Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/225

 are being kept out of their own. I believe the rich are for the most part selfish and despicable. I believe wealth has been generally piled up by cruel and unworthy means. I believe it is wrong in us to acquiesce in the wicked inequalities of our existing social state, instead of trying our utmost to bring about another, where right would be done to all, where poverty would be impossible. I believe such a system is perfectly practicable, and that nothing stands in its way save the selfish fears and prejudices of individuals. And I believe that even those craven fears and narrow prejudices are wholly mistaken; that everybody, including the rich themselves, would be infinitely happier in a world where no poverty existed, where no hateful sights and sounds met the eye at every turn, where all slums were swept away, and where everybody had their just and even share of pleasures and refinements in a free and equal community."

Despair

(Irish poetess, mother of Oscar Wilde; wrote under the pen-name of Speranza)

Before us dies our brother, of starvation; Around are cries of famine and despair! Where is hope for us, or comfort or salvation— Where—oh! where? If the angels ever hearken, downward bending, They are weeping, we are sure, At the litanies of human groans ascending From the crushed hearts of the poor.