subtle ways to look up to the
inviolability of property, just as in the old days they had been taught
to look humbly up to the majesty of the king. Propertied men, it was
preached and admonished, represented the worth, stability, virtue and
intelligence of the community. They were the solid, substantial men.
What importance was to be attached to the propertyless? They, forsooth,
were regarded as irresponsible and vulgar; their opinions and
aspirations were held of small account.

HOW PUBLIC OPINION WAS MADE.

The churches professed to preach to all; yet they depended largely upon
men of property for contributions; and moreover the clergy, at least the
influential of them, were propertied men themselves. The preachings of
the colleges and the doctrines of the political economists corresponded
precisely to the views the trading interests at different periods wanted
taught. Many of the colleges were founded with funds contributed or
bequeathed by traders. The newspapers were supported by the
advertisements of the propertied class. The various legislative bodies
were mainly, and the judicial benches wholly, recruited from the ranks
of the lawyer class; these lawyers either had, or sought to have, the
rich as clients;[137] few attorneys are overzealous for poor men's
cases. Still further, the lawyers were deeply impregnated, not with the
conception of law as it might be, but as it had been handed down through
the centuries. Encrusted creatures of precedent and self-interest, they
thoroughly accepted the doctrine that in the making and enforcement of
law their concern should be for the propertied interests. With few
exceptions they were aligned with the propertied.

So that here were many influences all of which conspired to spread on
every hand, and drill deep in the minds of all classes, often even of
those who suffered so keenly by prevalent conditions, the idea that the
propertied men were the substantial element. Consequently with this idea
continuously driven into every stratum of society, it was not surprising
that it should be embodied in thoughts, customs, laws and tendencies.
Nor was it to be wondered at that when occasionally a proletarian
uprising enunciated radical principles, these principles should seem to
be abnormally ultra-revolutionary. All society, for the most part,
except a fragment of the working class, was enthralled by the spell of
property.

THE SANCTITY OF PROPERTY.

Out of this prevailin