XXIII IMMEDIATE IMPROVEMENT

WE are, however, not yet all matured to live that co-operative life which I have depicted in the foregoing pages. Most people have still too much of the tiger element in them to live harmoniously in any Modern Paradise whether crude or ideal. They are still haters, meddlers, quarrelers and fighters. They invariably try to fleece and dominate over others instead of developing and refining themselves and minding their own business. As long as we do that we lack culture and due regard for the just rights of others, and in 104that way curtail our own welfare and happiness.

We are all aware that just now the world is in a very chaotic condition. We find hatred, strife, war and bankruptcy practically everywhere. But all this strife and discord can easily be removed, if the people go at it in the right way. How, I believe, this can easily and speedily be done by immediate practical means I shall now very briefly suggest in this Topic.

There are still two great classes of discords—National and International strifes and discords. The International strife, discord and war result where one or more Nations exploit, rob or dominate over other Nations; and that strife and war will continue as long as there are mandates and dependent Nations; for it is natural for all self-respecting peoples to strive for national freedom and independence the same as we did in 1776. The National discords result where one Individual or Class exploits other Individuals or Classes by monopoly and special privilege of some sort, and that strife and discord will continue to intensify as intelligent conduct advances.

For the purpose of establishing and maintaining International Peace, Friendly Mutuality 105and General Prosperity, let the two opposing sides—the Victors and the Vanquished—of the late World War:

(1) Impartially appoint a neutral commission to ascertain the cause of the war, “who started it” and why it was so brutally fought to the bitter end without ever trying to make peace on the basis of reason instead of armed force. The sane people of the world want to know that from an impartial tribunal, because both sides contend that the opposing side started the war, and that causes the hatred on both sides.

(2) Scrap the unjust, autocratic and disreputable Versailles Peace Treaty handed to the world by the self-appointed militaristic “Big Four;” who cut up more than a dozen Nations and bartered away some of their people without the slightest regard for the consent of the governed.

(3) Let this neutral Commission also ascertain what Nations are justly entitled to war indemnity, how much, and what Nations should pay it.

(4) Convene a truly democratic Peace and Disarmament Conference at which every Nation, large and small, independent and dependent 106has an equal voice, the same as our States have in the Senate.

(5) Have this Peace Conference adopt universal disarmament for all international war purposes.

(6) Let the Nations in this Conference agree to cancel all the war debts, personal and national, so as to make it possible, once more, to begin with a clean slate and a noble purpose. To pay war tax and still worse to shift this war tax on future generations yet unborn is a discredit to the people of any nation. The contributors of the war funds on both sides of the brutal conflict, who kept the war going, should now pay the penalty of having all the war loans canceled to make the world once more peaceful, prosperous and really democratic.

(7) Accord to the people of every Nation full Self-determination and the sole right of adjusting and conducting their own internal affairs.

(8) Restore to every Nation the territory and inhabitants of which it was robbed by the late war. Turkey already took them back by force and all the other dozen or more divided nations will likely do the same at their first opportunity, and this will keep up the hatred, strife and war for centuries to come, if this restoration is not made.

107(9) Adopt a real democratic instead of the present autocratic League of Nations on the basis of reason and civic justice, and for the only one purpose of maintaining the international Peace of the world, and from which any Nation can withdraw at any time and for any cause it sees fit to do so. Come in and go out at any time. That leaves every Nation completely free from any “entangling alliance.” There is no more real need for the use of armies and navies among Nations than there is between the several States of a Nation.

(10) Liberate all prisoners of war and accord to all individuals and nations full equal freedom of the sea and air for all non-aggressive purposes.

(11) Every Nation should be proud of according full freedom of speech, the press and assembly in order to get at the truth and promote progress during peace or war.

