The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1911-01-26
THEMAN.H IGHERUP
HE cNaw @tdMg Amy1aw
HENRY RUSSELL MILLER
Copyright. 1870 The BobbsMerrn Company

seized our great political parties.
Obsolete laws, passed to meet
the puny Industrial conditions of
generation gone, were forcibly
retained. Where it became neces-
sary, as a sop to a restless people,
to pass new and broader laws, ex-
ecutives and courts were seated
who would sustain attractions of
those laws. The machinery of the
law - government - has become
creatures of corporate wealth."
At this point in, his speech Paul
cast aside restraint and poured
forth a torrent of invective against
corporate greed and Its servants.
At the conclusion of his climax
not a Sound. could be heard in the
theater. His audience sat wrap
ped in an ominous silence.
What do these things mean?"
Paul continued. "Of late a new
word has come into use among us,
plutocracy Government by
wealth, for wealth-by the very
nature of the lust that gives it
birth, ever constituencies, pitiless,
ever unutterably selfish, AN enc
my to the equal brotherhood of
men! Plutocracy among
us has no reason for existence. 1t
denies civilization. 1t is a rever-
sion to the barbarous reasoning of
a thousand years ago. 1t gives
the lie to history. / return to my
former roposition-what we are
today, that we have grown stead
lily in power and influence, that
We have added miraculously to
our material wealth, that we have
met political and Industrial crises
successfully, is due, not to the
genius and courage of few, butt
to the character of the wholeI
people.
The great, sane, common peo-
pie of this land can be trusted
with our future. Therefore wei
must not relinquish control of
that future. The government of
this people, ours by decree of ALL
God, must remain in the
hands of the people!"
The men of that audience,
drawn from many sources, posi-
sessed a common heritage. 1t was
a far cry to the Bourne, to the
to the bloody streets of Berlin.
But in their veins coursed the
blood of those who had made
those fields memorable. And to-
them Paul's burning words were
as a summons to battle-a battle
against odds, against oppression.
They met his cry with the only
answer given him during his
speech-the battle cry.
"Fools Claptrap!" Eleanor
heard her brother mutter. She
looked at him. He was pale and
nervous.
"Hush!"
She looked across the theater
toward Bob. He, too, was pale.
His hands, still folded across his
chest, held the biceps in a fierce
grip. His forehead was creased
in a deep frown. What did that
frown mean? she wondered, al
most subconsciously.
When Paul resumed speaking,
he gave his speech a more specific
dppilSdIlOHs III pain, uhihillClhS
terms he outlined the political
history of the state. In it the
forces of plutocracy were most
strongly entrenched. For a gen.
Grafton, until the time when John
Dunmeade had dared to set his
face against the powers of corrpu-
ton, it had lain PROSTATE, unpro-
testing, under the heel of a
great railway monopoly. This
monopoly, abetted by the steel in
terests of the city, had robbed the
greatest state of the Union of its
virtue and independence. One
man, by grace of his contorl of
the railway system, had dictated
the choice of officers and their Of
fetal policy. Thus, the political
power of six millions of people
concentrated in the hands of one
man, formed the chief of plu-
tocracy's strongholds. If the peo-
pie of the republic were to do bat
tie for their liberties, in that state
the battle would be lost or won.
Continued Tomorrow. \
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