The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1919-10-11
ALL HAIL, 1.-THE .HAMMER!"

ALL HAIL, 1.-THE HAMMER!"
For many years we have heard lot
about throwing the hammer" into the
discard and giving time to "construc-
tive work" Many have said: Build
up; never tear down. ~
But knocking and tearing down are
just as necessary in the economy of
things, as building up. Battering
down Wrong is a useful process and
must usually precede the building up
of Right. -
Foul as it is, hell itself is defiled
by the fouler presence of john" That
was the terrible verdict of the con-
temporaries of King John of England.
In his person were combined insol-
ence, selfshness, unbridled lust, cruel
ty, shamelessness and tyranny. The
barons rose against him and demanded
change A. D. 1915, they invited the
King to a little meeting at Runny-
mede and they informed the absolute
monarch that there must be some ma
terial notifications in the autocratic
power of the King. John did not relish
the demand but he realized that he
stood alone and that the barons had
their little hammers" up their sleeves
and were ready to use them, so he
granted the Magma Charta. The Great
Charter was discussed, agreed to, and
signed in single day. Thus modern
democracy and liberty had their origin
in hammer work.
In the sixteenth century the Cath
olic Church had grown corrupt. The
priests were guilty of immortality, ex-
tortion and all the other crimes in the
decalogue. The Inquisition was work
ing overtime. When conditions were
at their worst, Martin Luther appeared
on the scene armed with a "hammer,"'
and he battered down the Devil so
braced Christianity and this in the
Thus began the Reformation which
separated the Protestant church from
the Romish See, and conferred in
estimable benefits on mankind.
For many years the American COL
onies had been oppressed by England,
the mother country. The colonies
protested against taxation without
representation. Mother England re-
fused to heed the cries of her children,
so in Its, the colonists revolted, the
first blood shed being that of Crispus
Attacks, mulatto, whose valor the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts has
commemorated in enduring granite
and bronze on Boston Common. The
continued "hammering" of the colon
lists finally brought the liberty which
was proclaimed, July 4, 1776.
In the seventeenth century, African
slavery was inaugurated in America.
William Wilberforce and others "ham-
mered" at the vile wrong in England.
The agitation was continued until the
year 1884 saw the abolition of slavery
in all British colonies.
Bo4d-service. had strong hold in
the United States, but the abolition
lists had already unsheathed their
hammers" William Lloyd Garrison,
Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips,
Harriet Beecher. Stowe, Charles Sum-
ner and hundreds of others hammer
ed" the great evil until the slave hold
ers' rebellion came, when hammers"
were exchanged for guns, and with
the assistance of nearly 100000 former
slaves, who. fought nobly, the great
blot was wiped from the escutcheon.
: The work of the hammer is not yet
complete. Thousands of social wrongs
still exist which must be hammered
until they disappear. .~>s
Thousands of men,, such as women
slavers, jimcrowists and their ilk, men
who would barter their birthrights,
must be hammered until they beg for