Change of Name – Moses Harman, 8/24/1883
ProvokeRevolt.com was launched on Sep. 1st. 2025 in tandem
with & as a successor to the Lucifer the Light Bearer publication.
Our correspondents and patrons in other States object to the prefix Kansas-they prefer a paper that is not
local in name, object or character. Then, it has been urged that there are so many papers named “Liberal”
that it has become quite “confusing.” So, after carefully considering the matter, we have decided to change
our present cognomen to one that will not be open to these objections. But right here “comes the tug of war!”
We find ourselves in the predicament in which parents have often found themselves when looking for names to
bestow upon their “young hopefuls”—they find that all the most eligible names have already been appropriated.
So we find ourselves reduced to the alternative of inventing something entirely new, or of going to a foreign
language for a cognomen. We have decided on the latter; and in looking over the field we find two Latin words
that strike us as very appropriate: Lux, light, and ferre, to bear, or to carry-hence the compound word LUCIFER,
Light-bearer. We select this word for the following reasons: 1st. It is short, and needs not the aid of an adjective,
or even definite article. 2nd. It is very expressive of the mission upon which our paper is sent forth. Lucifer is
the name applied by the ancients to the morning star, the Herald of the Dawn. So, in like manner we would
have our little sheet go forth as the herald of the new day—the day of Mental Enlightenment to the dwellers
in the darkness of Superstition, of mental and moral slavery. 3d. It is part of the mission of Freethought to
“Rescue the perishing”—to seek and to save that which has been doomed to perdition by society and by
the church. The name Lucifer, so illustrious in its pedigree and so pure in its original associations, has
been cursed by the blight of theology, and by it been consigned to eternal infamy through association
with the character of the fabled prince of fallen angels.
Hence, Freethought, in its character of “World’s Savior,” proposes to redeem and glorify the name Lucifer,
even as it has redeemed and made illustrious the names “Infidel,” “Freethinker,” “Atheist,” etc. 4th. While
we do not adopt the reputed character of any man, god, demigod or demon, as our model, yet there is one
phase of the character of their Lucifer that is also appropriate to our paper, viz: that of an Educator. The
god of the Bible had doomed mankind to perpetual ignorance—they would never have known Good from
Evil if Lucifer had not told them how to become as wise as the gods themselves. Hence, according to
theology, Lucifer was the first teacher of science. In brief, LUCIFER, as the successor of the KANSAS
LIBERAL, will be the exponent of those deathless principles of Liberty, Love and Justice, which have ever
been the impelling and uplifting forces in the career of the human race, and to which we have tried to
give voice through the columns of the KANSAS LIBERAL. We abate not one jot of our opposition to all
religious, political and social systems which seek to bow men and women in the dust of obedience at
the feet of Authority-whether that Authority claims the sanction of the purely human King or Majority, or
of a Deity. We are in correspondence with engravers, and hope to obtain a beautifully engraved head,
with the new name embellished with a suitable device-to take the place of the old head for the initial
number of the fourth year of our journalistic venture. Now, friends, you who have faithfully stood by
us through sunshine and storm, what say you to this? We sincerely hope that the reasons given for
this change of name will be satisfactory to all.
From Lucifer to Eugenics, 6/6/1907
Now that it has been, after mature deliberation, decided to change the name LUCIFER to THE AMERICAN JOURNAL
OF EUGENICS, the next step is to map out a definite plan of campaign for the rejuvenated, reincarnated journal. One
chief objection to the old name was, and is, that it did not and does not indicate with sufficient clarity the particular line
of work to which its energies were to be devoted—a very serious objection, as all must admit. This is an age of specialties.
Division of labor is the motto, the watchword, of the day, and he who would make his mark upon the world’s progress
must concentrate. Ella Wheeler was right when she wrote the little poem beginning, “The age is too diffusive; time and
force are frittered out and leave no satisfaction,” and ending with these memorable words: “There’s lack of greatness
in this generation—And why? Because no man centers on one thought! We know this truth and yet we heed it not: The
secret of success is concentration!” In all lines of human endeavor, men are now learning the lesson of concentration.
Hence we see a multitude of journals devoted to single departments of human effort, such as agriculture, livestock
raising, poultry raising, beekeeping, fruit raising, floriculture, etc.—not to mention the still greater multitude of journals
devoted to politics, religion, economics, medicine, dietetics, charitable projects, physics, metaphysics, and “Lord knows”
what else. But hitherto there has been no journal devoted wholly, or even chiefly, to eugenics—to the subject of the right
generation of human beings—so far as I know, except LUCIFER the Light Bearer. Even this little journal has divided its
forces between eugenics and the work of blazing a path for freedom of speech and of the press for all men and women
to use, no matter what their line of thought may be.
Elsewhere in this issue will be found a poem entitled “Free Speech,” which voices, in strongly worded sentences,
one of the most important divisions of LUCIFER’s work. Not that no other journals have taken up the fight for eugenics
and for freedom to discuss eugenics. Honorable mention should be made of The Word, a very unconventional monthly
edited and published by Ezra H. Heywood of Princeton, Massachusetts; also of Foundation Principles, edited and
published by Lois Waisbrooker; and of The Adult, by George Bedborough of London, England. Each and all of these
did valiant and effective work for the cause of right-born children, for the right of self-ownership for women, and for
freedom to discuss these rights. But the fates seem to have been against these three noble and courageous journals;
and so, one after the other, they gave up the ghost and joined the majority of ventures in the field of radical journalism,
leaving LUCIFER alone—so far as I now recall—to fight the battles of liberty and of “more light” upon this most vitally
important of all lines of human education.
Free Speech – Charles Mackay, 1907
“All conviction should be valiant;
Tell thy truth, if truth it be,
Never seek to stem its current;
Thoughts, like rivers, find the sea;
It will fit the widening circle
Of Eternal Verity.
Speak thy thought if thou believ’st it,
Let it jostle whom it may,
E’en although the foolish scorn it,
Or the obstinate gainsay;
Every seed that grows tomorrow
Lies beneath the clod today.
If our sires, the noble hearted,
Pioneers of things to come,
Had, like some, been weak and timid,
Traitors to themselves, and dumb,
Where would be our present knowledge?
Where the hoped Millennium?
Where would be triumphant Science,
Searching with her fearless eyes,
Through the infinite creation,
For the soul that underlies—
Soul of Beauty, soul of Goodness,
Wisdom of the earth and skies?
Where would be all great inventions,
Each from bygone fancies born,
Issued first in doubt and darkness,
Launched ’mid apathy and scorn?
How could noontime ever light us
But for dawning of the morn?
Where would be our free opinion,
Where the right to speak at all,
If our sires, like some mistrustful,
Had been deaf to duty’s call,
And concealed the thoughts within them,
Lying down for fear to fall?
Though an honest thought, outspoken,
Lead thee into chains or death—
What is life compared with virtue?
Shalt thou not survive their breath!
Hark! the future age invites thee!
Listen! tremble, what it saith!
It demands thy thought in justice,
Debt, not tribute of the free;
Have not ages long departed
Groaned, and toiled, and bled for thee?
If the Past have lent thee wisdom,
Pay it to Futurity.”
