The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1891-04-08
EDWARD BELLAMY, "LOOKING
BACKWARDS
Abstract of Prof. Pixies Lecture a
the UniVersRIist Church. March 1.

Abstract of Prof. Pixies Lecture at
the UniversaIist Church. March II
The interesting fact about Mr.. Bellamys
book is that some months ago $40 600 copies h ad
been sold. This means million readers and
corresponding tendency of thought, away from
the idea of individual liberty, private property
and self help on which our government was
founded 1t means a swinging back of the
mental pendulum towards the ancient idea OF
"paternal government" which shall employ
and provide for all. There has been great ex
pansion of the idea that government should pro-
tect us from competition. secure US against
failure make good our losses issue all the credit
and furnish us with money; but Mr.. BolIamy
goes to the extreme in these directions. He
proposes government Communism, in which
all competition is abolished, government takes
possession of all property. enlists all men into
an industrial army, all share alike and all are
provided for. This idea. that the State should
provide for all her children has been GATHERING
''in the air' of our country for twenty years of
more. 1t prevails especially in the minds OF
workmen from older countries, where there is
little liberty sn.l much "paternalism." In 1877
strikers had demanded that government should
seize and operate the railroads and divide the
earnings justly among the operatives They
had been told by the speaker that they had
SSAuOh uoWA llDSTIE ny OeHyluS TO OGnerS the
right 10 labor" and that "if governm ent should
run the railroads. they would be enlisted men,
fed on army rstions, and tried and shot for
treason in case of a strike''
Mr.. Bellamy fascInates his readers by assum.
ing the role of a prophet. His hero, Mr.. West,
| sleeps in buried vault till the year 1000, and
| awakes in the millennium of government com
munIsm, where there is no poverty, care,
where they take no thought for the morrow. yet
there Is equal abundance and happiness for all.
To the Nationalist. as Mr. Bellamy's disciples
call themselves, the book is Cooking forward
| to good time coming'' But Mr.. Bellamy
wrote his title wiser than he knew. 1t is Look.
! ing Backward" towards the systems of COM
munism, paternalism tyranny and slavery thst
man has partly outgrown. Mr. Bellamy's ideas
| are more at home in Russia than in any free
country.
There is nothing new ia the book except un-
| important details Its leading features were
all written out in PIato's BepubIic, centuries
before the Christian Era. In Plato's Republic
all are equal, officials are elected all property
| is common, government directs all occupations
provides for, feeds, clothes ard educates all
We learn from Josephus that the Jews went to
war with the Romans. inspired with the idea of
| Paternal Government or Messianic Kingdom
at Jerusalem, which should give liberty, peace
plenty and happiness to all. The Essenes, so
prominent in that war that they were nearly all
martyred at its close. were the first society to
oppose slavery. They had all property in com
mon, elected their officials by whom the activity
of the society and the individuals was directed
In the fourth chapter of Acts we see a similar
communism among the primitive Christians
| Sir Thomas Moore's imaginary island of Utopis
is picture of similar communistic society
Many similar pictures have been drawn, and
| Shakers, Economics, Perfectionists and others
have. in part, reduced the ideals to practice.
Communists all agree in certain other mat
| ters such as the Importance of universal edu.
cation and hatred OF the social and economic
| institutions of their time. They generally op-
| pose money. banks. interest, and so on with
great earnestness. Mr.. Bellamy wastes half his
| space denouncing existing society-wastes it
| because he fails to show that the injustice he
sees is inseparable from the system of private
| property and self help. He agrees with other
| communists n denouncing competition as the
greatest economic evil. Speaking of our time
he says: ''selfshness was their only science and
in industrial production selfishness is suicide
Competition. which is the instinct of se!fshness
is another word for dissipation of energy
MIR. Bellamy's confusion of thought here is
surprising He has substituted the wor self
| AsAASSs 1OT Ine -lQCereSJ' OF pOllG1Cal
economists. self-interest is the motive power
of industry, instead of being, as Mr.. Bellamy
says. industrial suicide'' What makes the
difference between slave labor and the labor of
the free man who owns the soil he tills? The
slave works grudgingly and ineficiently, be-
cause he lacks the motive power of self in teres.
Instead of competition being the Instinct of
| selfshness, it is the instinct of criminal greed
| and selfshness to destroy competition. in order
| to plumber the public. Instead of competition
being the dissipation of energy" it is competi-
| tion that calls forth energy, invention and per-
fection of work. The great improvements of
| the age, especially such as those of Cort and
| Bessemar in iron production have resulted
from the stimulating influence of competition
According to Darwin all progress in the world
oflife results from competition; relieve them
from the struggle and they perish or become
parasites. MI. Bellamy is bewildered and at
tributes to competition the evils that result
from suppresslng competition. He says the
10Th century producer desired to keep the pub.
lie at the verge of starvation, Ito command
| famine prices for what they supplied" But
| this is done by MIR. Be.lamy's methods of statt
socialism by protective tariff and trusts DO /
OF which have the same object OF destroy Ing {
competition in order to cause famine prices ;,
Mr. Beliamy does rot seem to know wLa
enormous waste is involved in the destruction
of competition. The rules and restrictions o
Trade Unions to suppress emulation anon
| worklngmen 20 prevent tho testing of one:
mates" and drag all down to mediocrity. The
wastefulness of the trusts in shoulderias in
competent firms to suppress competition, taxing
the public to make good the loss But the great
est waste of all is the destruction of the motive
power Of enterprise and self help. Mr. Loui.
Blanc's government workshops in 1s4s were :
dismal failure, because when competition /:
suppressed and the competent aad industriou.
must share alike with the incompetent ant
shiftless. all motive to excellence is gone:
Mr.. Bellamy and his followers ask us to ex.
change our birthright ofliherty. independence
and self help for system of slavery to the gov
ernment. absolute dependence. the right of sell
help taken from us. He asks us to give up tn,
system of private property, which has been fol
SO any centuries the reward of skill and in
dustry-the punishment of incompetence aRt
laziness, and share alike with the indolent ant
unskillful. He offers us a bad barga1a :: he. will
relieve rs from competition and struggle, hi
communal state will provide for us, but VIZ
must surrender ali independence all private
enterprise, all self help This would destroy
the motive power of progress, and instead O
living IN palaces, we should soon find ourselves
slaves In a vast government poor house
Mr. Bellamy's disciples are opposed to polit
ieal economy. They call 1t The Disma
Science. an invention and humbug' Bu
science is body of actual knowledge resultinl
from eS Sperience and cannot be invented bu
must be observed or discovered. In Mr. Bel
lamy's Utopia ali money will be abolished anG
CARLOAD of gold will not procure loaf o.
bread" When such notions are popular, we
may be sure people need instruction in the
plainest facts of political economy. They neet
just now to know why the value OF gold is Sc
stable. why it is. as yet, the best measure O.
otner values. They need to know what part O.
the value OF the silver dollar rests ON its useful
ness in the arts. and what part on the faith O.
che government which is pledged to redeem il
in the better metal. Any popular measure fol
changing the standard of value may prove to be
dynamite. The only safeguard is knowledge
Let us do what we can to disseminate sucf
knowledge among the people-the future of oul