/2, ' ~ b
'/J^ ^1/


LOOKING
FURTHER FORWARD
BY
RICHARD MICHAELIS,
Edi~er Ckicago  Freie Press."
AN ANSWER TO
LOOKING BACKWARD
BY
EDWARD BELLAMY.


CHICAGO AND NEW YORK:
RAND, MCNALLY & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS.
1890.




COPYRIGHT, 1890, By RICHARD MICHAELIS.




LOOKING FURTHER FORWARD.








PR EFACE.
EVERY seeker after truth and reform is entitled to
recognition, even if his ways and methods are not
ours. Mr. Edward Bellamy's book: "Looking Backward", is an eff ort to improve the lot of mankind
and therefore commendable, but his reform proposition, stripped of its fine coloring, is nothing but
communism, a state of society, which has proved a
failure whenever established without a religious basis
and which without such basis is en vogue today only
among some barbarous and cannibal tribes.
Chicago has for the last fourteen years been the
centre of the communistic and anarchistic agitation
in the United States, and in defending the fundamental principles of American institutions against these
theories, that. were imported from the overcrowded
industrial centres of Europe, I became quite familiar
with them as well as with the notions and peculiarities of social reformers, who imagine themselves iin
possession of an infallible receipt to perfect not only
all human institutions but also human nature.




iv


PREFACE.


Of course Mr. Bellamy holds more moderate views
than those Spies and Parsons proclaimed, but he
has this much in common with the Anarchists and
Communists of Chicago: he has become incapable
of passing a fair judgement upon our present institutions, conditions and men; he overlooks all difficulties in the introduction of his proposed changes, he
really believes his socialistic air-castles must spring
into existence very soon and without obstruction,
and he populates his fairy palaces with angelic human
beings, who would never by any possibility do anything wrong. The surmise, that men and women in
a communistic state, would put off all selfishness,
envy, hate, jealousy, wrangling and desire to rule is
just as reasonable as the supposition, that a man can
sleep one hundred and thirteen years and rise thereafter as young and fresh as he went to bed.
What queer methods reformers sometimes advocate! John Most would in the name of equal rights
to all, first kill all men who are not in absolute sympathy with his opinions, then abolish all laws and all
officers, and then let nature take its course.-Mr.
Bellamy on the other hand would, also in the name
of equal rights, deprive all the clever and industrious
workers of a large or the largest part of the products
of their labor for the benefit of their awkward, stupid




PREFACE.


v


or lazy comrades! And this would be what Mr.
Bellamy is pleased to style justice and equality!
And for the purpose of reaching this state of mockequality, Mr. Bellamy would as a matter of course
have to sacrifice competition, the gigantic power
that elevated us all and Mr. Bellamy with us to the
present state of evolution! It is true that competition
has been and is now abused, but every institution is
subject to abuse and the misuse of a thing does not
demonstrate that the thing in itself is wrong. Nobody
can deny that competition during the centuries of
Christian civilization has developed the brains and
muscles of the human race and that the continuous
best efforts of humanity, stimulated by competition
during these many centuries, have lifted our race to
a standard where the mode of living of common
laborers is more comfortable and desirable than
the everyday existence of the Kings of which Homer
sings.
Every generation has to battle with certain problems, and it is the lot of ours to overcome the difficulties between capital and labor, that have been
increased by the change in the methods of production
since the discovery of steam power.
We have to find ways and means not to avoid
productive work (-spoken of by Mr. Bellamy as




vi


PREFACE.


an evil-), but to cure the brain cancer of our days:
the permanent uncertainty of subsistance and the
fear of poverty. And we accomplish this by cooperation and by mutual insurance companies, without retrograding to communism, that most barbarous
state of society.
The imperfect nature of man characterizes, as a
matter of course, all human institutions and it is the
easiest thing in the world, by "looking backward", to
find fault with living men as well as with the present
state of affairs and to build air castles inhabited by
angels only.
I will now look forward! By demonstrating what
would be the logical conclusion of Mr. Bellamy's
story, if fairly continued, T purpose to show that he
first tries to establish absolute equality and then,
despairing of success, advocates an inequality in
many respects more oppressive than the present state
of things. I intend to demonstrate, that under the
regime, proposed by Mr. Bellamy, favoritism and
corruption would be very potent factors in public
life. I expect to set forth that personal liberty would
fare so badly in Mr. Bellamy's United States, that
the proud and independent American people would
never tolerate such a system, and to prove beyond a
reasonable doubt, that the people would be much




PREFACE.


vii


poorer in Mr. Bellamy's condition of affairs, than at
the present time.
I do not deny that our society stands in need of
many desirable reforms; but I am not prepared to follow blindly Mr. Bellamy, John Most, or anybody else,
who pretends that he is ready to deliver humanity from
all evils on short notice, and I do not intend to jump
head over heels into the dark.
If Mr. Bellamy and his followers Pre quite sure
that they can establish the millennium, let them try
it, like the communists of the Amana Society who
have started a community in the state of Iowa on a
religious basis. There are many thousands of acres
of good government lands left, where Mr. Bellamy
and his friends may settle and show the world what
they can do! But they should not ask the people of
the United States to break up their present form of
government and state of society, before they have
given their theories a trial and proved that their
calculations are correct.
RICHARD MICHAELIS.
CHICAGO, April 1890.








LOOKING FORTARID.
CHAPTER I.
FOR the purpose of introducing myself to those
readers of this book, who are not familiar with the
contents of "Looking Backward", edited by Mr.
Edward Bellamy, I will recapitulate the remarkable
events of my life up to the end of that extraordinary
narrative.
Born in Boston on the 26th day of December
1857, I was baptized Julian West, was educated in
the schools and colleges of my city, but, being in
possession of a handsome fortune, did not devote
myself to any particular profession or trade. I became engaged to Miss Edith Bartlett, a young lady
of great beauty, and it was our intention to marry
as soon as my new house should be ready for occupation. The completion o0 the building was frequently delayed by strikes of masons and carpenters,
and I occupied still the old fashioned house, where
my family had lived for three generations.
Suffering from insomnia, I had prepared in the
basement and under the toundations of the old build



10


LOOKING FORWARD.


ing, a large vault, where the noises of a great city
would not disturb me.  This vault was absolutely
fire-proof, and fresh air was assured by means of a
small pipe running up to the roof of the house.
To obtain sleep I was frequently forced to avail
myself of the services of a mesmerist, and it happened
that on the 3oth day of May 1887, after two sleepless
nights, I sent my colored servant Sawyer to a Dr. Pillsbury, whom I was in the habit of employing. The
doctor was about to leave the city to establish himself in New Orleans, and this was therefore the last
time he would be able to treat me. I instructed
Sawyer to rouse me at nine o'clock the next morning,
and under the manipulations of the mesmerist I soon
fell into a deep slumber.
When I opened my eyes again I found that I had
slept i 13 years, 3 months, and i i days.
I discovered that the old house had been destroyed
by fire and that Sawyer had perished in the flames.
Dr. Pillsbury had left Boston, the existence of the
vault where I slept was unknown to my friends, the
house had not been rebuilt and so I remained in a
mesmerized condition for over a hundred years, until
a Dr. Leete, the occupant of a house which was being
erected on a part of the old lot, commenced to build
a laboratory and unearthed my vault in the year
2000.
I learned that Edith Bartlett, after mourning my
loss fourteen years, had married, that Dr. Leete's
wife was Edith Bartlett's granddaughter, and that his




LOOKING FORWARD.


II


daughter Edith was therefore the great-granddaugher
of the young lady who had been my promised bride
113 years before.
The vigor of my manhood of thirty years overcame
the shock of these discoveries. I soon felt myself
at home in Dr. Leete's house, the more so, because
young Edith soon occupied the place in my heart
once filled by Edith Bartlett, and it was not long before
Edith Leete, a somewhat romantic, compassionate
girl, consented with grace to become the successor of
her great-grandmother; to be my bride.
But the turn of my own fate is even less remarkable, than the change that has taken place in the
social order of things.  Dr. Leete explained to me
the new organization of society.
Individual enterprises have ended, The nation
creates everything that individuals and corporations
were producing at the end of the nineteenth century.
Every able bodied man, every healthy woman
belongs to the "industrial army". They enter the
force at the age of 21 and are released at 45. Only
in rare cases of necessity are men over 45 years of
age summoned to work.
Money is abolished, but all inhabitants of the
United States receive an equal share of the results of
the work of the industrial army in the form of a
credit card, a piece of paste board on which dollars
and cents are marked. There is one store in each
ward where people can select such goods as they
may desire. The value of the goods, one purchases,




12


LOOKING FORWARD.


is pricked out of his credit card and his account is
charged in the Government books with the amount
of goods so purchased.
The meals are furnished by large cooking houses.
Washing and repairing are done in large laundries.
One may take his meals home or eat them at the
cooking house. The bill of fare is very elaborate
and one may have even a special dining room. The
amount to be paid for the meals differs of course
according to the bill of fare ordered and to the place
where the meal is taken.
Each family occupies a separate house; the furniture being the property of the tenant. The rent,
which depends on the size of the house, is also
pricked out of the credit card.
All inhabitants of the United States are obliged to
attend school until they have reached the age of 21.
Then they become members of the industrial army.
During the first three years of their services they are
called recruits or apprentices and have to do the
common labor under the absolute command of the
officers or overseers. A record is kept, in which are
entered the ability and behavior of each recruit.
After the first three years of service, each recruit
may select a profession or a trade. As far as possible the volunteers are placed in the trades they
prefer. Recruits with the best records are given the
first choice. Some of them have to take a second or
third choice, and some   are obliged  to accept
positions assigned to them by their superiors.




LOOKING FORWARD.                 13
All members of the army are, according to their
ability and behavior, divided into three grades, and
apprentices with a first-class record may, after their
three years service, enter at once the first grades of
the different trades selected by them.
The general of the guild appoints all the officers of
his trade. The lieutenants must be taken from the
members of the first grades. The captains are chosen
by the general from the lieutenants, the colonels from
the captains. The general of the guild himself is
elected by the former members of the trade, that is,
those who have passed the age of forty-five. The exmembers of all the guilds also elect the chiefs of the
ten great departments or groups of allied trades. The
chiefs are taken from the generals of the guilds. And
the former guild members also elect the President of
the United States, who is taken from the ranks of
th' retired chiefs of the ten great departments. The
President, the ten chiefs of the great departments and
the generals of all the guilds live in Washington.
The members of the industrial army have not the
right to vote for any of the officers by whom they
are governed. They have no representation during their
24 years of service; but if they have a complaint
against one of their superiors, they may bring their
case before a judge whose decision is final.
The judges are appointed by the President from
the ranks of the retired members of the guild for the
term of five years.
Courts, lawyers, jails, sheriffs, tax-assessors, collec



14


LOOKING FORWARD.


tors and many other officers have been abolished,
Criminals are treated in hospitals as persons mentally ill.
The National Government regulates the production.
When it sees that certain trades attract a very large
number of volunteers, while other trades fall short,
the administration increases the working time of the
preferred trades and shortens the working hours of
those needing more volunteers.
The women have their own officers, generals,
judges, and form an auxiliary army of industry.
They receive the same credit cards as the men.
Since the cooking and washing and repairing of
household goods are done outside, the women of the
twentieth century have more time for productive
labor than had the women of a hundred years ago.
Recruits who have passed three years service,
during which they are assignable to any work at the
discretion of their superiors, may enter schools of
technology, medicine, art, etc.; but if they cannot
keep pace with the classes, they must withdraw.
Physicians, who do not find sufficient employment,
are assigned to work of another character,
If people desire the publication of a newspaper,
they must club together and give up enough of their
credit cards to compensate the nation for the loss of
the work of the persons editing and printing the
paper.
If one desires to publish a book, he can write it in
his hours of leisure and can have it printed by giving




LOOKING FORWARD.                15
up a part of his credit card. For the copies sold he
receives again a new credit.
Preachers are in a similar way employed by persons who desire to hear their sermons
Cripples or other people unable to do full work
or any work at all, receive their full credit cards,
because the fact, that they are human beings, entitles
them to their full share of all good things produced
on earth.
The state governments within the United States
have been abolished as useless.
All other civilized nations have organized themselves on a similar basis and are exchanging goods
with each other. The yearly balances are settled
with national staple articles.
The new order of things enables people to live
without cares, and one of the consequences is the
fact, that most of the men and women of an average
constitution live from eighty-five to ninety years.Such was the description of the new order of
things given me by Dr. Leete in a number of conversations. The doctor is very enthusiastic over the
organization of society of the twentieth century and
does not hesitate to call it the millennium.
The fear and uncertainty which I entertained in
regard to my employment were set at rest by Dr.
Leete, who said, that I could, if I wished, have the
position of professor of the history of the nineteenth
century in the Shawmut College of Boston. I have
accepted the offer and shall enter upon my duties
next Monday.




CHAPTER II.


WHEN I first entered the large hall of Shawmut
College, where I was to deliver my lectures, I noticed
near the door of the room a gentleman of about forty
years of age. He was too old to be one of the
students and as I had not seen him when Dr. Leete
introduced me to the professors of the institution,
I was somewhat curious to know in what capacity
he honored my debut,
The cordial reception I had met at the hands of
the professors, the fact that every seat of the large
hall was occupied, acted as a stimulus and when Dr.
White, the president of Shawmut College had introduced me with a few complimentary remarks as a
living witness of the nineteenth century, I begai
my first lecture in the bast of spirits.
My speech contained naturally many of the points
that Dr. Leete had most dwelt upon, when, in his
conversations with me, he had compared the organization of society of the nineteenth and that of the
twentieth centuries.
I said in substance, that my hearers must not
expect a synopsis of the civilization of the two centuries or a panegyric of the present state of affairs.
I would point out but a few conditions, regulations




LOOKING FORWARD.


i7


and institutions that could serve as criterion of the
spirit of their times.
As characteristic of the spirit of the civilization of
the nineteenth century, I described the insane competition, where a man in a foul fight must "cheat,
overreach, supplant, defraud, buy below worth and
sell above, break down the business by which his
neighbor fed his young ones, tempt men to buy what
they ought not and to sell what they should not,
grind their laborers, sweat their debtors, cozen their
creditors,"*) in order to be able to support those
dependent on him.    I showed "that there had been
many a man among the people of the nineteenth
century who, if it had been merely a question of his
own life would sooner have given it up than nourished it by bread snatched from others."t) I pictured
the consequences of this insane and annihilating
competition as a constant wear on the brains and
bodies of the past generation, intensified by the permanent fear of poverty. The spectre of uncertainty
walked constantly beside the man of the nineteenth
century, sat at his table and went to bed with him,
even whispering in his ears: "Do your work ever so
well, rise early and toil till late, rob cunningly or
serve faithfully, you  shall never know    security.
*) Such parts of Mr. Bellamy's book as are characteristic of
his manner of dealing with the present and with the future, I
give with marks of quotation, adding in a foot note the page of
"Looking Backward," where the sentence may be found. The
above remarks are taken from page 277.
f) Page 277.




LOOKING FORWARD.


Rich you may be now and still come to poverty at
last. Leave ever so much wealth to your children,
you can not buy the assurance, that your son may
not be the servant of your servant or that your
daughter will not sell herself for bread."**)
And while one hundred and thirteen years ago all
men worked like slaves, until completely exhausted,
without having even a guaranty that they would not die
in poverty or from hunger, the men of the twentieth
century were walking in the sunlight of freedom,
security, happiness and equality. After receiving an
excellent education in standard schools and then
passing through an apprenticeship of three years, the
young people of the twentieth century select their
vocation. Short hours of work permit them, even
during the years of service in the industrial army,
to spend more time for the continuation of their
studies and for recreation than the people who lived
a hundred years ago had ever believed to be consistent with a successful management of industries,
farming or public affairs.
Free from all cares, in perfect harmony with each
other, without the disturbing influence of political
parties, enjoying a wealth unprecedented in the history of nations, we might verily say: "The long and
weary winter of our race is ended.  Its summer has
begun.  Humanity has burst the chrysalis.  The
heavens are before it!"tt)
**) Page 321.
tt) Page 292.




LOOKING FORWARD.


