GIFT OF 
 
Slumbering Volcano 
 
 Industrial and Economic Treatise 
 
 MT. LASSEN See Page 67 
 
 BY 
 
 WALTER WIRT FELTS 
 
 STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA 
 1915 
 
 ERROR 
 
 SYMBOL OF TRUTH AND ERROR See Page 3638 
 
 PRICE 
 
 3S CENTS 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 Dedicated to All Organizations on Earth That Stand 
 
 for Better Economic and Industrial Conditions 
 
 and Are Making Way for Human Liberty. 
 
 BY 
 
 WALTER WIRT FELTS 
 
 STOCKTON, CAL. 
 
 Author "Principles of Science," "Natural Law in the Business World," 
 Founder of "The Circular System." 
 
COPYRIGHT 1915 
 WALTER WIRT FEI.TS 
 
 . 
 

 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This little pamphlet requires no introduction. It will introduce 
 itself to all open minded people who are concerned with the solution 
 of the grave economic and industrial problems that are not only a 
 menace to the institutions and government of the United States, but 
 threaten the overthrow of civilization. 
 
 Without a book of any kind for reference (save a Bible which I 
 h(jrrowed), I write this book in the depths of retirement, "far from 
 the madding crowds in noble strife." Yet, I ask no forbearance of 
 criticism. I am fully able and abundantly prepared to defend it 
 against the criticism of all who pose as authority on economics, 
 politics, science, religion, heredity or any other matter discussed in 
 these chapters. I serve notice, however, that no attention will be 
 paid to "lickspittles" who may snap at my heels at the bidding of 
 their masters. My hat is in the ring, and none but heavy-weights 
 need answer the challenge. 
 
 WALTER WIRT FELTS, 
 
 Stockton, California. 
 
 323443 
 
HEED THE WARNING. 
 
 MILLIONS ARE RESTING IN FALSE SECURITY OVER A 
 SLUMBERING VOLCANO. 
 
 Chicago, Aug. 28, 1915. "We find the basic cause of industrial 
 dissatisfaction to be due to low wages, or, stated in another way, 
 to the fact that the workers of the nation, through compulsory or 
 oppressive methods, legal and illegal, are denied the full product of 
 their toil." 
 
 Do you say that "every man has his price" that all honor is a 
 commercial commodity? I will ask you to name the price that the 
 money powers would have gladly paid to Chairman Walsh of the 
 Federal Industrial Relations Commission to have given out a report 
 exonerating capitalists from responsibility for the oppression and 
 maltreatment of labor? A million dollars? I say, he could have 
 named the price for suppressing the scathing statmements which, 
 coming from high official source, stirs class hatred to its depths. 
 
 I admire the great moral courage of Cfiairman Walsh, and 
 honor him as one of the greatest men of the nation, but cannot re- 
 frain from criticising his appeal to the people to "eliminate the 
 injustice exposed by this commission, to the end that each laborer 
 may secure the whole products of his labor." I criticise that appeal 
 for failing to point out the course to pursue to secure to each laborer 
 "the whole product of his labor." By inference I take it that Mr. 
 Walsh had in mind the substitution of the system of cooperation for 
 existing capitalism. That is, in fact, the only remedy, but Mr. Walsh 
 made no such suggestion. In fact, he gave no specific instructions as 
 to how to proceed with the agitation. I have written this book for 
 that very purpose to point the only way to the system that will 
 insure to the toiler the whole products of his labor. 
 
 I have gathered the most striking portions of the report and 
 herewith present them as mutterings from the slumbering industrial 
 volcano. 
 
 Chairman Walsh's report follows : " Charged by your honor- 
 able body with the investigation to discover the underlying causes 
 of dissatisfaction in the industrial situation, we present the following 
 findings and conclusions : 
 
 "We find the basic cause of industrial dissatisfaction to be due 
 to low wages ; or, stated in another way, to the fact that the workers 
 
6 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 of the nation, through compulsory or oppressive methods, legal or 
 illegal, are denied the lull -product of their toil. 
 
 "We further find that unrest among workers of industry has 
 grown to such proportions that it already menaces the social good 
 will and peace of the nation. Citizens numbering millions smart 
 under the sense of injustice and oppression, born of conviction that 
 opportunity is denied ihem to acquire for themselves and their 
 families that degree of economic well-being necessary for the enjoy- 
 ment of material and spiritual satisfaction which alone make life 
 worth living. 
 
 Fair Warning of Trouble 
 
 "The extent and depth of industrial unrest can hardly be exag- 
 gerated. State and national conventions of labor organizations 
 numbering many thousands cheered the names of leaders imprisoned 
 for participation in a campaign of violence conducted as one phase 
 of the conflict with organized employers. Thirty thousand workers 
 in a sing-le strike followed the leadership of a man who denounced 
 the government and called for relentless warfare on organized 
 society. Employers from coast to coast have created and maintained 
 small private armies of armed men and used these forces to intimidate 
 and suppress striking employes, deporting, imprisoning, assaulting 
 and killing their leaders. Elaborate spy systems are maintained to 
 discover and forestall movements of the enemy. 
 
 Hostility to Militia 
 
 "The use of state troops in policing strikes has bred bitter hos- 
 tility against the militia system among members of labor organiza- 
 tions, and states have been unable to enlist wage-earners 'for this 
 second line of the nation's defense. Courts, legislators and gov- 
 ernors have been rightfully accused of serving employers and their 
 agents, with almost negligible exception. It is the wage-earners 
 who believe and assert and prove that the very institutions of their 
 country have been perverted by the powers of the employer. Prison 
 records for labor leaders have become badges of honor in the eyes 
 of their people, and great mass-meetings throughout the nation cheer 
 denunciations of the courts and court decisions." 
 
 The Latest Recruits 
 
 The report points out that ministers, professors, writers and 
 others have come to the support of the militant labor campaign re- 
 cently, and continues : "We find the unrest herein described to be 
 but the latest manifestation of the age-long struggle of the race for 
 freedom of opportunity for every individual to live his life to the 
 highest ends. As the nobles of England wrung independence from 
 King John, and as the tradesmen of France broke through the ring 
 of privilege enclosing the Three Estates, so to-day millions who serve 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 7 
 
 society in arduous labor on the highways, aloft on scaffoldings, or 
 by the sides of whirling machines, are demanding that they, too, 
 and their children enjoy all the blessings that justify and make beau- 
 tiful this life. 
 
 Still Other Charges 
 
 "The unrest of wage-earners has been augmented by recent 
 changes and developments in industry. Chief among these are the 
 rapid and universal introduction and extension of machinery of pro- 
 duction by which unskilled workers may be substituted for skilled, 
 and equally rapid development in the means of rapid transportation 
 and communication, wherein- private capital has been enabled to 
 organize in great corporations possessing enormous economic power. 
 "Xow, more than ever, the profits of great industries under 
 centralized control pour into the coffers of stockholders and directors 
 who never so much as visited the plants and who perform no service 
 in return. While vast inherited fortunes representing zero in social 
 service to the credits of their possessors, automatically treble and 
 multiply in volume, two-thirds of those who toil from eight to twelve 
 hours a day receive less than enough to support them and their 
 families in decency and comfort. From childhood to the grave they 
 dwell in the shadow of fear that only resource opportunity to toil 
 shall be taken away from them through accident or illness, the 
 caprice of a foreman or the fortunes of industry. 
 
 "The lives of their babies are snuffed out by bad air in cheap 
 lodgings and lack of nourishment and care which they cannot buy. 
 Fathers and husbands die or are maimed in accidents; their families 
 receive a pittiance or succumb in mid-life, and they receive nothing. 
 "And when these unfortunates seek, by the only means within 
 reach, to better their lot by organizing to lift themselves from help- 
 lessness through some measure of collective power with which to 
 wring living wages from their employers, they find too often arrayed 
 against them not only the massed power of capital, but every arm 
 of the government that was created to enforce the guarantees of 
 equality and justice. 
 
 "We find that many entire communities exist under arbitrary 
 economic control of corporation officials charged with the manage- 
 ment of an industry or group of industries. We find that in such 
 communities politicial liberty does not exist and its forms are hollow 
 mockeries. 
 
 Employers Are Czars 
 
 "The liberties of such a community lie in the hollow of the em- 
 ployer's hand. Free speech, free assembly and a free press may be 
 denied, and have been denied time and again where the employer's 
 agents may be placed in office to do his bidding. 
 
8 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 "In large communities where espionage is impossible, the wage- 
 earner who is not supported by a collective organization may enjoy 
 freedom of expression cutside the workshop, but there his freedom 
 ends. It is a freedom that is more apparent than real; for the house 
 he lives in, the food he eats, the clothing he wears, the environment 
 of his wife and children, and his own health and safety are in the 
 hands of the employer through arbitrary powers which he exercises 
 in fixing wages and working conditions. 
 
 Straight to the Point 
 
 "Social responsibility for these unfortunate conditions may be 
 fixed with reasonable certainty. The responsibility and such blame 
 as attaches thereto cannot be held to rest upon the employers, since 
 in the maintenance of the evils of low wages, long hours and bad 
 factory conditions, in their attempts to gain control of economic 
 and political advantages which would promote their interests, they 
 have merely followed the natural bent of men involved in the struggle 
 of competitive industry. 
 
 "Responsibility for the conditions which are described above, we 
 declare, rests primarily upon the workers, w r ho, blind to their col- 
 lective strength and oftentimes deaf to the cries of their fellows, 
 suffer exploitation and evasion of their most sacred rights without 
 resistance. 
 
 "In a large measure responsibility must, however, attach to the 
 great mass of citizens who, though not directly involved in the 
 struggle with capital ana labor, failed to realize that their own pros- 
 perity was dependent upon the welfare of all cias&cs of the com- 
 munity, and that their rights w r ere bound up with the rights of every 
 other individual. But until the workers themselves realize their re- 
 sponsibility and utilize in full their collective power, no action, gov- 
 ernmental or altrustic, can work any genuine and lasting improve- 
 ment." 
 
 Report Quotes Lincoln 
 
 The report quotes Abraham Lincoln : "To secure to each laborer 
 the whole product of hL labor, or as nearly as possible, is a worthy 
 object for any good government," and declares: "With this lofty 
 ideal for a goal and under the sublime leadership of the deathless 
 Lincoln, we call upon our citizens, regardless of politics and economic 
 conditions, to use every means of agitation, all avenues of education 
 and every department and function of government to eliminate the 
 injustices exposed by this commission, to the end that each laborer 
 may secure the whole product of his labor." 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 9 
 
 A SIDELIGHT. 
 
 That the reader may realize that I am acquainted with real life 
 in all its phases and conditions, and note that I have touched 
 humanity at every point, beginning when I was a little orphan boy 
 reared by illiterate people in the "backwoods" of the earliest-settle- 
 ment of California, to farm laborer, college training, years of reckless 
 dissipation during the era of 'California's greatest prosperity,* 
 journalist, scientist, author of books, inventor, two strenuous years 
 endeavoring to float an invention with great capitalists and pro- 
 moters, mining experience which involved the wrecking of my home 
 life by the death of my saintly wife under circumstances that revealed 
 medical malpractice, on down into poverty, where I struggled hard 
 against the machinations and intrigue of human devils, toiling in my 
 mine with two little motherless boys to provide and care for; from 
 time to time forced to wage earning at the hardest kind of labor 
 with men whose fate was a life of toil then "plunging" in desperate 
 effort to regain my footing, on down to the writing of this book, 
 which gives the cream of a rich and varied experience. 
 
 I take up the tangled thread of my eventful life at the point of 
 greatest general interest which throws a sidelight on the crooked 
 business methods of big financiers and promoters, opening the 
 narrative with an account of my failure to introduce a system of 
 science that was new and revolutionary. 
 
 I was residing in Shasta county, California, in the early '90s, 
 and comfortably situated, when my wife, who was a woman, of 
 education and culture, began to urge me to write a treatise on the 
 new system of science in which she had become interested, and 
 finally I consented and in time completed the work and placed the 
 manuscripts with the Bancroft Company, San Francisco, for publi- 
 cation. It bore the title "Principles of Science," and, being revolu- 
 tionary, met with a cool reception. I decided to follow it up with a 
 magazine to have a more comprehensive and appropriate title, "The 
 Circular System." I sold out my property and moved to Oakland, 
 
 *The liquor traffic with its attendant evil, the underworld, is a product 
 of' the profit syseni, and for the exisence of which the government of the 
 1'niled States is responsible through the protection afforded by the internal 
 revenue tax. The government is therefore responsible for all the crimes 
 traceable to the liquor traffic, for the appalling wreck of womanhood by 
 prostitution and for the premature death of hundreds of thousands of men 
 and women who now fill drunkards' graves. All for the paltry gain derived 
 from the internal revenue tax! 
 
10 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 where I soon materialized my plan. I had an edition of 5000 copies 
 printed and sent them to literary and scientific men and institutions 
 all over the world. 
 
 Before moving to Oakland, however, I lectured on the system 
 and had formed a personal acquaintance with many of the leading 
 educators and scientists of the state. They all gave my magazine a 
 cool reception. I had four monthly editions printed and published, 
 and all the encouragement I received was from a distance. I received 
 numerous letters from college professors with subscriptions, and an 
 invitation from the president and council of the Philosophical Society 
 of Great Britain to become a member, a rare compliment, indeed. 
 
 It was an impractical undertaking, but I was not then aware of 
 the selfishness of humanity. I had dreamed that men who had risen 
 to positions of distinction "great men" were living far above the 
 envy and petty jealousies of the multitude, and that they would 
 "boost" the new system into prominence when they were convinced 
 it had merit. It cost me all I had to raise the curtain of sham and 
 deception that hides the weakness of the so-called "great" and see 
 laid bare the clay feet of my idol. I have learned, and now know, 
 that the competitive system is no respecter of persons and contami- 
 nates the so-called "great" with the same spirit of selfishness and 
 intolerance that actuates the ignorant rabble. I have learned, and 
 now know, that in all the history of the human race there have been 
 very few really great men gigantic men who towered above their 
 own selfish interests and ambition. Pope thus expresses it : "Like 
 Socrates, that man is great, indeed." And I have the impression 
 that, if there are any such now living on earth they are poor and 
 obscure. 
 
 I then had to turn to something more practical, as I then had 
 a family of two boys. Homer, who is now a high-class printer, ami 
 Elbert, who has attained wide reputation as a baseball player 
 throughout the Pacific Coast states. Being naturally resourceful, I 
 soon found my way back into the journalistic field and drudged 
 along with indifferent success. 
 
 Later I began experimenting with the view to inventing a, 
 primary battery. My purpose was to invent a battery of merit, as 
 there was none in use of any value. I devoted much time, labor and 
 study to it with the result that, from a battery of a few cells, I 
 succeeded in burning a six-candle power incandescent lamp for hours. 
 I was then in the town of Colusa, where I had many acquaintances. 
 The exhibit aroused considerable interest, the local papers giving me 
 favorable notices. A local company was soon organized for the 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 11 
 
 ostensible purpose of perfecting the invention and placing it on the 
 market. I had considerable trouble with the directors, who seemed 
 determined to secure absolute control. 
 
 Finally I moved to Sacramento and arranged with two promi- 
 nent local electricians to verify tests which they were to make, in 
 consideration of several thousand shares of stock each. I put up a 
 standard sized battery in the basement of the old Granger building, 
 near the state capitol, and exhibited lights and motor power on the 
 ground floor. The exhibit was a success and created great interest. 
 The statements published by my electricians verified all my claims 
 for the invention. 
 
 A number of wealthy men "put their heads together" to steal 
 the secret of the process. The great doors to the basement were 
 secured by a lock that was very difficult to "pick," so they, with one 
 or both of my electricians, tore away the lock and examined the 
 battery, undoubtedly taking samples of the contents. Monday morn- 
 ing I went down to open the doors and, to my astonishment, saw 
 at a glance that I had been robbed. 
 
 Those capitalists had undoubtedly made arrangements with a 
 party I had just sent to the patent office at Washington to secure 
 the patent in another name. The whole scheme dawned on me at 
 once, so I took the street car home, determined to invent an improve- 
 ment, which I did in short notice. It was a decided improvement 
 in every way. I let the capitalist burglars kno\v of the improvement 
 I had invented, and shortly I received a letter from a party at Elk 
 Grove, near Sacramento, a Mr. Gammon, who afterwards became 
 famous for his escapades in Paris. He stated that a company would 
 buy the invention at $55,000, $5000 cash and $50,000 in stock and 
 bonds, allowing me a salary of $150 per month. He sent papers in 
 duplicate for me to sign, the same to be ratified at once by the 
 payment to me of $5000. 
 
 Having gone through the "flint mills'' with the Colusa crowd 
 and now confronted by the offer to go in with a gang of thieves, I 
 was exasperated and turned down the offer promptly. Wife and I 
 decided to "pull up stakes" and go East, where there was plenty 
 of capital. 
 
 Accordingly we made ready and started on the long journey. 
 We decided to stop off at St. Louis, where we remained but a short 
 time. We continued our journey on to Chicago and arrived there 
 in the fall of 1895. I was well pleased with Chicago its buildings, 
 streets, avenues, boulevards and its people from appearances. 
 
 Soon after arriving T decided to have the invention experted 
 by an accredited electrician and secure from him a typewritten 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 statement giving- the result of his tests. I went direct to the manager 
 of a great storage battery concern and laid the whole matter before 
 him. In reply he said he would not take any money on such a 
 proposition, saying that he did not mean to be discourteous, but that 
 he felt quite sure "there is not a primary battery on earth worth 
 
 a d n." I asked him then if he could give me the name of an 
 
 expert electrician who would expert my battery, and he gave me 
 the street and number of R. H. Pierce, who was the electrical 
 engineer of the World's Fair at Chicago. I went direct and found 
 him in his office, and we fixed the hour at 9 a. m. next morning 
 when he would be at my residence. 
 
 He came promptly, and after a preliminary test of a few minutes, 
 long enough to satisfy himself that I had "the goods," he suggested 
 that we go to the front door and take a smoke, handing me a 25-cent 
 cigar as we left the room. His purpose was to make a proposition 
 to me alone, and the proposition was to let him have two cells to 
 attach to his phonograph, and he would give me a statement, free 
 of cost, remarking that I would thereby save $25 which was his 
 smallest fee for one day. I assured him that his fee was very 
 moderate and to proceed with his test. It is needless to tell the 
 reader why he made the magnanimous (?) offer. You see, I was 
 from California, which was then a part of the "wild and woollv 
 west." 
 
 Well, the professor \vas quite congenial, and even companion- 
 able. He was more than interested, and remained with us until 
 evening, when he decided to make a test of the waste of zinc after a 
 run on short circuit of ninety minutes. The zinc, which was common 
 stuff, such as is used under stoves, was weighed before and after 
 the run and the w r aste, which was a trifle, noted. He remained with 
 us until 1 :30 a. m., when he took the street car for his home. 
 
