Workmen's advocate., 1886-11-28
WORK AND PREPARE.
Ectract from GronlunFs "Co-operdfir'
 Commonwealth"
CONTINUED FROM LAST wEEk,I

can people cannot be excited by an idealI that they only care for the "Almighty Dollar" Our war of the Revolution wats fought for point of honor. The Rebeg- lion was fought for ideas. But smatl ends do not rouse anybody's enthusiasnf' Civil service reforms and othfr "Utopias" and small Utopias at that are not likely to make ones blood thrfb the quicker. To cut off each head of d n ever-growing hydra as it appears iIa tiresome process, and will seem an ldle, wasteful proceeding to any practld dal mind But to hel D evolve a New Soc1al Order which is struggling ng-convulsiYe- ly, desperately struggling-to be borp is an end, grand enough to fill he noblest soul with the most ardent zeal
 And because it is well known WI bat rcpellng effects mere words may ha we on the minds of men, and because ''$Fo- cialism" once had such an effect on the writer himself, we add: Let not the cPn- sideration frighten you, that it is an 'ism :" Why, even Christianity was Tor four hundred years an "ism.' Every ideal, that is, every "soul of the futuhe' is an ism as long as it is waiting for its body. When Socialism becomes q dm- bodied, it leaves its 'ism" behind and is realized as the New Social Order Co., operation.
 It is for various reasons just sJ lch young men as those of whom we have spoken. of all classes, that we should try to enroll as members of our effective minority and for which I have written this book. Elderly people have alreA Ady made up their minds-indeed the T nan who has reached forty and has not m Iade up his mind may pretty safely be put down as poor specimen of man. And then there is a weightier reason. Though there is no man living wise enough to say when the Coming Revolu- tlon will occur, we can say that there IS little probability that it will occur this century. Now, you cannot ask an elderly man to prepare for something which he probably will not live to witness. You, on the other hand, can with the greatest show of success appeal to the ardor and hope and sympathy of youth or young men of. say, 30 years, to prepare for an event in which they may be principal actors when they reach ripe manhood. And that is just what that effective mi nority principally will have to do-~pre- pure, prepare themselves and their peo- pie for the Great Change. Not, as we already said in the Introduction, to make any revolution, but to make themselves, and the Nation as much as possible, ready for the Coming Revolution, to meet it when it comes, peaceably oF "clad in iron sandals" and to carry it out, To accomplish this, the first thing needed is organization, next, organization, and, lastly, organization, in order that they may become perfectly acquainted with each other, come to have confidence in each other, and study together the great philosophy and the means of realiziJg it. That minority ought, indeed, to COT he to unanimous agreement as to every brin- cipal step that must be taken b mako the Cooperative Commonwealth a sui iccess from the very start and untilit is i,h full working order.
 And they should also, as ve said. as much as possible prepare ther couhtry- men. They should continJ bly dep not themselves, mark you Ebut ttheir cause before the people. I'm cad h do this very etfectually in two Iays: each one in his own neighbOrhood, D.. hiI i'm mediate circle of personal friends and acquaintances, by direct appeals to their understanding, sympathies and interests. and all, in mutual accord, through the general newspapers of the country. It is folly to waste money and energy in start ing special journals for the propag cation of new ideas-that is my private opinion l have always found that there are in every city of any consequence some newspapers of established circulation, ready enough to publish notices and arti cles, II only they are temperately, and especially well written-just such con- ments and appeals as we may expect from the class of persons we have in in mind-force and fire and no froth But the important thing, always to be needed, about this latter form of agita ton, Is that it be carried on sustem- dticdly
 This will be work enough for anybody, however Jealous: besides this that minor ity can do nothing better than-wait with patience.
 Wait for what?
 For the natural culmination of the present system, (as to which we refer to our third chapter and for the outburst of Passion.
 Passion?-Ies. We are not indebted to Reason for the landmaks of human progress: not for the introduction of Christianity, not for the institution of the monastic orders, not for the Crusades. not for the Reformation, not fnr the American Revolution, not for the aboli- ton ot slavery. Man is only irresistible when he acts from passion. We aIe first to be philosophers in order to nrenare