"At the present time," proceeded Arletta, "the earth resembles a huge
table over-loaded with good things and surrounded by a pack of gluttons
each striving to secure the largest portion. And in this piggish
scramble the strong obtain more and the weak less than is needed while
enough is wasted to amply supply the whole. The best forces of the
participants, which should be utilized for other purposes are also lost
in the ravenous struggle, for it requires more power to retain than
obtain these things.
"The same avaricious principal--individual accumulation--is the
foundation of every government in the world today, and consequently all
of your social systems are being run upside down. Your people spend
their time and strength in looking for remedies instead of stopping the
source from which all evils flow. Corruption is the result of a diseased
root and as long as that remains, iniquities will continue to multiply.
Extirpate the cause, however, and sin will depart like magic.
"The system which allows the individual to acquire personal wealth is
the direct cause for nearly every evil in existence. There is no remedy
for a wrong unless you eradicate it entirely, and just as long as a
nation clings to the pernicious plan which permits separate persons to
store up the products of the earth for private uses, just so long will
selfishness be the characteristic feature of the people, and all kinds
of criminals will be bred from the material which otherwise would prove
very useful to a unified world. According to present methods success is
based upon what each individual accumulates and not what mankind is
capable of producing.
"The foundation of existence is effort, without which the inhabitants of
the world would perish. United exertion produces better results and with
less toil than competitive efforts. With united labor in force, every
living being must work, for he who consumes and does not produce is a
thief. If all the inhabitants of the world combined their labors on the
most economic basis, there would be enough comforts for all created by
one-tenth of the power expended at the present time. Each person would
add his mite to the whole, and in return would receive as much as anyone
else. All worthless occupations would be done away with, and the power
thereof directed into useful channels. Labor would rule the world
instead of money. For of what good would be all the money on earth if
there was no labor to produce the necessities of life? At present there
exists but one honest toiler whose labors enrich the world, to ten
schemers who spend their time plotting to secure the results of his
work; and these parasites actually confiscate the largest portion of
that which is produced. The schemers feast and govern, while the
laborers fast and are governed. Can you imagine more unnatural
conditions than one class of beings producing all the comforts and
receiving none in return?
"With the abolition of the noxious system of individual accumulation,
money would have no value and all the evils arising therefrom would
cease. Take away the opportunity of the individual to accumulate wealth
for himself, and you remove the temptation for fraud, theft and numerous
other crimes, for there is then no incentive left for them. Expel the
motive and selfishness will disappear, and each mortal give his best
efforts toward perfecting himself morally, mentally and physically for
the good he may render the world.
"Teach the child that it will not have to worry over the future; that it
will not have to lie, cheat, steal, murder or take any advantage of its
fellow beings in order to receive its share of the good things of life;
explain to it that the real incentive is to give its best services
toward increasing the general production of the earth, that all mankind
may enjoy the sweets thereof together in peace and harmony; impress upon
its young mind, that he who works in excess of others for the good of
mankind, lives the noblest life and receives the highest esteem of his
fellow beings and the blessed approbation of his own soul, and that
child, reaching maturity, will be a thousand times more useful to
himself and humanity than he who has been taught to hoard up riches for
his own special purposes.
"Individual accumulation is responsible for crime; crime necessitates
laws; laws breed tyranny.
"Abolish individualism, and crime, tyranny and nine-tenths of your
superfluous laws will be exterminated.
"A few well-defined and just laws properly enforced are sufficient to
successfully operate the governmental machinery of the human race
according to Natural Law."