EUGENE REGISTER-GUARD, Sunday, Jan. 6, 1863 Page 9A
Two
y ' ) ii
k7. yr
v . V ' V viw i
' -. ns ysi
l , ,
EDITOR'S NOTE Few
writers have had such an im
pact on their times as Upton
Sinclair and few have been
so reviled. But, looking back
at Si, Sinclair claims credit
ior changing the "morals and
manners" of three giant in
dustrial empires.
By BOB THOMAS .
Of the Associated Press
MONROVIA, Calif. The
wispy-haired author was
chuckling over a newspaper
review of his 82nd book, "The
Autobiography of Upton Sin
clair." "Sinclair Lewis Writes Own
Story"
"Oh, my!" said Upton Sin
clair, now 84. "Poor Lewis
and I were always getting
mixed up when he was alive,
and it's still going on."
Sinclair Lewis won the No
bel Prize for literature! Up
ton Sinclair did not.
"Bernard Shaw started the
movement to put me up for it
in 1932," the author recalled.
"But I didn't get it. (John
Galsworthy won.) I guess I
was a little disreputable. You
see, it is chosen by academi
cians, and they get their au
thority from authority. So
they are inclined to be con
servative." A new campaign is being
organized by literary figures
to win Sinclair the belated
Nobel honor. It would mark
the climax of a 71-yearwriting
career that has been as stormy
as any in American letters.
Lifetime of Fuss
Upton Sinclair is a mild
man to have created such a
lifetime fuss. His voice is
soft and slightly accented
with his native Baltimore. His
face is placid, and his over
hanging upper lip gives the
Bulldozers
STOCKHOLM tf1 Part of
Stockholm is being rebuilt, and
some cultural eaders are up in
arms over what they call the
"bulldozer philosophy" of the
civic planners.
Reconstruction of the central
districts of this 700-year-old cap
ital city -r- in the name of air,
light and motor traffic has
caused severe criticism for more
than a decade. But the bulldoz
ers, authorized by the city coun
cil, continue to eat away block
after block of century-old build
ings. In their place will be new
concrete and - glass office build
ings, traffic freeways, and auto
mobile parking palaces.
Just now the criticism against
the "civic renewal" program is
more violent than ever.
"I have never seen such rav
ages as in this city," said author
Sigfrid Siwertz. "Not even the
cities ravaged by the war have
chansed their character more
than Stockholm. The traditions
WANTED!
MEN-WOMEN
Prepare now for U.S. Civil
Service job openings in this
area during the next 12
months.
Government positions pay as
high as $446.00 a month to
start. They provide much
greater security than private
employment and excellent op
portunity for advancement.
Many positions require little
or no specialized education or
experience.
But to get one of these jobs
;-ou must pass a test. The com
petition is keen and in some
cases only one out of five pass.
LINCOLN SERVICE, Dept. 12
re.k'n'.ll"l!,?i?h lt.r,tel. PleeM
of U.S. Government po.ltlons end
qualify for a U.S. Government woo.
Famed
Poet Relaxes With Shawl and
U pton Sinclair
t? 'f mm wm '. -m-itpm- m Tms --"
7 Z
Stormy Survivor of
suggestion of a smile when he
speaks.
The eyes behind the spec
tacles are clear, his step is
Raise Angry Cries
of the city are being wrecked by
dynamite, bulldozer and straight
edge." An open letter of protest has
gone out over the signatures of
29 persons, including Ingmar
Bergman, the motion picture di
rector, and five members of the
81-member Swedish Academy,
the group that awards Nobel
prizes.
The letter said:
"The elimination of existing
construction and terrain has
been greater and more vio
lent than anyone had expected.
It seems obvious to us that fu
ture plans must not be drafted
after the same pattern."
The plans for further devel
opment of the city appear to be
"mainly concerned with the ad
mission of motorized traffic into
the city," the letter continued.
"We doubt that the city plan
ners have chosen the correct
point of departure and the cor
Lincoln Service helps thou
sands prepare for these tests
every year. It is one of the
largest and oldest privately
owned schools of its kind and
is not connected with the
Government.
For FREE information on Gov
ernment jobs, including list of
positions and salaries, fill out
coupon and mail at once
TODAY. You will also get
full details on how you can
prepare yourself for these
tests.
