Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1917-05-12


FIVE years of age-in twenty years
sixteen, have died, only six have &C.
cumulated anything, sixty.three are
merely self-supporting, and fifteen
are dependent. In ten years more
there nre a total of twenty Of them
dead, I(done to death by oyerwork,
under feeding and fierce environ
ments,0 three Of the original number
arc wealthy, only three are still in
dependent, forty-six are still self.
supporting, and twenty.eight are
dependent upon the charity of society
their relatives or friends. In another
ten years. there are siXty-four Of
them left, and Of these fifty-three are
dependent upon charity In some form,
six are merely self-supporting, and
the remaining five are wealthy. OF
five per cent OF them left no estate
whatsoever"
BY their fruits We shall know q
nation. "a just man would crush
with his heel such an ulcerous ant
hill" Young men Of Virginia, look
these hard, cold, and shameful facts
straight in their face, then cover your
own face with a gunny sack, go be-
fifteen minutes, then throw away the
gunny sack, go to the house, thank
your father for the splendid inherit
ance he purchased with q party ballot,
kiss your mother goodbye and then
join the navy and fight to win q
home or remain at home and rot
with the flfty-three. If you are
killed in two weeks you are q winner.
{n 4lo Iiyly, no I'm n
for he cannot lose much.
There is no choice. Nothing is left
but war. Under the present tax
scheme (and you see the fruits) we
are plugging to self-inflicted poverty
adm national death and war alone can
save the nation. Down Eros, up
Mars, and kiss the crimson god.
We're all the nations to lay aside
their arms and embrace as brothers
with the kiss of peace, Justice would
find a way to avenge humanity's
wrongs.
1t is no little crime to steal from
little children the JOY and innocence
Of life's young morning, and fitch
from woman her grace and beauty
when it should be In it's prime. Nor
Is IL q little sin to tax over half a
nation into dependent poverty, while
others roll III wealth.
Standing at the intersection of
Broad and Sixth streets, / heard the
speaker upon that occasion ask all
the men who were willing but were
too OLD to fight, to raise their hands,
and many hands we're raised owned
by men who had less gray In their
beard than myself. Whenever I get
too old to fight. or whenever as sit
amongst the roses close to young
man and woman whose eyes look love
to eyes which speak again and ifwhen
Ihear the first sign Of love as itcomes
trembling from that guileless maid
ems breast and my heart fails to
throb the faster In sympathy and
unison with their fast beating hearts,
then knock me In the head with a
stick Of cord-wood, bury mo on the
frontier Of civilization, and engrave
In granite over my grave, here lies a
corpse who walked the earth many
years before he was buried.
r : tho first poor mans war
since the ''keell-sigtfroa and. great
hearted Napoleon strove in vain to
bless mankind through the birth OF
liberty, being thwarted by the ignor,
ant nabobs of England, and will be
paid for with the wealth which You
, have already produced, and given
away through a silly tax scheme.
Ponder the census figures and you
are bound to believe that you have
no choice save to rot with the fifty.
three in ignorance. eating the bitter
bread Of aims, or to sell your blood
in the legions which will bear to the
triumph Of justice that flag whose
every star was flched from heavens
eternal vault, and whose alternate
stripes were crimsoned with patriot
blood commingled with, and made
the richer by the generous blood OF
France poured out without stint in
our hour of black despair, and CLEAN.
, ing pure under the blazing light OF
| liberty's flaming torch held aloft in
the unselfish hands and Duttressed by
the lion heart of Tom Paine, En-.
glands outlawed son; (upon whose
lowly grave the pitiful preachers have
puked for more than a hundred
years. and whose remaining stripes
were bleached to white virtue, by a
faith and courage which amidst the
desolation and ashes Of war never
faltered nor failed.
J The poor private soldier and pa
triot of seventy-six, like many Of you
young men had no home for which
to bleed, he fought to win home,
and gained 1t, and beneath his own
vine and rose tree, by the lambert
light Of their mothers eyes his chill
dren were watched while they grew
in grace and beauty, with the fierce
love Of liberty burned into their
deathless souls. You too, like the
patriots Of seventy-six, have a home,
and a world of love and light, and
liberty to gain, and nothing to lose
but your life and your self-riveted
chain.
! Cease warning upon each other In
fratricidal party strife which but
chains to you to poverty, and wage a
| world war upon injustice, crime and
poverty, hell's great triumvirate,