(12) Every citizen that migrates to a foreign country should go there at his own risk and adjustment. For a Government to protect a citizen in a foreign country usually causes strife and often war. Many a citizen from a powerful Nation is too liable to carry a chip on his shoulder and “dares” the foreign Nation by questionable means to knock it off. That 108method is also very unjust to the little Nations that can not protect their citizens in foreign lands by armed force from unjust treatment by big Nations. Let every immigrant to a foreign country protect himself by just treatment of the natives and the laws of the land to which he migrates. If that does not seem safe to him, he should not venture there.

The full and impartial application of these twelve democratic points will undoubtedly remove practically all the present international discords which are now bringing so much hardship and misery on the human race, and this misery and depression will continue for centuries unless international justice is meted out to all nations, large and small, independent and dependent. But there are also many national evils which must also be adjusted before we can expect all-round Peace, Harmony and General Prosperity.

The first and most important national move should be to abolish Land Monopoly. To open up the Natural Resources—soil, mines, forest, oil wells, waterfalls, etc., which provide the only unlimited sources of remunerative employment. This can readily be done by properly limiting the personal ownership of land, mines, etc. To get cheaper tools and machinery, the monopolistic features of the Patent 109Laws should be removed. To remove the gamble element out of the Money System, the Banking business should be combined with the Post Office Department as a Government function the same as the mail and parcel post. Practically every Post Office should also become a Government Bank, and the money issued by the Government. This can almost completely stabilize the average purchasing power of the dollar and fully secure every depositor against loss, as I fully explain in my recent Essay, “How to Awaken the Sleeping Mummy.”

For cheaper and more efficient Transportation and Communication, there should be unified government ownership and operation of railroads, telegraph and other monopolized and watered public utilities for the general benefit of the Public instead of for private gain on the basis of charging “all the traffic will bear.”

Government ownership and operation of Public Utilities is desirable, because it will do away: (1) with billions of watered stock; (2) billions of annual dividends; (3) will unify operations which will greatly reduce operating expense; (4) with unified operation, the operating force could be very much reduced; and (5) the unified service would be much more 110convenient to the Public. Such efficient, unified Government Ownership and Operation would undoubtedly reduce Transportation rates one-third if not one-half. Government ownership and operation of coal mines and oil wells would also, no doubt, cut the present profiteering price of coal, oil and gasoline in half. As to whether the people should own and operate the public utilities as public property as they do the post office, public schools, parcel post, weather bureau, etc., or whether they shall be owned and operated by private enterprise as now, depends on the viewpoint of the critic. Those who want them operated primarily for the special benefit of a comparatively small group of dividend-taking stockholders, naturally favor private ownership. On the other hand, those who want them run for the best interest of all the people want public ownership, if they have thoroughly and impartially investigated the question.

To combat Commercial Profiteering, cities should also own and operate in competition with private owners such basic industries as coal yards, ice plants, water and gas plants, lumber yards, street cars, and the finest Municipal Department Store that sell at cost of production everything from a pin to a modern threshing outfit and farm tractor.

111That will abolish commercial profiteering, and if these competing unified Public Industries are efficiently operated, that will reduce the cost of living to the minimum, make the average workday the shortest and easiest, remunerative jobs most plentiful, the purchasing power of the dollar most stable and factious competition, excessive exportation and extravagant waste least.

We may thus see that real Democracy founded on justice, kindness and liberty is the only solution of Humanity’s ills. That as long as the Victors rule over the Vanquished by armed force, and the powerful Independent Nations as Mandataries dominate over the weaker Nations, there can be no International Peace and friendly Mutuality; and as long as Plutocracy lives on the toil of the producing Masses, there can be no National Peace and general Prosperity.

Flagrant Wrongs like France’s invasion of the Ruhr in Germany for not fulfilling a forced contract in the making of which Germany had no voice will bring nothing but hatred, deception, poverty, war and ruin all-round, because it is the cave man’s method of treatment.

Such harmonious national and international adjustments on the basis of reason and civic 112justice as I have suggested in this brief Topic will surely go a long, long way toward Peace, friendly Mutuality and general Prosperity, but the conditions at the very best would still be very far from being an ideal Modern Paradise.

