1907.

+Jimmie Higgins+: a novel of the Socialist movement in the world war.

+Manassas+: a novel of the Civil war.

+Samuel the Seeker+: the misadventures of a young idealist.

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Order from UPTON SINCLAIR, Pasadena, California

Books for You to Read

If you wish statistics as to social conditions in America, get the +American Labor Year Book+ for the current year. $3.

If you wish to know how we squander the wealth-producing powers of our country, read “+The Tragedy of Waste+,” by Stuart Chase. $2.50.

The most useful book of general information about the movement for justice is “+Social Progress+,” a handbook. $2.50.

The best text book of information about Socialism and related movements is “+Socialism in Thought and Action+,” by Harry W. Laidler. $2.50.

The most informative book about Russia is “+The First Time in History+,” by Anna Louise Strong. $2.

The most important book about prison conditions in America is “+In Prison+,” by Kate Richards O’Hare. $2.

The best book on our banking system is “+The Strangle-Hold+,” by H. C. Cutting. $2.

The best book on the late war is “+Shall It Be Again?+” by John Kenneth Turner. $2.50.

The best book about our growing imperialist system is “+The American Empire+,” by Scott Nearing. Cloth, $1; paper, 50 cents.

Organizations: The Socialist Party, Chicago; the Workers’ (Communist) Party, Chicago; the League for Industrial Democracy, New York; the American Civil Liberties Union, New York.

The best periodicals: for art and literature, the “+New Masses+,” New York, $2; for general information, the “+Nation+,” New York, $5; for Socialism, the “+American Appeal+,” Chicago, $1; for Communism, the “+Workers’ Monthly+,” Chicago, $1.50; for labor, “+Labor+,” Washington, D. C., $1.

Any of these books or periodicals may be ordered along with the books of Upton Sinclair, Pasadena, California.