4pQonT

242 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
of Rapallo and signed by sixty citizens of the town, which was
sent to Professor Giovannini, October 18, 1948:
". . . It is not true that he took part in Fascist activities in
this city. There is no record of his presence at local meetings, nor
was he a member of Fascist organizations. He was always considered
an American citizen, a friend of Italy, openly sympathetic
with certain Fascist principles of a social economic nature and
with the struggle against communism which he believed was a
danger to the United States themselves. During the war Mr.
Pound continued to reside in Rapallo, and from his mode of life
it was evident that he did not enjoy privileges, but that he suffered
hardships and economic privations. Since it is an evident
fact that he never acted from motives of profit, he was able to
keep the respect of even those neighbors of his who disagreed
with his political opinions. During the long years of residence in
Rapallo, Mr. Pound's activity was always artistic and cultural, as
illustrated in his writings in literary criticism and political economy.
He always conducted himself properly and never engaged
in anti-Semitic activity." 8
The fact that Pound was not acting from motives of profit was
undoubtedly the cause of much suspicion. George Sylvester Viereck
told me that when he was conducting a pro-German propaganda
organ in New York in 1915, two government agents
visited him and examined his books. They were satisfied that he
was being paid a salary for his work, and this seemed a great
relief to them. One of them told him, "We had heard that you
were doing this because you believed in it, but so long as you
are just doing it for pay, it's all right."
The New York Times noted on March 8, 1944, that the National
Institute of Arts and Letters, which had accepted Pound
as a member in 1938, refused to expel him until he had been
convicted of the charge against him: "Mr. Pound, like every
other citizen of the United States when indicted for a crime,
must be presumed innocent until proven guilty after a fair and
impartial trial in which he is entitled to benefit of every reasonable
doubt arising from the evidence. The Institute, as a national
organization, stands for ideas expressed in the Bill of Rights.
Until and unless Mr. Pound is convicted by a jury of the charges