Kansas City daily journal., 1895-08-30
SOCIALISM IN CHINA.


Q
Centuries Ago.
From the New York sun.
: Leon Caubert recently delivered lee
ture at the French academy upon an
ancient experiment I'M socialism made
in China. About the time when Clovis,
king Of France, was baptized and
Christianity had only just begun TO take
root in Western Europe, great Chinese
scholar named Ouang Ngam Che was
writing ana preaching the principles
which underlie modern socialism. The
first necessity to perfect social life. said
this ancient father of Chinese social
ism. Is that the land and ali Of which
IT produces shall belong to everybody.
The second necessity Is that the govern
ment authorities shall regard it as their
chief business to bring about this happy
result as quickly as possible.
China had at that time been de-
vastated by terrible foundations which
had cut off thousands Of the people, and
the starving survivors We're clamoring
for reform 1t was then that Ouang
Ngam che went straight to the emperor,
Chenu Tsong, and told the monarch that
II was his duty to save the people, The
social prophet was welcomed at the
court as the great thinker of the age.
The emperor listened with the zeal Of a
disciple TO the soCialstic prophet, and,
availing himself of his unlimited powers
as benevolent autocrat abolished by
an imperial decree all private ownership
of land. The great mobiles of the country
We're compelled to renounce their huge
estates. The vacant lands were dis
tributed among the heads of families
every family receiving so much land
but the proprietorship of the lands re-
mained absolutely in the power of the
emperor
The cultivation of lands was regulated
by a strict plan devised by Ouang Ngam
Che and made obligatory by the em-
peror. All excessive produce over and
above that which each family needed
for sustcnance and for seed was de-
clared to he the property of the common
wealth. Those families which were Oc-
cupied with the breeding of cattle We're
required To present all their young cat
tie to the inspector Of the common
wealth, who had the right of approprl-
ating a certain proportion as the prop
erty of the whole community and dis
trihuting the young cattle among the
families that needed them. Even the
forests We're treated as common property
and each family had a legal clam to a
sufficient quantity of nrewood. Every
thing went well for one generation. The
people We're happy and contented. The
social revolution preached by cuang
Ngam Che and enforced by the emperor
was great success. So long rs the
social reform was a novelty there was
zeal enough for its maintenance and
1t seemed to promise a glorious future.
"But the next generation says NJ.
Caubert, Showed signs of backsltding.
The old Adam asserted himself The
farmers. instead of sowing the seed
which the state had distributed among
them, found it more convenient to grind
It and live upon it. and so the fields We're
implanted, and there came years in this
or that district without any harvest at
all The cattle breeders lost their per-
sonal interest in the production and
nurture OF horses, oxen and sheep which
they had to hand over, at the end of all
their pains, to the inspector of the COM
monwealth The men who were em-
ploycd in the forests to cut down trees
for The community rested from their
labor as soon as they had cut down
enough to serve themselves. The wOm-
en-, whom Ouaug Ngam Che required to
be set free from all physical labor, soon
found themselves obliged to put their
hands to work TO save themselves and
their children from the starvation with
which they were threatened by the idle
ness of the head of the family. one
farmer would complain that his land
was so bad that any attempt at Culti-
walton was a waste Of time ana labor;
another grumbled because his neighbor
had twice as much land as himself.
Hunger, misery and competition for
sheer bread returned" The Cinnamon
were not good enough for Ouang Ngam
Che's socalistic system; ana the social
reformer himself died in his old age a
neglected and disappointed man, con-
Tossing with regret that his scheme of re-
form was impractiCable.