The Blue Wound - part III.

Click here for parts I and II of the Blue Wound "live blog."

In the past couple of days, I have read chapters 4 through 7. I believe that Chapters 3 and 4 should be required reading at the beginning of every history class in every school.

I wrote about Chapter 3 here, in which I discussed Garrett's description of the rise and fall of cities.















Chapter 4 is a more comprehensive description of the rise and fall of one city and one civilization. This chapter, entitled "All East of Eden," appears to describe most closely the life of ancient Rome. Not every civilization follows exactly the same formula, but human nature remains a constant. Every great civilization fits somewhere on to this continuum. History can be reduced to the discovery of where any particular civilization fits, at any given time, into the arc described in "All East of Eden." It would serve us well to learn this lesson, as the end of any civilization is usually long and painful. Garrett's fictional city, which had begun in idyllic circumstances, was ultimately reduced to using slaves, enforcing tribute, outright piracy and other programs necessary to pay for a lifestyle that a free economy would not support. "All East of Eden" ends when a barbarian horde "mercifully terminated the tragedy."

But these chapters are more than a mere history lesson. Garrett presents no dates, names or facts. He tells a simple story in brief allegory form. It is almost as if Garrett has reduced large portions of Will Durant's "The Story of Civilization" to a work of art. Ayn Rand wrote that art serves the purpose of objectifying man's values and placing them into a form that all can experience. If that description is accurate, then Garrett produced a work of art in these chapters, by reducing history to an objective, simple story that we can experience and a framework in which we can understand almost anything that has happened in man's past.

Chapter 5, "The Wages of Thrift," is also a true classic. This chapter should be required reading at the beginning of every economics class. But it is much more than economics. This chapter is about morality, philosophy and much more. And it presents the least dry treatment I have seen of these subjects outside of Ayn Rand. The point of this Chapter is the inevitable punishment that those who work, earn and produce must endure at the hands of those who would reap the benefits. Again, the lesson is presented in the form of a brief story, starring fictional valley dwellers, being observed silently by the narrator and the mysterious man that started "the war" referenced at the beginning of the book.

At this point, I believe Chapters 3, 4, and 5 of Blue Wound rival Absalom Weaver's speech from Satan's Bushel or the Foreward to People's Pottage as true classic gems from Garrett's writings.

As I proceed through these chapters, I come closer to an explanation of how these stories relate to that devastating war. Today's pundits, rather than endlessly debate the minutiae of today's war, would do better to step outside of today's debate and examine Garrett's simple allegories.
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update - click here for part IV.

How I Found Satan's Bushel

Satan's Bushel review parts I, II and III.

As I wrote in a previous post, my interest in Satan's Bushel was raised when Bruce Ramsey referred to that book in his introduction to Salvos Against the New Deal:

Satan's Bushel (1924) was an allegory of agriculture and its
struggle with overproduction. ("Satan's Bushel" was the bushel that broke the price.)

I discovered that the story was about much more than that, but getting to that point required a journey.

I have tried, without success, to find a copy of Satan's Bushel for almost two years. I have never yet seen a copy of the book. Bruce Ramsey wrote to me that a copy of the text could be found in back copies of the Saturday Evening Post. Indeed, most of Garret's fiction books can be found serialized in the pages of the Post in the 1920's. Satan's Bushel is one exception to that rule. After I wrote back to Mr. Ramsey and informed him that the Post had come up dry on Satan's Bushel, he told me he would try to remember where he had seen it and get back to me. (Ramsey had previously discarded his photocopies of the Post when he gradually accumulated the actual books with considerable effort over a fair amount of time).

After having one of those "eureka!" moments, Ramsey wrote to me that the actual magazine that contained Satan's Bushel was called The Country Gentleman. While I was glad to have received renewed hope of finding the text, Ramsey's news was not the end of the story.

Upon arriving at the State Library, I was told that The Country Gentleman was not published in 1923 and had merged with the Saturday Evening Post by that time. This information was false, and I persisted in my request that the librarians find the Country Gentleman copies in their stack of microfilms in the basement. After the librarians informed me that they would notify me if anything turned up, I once again gave up hope and returned home.

Much to my surprise, I received a phone call several days later from the librarian. Not only had they found the issues of Country Gentleman in question, they had also found, as a result of this search, the library's entire series of Country Gentlemen microfilms that had been misfiled and lost for years.

I have written in a previous post that Satan's Bushel reflects much of our culture that has now been lost or forgotten. A piece of the dying American culture had been essentially buried in the rubble and had languished unnoticed and unappreciated. I thought of this obscurity several days later as I watched the librarian carry the microfilm to one of the ancient microfilm machines so that I might copy it.

