, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed,
judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, let us
reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be
blood-colored, they shall be as white as snow; though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing
and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. But if ye
refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured by the sword.

#Mother Earth#

And nowadays we have the Socialist and Anarchist agitators, following
the same tradition, possessed by the same dream as the ancient Hebrew
prophets. I have mentioned Emma Goldman; it may be that the reader is
not familiar with her writings, and does not realize how very Biblical
she is, both in point of view and style. Let me quote a few sentences
from a recent issue of her paper, "Mother Earth", on the subject of
our ruling classes and their social responsibility:

Yes, you idle rich, you may howl about what we mean to do to you!
Your riches are rotten and your fine clothes are falling from your
backs. Your stocks and bonds are so tainted that the ink on them
should turn to acid and eat holes in your pockets and your skins. You
have piled up your dirty millions, but what wages have you paid to the
poor devils of farm hands you have robbed? And do you imagine they
won't remember it when the revolution comes? You loll on soft couches
and amuse yourselves with your mistresses; you think you are "it" and
the world is yours. You send militiamen and shoot down our organizers,
and we are helpless. But wait, comrades, our time is coming.

Doubtless the reader is well satisfied that the author of this tirade
is now in jail, where she can no longer defy the laws of good taste.
They always put the ancient prophets in jail; that is the way to know
a prophet when you meet him. Let me quote another prophet who is now
behind bars--Alexander Berkman, in his "Prison Memoirs of an
Anarchist", discussing the same subject of plutocratic pretension:

Tell me, you four hundred, where did you get it? Who gave it
to you? Your grandfather, you say? Your father? Can you go
all the way back and show there is no flaw anywhere in your
title? I tell you that the beginning and the root of your
wealth is necessarily in injustice. And why? Because Nature
did not make this man rich and that man poor from the start.
Nature does not intend f