* * * * * I purpose now to deal briefly with that ghastly lie itself. In what way, Mr. Railroad Slave, is your interest identical with that of “Jim” Hill, your master? He owns the railway system that you workingmen built and now operate. He pulls every dollar of profit out of it for himself he can, and leaves you not one dollar more than he must. * * * * * If you don’t suit him, he discharges you, and you then have to pull up stakes and hunt another master. He gets the lion’s share, you get what’s left; and in the aggregate that is fixed by what is required to fill your dinner pail, cover you with overalls and maintain a habitation where you can raise more wage-slaves to take your place when you are worn out and go to the scrap heap. The “Jim” Hills live out of your labor—out of your ignorance—for if you were not densely stupid you would not be their dumb-driven cattle. Now they and their politicians and preachers and “labor leaders” tell you how bright and smart you are to flatter your ignorance, and keep you from opening your eyes to your slavish condition, and above all, to the wage-system, which lies at the bottom of your poverty and degradation. Your interests as wage-slaves are not only _not_ identical with, but are directly opposed to, the interests of the “Jim” Hills and the railroad corporations, and I challenge any of your “grand chiefs” to deny it in my presence on any public platform. You have got to get rid of the capitalist leeches that suck your hearts’ blood through the quill of “identity of interests.” They are in the capitalist class; you are in the working class. They gouge out profits; what’s left you get for wages. They perform no useful work; you deform your bodies with slavery. They are millionaires; you are paupers. They have everything; you do everything. They live in palaces; you in shanties. They have abundance of leisure and mountains of money; you have neither. Finally, they are few; _you are legions_! Poor, dumb giant, you could in a breath extinguish your pigmy exploiter, were you only conscious of your overmastering power! The workers made and operate all the railroads; the capitalists had and have nothing to do with either. They pocket the proceeds on a basis of watered stock and other “stock,” in the form of employes, and then issue fraudulent reports to show on what a small margin of profit they are actually doing business.