I looked around and found that while I had been musing, our party had all gathered near me without attracting my attention and I said apologetically: "I must have been dreaming."
"Then you were dreaming with your eyes wide open," said Oqua. "I noticed that you seemed to be unusually absorbed. What were you thinking about?"
"I was pondering," I replied, "how it was possible that this country could ever have been cursed with poverty as the normal condition of the masses of the people while the few were rich beyond the dreams of avarice, and held those masses bound by fetters that they could not break."
"It is now time for the exercises to commence," said Norrena. "I will explain the mystery in my address, at least so far as the leading factors are concerned, for in its entirety it is indeed a long and ghastly picture of human ignorance on one side and humangreed directed by a morally perverted human intelligence on the other."
The chairman called the meeting to order and stated that the first thing on the program would be an address on the Transition Period, by Norrena, the Continental Commissioner of Education. Without extended preliminary remarks, the speaker opened the discussion of the question under consideration from which I condense the following from Oqua's report in English. Yet notwithstanding my short residence in the country I believe that I could have given the gist of the address myself without any assistance.
"I need not," said the speaker, "enter into any lengthy explanation before an institute of teachers, as to how our ancestors under the old civilisation exchanged the products created by their labor for products created by the labor of others, by the use of a law-created medium of exchange called money. Neither need we trace the history of many kinds of products and devices which were used in different ages as a medium of exchange, such as cattle, slaves, shells, tobacco, the skins of animals and certain stones and metals. These things are only of interest to the antiquarian. It is enough to know for our present purpose that money had originally been devised as a substitute for barter, and marked the first step towards the establishment of a system of exchanging products which required the exercise of a higher order of mental faculties. During the early part of the Transition Period, gold and silver were the exclusive materials from which money was coined, except for sums of only a few cents, when the so-called baser metals were used. As the supply of gold and silver was not equal to the demands of business, banks were establishedto issue notes to circulate as money with the consent of both parties to the exchange. These notes were made redeemable in gold and silver on the demand of the holders, and at frequent intervals the banks failed and the people lost the wealth which they had exchanged for the notes. This was a transfer without compensation, of the actual values created by the labor of the people, to the note issuing power, and this process, oft-repeated, laid the foundations for many colossal fortunes.
"In this connection, it may be well to note that in times of great public danger when the metal coins disappeared from circulation, the government exercised the right to issue a legal tender paper money to meet the deficiency. It served all the purposes of gold, and often in the midst of adversity and disaster brought great industrial prosperity to the people. But when the danger had gone by, strange as it may appear, the government funded this legal tender paper into government bonds, payable, interest and principal, in coin. This process of converting the debt paying medium of the country into an interest bearing debt that must be paid in another kind of money which had been hidden away by the more wealthy in times of danger, was the foundation of the great bonded debt of this country which was established during the Transition Period. This bonded debt was made the basis of a national bank currency for the redemption of which, at first in legal tender paper and coin, and later in gold, the people as debtors to the banks were in the last analysis responsible. In other words the national bank currency derived its sole value as a reliable medium of exchange from the fact that it was based on the public credit, and this public credit belonged to the people, but the private banking associations got the benefit for the privategain of their stockholders, and the service rendered, cost the people many times its worth.
"During the Transition Period in this country the people had three kinds of legal tender money, gold, silver, and paper, together with the national bank notes which were a legal tender as between the people and the government. At the close of this period, silver coin, and legal tender paper were made redeemable by the government in gold, on the demand of the holder; and all deferred payments were made payable in gold on the demand of the creditor. The great bulk of the business of the country among the people was transacted by the use of silver, paper and bank notes but the holders of these forms of currency could demand gold in exchange, and if for any cause the government failed to collect enough gold from the people to meet the demand it became the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to sell interest bearing gold bonds to meet the deficiency.
"Such in brief, was the complicated, cumbersome and unscientific system of exchanging, or distributing wealth, which existed under the old civilization. The means of production being fixed by natural law were the same then as now. Wealth always was and must always continue to be, the product of human labor and skill applied to natural resources, facilitated by such mechanical contrivances and business methods as human skill may devise. But the system of distribution being entirely under human control is continually changing as affected by human impulses, whether they be selfish, as in the olden time, or altruistic as they are now.
"We now exchange a product for a product of equal value, for the convenience and benefit of all, without any charge except for the necessary labor expendedin the production and distribution. But under the old civilization the product was first exchanged for money and the money was then exchanged with some one else for the product that was wanted in return. As a method of exchanging one value for another, this was a very awkward and unscientific process, but in and of itself it was not necessarily unjust and oppressive; yet the system such as it was, could be used by the greedy few who controlled the financial and commercial affairs of the country, for the purpose of exacting such exorbitant tribute from the many as would, and did, condemn the millions to poverty. The few, with their superior business sagacity took advantage of this semi-barbarous idea of a perpetual money token which was supposed to contain within itself an actual value, equal to the values which it was used to exchange, and they organized banking as the chief factor in the mechanism of exchange among themselves, which in its operations also gave them control of the perpetual money tokens which the people must have to carry on their ordinary business transactions with each other.
"These shrewd financiers had no use for money except to pay balances, and at the time of the end, ninety-seven per cent. of the great business transactions of the country were carried on by means of organised credit through banks and clearing houses. This system of minimising the use of legal money through banking methods, as a matter of course left a large surplus in the hands of the great operators, which was loaned to the people, who in their unorganised condition were compelled to pay cash. These loans bore various rates of interest, but always much above the average increase of wealth, and very often so exorbitant that the states for very shame's sake were compelled to establish certain arbitrary rates beyond which the money lender dare not go.
"It will be seen at a glance that this system of transacting the business of the country on a cash basis by the people and by organized credit through banks by large operators who controlled finance and commerce could not fail to give to the latter an enormous advantage in the aggregate business of the country. The great masses of wealth producers naturally became a debtor class. As all wealth was the product of their labor, they must necessarily create the means of paying all indebtedness, interest and principal. Hence they constituted the interest paying masses while the comparatively small number of large operators constituted a powerful creditor class who were continually receiving interest, and hence always had money to loan or invest in such a manner as to be able to receive more interest. And the larger the interest-charge against the people, the more they needed money and the more inclined they were to borrow. Cities and towns often voted a bonded debt upon themselves for improvements, for the express purpose of providing employment for the workers, so that business might derive some temporary advantage by having the wages expended in their midst. The great masses of the people did not realize that a part of the same dollars they borrowed most go back to the lender to pay interest, and that the consequent deficiency in the means of payment could only be met by transferring to the creditor a portion of the wealth created by their labor equal to the interest. And the larger the aggregate indebtedness in proportion to the volume of money available for debt paying purposes, the larger must be the deficiency to be met out of their savings, or what should have been their net income from the exercise of their producing power.
