Cæsar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century

by Ignatius Donnelly

Neither is the deviceof a tariff sufficient; for, although it is better than free trade,yet, while it tends to keep up the price of goods, it lets in theproducts of foreign labor; this diminishes the wages of our ownlaborers by decreasing the demand for their productions to the extentof the goods imported; and thus, while the price of commodities isheld up for the benefit of the manufacturers, the price of laborfalls. There can be no equitable commerce between two peoplesrepresenting two different stages of civilization, and both engagedin producing the same commodities. Thus the freest nations areconstantly pulled down to ruin by the most oppressed. What wouldhappen to heaven if you took down the fence between it and hell? Weare resolved that our republic shall be of itself, by itself--"in agreat pool, a swan's nest."

  As a corollary to these propositions, we decree that our Congressshall have the right to fix the rate of compensation for all forms oflabor, so that wages shall never fall below a rate that will affordthe laborer a comfortable living, with a margin that will enable himto provide for his old age. It is simply a question of the adjustmentof values. This experiment has been tried before by differentcountries, but it was always tried in the interest of the employers;the laborers had no voice in the matter; and it was the interest ofthe upper class to cheapen labor; and hence _Muscle_ became a drugand _Cunning_ invaluable and masterful; and the process was continuedindefinitely until the catastrophe came. Now labor has its own branchof our Congress, and can defend its rights and explain itsnecessities.

  In the comparison of views between the three classes some reasonableground of compromise will generally be found; and if error iscommitted we prefer that it should enure to the benefit of the many,instead of, as heretofore, to the benefit of the few.

  We declare in the preamble to our constitution that "this governmentis intended to be merely a plain and simple instrument, to insure toevery industrious citizen not only liberty, but an educated mind, acomfortable home, an abundant supply of food and clothing, and apleasant, happy life."

  Are not these the highest objects for which governments can exist?And if government, on the old lines, did not yield these results,should it not have been so reformed as to do so?

  We shall not seek to produce uniformity of recompense for all kindsof work; for we know that skilled labor is intrinsically worth morethan unskilled; and there are some forms of intellectual toil thatare more valuable to the world than any muscular exertion. The objectwill be not to drag down, but to lift up; and, above all, to preventthe masses from falling into that awful slough of wretchedness whichhas just culminated in world-wide disaster.

  The government will also regulate the number of apprentices who shallenter any given trade or pursuit. For instance, there may be too manyshoemakers and not enough farmers; if, now, more shoemakers crowdinto that trade, they will simply help starve those already there;but if they are distributed to farming, and other employments, wherethere is a lack, then there is more work for the shoemakers, and intime a necessity for more shoemakers.

  There is no reason why the ingenuity of man should not be applied tothese great questions. It has conquered the forces of steam andelectricity, but it has neglected the great adjustments of society,on which the happiness of millions depends. If the same intelligencewhich has been bestowed on perfecting the steam-engine had beendirected to a consideration of the correlations of man to man, andpursuit to pursuit, supply and demand would have precisely matchedeach other, and there need have been no pauperism in the world--savethat of the sick and imbecile. And the very mendicants would begin torise when the superincumbent pressure of those who live on the edgeof pauperism had been withdrawn.

  We deny gold and silver any function as money except for smallamounts--such as five dollars or less. We know of no supplies ofthose metals in our mountains, and if we tied our prosperity to theirchariot, the little, comparatively, there is among us, wouldgradually gravitate into a few hands, and these men would become themasters of the country. We issue, therefore, a legal-tender papermoney, receivable for all indebtedness, public and private, and notto be increased beyond a certain _per capita_ of population.

  We decree a limitation upon the amount of land or money any one mancan possess. All above that must be used, either by the owner or thegovernment, in works of public usefulness.

