"Dear Uncle George" Ezra Pound's Letters to Congressman Tinkham of Massachusetts

Ezra Pound's correspondence with Congressman George H. Tinkham of Massachusetts, who served from 1915 to 1943, is a substantial body of Pound letters that can be classified as "political correspondence." Extending from February 1933 through the 1940 national elections, these 100 letters provide an extended discussion of many of Pound's economic and political ideas, especially as they relate to his twin efforts to unseat President Roosevelt and head off the impending war. As the introductory essay shows by placing the correspondence in its historical, biographical, and rhetorical contexts, the Pound/Tinkham letters shed a sustained light on the poet as he was during the turbulent decade that culminated in his incarceration at Pisa and the treason indictment. What stands out clearly is that Pound, in his efforts to convert thought into action, was not only committed to his vision of a new .administration in Washington, not to mention a new world order, but also convinced that he himself could be instrumental in making it happen. As a result of this commitment and belief, Pound doggedly persevered in his self-appointed role of advisor, exhorter, and political strategist, despite the absence of any sign that his advice, exhortations, and strategies would be acted upon. The final impression the letters create is perhaps a quixotic Pound, and certainly one who retains the familiar antisemitism and meanness of spirit, but one whose patriotism is beyond question. In addition to the annotated text of the letters and the critical introduction, an index and a cross-reference list to the Cantos are

7. Punctuation. Punctuation has not been altered except where Pound neglects to supply closing parentheses and, in one case, a closing quotation mark. In each circumstance, the righthand parenthesis or quotation mark has been silently inserted using editorial judgment.
Pound's idiosyncratic use of the slanted line(/) in place of conven tional punctuation has been emulated because, in many cases, it would be too difficult, if not impossible, to determine which conventional mark would be appropriate. The omission is even more striking because Pound  neither to criticize nor to convert, but to inform, encourage, and assist . We see in these letters not just the impassioned lecturer or cantankerous gadfly, but a political advisor, strategist, and would-be aide, who offers his services out of a developing friendship, a common philosophy, and a desire to put this philosophy into action at the highest levels of national government. This is not to say that elements of the more familiar Pound do not pervade these letters--indeed, they are clearly and abundantly there. But Pound the lecturer and social critic, the venter of spleen and opinion, and even the self-acknowledged Great Man are subordinate to Pound the citizen-in-absentia, the eccentric patriot bent on action, the intellectual in the (hypothetical) caucus room. Apart from extending (or refining) our already multiple perspectives on Pound, the consistent rhetorical stance he assumes in these letters is important because it helps to explain, though not to excuse, later events in his lire, notably his Rome Radio speeches and subsequent indictment for treason--and this despite the wrongheadedness and meanspiritedness of some of his ideas and comments in many of the letters themselves.
What has been said thus far is intended to explain the need for the present volume of letters: in sum, I have argued that the Pound-Tinkham correspondence will begin to fill the political gap in the available Pound letters as well as contribute to Pound studies in general. What follows is a series of contexts--historical, biographical, and rhetorical--that are presented as a threefold approach to situate and understand the letters and their production.

