98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the property, and each subsists upon a common treasury. All the 

 sons work in the same business, shop or store, with the father. 

 This is why for a hundred generations the Chinese follow the 

 same calling. A shoemaker's sons are shoemakers, for the reason 

 that they are put to work at the bench as soon as they can drive 

 a peg. Shifting from one employment to another is rare with 

 them. They do not take freely to learning a new trade, because, 

 if they have any property in the family, it can not be divided and 

 sold by the heirs, unless the sale is by consent of all the heirs, 

 and then, of course, a mutual distribution is made. In business 

 pursuits, the profits of the enterprise are not drawn out by the 

 members of the firm, which in almost all cases means the family ; 

 but, after meeting current expenses, the accrued surplus goes into 

 the accumulated assets. Thus, unequal wealth is not a source of 

 family quarrels. I never knew two brothers where one was poor 

 and the other rich. They are all poor or rich together. The trait, 

 thus developed, of intimacy between brothers and all members of 

 the household has left its imprint upon Chinese character in gen- 

 eral. Clannishness is one of their national marks. 



Fifth Relation; Man to Man. — In this proposition is the 

 province of ethics. It is a far wider field for the philanthropist 

 and reformer to deal with than any of the foregoing. Here all 

 ties of *kinship and fear of authority are removed, and the ques- 

 tion of the equality and rights of man comes in. The same senti- 

 ments in our Constitution are lauded as the climax of humanity 

 and civilization. The same sentiments were promulgated by a 

 pagan philosopher five hundred years before the Christian era ; 

 and he founded his arguments upon what had been written so 

 long before his time as to be ancient history. 



Men have always been in each other's way Conflicting inter- 

 ests of tradesmen and fellow-workmen of the same crafts always 

 have and always will exist. The harmonious co-operation of Bel- 

 lamy will probably require more than twenty centuries to materi- 

 alize. Labor unions seek to regulate the matter by restricting 

 apprenticeships. Merchants try by underselling each other to 

 drive the weaker ones to the wall. Manufacturers and capitalists 

 enter into trusts, hoping to freeze out the smaller competitors and 

 destroy competition. But all alike fail of their purpose, and con- 

 flicting interests as old as the human race itself continue, and 

 always will, in all likelihood. In times past unwelcome competi- 

 tion was checked in a more violent manner. Walking delegates 

 and boycott committees were armed with daggers and clubs, and 

 the stronger tribes annihilated the weaker ones or enslaved them. 

 It is certainly a high testimonial to the pagan reformer that he 

 sought to inculcate the doctrine that one man had any rights that 

 another was under obligations to respect. 



