PROFESSOR PROSER-TOADY'S LECTURE
Following Conductor Prigge's instructions, I presented myself at
six o'clock in the evening at the entrance to the Great University
of Mecco. It was the first time I had been out without my 'keeper,'
but as everybody else was dressed in the Meccanian costume, whilst
I was wearing the clothes I had been accustomed to wear in Luniland
and Francaria, there was little risk of my going astray. A porter
darted out of a box in the entrance hall and directed me to Room 415,
where the Professor of Historical Culture was to deliver his monthly
four-hour lecture to Foreign Observers. I found about a dozen Foreign
Observers of various nationalities waiting in the small lecture-room,
and presently a few more arrived. Some were Scandinavians, some South
Americans; a few, I thought, were Turks; several were from some part
of India. At 6.10 precisely the Professor came in. He wore a brilliant
yellow uniform of the Third Class, with green facings and buttons and
a number of little ribbons indicating, I suppose, various services
rendered to the cause of Meccanian Culture. Apart from his dress he
resembled the caricatures of Meccanian professors in our comic prints.
His head was bald on the top and at the front, but at the sides great
tufts of white hair protruded. His grey beard was of ample proportions.
His coarse wizened face and staring eyes, covered by a pair of huge
spectacles, gave him the appearance of a Jack-in-the-box as he sat
behind a high reading-desk. His voice was tough and leathery. At the
end of three hours it sounded as fresh and as harsh as in the opening
sentences. I cannot reproduce the whole lecture; if I did it would
almost fill a book by itself. I can only hope to give a rough idea of
it by paraphrasing some of the most salient passages.
He began by saying that to accommodate himself to the culture of his
foreign auditors he would endeavour to present his subject in the
simplest possible form, which was the narrative, and would sketch
the biography of the great re-founder of the Meccanian State, the
true architect of the First Super-State in the world, the greatest
political creative genius that had ever stepped upon the World Stage,
Prince Mechow. We had all seen his memorial statue, a unique monument
to a unique individual, and no doubt it had made an impression
upon our imagination; but it was impossible for any work of art
however great--and here he paid a tribute to the hero-artist who
built the monument--to convey more than a symbolical suggestion of
the all-embracing magnificence of Prince Mechow's truly Meccanian
personality. For that we must look around at the Super-State itself.
Prince Mechow, he said, was historically the culminating figure of
the national development of Meccania. Compared with many countries
in Europe, Meccania could not boast a long history. Some historians
sought a false glory for Meccania by tracing its greatness back to the
so-called Roman Empire of the Middle Ages, but true Meccanian history
went back only a few hundred years. In fact, it was not until the
eighteenth century that the Meccanian State in the proper sense of the
word began, and only in the nineteenth century did it take its place
among the powers of the modern world. In the nineteenth century the
Meccanian State was saved by the genius and will of one great man, the
worthy predecessor of Prince Mechow, his great-uncle Prince BLUDIRON.
From a scientific or philosophical point of view it was difficult
to say whether Prince Bludiron had not contributed as much to the
greatness of Meccania as Prince Mechow; for it was he, undoubtedly, who
laid the foundations upon which the final structure rested. The work
of Prince Bludiron was very different from, but also similar in spirit
to, the work of Prince Mechow. His task had been to rescue the young
and inexperienced State from the perils and distractions of the false
ideals of Liberty and Democracy, to secure the power of the State over
all sections and classes, to create the proud and confident Meccanian
spirit and to set the nation on the right path.
The task of Prince Mechow was to erect the Super-State on the
foundations laid by Prince Bludiron; in other words, to organise the
energies of the whole nation to one supreme end, to train and direct
the powers of every individual so as to produce one mind and one will.
Turning to the work of Prince Bludiron, the Professor said that when
he began his work Meccania was distracted by false and conflicting
ideals, of foreign origin. Revolution was in the air. People were ready
to drive out their lawful rulers. Popular government was demanded.
Parliaments were being set up. It was the saddest page in Meccanian
history. Had these anarchic forces triumphed, Meccania would have sunk
to the level of other nations, and the Super-State would never have
arisen. It was the greatest testimony to the intellectual genius and
moral power of Prince Bludiron that, after forty years of strenuous
work, the whole outlook for Meccania was completely changed. The false
ideal of individual liberty was dead and buried. Popular government
was a discredited superstition. The military aristocracy were secure
in their rightful position. The efficiency of the Government was
demonstrated in every direction, and not least on the field of battle.
