for it but to wail as it passes into oblivion, as it has already
begun to wail in accents Populistic and Jeffersonian-Democratic. The
fight is on. The revolution is here now, and it is the world's
workers that are in revolt.

Naturally the question arises: Why is this so? No mere whim of the
spirit can give rise to a world-revolution. Whim does not conduce to
unanimity. There must be a deep-seated cause to make 7,000,000 men
of the one mind, to make them cast off allegiance to the bourgeois
gods and lose faith in so fine a thing as patriotism. There are many
counts of the indictment which the revolutionists bring against the
capitalist class, but for present use only one need be stated, and it
is a count to which capital has never replied and can never reply.

The capitalist class has managed society, and its management has
failed. And not only has it failed in its management, but it has
failed deplorably, ignobly, horribly. The capitalist class had an
opportunity such as was vouchsafed no previous ruling class in the
history of the world. It broke away from the rule of the old feudal
aristocracy and made modern society. It mastered matter, organized
the machinery of life, and made possible a wonderful era for mankind,
wherein no creature should cry aloud because it had not enough to
eat, and wherein for every child there would be opportunity for
education, for intellectual and spiritual uplift. Matter being
mastered, and the machinery of life organized, all this was possible.
Here was the chance, God-given, and the capitalist class failed. It
was blind and greedy. It prattled sweet ideals and dear moralities,
rubbed its eyes not once, nor ceased one whit in its greediness, and
smashed down in a failure as tremendous only as was the opportunity
it had ignored.