EDITORIAL 
'59 
“Workers or Shirkers.” 
Under this heading Mr. Emil Medi- 
cus, Asheville, North Carolina, pub- 
lishes a stirring editorial in “The 
Flutist” addressed to those flute play- 
ers that have and have not assisted him 
in making successful the magazine 
started two years ago. He laments the 
fact that his colleagues throughout the 
country have left so much of the bur- 
den of finance and of time to fall on 
him. He asserts that the magazine is 
not receiving the financial support to 
which it is entitled. He calls attention 
to the increased interest in the flute 
sales, and expresses astonishment be- 
cause so many of his musical friends, 
and of those who have a commercial 
interest in the promotion of the instru- 
ment, should have failed him. Again 
and again in his editorial he expresses 
surprise at the situation. 
Mr. Medicus is learning what many 
enthusiasts in every line must learn. 
It is astonishing that there are so many 
shirkers in comparison with the work- 
ers. Take it locally. Start any kind 
of organization for civic improvement, 
to conduct a local library, to get people 
interested in church, men’s club, lodge, 
women’s sewing society, in fact, almost 
any good work, and only a few will 
take hold of it. 
Many a naturalist has painfully 
learned the awful lesson of the agree- 
ment between the workers and the 
shirkers. The workers seem perfectly 
willing to do an immense amount of 
work and the shirkers perfectly willing 
that they should. We have learned that 
in the upbuilding of ArcAdiA, in the 
promotion of the work of The Agassiz 
Association and in the conduct of The 
Guide to Nature. 
There are business houses dealing 
with supplies needed by a naturalist 
that are not advertisers with us, yet 
their business has been built up largely 
by the sentiment in which The AA has 
been an important factor for forty- 
seven years. There are naturalists who 
deplore the lack of interest in nature 
on the part of everybody, and yet we 
could mention a few who have not even 
taken a yearly subscription to this mag- 
azine, and others who never have done 
a particle of missionary work for it, 
nor written an article, nor, so far as we 
know, spoken a kind word in way of in- 
ducing others to take hold and make 
the thing successful. 
It is astonishing the number of peo- 
ple who are willing to see some one sac- 
rifice his life and his finances and not 
give a helping hand. Perhaps the most 
surprising are the so-called philan- 
thropic, the local educational people, 
some of whom have never given a dol- 
lar to the upbuild of The Agassiz As- 
sociation or its work. This is not lim- 
ited to those who hold aloof but in- 
cludes many who have apparently 
taken especial personal pride in this as 
our local educational institution. 
But on the other hand what bright 
and shining examples are those who 
have put their shoulder to the wheel 
and helped forward the good work. It 
seems ever thus that there should be 
struggle on the part of the enthusiasts 
and standing aloof on the part of the 
indifferent and even obstructing on the 
part of the shirkers. 
The more, my dear Mr. Medicus, one 
considers your expression of astonish- 
ment the more one realizes that you 
are beginning to learn what every en- 
thusiastic worker along every line of 
human occupation has to learn. 
Some one of the shirkers may say, 
“We cannot do everything. We are 
limiting our efforts along other lines.” 
This cannot be true of the flute players. 
Many of the professionals evidently 
have not come to the assistance of “The 
Flutist.” It cannot be true even of 
some of our professional naturalists 
whose livelihood depends upon a pub- 
lic sentiment that incites interest in 
their purposes and orders for their lec- 
tures or articles. It cannot be true of 
some who profit by the sale of their 
goods as the result of our disinterested 
activities. 
This article is offered in no spirit of 
pessimism. It does not censure the 
shirkers. It is a lamentation because 
they are losing some of the joys of life. 
I cannot imagine any one who has a 
hearty interest in any phase of music, 
literature, nature study, education, re- 
ligion, golf, baseball, or any human vo- 
cation or avocation who is not willing 
to do something for the good of the 
cause as a whole. Why leave your 
club, your lodge, your church to remain 
solely in the hands of a few workers? 
Life, as Longfellow tells us, is real, is 
earnest. Let us find what we like, what 
