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MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD

Records of the Wears 2001 and 2002

BY

CONRAD WILBRANDT , |,
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TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN

. BY

MARY J. SAFFORD

NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE

1891

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LIBRARY

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Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Broruers.

 

All rights reserved.
EDITOR’S PREFACE.

I was requested by Herr Ost’s relatives to examine
the papers he had left, and to select those which I
deemed suitable for publication. His records of the
years 2001 and 2002 seemed to me noteworthy, and I
thought that they should not be withheld from the
public.

Like Mr. Bellamy’s Julian West, Friedrich Ost * had
the experience of being transported into a distant fut-
ure. Like the former in the year 2000, the latter in
the following ones became a witness of a new order
of things in society and in the State, and confided to
paper what he experienced, heard, and saw. That his
observations led to different conclusions from Julian
West’s cannot render his narrative less valuable in
my eyes.

On the contrary, this difference of observation and
opinion made me consider publication a duty. Many
hundred thousand copies of Looking Backward have
been sold, so the book probably has had millions of
readers. Have not these millions who have read with
interest descriptions of the new arrangement of the
world, who have all been charmed, perhaps, with the
glimpses Julian. West gave them of the life of our
posterity—have not these millions a right to ask that

J
4

iv EDITOR'S PREFACE.

other descriptions, which show the other side of the
life of that world, shall not be withheld? I, at least,
believed it to be their due, and hope that they will
devour this little work with the same eagerness.
This, of course, does not mean to imply that readers
of a different opinion would not be cordially welcome.
D. H.

* Frederick East.— 77%.
CHAP,

I.
Il.

Ii.

Iv.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

Ix.

xL

CONTENTS.

EDITOR’S PREFACE . . . 1. 6 « © ee we
BURIAL AND RESURRECTION . ......
THE FIRST BEGINNINGS OF THE NEW LIFE .. .
HOW SOCIALISTIC LIFE APPEARS IN THE NEWSPA-

PERS). fe go oe WP OR Se ee we Se

A VISIT TO THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF S8TA-

TISTICS « 8 3 % & 8 &% & 6 © & We «
DEPARTURE AND HOME-MAKING . . . 2... .
SISTER MARTHA’S JOURNAL Pe a ee er

A CONVERSATION WITH THE CHANCELLOR. . . .
HOW THE WORLD LOOKED. . ... . - « -
A HAPPY EVENT AND A BIT OF BAD NEWS... .
HOW THE SCHOLARS OF THE SOCIALISTIC STATE RE-

GARD THR TARIFF SYSTEM OF THE PAST .. .
THE END OF SOCIETY . . «© «© «© © «© «© © «
APPENDIX .~. «© © «© © © © © © 8 © © © «@

PAGE

36

84
114
130
165
183
203

213
235
247
Mr. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

IN

Mr. BELLAMY’S WORLD.

CHAPTER I.
BURIAL AND RESURRECTION.

On the 25th day of November, 1890, I reached the
last page of Edward Bellamy’s book Looking Back-
ward. This much-read volume has exerted a singular
influence upon me and my destiny. Indirectly, if not
directly, it has been the cause of my having shared the
fate of the hero of the romance—that, of being trans-
ferred from the time to which I belonged by date of
birth to a period far removed from it.

I was born in the year 1833, and therefore was fifty-
seven years old when I read Mr. Bellamy’s novel. Now
I take up my pen to record my experiences in the years
2001 and 2002. My existence during these years, and
my ability to give an account of that period, I owe to an
event which could not have happened save for the im-
pressions produced by this book.

Edward Bellamy described in his romantic tale the
prosperity and happiness of an age that lay before me

in the misty distance, but which promised to our pos-
1
2 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

terity a future of unusual happiness. Its hero was the

._ American, Julian West, of Boston, who had experienced —
the strange fate of being waked from a mesmeric slum-
ber, into which he had fallen in 1887, by some excava-
tions made in the year 2000 by workmen who destroyed
his subterranean sleeping-room. He received a hospi-
table welcome in the home of Dr. Leete, and finally be-
came engaged to his daughter, in whom he recognized
the great-granddaughter of his former fiancée, Edith
Bartlett.

The story of this betrothal and the unexpected
changes in the life of this new era—the latter mainly
learned through the explanations of Dr. Leete—are re-
lated by Mr. Bellamy’s hero.

The condition of affairs, both in society and in the
Government, seemed to me peculiar—nay, extraordinary.
In the path-way of peaceful development the Govern-
ment had become in all civilized countries the pro-
ducer of every commodity. The entire sum of capital
had passed into its possession, and the people owned
only what they had obtained from the State to furnish
their homes, for food, clothing, or other uses. ;

The whole laboring community, like the means of
labor, was at the disposal of the State. An exchange
of services between individuals no longer took place.
Whoever desired to obtain an article or any personal
service could secure it only at the public storehouses or
bureaus of the Government.

Every one was compelled to work for the State, but
all had an equal share of the profits. All differences in
the payment for work had ceased; the fundamental
principle being that every individual served the com-
munity to the best of his or her ability, and that all had
an equal right to the goods of the world.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 3

Entire liberty in the choice of a profession was allowed
to every person. The Government took the sole charge
of education, gave to every one the same intellectual and
physical training, offered to every one the same oppor-
tunity for the acquisition of knowledge and of practical
skill. The period of compulsory instruction lasted until
the twenty-first year. At this age the young people en-
tered upon their active life, but were first subjected to a
season of apprenticeship, during which their superiors
might assign them to any task, and after whose expira-
tion each was considered qualified to choose the occupa-
' tion best suited to his tastes and inclinations. Whoever
selected a purely intellectual avocation received instruc-
tion gratuitously at some higher institution of learning
until his thirtieth year. At the age of forty-five every
citizen was released from toil, but retained his share of
the profits of the general labor so long as he lived.

If, owing to the free choice of professions, some oc-
cupations which were more burdensome and difficult
did not have a sufficient number of volunteers, a balance
was obtained by lessening the hours of labor.

As there was no traffic between individuals, money had
vanished from society. The Government estimated the
value of all productions at a fixed sum, and, at the begin-
ning of the year, issued to all citizens credit cards, bearing
the sum allotted to each person as his share of the profits
of the products of the common industry. Each was en-
titled to buy what he desired ; he showed his credit card,
and a snip with the scissors marked the amount required
for payment. The international traffic, carried on sole-
ly by the governments, consisted merely of an exchange
of goods. An international syndicate appraised these
goods, and, by fixing their value, secured an equable set-
tlement. These, briefly described, were the main feat-
4 MR, FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

ures of the new order of things in society and the State.
It was the realization of the social-democratic idea, but
the realization had resulted in every respect for the wel-
fare of mankind. Social life was quiet and peaceful.
Political and social conflicts no longer existed, because
all division of interests had ceased. Crimes became a
rarity, because their principal incentives, avarice and
selfishness, no longer found opportunity for action.
Disputes arising from differences of opinion in business
were at an end, because people no longer transacted
business with one another. Unhappy marriages no lon-
ger poisoned life, because marrying for money had be-
come an impossibility, and no young girl, urged by ne-
cessity, felt a desire to give her hand to an unloved
husband. Casualties such as were caused by the former
mode of traffic, lack of work in consequence of a finan-
cial crisis, and loss of life due to inability to pay, were
unknown ideas. As the government was administered
in the simplest manner, and with the suppression of
motives for quarrels between the nations armies were
no longer maintained, the whole commercial system
had vanished. No one now sought work in vain, in-
dustrial production had gained a great increase of
strength, and the Government, spite of shortening the
time of labor several hours, found itself able to offer
the citizens so many pleasures that scarcely one of them
felt a desire which must remain ungratified. True,
Julian West did not mention the value of the eredit
cards, but the glimpse of Dr. Leete’s household which
he gives the reader shows a mode of life which, in the
last decade of the nineteenth century, could not have
been maintained on an income of less than twelve to
fifteen thousand marks.

Such were the contents of this remarkable book. T
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 5

lay down on my sofa, to fall into a restless, brooding
reverie. One thing was evident: if the abolition of
private property, the direction of manufacturing estab-
‘lishments by the Government, and the equalization of
distribution afforded the means of giving the laboring
population abundant prosperity and preserving man-
kind from suffering and want, opposition was insolence,
delay a crime. If such favorable conditions could be
attained by all, the more favorable condition of the
upper classes should offer no obstacle. But was all
this within the bounds of possibility? Had our faulty
world room for so much unclouded happiness ?

Misgivings of all kinds arose in my mind, and a flood
of doubts surged through my brain. -

Will the employés of the Government in this social-
istic state have the ability to perform all the business
functions of the people with the same degree of energy
which has hitherto resulted from the conflict of interests
in the struggle for existence and the pursuit of gain by
millions of individuals ?

Will all these millions feel the same love of work
when material interests are no longer at stake, and anx-
iety concerning daily bread, as well as the incentive of
profit, are unknown to them? And will these millions
have the consciousness of happiness and contentment
when they no longer call anything their own and lead
a life free from care and conflict ?

Will strife and envy be banished with property from
the human race? Will an equal income abolish hatred
and leave no opportunity for rancor and rivalry ?

Will differences of opinion in politics and administra-
tion cease if the Government becomes the sole manu-
facturer and distributor of goods ? \

Will the extinction of material interests exorcise the
6 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

spectres of class hatred, race hatred, and religious ha-
tred ?

All these doubts and questions besieged my brain.
When doubt gained the upperhand all the images of
want and woe in the world rose before me, and while
these cheerless visions held sway it again became uncer-
tain whether doubt was justifiable.

“The present social system, where selfishness reigns
and constantly creates rich and poor, is a poisonous
growth which must be eradicated,” said one voice. “'The
present social system,” said another, “is a work of Nat-
ure, and the human race will perish if it leaves the
paths the universal mother has assigned.” ‘“ Wealth
must disappear,” urged one voice, “for it ceaselessly
draws poverty like a satellite in its circles.” ‘‘ Wealth
is a blessing,” retorted another, “for it will crowd out
poverty as light dispels darkness.” Which are the good
and which are the evil voices? I strove to marshal the
throng of contradictory thoughts in battle-array against
each other, hoping that the sight of two well-arranged
armies would afford a clear idea which side possessed
the more effective weapons. But my brain was heated
to boiling point, my blood was fairly seething, and a
leaden weight rested on my eyelids. I tried to sleep,
hoping to find rest, but Morpheus would not come, and
the wild hunt of thoughts careered unchecked through
my mind.

I don’t know whether it was owing to the heat of the
room—and my chronic nervousness contributed its quota
—but my condition finally grew unbearable, and I sprang
from my sofa to seek rest and coolness in the autumn
air. Heedless where I went, I walked down Friedrich-
strasse, and, after a long distance, turned into Leipziger-
strasse. The dazzling brillianey of the electric lights
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 7

and the crowd of vehicles and people did me good.
True, I was not relieved from the torturing pressure on
my brain and the heavy weight on my eyes, but my
thoughts were diverted by the splendor of the shops
and the bustle of the people.

, i had reached the end of the street when I suddenly
felt a light tap on my shoulder. Turning in surprise I
looked into the smiling face of my friend, Ferdinand
Scherr, manager of an international banking business,
with whom I had been in the habit of spending my
evenings for years.

“Why, my dear friend,” he said, half jesting, half in
earnest, “ you have returned from your journey and did
not let me know? What has become of our agreement?”

The question perplexed me. I had come back from
a long trip three days before, and had not once thought
of sending him a postal-card. I strove to falter an apol-
ogy, but Scherr perceived my embarrassment and laid
his hand on my lips.

“No matter,” he said, “I know how absent-minded
you are, and it shall not be treasured up against you.
But I am glad that I can give you an interesting even-
ing.”

“ An interesting evening?” I replied, fearing that my
heavy head and the flood of thoughts in it would not
suffer even the most interesting things to charm me.

“Yes, indeed! A native East Indian called at my
office this morning to ask for some information about
the international bank business. As my time was very
much occupied, and I could not give the desired ex-
planation briefly, I made an appointment with him at a
Vienna café, and am now on my way there.”

Before he had finished these words he had seized me

‘by the arm and was leading me forward.
8 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

A few steps more and we entered a tastefully fur-
nished, not too spacious, but very cosey restaurant. The
guests were few; so it was not difficult to find a quiet
corner.

On a comfortable divan in an alcove sat a tall, slender
man, whose white beard and sharply-cut features indi-
cated that his age was nearly sixty, while, spite of his
European garb, his bronzed complexion enabled us to
recognize the East Indian we expected. No sooner did
he see my friend Scherr than he rose and came forward
with a courteous bow, saying,

“T am greatly indebted to you for taking so much
trouble on my account, and only hope that you are not
sacrificing too much of your valuable time.”

He spoke German fluently, but with a peculiar accent,
and his grammar was not perfectly correct.

“No, indeed, Herr Bernusi,” Scherr answered. “1
am entirely at your service, and will frankly admit that
I was not wholly unselfish in choosing this hour. I trust
it will afford us opportunity for better acquaintance and
a pleasant chat. But first allow me to present an old
friend, who is privileged to claim my evenings: Herr
Bernusi, from India, Herr Friedrich Ost,* a worthy na-
tive of Mecklenburg, now residing in Berlin.”

While speaking, Scherr motioned us to sit down, then
ordered coffee, and at once commenced to speak of the
subject on whose account Bernusi had called upon him
in the morning.

The matter was settled in less than half an hour. Ber-
nusi made a few notes in his memorandum-book, and
seemed extremely gratified with the information ob-
tained.

“T thank you very much for your kindness,” he said.

* Mr. Frederick East.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 9

“When I return to the East Indies with valuable aids to
my banking business I shall owe them mainly to your
knowledge and good-will.”

“TJ am greatly obliged to you,” replied Scherr, “and
only hope that my information may lead to more ex-
tended relations. If your house should feel disposed to
continue the connections formed with Germany, our
bank will gladly seize every opportunity of serving you.”

“T am sure of that,” answered the East Indian, “and
though at my age, and with the great distance which
separates us, I can scarcely hope for repeated personal
interviews, I trust I may often have the pleasure of ex-
changing letters.”

Ferdinand Scherr smiled.

“Unluckily, our age of electricity and steam has not
yet wholly conquered distance. Therefore we must hold

- fast to the happy hours which afford us the pleasure of
petsonal intercourse. I hope you will not refuse to be
my guest this evening.”

Scherr summoned a waiter and ordered some Heid-
sieck. An animated conversation ensued, as always hap-
pens when Germans meet a scion of the ancient land of
marvels. At first I was more silent and reserved than
usual on such occasions, for the leaden weight on my
brain and the prickling sensation in my eyes rendered
me dull and taciturn. But the fascinating topic of the
talk, and also probably the stimulating effect of the wine,
did not fail to exert their reviving influence. Bernusi’s
thoughtful eloquence, especially, brought me into a more
sympathizing mood.

He talked well, and showed a remarkable knowledge
of all the affairs of his native land. The mode of life in

_ the upper and lower classes of all the different nationali-
ties, their customs and occupations, the condition of the
10 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

manufacturing population and the various agricultural
pursuits, the trend of taste in architecture and costume,
the wonders of the flora and the fauna, the peculiarities
in the differences of religious faith, the connection be-
_ tween the climate, social life, and creed —suflice it to
say that he understood how to describe everything which
could interest us.

He himself was a Brahmin, and in his creed showed
that he was a man in whom intellect and religious feel-
ing were duly balanced.

The vivacity of the conversation made us feel better
acquainted, and it seemed a matter of course that we
should urge him to tell us some of the experiences of
his life. This introduced us to a new and interesting
sphere, for Bernusi’s career had been a busy and a
changeful one. Pursued by various blows of fate he
had tried nearly every calling, wandered through all the
provinces of his vast native land. I involuntarily asked
him where he had spent his youth, and how he had laid
the foundations of his culture.

“In my youth,” he said, “I worked on my father’s
cotton plantation in Lahore, and here the Fakir Haridas
noticed me and asked my father to let me enter his
service. At first he refused, but finally yielded to my
entreaties. I then spent a number of years with this
Haridas, and to his philosophical method of searching
into the most secret things I am probably principally
indebted for my habit of observing all phenomena.”

‘“Haridas, do you say?’ I interrupted. “Isn’t that
the famous fakir whose repeated burials while alive
are still a mystery to European scholars ?”

“ Oertainly, that very Haridas; and I think it will
probably be some time longer ere exact investigation
will find an explanation of the manner in which a man
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 11

can spend weeks and months in the grave without being
either alive or dead, and, on being brought to the air
and light, begin by means of artificial inhalation to
breathe and live again.”

“ Have you ever witnessed such burials?’

“TI was present when General Ventura made his much-
discussed experiment with him. Nay, Haridas had
stipulated that the opening of the grave should be done
in my presence, and that I alone should use the means
to recall him to life.”

Bernusi now related in detail all the particulars of
this extraordinary case. How Haridas had cut the lig-
ament of the tongue, which rolled back, closing the
throat; how he, Bernusi, had then carefully plugged
the ears and nostrils, and how quickly this peculiar con-
dition of trance had followed. How the body had then
been placed in a chest, the chest buried, and the grave
sown with barley, and how, forty days after, the care-
fully-guarded grave had been opened in the presence
of witnesses. The body was cold and rigid, but by
means of artificial respiration and the application of
heat the lifeless form was speedily restored to anima-
tion.

During this narrative Scherr had frequently looked
at me and smiled, casting a side-glance at Bernusi, as if
to intimate that the champagne must have got into his
head. I did not allow myself to be vexed, but con-
tinued to discuss the peculiarity of this trance with the
East Indian.

“Why, you are a queer fellow, Ost,” Scherr burst
forth at last. “I have always known you as a sceptic
who believes nothing for which proof cannot be given,
and here you seem to credit tales at which sensible wom-
en would shake their heads.”
°

12 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

Bernusi looked up in surprise, but was courteous
enough not to reply.

My blood boiled with anger, and I could not refrain
from making a sharp answer.

“TI believe what I cannot help believing,” I cried,
“and where doubt is no longer possible. So long as I
had no witnesses of the matter, I, too, was incredulous.
But since I have heard of it from a most reliable man,
who was present himself, I should be committing an in-
justice were I to have the faintest disbelief. For the
rest, we need not go to East India to learn that a body
which lacks nothing except that it has lost the faculty
of breathing will remain preserved from corruption if
we keep the air from it. And, if a body remains un-
harmed, we need only set the lungs in motion, and the
heart begins to beat, the blood circulates, and all the
organs resume their functions.”

“Then I suppose that in Mecklenburg you have seen
the dead brought back to life, and buried bodies resur-
rected? You appear to be remarkably well-informed
to-night.”

“We are not discussing the dead, and we will let
those who are buried rest. I merely said that, by
excluding the air, we may preserve bodies from cor-
ruption. You seem to think that there is nothing in
the world save what natural philosophy has already in-
vestigated; but the probability is that there is an un-
known third condition, which is neither life nor death.
If we exclude the air from a body which is in this
third condition, if we render it impossible for the
oxygen of the air to unite with the carbon of the food
and thus produce heat and corruption, I know no
reason why the organs of such a body should not act
again.”
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 13

Scherr had started from his chair, and was pacing up
and down the now empty room with long strides.

“Before talking such nonsense you would better
blow out some old dog’s vital spark and bring him
back to life again,” he said.

“Fudge about dogs and vital sparks! I am not
speaking of a man whose lamp of life has gone out,
but of. one who is neither dead nor alive, who is noth-
ing but a machine that has stopped working for a few
weeks. Set the driving-wheel in motion, and the shaft
will turn, and so will the little wheels, and the whole
machine will be in full running order.”

“Yet I tell you that, in spite of all your eloquence,
you don’t believe it yourself.”

“T don’t believe it? Your circle of vision seems to
have narrowed strangely. You once told me that grains
of wheat, which had lain four thousand years in the
hand of an Egyptian mummy, gave proof of their ger-
minating power as soon as they were placed in fertile
soil. And now you want to dispute the ability of an
equally sound man to live again when his lungs are
forced to breathe.”

“ Nevertheless, I repeat that you don’t believe it
yourself; and, if you desire, I’ll prove the fact.”

“You'll prove it ?”

“Tl prove it.” Scherr stopped in his walk, planted
himself in front of me, and looked down at me in a very
condescending way. “T’ll prove it, because you haven’t
courage to let yourself be put into a trance and buried.”

The words were uttered at the wrong time. We had
already reached the seventh bottle, and the wine had
_ done its work on me. My over-excited brain had lost
the power of resisting the alcohol, and the liquor had
only increased the pricking sensation in my eyes. This
14 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

had made me irritable, and would not permit me to
pause for calm reflection.

“T don’t know what courage it would require for the
simplest possible matter,” I answered. “Or do you con-
sider it a misfortune to cease living a few weeks, and
thus strengthen the nerves for a new existence ?”

“TI stick to it that you haven’t the courage to try;
that you'll take good care not to let yourself be buried.”

“ And I say that it would be cowardice to fear, and I
have no such timorousness.”

Here Bernusi interposed. The wine had gone to his
head, too, but he retained his courteous, affable manner,
and quietly asserted that I was perfectly right, the mat-
ter should not be regarded as an extraordinary thing,
and if only Scherr would help him he would gladly place
me in this condition of trance.

True, he observed, I had had no practice in holding
the breath a long time, by means of which Haridas al-
ways made the matter so easy, but if I would take the
precaution to keep perfectly quiet for two days, restrict
my diet to a few cups of milk, and take rhubarb regu-
larly, he would guarantee a successful result.

Scherr had already become inaccessible to sensible
reasoning. He was naturally the most obliging of mor-
tals, but wine speedily made him combative, and when
he had once uttered a contradiction he obstinately per-
sisted in it.

So he insisted that it was all sheer nonsense, and that
I should not have courage for such a venture. No mat-
ter how much I might protest to-night that I did not
lack bravery, he would stake his life that, at the moment
the deed was to be done, my resolution would pitiably
fail.

The result was the one usual in such cases. After a
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 15

long wrangle an agreement was made and sealed by the
most solemn oaths.

Scherr said that he knew a place, about an hour’s ride
from Berlin, which seemed as though it had been cre-
ated for such an interment. It was a gravel-pit in a
little wood, where the burial could take place unnoticed
and all traces of it could be easily effaced. He under-
took to have the grave dug, and agreed to furnish a zine
chest, which appeared to him to be better than a wooden
one. Bernusi promised to provide scissors suitable for
cutting the ligament of the tongue, and assured us that
he would return from a journey to England by Decem-
ber 31st at latest, in order to superintend my recall to
life. It was my desire to begin a new existence with
the first hours of the New Year.

For my part, I pledged myself to keep my room dur-
ing the next two days, and to take nothing except milk
and rhubarb, according to the directions given by Ber-
nusi. On November 27th, at five o’clock in the after-
noon, Bernusi and Scherr were to call for me.

‘Scherr required Bernusi to swear solemnly that he
would not make the slightest attempt to deter me from
the plan. He wanted to prove that at the last moment
I would show the white feather pitiably.

We all three took our overcoats, for it was nearly
morning.

“Good-night, my boy,” said Scherr, laying his hand
on my shoulder with a significant glance. “ You’ll make
yourself ridiculous enough day after to-morrow; but
rest assured that you needn’t fear being laughed at all
your life.”

Bernusi pressed my hand and we parted, each going
in the direction of his sleeping-room.

I went to bed at once, and at first it seemed as though
16 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

I should fall asleep speedily. The soothing influence
of my potations appeared to be stronger than my rebel- '
lious nervous system. But the fumes of the alcohol
passed away too soon, and a wild confusion of thoughts
darted through my brain which, despite my weariness,
robbed me of rest.

The events of the evening, even Bernusi’s interesting
communications, were soon effaced, but Bellamy’s daz-
zling descriptions, my torturing doubts concerning them,
the social question, and the thought of the aspirations
and desires of the laboring classes whirled ceaselessly
through my mind. The next night, too, sleep deserted
me, and so, on the afternoon of the 27th, I was in a con-
dition of nervous excitement and physical exhaustion
which baffles description, and rendered me incapable of
realizing the risk of my strange plan, and on what
chances my awakening depended. I had but one desire:
to sleep, to rest, to forget,and one thought alone had
charms for me—the thought of oblivion.

So it was like a sensation of deliverance when Ber-
nusi and Scherr entered the room. A few minutes later
we were all three seated in the carriage rolling through
the streets.

The conversation turned on matters which, in my
situation, had no interest. The foggy weather of the
past few days, the moon which rose during our drive,
the new regulations in the Chamber of Deputies, ete.

Scherr sometimes cast a watchful glance at me, but he
could scarcely have read in the expression of my face
any intimation whether he was to triumph or not.

At the end of an hour the carriage stopped on the
edge of a little wood. The moon and a lantern lighted
us through the trees, and in a few minutes we found
ourselves at the gravel-pit Scherr had selected. A grave
IN MR, BELLAMY’S WORLD. 17

had been dug, and a large zine chest stood beside it.
No one uttered a word. Scherr constantly fixed inquir-
ing glances on me.

A chill ran through my veins when I saw the hole
and the chest standing ready to receive me. But it soon
passed away; the weight on my brain and the pricking
sensation in my eyes left no room for any thought save
the desire to rest and sleep. Bernusi opened my teeth
with a small pair of pincers and put the scissors into
my mouth.

“Why, you are perfect children!” cried Scherr, an-
grily ; “do you really mean—”

It was already too late. Bernusi’s scissors had done
their work. I felt my tongue roll up, closing my throat.
I tried to cry out, but in vain. The air in my body
stagnated, and in a second I had ceased to think or feel.

It was really all over withme. Did they put me in
the coffin and bury me? Did I lie in the grave till the
31st of December, and was I then recalled to existence ?
That I did come to life again I can prove by this story,
for I have actually written it with my own hand since
my resurrection. That I have lain in a zinc coffin and
in a grave has been declared to me, and even legally
certified. But that I was among the living on the first
of January, 1891, I could not truthfully assert.

My old friend Scherr—and I think Bernusi also—pos-
sessed honorable principles and a loyal heart. They
would not have left a friend in the grave beyond the
date of agreement, had they not been withheld from
awakening him by some irresistible power. Perhaps:
one may have been lost on the sea-voyage and the other
may have died of apoplexy. I have never been able to
ascertain, and it will probably remain a mystery forever.

But it is a fact that the 1st of January, 1891, and many,
2
18 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

many more New-years’ Days passed over the earth
while I lay interred in the gravel-pit. At last, however,
the hour came when I was taken out, and since that
time I have lived as before among good and bad people,
and, like them, enjoy the blissful consciousness of ex-

istence.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 19

CHAPTER II.

THE FIRST BEGINNINGS OF THE NEW LIFE.

Ir was a peculiar feeling when I first opened my
eyes with returning consciousness. A vague impression
haunted me that I had glanced around two or three
times before and seen people busied with me; but the
perception was very dim, and I could recall no particu-
lars.

This time it was evident that I had waked from sleep
and was in a strange place. The apartment was moder-
ately large; I lay in a comfortable bed, and there were
pieces of furniture of various kinds in the room.

I taxed my brain to recall the past and understand the
situation, and it was natural that my thoughts should
revert to the last incident which had occurred.

So I remembered that the East Indian, Bernusi, had
thrown me into a condition of trance. The wine we
had drunk, the fantastic tales of the East Indian fakirs,
the nervous condition into which reading Bellamy’s
book had thrown me—all these things recurred to my
mind.

Then my eyes chanced to fall upon a calendar which
hung on the wall near my bed. I saw, in large figures,
the number 29, above which was the word “ October,”
and above that, “ Calendar for the year 2001.” A thrill
ran through my limbs, and I was forced to think wheth-
er I was awake or dreaming.
20 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENOES

My mind was still very weak, and I was hardly capa-
ble of solving a difficult problem. But the enigma
here was less perplexing than a sum in mathematics or
a philosophical problem. The chance, I argued, that
people will leave an old calendar hanging in a room
cannot be reckoned among the impossibilities. Who-
ever does not feel the necessity of hanging up a new
calendar, at the commencement of a new year, might
easily forget to take down the old one. It might, and
frequently does, also happen that people omit to tear
off a sheet each day, and therefore a wall calendar shows
a date long since past. But it is impossible that people
would adorn a room with the calendar of a year still in
the distant future, for there are no such calendars, nor
is there any object in racking one’s brains about the
days on the calendar of the future.

In the year 1890 no calendars bearing the date of
1895 or of 1900 will be found on the walls. But what
if a calendar is marked 2001? Surely that is a certain
proof either that the year is 2001 or that it has already
passed. Which of these two conjectures was correct I
eared not. I was content to know positively that I was
not in a period prior to 2001.

So I was in the golden age Bellamy describes. I had
had the same fate as Julian West; like him, I was to
behold with my own eyes what had been denied to all
our contemporaries. And—all my torturing doubts
were to be solved; I could see and test; I should wit-
ness for myself how men live, grow, and prosper in this
visionary, long desired world.

The feeling that stole over me was a happy and joy-
ous one, but too powerful for a man who was just be-
ginning to regain his vital energy after a death slum-
ber of one hundred and eleven years. Weakness and
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD.. 21

faintness overcame me, and I soon sank into a deep
sleep.

How long I lay in this slumber of course I do not
know, but I woke at a slight noise, and saw that a lady
had cautiously entered and was approaching my bed.
She wore a dress of the cut and color I had formerly
seen used by deaconesses and nurses. Evidently sur-
prised to see my eyes open, she sat down noiselessly in
a chair by my bedside.

“ Are you really awake, Herr Ost?” she asked, with
a tone and look which exerted a very beneficial in-
fluence upon me. She was one of those winning
persons who never fail to inspire sympathy and confi-
dence.

“T am awake,” I answered. But the sound of my
own voice startled me. It was scarcely above a whis-
per, but a whisper in which strange tones blended.

Then I added that I had already begun to suspect in
what time I was living, but could not yet understand
where I was.

The lady looked at me in some little perplexity.

“ All these matters are of minor importance. The
fortunate thing is that you have waked, for it assures
us that you will speedily gain fresh vigor. Keep very
quiet, and you will yet have many beautiful and happy
days of existence.”

She felt my pulse and forehead, and seemed greatly
relieved.

“You will probably remain under my charge for
some time, but you shall fare well. There are no ill-
disposed people here.”

The words sounded so kind and cordial that I felt
strangely attracted towards her. I longed to answer in
the same friendly way, but perceived that I should be
22 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

unable to do so, and contented myself with stammering
a few words of thanks.

She did notelet me finish.

“ Avoid all exertion, Herr Ost. According to the
doctor’s orders, you must remain perfectly quiet and
take strengthening food, though not in large quantities.
Probably your stomach will not resume its functions
easily.”

Of this fact I was soon convinced. My nurse repeat-
edly gave me a spoonful of old Tokay wine, and a cup
of bouillon which seemed to consist of many nutritious,
yet digestible substances ; but spite of my great hunger
everything I ate caused some degree of uneasiness. Be-
sides, I soon became aware of my utter weakness. All
my limbs were clumsy and powerless, and my bones’
seemed like a machine that has long been left rusty, and
whose parts, for lack of oil, will not move again.

But the united exertions of the doctor, who visited me
several times a day, and of my nurse, who with tireless

-solicitude did everything which could tend to give me
strength and ease, relieved me in a few days from the
feeling of total helplessness. I was soon able to spend
a few hours daily in a wheel-chair in the garden, and
the delightful autumn air, together with the food se-
lected for me with the utmost care, gradually restored
my control over my limbs.

The more my strength increased the less restraint my
nurse imposed upon herself. She became more com-
municative, and soon showed no hesitation in telling me
the whole truth in regard to my situation. I was in the
Emperor and Empress Frederick Institute in Berlin, and
the day on which I first awoke was really the 29th of
October, 2001. I had been discovered two days before
by some workmen who were boring in the gravel-pit.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 293

They had at first believed that they had found the vic-
tim of a murderer, but perceiving no traces of corrup-
tion in my body, though my clothing crumbled like
tinder at the slightest touch, they deemed it advisable
to summon a physician and a police officer. It was a
fortunate accident that they chanced to call a doctor,
who perhaps was the only man able to save me. He
was a medical professor 7 spe, whose taste led him to in-
vestigate the trance condition, and who had been given,
as the subject of his graduating thesis, the task of ex-
pounding, on the basis of the results of exact science,
whether the accounts of the burials and revivals of fakirs,
repeatedly received from India, were to be accepted as
true, and how these events could be explained. The
plugs of wax in my ears and nostrils gave the young
physician the right clew, and when he forced my teeth
apart, the rolled-up tongue led him to infer that the man
who lay in the chest was not dead but in atrance. Hav-
ing become familiar with the case through his studies, it
had not been very difficult to evoke some of the first
signs of returning life.

Nor had he remained wholly ignorant of my identity.
A pocket-book with a metal clasp, on which was en-
graved, “To our dear Friedrich Ost, on his 57th birth-
day, August 8th, 1890. The three euchre partners,” had
been found in my coat. So my name was known ; and by
this date, and a few memoranda which were still legible,
the length of my trance could be approximately estimated.

I felt the obligation of explaining to Sister Martha—
my nurse had taken this name because, she said, it had
become so dear to her while studying Bible history—
how my trance had been produced. I did so with a
touch of humor, for the whole affair seemed to me ex-
tremely comical.
24 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

Sister Martha, however, thought that I had been act-
ually blasphemous in thus trifling with the life which
God had given, and that I could not be sufficiently grate-
ful to my Creator for permitting me to exist again. The
discussion of my case, however, led to the discovery of
many points of agreement between us, and thus ren-
dered the period of convalescence very entertaining and
pleasant.

Sister Martha was refined and communicative, and
though outwardly gay, she had a grave and earnest nat-
ure. Spite of the great difference in our ages—she was
about twenty-four years old—she fully understood all
my interests, and it afforded me genuine pleasure to dis-
cuss with her everything that lay specially near my
heart. She not only listened with sympathy, but antici-
pated what I was going to say. Of her own affairs I as
yet knew nothing; and much as I would have liked to
learn what had induced a woman with her evident vivac-
ity and gay, fresh feelings to choose so young a profes-
sion which exacts more self-sacrifice than any other, I
did not venture to press her with questions, because
when I turned the conversation to her past life she
always appeared to shun the subject. Yet she was eager
to have me speak of myself, and having nothing to con-
ceal, my former existence soon lay unveiled before her.

One day when, after the successful result of my first
feeble effort to walk about my room, I felt assured of
my increased strength, I was particularly inclined to en-
ter into a more detailed conversation, and, not without
design, turned the talk to the subject which was occu-
pying my own mind and thoughts. I described how,
even in childhood, my sympathies had been with the op-
pressed and suffering rather than with the rich and
powerful ones of the earth, and how it had always been
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 25

a sorrowful thought to me that the class of prosperous
people was so small, while the millions who were com-
pelled to spend their lives in hard labor, amid anxieties
and deprivations, numbered so many.

I minutely described the dark side of the world’s social
system, the wretchedness that frequently exists in the
immediate vicinity of wealth and splendor, and the un-
deniable injustice of having the rich speculator pocket,
with very little exertion, an enormous profit, while the
laborer, from whose sweat and toil others gain wealth,
can hardly obtain bread for himself and his family.

While speaking I did not omit to point out the par-
ticularly sad fact that, for want of work, so many people
cannot possibly earn a living by honest toil—a melan-
choly condition of affairs, whose reality is proved in a
most pathetic way by the circumstance that the num-
ber of crimes always lessens whenever there is an in-
ereased demand for labor.

I then passed to my own studies of the social question,
relating how for years it had been the main subject of
my thoughts and investigations ; how earnestly I had en-
deavored to understand it clearly, not only by careful ex-
amination of all the scientific researches into the matter,
from whatever rank in life they were made, but still
more by thoroughly testing all the actual phenomena of
industrial life. While thus engaged, however, I had be-
come more and more convinced that the Government, it
is true, can come to the rescue in individual relations by
legal interference, but that a universal remedy for the
ills of the social system cannot be found; that the social
world, like all nature, is guided by fixed laws, and that
it would merely occasion fresh disasters if we attempted
to introduce human patchwork into this great natural
system. “The human race is not yet rich enough,” I
26 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

concluded, “ to supply every one with a well-spread board,
and, in my opinion, the sole resource is by increased
labor to accumulate fresh amounts of capital—that very
capital to which the two extreme parties, the high tories,
as well as the social democrats, are so bitterly hostile.”

Sister Martha had listened with the most eager atten-
tion, and sometimes seemed very much moved when I
spoke with increasing warmth of the need of the labor-
ing classes. When I paused she sat in meditative silence.

“You will now understand,” I went on, “that I could
not help being roused to a singular mood while reading
Bellamy’s brilliant descriptions. In a no very distant
future I found the human race delivered from want. I
saw atime when men had ceased to battle against one an-
other in selfish strife, when all the treasures of the earth
would be open to every human being in rich abundance
and in equal measures.

“But you will also perceive that I was not wholly free
from doubts, and that these doubts grew more unendur-
able the less possibility I beheld of dispelling them. Our
nerves are often our masters, and when they prick our
limbs and commence their wild career through our brains
we can neither control them nor our reason. Such was
my condition on the evening I undertook this luckless
venture. Even had I realized the folly of my conduct,
I could not have refrained by my own strength of will.”

“Well, Herr Ost,” replied Sister Martha, smiling,
“the affair has ended happily, and I hope you won’t be
sorry to live with us people of the future. Doubtless,
too, your nerves will be less rebellious after this long
rest. Whether you will find with us what—as I suppose
—you desire, time must decide.”

“Tf I am to be perfectly frank,” I answered, “I am
not at all dissatisfied with my fate, and would not wish
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. Q7

to undo the past. I shall witness in person how human-
ity fares in the beginning of the twenty-first century,
, and how affairs are managed in the socialistic govern-
ment. But what induces you to put such a covert query
to me just at the outset of my new career?”

“What induces me, Herr Ost? Why, I am merely
giving utterance to my thoughts. I am only a woman,
and shall avoid discussing with men the social system
and the laws of nature, as you term them. Still, I, too,
observe a little, and investigate facts as well asI can. So
I cannot help asking myself what is to make men better
if they are relieved from all care and struggle? Anxie-
ties and conflicts are a part of human life. They steel
the strength and rouse the creative impulse; if they are
removed, man will soon live like the beasts, which only
trot forward so long as they know the lash is behind.
In former times every individul had a sense of responsi-
bility; every man knew that work and food depended
upon his own exertions. Now they all have a right to
require the Government to give them what it has, and
even though they may be under obligations to work for
the State, the secret spur which urges them to constant
toil is lacking.”

“Why, you are confounding the present condition of
affairs with that of former times,” I replied. “The com-
plaint in the old epoch was that the day-laborer had no
energy, no interest in his work. Nothing of all he cre-
ated belonged to him. He toiled his allotted number of
hours, always conscious that the stipulated amount of
wages must be paid to him, whether he accomplished
much or little. This, as I read Bellamy, is precisely
where the gratifying change has occurred. The laborer
no longer toils for others, but for himself. He knows
that no portion of what he creates can be lost, for he
28 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

shares in the products of the work with all the others,
and it can therefore be only for his advantage if, by the
exertion of all his strength, he creates a large quantity
of useful wares.”

“That might’be true,” replied Martha, “if men were
not men. But I, too, have some little knowledge of
them. How useful it is for all to be inspired by genu-
ine public spirit everybody is aware, and they can all
make the finest speeches about it. They always promptly
perceive any lack of it in others, too. But what if the
matter touches their own affairs? What if they them-
selves are to contribute to the public welfare? Then
they see with very different eyes; then it becomes a
fundamental principle: myself first, last, and always;
and everybody keenly feels that a personal profit is his
own, while a profit to the community falls to him only
in part and often after a long interval. We need. not go
down to the lower classes to discern this; the educated
classes do not differ from them. I lived for some time in
the country near a sugar refinery. Theland-owners in the
vicinity had formed a company and built it to manufact-
ure sugar from their beets. Strict regulations concern-
ing the manuring, cultivation, and delivery of the beets
were made, in order to secure the prosperity of the re-
finery. Yet serious difficulties often arose in their exe-
cution. The poor refinery frequently had to defend it-
self against its own founders, and sometimes forgot that
it had been established for the benefit of the stockholders.
That is the way everywhere in the world. Merchants,
manufacturers, laborers, do the same. Well as they know
how closely their own prosperity is connected with the .
prosperity of the State, their petty individual interests —
are always the main object in view, and as a rule they
do not think of others. If there is any sacrifice of
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 29

strength, effort, and toil, the miajoriey quietly retire into
the background. Men do not readily relinquish their be-
loved ease, and everybody prefers to let some one else
labor.”

All this was certainly undeniably true, and it vexed
me a little that I needed to be told what I had so often
noticed on both a large and a small scale. So I was less
disposed to yield the point easily. I was not yet con-
vinced that, in a country where no conflict of interests
exists, and in which the labor of the nation is organized
in such a military manner as Mr. Bellamy describes,
public spirit cannot be developed to a sufficient degree
to sweep away in the general current the innate laziness
and indifference of individuals.

“You may be right in general,” I replied, “but you
overlook that—as I have read in Looking Backward— .
military discipline awakens universal emulation, and that’,
no one sees any other object in labor than the promo- ,
tion of his own welfare. For the rest, you must explain |
why the workman of former days should have felt a
stronger stimulus than at the present time. He was
then merely a day-laborer, and had no interest save to
get through the hours of the day.”

“Prior to this great revolution,” Sister Martha an-
swered, “the laborer, in a certain sense, was a respon-
sible man, and now he has nothing in the world for
which he is answerable to God. In the old days he had
himself, his wife, and his children to support, or, if
young, he had to provide the means of establishing a
home in the future. True, many took this anxiety about
wife, child, and future too lightly, and thus fell into
want or went to ruin, but the vast majority did their
duty in this respect more or less successfully, and if the
workman, in his character of day-laborer, felt no special
30 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

desire to be industrious and skilful, this anxiety forced.
him to accomplish enough to have his work deemed
worthy of wages. Had he done less he would have lost
his place, and with it the means of existence. What, on
the contrary, is the position of the modern laborer ?
His children give him no. anxiety whatever; while
they are young the State maintains and provides for
them, and when they are grown to maturity they receive
the same share of the world’s goods as he. His wife
cannot plunge him into expense; she finds no sphere of
activity in her home, for her children are removed from ~
her care, and there is no work in the kitchen or cellar,
because the public dining-rooms provide for the suste-
nance of the body. If the wife is not in a Government
institution, on account of having an infant to nurse, she
toils and receives the same amount of the common prof-
its as every one else. How is a man to see in labor
aught save a source of trouble, a thing which is repul-
sive to him? He may say to himself that he must work
in order to receive his portion, but to put any special
strain on his muscles and sinews must appear to him
great folly. If he does not satisfy his superiors he can
be transferred from one kind of labor to another, but
he cannot be deprived of the knowledge that always and
everywhere he will receive precisely the same compen-
sation as the most talented, skilful, capable, and indus-
trious workers. No, Herr Ost, scientists may say what
they choose; I insist that man needs a stronger motive
if he is to become a useful member of society. Extirpate
the family feeling, remove all sense of responsibility and
care, and you rob him of just what makes toil, spite of
its weariness, dear and pleasant. Public spirit alone can-
not give him lasting enjoyment in production, least of
all production for a community which has deprived him
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 31

of all for which the loftiest impulses of his nature
yearn.”

I could find no weighty argument in reply to these
words. One of the doubts which had assailed me while
reading Mr. Bellamy’s book was that the workmen of
the socialistic State could find no sufficient incentive to
labor, and while unable to prove the contrary from my
own observation, any discussion on this point would
have been folly. One thing, however, in Sister Martha’s
disclosures was new to me—that the maintenance of the

children was the charge of the State. I had not found |

this fact positively stated in Looking Backward. True,
I remembered having read in Bebel’s writings the sug-
gestion that women should remain in public institutions
during the time that they were nursing their children,
and that all the expenses of education, clothing, and
food should be defrayed by the State; but this point was
not explicitly mentioned in Dr. Leete’s communications.

It needed no special reflection to convince me that this —

care of the children by the State must be the funda-
mental principle of the socialistic system. If the charge
of the children was left to the parents, the principle of
equality would henceforth have a vast gap, for a couple
with three or four children would be three or four times
worse off than childless couples or bachelors and spin-
sters.

In reply to my question, Sister Martha said that the
children were taken from their parents, and that this, in
her eyes, was the sorest spot in the modern world. The
family was the strongest bond which united society ;
since this bond was sundered, parents as well as children
had been deprived of their most valuable possession and
moral support.

“On this point,” she remarked, “I can speak some-
32 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

what from experience, and if you did not still need to
be spared emotion I could tell you things which would
deeply stir you. Here in this house, as well as formerly
in the children’s asylum, I have often witnessed how
cruel it is to rob parents of what is the source of their
deepest happiness. Whether it is a gain for the human
race, whether it elevates morality and strengthens order
for people to find a void in their homes, to be driven
from their own houses to seek in the amusements of the
world compensation for what the heart has lost, are
questions which you yourself can answer, and you will
find ample opportunity to judge.”

