From the night of the ball at which the group of chorus-girls made their sensational entrance in tights, Norman had his hands full. Disorder had rapidly grown in the Brotherhood. Two distinct parties began to line up for a desperate struggle for supremacy, the one standing for the widest liberty of the individual members of the community, the other demanding the stern enforcement of law and order and the formulation of a complete and strict code of rules for the government of daily conduct.
Among the men assigned to various tasks there gradually appeared a number who slighted their work. From carelessness they drifted into utter incompetency and downright laziness. Groups of these loafers began to hang around the house daily.
When they had spent the last penny of their credit at the general store of the community, they began to steal. Not a day or night passed but complaints of thefts were made from every department of the colony. One of the most serious ofthese burglaries was the robbery of the winery of an enormous quantity of the most valuable wines.
Drunkenness had already become one of the serious problems of the Brotherhood, and the right to buy of the steward had been denied a large number of men and several women. These people began at once to show signs of intoxication. It was plain that the thieves had hidden this wine and that they were carrying on a secret traffic with those to whom it had been forbidden.
With the increase of reckless drunkenness another evil grew with alarming rapidity, the carousing of boisterous men and women. One of them very quickly passed the limits of tolerance. She was in many respects the most beautiful girl in the colony, barely nineteen years old, with luxuriant blond hair, and big, wide, staring baby-blue eyes. She had with it all a smile so saucy, so winsome, so elfish, and yet so innocent, it was impossible for the average man or woman to think ill of her. To every appeal of Barbara she merely showed her pretty white teeth in a winsome smile, promised her anything she asked, and proceeded to do as she liked.
At last her room was declared an intolerable nuisance by a committee appointed to enter the complaint on behalf of her neighbours on the floor on which she lived. The night before thiscommittee appealed to Barbara two boys had fought a desperate fist duel in this room. The noise had roused the neighbours, and the case could no longer be ignored by the executive council.
Barbara was sent to this room with full power to deal with the offender.
"Good heavens," cried the girl, her big blue eyes opening wide with injured innocence, "how could I help it? They're both in love with me. I don't care a rap for either one of them, but they got to fighting, and I couldn't stop them. I threw a pitcher of water on them, but they kept right on. I'd have called the police, but there was none to call. It wasn't my fault."
"But my dear Blanche," pleaded Barbara, "can't you see that you are bringing scandal and disgrace into the colony?"
"It's not me!" the pretty lips pouted. "It's these old women who are talking. Let them shut their mouths and attend to their own business. I'm not bothering them."
"You deny the accusations they bring against your good name?" Barbara said, with some surprise.
"Of course I deny them," she snapped. "I've got to have some fun, haven't I? I can't help it that a dozen boys come to see me and nobody ever sees the old tabbies who lie aboutme, can I? I can't help it that they are old and ugly, can I?"
Barbara had ceased to listen to the glib tongue, whose lying chatter tired her. She looked about the room with increasing amazement. It was stuffed with presents of every conceivable description. Costly rugs adorned the floor. Soft pillows filled the couch by the window. Dainty and expensive works of art adorned her mantel, and the richest and most beautiful underwear lay in a smoothly laundered pile on her luxuriant bed.
"And how did you get all these costly and beautiful things, my dear?" Barbara asked, with a touch of sarcasm.
The big blue eyes opened wide again with wonder.
"Why, the boys who are in love with me gave them. Why shouldn't they? I can't help it that they are foolish, can I? God made them so."
"And you accepted these rich and costly things in perfect innocence of the evil meaning others might put on them?"
"Of course! How can I keep their tongues from wagging? Life's too short. I have but one life to live. I can't waste it worrying over nothing."
For the first time in her career Barbara stood face to face with naked evil—with a liar to whom a lie was good—a radiantly beautiful girl to whom shame was sweet.
For a moment the thought was suffocating. She looked out of the window at the infinite blue sea until the tears slowly blinded her. The first doubt of her theory of life crept into her heart and threw its shadow over the ideal of the new world she had built.
She took the girl's hand, slipped her arm around her neck, kissed the soft, shining hair, and sobbed:
"Poor little foolish sister! I'm afraid you've broken my heart to-day."
"I haven't done a thing! Honestly, I haven't!" the lusty young liar rattled on and on, in a hundred silly, vain protests, which Barbara never heard.
She left the room at length with a sickening sense of defeat, though the girl had promised her on the honour of her soul never again to give the slightest cause for complaint.
