Amiable with Big Teeth

by Claude McKay

  “You’re right,” said Castle humbly, “I was too intellectual in my attitude.”

  “Of course you were. The Soviet State is proletarian, at least in theory. And although we’re building up a broad Popular Front movement with the Democratic governments and intelligentsia and the bourgeoisie, we are still anti-bourgeois, at least in theory. There is a place in our movement for men like Peixota and Sufi Abdul Hamid. We fight them because they are such fools, unable to see that by every rule of the game and from their place in society they belong with us and not against us.”

  “But you wouldn’t want a charlatan metaphysic-mystic like Sufi Abdul Hamid in the movement?”

  “Why not, if he would submit to discipline? He is no worse a charlatan and mystic than the monk Father Gapon,4 who led the Russian workers to demonstrate before the Czar’s palace and drew the fire of the soldiers.”

  “He’ll never work with us like Father Divine,”5 said Castle. “But I hate the idea of our working with Father Divine for I despise his guts. When I listen to him spouting that religious rigmarole and his followers calling him ‘God,’ I feel not only ashamed of my people, but of the whole world of peoples.”

  “Every jackass with his tail up imagines he can bray better than his brother,” Tasan said cryptically. “The Imperial Family of Russia and all the nobles and ladies of the court were not ashamed of Monk Rasputin;6 they worshipped him instead. So you and I need not be ashamed of the human race because of Father Divine. He’s easy to handle, for he stays in his field. Our programme is, ‘All aboard to build the Popular Front.’”

  “Well, perhaps now that we have Alamaya safely aboard in a specially reserved compartment, I shouldn’t worry so much about Peixota and the Hands to Ethiopia,” said Castle.

  “You leave it to me and I’ll handle them. Peixota may be rich, but Harlem is a poorhouse. I can get a promoter to organize a benefit affair at the Savoy, which will net us more in one night than the Hands to Ethiopia could raise in a year. I can get movie stars and socialites not only to sponsor it but to appear.”

  “I know all of that is possible,” said Castle. “But can we get the Hands to Ethiopia organization to climb aboard? That is the problem.”

  “You leave that problem to me, I say, Comrade Castle. Ever since we decided to stake the International movement on financial pressure in a big way instead of using moral suasion as formerly, we have bought up not only individuals and organizations, but even governments. And you want to tell me that a little organization of colored people, most of them on relief, is a problem!”

  “The rich are corrupt from having too much power,” said Castle, “and as the more they have the more they want, it is sometimes easier to buy the rich than to buy the poor.”

  “I suppose you still believe in bourgeois propaganda about the virtues of the poor,” said Tasan.

  “Not at all, but the majority of the poor are so dumb, it is difficult to bargain with them and fix a price. They either underrate or overrate their own value.”

  Tasan said that he was hungry. They had accounted for many glasses of Scotch and soda. He beckoned the waiter and paid the bill and they left.

  13

  THE MERRY-GO-ROUND

  In his conference with Maxim Tasan and Newton Castle, Lij Alamaya had consented to continue the work of his mission to the Aframericans entirely under the direction of the White Friends of Ethiopia. The alternative, as it seemed to him, was the wrecking of his mission and the disillusioned Aframericans turning in hate against Ethiopia. The situation was bad enough, his new approach might save it from getting worse.

  He realized that he had blundered badly in his initial steps, that there could be no rapprochement between the ideology which motivated the activity of the White Friends and the sentiment which moved the black Hands in their endeavor to help Ethiopia. He saw clearly that the cleavage between the two groups was as enormous as the social chasm which separated the life of the colored from the white people. He would have preferred to work intimately with the Hands. For he had a sincere admiration for the Aframericans. Now that he had become acquainted with them, his attitude had considerably changed from what it had been when the idea of the mission was conceived in Europe. There, the Aframericans he had met in the various capitals were few and mostly entertainers in cabaret and theatre, and occasional students who lived lavishly and convivially as one might expect from their inimitable prodigal gestures on the stage.

