INTERCOMMUNICATION, TRADE AND A MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE.
“But, if each individual keeps his own record of the time he has
labored, and the money is issued to him or her according to that
time-record, is not an individual tempted to make false entries in his
time-book?” asked Rev. Dudley.
“I will tell you, Rev. Dudley; we must always bear in mind that man’s
conduct, as a whole, always nearly, if not exactly, corresponds to
the social and industrial system under which he voluntarily lives. We
must take into account the conditions, and his culture. To illustrate
this, let us take an example: Cattle, after breaking into a cornfield,
sometimes kill themselves by eating too much corn. Some children, as
well as some grown people, on certain holidays, eat themselves sick
on sweetmeats and other dainties. But neither the people nor the
cattle would eat too much, if they always had all they wanted of those
eatables. A clerk in a candy store seldom eats candy. So in our kind,
rich world, where men and women work less than two hours a day at some
choice labor which is almost play, and where their short pleasant day’s
labor yields, by the aid of economy, co-operation and machinery, a
return of more than $10 worth of your purchasing power, the temptation
for false entries must indeed be decidedly inconsiderable.
“In a world where the social and industrial conditions are so
favorable, and where the contempt for idleness and dishonesty is such a
burden to bear, the degree of temptation for making false entries, for
the purpose of unjustly gaining a few hours’ labor, is vastly different
than it would be in your world, where thousands upon thousands are out
of employment, where they are severely pinched by poverty, where the
laborer is nothing but an industrial slave, where the wife and children
depend upon the income of the man, where the sense of justice has been
calloused by continual infringements of rights, where want and the fear
of want are continually staring them in the face, and where fraud,
accomplished by avaricious shrewdness, is applauded instead of being
condemned as it is in our world.
“And, furthermore, one could scarcely be dishonest in making his
entries if he wanted to be, without being discovered by his companions
and co-laborers, who have as much right to examine his time-book as
the owner has himself. You see the time-books are kept in a public
place and may be examined by anyone. Labor, with us, is honorable, and
we have also learned that in order to develop most completely, and
enjoy the most vigorous health, about two hours of physical labor
is daily necessary. This, alone, would be a sufficient incentive to
perform the labor, even if we required no material wealth to live
on. But if one, notwithstanding all this, would still persist in
making false entries or do any other acts that are grossly against
the well ascertained harmony of society, we would care for him as an
insane person, giving him the greatest freedom possible or consistent
with his mental derangement, and always treat him with the greatest
kindness and courtesy. Such a person, of all our millions, might and
does occasionally appear, but it is a rare occurrence. This treatment
is perfectly consistent with the greatest liberty of the case, for
all wrong, as we have seen, is the result of ignorance or insanity,
whatever you may call it. This fact becomes very plain when we recall
that we are all in pursuit of the greatest happiness, and that we can
attain this greatest happiness only by living most completely in tune
with the fact of the universe.”
“Some labor,” said Mr. Uwins, “such as mining, etc., is more
disagreeable than clerking, etc. You say every one receives equal
pay for a day’s labor; how, then, do you get laborers in these more
disagreeable occupations if all are free to go in any occupation?”
“Yes, every one can go in any occupation he desires, and all receive
equal pay for a day’s labor, which is put down in the time-book, and
at the close of each month every person receives an amount of money or
labor-checks equal to the number of days he or she labored. But the
_length_ of a day’s labor varies according as the labor is, as a whole,
agreeable or disagreeable. A clerk works more minutes a day than a
miner. So you see that we make the proper adjustment by the _length_
of a day’s labor. If we get too many laborers in a certain field, we
lengthen the day, this will drop out some; if too few, we shorten the
day, which will bring in some more. But you must also bear in mind
that there is very little difference in the kinds of our labor now.
Nearly all the disagreeableness disappears as we do the work more and
more by the aid of improved machinery. Our mining is now nearly all
done by machinery which is easily manipulated by the miner; and so in
all occupations. Co-operation continually creates a greater demand
for better and larger machinery, which is operated for the benefit
of all. Nearly all our labor can also be done by the piece, so much
constituting a day.”
“But, Mr. Midith, do you think it is just to pay everybody alike for
a day’s labor, when some are much stronger and more apt workers than
others, when some are skilled and others are not? Does this not tend to
throw nearly all the laborers in the _common_ field of labor, instead
of being skilled?” asked Rev. Dudley. “Of course you have seen the
practical results of it, but for my part I do not understand how you
overcame this apparent or real difficulty.”
“It is really no difficulty at all,” said Mr. Midith. “To illustrate:
You have a small family and we have a large family. Your _parents_
pay a 200-pound son or daughter no more for a day’s labor than they
pay a feebler one. They even pay the totally disabled one the same. I
presume that you think such a course is all right in your family, but
why should it not be equally right in our family and in our community?