The Historical Context
The 1930s was a climactic decade for the Western democracies and for America in particular.
Beginning with the economic collapse of a capitalism gone haywire, the worldwide depression was a time of political upheaval and social and economic chaos in which the material and spiritual needs of Europeans were held hostage to presumably irreconcilable ideologies rather than met by effective policy. As Al'thur M. Schlesinger, Jr., has pointed out, the prevailing viewpoint in Europe held that a state-directed economy was wholly inconsistent with capitalism; There could be no middle ground, no socially directed capitalism, so the choices were either/or: either "parliamentary democracy with economic chaos" or "economic authoritarianism with political tyranny" ("Sources" 98 Reck's account, was "too provincial" for Pound, and "American poetry was almost nonexistent" (18) . London, however, "was Pound's Mecca" (11), and during his long sojourn there he centered himself in circles of intellectual and artistic vitality, The First World War put an end to that, however, and in 1921, "fed up with England" (39), he moved to Paris. Immersed in "the magical Paris ambiance" (40), Pound regained· his intellectual and creative energies, but after four years he "again felt that he had come to a dead end" (48). By 1924 he had grown tired of Paris, especially the whirl of its social life, and he had come to regard Paris itself as "tired" (49). Moreover, he felt that "the important things were happening elsewhere." Having discovered on recent visits to Mussolini's Italy that conditions there were conducive to his needs, he moved on to Rapallo, where he would remain for the next twenty years (Stock,Life 256).
To trace the moves in Pound's exile is to follow the stages of a quest. From his "barren" homeland to the intellectual vitality of London, from a London "in terror of thought" (Pound,quoted in Reck 48) to artistic Paris, and from "tired" Paris to the new Italy, Pound continually sought out a vital center of intellectual, artistic, and spiritual activity--what he would call a "vortex"--that could sustain him in his various endeavors and, by extension, the culture at large.
Clearly, it was not until he settled in Italy that his vortex became more or less stable, despite the ironic fact that in Rapallo, in contrast to London and Paris, he lived in far less proximity to the other artists, intellectuals, and others on whom the vortex depended.
As a result he had to import his circle of friends and proteges (not too difficult a task since, as James Laughlin points out, "the trains from Paris to Rome all stop in Rapallo" [9]); and what is more to the point, he had to write letters.
In a very real sense, "the Rapallo vortex" funneled through the mail. This vision, in addition to spurring his move to Paris, was probably as important as any other factor in turning his mind increasingly to economics (Laughlin 152), particularly the economics of war and the economics of want. His inquiries into the subject convinced him that wars are created to make markets for war materiel, thereby filling the pockets of profiteers and bankers, and that the cause of want was not a deficiency of production but of distribution. While both of these observations led to his obsessive attacks on international financiers, who, he believed, conspired to keep money out of circulation so that they could grow fat on usurious rates of interest, these attacks were balanced by the more positive side of his economics. This constructive side stressed a rethinking of the nature of money, particularly as a mode of circulation of goods and services, the production of which, in the industrialized world, was or need not be a serious problem. This emphasis on circulation placed the onus on the distribution of money: as Pound saw it, the primary economic need was to increase the purchasing power of the average person.
Crucial to his thinking along these lines were the ideas of " Major" C.H. Douglas, a civil engineer and economic theorist, whom Pound "discovered" under the auspices of A. R. Orage at the New Age in 1918 (Laughlin 153). Douglas' theory of Social Credit held that the problem of purchasing power could be solved by means of a "National Dividend," a monetary sum to which all citizens except the very rich were entitled by virtue of the "Cultural Heritage," which included the productive capacity of the nation as well as nature's bounty (Finlay 112). As Pound studied economics throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s, seeking always to gain converts to Social Credit, his thinking did not adhere to pure Douglasism, but rather combined other ideas with a Social Credit essence. In Laughlin's phrase, "Pound may have been the inventor, intellectually at least, of the Cuisinart. He kept pouring new ingredients into the ever-protesting gullet of Major Douglas" (153).
These "ingredients" included economic ideas from an otherwise heterogenous group of sources, many of which, such as the foilowing, are mentioned in his letters to Tinkham: the history of the Monte dei The most important "additive" to Pound's version of Social Credit was Schwundgeld, or stamp scrip, which was invented by a relatively obscure German economist, Silvio Gesell, and had been employed with temporary success in the small Austrian town of Woergl. Because it required that the bearer periodically affix a postage stamp to keep it valid, stamp scrip was "a self-liquidating currency that would discourage hoarding" (Laughlin 158 (Laughlin 162) .
What is more important is that Pound believed in Mussolini--a belief that is crucial to understanding Pound's embrace of Fascism.
Writing Jefferson and/or Mussolini in 1933 (at  first he was optimistic, and he said so. In January 1934 he declares himself "a supporter of, and hoper for the [Roosevelt] administration," but in the same breath his optimism begins to wane--something about "dear Frankie" communicating with "british private swindling interests" ("Current Hopes").
This qualified optimism had much to do with his perceptions of the preceding administrations. To Pound, Wilson was "a man incapable of receiving ideas ••• a type of low vitality" ("This Super Neutrality"), and he called the terms of Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover a "period of infamy he said, "is an instrument for increasing debt, and for keeping the debtor in debt perpetually or at leas_ t for the longest possible period.
And it is hypocrisy to prattle of liberty unless the liberty includes the freedom to keep out of debt" ("To Recapitulate" 261 (Cong. Rec, 3 Feb. 1933: 3337-38 If it is all old stuff by the time this reaches you, don•t bother.
Schacht due in London. Monty Norman in Canada, gone too both of •em late to stop or blackmail Alberta, jews and friends,2 Tannery is SAME position as Louis XVI, foreign aid in struggle against french people.
Bank of Eng. a private company, but that ASS Morgenthau is officially the U.S.A. and Tannery SAYING he had got AID to help in POLITICAL crisis.
Rotten as the french press is (vide Rafallovich papers) some frog must in time.observe this analogy.3 England allied to the enemies of the people in both france and germany CANT be in very sound position.
Stephen Lausanne4 reprints VERY CLEAR text of Suez Canal contract.
British Tory press, quoting the rootenest french left (the soppy, worse than Manchester drivveler L. Bloom5 etc.) to back up British imperialism.