 Next day I went to his office and he handed me the typewritten 
 statement, which was a valuable document. At least, it would have 
 been if I could have found an honest promoter or capitalist. I made 
 several efforts to sell the invention and got several offers that 
 appeared at first glance to be O. K. and would deceive any "hayseed." 
 Pierce was anxious to handle the invention, but I discarded him 
 when he referred me to a big promoter who had a scheme for 
 himself and Pierce. 
 
 Now, I was aware that my patent solicitor I had sent from 
 Sacramento to Washington was still around the patent office, 
 evidently kept there by the capitalist burglars who broke into my 
 battery room at Sacramento, to watch for a patent application with 
 the view to side-tracking it. So I had to handle the invention as a 
 secret process. I offered, however, to reveal the secret upon the 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 13 
 
 deposit to my credit of $75,000 to be paid to me if, upon satisfactory 
 tests, it was proven that I had given over every detail of the process. 
 That was fair, but every scoundrel of them would prefer putting up 
 "hot air" rather than money. 
 
 At length, after six months' sojourn in Chicago, I became dis- 
 gusted and moved to New York City, where there was much capital. 
 I soon found, however, that I was in the very shadow of the "golden 
 calf" where about 3,000,000 idolaters worshiped at that shrine. I 
 met Edison at West Orange, and he wanted me to leave a couple of 
 cells for him to test, which I did not. I met Tesla, a fine gentleman, 
 who said my invention was entirely out of his line, but he warned 
 me to be guarded. He told me he was "worked" out of his first 
 invention. I met other prominent electricians and many millionaires, 
 and "mixed up" with some of the greatest promoters on earth. It 
 was surely a rich experience. 
 
 I put in an exhibit of a cluster of eight-candle power lamps at 
 the electrical exposition at the Grand Central Palace. I used small 
 cells on a little table in my booth, all in plain view, so that it was 
 impossible to suspect that I was practicing deception. It attracted 
 great interest as the lamps were much above their registered candle 
 power and fairly sparkled in a cluster. It was the greatest electrical 
 exposition ever gotten up to that time and continued for three weeks 
 with an average of 5000 attendance. A number of efforts were made 
 to steal the secret of the process, but with my good wife's assistance* 
 we easily circumvented every attempt. 
 
 One experience was notable. Charles Broadway Rouse, the blind 
 millionaire merchant, offered $1,000,000 to any one who would 
 restore his sight, which was practically destroyed by atrophy of the 
 optic nerve. He offered as a substitute for various treatments a poor 
 young man by the name of Martin, who was blind from the same 
 cause, agreeing to pay his expenses during the time he was engaged 
 in trying out different treatments. If any treatment restored Martin's 
 sight, he would take it and, upon the restoration of his sight, he would 
 pay $1,000,000. Oculists declared atrophy of the optic nerve incur- 
 able, yet the wide publicity of the case all over the world brought to 
 Rouse, in practically all languages, proposed remedies, some of them 
 ridiculous. 
 
 I decided to try the electric current from my battery on Martin 
 if I could get Rouse's consent. I went to his great store on Broadway 
 and found him there directing the business of the concern through 
 his secretary. Rouse had large stores in five of the principal cities of 
 the world. I made my business known to him, and in a gruff business 
 manner he referred me to Martin, giving me his street and number. 
 I found Martin at home and, though poor, was a good looking fellow 
 
14 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 with independent, manly bearing. Martin had been a druggist. He 
 at once consented to take the treatment, and upon my return home 1 
 fixed up a battery of three cells, which would give about six volts 
 and fifteen amperes. 
 
 I began the treatment systematically and in a couple of weeks 
 thought I was making some progress in restoring Martin's sight, for 
 he was not "stone" blind, nor was Rouse. They could barely dis- 
 
 J J 
 
 tinguish between bright daylight and darkness. 
 
 At this juncture the reporters of the New York "World," 
 "Journal" (now "American") and "Sun" got "wind" of the treat- 
 ment and called for a big writeup. The reporters were admitted, and 
 they surely gave me a flaming writeup. They made it quite sensa- 
 tional, and it saddened me when next morning a large number of 
 blind people called on me for treatment. I was compelled to turn 
 them away, taking their names and addresses, however, and 
 promising to drop each one a card if I became convinced that 
 Martin's sight would be restored. 
 
 But Rouse was noted for his eccentricities and was hot tempered 
 and impatient. Besides, others kept clamoring personally and by 
 letter to take the case, pleading assurances that each had the remedy. 
 So Rouse finally ordered the treatment discontinued, and directed 
 Martin to begin other treatments. 
 
 Edison had planned to take the case and try the X-ray treat- 
 ment. The X-ray discovery had recently been made and all sorts of 
 marvelous cures of diseases were predicted. During my treatment 
 of Martin, however, Edison had a blind girl under treatment, but the 
 frequent exposure to the X-ray removed all her hair, so that Edison 
 decided not to take Martin under treatment. 
 
 Tesla had also planned to take the case and pass 100,000 volts 
 through Martin's head with the hope that it would stimulate the 
 optic nerve. He could find no reputable physician who would in any 
 way be responsible for results and, although Tesla had passed 
 250,000 volts through his body, he feared that the passage of 100,000 
 volts through the brain might prove fatal, so he gave it up.* Never- 
 theless, Martin was kept busy taking various treatments. 
 
 Truth is said to be stranger than fiction, and here I will relate 
 a true story of how a blind man could apparently see and go at will 
 over the great city of New York without a guide, and never meet 
 with an accident during the nine years of his blindness. 
 
 "'People generally have the impression that high voltage kills when on- 1 
 is electrocuted, whereas, ii is the ampere that coagulates the blood and stops 
 heart action. Voltage is pressure; amperage is volume or quantity; plainly 
 termed, "the miner's inch." Tesla discovered a process by which he could 
 secure high voltaic practically without amperage, and by that process with- 
 stood a pressure of 250.000 volts without receiving injury. 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 15 
 
 One morning after I had given Martin his treatment, he sug- 
 gested that we walk "downtown," and pass through an interesting 
 part of the city. I gladly assented, and we started out from my 
 residence on Twenty-second street, near Eighth avenue. As we 
 passed buildings of note, such as the Music Hall, Tony Pastor's old 
 opera house, the Salvation Army building, etc., Martin would point, 
 them all out. with accuracy. I noticed, too, that I had no occasion to 
 warn him at street crossings and that he walked with me with no 
 more difficulty than one would experience with good eyesight. 
 
 At one point en route I noticed some long timbers slanting 
 over the sidewalk, placed there to hold the walls of a building under 
 repair. Martin was on the street side of the sidewalk, and if he 
 failed to turn toward the building or stoop he would walk against 
 the timbers. I kept a close watch to warn him in time, but he needed 
 no warning. He bore over to the middle of the sidewalk until we 
 passed the timbers, and then resumed his former place. I asked him 
 how he knew there was such an obstruction, and he replied that he 
 knew there was something there, and asked me what it was. I told 
 him, and asked him to tell me how he knew there was anything in 
 the way. He said he did not know, but that he never made a mistake. 
 
 \Ve went over to Third avenue and when we reached Gramercy 
 Park he pointed out the old residence of Samuel J. Tilden, "The Sage 
 of Gramercy Park," as he was known by his multitude of friends and 
 admirers. We passed on down to Broadway and Park Row, where 
 he pointed out the city hall, postoffice building, newspaper build- 
 ings, etc. 
 
 Upon another occasion I was at his home on Elizabeth street 
 and, when 1 was taking my departure, he said he would go with me 
 as far as Broadway and transfer down town. When we reached 
 Broadway he got off the street car, went to the sidewalk and stopped 
 at the street corner an instant, then hurried to a street car that was 
 standing in Broadway waiting for passengers to get on and off. He 
 went safely among vehicles in crowded Broadway and got aboard the 
 car just as one with perfect sight would do. 
 
 With the exception of having been knocked down a time or tw r o 
 by careless bicycle riders, in all the nine years of Tiis blindness he had 
 never met with an accident. How he could go safely through the 
 crowded streets of that great city with such accuracy and always 
 without a guide is a mystery. He had no explanation, and all but 
 spiritualists would be at a loss for a satisfactory explanation. 
 
 The belief of that sect is that he had a spirit guide that led him 
 more safely than could an earthly guide. Not having a better 
 explanation for the remarkable phenomenon, I am perfectly willing 
 to let it go at that. 
 
16 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 Resuming my narrative, the stirring events following the 
 sensational newspaper reports threw me and my invention into the 
 limelight, and I received a number of invitations from promoters 
 to call at their offices as they were desirous of opening negotiations 
 for handling the invention. I called on two or three of them, and 
 each and all had a splendid proposition to submit with a "joker' 1 
 concealed. 
 
 A rather dramatic event took place at this juncture. In fashion- 
 able apartments on an upper floor of the great building in which we 
 resided lived a brilliant actress who was there on a vacation. She 
 decided to "butt in" for a deal as a promoter. She made the 
 acquaintance of myself and family, and was a frequent and very 
 entertaining caller. She was a fine conversationalist and of attractive 
 appearance. Her scheme was to take the matter up with Lewellen of 
 No. 3 Wall street. We soon reached an understanding and, securing 
 a copy of Pierce's statement of his test of my battery at Chicago, she 
 went to her millionaire friend. He took the matter up with Johnson, 
 civil engineer at Niagara Falls, together with the electrician and a 
 New Orleans cotton king. She worked them up to fever heat, but 
 kept them from meeting me personally, as they were anxious to do. 
 
 A silk merchant heard of it and begged Mrs. De Noy (for that 
 was her stage name) to let him into the deal. She offered to let him 
 in for a loan of $1500. He was only too glad to make the loan, and 
 doubtless he has her note to this day if it was written with indelible 
 ink on "buckskin." 
 
 The temptation was too great, so she fell a victim to senseless 
 greed. Her scheme was a holdup of all concerned. She planned to 
 force me clown on my price and bleed the capitalists to the limit. 
 Although she had in sight $20,000, she was not satisfied, so she 
 ruptured the deal by her inordinate greed. I turned the whole 
 business down, and later turned my attention to writing my second 
 book, this time an economic treatise entitled "Natural Law in, the 
 Business World." It was an economic phase of "The Circular 
 System," which is a true conception of science as a whole and which 
 I had originated. Many an important detail has been left out of this 
 narrative, but it would become tedious fer the reader. Altogether it 
 embraced a period of nearly two years of such experience as rarely 
 falls to the lot of a "little old" orphan boy who had finally made his 
 way to the front. It all makes good, instructive history, however, 
 that throws a side light on the crooked ways of the "higher-ups."* 
 
 *As Henry George, author of "Progress and Poverty," and one of the 
 three greatest thinkers and writers of all times, was an old Californian, I 
 called on him and family at his home on Brooklyn Heights. I mention this 
 to throw a sidelight on the home life of great people. It has been my good 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 17 
 
 After completing the manuscript for my book I went the rounds 
 of publishing houses, every one refusing to handle the book. The 
 objectionable chapter was devoted to proving scientifically that 
 bimetalism is in conformity with natural law. This all occurred soon 
 after the election in 1896 when organized capital set its ponderous 
 foot down on bimetalism. 
 
 Determined not to be outdone, I paid for the printing and 
 binding, and could get none but a religious publishing house to handle 
 the book. Yet this is "free America," where freedom of speech and 
 the press is guaranteed ! 
 
 In March, 1897, we took our departure for Missouri, where my 
 wife was born and reared, stopping at Mexico City, where I con- 
 ducted a newspaper. When the Coffee Creek mining excitement 
 broke out we read in the newspapers of the rich strike, giving 
 Redding, California, as the nearest point by rail to the new El 
 Dorado. I got the mining fever and suggested to my wife that we 
 pack up and go there at once, remarking that I had always believed 
 T would be a lucky prospector. So we hastened to Redding, but when 
 we reached there the excitement was dying away. So I decided to 
 prospect in the immediate vicinity of Redding. After securing a place 
 of residence, I bought a pick, pan and shovel and went up the Sacra- 
 mento river about two and a half miles, where, on a bar that flooded 
 during winter, and had been a rich placer field, I noticed a cropping 
 of mineralized quartz. Now, I was a "tenderfoot," never having had 
 any experience at prospecting for quartz. But I believed then, and 
 still believe, that I am a born prospector, and so was guided by that 
 inspiration. 
 
 Old prospectors told me that there was no such thing as a ledge 
 in bedrock, and after I located two claims and went to work on the 
 prospect I was the butt of ridicule. I could see no logic in the theory 
 that a ledge or body of ore could not "live" in bedrock, and, in fact, 
 on that account the ground had not been prospected, was encourage- 
 ment to me. In spite of all the ridicule, I kept right on at work, 
 using giant powder for blasting. 
 
 But I made a fatal mistake in taking samples of the ore to the 
 assay offices for examination. It seems now that I should have 
 
 fortune to have been personally associated with a few great people, men 
 and women, and I have found them all unostentatious and without a touch 
 of vanity. Mr. George and family made me feel like I was with "home 
 folks," although there was a high order of refinement and culture pervading 
 the home, which itself was unpretentious. Mrs. George was surely a fit 
 
 companon 
 
 daughters 
 
 n for that great man, and the two refined and accomplished 
 s bore unmistakable evidence of their beautiful home life. 
 
18 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 known better after over two years' experience with "men of affairs." 
 But I have been from childhood confiding and had no natural 
 inclination to be suspicious. 
 
 It is a great body of telluride ore and very refractory. The 
 assayers pronounced it a sort of "water formation mineralized with 
 white iron and water sulphurets." Finally I had assays made by the 
 three assayers and the report was $1.50, $2 and $2.60 per ton. But 
 the assay reports failed to discourage me, and I worked on sinking 
 a shaft. I would frequently drop into the principal assay office 
 evenings and there was talk and actions that aroused my suspicion. 
 There was too much interest taken in the prospect that, according to 
 the assay reports, carried practically no value. I advised with an old 
 prospector who told me to roast a piece of the ore, mortar it up, boil 
 the pulp in nitric acid, then I could pick the gold up with quicksilver. 
 T tried it, but nothing would adhere to the quicksilver. I had it in a 
 saucer and, not knowing what else to do, took in to my next neighbor, 
 who was a prospector. He examined it, then went into an adjoining 
 room, brought out a little scale on his knife blade and dropped it 
 in the saucer. Instantly the quicksilver was brilliant, and after 
 running it around through the pulp a few times it was "loaded." He 
 told me to get it on my fire shovel and burn off the quicksilver and I 
 would have the pure metal. I did so and had a nice little flake of 
 gold. I took it back to my neighbor and he was surely surprised and 
 excited. He knew of my suspicion of the assayers, so told me to say 
 not a word and he would take hold with me and extract the gold by 
 hand process, as it was undoubtedly very rich ore. 
 
 Having been reared in California when it was a land of more 
 than plenty had developed in me a spirit of independnece and old- 
 time manhood that would bow to no human being I "boiled over" 
 with righteous indignation and belittled the assayers, which proved a 
 boomerang. I got enough of the preparation to make a few more 
 tests, one by weight, which yielded 10 cents an ounce. He made a 
 test of four pounds that ran at the rate of $4000 per ton. 
 
 But I had "stirred up a hornet's nest" which resulted in my 
 neighbor refusing to give me any more of the preparation to use with 
 the quicksilver. The devils had waited on him and told him what 
 would happen if he gave me any further assistance. 
 
 So there I was, tied hands and feet, with the prejudice of the 
 public, and envy and jealousy of prospectors, against me; envious 
 because the mine lay only two and a half miles from town, the crop- 
 pings exposed and less than fifty yards from the county road. Besides 
 I was a "tenderfoot," which made the case more aggravating. 
 
 At this juncture my wife's mother, a splendid old lady, who had 
 made her home with us since our marriage, became very feeble and, 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 19 
 
 to our surprise, one morning while lying on the lounge, died suddenly 
 without a struggle. It was a terrible blow to my wife, who was 
 strongly attached to her mother. With saddened hearts we interred 
 the remains in the Redding cemetery. 
 
 I again resumed work on the mine with that determination that 
 knows no defeat. I continued the work for only a few weeks until 
 my wife's confinement. Fearing intrigue, we secured the services of 
 a midwife instead of a physician. For several days after the- baby 
 girl was born my wife got along nicely. One clay she became sud- 
 denly ill, however, and I hurried for the nearest doctor, who proved 
 to have considerable mining interests. He gave my wife some 
 medicine that relieved her, and in a short time she was as well as 
 usual. Next morning the doctor called and changed the medicine 
 which, after she had taken a dose, caused her great pain. I hastened 
 to tell the doctor, and he returned and changed the medicine, which 
 was little better. He came every morning until my wife became 
 almost unconscious, when I told him not to call again. I employed 
 another physician but, alas too late, for that night at about midnight 
 she was seized by a severe pain about her heart, and before I could 
 return with the physician she was dead. 
 
 And the great light that had come into my life had gone out! 
 Almost stranded financially, with two little boys and a baby girl 
 twenty-four days old to care for, with a lot of devils against me 
 what could I do? Then was the test of my religion, for, as I have 
 stated elsewhere in this book, I was a sincere Christian. Without 
 that belief and faith I would have been a dangerous man. 
 
 The midwife took care of the baby until an old friend of my 
 wife, Mrs. A. A. Rice, now resident of Lodi, Cal., sent for it, and 
 to her credit be it said, that she cared for it like a mother and reared 
 the motherless babe, training her to become an ideal young lady. 
 
 Fortunately I received the appointment as field deputy for the 
 State Mining Bureau, which would occupy my time for about two 
 months at a fee of $150.* 
 
 I rallied, for the t\vo little boys must be cared for and properly 
 trained to become men and not devils. I refused every offer made to 
 take the boys and care for them, although through my struggles 
 
 *My enemies worked up a prejudice against me among many people of 
 hVdding and laid all manner of schemes to defeat all my efforts. They even 
 made up a purse and sent one of their number to the State Mining Bureau 
 at San Francisco to defeat my appointment as field deputy. They kept 
 vigilant Avatch for all prospective purchasers and turned them away by 
 falsehood and misrepresentation. Through the secret combination of mining 
 men they were in touch with assayers everywhere, rendering it impossible 
 to get correct assay reports on the ore. 
 
20 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 until they became old enough to be of assistance they were a great 
 care and responsibility ; yet I am glad, and proud to say that they are 
 both exemplary young men. 
 
