"LOOKING BACKWARD."

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXIIi, Issue 11688, 5 July 1890, Page 3

"LOOKING BACKWARD."

♦ THE LATEST UTOPIA. (Contributed). From tho time when Sir Thomas More, in the reign of Henry VIII., wrote his celebrated " Utopia/ in which he depicted the social arrangements of "the best of all possible worlds," np to the present day, the imaginations of men have never for long remained idle, and from time to time we have been presented with various schemes for the improvement of our condition, some, indeed, purely works of the imagination, others aiming at the practical realisation of their proposals. Finally, a book of a similar sort has been' recently published, called '• Looking Backward," by Mr Edward Bellamy. This work is worthy of attention for several reasons, not the least among which is the rapid and extraordinary success which it has met with, in all the Anglo-Saxon world. Up to the beginning of the present year, 250,000 copies had been sold in the United States, and about 50,000 in England, while more recently it has been securing a large circulation throughout Australasia. In this new era, this millenium pourtrayed in pleasing colours for us by Mr Bellamy, all the troubles of the 19th and preceding centuries are banished as by a magician's wand, or by the lamp of an Aladdin. Wars are unknown, the lion and the lamb in very truth lie down together i poverty is but a name, a relic of an effete civilization ; crime and all criminal instincts have been eradicated from human nature, and universal " sweetness and light "—no longer a poet's dream — has become an accomplished fact. And we ore astonished to find that this regenerated society >8 no further/distant than the year 2000, A.D., H matter of three generations. How. fervently nil who read must wish that their birth had been delayed for— say a hundred years;— and that they had been destined to see the bright dawn of this new Golden Ace, and experience in person thefruits of tnis new regime ! " And how," the expectant reader will exclaim, " is this consummation, the object of every one's desire, to be consummated ? How is so great a change to be effected in human nature within so brief a period.?" On reading farther, however, he will find his mistake j human nature is not to bo altered, but this wonderful metamorphosis ' is to be -accomplished 'by an agency the mo3t simple. Labour is to be organized on a state basis, and all the productions of labour go to swell the general coffers, thence to be distributed in equal shares amongst all the members of this thriceblessed community. ' But, as the book is well-known to almost all, vre need not follow Mr Bellamy any farther, but crave the indulgence of our readers in putting before them some of the. chief objections to the proposals contained in this novelette, advanced by a well-known writer of authority on Political Economy/Professor F. A. Walker. - And at the outset we would remark that there is little that is novel, ■ little that is original, in- these schemes for social improvement. . Almost everyone of them, in perhaps slightly different form, may be found embodied in the various proposals of social reformers. The reader may satisfy himself that this is the case ,by referring to a book entitled "Utopias" by tho Rev. M. Kaufiuann. which may be obtained from the Wanganui Library and will repay a careful perusal. In fact, the basis of the new state of society, to which Mr Bellamy introduces us under cover of a tale, is to be found in a little work by M. Louis Blanc, entitled " V'Organization, dv Travail." But perhaps it is hardly fair to find fault with this want of originality, for every dream of seer or sage lias been dreamed before, arid of a truth there is nothing new under the sun. When one sees how simple a matter it is to turn this Earth into a Paradise, one cannot belp.feeling as Mr talker says, " a little, impatient with this gentleman for not turning up earlier, especially when one thinks of the wretchedness, the shame, And the misery of millions of our fellow men through these uncounted centuries. ' Confound that Bellamy,' — one must say, iitsHwt.-to himself, — ' why couldn't he havo attended to this thing earlier 'f \\ : iv j didn't ho got himself born under H.'h Pharaohs ? Then all this pain poult 1 , smm.- i been saved.'" ' " . ' In tlio new industrial army " tho administration " equalizes tho advantages of diffctont kinds of labour, Some kinds of luboujr are naturally and of necessity more arduous' and more difficult than others, and in all such thelhours.of labour are to be reduced proportionately. Now, the great tendency of the present day is for tho people to crowd into towns, that they may. share in the excitement and pleasures that can be obtained there and there only. How" much stronger will this . tendency become, when our citiP3 are as beautiful, as agreeable, and wholesome as Mr Bellamy Hs going to make them, and when «very member of .the community may .'draw"his full rations wherever he may live.', Toirfducela prbper proportion of tho population '"to. continue- in the country/ and till the sort, itjwould |bo necessary to reduce tKe hours of labour in agricultnre to. not' exceeding one and a half a day. But as it is, with our'cultivators working' 12 hours,' the produce obtained is barely sufficient to feed and clothu the inhabitants of the world; and what would happen if both the number of these labourers and the hours of their labour were so materially reduced? Mr Walker is obliged to. give up the quest, .finding the difficulties of the subject too great for his unenlightened attack. The first great .objection, then, to the views of this book, refers to the allotment of functions to each member, and the difficulty there would be' in retaining a sufficient number of labourers in the disagreeable occupations. \& second— the chief objection — is to the system of remuneration. For, in Mr Bellamy's army, all are to enjoy equivalent physical conditions. Thus an absolute equality in wages in every department is to be the rule. But .if the rewards of exceptional intelligence, industry, and Bkill are taken. away and given to the less intelligent and the less productive workers, 1 how long does any rational man think, that these qualities, on which depends the welfare of the human race, would bo exercised or stimulated to effort? Personal interest is the great mainspring of the economic world. A workman only putß forth his greatest skill and energy^ when the reward is in adequate proportion to the work accomplished. This may perhaps be sad, but it is undoubtedly true,hns been true through the long ages of the past, and will doubtless 1 hold throughout the generations of the future. Should, then, this new principle of remuneration cause any diminution in the zeal of the, abler workers, the less fortunate members of the community would bo no better off, but infinitely worse off, and all progress would be retarded. And, if we take away from the more able the extra produce of their labour, and divide it among nil tho people — -yer,as tho divisor is so large, the addition made to the income of each would amount to but a few cents a day. To obviate this difficulty, Mr Bellamy trios to show that production would be enormously increased under his proposed scheme. In this attempt, as Mr Walker says, " our author indulges in an extravagance of exaggeration which is hardly to bo equalled in the myth's of any people from Scandinavia to the Indian Peninsula. All the waste that results from excessive competition and ill-advised enterprise is to bo saved and turned' to the most- beneficent use in his industrial state. No man or. woman is to be, obliged to work after the age of 45, and no child before the age of 21 years, yet all are to have enough and to spare." As there is no such thing as property, all crimes against property are unknown, and everyone being happy and contented, crimes against tho person and :the community will vanish, and so society .will be relieved from tho expense of providing policemen, judges, gaols, &c. There are to be no more wars, and no standing armies. We need no longer wonder that a novelist, who in a line can disposeof a question which has baffled the power of Christianity, statesmen, and philanthrophists for century after century dan in a few chapters construct a state o*f society from which all evil human qualities and passions are eliminated. Again, Mr Bellamy assumes that if all selfish interests wore altogether removed as an incentive to action — the sense of duty and desire of applause would incite all tho members of tho community to exert their full powers for the bonefit of tho whole. This is, verily, a gratuitous assumption, and one which is contradicted by all the teachings of history. The natural and real result of adopting such a aystein as is recommended, in which the

