Looking Backward: 2000-1887 Page 9

  CHAPTER VI.

  Dr. Leete ceased speaking, and I remained silent, endeavoring to formsome general conception of the changes in the arrangements of societyimplied in the tremendous revolution which he had described.

  Finally I said, "The idea of such an extension of the functions ofgovernment is, to say the least, rather overwhelming."

  "Extension!" he repeated, "where is the extension?"

  "In my day," I replied, "it was considered that the proper functionsof government, strictly speaking, were limited to keeping the peaceand defending the people against the public enemy, that is, to themilitary and police powers."

  "And, in heaven's name, who are the public enemies?" exclaimed Dr.Leete. "Are they France, England, Germany, or hunger, cold, andnakedness? In your day governments were accustomed, on the slightestinternational misunderstanding, to seize upon the bodies of citizensand deliver them over by hundreds of thousands to death andmutilation, wasting their treasures the while like water; and all thisoftenest for no imaginable profit to the victims. We have no warsnow, and our governments no war powers, but in order to protect everycitizen against hunger, cold, and nakedness, and provide for all hisphysical and mental needs, the function is assumed of directing hisindustry for a term of years. No, Mr. West, I am sure on reflectionyou will perceive that it was in your age, not in ours, that theextension of the functions of governments was extraordinary. Not evenfor the best ends would men now allow their governments such powers aswere then used for the most maleficent."

  "Leaving comparisons aside," I said, "the demagoguery and corruptionof our public men would have been considered, in my day, insuperableobjections to any assumption by government of the charge of thenational industries. We should have thought that no arrangement couldbe worse than to entrust the politicians with control of thewealth-producing machinery of the country. Its material interests werequite too much the football of parties as it was."

  "No doubt you were right," rejoined Dr. Leete, "but all that ischanged now. We have no parties or politicians, and as for demagogueryand corruption, they are words having only an historicalsignificance."

  "Human nature itself must have changed very much," I said.

  "Not at all," was Dr. Leete's reply, "but the conditions of humanlife have changed, and with them the motives of human action. Theorganization of society with you was such that officials were under aconstant temptation to misuse their power for the private profit ofthemselves or others. Under such circumstances it seems almost strangethat you dared entrust them with any of your affairs. Nowadays, on thecontrary, society is so constituted that there is absolutely no way inwhich an official, however ill-disposed, could possibly make anyprofit for himself or any one else by a misuse of his power. Let himbe as bad an official as you please, he cannot be a corrupt one. Thereis no motive to be. The social system no longer offers a premium ondishonesty. But these are matters which you can only understand as youcome, with time, to know us better."

  "But you have not yet told me how you have settled the labor problem.It is the problem of capital which we have been discussing," I said."After the nation had assumed conduct of the mills, machinery,railroads, farms, mines, and capital in general of the country, thelabor question still remained. In assuming the responsibilities ofcapital the nation had assumed the difficulties of the capitalist'sposition."

  "The moment the nation assumed the responsibilities of capital thosedifficulties vanished," replied Dr. Leete. "The national organizationof labor under one direction was the complete solution of what was,in your day and under your system, justly regarded as the insolublelabor problem. When the nation became the sole employer, all thecitizens, by virtue of their citizenship, became employees, to bedistributed according to the needs of industry."

  "That is," I suggested, "you have simply applied the principle ofuniversal military service, as it was understood in our day, to thelabor question."

  "Yes," said Dr. Leete, "that was something which followed as a matterof course as soon as the nation had become the sole capitalist. Thepeople were already accustomed to the idea that the obligation ofevery citizen, not physically disabled, to contribute his militaryservices to the defense of the nation was equal and absolute. That itwas equally the duty of every citizen to contribute his quota ofindustrial or intellectual services to the maintenance of the nationwas equally evident, though it was not until the nation became theemployer of labor that citizens were able to render this sort ofservice with any pretense either of universality or equity. Noorganization of labor was possible when the employing power wasdivided among hundreds or thousands of individuals and corporations,between which concert of any kind was neither desired, nor indeedfeasible. It constantly happened then that vast numbers who desired tolabor could find no opportunity, and on the other hand, those whodesired to evade a part or all of their debt could easily do so."

  "Service, now, I suppose, is compulsory upon all," I suggested.

  "It is rather a matter of course than of compulsion," replied Dr.Leete. "It is regarded as so absolutely natural and reasonable thatthe idea of its being compulsory has ceased to be thought of. He wouldbe thought to be an incredibly contemptible person who should needcompulsion in such a case. Nevertheless, to speak of service beingcompulsory would be a weak way to state its absolute inevitableness.Our entire social order is so wholly based upon and deduced from itthat if it were conceivable that a man could escape it, he would beleft with no possible way to provide for his existence. He would haveexcluded himself from the world, cut himself off from his kind, in aword, committed suicide."

  "Is the term of service in this industrial army for life?"

  "Oh, no; it both begins later and ends earlier than the averageworking period in your day. Your workshops were filled with childrenand old men, but we hold the period of youth sacred to education, andthe period of maturity, when the physical forces begin to flag,equally sacred to ease and agreeable relaxation. The period ofindustrial service is twenty-four years, beginning at the close ofthe course of education at twenty-one and terminating at forty-five.After forty-five, while discharged from labor, the citizen stillremains liable to special calls, in case of emergencies causing asudden great increase in the demand for labor, till he reaches the ageof fifty-five, but such calls are rarely, in fact almost never, made.The fifteenth day of October of every year is what we call Muster Day,because those who have reached the age of twenty-one are then musteredinto the industrial service, and at the same time those who, aftertwenty-four years' service, have reached the age of forty-five, arehonorably mustered out. It is the great day of the year with us,whence we reckon all other events, our Olympiad, save that it isannual."