Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-01-13
THE OUTLINE OF HISTORY
BY H. G. WELLS

ill-informed and easily put upon. 1t is cap
able at times of great passive resistance, put
it has no purpose in it's round but crops and
crops, to keep out Of debt and hoard against
bad times. So it has remained to our own
days over the greater part of Europe ana
Asia. III
T. Differing widely in origin and quality
from the tflers of the soil was the artisan
class. At first this was probably in part
town slave class, in part it consisted OF peas
ants who had specialized upon craft. But
in developing art and mystery OF its own,
technique that had to be learned before it
could be practiced, each sort of craft prob
ably developed a certain independence and
certain sense of community of its own. Ihe
artisans were able to get together and dis
cuss their affairs more readily than the toll
ers on the land, and they were able to form
guilds to restrict output maintain rates OF
pay and protect their common interest.
s. AS the power of the Babylonian ru'lers
spread out beyond The origin i areas of good
husbandry into grazing regions and less fer
the DISTRICTS a class of herdsmen came into
existence In the case of Babylonia these
were nomadic Semtes, the Bedouin, like the
Bedouin of today. They probably grazed
their flocks over great areas much as the
sheep ranchers of California do They were
paid and esteemed much more highly than
the husbandmen. ui
How Usury Started 49,.
g. The first merchants in the world were
shipowners like the people of Tyre and Cnos-
sos, nOmads who carried and traded goods
as they wandered between area Of prim-
tive civilization and another. In the Baby
lonian and Assyrian world the traders We're
predOminantly the Semitic Arameans, the
ancestors of the modern Syrians. They be-
came distinct factor in the life of the COM
munity; they formed great households of
their own Usury developed largely in the
last 1000 years B. c. Traders needed acc
commodations; cultivators wished to antici-
pate their crops. Sayce Cop. cit.) gives an
account of the Babylonian banking house of
Egibi which lasted through several genera
tions and outlived the Chaldean Empire -.
Z. A class of small retailers one must sup
pose, came into existence with the compl-
cations of society during the later days of
the first empires, but it was not probably of
any great Importance.
8. A growing class of Independent prop
erty owners.
9. AS the amenities of life increased, there
grew up in the court, temples and prosperous
private houses a class of domestic servants,
slaves or freed slaves, or young peasants
taken into the household.
10. Gang workers; there were prisoners
of war or debt slaves, or impressed or de-
ported men. 80
IL. Mercenary soldiers; these were also
often captives or impressed men. Sometimes
they were enlisted from friendly foreign pop
ulations in which the military spirit still -pre-
vailed.
IL. Seamen
The Solidarity of Labor ~ I
In modern political and economic discus
hsions we apt to talk rather glibly Of
labor Much has been made of the solid
arity of labor and it's sense of community~It
is we'll to note that in these first civiliza-
tions, what we speak of as "labor' is repre-.
sented by five distinct cIassc. dissimilar in
origin, traditions and outlook - namely
classes g. 4, 5, 8. II and the oar-tugging part
tu M 1ah &c eyoio1
find when we come to study the mechanical
revolution Of the nineteenth century AID,
new idea and a new possibility in human
affairs. t