"But the interest on loans, public and private was only a small fraction of the burden of usury imposed upon the wealth producing masses. All the large industrial, financial and commercial enterprises of the country were on a debt-creating basis. Stock companies owned the railroads of the country; the streetcars, waterworks, gasworks and electric light and power plants of the cities; all the great manufacturing, mining and commercial enterprises; the steamship lines, and even vast bonanza farms and stock ranches. All these interests were operated with a view to paying dividends on the stock in addition to the operating expenses, and were therefore equivalent to a perpetual interest bearing debt, the principal of which never could be paid.
"This constructive indebtedness was intended to be perpetual, and its volume was not limited to the actual cost of the various enterprises that were incorporated. The railroads, for instance, sold stock to many times the cost of the roads, or as it was called, 'watered their stock,' and then they ordinarily bonded the roads for vast sums besides. These bonded debts however, were very often created for the purpose of bankrupting the companies for the enrichment of an 'inside ring.' This process was known as 'freezing out the stockholders,' and by thus reducing capitalization it was not necessary for the roads to exact so much tribute from their patrons in order to pay dividends. Other corporate enterprises also 'watered' their stock, and some of them got such a hold upon the people that they continued to pay exorbitant dividends on their fictitious valuation until they were absorbed into the larger combination of the whole people.
"At the close of the Transition Period the volumeof interest bearing indebtedness and dividend earning investments was estimated at fifty thousand millions, and the average cost to the people six per cent. per annum, or an aggregate of three thousand millions every year to be taken out of the wealth produced by the people. The bulk of these obligations, public, corporate and private was held by the great banking institutions which had been established by the corporation and trust magnates, who practically owned the lands and all the machinery of production and distribution. They owned not only the indebtedness against the people but they controlled the medium by which it must be paid, and on their demand under the law, this medium of final payment was gold.
"As this great creditor class was the principal employer of labor and controlled both the buying and selling of products which the people must have for the purposes of consumption, thus fixing both the income and the expenses of the producer, it was not difficult to collect their tribute. A pro rata of the great annual charge of interest, dividends and profits against the people was collected from the producer in the shape of a discount on what he had to sell, whether it was his labor or its products. The remainder was charged up to consumption and constituted a part of the price that was paid for every article that was purchased. The cost to the consumer of every commodity purchased, consisted of five distinct elements: First, interest on the money supposed to be invested in its production and distribution; Second, rent upon all the buildings in which it had been stored, which would include cars or vessels used in transportation; Third, profit to all who had handled the product; Fourth, its pro rata of taxation and Fifth, the wages paid to the labor expendedin its production, transportation, superintendence and distribution. This fifth element in the cost was all that went to useful labor, while the other elements went to the great financial, industrial and commercial combines which held the masses of the people in their grasp.
"Of course under the operation of this system, where both the income and the expenses of the producer were determined by this great creditor class for its own selfish purposes, it is not strange that the condition of the average toiler was one of poverty, nor is it strange that a widespread spirit of unrest, and often of angry and violent discontent threatened the peace of society and the perpetuity of established institutions and a stable government. But to us, it does indeed look strange that the brawny millions whose strong arms and undaunted courage had conquered the untamed forces of nature and made the wilderness a fit dwelling place for a refined and cultured people, could have been bound, hand and foot, by such a gossamer thread as the puny power of a few owners of gold. But when we take into consideration the fundamental truth that mind controls matter, and that the few who were at the top had cultivated brains while the many who were at the bottom had only cultivated muscles, the mystery is solved. The toiling masses had no conception of their power, and on their plane of intelligence were utterly unable to hold their own against the wily schemes of the more intelligent few.
"At the time of which we speak, four-fifths of the aggregate wealth of the country had passed into the hands of a small fraction of the people, and millions were landless, homeless and dependent for subsistence upon the crumbs, so to speak, that fell from the tablesof their lordly masters who controlled every avenue to employment and dictated the terms upon which they were permitted to live. Being few in numbers, they could and did co-operate with each other for their mutual advantage. All they had to do in order to keep wages at a minimum was to leave a large number of applicants unemployed, and hence very poor, who at all times, would be ready to take the place of workmen who demanded more liberal wages. The self-employed farmers were but little better off than the wage workers, as they were forced to sell their products and purchase their supplies at prices fixed by the great financial, industrial and commercial combines which controlled the business of the country. Under the inequitable methods of exchange which existed at that time, the masses of the people were powerless to help themselves. The fortunate few who controlled money, dictated how much they might receive for their labor or its products and how much of the products created by the labor of others they could purchase with the proceeds.
"To us the natural remedy for discriminations of this kind, so unjust and oppressive to the masses of the people seems so self-evident and easy of application that it is not strange that many have been inclined to doubt the correctness of much that is recorded in the history of the economic conditions which existed under the old civilisation, when human selfishness ruled supreme in business affairs. But when we take into consideration the fact, that at that time, the world had never had a single object lesson large enough to be seen by the great of mankind, as to what would constitute an equitable system of distribution, we are forced to the conclusion that the adverse conditionsexisting during the Transition Period were just what might have been expected under the circumstances. The few who had the ability to conduct the business of the world did not understand that the productive power of the earth is practically unlimited so that under an equitable system of exchange there is absolutely no possibility of any person being reduced to poverty. Then, too, the great masses were but a few generations removed from a condition of absolute serfdom, and were just what ages of drudgery had made them, and could not be expected to take broad and comprehensive views of the great economic problems by which they were confronted. The world had never known anything but the private ownership of all the means of production and distribution and the desire to lay up treasures was universally regarded as laudable and praiseworthy. Under these circumstances neither the few who had monopolized the earth nor the many who were disinherited could have been reasonably expected to be other than they were. Both alike were the product of long ages of growth. The wheat and the tares must necessarily grow up together, nurtured by the same soil, until the harvest is ready, and then the separation takes place strictly in accordance with natural law.
