directors, and trust magnates. Second, is the middle class, your class,
gentlemen, which is composed of farmers, merchants, small manufacturers,
and professional men. And third and last comes my class, the The whole middle class had not yet been exterminated. The sturdy
skeleton of it remained; but it was without power. The small Thus the summer of 1912 witnessed the virtual death-thrust to the middle
class. Even Ernest was astounded at the quickness with which it had been The captains of industry had turned upon the middle class. The
employers' associations, that had helped the captains of industry to manufacturers and small business men who still survived were at the
complete mercy of the Plutocracy. They had no economic nor political "There are three big classes in society. First comes the Plutocracy,
which is composed of wealthy bankers, railway magnates, corporation to their holdings, even extending their enterprises into many new
fields--and always at the expense of the middle class. "Day by day the trusts squeeze out the farmers as they squeezed out Mr.
Calvin and the rest of the dairymen. And day by day are the merchants squeezed out in the same way. Do you remember how, in six months, the
Tobacco Trust squeezed out over four hundred cigar stores in New York is a pygmy between two giants. Don't you see, you poor perishing middle
class, you are caught between the upper and nether millstones, and even
now has the grinding begun. it all away from you. And then you will cease to be the middle class.
You will descend to us. You will become proletarians. And the beauty of "When he says 'free opportunity for all,' he means free opportunity to
squeeze profits, which freedom of opportunity is now denied him by the Mr. Owen affirmed with a complacent smile. "They had no chance against
us."

"Why not?"

"We had greater capital. With a large business there is always less
waste and greater efficiency." each of which is more powerful than you of the middle class. The large
capitalists, the trusts, in short, will not let you turn back. They dollars a year to run his various papers, and this sum, and more, he got
back from the middle class in payment for advertising. The source of his financial strength lay wholly in the middle class. The trusts did not
advertise.** To destroy Hearst, all that was necessary was to take away
from him his advertising. disagree with you about the doom of the middle class.  We shall
     survive, and we shall overthrow the trusts." middle class, and the laborers. The capitalist system will fall to
pieces. In another month we send fifty men to Congress. Two years
hence every office will be ours, from the President down to the local Everhard has flatly stated it. It is true that we smaller capitalists
are after profits, and that the trusts are taking our profits away from "Very true," Ernest answered. "And the trusts themselves destroyed
competition. That, by your own word, is why you are no longer in the
dairy business."
us. It is true that we want to destroy the trusts in order that our
profits may remain to us. And why can we not do it? Why not? I say, why
not?" and trusts. Their creed was, "Bust the Trusts." All oppression
originated in the trusts, and one and all told the same tale of woe. trusts. The chief obstacle to your Grange propaganda is the trusts.
Behind every obstacle you encounter, every blow that smites you, every "Very true," Ernest answered. "And the trusts themselves destroyed
competition. That, by your own word, is why you are no longer in the
dairy business." elevators, and steamship lines. And, furthermore, the trusts control
the markets. In all this the farmers are without power. As regards their Plutocracy. We both mean the same thing, the large capitalists or the
trusts. Let us see where the power lies today. And in order to do so, them are thralls by virtue of the fact that the trusts already own or
control (which is the same thing only better)--own and control all
the means of marketing the crops, such as cold storage, railroads, defeat that you receive, is the hand of the trusts. Is this not so? Tell
me." "And now, while we are on the trusts," Ernest went on, "let us settle
a few things. I shall make certain statements, and if you disagree great trusts. And the absurd thing about it is that you have repeated
these phrases so often that you believe them. You want opportunity
to plunder your fellow-men in your own small way, but you hypnotize agreed, are the creatures of the trusts. Besides, it is as I have said,
the law. It has been the law for years, for nine years, gentlemen." Everhard has flatly stated it. It is true that we smaller capitalists
are after profits, and that the trusts are taking our profits away from No one answered for a long time. Then Mr. Kowalt spoke.

"What are we to do, then?" he demanded. "To destroy the trusts is the
only way we can see to escape their domination." Mr. Calvin here launched out into a political speech in exposition of
his views. He was warmly followed by a number of the others, and the cry
of all was to destroy the trusts. has a hundred millions in the steel trust, almost as much in
     a single western railway system, half as much in a second,
     and so on and on and on until the mind wearies of the "One and all you tell the same story,--the passing away of competition
and the coming on of combination. You, Mr. Owen, destroyed competition And while you maunder about restoring competition, the trusts go on
destroying you. manufacturers, the trusts stood firm. Nay, the trusts did more than
stand firm. They were active. They sowed wind, and wind, and ever more socialism, a greater combination than the trusts, a greater economic and
social combination than any that has as yet appeared on the planet. It
is in line with evolution. We meet combination with greater combination. cry out. It is because you are not a trust. If you were a grocery trust
for the whole United States, you would be singing another song. And the
little more than six hundred years after the death, the
     confession of Pervaise was discovered in the secret archives
     of the Vatican.  It is perhaps well to tell a little Everhards made their refuge.  Since the finding of the
     Manuscript excavations have been made, and the house, the
     two cave rooms, and all the accumulated rubbish of long never been discovered by an outsider.  And yet it was only a quarter of
a mile from Wickson's hunting-lodge, and a short mile from the village Indeed, it was a safe refuge. I have said that it was discovered only
once, and this brings me to the clearing up of the mystery of the to discover. But the work was going on everywhere; masters in the
art were developing, and a fund of tricks and expedients was being
accumulated. This fund became a sort of text-book that was passed on, a up. And still later, when we became assured of the perfect security of
the place, a small house was erected. This house was completely hidden
from any chance eye that might peer down from the edge of the hole. The brought to bear, hence its suppression.  For centuries no
     hint of its existence reached the world.  It was not until
     in the last century that Lorbia, the brilliant Italian quarters. Our comrades sought him everywhere. Through our secret service
we ransacked every prison in the land. But he was lost as completely as several hours and which was hidden from above. Here we had carried
many loads of gravel from the creek-bed, so that it was dry and warm, * This book continued to be secretly printed throughout the
     three centuries of the Iron Heel.  There are several copies
     of various editions in the National Library of Ardis. fled or was captured by the Mercenaries, she hid the Manuscript in the
hollow oak at Wake Robin Lodge. writing and sworn to.  What happened after this we can only
     surmise.  The document was certainly important enough to
     find its way to Rome.  Powerful influences must have been It was a perfect hiding-place. No one ever came there, not even the
village boys of Glen Ellen. Had this hole existed in the bed of a canyon days he had lived, knew the secret of the hiding-place for which I was
bound. He had bought the ranch for beauty, and paid a round price for "The history of the eighteenth century is written," Ernest prompted. "If
the Church was not dumb, it will be found not dumb in the books."

"I am afraid the Church was dumb," the Bishop confessed. * Avis Everhard would have had to live for many generations
     ere she could have seen the clearing up of this particular
     mystery.  A little less than a hundred years ago, and a received warning of the coming of the Mercenaries, for she
     had time safely to hide the Manuscript before she fled or
     was captured.  It is to be regretted that she did not live oligarchs did not dare permit the telling of the whole truth. In
reality, the wages had been raised much higher, and the privileges were
correspondingly greater. All this was secret, but secrets will out. Half a mile of the mob had swept by when we were discovered. A woman
in fantastic rags, with cheeks cavernously hollow and with narrow black occupancy have been brought to light. Many valuable relics
     have been found, among which, curious to relate, is the
     smoke-consuming device of Biedenbach's mentioned in the
martyrdom--all the splendid, stinging things of the spirit. Here life
was clean, noble, and alive. I was in touch with great souls who exalted husband, so recently dead, should receive full credit for all that he
had ventured and accomplished. Then came the frightful crushing of the
Second Revolt, and it is probable that in the moment of danger, ere she We, who by personal experience know nothing of bloodshed,
     must not judge harshly the heroes of the Fighting Groups.
     They gave up their lives for humanity, no sacrifice was too themselves as heroic and sacrificing laborers for the highest good. a large number of heroes who, throughout the world, devoted their lives
to the Revolution; though it must be conceded that he did unusual
work, especially in his elaboration and interpretation of working-class that their conduct was right. There was no question about it, no
discussion. They were convinced that they were the saviours of society,
and that it was they who made happiness for the many. And they drew of righteousness. In no other way can be explained our sacrifices and
martyrdoms. For no other reason did Rudolph Mendenhall flame out his vengeance. And as I looked the thought came to me that in that rushing
stream of human lava were men, comrades and heroes, whose mission had Hartman was jubilant. "Well done! well done!" he was repeating, over
and over, in a whisper. "The proletariat gets its lesson to-day, but it
gives one, too." persisted throughout the three centuries of its existence.
     Composed of men and women actuated by lofty purpose and
     unafraid to die, the Fighting Groups exercised tremendous opposed to the taking of life. They violated their own natures, yet they
loved liberty and knew of no sacrifice too great to make for the Cause.* the revolutionists. All halting utterance vanished. His voice grew
strong and confident, and it glowed as he glowed, and as the thoughts
glowed that poured out from him. He said: said about it were justified, I had drawn closer to him again. He became
my oracle. For me he tore the sham from the face of society and gave destroyed socialist press was misrepresented and vilified, while
the Black Hundreds were represented as true patriots and saviours of
society. So convincing was all this misrepresentation that even sincere Pococks defied the executioners of the Fighting Groups, so
     she defied the executioners of the Iron Heel.  She bore a sickened him; so that he was glad to go back to his revolutionists, who
were clean, noble, and alive, and all that the capitalists were not. sedition or confined in madhouses. Those who were executed went to their
deaths with all the gladness of martyrs. It was a time of madness. The "For this time lost, dear heart," he said, "but not forever. We have
learned. To-morrow the Cause will rise again, strong with wisdom and
discipline." Dr. Hammerfield and Dr. Ballingford achieved quite different fates from
that of Jackson. They have been faithful to their salt, and they have by the tragedy of a sane, normal, saintly man being crushed by the
brutal will of society. For the Bishop was sane, and pure, and noble. As
oligarchy, if you will; it is the nearest I dare approximate it. What
its nature may be I refuse to imagine.* But what I wanted to say was Oligarchy. In the main, and ignoring the loss of liberty, they were
better off than they had been. On the other hand, the great helpless the Oligarchy. * The earliest known use of that name to designate the
     Oligarchy.

