if not
absolutely impossible and unthinkable, at least practically impossible,
and as difficult and rare as the transition from pauperism to princedom
in the Old World is. A romantic European princess may marry a penurious
coachman, and so provide the world with a nine days' sensation, but
such cases are no rarer in the royal courts of Europe than in our own
plutoaristocratic court circles. Has there ever been a king in modern
times with anything like the power of Mr. Rockefeller? Is any feature of
royal recognition withheld from Mr. Morgan when he goes abroad in state,
an uncrowned king, fraternizing with crowned but envious fellow-kings?
The existence of classes in America to-day is as evident as the
existence of America itself.

VI

Antagonisms of class interests have existed from the very beginning of
civilization, though not always recognized. It is only the consciousness
of their existence, and the struggle which results from that
consciousness, that are new. As we suddenly become aware of the pain and
ravages of disease, when we have not felt or heeded its premonitory
symptoms, so, having neglected the fundamental class division of
society, the bitterness of the strife resulting therefrom shocks and
alarms us. So long as it is possible for the stronger and more ambitious
members of an inferior class to rise out of that class and join the
ranks of a superior class, so long will the struggle which ensues as the
natural outgrowth of opposing interests be postponed.

Until quite recently, in the United States, this has been possible.
Transition from the status of wage-worker to that of capitalist has been
easy. But with the era of concentration and the immense capitals
required for industrial enterprise, and the exhaustion of our supply of
free land, these transitions become fewer and more difficult, and class
lines tend to become permanently fixed. The stronger and more ambitious
members of the lower class, finding it impossible to rise into the class
above, thus become impressed with a consciousness of their class status.
The average worker no longer dreams of himself becoming an employer
after a few years of industry and thrift. The ambitious and aggressive
few no longer look with the contempt of the strong for the weak upon
their less aggressive fellow-workers, but become leaders, preachers of a
significant and admittedly dangerous gospel of class consciousness.

President Roosevelt has assailed the preach