19


I had spoken with enthusiasm, yes, even with deep
emotion and I expected, if not a warm, at least a sympathetic reception of my address. But only a faint
and very cold applause followed my remarks. I had
the impression that not one fourth of the young men
present had found it worth their while to show their
approval of my lecture, and that the applause of even
these few had been an act of courtesy rather than a
spontaneous outburst of feeling. The chilly reception was such a great disappointment to me that
I could not rally courage enough to leave my chair
and pass through the students as they were leaving
the hall.
I busied myself at the little desk before me until
everybody had gone with the exception of the gentleman who had arrested my attention when I entered
the room. He remained at the door evidently waiting
for me.
"You belong to the college?" I asked, to hide my
embarrassment.
"Indeed I do", he answered with a light smile, that
challenged another question.
"I suppose I have the pleasure of meeting one of
my colleagues", I continued. "My name is West".
"Until about a month ago I was Professor Forest,
your predecessor in teaching the history of the nineteenth century; to-day I am one of the janitors and
my chief has been good enough to recommend this
room to my care."
I had during the last few days seen and heard so




20


LOOKING FORWARD.


many new and strange things, that I was prepared to
be surprised at nothing, however astounding.
But the information, that to a professor of history
was assigned the duty of cleaning the rooms, where
he had once lectured, sounded so incredible and
opened such an unpleasing prospect for my own
career, that I could not conceal my amazement.
"And what has caused this singular change of position", I inquired.
"In comparing the lot of humanity in 1900oo and
2000 I came to conclusions very different from yours",
responded Mr. Forest.
"You do not mean to say, that the condition of
the people of the nineteenth century was better than
that of the present generation?" I asked with some
curiosity.
"That is my opinion", said Mr. Forest.
"The only way I can understand you holding such
extraordinary views, is that you are personally quite
unacquainted with the civilization of which you speak
so highly," I declared.
"I have a as matter of course, drawn my information
from our libraries, and I am forced to admit that you
can support your argument in regard to the civilization of the last century by pointing to your personal
knowledge. But I am afraid that you are not so
familiar with the present state of affairs, at the
fountain of your information in regard to the twentieth century is only one man, Dr. Leete. I may
therefore claim that my information of the civilization




LOOKING FORWARD.


21


of your days is better than yours of our institutions,
because mine is based on the testimony of more witnesses than one."
"Then you must of course disapprove the views
developed in my lecture? "
"Your address will undoubtedly be published in
extenso in all the administration organs, that is, in
nearly every newspaper in the land', said Mr. Forest,
evading a direct answer to my question.
"Administration organs you say", I asked with surprise: "Has the administration organs, and why does
it need them? "
"Of course the administration has organs", answered
Forest. "And it is both difficult and unpleasant to
edit an opposition paper.  Therefore we have only a
few of them."
"But Dr. Leete said: "We have no parties or politicians and as for demagoguery and corruption, they
are words having only a historical significance."*)
And yet you speak of opposition and of administration papers? " I said this very likely with an expression of some doubt in my eyes.
My companion broke into a loud laugh, after which
he asked: "Excuse, please, my merriment, but Dr.
Leete is a great joker, who never fails to "bring down
the house."  Well! Well! That is too good. I wish
I could have seen his face when he gave you that
information."
And Mr. Forest laughed again.
*) Page 60.




22


LOOKING FORWARD.


"I beg your pardon, Mr. West", he continued, when
I met his merriment with silence; "but you would not
only excuse but share my laughter, if you were familiar with our public life, if you knew Dr. Leete.s well
as I do and then learned that he had claimed, we were
suffering from a want of politicians. But I wish to say
right here", added Mr. Forest in a more composed
tone, "that I have not a poor opinion of Dr. Leete.
He is a practical joker, a shrewd politician, but otherwise as good a man as our time can produce."
"Dr. Leete is a politician?" I asked in the utmost
astonishment.
"Yes. Dr. Leete is the most influential leader of
the administration party in Boston. I owe it to his
kind interference, that I am still connected with the
college."
Noticing that I did not know how to construe this
statement, Mr. Forest added:
"When, in comparing the civilization of your days
with ours, I came to the conclusion, that communism
had proved a failure, I was accused of misleading and
corrupting the students and the usual sentence in such
cases: "confinement in an insane asylum", was passed.
Because, it is claimed, that only a madman could find
fault with the best organization of society ever introduced. Dr. Leete, however, declared, that my in
sanity was so harmless, that confinement in an asylum
seemed unnecessary, besides being too expensive. I
could still earn my living by doing light work about
the college building; and my case would serve as a




LOOKING FORWARD.


23


warning to all the professors and students to be careful in their expressions and teachings. So I retained
the liberty in which we glory and was spared doing
street cleaning or some such work, which is generally
awarded to "kickers" against the administration."
"The students seem to share your opinion, at least
they received my remarks very coldly," I remarked,
in order to avoid a discussion of the qualities of my
host.
Mr. Forest's keen grey eyes rested for a moment
upon my face, and then he said in a friendly tone:
"I believe you were convinced of what you said,
Mr. West; but did it not occur to you, that you treated
your time and your contemporaries very severely?
Did competition really demand, that one should defraud his neighbor, grind his laborers, sweat his debtors
and snatch the bread from others? Were the majority
of the men of your time swindlers and Shylocks? Were
the laborers all slaves, working each day until completely exhausted? I remember distinctly, that the
wage-workers of your time struck frequently for eight
hours, declining to work nine or ten hours per diem
for good pay. I think you had a strong, proud and
independent class of laborers, who could not fairly be
regarded as slaves. And as for the girls, I have seen
the statements and complaints, that help for housekeeping was very scarce in your days and was paid
from $2. to $5. per week, with board, so that there was
no excuse for any decent girl to sell herself for bread.Of course your state of civilization was very far from




24


LOOKING FORWARD.


being faultless; in fact there is no such thing as perfection in anything.  But your description of the
civilization of the nineteenth century is painted in
such dark colors, that our students, who are somewhat
familiar with the history of those days, could not very
well enthuse over your lecture; especially as many of
these young men do not regard our present institutions
with such complete admiration as you do. I speak
frankly, Mr. West, and I hope you will excuse my
frankness, because of my desire to serve you in describing men, things and institutions as I see them."
The warm tone of his voice and the sympathetic
expression of his eyes caused me to shake hands with
Forest, although everything he had said went directly
against my friends, my views, my' feelings and my
interests. I left him in an uneasy mood and walked
home revolving in my mind his criticism of my
lecture.
I met Dr. Leete and the ladies, and Edith inquired
whether my debut as professor had satisfied my expectations.
I have always tried to be frank and true: so I
gave Dr. Leete and his family a synopsis of my
speech, mentioned the cool reception of my address
and my disappointment. I spoke of Mr. Forest's
criticism, leaving out, of course, his observations relative to Dr. Leete, and confessed that his censure was
not wholly undeserved inasmuch as I had gone too far
in charging upon the whole people the bad qualities
which reckless competition had stamped on certain
individuals.




LOOKING FORWARD,


25


Dr. Leete was evidently not altogether pleased with
my remarks. After a short pause he said: "I think
the reckless competition of the last part of the nineteenth century could not fail to demoralize more or
less, in most cases more, all the people, who were
conducting a business or who had to work for a living, I think furthermore that your lecture was an
excellent exposition of principles and that you have
no reason to yield an inch of your position. The
cold reception you met with, ought not to worry you.
It is due to Forest, who has planted in the hearts of
our students his idiosyncrasy, his blind admiration of
competition and his aversion to our form of civilization. It is your task to enlighten the young men in
regard to the comparative merits of the two orders of
things.--Mr. Forest is placing a heavy tax on the
patience of his fellow citizens by his persistent efforts
to mislead the students. - Did he mention the fact
that he was your predecessor?"
"He did, when I asked him if he were a member of
the college staff of teachers. He said that he was
discharged for his heresy and that he owed his comparatively lenient treatment to you."
"It is not Forest's habit to conceal his opinions
and he may have given you a nice idea of Dr. Leete",
my host said with a smile.
I thought best under the circumstances to repeat
Forest's remarks in regard to Dr. Leete, which remarks
were very good natured and rather complimentary to
my host. I may add that I desired very much to




z6


LOOKING FORWARD.


know what Dr. Leete would say in answer to the
charge of being a politician and a leader of the administration party.
So I said: "Mr. Forest laughed heartily when I
repeated your remarks that you have no party nor
politicians. He called you a great practical joker, a
shrewd politician, the leader of the administration
party in Boston and a good man."
Dr. Leete smiled somewhat grimly as he replied:
"That is a character I ought to be grateful for, considering that it comes from a faultfinder like Forest.
Concerning his references to me as a politician I will
say that I never held an office, but that the administration has occasionally consulted me and other citizens
on important questions.  Political parties we have
not. There are of course a few incurable faultfinders
like Mr. Forest and a few radical growlers, but we
pay but little attention to them so long as they do
not disturb the public peace. If they do, we send
them to a hospital where they receive proper treatment."
Althoug_ these words were spoken in the tone of
light conversation, they impressed me deeply. "If they
do, we send them to a hospital, where they receive
proper treatment."  Did not this confirm Forest's
statement, that the usual sentence against the opponents of communism was confinement in an insane
asylum?"
My unpleasant thoughts were interrupted by Edith's
sweet voice remarking: "I think Mr. Forest is an




LOOKING FORWARD.               27
honest well meaning gentleman and he should be permitted to express his views, even if they are wrong
and queer. The students will certainly eventually be
convinced that our order of things is as good as it
can be made, and besides it is so entertaining to hear
once in a while another opinion."
With an expression of fatherly love, Dr. Leete
placed his right hand on Edith's thick hair and said:
"The ladies of the court of Louis XVI. of France also
considered very entertaining the ideas that caused the
revolution and cost many of the "entertained" ladies
and gentlemen their heads beneath the guillotine. -
Ideas are little sparks. They may easily cause a
conflagration if not watched".




CHAPTER III.


MY studies had never been directed to questions
of national economy. I had never thought of comparing the merits of competition with those of communism. When Dr. Leete had explained in his positive and still fascinating manner the new order of
things I had hardly noticed that it was based on
communistic principles.  I thought humanity had
reached at last the millennium, and when Dr. Leete
stated that his easy and even luxurious way of living
represented the average style of the people of the
twentieth century, I had no doubt that everybodwr
was satisfied with the new order of things.
My cool reception by the students and my conversation with Mr. Forest had convinced me, that not
every inhabitant of the United States in the 2oooth
year of our Lord considered the present order of
things the millennium and I must say that I noticed
the dissatisfaction with sincere sorrow.  For a sweet
peace, a tcanquillity never felt before, had filled my
heart, when Dr. Leete spoke of the absolute happiness
of the men of the twentieth century.
My new profession imposed upon me the duty of
studying national economy. Of course I could have
pictured simply the social and political circumstances, in which the people of the United States had




LOOKING FORWARD.


29


lived 113 years ago, but this would not have satisfied
me. I desired to learn, how the civilizations of the
two centuries, if impartially judged, would compare.
Therefore I cultivated my acquaintance with Mr.
Forest, to hear from him the arguments against the
theories set forth by Dr. Leete, although a feeling of
discomfort always overwhelmed me, whenever the
thought came to me, that Forest's ideas might prove
victorious over the principles advanced by Dr. Leete,
For a victory won by Forest could mean nothing else
but a return to a state of affairs, which I thoroughly
disliked, and which I knew to be full of cares and
discomforts.
I confined my next lecture to an accurate discription of the state of the labor market of Boston in
1887. Avoiding carefully all exaggerations, I drew
only indisputable conclusions from the facts given,
showing how capital and labor had lost equally by
the numerous strikes in those days and complimenting the present order of things, for making such
irrational economical conflicts impossible.
After my lectures I always conversed with Mr.
Forest, who was quite as willing to discuss the new
order of society as Dr. Leete.
"The friends of the administration are calling me
a fault-finder", said Mr. Forest, "and they are right,
although they might express their opinion with more
civility, if they said, that I am critically disposed.
I would criticise every administration under which it
chanced to be my destiny to live, however good or




30


LOOKING FORWARD.


bad that administration might be.  I do not harbor
any animosity against the men, who rule the United
States to-day. I even admit that they exercise a
little more wisdom, energy and tolerance, than did
the members of the government, which ruled twelve
years ago. But the fundamental principle of their
system is decidedly wrong and so the consequences
must be bad; - whatever the members of the administration may do to patch up the shortcomings of
their system".
"So you think that the present system is absolutely
wrong?" I queried.
"Can you entertain any doubts?" answered Forest.
"Look around! Is the leading principle in creation
equality or variety? You find sometimes similitude but
never conformity. Botanists have carefully compared
thousands of leaves, which looked exactly alike at
the first glance, but which after close examination
were found to possess striking dissimilarities. Inequality is the law of nature and the attempt to establish
equality is therefore unnatural and absurd.  Whereever such experiments have been made, they have
ended in unqualified failure. Even some of the first
Christians, moved by brotherly love and charity,
failed in their efforts to establish communism permanently. And the lamented Procrustes used two bedsteads in which he placed his victims. He could not
get along with one size for everybody. We may just
as well try to make every man six feet long, forty-two
inches around his chest, with a Grecian nose, blue




LOOKING FORWARD.               31
eyes, light hair and a lyric tenor voice, as to attempt
to equalize all lives and reduce them to a communistic
state.-Now consider, in connection with the difference in the mental and physical powers of men, their
different inclinations and tastes, the variety of their
occupations, and then say, whether the establishment
of society on the basis of communism, of absolute
equality, is possible."
"If I have formed a just appreciation of the organization of your society, you have recognized the right
of all men to a living by giving everybody an equal
share of the products of labor", I objected; "but at
the same time you give everybody the chance to
select the profession or trade most to his taste and
you have graded the men, belonging to a guild, thus
inciting the ambition of the worker, to reach a higher
grade, and creatiug a diversity of positions, adapted
to that disimilarity of men, you were just speaking
of".
"Yes", said Forest, "we first established the principle
of equality and then proceeded to arrange our system
upon a basis of inequality, thus avoiding an open
avowal that the new organization of society was a
failure in both theory and practice. The question
before us is a very plain one: "Are we all alike"? If
we are, then communism is the proper form of society
and everybody should have an equal share of the
products of labor.  If we are not alike, if we differ
in mental power and in physical ability, if the results
of the labor of men are different, then there is no
reason, why the wealth of the nation should be




33


32     LOOKING FORWARD.


equally divided. But we first proclaim equality and
pretend that we divide the products of labor equally
among all;-and then we divide the "workers into
first, second and third grades, according to ability,
and these grades are subdivided into first and second
classes."*) Here we see the workers subdivided into
six classes for the reason, expressly stated, that their
ability differs. That their diligence also differs is
not admitted, but it is nevertheless the fact. The
inequality of men is thus distinctly recognized, but
the products of labor are equally divided in the name
of equality! Now, everybody has a natural right to
the products of his activity, but we are taking a large
share of the results of the labor of a clever worker of
class A of the first grade to give it to a lazy fellow of
class B of the third grade. This is downright robbery,
not even hidden beneath the shabby cloak of the leading principle governing all the acts of the administration; and all those who can fiot admire this stealing, are denounced as enemies of the best organization of society, ever known in the history of
mankind".
"You are to a certain extent an admirer of the
civilization of the nineteenth century", I answered;
"and yet in our times the employers were accuried by
some of the labor agitators of "stealing" a large
amount of the products of work by reaping very
large profits and paying small wages. I would rather
favor an equal division of all properties than a
*) Page 12 5.




LOOKING FORWARD.


33


system, by which a comparatively small number of
employers can enrich themselves at the expense of
the masses of the laboring people."
"I am not an admirer of the civilzation of the nineteenth century, Mr. West," Forest exclaimed. "I
simply maintain, that the principles of competition
under which society worked a hundred years ago was
far superior to the communism, under which we are
laboring. The unjust profits of the employers, of
which you complain, could have been easily done
away with, if your workmen had organized themselves
into co-partnerships or associations. There was no
law a hundred years ago to prevent a dozen shoemakers renting a loft with steam power, purchasing
a few sewing and other machines and making boots
and shoes at their own risk. There was no law to
prevent all the other workingmen buying their boots
and shoes at the shop of the co-operative association,
thus securing for the members of the latter the profits
of the manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer and workman. The laborers of all the different trades had a
perfect right to organize such co-operative societies
and thus secure all the profit that was in their labor.
If the workmen preferred not to make use of this
chance, if they did not care to assume the cares and
risks of conducting a business for themselves, if they
would rather work for an employer, leaving the cares
and risks of the managements entirely to him, they
had certainly no reason to complain of the profit of




34


LOOKING FORWARD.


the employer. And if they were not satisfied with
their treatment they could at any time seek other employment; - a thing that the workmen of our days
can not do, for there is only one employer, the
national administration. - The principle, that a man
has a right to what he produces, was not questioned
under your form of production. But we have in
the name of equality and justice established the
"right" to rob an industrious man of a part of the
product of his labor and give this booty to his lazy
comrade. If the workingmen of the nineteenth century, instead of sacrificing enormous sums in strikes,
had organized one trade after another into co-operative associations, they would have solved what they
styled the social questions with comparatively little
trouble. And they would have saved us from the
present outrageous form of society."
"The strikes were an effect merely of the concentration of capital in greater masses, than had ever
been known before", I said, repeating the views of
Dr. Leete on this question. "Before this concentration began.... the individual workman was relatively
important and independent in his relations to his
employers. Moreover, when a little capital or a new
idea was enough to start a man in business for
himself, workingmen  were constantly  becoming
employers and there was no hard or fast line between
the two classes. Labor unions were needless then
and general strikes out of the question".*)
*) Page 52.