Many a day she had trudged through the streets of the great city, after hours of nerve-racking struggles with sin and shame and despair in the old world, but she had always come home at night with a heart singing a battle-hymn of victory. She knew the cause of all the pain, andshe had given her life to right the wrong. Nothing daunted her, nothing disconcerted her. In the end triumph was sure, and while she felt this there could be no such thing as failure.
She stood before the full meeting of the executive council, honestly reported the case, and for the first time tasted the bitterness of defeat, helpless, complete, and overwhelming. While she was talking a peculiar expression in Wolf's cold gray eyes suddenly caught her attention and fixed her gaze on him with a curious fascination and horror. Wolf was quick to note her look, recovered himself and smiled in his old fatherly, friendly way.
"Don't worry, comrade. We've got to meet and settle such questions. They are merely the inheritance of civilization. It will take a little time, that's all."
But as Barbara's gaze lingered on the heavy brutal lines of Wolf's massive figure and she caught again the gleam of his gray eyes a sickening sense of foreboding gripped her heart.
As questions of discipline became more and more pressing old Tom refused to sit as an active judge in the executive council.
Norman protested in vain against his decision to retire for a while.
"I can't do no good settin' thar listenin' to them fools," the miner declared. "They make me sick. Besides, ye all vote me down when I tells ye what to do, and things keep on goin' from bad to worse. Jest let me git out and move around among the boys a little. I think I can do some good. You folks is all too chicken-hearted to run this Brotherhood. Love and fellowship is all right, but ye've got ter mix a little law and common sense before ye can straighten the kinks out of this here community."
Norman gave his consent reluctantly, and was amazed at the end of a week to observe a remarkable improvement in the spirit of the colony. Loafers disappeared, stealing all but ceased, drinking and fighting were on the decrease.
One by one old Tom had taken the loafers withhim on a long walk up the beach. He was usually gone about an hour and always came back laughing and chatting with his friend in the best of humour. Invariably the loafer went to work.
In the same way he took a walk with each one of a crowd of wild, unmannerly boys, whose rudeness at the table and whose horse-play about the building had become unendurable. The effects of these walks seemed magical. Always the pair returned in a fine humour and the most marked revolution was immediately noted in the conduct of the offender.
Norman asked the old man again and again for the secret of his power.
He replied in the most casual way:
"Just had a plain heart-to-heart talk with 'em and told 'em what had to be—that's all."
The good work had continued for a week with uninterrupted success, when a bomb was suddenly exploded in the executive council by the appearance of an irate mother leading an insolent fourteen-year-old cub, who walked rather stiffly.
Amid a silence that was painful, the mother stripped the boy to the waist, thrust him before Norman and Barbara, and said:
"Now, tell them what you've just told me."
The boy glanced cautiously around to see ifhis enemy were near and poured forth a tale the like of which had never been heard before.
"Old Tom asked me to take a walk with him. He got me away off in a lonely place behind the big rocks on that little island up the beach and pulled up a plank drawbridge so I couldn't get back till he wanted to let me. He stripped me like this, tied me to a whipping-post and nearly beat the life out of me. He said he'd been appointed by the council to settle with me in private so nobody would know anything about it."
"Said that he had been appointed by the council to whip you?" Norman asked, in amazement.
"That's what he said, sir," the boy went on. "He gave me forty-nine lashes with a cowhide and then set down and talked to me a half hour."
"And what did he say?" Norman inquired, forcing back a smile by a desperate effort.
"He told me that he tried to get out of the work, but the council had forced it on him. Said there oughtn't to be no hard feelings, that it was a dirty, tiresome job, and he didn't have no pleasure in it, but it had to be done for the salvation of the people. He said it wasn't wise to talk about such things among the Brotherhood. I told him I'd tell my ma the minute I got home. He said that would be foolish, that none of the others hadsaid a word, that they had all taken their medicine like little men."
"He told you he had whipped all the others who had taken that walk with him?" Norman gasped.
"That's what he said, sir," the boy insisted, "and I guess he had, for they'd pawed a hole in the sand 'round that whipping-post big enough to bury a horse in."
The boy paused and his mother shook him angrily.
"Tell what else he said to you!"
The cub glanced hastily toward the door and whispered:
"Said if I opened my mouth about what had happened he'd skin me alive."
The council sent the mother and son away with the assurance of immediate action.
