Then the rich man helped the poor
And the poor man loved the great.”
Now the poor man first envies the rich man and then hates him, the rich man hates the richer, and the richer snubs the would-be rich. As a matter of fact, there was never as much sympathy for the poor as now, never as much being done for him as at present. But sympathy and charity are not what he needs, as I hope to be able to show.
IS THE SITUATION HOPELESS?
If the human race has reached a condition where further progress is impossible, and nothing but class antagonisms are left, it would seem that a second occasion has arisen when Jehovah might “repent that he had made man.” Patriotism demands a solution, without which no sane man dares hope for anything except what the socialist predicts in language more ominous than any direct threat.
Permit a few excerpts from a chapter, “The Revolution,” added by its author to a pamphlet containing a debate on socialism, and which he used extensively in his campaign for Congress in 1916. The author is a man of excellent presence and seeming patriotism. I believe him to be as sincere in his belief as any evangelist of the olden times. He commends the vision of Ignatius Donneley in prophesying the approaching cataclysm: “The people cannot comprehend it. They look around for their defenders—the police, the soldier, where are they? Will not this dreadful nightmare pass away? No, never! This is the culmination—this is the climax, the century’s aloe blooms today.” He adds: “These are the grapes of wrath which God has stored up for the day of His vengeance; and now He is tramping them out and this is the red juice—look you—that flows so thick and fast in the very gutters.... Evil has but one child—DEATH. For years you have nourished and nurtured evil. Do you complain if her monstrous progeny is here, with sword and torch? What else did you expect? Did you think she would breed angels?” And then after explaining that he does not speak “these bitter words in the spirit of a challenge, but with the kindliest, deepest feeling of love for all humanity, and with the most fervent and patriotic feelings of veneration for my country—the grandest country in the world, but now being systematically robbed,” he warns “the masters of the bread” thus: “I warn them that if they want ‘red hell’ with all the accompanying fireworks—with all the attendant brutality, and crime, and suffering, and misery, and degradation, and sorrow and death, with the destruction of their cities and the wiping out of their so-called civilization, they can have it just when they most desire. It is up to them. The revolutions of the past will be but kindergarten affairs compared to the revolution now pending and coming when some one strikes a match in the powder house.”
CHAPTER XXIX
CAN THE CRISIS BE AVERTED?
Our troubles have all resulted from false teachings which are leading us farther and farther afield. The very rich will spend nothing to correct the public mind and legislation seems powerless to afford a remedy.
All this might have been prevented and possibly even now can be avoided. It has been brought upon us in part by false education but largely through evolution in our form of government, in our purpose of government, and in industrial conditions. It could have been prevented by correct education both inside and outside the schoolroom. It may possibly be avoided by a speedy return to fundamental Americanism. But whatever happens, no citizen can boast of patriotism until he has sought a remedy; and no one is a patriot who will not sacrifice everything to save the situation.