The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-11-04
The Mutt Family
THIS is a parable of the People. The
BY DIR. FRANK CRANE

THIS is a parable of the People. Their
family name is Mutt.
- The Mutt family is the most numerous
in the world. They are very Industrious; they
do all the work; raise all the food, make all
the clothes, build all the houses, and fight all
the wars for the other families.
But they are a stupid lot. They are good
natured, patient, cheerful, and long-suffering.
The only trouble with them is that they have
no sense. All the other families live upon
them plumber them at will, rule them, and
despise them.
Even in their schools the Mutt children are
taught that their great aim in life should be-
to get out of their own family into another.
Only so can they become cultured and be gu
perior. a
For many centuries the King family and
the Noble family said: "You are not able
to govern yourselves. awe will do that for
you" They did. The result was that the
Kings and Mobiles livedin feasting and plenty,
while the Nuts toiled in poverty at home or
went out by companies and killed each other
for the glory of their rulers.
In the United States the Nuts got rid of
the Kings and Nobles but were Immediately
taken charge of by the Partisan-Politician,
the Lobbyist and the CRATER families, who
exploited the poor devils as artfully their
former masters had DONE 1t seems that the
Nuts are willing to believe in anybody ex-
cept themselves.
The Banker family said: "You have no
money to develop your country, to build rail-
ways, telegraph lines, and canals. We VIII
supply the money for you" So they lent the
money to the Nuts at twenty per cent, hav-
ing first taken it away from them at three
per cent 1t never occurred to the Nuts to
make their improvements themselves. They
went about very proud and chesty and boosted
of their" prosperity and riches
The Lawyer family said: 1--WE will give
you justice. 1t is too complicated for you to
understand" So they gave justice to all the
privileged families and none to the Nuts.
They erected a system of law so crooked that
the one desire of Mutt was to escape its
clutches.
| The Ecclesiastic family said: ''The BUSH
ness of your everlasting souls is entirely too
! important for you to fool with. Wen look
after it for YOU So they built up numerous
institutions which the Nuts paid for but
otherwise had not much to- do with. The
Eccleciastics called them sheep" They WERE
The Trust family said: "If you will let
us organize you we will show you how to
get food and drink, transportation, life in
surance coal and oil, and anything else you
need, much cheaper and better than you can
do it yourselves" So the horse-brained Nuts
stood, still, were saddled and bridled, and
carried the burdens while the Trust family
rode and took their ease. All because the
Nuts did not know how to organize them
selves. Il Ntt
In fact, the Nuts despised the organizing
of themselves, calling it by a filthy name, poilT
tics This spirit the privileged families ala
all they could to foster for they knew their
sway would be undsturbed SO long as the
Nuts were ashamed and afraid of themselves.
The College family said: Eve will build
and control for you your institutions of higher
education. 1t would never, never do for you
to do this sort of thing yourselves. Politics
would soil it. 1t won't cost you anything.
Well beg the money of the Trust family.
To this arrangement all consented; the Trusts,
because it strengthened their position ana
rendered them indispensable; and the Nuts,
because they were too authenticated to see
that thy were being flimflammed and made to
nay indirectly many times what it would
have cost them to do directly, besides having
their children taught a lot of medieval ana
ornamental things they had no need to know.
The Nuts did not even have pride enough
4 to care for their own untortunatess the SICK
and crippled, but besought the privileged
families to build hospitals for them ana
praised the kind of donors as philanthroplsts
| And it cost them hundred times as mucn,
! in the end. to do by Charity what they might
have done by Justice.
Occasionally some Mutt had CLEAN of in
telIioence and, rose up and suggested that the
combined Nuts would probably much better
APPEND TO THEIR OWN BUSINESS.
| Such n one, however, was frowned upon by
+ho privileged class and called all manner of
hard names, such as anarchist, socialist,
breeder of class hatred, a demagogue, and
What not Even the great majority of the
Nuts. having no brains but only sawdust
in their occiputs, Joined in the chorus Of
defamation.
4 II was funny, had it not been sad, to see
how things went on. When the Labor family
and the Capital family wanted to fight they
did not attack each other they went over and
heat I'D the Nuts. When the government
fined or taxed the Trust family the Nuts
had to pay. When the diplomats and states
men mudded up affairs inextricably they
drafted thousands of Nuts (who had no idea
what it was all about) to meet in a field and
slaughted one another, or to go out in boat:
and drop their burned and mangled bodies in
the sea.
All the poor Nuts could do was to gazs
at one another in helpless way and hopG
their bosses would grow better. Indeed, all
the reform they knew anything about was thu
reform of their master-families 1t never oc
curred to them that just one reform wak
needed and that was 10 ORGANIZE THEM
SELVES TO ATTEND TO THEIR OWN
AFFAIRS AND TO TRAIN THEIR chill
'DREN FOR THIS PURPOSE.