Universal State and Language.
“Soon after the beginning of the first millennium, the three great
governments of the world were consolidated into one. This was found
desirable in order to have equal and uniform laws regarding the
regulation of population, education the administration of justice and the
establishment of a uniform language. This latter object was accomplished
by means of the universal state schools. A language was invented on
scientific principles, as to its grammar, with words borrowed from
different languages. This was taught, in every school together with the
native language of the country in which the school was located. This was
kept up for 50 years, by which time practically everybody understood
the new language, and then the others were dropped from the curriculum
and only the new was thenceforth taught. There continued to be some
differences of race however for several thousand years, but it is now
difficult to trace any race distinction.
“The population of the earth is not now quite so great as it was in the
year 2070. It has gradually been contracted to about 10,000,000,000.
It was much larger during the first millennium, but the people were
much given to flitting about, following the seasons like the birds,
in consequence of which in some places the crowds became too great
for comfort. Rather than make arbitrary rules to repress travel, they
contracted the population by increasing the proportion of third sex
children and diminishing that of the others. You understand no attempt
was ever made to regulate the size of the family—that was left to
nature—only its sex. The average number of children to a family has
long been about 18, sixteen of whom are of the third sex. The people
live mostly in cities, but the land is cultivated to such crops as
clover, alfalfa, the grasses etc, the entire crops being chemically
treated and the food principles extracted from them. Large tracts are,
however, reserved for the public. They are beautified and adorned in
every direction—and parks and flower gardens are everywhere, and here the
people are fond of congregating in pleasant weather wheeling their motor
cars over the solid smooth roadways or flitting about in their flyers. As
eating and drinking are no longer fashionable or practicable pastimes,
there is a conspicuous absence of restaurants and saloons. Yet many of
the people are supplied with little vials containing their standard food
of which they partake if need be. But they have no stated hours for
eating, no cooking, no cooks, no meals. Each one eats when his feelings
tell him he needs it, and is not governed by the appetite of others. Yet,
as a practical fact, most persons do fall into habits of some regularity.
Nature is a stickler for habit.”
“I suppose,” said I, “the state furnishes many things that were left to
individuals to do in my time, but how is the state supported? Who does
the work?”
“Everybody works, but not much is required of anyone. The society is
largely but not exclusively socialistic. The state makes everything
necessary for existence, but no superfluities. In these necessaries it
has the monopoly, and no one else is allowed to make or sell them. The
state thus makes all food and clothing and clothing material builds
all houses, makes all furniture, carriages, flying machines, furnishes
heat, light and power, takes care of the young and educates them.
Everybody works; is obliged to work in fact for his living. Eight tenths
of the people work for the state, and not over two-tenths directly for
other employers. In this two-tenths are included authors, ministers
and priests, lecturers on new and unaccepted theories, artists, some
milliners, dressmakers etc.
“The state fixes the wages it will pay according to the desirability or
undesirability of the work, the undesirable of course being the best
paid—the kind that would have been the worst paid in your day. An average
of one hour a day of labor for the state will furnish lodging food and
necessary clothing. So in five or six weeks one can lay up enough to
maintain him a year, and have the rest of his time to do as he pleases.
Notwithstanding the cheapness of everything, nothing is sold by the
state except at a trifling advance upon its cost, which constitutes the
only kind of taxation that is imposed. The surplus thus raised pays the
expenses of state officials, courts, education etc. If anyone wants more
than the modest living he can get by working at the rate of six weeks in
a year; he can get it by working longer. By working steadily for a year
he can accumulate enough to travel around the world. Or he can indulge in
a fine painting or two, or a musical instrument or contribute money to
some institution not supported by the state, as a church or philosophical
society. Or he can lay up money in the state savings institution, until
he accumulates a fortune for some pet enterprise or for use in old age.
For several thousand years little or nothing has been spent on new public
works. Everything really needed was long since built on principles of
eternal durability, and repairs are light. Railways, canals etc., of
course pay their own way. On the surface of the earth almost everything
may be said to be practically finished. The largest fields for discovery
are under ground. Stores of mineral wealth never dreamed of in your day
have been unearthed and utilized. Thousands of miles of tunnels have been
constructed and some mountain ranges have been perforated in so many
directions that their interiors are more familiar than their bleak and
inhospitable surfaces. Enormous unsuspected caves and openings have been
found, from many of which the contained material was ejected by volcanic
action in ancient times.
