The Iron Heel

r and gave vent to roars of Gargantuan laughter. Not since

astical controversy!' Did you notice how he began like a lamb-Everhard, I mean, and how quickly he became a roaring lio

e of my twenty-four years, I had not married. I liked him; I had to confess it to myself. And my like for him was founded on things beyond intellect and argument. Regardless of his bulging muscles and prize-fighter's t

lint of laughter in his eyes that belied the impassioned seriousness of his face. And there were further reaches of vague and indeterminate feelings that stirred in me

had been very happy. But when mother died, his own work could not fill the emptiness. At first, in a mild way, he had dabbled in philosophy; then, becoming interested, he had drifted on into economics and sociology. He had a strong sense of justice, and he soon became fir

y. Here came to dinner all sorts and conditions of men,-scientists, politicians, bankers, merchants, professors, labo

a crowd of workingmen. The man on the box was Ernest. Not that he was a mere soap-box orator. He stood high in the councils of the socialist party, was one of the leaders, and was the acknowledged leader in the phil

descendant of the old line of Everhards that for over two hundred years had lived in America.* At ten years of age he had gone to work in the mills, and later he served his apprenticeship and became a horseshoer. He was self-educated, had taught himself German and Fre

tween being native b

d invidious

dering him as a lover, as a husband. I had always heard that the strength of men was an irresistible attraction to women; but he was too strong. "No! no!" I cried out. "It is impossible, absurd!" And on the morrow I awoke to find in myself a longing to see him again. I wanted to see him mastering men in discussion, the wa

lute simplicity that convinced even while one continued to doubt. He had the gift of lucidity. He was the perfect expositor. Yet, in spite of his style, there

he effect that he was "an insolent young puppy, made bumptious by a little and

and was anxious for another meeting. "A strong young man," he said;

t's continued presence in Berkeley, by the way, was accounted for by the fact that he was taking special courses in

ed to be secretly p

the Iron Heel. Ther

ns in the Nationa

sphere of largeness. As he stopped to meet me, he betrayed a certain slight awkwardness that was strangely at variance with his bold-looking eyes and his firm, sure hand that

g-class Philosophy,'" I said, and

took into consideration the aud

I did that I have a quarre

with you, Mr. Everhard

oulders whimsically an

wed and gave

l to appeal to all that is narrow and brutal in the working class.

ed is neither in the text nor in the s

fully, and reached for

d smiled at me while

uggle, therefore, presents itself in the present stage of social

at him tr

of class hatred,

ed, "you say 'c

e is a law of social development. We are not responsible for it. We do not make the class struggle. We merely explain i

be no conflict of

t me read an extract." He took his book and turned back several pages. "Page one hundred and twenty-six: 'The cycle of class struggles which began with t

faint glow the intensity of his feelings. "Your premise is wrong. There is no such thing

y. "By that last statement you

be a conflict?" the

houlders. "Because we

t so made!" cr

nd godlike, and so few in numbers as to be practically non-exis

ordinary man,"

nd fallible, p

orehouse

ty and s

he n

nest warned. "I

selfish," the Bishop

all he

can get-true b

d like a trap. "Let me show you. Here is

weren't for capital,"

apital would perish if there wer

hop was

u?" Ernes

shop n

n on the street railway furnish the labor. The stockholders furnish the capital. By the joint effort of the workingmen and the capital, mon

oups of predatory i

ransportation, and

ll upon t

. "And there is no reason that the

earth, the workingman, being selfish, wants all he can get in the division. The capitalist, being selfish, wants all he can get in the division. When there is only so much of the same thing, and when two men want all they can get of the same thing, there is a conflict

" * the Bishop q

re very common in t

metimes the labore

alists refused to l

turbulence of such

oyed and many live

-as inconceivable a

the habit the men o

e furniture when t

r wi

er the division of the earni

ehouse bec

-sighted on the part of the workingmen.