The court adjourned and Norman started with Barbara at once to find Tom. Faithful to his new calling he had strolled up the beach with a man who once had been his partner as a prospector and miner. Joe Weatherby had been drinking heavily the week before and Tom had keenly felt the disgrace his old partner had brought on the Brotherhood by his rudeness in the dining-room.
Joe had thrown a plate of soup in the face ofa boy who was making facetious remarks about his capacity for strong drink. When rebuked by his neighbours he had accentuated his displeasure by overturning the table and smashing every dish on it. He ended the affair by roundly cursing the Brotherhood for its rules and regulations interfering with his personal liberty, threw his pack on his back, and struck the trail for the mountains to prospect for gold.
He had just returned, after a week's absence, and Tom seized the opportunity to invite Joe to take a walk with him.
Knowing the character of the two men, Norman felt quite sure this walk could not possibly have the usual happy ending that attended so many of these performances.
He quickened his pace.
"Hurry, or we may have a funeral for our next function," he cried, with a laugh.
A quarter of a mile up the beach the sound of loud angry words suddenly struck their ears from behind a pile of huge boulders.
"Quick, we're just in time!" Barbara cried, "they've begun to quarrel."
They cautiously approached the boulders and climbed to the top of the larger one overlooking the scene Tom had evidently chosen for his debate with Joe.
"Hadn't you better part them now?" Barbara asked with some anxiety.
"No, I'll stop them in time. I want to get acquainted with Tom's methods of persuasion first."
Tom's voice was rising in accents of wrath. "Joe, I'm a man o' peace—I'm a member o' the Brotherhood and you're my brother, but I'll tell ye right now we've got to have law and order in this community——"
"And I say, Tom Mooney, there hain't no law exceptin' what's inside a man."
"Yes, but how kin ye git any law inside a man ef he's always chuck full er licker?"
"I don't drink to 'mount to nothin'," Joe protested. "Just a drop now an' then ter keep me in good health."
"Wall, ef you try any more capers in that dinin'-room, your health's goin' ter break clean down—yer hear me?"
Joe eyed Tom a moment and said with sharp emphasis:
"I reckon I can take care o' myself, partner, without you settin' up nights to worry about me."
"That's just the trouble, Joe, ye can't. You jined the Brotherhood, but yer faith's gettin' weak. I'm afeard you're onregenerate, conceived in sinan' brought forth in iniquity, an' ye ain't had no change er heart nohow."
"Look here, what are ye drivin' at?" Joe asked, beginning to back away cautiously.
"I just want ter strengthen yer faith, partner," Tom protested kindly as he advanced good-naturedly and laid his hand on Joe's arm.
Joe shook it off and turned to go. With a sudden spring Tom was on him. A brief, fierce struggle ensued marked by low, savage growls like two bull-dogs clinched and searching for each other's throats.
"Stop them! Stop them! They'll kill one another," pleaded Barbara.
"No. It'll do them good. Wait," he replied, watching them breathlessly.
"Here! Here, you old fool," growled Joe. "Do you call this the Brotherhood of Man?"
"Yes, my son, and specially the Fatherhood er God. The Lord chastens them he loveth!"
With a sudden twist the writhing figures fell in the sand, Tom on top pinning Joe down.
Joe fought with fierce strength to rise but it was no use.
Tom clutched his throat and choked him steadily into submission.
"I'm er man o' peace, Joe," he repeated.
"Yes, you are!" the bottom one growled.
"But when I mingles with the unregenerate, my son, I trusts in God an' keeps my powder dry!"
"Let me up, you old fool!" Joe growled.
"Not yet, my son!" was the firm answer.
"You'll get my dander up in a minute and some body's goin' ter git hurt," warned the prostrate figure.
"Please make them quit," Barbara whispered tremblingly.
"Nonsense. They're enjoying themselves," Norman softly laughed.
"What are you tryin' ter do anyhow?" whined Joe.
"I'm callin' a lost sinner to repentance," was the prompt answer.
"Lemme up, I tell ye," Joe yelled, struggling with desperation.
Tom choked him again into silence and seated himself comfortably across Joe's stomach.
"Now, Joseph, my boy. I want you ter say over the catechism of the Brotherhood of Man. Hit'll freshen yer mind an' be good fer yer soul——"
Another grim struggle interrupted the teacher.
"Say it after me: I believe in the fatherhood er God——"
Joe squirmed.