LOOKING FORWARD.


35


"In your place, Mr. West, I would not endorse
those sentences of Dr. Leete", said Forest with a
smile, "for the Doctor has had frequent occasions to
change his mind on this subject and persists in
repeating his erroneous statements, although I and
others have disproved them until further repetitions
of our arguments became tedious. Strikes are not,
as Dr. Leete pretends to believe, comparatively late
appearances on the battle fields of national economy.
One of the biggest strikes that ever occurred, the
"secessio in montem sacrum", took place in Rome
as early as 494 before Christ, and, during the centuries
of the middle ages, strikes for higher wages frequently
occurred, although in those days labor was much
better organized  (in trades unions, guilds and
"Zuenfte") and more powerful than capital. And as
for the impossibility of laborers ever becoming employers, I can show you in the college library a copy
of the German paper, the "Freie Presse", published
in the city of Chicago anno I888, where the editor,
in contradicting similar statements of the communists
of those days, points to the fact, that in 1888 there
were 12,000 German house owners, manufacturers and
well to do or rich business men in Chicago, who all
had come to the city poor. When these Germans
came to Chicago only a very few of them spoke
English, still they were able to acumulate fortunes.
This disproves the statement, that the people at the
end of the last century were in the clutches of capital and unable to free themselves, - It is the easiest




36


LOOKING FORWARD.


thing in the world to make wild statements, but it is
sometimes difficult to substantiate them. And Dr.
Leete is an adapt at making statements".
"But are you not getting along in good style?" I
asked, hoping to stop Forest's complaints, by pointing to an undisputable fact. "Are you not enjoying
an unprecedented prosperity and is not this general
result, the definite annihilation of poverty, an achievement worth small sacrifices? "
"We are not getting along in good style.  We are
not enjoying an unprecedented prosperity. You will
discover very soon, that you are overestimating the
character and the fruits of our civilization. And so
far as the annihilation of poverty is concerned, it
amounts practically to nothing but the enrichment of
the awkward, stupid and lazy people, with the proceeds of the work of the clever and industrious
women and men. You could have done that 113
years ago, but you were not foolish and unjust
enough to commit such a robbery."
"If the people don't like the present organization
of society, why do they not change it?" I asked.
"From your remarks, I have drawn the conclusion,
that you have no opposition party worth speaking of,
for you said, there are only a few opposition papers
published in the country.  This seems to prove that
the people are satisfied with the present state of
affairs".
Forest looked very severe as he answered: "You
are of course under the impression, that we are acting




LOOKING FORWARD.


37


with the same liberty you were enjoying iI3 years
ago. But everything in political life has changed
since those days.  With the exception of a limited
number of government officials and a few contractors,
your citizens were perfectly independent of the administration; to-day the administration rules everything, and everybody is more or less dependent upon
the good will of our rulers. Whoever dares to openly
oppose the ruling spirits may be sure that all the
wrath and all the unpleasantness at the command of
the administration, will be piled upon him and his
relatives and friends. Therefore the number of men
who are daring enough to challenge the ire of the
government is very small, although a great many are
discontented with the present state of affairs."
"But why don't people elect men to congress, who
would pass laws, that would change a state of things,
so unsatisfactory to the masses? " I asked, satisfied,
that Forest in his fault-finding mood, was using his
dark paint altogether to freely.
"Congress has very little influence nowadays",
Forest answered. "The power rests almost entirely
with the president and the chiefs of the ten great
departments. They have well nigh absolute power
and resemble somewhat the council of ten in Venice,
when that aristocratic Republic was at the height of
its power.  As it lies within their discretion to
assign each and every person to a good or a poor
position for twenty-four years and even to order a
draft from the ranks of the men over forty-five years




38


LOOKING FORWARD.


of age, thus being able to get disliked men back
under the direct discipline of the industrial army,
they have a power over all the people that no tyrant
of your times ever dreamed of establishing".
"You know of course", Mr. Forest continued, "that
all recruits belong for the first three years of their
service to the class of unskilled or common laborers.
It is not until after this period, during which he is
assignable to any work at the discretion of his superiors, that the young man is allowed to select a special
avocation".*)  You can readily see that the young
man is during these three years at the absolute mercy
of his superiors. They may assign him to easy and
clean work, or they may send him to do a dirty and
unhealthy job. He has to obey orders. For "a man
able to do duty and persistently refusing, is sentenced
to solitary imprisonment on bread and water until he
consents".t)
"You know furthermore, that "individual records
are kept and that excellence receives distinction, corresponding with the penalties that negligence incurs."
Dr. Leete has undoubtedly told you this and furthermore "that it is not policy with us to permit youthful recklessness or indiscretion, when not deeply
culpable, to handicap the future careers of young
men and that all who have passed the unclassified
grade without serious disgrace, have an equal opportunity to choose the life employment they have the
*) Page 70.
t) Page 128.




LOOKING FORWARD.


39


most liking for.... Now not only are the individual
records of these apprentices for ability and industry
strictly kept and excellency distinguished by suitable
distinctions, but upon the average of his record during his apprenticeship the standing given the apprentice among the full workmen depends.... *)  While
the internal organizations of the various industries,
mechanical and agricultural, differ according to their
peculiar conditions, they agree in a general division
of their workers into first, second and third grades,
according to ability, and these grades are in many
cases subdivided into first and second classes. According to his standing as an apprentice, a young
man is assigned his place as a first, second or third
grade worker.   Regradings take place in each in
dustry at intervals, corresponding with the length of
the apprenticeship.... One of the notable advantages of a high grading, is the privilege it gives the
worker to select which of the various branches or
processes of his industry he will follow as his specialty"t)....  Dr. Leete has of course further informed you, "that so far as possible, the preferences
of the poorest workman are considered in assigning
him his line of work.... While however the wish
of the lower grade man is consulted so far as the
exigencies of the service permit, he is considered only
after the upper grade men are provided for, and often
he has to put up with second or third choice or even
*) Page 124.
t) Page 125.




4~


LOOKING FORWARD.


with an arbitrary assignment when help is needed.
This privilege of selection attends every regrading,
and when a man loses his grade, he also risks having
to exchange the sort of work he likes best for some
other less to his taste....  High places in the nation
are open only to the highest class men."*)
These regulations bear out what I just said in regard
to the power of the administration. The lieutenants,
captains and colonels, are appointed by the generals
of the guild, who in turn are under the command of
the ten chiefs of the ten great departments. These
officers may give their young friends, who enter the
industrial army as apprentices, easy jobs and good
records and enable their friends on the strength of
their records, as soon as they have passed the first
three years of service, to enter the first class of the
first grade of a trade. And such a favorite, who,
backed by influential friends, has passed an easy time
as an apprentice and who has received at once the
first class of the first grade of his trade is immediately
appointable to a lieutenantship and he can run up to
the higher honors in a few years. - You can not deny,
Mr. West, that orr regulations permit such a favoritism."
I had to admit that such things were possible.
Mr. Forest continued: "On the other hand, the
young men, who are not the sons and friends of our
leaders, are fortunate if they can secure a second
grade position, with a record, that does not exclude
*) Pages 125 and 126.




LOOKING FORWARD.


41


all hopes of further promotion. Relatives of outspoken opponents of the administration, can be
placed in the second class of the third grade of their
trade, and their record can be so kept, that they can
never hope to secure a higher position. And such a
favoritism is not only possible, but it absolutely does
exist. The sons and relatives of men, who are known
as opponents of the administration, have practically
to live worse than slaves, and are sometimes treated
like foot balls".
"Is there no court of appeals?" I asked.
"Yes, such an abused man or woman can go to a
Judge", Mr. Forest answered. "But, the minorJudges
are merely men who have passed the 45th year of age
and have been appointed to such a position for five
years by the president. They - as Dr. Leete of
course told you-adjudicate all cases where a member
of the industrial army makes a complaint of unfairness against an officer. All such questions are heard
and settled without appeal by a single Judge, three
Judges being required only in graver cases.  The
efficiency of industry requires the strictest discipline
in the army of labor"*)- The men appointed by the
President are of course trustworthy friends of the
administration and not expected to decide in such
cases against the officers of the government and in
favor of the "Kickers". And as such cases are
settled without appeal, the ill-used member of the
industrial army has to go back to his old position,
*) Page 20o6.




42


LOOKING FORWARD.


where the superior, whom he has accused, will certainly not treat him better than before. On the
contrary, such an officer has a first-class chance to
"get even" with his dissatisfied subordinate, especially
at the next regrading, when he can put him into the
last class and grade, if the unfortunate fellow is not
already there. If such is the case, the offended
officer can at least assign the "Kicker" to the most
objectionable work".
The picture, thus drawn by Mr. Forest, appeared
so dreadful, especially when compared by me with
the descriptions of Dr. Leete, that I could not collect
myself sufficiently to try an argument against the
conclusions of my predecessor in the professorship
of the history of the nineteenth century..
After a short pause the present janitor continued:
"Now consider in connection with all the facts and
institutions that I have mentioned, that "the workers
have no suffrage to exercise or anything to say about
the choice" of their superiors.*)-"The general of
the guild appoints to the ranks under him, but he
himself is not appointed, but chosen by suffrage
among the superintendents by vote of the honorary
members of the guilds, that is by those who have
served their time in the guild and received their discharge"t). - So my dear Mr. West, the members of
the industrial army are twenty-four years absolutely
at the mercy of their superiors. If they desire to
*) Page 277.
t) Page 189.




LOOKING FORWARD.


43


have a good time they must blindly obey orders and
seek favor by all means in their power. They must
influence their friends who have votes not only to
stand by the administration, but to do it in a demonstrative manner. Occasional presents of wines and
cigars may secure the friendship of some of the
officers.  Otherwise the member Of the industrial
army may lead for twenty-four years a life, compared
with which the lot of a plantation slave or of the poorest coal digger 150 years ago would be called an enviable fate. For a plantation slave was considered a
valuable piece of property and not recklessly destroyed,
while the poorest coal digger could leave his job and
go to some other place, until he found more suitable employment. A member of our industrial army,
who has drawn down upon himself the ire of the
officers of the administration or who is placed on the
list of the enemies of society on account of the opposition of his voting relatives, leads a life that may
be termed as "twenty four years of hell on earth"!
I have demonstrated to you now, Mr. West, why
congress has no influence. The vast majority of its
members are continually trying to please the administration, for the purpose of securing favors for themselves, their relatives and their friends," said Mr.
Forest in conclusion.  "And this is the equality of
the best organization society ever had; this is what
Dr. Leete calls the millennium".




CHAPTER IV.


"It is in conformity with the laws of nature and,
therefore, right that a man should push his son, his
relatives and friends, and I would not blame a man
for doing this; I should rather denounce him for not
doing it-always provided, of course, that said son,
said relatives or friends were qualified to fill the
positions to which they are appointed", said Mr.
Forest at our next conversation. "I remember that I
have read in certain books a great deal about the
nepotism shown at your time in the distribution of
the federal patronage, and that General Grant was
accused of always preferring his relatives and friends
in making appointments. I sympathize with that
great commander in the sturdiness with which he
stood by his friends, and I am inclined to excuse the
mistakes, he sometimes made in his appointments,
because they were mistakes of his heart that was al
ways true to his friends and sometimes was inclined
to overestimate their ability, or sense of honor. If
the ties of blood and friendship are not to be considered, what else should be? And since a man is bound
to know the character and ability of his relatives and
friends better than the qualities of other people, he




LOOKING FORWARD.


45


should certainly first appoint those next to him to
positions for which they are qualified."
"But the trouble with our political and social system is, that it is bound to breed not only favoritism,
but also corruption on the largest scale. One hundred and thirteen years ago, the men at the head of
the National Government or those who were influential with them were also sometimes filling places,
where for little work a good salary was paid, with
unworthy women and men, but such sinecures were
comparatively few and far between. The number of
federal officials in your days was, if I am not mistaken about 8o,000, and the postmasters of the small
country towns, who made up the largest part of the
8o,000 were paid such a beggarly commission for the
sale of postage stamps, that no one could afford to
accept such positions except trades people, who kept
a store, where they had to be all day anyhow, and to
whom the honor and small profits were an object.
And then the incumbents of all the offices that could
be classed as sinecures, were changed every four or
eight years. Our administrations have a very long
life. The one ousted twelve years ago lasted twentysix years. And the number of positions at the command of the government is very large. There is one
lieutenant or overseer to about each and every twelve
men or women, not to mention the captains, colonels,
etc.; and the amount of bookkeeping done, is simply
enormous.   We are keeping books as you know, I
suppose, in all the producing as well as in the distribu



46


LOOKING FORWARD.


ting departments, and more than that: every citizen
has an account in the police books*).
"When you take into consideration our great and
growing population, you can form some idea of how
enormous this work is. You are aware, that the
North American territory, formerly under British rule,
has been annexed to the United States, and that the
population, according to the census of 1990, numbered
414,000,000. It is now estimated at 500,000,000**).
The complicated system of bookkeeping required by
the communistic plan of production, and the shortness of working hours granted to the bookkeepers,
who are all preferred men and women, favorites of
the members of the administration, made it necessary
to appoint a bookkeeper for every fifty people. Under the former administration we had one bookkeeper
for every forty-two people. This gives to the government a chance to provide, at its own pleasure,
over io,ooo,ooo of men and women with clean aud
easy work. Add to theseio,ooo,ooo of positions about
10,000,ooo officers of the industrial army, from the
lieutenantships up to the positions of colonel; add,
furthermore, the clerkshi s in the distributing places
*) Page 87.
**) The first census of the United States was taken in 179o,
when 3,929,314 people were counted. In I88o the population
numbered 50,155,738, and in 1890 it is about 68,ooo,ooo. In one
hundred years it has been multiplied by 16. If the rate of increase
should continue to be the same, the United States would have in
1990, without the population of Canada, about I,040,000,000 of
poople. I have figured an increase of about twenty percent for
each decade, which would give for the year 2000 about 500
millions of inhabitants for the United States and Canada.




OOKING FORWARD.


47


and many other preferred positions, and you can see
at a glance what an enormous power the administration possesses and how tempting this power is."
"But is it not necessary for those applying for the
responsible position of a bookkeeper to have passed
through a course of study in order to be qualified for
such important duties?" I inquired.
"Bookkeeping is part of the instruction in our
schools", Mr. Forest answered, "and the bookkeeping
in the public offices is not well done. So the responsibility, resting on the shoulders of the favorites of the
members of the administration, does not harass the
minds of these preferred people very much.   It
is, of course, impossible for an outsider to obtain an insight into the workings of the present administration,
and to know how the books are kept. But when the late
administration went out of office twelve years ago, an
unfathomable pool of corruption was uncovered. An
inventory of the goods on hand was taken, and it was
stated that the books showed a shortage of more than
four hundred and thirty-two million dollars. The
members of the ousted administration declared this
statement to be entirely false, that it had been "doctored" by the experts of the administration, for the
purpose of casting discredit upon the members of the
old government. The accused officers admitted that
shortages were possible, for the reason, that all the
clerks whose duty it was to measure goods, were
inclined to give the people good weight and large
measure, but that these shortages would not reach the




48


LOOKING FORWARD.


figure of $432,ooo,ooo, and that the deficiency could
not be considered as a proof of want of honesty on
the part of the old officers.  On the other hand, the
new officers claimed, that the enormous shortages
were due to the corruption of the members and
prominent supporters of the ousted administration,
who had always overdrawn their accounts, and had
not been charged with the goods taken out in excess
of their credit cards".
I asked Mr. Forest what ne thought of these
charges.
"I think, they were to a large extent well founded.
The temptation under our wretched system is too
great. That the leaders should give to their relatives
and next friends good positions would not be blameworthy, if the appointees were fit to fill the places
given them. But the best places, numbering in all
about twenty millions, are not filled with the best and
most able men. They go, so far as they are not given
to the relatives and friends of the leaders, to friends
of the administration, in order to keep the latter in
power. They are given to the sons and relatives and
friends of the most active supporters of the government. And even this would be tolerable, if the
favoritism stopped there, at the boundary of corruption and tyranny. But it does not".
"Are you accusing the present administration and
all its friends of corruption and tyranny?" I asked,
feeling that I should have to end my conversations




LOOKING FORWARD.


