PITTSBURGH 
 192|| 
 
CONTENTS , ''^ 
 
 Page 
 
 Parable of the Thirteenth Son; 3 
 
 Chronicles of the People of Uzz 7 
 
 The Bull and the Red Rag ., ....12 
 
 A Street in Jerusalem J.5 
 
 Short Political Catechism ^ 
 
 Copyright 192^ by 
 The Lessing Company 
 
 MAR 25 '24 
 
 ©C1A782107 
 
THE PARABLE OF 
 THE THIRTEENTH SON 
 
 A CERTAIN man had thirteen sons. 
 Now the stargazers and the soothsayers and 
 the wise women declared with a loud voice 
 that thirteen was an unlucky number. And they 
 prophesied that the thirteenth son would be pursued 
 by misfortune, and there would be no place for him 
 in the land of his birth. 
 
 But his father said: It is not my fault that my wife 
 is a fruitful vine and Mai thus a true prophet. How- 
 soever the Lord will provide. 
 
 Then the first son said: I will be a King or whatever 
 ye choose to call me. Czar or President or Duke, for 
 ye must have some one to rule over ye, and sit upon a 
 throne, and give ye ribbons to wear in your button- 
 holes. 
 
 Then the second son said: I will be a General, a 
 soldier to do your fighting, in case anyone comes tO' 
 take away the throne of your king, or saith he is, 
 bow-legged and cross-eyed and his crown a misfit. 
 
 Then the third son said: I will be an Admiraf 
 and carry the totem of our family to foreign lands,, 
 where the natives may behold its glory. Also when 
 the King and the General may decide to go to war, I 
 will carry them across the seas to kill other families 
 and bring home the spoils thereof. 
 
 Then the fourth son said: I will be a Bishop, and 
 save all your souls. I will tell ye exactly what God 
 
PARABLE OF THE THIRTEENTH SON 
 
 wishes ye to do, and I will tell God what rewards 
 ye expect. I will bless the crown of the King, and 
 the cannon of the General, and the totem of the 
 Admiral, so that they will prevail over all their 
 enemies who sell goods too cheaply. 
 
 Then the fifth son said: I will be a Senator, and 
 will make laws for ye all, so that ye will know what 
 ye must do and what ye may not do, how to do it 
 and how not to do it, when and wherewith and 
 whereinbefore. 
 
 Then the sixth son said: I will be a Lawyer, and 
 will tell ye how to elude and circumvent the laws 
 made by the Senator. 
 
 Then the seventh son said: I will be a Policeman, 
 and arrest ye if ye break the laws of the Senator, 
 unless my brother the Lawyer hath taught ye the 
 manner thereof. 
 
 Then the eighth son said : I will be a Tax Collector, 
 and will make ye to pay revenue when ye buy any- 
 thing in another city, and will make ye to pay a 
 portion of all ye produce at home, that the King may 
 have money to gild his crown, and the General to 
 buy powder, and the Admiral to dye his totem, and 
 the Bishop to build a temple, and the Senator to 
 patch his toga, and the Lawyer to pay his jurymen, 
 and the Policeman that he may not require to commit 
 burglary, and myself for inspecting, appraising, 
 assessing and levying upon ye, and relieving ye of 
 your surplus, which would cause ye much worry and 
 bring ye into many temptations. 
 
PARABLE OF THE THIRTEENTH SON 
 
 Then the ninth son said: I will be a Banker, and 
 will guard your money when ye do not need it, and 
 will lend it to you at interest when ye do need it. 
 
 Then the tenth son said: I will be a Salesman and 
 Advertising Expert, to cause ye to buy what ye do 
 not require, to persuade ye to buy more than ye 
 require, to keep ye from buying better and cheaper 
 substitutes, and to flatter ye for the taste displayed in 
 buying the goods that I sell. 
 
 Then the eleventh son said: I will be a Movie 
 Actor, and will look handsome, and will drink cham- 
 pagne, and will have seven wives, and will never need 
 to think, and will get a million dollars a year to 
 keep all other people from thinking. 
 
 Then the twelfth son said: I will be an Editor, 
 to tell ye all about the Movie Actor's divorces, and 
 the excellence of the motor cars the Salesman sells, 
 and the Banker's philanthropy, and the Tax Col- 
 lector's patriotic function, and the Policeman's majesty, 
 and the Lawyer's eloquence, and the Senator's wisdom, 
 and the Bishop's holiness, and how many ships the 
 Admiral hath sunk, and how many cities the General 
 hath burnt, and why ye must hate the people in those 
 ships and cities, because your King is greater than 
 their King, and your Totem more beautiful than their 
 Totem, and your Bishop's God more sublime than 
 their Bishop's God. And I will explain how all this 
 hath come to pass, which is Civilization. 
 
 Then the thirteenth son said: I know not what I 
 shall do. For I am the thirteenth son. And the 
 
PARABLE OF THE THIRTEENTH SON 
 
 stargazers and soothsayers and wise women have de- 
 clared that thirteen is an unfortunate number. 
 