I felt not a little disturbed by all that had been said.
It was, as has been mentioned, a point of which I had not
thought, but whose importance to the social life of the
new State I could not undervalue. This touched a point
whose moral importance could not be without influence
upon the development of the nation in the line of its
industrial work, and I saw many things rendered ques-
tionable which, while reading Mr. Bellamy’s descriptions,
spite of all my doubts, I had considered a gain to man-

kind.

Yet the author of Looking Backward had described
the advantages of the new government as being specially
valuable to the cause of morality. Dr. Leete and his
daughter had both been so full of its praises, had de-
scribed so eloquently how greatly the happy transforma-
tion in social life had elevated and ennobled humanity,
that Julian West could scarcely find courage to sue for
the hand of the favored daughter of such a period of
Paradise.

Was it not conceivable that more was gained on the
one hand than could be lost on the other ? Might not
the injuries sustained by the loss of family life have
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 33

found abundant compensation in the ennobling power
of a social existence devoid of all the pangs of care and
struggle, want and misery, envy and jealousy, malice
and dissension? Might not the preference for family
affection and family cares, which Sister Martha and I
cherished, be a hereditary prejudice, which rendered us
incapable of doing full justice to the superior advantages
of other incentives ?

I had intended to enter the new life with an unpreju-
diced mind; not to allow myself to be influenced by
individual phenomena, but to form my opinion solely
from the total result. It seemed to me that the value
of a system with which I was still unfamiliar should not
be sought in what one considers superfluous and another
valuable and necessary, but only in the advantages or
disadvantages which the nation as a whole, reaps from
the changed conditions.

These lights and shadows, I thought, must be most
clearly seen in the results of the national industry. So
I lost inclination to follow the thread of the conversa-
tion, and only felt an increasing desire to plunge with
strength and vigor into the whirlpool of life.

But there was a powerful obstacle to this desire. After
the long rest of the grave, my mind had recovered tone
far more rapidly than my body. Despite my gain in
strength, I was still too weak to make the least demand
upon my physical powers, and I did not conceal from
myself that I must remain for some time in the seclusion
of my present refuge. And if, at last, the day of deliv-
erance dawned, what would happen then ?

The consciousness of utter helplessness weighed upon
me like a mountain. I had reached an age when it is
no longer an easy matter to commence unfamiliar work.

My muscles were unaccustomed to manual labor, and
3
34 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

I could not suppose that my knowledge would be suf-
ficient for any intellectual pursuit in a time of such
progress.

These thoughts weighed on my mind, and an eager
conversation about them ensued between Sister Martha
and myself. Suggestions of all kinds were made and
rejected. But, as usual in such consultations, the ex-
change of ideas and the consideration of chances finally
led to a useful plan, and Sister Martha’s practical in-
telligence contributed no small share to its development.

The Government would have no interest in requiring
me to work beyond my strength. It would be glad to
offer me first some occupation that could be followed
without close familiarity with the new condition of af-
fairs, and time would show in what branch of the ad-
ministrative or book-keeping department it would be
best to employ me permanently. The first thing was
to find some person who could throw sufficient influ-
ence into the scale, and, at the same time, be benevolent
enough to find the scion of a distant past a comfortable
position in the modern world. This person Sister Mar-
tha thought she knew in the Chief of the Bureau of
Statistics, a life-long friend of her dead father, who was
very fond of her and would take the utmost interest in
my fate. Sister Martha promised to write to him the
very next day, and assured me of her confidence that
she should soon have a satisfactory answer.

So my most oppressive anxiety promised to be speed-
ily relieved. The struggle with ennui and the uncon-
querable desire to get a glimpse of the outer world still
remained. In this case it was I, not Sister Martha, who
had the happy thought. I said to myself that if people
now, in the year 2001, desired to have a truthful picture
of the civilization of the year 1890, they need only take
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 35

the newspapers of that period to behold the life of the
nation in joy and sorrow, in its material and intellectual
pleasures, in its political and religious aspirations, in art
and in science.

Ought not the survivor of a distant age to find a
similar mirror in the newspapers of the present time?
True, liberty of the press must be the basis of this sup-
position, and this appeared to me doubtful at a time
when all the capital invested in type, machines, and
paper, as well as all the manual work, is at the disposal
of the Government. Still, the attempt might be made,
and I told Sister Martha my project. She thought a
sight of the daily papers would be a pleasant pastime
for me, and undertook to obtain enough to cover several
years.

So my mind was at rest; and this first day of return-
ing vital energy closed with bright prospects. Sister
Martha took leave of me, and I sought my couch, look-
ing forward with interest and excitement to the morrow.
36 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

CHAPTER III.

HOW SOCIALISTIC LIFE APPEARS IN THE NEWSPAPERS.

Wate I was breakfasting the following morning
Sister Martha sent me a large basket filled with news-
papers, but informed me that the files were not so com-
plete as she would have desired.

What did I care, however, whether I had the num-
bers in regular order or not? I wanted to obtain a gen-
eral picture of the times, not to write a history, and was
satisfied to find a useful occupation for several days.

My first task was to introduce a certain degree of
system into my studies.

I divided my work into separate portions, intending
to examine each one separately, in order not to be con-
fused by the variety of subjects.

My first was to be the advertisements, from which I
expected to learn the details of business life. Letters
and communications from the different cities would
open a view of governmental and communal work; and
from the longer articles on special subjects and ques-
tions of the day I hoped to gain a tolerably accurate
standard by which to measure the light and dark sides
of the current of the times. Foreign politics and the
affairs of foreign countries had no great interest for me,
and would not divert my attention from my investiga-
tions.

So I turned first to the advertisements, which in the-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 37

past had often wearied me, but were now of great im-
portance, and instantly noted that there were not nearly
as many as in the papers of the nineteenth century.
The only similarity I found was in the notices of births,
deaths, betrothals, and marriages. These are events
which the human race cannot escape, let the world move
under lucky or unlucky stars.

On the other hand, there were no commercial an-
nouncements, entries in the municipal register, mort-
gages of real estate, notices of bankruptcy, and similar
matters. Nothing could be more intelligible to me, for
in an age when the Government is the sole employer,
commercial enterprises are not allowable, real estate
cannot be pledged, and where property and ownership
are unknown ideas, the powers of adversity have lost
their influence over the prosperity of mankind; market
and stock reports must vanish, too, since the price of
every article is fixed by Government officials. I found
advertisements in almost every paper, but their scope
and variety were considerably limited. Invitations to
subscribe for stock, offers of loans, and requests for
money could find no place in a country where no one is
in the pleasant position of loaning capital, or in the dis-
agreeable one of needing money.

There were no advertisements of widows seeking the
. position of house-keeper, of capable cooks, house-maids,
and chamber-maids, of commercial clerks and stewards,
tutors and governesses, laundresses and seamstresses,
journeymen and apprentices, day- laborers and grooms.
Nor did I find any advertisements from employers. No
machinists, shoemakers, tailors, brickmakers, confection-
ers, or dress-makers were offered work. All this was
the natural consequence of the socialistic system of pro-
duction. The Government, as an employer, does not
38 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

need to solicit, but can command, and the workman out
of employment may deem it more advisable to be sought
than to make himself conspicuous.

That houses and landed estates would not be offered
for sale was as much a matter of course as that no one
would be sought to lease farms.

The Government could not sell lands and houses, be-
cause the individual was not allowed to own any prop-
erty, and he could be only a steward, not a lessee, be-
cause the principle of equality permitted no independ-
ent enterprise.

But what I found in the advertisements interested
me far more than what I missed. Even in the social-
istic community they were numerous enough. The
Government, as sole producer, was also the sole seller,
and the obligations which, in by-gone days, imposed la-
bor and trouble upon the commercial community now
burdened its shoulders with the same weight.

It must convey to the consumer what it had created ;
it must not let perishable commodities spoil; it must
seek in the West or the South a sale for articles not
wanted in the North. Nay, it could not even be too
particular in appraising its wares, for the whole success
of the national industry depended upon the rapidity of
the sale. Any failure there meant waste of power, and
waste of power Jost the people some enjoyment which
would have been procured by a different use of the
squandered force.

The nation’s opinion of the administration of affairs
was based upon the number of pleasures procured by
the productions of the Government, and on this opinion
depended the strength and power of the State. Now, as
ever, the advertisement was a welcome and indispensable
means of finding the right customer for every product.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 39

So I could not wonder that I found notices of goods
in every paper and every number. There were not so
many columns filled with advertisements as I had been
in the habit of seeing, because there was only one seller
instead of many; but the number of articles offered was
searcely less. Buckskins, cloth, and winter overcoats,
flannel, and cashmere, were advertised in the autumn;
thin woolen stuffs, sacks, summer overcoats, calico, and
muslin in the spring; oranges in the winter, herrings in
summer, marchpane and gingerbread towards Christmas,
oysters in the months with an R, and crabs in the months
without. For the large cities the finer grades of shoes
were advertised, in country districts the coarser ones; in
regions near the coast seamen’s outfits, in mountainous
neighborhoods mountaineers’ clothing.

Nor was there any lack of cheap wares; for those who

had expensive tastes in some directions were glad to save
in others by the purchase of delayed, unfashionable, or
shop-worn goods. One of my special aims was to seek in
the value of the merchandise advertised some indication
of the prosperity of the population, but I could form no
definite opinion on this point. True, I found no very
expensive wares, and my eyes mainly fell on articles in-
tended for no very exacting requirements; but I did not
lose sight of the possibility that the Government, with
wise solicitude for simplicity of customs, did not wish
to awaken a desire for articles of luxury. Yet I was
surprised to find so many announcements which could
not fail to lead to the conclusion that the Government
was endeavoring to diffuse coarse pleasures as widely as
possible.

Though the higher class of plays and the best music
were supplied in the larger cities, I was amazed by the
too frequent notices of performances by buffoons of all
40 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

kinds, singers of ballads and ditties, ete. Alcoholic
drinks, especially stomach bitters with new names and
new qualities, I found advertised far more frequently
than augured well for the health of the nation. Could
economical motives have been the incentive here, since
moral considerations were evidently not regarded? Tal-
ents of a lower order, of course, exist in countless num-
bers among all nations, and it may not be easy to make
them all useful in civil occupations. Perhaps the
Government started with the idea that the main wis-
dom of political economy was contained in the funda-
mental principle of applying every power to those
things in which they could accomplish most.

This opinion might not be so completely mistaken.
It is difficult to make all these third and fourth rate
geniuses devote themselves to useful work; but if they
are allowed to display their talents to men, they will
show tireless energy and great industry. On the other
hand, there are always numbers of people who like to
witness the performances of such artists. If they are
offered many pleasures of this kind they will be satisfied,
and in the same proportion in which the value of their
credit cards is diminished by the cost of the perform-
ances, their demand for other things obtained by the pro-
duction of the Government will be lessened. Light-
ening of labor and decrease of antagonism would be the
pleasant result. The same object would be attained by
affording an unlimited supply of drink and dancing.
To make a very popular liquor from very ordinary
brandy by adding essences, though persons of finer taste
may be dissatisfied, requires no great expenditure of
labor, and many people are far more ready to play
dance music than to undertake tasks requiring skill and
strength. People who find their amusement in danc-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. Al

ing and drinking brandy get no opportunity for adverse
criticism, and are easily supported by a government
whose most difficult task is,the rational employment of
the industrial army.

Though aware that all this was little more than an
unproved conjecture, it seemed to find confirmation in
the great number of advertisements of apartments which
I read in the papers of all the cities. I had not imag-
ined that in a social democratic State the allotment of
residences could be a matter of speculation. I had sup-
- posed that the Government would assign the more com-
modious or better-situated apartments according to sen-
iority, or as a reward for special industry or special zeal,
while the more remote or less convenient dwellings
would be occupied by younger or less distinguished —
people.

But a glance at the numerous advertisements could
not fail to convince me that I had been mistaken.

Evidently the purpose of the Government was to rent
fine vacant rooms again at a high price as quickly as
possible, and let the less valuable ones remain empty.
This was in harmony with its interests. Any one who
paid a large amount for rental out of the income secured |
by the credit cards would have just so much less for the
purchase of other necessaries, and therefore would be
compelled to restrict his demands upon the products of
the national labor. ;

The houses once owned by the State required no more
labor. But, as the very people who have a taste for fine
houses are also admirers of the articles whose manufact-
ure requires much skill, care, and labor, handsome quar-
ters would also curtail the most burdensome demands in
other directions. Therefore, houses that commanded a
high price would be cheap to the State, and cheap ones,
42 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

on the other hand, would be dear. Still, as has been said,
I had not yet the slightest proof of these conjectures,
and. was forced to leave them uncertain.

Among the impressions made by the advertisements I
could only regard as reliable the fact that the distribu-
tion of products, which was formerly the task of the
commercial classes, was also an important branch of
activity in the social democratic Government; that the
latter, though sole producer, could not avoid the good
or even the doubtful practices of the merchant, and this
not so much for the purpose of increasing the amount
of the sales—which in former days was the main purpose
of commercial activity—as to prevent public demands
upon production from passing the bounds of cheapness
and moderation.

At the same time I compared the contents and extent
of the advertisements of the socialistic Government with
the far more coniprehensive picture I retained of the
advertisements of my own past, whose manifold variety
reflected like a mirror the struggle and haste of the
times, the pressure for progress and improvement, the
search for labor and occupation, the whole rivalry of
contending powers, and the belief seemed to me abso-
lutely free from doubt that the incitement to progress
contained in this very struggle could not exist in the
social democratic State. I found, however, a much
greater rivalry when I entered the sphere of local re-
ports. To the best of my recollection, I had always
obtained from the reports of the different cities the im-
pression that the actual construction of public institu-
tions and improvements had not kept pace with the
public demand for them; that a checking, restraining
power had everywhere been busy in maintaining a cer-
tain stability of existing relations. I had found but a
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 43

single explanation of this phenomenon— that the ex-
pense of the arrangements would be an obstacle, and that
the Government officials, the magistrates, and city coun-
cilmen, who had to estimate the costs, from a very natu-
ral fear of increased taxes or too large an addition to
the burden of debt, did not always show the greatest
consideration for the wishes of the public.

In the social democratic State a total change had oc-
curred. There was not a city in Germany whose mag-
istracy did not show the utmost public spirit. All
scruples and pecuniary considerations seemed to have
vanished with the disappearance of money, which had
formerly played so important and not always encourag-
ing a part. Notices of important projects came from
all quarters. A report from one city announced that
the magistracy and representative citizens had resolved
to transform a wood two miles distant into a large park
with fountains, and build a double-gauge road to it. From
another came tidings that, in consequence of a resolution
of the authorities, all the manufactories were to be torn
down and replaced with new ones of twice the size and
furnished with model hygienic arrangements. From a
third, a farming town hitherto much neglected, news
was received of an agreement to pave all the streets with
asphalt and supply them with convenient sidewalks.

A little town of 3000 inhabitants was rejoicing over
the determination of the authorities to conduct into the
place the water of an especially fine spring from a mount-
ain twenty miles away, and supply every story in the
houses with this excellent water. —

And so continued the announcement of all the vari-
ous noble plans, which in the space of a year probably
numbered a thousand. Evidently communal efforts
were no longer directed as much as before to the en-
44 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

couragement of traffic and manufactures—probably in
the socialistic Government the inhabitants lacked per-
sonal interest in them—but more to institutions for
comfort and pleasure, and I could see only too distinctly
how much remains to be done in order to make the
earth agreeable to all its inhabitants.

I could not have failed to perceive in this respect one
advantage of the socialistic system—for what can be more
delightful than to have mankind set the refinements of
life above the pursuit of money ?—had I not unfortu-
nately noted that here also individual interest was the
main-spring, and that on all sides wishes had been
uttered whose fulfilment would have been prejudicial
to the community. But since these desires were objec-
tionable they would not be carried out, and as I could
not fail to notice, from other local communications, the

government of the empire seemed to have usually puta

quietus on the local patriotism of the city magistrates.

I was led to this conjecture by the perception that I
read a great deal about resolutions passed, but very little
of completed enterprises. On the contrary, apart from
these ideas and plans, I found nothing in the local re-
ports concerning communal affairs, save loud complaints
of gross neglect and violent attacks upon the central
Government.

“Tt was a crying injustice,” some one wrote from
Laage, “that the workmen needed for repaving the streets
had not been sent, while in Tessin, close by, all the pave-
ments had been repaired in the most careful manner.”

“One can scarcely regard it as a memorial of equal
justice,” lamented a correspondent from Neukalen, “ that
for years our city has vainly asked for electric light,
while Dargun had it even in the old days.”

“Tt is exasperating,” wrote some one from Frankfort-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 45

on-the-Main, “ that everybody who doesn’t live in Berlin
ranks nowadays as a second-rate German. New palaces,
pleasure-grounds, and parks appear every year in the
sacred capital, while our historic old city, with its large
foreign trade and favorable situation, cannot get the
simplest improvements, and the constant diminution of
the force of laborers in the municipal service is bring-
ing everything to ruin.”

“Our city,” came on the other hand from Berlin, “has
for centuries, through the care of its magistrates, enjoyed
the best repute; but since the use of the industrial force
of the whole community has been placed at the dis-
posal of the central Government even the most pressing
needs are no longer supplied. No matter what our city
authorities ask, the usual non posswmus invariably meets
them.”

“Tf we but had our former system of management,”
wrote some one from little Lychen, “ our town would long
ago have built a hospital, instead of having our sick die
in the present old barrack. But under the socialistic
rule our masons no longer seem to be available for our
own buildings.”

“The 5000 workmen employed on our harbor,” wrote
an indignant correspondent from Lubeck, “were yester-
day ordered by a telegram from Berlin to aid in har-
vesting, and our seamen’s hopes seem to be again de-
stroyed for this year. This sacrifice would be willingly
made for the general good did it not become more and
more evident that the central Government lacked proper
energy in its demands upon the rural laborers.”

Reading all these local reports—of which only a small
number can be given here—was by no means reassuring.

They completely destroyed the picture Mr. Bellamy’s
descriptions had created. Instead of the brilliant pros-
46 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

perity which Julian West had witnessed in Boston, and
which, according to Dr. Leete’s explanations, must be
supposed to be progressing everywhere, I found nothing
but universal discontent expressed in the newspapers.
I could not help believing it impossible that such a
mood would exist without the least occasion for it. But
might not the dissatisfaction perhaps originate in extray-
agant demands? Might not the great wealth so sud-
denly diffused everywhere, the pleasure-grounds and
arrangements for the comfort and amusement of the
public so rapidly created, have awakened insatiable de-
sires whose demands upon the industry of the Govern-
ment were beyond human power to fulfil? To obtain
any clear understanding of the true state of affairs,
while in my sick-room, seemed to me impossible. As
yet I had seen nothing of the new world, and could not
personally test a single case. The only way of solving
the enigma which suggested itself was to bring one’s
individual intelligence to bear upon it, and judgment
often deserts us when we are far away from the facts.
What I succeeded in comprehending, by dint of pure
reasoning, ran nearly as follows:

So long as property had been the fundamental basis
of the social system, every city, every community, had
to provide for itself according to the extent of its means.
With the transfer of property to the Government, and
the legal recognition of the material equality of all men,
the property of communities had vanished, for otherwise
residents of poorer places would have been at a great
disadvantage in comparison with residents of richer ones.

Communal arrangements, therefore, could be made
only by the Government, as the sole holder of capital
and the dispenser of the common production. As the
aspirations and wishes of the various communities could
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 47

be gratified only with the consent and by the direct or-
der of the Government, the communities had announced
what the magistrates and committees of citizens had
considered necessary or desirable, and the Government,
by its estimates, had to determine, according to the
means at its disposal, which of these demands could be
granted and which could not. As the task of creating,
with the labor at its command, everything that was
necessary, useful, and pleasant, had now devolved upon
the Government, while its powers of production were
limited by the capacity, and probably the good-will, of the
workers, it was compelled, like any worthy father of a
family, to separate the necessary from the useful and
the useful from the pleasant, making the first outrank
the second and the second the third.

According to the nature of men and magistrates,
which has undergone no change since the beginning of
the world, it may be supposed that both have desired
not only the necessary and the useful things, but also
the pleasant ones, so that complete harmony of opinion
concerning the boundary between what was necessary,
useful, or pleasant, did not always exist.

It is also to be supposed that men in general regard
those things which each individual deems necessary for
‘his personal wants, or even agreeable, as more import-
ant and urgent—at least it was so under the natural or-
der of the world—than what is merely useful to the
whole body of inhabitants. If all these propositions
are true—and I don’t know what objection could be
raised to them—the organs of the socialistic Govern-
ment must fulfil their task in such a manner that, in the
first place, the wishes of the people proceeding from
personal inclination are gratified, while maintaining due
regard for what individuals demand without considera-
48 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

tion for others. This is the only way in which deep-
seated dissension in the nation can be avoided. Secondly,
the protection and perfecting of agriculture, manufact-
uring establishments, implements of labor, ete., must be
considered—otherwise there would be danger that, with
the growth of the population, not even personal wants
could be satisfied; and, thirdly, care must be taken to
grant, as far as possible, all the manifold demands for
the comfort and pleasure of the inhabitants made by the
various communities all over the empire. Ifa Govern-
ment can satisfactorily perform this third task also, it

- will be a sure indication that it stands at the summit of

the socialistic idea.

This token I had unfortunately failed to find in any
of the newspaper reports. Nay, the advertisements, as I
have remarked, led to the supposition that the State en-
countered difficulties in dealing even with the first prob-
lem. But as yet I had no certain proofs—nor could I
judge from facts—whether the cause was the momentous
one that the productive power of society had lessened.
Sister Martha had made this assertion, and had had good
reasons for doing so, but I could not accept Sister Mar-
tha as an authority.

Under such circumstances, I determined not to let my-
self be fretted just now, but to quietly await what the
near future would bring. Above all, I struggled against
allowing the slightest prejudice against Julian West or
Dr. Leete to enter my mind.

Continuing my studies, I directed my investigation
towards another point, which is of extreme importance
in any mode of developing society. I turned to the re-
ports of crimes and misdemeanors. Here, however, I
could not help ascertaining that Julian West had been
misinformed by his authority. Dr. Leete had asserted
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 49

that offences connected with property could not exist
in a country where all men had an ample and equal in-
come; yet I found a number of such misdeeds. True,
thefts of money or of valuable papers had become an
impossibility, since both had ceased to exist; but other
things were stolen as frequently as ever before in the
history of the world. One lady had been robbed of a
silk gown which she had just bought in the bazaar. Oth-
ers had lost jewels, shawls, gloves, or fans. Artificial
flowers, veils, or handkerchiefs had often been the cor-
pus delicti.

Intentional exchanges of overcoats and hats or um-
brellas in restaurants or beer-gardens were complained
of in all the towns. Nay, even robberies were not in-
frequent occurrences. Persons carrying home bread
from the bake-shops or sausages from the butcher’s were
but too often robbed of their property. Sometimes they
were knocked down, sometimes snuff was flung into
their eyes, sometimes disguised men had snatched the _
articles from their owner’s hands and darted off at the
top of their speed. In this respect I could perceive a
difference from the state of affairs I remembered of old
in one detail only. These offences did not occur with the
same uniformity in point of time, but the greater num-
ber of cases happened in the months just before the
credit cards were issued. So the cause probably lay
mainly in the lack of thrift of many persons who, by
premature exhaustion of their funds, were plunged into
extreme want.

The article most frequently stolen was the credit card,
and this very thing had for years given rise to the most
extensive discussion in the organs of the police authori-
ties and of the Government, as well as by the general
public. So far as I could gather from the odd numbers

4
50 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

of the newspapers at my disposal, the state of affairs was
somewhat as follows :

Directly after the establishment of the new form of
government, frequent announcements of lost credit cards
were made. The Government then, by proclamation in
all the papers, promptly declared them. worthless, and
provided the losers with fresh cards marked “ dupli-
cates” for the remaining time. But the nearer the end
of the year approached, the more the loss of credit cards
resembled an epidemic. The Government clearly per-
ceived that the evil lay deeper than the mere loss of
the credit cards, and found itself compelled to issue a
general warning, coupled with the formal statement that
henceforward no substitutes for lost credit cards would
be issued. This declaration was received by one portion
of the nation with approval, by another with loud lam-
entations. The Government, said some, had no right
to withhold from a single citizen his lawful share of ths
profits of the general industry; it would be contrary
to the fundamental idea of the socialistic government.
If a person lost his credit card it was a misfortune that
might befall anybody. But this misfortune of individ-
uals ought never to be made the cause of releasing the
Government from its first and most sacred duty. Meet-
ings were called, speeches made, resolutions passed.
Whoever spoke in favor of compensation for the lost
credit cards was hailed with applause, the others were
hissed down ; and since it had been noticed that the Jews
had usually made careful use of their credit cards and
did not commonly lose them, the hissing was mingled
with shouts of “Jews!” and “Jew-mates !” When, how-
ever, the people found that the Government firmly ad-
hered to its point, a compromise was proposed.

The matter in every instance was to be proved, and
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 51

the Government could only be called upon to supply
a new credit card where ample proof was furnished.
But as a loser was rarely able to verify by witnesses
the manner in which he had lost his card, he was obliged,
as soon as he communicated the fact, to take a solemn
oath, after serious warning. If he took this oath, the
proof was always considered to be furnished. This sug-
gestion was at first very coolly received, and perhaps
might have met with the fate of passing unheeded into
oblivion had not a very influential society supported it.
This was the Society for the Moral and Physical Wel-
fare of the Nation, as it called itself. It had dissem-
inated, by means of millions of handbills, the statement
that it seemed necessary to bring the human race to a
consciousness of the moral height to which the new or-
der of things had raised it. With the destruction of the
system of robbery and the abolition of capital man had
been freed from slavery, and it would be a crime against
a rescued world to attribute a base action to a free man.
So long as the desire for gold and property poisoned
men’s hearts, reliance upon an oath would have been
a dangerous venture, but to the true children of social
democracy every scruple of this sort was an insult. So
the people must unanimously urge upon the State to
fulfil, by the aid of administering the oath, its duty
to those who lost their cards.

These lofty words produced a powerful impression, and
it is difficult to foresee what might have happened had
not an event occurred which stands alone in the history
of the human race. Something befell which had never
chanced before, and probably will never be repeated,
even in the most distant future. Under the stress of
the peril threatening justice and honesty, all the churches
and religious sects had banded together for a common
52 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

object. The lights of the faith had flocked from all
parts of the country, and, letting the battle-axe of hatred
rest for a time, made common cause with one another, so
that the world, to its amazement, had the spectacle of
beholding Catholics and Protestants, Lutherans and mem-
bers of the Reformed Church, leave the meetings in the
utmost harmony ; nay, the pugnacious leader of the or-
thodox party—he was known as a second Stécker or
third Luther —was seen walking arm in arm with the
chief rabbi in the street.

The meetings had the best result, and a brilliant depu-
tation, in which all dogmas and forms of faith were rep-
resented, had presented to the chancellor of the empire,
in the name of religion and faith in God, a petition to
protect society from a measure whose inevitable result
would be the destruction of faith and piety. The spec-
tacle of harmony from a source whence people had been
accustomed to behold the germs of discord had produced
so powerful an impression that the Government obtained
the strengthening necessary to retain the resolution that
no compensation would be given for lost credit cards.

But the luckless credit card was not yet permitted to
rest. Though the possibility of wresting an increased
amount of credit from the State must be abandoned, the
people now sought aid by requesting advances for the
coming year. Petitions by thousands poured in from
the unlucky mortals who had sinned against the rules of
economy and reached the end of their resources at too
early a date. Not a single individual lacked cogent rea-
sons. Unusual household expenses, accidents in travel-
ling, loss of provisions and clothing by dampness, fire in
the house, lack of durability of materials used in gar-
ments or shoes, hard wear of leather by constantly work-
ing in water, every possible pretext was alleged for the
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 53

premature exhaustion of the credit card. The gaps in
my series of papers would not permit me to discover
how this first attack on the Government resulted, but, as
a consequence, all granting of advances was declared in-
admissible. A proclamation was issued representing that
the lofty socialistic society expected a wise economy from
every citizen, and therefore the Government saw itself
compelled to act with inexorable sternness against any
trespass of the law. Persons without means would
henceforth find support only in prisons and on a diet of
bread and water. Yet even this could not relieve the
credit cards from their uncertain position. On the con-
trary, the Government’s extreme solicitude for them be-
came a source of peril. If people could get no help
from the State, they must aid themselves. Countless
communications concerning thefts of credit cards filled
the papers, and there was scarcely a technical method of
transferring a thing from the hands of an authorized
owner to those of an unauthorized one which was not
used. Secret removal from the pocket, opening of locks
by means of night-keys, breaking into rooms, assault,
attempted assassination, murder—every way of securing
an unauthorized transfer of property was employed to
increase the income of those who found no satisfaction
even in the socialistic State, and the principle of equal
income was not aided thereby. In vain did the Govern-
ment post in all places where sales were made the most
urgent warnings to identify those who presented cards.
Whoever succeeded in obtaining another person’s card
need only take a pleasant little journey at the expense
of the man robbed, and easily reach a place where no
seller could know that the name on the card was not his
own. Was the Government obliged to compensate the
person who had been robbed or not? Was equality of
54 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

income destroyed in the one case more than in the |
other ?

These were questions which speedily arose and were
eagerly discussed. Some maintained that the preserva-
tion of order was the duty of the Government, and it
alone should be the sufferer if it failed to fulfil this
duty; others argued that being robbed was a misfortune
which the person concerned must bear, and the Govern-
ment ought not to recompense the individual at the ex-
pense of the community, which would be the case if the
whole income of the State were lessened on account of
the stolen cards. After long discussion, the conclusion
was at last reached that compensation would not be al-
lowable if the thief was not captured, but should be
made in all cases where he was discovered. Whether
the former or the latter instances were the more numer-
ous I could not determine with any certainty.

Still, the system of credit cards was not perfect, and
the press, faithful to its old task, did not fail to make
frequent suggestions of improvement. First came the
proposal to abolish the credit card entirely, and intro-
duce instead Bebel’s little tokens of gold or tin. But
the gold was unanimously rejected without ceremony,
because tokens made of gold were money, and restora-
tion of money would undermine the very foundations
of the social democratic Government. Tin at first had
a small number of followers, but after a short discus-
sion, the opinion prevailed that tokens made of it could
be imitated too easily. Another suggestion was that
the credit cards should be issued for a month only, in-
stead of a year; but the objection to this was that the
distribution of the cards was too troublesome a matter
to allow the luxury of frequent repetition. During
this distribution the identification of each individual
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 55

was necessary, and thus so much time was consumed
that, though the places of distribution were multiplied
and an unusual number of officials was employed, the
business could scarcely be accomplished in a day, and
thereby the majority of the people lost a working-day.
A loss of twelve working-days annually would be a
detriment to the whole community. A third idea found
more favor—namely, to give to each person, instead of
one, twelve credit cards of equal amount, and thus pre-
vent any person from being deprived of his whole in-
come by loss or robbery. This idea, too, did not lack
objections. Some thought that it would only make
thievery easier, and others feared that the multiplica-
tion of cards might be troublesome and dangerous in
travelling. The resolutions concerning changes in the
manner of payment, however, do not yet seem to be
ended, and it is to be hoped that some expedient satis-
factory to all parties will be found. Much applause
was elicited by a proposal that the Government should
bestow a decoration of honor—a red ribbon—upon the
person who should invent the best device for wearing
the credit card in a case under the clothing, which,
while secure, would permit the owner to draw it out
and restore it with ease.

From the above communications, the reader will per-
ceive that I am perfectly right in believing Mr. Bella-
my to be mistaken in regard to the disappearance of
crimes connected with property. They very frequently
occur in the socialistic community. That all other of-
fences—and according to statistics they far outnum-
bered, under the old system, those occasioned by prop-
erty—must be lessened is not to be expected on any
substantial ground, and it will not be difficult for me
to cite a little catalogue of crimes which find their
56 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

source in the new order of affairs or are not prevented
by it. \

A young wife, after spending nine months in a hos-
pital to nurse her infant, found on her return home that
her husband had bestowed his heart upon another wom-
an. She watched him, and one day, as he was return-
ing from a call upon his new love, flung the contents of
a bottle of vitriol into his face. She was sentenced to
a severe punishment. :

The manager of an agricultural business dealt one of
the workmen a blow for torturing animals, and was
fined 300 marks.

Another steward was asked by his superior why a
sow noted in the record had devoured her litter of six
pigs, and received the reply that he knew of no reason,
except that she perhaps wished to withdraw her chil-
dren from the influence of the higher authorities. He
was sentenced, for insubordination and contempt of the
magistracy, to four weeks’ imprisonment and degrada-
tion to the rank of laborer. His consolation probably
was that he could not be deprived of his income.

Violent scenes had occurred in a popular assembly.
Farm laborers had offered a resolution that for all dirty
work, such as milking, removing stable dung, or using
artificial manure, the hours of labor should be lessened
one-half. :

On the other hand, the porters protested that there
would be far more justice in reducing their hours of
toil; and these were again opposed by a protest from
the street-cleaners. As the war of words in the assem-
bly could not settle whether the uncleanliness of agri-
cultural labor, or the health-destroying quality of the
porter’s trade, or the humiliation of the street-cleaner’s
calling, was just ground for the reduction of working
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. ; 57

hours, the dispute was continued in the street in a tan-
gible manner, and, to afford a more convincing explana-
tion, stakes had been torn from a neighboring fence.
This incident was brought to the notice of the courts,
and, in consequence, a number of persons who had
broken their stakes over other people’s skulls were sen-
tenced to a fortnight’s imprisonment for injuries in-
flicted upon Government property, and a minority who
had injured the said skulls were condemned to several
months’ confinement in jail.

In another popular assembly a speaker had called the
ministers a mob of hypocrites, who wanted to rule in a
social democratic Government without being really so-
cial democrats. He was condemned to six weeks’ im-
prisonment. ‘

A woman who had forced her way into her neigh-
bor’s rooms to lecture him on account of the unclean
condition of the court-yard had not obeyed his request
to withdraw, and had therefore been sentenced to a
week’s confinement for a breach of the peace.

An elderly man had denounced the keeper of a store-
house for delivering goods at half price to a young lady
whom he loved, but as the lady, on being summoned as
a witness, swore upon oath that the charge was false, he
was imprisoned for slander.

The driver of a hack had driven four of his friends a
short distance, and forgotten to cut their credit cards,
but as bribery could not be proved he escaped with be-
ing degraded to the position of drayman.

A strdet-sweeper who carelessly soiled a lady’s cloak
was sentenced to clean sewers.

A sewer-cleaner had been insubordinate to his supe-
rior officer, but as he could be degraded to no lower
position no punishment could be imposed.
58 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

A country laborer’s wife had tolled a number of hens
to lay their eggs in her room, and was punished by im-
prisonment for appropriating the property of the Gov-
ernment.

A nervous gentleman whose soup was salted too
much had termed the restaurant a hostlery fit only for
pigs, and was sentenced to jail for insulting the Gov-
ernment.

These little items, culled hap-hazard from the papers
as they came into my hands, will suffice to show that
the socialistic form of government, in and of itself, will
not secure a diminution of crime, and that Dr. Leete
must have been a strange observer if he asserts it, and
represents it as a consequence of the socialistic plan of
government. Orime will diminish in every country in
exact proportion to the increase of the number who are
content with their condition. But contentment does
not find the conditions of existence in the number of
wants which society can gratify, but depends mainly
upon whether the individual finds complete satisfaction
for his highest needs in the mode of life shaped by the
arrangements of society. A poor nation may be happier
than a rich one if the latter lacks what the heart seeks.

Since, from my own observation, I did not yet know
what measure of material goods the socialistic commu-
nity could produce, much less how far the system satis-
fied the people, I was forced to content myself for the
present with noting the facts I had discovered, and re-
serving my opinion until I had a better knowledge of
the condition of affairs.

That civil lawsuits must lose importance under the
socialistic form of government I had not doubted. If
the millions no longer exchanged their services, but all
mankind carried on business with a single merchant, the
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 59

number of complaints and differences of opinion must
necessarily diminish. Yet I found reports of transac-
tions from which I perceived that civil suits had not
been wholly abolished.

Herr Schulze had smoked with his friend Miiller a
cigar that suited his taste exactly; but Miller would
not tell him the place where he purchased it. The day
before Herr Miller had drunk some Rhine wine at
Schulze’s house, which he liked extremely, but the lat-
ter had declined to tell him where to get it. Both
agreed on an exchange, Miiller delivering a box of the
cigars to Schulze, and the latter a certain quantity of
wine to Miller. Both had received notice a few days
before from the warehouses that the goods were still in
stock. When the delivery was made Schulze’s cigars
proved satisfactory, but Miiller’s wine was evidently an
inferior grade. As Schulze could not supply the wine
Miiller desired, he declared himself ready to take it
back and return the cigars, but Miiller considered him-
self aggrieved, and would not accept the offer. Being
fond of good wine, he had paid fifty marks more for
the cigars than Schulze gave for the wine, and, besides,
he was no smoker himself—merely kept a good brand
in the house for his friends, as a hospitable man. <A
thousand cigars was far too large a quantity for this
purpose. To avoid a quarrel Schulze had offered to
supply the extra fifty marks in other wares, but as Mil-
ler had no use for the cigars he declined this proposal
also. A long lawsuit followed, which had not yet been
decided.

The complainant, Miiller, had requested that the de-
fendant, Schulze, should be sentenced to take back the
wine, and deliver such goods as the complainant might
select, to the value of 250 marks. The defendant had
60 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

replied that a payment of 450 marks for articles of lux-
ury—namely, 200 for wine and 250 for cigars—would
draw so heavily upon the value of his credit card that
he would not have enough left to obtain needful food
and clothing. The following questions came up for de-
cision :

1. Is the Government obliged to indemnify Schulze
if, on the guarantee of one of its officials that a certain
kind of wine is still in stock, he orders this wine, and
it then proves to be of inferior quality?

2. If not, is this inability of the Government to de-
liver wine of the same quality to be to Schulze a vis
major, which releases him from the obligation to com-
pensate Miiller for the inferiority of the wine?

3. If not, is Miller to be considered sufficiently com-
pensated by the return of the cigars he delivered, and
the fifty marks which were paid in addition, though he
is unable to use the aforesaid cigars ¢

4. If not, can Schulze be compelled to pay the sum
for the cigars and the wine from his credit card, though
he proves that he will not have enough left for the nec-
essaries of life ? .

5. If not, is Miiller obliged to wait for the reimburse-
ment of the amount he paid for the cigars until new
credit cards are issued, though he produces proof that,
in order not to deprive himself of the necessaries of
life, he will be forced to dispense with the wine which
he has been ordered to drink daily for the benefit of
his health ?

Helene Alberti, the wife of a prominent Government
official, whose physician had prescribed an egg diet for
weakness of the stomach, could not find a sufficient sup-
ply in the markets. [The reader will learn in the course
of these communications the cause of this strange scare-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 61

ity —D. H.] Emilie Haberland, the wife of a respect-
able shoemaker, whose love of dress had drawn heavily
upon her credit card, and who was a friend of the man-
ager of the Central Market, undertook to get the eggs,
receiving from Frau Alberti the promise of a new hat
as soon as she was guaranteed the delivery of 240.
Emilie Haberland’s friendly relations resulted in Frau
Alberti’s being notified, at the end of a few days, that
the 240 eggs were waiting for her at the market. After
receiving them, the latter, to her horror, discovered that
67 had chickens and 103 were too old to use. Thus
she had sustained considerable loss by their purchase,
and therefore did not feel obliged to pay Frau Haber-
land the promised hat. The latter brought suit, which
has not yet been decided. To reach a verdict that will
be in harmony with law and justice is by no means
easy.

The Government gives no guarantee of the excellence
of its wares. [The reader will soon learn why.—D. H.]
There is no proof that the manager of the Central Mar-
ket exceeded his official authority. Frau Haberland tried
in an honest way to obtain the eggs, and her efforts were
successful. Therefore she was injured when the prom-
ised hat was not delivered. On the other hand, Frau
Alberti undoubtedly expected to receive fresh eggs from
Frau Haberland, who knew why she wanted them.
Most of the eggs were uneatable, and she paid a high
price. She would be doubly injured if she was also com-
pelled to pay Frau Haberland a hat for her labor, which,
both in her understanding and the honest intention of
Frau Haberland, cannot be considered an actual service.
I am no jurist, and therefore will not venture an opin-
ion, but I think in this case, also, a verdict cannot be
reached without legal acumen.
62 MR. FREDERIOK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

Herr Michael Schénthau, a tailor by trade, had a
great fancy for elegant residences, and occupied the
lower floor of a house in Friedrichstrasse, which had
plate-glass windows. Unluckily, two of these windows
were broken on the same morning—one by the shaft of
a passing vehicle, the other by a locksmith going to his
work with an iron bar on his shoulder, which a saucy
lad pushed off. According to law, Herr Schénthau, like
all tenants, was obliged to keep the window-panes in re-
pair, but had a right to demand compensation from the
breakers of the panes who, under the socialistic form of
government, were as well off as he. But fearing that
both might succeed in evading the duty of compensa-
tion by proving the interference of a higher power, he
thought it advisable to apply directly to the Govern-
ment as the employer in whose service both roamed
through the streets with implements dangerous to win-
dows. His claim was refused, and he appealed to the
law. The court held that the Government was answer-
able for the window-pane shattered by the carriage;
for, as it was proved that the horse had once run away,
the fault could not be imputed to the driver. On the
other hand, a locksmith was a workman like any other,
though he used a dangerous implement in the service
of the State, and an employer could not be expected to
pay damages for injuries inflicted by an accident to one
of his laborers upon a third person. I must leave criti-
cism of this verdict to jurists.

These few instances will show that, even in the social-
ist Government, disputes between men are not abolished.
They will also afford an idea of the nature and variety
of the cases in which, according to their dispositions and
character, people obey the impulse to defend or seek
their supposed rights by appealing to the law. By far

 
IN MR, BELLAMY’S WORLD. 63

the greater number of complaints which came to my
notice, however, were directed against the nation, or,
rather, against the Government. The State was the
producer and purveyor of all goods. It was the sole
producer and the sole merchant. Everything that it
made as producer, and sold as merchant, was created by
persons who were not angels but human beings. And
this luckless State itself was cramped in every direction
by all the frailties and weaknesses which are the sorrow-
ful heritage of man. It had neither eyes nor ears any-
where, and was dependent in all its work upon the zeal
and industry of people who considered it, and not them-
selves, responsible for everything. On the other hand,
those to whom it was to deliver the products of its labor
confronted it with an undiminished measure of wants
and wishes. They had created a new social system, but
not for the purpose of practising self-sacrifice and de-
stroying longings, for dissatisfaction had been the cause
of this transformation. They had expected something
more and better from a system of production which re-
moved the motive for the struggle for existence, the
rivalry of different powers, and the pursuit of gain, and
directed every organized function of the various por-
tions according to the special rules of the State. What
marvel if men expected a government equipped with
such wonderful powers to give them what they desired,
and to give it unmarred by the deficiencies and weak-
nesses which could not be avoided so long as production
was a common manufacture by different persons, where
all worked independently at the parts accidentally allot-
ted. What marvel that men often failed to be satisfied
with a government which did not possess the power of
God and did not have angels in its employ ?

The number of complaints made against the State
64 MR. FREDERIOK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

must really have been enormous. The newspapers pub-
lished only the smaller portion of them, but what I read
showed me that the expectations of the people and the
performances of the Government were by no means in
harmony. On the contrary, there seemed to be as many
sources of complaint as, in the ordinary course of nature,
there are imperfections in the things used for the serv-
ice of men. It was said that butter was rancid, herring
oily, and cheese specked. Coffee in one instance was-de-
clared to taste of kerosene. Some people had received
rotten fruit, others spoiled preserves, and others, still,
wormy rice. The bread was often stale and dry. Cigars
had sometimes lacked flavor. Cocoa and chocolate
proved musty. Meat, especially, was the source of many
complaints; sometimes it was too bony, sometimes not
fat enough, sometimes too tough, and sometimes even
spoiled. In former times competition had largely,
though not invariably, served as a protection; in the
socialistic community the lack of competition did not
appear to have proved a safeguard.

