A COLD ENTHUSIAST BY HUTCHINS HAPGOOD A COLD ENTHUSIAST A COLD ENTHUSIAST BY HUTCHINS HAPGOOD PRIVATELY PRINTED HILLACRE, RIVERSIDE CONNECTICUT 1913 REPRINTED FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION BY PERMISSION of The Globe A COLD ENTHUSIAST One of the most unique men in the country is Theodore Schroeder, secretary and princi- pal fighter of the Free Speech League, compiler of the “Free Speech Anthology,” author of “Free Speech for Radicals,” “Obscene Literature and Consti- tutional Law,” and many articles in scientific and professional mag- azines. “Cold logic” is the phrase most often used by Theodore Schroe- der. He is under the illusion that his life is governed by his intel- A COLD ENTEIUSIAST lect. He thinks his determined, disinterested and public-spirited work is done in a “cold logical” spirit, that it is the pure reason that leads him on. He thinks he dislikes feeling, since feeling leads the mind astray, but it seems to me that he has more feeling than most of the people I know. Schroeder began bucking the world when he was fifteen. All kinds of jobs and various kinds of boxcars as beds fell to his lot. His changing occupations took him all over the northwestern states. He now attributes the peculiarity of his life and work to the fact that he was never long enough in one place to feel its public opinion. His mind was never “standardized,” as he put it to me. He worked his way EIUTCEIINS EIAPGOOD in college, but never stood well in his courses, though he knew how to use knowledge. His training in engineering enabled him, when quite a boy, to do survey and forerunning work for various rail- roads at a high salary. He would jump out on a job and then jump back to the university, where he and the janitor struggled to see which would get a degree first. When very young Schroeder underwent the belligerent influ- ence of Robert Ingersoll. Wherev- er he went, he debated violently. All prejudices and injustices he dealt with with energy, as he thinks in a spirt of cold logic, but I think there was some heat in it. He saved in a few years a good deal of money and picked up some knowledge of law. In A COLD ENTEIUSIAST his early twenties he went to Salt Lake City, moved partly by the desire to take the side of an oppressed people, as he thought. But after he had lived there for some time, where he practised law, he began to see, as he thought, the subversive character of Mor- monism, and, characteristically, about the time Mormonism in political alliance with its form- er opponents was in power again Schroeder opposed it. He pub- lished a little magazine called “Lucifer's Lantern,” in which he shed rational light, designed to dissipate the noxious shadows of an obscene religion. He collected a big library on Mormonism, and the enemies of the church now ap-" pealed to him for information. He had a very big law prac- HUTCEIINS HAPGOOD tice, badly paid, because he took any case which enabled him to fight injustice. He got the repu- tation of being the most litigious man in the West. When an ex- press company, for instance, at- tempted to cheat a citizen out of 25 cents, Schroeder brought suit. In such cases, he would put in a thousand dollars’ worth of time and energy if necessary, to get results, and often without pay. It was just his cold, dispassionate character that enabled him to do that. He is entirely without feeling—he thinks. It is math- ematics that gives strength to his elbow. Money came easy to Theodore Schroeder, but he gave up his chances to make it in unnecessari- ly large amounts in order to devote A COLD ENTHUSIAST himself to cold logic. He came to New York about twelve years ago, and since then has devoted himself to the cause of free speech and to the writing of books and articles. If there is anybody, anywhere, whose freedom of expression is interfered with by Comstock, Mrs. Grundy, the courts, the police, Theodore Schroeder takes up the fight, whether it is a clergyman, a lawyer disbarred for contempt of court, an unpopular anarchist, whether Schroeder agrees with the oppressed person or not, and he generally does not, yet he gives him aid and comfort, legally, financially, in written propa- ganda. No matter how much like a “crank” the suppressed person may appear to be, Schroeder's in- HUTCIHINS HAPGOOD terest is maintained. His cold logic sustains his interest, even in objects generally supposed to be unworthy. Some unsympathetic individu- als might regard Schroeder as a fanatic. But his life is ruled by reason and a passion for science. He is often seen with enthusiasts with whom he completely dis- agrees. But he wants to help them to express themselves. He loves them because they are oppressed. I asked him the other day why, if he was simply a cold logical scientist, he cared so much about individuals being mistreated. “It is an enlarged social con- sciousness,” he replied. “I can see that if one person is oppressed because of his opinions, every- body might be. I might be. For A COLD ENTEIUSIAST it all gets back to selfishness. I simply see a little further than other selfish people, and I want to be forehanded and strengthen the cause which ultimately pro- tects me, even if my case doesn't seem to come in at the time.” I asked Mr. Schroeder if, in his opinion, there ought to be any limit to freedom of speech. “Not as such,” he replied. “If it can actually be shown that something a man said worked in- jury to property or person, rep- aration under our present sys- tem may justly be demanded on the ground that the words were a part cause of the specific in- jury, but in each case actual and material injury must be proved. “Speech itself should always be free. One should be free to ad- HUTCEIINS HAPGOOD vocate murder if one wanted to, and ought not to be prosecuted unless a murder occurs and the advocacy can be proved to be a necessary part of the cause of the murder. If it is shown that a man instigated a specific murder which occurred, he can justly be prosecuted as an accessory there- to. But if he advocates murder, and no murder follows as a proved part of his advocacy, he cannot safely be prosecuted, and ought not to be.” Passionately interested—in spite of his cold logic—as Mr. Schroeder is in free speech, he is even more interested in his scien- tific studies of religion. He is preparing a book, which he deems his magnum opus, on the eroto- genesis of religion, some prelim- A COLD ENTEIUSIAST inary articles on which he has al- ready had published in various scientific and radical periodicals. His study of the Mormon Church was one of the first things which started him on what he now regards as his main work, which is to show the sexual origin of all religions. His method of research is, he says, a purely sci- entific method, and I believe it is. But he says his purpose is dic- tated not by emotions or feeling, which he distrusts. I myself feel, rather than think, that there is something wrong in his cold logical reasoning about religion, but I believe that every civilized man would recognize the great importance of Theodore Schroeder’s work in the interest of free speech.