You _remember_ Victor Hugo's story of the devil-fish; how the monster
_put_ forth one tentacle after another and _coiled_ it around his
victim; how the hero _recalled_ that there _was_ but one vulnerable
spot in his brute enemy; how at the strategic moment he _struck_ a
blow at that spot, and the terrible demon of the deep _shuddered_,
_released_ his grasp and _fell_ dead.
Capitalism _is_ a monster which _is seizing_ the body politic. One
tentacle _is put_ forth to grasp the major part of the earnings of the
working class; another _has seized_ the working-woman; another
_reaches_ forth to the child; another _has fastened_ upon government
and _has made_ that the instrument of the powerful classes; still
another _has turned_ the pen of the journalist into a weapon by which
the injustice of Capitalism _is praised_ and _is defended_; and still
another _has seized_ the pulpit, _has silenced_ those who _profess_ to
speak for God and man, or _has turned_ their phrases into open apology
and defense for the crimes of Capitalism!
But there _is_ one vulnerable spot in Capitalism. If the working class
of the world _can see_ that spot and _will strike_, they _shall be_
free.
The fundamental wrong, the basic injustice of the Capitalist System,
_is_ that the resources of land and machinery, to which all the people
_must have_ access, in order to live and labor, _are owned_ by the few
and _are conducted_ by the few for their private profit.
This _is_ the social tragedy, the monstrous wrong of our time.--_J.
Stitt Wilson_.