“Oh, mother,” she said, “I am so glad, for I made application for you. I
was sorry you did not see the advantage of it, and now there will be
just time enough for your name to be advertised, so you can get it on
the first coronation day. I was sure you were too good a soldier to let
old-fashioned ideas hold you back. No good woman will stand idle in
these days, especially when so many are needed to face the foes of
humanity. Why was that poor woman afraid to ask sufficient for her
labor? Because she didn’t know that her labor was wealth.
“Many old men and women who had been poor all their lives, who had never
known anything but poverty, were given light work to do, such as
gardening with short hours, under the direction of a competent gardener.
In this way the grounds in the colony had been beautified, trees had
been planted, waterways dug. The women helped to take care of infants in
the nursery for a few hours each day, or do necessary housework,
mending, etc. As the society was formed to secure homes, it was as easy
to feed these poor creatures as it was animals, and they could earn what
they got also.
“The majority of people crave independence. Did you ever see a number as
large as we have here take such pride in pointing out the beauties of
the place? You see it is their wealth. Their labor has been expended to
make it what it is. It is so much more to be enjoyed than a park that
any one can use, so, of course all take great pride in it. It is so
lovely to be able to step down from our apartments and crossing the
street enter a thick foliage, swing hammocks among the trees and look up
into the beautiful green so restful to the eyes. To lie there seems like
a taste of heaven.”
“Yes, Scoris, I agree with you and when I remember that it is my son who
has been the leader in bringing out this happy state of affairs, I am
very much gratified, and, oh, so proud! I feel that all the old
warriors, who have been honored for their share in all the great changes
that have come to the world, have not done more than he has, if as much.
Under this system wars will cease. I have had quite a talk with an old
friend on this subject. Your father and I met her years ago, while
abroad. Her oldest son was killed in one of the late wars and two others
wounded. One is blind and the other had both legs amputated, one below
the knee and the other above. He wears artificial limbs as a result. All
three had wives. I asked if the cause they had fought for was worth the
glory; if the duty they had been called upon to perform for their
country, the bloodshed, the blindness of her son and the mutilation of
the others, the total loss of the oldest one had been any alleviation.
‘No,’ said she, ‘oh, no; but of course they were honored for their
heroism. One has been knighted and both receive a pension and the widow
of the oldest son also has a pension, but of course it would not support
them without our help. They were all such good, brave boys. I shall
always feel very proud of them.’
“‘So am I proud of my son,’ I remarked. Well, dear, I shall never forget
her face nor the effect the remark had upon her as she mentally drew the
picture.”
“‘Your son, the General, you mean? Oh, but he is a genius, you know.’ ‘I
believe your sons were also,’ I said. ‘All were brave men and ready to
do their duty as they saw it.’
“‘Well,’ she said, as she sighed, ‘I would have been one of the happiest
of women today if they had only seen the facts as your son did. You all
have in prospect a much larger income than my living sons are receiving
from the government. You have them all alive and whole with you, not one
maimed, or one who has had to suffer as mine did. Your son is more
honored than any man who ever conducted an army of men. No title
conferred upon him can ever adequately describe how much he is
appreciated, and your daughters and his splendid wife are equally
admired for the part they have taken in this movement. Now see the
difference: my poor Frank is dead; the others have only the merest
pittance to live upon; they only exist, for it is not living to be
blind, nor to be crippled as they are, and the cause was not won or the
enemy vanquished. Then that war raised the taxes to such an enormous sum
that it leaves us very little to take us through life, considering our
habits and mode of living.’
“I asked her if she knew we considered this movement in the light of
war? She said, ‘Why, no, how can it be?’ I told her it was a bloodless
one, nevertheless a war upon all oppression; that the rich were
determined to keep the working people in all subjection, and that as the
working people outnumbered the moneyed class they could tie up all kinds
of industry and that by their united efforts showed that the odds were
just about even. When the laborers become indignant and the strikes rule
for a time, there is only distress for the majority and another lesson
learned by those in power to divert their minds in some other quarter
until they could outwit them, or keep them out of employment until all
their savings were gone. The people have never had justice until this
society secured land for them and started all their industries running.
Now the trusts can bring all the emigrants from other countries to take
the place of the home laborers that they like, and the society is
gathering them in and sending them further out on to the land where they
are being self-supporting and at the same time could not interfere with
the wages of the people.
“‘Well,’ she said, ‘I never bother about these things. They only excite
me. I really think a gradual evolution is taking place and the right
results will come in the long run.’
“I told her that I had once felt as she did on the subject, but I had
known many persons to prepare for a journey and to miss the train on
account of their indifference to the time table.
“‘My not knowing that there was a war of conquest,’ she said, ‘of more
consequence to us all than the ones my sons fought in has left me in my
old age a very sorrowful woman. Think if we had only had our thoughts
directed in this greater cause of justice, I and my boys might have been
living in comfort and affluence instead’—then she broke down and cried
so bitterly that she broke me up also. You see, Scoris, she had never
realized that she had any part in the world’s great events. She wanted
them to excel and as the army glorifies the successful ones, there was a
chance for her sons. I feel sorry for her, but I also feel sorry for the
unthinking thousands who are venturing along life’s paths, unprepared
for the future.”