  Alamaya and the rest of the Ethiopians had imagined the Aframericans to be a wealthy group, insouciantly living and capable of raising large funds to assist his homeland in its unequal struggle. But upon his arrival in America he discovered that conditions were actually different, that the Aframericans in their social relationship to other American groups were comparatively like the Ethiopians in theirs to the European nations. Like Ethiopia there were a few outstanding and privileged personalities among a large mass of pitifully baffled creatures of circumstance and poverty, except that the privileged Ethiopians did enjoy the privileges of spatial living, while all the Aframericans were crowded together in the same ant-hill. Alamaya’s earlier attitude of cavalier curiosity in the Aframericans had changed to active sympathy.

  He appreciated their extraordinary efforts to extend to him a royal welcome and treat him like a prince. And although Newton Castle had taken the precaution to inform him at the outset that Peixota had acquired his wealth by gangster activities, Alamaya nevertheless highly respected the man and his family. The quality of Peixota’s character was such that Alamaya felt that if the man had had a less limited sphere to develop his special ability he might have been a big financier—were he born an Ethiopian he might have been a Ras.1 Even though it was excessively deferential, the attitude of Peixota and his friends towards him was tolerable compared to the blithe arrogance of Maxim Tasan. The Aframericans were instinctively aware of his different cultural background. They tried to understand him and enlist his cooperation on the basis of their understanding. They were flexible, suggesting things he might do instead of insisting what he should do. But Maxim Tasan was blind to social backgrounds and nuances. In his orthodox Marxist missionary mind, differences of culture were unimportant and individuals counted only as instruments that might serve to teach all the peoples of the world to pronounce the shibboleths of the same social and political doctrine, even though its substance was meaningless to them.

  • • •

  Peixota was prepared when Alamaya informed him of his final decision to collaborate with the Friends. He had anticipated it by calling a meeting of the twenty-four members of the Executive Committee of the Hands to discuss the issue. In spite of the demoralization that the Emperor’s alleged statement had created in the ranks of the organization, the committee, through the initiative of Peixota and Dorsey Flagg and the Rev. Trawl, had worked hard to hold it together. Statements were published in some of the colored weeklies which doubted the authenticity of the Emperor’s utterances. Special columnists were inspired to write articles in defense of the proud Ethiopian nation and Aframericans were cautioned against blandly accepting without question all statements which appeared in the “white” press concerning their African brothers. Also those Aframericans who had visited Ethiopia and were favorable to the Imperial regime were invited to address mass meetings and give details of their experiences.

  To men like Peixota and Flagg and Trawl, the Hands to Ethiopia was more than a mere vehicle for rendering material help to Ethiopia. They saw in it also an instrument for helping the Aframericans here, to give them the dignity of human beings with a background that bridged the enormous pit of slavery, something that could shake them in their skins to feel that they were no less men because they were different from other men, something that could make them feel that the physical aspect of man was not less noble because it was diversified.

  Peixota and the Rev. Trawl did not come by their opinions through vague theorizing. P
eixota had used his dime tips as an elevator runner to launch his illegal lottery and make it a success. And the Rev. Trawl had started his church in a cold-water railroad flat and carried it forward to the acquisition of a splendid edifice. They belonged to the old school of self-made men, but they were modern in the ideas of their group striving as a unit to overcome some of its disadvantages. Dorsey Flagg did not have their experience of practical struggle, but his sharp mind could see clearly through the inadequacy of the old theoretical panaceas, such as a group of people demanding equal rights without possessing the economic assets or the organized political machinery to press their demands.

  And so they were united in their opposition to Marxist mercenaries like Maxim Tasan and the modern school of neo-liberals who advocated that Aframericans should surrender the right to think and act as a group to their “white friends.” It was emphasized that these “white friends” could be trusted more than others by the forlorn blacks simply because they were converts to the regime of Soviet Russia, which they believed to be the paradise for all oppressed people of all races, the Promised Land of the Millennium, where the lion and the lamb would lie down together in the same den and the wolf and the sheep would frolic side by side in the green pasture.

