Cæsar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century

it wouldhave to be put out by the owner of it in business enterprises, whichwould employ labor; and as the enterprise would not then have tosupport a double burden--to wit, the man engaged in it and the usurerwho sits securely upon his back--but would have to maintain only theformer usurer--that is, the present employer--its success would bemore certain; the general prosperity of the community would beincreased thereby, and there would be therefore more enterprises,more demand for labor, and consequently higher wages. Usury kills offthe enterprising members of a community by bankrupting them, andleaves only the very rich and the very poor; for every dollar theemployers of labor pay to the lenders of money has to come eventuallyout of the pockets of the laborers. Usury is therefore the cause ofthe first aristocracy, and out of this grow all the otheraristocracies. Inquire where the money came from that now oppressesmankind, in the shape of great corporations, combinations, etc., andin nine cases out of ten you will trace it back to the fountain ofinterest on money loaned. The coral island is built out of the bodiesof dead coral insects; large fortunes are usually the accumulationsof wreckage, and every dollar represents disaster."

  "Well," said Maximilian, "having abolished usury, in your Utopia,what would you do next?"

  "I would set to work to make a list of all the laws, or parts oflaws, or customs, or conditions which, either by commission oromission, gave any man an advantage over any other man; or whichtended to concentrate the wealth of the community in the hands of afew. And having found out just what these wrongs or advantages were,I would abolish them _instanter_."

  "Well, let us suppose," said Maximilian, "that you were notimmediately murdered by the men whose privileges you haddestroyed--even as the Gracchi were of old--what would you do next?Men differ in every detail. Some have more industry, or morestrength, or more cunning, or more foresight, or more acquisitivenessthan others. How are you to prevent these men from becoming richerthan the rest?"

  "I should not try to," I said. "These differences in men arefundamental, and not to be abolished by legislation; neither are theinstincts you speak of in themselves injurious. Civilization, infact, rests upon them. It is only in their excess that they becomedestructive. It is right and wise and proper for men to accumulatesufficient wealth to maintain their age in peace, dignity and plenty,and to be able to start their children into the arena of lifesufficiently equipped. A thousand men in a community worth $10,000 or$50,000, or even $100,000 each, may be a benefit, perhaps a blessing;but one man worth fifty or one hundred millions, or, as we have themnow-a-days, one thousand millions, is a threat against the safety andhappiness of every man in the world. I should establish a maximumbeyond which no man could own property. I should not stop hisaccumulations when he had reached that point, for with many menaccumulation is an instinct; but I should require him to invest thesurplus, under the direction of a governmental board of management,in great works for the benefit of the laboring classes. He shouldestablish schools, colleges, orphan asylums, hospitals, modelresidences, gardens, parks, libraries, baths, places of amusement,music-halls, sea-side excursions in hot weather, fuel societies incold weather, etc., etc. I should permit him to secure immortality byaffixing his name to his benevolent works; and I should honor himstill further by placing his statue in a great national gallery setapart to perpetuate forever the memory of the benefactors of therace."

  "But," said Maximilian, with a smile, "it would not take long foryour rich men, with their surplus wealth, to establish all thoseworks you speak of. What would you do with the accumulations of therest?"

  "Well," said I, "we should find plenty to do. We would put theirmoney, for instance, into a great fund and build national railroads,that would bring the productions of the farmers to the workmen, andthose of the workmen to the farmers, at the least cost oftransportation, and free from the exactions of speculators andmiddlemen. Thus both farmers and workmen would live better, at lessexpense and with less toil."

  "All very pretty," said he; "but your middlemen would starve.

  "Not at all," I replied; "the cunning never starve. There would besuch a splendid era of universal prosperity that they would simplyturn their skill and shrewdness into some new channels, in which,however, they would have to give something of benefit, as anequivalent for the benefits they received. Now they take the cream,and butter, and beef, while some one else has to raise, feed and milkthe cow."

  "But," said he, "all this would not help our farmers in their presentcondition--they are blotted off the land."

  "True," I replied; "but just as I limited a man's possible wealth, soshould I limit the amount of land he could own. I would fix a maximumof, say, 100 or 500 acres, or whatever amount might be deemed justand reasonable. I should abolish all corporations, or turn them backinto individual partnerships. Abraham Lincoln, in the great civil warof the last century, gave the Southern insurgents so many days inwhich to lay down their arms or lose their slaves. In the same way Ishould grant one or two years' time, in which the great owners ofland should sell their estates, in small tracts, to actual occupants,to be paid for in installments, on long time, without interest. Andif they did not do so, then, at the end of the period prescribed, Ishould confiscate the lands and sell them, as the government in theold time sold the public lands, for so much per acre, to actualsettlers, and turn the proceeds over to the former owners."

  "But, as you had abolished interest on money, there could be nomortgages, and the poor men would starve to death before they couldraise a crop."

  "Then," I replied, "I should invoke the power of the nation, as wasdone in that great civil war of 1861, and issue paper money,receivable for all taxes, and secured by the guarantee of the faithand power of five hundred million people; and make advances to carrythese ruined peasants beyond the first years of distress--that moneyto be a loan to them, without interest, and to be repaid as a tax ontheir land. Government is only a machine to insure justice and helpthe people, and we have not yet developed half its powers. And we areunder no more necessity to limit ourselves to the governmentalprecedents of our ancestors than we are to confine ourselves to thenarrow boundaries of their knowledge, or their inventive skill, ortheir theological beliefs. The trouble is that so many seem to regardgovernment as a divine something which has fallen down upon us out ofheaven, and therefore not to be improved upon or even criticised;while the truth is, it is simply a human device to secure humanhappiness, and in itself has no more sacredness than a wheelbarrow ora cooking-pot. The end of everything earthly is the good of man; andthere is nothing sacred on earth but man, because he alone shares theDivine conscience."

  "But," said he, "would not your paper money have to be redeemed ingold or silver?"

  "Not necessarily," I replied. "The adoration of gold and silver is asuperstition of which the bankers are the high priests and mankindthe victims. Those metals are of themselves of little value. Whatshould make them so?"

  "Are they not the rarest and most valuable productions of the world?"said Maximilian.

  "By no means," I replied; "there are many metals that exceed them inrarity and value. While a kilogram of gold is worth about $730 andone of silver about $43.50, the same weight of iridium (the heaviestbody known) costs $2,400; one of palladium, $3,075; one of calciumnearly $10,000; one of stibidium, $20,000; while vanadium, the true'king of metals,' is worth $25,000 per kilogram, as against $730 forgold or $43.50 for silver."

  "Why, then, are they used as money?" he asked.

  "Who can tell? The practice dates back to prehistoric ages. Manalways accepts as right anything that is in existence when he isborn."

  "But are they not more beautiful than other metals? And are they notused as money because acids will not corrode them?"

  "No," I replied; "some of the other metals exceed them in beauty. Thediamond far surpasses them in both beauty and value, and glassresists the action of acids better than either of them."

  "What do you propose?" he asked.

  "Gold and silver," I said, "are the bases of the world's currency. Ifthe
y are abundant, all forms of paper money are abundant. If they arescarce, the paper money must shrink in proportion to the shrinkage ofits foundation; if not, there come panics and convulsions, in theeffort to make one dollar of gold pay three, six or ten of paper. Forone hundred and fifty years _the production of gold and silver hasbeen steadily shrinking, while the population and business of theworld have been rapidly increasing_.

  "Take a child a few years old; let a blacksmith weld around his waistan iron band. At first it causes him little inconvenience. He plays.As he grows older it becomes tighter; it causes him pain; he scarcelyknows what ails him. He still grows. All his internal organs arecramped and