less grave in the pottersfield.

Had he been an obedient corporation lackey; had he scabbed on his
fellow-workers; had he been mean and selfish and cold-blooded, he would
have been promoted instead of blacklisted by the corporation and honored
instead of hounded by society. His manhood and self-respect cost him
dearly, but he paid the price to the last farthing. His right to work
and live, his home, his family and his friends were all swept away
because he refused to scab on his fellowmen.

The old umbrella mender stood before me proud and erect and looked me
straight in the eyes as he finished his pathetic story.

The shabby clothes he wore were to him capitalist society's reward of
manhood and badge of honor.

There was something peculiarly grand about the scarred old veteran of
the industrial battlefield. His shabbiness was all on the outside, and
he seemed transfigured to me and clad in garments of glory. He loomed
before me like a forest-monarch the tempests had riven and denuded of
its foliage but could not lay low.

_He had kept the faith and had never scabbed!_

THE SECRET OF EFFICIENT EXPRESSION.

Coming Nation, July 8, 1911.

_The following was written for the Department of Education of the
University of Wisconsin, under whose direction there is being
conducted an investigation of the subject of "Distinguished
Contemporary Orators or Lecturers--With special reference to
fertility and efficiency of expression. What is the key to their
ability as masters of language? What school subjects, or what kinds
of training have entered into their lives that have given them
power to express themselves effectively?"_

The secret of efficient expression in oratory--if secret it can properly
be called--is in having something efficient to express and being so
filled with it that it expresses itself. The choice of words is not
important since efficient expression, the result of efficient thinking,
chooses its own words, moulds and fashions its own sentences, and
creates a diction suited to its own purposes.

In my own case the power of expression is not due to education or to
training. I had no time for either and have often felt the lack of both.
The schools I attended were primitive and when I left them at fourteen
to go to work I could hardly write a grammatical sentence; and to be
frank I am not quite sure that I can do so now. But I had a retentive
memory and w