"The gold power which established itself in this country during the Transition Period was an exotic that had been imported from the old world. Its object was to control every nation on earth, for its own gain, without being the loyal supporter of any. It had secured absolute control over the nations of the Old World before it succeeded in financially conquering the New. Whenever it succeeded in establishing the gold standard in any country, it established its localbranch for controlling that country's finances. Its first object was to promote the creation of national bonded debts, payable, principal and interest, in gold. For this purpose, it was always ready to loan money to carry on wars, and each country could negotiate its loans through its own local branch, but the creditor in every case, as a matter of fact, was the international Gold Power of the world, which had no preferences between nations but sought to impose a bonded debt alike upon all. There was absolutely nothing patriotic about it. All it wanted, was a lien upon the industries of the world, that would produce a steady income in the shape of interest.
"In this country, we had a Republican form of government and with our vast area of public lands the people were more independent by far than the people of any other country ever had been, notwithstanding the fact that they were robbed unmercifully by the private banks which issued notes and then suspended so that the notes which the people had accepted for their property became worthless. At frequent intervals, these bank panics reduced thousands of people to bankruptcy. But the country was new and land could be had for the asking, so when pressed to the wall, as it were, in the more populous districts along the eastern border, they came west on the public lands, made new homes and soon accumulated another competency. It is not strange that this international Gold Power of the world cast longing eyes upon a country that was so productive, and could recover so rapidly from industrial depressions and financial disasters.
"For nearly one hundred years after the establishment of our Republic, notwithstanding the prevalent 'wild cat' banking system as it was called and theabsurd reverence for the so-called precious metals, the people of this country were practically independent of the great Gold Power which had its headquarters in Atlan. While the founders of the Republic had made gold and silver coin the standard money of the country, they reserved the right to issue treasury notes and also to make them a legal tender, and as there was no great debt, and land could be had for the asking, the economic independence of the people could not be entirely crushed out, and therefore Altruria offered an effectual barrier to the encroachments of the gold power. Before the people could be actually subjugated financially, a vast bonded debt must be created, and in order to induce the people to agree to such a debt, the life of the Republic must be placed in jeopardy. A foreign war was not to be thought of, as it would arouse to fever heat all of the innate democratic hatred against aristocratic rule of every name and description, but a war between the states would serve the same purpose.
"The conditions that made such an interstate struggle possible, had unintentionally been provided for by the founders of the Republic. At the time when the Republic was established the colored people were held as slaves in nearly all of the original colonies. This institution was regarded by the founders of the Republic, as inconsistent with the spirit of its institutions, and it was unsparingly denounced as the 'sum of all villainies' by a large number; and one state after another emancipated its slaves, and new free states were admitted, until the country was practically half slave and half free.
"In the manufacturing states uncultured slave labor was not profitable and hence there was but little objection to its abolition. But in the agriculturalstates such labor was valuable, as the old world furnished an unfailing market for all the surplus products. The gold power of Atlan took advantage of the situation to sow the seeds of discord between the two sections.
"Missionaries were sent into the manufacturing states, papers established and literature distributed appealing to the sympathies of the people in behalf of the slaves and creating a public sentiment against the slaveholding states. These anti-slavery missionaries came in the name of religion and humanity and it cannot be denied that ample grounds existed for all that could be said against chattel slavery, but the PURPOSES for which the anti-slavery agitation was used by the Gold Power were, if possible, to destroy the Republic, or failing in this, involve the country in an interstate war and induce the patriotic lovers of liberty to consent to the establishment of a vast bonded debt.
"Another class of missionaries were sent into the slaveholding states and another class of literature circulated, proclaiming that 'cotton is king' and that if Free Trade with all the world was established, the planters would be the wealthiest and happiest people on earth. That all that stood in the way was the union with the anti-slavery states, which sought to abolish the 'peculiar institution' that enabled the planters to produce such a magnificent surplus, which the Old World stood ready to take in unlimited quantities, at high prices in gold, just as soon as Free Trade could be established. To secure this grand victory for agriculture, all that was needed was to dissolve the union with the anti-slavery states and their pet hobby of tariff duties on imported goods.
"Both sections of the country were flooded withliterature, all of which contained enough of truth to make it attractive to honest people, and enough of misrepresentation to engender the most bitter and antagonistic feelings between them. The institution of slavery was wrong, in and of itself, but the anti-slavery agitators ignored the fact that the masses of the slaves were not qualified for self-government, and that the perpetuity of free institutions depended upon the intelligence of the voters. They did not try to convert the slaveholding states to the policy of educating their slaves and preparing them for freedom, but they went to the non-slaveholding states and demanded the immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery in the other section. This was, as a matter of course, most exasperating to the people of the slave states who in their capacity as independent states felt themselves amply competent to attend to their own affairs.
"In the political discussions of that time, half truths served all the purposes of full grown falsehoods as a means of deluding the people. The Free Trade agitators of the slave states were unqualifiedly right when they called attention to the fact that all import duties were a tax upon the people in proportion to their expenses instead of their incomes and were therefore unjust and oppressive to the great masses of the people; but they ignored the fact that the absolute Free Trade that did exist between all sections of the country was of vastly more importance to the slaveholding states, than Free Trade with any foreign country could possibly be. The manufacturing states of their own country were over two thousand miles nearer to them than the manufacturing countries of the Old World, and that fact, with a fair compensation to labor would have given them an assured market for theirsurplus products without paying transportation charges both ways across the ocean.
"But the leading object of these Free Trade agitators, was to appeal to the selfish impulses of the few who owned slaves, and to the race prejudices of the masses of non-slaveholders, by telling them that the abolitionists proposed to place them on terms of political and social equality with the slaves. They were taught to believe that under the prevailing tariff regulations, they were taxed for the special benefit of the 'mudsills' of the manufacturing states, who being low down in the social scale themselves wanted to bring the proud, chivalrous people of the slave states down to the level of their chattel slaves.
"As a matter of fact, neither the producing masses of the Free States or the non-slaveholders of the slave states had the remotest conception that the international gold power of Atlan was taking advantage of the discussion of slavery and free trade through its paid agents, to sow the seeds of discord between the two sections of the Great Republic of the New World. And they permitted their resentments for fancied wrongs to be fanned into a flame of fierce indignation, which, as was intended, culminated in a bloody strife and the creation of a vast bonded debt.
"This fratricidal struggle lasted nearly five years, and when it ended, the people found themselves in debt, billions of dollars, to a class of people who had speculated on their necessities. The unsuspecting masses on both sides had bared their breasts to the storm of battle, endured all the privations and suffered all the losses, and were in debt for all the expenses of the warINCLUDING THEIR OWN SERVICES, to an international money power which ruled the world.
