Adlai Stevenson: Patrician with a Mission

In this, the first of two articles on the Democratic candidate, Mr. Dos Passos probes the background of the reflective aristocrat who has come to champion the party of collectivism, neutralism and mobocracy

It is amusing to try to imagine what Mr. Eisenhower’s Russian observers will make of an American Presidential campaign. Of course what they will actually report is already settled: the “new Soviet man” has no choice. He has to view the proceedings as an exhibition of the final contradictions of capitalist degradation. But suppose one of them is fuller of Tolstoy and Dostoevski than he is of Marx and Lenin: what will he see? Certainly he will go back to Moscow thoroughly confused. Take care, Comrade X. The ceremony you are about to behold is full of dangerous confusions. Even after you have class-angled it all away there will be something left you’ll have trouble in explaining. That trouble in explaining you may carry home to your friends. Its contagion may prove as disastrous to the Muscovites as chicken pox to the Eskimos. The least danger you have to look forward to, Comrade X, is a ruined career.

JD

About the Author

John Dos Passos

John Dos Passos (1896–1970) was an acclaimed American novelist and frequent contributor to National Review.

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Presidential Election

In this, the first of two articles on the Democratic candidate, Mr. Dos Passos probes the background of the reflective aristocrat who has come to champion the party of collectivism, neutralism and mobocracy

It is amusing to try to imagine what Mr. Eisenhower’s Russian observers will make of an American Presidential campaign. Of course what they will actually report is already settled: the “new Soviet man” has no choice. He has to view the proceedings as an exhibition of the final contradictions of capitalist degradation. But suppose one of them is fuller of Tolstoy and Dostoevski than he is of Marx and Lenin: what will he see? Certainly he will go back to Moscow thoroughly confused. Take care, Comrade X. The ceremony you are about to behold is full of dangerous confusions. Even after you have class-angled it all away there will be something left you’ll have trouble in explaining. That trouble in explaining you may carry home to your friends. Its contagion may prove as disastrous to the Muscovites as chicken pox to the Eskimos. The least danger you have to look forward to, Comrade X, is a ruined career.