They have already swallowed some such legislatures as we
have been able to elect, with such facility as to show that it will
not be long before they can swallow the entire government, and when it
has been swallowed it may not be as fortunate as Jonah in getting out
again, for there is some very important legislation necessary to this
republic which the plutocracy may be expected to resist with all its
power, and when the conflict comes it will be a grand one.

They will probably combat with all their might the doctrine which must
sometime be presented, that the nation must rule itself on democratic
principles, and that the dead shall not rule the living by entail,
mortmain, or will. When a child is born it must become a member of the
republic on conditions compatible with the safety of that republic. It
cannot be allowed to come in as the born master of a hundred thousand
fellow-citizens equally competent to serve the republic. Our young
citizens approach us from a generation that has passed away.

It sleeps in the graveyard, or it leads a better life in the better
world. It has left vast masses of wealth, surrounded by wretched areas
of desolate poverty. Was it wise or just to do so,--to ignore
brotherhood of man, and to perpetuate all possible inequality? No, a
thousand times no. There is not one, perhaps, of the millionnaire
dwellers in the better world who does not regret and mourn his earthly
selfishness, and who would not order a more just and generous
distribution of his estate if his voice could be heard.

But we need not ask them. _We know what is just_ and we will correct
the mistakes of the departed. We know that this hoarding in families
is unjust to the republic and unjust to the Brotherhood of
Humanity,--an injury to all, a benefit to none. Therefore it must not
be permitted.

Already the law is beginning to recognize this principle, which is
destined to revolutionize all the world; but we are not the leaders in
this democracy, because our plutocracy is too strong. Switzerland in
its mountain homes carries the banner of democracy, and has gone
farther than any other country in asserting the rights of the
commonwealth over inherited wealth. New York has ordained a little
infinitesimal inheritance tax which, according to the _Herald_, in
1886 produced $60,000, in 1887 $500,000, in 1888 over a million. That
will be enough to build schoolhouses for the 20,000 children kept out
of school in the city of New