276 



The Review of Reviews. 



THE UNITED STATES OF THE WORLD. 



A Chinese Dream. 



In the February Forum Mr. George Soulic describes 

 " the United States of the World, a Chinese philoso- 

 pher's plan for universal happiness." It is interesting 

 to note that at a time when the Chinese are setting up a 

 Republic, a Chinese author should be writing a Republic 

 that recalls Plato in more ways than one. The author 

 is K'ang Yeou-Wei, who was appointed editor of the 

 department of accounts in i8q8, before the Dowager- 

 Empress took fright at the pace of reform and the 

 unfortunate editor had to flee for his life. He at last 

 found refuge in Nagasaki, under the constant pro- 

 tection of the Japanese police. There he has produced 

 this work. He finds that happiness is the one motive 

 of life, but it is essentially variable, and it includes the 

 desire to escape from sufferings and sorrows. 



THE FAMILY TO BE ABOLISHED. 



Having got his leading motive, K'ang Yeou-Wei 

 entirely reorganises the basis of the family and life. 

 He begins, radically enough, with the capital import- 

 ance of heredity and procreation. He would deprive 

 of the power of adding to the population those who had 

 physical or moral deformity or were criminal. Even 

 children previously born to criminals should be sought 

 out and executed : — 



The family would be definitely destroyed : women, when 

 they attained maturity, would be married, after an inquiry of 

 the " Direction of Uiiions." .\s for the children, wlien they 

 are old enough to take care of themselves, towards six years 

 old, they would be placed in large schools, where their instruc- 

 tion and education would be provided at the same time ; from 

 that period they will form a part of the government and become 

 the property of the Slate and the world. In the new order of 

 things, the child, not knowing its father, will be separated from 

 its mother before it has become strongly attached to her : all 

 ancestral relation will be suppressed. The wife living in the 

 phalanstery will not exist to the husband, who will not know 

 his children. 



PRENATAL EDUCATION. 



E.xpectant mothers would be sent to phalansteries 

 established in the mountains or on the seashore or 

 other places where the purity of the air and 

 the beauty of the landscape would unite in 

 making a favourable impression upon the 

 mind and health. They would be placed 

 under the care of famous hygicnists, in- 

 structed in all that is necessary about the 

 care of children, in human anatomy, physi- 

 ology, and every evening will have on hestras 

 playing to them the finest music. :\n\ 

 woman discovered to posse.ss dangerous or 

 unhealthy characteristics should 1)C pre- 

 vented giving birth to children. Meitibers 

 of the community, both men and women, 

 on reaching their twentieth year would spend 

 a year in the establishments for the dirertion 

 of the care of the sick and old. The young 

 men would be employed after their studies 

 were complete, according to their aptitudes, 

 and would receive in e.xchange food, lodging, 



clothing, and some pocket-money, with rewards, more 

 rapid promoliori, and certain advantages, lor those 

 who discharge their duties satisfactorily, There would 

 be two sorts of punishment — deprivation of employ- 

 ment, and exclusion from the community, and depriva- 

 tion of the power to produce children. Bachelors and 

 married people who did not have children would be 

 excluded from the community. 



ALL THE EARTH MADE PUBLIC PROPERTY. 



On the economic side this is his organisation of 

 society : — 



All the land on the globe would be declared public property ; 

 individuals could not possess it in their own name. The .State 

 would utilise it in different ways — renting, cultivation on shares, 

 or any other form of contract. 



All the mines would be managed by the community, as well 

 as the great railro.id and navigation companies ; the great 

 manufactories would belong to it, and commerce would be done 

 in its name and for its profit. 



Kach region, each race, having its individual needs and its 

 special ideal, tlie laws could iioi be universal, so there will be 

 various Governments, all establislied on the same basis. 



TWO CHAMBERS OF LEGISLATURE. 



Each Government would contain a Ministry of 

 Justice, including Direction of Unions, of Re-allotment 

 of Property, a Ministry of Cares for the People, 

 including direction of the prenatal education of chil- 

 dren, the care of childhood, the care of sick and aged : — 



Each region would have two Legislative Chambers : an 

 Upper House, composed of permanent members chosen froni 

 the scientists and sages ; a Lower House, consisting of members 

 chosen by the people for three or four years. 



Finally there would be a general Government of the United 

 .States of the world, composed of two Legislative Houses, a 

 President and a \'i:e-rresident, chosen from the men most 

 famous for their knowdedge or their great qualities, and an 

 executive power consisting of difterent Ministers regulating the 

 intercourse between the Stales iliemselves. 



From what Mr. George Soulie says, it seems that 

 K'anlg Yeou-Wei might be described as a cross between 

 Plato and Fourier. As with both his intellectual 

 progenitors, his scheme will shatter on the impregnable 

 rock of the familv. 



itrrjiiinnit' . 1 



The Latest Addition to the Republican Family. 