 TTien his brothers of one accord said unto him: Be 
 of good cheer, for thou art our brother, and we will 
 find thee something to do. The King needeth some- 
 one to keep his crown polished, and the General cannot 
 make his own cannon. Thou mayest build a Dread- 
 naught for the Admiral and a Cathedral for the 
 Bishop. Thou must vote for the Senator, and thou 
 shalt make the cloth of the Lawyer's coat. The 
 Policeman requireth thee to exercise his right arm, and 
 the Tax Collector must assess some one who cannot 
 dodge him or secure exemption. The Banker needeth 
 thee for a depositor, and the Salesman cannot sell 
 anything unless thou producest it. The Movie Actor 
 must have somebody to gaze upon him; the Exlitor 
 somebody to believe the words of his pen. All of them 
 must be fed; thou shalt furnish the food. All of 
 them must be housed ; thou shalt build the homes. All 
 of them must be warmed; thou shalt dig the coal. 
 Thus, verily, thou dost not live in vain, even though 
 thou art the thirteenth son! 
 
 Whereupon the thirteenth son rejoiced greatly that 
 the curse was lifted, and that there was a place even 
 for him in the land of his birth, where he might 
 partake in the blessings of civilization and enjoy the 
 luxury of labor. And to this day the Thirteenth Son 
 dwelleth among us, and he knoweth that the prophecy 
 of the stargazers and soothsayers and wise women 
 was an idle superstition, and he is glad that he liveth. 
 
 6 
 
CHRONICLES OF 
 THE PEOPLE OF UZZ 
 
 BEHOLD, there was a nation which dwelt in 
 a fair land, a lauid blessed with much abundance, 
 with fertile valleys and mountains rich in gold 
 and silver, iron and copper. And this nation had be- 
 come great among the nations of the earth, by the 
 diligence of its people, who tilled their fields and 
 tended their vineyards, delved in the mines and toiled 
 in the factories, so that every one had food to eat 
 and fine garments to wear and a pleasant abode to 
 dwell. 
 
 Now after a time, because the people were so 
 diligent and the land so fertile, and because the people 
 were also ingenious and found ways to lessen their 
 labor, the products of that land became more and 
 more abundant. Then arose one of the tribes and 
 said: **It is not necessary to labor as long as the 
 people in this land have been laboring, for we have 
 produced a surplus. Therefore we, the tribe of 
 traders, will cease from producing, for the others can 
 produce enough to provide for us, and even more 
 than that, which we can carry to foreign countries 
 and exchange for the produce of those lands across 
 the sea.'* And they did accordingly. 
 
 So after a time the people of that land were still 
 laboring as diligently as they had been laboring afore- 
 time, and the traders did wax fat and prosper, and 
 got the people to build them many ships in which to 
 carry to foreign parts the surplus products for sale. 
 And these ships did fly in every harbor of every 
 
CHRONICLES OF THE PEOPLE OF UZZ 
 
 ocean the flag of that people, and the traders said: 
 "Verily, we are a mighty people, for all the nations 
 of the world buy from us, and our people are so 
 diligent that we can sell cheaply and abundantly. 
 Indeed, if we were not wise in our generation and 
 made the prices higher in our own land, our own people 
 would buy so many of these things themselves that 
 there would be much less to export. But our own 
 people, having what they desire, would then labor 
 less, and there would be still less to export, which 
 would be a sore blow to the prosperity of all traders, 
 wherefore we permit it not to come to pass.** 
 
 And they paid scribes to write proverbs and 
 prophecies, to explain to the people how good it was 
 to pay high prices at home and sell much goods 
 abroad, because if you must pay high prices you must 
 receive high wages, and it is better to pay ten 
 shekels for one ham than to receive ten hams for 
 one shekel, because shekels are better than hams, and 
 there are nine hams left to sell abroad for the profit 
 of the traders, so that the flag of the people can fly 
 in the harbor of every ocean. For know ye not, 
 said the scribes and prophets, that your flag flying in 
 Hong Kong is better than ham frying in Oshkosh? 
 And the people were comforted, and labored more 
 diligently to build more ships and make more flags 
 for the traders. 
 
 Now after a time the traders of other nations be- 
 came equally eager to sell the surplus of the fields 
 and mines of their people, and the traders of one land 
 
CHRONICLES OF THE PEOPLE OF UZZ 
 
 became wroth with the traders of the other land. So 
 they spat upon each other's flags. 
 
