A PAGE OF EXCLUSIVE FEATURES
A PAGE OFEXCLUSIVE FEATURES Springfield's Old And New Heroes rSpringfield, 111. E been reading the collected poems of Vachel Lindsay out here in Springfield, Illinois, the poet's home town.Vid...
...OTSbseS Wanes...
...7S Fifth Avenue, which she helped to organise and whose purpose* tt is to help liberal and radical men and women who may be in difficulties...
...Altgeld spent four harrassed years here...
...Once upon a time there was a good farms* I who owned a mule who went by the name) *¦§ Batty...
...I made all my acquaintances • think me madder than usual by the pertinacity with Which I attended debating societies and haunted an sorts of hole-andcorner debates and public meetings preenteet of the Local...
...and it was not Win 1 had come to the point of being SH* to deliver separate lectures, wltaoutvietea, ea Rent, Interest...
...Profits, Wage...
...yf But now winter had come...
...Are yea* hep now...
...tittle province that has no use ffr beauty m any shape...
...The puWic library and thp bookstore were as eHTfify as ever...
...It just may be, good folks, that the pendulum is beginning to swing back and that the first revolt from the hypocrisy and hokum of the Coolidge administration is1 coming from the land: Of course you can't put too much faith hi the present bitterness of the farmer...
...trade *J»ns...
...Communism, Anarchism, Trade Unionism, Co-operation, Democracy, the* Division of •Society into Classes, and the Suitability of •Human Nature to Systems ef Just Distribution, that I wee able to handle Social Democracy as it must.be handled before it can be preached in such a way as te present it to every sort of man bom hie own particular point of view...
...In this way only can the natural end esquired advantages of the country be equitably shared by the whole people...
...And then after making some ex* traneous remarks about dumbbells and horse* heads, he told me the parable of the mole aasl the miner which I take pleasure in passing $•/ to you as well as I can remember rt...
...and must prevail...
...Triumpjiant Right Good in...
...Shoots through the undergrowth and tops the glade j To light and air and heavenly spaces freed...
...Lindsay was outcast by the respectables...
...Lincoln walked its streets...
...For, owing to the monopoly of the means ef production In the past, industrial inventions and the transformation of surplus income into capital have mainly enriched the proprietary class, the worker being new dependent "upon that class for means to esrn a living...
...but when the time comes you must strike hard, as Fablus did, or your waiting will be in vain and fruitless...
...I thought f saw a great light...
...Noel Sargent of -the National Manufacturers Association thinks that England's gSgMjg are due 1q ,'rjie^dlcsojCQ£''-43CliticJa4i» fy have conceded too much to the...
...Batty had worked since early l^ljajfi plowing, harrowing, drilling, cutting, OShU . hauling oats...
...And because many of those who fought beside her through such labor struggles as tie Pater son strike, ths Lawrence Strike, the Hew York waiters' strike In 1911, the...
...Organization of the Fabians THE HISTORY OF SOCIAL^ THOUGHT By HARRY W. LAIDLER...
...E been reading the collected poems of Vachel Lindsay out here in Springfield, Illinois, the poet's home town.Vid when I come to his vision of the Golden City of Springfield, a beautiful garden spot, peopled with free souls, I look out of the window and am close to tears...
...Perclval Chubb and William Clarke *«>e among the early signers, later followed by H. Q. Wells, Beatrice P. Potter Webb...
...The occasion for the first gathering was tad visit of Thomas Davidson from America...
...Toryism...
...H. W. Massing - bam, JBdward B. Pease, H. H. Champion...
...Ph D SOME two years after the organization of 9 Hyndfflan's Federation, a small group of earnest students started, in the fall of 1883, a series of meetings which resulted in the formation of the Fabian Society...
...and must prevail, and Love alone...
...A man's Socialistic acquisitiveness must be keen, enough to make him actually prefer spending two or three nights a week in speaking and debating or in picking up social information even in the most dingy and scrappy way, to going to the theatre, or dancmgf or drinking, or even sWeethearting, if he is to become a really competent propagandist—unless, of course, bis daily work la of such a nature as td be In itself a training for political life...
...His handiwork,- aborted baddy, **8*sTafM the coal we fellows dog and he struger sji • that light so we can't buy any of H at negj| 4 when there ain't anybody around to tsOLVt the price...
...And youth did not speak to youth, but sat and sat, exposing tonsils to the fetid air...
...Thcr» stoeaCeHl under his belly and a roof over his ears ssjjfl on very cold nights, he is even blentetesf down by the good farmer, which,mean* that Balls/ll wages go on...