"Say it!"
Still no sound. Tom firmly gripped his throat and Joe gurgled:
"Fatherhood er God!"
"And brotherhood o' man!"
"Brotherhood er man!"
"Yer believe it now?" Tom fiercely asked.
Joe feebly assented.
Tom gripped his throat.
"Say it strong!"
"Yes—I believe it!" Joe confessed.
Again the under man struggled desperately and the man on top fiercely choked him into a quieter frame of mind.
"Now again: No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom er God!"
Joe repeated, "No drunkard—shall—what?"
"Inherit—the—kingdom—er God—by golly you've forgot yer Bible too!"
"Inherit—the—kingdom er—God!"
"Who shall not inherit the kingdom of God?"
"No drunkard!" Joe answered.
"Let that soak into yer lost soul!" Tom growled, pausing a moment.
"Now once more! Bear—ye—one—another's burdens!"
Joe hesitated and the man on top bumped the words out of him one at a time:
"Bear—ye—one—another's—burdens!"
"An' ye're goin' ter help me bear mine?" the teacher asked.
"Ain't I a-doin' it now?" grumbled the man below.
"Well, once more then: Private property is theft!"
"That's a lie an' you know it," Joe sneered.
"The big chief says so and it goes—say it!"
"Private property is theft," Joe repeated.
"Well, then, once more: Love—one—another!"
"Love one another," came the feeble echo.
"Do ye love me?" Tom fiercely inquired.
Joe struggled.
"Say it!" commanded the teacher.
"I love ye," he groaned.
Norman suddenly appeared on the scene followed by Barbara and the two miners leaped to their feet.
"Tom, old boy," the young leader cried, "you mean well, but we are told by the preacher that the kingdom of God cometh not of observation—it must be from within."
"Just goin' over his Sunday-school lesson with him, Chief."
Joe made a hostile movement, and Norman stepped between them.
"Come! You two big kids—enough of this now, shake hands and make up!"
The men both hung back stubbornly.
Norman turned to Tom.
"Were you not partners and friends before you joined the Brotherhood?"
"Yes," the old miner replied grudgingly. "We bin tergether twelve years an' we worked an' played tergether, starved an' froze tergether, lived tergether, an' slept under the same blanket—he's the only partner I ever had—an' he's my best friend"—Tom paused and choked—"but I don't like 'im!"
"Shake hands and make up!" Barbara laughed.
They hung back a moment longer until Barbara's smile became resistless.
Joe extended his hand, exclaiming:
"Shake, you old coyote!"
Norman gave Joe a serious talk—got a pledge from him to quit drink and stand by him in his efforts to bring order out of the confusion and chaos in which the colony was floundering.
"You think I can do anything to help you?" Joe asked incredulously.
"Of course you can. You and Tom are two men I've known all my life. I know where to find you if I get into trouble."
"Is there goin' ter be any trouble?" Tom broke in, eagerly.
"Not yet, but it's coming. When it does we'llfight it out and win. I've set my life on the issue of this experiment."
Joe extended him his hand. "I'm sorry I got drunk. I won't do it again—we'll stand by ye!"
"Through thick an' thin," Tom added.
"And hereafter, Tom," Norman said with a smile, "I'd like to be consulted before you hold any more sessions of your court up the beach."
Tom started.
"You've heard about it?"
"Yes."
"By gum, I knowed I oughter licked that kid again!" the old miner observed, regretfully.
Norman, said gravely: "Tom, we are getting into deep water. I've begun to have some doubts about our safety. A leader must lead. And I'm going to do it. Can I depend on you to execute my orders and mine alone?"
"Every day in the year," was the firm reply.
"The same here," Joe echoed.
Barbara had drawn apart from the group of men and stood watching them with keen, suspicious interest as the two miners started homeward with restored good humour.
"What did you mean by saying that you were afraid of coming trouble?" Barbara eagerly asked of Norman. "What have you heard? What do you suspect?"
"Nothing," he answered, thoughtfully. "But I've had the blues for a week. It's been growing on me that we are not getting on except into situations more and more impossible. There's a screw loose somewhere in our system. There's going to be a wreck unless we find and repair it."
"I have felt this, too, and I think I know the cause."
"What?"
"Liberty which has degenerated into licence. We lack authority and the power to enforce it."
"And this is the one thing we cursed in the old system—the law, power, authority."