Many of the ancient writings from the Roman civilization were destroyed by marauding barbarians who burned cities with little regard for what they destroyed. The barbarians did not even understand the concept of literature or the role of literature in preserving civilization.

I felt that I was reversing the ancient Roman scenario by rescuing Garrett's literature with the help of one who had no idea what she was carrying (or what her coworkers had discovered in the basement). Those of us who rescue forgotten American writing, especially literature with a capitalist theme, will do so in relative obscurity without the understanding of those who might still possess the treasures we seek.

The image of this obscurity was reinforced as I scrolled through the microfilm and discovered the hastiness with which the pages had been copied. Half of most of the pages were too blurry to read. I had to copy many pages two or three times just to get a clear image of each word in the text.

But now, one more copy of Satan's Bushel exists outside the confines of some library basement. The most thorough discussion of this book ever created now exists on the internet. Absalom Weaver's speech can now take its place alongside the speeches of Ayn Rand's great characters. More such discussions of Garrett's books will follow on these pages.

Satan's Bushel - part III

Click here for part I and part II.

The time elapsed since my last post here makes it obvious that I am no longer attempting to "live-blog" Satan's Bushel. I finished the book months ago and have been trying to find time to sit down and complete my thoughts.

In some ways, Satan's Bushel exceeded my expectations. In other ways, my hopes were left unfulfilled. The plot and the storyline of the book were tremendous. I won't give away any more of the story than I have already written in previous posts. Suffice it to say that the book is worth reading for the story alone.

I was hoping for more economic insight, especially insight into the nature of overproduction, inflation and the consequences of these phenonema for ordinary people. Garrett wrote about farmers that lived with the consequences of overproduction. But the main focus of the story was on three people whose lives transcended that problem. The book was written in 1923 and I suppose it did not seem imperative to delve into a story relating to the consequences of economic conditions prior to the crises that would soon engulf the world. As I wrote in my last post:

We can forgive Garrett for failing to apply Weaver's lesson to broader government policy. Such a comprehensive approach did not seem as imperative in the pre-New Deal days of 1923.

I am still not sure exactly what I am looking for, but I find only hints of it in Garrett's fiction writings (and none of it anywhere else). Dramatization of the harm wrought by the economic policies that wrecked the 20th century is very rare. Otherwise, such policies would never have become entrenched.

It is very common now to hear dispassionate explanations of why socialism or government interference makes no sense. Such discussions only rarely touch upon the folly of fractional reserve banking. Garrett's nonfiction dealt with fractional reserve banking more so than most writers of the 20th century. Such factors as confidence, the effect of government policy on prices and the unique problems of industrialization would provide the backbone of Garrett novels such as Satan's Bushel and the Driver. While these novels would not necessarily make for good recruitment tools for the free market philosophy, they provide good background for those who are acquainted with such philosophy and who want to know more.

Satan's Bushel is not dry by any means - even though I might make it sound that way by my description. The economic context of the novel makes the story that much more real. The economic context to the story bridges the 80+ years between Satan's Bushel's publication and today.

Aside from the economics, Satan's Bushel provides a model of American culture. There is much we have forgotten in recent decades about the "old values" - trite as that expression may seem. Satan's Bushel is intertwined with old fashioned American values and culture without being clumsy or obvious about it. The old fashioned manners, the work ethic, chivalry, professionalism, honesty and other virtues form the supporting cast for Garrett's main characters. The book is not intended to be a lesson in morality, but the pervaviseness of the above mentioned values in the story's background speaks louder than the most direct sermon. Garrett probably never gave this aspect a second thought, as he was simply placing his characters into the context of his time.

By reading the book, you lose yourself not only in the world of wheat farming, you lose yourself in a much broader world that has since disappeared. Despite its disappearance, the world of Satan's Bushel seems comfortable and right to the reader in a way that one can describe only with reference to the things we have lost over the past 8 decades.

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For those who wish to escape into the wheatfields of 80+ years ago, don't wait to find the book on e-bay or Amazon.com. You might wish to search antique book stores. But your best bet is to visit your local university library and ask for the 1923 editions of "Country Gentleman" magazine. Satan's Bushel begins in the October 27th edition. On October 20, 1923, the editors described the upcoming serialization:

The struggle of humanity for food is like a mighty flood - too vast, it would seem , for any to presume to stem or to direct it; yet those there are - gamblers in mankind's daily bread - who seek to do these things. These gamblers - the men of prophetic foresight whose battleground is the wheat pit; their petty imitators in the small-town bucket shop; even the farmer himself who grew the wheat - are shown in stark flesh and blood in Garet Garrett's vivid new novel, Satan's Bushel, which begins next week. Real wheat ripening in the Kansas sun; phantom wheat sold by the millions of bushels on our boards of trade; the great wheat corner; the jounrey's end of a man and woman who set forth on a world-wide quest - these are part of this truly great story of what is perhaps the greatest drama in the world, the fight for daily bread.