means of existence would tc assured to every member of the community whatever his desorts might be, is clearly shown in the working of the famous Poor Law of Queen Elizabeth's reign, which in a short time produced a large and ever-increasing army of professional paupers. Finally, Mr Walker shows moat clearly the falseness of the analogy which Mr Bellamy has drawn between industry and war. The object of war is totally different from that of industry. Tfte object of war is to overwhelm and destroy your enemy, and for this purpose you must concentrate for perhaps a short time a superior force at v critical point for one supreme effort. With such an object in view— in defence of their homes, their hearths, and housohold gods — men have and always will be ready to submit to the severest possible form of dicipline. Is there anything corresponding to this in industry ? Of a certainty, no. The purpose of industry is not to destroy ; it is to create. Unlike the problem of war, the problem of industry is to keep engaged at many different points a vast number of workers, engaged on work of various kinds, not for a short time nor for a spasmodic effort, but for .quiet, orderly, continuous wort. For sucli objects men would certainly not submit to the same dicipline. And in truth tho object of tho whole o.f this scheme is not attainable, and even if attainable, not desirable. Should the conditions of life cease to be arduous and Btern, should all care and solicitude for the future be banished, were we to live in a land of mflk and honey, well might. the philanthropist exclaim, " Alas ! for mankind." If it were only necessary for us to tread the. priinro&e path of dalliance, swiftly indeed would the human race degenerate. Sweet indeed are the uses of adversity, and through long suffering must man work out his own salvation. The ipn ditrit of this light and airy human providence cannot free us from the primaeval sentenco, that in the sweat of their brows must men eat bread. The upward path is hard, not easy to tread, but every step bears us into clearer, fresher mountain- air, and extends our views and hopes for the future of our r.ice. In conclusion, let not practical men who have the welfare of their species at heart, be misled by the pleasing, but illogical conclusion of "Looking Backward," Do not let us be drawn on by the enticing glimmer of a fitful Will o' the Wisp, till we find ourselves deeper in tho Slough of Despond, and our second state worse than the first; but calmly facing the difficulties that bespt us, meet them by practical measures. Every great improvement must be slow, to be sure. The path of the human race has been, is, and ever shall be, onward— and of a surety ne shall some day attain a better social order than our present ; .but it will not be of the type, nor shall we reach it in the way, that Mr Bellamy advocates. The evils of class distinctions and the illeffejts qf competition will some day be mitigated, if not wholly removed, and we may rest confident in the belief that "If a coming yet, for a' that, That man to man, the world o'er, Shall brothers bo for ft' that."