pirit? No--but with two or three
dozen strong-arm men, who flung themselves upon the Socialist author
and hurled him out of the church. So violent were they that several of
White's friends, also one or two casual spectators, were moved to
protest; what happened then, let us read in the New York "Sun", the
most bitterly hostile to radicalism of all the metropolitan
newspapers. Says the "Sun's" report:

A police billy came crunching against the bones of Lopez's
legs. It struck him as hard as a man could swing it eight
times. A fist planted on Lopez's jaw knocked out two teeth.
His lip was torn open. A blow in the eye made it swell and
blacken instantly. A minute later Lopez was leaning against
the church with blood running to the doorsill.

And now, what has the clerical camouflage to say on this proceeding?
Does it approve it? Oh no! It was "a mistake", the "Outlook" protests;
it intensifies the hatred which these extremists feel for the church.
The proper course would have been to turn the disturber aside with a
soft answer; to give him some place, say in a park, where he could
talk his head off to people of his own sort, while good and decent
Christians continued to worship by themselves in peace, and to have
the children of their mine-slaves shot and burned in their beds. Says
our pious editor:

The true way to repress cranks is not to suppress them; it
is to give them an opportunity to air their theories before
any who wish to learn, while forbidding them to compel those
to listen who do not wish to do so.

Or take another case. Twelve years ago the writer made an effort to
interest the American people in the conditions of labor in their
packing-plants. It happened that incidentally I gave some facts about
the bedevilment of the public's meat-supply, and the public really did
care about that. As I phrased it at the time, I aimed at the public's
heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach. There was a terrible
clamor, and Congress was forced to pass a bill to remedy the evils. As
a matter of fact this bill was a farce, but the public was satisfied,
and soon forgot the matter entirely. The point to be noted here is
that so far as concerned the atrocious miseries of the working-people,
it was not necessary even to pretend to do anything. The slaves of
Packingtown went on living and working as they were described as doing
in "The Jungle", and nobody gave a further