Wars had been won with a rapidity unprecedented in any age.
Prince Bludiron's success was so complete that it was almost impossible
for us now to realise how great his difficulties had been. So strong
were the forces of Democracy that even he had to temporise and set up a
Parliament. He even granted manhood suffrage.
Dr. Proser-Toady then explained how Prince Bludiron outwitted the
disloyal elements among the people by securing the reality of power
to the organised centralised State, whilst leaving the semblance of
control to the representative bodies. He quoted a Foreign Observer, at
the end of Prince Bludiron's career, who declared that the institutions
set up by him enabled the State to wield the maximum of power with
the minimum of opposition. Strangely enough, said the Professor, the
very movement that threatened to undo all his work was in reality
of the greatest service. He referred to the movement of Meccanian
Socialism or Social Democracy which owed its peculiar character to a
certain demagogue named Spotts. The career and influence of Spotts
was for a time almost as remarkable as Prince Bludiron's. Spotts
persuaded his followers that the economic tendencies of modern life
must inevitably create the Socialist State. The people need only
wait until these tendencies had worked themselves out and then seize
the power of the State, which would drop into their hands like ripe
fruit. He saw in the existing State nothing but organised Capitalism.
Consequently he encouraged his followers to take no part in the actual
Government, but to maintain themselves in permanent opposition until
the inevitable revolution came about, when they were to assume the
whole control. Spottsian Socialism became the universal doctrine of the
Meccanian proletariat of those days. They talked about the economic
interpretation of history, about economic forces, about economic
revolutions, mixed with vague notions of Liberty and Equality. But in
reality they cared not a straw for Liberty; what they sought was Power.
Yet by standing in permanent opposition to every other element in the
State they played into Prince Bludiron's hands. Whilst they waited for
the inevitable revolution, he had accustomed the people to prosperity;
and had raised the prestige of the State at home and abroad. He had
gained the support of all the strongest elements in society, had
trained an efficient bureaucracy and an efficient military aristocracy.
And yet at his death the followers of Spotts went on waiting for the
economic revolution!
The Professor then dealt briefly with what he said was the most
difficult period for a Meccanian historian, the period between the
death of Prince Bludiron and the rise of the still greater statesman,
Prince Mechow. In that interval no great leader arose, but a number
of foolish statesmen who fancied they were cast in the mould of the
great Bludiron. At that time Meccania had commercial relations with
the whole world, and was rapidly penetrating every country with its
peculiar culture. Its army and navy were growing in strength, and the
temper of the people was becoming restless and aggressive. They lacked
the controlling hand of Prince Bludiron. They were carried away by
dreams of sudden world-conquest. Foolish statesmen allowed the country
to be plunged into war with half the world at once. The Meccanians
performed wonders, but they could not perform miracles, and in the end
the country was reduced to great straits. Provinces were torn away.
Its accumulations of wealth were exhausted; its manhood was decimated.
The situation was terrible, yet it was this tremendous ordeal that
indirectly created the most favourable conditions for the work of
Prince Mechow.
During the war the Government had been compelled to take over, more and
more, the control of every department of life. Under the pressure of
war the last vestiges of the obsolete doctrines of Individualism had
disappeared. Now that the war was over, the necessity for increasing
all the means of wealth-production placed a new power in the hands of
the State. It was in these years of what was called 'Reconstruction'
that Prince Mechow came to the front. Every one was depressed. The
most conflicting views were expressed. Some people lamented that the
whole work of Prince Bludiron had been destroyed. Others said it had
been all a mistake, and that the nation ought to have followed the
example of the rest of Europe. Some advocated hare-brained schemes of
'Internationalism,' as they called it.
Prince Mechow was one of the few who kept a clear head. He saw exactly
where the blunder had been made. Meccania had ventured upon projects of
world-conquest before completing the internal work of perfecting the
Super-State on the foundations laid down by Prince Bludiron. He saw
that we must go back exactly to the point where Prince Bludiron left
off. But the first step was the most difficult. Prince Mechow was quite
a young man, not more than thirty, and was only an Under-Secretary.
