Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1890-02-22
UTOPIA.



Nor, while dismissing thus Mr.. Bel
lamy's scheme, can the social philosopher
even admit that the object which that
scheme proposes is desirable. We're the
fantasy of a state in which every one
should have enough and to spare, in
which the conditions of life should cease
to be arduous and stern, from which care
and Solicitude for the future should be
banishcd and the necessaries, comforts
and wholesome Injuries of life should
come easy to all-were this wild, weak
dream shown to be capable of r~ealiza-
ton we'll might the philanthropist eX-
claim, Alas for mankindl There have
been races that have lived without care,
without struggle, without pains; but
these have never become noble races.
Except for care and struggle and pains
men would never have risen above the
intellectual and physical stature OF
Polynesian savages. There are cares
that cark and cares that kill; there are
struggles that are unavailing; there are
pains that deppss, and blight, and
dwarf, Well may we look forward to a
better state, in which much Of the harsh
ness of the human condition shall, by
mans own efforts, have been removed.
But 1t was no Bellamy who said that in
the sweat of their brows should men eat
bread; that with agony should they be
born into the world; and that in labor
always, in disappointment and defeat
often, with anxious thought, and with
foreboding that ceases only at the grave,
should they live their lives through,
dying weary of the struggle, yet %rejoic-
ing in the hope of a better fortune and
more generous terms for those who are
to come after.
Quite as little can We approve OF the
fundamental law of Mr.. Bcllamy's mill
tary republic, that there should Se no
distinction of material condition among
it's members. Mr.. Bellamy tries to place
this prescription on high ethical grounds,
but all his fine phrases do not disguise
the fact that the proposed distribution
involves the grossest violation of com
mon honesty, as every plain man under.
stands it. To say that one who produces
twice as much as another shall yethavc
no more is palpable robbery. 1t is TIC
make that man for half his time a slave,
working for others without reward. II
is one of the dangers of t~ranscendenta'
reasoning about rights and morals that
the finest of sentiments are often found
in close proximity to the baldest o.
rascality.
But the fragrant dishonesty of thu
proposition to destroy all distinction il
the material condition OF the commdnit,
is, | make bold to say, the least objec
ton to it. Such a leveling downward
would bring a speedy end to all intel
%lectual and social progress, to be fol
lowed at no late day by retrogression AM
relapse. 1t is only by the distinction o
some that the general character of thu
mass is to be raised. There are plent,
of tribes and races among which MI
Bellamy's creative principle of absolut
equality of condition is and has been i'm
memorially in full operation. UnfoI
tunately for his case, they are all misel
able imbruted savages. Even the fac
that among some of them the additions
principle Of the selection of chiefs by tn
elders of the tribe is of unknown ant
guilty has not served to lift them in tn
scale of humanity. They are still poo,
, squalid wretches in spite of the adol
ton of both these prescriptions for turi
: ing the earth into a paradise withot
any intervening change in human ma
ure.-Francis A. Walker, in Atlantis