But that is not all. A person weighing 200 pounds, as a rule, eats
more than a 100-pound person, but pays the same price for his meals.
The large person receives more cloth in his suit. He buys a larger
hat for the same price. On account of his greater weight he wears out
more carpet, more furniture, etc. So you see that a large, strong
person may sometimes produce a little more by a day’s labor, but he
also often receives more for the same pay, so that the two nearly or
altogether balance each other. But this is not all. You remember me
telling you that in a state of high culture, in which all are free,
intelligent beings, and in which natural opportunity is equally open to
all, there can be very little physical and mental difference between
the individual members of the same community, because none of them have
been dwarfed by heredity, none have been stunted by vicious training,
and none have been prevented from giving full scope of activity to
all their faculties. And furthermore, with our excellent facilities
for intercommunication, there is even little physical and mental
dissimilarity existing between members of remotely located communities.
“Your idea as to our skilled labor is also entirely erroneous. Every
member of our _large_ family, the same as a member of your _small_
family, can engage in any occupation he desires, whether man, woman
or child. It costs nothing with us to learn a trade. A person who is
learning a trade receives just as much the first day he begins as he
does when he is the best mechanic in the world. A day is a day. But to
excel in our work is the aim and ambition of all. We look upon honesty,
kindness and physical and mental ability with even greater approval
than you look upon mere dollars and cents in this unjust, cruel age
of yours. An apprentice with you receives at first little or no pay,
and sometimes he must even pay the ‘boss’ for taking him. For this
reason he must, further on, receive higher pay than a common laborer.
As a whole, the apprentice’s efforts are as valuable as the skilled
man’s, for we can not get skilled men and women without first being
apprentices. But our family and community recognize the fact that
we must have laborers for all trades, and therefore we pay them the
same price when learning as we do after they have learned their trade.
You see, skilled labor, under these conditions, is worth no more than
common labor, as you call it. It not only does not cost anything to
learn a trade, but we receive as much for learning as we do ever after.
Our ambition is to excel--to receive the approval of our companions and
co-laborers. Our individuals, families and communities are even much
prouder of excellent sons and daughters than your parents or families
are here. We do all we can to raise the standard of excellence and
proficiency in every member of the community by letting each receive
the good and the bad consequences of his own conduct. Intrinsic worth
is our highest aim, because without it the greatest happiness can not
be attained.”
“Does it require much labor to stamp your money, and could a person who
has charge of the money press be dishonest, if he chose to be?” asked
Mrs. Uwins.
“Our money press is run by electric power, and requires only a few
days’ labor per annum to stamp all the money we need. It is all done by
the press; no human hand is needed only to set it going. It would be
impossible for the minter to be dishonest, or for any other person to
use the money-press. Each community has but one money press, and every
press is different. The press automatically registers the number of
bills, and the total amount of _days_, _hours_, _minutes_ and _seconds_
that it stamps. At the beginning of each fiscal year the press is set
at _bill_ No. 1, and the amount issued, at cipher. This setter is
guarded by a time-lock, which can be opened only one hour during the
whole year when the machine is set for the next year’s work. The press
can by no possibility be turned backward, and the time-lock permits it
to be operated forward only just two hours a month, during which time
the minter stamps the monthly bills. So you see that neither the minter
nor any one else can be dishonest if he tried to be. This precaution is
not so much taken against fraud as against accidental error. We should
always bear in mind that the simplest business system that allows
the fewest intentional or accidental errors to creep in and remain
undiscovered is the best system. At the end of each month all the labor
records received at the mint are booked and footed up, and the total
monthly amount of money issued. In this wise the minter always has two
sets of figures, the one on his book and the other on the register
of the money press. These two sets of figures must indicate the same
amount of money issued.”
“That is a grand scheme,” said Rev. Dudley. “But how is it with your
other business? Is that sealed with the same unavoidable honesty and
correctness as your money making is?”
“All our business is done on nearly the same principle. Besides the
individual who transacts his private business to suit his own taste,
there are two collectivities that do business--the family and the
community. These two always check each other. The family’s annual
invoice shows the goods on hand. Its daily remittances to the ‘Com’
show all the money it has taken in, in all its departments--store,
dining-hall, barbershop, restaurant, etc. The warehouses, which keep an
account of all the commodities they receive and send out, check it up
with the goods it receives from the community, and the ‘Com’ checks it
with the bills the ‘Com’ paid for it to other communities for goods
the family purchased.
“In a similar manner, the ‘Com’ of the community checks with all its
families and with all its warehouses. Under such a system it is hardly
possible that an error can be passed unnoticed.”
