THINGS WAS ACCOMPLISHED.
“You said, Mr. Midith, that at one time your social and industrial
organizations were similar to our present ones. How, then, did the
change from the old to the new order of things take place? By what
means was it accomplished, and what were the transitional steps?”
inquired Mrs. Uwins.
“Allow me here to make one preliminary statement,” proceeded Mr. Midith.
“All of us agree that we are all in pursuit of the greatest happiness;
we also agree that some acts are always attended with pleasure, or
happiness, while others are always attended with pain, or misery.
The reward of happiness, invariably following certain acts, and the
punishment of misery, invariably following certain other acts, can be
our only guide in ascertaining the most advantageous course of conduct,
and the only incentive that leads us forward on the road of progress.
Hence, as we advance in intellectual culture, our course of action
will be more and more nearly in accord with the fullness of life; for
acts which tend toward the fullness of life must, as a whole, produce
greater happiness than those which detract from it, for under no other
conceivable conditions could a race of sentient beings have been
evolved.
“From what we have seen elsewhere, as well as from the foregoing
remarks, it follows that society, on the one hand, tends to widen and
perfect voluntary co-operation on the part of production, and thereby
economize also in consumption, and, on the other hand, it tends to
enlarge the field of individual freedom; for both an abundant supply
with which to satisfy our wants, and the largest possible scope of
individual freedom tend to produce the greatest happiness.
“That people, then, who by the widest and most thorough voluntary
co-operation most completely satisfy all their varied and complex
desires with the least amount of labor, and with the greatest freedom
to the individual, is the highest civilized. A strong centralized
government is not a mark of a high state of civilization, as some
of you at first sight may think; if it were, Russia would rank in
civilization far above the United States. Armies, navies and policemen
are no signs of high intellectual culture; if you consider them such,
Russia ranks first in culture and civilization. They are nothing
more or less than remnants of barbarity; they are the marks of
contemporaneous discord.
“By following the same course of reasoning, and by bearing in mind that
our social and industrial organizations, in which every sound person
is kind, non-aggressive, rich and free, have no use and no place for
civil judges, man-made laws, kings and queens, presidents, congresses,
legislatures, tariff, prisons, lawyers, priests, politicians, schemers
and compulsory taxation, you will at once understand that they are not
signs of civilization and culture, but are, on the contrary, marks of
existing fraud, compulsion and quarrelsomeness. Orthodox preachers,
sectarian churches, and legal and priestly marriages are remnants of
former superstitions. Public schools, charitable institutions, and
reformatory prisons are marks of a crude, defective and unnatural
system of instruction. Millionaires, paupers, bankers, land value,
profit, interest and rent are consequences of monopolization. They must
all become unnecessary and repugnant to the mind, before a high state
of civilization and culture can be attained.
“As we slowly learned these facts, both the city and country
disappeared. The people that lived in large cities found that a city
is a noisy, smoky, filthy and unwholesome place to live. There was,
perhaps, but one little park in the whole city. The wealthier class
gradually began to build their dwellings more and more remote from the
center of city activity. But the vast majority of the working Marsites
at this period of transition were living in small tenement houses,
paying high rent and working a long, long toilsome day in the factory,
store or mine for very low wages. They were too rude, thoughtless
and poor to be sensible to the wholesome wants of a city life. They,
like your city people on earth, rarely ever saw and heard a bird,
smelled the fragrance of blooming plants, or saw the flowers and green
grass grow. Every opening in their poor abode admitted noise, dust,
vermin, stench and vitiated air. In winter they were often too poor
to heat their apartments artificially; in summer the heat was almost
unendurable, and the ventilation was often next to nothing. We also
gradually learned that cities, as such, do not only tend to produce
crime, but also shelter and secrete criminals. They tend to concentrate
wealth and power, making a few millionaires and a vast army of
extremely poor. More than that, they foster and often license many of
the gravest crimes.
“On the other hand, the farmer, living almost a solitary life and
working early and late to produce the necessaries and luxuries of
life for himself and family and for the comparatively unproductive
city and town ‘boomer,’ who must all live from the products of the
earth, gradually learned by high-priced experience that such a lonely,
toilsome _country_ life is scarcely worth living. His single-handed
work was so hard, slow, often wasteful, and comparatively unproductive
that he had hardly any leisure left for cleanliness and mental culture.
