Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/143

 We boast of vast achievements and of power, Of human progress knowing no defeat, Of strange new marvels every day and hour— And here's the bread line in the wintry street!

Ten thousand years of war and peace and glory, Of hope and work and deeds and golden schemes, Of mighty voices raised in song and story, Of huge inventions and of splendid dreams;

Ten thousand years replete with every wonder, Of empires risen and of empires dead; Yet still, while wasters roll in swollen plunder, These broken men must stand in line—for bread!

The Unemployed Problem

(From "Past and Present")

(See pages 31, 74)

And truly this first practical form of the Sphinx-question, inarticulately and so audibly put there, is one of the most impressive ever asked in the world. "Behold us here, so many thousands, millions, and increasing at the rate of fifty every hour. We are right willing and able to work; and on the Planet Earth is plenty of work and wages for a million times as many. We ask, If you mean to lead us towards work; to try to lead us,—by ways new, never yet heard of till this new unheard-of Time? Or if you declare that you can