.MTM5MQ.MTE5NjMz

849 Lincoln Avenue Pasadena, Cal. Dec 18/1906

 My Dear Mr. Kerr,
  I mail my Christmas greeting to you early, because near the holidays the mail  delivery usually becomes very irregular & I would rather have you get this a day or two early, than too late.
 I read & thank you very much for your kind answer to my enquiry about theFitch? publication. I have also received the printed matter you mentioned & perused it with much interest.
 I am now past the allotted 3 score & ten, but I cherish the memory of yourself & wife, as lovers of humanity among the brightest & warmest recollections of a long & eventful life.
 For a number of years, I have at Christmas evidenced my affectionate remembrance to a small circle of friends, by a few lines of doggerell of which the enclosed are a sample & which they appreciate, not because the lines are worthy of it, but because they feel kindly towards the writer.
 This year I have ventured to include you & Mrs. K. in this circle. Please forward the verses to Mrs. K. & please read them yourself for they will show you, my attitude towards Socialism.
 I am in full accord & sympathy with the ideals & with the theory of socialism & with its propoganda. I believe in universal voluntary cooperation & in public ownership of the resources of nature & means of production. But I have no use for the Socialist ?prognosis?, which proposes coercion by violence if necessary of the minority, by a majority, even if it be but of one vote.
 I believe such a majority, if suddenly placed in control of all political