With regard to clothing, complaints were sometimes
made concerning the want of durability of the material,
but far more frequently of seams ripping, buttons fall-
ing off, and trimming badly put on. Complaints of the
lack of durability of shoes were increasingly frequent.
The water-proof boots of laborers in the country had
often been far from water-tight; the soles of walking
boots had not been firmly put on, and the frequency of
the complaints led me to believe that the Government
had found it no easy matter to exercise satisfactory con-
trol over the shoemakers in, its mammoth workshops,
now that they no longer feared loss of patronage. Who
can blame people for not remaining silent and uncom-
plaining? “We are forced to stint and torment our-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 65

selves,” they said, “and if the Government calls upon
us for work we cannot refuse. So we are entitled to
demand that it shall furnish us with good wares, and
produce, not worse, but better articles than were manu-
factured in former times.” As the Government, how-
ever, found itself unable to remove all grievances, there
was nothing for people to do except to resort to the law
and seek compensation or redress. They could easily
do this because the Government was so liberal in pro-
viding legal assistance gratis. Most of the complaints
seemed to have been rejected for lack of proof; in some
the Government had' been condemned; but these nu-
merous complaints and grievances proved the occasion
of its casting off the burden once for all, and in the most
effectual manner. The public was by no means agree-
ably surprised one day by a placard put up in all places
where anything was sold—a placard bearing in large let-
ters the words: “No GoVERNMENT GUARANTEE WILL BE
GIVEN FOR PERFECTION OF MATERIAL OR EXCELLENCE OF
work.” This seemed to be a radical method of curing
the populace of a desire to go to law against the Gov-
ernment, which could not fail to be harmful to the com-
munity. Whether it will prove equally effective in re-
moving human discontent the future must determine.

I was not reluctant to leave a department of study
which by no means realized my joyous anticipations, and
I felt the more pleased when, turning to another part of
the literature of the day, I chanced upon a real ray of

‘light in the socialistic order of affairs. It was doubt-
less owing to my former interest in agricultural pursuits
that, glancing through the articles upon the questions of
the day, my attention was first arrested by that of dam-
age done by game. This problem has really been most

admirably solved by the socialist Government. I do not
5
66 MR. FREDERICK EASI’S EXPERIENCES

mean that the question has simply been pushed aside by
the transfer of all lands to the State, thereby abolishing
all the small farmers who were bold enough to complain
of the injury done to their crops by the game of the own-
ers of large estates, but because, after the introduction of
the new order of things, the time had really come when
the Government perceived that the public welfare was
better served by protecting the labor of the farmer than
the love of the chase. Even in the transformation of
affairs this was not accomplished at a single blow. At
first there were plenty of newspaper articles complain-
ing that, by the increase of game, crops had been dam-
aged and potato fields uprooted, or by hunting through
the ripening harvest fields much corn had been de-
stroyed. But these articles, which in former times had
not been specially well received by the Government, at
last found satisfactory attention.

The socialistic Government perceived that the land
belonged to it alone, and this perception led to the be-
lief that the sanctity of property was a wise maxim for
a good Government. It perceived, too, that it alone
had to manure and to plough, to sow and to reap, and
doubtless the spectacle of ravaged fields awakened a
touch of that feeling which in former times stirred the
peasant’s breast when he saw the fruit of his toil partly
destroyed and himself helpless. To reach this percep-
tion and to put an end to the privileges of the chase had
been but a single step. In the shortest possible time all
the woodlands were fenced in, and hunting in any tilled
fields was forbidden on pain of the most severe penal-
ties. Soin this respect peace had come to the country.
Game could be reared and fed in the forests as cattle
were in the farmers’ stables. They could be hunted or
spared as seemed desirable. Lovers of the chase could
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 67

enjoy their favorite amusement in the woods to their
hearts’ content, and the public never had the vexation
of seeing the results of their industry destroyed by the
law protecting game.

“Poor farmers of the nineteenth century,” I invol-
untarily thought, “it needed the social democratic Gov-
ernment to release you from the fears which, owing to
the law protecting the pleasure which rich men took in
hunting, haunted your honest toil.” *

But turning from this bright spot in the socialistic
Government, I found nothing in the social and business
aims of the period to warrant the radiant anticipations
fostered by the glowing descriptions of Dr. Leete.

On the contrary, the battle for personal advantage
was conducted with the same vehemence with which in-
terests had contended during the earlier ages. It was
discouraging to find Mr. Bellamy unreliable in this re-
spect. He had made his Dr. Leete say that labor in
the socialistic community was not obligatory, but that
every person was permitted to choose his calling accord-
ing to his taste and talents. The drawback of having a
surplus in one profession and a deficiency in others
could be easily obviated by lessening the number of
working hours in the more disagreeable avocations. If
any occupation was found to be too arduous and un-
pleasant to attract voluntary laborers, limit the day’s
work to ten minutes and it would be done. This har-
monizes with truth, so far as the intention of carrying
out the purpose is concerned, but not if we consider the
intention less than the manner of execution. I could

* The reader will remember that Friedrich Ost was a native of Mecklen-
burg, and this exclamation was probably a reference to the more rigid
game-laws of his birthplace.—D. H.
68 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

not follow the result in all its details by reading the
various articles in which the organization of labor was
discussed ; but so far as I could gather the system had
developed in all the countries nearly as follows:

At the introduction of the new order of things the
Government had requested every one to name the em-
ployment he or she preferred, and the result had been
gratifying in so far that no one delayed in stating the
favorite vocation. But if the Government had expected
to accomplish a satisfactory organization of labor in this
way, it had committed a fatal error.

In Germany one-third of the males who were able to
work had desired to be employed in hunting. Of the
remaining two-thirds 10 per cent. had wished to be in
charge of farms, on condition that a saddle-horse was
kept for them at the expense of the State; 10 per cent.
offered to be coachmen and grooms, on condition that
the feeding, currying, harnessing, removal of manure,
and cleaning of carriages should be done by others; 10
per cent. volunteered to tend cattle, on condition of be-
ing relieved from bringing fodder and removing ma-
nure; 10 per cent. to be sailors, on condition of being
relieved of loading and unloading the cargo; 30 per cent.
officials in the executive, educational, and book-keeping
departments of the Government; 15 per cent. musi-
cians, actors, ete.; 1 per cent. each physicians, engineers,
architects, sea-captains, artists and sculptors, miners,
farm laborers, and members of the learned professions ;
and 4 per cent. locksmiths, turners, chair-makers, ma-
sons, carpenters, glaziers, weavers, saddlers, tailors, and
cobblers. This had been naturally no pleasant surprise
to the Government. It had more hunters than game,
more managers of farms than farms. There would
also have been no lack of coachmen, cattle-tenders, and
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 69

-sailors, if only a single soul had offered to do the
work from which they made it a condition to be re-
lieved. But how, with the small number of farm labor-.
ers, was the State to obtain bread for the people and
food for the cattle? How, with the unsatisfactory num-
ber of miners, was it to get sufficient coal, iron, etc.?
How were the people to be provided with clothes
and shoes if so few were willing to be tailors and shoe-
makers? How were houses to be built? How could
railroads be run if nobody was willing to be switch-
tender, conductor, or fireman? How were goods to be
transported, streets swept, rivers dredged, sewers cleaned,
if no one applied for the work?

The Government did not fare much better with the
offers from the women. By far the greater number of
spinsters desired occupations which fostered intercourse
with young men, and bar-maids in the beer-shops, sales-
women in glove stores, first and second rate singers,
ballet dancers and actresses, appeared in ample numbers.
There were also plenty of cooks, on condition of being
relieved of washing the cooking utensils and preparing
the materials. There was a still smaller supply of appli-
cations for places as nursery governesses, nurses of chil-
dren, sick-nurses, and all kinds of needle-work, and none
at all for cleaning of all kinds, peeling potatoes, milking
cows, and the various kinds of labor carried on in the
open air and in factories.

So the volunteer system did not succeed, and it was
fortunate that the Government—at least, the German one
—at once issued the command that every one must for
the present continue the occupation in which he was earn-
ing a living during the last week prior to the change in
the system of government. But the matter required a
final legal settlement, and, besides, the necessity at once
70 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

arose for finding suitable employment for those who had
been pursuing an independent business, as well as for
those who had not labored at all, and, also, enrolling the
young people who had reached working age. Long
arguments upon these difficult points followed, but in
Germany the industry and devotion of the law-giving
bodies at last produced a code whose 753 paragraphs
contained the following essential points:

1. Every male and female citizen is ordered, on pain
of punishment, to appear daily at the hour appointed by
the Government, or his or her special chief, at the place
named, for the purpose of working at the task to which
he or she is assigned.

2. All male and female citizens who, prior to the re-
organization of the State, were not working for any
salary or wages must at once report to the labor officials
of their respective districts, giving at the same time a
description of their qualifications, talents, and prefer-
ences, with a statement of their ages and previous occu-
pations. The local magistrate will forward the docu-
ment to the Bureau of Labor, which will then determine
the occupation to be pursued.

3. Young male and female citizens who are just reach-
ing the working age must deliver to the local magis-
trate the certificates of their teachers, on which must be
specially noted the vocations for which their mental and
physical powers best qualify them, and to these cer-
tificates a written report must be added, specifying their
own wishes in regard to their future avocations. By
these certificates and reports, and also the most pressing
needs of the Government, the Bureau of Labor finally
determines the occupation to be followed and the place
where the work is to be done.

4, No male or female citizen is entitled to change
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. T1

either the occupation or the place of labor assigned
without permission of his or her superior officer. Re-
monstrances or refusal to work will be punished by
imprisonment on bread and water. Requests for trans-
fer from one kind of employment to another, or from
one place to another, must be handed to the local labor
official, who has the right of decision. Appeal to the
Bureau of Labor is allowable.

5. The Government has the right, according to the
needs of the State, to order every citizen transiently or
permanently from one kind of occupation to another.
Refusal to obey will be punished with imprisonment on
bread and water. Costs of transportation will be de-
frayed by the State.

6. All officials appointed to superintend or direct work
must report at once to the Bureau of Labor if there is
any surplus of laborers in the district allotted to them,
or if the working force is not sufficient to accomplish
the task assigned. The Bureau in the one case will find
occupation for the surplus elsewhere, and in the other
supply the force lacking.

7. In case of a transient or permanent transfer from
one place of work to another, the Bureau of Labor must
do all in its power to arrange that the wives and hus-
bands of the citizens to be transferred also obtain em-
ployment in the place to which the transfer is made.
But should the said Bureau, from considerations con-
nected with the accomplishment of the work, find this
impossible, refusal of a transient or permanent separation
on the part of the said wife or husband is not allowable.

8. The time of labor fixed is: (a) for all occupations
which require intellectual rather than manual labor, or
which from their nature cannot have a fixed number of
hours a day allotted (bar-maids, nurses, sick-nurses, ballet-
72 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

dancers, circus-riders, rope-dancers, coachmen, porters,
conductors on railroads, and switch-tenders), the number
of hours which proves necessary to accomplish the work
to be done; (6) for all occupations which demand man-
ual rather than intellectual labor (so far as they do not
come under the above category), eight’ hours of work,
which must be performed between six in the morning
and six in the evening. In pursuits where labor cannot
be interrupted without great loss of fuel, or without in-
jury to the work already accomplished, the set of work-
men will be changed three times during the twenty-four
hours.

So, under the socialistic Government, eight hours had
been fixed as the working-day, a matter which had been
agitated in 1889. I had supposed that at the commence-
ment it would be six hours at the utmost, but during
the discussions the idea prevailed that it would be easier
to lessen the working hours than to lengthen them, and
that therefore it would be wise not to begin with mak-
ing too small a demand upon the industrial force.

But the very fact that equality of the time for all
manual labor was established proved the rock of offence
to all classes. People had become thoroughly inocu-
lated with the fundamental idea of socialism that no
one must have a larger income than his fellows. Yet ap-
parently there was scarcely a branch of labor which had
been entered upon under the new system where the
workers did not secretly think that this special branch
was one of peculiar difficulty, and therefore deserved a
diminution of the hours of toil. Everybody felt the ex-
hausting, annoying, arduous features of his or her own
occupation, and no one could realize how exhausting,
annoying, and arduous was the labor of others.

Thus disappointment was experienced on all sides, and
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 73

the vocation of the daily press was to voice this feeling.
There were, indeed, a legion of articles expressing this
disappointment, and at the same time offering some sug-
gestion of relief; most of them bore the heading, “In
the Cause of Equal Justice,” and the signature, “ Also a
Friend of Justice.” In every article, too, the purport,
if not the wording, was the same. After having at last
succeeded in correcting the injustice of the old social
system, the wronging of the masses by individuals, and
the unnatural inequality of property, thereby establish-
ing a kingdom of peace and equity, society was now to
perform the beautiful and grateful task of applying the
last touch, and relieving labor where it was at a disad-
vantage with other forms of employment. The dimi-
nution of working hours afforded a delightful and easy
remedy for all inequalities of this nature.

Then followed in every article a detailed account of
the reasons why the class of workers for which the writ-
er was pleading was more burdened than all the others,
and that it would be a mockery of the social democratic
system if such oppressive conditions were not relieved.
Spiteful side-thrusts at the comfort, ease, or healthful-
ness of all other avocations were rarely lacking. Some
found their work too monotonous, others too wearisome,
others too unclean and distasteful. All believed their
labor to be injurious to the health and likely to shorten
life: some because it was pursued in close rooms ; others
because it exposed them to heat, cold, wind, and rain;
others because it was sometimes performed in-doors and
sometimes in the open air, thereby constantly causing.
colds. ;

Every article closed with the opinion that it would be
perfectly just to extend the working hours of certain
other avocations, but those of the one in question ought
74 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

to be lessened 25 to 50 per cent. It was a very active
warfare, and I vainly searched the history of the past for
a single instance where different portions of society had
been arrayed against each other in such a conflict. I
first recalled the struggle of the year 1878, when the
policy of protection began. But this had been followed
by an agreement between the contending parties. It
had been in reality a war between those who: had prop-
erty and those who had not, and prudence soon admon-
ished them to join their forces against a common foe
that had striven to fleece each. But here it was not
certain large classes of society who, though with various
interests, began a war of gain against the other class; but
each separate division was pursuing its own goal, and
there were no common interests.

When Dr. Leete talks so much about peace and har-
mony among men, he imagines it. America will not
differ from this country, and I see here a degree of
class contention which presents a picture very unlike
that of peace.

Nor did peace reign in other spheres of public life.
I should not like to affirm that I found a worse condi-
tion of affairs in this respect than in former times, but
certainly, according to all the signs I could discover,
there had been no improvement.

At the utmost, I could make an exception only in
the domains of art and poetry; not that the conflict of
opinions had ceased here, but the differences seemed to
have been forced into a narrower circle, and no longer
to hinge upon questions of deeper significance. Oritics
of works of art and of poetry no longer discussed
whether idealism and the higher classic taste had a right
to be represented in both, for all doubts concerning
their exclusion appeared to have vanished. Opinions
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 45

varied merely as to whether the artist or poet had fully
satisfied the demands of realism, or whether, spite of
his praiseworthy efforts, he had not been too timid.
Little as I could judge of what was being accomplished
in art and poetry at the commencement of the twenty-
first century—for I had neither seen a work of art nor
read a poem—the discussions of these subjects left me
in no doubt that the direction of taste which had so
largely preponderated at the close of the nineteenth
century had attained complete mastery in the course of
one hundred and ten years. The doors of poetry and
art were barred against everything beautiful, magnifi-
cent, sublime, and elevated, while they tenderly fostered
the ugly, loathsome, and detestable. Thus the intoler-
ance of the beautiful, which had gained so much ascend-
ency in 1890, had attained its goal, and the critics doubt-
less felt content, like the sow wallowing in the mire.
True, they did not agree on all points, but the differ-
ences of opinion were really about the merest trifle.
One clique seemed to be satisfied that the summit of
realism had been successfully reached, the other opined
that it was still a short distance further. In regard to
the drama, especially, the view was often expressed that
the writer was still too much restricted by the fear of
showing the real in all its bareness. Suggestions were
made which my pen is unwilling to record. I asked
myself whether this phenomenon was probably con-
nected in any way with the revolution in the social sys-
tem, and attained the conviction that such a relation
was undeniable. No matter how we value the idea of
socialism, even its adherents, even those to whom its
feasibility has never appeared doubtful, must admit that
it strives to drag society down from the heights already
climbed to a fower level, and the plane on which soci-
76 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

ety stood in the year 2000 was certainly a considerably
lower one.

This proceeds from the nature of equalization. The
social democrats were not content with raising the
lower elements, which would have merited the most
universal approval, but, as they also strove to equalize
the distinctions of social position, they were forced to
reduce the higher elements to zero—that is, to the point
where equalization took place.

The result to be expected from this need not be dis-
cussed here. It could scarcely be different from what
would have occurred if the Creator of the universe, in-
stead of the various degrees of warmth making summer
and winter, had established a medium temperature for
every day; thus, it is true, never permitting an excess
of cold or heat, but thereby preventing the earth from
attaining that high degree of development which afford-
ed men the conditions of civilization.

To render men willing to receive an idea whose final
result could be no other than the lowering of the whole
social, life to a level which must lack the main condi-
tions of fruitfulness, their entire mode of thought need-
ed to be changed. The impulse to move from a higher
to a lower plane—a movement in total contrast to that
in which nature and mankind have been engaged from
the beginning—cannot be felt until the human race has
lost its appreciation of the value of the beautiful, the
sublime, and the noble. Even in the last decade of the
nineteenth century the preponderance of realism in art
and poetry showed the diminution of this appreciation,
for people were not content with promoting realism in
every possible way, but even desired to dispute the
right of idealism to existence, and with the repression
of the latter the nation lost the power of resisting the
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. qT

victorious progress of an idea by which society, as a
whole, could be anything but elevated.

In this way I thought I had found a connection be-
tween the undivided sway of realism in art and poetry,
and the fact that humanity could reconcile itself to the
idea of putting the artificial system of social democracy
in the place of the natural order of society.

In my opinion idealism and realism have equal rights ;
nay, they must balance each other. If idealism does
not find a counterpoise in a healthy realism, it will de-
generate into weakness, shallowness, and falsity to nat-
ure. On the other hand, realism in a people who have
lost all ideals will constantly tend downward, corrupt
the taste, and merge more and more into cynicism.
The drama in 1890 had entered this path, and the low-
ering of taste could not fail to rob society of the con-
sciousness of its height of civilization.

Such were the thoughts which involuntarily stole
into my mind as I was approaching the close of my
study of the fine arts in the daily press. I turned to
another important subject—it was to be the last in my
series of investigations—the condition of popular edu-
cation. Here I found an unusually active interest in
the discussion of the pros and cons, and the very first
article on which my eyes fell showed me plainly that
the socialistic state could not be just in dealing with
the problem of equality in education.

Though the decision of the strife over the Latin essay
and the Greek language seemed to belong to the past,
even after the retreat into the purely practical province,
wide differences of opinion existed concerning the boun-
daries to be maintained and the branches of learning
requisite for a healthful education of the masses. Apart
from the fact that people must have perceived very
78 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

speedily that the degree of education attainable did not
depend solely upon the kind of learning, the number of
the school years, or the knowledge of the teachers, but
also upon the industry, capacity, and tastes of the pu-
pils, directly after the establishment of the socialistic
Government the question arose whether, with the great
difference in occupations, it would be right to endeavor
to give every citizen an equally high degree of intellect-
ual culture. There were many callings, it was said,
which demanded a special amount of bodily vigor and
development of the muscles, and it was doubtful
whether for these avocations early habituation to the
fatigues of labor and the rigors of the weather would
not be far more advantageous than so much knowledge
of the modern languages, literature, mathematics, and
the various branches of the physical sciences. Experi-
ence had already proved that, with the social democratic
principle of equality of profit, the free choice of an oc-
cupation would not be permissible. But if the kind of
employment to be pursued was forced on each individ-
ual by the Government, the individual had a right to
expect the State to give him the education which would
best fit him for the imposed calling. The person who
must some day become a farm laborer, miner, coal-
heaver, or smith, would desire, above all else, to have
his body prepared in youth for the toil to be performed
throughout his life, since, without early habit and prep-
aration, the work must always be exhausting and oppres-
sive. So the youth ought not to be kept in school until
he reached his twenty-first year, and instead of striving
for equality of education, it would be better to aim at
bestowing the kind of training and the degree of intel-
lectual culture required by the duties of each pursuit.
True, this undeniably sensible view had not passed
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 79

without contradiction, for making distinctions in the
education of the people was regarded by many, perhaps
not unjustly, as an infringement of the social democratic
principle; but in time the plan was approved.

Then, however, a long and acrimonious conflict arose
between learned and unlearned men—a conflict which
at the time of my study of the newspapers was still
_ continuing with unabated vigor. It really turned upon
the question whether it would be better to return to the
old division into national schools, higher citizen schools,
real schools, and gymnasia, or to establish for all the
children a national school, according to whose graduat-
ing certificate some should at once go to work, others
to special schools intended to fit them for their future
occupations; what subjects should be taught in the na-
tional as well as in the special schools; what degree of
knowledge of the various branches must be attained by
pupils; what kind of knowledge should be regarded as
_ indispensable for the development of mind and char-
acter, and what kind would serve merely as ballast in
the pupil’s brain. The striking diversity of opinions,
and the obstinacy of the warfare, left me in no doubt
that the nature of the social democratic Government
would not be specially adapted to solve the difficult
problem of the school question.

The question of history as a subject of instruction
was the only one which particularly interested me. No
one disputed that it would be an important means of
education, and must be fostered in the national schools.
But how it should be taught, what portions were espe-
cially educational and stimulating, whether it would be
enough for the scholars to know the names of all the
sovereigns and the battles, as well as the corresponding
dates, or whether it was rather the duty of the school to
80 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

explain the development of the civilization of the na-
tions, were questions over which an endless conflict
arose. In this battle, moreover, a number of politicians
mingled, who were seeking in the distribution of histor-
ical instruction to gain a political object, and whose zeal
and prominence succeeded in directing the contest into
totally different channels.

History, they said, had but one goal to attain: that of
bringing the populace to a clear conception of the fact
that the whole development of the human race, from
the creation of Adam to the establishment of the social-
istic Government, had been a thoroughly perverted,
harmful, and extremely corrupt one, and that an imper-
ishable service had been rendered by the men who, amid
severe strife and martyrdom, with God’s gracious assist-
ance, had won a place for the social democratic adminis-
tration. Only by inspiring the young with the feeling
that the socialistic Government was the greatest of
earthly blessings could a generation be expected in the
future which would rally with immovable fidelity
around the banner of social democracy. The paths for
the investigation of history were thus marked out, and
the school had the task of showing people in flesh and
blood what science, with correct appreciation of its aims,
was bringing to light.

True, there was energetic opposition to this effort. It
was said that the study of history was a science, and no
revelation ; its sole task, therefore, could be to seek only —
pure truth and hold this like a mirror before the eyes
of men. If any other purpose was associated with its
study, and the facts of history were approached with an
opinion previously formed, the pupil could not fail to
fall into error. History ceases to be a real means of
education when the acts of men and nations are shown
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 81

through spectacles which make things appear in a false
light. But the men of science could no longer conquer
their opponents. The old observation that people like
best to hear and read what is agreeable to them, and are
less willing to seek truth for truth’s sake, seemed to be
verified in the socialistic world. Therefore, their rivals
found it easy to reply that it was a narrow-minded idea
to seek truth only where it appeared in a different light
from that which the seeker, according to his own con-
victions, desired. Even in the last decades of the nine-
teenth century investigation showed plainly enough that
even with a slight bias—there was no lack of allusions
to well-known names—the cleverest works of history can
be written. There is scarcely a page of history which
does not reveal in distinct characters the defect of the
former social system, and it is a proof of great narrow-
mindedness not to seek to show by these imperfections
that the socialistic Government is a boon to mankind.
That the review of history in the socialistic State would
be quite different from the former one seemed to me,
from what I read, unquestionable.

That all generations behold the past in a different light
can appear only natural, for it is not possible for most
men to rid themselves of the prejudices fostered by the
circumstances of theirtimes. But precisely because our
prejudices limit our freedom of judgment, we ought to
strive to avoid everything which merely supplies fresh
food for prejudice, since this diverts us still more from
the perception of truths, and history must finally cease
to be a means of education if political objects are inter- ©
woven with its study. This had been done in my own
day, and I really could not wonder that an insignificant

little seed had, in the course of time, produced corrupt-
1

6
82 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

This finished my studies. I had sufficiently examined
what I could find in my scrutiny of the newspapers. I
had not gained full assurance on all points, but where
doubts lingered my attention had been aroused, and I
could confidently expect the solution of the enigma as
soon as I entered the stream of life. This period was
not far distant as, during the days spent in reading, my
strength had increased and my body had regained its
former vigor.

Concerning two questions, however, I was, to my
great regret, utterly in the dark. I had not found a syl-
lable to inform me whether here, as well as in America,
the citizens were discharged from the service of the
Government on reaching the age of forty-five, nor how
large a sum was given by the credit card to each indi-
vidual. Both questions were somewhat connected, for
the age of the State pensioners and the amount of the

annual income must afford an unerring proof of the de~

gree of wealth obtained by the nation.

This question possessed the deepest interest for me.
In my time (I may be allowed to call it so—it was early
in the year 1890) I had made an estimate from the data
of the statistics of the Prussian Government, according to
which every inhabitant capable of earning money, from
the minister to the lowest workman, had an average
daily income of 2.47 marks—that is,a yearly income of
741 marks; and this estimate was by no means based
upon liberation from labor at the age of forty-five.
Somewhat later Eugene Richter estimated, in a little
different way, a yearly income of 842 marks, and I
should be disposed to believe that the latter was too high
rather than that mine was too low. But even Richter’s
income would not have tempted any of the lower offi-
cials, nor a very large number of workmen, to have

«
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 83

changed their actual earnings for their receipts accord-
ing to the social democratic division of the common in-
come. How much had the national income probably
increased in the course of a century? What had the
workman gained by the equality of the distribution ?

These were important questions, for whose solution I
must wait patiently. Wearied by long study and medi-
tation, went to rest and soon fell into a refreshing
sleep.
84 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

CHAPTER IV.

A VISIT TO THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF STATISTICS.

I was busied the next morning in making some little
extracts from the newspaper articles I-had read, when
Sister Martha entered in a state of joyful excitement.
She had at last received the long desired answer from
the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, Herr Biichner, and
it was a very favorable one. After a brief apology for the
delay in the reply on account of an absence of several
days, he expressed his great satisfaction that he could
easily obtain for me a position that would suit my tastes
and knowledge. But, in order not to fall into any error
on this point, it would afford him much pleasure to make
my acquaintance. “So pray ask your representative of
the glorious nineteenth century, risen from his death
sleep of a hundrd years, to do me the honor of calling
on me at five o’clock this afternoon,” were the last
words of the letter.

So I was to be released from my solitude and the
cheerless, quiet life which, with my eager desire to en-
ter into this new world and mingle with its affairs, had
become very oppressive. I was as full of happiness as
I had ever been in the days of my childhood, and paced
the room from end to end with long strides. “At last,”
I said, “I am to have an opportunity to see this crea-
tion of the German Bellamys, Bebel and Liebknecht.
I shall not be satisfied, like Julian West, with letting
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 85

any Dr. Leete tell me about things, but shall rack my
own brains and open my own eyes.”

“T can fully understand your delight, my dear friend,”
replied Sister Martha, “but you must not be vexed if I
drag the lofty flight of your thoughts down to earth.”

“Drag the flight of my thoughts down to earth? I
am on the earth now, and what I desire to search, probe,
examine, is but a patch of the globe on which people
are living in a little different way from that of a hun-
dred years ago.”

“But this patch of the globe imposes certain demands
upon people, and requires us to dress when we desire to
search and examine it. At the present time, visitors do
not call on Herr Biichner in qressing- gown and slip-
pers.”

I stopped short in dismay. To call on the Chief of
the Bureau just as I was had not entered my brain,
but I had not yet realized that I had not brought with
me my old clothes-press which, in former days, I need-
ed only to open to obtain garments suitable for every
oceasion. I now perceived, to my horror, that not an
article I wore was my own. The clothing that had cov-
ered me when I set out on my long journey had been
destroyed by mould and moths, and I owed my dress-
ing-gown, slippers, and unmentionables solely to the
generosity of the hospital. But would the latter also
supply me with a business-coat, hat, overcoat, vest, boots,
and trousers suitable for paying calls in a city? This
seemed to me doubtful, no matter how high an opinion
I might have of the liberality of the socialistic Govern-
ment.

I probably looked very downcast, for Sister Martha
burst into a merry laugh.

“Tt seems to me,” she cried, “that you are just now
86 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

in a position when a man doesn’t consider it a great mis-
fortune to have a wealthy and helpful friend.”

Overjoyed at her words, I seized her hand, exclaim-
ing: “If you will be my friend, Pll take you at your
word, and assure you that I was drawn to you from the
first moment. Your dress, your calling, and all the
kindness you have shown, attest your helpfulness. But
I don’t believe that you are rich. You live in the so-
cialistic State, and this has extinguished the vital spark
of wealth.”

“That depends upon what is meant by wealth,” she
answered. “In former times millionaires were called
rich, but I have known many whose purses were empty
long before their next, interest money came due, and I
have always considered myself far richer than these
men, for I had a few gold coins in my pocket-book when
my next quarter’s salary was paid. To-day I feel rich
- because I still have half my credit card untouched, and
the year is almost over. So grant me my pleasure and
the playfulness it inspires. I will give you my credit
card, and you shall go to a clothing store and be trans-
formed into a distinguished citizen of the socialistic
State.”

These were certainly kind, noble, generous words.
But had Sister Martha a right to use the credit card is-
sued in her name to supply my needs? Whatever she
did not use went back to the Government. Was it not
appropriating public property, to employ what would
rightfully fall to it for my benefit?

I told her my scruple, but was forced to admit that
her view of justice was no false one.

“The sum which the Government gives me as my
share of the general revenue,” she replied, “is money
honestly earned, and no one fing a right to restrict me in
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 87

spending it. It is shameful enough that people are not
permitted to keep what they save by frugality and thrift.
But these virtues do not seem to be regarded by the
socialistic Government as a sure foundation. Otherwise
it would beware of imposing the penalty of confiscation
upon economy. The more abominable I consider it to
be deprived of what is my own, unless I squander it in
finery for my person or consume it in eating and drink-
ing, the less I am disposed to submit to such robbery.
If I cannot keep what I save, I will not let it benefit
those who have dug the grave of economy, the mother
of home life, but those whom I can help in need. So
lay aside all scruples, my dear Herr Ost. You are in a
condition which all the sophisms in the world cannot
aid. There is not in the whole civilized earth a tailor
who would loan you a suit for an hour, so do not deny
the pleasure of aiding you to one who to-day has the
happinesss of calling ‘herself your only friend.”

Why should I have refused such cordial kindness?
Though I could not conceal from myself that during
the one hundred and eleven years which I had spent in
the gravel-pit in a condition that was neither death nor
life, I had done nothing for society which would be
worth the cost of a suit of clothes, 1 had nevertheless
been no such criminal as would warrant the Government
in refusing my friend the privilege of clothing me from
the proceeds of her work. Therefore I accepted the
offer gratefully and without reserve, though unable to
promise restitution, for, as I understood the socialist
Government, it was not adapted to afford a man more
than a moderate support.

There were some who, like Sister Martha, made sacri-
fice their life-calling, but unfortunately I did not belong
to this class. Meantime a fresh source of embarrassment
88 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

arose. I was to make purchases on Sister Martha’s credit
card. Could I appear in a clothing shop without identi-
fication? The first of November had already passed, and
the period dangerous to credit cards had probably ar-
rived; all those who sold goods were enjoined to care-
fully notice those who presented them. Sister Martha’s
card bore a woman’s name, and my face showed the
most evident tokens of my sex. Might I not expect to
be arrested on a charge of theft?

I proposed to Sister Martha to give me a power of at-
torney and have her signature certified by a notary.
But she did not know whether there were notaries in
the socialist Government, and, moreover, thought that
the necessary forms would consume far too much time
and could not be complied with during the few hours
before the afternoon. So there was nothing to be done
except for Sister Martha to arrange her duties a little
and go with me to the establishment.

We carried out this plan at four in the afternoon. A
hack stood close by. Sister Martha gave the driver her
credit card to cut, and after a short drive we stopped in
front of a large store provided with every comfort, and
fitted up in a way similar to the arrangements of the
best shops in the nineteenth century.

A pleasant-mannered young man instantly asked what
we desired, and when my name was mentioned — of
course it had been in all the papers—congratulated me
on my fortunate rescue. I followed him—Sister Martha
remaining in the outer room—into an adjoining dress-
ing-room, tried on various articles, and had the pleasure
of presenting myself to my friend in a handsome suit,
appropriate for both calling and daily wear. The hat,
overcoat, and boots were also of faultless workmanship.
Meanwhile my insatiably generous patroness had se-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 89

lected a handsome umbrella, a dozen shirts, socks, and
under-garments, and I was thus a well-equipped citizen
of the new world. Sister Martha took out her credit
card, had.the clerk mark with his shears the sum of 183
marks and 75 pfennigs, and, after a courteous bow, we
went out into the street again.

“There, my honored citizen of the new kingdom,”
said Sister Martha, “now [ll send you in a hack to the
Bureau of Statistics, while I myself return home on foot.
How you are to get back except in the same way I
really don’t know. It might be dangerous for you to
call a hack on my credit card, and I have not time to
come for you. So walk very slowly and carefully ; then
I hope you will not find the way too tiresome.”

A hack-stand was close by; we shook hands. Sister
Martha called after me, “Good-luck with Herr Biich-
ner.” At five o’clock precisely I drove up to the Bu-
reau of Statistics.

I felt some little embarrassment as I entered the Di-
rector-general’s room, but my reception was so cordial
and friendly that it instantly vanished. He was an
elderly man of portly figure and affable manners. His
somewhat rubieund face, furrowed by few wrinkles, and
the comfortable rotundity of his figure by no means
suggested a man who spent his life in making calcula-
tions; nay, his whole manner, and gay, cheerful con-
versation, would have indicated a person who had de-
voted his days to pleasure and amusement. He spoke
the agreeable Bavarian dialect, had a pair of kindly
blue eyes, and wherever the meaning of his words al-
lowed, was fond of ending his sentences with a resonant,
jovial “Ha! ha! ha!”

“ Ah, I probably have the pleasure of welcoming Herr
Ost, the nan of the nineteenth century. If our laborers
90 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

hadn’t discovered you, you would doubtless have lain in
your gravel-pit till the day of judgment.” And he
burst into a merry laugh.

“Tt is a strange destiny which has made me witness
two totally diverse periods of time,” I answered; “but
it shall be my endeavor to become a useful member of
society in the socialist world, and if I should have the
happiness of possessing your protection, I should always
endeavor to do honor to your recommendation.”

“Well, the Germans of the nineteenth century don’t
appear to have been the worst sort of men—ha! ha! ha!
—and we shall probably be able to make use now of a
fellow who lived in those times. But we'll take the
matter comfortably. Sit down in the arm-chair yonder,
and let us smoke a pipe of peace together.”

With these words he drew two cigars from a case. I
had always been excessively fond of smoking, but for
one hundred and eleven years no tobacco had passed
my lips, and Iwas now curious to learn how my mucous
membrane would be affected by it. That the weed I
was smoking had never been very near Cuba my nose
and tongue both told me at the first whiff; but true to
my intention of looking at the new world with unprej-
udiced eyes, I did not even ask myself the question
whether the defect in quality was due to the giver’s
taste more than to the wisdom and care of the socialist
Government.

After Herr Biichner had lighted his cigar he took
his seat comfortably in an arm-chair opposite to me.
“First, my dear Herr Ost,” he said, “it affords me
great satisfaction to give you a little pleasure. A busi-
ness matter took me to the chancellor’s, and I availed
myself of the opportunity to tell him about you, and the
necessity of taking you into our service. He thought
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 91

that a certain length of time would be necessary to
train you for manual labor. At your advanced age,
and totally unused as you are to physical toil, this could
only be characterized as an act of causeless inhumanity,
and, therefore, according to his opinion, it cannot be dif-
ficult to find useful employment for your powers else-
where. In the present critical condition of all relations,
it might even be valuable to know the experiences and
opinions of a man who was taking an active part in prac-
tical life at the very time people were discussing the
dark side of the former system of society. It seemed
to him particularly fortunate that this man had been an
agriculturist, and examined things from that stand-point.
In the socialistic State agriculture is in a special degree
the child of sorrow.”

This appeared to me by no, means a bad idea. Agri-
culture is really a very important calling for all nations,
and, while reading Mr. Bellamy’s book, I had felt it to
be a lamentable oversight that this branch of occupa-
tion, and its mode of management in the new system,
had not been mentioned by even a syllable.

“So you see, my dear sir,” Herr Bichner continued,
“vou need only travel about the country, keep your re-
spected eyes wide open, and report occasionally to the
chancellor, and you’ll have employment which will not
seem too difficult for you.”

“T am greatly indebted for your kind efforts,” I re-
plied, “and though at this moment I feel a little doubt-
ful whether I shall succeed in fully satisfying the chan-
cellor’s expectations, I willingly admit that this kind of
occupation, in my peculiar situation, will be most agree-
able for a time, and I assure you that I shall lack nei-
ther industry nor care.”

“T shall willingly believe that,” was his answer, “and
92 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

you probably won’t suffer from ennui—ha! ha! ha!
There is a motley variety in the socialistic Government,
and you will often ask yourself whether you or the
rest of the world are crazy. But people were bent
upon it, and now they must drink as they have brewed.
But to come to a practical subject. The chancellor has
just sent me a credit card for you, with the remark
that, to be able to work, you must have means to live.
Though it is after the first of November, he has allowed
the amount for two full months. An order addressed
to all railroads and transportation offices, as well as to
all the hotels in the various cities, for the purpose of
furnishing you with free lodgings and transportation
during your official journeys, will follow. So be kind
enough to put this document in your pocket.”

So saying, he gave me a card inscribed with my name,
and bearing the words, “Employé of the Chancellor’s
Office.” I felt myself aman once more. The oppres-
sive consciousness of being a mere recipient of alms,
living only by the favor of society, gave place to a
pleasant sense of self-reliance, as I held in my hand the
certificate, made of the best card-board. Nay; more
than that, as an official in the chancellor’s office, I seem-
ed to myself a person of consequence. After living so
long on hospital diet, my physical cravings stirred once
more, and visions of genuine Lowen beer, Hochheimer,
and fragrant Havanas flitted before my mind. What
was more natural than for my eye to rove questioningly
over the figures which expressed the number of pleas-
ures within my reach up to the first of January! I
found the sum to be 250 marks, and, though I summon-
ed up all my courage, it seemed as if my face length-
ened more and more. Two hundred and fifty marks,
divided by fifty days, gave five marks per diem, and
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 93

with this I was to defray the expense of breakfast, din-
ner, supper, light, heat, wine, and tobacco. Moreover, I
was still uncertain whether, in the socialist State, a man
could do, like Sultan Saladin, with one coat.

Herr Biichner probably noticed the lengthening of
my face. —

“Yes, yes, my dear sir,” he said, “ you are not accus-
tomed to live on two hundred and fifty marks for two
months, or fifteen hundred a year. But in socialistic
society the first rule is, ‘Cut your garment according
to your cloth.’ These are the beautiful advantages of
equality—ha! ha! ha! Some who formerly fared better
are discontented at being compelled to economize, and
. others who formerly fared worse are discontented be-
cause they don’t get still more. In the most favorable
cases they have gained two hundred marks, but, on the
other hand, have been obliged to give up their liberty
and many other things to boot.”

A slight flush crimsoned my face as he spoke, but I
speedily regained my composure.

“We must manage as well as we can,” I replied. “I
will consider myself fortunate in being no better off
than other men. It was only a momentary surprise,” I
added, with some little hesitation; “I had expected
something rather different—about ten times as much,
since Mr. Bellamy—”

“Mr. Bellamy?” interrupted Herr Biichner. “ Have
you read that famous book? Ha! ha! ha!” He burst
into a shout of ringing laughter. “Saint Bellamy was
deceived. This Julian West must be a simpleton who
believes white is black and black white, and his Dr.
Leete is the most foolish fellow I ever heard of. I met
the old gentleman last year at the Statistical Congress
in Philadelphia.
94. MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

“We all laughed at him, for he has a fixed idea that
the earth has been changed to heaven. In his youth
he read Bebel’s writings, associated with social demo-
crats, and made long speeches about how delightful it
would be if the world could be changed according to
Bebel’s recipe. Since Bebel’s socialistic society has
now been introduced he imagines that all these fancies
have become facts, and is delighted to find anybody to
whom he can talk about it.

“Every one makes fun of him. When he buys a
new suit of clothes at a store a messenger is sent pri-
vately to his house with it, and he is told it is magically
delivered by a subterranean pneumatic tube. A tele-
phone has been placed in his sitting-room, and he
spends hours there listening to music, and believes that
the social democrats invented the telephone. When
it rains and the worthy Bostonians stretch screens
from the houses to keep the sidewalks dry, it is so
dark in his room that he can neither read nor write.
But he walks patiently up and down, rubbing his hands
and rejoicing that the socialists have arranged things so
delightfully.” *

During these last explanations I had involuntarily
pushed my chair to and fro several times. I had read
of these things in Looking Backward, with a certain de-
gree of faith, and now, to my shame, found them ridic-
ulous. I remembered having heard a telephonic mu-
sical performance in 1890 in ‘thie Urania in Berlin. It
was an act of Gounod’s “ Faust.” But I had not been
extremely sorry when it was over, and had only regretted
that I did not go to the opera instead. That stretching

* Apparently Herr Biichner is alluding to the suggestions made in Be-
bel’s Woman in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The ninth edition
appeared in January, 1891, under the altered title, Woman and Socialism.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 95 .

umbrellas over the streets in rainy weather, which had
so greatly delighted Julian West, could not be a sen-
sible invention, because it would exclude the light from
people’s houses, became evident after Herr Biichner’s
brief remark. But I did not immediately perceive why
it was not feasible to introduce pneumatic tubes in Bos-
ton similiar to the ones used for letters and postal-cards.
I expressed this doubt somewhat timidly, and spoke
of the mechanism of the pneumatic postal delivery, and
the magnificence of the inventive spirit whose mighty
conquests would not suffer us to suspect to what de-
gree machinery might yet supplant human labor.
“Certainly, my dear Herr Ost,” observed Herr Biich-
ner, “men have accomplished marvels and may do aiill
more. But you know they can hardly shake off the
fetters of time and space. They may perhaps invent
methods of sending much heavier articles than letters
and postal-cards in pneumatic tubes, and it probably
would not be too difficult to conduct such a tube to any
single dwelling; but to have all the thousands of tubes
of colossal size discharge their contents into one ware-
house at one place—a place which does not afford a
tenth part of the requisite space—is a thing our Creator
‘Himself cannot accomplish. But there is scarcely a
folly which Dr. Leete does not imagine, Julian West be-
lieve, and Mr. Bellamy describe. Then there is a great
deal said about the vast treasure mankind has accumu-
lated in the socialistic State. And how was this done?
By constant labor day and night? Heaven forbid!
Work is mere pastime; a few hours daily, and every-
thing is accomplished by magic. If either of the three
gentlemen had but glanced into a book of statistics to
learn what kind of accountants they are! All the la-
boring force between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one
96 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENOES

they wish to keep at school, and all between forty-five
and sixty-five to maintain as pensioners of the State;
and yet they assert that society has gained immensely
by making every one work. And there have been hun-
dreds of thousands of people who believe such nonsense.
Yes, my dear sir, men are very strange—ha! ha! ha!”
and he burst into his pleasant, resonant laugh.

“The gentlemen base their assertion,’ I remarked,
“upon the great increase of working power which so-
ciety has obtained by no longer maintaining soldiers,
finding occupation for capitalists, and those who were
formerly unemployed from lack of opportunity to work,
abolishing the whole trading class, and enrolling its
members in the army of workers, and reducing the en-
tire apparatus of administration to a minimum.”

“Tet us test that assertion,” he said. “The military
service claimed 1 per cent. of the population, or nearly
two and a half of those who were capable of working;
we will estimate the number of the laboring population
who were unable to find employment during a year in
former times as being the same, which, however, is con-
siderably in excess of the real facts, and we shall have a
gain of 5 per cent. But on the other hand the young
people from sixteen to twenty-one, and the older ones
from forty-five to sixty-five years, comprise about 60
per cent. of the industrial force.* So, opposed to the:
gain of 5 per cent. is a loss of 60 per cent. of people

* These estimates of Herr Biichner concerning the proportion of the
classes of the ages named to the whole number of the industrial popula-
tion, as well as the following ones of the proportion of those formerly
employed in trade and official positions, really seem to be very accurate.’
They can be tested easily by referring to the Annual Statistical Manual
of the German Empire, 1887 and 1888, containing the estimates of the
census of 1885.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 97

capable of performing labor; that is, in other words, the
socialistic State has retained only 45 per cent. And
now, according to Mr. Bellamy’s communications, there
must be a reduction of at least 50 per cent. in hours of
labor— Bebel proposed two, three, or, at most, four
hours in the socialistic State—ask yourself, as a man
still in possession of his senses, whether it is possible
that these 45 per cent. of the former working populace,
with the hours of labor so greatly reduced, can transform
the whole world, so to speak, into a blooming garden,
and also produce on so large a scale that everybody can
live like a nabob.”

“But you forget, Herr Biichner, the accession of the
whole commercial community, and the extraordinary
reduction of the official class.”

