IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // // y. v.. 1.0 I.I 1^ IL25 III u 2.0 iiiiin 1.6 PhotDgrapbic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 iV V7 im (51) 81)0 PHOPHETS OF UNKEST. Tl)c fancies of Rousseau and Beruanliii do St. Pierre lieralded tlic ]{evoiution. llousseau's reveries, be it, observed, iiot only failed of reabzation, but gave liardlj any sign of that wiiidi was really couiing. The Jacobins canted in his phrase, but they returned to the state, of natui'c only in personal lilthiness, in brutality of manners, and in guillotining Lavoisier, because the Rejudjlic had no neei^ of cheniists. There is a general feeling abroad that tlic stream is di-awing near a cataract now, and thei'o are apparent grounds for the sur- mise. Tht>4'c is everywhere in the social frame an outward un- rest, which as usual is the simi of fundamental chane'e within. Old creeds have given way. The masses, the artisans especially, have ceased to believe that the existing order of society, with its grades of rank and wealth, is a divine ordinance against which it is vain to i-ebel. They have ceased to believe in a future state, the compensation of those whose lot is hard here. Convinced that this world is all, and that there is nothing more to come, they want at once to grasp their share of enjoyment. The labor jour- nals are full of this thought. Social science, if it is to take the place of religio/i as a conservative force, has not yet developed itself or taken firm hold of the popular mind. The rivalrv of factions an;i demagogues has ahnost every wliere introduced mii- versal suffrage. The jioorer classes are freshly possessed of political jiower, and have conceived boundless notions of the changes which, by exercising it, they may make in their own favor. They are just in that twilight of education in whicii chimeras stalk. This concurrence of social and economical with political and religious revolution has always been fraught with danger. The governing classes, unnerved by skejiticism, have lost faith in the order which they represent, and are inclined to precipitate abdication. Many members of them — partlv from philanthropy, partly from vanity, pai'tly perhaps from fear — are playing the demagogue and, as they did in France, dallj-ing with revolution. The ostentation of wealtli has stimulated to a dan- gerous ]utcli envy, which has always been ime of the most pow- ei'fnl elements of revt.ibuion. Tiiis is not tlie ]>laee to cast the hoi'oscoi)e of society. We may, after all, be exaggerating the uravitv of the crisis. T1 10 first of May passed without bringing i?>9 6 M PROPHETS OF UNREST. GOl ».) ' li forth anvtliiiig more portentous tluiu an epidemic of sti'ikes, whicli, tliougli very disastrous, as they sharpen and embitter class antagonisms, arc not in tlicmsclves attem})ts to subvert society. Sir Cliarles Dillcc, after surveying all the democracies, says that the only country on which revolutionary socialism has taken hold is England. German socialism, of which Ave hear so much, ap- pears to be largely impatience of taxation and conseription. Much is called socialism and taken as ominous of revolution wdiich is merely the extension of the action of government, wisely or unwisely, over new portions of its present field, and perhaps does not deserve the dreaded name so much as our familiar Sun- day law. The crash, if it come, may not be universal; things may not everywhere take the same coursi,. Wealth in some countries, when seriously alarmed, may convert itself into military power, of whicli tlie artisans have little, and may turn the scale in its own favor. Though social science is as yet undeveloped, intelli"-encc has more orjrans and an increasing hold. The present may after all glide more calmly than w^e think into the future. Still there is a crisis. AVc have had the Parisian Commune, the Spanish Intmnsi'gentes, nihilism, anarchism. It is not a time for playing with wild-fire. Though Rouss>^au's scheme of regeneration by a return to nature came to nothing, his denun- ciations of society told with a vengeance, and sent thousands to the guillotine. The writer of an "Uto})ia," however, in trymg to make his fancy plausible and pleasing, is naturally tempted to exaggerate the evils of the existing state of things. " Looking Backward " opens with a very vivid and telling p'cture of society as it is: "Byway of attempting to give the reader some general impression of the way people Hved togetlior in those days, and