How to Make a Local Meeting Interesting. One obstacle to the growth of the party organization, in both new and old territory, is that the regular weekly or fortnightly meetings are too often taken up with a prolonged discussion of trivial and uninteresting business, so that newcomers are repelled. H. G. Tersliner, State Secretary of Tennessee, makes this suggestion: "In answer to question how to make the meeting interesting when no speaker is at hand, I would suggest the reading of good Socialist books or the speeches of Socialist orators. A reader should be selected, a chapter read and then discussed. This discussion always arouses interest and trains those participating in public speaking. Try this, comrades; make your business short, then take turns reading. You will soon develop speakers in that way." Giving Both Sides a Hearing. Lincoln Braden, who evidently lives on the Pacific slope, but omits to give his address, congratulates us on our new idea of open discussion. He is furthermore particularly pleased with the article by Cameron H. King on Asiatic Exclusion, and particularly displeased with the article by H. S. Victorsen on the same subject. He says that after a workingman has "carried his blanket" past thousands of his "brother" Japs, who are holding the jobs formerly held by himself and his friends, it knocks the theories out of his head that he has held on the subject of Japanese Immigration; he says it is all very well to love the Japs as ourselves, but rather unhealthy upon our wives and our children. Under-Fed School Children.-As a result of the statements made by Robert Hunter in his Poverty, and John Spargo in hisThe Bitter Cry of the Children, concerning the physical condition of school children in this country, a number of prominent New York reformers and philanthropic workers formed the Committee for the Physical Welfare of School Children, and undertook an extensive investigation into the subject. It is a well-known fact that the committee_expected to discredit the estimates made by the writers referred to. It will be remembered that Hunter asserted that there were some 70,000 underfed children in the public schools of New York City. Spargo took up the question and carried it very much further, coming to the conclusion that at least two million children in the public schools of the nation are underfed more or less seriously, and a great many more in need of medical attention. The Committee on the Physical Welfare of School Children had some 1400 children, from various districts-not the poorest, either-examined by a staff of medical inspectors. If the results noted in these districts are typical, as they may well be, there must be 1,248,000 children in the public schools of the nation suffering from malnutrition, that is to say, from the starvation disease. They are not merely underfed, but the underfeeding has been chronic and serious enough to set up a disease—the disease of hunger! The committee's report further indicates that there are probably 12,000,000 children in the schools needing medical attention! Of course, these results are worse than Hunter and Spargo ever charged. DEPARTMENT SOCIALIST BOOKS FOR THE CAMPAIGN. We have started on the greatest campaign in the history of American socialism. Capitalism is breaking down: it can no longer feed and employ its slaves. Millions of working men and working women who know that something is wrong and that both the old parties stand for things as they are, will listen this year for the first time to the Socialist message. No speaker, however able, can transform an inquirer into a clearheaded Socialist. Nothing but books will do it, and only the right kind of books. They must be readable, and they must state the principles of socialism clearly, so that the man who read them approvingly will want to work with the Socialist Party and will have no use for reforms. The Common Sense of Socialism, by John Spargo, is recognized by friends and enemies alike as the best Socialist propaganda book that has yet appeared. For example, the Buffalo Evening News says: "It discusses what the author regards as socialism with an ease, a mastery of the subject from his point of view, that leaves nothing to be desired. .. Mr. Spargo is not bitter about it and therein his book is a comparatively pleasant one. He is radical enough to suit the Socialists and not violent enough to repel the reader who may look into his book for information on the subject." Cloth, $1.00; paper, 25 cents. The Socialists, Who They Are and What They Stand For. This briefer work by John Spargo has had a sale of seven thousand copies in a cloth edition at 50 cents, and we shall this month issue a paper edition at ten_cents. which will be the best propaganda book at this price in the English language. Value, Price and Profit. Marx himself is often pleasanter reading than his interpreters, and this short work is the clearest and best statement in any language of his theory of Surplus Value, which shows just how it is that the capitalist gets most of what the laborer produces. This book has heretofore been obtainable only in the edition of the S. L. P. We have now issued a much better edition, in large type and cloth binding, at 50 cents, and shall this month issue å paper edition at 10 cents. Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, by Frederick Engels, is one of the few books that must be read to arrive at a clear understanding of the modern Socialist movement. In 1900 we published the first complete American edition of this book, and the plates have been worn out in printing many editions. We have now made new plates, in larger and clearer type, and the new paper edition retailing at 10 cents will be ready this month. Other 10-cent books which should be sold at Socialist meetings everywhere are the Communist Manifesto, by Marx and Engels; Merrie England, by Robert Blatchford; Class Struggles in America, by A. M. Simons; The Socialist Movement, by Charles H. Vail; The State and Socialism, by Gabriel Deville; Socialism, Revolution and Internationalism, by Gabriel Deville, and Crime and Criminals, by Clarence S. Darrow. One each of these ten books, with a credit slip for forty cents to apply on a share of stock, will be mailed to any address for one dollar. The Pocket Library of Socialism. This is a series of five-cent books, sixty different titles, each 32 pages and cover, just the right size to slip into a letter and light enough to enclose without making extra postage., Some of the recent additions to the series are Where We Stand, Forces that Make for Socialism and A Socialist View of Mr. Rockefeller, by John Spargo; What Socialists Think, by Charles H. Kerr; Socialism and Slavery, by H. M. Hyndman; History and Economics, by J. E. Sinclair, and Industry and Democracy, by Lewis J. Duncan. We shall also publish at once in this library the National Socialist Platform of 1908, with some of the most important resolutions adopted by the National Convention. A full set of the sixty books, or sixty copies assorted as desired, will be mailed to any address for a dollar, and with them a credit slip for forty cents, good toward the purchase of a share of stock. SOCIALIST BOOK BULLETIN. We have lately published a new book bulletin, not in newspaper form like the last two issues, but in the shape of the Review, and printed on super-calendered book paper, with portraits of Marx, Liebknecht, Lafargue, Labriola, Ferri, and a number of American Socialist writers. In it are full descriptions of all our books, nearly a hundred in cloth binding besides nearly a hundred pamphlets. Every reader of the Review who has not already received a copy of this bulletin should ask for it. HOW TO GET BOOKS AT COST. The authorized capital stock of the publishing house is $50,000, divided into 5,000 shares at $10.00 each. Of these 2,780 have been sold, leaving 2,220 in the treasury subject to sale. The stock draws no dividends, but every stockholder has the privilege of buying any book published by us at half the retail price if he pays the expressage, or at 40 per cent discount if we pay it. Most of those who subscribe for stock find it difficult to raise the sum of $10.00 at one time, and we have decided for that reason to return to our original plan of selling stock in monthly instalments of a dollar each, and to allow the subscriber to buy books at a discount while making his monthly payments. Remember that by subscribing for a share of stock you are not only getting more and better. Socialist literature for yourself than you could obtain for the same money in any other way; you are also making it possible to publish and circulate more books on socialism. The money received from the sale of stock is not used to pay deficits; there is no deficit. It is not used to pay dividends; no dividends are paid. It is not used to pay fancy salaries; no one connected with the publishing house gets more than the value of his labor power. It is used to provide the capital for bringing out new Socialist books. If you Socialists do not provide this capital, it will not be provided, for capitalists are not benevolent enough to subscribe money to be used against their own interests. We have built up the largest Socialist book publishing house in the world from these ten-dollar subscriptions. We must have more of them if we are to keep on growing. How about yourself? All Socialist Literature" OUR AIM The object of the Wilshire Book Company is to further the Socialist movement through helping in the widest possible distribution of Socialist Literature. To this end we publish as many books, pamphlets and leaflets as possible. In addition, we endeavor to carry a complete line of Socialist Literature of all kinds. Our endeavor in this line can best be judged from our new book catalogue "The Question of the Hour," which will be sent upon request. We handle a complete line of the Kerr books, with special discount to Kerr stockholders. Besides the books which we carry ourselves the most complete collection of its kind in the country we will gladly get for any customer any book requested, if it is to be had. Agitate, Educate, Organize! Circulate Literature. Keep at it everlastingly. WILSHIRE BOOK COMPANY 200 William Street ::: New York, N. Y Western Representative CHICAGO DAILY SOCIALIST, 180 Washington St., Chicago |