Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887

by Edward Bellamy

  Chapter 12

  The questions which I needed to ask before I could acquire even anoutline acquaintance with the institutions of the twentieth centurybeing endless, and Dr. Leete's good-nature appearing equally so, we satup talking for several hours after the ladies left us. Reminding myhost of the point at which our talk had broken off that morning, Iexpressed my curiosity to learn how the organization of the industrialarmy was made to afford a sufficient stimulus to diligence in the lackof any anxiety on the worker's part as to his livelihood.

  "You must understand in the first place," replied the doctor, "that thesupply of incentives to effort is but one of the objects sought in theorganization we have adopted for the army. The other, and equallyimportant, is to secure for the file-leaders and captains of the force,and the great officers of the nation, men of proven abilities, who arepledged by their own careers to hold their followers up to theirhighest standard of performance and permit no lagging. With a view tothese two ends the industrial army is organized. First comes theunclassified grade of common laborers, men of all work, to which allrecruits during their first three years belong. This grade is a sort ofschool, and a very strict one, in which the young men are taught habitsof obedience, subordination, and devotion to duty. While themiscellaneous nature of the work done by this force prevents thesystematic grading of the workers which is afterwards possible, yetindividual records are kept, and excellence receives distinctioncorresponding with the penalties that negligence incurs. It is not,however, policy with us to permit youthful recklessness orindiscretion, when not deeply culpable, to handicap the future careersof young men, and all who have passed through the unclassified gradewithout serious disgrace have an equal opportunity to choose the lifeemployment they have most liking for. Having selected this, they enterupon it as apprentices. The length of the apprenticeship naturallydiffers in different occupations. At the end of it the apprenticebecomes a full workman, and a member of his trade or guild. Now notonly are the individual records of the apprentices for ability andindustry strictly kept, and excellence distinguished by suitabledistinctions, but upon the average of his record during apprenticeshipthe standing given the apprentice among the full workmen depends.

  "While the internal organizations of different industries, mechanicaland agricultural, differ according to their peculiar conditions, theyagree in a general division of their workers into first, second, andthird grades, according to ability, and these grades are in many casessubdivided into first and second classes. According to his standing asan apprentice a young man is assigned his place as a first, second, orthird grade worker. Of course only men of unusual ability pass directlyfrom apprenticeship into the first grade of the workers. The most fallinto the lower grades, working up as they grow more experienced, at theperiodical regradings. These regradings take place in each industry atintervals corresponding with the length of the apprenticeship to thatindustry, so that merit never need wait long to rise, nor can any reston past achievements unless they would drop into a lower rank. One ofthe notable advantages of a high grading is the privilege it gives theworker in electing which of the various branches or processes of hisindustry he will follow as his specialty. Of course it is not intendedthat any of these processes shall be disproportionately arduous, butthere is often much difference between them, and the privilege ofelection is accordingly highly prized. So far as possible, indeed, thepreferences even of the poorest workmen are considered in assigningthem their line of work, because not only their happiness but theirusefulness is thus enhanced. While, however, the wish of the lowergrade man is consulted so far as the exigencies of the service permit,he is considered only after the upper grade men have been provided for,and often he has to put up with second or third choice, or even with anarbitrary assignment when help is needed. This privilege of electionattends every regrading, and when a man loses his grade he also riskshaving to exchange the sort of work he likes for some other less to histaste. The results of each regrading, giving the standing of every manin his industry, are gazetted in the public prints, and those who havewon promotion since the last regrading receive the nation's thanks andare publicly invested with the badge of their new rank."

  "What may this badge be?" I asked.

  "Every industry has its emblematic device," replied Dr. Leete, "andthis, in the shape of a metallic badge so small that you might not seeit unless you knew where to look, is all the insignia which the men ofthe army wear, except where public convenience demands a distinctiveuniform. This badge is the same in form for all grades of industry, butwhile the badge of the third grade is iron, that of the second grade issilver, and that of the first is gilt.

  "Apart from the grand incentive to endeavor afforded by the fact thatthe high places in the nation are open only to the highest class men,and that rank in the army constitutes the only mode of socialdistinction for the vast majority who are not aspirants in art,literature, and the professions, various incitements of a minor, butperhaps equally effective, sort are provided in the form of specialprivileges and immunities in the way of discipline, which the superiorclass men enjoy. These, while intended to be as little as possibleinvidious to the less successful, have the effect of keeping constantlybefore every man's mind the great desirability of attaining the gradenext above his own.

