Page:The Brass Check (Sinclair 1919).djvu/221

 testify to the condition in which the offices were left. At my instance the "Examiner" sent a photographer and took a flashlight of the scene; but then it suppressed the picture! As for the "Times," it quite solemnly informs its readers that the war veterans wrecked their own offices, in order to have a ground of complaint against the government! It repeats this, in circumstantial detail, two days in succession!

This is a somber tale I am telling, so let us not miss the few laughs that belong. Some time ago I had a call from a young lady reporter for the "Los Angeles Record." She was a very young lady indeed—just out of school, I should say—and she explained that Max Eastman had given an interview on the subject of "free love," and would I please to give an interview on the subject of "free love." In reply I explained to this young lady that as a result of previous painful experiences I had made an iron-clad rule on the subject of the sex-question. I would not trust any newspaper reporter, not even the most amiable, to interpret my views on that delicate subject.

The young lady argued and pleaded. She did her very charming best to get me to give her a hint of my opinion of Max Eastman's opinion of "free love." But I have become a wise bird—having had my wing-feathers shot out so many times; I gave no hint, either of my own opinions or of my opinions of Max Eastman's opinions.

Finally the young lady said: "Do you ever write on the subject, Mr. Sinclair?"

I answered: "Sometimes I do. When I write, I choose my own words and say what I mean, and then I am willing to stand by it."

"Well," said the young lady, "will you write an article on 'free love' for the 'Record'?"

"Certainly I will," said I—"if the 'Record' will pay my price."

"What is your price?"

"Ten cents a word."

The young lady looked troubled. "I don't know if the 'Record' could pay that," said she, "but this is my position—I will explain frankly, and hope you won't mind. I've just started to be a newspaper woman, and I'm very anxious to make good. I don't have to earn my living, because my parents have money. What I want to do is to have a career.