especially of the relations of tlie rich and poor to one anotlier, poriiaps I cannot do better than to compare society as it then was to a prodigious coach, wliich the masses of humanity were harnessed to and dragged toilsomely along a very hilly and sandy road. The driver was hungry, and permitted no lagging, though the pace was necessarily very slow. Despite the diOTiculty of drawing tiie coach at all along so hard a road, the top was covered with passengers, who never got down, even at the steepest ascent. These seats were very hroozy and couifurlablo. Well up out of tlie dust, thoir occupants could enjoy the scenery at tlieir leisure, or critically discuss tlie merits of tho straining team. Naturally such places were in great demand, tuid the cjiiipotitiou ■*^.. turn (;o;> PROPHETS OF UNREST. forllioni was keen, every one seeking as the first end in life to secure a seal on the coacli lor himself and to leave it to his (.hild alter him. By the rule of tiie coacii a man ctnild lei, veins seat to whom ho wisheil, but on tho olhi'r hand there were many accidents by which it might at any time be wJiolly lost. For all that they were so easy, the seats were very insecure, and at every sudden jolt of the coacl persons were slipping out of then, ami falling;' to the ground, where they were instantly compelled to take hold of the rope and help to drag the coach on which they had before ridden so pleasantly. It was naturally regarded as a terrible misfortune to lose one's seat, and tlie apprehension that this might liappi-n to them or their friends was a constant cloud \ipon the happiness of those who rt)ile.'' And wliat arc the feoling-s of tlio p.isscngci's toward the liap- Icss toilers who drag the coach? Have they no compas.^ion for the sulTerings of the fedow beings from whom fortune oiilv lias distino-uif slieil tl lem: "Oh, yes; commiseration was frequently expressed by those who rode for tiioso who had to pull the coach, especially when the vcliicle came to a had place in the road, as it 'vas constantly doing, or to a particularly steep hill. At such times the desperate straining of the team, their agonized leaping and plunging under the pitiless lashing of hunger, the many who faintoil at the rope and were trampled in the mire, made a very distressing spectacle, which often called forth highly creditable displaj's of feeling on the top of the coach. At such times the passengers would call down en- couragingly to the toilersat the rope, exhorting them to paticce, iind hold- ing out hopes of possible compensation in another world for the hardness of their lot, while others contributed to buy salves and liniments for the cripjiled and injured. It was agreed that it was agreat pity that the coach should be so hard to pull, and theie was a sense of general relief when the specially bad piece of road was golttni over. This relief was not, indeed, wholly on accouit of the team, for there was always some danger at these bad places of agoneral overtiu'n in winch all would lose their seats."' These picturesque passages, we have no doubt, will siidc deep into the hearts of many who will pay little attention to the si)cculativc }ilans of reconstruction which follow. For one reader of " Progress and Poverty " who was at the pain.s to follow tlie economical reasoning, there were probably thou.sands who draidc ill the invectives against wealth and tlie suggestions of confi.sca- tioii. . But is the description here given true or anything like the truth? Are the nuusses toiling like the horses of a coach, not for tlieir benefit, but merely for that of the passengers whom they draw ? Arc they not toiling to make their own bread, and to produce liy their joint labor the things necessary for tlu.'ir eom- ■1 I'ROl'IIETS OV UXUKST. go;} mon pubsistencc ? As to tlio vast iiiiijitrity of tliom can it Yui said that they are k-apiiig and [>hiiiul it is forgotten that the catastrophes or the e.