  "It is obviously important that not only the good but also theindifferent and poor workmen should be able to cherish the ambition ofrising. Indeed, the number of the latter being so much greater, it iseven more essential that the ranking system should not operate todiscourage them than that it should stimulate the others. It is to thisend that the grades are divided into classes. The grades as well as theclasses being made numerically equal at each regrading, there is not atany time, counting out the officers and the unclassified and apprenticegrades, over one-ninth of the industrial army in the lowest class, andmost of this number are recent apprentices, all of whom expect to rise.Those who remain during the entire term of service in the lowest classare but a trifling fraction of the industrial army, and likely to be asdeficient in sensibility to their position as in ability to better it.

  "It is not even necessary that a worker should win promotion to ahigher grade to have at least a taste of glory. While promotionrequires a general excellence of record as a worker, honorable mentionand various sorts of prizes are awarded for excellence less thansufficient for promotion, and also for special feats and singleperformances in the various industries. There are many minordistinctions of standing, not only within the grades but within theclasses, each of which acts as a spur to the efforts of a group. It isintended that no form of merit shall wholly fail of recognition.

  "As for actual neglect of work positively bad work, or other overtremissness on the part of men incapable of generous motives, thediscipline of the industrial army is far too strict to allow anythingwhatever of the sort. A man able to do duty, and persistently refusing,is sentenced to solitary imprisonment on bread and water till heconsents.

  "The lowest grade of the officers of the industrial army, that ofassistant foremen or lieutenants, is appointed out of men who have heldtheir place for two years in the first class of the first grade. Wherethis leaves too large a range of choice, only the first group of thisclass are eligible. No one thus comes to the point of commanding menuntil he is about thirty years old. After a man becomes an officer, hisrating of course no longer depends on the efficiency of his own work,but on that of his men. The foremen are appointed from among theassistant foremen, by the same exercise of discretion limited to asmall eligible class. In the appointments to the still higher gradesanother principle is introduced, which it would take too much time toexplain now.

  "Of course such a system of grading as I have described would have beenimpracticable applied to the small industrial concerns of your day, insome of which there were hardly enough employees to have left oneapiece for the classes. You must remember that, under the nationalorganization of labor, all industries are carried on by great bodies ofmen, many of your farm
s or shops being combined as one. It is alsoowing solely to the vast scale on which each industry is organized,with co-ordinate establishments in every part of the country, that weare able by exchanges and transfers to fit every man so nearly with thesort of work he can do best.

  "And now, Mr. West, I will leave it to you, on the bare outline of itsfeatures which I have given, if those who need special incentives to dotheir best are likely to lack them under our system. Does it not seemto you that men who found themselves obliged, whether they wished ornot, to work, would under such a system be strongly impelled to dotheir best?"

  I replied that it seemed to me the incentives offered were, if anyobjection were to be made, too strong; that the pace set for the youngmen was too hot; and such, indeed, I would add with deference, stillremains my opinion, now that by longer residence among you I becomebetter acquainted with the whole subject.

  Dr. Leete, however, desired me to reflect, and I am ready to say thatit is perhaps a sufficient reply to my objection, that the worker'slivelihood is in no way dependent on his ranking, and anxiety for thatnever embitters his disappointments; that the working hours are short,the vacations regular, and that all emulation ceases at forty-five,with the attainment of middle life.

  "There are two or three other points I ought to refer to," he added,"to prevent your getting mistaken impressions. In the first place, youmust understand that this system of preferment given the more efficientworkers over the less so, in no way contravenes the fundamental idea ofour social system, that all who do their best are equally deserving,whether that best be great or small. I have shown that the system isarranged to encourage the weaker as well as the stronger with the hopeof rising, while the fact that the stronger are selected for theleaders is in no way a reflection upon the weaker, but in the interestof the common weal.

  "Do not imagine, either, because emulation is given free play as anincentive under our system, that we deem it a motive likely to appealto the nobler sort of men, or worthy of them. Such as these find theirmotives within, not without, and measure their duty by their ownendowments, not by those of others. So long as their achievement isproportioned to their powers, they would consider it preposterous toexpect praise or blame because it chanced to be great or small. To suchnatures emulation appears philosophically absurd, and despicable in amoral aspect by its substitution of envy for admiration, and exultationfor regret, in one's attitude toward the successes and the failures ofothers.

