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VISIT TO FREELAND, OR THE NEW PARADISE REGAINED, DR. THEODOR HERTZKA, Author of “Freeland" “ The Laws of Social Development etc,, President of the International Freeland Society. ■ Eonticm : WILLIAM REEVES, 185, FLEET STREET, E.C., AND BRITISH FREELAND ASSOCIATION, 107, QUEEN VICTORIA ST., E.G\ Why I Went ... Chapter I. Chapter II. The Journey Chapter III. Where Freeland is situated, and what it is Chapter IV. Who cleaned my boots in Freeland, the Appearance of the Streets and the Ownership of Dwelling Houses Chapter V. How I ch/'se a Business in Freeland, and paid for my Dinne at the Restaurant : Chapter VI. The Constitution of a Manufacturing Company in Free- land, and the Profit obtained from it Chapter VII. Why Freeland uses so much Machinery and. whence obtains it CONTENTS. Chapter VIII. A Household in Freeland and the Right of Main Chapter IX. The Central Bank— The Monetary System— The Centra Warehouse— Freedom in Freeland Chapter X. ‘ ^ mP System y ° f 3 CriS ' S ' n Freeland — The Insurance Chapter XI. A Holiday Journey in Freeland— Distribution of Land and Capital 90 Chapter XII. hounding a New Company in Freeland Chapter XIII. The Constitution and Taxation of Freeland Chapter XIV. Society, Love and Religion in Fre land Chapter XV. Fitness of , be Professions which Pcoph c.100: e-Art Productions — Communism and Anarchism - The Administration— General Practicability of the Fun- damental Principles of Freeland — Fear of Over- population ... . ”3 122 132 elusion Chapter XVI. 142 154 PREFACE. » — v +6\v-^ — • IN the first place, I confess that this little book is written with an object in the fullest sense of the word. It desires not only to bring the reader over to its opinions under the veil of amusement and instruction, but also to induce him to cooperate in a more prac- tical sense. Not only does it make designs on his mind and heart, but also on his purse and resolutions. The majority of those who read this passage may indeed say with a smile of superiority that the alto- gether too conscientious author might have spared this warning. Dispositions as well as purses arc too well guarded nowadays for any obtrusive object to be able to succeed easily in taking possession of them. If I add that the undertaking for which, by means of this work, I desire to win energetic cooperation, is neither more nor less than the creation of a Community based on social liberty and justice, that is, one that will guarantee to everybody the full and entire produce of his own work by the unlimited maintenance of his right of doing what he pleases, the supercilious smile will be slightly mixed with compassion, and when I confess besides that this El Dorado is situated in the Highlands of Africa and just on the equator, there are’ probably few who would suppose that they could accept such exaggerated fancies in earnest with- out causing serious doubts as to their education, their sound common sense, and even their sanity. “ Let the author be content,” I hear some say ; “ we read Utopias of this kind if they are made entertaining. They do to pass away an idle hour, and that is all.” 5 w jy. PREFACE, But the reader is mistaken ! I speak from experi- ence ! This book is not the first that I have written for the same purpose. Four years ago I published a book called “ Freeland : a- Picture of Society in the Future,” of which the reader has probably al ready heard some obscure report. The nine German editions which have hitherto been published, and numerous others in foreign language's, enticed thousands and hundreds of thousands of men and women of all conditions in all parts of the inhabited world, from the prince himself to the simple workman, to the determination to carry into execution what is described in it. ^ Associations have been formed in twenty-eight European and American cities for the purpose of propagating the principles of Freeland. Money has been spent, a journal (“ Freeland, Organ of the Freeland Society ”) has been started, lands on the east coast of Africa suitable for the foundation of places where the scheme is to be tried have been presented to the Society, and every preparation is being made to cairy the gieat work into practice. And what is the meaning of this unusual attempt to give effect to the vision contained in a book ? It lies' in the fact that this vision bears the stamp of the highest inner truth, that it can be literally realized if a sufficient number of energetic men, not quite des- titute of means, should come together with this determination, and that what has for millenniums floated before the noblest minds as the goal of all their striving, thinking, and suffering, might be accomplished in this manner. The author of “ Free- land” does not consider himself more wise, saga- cious, or courageous than his great forerunners, since he will only give effect to what they longed for, but he shows that what has hitherto been impossible during the course of the development of the human race ?s now possible and even necessary, and why PREFACE. V. it is so. He maintains that “ Freeland ” is nothing else than the closing chapter of that great work of enlightenment for which the philanthropists of every generation have labored. The exclusive intention of this little book is thus to get new helpers for this work of rescue. It con- ducts the reader to the Land of Liberty as if it already existed, in the hope that the institutions which he sees there will awaken in him the determination to contribute of his property to the quickest and most magnificent realization of a Commonwealth of Liberty and Justice. My above-mentioned work * describes in what manner this realization will come to pass, or rather, is already coming to pass, for the first pioneers of Freeland are actually on the way when “ A Visit to Freeland” leaves the press. It need only be mentioned here that the outer scene and the inner working of the thoroughly simple events depicted in the following work correspond to the most sober truth in every detail. The Alpine landscapes of Kenia are, as a matter of fact, the paradise on earth that they are here represented to be, and the men whom I represent as there talking and acting, only talk and act, it is true, in my imagination, but all that they say and do follows the laws of the most sober necessity. Freeland is not founded at the time when I write this, but when it is founded, nothing else can really ever take place in it than what is related in “A Visit to Freeland.” Yet one thing more in conclusion. I have made a professor of political economy come upon the scene as a critic of the organization of Freeland, and have made some of the inhabitants refute his objections. It would appear as if a jester was brought forward in this guise to make as many self-evident mistakes as possible in order to help the cause of Freeland * ‘ Freeland : a Social Anticipation.” By Theodor Heitzka. Pubr Jisbed by the British Freeland Association. vi. PREFACE. to an easy victory. But this is not the case. The professor does, indeed, exist only in the author’s im- agination, but, on the other hand, everything that; he says must be read as if proceeding from the learned critics who have opposed my theories. In the preface of my above-mentioned earlier work, 1 had to subject every part of it to the severest test in consideration of the circumstance that it claimed to offer, in the form of a narrative, a picture of the actual future social state such as those learned, in such subjects demand. This challenge was eagerly responded to by the specialists. Numerous articles have appeared in the daily papers, in journals devoted to social subjects, and in the form of pamphlets. Some of these agreed with “ Freeland,” while others blamed it ; and what I now place in the mouth of Professor Tenax is nothing else but a flowery collection from the antagonistic reviews. At the same time I can certify here that I have not dealt with the worst, but with the best argu- ments which my antagonists employed. I have omitted nothing which might have a claim to regard either through the personal influence of the critic, or through the slightest appearance of internal validity, and 1 have likewise not admitted anything which did not demand notice for one of these reasons. I have not invented any of these criticisms, nor have I passed over any in silence, and if the impartial reader should find that the charges which Professor Tenax makes against the constitution of Freeland are cal- culated to demonstrate its impregnability in the clearest possible light, this will be a result for which I have not myself to thank, but my critics. Vienna, 1894. THEODOR HERTZKA, 3 T- >Si§fe !'^V m H IDisifc to jfreelanb. CHAPTER I. WHY I WENT. tsJOTHING more detains me now. My determination ^ is taken ; I depart for Freeland. And why do I undertake this journey? My friends say that it is because I am an eccentric dreamer : I even conjecture that they say shortly and simply when I am not present that it is because I am a fool. Perhaps they are right. If having different opinions from everyone else upon all matters is called being foolish, then I am a fool, for my opinion upon every matter, at least upon every matter of importance, is different from that of my acquaintances and friends, of whom, since J am rich, I possess an astonishing large number, and they all think me fortun r mere hand- work. Everyone gets his share out of the business only according to the amount of effective work which he does, and if he did not succeed in performing any service, he would get little or nothing from his abilities. As soon as public opinion came to the conclusion that suitable workmen were wilfully kept away, the intrigue would be at an end. 7 ’ “ Why so ? ” I asked. “ The companies have no connexion whatever with one another, the state does not interfere, and, if I am rightly informed, it rests in the hands of the members to decide upon everything which concerns th business. ” “You are rightly informed in this respect, but you forget that every inhabitant of Freeland has the right to become a member of any business that he pleases. One only has to present oneself for this purpose, for the managers only decide upon the manner in which the members are to be employed, and not on the membership itself. You will now perceive that no one in Freeland could look on without feeling anxious if any company transgressed against the right of working men to enter into any kind of employ- ment that they please, which is the foundation of our social organization. Everyone must always be permitted to have that kind of employment which is most in accordance with his abilities, and all the country knows that the conscientious observance of this principle is the supposition upon which our liberty and prosperity are built up. Should it be noticed that this principle is violated anywhere, half of the working people of Freeland would present themselves to such a company, merely for the purpose of settling the manage- ment through their vote in the general assembly. All that 36 A VISIT TO FREELAND. is so easily understood that fools would be the only people to make such experiments, and there is hardly any manager who would be disposed to act in such a way.” “I am quite satisfied on this point,” I answered, “but you must allow me to state the objections to this. Since it is so dangerous to dismiss fit workmen, and opinions con- cerning fitness and completeness vary considerably, I think that our directors would appoint all the tag, rag and bobtail for the sak<#of their own security. That cannot possibly be beneficial to the welfare of the business.” “ Quite right,” smiled the official. “ In that case no reasonable business could exist, but just because this is so, it follows as a matter of course that the managers have no need to fear public opinion when they can truly answer to their consciences for their decisions. For since every Freelander knows that freedom in the choice of a business is the foundation of our organization in the form of companies, he also knows that the sensible and orderly management of all the companies is the foundation of all our wealth. And since the prosperity of each company lies in the immediate interest of everyone on account of the freedom which we have in choosing our business, thus making it possible for everyone to obtain the post where he receives the best remuneration, so everyone has an immediate interest in shunning everything which could disturb this thriving arrangement Thus frivolous interference in the right of managing the conduct of the business is also avoided. No Freelander would con- sent to take your part against a manager who does not employ you according to your wishes. You might make a great noise in the newspapers about it, and you may even succeed in making a number of persons believe that your director has not a right idea of your talents. But even those who believe you will say that it is not proper for them to judge the manner in which such questions are settled. Even if the opinion should get abroad that the director in question is quite unfit to estimate the talents of those who are under his management properly, yet no workman who is outside the company in question will presume to wish to interfere, since he will say that watching over the fitness of A VISIT TO FREELAND. 37 a manager is the exclusive business of the workmen who are employed in that particular company. In short, in order that the public opinion of Freeland should interest itself on your behalf, it is not only necessary to prove that a mistake has been committed, but that the business is conducted in a malicious manner and that the majority of your fellow workmen are also guilty of this malice. In such cases public opinion first examines the facts, and gives the decision afterwards in a general assembly of the company which has been accused of such conduct, and everyone is present at this assembly who has an interest in the matter.” Beside this, the official told me that I should obtain more detailed information about everything that was necessary for the choice of my future profession from the reports of the Central Statistical Office, which were kept everywhere, and were also lying in the free reading rooms and libraries, and also from the extracts and explanations of the different public notices which were based on these reports. I then departed and as it was close upon dinner time, I went to one of the great restaurants, at which the Freelanders who do not possess a household of their own, or who, for any reasons at all, prefer to take their meals away from home, are accustomed to have them. The restaurants are like the factories, carried on by great companies, and those who have households also supply almost all their wants from this source. The bills of fare are published daily in the newspapers, and the mistress of every house orders by telephone the dishes which she requires. Vans, specially fitted up for this purpose, carry the eatables from house to house, and they assure me that this is not only really cheaper, but also far better than cooking at home. I was immediately convinced of this. The food was prepared entirely from the choicest ingredients, and the price is only half of what one has to pay for a similar meal at a European restaurant. This cheapness is of course partly due to the fact that in Kenia the raw materials are fabulously cheap on account of the indescribable luxuriancy of nature. But it is also explained by their preparation at a proportionately low price through large quantities being operated upon at once, notwithstanding all the 38 A VISIT TO FREELAND. labor that is expended upon them. I learnt that a kitchen manager, five overseers, and twenty employees can cook enough in one day for twenty-seven thousand persons. Of course they have machines and apparatus for assisting them in their work, far surpassing anything used in the great English and American hotels. They cost a great deal, but what does that matter in comparison with the great saving of labor which they effect, and especially here where human working power is the most precious of all things ! When I had dined, a waiter brought me my bill, and when he saw that I was a new arrival who was not yet per- fectly acquainted with the customs of the place, he told me I might sign it. “ Why ? ” I asked. “As a receipt for the Central Bank.” “ Is one fed at the public expense ? What has the Central Bank to do with the dinner bill ? ” “ The bank will naturally put down the amount to your account.” “ But I have no account at the bank.” “ Then you will open an account with it now, for every- one here has his banking account, in which all he earns is put down to his credit and all he spends to his debit.” “ And who pays tor me if, for example, I only stop here on my journey through the country, or if I intend to remain here and not do any work ? ” “ We are quite confident as regards that. Besides I have never yet heard that anyone who has once been in Freeland has ever gone away again, or that an active man has ever refused to work here. If anyone really will not work, we have too much compassion on him to let him die of hunger. And if, for any reason, you do not pay your account, that will be a loss which we shall bear with patience. Nobody in Freeland troubles himself with giving or receiv- ing cash on account of such trifles. Since you do not receive cash anywhere here, no one will ask you for cash payments.” I thanked the man for his information, signed the account, and departed. As it was only two o’clock in the afternoon, and I could not therefore expect to find a manager’s office A VISIT TO FREELAND. 39 •open, I next visited one of the public libraries. It was a large building, in the courtyard of which was a noble pleasure garden into which all the reading rooms opened. One can sit sometimes in the open, and sometimes in covered places, and I at once perceived by the great crowd, which was partly reading and partly talking, that the inhabitants of Freeland have a predilection for using their libraries as public meeting places for the exchange of ideas and for many kinds of amusements. There is the greatest silence on one side of the rectangle which encloses ■the court-yard, as the students saloons for the use of that part of the public which does not come here for amuse- ments, but for study, are situated there. But there was the most lively bustle everywhere in the pleasant and lofty saloons, and in the shady garden which was separated from them by a colonnade. I asked in which saloon the written details of the depart- ments of technical employment lay, and was soon deeply engaged in what was to me the most interesting occupation, that of comparing the last returns of the various workshops of the country. At the same time I immediately perceived that the journals in their articles have regard to the needs of those learned in technical science as well as to those of the workmen. Anyone taking an interest in this subject, and having the requisite amount of understanding can, especially if he allows himself to be advised by the materials offered in the reports of the Central Office of Statistics, obtain the minutest information concerning what happens in the sphere of his department of production. For it is a fundamental law of Freeland that any person or •company may work at whatever is most profitable, provided that the public is kept informed of all business transactions. The companies are therefore obliged to conduct their book- keeping openly. The prices at which goods are bought and sold, the net profits, and the number of workmen must be •communicated at intervals which are fixed according to the judgment of the central office. The information is here sorted and published with such rapidity that I could, •for example, see on the tables lying before me how many hours work had been done during the past week by the 40 A VISIT TO FREELAND. people occupied in the establishment to which the official of the Central Statistical Office had directed my attention,, how many of these altogether spent their time as operatives and apprentices, how many were engaged as inspectors and technicalists, and what is the amount of the pay of each single individual. Deception is totally forbidden, not merely on the ground that everyone has the right to form his decision from what is contained in the books, but because all receipts and expenditures go through the Central Bank which is in connexion with the Office of Statistics. Thus the communications demanded by this last enable a double control to be exercised over those extremely important state- ments which are the foundation of the organization of labor in Freeland. Every working man can understand from the table of sta- tistics at a glance where he can at that moment get the greatest amount of pay. Of course this is not everything, for this highest rate of pay is sometimes coupled with circumstances which may not please everyone. Life may be tedious in the particular district, or the opportunities of educating children may not be so many as elsewhere in Freeland. This is sufficient to prevent the workmen of Freeland who are not in difficulties from selling their services for a high price, and from making use of such opportunities of work, even if some hundreds of shillings more may be made in a year by the same amount of exertion. But it follows as a matter of course that information on this point is also to be obtained in the reports. The prospec- tuses of some of the departments of labor even group the various industrial and rural employments with regard to such details, and, as an example, a report has come before me in which a waving line shows how they are' situated at the various places for making money with regard to the profit to be got from the business and nearness to theaters. It follows that since as a matter of fact the highest point in the line of profit intersects the lowest point of the theater line, those workmen in Freeland who at that time obtained the greatest profit were those who have no opportunity of going to theaters. I merely mention this in passing and wall not enquire whether it really has anything A VISIT TO FREELAND. 41 to do with the modern love of shows, or whether it is only due to chance. The line of profit which interested me personally, namely that of the mechanical engineers, showed as I was already aware, a depression at the great establishment which was occupied in making railway materials. But as this was not very great, I determined to adhere to my original inten tion, and join this company, which was called “ The First Edendale Engine and Railway Materials Manufacturing Company.’’ In the meantime, it was past three o’clock, and I could at once proceed to settle the matter. 42 A VISIT TO FREELAND. CHAPTER VI. THE CONSTITUTION OF A MANUFACTURING COMPANY IN FREELAND AND THE PROFIT OBTAINED FROM IT. r p'HE electric tramway brought me in a few minutes to the huge and complex mass of buildings which the “ First Edendale Engine and Railway Material Manufacturing Company” occupies in one of the southern suburbs of Eden- dale. A signboard showed me the way to the admission office of the company, and a short time afterwards I was in the presence of the manager who had to decide upon the suita- bility of those who presented themselves. When I had stated my wish to belong to the company’s engineer corps, the manager asked me if I had testimonials or other papers which gave proof of my ability. For this purpose I of course had nothing else than the testimonials of the Academy of Technical Instruction, but these were excellent, and therefore the manager told me, when he had examined them, that they would do, and render it unneces- sary for me to be examined as to my abilities, and that he would immediately let me take part in the manufacture of machinery. But I must make myself acquainted with the statutes of the company first, as it is always possible that some paragraph of these may not quite correspond to my expectations. This could naturally, he added, only refer to the regulations for the division of profits, for the statutes of all the companies in the Freeland contain the same prin- ciples. But I must carefully read through the pamphlet A VISIT TO FREELAND. 43 -given me, and sign it, if its contents perfectly agree with what I require. “To what,” I asked, “does my signature bind me when I have given it ? ” “ Roughly speaking it binds you to nothing or next to nothing. You simply declare thereby your accession to our company and are a member of it from that time. You undertake, as you will see from paragraph 6, some of the responsibility for the loan which has been made to our establishment, yet, as the same paragraph says, only accord- ing to the amount of the profits which you receive, and as you only get this according to the amount of the services which you have rendered, you are responsible for nothing as long as you have done no work, and after doing work you are only responsible according to the proportion in which the share of the profits which you obtain from the company stands to the total sum of the profit which all the members have had since the commencement of the debt. The debts which we owe at this time to the Commonwealth of Freeland amount all together to two and a half millions sterling, but the profit which our members have hitherto made since the existence of these debts amounts to almost eight millions sterling, and naturally increases with every day and every hour during which the business is carried on. If you, let us suppose by way of example, leave the company after the space of a month and have obtained sixty pounds sterling as your share of the profits, you are, till the moment you leave, responsible with us for our debt to the amount of twenty pounds, and even if you leave us, this pledge of yours is perfectly extinguished only when our debts which were in existence or contracted while you belonged to our company are quite paid off. Should the undertaking for any reason come to an end before this happens and should the debts not be covered by the sale of the existing machinery and other things pledged for them, you would have to bear your share of it even if you had nothing more to do with us. Your signature always has some material signification even if you are not at the same time pledged to any amount, and the danger of possible future sacrifice which could be imposed upon you if things came 44 A VISIT TO FREELAND. to the worst, is a very small one. Yet it is necessary to estimate before-hand in all cases what one is signing, and I therefore repeat my demand that you should carefully read through the copy of the statutes which you have in your hands.” . I must confess that in spite of this explanation I did not in the least realize the responsibility which devolved on me immediately on signing the statutes. But since I was, as a matter of course, desirous of being better acquainted with the statutes of a Freeland company, I complied with the request which had been made to me without any further delay. The following are the statutes word for word : — (i.) Everyone is quite free to join the First Edendale Engine and Railway Material Manufacturing Company, even if he also belongs to other companies. Everyone is also permitted to leave the company whenever he chooses. The board of management detides in what branch of the works the members shall be employed. (2) Every member is entitled to an amount of the net proceeds of the company corresponding to the quantity of work which he has done. (3) ibe amount of work which each member does is calculated according to the number of hours during which he has worked, but with the difference that older members have, on account of their experience, an additional payment of two pro cent, for every year that they have belonged to the company before the others joined. Foremen and founders receive a.n additional pay of ten pro cent., and night work also receives the same additional pay. (4) The work which is done by the engineers is paid for as if from ten to fifteen hours work a day had been done, and within this margin the value of each man’s work is estimated by the managers. r l he work of the managers is compensated for by paying them for a number of hours” work done every day, this amount of work being fixed by the general assembly. (5) Out of the company’s profits a deduction is first made towards repayment of capital, and after this the tax to the state is deducted. The remainder is divided amongst the members. A VISIT TO FREELAND. 