Evening star., 1922-10-25
"Our American Adventure"
Wish Expressed Nearly Thirty Years Ago Turns Out
to Be Prophecy When American and British
Soldiers Fight Side by Side, Says Brit
ish Author.
BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.
ish Author.

| their work. In old days when ! lee
| tured on the war ] used to get severe
| heart palpitations after my lectures
| Never once has this happened to me
| since | took up my spiritual mission.
but my strength has always proven
| greater with every new demand.
ON the occasion of my last lecture
! in New York | introduced Mr.. Arthur
| Stilwe' "a the audience. sa wing. ~
am only in a position to talk of these
wonderful matters. but here is man
who experiences them in his own
person" He came up onto the plat
| form at my request and acquitted
/ himself very. well in a quarter of an
| hours talk. He is one of those to
| whom l look to carry on the work
! when ! am gone. His history is GER
tainlE Il marvellous one. He has
| damon, as Socrates had. who advises
him and whose advice must be follow
ed lest worse befaH. 1t comes,
understand, as vision in the night
| StllWeIl as a young man was well
placed in an insurance business.
Spirit Advice to Engineer
The damon told him to resign and
go west and build railroads He was
not an engineer, yet he obeyed. He has
now laid more miles of rail than any
other living man. When he was lay
| ing the south Kansas line the ter
| minus was to be Galveston. The
daimon told him to halt the line short
OF the terminus and build a canal
thence to the sea. II was done. Four
days later came a tidal wave and con-
! vu!sion which for the time wiped
Galveston off the map. and the canal
/ was harbor of refuge. So again ard
again, beyond all doubt or question.
this wonderful guide has led him
! through life
The last great effort of the guide
was to dictate a plan by which the
world could be relieved of the pres
sure of war debt; Stilwell published
the revelation under the name of The
Great Plan ! was, ] think, one of
the few in England who took il seri-
ously and ] wrote an account of Ii to
the Evening Standard. 1t was met by
all sorts Of minor objections, people
failing to understand that an abso-
lutely abnormal situation must be me I
in an abnormal way. If there has
been immense temporary pressure
upon an estate il is not attempted TO
meet that pressure entirely out of the
/ shattered revenues. but the credit of
the estate is pledged for the time
when III the future it shall have re-
covered. II the world be taken as the
estate. that Is the simple but effective
idea in Sti,we.ls plan.
The .dea. expressed very shortly is
that every nation shall pay reason
able sum every year to a certain fund
and shall pledge itself TO continue to
do 50 for seventy years. Notes shall
be issued and passed into circulation
so that they can be used as currency,
/ which shall be guaranteed by the
fund. not as it now is. but as it will
be at the end Of that period. So we
/ make the resources of the future
available for the payment Of war
debts and other uses of the present.
This. of course, is the merest sketch,
but ii has the germ of the idea. II
would he international money with an
international guarantee.
Houdinrs Miracle.
Mr.. Stiiwell spoke very well and
only nope some larger field may be
opened up for him. Houdini was
present at this-or il may have been
some other-New York lecture. and
escorted my wife out down a pa ssage
which they imagined would be a
short cut but which actually ended
in a padlocked door. Houdini put
out his big right hand and gathered
! up the paddock as one picks a plum
from tree. The way was opened
! to the street.
had now done the great eastern
! cities and the time had come to con-
tinue my work by lecturing in some
of the larger inland centers- Before
. doing SO | ran up to New Haven,
/ where / gave a lecture to an audi
ence consisting largely of Yale stu
dents. who received the subject in a
! very sympathetic fashion. Yale is
not quite 50 old as Harvard and. in
deed. represents a sec aSSfon from
Harvard On the part of those who
, though the Boston university was
too liberal in its ideas. The outside
of the colleges, however. with the
old trees in front of them. and the
great green common. gives the Euro
pean visitor an impression of mellow
growth which he seldom receives in
this bustling. community. After this
short sally l prepared for the longer
trip, which was really to be final
one. ending up in Chicago | felt
! impelled to take my whole party
with me, as the spiritualists Were to
give us formal welcome in Chi
! cago and we felt that it would he a
/ remem brance which the children
/ would always carry with them.
Copyright 1922. by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
o.. for the United States and Great Britain)
To he continued in tommorrow's Star.