  And so in order not to destroy the faith and dampen the hopes of their people, Peixota, Flagg and Trawl had influenced the executive members of the Hands against publicly withdrawing all support from Alamaya. It was agreed that an organizational front should be maintained, but that the Friends of Ethiopia should not be permitted to absorb or dominate the Hands to Ethiopia. The office in Harlem was still nominally held at Alamaya’s disposal. By patronizing Lij Alamaya the Friends could rescue him from utter disgrace. Dorsey Flagg felt certain and was able to convince Peixota that Maxim Tasan had a sinister hand in that supposed interview with the Emperor, in which he offended the Aframericans. He thought that Alamaya’s approval of him to go on the tour and the ousting of Newton Castle as Executive Secretary of the Hands were the real anonymous authors of the Emperor’s statement. Flagg even suggested that the Emperor’s letter might be in Tasan’s hands. Peixota was incredulous. Dorsey Flagg enlightened him. He told how the Russian Marxists, shielding themselves behind the Popular Front and now the White Friends of Ethiopia, had used every weapon they could find to injure him, by charging that he was a Trotskyite Fascist and Nazi sympathizer. They had employed something of the technique they did to build up Sufi Abdul Hamid into an anti-Semite. But their methods were less crude and spectacular, for he had not yet been arrested and hauled into court. But they had petitioned the president of his college to oust him as a Fascist. They had secretly approached members of the faculty with the proposition that they should isolate him, arguing that being a Fascist, he must be hostile to Ethiopia and that as a Trotsky sympathizer he also was an anti-Semite.

  “Then is Trotsky supposed to be an anti-Semite too?” Peixota demanded.

  “Sure,” said Flagg, “not supposed to be, but actually is. The Soviet had conferred upon him the title of: Mad Dog Fascist Foe of the Proletariat and Hitler Spy and Anti-Semite.”

  Peixota grimaced as he often did instead of smiling: “If Hitler can make a Jew an anti-Semite he is much greater than I thought he was.”

  What Dorsey Flagg related to him sounded incredible, fantastic. But he reasoned that the times were fantastic in a way that was beyond his imagination. Principles had become meaningless in the universal social ferment, yet leaders of the people still talked as if principles were the same principles. It was no longer merely unscrupulous politicians who were changing principles quicker than a chameleon its color. But everybody was doing it: great liberal and radical leaders of the people who formerly appeared as gods crowned with halos of honesty. And even nations. Not some little unstable military Central American2 or Balkan nation, but great nations whose constitutions were founded upon high principles. Yet no one seemed willing to tell the people the truth in a great way. And so they were left in confusion to run after any popular panacea and shouting the slogan of the hour, whether it was the Soviet “Dictatorship of the Proletariat” or “People’s Front” or the Democratic “Make the World Safe for Democracy” or the Nazi-Fascist “Workers of the World, Unite against Jewish Capitalism.”

  It was infernally fantastic, Peixota thought. Even his illegal business had had to be based on sound principles to make him successful. He had built up his reputation by always paying the winner of a lucky hit, always paying his agents every cent of their commission, besides their bonuses. And thus he had come to be known as Honest Peixota in Harlem.3

  The Sufists, assisted by sympathetic groups, had organized a monster anti-Italian demonstration. Elks Lodges, clubs, students’ associations, churches, professional and political groups were participating. Leading preachers, politicians and professional men were among the sponsors, including the Hands to Ethiopia and the White Friends of Ethiopia.

  It was a fortnight since the Emperor’s statement had fallen like a heavy frost upon the heads of the Aframericans. But their naturally warmth-generating blood soon melted the chill. If the Emperor of Ethiopia did not need them to serve, they needed Ethiopia to serve their interests here. And so they were again zestfully carrying on with the work they had begun.

  Newton Castle was not merely shocked when he read the broadsides which were distributed in Harlem, but he was grieved that the name of the White Friends of Ethiopia had appeared as one of the sponsors. He gathered a bunch of the offensive things and hurried to the office of the Friends downtown.