 That was an almost rainless winter, 1897-8, so that I put in 
 much of the time working at the mine until February 1st, the date of 
 the baby's birth. I took up the work as field deputy in April, but, 
 pending that time, I met one of the assayers who, to my surprise, 
 spoke to me about the mine and asked me to bring him some of the 
 deepest ore and he would assay it. So I did and, upon examination, 
 he pronounced it high grade ore, and promised to assay it in two or 
 three clays. I told a party who I thought was friendly toward me, 
 but he carried the news to my enemies, and when I met the assayer 
 the third day and asked him when he would have the assay report, he 
 bluntly repied that he would have nothing to do with it. It so 
 offended me that I wrote out a statement to the effect that the ore 
 had been intentionally under-assayed, giving the figures of the 
 assays, names of the assayers, and paid for its publication in a 
 Redding daily. I gave the assayers a reasonable time in which to 
 defend themselves, and upon their failure to do so I again had 
 published the lesult of my own test (10 cents an ounce), and that of 
 my neighbor's ($4000 per ton). Still the assayers were "mum," 
 although they could have made a serious case against me in the 
 courts if they had made honest assays. But I had not the slightest 
 fear of prosecution. 
 
 I completed the work of field deputy and, that being campaign 
 year, I went to a town in the county, started a campaign paper and 
 had the printing done in Redding. 
 
 Meantime, I gave two Redding men a working bond on the 
 mine, agreeing to give them seven-sixteenths interest to place the 
 mine on a commercial basis. They employed some miners and work 
 began. They undoubtedly took out very rich ore, but it was assayed 
 down to nearly nothing. They continued to sink the shaft and I to 
 run the paper until after the election early in November, when I 
 returned to Redding. 
 
 I had talked to a party who resides at the town where I ran the 
 paper about buying out the working bond of the parties who were 
 beginning to get discouraged, and he decided to come and examine 
 the property. He came, and took home with him a piece of the ore. 
 Upon his arrival home, he talked with a photographer about the 
 proposition and showed him the piece of ore. The photographer said 
 he could test it, and to do so broke, up a small piece of it and treated 
 it to nitro-muriatic acid. He then made a toning table and tested it. 
 The picture was perfectly developed. As it takes 3 cents in gold in the 
 bath to develop a picture, the photographer could make a rough esti- 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 21 
 
 mate of the value of the ore, which he pronounced very high grade. 
 
 This excited my friend, who arrived on the early morning train 
 at about sunrise to tell me about it. I knew nothing about photog- 
 raphy, but when he told me the process I decided at once to try it. 
 He went up to the mine, and I filled a Castoria bottle full of the 
 solution prepared from the ore, and went to one of the photographers 
 and got an undeveloped picture, then got a dish from an adjoining 
 restaurant, filled it with water and poured in about a tablespoon ful 
 of the solution. Upon immersing the picture I noticed that it showed 
 the outlines of a picture, but quickly faded white. I took it to the 
 photographer for information. He asked me what I had, and I told 
 him, whereupon he remarked that I had used too much gold and, at 
 that rate, I must have about $35 in the bottle. He asked me about the 
 mine and if I would sell it, and when I told him I would, he asked me 
 to remain there a few minutes and he would go and wire a mining 
 man to come. He wired to one in Nevada and one in San Francisco, 
 but their engagements hindered them from comnig. He was surely 
 excited, and said that I undoubtedly had a rich mine. 
 
 I went at once to one of the parties holding the working bond 
 and bought him out. Then three photographers, a prominent drug- 
 gist and another party purchased altogether seven-sixteenths interest 
 in the mine, paying $55 per sixteenth. Then we arranged to rush 
 the work, all laboring under excitement. We employed two miners 
 and three of the company assisted in sinking the shaft. We took out 
 some magnificent ore, but the assayers assayed it below paying point. 
 The ore was sent to assayers at a distance with like results. All of 
 which goes to prove how thoroughly mining interests are combined 
 and so hedged about that when mining men start a boycott there is 
 no way out of it for the victim. 
 
 As there was at that time nothing known to the chemistry of 
 photography but gold that would tone a picture by the gold process, 
 the photographers could practically determine the value of the ore. 
 
 We worked up to December 31st, and that night twenty-two 
 inches of snow fell on the level, which permanently suspended the 
 work. Again I was left alone with my two little boys in a cabin to 
 fight it out as best I could with all the odds against me. 
 
 During the winter I went across the river prospecting and 
 located a claim. I went to work with the prospect of taking out a 
 "bunch" or "pocket." I put in several months' hard work there, took 
 out some splendid ore, but I was again "hoodooed" by the assayers. 
 Long, weary months of toil to no purpose, and I now wonder how 
 1 could have the courage, energy and enthusiasm to go through it all. 
 My boys were well cared for and had lessons from me that few, if 
 any, fathers are capable of teaching. 
 
22 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 About this time De Lamar's expert, who had just examined the 
 Bully Hill mine and reported favorably, dropped into Redding. His 
 name was Beula (I am not sure I spell his name correctly), and 
 I happened to meet him in advance of any "knocking." I showed him 
 a fine specimen of solidly mineralized ore, and at a glance he was 
 thrown into excitement he made no apparent effort to conceal. He 
 asked me how far away the location, how deep to the ore body, how 
 wide, and when I told him he remarked that he represented De 
 Lamar and that, upon examination, if he could pass upon the mine 
 favorably, he would make a spot cash offer, as De Lamar never took 
 a bond on mining property. The following morning was fixed as the 
 time when he could go and examine the property, and accordingly he 
 was on hand anxious to see the mine. From the drift of his talk it 
 was clear that he had been "knocked," not as to the value of the mine, 
 for he was an expert, but as to my poverty and the certainty of 
 being able to purchase it at a small figure. 
 
 After the examination and our return, he said he would see me 
 later, and went to the hotel. The fourth day he sent a man to make 
 me an offer of $20,000, which I promptly turned down, remarking 
 that he could have it for $75,000, and that would be practically giving 
 it away. He remained in town for months, hoping and expecting that 
 I finally would take his offer. And I would have taken his offer only 
 that I felt he would make a better one. And he would have done so, 
 I still believe, only for the influence of my enemies. 
 
 At this time I had but one partner, who had seven-sixteenths 
 interest, the others all dropping out, one from discouragement, and 
 the others from the evident reason that they had gotten a "hunch" 
 as to the true value of the ore, but could do nothing with their 
 interests so long as I held the controlling interest. Two of them tried 
 much "funny business," but their methods were transparent. At 
 length they sold their interests for a few dollars, and the last I heard 
 of them they were tramp photographers. 
 
 I will here state that I am now the sole owner of that mine, and 
 if any mining man who is looking for a big mine wishes to get in 
 touch with me on a leasing or bonding proposition, address me at 
 Stockton, California. 
 
 It is needless to go into further details. This book was written 
 at Redding after returning from six months' development work on a 
 gold mine a few miles from Redding, consisting of forty acres of 
 ground which a partner and myself hold by a deed. It consists of a 
 large body of gold-bearing ore with shoots of high-grade ore and, for 
 500 feet wide, would pay to mine from the grass roots down. There 
 are at least 300 tons of ore on the dumps, much of it high-grade. 
 Notwithstanding that samples have been taken by mining men from 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 the richest places where one can demonstrate with a gold pan its 
 high grade in free gold, those pirates have the calloused impudence 
 to report assays "from a trace to $3.60 per ton !" That mine is also 
 on the market at a reasonable price on easy terms. 
 
 That little 2x4 pygmies would try to palm off such "raw" 
 schemes on one who had gone through a rich experience on a big- 
 proposition with some of the shrewdest promoters and financiers in 
 the world would be amusing if it was not serious. I find men-well 
 up in wealth and position who are "mutts" pure and simple. But they 
 are inflated with self-importance and, because of their wealth or 
 position, have no better sense than to estimate a man's ability by the 
 dollar standard. Having so little real intelligence, they have no 
 standard by which to measure the intelligence of other men, and so 
 they try to work their "half-baked skin games" on all men alike. 
 
 In conclusion, I will say that I hold no grudge against Redding 
 as a community. My old enemies who endeavored to beat me out 
 of my old mining property and, failing in that, opened among 
 assayers and smelters a general boycott, are either dead or "poor as a 
 church mouse." The black hand of retribution was against them and 
 they could not prosper. 
 
 On behalf of Shasta county, I have nothing but praise. It is 
 undoubtedly the richest county in the state in extent and variety of 
 resources. Its mineral deposits are vast and 90 per cent undeveloped. 
 Nearly every known metal may be found there in paying quantities. 
 Gold mining is scarcely in its infancy. The county is badly in need 
 of real mining men, and intelligent and experienced prospectors. 
 
 THE FUNDAMENTAL ERROR. 
 
 How Sin Came Into the World 
 
 At the very outset I will state that I am not an infidel in the 
 extreme meaning of the term which regards the Old and New Testa- 
 ments as "framed-up" for the purpose of holding the masses in 
 ignorant servilance to kings, rulers and capitalists. But I do affirm 
 that the Bible bears unmistakable evidence of having been written by 
 men and of men who had no conception of the philosophy of human 
 government and were utterly unaware of the fact that the abuse of 
 power by kings and rulers, and perverted institutions of government, 
 were responsible for rill the sins, abuses, evils, vices and crimes that 
 prevailed from the beginning of Bible history to the crucifixion. 
 
24 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 Moreover, those Bible characters knew nothing of the science of 
 human nature as demonstrated by phrenology, or of the funda- 
 mental principles of the law of heredity. 
 
 From a cause for which we cannot attach the blame to the first 
 parents of the human race, they adopted private ownership, and in 
 the very brief history cf the human family, as given in Genesis, from 
 the creation to the flood, it is recorded that "God saw 7 the wickedness 
 of man was great on this earth, and that every imagination of the 
 thoughts of the heart was only evil continually. And it repented the 
 Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved Him at His 
 heart." And here begins the story of the flood. 
 
 After the flood begins the history of kings and rulers who kept 
 the masses in awe and reverence, believing in their dense ignorance 
 that kings ruled by divine right. Under what may be termed feud- 
 alism, there was no such thing as an economic system. The ruler 
 held the masses in industrial servitude which gave him practical 
 ownership of all the wealth and, with the people looking up to him 
 as an inspired ruler, his word was law whether written or spoken. 
 
 Although the New Testament supplants the Old, history takes 
 up the story of the conquest of rulers for spoils, and for centuries 
 and, indeed, until very recent years, the claim to rulership by divine 
 right was unquestioned by the ignorant subjects. The dark ages 
 followed long after the crucifixion when the human family was 
 plunged into a long night of ignorance and superstition. 
 
 Finally dissensions from the Catholic church that had grown 
 rich, powerful and corrupt threw the nations of Europe into a reign 
 of bigotry and intolerance that resulted in disastrous wars. Cen- 
 turies later when the Protestant churches became sufficiently power- 
 ful to compete with the Catholic church, the people through the 
 growth of religious liberty, became more enlightened and self asser- 
 tive which brought about changes in governments more tolerant of 
 the demand for a greater degree of personal liberty. Thus, feud- 
 alism gradually gave way to competition which brought into exist- 
 ence an economic and industrial system that hastened the develop- 
 ment of capitalism which is now the prevailing system the world over. 
 The earliest Bible record of private ownership may be found 
 in Genesis, chapter 4, verse 2 : "And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but 
 Cain was a tiller of the ground." Also the first crime recorded in 
 verse 8: "Cain rose up against his brother and slew him." In 
 Genesis chapter 13, verse 2 : "And Abram was very rich in cattle, 
 in silver and in gold." 
 
 Next comes the record of wars. Deuteronomy, chapter 2 and 
 verses 30 to 36. "But Sihon, King of Hasbon would not let us 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 25 
 
 pass by him; for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit, and made his 
 heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand. And the 
 Lord said unto me, behold, I begun to give Sihon and his land before 
 thee : begin to possess, that them may inherit his land. Then Sihon 
 came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz. And the 
 Lord our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his 
 sons, and his people. And we took all his cities at that time, and 
 utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little oues^ of 
 every city, we left none to remain. Only the cattle we took for a 
 prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took."^ 
 
 Also chapter 3, verses 2 to 9. Read them and note that these 
 atrocities are a part of the history of Moses, "the Law Giver." Turn 
 to Joshua, chapter 11, and note that Joshua did as Moses, "servant 
 of the Lord," commanded. 
 
 It is needless to cite further references to wars as recorded in 
 the Old Testament. They are so numerous that it would be as well 
 for the reader to look them up; and note that those merciless wars 
 were instigated by kings and rulers for spoils one nation or tribe 
 literally massacreing the people of another and taking possession of 
 their wealth. It will be noted that the people toiled or waged fierce 
 wars at the bidding of rulers who, they believed, ruled by divine 
 right. . , 
 
 Solomon was the shining example of the wanton profligacy 
 of rulers. As king, his record shows a shameless disregard for the 
 freedom and rights of the people. He used them as he saw fit, even 
 to adopting a system of wholesale adultery without a parallel in 
 history. Just out of vain curiosity, he tried the experiment of lavish 
 extravagance, such as characterized the reign of Louis XIV, using 
 thousands of people as servants to toil for him at his bidding. He 
 stated plainly that his purpose was to go the limit in trying out every 
 imaginable project from being a privileged libertine to surrounding 
 his harem with splendor and display hitherto unknown to any ruler. 
 And he had built a k 'temple of worship," that, for extravagant archi- 
 tecture and adorning, was a marvel of workmanship, and stood for 
 centuries a monument to the stupidity of an enslaved people. He 
 
 *Here the foundation was laid, and the religious precedent established, 
 for the long reign of feudalism throughout which the masses were kept in 
 servitude and slavery under the injunction, "Servants, obey your masters/' 
 which, in their rlense ignorance, they believed was the comandment of (iod 
 who bestowed upon rulers the prerogative to rule by divine right. The 
 aw 1'u I massacres of men. women and children to satisfy the greed and ambi- 
 tion of rulers who used their willing subjects to perpetrate such attroritii-s 
 as religious duty, were sins which make the story of the fall of man (hrough 
 the disobedience of Adam and Eve appear as a pleasing fairy talc. 
 
26 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 tried a number of projects, and at the conclusion of each effort to 
 satisfy his majesty's desire to become happy, he saw no pleasure in it 
 all, and exclaimed : "Behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit." 
 Poor king! Too bad he could not make himself happy at the cost of 
 the manhood and womanhood of his poor, miserable subjects. Too 
 bad ! 
 
 Now, it requires no argument to prove that feudalism was the 
 outgrowth of private ownership, and competition the outgrowth of 
 feudalism, and finally, capitalism the legitimate offspring of compe- 
 tition. 
 
 Under feudalism, land was held by feudal lords and continued 
 to be the property of rulers and the royal family long after feud- 
 alism merged into competition, and continues to be so held in some 
 nations to this day of boasted enlightenment. 
 
 Under more liberal forms of government, land is sold to private 
 purchasers, or given away by franchises or subsides to corporations, 
 the self constituted government having no title in fact, yet protects 
 purchasers and corporations by the powerful machinery of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 In all cases, might makes right and whether just or unjust, title 
 to land is made under the guise of laws purely artificial and without 
 the authority of nature or nature's God. Nowhere in the annals of 
 history or in the Bible is there a single instance of record in which 
 title to a single foot of soil was held by grant or deed from the 
 Creator as private property. 
 
 A title to land that would stand the test of abstract justice would 
 bear the signature of the owner of the earth with the great seal of 
 the universe affixed. Have you any such deed? Don't all speak at 
 once! 
 
 In this last analysis, title to private ownership of land is as 
 much without justification as title to the air we breathe. Both air 
 and land are indispensable to the sustenance of life. One is as essen- 
 tial as the other and, under the competitive system, both alike would 
 be held by private ownership were it not for the instability of air. 
 Given the power to create a vacuum around the landless, it will not 
 be denied that the land monopolists would establish rates for air and 
 exact pay for same as is done for gas and water. 
 
 It is through land monolopy that millions are rendered homeless 
 and dependent. It is the parent monopoly of all monopolies. Given 
 access to the soil which is the only source of independent subsistance, 
 and other monopolies could not exist, for the reason that their exist- 
 ence depends wholly upon the helplessness of the homeless. 
 
 Verily, "man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands 
 mourn." Why? Why man's inhumanity to man? Surely, among 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 27 
 
 the more civilized nations man would not be guilty of inhumanity to 
 his kind without some reasons that would have at least the appearance 
 of justification. And here is the reason that has not the slightest 
 appearance of justification. Through private ownership, a class of 
 men whose sole purpose in life is to acquire wealth, create monop- 
 olies, first land monopoly, then the rest is easy. No trick to acquire 
 and hold a monopoly of the facilities of production and distribution. 
 From this cause millions rendered homeless, become tramps, vaga- 
 bonds, criminals, with always an army in enforced idleness and half 
 starving. The producers of wealth are exploited and the consumers 
 robbed by exorbitant profits levied by the captains of industry and 
 middlemen on the necessaries of life. Nearly everyone becomes 
 selfish and sordid, and millions become downright dishonest. 
 
 The world was thus submerged in iniquity and sin when Christ 
 came, although long before it was related that mankind was so 
 wicked that it became necessary to wipe all but Noah and his family 
 'from the face of the earth with a flood and repopulate, sorry to say, 
 with no better results. Indeed, commercialism had reached a point 
 at Christ's coming that would brook no interference, and because 
 Christ was "hurting business" by his teachings, threatening to over- 
 throw the corrupt condition into which capitalism had submerged 
 the Roman Empire, he was crucified, together with all his apostles. 
 
 Less notable was the martyrdom of Socrates whose great moral 
 teachings were also "hurting business." Thousands, indeed, have 
 suffered martyrdom for asserting their independence of church and 
 state. Even in the boasted enlightenment of the present time there 
 is a host of men who dare not assert their belief in Socialism for fear 
 of the boycott a sort of refined martyrdom. 
 
 Let us pause and ask, when and how sin came into the world? 
 I have pointed out some of the greatest sins committed, and have 
 showed the fundamental cause to be private ownership, which is 
 responsible for all the evils, abuses, crimes and iniquity that have 
 cursed humanity since Cain murdered Abel. 
 
 Indeed, we are adding to the same old history of devastating 
 wars, for even now as I write, all Europe is in the throes of the 
 bloodiest and most destructive war ever waged in the history of the 
 world. History repeating itself over and over in grewsome mon- 
 otony, recording the rise and fall of empires; the weary toil and priv- 
 ation of the struggling masses the burden bearers of all the ages 
 the poverty and industrial servitude of the producers of all wealth, 
 and the shameless uses to which that wealth is appropriated. Turn 
 back the pages of history to the reign of Louis XIV and note the 
 lavish extravagance of that ruler. His court and palaces so dazzled 
 
28 A SttJMBRRING VOLCANO 
 
 all Europe that its rulers endeavored to pattern after the shameless 
 extravagance. His court and palaces were adorned until they shone 
 with dazzling splendor, in the midst of which gilded vices and licen- 
 tiousness, vile and vicious, were veiled by pomp and splendor. His 
 palaces alone cost hundreds of millions of dollars and 15,000 royal 
 hummers were kept in luxurious idleness. 
 
