hear, a cry that you cannot shut out. It will be the cry of
the man on the street, the 'a la Bastille' that wakes the Red Terror and
unleashes Revolution. Harassed, plundered, exasperated, desperate, the
people will turn at last as they have turned so many, many times before.
You, our lords, you, our task-masters, you, our kings; you have caught
your Samson, you have made his strength your own. You have shorn
his head; you have put out his eyes; you have set him to turn your
millstones, to grind the grist for your mills; you have made him a shame
and a mock. Take care, oh, as you love your lives, take care, lest some
day calling upon the Lord his God he reach not out his arms for the
pillars of your temples."

The audience, at first bewildered, confused by this unexpected
invective, suddenly took fire at his last words. There was a roar of
applause; then, more significant than mere vociferation, Presley's
listeners, as he began to speak again, grew suddenly silent. His next
sentences were uttered in the midst of a profound stillness.

"They own us, these task-masters of ours; they own our homes, they own
our legislatures. We cannot escape from them. There is no redress. We
are told we can defeat them by the ballot-box. They own the ballot-box.
We are told that we must look to the courts for redress; they own the
courts. We know them for what they are,--ruffians in politics, ruffians
in finance, ruffians in law, ruffians in trade, bribers, swindlers, and
tricksters. No outrage too great to daunt them, no petty larceny too
small to shame them; despoiling a government treasury of a million
dollars, yet picking the pockets of a farm hand of the price of a loaf
of bread.

"They swindle a nation of a hundred million and call it Financiering;
they levy a blackmail and call it Commerce; they corrupt a legislature
and call it Politics; they bribe a judge and call it Law; they hire
blacklegs to carry out their plans and call it Organisation; they
prostitute the honour of a State and call it Competition.

"And this is America. We fought Lexington to free ourselves; we fought
Gettysburg to free others. Yet the yoke remains; we have only shifted it
to the other shoulder. We talk of liberty--oh, the farce of it, oh,
the folly of it! We tell ourselves and teach our children that we have
achieved liberty, that we no longer need fight for it. Why, the fight is
just beginning and so long as our conception of liberty remains as it is