The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-06-21
LETTERS TO EDITOR
LATADY REPLIES TO ALLEN


 It is said that Cervantes laughed Spain's quite overrun with Amadis de Gau, and with his father, and his mother, and with his brothers and sisters; with his uncIes, and his aunts, and his cousins; the writers capitaliz- ing upon the popularity of the romance of the great Amadis to flood the land with TO- mances based upon the lives of his remotest kinsmen-a mental infirmity which had be- come epidemic, eve mas botts, measles, whoop- ingcought, influenza and the like will become epidemic with the physical body.
 aCeryantes rendered "first aid' with his flying sheets and reams of ripping laughter and the mental derangement which had taken possession of the people was exercised.
 A modern Cervantes has arisen in the per- son of your correspondent, C. M. Allen, who s administering "first aid' to the afflicted who have been stricken by that mild form of bol- shevism of which the "questionnaire" is the symptom. Every political social, professional, politico-socia socio-political, professio-p poit- ico-social, litico-socio-professional soviet in this neck of the moral vineyard being in- flicted with this questionable habit; Mir. Allen dropping in from the scientific branch of the body polite. Considering the superiority of her metal, and her greater attractivencss of gender, the writer regrets that MT. Allen did not propose communion communication with Venus rather than with Mars. "Aenae- dunn genatrx; hominum divomque voluptas; Alma Venus" Ifs suggestion of communi- cation with Mars, however, indicates his pref. erence for the sterner sex in his politics, al- though the old masculine order has passed away, and Hermes and Aphroditus have sue ceeded the coalition having brought forth peculiar form of bolshevism which delights in the questionnaire Mr. Aliens method of calling for an open answer through the press, with no one to approve or condemn the an- swer save his majesty himself, is as ingenious as it is ingenious. He has but one single vote, and is not to be feared, and the mildest man. nered man that ever scuttled a ship or cut throat may answer him with perfect finn purity"
 1. The secret answer is as insidious as the questionnaire itself, which is always elo- quent of threats of dire visitations upon him who answers not, or answering answers not in accord with the answer suggested by the question.
 2. A man can hardly be said to be free who commits his future course of action upon men and measures in politics. to the controll- ing voice of another, to any body of voters, male or female, not composing the entire cit izenship of that government or subdivision of government wherein, if free man. he ought to have the right, and it should be his sacred duty to exercise his franchise
 B. Summission to laws which have not been enacted through the exercise of free, ntelli- gent, untrammeled franchise, is the most in- sidious form of slavery, and is certain to bring about crude reactions.
 4. Collective voting at the polls, in pursu- ance of the dictates of any form of compact, political freedom of action, and fraught with most demoralizng tendencies.
 MT. Aliens proposition that the farming out of the vote at the polls should disqualify the voter is unanswerable.
 Let someone else, now, come forward with a public "questionnaire'' which is free from threats or that is other than a spring to catch woodcocks; let there be death in the pot" and others will come into the game. There are those who, like the celebrated character in Shakespeare, will not give reasons on com pulsion mo, not were they as thick as black berries. In the language of the greatest ex- ponent of perfect freedom the world has known these hundreds of years ,"I will not heed the decrees of any of your councils
 The "questionnaire" with threat inter- woven, rises to the gorge and makes one sick. It is the very ipecacuanha of politics.