t:
"Yale Union and many of the faculty are sweating under the collar for
fear London _might_ say something Socialistic. The Union realizes that
it would be absolutely useless to ask him to smooth over his lecture
and cut out anything which sounds radical. Also they have decided that
it would be a shock to the university and the public to have _you_
appear upon the platform in any way, shape or manner. They are going
to ask you to cancel your engagement to introduce London. In this I
think they are unwise, but as they are determined it must be so. I
advise you to agree to whatever arrangement they suggest. This done,
they will 'take the chances' that London will express Socialistic
ideas. Now I fear there will be the devil to pay for the lecture--the
university is going to be surprised, the faculty shocked beyond
measure and the Yale Union severely criticized!"

This is how the president of the Union expressed the situation in a
note to me on the day of the lecture. "At a meeting of the executive
committee of the Yale Union it was voted that the president of the
Union introduce the speaker of the evening as it would tend to
identify the Union more conspicuously and also to give it prominence
before the student body. For this reason--wholly beyond my power and
opposed to my opinion--I shall be forced to forego our little plan
which I thought by far the best," etc., etc.

Some small portion of prosperity having come our way I was able to
dine a small group with Jack London as the chief guest. Professor
Charles Foster Kent of Yale, and Charles W. De Forrest, a business
man, were among the guests.

It was a Socialist innings at Woolsey Hall that night. The big crowd
gave the Yale Union an idea--this time it was a financial
idea--twenty-eight hundred people paid admission--the officers swept
down on the box office; but there was a Socialist inside playing
capitalist. Socialists are not familiar enough with the game to play
it successfully, but in this instance we played in strict accordance
with the rules. We furnished the capital, took the risks and bagged
the pot! We conceded nine points out of ten--the tenth was a financial
one. The audience represented every phase of life in the city. Over a
hundred of the faculty and ten times as many students. Citizens of all
classes were there.

The Harvard Students had played horse with London a few weeks before
this and we--the Socialists--were prepared for any sort of
demonstr