The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1917-10-20
THE WORST ENEMIES
OF THE GOVERNMENT
BY JOB, HARTMAN.

your republic will be as fearfully
plundered and laid waste by these
barbarians in the twentieth century
as the Roman Empire was in the
fifth, with this difference, that the
Huns and vandals who ravaged the
Roman empire came from without,
and that your Huns and vandals will
have been engendered within your
own country and by your own institu-
| tions."
So Thomas Darlington Macaulay,
one of the greatest essayists and his
! torians that ever lived, warned Amer
lea during his last visit to our shores.
No utterance in history was more WV
idly prophetic.
The United States, at this moment
bending every effort to place the ma
ton on basis Of military efficiency
in order that Kaiserism may be
crushed, is being frustrated at every
turn by commercial buccaneers and
piratical profiteers whose brand OF
patriotism is and always has been the
kind that waves the Stars and Stripes
over the dollar sign. The United
States has undertaken the noble task
of abolishfng Prussian autocracy, only
to discover that she is seriously handi-
capped by the very men who were the
most blatant in their cry for prepar-
edness and war!
When congress passed the conscrip-
ton act. the demand arose from every
part of the country that wealth be
conscripted as we'll as human souls.
The statement was universally ap-
proved that if mothers were to give
their flesh and blood, the rich should
give the larger portion of their pro-
fits. For two solid months, a battle
has been raging in congress between
the friends of the people and the ene-
mics of justice to determine whether
profits shall be drafted as we'll as
human beings. And up to the pres
ent time. the forces of reaction have
been in the ascendency.
The bitterest enemies of the work.
ing class have turned out to be the
bitterest enemies of the United States
government in this crisis. Twenty
five persons in this country whose in
comes exceed $2,500,O00 year are a
thousand-fold worse enemies of the
United States government than the
handful Of individuals in this country
acting as spies Of the German govern
ment The majority Of the plain
people are struggling with the prob
lem OF living on meagre salaries,
wages and incomes and in addition to
this burden they must assume the bur-
den of being saddled with a heavy
war-debt. Yet, these rs individuals
with incomes above S2,500,000 are re-
quired to pay only an insignificant
share of their swollen incomes! Con-
gresham Meyer London says that the
rich are acting so shamefully with
reference to this matter that one of
the most putrid scandals in the his
tory of the United States will be made
public in the near future by friends
of the people.
Persia persisted when 1 per cent of
the people owned all the land. Egypt
went down when 2 per cent owned
W per cent of all the wealth. Baby
Ion died when 2 per cent owned all
the wealth. Rome expired when 1900
men possessed the then known world.
In the United States today less than
| WI SSA| O"A 11IOSL VI lIlc Wealth OIL
the nation. The situation in this
country is serious enough in time of
peace. But, in time of war, when a
nation must concentrate her entire
economic and human forces against
the enemy, the situation is nothing
short of tragic.
The United States government could
make no more important move today
than the one embracing an immediate
and drastic attempt to conscript all
the profits that have accrued to indi-
viduals as result Of the war. It is
purely and simply q matter of protec.
ton. Disloyal organizations will point
out these fragrant facts to the people
and convince them that the entrance
of our TIA; tion into the war was engen-
dered by the forces of predatory capt.
talism, and that the lives Of thousands
of American citizens are threatened
for no other purpose than that of the
financial and commercial aggrandize-
ment Of the ruling classes.
The vilest pro-Germans in the
United States are those patriots who
are accomplished flag-wavers but
who fatten on the blood and Drawn of