By day, the joyous, whimsical fantasy of the
colossal Tower of Jewels, which caught the light in millions of rainbow
sparkles, must, for children at least, have made of its entrance the
door to fairyland. At night, there was the tragedy of old history about
those faintly fiery facades . . . those enormous shadow-haunted hulks .
. .
Remember, last of all, as naturally as from infancy the Native Son has
breathed the tonic and toxic air of California, he has breathed the
spirit of democracy. That spirit of democracy is so strong, indeed, that
the enfranchised women of California give intelligent guidance to the
feminists of a whole nation; public opinion is so enlightened that it
sets a pace for the rest of the country and labor is so progressive that
it is a revelation to the visiting sociologist.
Indeed, nowhere in the whole world, I fancy, is labor so healthy, so
happy, so prosperous. California brings to the workers' problems the
free enlightened attitude characteristic of her. As between on the one
hand hordes of unemployed; huge slums; poverty spots; and on the other a
well-paid laboring class with fair hours, she chooses the latter,
thereby storing up for herself eugenic capital.
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