 Then the traders of the great nation went home 
 and declared through the scribes and the prophets 
 unto all the people: *'Lo, your holy flag has been spat 
 upon by infidels. Will ye suffer this? If ye do not 
 avenge this insult, we cannot sell them any more 
 of the surplus ye produce. Then will ye starve, and 
 your children will starve likewise, and the goods ye 
 produce will rot upon the docks, unless ye take swords 
 and slay these infidels who have spat upon your holy 
 flag. If ye slay them without mercy, they will honor 
 your flag and permit us to sell the wares ye produce 
 as aforetime.*' 
 
 Then the chiefs of the people, who had been 
 chosen from among the scribes and prophets, said 
 unto the people: *'It is for this that we have taken 
 every tenth man of you and set him aside and given 
 him a sword. And it is for this that ye have had to 
 labor every tenth day for nothing in order to feed 
 and clothe the soldiers with swords. And it is for 
 this that we have taken every seventh man of you to 
 build ships of war, and to cast cannon, and to 
 become sailors and soldiers of the sea. And it is 
 for this that ye have had to labor every seventh day 
 for nothing in order to feed and clothe the men of 
 your ships of war. Now will we go forth with your 
 army and your ships of war, and with swords and 
 cannon will we cause them to honor our flag and 
 to purchase abundantly of our merchandise." 
 
CHRONICLES OF THE PEOPLE OF UZZ 
 
 Then the drums beat, and the flags waved, and 
 the soldiers marched, and the ships sailed. 
 
 And when the army came to foreign parts, the 
 infidels smote the army, and not one man escaped. 
 
 And when the ships of war came to foreign harbors, 
 the infidels sank the ships, and all the men thereon 
 were drowned, and even the holy flags were sub- 
 merged beneath the waves of the ocean. 
 
 And the chiefs of the people, who had gone with 
 the army and the ships of war, were also slain and 
 drowned and did not return. 
 
 Whereat there was great wailing and mourning in 
 the land. 
 
 But on the tenth day one of the people said: *'Lo, 
 we have not this army any longer to feed and clothe, 
 and now we can labor for ourselves, or make holiday 
 and sit in the sim." 
 
 And on the seventh day one of the people said: 
 **Lx), we have not these ships any longer to keep in 
 repair, nor the sailors and soldiers of them to feed 
 and clothe, and now we can labor for ourselves, or 
 make holiday and sit in the sun." 
 
 But the traders said: "Fools, ye produce much 
 merchandise — garments, and jewels, and foods, and 
 plows, and watches, and pianos, and shoes, and books. 
 Where will ye sell this merchandise now? And who 
 will be your chiefs? And how shall the stain be 
 purged from your flags, which have been spat upon 
 by the infidel?'* 
 
 10 
 
CHRONICLES OF THE PEOPLE OF UZZ 
 
 Then one of the people said: "Upon the tenth 
 day and upon the seventh day we will ourselves enjoy 
 the abundance of merchandise we produce — the gar- 
 ments and jewels and foods we will keep for ourselves, 
 and the plows shall furrow our own fields, and the 
 watches shall tell us the time of day, and the pianos 
 shall adorn our own parlors, and the shoes we shall 
 dance in, and the books shall be read by us to make 
 us wiser than we were. For we were sorely lacking 
 in wisdom that we fed and clothed an idle army 
 and built useless ships, in order that ye might sell 
 to other nations the things we lacked ourselves. As 
 for our chiefs, whose main business was to invent new 
 taxes for us to pay and new crimes for us to fall into, 
 we are glad we are rid of them. As for our flags, 
 which the infidels have spat upon, ye traders, having 
 no longer anything to do, may sit in the market place 
 all day long and spit upon the flags of the infidels, 
 and thus shall we be revenged." 
 
 Even thus it came to pass. And the nation grew 
 greater and happier than it had been before. And 
 every year, upon the day when their army and ships 
 of war were completely destroyed, and they could no 
 longer send abroad their merchandise for other people 
 to use, upon that day they make holiday and rejoice 
 greatly. It is called the day of liberation and the 
 beginning of abundance. And that people is the 
 wisest and the happiest and the most blessed of all 
 peoples in the world. 
 
 11 
 
THE PARABLE OF 
 THE BULL AND THE RED RAG 
 
 IN the land of the Boobs there dwelt aforetime a 
 wise man who had some foolish nephews. And 
 when he heard how foolish the sons of his brother 
 were, he was moved to teach them wisdom. So he 
 went unto their abode and said: Come with me, O 
 ye sons of folly, and we shall learn many things. 
 
 Then he went with them unto a place where there 
 were thousands of sheep. And these sheep marched 
 past in a long file, each following after the other, 
 thousands of them. 
 
 And the wise man said: What think ye of these 
 sheep? They are going to the butcher. He will 
 cut their throats, and they will be mutton. Yet they 
 march meekly onward toward the axe. 
 
 Then said the wise man's nephews: Forsooth, tliey 
 are foolish sheep and know no better than to follow 
 one after the other. They deserve to have their 
 throats cut for their folly. 
 
 But the wise man said: Have ye not gone into 
 the king's army, and will ye not go to war just as 
 these sheep are going to the slaughter-house? Will 
 ye not follow after the fool that walketh before ye? 
 Wherein, then, are ye wiser than the poor sheep? 
 Wise men stand alone, or go their own way. Mutton 
 men walk in parades, like unto the sheep or the goose, 
 which animals they despise. 
 