"In order to carry on the war, paper money was issued and paid out to the soldiers, sailors and citizens for their services. This money performed all the functions of gold and notwithstanding the fact that the people were engaged in a most destructive war, it stimulated all branches of business and brought on an era of great industrial prosperity. But after the war was over this same paper money which had been paid to the people as the original creditors of the government, and for which they had signed receipts in full for their services, was converted into interest bearing bonds, and these same soldiers, sailors and citizens were taxed to pay to those who speculated on their necessities in the hour of danger, the same debt that had originally been due to themselves, and for which they had received legal tender paper money.
"But had the process of funding the legal tender debt paying medium of the country into bonds ceased at this point, the international gold power of the world would never have been able to financially subjugate the people of this country, as under the law creating the bonds, the debt was payable in legal tender paper money. So another step must be taken. The debt had been created and a large portion of the money had been burned, but the bonds did not call for gold, except for interest. Hence a law was enacted resuming specie payments, and the bonds were made payable in coin, and now the people who had taken paper dollars for their services in saving the union, were taxed to pay gold dollars to the money kings for the paper dollars they had received.
"We can scarcely conceive at this distant day, how it was possible for our ancestors to have been so stupid, as not to see through this outrage that was perpetratedupon them, but nevertheless, history records the fact that for thirty odd years after this bare faced legalised robbery had been committed, a vast majority of men were voting their approval, which was proclaimed throughout the world as the triumph of patriotic statesmanship.
"As the direct result of this kind of financial legerdemain, which converted thedebt-payingmedium of the country into aninterest-bearing debt, the wages of labor and the prices of products steadily declined, business enterprises were wound up in bankruptcy at the rate of more than one thousand per month and millions of workmen were forced into idleness and thronged the highways in all parts of the country, demoralized, degraded and becoming a sure menace to civilization.
"As a result of the war between the states, chattel slavery had been abolished, but another form of industrial servitude, the wage system, had fallen heir to all of its worst features. The owners of the chattel slaves had the power to be oppressive and cruel, but personal interest demanded that the slave should always be provided with food, shelter and raiment, while the wage slave could be turned out to starve when from sickness, age of any other cause it was more profitable to dispense with his services. The wage slave, who must work or starve was serving a much more exacting and cruel master than the most heartless owner of chattel slaves ever could have been. In the great sphere of human servitude the tables had been completely turned. While the slave owner had always been very careful not to give his chattel slaves an opportunity to run away, the wage slave very often lived in a perpetual dread that his master would pay him off and tell him to go.
"Conditions such as these could not fail to arouse a widespread feeling of dissatisfaction and as every manhad a vote, political agitation was the logical result of the situation and politicians were kept busy in defending old policies and proposing new ones, all for the professed purpose of securing better conditions for the great masses of the people. A slight glance at a few of the popular economic and political ideas of that time indicates the average status of popular intelligence, and is therefore useful in tracing the evolutionary forces which were operating at that time for the elimination of selfishness and the establishment of equity in human affairs.
"As the times grew harder, the politicians of the old school told the people that the over production of wealth was the cause of all their poverty and distress, and for a time the great masses seemed to be satisfied with this explanation. They did not pause to inquire how it was possible for them to produce so much food and clothing and build so many houses, and for that reason be compelled to go hungry, dress in rags and be without shelter.
"Further on, this same class of politicians told the people that what they needed was to make their silver and paper money redeemable in gold and then they would have a dollar that would purchase more, and a majority of the people decided in favor of the gold standard. They did not reflect, that the larger the purchasing power of the dollar might be, the more of their labor it would require in order to get the dollar, and so without understanding what they were doing, the laboring masses of the country actually voted to decrease the money earning power of their own labor. But had they decided in favor of more money, while their wages would have gone up, their cost of living would have increased and they would not have been materially benefited except incidentally, as a part of the great debtorclass, which was required to pay interest as part of the price of everything purchased for consumption. And we may add, that but for the fact that the great masses who produced wealth by their labor, constituted a debtor class, the advantages and disadvantages between a larger or smaller volume of money, would have formed a perfect equation, and the condition of the masses would neither have been better nor worse, as in either case, the banks would have determined the amount that was permitted to circulate among the people, by making or withholding loans as might at the time, best promote their own interests.
"While the Gold Power was international in its character, and not loyal to any country, it always took an active interest in moulding the opinions of the dominant political parties of all countries. It was necessary for it to have at least two favorites among the dominant parties, so that by turns they might spring reforms, so-called, based on half truths, to attract the constantly increasing number of dissatisfied voters. The demand for an increased volume of money in order to raise the wages of labor and the price of farm products was a question of this character, and it was sufficient to sidetrack and head off a more searching investigation as to the real causes of poverty. This was met by the demand for a better quality of money that would purchase more goods. The arguments in favor of both, contained half truths which were dwelt upon with great force, but the success of either, still left the gold power, directly or indirectly, in a position to control the situation.
"The same thing was true in regard to the tariff question which the gold power made a dominant issue between its favorite parties. The question itself couldbe used to call attention away from the question of finance, which had a more direct bearing upon the vital matter ofEXCHANGEand was therefore more likely to educate the people to a point where they could no longer be deluded by an ingenious discussion of half truths. This question, in order to be made available for the purposes of the gold power, must necessarily have twoSEEMINGLYantagonistic political parties to go before the people. One party advocated a tariff-for-revenue, with Free Trade arguments, while the other advocated a tariff-for-protection, and appealed to the laboring classes to maintain liberal wages for themselves by voting for a high tariff that would exclude foreign goods.
"The positions taken by these parties were about equally delusive and neither would have in the least delayed the dangerous encroachments of the gold power. A tariff-for-revenue could in no sense be a Free Trade party, but it did propose to raise revenue by duties on imports. This duty would of course be paid by the people as part of the price of the goods which they consumed, and hence the tax would be in proportion to their expenses without any reference to their incomes. Those who expended their entire incomes in consumption would be taxed upon the whole, while those who expended only a small fraction, would be taxed only on the fraction so expended. As a system of taxation it is difficult to conceive of one that would be more unequal in its bearings, and more oppressive to people of small incomes.
