R. B. Garnett.
The TWENTIETH
CENTURY
EPIC
By R. B. Garnett
THE ROXBURGH PUBLISHING CO., INC.
Boston
Copyrighted 1914
By REUBEN BRODIE GARNETT
All Rights Reserved
Dedication
To the human race this little book is dedicated,with the hope that it may bring somecheer, and also teach you a few things thatmay lessen your burdens. The subjectsthat I have put into rhyme are presented asthey come to me from my life of experience.
My criticisms may appear too severe, butremember that only your truest friends areallowed to tell you of your faults.
REUBEN BRODIE GARNETT.
The TWENTIETH
CENTURY EPIC
By the Author.
This poem that I have dignified with theterm epic, was written by inspiration, andis dedicated to the human race. I have usedthe term epic with no intention of assuminga dignity not due my production; but,in the sense that the precepts and warningscontained therein, have a lofty purpose; andare graphically set forth in the plainestwords in the English language.
I have not indulged in similes or hyperboles;nor does my epic abound with thosepicturesque figures of comparison found inHomer or Virgil, nor those cadences andswells found in The Paradise Lost, describingthe headlong falls and gigantic flightsof those god-like personages peopling theheavens and earth in the poetic mind; nordoes my inspiration come from muse or divinebreath; nor did it descend upon mefrom above; on the contrary, it sprang upout of the deep feeling I have for my kind,especially those in the strained walks oflife.
Our twentieth century shows society inthe process of centralizing itself; and, graduallyforcing us into legal socialism. This[8]is plainly shown in the poem. The processof centralization, for years, worked slowlyin this country. As long as the influence ofthe founders of our Republic was potent,liberty was dominant.
The first step in this process was the inaugurationof a general system of free publicschools. The direct result of this freeeducation was to overcrowd the book andhead portion of our population at the expenseof the producing classes, making itharder for the clerk to make a bare living.The idea of every parent now seems to bethat his or her offspring is especially adaptedto the learned professions and to society.
This was also the first step towards thediversion of public funds to private enterprise.The appropriation of public moneysto the extensive and widening fields of privateaffairs has progressed rapidly in thelast decade. This, with its evils, is vividlyset forth in my poe