 12 
 
PARABLE OF THE BULL AND THE RED RAG 
 
 Next the wise man took his nephews unto a Bull 
 Ring, where a great multitude was assembled to see 
 the bulls fight. And they saw how the bulls became 
 enraged when the bull-fighters waved a red flag. With 
 great fury the bulls charged upon the waving of the 
 flag, and when their fury had made them blind the 
 bulls were killed. 
 
 And the wise man said: What think ye of these 
 bulls? A square of red cloth enrages them so they 
 go unheedingly into death. What think ye of them? 
 
 Then said the wise man's nephews: Forsooth, they 
 are stupid beasts, and have not the gift of reason as 
 we have. Therefore they become enraged when a 
 red rag is waved, and rush blindly to fight. They 
 deserve to be made carrion for their stupidity. 
 
 But the wise man said: Will not ye rush into fight 
 blindly even so when a square of colored cloth is 
 waved before ye? The bull is enraged by the red 
 alone, but ye are roused to fury by the white and the 
 blue also. There is but little difference in color sense 
 between ye and that mad bull. Mayhap the bull 
 thinketh ye are stupid beasts for rushing into battle 
 for colors that are not red. 
 
 Then the wise man's nephews said unto each other: 
 This our uncle thinketh he is wise, but he is exceeding 
 foolish. We will report his sayings to the king, 
 and the king will teach him wisdom. And they did 
 even so, and the king cast the wise man into prison 
 for speaking treason. But his nephews he honored 
 for their loyalty, and put them in the front rank of 
 
 13 
 
PARABLE OF THE BULL AND THE RED RAG 
 
 his army, and they were great heroes, and they fell 
 on the field of glory, and their graves wherein they 
 rest are adorned with tombstones of fine marble. 
 
 But the wise man in prison wrote a book on **The 
 Cure of Folly.'* And when his book was opened 
 by the keeper of the library, all the pages thereof^ 
 were blank and void. 
 
 And the merchants of mutton, the makers of flags, 
 the owners of the bull-ring, the carvers of tombstones, 
 and other tradesmen and artisans rejoiced greatly, and 
 said: Woe unto the prophet, but hail unto the profit! 
 What is meet for the sheep and the bull, is meat 
 for us! There is magicd potency in color, especially 
 in the yellow of gold and the green of banknotes. 
 Great is Allah, who hath created for us the bulls, 
 and the sheep, and the sons of the wise man's brother. 
 
 14 
 
A STREET IN JERUSALEM 
 
 THEY had moved along sedately, their bearded 
 heads wagging in gleeful animation, until they 
 came to the House of the High Priest. There 
 they stopped, to say whatever was left to say, before 
 departing to their several abodes. A young woman, 
 comely to look upon, had followed a short stone's 
 throw behind them, and now she came a little nearer, 
 bending her ear to listen. 
 
 "It is a good work we have done," declared the lean 
 Pharisee, with a grating laugh. **It will teach these 
 alien agitators a lesson they should have been taught 
 long ago. They come here from rebellious Galilee, 
 from idolatrous Samaria, and other barbaric regions, 
 to find fault with our sacred institutions. If Zion 
 pleases them not, they should go back whence they 
 came. Some of you have cried out to expel them; 
 some of you thought we could make them like unto 
 us by compelling them to learn our language and adopt 
 our customs. Both proposals are futile, as our experi- 
 ence during the past months has shown. One way 
 alone there is to deal with them — as we have dealt 
 with this fellow. His ragged crew will take warning 
 at his cross. We are rid of the whole undesirable 
 rabble, and incidentally we have shown the Roman 
 governor our loyalty to Caesar, may he break his 
 accursed neck!'* 
 
 **It was a splendid thought," said the fat Scribe,, 
 **to dwell upon the fellow's pretensions to royal lineage. 
 
 15 
 
A STREET IN JERUSALEM 
 
 Perhaps he really believed that God had given him 
 power over all races and peoples. He may have been 
 mad. But such madmen are dangerous; they must 
 be muzzled. Verily, I believe that the mouths of 
 prophets should be permitted to prophesy, but when 
 any mouth utters such prophecies as he spouted forth, 
 standing upon whatever he could find at any cross- 
 road, then, in the name of Law and Religion, he 
 must be silenced. Such things might be permitted in 
 the days of Amos, but nowadays we cannot have 
 discontent fanned into disorder by pestilent breeders 
 of strife. A king, forsooth, to reign over all king- 
 doms! Our holy nation, to him, was no better than 
 any other nation, though Jehovah had chosen it and 
 set it apart as his own. This leveler would make 
 of us one nation with other nations, and would rule 
 over all. Treason and blasphemy! Would God 
 choose one of those unkempt wanderers, preachers of 
 sedition, who could not make a living in their own 
 land, who come down to Jerusalem, the city of God, 
 to enjoy our liberty and to partake of our prosperity — 
 would God choose such a one and set him to rule 
 over us?" 
 