45 (6) If the company is dissolved or liquidated, the members are responsible in proportion to the amount of profit which they get from the revenues of the company, and this re- sponsibility for the amount which is still pledged is propor- tionately laid upon the new members. When a member leaves the company, his responsibility for the debt which has already been contracted is not extinguished. In case of dissolution, liquidation, or sale, this responsibility corre- sponds to the claim of the responsible member to the means of the company which are in hand or to his share in what is sold. (7) The principal judicial body of the company is the general assembly, in which every member has the same right to speak and exercises the same active and passive right of choice. The general assembly makes its determination by simply counting the majority of votes. A majority of three quarters is necessary for changing the statutes, and for a dissolution, or liquidation of the company. (8) The general assembly practises its right either directly or by means ofits chosen officials, who are answerable to it for their actions. (9) The business of the society is managed by a directorate of three members who hold this office at the will of the general assembly. The subordinate functionaries are chosen by the managers. (10) The general assembly selects every year a committee of inspection which consists of five members. This body has to control and make a report upon the books and the manner in which the company is conducted. What at once astonished me in these statutes was the want of all information regarding the wealth of the com- pany. Since this wealth is well known to consist of the plant which has been gotten together with the help of the money borrowed from the state, and as it is the members who pay this capital with sums which are deducted from the net proceeds, it appeared to me to be only just that the said wealth should belong to the members, as I told the manager. “ You are mistaken,” he replied, “the payments on account of the capital of the company are not made by the members, but by the consumers. It is therefore clear that the amount 46 A VISIT TO FREELAND. of the capital which is used upon every piece of goods pro- duced is added on to the price. If this were not so, the members would have less than the profit corresponding to the average value of labor in Freeland, and the evident result would be that in such a case a large amount of working power would leave the company. The supply of the articles in question would be diminished, and their price would con- sequently go up until the balance was restored. Besides, there is nothing in this peculiar to Freeland. In the bourgeois world also, the amount sunk in machines, tools, and other contrivances necessary for the production of a piece of goods is reckoned up in the price, and the difference be- tween Freeland and the rest of the world consists only in the fact that the process of the free movement of workmen, and the equalization of net profits which is thereby rendered more easy and more perfect, are accomplished much more surely and completely here than elsewhere. The throw- ing off of the payment of capital on to the consumers is only rendered impossible if the company has procured bad or unnecessary machines which are either not required for producing the goods which the company manufactures or for supplying the needs of these machines, or which ought not to be used for these purposes at all. The public does not pay for such machines, the members must do that. Therefore they see their share in the profits sink below the full value of labor through the capital being paid off. But such machines are, on account of this, unnecessary, and must be sold. If this is done, the responsibility of the members for the loss which has arisen in this manner really comes into existence now for the first time, for, as paragraph 6 says, they have exceeded their means. Therefore the loss which arises from the sale is put down to their account. But as long as the capital, that is, the means, is actually at work, nobody has any right to interfere with our arrangements, but everybody according to his liking should be engaged in the kind of employment which corresponds to his abilities. ,, I was satisfied on this point, and proceeded now to a dis- cussion of those provisions of the statutes of the company which immediately concerned myself. “I suppose,’’ I said “ that you will place me as a new comer A VISIT TO FREELAND. 47 in the lowest rank of engineers, and my days’ work will equal the work which an ordinary laborer does in a day of ten hours. According to the statistics which I have already examined, the pay of ordinary work has lately averaged five shillings an hour. I shall therefore at the highest get fifty shillings a day. In what form, and how often shall I be paid ? Will it be daily, weekly, or monthly ? I am aware that no one gives cash payments here ; perhaps I receive bills on the Central Bank from the treasury of the company ? ” “We have no treasury here, and you receive nothing from us for the value of the work which you have done. All that we have to do with the payments is that we punctually inform the bank every week of the amount of work which our members have done. There the amount which you have earned is put down to your credit, and in the same manner the amount which you spend in supplying your wants is communicated to the Central Bank. It keeps your accounts, and sends you an abstract every week.” “But what about the number of hours’ work that I perform. Perhaps at first ten, while later on I shall do more. How long, as a matter of fact, have I to work ? ” “ Six hours a day, from nine to twelve in the morning and from three to six in the afternoon. No work is done on Sundays, and we have besides fifteen various holidays. You have, like every other inhabitant of Freeland, two months’ holidays a year, and you have to arrange with your colleagues as to the time of year when these are taken. No one is compelled to have holidays, for since permission is not given to all to go at the same time, but only in suitable batches, anyone having no need or no desire for holidays can go on working. Payment naturally ceases during holidays. One is paid, however, except when one has a right to be maintained at the public expense, only for services which have been rendered.” “You would not consider it rude of me,” I said, “if I asked you according to what principle your pay, and that of the other members is fixed ? Are there no settled rules,, or can you ask what you please ? ” “What I demand for my pay is wholly dependent upon myself, and what my colleagues demand is wholly dependent 48 A VISIT TO FREELAND. upon themselves. But the general assembly have the sole power of granting this.” “And is not your dependence in this point on those whom you manage connected with some inconveniences. Does not discipline suffer from it?” “ How so ? The general assembly granted me my pay, which amounts to twenty-five hours’ worth a day, not accord- ing to caprice or favor, but according to necessity, and, there- fore, according to that which the members think to be useful and necessary for their own interest. I receive as much as the members of the company must pay to get the man whom they require to conduct the management. It is quite possible that they have erred on one side or the other concerning my fitness, either by valuing me too much or not enough, but I depend upon their estimate of my fitness, and not upon their favor. The pay of managers depends, as all other economical matters in Freeland do, exclusively on offer and demand. Do you think then that your pay is about twice as much as that of an ordinary workman, because someone might think of giving you more than the others ? If we kept people of your capacity to the same pay as ordinary workmen, they would have to be contented with it. Your power is of a more rare kind, but it is more sought for. therefore you will be paid what is necessary. It is exactly the same in my case. Were people of my learning and experience as common as ordinary operatives, I should have to be contented with the pay of an operative.” “ But,” I remarked, “ in this case you would still prefer undertaking the business of management to performing ordinary manual work. I would also prefer my duties to those of an operative, even if I did not get any more money, and I believe that it would, on that account, be quite possible to settle all differences of income if it were only made a fundamental law that as regards division of profits nobody should receive any more than the rest.” “ This is altogether erroneous,” he replied. “ In that case you have given the same amount of profit to various degrees of ability, and not to various degrees of industry, or perhaps you think it necessary to make the idle and indus- A VISIT TO FREELAND. 49 trious equal ? Would you do any good by mechanically measuring pay according to the number of hours of work ? Who would then do the harder and more disagreeable kind of Avork without compulsion ? Or do you prefer such compul- sion to inequality ? You shake your head. Why then would you place the wise and foolish on the same level by means of compulsion? But, supposing that this were just, it is impossible, without injuring the welfare of all in such a manner that the unskilful would be much worse off than they are under the present system of inequality. I see before all things that the skilful would hardly seek appoint- ments corresponding to their abilities if nothing were to be gained thereby, for we do not consider ordinary hand labor to be at all disgraceful. At any rate a higher material advantage is the surest means of placing a man in that position in which he can be of the greatest use. Lastly, there are even various honorable posts, and I, for instance, do not know, as far as I am concerned, whether I should prefer a professor’s chair to my present post of manager. But it appears that my capacity for organization has a better value here than it would there, and the greater pay which our company has assured to me is the only thing that keeps me in the position where I am required. Be that, however, as it may; Equality introduced by compulsion is at any rate contrary to the principles of Liberty. With what right shall the state forbid that a society of free men shall divide the produce of their work among one another in such a manner as it thinks to correspond best to its interests, as long as it does not thereby violate any right? My companions found that it is to their advantage that I should be their chief. Who can hinder them from giving me an advantage because I, on my side, take every care of their interests ? ” As it evidently seemed to please my friendly chief to dissipate my doubts, I took courage to ask him yet another question. “ I can quite understand after what I have heard that differences are also made between the work done by ordinary workmen, and there is nothing further to remark about the additional payments which are given to overseers and foremen who have to perform either heavier or more 5 ° A VISIT TO FREELAND. fatiguing work than others. I therefore understand that night work, in so far as it is generally needed, must be more highly paid, otherwise no one would undertake it, but a danger appears to me to lie in the additional payments to elder men, which can hardly be thus justified. Since the statutes, as I am aware, are made in the general assem- bly, it lies in the power of every workman to put this addi- tional payment very high in order to render the addition of new workmen more difficult. In our state, two pro cent, is added for every year, and this is at any rate justified by the increase in the experience and aptitude of a workman during a year, which may be valued at two pro cent. -A man who has been with us for twenty years receives about fifty pro cent more than the new comer who is working at his side, but no question arises in this matter, for he does more work in proportion. But supposing our workmen were suddenly able to fix the increase of pay on account of age from two to five or perhaps ten pro cent, or more a year. Then a man who has been here ten years would get twice as much as if he had been here twenty years. He would get three times as much as a new comer whose ability was equal to his in other respects, and that would in my opinion have the same effect as if our workmen had determined to receive no new comers. Who hinders our self-governing workmen from taking such a determination ? ” “ No one,” was the answer. “ It is quite likely that in one of our next general meetings such a decree might be made. Yet you may rely on the fact that it would not re- main in existence for long ; for just in the same manner as a general meeting which is summoned one morning can de- termine that the additional payment for long service should amount to ten pro cent, a year, a general meeting summoned the next morning could repeal this decree, and you can easily guess what sort of a majority it would be which would determine upon this repeal. The power of joining any company in Freeland also offers defense against these excesses of unbounded egoism. It also lies in the interest of older workmen not to measure the additional payment on account of age so high that the addition of new workmen should be checked thereby. The A VISIT TO FREELAND. 5 1 additional payment on account of age has an intention and signification if it confers an advantage upon those who enjoy it over others who either do not yet receive it or do not receive the same amount of it. If we suppose that a million is to be divided amongst a thousand members, it is exactly the same to them whether they determine that everyone shall receive one unit or two units. In the first case, the unit will be a thousand, in the latter five hundred. If the sum to be divided has grown in proportion to the admission of new members, it means that the older men entitled to a share in the proceeeds have an advantage. The older workmen already see that their own interest does not lie in opposing the public estimation of what is a just and suitable value of their rights. “ We have now talked sufficiently, and I will introduce you to the chief of your future office, and you can begin to work to-morrow if it is convenient for you to do so.” Say- ing this, my friendly chief rose and invited me with a wave of his hand to follow him. 5 2 A VISIT TO FREELAND. CHAPTER VII. WHY FREELAND USES SO MUCH MACHINERY AND WHENCE IT OBTAINS IT. \\TE walked through a row of passages and at last VV entered the workroom of the chief engineer of the establishment. This man seemed to me to be one with whom I must have been very familiar a short time before, but his beard and exterior person did not quite come back to my memory again, so I did not know who he was. P>ut he recognized me immediately, and, seizing me by the arm with a cry of joy, said to the director “ This is the same Robert N. whose enthusiasm it was, as I have repeatedly told you, that first made me long for social liberty and finally made me come here. It is now four years since we took leave of one another at the Polytechnic. He has not changed in the least, but I have become so thoroughly a Freelander that he did not at first recognize me.” The manager, who thought his presence no longer neces- sary, soon took his leave with a few cordial words, and I remained alone with my friend. “ I have already been expecting you for a long time/’ he said turning towards me. « I was quite confident that you would come, and I have systematically examined the alphabetical lists of new comers as well as those in which they are arranged according to their professions and the places that they come from. You will of course leave the place where you are staying imme- diately and be our guest until you have made further arrange- ments. I must tell you that I have been married for two years. I will say nothing about my wife now, you will see A VISIT TO FREELAND. 53 her presently. Let us despatch our business at once, and then go home as quickly as possible to my Vera, who has been desirous of knowing you for some time. You must now be presented to your colleagues, and then make a short in- spection of the workshops. But stop, I had almost forgotten to order your luggage to be sent from the hotel to our dwelling. Your hotel is — ? ” I gave the name, and heard my friend, we will call him by his Christian name Charles, telephone the order about the removal in question. I thought that it was superfluous affecta- tion to raise objection to this proceeding, in the face of the fact that we had once been warm friends, and that this friendship did not appear to have cooled during the interval. I will not dilate any further upon the reception which I obtained from my present colleagues, but will only remark that their exceptional and evidently sincere cordiality surprised me very agreeably. When I made a remark on this to Charles, he took me laughingly by the shoulder and said, “Yes dear brother, we are now in Freeland. Why should not young men be pleased at receiving a col- league who has it written in his face that he is a fine fellow? Need any one here fear that he will be kept short on your account ? Must they perceive in you an influential person who will prevent them from being promoted ? It may indeed happen that one or the o 4 her will say, i He appears to me as if he would succeed better than 1.’ But what harm would that do to them ? The more able you are, the better it will be for all. Here you will have no enemies, for you will have no occasion of doing any harm to anyone.” What filled me with astonishment as we entered the work- shops was Jess their size than the accomplishment of mechani- cal operations with every care for the convenience, health, and safety of the workmen. There are also, it is true, equally great works in Europe, but there are none outside Freeland in which mechanical power so greatly increases and takes the place of human power. The apparatus which I saw here bore comparison with the best that I had known up to that time and which was used, like this, for making machinery. Man w r as in truth here only the overseer who watched over and guided the labor of the elements. 54 A VISIT TO FREELAND. Upon a remark which I made to Charles regarding this, he replied. “ That is quite natural ; they cannot have these perfect machines in Europe because there would be no demand for them, exactly for the same reason that, for example, there would be no demand for an English or French equipment in China. What are machines then ? They are the products of past labor with the help of which preseht and future labor will be economized. In Europe there is a significant difference between the worth of the product of labor and that of the working power, for the present and future labor which will be saved by the machine receives only bare wages, whilst to the machine, the product of past work, there are attached the profit to the owner, ground rent, and interest on capital, besides the wages which have already been expended in manufacturing it. This difference does not exist with us. Here the day s work which I save has exactly the same worth to me as a day’s work which the machine requires for its manufacture, for both are worth as much as the product which has been manufactured, and the employment of that machine is therefore profitable to me which is in general practically useful, that is, which saves more human working power than it requires for its manufacture. But in Europe only those comparatively small machines are necessary which save so much more labor that through this saving the difference in value of the past and future labor is accumulated in the crystallized form of wares. This machine costs twelve thousand pounds sterling, and must be liquidated within ten years ; therefore it takes twelve hundred pounds sterling per annum, but it replaces the work of ten men, and is therefore highly useful to us, for ten inhabitants of Freeland, even if they were quite ordinary operatives, would ask for at least three hundred and fifty pounds per man, and thus all together would require three thousand five hundred pounds sterling per annum. Consequently the machine saves us a clear two thousand three hundred pounds. Workshops of the same kind in Europe cannot, on the contrary, use these machines. They would become bankrupt if they did so, for they could not possibly spend twelve hundred pounds sterling per annum, to save the wages of twelve European A VISIT TO FREELAND. 55 ’workmen, since the wages of these ten workmen would, according to the European standard, amount at the most to from six hundred to seven hundred pounds sterling per annum, and it is not practicable to employ twelve hundred pounds to save from six to seven hundred pounds. It is naturally still worse in China ; there it is not possible to employ from sixty to seventy pounds per annum to save the 'expense of ten laborers, for the wages of ten laborers for a year amount to from sixty to seventy pounds sterling. That that may correspond to what really exists, I must add, as this point of view generally explains, why just the lands with the most miserable wages in the great manufac- turing industries possess the least fitness for competition. It is evident that the law which my friend here explained to me must be right. But I still believed, for the sake of perfect explanation of the matter as it stood, that I could make the objection, that, as it appeared to me, lands with high wages must find machines dearer than those with cheap wages. The machine, I thought, is itself the product of •human work, and where this work is highly paid, anything manufactured by it must also be dearer. “ The contrary is the case,” replied Charles. “ First of all I beg of you to think that, as I have already observed, ground rent, interest on capital, and profit must be added to the price of the machine in Europe besides the wages. You must pay rent to the owner of the ground upon which metal and coal are mined and timber felled, for permission to perform these operations. You must pay interest to the capitalist for the capital that has been necessary to make these machines, and besides this interest pay or charge to your- self the capital which has been expended upon these machines, and finally the enterpriser, the so-called giver of work, will, in Europe, have his profit. These various additions to the wages are proportionately greater, the less the latter additions are, and that explains why the products of countries where wages are small are, on the average, not cheaper than those of the countries where wages are high. The value of the product is the same in both, but their value is divided between workmen and employers in another pro- portion. The latter receive more when the former are -contented with less.” 56 A VISIT TO FREELAND. “ So you believe,” I asked, interrupting my friend, “ that the moneyed classes in the countries where there are moderate wages are better off on that account than they are in those countries where wages are high ? ihat seems to me to be contrary to what actually exists, because in China,, for example, the moneyed classes are poorer than they are in England.” , . „ „ r “ Quite right,” answered Charles. “ And it follows from this that much more is produced in England than in China. Landlords, capitalists, and enterprisers certainly get more- out of single manufactured products in China than in Eng- land, but for every product which they produce and consume, ten can be produced and consumed in England. And this is immediately seen to follow as a matter of course, if one only remembers that workmen who are ten times better paid consume ten times more, and that tenfold consumption presupposes tenfold production. And because they obtain a proportionately smaller share in the profits, but from a fourfold greater amount of goods, the moneyed classes in England are richer than those of China. And this is not more ^than what inevitably follows, if one considers that every possession of the moneyed classes consists, as a matter of fact, in the ownership of the means of production, and that wherever the masses consume more, the rich neces- sarily own more means of production. “ Now let me continue where you interrupted me. There is, as a rule, no moneyed class with us in Freeland which lives by the amount of the net proceeds which it keeps away from its workmen, and the price of the manufactured goods need not be higher here on that account. But what is more, it can, as a rule, be even lower, and this in spite of the fact that our working men not only get as much as the laborers and capitalists together do in Europe, but really more. For exactly the same thing that happens in the case of goods which we manufacture here with the help of machines, namely, that we can use much more and more important machinery for producing them than is possible in Europe, exactly the same thing happens even in the manu- facture of the machines themselves ; they would also be made by using far more and more important machine power A VISIT TO FREELAND. 