...7 The Society, Basis ' . A few years after the formation of u»e society m 1887, tt hammered out its basse which, with slight modification, remains the basis of the present day: "The Fabian Society consists of So ciaflsfk...
...Dinner to Honor Gurley Flynn February 14 Keeping alive and radiant the iteming light of a frith for twenty years, through the storm and * stress and achievements of an active life, is a singularly outstanding attainment- In this world of ours...
...The latter group sympathised with the work that was being done by the Social democratic Federation...
...But how in the hell cast s fellow draw a comparison between a mule and a miner when one is a dumb brute while ake> other is made in the image of God nod SaSsi dowed with his Creator with certain inallssirt able rights, among them, life, liberty, and tiK J pursuit of happiness, and how can a fellow wok* without coal when it's twelve below aad kawjj can he enjoy liberty when he is not pernpjttoevl to dig coal and is put^p jail when he «m>mm§i coal and how can one jWirsue happiness g/6ef>J one is pursued by the constable...
...At first they sat around the walls, young men with their hair gdoed down and so cut that it looked as though a band of Sioux In* dians had been on a scalping expedition...
...Be fester wrote U tne inmates ef tne ftret mssttng ha attended la May ef that year: "This meeting was spade memmtlOm try taw first appearanee at Bernard snew.~ Sidney Webb, who free* Ssatined to become the Soeletys most important figure, Joined bs ISM, along with hie colonial ettee colleague...
...For the Springfield of reality, the bigoted little town that did all ft could to crucify Lindsay when, as a young and naming spirit, he distributed his poems oh its dirty Streets, is as far from the poet's dream of beauty as a skunk cabbage is from a rose...
...If the light were faUBH the miners in the neighborhood would sspaesV up consumption, and that in torn would strmolate production and besides that great light tt a knock at the immortal Declaration of Index pendence, and in glaring violation of the IseW* mutable law of supply gnd demantL^^^^lj Get Into the Rank Men in that time d Spasliig « Shell work sag has* no fear . ' " '9 Fer^m-morrow-s lack of eamsag Jk...
...Never once'did the citizens of Springfield cast a majority vote for Lincoln, whose name they now plaster over every building...
...Rose Pastor Stokes and Arturo aiovannlttt, beads the committee on arrangements...
...It isn't sofcard when you realize Springfield's real hero today, the man whom the town honestly honors, is head of a big mail-order concern in Chicago...
...free-speech fight m Oregon <during which she was sentenced to prison), strikes in Pennsylvania, In Ohio, In Montana, In any State where her courageous services were needed—want to honor her, a dinner Is being arranged for her at the Torkville Casino...
...Rise thenffgiajestlc Love, each heart a> throne...
...Burst tfirbngb...
...And- then out on the platform came the first pair of dancers and the saxophone started its sexy wail and there was a sudden stirring among the peasantry...
...In other words, Batfy-y is out of work, but not out of luck...
...The Society attracted some of the most brilliant of the younger men of TsSglsfil Ossrgs ttsfistflt Shew tented K » September, i*M...
...Naming the Society On January i, the society was formally organised as the Fabian Society, and for a convenient motto took the following motto: , "For the right moment you must wait, as Fablus did...
...w4avS Being a little thick m the head, aa yoo jjjjjl know, I asked for particulars and then IhfhBJJM plained that after the coal was in the iflH the miners were laid off because there Wtkm more coal than could be sold and that in eBBgsjB sequence o-Lthe lay-off, pay days licit— mmmmgm memories whd that sweet memories not stM ing currency, the miners couldn't buy any fiC the coal they had dug wherefore they wejsg refrigerating in the intimate proximity of mm over-supply of potential radiation...
...In speaking ot his pioneer days, Bernard Shaw wrote: "My own .experience may be taken as typical...
...But this is not a particularly cheerful •subject...
...Obrornmsnt Board at an smarten*v Par item eat where a Fabian ministry bad to put he proposals tfi black cad White tat fbe> Shape ef Parliamentary Bins...
...119 Bast 86th street, for Sunday night, February 14...
...most patiently, when warring against Hannibal, though many censured bis delays...
...if he had dug coal instead of rasa*J ing oats, bis wages would have atoppdal esj| minute the coal was on the dumps...
...love is...
...Of course, M mule had drawn good wages through fhelMUSjr* season and if he had been a miner, the f*WpS|K I might have told him to save some of his wasjao f ' —I mean his hay and oats for the cold dojiM to come and not bother him with out-ef-woskj insurance, which is nothing but pay for jfcM work and...
