t to his conditions; such
slight amelioration as came later was the result of years of agitation.
No sooner was the Revolution over than in stepped the propertied
interests and assumed control of government functions. They were
intelligent enough to know the value of class government--a lesson
learned from the tactics of the British trading class. They knew the
tremendous impact of law and how, directly and indirectly, it worked
great transformations in the body social. While the worker was
unorganized, unconscious of what his interests demanded, deluded by
slogans and rallying-cries which really meant nothing to him, the
propertied class was alert in its own interests.

PROPERTY'S RULE INTRENCHED.

It proceeded to intrench itself in political as well as in financial
power. The Constitution of the United States was so drafted as to take
as much direct power from the people as the landed and trading interests
dared. Most of the State Constitutions were more pronounced in rigid
property discriminations. In Massachusetts, no man could be governor
unless he were a Christian worth a clear L1,000; in North Carolina if he
failed of owning the required L1,000 in freehold estate; nor in Georgia
if he did not own five hundred acres of land and L4,000, nor in New
Hampshire if he lacked owning L500 in property. In South Carolina he had
to own L1,500 in property clear of all debts. In New York by the
Constitution of 1777, only actual residents having freeholds to the
value of L100 free of all debts, could vote for governor and other State
officials. The laws were so arranged as effectually to disfranchise
those who had no property. In his "Reminiscenses" Dr. John W. Francis
tells of the prevalence for years in New York of a supercilious class
which habitually sneered at the demand for political equality of the
leather-breeched mechanic with his few shillings a day.

Theoretically, religious standards were the prevailing ones; in
actuality the ethics and methods of the propertied class were all
powerful. The Church might preach equality, humility and the list of
virtues; but nevertheless that did not give the propertyless man a vote.
Thus it was, that in communities professing the strongest religious
convictions and embodying them in Constitutions and in laws and customs,
glaring inconsistencies ran side by side. The explanation lay in the
fact that as regarded essential things of property, the standards of the
trading class had