57 than would have been possible in Europe. As I have told you, this machine costs twelve thousand pounds sterling. It was bought two years ago, and at that time the average yearly wage of the workmen of Freeland was three hundred pounds sterling. It, together with the raw materials and plant necessary for its manufacture, has also been the amount produced in a year by forty Freeland laborers. In Europe one would have thought a greater amount of expenditure of labor to be necessary for this purpose, and you see that these machines can be sold cheaper here than in Europe, although the workmen employed in making them get four times the amount which the workmen, owners of ground, capitalists, and enterprisers together get in Europe. Our manufactured goods are, on the average, much cheaper than those made in Europe, but we produce very much more, and all that we produce belongs to us, the workmen.” After we had walked through a row of workshops, my friend asked me to leave the establishment by the back door, instead of by the principal entrance, as he would then see on the way whether all his orders were punctually executed in the enlargements and new buildings which were then in course of erection “ We are about to enlarge our premisses,” he added by way of explanation. When we arrived at the site of the buildings, the many mechanical aids, in Europe altogether dispensed with,, which I saw everywhere employed by builders and stone- masons astonished me. The bricks were conveyed upon electric railways, raised by electric cranes straight out of the waggons to the various storeys, and there brought to the workmen by an automatic machine, so that some had only to control the machines while others did the building. I was at once impressed by the grandeur of the new build- ings. ‘‘We are spending a large amount of money on these,” I said to Charles, “and the state finds it all. Where does the state get the necessary sum from ? ” “ From the produce of our taxes, dear friend,” he replied. “Last year six hundred and fifty thousand workmen of Freeland produced goods to the value of three hundred and sixty millions sterling, and of that the state has kept not less A VISIT TO FREELAND. : 5 8 than one hundred and twenty-five millions sterling for its own purposes. The companies have also paid about twenty millions for the loans received in former years, so that altogether one hundred and forty-five millions have flowed into the coffers of our state. Naturally cnly a part of the sum can be had for new projects, as the state has also to fulfil its own obligations. But you perceive that something can be had out of such an amount/’ “ Of course,” I replied. “ But as I know that every company has the right to ask for as much as it wishes, it is not yet clear to me how sufficient is found, even with such giant sums as these, for wishes are boundless, and all revenues have a limit, although it may be a very wide one.” “ Certainly,” answered Charles. “ Wishes are boundless, but only when one does not have to pay for them. Capital is not given to us, but only advanced, without interest indeed, but to be paid back again.” “How easily you silence me!” I replied. “You will certainly not ask for any capital for irrational purposes, at least you will not intentionally do so, since it has to be paid back. But that machine which saves human work, as you have just explained to me, is in demand in this country, and if I can ask as much as I like, I promise to use the one hundred and forty-five millions of pounds of your yearly revenue for one great establishment.” “You had better let that remain as it is, my good friend,” laughed Charles. “ You forget the small detail that appli- ances and machines, in order to be in demand, must not only save labor, but must also find a sale for the products which are obtained by their means. Would you allow this new building to be erected if you did not calculate that the goods which will be manufactured would sell. Ask the millionnaires and milliardaires in Europe and America if they would build everything for which they have capital, and you will receive the answer that it is altogether impossible, because they must be guided in their plans by the sale of goods. Now only a few of these clever fellows know that the sale is so pitiably small, and must remain so as long as civil order is not uprooted, because the proletariate masses of the world -derive no advantage from increasing productiveness, and so A VISIT TO FREELAND. 59 their wages, that is, their power of buying, cannot be in- creased. Purchasing power increases with us proportion- ately with every improvement in productive power, but it is not on that account less true with us that production can only increase pari passu with demand and that therefore appliances for the products of which there are no purchasers would be useless. What is even more, this harmony between increase of sale and production is much more perfect with us than it is with the rest of the world For there the speculators, just because they do not know what they ought to do with capital, often go in for schemes which nobody makes any use of, in the hope that they will succeed in driving away customers from their rivals. If there are many such speculators, a crisis is the result. This is not possible with us, for here no one can demand or establish unnecessary undertakings, because no one is puzzled as to how he shall employ his capital. Here we only set up such works as will produce things that are likely to be in demand, and the buyers of these naturally fall off if the capital requisite for setting up the business exceeds the means of the state, because in this case the business must be carried on at the cost of the consumer, and such an undertaking tends to produce more because one requires less.” “ So you prevent,” I asked, “ every possibility that more could be demanded for the purposes of business than it is generally possible to obtain ? How does it come to pass then that in the rest of the world the rate of interest some- times becomes so enormous ? Is it not caused by the de- mand of capital at times exceeding the supply ? You will not deny that this increase in the rate of interest frequently occurs in Europe and America and puts an end to the further increase in the demand for capital, thus bringing the supply and demand for capital into equilibrium. We do not possess this safety valve in Freeland, how shall I explain that in spite of this fact the equilibrium between, supply and demand in the capital market cannot be dis- turbed, but that here under all circumstances the employ- ment of that capital which is to be disposed of must be demanded. For if it is impossible to demand more capital 6o A VISIT TO FREELAND. than is to be obtained, it is also impossible to demand less.- If, on the one hand, I ask whether the ability of our state* to lend capital could be lessened by a large demand for it, the question arises on the other hand what we shall do with the unemployed surplus if less capital is demanded ? ” “I will first answer the question with which you con- cluded, because then an answer will as a matter of fact be given to all earlier questions. We can never have more capital than is likely to be required because the collection of our capital is not allowed to take place by chance, but is systematically undertaken by the state in the form of an im- position of taxes. The amount of this tax is, from the nature of what is collected, not immutable, and it follows therefore that the tax is always adjusted to satisfy all the needs of the public, who also have the right of disposing of the capital. Our bodies of representatives b.^se their calculations concerning the probable demand on the in- formation which they get and on principles learnt by ex- perience, and adjust the amount of the tax according!}'. This method is, of course, liable to errors, the amount received in one year exceeds the demand by some millions, and in another year it is below the demand. But the result of such disparities is only that in the first case the excess is carried on to the next year, and in the second case that part of the enterprises is put off for some weeks. Too much capital to be disposed of is also impossible, since it is quite evident that we never ask for more than we need.” “■Permit me to interrupt you for a moment,” I said. “ I perceive that our Freeland state never has, if we do not regard transitory disparities, more capital to dispose of than is needed. But capital can be accumulated in the hands of individuals. What is done with the money which is earned but not spent ? ” “That only concerns these individuals, since he who earns more than he can or will use can determine himself what he will do with the excess. He will give it away, in which case another, the person to whom he gives it, will spend it, or he will let it accumulate, in which case he will put it by to be spent at some other time. He can also, if he* chooses, even use it for speculating with in a foreign coun- A VISIT TO FREELAND. 6l try as long as there is such a foreign country, that is, as long as all the world has not taken to our social organiza- tion. Private savings do not have anything whatever to do with our money market, for since the demand for capital as it generally exists is supplied by the state without interest, nobody would gain anything by lending capital here, and no one parts from his possessions without gaining some- thing by doing so. There are indeed a kind of private savings which are placed on the capital market in the same manner as the produce of the general taxation. This is the case with the payments made to our insurance office, as you will find out presently. But exactly because this establish- ment which is managed by the state employs its premiums to cover a part of the capital which is demanded, these premiums are taken into consideration in making calcula- tions concerning the public money in the same manner as the proceeds from taxation, that is their probable amount is deducted when the amount of taxation is fixed upon. Therefore supply in our money market can under no circumstances exceed the demand. In this manner is the -question principally answered why there can be no dearth of capital with us as happens at times in the rest of the world. For consider well that even there dearth of capital is only an occasional phenomenon, caused by the circum- stance that the accumulation of capital which is left to chance, does not, according to the times, exactly correspond with the demands which it has been intended to supply. We do not allow capital to accumulate by chance, and therefore if the demand increases, we accumulate more capital and therefore raise the taxation in a corresponding manner. “ Finally, I must guard against what I have said meaning that it is quite impossible that with us more capital would be needed than the state could supply. Of course it is true that machines for the products of which there were no consumers are unnecessary, and are therefore not in demand. But it is also true that the manufacture of machines for the product of which there are consumers presupposes the exis- tence of a certain amount of wealth. And the question there- fore always arises whether the first or second limit to raising 62 A VISIT TO FREELAND. capital is to be considered. If I wish to build a workshop r I have to consider on the one hand whether I can reckon:* on consumers for the products which I manufacture, and I shall certainly not build if there are no such consumers. On the other hand, I shall have to think where I shall get the capital for my factory from, even if there were consumers- for the manufactured products. Which question is now to be considered in practice ? For the rich man the first, and for the poor man the second. We are now so rich that the manufacture of all the machines which are really in demand does not trouble us in the least. The worst that a greater exertion of our enterprising powers can lead to is a passing rise in the amount of taxation, and in all circumstances with regard to our affairs the maxim now prevails that taxation, has to adjust itself to the demand for capital. At the com- mencement, when we were still poor, the opposite was the case, for then our means of producing were so small that, by' the greatest exertion of our economizing power, we could not make everything that was then wanted at one stroke,, but had to adhere to the opposite maxim and regulate our undertakings according to our means of producing.” “ And how did you do that ? t ” “ By granting to our administration during the period of transition, that is till the time when our means of producing would have equaled the amount of the need which was felt anywhere for necessary enterprises of capital, the right to choose from among the companies which demanded credit.” “ And did not that lead to friction between the companies favored by having capital granted to them and those pre- judiced by having it refused.” “ No, the freedom of action which exists in Freeland carries in its bosom the true means of safety in such apparent cases of deviation from the common principle of equality of rights. As everyone has the right to join any company that he may please, it was evidently impossible for the companies favored with a grant of capital from keeping the advantage which they derived from it for those who happened to be their members. At first our central government took great care to choose the companies to which credit was to be granted in such a manner that the A VISIT TO FREELAND. 6 $ equalization of the partial increase of production caused thereby should take place as smoothly as possible. It was seen, for example, that if it was in any manner possible, the companies which belonged to the same branch of business were always equally dealt with. This means that as it was not possible to endow, for example, agriculture and the other industries with improved machines at the same time, they did not grant the credit demanded for procuring these improved machines to single husbandmen and artizans, but in the first place only to the husbandmen, and not even to these in such a manner that one agricul- tural company should at first be perfectly provided with every thing that it wanted, and then that the others should come in their turn, but in such a manner that all should, for example, be first provided with the means for procuring improved plows, and then with the means for pro- curing improved thrashing machines, and so on. The result of this would be that the articles produced by the favored companies, and in this case we mean agricultural products, would descend in price in such a manner that, while those who were apparently placed at a disadvantage would not increase the amount of goods which they produced, those who were favored could do this, but the value of the goods produced in each case remained the same. If a pair of shoes, for example, had, at the time we are speaking of, the value of one hundred-weight of corn, whilst both needed a day’s work for their production, the cobbler received two hundred-weight for his pair of shoes because they required a day’s work, whilst, in the case of agriculture, two hundred- weight of corn required a day’s work for their production. But this method of equalization was not thoroughly efficient. It was not possible to prevent it from being dis- turbed by the influence of foreign commerce on the price, and just as little could the principle of dealing equally with all the companies which were connected with the same branch of business be strictly adhered to. Here the influx and efflux of working power was at first of great assistance. But this means could not, under all circumstances, give perfect help, at least, not without thereby very sensi- bly prejudicing the advantage derived from the machines- A VISIT TO FREELAND. 64 employed in the work. We could not, for example, when the employment of electric power was determined upon, in the third year after Freeland had been founded, possibly undertake this at one time for even the whole of the agricultural community, but the agricultural companies necessarily had to be supplied in turns. If I recollect rightly, the company of the upper Tana was the one which first received the electric power which was obtained from the great waterfall of the Kilolumi. That placed it in the posi- tion to produce in this territory with two thousand workmen as much as had been produced with four thousand. But in order to make the utmost use of this advantage, they must find a means of inducing the two thousand workmen whom they no longer required to go elsewhere. They could not compel them to do that. They need not of course have been idle if they had remained, the superfluous working power would have been used to plow four times where before the ground would have been plowed twice, to till the fields more carefully, and so on, but it is clear that not much would be gained by doing this. Further, since the four thousand agricultural laborers of the upper Tana would, in consequence of the employment of electric power, have always earned more or worked less than the agricultural laborers in other companies, that would have attracted a new addition of labor there until the produce of the labor had sunk through this new addition to the amount obtainable in Freeland at that time without the aid of electric power. This common average would indeed have been fixed at a higher figure, since the laborers who had re- mained in the other companies would have been able to pro- duce more than before both pro man and per hour, but this increase would have in no wise been so great as the amount of work which was lavished in the other place. To obviate this, there was no other means than that the people of the upper Tana should of their own free wall strive to divide the profit which they have made by employing electric power between themselves and the other agricultural com- panies. The other favored companies followed the same example in the order in which they received the favors, which they perceived were one-sided until the favoring A VISIT TO FREELAND. 65 ceased. Some industries preferred to hand over the excess which was obtained in this manner to the state, but the state had no cause to interfere at all in this process of compensa- tion, since it lay in the original interest of the companies which received their share not to retain more of the advan- tage that was assigned to them than was possible without a combination which would disturb the supply of workmen. e worst kind of slavery.” “ Do the workmen of the rest of the world choose their companions according to their taste?” I asked, meeting derision with derision. “I have seen nothing of that in European factories.” “ But in Europe the employer, or at least his overseer, has the right to see the people before he engages them.” “ Quite so,” I said, “ but he does not base his choice on their amiability and conversational powers, but only looks to see whether they appear to him to be fit for the work for which they offer themselves or not. Our directors do that too, and the difference only lies in the fact that these directors, who do not decide about admitting anyone, but only as to the manner in which all the working power is spent, are not the commissioners of an employer standing stiffly and coldly superior to workmen but of the workers themselves. We are by no means worse off in this respect than the rest of the world.” “ But not much better,” growled Professor Tenax, “ and yet you boast that you have set up the best State possible.” “ I did not know that we had done so,” said Charles. •“We believe that we have introduced the best possible 88 A VISIT TO FREELAND. arrangement corresponding to the needs of mankind at the present time. We leave it to the gods to attain the abso- lutely best and perfect in itself. As long as men are not angels, and we do not presume to make them such, they will have to endure the necessary consequences of their mis- takes. And therefore, if the separate members are not of one heart and mind with the rest in all things, one party must accept the inevitable, without taking upon themselves to injure the rights of the other party for the sake of this perfect harmony which is desired.” “ But do you not understand, then,” exclaimed Professor Tenax, “ that under the circumstances it may be just as in- tolerable to see oneself chained to persons who, no matter from what ground, are opposed to one ? ” “It is only a question what you mean by this being chained to one another. I shall only admit men into my house, family, and business intercourse who are agreeable to me. It is not a question of social intercourse in the factory, but one of production, and in order that this may succeed peaceably, it is sufficient that my neighbor should under- stand his work, even if he does not in the least understand or sympathize with my opinions or affections. The person- ality of the workman is so very much in the background before the power of machinery, especially in modern times, that a moderately reasonable discipline is quite sufficient to make all discrepancies which may arise from personal oppo- sition from henceforward impossible. If we wished to usurp the right to keep persons who have no fellow-feeling with us away from our factory, why should we endure them in our towns? The disagreeable habits, views, or disposi- tions which a man may possess are much more incon- venient to me if I have to share the same dwelling with him than if I had to share the same workshop with him. For only in the dwelling house do I have to deal with him as a man, and in the latter principally as a pro- ducer of goods. If you also, most honored professor, are an enemy to the freedom of joining any company that one pleases, because it can bring us into contact with every 4 ugly ruffian/ then you ought to take the field in the first rank against that political freedom which, as I know very A VISIT TO FREELAND. well, stands at the head of the program of that political party of which you are one of the ornaments, namely, the Liberals.” “ One cannot get the better of fanatics like you,” said Professor Tenax, as he broke off the conversation, which now became disagreeable to him. But this did not prevent him, since he had by nature a good heart, from willingly accepting Charles’ invitation to be our guest frequently during his stay in Edendale. A VISIT TO FREELAND. <90 CHAPTER X. IMPOSSIBILITY OF A CRISIS IN FREELAND. THE INSURANCE SYSTEM. T HAD learnt very quickly to understand why the principle of the free mobility of labor, which consists in nothing else than the removal of every obstacle which opposes well considered self-interest, must lead to the harmony of all economical circumstances. To perfectly remove any obscurities which I might have on this point, I con- sulted the great classical economists, especially Adam Smith, whose doctrine entirely rests on the carrying out of this principle, and who only erred by concluding that political liberty alone could suffice to remove all hindrances that stand in the way of the working of self-interest. Only one thing was not quite clear, and this was the question whether under any circumstances one of those crises, or one of those universal depressions, by which the bourgeois world is periodically punished, could under any circumstances take place in Freeland. Equilibrium is established between the various kind of produce in Freeland by the principle which allows any one to join any company that he pleases, and thus enables the workmen to go to the place where the greatest amount of production happens to be taking place. That is, of course, not possible in the rest of the world, for the work- men who live there do not have the power of choosing the places where they work. They must wait until the em- ployers require them. But the employers in the bourgeois world have an advantage which, at least, partly replaces the A VISIT TO FREELAND. 91 freely exercised self-interest of the workmen of Freeland. If the business is in a bad condit’on, they dismiss workmen ; if it is in a flourishing condition, they take more on; and one might suppose that profits become equal slowly but surely, and in the same manner that they do in Freeland, and that thus all stagnation of trade must be avoided. Since this is not the case, and stagnation and therefore over- production are more and more becoming the rule, I sought a long time in vain for the real explanation of the difference which I saw so clearly, and which an inner voice told me was a necessary result of the system. The overseer of the warehouse brought me on to the light track at a visit which I made to him concerning the business of my company. When I asked him if an occasional overfilling of the warehouses would not at least cause a temporary stagnation, he answered me by saying, with astonishment — “ If this happened, for what purpose would all the wares that are heaped up here be produced? You of the Eden- dale Railway Material Manufacturing Company manufacture the machines which you send here, not because it pleases you to expend your labor on iron and steel, but because you wish to pay for your various needs with the produce of the work which you have expended on the machines. The same is the case with the companies that have manufactured the furniture, clothing materials, provisions, etc., that have been sent to the warehouse. They all sell only to buy, and it can therefore only be a question whether just the right things have been manufactured — those things, namely, which the sellers, who at the same time become buyers, demand. Our liberty of joining any company helps to bring this to pass. It would be necessary, in order that more should be produced than is required, that our producers should not work to enjoy, but only for the sake of working.” And when I further objected that all that also comes to pass in the bourgeois world, and in spite of this over-produc- tion is always the rule there, the overseer of the warehouse laughed and said — “ You overlook the fact that it is not exactly the same in the rest of the world. There the people do indeed work not to torment themselves but to enjoy ; but however much 92 A VISIT TO FREELAND. more they produce, they cannot on that account enjoys much more, because the produce of the work does not belong to them, that is, to the workmen, but to a minority, who are the employers.” “ Quite right,” I answered, “but these last wish to enjoy what the others have produced ? ” “ No; these few only partly wish for, and only partly can enjoy, what the rest produce. They only partly can do so, because their means of consumption are limited, and they only partly wish to spend it on enjoyment, because they prefer to spend another part of the produce which belongs to them in such a way as to increase their power, and not on enjoyment.” “You think,” I asked, “that the employers wish to capi- talize part of the produce of the work ? Capitalizing means changing the product of the work into an instrument of fresh work. It does not in the least concern the matter which we are now discussing whether the employers buy lace and fine wines, or machines, factory contrivances and tools ; they always wish to buy something else for what they sell. And it should always be considered whether exactly the right things are produced, but not whether the things are demanded in sufficient quantities.” “ Yes, if the employers of the bourgeois world would or could seek machinery, tools or factory appliances in the markets besides lace and wine, there would be no general disproportion between supply and demand. But it is in this point that the mischief lies. They cannot and will not buy any tools and machines, because they have no use for them ; which means no use above a certain very narrowly limited amount. They cannot build any new spinning mills if the demand for the material which is spun does not increase, and they can set up no new boot factories if after as before most men must go about barefooted or in torn boots. Nothing else remains for the employers than to employ their so called savings in buying factories, railways and other undertakings, and therefore to increase the price of these by competition. But if an already existing factory or railway, or titles to the possession of such factory or rail- way which are brought into circulation, should go up in. A VISIT TO FREELAND. 