“Ha! ha! ha!” shouted Biichner. “We will sup-
pose it to be true that all the people who were formerly
engaged in trade, and all who were formerly employés
of the Government, municipal, and ecclesiastical service
were superfluous, and could be employed in industrial
pursuits. How much would have been gained by that ?
Under the old system 8} per cent. of the working popu-
lation were engaged in trade—including hotel and res-
taurant keepers—and 53 per cent. as officials in the
branches named. If we add this 133 per cent. to the
45 per cent. of the former industrial force, we shall
have 582 per cent., and thus the considerable deficit of
413 per cent. But how can you suppose that this 133
per cent. of the laboring force could be even approxi-
mately saved in the socialistic State? True, a number
of the smaller tradesmen and a number of the smaller
hotel and restaurant keepers would have no occupation
owing to the enlargement of business; but could the
whole number of people who had hitherto carried on

q
98 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

the duties of trade be removed without detriment to
society? By no means. Not even a single one of the
duties which formerly devolved upon the trading com-
munity and commercial houses has lapsed; the only
change is that what was formerly done by private indi-
viduals on their own account is now done by officials
in behalf of the Government. The Government is the
manager of all commerce, and all its duties fall upon it.
All the labor, down to the smallest detail relative to
the manufacture and distribution of goods, which was
formerly divided among hundreds of thousands of mer-
chants, is now performed by the State. Long before
the harvest time it must ascertain what quantity of
grain is at its disposal from the inland fields, and what
amount it must purchase. It must stretch its feelers to
where the stores of grain may be expected, learn where
it can buy the best and the most cheaply ; for the com-
petition of the countries which must buy grain has not
been diminished a whit by the socialization of society.
It must see that the packing and forwarding to all
places is done promptly and at the right time, that
every bale of merchandise reaches the spot where it
is wanted. And the same energy is requisite in regard
to supplying the cattle for the shambles, and the butter
which must be imported for the needs of the popula-
tion, the Southern fruits, the fodder and manure, the
wool and cotton, and whatever else must be brought
from abroad. This one branch of its commercial busi-
ness requires, precisely on account of its concentra-
tion, an amount of writing, travelling, and management
which did not formerly exist in the thousands of small
houses. But all this is a very minute part of the trans-
actions imposed upon the commercial department of the
Government. It has to provide for the payment of
x IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 99

the goods purchased, and as in the socialistic State this
cannot be done with money, a great burden arises from
it. The State must again stretch its feelers into every
quarter of the globe. It must ascertain where the prod-
ucts of its labor are saleable, what articles are desired,

how it must manufacture them to surpass other nations,
and what their value is in the market of the world.
When it has thus obtained insight as to what varieties
and quantities of industrial products it needs in order
to pay for the imported goods, it orders the Bureau of
Labor to have all these things ready at the proper dates;
but as soon as information is received that the articles
have been manufactured, it must pack, address, and for-
ward them, provide them with letters of advice, and,
last but not least, see that in the infinite circumlocu-
tion caused by the system of exchange among the na-
tions, it pays in goods for the goods it has purchased.
This is a rough sketch of the foreign trade, and I must
beg you to tax your imagination a little in order to un-
derstand to what extent the labor of this business is in-
creased by having everything which was formerly done
in many parts within narrow limits, all these parts do-
ing a mammoth common work—though no one of the
various portions had anything in view except the one
function which was being performed—by having all this
work laid on the shoulders of the Government, which
must deal with it with due regard to the tastes, needs,
and purchasing power of men.”

“T can well understand the remarkable burden of
labor resting upon the Bureau of Commerce, or what-
ever the Government office is called, whose duty it is
to direct and arrange commercial affairs,” I remarked ;
“but if I am permitted to interrupt, I should like to
ask whether this one power, which has to rule the whole
100 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

with a definite consciousness of purpose, does not—pre-
cisely because this purpose stands so clearly before it—
possess the ability to avoid all these irregularities which
only too frequently have caused the most dangerous cri-
ses, and which could never be escaped so long as all who
sought occupation in trade strove, in a certain sense aim-
lessly, towards their special goals, paying no heed to the
common object of commercial business? Trade sought
profit, and troubled itself very little whether the success
of the individual business benefited the community or
not.”

Herr Biichner gazed earnestly at me with his large,
pleasant eyes.

“Certainly,” he replied, “it can avoid the least irreg-
ularity if, like God, it is omniscient and omnipotent.
This trifle is the sole requisite. But I suppose this
society, socialized by Bebel’s recipe, 7s omniscient and
omnipotent.”

He again burst into his joyous laugh.

“You know, my dear Herr Ost,” he went on, “that
our old mother Nature is sometimes a little troublesome
tous men. She often seems to us inaccurate—not suffi-
ciently exact. Sometimes it is too hot, sometimes too
cold; sometimes it rains too much, sometimes it is too dry.
Yet for millions of years she has kept the universe in
excellent condition. So, too, in the social world, things
were often irregular. Prosperous times alternated with
bad years: one man made money, another lost it; some
gained fortunes without effort, others earned their daily
bread by the sweat of their brows. Yet it cannot be
said that this social system did not act admirably. It
had brought the human race to a splendid degree of de-
velopment, and if imbecility and greed had not so often
meddled with its workings, it would have benefited
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 101

men still more, and they would have suffered less from
the wide contrasts between wealth and poverty. And
in what did this peculiar apparatus consist? It was a
vast multitude of parts all working with tireless indus-
try, impelled by a resistless impulse of selfishness, but all
held and guided with a firm hand, so that this impulse
of selfishness became the motive power of society. From
these opposing forces came floods and ebbs, dams and
inundations, but Nature, with marvellous wisdom, had
provided that all extra high waves should fall back to a
level on which the ship of society could safely float. As
it regulated the value of everything according to the re-
lation of supply and demand, and made selfishness the
spring of work, the result was that the balance of things
was restored when destroyed, and that society, after
each shock, began to grow and flourish with rejuvenated
vigor. Now tell me, my dear sir, where socialistic so-
ciety is to find the lever to rise again if a crisis should
paralyze it? Selfishness, it is true, lives unweakened in
the human breast. It is an indestructible part of human
nature. But it has been transformed to a quiescent
force, which can probably still show its repulsive side,
but is incapable of any creative effort. So, with each
shock, it must sink lower, lacking strength to rise again.
Its gradual decadence is an inevitable necessity. Or do
you really believe that this human nature which in the
various States is placed at the head of affairs, which
has nothing at its disposal save human intelligence and
human power, would be capable of directing production
with such certainty that in no quarter of the world would
a stoppage occur which would make the stream rise in
all directions? Bebel says, ‘Crises will come, because
there is no standard by which the actual demand for any
goods can be estimated.’ He should have added that
102 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

there is also no standard by which the actual quantity of
the goods produced can be estimated, and he would then
probably have perceived that in judging the needs of
the world and the productions of the world, the offi-
cials of the socialistic Government would succeed no
better than did the merchants of former days, whose
weal and woe had depended upon the accuracy of their
judgment.”

I could not help assenting to this statement, and was
forced to admit that, in this respect also, I had been led
astray by Mr. Bellamy. The sphere of the world’s com-
merce is too great, and the influence of nature upon man
is too changeful, to find an infallible standard for supply
and demand. In other respects Herr Biichner, in all

that he said, seemed to have read my very thoughts.

That selfishness is the real spring of creative power ; that
this creative power finds pleasure and support in the
extension of needs, and that needs and exertion are bal-
anced by a changeless law of nature which regulates the
value of everything according to the relation of supply
and demand, I had long known, and had not doubted
for a moment, that in this ainda of valuation lies the
power of nature which holds together all the centrifugal
interests, and renders them useful in the service of the
community. I was no less convinced that society, if
deprived of this stimulus of selfishness, must lose the
conditions of recuperation after a crisis.

“But we have wandered a little from our subject,”
Herr Biichner continued. “ Hitherto I have only showed
you the labor involved in the management of the for-
eign trade, but home traffic causes the Government no
less difficulty. Like the old commercial class, it must
investigate the wants of the consumers. It must see
that every bale of goods reaches the place where it is
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 103

wanted, and that not one is lacking where it is sought.
It must not neglect to stimulate demand and create
needs, that the wares produced may find purchasers.
Nor must it fail to collect from every nook and corner
the apparently valueless scraps and remnants, such as
rags, bones, skins, etc., which are capable of being con-
verted into articles of use. There are also the same
duties formerly discharged by the commercial class, and
the same number of articles disposed of by the latter.
Can it simplify the work to have this vast business ar-
ranged and directed from a single place? Certainly not.
All the thousands of auxiliary forces which have per-
formed their work in every nook and corner of the land
need constant communication with the central power
which, from their reports, must form its judgment, sup-
ply their demands, direct their labor, and control their
duties. This requires an amount of labor unknown
under the former system. So you see that society has
gained nothing by the abolition of private business; on
the contrary, the transmission of goods, the business of
buying and selling requires, in the socialistic State, a
considerable increase of the industrial force.

“Now,” he added, “we will consider this far-famed
decrease of the public officials. How confiding and
credulous humanity is! Has governing and managing
ceased in the socialistic community? Or has the Gov-
ernment been relieved of business it was formerly com-
pelled to transact? True, it has no more guardianships
to undertake, bankruptcies to manage, inheritances to
regulate. The working power of a few thousand men
may thus be spared. I admit that the number of law-
suits has lessened, since the most important subject of
litigation, property, has been abolished; but the Govern-
ment cannot dispense with a court of law in every city ;
104 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

therefore the relief is less to it than to the judges. On
the other hand, imagine the immense burden which
weighs upon it. It owns every foot of land, every do-
mestic animal, all the houses, factories, machines, and
tools, all the carts and carriages, all the craft used on
the seas and rivers. All these kinds of capital it must
use, direct, keep in repair, replace, and increase, to meet
the growth of the population. It must direct all the
work, agricultural, industrial, personal; it must decide
for every branch of labor, every part of the country,
every season of the year, what must be made and what
industrial force is at its disposal. Imagine what a num-
_ber of higher and lower officials, stewards, overseers,
book -keepers, and clerks it requires to accomplish all
these things.

“To aid you a little I will show you, for instance, what
~ anew burden has grown up for the Government out of
the mere distribution of meat. It begins in the Bureau
of Agriculture, whose duty it is to determine, from the
reports of the managers of the farms, how many oxen,
calves, sheep, hogs, geese, ducks, and hens are available
for the slaughter-house—after taking into account the
kind and quantity of food in stock, as well as the work
to be done in the various branches of farming—and at
what seasons of the year they can be delivered. Then
comes the Bureau of Forestry and the Bureau of Fishing,
which regulate the amount of game to be shot and the
number of fish to be taken from the water. All these
reports go to the Bureau of Commerce, which has to
determine for every part of the country the needs of
the whole population, and what kinds of meat or fish are
in demand at the various seasons of the year. When
this is settled, arrangements must be made to obtain, by
purchase from abroad, the requisite amount of cattle at
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 105

the time desired. These are preparatory acts ; now be-
gins the real business of providing and distributing the
meat. After receiving notice of the arrival of a cargo
of cattle or meat, the Bureau of Commerce must give
directions to what province or district to send it, and
their respective officials receive orders to determine, on
its arrival, what villages and cities are to obtain it.
The Bureau of Commerce is now again notified what
additions are needed from the home production of cattle,
and the Bureau then requests the Bureau of Agriculture
to have them slaughtered. The Buréau of Agriculture
now informs its district agents for the distribution of
meats what number of the various kinds of animals shall
be butchered, the district agents notify the individual
farm managers, and the farm managers select the ani-
mals to be slaughtered. When the cattle are killed the
lower officials in charge of distributing the meat begin
their work; they estimate the number of pounds and
the kinds of meat which are to be brought to the various
shops and markets, receive daily reports of the consump-
tion, needs, and stock, and decide what exchanges are to
be made among the shops and markets.”

“Pardon me, Herr Biichner,” I interrupted. ‘I was
once a farmer myself, and know by my own experience
how impossible it is to determine in advance, with any
degree of accuracy, what quantity of meat can be brought
to market. I cannot believe that the Bureau of Com-
merce is capable of reaching any decision from the re-
ports it receives.”

“Neither can I, my dear sir,” replied Herr Bichner,
bursting into his merry laugh. “The august Bureau of
Commerce will hardly be of the opinion itself that it
provides the world with good and cheap meat. For
one place there is want and the people are starving; in
106 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

another an over supply and the meat spoils. However,
you must yet become accustomed to many peculiarities
of the socialistic State. The management of things is
neither very economical nor very prompt. The distri-
bution of all other articles of use is just as complicated
and troublesome as that of the meat. Disorder and ir-
regularity reign everywhere. Even if men do their
duty ever so diligently, social democracy has set the
Government tasks beyond human ability. But you are
now probably convinced that in the socialistic State there
has been no saving in the number of officials. On the
contrary, their increase has been so great that the
amount of working power to be used in manufactures
has suffered great diminution.”

This was indisputable, and I was forced to perceive
that Dr. Leete had investigated this point also very
superficially.

“Has not production been much retarded by releasing
men from labor at the age of forty-five?” I asked. “Or
is this whole story false too?’

“Tt is, and itis not. True, in so far that this release
from labor was promised to the older people. The at-
tempt was made in this way to incline them favorably
to the idea of socialism, for the class of this age is spe-
cially influential and could not be permitted to stand in
the way of the change. At first some relief was afforded
them, but this could not last long or the race would have
sunk into poverty. The sixty-fifth year is now the
legally appointed age-limit of labor, and the working-day
of most industrial avocations and of all ages consists of
eight hours.”

“But Julian West expresses in such extravagant terms
his amazement at the vast increase of wealth during the
period of his hypnotic slumber?”
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 107

' “The increase has really been considerable —no less
than from 1800 to 1900; but it was obtained only by the
old society, not by the new, which has existed but a
short time.”

“But a short time? According to Dr. Leete, the
change took place a hundred years ago.”

“A hundred years ago!” The old gentleman shouted
with laughter. “No, my dear sir, humanity won’t en-
dure this sort of thing a century. A hundred years of
socialistic Government would have made us Hottentots
long ago.” :

“But Dr. Leete relates very explicitly how, at the be-
ginning of the twentieth century, the whole capital of
the world had collected into the hands of very few per-
sons, whose irresponsible caprices rendered it necessary
to wrest it from them and place it in the sole charge of
the Government.”

“And I tell you that Dr. Leete never put his nose
into a manual of statistics. Otherwise he would know
that the reverse of that is true. Doubtless the individ-
ual business of various industrial branches was greatly
enlarged, but the capital which created them came from
a number of hands. It is an encouraging phenomenon
that, among all nations where there has been progress,
property, with the increase of wealth, has been distrib-
uted among an increasing number of hands; that while
the number of capitalists augmented, the number of
those without property diminished. This is proved by
the statistics of direct taxation, and, above all, by the
increasing milliards treasured in the savings-banks. In
the Middle Ages and in ancient times the vast chasm
between the rich and the poor might perhaps have
given occasion for the socialization'of society, but in
the past few centuries this gulf has constantly nar-
108 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

rowed. The situation of the middle and lower classes
became freer, more assured materially, and never did
the relations of the various classes of the people to one
another—especially that of the employé to the employ-
er—offer less occasion for such a momentous overturn-
ing of society than in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries.” *

This was certainly true. I knew from my studies in
political economy that, even in my time, the develop-
ment of society was a favorable one. Small and mod-
erate properties were increasing, the personal indepen-
dence of all classes was perceptibly growing, the rate of
wages was rising, and the increasing productiveness of
society was tending to the cheapening of all articles of
necessity. Though the tariff policy of the nations,
through a false conception of questions of political
economy, had led to measures which widened class dis-
tinctions and fostered dissatisfaction, the material de-
velopment of society showed itself in the figures of
statistics in such a manner that the tendency to the
equalization of contrasts was unmistakable.”

“But what reasons induced men to overthrow the
system of affairs which had existed for ages and grown
up in the natural order of events to substitute for it the
artificial one of socialized society ?”

Herr Biichner stared at me in astonishment. “ Rea-

* Herr Biichner’s statements in this respect cannot be doubted. Much
as was said by the social democrats in the year 1890, as well as in the
preceding ones, concerning the increasing concentration of capital in a
few hands, up to 1890 no trace of such concentration was to be found in
the statistical reports, but on the contrary, the opposite state of affairs ap-
peared with remarkable clearness. It is not to be supposed that any
change would take place in this regard within the next decade. At least
the movement of capital showed only evidences of facts, according to
which a further increase in the number of capitalists must be expected.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 109

sons ?” he said, smiling. ‘There were no reasons—at
least, no sensible ones. I mean, by that, no reasons’
which originated in the social system itself, its defects,
or insufficiencies. A condition of universal happiness,
such as mankind can dream or desire, a state of human-
ity in which all enjoy an equal portion of the rarest de-
lights, in which no one suffers want, and no one feels
the superior power of another, was certainly no more to
be expected from this system of society than a state
of the world where no one suffers any lack, no one
freezes, no one perspires, no one is ill, and no one in the
fulness of vigor meets with a premature end. But it
had brought the human race to a high degree of happi-
ness and wealth, and possessed within itself sufficient
vigor and capacity of development to alleviate the most
crying evils and smooth the contrast between the rich
and the poor. It would only have been necessary to
make justice the basis of the system of government—
that justice which abhors in equal measure the favoring
of one class and the injuring of another—and society
would have succeeded in securing to the workman a
comfortable existence and the consciousness of indepen-
dence. True, the phenomenon must have had a cause.
For without cause there is no effect. But it must be
sought within the governmental rather than the so-
cial system. As the ruling powers of all countries,
save England, liked to endow the wealthy classes with
privileges, and pursued a policy of customs duties whose
purpose, though often denied, was indisputably to favor
the small number of those engaged in commerce at the
expense of the whole population of consumers, general
indignation had been aroused, which perpetually in-
creased. It might perhaps be more convenient for the
Governments to have a small number of millionaires
110 .MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

than a large number of small capitalists. But those
who were wearily struggling for, their existence did not
consider it just to have treasures garnered for the few
merchants by striving to raise the price of bread, meat,
‘and all the useful articles produced in the country.
The working-classes were the most imbittered, because
their lives were the hardest and they suffered most
from the customs policy; but the other classes,. too,
were opposed to it, because the resentment of the labor-
ers sharpened the class distinctions of society, and soci-
ety desired to be at peace with the laboring classes. In
order to conciliate the latter, the Governments had re-
sorted to various measures which were undoubtedly
useful, and, at any other time, would have.removed the
contrast ; but on account of their obstinately persisting
so long in their mistaken ideas, these measures not only
failed to effect their purpose, but even increased the ex-
asperation of the populace. Contrasts became height-
ened, and a passionate class hatred rendered social life
disturbed and unpleasant. The more obstinately Govern-
ments persisted in favoring those engaged in commerce,
the more the rancor increased. Even educated persons
became more and more imbued with the idea that the
system of government was the cause of the social dis-
comfort. This doubtless occasioned the spread of a
belief which was most strikingly at variance with com-
mon-sense. Much had been done to awaken intelli-
gence and cultivate the mind. Young people had been
taught to penetrate the secrets of nature, but their in-
structors had neglected the task of explaining the social
organization of which they were members, and upon
whose successful shaping their weal or woe depended.
Men knew many things, but they were ignorant of the
most important one, and only a society which had no
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 111

suspicion of the harmony in the system of the universe,
and could not perceive that this wonderful impulse of
social intercourse, according to the mysterious decree of
Mother Nature, constantly tends towards peace and
equality so long as the ruling powers do not disturb the
circulation of the sap with their unjust interference—
., only such a society could lapse into the error that ery-
ing injustice could be removed solely by the overthrow
of society. This is the only explanation of a phenome-
non which ought not to have occurred in the highly-
cultivated period of the twentieth century. The folly
of the ruling: class was the fertilizing element of an
error which could not possibly have found foothold had
not rebellion against injustice and ignorance of social
phenomena blinded clearness of vision and dimmed in-
telligence. Now we have a system of government
which can no longer favor the rich and injure the poor,
but also a social system which contains the germ of
ruin and death.”

Herr Biichner had risen, and was pacing up and
down the room with his hands behind his back.

“Tt is, however, fortunate for the human race,” he
continued, “that a century elapsed before the error be-
came universally diffused. If the socialistic Govern-
ment had been established, as the social democrats
hoped, at the close of the nineteenth century, society
would have fared far worse. At that time the average
income was not more than 8.20 marks, by the year
1994 it had reached 1500 marks, and but for the un-
fortunate protective policy would have attained a far
larger sum. It is only a pity that these 1500 marks
had not been kept. But in the new order of society
progress has ceased—to remain stationary is impossible ;
so retrogression becomes the necessary consequence. I
112 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

fear that the immediate future will experience much
grief and misery.”

Herr Biichner paused, and taking a pipe, filled it with
tobacco. I should have been glad to hear more; but
so many hours had slipped away in this conversation
that it would have been inconsiderate to keep the old
gentleman up longer. So I rose, expressed my grati-
tude for the instruction he had given me, as well as his
efforts for my amusement, and held out my hand in
farewell.

“ Farewell,” he said; “wait for instructions from the
chancellor’s office before you make your plans for the
journey; but meantime choose your lodgings. Berlin
must be your home. You will find a Bureau of Apart-
ments near here on Jigerstrasse; but don’t pay too
high a rent, lest you should be forced to pinch too
much elsewhere. Whenever you are in the capital be
sure to call; I am curious to know what impression the
new world will make upon you.”

So saying, he again shook hands cordially with me,
and I took my leave. The street was dazzlingly bright,
and I saw Berlin in an unusually radiant eventide glow.
What would have been more natural than to let my
eyes wander around to compare the new Berlin with
the old? But my thoughts were still too busy. Herr
Biichner’s last words had strongly impressed me. They
vividly recalled the events of the year 1890, and gave
life to many things which had then been hopes and
wishes. In that year an important change had oc-
curred. The old state of things was to remain, people
had said, but the forerunners of a new one had ap-
peared distinctly, and the world had cherished a hope
that politics might again enter channels which would
lead to release from the social discord. Had that beau-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 113

tiful hope been a vain delusion? Had people expected
to conciliate the working-classes without depriving the
employers of the unjust advantage of the protective
duty? Had the young scion of the House of Hohen-
zollern, who had taken the reins of government into
his own hand with so bold a grasp and so just a spirit,
omitted to say to the rich and favored members of so-
ciety: “If you wish me to release you from the night-
mare of social democracy, first cast forth from your
own bosoms the more hideous social democrats, who
cannot keep their fingers from the property of their
neighbors.”

While engrossed in such thoughts I walked slowly
along the street, regretting that I should no longer find
time to read the history of those days. At the end of
half an hour I reached the Emperor and Empress Fred-

erick Hospital, where I was to sleep for the last time.
8
114 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

CHAPTER V.

DEPARTURE AND HOME-—MAKING.

Srverat hours passed before I found an opportunity
to tell Sister Martha about my visit to Herr Biichner.
A serious accident which had happened to a building
caused several wounded men to be brought to the in-
stitution, and she had been obliged to help the surgeons
take care of the injured. This waiting was very tort-
uring to me. It had become a heart-felt longing to
talk with the one friend I possessed in the world about
what I had gathered from Herr Biichner’s bewitching
conversation, and, moreover, another burden weighed
upon me: I must say farewell. I was to establish my-
self the next day in my new home, and this would
end my daily intercourse with one who had become in-
finitely dear to me.

The tie which had formed between Sister Martha and
myself was a warm and tender one—a bond of the purest
friendship, such as rarely exists between two people of
different sexes. Not that I was insensible to her per-
sonal charms; she had enough to kindle the heart even
of a man of my age. Her figure was exquisite, and
every movement, every word, every glance revealed a
loving nature. Her face was not one whose symmetry
would charm an artist’s eye, but around her lips lin-
-gered an expression which denoted energy and strength
of will, and beneath her dark brows flashed beautiful,
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 115

fathomless gray eyes, whose depths expressed treasures
of love and devotion. But we two were parted by a
gulf of years which would have rendered closer ties dis-
cordant. I was too old to please her fancy, and she was
too young to permit me to have that feeling of perfect
equality which is the foundation of a true love. My
friendship for her was deep and warm, but I should have
considered myself a criminal had I suffered even the
shadow of a more ardent feeling to arise in my heart.

At last the torture of expectation ended. Sister Mar-
tha was at first depressed by the great misfortune to
which a number of worthy mén had fallen victims and
the terrible injuries she had witnessed, but after she
had shaken this burden from her mind she listened
with sympathy to my words.

I now spoke of my approaching departure, told her
how deeply I esteemed her, how warm my attachment
had become, and that I should never cease to be her
true and sincere friend. She was evidently moved, and
clasped my hands. She, too, she said, felt alone in the
world, and it was an infinite joy to find in me a person
to whom she could open her whole heart. My depart-
ure from the hospital must not cause a total separation
between us.

So a bond of friendship was established, knit by the
closest sympathy. We promised to continue these re-
lations. I was to seek her as often as I could, and
when personal intercourse was impossible correspond-
ence would supply its place. We agreed to communi-
cate whatever was in our hearts, and neither should have
a secret from the other.

“T shall hold you to your word,” I said, “and I be-
lieve I have showed you sufficiently how great is my
need of confiding in you. I know of no important
116 © MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

event in my life which I would not trust to you. But
what are your own feelings in this respect? I know
nothing of your past, and have always felt that you de-
sired to conceal your identity, and motive for adopting,
so early in life, a profession which, though noble and
beneficent, is so full of sadness.”

“T am ty from desiring to keep secrets from you,
my dear friend,” she replied. ‘On the contrary, it is
my most sndlont desire to tell you everything that affects
my life and moves my heart. But there are matters
to which we do not willingly allude, because they open
old wounds. Such were the subjects which would not
cross my lips. Yet I should not wish to conceal them
from you, for it will be a comfort to know that you
share my griefs. So I havea favor to ask. I have
often, during my quiet evening hours, written out the
experiences of the day, and thus prepared a sort of
journal, not complete, but sufficiently explicit to call to
mind the most important events of my life. I wrote it
for myself only; but I should like to give it to you,
and have you read it, if you care to do so. I will hand
it to you when you leave to-morrow.”

Of course. I accepted the offer with delight. The
next evening my friend’s pages would occupy the first
solitary hours in my new home.

Sister Martha could not stay long. She was obliged
to return to the wounded men, whom she was to watch
during the night. She gave me a few bits of informa-
tion which I could not have found in the journal. Her
real name was Louise Wellner. She was the only daugh-
ter of aschool-master, who idolized her and devoted much
time to her education. Just after her confirmation her
father died, and, as he left no property, and her mother’s
widow’s pension was very small, her guardian had ad-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 117

vised her to enter a training-school for teachers. Short-
ly before she was to pass her examination her mother
died also, and the young girl deemed herself fortunate
to obtain a position as governess in the family of the
owner of a country estate. Her stay in this house be-
came a turning-point in her life. During her residence
there occurred the revolution of the social system, amid
which, however, another event happened that exerted a
powerful influence upon her destiny.

So the next morning I left the hospital, not wholly

without baggage, for I had in my pocket a credit card
of more than 250 marks and also a precious manuscript.

My first errand, of course, was to the bureau where
lodgings were allotted, for if I desired to lead a settled
life I must first of all—remembering the climate and
the state of the weather in November—secure a place
where I could lay my head.

I found a pleasant elderly gentleman, who handed me
a long list of vacant lodgings with a statement of the
price and minute description of the rooms. The list
contained apartments ranging from one furnished cham-
ber at 15 marks a month, to unfurnished suites of eight
or ten rooms at 100 marks monthly. As my object was
to become acquainted with life in the socialistic world,
and the manner of living is an excellent gauge by which’
to measure a nation’s standard of existence, I took ad-
vantage of this favorable opportunity of getting in-
formation from the best source which could be offered
to me.

“In former days,” I said—“I was familiar with Ber-
lin in the last half of the nineteenth century—the dif-
ference in price between the dearest and the cheapest
lodgings was far greater than I see in this list. On the
one hand, there were apartments renting for four or
118 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

five times as much as the most costly ones here, and on
the other, very small sleeping rooms, which were con-
siderably lower than the cheapest on this list. So the
change to the socialistic system has exerted a very fa-
vorable influence here?”

“A great influence, certainly; but whether it is a fa-
vorable one in all respects is doubtful. These sleeping
places, and also the lodgings in cellars—of which I have
read in old histories—had disappeared long before the
great revolution. People had learned that the condition
of dwellings is of the utmost importance in determining
the health of the nation, and there was an energetic
campaign against all unhealthful lodgings, as well as
strict regulations concerning the amount of air allotted
to each person, and, within a few decades, there was not
only a favorable change in this respect, but one whose
influence was felt in the needs and tastes of even the
lowest class of the populace. Still, though it might
have been expected that the equal division of income
would have promoted progress in this direction, unfort-
unately a retrograde movement is unmistakable. While,
in consequence of this equal distribution, a number of
people have been more favorably situated, the advan-
tage does not appear to have led to raising the require-
ments demanded in dwellings, but on the contrary, since
we have had the new social system, it seems to have be-
come more and more customary to limit the expendi-
tures for lodgings to the least possible sum, and the
Government, to avoid needlessly building new apart-
ments, is in a certain degree compelled to cut large
apartments more and more into smaller ones.”

“That is certainly very intelligible in one sense,” I
replied. “The rich people having disappeared, no one
is in a condition to indulge in luxurious lodgings, so the
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 119

Government has doubtless been obliged to change large
houses into several smaller ones. Yet I should have
supposed that equality of income would have caused
uniformity in the whole style of living, especially in the
choice of residences. Above all, I should imagine that
those who were in poor circumstances before the revo-
lution would have availed themselves of their change of
position to improve their situation in this particular.
Ever since I began to reflect I have noticed that people
who gained a larger income, as soon as they had paid
the usual tribute to dress, set the utmost value upon the
enlargement and increased elegance of their dwellings ;
so I can find no psychological explanation of this phe-
nomenon.”

“The phenomenon did not exist to the same degree
at first, and even now it does not pervade the whole
‘social strata. There will always be people who pay
a disproportionate part of their income for rent, and
would rather dispense with other things than restrict
the comfort of their homes. Besides, it often happens
that all the members of a family, grown sons and
daughters as well as husband and wife, live together,
and by their united incomes obtain really luxurious
apartments. This inclination, however, is found only
in circles where there is a domestic taste and a fondness
for family life, and the socialistic State does not foster
the domestic virtues and family affection—they might
easily engender interests which would be fatal to its ex-
istence—and thus the nation is losing the impulse to
consider the home the centre of gravity of existence.
This fact appears very distinctly in the increasing fre-
quency of the demands for the smallest bachelor lodg-
ings. Even married couples—if that term is still allow-
able—often ask for them. Small rooms containing a
120 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

bed and a few pieces of furniture amply supply the
needs which the socialistic State imposes upon domestic
life. Such couples have no desire for an establishment
which will cause labor and trouble. When they rise in
the morning they find coffee-houses to supply a break-
fast at every corner; the cook-shops furnish materials
for lunch, which can easily be carried in the pocket.
Then they hurry home to dress for society, and there is
no lack of amusements until far into the night. The
less money a person spends for lodgings and the pleas-
ures of domestic life, the more he has for amusements.
Therefore, to both men and women, the house serves no
other purpose than a place to sleep.” .

These explanations left me in no doubt that the stand-
ard of dwellings had retrograded. I saw clearly that
the fact could not redound to the moral elevation of
socialistic society, but it also appeared to have some
significance from the stand-point of political economy.
The furnishing of homes had formerly supported a num-
ber of workpeople. Whoever had a large house required
many articles of furniture, works of art, and ornaments,
many servants to preserve neatness and order, and gave
humerous entertainments, dinners, ete. The disappear-
ance of household wants, therefore, set free a number
of workers who had formerly been employed in supply-
ing them. Could these laborers be more useful to so-
ciety in any other way? Could they create in any other
occupation things more valuable, more useful, or more
capable of enhancing the enjoyment of life?

This was a question to which I could not instantly
find an answer, since its solution required a deeper in-
sight into social and business life. So I contented my-
self for the present with satisfying my own need of a
home ; and this, spite of the length of the list, was by
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 121

no means an easy matter. Yet I had not been spoiled
in this respect. When I had a family and lived in the
country, I had been obliged to satisfy myself with the
quarters I found in the small and very ancient manor-
house, which afforded my tastes no wider play than that
of rendering these rooms pleasant and habitable. After
misfortune had forced me back to a bachelor life, though
I had no luxuries, I had been accustomed to consider
my office my world, and therefore fitted it up in har-
mony with my tastes, so that I felt every moment the
full charm of comfort. This I desired to secure again,
so far as it was possible on the income secured by my
credit card. The official proposed several suites of
apartments, one of which I selected on account of its
pleasant situation. It was on the third floor, contained
a large sitting-room with two windows, whose furniture
was sufficiently handsome for a gentleman’s use, a cham-
ber of nearly the same size, and a small room for the
storage of fuel. It cost thirty-six marks a month—the
highest price I thought my income would permit me to
pay. :

Many things, however, were still needed for comfort;
a kerosene-lamp} a coffee-pot, a coffee-mill, a small cream-
pitcher, and a cup; for without them I should have been
compelled to go to a restaurant very early in the morn-
ing. Then there were plates and dishes, knives and
forks, if I did not wish to be compelled to lunch and
dine away from home. Next came a clothes-brush, a
blacking- brush, etc., for the rent of my rooms was too
high to permit me to apply to the Bureau of Personal
Services to keep my apartments, clothing, and shoes in
order. Lastly, I needed a stock of fuel. True, the
Government would provide for the heating of the rooms
it supplied, but it exacted a higher rental for doing so,
122 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

and I had no desire to give this sum, nor to make my-
self too dependent upon it.

My next walk was devoted to obtaining these things,
and when, about six o’clock in the evening, I entered
my rooms, I brought not only the articles mentioned,
but also my supper and a bottle of beer. Meanwhile,
however, I had become acquainted with some other
phenomena of the socialistic State which afforded me
much food for thought. While dining in a large restau-
rant the idea occurred to me that it might be well to
order a bottle of good Rhine wine to celebrate the day.
Summoning the waiter, I asked for Neroberger. The
young man was evidently puzzled.

“Neroberger?” he asked, taking a card. “I don’t
find the name on the list. I think it must belong to the
better kinds, which are no longer sold in this country.”

“ What!” I cried, in amazement, “our splendid old
wine is no longer sold in Germany?” ;

“You know,” he replied, “that since society has been
socialized and all incomes are the same, we have no rich
people to pay for expensive wines, and as the demand
has nearly ceased the Government determined to sell
only the cheaper grades in this country and export the
more expensive ones.”

I felt as though I had dropped from the clouds; it
was anew idea that people in the socialistic State should
talk of dear and cheap wines. I had formerly read in
Bebel’s work that the value of wares in socialistic so-
ciety would not be regulated by the laws of supply and
demand, but solely by the amount of working time spent
in their production. Had it required more working
time to produce good than poor wine?

“Why, you must be mistaken, my dear friend,” I said;
“the differences in the quality are the work of the situ-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 123

ation and the sun, but these distinctions do not exact a
difference in value. The social democrats make the
cost depend solely on the length of the work.”

The waiter frowned.

“Matters in the social democratic State don’t always
work according to the ideas of the social democrats.
True, it was so at first; then the best Rudesheimer cost
no more than the sourest common wine. But that soon
came to an end. Everybody wanted the good liquor,
and wouldn’t drink the sour kind; and when the good
wine was all exhausted before half the people caught
a glimpse of it, there was a great outcry about the ine-
quality of the distribution, and a general lamentation
and ado all over the'world. Since then the Govern-
ment has found it wiser to distribute only the inferior
varieties through the country, and send the fine ones to
German East Africa.”

“ Kast Africa!’ I cried, in horror. “ All our fine wines
go to Kast Africa ?”

I felt as if I were transported back to the colonial
political struggle of the year 1890.

“ Yes, to East Africa,” he replied.

“ But who is there in East Africa to drink all our
Rhine wine ?”

“‘ Why, the coolies,” said the waiter.

“The coolies?”’ I asked, in amazement. ‘“ How did the
coolies get to our German East Africa ?”

“ Well, I remember the history tolerably, as I learned
it at school. At first matters in East Africa did not
prosper, and the Government took charge and left it to
the management of the German East African Society.
But this plan cost more and more every year, and there
was no profit. After a short time the society utterly
failed, and the Government, in order to save the many
124 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

millions already invested, saw itself forced to take charge
of the agricultural work of the country. Everything
went well. Railroads were built throughout the land,
the coolies were brought in large numbers, and soon
pignuts, coffee, cocoa, maize, and cotton were raised ;
but when several hundred millions of bales had been
successfully packed, the coolies thought that they would
fare better as an independent State than as a German
colony, so they took the troops into their own service,
and sent the imperial commissioner and all the officials
home.”

“And the German Empire submitted ?”

“It was by no means inclined to do so. At first an
immense fleet and a large army were to be sent there.
Wiser counsel, however, prevailed. It was remembered
that such a war would cost millions, and the restoration
of all that the soldiers destroyed millions more. Even
if the undertaking were successful the colony would
again decline, and our brave soldiers would have been
sacrificed to the murderous climate in vain. So the
Government let the matter rest, and contented itself
with concluding a most advantageous contract with the
coolies.”

“ And since that time we have had a large trade with
East Africa?”

“A small importation: the products of plantations
bought with German millions.”

“But at any rate, a large exportation of German man-
ufactures ?”

““That’s according to people’s ideas. They had can-
non and guns. The railroads were completed. The
natives did not need much clothing, and the coolies sent
to their native land for it. The export of brandy was
prohibited by international contract. But every year
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 125

we dispose of some smokeless powder, tuberculine,
bright-colored paper, and artificial flowers.”

“But you said that our Rhine wines went there.”

“Certainly, but not until later. When all Europe
adopted the socialistic system and money was abolished,
no further business could be transacted with the coolies.
The fellows wanted money for their wares, and nothing
but money. Then a clever travelling agent of our Gov-
ernment succeeded in giving them a taste for our Rhine
wine. Since that day the business has been very active.
Our ships convey the wine there, and bring us pignuts,
coffee, ete.”

I thought my heart would stop beating. These yel-
low rascals, with the Mongolian eyes, enjoying the flower
of Father Rhine! And all because that wretched no-
tion of equality denied one the pleasure because there
was not enough for all. But I could change nothing ;
so the upshot of the matter was that I went home with-
out the Neroberger.

A few paces from the restaurant I saw a cigar-shop,
and hoped to obtain compensation there. I first inquired
for the ordinary kinds, and priced several - varieties.
They were somewhat lower than in former days because
a duty had been removed, but the aroma did not quite
suit me.

“The tobacco industry doesn’t seem to flourish,” I
said. “The excellence of the plant which still re-
mained, spite of all the gossip occasioned by the duties,
I no longer find.”

“That is very probable,” answered the shopkeeper ;
“more foreign than home-grown tobacco was formerly
used, and therefore, at least in the more expensive cigars,
the better qualities of the foreign weed preponderated.
But since the task of supplying the community with
126 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

tobacco has fallen upon the Government, it is difficult
for it to procure a medium of exchange with which to ~
deal in the foreign plants. So we use more of the na-
tional production.” ;

“Very well,” I answered, “we must submit to the
inevitable, and I will console myself with the reflection
that I am smoking no worse cigars than the rest of the
world. This evening, however, I should like to treat
myself to something specially choice. Give me at least
one genuine Havana, no matter how dear it may be.”

“T am afraid I cannot accommodate you,” said the
man, rummaging among a number of empty boxes.
“The genuine ones I had have all been used, and we
have had no additional supply.”

“You have had no additional supply? Does the Gov-
ernment import no genuine cigars?”

“Tt doesn’t pay to do so; the demand has ceased.
Since incomes have been made equal, we have no rich
class who possess the means for such pleasures. But, on
the other hand, everybody has an equally good qual-
ity.”

“So the highest goal the human race can attain is to
have everybody so situated that no one fares worse than
the richest member of society. Yet that seems to me
a doubtful advantage if, in consequence, the greatest en-
joyments are lost. Are there no longer any treasures
of art for sale ?”

“Scarcely to private individuals. When no one has
more than is required for the necessities of life, nothing
can be spent for costly pleasures.”

“And the beautiful rngs and portiéres, the costly
vases and carvings?”

“No doubt they can still be found in the old houses,
but they are no longer manufactured. Why should the
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 127

State have these things made if there is no one to buy
them?”

“ And the exquisite silks and velvets 2”

“Some are still manufactured, but not in large quan-
tities. Respectable women have not much money to
purchase them, and we have enough for the less scru-
pulous ones.”

I left the young man and turned my steps homeward.

‘Within the past few hours a series of entirely new
ideas had dawned upon me. Many of the wants man-
kind had formerly cherished had entirely disappeared.
Equal distribution of property had resulted in making
the human race, as a whole, poorer. But, by way of
compensation, there were no more poor men; all had
more than enough for their daily bread, and no one fell
into poverty and want. The exchange, according to my
idea, could not be so bad. It may not be necessary to
have rich citizens who revel in luxury and extravagance,
but it can only be a blessing that there are none who
consume their daily bread amid tears, who are starving
and freezing. Necessary wants have been satisfied, un-
hecessary ones abolished. I was almost ashamed of te
ing cherished a wish for a bottle of Neroberger and
an Havana cigar, and rejoiced in the happiness of the
millions who must have profited so much by the equal
distribution of wealth.

Yet a pang seemed to pierce my heart; I felt as
though this diminishing of wants could be no favorable
presage for the future of mankind. The happy faculty
men possessed of increasing their wants with every new
enjoyment had undoubtedly been the real cause of the
growth of wealth, for without it human intellect and
human strength could not have perpetually devised and
created novelties which stimulated the desires, tastes,
128 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

and fancies of men. If, during my past, there were so
many persons who sold their labor cheaply or sought
work in vain, the sole cause of this phenomenon was
that the higher wants were not sufficiently diffused.
Will not this cause be intensified if the wants called
into existence vanish? Will not the opportunities of
profitable employment lessen more and more if there is
no longer any desire for so many things which formerly
called forth human labor ?

The question I was striving to understand was a com-
plicated and difficult one. If I simply followed the
conclusions of logic, a cheerless, gloomy picture rose be-
fore me. If wants had actually diminished, the human
race, civilization, and prosperity were retrograding.
They had lost the stimulus which might have given
support. A society whose fundamental basis is equal-
ity may sink into poverty, but can never rise to wealth.
The increase of property is accomplished by no other
process than that which attends the growth of organic
creatures. The animal or the plant grows by building
its body cell by cell, as one portion after another seeks
nourishment from the circulation of the vital fluids.
Can a social body outgrow its limits if the fundamental
principle of equality prevents its parts from receiving
the nourishment which all the portions cannot appro-
priate at the same time, and refuses to permit one part
to rise above another ?

But, on the other hand, had I obtained reliable proof
that wants had lessened? Had not the gain been as
great in one direction as the loss in another? Had not
the poorer people increased their wants in the same
proportion as the richer ones, by the levelling of in-
comes, had been forced to diminish theirs ?

I was unable to make the comparison, and had as yet
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 129

seen too little of the world to be able to recognize all
the consequences which must follow the change.

Meanwhile I had reached my lodgings, and deemed it
better to cease prematurely racking my brains, and qui-
etly wait to judge the facts, which could not be long
concealed from me.

My lamp was soon diffusing its cheerful light. I
drew Sister Martha’s manuscript from my pocket and
experienced a thrill of pleasure when the beloved char-
acters lay before me. Stretching myself comfortably
on my sofa, I read with increasing interest what a beau-
tiful soul and a dainty hand had inscribed upon the

paper.
9
130 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

CHAPTER VI.

SISTER MARTHA’S JOURNAL.

April 16, 1998.

I wAvE now been in my new home three days, and
my heart is cheered by the thought that I am again at
work and can make myself useful. It is hard to lose
all in so short a time, and to stand alone in the world
among strangers. But these people seem to be gener-
ous, noble souls, whom it will be easy to love. There
is no trace of the arrogance or the patronage which
poor orphans are so often made to feel, but sincere sym-
pathy and genuine kindness of heart. Herr Hormann
is really the admirable man he was described to be—
just and kind to every one. Frau Hormann is frugal,
merry, and industrious, the very person for a country-
gentleman’s wife. Everybody on the farm and in the
village appears to honor and love her. Little Mathilde
is a good and pretty child, with excellent abilities.
She is fond of me, and I shall enjoy teaching her. I
am already charmed with my new home. Meiendorf is
a delightful place.

May 20, 1993.

There has been a great deal of bustle in the house
during the past fortnight. Neighbors and other friends
coming and going! If we had not learned it from the
newspapers, we should have read in the faces of the peo-
ple that strange things are under consideration, things
which stir the mind and stop the breath. The move-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 1381

ment originated in America. The Society of the Apos-
tle of Peace there gradually attracted prominent men
from all the countries of Europe, and a great Congress,
attended by thousands, arrived at the bold resolution
of calling into existence an entirely new arrangement
of society. People long to be at peace with the working-
classes, and are weary of seeing the insatiable selfishness
of many large employers, and the timidity of Govern-
ments in opposing them prevent the quiet development
of civilization. The idea seems to find a fruitful soil
everywhere, and the Governments, with their little party
of large land-owners and manufacturers, watch the move-
ment helplessly.