"On the other hand the tariff-for-protection party, proposed to make the duties on imports so high that foreign productions would be kept out, and the home market secured to the employers of home labor. This,it was claimed, would enable the employers of labor to pay higher wages, which was true; but the selfishness of the heartless employer, was always in favor of keeping wages at a minimum and the noble, generous, employer could not afford to pay any more. If he did, his heartless competitor would undersell him in the market and destroy his business. Hence we are not surprised that statistics proved the tendency of wages to be toward a minimum under both parties—that is, a sum barely sufficient to provide food, clothing and shelter, and to enable the workman to raise other toilers to take his place when he was no longer able to work.
"Under this tariff-for-protection policy, the revenues raised were just as oppressive and unjust to people of small incomes as under the policy of 'a tariff for revenue only,' but with this additional burden, that the increased price of home products was assessed upon the people in the same unequal manner. But on the other side, more home labor could be employed, which benefited the workmen in protected industries at the expense of the classes which were not protected. Of course, even the tariff-for-protection party which had so much to say in favor of holding the home market for home products, never seriously intended to exclude foreign products, as that would have put an end to all revenue.
"These delusive theories of a tariff for revenue and a tariff for protection, served the purposes of the Gold Power, by calling the attention of the people away from the real difficulty which stood in the way of wealth producers. All that the people needed was an opportunity to apply their labor to natural resources, and be able to exchange their products for products ofequal value, produced by the labor of others. The foreign trade of the country was a matter of small importance compared with the home trade. If at almost any time during the latter part of the Transition Period, the people of this country had been guaranteed just such rations as were provided for soldiers, or even convicts, there would have been no surplus for exportation; and had the whole people been provided with all the clothing that was needed to keep them well clad, it would have taken the entire product of wool, flax, cotton and leather. But the press of that day, religious as well as secular, was to such a large extent under the control of the Gold Power, that facts such as these were kept away from the masses of the people. And it may be added in this connection, that the educational system of the country was controlled by this same power to suppress the truth on economic questions, and many eminent scholars were removed from professorships in the higher institutions of learning, because they refused to teach such sophistries as suited the purposes of the Gold Power.
"In our very brief mention of the political agitations of that time we have only referred to the leading measures advocated by the dominant political parties. It is due however to even that benighted age to state, that at every step taken by the international Gold Power to financially conquer the world, a few of the more enlightened and self-sacrificing spirits, boldly exposed the financial wrongs which were being perpetrated against the people for the still further enrichment of the money kings of the Old World and their agents and co-workers in the great centers of wealth in this country. But these courageous, clear headed and humanity loving pioneers of a highercivilization were frowned down as dangerous agitators and enemies of law and order, and every foul epithet was applied to them. If in business, they were boycotted, and if belonging to the ranks of labor, they were blacklisted and in many cases imprisoned on false charges, and some were even executed for crimes which they did not commit. And yet the measures of reform they advocated along political lines were usually of such a nature that had they been enacted into law they would only have prolonged, for a few decades perhaps, the false system which pauperized and degraded the toiling millions.
"So much for the political agitations which had for their ostensible object the improvement of the economic condition of the great masses of the people. Yet they did much good as a means of educating the more intelligent into a better understanding of the situation, and revealed the apparently utter hopelessness of ever being able to secure necessary reforms by political action, as no matter how pure at first might be the objects of a political party, just as soon as it was successful, and offices were in sight, the work of corruption set in and its principles became subordinate in the minds of its leaders, to the more profitable occupation of office seeking.
"But other more potent factors than political agitation, were at work among the masses in the shape of great industrial organizations of farmers and wage-workers. These organizations as a rule were strictly non-political. The farmers sought to secure higher prices for the products of the farm without any regard for the interests of the millions of wage-workers and others upon whom they depended for a market. Another object of the farmers was to reduce their costof living by securing lower prices on their implements and other supplies. By concentrating their trade and taking advantage of the competition between dealers they often succeeded in securing very much reduced prices on goods, and this furnished what was regarded as a legitimate excuse for reducing the wages of the employes engaged in their manufacture. This reduction of wages crippled the market for farm products and offended both the employer and the workmen, so in the end the farmers defeated themselves and succeeded in arraying all other classes of people against them.
"But it was the wage-workers who suffered the most from the great oligarchy of wealth which had been established in the name of the people for the express purpose of exacting profits from the industrial classes. They organized Trade Unions which ultimately federated into one great national organization with a view to securing higher wages and fewer hours of labor without any regard to the interests of the consumers of their products. The number of workmen in these Trade Unions were at all times but a small fraction of the multitude which depended upon wages. As a rule the purposes and methods of these labor organizations were in practice, if not in theory, based upon the same false principles that characterized the industrial despotism against which they were protesting. Selfishness was a distinguishing characteristic and a fatal defect. The skilled workman who had employment, cared but little for the non-Union workman of his own craft except as a possible competitor for his job, and nothing whatever for the great masses of common laborers who were so numerous and so poor that organization could do them no good as a means of maintaining wages. The union workman recognized no interest in common with the unemployed outside of his own fraternity.
"Instead of banding together to devise ways and means by which all could find employment, the Trade Unions sought only to secure work and maintain wages for the comparatively small number who were members in good standing. Hence in case of strikes and lockouts the unemployed workmen were actuated by the same selfish motives and did not hesitate to take their places whenever they could be protected from violence. And whenever they did so, the union workmen made war upon them. While they recognized the relation of master and servant as one that was to be perpetuated, they denied the right of the 'scabs' as they were called, to accept employment from THEIR masters, no matter how destitute they might be.
"Neither did they question the right of employers, who in the days of the old civilization were principally powerful corporations, to control the enactment and the enforcement of the laws. As a rule, the workmen divided their voting power between the political parties which were controlled by their masters. With such evident inability to grasp the situation in which they were placed, it is not strange that the employers were enabled to obtain absolute control of every branch of government, state and national, legislative, executive and judicial, notwithstanding the fact that every laborer had a vote which counted just as much as that of the most wealthy corporation magnate. Conspiracy laws were enacted which could be used for their suppression as occasion required. The right of trial by jury was denied by the courts, and the champions of labor were imprisoned for long terms for disobeying the mandates of the courts. Finally the Supreme Court, in the case of a sailor who had refused to serve for the period for which he had hired, decided that his employer had aright to hold him in bondage until the expiration of the contract; that the ownership over himself had ceased for the time specified, and that the constitutional provision which prohibited involuntary servitude did not apply to such as him. One of the labor papers of that time characterized this opinion of the Court as the 'Fugitive Sailor Decision,' a name by which it is known in the history of those dark days of the Transition Period.