 Turn back the pages of history, back to Egypt, to its earliest 
 settlement back to the building of the pyramids back, so remote 
 that the archeologist translates history from the buried ruins of once 
 luxurious cities forty centuries gone by from the ruins of vast 
 temples of marvelous architecture from relics rich, rare and costly 
 as adorns the modern courts and palaces of Europe. They all tell 
 the same old story of the industrial bondage of the masses to pre- 
 datory and self constituted rulers whose subjects believed that they 
 ruled by divine right.* 
 
 Do yon ask when and how sin came into the world? What a 
 foolish question! Sin is wrong-doing departing from the path of 
 rectitude. Very well, do people, as a rule, go wrong from choice 
 for "pure cussedness?" Or is it caused by perverted economic and 
 industrial conditions? Few people become criminals from choice, 
 and those few are the victims of the law of heredity which places the 
 cause back to the bad environment of their parents. 
 
 It may be noted that here in the United States as economic and 
 industrial conditions grow worse, our jails, penitentiaries and asyl- 
 ums are over-crowding with inmates. Greed, intensified by the 
 competitive struggle for gain, is the cause. The professions and 
 trades are overcrowding and many are tempted to take some des- 
 perate advantage which lands them in jail. Thousands in all walks 
 of life are so tempted, and in all cases they justify their course by 
 affirming that the big grafters are literally robbing the people and 
 that, therefore, it no longer pays to be honest. 
 
 *Conring on down to the causes which provoked the French Revolution, 
 we find that the despotic greed of the French nobility became exasperating 
 mid at length unbearable. The French subjects had become more enlightened 
 and had caught a glimpse of the light of human liberty. The writings op 
 Voltaire, who had become savagely radical, inflamed the desperate subjects 
 and, having no deliverer and knowing no redress for the atrocious wrongs 
 inflicted upon them, they arose in awful fury and, like blind Sampson, 
 pulled the pillars of the temple of the corrupt empire down upon the heads 
 (if the innocent as well as the guilty. This terrible tragedy of history was 
 'ml an incident in the fierce struggle of mankind to throw off the yoke of 
 IViidal oppression founded upon the religions institution which maintained 
 that rulers ruled by divine right. 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 29 
 
 In the mad scramble for gain, what has become of the churches?' 
 I. low can one lead the life of an upright Christian and be successful 
 in any kind of business? Why, the competitive system and Christ- 
 ianity are at daggers points. Competition means commercial can- 
 nibalism Christianity means the brotherhood of interests both 
 temporal and spiritual. "Come out from among them and be ye 
 separate, sayeth the Lord," means to come out from among sinners in 
 order to be a Christian. 
 
 Christ was not a Socialist. He advocated no form of political 
 government. His doctrine reached far beyond all temporal govern- 
 ment. His doctrine and teachings are non-political and purely 
 theistic. There is no hint of the principles of Socialism between the 
 lids of the Bible. As a political and economic system, it cannot claim 
 divine sanction from the authority of the Old or New Testament. 
 Adam and Eve were not admonished by the Lord to adopt a system 
 of co-operation when He commanded them to go forth to populate 
 and subdue the earth. 
 
 Socialism, as a system of government, is of purely human origin, 
 gradually assuming form after centuries of industrial and, in many 
 cases, chattel bondage of the masses of mankind. Socialism, as 
 understood and advocated today, came up through much tribulation 
 centuries of "man's inhumanity to man" so sickening in its 
 recitals as to turn one from history in amazement and disgust. We 
 wonder why some master mind did not discover and proclaim the 
 principles of co-operation centuries ago, even when Greece was the 
 seat of learning, or "Rome, from her seven hills of beauty, ruled the 
 world." 
 
 And now we come to the vital point of discussion. It has been 
 shown, which, indeed, should be patent to a man with even a skull 
 full of fine sand., that sin, with all its hideous enormities, was ushered 
 in at the first adoption by the human family of private ownership 
 under feudalism, and later passing from competition into capitalism. 
 \Yc find that from some cause, the human family at the very outset 
 adopted that system which has obtained through all the ages to the 
 present time. 
 
 The question is, where shall we place the responsibility for the 
 adoption of private ownership and competition the parent of sin 
 and all iniquities? If the human mind was so constituted that it 
 would drift into that system, as a duck takes to water, then the 
 responsibility must rest with the creator of the human mind, who- 
 ever or whatever that creator may be. Man himself could not in 
 justice be held responsible for obeying his inclinations when he knew 
 
30 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 no better way, and was in no way warned or admonished to turn 
 from a system that even human intelligence now knows must inevit- 
 ably and unavoidably lead to disastrous results. 
 
 Christ came to redeem the world from sin, but he left untouched 
 the temporal cause of sin, and for nearly twenty centuries his doctrine 
 and competition have been at daggers' points, with the odds decidedly 
 in favor of the old sin creating system. Indeed, the greatest calami- 
 ties of history resulted from religious disputes, prejudices and intol- 
 erance. It has even been claimed that more harm has resulted from 
 the introduction of Christianity than good. Be that as it may, one 
 fact is clear, and that is, the efforts to introduce the doctrine of 
 Christianity were attended by disasters due to the conflict waged 
 against the innovation of a doctrine that threatened to overthrow well 
 entrenched capitalism with all its nefarious and abominable institu- 
 tions. Those efforts to found the doctrines of Christianity ended in 
 tragedy, and after the last apostle had been crucified, there was a 
 long silence to be broken by the establishment of a self-constituted 
 church with a leader claiming to have possession of "the keys of 
 the kingdom of heaven.'' For a long period that organization grew 
 and, flushed with temporal success, became corrupt and was no thi no- 
 more than sanctified commercialism. 
 
 Then came protests which found followers, and a reign of terror 
 ensued. Protestant churches finally came forth from the awful per- 
 secutions, all claiming divine sanction, with the old self-constituted 
 church still in the lead. And all are now dominated by commer- 
 cialism, while iniquity abounds as it did when Christ first proclaimed 
 the gospel of "peace on earth, good will toward men." 
 
 Let us now take another view of the situation. Let us suppose 
 that at the very outset the human family had adopted the co-opera- 
 tive system, and let us suppose that when Christ came he would have 
 found the people living under such a system. Do you think he would 
 have been crucified? Think you he would have been reviled 
 and persecuted ? Do you think that a people living in harmony under 
 a system of co-operation would have rejected the teachings of Jesus 
 Christ ? Any sensible person knows that he would have been gladly 
 received, just as he was gladly received by the poor. All opposition 
 to his teachings came from the "higher ups," who incited the mob to 
 violence. 
 
 This brings us broadside against a tremendous question the 
 question of placing the responsibility for the existence of the sins 
 of the world. If the economic and industrial system of the world is 
 so perverted as to encourage rascality, trickery, treachery, double- 
 dealing and all manner of nefarious schemes for gain, if under such 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 31 
 
 a system vice is fed while virtue starves if success is offered as 
 a premium on rascality, and poverty through it may be the lot of the 
 grandest characters, a disgrace then upon whom or what does thq 
 responsibility for the sins of the world rest when the sinner is help- 
 less under the system for the existence of which he is in no way 
 responsible? For I have shown that the responsibility for the 
 existence of the system dates back to the very beginning, and there we 
 find mankind adopting private ownership as a duck takes to the 
 water. Who, then, is responsible for all the sins of the world from 
 the beginning. Individually and collectively? 
 
 Reader, I leave you to draw your own conclusion. I am not an 
 infidel, but I must confess that I am wandering in a maze of doubt 
 and uncertainty. One thing I do know, and that is, I am firmly 
 grounded in my faith in Social Democracy. Let us adopt it, 
 brethren, and then we will be sure there will be vastly fewer sins to 
 answer for "in the day of judgment," no matter who must answer 
 for them. 
 
 One proposition is self-evident and that is, "thy will be done 
 on earth as it is in heaven," is an imposibility under the competitive 
 system. The christianization of the world is utterly impossible under 
 a cut-throat system of government and .economics. The odds are so 
 overwhelmingly against every principle of Christianity as to render 
 all efforts to Christianize commercial barbarians and cannibals 
 abortive. Prevailing high-handed business methods and practice 
 are so at variance from the doctrines of Christianity as to make 
 Christ's teachings appear ridiculous. 
 
 It would appear then, to be an utter imposibility to Christianize 
 the world under the competitive system. The first thought that 
 comes uppermost, then, is the question as to why an effort should 
 have been made to accomplish an impossibility? Nowhere between 
 the lids of the Bible can be found the slightest intimation that any 
 other political or economic system could or should exist excepting 
 that which had existed from the beginning. The Old Testament 
 founded the doctrine of the "divine right of kings" to rule, and the 
 New Testament nowhere condemns the competitive systems as such, 
 even Christ recognizing the right of Caesar to rule. He in no 
 instance condemned the political and economical system as being 
 responsible for "the sins of the world," but endeavored to Christ- 
 ianize under that system, which the incidents of history since the 
 creation prove to be an impossibility. 
 
 "Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the 
 Lord," meant to gather into Christian communities and live together 
 in brotherly love wherein temporal laws would be unnecessary. To 
 
32 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 mount at a single bound to human perfection from commercial can- 
 nibalism, which had been steeped into humanity by usage, tradition 
 and heredity since the beginning, is a dream. My knowledge of 
 human nature prompts me to say that that is an impossibility. An 
 effort was made during the apostolic age to accomplish that purpose, 
 but two were striken dead for lying about giving over all of their 
 belongings to the Christian community. You see, they were 
 evidently mistrustful and decided to leave a little stake out of the deal 
 in case of emergency. Like everyone even to this day, they were 
 thoroughly soaked with the old system through heredity and the 
 habits of life that they could not cut loose from the temporal and 
 hold fast to the spiritual. 
 
 Regeneration is of slow development and, to be permanent, 
 must be laid deep in the inner consciousness of a humanity freed 
 from the curse of commercialism. It seems to me the teachings of 
 Christianity deal with effects rather than the cause, endeavoring to 
 abolish sin without removing the cause. If you tell me that the 
 system itself was the outgrowth of the disobedience of Adam and 
 Eve, and that the system was inflicted upon them as a chastisement, 
 I will remind you of the injustice of a decree that would inflict untold 
 suffering, misery, want, degradation, bloodshed, disaster, havoc and 
 ruin for thousands of years upon an innocent progeny. Am I right ? 
 If so, I am not guilty of sacrilege. If you think I am wrong, why, 
 "you have to show me." 
 
 What I have said elsewhere in this book, I here repeat: Christ 
 was not a Socialist. And nowhere between the lids of the Bible is 
 there to be found the slightest reference to the principles of Social- 
 ism. Indeed, not an author of a book of the Bible, or a prophet or 
 patriarch of old, seemed to realize that the human family had adopted 
 and was adhering to a political and economic system that was the 
 direct cause of practically all the sins they were trying to abolish 
 without removing the cause. (Something like the Keeley cure, with 
 the saloons licensed and running wide open.) 
 
 In conclusion I will add that the story of the fall of man, 
 through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, has been used as a shield 
 for private ownership, the profit system, competition, capitalism and 
 commercialism quite long enough, and should be torn away to reveal 
 the archdemon and creator of all sin in his hideous nakedness. Plain 
 speaking is always commendable. I have no doubt that man, along 
 with the animal and vegetable kingdoms, deteriorated, and that 
 evolution means restoration through the operation of the law of 
 heredity to the former perfection. Moreover, I am sure that the 
 cause of the deterioration of man was the cut-throat system he 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 33 
 
 adopted at the beginning- and persistently maintained to the present 
 time. I am sure that under a co-operative system the human family 
 today would be highly civilized and, through an enlightened treat- 
 ment of animals and plants, they would not have deteriorated. For 
 instance, the horse, cow, sheep, hog, poultry, etc., would have been 
 superior to the finest strains we have today, and Luther Burbank 
 would never have been heard of as a plant wizard. 
 
 Reader, if you think it possible to Christianize the world under 
 the system, read this remarkable statement which appeared in the 
 current issue of the Christian Herald : 
 
 "From the Christian era till the present time, as statists and 
 historians tell us, there have been less than 240 warless years: Up 
 to the middle of the nineteenth century it was roughly computed 
 that nearly seven billion men had died in battle since the beginning 
 of recorded history, a number equal to almost five times the present 
 estimated population of the globe." 
 
 THE BIBLE. 
 
 \Vhen 1 began to write this book, I had a number of social, 
 political, economic and scientific errors in mind which it was my 
 purpose to expose, but the fundamental error did not occur to me 
 until I found myself in a tangle of errors which suggested that 
 underlying all was one from which all other errors had originated. 
 I began at once to trace them to their source. As it was said that 
 "all roads lead to Rome," so I found that all errors lead to the fund- 
 amental error upon which all governments have been and are 
 founded. I was far from delighted to find that I must tread on 
 sacred ground to discover the origin of human governments as 
 given in the Old Testament. I found that all the governments of the 
 so-called Christian nations of the world originated in Moses' day 
 when "might made right" because it was affirmed that God not only 
 sanctioned but directed the movements of conquering armies that 
 were led to victory through merciless slaughter and pillage. 
 
 Here originated the fundamental error, founded upon private 
 ownership of all wealth and by divine right, held by rulers and 
 feudal lords. I followed that error from its inception through the 
 Old Testament, and on through all the incidents of history I had in 
 mind, and I found the underlying principle, namely, private owner- 
 
34 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 ship, threading through all the forms of governments under feud- 
 alism, then competition and now capitalism which is the world-wide 
 political and economic system. 
 
 It has always been my policy never to tear down where I could 
 not replace with a better structure, which has prompted me in 
 deprecating the spirit of infidelity where it assailed the Bible and 
 Christianity with no other purpose than to destroy that system of 
 religion and leave the wreckage to bewilder and demoralize humanity 
 for all time to come. 
 
 I am aware that it is a serious matter to expose the fallacy of the 
 disobedience of Adam and Eve as being responsible for the sins of 
 the world, since the concordance so interrelates the Old and the New 
 Testament as to form what is termed "the plan of salvation." Accord- 
 ing to the interpretation by all the churches, the Old Testament was 
 the forerunner of the New, foreshadowing in prophecies, burnt 
 offerings, etc., the coming of Christ. 
 
 As to my own personal convictions which are based on profound 
 investigation from every angle,. I hold that the Old Testament 
 should have nothing whatever to do with Christ's teachings and 
 example which, after all, constitute the sum and substance of prac- 
 tical Christianity. I regard all else between the lids of the Bible as 
 history and mythology that pervert rather than strengthen one's faith 
 in even the inspiration of Jesus Christ. I do not hesitate to say that, 
 if the Old Testament had never been translated and, in the transla- 
 tion of the New Testament, cancelled all reference to it, the "plan of 
 salvation" would have been unassailable. It is the concordance with 
 the Old Testament that has played havoc with the nations of the 
 world since the crucifixion. By implicating the Creator as the insti- 
 gator of merciless wars for pillage and plunder, rulers who claimed 
 from Moses' example the divine right to rule, laid claim to that right 
 in justifying their course in their flagrant abuse of power. In- the 
 Old Testament they could find justification for merciless oppression 
 of the people, for barbarity in wars and even for crimes if perpetrated 
 in the name of the Lord. 
 
 In recent years Brigham Young founded the Mormon church 
 in Utah largely on the doctrines of the Old Testament by instituting 
 the practice of polygamy, exacting tithing from the membership, cov- 
 enant marriages, etc. It will be remembered that the "Mountain 
 Meadow Massacre" was perpetrated in the name of the Lord. Even 
 as I write, rulers and leaders in the great European war are claiming 
 that they have the help of the Lord to lead them through slaughter 
 to victory. And the purpose back of the conflict is such as would 
 shame all the devils in the old orthodox hell. 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 35 
 
 I say, cut out the Old Testament, revise the New until there is 
 not left the slightest reference to it because of its abominable teach- 
 ings; then we would have a clean Bible that would be spiritually 
 uplifting. 
 
 GRAVITATION AND OTHER ERRORS. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton was a great mathematician, but not a phil- 
 osopher. His theory of gravitation has a purely mathemtaical basis, 
 which itself is founded upon assumptions. The philosophy of grav- 
 itation as given in the text books on physics, affords no proof what- 
 ever of the existence of gravitation. The philosophy is based on the 
 absurd assumption that rest is the normal condition of "matter" 
 when, in fact, there is no such condition in existence as rest. Upon 
 this glaring assumption of "rest," or inertia, rests the whole mathe- 
 matical superstructure of gravitation. 
 
 I hold that to assume a "tendency" to a condition that never 
 existed is an absurdity. If, as we are taught, there is no such con- 
 dition as rest, then it follows as an axiom that motion is the normal 
 and self-evident condition of what we term "matter." Now, if that 
 proposition is correct, and it is self-evident, then how the necessity for 
 gravitation? We are taught that "matter" is absolutely imponder- 
 able (weighs nothing), and that the heavenly bodies meet with no 
 resistance, so that, if their motions are their normal condition, as 
 imponderable bodies they require no holding force whatever to keep 
 them in their places. The orbit of a heavenly body (this earth, for 
 instance) is its natural path of annular motion. 
 
 A moment's thought will expose the error into which Newton 
 and his followers have fallen. They failed to detach their minds 
 from the impression that bodies have weight. The ancients so 
 believed and taught, and Newton conceived the theory that instead 
 of the earth resting upon a material foundation, it was held in place 
 by invisible ties of support distributed through space which he termed 
 "gravitation."* 
 
 *Here are some pertinent remarks on gravitation by the astronomer, 
 (larrett P. Serviss : 
 
 "It must ])<> frankly confessed that we do not in the least know what 
 irra vital ion is, nor precisely how it acts, and. further, that there are certain 
 puzzling facts which have led some scientific minds to doubt whether the 
 "law" of gravitation, as it has been stated ever since Newton's time, may 
 not be slightly different from what it has been assumed to be. 
 
 '"That there may be something besides gravitation acting upon the 
 planets as they circle in their orbits seems quite possible, but the time has 
 not yet come to proclaim a new law in its place.'' 
 
36 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 The conception of Newton is as material as that of the ancients. 
 JJoth theories presuppose weight as a condition of "matter." Else 
 \\liv the necessity of any means of support for the heavenly bodies? 
 Archimedes, the ancient mathematical!, said he could figure out the 
 length of a lever by which he could move the earth. Modern mathe- 
 maticians have figured out the number of pounds the earth weighs. 
 It seems almost impossible to divorce the human mind from the 
 impression that bodies are heavy in proportion to their mass. Get 
 your mind absolutely free from that impression, and you will begin 
 to see the utter fallacy of the theory of gravitation. 
 
 All apparatus used to illustrate the action of what is termed 
 "centrifugal" and "centripetal force," as applied to the motions of 
 the heavenly bodies, are material, and the evidence shown is utterly 
 lacking in analogy. A body whirled about the head at the end of a 
 cord pulls away from the center. Why ? For the simple reason that 
 the body is forced to do so by the energy imparted to it, the resist- 
 ance of the air and the attraction of the earth. Now, as the heavenly 
 bodies meet with no resistance, where, I ask, is the analogy If 
 the resistance of the air and the attraction of the earth were removed, 
 would a holding force be required to keep the body whirled about the 
 head in an orbit? If you tell me it would leave its orbit if liberated, 
 and fly away in a straight line, I will ask you why ? We are taught 
 that "a body in motion has no power to cease moving or to change 
 its direction or velocity." Very well, then, why should an impond- 
 erable body moving in an orbit free from all resistance fly away from 
 a center in a tangent? Why? This is common-sense philosophy but 
 it is unanswerable. 
 
