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238 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
prejudice in the United States. The curious idea that criticism of
one member of a group creates prejudice against the entire group
has not yet been codified into the U.S. Criminal Code.
And one can only wonder how the government officials could
have proved that Pound's broadcasts exhorting his fellow citizens
to live up to their Constitution could "increase the morale of the
subjects of the Kingdom of Italy," as charged in Count 3. One
broadcast was devoted to the career of James G. Blaine—only
Ezra could have involved Blaine in the Second World War.
"Pound distinguishes between American government de jure
and de facto," writes Professor Giovannini, "and the attack is
directed at a de facto government which, as he understands it
historically, has been since the Civil War in the hands of public
servants who, more in ignorance than in malice, failed to realize the
social and economic principles of the Founding Fathers. They
failed, he argues, to implement the article in the Constitution giving
Congress the absolute power to issue money and 'regulate the
value thereof.' To Jefferson and John Adams the meaning of this
Congressional power was clear: by it the nation's sovereignty is
assured. But in Pound's view the meaning was subsequently
blurred, and the power passed from Congress." 5
As pointed out in Esquire, February, 1958, "No one familiar
with Pound's work or his politics would fail to recognize the
broadcasts as his own. Every year brings the correctness of his
views more closely into focus. The idea that an American poet
would be able to capture an enemy microphone and put it to his
own use will no doubt escape the notice of those unable to distinguish
Italians from Germans. Many people even today recoil
from the suggestion that Pound was able to achieve a degree
of freedom of speech—free radio speech—that was not available
to him in this country under the Roosevelt administration."
Since 1945, many persons have sought refuge in the Constitution,
particularly when accused of Communist espionage activities
within the United States, but Pound's espousal of its principles
over Radio Rome was not an appeal for himself. Unlike the Communists,
he was not hiding behind it—he was urging his countrymen
to use it, or at least to read it.
In November, 1956, the Washington Star printed a letter from