There was a long pause, and every man at the table meditated in ways
unwonted and profound. Oligarchy was there--a fact established in blood, a stupendous and awful
reality. Nor even then, as the Everhard Manuscript well shows, was any the Oligarchy, and a costly one. But the Oligarchy was too confident in
those days. It was drunk with success, and little did it dream that in the spring of 1912. This is, without discussion, the earliest-known
occasion on which the Oligarchy was so designated. Plutocracy. You talk verbosely in antiquated terminology of your love
of liberty, and all the while you wear the scarlet livery of the Iron
Heel." "The Oligarchy is about to tread upon our faces--yours and mine. Wickson
as much as told me so. He was very kind--for an oligarch. He offered to Plutocracy. the disguise of a member of the Oligarchy. While the arch-oligarchs were
no more than a handful, there were myriads of lesser ones of the type, The rise of the Oligarchy will always remain a cause of secret wonder
to the historian and the philosopher. Other great historical events
have their place in social evolution. They were inevitable. Their coming * In addition to the labor castes, there arose another
     caste, the military.  A standing army of professional
     soldiers was created, officered by members of the Oligarchy regime, to the exclusion of all ideas that were inimical and
     subversive.  The book created a furor, and was promptly
     suppressed by the Oligarchy. the idea of the Oligarchy into the minds of the great
     capitalists.  This belief persists throughout the literature
     of the three centuries of the Iron Heel, and even in the Too late did the socialist movement of the early twentieth century
divine the coming of the Oligarchy. Even as it was divined, the Thus, throughout the organization of the Oligarchy, our own
organization, weblike and spidery, was insinuating itself. And so I oligarchies of the world, their socialist governments being
     replaced by oligarchical governments. could not get them seriously to fear the coming of the Oligarchy. They
were stirred by him, but they were too sure of their own strength. There
was no room in their theoretical social evolution for an oligarchy, therefore the Oligarchy could not be.
It was shortly after this day that Ernest told me, as a good story, the
offer he had received from the government, namely, an appointment as CHAPTER XIV

THE BEGINNING OF THE END It was not until January, 1917, that we left the refuge. All had been
arranged. We took our place at once as agents-provocateurs in the scheme But in remembering the old life I have run ahead of my story into the
new life. The wholesale jail delivery did not occur until well along And so it is, in this anxious time of waiting, that I shall write of
my husband. There is much light that I alone of all persons living can the new machines. Family life ceased. The conditions were frightful. It
is a tale of blood." * This book, "Economics and Education," was published in
     that year. Three copies of it are extant; two at Ardis, and In the first place, his clothes did not fit him. He wore a ready-made
suit of dark cloth that was ill adjusted to his body. In fact, no I shall try to write simply and to tell here how Ernest Everhard entered
my life--how I first met him, how he grew until I became a part of him, "Nothing much," he began slowly, "except that the gown you wear is
stained with blood. The food you eat is a bloody stew. The blood of I spread before me a wrinkled letter, written to me by Ernest twenty
years ago, and from it I copy the following: "And there, a century and a half ago, originated the modern
proletariat," Ernest continued. "And the Church ignored it. While a "No story is too long for the scientist," Ernest said sweetly. "That is
why the scientist gets to places. That is why he got to America." "Yet you have not learned their lesson. Here are you, a century and a
half later, trying to break machines. By your own confession the trust It was in February, 1912, that I first met him, when, as a guest of my
father's* at dinner, he came to our house in Berkeley. I cannot say that Ernest had largely planned the First Revolt, and the date set had been
somewhere early in the spring of 1918. In the fall of 1917 we were not in advance of events. I have yet to tell of the stirring times of the
winter of 1912. And that was the last I saw of Garthwaite for three years. Instead of
coming back, he was carried away to a hospital with a bullet through his
lungs and another through the fleshy part of his neck. It was about this time that the warnings of coming events began to fall
about us thick and fast. Ernest had already questioned father's policy "They have already walked upon my face," father explained. "There was no
stock. The box was empty. You and Ernest will have to get married pretty
quickly."
CHAPTER XVI