 Fact is, the entire universe from electrone to sun is in perpetual 
 motion, and all motions are circular. Magnetic action is circular, and 
 electricity rotates in a spiral around a conductor. "The curve is 
 the line of beauty," because light falls in curves on the eye. The air, 
 ocean currents, evaporation from the waters of the earth and pre- 
 cipitation in rain, snow and dew; the sap of the vegetable kingdom 
 and the blood of the animal kingdom all have a circular action. 
 The universe knows no rest and no straight line. The tangent is 
 the line of error, the circle the emblem of reality of truth. The 
 Cross and the Crown emblematic of Error and Truth reveal the 
 spiritual significance of my discovery, for mine is as copyrighted 
 years ago. 
 
 The cross is a disagreeable combination of straight lines ; the 
 crown, pleasing to the eye, is emblematic of the forms and motions 
 uf the material universe, and is doubtless a spiritual emblem. 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 37 
 
 It is often as easy to be led away into error as it is to leave a 
 circle in a tangent. There is a point that is either the point of a circle 
 or the point of a tangent. It is first where the tangent joins the 
 circle. The next point, however, is either truth or error depending 
 on whether we are following the circle or straight line which would 
 he difficult to detect. Thus, we may easily stray from the truth in 
 our theorizing and wander far out in a tangent of error without 
 realizing it. 
 
 Newton founded his theory of gravitation in the tangent, by 
 assuming that all things tend to a state of rest. To bolster up the 
 theory, he was forced to continue his assumptions, thus going farther 
 and farther away in a tangent. To fortify the theory, higher math- 
 ematics was resorted to, and a collossal mathematical superstructure 
 was framed up by himself and followers. 
 
 I)V way of making myself understood, I will state that what 
 is termed gravity is in fact, magnetism. That the earth is a vast 
 magnet, has been accepted by the scientific world since Gilbert 
 announced his discovery in the sixteenth century. But Faraday 
 announced after exhausting all efforts in the vain search for the 
 slightest evidence of the existence of a force termed "gravity," that 
 no trace of it could be found, and that to suppose a force could exist 
 separate and apart from other forces was to him inconceivable.* 
 
 Faraday evidently repudiated the theory of gravitation from an 
 experimental standpoint, which goes far as a practical proof that the 
 theory is without foundation in fact. 
 
 In passing, I will here give a hint of nature's harmony of 
 motion: Magnetic and electric lines of force rotate from left to 
 right, looking in the direction of their flow. This is clearly demon- 
 strated by the well known experiment of "magnetic and electric 
 rotation." Plant growth develops in the same form, that is, from 
 left to right looking in the direction of the growth. As evidence, all 
 trees with twisting grain, twist from left to right and, without excep- 
 tion all climbing vines twine around a support from left to right. 
 
 *In hi-; treatise on gravitation, " I'rincipia," Newton made it quite 
 clear that he was by no means certain that gravity existed as a force. He 
 staled that he used the terms "gravity" and "force" interchangeably, as 
 mathematical terms, without regard to whether or not such a force MS 
 gravity was in existence. In other words, he was juggling with higher 
 mathematics. 
 
 So with Darwin. He classified the bones of animals belonging to I lie 
 various geological periods, bul i! was Huxley and his school of scientists who 
 formulated the Iheory of evolution embracing the halucinat ion of "the 
 descent of man. 11 Thus Newton was a mathematician and Darwin was a, 
 naturalist. but neither of them was a philosopher. Neither did thev profess 
 to be. 
 
38 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 All normally developed people are right-handed which neces- 
 sitates the construction of machinery and other appliances to operate 
 from left to right. We read from left to right, and we have the 
 mechanism of all clocks and watches so constructed that the hands 
 turn from left to right. 
 
 Verily, nature is harmonious in all the activities of her complex 
 system. Circular motion is normal and never conflicting. It is 
 utterly absurd to suppose there is a "tendency" to a state or condition 
 that does not and cannot exist. It seems to me that it is going a 
 long way in a tangent to conjure up such an absurdity to bolster up 
 the theory of gravitation. But it proved to be a source of grati- 
 fication to mathematicians who, like Newton and all other mathe- 
 maticians are deficient in those intellectual gifts that characterize 
 the philosopher. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at, however, that Newton philosophized 
 in a tangent. His mistake is in line with the fundamental mistake 
 made at the beginning which has kept, and still keeps, the human 
 family in a tangent of errors. The competitive system, in all its 
 variations, operates in a tangent. Based upon private ownership it 
 must of necessity operate for personal profit and the profit system 
 is a tangent from the revolving or co-operative system which operates 
 without profit. Let us instance the postal system. It operates with- 
 out profit and is, therefore, a revolving system. Were it under 
 private ownership and, of course operated for profit, then it would 
 not be a revolving system, would it ? If not a revolving system what 
 would it be? There are only two continuous lines without angles 
 and they are the circle and the straight line. Then, if the profit 
 system (competition), is not a revolving system, it must of necessity 
 be a straight line system. Is that conclusive ? Think it over. 
 
 Having shown that the prevailing economic system operates in 
 a tangent or straight line, I will proceed to make clear as possible 
 the fact that the theory of evolution known as "Darwinism" .was 
 formulated in a tangent. The theory assumes that what it terms 
 "links," connecting the species, form an unbroken chain in the evolu- 
 tion of animal life. In other words, in the "dawn animal" was 
 implanted the germ of all animal life, and by successive evolutions 
 corresponding with the geological periods, that germ developed all 
 the varied species and "links" of animal creation including man. 
 Now, that unbroken chain of "the descent of man," must of necessity 
 represent a straight line from the dawn animal to man. Thus we 
 have a contradiction to the law that water will rise no higher than 
 its source. The dawn animal was the source man the highest 
 development and capable of a still higher development! That rep- 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 39 
 
 resents a straight line evolution. If, however, we regard the geolog- 
 ical development of the earth as marked by periods representing a 
 rev< living system by which higher developments of plants and 
 animals were evolved from period to period from the gradually 
 improving condition of the earth, we will readily see that the mal- 
 formations of animals intervening the distinct species as they were 
 introduced, were not "links," but abnormal formations due to the 
 abnormal condition of the earth. The earth evolved all plant and 
 animal life, and the degree of perfection was dependent upon the 
 condition of the earth at the time of their introduction. Had the 
 geological periods of the earth's development been sharply drawn 
 there would have been 110 so-called "links" intervening distinct 
 species. Thus each and every species including man, was and is 
 distinct, having no connection whatever one with another. 
 
 AN OPEN CHAPTER. 
 
 To the Leading Politicians of America. 
 
 Gentlemen : Not one of you is sincere in your pretentious that 
 economic and industrial conditions can be reformed and made toler- 
 able under the present capitalist system. I make no exception, not 
 even shielding the President of the United States from censure. 
 Indeed, the more stainless the private reputation and public record, 
 the greater the hypocrisy and the more dangerously misleading the 
 political influence. 
 
 You men, to whom this chapter is addressed, are all versed in 
 ancient and modern history, and must know that history repeats 
 itself from one single cause, and that cause is, fundamentally, the 
 competitive system. Based upon unrestricted private ownership and 
 attended by a merciless profit system intensified by insatiable greed, 
 you are certainly aware of the fact, patent to any thoughtful person, 
 that no form of government can be devised that could hold the 
 mastery over economic and industrial conditions created by com- 
 mercial pirates who, rightfully under the system, secure the owner- 
 ship and control of all the sources of independent subsistence. You 
 know. Democratic and Republican politicians alike, that already this 
 nation, still in its infancy in years, is prematurely old and hastening 
 to an untimely end. You know that all efforts put forth bv the three 
 last, and present, administrations to reform abuses have proven 
 abortive. You know full well that capitalism has the mastery in that 
 
40 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 it practically owns and absolutely controls all the wealth and com- 
 mercial interests of the nation. Being politicians, you fear the 
 chastening rod of capitalism that would surely be inflicted upon you 
 should you honestly attempt to introduce drastic reforms. A panic 
 would be precipitated by the combined money power which would 
 speedily prejudice the voters against you, thereby defeating your 
 ambition to remain great national leaders. Not one of you has shown 
 a willingness to suffer political martyrdom for the welfare of your 
 country. Your whole political career has been marked by pretense, 
 venturing inch by inch as the people advanced, goaded by the merci- 
 less exactions of predatory wealth. But when the old juggernaut 
 of plutocracy approached uncomfortably near, you quietly and 
 diplomatically receded from your aggressiveness. Roosevelt knew 
 when to let up, and Wilson has doubtless learned that, after all, in 
 the last analysis, he is little more than a figurehead. To be elected 
 President, after filling McKinley's unexpired term, Roosevelt had to 
 promise capitalists through Harriman to "be good," and, to be 
 re-elected President, Wilson will be compelled to "eat the same old 
 crow." 
 
 Your predecessors added treachery to deception in playing the 
 high protective tariff bunco game on their poor, deluded followers 
 who were misled by "Protection to American Industries" and 
 "Protection to American Labor," slogans cunningly and adroitly 
 used to enthuse the people. The reforms you are now contending for 
 are to undo the damage wrought by that unspeakable tariff. 
 
 The floodgates of immigration were thrown wide open through 
 which organized capital flooded the country with degraded labor. 
 Practically unrestricted immigration was, just prior to the European 
 war, still swarming into this country, the low-class Greek, Italian, 
 Hindu, Jap and Chinese taking the places of American labor for the 
 reason that it is cheaper and more servile. The pretense has been 
 and still is that broad, liberal, magnanimous statesmanship proclaims 
 to the world a doctrine of brotherhood which would afford to the 
 downtrodden and oppressed of other nations a refuge in this "land 
 of the free and home of the brave." 
 
 I deliberately brand all such pretense as the vilest hypocracy, and 
 affirm that the whole scheme was instigated by the "captains of 
 industry," and you, gentlemen, know this to be true. 
 
 Moreover, you still tolerate a system of commercial robbery of 
 the people by permitting a combination of pirates, known as specu- 
 lators and middlemen, to fix market values of the necessaries of life, 
 thereby exploiting both the producer and consumer by a system of 
 plain daylight robbery. Some of you have much to say about 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 41 
 
 "conserving" our resources," but not one of you has lifted his voice 
 against the systematic robbery of the people by prices of the neces- 
 saries of life inflated by pirates who would have the people enthuse 
 <>\er "Old Glory," the ''Liberty Bell," and make the welkin ring with 
 "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing." 
 
 Much has been said and but little done to curb big business from 
 operating in restraint of trade. Nothing has been said by any admin- 
 istration about prosecuting little business for operating in restraint of 
 trade. Nor has anything been done to suppress gambling in the 
 necessaries of life, or to put an end to the crime of forcing up the 
 prices on the necessaries of life. Neither has any "reform" politician 
 suggested industrial legislation to the end that the problem of the 
 unemployed be solved. 
 
 I therefore suggest that drastic laws be adopted making it a 
 penal offense for the proprietors of any business, little or big, to 
 operate in restraint of trade. Also make it a crime to gamble or 
 speculate in the necessaries of life, or to force up prices of the same. 
 
 Then it would be ' necessary to secure the appropriation of 
 $5,872,465,200 for the purpose of building penitentiaries for the 
 housing of the convicted business men, which would be practically 
 every one in the United States. The merchants' associations of all 
 the towns and cities, the wholesalers' and retailers' league, the 
 gamblers in the necessaries of life, all trusts and corporations, 
 including the money power, would all be subject to criminal prosecu- 
 tion. If convicted, vast penitentiaries would be required to hold them. 
 
 And this is no joke. Every sensible person knows that it is 
 utterly impossible for competition on a big or little scale to live in 
 the United States. That condition is real capitalism, and only by the 
 restraint of trade can the system of capitalism exist. By adopting 
 such laws as I have here suggested, their rigid enforcement would 
 so thin out the population as to automatically solve the unemployed 
 problem. 
 
 I make these suggestions to remind you, gentlemen, that you 
 are not fooling all the people by the pretended prosecution of the 
 trusts, for I am one of the people, and "there are others." 
 
 What excuse do you offer for your neglect to enact laws for 
 the protection of labor in the industrial field? You are aware of the 
 appalling loss of life through the criminal negligence of employers 
 in not providing for their employes safeguards against accidents and 
 disaster. You have repeatedly read the sickening details of mine and 
 factory disasters which could have been prevented by the "captains 
 of industry," and you fail to legally compel them to do so because 
 you evidently regard labor as a short of chattel, and yon have no use 
 
42 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 for the toiler except on election day, when you entice him into the 
 political bunco game with the promise of a "full dinner pail" which 
 never materializes. 
 
 You know, gentlemen, that the majority of the voters are a herd 
 of jackasses else they would speedily drive you out of the councils of 
 the nation as righteously as Christ drove the money changers from 
 the temple because they were making of it a den of thieves. 
 
 No man could long remain a national political leader and be 
 sincere in his professions of fidelity to the people. While capitalists 
 are fully aware of their power under the system, they nevertheless 
 fear the man of ability and unswerving integrity lest he finally lead 
 the people out of economic and industrial oppression out from 
 under the capitalist system. The captains of industry have no fear 
 of reforms under their system. It is what reforms may lead to that 
 inspires their opposition. It is the fear of a popular turning toward 
 Social Democracy that alarms plutocracy. 
 
 Now, you know, as every well informed man should know, that 
 the system most feared by capitalism is the one that should be 
 adopted for the good and sufficient reason that it is the only remedy 
 for the economic and industrial abuses that are a menace to the very 
 life of the nation. I say, you know that to be a fact, but you dare not 
 breathe it in the faintest whisper to a living soul. 
 
 On behalf of the Great Common People of America, of whom 
 I am classed as one, I warn you, gentlemen, of the danger of the 
 gathering forces of discontent that appear to be slumbering under 
 the pressure of injustice and economic oppression. I earnestly warn 
 you that you are resting in false security over a slumbering industrial 
 volcano that imperils the nation. Look well to your own personal 
 safety should the forces burst forth in seething lava of hatred and 
 revenge. No guilty man would escape the fury of disorganized 
 mobocracv. Be warned ! 
 
 LIMIT OF PROFIT FROM PRIVATE 
 OWNERSHIP. 
 
 What is the limit of actual profit from private ownership? It 
 is easy to see that when one has a competency enough money and 
 wealth to satisfy all our desires and to secure all comforts and such 
 luxuries as are not hurtful in fact, have abundance of everything 
 needful and an income that would insure us against all "rainy 
 days" we have surely reached the limit. 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 43 
 
 When Commodore Vanderbilt was asked by a friend, who 
 longed to become wealthy, the secret of his success, Vanderbilt 
 replied by asking his friend if he would like to take charge of his 
 affairs and go through the worry and labor required to keep them 
 going, for his board and clothes, such as he had. His friend promptly 
 "turned down the job," whereupon Vanderbilt remarked that that 
 was all the pay he could possibly get out of all of his wealth. 
 
 In view of the fact that Vanderbilt made it clear to his friend, 
 why is it that millionaires will strive for millions more? No man 
 can expend one million dollars in a long lifetime without lavish 
 extravagance. Why then, does he want two, ten, twenty, a hundred 
 millions, "and then some"? 
 
 We say, he is actuated by greed. Well, greed has much to do 
 with urging him on, but the satisfaction derived from the possession 
 of great wealth is purely imaginary. There is, in fact, no reality in 
 the enjoyment a millionaire derives from his imaginary importance. 
 The power of wealth is such that people treat him with deference, and 
 thousands fawn at his feet, but there are doubtless times when he 
 realizes that he has few if any bosom friends. He knows that he has 
 enemies, and that he is often in danger of assassination. Still he 
 takes a strange enjoyment out of it all, and his egotism gives him a 
 feeling of self-sufficiency that extols him in his own imagination. 
 
 Now, the fact is, the magnates who own and operate all the 
 public utilities and industries do not realize that they are, in fact, 
 servants of the people. The proof is clear. Let us say they own and 
 operate a railroad system. Well, the people who patronize it get all 
 the benefit derived from it in transportation of freight and travel. 
 They pay for it all, it is true, but what value has the money to men 
 who already have millions? The answer is, to loan or invest in other 
 railroads. Very well; then what? Why, they derive a profit which 
 adds to their millions. Well, what of it? They pursue that course to 
 the end of their career, when they have a big funeral, and that is 
 the end ! No ; not the end of the investment. The people still have 
 the benefit of the railroad, and those who borrowed the money have 
 the use of it, so where did the dead millionaire profit from it all? 
 
 The millionaire manufacturer makes his profit on clothing or 
 groceries, and the people get all the actual benefit that can be derived 
 in the use of the goods or groceries. They get clothing and food for 
 their money, and the millionaire manufacturer gets the money, 
 which can be of no possible benefit to him. It is, in fact, a detriment, 
 as it adds to his already wearisome burdens which exhaust his eiKTgv 
 and shorten his life. 
 
 Still, the millionaire clings to the apparition that haunts his 
 greedy soul. The hypnotic, spell of that strange longing for millions 
 
44 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 and more millions has lured him on to build better than he knew. 
 To acquire the millions he becomes a servant of the people for all 
 time for at the end of life's brief span he leaves a legacy of the 
 wealth he has caused to be created for the benefit of the people. 
 Stanford, Crocker and Huntington died as the poor mendicant \vho 
 begged pennies by the wayside, yet they were the path finders of the 
 great Southern Pacific Railway system that now is, and will continue 
 to be, a benefit to the people. 
 
 Rockefeller is bowed with age and, like an old, faithful slave, 
 has served his master well, for millions of people enjoy the benefit 
 of lamps lighted by refined kerosene which is delivered to them 
 through a wonderful system of his own creation. His declining years 
 have been beset by torturous vindictiveness, and the skeleton of 
 assassination, gaunt and grim-visaged, is in his closet. Who does not 
 pity the poor old man whose fabulous wealth is a curse to his 
 declining years ? 
 
 And in a larger degree those captains of industry build better 
 than they know, for they have so systematized the facilities of trans- 
 portation, production and distribution and the use of all public 
 utilities as to make them ready for the coming of the co-operative 
 system. Herein lies the greatest value of the life work of the captains 
 of industry. 
 
 SIMPLICITY OF SOCIALISM. 
 
