Seward Daily Gateway

REFORMER CONFESSES
Often in our early enthusiasms we battle for causes which seem to us of supreme importance at the time, but which we may later conclude were not so vital, after all.
In a recent magazine a well known writer and lecturer gives his experiences along this line.
He has been quite a reformer in his time.
Among the causes for which he has fought with tongue and pen are the single tax, the direct primary, votes for women, the League of Nations, spelling reform and prohibition.
His present views on these questions are indicated by the following quotations:
"Single tax still seems good to me, but vastly less important or likely of attainment than it appeared in the height of my excitement about the great cause."
"I have reluctantly concluded that the direct primary will not change the nature of man very much."
"I still think we should be officially in the League, but I no longer believe that it is an idealistic institution."
"I still think women are entitled to the ballot, but I don't see that they are doing such wonders with it."
"Spelling reform engaged my attention at one time, but I am beginning to think that people are entitled to spell correctly if they insist upon it."
"I heated myself and my audiences to incandescent luminosity for the cause of prohibition, and now that the cause is written into the constitution, I am inclined to think that we traded a wasp for an adder."