93 price, then this will cause no kind of demand in the market. Capitalists generally sell off all the productions which belong to them, but they only spend part of the money so obtained in buying other products which happen to be in the market. This naturally produces the disproportion which one dubs with the name of over-production, and which, if it becomes serious, is called a crisis.” This simple statement made me clear as to the reason why a general disproportion between supply and demand is prevented in this country. Since it doubtless corresponds to a law which is universally valid and which requires that no one should manufacture products for another pur- pose than that of exchanging something for the money obtained from them, and since there is nothing else here which one can exchange than the products of human work, perpetual equilibrium must prevail. This the great econo- mists have, as is well known, laid down as necessary for the commercial world, without clearly knowing why it did not as a matter of fact take place, although they were always exercising their ingenuity upon it. An inhabitant of Free- land can, if he wishes, lay by or save what he produces in another form, but the form in which he saves it can under no circumstances be other than that which causes some product of human work to be taken from the market. He can never in Freeland change the product of his work into a means of power or into a mortgaged claim upon the pro- duct of the future work of other men, and can therefore never disturb the equilibrium of the Freeland market when he seeks to acquire such a title to power over others in exchange for his products instead of the products of another. As long as there is a foreign country with respect to Free- land, it may be that those who save money in Freeland place it out in foreign interest bearing investments, but that can naturally only make a disproportion between offer and demand in the foreign markets, and not in the markets of Freeland 5 for in this case it is the products of Freeland which are exchanged for a title to the possession of foreign goods, and demand of course decreases in Freeland, but so also does supply. Just as little can foreign commerce disturb the equilibrium 94 A VISIT TO FREELAND. between supply and demand in Freeland. Since it is clear that foreign countries give us nothing, but always exchange goods for goods, there is necessarily a demand for the sale of foreign goods in Freeland corresponding to the proceeds of wares which we sell abroad. Foreign commerce merely enables us to supply, our needs of such goods as are pro- duced cheaper abroad than in Freeland, not directly by manufacturing these things ourselves, but by manufacturing instead of them such things as can be made here more advantageously than abroad, and this naturally leads to the result that we can supply this part of our needs much better and more abundantly than as if we produced these articles in question through our own means. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that this commercial intercourse with foreign countries which are visited by frequent and violent fluctuations of production calls forth a greater fluctuation in equilibrium of domestic supply and demand than if we con- fined our commerce to our own territory. It happens some- times that a foreign country undersells here with its own manufactures those which we produce ourselves, and the natural result of this is that our own prices, and with them the returns of our production, are lowered ; but such dispro- portions are light, thanks to our power of joining what com- pany we please, and are overcome without much damage to those interested. If we kept aloof from foreign countries,, we could defend ourselves against such fluctuations ; but as this would be effected at the cost of our international divi- sion of labor and consequently at the cost of our prospeiity (since we should in this case be always compelled to pro- duce those things of which we are in immediate need, instead of those things which we produce with the greatest advantage), no one in this country consents to uphold such measures of exclusion. An altogether peculiar manner of laying by what is pro- duced by present work for future use takes place by means of the insurances which are effected by the Central Bank. As I have already related, every inhabitant of Freeland has a right to be maintained by the State when he is unfit for work. This claim to maintenance amounts to four-tenths of the average Freeland income for men, and three-tenths A VISIT TO FREELAND. 95 for women, and is sufficient for a respectable and even rich subsistence, but does not under all circumstances enable the recipients to continue unchanged that mode of life to which they have been accustomed during the period of their activity. The insurance department offers to those who wish to have more than the ordinary maintenance amount for themselves and their wives in the later years of their life the means of obtaining this. Whoever pays a premium graduated according to his age can raise the amount of his maintenance to what he pleases. The peculiarity of this mode of insurance consists in the fact that no interest is given on the premiums which have been paid 5 the account is also not made in gold, but in the value of work. The following will explain this. European or American insurance companies pay, for example, fifty pounds per annum to a man of a certain age who has paid -twenty-five pounds per annum up to a previously fixed time. But the Freeland Insurance Office pays such a man an annual income of the value of two hundred hours' labor for the value of every hundred hours’ labor which he has paid every year until he becomes unfit for work The value of an hour’s work in Freeland is about five shillings at the pre- sent time, and this would perhaps ’amount to ten shillings at the commencement of the payment of the proportionate income which we mentioned above, and might go up to twelve shillings before the death of the person entitled to such payments. He would thus have paid an annual pre- mium amounting to from twenty-five to fifty pounds, and have thereby assured to himself an income increasing from one hundred to one hundred and twenty pounds. The object of this arrangement is to make premium and income compatible with lightness of payment on the one hand, and on the other hand with the proportional increase of needs caused by the general wealth. If the value of labor goes up, the incomes paid by the Insurance Office must also go up in the same manner as the claim to maintenance. Since the Insurance Office of Freeland can of course charge no interest, the increase in the amount of income paid which is caused in such a manner is, strictly speakings not justified by the principles of insurance. The insured 96 A VISIT TO FREELAND. receive on an average really more than corresponds to the amount they paid, and the difference must naturally be borne by the State. But the general opinion in Freeland is that there is no injustice in this matter. The Insurance Office cannot of course make the premiums paid by the insured draw any interest, but it makes them profitable through the means of the Government, whether it is in the form of buildings which serve for the general requirements, or in the form of credit granted to the companies. It is the State which gets the advantage from all these plans, and not only do those who pay premiums and their contemporaries par- ticipate in it, but also future generations. Those who are insured have given instruments to the State for doing remu- nerative work in the present and future out of their savings, and it is not more than just if a part of the increase in the products resulting from the work caused by these payments is presented to them, when the income is calculated, in addi- tion to the amount which they have paid in premiums. Besides, it must be remarked here that no increasing burden is laid on the State on account of these payments made by the Insurance Office. On the contrary, the pro- ceeds from the insurance premiums enable the amount of capital required by the community to be lent without the common taxation being obliged to reach that height which would otherwise be necessary for getting the amount de- manded. The payment of premiums at such a time far exceeds the outgo, and that will continue as long as, in consequence, firstly of the newness of this institution, and secondly of the rapid increase of the population, the number of insured persons who pay premiums is four times as great as that of those who receive payments. It will be different later on, but when this happens, the produce of labor in Freeland will in the meantime have been so greatly increased by the cooperation of the capital contributed by those who are insured that a general raising of the rate will be easily borne. Finally, I will mention that the whole of the arrangement relates entirely to old age pensions, and not to the main- tenance of children. The inalienable claim of the latter to the enjoyment of their share of the general wealth is enough A VISIT TO FREELAND. 97 under all circumstances. The Freelanders think it absurd that the future should be encumbered for the benefit of those who have done nothing in the past. Everyone can dispose of the produce of his own labor just as he pleases during his life ; and at his death he is also at liberty to leave what he saves to his children, but no more. H 9 8 A VISIT TO FREELAND. CHAPTER XI. A HOLIDAY JOURNEY IN FREELAND. DISTRIBUTION OF ms holidays — the customary two months of holidays were not, as a rule, all taken at once, but at two different times — I determined to get my leave at the same time. It is also generally the custom that the younger members should consider the wishes of the elder ones when the holiday times are fixed so that the latter have the choice, and the younger ones only have their leave when the elder ones have returned. There is no compulsion in this matter, but I soon perceived that customs and usages have a power here that makes them equal to the severest laws. It is moreover not a peculiarity of Freeland, but a practice which, even if not carried out to such a degree, the rest of the world has made where the greatest proportion of liberty possible has in general come into being. I should not have been able to get away in August, which was the favorite month for holidays, if one of the older members had not of his own free will withdrawn his right out of regard for my friendship with Charles, and had taken September, which had fallen to my lot, as his holiday month instead. The inhabitants of Freeland chiefly spend their holidays in traveling about. They explore the mountainous region of Kenia, or the Aberdeen range which is seventy chiliometers to the west of this, and enterprising tourists extend their excursions to the mountain chain of Elgon which lies three hundred and fifty chiliometers to the north-west and which LAND AND CAPITAL. Charles had bespoken the month of August for A VISIT TO FREELAND. 99 shows no single summit which is equal to the Kenia or approaches to it in vastness, but its separate heights likewise project into the regions of snow which begin here, on the equator, at a height of fourteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. Others extend through Uganda to the lake of Ukerewe, whose shores, which lie at a height of four thousand feet above the level of the sea, afford a very agree- able residence and opportunities for excellent sailing and rowing. All the excursions are made very easy by the net- work of roads and railways, which is still only in its infancy, but which would be a very well developed one according to European ideas. Various building companies of Freeland have erected hotels and villas at the places which are best situated and afford the finest prospect, and a traveler can obtain shelter on cheapest terms either in an idyllic solitude, or among large parties of tourists, according to his taste. Since the carriage of persons on railways throughout Freeland costs nothing, but like the post, telegraph, and electric power, is provided by the state free of expense, and is therefore paid for out of the general taxation, traveling is in reality scarcely more expensive than living in a fixed place of abode. One gets a conveniently fitted up hotel room for five or at most eight pence, and a whole villa containing from three to eight sitting rooms for from fifteen to forty shillings a week. Provisions are to be had at a fabulously cheap rate everywhere, and only the preparation of dishes in the villas situated in secluded spots costs somewhat more. I have not spent more than eleven pounds during our month’s travels from Kenia to Ukerewe, and not three- quarters of this sum was spent on the necessaries of life, but in paying for guides, rowing boats, a sailing yacht, riding horses, etc. If we three, namely, Charles, his wife, and I, had not undertaken the expensive excursion by ourselves, but with a great party, I should have saved half of this sum, and if I had limited myself in expenses of shelter and food, •a quarter of this sum would have been sufficient. No express assurance is necessary to inform the reader that besides the surpassing beauties of the natural lakes the .management of the various industries of F reeland interested me very much, and especially the agricultural companies, of which IOO A VISIT TO FREELAND. there were only two small ones, in the immediate neighbor- hood of Edendale, which principally carried on the vegetable and fruit industries. The universal employment of ma- chinery in agriculture as in all works in Freeland is most wonderful. The Company of the Upper Tana now precedes all the other companies in this respect, for it has not more than two thousand four hundred workmen constantly employed on its six hundred square chiliometers or thirty thousand hecatares, and these are of course aided in the sowing and reaping times by from five thousand to ten thousand additional workmen who came from the surround- ing companies. And it must not be supposed that the method of conducting the agricultural operations is a super- ficial one founded upon an irrational impoverishing of the land. On the contrary, the ground is tilled with the greatest care, far more carefully and thoroughly than in any other part of the world, with the exception perhaps of China, but it is the elements which, forced into the service of man, do ninety-nine parts out of a hundred of the work. A magnificent system of irrigation continually gives a rich dampness to the ground from sowing time to the harvest, so that failures in the crops are almost entirely unknown. The plowing, sowing, harrowing, rolling, cutting, binding, thrash- ing, winnowing, and the storage of wheat, are all done by machines worked by electricity. Numerous spun ropes pass through the fields in all directions, and this net of ropes not only serves for drawing loads, but also for moving and work- ing the machines which are driven by electricity. It is only possible in this manner that one and a-half million meter- centner of corn, and besides on an average a million meter- centner of other agricultural products, which were all worth about five million pounds sterling, are produced twice a year with an expenditure of not quite thirteen million hours of work. A single hour’s work of this kind corresponds to a total profit of eight shillings, and, after deducting payments of capital and the tax to the State, it corresponds to a net profit of nearly five shillings. We inspected the organization of the Upper Tana on our journey home, and had a meeting there with Professor Tenax, who, indifferent to the beauties of nature, had A VISIT l'O FREELAND. IOI declined to accompany us on our excursion to the moun- tains and the great lake. He was so preoccupied when we saw him that he scarcely answered our usual greetings, and one could see by the expression of his countenance that quite a crowd of new thoughts and objections must have risen in his mind during his wanderings among the various factories in Freeland during the last few weeks. Mrs. Vera, who had quickly taken to liking Professor Tenax on account of his great learning and harmless generosity in all questions which did not touch his orthodox principles, nevertheless amused herself at times by exciting him to an extreme dis- play of all his subtlety and dialectical tricks by appearing to take his part. When he therefore greeted us with the iron- ical question as to whether we had come here to make good our right to the ground of Freeland, and, as we did not immediately understand this, added mockingly, “ Here the ground belongs to everyone ; you are evidently here to begin a law suit with the Upper Tana because it has not hitherto allowed you to share in its proceeds,” Mrs. Vera interrupted him with feigned sorrow, saying that it had always put her brain on the rack to know what this could mean, seeing that the ground is free as the air, and that everyone could make use of it as it pleased him. “ That is utter nonsense, my dear Madam,” replied the Pro- fessor with earnestness, “ one can give away air to all the world because it can be had in unlimited abundance, but not the ground, of which there is in any case less than corre- sponds to the requirements of mankind ; and even were it to be had in unlimited abundance, some allotments would give rise to dispute on account of their inferiority, if every- one was allowed to seek for the best piece just as he pleased.” “ Professor,” I replied, “ do you really think that we all want to become cultivators of the soil ? Can I draw plans and guide the plow at the same time ? I stick to my business, although I doubtless possess the right to have my share in the use of the ground, because I find that I make more money there, and this is so because there is a greater demand for the produce of my work at the drawing board than for my work behind the plow. Exactly the same is the I02 A VISIT TO FREELAND case with regard to all “ e ”“ f th“afdo f ,o“.n 0 d ' : charira™ MraYera Freelfnd whether the land belongs to two thousand land who have sequestrated the earth are many or few. But do who nave se i here have exactly the not ,OT f e .V^ e Ct the land as the workmen who actually « right of using it. The ground does no. belong to the latter ; they dare not forbid, us to use it if we wish to, and the result of this is that they must divide the advantage of usin« it with us, and therefore that our work must yield ?he same profit as theirs, since, as long as this was not the ise labor would emigrate from all the other sources of nroduction to agriculture. Therefore, the right which everyone in Freeland has to possess land does not came evervone to go in for agriculture, but keeps the profits of agriculture in equilibrium with those of all the other pro- dU u t y q U C have ricrt yet told me,” continued Professor Tenax “ what mystic motive induces a part of the agricultural A VISIT TO FREELAND. IO3 laborers of Freeland to prefer inferior pieces of ground whilst perhaps other people close by work on better pieces.” “ The motive which induces them to do this has nothing mystical about it,” replied Charles. “ Its name is Self- Interest. You yourself have taught us that the produce o f the labor expended in Freeland is proportionately smaller the greater the amount of labor one expends on the ground. Two hundred workmen, for example, will not produce twice as much from a piece of ground which has been given to them as one hundred would, but perhaps only one and a half times as much, because the labor which the second hundred performs is not so necessary as that of the first. If too much labor flocks to the better piece of ground, each single workman would get less produce for his labor from the better piece of ground than he would from the inferior piece less stocked with labor, even if the better ground were ten times more rich, fruitful and favorable. But the self-interest of the workman does not require that he should convert his labor into money upon the richest possible ground, but with the greatest possible profit. It is there- fore clear that you only have to let the people choose freely in order that that should happen quite of its own accord which corresponds uniformly with economic reason and justice, namely, that the labor should be distributed in such a manner over all pieces of land, whether they are good or bad, that every workmen gets the same profit.” Our stubborn adversary, flattered by the appeal to his own doctrine, could not withhold a nod of assent, but roused up by Mrs. Vera's roguery, he immediately took new courage to ask in a tone of triumph what would happen if other workmen wished to grow cotton here, where, for example, coffee was grown, and who could prevent the first new arrivals that came from rooting up the coffee trees and thus destroying the fruit of a year’s work performed by others? “Has your Land of Liberty also a panacea against such transgressions of unrestrained self-interest ? “ Of course,” replied Charles. “ Before all I would ask you to perceive that you are not quite clear about the pre- cedent which must be subverted if such a change in the cultivation took place. The first arrivals that happen to o 4 A VISIT TO FREELAND. come do not have the right to rule and dispose here as they please ; but this right belongs under all circumstances to the majority of all those who wish to till the land of this company. A new majority must be formed in order that what you fear should happen. But this is only to explain that it is not the accidental caprice of the first that comes, who might also be a fool, upon which the method of using the surface of the ground depends in Freeland. Without mentioning this last consideration, it does not remain quite the same in essence whether there are many or few who have to resolve upon such an innovation, for in all cases it can only be determined under the supposition that the advantages of all those who have shares in it are taken into consideration. Whoever enters the economy of this association has his share in all its burdens and advantages, and if he then roots up the coffee shrubs and plants cotton in their place, he can only do this if the need of cotton culture is so great as to make up for the damage caused by the destruction of the coffee shrubs. But in this case it is to the advantage of the workmen who were employed there before that such a rational change of culture should take place. If we suppose that a hundred thousand hours of work had been employed on those coffee shrubs which are destroyed, and that the cotton plantations which take their place like- wise claim one hundred thousand hours of work, the profit from the new cotton culture would have to be divided among two hundred thousand hours of work, and from this it follows that the coffee trees will only be replaced by cotton shrubs' when the latter will compensate, not only for the labor employed in planting them, but also for that expended in planting the destroyed coffee trees.” “ And what if it is quite a different branch of industry for which the ground is claimed ? ” asked Professor Tenax. “ If, for example, it is necessary to build factories here on the land of the agricultural company of the Upper Tana, who would decide whether the agricultural company must consent or not ? ” “ In this case also,” answered Charles, “ the parallel interests of both parties give the decision in this matter, that is, the interests of the agricultural and manufacturing work- A VISIT TO FREELAND. io 5 men. Since it is a necessary result of the power which inhabitants of Freeland possess of joining any company that they please that the products of labor should be in equili- brium everywhere, it is quite impossible that workmen who work in factories could wish to erect a factory in a place where damage would be done to other workmen if ground were claimed which had been previously set apart for other purposes, and this damage would be greater than the advantage which the other workmen get by setting up a factory in their midst. The usefulness and advantage of every undertaking find expression in the profits, and these profits are the same for all workmen, as a result of the free mobility of labor. So it is not possible. that the workmen of a factory which might perhaps be built here would get the average amount of pay which is usual in the country if the average earnings of neighboring workers were injuriously effected. Consequently no one can set up a factory in his own interests where this must happen to the detriment of his neighbors. There are, as a matter of fact, not less than seventeen great factories in the district of the Upper Tana, which justly claim a considerable part of the surface of the ground as their share. But you may be quite sure that all these factories were only erected because the damage which they did to the agricultural com- panies by claiming the ground is more than counterbalanced by other advantages. These other advantages can be of many different kinds ; they consist partly in the increased number of consumers that the agricultural company gets for its produce, partly for the reason that it has neighbors whom it employs for improving, driving, or renewing its machinery, but chiefly in the fact that there is an easier opportunity at the time of rest among the agricultural laborers for advan- tageously converting into money their own, and at times excessive, working power, while conversely the severe tempo- rary need for agricultural laborers at seed and harvest times can be easily supplied by the addition of laborers from the surrounding factories. In a word, the erection of such a factory must be an advantage for the agricultural company of the Upper Tana, or else it would not be erected there. 