In many cases, his wife and children rarely ever came in contact with
other members of the human family. The wife generally was at the same
time mother, nurse, cook, washerwoman, tailor, housekeeper, dressmaker,
milliner, milk and dairy maid, stock and poultry breeder, gardener, not
unfrequently assistant farmer, and sometimes, as when a widow, even
head farmer.
“Just in proportion, then, as the farmer and townsman learned the evils
of a crowded, unhealthy and unnecessary city, and also of a lonely
and unnecessary country, both the city and country disappeared. The
burdens caused by the city and country, which were formerly unfelt by
all, became, under a higher state of intellectual culture, unbearable
even by the dullest. The most thoughtful men and women, who saw the
advantages of co-operation and the agreeableness of a larger family,
first began to live together and work together. Aggressiveness slowly
changed into personal freedom, and invasions became fewer and fewer;
in other words, we gradually learned to mind our _own_ business. Thus
we did away with the solitude of the country and with the evil effects
of a city. We are now all living in splendid parks, adorned with
life-giving vegetation. Thus our social instinct is gratified; the evil
effects produced by cities are no more, and we are also conveniently
located to the land from which, as we have seen, all wealth must be
produced by the application of labor.
“Our family homes, of course, were at first not so orderly and
advantageously arranged as they are at present; but they were not
so close together as to be unhealthful, and not so distant as to be
lonely. The members of the family continued to increase. From a single,
cruel, covetous, jealous, married man and wife to sometimes more than a
thousand kind, free, cultivated, non-aggressive persons--men, women and
children, none of whom pretend to hold any compulsory claims against
any other one.
“You must not imagine, either, that the arrangement and growth of all
our present families and communities occurred instantaneously and
simultaneously. Our present conditions are, of course, a social and
industrial _growth_, and required time and intelligence for their
completion or advancement. To illustrate: Your so-called republics
did not _all_ appear at the same time. The second republic profited
by the experience of the first. The first republic did not postpone
its formation until _all_ mankind were ripe for a republic. As soon
as a certain collection of your people thought that they could live
more agreeably and more happily under a republican form of government
than under a monarchy, the monarchy was gradually changed into what
you now call republics. You have had some republics for years, yet not
all your earthly inhabitants are subjects of republics at the present
time. All persons do not mature for the same thing at the same time.
So it was with our families and communities. Those men and women that
matured for a higher plane first, began to live together, regardless
of the immature, as nearly as possible a life approaching the one the
Marsites are now living. As I have already stated, years ago each
married couple constituted a family, and lived alone in the same manner
as you are now living on earth. Then two suitable couples began to live
together as one family. The two couples cooked on one stove, ate from
one table, and co-operated in their domestic and other labor. Their
social intercourse made the individual members continually more _free_
and less aggressive. One stove or heating apparatus did the heating for
both couples. One house, one table, one clock, one cellar, one musical
instrument, one washing-machine, one library, one parlor carpet, one
lamp, one churn, etc., supplied _four_ individuals just as well, and in
many respects better, than they had formerly supplied two.
“By this co-operation nearly one-half the commodities were economized.
But this was by no means all the advantage gained. The women’s domestic
labor by working together was only little more than half as much to
each individual as it was when each couple lived in a house separately.
Thus they largely economized in labor and in commodities. A laborer,
whether man or woman, when so co-operating, can, on an average, work
more advantageously than they can when working single-handed. Under a
division of labor, a person can do much more and much better work than
he can otherwise, but it requires a large community of extensive and
thorough co-operation to make a complete division of labor possible.
Under co-operation much more work can be done with improved machinery,
and much less machinery is required to do it.
“With regard to the care of children, two mothers in the same family
can greatly assist each other. One can nurse the children for a time,
while the other is at liberty to go out, or do some other work. They
are then not bound down so closely as if each were living in a separate
home. Of this division and economy of labor and saving of commodities,
both men and women gradually took advantage.
“As the family and homes increased in number and size, and as material
subsistence was more and more easily obtained by co-operative
production and economy, avarice, covetousness and jealousy gradually
disappeared. All learned by experience that in order to be really rich
and happy each individual must do his part from the promptings of an
inward sentiment which constitutes character. No one can, without
impairing his own permanent happiness, invade the rights of another.