“In a great number of places tunnels have penetrated to regions of
insupportable heat, and this heat transformed into electricity has been
conveyed to the surface and its power distributed to great distances.
This plan has been largely practiced in the mountainous regions of Asia
and South America, Scandinavia, Alaska and other countries. In such
regions heat can be reached without descending, and so the tunnels are
self draining. This source of power helps out the sun in the rainy
seasons etc.”
“You mentioned something about state savings institutions just now; I
suppose they receive the money of the people and pay interest on it—or
how?”
“The state savings institutions receive money and take care of it, but
they pay no interest. They do not loan it, so get no income from it
and cannot pay any. In fact their fundamental ideas of business have
undergone a radical change for these many ages back. They deny that it
is fair business to take a profit on any transaction. If a man lends
his money to another he is entitled to pay for the time it takes him to
make the loan and collect it, but he is not entitled to interest for use
of the money. If a man borrows a plow worth ten dollars and wears it to
the amount of one dollar, he should pay the owner the one dollar, but
it is for repairs, not interest. If he borrows ten dollars in money and
returns the full amount there is no wear to make good. If a man borrows
ten dollars for which he must pay one dollar interest, then buys a plow
and wears it one dollar’s worth he is out two dollars. So he must charge
one dollar above its cost, for his crop, when he sells it, and this
is called profit. He does not keep it, however, but must pass it over
to the capitalist. He might charge two dollars profit, in which case,
he would keep one for his profit and give the other to the capitalist
for his. In both cases they say, it is wrong and unsound as a business
transaction, because it is getting or giving something for nothing. The
idea of the legitimacy of profits and interest arose in ancient times
in connection with the uncertainty or the gambling element that entered
into all business. This was due to individualism or the practice of each
one doing business for himself, taking his own risks and chances in a
thousand ways. If one spent his time and money in making something to
sell, he was not absolutely sure he would be able to find a buyer. And if
one loaned his money to be used in business he shared the risks of it and
could not be absolutely sure of getting it back again. Up to the amount
of the risks, profit and interest were under the conditions legitimate.
But while under the individual system everybody charged for the risk
of loss, the losses in reality fell on only a part, and so the rest
got something for nothing. When insurance companies were organized to
distribute part of the risks, making those who did not lose, contribute
to make up the loss of those who did, the risks of all were diminished,
and the profit and interest charges on that account reduced. If insurance
with its distribution of risks had extended to every form of risk, and
if the members of the companies or insured persons had embraced everyone
in the community instead of only a part, then the special risks to each
one would have been altogether eliminated, the insurance would have
become a part of the cost of the goods to be added to their sale value,
and profits above this no longer legitimate. For if one is entitled
to profits so are all those with whom he exchanges and nobody gains;
unless the profits of one are higher than those of another in which case
someone is cheated or in other words robbed. Now when the state undertook
practically all business and all transportation, and owned all houses,
shops and factories, all risks of all forms were at once distributed to
all the people, without the ceremony of insurance. If a building burned,
or tools, or machinery became superseded by better ones, or goods became
unsalable, or employes dishonest, or incompetent, the loss was fully
insured, for it fell upon all, and there was nobody outside of this
“all” to make it good. There could therefore be no possible honest end
to be gained by profits; and interest on money falls with profits. As
all the people work some time or other and receive wages, all have a
bank account, for they are taught to be careful and economical, and they
understand that one cannot spend a dollar and still have it.”
“How do they encourage and pay for inventions and discoveries—or has
everything been invented and discovered?”
“No, they are discovering something new all the time. A good many people
who have got something ahead and have leisure find congenial employment
in invention. If they produce anything valuable the state takes and uses
it paying them for their time, and also distinguishing them by honorable
mention and in some cases by decorations or medals. If the development
of the idea requires the use of expensive machinery or materials, it
is submitted to the judgment, of experts whether the would be inventor
shall be furnished these things at public expense. If they think his idea
not of sufficient value, he must either drop it or pursue it at his own
expense, and take his chances of getting the glory and the pay when it
is demonstrated, and these considerations seem to be enough to bring out
their best endeavor in that line.”