79 io6 A VISIT TO FREELAND. “ But,” asked the Professor, who was driven into a corner, ‘‘there must still be someone who has to decide whether profit or loss is to be apprehended. Who is this someone ?” “ This someone is a majority which is composed of those interested on both sides, and, therefore, of the agricultural and manufacturing workmen. With regard to this I wish you to observe that when such a majority is formed the laborers of the new works on the one hand and those of the old works on the other hand are not opposed to one another as two separate parties. That would only be the case if the advantage of the one went hand in hand with the injury of the other. Since this is not so, and profit and loss on both sides depend upon the same circumstances, interests can never clash here, but only differences of opinion. Part of the agricultural community will think that the erec- tion of the new factory is an advantage, while another part will think that it is a detriment, and in the same manner there will be factory workmen who think that the factory should be erected in this place and others who have the contrary opinion. The majority which is formed in this manner may be mistaken, but their intention always must and will be to do what is equally advantageous for both parties. And if you examine impartially the peculiar mean- ing of the right to the soil of Freeland it must be quite clear to you that it cannot possibly be otherwise. For since the advantage which is derived from any method of using the land is equally divided among all, thanks to our power of joining any company that we please, it can never be a question for whose advantage the land ought to be used, but only as to what manner of using it conduces best to the advantage of all. The land belongs in’ every case to everyone. Under all circumstances we are in the con- dition of partners who carry on their business for their joint advantage, and who may therefore have difference of opinion in single cases as to which method of carrying on the business corresponds best to the general advantage, but never as to whether the advantage of this or that partner should precede or follow that of the rest. I repeat that there are plenty of differences of opinion with us regarding the best method of using the ground, but no oppositions of interests.” A VISIT TO FREELAND. 107 “Finally you maintain just the same thing with refer- ence to the distribution of capital ! It is a matter of in- difference to you inhabitants of Freeland who receives the capital which has been contributed by you ? For the capital which your state divides among the various associa- tions comes from a tax to which everyone must contribute, no matter whether he wishes to or not, or whether he needs capital or has an excess of it. Thus one is compelled to save money here, and under some circumstances to save for advantage of others. Is that also just ? ” “ That would be very unjust,” replied Charles, “ but it does not happen. Nobody is compelled to save, and every- body contributes only as much capital as he needs himself, and if he does not need any he need not contribute any. Fcfr the taxes in which the share of the loan of capital is of course contained are not laid upon the workmen, but upon the produce of the work ; only those who work pay for it, and every workman exactly in the proportion ot the amount of work that he does. I could, for example, pay three times as many taxes as that agricultural laborer yonder, but only on the ground that my work produces three times as much as his does, and consequently because I get three times as much advantage from the use of the capital.” “ Infatuated man 1” exclaimed Professor Tenax. “It is not the capital to which you contribute that you draw your advantage from, and it is not the capital to which that agricultural laborer contributes that he draws h?s advantage from. Perhaps you pay for him, or he pays for you. I have heard that you people of the First Edendale Engine and Railway Material Manufacturing Company are just about to build to the value of three quarters of a million pounds sterling ; what does this agricultural laborer get from that ? And yet it is his tax as well as yours that must contribute to lend your company this sum. That is an injustice which it is not possible to keep going in the long run without the most hateful coercion.” “ That agricultural laborer,” explained Charles, “ has contributed just as much of the three quarters of a million pounds which our company is using as I have, and therefore it follows as a matter of course that the work which he does 108 A VISIT TO FREELAND. is exactly as much as that which I do. I have supposed that that man gets one third of the income which I get from my work, and therefore contributes to our project one third of the amount which I contribute, and it is as clear as day that the advantage which he gets from the plan is one third of mine. Our principle of the free mobility of labor effects this, and its application leads either to a fall in the price of machinery in consequence of our increased supply, or to a rise in the price of provisions as a result of the increase of the means of intercourse effected by us, or to an increase in the amount they produce, or perhaps only to our plans preventing a fall in the profits of the work which would otherwise take place. The final advantage is in all cases distributed uniformly among all the Freeland workmen, and so it is true that a dispute can never arise in Freeland as to who must have the advantage of using a certain tract of land, just as it is true that there can never be a dispute as to who shall have a certain amount of capital, but only as to which mode of using it is most advantageous to all. Capital is just the same thing here as the common property in land, it belongs to all the workmen under all circumstances, and yon agri- cultural laborer therefore profits by the buildings and machines which we erect just as much as I profit by the granaries and machines which we see before our eyes in the district of the Upper Tana.” “ I will not contest this point with you any further,” growled the professor, “but tell me this since you have an answer for everything — With what right do you forbid the people here to lay out as they please the capital which they might have saved all by themselves ? ” “Who forbids them to do that?” I asked, as I took up the conversation. “ There is no one here who would grant to anyone possessing capital what you understand by its advantageous employment, namely interest. No one will prevent you from asking as high interest as you wish for, but it is certain that no Freelander will give either high or low interest for the very simple reason that he can always get capital without interest from the state. To satisfy what you call in this case justice one must compel A VISIT TO FREELAND. 109. the people to pay interest, and that Freeland does not of course do.” “ Does any one do it in Europe ? ” exclaimed Professor Tenax excitedly. “ Such bad reasoning shows, in my opinion, nothing else than feebleness of your case. Interest is the production of an entirely free proportion of supply and demand, and to see compulsion in this shows either infatuation or an evil disposition.” “ If it is as our worthy professor says,” replied Mrs. Vera, “ I can only concede the point. If the workmen of Europe prefer to pay interest for the use of capital belonging to other people instead of using their own, I consider it is unjust to speak of compulsion.” “ Those people,” explained Tenax to his cunning friend, “ who in Europe use the capital of other people, do not do this out of preference for strange capital, but because they have none of their own.” “Are not those improvident spendthrifts and prodigals who lavish everything that they earn, or idlers who will work at nothing, whilst the others whom they ask for capital are economical and industrious ? ” “That is not quite correct, fair lady,” explained the Professor, who now began to perceive that his friend had, quite innocently, as he believed, enticed him on to the ice, bnt who was yet too honorable and too prudent to answer immediately to the question in the affirmative. “ There are, indeed, prodigals, idlers and drunkards among those who have no capital, just as there are economical and industrious people among those who have capital. But one cannot in general say that this difference explains what we are now talking about. I will even admit that our rich, on an average, consume more and work less than the poor. But ” “Strange, very strange,” exclaimed Mrs. Vera, with an astonished look. “ How does it come to pass, then, that these are poor and those are rich ? ” “ Now, you must know that the poor have nothing more than their ability to work, and this is unproductive by itself, whilst that which is necessary to make it productive be- longs to the rich. Consequently they have the right to. iio A VISIT TO FREELAND. require a share of the profits from the poor, because they afford them the means of working; and this share of tha profits which accumulates in their hands is that which makes them rich whilst the others must remain poor.” “Yes, I understand that, Professor. Those are poor because they have nothing, and these are rich because they have much. That is quite clear to me. But you must excuse the dull ideas of a woman who has left her beloved Europe in her earliest youth, and can no longer see her way exactly in its customs and principles of justice. Is it not true that the rich have the advantage over the poor in having the means of work, that is, fields and meadows, buildings, machinery, and tools? Has God made the fields and meadows in Europe only for the rich who have made houses, machines, and tools, because they are more prudent, and who now require payment for the use of all this by those people who, on account of their wickedness, have been prevented from possessing the earth, and who are, moreover, foolish enough to produce only the means of subsistence, and not the instruments of labor?” The Professor was now quite aware of what Mrs. Vera was trying to do with him, and therefore began to be vexed. “ What you say is altogether unscientific, my worthy lady,” he said. “ It has nothing to do with the matter in hand whether God makes a difference between the rich and the poor, and whether it is the poor who produced the appliances for work as well as the necessaries of life. Somebody must still possess the earth and the appliances for doing work, and that somebody is the rich.” “Professor, Professor!” said Mrs. Vera, who now laid aside her jesting mien, and looked full at Tenax with her large clear eyes. “You are moving in a vicious circle ; you explain bondage by poverty and poverty by bondage. If it is just that the workmen should not have the profit because they have none of the appliances for working with, and if they do not possess these because they must relinquish the profits, then one must think that it follows as a matter of course that the profit belongs to them if they possess the appliances for work, and that these belong to them if they .kbep the profits for themselves. Or has the thought of A VISIT TO FREELAND. Ill liberty and equal rights something so terrible to you that you must resist it in defiance of all logic ? The Professor became scarlet, and answered in almost a whisper, with lowered eyes, “ You must not judge an old man if he is reluctant to shake off convictions which he has received during the course of a whole life of study. Must I so easily determine to throw away as ridiculous what I, an old man, have commended to thousands and hundreds of thousands of youths as the quintessence of the highest wisdom ? The change comes upon me too suddenly. It is antagonistic to my ideas of the necessity of the organic historical evolution of all human things. One does not make a new order of society as a new machine is made in a workshop, and I cannot believe in this Freeland because it is a creation of art and the work of men who are united especially for the purpose of managing the matter so and not otherwise, whilst my experience of the world teaches me that only that which has been organically produced can be reasonable and lasting.” “This opinion is the only remaining entrenchment of your prejudice,” answered the young wife inflexibly. “ It is, of course, right that new social institutions should not be artificially made, but organically evolved, in order to be reasonable and lasting; but what instrument shall the genius of humanity use if it will change an antiquated form of society, which is on the point of falling to pieces, into a new form fit for existence, except mankind itself? Do you understand by the natural process of creation in the history of the evolution of the human race only such forms as are set in motion without the aid of mankind. Shall stupidity alone, which may produce thoughtlessness, and patiently bears what happens to-day because it is the same as what happened yesterday, shall that be the single privileged force in human history? I understand the theory of the necessity of the organic evolution of the new arrangement of society to mean that the new arrangement must be the natural and reasonable product of the changed condition of the existence of mankind. But this result must, notwithstanding, be brought to pass by men. It does not grow like the trees of the forest or the flowers of the 1 1 2 A VISIT TO FREELAND. meadow, any more than the institutions of the bourgeois world came into existence and were strengthened without the aid of mankind. Or perhaps you think that it is a necessary requisite of a prosperous new building up of society that it should be saturated with blood or rung in with the thunder of cannon ? Only resist for the future that which unbiased reflexion and sound manly reason demands trom you, and you will not escape a baptism of fire and blood in the bourgeois world. But we do not think what we have created to be less fit to survive because it was brought about by peaceful means, and if, in order to make this possible, we sought districts where wai/it of under- standing and evil wishes could not hinder us, we have only done what energetic and determined men have done for millenniums under the same circumstances, of which the foundation of the United States of North America stands recorded in history as the last grand example.” Professor Tenax had listened in deep silence to the last part of this severe lecture which was poured over his head. After a pause, he extended his hand to all of us, drew Mrs. Vera’s arm under his own, and we took the road to the railway station of the Upper Tana to get into the train which was going to Edendale. A VISIT TO FREELAND. ll 3 CHAPTER XII. FOUNDING A NEW COMPANY IN FREELAND. A NYONE who wishes to have land and capital from the State for carrying an undertaking into effect must make all his wishes and intentions known to the Central Bank, whether he is alone in the undertaking or has already formed partners. The Central Bank publishes the com- munication made to it, and thereupon calls a general assembly, in which everyone who is in any way interested in the undertaking takes part. A printed declaration was now issued, setting forth that an engineer who had lately arrived from America with some associates who had joined him, partly in America and partly in Freeland, asked six hundred thousand pounds sterling for the purpose -of founding a company for navigating the air. His idea was declared to be impracticable by various learned societies of Europe and America, and the governmental department of Freeland, which had to do with undertakings of public utility, together with the board of representatives belonging to it, had declined the project which had been laid before them. He was thereupon thrown on his own resources, and had published a detailed description of his invention, and invited those who, like himself, believed in the possibility of a practical realization of his plans, to join him. The matter interested me, as much because I wished to see how on this occasion the organization of Freeland would test the merits of an undertaking thus hazarded, as on account of its mechanical nature. Tne idea of the inventor was ingenious, but all its details A VISIT TO FREELAND. 1 14 were not quite dear to me, and in the face of the large amount demanded for the experiment, I found it quite intelligible that our government shunned the responsibility of granting such a sum from the funds of the state. On the other hand I did not think it more than just that an opportunity should be offered to the man for testing^ his ideas with the aid of public opinion, and I was determined to take part in the experiment myself. I found nearly two thousand persons present at the general meeting, and all of them had the right of voting by merely being present. Whilst there is no kind of difference at all the other assemblies between those who take part in them, it is a principle at those assemblies connected with founding new companies that those who wish to take upon themselves the risk of the scheme should expressly declare that they are ready to do so. Their vote does not on that account have greater weight than that of the other members of the general assembly, but this rule is necessary, that public opinion, which is interested in the subject, and which is represented by the other members of the general assembly, should determine what security for the credit demanded the State will get under all circumstances to cover the loss in case the undertaking should be abandoned before it has been put in working order or a sufficient number of people have joined it. For by section 6 of the statute relating to companies in Freeland, the loss is equitably divided among the members of every company according to the amount of profit which everyone gets. If an under- taking fails before its profits have been distributed, or if this distribution should have taken place among such a small number of persons that those who suffered loss were not in the condition to make compensation, the State would have found out to its vexation that the undertaking had not as a matter of fact been placed in working order at the expense of the enterprisers but at the expense of the community. Such a precaution is the more necessary, as it is a principle of getting credit in Freeland that no one can be bound to make a higher annual payment to the State on account of a loss of capital than corresponds to the value of an hour’s work done every day for a year. Or, in other words, a A VISIT TO FREELAND. 115 charge on account of a debt cannot be imposed upon any- one exceeding the value of a daily payment equal to the wages obtained for an hour’s work. Since the average value of an hour’s work amounts to five shillings at the present time, and there are two hundred and fifty working days in the year — the two months holidays and the public holidays being deducted from the three hundred and sixty days — the maximum payment on account to which an inhabitant of Freeland is liable for the loss of the capital which was lent to him amounts to sixty-two pounds ten shillings per annum. It is also necessary in founding a new company that a number of members corresponding to the capital demanded should declare at the commencement that they, will be responsible to the State for the repayment of the sums demanded, without regard to the question whether a loss arising later on may be paid or not through the shares in the profits which the members obtain. This responsibility is of course extinguished, just as their share of the loss is ex- tinguished, according to the meaning of section 6 of the statutes relating to companies, without charging any of those liable with more than the value of an hour’s work per diem for a year. Since it was a question in the present case concerning ^600,000, which ought to be liquidated in twenty years, ac- cording to the nature of the enterprise, 240 members had to declare themselves willing to join the undertaking in order that there might be full security for the sum required from the beginning. This did not, as a matter of fact, take place, only 85 persons came forward who either possessed so much confidence in the feasibility of the scheme or who felt so much enthusiasm for the ideas upon which it was founded as to expose themselves to the danger of being burdened with a compensation debt amounting to ^62 10s. per annum for twenty years. The undertaking also had numerous and energetic opponents in the assembly, and these proved that the plan was both practically and theo- retically absurd in every detail, and that it would be the most foolish waste of public money to expend it in realizing a chimera of that kind. “ If,” said the opponents, “240 n6 A VISIT TO FREELAND. fools had been found to spend their energy on the matter, one must, indeed, pity them, but could provide nothing against it, since it is naturally everyone’s right to do what he pleased with his own means. Since this had luckily not happened the inventor can not tempt the public with his chimera any more in the future.” I could not agree with this view of the matter in every detail in spite of the fact that it was defended by very able specialists. As I have already confessed, I was in some doubts as to the correctness of all the suppositions of the inventor, but I did not give the preference to the convincing demonstrations of those who opposed the scheme, and I remembered that it was a band of professors who compelled Galileo to retract, and had declared that Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat, was a fool. I was of the opinion that the magnificence of the idea was quite worthy of the attempt in such a rich State as Freeland, and felt myself so much the more strengthened in this idea when I saw that there were some men among the eighty-five part- ners of the inventor whose judgment in matters relating to aerial navigation was at least worthy of respect. I did not only join the founders, but when it came to a division I joined those who voted that, in spite of the absence of security for capital, the company should receive the credit it asked for ; and it was the majority that expressed itself of this opinion. The result of such a determination is, according to the laws of Freeland, that the matter should come next before the administration and the body of representatives who had to deal with matters of general utility, and it must be under- stood that this only happens when, as in the case before us, it is a question of founding a company which has not given full security for the amount of capital which it requires, otherwise the matter would have been finished with a decree of the general assembly obliging the Central Bank to grant the required credit immediately. But as the matter stands in this case, the chosen representatives of the State must explain the determination taken by the general assembly. If they agree to it, the founding is accomplished ; if they do not agree to it, the founders have the right to demand a A VISIT TO FREELAND. 