 To my mind, long drawn out argument, "splitting a hair a mile 
 long," to prove the error, weakness and fallacy of our economic and 
 industrial system, is utterly absurd. Besides, such argument dignifies 
 the competitive system by making it appear very difficult if not 
 impossible to prove that it is erroneous. Whereas, it stands out in 
 the open condemned by all history and the present demoralized 
 condition of the world. Any one who fails to realize that fact should 
 be sent to the home for the feeble-minded. The thing needful is not 
 argument, but a clear exposition of Socialism, showing conclusively 
 that its basic principles are in perfect conformity with natural law, 
 which leaves no room for argument. Competition is man-made, 
 artificial; Socialism means the translation of natural law into human 
 governments, institutions and laws. Ts man wiser than nature?' 
 
 To my mind, Socialism is perfect simplicity. There is no room 
 for argument for or against it unless, indeed, one would have the 
 temerity to argue to prove or disprove natural law. For that .is all 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 45 
 
 there is to Socialism. It is to copy from nature in formulating a 
 system of government, and if no mistake is made in translating 
 natural law into human government, institutions and laws, we would 
 have a perfect government just as the operations of nature are 
 perfect. 
 
 Here is the simple illustration: Nature is a vast revolving 
 system, all of her parts working in perfect harmony an endless 
 round of connections of one part to another, interdependent, inter- 
 related and reciprocal. 
 
 Go and examine a machine. Notice the endless connections of 
 wheels, belts, pulleys all co-operating in perfect harmony because 
 the parts are so adjusted that they all revolve. Hence, a machine is 
 a mechanical revolving system. It conforms to the requirements of 
 natural law and is, therefore, an apt illustration of the operation of 
 nature's intricate mechanism. 
 
 Now, let one economic part of our government represent one 
 wheel of the machine ; for instance, the railroad systems ; the tele- 
 graph systems another wheel, the telephone another, a number of 
 wheels for factories, a large number of wheels for the various 
 industries, and so on, including all things that should be collectively 
 owned and operated. (The postal system would fit into the machine 
 perfectly just as it is.) Let a regenerated Uncle Sam be the chief 
 engineer and press the button after the great economic and industrial 
 machine was in perfect running order. Do you have the slightest 
 doubt that it would operate as perfectly as any well constructed 
 machine? You cannot doubt it there is absolutely no room for 
 doubt. 
 
 Of course, you understand, this great machinery of government 
 would be under the immediate supervision of the people, who would 
 own and operate it. The political system would be changed from a 
 representative government to a social democracy. A social democ- 
 racy is a government over which the people would have absolute 
 control. Xo authority would be unconditionally delegated to the 
 legislative, executive or judiciary. Abraham Lincoln, who was a 
 Socialist in principle, aptly expressed it in these words, so often 
 quoted by political bunco leaders: "A government by the people, 
 of the people and for the people." 
 
 Reader, if you are not a Socialist, read this little chapter over a 
 few times and think over the matter until you become familiar with 
 the great central idea involved, and you cannot fail to see the beauty 
 of Socialism. 
 
46 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 FREE LOVE EXPOSED. 
 
 Since Victoria Woodhull and her school of home wreckers 
 advocated free love, others with as little regard for social purity and 
 ilie sanctity of the home have come into prominence from time to 
 time as advocates of that social system which, if adopted, would 
 ultimately bring the human family down to the level of beasts. 
 
 The Woodhull school advocated free love as a means of 
 improving the human race by giving to all a free hand at selection 
 or mating, bound by no marriage tie. It was claimed that the law 
 of heredity demands sexual selection as adopted by fine stock breeders 
 in order to secure the best specimens of manhood and womanhood. 
 That theory ignores MUTUAL LOVE, which the law of heredity 
 exacts of human beings. Doubtless the originators of the theory were 
 ignorant of the law of heredity as applied to human beings, as it 
 seems doubtful if an intelligent person could be so carnal and 
 licentiously sordid as to knowingly advocate a theory that would 
 mean the demoralization of the human family and, in time, bring all 
 down to the level of brute creation. 
 
 The theory of evolution known as Darwinism is used by the 
 advocates of free love as "scientific proof" that, since interrelation- 
 ship exists between the human family and all the creeping and 
 living things on the face of the earth, therefore the law of heredity 
 should operate through all animal creation alike. Physically that law 
 affects all alike, but for mental, moral and spiritual development the 
 la\v has to do with human beings alone. Here is another "missing 
 link" which, like the famous "missing link" connecting man with 
 his "hairy ancestors," exists in a perverted imagination. 
 
 Love is a divine gift to the human race, and upon that founda- 
 tion rests the sanctity of marriage and the home. With the most 
 perfect physical selection for mating of the sexes, if mutual love be 
 lacking, the progeny, though physically perfect, would be deficient 
 intellectually, morally and spiritually. That is a clear, concise inter- 
 pretation of the law of heredity as applied to the human family. 
 
 Courtship is designed by the law of heredity as a means of 
 inkindling the divine flame of love. It is a wise provision for the 
 higher development of real manhood and womanhood. But nature 
 makes no provision for mental development of animals and birds, but 
 there is a provision for physical development according to the 
 requirements of different species. Instead of courting, beasts of 
 prey dogs, cats, lions, tigers, etc. fight, which develops the 
 fighting instinct in the offspring; deer have their "running season" 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 47 
 
 that their progeny may he licet footed; birds are on the wing- 
 carrying- material with which to build their nests, that their offspring 
 may be fleet of wing, and so on throughout the animal kingdom. 
 
 But of human beings, the law of heredity requires obedience to 
 but two conditions, namely, selection of opposite in complexion and 
 temperament and, most important, mutual love. 
 
 In this connection I earnestly warn the reader against placing 
 any faith in the craze of "eugenic marriage." It is aimed as a substi- 
 tute for improving the race through the operation of the natural law 
 of heredity. Be assured that the money power is back of the move- 
 ment, to the end that the real remedy for the decline of manhood 
 and womanhood environment and heredity may be obscured. 
 Capitalism naturally objects to bettering the environment of the 
 common people, since that power is responsible for the bad environ- 
 ment which, you know, cheapens labor. The captains of industry 
 require cheap, degraded labor in their business. "Eugenic marriage," 
 if popularized, would improve the physical development and deplete 
 the intellectual and moral, since the trend of the movement is 
 inevitably toward free love, and that means race suicide with a 
 vengeance. 
 
 If each applicant who passed the physical examination were 
 given a phrenological chart with full instructions from a master of 
 that science, it would be a vast improvement. But that would not 
 improve the environment, which must be done, else the race will 
 continue to deteriorate. Be assured that no artificial means can 
 operate as a substitute for natural law. 
 
 RACE SUICIDE. 
 
 I am conscientious in what I write here upon this subject, and 
 write my convictions freely and without reserve. All history fully 
 justifies all I shall say, and the Bible, in one instance at least, declares 
 that the Christian's God became utterly disgusted with the human 
 family. He is quoted as saying that He "repented that He made 
 man." Xoah's flood was a means of race extinction, save Xoah and 
 his family. History since Noah, and beginning with his corrupt 
 conduct, justifies the assertion that Noah and his family should have 
 gone with the rest, and another effort made to improve the breed. 
 
48 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 Now, mind you, I say providing" the old cut-throat system of 
 competition continued in vogue. As I have said in another chapter, 
 I repeat here, namely, that all the abuses, evils and vices, together 
 with all tyranny and oppression, are traceable directly to that system. 
 The only possible excuse the human family can offer is that the hog 
 element in the construction of man should have been left out, since 
 greed is the cause of all of "man's inhumanity to man." 
 
 Nevertheless, attach the blame where we may, the fact remains 
 that up to date.. June, 1915, the human family as a whole from the 
 beginning has been and is a dead waste of raw material. Millions 
 and millions have come and gone, and what of it all ? To use the 
 miners' phrase, what is the "clean-up?" As I write, all the great 
 nations of Europe are at war, the most destructive, merciless and 
 even barbarous the world has ever known. Just prior to the war 
 economic and industrial conditions were intolerable. Millions were 
 out of employment and reduced to beggary. Labor unions and the 
 Socialist party were rapidly gaining strength, foreshadowing the 
 doom of capitalism, and with it rulers and leaders who are its sole 
 dependence. Therefore a war of extermination became necessary 
 to deplete the population and to destroy property so that employment 
 under the same old system could be given to all that survived the 
 war. As a result the labor unions and Socialist movement would be 
 defeated, temporarily, at least, giving ample time for plutocracy to 
 fortify itself against renewed agitation for reforms. 
 
 Now, I declare to you that if a change from capitalism were 
 impossible, then war were preferable to continued oppression that 
 forebode a fate such as the human family endured during the dark 
 ages. 
 
 Still better would have been race suicide for those who suffer 
 from poverty and hunger in peace, or endure the terrors of war. 
 \V1io will gainsay this terrible truth? Who will deny that it were 
 better that the millions of abject poor,- together with the millions 
 who lose their lives in barbarous wars, were never born? Better, I 
 say, a thousand times better ! 
 
 What is the problem of human life? Can it be solved by history 
 repeating itself over and over again in sickening recitals of national 
 calamities and disastrous overthrow of civilization? What think you 
 is the supreme purpose of creation ? Was man designed to be the king 
 of beasts, or God made manifest in the flesh? What is the purpose 
 of living at all? Is it to "propagate and rot"? Does history give the 
 highest purpose for which the human family was brought into 
 existence? Prove to me that this is true and I will prove by his 
 works that there really exists a personal devil and that he is the 
 
creator 
 
 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 49 
 
 creator. History attests that human devils have had most to do with 
 making history, and the inference might be construed to indicate the 
 leadership of "his satanic majesty." To be plain spoken, I should 
 say that a God of wisdom, love and mercy would repudiate man who, 
 "dressed in a little brief authority, plays such fantastic tricks before 
 high heaven as make angels weep." 
 
 Well, if the condition of the human family is not to be improved 
 if to live is but a farce and to die a hopeless tragedy if we are to 
 continue the slaves of greed and blind worshipers at the shrine of 
 Mammon then it were better that the whole human family be 
 blotted off the face of the earth. Under the prevailing conditions, 
 and the conditions of all the past, race suicide is fully justified. 
 
 The conditions of human life would be bad enough under the 
 very best political and economic conditions. Nature's terrors the 
 earthquake, volcano, cyclone and tempest, together with the myriad 
 disease germs and disease-bearing germs, and the standard diseases 
 to which flesh is heir, and the problem of the hereafter these 
 inflictions and afflictions are enough to be borne, but when is added 
 "man's inhumanity to man," which is a thousand times worse, why, 
 sir, race suicide is a long way preferable to enduring all to no 
 conceivable purpose. 
 
 I say in all candor that if the human family will not turn away 
 from the cut-throat system of competition to one of social democracy, 
 then let us clear ourselves of the responsibility for bringing into the 
 world those \vlio at best will find little or no pleasure in living-, and 
 at the worst well, it may be to drag out a miserable existence in 
 drudgery and helpless poverty as millions do, or be slaughtered or 
 wounded in the terrors of war. I ask, is life worth the living under 
 such conditions? 
 
 Here is an old man and woman, decrepit with age. They have 
 done their part toiling to heap up wealth for others. They have 
 eight or ten children, well advanced in years, who are "in the 
 harness" and "pulling hard against a cold collar." Their twenty-five 
 or thirty grandchildren are beginning a life of toil, and forty or fifty 
 great grandchildren who will soon be entering the industrial field. 
 Xmv, what of it all? Can the old man and woman feel that they 
 have lived to any purpose other than to bring more poverty, toil and 
 hardships into the world? And this picture is not overdrawn. It is 
 taken from real life among the millions of poor. Do you tell me that 
 race suicide is not far preferable to such conditions? If you dispute 
 this, then you are more animal than human. 
 
50 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? 
 
 A great many people believe that the leading nations have 
 reached a high state of civilization. Many who should know the real 
 definition of the word "civilization" hold to that belief. The impres- 
 sion that civilization means material progress seems to prevail. The 
 wonderful strides of inventions that have practically supplanted the 
 slow process of hand labor in factories, shops and a thousand other 
 places, railroads, telegraph, telephone, wireless telegraph, X-ray, 
 radium, the bicycle, motorcycle, automobile and air crafts, are cited 
 as evidence of advanced civilization. 
 
 While it is true that the most enlightened nations have made 
 wonderful material progress during the past half century, yet the 
 stubborn fact "butts in" to expose the abuses resulting from the 
 private ownership and operation of all the invented machinery and 
 devices which in turn have resulted in the monopoly of the facilities 
 of transportation and communication, all public utilities, the facilities 
 of production giving private control of all important industries and 
 the markets, leaving the producer, consumer and wage earner at the 
 mercy of greedy trusts, monopolies and syndicates. Millions have 
 been thrown out of employment by lavor saving machinery and 
 devices, tending to enslave labor and impoverish the producer and 
 consumer. Indeed, the entire economic and industrial system is a 
 cowardly hold-up from start to finish. 
 
 This is a brief summary of the results of the boasted material 
 progress which is cited as evidence of a high state of civilization. 
 What do you think of it? Do you think that civilization consists in 
 permitting private monopolies to exploit the toiler, producer and 
 consumer everybody, in fact, but the wealthy? Do you think that 
 a nation is civilized that is dominated by commercial cannibals who, 
 through their nefarious business methods, reduce millions to poverty, 
 enforced idleness and crime? Is a nation civilized wherein greed 
 prostitutes manhood and debases womanhood by placing a premium 
 on successful dishonesty? Is a nation civilized whose jails, prisons 
 and asylums .are overcrowding with inmates? Where it becomes 
 necessary to enact laws to prohibit the manufacture of poisonous 
 drugs and medicines, and the adulteration of food with poisonous 
 ingredients? Can you say that the rich and influential criminals 
 guilty of such atrocity are civilized? 
 
 Is a nation civilized which maintains a ruler king, emperor, 
 czar or by any other title and a great number of royal bummers, all 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 51 
 
 at enormous cost to its people, who submit to arbitrary and despotic 
 rule? Is our own nation, which is termed a republic, but which, in 
 fact, is a limited oligarchy, civilized when organized capital, created 
 largely by the protective tariff and special legislation, influences 
 national legislation by bribery and intimidation? Is our nation 
 civilized when it affords no protection to labor and makes no pro- 
 vision for the army of unemployed? Civilized, you say, when the 
 Federal Government regards property interests as more sacred than 
 the rights of labor? Where market gambling in the necessaries of 
 life is tolerated in its open and shameless robbery of the people? 
 
 A "Christian nation," indeed ! Why, sir, at best we are not half 
 civilized. Listen while I tell you of a true state of civilization : 
 
 A popular government founded by and for all the people. A co- 
 operative system, insuring to all the full products of their labor. 
 No land titles, but the tiller of the soil would be secure in a home 
 under a just leasing system formulated and adopted by the people. 
 Profit, interest and rent would find no place in a system of social 
 democracy. The people would rule through the operation of the 
 initiative, referendum, recall and imperative mandate. 
 
 The system would be very simple. All railroads, telegraph and 
 telephone systems, all factories, shops and mines, and, in fact, all 
 public utilities would be owned and operated by the government just 
 as the postal system is now operated. For instance. Ford gives half of 
 the profits derived from the sale of his automobiles to his employes. 
 Well, under a system of social democracy he would superintend just 
 as he does now and, not half, but all of the profits would go to all 
 that worked, including Mr. Ford. So with a railroad system. All 
 who are engaged in operating it receive salaries and wages, officials 
 and all. There need be no one discharged under public ownership, 
 but it is probable wages and salaries would be increased, for, you 
 know, the profit system would be eliminated. Instead of the wages 
 and salaries being paid from the office of the railroad magnates, a 
 regenerated Uncle Sam would foot the bills. 
 
 Under such a system premiums would all be for honesty and 
 efficiency rather than for successful rascality as now. The hours of 
 labor would be reduced one-half, giving leisure for reading, recrea- 
 tion and enjoyment. Being free from the bondage of competition, 
 there would be no business jealousy or rivalry. As the interests of 
 all would be mutual and co-operative, the spirit of fellowship, free 
 from clannishness, would prevail. Then brotherly love the dream 
 of humanity for centuries would be realized. 
 
 Such, in brief, is the system, and only system, upon which a real 
 civilization may be founded. 
 
52 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 THE MEANEST CREATURE ON EARTH. 
 
 Who or what is it? Well, I knbw from a knowledge of history, 
 from observation and from personal experience. History tells us that 
 "man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn/' and 
 it is true. Now, the creature of whom I shall write in this chapter 
 was, and is, the cause of that inhumanity. He has much the appear- 
 ance of a human being, but, in the highest sense, he is not. He so out- 
 classes the fiercest beast of prey that there is no comparison. He 
 disproves the theory of a personal devil, since he and his class are 
 all there is to hell, which they create right here on earth. 
 
 Members of that class have come and gone gone, doubtless, 
 into outer darkness where there is weeping, wailing and gnashing of 
 teeth and they left a legacy of damnation that has been handed 
 down from generation to generation. They are more numerous now 
 than ever before in the history of the world. They are known by a 
 11111111361- of titles, such as "millionaire," "multi-millionaire," "mag- 
 nate" and "captain of industry." 
 
 He is an abnormal product of the law of heredity by reason of a 
 parental environment of nefarious schemes incited by sordid greed. 
 It is said that poets are born and not made. So with the creature of 
 whom I write. His only mental gift equips him as an exploiter and 
 he is a genius in that line. As geniuses are usually dull in everything 
 else except that for which they have an abnormal gift, so with this 
 creature of greed. He is usually below the average intellectually, and 
 is well-nigh destitute of moral faculties. He can truly say with 
 Napoleon Bonaparte that he cannot understand an honest, unselfish 
 man, from the fact that he has no moral standard by which to judge. 
 
 His class has done the world more harm than all things else 
 combined. To gain his wealth, he has exploited the toiler, the 
 producer and the consumer, and without the slightest compunction 
 or mercy forced his weaker competitors into bankruptcy and ruin. 
 He employs the ablest legal advisors to engineer his nefarious 
 schemes, and the secretary in his office is under instructions to use 
 every deception of which he is capable in answering business corre- 
 spondence, particularly when there is a fat bargain to drive. 
 
 He has at his command a bunch of lieutenants who are bright 
 little devils, but who haven't the genius for exploiting, so must "play 
 the second fiddle," And along down the line he has ''staked out" 
 little helpers who are glad to get the crumbs that fall from their 
 master's table. In addition, he has at his feet the fawning multitude 
 of mutts who are ready to "crouch and cower like the belabored 
 hound beneath his master's lash," 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 53 
 
 Now, from his throne of wealth, heaped up by toiling thousands, 
 he issues orders down the line and "you bet" they are obeyed. He 
 rules with an iron rod and cloven fist. His class is "the power behind 
 the throne" in every nation. Nations have rulers and presidents, but 
 the commercial cannibals are the boss when it comes to a "show 
 down." By their dishonest 'business methods and by economic and 
 industrial oppression which they create, thousands become dishonest 
 through imitation, and thousands more are forced into rascality, 
 trickery and crime. 
 
