The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-08-08
BELLAMpS NEW BOOK.

years ago py writing Looking Backward"
will probably double that fame by the produc.
ton of this new work, which is modelled go
closely on the plan OF the former book that #
might as companion story, have appropri-
ately been called Looking Forward" Both
volumes are really most optimistic looking
forward for US of the nineteenth century. for
the stories are written as a sort of prophecy of
the viewpoint OF one living in the year 1000
and looking backward from a realized earthly
paradise upon the misery and the mperfect
social conditions of the present time.
Equality was happy selection for the
title of the new book, ard in one word it tells
MT beIlamys theory of the only thorough
remedy for present social ills. 1t is a Thought.
1u, studious, clever work. and whether or not
one accepts his suggested cureall as a safe exit
from the wretchedness claimed to be the re-
suits OF present social arrangement IS, it will be
found interesting
Every page bears evidence that the author
Is an ardent lover OF the human race, He is
no wild enthusiast, begging busy world to
pay attention TO half-matured thoughts, but
speaks from full mind Every idea advanced
has been carefully considered from all points,
and alter ten years of Iipering in his own
mind it is now given to the world fully
matured. An able attempt has been made to
torestall adverse criticism by giving an in
telilglble and fair answer to almost every OBJ
lection that could be thought of. He has
made himself familiar with the arguments OF
the political economists and brings forward
counter TO each one of them reasonable enough
TO set people thinking.
No doubt many who have been long opposed
to all socialisuc sch emes will, after reading
these arguments, lay aside the book, so far
convinced as to admit that the problem is not
yet solved, and that it is an open question
whether the theories of Christian socialism
may not be correct as to the solution of our
difficulties. The as TOMS hingly rapid advance
in political power of the Socialistic party OF
Germany is sufficient clone to make this book
OF worldwide interest. 1t is not improbable
that within another decade socialism will be
upon US ole of the liveliest of issues, and
those who do not believe in 1t will have to
rouse themselves most theoretically TO put it
down.
Equality" is a sequel to Looking Back
ward" The character most prominent in the
former book. Julian West, who had been
Boston millionaire under the bygone social
order is continued in this pleasing fiction,
which we are expected by an effort OF pro-
phetic Imagination to read as If we lived in
the happy Utopia 10 be achieved after another
hundred years of progress. This young man
is resuscitated after a century OF hvpnouc
steep, and has to be elaborately instructed by
the new friends he finds around him as 10 the
wonderfully changed conditions of the ad-
vanced world and the history OF how they
were brought about.
There is but a bare thread of story on which
depend q number of essays on political econ
omy thrown into conversational form. In
this slight thread, however, there is distinct
breath of romance, suggested rather than
elaborated, in the love OF Julian West Tor
Edith, who is the great-granddaughter OF the
woman he had loved in his lie before he took
his hypnotic nap of hundred years. One
poetic paragraph in which this love Is alluded
to will show how skillfuly the impression is
produced by brief sentences spared from the
socalistic lectures: 81 had by some great hap
brought her back from dreamland, holding
her by the very strength OF my love when all
else had disso lved at the opening of the eyes.
Why not7 What youth has not often been
visited in his dreams by maideuly ideals falrer
than walk on earth, whom, waking, he has
sighed for and for days been followed by the
haunting memory OF their half-remembered
faces? I, more fortunate than they, had BAT
fed the jealous warder at the gates of sleep
and brought my queen Of dreamland
through"
The happy change that Julian awakes to
look out upon is that his country has been
transformed by sweepingly radical Great
Revolution INTO LQe ''hepuDllc Oh tue GOlAlcu
Rule" This revolution, had been bloc dless-
brought about by the force of public opinion
merely. The nation collectively willed il and
the thing was done. 1t was just as If the old
social order had been brought to trial before
some great and equitable court, tried, con-
demned and executed. The cardinal fe allure
OF the reform was the abolition OF private
capitalism, the profit system, rents and inter
est In their place substituted collective
+t,o tI,r ,7rrt,
their Government, an equal annual division
of all products TO every member OF society,
free access to the land, the use of all surplus
aecumulatons, now called capital for the
general good, and the legal prohibition OF &C
cumulations OF wealth in private hands No
one reading brief outline of the reforms
suggested by Mr.. Beliamy could guess how
plausibly he presents his case in the 400
pages of his book.
The revolution Is not pictured as sudden. 1t
was O sort of evolution. The property OF the
capitalist was not confiscated, but by the great
success of the cooperative national industries
il slowly lessened in value to the vanishing
point, and the wealthy class gradually became
aware OF the wisdom of the change and willing
ly acoulesced in it. For one reason they saw
that their children were immeasurably safer
from want and degradation under public than
private capitalism, and this had always been
one Of the chief incentives for the eccumula-
ton OF large fortunes. The collective stake in
the country is shown to be a more powerful
stimulus TO ambition and industry than the
old struggle for an exclusive and specific por-
ton of it.
Not only IN material welfare but in ethics
the new order is argued TO have produced
vast improvements. In the nineteenth CEN
fury ave had the alternative OF prohtlng by
an unjust system or being its victims" "Our
conscences were completely bedeviled by an
economic system which seemed a hopeless
muddle that nobody could see through, or set
right, or do right under" With the leisure OBJ
tanned by systematized industry and the saw
ing of the waste formerly caused by destruc-
tive competition all the people make great ad-
vance in education, and culture becomes uni
versal.
In order that liberty may be perfectly pre-
served there is provision made for those who
do not like the new socialistic arrangement is
TO 90 out in regions set apart for them, and
live the old life OF individual struggle Tor a
living or wealth but none are found in the
year 1000 fools enough TO surrender their ad-
vantages as citizens of the Republic OF the
Golden Rule.
The argument that only very small part OF
The orent wealth now possible for Individual