ssay and editorial."

"Entries must be printed in an amateur paper, and a marked copy sent to
the Laureate Recorder by June 1."

Anyone desiring application blanks for recruiting may receive them by
applying to the Secretary.

* * * * *

IMPORTANT

Members are urged to remember the recent doubling of dues, whereby all
renewals became _Two Dollars_ each.

* * * * *

The fullest of apologies is due the membership for the lateness of this
issue of THE UNITED AMATEUR. A prostrating and overwhelming flood of
professional duties, coupled with a state of health permitting only the
shortest of working hours, has forced the editor to delay transmission
of this copy to the publisher until November 4: a date which should be
remembered in justice to the latter official, who is equally handicapped
in the matter of conflicting duties.

THE EDITOR

Editorial

In the excellent October _Woodbee_, Mr. Leo Fritter criticises with much
force the attempt of the present editor to conduct THE UNITED AMATEUR on
a tolerably civilised plane. He points out that the appearance of a
journal representing a fairly uniform maturity of thought and artistic
development may perhaps tend to discourage those newer aspirants who
have not yet attained their full literary stature, and thus defeat the
educational ends of the Association.

Mr. Fritter gathers his material for complaint from the opinions of
certain amateurs with whom he has held communication, and on this basis
alleges a "wide-spreading dissatisfaction" with the present editorial
policy. We have ourselves received numerous and enthusiastic assurances
of an opposite nature, especially since the Fritter attack, so that we
must rebut at least his charge that we are ignoring the membership's
wishes and "trying to conform them to a mould we have arbitrarily cast
according to ideas of our own." To adopt a lower standard would, indeed,
be affronting a more influential element than that which may at present
be dissatisfied; an element which has possibly gained higher claims to
consideration through the _continuous_ nature of its services to the
Association during trying times when others were silent and inactive.

But in determining the question of editorial policy, the abstract merits
of the case are more important than the act of pleasing this or that
person or gro