"No," Barbara quickly objected. "We did not rebel against law or the exercise of authority. We rebelled against its unjust use."
"And what depresses me is that I am convinced that we must use the power of law with more stern, direct, and personal pressure than ever known under the system of capitalism, or we must fail."
"Is not such pressure desirable?"
"It depends on who applies the pressure—but it seems inevitable—and it depresses me."
Barbara broke into a joyous laugh.
"Away with gloomy forebodings! It's only a day's fog. It will lift. The sun is shining behind it now."
Her laughter was contagious. Norman smiledin quick sympathy, and a response of hope and courage was just forming itself on his lips when he looked toward the house and saw an excited crowd packed in the doorway.
"What on earth is the matter?" Barbara gasped.
"Some accident has happened," he replied, quickly. "Come, we must hurry!"
Catherine's lithe figure darted down the steps and met them on the lawn.
"What is it?" Norman cried.
"A murder!"
"A murder?" Barbara repeated, incredulously.
"Yes—wilful, deliberate, cruel, horrible!" Catherine went on excitedly.
"Not old Tom and Joe?" Norman broke in.
"No—Blanche——"
"Oh, God, I knew it," Barbara gasped. "Go on."
"Blanche kept on playing fast and loose with the two boys who fought over her the other night. George Mann found his rival in her room just now, waylaid him in the hall, and when he came out sprang on him like a fiend, stabbed him through the heart and cut his throat. The brothers of the dead boy swear they will kill the murderer on sight, and they've locked him in your room, Norman, for safety. The men are excited to frenzy. Nobody likes the boy who didthe crime. The rougher ones swear they are going to hang him. They tried to break in your door twice, but Herman knocked the ringleaders down and with Tom and Joe beat the crowd back. Something must be done at once to prevent another outbreak."
Norman hurried to the scene and joined Wolf in his defence of the prisoner. Tom formed a guard of ten men heavily armed and marched the prisoner to the top of the house, placed him in the small room in one of the central towers, and stationed one man inside and five on the stairway leading into the tower.
The executive council met immediately and voted unanimously to erect a prison, establish a penal colony on the small island at the north of Ventura, and restore the whipping-post for minor offenders.
The announcement of this momentous act was made to the general assembly without request for debate or an expression of opinion. It was received in silence.
The Bard could not protest. He was still confined to his room from the effects of a recent argument with his wife.
On Wolf's urgent advice Norman determined to use the autocratic power invested in him by the deed of gift to establish a complete code of law and enforce it without fear or favour. As the cords tightened, scores who became dissatisfied with their lot offered their resignations and asked to return to their old homes.
In answer to their clamour Norman posted this notice on the bulletin board:
"Every member of the army of the Brotherhood of Man enlisted for five years' service. Resignations will not be considered and deserters will be tried by court-martial. I am going to use my power for the best interests of the Brotherhood. I ask the coöperation of all the loyal members of the colony. Of traitors I ask no quarter, and I expect to give none."Norman Worth,"Trustee and General Manager."
"Every member of the army of the Brotherhood of Man enlisted for five years' service. Resignations will not be considered and deserters will be tried by court-martial. I am going to use my power for the best interests of the Brotherhood. I ask the coöperation of all the loyal members of the colony. Of traitors I ask no quarter, and I expect to give none.
"Norman Worth,"Trustee and General Manager."
The effects of the proclamation were instantaneous. The helplessness of any attempt toresist authority firmly established under such daring leadership was at once apparent to the most stupid mind.
Loafing, drinking, stealing, carousing, and disorder of all kind were reduced at once to a minimum.
One act, however, of the executive council under Norman's direction precipitated a storm in an unexpected quarter.
The council removed Blanche and a group of wayward girls with whom she associated to a cottage outside the lawn.
The women of the Brotherhood were practically unanimous in their demands that the whole group be immediately expelled from the colony. A committee of three aggressive women presented their demand to Norman in no uncertain language.
His reply was equally emphatic:
"Comrades," he said, firmly, "I shall do nothing of the kind. We are going to work out this experiment in human society without compromise. We have successfully cut communication with the outside world. The crew of our ship are no longer allowed to land and only picked men unload her cargo. We are not going to play the baby act and dump these girls back on the old civilization which we have denounced. They may be wayward but they are our sisters."
"They are not mine," shouted one of thecommittee. "The brazen creatures! And we do not propose to have our sons and daughters corrupted by association with them."
