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244 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
that informed the Founding Fathers, and which Professor de
Piña Martins has characterized as "excessively puritanical and
rigid." It is a vanishing spirit, but one occasionally encounters it
still in seeing some elderly gentleman resolutely marching along
in the chill of a Massachusetts winter, wearing scarf and gloves,
but no overcoat. It is a sense of duty that is incomprehensible to
today's "practical" or "modern" Americans, but it is the spirit
that built this nation.
Time commented on the broadcasts on January 26, 1942:
"Those best qualified to judge thought him the master versemaker
in English of his generation. He lived in a decaying palazzo
in Rapallo, on the Mediterranean shore near Genoa." Time also
noted that after the United States had declared war on Italy,
Radio Rome announced that "Dr. Ezra Pound, the well-known
writer, retired to continue his study of Chinese philosophy." This
was during the period when the Italian government refused to
allow Pound to continue his broadcasts, from December 7, 1941
to January 29, 1942.
Some Americans residing in Italy, like Giorgio Nelson Page,
gave up their American citizenship and became Italian citizens.
Pound not only refused to give up his American citizenship, but
went to a great deal of trouble to retain it.
Some years ago, he wrote to Hubert Creekmore, "Am I American?.
. . . Yes, and bugger the present state of the country, the
utter betrayal of the American Constitution, the filth of the Universities
and the . . . system of publication whereby you can
buy Lenin, Trotsky (the messiest mutt of the lot), Stalin for 10
cents and 25 cents, and it takes seven years to get a set of John
Adams at about 30 dollars." 11
Far from advocating fascism for America, Pound had said, "I
think the American system de jure is probably quite good enough,
if there were only 500 men with guts and the sense to use it, or
even with the capacity for answering letters, or printing a paper." 12
Pound's optimism concerning the future of fascism depended on
whether or not its officials would adopt his monetary reforms; he
was never as enthusiastic about its achievements as were many
business and political leaders in England and the United States.
Typical was Winston Churchill, a fervent admirer of Musso-