He had one advantage in that he was a grand-nephew of Prince Bludiron
and had the ear of the Emperor, who very soon made him Minister of the
Interior, a post created to relieve the Chief Minister.
Professor Proser-Toady said we should obtain the clearest conception
of Prince Mechow's views and the best key to his policy in a volume of
correspondence with his cousin General Count Block. Count Block, like
many of his military colleagues, was alarmed at the general confusion.
He declared there was nothing for it but to sweep away all popular
representative institutions, restrict education to the upper classes
and fall back upon the direct rule of the military. Prince Mechow
pointed out that such a policy would fail utterly: it would bring
about the very revolution it sought to avoid. Efficiency could never
be created by the military alone. Industrial efficiency was absolutely
necessary to military power. He agreed in the main with Count Block's
objects, but declared that his means were clumsy and inadequate.
The work of Prince Bludiron must be continued by the creation of a
Super-State. The _term_ had already been coined, but the _thing_ did
not yet exist.
It is in Prince Mechow's clear conception of the Super-State that we
see his intellectual genius, but it is in the steps he took to bring
it into being that we realise his kinship with his famous predecessor,
Prince Bludiron. Prince Bludiron had had to live from hand to mouth
relying upon his statesman's instinct. Prince Mechow, even before he
became Chief Minister, foresaw every detail of the structure he was
determined to erect.
The State, he said, has hitherto done only what is forced upon it by
necessity. It has never attempted to utilise the whole energies of the
Nation. The Super-State will only come into being by uniting in itself
the will, the knowledge, the wisdom, and the multifarious energies,
of the whole people. The State has been merely the strongest organ of
society: the Super-State must be the only organ, uniting all others in
itself.
How was such a conception to be realised concretely? In explaining his
plans he found ample illustration in the circumstances of the recent
Great War. The State had not only controlled everything essential to
the conduct of the war; it had not only regulated the manufacture of
all supplies, including food and clothing for the whole nation, but had
undertaken a thousand activities never previously dreamt of, except by
the Socialists.
He proposed to capture the whole armoury of the Socialists by gradually
seizing everything for the State itself. The motto of the Super-State
must be Efficiency. But to be efficient the State must absorb all the
persons who represented efficiency. The whole conception of Bureaucracy
must be revolutionised by being carried to its logical conclusion.
The efficiency of a business firm depends upon the efficiency of the
persons composing it. The efficiency of the Super-State will depend
upon the efficiency of the new Bureaucracy and the Military Class.
There was no instance in history of an efficient Government being
overthrown by any popular forces.
A century of industrial development had transformed the material world,
whilst in the meantime the organisation of the State had almost stood
still. The Super-State must borrow from the Socialists the conception
of an all-embracing power and activity, and from the Industrial world
the machinery for the execution of its will. The most efficient and
successful business firms were those which got every ounce of work
out of every member of the firm. The Super-State must not be less
resourceful.
Now as to the methods, said the Professor. How was the State to absorb
into its service all the energies of the nation, without at the same
time becoming a Social Democracy? Already the Social Democrats, as in
Prince Bludiron's time, were proclaiming that the Capitalist State was
working out for them the Social Revolution predicted by Spotts; and as
in Prince Bludiron's days so under Prince Mechow they went on waiting
for the Social Revolution. They are waiting still. In the meantime
Prince Mechow got into the saddle and began his practical reforms. He
was a man of the most extraordinary energy and versatility. He was not
content to begin with Education and wait for a generation. He attacked
a dozen different problems at the same time: Education, Industry,
Commerce, Railways, Finance, the Press, the Stage, the Professions,
the Church--every side of national life received his attention; but
the prime instrument through which he worked was the Bureaucracy. He
laid it down as an axiom that the machinery of the State must work so
smoothly that the people should be unaware of its operations.
There have been instances in history, he wrote in one of his letters,
in which a Government has been overturned in a single day. How? By a
perfectly planned _coup d'état_. What can be accomplished on a single
occasion can be done as a part of the regular working of the State
Machinery. Our Super-State must be capable of a _coup d'état_ every
day. Those of his friends who did not see the necessity for his reforms
he silenced by showing them that if they did not capture the State the
Social Democracy would do so.
