, and to
satisfy its need, to produce the labor that operated its machines, there
came into existence a hapless race of men who bred their kind for its
service, and whose little ones were its prey almost from their cradles.
Then the infamy became too great, and the law, the voice of the people, so
long guiltily silent, was lifted in behalf of those who had no helper. The
Accumulation came under control for the first time, and could no longer
work its slaves twenty hours a day amid perils to life and limb from its
machinery and in conditions that forbade them decency and morality. The
time of a hundred and a thousand per cent. passed; but still the
Accumulation demanded immunity and impunity, and, in spite of its
conviction of the enormities it had practised, it declared itself the only
means of civilization and progress. It began to give out that it was
timid, though its history was full of the boldest frauds and crimes, and
it threatened to withdraw itself if it were ruled or even crossed; and
again it had its way, and we seemed to prosper more and more. The land was
filled with cities where the rich flaunted their splendor in palaces, and
the poor swarmed in squalid tenements.
Pages:
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253