Page:Henry Mulford Tichenor - A Wave of Horror (1912).djvu/31

 When the scales fall from your eyes, and as you are human and not demon, you will shudder at this thing we call civilized society. You will see the old serpent that trails around the globe and leaves its deadly venom in every home. It carries the creed of hell itself, and men fall down and worship.

Listen—this creed tells you that one class in this world was destined to do all the toil, and another class to live in idleness and ease.

It tells you that murder is right in order to keep this privileged class in power and the other class in servitude.

This serpent rules supreme, and spreads foul pestilence in its track.

Poverty, Misery, Disease, Insanity and War are blazed in yellow letters on its black scales.

The name of this serpent is Capitalist Rule.

Can we destroy this monster?

Shall we destroy it?

Yes, we can and will, else there be no God in the Universe and no Soul in Man; else every hope and desire of the human heart is a delusion; else every promise of the past and every righteous demand of the present is a lie.

The McNamara tragedy is but a passing incident in the awful war of capitalist rule.

It is only one of the countless murders done along the Serpent's deadly trail.

If it had been done by your capitalist rulers to protect them in their game of exploitation, no Wave of Horror would have swept the land.

These men were not Socialists—they belonged to one of the old exploiting political parties and had learned their lesson from their masters.