"But unfriendly legislation and one-sided court decisions, were not the only factors in crushing the hopes of labor. This was a period of wonderful scientific discoveries of natural forces and mechanical inventions by which they could be utilized in saving labor. The grandmothers who boasted that they could spin three miles of thread in one day, from sunrise to sunset, lived to see their little granddaughters spin three thousand miles in ten hours with the aid of machinery. Similar improvements were introduced into every branch of industry. The machinery belonged to the employer and he added the saving to his profit. He did not need so many workmen to produce all that the people were able to purchase, and the workmen were dismissed to join the mighty army of the unemployed. For a time certain skilled workmen were enabled to maintain living wages by means of organization, but continued improvements in machinery ultimately enabled common laborers to take their places, and reduced the number of experts required, to such a degree, that their condition was but little better than that of the unskilled. Among the best paid organizations of the olden time was the Locomotive Engineers, but ultimately, electricity took the place of steam, and a motor-man from the ranks of common labortook the places of both an engineer and a fireman. The machine displaced three-fourths of the printers at first, and later a still larger number of what remained, by introducing the principles of multiplex telegraphy, which enabled one expert to operate machines at the same time in a number of separate offices in different parts of the world whenever the copy was the same.
"Labor economists called attention to this displacement of labor by machinery, but the press and the politicians in the service of the corporations claimed, that this cheapening of production was of great benefit to the people by securing a corresponding reduction in prices. Finally, after a persistent agitation for years, the national Commissioner of Labor was required to make a careful examination, and in his report, among a multitude of similar items, we find that the labor cost of a five-dollar hat was only thirty-four cents; a ten-dollar plow, seventy-nine cents and so on to the end of a long catalogue of commodities which the people always needed. The question was, Who got the difference between the amount received by the actual producer and the price paid by the consumer? The answer was self-evident; outside of clerk hire, it must have gone to pay profits in some form to non-producers. But after this official demonstration that the 'lion's share' of the wealth created by productive labor went to nonproducing speculators, the great masses of the people still continued to use their influence to perpetuate this inequitable system which practically confiscated the wealth created by their labor to pay profits on speculative investments.
"The mass of the small dealers of that time were no better off, in many respects, than the wealth producing laborers, but being in some sense a part ofthe profit-exacting system, they held to it longer, in the vain hope that a time might come when by some fortuitous turn in business, or lucky speculation, they could amass millions. As a class they had never devoted themselves to an earnest and careful study of economic questions, but as long as the people came and purchased goods and left a profit in their hands, they were satisfied, and paid no attention to the far reaching influences which were surely paving the way to their ultimate failure in business. Hence it was not until just before the end of the old civilization that they began to realize that something was the matter. Sharp competition among the large number of small dealers reduced the average profits below a fair compensation for the labor expended, and large combines with unlimited money capital, were able to meet the universal demand for cheap goods. The dealers were finding themselves crowded out of business. They blamed their customers for not giving them the preference, even if the large department stores could afford to sell for less. They demanded legislation against the large stores and took an active interest in the Anti-Trust agitation of the time.
"This opposition to Trusts and Department stores, like the farmer's organizations and trade unions, took a very narrow view of the situation. They saw their profits decreasing and their sole object was to prevent this, without any reference to the interests of the people who as purchasers of goods must pay all the profits. The masses of the people understood their motives and did not hesitate to patronize Department stores and purchase Trust products, provided they could get them for less. They might have been able to protect themselves from the inordinate greed of the trusts and combines, by taking their customers into partnership andwith their assistance organizing consumption and thus controlling distribution for the equal benefit of all. This would have been in exact accordance with the ideal that had been handed down in their system of religion, that we should always do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
"The entire history of Altruria as an independent republic belongs to the Transition Period in the progress of the world and in a larger, but not so well defined a sense it extends to the discovery of the continent, and even to an earlier period, distinguished by the breaking up of the ancient religious hierarchy and the introduction of a constantly increasing number of warring sects. These were the evolutionary forces developed under the operations of natural law, in strict accordance with the constitution of the human mind, which always tends towards the utmost possible development of the race, physically, mentally and morally. These forces in the early stages of human development, work so slowly, that even the best trained intellects do not discover their existence and hence have no power to intelligently co-operate with them, with a view to accelerating their own progress upward toward the highest possible planes of development. But, it was during the last fifty years of this Transition Period, that all these forces became more apparent to the careful historian, and it is these to which I have more particularly directed your attention.
"Human selfishness on the lower planes of development constitutes the first step in the development of that higher selfhood, which is the predominating characteristic on the higher planes. During the last fifty years of the Transition Period, human selfishness, in the baser sense, was making its last struggle forexistence as the controlling factor in human affairs. All classes of people were inspired to action by selfish interests, and these interests could not fail to clash. Out of this clashing between forces they ultimately learned that the best and highest interest of every individual could always be secured by carefully guarding the interest of every other individual. Out of this was evolved our present universal rule, which governs our relations towards each other, of 'each for all and all for each,' and hence all are equally secure in the exercise of every natural right and in the possession of absolute economic independence.
"The Gold Power sought for and secured universal dominion over all the nations of the earth and there being no other nations to conquer, in its inordinate greed, it continued to impose additional burdens upon the people. This met opposition, first from one class and then from another, but all these movements were animated by the same element of selfishness which characterized the Gold Power. The farmers organized to secure better conditions for themselves without any regard to the interests of the millions of wage workers and others upon whom they depended for a market. The workmen organized to secure better wages for the members of their unions with no regard for any other class of people, or even for other workmen who did not belong to their fraternity. At the close of the old system the small dealers and manufacturers were unanimous against the encroachments of the vast combines who could undersell them, but they ignored the interests of the great mass of consumers upon whom they depended for a market. Selfishness, in the baser sense, guaranteed the failure of all these movements. No one class of people, seeking to promote itsown selfish interests was able to hold its own against the superior intelligence of the great financiers who had planned to financially conquer the world by controlling the world's supply of gold through an organized system of creating debts both actual, for borrowed money, and constructive as investments which exacted tribute from the wealth producing classes. This process of debt creating continued until in this country the entire volume of sixteen hundred millions of money of all kinds would have paid but a fraction of the annual charge for interest, dividends, etc., upon investments and all the gold in the world, about $4,000,000,000 would have paid but a fraction of the principal.
