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THE IRON HEEL
THE IRON HEEL 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 important
historical document. To the historian it bristles with errors--not
errors of fact but errors of interpretation. Looking back across
the seven centuries that have lapsed since Avis Everhard completed
her manuscript events and the bearings of events that were
confused and veiled to her are clear to us. She lacked
perspective. She was too close to the events she writes about.
Nay she was merged in the events she has described.
Nevertheless as a personal document the Everhard Manuscript is of
inestimable value. But here again enter error of perspective and
vitiation due to the bias of love. Yet we smile indeed and
forgive Avis 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 the events of his times less largely than the
Manuscript would lead us to believe.
We know that Ernest Everhard was an exceptionally strong man but
not so exceptional as his wife thought him to be. He was after
all but one of a large number of heroes who throughout the world
devoted their lives to the Revolution; though it must be conceded
that he did unusual work especially in his elaboration and
interpretation of working-class philosophy. "Proletarian science"
and "proletarian philosophy" were his phrases for it and therein
he shows the provincialism of his mind--a defect however that was
due to the times and that none in that day could escape.
But to return to the Manuscript. Especially valuable is it in
communicating to us the FEEL of those terrible times. Nowhere do
we find more vividly portrayed the psychology of the persons that
lived in that turbulent period embraced between the years 1912 and
1932--their mistakes and ignorance their doubts and fears and
misapprehensions their ethical delusions their violent passions
their inconceivable sordidness and selfishness. These are the
things that are so hard for us of this enlightened age to
understand. History tells us that these things were and biology
and psychology tell us why they were; but history and biology and
psychology do not make these things alive. We accept them as
facts but we are left without sympathetic comprehension of them.
This sympathy comes to us however as we peruse the Everhard
Manuscript. We enter into the minds of the actors in that long-ago
world-drama and for the time being their mental processes are our
mental processes. Not alone do we understand Avis Everhard's love
for her hero-husband but we feel as he felt in those first days
the vague and terrible loom of the Oligarchy. The Iron Heel (well
named) we feel 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
moot question that this new-found document clears up. Previous to
this the earliest-known use of the phrase occurred in the
pamphlet "Ye Slaves" written by George Milford and published in
December 1912. This George Milford was an obscure agitator about
whom nothing is known save the one additional bit of information
gained from the Manuscript which mentions that he was shot in the
Chicago Commune. Evidently he had heard Ernest Everhard make use
of the phrase in some public speech most probably when he was
running for Congress in the fall of 1912. From the Manuscript we
learn that Everhard used the phrase at a private dinner in the
spring of 1912. This is without discussion the earliest-known
occasion on which the Oligarchy was so designated.
The rise of the Oligarchy will always remain a cause of secret
wonder to the historian and the philosopher. Other great
historical events have their place in social evolution. They were
inevitable. Their coming could have been predicted with the same
certitude that astronomers to-day predict the outcome of the
movements of stars. Without these other great historical events
social evolution could not have proceeded. Primitive communism
chattel slavery serf slavery and wage slavery were necessary
stepping-stones in the evolution of society. But it were
ridiculous to assert that the Iron Heel was a necessary stepping-
stone. Rather to-day is it adjudged a step aside or a step
backward to the social tyrannies that made the early world a hell
but that were as necessary as the Iron Heel was unnecessary.
Black as Feudalism was yet the coming of it was inevitable. What
else than Feudalism could have followed upon the breakdown of that
great centralized governmental machine known as the Roman Empire?
Not so however with the Iron Heel. In the orderly procedure of
social evolution there was no place for it. It was not necessary
and it was not inevitable. It must always remain the great
curiosity of history--a whim a fantasy an apparition a thing
unexpected and undreamed; and it should serve as a warning to those
rash political theorists of to-day who speak with certitude of
social processes.
Capitalism was adjudged by the sociologists of the time to be the
culmination of bourgeois rule the ripened fruit of the bourgeois
revolution. And we of to-day can but applaud that judgment.
Following upon Capitalism it was held even by such intellectual
and antagonistic giants as Herbert Spencer that Socialism would
come. Out of the decay of self-seeking capitalism it was held
would arise that flower of the ages the Brotherhood of Man.
Instead of which appalling alike to us 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 century
divine the coming of the Oligarchy. Even as it was divined the
Oligarchy was there--a fact established in blood a stupendous and
awful reality. Nor even then as the Everhard Manuscript well
shows was any permanence attributed to the Iron Heel. Its
overthrow was a matter of a few short years was the judgment of
the revolutionists. It is true they realized that the Peasant
Revolt was unplanned and that the First Revolt was premature; but
they little realized that the Second Revolt planned and mature
was doomed to equal futility and more terrible punishment.
It is apparent that Avis Everhard completed the Manuscript during
the last days of preparation for the Second Revolt; hence the fact
that there is no mention of the disastrous outcome of the Second
Revolt. It is quite clear that she intended the Manuscript for
immediate publication as soon as the Iron Heel was overthrown so
that her husband so recently dead should receive full credit for
all that he had ventured and accomplished. Then came the frightful
crushing of the Second Revolt and it is probable that in the
moment of danger ere she fled or was captured by the Mercenaries
she hid the Manuscript in the hollow oak at Wake Robin Lodge.
Of Avis Everhard there is no further record. Undoubtedly she was
executed by the Mercenaries; and as is well known no record of
such executions was kept by the Iron Heel. But little did she
realize even then as she hid the Manuscript and prepared to flee
how terrible had been the breakdown of the Second Revolt. Little
did she realize that the tortuous and distorted evolution of the
next three centuries would compel a Third Revolt and a Fourth
Revolt and many Revolts all drowned in seas of blood ere the
world-movement of labor should come into its own. And little did
she dream that for seven long centuries the tribute of her love to
Ernest Everhard would repose undisturbed in the heart of the
ancient oak of Wake Robin Lodge.
ANTHONY MEREDITH
Ardis
November 27 419 B.O.M.
THE IRON HEEL
CHAPTER I
MY EAGLE
The soft summer wind stirs the redwoods and Wild-Water ripples
sweet cadences over its mossy stones. There are butterflies in the
sunshine and from everywhere arises the drowsy hum of bees. It is
so quiet and peaceful and I sit here and ponder and am restless.
It is the quiet that makes me restless. It seems unreal. All the
world is quiet but it is the quiet before the storm. I strain my
ears and all my senses for some betrayal of that impending storm.
Oh that it may not be premature! That it may not be premature!*
* The Second Revolt was largely the work of Ernest Everhard though
he cooperated of course with the European leaders. The capture
and secret execution of Everhard was the great event of the spring
of 1932 A.D. Yet so thoroughly had he prepared for the revolt
that his fellow-conspirators were able with little confusion or
delay to carry out his plans. It was after Everhard's execution
that his wife went to Wake Robin Lodge a small bungalow in the
Sonoma Hills of California.
Small wonder that I am restless. I think and think and I cannot
cease from thinking. I have been in the thick of life so long that
I am oppressed by the peace and quiet and I cannot forbear from
dwelling upon that mad maelstrom of death and destruction so soon
to burst forth. In my ears are the cries of the stricken; and I
can see as I have seen in the past* all the marring and mangling
of the sweet beautiful flesh and the souls torn with violence
from proud bodies and hurled to God. Thus do we poor humans attain
our ends striving through carnage and destruction to bring lasting
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Unpublished Work 
