Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887

  Chapter 6

  Dr. Leete ceased speaking, and I remained silent, endeavoring to formsome general conception of the changes in the arrangements of societyimplied in the tremendous revolution which he had described.

  Finally I said, "The idea of such an extension of the functions ofgovernment is, to say the least, rather overwhelming."

  "Extension!" he repeated, "where is the extension?"

  "In my day," I replied, "it was considered that the proper functions ofgovernment, strictly speaking, were limited to keeping the peace anddefending the people against the public enemy, that is, to the militaryand police powers."

  "And, in heaven's name, who are the public enemies?" exclaimed Dr.Leete. "Are they France, England, Germany, or hunger, cold, andnakedness? In your day governments were accustomed, on the slightestinternational misunderstanding, to seize upon the bodies of citizensand deliver them over by hundreds of thousands to death and mutilation,wasting their treasures the while like water; and all this oftenest forno imaginable profit to the victims. We have no wars now, and ourgovernments no war powers, but in order to protect every citizenagainst hunger, cold, and nakedness, and provide for all his physicaland mental needs, the function is assumed of directing his industry fora term of years. No, Mr. West, I am sure on reflection you willperceive that it was in your age, not in ours, that the extension ofthe functions of governments was extraordinary. Not even for the bestends would men now allow their governments such powers as were thenused for the most maleficent."

  "Leaving comparisons aside," I said, "the demagoguery and corruption ofour public men would have been considered, in my day, insuperableobjections to any assumption by government of the charge of thenational industries. We should have thought that no arrangement couldbe worse than to entrust the politicians with control of thewealth-producing machinery of the country. Its material interests werequite too much the football of parties as it was."

  "No doubt you were right," rejoined Dr. Leete, "but all that is changednow. We have no parties or politicians, and as for demagoguery andcorruption, they are words having only an historical significance."

  "Human nature itself must have changed very much," I said.

  "Not at all," was Dr. Leete's reply, "but the conditions of human lifehave changed, and with them the motives of human action. Theorganization of society with you was such that officials were under aconstant temptation to misuse their power for the private profit ofthemselves or others. Under such circumstances it seems almost strangethat you dared entrust them with any of your affairs. Nowadays, on thecontrary, society is so constituted that there is absolutely no way inwhich an official, however ill-disposed, could possibly make any profitfor himself or any one else by a misuse of his power. Let him be as badan official as you please, he cannot be a corrupt one. There is nomotive to be. The social system no longer offers a premium ondishonesty. But these are matters which you can only understand as youcome, with time, to know us better."

  "But you have not yet told me how you have settled the labor problem.It is the problem of capital which we have been discussing," I said."After the nation had assumed conduct of the mills, machinery,railroads, farms, mines, and capital in general of the country, thelabor question still remained. In assuming the responsibilities ofcapital the nation had assumed the difficulties of the capitalist'sposition."

  "The moment the nation assumed the responsibilities of capital thosedifficulties vanished," replied Dr. Leete. "The national organizationof labor under one direction was the complete solution of what was, inyour day and under your system, justly regarded as the insoluble laborproblem. When the nation became the sole employer, all the citizens, byvirtue of their citizenship, became employees, to be distributedaccording to the needs of industry."

  "That is," I suggested, "you have simply applied the principle ofuniversal military service, as it was understood in our day, to thelabor question."

  "Yes," said Dr. Leete, "that was something which followed as a matterof course as soon as the nation had become the sole capitalist. Thepeople were already accustomed to the idea that the obligation of everycitizen, not physically disabled, to contribute his military servicesto the defense of the nation was equal and absolute. That it wasequally the duty of every citizen to contribute his quota of industrialor intellectual services to the maintenance of the nation was equallyevident, though it was not until the nation became the employer oflabor that citizens were able to render this sort of service with anypretense either of universality or equity. No organization of labor waspossible when the employing power was divided among hundreds orthousands of individuals and corporations, between which concert of anykind was neither desired, nor indeed feasible. It constantly happenedthen that vast numbers who desired to labor could find no opportunity,and on the other hand, those who desired to evade a part or all oftheir debt could easily do so."

  "Service, now, I suppose, is compulsory upon all," I suggested.

  "It is rather a matter of course than of compulsion," replied Dr.Leete. "It is regarded as so absolutely natural and reasonable that theidea of its being compulsory has ceased to be thought of. He would bethought to be an incredibly contemptible person who should needcompulsion in such a case. Nevertheless, to speak of service beingcompulsory would be a weak way to state its absolute inevitableness.Our entire social order is so wholly based upon and deduced from itthat if it were conceivable that a man could escape it, he would beleft with no possible way to provide for his existence. He would haveexcluded himself from the world, cut himself off from his kind, in aword, committed suicide."

  "Is the term of service in this industrial army for life?"

  "Oh, no; it both begins later and ends earlier than the average workingperiod in your day. Your workshops were filled with children and oldmen, but we hold the period of youth sacred to education, and theperiod of maturity, when the physical forces begin to flag, equallysacred to ease and agreeable relaxation. The period of industrialservice is twenty-four years, beginning at the close of the course ofeducation at twenty-one and terminating at forty-five. Afterforty-five, while discharged from labor, the citizen still remainsliable to special calls, in case of emergencies causing a sudden greatincrease in the demand for labor, till he reaches the age offifty-five, but such calls are rarely, in fact almost never, made. Thefifteenth day of October of every year is what we call Muster Day,because those who have reached the age of twenty-one are then musteredinto the industrial service, and at the same time those who, aftertwenty-four years' service, have reached the age of forty-five, arehonorably mustered out. It is the great day of the year with us, whencewe reckon all other events, our Olympiad, save that it is annual."