  Maxim Tasan and Lij Alamaya were there. Castle frisked about like a squirrel in his agitation. Why had the Friends permitted the use of its name to sponsor an anti-Italian demonstration? he demanded. Why had they not insisted that it be anti-Fascist? The Aframericans should not be encouraged to manifest animus against the Italian people, for it was the Fascists who were warring against Ethiopians and not the Italian people. But the Sufi broadside was using the Fascist war to attack the Italians in Harlem and incite the Aframericans to boycott Italian businesses.

  Maxim Tasan admitted that it was a serious error, but he did not know who had given permission. He turned to Lij Alamaya. Alamaya knew nothing about it. He summoned Gloria Kendall from the adjoining room. Miss Kendall explained: the Sufi organization had telephoned when she was alone in the office, asking the Friends to be one of the sponsors of the demonstration. She telephoned Professor Banner Makepeace and he gave the necessary permission. She said, however, that the Sufi official had distinctly stated that it was an anti-Fascist demonstration. She had made a note of it in shorthand, which she had preserved.

  It was Tuesday. The demonstration was set for Saturday. There was time to get a notice in the Harlem weeklies and to print new leaflets. Tasan asked Lij Alamaya if he would make contact with the Sufists and suggest the changes. Alamaya declined. He said it would be more correct if Pablo Peixota as chairman of the Hands were asked to do it. Besides, the Ethiopians themselves did not make any nice difference between the Italians and the Fascists; they were both the same thing to them.

  Newton Castle excitedly cried: “But there is a big difference, Lij—”

  Tasan arrested him: “That’s all right, Newt. Don’t forget that Lij Alamaya is not a Marxist.”

  Now that Lij Alamaya had made his submission, Tasan was carefully considerate of attitude towards him. Even as Pablo Peixota had ideas about the Hands to Ethiopia, so did Maxim Tasan. Tasan also did not desire the disintegration of the Hands. He hoped to get control and bring it into the Popular Front and he was planning to use Alamaya to realize that hope. He knew that although Alamaya’s was a sensitive nature, he was not a mere weakling. So he handled him cleverly. Furthermore, the situation was more favorable to Alamaya since he had gone over to the Friends. The Labor Herald was puffing up his stature and had said that although scandalous rumors had been printed about his status, there was no question but that Alamaya was a true rep
resentative of the real interests of the Ethiopian people. Tasan knew that if he should break away from the Friends again, it would be less easy to besmirch him. And so he treated Alamaya with deference, not with the honest dignity of Pablo Peixota, but with subtle hypocrisy. For example, when Tasan would sometimes address him as “Prince” Alamaya, Alamaya would correct him and say that it was not “Prince,” it was “Lij,” and he preferred plain “Mister.” Thereupon Tasan would apologize and tell Alamaya that he was a regular democrat.

  Tasan was of the opinion that it might work to better advantage if Professor Makepeace talked to Peixota. He telephoned Professor Makepeace and instructed him what to say. Professor Makepeace got connected with Pablo Peixota and, introducing himself, said that he was speaking on behalf of the White Friends of Ethiopia. He pleaded with Peixota to exert his influence upon the Sufists to postpone their demonstration to the following week and to print new leaflets in which “Fascists” should be substituted for “Italians.” Professor Makepeace particularly stressed the readiness of the Friends to pay all the expenses of the change.

  Peixota told the professor that he was sorry he was unable to accede to his request, but he could not agree with his point of view, because he could not differentiate, like him, between the Italians and the Fascists. The Italian nation was Fascist and making war against Ethiopia. It made little difference if a few Italians preferred to call themselves non-Fascists or Communists. He asked Professor Makepeace if he were aware that the Italian-American communities had organized their own mass meetings even in Harlem to raise funds which were donated to the Fascist war chest to prosecute the war against Ethiopia. And they, the Italians, had drawn no line between the Ethiopian people and the Ethiopian Empire. He could see no reason why Aframericans should be generous in sentiment to a people who were fighting their Ethiopian brothers without mercy.