It is not unreasonable for us to ask for constantly, and to expect
to receive a single donation of a million dollars sometime during
the coming four years. Such donations have many times been given to
causes less holy than ours, and in emergencies not to be compared to
it in importance. We can in reason hope for several gifts of not less
than twenty-five thousand dollars each, and many of not less than one
thousand dollars, and thousands of lesser gifts proportionate to the
purses of the poor who will regard it not as a duty, but as a privilege
to thus co-operate with God. Such amounts have been subscribed to a
single college and to a single religious denomination within the memory
of the youngest reader. Can we not rationally expect that even more
will be given to the movement which is to multiply many times the
usefulness of all colleges and churches?
But do not trim your sails nor adapt your arguments to the rich, in
order to secure donations, but speak bravely and fearlessly in behalf
of justice and the rights of the people, and, if special selfish
interests are thereby alienated, unselfish interests will be drawn to
us.
Although generous help may be expected from those who have been
enriched by the very system that we seek to destroy, nevertheless it
is a fact that, as a class, the rich are satisfied with the system
of injustice that has given them their riches, and, as a class, will
oppose now, as they have opposed during all history, every reform or
change that promises improvement to the masses. Therefore the bulk of
the money to be raised for the people's cause must probably be given by
the people themselves according to their means.
We should for this reason not only call for donations and pass around
the hat at meetings when the people are enthusiastic, but, in forming
clubs in every township throughout our country, we should try to induce
each to appoint its most active and popular man as Treasurer, and
especially to instruct him to collect every week or month, a regular
subscription, HOWEVER SMALL, from every friend of our movement in his
community. In this way, we can establish a system similar to "Peter's
Pence," and the missionary contributions of the Protestant churches,
and raise a fund during the coming four years that will be a wonder to
ourselves and a menace to our enemies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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