"Then we must find some other solution than that of transportation," Norman insisted.
"Send them to the penal colony, then," demanded the committee.
"And back in a circle we immediately travel to the crimes of civilization from which we fled. I prefer to send the boys who associate with them. They are the real offenders."
"I deny that assertion," firmly declared the leader of the committee. "My boy is one of the unfortunate victims of these brazen wretches. Before we came to this island he never gave me a word of impudence. From the night he met Blanche at our first ball he was beyond my advice or control. These girls are the enemies of society and this colony cannot exist if they remain within its life."
"I refuse to believe it," Norman cried, with scorn. "It is your duty to reform these girls and restore them to mental and physical sanity, and as the leader of this colony I direct you to take up this divine work."
"And I, for one," spoke, for the first time, the silent gray-haired member of the committee, "refuse to smirch my hands with the task."
Norman, looked into the calm face of this white-haired, motherly looking woman with amazement.
"I can't understand you, comrade mother!" he exclaimed, with bitterness.
"That's because you're young, handsome, inexperienced, and, above all, because you are a man," was the quick reply. "I have spent a busy life since my own children grew out of the home nest in New York City in trying to help other people's children less fortunate than my own. I've helped scores of boys and never had one to disappoint me yet. I've tried to help scores of girls of the type we are discussing. I've always regretted it. I found them shallow, false, lazy, stupid, worthless. I have never looked at one of them except to blush that I am a woman. I speak from the saddest and most hopeless experiences of my life."
Norman cut the argument short with a gesture of angry impatience. "This discussion is a waste of breath. As long as I am in command of this colony no such insane act of injustice shall be committed against these girls."
"Then it's time you gave place to a man of greater wisdom and less sentimental mush in his brain," replied the calm, gray-haired woman.
"Thank you," the young leader replied, with chilling politeness, "you may be right—butin the meantime I accept the responsibility. Good day."
He had made three enemies whose power he was soon to feel. As they passed through the doorway Catherine greeted them politely and soothed their ruffled spirits with gentle words.
The establishment of a police and detective service completed the efficient organization of the colony. Its life now began to move with clock-like regularity.
But these changes were not made without provoking fierce debates and bitter prophecies in the general assembly over which Norman presided every Friday night.
He began to listen to these endless wrangles, however, with a sense of growing anger. It became clearer each week that they were the source of cliques and factions, of plots and counter-plots, within the colony. His patience reached the limit on the night he announced the completion of the jail.
"This is a sad present I am forced to make you to-night, comrades," he said, with a note of weariness in his voice. "But I have no choice in the matter. It was forced on the executive council. Crimes were committed which threatened the existence of our society. We had to meet the issue squarely. We could have beggedthe question by calling in the authorities of the State of California, acknowledged our defeat, and surrendered. We are not ready to surrender. We haven't begun to fight yet."
He had scarcely taken his seat when Diggs, the human interrogation-point, slowly unwound his lank figure, adjusted his eye-glasses, and gazed smilingly at the chairman.
Norman squirmed with rage as the glint of light from Diggs's big lenses began to irritate his spirit.
Barbara slipped her little hand under the table and found his. He clasped it gratefully and refused to let go. She allowed him to hold it a minute and drew it away laughing.
"Comrades," the man of questions slowly began, "we are making rapid progress. Our new building will soon be finished and another colony of two thousand enthusiastic souls will be added to our commonwealth. If we are going to successfully carry on this work we must begin to develop with infinite patience the details of this larger life.
"I submit to you some questions that are profoundly interesting to me.
"How are we to prevent speculation, wages being unequal? How is one community to exchange products with another? Howdetermine which line of goods each community shall make?
"What is to be done with a strong minority who are bitterly opposed to the action of the majority when we assume our permanent democratic form?
"How are the thousand and one matters pertaining to private life and habits to be settled without continually augmenting the power of government? The authority of the most absolute despot who ever lived never dared to sit on questions we must decide. Can we do it?
"If we are ever to attain a condition of equality must we not forbid gifts and exchanges? For, if men are not to be allowed to grow rich by trading, must not the State forbid private exchanges of every nature?
"On the other hand, if the State alone can make exchanges, how can we prevent a shrewd man from getting rich by dealing with the State itself?