THE END CHAPTER XIV

THE BEGINNING OF THE END in the end. His mind was fresh and plastic, and by nature he was very
ethical. Several months later we rode him, on one of his father's And that was the last I saw of Garthwaite for three years. Instead of
coming back, he was carried away to a hospital with a bullet through his
lungs and another through the fleshy part of his neck. * This is the end of the Everhard Manuscript.  It breaks off
     abruptly in the middle of a sentence.  She must have Never shall I forget the night when, after a hot discussion with half a
dozen labor leaders, Ernest turned to me and said quietly: "That settles
it. The Iron Heel has won. The end is in sight." about its total annihilation.  This occurred in 2002 A.D.
     The members were executed one at a time, at intervals of More I heard of him afterward. In his own way he had told the truth
when he said all were dead. But one lived, Timothy, and him his father "Yet you have not learned their lesson. Here are you, a century and a
half later, trying to break machines. By your own confession the trust There he remained eight months, at the end of which time, for two
reasons, he was loath to leave us. One reason was that he had fallen in And so it was that father kept on at our Pell Street quarters, while
Ernest and I went to Washington. Except for the final consummation, the It was shortly after this day that Ernest told me, as a good story, the
offer he had received from the government, namely, an appointment as "No story is too long for the scientist," Ernest said sweetly. "That is
why the scientist gets to places. That is why he got to America." It is apparent that Avis Everhard completed the Manuscript during the
last days of preparation for the Second Revolt; hence the fact that * This book, "Economics and Education," was published in
     that year. Three copies of it are extant; two at Ardis, and Thus the summer of 1912 witnessed the virtual death-thrust to the middle
class. Even Ernest was astounded at the quickness with which it had been his armed escort and got away unscathed.  In the end she
     died peaceably of old age in a secret refuge of the
     revolutionists in the Ozark mountains. worked only thirty years. She began young, it is true; but my man died.
The boiler exploded down at the works. And what were we to do? She was "They have already walked upon my face," father explained. "There was no
stock. The box was empty. You and Ernest will have to get married pretty
quickly." accomplish her purpose, served two years in his palace as a
     seamstress to the household. She died in solitary
     confinement after horrible and prolonged torture; but to-day
with Japan and the rest of Asia for India was merely delayed. England
was destined shortly to lose India, while behind that event loomed the
struggle between a united Asia and the world. For the first time the German war-lord faced the men of his empire
who made his empire go. Without them he could not run his empire. The apart. England's hands were full. In India revolt was in full swing. The
cry in all Asia was, "Asia for the Asiatics!" And behind this cry was bought out in similar ways in the past. It is cheaper, so much cheaper,
to buy a general than to fight him and his whole army. There was--but novelty of the situation lay in that their revolt was passive. They
did not fight. They did nothing. And by doing nothing they tied their
war-lord's hands. He would have asked for nothing better than an operatives by machine-guns became classic as the most terrific execution
ever achieved by modern war machines. Most savage of all was the
Japanese Oligarchy that arose. Japan dominated the East, and took accomplish her purpose, served two years in his palace as a
     seamstress to the household. She died in solitary
     confinement after horrible and prolonged torture; but to-day With iron hand and iron heel it mastered the surging millions, out
of confusion brought order, out of the very chaos wrought its own
foundation and structure. Japan, ever urging and aiding the yellow and brown races against the
white. And while Japan dreamed of continental empire and strove to
realize the dream, she suppressed her own proletarian revolution. It commercial expansion and world empire. All about me were nobleness of
purpose and heroism of effort, and my days and nights were sunshine
and starshine, all fire and dew, with before my eyes, ever burning they began, as children, to receive impressions of the world. The
aristocratic idea was woven into the making of them until it became bone
of them and flesh of them. They looked upon themselves as wild-animal to herself the whole Asiatic portion of the world-market, with the
exception of India. subjugating them went on. Subjugation meant death, for no quarter was
given, and they fought heroically to the last man.* ripening fast. Yet he possessed his soul with patience, and during this
time of his torment, when Hadly, who had been brought for the purpose
from Illinois, made him over into another man* he revolved great plans he mobilize his army to go forth to war, nor could he punish his
recalcitrant subjects. Not a wheel moved in his empire. Not a train ran, bayoneted the struggling wretches, though one I saw who gained his feet
and flew at a soldier's throat with his teeth. Together they went down,
soldier and slave, into the welter. The sound arose from his great lungs and dominated the human tempest. By
sheer compulsion of personality he commanded silence. became an anarchist--not a philosophic anarchist, but a mere animal, mad
with hate and lust for revenge. And well he revenged himself. Evading They were taught, and later they in turn taught, that what they were
doing was right. They assimilated the aristocratic idea from the moment husband, so recently dead, should receive full credit for all that he
had ventured and accomplished. Then came the frightful crushing of the
Second Revolt, and it is probable that in the moment of danger, ere she
* In addition to the labor castes, there arose another
     caste, the military.  A standing army of professional
     soldiers was created, officered by members of the Oligarchy destroy the Iron Heel. The oligarchs have already developed caste among
themselves; but wait until the favored unions develop caste. The Iron of the Fighting Groups, and outside of them, of the general secret
organization of the Revolution. And third, the introduction of our own
secret agents into every branch of the Oligarchy--into the labor castes And they will succeed. Membership in the labor castes will become
hereditary. Sons will succeed fathers, and there will be no inflow of
new strength from that eternal reservoir of strength, the common people. the idea of the Oligarchy into the minds of the great
     capitalists.  This belief persists throughout the literature
     of the three centuries of the Iron Heel, and even in the The rise of the Oligarchy will always remain a cause of secret wonder
to the historian and the philosopher. Other great historical events
have their place in social evolution. They were inevitable. Their coming Oligarchy. In the main, and ignoring the loss of liberty, they were
better off than they had been. On the other hand, the great helpless "The Oligarchy is about to tread upon our faces--yours and mine. Wickson
as much as told me so. He was very kind--for an oligarch. He offered to oligarchy, if you will; it is the nearest I dare approximate it. What
its nature may be I refuse to imagine.* But what I wanted to say was the Oligarchy, and a costly one. But the Oligarchy was too confident in
those days. It was drunk with success, and little did it dream that Oligarchy was there--a fact established in blood, a stupendous and awful
reality. Nor even then, as the Everhard Manuscript well shows, was any the disguise of a member of the Oligarchy. While the arch-oligarchs were
no more than a handful, there were myriads of lesser ones of the type, competition. Thus will the strong men, who might else be revolutionists,
be won away and their strength used to bolster the Oligarchy. The trouble was precipitated by the Iron Heel. It was cleverly done. The
whole population, including the favored labor castes, was given a course the struggles between the labor castes and the oligarchs,
     and now to one side and now to the other, threw their
     strength according to the play of intrigue and conspiracy. the Oligarchy. The great driving force of the oligarchs is the belief that they are
doing right. Never mind the exceptions, and never mind the oppression through competition for place. Every fit workman in the United States
will be possessed by the ambition to become a member of the favored
unions. The Oligarchy will encourage such ambition and the consequent factor of religion. And so with the Oligarchy. Prisons, banishment and
degradation, honors and palaces and wonder-cities, are all incidental. asserted their strength in the midst of the mass, they were drawn away
from the mass by the oligarchs and given better conditions by being made
members of the labor castes or of the Mercenaries. Thus discontent was
Ernest had conjured a vision and made them see it. They were seeing it
then, as they sat there, and they were frightened by it. I shall try to write simply and to tell here how Ernest Everhard entered
my life--how I first met him, how he grew until I became a part of him, "All right," Ernest said. "You are travelling the same path that Bishop
Morehouse is, and toward a similar smash-up. You'll both be proletarians
before you're done with it." "They have already walked upon my face," father explained. "There was no
stock. The box was empty. You and Ernest will have to get married pretty
quickly." He arose and began, in a few well-chosen phrases that carried an
undertone of faint irony, to introduce Ernest. Colonel Van Gilbert was of them made love to me as Ernest did. His arms were around me before I
knew. His lips were on mine before I could protest or resist. Before his "You are my Avis," he said, "and you are also some one else. You are two
women, and therefore you are my harem. At any rate, we are safe now. "Not in three guesses," father laughed.

"One guess will do," Ernest retorted. "And it won't be a guess. It will
be a deduction. You were reprimanded for your private life." waited upon by maids.  This was a serious masquerade on the
     part of Avis Everhard. Life and death and the Cause were in
     the issue; therefore the picture must be accepted as a true was unspeakable horror. From the little I learned I knew that Ernest had
been keeping his promise of taking him through hell. But what scenes of "Ernest was right," he told me, as soon as he had returned home. "Ernest
is a very remarkable young man, and I'd rather see you his wife than the
wife of Rockefeller himself or the King of England." Never shall I forget the night when, after a hot discussion with half a
dozen labor leaders, Ernest turned to me and said quietly: "That settles
it. The Iron Heel has won. The end is in sight." And then, when the labor leaders had left, Ernest, with the calmness of
defeat, outlined to me the course of events to come. "My father was a good man," Ernest once said to me. "The soul of him was
good, and yet it was twisted, and maimed, and blunted by the savagery "We started with A B C, Mr. Calvin," Ernest said slyly. "I have now
given you the rest of the alphabet. It is very simple. That is the betray on seeing for the first time so noted a hero of the Revolution.
But Ernest's glance took me in and questioned impatiently past and
around the room. The next moment I was being introduced to him as Mary "There are other plans afoot," was the retort. "That is why the soldiers
are present."

"Our plans, I suppose," Ernest sneered. "Assassination or something
kindred." And this out of all remains: I made Ernest happy. I came into his stormy
life, not as a new perturbing force, but as one that made toward peace To complete the deception, an extra plate was laid, and when we sat down
to table one chair was not occupied. I could have cried with joy as I
noted Ernest's increasing uneasiness and impatience. Finally he could
stand it no longer. of my intended marriage with Ernest. It was not till some time afterward
that Ernest pointed out to me clearly that this general attitude of
my class was something more than spontaneous, that behind it were the
And that was the last I saw of Garthwaite for three years. Instead of
coming back, he was carried away to a hospital with a bullet through his
lungs and another through the fleshy part of his neck. It was shortly after this day that Ernest told me, as a good story, the
offer he had received from the government, namely, an appointment as But in remembering the old life I have run ahead of my story into the
new life. The wholesale jail delivery did not occur until well along worked only thirty years. She began young, it is true; but my man died.
The boiler exploded down at the works. And what were we to do? She was There is a saying that truth will out. I have come to doubt that saying.
Nineteen years have elapsed, and despite our untiring efforts, we have "The very thing," Mr. Asmunsen replied. "Only a short time ago I had my
books gone through for the past ten years. I discovered that for I followed the Bishop into a small room, ten by twelve, in a rear
tenement. And there we found a little old German woman--sixty-four years "No story is too long for the scientist," Ernest said sweetly. "That is
why the scientist gets to places. That is why he got to America." I spread before me a wrinkled letter, written to me by Ernest twenty
years ago, and from it I copy the following: The eighteen months that followed was perhaps the happiest of my life
with Ernest. During that time we were never apart. Later, when we went stretched out his overall-covered legs, and actually sighed a
comfortable sigh. We were the first of his old friends he had met since
his disappearance, he told us; and during the intervening weeks he must "Yet you have not learned their lesson. Here are you, a century and a
half later, trying to break machines. By your own confession the trust I shall try to write simply and to tell here how Ernest Everhard entered
my life--how I first met him, how he grew until I became a part of him, More I heard of him afterward. In his own way he had told the truth
when he said all were dead. But one lived, Timothy, and him his father CHAPTER XIV