Don't delay ACT NOW!
stnd me ibsolutely FREE (11 A
MUrlei;
(2 Information on how to
Authors, 85
7 " :
Cigar
Social Protest Era
sure and his carriage erect.
His only concession to age is
the inability to dredge an oc
casional name from his past
rect aims for their continued
work."
Rallied behind the letter writ
ers is most of the city's press.
Two councilmen in charge say
they will welcome debate on
the subject although they con
sider the opposition too conservative."
mm
f
t'V . 4 e? , .tZsL?r eFty
By JOHN C. DILLS
Ashetllle clUstn-Tlmn
WrilKn lor Associated Press
FLAT ROCK, N.C.
Eighty-five years lie light
ly on his shoulders, this
white - thatched literary
giant who is an adopted
son of North Carolina.
While his vigor cannot
match that of many a 20-year-old,
it puts to shame the in
activity of many of his jun
iors. A few days before marking
the 85th anniversary of his
birth Sunday Carl Sandburg,
who came to Flat Rock the
last week of 1945 to settle in
the home of C. G. Memmin
ger, Confederate treasury sec
retary, had just finished a
stroll up a steep rise from his
little lake a hundred or so
yards from the sprawling
house on the hill.
Then he and Mrs. Sandburg
busied themselves preparing
for a plane flight to New
York. There, on his birthday,
a dinner party in the Waldorf
Astoria marked publication of
a new volume of Sandburg
poems entitled "Honey and
Salt."
Interviewed before his de
parture, the Pulitzer Prize
winning poet and Lincoln
biographer settled into a
chair in his study and tossed
a shawl across his knees to
"The same thing will hap
pen to you when you're 84."
The author lives in the
Sierra Madre foothills with
the former Mary Elizabeth
Willis, a sprightly 80-year-old
he married a year ago. His
second wife, to whom he was
wedded for 48 years, died in
1961. An earlier marriage
ended in divorce.
The Sinclairs live servant
less in a venerable, slightly
Spanish house which he
bought from a banker for
$12,500 in 1943.
"I remember the date be
cause after we moved in the
local editor called to say I
had just won the Pulitzer
Prize for 'Dragon's Teeth.'
"The banker had wanted
$50,000 for the house at
first," added Sinclair with a
Socialist's glee.
Socialist Zeal
He remains a Socialist "A
Democratic Socialist; I never
advocated revolution." In his
time he has seen a quiet revo
lution as the causes he cham
pioned in the early 1900s
pure food laws, the right of
labor to organize, etc. be
come the law of the land.
But that hasn't dampened
his Socialist zeal. Nor has an
era of apparent prosperity.
"I have been all my life
studying poverty in the midst
of plenty," he said. "We can
produce unlimited goods, but
we lack the facilities to dis
tribute them. The result is
that we over-produce and then
production stops until the
goods can be used up. That's
when people are thrown out
of work."
Sinclair's economic ideas
got their most dramatic air
ing in the California guberna
torial campaign of 1934. He
was asked how it compared
to this year's hot race be
tween Richard M. Nixon and
Gov. Edmund G. Brown.
"It was a love feast com
pared to the one I was in,"
3 OREGON TYPEWRITER & RECORDER
Now you ran own the famous BUR
ROUGHS 2SI alatnt machine . . . AND
SAVII Here's honey of an addlnt
machine that Is helnt offered to you
by OREGON TYPEWRITER RECORD-
and 84, Reminisce
Carl
ftSistsHSMBSaUi
muse about the state of the
world and some of the men in
it. He prefers that to talk
about poetry.
Sandburg apparently has
. changed his mind about John
F. Kennedy since 1960, when
he called the then Senator
Kennedy a "high-powered
high school boy."
'Considerable Vision'
Of the President today,
Sandburg had this to say: "He
hasn't made a miss-step yet,
and he has shown consider
able vision. He trained for
that job in a way that Calvin
Coolidge and Herbert Hoover
never did.
"Kennedy," continued the
poet-philosopher, "knew the
United States of America
somewhat better than most
presidents on taking office.
That is, in the past 30 or 40
years."
He compared the President
favorably with another young
President Theodore Roose
velt, and with an older, and
said Sinclair. "They pinned
horns and a tail on me."