"If the State will not make exchanges, what is one to do who has taken a piece of property and finds later he has no use for it? For example: if Miss Blanche grows tired of looking at her piano, which she cannot play, and desires to exchange it for a carriage and pair of horses, must she continue to walk because she cannot effect the exchange?
Barbara.Barbara.ToList
Barbara.ToList
"If we solve these troubles by declaring all property in common, who shall decide the privilegeof use which the various tastes of individuals may demand?
"If each member be allowed a fixed number of units of value for each day of the year, must he spend them at once, or will the State keep an account for each individual? If he doesn't spend all his allowance by the end of the year can he save it and thus accumulate a private fortune?
"Or will the State force him to spend all, thus encouraging reckless habits?
"Suppose that a spendthrift squanders his allowance at once and later breaks his leg, has it amputated, and needs a hundred dollars to buy a wooden leg, how will he get it? Will the State make good his recklessness, force him to buy his own leg, or make him hop through the year on one leg?"
"I move we adjourn!" Joe yelled, from the rear.
"Second the motion!" Tom echoed, from the front.
The Bard, who had recovered sufficiently to attend on crutches, rose painfully, adjusted the bandage on his eye, and once more raised his voice in protest.
"I demand freedom of speech on behalf of my friend whom those rowdies are insulting!" he thundered.
With reluctance the chairman rapped for order,and Diggs wiped his glasses and smilingly proceeded:
"We have established a general nursery for the children. As they grow up, who shall decide at what age each child shall begin to work? Some children are slow, some quick in growth. Will the new State of Ventura take direct charge of all children?
"Or, supposing that separate families are allowed to live apart and parents to govern their own children, how is each child to be protected so that it gets its exact due? How is it to be known whether the parents misappropriate the fund of a child, or favour one more than another?
"As our numbers increase we cannot avoid the religious question."
"Amen, O Lord!" shouted Methodist John.
"A number of good people are clamouring for the use of this hall for religious services every night. We may deny their demands now. But we cannot as they increase. How are we to meet them? Shall we tax the unbeliever to support a church? Or shall we tax the believer to pay for lighting this hall for a weekly ball?
"If religion is allowed, who shall determine how many preachers each denomination can have? How many sisters shall be allowed the Catholics and how many monks, and how shall they bedistributed? To whom shall they answer, the State, or their superior church dignitary?
"Shall Protestants be allowed a sum equal to the amount used in support of religious orders? If so, who shall determine how it shall be expended?
"If churches are built, who shall determine their cost and their style of architecture if the State erects them?
"When our theatre is opened, shall admission be free? If not, what shall be done when the receipts fall below expenses?
"What compensation can we give to those who hate theatres? If a small majority want a dance-hall and musical extravaganza, and a minority want only the serious drama, which shall it be? Suppose a majority demand a race-course? Shall the resources of the colony be used thus against the bitter protest of those who do not believe in racing? Suppose, just before the race-course is finished, the majority become a minority and the work is stopped—has the new majority the right to destroy the property and accumulate a new fund for a different purpose?
"Must a doctor always come when he's called—even for imaginary, hysterical, and foolish causes? Will the people vote for and elect their own doctor, or will he be assigned? If the doctor proves a failure, how will they get rid of him? If they getrid of him, how can he be saddled on another community? Shall one community suffer at the hands of an incompetent man, while a physician of genius ministers to the one next door? If a great surgeon is needed by ten persons at the same hour, who shall decide which operation he shall perform, and who shall live or die in consequence?
"Who shall say when a doctor is not fit to practise?
"We have just established a weekly paper. Within a year the population will need a daily. Who shall say when an editor is competent?
"Some men fail in early life and make their great success later. At what period, or after how long a trial, shall it be decided that a man is a failure and must quit his chosen or assigned work?
"Many young men promise well at first and make later miserable failures. Many are failures at first and make great successes. Who shall decide which to continue and which to stop? If a youth is forced to abandon a work on which he has set his heart, how can he be made of service to the community in a work he loathes?
"We must continue to make inventions, or progress ceases. When the cost of experiments is greater than the total income of a citizen, how can the inventor bear the expense? Will any man sacrifice his own funds and his own time on anuncertain experiment when he can receive no benefit from the work?
"Many men are working now over problems all other men believe cannot be solved. If the State must furnish the capital to make the experiments of inventors, who will be responsible for the enormous waste of treasure on senseless and useless and impossible inventions?