THE BEGINNING OF THE END And so it is, in this anxious time of waiting, that I shall write of
my husband. There is much light that I alone of all persons living can * This book, "Economics and Education," was published in
     that year. Three copies of it are extant; two at Ardis, and veiled to her, are clear to us. She lacked perspective. She was too
close to the events she writes about. Nay, she was merged in the events
she has described. eighteen precious months, and we were not lonely, for there was always
a coming and going of leaders and comrades--strange voices from the
under-world of intrigue and revolution, bringing stranger tales of "They have already walked upon my face," father explained. "There was no
stock. The box was empty. You and Ernest will have to get married pretty
quickly."
And just now the word has gone forth that new levies are being imposed
for the building of Asgard, the projected wonder-city that will far * Ardis was completed in 1942 A.D., Asgard was not completed
     until 1984 A.D.  It was fifty-two years in the building, great museum at Asgard there is a book entitled "Essays in
     Application," written by Henry van Dyke.  The book was
     published in 1905 of the Christian Era. From what we can one at Asgard.  It dealt, in elaborate detail, with one
     factor in the persistence of the established, namely, the
     capitalistic bias of the universities and common schools. sprang up in the mountains of the Great West and spread over
     the Pacific Coast from Panama to Alaska.  The Valkyries were
     women.  They were the most terrible of all.  No woman was "I never dreamed of such a thing," Mr. Asmunsen said. "And yet it does
seem clear as print." "So be it, civil war," was Mr. Asmunsen's answer, with the cries of all
the men at the table behind him. "We have not forgotten the deeds of our "The very thing," Mr. Asmunsen replied. "Only a short time ago I had my
books gone through for the past ten years. I discovered that for heaven. But in the meantime God did not come, and they starved to death
in great numbers. In their desperation they ravaged the farms for food,
and the consequent tumult and anarchy in the country districts but * We cannot but marvel at Everhard's foresight.  Before ever
     the thought of wonder cities like Ardis and Asgard entered in all God's world. He was a helot in the great hunt of helots that the
masters were making. All he could hope for, all he sought, was some hole "This, then, is our answer. We have no words to waste on you. When you
reach out your vaunted strong hands for our palaces and purpled ease, I held that space was an apparition of God, and that soul was a
projection of the character of God; and when he called me his sweet As if in answer, a great screaming roar went up, dim with distance,
punctuated with detonation after detonation.

"It's the fortresses," Hartman said. "God pity those three regiments!" "We will rise in our strength!" Mr. Asmunsen cried, and many voices
backed his decision.

"That will be civil war," Ernest warned them. "Not at all. You are an old man. You have done your work in the world,
and a great work. Leave the present battle to youth and strength. We Mr. Asmunsen nodded.

"What you want is to make profits yourself?"

Again Mr. Asmunsen nodded.

"Out of others?" The difference between you and the Eskimo who makes a fur-clad
blubber-eating god is merely a difference of several thousand years of
ascertained facts. That is all." "Not I," he laughed back. "I may be executed, or assassinated, but I
shall never be crucified. I am planted too solidly and stolidly upon the
earth." women was The Widows of War.  A companion organization to
     the Valkyries was the Berserkers.  These men placed no value
     whatever upon their own lives, and it was they who totally
Mercenaries. and known as the Mercenaries. This institution took the
     place of the militia, which had proved impracticable under
     the new regime.  Outside the regular secret service of the old regular army and was now a million strong, to say nothing of the
colonial forces. The Mercenaries constituted a race apart. They dwelt in
cities of their own which were practically self-governed, and they Another great institution that had taken form and was working smoothly
was the Mercenaries. This body of soldiers had been evolved out of the Then, what he expected, began. The Mercenaries were killing without
quarter. At first, the surge back upon us was crushing, but as the * Originally, they were private detectives; but they quickly
     became hired fighting men of the capitalists, and ultimately
     developed into the Mercenaries of the Oligarchy. * The Mercenaries, in the last days of the Iron Heel, played
     an important role.  They constituted the balance of power in patrols of the Mercenaries slipped swiftly past. are as much mercenaries (sincere mercenaries, I grant) as were the men
of the Swiss Guard.* Be true to your salt and your hire; guard, with been broken in the early strikes. Despite their changed and favorable
conditions, their hatred for the master class had not died. This spirit
had infected the Mercenaries, of which three regiments in particular a fort, and the Mercenaries fought their way upward floor by
     floor.  It was deadly fighting.  Quarter was neither given
     nor taken, and in the fighting the revolutionists had the developing. The labor castes, the Mercenaries, and the great hordes
of secret agents and police of various sorts were all pledged to the Mercenaries. From without, as through thick walls, came the muffled roar
of bursting bombs. I was in some building that was locked in combat with
some other building. But the Mercenaries were not content with what they had done. They
invaded the entrance, killing the wounded and searching out the unhurt comrades were in one building, that Mercenaries were in the other, and
that they were fighting across the street. But we could not tell
which was which--which building contained our comrades and which the and Mercenaries would slay anyway. It would merely mean that various
dangers to us were harmlessly destroying one another. In the meantime we
would be doing our own work, largely unhampered, and gaining control of by the Mercenaries; but it is definitely settled now that
     the ghetto was fired by the Mercenaries under orders from
     their chiefs. Iron Heel, there was further established a secret service of
     the Mercenaries, this latter forming a connecting link
     between the police and the military. considered dead because he had taken service with the Iron Heel in the
Mercenaries.* A member of the 'Frisco Reds pledged himself to twelve broken, and that their members with their families had been driven
from their own city and on into the labor-ghettos. And the California
Mercenaries were in reality the most faithful of all to their salt!
the Oligarchy, and a costly one. But the Oligarchy was too confident in
those days. It was drunk with success, and little did it dream that Oligarchy was there--a fact established in blood, a stupendous and awful
reality. Nor even then, as the Everhard Manuscript well shows, was any * The earliest known use of that name to designate the
     Oligarchy.

There was a long pause, and every man at the table meditated in ways
unwonted and profound. Oligarchy. In the main, and ignoring the loss of liberty, they were
better off than they had been. On the other hand, the great helpless their decree.  Comrade after comrade, men and women, failed
     in their attempts, and were cruelly executed by the
     Oligarchy.  It was the case of General Lampton that revived of permanence. The oligarchs had succeeded in devising a governmental
machine, as intricate as it was vast, that worked--and this despite all
our efforts to clog and hamper. counter-palace revolutions of the oligarchs, and sometimes the one, and
sometimes the other, will be in power. And through it all the inevitable The rise of the Oligarchy will always remain a cause of secret wonder
to the historian and the philosopher. Other great historical events
have their place in social evolution. They were inevitable. Their coming the Oligarchy. possession of the captured offices. The incumbents refused to retire,
and the courts were in the hands of the Oligarchy. But this is too far regime, to the exclusion of all ideas that were inimical and
     subversive.  The book created a furor, and was promptly
     suppressed by the Oligarchy. There will be great achievements in science, and especially in art. When
the oligarchs have completely mastered the people, they will have time
to spare for other things. They will become worshippers of beauty. the idea of the Oligarchy into the minds of the great
     capitalists.  This belief persists throughout the literature
     of the three centuries of the Iron Heel, and even in the And during that week of silence the Oligarchy was taught its lesson. And
well it learned the lesson. The general strike was a warning. It should
never occur again. The Oligarchy would see to that. the disguise of a member of the Oligarchy. While the arch-oligarchs were
no more than a handful, there were myriads of lesser ones of the type, in the spring of 1912. This is, without discussion, the earliest-known
occasion on which the Oligarchy was so designated. whole country being hand in hand in revolt, they were all alone, and the
total strength of the Oligarchy could have been directed against them
if necessary. As it was, hour after hour, day after day, in endless oligarchs did not dare permit the telling of the whole truth. In
reality, the wages had been raised much higher, and the privileges were
correspondingly greater. All this was secret, but secrets will out. learning thoroughly the strength of the Oligarchy with which we were
at war. Out of the flux of transition the new institutions were
forming more definitely and taking on the appearance and attributes * And since that day of prophecy, have passed away the three
     centuries of the Iron Heel and the four centuries of the
verge of the revolt that will sweep all oligarchies away. Yet I have
here given Ernest's prophecy because it was his prophecy. In spite of "All right," Ernest said. "You are travelling the same path that Bishop
Morehouse is, and toward a similar smash-up. You'll both be proletarians
before you're done with it." And then, when the labor leaders had left, Ernest, with the calmness of
defeat, outlined to me the course of events to come. "Then," Ernest answered, "you, and labor, and all of us, will be crushed
under the iron heel of a despotism as relentless and terrible as any "And when they take me out of Congress," Ernest replied coldly, "and put
me against a wall, and blow my brains out--what then?"

"Then we'll rise in our might," a dozen voices answered at once. Ernest had conjured a vision and made them see it. They were seeing it
then, as they sat there, and they were frightened by it. armed soldiers drawn up in lines in the corridors, and by the officers
grouped in the entrances to the House itself. The Oligarchy was about
to strike. Ernest was speaking. He was describing the sufferings of Of course Ernest was elected to Congress in the great socialist
landslide that took place in the fall of 1912. One great factor that It was at the end of the discussion that Mr. Wickson spoke. He was the
only one that was cool, and Ernest treated him with a respect he had not
accorded the others. "But the country did permit it," Ernest replied. "And as for my
dreaming--" he put his hand in his pocket and drew out a small
pamphlet--"tell me if this looks like dream-stuff." "I'll wager the Oligarchy finds justification," Ernest said, when its
treachery to the German Emperor became known. "As usual, the Oligarchy
will believe it has done right." "Ghent has taught the oligarchs how to do it," Ernest said. "I'll wager
they've made a text-book out of his 'Benevolent Feudalism.'"* "And there I agree with you," was Ernest's rejoinder. "He ought not to
be selfish, but he will continue to be selfish as long as he lives in a
social system that is based on pig-ethics." Never shall I forget the night when, after a hot discussion with half a
dozen labor leaders, Ernest turned to me and said quietly: "That settles
it. The Iron Heel has won. The end is in sight." "The Church does not protest against it," Ernest replied. "And in so far
as the Church does not protest, it condones, for remember the Church is
supported by the capitalist class." The others betrayed a well-mannered interest, and urged Ernest for
a statement of his views. Their attitude toward him was so broadly brave comrades who masqueraded in the livery of the Iron Heel. Though
Ernest lay in prison three thousand miles away, on the Pacific Coast, I "There are other plans afoot," was the retort. "That is why the soldiers
are present."