Running as a Democrat, he
lost to Republican Frank
Merriam by nearly the same
margin as in the 1962 race
260,000. Sinclair attracted na
tional attention and wide
vituperation with his End
Poverty in California cam
paign. "The EPIC race was the
"Then I won the primary
and I was stuck, much against
my wife's wishes ... I dinn't
expect to win, but I wanted
most vivid experience of my
life," he recalled. "I really
didn't expect to get into it;
I had merely outlined a pro
gram to be presented in the
primary.
to. When you're lied about as
much as I was, naturally you
want to lick those fellows."
If He'd Won?
And what if he had won
out over Merriam?
"I wouldn't be alive to tell
the story today. I'm not any
thing ot a giant; I've always
overworked, and I've had to
spare my energies. Being con
stantly in the crowd would
have killed me.
"Or else someone would
have. I heard after the elec
tion of a businessman who had
made out his will and told
his family that if I had been
elected he was going to take
a gun and shoot me." '
Sinclair has led a quiet life
of writing and reading since
ORDER YOUR
CUSTOM FIRE SCREEN
TODAY
... ready to install
TOMORROW
EUGENE
HARDWARE
2825 Willamette DI 5-3412
IT'S TIME
FOR A
Burroughs i
ADDING
'0
MACHINE
ONLY $149.50
(plus F.E.T.) WITH
YOUR OLD MACHINE
SI 89.50 without trade
t i lijBi
ft l K
4,IMI1
m tremendous bargain pricei
Many moneyMvtng r
lures such aa DIRECT
SURTRACTION, ELEC
TRIC MULTIPLICATION,
AND TOTALING CAPA
CITV TO WITHIN le of
a MILLION DOLLARS!
SEE1 TRY IT!
OTIIKR MACHINES
NEW ELECTRIC
Choote from a larre aelecUon In this group . . . they add,
subtract and multiply . . . and for such a tiny price!
See them!
CALL TOR FREE TRIAL TERMS: Willi or without
Renul plan available. Rent trade-In we offer terms up
paid Is deductible from the to I year WITHOUT CAR
purchase price within N RYING CHARGE!
days.
11th Sc Willamette DI 2-2463
Sandburg
(in Sandburg's eyes) better
one Franklin D. Roosevelt.
"Kennedy," Sandburg
mused, "has shown at times
an awareness in an immediate
situation and immediate prob
lems that parallels FDR's. But
more interesting would be .
the parallel of Kennedy with
Teddy Roosevelt neither of
them was a creature of spe
cial interests. Both have prov
en to be strong presidents."
Sandburg's prolific literary
output is not yet at an end.
The volume brought out on
his 85th birthday by Harcourt
Brace and Co., includes 77
new poems which show the
vigor and affirmation which
long have marked his work.
Right now he's going over
books of his poems and chil
dren's stories and laying down
the plot for "a long, commo
dious novel," but he didn't
say what the theme of the
noved would be.
Sandburg said that he
planned "nothing special" to
mark his 85th anniversary
his plunge into politics. He
reads four daily newspapers
and 50 magazines. He has
written almost constantly,
though he is without a project
right now.
"I am trying to put some
'social' in the Socialist," said
his cheery wife. "He considers
himself a recluse, but he real
ly likes to be out among peo
ple. Like many men, he com
plains about going to parties;
but he had a good time when
he gets there."
3 Giants Changed
His next book? It won't be
a Lanny Budd. He has written
11 novels about the political
adventurer, spanning the
years from the early 1900s to
after World War II. That's
enough, he thinks.
"I've written a novel which
I haven't published yet," he
said. "I won't let it go out
until I've had a chance to do
some more work on it."
Sinclair belonged to a school
of American novelists who
wrote of social protest; Theo
dore Dreisser, Jack London
and Frank Norris were his
contemporaries. He claims
that his writings altered the
policies of three industrial
empires Armour, Rockefel
ler and Ford. "They all
changed their manners and
morals after we gave 'em
hell," said he.
. Will he ever stop writing?
"Yes," he said soberly.
"When I'm dead."
6ih & JEFFERSON
CO.