  There is but one town in our colony--it is indeed not much more thana village--called Stanley. The republic has taken possession of allthe land in and contiguous to it, not already built on--paying theowners the present price of the same; and hereafter no lots will besold except to persons who buy to build homes for themselves; andthese lots will be sold at the original cost price. Thus theopportunity for the poor to secure homes will never be diminished.

  We further decree that when hereafter any towns or cities or villagesare to be established, it shall only be by the nation itself.Whenever one hundred persons or more petition the government,expressing their desire to build a town, the government shall thentake possession of a sufficient tract of land, paying the intrinsic,not the artificial, price therefor. It shall then lay the land out inlots, and shall give the petitioners and others the right to take thelots at the original cost price, provided they make their homes uponthem. We shut out all speculators.

  No towns started in any other way shall have railroad or mailfacilities.

  When once a municipality is created in the way I have described, itshall provide, in the plat of the town, parks for recreation; no lotshall contain less than half an acre; the streets shall be very wideand planted with fruit trees in double and treble rows. In the centerof the town shall be erected a town hall, with an assembly chamber,arranged like a theater, and large enough to seat all theinhabitants. The building shall also contain free public baths, alibrary, a reading-room, public offices, etc. The municipality shalldivide the people into groups of five hundred families each, and foreach group they shall furnish a physician, to be paid for out of thegeneral taxes. They shall also provide in the same way concerts anddramatic representations and lectures, free of charge. The hours oflabor are limited to eight each day; and there are to be two holidaysin the week, Wednesday and Sundays. just as the state is able tocarry the mails for less than each man could carry them for himself,so the cost of physicians and entertainments procured by themunicipality will be much less than under the old system.

  We do not give any encouragement to labor-saving inventions, althoughwe do not discard them. We think the end of government should be--notcheap goods or cheap men, but happy families. If any man makes aserviceable invention the state purchases it at a reasonable pricefor the benefit of the people.

  Men are elected to whom all disputes are referred; each of thecontestants selects a man, and the three act together as arbitrators.Where a jury is demanded the defeated party pays all the expenses. Wehold that it is not right that all the peaceable citizens should betaxed to enable two litigious fellows to quarrel. Where a man isconvicted of crime he is compelled to work out all the cost of histrial and conviction, and the cost of his support as a prisoner,before he can be discharged. If vice will exist, it must be madeself-supporting.

  [_An extract from Gabriel's journal-five years later._]

  I have just left a very happy group upon the veranda--Estella and ourtwo darling little children; Christina and her three flaxen-hairedbeauties. Max is away on his sheep farm. My mother and Mrs. and Mr.Phillips are reading, or playing with the children. The sun isshining brightly, and the birds are singing. I enter my library tomake this entry in my journal.

  God has greatly blessed us and all our people. There were a fewconservatives who strenuously objected at first to our reforms; butwe mildly suggested to them that if they were not happy--and desiredit--we would transfer them to the outside world, where they couldenjoy the fruits of the time-hallowed systems they praised so much.They are now the most vigorous supporters of the new order of things.And this is one of the merits of your true conservative: if you canonce get him into the right course he will cling to it as tenaciouslyas h
e formerly clung to the wrong. They are not naturally bad men;their brains are simply incapable of suddenly adjusting themselves tonew conceptions.

  The Demon returned yesterday from a trip to the outside world. Max'sforebodings have been terribly realized. Three-fourths of the humanrace, in the civilized lands, have been swept away. In France andItaly and Russia the slaughter has been most appalling. In manyplaces the Demon sailed for hundreds of miles without seeing a humanbeing. The wild beasts--wolves and bears--are reassuming possessionof the country. In Scandinavia and in northern America, where theseverity of the climate somewhat mitigated the ferocity of man, somesort of government is springing up again; and the peasants haveformed themselves into troops to defend their cattle and their homesagainst the marauders.

  But civility, culture, seem to have disappeared. There are nonewspapers, no books, no schools, no teachers. The next generationwill be simply barbarians, possessing only a few dim legends of therefinement and