49


with Mr. Forest, if he should make disparaging
charges, even indirectly, against my host.
"I am speaking of a system and I am mentioning
only such facts and deeds as I can prove", Mr. Forest
answered. "I am not accusing men for any pleasure
it gives me to do so. I know that your question refers
to Dr. Leete and, though it is not a direct one, yet I
will meet it squarely. I regard Dr. Leete as one of
the best and purest of men among the party-leaders;
but he, also, is making use of the advantages that our
system offers to the men in power."
"Will you be kind enough to substantiate what you
say?" I asked quietly, but sharply.
"I will leave it to you to say, whether I am going
too far in my statement", Forest continued. "Did
not Dr. Leete inform you that he has been "cherishing
the idea of building a laboratory in the large garden
of his house?"*) And did he not tell you that he sent
for the workmen and that they unearthed the vault
in which you slept?"t)
"Indeed, Dr. Leete said that he intended to build a
chemical laboratory", I admitted; "but is not the
amount of his credit-card large enough to permit him
such an expenditure?"
Forest looked somewhat amused and asked me, if I
had ever looked at the total amount the credit-caid
called for. I confessed that I never had; noticing
that the style of living of Dr. Leete was luxurious
*) I'age 34.
t) Page 34.




LOOKING FORWARD.


enough for anybody, I had not troubled myself to
ascertain how much the country allowed each and
every inhabitant per year.
"Well", said Mr. Forest, "we will discuss the wealth
of the nation at some other time. To-day we will
continue to investigate the tendency of the communistic system to breed favoritism, corruption, servility
and suppression of opponents. - As for Dr. Leete,
he is building his laboratory in spite of the fact, that
such an enterprise is entirely against the intention and
spirit of our institutions. There is a very good laboratory of the kind in the basement of this college,
and Dr. Leete would certainly be welcome, if he should
ask permission to experiment there at his pleasure.
His influence, if nothing else, would secure him a
permit. But vanity causes him to erect a superfluous
building, which will give the Radicals a new and visible argument against the ruling clique".
"What Radicals are you speaking of?" I asked.
"I am refering to the radical communists who
object to the present state of affairs, because they
desire to abolish religious services, matrimony and
all personal-property, institutions that are at present
tolerated. We will speak of our political parties and
their principles later. I simply desired to establish
to your own satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, the fact,
that Dr. Leete is erecting for his private use and in
violation of communistic principles, a chemical laboratory, a very expensive affair, for which the creditcards of ten men would not pay, and thus challenging




LOOKING FORWARD.


5I


the criticism of all the enemies of the administration".
"Cannot Dr. Leete pay a fair rent for the laboratory?" I rejoined. 1"I should think that the abundance of labor could not be used to a better advantage
than to erect buildings, the rent for which will increase the income of the nation".
"But there is no abundance of labor, as you will
discover in due time", said Forest. "And if you will
imagine what would happen, if every citizen should
demand a similar outlay of labor and instruments to
please his notions, you will undoubtedly see, that Dr.
Leete is assuming an exceptional position, which, not
only savors of favoritism but, also, involves an indiscreet abuse of power, calculated to create bad
blood".
I could not very well refute the arguments of Mr.
Forest, and so was silent.
"But favoritism and the occasional abuse of power
for the accommodation of men like Dr. Leete, are not
the worst features of our present form of government", he continued, "and the fact that influential
men frequently receive presents of silks, furs, and
jewelry for their wives and daughters, and of wine
and cigars for themselves, from people seeking the
intercession of these powerful men, in order to procure preferred positions for themselves or for relatives and friends, could also be borne although, of
course, they are proofs of political corruption. But
the worst consequences of this damnable communism
are tyranny and the possibility of brutal persecution




52


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of the opponents of the administration on the one
hand, and servility, adulation and calumny on the
other. Every man and every body of men who have
gained certain advantages or occupy desired positions will defend themselves against all attacks of
their opponents. So will political parties try to keep
themselves in power by rewarding their faithful workers and by crowding back their opponents. It is,
therefore, very dangerous to invest a great government with arbitrary powers, which permit the rulers
to make the people dependent upon the good will of
their officers, even in their daily occupation, all their
life long".
"According to your description the present state of
society appears to be an unbearable condition of
affairs", I said.
"If you inquire among the members of the different
guilds, especially among the farmers," Mr. Forest
continued, "you will find that I am describing things
just as they are. Every member of the industrial
army knows that ability and industry alone will secure
a desirable position only in exceptional cases, if at
all; that political influence is the almighty factor in
every affair of our lives, and that the industrial army
is governed by officers whom the worker must try to
please, by personal adulation, by presents, by a slavish devotion to the orders of the superiors, and
indirectly by inducing all the members of his family
and all his friends to support every measure and
every member of the administration. If the mem



LOOKING FORWARD.


53


bers of the industrial army could elect their officers,
the discipline would of course, not be so strict, as it is
now; but even an occasional row amongst the men
would be preferable to the present state of affairs,
where every one who happens to be unpopular with
the ruling party is leading a terrible existence. The
number of suicides is therefore becoming larger every
year and is to-day four times greater than in your
times".
"The number of suicides in European armies 113
years ago was very large", I remarked thoughtfully,
"although the men had everything they needed in the
line of lodging, food and clothing".
"Yes," said Forest, "the necessities of life without
liberty are of little value.  The soldiers of your
time threw away their lives, because they did not
consider a life without freedom worth living, and still
their term of service lasted only three or five years,
and they had but a comparatively easy duty to perform in times of peace. The service in our industrial
army lasts, at the best, 24 years of our life. The
men and women are at the mercy of their officers,
and they can appeal against maltreatment to other
members of the administration only to judges who
decide definitely such cases, generally by simply
sending back the complainants to their work with an
admonishment to try to win the good will of their
superiors, and thus secure promotion."
"You have been speaking about politicians, Mr.
Forest", I said. "Do many men take an active part
in political life?"




54


LOOKING FORWARD.


"I should say they did", my predecessor answered.
"Many of the men from 45 years upwards, and many
women do little else, except busy themselves with
politics. They can live on their credit-cards wherever
they please, and many of them prefer to spend their
time in Washington, "hustling around" in a very lively
fashion, trying to gain favors for their friends, and for
such people as address themselves to the hustlers.
The lobby in the halls of Congress in your days is
described as a bad crowd, but to compare it with
the hustlers of our days, would be like comparing a
Sunday school with pandemonium.    Millions of
people who desire better work or promotion, and who
have nothing to hope from the influence they are
able to command at home, write to the hustlers at
Washington to secure their services."
"But what can the seekers of favors offer to those
who live in Washington for the purpose of gaining
favor for other people, and whom we may call the
lobbyists of the twentieth century?" I inquired. "In
the present day, men do not accumulate fortunes."
"Indeed, they do not", answered Mr. Forest with a
smile. "But some people desire to have occasionally
a "high time" and to spend five or ten times the
amount of their credit-card during each year. Some
of our administration leaders keep, what we may
style, a "great house". They receive guests and entertain them with delicacies and wine. Some of the
most prominent lobbyists do the same thing. An
applicant for favors has to give up a part or perhaps




LOOKING FORWARD.


55


nearly all of his credit-card, and he may look to his
future subordinates for a rich compensation".
"But why are people not satisfied with their legitimate income"? I asked, painfully surprised to see that
wire-pulling and corruption were quite as prevalent
as they had been 113 years ago. "Is not the income a
credit-card affords sufficient to support people?"
"You can never satisfy the people", Forest said,
"Nowadays the clever and industrious part of the
people feel that they are robbed for the benefit of
their lazy, awkward or stupid comrades, that they
have to submit to the impudence and blackmailing of
some of their superiors, or else undergo humiliating
treatment. And even the men and women of the
lowest ability, who are benefited by our present system,
are not all of them pleased. Some of them would
rather do away with personal property and separate
housekeeping. In fact, but a very small portion of
our citizens are really satisfied. - And people who
are fond of good cooking, costly meals and Havana
cigars, certainly cannot pay for such luxuries, and
have to depend upon others if they desire to enjoy
them. We have in Washington, also, a great many
young women, who prefer flirtation, fine meals and a
fast life to the regular employment in the industrial
army or the life of an ordinary good wife".
"Then prostitution still flourishes in Washington",
f exclaimed with amazement.
"Indeed it does", Mr. Forest assented. "Of course,
these girls hold clerical positions in the different de



56


LOOKING FORWARD.


partments, but these positions are sinecures. I understand from friends who have seen part of the secret
life at the capitol, (and it is not so very secret either)
that some of the higher officials spend fifty times the
amount of their credit cards with these women. A
part of their income is obtained from those seeking
favors, who willy-nilly give up a part of their credit
cards. Another part of the values squandered by influential persons, comes from the public storehouse,
where only a small proportion of the value taken out
by the influential people, is pricked from their credit
cards by the clerks, who are fully aware what is expected of them, if they desire to retain their positions;
for if they should treat the leaders of the ruling party
like common laborers, they would be degraded to
class B of their third grade. The glitter of corruption
proves attractive to many men and women, as I
have stated before, and the population of Washington,
therefore, exceeds that of any other city on the American continent."
"But, I cannot understand, why the people tolerate
such a corrupt and tyrannical government as you
describe," I said, "and I am satisfied that your
hypochondriac disposition is befogging somewhat the
keenness of your eyesight and the clearness of your
judgment."
"It is your own fault if you remain in doubt as to
the perfect correctness of my statements", Mr. Forest
said. "If you, for instance, should desire to take a
vacation for the purpose of giving our rulers in




LOOKING FORWARD.


57


Washington one of your enthusiastic lectures, you
will cheerfully be granted leave of absence from your
duties as professor and will be received at the capitol
in grand style. For the enthusiasm displayed by you
for our institutions, as compared with the civilization
of the nineteenth century, will pour water on the mill
wheels of our administration. You will find the state
of affairs precisely as I have described them to be,
and by conversing with the rank and file of the supporters of the administration, you will find that they
are upholding the present state for the reason that they
despair of their ability to improve public affairs, and
because they are afraid of a rule still worse, under the
radicals".
"How could a state of public affairs be worse than
the one you have pictured to me in your conversations", I exclaimed.
"Many people are afraid that the Radicals would
prohibit marriages and would force free love with
all its consequences upon the people.  In fact, the
radical newspapers - the only sheets that speak out
boldly against the administration and strike from the
shoulder - are denouncing religion, marriage, separate house-keeping and the limited amount of property people are permitted to own".
"But, how can the tone of the Radical press be
reconciled with your statement that the administration is treating its opponents so badly"? I asked.
"If it is the custom of the government to confine its
opponents in insane asylums, why are the Radical




58


LOOKING FORWARD.


newspapers permitted to advocate such abominable
principles"?
Mr. Forest laughed and replied: "The Radical
editors are favored exceptions. They are doing
good service for the administration in scaring the
mass of the people into submission. Whenever an
election of generals of the guilds is near at hand, the
Radical press is permitted to howl to the best ability
of its editors. Then, a few days before the election,
the administration organs copy extracts from the
rabid and nonsensical utterances of such papers,
and ask the people, if they desire that kind of government, urge the voters to stand by the administration which can, of course, not please everybody in all
points, but which is the best any people on earth
ever had, and so forth ad infinitum".
"Then the Radical editors are simply tolerated as
bugbears, while the more moderate writers are not
permitted to oppose the administration?"
"Exactly", rejoined Mr. Forest. "But I am afraid,
the government is playing a very dangerous game.
The Radicals are undoubtedly gaining ground and
have amongst their followers very desperate men,
who may at any time raise the black flag of destruction. If we had a free and independent people, the
danger would not be so great. Then the masses of
free men would rally to the defence of their beloved
institutions. But as matters now stand, the masses
are accustomed to submission under a rule of a
minority, and the determined uprising of a body of




LOOKING FORWARD.


59


desperate men would find but a comparatively small
number of citizens ready to fight for the present
order of things. And it will be a bad day for humanity, when the Radicals come into power".
"But, you said that about twelve years ago the
government lost an election. That shows, that it
can be beaten in a square fight, and you further said
that the present rulers are better citizens than the
men that formed the last administration".
"There is certainly some improvement, but it is
nothing very remarkable. It amounted, in substance,
to a change of men, but not to a change of system.
Favoritism, corruption and prostitution have decreased somewhat, but they have not been stamped
out. They still flourish. People who were very
enthusiastic at the time of the election and hoped for
a clean and popular administration, have now lost
all confidence, that under the communistic rule there
can be such a thing as a just government. In substance, it has been, as I said, merely a change of personalities and, therefore, the confidence of the people
in the prevailing system has been destroyed. Consequently, the change has actually done more harm
than good. The strongest and most reliable element
to-day in favor of good government is the farming
population; but although the farmers are very
numerous, they represent one guild only. They have
but one general and one department chief, and are
outvoted by the representatives of the other guilds.
And on account of the opposition of the farmers to




60


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the administration they are not treated as well as the
members of the other guilds".
"Do they not receive the same credit cards as
other people"? I queried.
"They do, but they complain that they receive the
poorest goods, and that their share of public improvements and benefits is comparatively small; and
whenever there is a chance to discriminate against
their representatives, that chance is not lost. The
farmers would be the most reliable opponents to the
Radicals, but the treatment they are receiving from
the administration, has created so much dissatisfaction amongst the farming population, that we cannot
count upon them in a fight for the maintainance of
the present system or the present government.  To
give you an instance of the discrimination against
the farmers, I will mention the erection of music
halls, theatres and other places of evolution, recreation and amusement. It is, of course, impossible to
build a theatre or a concert hall at every country
crossroad, but the number of such public places
erected in the cities is entirely out of proportion to
those erected in the country towns and villages. The
administration relies for its support upon the city
people, upon such guilds as are recruited from the
population of the cities, and, therefore bends all its
energies to benefitting them. Then there is another
thing to be taken into account. The nation is frequently left with small lots of goods on its hands,
through changes of taste, unseasonable weather and




LOOKING FORWARD.


various other causes. These have to be disposed of
at a sacrifice, and the loss charged up to the expenses
of the business*). These goods the administration
can dispose of at any time when it chooses to claim
that the best prices can be realized. The members
of the administration are also judges as to what
goods are to be sold at a sacrifice. It has been
charged by the representatives of the farming population that such of these goods as are of poor quality
are largely given out to farmers, while other things
that are in first-class condition are disposed of in the
storehouses of the cities, at reduced prices, and that
in such instances favoritism and corruption are coming in. I do not care to endorse all the complaints,
our farmers make. They may lack foundation to a
great extent, but they prove the existence of a deep
dissatisfaction, and such charges could simply not be
made if our administration were not clothed with
power hitherto unheard of in the history of mankind.
It is the system itself that breeds all these evils".
"Have you not, besides the radical and the administration parties, other organizations fighting for the
control of the government"?
"We have the temperance people who have organized themselves; but they are simply striving within
the administration party to secure the control of the
government. The administration does not discriminate against the members of this organization. It
*) Page 186.




62


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gives them a chance to do their very best, but so far
they have not succeeded in making much headway".
"I notice that you are not giving the present system of society much credit for anything (lone under
its auspices.  Don't you think that the abolition
of absolute poverty, the elevation of all men and
women to a standard at least nearly equal, is a great
and priceless gain to humanity? I remember too
well the inexpressible sufferings of some of the poor
people of my days, and while I am not sufficiently
familiar with the present state of society, to endorse
or to contradict your statements, yet I prize the
abolishment of poverty so high, that I still cling to
the hope, in spite of your arguments to the contrary,
that the present form of society and of i)roduction
may overcome all the difficulties inseparable from all
human efforts and institutions".
"My dear Mr. West, I am glad to see you using
now in your last remarks in defense of communism
the same arguments the defenders of the old form of
production used against the communists of your days.
This simply proves two facts, viz.: that nothing is perfect under God's sun, and that every form of government is forced to admit this. The abolition of absolute poverty could have been accomplished as I can
and will prove later on, beyond a reasonable doubt,
without a descent into communism and the terrible
consequences of this worst system of production.
The fact, that the members and the officers of the
administration may, at their pleasure, treat the friends




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63


of their opponents, members of the industrial army,
like slaves; that even the friends of the government's
opponents who have gained comparatively good positions, can be placed in the second class of the third
grade at the yearly regradings, and that favoritism is
shown to all friends of the administration, has caused
adulation, servility, calumny and corruption, and
there was never a time in the history of the Saxon
race when there were in public business and social
life so little independence and manhood among the
citizens. When two hundred and thirty years ago
England tried to levy a tax upon tea, the Americans
rose up in arms, because they would not permit the
government to collect a tax unless it granted to the
Americans representation in the parliament which
imposed this tax. To-day the government controls
the labor of all men and women for twenty-four long
years, without giving the flower of the American people a chance to cast a vote, which shall shape the
form and policy of the government in conformity with
the wishes of those who produce the wealth of the
nation.  This state of slavery which never existed
before in the history of civilized nations, can not last
many years longer. It will go down in an ocean of
blood. For as the German poet Schiller says: Fear
not outrages from free men; but tremble when slaves
break their chains".