During the first ten years of his regime he worked wonders. He renewed
the State control of all the large industries. He took into the service
of the State all the most capable business men and manufacturers, all
the best scientists and engineers as well as the best administrators.
The Censorship of the Press was continued and extended to every form
of literature. He bought up all the big newspapers and drove all the
little ones into bankruptcy. When every clever journalist was engaged
on the State newspapers and all advertisements were controlled,
there was not much room for an 'opposition' Press. The Schools and
Universities were already well under control, but he revised the whole
system. He made every teacher and every professor a direct servant of
the State. Every textbook was revised. He paid particular attention
to history, philosophy and literature. The new generation were thus
educated in an atmosphere calculated to cultivate the true Meccanian
spirit. Inspectors, organisers and directors of Education infused new
energy into the system and trained the whole population to co-operate
with the Super-State.
As to the proletariat, he saw to it that there was no unemployment.
Production went up by leaps and bounds, wages were increased, but there
was no waste. Goods that could not be disposed of immediately were
stored, but methods of control and regulation were introduced to direct
industry into the right channels. Whilst he controlled the wage-earners
he at the same time controlled the employers. All surplus wages and
profits were invested in the State funds.
Of course there was opposition to these reforms. The Military Class
were slow to understand his methods, so he established periodical
military councils, took them into his confidence and eventually won
them over completely. As for the Social Democrats, he did not scruple
to employ against them the same methods they would have employed
against him. He made use of secret agents to preach the doctrine that
by his methods the way would be prepared for the social revolution.
When at length he inaugurated the system of the seven social classes
the Social Democrats professed to see in this a means of stimulating
class consciousness; but after a few years they discovered that no
class was willing to surrender its privileges. The Fifth Class, which
includes the most skilled artisans in Europe, began to see that no
revolution would improve their position, whilst it might lower them to
the level of the Sixth or Seventh Class. The boasted solidarity of the
proletariat proved to be an illusion, like most of Spotts's ideas.
When he reformed the railway system he made travelling free. But of
course if travelling were to be free, restrictions must be imposed.
Similarly in regard to housing. He applied all the technical knowledge
in the country to the problem. Standardised houses and other devices
made it possible to rebuild any portions of our cities and to transfer
population from one region to another with the greatest ease. On the
other hand, restrictions were necessary. You cannot have free trade in
houses and at the same time guarantee a house to every family.
I have condensed Dr. Proser-Toady's lecture, which lasted several
hours, into such short compass that it gives very little idea, I am
afraid, of the complete revolution worked out by Prince Mechow's
reforms. For instance, he showed how the whole character of politics
had been transformed, how the questions that agitated Meccania sixty
years ago had entirely disappeared; how the Press no longer existed,
because its functions had been absorbed by other agencies; how the
Parliament, which I was surprised to hear still existed, was now
organised to correspond with the seven social classes; how the State
was so wealthy that control over taxation was no longer necessary.
He ended with a remarkable passage about the seven social classes and
the national Meccanian uniforms.
"Many Foreign Observers," he said, "in times past, have made merry
over our sevenfold classification and our national costumes. What
have other nations to put in their place? They too have these classes,
for they are natural and inevitable. They have their nobles, their
soldiers, their officials and professional men, their bourgeoisie,
their artisans, their labourers and their degraded 'submerged tenth.'
But they are afraid to call them by their proper names, afraid to
recognise them. They have no uniforms, no dignified and pleasing
costumes; but you never mistake one class for another. You never
mistake the labourer for the wealthy bourgeois or the popinjay
aristocrat. Nowhere else, they say, would people consent to wear the
servile badge of their caste. We Meccanians are proud of our seven
national colours. So far from being a degradation, the historical
origin of the costumes proves that it is a privilege to wear them.
The seven uniforms were once the ceremonial dress of the seven guilds
established by Prince Mechow. When permission was granted for all the
members of the classes to wear the ceremonial dress it was the occasion
of national rejoicings everywhere. The national costumes are part of
the Ritual of the Super-State."
* * * * *
Long-winded as some parts of the lecture were, I must confess it was
most illuminating, and to me, as a student of politics and sociology,
exceedingly interesting. I begin to understand now what the Meccanian
Super-State really is.