"Our plans, I suppose," Ernest sneered. "Assassination or something
kindred." laughing at Ernest. And then I discovered that it was not laughter,
but hysteria. She was appalled by what she had done in bringing this
firebrand before her blessed Philomath Club. Ernest had largely planned the First Revolt, and the date set had been
somewhere early in the spring of 1918. In the fall of 1917 we were not
The reorganization of these countries took the form of revolution.
It was a time of confusion and violence. Everywhere institutions and
governments were crashing. Everywhere, with the exception of two or The Revolution took on largely the character of religion. We worshipped
at the shrine of the Revolution, which was the shrine of liberty. It was revolution. And we of to-day can but applaud that judgment. Following
upon Capitalism, it was held, even by such intellectual and antagonistic to us, were revolutionists. mines, and railroads, and factories, and banks, and stores. That is
the revolution. It is truly perilous. There will be more shooting, I am "And now," he said, "let me tell you about that revolution." It would have meant terrible times and great loss of life, but no
revolutionist hesitates at such things. Why, we even depended much, in but a revolutionist I became, and I was plunged into a whirl of
happenings that would have been inconceivable three short months before. This was a surprise to many of the revolutionists. They had not
conceived it possible. Nevertheless the work of the country went on. the revolutionists. All halting utterance vanished. His voice grew
strong and confident, and it glowed as he glowed, and as the thoughts
glowed that poured out from him. He said: comrades was that the general Revolt was beginning, albeit with a
confusing miscarriage in many details. It was impossible for one
uninformed to escape the vague yet certain feeling that all the land was revolutionists in the United States. That is a fact. He has said that
it is their intention to take away from us our governments, our palaces, As a revolutionist myself, as one on the inside who knew the hopes and
fears and secret plans of the revolutionists, I am fitted to answer, as It did not take long to carry out this programme--only several weeks. We
of the Revolution caught vague rumors of the state of affairs, but had For that matter, the strength of the Revolution, during these
frightful twenty years, has resided in nothing else than the sense one could not but wonder how the Revolution had any meaning to him at
all. And yet love of freedom glowed sombrely and steadily in his
dim soul. In ways it was indeed good that he was not flighty and forces of the Revolution. The magnitude of the task may be understood
when it is taken into.* as it was in the ranks of the revolutionists.  Without
     warning, without trace, men and women, and even children,
     disappeared and were seen no more, their end shrouded in In short, a sudden, colossal, stunning blow was to be struck. Before the
paralyzed Oligarchy could recover itself, its end would have come. been the breakdown of the Second Revolt. Little did she realize that
the tortuous and distorted evolution of the next three centuries would
the Oligarchy, and a costly one. But the Oligarchy was too confident in
those days. It was drunk with success, and little did it dream that the Oligarchy. * The earliest known use of that name to designate the
     Oligarchy.

There was a long pause, and every man at the table meditated in ways
unwonted and profound. Oligarchy. In the main, and ignoring the loss of liberty, they were
better off than they had been. On the other hand, the great helpless "The Oligarchy is about to tread upon our faces--yours and mine. Wickson
as much as told me so. He was very kind--for an oligarch. He offered to Oligarchy was there--a fact established in blood, a stupendous and awful
reality. Nor even then, as the Everhard Manuscript well shows, was any oligarchy, if you will; it is the nearest I dare approximate it. What
its nature may be I refuse to imagine.* But what I wanted to say was in the spring of 1912. This is, without discussion, the earliest-known
occasion on which the Oligarchy was so designated. The rise of the Oligarchy will always remain a cause of secret wonder
to the historian and the philosopher. Other great historical events
have their place in social evolution. They were inevitable. Their coming the disguise of a member of the Oligarchy. While the arch-oligarchs were
no more than a handful, there were myriads of lesser ones of the type, regime, to the exclusion of all ideas that were inimical and
     subversive.  The book created a furor, and was promptly
     suppressed by the Oligarchy. Too late did the socialist movement of the early twentieth century
divine the coming of the Oligarchy. Even as it was divined, the the idea of the Oligarchy into the minds of the great
     capitalists.  This belief persists throughout the literature
     of the three centuries of the Iron Heel, and even in the their decree.  Comrade after comrade, men and women, failed
     in their attempts, and were cruelly executed by the
     Oligarchy.  It was the case of General Lampton that revived Thus, throughout the organization of the Oligarchy, our own
organization, weblike and spidery, was insinuating itself. And so I And during that week of silence the Oligarchy was taught its lesson. And
well it learned the lesson. The general strike was a warning. It should
never occur again. The Oligarchy would see to that. could not get them seriously to fear the coming of the Oligarchy. They
were stirred by him, but they were too sure of their own strength. There
was no room in their theoretical social evolution for an oligarchy, * In addition to the labor castes, there arose another
     caste, the military.  A standing army of professional
     soldiers was created, officered by members of the Oligarchy armed soldiers drawn up in lines in the corridors, and by the officers
grouped in the entrances to the House itself. The Oligarchy was about
to strike. Ernest was speaking. He was describing the sufferings of the creatures of the Oligarchy. Comrade Biedenbach was absent-minded,
forgetful. He was shot by one of our lookouts at the cave-refuge at
Mercenaries. and known as the Mercenaries. This institution took the
     place of the militia, which had proved impracticable under
     the new regime.  Outside the regular secret service of the Another great institution that had taken form and was working smoothly
was the Mercenaries. This body of soldiers had been evolved out of the * Originally, they were private detectives; but they quickly
     became hired fighting men of the capitalists, and ultimately
     developed into the Mercenaries of the Oligarchy. Then, what he expected, began. The Mercenaries were killing without
quarter. At first, the surge back upon us was crushing, but as the are as much mercenaries (sincere mercenaries, I grant) as were the men
of the Swiss Guard.* Be true to your salt and your hire; guard, with Mercenaries. From without, as through thick walls, came the muffled roar
of bursting bombs. I was in some building that was locked in combat with
some other building. comrades were in one building, that Mercenaries were in the other, and
that they were fighting across the street. But we could not tell
which was which--which building contained our comrades and which the and Mercenaries would slay anyway. It would merely mean that various
dangers to us were harmlessly destroying one another. In the meantime we
would be doing our own work, largely unhampered, and gaining control of old regular army and was now a million strong, to say nothing of the
colonial forces. The Mercenaries constituted a race apart. They dwelt in
cities of their own which were practically self-governed, and they developing. The labor castes, the Mercenaries, and the great hordes
of secret agents and police of various sorts were all pledged to the by the Mercenaries; but it is definitely settled now that
     the ghetto was fired by the Mercenaries under orders from
     their chiefs. But the Mercenaries were not content with what they had done. They
invaded the entrance, killing the wounded and searching out the unhurt a fort, and the Mercenaries fought their way upward floor by
     floor.  It was deadly fighting.  Quarter was neither given
     nor taken, and in the fighting the revolutionists had the * The Mercenaries, in the last days of the Iron Heel, played
     an important role.  They constituted the balance of power in been broken in the early strikes. Despite their changed and favorable
conditions, their hatred for the master class had not died. This spirit
had infected the Mercenaries, of which three regiments in particular patrols of the Mercenaries slipped swiftly past. broken, and that their members with their families had been driven
from their own city and on into the labor-ghettos. And the California
Mercenaries were in reality the most faithful of all to their salt! But the Mercenaries found it no easy task to cope with the people of the
abyss and at the same time fight with the comrades. Chicago was true to "There are other plans afoot," was the retort. "That is why the soldiers
are present."

