Great Insulter

"I myself have been particularly careful never to say a civil word to the United States. I have scoffed at their inhabitants as a nation of villagers. I have defined the 100% American as 99% idiot. And they just adore me."

Rare is the U. S. editor who has not snorted at the studied effronteries of George Bernard Shaw, recognizing them for what they frankly are: publicity bait. But rarer is the U. S. editor, as Mr. Shaw knows, who can resist printing readable copy. When his beard was red, Shaw's neatly phrased insults were truly startling. White-bearded now and more self-consciously rude, he still saws away so skilfully on his single string that the results are as monotonously fascinating as Oriental music. They and the magnificently photographable beard still keep him in the newspapers more steadily than any other world character of private rank.

Last December Writer Shaw squinted happily at a crowd in a London railway station, declared, "I am really going away because I want to get away from you," and set off on a world tour aboard the Empress of Britain. Since then the world's editors have received--and printed--one, two or three despatches on Shaw each week.

Pompeii: "No wonder God overwhelmed it with dust and ashes. I hope he'll do it again."

Bombay (advising Indians on the requirements for self-government) : "England has got on very well for years without brains."

Hongkong (declining a Rotary luncheon invitation): "Rotary is a gang organized by ignorant and unscrupulous merchants who use the club as a means to promote their positions." (Retorted the U. S. president of Shanghai Rotary, which withdrew its invitation: "Shaw says Rotarians are over-stuffed monkeys gathered around luncheon tables. I can only say there is always room for one more, and that is why he was invited.")

Kobe (to people whose Emperor is divine) : "Have you in Japan ever thought that in your imperialistic aims you may end as a republic?"

Kobe (advising Japan to take up birth control): "There is no reason why Japan should continue to expand and demand the right to overflow other countries which naturally resent an influx of a lower civilization."

In Siam, Shaw was for once obscured, by the presence of Prince Curbhatra aboard the Empress of Britain. In Peiping he flew over the Great Wall and contented himself with saying: "There is a Japanese soldier pointing a rifle at every Chinese inhabitant, but keeping down nationalism is like sitting on a horse's head--there's no time to do anything else. The Chinese should study Communism." In Hawaii, though he refused to be garlanded with lei, he said: "I sincerely hope you never permit Christianity to destroy or change the beauty of your dances. They have the charm of unspoiled nature."

Then, as he approached the U. S. for the first time, his coming was heralded by a super-Shavianism. In the New York Times, blind, deaf, gentle Helen Keller told how, when she once met him and admiringly addressed him in England at Lady Astor's, he snapped: "All Americans are blind and deaf--and dumb!" (TIME, March 20).

Before he disembarked last week in San Francisco, he was in full fettle after days of silence at sea, but less insulting than usual:

"People think of me as a theatrical man but I am really proud of having served six years as a municipal councilor.

"I cannot pretend that I am not shocked at having any person put into a vault for 16 or 17 years. If Mr. Mooney was such a bad man, why didn't you have the courage and the character to shoot him?"-

"Yes, I'm a teetotaler, but you mustn't ask the people of the United States to live up to my standard.

"Your people are not happy enough to live without alcohol. When a person goes through a great ordeal he takes a great deal of chloroform that makes him forget all about what is going on. Alcohol acts the same way upon an unhappy people-- makes them forget their unhappiness."

"The happy peoples are in the cemeteries, I suppose."

"I think I am a more extreme Communist than Lenin. Lenin is the greatest man since Washington."

At the airport he gave another interview, in front of sound cameras. He stage-managed the show himself and said:

"Newspaper men are the same breed the world over and I don't think I like them so well. . . .

"Of course, you know this is all a fake. I didn't just walk into this picture and find myself talking. It was all pre-arranged and we just rehearsed it.

"The purpose of this motion picture is to let you see the animal. I am the animal. I am sure you have been glad to see me for these few moments, and I'm sorry I cannot see you."

Then, with Mrs. Shaw, he climbed into a plane to fly--before re-embarking at San Pedro and sailing around to New York-- down to San Simeon to visit Publisher William Randolph Hearst. There, while Marion Davies and other guests "drank in every word," Mr. Hearst's syndicated cinema critic, Louella 0. Parsons, had an exclusive audience. Excerpts from her report:

"He was the first up in the morning. I found him communing with the eagles, a part of the menagerie on the ranch. I heard him regret that one of the young lady guests was so commonplace as to choose a horse when she might ride a zebra. . . .

"I asked him: 'Is it true, Mr. Shaw, that you will refuse to let any of your plays be filmed?'

"He said: 'Certainly not. I am extremely anxious to have them all filmed before I die.' "

*For bombing San Francisco's 1916 Preparedness Day Parade, in which ten people were killed, Thomas Mooney was indicted on eight murder counts. Six were dropped. On one he was sentenced to death, later having his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Last week the Mooney Defense Committee asked and was granted a trial on the one untried indictment. District Attorney Matthew Brady withdrew from the case because he said he did not have sufficient evidence to convict, did not believe Mooney guilty. If he wins his trial, Mooney will have basis for a new pardon plea.

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