The others nodded assent to Kearney's words; but Parks' face had been growing blacker and blacker, and now he broke forth impetuously:
"By heavens! If they don't see their own interests, they must be made to see them. What are our tongues given us for but to tell them of the things they can't see for themselves? The wrong, degradation and poverty we see about us are no more due to the petty evils of Chinese competition than to the wearing of machine-made shoes. They are due to the control of industry by capital--to the system that puts a thousand men to work for the benefit of one man instead of for the benefit of all men. The Chinese now do injure the white man. But you put the capital and labor of the nation under control of the nation's representatives, and the labor of the Chinese would injure nobody--would help instead of hurt. The more the Chinaman produced, the more there would be to divide, and the less the Chinaman lived on, the more there would be for the rest of us. We must make capital the servant, not the master, of mankind. Wipe out the old system! Bring in the new!" Parks had grown more and more excited as he talked, and his hair stood out aggressively from the emphatic nods with which he had pointed his declamation.
"Do you mean that you want us to start a rebellion?" growled Enos.
"Successful rebellions are revolutions," cried Parks, "and it is a revolution that society demands."
"Well, society isn't demanding it out loud," said Kearney.
"We must work through the ballot-box," said Enos, "we must keep within the law."
At this word there was a harsh croak behind me, and I turned to see the white pasty face of H. Blasius gloating over us, his fat forefinger pointed at Enos.
"Law!" he cried. "It is ze superstition of politique imposed on us by ze capitalist, as ze superstition of moral is imposed on us by ze priest. When we say Non--no more for us--zen it is gone--we are free. Let us say Pouf! away! we make laws to suit ourself. Eh, mes braves?"
"Pooh!" said Enos. "You're talking nonsense."
"Nonsense? Poltron!" answered Blasius with contempt. "It take but a few barricade and two free t'ousand men to defend zem, and--boum! We have ze city. I was of ze Commune, and I tell you so. And instead of Marchons, you say Nonsense. Eh-h, cowarrd!"