Each learned to build his own happiness on the happiness of his
fellow-beings.
“The increase of individual freedom and equality kept pace with the
enlargement of the home and family until the individual--man, woman
and child--were completely free and equal, in all the privileges that
could be enjoyed according to the individual’s age and sex. All former
claims that were not voluntary and mutually agreeable were gradually
disregarded. Promises were broken as soon as they were found to be
untrue. The discovery of truth became the great aim. Each individual
became the sole owner of his or her person.
“Just as the family and home grew in size, kindness, freedom and order,
so did the community grow in size, arrangement, regularity and wealth.
The new houses were built larger, more healthful, and more convenient
as to location; the old ones were enlarged and rearranged. Railroads
or motor-lines with large depots and warehouses at short intervals
connected every home. Door-yards, parks, play-grounds, boulevards,
greenhouses, gardens and farms were enlarged, rearranged and improved.
Land engines, electric vehicles and steam engines of various kinds
superseded the draught animals, and in turn they were supplanted by
electric power.
“As man grew continually more vegetarian and less carnivorous, cattle
breeding became less and less, until they were sparingly used only
for dairy purposes. Poultry was raised only for their eggs and for
pets; sheep for their wool. All these industries, as time passed, were
conducted on a larger scale, and in localities best adapted for them.
Timber culture was also carried to those localities best suited for
that industry.
“Mining and manufacturing became great industries, and were carried
on in some form in nearly every community. By the prospecting scheme,
the richness of the mine constantly increased; and the improved mining
machinery and tools made mining not an unpleasant occupation. As the
industrial adjustment became more complete, much of the mining was
done during those seasons of the year when agriculture and other labor
was least. The principal manufacturing was done on a large scale
in those localities where water and wind power for the generation
of electricity were most abundant. Our machinery and the skill of
our workmen constantly improved and developed. By our keen, free
competition each community naturally drifted into those industries for
which the community was best adapted.
“The interior of the house became more and more useful, convenient and
comfortable. Stoves for heating and cooking purposes were superseded by
engines and natural gas, then by electricity. Powerful mellow electric
lights, which lighted the big-houses, walks, lakes, boulevards, motor
lines and railroads more brilliantly than a noonday sun, took the
place of the former lamps. Stairways were superseded by improved and
wonderfully convenient elevators. The steam and electric laundry did
away with handwashing. Everything was improved, and countless new
things were constantly invented. With our present leisure and wealth
we have a hundred inventors, where we formerly had one, or where you
have one. The kitchen, the dining-room, the barber-shop, the halls, the
furniture, the commercial department, the nurseries, the restaurant,
the grand parlors, the store, the bath-rooms, the scientific
departments, the carriage-room and the private apartments--all
kept pace with the general advancement. Voluntary co-operation and
individual freedom were so abundantly productive and economized so
enormously in all directions that wealth, health and happiness reigned
everywhere.
“Gradually, as the people acquired this additional practical knowledge,
each individual became better able to transact his own business, for
several reasons:
“First, the social and industrial organization grew more and more
natural, and, therefore, more simple. Secondly, an intelligent person
can keep himself out of trouble better than an ignorant and aggressive
one. And thirdly, an enlightened person is capable of transacting more
complex business than an unenlightened one.
“With the rise of a higher intelligence, unproductive and destructive
labor gradually disappeared, until none was left. Just in proportion
as our Marsian ancestors allowed one another more and more individual
freedom, they became also more peaceable, for aggression only can
provoke quarrels and fights. These peaceful sentiments gradually
diminished the number of soldiers, policemen, peace officers, civil
judges, lawyers, politicians, legislators, etc., and also their tools
and machinery--guns, clubs, prisons, scaffolds, courts, law libraries,
legislative halls, fortifications, navies, etc. All of this shortened
the days of manual labor.
“In the commercial and mercantile business all needless and destructive
labor was done away with. The army of profit takers contemporaneously
disappeared with the cities and towns. The banker’s customers left
him just to the extent as a medium of exchange, based on productive
labor or the negotiable wealth of the community was introduced and
recognized. Money was secured by the actual negotiable wealth on hand,
and there was always as much and no more in circulation as there was
actual negotiable wealth. Interest, which is the result of money
monopoly, became a thing of the past. Money was made more and more of
cheap and convenient material. The vast army of gold and silver miners,
who were once at work to produce the expensive material for a medium
of exchange, were slowly compelled to file in the ranks of productive
labor; for we now make all our medium of exchange out of a cheap
convenient paper.
