Adventure, August 3, 1919 — page 195: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“A, 7 a ‘ -— “ - ; '? > FE, i : ee of meeting other wandering or resident comrades? peek URAL ae ____- Nothing pretentious. Just a “station,” which might be in a tobacco-shop or any old place that was reputable. Bar-rooms — _ and such barred. (Oh, yes, I know the objections to barring them, but this matter we . ve f % ee nk een 3 _ Looking Ahead for Democracy -_ ~ siti fe ee ill —_ * w+ i) i ¥ a eat = has to be considered from the general aspect and there are sound reasons for not making bar-rooms our permanent and “official’’ homes.) How about it? Yesorno? If yes, what suggestions? —ARTHUR SULLIVANT HOFFMAN. BY THE time this reaches you in print we shall ~~ know the result of the call for action on June twenty-fifth. I do not expect that the world will be set on fire, but I do hope that here and there some seeds will be sown, some publicity given to the needed work and enough workers enlisted to _ form the nucleus of an organization that itself is built on democratic lines. __ Achoice had to be made. First, organize by the usual method with the usual backing from men with money and the usual control by a few men at the head. It is the easier method and far more likely c ; _ to succeed than the second, but it would be trying rs _ to further real democracy by an organization that is itself an autocracy. So the second method was _ chosen, despite the fact that it is almost impossible _ to make much headway at first by means of it, At least it does not betray democracy from the start. _ And in the long run it will be of more avail. _ The movement must be from the people them- . selves, of them, by them, at all times under their ‘ control, Better a small ght one than a big wrong one, . =e . _ SFUNCE this is being written in the middle of _ May, there can be no guessing whether the Fesponse to the call will be very small or fairly con- siderable. But there is always the fact that even a ew seeds sown will be working—in ways no man —: * @g- a *¢ & “a * @ led a * » a he oa * Pe cw rm * oe a a) \ wi a» . St oy ~~ ~~ . « <t%, ‘ - , = -- +. ., oY 3 * «f LOOKING AHEAD FOR. DEMOCRACY ‘ can measure—the right leaven into the national fer- ment. Sooner or later enough of the people to be effective will see the need and take hold. So far as I personally am concerned, I have done what little I could in the way that seemed soundest and there is nothing more that I can do except con- tmue preaching and working in a smal! way. Little enough, but I am only one American. You are another. There are many millions of us. It is no more my work than it is yours or any other Ameri- can’s. It lies with you fully as much as with any- body else, ST what shape this department will take from / now on I do not know. Many interesting let- _ ters have come in, proving the seriousness with which many Americans are considering the road ahead of this people. Perhaps we can make the department a forum. You will remember that it was started as a forum but, the war being not yet over, there were not enough who saw the coming problems of peace to keep it going. Now it is dif- ferent. The future has become the present. The difficulty would be in selecting, from so many opin- ions on so many subjects, letters for print in such way that balance and fair hearing could be main- tained in our small space. The department will have to be worked out as it goes along.—aA. S. H.