...Oh, what's the use going am...
...These men are normally as conservative as they come, rock-ribbed Republiqans for the most part...
...Liberalism, socialism...
...thick Lawrence, Sir Lee Cbloaea Money, G. D. H. Cole, Kelr Haidie and a host of others...
...and that, we know, te the case with eery* few of us Indeed...
...cannot Irs gainsaid...
...oh so smug...
...Rise Monarch Love, engird the world with mirth...
...else fee would sot blow pa mpSE money to show it cat at night ana) autre fee tkepj wilds and wool*** wJsaee hardly assji Sal, MfJ see it...
...Even the motion picture theatres were not full...
...A group ot eveUknown persona including Roger Baldwin, .Charles W. Ervin...
...But here were husky sons of the soil committing lese majeste all over the lot...
...For the attainment of these ends ths Fabian Society looks to ths spread ef Socialist opinions, and the social snd political changes consequent thereon, including the establishment of equsl citizenship for men snd womenIt seeks to achieve these ends by the general disseminstion of knowledge «« to the deletion betwese the Individual and society in its economic, ethical and political aspects...
...The Society accordingly works for' the extinction of private property in land and of the consequent individual appropriation in the form ef rent, of the price paid for permission to use the earth, ss well ss for the advantages of superior-eoils end sites...
...Stet the e>sein agnae wAsusd east wessM jg TTmt^th«^r>a w D^«^|i^^^&»^L^OSSaWss...
...3 Nof if Batty had been a miner Titstesui of gja plain male...
...It was the spirit of the times made atjast articulate through twisting legs and heaving hips...
...Art Young...
...Ramsey Maedonald...
...The group that met were divided between those Who emphasised individual regeneration gnd those who felt that their main emphasis should be laid on social, rather than individual, progress...
...He's always a temperamental economist and by 1928 he may be out shouting his lungs away for Cal...
...And never once was the town moved by the spirit of its great ones...
...Yet, that is what Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, fighting champion of the workers' rights for two decades, has suceeded in accomplishing...
...Every one in town was headed for the arsenal where a local paper was putting on a Charleston contest...
...The society, further, works for the transfer to the eommunity ef the administration of Such Industrial capital as can be conveniently managed socially...
...Year by year he gives the people cheaper heat and power and light, while always under the most bitter attack on the part of, the private owned companies...
...rn am artist," say* 1 . "He is proad et-mW handiwork...
...consumption...
...At the foundation off all the prosperity the city has they are despised and rejected and go on their way wjth a happy-go-lucky, disregard for the public's opinion of them that js delightful to behold...
...It prepared and Introduces' many legislative measures...
...For some year* I attended the Hampstead Historic Club once a fortnight, and spent a night in the alternate weeks at S> private circle of economists which bis since blossomed into the British economic Association—a circle where the social question was left out,-and the work kept on abstract scientific lines...
...The frost,it afH the pumpkin and the fodder under lock, whtcJsA poetical expression means that the oats aro z in the bin and that from now until sprinsr,^ there is nothing to do for Batty but to e*0 drink and makV»merry...
...second, it appeared to ignore what may be called the spiritual side ot Ufe, and to disregard the ethical changes necessary to render a different social system possible...
...Besides, the mule knows he is a snuSs, ge> W never makes an ass of himself by ptesBjfiasaljM that he is a nightingale, while the nuacr M sjm that He is a free born, independent eidteftK and a sovereign voting king, and aa good ill the next one and maybe a darned sight beaenea^ So I wish the department of justice ear tfedj Society for the Prevention of Ctgettr 3B Animals, or somebody would make that spaXj company remove the great light over that sjsjsjl hill...
...They thrilled to the swing of it and soonsthe floor was filled with swaying figures that resembled for all the world the bobbing machines in some huge factory...
...The Society developed a pamphlet 'literature whleh has secured aa international reputation tor its high Scholarship and literary style...
...It don't do gay good to arrybody, sjogi even the eomgwny, lor it's a constant rsjssaustkgjjj that there is over-production''of coal wkxksj keeps down prices...
...If these measures be carried out, without compensation (though not without such relief to expropriated individuals as may seem fit to ths community), rent and interest will bs added to the reward of labor, the idle class now living on the labor of others will necessarily disappear, and practical equality of opportunity will be maintained by the spontaneous aetion of economic forces with meeh lees Interference with personal liberty than the present system entails...
...The other night I found where the real Interest of this typical small town lies...
...As in the forest, taagUng briar and Weed Pass when the acorn, rising king indeed...