CHAPTER V.


From a heaven of peace and joy, from an ideal
state inhabited by good people only, Forest ha(l
thrown me into a deep dark sea of pity and doubt.
Dr. Leete and his family noticed, of course, the
disturbed state of my thoughts, and while the doctor
was evidently waiting for me to bring about a discussion of the social problems, Edith was anxious to
console me. She seemed to think that the strangeness of my surroundings and of my present position
was depressing me.
I carefully avoided an explanation. I had resolved
to continue the conversations with Mr. Forest, but
to form a clear opinion of my own by examiining into
the actual state of things, and thus find if the real
facts bore out the statements of Dr. Leete or those of
Mr. Forest. Therefore on my way to and from the
college I strolled along the streets and conversed with
all the people I met. I noticed with some surprise
that everybody was reserved, yes even shy, when I
commenced to ask about the administration of public
affairs, about the principles underlying our form of
government, about the behavior of the officers, the
management of the storehouses, and whether the people were satisfied and pleased, or not.




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65


Hardly ever did I meet an expression either of
cheerful contentment, or of decided dissatisfaction.
Only a few Radicals expressed themselves in strong
language against the present state of things and
against the leaders of the country, and a few women
said that they did not like the work in the factories
at all. But, although people were very reserved in
the expression of their feelings and thoughts, I became
convinced that contentment is as rare a flower in the
garden of communism as it was in the United States
of 113 years ago. The abominable language used by
the Radicals against the highest officers of the country could not, of course, convince me that the latter
were guilty of the charges preferred. But I could not
elicit from any other man or from any other women
of the rank and file of the industrial army a defense
of the accused men.  They evidently did not care to
antagonize anybody when they were not called upon
by one of their superiors to stand by the administration.
Thus, I was forced to the conclusion, that communistic rule did not create the universal happiness I
expected to find after my conversations with Dr.
Ieete. But I was inclined to think that people lived
well enough, without great cares, neither on the one
hand particularly content with their lot, nor on the
other inclined to change their system of production.
And it seemed to me that most of the people were
rather dull and did not take much interest in anything. One day when I reached the house of Dr.




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Leete after one of my promenades through the streets
of Boston, as I entered the hall, I heard a very loud
conversation in one of the rooms. The first words
that arrested my attention, spoken in a deep voice,
trembling with emotion, were: "Miss Edith has encouraged me to repeat my visits""We are always glad to see you here, Mr. Fest",
Dr. Leete replied. "We have all invited you."
"Yes, you have; but you understand very well
what I mean", the deep voice continued. "I have
called here so frequently and have to-day asked Miss
Edith to become my wife, because your daughter has
encouraged my hopes to win her love.  And now I
am coolly informed that 1 have made a great mistake,
and I see my suspicion confirmed, that this Bostonian
of the nineteenth century, duog out by you from his
grave in your garden, is the man whom Miss Edith
prefers to all others, even the one she encouraged
until a few days ago"'.
"Mr. Fest, I wish you ou ould represent the civilization of the twentieth century with more (lignity when
you are speaking of my (aughter and of my guest",
said Dr. Leete with some emotion in his voice.
"Of course, I must preserve my dignity when 1 have
been fooled by a base flirtation for over a year, and
make the discovery that the girl I love is to marry
a man 143 years old, in preference to me", Mr. Fest
said in deep bitterness and somewhat sneeringly.
"How can you utter such cruel and untrue words,"
Edith exclaimed with angry excitement". "Never




LOOKING FORWARD.


67


has the thought entered my mind that your feelings
toward me, your friend for over ten years, were anything but brotherly affection".
"It is time to end this conversation", interposed
Dr. Leete, "after the explanations given, Mr. Fest
undoubtedly feels, that our relations can not be continued".
"Of course, our relations can not be continued",
cried Mr. Fest in a rage. "I leave you now, and give
you, now and here, fair warning that I shall not enter
your house again as a friend.  If I ever come again,
it will be as an enemy to be avenged for the destruction of my happiness and the peace of my heart. Beware of that day"!
The reckless manner in which this man addressed
Edith and her father aroused my anger, and, entering
the room I said; "Please save your cheap pathos for
amateur theatricals and leave this room at once".
The man before me was about six feet and three
inches tall, with broad shoulders and two heavy fists.
IHe looked down upon me with an ironical glance
and said: "I will spare you this time, old man, but
the next occasion that you indulge in impudent language, I will put you in a bag and dump you into
Massachusetts Bay".
Before I could answer this pleasing threat, Mr. Fest
had left the room and the house.
"Who is this man?" I asked, turning to Dr. Leete,
with no attempt to conceal my displeasure.




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"He is a machinist, a very able man in his trade
and a captain in the industrial army", explained the
doctor. "His parents lived next door and when he
was a boy, hc used to play with Edith".
"If I were to judge the social manners of the officers of the industrial army, by the exlerience of this
hour, I should have to say that civilization has moved
very slowly and rather backward than ahead", I
remarked.
"It is an extraordinary case of atavism", said Dr.
Leete. "Such hotheadedness is very rare in our
days".
I did not care to begin just now, a conversation
that might have a very unpleasant termination. But I
could not repress the thought that 13 years ago the
manners and morals were such, that lineswere drawn
between the two sexes that were invisible but still
recognized by every one having a little sense of propriety, and that a man would hardly have felt as if he
had been encouraged, if it were not the case. I entertained not the slightest doubt that Edith had
behaved as well as any girl of her time. It was the
consequence of the tendency to equalize everything
that had, perhaps, effaced to a certain degree the fine
lines existing 113 years ago between good women and
men.   I remembered my question put to Dr. Leete:
"And so the girls of the twentieth century tell their
love"? and the doctor's answer: "If they choose.
There is no more pretense of a concealment of feel



LOOKING FORWARD.


69


ing on their part than on the part of their lovers".*)
-Yes, if girls tell their love just as men Co, then the
fine lines between the two sexes must be obliterated,
and a feeling of repulsion and uneasiness took posession of me.
"It may become necessary to place Mr. Fest, at
least for a few months, under medical treatment",
remarked Dr. Leete thoughtfully. "He is certainly in
a high state of excitement, and It is not unlikely that
he may commit a rash act which he would repent
afterwards".
"One hundred and thirteen years ago we would have
placed such a man under bonds to keep the peace,"
I said, considering with terror the idea, that a man
could be placed in an insane asylum for uttering a
few rash words.
"And if, in violation of his bond, he committed a
breach of the peace", said the doctor, "what did you
then do with such a man"?
"We punished him according to the laws covering
the case, either by imprisonment or by a fine, or in
cases of murder, by putting the criminals to death".
"We place a man in whom atavism makes its appearance, in a hospital where competent physicians
take care of him until they consider him sufficiently
cured to be released", said Dr. Leete, with an expression of great satisfaction and kindness, as he
lighted a fresh havana cigar.
"I think you are running no great risk, papa, if you
allow that man to attend to the duties of his posi,
*) Page 266.




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tion", Edith remarked. "He is quick tempered and
hot-headed; but he will soon become composed"
"I am not so sure about that", Dr. Leete said
slowly. "I remember that he has always shown deep
strong feeling- whenever he had set his heart upon
anything. He may, and he may not, calm down. It
is dangerous to take any chances with such a man".
Conflicting sentiments and ideas filled my heart
and head. I felt that if I continued the conversation it might end in a conflict with Dr. Leete, and I
was in no mood to engage in any discussion with him.
So I excused myself on the plea of a bad head ache,
and left the house to take a walk.
The experience of the last hour did not savor much
of the millennium. Here was a man holding the
rank of an officer of the industrial army, and roughly
and rudely accusing Edith of flirtation. His behavior
certainly did not correspond with the high praise Dr.
Leete gave to the culture and education of the young
people of the twentieth century. At all events this
conflict between Fest and the family of Dr. Leete
demonstrated that contentment is not secured to
humanity by the simple introduction of communism,
by securing for everybody lodging, clothing and
a sufficient quantity of good food. Envy and jealousy
threatened our love, and Mr. Fest seemed to be just
the kind of a man to make his displeasure felt. The
manner in which Dr. Leete proposed to prevent a
rash act of the enraged lover appeared to me even
more disagreeable than the prospect of a personal




LOOKING FORWARD.


71


encounter with Mr. Fest.  And again the question
arose before my mind whether Edith Bartlett, my
fianc6e of 1887 would ever have given a man an
opportunity to accuse her of flirtation or to assert
that she had encouraged him to declare his love.
When I met Mr. Forest after my next lecture I
remarked: "I understand the girls of the twentieth
century are somewhat of the style that we would have
called emancipated".
With a short but sharp glance at my pale face
which testified that I had passed a sleepless night,
Mr. Forest replied: "The mad endeavor to equalize
the variety, established by nature, has not spared the
relations between women and men. Both sexes belong to the industrial army, both have their own
officers and judges, both receive the same pay. The
queen of your old-fashioned household has been dethroned. We take our meals in great steam-feeding
establishments, and if our Radicals, who are in fact
the logical communists, are victorious, we will all
live together in lodging houses accommodating thousands of people. Marriage will be abolished, together
with religion and all personal property; free love
will be proclaimed and we will live together like a
flock of rabbits. The natural sense of propriety
which is a distinguishing quality of the finer sex,
fortunately prevents most of our women and girls
becoming victims of the low and degrading theories
of communism. But the real girl of our period is a
very remarkable although by no means agreeable




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LOOKING FORWARD.


specimen. Do you know Miss Cora Delong, a cousin
of Miss Edith Leete"?
"I have not the pleasure"
"You will not escape her", Mr. Forest predicted
with a smile of amusement.  "Miss Cora is very enthusiastic over the absolute equality of women and
men. And since some of our young men are courting
their young lady friends, Miss Cora thinks it but fair
and proper that she should court some of the young
men. She does not hesitate to tell them that she admires their good looks, that she loves them; she
asks them for kisses, invites them to a drink-just as
young men talk to young girls and just as they invite
them to have a plate of ic e cream.- She smokes cigars
and plays billiards with her male friends, and is doing
all she can to "equalize" the sexes. And Miss Cora
as well as the other "girls of our period" complains
very loudly that she cannot abolish all the differences
between woman and man".
"I am not very anxious to make the acquaintance
of Miss Cora Delong", I confessed. "And I agree
with you from my own personal experience that the
old style of housekeeping is very agreeable. I would
prefer it. But do not the women of the twentieth
century lead a more comfortable life than even the
wealthy ladies of my former days? And are you not
getting more toil out of the women than we did?
Dr. Leete says you are"*).
"Dr. Leete is a great optimist whenever communism
is discussed", answered Mr. Forest. "It is, of course,
*) Page 266.




LOOKING FORWARD.


73


impossible to state with any degree of certainty, how
much the girls and women of the year 1887 produced.
But I doubt very much the statement of your host
that we are getting a great deal more toil out of our
women than you did".
"The separate cooking, washing and ironing at the
end of the nineteenth century must have caused a
great deal more work than the present way of doing
these things", I remarked. "And Dr. Leete said:
There is no housework to be done"*).
"This is one of the many wild statements of Dr.
Leete", Mr. Forest answered. "Who is sweeping the
rooms, making the beds, cleaning the windows, dusting the furniture, scrubbing the floors? I have no
doubt that Dr. Leete's family is an exception, because
women of the industrial army do a great deal, if not
all, this work in the house of the leader of the administration party. Have you ever seen Mrs. Leete or
Miss Edith doing any housework of the kind I have
mentioned"?
I had to confess that I never had, and, indeed,
Miss Edith had never done anything except arrange
a bunch of flowers. If she were a member of the industrial army, it must be in a capacity, where there
was but very little work to do.  She had never mentioned that she had duties to perform, and I remembered that Dr. Leete had once spoken of his daughter
as an indefatigable shopper**), thus indicating that
she had much spare time.
) Page 118.
") Page 99.




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"In the houses occupied by the rank and file of our
industrial army the women have no help from other
members of the auxiliary corps (the women of the
industrial army). These women have to do all the
work I have mentioned, and for them the cooking in
the public eating houses is not such a great help as
Dr. Leete seems to believe", began Mr. Forest.
"These women have to change their dresses three
times a day, for they cannot appear at the table in
the wrapper they wear while working at home, and
they have to wash and dress their children, if they
have any. And I am inclined to believe that by
having the cooking done in the public eating houses,
a great deal of material is squandered that would be
saved in a private house. Besides, the public cooking
houses have to prepare a large bill of fare, and there
is, as a matter of course, a great deal left over that
can not be used afterwards. - Therefore, the women
who are members of the industrial army find actually
very little time to (do any work besides the labor connected with housekeeping, and the majority of them
would rather do the cooking at home.      They
could do it while busy with their housework, without
losing more time than the dressing and undressing for
breakfast, dinner and supper consume. And the
complaint has frequently been made that families
with many children would fare much better, and the
mothers of such families save much time if the cooking were done at home.  When there is sickness in
the family, it is very annoying to the healthy members




LOOKING FORWARD.


75


to be obliged to go to the eating houses to procure
proper food for the invalid. A Mrs. Hosmer said to
me the other day, she and her seven children had
frequently missed a meal, because she could not wash
all her little ones and dress herself and the children
in time".
"How   do you employ the married women"? I
asked.
"This is a very weak point in our social system",
Mr. Forest replied. "Most of the married women do
not at all relish doing outside work, and they make all
kinds of excuses to avoid it. Trouble with their
children and personal indisposition are frequently
used as excuses for the absence of married women
from their positions in the industrial army".
"I suppose it is very difficult, even for the physicians, to ascertain whether such statements are well
founded or not", I remarked.
"Of course, in the majority of cases it is impossible
to make the charge of shamming and prove it", Mr.
Forest continued.  "It is this trouble with the married women, and their excuses that their small children
prevent them doing any duty in the industrial army,
that the radical Communists are using in support of
their demand for the abolition of private housekeeping. The Radicals claim that their system would be
more prosperous than ours. It would be much
cheaper to lodge hundreds or thousands under one
roof, than to have houses for one, two or three families. They furthermore claim that if marriages were




76


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abolished and free love introduced as the principle
governing the relations of the two sexes, the passing
alliances of men and women would produce better
children than the offspring of the present marriages.
These children would be kept and nursed, after they
had passed their first year, in large nurseries, so that
the mothers would have nothing to do with them and
could attend all day to their work as members of the
industrial army".
"How beastly are these theories"! I exclaimed.
"To establish all human institutions, the relations of
the sexes, simply on a basis of calculation, and to
separate the mothers from their children, because it
is cheaper to raise two hundred mammifers by the
bulk even if the mortality should be ten and twenty
percent larger"!
"But the Radicals are the logical Communists",
Mr. Forest said. "The fundamental principle of
communism is equality. You can base the demand
f6r the equal division of the products of labor on that
principle of equality only, and if we are all equal,
then there is no reason why we should live in houses
of different architecture, why we should wear different
clothing, why we should have a variety of meals, why
one man should not have just as good a right to the
love of a certain girl as any and all other men, and
why one girl should not have just as fair a claim to
the love of any man she may select as any other girl
has. And there is no reason, why one baby should
have more care than another and why one mother




LOOKING FORWARD.


77


should spend more time on her child than another,
thus perhaps losing time that would have enabled her
to make herself useful by peeling a plate of potatoes.
The Radicals are the only Communists".
"But every girl can not love all the men, and every
man can not very well love all the girls", I objected,
somewhat amused by the grim humor displayed by
Mr. Forest, although my deep disgust for the abominable brutality preached by the Radicals, prevented
real merriment.
"Our radical reformers have never been able to
explain to my entire satisfaction how the principle of
free love should be regulated, if regulated at all", Mr.
Forest answered. "Some of them seem disposed to
grant permission to live together, so long as both
parties like each other.  But the more radical and
logical communists object to the stability of an institution as incongruous with the spirit of institutions
based on the principle of absolute equality. Perhaps
they favor the choosing of a new partner every day,
and in order to place both sexes on equal footing
they would give the right of choice to the women on
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and to the men
on the other three week-days, leaving the Sundays in
addition to the ladies. And to avoid strife, when a
number of reformers demand the love of the same
girl, or when more girls than one fall in love with the




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same man, they could draw lots or could raffle for the
first chance, thus doing justice to all"*).
"It is inconceivable", I said, "that men, proudly
considering themselves the crown of creation, or if
they do not believe in God, at least considering themselves intellectual free-thinkers, can breed in their
brains such horrid theories. I should deplore the
fate of womanhood if these theories should ever become victorious, if free love in this damnable form
should ever be proclaimed; or if the nursing and
education of children should be taken away from the
mothers and entrusted to others".
"I should consider it the most terrible blow ever
aimed at humanity if the nursing and the first education of the young children should be transferred from
their mothers to other persons    No women or men,
however good and noble they may be, can feel the
love and the patience for a child that fills a mother's
heart. The ties that bind women and men together,
marriage and the family, are institutions which even
our communistic Solons have so far respected. Humanity is doomed to barbarism on the day family life
is broken up, when mothers are separated from their
*) The well known naturalist, Professor Karl Vogt in Germany,
famous by his nickname "Monkey-Vogt," is a radical philosopher,
who gained this sobriquet as an advocate of the theory of evolution, claiming Monkeys to have the same progenitors as man. But
even Vogt's radicalism revolted against the doctrines set forth by
Russian, French and German nihilists and anarchists; during a
"convention" held in Switzerland, Karl Vogt dedicated the
following lines to them:
"Wir wollen in der Sonn' spazieren,
Wir wollen uns mit Fett beschmieren




LOOKING FORWARD.


