JACK LONDON.
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.
January 12, 1905.



THE CLASS STRUGGLE



Unfortunately or otherwise, people are prone to believe in the
reality of the things they think ought to be so. This comes of the
cheery optimism which is innate with life itself; and, while it may
sometimes be deplored, it must never be censured, for, as a rule, it
is productive of more good than harm, and of about all the
achievement there is in the world. There are cases where this
optimism has been disastrous, as with the people who lived in
Pompeii during its last quivering days; or with the aristocrats of
the time of Louis XVI, who confidently expected the Deluge to
overwhelm their children, or their children's children, but never
themselves. But there is small likelihood that the case of perverse
optimism here to be considered will end in such disaster, while
there is every reason to believe that the great change now
manifesting itself in society will be as peaceful and orderly in its
culmination as it is in its present development.

Out of their constitutional optimism, and because a class struggle
is an abhorred and dangerous thing, the great American people are
unanimous in asserting that there is no class struggle. And by
"American people" is meant the recognized and authoritative mouth-