May 25, 1993.

This evening Herr Hormann took a long walk with
us, and explained the new movement in detail. People
want to socialize society, as they term it. That is, they
want to rid the world of the conflict of interests, take
the whole production, the business of agriculture, manu-
factures, and trade, from the hands of individuals, and
put everything under the sole charge of the Govern-
ment. All private business must cease, and the Gov-
ernment is to undertake the work. As the State has
hitherto managed the railroads, postal routes, and parts
of other branches, it is now to manage all the property
and all the labor.

This seems to me a good idea, for I cannot understand
why so many millions struggle for a bare existence, while
labor creates commodities enough to afford all a com-
fortable livelihood. Herr Hormann is not averse to the
plan. He is a humane, unselfish man, and will readily
sacrifice his beautiful estate and be content with what
all the others have if only it will benetit the human race.
132 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

But he fears that Governments will not be able to play
the part of Providence to mankind. His wife, kind and
benevolent as she is, likes the plan less. She thinks first
of her children; other interests take a secondary place.

May 30, 1998,

The project of socialization does not seem to meet
with the universal favor which was anticipated. Most
of the women are opposed to so radical a change. A
large number of workmen rebel against having the
money they have deposited in the savings-banks thus
arbitrarily seized. Many mechanics and small land-own-
ers object. They would prefer to earn less and to retain
their independence. But the most bitter antagonists of
the plan are the leaders of social democracy. It is said
that they are vexed because no profit will accrue to
them, and therefore resist an idea which they have
always advocated. There is no hope of winning over
the latter; but the projectors of the movement hope to
gain the others, and are setting every lever in motion to
accomplish it. For this purpose Bebel’s book, Woman
in the Past, the Present, and the Future, is to be widely
scattered to show people what a fortunate change they
will make.

June 2, 1993.

I have studied Bebel a little. Much of his work
pleases me. I like to have a man boldly uncover the ~
defects of society, for so long as people shut their eyes
there can be no improvement. There is no doubt that
women often suffer sore injustice. Those who do not
marry are forced to toil hard for sustenance or take an
occupation which does not suit their tastes.

But though I approve of Bebel’s taking up the cause
of oppressed women, I cannot understand from what I
!

IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 133

have read hitherto why it should be necessary to trans-
form the whole social system in order to help her. No
good surgeon would cut off a man’s foot because a corn
ached.

June 3, 1993.

No; Bebel is a detestable man! He cannot have had
the least idea of a woman’s nature or her value to soci-
ety. He must have had little comprehension of civiliza-
tion or morality.

I should like to know where he obtained his views of
what benefits woman. Surely he can have had little
acquaintance with noble-minded ones. If any of the
men with whom I frequently associate should ever make
such proposals for the elevation of the female sex I
think I should be ashamed.

He wants women to have the right to seek the men
whom they prefer, as men have always followed their
inclinations. If he could only force the men never to
refuse! Otherwise I fear no young girl will venture to
make a man an offer of marriage. Nor can I see how
the socialization of society is to prevent unhappy love
affairs. That one loves and the other feels no respon-
sive affection has happened ever since the beginning of
the world, and will probably continue in the future,
whether production is carried on by the State or by in-
dividuals. But people to whom matrimony is a matter
of calculation, not of affection, will not wed from af-
fection in the socialistic State. If money has ceased to
lure, objects of calculation will be sought in position,
kind of occupation, circle of acquaintance, ete.

Bebel’s purpose in rendering women physically as
strong as men by means of gymnastic exercises, etc.,
is incomprehensible to me. Must women become dra-
goons? Or does he propose to extend the principle of
134 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

equality to the sexes? One difference he will probably
be forced to permit: that men shall remain men, and

women women.
June 8, 1993.

Frau Hormann’s brother, Herr Albert Croner, has
been here during the past week. He is a handsome,
vivacious man, with extremely polished manners, who has
brought much gayety into the house. An engineer by
profession, he has spent a great deal of time in England
and America, and his conversation about his experiences
is very interesting. But he has also read many books,
and seems to be remarkably well informed. I like him
because he is always so cheerful and enters into every
jest. He does not favor the socialization of society ; he
laughs at it, and it is very amusing to hear him. Yet the
laughter does not seem to me to come from the heart ; it
is more like an effort to conceal deep indignation. Ac-
cording to my idea, Herr Croner is a great philanthro-
pist and an acute thinker, and it tortures him to per-
ceive that men are on the point of taking a step which
he believes will result in the destruction of all prosperity
and civilization.

Meetings for the discussion of the momentous ques-
tion are now of almost daily occurrence. Herr Hor-
mann attended one yesterday, and returned home de-
pressed and sad. He thought the number of those who
were really persuaded was not yet very great; people
had often shaken their heads doubtfully when a speaker
had urged the advantages of the socialistic State too
emphatically. But it was a bad sign that there was no
serious opposition from the masses, and that no speaker
who attempted to defend the existing order of society
received the least applause. There is too much disgat-
isfaction existing among the people because every one
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 135

is forced to pay tribute from his hard-earned wages to
the great land-owners and great manufacturers, and the
latter are still allowed political privileges. He fears that
it is but a step from this discontent to the support of
the new plan.
June 15, 1998.

We have taken long walks almost daily during this
delightful weather. Herr Croner was always one of the
party and always very gay. I cannot conceal from my-
self that he grows daily more dear to me. I feel as
though something was missing if he is not present.
He is a thoroughly sincere man with a noble nature.

Yesterday evening I went out a moment to enjoy the
moonlight. A wonderful radiance flooded the fresh
green foliage. Suddenly Herr Croner stood beside me,
jestingly reciting the “ Magical Moonlit Night.” Then
he said, “I don’t know what is the matter with me
now, Fraulein Wellner. Every evening when I see the
moon I ask but one question. Have you no question
to put to the Man in the Moon?” I did not know what
to say, but I had not the courage to ask him what he
desired to learn from the moon.

June 18, 1998.

The strangest news comes daily from America. There
must be great excitement there. People seem fairly fren-
zied. Since the year 1000, when in the old days men, fear-
ing the end of the world, bequeathed their property to the
Church, and devoted themselves to praying and psalm-
singing, there has never been such contempt for earthly
possessions. Whatever can be turned into money is sold
for the smallest sums, and people who have money in
their pockets try to invest it in amusements or in things
which need not be relinquished after the transformation
of society. Business at the Stock Exchange has ceased.
136 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

June 19, 1993.

Yesterday evening—it seems as though I could not
hold my pen—I became engaged to Albert Croner. Oh,
what happiness! If only my parents had lived to wit-
ness it! We went to walk in the garden at twilight.
The evening was marvellously beautiful, and the spell of
an infinite magic thrilled my breast. My heart throbbed
till my breath almost failed. Conversation flagged. AI-
bert was more gentle than usual, and his voice some-
times faltered. Suddenly, in the hazel alley he stopped
and clasped my hand. “Louise,” he said, in a tone
which I shall never forget, “it must be said at last. I
love you and cannot live without you. May I not call
this little hand and your noble heart my own?’ I
don’t know what I said to him, or whether I said any-
thing at all. I sank into his arms, overwhelmed with
happiness and joy. .

After some time we entered the sitting-room, where
the family had gathered. I sat in a corner, unable to
utter a word. When I went to my room Frau Hor-
mann followed, embraced, and kissed me.

June 22, 1993.

My happiness knows no bounds. How delightful it
is to love such a man! I desire to live for him alone,
serve him, and find in him the support of my life. The
goal of my existence lies clearly before me, steeped in
sunlight ; and where can there be a fairer vocation than
to make a pleasant home for a beloved husband, and
drive the clouds of depression from his brow ?

How beautifully morning follows night! I no longer
feel that I am a desolate orphan, but see the world
illumined with the radiant light of hope. Ah, if I could
only tell my parents how happy I am!
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 137

June 28, 1993.

The frenzy seems to be invading Europe. In Russia
the peasants are leaving their villages, and roving through
the land shouting and carousing. All the magistrates are
flogged, amid demands for the return of the money of
which they have robbed the people. In France men
and women embrace one another in the streets, and rave
about the kingdom of equality and justice. The Ger-
mans, too, seem to have lost their senses. Those hitherto
doubtful have ceased their opposition, and the idea is _
beginning to gain the upperhand that the welfare of
humanity depends upon having no capital and no spec-
ulators. Thoughtful people shake their heads, but they
are cowardly and silent.

Albert says that men have gone stark mad, but that
is nothing new under the sun. History is rich in in-
stances that cultivated nations have been dominated by
absurd ideas, and no age has lacked men who, though
talented and clever, have believed the most ridiculous
rubbish. But whenever whole nations have been swept
along by a foolish movement, the inciting cause was al-
ways the extravagance of the class specially favored by
the possession of wealth and intelligence.

England alone seems to be still free from the infec-
tion. Albert says that it is because the development
of the nation has been an untrammelled and quiet one,
and because the Government has not made consumers
pay tribute to speculation. Yet, unfortunately, England
would be drawn into the vortex too. One sensible per-
son cannot hold his ground amid a throng of fools.
Strive as he may, folly is always contagious.

July 7, 1993.
A new International Congress has’ been summoned.
188 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

The nations want to agree upon the measures by which
the old social system is to be transformed into the new
at the same time and in the same way. The session will
commence on the 15th.

July 17, 1998.

The Congress has met, the debate is in progress. All
the newspapers are full of it. Apparently this time
there will be no delay due to many speeches, for there
is no room in the assemblage for any wide differences of
opinion. After an impressive opening address from the
President, an old social democrat of the purest water, one
of those who are very angry because the movement has
grown beyond their control, replied. He warned his
hearers against following any model or copying anything
which had previously existed. They must follow the
lofty words of Liebknecht, that the Government of the
present must grow into the Government of the future.
But such roars of laughter greeted him that he could not
say another word. Some one replied that a more foolish
saying was never uttered, for it would be impossible for
things which did not bear the slightest relationship to
grow into one another. The socialistic Government was
the very opposite of the present one; there was not the
slightest thing in‘common. That private business should
develop into Government business, and private proper-
ty into Government property, was as impossible as for
oil to become water or oxygen quicksilver. If people
wanted a socialistic State there was but one way of get-
ting it: a law must be passed abolishing property, de-
claring the Government sole possessor of everything,
forbidding men to render each other services, and mak-
ing the whole industrial force subject to the Govern-
ment. This was recognized as the only possible plan,
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 139

and it was resolved to render it the foundation on
which to consult concerning the measures to be adopted.

This seems to be perfectly logical and just, but I
think the question first to be considered was whether
this complete contrast to the existing Government is
really capable of preserving the life of society. The
contrary might easily happen. If one fills a lamp with
water instead of with oil there is no bright flame.

July 18, 1993.

At the second session of the Congress a leader of the
social democracy again came forward. He uttered an
impressive warning against making the whole change at
once. People should content themselves with trying
single measures in order to glide into a government of
the future @ Ja Liebknecht. Drawing out an old pam-
phlet of the year 1891,* he moved to follow its suggest-
ion of at first depriving only the owners of large manu-
factories of their property, compensating them by the
issue of bonds bearing no interest, and abolishing the
right of heritage in the case of large fortunes. On the
other hand, agriculture was to be carried on by means of
agricultural societies of the small farmers, and manu-
facturing was to be managed by unions. But this
speaker, too, aroused general disapproval. People said
that compensation by bonds which could not be inher-
ited would be no compensation—merely a life pension.

A second speaker earnestly exhorted his hearers against
any recognition of the duty of compensation. To grant
that there was no actual right to transfer private prop-

*This must be an allusion to Curt Falk’s pamphlet, published early in
~ 1891: Efforts of Social Democracy, illumined by Hugene Richter’s Ravings,
a work which follows the usual tactics of the social democrats, who dis-
semble their real purpose as soon as it is grasped.

4
140 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES,

erty to the Government was to deny the legality of the
Government of the future. Only by the promulgation
of the idea that everything in the world was the com-
mon property of all mankind could the socialistic Govern-
ment be placed on a legal basis. Besides, it would be
impossible to draw the right line between the owners of
large and small establishments.

A third speaker protested that to conduct agricultu-
ral and maufacturing enterprises in common would be
jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire. Better let
everything go in the old way, for all such societies and
unions would speedily be at variance with one another.
Some would prosper better than others, so there would
speedily be rich and poor again. The continuance of
the social system according to the socialistic principle
would be endangered if any chance existed by which
one individual could obtain more than another. The
nature of all property is to increase rapidly, and people
would never be at rest if any one had an opportunity to
become, by greater prosperity, superior to his fellows.

Therefore, at this session, it was resolved that, on a
certain day to be appointed later, all property should
be declared the property of the nation, and, as such, be
taken into possession by special officials. On that day
each individual should be allowed to retain only the fol-
lowing articles: all kitchen and dining-room furniture,
empty casks, and other utensils for the preservation of
food, all the furniture and ornaments of rooms, with
the exception of those composed of gold, silver, or pre-
cious stones, also the clothing each person has on that
day, but with empty pockets, and with jewelry excepted,
and, finally, the supply of food and drink necessary for
support during the first week of the new Government.
From the beginning of the second week, however, save
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 141

the articles exempted, the individual can own nothing ex-
cept what he obtains by purchase from the Government.

According to the newspaper reports, there was a long
debate over this resolution, but it was finally unanimous-
ly adopted, because people were all convinced that the
socialistic Government could be established in no other
way. A proposal to use the words “property of so-
ciety,” instead of “property of the State,” was voted
down because, in the socialistic community, the ideas of
State and Society were identical.

My fear is that most of the people will hide provi-
sions and articles of clothing, and there will be numer-
ous informers, legal investigations, and punishments.

July 19, 1993,

At the third session it was agreed that all money
and all uncoined gold and silver should be walled up in
buildings proof against thieves and fire, retaining only
a certain quantity, to be determined later, for the manu-
facture of jewelry, and for use in the arts. This amount
is to be fixed every five years by an International Con-
gress, according to the demand. Gold, silver, and gems
can be obtained by mining, etc., only in such quantities
as they are needed for ornaments and use in manufact-
ures. Gold, silver, and gems found must be delivered,
on pain of punishment, to the Government of the coun-
try where the discovery was made, but the amount fixed
for use in the arts and in jewelry must be deducted.
The importation of gold, silver, or gems from countries
which have not joined the League of Socialized States
is prohibited. The precise definition of what would be
classed as gold, silver, and precious stones would have to
be determined by an international congress of natural-
ists. In case of contravention, each separate State would
142 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

be subject to a penalty consisting in the delivery of its
produce gratis to all the other States, according to their
population. The amount and nature of the goods will
be fixed in all cases of dispute by an international court
of arbitration.

On the seventh day after the socialization of society
every citizen who has attained the age of twenty-one
will receive a credit card representing the value of all
goods and services, ascertained by the statistics of the
last three years, divided by the number of those entitled
to credit cards. These are arranged so that all possible
sums required for the purchase of goods, or the use of
other services of the Government, can be cut off with
coupon shears. The method of arrangement and the
fixing of the value of the credit cards are regulated by
each Government. The sum will be fixed each succeed-
ing year by the total value of the wares and services
available for consumption during the previous year.
The credit cards can be used in foreign countries only
in cases where the Government issuing them explicitly
states that it will pay for the wares and services in other
goods acceptable for exchange.

The valuation of the wares and services given by the
State to the holders of the credit cards is fixed by the
Governments of the various countries according to the
standard of money which was legal currency in them
before their socialization. The length of time requisite
for the production of an article must be, as far as possi-
ble, the standard of valuation, unless influenced by spe-
cial circumstances, such as too large or too small a de-
mand on the part of the public, or consideration for the
saleability of other wares.

In international commerce no exchange of goods
takes place except between the Governments them-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 148 |

selves, and all disputes are settled, like the determining
the consumption of gold and silver, by an international
council. The valuation and reckoning of the exchanges
made between the Governments are by an international
syndicate.

My brain fairly whirled when I had read all this, but
one point in the whole debate is clear—without these
conditions the socialization of society would be impos-
sible.

July 20, 1998.

No conclusion has yet been reached concerning the
subject of the fourth session. The debate was upon
the organization of labor. The leaders of the social
democrats again sought to put in a wedge, and brought
forward the old commonplaces they always have at
hand whenever their ideas are seriously considered.
This time it was Friedrich Engel whose words they
quoted: “ Zhe concerted organization of the common
production of society is a bound of the human race
from the realm of necessity to the realm of liberty.”
They maintained that it could never lead to liberty to
have the State direct the labor of the community, be-
cause that would impose the utmost constraint upon
the individual. They therefore demanded that each
branch of production should have the right to organize
its own labor. But they were energetically routed by
the reply that a socialistic Government in which all the
labor was not managed by the organs of the State would
be like the knife with neither handle nor blade. If the
people were unwilling to commit the whole production,
down to its minutest details, to the guidance of the
State, it would be better to let matters pursue the old
course, in which the individual was not dependent upon
the State, but had to suffer the consequences if his
144 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

work did not supply the needs of society. On the
other hand, the individual, being protected by the s0-
cialized Government, must submit to having his labor
directed by the State and not by the special branch of
industry to which he belongs. It was added that, with-
_ out Government management, there might easily be a
lack of the goods on whose exchange the nation must
depend for obtaining the most important commodities
from other countries.

So the principle that the whole labor of the nation
must be under the direction of the Government was
readily settled. And the second—every citizen is under
obligation to work for the State—followed no less easily.

Wide differences of opinion existed concerning the
further question, whether each person should choose his
or her occupation or whether the State had the right of
allotting it. Some said that to empower the Govern-
ment to dispose of the labor of every individual would
be carrying compulsion too far. There was no reason
to do so, for tastes vary so much that the interests of
the community would be fully satisfied by letting every
one choose the avocation suited to his skill and prefer-
ence.

But others opposed this view. There were too many
pursuits, they said, which had extremely disagreeable .
features, and no one would undertake them unless in a
certain sense forced to do so, or urged by the prospect
of unusually high wages. People were fond of compar-
ing the universal duty of labor to the universal duty of
defence, so let them be consistent. If, granting the uni-
versal duty of defence, individuals were permitted to
choose their weapons, many would doubtless select the
cavalry, few the infantry. In the same way, to allow
free choice of avocation in the general duty of labor
é

IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 145

would lead to a surplus in the pleasanter and cleaner
pursuits, while others would show a deficit, and the fun-
damental principle of the direction of the industry of the
community by the State would be an empty sound.

Both views were eagerly discussed, and it almost
seemed as if the disagreement on this point would frus-
trate the whole project. After a six hours’ debate, the
presiding officer closed the session and made the contin-
uance of the discussion the order of the day at the next
meeting.

July 21, 1993.

At the fifth session this point also was speedily brought
to an amicable conclusion. Shortly before it opened the
following proposal was made: The choice of employ-
ment is the affair of the individual. But if, contrary
to expectation, the mishap occurs that some occupations
have a surplus and others a lack of industrial force, the
Government is empowered to adopt certain measures to
remedy the evil. The mover of this resolution stated
that it satisfied both parties. On the one hand, it saved
the Government from lacking the means to direct pro-
duction for the advantage of the community, and, on the
other, it avoids needless constraint of the individual.
Whoever was of the opinion that society could permit
freedom of choice could accept the resolution without
demur, and whoever feared the contrary would find in
it an ample remedy. This statement was not contra-
dicted, and the resolution was unanimously adopted.

The discussion of the second subject, the educational
and school question, revealed that different needs existed
in the various countries, and the conclusion was soon
reached that there would be no danger of coming into
collision with the customs, morals, and educational ne-

cessities of the different nations if the same rules were
10
146 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

adopted for all Governments. It was therefore deter-
mined to leave each country to direct and arrange its
educational system in the manner which seemed, accord-
ing to the degree of culture and the views of the people,
the method best adapted to the wants of socialized society.

A third question, woman’s position in the State and
the child’s in the family, was dismissed as not yet ready
for judgment. It was deemed better to obtain a deeper
insight into this important matter by means of discus-
sions in the press and public meetings. January 2, 1994,
was appointed as the date when the socialistic system
should be introduced, and the President closed the ses-
sion with thanks for the labor of the Congress.

July 22, 1998.

Albert has been absent on a long journey, and did not
return till noon yesterday. Towards evening we took a
long walk, and our talk turned upon the social question.
Albert said that, considering the great folly which had
seized upon mankind, it could not be denied that the
Congress had acted very sensibly. In no other way
would it have been possible to establish the socialis-
tic Government. But he was sorely annoyed and de-
pressed—he called it a disgrace to our age of civiliza-
tion and intelligence—that no better solution of the
social problem could be found.

The principal fault lay with the favored classes, not
the workmen. It was a bad condition of affairs that 60
high a degree of culture could not enable men to shake
off their inherited prejudices. But this society, in
which we live and of which we are members, sees no
one save through the spectacles which the prejudices of
class, education, and interests put on. Class prejudice,
especially, makes the cleverest people fools.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 147

I listened with delight. There is nothing in the
world more noble than an unprejudiced man. And
how thoroughly he was in the right in everything! All
these prejudices cause the land-owner, the manufact-
urer, the mechanic, the merchant, the scholar, the labor-
er, to hold totally different views of society, its aims,
and its life. Yet there is reason for it. The schools
have filled our heads with knowledge, but they have |
not sufficiently instilled the real purpose of all educa-
tion, the war against our prejudices.

July 24, 1993.

I asked Albert to-day whether there was no possibil-
ity that men in the socialistic society might advance
along the path-way of prosperity. ‘“ Imagine an oak in a
flower-pot,” he said, “and ask yourself whether it can
grow and put forth branches while its roots lack room.
If the human race is deprived of the impulse of gain, and
the desire to accumulate property, it is robbed of the
very powers whose purpose is to obtain nourishment.”

July 27, 1998.
Since the Congress has performed its main task, no
check is possible. People talk of nothing but the so-
cialization of labor, as they formerly discussed the
weather, and the land-owners go about with long faces.

July 29, 1993.
The status of woman and children is now being dis-
cussed. The opinion that woman has equal rights with
man as a member of society is gaining ground. There-
fore she must receive an equal portion of the general
income. This, however, requires her to devote her
powers, like him, to the production of goods.
148 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

Theoretically, this may be no bad idea, but I don’t
know who is to attend to the house-keeping, and pro-
vide for the children, if women are confined in the
workshops.

August 1, 1993.

Socialism has a provision for everything. It con-
quers obstacles by simply pushing them aside. I be-
lieve, had social democrats lived before the discovery of
navigation, they would have thought of draining the
ocean before building ships. If house-keeping and rear-
ing children are an obstacle to the equalization of the
sexes, they abolish the duties of the house-keeper and
the mother. Family life is to be transferred to dining-
rooms and restaurants, and children are to be reared
and educated in Government institutions. Equality is .
a beautiful thing! Everything must be regulated ex-
actly according to Bebel!

August 4, 1993.

To-day I found in the paper an article which exactly
expressed my own feelings. The writer warned people
against carrying the principle of equality to extremes.
‘Woman cannot be made happy by depriving her of her
natural vocation, and, moreover, thereby robbing the
world of the infinite benefits derived from the feminine
nature and feminine self-sacrifice. Woman’s quiet do-
mestic industry has also contributed to the establish-
ment of prosperity and the progress of civilization, and
humanity will be thrust from the height it has attained
if woman is assigned to an unfamiliar sphere of labor.
Equality can be obtained by aiding the married people
to support their children.

That is my opinion, too. Let woman remain the
mother of her children, the care-taking wife of her hus-
band. If a few women miss their vocation because
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 149

they do not marry, or are unhappy in their marriages,
seek relief for them, but leave to the sex what is right-
fully its due.

/ August 7, 1993.

The recent article in the papers has drawn forth nu-
merous answers. Among them many are irrelevant,
many mere nonsensical babble. But unfortunately there
are also many whose sound sense cannot be denied, and
I fear, as the current is now setting, that they will gain
the victory. The reasons adduced for intrusting the
rearing of children to the Government are as follows :

The socialization of society will place the human race
in an entirely different region from that in which it has
hitherto developed, and it must therefore strive to adapt
itself to it, as plants do when taken from the mountains
to the plains, from heavy to light soil. It is a peculiar-
ity of the socialistic Government that it no longer di-
vides society into men and women, but imposes upon all
its members, without distinction of sex, the same condi-
tions of existence. People cannot accommodate them-
selves to this peculiarity if they continue to maintain
the arrangements which prevent women from giving to
society what it demands and receiving what is their due.
A woman who avoids the universal duty of labor be-
cause she is keeping house for her husband and rearing
her children, will prove a source of discord in every di-
rection. ~ She will become a burden to her husband, de-
stroy the universal conditions of existence, and check
‘the action of the fructifying power of socialism, the
equal distribution of the goods of this world. A man
who receives from the total production of labor the por-
tion to which he is entitled as a man and a laborer, but
who has to maintain with this portion not only himself
150 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

but a wife and six or eight children, is not a peer
among his peers, but a sorely oppressed creature who un-
doubtedly, by his numerous children, renders the great-
est service to society, but who has no share in the ben-
efits they will bestow.

If the proposal is made to give to every father, for
every child, a certain claim upon the productions of so-
ciety, which must be acknowledged as an effort to solve
advantageously and according to a just estimate an ap-
parently difficult problem, closer examination will show
that the plan cannot compass its object and is wholly
impracticable. If the suggestion is intended to provide
means to defray the board of each child, the estimate
must be sufficiently large to provide for delicate chil-
dren, who require more food, clothing, and shelter. But
in that case the fathers whose children possessed strong-
er constitutions would have an unfair advantage, because
they would require less expenditure, while on the other
hand, by small services, trifling earnings, and the per-
formance of household tasks, they would reap from their
children many advantages over others. Thus in avoid-
ing Scylla they would encounter Charybdis. In the at-
tempt to escape inequality, fresh sources of inequality
would be evoked; but the economical effect which
would result from such a payment of board would
weigh even more heavily in the scale than the pre-
vious objection. The number of children under fifteen
amounts to 35 per cent. of the whole population; that is,
with the present number of inhabitants of the German
Empire, to thirty-five millions.*

* The population of the German Empire increased from 1870 to 1885
on an average 92 per cent. annually. In 1885 it was 46,855,704 per-
sons, and at the same rate of increase would have reached 96,428,294
in the year 2000. If, according to the above estimate, it was really
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 151

If a rate of only 300 marks was paid—the smallest
sum allowable—it would amount to 104 milliards, while
one-half would amply suffice if the support and educa-
tion of the children were provided in Government in-
stitutions. Society would thus sustain a loss of more
than five milliards; and as, moreover, millions of moth-
ers who would have to care for children under five years
old could not only produce nothing for society, but must
draw their support from the general fund, the rearing
of children in families would cause a total loss to society
annually of six and a half to seven milliards of marks,
which would be more than could be endured. So it is
evident that this point, too, must be arranged to suit
the nature of socialized society. If it is hard for many
mothers to be separated from their children, they must
remember the physical and intellectual delights the new
Government affords, and that they will thus attain the
dignity and freedom which, according to Bebel, has
never been their lot as social slaves. Even the senseless
brute soon recovers from the loss of her young; how
much easier it will be for a woman, who has the power
of reasoning, to accommodate herself to the inevitable.

My blood fairly boiled when I read all this. It may
be practical and logical, and I, too, believe that the ex-
istence of the socialistic State would be imperilled by any
other course. But I also know that I no longer value
the human race if it accepts such abominable folly.

August 9, 1998.
Yesterday evening the conversation turned upon our
marriage. Frau Hormann asked whether we had as yet
fixed any date. We had often discussed the matter, but

100,000,000, this additional increase would appear to be due to the bat-.
tle against the bacilli,
152 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

in the present condition of affairs no plans can be formed
for the future. Albert has been trying to get the posi-
tion of manager of one of the large factories, and as
soon as he obtained it we were to have been married.
But since the great revolution has been anticipated, no
such position is possible. Business is almost at a stand.
No one thinks of new enterprises, and no one will dream
of making improvements in old ones. Herr Hormann
said that, as soon as the new order of things was settled,
Albert must seek a situation in a large Government es-
tablishment. His ability was so well known that the
State would be glad to secure such assistance. Albert
agrees with him, and says if he can once get a place
suited to his taste the magistrate can unite us immedi-
ately. But he jestingly estimated what a fine exchange
he would make. Hitherto he had received a salary of
6000 marks; henceforth he must be content with the
payment allotted to every workman who did nothing
but hammer and file according to the models and draw-
ings he had worked out with severe mental toil.

This is the least thing that troubles me. I have but
one desire—to be Albert’s wife. Everything else is a
minor matter. I would go with him to the end of the
world, though the road led through thorns and thistles.

August 11, 1993.

The question of the rearing of children continues to
be eagerly discussed, and women also mingle in the de-
bate. An aufhorest—-élta is said to be old, ugly, and
thin, but very fond of men—lately marvelled at the
narrow-mindedness of her sex. It would be foolish to
imagine that every mother would rear her child best.
The Government institutions would have the most tal-
ented educators, and every woman ought to be glad to
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 153

know that her child was in such hands, and that she
herself would have no obstacles in the way of enjoying
life.

The world is in a bad way. People don’t read what
sensible persons write, while the most foolish trash is
eagerly devoured.

August 12, 1993.

This morning a number of colts which Herr Hor-
mann had bought at the fair arrived at the estate. They
were shut up in a paddock, and the grooms rode off
with the mares. It was really a pitiful sight. When
the colts saw their mothers go away they grew fright-
ened and dashed wildly about, while the poor mothers
neighed mournfully for them.

And that is the way they want to treat human beings
in future! O foolish, brutal world! What will be my
calling as Albert’s wife? My heart fairly stops beating.
The thought is enough to drive one mad.

September 8, 1993.

Herr Hormann has taken a long journey with Albert
and me. We have seen many beautiful things and met
many people. I have often talked with the peasants,
and grew more and more convinced of the good which
exists in these warm hearts. I became attached to most
of them, and like to recall them to mind. I noticed
how fondly they all loved their children. Good friends
became bitter enemies because there was gossip con-
cerning the daughter of one family and the son of an-
other, and whenever I treated the little ones kindly I
instantly won the parents’ hearts. My greatest pleasure
was to walk through the village streets on the evenings
of holidays. There were the prettiest pictures every-
where. Everybody was out-of-doors. The men were
154 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

smoking their pipes and holding the children in their
laps, while the mothers were knitting stockings.

And this pure and lofty joy was to be abolished from
the world! And for what? ‘To have castles and pal-
aces? To have crowns and sceptres? ‘The socialists
say: for law and justice. Albert declares: for the sake
of envy and malice. He has calculated that the whole
result of socialization would be that the most poorly paid
laborer would gain 200 marks a year. So 200 marks’
worth of feminine finery, brandy, and beer outweighs the
noblest happiness which can fall to the lot of humanity!

October 5, 1993.

Matters steadily pursue their course. The Congress
has met again and, as it states, has put the roof on the
socialistic structure. After a short debate the last point
of dispute has been settled by a sort of compromise.
All mothers are to give birth to their children in hospi-
tals, and to remain as long as the infants require nurs- —
ing. Then the wives will return to their husbands, and
the children will be fed, educated, and trained by the
State. All children born before January 2, 1994, can
remain with their parents, but the latter are entitled to
intrust them to the Government for support and edu-
cation.

So all hope is over. If I have hitherto cherished any
doubts, they are atan end. Socialization will be the de-
struction of the civilized world.

All objections were thoroughly discussed during the
debate, and in truth there was no speaker who did not
admit the dark side of this arrangement. But the rea-
sons of State conquered. The family has no place in
the socialistic Government, and no room can be allowed
for interests other than those of the State. If men had
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 155

the cowardice to shrink from this last result, they would
be forced to remedy the omission later, and then society
would be divided into parties. People comforted them-
selves by saying that men became accustomed to every-
thing, and that the pleasures of life in the new State
would make parents forget their grief.

November 10, 1993.
Preparations for the change commenced early this
month, that everything may be ready in time. Inven-
tories are being taken, stocks appraised and entered in
books. But the belief is that it will be impossible to
complete so gigantic a task in so short a period.

November 27, 1993.
A glazier from the city has been at work in my room
to-day. He seemed to be very angry about the social-
ization, and said that the Government would have a great
deal of work immediately. No one knew anything about
repairs, and as soon as January 2d came all machines and
implements would almost need remaking.

December 10, 1993.

I have long been racking my brains to decide what
vocation I should choose in the socialistic Government.
There will be no teachers in private families, and I have
neither the taste nor the skill to teach ina school. My
wish is to be of real service, and it seems to me that
there is no way in which I can make myself of greater use
than by selecting the one against which socialistic society
is most prejudiced. I will apply for the position of nurse
in a hospital for children.

December 20, 1998.

My desire seems on the eve of fulfilment. Herr
156 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

Biichner, an old friend of my father, who for years has
been at the head of the Bureau of Statistics, has interest-
ed himself in my behalf, and writes to-day that I may
consider my appointment in the children’s hospital se-

cured.
i December 22, 1998,

Albert’s excellent recommendations have also proved
successful in obtaining a position. He will take charge
of a large machine shop on January 2d.

Our wedding must be deferred a short time longer,
until we have both worked in our new sphere. I don’t
know why I dislike to think of my marriage. It seems
as though I had lost all pleasure in it. Yet my love is
greater than ever.

December 29, 1993.

The Hormanns have had the good-fortune to be al-
lowed to stay in Meiendorf. He is to manage the farm,
and she will take charge of the house and the dairy.
Changes in their position are reserved for the future.
So they will at least be spared the sorrow of leaving the
husband’s family estate. Iam already packing my be-
longings, and shall set out for Berlin day after to-morrow.

January 10, 1994.

We have now conquered the greatest difficulties of the
change. There has been terrible confusion, and many
comical stories are told. The most difficult thing was
the withdrawal of the money. Nobody would produce
his gold pieces, and much coin is said to be buried.

My work hitherto has not been very hard, on account
of a lack of the raw material with which I am to labor,
as Albert jestingly remarked. I have been principally
occupied in the woman’s ward, where the number of pa-
tients is increasing. Few children under the age of six
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 157

have been brought in; even the orphans who are being
reared in private houses do not seem to be willingly
given up by their foster-parents.

January 24, 1994.

A little band of children has gradually collected. Un-
natural mothers have always existed, but the percentage
of them within this district of the city is small. Most
‘ people would rather make pecuniary sacrifices than part
with their children. There is said to be great indigna-
tion in certain circles over this ill-success, and there are
rumors that plans are forming to render refractory par-
ents more yielding. If this step does not succeed, it will
be long ere the desired equality in the socialistic State
will be complete.

The department containing children three and four
years old has been assigned to me. At first:they seemed
shy and timid, but I soon won their hearts. First, I
let them play some pretty little games; then they sat
around me on their stools while I told them the stories
of Snowwhite and the Sleeping Beauty. How their
eyes sparkled!

February 15, 1994.

Albert and I meet twice a week at the house of Herr
Hormann’s sister, who lives here. I have leave to go
there after the children are in bed. It is my only rec-
reation, but it is enough. Albert always tells with ex-
-quisite humor stories of the endless confusion in his shop.
Everything goes according to line and rule. If there is
an unexpected demand for some material or implement,
or any change of plan, it invariably occasions a complete
cessation of work, on account of the numerous docu-
ments and formalities necessary.

Curious things happen among the workmen, too.
Those who have a higher degree of knowledge and skill,
158 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

such as the machine-builders, etc., ask that individual
tasks shall be drawn by lot in the factory, because all re-
ceive the same wages. Nobody wishes to surpass others,
but no one shuns falling behind. /
March 19, 1994.

There is really nothing in the way of our marriage.
We might follow the example of many young people,
who hire furnished apartments and then go at once to
the civil magistrate. After all, this is the only way, for
brides no longer bring an outfit, partly because noth-
ing can be spared from the income, partly because it is
burdensome to every one to collect a store of furniture,
household utensils, and linen before there is any thought
of marriage.

Under present circumstances, I feel no impulse to
marry, much as J long to be inseparably united to him.
Albert, too, does not speak of it. It seems as though
something was gnawing at his heart, oppressing his
cheerful nature.

October 10, 1994,

Sorrowful things are of daily occurrence in the wom-
an’s ward. Many mothers whose children were born here
are sent back to their homes, and this is by no means the
easy matter which men suppose. The little ones, it is
true, do not understand, and soon forget their mothers,
but to the mothers it is the sorest grief which could be
imposed upon them.

Many return to the institution at odd moments to see
their children, often accompanied by their husbands.
But the babies do not remember them, and turn away
screaming.

November 27, 1994.

Very sad moments frequently visit me, and when I fix
my eyes upon the future everything looks dark.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 159

This evening I took out the album which my parents
gave me at my confirmation, and tears filled my eyes as
I read my father’s beautiful dedication: “ Let your rul-
ing principle, dear Louise, be always to act in trying cir-
cumstances as your self-respect requires; then you will
never be forced to repent.”

Can a woman who renounces all the more beautiful
duties of marriage respect herself?

It is a desperate situation. I would not be such a wom-
an, yet I cannot think of parting from Albert.

December 10, 1994.

I spent a sorrowful evening yesterday, and asad night
followed. What I have long foreboded and feared has
become a certainty. Albert is filled with an unconquer-
able despondency. Life in this society is shallow and
loathsome. How could it be otherwise with a man whose
every thought and aspiration rises above the level of
mediocrity? There is no room for grand and conspic-
uous achievements in a society whose highest idea is to
keep every man from being compelled to conquer a feel-
ing of envy against his neighbor. In such a sphere
everything is petty and limited, and an aspiring, ener-
getic nature feels cramped on all sides. Albert com-
plains of invincible bureaucratic stupidity and phlegm
in those above him; of indifference, sloth, and negligence
in the workmen. And the worst feature is that there
is no way of stimulating the more skilful, talented, and
industrious elements. They are reluctant to do their ut-
most, since the equalization of wages, in a certain sense,
puts a premium upon unskilfulness and idleness.

Albert would like to leave the country. But he does
not know where to turn; the same evils exist in all civ-
ilized lands, and the socialization of society has deprived

\
160 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

him of the means to go to savage regions. But is it pos-

sible that fear of want and deprivation deters so ener-

getic a man from departing, when the most powerful of

all motives urges him on? Alas, I fear there is some-
thing else beneath. Perhaps I am the obstacle.

December 13, 1994.

I cannot shake off the thought. Albert wants to leave
this country, but is unwilling to desert me. How glad-
ly I would accompany him, share toil and want! But
ought I, a weak woman, to hang upon him like a clog?
Should not I paralyze his steps, rob him of his freedom
of judgment in the hour of need and peril? Must I not
dread being the cause of his ruin ?

December 28, 1994,

All is over. My happiness is at an end, and I wish
my life was also. We met at Herr Hormann’s sister’s
yesterday, and this was probably the last time I shall
embrace him. Albert said a great deal about the an-
noyances in his factory and the discomfort of the thought
that he was condemned to spend his life in work which
called forth the exercise of only half his powers; I re-
lated many incidents in the children’s hospital that were
not very cheering, and thus we fell into a mood by no
means joyous. Gradually the conversation turned upon a
hapless young wife who, unable to endure the separation
from her child, which she had left in the hospital, threw
herself from a window in a fit of insanity. I mentioned
other mournful cases which had occurred in the woman’s
ward. Albert’ seemed to be deeply moved. He drew
me closer to him, and we sat in silence a long time.
‘““My poor darling,” he said, hesitatingly, at last, “these
are terrible times for the better natures among the hu-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 161

man race. Would you be the wife of a man who cannot
make you the mother of his children ?”

I could not look at him, but hid my face on his breast.
A dagger seemed to pierce my heart. I could not keep
back my tears, and gradually burst into loud sobbing.
Albert clasped me in his arms and tried to console me.
“We must not decide to-day,” he said, after a pause.
“Question your heart and tell me the result at some
other time.”

I could find no words to answer, and my leave of ab-
sence was over. Throwing myself into his arms again,
I kissed him and rushed from the house.

It was a terrible night. I tossed restlessly on my bed,
and my pillow was wet with my tears. Had I known a
single spot in the world where there was room for us
both, I could not have made the painful resolution. But
I had his happiness and my own self-respect to guard,
and, as I despaired and struggled, I could discern neither
deliverance nor help. When I rose from my couch this
morning, weary and worn, my decision was made, and,
sitting down, I wrote:

My pear, pear ALBERT,—Our fate crosses our wishes.
How happy I have been in my love for you, and how
proud I should have been as your wife! But I will
never become a wife in the present meaning of the
word.

Let us do what we owe to ourselves! I will not cease
to love you, and in my every act your image will be
the shining sun of my soul. May favoring fortune en-
able you to find the goal to which your lofty nature and
active mind aspire. This will ever be my highest de-
sire, my most fervent prayer.

Your Loursr.
i
162 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

Albert’s answer came at twilight.

My parrme,—You have spoken as I expected. Is
your verdict right? Must this be? My suffering is too
keen for me to judge. But all my life it will be my
sweetest thought that such a woman has loved me.

Be it as you will. But I can part only from your
bodily presence, not from your soul. May God grant
you comfort, and angels guard and protect you.

Your ALBErt.

So the golden dream is over. O God, give me strength
and let me not fall into temptation!

January 3, 1995.

Herr Hormann’s sister has sent me a briefly-worded
invitation to come to her house this evening. What
can her object be? Is it possible that Albert— That
would be beyond my strength. It would be a risk, an
act of presumption. I shall stay at home.

January 4, 1995.

Albert was there. Auguste Hormann came here yes-
terday and told meso. He is ready to leave the coun-
try, but could not resolve to go without a farewell. It
was certainly a good inspiration which bade me remain.
To bid him farewell forever would have been more than
I could bear.

Albert will go as far as Baku by means of his credit
card, and hopes to obtain money enough to pay the cost
of the rest of the journey by bartering some goods
which can be easily transported. He is going into the
wide, wide world. His hope is to make his way in the
new civilization of Central Asia.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 163

; January 5, 1995.

Albert has gone. Be calm, my heart, and do not de-
spair. I feel as if I must get away from this place, as
if I could not find work enough to divert my thoughts
from my grief. I think that if I were in a hospital,
and had the task of relieving the suffering and cheering
the despairing, I should find it easier to conquer my
own sorrow. Perhaps Herr Biichner can help me to
obtain it.

February 1, 1995.

I have been a nurse in the Emperor and Empress
Frederick Hospital for a week. The institution bears
the name of a great sufferer. What that noble nature
had to bear outweighs my own anguish, and its memory
must serve to strengthen me. I have assumed the name
of Sister Martha, for even my name must not remind
me of the joy I have renounced. It was not perfectly
easy to enter this new calling. There are many painful
and repulsive things connected with it, but I am becom-
ing accustomed to them. Perhaps none of the patients
whom I nurse and console suffers so much as I, but it
aids me to help them, and my heart finds content in
doing so. If I pursue this course to my life’s end I
shall lay my head to rest with the consciousness that,
spite of the woe which society has inflicted upon me,
I have not missed my vocation as a woman.

From this point the journal became less coherent,
and contained principally matters which were neither
associated with my friend’s fate, nor with the great
question which absorbed my attention. I was deeply
moved, and could not divert my thoughts from this
164 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

angel in human form and her tragic destiny. The prog.
ress of this revolution, as the journal described it, had
strongly excited me. How had it chanced that man-
kind could accept an idea so totally at variance with
all the emotions which well so naturally, like a clear,
rippling spring, from. the mind and heart? How had
the delusion of the earth’s favored classes succeeded in
guiding all the millions in the world into paths which
I could no longer doubt would plunge society from the
highest degree of civilization into the deepest abyss?
My thoughts and meditations kept me awake a long
time; but when at last the god of dreams captured me,
wonderfully sweet visions of the past rose before my
mind. I saw my boy stretching his arms towards me
from his little crib, as he lisped “papa” for the first
time, saw him on my knees, watched him merrily play-
ing about or cultivating his mind and heart in some
clever game. I saw him, as he grew older, striving for
knowledge, and finally entering life—a youth who loved
virtue and abhorred vice. And, as the god of dreams
conjured these sweet visions before me, I again tasted
the most exquisite happiness which had blessed my life.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 165

CHAPTER VIL

A CONVERSATION WITH THE CHANCELLOR.

A Frew days after I received a short note from Herr
Bichner. The Chancellor wished to give me verbal in-
structions on certain matters, and desired me to come
to him for a few minutes at seven o’clock in the evening.
This summons was by no means disagreeable to my thirst
for knowledge, and I reached the Chancellor’s precisely
at the hour designated.

I found him a tall, slender man, still erect, spite of
his seventy years. His face expressed deep earnestness,
and his thoughtful brow and thin, sharply-cut features
denoted a man of keen intelligence.