117 fresh general assembly, in which public opinion gives its final judgment. The latter happened in the case before us. The body of representatives for affairs of public interest decided against granting the credit required in consequence of the opinion given to it by the administration, and a new general assembly was called. In the meantime the number of responsible partners of the inventor had augmented to 152, and the general assembly, consisting of 8,000 persons, ratified with an overpowering majority the decree of its pre- decessor. It was clear that the people of Freeland wished tQ risk something that such a magnificent discovery might be tested, and I will only mention here that the result was in accordance with the votes of the people. The idea of the inventor did not turn out to be as practical as he had supposed. His undertaking failed, but the experience obtained by making the attempt was so important and of such a decisive nature, that the same body of representatives which had wished to hinder the trial a few months before unanimously adopted a proposal to pay the whole costs and to continue the experiments already begun at the cost of the State, and the inventor, who was for a short time treated by his partners as a queer and insane fellow, was made director of these important experiments. Our friend Tenax, who was becoming more and more of a Freelander, and took part as much as possible in all public affairs, yet without ceasing his arguments against all Freeland arrangements, had been present with me at the second general assembly, and had voted eagerly against the inventor at the first and with him at the second. When I asked his motives for acting thus, he observed that he had originally considered the man to be only a swindler who wished to get ,£600,000 out of the Central Bank, and then abscond. “ For that,” he exclaimed, “ is one of the sore points of your credit system. You have considered everything except that there are rascals in the world, and these I would obstruct as much as possible.” “ Be tranquil, Professor,” I said consolingly to the old gentleman. “ Rascals have nothing to do with our bank.” “Oho!” exclaimed Professor Tenax; “does not every- 1 18 A VISIT TO FREELAND. one here get money in what quantities and for what pur- poses he requires it without the Central Bank having the right to see how the debtor spends the money ? ” “Under all circumstances, my worthy friend, everyone gets, as you have just had an opportunity of seeing, only so much credit as he can reasonably pay back. If he asks for more, our administration has the right to examine his pur- pose more minutely, and the person concerned must behave in a very crafty manner if he can thoroughly deceive the administration as well as the public. If anyone wishes for a greater sum, he must seek for partners, and besides, every- one has the right to become his partner in all cases. r ihese partners w r atch over him, examine everything he does, place colleagues by his side in the management, which is in itself enough to thwart the criminal plans of an individual. But let us suppose a case in which some one founds a whole gang of swindlers, and that the 152, for example, who have joined the inventor, are polished and refined rogues. But of what advantage is this to them ? They have now a credit amounting to ^600,000, but for what purpose can they use it, and in what manner ? Do you believe that the Central Bank pays them ^600,000 over the counter ? The Central Bank will pay the building company that is going to erect the factories for the air navigation company and the machine factories which will provide the outfit. Where is there any opportunity for fraud ? I admit that they may perhaps give orders for machines in a foreign country, and by this means, through underhand dealings with dishonest manufacturers, could secretly commit some fraud of this kind. But they would scarcely be able to do this even if they used the greatest secrecy, without incurring public suspicion, which would naturally put a speedy end to their game without any interference on the part of the State. But let us look into the nature of the whole affair. If we suppose that they managed it in such a sly manner that no one discovered their tricks in spite of the fact that they had purloined a considerable part of the credit — from whom do they purloin it ? Only from themselves ; they will not be able to steal more than the amount for which they are answerable. Or perhaps you think that the swindlers, if they have made a A VISIT TO FREELAND. TI 9 good haul, could abscond, in which case the State would have to bear the loss in spite of responsibility of the enter- prisers ? Do you think that there could possibly be any men who are insane enough to leave Freeland and to hand themselves over to life in the rest of the world for the sake of so much gain ? The matter resolves itself into a simple example in arithmetic. What can people steal here ? At the most the value of an hour’s work a day ; and would they for that renounce the value of five or six hours of work a day? For since they leave Freeland they have altogether lost this value, or, at least, reduced it to that measure of misery which is the lot of workmen in the rest of the world. Men who could do this would not be cunning, but blockheads, and such are not dangerous, at least as im- postors. But I deny that even the worst blockhead, as long as there is only a spark of humanity remaining in him, would exchange the prison air of the bourgeois world for the free atmosphere of Freeland at whatever price the latter were to be had.” “ Now do not excite yourself again,” said Professor Tenax benevolently. “ If it pleases you, I admit that my fears for this tendency have been excessive. The gentlemen of the Aerial Navigation Company are not swindlers, but, nevertheless, they are quite unpractical people. Remember that I am still a professor and have never had anything to do with business myself, but to enter into such a danger as did the 152, and in doing so not to reserve the smallest benefit for myself, and to hold open to all the world the right to take part equally in the project which I have made possible by staking my means, would not be to my taste. I will also observe, besides, that I do not think that there is any evidence of the love of justice prevailing here when one looks upon such a division of risk and gain as something which follows as a matter of course.” “ I can also set you at ease upon this point,” I replied. “ Have you not perceived that that section of the statutes relating to companies, in which the additional payments made to older members are generally mentioned, was left vacant in the parallel statute of the Aerial Navigation Company ? ” 120 A VISIT TO FREELAND. “ Of course I have, and that is exactly what I find so thoroughly foolish. They renounce the insignificant additional payment which the older members of the com- pany enjoy everywhere, whilst I would arrange that here, where so much risk is connected with the undertaking, the first enterprisers should have a greater advantage than the additional payments made on account of age in other companies. ” “ That is what we promoters of the Aerial Navigation Company think, and we have on that account left the point unsettled. We do not yet know what we ought to demand, and have therefore thought it best to be silent about this for a time. If the undertaking succeeds, a decision is given on the importance and amount of the right of making an additional payment contained in one of the statutes, and then we promoters come forward with our claims.” “And do you call that practical and reasonable? This general assembly which met to-day, at which there was no one except the promoters who would actually take part in the undertaking, would vote for any additional payment on account of age that you liked to ask for. After the space of a year, if the undertaking has succeeded by that time, and if it is proved that thousands of workmen find profitable work here, it is then, at any rate, very imprudent to negotiate with those workmen as to the amount granted when they grant anything to the first 152 at their own cost.” “ This question has also taken me some moments to con- sider, but the answer lies tolerably near. On the one hand it would have been no advantage to us projectors if the first general assembly, which established the company, had granted us some additional payment, because every subsequent assembly can revoke it. On the other hand, we need not fear that later general assemblies, in which the members have the power of deciding, will cut us short in what public opinion thinks to be a suitable recompense, because in that case the power of joining any company that one pleases assists us. Thousands have been found here who help to establish a company in which they are interested at the first opportunity which is offered, and in the same manner thousands would certainly he ready later on to take A VISIT TO FREELAND. I 2 1 their part in a general assembly where the just claims of persons who by staking their means have rendered possible the realization of an idea which is advantageous to every- one might be undervalued. Suppose that the flying machines about to. be made have actually succeeded in principle, but are yet so formed that they will not be of much practical use, the remuneration of the promoters will remain an insignificant amount, and even a proportionately higher additional payment will not bring in much. Or, supposing the reverse case, that tens of thousands of work- men are necessary to supply the demand for this flying apparatus, not only in Freeland but in the whole world, then an insignificant additional payment would have an enormous value. Let us now suppose the case that anyone, reckoning on a moderate sale, would at this present time consider an additional payment of ten pro cent, to the projectors through, let us say, twenty years, to be just, and it was then proved that this additional payment of ten pro cent., instead of bringing in a few hundred pounds a year, reaches tens of thousands of pounds a year, do you believe that it would be just to reward these 152 persons with ^10,000 a year, because, even if the matter came to the worst, they only risked ^62 10s. a year? It would be quite as unjust if, in the converse case, one had fixed that this additional payment should be very moderate on the supposition that the sale would be very great, and then it turned out that it is in reality a beggarly amount which is quite out of all proportion to the risk undertaken. We projectors do very well in relying on public opinion, and we shall receive in all cases what it thinks to be just.” 122 A VISIT TO FREELAND. CHAPTER XIII. THE CONSTITUTION AND TAXATION OF FREELAND^ 'J'HE various bodies of representatives are chosen in September. The government of Freeland is so consti- tuted that every branch of the public service meets in one of the principal central places. But the various branches of the administration work quite independently of one another, and are not under the superintendence of a single, but of separate representative bodies. There are twelve such branches of the administration which attend to the following departments of public service : — 1. — The Presidency. 2. — Pensions. 3. — Education. 4. — Art and Science. 5. — Statistics. 6. — Roads and Means of Communication. 7 . — Post and Telegraph. 8. — Foreign Affairs. 9. — The Warehouse. 10. — The Central Bank. 11. — Undertakings of General Utility. 12. — Health and Justice. Speaking generally, there are twelve principal executive departments with a director at the head of each, and twelve bodies of representatives from which the directors are chosen who in their turn nominate the subordinate officials. Every inhabitant of Freeland, whether man or woman, A VISIT TO FREELAND. I2£ who is of full age, has the right of voting for all the repre- sentative bodies, but only a few make use of this right in the case of all the representative bodies, for most people only vote for those in which they are interested and which they think they understand. Women, for example, do not, as a rule, trouble themselves much about voting for directors of the Warehouse, the Central Bank, the road making and means of communication, the post and telegraph depart- ments, whilst, for example, they generally give the prepon- derating votes in matters connected with education. People do not guide their actions here upon the principle that it is everyone’s duty to trouble about public matters, but only about those in which he is interested or which he under- stands. It is thought to be unbecoming to hold aloof from public life, but just as unbecoming to mix oneself up in matters which one does not understand. The result of this is that all public matters are in the hands of able men, and that almost everywhere those give the preponderating votes who are most interested in the matters in question. That would be a great misfortune if it were the case in the rest of the world, for since everyone there strives and must strive to seek his own advantage at the expense of others, such a division of power as this would mean that the public would be handed over in a defenceless condition to those who wish for plunder and are at all able to enrich themselves at its expense. Just imagine in a European State the manufacturers possessing the power of making and watching over the observance of laws regarding manu- facturers, the agriculturalists regarding agriculture, and bankers regarding the banking business without having any reason to fear the opposition of those who are not directly concerned in these matters ! Here in Freeland such desire for plunder is quite inconceivable. Of what advantage would it be, for example, to manufacturing or agricultural companies in Freeland if they increased the price of their goods by protective duties? By doing this they would have made production difficult for others, and have turned labor from branches of industry which naturally afforded the greatest amount of production to those which afforded less without being able to keep the special advantage of the pro- T 24 A VISIT TO FREELAND. tected produce for themselves. Since everyone’s advantage must be the same as that of everyone else, the protection of the common advantage in every matter can be handed over to those who understand best what is their advantage on any occasion that may arise, and such people are naturally those who are immediately interested in the matter in question. Let us suppose, for instance, the case in which the building of a new railway in Europe is being discussed. Would it be possible there to make the building of this depend on the opinion of those whose lands and factories will be close to the new line ? They would vote for building the line even if the advantages which the State gets from it under no circum- stances corresponded to the cost, as long as the increased expense which they themselves suffer from building this railway does not exceed the increased advantage. In Free- land, on the contrary, those who are not interested in an immediate manner could not wish that a railway should be made which gives less profit to the State than it costs, because here the profits and costs are equally divided among the citizens, to everyone according to the amount of work which he does, and the single difference between those whom it principally profits, and the rest of the inhabi- tants of Freeland, only consists in this, that the first are in the best position for deciding upon and estimating the advantage of the enterprise in question. Hence it follows that at the elections here there can never be a desire to help a certain political party to victory, but only to choose men who thoroughly understand the matter in hand. There can, therefore, be differences of opinion concerning the abilities of the various candidates for a vacant office, but never oppositions of interests or party fights. It also happens in Freeland that one person thinks advantageous what another thinks injurious, but it is always concerning what is good for both that these differences of opinion arise, and both parties must therefore always agree in wishing to put the decision into the hands of those who are the most prudent and well-informed and who under- stand the subject better than others. The exercise of the right of voting in Freeland is not made conditional upon a long residence there. I was A VISIT TO FREELAND. 12 $ already a voter although I had not yet been quite four months in the country. But since the candidates for the other representative bodies were still unknown to me on account of my recent arrival, I limited myself to voting for the candidates for the departments connected with making roads and other means of communication, and that for undertakings of public utility, because I was acquainted with them. I will mention in passing that the first body of representatives has 120 and the latter 146 members, for the twelve bodies of representatives generally vary in the number of members of which they are composed. They all hold their sittings apart from one another, and their sessions are not all of the same duration. The twelve chiefs of the representative bodies consult together on the more important matters, but they each represent the assemblies to which they belong, yet these also have the right to demand general consultations, which generally happens if one body of representatives is interested in matters which are being discussed by another. Since the constant wish of any body of representatives is always in favor of such a common course of action as subjects the matter in question to the unanimous decision of both or all of those interested, if there should happen to be more bodies of representatives who express such a wish with relation to the same matter, quarrels between the leader’s of representa- tives about encroaching upon one another’s rights are unknown. The presidential body decides questions which may arise upon this point. It will strike the foreigner with regard to the administrative department of Freeland that those two great sources of expense to governments which, in Europe, claim the greatest energy and attention of the State, namely, the finance and military departments, do not appear to be represented at all. As regards the ministers of finance, of which there are none in Freeland, their place is supplied by the Central Bank in the most effective manner. It is this institution which has the incomes of all the inhabitants of the land in its own hands ; therefore no tax collectors are required to collect the taxes. It is sufficient with regard to this matter if the Central Bank debits the taxes to the ratepayers and credits them to the State. 126 A VISIT TO FREELAND. The absence of a war office must not be explained by supposing that Freeland takes no military precautions for making it secure from attack from without. The inhabitants of Freeland have now an army, and, as I believe, a fine one, in spite of the fact that the population does not exceed two and a half millions, a very formidable army, which could easily destroy even the mightiest enemy which might attempt to seize their country. It is not the war depart- ment, but, strange as it may appear to foreigners, the education department which has to do with the army. The improvement of every kind of physical fitness, and with it skill in the use of arms, has a prominent place in the education of youths with us as among the ancient Greeks. Beginning at the intermediate schools, the boys and girls of Freeland are exercised daily in magnificent gymnasia, built especially for this purpose, in gymnastics, swimming, riding, boxing, and shooting, for at least two hours, and the youths of the technical high schools are exercised in serving artillery. If the reader now remembers that there are no proletariate here, who are enervated and de- generated, but that every youth of Freeland can develope the full powers of all his faculties, mental as well as physical, and pictures to himself to what perfection such a Tace would attain on account of its system of practising from youth upwards, he will believe me if I assure him that the marksmen, troopers, and artillerymen which these schools turn out are superior to those of the best European armies in the same measure as the youths of the Gteek gymnasia were superior to the barbarian hordes of Persia. I naturally had no opportunity of seeing the inhabitants of Freeland in a real battle, for the State had hitherto been relieved from the necessity of engaging in wars, but I saw them at their sham fights, where, as a rule, they shoot with rapid loading at targets which are ingeniously made and are generally movable. I could also observe the effect of single discharges and volleys, and I boldly hazard the assertion that no European troops could stand against such fire even for a few minutes. The youths who are too old for school possess a volunteer organization which is conducted by leaders chosen by A VISIT TO FREELAND. T27 themselves, and these hold great divisional and general maneuvers every year, in which single warriors and whole battalions, amounting to a thousand, contend for various prizes. These consist in nothing else than simple branches of laurel which are not on that account less eagerly sought for than the olive branch at the Isthmian games of the old Greeks. I witnessed such a fight, and declare that the victorious thousand to which the prize was awarded received it for making 6780 hits with ten volleys delivered in one minute at the distance of a thousand meters. I know quite well that there is a difference between shooting at defenceless wooden targets, which, I may remark in passing,* were exactly of the size of a man, and at an enemy which returns the fire. But neither is it necessary that a thousand men should shoot down six or seven times as many to make themselves absolutely unapproachable by every human enemy. And if anyone thinks that the result is incredible, he may also consider that in the course of history up to the present time the fully-developed man has always snatched away the victory from degenerated slaves, even if the proportion of numbers was as unequal as this. It was not the military genius of Miltiades that decided the day at Marathon, nor that of Pausanius at Plataeae, but the invincible dexterity in the use of weapons which the Greeks who had been brought up in the gymnasia of Athens and Sparta possessed against the helpless hordes of Asiatic slaves. What wonder is there if the youths of the gymnasia of Freeland would now oppose a similar superiority to those hordes which the rest of the world might send against them. I have yet to explain why the superintendence of health and justice is given to the same' body of representatives. In the first place, this shows a small estimation for the care of justice, which is put down everywhere in the rest of the world as the principle of social order, and as such thought worthy of special care. The differences lie in the fact that in this country justice lies in the general organization, and that one does not accordingly find it necessary to enforce it by special mechanism. The bourgeois world, which rests on injustice, since it compels nine-tenths of its men to sacrifice their own advantage, or what they hold to be such, 128 A VISIT TO FREELAND. to that of the State, must naturally devise minute pro- visions in order that it may thus subject to the command of the State those compelled to abandon their own advantage. No one in Freeland is compelled to do what is to his dis- advantage, or to abandon anything which is beneficial to him ; here the advantage of the State stands in perfect harmony with everyone’s peculiar interests, and it is superfluous to defend these interests of the State, surrounded by the insurmountable wall of general self-interest, through special safeguards. We also have absolutely no police here, and no courts in the European sense of the word. Disputes occur occasionally, but these are settled by arbitrators who exercise their office voluntarily and gratis. There are also criminals in Freeland, but we generally look at these as mentally or morally ill, and deal with them as such, that is, we do not punish them, but seek to improve them. And it is physicians and not judges to whose care the conduct and superintendence of the process of improvement is entrusted. The latter is the reason why the administration of justice goes hand in hand with the superintendence of health. For this reason it must be perceived that such dealing with those who are mentally or morally ill gives little trouble in Freeland, since there are proportionately only a few who must be submitted to it. There is nothing wonderful in this ; the inhabitants of Freeland are a long way off being angels. It is indeed to be hoped in a not too remote period, and at any rate after the course of some generations, that the want of almost all pro- vocation to actions at law will call forth a beneficial change both in the disposition and in the nature of the people. Just in the same way as organs of the body which are not con- tinually used must wear away, the same is the case with the organs of the soul’s existence. Even the worst man, in so far at least as he is in a sane state of mind, does not do evil without a cause, and even the best man can commit a crime, if the provocation to do this becomes too powerful ; but it is not on that account less true that good as well as evil actions have an influence on the character of a man ; evil actions make him evil, and good actions good. It is to be expected that the men of this country, where A VISIT TO FREELAND. T29 there is no cause to do evil, must always become better and better. But a long space of time will have to elapse before this improvement in the disposition of character is accom- plished, and sometimes, I repeat, I cannot acknowledge that the inhabitants of Freeland are better men according to their innermost hearts, than our fellow men in other countries. Nevertheless, I maintain that the very rare occurrence of crime here is nothing wonderful. Do the inhabitants of foreign 1 countries murder, steal, and commit fraud out of pure villainy, and because it pleases them to do so ? They do it, at least ninety-nine times out of a hundred only from necessity or temptation. Now, there is no necessity or temptation here, and, therefore there is no cause for ninety-nine* crimes out of a hundred which are committed abroad, and that is the reason why they are not committed here. This absence of necessity and temptation is of course not to be understood as if the difference between Freeland and foteign countries only consisted in the fact that the people here are satisfied, whilst there they are hungry. Even the satisfied people in the rest of the world commit enough crimes — not so frequently, however, as the hungry — but they do it because they find themselves as it were in a continual state of war with all their fellow men, and because one is naturally not so exact about right and wrong in war as in peace and among good comrades. It is well- known that there is a kind of honor amongst the most abandoned, and amongst the swindlers and bandits of the bourgeois world, which is nothing else than the aversion to injure? anyone who they think is unwilling to hurt them, and who is therefore confident that they will respect his right. If the inhabitants of Freeland also respect each other’s rights without exception, one could almost maintain that in this point they do almost nothing else than what, without regarding diminishing exceptions, the most abandoned in Europe do in similar circumstances, they spare their confederates. And the difference only lies in the fact that the inhabitants of Freeland are all confederates, whilst those belonging to the rest of the world, as a general rule, look upon and treat each other as enemies. 