Imperial Valley press., 1912-10-28
place OF a manifest destiny" to talk
bout on the 4th of July.

place of a manifest destiny" to talk
about on the 4th Of July.
Even the writer's have awakened.
Not merely the muckrakers; some of
them have had visions for years; ;
helped to give it to the rest of the
country; but what seems almost shock
ing in America, dramatists, essayists
and purveyors of pleasant fiction are
opening their eyes to facts of our gre
garious existence which may not al
ways be pleasant" but are more in
teresting and important than anything
they ever invented. Artists and archi-
tects are also beginning to see the
light. All America is awakening
Take the Cornish colony in New
Hampshire as a case in point. 1t is
made up of men and women who could
easily qualify, if they cared to, as
"highbrows." That is, they know more
than most people and are not ashamed
of it. This summer, however, instead
of talking about Maxfield Parrish's
new paintings, or the placing of st.
Gauden's last statue, they were all,
men and women U might almost say
especially the women), talking poll
ties from lunch to bedtime, even to the
neglect of tennis. Another striking
thing about this was that with the
exception of two or three older mem
bers of the colony they were all out
andout Bull Moosers.
For that matter the majority of all
Americans in arts and letters are rap
idly going over to the new party-al-
ways excepting, of course, those who
are too old to conceive new ideas. At
any rate, it is safe to make that gen
eralization about the majority of my
own profession. Some of them are
running for office, like Winston
Churchill, Progressive candidate for
governor Of New Hampshire. Others
have declined nominations and are
campaigning for fellow Progressives,
like William Allen White of Kansas
Others are doing neither, but are
working for the cause in the only
way they have learned how to work
One man has temporarily given up all
his time to ii and is now doing day
and night shifts, free of charge, in
the publicity department of the ma
tional headquarters. (And when a
writer, gentle reader, gives all his time
ii means all his earnings. There is no
partner to look after his business in
his absence, no salary that "goes on
just the same" When an author shuts
down his desk his whole plant is shut
DOWN.
1 have recently seen a list of no
less than 35 other writer's of national,
many of them international, repute,
" IN IF hair 1iaf in,
party, have offered their pens in its
behalf.
1 consider this one of the most sig
nificant things in all this memorable
campaign. Not just because they are
doing it gratis Gncluding those who
can get $500 or $1,000 apiece for their
short stories, and also those who can
not and are therefore the more gen
erous of the two). The significant,
the unprecedented feature of all this,
is that they are interested enough to
do it at all.
Why are they doing it?
1t would be difficult even for the
average ignorant Wall street broke
to believe that there is much ''in it
for them" No pay, and if it's pub
| licity they're after they could get as
much, or more, with pay included, by
writing something else. Much as il
may be regretted by those who think
they know human nature" because
they live by fooling it, this group of
writer's Cthe preliminary 35, who are
but a nucleus) are going into this
thing from conviction.
Some of them, like Richard Hard
ing Davis, for instance, or Frederic
Palmer, might be accused of offer
ing their services from a mere sense
of personal loyalty to Colonel Roose-
welt, though after reading the for
mer's descriptions Of the Bull Moose
convention it would be hard to fancy
Mr.. Davis in any other party, no mat
ter who headed it.
Others, like Herbert Croly, author
of The Promise of American Life, -
who is to deliver the Godkin lectures
at Harvard this year, might be ac-
cused of backing the new party be-
cause its platform backs many of his
ideas, ideas he was working out dur
ing the ten years spent upon his nota-
BILE and much quoted book. The same
might be said of Walter Weyl, the au-
more so. He. l understand. had a hand
in writing the platform.
Still others, like Hamlin Garland,
John T. McCutcheon and Henry XII
chill Webster, are adherents of tht
new party, perhaps because they live
in the middle of the country and feeI
that they see better what the whole ma