 * 'These discontented fellows are both cunning and 
 desperate,** now spake the High Priest. **My loyal 
 spies have kept me well informed of their activities. 
 They have held many secret meetings where they ate 
 food in common while plotting mischief and abomina- 
 tions. Their public gatherings could be forbidden by 
 *the magistrates or broken up by soldiers of the legion. 
 
 16 
 
A STREET IN JERUSALEM 
 
 for the power of God resides in magistrates and 
 soldiers. But these clandestine assemblages in upper 
 rooms, or out on the hills, it is very difficult to root 
 out. That mad fellow on the cross had a manner 
 of speaking as if he spoke the truth, which caused 
 the multitude to follow him and listen eagerly to 
 his absurd theories. Have you heard that story he 
 told about some laborers in a vineyard? What, you 
 do not know that foolish tale? How those who came 
 in the last hour should receive the same hire as those 
 who have toiled and sweated all day? Such tales 
 would make all the workers in our vineyards shirk 
 and grumble. They would band together, scowl and 
 murmur, and refuse to labor the full number of 
 hours. The greatness and the glory of Jerusalem 
 the Golden rest upon the glad obedience of our 
 workers, and whoever undermines their spirit of willing 
 service is an enemy of the people." 
 
 "And of God,*' echoed the Pharisee. **But this 
 pestilent fellow was not content with sowing seeds 
 of idleness in our workers* hearts, by telling them to 
 take no thought for the morrow. If that were all, 
 it might have been endured. There are indeed more 
 laborers than enough, if all work faithfully the entire 
 day. If any toiler leaves the post where God has 
 placed him, throws down the tools God has put into his 
 hands, there may be a needier one to take his place for 
 smaller hire; and by hiring this needier one for the 
 work we are indeed doing a deed of charity, and 
 gain more treasure to bring tithes into the Temple, 
 
 17 
 
A STREET IN JERUSALEM 
 
 and to reward the magistrate who punishes the lazy 
 drone that left the vineyard. But that disturber, 
 whose mouth we stopped none too soon, preached 
 against the rich and the respectable; he told the 
 rabble that such as these would be cast into hell-fire 
 unless they sold all they had and gave it to the poor.*' 
 
 *'He was a smooth demagogue," hissed the Scribe. 
 *'He preached non-resistance, a most insidious doctrine 
 in what it leads to. Turning the other cheek if some 
 one smites us — ^what would become of Rome's legions 
 if that damnable doctrine were instilled in the hearts 
 of the soldiers? It is not even expedient to teach 
 unto soldiers the commandment of Moses, 'Thou 
 shalt not kill!' without explaining to them that it 
 does not apply to soldiers. Whoever undermines 
 the discipline of the army, whoever teaches young men 
 that the soldier's calling is idleness when it is not 
 murder, murder when it is not idleness, such an one 
 is striking at the very root and foundation of social 
 order. What if the peasants were to rise up and 
 say, 'We will send no more good food to Jerusalem 
 for their bad laws?' how could we rebuke them, 
 how teach them their duty in the sight of God, without 
 the sword as a symbol of His wrath?" 
 
 "The peasants haven't that much sense," said the 
 High Priest with a laugh. "But men who teach 
 such doctrines of destruction must be themselves 
 destroyed. This fellow's pretense of meekness, after 
 all, was merely a sham. You have not heard how he 
 drove some of our wealthy tradesmen out of the 
 
 18 
 
A STREET IN JERUSALEM 
 
 Temple with a scourge, and overturned their tables) 
 It may be that there was some slight reason for 
 complaint against those tradesmen, who were demand- 
 ing ever greater gains for their wares. But if citizens 
 of Jerusalem, not outsiders, had complained to me 
 in a spirit of due docility, I should have seen what 
 remedy might be devised. It may be that those 
 tradesmen, each striving to sell most, made much chat- 
 ter and clatter by unseemly chaffering in the holy place. 
 But there is a tribunal before which complaints can 
 be brought; there is an orderly procedure of law which 
 must be followed; and whoever takes the law into 
 his own hands, whoever commits violence, becomes 
 himself a law-breaker greater than those he would 
 chastise. This incident, which you may not have 
 heard, shows that the fellow on the cross was really 
 a menace to our city*s peace, and seized every oppor- 
 tunity to interfere with the business of our merchants, 
 who pay tithes liberally. Besides, one of my loyal 
 spies reported to me that he counseled his followers 
 to sell their cloaks and buy swords, and he often 
 talked of destroying the Temple itself and rebuilding 
 it in three days." 
 
 "Destroy the Temple?" 
 
 "Rebuild it in three days?" 
 
 "Merely another of his mad sayings. Our laws, 
 which have stood the t^t of ages, he would supersede 
 by a new law. Our wisdom, which a thousand rab- 
 bins have received from on high, he would confuse 
 with his feeble folly. Our constituted authorities he 
 
 19 
 
A STREET IN JERUSALEM 
 
 would ignore, and proclaim himself king. Would he 
 set his babble of righteousness above our ancient and 
 holy religion? Our investigation showed what the 
 fellow really was; it made clear the full menace of 
 his teaching, and proved he was a propagandist of 
 the most dangerous type. We are indeed well rid 
 of him!" 
 
