WCP2742

[1]

3106 Western Avenue

Los Angeles Cal.

8 January 1913.

Dear Dr Wallace

Today is I think the anniversary of your birth & again I write to congratulate you. I find great encouragement in seeing you still when front. An American magazine reproduced your article¹ in Everyman in the chemical theory of life & they also printed a very fine & recent portrait of you (whole page) I think your argument is a clincher.

Thought is getting very active out here & all over the U.S. on economic problems & I think as I always thought that some of them will first be solved over here. I am lecturing on the Single Tax on Sunday. The magazines are [2] full of strong

arguments — not one magazine but a dozen — on the matters which have interested you & me for so long. They repudiate [illeg.] here because they do not know it under [illeg.] norms & yet — they pay pensions – [illeg.] for neglect of [illeg.] — If a day & another [illeg.] other family. A little more of that will mean State employment for all.

The movement of affairs here points to one of three courses. Civil wars & military dictatorships, Bureaucracy on Russian lines or Socialism. Any accident might precipitate one or the other. Inside 20 years *one or the other will occur. ^{Things move very fast here.} *Of course it will not be definitely one or the other but this resultant of the 3 forces plus some unforeseen incident.² It is now a neck & neck race between this [illeg.] & the selfish as to who shall steer this ship of state. The [illeg.] w^d. win if immigration could be suspended. The newcomers cannot be absorbed & instructed sufficiently, rapidly & the “Hours” appear to throw on the lowest grounds, like Unionists in Birmingham.

I trust you are well. My wife joins me in kindest remembrances of you & Mrs Wallace & may you be spared still longer to lend your great weight to good causes.

Ever yours sincerely. | R. Estcourt³ [signature]