A group of San Francisco Young Socialists take a hike in 1920 and hope to leave the class war behind for the peace of nature. I’ve been on this walk.

‘On Pleasure Bent’ by Jennie Doyle from The Liberator. Vol. 3 No. 6. June, 1920.

I am secretary of the Y.P.S.L. I am a serious person. The Y.P.S.L. are serious people. On Sundays we jointly agree to forget the class-struggle. We resolve to commune with Nature.

We discard the trusty pamphlet. We bestow lunches about our persons. The deadlier of the species arrays herself in divided skirts or riding breeches, or just anything. The male, with few exceptions, declines to be separated from his starched collar- which invariably wilts. We meet on the crowded ferry boat. We resolve to forget social injustice.

Someone has a copy of the “Examiner,” The editorial exasperates him-or perhaps it is the news. We discuss the movement. Someone says, “Be careful!” We glance around apprehensively. No one seems to attend. We resolve to taboo Russia.

On the hills we throw ourselves on the dew-damp grass. The smell of fresh earth is in our nostrils. I dissolve into the earth and air. I am weak and happy. I forget the class-struggle…Someone declines to believe Mother Jones is eighty-eight. We discuss her age and errors. We agree she was eighty-eight twelve years ago, and decide not to talk I.W.W.

We have come to hike…It is suggested by a recreant that we each please himself as to whether we shall hike or talk…We deny the right of individualistic action. We declare Society is not sufficiently advanced for it. We agree that mass action is necessary, and decide to eschew anarchy.

In our group there is one who possesses a camera. We have our pictures taken. The men do not wear the girls’ hats. We do not embrace. We preserve our dignity in the picture….Someone wishes that all the proletariat were well-mannered. We agree that graceful deportment is only for the few who have leisure to acquire it. The unemployed have leisure too frequently, but they do not become more graceful-somehow. We blame the capitalist regime.

Our women are feminists. But they have not lost their charm. To-day a terrified Lizzard, bounding against the boot of a fair hiker, elicited a loud scream from her. She was soothed by the male members of the party.

Returning, we imbibe soft drinks at a wayside hostelry. We discuss prohibition. We declare artificial stimulation would be unsought were life full and free…

We part at the ferry, expressing mutual admiration of our respective ability to forget the class struggle when on pleasure bent.

San Francisco. JENNIE DOYLE.

The Liberator was published monthly from 1918, first established by Max Eastman and his sister Crystal Eastman continuing The Masses, was shut down by the US Government during World War One. Like The Masses, The Liberator contained some of the best radical journalism of its, or any, day. It combined political coverage with the arts, culture, and a commitment to revolutionary politics. Increasingly, The Liberator oriented to the Communist movement and by late 1922 was a de facto publication of the Party. In 1924, The Liberator merged with Labor Herald and Soviet Russia Pictorial into Workers Monthly. An essential magazine of the US left.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/culture/pubs/liberator/1920/06/v3n06-w27-jun-1920-liberator-hr.pdf