“T sent for you, Herr Ost,” he began, after offering
me aseat by a wave of the hand, “ because I desire to dis-
cuss certain matters which I consider extremely impor-
tant. Herr Bichner has informed you of my wish to
have an opinion of the present method of agriculture
from a man who was a practical farmer at a period of
great import to the technical perfection of agriculture,
especially in the matter of utilizing scientific investiga-
tion. I hear that you lived in the ever memorable
decade during which Liebig’s magnificent discoveries
created a perfect revolution in the farmer’s aims.”

“Certainly, Your Excellency,” I replied; “I was a
farmer during that brilliant epoch, and did my part tow-
ards inducing my associates to profit by the lessons of
science.”

i
166 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

Well, this avocation has not since lost its importance
to mankind. On the contrary, with the increase of pop-
ulation, the necessity of opening every source whence
food can be obtained for these millions grows more im-
perative. Whether we have reached the climax of our
task in this respect is the question over which I often
ponder anxiously.”

“Your Excellency may be sure that I consider it an
infinite advantage to be able, after the lapse of a cen-
tury, once more to behold the world’s work, and estimate
the value of the labors and aspirations of my own day
by the fruits they have produced. 1 can have no other
thought, however, than that these fruits must be very
rich, and that, with all the giant strides of manufactures
which I imagine, agriculture keeps pace.”

“Tt does indeed, Herr Ost,” he replied. “Since the
paths of investigation were opened one discovery has
caused another, and with the continual increase of
knowledge agriculture has succeeded in augmenting the
productions of the soil and combating the hostile influ-
ences of nature with greater success. But the anxieties
which oppress me do not extend to the prosperity of
agriculture in general, but refer solely to the question
whether, in our socialistic community, we can. bring this
noble art to its full efficiency. Urged on by the most
important task the new Government has laid on my
shoulders, I have toiled to effect this with the utmost
zeal. It is now the duty of the State to provide all the
pleasures the people desire. But the need of food must
be satisfied ere we can devote any powers to the amuse-
ments, comforts, and refinements of life, and we can
employ for these higher aims of society only that por-
tion of the industrial force which remains after food has
been procured.”
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 167

“JT understand that perfectly,” I replied, “ but I should
think that the increased population of the present time
must furnish a considerably larger number of persons
whose labor can be used in other branches of production
than that of procuring food. Experience teaches us that
highly civilized nations become richer in proportion to
the greater number of inhabitants to the square mile,
and this circumstance is readily explained by the fact
that employment in manufacturing, the labor which
converts raw material into higher forms, is usually more
profitable than the toil which produces the raw material
and strives with Nature.”

“There you are probably right. In a manufacturing
nation the density of the population is a source of
wealth, and in Germany also riches have increased pro-
portionally to the necessity imposed by the number of
its inhabitants to buy food from less populated lands.
But I have been troubled for several years by the dis-
covery that a change is occurring in this respect.

“T have devoted all my care to fostering agriculture,
and shun no sacrifice which, in the opinion of the Min-
ister of Agriculture, seems to promise an increase of
the productions of the soil. All the experimental sta-
tions are active, and all the demands made upon me by
the organs of the agricultural administration are freely
granted. No labor requested by the officials of that de-
partment is spared; numbers of masons and carpenters
are employed on farm-buildings. The use of agricultural
machines has greatly increased since the socialization of
society—that is, since the cost of obtaining them need
no longer be considered, and their management occupies
a considerable portion of our industrial force. The use
of artificial manures and strengthening foods has also
experienced a remarkable increase, and it is by no means
168 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

agreeable to the Government to be obliged to employ a
larger number of workmen for their manufacture, and
to send a greater supply of manufactured goods to for-
eign countries for the purchase of raw material.

“T can say, for my satisfaction, that the socialistic
State, as well as the figures of the agricultural statistics,
show us that the productiveness of the soil has not di-
minished, but we can prove an increase of products. My
fear is that this demand of civilization is too dearly
purchased. Though the manufacture of the articles we
are obliged to send, in exchange for the importation of
meat and bread-stuffs from foreign countries, requires a
larger industrial force than in former times, the decrease
in the number of human hands available for the manu-
facture of clothing, and everything which can serve for
the pleasure, comfort, and especially the adornment of
life, is far too great for me to find any other explanation
of it.”

“Then, if I understand you correctly, Your Excel-
lency,” I answered, ‘‘ my task is to ascertain the causes
which, since the socialization of society, have occasioned
an increase in the cost of bread and meat.” /

“ You are quite correct, sir. I wish to understand this
matter clearly, as I am striving to make improvements
in both directions. I desire, so far as it is possible, to
increase the productiveness of agriculture, in order to
be relieved from the cost of purchasing so much food ;
but, at the same time, I would like to reduce the sum
of human labor used in obtaining agricultural products
to the amount which formerly proved:sufficient. —

“Have the kindness to realize distinctly how much
it will benefit society to gain relief in this respect. The
last census, whose results you know, that of 1885, showed
a population of—in round numbers—forty-seven mill-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 169

ions, and even at that time the inhabitants required so
much more than the land produced that considerable
quantities of grain were imported. Now we have one
hundred millions—that is, fifty-three millions more, whose
whole supply of food must be imported. If we estimate
the consumption of grain at only three hundred pounds
per head, this will give an increased importation of one
hundred and fifty-nine million hundred-weight of bread-
stuffs alone.

“You are quite right in your statement that this in-
creased population, by industrious work in manufactur-
ing, can produce articles of far greater value than the
cost of the food bought in foreign countries, and that
society will therefore have a larger number of human
hands to use in adorning life. But this belief is based
upon the supposition that the amount of labor done will
remain the same as before; for any waste of industry
leads directly to the diminution of the hands toiling for
the adornment of life, and must therefore result in a
retrogade movement of society. If you realize that it is
only a very small number of human hands which are not
working for the imperative needs of food, clothes, and
lodgings, but for the refinements, or, I might say, the
luxuries of life, you will be able to understand the ex-
tent of the danger to society.”

The justice of the Chancellor’s last remark was very
evident to me. In my former life the number of per-
sons engaged in farming exceeded that of those em-
ployed in all the branches of manufacturing. At that
period the latter had not only to supply the millions of
the people with clothing, shoes, household utensils, and
workmen’s tools, but also to provide agriculture with its
machinery, and to produce the goods whose sale in for-
eign countries brought means to purchase the food not
170 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

produced at home. With the increase of population
the situation must have become more favorable, in so far
as that the relative number of laborers employed in
farming had lessened in comparison to the whole indus-
trial force. Still, the number of hands required to sup-
ply necessary wants must always preponderate so largely
that any ‘decrease in those engaged in producing un-
necessary things could not be expressed save by a large
percentage, and therefore a considerable diminution must
appear in the pleasures and adornments of life. So I felt
constrained to assent to the Chancellor’s statement and
assure him that I would devote my attention specially
to discovering the causes of the greater expenditure of ©
the industrial force in farming.

“But there is another thing which inspires doubts
concerning the profitableness of the present system of
agriculture,” the Chancellor continued. “In addition
to its principal products—grain, the meat of cattle, sheep,
and hogs, milk, butter, and cheese—society has many
other kinds of food which in a certain sense are minor
productions yet, though so far inferior to the former
ones, are indispensable to the people, and represent a by
no-means inconsiderable value. I will mention eggs,
poultry, and honey. Among these, eggs especially are
of the utmost importance, for they are very beneficial to
the health, useful for various purposes, and have always
been considered a very cheap source of albumen. But
the production of this important food has greatly dimin-
ished, and the same is also true of poultry and bee-
keeping. With the utmost effort—and I have had the
warmest support from the Minister of Agriculture—we
have not succeeded in effecting a change. From the offi-
cial agricultural circles we receive the statement that
the production of eggs, poultry, and honey would be
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. : 171

utterly unprofitable if other sources of revenue from
agriculture were given up in their favor, and so we can-
not help reproaching ourselves with failure to under-
stand the wants of society in matters of such impor-
tance. Complaints of the inadequate supply of eggs
trouble me most. So I would wish to direct your atten-
tion to this point, Herr Ost. You will render a special
service if you can explain the cause of this phenomenon
and suggest any means of remedying the evil.”

I was utterly amazed by these words, and at first did
not know what to answer. During my whole experi-
ence as a farmer poultry-raising had been the special
pleasure of all country dames, from the titled lady to
the day-laborer’s wife, and nothing would have been
further from my thoughts than to term it a costly and
unprofitable branch of production. Bee-keeping, too,
had been a source of amusement rather than labor. It
had served as a recreation to many persons, occasioned
little expense, and returned large profits for a small
amount of care. What could be the reason for giving
up such remunerative minor productions in the social-
istic community on account of a lack of profit 4

“T can give no cause at this moment for a phenome-
non which seems to me incomprehensible, Your Excel-
lenecy,” I replied, at last, “but it shall be my aim to
discover it. The first part of my task appears to me
the easier one. Bold as it would be to hazard a positive
opinion before I thoroughly understand the present sys-
tem of agriculture, I might risk the conjecture that one
cause of the greater cost of obtaining food is to be
found in the circumstance that, with the total want of
competition in the socialistic State, work is performed
with less energy. From the idea I have hitherto been
able to form of the prosperity of the socialistic produc-
172 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

tion, I should be inclined to believe that the difficulty
the Government has in keeping the amusements of so-
ciety at the same height is partly due to a diminution
of the stimulus to labor.”

“You are right,” said the Chancellor; “it is an un-
deniable fact that work is no longer performed with the
same zeal, and whoever understands human nature will
comprehend the cause.”

“Then the first task is to seek means of correcting
this evil. And, if we could succeed in awaking zeal in
the laborers, the hope of maintaining civilized society in
a state of prosperous development would not be utterly
lost.”

“That was my hope, too, Herr Ost. It was a faint
one, but I had it, and so long as even a glimmer re-
mained the anxiety which oppressed me was compara-
tively light. True, it was difficult to keep society at
the level of wealth it had attained because, with the fail-
ing energy in work, we lacked hands. Had this been
the sole evil it might perhaps have been conquered by
the increasing knowledge of men. But, unnoticed and
invisible, another peril was rising which now appears in
more distinct outlines, and whose increasing power no
human nor divine might can stay.”

The Chancellor paused a moment, and a gloomy,
shadow rested on his thoughtful face. Then, laying
a strong emphasis on every word, he slowly continued :

“The socialistic Government will not go to destruc-
tion because it lacks human hands to labor, but because
it lacks labor for the human hands.”

These were words of terrible import. Want of profit-
able employment had been the source of all the troubles
of the lower classes in former days. With the : acrease
of social prosperity in the course of the centuries, this |
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 173

difficulty had lessened, and the immense growth of capi-
tal, apparently the inexorable foe of the laboring classes,
had created competition in its search for labor, and, with
its growth, had become the life-giving sun beneath
whose fertilizing rays the laborer could improve his sit-
uation and free himself from his dependent position.
Lack of employment had not ceased to be a sore evil,
for irregular currents caused constant disturbances,
which occasioned distress and want, now here, now
there, and to rid the world of this evil had been one
of the motives for establishing the socialistic State. So-
cialized society, it was supposed, would keep all its mem-
bers employed. Had the expectation been a mistaken
one in this respect? Had the socialization of labor be-
come a source of want of occupation ?

As on the afternoon when the purchase of a few nec-
essary articles afforded me some glimpses of modern
social life, a vague foreboding rose before me that the
levelling of wants must be an unfavdrable sign of the
prosperity of the new society. But, again, I was unable
to form any clear idea of cause and effect. My eyes
rested eagerly on the Chancellor’s lips. After a short
pause he continued his explanations.

“You are a practical man, Herr Ost, and as such must
have already become aware that, with the socialization
of society, certain changes in the manner of production
must have taken place. The extremely luxurious wants
of the rich could not fail to cease as soon as wealth
disappeared and the sum of production was divided into
equal parts as the common property of humanity. The

_result of this was that all those objects of’ luxury which
could be purchased only by people whose incomes were
above the average could no longer be manufactured, and
the hands formerly engaged in making them were neces-
174 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

sarily employed in creating such useful articles as would
now be universally wanted by all whose incomes had
formerly been dess than the average one.

“Complete equality has not been secured, for the man-
ufacture of a large portion of these articles of luxury
whose production became limited required far more
labor than that of making the less valuable ones which
took their places. Or, to put it more clearly: if, for in-
stance, the production for home consumption of costly
works of art, china, glass, wood-carving, etc., ceased, and
a great number of personal services, always in demand
in the houses of the rich, were abolished, while, on the
other hand, a much greater quantity of clothes, shoes,
the better kinds of food, or articles of ornament whose
manufacture required less skill, were produced, a large
share of human labor would be released because, even if
the total value of the production remained unchanged,
a greater amount of machinery could be employed in
the latter than in the former.

“But even admitting that we should thus have had a
superabundance of working force,” the Chancellor went
on, “this is not so in reality, because we have lost more
in the decrease of labor performed than could be gained
in the other direction—it would scarcely cause any tangi-
ble evil. Other arrangements for the use of men—for
instance, laying out public parks, establishing pleasure
grounds, improving dwellings, ete.—would supply occu-
pation, and I really incline to the belief that, if other
troubles were not gnawing at the root of the socialistic
Government, this decrease in the number of wants would
not have made it impossible for us to maintain a perma-
nent balance between production and consumption.”

“But our German empire is not the only country in
which this decrease of wants made itself felt. The so-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 175

cialistic mode of production, and with it this evil, be-
came naturalized simultaneously in all other civilized
countries, and as a result the latter assumed proportions
which made it appear a serious future peril. In the
first place difficulties confront us from the fact that we
no longer find the same number of refined wants in the
agricultural countries. We have to depend upon them
for our supplies of food, and our manufactured articles
must serve as a means of exchange for their purchase.
All the other manufacturing countries in the world
are in the same position. For them, too, exportation
is the condition of existence, the means of procuring
the importation of food. So long as the number of
articles wanted was unlimited and varied, it was not
difficult for the manufacturing countries to obtain, by
a large exportation, an abundant supply of provisions.
One nation found one branch of manufactures an ex-
haustless source of revenue, another another, according to
the skill and talents of the people. Since, with the social-
ization of society, wants in all countries have grown sim-
. pler, the market is everywhere closed against all costly
products, and all manufacturing nations find themselves
compelled to devote their attention to the articles which
will supply simpler needs. But, as I have already said,
these are the very things whose manufacture requires
less skill and fewer hands. This renders the sale of
goods more difficult. On the one hand, the agricult-
ural countries succeeded in making larger quantities of
the less difficult articles themselves, thereby becoming
less dependent on foreign lands, and, on the other hand,
owing to the decrease in the demand, greater compe-
tition arose among the manufacturing countries, which
lessened the value of their exports.

“All threw upon the market a larger number of the
176 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

/

less costly wares. But, great as may be the charm of
purchasing at reduced prices a larger number of clothes
and shoes, or simpler articles of jewelry or ornament,
there is a limit to it, and whatever is produced beyond
hopelessly declines in value. You will understand how
great a danger confronts us. The extensibility of wants
was the motive power of civilization in the material as
well as in the intellectual world. If this is abolished
the material prosperity of mankind, and with it civ-
ilization, will be imperilled. All life in the world
pulses solely by extension and growth; from the mo-
ment that growth ceases, all creatures tend towards
their end.”

The Chancellor paused and gazed thoughtfully into
vacancy. But I could not yet clearly understand why
this state of affairs should be so threatening. That the
extensibility of wants is the real lever of all progress in
civilization I did not doubt, and that the advance of civ-
ilization encounters an obstacle when the number of
wants becomes restricted was as clear as possible. Yet
only the quality, not the quantity, of wants had lessened,
and so I could not perceive why the production of man-
ufacturing countries should be exposed to serious dan-
ger, so long as the consumption remained the same ac-
cording to its value. But, so far as I could Jearn, hith-
erto this had been the case. If the people who had
formerly been richer now spent less for manufactured
articles, those who had been poorer, in consequence of
equalization, now spent more, and, if the equal division
of the revenue had resulted in the production of an equal
quantity of useful articles by the increased aid of ma-
chinery, with a smaller number of human hands, this, it
seemed to me, could be only an advantage, not an injury.
If industrial power is thus set free, society can only reap
IN MR. BELLAMY’s WORLD. 177

the advantage of either shortening the hours of labor, or
increasing wants by the enlargement of production.

“T myself have had misgivings about the loss of so
many wants,” I replied. “But I cannot deny that my
reflections always lead me to the conclusion that, though
this circumstance may be an obstacle to the progress of
society, it cannot seriously endanger its existence. If,

in consequence of equalization, the object of labor, the —

satisfaction of wants, can be accomplished in an easier
and less wearisome fashion—in so far as this is done by
less effort of human hands—this ought to be simply a
source of gratification, and the competition of manufac-
turing countries in exporting their wares must, it seems
to me, again guide production into the right channels.”

“Regarding the matter in a purely theoretical man-
ner, you may be right, Herr Ost. But an insight into
the practical working of it leads to a different conclu-
sion. The exportation of manufactured articles and the
importation of food is not a direct exchange of wares;
the barter requires a more circuitous method. For in-
stance, the greater part of our grain is obtained from
Russia, while Russia herself receives from us only wares
of much less value. Our manufactured articles go into
all the countries of the globe, and settlement is made
with endless circumlocution.

“These circuits are so great that we have already
been obliged to make treaties with other Governments,
in order to again introduce metal as a means of ex-
change in international trade. If you will keep in view
three points: first, that it is not easy, under such cir-
cumstances, to find a sale for manufactured articles,
and that the difficulties connected with it are felt in
production or rather by the Government which directs

it; secondly, that the decrease of wants has been not
12
178 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

only in quality but in quantity, because the agricultural
countries have succeeded in making more and more of
the useful articles whose manufacture demands less skill;
and, thirdly, that every increase in the difficulty of sell-
ing the products of manufactures means an increase of
difficulty in buying food—that is, the vital spark of the
nation is threatened when we find no adequate market
for the products of our factories. If you keep these
three points in view, you will not fail to see the dangers
to which socialized society is exposed.”

' “The final goal of social democracy, Your Excellency,
has inspired misgivings in my mind from the first mo-
ment I became familiar with it, and J am far from un-
derrating the difficulties you point out. Undoubtedly
the socialistic ideal is a paradox which contradicts sound
sense, and whose realization cannot be beneficial to the
human race. This is a conjecture I have had from the
beginning, and have found many phenomena to confirm.

“Only I cannot fully understand why, as you just said,
there is in prospect a lack of profitable employment,
which will prove the destruction of mankind. The dark
sides I see appear to me to lead to ruin indirectly rather
than directly. I do not doubt that, in view of the utter
unnaturalness of the circumstances, any further progress
of society is an impossibility, and, according to the course
of events, stagnation contains the germ of decay. But I
cannot fully comprehend the inexorable nature of the
phenomena which must lead society to a speedy down-
fall.”

“This inexorability lies in the nature of the trade—
the fluctuations to which it is exposed. Just imagine the
occurrence of events which would render a considerable
portion of our products unsaleable, and our dense popu-
lation would be exposed to famine.”
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD, 179

“Yet society formerly was often overtaken by such
crises, and always succeeded in repairing its injuries.
Ought not socialized society to have strength to recover
itself by means of increased exertion, enlarged produc-
tion ?”

“The society of former days had capital in reserve
for such crises; socialized society has not. The private
capital, to which social democracy was so hostile, could
become the salvation of that society; the present social
system has dropped this sole means of deliverance from
its grasp.”

“But socialized society possesses a common capital.
The machines, the implements of labor, the houses and
manufactories, the railroads and ships, the land and all
the stores are at its disposal, and can be used according
to its best judgment.”

“There you probably overlook the distinction between
the socialistic and the natural method of production.
So long as capital was in private hands, it was purchas-
able, and, besides its worth as an implement of labor,
had a commercial value.

“ By bonds and similar certificates the capital—lands
and buildings, workshops and stocks of goods—could be
divided into portions, and by placing these papers in a
bank, money could be obtained for payments by which
the most pressing wants were relieved and the stranded
ship was again set afloat. In such cases capital became,
in a certain sense, the equivalent of stores garnered for
days of need. At such times of want society lived on
its possessions. How different is the situation in the
socialized world! It cannot dispose of a single piece of
property which might serve to relieve a want. Even if
it dealt itself a death-blow and wished to return the
capital to private hands, there would not be in all civ-
180 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

ilized society a single man who could buy a machine or
a ship.” ,

This was undoubtedly true and undeniable, and I re-
marked that I was beginning to understand the situation.

“T comprehend this disadvantage of the socialistic
community,” I observed ; “ but it has at its disposal the
myriads of human hands which it need only set to work
to produce everything the human race lacks. Clearly
as I perceive all the dark sides of socialization, the im-
possibility of employing the laboring force in such cases
is not so apparent.

“The impossibility springs from the same causes
which, in all hard times, were the source of trouble.
Why could the cabinet-maker, cobbler, smith, find no
employment in seasons of poverty? Because they had
no wood, no leather, no iron which they could manu-
facture. Why have so many laborers in every age
vainly sought for work? Because society was too poor
to feel actual need of the articles which they could
manufacture. Why have the ships, railroads, transpor-
tation companies, found no adequate employment during
periods of stagnation in trade? Because there was a
disproportion between production and consumption, so
that there were too few buyers to warrant the same
shipment of goods.

“ All these causes will unite as soon as there are any
serious interruptions to the sale of our manufactured
products, and they will have the same result in the so-
cialized world as the want of work had under former
circumstances. The only distinction will be that pri-
vate enterprise could raise itself after the fall, socialized
society will sink into hopeless poverty.”

“ Has the lack of sale of productions made itself seri-
ously felt?”
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 181

“We have had difficulties enough, but actual failure
of sales has not yet occurred. It was, I might say, a
blessing that, since this revolution, our old civilization
began to flow back to the East whence it came. An
excellent market for us has opened in the boundless
plains of Central Asia. Much capital, fearing socializa-
tion, has sought refuge there, and many a talented man
for whom the socialistic State was too narrow has there
found a field of labor. So we have always succeeded in
supplying the people with bread and meat. Just now
the Central Asians are busily engaged in building rail-
roads, and our mines and factories are doing their ut-
most to supply the immense demand. It is the same in
England, Belgium, Sweden, and Russia. If the railroad
building there would continue, and the briskness of
trade lead to increasing prosperity, our society might
feel secure. Unfortunately ”—and the Chancellor’s feat-
ures again grew serious—“I have recently received re-
peated unfavorable reports. There are disturbances
everywhere which threaten war and rebellion. This
might become a terrible blow to us.

“But away with these anxieties for the present,” he
added, rising. “We must quietly await what may hap-
pen. -But now you will doubtless understand why I
feel so strong a desire to use the closest economy in the
expenditure of our ‘strength. We must all do our duty,
and I expect this from you, Herr Ost. I wish you
much pleasure from your journey and a favorable result
for myself.”

This closed the interview, and I took my leave. This
had been another important day—I might say the most
important and significant of all the days I had lived in
the new world. Slight as my hopes had been, the dis-
appointment was greater than I had supposed possible.
182 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

The newspapers I had read, my conversation with Herr
Biichner, Sister Martha’s journal, my personal observa-
tions, all made me recognize the socialization of society
to be a stupendous folly. To-day I learned from the
Chancellor’s explanations far more. How could a doubt
of his words have lingered in my mind? This society
of the social democratic State, which was to be such a
model of happiness and wealth, of virtue and morality,
is living on the crater of a voleano which may burst
forth at any moment, pouring want and misery over it
in its streams of ashes.

Yet how submissive to deception is the world! How
ready men are to listen to the false and the doubtful!
Poor mortals, I thought, ever since you inhabited the
earth you have been unable to refrain from disturbing,
by your superstition and thoughtlessness, that wonderful,
mysterious impulse which Mother Nature has endowed
with such indestructible vitality. For centuries you
have imagined that you were aiding her supreme wis-
dom by making the rich and happy of the world your
favorites, giving them privileges, and trying to throw
treasures into their laps at the expense of the poor.
You have thus sowed dissension and malice until your
partiality became unbearable, and the majority among
you sought peace in a different order of affairs. You
escaped one evil to throw yourselves into the arms of
another. Could you never find the golden mean and
give to all, without distinction, equal justice, equal love,
and equal freedom of movement?
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 183

CHAPTER VIII.

HOW THE WORLD LOOKED.

It was early in December when I began my journey.
I did not set forth with the cheerful feelings which
had filled my heart when I received my first commis-
sion. I had already had too many experiences which
had changed my mood to one of depression and hope-
lessness. Nevertheless, I had not lost an iota of real
interest in the matter. What results had proceeded
from socialization in relation to business, how the claims
of the Government and of the individual in the various
circles of society had been reconciled, what changes in
views and customs had occurred, and what degree of
satisfaction was felt in all quarters—to behold these
things with my own eyes afforded as attractive a pros-
pect as ever.

My decision was not made easier by having the time
of my departure occur at a period which was not with-
out its influence upon the mood of men. New credit
cards were issued the first of January, and it seemed
as though, after this important act, I found the expres-
sion of the faces more cheerful and self-reliant. Dur-
ing January I found opinions leaning more towards the
optimistic side, while previously pessimism had ob-
viously prevailed. It was a change such as we have
often witnessed when the sun shines after dull, rainy
days.

If I had not already found myself in a state of disen-
184 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

chantment I could not have helped wondering that not
a single incident reminded me that I was in Mr. Bel-
lamy’s Utopia. The world had certainly grown richer
and fairer. Everywhere I beheld the plainest signs that
people had labored assiduously for reformation, refine-
ment, beauty. But the human race itself had remained
unaltered. It possessed all the qualities needed for an
imperfect world, nothing which suited a Utopia. I
read in the faces of the people no other happiness than
that which can be obtained under imperfect conditions,
and no other satisfaction than that arising from the joys
of life, not one of which is without alloy. There was
the same grumbling and fault-finding, the same natural
inclination to preach rather than to practice.

This is finding no fault with my present countrymen.
It would be unjust to expect that their thoughts and
feelings should rise above their environments, for cir-
cumstances are the soil from which our intellectual life
derives its sustenance, its coloring. When I compared
the life of the modern world with that of the former
one, could I censure them for having retained the old
proneness to criticism and fault-finding? So far as I
could compare past incidents in my memory, men were
always most ready with their censure in cases where the
Government was the producer. No matter how sincere
might be the intentions of the Government, it could not
escape the difficulty of finding suitable instruments for
its work. Many able and well-trained men preferred to
use their powers freely and independently for their own
benefit, or modestly held back because virtue is associ-
ated with virtue, as like seeks like. Applicants who
pressed forward often cared more for obtaining a good

«salary than for performing good work. They were re-
luctant to give up a lucrative office and numerous fees,
IN MR, BELLAMY’S WORLD. 185

but lack of work usually caused them little grief. They
endeavored to make up for want of knowledge by as-
sumption and arrogance, and liked to believe in the old
saw that God gave, with the office, the ability to perform
its duties. So it was no wonder that much of the work
done by the Government bore the impress of stupidity,
and if men had fallen into the habit of viewing its
labors with doubtful eyes, it arose from the perception
that ehallownces and incompetency lacked the stimulus
of competition which, in the old social system, forced
every one to the exertion of the utmost zeal. If in the
old world criticism and fault-finding had not been
wholly unjustifiable—and how often men had raved
against the tendency to absorption by the State—how
much more cause existed in this socialistic Government,
which was the sole manufacturer and manager. So I
could not wonder that wherever I went I found the
invincible disposition to carp, that criticism was the
principal topic of conversation. I no longer heard the
weather discussed, and the ill-doings of servants were not
mentioned, from the circumstance that the youthful
members of the population were not permitted to seek
- employment of their own free choice and use their own
powers. The increasing mismanagement of the Gov-
ernment was an unfailing source of comment. If a
man’s watch was returned without being thoroughly re-
paired, the rascally Government was of course to blame.
If a pair of boots had crooked heels, it was said that the
Government could not even make a pair of boots. Let
the Government do what it would, it could never escape
censure, and if I may venture to express my opinion
frankly, it was certainly made very difficult for it to give
much cause for praise.

But, as in everything else, I found differences. In
186 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

some districts there was more complaint, in others less,
and there was also more occasion for it in some places
than in others. Things were exactly what they were in
former days. One official was more competent than
another. One man, in choosing his assistants, placed
most value upon character and moral qualities, another
desired pliability and absence of will. Even where
officials were elected, there were gradations in the ability
of the chiefs. At one election capable men, at another,
braggarts obtained the majority.

But apart from the fact that managers did not every-
where give the same cause for complaint, there were
various reasons in different parts of the country which
led to distinctions in the degree of dissatisfaction. In
general, I could perceive that society, in the course of
years had passed, as J had done within a few weeks, from
the first glow of elation to a state of depression. Those
who had been most enthusiastic kept a sullen silence, but
among those who had not been champions of socialism
there was scarcely one who did not openly revile social-
ization. Opinions, however, varied in sharpness, accord-
ing to the degree of loss made by the exchange.

If there were any lives which might have been con-
sidered to have gained by the revolution, they were the
young people from twenty-one to twenty-four, who, hav-
ing passed the period of study, at once entered upon the
full enjoyment of existence. They were no longer com-
pelled to seek a means of livelihood, no longer obliged
to battle with difficulties for a position in life; position
and pay were at once bestowed upon them. When I re-
called the numerous trials with which in former times
young people had to contend, a feeling of joyous sympa-
thy often stirred my heart when I saw a young man or a
young girl. They were freed from all the disagreeable
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 187

tokens of want of consideration with which those who
had attained a secure position in life formerly favored
them. I was especially glad to see that young girls were
no longer obliged, as so-called apprentices, to undertake
all possible and impossible things, and consider them-
selves fortunate if they were not compelled to pay a fee
for instruction. But though the new society offered
them by comparison such great advantages, I did not
find contentment, and yet could not reproach them for
dissatisfaction. They liked to call themselves the pariahs
of society, for the most difficult tasks and the most un-
pleasant duties were made over to them. Their elders
held the lesson-book, and were amiable enough not to
withhold a good training for life. And the sorest point
was that thoughts of the future could afford them no
compensation for the present. The hopes and plans
which swell the hearts of the young, the happy antici-
pation of a home, a property, a business of their own,
which helped so many over present trials, were totally
abolished by the socialistic Government. There was
nothing for ambition to seek, nothing to expect from
the future except what lay plain and clear before them:
the life of an animal whose days are divided between
work and the manger. But did not this show shame-
ful ingratitude? Did not the socialistic State afford
them plenty of amusement? Did it not give playing
and jesting, music and acting, pantomime and dancing?
Had not Bebel’s solicitude removed every barrier to
their wishes? But what can afford compensation to a
young heart whose noblest impulses are fettered, and
which therefore feels a void no sensual pleasures can
fill ?

A second class who apparently must have gained by
the exchange were all the older workmen, whose income
188 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

had been increased by the equal distribution. I had
expected to find them content; but here, too, I found
myself mistaken. What they had gained was far below
their anticipations. People had again calculated accord-
ing to appearances and kept their pencils in their pock-
ets. They had forgotten that glitter dazzles and appear-
ances deceive ; that large sums, divided by large sums,
give but small quotients. If, instead of judging by the
eyesight, they had reckoned with figures—and figures
were not inaccessible to them—they would have per-
ceived that their gain would be so small that every cri-
sis, every fluctuation, every diminution in production,
would lose it again. True, equalization had bestowed a
larger sum than would have been the case a century be-
fore, because wealth and capital had increased; but this
increasing wealth had occasioned an increasing demand
for work, and this increasing demand had raised wages.
Had socialization occurred a century before, every work-
man would have received a much smaller income than
he earned as his daily wages before the change. And if
the old order of things had remained until the present
time, daily wages, in a few decades, would have exceeded
. the average modern income. Now, working-men have
not only made any improvement in their condition im-
possible, but they have rendered their position worse in
the exact proportion that the diminution of socialistic
. production, the mistakes of the Government, the lessen-
ing of the stimulus to labor, the deterioration of goods
—apart from all perils to society—restricted the number
of their pleasures. And all this was purchased at the
cost of personal liberty. Man in the socialistic State has
become a slave. Though society alone is ruler he is
still a slave, because he has no free will, free decision,
free movement. Every worm that creeps upon the earth
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 189

is a higher creature than he, for whether it turns to the
right or to the left its own will directs its movements.
Whether all laboring men understand their barter I can-
not say, and am yet in doubt. But in many instances
I could see that they had become aware of the bad bar-
gain they had made, and that a vague suspicion had
arisen in the minds of the great majority. So it was
perfectly natural that, in these circles also, I found no
unmixed pleasure.

With the exception of the laboring class formerly
most poorly paid and the young people just entering
upon an active career, there was not a soul in this brill-
iantly described Castle of Indolence who had not lost,
in addition to liberty and independence, many beauti-
ful pleasures. There was undoubtedly a minority, who
might have been the happiest of all if they could have
had the comfort of knowing that their sacrifices had
purchased peace and happiness for mankind. But where
was happiness, where was peace in this world? The
feeling of happiness cannot pervade a soul which is not
filled with the consciousness that it guides its own des-
tiny, and peace cannot dwell in a breast whose strongest
impulses, the use of the will, the desire for gain, the
strife for property, are fettered.

How different were the people described by Mr. Bel-
lamy! Envy was to have vanished with property!
But those who did not manage their incomes economi-
cally envied others who did. Those who squandered
their substance in amusements envied the steady, sensi-
ble people who knew how to maintain a comfortable
home. Political and religious dissension was to have
ceased! But everybody was at war with a Government
‘which had an impossible task to perform, and with the
abolition of all aspiration, with release from anxiety,
190 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

and the extinction of all individual interests, the incli-
nation to religious investigation had awakened in many
minds, and with the unconquerable desire to seek some-
thing to fill the deep void in the soul, the old tendency
to sectarianism began to spread. This very Utopia had
become a hot-bed of religious hatred and intolerance.
So there was no cause to wonder that I found no trace
of satisfaction and joy. And little as the void existing
in every heart gave rise to these feelings, the confusion
everywhere existing afforded still less occasion for them.
In this respect also no deception was possible, since I had
so many proofs that Mr. Bellamy did not stick closely
to facts. That with the immense diversity with which
all the useful treasures of the world are scattered over
the earth according to the variations of soil and climate ;
with the infinite multiplicity of objects whose enjoy-
ment constitutes the existence of civilized life; with
the incredible number of arrangements which are nec-
essary in order to obtain all these things at the right
time—that this whole sum of labor, whose extent almost
exceeds the power or imagination, should be directed
and managed by mere human foresight and human abil-
ity from a single place was so foolish that I could not
help being amazed that I had cherished a single doubt
concerning the fact for an instant. The business inter-
course of society, as it existed before the interference of
social democracy, was a creation of far too much mag-
nitude not to reveal the ruling hand of a higher power,
and if human intelligence deemed itself wise enough
to regulate this mysterious movement like a clock or a
machine, it only showed that innate arrogant ignorance
which neither angel nor God can illumine.

The real marvel in the mechanism of the former so-
cial system consisted in the fact that a vast multitude
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 191

of laborers, scattered over the whole earth, not one of
whom was consciously pursuing any other aim than that
of satisfying his own needs, nevertheless in a certain
sense formed a whole, that in every quarter of the globe
a table was spread for men, from which they could
choose according to their taste, so far as they had the
means to purchase. Every task was the work of an
individual will, but no will considered any other object
than a purely personal one. Yet this multiplication of
apparently independent tasks produced, as a total result,
the ability to purchase in the South the products of the
North, and in the North what the sun of the South had
created ; that where men had thronged in far greater
numbers than the soil could feed, a sufficient supply
of provisions was attainable; that in the incessant
circulation, the production and use, the buying and
selling, new powers were produced in the form of cap-
ital, by which, in the same way, the productions of
labor and the purchasing ability of men constantly in-
creased.

To make these individual tasks of men the common
work of the human race, Nature had used special means.
She had implanted in their hearts the love of prosperity
and the desire for gain. She had awakened in every
one the disposition to strive to obtain a high price for
his own wares, while he secured those of others at a
low one; and, by creating a strife between buyers and
sellers, had caused the relation of supply and demand
to so fix the value of work that labor should go where
its value was highest; that, obeying in a certain sense
the law of gravity, productions went where there was
a deficiency, and shunned the places where there was
superabundance. And at the same time she had made
men accustomed to use, in buying and selling, money
192 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

as a tool which rendered every exchange of their pro-
ductions possible.

But society was still in the process of growing. It
had sprung from small seeds, and its increase was beset
with difficulties. Men had interfered with Mother Nat-
ure’s work by war and destruction, by the restriction
of the rights of property, by fettering the impulse
of gain, by obstructions in the interchange of commod-
ities, and their folly rendered it impossible for her, in
thousands of years, to provide all with sufficient pur-
chasing power. At first few were rich; yet spite of all
the interruptions of folly, the number of those who were
prosperous continually increased, and this rapid growth
showed that the future of society would develop still
more happily. But envy and malice dimmed the eyes
of men, and would not let them perceive that the wealth
of individuals contained the condition of diffusing pros-
perity elsewhere, and wealth itself, according to the fate
of all things earthly, was subject to the process of grad-
ual growth. It roused their displeasure to see the mi-
nority fare better than the majority, and they resolved
to transform at one blow this growing society into a
completed one.

And how have men endeavored to attain this? By a
very summary process. They have thrust Mother Nat-
ure from her throne and put social democracy in her
exalted seat. The law of value, that is, has been flung
into the waste-paper basket, the tool of traffic has been
walled up in vaults, and love of property and desire for
gain have been withdrawn from men. From this time
forth the sole ruler was human intelligence, which dis-
dained such wretched aid.

Will the reader believe that I did not find socialized
society in a condition of perfection? That human in-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 193

tellect on the throne of Nature was not free from error?
In truth, many things were going wrong. Articles peo-
ple desired to buy were frequently not to be found,
and those they did find did not always suit their tastes.
Things whose manufacture required accuracy were often
very tolerable, except that the work lacked precision.
Perishable articles frequently showed plainly that they
had been originally of excellent quality, and would still
be if they had received proper treatment. Where meat
was wanted it frequently could not be had, and where it
was not desired there was a superabundance. °

But I needed only to look around the workshops to
convince myself that it would have been impossible for
even the most capable management, endowed with the
gift of omniscience, to have everything in the right pro-
portion, the right quality, and at the right place. The
organization of the work was probably faultless. The
strictest regulations determined the intercourse of offi-
cials, and the closest watch was maintained to insure
that every one kept within the limits assigned and that
no one exceeded his powers. But the fact that it was
necessary to create such an organization, that each in-
dividual official had to follow, not the inspiration of the
moment, but the regulations imposed upon him, that a
fixed rule governed every occurrence, often occasioned
disturbances which were out of harmony with the nat-
ure of the production.

I found the manufactories the best organized of all
business pursuits. Government control is better adapt-
ed to this sphere of labor than to any other. Here ma-
chinery, with its regularity, is the guiding power, and
the whole work has to undergo the fewest interrup-
tions. But here, too, the equality of compensation was
an unconquerable evil influence in the quality and ex-

13
194 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

tent of the work. Though a manufactory can be kept
running with comparative ease, its products are first of
all dependent upon the mental powers, which have a by
no means easy and very responsible task in selecting the
fabrics to be made, securing the raw material, and direct-
ing the labor. To manage the laboring force satisfac-
torily had not always been easy, even during the former
method of production. An effort was made to secure
workmen by associating their personal interest with the
prosperity of the business. But personal interests had
no existence in the socialistic State, and it seemed only
natural that superintendents and minor officials who,
spite of their wider range of work, were on precisely
the same footing as the rest of the men, should not take
the responsibility in the most careful way, or exert their
powers to the utmost. This evil was most apparent in
’ the machine shops, where the utility of the articles man-
ufactured most largely depends upon the mental power
of the manager. Here the detriment was most visible,
and I often had an opportunity to see and hear that
machines of all kinds had greatly deteriorated in light-
ness of running and in development of power.

But manufacturing is only a small portion of the
whole department of labor. Every other kind of in-
dustry lacks the regularity with which machinery car-
ries on the course of work, and therefore is much less
suited to be directed from a certain place according to
universal rules. All personal services, the whole trans-
portation of materials and products, all special arrange-
ments of work which are dependent upon the trans-
portation of goods, such as loading and unloading,
delivering, storing, and keeping, cannot be regulated by
orders issued, but must be governed by the needs which
arise. To force them all into the mould of a normal .
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 195

working-day could be planned only by persons ignorant
of their nature and purpose. Therefore, I could feel no
surprise at finding in every such department of work
the most incredible confusion. All economy in utiliz-
ing power was lacking. There was an extravagant ex-
penditure of time and labor, which made the Chancel-
lor’s statement that the combined industry of the human
race no longer afforded the same amount of pleasure
only too intelligible.

But the farming! This was the department of in-
dustry specially recommended to my notice. Why had
Mr. Bellamy skipped over this remarkably important
branch of production with such incredible ease? Evi-
dently because he knew nothing about farming and had
no idea of the difficulties with which it has to contend,
or to what degree the variety of circumstances and the
frequency of disturbances prevent the regularity with-
out which fixed rules cannot be obeyed.

Ido not deny that I have seen little to commend dur-
ing my expeditions. Everywhere the effort was being |
made to consolidate small enterprises into large ones,
and to establish in large ones the rules of theory and
science. Why should not this be done? Even in for-—
mer days the larger extents of country were farmed from
a central point. Even in former days the management
of estates had sometimes been confided to a person who
was neither the owner nor the tenant, but who found in
the sense of duty the motive power of industry.

And such management had often been admirable and
brought to the idle owners a large revenue. But only
a small portion of the cultivated plains of our native
country were farmed on a large scale ; of this small por-
tion few estates were managed by stewards, and fewer
still brought in a net profit. The great majority were
196 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

under the master’s own eye, and self-interest had dic-
tated the management, improvements, and economies.
Self-interest had stimulated the owner to adapt powers
and faculties to the qualities of the soil. What was more
natural than that I should not find in socialistic agri-
culture that minute care in the expenditure of strength
and the use of means which self-interest had formerly
commanded ?

As I have said, I found much that was good in the agri-
cultural system. There were many capable men among
the managing officials, and most of them endeavored to
distinguish themselves by excellent work. Their posi-
tion depended upon this, for none of them would have
liked to be degraded to the rank of a laborer. To pro-
duce the largest quantities of grain, to send a great deal
of milk or butter to the markets, to furnish the butchers
with the finest fatted cattle, was the ambition I found
everywhere, and my examination of account-books con-
vineed me that the land produced as much as could be
expected, taking into consideration the quality of the
soil, the climate, and the weather. But the business was
made very easy for the managers because none of them
had to contend with any difficulties in obtaining help.
No one had a penny to expend for wages, manure, ma-
chines, agricultural implements, ete. The source which
had to provide for everything gave them what they re-
quired. Whether the revenue equalled the expenditures
was no concern of theirs. There was only a rough esti-
mate of receipts, no net profits, and no one was in a po-
sition to calculate whether an estimate of receipts and
expenditures would show a balance which could be con-
sidered as a profit on the enterprise.

I, too, found it impossible to make a calculation of the
gain derived from agriculture. I could see in the books
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 197

how many bushels of grain, how much milk and butter,
how many cattle had been delivered; I could learn how
many days’ labor had been expended, and what amount
of raw material, machines, etc., had been used; but I
lacked data by which to estimate values. I could caleu-
late from the credit cards the value of a day’s labor, but
to fix the value of everything used in agriculture would
scarcely have been possible. These things did not enter
into the account, and had an attempt been made to
ascertain the price, according to the work spent upon
them, agriculture would have fared too well or too ill—
too well, in so far as that the help of capital could not
be estimated; too ill, in so far as that labor under the
socialistic method was by no means too energetically
carried on.

“Farming is a special affair now,” said one manager,
who was not over-scrupulous. “It is hard or easy, ac-
cording to our way of taking it. Hard, because we are
subjected to constant control; easy, because we don’t
have to inquire about the expenses. Any manager
would be a simpleton who permitted the Board of In-
spectors to find anything which resembled disorder and
afforded occasion for censure in the report. True, these
gentlemen fare badly in this respect, for if they find
nothing amiss to report, their superiors think they did
not keep their eyes open. But, thank Heaven, we can
arrange to have the necessary number of laborers at any
moment, and need not rack our brains about getting

time for less important matters. We provide ourselves
with so large a force of laborers for every season that
we can never have any lack.”

“But you must often be troubled to find occupation
for all these hands.”