Ill
As to economic reform You can save property rights IF you dissociate property from CAPITAL, which is DIFFERENT. Capital is a lein on others, property is NOT.
Usury differs from the increment of association.  Schacht (1877Schacht ( -1970 was German Minister of Economics  (" Schacht"). The British press had reported that he was bound for London to obtain a loan through the Bank of England. The Reichsbank denied the story, citing Montagu Norman's absence from England as sufficient evidence to belie the claim ("Montagu Norman Arrives").
7. Clifford Hugh Douglas (1879Douglas ( -1952 was a British civil engineer and social economist whose theory of "social credit" was influential on Pound and others. He was reconstruction advisor to Aberhart's government in Alberta in 1935 (" Douglas").
8. Larkin and Co., which operated nearly 200 department stores in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York, issued its own version of "private money" in the form of "merchandise bonds" (Pound,"An Impact" 149 Zaharoff"). His comings and goings were often shrouded in mystery.

The British financier Sir
Gervase Beckett (1866Beckett ( -1937, in addition to being a director of the  ("Company Meetings"). Whitworth Chemicals was probably a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd., which was the leading British armaments firm, and which had taken over Armstrong-Whitworth, another armaments-related company ("Vickers' Acquisition").
The Senate Munitions Investigating Committee (the Nye Committee) had found ties between U. S. bankers and Allied munitions makers before U.
S. entry into World War I ("Nye"). Pound would have wanted the committee to look into the activities of both of these firms. Landon (1887Landon ( -1987, then governor of Kansas, would be the Republican presidential candidate in 1936 (" Landon"). 5. I can find no information on "Dessari. " Pound may have been thinking of the French writer and economic statistician, Jean