“But I see no opportunity in your economic system for capital to earn
anything,” said Rev. Dudley.
“Capital never does earn anything,” responded Mr. Midith. “Labor earns
all. This idea of yours that capital earns something is an illusion.
We have seen that all material wealth which immediately satisfies
man’s wants, consists of food, clothing, shelter and luxuries, and
that all these can be actually produced only by productive labor. The
physical molecules, as such, composing a plow are not wealth, but the
plow is wealth no farther than it required productive labor in its
production. For all we know, there is an inexhaustible amount of iron
and steel waiting for us to be mined, and an inexhaustible opportunity
for raising the wood necessary in the manufacture of plows. The tools
with which the plow is made were also all produced by labor. In a just,
economic system every laborer, whether man, woman, or child, should
receive exactly all he earns, no more and no less; and, if they do
that, there will be nothing left for capital, for all wealth must be
produced by labor.
“Let us take an example to illustrate this. We will say that our
community owns a machine for boring artesian wells, a machine which
is not owned by _every_ community. Now, we first do our own work with
it; then some other community desires us to sink a well for them. Our
community sends a gang of men with the machine to sink the well for so
much per foot. We have expended so much labor in the production of the
machine; it requires so many men to operate it; it wears so long, and,
the average work will be so much. According to these factors, which
have been ascertained by long experience, we make our charge per foot,
so that every person who labored in the production of the machine, as
well as those who operate it during the whole existence of the machine,
just receive their day’s wages and no more. Free competition determines
this price per foot. We have no profit. You see if our community is
not well adapted for boring wells, it will not engage in it; and, if
it should do so, it will soon be crowded out by those communities who
are better adapted for it. All the communities are free competitors
in all fields of industry. This free, non-monopolistic competition
has slowly eliminated all _profit_. Every community has an immense
amount of capital in its ‘big-houses,’ warehouses, and depots; but this
capital earns nothing; no interest and no profit; it is even slowly
decaying--a loss which must be repaired by the labor of the members of
the community. For this reason all communities are eager to sell their
negotiable commodities, so as to hold the money of other communities,
instead of holding their own commodities. From what I have already
said, it is scarcely necessary to say here that money is not capital,
but that it is only a representative of capital. We are not working
for money but for the material wealth, food, clothing, shelter, and
luxuries which the money represents. In this manner, I think, you can
clearly see that labor earns all, for all the money is issued to the
laborer, and that free competition, founded on a non-monopolistic
supply and demand, determines the price of all commodities and
regulates the amount of their needful production.”
“But,” said Viola, as she took hold of Mr. Midith’s hand, “if a laborer
receives exactly all he earns, who, then, pays for the wear and tear of
your property?”
Mr. Midith smiled and said: “The laborer does. We are all laborers, and
the laborer produces everything and pays for everything. Let us see
if I can make this point clear to you; if not, I shall have to take
you with me to Mars as soon as I shall be able to go. But let that be
as it may, the point is, that the individuals of the community must
perform so many days or hours of productive labor per annum to keep up
the supply of wealth and make all needful _repairs_ and improvements.
We have painters that are always painting new things and old things.
We have boulevard and motor-line repairers. We have a gang of builders
that are always building, rebuilding and repairing. We have laborers
to work in the park and other places. There is a constant wear on
everything--furniture, machinery, cars, trees, etc., etc. Just as
any one would keep the same orchard for any length of time by always
planting a new tree as soon as the old one dies, so we keep on making
new things and repairing and improving old ones. This, of course, makes
our day’s labor longer than it would be if there were no such wear
and tear. Every day’s labor, in an average, then, must be long enough
to include the production of the new things we need and the repair of
the old ones. When a babe is born, it has always a home waiting for
it in which it can live all its lifetime. It enjoys, in all respects,
the same privileges that any other member of the family enjoys, and
the first hour’s work it performs, it begins to pay for its home and
other public conveniences, and continues to pay for them every day it
works. So you see that a day’s labor must be long enough to cover all
production and all wear and tear. Thus, if a member of our community
should go to work for any other community which could advantageously
employ more labor, he would receive all he actually earned and pay for
all his actual wear and tear on the property of the community in which
he is working. In this manner, a person can go wherever he desires and
generally work when and where he likes. He pays the same price for his
meals as he does at home. He receives a private apartment where he
is ‘lord and master’ and in which he does his own chamber work, the
same as at home. He pays for all his washing the same as he does at
home. When he works the wear and tear of the public property he uses
is included in his day’s work. If he does not work, he is considered a
visitor and pays the same price for things he pays at home.”
