The Iron Heel Read online

  Produced by Donald Lainson

  THE IRON HEEL

  by Jack London

  "At first, this Earth, a stage so gloomed with woe You almost sicken at the shifting of the scenes. And yet be patient. Our Playwright may show In some fifth act what this Wild Drama means."

  CONTENTS

  FORWARD I. MY EAGLE II. CHALLENGES III. JOHNSON'S ARM IV. SLAVES OF THE MACHINE V. THE PHILOMATHS VI. ADUMBRATIONS VII. THE BISHOP'S VISION VIII. THE MACHINE BREAKERS IX. THE MATHEMATICS OF A DREAM X. THE VORTEX XI. THE GREAT ADVENTURE XII. THE BISHOP XIII. THE GENERAL STRIKE XIV. THE BEGINNING OF THE END XV. LAST DAYS XVI. THE END XVII. THE SCARLET LIVERY XVIII. IN THE SHADOW OF SONOMA XIX. TRANSFORMATION XX. THE LAST OLIGARCH XXI. THE ROARING ABYSMAL BEAST XXII. THE CHICAGO COMMUNE XXIII. THE PEOPLE OF THE ABYSS XXIV. NIGHTMARE XXV. THE TERRORISTS

  THE IRON HEEL

  FOREWORD

  It cannot be said that the Everhard Manuscript is an importanthistorical document. To the historian it bristles with errors--noterrors of fact, but errors of interpretation. Looking back across theseven centuries that have lapsed since Avis Everhard completed hermanuscript, events, and the bearings of events, that were confused andveiled to her, are clear to us. She lacked perspective. She was tooclose to the events she writes about. Nay, she was merged in the eventsshe has described.

  Nevertheless, as a personal document, the Everhard Manuscript is ofinestimable value. But here again enter error of perspective, andvitiation due to the bias of love. Yet we smile, indeed, and forgiveAvis Everhard for the heroic lines upon which she modelled her husband.We know to-day that he was not so colossal, and that he loomed among theevents of his times less largely than the Manuscript would lead us tobelieve.

  We know that Ernest Everhard was an exceptionally strong man, but not soexceptional as his wife thought him to be. He was, after all, but one ofa large number of heroes who, throughout the world, devoted their livesto the Revolution; though it must be conceded that he did unusualwork, especially in his elaboration and interpretation of working-classphilosophy. "Proletarian science" and "proletarian philosophy" were hisphrases for it, and therein he shows the provincialism of his mind--adefect, however, that was due to the times and that none in that daycould escape.

  But to return to the Manuscript. Especially valuable is it incommunicating to us the FEEL of those terrible times. Nowhere do we findmore vividly portrayed the psychology of the persons that lived inthat turbulent period embraced between the years 1912 and 1932--theirmistakes and ignorance, their doubts and fears and misapprehensions,their ethical delusions, their violent passions, their inconceivablesordidness and selfishness. These are the things that are so hard forus of this enlightened age to understand. History tells us that thesethings were, and biology and psychology tell us why they were; buthistory and biology and psychology do not make these things alive. Weaccept them as facts, but we are left without sympathetic comprehensionof them.

  This sympathy comes to us, however, as we peruse the EverhardManuscript. We enter into the minds of the actors in that long-agoworld-drama, and for the time being their mental processes are ourmental processes. Not alone do we understand Avis Everhard's love forher hero-husband, but we feel, as he felt, in those first days, thevague and terrible loom of the Oligarchy. The Iron Heel (well named) wefeel descending upon and crushing mankind.

  And in passing we note that that historic phrase, the Iron Heel,originated in Ernest Everhard's mind. This, we may say, is the one mootquestion that this new-found document clears up. Previous to this, theearliest-known use of the phrase occurred in the pamphlet, "Ye Slaves,"written by George Milford and published in December, 1912. This GeorgeMilford was an obscure agitator about whom nothing is known, save theone additional bit of information gained from the Manuscript, whichmentions that he was shot in the Chicago Commune. Evidently he hadheard Ernest Everhard make use of the phrase in some public speech, mostprobably when he was running for Congress in the fall of 1912. From theManuscript we learn that Everhard used the phrase at a private dinnerin the spring of 1912. This is, without discussion, the earliest-knownoccasion on which the Oligarchy was so designated.