"Our plans, I suppose," Ernest sneered. "Assassination or something
kindred."
waited upon by maids.  This was a serious masquerade on the
     part of Avis Everhard. Life and death and the Cause were in
     the issue; therefore the picture must be accepted as a true * John Cunningham, Avis Everhard's father, was a professor
     at the State University at Berkeley, California.  His chosen * Before Avis Everhard was born, John Stuart Mill, in his
     essay, ON LIBERTY, wrote: "Wherever there is an ascendant Wake Robin Lodge that Avis Everhard later lived for short
     periods, when, disguised as an agent-provocateur of the Iron
     Heel, she was enabled to play with impunity her part among Everhard and whispered secrets in his ear that none knew but he and Avis
Everhard, that he accepted me as his really, truly wife. It is apparent that Avis Everhard completed the Manuscript during the
last days of preparation for the Second Revolt; hence the fact that * Avis Everhard would have had to live for many generations
     ere she could have seen the clearing up of this particular
     mystery.  A little less than a hundred years ago, and a * Avis Everhard took for granted that her narrative would be
     read in her own day, and so omits to mention the outcome of
     the trial for high treason.  Many other similar his native country in the fabled days of gold.  The wooded
     knolls are the same knolls referred to by Avis Everhard. Of Avis Everhard there is no further record. Undoubtedly she was
executed by the Mercenaries; and, as is well known, no record of such was after the dinner that father told me what little he knew about him.
He had been born in the working class, though he was a descendant of
the old line of Everhards that for over two hundred years had lived * This is not braggadocio on the part of Avis Everhard.  The
     flower of the artistic and intellectual world were When the time was ripe, the spies were thrown off my track. An hour
later Avis Everhard was no more. At that time one Felice Van Verdighan, Nevertheless, as a personal document, the Everhard Manuscript is of
inestimable value. But here again enter error of perspective, and * With all respect to Avis Everhard, it must be pointed out
     that Everhard was but one of many able leaders who planned vitiation due to the bias of love. Yet we smile, indeed, and forgive
Avis Everhard for the heroic lines upon which she modelled her husband. * This is the end of the Everhard Manuscript.  It breaks off
     abruptly in the middle of a sentence.  She must have world-drama, and for the time being their mental processes are our
mental processes. Not alone do we understand Avis Everhard's love for errors of fact, but errors of interpretation. Looking back across the
seven centuries that have lapsed since Avis Everhard completed her
manuscript, events, and the bearings of events, that were confused and Everhards made their refuge.  Since the finding of the
     Manuscript excavations have been made, and the house, the
     two cave rooms, and all the accumulated rubbish of long
The trouble was precipitated by the Iron Heel. It was cleverly done. The
whole population, including the favored labor castes, was given a course of the Iron Heel, for the agents-provocateurs had done their work too
well. But everything was grist to the Iron Heel. It had prepared for the Also, the farms and warehouses were the property of the Iron Heel.
Armies of troops were put into the field, and the fanatics were herded This the Iron Heel foresaw and laid its schemes accordingly. distributed among the slum classes further to inflame their minds. And
then, when all was ready, appeared upon the scene the soldiers of the
United States, who were, in reality, the soldiers of the Iron Heel. And through it all moved the Iron Heel, impassive and deliberate,
shaking up the whole fabric of the social structure in its search for "It's no use," he said. "We are beaten. The Iron Heel is here. I had
hoped for a peaceable victory at the ballot-box. I was wrong. Wickson held their peace and perfected their secret organization. In vain the
Grangers pleaded with us. We rightly contended that any revolt on our
part was virtually suicide for the whole Revolution. The Iron Heel, at were taken by the creatures of the Iron Heel. The socialists were in a
pitiful minority, and they knew that their end was near. Congress and
the Senate were empty pretences, farces. Public questions were gravely Iron Heel helped Mexico and Cuba to put down revolt. The result was that
the Iron Heel was firmly established in the New World. It had welded
into one compact political mass the whole of North America from the emissaries of the Iron Heel disguised themselves as artisans, farmers,
and farm laborers. In Sacramento, the capital of California, the
Grangers had succeeded in maintaining order. Thousands of secret agents THE IRON HEEL



CHAPTER I

MY EAGLE entire organization of the Iron Heel with our agents, while our own
organization was permeated with the agents of the Iron Heel. It was
warfare dark and devious, replete with intrigue and conspiracy, plot a source of grief. The Iron Heel learned its lesson. We showed it our
power in the general strike. It has taken steps to prevent another
general strike." But this was not to the fancy of the Iron Heel. In its own way it was
preparing to set these millions to work, but the way was not our way, THE IRON HEEL




FOREWORD over on to the political field. Well, the Iron Heel has defeated
the labor unions on the industrial field and driven them over to the
political field; and instead of this being joyful for us, it will be On the other hand, there is evidence to show that the Iron Heel was
responsible for the act. Of course, we cannot prove this. Our conclusion and injustice in which the Iron Heel was conceived. All is granted. The
point is that the strength of the Oligarchy today lies in its satisfied
conception of its own righteousness.* executions was kept by the Iron Heel. But little did she realize, even
then, as she hid the Manuscript and prepared to flee, how terrible had
ANTHONY MEREDITH

Ardis,

November 27, 419 B.O.M. written by George Milford and published in December, 1912. This George
Milford was an obscure agitator about whom nothing is known, save the
one additional bit of information gained from the Manuscript, which It is apparent that Avis Everhard completed the Manuscript during the
last days of preparation for the Second Revolt; hence the fact that And so it is, in this anxious time of waiting, that I shall write of
my husband. There is much light that I alone of all persons living can ages, the Brotherhood of Man. Instead of which, appalling alike to
us who look back and to those that lived at the time, capitalism, veiled to her, are clear to us. She lacked perspective. She was too
close to the events she writes about. Nay, she was merged in the events
she has described. And that was the last I saw of Garthwaite for three years. Instead of
coming back, he was carried away to a hospital with a bullet through his
lungs and another through the fleshy part of his neck. Mendenhall.  By his comrades he was called "The Flame."  He
     was undoubtedly a great genius; yet, beyond weird and
     haunting fragments of his verse, quoted in the writings of received warning of the coming of the Mercenaries, for she
     had time safely to hide the Manuscript before she fled or
     was captured.  It is to be regretted that she did not live and stung again. And he was merciless. He took no quarter,* and gave
none. I can never forget the flaying he gave them at the end: "The history of the eighteenth century is written," Ernest prompted. "If
the Church was not dumb, it will be found not dumb in the books."

"I am afraid the Church was dumb," the Bishop confessed. love with Anna Roylston, and the other was that he had become one of
us. It was not until he became convinced of the hopelessness of his us, while two of his greatest achievements, "Anticipations"
     and "Mankind in the Making," have come down intact.  Before
     the oligarchs, and before Everhard, Wells speculated upon common act in those times. Pervaise was mastered by the fear
     of death, all of which is recounted at length in his
     confession.  To escape death he would have done anything, * Avis Everhard would have had to live for many generations
     ere she could have seen the clearing up of this particular
     mystery.  A little less than a hundred years ago, and a it was night. Garthwaite had not returned. I had lost my watch and had
no idea of the time. As I lay with my eyes closed, I heard the same Then, during this same period, there was the case of Moyer
     and Haywood, two strong, fearless leaders of labor.  One was "Your illustration is most unfortunate," Ernest replied. "You refer to a
very dark period in human history. In fact, we call that period the Dark considered dead because he had taken service with the Iron Heel in the
Mercenaries.* A member of the 'Frisco Reds pledged himself to twelve lifetime of serious research and thought. Such a word was
     the adjective UTOPIAN.  The mere utterance of it could damn
     any scheme, no matter how sanely conceived, of economic
regime, to the exclusion of all ideas that were inimical and
     subversive.  The book created a furor, and was promptly
     suppressed by the Oligarchy. the Oligarchy, and a costly one. But the Oligarchy was too confident in
those days. It was drunk with success, and little did it dream that And sure enough. The Oligarchy's public defence for the act was that it
had done it for the sake of the American people whose interests it was The Oligarchy wanted the war with Germany. And it wanted the war for a
dozen reasons. In the juggling of events such a war would cause, in the The rise of the Oligarchy will always remain a cause of secret wonder
to the historian and the philosopher. Other great historical events
have their place in social evolution. They were inevitable. Their coming the idea of the Oligarchy into the minds of the great
     capitalists.  This belief persists throughout the literature
     of the three centuries of the Iron Heel, and even in the Oligarchy was there--a fact established in blood, a stupendous and awful
reality. Nor even then, as the Everhard Manuscript well shows, was any And during that week of silence the Oligarchy was taught its lesson. And
well it learned the lesson. The general strike was a warning. It should
never occur again. The Oligarchy would see to that. Oligarchy. In the main, and ignoring the loss of liberty, they were
better off than they had been. On the other hand, the great helpless oligarchs did not dare permit the telling of the whole truth. In
reality, the wages had been raised much higher, and the privileges were
correspondingly greater. All this was secret, but secrets will out. could not get them seriously to fear the coming of the Oligarchy. They
were stirred by him, but they were too sure of their own strength. There
was no room in their theoretical social evolution for an oligarchy, "The Oligarchy is about to tread upon our faces--yours and mine. Wickson
as much as told me so. He was very kind--for an oligarch. He offered to virtually put the Oligarchy in possession of the world-market. Also,
such a war would create a large standing army that need never be
disbanded, while in the minds of the people would be substituted German socialists rose and drove the war-lord from his throne. It was
the very thing the Oligarchy had played for--the destruction of its one at Asgard.  It dealt, in elaborate detail, with one
     factor in the persistence of the established, namely, the
     capitalistic bias of the universities and common schools. their decree.  Comrade after comrade, men and women, failed
     in their attempts, and were cruelly executed by the
     Oligarchy.  It was the case of General Lampton that revived In short, a sudden, colossal, stunning blow was to be struck. Before the
paralyzed Oligarchy could recover itself, its end would have come. Too late did the socialist movement of the early twentieth century
divine the coming of the Oligarchy. Even as it was divined, the * The earliest known use of that name to designate the
     Oligarchy.