  "But all men, even in the last year of the twentieth century, are notof this high order, and the incentives to endeavor requisite for thosewho are not must be of a sort adapted to their inferior natures. Forthese, then, emulation of the keenest edge is provided as a constantspur. Those who need this motive will feel it. Those who are above itsinfluence do not need it.

  "I should not fail to mention," resumed the doctor, "that for those toodeficient in mental or bodily strength to be fairly graded with themain body of workers, we have a separate grade, unconnected with theothers,--a sort of invalid corps, the members of which are providedwith a light class of tasks fitted to their strength. All our sick inmind and body, all our deaf and dumb, and lame and blind and crippled,and even our insane, belong to this invalid corps, and bear itsinsignia. The strongest often do nearly a man's work, the feeblest, ofcourse, nothing; but none who can do anything are willing quite to giveup. In their lucid intervals, even our insane are eager to do what theycan."

  "That is a pretty idea of the invalid corps," I said. "Even a barbarianfrom the nineteenth century can appreciate that. It is a very gracefulway of disguising charity, and must be grateful to the feelings of itsrecipients."

  "Charity!" repeated Dr. Leete. "Did you suppose that we consider theincapable class we are talking of objects of charity?"

  "Why, naturally," I said, "inasmuch as they are incapable ofself-support."

  But here the doctor took me up quickly.

  "Who is capable of self-support?" he demanded. "There is no such thingin a civilized society as self-support. In a state of society sobarbarous as not even to know family cooperation, each individual maypossibly support himself, though even then for a part of his life only;but from the moment that men begin to live together, and constituteeven the rudest sort of society, self-support becomes impossible. Asmen grow more civilized, and the subdivision of occupations andservices is carried out, a complex mutual dependence becomes theuniversal rule. Every man, however solitary may seem his occupation, isa member of a vast industrial partnership, as large as the nation, aslarge as humanity. The necessity of mutual dependence should imply theduty and guarantee of mutual support; and that it did not in your dayconstituted the essential cruelty and unreason of your system."

  "That may all be so," I replied, "but it does not touch the case ofthose who are unable to contribute anything to the product of industry."

  "Surely I told you this morning, at least I thought I did," replied Dr.Leete, "that the right of a man to maintenance at the nation's tabledepends on the fact that he is a man, and not on the amount of healthand strength he may have, so long as he does his best."

  "You said so," I answered, "but I supposed the rule applied only to theworkers of different ability. Does it also hold of those who can donothing at all?"

  "Are they not also men?"

  "I am to understand, then, that the lame, the blind, the sick, and theimpotent, are as well off as the most efficient and have the sameincome?"

  "Certainly," was the reply.

  "The idea of charity on such a scale," I answered, "would have made ourmost enthusiastic philanthropists gasp."

  "If you had a sick brother at home," replied Dr. Leete, "unable towork, would you feed him on less dainty food, and lodge and clothe himmore poorly, than yourself? More likely far, you would give him thepreference; nor would you think of calling it charity. Would not theword, in that connection, fill you with indignation?"

  "Of course," I replied; "but the cases are not parallel. There is asense, no doubt, in which all men are brothers; but this general sortof brotherhood is not to be compared, except for rhetorical purposes,to the brotherhood of blood, either as to its sentiment or itsobligations."

  "There speaks the nineteenth century!" exclaimed Dr. Leete. "Ah, Mr.West, there is no doubt as to the length of time that you slept. If Iwere to give you, in one sentence, a key to what may seem the mysteriesof our civilization as compared with that of your age, I should saythat it is the fact that the solidarity of the race and the brotherhoodof man, which to you were but fine phrases, are, to our thinking andfeeling, ties as real and as vital as physical fraternity.

  "But even setting that consideration aside, I do not see why it sosurprises you that those who cannot work are conceded the full right tolive on the produce of those who can. Even in your day, the duty ofmilitary service for the protection of the nation, to which ourindustrial service corresponds, while obligatory on those able todischarge it, did not operate to deprive of the privileges ofcitizenship those who were unable. They stayed at home, and wereprotected by those who fought, and nobody questioned their right to be,or thought less of them. So, now, the requirement of industrial servicefrom those able to render it does not operate to deprive of theprivileges of citizenship, which now implies the citizen's maintenance,him who cannot work. The worker is not a citizen because he works, butworks because he is a citizen. As you recognize the duty of the strongto fight for the weak, we, now that fighting is gone by, recognize hisduty to work for him.