“Our middlemen had to quit business for want of customers. One family
and community bought directly of another community, everything came
directly from the producer and went to the consumer. Traveling
salesmen, as such, could find no employment, because every community,
by the aid of the annual invoice and census, by samples, by the Fanos
and Modano, and by a thorough classification of goods, bought and
sold whatever and wherever they could to the best advantage. The
vast sum of wages and expense formerly paid the traveling salesmen,
is no more taxed to the goods they sold. The consumer is rid of that
extra burden. You, as consumers, are at present, perhaps, paying over
$200,000,000 per annum in this manner on goods purchased. Under our
system, we require only a few stores and clerks to do our business much
better than you are doing yours with your countless stores, clerks and
traveling salesmen. By this advantageous adjustment, we economized a
vast amount of labor by co-operation and concentration.
“As man’s belief in the uniformity of nature became clearer and
stronger, the sectarian preacher’s congregation diminished in number.
As man himself became so good that punishment and revenge seemed
barbarous and repugnant to him, he could no longer believe that the
formative forces of the universe consciously and deliberately delight
in acts of torture too vile for human contemplation. Here again a
vast number of unproductive and destructive laborers had to become
producers.
“The business of insurance companies of all kinds dwindled down to
nothing. Our social and industrial organization afforded all the
protection the individual could utilize. Every community, so to speak,
is an insurance company without any special agents. We have no husbands
that need make provisions for a widow and orphans. Our women are as
capable of caring for themselves as our men, and our helpless children
are all provided for by the family, whether the parents are living or
dead. Our ‘big-houses’ are fire-proof; and if not it would be next to
impossible for a fire to originate, because we use neither stoves,
lamps, tobacco nor matches in the house. The army of insurance agents
and officers that were once supported by the insured were slowly forced
by natural conditions into the field of productive labor also.
“The improvement of commerce kept pace with the other improvements.
The person’s back, the ox-cart, the horse-team and the steam and
electric engines successively superseded one another. The illy-graded
and muddy street and road were supplanted by the boulevard, motor-line
and finely-constructed railroads. The bicycle, tricycle and electric
vehicles succeeded the poor, expensive coach horse. The floating
palace of the ocean increased in speed, convenience and safety. Aerial
navigation was also vastly improved in many ways.
“Co-operation in intercommunication is fully as complete as it is in
other industries. The improvement continued from the rudest beginning
of mail-carrying until each private apartment is furnished with a
postoffice, telephone, phonograph, etc.”
“Now,” requested Mr. Uwins of Mr. Midith, “explain to us how the
ownership of land from that of owning land by _deed_ to that of
_occupancy_ and _use_ was effected.”
“As I told you the other evening, monopolization of land, which is
caused by the deed system, is either directly or indirectly the source
of nearly all the social and industrial derangement; at least, this was
formerly the case on Mars, and is plainly now the case on earth. But
everything for the better must be solved by intelligence, which can be
acquired only by experience, either ancestral or personal. So as we
learned during the lapse of time that we could be happier by owning
land by occupancy and use than by owning it by deed, we gradually took
to the former.”
“But we would like to know,” said Viola, “in what manner this change
was brought about, so that we can make our intelligence here on earth,
too, count in that direction.”
“Of course, primitive man with his rude and unpolished intellect sees
nothing of this evil. The antagonistic propensities which man has
inherited during the fierce struggle for existence from his lower
ancestors, caused him to monopolize natural opportunity wherever he
could, because his intelligence was so low and narrow that to him the
material subsistence seemed to count for all, and the higher social and
industrial qualities counted for little or nothing. Such an intellect
can not see that one can not be happy as long as he is surrounded
by many who are ignorant and miserable. But with the unfolding of
higher and nobler sentiments, man, at last, clearly realized that no
person can really be wealthy in any world as long as a portion of his
fellowmen are pinched with poverty, oppressed by slavery, burdened
by ignorance and affected with filth and rudeness. He learned that
in order to have universal prosperity, high mental attainments and
cleanliness and purity, man must be free to apply his labor to land
wherever he finds some vacant.”