 "Even so, well rid of him! We would be well 
 rid of all these meddling strangers from Nazareth, 
 and Galilee, and Samaria!" 
 
 "Verily, rid of him at last, and rid of him for 
 good!" 
 
 The young woman, who had stopped some twenty 
 paces away, had come closer and listened to most of 
 their discourse. Now, as they were departing, each 
 toward his home, she came into their midst. 
 
 **Ye are wise and holy men," she said gently; 
 **may an humble handmaiden speak a word with 
 you?" 
 
 "The street is not a place for petitions," answered 
 the High Priest — not unkindly, for she was young and 
 comely. 
 
 "No petition do I bear," she replied; "craving 
 neither alms nor justice I stand before you." 
 
 "Then, daughter, what wouldst thou?" 
 
 "I would explain to you what he really meant of 
 whom you have been speaking — and would bear 
 witness what he did for me, a sinner and an outcast. 
 I would tell you who he really was." 
 
 20 
 
A STREET IN JERUSALEM 
 
 "Daughter, get thee home! We know too well 
 what he was. A foreigner who came among us to 
 stir up trouble. Born in a stable, an ordinary work- 
 ingman without any schooling to give him wisdom, 
 he took delight in causing a sensation and imposing 
 upon the credulity of fisher folk and gullible peasants. 
 A fellow without a home, without regular work, with- 
 out a purpose in life but to hear himself talk! Such 
 people are harmless until they secure a crowd of 
 rebellious followers who believe in them and whose 
 applause incites them to ever greater folly. Then the 
 righteous men whom God has blessed with authority 
 and riches must act to protect themselves against 
 violence and robbery, which would become common 
 if such fellows are permitted to wag their loose 
 tongues." 
 
 "Know you not his parentage is divine — that his 
 kingdom will endure forever — that he is the Prince 
 of Peace?'' 
 
 "Prince of Peace!" sneered the Scribe. "More 
 of his insidious doctrine to corrupt the strength of 
 our armies. Our God is a man of war; through 
 war he hath given us Canaan for our inheritance. 
 Yet these dreamers rail against war! Have not all 
 our wars been righteous wars, since our God granted 
 us the victory? Do not prate of blessed peace, when 
 gainful trade rusts, and valor decays, and the common 
 people, having nought else to do, breed civil strife. 
 Is it not better they should hate and kill those of 
 another nation, than to cause murmuring and tumult 
 
 21 
 
A STREET IN JERUSALEM 
 
 jit home against their rulers? If the common people 
 /have too much peace, they do not appreciate its 
 blessings. If they have no foreign enemies to hate» 
 they will hate us who sit over them.** 
 
 *'He commanded us to love, not to hate. He told 
 us of a surety that — *' 
 
 **His boasts have all come to naught — his career 
 has ended in shame and torture — his followers are 
 scared and scattered — his seditious teachings will be 
 disseminated no longer. What a man owneth will 
 still be secure; the Law that has endured a thousand 
 years will not be annulled by the frothings of a 
 foreigner; the Wise shall still sit in the seats of the 
 mighty, and the sword shall uphold the councils of 
 wisdom. If you were one of that fellow's misguided 
 followers, damsel, get to your home! He has failed 
 — he hangs upon the cross, and his silly words are 
 choked in blood." 
 
 A captain of the guard came running toward them 
 from the east. 
 
 * 'Something has happened," he cried out to the 
 High Priest. *'The great curtain of the Temple has 
 been torn.*' 
 
 "This is a plot of revenge," ground out the Scribe. 
 **Some of those foreign curs have done this.'* 
 
 **I know not whether my body trembles with anger/* 
 declared the Pharisee, **or whether the solid earth 
 beneath my feet shakes with a fever.*' 
 
 "TTie curtain of your mysteries is rent," the young 
 woman cried; **and they are mysterious no longer. 
 
A STREET IN JERUSALEM 
 
 The sinner can see as clearly as you of the SanhedricL- 
 Your solid earth is rocking under your sandals; all 
 you deemed firm and stablished upon a rock shall 
 pass away! Ye have not slain him, because he is 
 the Life. Ye have not silenced him, because he is 
 the Law. Ye have not buried him, because he is the 
 Truth." 
 
 "Hear her!" exclaimed the High Priest. "We'll 
 have to crucify still more of the mad dogs. We'll 
 have to throw still more of them into dungeons. Their 
 damnable doctrine must be stamped out; these ene- 
 mies of society must be extirpated. The lax and 
 lenient Sadducees would merely expel them — that k 
 not effective ! You, worthy Scribe, would but suppress 
 their writings — that, too, is a makeshift. There is 
 only one cure for such fermenters of misrule — to 
 stamp them out! Stamp them out!" 
 
 "By stamping upon fire you do but scatter it," 
 remonstrated the young woman. "That is the folly 
 of fools!" 
 
