The Transgressors. Story of a Great Sin. A Political Novel of the Twentieth CenturyAdams, Francis A. (Francis Alexandre)
General
The Transgressors. Story of a Great Sin. A Political Novel of the Twentieth Century
Adams, Francis A. (Francis Alexandre)
Political fiction
"The centuries that have come and gone since Christianity was first
preached have seen the sword turned upon the humble, the meek, the
worthy. Now it is to be turned upon the craven few who have fattened at
the expense of the many.
"At the very hour when Melz sent Gorman Purdy to his doom, avenging
angels, disguised as men, were abroad in our land weeding out the seed
of iniquity.
"In San Diego, California, Senator Warwick was killed by the hand of a
man who, when he had rid the earth of the most avaricious man who ever
worked a mine, completed the chapter by taking his own life.
"Henceforth men will not slave in the mines of California or elsewhere
for the sole benefit of misers. The miner will enjoy the fruits of his
labor. He will make significant the words 'The laborer is worthy of his
hire.'
"In St. Louis at the same hour, the owner of the grain elevators, in
which is stored the crops of the great plains, there to be kept until
the needs of the people shall place an exorbitant price upon every
bushel, was smothered to death in the hold of one of his own ships. With
him died the martyr who had succeeded in bringing a just retribution
upon the head of an insatiate oppressor.
"Henceforth bread shall not be made a product of speculation. The hungry
mouths of women and children shall not go unfed that the stock broker
and the grain speculator may amass fortunes.
"The Cotton King of Massachusetts, who has kept men and women out of
employment, and in their stead has worked children in his mills, was
killed in his office as he refused the fifth appeal for an advance of
three cents a day in the pay of the six thousand half-grown children,
most of them girls, who tended his looms and spindles for pauper wages.
"The man who thus abolished for all time the further slaughter of
innocents, went to eternity with the dragon he had slain. The mill owner
went to expiate his sins; the martyr to receive his reward.
"And in New York, the city which I have just left, the ruler of the
Nation's money, the President of the Consolidated Banker's Exchange,
died in a pot of molten lead which he had been brought to hope would be
turned into gold under the touch of an alchemist. The lust of gold that
in life had been his only incentive, proved the means of his undoing.
"Bond syndicates will no longer be formed to corner the people's money,
that millions may be squeezed from the public treasury.
"My fellow-countrymen, this is indeed a great day.
"The full story cannot be told you at a single meeting.
"Know that you are once again free men, not in name only, but in
reality; that your children will never suffer the degradation through
which you have passed.
"The story of your deliverance you will soon know in its entirety.
To-night I can only give you a summary."
"Tell us all! Tell us everything!" thunder the astonished masses. They
forget Metz and Purdy in the presence of this greater news.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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