“Then it seems they don’t value brain work any higher than hand work?”
“They value brains, but do not pay extra for them for the reason that
they regard them as owing their best thoughts to the state. They say,
that whatever one is, the state has made him, and if he is above the
average he owes more than the average.”
“Did you say, Professor, that the houses belong to the state?”
“Yes the state has built houses enough to accommodate the whole
population. In each town or city the houses are of uniform height for
that place. Thus there are two story towns or four or ten story towns. A
very large place may be twenty or thirty stories in the middle and lower
further out. But no differences are allowed on any block. The roofs are
flat and continuous over each block and connected with neighboring blocks
by bridges over the streets. The flyers are all kept on the roofs and
the flyers’ entrance to the buildings is by a roof entrance connecting
with the elevator. Wheeled vehicles are kept upon the streets. There
are generally vacant apartments to be had if any one wishes to move
from one city to another. But the population has its fads and whims and
sometimes the popularity of some place will attract more people than the
houses can accommodate. In that case the government will build some new
houses. Houses are rented by the year for one per cent of their cost plus
the one-fifth of one per cent for repairs. The latter sum is paid back
to the tenant if the repairs are not required. Thus if a house costs
ten thousand dollars, the rent would be one hundred, the theory being
that its cost would be repaid in 100 years. But as houses last 1,000
years—in fact are indestructible except by an earthquake—the state has
accumulated a large fund from rents of houses that have long since paid
for themselves, and this fund builds new ones when they are wanted.”
“I suppose there is no woodwork used in building a house.”
“They use what they call wood, but it is an artificial product made of
mineral. It is almost as light as wood, can be cut and formed as wood
can, but is much stronger and cannot be burned and never rots. By slight
differences in its manufacture several varieties are produced imitating
various sorts of wood. It has totally displaced wood and is used for all
purposes from fine furniture to railway ties. It is the accumulation of
indestructible things that makes existence so cheap in these latter days.
The people enjoy the fruits of labor performed ages ago. And the things
they make now are all made to endure. Even their clothes are made to last
a life time—textile fabrics from mineral wool and mineral cotton. Even
their food is provided for years ahead. It is put up in vials, and sealed
up to keep a hundred years if required.”
“What is it composed of?”
“It is in several modifications suited to different ages. In infancy
and youth its composition is almost exactly that of a hen’s egg. For
mature and old people the proportions are slightly different, the lime is
entirely left out for the old, and a larger proportion of phosphorus is
used in the food of the middle aged and mentally active.”
“If they can put together the material for a hen’s egg,” said I, “what’s
the trouble with hatching a chicken out of it.”
“They can make all of the egg except the germ. That has been proved in
this way. They take the germ out of a real hens egg, and put it into a
shell filled with the artificial food, then apply the proper temperature
and it is hatched in the usual time and all the food consumed. This is a
common experiment.”
“That is good proof that their food is the right material for chicks at
any rate.”
“Well there is plenty of scientific proof of the correctness of all
the different modifications. Analyses have repeatedly been made of
human bodies of different ages and their exact constituents with their
proportions ascertained and thus it is known precisely what they require
for food. And when this is taken with a sufficient quantity of distilled
or electrically purified water there is no liability of being hungry
and little of being sick. At any rate the general health and regularly
increasing longevity of the people proves better than any theorizing
the general correctness of their way of life. There is no longer any
such thing as a patent medicine, a pill, or a powder, and there are no
medical practitioners. There are surgeons; and there are scientific
chemical professors, whose advice regarding the proper food is sometimes
asked. But almost all distempers they are liable to, are rectified by
self treatment; study of hygiene and the conditions of animal life
being taught in the schools, not in a sciolous or smattering way but
thoroughly and scientifically; for they say no knowledge is so essential
to all people as this. It is by using scientifically adapted food that
they have succeeded in extending the average duration of life, and they
claim that they will yet raise it to a thousand years. They are right in
saying that decay and death from old age are due to the clogging up of
the system with foreign matter that can neither be assimilated and taken
into the tissues, nor ejected from the system. Their remedy for this is
the prevention of the introduction of such substances by keeping them
entirely out of the food. This they have nearly succeeded in doing, since
the body is no longer the tenement of a chemical works to so very large
an extent, as it used to be. Manufacture of these deleterious residuums
inside the body is nearly stopped. The intelligent selection of the food
then, with cleanliness and protection from cold constitute the principles
of their treatment. Epidemic diseases have long since been entirely
abolished.