\cei)tional events alone are recorded by newspapers, especially in the tables of eon- tents, which are intended to catch the eye. No newspaper gives us a picture of the ordinary course of life. No newspaper speaks of the countries which are enjoying secure peace, of the people who are making a fair livelihood by honest indiistrv, of the families which ari' living in comfort and the eiijoyincnt of aU'ee- tioii. r)uvcrs wonld hardly be found for a sheet which should tell you bv wavof news that bread was being regularly delivered bv the baker and that the milkman was going his round. Centuries unnuinhcred, according to recent paheontologists, liuniau .society has taken in eiiiubing to what is here described as the level of a vast den of wild beasts or a Black Hole t>f Cal- cutta. Yet in one I'cntury or a litth' more it is to become a paradise on earth. So the writer of " Looking B.ackward "' dreams iml to show that he does not iverard this as a mere dream, he circs historical preccflents of changes which he thinks cipially miraeulons — the sudden and nne.Npcetcd success, as it appears to him to have been, of the American revolution, of (iernian and Italian unificatii oi. of the agitation against slavery. Til two of these cases at least, those of German and Italian unity, the wonder was not that the event came at last, but that it was delayed so h^ng. In no one of the cases, surely, is anything like a precedent to he found. In a century or a little more, if we arc to accept the statement of Dr. Leete, the .showman of the new heavens and new earth in ''Looking Backward," .society ha.-- undergone not only a radical change but a comjilete transformation, Boston, of cour.se, leading the way, as Paris leads in the regeneration proclaimed hy Comte, and all the most civilized communities following in her train. Society has become entirely industrial, war being completely eliminated. No fear is entertained lest when the civilized w orld has been turned into a vast factory of defenseless wealth, tlie uncivilized world may be tempted to loot it. puoiMihrrs OF unukst. 607 (■' The stiitc lias hocoiiic' tlio .^olc caiiitalist ami the universal employer. How did all the eapitid pass from the hands of indi- viduals or private eompanies into those of the state? Was it ny a voluntary and universal surrender? Wen' all llic eapital- ists and all the stoekholders suddenly convineed of the bles.ings of self-si)oIiation? Or did the government by a sweeping net of eonfiseation seize all the capital? In that case, was there not a desperate struggle? Was not the entrance into l^irale would then probablv mul- tijtly at a rate which would leave Irish or French-Caiuulian plii- loprogenitivencss behind, and without remedial action a Aast scene of squalid misery would ensue. There is no more private jtroperty. In its ]»lace comes a sense '•■s PROPHETS OF UNREST. 009 i^ i of public duty urging oacli man to labor. Of tbe sufTieicnt strength of this we are positivel\ assured, notwithstanding the result of all the ex])erinients hitherto tried. lieaiitv peeps out when we are told that those who refuse to woi'k will be put into confinement on bi-ead and water — something like a reversion, is it not, to the coach and horses, with the "lash of hunger"? The stimulus of dutj' to the man's family will exist no more, since the maintenance of his wife and children will be taken oiT his hands by the state. For the lower natures, though not for tlie higher, there will be emulation, whieh, it is taken for gi-antcd, will act on them with undiminished effect when all the substan- tial prizes with which success in the contest for distinction is now attended have been removed. An ajipeal is also made to a y;e ever so excellent craftsmen themselves, have of as- certaining that every man is doing his best, the answer, we sus- pect, must l)e that in Utoi>ia such questions are not to be raised. In the ] -resent evil world most men do their best, or something like their best, because they have to make their own living and that of their wives and children. Some men, under the volun- tary ami competitive system, put forth those extraordinarv elTorts which make the world move on. But tlie state, though it miglit command the daily amount of labor by tlirc;it of solitary eon- finement on l)read-and-water, could not command im])rovement or invention. Invention, it seems to us, wouhl be little encour- aged under the Utopian rcrjime, since no man is to be allowed to T GIO PROPHETS OF UNliEST. sliirk labor on pretense of IxMUg a student — a regulation wliieh iiiight have borne liunl on Archimedes, Newton, or even Watts. Newton could have given the state no assiirance that his time was being well employed till his discovery had been made. Money has been discarded as " tlie root of all evil," though the Gospel denunciatioji, we venture to think, is leveled against covetousness, not against the use of coin as a circulating medium, wliich, on the contrary, Christ seems to have recognized on more than one occasion. The }>lace of money is taken by credit