4pQonT

340 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
"While from this microphone many words of historic importance
have been pronounced, by men of great authority, by the
highest spiritual authority in the world, it is now a humble writer
of this harassed and suffering Europe of ours who raises his voice
in defense of a poet. And to speak in defense of a poet such as
Pound is to defend the principles of human liberty and dignity,
and the supremacy of spiritual values—principles and values
which the United States recognizes as her own, and of which she
justly proclaims herself the pioneer."
We have reproduced only a portion of Professor de Piña
Martins' fine speech, but the entire tribute is worth reading. Interestingly
enough, A Casebook on Ezra Pound, edited by William
Van O'Connor and Edward Stone, is subtitled "Pro and Con Selections".
However, the "Pro" items, of which this is only one, are
notable by their omission. The Vatican broadcast was widely circulated
in printed form, and it is odd that it did not come to these
editors' attention. Perhaps the iconoclastic reference to Roosevelt
as "only a man" offended them. We remember the abortive efforts
to enshrine him as a risen god in 1945, and it is satisfying to note
that the Democratic Party avoids reference to him as much as
possible, due to the revelations of his guilt in the Pearl Harbor
massacre, and only tolerates the occasional exhibition of his relict.
De Pifia Martins emphasizes Ezra's allegiance to the American
Constitution, which indirectly calls attention to the fact that all of
his constitutional guarantees were suspended when he was arrested;
they were further suspended by the charge of "mental
illness," and were not restored until his release after thirteen years
of imprisonment. When he was brought before a jury of his
"peers", the jury unhesitatingly accepted the testimony of the
government psychiatrists that he was insane. Pound was never
examined by a psychiatrist of his own choosing, and has not been
to this day.
On October 19, 1954, Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary General of
the United Nations, reviewed the contemporary scene at the Museum
of Modern Art. In his speech, he said, "Modern art teaches
us to see by forcing us to use our senses, our intellect, and our
sensibility, to follow it on its road of exploration. It makes us seers
—seers like Ezra Pound when, in the first of his Pisan Cantos, he