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is not merely the battle of the Century, but the Battle of All the Ages, which is with thee to decide-to settle for weal or woe, for time and for eternity.

-Battle of the Century-P. T. Magon, M. D.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE FINAL CONTEST

Facts exist which are eruptions in the surface of civilization revealing the course of a monstrous blind mole having the pride of Lucifer and the ambition of Caesar.

This rejuvenation of a corpse is astonishing. Behold, it walks and advances; this dead body is a conqueror; He arrives with his legions, superstitions, prejudices, hatreds and despotism.

Whom are we accusing:-No one. It is with the people that rest the responsibility, for it must not be forgotten that the majority rule; but when sympathetic souls forget that the first of fraternal obligations and selfish hearts do not understand that the first political necessities consist in thinking of the multitude of sorrowing, unfortunate, disinherited people, to solace, enlighten, love them, to enlarge their horizon to a magnificent degree, the notion of universal aim, offering the example of labor and sobriety, never of idleness and drunkenness, abandoning all hatred; when those who enjoy, hate those who suffer; when those who suffer hate and envy those who enjoy, when the vulgar rich flaunt their wealth before the eyes of a disgusted people, building palaces for poodle dogs, etc. When philosophers and teachers rest from their labors too soon; then the soil is prepared for a One-Man Power; and the man who gets into power differs in no wise

from his fellows only in that he is just a little more clever than they.

"One of the most notable things of the present time is the universal spirit of combine.

"So widespread in its operations and so insistent in its nature, is this thing that no person can avoid being challenged by it.

"This spirit of combine is not in any sense the principle of unity of co-operation by individuals acting collectively toward a common purpose.

"Instead of that perfectly proper and legitimate thing, it is the principle of one mind, of one individual will, dominating all others possible and bending all these to the set purpose of that one mind or individual will.

"This truth and this distinction are both illustrated in the universally known fact that the first effect of this spirit is to deny, to override, to break down and crush out, all right, all freedom, indeed all recognition, of the individual.

"The second effect of the rule of this spirit is to destroy all individuality of the individual himself. Ths truth is stated so flatly by the president of the Federation of Labor in the late hearing of the unions before the Senate committee, that there is no room to doubt it. He said:

""The worker, industrially, has lost his individuality in modern times. He is simply a cog in the great wheel of industry; and all of the workers as cogs, operate in co-operation with each other, and when that is true, individual right is gone.'

"Whatever business it may be that is comprehended in the trust-oil, steel, fruit, milk, or what not-no individual is

allowed to do anything in that line of trade except as the servant of the trust and absolutely under the dictation of the

trust.

"If the combine be in the form, not of the trust as such, but of the labor union, then no individual is allowed to work except as the servant of the union and under absolute dictation of the union.

"If it be in the form of the church federation, then no individual is allowed to preach the Gospel that he may have received directly from God except under the recognition and the sanction of the federation, and in the territory assigned by the federation.

THE ONE-MAN POWER

"The direct logic, as well as the inevitable trend of all this is a one-man power. This, today, is manifest on every hand.

"The one-man head of the trust can dictate each succeeding day what the whole people shall pay for their sugar, their kerosene, their nails, etc.

"The one-man head of the union can decide and dictate any hour whether the members of his union shall work or walk out; and they obey, whatever their own wish may be. Also this one-man head of the union can dictate to the employer what he shall do, and how he shall conduct his business or whether he shall conduct it at all.

"These conditions which are actual and which no person can deny, present a most critical situation for this nation. For the logic of a one-man power is despotism. And it is a despotism in all relations, religious as well as other: or rather religious above all other.

"For the spirit of the combine is the spirit that leads one mind to usurp the place and power of God over the minds, the rights, the persons, and the property of others, and by force compel them to his own will and purpose.

"And as it is certain that a man in the place of God will always act unlike God, it is also certain that his power will always be exerted in compelling men to do things contrary to the righteousness of God.

"This has been the unvarying history of it from the mighty despotism of Nimrod, the first who arose since the flood, to the rapidly growing ones in the United States today. For Nimrod was not only 'a mighty hunter' of beasts, but also of

men.

"He was a persecutor.

He pursued and compelled men to recognize his authority in all things. They must worship as he dictated. And his bad example has been invariably followed. It was followed by the Pharaohs, by Nebuchadnezzar, by Darius, by the Caesars, and by the Popes.

THE TWO REPUBLICS

"When from Nimrod onward the despotism-the combine —of a one-man power had afflicted the world for ages, there arose a people who renounced it and all that was akin to it, and established a government of the people.

"They threw off all kingship and declared that they needed no such figment to govern them; but that they were capable of governing themselves: and so established a government of the people, by the people and for the people—individual self-government, the republic of Rome.

"They were right. The principle was sound and the

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