Alfred Mossman
Dessirier, who advocated devaluation in the French franc crisis (Jackson,. Taking this position, Dessirier, like Pound, was in opposition to "Tannery's betrayal of France," which Pound refers to in Letters 8 and 18. See also Letter 8, n3. Daniel Calhoun Roper (1867Roper ( -1943 was Secretary of Commerce  (" Roper"). Henry Morgenthau, "the elder"   4. Eduard Daladier (1884Daladier ( -1970, the statesman and Radical Party leader, had been and would be again the French prime minister (1933,1934, (" Daladier"). Jasques Duboin, a well known economic publicist in France during the 1930s, popularized the "theory of abundance," which held that the economic crisis resulted from underconsumption, which itself arose from the unemployment caused by industrial mechanization (Jackson,Julian 16 10. Oswald Garrison Villard (1872Villard ( -1949 was an American editor and author who had been connected with the New York Evening Post and The Nation (" Villard"). Joseph Wood Krutch (1893Krutch ( -1970 was an American author, educator, and social and literary critic (" Krutch").
12. Harold Nicolson (1886Nicolson ( -1968) was a British diplomat, politician, and journalist (" Nicolson"). 13. Ugo Spirito (1896Spirito ( -1968  Resistance to any one of these modes of government by races whereto it is alien, is a sign of health, submission to any one of them by a race whereto it is alien is a sign of decay . (12) Tinkham Cf. Letter 18, n1. Stoddard Eccles (1890-1977 was an American economist, Obviously if the hired press hasn't cut any ice at the polls.

Marrimer
Taxes are unpopular/ but not unpopular enough.
Ham will have to learn difference between a tax and share.
Only way to beat Nude Eel ideology is to get a BETTER one, something with a drive/ not merely old fat.
Otherwise it will be Tugwell in I94O and Frankfurter,   Enclosed item re/ Henry FORD. valuable.
These crank papers are the only way to get the news which the hired press doesn't print .
My belief that F.D.R. will grab ALL the good issues/ and the only effective opposition will be to get the BEST ones BEFORE he does. and then HOLD 1 em.  , was a member of the Committee on Banking and Currency ("Frazier"). On 9 April 1937 he was to submit a joint resolution "to restore to Congress the sole power to issue money and regulate the value thereof" (Cong, Rec, 9 Apr. 1937: 3313 Pinchot (1873Pinchot ( -1944 was an American lawyer and publicist (" Pinchot").  Baldwin (1867Baldwin ( -1947, the British prime minister (1923-24; 1924-29; 1935-37)  3. "Ham" refers to James Hamilton Lewis (1863, the U.S.  and former U.S.
The "Labour bloke" refers to the American labor leader, John L. There are three reasons for this rise: (1) During a depression basic commodity surpluses accumulate; as recovery begins, the accumulations are absorbed; there are increased biddings for basic commodities and prices rise. This is the normal and orthodox action and reaction in a depression and recovery; but in this country, two very artificial influences have been at work to precipitate the rise in commodity prices to great heights. These three forces are increasing basic commodity prices inordinately and will continue to do so unless some action is taken.
As any action taken would bring a panic, particularly in agricultural commodities, it is probable that no action will be taken by this wholly politically- this bond without paying the Government a penny for the use of its credit, which guarantees the money, and will collect from the member bank the rediscount rate of 1 1/2 or 2 percent, Tinkham voted against the bill "quietly," but it passed by a wide margin. (Cong. Rec. 24 Feb. 1937: 1563-64, 1571 2. For Pound's "note" see:   Laval (1883Laval ( -1945 had been premier of France , would become premier of Vichy France, and would be executed for treasonous collaboration after the war (" Laval"). He is believer in Thorez 3 and thinks they will "hang" Blum (i.e. guillotine), and that

While the
Rhoosia is goin forward.
Ace/ this bloke Various "authorities" admit they underestimated Mussolini (past tense) but don't seem to have learned not to go on underestimating.   and U.S. Postmaster General  (" Farley"). Alfred Emanuel Smith (1873Smith ( -1944 was ex-governor of New