  The rise of the Oligarchy will always remain a cause of secret wonderto the historian and the philosopher. Other great historical eventshave their place in social evolution. They were inevitable. Their comingcould have been predicted with the same certitude that astronomersto-day predict the outcome of the movements of stars. Without theseother great historical events, social evolution could not haveproceeded. Primitive communism, chattel slavery, serf slavery, and wageslavery were necessary stepping-stones in the evolution of society.But it were ridiculous to assert that the Iron Heel was a necessarystepping-stone. Rather, to-day, is it adjudged a step aside, or a stepbackward, to the social tyrannies that made the early world a hell, butthat were as necessary as the Iron Heel was unnecessary.

  Black as Feudalism was, yet the coming of it was inevitable. What elsethan Feudalism could have followed upon the breakdown of that greatcentralized governmental machine known as the Roman Empire? Notso, however, with the Iron Heel. In the orderly procedure of socialevolution there was no place for it. It was not necessary, and it wasnot inevitable. It must always remain the great curiosity of history--awhim, a fantasy, an apparition, a thing unexpected and undreamed; andit should serve as a warning to those rash political theorists of to-daywho speak with certitude of social processes.

  Capitalism was adjudged by the sociologists of the time to be theculmination of bourgeois rule, the ripened fruit of the bourgeoisrevolution. And we of to-day can but applaud that judgment. Followingupon Capitalism, it was held, even by such intellectual and antagonisticgiants as Herbert Spencer, that Socialism would come. Out of the decayof self-seeking capitalism, it was held, would arise that flower of theages, the Brotherhood of Man. Instead of which, appalling alike tous who look back and to those that lived at the time, capitalism,rotten-ripe, sent forth that monstrous offshoot, the Oligarchy.

  Too late did the socialist movement of the early twentieth centurydivine the coming of the Oligarchy. Even as it was divined, theOligarchy was there--a fact established in blood, a stupendous and awfulreality. Nor even then, as the Everhard Manuscript well shows, was anypermanence attributed to the Iron Heel. Its overthrow was a matter ofa few short years, was the judgment of the revolutionists. It is true,they realized that the Peasant Revolt was unplanned, and that the FirstRevolt was premature; but they little realized that the Second Revolt,planned and mature, was doomed to equal futility and more terriblepunishment.

  It is apparent that Avis Everhard completed the Manuscript during thelast days of preparation for the Second Revolt; hence the fact thatthere is no mention of the disastrous outcome of the Second Revolt.It is quite clear that she intended the Manuscript for immediatepublication, as soon as the Iron Heel was overthrown, so that herhusband, so recently dead, should receive full credit for all that hehad ventured and accomplished. Then came the frightful crushing of theSecond Revolt, and it is probable that in the moment of danger, ere shefled or was captured by the Mercenaries, she hid the Manuscript in thehollow oak at Wake Robin Lodge.

  Of Avis Everhard there is no further record. Undoubtedly she wasexecuted by the Mercenaries; and, as is well known, no record of suchexecutions was kept by the Iron Heel. But little did she realize, eventhen, as she hid the Manuscript and prepared to flee, how terrible hadbeen the breakdown of the Second Revolt. Little did she realize thatthe tortuous and distorted evolution of the next three centuries wouldcompel a Third Revolt and a Fourth Revolt, and many Revolts, all drownedin seas of blood, ere t
he world-movement of labor should come into itsown. And little did she dream that for seven long centuries the tributeof her love to Ernest Everhard would repose undisturbed in the heart ofthe ancient oak of Wake Robin Lodge.

  ANTHONY MEREDITH

  Ardis,

  November 27, 419 B.O.M.