Political Writings

Part Three: 1929-1937

Part Three 1929–1937 Historical Commentary In response to the economic crisis, labor conflicts, and international tensions of the 1930s, Dreiser increasingly devoted his time and energy to politics. Moving markedly to the left in 1930–31, he campaigned on behalf of some of the most oppressed members of American society and interested himself in radical solutions to economic problems, working closely with groups affiliated with the Communist Party. Until the fall of 1932, Dreiser regarded orthodox communists as effectively the sole advocates of positive change. When the country emerged from the worst depths of the Great Depression, Dreiser allied himself with a range of leftwing groups, including orthodox communists, supporters of the exiled Leon Trotsky, nonaligned labor and farmers’ groups, and representatives of the technocracy movement. He polemicized for peace and against imperialism on the international scene and maintained his support for the victims of racial oppression and corporate power. As the 1930s wore on, Dreiser also began to reflect more widely upon social values and programs of transformation. Dreiser positioned himself as a staunch critic of “grim and rapacious individualism,” and with “equity” as an ideal, he validated scientific and technological innovation and creativity applied for the good of society as a whole. After the Wall Street crash in October 1929, unemployment spiraled, eventually peaking in March 1933 at 15,071,000—between one quarter and one third of the working population. The existing provisions for relief , administered on a local basis by private charities, proved completely inadequate, and the result was widespread poverty and even starvation. Already critical of the economic inequities in 1920s American society (see “Dreiser Discusses Dewey Plan,” 122), Dreiser regarded the Great Depression as evidence not only that American capitalism had failed as an economic system, but also that it had engendered the abuse of political power and inflicted grievous damage on society. In earlier work such as “Life, Art and America” and “American Idealism and German Frightfulness,” Dreiser had acknowledged the dynamic force of capitalism and individualism; the object of his criticism was the contradiction between this competitive reality and the moralizing frameworks through which it was mystified, especially the ideologies of social mobility and self-restraint. The anticompetitive practices of corporate capitalism had already partially undermined claims for its efficiency, and for Dreiser the depression discredited them utterly. He was 110 • Theodore Dreiser radicalized by the sheer scale of suffering and by the inefficacy of mainstream responses to it. The Hoover administration was slow to acknowledge the severity of the depression, and when it finally acknowledged the need for federal intervention, proposing the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1931, it aimed to shore up private companies. The American Federation of Labor (A.F.L.), declining in membership and power throughout the 1920s, was unable to protect even the members of its affiliated unions. Out of its commitment to voluntarism, the A.F.L. had rejected centralized unemployment insurance, and in the early 1930s it opposed militant strikers and organizers. In Dreiser’s view at the time, just as the most vulnerable members of American society (blue-collar and unskilled workers, and marginalized racial and ethnic groups) were bearing the brunt of the economic crisis, they were more than ever isolated, exploited, harassed, and suppressed. Only the far left consistently defended those who were suffering most. Dreiser’s immediate response was to try to defend the freedoms of expression and organization. After decrying political repression in several public statements in 1930 (see “John Reed Club Answer,” 124), Dreiser served as founding chair of the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (N.C.D.P.P.) from April 1931 to January 1932. The N.C.D.P.P. publicized the cases of victims of economic, political, and racial repression , such as the Scottsboro boys in Alabama; the Kentucky miners shot by strike-breaking vigilantes, who also dynamited soup kitchens; and the incarcerated I.W.W. activists Tom Mooney and Warren K. Billings. In addition to campaigning on their behalf, the N.C.D.P.P. raised money for their legal expenses, which was channeled through a Communist Party auxiliary, the International Labor Defense. Under the auspices of the N.C.D.P.P., Dreiser made fact-finding visits to mining communities in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, where he was shocked by the poverty and the violent repression suffered by miners organized into the Communist-supported National Miners Union, and shaken by...