“The workmen relieve us of that difficulty. We find
198 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

no fault if they spare their strength in less hurried
times, and they soon perceive that we are glad if the
don’t over-fatigue themselves. Nor is it difficult for us
to keep our lands in good condition. Niggardliness in
teams would be great folly, and too lavish use of corn—
which would be unwise, because it would lessen the
amount of the supply of grain on which our reputation
depends—we avoid by using artificial food. We never
trouble ourselves about horses, machines, or agricultural
implements which have any trifling defect. They are
simply rejected and replaced with new ones. The cat-
tle kept for breeding are the very best—the Government
_ must furnish them—and we pour out all the money we
can get hold of on chemical fertilizers. Such farming
is interesting, but one must ponder over it. The rule is:
Don’t let your neighbors outdo you in production.”
Aye, such a system of farming may well be interest-
ing. I was not so fortunately situated when, in my
young days, I managed an estate, and it was still less easy
when I conducted my farming with my own capital. I
was forced to accommodate myself to circumstances, and
should have fared badly had I not directed all my skill
and care to making receipts and expenses balance. It
was very evident that such a system of management
could not fail to awaken the Chancellor’s anxiety, and I
did not need to ponder concerning the reason that farm-
ing absorbed so much of the industrial force. Lack of
economy, waste of time, and waste of material were the
reasons that production and receipts stood in unhealthy
relations. But it was not so easy a matter to find the
remedy.
Within a few weeks my second task was also com-
pleted, and I could only wonder that the solution of the
riddle had not occurred to me at once. “Many a one
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 199

has mickle care to raise a flock of poultry rare,” runs an
old song. But where were the “many” who could under-
take this care? More than five million farms had been
given up. The majority of these had had their own
poultry-yards, and, besides, there were countless places
outside of the farming districts where “mickle care”
had been devoted to raising poultry. The little farms
had been consolidated into large ones, and each had its
poultry-yard. But the number of the flocks of poultry
was everywhere regulated by the size of the poultry-
yards, and the latter could not possibly contain a tithe
of the hens, ducks, geese, etc., which had formerly been
raised on the multitude of small farms. Yet it was not
possible to raise poultry without spacious poultry-yards,
because they must have room to move about, and do not
thrive in constant confinement.

There had been some discussion concerning the fea-
sibility of devoting large tracts of land to poultry raising,
but the nature of hens and the value of the soil for pro-
ducing crops were obstacles. Successful as man has
been in taming poultry, it has been impossible to over
come certain traits of wilfulness. They do not only need
space in which to move, but also room to peck grass,
scratch, and hunt for worms, and these things, which are
absolutely necessary for their welfare, require an amount
of space which, if devoted to any kind of grain, would
yield far more profit than all the eggs a hen can lay dur-
ing the year. The latter, moreover, requires care and no
small amount of food.

So it was a perfectly natural consequence of the ap-
propriation of the land by the Government that a by no
means inconsiderable branch of production had dwindled
to a very insignificant one. No doubt a substitute for
the meat of poultry could be obtained, but not for the
200 MR. FREDERICK EAST’ EXPERIENCES

egg, and the egg is of the utmost importance in the food
of the population.

There had never been any statistics in former times
concerning the production of eggs, but people can
scarcely be mistaken in estimating their value at hun-
dreds of millions. And these large sums, moreover, were
obtained in a certain sense without labor, for the labor of
caring for poultry was not taken into account. There
was no regular day’s work about it, and whoever under-
took the business did so for the sake of the profit, and
without fear of the toil.

The absorption of production by the Government was
also the cause of the loss of honey. This, too, represented
a considerable value, was useful for many purposes, and
could be obtained in large quantities, because there was
no lack of persons to whom a profitable employment of
time was not undesirable, and who certainly did not re-
linquish with pleasure an avocation which yielded them
a profit in addition to their regular calling.

How large a laboring force had been taken from the
human race by the appropriation of the land! In all
these millions of small farming industries a great deal of
work had been done which, in a certain sense, was addi-
tional. The great number of persons who lived by sup-
plying cartage devoted their land to the purpose of rais-
ing food and grain, and took no notice of the labor which
it cost them. The work was done, as it were, during un-
occupied time, or night was sometimes turned into day.
These people had more interest in carrying on their
farming than in the far-famed blessings of the normal
day’s work. Their farming was a source of profit, and
the labor which created the profit was a source of pleas-
ure. And how many people who worked for daily wages
had their little farms, which gave them much additional
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 201

support, and were tilled in leisure hours or by their
wives and children. They found happiness and content-
ment in them, and the simplicity of their mode of life,
the healthfulness of the occupation, were refreshing to

_mind and body. The socialization of society has re-
moved all these sources of pleasure, and by depriving
many millions of lives of the most useful stimulus—the
consciousness of liberty and a beautiful source of enjoy-
ment—it has robbed agriculture of its best strength, for
which the dulness of the regulation day’s labor affords
no compensation.

I had performed my task in so far that I had discov-
ered the sources of the evils which were causing the
Chancellor so much anxiety. But more was still re-
quired of me, and concerning these points I vainly
racked my brains. I was to give suggestions for a
remedy, and found nothing to furnish the smallest hint
of one. Could I propose that the Government should
vouchsafe to put the whole cargo of socialism on a ship,
and despatch it under a full head of steam to the land
of fools?

The advice might not have been entirely safe, for Gov-
ernment methods must not be made ridiculous, and I
could not imagine that people in the socialistic com-
munity were wholly free from sensitiveness. But it
would not even have showed great wisdom, for the plan
would only have conjured up fresh disaster. Had the
Government desired to restore property to private hands,
people could not have agreed concerning land, houses,
workshops, ships, or railroads.

Or should I recommend to the Government to divide
the land into shares, and leave every one to obtain his
or her own support? This would have been still worse,
for there was not land enough for half the people, and
202 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

its distance from the place where they worked would
have been too great for the majority. Or should agri-
culture be carried on by private enterprise and every-
thing else be managed on the socialistic system? This
would have led to warfare between the inhabitants of
town and country. Business would have been conducted
partly on the basis of money, partly on that of credit
cards, and there would have been no end of quarrelling.

No matter how much I tortured my poor brains, I
could find no expedient to suggest. It seemed to be the
curse of socialism that its defects were irremediable.
Like all things earthly, it is oppressed with evils, but if
there is no escape from these evils the whole system of
society must break down.

Hitherto I had contented myself with forwarding
from time to time reports in which I merely stated what
places I had visited, and what matters’ had seemed to
me specially worthy of note in my investigations. My
opinions and suggestions of improvement were to be
embodied in the final report, and my only comfort was
that the time for it was still tolerably far in the future.
But the more this distance daily diminished, the more
uncomfortable I felt.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 203

CHAPTER IX.

A HAPPY EVENT AND A BIT OF BAD NEWS.

Durie the latter half of January there was a brief
interruption in my travels. An invitation from Sister
Martha to attend her—wedding, induced me to ask leave
of absence for a few days and return to my lodgings in
Berlin.

The matter was not wholly unexpected, as I had main-
tained a constant correspondence with her. Shortly after
my departure early in December she had received from
Albert Croner a letter which suggested this result.

The young man, after severe toils and conflicts, had
at last conquered. He had traversed all Asia in quest of
a position that suited his qualifications. Now here, now
there, a glimmer of hope had shone upon him, but the race
jealousy of the natives and the intrigues of foreign ad-
venturers had always destroyed his prospects. Scarcely
did he obtain a situation where he hoped to make his
abilities valuable, ere he found himself crowded out
again, and he had gone from country to country, sup-
porting himself by arduous daily toil. Amid all calami-
ties and deprivations one ardent passion had sustained
him. His soul was filled with rapture when his bright
hopes turned to the dear object of his love in his dis-
tant native country. Since he had tested her heroic
character, her gigantic power of self-sacrifice, the glow-
ing warmth of affection had been fanned to a consum-
ing flame which urged him on in restless strife. He
204 . MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

seemed to himself like some fairy prince, who must
force a passage through a thorny forest to a sleeping
princess and a royal crown.

After years of wandering he had at last won the
friendship of an Englishman, who, having settled in
Japan, was taking a journey through the western dis-
tricts to establish connections for a large manufactur
ing enterprise in which he was a partner. This prac-
tical man soon recognized the admirable abilities of
the engineer, and justly appreciating how valuable his
energetic nature, wealth of knowledge, and honest mind
would be in the business, he had persuaded him to turn
his steps to Japan, and, with a letter of recommendation
from him, seek employment in the great establishment.
Albert had not been reluctant to yield to his persua-
sions, and after several years’ work in the business had
had the good-fortune to be offered the position of man-
ager and a share in the profits. He had now reached
the goal of his desires, and for the first time penned a
letter to the woman he loved. He described to her all
that he had endured and suffered, told her that he had
at last gained an assured position, and asked whether she
who was so dear to him would share, in a land so far
from her native country, a life which, with her, would
be one of happiness, without her only a sea of pain and
grief.

Sister Martha did not delay her answer. Directly
after receiving his letter she flashed to him, with the
lightning speed of the telegraph, the brief words: “I
will go with you to any spot in the world where I can
be your wife.” A few hours later she had a reply, in-
forming her that her lover had set out to secure his
jewel.

Albert Croner had now arrived. His time was short,
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 205

and the wedding was to take place as soon as possible.
With the exception of myself and a few school friends
of the couple, no one was invited save the Hormanns,
Herr Hormann’s sister, and Herr Biichner. I had ex-
pected the event, and it had been a delightful thought
that two such noble natures were to be rewarded for
their virtues in this desolate world.

Yet when I entered a train to go to the ceremony my
heartfelt joy was blended with deep sorrow. This happy
event was robbing me of my dearest friend, the only
creature in this new world to whom I fet bound by any
tie. The sense of happiness which stole over me when,
after a long withdrawal from life I found myself for the
first time in this new epoch, had given place to contra-
dictory emotions. JI saw myself transported to a world of
human beings who labored, fed, and clothed themselves,
jested and danced like human beings, but were robbed
by their social system of all those loftier motives which
make men really men. Existence was narrowed, life
purposeless. How should I endure existence in this
society after losing my only friend? And yet how
happy a dispensation of Providence I must regard the
fate which removed two human beings, so nobly gifted,
from a sphere which denied them the exercise of their
brightest virtues. After Herr Biichner and I had ac-
companied the young couple to the magistrate’s office,
we went to a casino, where in one room stood a table
covered with pretty wedding gifts, and in another a little
supper was spread.

The union of the pair for life was a ‘charming cere-
mony to witness. Albert, with a look of pride, stand-
ing by the side of the bride he had won by such arduous
struggles, and she smiling happily, though tears often
glittered on her cheeks as she thought of bidding fare-
206 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

well to the places and people she most warmly loved.
He, the living embodiment of German vigor, for whom
the socialized country had become too narrow; she, the
sweet incarnation of German love, whose moral nature
socialism knew not how to value. None of those present
could help being deeply stirred by such a ceremony.
Everybody was both joyful and sad. When, late in the
afternoon, we accompanied the newly- wedded pair to
the station—they were going to Hamburg, whence they
were to sail the next morning —even we men found it
difficult to restrain our tears. “May God’s blessing go
with you from the land which shuts out German strength
and German love!” I cried. “Teach foreign nations to
honor the virtues which were once the pride of every
German.”

I gazed after the train long after it had vanished; I
took no heed of what was passing around me. The
Hormanns had quietly retired, probably because the
formality of taking leave would have been too hard for
them. Herr Biichner came up and slipped his hand
through my arm.

“T think there will be no more work done to-day,” he
said, in his pleasant, cordial manner. “If we sit alone in
our offices all these things will stir our hearts and our
heads will not grow cool. It will be better for us to
spend this evening together.”

“T think so too,” I replied. “I should have the queer-
est fancies if I were left to my own thoughts to-night.”

“Well, then, Pl make you a proposal: The Philo-
mathic Society meets at eight o’clock, and that will afford
us the best possible diversion. Let us take a roundabout
way to my house, where I expect some important papers;
then we’ll find an hour’s time to get a cup of coffee i in
some restaurant.”
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 207

He took my arm, and we set off. On our way he
told me about this Philomathiec Society. It had been
formed three years before, and its members met on a ©
certain evening every week. It consisted principally of
men of science, professors, teachers, physicians, higher
officials, etc. The purpose of the society was to relieve,
by the discussion of general scientific questions, the dul-
ness into which intellectual life had fallen in the social-
istic community.

The intention was less to get material for conversa-
tion, by carefully-prepared essays, than to have a free
discussion of any topics chance might furnish. If the
talk turned upon any subject relating to a department of
knowledge comparatively unfamiliar, the president was
authorized, in compliance with the wish of the assembly,
_ to appoint some one competent to deal with it.

Herr Bichner spoke with great interest of this society,
which afforded him many an hour’s diversion, and as-
sured me that it would greet me as a guest with much
pleasure. What could have been more welcome to me
for this evening ?

I gratefully accepted the offer of introducing me into
the society, and, engaged in pleasant conversation, we
strolled through the streets. After a long circuit we
reached the Bureau of Statistics, where Herr Biichner
wished to settle some little matters of business. I took
an arm-chair, while he glanced through several docu-
ments.

Scarcely had he finished when his eye fell on a
small note which had been hidden under other papers.
With a look of surprise he tore it open, and I noticed
that, as he read the contents, his face wore an expres-
sion of intense amazement. In perfect silence, though
he looked very much excited, he handed me the sheet.
208 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

The note was in the Chancellor’s hand, and after I had
managed to decipher the unfamiliar scrawl a feeling of
terror seized upon me. The hasty words were:

“My pear Boucuner,—I should like to see you a few
minutes early to-morrow morning. Strange news has
arrived. A general war has broken out in Central Asia,
and seems to be involving all countries and races. Our
ambassador urgently entreats us to send no more goods,
and to recall those already despatched.”

So what the Chancellor had feared weeks since as a
crushing blow had happened. We remained in helpless
silence. Herr Biichner paced restlessly up and down
the room, and it was long ere he could give utterance to
his perplexity and grief.

“Now the social democratic gentry will reap what
they have sowed !” he suddenly exclaimed. “This is a
fine piece of business! One would not have supposed
such folly possible! To establish in a densely peopled
country, which can get neither bite nor sup without a
colossal importation of food, a social system which
leaves it helpless as soon as exportation is cut off! From
blind hatred of innocent capital they rage against what
constituted their own wealth. It’s just about as sensible
as though a millionaire threw all his money out of the
window when he had neither bread nor meat in his
house.”

Since my conversation with the Chancellor, I had
clearly perceived what serious results might follow any
interruption of the commercial relations with Central
Asia. But my temperament would not permit me to
admit instantly the utter hopelessness of affairs. Men
and nations have too frequently found means of escape
' IN MR. BELLAMY’S° WORLD. 209

‘from the worst dilemma, and recalling many such in-
cidents in my own life, as well as in history, I could not
believe that in this instance a crisis would actually make
the heavens fall. It was a trait of my character that,
even in cases where I was myself no less painfully af-
fected than others, I felt an unconquerable desire to.
offer consolation. I therefore alluded to the terrible
penury from which Germany suffered during the French
invasion early in the nineteenth century, and which at
the end of a few decades was followed by a period of
remarkable prosperity.

“But did the Germans have a social democratic Gov-
ernment at that time?” he asked.

“Certainly not,” I replied, “but the war had robbed
people very heavily. The farmers suffered from a
scarcity of cattle and seed, and manufactures and com-
merce were paralyzed.”

“But the people still had capital, no matter how much
it had diminished,” he answered. “And this remnant
of capital helped them to sow the fields, raise cattle, and
set the wheels of trade once more in motion. Where
but a glimmer of this force lingers, it can quickly
gather strength and diffuse blessings and prosperity.
Nothing produces nothing, and men will hardly find
means to create treasures by labor so long as they lack
any possibility of furnishing the hungry with bread and
meat.” F

“But only a part of the nation’s food supply would
be lost. A certain amount of this can be made good
by wise economy, and what is still lacking the agricult-
ural countries would doubtless give on credit.”

“Ha! ha! ha!” the old man suddenly shouted.
“The agricultural countries furnish anything on credit!
They are all as poor as church mice. They will lack

4
tp

210 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

coats, hosiery, shirts, garments, etc., if they can’t get
rid of their superfluous grain, and if they were to give
us their grain on credit they would be forced to dis-
pense with the necessaries of life. Besides—” and
pausing in his restless pacing up and down the room
he gazed at me with dilated eyes— “how should we
pay them for what they loan us?”

“Why, we would gradually pay our debts with the
increased productions of our factories.”

But Herr Biichner grew still more excited.

‘The increased productions of our factories! Where,
if I may ask, are we to obtain these increased produc-
tious?”

“Would a manufacturing nation be unable to pro-
duce anything which would be gladly purchased in an
agricultural country ?”

“Explain yourself a little more clearly, my dear fel-
low. Cotton goods? Ready-made shirts? Woollens
for men and women? Ready-made garments? Stock-
ings? Silks? Beer? Paper? Chemicals? Bags or
other jute goods? All these things require raw materials.
We need wool, silk, jute, barley, rags, aud Heaven knows
what, to manufacture them. How are we to buy all
these materials ?”

“Well, I by no means fail to perceive the difficulties.
But, after all, the result will be the same as before.
We shall exchange manufactured products for these
raw materials.”

“Tt’s all very well to talk about exchanging when we
no longer know wkere to find the goods whose sale will
protect us from famine. Don’t you see that we must
give up to the agricultural countries whatever they can
use, even if the supply is over abundant? Don’t you
perceive that all other manufacturing countries must do
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 211

the same? That all the products of our factories will
be as cheap as blackberries? And if we are obliged to
use a much larger quantity of goods for the purchase of
provisions, how much will be left to buy raw materials?
And if we are compelled to restrict ourselves in the
purchase of raw materials, where, next year, are we to
obtain manufactured products to barter for food and
raw materials? We shall have an increased lack of raw
material, and, as a consequence, an increased deficiency
in the supply of manufactured products. And so it
will go on like an avalanche.”

“True,” I was forced to admit, “in that case the
Chancellor’s prediction will be verified. Then we shall
be in the position of having the Government unable to
give the people employment, and lack of work will cause
starvation and freezing.”

At heart I was no less aware of the hopelessness of
the situation than he. Only the desire to cheer him a
little in his depression, and a vague feeling that possibly
some hidden means of safety might yet be found, had
urged me to oppose his views. Even now I could not
resist the desire to clutch at a straw or anything else
which could serve as a possible aid.

“Tt is indeed a bad state of affairs,” I added. “But
what is the use of constantly conjuring up visions of
ruin? Many a man has despaired who, contrary to his
anticipations, has afterwards had the happiest life. The
destinies of nations are also subject to change, and many
a people, once crushed and desolate, has attained power
and greatness. How nobly our own native land has often
risen after violent storms !”

“My dear fellow,” replied Herr Biichner, an expres-
sion of deep melancholy clouding his eyes, usually so
sparkling, “the circumstances were entirely different,
212 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

Then people lived according to the laws of nature. No
law, no command, prevented them from accumulating
property, and their desire for gain led them to increase
what they possessed. At first only a few succeeded, but
everything gained aided, in its quality of capital, in the
acquisition of more capital, and thus formed a working
power for society which rendered the permanent in-
crease of production possible and diffused wider pros-
perity. However strongly the owners of property en-
deavored to hold and to augment their possessions, all
their selfishness could not prevent the capital-making
power of these possessions and their own increasing
wants from benefiting the productions of all the labor
of society. But have we now a society in which the
germs of wealth, capable by constant increase of spread-
ing over larger districts, can develop? This equalization
and envy of all property prevent the greater intelligence,
greater talents, and greater power of the individual from
being useful to mankind by unusual achievements.”

During this conversation time had vanished, and just
as Herr Biichner finished his sentence the clock in the
room struck eight, the hour when the society met.

“We are forgetting the time,” he said. “ We will not
depress our spirits further. The outcome has long been
no secret, and all our talking can be of no service.”

His face assumed its former cheerful expression as,
‘taking my arm, we walked swiftly to the meeting of the
Philomathic Society.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 918

CHAPTER X.

HOW THE SCHOLARS OF THE SOCIALISTIC STATE REGARD
THE TARIFF SYSTEM OF THE PAST.

We found a large company assembled, and I had the
pleasure of making the acquaintance of many extremely
interesting persons. All the learned professions were
largely represented, and many older gentlemen, who
had formerly belonged to other circles, attended the |
meeting of the society.

The information which Herr Biichner had obtained
from the Chancellor had already reached the assembly,
and had been communicated from lip to lip. Most of
the gentlemen were aware of its importance, and the
future of the Government, as well as the measures to be
adopted, were eagerly discussed.

“Ought we not, in such a situation, to profit by the
same means which people formerly used in critical times
—the protective policy?” asked an old philologist, who
was probably better versed in Greek syntax than in polit-
ical economy.

“Ha! ha! ha!” laughed Herr Biichner, whommeanwhile
had regained his cheerful mood, “ would you offer us a
means of escape by making bread so dear that we should
be disgusted with eating ?”

“Or would you incite the agricultural countries to
make our sales harder by taxing manufactures ?” said
Counsellor Weinbauer. :

A general outburst of mirth followed. Most of those
914 MR. FREDERICK HastT’s EXPERIENCES

present had special knowledge enough to be aware that
protective duties, like all other taxes, were forbidden
things in the socialistic State.

“A policy of protection could not be introduced into
the socialistic world,” said the Professor of History, Dr.
Hergenroth. “But in my opinion, during a crisis such
as is impending to-day, a wise system of protection would
be a remedy not to be despised.”

“That would be a remedy for the crisis similar to giv-
ing Glauber salts for dyspepsia or quinine for buzzing
in the ears!” cried Herr Stillfried, an ex-banker, some-
what abruptly.

“Protective duties have been of no service in either
good or evil days,” said the thin voice of Registrar Heim-
holz.

“ Protective duties have restored prosperity to many
a languishing branch of industry,” retorted the bass
tones of Dr. Monzel.

These were the last coherent words I heard. The
conversation became so general and so animated that all
the voices blended in a medley. After a long time
Professor Hergenroth’s obstinacy gained him a hearing.

“The facts of history by no means show that protec-
tive duties are not useful,” he cried. “ Bismarck saved
the country by their aid during the crisis of 1878.”

“In 1878 the crisis had already passed, and the pro-
tective duties merely conjured up a new one, ha! ha!
ha!” interjected Herr Biichner.

But the irregular debate was now closed. Dr.
Schlempke, a teacher in the gymnasia, tapped on his
beer-glass, and, rising from his chair, said:

“ Gentlemen, the subject under consideration belongs
to the past, and possesses merely a scientific interest.
If any question ever required a discussion by specialists
IN MR. BELLAMY’s WORLD. 915

it is this. I appeal to No. 7 of our statutes, and request
the president to appoint the speaker.”

President. “If the assembly agree to this proposal
(universal assent), it is my duty to seek some one who is
competent to discuss the question of protective duties.
We have the pleasure of seeing among us this evening
our universally esteemed Professor Bergfall, whose com-
prehensive investigations of the system of the customs
duties of the past has won so much approval. I request
the professor to undertake the report of this question.”

The choice was greeted with general applause, and
the professor accepted with thanks the honor bestowed
upon him. A short pause ensued, during which glasses
were filled and cigars were lighted. Then Professor
Bergfall rose.

ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR BERGFALL.

“GrnTLEMEN: You do not desire a long introduction
concerning the nature and purpose of protective duties;
but I may perhaps request your indulgent attention to
a brief one. Only by following the growth of things ©
can we thoroughly understand them.

“ Undoubtedly the protective duties originated in a
laudable purpose. In order to find work for the lower
classes, Governments had endeavored, by fixing high
duties on certain manufactured articles, to keep out
foreign productions, that they might afford home indus-
tries an opportunity to attain technical perfection with-
out the disturbance of competition.

“Tn the course of time this originally simple purpose
became widened, as the mercantile idea that the wealth
of a nation depended upon the amount of its money
gained credence.
916 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIBNCES

“In order to draw money into the country, people
strove to promote the exportation of goods and to pre-
vent importation. For the one object they endeavored
to encourage home industry by the offer of bonuses and
other means, and to attain the other by prohibiting im-
portations and by protective duties. :

“In this idea of the mercantile class we recognize a
child of the Middle Ages. Its father was the narrow-
minded spirit which beheld in every labor of others a
hostile purpose, in every token of others’ prosperity in-
jury to self-interest. Its mother was the petty jealousy
which watches with envy and disapproval every success
of a putative rival. The mediseval man was petty in
every respect. He knew no patriotism save that for
his Church, and the flag of his interests scarcely waved
beyond the confines of his place of residence. With il-
liberal folly, countries, provinces, districts, cities, town
and country stood aloof from one another, and in ac-
cordance with this narrow-mindedness, which would al-
low no perception of the connection of interests, this
mercantile system was also but a symbol of the short-
sightedness which characterized the life of those days.
In the course of my explanations I shall find opportu-
nity to show you the contradictions in which the idea
of this system stands in relation to the true nature of
commercial activity. Even the darkness of the Middle
Ages, however, was dispelled by the golden morning
of knowledge, whose light forced its way into every
sphere, and since the last quarter of the eighteenth
century the rays of investigation have penetrated even
the mysterious organization of the social body. We
have learned to regard the business activity of men as
one great whole, striving with a variety of interests
towards a single goal—that of service to all mankind.
IN MR. BELLAMY’s WORLD. 217

The result accomplished by the infinite amount of labor
which we comprise under the general term ‘ produc-
tion’ does not fulfil its purpose by satisfying the need
of the individual buyer, and cannot escape the higher
object of serving the interest of the consuming world—
the whole people, all mankind. And while production
uses its powers for consumption, consumption returns
the sustenance which enables an extension of its capacity.
Producing and consuming, raising and using, are the
two mutually dependent functions of society which
maintain the life, growth, and prosperity of its wonder-
ful organization. Their reciprocal action causes injury
to one necessarily to injure the other, disturbances in one
necessarily to cause disturbances in the other, which, re-
acting, again paralyze the former and check the develop-
ment of the entire structure. This gradually extending
perception made all efforts to establish a protective tariff
seem to be an error, and during the obstinate conflict
with petty interests, and the narrowness which is the
inevitable attribute of all prejudice, a victorious passage
was forced by the idea of free-trade, which promised to
lead to the increasing welfare of mankind and to peace
among the nations. A few countries had attained com-
plete free-trade, but with the exception of Russia and
the United States, all were striving to abolish the pro-
tective system. .

“These are my introductory remarks concerning the
conflict, from which, by the light-diffusing labor of
science, free-trade arose from the protective system,
as modern civilization came from the Middle Ages.
But, gentlemen, the sole point of interest to modern in-
vestigation, and probably to the honored members of this
society, is the relapse which, from the year 1878, seized
upon all civilized nations with the single exception of
918 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

England. Just in a period of extraordinary progress,
when magnificent discoveries and gigantic industrial
achievements lent international traffic a vigor previously
undreamed of, when a larger number of goods than ever
were striving to obtain a market, and the increase of
production was beginning to make life easier, even in
the lowest classes of society, that abortion of the Middle
Ages suddenly gained a victory, and, as in the days of
the mercantile system, custom-houses were established
on all the frontiers as an aid to traffic, a protection to
the laboring people. The commencement was in our.
own Germany. Were they really an aid? Have they
aided production, increased wealth, or rendered the lives
of men happier ?

“ Nowhere has scientific ahhatts probably had to
contend with greater difficulties than in the department
of political economy. It cannot keep the object it is
examining before the eye on a dissecting-table, cannot
measure, weigh, nor compare it. Currents of all kinds
which obstruct regularity of motion, and a confusion of
minor phenomena whose influence on the whole cannot
be computed, prevent the investigator from tracing
the influence of the factors in all their changes. He is
really referred to the path of deduction, but however
keenly he pursues it, the cases are rare in which he has
any proof to offer to the doubter, the opponent. Con-
fronting such difficulties, we may consider ourselves fort-
unate in being assigned to a department of research
whose simplicity of movement permits us to arrive, with
unequivocal clearness, at a conclusion concerning the
results which ensue when Governments, either by pro-
tective duties or bonuses, interfere with the free move-
ment of trade.

“To follow the thread of investigation undisturbed
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 219

by vague influences through all its windings the famous
Thiinen formerly constructed his Isolated State. We,
however, need no such creation of the imagination for
our examination. We have, in reality, the structure by
which investigator, as well as layman, can in the sim-
plest manner keep the object of examination before the
eyes. This structure is our soczalistic State.

“This socialistic State, in its organic functions, is a
model of simplicity. There is no multiplicity of parts
whose interests are apparently conflicting, no commission
business coming between producer and consumer, no
implements of trade in money whose currents conceal
the movements of goods. The Government itself has
the whole business of production in its own hands. Its
duty is to produce a sufficient quantity of everything
to supply the purchasing power of the inhabitants, and
the multitude of wants it can satisfy affords a just cri-
terion of its performance.

“This socialistic State solves the question of the
basis on which the wealth of nations rests. It gives us
a sure standard by which we can estimate the prosperity
of the nations. We do not ask the amount of money
which is in circulation. or in the banks, the quantity of
interest-bearing notes, the fertility of the soil, nor the
metallic treasures. Our standard is the degree of en-
joyment which the total production of the population
procures, and if we wish to decide which of the so-
cialistic States is the richest, we compare the pleasures
which the inhabitants receive from the production of
the State.

“Let us now imagine, gentlemen, that a fine of five
hundred million marks has been imposed by the inter-
national syndicate upon the Government of our State.
It can raise the sum only by the products which it has
220 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

manufactured for the enjoyment of its inhabitants.
Payment cannot be made except by limiting the pleas-
ures of the whole population, and in order, during this
restriction of pleasures, to put no constraint upon indi-
vidual tastes, it is decided to raise the desired sum by
taxes. Two ways present themselves: the direct and
the indirect tax; and the indirect tax has also a choice
of two methods: it can be raised by revenue taxes or .
protective duties.

“Let us now investigate what consequences would re-
sult to the inhabitants as consumers, and to the State as
producer, according to the adoption of one or the other
of these three ways.

“ Direct taxation is simple and easy. The Govern-
ment commands each of its round fifty million receivers
of credit cards to pay ten marks. The result of this is
that the income of every individual is reduced from
fifteen hundred to fourteen hundred and ninety marks,
and the Government has a quantity of productions
amounting to fifty million times ten marks—that is, to
five hundred million, with which it can pay the fine
imposed. One person has restricted himself in the use
of this article, another in that, but there has been no
other effect upon the consumption or the production of
society.

“Tt would be somewhat less simple and less easy to
raise the amount by revenue taxes—that is, by duties
levied when the goods are placed in the market, but
which impose no sacrifice upon the consumer other than
the tax. It can only be levied upon goods which come
from foreign countries and are not manufactured at
home, or on goods produced at home, when the whole
amount made is affected by it as soon as it passes from
production to consumption. The latter is done, for in-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S -WORLD. 921

_ stance, by a tax on the consumption of sugar, when a-
tax is laid upon all the sugar produced as soon as it
reaches the consumer’s hands from the factory. Let us
suppose that the Government wanted to raise the five
hundred million marks by taxing coffee, tea, rice, and
sugar ; it would increase the original price of these goods
so much that the sale of the quantity which is generally
used by the people would yield the five hundred mill-
ions. The consequence now would be that each person
would be forced to restrict his use of other products in
proportion to the additional sum he was obliged to pay
for coffee, tea, rice, and sugar. The Government, as in
the case of direct taxation, would have at its disposal, in
the goods unused, the five hundred millions to be paid.
The public would lose precisely the same amount as by
direct taxation, and the only visible difference would be
that those who used more of the taxed articles than
others would be more burdened than they.

“We now come to the third case, raising the five hun-
dred millions by protective duties —that is, by duties
on goods which come from foreign countries and are
also produced at home, but which are imposed on the
foreign goods only. The Government determines to
levy on all these things, grain, cattle, meal, butter, articles
of clothing, everything which is important for the main-
tenance of life—a tax which, according to the quan-
tity of goods imported, will produce the sum desired.
By this tax, also, it will obtain possession of the five
hundred millions, but the result will be different. In
the disposal of its products it cannot fix a higher price
upon the imported goods—to whose original cost the
tax must now be added—than upon its own productions.
It cannot exact from the inhabitants who buy, against
their will, a loaf made from Russian wheat, a bit of
222 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

meat from a Hungarian ox, or a garment of English
buckskin, higher prices than are obtained for similar
wares made of German material. So it is compelled to
raise the prices of home products also, unless it is will-
ing to give up the plan of raising the five hundred mill-
ion marks by an advance in prices.

“What will now result? All the inhabitants will buy
what they need at increased rates, and exhaust their
credit cards long before the goods produced have been
exhausted. That is, the consumption by the people would
be restricted to a far greater degree than the amount of
the tax required, and consequently there would be no
sale for a large part of their work. That is, according to
the standard we have previously established, the wealth
of the nation would have lessened, or, in other words, the
people would have grown poorer.

“ Now, gentlemen, with the measures we have sug-
gested, would there be any different result in our so-
cialistic State than that which occurred in the former
society, in consequence of the various systems of taxa-
tion? In one respect, undoubtedly, we must note a
variation. The former Governments expended the sums
raised as taxes, and they flowed back to the people, the
consumers. So we must make a slight correction in
order to have the objects of comparison harmonize. We
can easily do this by supposing that the international
syndicate, meanwhile, had not considered the fine im-
posed justified, and had restored the goods—amounting
in value to five hundred million marks—which had been
delivered. There would then be agreement on this point.
The Government would desire to have the goods used
as a tax restored to the consumers. What would be the
result in the three cases? In all three the Government
would add the ten marks to the amount of the credit
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 223

cards, but in each one this addition would have a differ-
ent effect. For the direct tax, each one would have re-
ceived what he paid. In the revenue tax, those who had
used more of the taxed goods would sustain losses, while
those who had consumed less would reap a profit. In
the system of protective duties not only this loss would
follow, but so far as the duties increased the cost of the
home-made goods, the people would suffer from the last-
ing injury of being restricted in the number of its
pleasures—that is, in its prosperity.

“ You will answer that in the former state of society
the latter injury would not have been inflicted because,
by the increase of prices, a profit would have flowed in to
the producers of the goods, which they would have ex-
pended, thus restoring it to trade. But this objection
would be only partly, not fully established. For apart
from the inequality of distribution—which was not to be
avoided with the irregularity of consumption, in so far as
what was taken from the great majority was given toa few
speculators—the greater portion of what the mass of con-
sumers and some few speculators obtained remained for
a long time, or permanently, withdrawn from the traffic
of the nation. It fell partly into the hands of very rich
people, who did not spend it for useful articles, but
invested it in home or foreign stocks. Thus it was
transformed into capital, which in time would probably
promote the prosperity of the people, but meanwhile
was withdrawn from trade, and if it went to foreign
countries did not even benefit the native land in its
quality of capital. The best characterization of this re-
sult is probably to say that an artificial formation of
capital took the place of the natural one. Circulation
was lessened to obtain more capital, and this occasioned
a disturbance in the course of trade. Instead of leav-
224 MR. FREDERICK. EAST’S EXPERIENCES

ing trade to form amounts of capital in proportion to
its growth, capital was created in amounts which did
not harmonize with the diminished prosperity of the
population. This capital, thus artificially increased in
the pursuit of gain, could only come into competition
with itself, and thereby cause an amount of production
which the purchasing power of the nation could not
equal. This caused an unhealthy fluctuation of prices,
from which nothing suffered more than capital and pro-
duction. We can, by our example, plainly see this effect
of our system of protective duties. The surplus of use-
ful articles caused by the decrease of consumption be-
came,in the hands of the Government, the producer,
additional capital, which forced it to throw on the mar-
ket increased quantities of goods, for which it could find
a sale only at prices which, spite of the intended in-
crease of value by the protective duties, were not in har-
mony with the cost of production.

“ Apart from these objections which I have adduced,
our examples show only the same effects which, under the
natural mode of traffic, appeared in the former system of
society in consequence of the different modes of taxation.
The fact that in those days money effected the transfer
of goods made no change in the result, for the object
of production was the same as in our socialistic State,
namely, to produce pleasures for the human race. Nor
did the fact that production was in the hands of many,
rather than of one, have any influence upon the final
result. At that time the sole aim of production was to
satisfy the purchasing power of the whole population,
and the injurious effect on consumption could affect the
numerous producers of the past in no other way than it
does the single one of our socialistic Government.

“So you see, gentlemen, that among the systems of

‘
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 225

taxation of the past, the protective one was the most
absurd. It caused discord between production and con-
sumption. It will also be clear to you why that
wretched mercantile system, which estimated a nation’s
wealth by the amount of money, was an emanation of
medizval folly. Men did not understand the objects of
human industry, did not understand the reciprocal ac-
tion which production and consumption naturally have
upon each other. People did not perceive that man, in
his work, belongs to the whole human race, not to his
church, his province, and his native land ; that each indi-
vidual has better conditions for a prosperous develop-
ment of his working power in proportion to the greater
prosperity of all humanity; that every barrier of cus-
toms by which, with petty jealousy, one nation sought
to injure fellow nations, must necessarily impose a bar-
rier to the prosperity of its own population.

“Why did the German Government in 1878 again
restore the old, worn-out medieval system? Probably
because the United States and Russia had been caught
by it. But in America,a free nation, ignorant of the
nature of trade, and not understanding its own inter-
est, voluntarily, as the saying goes, allowed itself to be
fleeced by the millionaires, and in Russia the change was
made arbitrarily without any consent given by the peo-
ple. Our statesmen of those days could not possibly
have held the opinion that the voluntarily endured pil-
laging of the people by American millionaires, and the
contempt of justice helplessly endured in the Russian
empire, were to be recommended as model government
arrangements.

“Or was it considered necessary to stimulate the peo-
ple’s work by protective duties? Oh, gentlemen, where
could I find any era in history in which this would have

15
226 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

been less requisite. In Germany, as well as elsewhere,
the most magnificent levers of industry had been set in
motion. The whole system of production was in a con-
dition of feverish activity. Immense amounts of capi-
tal were in the market seeking investment ; inventions
of every description, improved machines, perfection of
all implements of labor, a vast ocean commerce, rail-
roads, and telegraphs in every land, whatever can facili-
tate work was toiling with the utmost zeal. Produc-
tion was in danger of outstripping the wants of men,
and needed the curb rather than the spur. Never had
the world beheld such quantities of goods, and a natural,
healthful fall in prices had begun to pour a rich measure
of enjoyment upon the human race.

“What, then, can have been the cause of the relapse
which, according to scientific judgment, renders that
period so peculiar? History has no satisfactory ex-
planation for it. The secret reasons of the great states-
man who at that day directed with such iron vigor and
such remarkable skill the government of the newly-estab-
lished German empire, are not discernible. It was said
that languishing agriculture and languishing manufact-
ures must be helped. But in what did the languish-
ing consist? Under the influence of over-production
the prices of everything had fallen, and the fall in prices
had lessened the gains of the speculators. The belief
seemed to prevail that the yield of the soil would les-
sen, manufactures and production diminish, if the specu-
lators did not receive a large profit from their capital,
and in order to obtain this for them an effort was made
to raise the price of products by taxes. There was an at-
tempt to force the public to pay more money for bread
and meat, clothing, and implements of labor, in order to
put this money into the pockets of the speculators.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 297

“Was this purpose attained @ Were the speculators
helped? Sometimes, not always. Some, not all. We
have seen by our examples that the policy of protective
duties caused an over-supply of goods, and it is perfect-
ly apparent that consumption cannot be increased if
the articles which the nation consumes are made dearer.
Therefore, it was perfectly natural that protective duties
could at first only injure, not benefit, producers who
were active as speculators. Prices fell still lower, and
it was a fact based on the existing state of affairs that
the decade succeeding the restoration of the policy of
protective duties was a decade of the loudest com-
plaints. Not until after bad crops began to reduce the
quantities of bread and meat, and a comparative limita-
tion of activity had taken place in many branches of
production, did a rise of prices begin, which again favored
speculators. The general blow dealt to the production
of the nation by the policy of protective duties of course
did not prevent individual branches of industry and
individual capitalists from reaping considerable advan-
tages from the protection given to them. But the more
unprejudiced view with which we, from the higher stand-
point of a later period, survey these currents of the past,
does not lead us to regard the business policy of those
days in a light any more favorable than the medieval
mercantile system. But it was much less pardonable,
because it affected a flourishing civilization far more
than the latter did the less developed commerce of a
period which was still struggling with the beginning of
civilized life.

“Its worst effects, however, were on the moral world.
It is always bad for nations when governments them-
selves hurl the firebrand of interests among the masses.
Passions are roused which threaten to destroy all higher
228 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

impulses and to divide the classes of the people into the
most repulsive contrasts. Who would not be overcome
by a feeling of intense sorrow while studying the his-
tory of those years? The Germans had just obtained a
united country. What they had so long sought and de-
sired, though owing to the selfishness of the German
princes it seemed impossible, had at last become reality,
and all races looked with enthusiasm and confidence
to the Hohenzollerns, whose crown appeared to them
the symbol of power and justice. Then the policy of
protective duties destroyed this noble flame. Race ha-
tred and religious hatred blazed forth with class hatred,
and the country so recently united became the arena of
the basest party passions. Capitalists gathered around
the Government, by whose protective duties they ex-
pected to gain treasures without toil, and the poor felt
repulsed by a policy which seemed to them an interfer-
ence with their possessions. Whether the protective
duties could promote the interests of the speculator at
the expense of the consumer in the manner intended,
whether they must not rather conjure up another evil,
was a question which, owing to the conflicts of interests,
could not receive proper consideration. Where financial
interests are at stake the brains of men are clouded by
vague forebodings, which shut out calm judgment and
moral emotions. Had the capitalists of those days, the
great land-owners and the great manufacturers, clearly
perceived how completely their own interests were iden-
tified with those of their consumers, and how little
justice the policy of protective duties could do to
the interests of both, they would scarcely have been
so foolish as to permit, with calm indifference, the
growth of a hatred which was not only directed against
them but was undermining the authority of society,
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 229

the authority of the State, and the authority of the
throne.

“Well, gentlemen, we are tasting the fruits of that
hatred. We are on the eve of a catastrophe which
threatens to ingulf civilization, prosperity, and our-
selves with them. The policy of protective duties has
been the nurse who suckled the infant social democracy
and aided its sturdy growth.

“Tf the Government believed itself entitled to favor
the rich at the expense of the poor, the natural conse-
quence was that the poor claimed the right to take from
the rich enough to secure for themselves a comforta-
ble support. Sensible people can find no satisfaction
in things contradictory to reason, and I shall certainly
meet with no contradiction from you if I term social-
ism a monster of folly. It was foolish to make the State
the manager of production, foolish to rob the individual
of the power of acquiring property, but most foolish of
all to deny men the possession of capital; for this lack
of capital will prove the obstacle which will prevent our
obtaining the necessary food for our people during the
commercial crisis now impending.

“Small causes have often produced great results. Lit-
tle heed was paid to awakening the covetousness of the
rich, but this trivial evil, which probably seemed useful
to some political interest, fostered the ugly passion till
the evil could no longer be conquered. It has always
been the misfortune of nations when Governments saw
the truth too late.”

After Professor Bergfall had finished his address, to
which the assembly listened with the closest attention,
the president rose to thank him in the name of the
society, and at the same time invited the members to
discuss what they had heard. At first no one seemed
230 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

disposed to make any reply, but after a long pause Pro-
fessor Hergenroth, who, as a zealous student of political
history, might not consider his colleague’s views of po-
litical economy decisive, requested permission to say a
few words.

Professor Hergenroth. “I believe, gentlemen, that we
must all agree with the last portion of Professor Berg-
fall’s address. For myself, I have never considered so-
cialism a blessing. Nor have I any theoretical objec-
tions to make to my valued colleague’s explanation of
the various systems of collecting duties.

“ But I think in politics we must make a distinction
between theory and practice. A thing may be theoret-
ically wrong, but of the utmost value in practice. I
believe that, in the situation of affairs then existing, the
protective policy adopted can have been only advan-
tageous to our country. It kept foreign wares from our
frontiers, thereby relieving our own productions from
dangerous competition, while the home manufactures
could go abroad unrestricted. It may have been in-
jurious to the people by raising the price of provisions,
but as it cut off the competition of foreign countries, it
secured to us the opportunity of finding a sale for our
manufactured products, and in this way the whole na-
tion reaped a profit far in excess of the injury inflicted
by the increased cost of food.”

Searcely had Professor Hergenroth sat down when
Herr Bichner sprang from his seat with youthful elas-
ticity, and, in evident excitement, requested a hearing.

Herr Biwchner. “The gentleman who has just spo-
ken appears to have restricted himself too much in his
studies of the history of our native land. Hence he
has failed to perceive the most important point in the
business relations of those days. What Germany did
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 231

to other countries was honestly returned, and the Ger-
man goods which strove to secure buyers in foreign lands
found the same barriers of custom-house duties which
Germany had so amiably erected against those lands.
If the gentleman will have the kindness to study in
statistics the movement of trade of those days, he will
arrive at the totally opposite conclusion that the ready
sale of products he praises by no means occurred. Sta-
tistics rather show stagnation* in the export of manu-
factured products which, with the increased aids of cap-
ital and machinery, could not have taken place, had not
the policy of protective duties rendered it impossible
for Mother Nature to apply her quickly acting remedy.”