"But another, and in the end the most potent evolutionary force which was destined to emancipate the people, was the arousing of the moral sense of large numbers who had never turned their attention to the study of economic science but whose souls revolted at the conditions imposed upon vast multitudes of people. The Gold Power while still a mighty factor in the control of the religious press and a large number of the leading religious teachers of the country, was not able to still the voice of the truest disciples of Krystus, and these demanded that the spirit of the founder of their religion should be exemplified in the practical every day affairs of life. They well understood that if the people were doing to each other as they would have others do to them, there could be no such thing as poverty, with all its tendencies towards vice and crime. These pioneers of a Diviner Civilization, with nothing but a theological training, were perhaps not clear in their own minds, as to just how this Golden Rule could be applied in business under the prevailing financial and commercial systemsof the country, but they did believe that the ideal in every human relation could be realized, and they insisted that the effort should be made by every true follower of Krystus, to establish the dominion of good upon earth to the end that righteousness might prevail in human affairs.
"For this grand culmination, the operation of the evolutionary forces for the last fifty years had been a post-graduate course for the workers who were to set the machinery in motion, on the material plane, by which all the crushing burdens imposed by Greed could be easily and speedily removed. And in this course, the mistakes made by the people had been the most potent educators. The producing classes had been induced to organize because they felt that they were not getting their just share in the distribution of wealth; but to save that which was lost in the distribution, they made the strange mistake of organizing as producers. The farmer had no need of an organization, to enable him to produce more wealth. The soil would produce just as much without such organization as with it. The same thing was true of mechanics, miners and other wage-workers, who organized in their capacity of wealth producers. But as consumers they could all stand on one platform, and being the market upon which all producers must depend, they would be masters of the situation. With an equal distribution of the benefits of such organization of consumption, it would be just as easy to pay dividends to labor, and thus increase their share in the distribution, as it was to pay dividends on capitalistic investments.
"So it was, that at a time when every thing seemed hopeless, the few who never yield to disappointments, and who had made an exhaustive study of existingeconomic conditions reinforced the earnest followers of Krystus who were demanding the application of the Golden Rule in business by formulating methods by which this much desired result could be attained. They had studied the moral problem that confronted the religionists, from the objective side, and understood just how it must be solved along business lines. Inasmuch as all material wealth was created by labor, and distributed by being bought and sold, it followed as a logical sequence, that there was but one way by which every useful worker could secure a just share in the distribution, and that was to take charge of the business of exchange (buying and selling) and divide the benefits equally among all who united their efforts to establish the largest possible round of exchange between producers and consumers. This was simply the organization of the market for the express purpose of establishing Equity in Distribution, by paying dividends to labor. The people had at last discovered the vital truth upon which the application of the Golden Rule depends, thatOrganized Consumption Controls Distribution.
"Organizations of consumers were effected with a view to concentrating their purchasing power through channels of their own, not to reduce prices, but to pool the net profits into a common fund for the equal benefit of all the members. A portion of this was set aside as an educational fund to extend the work, and the remainder was used to pay dividends to the members who, as customers, had paid the profits into the common treasury. This was known as the "Dividend to Labor," and it was always distributed equally, as it had been secured by the united purchasing power of all the members. And, in order to secure this fund, whichbelonged alike to all, no member had added one cent to his or her cost of living. It was all a saving, as between the new equitable system of exchange and the old and wasteful profit system. This was aPROFIT-SAVING BUSINESS MACHINEof which thePRODUCERSwho constituted, in the main, the great markets of the world,COULD NOT BE DEPRIVED, andWITH THIS, it became a matter of indifference as to who had immediate control of theLABOR-SAVING MACHINERYofPRODUCTION.
"This movement had its origin in the West where the people were more inclined to think for themselves, but the benefits were so decided and so easily secured, that it spread rapidly. The first exchanges demonstrated that the use of money could be very largely minimized, and banks were established as depositories for all the money that came into their hands, and to facilitate their financial relations with unorganized communities where money was still a necessity. These savings of money, were held as a sacred trust, to enable the members to pay taxes, and debts, in cases where the creditor could not be induced to take products at a fair price. Among themselves they used exchange certificates which were issued on the deposit of products or money, and for necessary labor. These certificates being issued on values which were seeking a market and redeemed in products needed for consumption and cancelled, constituted an ideal currency that was always just equal to the demand,—neither more nor less.
"The people learned by experience how easy it was to minimize the use of money, and the tendency of this decrease in the demand for money, was to relatively increase the amount in circulation. It was easy now, for the most unfamiliar with business methods,to understand how the large operators, under the old system, had enriched themselves by making their settlements through great clearing houses where one obligation cancelled another and only two or three per cent. of money had been used to pay balances; and they could see how even this balance among wealth producers, could take the shape of a check against future production and money be entirely eliminated as a medium in the exchange of wealth.
"All the people who were doing their buying and selling through these exchanges were regularly supplied with carefully prepared literature on economic questions and business methods, and of general information as to the trend of current events, the progress of the new order which placed business on an ethical basis and all matters of advantage for an independent, cultured citizenship to understand. Then for the first time, the multitudes began to realize the weakness of the fragile thread by which they had been bound to the triumphal car of Capitalism. Their experience gave them confidence. They used the same business methods for the benefit of the many that had enabled the few to concentrate in their own hands four-fifths of the wealth of the country. It was therefore no untried experiment. They were only exercising the same kind of business sagacity that had been used by the money kings to financially conquer the world. Just in proportion as they decreased the demand for money, it flowed in upon them in exchange for their products at a steadily increasing price. They had established aDEBT-PAYINGinstead of aDEBT-CREATINGsystem of business, and in the course of time their debts were all paid, the necessity for legal money had disappeared, the people were free from its exactions, and all theyhad to do was to produce what they consumed and consume what they produced, exchanging equivalent for equivalent for the equal benefit of all. And thus the world had been saved from its thralldom to Greed by the establishment of the 'Kingdom of God and His Righteousness' as had been enjoined by Krystus at the beginning of the old religious system two thousand years before. This which was enjoined at the beginning of the Dispensation wasREALIZEDat its close and hence theFirst became the Last, because theLastwasthe First reduced to practice in human affairs."
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CHAPTER XIII.
Bona Dea—Matron's Home—Pre-natal Influences—Improving the Airships—Battell Explains—Plans for the Future—Museum of Universal History—Relics of the Past—Building toward our Ideals—Law of Human Progress—Presaging the Future—Profit causes Poverty—Equitable Exchange the Remedy.