130 A VISIT TO FREELAND. After I had given my vote for the two elections which interested me, I determined, being conducted by Charles, to take a view of the other voting places which were in the same building, namely, the People’s Palace, in order that I might observe what happened in them. When we entered the session hall of the body of repre- sentatives for the Central Bank of Freeland, where the assembly of this particular elective body used to meet, angry cries met us, and we perceived that the crowd was collected around an orator whose performances evidently called forth this disturbance. On approaching nearer, we saw our friend Tenax, who, as I should mention, had told us a few days before that he intended, in spite of the mani- fold crimes of the commonwealth of Freeland, to settle down altogether in our midst, and he was here publicly making his first attempt to contribute his mite for the im- provement of one of these shortcomings. As such he was exposing to his temporary hearers, as we were soon con- vinced, the exorbitant amount of the taxes of Freeland. “ Freeland,” he exclaimed “desires to know nothing of ground rent and interest on capital, but if you have to pay a tax of thirty-five pro cent, on your income, rent and interest are included in it, and you are in a worse plight in this respect than the people abroad, who do not on the average have to pay more than from four to five pro cent, under both heads, and for both together, if they reach high amounts, ten pro cent.” To the great surprise of our professor, this striking argu- ment altogether failed to have its expected effect, but rather occasioned hilarity. A few of the members of the as&mbly did indeed desire to take the matter tragically, and to worry themselves about the affirmation of our friend, but it was some of those who had very lately arrived from abroad, and they were soon quieted by the majority of the old inhabitants, who explained to them that everyone must be permitted to express his opinion freely here. When the Professor perceived the unexpectedy poor results of his speech, his embarrasment was so great that one of those present, apparently with the intention of sparing their strange guest the abashment caused by no one’s thinking his explanation worth answering, replied in a short speech. A VISIT TO FREELAND. * 3 * “ Friends,” he said, “ this man evidently has quite honest intentions towards us, and it is not is not his fault if, with his head yet full of the confusions which are bred in the outer world, he cannot tell black from white in the country. Perhaps his eyes will open if I remind him of two things. Firstly, that in foreign countries ground rent and interest on capital are paid out of the amount of the capital, whilst here the tax is taken out of the incpme. I have worked in a factory in a foreign country, and I perfectly remember that the five pro cent, interest on the capital employed in it amounted on an average during a year to exactly as much as all the wages of the workmen, managers, and overseers employed there. My father also was the head servant of a farmer who had to pay annually twice as much farm rent as the total amount of wages which he paid. The second thing that I would say to him, and that in my opinion is the principal point, is that the interest in foreign countries belongs to other people, and is spent by them for their advantage, whilst the taxes in Freeland belong to us, and are spent up to the last farthing for our benefit. It does not only concern me how much I pay, but also from what and for what I pay it. When I was abroad, I was a poor wretch who must part with the last and much needed farth- ing in order to enrich others ; here I am a rich man who pays so that he may become yet more rich. And our new friend has actually forgotten this difference.” Only he can measure the abashment of our good Pro- fessor who knows how much the instruction they give from the chair, and which therefore may not be called in question, has become second nature to most teachers. He unmis- takably received the reproof contained in the lecture im- parted to him into his inmost mind : so we did not disturb him when, without taking leave of us, he silently lost him- self in the crowd. 132 A VISIT TO FREELAND. CHAPTER XIV. SOCIETY, LOVE AND RELIGION IN FREELAND. 'P'HE two rainy seasons, the longer of which ends in July and the shorter in October, are festivals in Freeland. It must not be supposed that these rainy seasons are periods during which rain is always pouring down any more than that the dry seasons are periods of uninterrupted drought. There is rain in Africa during the whole of the year as well as fine weather, but in the rainy seasons there is more rain, and in the dry seasons less, than at ordinary times. However, the contrast prevails to the fullest extent only in the equatorial lowlands, whilst the mountainous and alpine regions of Kenia and its immediate neighborhood have similar climatic conditions to those of the temperate zone. But whilst copious showers fall almost daily during bgth periods, there is also regularity even in this. The mornings are generally clear and fine, but towards the afternoon thicker and thicker clouds collect about the summit of Kenia and descend in the form of thunderstorms during the evening and generally half of the night, and Europeans hardly have any idea of their violence. The nights during this period are totally unfit for remaining in the open air, and the Freelanders have to arrange their pleasures accordingly. Whilst it is customary to use the balmy nights of the fine weather, as far as they are not devoted to sleep, for excursions and all other kinds of amusements in the open air, the people generally amuse themselves during the rainy weather A VISIT TO FREELAND. 133 in covered halls, and in these dancing holds a prominent position. Every place in Freeland has one or several committees of amusements which arrange public balls, and families which have grown-up daughters regularly meet at these in friendly circles for the pleasure of dancing. But it must not by any means be imagined that these public and private balls are the same as those of Europe. People do not assemble here to rival one another in dress and to calumniate one another, but exclusively for the sake of pleasure and without any other designs. Jewels are unknown here, not perhaps because the men and women of Freeland are altogether without vanity ; on the contrary, they value beauty and outside appearance, and the women especially take a good deal of trouble to show off their personal charms advantageously. The inhabitants of Freeland are not in want of the means of manufacturing all kinds of jewels, but they value them little, because the expense of the articles is not in itself sufficient to make them of any more value. It may seem strange, but the Freelanders prefer flowers to jewels as ornaments. At first I conjectured that there was some democratic tendency underlying this, but women with whom I conversed on this subject soon taught me something better. Everyone will admit that from an impartial esthetical point of view flowers are more beautiful than artistic and costly jewels. If, in spite of this, the latter are valued more highly in Europe, it is because they are more costly, and the possession of costly things gives their owner the credit in the bourgeois world of having a high station in life. A jewel is a kind of patent of nobility there and shows that its wearer is not a servant, but a master, and that he has the right of using the work of others for his own advantage, and therefore of selling the happiness and honor of thousands upon thousands to obtain his own title to nobility. “ Do you really believe,” said the wife of a director of our factory at one of the Edendale balls, “ that diamonds are valued highly because they are pretty ? I can assure you that when I was in Europe, I could tell the difference J 34 A VISIT TO FREELAND. between diamonds and cut glass as little as I can now. But in spite of this, I longed to possess a diamond necklace,, whilst I rejected the idea of wearing a necklace of cut-glass with indignation.” “ How do you explain that ? ” I asked. “ I wished less to deck myself out than to be dis- tinguished from other people in some manner. I am quite convinced that if it was the privilege of the upper classes of Europe to wear a nose ring, those women who value a place in society would strive their utmost to obtain the right of wearing one. Now, it is the privilege of the powerful and influential classes of Europe to wear diamonds, because they are dear, and therefore one buys them instead of things which are far more pleasing, useful, and pretty. And if it were just the same thing here, I assure you that I would even wear diamonds here, in spite of the many changes which have taken place in my views and habits. But in Freeland a diamond would not show that I belong to the more influential and powerful classes, but to the more foolish, not that I may employ the labor of others in satisfying my own caprices, but that I employ my own for producing useless and unimportant things instead of those which are useful and agreeable. I should excite pity instead of envy, and that alone you see — that I do not make myself out to be better than I really am- -is the reason why I prefer in this country the bouquet in my breast to the most costly brooch, and the roses in my hair to all the stones in the world.” Fashion has lost its tyrannical sway in Freeland for exactly the same reason. Clothes are worn here solely for •the two-fold purpose of veiling and embellishing the person. Disfiguring oneself and thereby out-doing others is here considered to be the summit of folly. As a matter of fact, dress in this country, and especially that of women, is extremely beautiful in consequence of the observance of this principle. Very great care is expended upon it, and, as I have learnt, even great painters and sculptors do not disdain to dabble a little in the business of the costumier. But as expense is never a matter of consideration in choosing the material, or newness or rarity in fixing upon the cut, but A VISIT TO FREELAND. 135 only excellence of dress, the impression which such a ball- room in Freeland makes when filled with the gracefully moving self-possessed and noble figures can hardly be expressed in words. But what gives its especial charm to the society of Free- land is the frank childlike joy that beams upon one from every face. One lives here not only among sincere peop e, who are in a prosperous condition, but, what is more, among people who can reckon with absolute security on the continuation of their prosperous condition. The people of Freeland are not absorbed in the struggle for existence, and everyone here is himself responsible for the greater or less amount of his prosperity. The hateful tormenting anxiety about one’s daily bread and the security of economic existence is quite unknown to the inhabitants of Freeland. It is even possible that the company with which one is connected does not do much business and must be dissolved ; this may cause loss, but never endanger future prosperity, for it is the inalienable right of every Free : lander to make use of the immeasurable riches of the whole country. This pleasant assurance, together with the consciousness that, wherever one may be, he always finds himself among mates, whose advantage is his ad- vantage, and whose detriment is his detriment, gives to the society of this country a sincerity, cordiality, and in particular a security the equal of which is not to be found elsewhere in the world, for there men do not fight with one another for existence but against one another, and there one’s neighbor is not one’s comrade in the general war against nature, but the enemy against whom self-preservation compels people to defend themselves with all the weapons of cunning and violence. The idea which is current in Freeland with regard to this difference between social matters here and in the rest of the world is characteristic. “ What would you have ? ” said a Freelander to me the other day with whom I discussed this subject. “ We are not better than animals, not even than beasts of prey, but have only ceased to devour one another as those who live in the bourgeois world do, and have returned to the morals of beasts. You will 136 A VISIT TO FREELAND. say that the tiger eats the ox, and the wolf the lamb. We also do that, but we spare one another. We have not become super-human beings. The truth is that formerly we ranked below the brutes, or, if it sounds less objection- able to you, among the worst of all the brutes.” Since the relations between men are generally so elevating here, it delights me to describe the relations between the two sexes. Nature has planted in every man whose disposition is perfectly sound, a deeply-rooted and mighty pleasure in women, as the highest of all instincts, and in every woman of sound disposition a similar pleasure in man ; but in bourgeois society this powerful instinct is poisoned. Woman is sentenced to be subjected to man, and man must on his part fear in woman a rebellious slave. The maiden who lives away from Freeland is compelled by circumstances to attract by means of her charms a “ supporter” who must make good to her what society promises her, and in her fellow women sees competitors in this unpleasant struggle for future existence. Candor and dignity are consequently excluded in the relations between man and woman just in that first stage where they should be doubly necessary in making choice for the whole future of one’s life and where both parties should appear as they really are to prevent them both from suffering any harm. And what is worse still is that in the rest of the world a maiden looks upon a man in the first place as her future supporter, and con- sequently as a prize to be captured, while conversely every man looks upon every maiden principally as a possible claimant to his future support, and therefore, as a man- hunter trying to capture and out-wit him. Thus there really exists an everlasting condition of distrust, hypocrisy, and suspicion between both sexes. All that is quite different in Freeland. Here man is to woman and woman to man nothing more than what nature has appointed them to be ; a woman stands secure on her own right, she does not need a husband to live, but to love, and will, therefore, only endeavor to conquer where her heart is already conquered itself, or at least longs to be conquered. Men know that, and can give themselves up to the tender passion when they feel inclined to without distrust. Since A VISIT TO FREELAND. 137 they are not used, they can be quite sure of not being abused, and since a Freeland maiden is, in the same manner, quite sure that the man who woos her is thinking about her person alone, and not about her means, connexions, or position in society, she will distrust her suitor just as little as he provokes her distrust. And, above all, she does not marry for a price ; she does not look upon her suitor as her future supporter, she knows quite well that among the thousands of young men whom she meets, only one can be the chosen one, and she, therefore, waits with tranquillity until the voice of her heart points this chosen one out to her. The relations between the sexes are consequently free from restraint, and therefore quite sincere, and young men and maidens have intercourse with one another simply as companions. But they especially strive after truth and happiness, which in certain relations even exceed the amount customary in Freeland. Marriages in Freeland are not less natural and happy. The married state is, as a matter of fact, extremely steadfast here, and separations hardly ever occur, although marrage, from a legal point of view, rests solely on the free agreement of the parties. Since, as a universal rule, one cannot be compelled to do any- thing in Freeland which encroaches upon another’s rights, and since no right to the person of another is recognized under any circumstances, marriage is considered to be a free con- tract, which is only made by the agreement of both parties, but which can be immediately dissolved at the wish of one party. There is not even any exception to this rule if there are children from the marriage, for in this case they belong to the mother, unless she agrees to any other arrangement. Since children, for whose protection alone the foolish marriage laws of the rest of the world have been made, are in Freeland either not obliged to be maintained by their parents, or are so only to a small extent, this recognition of the natural right of the mother follows as a matter of course. And it i$ just as self-evident that this perfect abolition of all compulsion in marriage causes as a matter of fact an unusual steadfastness of marriage in Freeland. This also entirely corresponds to the experience of the rest of the world, where the constancy of the matrimonial tie stands A VISIT TO FREELAND. everywhere in inverse, and the frequency of divorce in direct, proportion to the difficulties with which the law invests divorce. There are no differences of rank in the society of Free- land. This is especially the case with young people who have received their education in this country. Boys and girls are educated together, and receive the same education (which nearly resembles that of the best German middle schools), the former until they are eighteen years old, and the latter until they are sixteen years old. Classics are only taught to those who wish it ; in other respects the •whole of the youth of Freeland receives a thorough grammar- school education. As soon as this step in their education is finished, they separate to their various professions. Those who devote themselves to higher branches of learning or art go the Universities or to the Academy of Arts, and the others go to the various technological institutes where they receive theoretical and practical instruction in their future crafts. The natural result of this training is that the simplest workman is not only acquainted with the whole working of his trade, from mechanical dexterity to the knowledge of markets and the fluctuation of business, but also possesses a very considerable amount of general culture. These workmen of Freeland are no unthinking, narrow-minded automata, who have no interest in anything but the occupation in which they happen to be engaged. They are always able to criticize the whole of the profes- sional body to which they belong, and this naturally con- tributes to make the choices of the general assembly wise and reasonable. Besides, they can always utilize a favor- able opportunity offered by a business of the same kind as that in which they are engaged, by transferring their labor to it, and this again helps to guarantee the equality of pro- duction in all branches of industry in the most perfect manner possible. Finally, they are all cultivated men in the highest sense of the word, and can take part in all human affairs, and show acute understanding of and a lively interest in art, learning, and public life. It does not, of course, follow from this that every workman in Freeland really troubles himself about all the concerns of mankind. A VISIT TO FREELAND. x 39' There are many among them who are just as indifferent to what does not touch their own interest as numerous people belonging to the learned professions, for participation in the general culture of mankind does not only depend upon the amount of knowledge, but also on personal dispositions and plans, for where the latter are wanting the former is of no use. It must only be said that the difference of pro- fession in Freeland is not decisive on this point Just as natural is it that in Freeland every honorable kind of work should be equally esteemed by public, opinion. The same thing is usually said in the rest of the world, but it is nothing else than one of the many lies with which the people there are deceived. The bourgeois world generally considers it a disgrace to work ; and rightly so, too, for there the workman is usually a bondman, a tool for the purposes of others, and dependent upon their will, or, in a word, a slave, and no moral law will make the honor of a slave equal to that of a free and independent man. There are indeed, naturally, various modifications of the ignominy of work in the outside world. The more perfect the wearing out to which the workman is subject, that is, the greater the suffering and the less the pay, the more complete is the disdain. Only those enjoy perfect honor in the outside world who do not work at all, but who let others work for them. Here, where everyone works for himself, and where no one can be misused as a means foj: the purpose of others, it cannot make any difference whXfcier the workman follows these independent purposes of his in one or the other manner. But this is absolutely impossible in Free- land, because no hard and fast distinction can be drawn between the different professions. The simplest handi- craftsman can be advanced to-morrow to the rank of those who work with their brains if he is called to a leading position by the confidence of his comrades. But, besides that, a continual changing takes place from brainwork to handwork, and vice versa , because numerous brainworkers prefer to perform some kind of handwork at certain inter- vals for longer or shorter periods of time. They do not in the least prejudice themselves by doing this, and get thereby a healthy and, under all circumstances, even agree- 140 A VISIT TO FREELAND. able interruption of their sedentary mode of life. I have lately become acquainted with one of the upper officials of the Central Bank, who annually devotes himself to two months of agriculture and gardening. A teacher of my acquaintance works at a factory for some weeks every year. So common is this custom in the whole of Freeland that all offices and bureaus are organized with regard to it, that is, are arranged so that permission can be given to a large number of the employees to make such a temporary change in their profession. It follows, of course, that wages cease during such leave. The result of this is that differences of profession are not noticed in social intercourse here. A man chooses his associates solely according to their personal qualities, and if it is also natural that those of similar intellectual talents, disposition, and interests prefer one another’s company, this has nothing in the least to do with what is called in Europe social position. Sometimes, of course, the addition of new immigrants who are partly on a lower grade of intellectual development disturbs this general social equality, but this difference decreases gradually every year. The immigrants, with a decreasing small exception, eagerly wish to elevate them- selves intellectually, and the welfare as well as the ease which without exception fall to their lot enable them to recover the neglected years of their slavery in a surprisingly short time. Besides, the rising youth which has grown up in Freeland preponderates over the immigrants who are not yet completely absorbed by the State, and it may be safely reckoned that before a generation has passed the equality of rights which already prevails will be completed by a perfect social equality. In conclusion I will add a few words on the religion of Freeland. This also stands under the influence of the principle of absolute personal liberty and equality of rights. The State presumes just as little to trouble itself about the belief of individuals as it does to direct and watch over their work. As a matter of fact all the great religions have adherents in Freeland, and numbers of them have united themselves into ecclesiastical societies which worship A VISIT TO FREELAND. 141 God according to the dictates of their conscience. The universal culture and enlightenment offer more than suffi- cient protection against the ministers of the various reli- gions mixing themselves up with the political and social affairs of the State. It must be acknowledged with pride that in other things the priests of this country are without exception free from that desire for power which is the pro- minent characteristic of their caste in the rest of the world. They are also men who do not forsake the current of thought in the midst of which they perform their duties. In the rest of the orld, where true liberty is not recognized, and where everyone has only the choice of ruling or being ruled, they naturally determine, as all others do who are in the same predicament, for the former. Here, where nobody either rules or allows himself to be ruled, it does not occur to them to make an exception. There is, therefore, no known case of the State of Freeland having been annoyed by priestly lust for power or by intolerance. Should any minister entertain a wish of this kind, it could be confi- dently left to his own congregation to bring him to reason. 142 A VISIT TO FREELAND. CHAPTER XV. FITNESS OF THE PROFESSIONS WHICH PEOPLE CHOOSE. ART PRODUCTIONS. COMMUNISM AND ANARCHISM. THE ADMINISTRATION. GENERAL PRACTICABILITY OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF FREELAND. FEAR OF OVER-POPULATION. jpROFESSOR TEN AX wished to get a professorship of A political economy at the Edendale University. He employed some months in inquiring into the agreement of the rightly understood axioms of political economy in every point with the principles of Freeland, and the result of his investigations and reflections was generally a very favorable one. Yet the conscientious man thought it necessary to have a train of thought which he had not yet been able to reason out by himself explained in a deputation with the economists of Freeland. For that reason he offered to have a decisive debate with two Edendale professors of political economy, and allowed me to have the honor of being pre- sent during this wordy warfare. It took place at the house of one of the Edendale professors, and the day fixed for the discussion arrived. “ I must first of all remark,” said the Professor, as he introduced the discussion, “ that I know quite well, with reference to some of my views, that they have, as a matter of fact, been refuted by the manner in which Freeland has been developed up to this time. But I am a theorist and not a practical man, and I wish to know whether what I see here must occur on account of its inner essence, or whether A VISIT TO FREELAND. 