“On the other hand, the labor castes, the members of the favored unions, will strive to make their organizations into close corporations.  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.  This will mean deterioration of the labor castes, and in the end they will become weaker and weaker.  At the same time, as an institution, they will become temporarily all-powerful.  They will be like the guards of the palace in old Rome, and there will be palace revolutions whereby the labor castes will seize the reins of power.  And there will be counter-palace revolutions of the oligarchs, and sometimes the one, and sometimes the other, will be in power.  And through it all the inevitable caste-weakening will go on, so that in the end the common people will come into their own.”

This foreshadowing of a slow social evolution was made when Ernest was first depressed by the defection of the great unions.  I never agreed with him in it, and I disagree now, as I write these lines, more heartily than ever; for even now, though Ernest is gone, we are on 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 his belief in it, he worked like a giant against it, and he, more than any man, has made possible the revolt that even now waits the signal to burst forth.*

* Everhard’s social foresight was remarkable.  As clearly as in the light of past events, he saw the defection of the favored unions, the rise and the slow decay of the labor castes, and the struggle between the decaying oligarchs and labor castes for control of the great governmental machine.

“But if the Oligarchy persists,” I asked him that evening, “what will become of the great surpluses that will fall to its share every year?”

“The surpluses will have to be expended somehow,” he answered; “and trust the oligarchs to find a way.  Magnificent roads will be built.  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.  They will become art-lovers.  And under their direction and generously rewarded, will toil the artists.  The result will be great art; for no longer, as up to yesterday, will the artists pander to the bourgeois taste of the middle class.  It will be great art, I tell you, and wonder cities will arise that will make tawdry and cheap the cities of old time.  And in these cities will the oligarchs dwell and worship beauty.*