“But do you think,” asked Mrs. Uwins, “that the evil effects of owning
land by deed are as great when the population of a country or world is
sparse than if it be dense?”
“It may not be fully as great in the former as in the latter case, but
it is always one of the greatest evils and the most effectual hindrance
to universal progress. We have seen that in order to make industry most
productive, we must have a complete division of labor; and a complete
division of labor is possible only under an extensive and thorough
voluntary co-operation. But notice that the ownership of land by _deed_
creates or tends to create extensive landlords. Hence all individuals
must either be extensive landowners, or some are compelled to work
either directly or indirectly for the landlord. But if every individual
is an extensive landowner, population must necessarily be sparse;
and with a sparse population, extensive and thorough co-operation is
impossible, while, on the other hand, the laboring of some landless
individuals for the landlords, as you now have it and as we formerly
had it, causes land monopoly, which is the cause either directly or
indirectly of nearly all your social and industrial evils.”
“Yes, I clearly see the advantages of owning land by occupancy and use.”
“But now,” continued Mr. Midith “let us consider a few of the
transitional steps through which the Marsites passed in effecting
the change from the old to the new method of owning land. Of course
you know very well that not every one abandoned his vacant land
simultaneously. All great ideas are born in the mind of one individual.
He imparts it to a few of his social companions, and his companions
to their companions and so on until it becomes universal. Just so did
the vacant land agitation arise on Mars, and just so has it already
arisen on earth. You can perhaps see more clearly the rise of an idea
when you contemplate how your so-called civilized nations, states,
and individuals gradually abolished _chattel_ slavery, wife stealing,
imprisonment for debt, etc., etc. But allow me to give you a warning
right here. Do not be deceived like many of you are, by thinking that
war can really set slaves free. All freedom and toleration, like all
ideas, have their origin in the intellectual faculty of the individual.
They are born by mental impressions received on consciousness and not
by bullet-holes through the brain.
“As I have told you, the social feelings unfolded in proportion to the
intellectual elevation. With the development of the just and peaceable
sentiments, a closer and more extensive association and co-operation
became mutually agreeable. The evils caused by the deed ownership of
land became constantly clearer and more apparent to a larger number
of our population, and the conscious burden of this wrong became more
and more painful to bear; so much so that many began to abandon their
vacant land, or invited others to co-operate with them on equitable
terms.
“In this manner the rude community was born and developed. The
tillers of the soil commenced to live and work together. They began
to manufacture their own implements, mine their own minerals, made
their own medium of exchange, and bought what they needed and sold
what they had to spare directly to other similar rude communities.
This, for want of business, forced the townsmen out of the cities and
towns onto vacant land to provide for their own wants. The reward of
co-operation and of individual freedom strengthened and built up the
infant community. The communistic production was so abundant, the labor
so easy and pleasant, and the social life so agreeable that even the
dullest began to see the advantages and sought to become a constituent
part of a community.
“Thus the landowner, as land gradually depreciated in commercial value
from the effects of numerous abandonments of vacant land, was even
pleased to have a co-operating community take up and work his land,
because he would produce more and much easier as a co-operator than
as an owner under a perverted system. Thus gradually every individual
became a member of a community. This communistic co-operation
concentrated population, so that even with the former increase of
population, there is still at present an abundance of first-class land
unoccupied for want of population, and any one who would get tired
of co-operation can get all the land he wants for nothing and set up
over himself and over his followers, if he could get any, any kind
of religion or government he wished; but those who have once tasted
the advantages of voluntary co-operation and individual freedom can
never again be induced to become the dupes of poverty, tyranny and
superstition.”
“How did your present money or medium of exchange, come into general
use?” asked Mrs. Uwins.
“Let me explain briefly,” said Mr. Midith. “From the explanation I have
given you, you understand how the community originated and developed
to its present size and arrangement. You also know how your nations on
earth now control and monopolize the issuing of money, and how your
business transactions are more and more effected by means of commercial
papers instead of coin and currency.
“In the beginning, one infant community in buying and selling gave a
kind of due-bill to the other. Men, instead of hunting for the precious
metals out of which to make money, as was formerly the case with us
and as is still the case with you, directed their labor toward the
production of food, clothes, shelter and luxuries.