We would still have the noisy, immoral, congested cities and the isolated country homes, the dependent women and begging children eking out a lonely, toilsome life in family cottages and servant-kept mansions; the masters and the servants, the millions of school children confined in stuffy schoolrooms; the give-and-take marriage regime, as well as many other unnecessary impediments against rational life, liberty and the pursuit of health and happiness.

We may thus see that the Ideal toward which advancing civilization is undoubtedly tending is in the direction of extensive voluntary co-operation on large Landed Estates with shops and factories by groups of intelligent men, women and children as equal Industrial and Domestic Co-operators and Owners of Modern Paradises.

Hence, our primary aim should be to bring the people in social and economic groups back to the healthful Land from which all wealth must be directly or indirectly produced by the hand and brain of labor.

113Every national Government is still run fundamentally on the strife-provoking basis of militarism and exploiting commercialism; on the basis of Force instead of Reason and the Dollar above the Man. These destructive and unjust sentiments can not produce a good world to anyone, rich or poor.

Hence, the two most important transitional steps toward the Ideal for the people to take immediately are (1) to elect Pacifists instead of Militarists as their Rulers and Officials; men and women who know enough to settle international differences without plunging the world into brutal wars; (2) to run Nations on the just and humane basis of the “Man Above the Dollar.”

We are still doing just the opposite. Everything that produces dollars still goes. War, prostitution, graft, profiteering, selling booze and death-dealing armaments and commercial gambling of all kinds go, when they have Dollars whether honest or dishonest in them. We have far too much Commercialism. At least 75 per cent of the world’s present Commercialists and professionalists should be shifted into the useful fields of Industrialism. That would make the average workday very much shorter and easier and the total commodities much more in keeping with the modern standard 114of living. We, therefore, need many more useful producers and many less commercial gamblers; shorter workdays and more play-days; for as long as superstitious mysticism and armed Force are held above Reason, and the dollar above Man, we can not hope to have a harmonious world.

Every Reader, after thoughtfully reading this small book, can plainly see that the Modern Paradise plan of Thinking, Living and Working produces the highest Efficiency of Production, Equitable Distribution, Wise Accumulation, Economical Consumption and Harmonious Association; all resting on the sound sociologic principle of complete self-ownership in ideal democracy.

I am also confident that the Remedies which I have suggested in this Topic for speedily adjusting the present National and International discordances will, of course, not turn the world into Modern Paradises at once, but will bring much immediate relief to the starving and war-burdened people of every land, if they only rise to the emergency of adopting such measures in a free and peaceful way. But all such improvements can be attained only by sound education and further refinement. We can not hope to usher in a good world without having good people to run it harmoniously.

115It just requires only ordinary people that know how to do some useful work, that are free from superstition, that have clean, healthful habits and that know how to tend to their own affairs and let others do the same.

For building, operating and peopling these Modern Paradises, whether one or a million, I have called in nothing new, strange or mystical (except the suggestion of the Chemico-Electric Generator mentioned on page 43 which is not yet in operation, but will likely come in the near future). Everything for living that ideal life is already here in separate parts, but the various parts—land, buildings, machinery, refined co-operators, etc.—have so far never been combined in a free and harmonious way for producing all-round ideal results.

Is not this illustrated book, “The Story of the World a Thousand Years Hence” the first adequate program descriptive of an ideal method of Thinking, Living and Working? Does the Reader know of any other?

But the ideal life is really so simple and so uniformly in accord with the peaceable and healthful laws of Nature that almost any live architect and builder can design, build and furnish a Modern Paradise from the drawings and suggestions contained in this small book, 116and also visualize the successive transitional steps that gradually lead up to that evolutionary ideal. And all this is in complete accord with Herbert Spencer’s sound announcement when he says:

“The particular kind of further evolution which Man is hereafter to undergo, is one in which, more than any other, may be expected to cause a decline in the power of reproduction; in the end, therefore, the obtainment of subsistence and the discharge of all parental and social duties, will require just that kind and that amount of action needful to health and happiness.”