an' thaZZATT
York (1919-20; 1923-28) and had been the Republican presidential nominee in 1928 (" Smith"). Reserve banks. Its intent was to remove bankers from the Federal Reserve Board and the Open Markets Committee, thereby preventing private manipulation of money and credit and, ultimately, "to stabilize and maintain a dollar of uniform purchasing power" (Cong, Rec. 24 Jan. 1938: 101025 May 1937: 5043;and 24 Nov. 1938: 362).
Congressman Patman introduced similar bills throughout his congressional career (Congress and the Nation 385).  3. Joseph Auslander (1897Auslander ( -1965, an American poet noted for his romantic rhetoric and treatment of classical and biblical themes ("Auslander"), was poetry editor for the North American Review . He was outspoken in his sympathy for Jews and other victims of Nazism. Cf. "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" (Auslander, "Words"). [54] I2 Jan [1938] Dear Uncle George And you can't be president because you are "an excentric", you "wear a beard and never take a bath.
No man with a beard can be president. ["] They might be polite to you because you have a bank account, but you are not ONE of them.
(seems to me a damn good thing, but still) Also Bro/ Goldsborough is an excentric. He goes round and actually .
speaks to the farmers. 3 I suggested the election returns might cause thought even in the heights of capitalist idiocracy/ but this didn't seem to convey anything. "They" had heard of young Lodge, 4 but you just got elected somehow.
AS NO American ever seems to know anything about any other I. These California dated money people SAY they are having whoopie.
But damn 'em they have gone off on DOLE (not dividend) • 5 Now to repeat/ DIVIDEND a la Douglas is a divide up of the EARNINGS of dead men who can't eat 1 em.  (1937-44; 1947-53).

5.
The "dated money people" in California were advocating a plan whereby "every senior citizen of California who is fifty years of age or over who has retired or will retire from active business or employment for compensation" would receive $30 a week for life. The money would be paid in stamp scrip. The idea was to increase purchasing power and open up jobs for citizens under fifty (Canterbury 408-10) •

6.
Mark Alfred Carleton (1866Carleton ( -1925 was an American plant pathologist and botanist whose importation of foreign grains established the durum wheat industry (" Carleton"). 10. The reference is to Joseph Patrick Kennedy (1888Kennedy ( -1969, the American millionaire, who had been chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (1934-35) and was currently ambassador to Great Britain (1937-40) (" Kennedy").
11. The reference is to John L. Lewis, the labor leader.  (Cong. Rec. 15 May 1939: 5561), and another "providing that the United States should maintain a policy of strict neutrality in Asia" (Cong. Rec. 4 Aug. 1939: 11117  . ("Bankhead, William Brockman"). Benjamin V. Cohen (1894Cohen ( -1983 was a lawyer and advisor to President Roosevelt on New Deal legislation. He had been counsel to the American zionists at the London and Paris peace conferences arter World War I (" Cohen"). Lewis (1884Lewis ( -1957 was the British writer and painter and friend of Pound ("Lewis, Percy Wyndham"). Potocki (1869Potocki ( -1961 Stoddard (1883Stoddard ( -1950 was an American writer on social, international, economic, and racial subjects (" Stoddard").  Molotov").

Count Jerzy
3. For note on Tremaine see Letter 81, n13. John Nance ("Jack") Garner  was Vice President of the United States  (" Garner").  was an American journalist whose book, Union .Now (1939), advocated a federal union of North Atlantic democracies ("Streit") . ANY party that goes fer to create or enlarge debt, is a Usurers' party. and HOW.

Clarence Kirshman Streit
Letter 91 Note 1. Walter Johannes Damrosch (1862Damrosch ( -1950 was an American composer and conductor, and was president of the National Institute of Arts and Letters (" Damrosch"). For note on Butler see Letter 1, n2. (92] I8 April (1940] Dear Uncle George Is there any printed, or uprinted or whatsoever or wheretofore available or unavailable LIST of the people from whom "the adminsitration" has BOUGHT its goddam gold at fancy prices? As fer your doing that job you promised.  , but had resigned in protest over the German occupation of the Sudetenland. He headed the Czech government-in-exile from London , promoting Czech independence during the war ("Benes").
Tafari   His chances seem to be improving, which may only mean, however, that the election will be close.