143 it is only the result of an accident. To begin with what lies nearest to us, I a^k what guarantee is there that the self- governing workmen will always seek the most skilful and fit persons for carrying on a business, and not those who wheedle themselves into their favor by loud-sounding words and alluring phrases. They have at least learnt in Europe to place persons at the head of the labor parties who get over difficulties well if they want them to guide those under their leadership to useful production.” “ The workmen of the rest of the world,” replied one of the Freeland professors, quietly, “are quite ripht if they do not place skilled men of business, but skilled agitators at their head, for producing does not concern them, but agi- tating. Just as little as it follows that, because I choose in case of war the most suitable fighting man as leader, I should vote for the same man as rector of our university, even so little can one conclude, because agitating work- men place the most suitable agitators or the most energetic brawlers at their head, that they will think in a similar manner if it concerns the superintendence of their work. Workmen, as a rule, understand their own advantages, and are not so foolish as to overlook the fact that other qualities are necessary for managing a factory than those neces- sary for leading a political movement or organizing a strike. In other respects freedom takes care that any mistakes that may be made should be repaired very quickly. For a badly managed company becomes prudent by the example of the better managed companies, and if this does not happen with due promptitude, such a company sees itself very rapidly deserted by its members and is obliged to liquidate. That is the struggle for existence, as we under- stand it, in which the incapable and unfit are necessarily succeeded by those who are better and more fit.” Professor Tenax bowed his assent, and went on to another question, “ How is it,” he asked, “ that labor in Freeland cannot suffer through discontented people and sedition-mongers. There are, as it is well-known, men of genius all over the world who are mistaken in their views, and there are also blockheads everywhere who believe in such men. What happens if such troublesome people 144 A VISIT TO FREELAND. emerge here with their followers ? Is it not to be feared that they would bring disorder into the best regulated society ? ” “Not in the least,” was the reply, “We have an irresis- tible weapon against such mistaken people, and this i& nothing else but the free right which everyone has of carry- ing his ideas into effect. It has, as a matter of fact, re- peatedly happened that empty-headed fellows have attempted this, but they have ventured nothing when they had the opportunity of giving effect to their big words. The means of the state were placed at their disposal for this purpose, as well as at that of the existing companies, but of course only as far as they could find helpers for the practical reali- zation of their idea, but they hardly ever found these, so little credit did they have to carry them into execution. If we had wished to compel them to remain sensible, they would have raised a clamor about this violence, and there would have been no end to their plotting. But since it only depends upon themselves to commit some folly, they wisely let it remain, and there is an end of all plotting. Even in this point, freedom has proved to be the best defense of order.” Professor Tenax again gave his assent, and continued, “ I can now in the main answer the following doubt for myself, namely, the question whether quarrels are to be expected from the political and especially from the socialistic sects. If anyone, for example, is fanatical about absolute equality, and feels vexed because his manager is paid more for his work than himself, he is quite free, always supposing that he finds partners, to seek for a manager who will be contented with a pay equal to that of five or six hours of work a day. But Such attempts could be a source of disturbance if they occurred frequently. How do you explain, my worthy colleagues, that I have not seen such a radical rage for equality anywhere, and that anarchical experiments are just as little cared about in Freeland ? ” “ We think that that can be explained very simply by as- suming that the ideas of absolute equality are nothing less than a hallucination of fever caused by hunger. . Men are so evidently equal in capacity and needs, that only a madman could think of enforcing this absolute equality, which is con- trary to human nature, if there were no starvation. All A VISIT TO FREELAND. 145 men wish for enough, in this point we are, as a matter of fact, all equal, and in a society where foul and brutal misery is the order of the day, it is evident why an equal division should be desired. But if it appears that everyone, if he only has the means of employing his strength can by moderate work not only get necessaries, but also super- fluities, and can obtain beautiful and agreeable things, it is no longer a question of dividing bread, but roast meat and con- fectionery. It would, therefore, of course be folly to wish that every one should receive an equal portion, no matter whether he wants it or not. “ And as concerns anarchism, the endeavor to overthrow, together with authority in the social field, all political order also, this is likewise explained by the hatred towards a parti- cular form of political order which condemns the majority to pay for the progress of the civilization of others with their own privations. Where everyone shares in the fruits of pro- gressive civilization, it occurs to no one to attack that order which must necessarily exist with the progress of civilization.” “ Before I proceed to the two principal questions which contain the remainder of my doubts,” says Professor Tenax, “ I wish to have an incidental question cleared up. This is, whether all imaginable branches of labor are compatible with the principle of allowing anyone to join any company that he pleases. In the first place, how does one observe it in performing artistic work? Must a painter allow any persons who please to force themselves upon him as assis- tants, and what can he do in this country to keep such unwelcome companions away ? ” “ The fact that the painter does not need the wealth of the state for his work, defends him from such companions,” replied one of the professors, “and therefore the lack of that condition in his case to which the duty of admitting companions to his work is attached. But let us suppose that it is otherwise, and imagine the case in which a painter or sculptor has no place in his own house for his work, and also that the materials for executing it demand so much money that he asks for a loan from the state ; he is now obliged to allow anyone who wishes to join him in his work. But do 146 A VISIT TO FREELAND. you think that public opinion would endure that his work should be disturbed by unbidden intruders ? As soon as the slightest attempt to do this is noticed, the painter only has to call a general assembly, to let this name him manager with full powers, and then either to employ such partners as offer themselves in doing mere handwork, or, if he does not require them, not to use them at all. Should malevolent persons wish to compel him, he always has sufficient votes from his fellow citizens to make an enactment to render such attempts vain. Our supreme mistress, public opinion, does not force itself into anything unasked, and lets everyone do what he likes. She is ready to help at once when any- one’s actions injure the rights of others just because she never encroaches unnecessarily or excessively. Injustice can only happen here under the supposition that anyone who is unjustly treated is silent about it.” “ I am also satisfied on this point,” said Professor Tenax. “ Would you now explain to me what means Freeland employs to administer justice in cases where the principle of the free mobility of labor is unable to produce equilibrium in the proceeds of work, or at least where it cannot do this without injuring the economy of production in the highest degree ? It is not just that the value of every piece of goods should depend upon the proportionate amount expended upon it or can be made so to depend, and it is unjust because there are goods which are produced by the voluntary activity of nature and not by human labor ; goods which mankind does not produce, but only collects. The tree in the forest is not made by the man who fells it, and therefore in the value of the wood the work of the wood-cutter will not be paid for, but the gratis production of nature. The same is the case with the ore of a rich mine in which not only the work of the miner must regularly be paid for, but also the rarity of the product which does not depend upon this. Such a value on account of rarity, which is conditional upon natural cir- cumstances, can indeed occur in the majority of all the branches of production. Now I admit that the liberty of joining any company that one pleases might equalize all profits if driven to to the extreme. If we take mines again as our example, those which are more productive will A VISIT TO FREELAND. 14? employ more labor until the share of the profits which a single workman gets is the same everywhere, but under some circumstances that can only take place in such a manner that the work done by single laborers is confined to the more productive mine. This can also be prevented if the more productive mine hands over to the State, or to other mines, the excess of their profits above the average usual in the country, and thus brings about an equalization of the profits. But it appears to me that the people of Freeland do not consider the latter method to be sufficient or the most suitable for every case, for I observe that single workmen, and especially miners and foresters, are taken into the employment of the State. Is there not in this a confession of the deficiency of the principle of the free mobility of labor ? ” “ Not at all. Just as little as it is detrimental to the principles of private business which exist in the rest of the world if the State itself carries on such business, is it detrimental to the principles of the free mobility of labor if the State itself joins these mining companies. The principle is adhered to in both cases as long as the State does not deviate from them. It would be detrimental to the economic arrangements which exist in the rest of the world if the State shpuld sanction any other than the existing principles in the branches of economy which it carries on, and, just in the same manner, our principles could only be violated if our State wished to smuggle foreign or communistic principles into the businesses carried on by it, or even could do so. It can do this just as little as a foreign State could work according to our principles. From which it appears that the main thing is the system according to which those who work in such State busi- nesses are paid. This consists in the rest of the world in granting the amount of wages customary in the country, that is, the amount which is thought necessary for carrying on life, according to the locality and time of year, but with us in granting the full produce of human labor, which is customary in the land. Just as a bourgeois State must pay its employees as much as corresponds to the usual minimum necessary for existence, because otherwise 1 4$ A VISIT TO FREELAND. it would not find the necessary amount of labor, and just as it cannot grant any more to them than this minimum amount, because it would otherwise be inundated with demands for work, in the same manner our State must always grant the same full amount of produce from the work to its employees, in whatever branch of the business conducted by it they may be, seeing that other workmen of the country enjoy it, and it cannot grant them more because it would altogether lack the means of stopping the pressure of workmen. In short, our State is excluded from commercial activity as little as other States, but with us, as in the rest of the world, the economy of the State is regulated by the principles upon which society is constructed, which are exploitation there and justice here.” “I come now,” said Professor Tenax, “ to the first ques- tion of principle which I have already mentioned. Do you believe that it is possible to apply the principles which you follow in Freeland to the whole of mankind ? If you be- lieve that, do you think it possible that this can happen everywhere while existing rights are respected, and, whether you believe the latter or not, why have you sought out this spot in the interior of Africa for carrying into effect your schemes for rescuing mankind, and have not preferred to achieve them among the civilized nations of Europe or America ? ” a The affirmation of the first point of this question follows as a matter of course,” was the reply. “ Since the maxims of Freeland are entirely founded in human nature, no reason- able ground can be seen why they should not be applied everywhere, and obtain the same result as here in Freeland. For we do not suppose that those who belong to our state really have any more than that very moderate amount of cultivation which is necessary for undertaking what is mani- festly to their own advantage. Our workmen need no deeper understanding of economic . questions, they have only to understand that it is better to get five shillings than four shillings for the same amount of exertion. Neither do we demand special virtues from men. Freedom and justice have the power of improving men, but it is certainly not necessary that men should be better in order that freedom Visit to freeland. 149 I ■ and justice should be introduced, for freely ruling self- interest and not communism is the leading principle in in Freeland. “ But economic freedom and justice are not only possible everywhere, their victory is unavoidable, otherwise all pro- gress of civilization must have an end. For since human wisdom has succeded in compelling the inexhaustible power of the elements to do work, the plunder of man by man through a cruel, but unavoidable necessity of civilization as "it has been for thousands of years — has become a hindrance to civilization. There is now no more demand for the results of increasing production as long as the working masses remain shut out from the enjoyment of the full value of the proceeds of their work, and since things for which there is no demand cannot be produced because they are worth- less, exploitation chokes that wealth as it arises which would immediately be forthcoming if there was any market for it. Servitude has become the sole cause of misery, and since misery is barbarity and powerlessness, it must and will yield to that wealth which signifies civilization and power. “ So our principles not only can, but they must come into effect everywhere. And that may well happen without injury to vested interests. Just as the service imposed upon peasants and the ownership of slaves was peacefully abolished in due time in many states, so that could happen in the case of private property in land and capital. The immeasurable increase of wealth, which would naturally be the result of bringing the powers of production and consumption into equilibrium, would afford the means of doing all these things with the greatest ease, and since the former owners can no longer get interest out of the compensation money which is awarded to them, but could use it solely for gradual con- sumption, it would not fall heavily upon them to make the payments extend through a long course of years, and by doing this all our burdening of the new economy would be avoided even at the beginning. It is to the interest of the new order of things that, when it is brought into existence, all existing rights should be respected, since such commo- tions and disturbances should be avoided as are likely to be prejudicial to the future. But in spite of this, we doubt A VISIT TO FREELAND. * 5 ° whether the unavoidable transit from the economy of robbery to that of freedom will be accomplished in such a quiet and forbearing manner everywhere, or even in the most civilized state. In order that this should happen, the propertied classes must themselves take in hand the peaceful revolu- tion or at least agree to it, so long as they possess any power at all. And they will probably not do that anywhere. But it is not to be expected that a violent resistance on the part of the rulers would be met with forbearance by a successful revolution. It would probably depend everywhere on the tenacity of the propertied classes whether the new order of things would have more or less regard for their claims. The more obstinately they oppose themselves to the wheel of time, the more certainly and cruelly will they be crushed under it. I also answer the second point of your question at the same time ; the transit to social freedom and justice could take place with the most perfect forbearance to rights already in existence, but in most countries it will take place with only partial or absolutely no observance of these rights and will even result in bloodshed. “ The third point is now essentially answered. The gentle- man who puts these questions appears to think that the founders of Freeland should have placed the lever in the midst of bourgeois society and taken the risk of bloody resistance being made, because they would in that manner obtain more surely and more quickly the liberation of the disinherited masses of the world, upon which greater importance must be laid than in making an asylum where at the most only a few millions can find room. As a matter of fact, it is the principal purpose which is constantly before us here to liberate all our fellow-men who are groaning under exploitation. But we are convinced that we have done more for the liberation of the world by founding Freeland than if ever so effective an agitation had been made in the states of Europe and America. For since it is quite certain that the propertied classes, who have the power in their own hands everywhere, would have resisted our endeavors, so it is like- wise quite certain that we should have been obliged to limit ourselves to agitating whilst here we could act. And the eloquence of what has been done is much more powerful A VISIT TO FREELAND. 151 than words which have been ever so well thought out and arranged. Just as those English Independents who laid the foundation stone of the United States of North America in the seventeenth century did a greater service for the political freedom of the world than if they had remained in their English homes and had vainly suffered there for their cause, so do we also believe that we have done more for economic freedom by working here than if we had suffered elsewhere without acting.” “You also almost convince me,” said Professor Tenax, “ that Freeland is destined to bear its organization over the whole of the world, and that it will attain this, its highest purpose, sooner or later. Then will want and misery take their departure from mankind. Do you believe that that can happen without over-population following as a natural result, and are you not apprehensive that over-population must lead to want and misery again ? Malthus has shown that the increase of population is always endeavoring to exceed the amount of space disposable for growing food, and that unlimited increase must be stopped through want of food. Now the economic order of the rest of the world keeps at least a minority of the people from the unavoidable results of want, but if the economic equality of rights becomes generally observed, then, if want supervenes again, it means a general retrogression of civilization into bar- barism.” “ Malthus has not proved what you have just stated,” answered one of the professors of Freeland, “ and what is, as a matter of fact, thought by the rest of the world to be an irrefutable dogma, but he only asserts it. And that this assertion, which mocks evident facts and which has been hover- ing in the air for a century, is received as a demonstrated truth, is only one evidence more of the prejudice and blind- ness of this remarkable time, which, in its successful efforts to find out the secrets of nature, has altogether lost sight of the great connexion between all natural and human things. It is, of course, true that the multiplication of mankind, as of all other living things, must have some limit, and it is just as true that starvation and privations will, under all conditions, become a limit to the increase of population, l 5* A VISIT TO FREELAND. S i V s Untm ] e that men increase under all circumstances until they are decimated by hunger. Much more does the most superficial glance at the facts show every observer who is not entirely blinded by prejudice that, as a rule, the opposite takes place, that men do not increase, and have not increased, to the limits of the amount of room disposable or growing provisions. Were it otherwise over-population must be the general rule, whereas the earth could, as a matter of fact, easily support a hundred times the present number of human beings. Malthus appeals to nature for the proof of his theorem, and even there the contrary of what he wishes to read out of her takes place. Want does not pre- vail in matter, but boundless excess ; even those species which are the most fruitful increase nowhere, or only in the most isolated exceptions, up to the limits of the amount of room deposable for growing food. That Malthus could get the foolish idea that men do starve, and have always starved, because there are too many of them, and that he was even possessed with the more foolish illusion that the same condition of regular starvation should rule everywhere in nature is only explained by the fact that he saw starvation as an evident fact among mankind, and could not discover the right explanation of it, namely, that the masses starve because the things which would satisfy them are kept away from them, and on that account availed himself of the exoe client which is everywhere adopted where correct explana- tion is wanting, namely, of setting up a natural law where Sr/ s r hm r lse bUt an > verted social organization. 1 he truth is that nature possesses a number of means besides starvation for preserving equilibrium in the prona gcition of every living being. Increase of population would find a limit in starvation if it were not otherwise limited but as the latter is not the case, since other natural sources’ pro duce equilibrium between the means of propagation and mortality long before the limits set by starvation are reacl^ so can the latter at most produce in an exceptional case the effect ascribed to it by Malthus as generally taking place But the high significance which is attributed to Malthus’'! doctrine of over-population by the bourgeois world would not he justified, even if this theorem in itself rested upon truth A VISIT TO FREELAND. 153 It is at all events much more certain and indubitable that the coal fields of the earth must be exhausted in a conceivable time, if they are used in the manner in which they have hitherto been used, than that the earth must continue too narrow for mankind if workers had all the means of satis- fying their wants. Why does the rest of the world vex itself, not about the exhaustion of the coal mines, but carefully leaves the production of future fuel to future generations, whilst it is constantly racking its brains about the over-popu- lation of these same generations? A large amount of conscious or unconscious hypocrisy lies here ; one seeks reason for a method of behaving of which one is instinctively con- vinced that it cannot be justified. The theory of over- population is in truth only put forward for nothing else than for the purpose of justifying the shame of handing over to pitiable misery uncounted millions of fellow creatures who have equal rights with ourselves, whilst we still possess the means of rendering the existence worthy of a human being possible to them.” This interesting exposition ended here. I had not very often seen a professor worsted before, and worsted in a dis- cussion, who would have been so gratified by reason of his defeat as was my once so tenacious teacher and friend Tenax now. On taking his leave, he shook hands with his two suc- cessful opponents in such gratified manner as if it oply depended upon their good will to render possible, or to hinder his going over to Freeland. “ I have now done with the past,” said Professor Tenax as we separated. “ My whole future will be occupied in spreading those ideas which I have imbibed here. ,, *54 A VISIT TO FREELAND. CHAPTER XVI. CONCLUSION. [ NOW close the diary of my experiences in Freeland, and for a very strong reason, because my time, which had hitherto been divided between work, study, and pleasure, is now filled with feelings, thoughts, and actions, moving altogether in one circle, the center of which is a woman who, for me, is the sum total of everything that is noble, beautiful, and good. Or, in other words, I have fallen in love. The reader need not fear that I shall trouble him with an effusion concerning my love ; this concluding chapter will be nothing else than as dry a narrative of a be- trothal as there could possibly be. I must only relate one thing more, because it indicates the manner in which the maidens of Freeland think. When I was engaged to. my bride and we began to talk about the arrangements of our future house, I had told her that I had left a very large amount of property in Europe, some of which I was already disposed to give to the State of Freeland, while I thought the rest would be suitable for purchasing the luxury of a fine and agreeably arranged establishment. My bride thereupon blushed, and eagerly begged me to renounce these thoughts. When I asked the reason and desired to know why my intention caused her so much repugnance, she hesitatingly explained to me that it was quite uncomfortable to her to enjoy a luxury which arose out of the privations and misery of her fellow creatures “ 1 should feel >” sl ^e said, “‘as if I was feasting on human A VISIT TO FREELAND. 155 flesh. I, who have breathed the air of Freeland since my youth, can just as little endure to enjoy something which has been produced by hunting human creatures to death through over-work and privations, as a woman who has been brought up in Europe would endure a number of fat men being killed and served up in her house." And she gained her point. The remainder of my property in Europe, which was “ honestly acquired," according to the ideas current there, by my forefathers, lies in the coffers of the governmental department of Freeland which deals with foreign affairs. This employs such payments made by rich citizens, in addition to the means expended by the State for the same purpose, in enabling constantly greater and greater masses of foreign proletarians to emigrate to Freeland. THE END. % London: William Reeves, 185, Fleet Street, E.O. ( PRICE SIXPENCE (Cloth, U. M.) THE By J. MORRISON DAVIDSON ( B arris ter-at- Law J. EIGHTH EDITION. LONDON: WILLIAM REEVES, 185, FLEET ST., E.C. (Thick Crown 8vo., Cloth, 3s- 6d.) “THE BOOK OF ERIN” Or, The Story of Ireland told to the New Democracy . Being a History of Ireland for the People. By J. MORRISON DAVIDSON. LONDON: WILLIAM REEVES, 185, FLEET ST., E.C. ONE SHILLING. (Cloth 2 /-) THE Christian Bevolt Signs of the Coming Commonwealth. BY JOHN C. KENWORTHY, AUTHOR OF " The Anatomy of Misery,” “ From Bondage to Brotherhood,” etc., ETC. v w'W'W'r' WV '* WM. REEVES, 185, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C. ONE SHILLING. (Cloth, 2/-) WIFE-LENDING, IS WOMAN DEPENDENT ON MAN? THE SWEARING COLONEL, DRUNKENNESS AS A PROFESSION, HOW TO PRESERVE THE POOR, 6tc», etc. BY WALTER JAMES. WILLIAM REEVES, 185, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C MCGILL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Icia -HAM-EL bmce { 51 0455 Given before the London Ethical Society BY “lb bility, tt WILL onsi- DATE DUE i.C. BIJOU i “Tb DUE RETURNED , CE ? mryjm AllfJ 7H icttl, ^ 0 v iv- 3S. y Co- operatio law-crea exposed, WILL from ; first Lf. BIJOU S« WILL SCE. V % 4 q FORM 211 A : L.J.D. 1 3 103 095 566 Q m "" 'Vv'e’re a capital couple the M. oori and I , X polish, the Earth, , she brightens the sky: we botfy declare, ashalF the world knows, Xhouglj, a. capital couple , we WONT WASH CLOTHE'I