Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1889-10-19

y
gifts, provided, of course, when there
are too many volunteers for the needs of
a particular branch that the fittest are
taken. In order to equalize the attrac-
tiveness of different occupations, the
hours of work in those which are more
laborious or otherwise unattrsctve are
shortened as compared with the easier
or more attractive trades. The condi-
tons of a trade which does not attract
volunteers are lightened until the neces-
sary force is attracted, and on the other
hand a persistent excess of volunteers
for particular trade is taken to indi-
cate that its. conditions are unfairly
easy. The intellectual pursuits are as
open to all as the industrial, on the sole
condition that the fittest find preference.
In view of the fact that most women
marry and become mothers, and in
view also of the comparative weakness
and uncertainty of their health, the
feminine half of the army of industry is
organized under exclusively feminine
control, and is altogether devoted to the
lighter classes of occupations, the disci-
pine being in all ways adapted to femi-
nine conditions.
There is also an invalid corps attached
to the industrial army, in which the
sickly and feeble who still desire and are
able to do something are enabled to I'M
dertake what they safely can for the
common wealth.
At the age of As both men and women
are discharged from further service,
and remain absolutely free to occupy
themselves as they will for the re-
mainder of life.
That is to say, the industrial duty of
citizens has been placed upon the same
basis on which their military duty now
rests. AS it is at present held to be the
duty Of all citizens to fight for their
country, so, then, it is held their equally
obvious duty to work for it, and it is
considered selfevident that to be eff
Gent, working requires sy stem and unity
of action quite as much as fighting.
The nation has, in fine, been organized
for peace as at present for war. The
people stand shoulder to shoulder, not, as
now, to resist the foreign foe for that
peril is no longer known but against hun
ger and cold and nakedness, and every
wrong and every want that human
valor can repel; an invincible square Of
the sick, the aged and the infirm in the
centre
AS all the members of a nation of to.
day, whether able to fight or not, share
equally in the protection of the army
and the prosperity it insures, so in the
nation of the year 1000, all alike,
whether men or women, strong or weak,
able bodied or defective, share in the
wealth produced by the industrial army,
and the share of all is equal This
share, varying only with the general
prosperity of the national business, is
the sole income and means of mainte-
nance of all, whether during active in
dustrlal service or after discharge from
it.
Owing to the method of organizing
industry upon the mutual obligation Of
citizen to nation and nauion to citizen,
duty has wholly taken the place of con-
tract, as the basis of industry and the
cement of society.
The only exceptions to the rule of
equality of portions is made in the case
of the children. While these are re-
garded as equal partners in the national
concern, and are by no means left de.
pendent upon the ca price of parents for
any part of their support, the pension
allotted them is naturally less than that
of adults, their needs being less.
If any question could be supposed to
arise as to the comparative claims upon
maintenance at the nations table of the
able-bodied and the defective, it would
be the latter who would come first; for
it is an ethical axiom in the year 1000
that every generation receives the COM
mon inheritance of organized society
subject to certain liens and charges, and
that the first and most sacred of these
charges is an ample provision for the
care of those who are dependent on
account of weakness of mind or body.
But indeed no one in that age would
think of demanding an accounting for his
personal services rather than his share
as partner, were it only for selfish rea-
sons. 1t is recognized that ninety nine
one-hundredths of the value of any per-
sons work, and often the very POSSIBLE
ity of the work itself, is created by the
social organization, which is the joint
and indivisible inheritance of all, so
that even if any body of metaphysi-
clans and mathematician were able to
determine the element in the value of
an individuals work which he had abso-
lutely originated and independently
created, it would doubtless be a pit
lance too beggarly to support life. The
royalty, that is to say, which society
would have to claim from an individual
for permission to use the social organi-
cation for his personal enrichment would
be SO large as to be in danger of leaving
him in debt.
But while as regards the part each
has in the annual product of the nation,
it is share and share alike; the honors
and distinctions, the offices of rank and
authority in the army of industry and