Nome industrial worker., 1908-03-20

beats ever the fiercest. Just because he is standing in front, because he must be ever pressing forward into new and untried paths, he is pecul- iarly liable to error. Because he must be ever ready to defend his opinions he grows dogmatic. Since it is only through intensity that progress is made, he bcomes narrower that he may strike the keener blows. The old breadth of view, unbiased judg ment and broad culture that he once cherished as his dearest mental equip ment falls away from the constant hammering at one point. Old books and old friends alike drop out of his life, and the tragedy of vicarious sacrifice is enacted once more in the human heart.
 How gladly he would know more of the worlds of art and literature and music only one who has loved and lost these things can tell. But if he looks toward these pleasant pastures with longing eyes there ever rises be- tween him and them the ghost of the immediate routine demanding instant attention. Worse still, the old friends that he wished so much to draw still closer to himself must be discarded even if, as is all too frequently the case, they have not already taken the initiative and cut him out of their lives.
 Because the world of capitalism measures success only with the dollar mark, he is soon looked upon with pity by the friendly few, who do not understand that he had hoped to find his reward in the work itself, and with scorn by the many, who look upon him simply as a ''failure. ' Over and over again this hydra headed financial problem rises athwart his path. The synthesis of capitalism, this question beats in upon him on every side from out the environment that gave it birth. Hurled back into that environment. Antaeus like, it gains strength with each rebound, and comes back with ever sharper darts and heavier blows.
 You thought perhaps the Socialist agitator was impervious to the ''slings and arrows of fortune" You fancied because you had seen him standing on some street corner smiling with quiet scorn into the face of the mob that hurled into his face all the vile that nothing would cause him to vince. An, but that opposition was all but a part of the great and serious game upon which he entered when he took up the cause of Socialism. He had reckoned with and overthrown that mob months and years before he stood upon the street corner plat form. O:,perhaps you saw him coolly smiling over some bit of flying abuse bestowed upon him by. a capitalist daily, and you felt sure that after this no criticism would ever be felt deeply. You forgot that this form of abuse is but the signal that his shot went home, that his blows had found their mark.
 But shots from within the ranks, knife blows that come from the hands of those with whom he is trying to fight, these find exposed spots in his armor, spots which he left exposed because he never dreamed of attack from those directions.
 At the beginning he thought also to have clothed himself in an impen- etrable armor against the blows of want. He prepared himself to suffer physical discomfort, even to hunger and cold, and thought that nothing could ever break through the protec- tion of his self-renunciation. Sud denly the blow falls, not upon his own shoulders, but upon those of wife and children, and the iron creeps down into the very heart depths. Slowly the wound sears over, but ever bleeds beneath the scar, because by some frightful contradiction he feels as if the knife that laid him low re- oeived it's impulse from his own hand.
 Suddenly the mode of attack changes. Instead of deep thrusts and stunning blows that drain the life blood and stagger mind and body, there comes shower of stinging poisoned darts. He hears it hinted that the shabbiness with which neces- sity has freed him to dress is dema- gogic affectation. Before the hurt of this sting has passed away, one of those with whom he is linked in com rade ties of common aims and labor hints that he is living on the move. ment.'' The retoIt that it would be more truthful to say that he is "dy ing on the movement" may send the