Workmen's advocate., 1888-06-02
" LOOKING BACKWARD"
Edward Bcllamy Speaks of the Ten.
 dency towards Socialism.

''SN'O'' Hcripf, critjcizing Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward,' which pro- practically depicts future society as it may exist fifty years hence if social progress continues in the lines pointed out by Socialists, says that the author, " instead of placing the realization of the ideal social State a scant fifty years ahead should have made his figures seventy five centuries The authors reply was printed in the Tamcript, and in reproducing its main portion, we call attention to a book which should be well circulated among the Ameri- can people, and at the same time make our readers somewhat ac quaiated with its author. He says:
 Looking BackWard,' although in form fanClful romance, is intended, in all seriousness, as forecast in accord ance with the principles of evolution of the next stage in the industrial and social development of humanity, especially in this country, and no part of 1t is believed by the author to be better supported by the indications of probability than the implied prediction that the dawn of the new era is already near at hand, and that the fuIt day will swiftly follow. Does this seen at first thought incredible, in view of the vastness of the changes pre- supposed? What is the teaching of his tory, but that great national transforma- Gions, while ages iii uhnoticed prepara- tlon, when once inaugurated, are accomplished with rapidi'y and resist less momentum proportioned to their magnitude, not limited by it,
 In l1J9, when Quebec fell, the might of England in America seemed irresistible, and the vassaIage of the colonies as- sured. Nevertheless, twenty nine years later, the first president of the American Republic Was naugurated In lS49, after Novara, Italian prospects appeared as hopeless as at any time since the middle ages; yet only thirteen years later Victor Emanuel was crowned king of united It. ally. In 1864 the fuliilment of the thou sand-year dream of German unity was apparently as far off as ever. Seven years later it had been realized, and Will liam had assumed at Versailles the crown of Barbarossa. In 1893 the original anti slavery society was formed in Boston by a few so-caIled visionaries. Thirty seven years later, in lS1O, the society dis banded, its programme fully carried out.
 The prccedents do not, of course, prove that any such industrial and social transformation as Is outlined in "LOOk- ing Backward " is impending, but they do show that when the moral and eco nomiCal conditions for it are ripe, it may be expected to go forward with great ra- pidity. On no other stage are the scenes shifted with rapidity so like magic as the hour strikes. The question is not then how extensive the scene shifting must be to set the stage for the new fra ternal civilization, but whether there are any special indications that the hour is about to strike As for the causes that have been bringing us ever nearer that hour, they have been at work from i'm memorial time. To the stream of ten denCy setting toward an ultimate realiza- ti0n of a form of society which, while vastly more efficient for material bros- perity, should also satisfy and not out rage the moral instincts, every sigh of nt htr- mane impulse, every generous enthusi- asm, every true religious feeling every act by which men have given effect 10 their mutual sympathy by drawing more closely together for any purpose, have contributed from the beginnings of civil ization. That this long stream of influ- ence, ever widening and deepening, is at last about to sweep away the barriers it has so long sapped, is at least one Obvi- ous interpretation of the present univer- sal ferment of mems minds as to the i'm perfe ctlOns of present social arrange ments. Not only are the tOilers of the world engaged in something like a world wide insurrectiOn, but true and humane men aud women of every degree are in mood of exasperatiOn verging on abS0- lute revolt, against social conditions that reduce life to brutal struggle for exist ence, mock every dictate of ethics and religion, and render well nigh futile the efforts of philanthropy.
 As a great iceberg. floating southwards from the frozen North, Is gradually un- dermined by warmer seas, and becoming at last unstable. churns the ocean to yeast for miles around by the mighty rockings that portend its oyerturn, so