CHANGE o
TRADE-IN
ON YOUR OLD
MACHINE IN
WORKING
CONDITION
HI
M il J
mm
Nw from
$79
"just quiet, silent thanks that
I have health and that I hav
n't lost a leg, an arm, a hand
or an ear in the past year.
"I'm a little surprised that
I'm alive and have health,"
he said, "and no rheuma
tism." Nevertheless, he will attend
a gala birthday party Sunday
in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
in New York City, given by
his publishers.
"Honey and Salt," will be
the 35th of Sandburg's works
the company has published
since 1919. He has had a total
of 40 works published to date.
The occasion will not go
unnoticed elsewhere: Gov.
Terry Sanford of North Caro
lina and Gov. Otto Kerner of
his native state of Illinois
have proclaimed Jan. 6 to bo
Carl Sandburg Day in those
states. And officials of Gales
burg, 111., high school later
will confer his long-delayed
high school diploma. He was
admitted to, and graduated
from college without a high
school diploma.
Sandburg believes the pos
sibility for nuclear war is re
mote because of the deadli
nes of the weapons.
"Kennedy," he said, "may
be the first President to use
the new nuclear weapons."
Of tho possibility of such
a horrendous war, Sandburg
declared: "If it comes, it will
be harder to look at than our
Civil War."
The problems arc, ho im
plied, something similar to
those facing Lincoln when the
dissolution of the Union was
threatened.
Awful Responsibility
"Lincoln," he said, "had to
face an Immense and tor
turous problem no other Pros
ident has had to face," and he
then remarked that Kennedy
might have to be the first
President to have the awful
responsibility of making nu
clear warfare.
Sandburg knows something
of battle he was, at the age
of 20, a member of the 8th
Illinois Volunteers during the
Spanish American war, the
first outfit to step on foreign
soil. He didn't go to Cuba,
but went to Puerto Rico, an
island, ho said, which "will
be well-behaved."
"Cuba is going to have trou
ble for quite a while," he pre
dicted. "Tho big landowners
ELLINGSWOR TH For Men '
rift lm OuaffrV
NumBush
ANKLt.eAeHIONSO (HOI
SALE
Your Opportunity to Buy Quality
Shoes at Substantial Reductions
EDGERTON SHOES
$Q9.0
SELECTED STYLES
Not all sizes In every style but
almost every size In some style
Entire Stock of
TOP COATS SLACKS
JACKETS SUITS
and almost ALL RAINCOATS
Reduced Prices en Nearly All
Other Merchandise in Our Store.
SHOP and SAVE NOW at
a Bit
there are going to be a prob
lem for some time to come."
On the atatus of the Negro
in tho South, Sandburg point
ed out that "the Emancipation
Proclamation still holds." But
as to the Negro's raising his
status from what it is at pres
ent, the white-haired poet
said, "Let's see, there are now
about 16 million in the United
States." He paused, and add
ed, "When they get to be 30
or 40 million, there will be
some slight changes made."
Of James Meredith: "He
had what you might term a
decent hankering for an edu
cation at a state university."
Reminiscing a bit, Sand
burg recalled, "In Galesburg
the grade schools and gram
mar schools all had one, two
or three Negroes in every
class and there never was any
trouble."
He shook his head sadly
that "there should be such a -hullabaloo
over one innocent
little Negro wanting to enter
the university."
"We had a bloody war once
that had to do with the status
of the Negro," he said, and
deplored the conditions on
the Mississippi campus that
threatened to erupt into al
most a small war.
On youth: "There have
been wild boys in every gen- .
eration in America," he said.
"Lincoln, when he was run
ning for the legislature and '
for Congress, always kept
close to the wild boys."
Sandburg said he was "a
little surprised that I'm alive
and havo good health. You
know, I like numbers divisi
ble by 11 I'll die when I'm
8B or 99." 1
He said he doesn't expect
to live to be 110 but those
who know him, and can yet
see his blue eyes twinkle,
wouldn't be surprised if he
made it.
WE RENT
Roll-a-way
BEDS & CRIBS
VALLEY RENTAL
886 VI. 6th DI 8-2115
IF YOU VALUE YOUR PICTURES
INSIST ON
'5
Broadway and Oak, DI 3-2823
AND
AND Ufa
Kama..
Street.
City
Age..
Phone
837 Willamette DI 4-6116
..State..