 To secure the passage of laws favorable to their interests they 
 have corrupted legislative bodies and, to defeat the execution of 
 objectionable laws, courts have been bribed, and when bribery failed, 
 they have resorted to intimidation. They organized capital have 
 carried elections by bribery, fraud and intimidation. Notably the 
 election of McKinley for the purpose of permanently establishing the 
 gold standard which, by depleting the currency, gave to predatory 
 wealth a free hand at exploiting the human family upon a scale 
 unparalleled in the history of the world. The demonetization of silver 
 was the result of a concerted movement of the capitalists of all 
 nations and was one of the most outrageous crimes ever perpetrated 
 against humanity. 
 
 That class is responsible for nearly all wars and, since the world 
 has come under the domination of capitalism, they hold the "sinews 
 of war" in finance and in the equipment of all war material for the 
 army. Through loaning money to warring nations and equipping 
 their armies with implements of slaughter, they heap up vast 
 fortunes, and succeed in getting rid of a surplus population that, by 
 reason of poverty and unemployment, might become a disturbing and 
 dangerous element. 
 
 They glory in poverty if it cheapens labor, rejoice in misfortune 
 if it* falls to the lot of those whom they have exploited, and exult in 
 the ruin of weaker competitors. Crime is a joke if it is adjudged to 
 one of that class, and murder is justified by them if it be inflicted 
 upon striking working men who demand their rights. 
 
 I have heard Socialist speakers declare that men should not be 
 condemned since the competitive system is to blame. I am aware 
 that the system is back of it all, but to exonerate commercial can- 
 nibals and pirates from blame when they have wilfully created the 
 capitalist system through which to oppress and demoralize humanity 
 for gain I say, away with such Socialist speakers! Give us men 
 who will condemn the system and "set the hair" on its creators. 
 
54 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 BIG AND LITTLE BUMMERS. 
 
 Classified, the world's bummers rank from the crowned heads 
 and rulers of nations and their multitude of royal bummers, known 
 as lords, dukes, earls, etc., together with all capitalists and specu- 
 lators, down the line to the ordinary bummer who lounges around 
 and "never misses a meal or pays a cent." I classify all people 
 men and women bummers who do not actually earn by useful 
 service the money they spend for personal expenses, be that little or 
 much. 
 
 Fundamentally it is an economic axiom that labor creates all 
 wealth. That being true, all who possess wealth secured it in* some 
 manner from labor. Now, if that wealth was really earned by useful 
 service, the possessor is honestly entitled to it, otherwise he is not 
 entitled to it and is, therefore, a bummer. That's the whole proposi- 
 tion in a nutshell. 
 
 There are multitudes who perform service for themselves but 
 of no benefit or usefulness whatever. The ruler keeps pretty busy 
 keeping his subjects under subjection and is, therefore, doing more 
 harm than good. He draws his princely income from the earnings 
 of labor, which is exploited by legal process. Hence, the ruler and 
 his royal family are bummers, for they earn nothing and are an 
 obstruction to political and economic progress. 
 
 Capitalists and speculators without exception are bummers. 
 They exploit labor whether wage earner or producer, and laws are so 
 framed as to legalize the process. If stripped of all the wealth they 
 have exploited, millionaires would be left penniless. It is barely 
 possible there may be an exception ; if so, it proves the rule. 
 
 The capitalist who inherits his wealth is innocent of the charge 
 of exploitation, but he is a bummer just the same unless he earns his 
 living by useful service. But the wealth he inherited was exploited, 
 for it is impossible to acquire great wealth without accumulating it 
 from the hard earnings of labor. Ford gives his employes one-half 
 of the net income from the sale of his automobiles, which is a prac- 
 tical admission that they are entitled to it, and I venture the assertion 
 that if Ford would open his heart to a candid confession, he would 
 admit that his employes are entitled to all, excepting a salary for his 
 services as general superintendent. Whether he would confess it or 
 not, it is a fact, nevertheless. 
 
 Now, I am dealing with straight, honest, undeniable facts and 
 not with prevailing conditions that may appear logical because of our 
 familiarity with them. "Familiarity blunts the edges of our percep- 
 tions," so blunt that it often becomes difficult to grasp the truth. 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 Fact is, few men are capable of detached or abstract thinking, and 
 women are well nigh a blank in that respect. To arrive at the actual 
 truth through the process of reasoning, it frequently becomes neces- 
 sary to detach one's self -from what, for any reason, may appear to 
 be true, and think in the abstract. As, for instance, all objects around 
 us appear to possess the property of color. We speak of things being 
 red, blue, green, etc., when in fact, light alone has the property of 
 color, and the color is reflected in the light from the object. It 
 required detached thinking to discover that fact. 
 
 So, thinking superficially, and influenced by our familiarity with 
 competition, that system may appear to be logical, and therefore, the 
 toiler entitled only to the wage arbitrarily fixed by the employer who 
 is entitled to all the toiler has earned for him as "profit on his invest- 
 ment." The profit system is the basic principle of competition with- 
 out which competition would be impossible. By substituting co- 
 operation for competition, the profit system would be abolished and 
 then, you see, the toiler would get the full product of his labor. 
 Then there would be no exploiting of labor and no high-class 
 "bums." "Catch on"? 
 
 Now, let us look into the matter a little deeper and we will find 
 that the majority of business men of every description are bummers. 
 To make this assertion a tangible fact, we will take as a basis the 
 manner and method 'by which the business of a town of say 5000 
 population should be conducted. From one large department store 
 fully equipped for the purpose, goods and commodities could be, 
 easily supplied to all the inhabitants. Well, why not such an institu- 
 tion supplant the numerous stores carrying dry goods, groceries, 
 shoes, hardware, etc., some of them pulling along "by the skin of 
 the teeth" ? Of course, you understand, the department store would 
 be a co-operative institution and therefore would run no "skin game" 
 in dealing with the public. From this viewpoint you should be able to 
 see that the numerous proprietors, clerks and dependents now living 
 off the community are bummers pure and simple. As a matter of 
 fact, even as it is, half the number of stores would be ample to supply 
 all the goods the community requires, so that half the proprietors, 
 clerks and dependents are really bummers right now. 
 
 As to real estate men, mine promoters and all others who run 
 "skin games," they are bummers without any visible means of 
 support except to fleece their victims. 
 
 So in the last analysis the laborer, bearing all the burden, is not 
 exactly a draft horse, but he is a jackass, and has no better sense 
 than to do all the fighting in all the wars. And when a war is over, 
 all that survive return to resume a life '>f toil that bummer 4 - may 
 continue to live in luxury and ease. 
 
56 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 PITHY POINTERS. 
 
 In enterprises and movements of great moment, men build 
 better than they know, and often better than they intend. Under the 
 prevailing system, men are actuated by selfish motives in every 
 undertaking- A great railroad system is built up and equipped for 
 personal gain, yet the people of today and for generations to come 
 derive all the real benefits resulting from its operation. 
 
 The present great war in Europe may result in a political and 
 economic revolution, although the instigators never dreamed of such 
 a result. The primary object of the war was to deplete the over- 
 crowding numbers of the unemployed and, by the destruction of 
 property, give employment, at the conclusion of the war, to all the 
 survivors for many years to come. There was a growing spirit of 
 unrest, and danger "of the political supremacy of the Socialist party 
 which, to circumvent and more firmly entrench the ruling class, 
 necessitated the war. 
 
 It seems, however, to successfully carry on the war, it became 
 necessary to socialize all of the important industries and to aid the 
 world-wide movement for temperance by restrictive measures that 
 are well-nigh prohibitory. Now, if Socialism and temperance become 
 entrenched by those war measures,- then the awful sacrifice of life and 
 the destruction of property were not in vain. And such a result may, 
 be reasonably anticipated should the war be prolonged, for then it is 
 doubtful if the people would permit a return to the conditions that 
 preceded the war. 
 
 It would be a grim joke on the originators and promoters of 
 the w r ar should it finally result in bringing about the very conditions 
 which they had hoped to destroy, and that, when peace shall have 
 been restored, all the industries and public utilities of the nations of 
 Europe would be permanently socialized, with temperance reigning 
 supreme over all. Let us hope and pray for such a result. 
 
 THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC is about as hard to get rid of in dry 
 territory as it is to kill a cat, which is said to have nine lives. A story 
 is told that illustrates the tenacity for life of the liquor traffic. 
 
 A certain man had a worthless cat about the house that he 
 decided to get rid of, so he put it in a sack with a brick and threw it 
 in a pond nearby. Shortly after he noticed the cat walking around 
 not yet dry from the immersion. Determined to get rid of it, he 
 tied its feet, put it in a sack with another brick and threw it into the 
 pond. Again in a short time he noticed the cat going toward the 
 house to get in and dry by the stove. "Well," said he, soliloquizing, 
 "I will get rid of you," and taking the cat to a block he slashed its 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 57 
 
 head off with an ax. He then went into the house for some purpose, 
 and in a few minuutes he heard a scratching at the door. Opening- 
 it he was amazed to see the cat there holding its head in its mouth, 
 trying to get in. 
 
 A GREAT MANY people look up to professional men as all- 
 wise in their professions. For that reason they are "led around by 
 the nose" with "the wool pulled down over their eyes" by unscrup- 
 ulous politicians and leaders. A good story is told of the supreme 
 faith that such a person had in a doctor. John took suddenly ill and 
 soon sank into apparent unconsciousness. A doctor was quickly 
 summoned and was soon at the bedside diagnosing the case. John's 
 wife was watching and listening in breathless silence, and was 
 shocked when the doctor shook his head and she heard him say in a 
 low voice, "He is dead.'' It aroused John, who exclaimed: "It's not 
 so. I am not dead at all !" John's wife was shocked at such an insult 
 flung at the doctor, and fairly hissed at John : "Hush, John ; the 
 doctors knows more than you do about it!" 
 
 JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER claims that wealth is a great 
 burden, and all big capitalists agree with him. No doubt that great 
 wealth is burdensome to the owner who is riding on the necks of the 
 people who, in the last analysis, bear all the burdens. 
 
 Here is a story that furnishes an appropriate illustration : Pat 
 had been to town on his little mule and was returning with a number 
 of articles tied to the saddle, and on his shoulder a fifty-pound sack 
 of flour. He met a neighbor who suggested that the little mule was 
 too heavily burdened. "No," said Pat, "I'm carrying the sack of flour 
 mesilf." 
 
 WOMAN IS A CROSS between an angel and everything you 
 ever heard of in all your life. Some women are mostly angels, but 
 that kind is getting scarce. They were once plentiful years ago 
 before capitalism threw conditions into a state of demoralization. 
 Now there are hundreds of thousands of them in the industrial field 
 and a great many dabbling in the filthy mire of politics led there by a 
 gang of professional agitators, female and male. 
 
 Woman is no longer the "weaker sex." She is becoming bold, 
 intrepid, daring, while man is "losing his nip." In recognition of her 
 superior fitness for running things, man denudes his face of the old 
 emblem of masculinity and, if it were possible, thousands of "strong 
 minded" women would be growing beards in less than no time. 
 
 Thousands of the fair sex are getting tired of being just one 
 thing forever. It is becoming monotonous and they have a notion 
 to change places with the men. The result is a shrinkage in the 
 annual output of babies for which, under the prevailing conditions, 
 the Lord be praised. That's a more humane and sensible way to 
 
58 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 settle the unemployed problem than to raise them in "litters" like 
 they did long ago to be thinned out by having them slaughtered in 
 wars. Under existing conditions, I heartily approve of the policy of 
 curtailing the supply for the overcrowding army of the unemployed, 
 and furnishing ignoramuses for the field of slaughter at the bidding 
 of inhuman rulers and leaders backed by big capitalists. 
 
 Woman is naturally mercenary commercial in her instincts 
 else there could be no such thing as the "underworld." So that, if big 
 capitalists would offer a neat cash premium for every baby born, 
 there would soon be more babies than you could "shake a stick at." 
 
 Woman has no conception whatever of a moral principle. 
 Instead, she has pride akin to vanity, fine sensibilities and an ardent 
 religious nature which answer as a substitute for morality. 
 
 Woman's reasoning faculties are poorly developed, and she 
 depends upon that remarkable instinct, that is often correct, by which 
 she "jumps at conclusions." Hence, she has no detached judgment. 
 She cannot think in the abstract and, therefore, cannot divorce her 
 mind from her personality and reach conclusions through a process 
 of thinking independent and beyond the environment circumscribed 
 bv the limitations of her sex. 
 
 / 
 
 In some respects, woman is a natural curiosity. Her ways arc 
 often past finding out. She has the female instinct of cunning so 
 highly developed that she can pull so much wool over man's eyes 
 as to make him appear like a poodle dog looking through a brush 
 fence. Of course, men are "Smart Alexs" and think they are wise, 
 but I have seen poor devils going around with enough wool pulled 
 down over their eyes to make a bed quilt. 
 
 It is unfair to give woman the ballot as long as so many men 
 are "soft," as it is no trick to influence thousands of mutts by her 
 sex alone, to say nothing of her tongue, which is loose at both ends. 
 Still, you can hardly blame the men for wanting the women to vote, 
 since they are beginning to realize that they have made a filthy botch 
 of politics and, as usual, want the women to clean up after them. Still, 
 I'm thinking that, as the women don't know how, they are apt to 
 make a nasty mess of it. 
 
 But you may depend upon it that I am not a "woman hater." I 
 contend that, when women are well behaved, they are as good as 
 anybody. What I "kick on" is when they get "too bio- for their 
 breeches." I am willing to concede a great deal, but I object to them 
 taking possession of the whole earth and fencing it in with barbed 
 wire. 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 59 
 
 SPEAKING OF BIG THINGS, if it weren't for Texas, Cali- 
 fornia would be the biggest state in the Union. Anyway, Texas 
 shrinks up considerably when it comes to big liars, for California 
 can put it over her about 10 to 1, so that makes California, in one 
 respect, the biggest state in the Union. 
 
 Real estate men tell some "whallopers." For instance, telling an 
 Easterner that in some localities the land is too rich to raise pumpkins 
 and melons because the vines grow so fast they wear out the 
 pumpkins and melons dragging them around. You may have heard 
 that joke before. If so, you now know how it originated. 
 
 That agent declared that on such land the corn and beans 
 planted together grew so fast that they looked like succcotash. The 
 only drawback was that a very high stepladder had to be used to 
 gather the corn and beans, and in harvesting the fodder the corn- 
 stalks had to be chopped down with an ax and the roots taken out 
 with a grubbing hoe. The price of such land ranged from $1000 to 
 $5000 per acre. 
 
 The agent was then trying to sell the Easterner some "goose 
 land," not quite so rich, he said, at $150 per acre, that 'pon my word 
 wouldn't raise a jack rabbit 
 
 Many of our real estate men would surely be good at bunco. 
 It is said that some of them are worse than others. Still, I hardly 
 see how that could be, do you? Well, some of them try to make 
 the Easterner believe that nuggets grow on trees, and I am told that 
 one Easterner did believe it and proceeded to buy a lot of nuggets 
 and planted them. They came up all right in a few hours, but the 
 real estate man denied harvesting the crop. He would have to prove 
 an alibi by mighty good witnesses before he could convince me that 
 he didn't "job" the Easterner. 
 
 They sell a great deal of land on installments and as fast as 
 one purchaser starves out on the poor land he sells it to another. In 
 some cases he sells the same piece of land so often that he realizes 
 about $1000 an acre and has the land, with considerable improve- 
 ments 'besides. Now, that is a perfectly legitimate way of making 
 money and a heap safer than holding up a stage or a train. 
 
 Another way the real estate man contrives to make money is to 
 buy up a tract of land adjoining a town or small city, cut it up into 
 town lots and stake them off with white stakes that remind one of a 
 cemetery for poor people. They run out the streets and alleys and 
 sometimes grade the streets to catch the wise "sucker." They have a 
 
60 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 blueprint made of the addition to the town or city and about a car- 
 load of flaming literature printed to give to sub-agents who scatter 
 out over the country to sell lots. Say, talk about hypnotism, 
 telepathy and the like, why those fellows are past masters in occult, 
 black art and, in fact, can sell town lots to the fakirs of India, who 
 are said to be further advanced along that line than any human beings 
 on earth. Still, it's a safe bet that a California real estate agent can 
 sell them town lots, all the same. 
 
 The beauty of it is, when a man can't find anything else that 
 will pay, he can go into the real estate business. He would have to 
 be a "Joe Dandy," though., to make his salt competing with the old 
 California war horses. 
 
 A good many preachers have grown weary of preaching to 
 empty benches and tackled the real estate business and, let me tell you, 
 they hold their own "and then some" with "the fattest of them." 
 Their strong forte, though, is selling mining stock. I know of one 
 who floated a $100,000 mining scheme on absolutely nothing but "hot 
 air." Still, just because he has been a preacher is no sign he hasn't 
 as much right to run a skin game as anybody. I believe in fair play 
 This thing of talking about an ex-preacher because he "puts it all 
 over" the other fellow is "played out." It's a free-for-all game of 
 "everybody for himself and the devil for the hindmost." 
 
 THE SALOON that does the greatest harm is the finest and 
 most neatly kept, with a clever and popular barkeeper. It is an 
 inviting place of resort for young men and gentlemen, and is, 
 therefore, the beginning of the procession of inebriates which ends 
 at the doggery. If all saloons were doggeries, there would be v-tstly 
 fewer drunkards. So with politics. Wilson, Bryan. Roosevelt. La 
 Follette and all of that class are at the head of a procession of dupes 
 that ends in poverty, hunger and rags. By their inviting professions 
 and promises, they hold a large following which, in large part, would 
 turn away from leaders who would "show their hand." If all of 
 our leaders were of the shady class there would be vastly fewer 
 dupes drawn into the political bunco game. 
 
 TO START the eugenic mating system into practical working 
 order, I suggest that the best specimens of physical manhood, as 
 determined by the Eugenic Board of Examiners, be commissioned 
 to take the lead and be given a free hand with compensation for their 
 services. They should be stationed at fashionable centers and health 
 resorts, and should be licensed to keep a standing ad. in the news- 
 papers, to read as follows : 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 61 
 
 "EUGENIC GRADUATE! 
 
 "Licensed by the Eugenic Board of Examiners. Will spend the 
 season at - . None but the best specimens of physical woman- 
 hood, as determined by the Eugenic Board of Examiners, solicited. 
 Rooms and first-class accommodations free." 
 
 I would further suggest that all others who pass the examination 
 could marry if they chose, but that it be not at all obligatory. No 
 other animals marry, and why should the human species? Are we 
 any better than our "hairy ancestors"? "Not on your tintype." 
 They neither marry nor are given in marriage, so why should we 
 longer follow such a needless custom. 
 
