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198 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
Pound hoped that his reputation as a poet might gain him an
audience in the United States. A most serious voice in the conduct
of American foreign policy at this time was that of Charlie
Chaplin. Pound could not hope to compete with this clown on his
own terms. His attempts to get radio time were rebuffed everywhere.
After the initial Times interview, the press and radio newsmen
closed their ranks against him. He was many months too early
to get in on the non-interventionist movement in the United States,
the "America First" group, which only began to function long after
he had gone back to Italy.
He went to Washington, and had lunch with Henry Wallace,
which, years later, caused Westbrook Pegler to suspect that Pound
had been mixed up with Wallace's guru, Nicholas Roerich. Pound
also conferred with Senator Harry Byrd. He says that he was
mildly disturbed by that gentleman's blithe comment, "Oh, you
can find anything in Jefferson!"
Pound had a chat with Senator Borah about Social Credit. The
Senator had evinced considerable interest in this system a few
years earlier, when Major Douglas had visited Washington. However,
as Borah remembered the occasion, when he had persuaded
a couple of Senators to listen to Douglas, the engineer failed to
expound the theory lucidly enough to hold their attention, and
they had drifted away.
Pound also talked with Senator Burton K. Wheeler, who would
later become a leader of the non-interventionist movement.
Wheeler said to Pound, "What do you expect me to do, when he's
packed the Supreme Court so that they will declare everything he
does constitutional?"
William Carlos Williams wrote to Robert McAlmon, May 25,
1939, "Ezra Pound is being mysterious about his comings and
goings. Pound looks like Henry VIII of England. He was wrapped
in sweaters and shirts and coats until I thought him a man mountain,
but after a while he returned to normal measurements again
—I think he was afraid of our damp spring weather!" 51
Ezra could have not suspected in 1939 that he was to spend
thirteen damp springs in Washington, or that he would contract
bronchitis during one of those seasons.
He spent some time with an old friend, Congressman George