79


children, when men are alienated from the constantly
elevating influence of good women, when the relations of men and women are stripped of that sublimity conferred upon matrimonial life by the permanent
exchange of feelings and thoughts, when these relations are degraded to nothing but sexual intercourse.
Nearly all our good qualities can be traced back to
the influence the unfathomable love and patience of
the mother, in her efforts to make her beloved child
good and true, have exercised upon our minds and
hearts. Nearly all great men had good mothers.
There is nothing on earth that could compensate a
child for the loss of its mother, or that could indemnify humanity for the loss of the beneficial influence
mothers have on the growing generation".
"Do you suppose that your Radicals will ever have
power enough to dethrone the mothers and to abolish matrimonial life"? I asked, with great curiosity.
Mr. Forest's reply to this question sounded very
cheerful and confident, more so than anything he
had thus far uttered in my presence.
Und ausgel6scht sei Mein und Dein.
Wir wollen uns mit Schnapps berauschen,
Wir wollen uns're Weiber tauschen,
Wir wollen freie Manner sein!"
A free translation of which reads:
We will walk in the sun, boys, with ease,
We will cover our bodies with grease,
For poverty there is no need.
We'll all get as drunk as a loon,
We'll swap our wives every noon,
And thus be true freemen indeed.




So           LOOKING FORWARD.
"The Radicals may rise and overthrow the present
government, they may change many things", he said,
"and they may not meet with much resistance, because the great mass of the people simply tolerate
the present rule, have no love for it, and will not rally
to its defense. But the experience of our Radicals
will be very unpleasant if they attempt to separate
man and wife, mother and child. Almost every
mother will fight like a lioness before she will give up
her children, and I know one man who does not care
a straw for the ovorthrow of the present government,
but who would fight to his death before he would
yield to a separation from his spouse. For a good
and loving wife always has been, is, and always will
be the greatest blessing of God, and no man of honor
and courage will permit anybody to rob him of her"!




CHAPTER VI.


"Now, Mr. Forest", I said when I again met my
predecessor as professor of the history of the nineteenth century, "please tell me how much is the
average yearly income of every inhabitant of the
United States of America"?
"The average yearly income was figured up to be
$204.", Mr. Forest answered.
"Two hundred and four dollars you say. Is that
all"? I queried with astonishment. "I expected from
the statements of Dr. Leete and his style of living
that it amounted to at least three times that sum".
Forest smiled.  "How much was the average
income of the people of the United States in your
days"? he asked.
I was forced to admit that I had not the faintest
idea.
"It was $165.", said Mr. Forest, "or about twice
the average amount earned by the people of Germany or France".
I was perplexed. I had never looked into the
statistics of national economy. I had spent about
twenty times $165. every year. I remembered having read in the papers of my time that the average
yearly earnings of the working men, working women




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and children were over four hundred dollars, and I
was inclined to estimate the average yearly income
at about six hundred dollars. I stated this to Mr.
Forest.
"You have left out of your calculation the women
and children who were not earning anything, but
who depended upon the income of their husbands,
fathers and brothers", Mr. Forest explained. "An income of two hundred and four dollars for every man,
woman and child would, therefore, represent a large
increase, if the figures were fairly given. But they
are not correct. In order to make the income of
the nation appear greater than it really is, the value
of the various productions is quoted higher than in
your days. Consequently the purchasing power of
every dollar on our credit-cards is less than that of
the dollar of your time.  I have carefully compared
the prices of all the necessities and commodities as
they are now and as they were in your time, and I
have found an increase of about 95 percent. The
real average yearly income of all the people of our
country is about one hundred and twelve dollars, so
there is not an increase of about 24 percent, but a
decrease of about 33 percent".
"How do you account for this remarkable statement"? I inquired.
"That is a question easier asked than answered",
replied Mr. Forest.
"I am very curious to hear your explanation", I
remarked. "Dr. Leete has given me so many plausi



LOOKING FORWARD.


83


ble reasons for the "poverty resulting from our extraordinary industrial system"t) that I was quite convinced of the greater wealth of your people. He
mentioned the frequent wrong speculations of the
nineteenth century, the insane competition, the periodical overproductions and consequent crises, the
waste from idle capital and labor*), and he especially
dwelt upon the point that four or five enterprises
of the nineteenth century failed where one succeeded"**).
"Yes, I know Dr. Leete's arguments from occasional speeches he has made, and from articles he has
written for the administration organs", Mr. Forest
responded. "And he has undoubtedly mentioned
many other causes that crippled the production of
your days. He has, or he may have, pointed to the
expenditures for your army and navy, to your custom
and revenue officials, to the tax-assessors and collectors you employed, to the larger number of judges,
sheriffs and other officers you needed, to the greater
amount of labor made necessary by domestic washing and cooking, to the large number of middlemen
needed in handling goods before the articles made
their way from the factory to the retail store, the
latter corresponding to our storehouses. And Dr. Leete
has or may have, mentioned the lawyers, bankers
and their clerks who were nominally engaged in
f) Page 42.
*) Page 229 & 230.
*) Page 230.




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work that was really not done, and which has all been
done away with to-day".
"Indeed", I said, "Dr. Leete has enumerated most
of these causes of the poverty of our days, and, since
these evils have been abolished under your system
of production, I think it would be simply a matter of
course that the total yearly income of your people
should have increased, and I wonder that the increase
is not even greater than you have stated it to be".
"I will not waste much time in investigating all
these points and ascertaining how great was the loss
thus inflicted on the production of the nineteenth
century", Mr. Forest continued. "But you seem to
be inclined to overestimate their effects. Unlucky
speculations, for instance, caused sometimes heavy
losses to the speculator, but in most cases they produced values that benefitted others and increased the
wealth of the nation. The "insane competition"
made goods cheaper, thereby stimulating both production and consumption and not harming, but on
the contrary to a certain extent benefitting humanity.
The statement that four or five enterprises failed
where one succeeded is a "licentia poetica" of which
Dr. Leete makes free use. You must know yourself
that it is a gross exaggeration.
The saving from the employment of steam-cooking
we have already investigated. If there is any, it is
small in the cities and smaller still in the country
districts, and offers no compensation for the loss of
comfort involved, Furthermore we take into consid



LOOKING FORWARD.


85


eration that many of the men engaged as judges,
lawyers, bankers, officers, middlemen, or clerks were
over forty-five years or under twenty-one, so that you
would have to deduct them from the force that you
have to consider as a loss to the industrial army".
"Still, these misplacements of capital and labor,
these losses in various ways were enormous", I insisted,
"and they account for the greater poverty of the
people of the nineteenth century, compared with the
inhabitants of the United States in the year 2000".
"They would, undoubtedly", Mr. Forest argued,
"if there were no other reasons for a decrease of our
production. But there are causes as you will readily
see, when I point them out. The principle reason
why both the quantity and the quality of our production are constantly abating, is the abolishment of
competition. Competition was the gigantic motor
that caused nearly everybody during the first nineteen centuries of Christian civilization to use all his
mental and physical powers to "get ahead".,- Since
the introduction of communism, since the good workmen are robbed of a part of the products of their labor
for the benefit of the poor workers, and since everybody is sure of an equal share of all the necessities
and commodities of life, no matter how much or how
little he produces, the masses of the people are becoming more and more indifferent. They are not
putting forth their best efforts to furnish much and
good work. They are taking life easy. Their mental and physical ability has decreased. The people




86


LOOKING FORWARD.


of the United States, once famous for their energy, are
degenerating. Promotion might have acted as a spur,
had not favoritism of the politicians monopolized
all good positions for the tools of the administration".
"The second reason for the decrease of production is the shortening of both the years and the
hours of work. It is difficult to ascertain how many
persons of different ages were employed in your time
in productive labor. The census of the United States
government taken before you went to sleep for one
hundred and thirteen years, the census of i88o is in
many respects a very creditable work but it does not
give the ages of the persons who then formed the
industrial army. The report is very elaborate as to
the number of persons of all ages, their nationality,
and so forth. But in regard to the age of the workers
it only gives three classes, one comprising all the
persons under 15 years of age, another, all persons
between i6 and 59, and the third, the number of employees of 6o years and over. Of the people under
15 years of age 1,118,356 were employed, of the men
and women over 6o years 933,644 were males and
70,873 females. The whole industrial army of your
day numbered, out of an entire population of 50,155,783, not less than 17,392,099, only 2,647,157 being
girls and women, including the servant girls".
"I remember reading some of these figures", I
remarked.
"The census of i88o thus shows that over 12 percent of the population of the United States belonging




LOOKING FORWARD.


87


to the industrial army were under 15 and over 60
years of age", Mr. Forest continued, "This is, of
course, a very bad showing. Girls and boys under 15
years of age should certainly belong to the schools,
while people over 50 years ought to have permanent
rest and a good living. But there can be no doubt
that the working-force at the close of the last century
was comparatively larger than ours, According to
the census of i88o, there lived in the United States
15,527,215 persons of the age, that would make them
to-day members of our industrial army. You employed, therefore, 2,173,184 more persons than your
whole population between the ages of 21 to 45 numbered, and this calculation figures, that all the people
of that age are really active. You must consider the
fact, that many of our population who are of the age,
when they ought to do work in the industrial army,
are excused from service for various reasons, for instance: permanently sick people, the weak-minded,
cripples, mothers of babies, etc. You must, therefore,
recognize that your people furnished a much stronger
working-force than does our generation.:'
"I guess we did", I admitted, convinced by the
figures quoted by Mr. Forest.
Drawing a piece of paper from his note book the
gentleman continued: "Here is a list of all the avocations you may call unproductive, taken from the
census of i88o. I have given every point, which
seems contrary to my views, the benefit of the doubt.
I have embraced all the trades, professions and occu



88


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pations Dr. Leete himself could fairly claim as nonproductive in this compilation, though a good many
of the people engaged in them were, at least, saving
time for members of the producing classes. Many
men and women of your time would not have been
able to produce pictures and works of art, or to sing
in operas and so forth, if it had been impossible for
them to secure help in housekeeping. Now, in your
day, the year of our Lord 188o, the people engaged
in the occupations, trades and professions that Dr.
Leete would call nonproductive, numbered 1,654,319
including all the servants. Deducting these 1,654,319
from the 2,173,084 persons under the age of 15 and
over 60, there still would be a surplus of 518,765
women and men of your time over the number of
people, that would belong in our days to the industrial
force"
"Your figures are correct, as far as you state them",
I said, desirous to encourage Mr. Forest to proceed
with his argument.
"So you had, undoubtedly, in i88o a surplus of
productive persons above the age that would place
them in our industrial army, which amounted to over
one percent of the population, and to over three percent of persons at the age where they, to-day, would
have to be members of the industrial army, even if
we deduct all the persons from the working force
whom a man like Dr. Leete would classify as nonproductive. Now, deduct, furthermore, all our ladies
occupied by their duties as mothers, before and after




LOOKING FORWARD.


89


the birth of their children, deduct all the persons permanently sick, all the cripples and all the other people
unable to do productive work, and you will have to
admit that you had in your days a comparatively
much larger force engaged in productive labor than
we have. Consider, that these people were stimulated
by competition, that they desired to establish themselves on an independent basis, that they put forth
their best efforts, in order to secure a life free from
care during their old age, and that, therefore, the years
of productive labor of each individual were much
longer than they are at present, and that the stimulus
to succeed was a potent fact in obtaining more and
better work than we can secure nowadays.
"That I will admit", I answered.
"And the working hours to-day are much shorter
than they were at the end of the nineteenth century",
proceeded Mr. Forest with an expression on his face
like that of a victor in a gladiatorial fight.  "The
natural tendency of an organization of society like
ours is in that direction. And there are many reasons
to encourage such a tendency. I have mentioned
already that the farmers are complaining of the small
number of theaters and concert halls and other
amusements and advantages for country people, which
city people enjoy to the full. The consequence of this
is, that the country people flock to the cities. The
nation would have suffered from a want of agricultural
products if all the people crowding into the large cities
had been accepted. But they were not welcomed.




9~


LOOKING FORWARD.


They were appointed to farm work. That settled
their desire to live in the cities, and at the same time
destroyed their ambition. The country people are satisfied that they cannot improve their lot, that they
have to do farm work and that the city people are imposing upon them. The consequence is that they
are working as little as possible, and the farming products have decreased to such an extent that we have to
appoint city workmen of class B of the third grade to
farm work, in order to protect the city people from
starvation",
"Say your worst", I remarked with a forced smile,
for I saw Dr. Leete's beautiful structure crumbling
under the fire of Mr. Forest's artillery of logic.
"You have seen", Mr. Forest continued, "that the
industrial army of I88o, engaged in productive labor,
was, in proportion, much larger than ours, that the
members were stimulated by competition to use their
best mental and physical efforts to 'get ahead', and
that they worked longer hours than we do. You must,
fuithermore, consider that we squander a greater
amount of labor in overseeing and bookkeeping than
you ever did. Most of your retail business was transacted on the cash basis, and the small tradespeople
did their own bookkeeping after closing their stores
and shops. We, on the other hand, have an account
for every man, woman and child in the country in the
books of the national administration*). We have a
bureau which keeps an account of the visits of all the
") Page 87.




LOOKING FORWARD.


91


physicians*). We have another bureau where you
can secure help for housework as well as for other
purposes, where accounts are kept, both of the helpers and of the people who demand help.**) We have
bureaus for each industry and they are excellent examples of the most thorough manner in which a government can waste human labor. The entire field of
productive and constructive industry is, as you know,
divided into ten great departments, each representing
a group of allied industries, each particular industry
being in turn represented by a subordinate bureau,
which has a complete record of the plant and force
under its control, as well as of the present product
and the means of increasing it. The estimates of consumption of the distribution department (an organization independent of the great productive departments) after adoption by the administration, are sent
as mandates to the ten great departments which allot
them to the subordinate bureaus representing the particular industries, and these set the men to work.
Each bureau is responsible for the task given it, and
the responsibility is enforced by departmental supervision and that of the administration; nor does the
distribution department accept the products without
its own inspection, while, even if in the hands of the
consumer, an article turns out unfit, the system enables the fault to be traced back to the original workman".t)
*) Page 122.
**) Page I20o
D) Pages 182, 183.




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LOOKING FORWARD.


"This amount of overseeing and bookkeeping, by
which the government can trace back to the original
workman a bad pin or a poorly rolled cigar, enables
the administration to provide for its favorites many
desirable places, but it certainly lessens the productive
power of the industrial force, thus, again, decreasing
the production. And at the same time the number of
consumers is larger than in your days".
"How do you account for this?" I inquired.
"Has not Dr. Leete informed you that persons of
average constitution usually live to be from eighty-five
to ninety years old?"*)
"Indeed, he has".
"This accounts for an increased number of consumers who all draw their full share of the products
of labor in the form of a credit card", Mr. Forest
continued. "Our people live longer than your contemporaries did. They take life easy, and while the
spirit, the energy and the enterprise of our generation
are gradually decreasing and  degenerating, their
bodies last longer".
"Ah! now at last you are admitting one gain", I exclaimed.
"If it is a gain, I do", rejoined Mr. Forest. "But
even the favored members of our industrial army do
not seem to consider it a very valuable acquisition.
Because the only way to secure a desirable position is
to sacrifice their own independence and that of their
relatives and friends, and even to employ base means
*) Page 197.




