MAY 15, 1915 



■121 



A. I. Root 



OUE HOME 



Ediltor 



Trust in the Lord, and do good ; so shalt thou 

 dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. — 

 Psalm 37:3. 



I have been young, and now am old; yet have I 

 not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging 

 bread. — Psalm 37:25. 



When any one comes to me for advice, 

 especially when any boy or girl wants the 

 benefit of my experience in times past, as a 

 rule 1 am ready to respond at once; but 

 below is a letter received some two months 

 ago. In this case 1 have delayed answering 

 bei\'iiise I wanted to consider tlie matter 

 well, and possibly get some light from some 

 of the various periodicals wliich it is my 

 pleasure to review more or less every day 

 of my life. Besides, I have been praying 

 that God would give me wisdom and under- 

 standing: as I consider our young friend's 

 troubles. Here is the letter: 



Mr. Root : — I am a boy eighteen years old, be- 

 longing to a family of ten. All but one are younger 

 than myself. Mr. H. H. Kolloster, who is a neigh- 

 bor to us, called my attention to an article in your 

 journal in which you make answer to letters he has 

 written you. He informed my father and myself 

 that he had used our case as an illustration of the 

 unemployed. It has been some two years since I 

 first met Mr. Kolloster. As he seemed quite intelli- 

 gent in his talk I decided he could give me the in- 

 formation desired. At that time I had a great desire 

 to join the army, as the Government advertised they 

 would teach the soldier a trade, and that was just 

 what I wanted. So I asked him how I could join 

 the army and become a soldier. Imagine my sur- 

 prise when he asked me what foreign working man 

 had offended me that I should want to kill him. 

 I explained I had no desire to kill any one. I 

 wanted to learn a trade, and in this way I could 

 do so. Again he said, " Find me a soldier who re- 

 turned from the army who had learned a trade there, 

 other than murder. Go home and take your Bible 

 and read, ' Thou shalt not kill.' God meant that 

 when he said it ; and when you become a soldier 

 you are given a rifle, a sword, and revolver, and 

 you are taught how to use them, and you kill people 

 whom you never saw and who never harmed you, 

 just because somebody who is your boss tells you to; 

 and the more you kill, the bigger hero you are. A 

 battle-ship is a very large machine. It takes from 

 seven hundred to one thousand men to run it, and 

 its use is for no other purpose than to murder peo- 

 ple; therefore it is a murdering-machine, the best 

 that man can make." 



Mr. Koot, your sour-faced friend changed my 

 mind. Was he right? I joined the Boy Scouts then, 

 and later informed my friend that I had chosen 

 something better than the army. He pleasantly drew 

 a word picture connecting the boy scouts with the 

 army, and my peace of mind was again disturbed. 

 I disbelieved him, but the picture he drew was so 

 forceful that I dropped the boy scouts. Now, Mr. 

 Root, would you have advised me as he did? 



I was born in Belgium. My poor old grandfather 

 was stripped of every thing he had in this world, 

 and was forced from his own native land into a 

 foreign country, and other relatives missing, there 

 to accept charity. The picture my native country 

 presents to me causes me to think of soldiers and 



murders, and the boy scouts are found there as sol- 

 diers. 



Here is one problem Mr. Kolloster has never been 

 able to solve for me, and it is the sole object of 

 this letter. I am eager to learn a trade. How can 

 I do it? If you can solve this problem for me you 

 ia;i do me a world of good. I am quick and easy 

 to loarn, and ambitious, orderly, and obedient. Here 

 is my problem: Two years ago, on account of sick- 

 ness in our family, it fell to me to support this 

 family of ten on $1.25 a day of 12 to 13 hours. At 

 the end of eighteen months, with my father barely 

 strong enough to be around, I was informed by my 

 doctor that if I did not quit work at the mills I 

 could not last long. After doctoring a month I 

 worked for Mr. Kolloster for two months, building 

 houses. He has not had a contract since, and I 

 have not been able to get more than a day or two 

 of work at a time, and the family is supported by 

 the children who are able to do a little each week 

 to help catch the nickels. I am just now filling the 

 only place offered, that of messenger boy at ten 

 dollars a month, and board myself. When you solve 

 this problem, please send it to me. I would inclose 

 a stamp, but you see what chance I have of getting 

 it. Our streets are full of men out of work. 



I will give you some points that Mr. Kolloster 

 has taught me since I have known him. He says 

 th.'it under socialism all children would be educated, 

 and learn the trade they would like to learn until 

 they are twenty-one years of age, at the expense of 

 the whole people, text-books and board included. 

 Don't you think that would be all right? He says 

 that after twenty-one years all men and women 

 would be paid by the whole people the full value of 

 the product of their toil less the expense of running 

 the industry, and every man and woman guaranteed 

 a job. Is that wrong? He says all the things pub- 

 licly used would be publicly owned, and why not? 

 He says there would be no profit and no interest, 

 and he that won't work shall not eat. 



Palatka, Fla., Feb. 14. .John Gibbon. 



My good friend, I am glad to know that 

 your neighbor asked you to turn to your 

 Bible; but I regret that he did not at the 

 same time ask you to present your troubles 

 to the good pastor of your church. I take 

 it that you go to Sunday-school and Endea- 

 vor society.* I greatly fear, however, that 

 you do not. I would also advise you to 

 talk with the superintendent of the Sunday- 

 school. He certainly should be able to give 

 you some needed advice. Your letter has 

 done me good, because it has set me to 

 thinking, and to talking with good and wise 

 peoi)le. Perhaps I have been in times past 

 a little bit too vehemet in denouncing war 

 and warlike instruments. You may, per- 

 haps, be aware that there are some religious 

 df^nominations that call themselves "Non- 

 resistants." They will not go to war nor 

 will they go to law. 1 knew quite intimate- 



* A judge in Brooklyn (one of Frank L. Brown's 

 old Sunday-school boys, by the way) says he has 

 sentenced over twenty-six thousand juvenile crimi- 

 nals; but among them all was not a single Sunday- 

 school boy or g'\r\.— Sunday School Times. 