 WE HAVE the single gold standard which is in violation of 
 natural law. That's easy to prove. All of nature's creations are 
 formed 'by twos. All animals, including man, and all birds and 
 insects have legs and feet formed by twos. Kernels are formed in 
 even numbers of rows on every ear of corn, and grain in even 
 numbers of rows on every head of wheat, barley or other grains. 
 Chemical affinities and combinations have even atomic numbers. 
 There are two sexes, and every attribute of the mind has its counter- 
 part. As for instance, love-hate, joy-sadness, hope-despondency, 
 happiness-misery, and so on. Nature is, therefore, a double standard. 
 
 Now, gold and silver are a product of nature and, in their use 
 as currency, we should conform to natural law in their coinage. As 
 long as we use nature's money \ve should conform to natural law. 
 Otherwise we violate natural law and the people suffer the conse- 
 quences. As natural law is the end of argument, so this proposition 
 admits of no argument. 
 
 I will just add that, as metallic money has been and is a curse 
 of the world, therefore both gold and silver should be demonetized, 
 and paper money issued and regulated by the government, and 
 backed by its practically unlimited credit. And that, too, is not a 
 debatable proposition. 
 
 NATURE IS CO-OPERATIVE in all of her activities. The 
 animal and vegetable kingdoms are evolved from the mineral king- 
 dom and, through death and decay, return to the mineral, to again 
 be evolved into new forms of animal and vegetable growth, which 
 is a revolving system. The interrelations are mutual, reciprocal and 
 interchangeable. Nature's economic system is perfect, since nothing 
 is gained or wasted no profit and loss. 
 
 Every mechanical invention that human ingenuity has contrived 
 conforms to nature's revolving system. All machinery and vehicles 
 
62 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 of every kind conform to that system. Everything but human 
 governments and they are founded on private ownership, profit 
 system and competition, which are typified by the tangent or 
 straight line. They are the fundamental error and the parent of all 
 social, political, economic and industrial errors, since the earliest 
 .history of the human race. 
 
 WHAT CAUSE brought into existence the liquor traffic, the 
 tobacco traffic, prostitution, white slavery, gambling and all crimes 
 committed for the purpose of gain ? You will say that most of these 
 evils and vices are co-existent with human government, which is true, 
 but that is not answering the question. Men do not manufacture 
 and deal in liquors and tobacco for amusement; women do not drop 
 down to the underworld from choice, and white slavery, gambling 
 and crimes are not a diversion. Then why did all these evils come 
 into existence? The answer is easy. They all, including political 
 and economic abuses, were introduced by the profit system, and all 
 of them aggravated and instensified by competition. Now, if there 
 had been no profit system or competition, would those abominations 
 have existed? There can be but one answer, and every voter who 
 has a grain of iron in his blood should stand for the system of gov- 
 ernment that would eliminate the profit system and competition, and 
 that system is Social Democracy. 
 
 READER, DO YOU honestly believe that President Wilson, 
 Bryan, La Follette, Roosevelt and other "reform" leaders are actually 
 sincere in professing to believe that, under capitalism, any permanent 
 relief can be secured to the people, from economic and industrial 
 abuse? Do you believe it? Well, if you do, you surely would be an 
 easy victim for the bunco man. It was your kind that believed in 
 rulers and leaders all down the ages and were led, and kept, in a hell 
 on earth, and the kind that now believes in them to the extent of 
 entering the most terrible slaughter field the world has ever known 
 and offering their lives by the millions as a sacrifice of ignorant 
 credulity to worse than beastly devils who easily lead them to the 
 slaughter. 
 
 HERE ARE SOME "beauties" of the profit system: The 
 doctor depends for distinction in his profession and his very living, 
 for that matter, on the sickness and accidents that overtake people. 
 As he prospers when there is much sickness, naturally he is elated 
 over his prosperity. 
 
 The druggist is the doctor's assistant and aids him materially 
 by making a great many people sick from taking his patent medi- 
 cines. He, too, prospers on people's misfortunes. 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 63 
 
 The undertaker well, he has the whip hand. The victims of 
 the doctor and druggist furnish him customers, with the further 
 advantage that death is inevitable and sooner or later he gets them 
 all as customers. And, moreover, he has the advantage of charging, 
 exorbitant prices for his goods without running the risk of being 
 "Jewed down." 
 
 And the lawyer he is surely the limit any way you take him. 
 He also depends on people's misfortunes for gain and, in many cases, 
 he hastens, and sometimes actually creates, the misfortune. 
 
 The saloonkeeper prospers, not on the misfortunes of people, 
 but on their weakness. It is to his interest to create among people the 
 habit of dissipating and throwing their money away for "booze." 
 
 Verily, great is the Profit System! 
 
 NO DEVICE, appliance or machine ever invented created such 
 an economic and social injury as the automobile. It hastens the con- 
 centration of wealth by leaps and bounds by taking hundreds of 
 millions of dollars out of circulation and building up trusts that 
 return little of it into circulation. Ford, who has proven himself to 
 be a half-breed Socialist, is a notable exception, and deserves the 
 monopoly of the automobile trade. 
 
 While it cannot be denied that the automobile is a great con- 
 venience, it is, nevertheless, an expensive luxury. Thousands of 
 people who would do well to own a carriage and horses have 
 purchased machines on installment or secured the price by a mortgage 
 on their homes. The farmer, the blacksmith, the harnessmaker and 
 the liveryman are all badly injured, for the reason that the machine 
 has supplanted horses, harness and vehicles. In fact, no one derives 
 any profit from the auto but salesmen and garage proprietors, and 
 they are non-producers. And they clean up but a small per cent of the 
 money paid out for machines and supplies. The lion's share goes to 
 build up the auto trusts. 
 
 The worst feature of the popularity of the auto, however, is 
 the demoralization of young women by "the joy ride." In the large 
 towns and cities the wreck of young womanhood is deplorable. 
 Aside from that sad condition, I have "no kick coming," since the 
 more rapidly wealth concentrates, the sooner the middle class will 
 "squeal." That class must be brought down a notch or two before we 
 can hope for real economic reform. 
 
 TO "TRAIN a child up in the way he should go" is quite a 
 problem, if the way he should go is to pursue an honorable, manly 
 and upright course. I trained my two boys to manhood, and I 
 
64 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 trained them in the way they (and everybody else) should go, but 
 they have both learned the ways of the world and find themselves 
 out of harmony with nearly all business methods and dealings. Still, 
 I have no regret that I taught them never to sidestep from the path 
 of sobriety and rectitude, for, after all, "honestly is the best policy." 
 The earth would be a social paradise if everybody would live up to 
 that idea. 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT is literally a "rough rider" with a 
 disposition to ride rough-shod over everybody and everything. He 
 is an intellectual cannibal with the polish of a classical education. 
 He is a born dictator and as such is a dangerous leader for his 
 leading is toward dictatorship. 
 
 Roosevelt is intensely selfish and bigoted. His tirade a few years 
 ago against race suicide and ardent appeal to the people to raise big 
 families, and his more recent mission across the continent to stir up 
 a war sentiment, brand him as a creature devoid of human sympathy, 
 and place him on a level with tyrants and despots of long ago. He 
 would advise the poor and ignorant, who have no better sense than 
 to heed his advice, to rear large families to further overcrowd the 
 army of the unemployed and, to deplete their numbers, he would 
 stir up a war spirit and provoke trouble that would result in whole- 
 sale slaughter. 
 
 And Benjamin Ide Wheeler, president of the -State University, 
 which ranks among the greatest institutions of learning, is little 
 better. Indeed, his position places him in touch with the young men 
 of the country who naturally look up to him as authority. He, too, 
 has a classical education, which proves how much of error is incul- 
 cated by our misleading system of education. The fundamental error 
 of competition, and its outgrowth capitalism and commercialism 
 is taught as the cardinal principle of government, together with 
 history that glorifies triumphant generalship and applauds foolhardy 
 soldiers who are blindly led through appalling slaughter to victory. 
 Instruction in civil government and economics is full of error, while 
 the two greatest theories of science gravitation and "the descent of 
 man" are taught as true, to the detriment of all who accept them as 
 such. For error is misleading, and if error constitutes a large part of 
 the curriculum of the educational system, then we need not wonder 
 that Roosevelt and Wheeler are so blinded by false education as to 
 unconsciously advocate the culmination of all errors war. 
 
 From this viewpoint it is easy to understand why war is not 
 eliminated by so-called enlightenment. The general course of instruc- 
 tion in all of what are termed "civilized nations" is the same. The 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 65 
 
 same great errors of history, of the fundamental error of govern- 
 ment, of economics, of science, are taught all leading the learner 
 away from the truth to where he becomes bewildered and intellec- 
 tually demoralized in the entanglement of error. 
 
 In Europe the war spirit has been kept aflame, particularly in 
 Germany, where even the professed Socialists, by reason of the taint 
 of false education, lost their bearing and fell into line in the most 
 unrighteous and devastating war ever waged on earth. 
 
 I am glad to state in this connection, however, that we have in 
 this nation two great educators who are untarnished by the war 
 spirit. One is Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, and 
 David Starr Jordan, chancellor of the Stanford University. Also, 
 AYilliam J. Bryan, although a politician, is a powerful apostle of 
 peace. Let these great men renounce all other errors, particularly 
 the fundamental error of human government, and they will then 
 stand for the principles of an enlightened and permanent peace. 
 
 FOR OVER THIRTY YEARS I have felt a keen sympathy 
 for the happy, joyous children rollicking on the playgrounds of 
 country schools as I have passed them, for I could see for the 
 majority of them a cruel destiny awaiting the approach of mature 
 years. Most of them have poor parents and their bright, innocent, 
 unsuspecting children had before them. a life of toil in competition 
 with the degraded, cheap labor of other nations. I could plainly see 
 the approach of the deplorable economic and industrial conditions 
 that now prevail. Many of those children of thirty years ago are 
 now "drawers of water and hewers of wood" for their masters, else, 
 worse still, in enforced idleness. Yet this is "The land of the free and 
 the home of the brave !" 
 
 THE IDEA of a literal hell doubtless originated from the awful 
 havoc wrought by the damnable business methods of inhuman 
 capitalism, suggesting to the founders of religion a hell with all of 
 its fire and furies superintended by a sovereign devil who we now 
 recognize as some hideous human monster who was and is the ruling- 
 spirit of capitalism. Such monsters have been the curse of humanity 
 all down the ages and we have them today more cunning and crafty, 
 if not more inhuman and brutal, than their predecessors who 
 blackened the pages of history with direful calamities which, through 
 the madness of greed, they inflicted on an ignorant and servile 
 humanity. "Down With Capitalism" should be the slogan of all 
 humanity, by peaceable means if possible, but failing then by force 
 which, after all, is the only power recognized by the demons of lust. 
 
66 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 A PROPHET of old said : "Once I was young, but now I am 
 old, yet I never have seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging 
 bread." Following words occur in the Lord's prayer : "Give us this 
 day our daily bread." 
 
 Now, that just suits capitalism "servants, obey your masters," 
 and look to the Lord for daily bread. Reader, does it occur to you 
 that, under a co-operative system of government, such expressions 
 would ever have been spoken or put into print for the guidance of 
 future generations ? 
 
 As between serving God and Mammon, Mammon seems to 
 have, and always had, the whip hand. 
 
 THE COMING of the old Liberty Bell on July 16, 1915, 
 en route to the Panama-Pacific Exposition, was well advertised in 
 advance by the Redding papers, and a large crowd assembled at the 
 depot to witness the old relic that rang out the glad tidings of 
 freedom from British oppression more than a century and a quarter 
 ago. As the train pulled in a few "stand patters" made a feeble effort 
 to cheer, but the crowd failed to join in, so there was no evidence of 
 patriotic enthusiasm only curiosity. 
 
 To me the old 'bell was a study. I pondered over its early fate 
 when its clear, resounding intonations were hushed forever, and to 
 me the crack in the old bell is a token of short-lived freedom, just 
 as the usefulness of the bell was of short duration. Else why its fate ? 
 My sympathy was aroused for the grand old bell that rested there 
 before the curious crowd in silence as if in mute despair, yet speaking 
 eloquently of its departed usefulness as a Liberty Bell. The poor old 
 bell would fain ring out the glad tidings of a new Freedom, a new 
 Independence and a new Liberty that some day must come : 
 
 "I beg of you not to desert me, but make of me a new casting 
 that I may ring out the old and ring in the new deliverance, this 
 time from economic and industrial oppression which will mean 
 Freedom, Independence and Liberty for our country forever." 
 
 "ALL THINGS COME to him who waits" is an old saying, 
 and undoubtedly correct. A clock or a watch that is not running has 
 the correct time twice in twenty-four hours. A timepiece that is 
 running and not keeping correct time is never right. So that, if one 
 tries too hard to get ahead he is out of harmony with the principles 
 upon which success depends, and is like the timepiece that fails to 
 keep correct time a failure. 
 
 It is simply impossible for a restless, impatient person to become 
 wealthy through prevailing business methods. The cool, calm, 
 deli-berate money-maker will trip him as he hurries on. The born 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 67 
 
 money-maker patiently waits the opportunity to trip all who are 
 rushing on to an imaginary success. In a word, all millionaires who 
 accumulate their wealth through business sagacity are extremely 
 patient,, and can easily wait until it would wear on the patience of 
 Job to drive a fat bargain. 
 
 MT. LASSEN. 
 
 I was an eye witness to every eruption of Mt. Lassen from the 
 first one to the last, covering a period of over one year and up to 
 August 8th, when I left Redding, so that this description may be 
 taken as reliable. 
 
68 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 There were over one hundred eruptions, but many of them were 
 only large enough to entertain sightseers who came to Red Bluff or 
 Redding to witness the famous phenomenon. The picture on the 
 cover of this book was taken after the great eruption of May 22d, 
 when the old mountain was slumbering. The big crater had choked 
 by debris forced up by subterranean pressure which stopped the great 
 flow of mud. Not since- the first adventurer saw Mt. Lassen, to the 
 date of the great eruption, has its loftiest peak been barren of snow. 
 The picture shows the transformation from a snow crown to one of 
 menacing blackness. 
 
 The accompanying picture shows the mountain in active erup- 
 tion, which is famous as the "face picture," for the reason that the 
 smoke shows a remarkable outline of a human face. That eruption 
 sent torrents of mud clown its slopes into Hat Creek valley, carrying 
 with it all obstructions, even to tearing away a ridge and leaving an 
 embankment ninety feet high. The settlers of Hat Creek valley fled 
 for their lives to high ground and escaped death in the torrent of mud 
 and debris. A huge stone, estimated to weigh over one hundred tons, 
 was hurled five miles from the crater and was hot for several days. 
 I was at Redding, where I commanded a splendid view of the 
 volcano, forty-seven miles away, and surely witnessed a sublime 
 spectacle as the vast volume of smoke boiled out, spreading and 
 rising two miles above the crater. It was awe inspiring, for one 
 would shudder for the fate of the many settlers and families who 
 have comfortable homes within easy reach of destruction. But when 
 the crater choked, the eruption subsided, and for some time the old 
 mountain slumbered in menacing silence. A number of openings 
 have formed from which smoke and steam issue continually. It may 
 be safely^predicted that the forces below are so unclermining the peak 
 that eventually it will sink and then will come the great eruption. 
 
 I use these pictures to illustrate the industrial condition of the 
 nation. The settlers in comfortable homes in easy reach of destruc- 
 tion represent the people of the United States. A warning of the 
 danger is shown by the accompanying picture, and the grim silence 
 of the blackened peak as shown by the picture on the cover of this 
 book warns us that the forces of unemployment, general discontent 
 and unrest are gathering for a disastrous eruption. The settlers are 
 warned of the danger and are living in false security. Are we 
 warned that we are resting in false security over a slumbering 
 industrial volcano? I have endeavored to show in these chapters 
 the only means of escape which I trust will be seriously considered 
 by the reader. 
 
 LATEST ERUPTIONS : Two big eruptions of Mt Lassen 
 are reported from Redding, on September 23 and 24, when a vast 
 
A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 69 
 
 volume of ashes and smoke gushed from a new crater, rising thous- 
 ands of feet above the peak, then settling down and soon obscuring 
 the mountain in a bank of haze. At this writing it is not known 
 whether there was a flow of mud. 
 
 A FINAL WORD. 
 
 Following is an extract from an eloquent speech delivered by a 
 Democrat, Senator A. A. Worsley, at Miami, Arizona, on Labor 
 Day. It is a fit companion piece for a chapter in this book entitled, 
 "The Meanest Creature on Earth." The following burning words 
 tell of the mean things inflicted upon the millions of poor, and I 
 expose the real perpetrators who, in all ages, have been the cause 
 of "Man's Inhumanity to Man :" 
 
 "By the owning of the resources of the earth, including the 
 land and the machinery, a few men are empowered to rob us at their 
 will. They take the unearned increment, which belongs to society 
 and is created by society, and appropriate it to themselves. It is a 
 fresh and continuous robbery that goes on every day and every hour. 
 It is not from the produce of the past that rent is drawn; it is not 
 from the produce of the present it is a toll levied upon Labor con- 
 stantly and continuously. E.very blow of the hammer, every stroke 
 of the pick, every thrust of the shuttle, every throb of the steam 
 engine, pay tribute to rent, interest and profit. It levies upon the 
 earnings of the men who, deep under the ground, risk their lives, 
 and of those who over white surges hang to reeling masts, it claims 
 its reward of the laborer and the fruits of the inventor's patient 
 efforts. It takes little children from play and from school and com- 
 pels them to work under unhealthy conditions. It takes the mothers 
 and the daughters from the home and draws them into the field of 
 manual labor and industry to help support the family. It robs the 
 shivering of warmth, the hungry of food, the sick of medicine, the 
 anxious of peace. It debases and imbrutes and embitters ; it crowds 
 families of eight and ten into squalid rooms; it herds, like swine, 
 agricultural gangs of boys and girls; it fills the gin palace and the 
 groggery with those who have no comfort in their homes. It makes 
 lads who might be useful men, candidates for prisons and peniten- 
 taries ; it fills brothels with girls who might have known the pure joy 
 of motherhood ; it sends greed and all evil passions prowling through 
 society as a hard winter drives wolves to the abodes of men. It 
 
70 A SLUMBERING VOLCANO 
 
 darkens faith in the human soul -and across the reflection of a just and 
 merciful Creator draws the veil of a hard and blunted cruel fate. 
 Like a great octopus, with its fibroid fingers, it reaches down into the 
 womb of futurity and robs the unborn child of its natural heritage, its 
 right to the use of the earth and the resources placed there by the 
 Creator for the use of all mankind, and from the garden of the human 
 heart it plucks and tramples the buds of hope and joy into the blood 
 and tears of sorrow." 
 
 AN EXPLANATION. While reading pages 36 and 38, turn 
 to the "Symbol of Truth and Error" as printed on the outside cover. 
 It will aid in reaching the true conception of the fundamental 
 principle of Truth and Error, which will lead to the correct inter- 
 pretation of Natural Law. 
 
YC 15171 
 
 Gaylord Bros. 
 
 Makers 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 PAT. JAN. 21, 1908 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY