Another great institution that had taken form and was working smoothly was the Mercenaries.  This body of soldiers had been evolved out 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 were granted many privileges.  By them a large portion of the perplexing surplus was consumed.  They were losing all touch and sympathy with the rest of the people, and, in fact, were developing their own class morality and consciousness.  And yet we had thousands of our agents among them.*

* The Mercenaries, in the last days of the Iron Heel, played an important role.  They constituted the balance of power in 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 oligarchs themselves were going through a remarkable and, it must be confessed, unexpected development.  As a class, they disciplined themselves.  Every member had his work to do in the world, and this work he was compelled to do.  There were no more idle-rich young men.  Their strength was used to give united strength to the Oligarchy.  They served as leaders of troops and as lieutenants and captains of industry.  They found careers in applied science, and many of them became great engineers.  They went into the multitudinous divisions of the government, took service in the colonial possessions, and by tens of thousands went into the various secret services.  They were, I may say, apprenticed to education, to art, to the church, to science, to literature; and in those fields they served the important function of moulding the thought-processes of the nation in the direction of the perpetuity of the Oligarchy.

They were taught, and later they in turn taught, that what they were doing was right.  They assimilated the aristocratic idea from the moment 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 trainers, rulers of beasts.  From beneath their feet rose always the subterranean rumbles of revolt.  Violent death ever stalked in their midst; bomb and knife and bullet were looked upon as so many fangs of the roaring abysmal beast they must dominate if humanity were to persist.  They were the saviours of humanity, and they regarded themselves as heroic and sacrificing laborers for the highest good.