Satan's Bushel - II

Click here for part I.

On further reading of Satan's Bushel, I discovered a speech that rivals any of the great speeches I have read in any work of fiction. It certainly deserves its place with the speeches of Roark or John Galt (although it is not as comprehensive as the speeches from those characters).

One of the main characters, Absalom Weaver, sits listening to a sales pitch for the local farmers to join a marketing cooperative. At the end of the sales pitch, the farmers persuade Weaver to rise and give his opinion:

. . . He had not yet begun to speak, but he was peering about in the grass, stooping here and there to pluck a bit of vegetation. He walked as far as the fence for a bramble leaf. Returning he snapped a twig from the elm above his head and faced them.

"This towering elm," he began, with an admiring look at the tree, "was once a tiny thing. A sheep might have eaten it at one bite. Every living thing around it was hostile and injurious. And it survived. It grew. It took its profit. It became tall and powerful beyond the reach of its enemies. What preserved it - cooperative marketing? What gave it power - a law from Congress? What gave it fullness - the Golden Rule? On what was its strength founded - a fraternal spirit? You know better. Your instincts tell you no. It saved itself. It found its own greatness. How? By fighting. Did you know that plants fight? If you could only see the deadly, ceaseless warfare among plants this lovely landscape would terrify you. It would make you think man's struggles tame."

"I hold up this leaf from the elm. The reason it is flat and thin is that the peaceable work of its life is to gather nourishment for the tree from the air. Therefore it must have as much surface as possible to touch the air with. But it has another work to do. A grisly work. A natural work, all the same. It must fight. For that use it is pointed at the end as you see and has teeth around the edge - these. The first thing the elm plant does is to grow straight up out of the ground with a spear thrust, its leaves rolled tightly together. Its enemies do not notice it. Then suddenly each leaf spreads itself out and with its teeth attacks other plants; it overturns them, holds them out of the sunlight and drowns them. Marvelous, isn't it? Do you wonder why the elm does not overrun the earth? Because other plants fight back, each in its own way. I show you a blade of grass. It has no teeth. How can it fight? Perhaps it lives by love and sweetness. It does not. It grows very fast by stealth, taking up so little room that nothing else minds, until all at once it is tall and strong enough to throw out blades in every direction and fall upon other plants. It smothers them to death. Then the bramble. I care not for the bramble. Not because it fights. For another reason. Here is its weapon. Besides the spear point and the teeth the bramble leaf you see is in five parts, like one's hand. It is a hand in fact, and one very hard to cast off. When it cannot overthrow and kill an enemy as the elm does, it climbs up his back to light and air, and in fact prefers that opportunity, gaining its profit not in natural combat but in shrewd advantage, like the middleman. Another plant I would like to show you. There is one nearby. Unfortunately it would be inconvenient to exhibit him in these circumstances. His familiar name is honeysuckle. He is sleek, suave, brilliantly arrayed, and you would not suspect his nature, which is that of the preying speculator. Once you are in his toils it is hopeless. The way of this plant is to twist itself round and round another and strangle it."

"This awful strife is universal in plant life. There are no exemptions. Among animals it is not so fierce. They can run from one another. Plants must fight it out where they stand. They must live or die on the spot. Among plants of one kind there is rivalry. The weak fall out and die; the better survive. But all plants of one kind fight alike against plants of all other kinds. That is the law of their strength. A race of plants that had wasted its time waiting for Congress to give it light and air, or for a state bureau with hired agents to organize it by the Golden Rule, or had been persuaded that its interests were in common with those of the consumer, would have disappeared from the earth.

"The farmer is like a plant. He cannot run. He is rooted. He shall live or die on the spot. But there is no plant like a farmer. There are nobles, ruffians, drudges, drones, harlots, speculators, bankers, thieves and scalawags, all these among plants, but no idiots, saying 'How much will you give?' and 'What will you take?' Until you fight as the elm fights, take as the elm takes, think as the elm thinks, you will never be powerful and cannot be wise."

This speech is the ultimate rejoinder to those who preach "compassion" as the justification for socialist economic policy. This speech denies and disproves any policy that would use government obstacles and barriers against those who must fight for survival (all of us - not just farmers). This speech helps us understand our own nature and how that nature is suited to the capitalist economic system.

While Weaver's speech needs context for it to have the most impact, that context would soon be provided by the policies of the New Deal. We can forgive Garrett for failing to apply Weaver's lesson to broader government policy. Such a comprehensive approach did not seem as imperative in the pre-New Deal days of 1923.