The evening world., 1921-02-28
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of The Ages
xI-IHE nARoNs.
By SUetOzGT TOniOrOG
Copghght, ip2i. b. The Prsss Publ string %.
(The New York Evening World.

word "robber' has been coupled with
the word baron"
This verbal marriage is justified BY
the record OF centuries OF merciless |
rapacity.
Here and there, through the dark |
ness of the Middle Ages-the feudai
period OF civilization--there are gliIp--
merings OF the existence Of good or
near good Barons. But the whole IN
stitution represented by the Barons
was supremeiy vicious because It
vested in a small minority the right
TO dispose Of the persons and the
property OF the great majority. The
feIdal system, OF which Barops.
Counts and Dukes we're the living
symbols, was the greatest get-rich-
quick scheme ever devised by the
mind OF man.
This colossal system OF eEploita-
tion was invented by the Germans.
They devised it as a workable means
to insure the holding OF the lands
which they had acquired from, the
Roman Empire as 1t crumbled under
their assaults.
Wherever German tribes advanced
westward, over France to Britain:
eastward over Bohemia and Poland
into RusC:a-they carried the feud
alistic idea with them.
Every Baron ruled by the mailed
fist. Lesser Barons had greater
/ nornz. ,-t4h h.r,.tou at. - nworN
obedience and service and treasure
from them. And the great mass OF
humanity at the base OF the pyramid
carried the crushing burden ct the
entire structure.
Jonathan Swift. who lived on the
edge of the vanishing period OF feud-
allsm, put a great truth in whimsical
form when he wrote:
| So uaturalists observe, TIA
Has smaller heas that 90 him prey:
| And theae have smaller stu 20 bite EN-;
And 20 proved ad infinitHn ..I
( This piece OF wise doggerel fur
nishes an accurate picture Of society
under the Barons. The greater Bsk
ons bit into the lesser Barons. ~
lesser Barons bit into the common
people-the "infinitum," who had no
mailed fists with which TO defend
themselves. And all that was left,
for the common people to bite was
the black earth. .
But the time came when the Big
tFlea-the most powerful Baron in this
or that country-began to reserve the
biting privilege to himself. That Big
Flea was the King. This tendency.
d, furnished a measure of protection TO
the common people. In other couns
tries, as in England, 1t was the
Barons who placed limit on the.
rapacity of the King.
Both roads led to the same des-
tination. In France and Germany
the growing power of the King
served to concentrate responsibility
and reduce the hydra headed mon
ster of oppression to a single head.
easily removable by the guillotine-
In England the cause of the Barons
became identified with the cause OF
the people.
And the growth of the bourgeoise,
or mercantile and artisan population
living in bourgs or cities-now so
bitterly denounced and prosecuted by
the Bolshevih in Russia and their
sympathizens in other lands, not ex-
Guiding America-suppled a check
on the rapacity of both Kings and
Barons.
| The feudalistic structure was badly,
shaken by the discovery of gus
powder, which tended to place in {
hands of the average man, the smalf-
est fiea, the means of stopping the
armored horseman in his tracks and
to make 1t available at comparatively
small cost.
But it took the American Declar-
alton of independence and the fall
Of the head of Louis %VI.-the biggest
Baron of France-into the basket
twenty three years later to signalize
triumphantly the collapse OF the rob-
ber Baron institution.
That institution, however, sur
vived in some of the darker corners
Of Europe until our own day. 10
lasted in Russia until Alexander II
abolished serfdom. Roumania, sad
died by history with a system OF
feudal land ownership that reduced
the great majority of the people to
a condition of serfage, is now strug-
Cling to free itself from an institu-
ton that bled the body and blighted
the soul of Europe for at least ten
The fall of the Barons teaches us
that IL is an exceedingly long lanN
that has no turning.