WHAT LIES BEFORE AMERICA?
By Benjamin Phillips
SHALL America, with her once-fair name, be branded as a hell in a few short years to come? Shall a few money-hoarders rule over this once-free land, and turn the poor people out in the cold and storms? Is there no Washington, no Lincoln, no Jefferson, among us to-day? Will Socialism gain a foothold and root the tremendous force of fraud, iniquity, oppression, and vanity from the heart of our once-beloved country? Lo! we who watch have seen the wo that the money-gormands have brought unto the land. We have seen bribery committed in which senators and other high officials were condemned before the courts. We have seen grafters in the post-office department; grafters in the navy and army, and in every position from the humblest to the highest. We have seen the noxious conduct of the insurance companies; the poison combinations of the railroad kings and trust magnates; and even among the mines there have been frauds that would have struck spell-bound the Americans of a generation ago. We have seen the wasteful expenditure of riches—that was worse than wasteful, because it was for vanity—while poor hungry souls marched the streets with scarcely anything to wear and homeless, yet were driven away by the opulent. Lo! all these things have brought the people to a critical condition. The Socialists have risen. Men have joined their ranks who a few short years ago were staunch Republicans or Democrats. Men have joined their ranks because money-power has become so great a crime that there must be a power to curb it, to make equality and justice the watchwords of their battles. The Socialists are going to battle, and by the next election their numbers will have grown marvelously. They will not stop at defeat—they will put on a thicker armor and march again with weapons that mean victory! It is high time that America woke up for Americans, whether they be Socialists, or even Terrorists. The beloved patriots who braved storm, nakedness, hunger, and steel to win victory against the tyranny of England—how has this present generation remembered them? Our great forefathers, the makers of our nation, the founders of an ideal government—how have the vipers of to-day marked them? We are drifting out into a sea of reformation. The despair of the poor, worthy ones must culminate in a great struggle, and this struggle means the downfall of opulence and despotism. Great writers and reformers shall hastily rise to denounce the looseness and corruption of the heartless officials. Then the child-labor problem must be solved. The good men shall use their influence to crush the monstrous slave-holders of to-day—the monsters that drive the laborers to desperation and strikes. Drastic measures must be taken in every direction or history will repeat itself in a day soon to come. Aye? what does all this mean? It means the drawing near of reformation or destruction. It may mean the mightiest of wars the world has ever seen. It may mean chaos and night darker than Erebus. Watch, thou, for the end. Ye bribers, swindlers, quacks, and tyrants, harken! Ye looters, grafters, corruptors, and money-worshipers, bow down before one who hath the power. Go on in your iniquity—your wickedness and vanity. Ye shall know what is due when the day of judgment is at hand.