Now, my friends, I am opposed to the system of society in which we live
today, not because I lack the natural equipment to do for myself, but
because I am not satisfied to make myself comfortable knowing that there
are thousands upon thousands of my fellow men who suffer for the barest
necessities of life. We were taught under the old ethic that man’s
business upon this earth was to look out for himself. That was the ethic
of the jungle; the ethic of the wild beast. Take care of yourself, no
matter what may become of your fellow man. Thousands of years ago the
question was asked: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” That question has never
yet been answered in a way that is satisfactory to civilized society.
Yes, I am my brother’s keeper. I am under a moral obligation to him that
is inspired, not by any maudlin sentimentality, but by the higher duty I
owe to myself. What would you think of me if I were capable of seating
myself at a table and gorging myself with food and saw about me the
children of my fellow beings starving to death?
Allow me to say to you, my fellow men, that nature has spread a great
table bounteously for all of the children of men. There is room for all
and there is a plate and a place and food for all, and any system of
society that denies a single one the right and the opportunity to freely
help himself to nature’s bounties is an unjust and iniquitous system
that ought to be abolished in the interest of a higher humanity and a
civilization worthy of the name. And here let me observe, my fellow men,
that while the general impression is that human society is stationary—a
finality as it were—it is not so for a single instant. Underlying
society there are great material forces that are in operation all of the
circling hours of the day and night, and at certain points in the social
development these forces outgrow the forms that hold them and these
forms spring apart and then a new social system comes into existence and
a new era dawns for the human race.
The great majority of mankind have always been in darkness. The
overwhelming majority of the children of men have always been their own
worst enemies. In every age of this world’s history, the kings and
emperors and czars and potentates, in alliance with the priests, have
sought by all the means at their command to keep the people in darkness
that they might perpetuate the power in which they riot and revel in
luxury while the great mass are in a state of slavery and degradation,
and he who has spoken out courageously against the existing order, he
who has dared to voice the protest of the oppressed and downtrodden, has
had to pay the penalty, all the way from Jesus Christ of Galilee down to
Fred Warren of Girard.