...Never onte did the people of Springfield recognize the grandeur of Altgeld's soul and the name of the greatest of Illinois' governors is strll taboo in Springfield's country club circles...
...encouraged its members to eater legislative bodies...
...If I had pulled anything like that in New York the American De.fen%e Society would have .been after me with tar barrels...
...Well, he has the consolation of •¦Owing that his class rules here...
...Every Sunday I teetered on some subject wKfda I Wanted to teach to myself...
...This, was what got them, this jerky mechanical'jazz, this dance that might have come direct from dark jungles...
...Ut^tlsb store aims at tne reorganise tien ef eeelety by the emaneTpation of land and industrial capital from individual and elaSS ownership.- and the vesting of them in the eommunity for the general benefit...
...Solon DeLeon...
...Abraham SUplaeoff, Harry Kelly...
...Davidson wad a descendant of the Utopians of Brook Farm and the Phalanstery, "and what he yearned for was something in the nature of a community of superior people withdrawn from the world because of lie wickedness, and showing by example how a higher llt« might be led...
...This is an oh so respectable...
...Yes," says I, "only I don't know what jett mean...
...the tangling Weeds that cltpg to earth, . . 1 Pro-.- out of littleness *o ttrfngs of worth which man may now arise ana make" Ms own...
...H. G. Wells afterwards pointed out...
...I talked with a group of Illinois corrt farmers the other day...
...McAlUter Coleroam...
...Sir Sidney Carrier...
...Beside them sat their lanky, flat-chested little flapper beaux...
...And then he went as to i iilljjjj in that profoundly profane manner of law tisgS the pile of coal was the visible a rid saws c4 «jg working of the immutable law of grtpejy p*j£| demand which caused* the well-know* fktf*A nomena of over-prod action by megJU of tf efJV...
...But if the arid little man from Vermont were to run for the Presidency right now, his vote in the corn-belt would "be as light as his social thinking, than which there is nothing lighter...
...They stayed outside this organisation, however, partly because "it assumed that a revolutionary change affecting the very bases of society could be brought about at once...
...In return, the good farmer folsfS wages to B,tty, meaning that he prorid4*i4sBj|jj with enough hay and oats to develop his sttUtfS power for the farmer was a wise one aad otNji jected to pulling his own implements...
...He getof bis three squares a? usual...
...And what they . said about Coolidge and the Republican Administration was enough to make the hair of a Union League \:hair warmer stand up in holy horror...
...At the November 7 meeting of the group, afterr much discussion regarding Che efficacy of moral and social reforms, the following resolution was passed: "The members of the .Society assert that the competitive system assures the happiness .and comfort of the few at the expense of the suffering of the many and that society must be reconstituted in sncb a manner as to secureathe general welfare and happiness...
...however, that Fabine never did striae nerd...
...It's the money, boys and girls, and against it all your fine poetic frenzy, all your love for your fellows, your dreams of a new and purer world will -oot avail...
...There is "Willis Spaulding, for example, the fine-visioned Commissioner of Public Property, who has a quotation from Henry George hung up in his office and is giving the country a stunning example of how Well public QM/nership works...
...mule, confound it all—I mean the uilnmTafsjB if he came around to eat some of the oats ke]£ raised—no, NO—carry home some of the cost j he dug, of would get a load of buckshot fct nta vicinity of his tail—that is, his coat tsl SgafcJ I'm* getting all tangled up...
...aided in the organisation of the Labor Party and arranged for thousands of lectures by Its members before every conceivable group...
...How account for the essential drabness of our small towns...
...Vernal, triumphant, monarch of the mtadr So Right must conquer...
...Annie Besent, Hubert Bland...
...It is at such lecturing and debating work, and on squalid little committees and ridiculous little delegations re conferences of the three tailors of Ssoley street, with perhaps a depntaon to the mayor thrown in once in a blue moon* or so, that the ordinary Fabian workman or clerk must qualify for his future seat on the Town Council, the School Board, or perhaps in the Cabinet...
...Sidney Htltman...
...Hate, malice, freed, Must- fall before the remnant Right, and fade...
...The dinner is under the auspices of the League for Mutual Aid...
...And there are, of course, the miners, real folks, looked down on by the pimply drug clerks and bank cashiers who constitute the town's "society...
...Rose & Soar land...
...concluded Buddy...
...There are men and women in Springfield who are above the battle and yet in it...
...La addl*| tion, the\ farmer, I mean the operator fMNw| have placed a great light on top of mmrnl ffaI of oats—Aiix, that pile of coal—mfc^missl tfc*v...
Vol. 3 • February 1926 • No. 4
