Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-12-18
HEAP BIG MEDICINE

changed since the days when they
held the tribe in awe. This. how
ever, need not indicate that "medi-
cine men, are becoming extinct.
Rather they have exchanged the
breech- clout for a dinner coat. In
deed, it is probable their number
has increased. But nowadays, in
in what some term a skeptical
world, they seek first credentials, If
no more than bogus diploma. Peo-
pie insist more on those assurances
than in the palmy days of the
kickapoos. That is, this is so with
, regard to their physical well-being;
as to alleged remedies for their
political well-being their credulity-
we'll, for that matter Wordsworth
needn't have been SO apprehensive
when he wrote:
"Those old credulities, to nature
dear,
Shall they no longer bloom upon
the stock of history"
They are blooming in profusion all
over the world and right now one
might mistake the American halls of
legislation for lighthouses. That
hardy perennial, LaFollette, blooms
luxuriantly, and ever. there are
those ready to cultivate and nourish.
No sooner is one theory full blown
and stripped to the stalk by the winds
Of circumstance than a shoot re-
places it. Some years ago it was
valuation Of the railroads. This
done, and not proving what he
predicted he now asks that it be
done over again. He is as persistent
as the rankest weed that ever de-
faced a garden.
A few years ago Emma Goldman
went about the country abusing it to
her hearts content. She seems to
have made an enjoyable living. Her
rhapsodies over the ripping up of
civilization in Russia stirred the
crowd, hanging on her words,
hypnotized by her vagaries and buy
ing of her wares. If they weren't
sick she caused them to think they
were.
Finally 1t came about that she
was compelled to take her own
medicine-more's the pity that more
of these political medicine vendors
cannot be subjected to like treatment.
They would be more careful about
what they prescribed. Anyhow.
justice was done in her case and
Emma went to the bosom of her be-
loved Altruria, Russia, but when it
came to pillowing her head on that
bosom in the contentment she en-
joyed in capitalistic America Emma
didn't find the heart beats to her
liking. She wants to come back
where she has stopped to write a
book.
That book flays bolshevism and
communism as demonstrated in Rus
sia more severely than any capital
istic pen has done. She has nothing
good to say of it. What she does
say, however, appears to have more
dependable background of fact than
anything she has said heretofore.
Now Emma is constitutionally
"agin the government" She never
will get over it; she makes her liveli-
hood out of it and this book un-
doubtedly Is in line with her lifelong
endeavor to hold an audience by as
sailing something. There are lot
of people with very prominent
characteristics similar to Emma's.
They never construct anything.
They are not in the construction but
in the wrecking business, looking
for salvage. She didn't reach Russia
In time to get in on the salvage.
She found for example, 1913 people
getting full bellies at teaching school
Of 1875 underfed pupils. The teaching
staff was full; there was no place
for Emma-and Emma must live,
hence the book.
How long are we to listen to ad-
vice. respecting our political we'll
being, from such would-be leaders
There are many in this country yet
indeed were Emma to return she
would find the places as full as in
Russia-and too many Of us are
listening to them. And not few
don't even have a bogus diploma.