Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-04-12
THE HOMES OF THE MIGHTY

HE HONES OF LIE MICHl1
One of the most interesting features in connection with the new
Soviet governments of Bavaria and Hungary is the great satisfaction
the leaders of the proletariat seem to take in occupying the royal pal
ace sleeping in the beds of kings and emperors and otherwise desport-
ing themselves in the homes and once private surroundings OF the
mighty-places where the common people have been forbidden to go
before.
What a contrast all this is to the democracy of this great republic
We have no kings and emperors in America and consequently we
haveno royal palaces or downy touches where princes and princesses
have slept.
Our nearest approach to a royal palace, that is, a place where
lives the head of the nation, is the White House at Washington. But
the proletariat are no strangers there. Any man, no matter how lowly
his origin may occupy that house.
Think of Abraham Lincoln, born in a log cabin in the backwoods
of Kentucky, the rail- splitter and the deckhand on a Mississippi Hat
boat-what could be more humble than his beginning. Yet Lincoln
became an honored occupant of the White House.
There is Garfield, who, as a barefoot boy, drove mules along the
tow path hauling canal boats. He was finally chosen by his fellow cit
liens to be President and make his home in the White House.
The present occupant of the White House is the son of a country
preacher.
True, some of the Presidents have come from the homes of the
rich, but the son of the poor man is o more a stranger to the White
House than the son of the rich.
We dont need any Bosheviki or Soviet government to give the
proletariat a chance to u things in this country. The common peo-
pie, as they are called here, are in control and always have been. They
place whomsoever they choose in the house of the m~ighty-sometimes
they pick one from the circles of the well to do, but more often 1T
j. from the more obscure homes that the nations head is selected.
True, we have our beautiful mansions in this country, the homes
of the ultra rich which are private dwellings. But even here there is
nothing to be denied the proetariat. One of the finest mansions on
Fifth Avenue, New York, is the residence of Andrew Carnegie. Yet
Carnegie came to this country a poor emigrant boy. Nothing could be
more commonplace than his small beginnings. BY making use of the.
opportunities that are offered to everyone, rich AID poor -
z ladder until - dh Today Is reck-
I'D in the millions.
John D. Rockefeller was a poor country boy, cerking in a store
in his early days. He comes from the great mass OF common people
who make up our proletarat here. Today he is the richest man In the
.-l1M rl..l.. n cnlvob tba etm1p mo m n w WaolwOTt
died a few days ago, and hundreds of others all climbed the ladder
from the most humble beginnings.
No royalty, 10 nobility or other class distinction works to keep
a man down in this country if he has the ambition to climb and the
stuff in him to back up that ambition.
When we read, then, of the Red Guards occupying the king S
palace on the other side, sleeping in his bed and taking extreme delight
in dwelling in high estate, we can the better appreciate our own gov
eminent where the seats of the mighty have been accessible to all OF us
all the time if we would but deserve them.
Truly we II only beginning to realize the advantages under
which we have been living and the privileges that arc ours.