To Channing Pollock [Letter 53]

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April 28, 1941

Mr. Channing Pollock
600 West End Avenue
New York City

Dear Mr. Pollock:

My compliments and congratulations on the letter which you are sending out. I think it is excellent and will get the kind of response we need.

Our list of names looks very impressive—I hope we will get all or most of them to join us. Here are the addresses of which you were not certain:

Carl Snyder
c/o The Macmillan Company
60 Fifth Avenue
New York City

James Truslow Adams
c/o America’s Future, Inc.
205 East 42nd Street
New York City

Dr. Haake
c/o American Economic Foundation
Hanna Building
Cleveland, Ohio

S. B. Pettengill
c/o America’s Future, Inc.
205 East 42nd Street
New York City

I have thought of three more names, in addition to Lothrop Stoddard and Mons. Sheean whom I mentioned to you over the telephone. They are: H. L. Mencken (I believe he can be reached through the American Mercury), Mary Roberts Rinehart, c/o Farrar & Rinehart, Dr. Ruth Alexander, c/o American Economic Foundation, 100 East 42nd Street, New York City.

Thank you for the copy of “Why Hate The Man Who Gets Ahead?” I enjoyed reading it very much. I think it is good—because it presents an important thought which is not being stressed often enough today.

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The Manifesto took twelve hours Saturday and fifteen yesterday—I go at it with interruptions only for meals.[*] I shall have it finished tomorrow and mail it to you as soon as it is typed. It will be quite a bit longer than 2,500 words, because it must present the whole groundwork of our “Party Line” and be a basic document, such as the Communist Manifesto was on the other side. However, I think the problem can be solved by having two Manifestos; that is, a very short declaration of our principles and aims—for the purpose of recruiting members, and the complete text for those who join. I shall have them both ready to submit to you within the next few days.

I do not think that recruiting will prove to be a major problem. Once started, it will go on its own momentum. The need is there. So is the audience. Just let people know what we are doing and we won’t have to go after them—they will come to us. As far as rank-and-file membership is concerned, I believe I can get hundreds within a few days. The major step, I think, is to get our Committee together.

And I can’t tell you how happy I am that we have started.

Sincerely yours,

*“The Individualist Manifesto” was an 8,000-word statement of AR’s ethical/ political philosophy, which has not been published. She also wrote a 1,500 word version entitled “The Individualist Credo,” published in the January 1944 issue of Reader’s Digest as “The Only Path to Tomorrow” (which was re-worded without Ayn Rand’s approval). Her unedited version of the Reader’s Digest piece is published in The Ayn Rand Column.