“Our money system was thus gradually perfected into the one I have
described to you elsewhere. This gradual development is easily
traceable. Of course, with money as with everything else, the fittest
will eventually survive. More and more business was transacted by
means of commercial papers without the use of government-monopolized
money. As the commercial business grew more simple and definite, the
commercial apartment in our big-houses sprung up and became more
perfect. This arrangement and rearrangement continued until every
individual has his own money issued by the community on his monthly
labor record. Practically, each individual produces wealth, and on this
wealth he has his money issued monthly. Under these conditions, money
can now be obtained only by productive labor and by voluntary gift, and
all productive labor receives all it earns.”
“How about your government?” asked Viola. “How did that develop to its
present form? Will you please show us the direction of its growth by
enumerating some of the transitional steps by which it has reached its
present perfection?”
“I think I shall be able to point out to you the direction of its
growth,” said Mr. Midith. “I notice that you have been, and are now,
growing governmentally in the same direction as we grew, and, no doubt,
you will in time reach the same, or nearly the same, end that we have
reached.
“From what I have told you on previous occasions, you, of course,
understand that we once lived in small families composed of husband
and wife and their children. These families, like yours, had a family
government. The husband generally considered himself the ‘boss,’ or
head of the family. In a low state of civilization he maintained his
authority by resorting to physical force and superstition. He often
thought it necessary and even his duty to flog his wife and children
when they refused to obey his orders. Sometimes he even beat them to
death. It was thought then that a family could not exist successfully
without some such boss. But as experience gradually taught them that
such cruel course of conduct produced discord, sullenness, lies and
deception, the element of physical force constantly diminished,
especially toward the wife. Her wishes were more and more conceded
to until she finally became the equal to the husband in the general
management of the family; and still further on she managed her domestic
affairs as she thought best without asking the permission of the
husband. The growth of this governmental freedom and independence
between husband and wife continued until both learned that each is best
capable of doing their own work without interfering with the other.
Each learned that non-aggressiveness produces more happiness than
aggressiveness. Thus did the government begin to change.
“But long after the husband and wife had learned not to interfere with
each other’s course of manual labor, they deemed it still necessary to
employ physical force in the training and management of their children.
Both father and mother, in this later period, seemed to think that a
child can not be successfully reared without an abundant application of
the rod. Hence the maxim, ‘He who loves his child does not spare the
rod.’ But later on the parents found that they were mistaken in this,
the same as the husband had formerly been mistaken in the use of the
rod on his wife. They found that they could raise a much better and a
much wiser child by kindness and freedom than they could by cruelty
and slavery, and that both parents and children under freedom and
gentleness are much happier than they could otherwise be.
“Quite a number of your families have already reached such a stage of
culture as the foregoing; but such is not the end of family freedom.
Long after a husband and wife do no more interfere with each other’s
labor affairs, they still often interfere with each other’s private
affairs on jealousy and other grounds. One is often not free to act as
he desires for fear that he may thereby offend the other. I find the
same also to be true with regard to children. You have many parents
that have put aside the rod long ago; yet they believe that a child
ought to remain at home and work for the parents until it is eighteen
or twenty-one years of age, and such parents do not hesitate to enact
statute laws to that effect.
“Such parents seem to think that a child owes a parent a great sum for
the parental care it received from them, and that it requires the labor
of the child up to that age. Notice that the parent alone, without the
consultation of the child, names this age, and he could make it fifty
years as well as twenty-one. But these parents seem to forget that they
_received_ parental care during their infancy and that they, in turn,
are bound to _give_ parental care or else die a debtor to human equity.
_Free_ persons are those who are not forcibly prevented by others from
going _where_, _when_, and with whom they please, and act as they
see fit, provided they do not invade the equal rights of others. For
example, I believe that Mr. Uwins’ family enjoys such freedom, and that
many others are gradually maturing for it. At least during my stay with
you, I have heard no command from any one. You all seem to know how
to live an orderly life without invading the rights, or frustrating
the wishes of each other. The children, as far as I can see, enjoy the
same freedom and privileges as the parents. The only ties which are
respected between husband and wife, parent and child are those which
are mutually agreeable. The foregoing is the direction in which our
family government up to this point developed, and a similar growth is
already discernible here on earth.
“But do not understand me here that the family development was the only
one. Religious and political toleration also kept pace with the family.