“The organic germs that caused these diseases depended on swamps,
stagnant pools, and decaying animal and vegetable matter for nests in
which to be cultivated, and from such places they were conveyed by
the air or water and so reached the fluids of the human body in which
their further cultivation went on, to the great grief of your race. Now
there is not a swamp nor any such thing in all the world, and nothing
whatever is allowed to decay. Everything that grows is either utilized
or cremated. All refuse from the numerous chemical works is treated
electrically and returned to the soil as a fertilizer. The water in
their sewers is often not so very much worse than that which used to
run in your water pipes, but it is all electrically treated and the
precipitated sediment returned to the land while only the clear water is
turned into the rivers.”
“I suppose they no longer keep domestic animals,” said I.
“They no longer keep them for use to any great extent, but they have
preserved specimens of all the domestic animals, and some of those that
were wild in your day as objects of curiosity. They also have some in the
country as pets. There are a few wild animals in some of the large state
parks that having never been disturbed have practically tamed themselves.
Animal power passed out of use ages ago. The people are scrupulously nice
in their ideas of cleanliness and so no animals of any sort, not even
canary birds are allowed in the cities. In this respect they look back
with unlimited disgust upon the people of your day with their filthy
horses and dogs perambulating and befouling the streets, their stables,
stores and meat shops full of the odors of decaying vegetable and animal
matter, their accumulations of ashes and cinders and dust, and of filth
and garbage in foul cess pools, barrels, gutters, vaults and sewers,
their personal habits of eating and drinking with their sequelae and the
necessary cooking and dishwashing, and their smoking and tobacco chewing
and spitting. All this is done away with, and the people can hardly
understand a mode of life in which it was included; much less necessary.
“The streets of the cities are as clean as a drawing room, and it is easy
to keep them so since there is so little occasion for them being soiled.
“They use only electrically purified water or rain water, and far less
than was consumed in your day. The houses are all fireproof and the fire
departments have very little use for water, using chemical extinguishers.
The factories for the manufacture of food stuffs, the mineral wood,
furniture, vehicles, textile fabrics etc., are usually placed in suburbs
at a little distance from the cities, and the working people pass back
and forth by the cars or flyers. The usual day’s work is 4 to 6 hours and
all sorts of work is paid by the hour. Manufactured goods are stored in
the business quarters of the cities, and delivered where ordered as in
your day, but by more exact and complete means.
“There has not for many ages been any sexual distinction in clothes, and
the slavery of fashion was long ago abolished. The costumes show the
individuality of their owners and are extremely various; a mixed company
looking like a congress of the nations of your day.”
“How do they manage their political affairs?” I inquired.
“They can scarcely be said to have any local political affairs to be
managed. They have very large and extensive business affairs, and they
are managed as business and not as politics. All the employes in the
several business departments of the state are first taken from the
schools where they have been educated and prepared for the occupations
they wished to be qualified to follow. All vacancies to responsible
places are filled on civil service principles. The foremen receive a
little higher wages than the common hands, but nobody receives any
profits except the tax or tariff the state puts on goods it makes and
sells.
“The workers in each particular trade or occupation in any state form
a society or guild, presided over by a board or commission elected by
the members of the guild from a list of candidates who have passed
examination for competency. There is another board elected by the
whole people that has the general oversight of all business and the
equalization of wages.
“The guild board receives from the state the raw material it consumes
and is charged with it. It sees to its distribution among the shops of
the guild, receives and turns over to the state the articles made by
the guild, certifies to the pay rolls, and to the cost of the articles
made. It determines the amount of material required and the number of
men that shall be employed, basing its regulation on the requisition of
the general board for the goods which in turn gets its data from the
store keepers who make requisitions on the board according to the public
demand for the goods. The guild board determines the number of men it
can employ and if it has too many the fact is reported to the general
board whose business it is to find work for the surplus men in another
trade. The guild board naturally anxious to preserve the credit of its
own guild, always selects the least competent of their men for transfer.
