Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1889-06-11
rha na,,onnl,.t movement.

effe citing what is termed Nationalist
org ANIMATION. To understand the object
aimed at by the Nationalits, it is neces-
sary to give an idea of the theories SO
alluringly elaborated in Mr.. Bellamy's
book. Mr.. West, the leading parsonage
of the novel, belongs to the upper crust
of Boston, and he is used as the medium
to bring before us the practical workings
of a plan OF government and social and
industrial system supposed to exist IN
this country in the year Of Our Lord 20O0.
Mr.. West is a sufferer from insomnia,
and is obliged to call in the mesmeric
powers of biologist in order to procure
sleep. He sleeps in a vaulted basement,
which he has had built expressly to-
keep out sound. 1t is thickly cemented
in floor, ceiling and sides, and the air is
freshened by continuance operating
upon tube reaching from the roof. He
is set to sleep, as usual, by his mesmeric
physician on the night OF May 80, 1887.
His physician is called away, and the
house above the vault is destroyed by
fire. When Mr.. West awakes he finds
himself in strange room with strange
surroundings. A physician is bending
over him and administering restoratives.
In conversipg with this gentleman he is
astounded to find that he has been
asleep one hundred and thirteen years,
and that he has awakened into a new
and strange era. The city, which he is
enabled to see from his room, is wonder
fully changed. Instead of great crowded
tenement houses closely packed together,
he sees magnificent structures in every
direction; and the dwelling houses are
all separate from each other, surrounded
by gardens and giving evidence Of COM
fort and luxury. AS the somnist RECEIVERS
from his long trance and becomes strong
in mind and body the is physically and
mentally at the age he had at
tanned when he entered upon his long
mesmeric Sleep he looks Curl
ously into the social and indus-
trial conditions Of the century into which
he is suddenly projected. He finds that
the conditions Of the 10th century had
led to radical changes. The accumula-
ton of colossal fortunes, through the
great monopolies and combinations that
had grown up at that time, had led the
people to make radical and revolutionary
changes. The Government had been
made the center of great industrial
system, and acted really as syndicate
for carrying on all the affairs of the
people. There was no money recognized
in the new dispensation. The people
we're all required to work, and received,
| in lieu of pay, credit cards with which
they could procure everything they
wanted, necessaries OF luxuries. Every
man was required, on reaching the age
of self-support, to enter the industrial
army. After three years Of probation,
he determined, from the bent of his
faculties, the peculiar vocation he was
best fitted for. If 1t was trade, he was
entered as apprentice to it; if profess
sion, he entered special college. The
test Of every mans capacity to follow
the vocation he had chosen was deter
mined at the close of his probation. If
fit, he continued; if not, he had
to fall back into the lower rank
of workers. Dignities and honors
were the incentives to excellence and
success. and took the place ofpay. Every
mans earnings went into the common
treasury, and the Government made the
distribution in the shape of goods, dwell
ings, etc. Everything requiled was dis
pensed by the Government, and the Gov
eminent ran all the factories, all the
| farms, all the railways, all the steam
ships electro Ships, all the theaters, the
music rooms, the groceries, the provision
depois-in fact everything that is now
under the control Of Individuals and
companies was then under the control OF
| the Government. AS everybody was
obliged to do his allotted work, and as the
usufruct of all exertion went into the
common fund, the hours OF labor were
reduced SO that rybody had the bene-
| fit Of all Inventions that increased pro-
ducion, and 30 labor-saving machinery
and all contrivances that we're calculated
to augment the results of labor, were en-
coursged and brought to the highest per-
lection. The systems of checks and bal
ances were adjusted from the central
power, through the States to the counties,
to the cities, to the wards and to the
! families.
The fundamental principle of this new
system was based upon the idea that
greed evolved out Of individual competi.
ton to acquire wealth no longer prevailed
when only the production of labor ex-
listed as wealth, and when that production
became at once common property subject
to the. established equities Of universal
| distribution. Each man knew that the
functions assigned TO him were sufficient
for his support, therefore he had no in
centive to try to do more than to honest
ly fill his role in the system CT which he
was part and beneficiary.
All who have read Dean Swift's Houn-
hynhmS will find in that, and in other of
his sketches, the germ of the thought
which Fourier tried to practically carry
out in Icaria, which Owens has dreamed
of and attempted for forty years, which
the Shakers have family tried to imi-