There was a long pause, and every man at the table meditated in ways
unwonted and profound. debated and passed upon according to the old forms, while in reality all
that was done was to give the stamp of constitutional procedure to the
mandates of the Oligarchy.
Mercenaries. * The Mercenaries, in the last days of the Iron Heel, played
     an important role.  They constituted the balance of power in Another great institution that had taken form and was working smoothly
was the Mercenaries. This body of soldiers had been evolved out of the Then, what he expected, began. The Mercenaries were killing without
quarter. At first, the surge back upon us was crushing, but as the Mercenaries. From without, as through thick walls, came the muffled roar
of bursting bombs. I was in some building that was locked in combat with
some other building. and Mercenaries would slay anyway. It would merely mean that various
dangers to us were harmlessly destroying one another. In the meantime we
would be doing our own work, largely unhampered, and gaining control of and known as the Mercenaries. This institution took the
     place of the militia, which had proved impracticable under
     the new regime.  Outside the regular secret service of the old regular army and was now a million strong, to say nothing of the
colonial forces. The Mercenaries constituted a race apart. They dwelt in
cities of their own which were practically self-governed, and they a fort, and the Mercenaries fought their way upward floor by
     floor.  It was deadly fighting.  Quarter was neither given
     nor taken, and in the fighting the revolutionists had the But the Mercenaries were not content with what they had done. They
invaded the entrance, killing the wounded and searching out the unhurt are as much mercenaries (sincere mercenaries, I grant) as were the men
of the Swiss Guard.* Be true to your salt and your hire; guard, with patrols of the Mercenaries slipped swiftly past. been broken in the early strikes. Despite their changed and favorable
conditions, their hatred for the master class had not died. This spirit
had infected the Mercenaries, of which three regiments in particular * Originally, they were private detectives; but they quickly
     became hired fighting men of the capitalists, and ultimately
     developed into the Mercenaries of the Oligarchy. comrades were in one building, that Mercenaries were in the other, and
that they were fighting across the street. But we could not tell
which was which--which building contained our comrades and which the developing. The labor castes, the Mercenaries, and the great hordes
of secret agents and police of various sorts were all pledged to the But the Mercenaries found it no easy task to cope with the people of the
abyss and at the same time fight with the comrades. Chicago was true to by the Mercenaries; but it is definitely settled now that
     the ghetto was fired by the Mercenaries under orders from
     their chiefs. thousands of our comrades. Their work was to blow up the magazines
and to destroy the delicate mechanism of all the war machinery. In the
cities of the Mercenaries and of the labor castes similar programmes of a failure, thanks to the splendid work of the comrades. Instead of the
great host the Mercenaries had hoped to gather together, they succeeded
The reorganization of these countries took the form of revolution.
It was a time of confusion and violence. Everywhere institutions and
governments were crashing. Everywhere, with the exception of two or For that matter, the strength of the Revolution, during these
frightful twenty years, has resided in nothing else than the sense The Revolution took on largely the character of religion. We worshipped
at the shrine of the Revolution, which was the shrine of liberty. It was "Your illustration is most unfortunate," Ernest replied. "You refer to a
very dark period in human history. In fact, we call that period the Dark * The annals of this short-lived era of despair make bloody
     reading.  Revenge was the ruling motive, and the members of revolution. And we of to-day can but applaud that judgment. Following
upon Capitalism, it was held, even by such intellectual and antagonistic "And now," he said, "let me tell you about that revolution." Ernest called it the dinner of the Machine Breakers. In point of fact,
it was merely a dinner for business men--small business men, of
course. I doubt if one of them was interested in any business the total betray on seeing for the first time so noted a hero of the Revolution.
But Ernest's glance took me in and questioned impatiently past and
around the room. The next moment I was being introduced to him as Mary mines, and railroads, and factories, and banks, and stores. That is
the revolution. It is truly perilous. There will be more shooting, I am forces of the Revolution. The magnitude of the task may be understood
when it is taken into.* one could not but wonder how the Revolution had any meaning to him at
all. And yet love of freedom glowed sombrely and steadily in his
dim soul. In ways it was indeed good that he was not flighty and figures of the Revolution.  When she was an old woman of
     sixty-nine she shot "Bloody" Halcliffe down in the midst of Never shall I forget the night when, after a hot discussion with half a
dozen labor leaders, Ernest turned to me and said quietly: "That settles
it. The Iron Heel has won. The end is in sight." Whether it was my love for Ernest, or the clear sight he had given me of
the society in which I lived, that made me a revolutionist, I know not; been the breakdown of the Second Revolt. Little did she realize that
the tortuous and distorted evolution of the next three centuries would revolutionists.  With the exception of a few of the
     musicians and singers, and of a few of the oligarchs, all
     the great creators of the period whose names have come down It would have meant terrible times and great loss of life, but no
revolutionist hesitates at such things. Why, we even depended much, in Ernest began by describing the army of revolution, and as he gave the
figures of its strength (the votes cast in the various countries), the "And there, a century and a half ago, originated the modern
proletariat," Ernest continued. "And the Church ignored it. While a
by the tragedy of a sane, normal, saintly man being crushed by the
brutal will of society. For the Bishop was sane, and pure, and noble. As "May I bring you to hear him? Of course, he is foredoomed to futility.
It will break your heart--it will break his; but for you it will be an of strength. You are beginning to divine your own end. You feel
yourself and your branch stores a pawn in the game. You see the powerful
interests rising and growing more powerful day by day; you feel their and the sweat rolled down his nose from his forehead. One hand was
clutched tightly against his chest by the other hand, and blood
dripped down upon the floor as he walked. He wore the uniform of the "Something terrible is going to happen in Chicago," she said. "There's
that fake* train in front of us. That and the troop-trains have made us
late."

     * False. In the first place, his clothes did not fit him. He wore a ready-made
suit of dark cloth that was ill adjusted to his body. In fact, no And so it is, in this anxious time of waiting, that I shall write of
my husband. There is much light that I alone of all persons living can "You cannot escape us. It is true that you have read history aright. It
is true that labor has from the beginning of history been in the dirt. And in that moment I knew that I loved him, and that I was melting
with desire to comfort him. I thought of his life. A sordid, harsh, and "Nothing much," he began slowly, "except that the gown you wear is
stained with blood. The food you eat is a bloody stew. The blood of "Let me prophesy. To-morrow's papers will merely mention that the Bishop
is in poor health, that he has been working too hard, and that he broke setting. It will never rise again. Nor is it in your power even to make
it stand still. You are perishing, and you are doomed to perish utterly
from the face of society. "They have already walked upon my face," father explained. "There was no
stock. The box was empty. You and Ernest will have to get married pretty
quickly." "The very thing!" father cried. "How did you guess?"

"I knew it was coming. I warned you before about it." He saw clearly the futility of the Bishop's great soul, as coming events
were soon to show as clearly to me. CHAPTER XIV

THE BEGINNING OF THE END Ernest had conjured a vision and made them see it. They were seeing it
then, as they sat there, and they were frightened by it. ripening fast. Yet he possessed his soul with patience, and during this
time of his torment, when Hadly, who had been brought for the purpose
from Illinois, made him over into another man* he revolved great plans "It's no use," he said. "We are beaten. The Iron Heel is here. I had
hoped for a peaceable victory at the ballot-box. I was wrong. Wickson The trial was prompt and brief. The men were foredoomed. The wonder
was that Ernest was not executed. This was a blunder on the part of
us. It is true that we want to destroy the trusts in order that our
profits may remain to us. And why can we not do it? Why not? I say, why
not?" has a hundred millions in the steel trust, almost as much in
     a single western railway system, half as much in a second,
     and so on and on and on until the mind wearies of the and trusts. Their creed was, "Bust the Trusts." All oppression
originated in the trusts, and one and all told the same tale of woe. trusts. The chief obstacle to your Grange propaganda is the trusts.
Behind every obstacle you encounter, every blow that smites you, every Everhard has flatly stated it. It is true that we smaller capitalists
are after profits, and that the trusts are taking our profits away from "Very true," Ernest answered. "And the trusts themselves destroyed
competition. That, by your own word, is why you are no longer in the
dairy business." elevators, and steamship lines. And, furthermore, the trusts control
the markets. In all this the farmers are without power. As regards their defeat that you receive, is the hand of the trusts. Is this not so? Tell
me." the entire anthracite and bituminous coal fields. Doesn't the Standard
Oil Trust* own a score of the ocean lines? And does it not also control And that was really the situation. The seven great trusts, working
together, had pooled their enormous surpluses and made a farm trust. Mr. Calvin here launched out into a political speech in exposition of
his views. He was warmly followed by a number of the others, and the cry
of all was to destroy the trusts. Plutocracy. We both mean the same thing, the large capitalists or the
trusts. Let us see where the power lies today. And in order to do so, perfect trust, namely that known as Standard Oil.  We cannot
     forbear giving the following remarkable page from the
     history of the times, to show how the need for reinvestment No one answered for a long time. Then Mr. Kowalt spoke.

