OCR Text |
Show PROGRESSIVE OPINION EDITORIALS By C. N. LUND Something Better Than Present Democracy Musi Come Out of the War. Something vastly better than the d 'tnocracies have offered in the past, and better than they now are offering, must come out of the war or else all of its suffering, death and destruction will have been in vain. The masses are still in desperate straights every where. The world is still full of "brutes who trade on hunger, who fatten on famine, who convert into money the life-blood of the poor, the beauty of youth and the sweat of slaves." W ith all your faults, England and America, we like you still The collossal fortunes of Br tish aristocracy which have so long oppressed and denied the poor, weie built on child slavery, brewing and distilling projects, opium traffic conquests, con-quests, landlordism and other means of selfish and greedy wealth extraction and exploitation This massed wealth has been and is protected and nourished by the influence of church nnd state while the great souls, the immorrals of England w ho struggled for more justice, more equality, more humanitarian human-itarian reforms, were i lied , ostracised and broken hearted for their efforts. If great changes for the better are not wrought out for the peop'e then all the blood of the soldier-martyrs wil have been spilt in vain America, as much as the people love it, and as much good and glory as it has, must .be regenerated and have its soul restored Just look at the corrupt and venal character of its politics, the vast extent of its economic slavery, its lawlesness, its staggering corruption in high places, its shameless surrender surren-der 10 the indecencies of sex, its irreligion and pagan philosophy philoso-phy of dishonest success, its dollar aristocracy its millions of paupers, and the fact of all its best interests being drowned in the infamo is liquor tra fic. If these things cannot be changed for the better then all of the efforts of the U. S. in this gigantic struggle v ill count for nothing. As long as England and America cling to all these wrongs and oppressions they cannot expect to avoid the awful consequences conse-quences that are as sure to follow as night follows day. |