 "I pity thee, O misguided daughter," rejoined the 
 Priest, as he entered his palace. "Go, before you arc 
 seized as an accomplice of that alien agitator, that 
 stirrer of discontent, that reviler of our ancient customs, 
 that enemy of morals and religion, of law and order, 
 of Caesar and God! Go, get you hence! Your 
 prophet is done for!" 
 
 The door of the High Priest's palace closed behind' 
 him. 
 
 23 
 
A STREET IN JERUSALEM 
 
 **Yea, he is done for, daughter!'* echoed the Phari- 
 see. **We shall hear of him no more. Get you 
 home!** And he gat him home, rubbing his lean 
 paws gleefully. 
 
 "Done for, indeed!** declared the Scribe. "And 
 his nefarious doctrine has been stcimped out. His 
 world dominion has come to naught. We shaJl 
 hear of him no more! Thus perish all the foes 
 of law and order, of piety and patriotism. Thus 
 be it done to all the enemies of God and man.** 
 
 And the Scribe proceeded on his way. 
 
 The young woman stood in the street alone, her 
 eyes shining. 
 
 "Nevertheless,** she said, "I will go and see where 
 they have buried him. The earth trembles. I will 
 go out among the tombs and wait until the sunrise.** 
 
 24 
 
A SHORT POUTICAL CATECHISM 
 
 EVERY year comes a time when the Candidate 
 is afield, gunning for the imwary Voter. Politi- 
 cians know that the first plausible person who 
 asks a citizen to vote for him will very likely secure 
 that man's promise. This is the fatal flaw in our 
 politics. We should promise no man our vote until we 
 know what other men are going to run for the office; 
 we should promise no man our vote unless we know 
 where he stands on the issues of the day. Alas, most 
 of us do not know where we ourselves stand on the 
 issues of the day, and in order to clarify our convic- 
 tions and set forth reasons for the faith within us this 
 attempt at a short political catechism is presented. 
 
 Of course this Catechism is adapted to present 
 conditions and present perils. If it has more of the 
 spirit of protest in it than such a document would 
 have had ten years ago, that is because during these 
 years our Overlords have become much more arrogant, 
 their exactions more galling, their legislation more 
 iniquitous, than in any previous period of the nation's 
 history. Hence we should know what we want, what 
 we do not want, and why — and we should inform 
 the candidate who seeks our votes just where we 
 stand. This Catechism will help us to know it 
 for ourselves. 
 
 Question. Why do we oppose all new taxes? 
 
 Answer. Because the people are staggering under 
 the burden of present taxes, and business is paralyzed; 
 
 25 
 
A SHORT POLITICAL CATECHISM 
 
 -when the man of moderate means, after paying his 
 taxes, has nothing left to spend on himself and his 
 family. 
 
 Q. What should be done with present taxes? 
 
 A. As fast as possible, while meeting all just 
 ^^ligations of the government, they should be reduced 
 or removed, because they are draining the blood of 
 industry and fattening a horde of political parasites 
 who produce nothing. 
 
 Q. Why do we oppose new bond issues? 
 
 A. Because they tie up money in unproductive 
 investments, unless they are for educational purposes; 
 because they inflate and depreciate our currency by 
 pyramiding debts; because they encourage the waste 
 of public money by putting the payment on future 
 generations. 
 
 Q. Why do we favor a drastic reduction of army 
 and navy? 
 
 A. Because every soldier has to be fed by a 
 -worker, and produces nothing himself. Military 
 ^establishments are a perpetual incitement to war, an 
 agency of domestic oppression, a relic of monarchial 
 despotism, and put false ideals of glory and honor 
 into the minds of impressionable youth. Chiefly they 
 are objectionable because of their tremendous waste, 
 while they produce nothing except a crop of mediocre 
 generals and pompous colonels. 
 
 Q. Why do we favor free speech? 
 
 A. So that we can tell what burdens we bear, 
 what wrongs we suffer, what redress we demand. 
 
 26 
 
A SHORT POLITICAL CATECHISM 
 
 Q. Why should any one oppose free speech? 
 
 A. Because it might tell the truth about him. 
 
 Q. Why do we favor a free press? 
 
 A. Because censorship is stupid; because it is 
 essentially an attempt to keep the people ignorant, 
 and because free speech without a free press is of 
 little avail to spread knowledge among the people,, 
 knowledge which is the lifeblood of democracy. 
 
 Q. Why should any one oppose a free press? 
 
 A. Because it might print the truth about him, - 
 exposing his incompetence, graft, and abuse of power. 
 
 Q. Why do we favor free assembly? 
 
 A. Because in union there is strength, and free 
 speech without free assembly might as well be uttered 
 in the wilderness. 
 
 Q. Why should any one oppose free assembly? 
 
 A. Because tyrants know their tenure of power 
 depends upon the policy of ** Divide and conquer." 
 As long as people cannot get together, they are an 
 easy prey to unscrupulous masters. 
 
