Herbst lived in obscurity,
popularized by biography
Real budget issues
are often ‘ignored’
By Scott McFetridge
Of the Emerald
The Department of Defense’s fiscal 1986 budget will be
much larger than the $314 billion requested this year by
President Ronald Reagan’s administration, a local expert on
defense and nuclear arms told a small group Tuesday night.
In addition to the funds allocated to the defense depart
ment, the Department of Energy is requesting $77 billion for
the production of nuclear weapons, said Steve Johnson, a
sociologist and researcher with Decision Research of Eugene.
Military assistance to foreign countries, which had been
decreased to $1 billion a year during Jimmy Carter’s ad
ministration, also has increased, Johnson said. Reagan is ask
ing Congress to approve $10.7 billion a year in foreign
military aid, he said.
When all of the money spent on defense by various
government departments is tallied, the total military budget
comes closer to $450 billion, he said. This budget means
huge deficits for the country — debts that will have to be paid
by the public, he said.
Johnson cites the fact that $360 billion in personal in
come tax is paid toward the debt each year, while only $77.9
billion in corporate tax is paid. The defense budget is respon
sible for up to 49 percent of this debt, he said.
In addition to the money spent on guns and missiles,
millions of dollars have been spent on the development of the
space shuttle by the National Aeronautics and Space Ad
ministration, he said. This is primarily a Department of
Defense program, as evidenced by the recent secret launching
of a government satellite, he said.
The satellite was launched in secrecy because “the
Department of Defense was used to doing things its own
way,” Johnson said.
The department wanted people to become accustomed to
secret space shuttle missions, although there was nothing
particularly vital in this launching, Johnson said.
“The real questions are not being asked,” Johnson said.
“We spend a lot of time talking about the little things and ig
nore the real issues.”
The talk was the first of two workshops on the defense
and education portions of Reagan's proposed budget.
Johnson’s speech was sponsored by Student Campaign for
Disarmament. Catalyst Films and Students for a Progressive
Agenda.
The second talk will be presented by Myrnie Daut,
legislative assistant for the Oregon Student Lobby, at 7:30
p.m. on March 7 in Room 167 EMU.
By Thomas Henderson
Of the Kmerald
‘‘Who was Josephine
Herbst?”
Herbst’s biographer Elinor
linger hears that question quite
a bit. and, frankly, she says
she's getting tired of it.
People have asked Langer
that question for 11 years, the
time she spent researching and
writing the biography, titled
“Josephine Herbst.” The book
was published last summer, but
the question remains.
linger tried to provide an
answer Tuesday night when she
spoke about Herbst’s life in the
EMU Dad's Room as part of
Women’s History Week. The
lecture was sponsored by the
Center for the Study of Women
in Society and by the Women’s
Studies department.
A former book columnist for
Mother Jones, linger also has
been New York editor of Ram
parts and a political reporter for
Science. Her articles and
reviews have appeared in Ms.
and The New York Times Book
Review, among other
magazines.
Although she is currently on
the editorial board of The Na
tion, she said she gave up jour
nalism when she began writing
her book and does not plan to
return.
Herbst’s career as a writer and
social critic spanned the 1920s
through the 1980s, Langer said,
but her work faded into obscuri
ty. It is extremely rare to find
Herbst’s writings in even the
most extensive libraries, and
Correction
A story appearing in Tues
day’s Oregon Daily Emerald
reported inaccurate information
about the long-distance rate
structure of the Proto-Call Corp.
telephone company.
The company bills long
distance telephone calls in six
minute increments.
The Emerald regrets any in
convenience this error may
have caused.
they can usually be found only
after the most painstaking of
searches, Langer added.
linger herself came across
Herbst when she discovered a
trilogy Herbst wrote during the
1930s.
The trilogy was a kind of
white “Roots,” tracing the
history of Herbst’s family in
America. Langer said she was
able to find the trilogy, by a
ft. ft
ft WML m ft:
Elinor Langer
stroke of luck, in the Chicago
Public Library.
Born in Sioux City, Iowa, in
1892, Herbst gained a reputa
tion as a radical while writing
for such liberal journals as the
New Masses and The Nation.
She also wrote for H.L. Men
cken’s American Mercury.
Despite Mencken’s reputation
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as a cranky conservative,
linger said lie and Herbst ap
parently worked well together.
Herbst covered a diverse
range of stories, from a farmers’
strike in Iowa to Hitler’s Ger
many to an attempted revolu
tion in Cuba. Nonetheless, she
lived most of her life in poverty
and obscurity.
Langer said Herbst had no
more than $20,000 in her entire
life, depending heavily on the
kindness of friends.
Herbst occasionally ventured
into mainstream journalism, as
in a series she wrote on Nazi
Germany for the New York Post,
but these brief excursions never
paid enough to live on. she
added.
Herbst’s obscurity, however,
was another matter. "I think the
fact that she was a woman con
tributed to her obscurity,”
Langer said.
Although many radicals from
the 1920s and ’30s found
popularity among the
discontented youth of the
1960s, Herbst died in 1969 just
as she was about to publish her
memoirs.
“She was just about on the
verge of a rediscovery at the
time of her death,” Langer said.
However, Herbst’s work may
be having a posthumous
rediscovery. Langer said the
biography has almost sold out
its first press run and is soon
coming out in paperback.
Langer added that Herbst’s
trilogy, out of print and prac
tically impossible to find, is be
ing reprinted this summer.
J
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