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93


of corruption, downright bribery of their superiors
with a part of their own credit cards, many of the
favorites of the administration are, in fact, enemies of
the leaders".
After a short pause Mr. Forest concluded his arguments. "I suppose I have successfully demonstrated
that our organization of society, with its pretended
basis of human equality has proved to be a failure,
that there prevails to-day an inequality in many respects more oppressive than that of your time, that
favoritism and corruption are about as potent under
our communistic rule as they were at the end of the
nineteenth century, that personal liberty is almost entirely destroyed, that the members of the industrial
army, without having the right to vote at the election
of their superiors, are at the mercy of their officers,
that the members of the industrial force who are considered enemies of the government are leading a life
that very properly may be styled as twenty-four years
of hell on earth, that since the abolishment of competition the people are mentally degenerating for want
of intellectual exercise, and that not even a greater
wealth is a consolation for the loss of the greater liberty and independence the people enjoyed in your
time. The shortening of both the years and the hours
of productive labor, the abolition of competition and
the increase in the number of consumers have reduced
the average daily income of the inhabitants of the
United States to such an extent that the amount inscribed upon our credit card is so small, that it af



94           LOOKING FORWARD.
fords only a very frugal living to the people of the
twentieth century. And there is no doubt in my mind
that a continuation of the present system for a few
hundred years more would so degrade and degenerate
the people that a relapse into barbarism would ensue"




CHAPTER VII.


'You have given me your ideas and objections in
regard to the present state of affairs", I commenced
my next conversation with Mr. Forest, "you have expressed, occasionally, your conviction that the organization of society at the end of the last century needed
reformation. Will you, now, kindly state how you
would have reformed the evils of my time?"
Mr. Forest smiled. "I do not pretend to be a reformer who can perfect mankind or even all human
institutions. Please do not forget that we are all
cooking with water. What many people style the social question is insolvable. The variety established
by nature will always be felt. You can never create
conformity. We will always have smart and stupid,
industrious and lazy people. The clever women and
men will not submit to an equal distribution of the
product of labor, nor feel satisfied under such a state
of legal robbery. And if the results of labor are distributed according to the ability of the workers the
people earning less than others will always grumble.
It is, therefore, impossible to make all men content
with their lot, no matter how you may distribute the
earnings of the working force. But the fact that it is
impossible to make everybody absolutely happy does
rll




96


LOOKING FORWARD.


not release us from the obligation to use our best efforts toward improving the lot of mankind".
<"I understand your position. But let me hear what
reforms you would have inaugurated or proposed, if
you had lived at the close of the last century".
"The society of your day suffered chiefly", said Mr.
Forest, "from unsystematized production,the monopolies that made possible the amassing of immense fortunes at the expense of the people, and the want of
intelligence on the part of the workers who would
either submit to these extortions or strike, instead of
forming mutual producing associations.  Another
great evil was the injustice of your taxation. In all
the fields of human activity the workers produced
values without a clear knowledge of what was really
required. There was, generally, such a surplus of the
products of farming that the farmers had to sell everything so cheap that they could hardly earn a living.
Some factories worked day and night until the markets
were overstocked with goods. Then these goods were
sold at any price obtainable, sometimes below cost.
Numerous bankruptcies followed, the factories had to
stop their work, and the manufacturers as well as the
working women and men had to suffer from a term of
idleness until the surplus of goods was exhausted.
Then a feverish activity commenced again".
"How would you have remedied this evil?" I asked.
"A national bureau of statistics should have ascertained both the average yearly consumption and the




LOOKING FORWARD.


97


capacity of the different trades and their plants for
the production of the necessities of life".
"Should the government have given to each trade
an order for the work to be done during the year?" I
queried, "and how should the trades have divided
such an order among the members so that all would
be satisfied?"
"The National Government should simply have ascertained the amount of the yearly consumption of
the various articles, the capacity of the respective
trades for furnishing such articles, and should then
have left the regulation of production to the members
of each trade. Such an arrangement would have
given each trade a clear idea of its task. The chosen
representatives of each trade could have subdivided
the work. A heavy overproduction would easily have
been prevented, while competition both among the
factories and the individual members would have
been maintained, thus securing the best kind of work,
while under the present system of production we are
suffering from a want both of quantity and quality".
"But if any trade should have produced more goods
than needed", I objected.
"That would have been its own fault, and it would,
as a matter of course, have had to stand the consequences", Mr. Forest replied.
"But, suppose, the members of a certain trade had
formed a trust, thereby forcing the people to pay exorbitant prices for the products of their guilds?" I objected again.




98


LOOKING FORWARD.


"A national law should have protected the people
against an attempted robbery of this kind, threatening
all guilty parties with confiscation of all their property
and with the operation of all the plants by men hired
by the administration, until the plants could be sold
to operators. The importation of the respective goods
from 6ther countries would cover the deficiency until
all the plants were again in full operation".
"But how would you have stopped the frequent
strikes of our days?" I asked.
"By encouraging the workman to start mutual producing associations", Mr. Forest answered. "I have
mentioned already how mutual producing associations could easily have been started. A dozen tailors
or shoemakers could have rented lofts with steam
power, purchased a few sewing and other machines
and sold their products directly to other workmen,
thus securing the profits of tne manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer and workman, or in other words all the
profit that was in the labor of the members of the association. There was no law in your time to forbid
such enterprises or to prevent all other workmen from
buying their boots, shoes, clothing, furniture and al
other articles from  such associatiOns solely. As
soon as the manufacturers noticed that all the laborers were commencing to deal with mutual associations they would gladly have sold their plants at a
very fair price, and yet cheaper than a new association could have procured them. I imagine there was
very little pleasure in conducting a factory or any




LOOKING FORWARD.


99


other business having many employees in 1887, judging from the frequent strikes that made it almost impossible for many business men to figure on prices
six months ahead, or to close contracts. Therefore,
the owners of factories would, I fancy, have sold their
plants at very fair prices. And the workmen could
not have done a smarter thing than to cause the
former manufacturers to remain with them as business managers at a fair salary. This would have secured a smooth running of the concern, Under such
an arrangement the workers would have become the
owners of the business concerns, paying for them in
installments, they would have secured full pay for
their work, and the former owner would have disposed of all his former cares, receiving a fair compensation for his plant and his services".
"I think that most of the manufacturers and businessmen of my days were so worried by the constantly
increased demands of their employees, that they
would have gladly sold their property", I remarked,
"but what would have become of the wholesale and
retail dealers?"
"They could have sold their goods and have either
joined the producing associations as salesmen or gone
into another business", Mr. Forest replied. "And in
a similar way the workmen of your time could have
organized one trade after another, until the entire
manufacturing industry had been based on large
guilds, the latter consisting mostly of mutual producing societies".




100


LOOKING FORWARD.


"But our workmen preferred to avoid the responsibility, care and risk of business enterprises. They
would rather have worked for wages and, occasionally tried to increase them, sometimes by striking and
preventing other laborers taking the places of the
strikers", I said. "You are aware of this state of affairs?"
"Yes", Forest answered, "and it must have been a
sad spectacle to see intelligent men who could just as
well have been independent, remain journeymen,
trying to bulldoze their employer to pay them more
than he volunteered, and to intimidate other workers
from performing duties at a rate of wages that would
have satisfied them. The fact that your workingmen
did not possess sufficient enterprise, mental discipline
and independence, to establish mutual producing associations, has driven humanity into communism.
That this damnable form of society is a failure is a matter of course. When humanity was at so low a standard
that shoemakers had not spunk or smartness enough
to start and run the shoeshops on a co-operative basis,
and tailors could not manage tailorshops on a similar
plan, it was simply impossible to make successful an
organization which had the power to regulate all production and all consumption. But the principle of
mutual productive associations is, in my opinion, the
one best adapted for the solution of the labor question, because it secures for the members of the associations the pay for the full real value of their labor
and keeps alive competition, tne strongest factor in




LOOKING FORWARD.


10I


securing the progress of mankind. But whether we
shall ever reach this solution of the labor question
seems doubtful".
"I am inclined to believe in your plan", I admitted'
"'so far as laborers engaged in manufacturing establishments are concerned. But how would you have organized the work on the farms, the employment of
professional man, railroad officials and laborers, employees on streetcars, merchants and bankers and
their clerks and those who follow many other avocations?"
"Let us go slowly", Mr. Forest answered with a
smile. "Let us first look into the agrarian question.
Reformers of society have always met the greatest
difficulty when they came across the farmers. Under
communistic rule the country people have but very little
love for the soil they are tilling because they knowit is not
theirs, that their toiling does not benefit them, and they
feel that the city people are favored at their expense. If
I had been asked at the end of the last century how I
would treat the land question I would have advocated
a law ordaining that no farmer should have more than
forty acres of land. If any farmer had more at the
time of the passing of the bill he could keep it during
his lifetime, but he would be compelled to dispose of
it in his last will, so that a single person should not
receive more than forty acres. On a forty acre piece
a farmer can make a fair living, and although the
farmers were by no means prosperous in your days,
yet there was still a fair prospect for the increase of




102


LOOKING FORWARD.


the value of land by reason of the increase of the population, augmented as it was by immigration".
"But how would you have proposed to stop overproduction by the farming population through which
the agricultural interests were suffering in 1887?" I inquired.
"Fhe National Bureau of Statistics would have
served the farmers just as well as the rest of the
people. The farmers should have formed state associations and should have lald out plans for the production according to the capacity of the farms. And,
after ascertaining that their capacity of production
was far ahead of consumption, they should have used
the surplus of land for the productton of new things
that could, perhaps, find a market, or they could have
saved their labor by not producing more goods than
they could sell in supplying the real demands of the
market, thus working less."
"Under your plan every person would not have
had a right to land", I remarked.
"Yes, everybody would, who could pay the price
the owner demanded for it", Mr. Forest said. "Not
everybody can own a farm. Did you own one?"
"I did not".
"Very well. Under your communistic system nobody owns a piece of ground large enough to put a
stick into".
"How would you have regulated the professional
services?"




LOOKING FORWARD.


I03


"By passing laws establishing rates to be charged
for professional services. And the laws I would have
simplified by doing away with the abominable confusion resulting from the innumerable decisions forming
precedents. For a long time I did not believe it until
I found positive statements to the effect that a trading nation like the Americans, at the end of the nineteenth century, had neither a national criminal law,
nor a national commerce law, This fact and the confusion caused by the conflicting precedent decisions
that could always be quoted by either of the contesting lawyers in a suit must have made the United
States, in your days, a paradise for swindlers and for
lawyers who cared not so much for the upholding of
the law, as for a retainer".
"Such were the charges frequently made against the
law and lawyers in my days", I said. "But now tell
me what you would have done with the railroad and
telegraph employees, with-"
"Let us stop right here", Mr. Forest interrupted.
"I would have purchased all the railroads and all the
telegraph lines of the country at a fair price. I would
have issued United States bonds to pay for them. I
would have used the income of the roads and lines to
pay running expenses and the interest on the bonds
issued, and the surplus in the United States treasury
I would have applied to paying off the bonds".
"But would not this proposition of yours, if carried into effect, have brought about the same horrors
you declare the concentration of power in the hands




104


LOOKING FORWARD.


of the administration has brought down on humanity
of the twentieth century?" I asked.
"No. For that the officers would not be numerous
enough", Mr. Forest replied; "and I remember distinctly, that in your days civil service reform had
been instituted, to a certain extent, in the appointment
of federal officers. I have read conflicting opinions
about it. Some writers claimed a frequent change of
the officers to be a fundamental principle of republican
institutions.  Others ridiculed this notion. Every
man of common sense would keep a man who knew
and performed the duties of his position well. And
the nation should simply do the same regardless of
the party affiliations of the employee, thus securing a
good public service. I remember that letter carriers
and other employees of the postoffice department
could not be removed without cause. Now, if this
principle had been applied to all the clerical and subordinate officers, if all the railroad and telegraph officials, when the nation took charge of these institutions,
had been retained at the salaries they were receiving at
that time, so long as they did their work well, then
there would have been no trouble. Uncle Sam would
have paid just as much, if not more, than the former
corporations did, and by retaining the whole force he
could have united the railroad and telegraph lines
with the postal service after the fashion already prevailing, at that time, in Germany".
"That theory sounds very plausible, certainly".
"It is very remarkable that such a smart and energetic people, trading as much as our forefathers did,




LOOKING FORWARD.


105


should have allowed the principal means of commerce,
the railroad and telegraph lines, to be in the hands of
private corporations which, as a matter of course, managed them simply with a view of paying as large dividends as possible to the shareholders,-sometimes for
"a wheel within a wheel", for members of the inner
circle. In the historical works of your time I frequently note expressions of astonishment and wrath
because knights, during the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries in Europe, stopped merchants passing the
roads below their castles, and demanded a part of the
travellers' goods as a toll, or the payment of a certain
sum of money for which they agreed either to let the
merchants travel in peace or to furnish them with protection for the rest of their journey. These knights
had to risk their lives when they undertook to collect
a toll from the merchants, for the latter not unfrequently showed fight; they knew how to handle a lance
or a sword and they had their goods protected by
armed men. More than one of the enterprising, tolllevying knights died on the highway, where he had
tried to attach a share of the merchant's earnings.
But the gentlemen controlling the highways of traffic
at the end of the last century could levy new tolls,
whenever they pleased. All they had to do was to sit
down in Delmonico's or some other good restaurant,
and over a few bottles of champagne resolve to do so.
There was no danger connected with this business of
toll levying in your days, Mr. West, except the danger
of a headache when the champagne happened to be




io6


LOOKING FORWARD.


poor. It was a very remarkable state of affairs, and it is a
striking proof of the general fairness and good nature
of the railroad magnates of 1887 that they treated the
people as well as they did. Still, it was a ridiculous
spectacle to see the principal highways of such a
business people controlled by private corporations
that virtually did precisely what they pleased".
"The gas works, street railways and waterworks of
cities you would have had managed by the city authorities, I suppose?" I said.
"Indeed, that is what I would have done", Mr. Forest
replied.  "But I would first have extended the
power of the national administration over all the forest and mining lands then in the possession of the
United States. If the national government had taken
care of the remnants of the immense forests that once
covered the larger part of this vast territory, we would
not at present suffer from a lack of timber".
"What would you have done with the bankers and
merchants?"
"Nothing", Mr. Forest answered. "The different
mutual productive associations would have needed
men to manage such business affairs as were outside
the management of the factory, attended to by the
former manufacturer. For the workmen would soon
have found out that it required more than the manual
labor of the toilers to build up and run a large business establishment. And the owners of grocery stores
would, if similar establishments had been started by
consuming societies, have sold their stock on hand




LOOKING FORWARD.


io7


and secured places as managers or clerks of the new
stores".
"I suppose that under the system proposed by you
all the old-fashioned stores would have been forced
to close out", I said, "because the different guilds
would have purchased goods at wholesale and would
have sold them to their members at a low cash price.
The storekeepers that were not able to secure positions in the stores of the different guilds would have
been forced to look out for some other employment;
-a rather hard lot for many of them".
"The change in the mode of production would not
have been sudden", Mr. Forest explained, "but would
have been brought about gradually, thus giving the
business people, perhaps thirty years time to let
their children join guilds instead of becoming storekeepers and traders. And there is no reason why
enterprising merchants who had a fine taste in selecting goods, should not have retained a large number
of customers. It is not cheapness alone that attracts
buyers, and in the country, where there were no factories, etc., close at hand, stores would have to be
kept".
"You said you would have passed laws preventing farmers owning more than forty acres of land", I said,
"'Would you have also limited the amount of city
property to be owned by any one man?"
"The possession of one house ought to have satisfied every fair-minded man", Mr. Forest continued.
"Nobody can deny that the accumulation of fortunes




Io8


LOOKING FORWARD.


amounting to many millions in the hands of a few
people, while hundreds of thousands could earn hardly
more than a living, was a state of affairs which made
this damnable communism possible".
"But how would you have been able to prevent
this?" I queried with some curiosity.
"'By making the taxation of inherited property the
principal assessment for the maintenance of the national, state and local governments as well as of the
schools. I would have proposed a tax of one percent
on all property inherited by a single person, amounting upward to $Io,ooo. An inheritance amounting to
$20,000 I would have taxed two percent, $30,000
three percent, $ioo,ooo ten percent, $200,000 twenty
percen., $500,000 fifty percent. If anybody left a
fortune yielding a larger sum than $250,000 to each
heir, the surplus should have been considered as an
income to humanity, the national, state and local
governments sharing therein in a just proportion"'.
"Would not such a law have acted as a check upon
the ambition and the enterprise of the people?" I
asked.
"If it had prevented people amassing immense fortunes it would have served a good purpose. It would
not have lessened but protected competition". Mr.
Forest answered. "Men possessing twenty or fifty
millions of dollars and using them without regard for
the rights of other people, were very dangerous. They
were in a position to annihilate their competitors, and
they frequently used their power unmercifully. Thus




LOOKING FORWARD.


l09


by increasing their millions and by killing competition
they were paving the way for communism. And was
it not unfair that a man who had amassed by all manner of means such an enormous fortune could leave it
to a son who would continue the work of killing competitors with smaller means? What could the most
able man accomplish in an avocation, if he had
against him a man who possessed, perhaps, very little
ability, but who was unscrupulously using his millions
to attain his ends?  Parents might leave their
children enough to place their dear ones beyond the
reach of want but they should not enable them to prevent the children of poorer parents having a fair show
to get ahead in life".
"You would have met with considerable resistance
to such a proposition in my days", I remarked.
"I fancy the millionaires would have objected", Mr.
Forest assented. "Still, I think that such a law would
have served the best interest of both the children of
rich parents and humanity in general. Nothing but a
law of this kind could have stemmed the tide of communism and anarchy. A child inheriting $250,000
ought to be satisfied with his lot and ought to let the
surplus go to the defraying of the expenses of the
government. By sacrificing a part of their enormous
fortunes, the heirs would have saved the rest, and
would have weakened the communistic tendency of
your days. And it appears more than doubtful to
me whether the possession of such enormous proper



I1O


LOOKING FORWARD.


ties made these wealthy people good, or even happy
and contented".
"If such a law had been passed in 1887 most of the
millionaires would have converted their property into
cash and emigrated to Europe", I objected.
"I suppose they would have done so", Mr. Forest
admitted. "But I am, nevertheless, convinced that
a law of this kind would not only have been just but
that it would have done a great deal to save humanity
from communism. Civilized countries would have
been obliged to pass a similar law at the same time".
"The temptation to avoid the consequences of the
statute would have been very great", I remarked.
"Many people would have tried to evade the tax by
declaring to the authorities a smaller amount of property than they really owned, or by presenting during
their life time, a part of their fortune to their children".
"Any attempt at fraud should have been punished
by a confiscation of all the property", said Mr. Forest.
"And as for gifts they could have been taxed at the
same rate as inheritances from one percent up to
fifty.-But such a law would have been necessary only
during the first fifty or sixty years of a new order of
things. As soon as mutual producing associations
were in general operation, selling their goods directly
from the factories to the consumers, and buying all
the necessities of life and commodities, as far as possible, at wholesale, and selling them a little above
cost price, there would have been little occasion for




LOOKING FORWARD.