The general board is constantly posted as to the demand for labor in the
different guilds and can usually assign the men to places suited to their
capacity, which commonly admits of more or less variety of employment,
their school education being conducted with that view. If the trades are
all full or if the men prove unfit to perform such skilled labor as is
required, they are furnished laboring work not requiring skill of which
there is always plenty in the procurement of raw materials for food,
minerals, agricultural products, building materials etc. As most of the
things produced including food can be kept an indefinite length of time,
there is no objection to a considerable accumulation ahead. When this
happens and it often does, the community is in a prosperous condition
for it has more than enough. It is a sign that the workmen have saved
their money instead of buying goods with it. They may knock off work
and take holiday till the stocks are reduced. Sometimes the fashion
changes, and the state has something on hand it cannot sell. Like any
other manufacturer it must sell at a sacrifice for what it can get, and
use better judgment next time. The general board looks out for that.
This board also equalizes wages in the several trades, lowering the pay
in those trades into which there is the greatest tendency to crowd and
raising it in those that are deserted. Striking in a body is not allowed.
But many or all the members of a guild may give notice of an intention
to leave, and they are then allowed to do so, a small number at a time.
The general board inquires into the cause of the dissatisfaction and
rectifies it if possible. If the wages are high enough the fact will be
proved by other workmen coming from other trades or other places to take
the job, in which case the disgruntled men must take such other work as
the board can find for them or remain idle if they prefer to. If they are
not high enough the vacancies will remain unfilled till the board raises
them.
“When men are idle, by no fault of their own, but because all places are
filled, the state is bound to feed and clothe them. This is the theory,
but it is very rarely put into practice. Since they prefer to let them
work at something rather than be idle even if the work is not in great
demand.”
“They seem to have but little use for apothecaries and doctors, how about
lawyers and courts?”
“There is no such thing now as the practice of law as formerly
understood. In your day the lawyer was called an officer of the court.
But in reality he was a partizan of one of the litigants bent on gaining
a victory for his client regardless of the justice of his cause; and
he often gained it when he knew it was unjust. Each town or district
is supplied with a board of lawyers three, five or seven according
to population, and these comprise the court. They are elected by the
people from the law graduates of the state school, for a definite term.
Any small case is heard by either one of the lawyers upon whom both
litigants can agree, both sides being heard and witnesses examined by
him. If either litigant is dissatisfied with his decision he may appeal
to the full bench, whose decision by a majority is final on questions
of fact. But if a minority dissents on points of law a further appeal
as to the law is allowed to be made to the Supreme Court of the state,
the dissenting minority preparing the case for the higher court, and the
majority preparing the counter case in defense of their decision. The
defeated party pays the costs. These, however, are comparatively light,
lawyers receiving no higher pay than mechanics. But as the position
brings distinction there are always enough candidates for it. They
are only paid as lawyers for the actual time spent by them, and often
increase their income by other employment; for there is but a small
amount of litigation.
“The criminal procedure is almost as simple. A person accused of a petty
crime is brought before a single lawyer who examines the witnesses for
both sides and decides the case, if the accused is not satisfied he
appeals to the full bench, and the minority of that bench may carry an
appeal on questions of law to the Supreme Court. In important cases
the legal bench may summon the bench of a neighboring town or district
to sit with them in the case and share the responsibility. There is no
criminal class and crime of any sort is very rare. It is regarded as an
insanity and a family in which it is developed is at once prevented from
going further in the hereditary transmission of it. There is no capital
punishment.”
“Well,” said I, “they are an interesting people; they seem to have things
about the way they want them and I reckon they ought to be happy.”
“Yes,” he said, “they ought to be, and they are; as much so as any
intelligent creatures can be. You may know they are good natured, jolly
and generous from the size of their mouths. The size of their heads is a
guaranty that whatever is knowable on earth they are pretty sure to find
out, if you give them time enough; and renders probable the inference
that they know that they are well off, and know enough to be contented.
And as a matter of fact they are; and while they congratulate themselves,
they never fail to call up in grateful remembrance the ancestors through
whose martyrdom they have attained peace. Well we must now take our leave
of this large hearted and large headed posterity of yours and return to
the nineteenth century.
“Ah! here we are!”