THE CALL OF THE WILD
Jack London Puts an "If" in the Condemned Constitution.
And here is the "New York Evening Sun," denouncing
Jack; here is the "Chicago Inter-Ocean," in an editorial:
If Jack London speaks only for himself, he is either a cheap
seeker after notoriety or a pestilential agitator. If the latter, he is
more dangerous than the agitators whose fulminations led to the
assassination of President McKinley, and assassination is as likely to
follow his diatribes.
Our laws prevent the importation of foreign Anarchists. Are the laws and public sentiment not strong enough to suppress the exploiter of sensationalism who preaches treason to the flag and war on the Government?
And here is the "Rochester Post Express," with the headline:
"A LITERARY ANARCHIST." Here is the "Milwaukee
Sentinel": "LONDON BELCHES MORE FIRE."
Here is the "Chicago Inter-Ocean": "ASSASSINATION
PET JOY OF MR. LONDON."
And here are various public libraries, rushing to defend our imperiled institutions by barring the books of Jack London from their shelves: Derby, Connecticut; Des Moines, Iowa; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And here is Jack, writing to Gaylord Wilshire: "Thanks for the enclosures. You bet they amuse me! I leave it to you if my situation isn't amusing!" In a letter to me, Mrs. London explains this amusement: "Down went his royalties!" And she adds:
Several years ago Jack learned, from one newspaper man and
another, what he had often suspected—that the standing instructions
in practically every newspaper office on the Pacific Coast were to
give Jack London the worst of it whenever possible. Of course this
meant no matter what the occasion, whether slamming his work, or
wilfully misrepresenting his personal actions. And they only subsided,
as I have said above, when they adjudged he had a bank account,
and therefore must needs be less radical.
This trick played upon Jack London is a favorite one with
our newspapers—to take some quotation, and put it in the
mouth of the quoter. What a sordid man is William Shakespeare;
he said: "Put money in thy purse!" What a vainglorious
man is the apostle Matthew; he said: "All these
things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship
me!" What a violent man is James H. Maurer, president of
the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor; he said: "Down with
the Stars and Stripes!"