  "A solution which leaves an unaccounted-for residuum is no solution atall; and our solution of the problem of human society would have beennone at all had it left the lame, the sick, and the blind outside withthe beasts, to fare as they might. Better far have left the strong andwell unprovided for than these burdened ones, toward whom every heartmust yearn, and for whom ease of mind and body should be provided, iffor no others. Therefore it is, as I told you this morning, that thetitle of every man, woman, and child to the means of existence rests onno basis
less plain, broad, and simple than the fact that they arefellows of one race-members of one human family. The only coin currentis the image of God, and that is good for all we have.

  "I think there is no feature of the civilization of your epoch sorepugnant to modern ideas as the neglect with which you treated yourdependent classes. Even if you had no pity, no feeling of brotherhood,how was it that you did not see that you were robbing the incapableclass of their plain right in leaving them unprovided for?"

  "I don't quite follow you there," I said. "I admit the claim of thisclass to our pity, but how could they who produced nothing claim ashare of the product as a right?"

  "How happened it," was Dr. Leete's reply, "that your workers were ableto produce more than so many savages would have done? Was it not whollyon account of the heritage of the past knowledge and achievements ofthe race, the machinery of society, thousands of years in contriving,found by you ready-made to your hand? How did you come to be possessorsof this knowledge and this machinery, which represent nine parts to onecontributed by yourself in the value of your product? You inherited it,did you not? And were not these others, these unfortunate and crippledbrothers whom you cast out, joint inheritors, co-heirs with you? Whatdid you do with their share? Did you not rob them when you put them offwith crusts, who were entitled to sit with the heirs, and did you notadd insult to robbery when you called the crusts charity?

  "Ah, Mr. West," Dr. Leete continued, as I did not respond, "what I donot understand is, setting aside all considerations either of justiceor brotherly feeling toward the crippled and defective, how the workersof your day could have had any heart for their work, knowing that theirchildren, or grand-children, if unfortunate, would be deprived of thecomforts and even necessities of life. It is a mystery how men withchildren could favor a system under which they were rewarded beyondthose less endowed with bodily strength or mental power. For, by thesame discrimination by which the father profited, the son, for whom hewould give his life, being perchance weaker than others, might bereduced to crusts and beggary. How men dared leave children behindthem, I have never been able to understand."

  Note.--Although in his talk on the previous evening Dr. Leete hademphasized the pains taken to enable every man to ascertain and followhis natural bent in choosing an occupation, it was not till I learnedthat the worker's income is the same in all occupations that I realizedhow absolutely he may be counted on to do so, and thus, by selectingthe harness which sets most lightly on himself, find that in which hecan pull best. The failure of my age in any systematic or effective wayto develop and utilize the natural aptitudes of men for the industriesand intellectual avocations was one of the great wastes, as well as oneof the most common causes of unhappiness in that time. The vastmajority of my contemporaries, though nominally free to do so, neverreally chose their occupations at all, but were forced by circumstancesinto work for which they were relatively inefficient, because notnaturally fitted for it. The rich, in this respect, had littleadvantage over the poor. The latter, indeed, being generally deprivedof education, had no opportunity even to ascertain the naturalaptitudes they might have, and on account of their poverty were unableto develop them by cultivation even when ascertained. The liberal andtechnical professions, except by favorable accident, were shut to them,to their own great loss and that of the nation. On the other hand, thewell-to-do, although they could command education and opportunity, werescarcely less hampered by social prejudice, which forbade them topursue manual avocations, even when adapted to them, and destined them,whether fit or unfit, to the professions, thus wasting many anexcellent handicraftsman. Mercenary considerations, tempting men topursue money-making occupations for which they were unfit, instead ofless remunerative employments for which they were fit, were responsiblefor another vast perversion of talent. All these things now arechanged. Equal education and opportunity must needs bring to lightwhatever aptitudes a man has, and neither social prejudices normercenary considerations hamper him in the choice of his life work.