 Q. Does the Constitution grant the people these 
 rights? 
 
 A. It does, but the Constitution was abrogated; 
 during the reign of Woodrow I. 
 
 Q. What must the people do? 
 
 A. Demand the full measure of all their rights 
 until the Constitution has been restored as the Palla- 
 dium of our liberties. 
 
 Q. Why do we oppose tariffs? 
 
 27 
 
A SHORT POLITICAL CATECHISM 
 
 A. Because they are taxation of the most iniqui- 
 tous kind, levied for the protection of robbers. They 
 strangle competition and foster monopoly. They com- 
 pel the consumer to pay the dividends of the big 
 trusts. They levy an invisible tribute upon all who 
 buy any article in the tariff schedule. They restrain 
 our liberty to buy in the best and cheapest markets. 
 They put up the cost of living for all the people, in 
 order to increase the profits of a few. They create 
 an artificial crime — smuggling — and necessitate the 
 €mployment of an army of parasites to collect the 
 revenue, people who produce nothing and are main- 
 tained out of the labor of those who do produce. 
 
 Q. Why do we oppose subsidies? 
 
 A. Because they take money from all the people 
 to insure the profits of a few. Because it is the 
 encouragement of waste and inefficiency for the 
 government to guarantee any industry against loss, 
 and because it is unjust discrimination for the govern- 
 ment to guarantee one class of investors unless it 
 guarantees all classes of business men against loss 
 and the laborer against unemployment. 
 
 Q. Why do we oppose immigration laws, except 
 such as exclude paupers and criminals? 
 
 A. Because every immigrant is immediately a 
 buyer of American goods and a producer of Ameri- 
 can goods for sale; because every one who works 
 adds to the wealth of the country; because one human 
 being is as good as another, and we believe in equal 
 ^opportunity for all; because the opposition to immi- 
 
 28 
 
A SHORT POLITICAL CATECHISM 
 
 gration is based upon selfish grounds by short-sighted 
 labor agitators, and upon reHgious and racial hatreds 
 unworthy of our democratic ideals. 
 
 Q. Why do we protest against racial discrimina- 
 tion? 
 
 A. Because one race has the same rights any 
 other race has, and because we should do unto others 
 as we would have others do unto us. 
 
 Q. Why do we protest against language discrim- 
 ination ? 
 
 A. Because the more languages we know the 
 more highly we are educated and civilized; because 
 language discrimination puts a premium on ignorance; 
 because ignorance is the mother of intolerance; but 
 chiefly because every human being has the right to 
 use any language he prefers, as he has the right to 
 adopt any religion he believes, or to eat any food he 
 finds to his taste. 
 
 Q. Has he the right to eat any food he finds 
 to his taste? 
 
 A. He has not if that food is in liquid form and 
 contains a stimulating element in excess of a virtuous 
 minimum. 
 
 Q. How was he deprived of this right? 
 
 A. By adding unto the guarantees of liberty 
 in the Constitution one institute of slavery, the 
 Eighteenth Amendment. 
 
 Q. Why do we oppose the Eighteenth Amend- 
 ment? 
 
 29 
 
A SHORT POLITICAL CATECHISM 
 
 A, Because it deprives human beings of a natural 
 right; because it nullifies other guarantees of the 
 Constitution; because it breeds hypocrisy, espionage, 
 graft and crime ; because it requires for its enforcement 
 a horde of parasites who rapidly degenerate into 
 worse grafters; and because it creates a dangerous 
 precedent, upon which a hundred other invasions of 
 liberty, other agencies of coercion and confiscation, 
 can be erected. 
 
 Q. Why do we oppose Blue Laws? 
 
 A. For the same reasons just given, to which 
 might be added the fundamental human reason that 
 the pursuit of happiness is no crime, and those who 
 oppose it are enemies of the human race. 
 
 Q. What immediate steps should be taken to 
 promote prosperity, happiness, justice, and fraternity 
 in the United States and in the whole world? 
 
 A. We should introduce administrative economy; 
 we should repeal all petty legislation; we should 
 simplify judicial procedure; we should take effective 
 steps to reduce prices of food and clothing, rents and 
 public service charges. We should discourage every 
 propaganda of hate and prejudice, leveled against any 
 race, any religion, any language, any nationality; 
 and all such propaganda designed to involve us in 
 war — with Mexico, Japan, or any other nation — 
 should be branded as criminal folly. We should 
 withdraw our soldiers and marines from Haiti, the 
 Philippines, or any other quarters of the globe 
 where they have no business, and should put them 
 
 30 
 
A SHORT POLITICAL CATECHISM 
 
 at useful tasks like house-painting or road-building 
 in the United States. We should liberate from our 
 prisons all men and women who are rotting in dun- 
 geons for expressing their opinions or daring to think. 
 We should stop talking so much about Americanism, 
 and should begin a new chapter of our history that 
 will cause other nations to talk about Americanism 
 as a desirable ideal. 
 
 Q. Anything else? 
 
 A. The above will suffice for the candidate, who 
 will conclude that you know too much, and that he 
 can get votes easier somewhere else. 
 
 31 
 
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