"Who can decide whether ideas proposed are useless or impossible? All great inventions which have revolutionized the history of ages have been laughed at by the world.
"How can we punish the jobbery and waste and corruption which may enter from experiments which are not made in good faith? Cannot any group of shrewd men pretend to have invented a machine which will save over half the labour of the colony, and spend millions on this imaginary invention which proves useless? If such an abuse of power should be made, would not the effect be to end forever all experiments and stop the progress of the world?
"When many cities have been built and one is more healthful, beautiful, and cultured than the others, shall those who live in the poorer cities be allowed to move or be forced to remain where they are? How are sculptors, artists, musicians, or architects to be apportioned among differentcommunities? Suppose they all demand the right to live in one place?
"Will the State publish all books by all authors, or will selections be made? If all books are published will not vast sums be wasted in printing worthless trash? If selections are made, what unprejudiced, infallible board can be found competent to decide?
"If a man chooses to be a writer, how many years shall he be allowed to work at his occupation if in the opinion of the judges he shows no talent?
"Will the State permit freedom of opinion in the columns of its papers and the books printed? If so, what shall hinder a treasonable conspiracy from destroying respect for its authority? If opinions are to be edited by the State, how can the freedom of the press be maintained?
"What shall be done with the Negro, the Chinaman, and the Indian when their numbers largely increase? Will these inferior races be placed on an absolute equality with the Aryan and will they be allowed to freely intermarry? If so, can the new mongrel race maintain itself against the progress and power of the great high-bred races of men?
"Are women to receive the same allowance as men, and married women the same as spinsters?
"Shall men and women be required to marryor be allowed to remain single? Shall all women be made to work? If it continues to cost more to support a single woman than a married one, how can equality of rights be maintained?
"As food is the basis of all supply, many must be farmers. How shall this great industry be conducted ultimately? Can we allow individuals to work small farms? If so, who determines the kind of crop each farm shall raise? How much land will a man be required to work?
"An Italian from the north of Italy can raise more on one acre than an Irishman can on ten—whose method shall be used, and whose capacity be taken for the standard?
"How many hours shall constitute a day on the farm? Shall a farmhand get only a dollar a day and a bricklayer two? If so, where is the justice and equality of such an arrangement?
"Can a farmer be allowed vacations? If so, must he ask permission where to go? If not, suppose he goes at seedtime or harvest, gets drunk, stays two weeks or two months, and destroys a year's crop? Who shall pay for this enormous damage, and how shall the penalty be enforced?
"Suppose a poor manager spoils the crop on an immense tract of land, how can any adequate penalty be enforced?
"Shall one general manager decide what kind of crops to raise on each piece of land or each manager decide for himself? Suppose they all raise hay——"
"Then you'll have plenty to eat the balance of your life—you and all the other jackasses in the colony!" old Tom growled.
A laugh rippled the crowd and the speaker paused in angry confusion. For the first time he lost his temper and stood glaring at his tormentors in silent rage.
Norman whispered to Barbara:
"Wolf has urged me for some time to suppress this meeting. Shall I do it?"
"Yes. It's a nuisance. I agree with him. Do it."
Norman rose just as Diggs sat down choking with anger.
"Comrades," the young leader said, in commanding tones. "I think this assembly has completed its work of discussion. The questions propounded here to-night are important. We will meet and solve them in due time, as we come to them. What this community needs now is the spirit of coöperation, of loyalty, and industry. We have been assigned our tasks for the year. Now every man to his work! We have had enough of wrangling and questioning.Let's live and breathe awhile. The executive council has decided to close the weekly sessions of the assembly until the annual election of officers next spring. Hereafter a musicale and dance will be held both Monday and Friday evenings."
The young folks broke into hearty applause led by old Tom and his partner Joe.
The Bard sprang to his feet, his one good eye blazing with inspired wrath.
"And I denounce this act of tyranny as the climax of a series of infamies! You have now forged the chains of slavery on every limb. Free speech has been suppressed—in God's name, what next?"
But the crowd only laughed. The Bard had protested so often his words ceased to have weight. The halo of romance that once wreathed his classic brow had faded with the painful disillusioning which followed a thrashing his wife had given him. He was a prophet without honour and his warnings fell on deaf ears.
Wolf and Catherine stood at the door with a word of cheer, a friendly nod, or a silent pressure of the hand for every one who emerged from the hall. These two alone at every turn grew in prestige among all jarring factions of the struggling colony.