Banker Stilifried. “TI should like to confirm, by a
few brief remarks, what Herr Biichner has just stated.
The disproportion between production and consumption
in those days was actually so great that the producers
often found themselves forced to form unions, by whose
means they pledged themselves either to a certain limi-
tation of their production, or to the maintenance of a
fixed price for the sale of their goods; and the latter
plan is nearly equivalent to a limitation of production.
One of the strangest consequences of this cartel was the
effort to keep the price of goods sold at home so high
that it would cover the loss of selling abroad at re-

* It is not necessary to live in the year 2000 to perceive the stagnation
in the sale of our manufactured products after the introduction of the
system of protective duties mentioned by Herr Biichner. It was plainly
visible in the latter part of the eighth decade of the nineteenth century. If
we compare the whole amount of the manufactured goods exported from
Germany during the latter half of this decade with the exportation during
the first half, it will show only an increase by no means in proportion
to the increase of population during this period. This is a crushing
argument against the far-famed benefit of the system of protective

duties.—D. H.
232 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

duced rates those which, owing to the increased produc-
tion, could not be disposed of. This unpatriotic course
would have been possible only under the protection of
the high tariff, and shows in the strongest light the
folly of the policy of protective duties. In this respect
also it will be very useful to us to try to understand
clearly, from Professor Bergfall’s examples, the impor-
tance of this matter to the socialistic State.

“Tf, for instance, our Government has placed a par-
ticularly high price on iron, all who are compelled to
use articles of which iron forms a part would be forced
to restrict other wants in proportion to the additional
cost of the former. The Government would thus retain
unsold a quantity of manufactured products, and the
labor expended on them would have been wasted. If
it had also sold the iron produced for export below the
cost of manufacture, a part of the working strength
would thereby have remained unused which, if devoted
to other purposes, might have been of service to society.
So we have here an arrangement of business which leads
to a twofold waste of labor, and a system of duties
which gives occasion for such practices cannot possibly
cause the enrichment of the people.”

Councillor Weinbauer. “ Professor Bergfall has termed
socialism a folly, and probably we shall all agree that
the appellation is a very happy one. We might try
to apply it also to the system of protective duties, but
I fear that would let the protectionists off too easily.
A fool may be honest and good-natured, wish for the
best, and avoid injuring his fellow-men. The social
democrats, it is true, have not been over-friendly to the
rich, but they have not desired their penury ; they have
merely sought the acquisition of part of their surplus,
leaving them, like everybody else, an endurable life.
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 233

But what the protectionists desired to secure of their
neighbors’ possessions must be principally taken from
the very persons who had no surplus, and must therefore
lose what was requisite for their most urgent needs. It
seems to me that the moral qualities of the protection-
ists are specially obvious in such a comparison.”

Herr Bromfeld, ex-Agriculturist. “It seems to me
that Professor Bergfall has said a great deal about man-
ufactures, but very little concerning languishing agri-
culture. The needy farmers of those times, however,
found it very useful to receive for their grain a price
higher by the amount of the duty than that of foreign
countries.”

Herr Biichner. “I desire to say, on the contrary, that
the protective duty scarcely yielded more profit to the
needy farmer than the collection and sale of cigar ends
affords to orphan children.

“The prosperity of agriculture depends wholly upon
the prosperity of industry, which gives mankind occu-
pation and means to purchase, and it could sustain noth-
ing but injury from a system of duties which, as to-day
has clearly shown, must check the progress of manu-
factures.”

President. “No one else has any remarks to make?
So I have merely to recapitulate briefly what we have
gained as the result of our present meeting. The policy
of protective duties, again adopted in the year 1878, was
a superannuated system, contradictory to the lessons of
science, and in no respect adapted to an epoch which is
under the rule of reason. Its effect has been to deprive
production and consumption of the energy they need,
promote the unhealthful formation of capital, thus caus-
ing an unhealthful spirit of speculation in the province
of production, and thereby obstructing the desirable de-
934 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

velopment of manufacturing. It could not, therefore,
be beneficial to agriculture, and prevented the wealth of
the nation from proving profitable to the lower classes
of the people. I hereby close the meeting, hoping that
there will be an equally numerous attendance at the next
session.”
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 235

CHAPTER XI.

THE END OF SOCIETY.

WHILE we were preparing for departure after the close
of the meeting, several young officials were introduced
to me, and chance ordained that, after the interchange of
‘the first few civilities, I was invited to make the round
of several places of amusement. I had never been averse
to such “rounds,” because I have always enjoyed seeing
a gay throng of people. This evening I had the least
possible reason for refusing, because I actually dreaded
the solitude of my room; so I accepted the proposal with
many: thanks.

We visited a number of places of amusement: beer-
shops, dancing-halls, and similar places; but this time I
did not have the usual gratification of quiet enjoyment.
The present amusement, grief for my lost friend, the
bad news of the evening, and the interesting debate of
the Philomathic Society, weighed heavily on my heart
and brain. ,

Bergfall’s address did not burden my heart least. It
aroused the memory of the saddest time in my life.
- How wonderfully happy I had felt when the German
empire, rising from the battle-fields of France, began
to build a beautiful and noble structure on the basis of
a free legislation! How our nation seemed to have
suddenly escaped from all that was petty and hateful,
while a loftier spirit appeared to animate the breast of
even the humblest citizen. Then, when the revulsion
236 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

occurred so abruptly, how deep was the pang! Those
were the most sorrowful years of my life. Had Ger-
mania really remained the symbol of nobility and beauty?
Had not all striven to drag her into the service of ma-
terial interests ?

This was the bitter question which then bowed me
to the earth, and which now again assailed me! How
the conflict of interests was kindled, class hatred awak-
ened, and party passion roused! All these memories
stirred within me. I now found myself in the midst
of careless mirth, but my soul was oppressed, and my
heart ached with the knowledge that the end of all hap-
piness was so near.

Aye, people danced and jested, caroused and rejoiced,
sang and laughed. Why should they not? The Govy-
ernment had relieved them of all anxieties, and if others
were to think and ponder, strive and calculate, why
~ should they not look forward carelessly to the morrow ?
People consider it to be their right not to have their
cheerfulness shadowed by sorrows and distress. Among
all the horrible things which we have been told con-
cerning the French Revolution, nothing made so indeli-
ble an impression upon me as the fact that, in the Days
of the Terror, when the hapless king’s head fell, and
streams of human blood flowed from the guillotine, gay
Paris sought amusement every evening in twenty-three
theatres, and enjoyed dancing in sixty public halls.
Why should not the people laugh and dance and jest
now, when no guillotine beheaded, and no bloody tri-
bunal sought innocent victims ?

But in the socialistic State, too, Fate moves quickly,
and Care, with gloomy mien, approaches even the most
light-hearted. I had frequent opportunities of talking
with Herr Biichner, and as he was well-informed,
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 237

through his relations with the Government, I always
had the latest news.

The Government had not lost its head, but developed
the utmost energy in the hour of need. Telegrams
were despatched continually in every direction, and
within a few days it received accurate information of
the amount of provisions in store. Active intercourse
was also maintained with foreign countries. Every ef-
fort was made to dispose of all goods which were saleable,
and to get grain and meat in exchange. But spite of
the utmost exertion, too much working-power had been
used in the production of articles for which, hitherto,
there had been an active demand in Central Asia, and
these were needed nowhere else. Harvest time was still
far distant, and no matter how industriously estimates
were made, a blank space remained to represent several
months’ consumption.

Two plans now came up for consideration. Should
they manage to live until the harvest by reducing the
allowance of food to half rations, leaving the rest to the
future, or should the stock now on hand be consumed
and the struggle for life then be abandoned ?

The latter course was deemed base and cowardly. Lit-
tle hope as there might be, the more so because all dense-
ly populated countries were in the same precarious sit-
uation, duty required the helm to be held until the last
moment, because the longer the ground was held the
more chances for the possibility of escape would pre-
sent themselves. The only fear was that it would be ex-
tremely difficult to make the people content to accept a
half-ration of bread, if at the same time the supply of
meat was also reduced one-half, and a second fear was
that the diminished allowance of meat and bread would
cause an increased consumption of potatoes.
238 MR. FREDERIOK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

The best way of meeting the former difficulty was be-
lieved to be to issue bread at least a week old, and, in order
to avoid the second, it was determined to permit only a
certain proportion of potatoes per person to be issued to
all the eating-houses, as well as to individual purchasers.
The necessity for asking the same price for the reduced
rations which had formerly been fixed for the whole
ones could not come under discussion. No doubt was
possible that, with the increased competition of the
manufacturing countries, the purchase of provisions, as
well as of raw materials, could be made only by giving
away larger quantities of manufactured articles, so in
this respect also a certain abstemiousness on the part
of the people must be enjoined. A few days later
the nation was surprised by the following Government
edict:

To the Citizens of Socralistie Germany :

Fettow Crrizens,—A sorrowful fate has overtaken
our nation. ‘The wars which have broken out in our most
important market have destroyed the sale of most of
the products your industry and your labor have manu-
factured for the purchase of our food. There is danger
that the stock of provisions will not last until the begin-
ning of the approaching harvest unless, by wise and time-
ly restriction, the most dangerous evil is checked. We
therefore issue the following orders:

1. Bread and pastry of all kinds will not be delivered
until it is a week old.

2. To each individual of both sexes fixed rations of
bread and meat, amounting to one-half the quantity
hitherto consumed, will be daily delivered. The price
of the rations will be posted in the shops.

3. Potatoes and other varieties of food will be fur-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 239

nished to restaurants, and also for domestic purposes, in
fixed quantities only.

4. This order goes into effect on January 24th.

We lament with you the grievous visitation which
Providence has inflicted upon our people, and expect
that you will endure this severe trial with patience and
submission. Remember the old maxim: “ Calmness is
the first duty of the citizen.”

Tue ImprrtaL GovERNMENT.

' There was not a human being who found this a pleas-
ant surprise, and the angry emotions roused by the edict
did not diminish when, on the third day, the reduced
portions and stale bread were delivered. The prevail-
ing mood did not become more cheerful or life more
peaceful, and the harshest comments were passed upon
the Government. The Press, however, did its duty in
this hour of need. The Government could not be
blamed for the misfortune, it said; the fault rested en-
tirely with the socialization of society. Had the capital
of society remained in private hands, there would have
been a simple way of escape. The capitalists would
have changed their stocks and bonds into gold, and, in
the hope of a profit, ordered from abroad the food we
must now lack. But a society, which has allowed the
State to absorb all property, must take into the bargain
the unpleasant fact that all its rich possessions have lost
their value by being made over to the State, and in the
midst of infinite treasures it is still too poor to help
itself out of a sore strait.

The justice of this deduction was not instantly per-
ceived, but time proved its wisdom. The first idea was
that the Government should sell only lands or railroads,
and, as during the French Revolution, procure countless
240 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

millions by the issue of assegnats. But the impossibility
of this proposal was easily demonstrated. There was a
lack of buyers who could pay for lands and railroads,
and without payment the sale would have been useless.
It was a singular experience: what had been doubtful
for thousands of years; what remarkable intellects had
debated with a display of brilliant dialectics; what the
masses seemed to find so difficult to understand, the re-
bellious stomach at last solved. Ownership of property
is no harmful arrangement, no device of the human in-
tellect, no injury to society; it is a decree of Mother
Nature, a fundamental necessity of civilization, a neces-
sity essential to the existence of the human race. To
abolish property is to abolish a work of Nature, and
whoever disturbs this good mother in her salutary work
she punishes inexorably with a heavy hand. This was
the truth which the empty stomach had made plain,
and which was now no longer doubted by the socialistic
world.

Had not the situation been so unusually lamentable, [
should have believed that I found myself in a most im-
portant historical epoch. Since the children of Eve
first began to think, no more difficult problem has ever
been brought to an absolute solution; this was the first
moment in thousands of years that an important truth
found no doubters. It seemed to be decided beyond
question that Bebel had been no true prophet, and Marx
and Lassalle had racked their brilliant brains over a
foolish inquiry. People no longer pondered over their
theories ; their hungry stomachs were a better authority
for them.

While men were bewailing their situation and the-
oretically solving the social question, the Government
was striving with all its powers to avert the worst mis-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 241

fortune. Numerous consultations were held, and every
conceivable expedient was devised. But their task was
impossible; the most important portions of the social
body were weakened by socialization, and it could not
succeed in bringing the impaired organism to an effective
exercise of strength. The levelling of wants had created
a perfectly untenable position. Many densely peopled
countries, if they have proportionate prosperity, find in
this very density a powerful lever for maintaining and
increasing this prosperity, and densely peopled countries
which are in close juxtaposition, can all in a similar
manner serve to strengthen the vital energy. But, to
accomplish this, it is an unavoidable condition that there
must be opportunity for abundant employment, and that
products can be exchanged among their own people, as
well as with other nations.

To attain all this it is requisite that tastes and in-
clinations should have the widest range, and that talent
and skill should be afforded unlimited scope. In the
former social system this condition existed, and because
tastes and inclinations were adapted to talents and skill,
its permanent growth was possible without danger to its
existence. Now the equalization of incomes had con-
fined tastes and inclinations to much narrower limits,
thereby restricting the activity of many acquired talents
and natural abilities, but abolishing many kinds of work.
How could any other result ensue than that of making
it more difficult for these numerous nations to obtain,
by the sale of their products, the means to purchase
food 4

So long as a newly - developing civilization in a for-
eign quarter of the world opened to them a new market
this peril was not great; but as soon as wars checked

the growth of this civilization, the danger was doubly
16
242 MR. FREDERIOK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

strengthened. When a larger number of densely peo-
pled countries, with a greatly restricted number of prod-
‘ucts and a diminished demand, are seeking to force sales
in order to obtain food, their products must undergo a
shrinkage of value, and the sole result can be that the
means of sustaining life must be obtained by increased
sales. And this was the very worst part of the matter.
Industrial products fell in value, and the same amount
would purchase only a greatly diminished quantity of
food.

The same evil appeared in another direction. The raw
material required by industry was just as valuable as the

‘food to be purchased, and must also be bought with the
products of the people. That is, only a smaller quantity
of these wares could be obtained for the amount of man-
ufactured articles sold.

Thus, as has happened in all business crises, a number
of currents meet to lend their destroying power to the
flood. A newly-opened market which had become nec- _
essary because, owing to the levelling of wants, the agri-
cultural countries were able to make for themselves a
large number of the articles whose manufacture required
less skill, was suddenly lost. This loss had hurried the
sales of all saleable articles, and forcing ‘the sales had
reduced prices. These cheapened articles could pur-
chase only a diminished quantity of food; so, according
to the nature of the phenomena of disease, the serious
evil of a loss of trade was increased by additional reduc-
tions of sales. That is, it was a crisis similar to those
which have often occurred in trade, and its duration was
dependent upon regaining the lost market for goods.

So the Government sought and pondered. But it
could not obtain the one thing necessary, and was left
to perform the dismal task of restricting, saving, clip-
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 2438

ping, and paring, until peace was declared in Asia, anda
fresh impetus to business followed. How long could
life be maintained by saving ?

Winter passed, and smiling spring followed as usual.
Summer’s sun diffused its vivifying rays, and slowly, far
too slowly for a starving people, the new harvest ripened.
Scythes were swung, threshing machines thundered, mills
clapped, and men once more received their daily bread.
Had the danger passed? Was anxiety at an end? Was
the haven gained? The careless masses could quietly
enjoy life. They had no fears for the morrow; it was
the business of the Government to provide for the pop-
ulation.

But the anxieties of the Government were increased,
not diminished. During five and a half months its wise
economy had succeeded in preserving the lives of men,
but the amount of food it had obtained was sufficient
only for the one purpose of maintaining the functions
of life in the organism, not in supporting the functions

of the development of energy, and so for five months
and a half the population had not been able to use its
productive energy in laboring to procure food. The
harvest could last only four months—that is, the supply
was sufficient only until November, and should the
Government collect everything which, by the utmost
abstemiousness on the part of the people, could be sold
in foreign lands,it would not purchase food for more
than two or three months longer. And what if peace
was then declared in distant Asia, and the channels of |
trade were again opened? By that time help would be ~
too late.

Doubtless the wares which the war had made unsale-
able, and which were therefore now on storage, would
supply means to purchase the food needed for three
244 MR. FREDERICK EAST’S EXPERIENCES

months more, or to obtain the raw material requisite for
the employment of the industrial force; but they would
not do both.

If the Government bought the raw material, it would
have no bread to give men to afford them the muscular
power to manufacture it. If it bought food, it would lack
the most important means of working for future suste-
nance after the present supply was exhausted.

Under any circumstances, the doom predicted by the
Chancellor was impending. The social world was going
to ruin, not through the evil from which it also suffered
of lacking human hands to work—which could only be
the source of gradual decay—but in consequence of the
far more deadly evil of having no work for human hands.

Strange, startling, incomprehensible idea! At the top-
most height of a fairy kingdom, possessing infinite treas-
ures, whose brilliancy surpasses all description, equipped
with implements of marvellous power, mistress of space,
mistress of the forces of the soil, endowed with a
knowledge which victoriously penetrates every secret,
with a might of intellect to which no problem seemed
insolvable, humanity found itself hurled at one blow
from the height of power into the abyss, into a condition
far worse than during the most helpless days of primi-
tive times. Boldly, audaciously, it had striven to barter
earthly imperfection for supernatural perfection, but in
punishment for the madness was flung back to the first
beginnings of earthly existence.

In truth, the folly had been gigantic! In a world of
varying fertility, varying elements, varying harvests,
with a changing moon, a changing sun, changing gusts
of rain, and changing winds, men, in their blind hatred
of property, had believed themselves able to dispense
with the sole aid which Mother Nature, with provident
IN MR. BELLAMY’S WORLD. 245

care, had placed in the cradle of mankind. And mortals
of such scanty understanding had fancied this under-
standing sufficient to guide the universe in Nature’s stead.

The days passed slowly and dismally. I, too, had ex-
perienced in my own person what tortures an unsatis-
fied stomach can inflict, but my own sufferings seemed
trivial when I saw so many hollow-eyed faces and
troubled brows.

Now, on New-year’s Eve, I am sitting in my lonely
room, thinking mournfully of the sorrows of the world.
What can the New Year bring? The stores of pro-
visions are small, and the end is drawing near. Will
men, with indifferent eyes, permit Death to reap his har-
vest till their number has melted sufficiently to be fed
by the crops of the country? Will they go forth,
sword in hand, as they did in the days of the migration
of the nations, to establish amid fire and slaughter a new
home on foreign soil? Will they raise the murderous
blade against one another, divide the land, and form do-
mains where the lord of the soil swings the lash over
trembling slaves? Will—

[Here the manuscript breaks off abruptly, and some
interruption has apparently prevented Herr Friedrich
Ost from completing his task. Perhaps he met his |
death in the scenes of anarchy which could not fail to
ensue. In addition, however, I found a few loose pages,
on which, probably obeying the impulse of the moment,
he has written some thoughts concerning the social ques-
tion. None of the sheets are dated, and therefore I
cannot say whether these thoughts were committed to
paper prior to November 25, 1890, or after October 29,
2001. To satisfy the wish for completeness, I will add
them to the work in an appendix.—D. H.]
APPENDIX.

APHORISMS ON THE SOCIAL QUESTION.

Amip all the centuries chronicled in history, the nine-
teenth should be regarded as most pregnant in results to
civilization. It has brought the political condition of civil-
ized countries to a satisfactory degree of consistency, ele-
vated intellectual life by magnificent scientific activity, and
secured the most marvellous enrichment of material pleasures
by means of highly important inventions, multiplication of
power, and a daring spirit of enterprise. Nevertheless, the
crown of glory does not yet deck its brow. Whether it will
receive it depends upon whether, in victorious conflict, it can
perform the last and the most difficult of the labors of
Hercules.

Social democracy is like the venomous hydra, whose heads
always grow again as fast as they are hewn off. It not only
threatens what this century has created, but menaces all civ-
ilization, the work of thousands of years, all the vast treasures
of the mental, moral, and material world. Will this century
also endure this last of the labors, the battle with the hydra?
Will it win at its close, by an imperishable victory, the most
radiant of all coronals ?

It will not fail to conquer if it perceives the vulnerable
spot of the foe, and uses with wise selection and sufficient
strength the sole weapon which can strike this weak point.
But it will sustain a shameful defeat if, in blind arrogance, it
948 APPENDIX.

undervalues the fatal power of the enemy and deals impotent
blows at the regrowing heads.

 

Socialism—if we correctly understand its inmost essence,
its contradiction to the changeless laws of nature—is noth-
ing save a stupendous folly of the utmost magnitude. But its
absurdity does not lessen the impending danger and cannot
deprive the battle of its peril. . Folly cannot be destroyed
with cannon, nor conquered by imprisoning the fools who
preach it, for an absurd idea will always attract fresh fools
until it is completely crushed.

There is but one effective weapon against folly: that is,
sound sense mated with morality. But in order to lead rea-
son to war against folly, society must clearly understand where
to draw the line between them.

Above all, it must know the battle-field it is to defend—
namely, the social system which socialism is threatening to
destroy. It must know how far it can fortify weak places,
how far dangerous targets can be removed from the artillery
of the foe.

»

To correctly understand the organism of society is the
most difficult task of the human intellect. Each individual
human being is a member of it, and his eyes penetrate the
body no farther than the spot where he stands permits him
to see. And since, from his position, he perceives only por-
tions, not the whole, he constantly incurs the risk of over-
estimating the importance of the portion he beholds and
underestimating the part which is invisible.

The arm which seeks to increase its strength may think
the goal of its wishes will be most quickly attained by devot-
ing its attention to enlarging the sinews and muscles. If it
understood the body of which it is a member, it would know
that the muscles and sinews not only grow without fostering
APPENDIX. 249

when the whole organism receives the nourishment necessary,
but that it can best use its power when an abundant circula-
tion of the vital force affords all the other organs full play
for their functions,

The separate limbs of the social body, the various branches
of industry, unless they look beyond the narrow limits of
their business stand-point, will always be in danger of over-
estimating the importance of what seems to promote their own
interests, and of underestimating the advantages which will
be derived from an equal and harmonious development of the
whole. If they attain the power of promoting the interests
which seem to them of the first importance, there will be only
too much danger that, by disturbing the development of the
whole body, they will inflict injuries whose reaction will do
them far more damage than the fostering of their individual
advantages served them.

 

If we allow the short-sighted view taken from the stand-
point of class to exert a decisive influence, the conflict be-
tween the interests of capital and labor seems most apparent.
Capital is seeking labor, without whose aid no lucrative occu-
pation is possible, and finds its profit the larger the less
wages it has to pay the laborers. To the laborers their work
serves as a means of livelihood, which they behold narrowed
by the profits of capital.

As the workman cannot live without occupation and wages,
he finds himself only too frequently compelled to accept con-
ditions which afford him but a meagre subsistence, while
capital, on the other hand, receives a rich reward; whereas
capital, to which employment is not a vital necessity to the
same degree, avoids far more easily any excessive demand on
the part of the workman.

But if we should attempt to deduce from this a conflict of
- interests imposed by nature, or even the existence of an iron
law by which the workman’s daily wages could not rise above
250 APPENDIX.

a low standard of the demands of livelihood, we should com-
mit an error which could arise solely from that short-sighted
view of the organic life of the social body.

The increase of capital in the beginning was far slower
than that of the population, and therefore it was perfectly
natural—in so far as that a slowly growing demand con-
_ fronted a more rapidly increasing supply—that it had the
advantage in the labor market. But it is a part of the nature
of capital that its growth fosters growth, and therefore, with
the increase of prosperity, the growth of capital will overtake
the growth of the population. The more this occurs, the
more the supply of labor falls behind the demand. With
the demand wages rise, and with the rise in wages the work-
er’s share in the product of labor increases,

This change in the relation between ‘capital and labor has
revealed itself in many ways, and would have made itself
still more plainly felt had not disturbances of trade and
troublesome interferences retarded its peaceful development.
Yet it is undoubtedly one of the most conspicuous signs of.
our times, and displays itself in the claims with which the
fourth class is striving to join the other classes on equal
terms.

This feature of our day is only apparently an injury—in
reality it is an advantage—to capital; for the latter is seek-
ing a practical use for its creative power, and will find a
sphere of action the more surely the more the purchasing
power of the people searches for the products of production.
The whole purchasing power, or, rather, the prosperity of the
people, will first attain progressive growth, genuine fructifi-
cation of capital and labor, when it begins to be diffused
through the lower strata, where the millions are.

That a working-class just attaining its majority should
confront society with unwonted, and probably unreasonable,
demands is a phenomenon very easily understood. It arises
APPENDIX. 251

from the low social position which had been assigned to the
minor, and the insecure existence to which the perils of his
occupation, the vicissitudes of circumstances, and his small
earnings expose the laborer. No doubt it is also partly due
to the exuberant delight with which vigorous youth, on at-
taining majority, plunges into the battle of life. That society,
as far as it can, strives to fulfil its demands, is a law of pru-
dence as well as justice. There will be no social peace so long
as the just demands of the laboring class remain unsatisfied.

But what demands are to be recognized as just? Un-
doubtedly all which are attainable—attainable without retard-
ing the harmonious development of the social body; for every
interruption of this progress would injure the working-man
no less than the other classes.

If we examine the justice of the demands solely from the
point of view of what is attainable, we shall find the boundary
line within which the social question is to be solved, and it
will be the task of the other classes to exert their intelligence
to show the laborers that none of their demands will be re-
fused, save those which would injure them no less than the
other classes.

If society succeeds in making the sound sense of the at-
tainable and the folly of the unattainable clear to the labor-
ing class, the social problem will be solved, the hydra of social
democracy will be destroyed. The task is no easy one, for
folly is more alluring than reason, and the favored classes,
with all their intelligence, will not be able to accomplish the
Herculean labor imposed upon our century unless they arm
themselves with the moral earnestness requisite for such a
conflict, and are thoroughly imbued with the idea that, be-
cause it is just, what is attainable must be attained.

 

What are the attainable demands of the working-classes ?
It is attainable for the laborer to be granted the utmost
liberty in the pursuit of gain, and to be unimpeded by any
252 APPENDIX.

Government measures in favor of other classes which would
render it difficult or impossible to secure the highest wages
that in the condition of the labor market can be obtained.

It is attainable that not only the right of union shall be
secured to them, but that committees of laboring men or
similar bodies shall be formed which, by making settlements
in disputes about wages, and by impartial explanation of the
business situation, will be able to save the workmen from the
strikes which are often so damaging.

It is attainable that, so far as can be done without danger |
to the industrial branches concerned, laborers shall be af-
forded all possible protection, that their strength may not be
impaired by work injurious to the health or exhausting to
their bodily vigor.

It is attainable that no military duties shall be exacted
from them beyond what is necessary to obtain a military
training.

It is attainable that public interest and capital shall strive
to improve the dwellings of the poorer classes.

It is attainable that all Government interference in busi-
ness intercourse, by which the movement of prices and ~
wages can be artificially influenced, shall be avoided, and that
no taxes shall be levied which make it possible to raise
prices for the benefit of speculators.

It is attainable that, even in indirect taxation, the burden
on all classes shall be equal—that is, no tax shall be imposed
upon necessary food.

It is attainable that the laboring class shall be practically
on equal terms with the other classes; that the working-man
shall feel at no disadvantage in Government or communal
affairs with persons of a different rank.

Finally, it is attainable to sweep away the old class preju-
dices, which must always make the workman, in meeting other
classes of society, feel as if he were a less free and respected
member of it.

On the other hand, every demand of the laboring class is
APPENDIX. 253

unattainable which seeks to restrict in its own favor the per-
fect freedom of the movement of wages, and deprive capital
of the unfettered use of the chances of accident and of the
labor market.

Such restrictions could not fail to exert a harmful influ-
ence upon the development of the whole organism, and there-
fore would bring nothing but injury to the laboring class
itself.

All demands for a rate of wages which would make the
growth of capital impossible are unattainable.

Unattainable, too, above everything else, are all demands
which strive to set aside the arrangements of the natural
order of society, to limit the right of property, fetter the
free industry of the individual, and, especially, allot to the
employment of capital a position inferior to the labor of
human hands.

Every such effort leads to unnatural relations, which would
be no less dangerous to the laboring class than to society.

 

But even more difficult than to diffuse a general knowledge
of what is attainable, and what is not, is the task of re-
moving the obstacles which arise from false notions of loss.
Our knowledge and our perception do not yet make us free
from our prejudices, and, among those which narrow our
vision, there is scarcely one so powerful as the prejudice of
the moneyed interests. If the pocket is in question, temperate
reflection is soon over. For instance, it is very difficult to
explain to the sugar-maker that the bonus given to him is
merely an artificially created advantage of his customer, and
that, so long as he receives this bonus, there can be no
healthful relation between production and consumption. It
is still more difficult to make the needy farmer understand
that a preponderance of production which, by its very nature,
is temporary, must become a permanent evil if, by levying
taxes, an effort is made to prevent an increase of consump-
954 APPENDIX.

tion which will again produce a balance between production
and use.

Where the prejudice of interests warps the judgment of
those concerned, the less trammelled verdict of public opinion
must assert itself. It must oppose to all complaints and ac-
cusations, all dogmatic claims, the clear perception that Nat-
ure guides the social organism, and that she punishes all in-
terferences by changing acute diseases into chronic ones.

It must not be diverted from the fact that protective duties
and bonuses are only another form of the disease of socialism,
and, like the latter, foolishly disturb the harmony of inter-
course, the growth of prosperity, and the peace of society.

The prejudice of interests may be the hardest to conquer,
but it is by no means the sole splinter in our brains which
narrows our free vision of social phenomena, and can be
temoved only by the interposition of freedom of thought.

Prejudices of rank, education, religious belief and, above
ali, the one most difficult for thinkers to understand, the pre-
judice of class, render it a Titanic task for us to reconcile
the events of social life in their changes and windings, their
lights and shadows, their sorrows and their joys, with the
radiance of liberty.

Whoever is willing to wage war against folly must know
how to extirpate what pervades sound sense with specks of
absurdity, and only a society which can meet the laboring
class, untrammelled by social prejudices, will gain its confi-
dence, remove the burdensome consciousness that between
them runs a dividing line, a chasm, a contrast, and, spite of
all irritation, make the working-men understand that none
of their demands will be refused save those which cannot
be granted without doing them an injury.

 

To seek healing for social hurts is primarily the business
of society, and the latter ought not indolently to commit it
to the State. But the social question imposes a highly im-
APPENDIX. 255

portant duty upon the State also. In the conflicts of society
it must not interfere by measures calculated to give one class
an advantage over another or, by influencing the movement
of prices, guide the natural course of development of the
social body into artificial channels which are opposed to the
harmony of the functions. It must not, for the sake of tem-
poral political interests, enhance the class contrasts which,
to the natural short-sightedness of prevailing prejudices,
seem to exist. The task pressed upon it by the social con-
flicts is rather to exert a reconciling influence in all directions,
and preserve for society the peace, without which the har-
mony of the system of the universe cannot be realized in the
social organism.

One advantage possessed by the Germans is their mo-
narchical Government. It is easier for a monarchy than for
other forms of administration to maintain in undisturbed
operation the principles which society recognizes as the cor-
rect ones, and to oppose the currents by which individual in-
terests wage war against the interests of the community.

If society, as well as the throne and the State, with correct
judgment, earnest will, and full accord with the ethical views
of our time, fulfil ‘the just demands of the laboring class, our
century will not end without solving the noblest problem as-
signed to it, without giving to society peace in the sphere
where contrasts, apparently irreconcilable, are striving to pre-
vent it.

THE END.
BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST,

By Lew. Watiace. 16mo, Cloth, $1 50. Garfield
Edition. Two Volumes. Twenty Full-page Pho-
togravures. Over 1000 Illustrations as Marginal
Drawings by Wittram Martin Jonnson. Crown
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Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, Bound in Silk and
Gold, $7 00. (dn a Gladstone Boz.)

Anything so startling, new, and distinctive as the leading feature of
this romance does not often appear in works of fiction. . . . Some of Mr.
Wallace’s writing is remarkable for its pathetic eloquence. The scenes
described in the New Testament are rewritten with the power and skill of
an accomplished master of style—W. Y. Times.

Its real basis is a description of the life of the Jews and Romans at the
beginning of the Christian era, and this is both forcible and brilliant. . . .
We are carried through a surprising variety of scenes; we witness a sea-
fight, a chariot-race, the internal economy of a Roman galley, domestic in-
teriors at Antioch, at Jerusalem, and among the tribes of the desert; pal-
aces, prisons, the haunts of dissipated Roman youth, the houses of pious
families of Israel. There is plenty of exciting incident; everything is ani.
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From the opening of the volume to the very close the reader’s interest
will be kept at the highest pitch, and the novel will be pronounced by all
one of the greatest novels of the day.—Boston Post.

“Ben-Hur ” is interesting, and its characterization is fine and strong.
Meanwhile it evinces careful study of the period in which the scene is laid,
and will help those who read it with reasonable attention to realize the
nature and conditions of Hebrew life in Jerusalem and Roman life at
Antioch at the time of our Saviour’s advent.—Hzaminer, N. Y. _

The book is one of unquestionable power, and will be read with un-
wonted interest by many readers who are weary of the conventional novel
and romance.—Boston Journal.

One of the most remarkable and delightful books. It is as real and
warm as life itself, and as attractive as the grandest and most heroic
chapters of history.—Jndianapolis Journal.

 

 

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By CAPT. CHARLES KING.

CAMPAIGNING WITH CROOK, AND STORIES OF
ARMY LIFE. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 25.

A WAR-TIME WOOING. Illustrated by R. F. Zocpaum.
pp- iv., 196. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 00.

BETWEEN THE LINES. A Story of the War. Illustrated
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In all of Captain King’s stories the author holds to lofty ideals of man-
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courage, and self-control.— Literary World, Boston. : :

The vivacity and charm which signally distinguish Captain King’s
pen. ... He occupies a position in American literature entirely his own,
. . . His is the literature of honest sentiment, pure and tender.—W. Y. Press.

A romance by Captain King is always a pleasure, because he has sv
complete a mastery of the subjects with which he deals. ... Captain
King has few rivals in his domain. . . . The general tone of Captain King’s
stories is highly commendable. The heroes are simple, frank, and sol-
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All Captain King’s stories are full of spirit and with the true ring about
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Captain King’s stories of army life are so brilliant and intense, they
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ure.— New Haven Palladium.

Captain King is a delightful story-teller.— Washington Post.

In the delineation of war scenes Captain King’s style is crisp and vig.
orous, inspiring in the breast of the reader a thrill of genuine patriotic fer.
vor.—Boston Commonwealth.

Captain King is almost without a rival in the field he has chosen... .
His style is at once vigorous and sentimental in the best sense of that
word, so that his novels are pleasing to young men as well as young
women.—Pittsburgh Bulletin.

It is good to think that there is at least one man who believes that all
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that there are as brave and honest hearts to-day as there were in the
days ef knights and paladins.—Philadelphia Record. -

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BY ELIZABETH B. CUSTER.

 

FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. Illustrated. pp. xx., 369.
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The story is a thrillingly interesting one, charmingly told... . Mrs.
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hardly lay it down until it is finished.— Boston Traveller.

An admirable book. Mrs. Custer was almost as good a soldier as
her gallant husband, and her book breathes the true martial spirit.— St.

as Republic.

Mrs. Custer has the faculty of making her reader see and feel with
her... . The whole country is indebted to Mrs. Custer for so faithfully
depicting phases of a kind of army life now almost passed away.—
Boston Advertiser.

The book is crowded with the amusing and exciting details of a life
strange indeed to those who have spent their time sitting tranquilly at
home. Her observation is so quick, her descriptive powers so pictu-
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BOOTS AND SADDLES ; Or, Life in Dakota with Gen-
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A book of adventure is interesting reading, especially when it is all
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‘these simple annals of our daily life,” as she calls them, are never
dull nor uninteresting.—Hvangelist, N. Y.

We have no hesitation in saying that no better or more satisfactory
life of General Custer could have been written. Indeed, we may as
well speak the thought that is in us, and say plainly that we know of no
biographical work anywhere which we count better than this. . . . It is
enriched in every chapter with illustrative anecdotes and incidents, and
here and there a little life story of pathetic interest is told as an episode.
—WN.Y. Commercial Advertiser. ;

Every member of a Western garrison will want to read this book ;
every person in the East who is interested in Western life will want to
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A Kine or Tyre. A Tale of the Times of Ezra and
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Another distinct success in the field of historical fiction. ... Must be
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It is altogether a fresh and enjoyable tale, strong in its situations and
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The picture of the life and manners of that far-away period is carefully
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In“ A King of Tyre” we live and move amid old ideas, old superstitions,
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When we say that his tale is interesting, that it is satisfying, that it is
dramatically conclusive, we give it high praise, yet we give it deliberately,
and are convinced that the opinion of all intelligent readers will confirm
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Tue Caprain or THE JAantzaries. A Tale of the Times
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16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 50.

Strong in its central historical character, abounding in incident, rapid
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Something new and striking interests us in almost every chapter. The
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One of the strongest and most fascinating historical novels of the last
quarter of a century.—Boston Pilot,

The author has used his material with skill, weaving the facts of history
into a story crowded with stirring incidents and unexpected situations, and
a golden thread of love-making, under extreme difficulties, runs through
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A New Eneranp Novy, and Other Stories. 16mo, Cloth,
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The unerring skill, the faultless delicacy, and the almost touching fidel-
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Always there is a freedom from commonplace, and a power to hold the
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A Humerte Romance, and Other Stories. 16mo, Cloth,
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Only an artistic hand could have written these stories, and they will
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The reader who buys this book and reads it will find treble his maney’s
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Miss Wilkins is a writer who has a gift for the rare art of creating the
short story which shall be a character study and a bit of graphic picturing
in one; and all who enjoy the bright and fascinating short story will wel-
come this volume.— Boston Traveller.

The author has the unusual gift of writing a short story which is com-
plete in itself, having a real beginning, a middle, and an end. The volume
is an excellent one.— Observer, N. Y.

A gallery of striking studies in the humblest quarters of American coun-
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Nowhere are there to be found such faithful, delicately drawn, sympa-
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GREEN PASTURES AND PICCA- | SUNRISE.
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pid pr Ska ooue ee Jp eanee 8vo
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lary jae FieldiateinseAista Ato
ringhaven. ilustrate. .4to
my Upmore........ I2l4émo
Ato

VICTOR HUGO. :

{inety-Three. wale te ocd diecistaisienie «BVO.

  

llers of the Sea,
listory of a Crime

 
 
 

)
eee 2870 -

PRICE
. 8v0 $0 50

100
1 00
100
100
100
1 00
1 00

 

CHARLES BEADE,

 

  

 
 
   
 
  

 

  

   

 
 
 
 

 
 
  

 

PRICE
A Perilous Secret .......... re a0 40
20

| Singleheart. and, Doubleface, ie
(illustrated) ..:....... weeeA4to 15
A Hero anda Martyr. 15
A Simpleton. . .8vo 35
A Woman-Hater ‘itustrated “Bvo 30
12mo_ 25
Good Stories (illustrated). -..12mo 50
4to’ 20
It is Never Too Late to Mend..8vo 35
Foul Play.........sceeeene ...8v0 30
White Lies..........00..ee008 8vo 30

Peg Woffington, and Other’ Tales
- 85

Put Yourself in His Place une:

| trated). ... ce ceeee nese -.8v0 35

| A Terrible Temptation in" 'd).. We 25
The Jilt (illustrated) a) 20
The Coming Man... 20
The Picture ....... 15
Jack of All Trades.......... 1émo 15

GEORGE ELIOT.
-| Felix Holt . wi riacewe vevee eee BVOL. 60
Middlemarch. - 8vo 75
Daniel Deronda, .8vo 50
Romola (illustrate .8vo | 50
Scenes of Clerical Li --8vo 50
Silas Marner. .., .12mo0 (25
Adam Bede.......cseeesceeee Ato 25
Impressions of Theo. Such...,4to0 10
Amos Barton ............-..32m0- 20
Mr. Gilfil’s Love Story......32mo 20
Janet's Repentance ........ -32m0 =—.20
Brother Jacob, —The Lifted Veil
32mo =. 20
WILLIAM BLACK.

An Adventyre in Thule........4to 10
A Daughter of Heth .....,+...8vo 35
A Princess of Thule. . .8vo 50
Donald Ross of Heimra....... 8vo 50
Green Pastures and Piccadilly. Bv0 50
| Iu Far Lochaber...... 40
In Silk Attire ...... “85
Judith Shakespeare 20
Kilmeny ...c.cee cess eeeee sees 35°
| Macleod of Dare iste) ero 60
15
Madcap Violet isi wteiecaiesiciaterere ee 50

Monarch of Mincing Lane (is.
trated), ....ccen eee seer ee 50
Prince Fortunatus (illustrated) avo 50
Sabina Zembra. ..-.....-- 20
Strange Adv’s of a Phaeto 50

Strange Adventures of
boat (illustrated), . ee 50
Sunrise... 6..see cee e ee eeees me 20
That Beautiful Wretch (ill’d).. 20
The. Maid of Killeena, &c...... (on 40
Three Feathers diaatated) ..8vo 50
White Heather............-05+ 4to 20
White Wings.........-.65 wee TL Ato 20
H. RIDER HAGGARD.

She (illustrated), 4to, 25 cts.;16mo 25
King Solomon’s Mines......- -4to 20
JOSS. eee ccere cnc eccsccoeeress 4 15
Allan Quatermain (iia): ea “lpme 25
Mr. Meeson’s Will.......... 16m 25
Maiwa’s Revenge (ill’d) .. “Teo “25
Col. Quaritch, V.C. (ill’d) TINTemo 25
Cleopatra (illustrated). . ..16mo 25
Beatrice (illustrated). .16mo 30
The World’s Desire -16mo 35

 

STANDARD | NOVELS IN PAPER COVERS.

WILLIAM M, THACKERAY. rarce

Henry Esmond and Lovel the Wid-

   

 

 
 
 

  
 
 
 

 

 

 

  
 

 

  
   
 
 
 
 

  
   
  

 
  

ower (illustrated)......... 8vo $0 60
Denis Duval (illustrated), veee BVO 25
Great Hoggarty Diamond..... “avo 20
Henry Esmond,......... -8vo. 60
Lovel the Widower .... -.8vo0 20
Vanity Fair (illustrated).......8v0 80
Pendennis (illustrated). 8vo 75
The Virginians (illustrat 8vo 90
The Newcomes (illustrated)....8vo 90

WALTER BESANT.

Uncle Jack and Other Stories.12mo 25
All in a Garden Fair.......... 4to 20
Self or Bearer. . Ato. 15
For Faith and Freedom 8vo 650
The Bell of St. Paul’s 8vo 35
The Inner House... .8vo 30
The World Went Very Well Then

(illustrated).....:... .4to° 25
The Children of Gibeon... ....4to 20
The Holy Rose. ........ 20
Katherine Regina. aed 15
Dorothy Forster............+ 4to 20
To Call Her Mine (illustrated)..4to0 20
Herr Paulus..........esee00- .8vo 35
Armorel of Lyonesse (ill’a).. .8vo 50
All Sorts and Conditions of Men

(illustrated) .............- 50

St. Katherine’s by the Tower Gilus-

trated)...... rer er «e-..8v0 60

BESANT & RICE.
Golden Butterfly..............8vo 40°
When the Ship Comes Home.32mo 25
Twas in Trafalgar's Bay..:..3! 20
Sweet Nelly .........eseeee 4to 10
Shepherds All and Maidens Fair.
32mo =. 25
The Chaplain of the Fleet.....4to 20
By Celia’s Arbor (illustrated). -8vo 50
The Captain’s Room.........+ 4to 10
So They Were Married (ild).. .4to 20
W. CLARK RUSSELL.
Auld Lang Syne -.-4to 10.
‘A Sailor's Sweetheart. .4to 15
A Sea Queen....... Ato 20
A Strange Voyage.... 20
A Book for the Hammock. 20
Wreck of the ‘Grosvenor 30
An Ocean Free- ahi
An Ocean Tragedy... ........ 50
The ‘‘ Lady Maud > (itiustrated). ac 20
Marooned. ......csecessee sees 25
My Danish Sweetheart (ill’d). ‘vo 60
My Shipmate Louise.......... 50
My Watch Below.,..... parece ‘to 20
In the Middle Watch.. 25
Little Loo.......... 20
On the Fo’k’sle Head.. 15
Voyage to the Cape... 26
Round the Galley Fire
The Golden Hope .... 20
Jack’s Courtship... 25
John Holdsworth, Chief Mate, .4to 20
The Frozen Pirate (illustrated) .4to 26
THOMAS HARDY.
A Group of Noble Dames (illus-
trated)... 6 ccseecsceeseoeees 8vo 5
Romantic Adventures of a Millk-
Bid se esece- eee 10
The Woodlanders... 20
Fellow-Townsmen 20
A Laodicean Leniernsal aca 20
Wessex Tales....escesseeeeres 30

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