Bona Dea—Matron's Home—Pre-natal Influences—Improving the Airships—Battell Explains—Plans for the Future—Museum of Universal History—Relics of the Past—Building toward our Ideals—Law of Human Progress—Presaging the Future—Profit causes Poverty—Equitable Exchange the Remedy.
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chapterS I listened to Norrena's description of the financial and commercial system which had once existed in Altruria, I could not help but notice its close similarity to the system which prevailed in the outer world. As he elucidated the international and seemingly unlimited power that had been exercised by the owners of gold, and how it would take all the gold in the world to pay a small fraction of theannual interest on the obligations held against the people, my heart sank within me at the utter hopelessness of their condition.
I was expecting to hear that the people in their desperation had blotted this power from the earth with fire and sword, but the speaker finished with merely a description of a more equitable system of transacting business. Just as he had come to this most interesting place in the discussion, the Institute closed and took a recess for dinner, and MacNair began to introduce us to the superintendents of many of the large educational institutions of the country who were members.
As we were leaving the hall Oqua joined us, accompanied by a magnificent looking woman whom she introduced to me as Bona Dea, the superintendent of the Matron's home at Lake Byblis, saying:
"My dear Nequa, I want you to learn that in Altruria we commence the education of children before they are born. This is what these Matron's homes are established for, and Bona Dea is superintendent of one of the oldest, largest and most thoroughly equipped institutions of this kind in the world. I want you to make her acquaintance, and I doubt not that you will become fast friends."
"I am indeed glad to meet you," I said, "as I want to learn all that I can about these, to me, strange educational institutions."
"And I," said Bona Dea, "shall be happy to give you any information in my power. Oqua informs me that you are preparing a book descriptive of our civilization, and I am much interested as an Altrurian in what it may present to the people of the outer world."
"Yes," I said. "And by all means, I want it tocontain a review of these Matron's homes, and all that can be learned in regard to their origin, and the good they are designed to accomplish for humanity."
"That, indeed," said Bona Dea, "would constitute a most important volume in a series, but it should not be the first one in a thorough treatment of the evolutionary forces which work for the development of the race toward higher and better conditions."
"Then," I said, "would you have me ignore this, to me, most singular system of commencing the education of children before they are born?"
"There is nothing singular about the system," said Bona Dea. "Even the savages of the olden time did the same thing, but they did not know it. The mothers were surrounded by the conditions of savagery, and their children were born predisposed to become savages. These pre-natal influences are in fact the commencing point in the education of every child that is born, as they pre-dispose the child to a life of usefulness, or the reverse, according to the character of the influences. The object which our Matron's homes are designed to accomplish is to provide the best possible conditions, to start the child with a strong, healthy body and mind, with a kindly disposition and elevated aspirations toward the highest possible intellectual and moral development."
"If such results," I said, "can be secured by the establishment of these homes, you certainly would not dissuade me from an exhaustive review of the entire question?"
"Certainly not," she said, "but as a teacher of your people I would have you follow the natural law and begin your work at the beginning. From what I can learn, your own country is now passing through its Transition Period, similar to that described in Norrena's lecture, and hence the first great duty of your people is to abolish poverty. When the fear of want is removed from every household the first effect will be to place better pre-natal conditions around the mothers, and the next generation will be placed on a higher plane physically, intellectually and morally. This is the first step that your people must take and then the Home may be introduced for the scientific adaptation of pre-natal influences to specific purposes. Then you will begin to determine in advance whether the child shall be an inventor, scientist, philosopher, poet, musician, teacher or explorer. The Homes are scientifically adapted to specific purposes, while economic independence and general education lift the entire people to a higher plane of being along every line of human effort. What your people need now, is the general, mental and moral uplifting of the victims of your present system, and to this end, my advice to you would be, to confine your first work to the solution of the problem, 'How to abolish poverty.'"
"But would you," I asked, "discourage these specific measures at this time because the masses are poor?"
"Of course not," said Bona Dea, "for those who are able to apply them, but I would first place these advanced scientific methods within the reach of the entire people by establishing economic independence for all. This is simply following the natural law of human development."
"Will you," I asked, "please explain just what you regard as the natural law of human development?"
"It is the law of growth," said Bona Dea, "and always begins at the base and works its way upward. The plant germinates in the earth and then pushes itsway upward towards the light. The growth of the animal organism from conception to maturity is along the same line of progression, from the bottom of the scale, toward the top. In the growth of human civilization and the mental, moral and spiritual elevation of the race, the same general law of evolution holds good. The elevating influence must reach the people through their environments. The real man and the real woman, is the ego or spirit. The physical body is the outermost environment of the individual being. By improving the physical conditions we stimulate the mental organism into a healthy activity, and the result is intellectual growth, and spiritual unfoldment. Such is the natural law of human progress from the physical through the mental to its culmination in the spiritual or divine, which is the very highest type to which we aspire."
"This," I said, "looks like a concise and logical statement of the natural law, but how do you apply it to the present conditions which exist in my own country? We have a civilization and many very intelligent, well meaning and well to do people who might be greatly benefited by a better understanding of the influences of pre-natal conditions."
"Doubtless that is true," she replied, "but your duty as a teacher is to take the whole people into consideration and not a part, and in your work for their enlightenment begin at the bottom of the scale. Your present civilization was developed along the lines of unconscious growth, jest as the child grows from birth to maturity. But your work as a teacher and civilizer is to work along conscious lines and lay your plans with due deliberation. Having, as it were, reached the top, you are able to give instruction to those who are lower down and help them to climb higher. The place of theteacher is one which demands that you should understand the natural law of growth, so that you may work to the best advantage. Hence your work is to begin with the outer environment, the physical, and that which pertains to the higher will take care of itself. It is not the whole, but the sick, who need the physician, so it is not the wise, but the ignorant who need the teacher. For these reasons I advise you to confine your present work more to the economic, as that would prepare the field for the higher, and that, just where it is most needed, among the poor."
"I think I comprehend your meaning," I said, "and shall act accordingly in the preparation of my first volume on Altrurian civilization. Oqua's advice was very similar, but situated as I am here, these numerous lines of thought press in upon me all at once, and there is so much to learn, that I often find it difficult to make a selection. I am sure that the people of my own native land are passing through their Transition Period, and I am anxious to give them that which will do them the most good."
"Then," interposed Norrena, who had joined us, "show them how to get rid of poverty. Without economic independence, political independence and personal liberty, under the law, are a hollow mockery. There can be no progress without freedom, and there can be no freedom as long as a people are driven to their work by the stern lash of necessity."