III


men to amass millions of dollars. The numoer of
middlemen and traders would have largely decreased.
Everybody would have been compelled to do work of
some kind and would have received a compensation
according to both the quantity and quality of his performances".
"But would not cliques like the one you are charging with having control of your government have
taken possession of a mutual producing association,
thus depriving the clever workers of a part of their
earnings and paying the poorer men more for their
work than they deserved?" I queried.
"In such a case the good men could have left an
association, where they were cheated and joined another partnership. Good laborers are always appreciated wherever competition rules. But the association, thus driving away their ablest members, would
soon have been unable to compete with others. Difficulties, therefore, could have been regulated without
much trouble".
*'You must advocate, as a matter of course
mutual insurance companies among the guilds for the
protection of the members against accidents, sickness,
infirmity and old age, and these mutual insurance
companies would, perhaps, have also written life and
fire policies?" I suggested.
"That would, indeed, have been a consequence of
the whole system that would unite the few advantages
of communism with the benefits of competition", Mr.
Forest answered.




I12


LOOKING FORWARD.


"Would you have encouraged immigration?" 1
asked. "At the end of the nineteenth century, many
honest, liberal and fair-minded people, whom nobody
could fairly class as know-nothings, were of the opinion that the United States had all the foreign elements
the country could assimilate, and that the rest of the
public lands should be preserved for the children of
the people living in the Union, in the year of our
Lord 1887. The objection against further immigration was largely due to the actions of the German
and Irish dynamiters".
"I can imagine", Mr. Forest answered, "that some of
the customs and notions of the numerous immigrants
of your time were objectionable to the native Americans, and that the crimes of the anarchists, their crazy
revolt against the laws of a country that had offered
them hospitality, must naturally have created a deep
emotion among the Anglo-Americans. But I think
they had, nevertheless, many reasons for encouraging
immigration, especially under your form of production. A strict execution of the laws of the country",
he continued, after a pause, "against all transgressors,
native as well as transplanted, would have done the
country good and have made all attempts to restrict
immigration entirely unnecessary, all the more so, as
the really objectionable foreigners could reach the
United States via Canada or Mexico if they desired
strongly to become inhabitants of the United States."
"These arguments were frequently used in my time/'
I remarked.




LOOKING FORWARD.


"3


"The comparatively small harm done by immigrants
was largely over-balanced by the many advantages the
citizens of the United States obtained through the
large influx of people from Europe", said Mr. Forest.
"The very fact that hundreds of thousands of ablebodied people, whose rearing and education had cost
the European countries millions of dollars, landed on
American shores was a great gain to the United States.
The very presence of these men and women increased
the value of the lands or city lots where they settled,
thus enriching the property owners. Many of the
immigrants were well trained laborers and mechanics,
others artists and scholars. All these men and women
were not familiar with the ways and means of their
new country, many of them were unable to speak the
English language, and they all had, therefore, to start
in the very lowest places of American business lifethus naturally elevating all the inhabitants of the
United States in a more or less degree, to higher
positions in life. Many of these people, coming from
all parts Of Europe, were ably and well trained, and
they became successfull competitors of th6se, who
were here before their arrival.  But the constant
stream of people from Europe to the United States
was, nevertheless, steadily enriching and elevating
the American people, and all the blows aimed at im.migration were, therefore, unwise, and the legislators
who proposed such blows remind me of the man who
intended to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs".




114          LOOKING FORWARD.
"It is, of course, impossible to advance social theories to which everybody will agree", Mr. Forest said
in conclusion. "I maintain, however, that all such
theories should be based on two fundamental principles. They should have as an aim the establishment
of a state of society, where everybody should be protected against an undeserved poverty, where the braincancer, fear of an undeserved poverty, should be
cured; and they should preserve competition, the
power that is permanently spurring everybody to use
his best efforts to elevate himself and humanity".




CHAPTER VIII.
When I left Mr. Forest after our last conversation
I was convinced, partly by his arguments, partly by
my own observations, that communism had not established the millennium, as I had first supposed, after
the lectures of Dr. Leete; but that it had degraded humanity in every respect.
I felt that I must speak frankly to Dr. Leete about
the change in my convictions, resign my position as
professor of Shawmut College, and that this would
give my life in the society of the twentieth century a
new and unpleasant direction.
Dr. Leete had treated me with the utmost kindness,
and if I, from the commencement of our relations,
had refused to become enthusiastic over communism,
my amiable host, I think, would have not only tolerated my views but would have continued his friendship for me, provided I did not join the active opposition to the administration, He might even have
consented to my marriage with Edith, But now the
circumstances were such, that my change of mind involved the most unpleasant consequences for Dr.
Leete. He had recommended me as a man especially
qualified above others to become the successor of Mr.
Forest as professor of the history of the nineteenth
century. I owed my appointment solely to his influ



116


LOOKING FORWARD.


ence, and there could be no doubt that my apostacy
from communism would seriously injure the respect
in which Dr. Leete's advice had been held heretofore.
My host would feel this keenly. The rather sudden
change in my opinions, the consequence of my very
limited knowledge of national economy, could have
no other effect upon Dr. Leete's family, than to destroy
their good opinion of me. They would be forced to
believe me a shallow, superficial and ungrateful man,
who had changed from an enthusiastic advocate of
communism to such a decided opponent of this theory
that I would resign a position granted to me through
Dr. Leete's efforts, and thus place my kind host in
an embarrassing position.
And how would Edith regard my resignation of the
professorship? She was attached to her father by a
well founded affection and esteem. Would her love
for me prove strong enough to overcome the shock
my step involved? My blind enthusiasm for the
present order of things had been heralded all over the
country by the administration organs; they had pointed
to the fact that I, a living witness of the civilization of
the nineteenth century, had become an almost fanatic
advocate of communism. The fact that I had changed
my mind after becoming familiar with the facts and
circumstances, would compel the administration to
treat me as a deceitful, unprincipled demagogue, if
not as a scoundrel. There was very little doubt that
I would be assigned to the most objectionable work,
even if I was spared a term in an insane asylum. And




LOOKING FORWARD.


"7


how could I ask Edith Leete, blooming like a beautiful flower in a well protected garden, the house of her
highly esteemed father, to join her lot to a man who
would be regarded by most of the people either as a
superficial babbler or as an unmasked hypocrite, deserving his fate to be degraded to class B of the third
grade.
The fear of losing the love of Edith overshadowed
for a while all other considerations, for I loved in
Edith Leete Edith Bartlett! And the reflection that
my resignation would cause the loss of Edith to me
weighed upon my mind like a nightmare. Never in
my life had I felt so distressed and miserable as on
my way to Dr. Leete's house after my last conversation with Mr. Forest.
For a moment I harbored the idea of ending my
misery by my own hand, but I resolved to be a man
and face my fate. So I walked to Dr. Leete's house
determined not to deceive my friends nor to shrink
from my duty as a man of honor.
I found Dr. Leete, who generally appeared so gentle
and composed, in a rather excited mood. He looked
both careworn and threatening. Before I could address him he stepped in front of me and said:
"I have positive information that our mutual friend
Mr. Fest, is plotting to incite a rebellion of the Radicals.  Frequent secret meetings have taken place
during the last few days, and I learn that Fest intends
to start the rebellion here in Boston".




118


LOOKING FORWARD.


"What means will you employ to prevent it?" I
asked. "Will you call out the citizens and arrest the
conspirators? I am at your service", I added, very
glad to demonstrate my readiness to serve my host at
least against the Radicals whose abominable theories
I hated-not to mention my dislike for their leader.
"I doubt very much whether it would be good policy to appeal to the people", replied the doctor.
"Such a step would attach too much importance to the
conspiracy. I wish I had placed that man Fest under
medical care, when he left our house. He is the real
danger of the hour. His followers do not amount to
much, but under a leader like. Fest, who combines a
certain rude eloquence with reckless audacity and
physical power, a rebellion may become a dangerous
movement. To prevent this I have given orders to
arrest the archconspirator and to put him in a safe
place under medical treatment",
I could not indorse this step although it would,
perhaps, prove successful. I suppressed my objections, however, and asked Dr. Leete if he could give
a few minutes attention to my own affairs, for I considered it my duty not to keep secret my convictions
any longer from Edith's father.
With his usual kindness Dr. Leete turned to me and
requested me to defer the conversation until next
morning if the delay would not be very disagreeable
to me.
I consented.
We took our places at the table in the dining room.




LOOKING FORWARD.


"I9


Mrs. Leete had sent for a light supper to the common eating house, but none of us did justice to the
meal. We all felt apprehensive.
Dr. Leete looked at his watch.
"By this time Fest ought to be in the care of the
officers and physicians", he said. "I expect a report".
After a few uneasy minutes we heard a noise in
the street, as if a great number of people were coming
up to the house.
The housedoor was opened, and a brawling crowd
entered the hall and pressed forward into the dining
room. The mob was led by Fest, who, evidently, had
just been through a hot fight. His woolen shirt was
torn, and he swung a heavy butcher's axe stained with
blood.
"Here I am again, Dr. Leete", he cried in his stentorian voice. "I gave you fair warning that I would
not enter your house again as a friend. And since,
you damned old hypocritical tyrant, you have given
orders to imprison me in a mad-house, I have resolved
that you shall die this evening. The people of Boston
shall be relieved from your tyranny".
I seized a knife and stepping to the side of Dr.
Leete, I stood ready to cover his body with my own.
But at this moment the mob's attention was distracted by the sudden appearance in the room of
Forest, who jumped on the dining table and addressed
the crowd without losing a second.
"I suppose you know who I am", he said. "I am
an enemy of this man", and he pointed to Dr. Leete.




120


LOOKING FORWARD.


"Because I would not defend this miserable administration I was removed from my place as professor
of Shawmut College, and it was Dr. Leete who assigned me to the position of janitor".
"That's just like the miserable old tyrant", shouted
a dirty looking fellow.
"Therefore, I say: Down with an administration
that strangled free speech" continued Mr. Forest.
"Down with tyranny! But let us not butcher this
miserable old fellow. It is not worthy of young and
vigorous men like us to kill an unarmed old creature.
Let us place him in an insane asylum, where he intended to imprison our friend Fest",
"Yes, yes, put him in a madhouse", the mob yelled.
It was evident that Forest was trying to save Dr.
Leete's life. My eye wandered to Edith. She was
very pale but composed. She had put her left arm
around her father and she met my look with an expression of sympathy. Unfortunately, Fest noticed
that expression in Edith's eyes, and his jealousy broke
forth with increased force.
"You damned fools", he cried in a hoarse voice,
"don't you see that this man Forest is trying to save
the life of that tricky and dangerous old tyrant? But
I demand my share of the booty: the life of Leete
and his daughter"
"Do as you please, Bob"! the mob yelled.
"Leave this room, Forest", commanded Robert
Fest. "I have no grudge against you; but if you stand
in my way you will have to suffer the consequences".




LOOKING FORWARD.


12I


"So long as I live you shall not commit murder in
this house", Mr. Forest replied. "You ought to be
ashamed, Fest, of a conduct so unworthy of a gentleman'.
"Shut up, you fool", Fest screamed with rage.
"That hypocritical scoundrel, Leete, has bulldozed
the people long enough. He must die, and if you
don't get out of our way, you will die with him".
A rage I had never felt before carried me away.
"What has this old gentleman done to challenge your
thirst for his blood, you mean, cruel coward?" I cried,
and jumped at Fest, trying to put my knife into his
heart. But a dozen fists disarmed me, while Fest
commanded: "Put that old Bostonian in a bag and
dump him in the harbor. Although not a gentleman
in the eyes of the professor I am a man of my word,
and I have promised that resurrected spectre, I would
drown him like a puppy when ever again he crossed
my path".
He lifted his axe and advanced towards Dr. Leete
who remained silent, with his gray eyes fixed upon his
brutal enemy.
Once more Forest tried to safe the life of the
leader of the administration, but in vain. A dirty
looking ruffian buried a knife in Forest's true and
fearless breast and with the words: "We are even,
Leete", he sank to the floor. Edith struggled with
two men who had seized her arms and were trying to
lead her away when Fest's axe descended on Dr.
Leete's gray head. Without a murmur he fell to the




122          LOOKING FORWARD.
ground, while Edith with a loud cry fainted. Fest
seized her around her waist.
"She refused to be my wife" he said with a satanic
grin, "now she will be mine without the ridiculous
ceremony of marriage", and while stepping to the door
with Edith's lifeless body clasped by his left arm he
said: "Kill every friend of the administration, boys
I will meet you at the city hall in an hour or so".
I made a tremendous, desperate effort to shake off
the men who kept me back; I uttered a despairing cry
and-awoke in my bed, May 31, 1887. At my bedside
a physician, and my servant Sawyer had been busy
for some time awakening me from my deep mesmeric
slumber, They had labored very hard until they succeeded, but more than an hour passed before I had
regained my ability of reasoning, and then I felt
greatly relieved.
With the swiftness of lightning all the details of my
interesting but terrible dream passed through my mind.
I weighed all the arguments of Dr. Leete and Mr.
Forest carefully again, and felt delighted that I was
living in the nineteenth century instead of in the com.
munistic state that appeared to r-  'ke a large'
penitentiary on the eve of a r
"I would rather work har,
idle for a number of hours e
life", I said reflectively, "for
I would rather work a few yeas
commodities of life than subnu,
slavery. Most of the luxuries for which we are strug



^     ^   74i:^,-^,9 /                          c,,
/ (        LOOKUIG FIRWARD.                 123
gling Appear most desirable so long as we do not possess them, and we do not care much for them when
they are ours".
I resolved to use hereafter my best ability for the
advancement of all desirable reforms for the benefit
of mankind, and to preach contentment, the only solid
basis of happiness. Felicity is so independent of
wealth, in fact glory and opulence are almost stumbling blocks in the way of happiness. Happiness depends largely on our acceptance of our lot. In
Victor Von Scheffel's famous poem "The Trumpeter
of Saickingen" young Werner when he parts from his
beloved Margaret, as he supposes forever, sings:
To life belongs this most unpleasant feature:
That not a rose without sharp thorns does grow.
Though love eternal stirs our human nature
Through pangs of parting we at last must go.
But Margaret is at last reunited to young Werner,
she becomes his wife, and it would have been much
more in consonance with the final result, if young
Werner, when departing from Margaret, had sung thus:
To life belongs this very pleasant feature
Tbh       ',rns the blooming roses bend,
iluers human nature
in the end.




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