Wichita eagle., 1889-11-08

i
remedy? The Nationalist says: "Take
one more step. Let the government own
| these lands and these great manufacturing
establishments and let the wealth be di-
vided among the people. Divided by CIV
ing them a chance to make homes. to Gull
| tivate the soil, to buy at reasonable rates.
| wild dream, cries the conservative. 1t
can never be done. Perhaps not. Surely
not according to anyone's theories. l I'M
agine not the most sanguiDe expect to see
| Mr. Bellamv's new Boston exactly as he
| pictures it, Nevertheless greater changes
have come about than even this and never
is long while. No one expects to make
the world over at once, in this century or
the next. Reforms come slowly. Still the
minimum may be a good deal nearer
than we anticipate. Look at the changes
the past twenty five years have made in
bringing about an earthly paranise What
Injuries of living and travelling. AL
most like an Arabian Nights dream.
| And yet with it all see the unrest
the discomfort, the vast Oklahoma rush
for new homes and pastures fresh, and is
| 1t not plain that the people are ready for
something other than they have? The
question pressing for an answer is how
distribute the wealth in the world, how
equalize opportunities. Perhaps hint is
| found in an item in the mornings paper.
/ read that there are twenty plants in the
country for making some kind of bagging,
| | forget what, md that they have the mo-
nOpoiy of all the bagging of that special
! kind manufactured, and for their own
protection they have combined and form
ed single company, and that the one
company controls the price Of every yard
sold. Now il that company becomes too
grasping, why may not the government,
which means merely we. the peDle who
want the product at reasonable prices, de-
eide to buy the plant and hire some one
| with experience and knowledge TO manage
| 1t and so reap the benefits ourselves.
| But this would be exceeding the powers of
| government, says some objector, and it
would increase the ma chinery of govern
ment and make 1t uumanageable. In
answer to the first it would only be doing
what we have already successfully done
with our mail service and what we do every
day when we take away A mans property
because he fails to do his share towards
bearing the expenses of the government
/ The public comes first, we say. and you
tax accordingly, and if yon want road
laid out or a street opened you do it, let
the property owners be willing or not.
Government has power TO do anything for
the public good.
Let us see now some of Mr.. Bellamy's
ways of carrying on his ideal government
and some of the advantages which won q
accrue from it. And fist let me say Mr..
Be!lamy makes no claims to originality in
his ideas. They have been held by many
in the past and put forward in Il very care
full and philosophical way by Mr.. Lawrence
Grouland in his Cooperative Common
wealth, lat Mr. Bellamy has broght his
brilliano imagination into play and has
populariZed the thought OF Others In the
first place, then, in Mr.. Bellamy's plan,
every child would be entitled to an educa-
ton, and not only entitled to it, but he
should be compelled to receive it. He
should be developed AS far AS he was capa-
bic of being. physically, indusirially men
tally, morally and spiritually. This would
be his inherent right AT twenty one
years of age he should be mustered into
the industrial army. where he
should serve three years, exactly as
in European countries they muster
young men into the military army.
He should then choose his occupation at
which he should serve as an apprentice
one year, after which he should work for
the nation until forty-fve, when he should
be relieved from service and allowed to
spend his declining years in such pursuits
as were most congenial to his tastes. The
women form an army by themselves, it be-
ing considered that they ought to be re-
quired only to do the lighter kinds of
work and also in this way they are more
easily exempted during such periods, as
their maternal duties require their removal
from active service. These armies are Of
ficered by those who have re-
tired from the ranks of working men and
are enjoying the afternoon leisure of life,
it being presumed that those who had
been most successful workers would take
more pride and pleasure in managing such
army than i'll less active pursuits. All
labor being dignlfied and honorable re-
celves the same rec' mpense, and here comes
in naturally the strOu gest objections to this
twentieth century plan from the nine
an 11rv tor wi n mn
tive for work except the money one, that
being the only one we any of u.s. recog
niZe But in that ideal state of society it
is conceded that every man, women
and child is entitled to living
on ground no less broad than the fact that
they are members OF the human family,
children of the same Father, heirs of the
same inheritance. Being heirs they owe
what they are 10 the past. Some one says
90 per cent of the civilized man Is the pro-
duct Of the past and per cent is the indi-
vldual. If any one has been deprived OF
his heritage by accident of birth or of en-
vironment, so much stronger his claim
upon humanity. as the claim of the feeble
minded or crippled child upon the love
and care of its parents is greater than that
of the more favorably endowed. But what
incentive will there be to work. | hear it
asked. What will you do with the lazy
is echoed on all sides. How are You going
10 CEdnSe DuIlidu udtuTt! uo uOt buluh
we shall need to change human nature at.
all. commend you to the parable of the
rose bush in the book for the solution of
this question l very much doubt whether
under favorable conditions men would dis
like 60 work. This idea of mans laziness
and depravity is theologic faisehood.
People are not naturally lazy. MY dear
madam, is your boy lazy? Does he trouble
you lying around and doing nothing? The
proverbial bow is only too full of life and
noise and energy, and your nerves culver
as he ruSheS through the house
with twenty plans in his active brain. all
of which he wants your he p TO carry out.
But the boy is father of the man. If he
grows to be lazy it is because conditions Of
work are unfavorable. More men in the
world are idle today from compulson
than from choice. But the most forcible
objection. that which Professor Harris, in
the last Forum, and many others MAKE, Is
that all Will be reduced TO the same dead
level; that life will have no Zest it will all
be monotonous. Il SHOULD die in six
MONTHS said a friend to me- We have
been working ali these ages to cultivate
individuality. says Professor Harris and
whatever destroys that puts back our civil
ization. But fail to see how our present
economic and social customs encourage
individuality. In the mad struggle for
wealth and power under our present bar
barous competitive system, when every
one Is for himself and no one can stop to
lend Il hand to falling brother, man be-
came a mere working machiue. In our
educational system our children are put
through the same mental process and a
teacher with sixty or seventy pupils under
her care knows little Of any individual
traits or dispositions. She has no time for the
development of individuality or character
building which in the ideal state should
IL