This editorial was taken from Traverse City’s socialist newspaper, Honest Opinion, June 5, 1919:

Do you believe that less than five per cent of the people of the United States should be given the privilege of preying on the other ninety five per cent?  Do you believe that those who do all the necessary work of the United States and every other country in the world should live within a week of starvation while those who do not labor at all should wallow in wealth to the extent that they are obliged to invent new devices and inventions of the mind, more or less immoral, in order to get rid of their ill gotten gains?  Do you believe that more than sixty per cent of the people should be constantly menaced with violent death so that three per cent can become millionaires?  Do you know that one millionaire means ten thousand wage slaves?  Do you know that most of these wage slaves have innocent little children and these little children are the greatest sufferers from this abominable situation?  If you do, you stand for capitalism.  If you do not, you have no business on that side.  The voice of reason should reach you.  Let not the prostitutes of plutocracy blind you to the fact that there is only one issue for you and for them and that is whether or not you are going to get decent food, decent clothing, and decent shelter for yourself and your children.  Any other issue is a mere camouflage and made to rob you of your birthright as guaranteed you by the constitution the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Don’t let them make that document a scrap of paper.

Despite its exaggerations, occasional error (the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution, is quoted), and run-on sentences, it reminds us of the modern “We are the 99%” Occupy Movement in its insistence that our nation belongs to all of us, not just the wealthy few.  Socialist and later supporter of FDR, local activist Thomas H. Coxe authored the piece.  He died in 1936.

The Traverse Area District Library Woodmere branch has several issues of Honest Opinion stored on microfilm.