elled to walk," E

house ignored h

iolence and murder now, and sorrowing widows and orphans. Capital and labor

remarked dryly. "Come back to earth. Remembe

not to be!" th

t not to be selfish, but he will continue to be selfish as lon

aghast, and my

list system. And that is what your church is standing for, what you are preaching f

alingly to my father, but he

f and devil take the hindmost. As Mr. Everhard said the other night, the function you churchmen perf

e teaching of Chris

he workingmen will have nothing to do with the Church. The Church condones the fright

ot condone it," th

nd in so far as the Church does not protest, it condones, fo

st be wrong. I know that there is much that is sad and wicked in this wo

ed originally from t

e census of Servius

e state only as the

words, they were of

osition, or exce

cried. "The proletariat has grown up out

w you," the Bis

rking people was separated from the land. The old system of labor was broken down. The working people were driven from their villages and herded in fa

th an agonized expression on his face. "It was te

ch was dumb. It did not protest, as to-day it does not protest. As Austin Lewis* says, speaking of that time, those to whom the command 'Feed my lambs' had been given, saw those lambs sold into

vernor of Californ

l election of 190

h, a writer of man

phy, and one of the

ti

re horrible page

hild and women sla

tter half of the ei

In such industrial

t fortunes

Hammerfield, he was unused to this fi

ten," Ernest prompted. "If the Church was not

hurch was dumb," t

hurch is d

agree," said

t him searchingly, and

ago there are women who toil all the week

the answer. "Ninety cents

h protested?"

t know." The Bishop

c congregations at the working of children in the Southern cotton mills?* Children, six and seven years of age, working every night at twelve-hour shifts? They never see the blessed sunshine. They die like flies. The

ve drawn a better i

tspoken defence of c

s the "War of the

culled from the do

In 1835 A.D., the

Church resolved

the Old and the New

he authority of Go

issued the followi

ht of masters to di

en distinctly recog

s surely at liberty

bject whomsoever He

or of Divinity an

thodist College o

Writ unequivocally

, together with th

ght to buy and sel

n, whether we consu

himself, or the

in all ages, or th

the moral law, we

very is not immoral

irst African slaves

ight to detain thei

pensable consequenc

ists in America was

markable that this

e Church a genera

fence of capitalis

ard there is a book

tten by Henry van

of the Christian E

ust have been a chur

t Everhard would ha

similarity between

t Association quo

of Van Dyke sevent

God owns the worl

to His own good plea

ral

red faintly. His face was pale, an

have not p

op shook

b to-day, as it was in

and for once Ernest for

er a churchman does protes

that is fair," w

otest?" Erne

u mention, in our own comm

y. "I am at your disposal. I will t

in his chair, and over his gentle face spread the har

ischarged," wa

e. And, furthermore, I hold that whatever is horrible in industrial society is due to the ignorance of the capitalist class. It

brutally, and I was drive

ive us credit for no good at all. Bishop Morehouse is right. The industrial wrong, terrible as

savage as the capitalist class," he an

I answered. "We are

t," he c

t . . . to you?" I

sk you to prove it to me. I as

ow,"

hing," was hi

hildren," father

gan indignantly, but

r father has, which is the same thin

t to do with

d you eat is a bloody stew. The blood of little children and of strong men is dripping from yo

ay into easier channels; but Ernest opened his eyes, looked at me, and waved them aside. His mouth was stern, and his eyes too; and in the latter there was no glint of laughter. What he was about to say, what terrible castigation he was going to give me, I never knew; for at that moment

me is Jackson,

he should be at work, and not

re were many thou

DLERS. They carried

door. It was a most

tion was as confuse

neral system

of his left arm,"

saw that the s

manage the mills for you. It was an accident. It was caused by his trying to save the company a few dollars. The toothed drum of the picker caught his arm. He might have let the small flint that he saw in the teeth go through. It would have smashed out a double row of spikes. But he reached for the flint, and his arm was picked and cl

he company do f

fought the damage suit he brought when he came out of hosp

with conviction. "Or else you do not know

nsolent! And with his arm chewed off! Nevertheless he was a meek an

have been decided against him had there been

yer." Ernest looked at me intently for a moment, then went on. "I'll t

determined to,"

ll you where to find him. But I tremble for you whe

smarting with a sense of injustice that had been done me and my class. The man was a beast. I hated him, then, a