“Can the cry of tyrants and sycophants drown the wail of the innocent children and women who have been chained to the wildcat car of Modern Commercialism?

“In compiling the list of Transgressors, I have selected no man merely because he is possessed of great wealth.  There are many millionaires who have earned their fortunes by honest endeavor and in strict conformity with the laws of the land.  I have discriminated against those who have prostituted the laws of God and man; not a man whom I shall declare proscribed but he is known to all men as stained with the blood of innocents.

“‘The voice of the people is the voice of God.’  This voice cries to us from four million mothers’ mouths for deliverance from tyrants who compel them to work for a living even in the hours of their pregnancy.  The child laborers of this land of freedom raise a piteous plea.

“Do you wait for an actual rain of hell-fire as a sign that God’s will is not being done?

“It is our duty to strike a blow at Plutocracy that shall destroy it for all time.  We will act as sovereigns of the land.  In us resides the supreme rights of mankind.  Our edict cannot be enforced by the courts, so we will act for ourselves.

“The names I read are not given in any fixed order; each man is equally guilty.”

Here Nevins takes a slip of paper from his pocket and begins to read: 

“By reason of his treasonable act in furnishing the Nation’s defenders poisonous food while they were engaged in actual war, and for continued vending of deleterious food to the citizens at large; for his conspicuous participation in the formation of the monopoly of the meat products of the country, for the purpose of extorting tribute from the masses, I name Tingwell Fang as one of the transgressors.  This man has a fortune of $200,000,000; more than the life earnings of 2,000 men engaged in ordinary pursuits for a period of thirty years each.

“Judge if God ordained that one man should be possessed of such fabulous wealth when His Son gave as our prayer, ’Give us this day our daily bread.’

“As the controller of the Wheat Trust, by which the grim hand of famine is laid on the nation, and a tax levied on our subsistence, I name David Leach as another of the transgressors.  He has collected $100,000,000, in sums of one and two cents from the millions of men, women and children of this country.  He stands between us and our daily bread.

“I need not portray the sufferings that are inflicted on the nation by the presence of the Coal Trust.  From the miners to the consumers the tale is one of ever-increasing awfulness.  Man to-day, who must live in the northern and temperate regions of our country, cannot endure the cold of winter without artificial heat.  He cannot go to the virgin forests, for the land is owned by private individuals; he cannot go to the mines, for they are the property of the coal barons.  He must purchase the coal that is needed to heat his home.