The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-03-30
The Radical Utopia.

wv. II. Malock in Nineteenth Century,
For the production of the Radical Utopia
for the production of the only thing that gives
radicalism any meaning-three things among
others are indispensable. Private property is
to be abolished Marriage is to be abolished.
Physical labor is to be shared equally by all.
"Oh, yes," exclaims Sprigsby, impatiently,
Eve have all heard that" ''If you haye,"
said, sit seems you have not considered it. 1
have, and it seems to me well worth consider
ing. These three points have just mentioned
doubtless we have all heard of them, but let
us consider them little further. There is a
good deal implied in them that does not lie on
the surface. Private property is to be abol-
ished. What is meant by that? No human
being is to save anything Every one is to be
State pensioner. That is the condition of the
ideal human being of the future. What fur
Their? Physical labor is to be shared equally
by all. That is expressed also in another and
more suggestive way. There is to be normal
day of labor. This provision seems to mean
that every one shall be insured due proper
ton of leisure. 1t is really protection against
thought. skill and industry. 1t is menace to
the industrious; nota promise to the weary.
But that is not all. Its design is not only to
crush individual industry, but to extinguish in
dividual genius. Let man be fit for the high
est work. he is to be shackled like the dulest
dolt, to the'lowest Hours that might have
produced Hamlet are to be occupied in
cleaning sewers Sprigsby tried to inter-
rupt "Pooh, " he said, call this is nonsense.
Nobody means this" at may be nonsense
said, "but for all that many people mean it.
Whether such people are really of power and
importance is more than can say. You, at
any rate, think they are. You have said your
self that they belong to your party, and that
their views are one with yours. Be patient
with me moment longer. Let me speak OF
one point more. Marriage, say the continent
tai radicals, is to be abolished" "True," said
Sprigsby 'but only as a sacrament and super
stition, not as a solemn contract. Why, mar
riage my good fellow he said, sis the basis
of all society" "And it is precisely because it
is so,' said, "that your continental friends
declare it must be done away with. They see
what it means well enough; they see what is
implied in it; and they only strike at it that
they may strike at something beyond it. What
they want to strike at is the family and the
home The home, the hearth, with all the af-
fections that cluster round and flourish by it
there is the real centre of all conservatism.
There is the perfect pattern of private proper
ty; there is a perpetual protest against all
forms of communism. What, then, is radical
ism, or socialism, or social democracy or Com
munism? 1t is ostensibly, and to the minds
both of its apostles and its proselytes, strug-
gle toward an ideal that is, on the face of it.
all-beautiful. But what it is really is something
very different. To see its real character you
must look long and hard at it; and as you look
at it thus, you will see itbegin to change. You
have seen the well-known picture of the head
of a dead Christ, with closed and heavy-lidded
eyes. which is so painted that if you look at it
in a certain way. the eyes of sudden seem to
be wide open. The face of communism, if you
look at it is of something the same kind. 1t at
first seems the face of an angel; stare at it
long enough and you will find you are con-
fronted by fiend. The ideal that communism
aims at is an ideal that is essentially impracti-
cable Human nature will not ever admit of
its being realized. How do we know this? The
very Communists themselves bear witness to it.
Though they do not perceive this, their own
programme confeSses it, and the more COM
plete their programme grows, the more COM
plete becomes this confession. And what is
the alarming result. that makes me compare
communism to fiend? 1 will tell you. Con-
spiring to produce what human nature makes
an impossibilty. Communism is nothing
more nor less than a conspiracy against human
nature The demands it makes itself uncon-
sciously betray this. Every one of these is in
reality a demand for coercion. Turn to what
side of human nature it will, in every instinct,
in every appetite, and i'll every affection it
finds secret but an irreconcllable foe. Ma
ture makes men unequal. To equalize them
communism has war with nature. Its ideal
government is vast system of police, In
whose eyes the chief crimes are exceptional
talent, exceptional industry. any form OF indi-
vid 1ality, any personal attachments, or any
craving for freedom