?"

"Why not try the experiment," I suggested, "of giving him what he
considers wealth, instead of what you consider wealth?"

"But what does he consider wealth?"

"Equality," said I.

Mr. Vedder threw up his hands.

"So you're a Socialist, too!"

"That," I said, "is another story."

"Well, supposing we did or could give him this equality you speak
of--what would become of us? What would we get out of it?"

"Why, equality, too!" I said.

Mr. Vedder threw up his hands up with a gesture of mock resignation.

"Come," said he, "let's get down out of Utopia!"

We had some further good-humoured fencing and then returned to the
inevitable problem of the strike. While we were discussing the meeting
of the night before which, I learned, had been luridly reported in the
morning papers, Mr. Vedder suddenly turned to me and asked earnestly:

"Are you really a Socialist?"

"Well," said I, "I'm sure of one thing. I'm not ALL Socialist, Bill Hahn
believes with his whole soul (and his faith has made him a remarkable
man) that if only another class of people--his class--could come into
the control of material property, that all the ills that man is heir
to would be speedily cured. But I wonder if when men own property
collectively--as they are going to one of these days--they will quarrel
and hate one another any less than they do now. It is not the ownership
of material property that interests me so much as the independence of
it. When I started out from my farm on this pilgrimage it seemed to
me the most blessed thing in the world to get away from property and
possession."

"What are you then, anyway?" asked Mr. Vedder, smiling.

"Well, I've thought of a name I would like to have applied to me
sometimes," I said. "You see I'm tremendously fond of this world exactly
as it is now. Mr. Vedder, it's a wonderful and beautiful place! I've
never seen a better one. I confess I could not possibly live in the
rarefied atmosphere of a final solution. I want to live right here and
now for all I'm worth. The other day a man asked me what I thought was
the best time of life. 'Why,' I answered without a thought, 'Now.' It
has always seemed to me that if a man can't make a go of it, yes, and be
happy at this moment, he can't be at the next moment. But most of
all, it seems to me, I want to get close to people, to look into their
hearts, and be friendly with them. Mr. Vedder, do you know what I'd like
to be called?"

"I cannot ima