MEET ME ON THE BARRICADES

was during the summer of 1912. He had attended a mass meeting in support of the Lawrence textile strikers. Here he witnessed a hot contagious enthusi- asm, a multitude welded together by common aspira- tion, a selflessness which hitherto had been unknown to him.

In the weeks which followed he was overwhekned by the impact of new people, alien types, strange but exciting doctrines. He was subjected to an eloquence which left him exhausted but happy. Here were people who had harnessed their daydreams to a scientific social concept and who one day would alter the essential conditions under which mankind lived.

As a daydreamer he was compelled to admit his purely amateur standing; these people were profes- sionals. But they were more than mere visionaries. They demanded not only emotional acceptance of their theories but action, self-sacrifice, discipline.

And this was beyond Simpson. He instinctively re- coiled from the implications inherent in revolutionary socialism. The mere possibility of strikes, demonstra- tions and armed insurrection terrified him so that when the immediate situation which had drawn him into the movement had subsided, he retreated to his music again.

But after that he was never the same. He had seen

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