pieces of the American people, which are the press, the pulpit, and
the university. The journalists, the preachers, and the professors
are practically of one voice in declaring that there is no such
thing as a class struggle now going on, much less that a class
struggle will ever go on, in the United States. And this
declaration they continually make in the face of a multitude of
facts which impeach, not so much their sincerity, as affirm, rather,
their optimism.

There are two ways of approaching the subject of the class struggle.
The existence of this struggle can be shown theoretically, and it
can be shown actually. For a class struggle to exist in society
there must be, first, a class inequality, a superior class and an
inferior class (as measured by power); and, second, the outlets must
be closed whereby the strength and ferment of the inferior class
have been permitted to escape.

That there are even classes in the United States is vigorously
denied by many; but it is incontrovertible, when a group of
individuals is formed, wherein the members are bound together by
common interests which are peculiarly their interests and not the
interests of individuals outside the group, that such a group is a
class. The owners of capital, with their dependents, form a class
of this nature in the United States; the working people form a
similar class. The interest of the capitalist class, say, in the
matter of income tax, is quite contrary to the interest of the
laboring class; and, VICE VERSA, in the matter of poll-tax.

If between these two classes there be a clear and vital conflict of
interest, all the factors are present which make a class struggle;