cards, entitling the bearer, l)y virtue of liis mere humanity, to a share of the national [troduce. "Wages arc a thing of the past. Tlie cer- tificates are to be presented at the government store, for govern- ment is the universal stored-ceeper as well the universal cmplo^'er of labor. Money, it is said, may have been fraudulently or im- properly obtained, but with labor certificates this cannot bo the case. AVe hardly see how a government storedvceper at New Orleans is to tell that the certificate was not fraudulently ob- tained at Boston. Perhaps it is tacitly assumed in this, as it seems to be in other communistic schemes, that the members of the phalanstirrc, or whatever the organization is called, will always remain in the same ])laee, and that thus life will become station- ary as well as devoid of hidividual aim. But the weak part of the arrangement betrays itself in the necessity of continuing to use the terms dollars and cent<. They are used only, we are told, as '■ algebraic syml)ols." Surely the most obvious and the safest course would have been to discard the terms altogether, pregnant as they were with evil associations and likely as they would be to jierpctuate the vicious desires and habits of the past. Let another set oi algebraic symbols be devised, and let us see how it will work. In the ease of the transition from the use of moiuy lo that of labor certificates, as in that of the transition from private connnei'ce to commerce concentrated in the haiulsof govcrmiient, we should ha/e liked to be present when the leap was taken, or at least to have had some account of the ]ir(jcess, espe- cially as it must have taken i)lace at once over the whole civilized Will Id. 1- iir commerce we have said, there is still to be: the Utoi)ian of Boston could not uet 1 tO| I. jaw as a profession has ceased to exist. Of lis wine and ciirars without it. course where \ . ;ift PROPHETS OF UNUKST. 611 there is no property there can ho no chancery suits. As nine- teen twentieths of crime arises from tlie desire of money — not from (b'ink as the prohibitionists [)reten(l — it follows that in get- ting rid of money society has almost entirely got rid of crime. Of crime, in tlie present sense of the term, indeed, it has got rid altogether. A few victims of " atavism " are left as a sort of Uih- ute to reality, but they generally save the judiciary trouble by pleading guilty, so high has the regard for veracity become even in the minds of kleptomaniacs. In the present im])erfect state of things, the distribution of employments, it must be owned, though partly a matter of choice, is largely a matter of chance and circumstance, the intellectual callintjs a;oinfir to those who have the means of a high education. In Utopia it will be entirely a matter of choice, after elaborate testing of aptitudes and tastes under the guidance of a paternal government. It is assumed that all em[)loyments will attract, since some men, after deliberate survey of all the walks of life, will conveniently choose to be miners, hod-men, " odorless exca- vators," brakesmen, stokers, or sailors on the north Atlantic pas- sage. We should rather apprehend a rush into the lighter call- ings, especially that of poets. The harcbiess or disagreeable character of work is to be compensated by short hours — a jirovi- sion which we cannot help thinking might, if thoroughly carried into effect, entail such a deduction from the sum of wealth-pro- ducing labor as would counterbalance even the marvelous gains of state organization. Any repugnance which there might be, will be conjured away by saying that all kinds of labt)r are equally honorable. Do we not say this now? Everybody is to be highly educated and thoroughly refined. ,This in Utopia will lujt interfere with the disposition for man- ual labor, nor will it take too much of the manual laborer's time. One question, howevei", occurs to us. The po]iulation cannot have been highly educated when the system was first introduced. IIow were the ignorant and unqualified masses brought to take part in its introduction, and how was its operation managed be- fore they had been ecbicated up to the jiroper mark? This is another problem of the transition the solution of which remains buried in the seer's magnetic sleep. t filS PROPHETS OF UNREST, The relations between the sexes and the constitution of tlie family are, of eourse, to be revolutionized, and the revolution has so far an element of jjroljabilit}' that it follows what we may suppose