The witch fires were slowly extinguished, the ‘Benefit of Clergy’
disregarded, trial by ordeal abandoned, direct tithes were regarded
impositions, church and state were separated first in theory and
later in practice also, colossal churches and cathedrals, which were
once built by compulsory taxation, were later on built by voluntary
donation, the army of clergy who were once a social caste maintained by
compulsory taxation became later on dependent on the voluntary gifts of
their congregation. So step by step, we, like you are now doing, moved
toward justice and freedom.
“Politically the different hordes and tribes coalesced gradually into
powerful absolute monarchies, then they slowly changed to limited
monarchies, then to your so-called republics, and still later on we
became free as we now are. Gradually the sphere of compulsory taxation
contracted and weakened. Primitively a person passing from one small
district or country had to pay duty on himself and goods, later on he
paid duty only on his goods, still later all migration and commerce
became free; a person could go where he pleased, and buy and sell where
he found the best market without paying duty on anything.”
“Then you were at one time in just the same stages of development as we
now are!” exclaimed Rev. Dudley.
“Just the same,” replied Mr. Midith.
“And now the Marsites are much further than we are,” said Mrs. Uwins.
“What interests us most now is, by what course you reached your present
destination, so that we may make our intelligence count to propel us in
the same direction.”
“Well let us try then, briefly, to point out the channel through which
we passed. By the advance of intellectual culture, the unjust burden of
compulsion became continually more apparent and sensitive to a larger
proportion of the people. As long as a progressive people believe that
man can be elevated and reformed by human-made laws--that a person’s
‘heart’ can be made good by the ballot, that long they will employ the
ballot, and that long the rights of using the ballot will be given to a
continually increasing number of the people.
“In a certain political stage, the absolute monarch was the sole ruler
and law-maker; then a few advisers were added; then a parliament
with hereditary members; then representatives elected by a certain
privileged class, as landlords, etc.; then the franchise was vested in
all male citizens, who were of ‘age,’ and who owned a certain amount
and kind of property, or paid a certain sum of taxes or rent; then to
all male citizens who were of ‘age,’ then the female was gradually
enfranchised, first in school and municipal affairs, then in county and
state matters, and further on the female had the same privileges to
use the ballot as the male; and then the age of political majority was
continually lowered from twenty-one downward.
“But long before all these rights were accorded to the wife and child
by the masses, the more thoughtful ones of the age had learned that
the ballot is powerless in bringing about justice, prosperity and a
harmonious social adjustment between man and man. Hence, instead of
voting as before, they slowly ceased to use the political ballot, and
began to direct all their progressive energy toward self-improvement
and the general diffusion of knowledge. By these means their number
continually increased until it included every man, woman and child in
our community government which I have described to you before.
“But these were not the only means by which the compulsory element of
government was frustrated and finally defeated. Compulsory taxation
was another element which matured the people to abolish compulsory
government. In proportion as the people grew in self-reliance,
individual liberty and aversion for government by physical force, the
burden of compulsory taxation became more and more sensitive. In the
course of time the vast majority of the people believed more or less
in lying and otherwise deceiving the assessors, so as to avoid paying
taxes; and the assessors generally knew themselves that the tax-payers
were lying to them when they enumerated their property for assessment.
And these sentiments, more or less, are easily traceable with your
tax-payer here on earth. As far as I can learn, nearly all of you try
more or less to deceive your assessors. You, like we first, attempted
in this matter to make people truthful by putting them under oath, but
it was soon found that when people do not wish to pay taxes any longer,
they have no greater scruples for perjury than they have for a simple,
straight falsehood. Thus the oath, too, became powerless and eventually
obsolete.
“In this manner the taxes and duties were one by one taken off from
the different kinds of property, so that at last all was free. The
cessation of compulsory taxation caused the government of physical
force first to weaken and then to crumble to pieces. It, of course, was
for a while more or less maintained by voluntary donations by those who
still believed in it, in a somewhat similar manner as you now maintain
churches which were also formerly built and maintained by the state.
But as man’s sentiments grew more and more in harmony with freedom, the
compulsory element slowly disappeared altogether, as we now find it in
our communities. Thus we arrived by successive approximations to our
present form of voluntary government. In proportion as the human-made
laws were repealed and ignored, natural opportunity became equally open
to all, so that justice, free competition, and a healthy supply and
demand, guided by a constantly increasing intelligence, made a proper
adjustment of all things.”