The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-12-25
WE ARE THE SHEEP
(By DR.. Frank Crane)

vocal majority had it's innings.
refer to what Mr.. Meltzer calls the
intermediary class"-neither capital
ist nor proletariat. They call US
bourgeois.
That means just plain, everyday
United States-folks.
We are not socialists. because we
have no cocksure scheme for running
the government nor for bringing in
tChc millennium in minute.
! We are not of WaIl street, nor are
we republicans or democrats or Cath
oiics or A. P. AS or Methodists or
Sim Feiners or bolsheviks or any
thing but just folks.
We don't want graft. We don't want
anything we don't earn. We don't
want to hold a pistol at the head of
Congress and make it see things our
way. We don't say We'll take our doll
rags and go home unless everybody
agrees with us. We are no menacing
minority.
We are the sheep everybody shears.
We are the placid majority.
We go along, paying our taxes, get
ting all the money we honestly can,
hiring people to labor for us when we
can get anybody that will work, in
vesting in stocks and bonds we don't
knew much about, paying parsons to
tell US how to be decent, reading the
KIND of newspapers and magazines
that are printed, drinking the milk
and eating the bread that we find for
sale, and trying to obey the laws our
LEGISLATORS cOncOct
Isn't it about time we formed a
party, or a union. or something?
The railroad men have their union,
and the bricklayers, and the molders,
and the walters. and the plumbers,
ard the actors. And the bankers have
their trusts. And then there are the
embattled office seekers and grafters
that organize into political parties.
What about us? Us is spelt U. S.
What about me, and John and Cous-
IL Ed, and Aunt Mary?
| mean that vast multitude that
walk when the street-car men strike,
freeze when the janitors strike, pay
$50 for $50 suit when the tailors
strike, eat fiapjacks when the bakers
strike, cook our own bacon and eggs
when the cooks strike, and enjoy lit
tie peace of mind and chance to
talk when the theater orchestra
strikes.
We thought we didn't belong to
any class. but we discover that we do.
We are bourgeois.
, It is we that the rampant bolshevik
Ihates. 1t is upon US that the Green
wich Village revolutionist looks with
scorn.
The capitalist and the aristocrat
snub US.
The laborer regards us as his enc
my, also gouges US.
We give the literary high-brow a
large pain.
When there is strike, both sides
strike US. not each other. The grocer
scheats US.
I All who yearn to revolute and up
turn find US nthe road and curse US.
Also the reactionary, seeing we are
cold toward the time-honored bunk of
his glorious traditions, pauses to swat
US.
J, Poets look upon US as hopeless, and
bricklayers are of the same opinion.
The trouble is. viewed from one
side, that we use a toothbrush, wear
a clean collar, live with our legal wife,
| work for living, save up a little
money, keep most of the ten COM
mandments, and generally try to mind
| our own business. Which is just plain,
!disgustingly common.
t The trouble is, viewed from the
other side. we don't care hang about
: ss:ssiety and our best people, we don't
5 want to keep up with the Joneses, it
doesn't interest US to be bowed to by
r Mrs. Gotrox. not be invited to the
. Duchess of Dingbat's tea. When we
, get through our days work, we want
: to go home and tend the garden, eat
with our family, play with the chill
E dren, read book and go to bed.
1 We are not of any elect.
, We are not misunderstood. On the