to be liostonian theories and lines. The women are to be organized apart from the men as a distinet interest, under a general of theii- own who has a seat in the eabinet. They would do quite enough for soeiety, they ai-e gallantly told, if they oecu- pied themselves only in the cultivation of their own charms and graces, women without any sj)eeial charms and graces but those which belong to the ])erforniance of their womanly duties as wives and mothers being creatures unknown in Ut(jpia. How- ever, for the sake of their health and to satisfy their feelings of independence, they are to do a very moderate amount of work. They have in fact nothing else to do. They have no household cares, as tlie state is iiiiiversal cook, liousemaid, laundress, seam- stress, and nurse; and "a husband is not a baby that he should be eared for — nor, of course, is a wife." Maternity is thrown into the background. It is an interlude in the woman's indus- trial life, and as soon as it is over the mother returns to her in- dusti'ial " conu-ades," leaving her child, apparently, to that univei-- sal ])rovidence, the state. Hitherto, it seems, men, like "ernel robbers," have " seized to themselves the whole product of the world and left women to beg and wheedle for their share." })y whose labor the world has been made to yield its products, for the benefit of both sexes, we are not told. IIowcA'er, "that any ])ei'son should be dependent for the means of support upon an- other would be shoekiniT to the moral sense as well as indefcnsi- O ble on any rational social theory." Women in Utopia, therefore, are no longer left in " galling dependence " upon their luis- bands for the means of life, or children upon their parents. Both wife and child are maintaind by the direct agency ot the state, so that the wife no longer owes anA'thing to her husband, and the child is able, as reason and nature dictate, to snap its fingers in its parents' face. The state gives suck, and the baby is no longer iguominiously beholden to its mother for juilk. It woulil be too curious to ask what the state is; whether it is any- thing but the government, and whether to be dependent on the government is not to be dependent on beings not less human than t cS t riiOPHETS OF UNKEST. G13 1 a?. a liiisl.iiiid, ;i /atlier, or ;i in()tlicr. To some, dquMideiK^c on llio govciMiiiuMit might socm the most galling of all. False (Iclicacy is jmt out of the way, and the women are al- lowed to propose. They " sit aloft " on tlie top of the coach, giv- ing the prizes for the industrial race, and select only tlic best and noMest men for their husbands. Ill-favored men of inferior type, and laggards, will be condemned to celibacy. From them the ■• radiant faces " will be averted. These hapless i)ersons are treated with a marked absence, to say the least, of the 2)hilan- thropy which overflows njwn criminals and lunatics, tlnnigh it seems that the plea of atavism should not be less valid in then- case. Has Dr. Leetc, when he denies them marriage, found a way of extinguishing their passions? If he has not, what moi-al results does he expecit? lie will answer perhaps by an appeal to wh.at maybe called the occult " we," that mysterious power which, in an Utopia, is present throughout to solve all dini- culties and banish every doubt. Nothing can be luore divine than the i)icture which Dr. Lecte presents to us; but we look at It with a secret misgiving that his community would be in some danger oi being thrust out of existence by some barbarous horde, which honored virtue and admired excellence in both sexes without giving itself over to a slavish and fatuous worship of either, held men and women alike to their natural duties, and obeyed the laws of nature. The government is the universal publisher, and is bound to publish everything brought to it, but on condition that the author pay tlie first cost out of his credit. How the author, while ^preparing himself to write "Paradise Lost" or the "Priti- c^pia," is to earn a labor credit, we hardly see. The literature of Utopia is of course divine. To read one of Berrian's novels or one of Gates's poems is worth a year of one's life. AVould that wo had a specimen of eithei-I We should then be able to see how far it transcended Shakespeai-e or Seott. For love stoi-ies, we are told, there will be material in plenty and of a much higher • lualify than there was in the days of coarse and stormy "pas- sion. The actual love alTair that takes place in Utopia certainlv