"What are we to do, then?" he demanded. "To destroy the trusts is the
only way we can see to escape their domination." manufacturers, the trusts stood firm. Nay, the trusts did more than
stand firm. They were active. They sowed wind, and wind, and ever more them are thralls by virtue of the fact that the trusts already own or
control (which is the same thing only better)--own and control all
the means of marketing the crops, such as cold storage, railroads, mailed hands descending upon your profits and taking a pinch here and
a pinch there--the railroad trust, the oil trust, the steel trust, the "And now, while we are on the trusts," Ernest went on, "let us settle
a few things. I shall make certain statements, and if you disagree copper, to say nothing of running a smelter trust as a little side
enterprise? There are ten thousand cities in the United States to-night
lighted by the companies owned or controlled by Standard Oil, and in great trusts. And the absurd thing about it is that you have repeated
these phrases so often that you believe them. You want opportunity
to plunder your fellow-men in your own small way, but you hypnotize
And just now the word has gone forth that new levies are being imposed
for the building of Asgard, the projected wonder-city that will far * Ardis was completed in 1942 A.D., Asgard was not completed
     until 1984 A.D.  It was fifty-two years in the building, build as the Egyptians and the Babylonians never dreamed of building;
and when the oligarchs have passed away, their great roads and their
wonder cities will remain for the brotherhood of labor to tread upon and making, though he is not here to see. He devoted all the years of his
manhood to it, and for it he gave his life. It is his handiwork. He made
it.* operations. Great armies of them are toiling now at the building of
Ardis, housed in wretched barracks where family life cannot exist, and * We cannot but marvel at Everhard's foresight.  Before ever
     the thought of wonder cities like Ardis and Asgard entered ration to millions of common laborers, for the enormous bulk of the
surplus will compel an equally enormous expenditure, and the oligarchs
will build for a thousand years--ay, for ten thousand years. They will great museum at Asgard there is a book entitled "Essays in
     Application," written by Henry van Dyke.  The book was
     published in 1905 of the Christian Era. From what we can "Thus will the surplus be constantly expended while labor does the work.
The building of these great works and cities will give a starvation Brotherhood of Man, and to-day we tread the roads and dwell
     in the cities that the oligarchs built.  It is true, we are
     even now building still more wonderful wonder cities, but them by their works. What have they done for mankind beyond the spinning
of airy fancies and the mistaking of their own shadows for gods? They declaimed about famine and pestilence as being scourges of God, while
the scientists were building granaries and draining cities. They
builded gods in their own shapes and out of their own desires, while The men toiled in the mines and fields--perforce they were no more than
slaves. As for the vital industries, everything prospered. The members The walls and towers and shafts of that fair city will arise to the
sound of singing, and into its beauty and wonder will be woven, not
sighs and groans, but music and laughter. one at Asgard.  It dealt, in elaborate detail, with one
     factor in the persistence of the established, namely, the
     capitalistic bias of the universities and common schools. oligarchs. In truth, many of our comrades toiled at making beautiful
those same palaces and wonder-cities.* books, and works of art cost as much more. The house is a mansion.
No, it is a palace, wherein there are many servants. I never knew what With iron hand and iron heel it mastered the surging millions, out
of confusion brought order, out of the very chaos wrought its own
foundation and structure. at twelve-hour shifts? They never see the blessed sunshine. They die
like flies. The dividends are paid out of their blood. And out of the
dividends magnificent churches are builded in New England, wherein your "The surpluses will have to be expended somehow," he answered; "and
trust the oligarchs to find a way. Magnificent roads will be built.
It is apparent that Avis Everhard completed the Manuscript during the
last days of preparation for the Second Revolt; hence the fact that But to return to the Manuscript. Especially valuable is it in
communicating to us the FEEL of those terrible times. Nowhere do we find Nevertheless, as a personal document, the Everhard Manuscript is of
inestimable value. But here again enter error of perspective, and We know to-day that he was not so colossal, and that he loomed among the
events of his times less largely than the Manuscript would lead us to
believe. * This is the end of the Everhard Manuscript.  It breaks off
     abruptly in the middle of a sentence.  She must have varying from thirty to forty-five years; while Arthur
     Simpson, referred to in the Manuscript as being ill of
     typhoid fever at the time of the explosion, received only received warning of the coming of the Mercenaries, for she
     had time safely to hide the Manuscript before she fled or
     was captured.  It is to be regretted that she did not live I spread before me a wrinkled letter, written to me by Ernest twenty
years ago, and from it I copy the following: Everhards made their refuge.  Since the finding of the
     Manuscript excavations have been made, and the house, the
     two cave rooms, and all the accumulated rubbish of long written by George Milford and published in December, 1912. This George
Milford was an obscure agitator about whom nothing is known, save the
one additional bit of information gained from the Manuscript, which "The very thing," Mr. Asmunsen replied. "Only a short time ago I had my
books gone through for the past ten years. I discovered that for This sympathy comes to us, however, as we peruse the Everhard
Manuscript. We enter into the minds of the actors in that long-ago It cannot be said that the Everhard Manuscript is an important
historical document. To the historian it bristles with errors--not executions was kept by the Iron Heel. But little did she realize, even
then, as she hid the Manuscript and prepared to flee, how terrible had ages, the Brotherhood of Man. Instead of which, appalling alike to
us who look back and to those that lived at the time, capitalism, errors of fact, but errors of interpretation. Looking back across the
seven centuries that have lapsed since Avis Everhard completed her
manuscript, events, and the bearings of events, that were confused and there is no mention of the disastrous outcome of the Second Revolt.
It is quite clear that she intended the Manuscript for immediate
publication, as soon as the Iron Heel was overthrown, so that her fled or was captured by the Mercenaries, she hid the Manuscript in the
hollow oak at Wake Robin Lodge. "The history of the eighteenth century is written," Ernest prompted. "If
the Church was not dumb, it will be found not dumb in the books."

"I am afraid the Church was dumb," the Bishop confessed. little more than six hundred years after the death, the
     confession of Pervaise was discovered in the secret archives
     of the Vatican.  It is perhaps well to tell a little
Who squeezed out the middle class by bankrupting small businesses? What is another term for monopoly trust? What was hidden, then found centuries later? Who is vindicated and respected as pioneers and martyrs? What is another term for Oligarchy? What year does the story begin? What year does the story end? Who conquered Asian and gained their own empire? What kind of "caste" does the Oligarchy use to maintain power? What did the introduction fortell would happen to Avis and Ernest in the end? What years does the story cover? What is Asgard? What are the mercinarys officially? How long does the Olgarchies hold power? What would Avis and Ernest be respected as after the fall of the oligarchy? What did the revolution usher in? What is the Oligarchy? Who was the mercenaries really under the employ of? Why did Avis Everhard live a priviledged childhood? How does the Iron Heel affect the farmers? What time period did Anthony Meredith live and write? How did the Oligarchy want Asgard to be viewed? What is the role of the Mercenaries? What is the era called after the Revolution? In the beginning of the story, what creates foreordained tragedy? Who is the largest monopoly trusts? Who builds the public works of Asgard? What years are covered in the Manuscript?
The Oligarchy Oligarchy
Robber barrons Robber barons
Everhard Manuscript Everhard manuscript
Avis and Earnest Avis and Ernest
Iron Heel "Iron Heel"
1912 2600 AD
1932 1932
Japan Japan
Labor labor caste
They would be executed they would fail and die
1912-1932 1912
A fictional wonder-city fictional wonder-filled city
The army of the US the army of the US
For three centuries 3 centuries
Pioneers and martyrs pioneers and martyrs
The brotherhood of man brotherhood of man 
The largest monopoly trusts large monopoly trusts
The oligarchy The Oligarchs
She was the duaghter of an accomplished scientist. she is the daughter of an accomplished scientist
Farmers were reduced to serfdom. reduces them to serfdom
From 2600 A.D. or 419 B.O.M around 2600 AD
With admiration and appreciation. to be admired and appreciated
To maintain and enforce power of the Iron Heel. They're a military caste
The Brotherhood of Man. brotherhood of man 
It is revealed that Ernest and Avis would fail. The struggles of Avis & Ernst
The Iron Heel. Oligarchy
The proletarians. the oligarchy
1912 through 1932 1912 - 1932