paper. It has stood for no politics; no religion-except the Word of God; no order; no news; no nothing but the sublime thoughts that came from my master mindand often scrambled eggs would be order compared to them. Therefore standing for nothing but eternal right-as I saw it-I had nothing to sell; I had nothing to offer if I quit the game—so it seemed up to me to simply announce that I would be back in a minute, a week, a month or a year-and if any of those who had been my readers wanted it when I returned I would arrange some way for them to get me word.

Warren, in his "Ten Thousand a Year," cautions his readers not to cut the Gordian knot; suggesting that the knot might have been untied had the impatient spirit waited only a moment longer-but I want it understood that I feel safe in cutting it in this instance. And then the Gordian knot business isn't just what it may seem to be at first blush. Because a Phrygian King tied the harness of his oxen into such a knot that Alexander the Great, in order to conquer Asia, cut the knot instead of untying it, hasn't anything to do with people who are not monkeying with oracles. Warren applied the Gordian knot to the suicide, and it is a matter of grave doubt whether a man gets quickly out of a difficulty by walking out into the night-the chances are he gets into a much worse one than he got out of. And it may be that the fellow who strangles a paying newspaper, when he walks back in a few years and looks the landscape o'er might think he missed itbut that, you know, would be another story. But even if I am making a mistake-there are others. We must not forget that Erostratus fired the Ephesian dome-wrought the destruction of that splendid pile simply to get his name in the personal columnand if I want to do the Erostratus actthe difference in my overt act and his is, that the dome is mine and concerns me only.

When I landed in Greensboro and commenced to deliberately spoil white paper by the ream, there were many who said I couldn't make a personal publication go down this way; they looked upon the ex

pense I was incurring with holy horror and wondered, indeed, if I had my mental poise with me. But I proceeded to show them that the trick could be turned-I knew the Jack was in the deck and I feel that I have made it.

Men are prone to take themselves too seriously, for that matter. They imagine that the great hinges of the world creak only when they open the door; they sit up o'nights wondering what the world would say if they were to drop out, when, indeed, it would make no difference. When Archimedes had racked his brain attempting to discover the relative qualities of gold and silver in Hiero's crown, it came suddenly to him one day, and in great ecstacy he leaped from the bath and ran naked through the streets of Syracuse crying, I have found it, I have found it-and really it made no difference. There is no reason why I should frantically yell that I have made a successI might have made a splendid failure, and indeed there was more grim beauty in the lines of the man who sung of failure than in the lines of him who told of success.

*

And yet, with all this philosophy; with all this assurance from myself to myself, I am going to be very frank with you as I write these lines this evening, and to use a choice Scriptural phrase, I hate like h to turn off the juice. It is the sentimentnot the dollarment.

But, as Jean Ingelow sang it:

Only my heart to my heart shall show it If I walk desolate day by day.

I understand perfectly well that the man who would stop on his way to the throne of God, if the throne was in sight and the door was open, to pick up a dollar, can't see how a human being is willing to stop making dollars in order to spend a few of them. And as about every nine men in ten are making dollars it is hard for me to explain to them my conduct. Victor Hugo, in his celebrated "Ninety-Three" said, "Vast horizons lead the soul on to wide, general ideas; circumscribed horizons engender narrow, one-sided conceptions, which condemn great hearts to be little in point of soul." That is to say the man who never saw beyond Buffalo Creek thinks the world ends

at Jamestown-and his soul naturally becomes as narrow as his vision.

Therefore once in awhile I have crossed the Atlantic ocean; I have crossed the continent a score and more of times-I have lived and worked in great cities, and naturally enough, I can't bring myself to the conclusion that a prohibitionist who was born just so is as good a citizen as the one who has taken the thirty-third degree in the Noble Order of Bacchus and then cut out his likker and refused to write a testimonial for Peruna.

But down to business: I have had many friends who have helped boom my Album of Song-friends for whom I have great respect. I recall that when Everything first made its appearance in Greensboro, Judge James E. Boyd went out of his way to talk about it on the streets and tell some of these natives that, they should support it; that it was a credit to a town ten times as large as this. The judge has forgotten all about that-but I never shall forget it-because kind words then were worth more to me than gold.

Hundreds of people in the state of North Carolina hastened to write me letters welcoming me back to the Tar Heel state, and whether or not I return again I shall always feel deeply grateful to those who extended the warm glad hand in the first days-in the days when the general public was first asked to render its decision, Shall it live or shall it die?

My advertising customers have been limited because I have always maintained a dead line-never allowed advertising to encroach on the reading matter space, and as the publication is bound, it is necessary to print pages in groups of four, and unless it was a case where two or more extra pages of business were sold it were folly to prepare and print the four-so I ever held it at the usual size unless a special issue was on, and then it has been as big as fifty-two pages-filled to the brim with paying business. The customers who have been steadfast of course have my many thanks, and I believe that the publicity I have given them has been worth the price.

Everything has ever tried to preach a moral for good. It has ever stood for decency and right. It has avoided sensationalism and it has avoided personalities. I could have made more money had I pandered to the vicious and depraved appetites of the many. I could have coined into gold the sorrows and the heart aches of the human race. But I have insisted always, that Everything should be clean. It should uplift and not degrade. It has been and is a success, and to make it that success it has walked over no bones and spilled no blood.

* * *

I have said that I was escaping a date line. I have said that I wanted no phantom of that sort to follow me in my waking hours and disturb when I laid down to sleep. Must will be changed into may. I expect to do some writing-enough to let my friends know of my whereabouts, during the months of my absence-and in order that any interested may know where to hear from me I will say that now and then-not oftener than once a week, and maybe not that often, I will appear over my real name in the Charlotte Observer-handing out the fads and fancies which suggest themselves to me as I plod along. My arrangement with that paper, while for my exclusive newspaper work, is not a contract to write so much or at any certain time. If the spirit moves I will write; if I am busy and do not feel like writing, there will be nothing doing so with the date line gone I will feel easy; will be easy and enjoy that peace of mind that passeth understanding to the newspaper man who must grind and grind and grind.

Upon my return and before my return I will make a business announcement of what to expect. It may be that I shall not print my next issue from Greensboro-that depends entirely on how I feel and how things look upon my home-coming-but it is already arranged that it will be printed in North Carolina and in a style as handsome as printers can make it.

Those who have paid in advance for the publication will receive by January first the

amount due them, while those in arrears will be notified to come across or they will fall into the hands of a relentless collecting agency and this I hope to avoid by having all who receive bills make prompt settle.

ment.

And now, for the present, I shall cease to murmur. I could go along in retrospective mood and write a dozen pages about Everything; about a half hundred things-but why should I insist upon chattering? In the oldest book in the languages of menthe Book of Job, we find him writing about Orion and the Pleiades-since then ten thousand astronomers have looked on the blue vaulted sky and written and talked and to'd no more than was told in the land of Uz. Plato claimed that he kept his ear to the ground and heard distinctly the vague music of the spheres-and since he heard the grand melody a million souls have listened, and not in vain-poets have sung and philosophers have written-but always and forever it is threshing out old strawfor true, indeed, as Solomon reproachfully

informed us, there is nothing new under the sun. I could tell of some experiences in soliciting business for this publication in the early days that would be amusing-but perhaps not instructive. I could tell about some letters received and how men and women changed fronts and became steadfast friends of the periodical-I could attune my harp and sing of a thousand things suggesting themselves as rapidly as scenes on the film of a moving picture apparatusbut it's all chaff-all been told, doubtless, even before Job cried out in his agony and regretted that he had not died and slept with the kings and counsellors of earth who built desolate places for themselves.

In other words, ladies and gentlemen, I am the only man in history who has voluntarily chloroformed a prosperous and established publication for the only reason that I want a vacation; want to paint my wagons; want to get out of the demnition grind long enough to realize it and enjoy it, and as I am acting advisedly I earnestly hope that it will not be suggested that I have made a mistake.

The labor movement in this country is passing through a phase which requires the careful consideration of every person who has any weight or influence in its counsels. It is not one incident alone which bears. witness to that fact, but a multitude of straws which show which way the stream of tendency is flowing. All these indications point in one direction, namely, that progress by organized constitutional means is too slow, and that it is necessary to adopt a policy unconstitutional, violent, and obstructive in order to achieve success. At the present moment this mental attitude centers round the problem of the unemployed, but that is only one aspect of it which may be adduced as proof of the general proposition. The labor party is invited to adopt "forcing tactics," and various illustrations are cited in proof of the success

of that method. One of these illustrations commonly used in argument is the woman's suffrage movement. Another, that of Mr. Plimsoll. Still a third is that of the Irish party during the 'eighties and 'nineties. It is not our purpose to closely analyze these illustrations, but we are convinced that any close student of history will deny that forcing tactics of the kind advocated have, as a rule, succeeded in attaining the desired end. Forcing tactics depend for their success on the end to be achieved, on the seizing the psychological moment for their application, and on their spontaneity. We believe they have never been a success as part of a deliberate campaign, but only when they have been the result of righteous indignation exercised at an effective moment. The constant preaching of the violent and destructive method being regu

larly and persistently applied as the ordinary political method, is a danger and a menace to the labor movement of the country.

Let us consider what this proposition implies. Apart altogether from the question as to whether these methods succeed or facilitate progress, there is a deeper and more abiding issue involved. Success is not everything. The means are often as important, and sometimes more important than the end. We hope to show shortly that militant methods do not necessarily lead to success, but we desire to enter our protest against the pernicious doctrine that success is the most important of all matters. During the South African war, free speech and free discussion were everywhere in danger from the attempt of organized mobs to break up meetings, to lay violent hands upon opponents, and to attack their houses. These methods were then excused by the present leader of the opposition on the ground that "there were limits to human endurance." We protested then, as we do now, against the idea that you could justify violence on any such grounds. Free speech and free discussion are a priceless heritage, won after many years of struggle. They are of much more importance than is usually realized, and any policy which endangers their continuance is one which the community must resolutely face and dispose of. The question we have to ask ourselves is not whether militant methods are successful, but whether they are right, whether they do not raise issues which are of much more vital importance to the community than the success of this or that agitation. The argument that the unemployed should themselves force matters by taking the law into their own hands and heedless either of parliament or of people, proceed to help themselves is one which raises questions of morals as well as of expediency, and we venture to assert that nothing can justify the resort to these methods till every other method has been tried and failed. At the present moment, the problem at issue is not so much the settlement of the unemployed question as the provision of the necessaries of life for those who are in want. The law of England is such that no man, woman, or child need perish, and we do not believe that the conscience of Eng

land would allow them to perish if only those who are in need will themselves make their necessity known. Under such circumstances violence cannot be justified by necessity, nor can stealing be advocated with any show of justification. The immediate need, therefore, is to obtain for the unemployed food and work, and we are glad to notice there now seems to be a disposition to fasten on this aspect of the problem for the immediate present, and to organize relief to meet the pressing needs of the moment. This is the more excellent way.

With regard to the question of success as applied to the advocacy of what we have called militant methods, we think it is necessary to ask what is meant by "success." If success means an immense advertisement, columns in the newspapers, the limelight constantly on individuals' doings and sayings, immense crowds rushing to hear a speaker, then we may admit that these militant methods have been a success. But if success and progress mean advance towards achieving the object we have in view, then the case assumes a very different aspect. Militant methods bring notoriety, but they do not bring bread to the hungry, work to the unemployed, or the vote to women. Indeed, while it is true that these methods inflame the mob, and bring excitement and notoriety to the individuals who employ them, they have often had the effect of injuring the very cause they are designed to assist. No one can deny who has a finger upon the political pulse, but that the methods of the militant suffragists have put back the "movement" for many years. With them the movement has become more than the cause, and as a consequence, the cause has suffered. The same danger threatens the unemployed movement. Attempts to bully parliament are foredoomed to failure. Neither violence outside it nor inside it are likely to facilitate progress in the least degree. We cannot play at revolutionary tactics. If, indeed, it be true that there is no course open to us but violence and coercion, then let us honestly admit it, throw up working through parliament, and organize the revolution to which we should be pledged. If, on the other hand, we are convinced that a labor party is necessary, and that it is only by organized, persistent, and