“How plainly,” said Mr. Uwins, “can we see now how all the Marsites’
machinery is operated in the interest of the people instead of being
operated in the interest of a few rich monopolists, as is largely the
case here. Still our laborers, as a class, think that we can not get
along without capitalists or millionaires. They always seem to imagine
that capital is the greatest factor in the production of wealth. That
the productive industry of the world would be fatally crippled or
totally destroyed if there were no millionaires to keep it up. But how
conspicuous the error of all this becomes as we become more familiar
with your just system. In order to avoid being misunderstood, let me
state here that by the foregoing remarks you plainly see that we highly
esteem capital or wealth. But we believe that no one can be really
rich without all being rich, or at least all being above _want_. What
we condemn is the _system_ which enables _some_ to become capitalists
or millionaires by appropriating the wealth produced by others by
monopoly. We do not even particularly condemn the millionaire. He is a
creature of circumstances, a product of a system.”
“But does not your social and industrial system, in which all are
equal, kill ambition and high aspirations?” asked Rev. Dudley. “It
seems to me that a person would have little incentive for work if he
could not lay up something for a rainy day.”
“Things in our world actually prove to be nearly the opposite from what
you seem to imagine them to be, Rev. Dudley. People once believed that
the earth was flat; but a wider range of information proved it to be
round. So in every field of thought and inquiry.
“In the first place allow me to inform you that there are very few
rainy days with us. We live so strictly according to the laws of life
and health that disease is almost unknown, and hence nearly every
person keeps his bodily vigor almost unimpaired until he dies of old
age. Our constitutions are not wrecked by anxiety, toil, exposure,
anger and debauchery. Nearly all of our old people find pleasure in
doing a certain amount of physical work for healthful exercise. Work to
them has become very agreeable, because they were never burdened with
it like nearly all of you are or have been. It is the burdensomeness of
work that makes it disagreeable.
“You say there would be no ambition to labor if a person was unable to
lay up something for a rainy day. I thoroughly agree with you on that
point. We all lay up more than we need for our rainy days. If we work
three-fourths of the time we can travel and visit the other fourth,
spend all we want, and are still able to lay up one-fourth of our
entire earnings; and when we do work our work is almost play. These
favorable conditions ought to inspire us with a high average ambition.
Every man, woman and youth has his purse full of money. They are all
independent and self-reliant. Each is a little savings bank for himself.
“Now let us look with a just and unbiased eye at your conditions.
Nearly all your women and children have to beg what little money they
get from a man, who, as a rule, handles the money. Do you think,
Rev. Dudley, that such a condition inspires a woman and a child with
great ambition to work? Our women and children draw their own pay at
the end of each month. A person’s ambition always corresponds to the
brightness of a person’s present and future outlook; and does the
future look bright to the multitude of your laborers? Look at the
millions of men--day laborers--who have a family, who are sometimes out
of employment, who are cursed and driven like slaves by their bosses,
who have want staring them in the face, who are unable to give the wife
and child money when they ask for it, who can plainly see, that under
the present conditions, they can never lay up anything from the $1.25
they receive for their day’s labor, and not infrequently during old age
they land in the poor house. Do you think that this vast army of poor
laborers can, under such dependent, pitiful conditions, be inspired
with great ambition for labor, and order, and honesty, and kindness,
and truthfulness? The vast majority of your productive laborers are
working for others, they having no direct interest in the production
of their labors. We are all working for ourselves; the more we do the
more we get. On account of your monopoly, there are more laborers than
there are places for laborers; this makes wages low and creates an army
of forced idlers. Do you think that such conditions are conducive to a
high ambition, and that a model industry can flourish under them?
“Now let us extend our comparison a little further. I have already
remarked several times that, in our world, there is a _sharp, free,
never-ending_ competition for the highest plane of perfection between
individuals, between families and between communities. We settle all
advancement by free competition, in which every one is invited a
competitor, to stand on his or her own merits. Some of us have talents
and aptitudes for one thing and some for another. We are by no means
all inclined the same industrially. We are all endeavoring to push
forward to the highest possible plane in our respective fields of
aspirations. But, on the other hand, on account of so much extreme
poverty, and wretchedness resulting from poverty, the people of earth
have scarcely any other ambition than the accumulation of dollars and
cents, in order, on the one hand, to occupy your best so-called social
positions, and on the other to keep want and the fear of want from your
door. We have learned that dollars and cents are easily gotten after
other things have been adjusted harmoniously. We fundamentally seek
for higher and nobler aspirations. After having obtained them the
dollars and cents will easily come. We seek to learn how to co-operate
most harmoniously; how to allow each individual the widest range
of individual freedom; how to acquire the greatest and most useful
information about the phenomenal universe; how to do our respective
parts well, and how to build our happiness on the happiness of our
fellow-man. Such are some of our aspirations, the field of which, no
doubt, is so vast that it can never be completely explored by the power
of human wisdom.”