Evening star., 1927-11-27


- Athens had already rebuilt it:
homes and renewed the unevel
IL tenor of it's busy life. Tn
burdened with an army anC
equipped with a fleet of 900 vessels
she was now the unchallenged mis-
tress of the Aegean. an her streets
and markets throbbed with the eX
| change of commodities and ideas
Commerce led to industry. industry to
wealth, wealth to leisure and leisure
to art.
AS the laws of Athens interfered
very moderately with the economic
life, there was nothing to prevent the
development of rich class at one end
of rhe social scale and q class or I'M
poverished workers at the other.
Where liberty is greatest, equality is
soon least; the natural differences OF
men in ability and strength multiply
with every year and every opportun-
ity into artificial Inequalities of pos
session and power. 1t is develop
ment always associated, in the past,
with complex and progressive civlll'
cations.
The highest class was still the land
owning aristocracy; below them the
great merchants, who zealousiy
bought land to raise their status in
tradesmen. and the lesser manufac-
tl,rers: then the skilled workers-ma-
sons. carpenters, potters. weaVers,
jewelers., and then the peasants, pa
tientlv tilling the arid soil or tending
the vine. and finally the unskilled Ia
borers, slave or free.
X y x X
Out of a population of 100000 in the
;fe,
free citizens. $4,000 were voteless Tor
eigners, 100000 were slaves. Some
manufacturers, like Nicias and Nina
son. had more than q thousand indus
trial serfs, and lent them out at
cents a day. But the slaves ana
workers were we'll organized in unions
or guilds and fiourished the red flag
as their emblem; they hardly differed,
except in honest disfranchisement
from modern European proletarles'
and in dress they were not distln.
guishable from freemen ana men OF
the master class. The rich, as IN
the days Of the Sanculottes, did their
best to quiet envy by assimilatlng
their visible way of life TO that OF 'ne
people. AS a wise man suggested, II
might not be good policy to let the
slaves realize their overwhelming
majority.
The merchants took great risks ana
suffered great losses or reaped great
rewards. The sea was peopied with
pirates, and Winter storms made nav
igation perilous. But il the cargo
reached it's port the profits of the
owner might reach 100 per cent.
Borrowing was costly, interest rising
from 10 to IL per cent; but even so
the returns were prop0rtlonate; anu
many manufacturers doubled ther
original investment every three years.
AS the silver mines or Laurlum
poured their metal into Athens money
increase in quantity ana lost IN
value; prices were several times hlSh-
er than in Solon's day, and a hundred
times lower than in ours. The rich
mans family spent II cents day on
food. and possessed. at most. $2O0
worth of furniture. A fortune OF
$4,000 was considered shamefully
large. The day laborer received from
6 to 10 cents, brain workers from 70
to 80 cents a day.
The homes of all classes would
have seemed simple to us, for from the
street they presented nothing but
solid wall of masonry or brick, and
they were seldom more than story
high. Windows were infrequent; for
the purpose of house in Athens was
not to admit but to exclude the sun:
only in the GOODNESS of dark interiors
could the Summer be borne. The door
was merely a passageway opening
into an inner court where the life OF
the family. when the heat was not in
tense, was passed in the open air.
There were no panes in the few Win
dows. no chimney for the fire. no
plumbing. no pipes, no drainage;
refuse was emptied into the fields,